Welcome! "The Evening Blues" is a casual community diary (published Monday - Friday, 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!
Tonight's music features the Piedmont Blues of Etta Baker. Enjoy!
David Holt Interview: Etta Baker Piedmont Blues
"In commercial advertising as everybody knows, everybody who has ever looked at a television program, the advertising is not intended to provide information about the product, all right? I dont have to go on about that. Its obvious. The point of the advertising is to delude people with the imagery and, you know, tales of a football player, sexy actress, who you know, drives to the moon in a car or something like that. But, thats certainly not to inform people. In fact, its to keep people uninformed.
The goal of advertising is to create uninformed consumers who will make irrational choices. Those of you who suffered through an economics course know that markets are supposed to be based on informed consumers making rational choices. But industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year to undermine markets and to ensure, you know, to get uninformed consumers making irrational choices. And when they turn to selling a candidate they do the same thing. They want uninformed consumers, you know, uninformed voters to make irrational choices based on the success of illusion, slander, and effective body language or whatever else is supposed to be significant. So you undermine democracy pretty much the same way you undermine markets."
-- Noam Chomsky
News and Opinion
Life in Waziristan, 2012 “AD”
Yesterday the CODEPINK delegation to Pakistan heard directly from the victims of U.S. combat drones. We listened intently to the stories of these men who describe their lives in terms of "Before Drones" and "After Drones," in much the same way that Americans refer to their lives "since 9/11."
Imagine having up to 6 drones circling overhead 24 hours a day, making an incessant, constant buzzing sound that never ceases. The sound the drones make creates a deep-seated psychological fear—a sort of emotional torture. The lives of these people have changed completely, their culture and way of life destroyed.
This is a communal society, whose families of 60 to 70 people live in the same compound. The women cook together, the families eat and sleep together. Weddings and funerals are huge gatherings of friends and family—or at least they used to be. Now, "After Drones (AD)" everything has changed. Children aged 5 to 10 no longer go to school. Men are afraid to gather in groups of more than 2 or 3. Weddings, which used to be joyous affairs with music, dancing, and drumming, are now subdued events with only close family members present. And most sadly, since funerals have been the target of drone attacks, they are now small gatherings as well.
US Peace Activists Join Anti-Drone March in Pakistan; 10 Arrest at NY Military Base Protest
As the nation commemorates the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the so-called "New World" in 1492, indigenous activists at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, are pushing for schools to teach the "real history of the Americas" and to celebrate indigenous culture. "Columbus Day" has long evoked sadness and anger amongst people of color, especially Native Americans, who object to honoring a man who opened the door to European colonization, the exploitation of native peoples and the slave trade.
Native American Leader Dennis Banks on Overlooked Tragedy of U.S. Indian Boarding Schools
Anti-Austerity Protests Take 56 Cities in Spain - General strike imminent
Anti-austerity protesters flooded the streets of 56 cities across Spain Sunday to express anger over continual cuts to the public budget that are reaching deep into the pockets of middle and working class citizens.
Organizers claim 72,000 people showed up for the march in Madrid, which was organized by Spain's two major unions CCOO and UGT. Union leaders Ignacio Fernández Toxo of CCOO and Cándido Méndez of UGT criticized the government’s budget slated for next year, saying that “it will only bring more recession and more unemployment.” The projected jobless rate for 2013 is 25 percent. Youth unemployment has passed 50 percent. ...
A survey conducted by Spanish newspaper El Pais on Sunday showed 77 per cent of Spaniards support the protesters and more than 90 per cent think protests will become even more frequent.
General Strike Solid in Greek Town Chania
Hugo Chavez celebrates re-election in Venezuela
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has hailed a "perfect victory", after defeating Henrique Capriles to secure a fourth term in office.
Mr Chavez won 54% of the vote, the electoral council announced, with turnout at about 81%.
Brandishing a replica of the sword of independence hero Simon Bolivar, he pledged Venezuela would continue its "march towards democratic socialism".
Potential capital gains tax increase scares wealthy French into abandoning Paris, lowering prices
A flood of top-end properties are hitting the market as businessmen seek to leave France before stiff tax hikes hit, real estate agents and financial advisors say.
“It’s nearly a general panic. Some 400 to 500 residences worth more than one million euros ($1.3 million) have come onto the Paris market,” said managers at Daniel Feau, a real-estate broker that specialises in high-end property.
While it is not yet on the scale of the exodus of rich French after the election of Socialist president Francois Mitterrand in 1981, real estate agents said, the tax plans of France’s new Socialist President Francois Hollande are having a noticeable effect.
Halliburton’s missing nuclear waste found alongside Texas highway
Texans can breathe easier: the radioactive waste Halliburton fracking surveyors lost last month has finally been found.
The United Arab Emirates-based oil services company told reporters this weekend that an oilfield worker found the rod of americium-241/beryllium alongside a highway near Pecos, Texas.
Halliburton reported it missing on September 11, and members of the Texas National Guard were ultimately called up to aid their search. Halliburton said it even deployed vehicles fitted with radiation detection equipment, but found nothing on three sweeps of the area.
Americium-241/beryllium is used for a variety of industrial and medical purposes, and in this case was needed for equipment used to identify potential sites for natural gas drilling. It is a “Category 3” radioactive substance, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“Category 3 sources, if not safely managed or securely protected, could cause permanent injury to a person who handled them, or were otherwise in contact with them, for some hours,” the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) explained. “It could possibly — although it is unlikely — be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of days to weeks.”
hat tip to priceman for this story:
Houston Man Receives Visit from FBI after Photographing Weather
A man who snapped photos of a brewing storm last month received a visit Friday from an FBI Agent, inquiring why he would want to take such photos.
Michael Galindo explained that he was simply volunteering for the National Weather Service. ...
The problem arose because Galindo happened to be taking photos near the Lyondell Refinery outside of Houston on September 13, even though he was never standing on the refinery’s property.
Someone from the refinery spotted him and called police, whom apparently arrived after he had left.
Police then contacted the local FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, which bills itself as “nation’s front line on terrorism.”
Weathergirl Goes Rogue
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
ACLU of Michigan Exposes Police Surveillance Cameras Being Used in Residential Neighborhood
NYPD Arrests Veterans Reading the Names of Afghan War Dead
The Uprising in Andar
A Little Night Music
Etta Baker - One Dime Blues
Etta Baker - Carolina Breakdown
Etta Baker w/Taj Mahal - Railroad Bill
Etta Baker - Cripple Creek
Etta Baker - Bully Of The Town
Taj Mahal w/Etta Baker -Queen Bee
Etta Baker + Cora Phillips - John Henry
Etta Baker - Going Down The Road Feeling Bad
Etta Baker w/Boone Reid- Sourwood Blues
Etta Baker w/Taj Mahal - Crow Jane
Remember when progressive debate was about our values and not about a "progressive" candidate? Remember when progressive websites championed progressive values and didn't tell progressives to shut up about values so that "progressive" candidates can get elected?
Come to where the debate is not constrained by oaths of fealty to persons or parties.
Come to where the pie is served in a variety of flavors.
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." ~ Noam Chomsky
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