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!
Tonight's music features Jimmy Rogers who has shown up here before, I found a ton of material on youtube that I hadn't featured before, though. So, Enjoy!
Jimmy Rogers - Gold Tailed Bird
"Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others."
-- Niccolo Machiavelli
"Free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."
-- George W. Bush
News
Escalating Talk of a Military Attack on Iran
Water Crisis in Egypt
Standard Chartered fined $340 million over Iran deals
Standard Chartered on Tuesday settled allegations that it helped Iranian clients dodge US sanctions, announcing a fine of $340 million from a New York banking watchdog.
The “civil penalty” came amid allegations that the London-based bank hid 60,000 transactions with proscribed Iranian clients worth $250 billion over ten years. ...
“Standard Chartered had offered to settle for $5 million, so clearly an increase,” said Morningstar analyst Erin Davis.
Davis added that even at $340 million the fine would not have a major financial impact on the bank. In the first half of this year it reported profits of $3.95 billion.
Washington's Wall Street Sugar Daddies
How much is democracy worth to you?
If you’re like most people, it’s priceless. But for the hedge funds and insurance companies on Wall Street, it does have a price tag. And now, thanks to a new report by Global Exchange, we know the number on it: approximately $4.2 billion. That’s how much the Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (F.I.R.E.) sector has invested in political influence through campaign contributions and lobbying since 2006. That comes to $1,331 a minute spent on political power.
The new report is called “Meet the F.I.R.E. Sector: How Wall Street Is Burning Democracy.” It was developed by Elect Democracy, a nonpartisan effort by Global Exchange to expose and challenge the impact of corporate money in U.S. politics. The report contains extensive research tracking Wall Street’s investment in political power, and analyzes exactly how Wall Street has secured what Global Exchange calls “industry-loyal voting practices” in Congress: by shoveling stacks of campaign cash in the direction of Congressional hopefuls from both major political parties. ...
Elect Democracy has used the report to develop a new legislative scorecard that makes it easy for you to trace how your legislators voted on key issues such as the bank bailout, Wall Street reform, and free trade agreements. Not only that, but you can see for yourself how much money they received in campaign contributions from the F.I.R.E. sector, as well as what we call their “industry loyalty voting rate.”
Ecuador's Correa: No Decision Yet on Assange Asylum Request - Earlier reporting by UK newspaper said Ecuador had made decision to grant asylum
Responding to a news story earlier in the day by The Guardian newspaper, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador strongly denied a report that claimed a final decision had been made to grant Wikileaks founder Julian Assange political asylum in his country.
"The story is false ... When we make the decision we'll explain very clearly the reasons, the legal framework, the analysis that we made to grant or not asylum to Mr Julian Assange," Correa told a press conference.
Russia breaks up Pussy Riot protest outside church
Russian security guards broke up a demonstration Wednesday in support of protest punk group Pussy Riot outside the Moscow cathedral where the women performed this year, activists said.
The protesters, wearing the group’s trademark coloured balaclavas, were holding individual letters that spelled the phrase “Blessed are the merciful” outside the Church of Christ the Saviour, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
“Guards detained three young men… who were trying to hold a protest on the church steps in support of Pussy Riot,” a police source told ITAR-TASS, adding that the detainees were taken to a station for questioning.
Poo power celebrated as solar toilet wins sanitation prize
A solar powered toilet that breaks down water and human waste into hydrogen gas for use in fuel cells has won first prize in a competition for next-generation toilets to improve sanitation in the developing world.
The California Institute of Technology in the US received the $100,000 (£64,000) first prize for its design. Loughborough University in the UK took the $60,000 second prize for a toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals and clean water, and Canada's University of Toronto came third, winning $40,000 for a toilet that sanitises faeces and urine, and recovers resources and clean water.
The winners took part in a Reinvent the Toilet challenge set by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which asked designers to break with a sanitation model that has changed little since it was developed by Alexander Cummings more than 200 years ago. It is a model that depends on piped water, sewer or electrical connections that poor countries can ill afford.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
What makes our NDAA lawsuit a struggle to save the US constitution - by Tangerine Bolen (plaintiff)
Whistleblower Retaliation Creep - by Jesselyn Raddack
Arch applies for permit to mine 1.5 BILLION TONS of Coal as more are arrested in Helena
General Petraeus and the Drone War
A Little Night Music
Jimmy Rogers - Chicago Bound
Jimmy Rogers - One Kiss
Jimmy Rogers and Big Walter Horton
Jimmy Rogers & Big Moose Walker - Last Time
Jimmy Rogers - That's all right
Jimmy Rogers - Blues All Day Long
Jimmy Rogers and his Trio - Ludella
Jimmy Rogers - You're The One
Jimmy Rogers All Stars - Blow Wind Blow
Little Walter + Jimmy Rogers - I Just Keep Loving Her
Jimmy Rogers in Antone's: Home of the Blues
Jimmy Rogers - That Ain't It @Santa Barbara Blues Society
Jimmy Rogers - You Left Me With A Broken Heart @Chicago Blues Festival
Jimmy Rogers & Big Moose Walker - St Louis
Jimmy Rogers - Angel Child
Jimmy Rogers & Big Moose Walker - Sloppy Drunk
Jimmy Rogers - Blue Bird
Jimmy Rogers- You´re Sweet
Jimmy Rogers & Big Moose Walker - Goin' Away Baby
Big Moose Walker & Jimmy Rogers - One Room Little Country Shack
Jimmy Rogers - Walking By Myself
Jimmy Rogers - Rock With You Baby
Jimmy Rogers, Carey Bell - Big Boss Man
We are ready for some serious change. We are ready to take up the tools of a free and analytic press to peacefully undermine the stranglehold of the kleptocrats on our battered democracy. We are ready to expose and publicize their greed, lies and illegal machinations and hold their enablers in government and the media to account. Are you in?
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead
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