Welcome! "The Evening Blues" is a casual community diary (published Monday - Friday, 7:00 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!
Hey there. Hope you are all having a nice evening and finding ways to stay cool if you are having the same kind of heat wave we are having here. This diary material is from joe, who is on the road on vacation, and tonight we are going to enjoy some music from some more blueswomen. I like that idea. I hope you do too.
Here is a little bio about "The Texas Nightingale", Sippie Wallace. Gotta love that name. I think all of her names are pretty cool, actually.
Sippie Wallace (born as Beulah Thomas, November 1, 1898 – November 1, 1986) was an American singer-songwriter. Her early career in local tent shows gained her the billing "The Texas Nightingale". Between 1923 and 1927, she recorded over 40 songs for Okeh Records, many written by herself or her brothers, George and Hersal Thomas.[1] Her accompanists included Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, and Clarence Williams. Among the top female blues vocalists of her era, Wallace ranked with Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, and Bessie Smith.
In the 1930s, she left show business to become a church organist, singer, and choir director in Detroit, and performed secular music only sporadically until the 1960s, when she resumed her career. Wallace was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1982, and was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1993
Sippie Wallace - Women Be Wise
"Blues means what milk does to a baby. Blues is what the spirit is to the minister. We sing the blues because our hearts have been hurt, our souls have been disturbed."
-- Alberta Hunter
Photos From Joe on the Road
Flowers in Wisconsin (Photo by joe shikspack, 7/4/12)
Flowers in Wisconsin (Photo by joe shikspack, 7/4/12)
[ Editor's Note: joanneleon and KBO will be holding down the Evening Blues fort while joe shikspack is on his roadtrip vacation. When we can, we'll post photos and messages that he sends in and put them in this section of the diary. He'll be checking in regularly when he has connectivity, so feel free to leave him some greetings in the comments. Also, we would love to have your help with ideas for Evening Blues topics while he is gone, so feel free to lend your Blues and Roots music expertise and ideas in the comments! ]
News
Pakistan to reopen supply routes after U.S. apology for troop deaths
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the reopening of the supply routes from the Pakistani port of Karachi to the Afghan border in a statement in which she also disclosed that she’d apologized by telephone to Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar for the mistaken killing of the Pakistani troops in a U.S. airstrike Nov. 26, 2011.
The weather? this is just the beginning of Climate Chaos
Sizzling Heat, Storms, Wildfires: 'This Is Just the Beginning'
"I think it’s important for the public to hear that what we’re seeing now is the future. We’re going to be seeing a lot more weather like this, a lot more impacts like we’re seeing from this series of heatwaves, fires and storms. And we better prepare for it. We better educate people what’s going on, give the best science that’s out there on what climate change is doing and where it’s likely to head. I think we’re missing a big opportunity here—or our TV meteorologists are—to educate and tell the population what is likely to happen. This is just the beginning, this kind of summer weather we’re having."
Written in 1852, how does it stand up today?
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?' by Frederick Douglas
“What to the Slave is the Fourth July?” by Frederick Douglass is not only a brilliant work of oratory. It speaks to our every frustration spurred by the gap between the ideals of the United States and the reality we witness every day; between the Bill of Rights and our decaying civil liberties; between the USA’s international declarations of human rights and the ordered drone attacks backed by presidential “kill lists”; between the words “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and a nation that leads the world in jailing its own citizens; between our highest ideals and our darkest realities. Here’s hoping people take the time to read the entirety of Douglass’s brilliant speech,
Brazil tribes occupy contentious dam site
The problem, the indigenous now say, is that while the construction of the dam steams ahead, the promises made by the consortium building the dam and by government-led Norte Energia - the energy company overseeing the dam - have yet to be fulfilled.
So the tribes decided to invade. This was a historic and significant move, because the decision was made without the assistance or knowledge of local or international NGOs or government rights bodies, who in the past often assisted tribes during protest movements.
"We would not be here today if the builders and the government would have done what they promised us," Bebtok, a tribe elder from the Xikrin tribe, told Al Jazeera. "In my community, nothing has been done. There is no quality health post, there is no school, they have not built a road for us. My road is the river and that is going to be dried up."
Navy plans $40 million fiber-optic link to Guantanamo base
MIAMI — The Pentagon has decided to lay an estimated $40 million underwater fiber-optic cable from Guantanamo Bay to South Florida, The Miami Herald has learned, in the latest sign that the military is preparing for detentions and other operations at the Navy base for the long term.
"It only makes sense to do if we're going to be here for any period of time," said Navy Capt. Kirk Hibbert, disclosing the project in an interview last week before ending a two-year tour as the Navy base commander.
Construction won't start for more than a year. And communications won't come online for probably two more years.
Kansas military school for boys faces lawsuit over abuse allegations
He lasted four days.
During Mactagone's short time behind the school's brick walls, he and his family claim that students pushed him, trampled him, dragged him, threw him and kicked him, breaking both his legs and displacing his right femur several inches below the knee.
Mactagone, now 14, and the families of other former students are suing the school in Salina, Kan. The federal suit was amended last month to list 10 parents of former students and one former student as plaintiffs who allege the students were abused and tortured at the institution, which portrays itself on its website and in testimonials as a prestigious military academy that vows to keep children safe.
"This is a scary school," said Jennifer Mactagone, Jesse's mother. "It's older people playing war, and they're not using GI Joes like we all did when we were kids. … They're using the real thing."
Feds: Mermaids do not exist
PHILADELPHIA — The federal government last week went to unusual lengths to assure America that mermaids do not exist.
Really.
"No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found," asserts the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in an item posted June 27 to its website, www.NOAA.gov.
But it gets stranger. Another federal agency seems to be muddying the mer-waters.
States Steal Federal Foreclosure Funds at Their Own Peril
The U.S. housing market is showing tentative signs of life as demand for new homes and housing prices begin to rise in some areas.
Yet pitfalls remain, including about 12 million borrowers who still owe more on their “underwater” mortgages than their homes are worth. To help some of those people, the recent $25 billion national mortgage settlement required five large banks to pay states $2.5 billion for foreclosure prevention and other housing-related efforts.
Here’s the problem: many states -- including some hardest hit by the housing bust -- are diverting more than $1 billion of that settlement money to fill budget gaps, fund public universities and even bankroll litigation against defective Chinese drywall, according to a Bloomberg Government report. In doing so, states are robbing troubled borrowers of assistance and jeopardizing their housing recoveries in the process.
Congressional Majority Agrees to Undermine Pensions
Congress finally passed bills last week spending money on two things Republicans and Democrats had been saying for months they wanted to spend money on: keeping interest rates low on Stafford loans for college students, and building more transportation infrastructure. What held these policies up was a dispute over how to pay for them.
Democrats wouldn’t agree to defund the health-care law, as Republicans wanted. Republicans wouldn’t raise taxes on the rich, as Democrats wanted. In the end, both sides were able to agree on one way to raise money: tinkering with the rules that govern corporate pension plans, so that companies can set less money aside to pay for benefits, and send more money to the government.
Missile Defense Chief Accused of Being a Toxic Boss
O’Reilly would unleash a hailstorm of expletives on his staff for even minor infractions. When an unnamed staffer booked the general’s retinue in a hotel with “resort” in its title, O’Reilly profanely yelled in the lobby for at least 10 minutes, demanding the staffer admit s/he “fucked up.” The general was concerned that the media would portray the Missile Defense Agency as profligate.
He might have been more concerned about hemorrhaging staff. In his nearly four years as director, numerous staff members quit the agency because of his management style, a fact O’Reilly did not dispute to investigators even as he defended himself. O’Reilly would “berate you, make you feel like you’re the dirt beneath his feet,” a witness told the inspector general. Another said O’Reilly once threatened to “fucking choke me” in frustration.
Unbelievable.
Feds Look to Fight Leaks With ‘Fog of Disinformation’
Pentagon-funded researchers have come up with a new plan for busting leakers: Spot them by how they search, and then entice the secret-spillers with decoy documents that will give them away.
Computer scientists call it it “Fog Computing” — a play on today’s cloud computing craze. And in a recent paper for Darpa, the Pentagon’s premiere research arm, researchers say they’ve built “a prototype for automatically generating and distributing believable misinformation … and then tracking access and attempted misuse of it. We call this ‘disinformation technology.’”
[ ... ]
The Fog Computing project is part of a broader assault on so-called “insider threats,” launched by Darpa in 2010 after the WikiLeaks imbroglio. Today, Washington is gripped by another frenzy over leaks — this time over disclosures about U.S. cyber sabotage and drone warfare programs. But the reactions to these leaks has been schizophrenic, to put it generously. The nation’s top spy says America’s intelligence agencies will be strapping suspected leakers to lie detectors — even though the polygraph machines are famously flawed. An investigation into who spilled secrets about the Stuxnet cyber weapon and the drone “kill list” has already ensnared hundreds of officials — even though the reporters who disclosed the info patrolled the halls of power with the White House’s blessing.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'? 7.5.2012
Selective Prosecution from CIA’s US Attorney on emptywheel.net by emptywheel
Bob Diamond Performs “Je Ne Regrette Rien” on Naked Capitalism by Yves Smith
The Victims in the Libor Scandal Include Local Governments and Local Taxpayers
Hmm. Opportunity is an interesting way to put it...
Will Data-as-a-Platform Deliver New Opportunity? on Wired Blog Cloudline by Mike Barton
Fukushima Disaster Report: Industry-Governmental Collusion on DailyKos by Joieau
A Little Night Music
Ruth Brown - If I can't sell it, I'll sit on it
Big Time Sarah & Blue Jeans - Evil Gal Blues
Sippie Wallace - Murder Gonna Be My Crime
Etta James, Gladys Night and Chaka Khan w/BB King- Ain't Nobody Business
Etta James - Tell Mama
Angela Strehli & Friends - Big Town Playboy
Ruth Brown - Teardrops From My Eyes
Ruth Brown - Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean
Angela Strehli & Derek O'Brien - Mean Mistreater
Etta James - At Last
For further listening:
Sippie Wallace-Nobody Knows the Way I Feel this Morning
Ruth Brown - Sweet Baby of Mine
Ruth Brown - I Don't Know
Ruth Brown - Ice Water In Your Veins
Imagine… an exciting new independent blog and news site with a focus on a better future, waging peace, battling ignorance and greed.
“Peace is not something you wish for; It's something you make, something you do , something you are, and something you give away.” ― John Lennon
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