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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Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music is brought to you by guest VJ NCTim and features songs that contain references to the black magic belief in Mojo. Enjoy!
Muddy Waters - Got My Mojo Workin'
Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other, then we will have no more wars. We shall all be alike—brothers of one father and one another, with one sky above us and one country around us, and one government for all.
Chief Joseph
News and Opinion
As Hillary Clinton Readies 2016 Presidential Run, Progressives Await Answers
Former U.S. Secretary of State set to become presumptive Democratic nominee, but progressives question her stance on issues like TPP, Keystone XL
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is prepared to officially announce her intention to run for president on Sunday, ending months of hints and speculation over her candidacy plans and picking up where her 2008 campaign left off.
The formal declaration will come in a casual manner, with a social media push starting on Twitter, "followed by a video and email announcement" and a campaign visit to Iowa.
Clinton's announcement will make her the third formally declared candidate for president, and the front-runner for the Democratic party, with only Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky officially running.
While Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee, progressives in Washington are ready to challenge her stance on a range of populist issues, particularly over her economic legacy.
Obama says Hillary Clinton would be 'excellent president'
(Reuters) - Hillary Clinton would be an "excellent president," U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday, one day before his former secretary of state is expected to announce her campaign for the White House in 2016.
"She was a formidable candidate in 2008, she was a great supporter of mine in the general election, she was an outstanding secretary of state, she is my friend. I think she would be an excellent president," Obama said during a news conference at the Americas summit in Panama City.
Obama said when Clinton makes her bid public, he expects "she will be very clear about her vision for the country moving forward."
Obama offered a strong endorsement of her abilities and lauded her foreign policy as the top U.S. diplomat during his first term in office.
Will Hillary's Constant Feeding at the Corporate Trough Make it Hard for Her to Embrace Needed Populism?
Today, former first lady, Senator, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will announce that she's pursuing the Democratic nomination for presidency of the United States. The move is hardly a surprise – she has widely been expected to run for president since she stepped down from the State Department in early 2013.
Clinton is reportedly gearing her campaign towards “everyday Americans”; she plans a “listening tour” to appear at events with a diverse set of Americans.
The need for this tour is fundamentally political – Clinton has taken part in few events with ordinary people in the years since she left public service. Instead, she's spent most of her time on the paid lecture circuit, giving speeches to corporations, trade associations, and others who were willing to pay top dollar to hear her speak about their preferred topic. In doing so, she was walking a well-worn path laid out by her husband, former president Bill Clinton. Bill's speaking engagements earned the couple over $100 million since 2000 – catapulting them from what he called “poor rascal” status to that of the super-rich.
While most of Hillary Clinton's speaking fees and speech texts are private – we will soon get a peek in the fees themselves thanks to presidential personal financial disclosure requirements – there have been various reports and leaks of both her comments and speaking fees. For example, the Silicon Valley firm Nexenta posted video of her address to their forum, where she jokes that she's “not an expert on software-designed storage,” a sort of admission that she is being paid more for access than expertise. These lectures a picture of a candidate who spent the past two years getting richer by telling corporations exactly what they want to hear, a troubling foreshadowing of her possible ascent to the White House.
Iran and a Possible New Energy Geopolitics
The recent tentative agreement between Iran and the USA regarding Iran’s nuclear program open the prospect of a lifting of almost 36 years of American economic sanctions against Iran. It is being greeted by threats of unilateral military strikes by Israel against Iran to “pre-empt” Iran developing a nuclear bomb. An alliance improbable as it may seem between the ultra-conservative Saudi monarchy and the government of Israel is emerging against Iran and the US deal. The real question is what the deeper motive of the Obama Administration is regarding Iran. Here energy geopolitics plays the lead role, as so often in the energy-rich Middle East. And Russia is the target.
I recently had a dialogue with Shervin, an Iranian energy expert I met two years ago in Tehran regarding these developments. I want to share some of the highlights of that discussion here. He is an energy specialist with Iran’s leading international news agency, Tasnim News Agency. The talk provides a useful insight into the thinking of Iranian intellectuals regarding US sanctions, Iran’s possible role in the world and in energy geopolitics.
Interview.
The Nasty Blowback from America’s Wars
By Ray McGovern
Brutality thrives in American police treatment of common citizens reflecting an ethos of violence that has flourished over the past dozen years with almost no one in authority held accountable. Much of this behavior can be traced back to U.S. wars of choice – and it is not as though we were not warned of the inevitable blowback.
On Feb. 26, 2003, three weeks before the U.S./UK attack on Iraq, Coleen Rowley, then division counsel and special agent at the FBI office in Minneapolis, had the prescience and the guts to send a letter to then FBI Director Robert Mueller. The New York Times published it a week later.
Rowley warned Mueller that launching unjustified war would prove counterproductive in various ways. One blowback she highlighted was that the rationale being applied to allow preemptive strikes abroad could migrate back home, “fostering a more permissive attitude toward shootings by law enforcement officers in this country.” Tragically, the recent spate of murders by police has proved Rowley right.
And not only killing. Police brutality toward the citizenry, some of it by former soldiers who themselves were brutalized by war, has soared. Yet, the dark side of what was done by U.S. troops abroad as well as the damage that was done to their psyches and sense of morality is rarely shown in the U.S. mainstream media, which prefers to veer between romanticizing the adventure of war and lamenting the physical harm done to America’s maimed warriors.
Video shows Tulsa police killing man as officer uses gun not Taser 'by mistake'
*Eric Harris: ‘I’m losing my breath.’ Second officer: ‘Fuck your breath’
*Reserve officer Bob Bates has said he thought was using his Taser
Video has been released of the moment a reserve police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, shot and killed a man by mistake.
The reserve officer, Bob Bates, a 73-year-old insurance executive, told police he had thought he was firing his Taser stun gun at Eric Courtney Harris, 44, a convicted felon who a police report on the incident said was being arrested after having sold a gun to an undercover officer.
The video, which came from a police officer’s body camera, was released by police on Friday. It shows Harris running down a suburban street, away from his pursuers. The officer catches up with him and Harris is brought to the ground. A shot is heard and Harris gasps in pain.
A voice, presumably that of Bates, says: “I shot him. I’m sorry.”
Video Here.
Preview: Ambassador Kennedy's special bond with Japan
Submitted by: gooderservice
April 10, 2015, 7:35 AM|U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy opened up about her role as a diplomat and her relationship with President Obama. Watch Norah O'Donnell's full story on Sunday's 60 Minutes.
'Our Governments Will Continue to Have Differences': Historic US-Cuba Talks Start
Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro outline different priorities in first face-to-face meeting of U.S. and Cuban leaders in 50 years
U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro began talks in Panama on Saturday in the first face-to-face meeting between leaders of the two nations in 50 years.
The historic event at the seventh Summit of the Americas, which Cuba was attending for the first time, was another step toward easing tensions between the U.S. and Cuba after a thawing of relations was announced last December.
Both leaders acknowledged that progress had been made during Saturday's meeting, but outlined different priorities.
"Our governments will continue to have differences," Obama saidafter the meeting. He added that some of the immediate goals were to open embassies in Havana and Washington, D.C., but stopped short of confirming whether he would remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terror.
South Carolina To Scotus: We Discriminate Against Women, So You Have To Let Us Discriminate Against Gay People
Submitted by: NCTim
South Carolina, like probably several states in the upcoming years, is suing for their right to discriminate against gay people. Their argument goes so far back in our country’s history that it’s almost like re-adjudicating slavery.
In an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, South Carolina made the claim because the Constitution allows discrimination against women, it also allows discrimination against gay people.
"Here’s the gist of South Carolina’s fascinatingly sexist argument. The state wants to prove that the 14th Amendment—which guarantees “equal protection of the laws” to every “person”—was not intended to displace state marriage laws. And what did those laws look like at the time? One major feature: In many states, married women were not permitted to own property or enter into contracts and had no legal existence apart from their husbands. According to South Carolina, the framers of the 14th Amendment explicitly preserved the rights of states to deprive married women of the ability to function independently from her husband. This right to deprive married women of basic liberties, South Carolina argues, is enshrined in the 10th Amendment and is not at all undercut by the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equality."
"The crux of South Carolina’s brief, then, is this: If the 14th Amendment permits discrimination against married women, it surely also allows discrimination against gay people who wish to wed. In fact, according to South Carolina, the 14th Amendment forbids only racial discrimination, leaving states free to disadvantage women and gays in any way they wish".
Source: Slate
When the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, the women’s movement had begun but in the name of unity, women put aside their own agenda because of the Civil War. The assumption was that women would be given full rights after the war was won.
Killology’ Expert Accidentally Admits NRA Is Creating More Mass Shootings
Submitted by: NCTim
The words from the self-professed ‘Professor of Killology‘ Dave Grossman were as clear as day.
"Sandy Hook is just the beginning. We’re raising a generation of mass killers."
Just the beginning, that this nation was raising a generation which would turn to gunfire. He then turned to other mass shootings, ones the NRA used for marketing purposes, it became even more clear that the entire seminar, titled “Sheepdogs! The Bulletproof Mind for the Armed Citizen” was just a sales pitch designed to convince people to buy more guns.
"Can we take the lessons learned in Columbine and Jonesboro and Virginia Tech? Can we take the lessons learned on 9/11 and in Sandy Hook Elementary School? Or do we have to wait until our kids die"?
The ludicrous claims that Europe has more mass shooting violence than the United States, that “you’re going to see daycare massacres and school bus massacres,” just rhetoric primed to pump sales of the latest firearm fashion. To prevent questioning, he declared his absolute stance against any programs to prevent such massacres as well.
Rich States, Poor States, 2015 Edition
Submitted by: NCTim
Throughout the country, states are looking for ways to energize their economies and become more competitive. Each state confronts this task with a set of policy decisions unique to their own situation, but not all state policies lead to economic prosperity.
Using years of economic data and empirical evidence from each state, the authors identify which policies can lead a state to economic prosperity. Rich States, Poor States not only identifies these policies but also makes sound research-based conclusions about which states are poised to achieve greater economic prosperity and those that are stuck on the path to a lackluster economy.
The 2015 economic outlook ranking is a forward-looking measure of how each state can expect to perform economically based on 15 policy areas that have proven, over time, to be the best determinants of economic success.
Rich States, Poor States: ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index is an annual economic competitiveness study authored by economist Dr. Arthur Laffer, Stephen Moore, chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, and Jonathan Williams, Director of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force at the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Stop Drilling in the Arctic Ocean
Submitted by: NCTim
Action item, sign up!
Estonia President Toomas Ilves seeks permanent Nato force
Estonian President Toomas Ilves has called for a permanent Nato force to be stationed in his country.
Mr Ilves told the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper that Estonia felt threatened by Russian military flights and exercises in the area, as well as by belligerent rhetoric from Moscow.
Currently the sole Nato contingent in Estonia is a 150-strong US infantry company, stationed temporarily.
Nato has pledged a 5,000-strong task force to defend vulnerable members.
Nobody will win the war in Yemen
Saudi-led military adventure will weaken Yemen beyond repair and the instability may spillover into the kingdom itself.
Yemenis have long suspected the Saudis of pursuing polices that keep their country weak but not so weak that its internal problems spill across the border. If this was ever the case, the new Saudi rulers seem to have jettisoned their approach. They have embarked on a military adventure that will create the kind of instability and violence that not only will weaken Yemen beyond repair but could rebound upon the kingdom itself.
Last month, the Saudis, backed by the US and nine mostly Arab Sunni states, launched an air campaign to reinstate the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and roll back both the Houthis, a group Riyadh views as an Iranian proxy, and their ally, forces aligned with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
They also imposed a naval and air blockade to prevent the Houthis from receiving weapons, while the US has expedited arms deliveries to the kingdom. Saudi officials say Operation Decisive Storm will continue until stability is restored and hint a ground offensive might be necessary.
Russian planes evacuate over 300 people from war-torn Yemen
Two Russian planes have evacuated over 300 people, including Russians and foreign citizens from Yemen, as thousands of foreign nationals are struggling to leave the conflict-ridden country.
Two planes flew out of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, with each aircraft carrying about 150 passengers. The airplanes are firstly heading to Cairo, before carrying onto Moscow, which will be their final destination, RT’s Paula Slier reports. One of the planes has already touched down in the Egyptian capital and is already bound for Moscow.
“The entire journey took around 13 hours in total,” Slier said, who was aboard one of the planes with those being evacuated. “It was a very organized evacuation. People have come from early in the morning, in fact, some of them were waiting since yesterday.”
While on board, Paula Slier spoke to some of the people fleeing Yemen. An Italian national told her that he had not been able to leave his hotel for the past two weeks.
'Nobody will help us evacuate:' Americans urge Washington to help flee Yemen war
As the Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen continue and the fighting on the ground intensifies, US citizens stuck in Yemen have lashed out at Washington for ignoring their pleas for help as they try to leave the war-torn country.
Aerial bombardment and street battles have become a daily reality for people in Yemen. “We hear a few bombings a day. It’s very scary right now,” Arwa Al-Iraine, a US citizen trapped in Yemen told RT.
“Nobody will help us evacuate. The reply [of the US government] was an automated message that they do not have any evacuation plans. Basically we are left on our own.”
Another US citizen Shamsan Mansoob stranded in the strife-stricken country hit out at Washington, saying that “we never heard anything from them.” He told RT that his family - a pregnant wife and his son – couldn’t even leave the war zone as “there is no gas at the stations.”
China-led Asian investment bank welcomes 5 new members
The founding states of the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) have approved the applications of Brazil, Georgia, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands as founding members, the Chinese Finance Ministry announced Saturday.
"With the consent of the existing founding members, the Netherlands, Brazil, Finland, Georgia and Denmark officially became founding countries of the AIIB on April 12," the ministry said in a statement on its website, adding that the total number of founders has now reached 46.
The founding members have a priority over others, as they possess the right to establish the rules for the bank’s activities.
Applications to join the bank with the rights of founding members were filed by 52 countries, including Russia. The final list of AIIB founding members will be announced April 15
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature a reminder from Emma F Langdon that the Western Federation of Miners' Cripple Creek Strike is still on in Colorado. Langdon also passes along a communication from WFM officers Moyer and Haywood.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Water rapidly vanishing in California’s biggest delta
Fresh water is mysteriously disappearing from the Sacramento-San Jose Joaquin River Delta, amid California’s worst recorded drought. The blame is being pointed at farmers, who have used the water resources for irrigation for generations.
Following complaints from two state agencies, the Department of Water Resources and the US Bureau of Reclamation, an investigation has been launched into how much water Delta farmers are taking.
The Delta, which includes large swathes of farmland, is made up of a large inland estuary to the east of San Francisco, which is fed by rivers flowing down from the Sierra Nevada and northern mountain ranges.
As a result of the ongoing drought, which is now in its fourth year, officials have been concerned that salty bay water was backing up into the Delta, as there was not enough fresh water getting through. To combat this, in June, water was released from Lake Oroville amounting to “thousands of acre-feet of water a day for a couple of weeks,” said Nancy Vogel, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Water Resources.
NASA offering $18,000 for human lab rats to stay in bed
NASA will pay $18,000 to anyone prepared to stay in bed for 10 weeks and submit to a gruelling regime of tests for more than three months. The only criteria are the candidates have to be healthy and American citizens.
Scientists will constantly examine the lucky ones, who are selected, for 70 days. The research is being carried out to simulate how effective exercise is on astronauts, who lose cardiovascular, bone and muscle function as a result of living in zero gravity conditions.
The volunteers will be split into those who exercise and those who don’t. The first step will see all those taking part, spend between two and three weeks inside a “bed rest facility.” Here they will be allowed to move around a lead a normal day’s life.
The second stage will see the volunteers transferred to NASA’s Flight Analog Research Unit in Houston, Texas. They will spend 10 weeks lying in bed, with their bodies tilted slightly backwards, with their feet up and their head down.
The Evening Greens
The Evening Greens Weekend Editor: enhydra lutris
Thousands March in Canada to Demand Action on Climate Change
'You can either protect our climate or you can develop the tarsands, but you cannot do both at the same time.'
Thousands of Canadians marched through the streets of Québec City, Québec on Saturday to demand action from officials who are meeting next week to discuss climate change issues.
Organized by Act on Climate March, an environmental and social justice coalition, the action included representatives from First Nations, climate activists, and political groups, totaling 25,000 participants.
The organizers called on premiers who will be attending the meeting on April 14 to curb tar sands growth, which critics say would endanger Canada's land and water and fuel climate change.
At their previous meeting in January, the premiers discussed TransCanada's proposed Energy East tar sands pipeline, which would transport over 1 million barrels per day of toxic oil from Alberta to the Atlantic Ocean. The completion date for the project was extended this month to 2020 after TransCanada was forced to kill plans for a marine terminal on the St. Lawrence River in Cacouna.
The monarch butterfly needs milkweed to survive. Here's how to get seeds
Habitat loss for this iconic black and orange butterfly, especially along its migratory routes, is devastating monarch populations. Help a winged friend out by planting milkweed.
Just a few months ago, Michael covered the initiative from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) to help monarch butterflies by planting milkweed and other butterfly-friendly plants along the main monarch butterfly migration routes in the U.S., which is a laudable effort. But because we're all activists at heart (right?), we really ought to be taking some responsibility for issues like this and doing something about it in our own yards and neighborhoods, instead of leaving wildlife conservation and habitat restoration solely in the hands of the powers that be.
I'm all in favor of national and regional efforts, but I also happen to believe that we can all take small yet effective actions in our own sphere of influence, such as in our homes and communities, which can all add up to a bigger overall positive impact. And providing migratory wildlife habitat, especially for important flagship species like monarchs, is fairly easy and is something that almost anyone can do on a small scale, as opposed to trying to save a forest or stop a pipeline all by yourself.
Milkweed isn't exactly a household name for most people, and you probably won't find common milkweed starts at your local garden store, because as its name suggests, it's considered a weed. But a weed to us is nectar and nursery and survival for monarch butterflies, and the good news is that it's pretty easy to grow - it grows like a weed - and there are dozens of varieties of milkweed, with the plant growing across almost all of the growing regions of North America.
11 clever ways to conserve water at home
From the bucket flush to reusing pasta water, these novel tricks are a good addition to the tried-and-true tips.
California drought or no California drought, we should all treat our water as the precious resource that it is. It’s not infinite and those of it who have it in abundance often waste it heedlessly. The World Health Organization recommends two gallons per person daily to meet the requirements of most people under most conditions – and around 5 gallons per person daily to cover basic hygiene and food hygiene needs.
On average, an American resident uses about 100 gallons of water per day; while those in Europe use about 50 gallons of water daily. A resident of sub-Saharan Africa uses two to five gallons of water per day.
While reducing your water usage to five gallons a day would prove prohibitive for those of us accustomed to using more, there are plenty of smart ways to reduce your usage prodigiously. This is not a new topic for TreeHugger, we’ve offered these 10 tips in addition to these 5 swaps – but wait, there’s more! Consider the following:
More.
Triassic Mass Extinction May Give Clues on How Oceans Will Be Affected by Climate Change
Just over 200 million years ago, the end-Triassic mass extinction killed off more than half of the species of organisms living on Earth’s land and in the oceans. We are only just beginning to understand how this – and the period of runaway global warming that followed – changed the chemistry of open oceans.
The end-Triassic mass extinction marked the transition between the Triassic to the Jurassic Period and the rise of the large herbivorous dinosaurs, such as the Diplodocus. The extinction meant that previously abundant species were cleared from ecological niches which allowed dinosaurs to move in with little competition from other animals. The Jurassic lasted another 55 million years until the beginning of the Cretaceous Period.
But the extinction also had profound effects on ocean ecosystems. Previous research linked the extinction to rapid global warming and changes in ocean chemistry which were caused by massive volcanic eruptions that released large amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.
One of the unanswered questions has been how global warming changed the chemistry of the oceans. Some studies provide a picture of environmental changes on land and in coastal shallow seas, but until now there has been little information on the conditions of ecosystems in open ocean areas – known as pelagic zones – where water is neither close to the seabed or the shore.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
'You Have to be Ready to Eliminate the Threat': Fearmongering and GOP Groveling at NRA Convention
China Said to Be Censoring Internet With Powerful New Weapon
Mercy Is Ours to Give, if We Choose It
Hoosier Homophobia Crushed, Racism Continues On
Hellraisers Journal: E. Gurley Flynn Arrives in Chicago; Will Speak on "Man Who Works for Wages"
The War On The Poor: What Will It Take To End It?
The Guide To Criticizing Hillary Without Being Sexist
"Othering" the trans kids in Nevada
A Little Night Music
Southern Culture on the Skids - Mojo Box
Scott Biram - I Want My Mojo Back
Quicksilver Messenger Service - Mojo
Gary Moore - Mojo Boogie
Jimmy Rogers - Got My Mojo Working
Johnny Winter - Mojo Hand
Albert Castiglia - Mojo 305
Jimi Hendrix - Mojo Man
Sonny Landreth - Mojo Boogie
Rory Gallagher - Got My Mojo Workin'
Jim Suhler & Monkey Beat - Radio Mojo
Omar and The Howlers - Mail Order Mojo
Ash Grunwald - Mojo
Professor Longhair - Red Beans aka I Got My Mojo Working
Tami Lynn - Mo Jo Hanna
Aldo Banfi, Claudio Bazzari Band - Don't You Throw That Mojo On Me
Arturo Sandoval - Fiesta Mojo
Jimmy Smith - I Got My Mojo Workin'