Welcome! "The Evening Blues - Weekend Edition" is a casual community diary (published Saturday & Sunday, 8:00 PM Eastern) where we hang out, share and talk about news, music, photography and other things of interest to the community.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact.
Everyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is very welcome here.
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This evening's music is brought to you by guest VJ NCTim and features the western swing/country boogie music of Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys. Enjoy the toe tapping rockabilly, rock & roll, honky-tonk, rhythm & blues, soul and doo-wop sounds of this fine California band that is guaranteed to give you Happy Feet!
Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys - It's Time
Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints.
Chief Seattle
News and Opinion
Everyone Benefits From More Women in Power
Santiago, Chile - Women’s participation in decision-making is highly beneficial and their role in designing and applying public policies has a positive impact on people’s lives, women leaders and experts from around the world stressed at a high-level meeting in the capital of Chile.
“It is not about men against women, but there is evidence to show through research that when you have more women in public decision-making, you get policies that benefit women, children and families in general,” Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International, told IPS.
“So women tend, when they’re in parliament, for example, to promote women’s rights legislation. When women are in sufficient numbers in parliaments they also promote children’s rights and they tend to speak up more for the interests of communities, local communities, because of their close involvement in community life,” she added.
Byanyima, from Uganda, is one of the more than 60 women leaders and government officials who met Friday Feb. 27 and Saturday Feb. 28 at the meeting “Women in power and decision-making: Building a different world”, organised by U.N. Women and the Chilean government in Santiago.
Estimated 50,000 Rally Against Netanyahu in Tel Aviv
As organizer expressed 'hope that the left will return' to Israel, large crowd chanted 'Bibi go home!'
Tens of thousands of Israelis rallied against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ruling government in the nation's capital of Tel Aviv on Saturday night as they decried the leader's domestic policies and called for a peace agreement with the Palestinians who live in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Government estimates put the rally at 40,000, but organizers and local media outlets expressed certainty the number was more than 50,000 people.
Less than two weeks from national elections on March 17, the protest rally held in Yitzhak Rabin Square is the largest showing of late from the nation's left-leaning and more-centrist forces who criticize Netanyahu (known by his nickname 'Bibi') for the way his far-right Likud Party has ruled in recent years.
According to CNN:
The rally, called "Israel Wants Change," was put on by One Million Hands, a grassroots movement that focuses its efforts on two major issues: a two-state solution and a reduction in the cost of living.
On both of these topics, founder Dror Ben-Ami says, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed.
"We think that the only way to go forward on that account is to change government and to get this current government out of office. To get Bibi out of office," says Ben-Ami.
Organizers are not promoting any specific candidate or pushing voters toward any political party in the March 17 balloting. Instead, they are encouraging voters to change the current administration.
What the BRICS plus Germany are really up to?
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Winston Churchill once said, “I feel lonely without a war.” He also badly missed the loss of empire. Churchill’s successor – the ‘Empire of Chaos’ – now faces the same quandary. Some wars – as in Ukraine, by proxy – are not going so well.
And the loss of empire increasingly manifests itself in myriad moves by selected players aiming towards a multipolar world.
So no wonder US ‘Think Tankland’ is going bonkers, releasing wacky CIA-tinted “forecasts” where Russia is bound to disintegrate, and China is turning into a communist dictatorship. So much (imperial) wishful thinking, so little time to prolong hegemony.
The acronym that all these “forecasts” dare not reveal is BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). BRICS is worse than the plague as far as the ‘Masters of the Universe’ that really control the current - rigged - world system are concerned.
True, the BRICS are facing multiple problems. Brazil at the moment is totally paralyzed; a long, complex, self-defeating process, now coupled with intimations of regime change by local ‘Empire of Chaos’ minions. It will take time, but Brazil will rebound.
Nemtsov murder suspect 'confessed' involvement
Zaur Dadayev signed confession in Moscow court, judge says, as four other suspects plead innocent.
A Russian judge said one of the five suspects in the murder of opposition activist Boris Nemtsov had confessed to his involvement, as four others pleaded innocent in a Moscow court, state media reported.
Judge Nataliya Mushnikova said on Sunday that Zaur Dadayev had signed a confession stating his involvement in the crime. She ordered his detention extended until April 28.
"The participation of Dadayev is confirmed by his confession," she told the court.
Earlier on Sunday, two men were charged with Nemtsov's murder as five suspects in the case appeared in court.
Were Chechen Security Personnel Responsible For Nemtsov's Death?
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
For many in both Russia and the West, the Kremlin is inevitably the prime suspect in the February 27 assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.
But the possibility of a Chechen connection should not be dismissed out of hand, given Nemtsov's repeated criticism of Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov, and the fact that since 2011, security personnel loyal to Kadyrov have reportedly engaged with total impunity in abductions and killings in Moscow. Alternatively, Kadyrov's men may have killed Nemtsov at Russian President Vladimir Putin's behest.
The independent Novaya Gazeta investigated those reports, and met with Federal Security Service (FSB) staffers who in 2013 threatened to resign to protest prosecutors' refusal to bring charges against a group of Moscow-based Chechen Interior Ministry personnel arrested on suspicion of such killings. Instead, the men were released.
The website Caucasus Knot recalls that four years ago Kadyrov publicly called for Nemtsov to be imprisoned in light of his role in the mass protests in Moscow in December 2010. Nemtsov responded by branding Kadyrov "a psychologically very sick man" in need of urgent medical care. Nemtsov expressed regret that such men control the entire Caucasus, adding that he hoped that "eventually he will be dismissed and have to answer for everything."
Putin Wants to Eat Your Children
If U.S. television and politicians started saying that Saudi Arabia should be bombed because it kills and tortures innocent people, within a week many millions of Americans would demand just that. And because those voices do say that about ISIS, many millions of Americans do favor a war on ISIS.
My point is not that bombs would be worse than the problem addressed and would make the problem itself worse as well, although that’s all true. Rather, my point is that most people who favor wars do so in order to blindly support a nation, and in blindly supporting that nation they allow it to dictate which wars they will favor. Although war supporters will give you reasons for the wars they favor, they actually favor whichever wars they are told to favor, and no others. And they’ll give you the reasons they are told to believe in as well.
More often than not, the U.S. public is advised to favor a war on a single individual of demonic nature, even though a war against an individual is completely nonsensical. According to nonsensical propaganda, you don’t bomb Iraqis; you bomb former-U.S.-ally Saddam Hussein. You don’t bomb Afghans; you bomb former-U.S.-ally Osama bin Laden. You don’t drone kill Pakistani and Yemeni and Somali children and women and men; you drone kill Al Qaeda Terrorist Number Three, over and over again. You don’t liberate Libya from what stability it had; you kill former-U.S.-ally Muammar Gadaffi. You don’t attack Panama; you attack former-U.S.-ally Manuel Noriega. Et cetera et cetera.
Well, it’s Vladimir Putin’s turn, which means Russia is at risk, which means the world is at risk, and yet the rough beast stumbling toward Bethlehem to be born is as oblivious to its conception as any unborn thing or television viewer.
Ukraine industry seeks ties with West, but buckles in crisis
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Volodymyr Kuzovkin's office is less than 50 miles from the European Union, but for him and his factory, the EU is a world away.
Despite Ukraine's desperation to integrate with Europe, a desire so strong it sparked the protests that ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych last year, much of Ukrainian business remains wedded to Soviet-era practices even as it is buffeted by a very modern economic crisis.
Ukraine is hoping to improve links between its heavy industry and European markets to help the economy recover. But for companies like Kuzovkin's Lviv State Jewelry Factory in western Ukraine, the challenges are huge.
Trade with EU countries is not picking up. Business with oil-rich ex-Soviet states in Central Asia has tapered off because of uncertainty over the war in eastern Ukraine. And the local economy is in shambles — skilled workers are going to the front, inflation is soaring and loans are so hard to come by that some companies are considering bartering goods.
European Commission chief urges ‘joint EU army,’ Germany backs decision
The European Commission chief has called for the creation of an “EU joint army” that would “react credibly” to any external threat and defend the bloc’s “values.” While the UK and France are wary it could undermine NATO, Germany has backed the idea.
“An army like this would help us to better coordinate our foreign and defense policies, and to collectively take on Europe's responsibilities in the world," the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in an interview to
Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
He added the EU’s image "has suffered dramatically and also in terms of foreign policy, we don't seem to be taken entirely seriously."
"A joint EU army would show the world that there would never again be a war between EU countries," Juncker said.
Boko Haram conflict: Nigerian allies launch offensive
Forces from Niger and Chad have launched a ground and air offensive against militant group Boko Haram in north-eastern Nigeria, officials say.
The campaign is said to be targeting militants in Borno state.
It came as Nigerian officials dismissed Boko Haram's pledge of allegiance to Islamic State as a reaction to military pressure from Nigeria and its allies.
The pledge was posted online on Saturday in an audio message by Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.
Top Lobbyist: 2016 To Be “Bumper Year” Thanks to Clinton Campaign
Submitted by: NCTim
Each year, UBS — the Swiss financial services giant best known in the U.S. for paying $1.5 billion to settle charges it rigged the Libor benchmark interest rate — hosts a “Global Media & Communications Conference.” 2014’s conference took place last December at the Westin Hotel in midtown Manhattan.
At one presentation, a UBS analyst asked Sir Martin Sorrell, head of the London-based lobbying and advertising mega-firm WPP Group, if he foresaw anything noteworthy for WPP’s future financial prospects.
Yes, responded Sorrell: “2016 should be a bumper year as Hillary Clinton wins the election here.”
Sorrell’s confidence in the profitable possibilities of 2016 is justified: American political operatives employed by the WPP Group are deeply involved in lining up support for the former secretary of state’s nascent presidential campaign. The Super PAC Ready for Hillary is being closely advised by Craig Smith, who is employed by WPP-owned PR firm Penn Schoen Berland. Hillary’s “shadow campaign” is reportedly being organized by executives from the WPP-owned political affairs and lobbying shop Dewey Square Group. And the managing director of the Glover Park Group, a D.C. lobbying firm purchased by WPP in 2011, has also organized fundraising efforts.
Bill Clinton defends donations from Middle Eastern nations to foundation
‘My theory about all of this is disclose everything and then let people make their judgments. I believe we have done a lot more good than harm’
Submitted by: NCTim
Former President Bill Clinton defended his foundation’s acceptance of donations from foreign governments on Saturday, pointing to the track record of his global philanthropy as Hillary Rodham Clinton nears an announcement on a 2016 presidential campaign.
In an interview at the Clinton Global Initiative University, the ex-president sought to address critics who have questioned the receipt of donations from foreign governments while the former first lady served in the State Department and after she departed in early 2013.
“My theory about all of this is disclose everything and then let people make their judgments,” Clinton told moderator Larry Wilmore of the cable channel Comedy Central. “I believe we have done a lot more good than harm and I believe this is a good thing.”
He spoke shortly after Hillary Clinton appeared on stage along with the couple’s daughter, Chelsea Clinton, but steered clear of addressing criticism involving her use of a private email account while she served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton also did not talk about the recent scrutiny of the foundation’s fundraising practices, instead giving college students a preview of an upcoming report on the progress of women and girls by her foundation’s “No Ceilings” project.
Clinton benefitted from email double-standard, says former US ambassador
*Scott Gration was fired in part due to ‘lack of adherence’ over email
*Senate leader McConnell questions security of personal email use
A former ambassador to Kenya who was fired when Hillary Clinton was in charge of the State Department on Sunday accused Clinton of benefitting from a double-standard when it came to using personal email for official business.
Scott Gration, a former air force general who flew hundreds of sorties over Iraq, spoke to CNN from Kenya about his disappointment at losing his “dream job” as ambassador, saying: “As I look back, it does seem a bit unfair.
“It does appear that there was a different standard that was used in my case and was used in hers,” Gration said.
Gration’s remarks came as the conversation over Clinton’s use of personal email while secretary of state expanded to pull in top senators, a former secretary of state and even Bill Clinton, Hillary’s husband.
Broken, venal, dysfunctional: The GOP clown show, Hillary’s challenge, and our dangerously frozen democracy
Mitch can't fix the Senate. Boehner can't control his caucus. GOP's a disaster; Democrats have no soul. Now what?
“We ought to start with the view that maybe there are some things we can agree on to make progress in this country… the Senate needs to be fixed… We’re going back to work and actually pass legislation… “
–Sen. Mitch McConnell, Nov. 5, 2014
On the day after the biggest win of his life, Mitch McConnell was feeling the love. Once he called hounding President Obama out of office his primary duty as a public servant. But rhapsodizing about common ground and fixing Congress, he sounded almost Obamaesque. Looking back at those words — and at a Congress that remains as venal and broken as it ever was — one can’t help but wonder: Did he mean it?
He probably did. Every politician has heard his inner Lincoln beseech him to bind up the nation’s wounds. Even if McConnell were deaf to the plea, the same self-interest that led him to a life of obstruction now requires him to prove he can do what he fought to keep Obama from doing: Make the damn place work. He figured the bar would be easy to step over, having lowered it himself.
Was he ever wrong. McConnell promised to open the floor to more amendments and force senators to come to work — and that he did. But as for finding common ground or actually passing any bills, the pattern seems set in stone. Despite winning historic majorities in both houses, Republicans haven’t changed Congress or themselves. They aren’t about to.
Nigeria’s Boko Haram pledges allegiance to Islamic State
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Nigeria’s home-grown Boko Haram militant group, newly weakened by a multinational force that has dislodged it from many northeastern towns, pledged formal allegiance to the Islamic State group Saturday.
The pledge to Islamic state came in an Arabic audio message with English subtitles alleged to have come from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau and posted on Twitter, according to the SITE Intelligence monitoring service.
“We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims ... and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and ease, and to endure being discriminated against, and not to dispute about rule with those in power, except in case of evident infidelity regarding that which there is a proof from Allah,” said the message. Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has declared himself the caliph.
Earlier Saturday, the Nigerian extremists were blamed for four suicide bombings that police said killed at least 54 people in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and birthplace of Boko Haram.
French PM predicts 10,000 Europeans to join ISIS before 2015 ends
As many as 10,000 Europeans could join ISIS by the end of this year with as many as 5,000 by this summer, the French PM estimated amid EU officials’ concerns. Germany also warned that jihadists-to-be could use domestic armed forces as training camps.
“There are 3,000 Europeans in Iraq and Syria today. When you do a projection for the months to come, there could be 5,000 before summer and 10,000 before the end of the year,” French Prime Minister Valls told French TV channel iTele. “Do you realize the threat that this represents?”
France, along with Belgium, has seen the largest figures of radicalized Islamists who left home to join the Islamic state in their war in Syria and Iraq.
“There have already been nearly 90 French people who have died out there with a weapon in their hand, fighting against our own values,” Valls said.
Al-Jazeera journalists in Egypt trial held in 'unprecedented legal limbo'
Judge expresses anger as key witnesses for prosecution fail to turn up for hearing in Cairo for second occasion in a row
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The Al-Jazeera journalists on trial in Egypt say they have been left in “unprecedented legal limbo” after the key witnesses for their prosecution failed to turn up for cross-examination at their hearing in Cairo.
Members of Egypt’s security services were due to be questioned on Sunday by defence lawyers over their claims that the Al-Jazeera English journalists had conspired with terrorists to falsify news reports. But for the second hearing in a row, the witnesses failed to attend court, to the fury of both the defendants and the judge, Hassan Farid.
“It’s mind-boggling,” said Mohamed Fahmy, AJE’s Canadian-Egyptian bureau chief, after the judge was forced to adjourn the case for another 10 days. “We look forward to the court date and [instead] you come here and it’s unprecedented legal limbo.”
Farid fined two of the absent witnesses 500 Egyptian pounds (around £45) each, and said they would be arrested if they failed to attend a third time. “This isn’t a joke, it’s a court,” Farid shouted. “Why don’t they show up? I will bring all eight [prosecution witnesses] next session even if I have to arrest them.”
What have Iowans learned about Jeb Bush from his visit?
The former Florida governor and potential Republican 2016 presidential candidate is in Iowa this weekend, where he addresses issues – such as immigration and ethanol use – that could affect how conservatives view his bid for the nation’s top office.
Submitted by: NCTim
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush made his first foray into Iowa as a likely presidential candidate this weekend, and as part of an early tour of key 2016 primary states.
Mr. Bush, a frontrunner for the Republican primary, is kicking off his race to the White House carrying a long and not-uncheckered legacy from his father and brother. He also faces substantial opposition within the party and among conservative voters for failing what The New York Times calls “the conservative litmus test” on key issues such as Common Core educational standards and immigration.
"It's hard to reconcile his membership in the Republican Party as anything more than a multigenerational family tradition," Cary Gordon, a pastor at a church in Sioux City, told The Des Moines Register this week. "He appears to be a Republican in name, but not necessarily a Republican in heart and head."
It’s no surprise that Bush arrived in Iowa determined to prove his conservative credentials.
'Eurabia' fears rise after terror strikes: Myth or reality?
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Research shows that Europe’s Islamic population has indeed risen sharply over the last two decades, and continues to grow. But the numbers fall far short of any possibility of Europe becoming predominantly Muslim. And there are little signs that Islamic culture is spreading beyond the boundaries of Muslim communities, let alone becoming dominant in Europe.
But is Europe actually heading toward Islamization?
Research shows that Europe's Islamic population has indeed risen sharply over the last two decades, and continues to grow. But the numbers fall far short of any possibility of Europe becoming predominantly Muslim. And there are little signs that Islamic culture is spreading beyond the boundaries of Muslim communities — let alone becoming dominant in Europe.
The Pew Forum published research in 2011 predicting that Europe's Muslim population will almost double to nearly 57 million by 2030, from just under 30 million in 1990. That may seem like a lot, but it still means that Europe's Muslim population would only increase from 4.1 percent to 7.8 percent, according to the Pew paper. Moreover, the Pew report says that the period of greatest growth in Islamic populations is already past.
Wisconsin Assembly passes 'right to work': A blow to income equality nationwide?
Liberals say a Wisconsin 'right to work' bill weakens unions – and weakened unions are behind the rise in income inequality. Experts don't all agree on that point, but say Wisconsin could be a tipping point for such laws nationwide.
Submitted by: NCTim
WASHINGTON — [Update: On Friday, Wisconsin's State Assembly approved legislation preventing unions from requiring workers to pay dues.]
With a pending vote by the state legislature, Wisconsin is poised to become the nation’s 25th “right to work” state, in which labor unions can’t impose fees on private-sector workers who don’t want to join.
The move has stirred deep controversy in a state that has a long history of support for organized labor, even as Republican backers of the shift say it’s about making the state’s economy stronger.
The legislation, which is expected to be approved by the state’s Assembly on Friday, after Senate passage last week, has implications beyond the Badger State.
A crisis of trust in Iraq
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
We will never get to know what painful thoughts raced through the soldierly mind of Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, when he testified before the US senators in Washington on Tuesday, but it certainly wouldn’t have been easy for him to bring himself to compliment Iran’s “most overt conduct… in the form of artillery and other things” in the military operation currently going on to retake the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit from the control of the Islamic State.
For sure, Gen Dempsey knew he was actually complimenting an Iranian general who has been in the American-Israeli ‘hit list’ from time immemorial – Gen Qassem Suleimani, commander of the elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps [IRGC] of Iran.
To make the point a lit bit clearer still, let me digress for a moment to bring out from my archive a profile of the elusive, charismatic, devastatingly brilliant IRGC general that the New Yorker magazine once had featured in September 2013 in a riveting story entitled “THE SHADOW COMMANDER”. Read it, here, and you will understand why Gen. Dempsey would have been swallowing hard during his testimony yesterday.
But what option would Gen. Dempsey have been left with but to compliment Tehran and distract attention from the central issue – namely, that Baghdad kept Washington in the dark about the Tikrit operations and simply chose to follow Suleimani’s command? The New York Times has an insightful account by Anne Barnard reporting from Baghdad as to what has gone wrong between the Iraqi government and the Americans. As she put it, the Iraqis are frustrated with the “sluggish American pace and pessimistic American estimates of how long it would take to drive the Islamic State from Mosul and the western province of Anbar.” Barnard quotes a close aide to the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as saying, “The Americans continue procrastinating about the time it will take to liberate the country,” he said in an interview. “Iraq will liberate Mosul and Anbar without them.”
Next Time Someone Talks About Welfare Fraud, Tell Them About These Farmers
Submitted by: NCTim
Republicans, in their efforts to deflect blame for our economic problems, have managed to successfully put it on the backs of the poor – whether they be people wanting a livable wage, or people who need a little help.
“Welfare fraud” is code for elitism. People who are barely middle class turn their noses up at the lesser, often black, people. That kind of thing doesn’t happen in “real America,” a.k.a. all the rural land between Fresno and Buffalo.
Everyone should know that welfare fraud is almost non-existent. Let me rephrase that. Welfare fraud does exist, but the vast majority of it comes from charities and storeowners, not the poor recipients.
But there is another type of fraud which is being perpetrated by the recipients of government money. It’s farm insurance fraud and it’s costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
A New Estimate Of Killings By Police Is Way Higher — And Still Too Low
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
We still don’t know how many people the police kill in the U.S. annually. But we’re getting closer.
In the past two months, the president and his attorney general have said they need better data on the number of people killed by police — a number that nobody knows and that no government agency can agree on. On Tuesday, the Bureau of Justice Statistics released a report that at first glance looks like it fills the gap. It found that more than a quarter of killings by police are not included in either of two federal databases. The true number of annual police killings, according to the report, is likely around 930 — about twice that of each of the two other U.S. government counts. It’s even higher — about 1,240 — if you assume that local law enforcement agencies that don’t report any killings have killed people at the same rate as agencies that do.
It’d be tidy if that were the final word — but it isn’t. On Wednesday, researchers who specialize in estimating unreported violent deaths issued a critique of the report. Based on their team’s experience in Syria, Guatemala and other conflict zones, they argued that the true number of killings is probably even higher than the new, higher range of estimates by BJS.
This is a math puzzle with real consequences. Solving it would get researchers closer to understanding how many lives have been lost — and how many victims we’re not yet counting.
With Clinton emails in spotlight, Cuomo orders New York data purge
Submitted by: NCTim
As national leaders debate how best to preserve and review reams of email generated on private servers during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State, New York is grappling with a problem stunning in its contrast: the wholesale deletion of government emails in state-owned systems.
Clinton conducted all of her electronic correspondence through email accounts stored on a private server actually housed in the former cabinet official’s Chappaqua home. Faced with noticeable disquiet over the lack of access to and archiving of official correspondence, Clinton aids have turned over some 55,000 pages of what they say are relevant documents to the State Department, while Clinton herself tweeted “I want the public to see my email.” The Clinton team said personal correspondence has already been removed from the document dump, while State Department officials said it could take months to review the emails before they can be made public.
This same week, however, New York officials and good government groups are alarmed, as the state debate is not over the recovery of emails from private servers, but the deletion of official business from government archives, even as several investigations and legal actions concerning the state government continue.
When New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took office in 2011, he vowed to make his administration “the most transparent” in history, but almost instantly, his governorship became synonymous with practices that indicated the opposite — from fighting Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests for correspondence regarding use of state police transportation, to conducting “inner circle” communications over BlackBerry Messenger rather than email to avoid generating an official paper trail. Now under the microscope for tampering with a state investigative panel appointed to examine government corruption, Cuomo, undaunted, began implementing last week an email deletion policy that destroys all email older then 90 days at several state agencies.
From Below: Campaign Aims to Foster Popular Uprising Against Crisis of Inequality
'We live in a time of profound crisis, a time where virtually everywhere, nearly all systems and institutions fundamental to society — political, economic, social and religious — at best fail to meet people’s needs and at worst cause widespread suffering.'
As the nation commemorates the fifty years that have passed since the height of the Civil Rights struggle that marked the 1960s as a time of historic progress in U.S. history, a diverse coalition of advocacy groups, faith-based organizations, and prominent justice and anti-poverty activists are joining forces to endorse the idea of a new broad-based movement to tackle the ills of racial discrimination, ecological degradation, and economic inequality that persist in contemporary society.
Borrowing the name of the well-known and anti-poverty and social justice campaign initiated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1968, this new coalition is voicing support for what they call a 'New Poor People's Campaign' which will aim to fight back against a range of inter-connected societal ills — including "an unfair police and prison system, cuts to public education, the denial of Medicaid expansion, unsafe working conditions and unfair wages, ecological devastation and the dangerous pollution of their communities, and renewed attacks on voting rights."
With the attention of the nation turned to the events that took place in Selma fifty years ago this weekend, delegates from this new coalition also converged in the Alabama city to discuss their new vision for a revitalized mass movement. The various and diverse organizations endorsing the project can be found on the campaign's website. Though most are based in the U.S., the vision for the campaign extends beyond national borders and hopes to foster allies from across the globe.
The campaign produced this video seeks to explain why business-as-usual is no longer acceptable in the richest nation on Earth which allows 50 millions of its citizens to live in poverty:
Activists rally in Chicago to close ‘black site,’ end ‘disappearing’ of civilians
Protesters in Chicago have held a rally to demand the police shut down a formerly abandoned warehouse that is reportedly being used to interrogate suspected criminals without recourse to legal representation.
The detention facility, which was first brought to public attention in a report by the Guardian in February, is a plain warehouse located on Chicago’s west side known as Homan Square, which has “long been the scene of secretive work by special police units,” the paper revealed.
While many Americans are aware of the ongoing militarization of their police departments, with the federal government backing programs that allow local police forces to receive military equipment, including armored vehicles and powerful firearms, news that interrogation methods are also occurring has attracted shock and scorn.
Activist Brian Jacob Church, who claims to have been detained at the facility in 2012, addressed a crowd that assembled at Homan Square on Saturday.
Technology Does Not Guarantee Transparency
In theory, the changeover from paper to email should make government more transparent. The cost of archiving documents should be lower, because data can be housed on relatively small hard drives rather than in spacious warehouses. Likewise, the time expense of retrieving that data should be reduced, because it can be obtained through a few keystrokes rather than a tedious search of file cabinets.
Consequently, open records requests should be far easier to fulfill, because electronic correspondence and memos are keyword searchable. Yet two New York politicos are showing that the era of Big Data does not necessarily mean the public gets a better view of its government.
The first is Hillary Clinton, the Empire State’s former senator. According to reports this week in The New York Times and Associated Press, Clinton avoided using a government email address as U.S. secretary of state, instead conducting State Department business through a personal account on her own private server. The Times notes that “the practice protected a significant amount of her correspondence from the eyes of investigators and the public.”
According to one legal expert, Clinton’s move may have run afoul of the spirit—if not the letter—of rules governing federal records.
EPA: Illinois oil train derailment threatens Mississippi River
WASHINGTON — An oil train derailment and spill in northwest Illinois poses an “imminent and substantial danger” of contaminating the Mississippi River, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Saturday.
The spill from the derailment, which occurred Thursday, also threatens the Galena River, a tributary of the Mississippi, and the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, one of the most complex ecosystems in North America.
The EPA said it couldn’t estimate how much oil was spilled, but that the 21 cars of the 105-car BNSF Railway train that derailed contained 630,000 gallons of Bakken crude from North Dakota. Small fires from the wreckage continued to burn Saturday.
Earlier Saturday, another oil train derailed and caught fire near Gogama, Ontario, bringing to five the total number of fiery derailments in the U.S. and Canada in as many weeks.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature a story of survival from the Layland Mine Disaster: "Antonio Abbate..tells a thrilling story of the experience of the forty-two men while entombed for four days in the dark recesses of the wrecked mine, nearly two miles from the drift-mouth."
Tune in at 2pm!
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Dry ice on Mars may help colonize red planet, research says
A new way of generating energy could potentially power human colonies on Mars, a new study claims. This is thanks to nothing more than dry ice, which is abundant on the red planet, according to recent research.
Since man wants to start colonizing the place within the next few
decades, we need all the help we can get. This could also have
profound implications on planning. For now, we’re only
considering one-way trips, owing to huge energy demands. This
could change.
The gist of the new energy theory proposed by a team of
researchers from Northumbria, Edinburgh and Newcastle
universities lies in carbon dioxide. Scientists say the principle
is no different to what happens when you observe the effect of a
drop of water on a scalding-hot stove. The energy generated by
that process, which agitates the drop of water, is similar to the
pioneering new approach, outlined in the journal Nature Communications
Scientists call the principle at the heart of this process the Leidenfrost effect. This happens when a liquid comes into near contact with a much hotter surface. And it fits perfectly with the example of carbon dioxide – or dry ice.
The twisted morality of climate denial: How religion and American exceptionalism are undermining our future
Despite overwhelming scientific consensus, Americans remain split on climate change. Here's why
James Inhofe, the senior Republican senator from Oklahoma and author of “The Great Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future,” has recently become chairman of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee. As a result, we can expect his committee, and perhaps the Senate as a whole, to proceed on the basis that human-induced climate change is nothing but a twisted fantasy concocted by misguided intellectuals.
As conspiracy theories go, this one is a dilly. The overwhelming majority of American earth and weather scientists, working in hundreds of private universities and in public universities funded and supervised by all 50 states (red as well as blue), have apparently decided to risk their personal credibility and endanger their careers to tell a complex, well-coordinated lie for no apparent reason. Thousands of other scientists in countries ranging from Australia to Ireland to China, in a remarkable display of cooperation with the U.S., have subjected themselves to similar risks, with a similar lack of possible rewards.
It is hardly surprising that energy companies — whose outsize profits may be reduced once the ongoing damage to the environment is recognized– have for years subscribed to this conspiracy theory, and in some cases funded its proponents. But why do so many Americans believe them? Why do they ignore an overwhelming scientific consensus of the sort that few people question in matters of medical care, electronics design, or factory management? The reason is that the response to climate change affects people’s personal beliefs and lifestyles. It is not simply a political position, like controlling air pollution or saving the blue whale, but an issue that reaches deep inside our patterns of thought and behavior.
PayPal to buy Israeli cyber security firm CyActive
(Reuters) - Online payments company PayPal, a unit of eBay (EBAY.O), will buy Israeli cyber security company CyActive for $60 million, Israeli media reported.
The Globes financial newspaper said the deal is expected to close shortly.
A spokeswoman for CyActive, which was founded in 2013, declined to comment on the reports.
CyActive, which says it can forecast future cyber attacks and offer companies such as utilities detection and prevention, received a strategic investment from the venture capital unit of Siemens SIGEn.DE in September. Financial details were not disclosed.
Bomb Train Russian Roulette? Latest Derailment in Ontario Is Fourth in Four Weeks
'Before one more derailment, fire, oil spill and one more life lost, we need a moratorium on oil trains and we need it now.'
A train carrying crude oil that derailed in northern Ontario on Saturday—which resulted in numerous overturned cars catching fire and oil spilling into a local waterway— is the fourth such accident in North America in as many weeks.
The train, owned by the Canadian National Railway Co., was passing over a bridge above the Makami River near the town of Gogama, Ontario when the derailment occurred, sending thirty-five cars off the tracks, at least five of which ended up in the water. A large fire and huge black clouds of smoke followed.
The CBC reports the train was 94 cars long and all were tanker cars carrying crude oil from Alberta.
Officials with rail company have said their disaster response team was on the scene and tried to assure residents that drinking water supplies have not been harmed. Local residents who spoke to media did not seem convinced there was nothing to worry about.
Looking for Leaders on Climate? Follow the Women Farmers
Across the globe, countless women are standing up to the ravages of climate change – and to the governments and big businesses who are allowing it to destroy the world
"I give you a message from my heart," she says, "let's move forward and work together for the benefit of everyone. And especially for those who work in the fields, as we are the ones who suffer the most."
That is the voice of Arminda, a farmer and agro-forestry advocate from Bolivia, who is among a number of women farmers and activists featured in a campaign video by Oxfam International which celebrates female voices from around the world who are raising the alarm about climate change, organizing their communities in response, challenging others to recognize their wisdom, and pressuring local and national officials to follow their lead.
According to Oxfam, the small group of brave women in the film is just a sample of the thousands of others who are standing up to the ravages of climate change – and to the governments and big businesses who are allowing runaway global warming to destroy the world.
With Sunday recognized by the United Nations as International Women's Day, Oxfam's focus on the vital role played by the women farmers is part of the organization's ongoing GROW Campaign, which targets the intersection of hunger, climate change, and global inequality.
How will everything change under climate change?
Submitted by: NCTim
The second in a major series of articles on the climate crisis and how humanity can solve it. In this extract taken from the Introduction to This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein, the author calls the climate crisis a civilisational wake-up call to alter our economy, our lifestyles, now – before they get changed for us.
You can read the first extract here.
The alarm bells of the climate crisis have been ringing in our ears for years and are getting louder all the time - yet humanity has failed to change course. What is wrong with us?
Many answers to that question have been offered, ranging from the extreme difficulty of getting all the governments in the world to agree on anything, to an absence of real technological solutions, to something deep in our human nature that keeps us from acting in the face of seemingly remote threats, to – more recently – the claim that we have blown it anyway and there is no point in even trying to do much more than enjoy the scenery on the way down.
Swiss pilots to attempt first around-the-world solar flight
Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg will take turns piloting the single seater Solar Impulse 2 plane that is propelled solely by the sun
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Two Swiss pilots are expected to embark on Monday morning on the first attempt to fly around the world in a plane propelled only by the sun.
Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg will take turns piloting the single seater Solar Impulse 2 for 21,747 miles (35,000km) over 12 legs, including gruelling five- to six-day stints across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The entire journey will take five months.
The pilots will endure roughly 250 hours each inside a narrow cockpit with no oxygen or temperature control. Temperatures outside will range between -40C to 40C.
Falling asleep for long periods will be impossible as the flight will need constant attention. Piccard and Borschberg will survive on 20-minute naps every two to four hours.
The Evening Greens
The Evening Greens Weekend Editor: enhydra lutris
Coral threatened by dredging in Miami, environmentalists say
MIAMI — Government divers who plunged into the bay near the Port of Miami surfaced with bad news again and again: Large numbers of corals were either dead or dying, suffocated by sediment.
The source of the sediment, environmentalists say, is a $205 million dredging project, scheduled to end in July and intended to expand a channel to make room for a new generation of supersize cargo ships.
The damage to the fragile corals was never supposed to have happened. In 2013, federal agencies created a plan to protect the animals from the churn of sand and rock by placing them at a distance from the dredge site. It was a strategy intended to balance Miami’s economic interests with the concerns of environmentalists, who worry about the rapid deterioration of reefs across South Florida.
Business Councils Help Houston Build for Energy Efficiency
HOUSTON, Texas, March 4, 2015 (ENS) – An action plan designed to improve the market competitiveness of Houston’s buildings and attract energy efficiency investments was released today by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, WBCSD, and the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development, US BCSD.
Made public during a ceremony at Rice University, the action plan is based on the recommendations of the Houston Energy Efficiency in Buildings Laboratory, EEB Lab, held jointly by the two business organizations last October.
Roland Hunziker, director sustainable buildings at WBCSD, said, “EEB Laboratories foster a shared understanding of the specific barriers a building market is facing. Most importantly, they allow the creation of partnerships that are necessary to drive action to overcome these market barriers.”
The action plan has received widespread support despite the fact that Houston – the largest city in Texas and fourth-largest city in the United States – is nicknamed the Oil Capital of the World.
University of Oxford finds trees inhale less carbon when they are drought impacted
For the first time, an international research team has provided direct evidence of the rate at which individual trees in the Amazonian basin 'inhale' carbon from the atmosphere during a severe drought.
The researchers measured the growth and photosynthesis rates of trees at 13 rainforest plots across Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, comparing plots that were affected by the strong drought of 2010 with unaffected plots. They found that while growth rates of the trees in drought-affected plots were unchanged, the rate of photosynthesis – by which trees convert carbon into energy to fuel their activities – slowed down by around 10 percent over six months. Their paper, published in the journal, Nature, concludes that trees may be channelling their more limited energy reserves into growth rather than maintaining their own health. Computer simulations of the biosphere have predicted such responses to drought, but these are the first direct observations of this effect across tropical forests.
The three-year international study is the first detailed, large-scale examination of the complete carbon cycle, looking at both the growth and metabolism of forest plots at different sites across the Amazon basin. Each of the plots is one hectare and contains around 400-500 trees. The rainforest plots chosen were representative of the varying climatic and soil conditions of the Amazon basin. The study is the product of a new effort, co-ordinated by Oxford University, to closely track the functioning of tropical forests across the world: the Global Ecosystems Monitoring network (GEM).
Amazon deforestation 'threshold' causes species loss to accelerate
One of the largest area studies of forest loss impacting biodiversity shows that a third of the Amazon is headed toward or has just past a threshold of forest cover below which species loss is faster and more damaging. Researchers call for conservation policy to switch from targeting individual landowners to entire regions.
One of the first studies to map the impact of deforestation on biodiversity across entire regions of the Amazon has found a clear ‘threshold’ for forest cover below which species loss becomes more rapid and widespread.
By measuring the loss of a core tranche of dominant species of large and medium-sized mammals and birds, and using the results as a bellwether, the researchers found that for every 10% of forest loss, one to two major species are wiped out.
This is until the threshold of 43% of forest cover is reached, beyond which the rate of biodiversity loss jumps from between two to up to eight major species gone per 10% of disappeared forest.
New tool aids US conservation, management of whales, dolphins and porpoises
Researchers have identified more than 100 areas within U.S. waters that should be considered biologically important when making management and regulatory decisions about human activities that could affect whales, dolphins and porpoises.
The creation of Biologically Important Areas (BIAs) are described in a special issue of the journal Aquatic Mammals. Expert judgment was combined with published and unpublished data to identify 131 BIAs covering 24 species, stocks or populations in seven regions of the U.S. It is the first time so much information has been brought together for these species in one place and made available to scientists, managers, policymakers and the general public.
"The goal was to identify when and where cetaceans -- whales, dolphins and porpoises -- engage in activities that are important to the animal's physical health and fitness, reproduction and ability to survive as a population," said Sofie Van Parijs, who heads the passive acoustics group at NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) and is guest editor of the special issue. "Scientists and managers can use the information provided about BIAs to help with planning, analyses and decisions regarding how to reduce adverse impacts on cetaceans resulting from human activities."
BIAs are region, species and time specific and include reproductive and feeding areas, migratory corridors, and areas in which small and resident populations are concentrated. Each BIA includes a written narrative, a map, a list of references, and a table of data that details the type and quantity of information used to define the BIA.
Newly discovered hormone mimics the effects of exercise
Scientists at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology have discovered a new hormone that fights the weight gain caused by a high-fat Western diet and normalizes the metabolism -- effects commonly associated with exercising.
Hormones are molecules that act as the body's signals, triggering various physiological responses. The newly discovered hormone, dubbed "MOTS-c," primarily targets muscle tissue, where it restores insulin sensitivity, counteracting diet-induced and age-dependent insulin resistance.
"This represents a major advance in the identification of new treatments for age-related diseases such as diabetes," said Pinchas Cohen, dean of the USC Davis school and senior author of a study on the research, which will appear in Cell Metabolism on March 3.
To test the effects of MOTS-c, the team injected the hormone into mice fed a high-fat diet, which typically causes them to grow obese and develop a resistance to insulin. The injections not only suppressed both effects in mice, they also reversed age-dependent insulin-resistance, a condition that precedes diabetes.
Female fetuses exposed to tobacco smoke may have increased diabetes risk in middle age
A fetus exposed to tobacco smoke may be at increased risk for diabetes in adulthood, a new study of adult daughters finds. The results will be presented in a poster Saturday, March 7, at ENDO 2015, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in San Diego.
Women whose parents smoked during pregnancy had increased risk of diabetes mellitus independent of known risk factors, adding to the evidence that prenatal environmental chemical exposures can contribute to adult diabetes mellitus.
"From a public health perspective, reduced fetal environmental tobacco smoke exposure appears to be an important modifiable risk factor for diabetes mellitus in offspring," said lead study author Michele La Merrill, MPH, PhD, assistant professor of in the Department of Environmental Toxicology at the University of California, Davis.
"Medical doctors should consider advising pregnant smokers that emerging research suggests that tobacco smoking cessation in the home may benefit offspring by reducing their risk of developing diabetes mellitus independent of the effects of adult body mass index or birth weight on diabetes risk," she added.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Gang-Raped Saudi Woman Sentenced to 200 Lashes, 6 Months in Jail
Obama Grants Fewest Pardons Since Garfield in the 1800’s (Who Only Served 200 Days Before He Was Assassinated)
It Appears “Bibi” Is Far More Popular With Crazy American Neocons Than He Is With His Own Fellow Citizens
Now They're Saying It in Public: Professor At Koch-Funded University Department Calls For 'Less Democracy'
Will Liberals and Conservatives Unite to Defeat Fast Track and the TPP?
Since the City of Denton Banned Fracking, Texas GOP Moves to Pre-empt Local Control
The White House Has Gone Full Doublespeak on Fast Track and the TPP
How will State Budget Cuts Affect the Homeless in Baltimore ?
Hellraisers Journal: The "Uplifters" Should Seek to Remedy the Cause of Girls Going Wrong: Low Wages
On movement goals, climate change, and what to do
“NSA Global Spy Stations Revealed: ...'Collect It All, Know It All...Exploit It All'”
Stories at the Inn
A Little Night Music
Big Sandy & his Fly-Rite Boys - Chalk It Up to the Blues
Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys - Flyin' Rite
Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys - If You Only Knew
Big Sandy And The Fly-Rite Trio - Hi-Billy Music
Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys - Feelin' Kinda Lucky
Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys - My Sinful Days Are Over
Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys - Tequila Calling
Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys - Strollin' With Mary Jane
Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys - I Know I've Loved You Before
Big Sandy - Have Love Will Travel
Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys - Jump From Six To Six
Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys - Straight-8 Boogie
Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys - Night Tide
Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys - Honky Tonk Queen
Big Sandy and the Fly-Rite Trio - Let Me Love You Right
Big Sandy & His Fly Rite Boys - Girl At The Bar
Big Sandy & his Fly-Rite Boys- Between Darkness and Dawn
Big Sandy & The Fly-rite Boys - The Loser's Blues