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!
This evening's music features Johnny the Conqueroo's choices of Contemporary Blues Ladies. Enjoy!
OK, now I'm thirsty. Connie Hawkins
Connie Hawkins and the Choirboys - Don't Miss the Water
"It is the crazy dynamics of global capitalism that make effective resistance to it so difficult and frustrating. Recall the great wave of protests that spilled all over Europe in 2011, from Greece and Spain to London and Paris. Even if there was no consistent political platform mobilising the protesters, the protests functioned as part of a large-scale educational process: the protesters' misery and discontent were transformed into a great collective act of mobilisation – hundreds of thousands gathered in public squares, proclaiming that they had enough, that things could not go on like that. However, what these protests add up to is a purely negative gesture of angry rejection and an equally abstract demand for justice, lacking the ability to translate this demand into a concrete political programme.
What can be done in such a situation, where demonstrations and protests are of no use, where democratic elections are of no use? Can we convince the tired and manipulated crowds that we are not only ready to undermine the existing order, to engage in provocative acts of resistance, but also to offer the prospect of a new order?"
-- Slavoj Žižek
News and Opinion
US and UK struck secret deal to allow NSA to 'unmask' Britons' personal data
The phone, internet and email records of UK citizens not suspected of any wrongdoing have been analysed and stored by America's National Security Agency under a secret deal that was approved by British intelligence officials, according to documents from the whistleblower Edward Snowden.
In the first explicit confirmation that UK citizens have been caught up in US mass surveillance programs, an NSA memo describes how in 2007 an agreement was reached that allowed the agency to "unmask" and hold on to personal data about Britons that had previously been off limits.
The memo, published in a joint investigation by the Guardian and Britain's Channel 4 News, says the material is being put in databases where it can be made available to other members of the US intelligence and military community.
Britain and the US are the main two partners in the 'Five-Eyes' intelligence-sharing alliance, which also includes Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Until now, it had been generally understood that the citizens of each country were protected from surveillance by any of the others.
Inside America's Plan to Kill Online Privacy Rights Everywhere
The United States and its key intelligence allies are quietly working behind the scenes to kneecap a mounting movement in the United Nations to promote a universal human right to online privacy, according to diplomatic sources and an internal American government document obtained by The Cable. ...
American diplomats are pushing hard to kill a provision of the Brazilian and German draft which states that "extraterritorial surveillance" and mass interception of communications, personal information, and metadata may constitute a violation of human rights. The United States and its allies, according to diplomats, outside observers, and documents, contend that the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights does not apply to foreign espionage. ...
The U.S. paper also calls on governments to promote amendments that would weaken Brazil's and Germany's contention that some "highly intrusive" acts of online espionage may constitute a violation of freedom of expression. Instead, the United States wants to limit the focus to illegal surveillance -- which the American government claims it never, ever does. Collecting information on tens of millions of people around the world is perfectly acceptable, the Obama administration has repeatedly said. It's authorized by U.S. statute, overseen by Congress, and approved by American courts. ...
There is no extraterritorial obligation on states "to comply with human rights," explained one diplomat who supports the U.S. position. "The obligation is on states to uphold the human rights of citizens within their territory and areas of their jurisdictions."
The position, according to Jamil Dakwar, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Human Rights Program, has little international backing. The International Court of Justice, the U.N. Human Rights Committee, and the European Court have all asserted that states do have an obligation to comply with human rights laws beyond their own borders, he noted. "Governments do have obligation beyond their territories," said Dakwar, particularly in situations, like the Guantanamo Bay detention center, where the United States exercises "effective control" over the lives of the detainees.
Senators: 'No evidence' NSA phone sweeps are useful
Three Democratic senators filed a brief in federal court on Tuesday supporting a lawsuit to end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of phone records.
Sens. Mark Udall (Colo.), Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Martin Heinrich (N.M.), who all have access to classified information as members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, argued that the controversial program does little to combat terrorism.
"[The senators] have reviewed this surveillance extensively and have seen no evidence that the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records has provided any intelligence of value that could not have been gathered through less intrusive means," lawyers for the lawmakers wrote. ...
The lawmakers filed their brief to support a lawsuit from a coalition of civil liberties groups led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The lawsuit claims that the bulk collection violates constitutional rights to privacy, free speech and free association.
Anonymous Declares Global Cyber War on U.S. Government against Hammond’s Sentence and NSA Spying
A Secret Court Judge Warned The NSA It Was Close To Breaking The Law -- Then Gave It More Power
The top judge on the secret court that oversees the National Security Agency's surveillance activities in 2010 warned the agency that it could face criminal sanctions if it tried to make use of information it had collected without the necessary court authorization.
The Obama administration had asked permission to continue using surveillance data about Americans' online communications gathered under a troubled program that mined Internet metadata in bulk. But Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Presiding Judge John Bates told the government that granting its request was outside his power -- because it was illegal.
"The plain language of the law," Bates wrote in the opinion, produced sometime between June 2010 and October 2011 and declassified on Monday, "makes it a crime for any person, acting under color of law, intentionally to use or disclose information with knowledge or reason to know that the information was obtained through unauthorized electronic surveillance."
The court couldn't simply deem illegal surveillance legal when Congress had prohibited it, he pointed out. But in the same opinion, Bates authorized the NSA to restart its bulk internet metadata collection -- which the agency had suspended for several months -- and allowed for unspecified new NSA collection, citing the assurances of government officials that the program was necessary to prevent terrorism. In other words, Bates found that while he could not retroactively authorize metadata collection, he could expand it going forward.
Beyond cancelled policies, website glitches
Each year The Commonwealth Fund, a philanthropic organization interested in health (and, full disclosure, a funder of The Second Opinion) surveys eleven countries on healthcare affordability, access and complexity, examining such things as how easy is it to see a specialist or get primary care; how much do citizens have to pay out of pocket; whether people forego care, and how satisfied they are with their countries’ health systems. For the more than ten years that the Fund has conducted these surveys, the US has not stacked up well. This year is no different (to wit, UPI’s headline summarizing the report, “US healthcare: Most expensive, longest waits, most red tape.”).
It was good to see several news outlets pick up Commonwealth’s findings, even if they didn’t report the meaning of the numbers in much depth. Among the points picked up by many outlets:
• More than one-third of American adults went without recommended care, did not see a doctor, or fill prescriptions because of costs. In the United Kingdom only four percent reported these problems.
• In the US, 42 percent paid $1,000 or more out of pocket for medical care because of higher deductibles and other higher cost-sharing, a problem that might get worse as insurers continue to shift more costs to policyholders.
• When it came to paperwork and hassles with insurance companies, 32 percent of Americans had complaints. That compares to 19 percent in the Netherlands and 17 percent in Germany, countries that have competitive insurance markets similar to the US.
• Three-quarters of Americans said their health system must undergo fundamental changes or be rebuilt. In other countries, more than half of respondents had positive views of their systems. In England, for example, 63 percent said the system works well and needs only minor fixes.
• US and Canadian adults were more likely to experience long waits for primary care and high use of emergency rooms compared to other countries.
Extending canceled health care plans has legal complications
Growing Movement: Expand Social Security or 'Pay a Price'
With Social Security cuts once again on the table in closed-door congressional budget negotiations, a growing movement has taken the offensive, demanding that lawmakers strengthen, rather than stranglehold, our social safety net.
A new survey by Public Policy Polling and MoveOn.org published Tuesday found that voters in 10 key swing districts "overwhelmingly" support raising Social Security benefits.
According to the findings, over 70 percent of those polled in each of nine areas said they oppose cuts to Social Security benefits, and an average 65 percent of those polled support an increase to the benefits. Further, almost 70 percent said they would be less likely to support a candidate who supported any cuts.
"Our results confirm that on Social Security, many congressional proposals and much media punditry have been far from aligned with the voting public," said PPP analyst Jim Williams.
CREW Asks Congressional Ethics Committees to Investigate Special Health Benefits for Lawmakers
Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the House and Senate Ethics Committees to investigate whether members of Congress and congressional staff are receiving special benefits from insurance companies such as Aetna and Blue Cross Blue Shield in violation of congressional ethics rules.
CREW’s complaints are based on a story in the New York Times, reporting that lawmakers and staff navigating the Affordable Care Act have access to special Congress-only telephone hotlines and other perks.
According to the Times, members of Congress and staff have access to “in-person support sessions,” conducted in the Capitol and congressional office buildings by the D.C. insurance exchange and four major insurers. Members and their staffs also can log on to a special Blue Cross Blue Shield website just for members of Congress, and Blue Cross and Aetna offer telephone hotlines just for members and staff.
House and Senate ethics rules prohibit lawmakers and staff from accepting benefits related to their congressional employment. Services and training are included as potentially unacceptable gifts.
Obama and Holder Let Gangsters Pay Fine, Continue Business As Usual
Back in the Spring, the Huffington Post noted that Attorney General Eric Holder was attempting to retract his famous admission that banks like JP Morgan are too big to jail. Holder’s original statement, in March, was:
"I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. And I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large."
Two months later, in May, Holder amended his remarks, to say:
“Let me make something real clear right away. I made a statement I guess in a Senate hearing that I think has been misconstrued. I said it was difficult at times to bring cases against large financial institutions because [of] the potential consequences that they would have on the financial system. But let me make it very clear that there is no bank, there's no institution, there's no individual who cannot be investigated and prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice…. Let me be very, very, very clear. Banks are not too big to jail. If we find a bank or a financial institution that has done something wrong, if we can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, those cases will be brought."
Clearly, Holder was lying, second time around. If there were ever a serial financial gangster, it’s Dimon. There are no better candidates for racketeering prosecution on the face of the Earth than the Big Six banks and their executives: the pinnacle of the ruling class.
However, it is wrong to deride Holder and Obama as merely timid in the face of Wall Street’s awesomely destructive power. Rather, they are instruments of finance capital’s hegemony. Holder has ruthlessly maneuvered every case against the oligarchs into his own jurisdictional arena, in order to protect the banksters from aggressive prosecution by wayward state officials. Holder’s “settlements” are designed to insulate the banks from the rule of law, since, at this stage of systemic decay, the Lords of Capital can no longer function within existing legal constraints. The public sphere must be privatized; the urban centers, like Detroit, must be disenfranchised; the financial cartel must be allowed to absorb an ever greater proportion of the real economy into its derivatives casino; wealth must flow from the bottom to the top, without pause; and a planetary corporate code must be established through “free trade” treaties that supersede the sovereign laws of nations. All of the Obama administration’s marching orders flow from these imperatives.
The Great Corporate Tax Shift
The great corporate myth-making machine has been hard at work of late, attempting to create the false impression that US corporations are increasingly uncompetitive with their foreign rivals due to the fact they pay much higher corporate taxes in the US and abroad than their capitalist counterparts. But that is one of the great myths perpetrated by corporate apologists, pundits and their politician friends. The myth is high in the pantheon of conscious falsifications their marketing machines feed the American public, right up there along with such other false notions that ‘business tax cuts create jobs’, ‘free trade benefits everyone’, ‘income inequality is due to a worker’s own low productivity contribution’, ‘overpaid public workers are the cause of states’ budget deficits’, or that ‘social security and medicare are going broke’. ...
US corporations don’t pay the nominal corporate tax rate of 35% today; they pay an effective (i.e. actual) rate of only 12%. The additional effective state-wide corporate income tax they pay amounts to only a 2% or so—not the 10% they claim. And the effective corporate tax on offshore earnings is only another 2.2% or so—not the 20% average they’ll complain. So the total US tax for US corporations is barely 16%–not the 35% plus 10% (state) plus 20% (offshore) nominal tax rate. And however you cut it, the story is the same: US corporations’ share of total federal tax revenues have been in freefall for decades. The share of corporate taxes as a percent of GDP and national income has halved over the decades. And corporations since 2008 have realized record level profits during the ‘Obama Recovery’—while their taxes as a percent of profits since 2008 is half that of the average paid as recently as 1987-2007.
For the moment, what all the corporate tax cutting to date has produced is a mountain of corporate cash. US Corporations today in fact are sitting on more than $10 TRILLION in cash!
Don't demonize public pensions
Credit where credit is due: Conservative activists, business groups and politicians such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have successfully sold the idea that public pensions are unsustainable. ...
States do confront a $757 billion pension funding gap. But this gap was created mostly by losses associated with the 2008 Wall Street collapse, not by unsustainable benefits.
Additionally, the shortfall is over 30 years, meaning it is comparatively tiny — just 3.8% of state and local spending, according to a study by Boston College. This has led McClatchy Newspapers to correctly conclude: "There's simply no evidence that state pensions are the current burden to public finances that their critics claim."
The budget problems of state and local governments have more to do with wasteful corporate subsidies than pensions. While states face an annual $25 billion pension shortfall over 30 years, they give away $120 billion a year in unjustifiable handouts. That includes the $80 billion that The New York Times reports that are given away in direct subsidies, and an additional $40 billion in corporate tax loopholes.
America’s “Highest Paid Government Workers”
The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) today launched “America’s Highest Paid Government Workers,” a new initiative that will expose the taxpayer-funded salaries of CEOs whose corporations make billions by taking control of public services. ...
Today, CMD puts the spotlight on Ron Packard, CEO of K12 Inc., America’s highest paid teacher.
K12 Inc. is a publicly-traded (NYSE: LRN) for-profit, online education company headquartered in Herndon, Virginia. On its own and as a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), K12 Inc. has pushed a national agenda to replace bricks and mortar classrooms with computers and replace actual teachers with "virtual" ones. As K12 Inc. notes in its most recent 10-K, "most of (its) revenues depend on per pupil funding amounts and payment formulas" from government contracts for virtual public charter schools and "blended schools" (combining online with traditional instruction), among other products.
In 2013, K12 Inc. took in $848.2 million from its business, with $730.8 million coming from its "managed public schools" and thus the U.S. taxpayer (10-K, p. 69). In other words, over 86 percent of the company’s profits are due to taxpayers.
What does K12 Inc. do with all that money? According to new data, it does not educate children very well (only 27.7 percent of K12 Inc. online schools met state standards in 2010-2011, compared to 52 percent of public schools), but it does pay its CEO very well. From 2009-2013, Packard made over $19 million in compensation, and compensation to his top executives skyrocketed 96 percent in 2013. Thank you taxpayers!
Seattle City Councilmember-elect shares radical idea with Boeing workers
SEATTLE — Seattle City Councilmember-elect Kshama Sawant told Boeing machinists her idea of a radical option, should their jobs be moved out of state
“The workers should take over the factories, and shut down Boeing’s profit-making machine,” Sawant announced to a cheering crowd of union supporters in Seattle’s Westlake Park Monday night. ...
On Monday night, she spoke to supporters of Boeing Machinists, six days after they rejected a contract guaranteeing jobs in Everett building the new 777X airliner for eight years, in exchange for new workers giving up their guaranteed company pensions.
Now Boeing is threatening to take those jobs to other states. “That will be nothing short of economic terrorism because it's going to devastate the state's economy,” she said.
Sawant is calling for machinists to literally take-possession of the Everett airplane-building factory, if Boeing moves out. She calls that "democratic ownership."
US sponsors Afghan firms with terrorist ties
Nuke troubles run deep; key officers "burned out"
Trouble inside the Air Force's nuclear missile force runs deeper and wider than officials have let on.
An unpublished study for the Air Force, obtained by The Associated Press, cites "burnout" among launch officers with their fingers on the triggers of 450 weapons of mass destruction. Also, evidence of broader behavioral issues across the intercontinental ballistic missile force, including sexual assaults and domestic violence.
The study, provided to the AP in draft form, says that court-martial rates in the nuclear missile force in 2011 and 2012 were more than twice as high as in the overall Air Force. Administrative punishments, such as written reprimands for rules violations and other misbehavior, also were higher in those years. ...
Internally, concern about the ICBM force is not new.
In a little-noticed report published in April, a Pentagon advisory group that has studied the nuclear mission said weaknesses in the way the Air Force manages its ICBM workforce have made it hard to maintain.
"This should be a cause for serious concern," the Defense Science Board advisory group concluded.
The Evening Greens
Atomic Mafia? Yakuza cleans up Fukushima, neglects basic workers' rights
What do you call a busload of CEO's driving over a cliff? A climate change solution.
Naming Names: The 90 Companies Destroying Our Planet
Narrow it down to the real power-brokers and decision-makers—the CEO's of fossil fuel companies or the energy ministers from the largest petro-states—says climate researcher Richard Heede, and the actual individuals most responsible for the political world's continued refusal to address the planetary crisis of climate change "could all fit on a Greyhound bus or two."
In a newly completed study by Heede and his colleagues at the Climate Accountability Institute, their analysis shows that a mere 90 companies, some private and some state-owned, account for a full two-thirds of all greenhouse gas emissions that are now driving perilous rates of global warming.
Offered in advance to the Guardian newspaper, which created an interactive representation of the study's findings, the report comes as climate negotiators from around the world continue talks in Warsaw, Poland this week in the latest (what looks so far like a failed) attempt to solidify an emissions agreeement designed to stave off the worst impacts of climate change this century.
"Nature Does Not Negotiate": Environmentalists Walk Out of U.N. Climate Summit in Warsaw
Poland fires environment minister, replaces with fracking advocate
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk dismissed Environment Minister Marcin Korolec on Wednesday as part of a government reshuffle, but said the latter would continue to represent the country in ongoing U.N. climate talks.
Korolec will be replaced by Maciej Grabowski, former deputy finance minister responsible for preparing shale gas taxation.
"It is about radical acceleration of shale gas operations. Mr Korolec will remain the government's plenipotentiary for the climate negotiations," Tusk told a news conference. ...
His dismissal raised questions over Poland's position in the negotiations.
Some delegates complained about the timing of the reshuffle, saying it indicated that Poland was not interested in ensuring tougher global action to combat global warming.
"We Have To Consume Less": Scientists Call For Radical Economic Overhaul to Avert Climate Crisis
Just Like Bush: US Under Obama, Thumbs Its Nose at the World on Climate Change
The world was shocked when the oil-soaked administration of George W. Bush openly thumbed its nose at the Kyoto Protocol, claimed there was no such thing as man-made climate change and refused even to send representatives to global climate change summits. The current Democrat in the White House ran with vague promises, amplified by his “progressive” surrogates, to rein in the oil companies. But now all that looks like empty campaign rhetoric, the cultural fluff that temporarily distinguishes the two parties from each other when they campaign, but vanishes when they govern.
Barack Obama was president, with a thumping Democratic majority in both houses of Congress when the DeepWater Horizon exploded and thousands of square miles of the world's most productive fishing grounds were poisoned. The Obama administration lied to the public about the extent of the leak, used the Coast Guard and US Navy to keep reporters and experts from flying over or visiting into the affected areas, made sure the token settlement didn't much affect the assets of the guilty parties, and passed no law or regulations to make sure it couldn't happen again.
This week, internal memos of the US Secretary of State's office demonstrated continued US determination to thumb its nose at the future of humanity in the face of climate change, refusing even to discuss reparations to the poorer countries whose growing deserts, raging storms, rising sea levels and collapsing agriculture are direct results of massive overconsumption of fossil fuels by the wealthier parts of the world.
"Polluters Talk, We Walk": Civil Society Groups Abandon Warsaw Talks Over Inaction on Global Warming
BP accused of harassing oil spill critics on Facebook
BP is embroiled in a new controversy after accusations that the British corporation hired a public relations firm to harass and intimidate Facebook users who condemned the company for its handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. ...
In an attempt to heal its image in the face of public outrage and persistent attacks via social media, the company formerly known as British Petroleum hired the international PR company Oglivy and Mather to run the BP America Facebook page.
Accusations have surfaced that Facebook users who posted critical comments on the page have become the subject of attacks, threats, and ongoing harassment. One user, known as “Marie,” told Al Jazeera she feels the need to remain anonymous because of a “fear for my personal safety should the BP trolls find out that I am the whistleblower in this case.” ...
Marie and the other accusers say BP, through trolls, sought their personal information and then used that against them by contacting their employers, family members, and making their IP addresses publicly available. The company has yet to respond to any allegations, but a former Ogilvy associate said in 2012 the firm handled all of BP’s social media during the crisis.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
The Wahhabi-Likudnik war of terror
QOTD: Bob Woodward
A Little Night Music
Contemporary Blues Ladies
OK fellas, if you've been doggin' it all over town, paying your woman no never mind, a low-down dirty dog disrespectful cross-cut saw, and an all around broom dusting biscuit roller, then prepare yourself for some finger wagging, signifying, testifying, belting, in-your-face blues. You know you've got it coming.
JtC
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
She's got your number buddy. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Sharon Lewis & Texas Fire - What's Really Going On
This lady's definately got a clue, she knows what really goes on. Sharon Lewis
Imelda May - Johnny Got A Boom Boom
Imelda is more notable for being a rockabilly artist, she's just too damn good to not include her here. Boom Boom Baby, I'm in love. Imelda May
Sandra Hall - Use What You Got
Oh yeah, Sandra, I dig what I see, and hear. Sandra Hall
Rita Chiarelli - This Is My Life
Whoa, that makes my ears tingle, in a good way. Rita Chiarelli
Sharrie Williams - What's Wrong With You
What's wrong with me? Ask my wife, she'll testify. Sharrie Williams
Ruby Hayes - You've Been a Good Old Wagon
I told you so guys. Ruby Hayes
Rory Block - Crossroad Blues
A very, very fine delta blues technician, point me to the crossroads. Rory Block
Sista Monica Parker - Fierce Force of Nature
Sing it Sista! Note: There are 23 cuts on this youtube, check them all out if you've got the time, you wont be sorry. Sista Monica Parker
Whew! I gotta' go take a flea bath!
Later...JtC
It's National Pie Day!
The election is over, it's a new year and it's time to work on real change in new ways... and it's National Pie Day. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to tell you a little more about our new site and to start getting people signed up.
Come on over and sign up so that we can send you announcements about the site, the launch, and information about participating in our public beta testing.
Why is National Pie Day the perfect opportunity to tell you more about us? Well you'll see why very soon. So what are you waiting for?! Head on over now and be one of the first!
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