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 the King of the Blues, B.B. King. Enjoy!
BB King, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan - Rock Me Baby
“The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house”
-- Audre Lorde
News and Opinion
NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint targets for hacking
The National Security Agency is secretly piggybacking on the tools that enable Internet advertisers to track consumers, using "cookies" and location data to pinpoint targets for government hacking and to bolster surveillance.
The agency's internal presentation slides, provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, show that when companies follow consumers on the Internet to better serve them advertising, the technique opens the door for similar tracking by the government. The slides also suggest that the agency is using these tracking techniques to help identify targets for offensive hacking operations. ...
According to the documents, the NSA and its British counterpart, GCHQ, are using the small tracking files or "cookies" that advertising networks place on computers to identify people browsing the Internet. The intelligence agencies have found particular use for a part of a Google-specific tracking mechanism known as the “PREF” cookie. These cookies typically don't contain personal information, such as someone's name or e-mail address, but they do contain numeric codes that enable Web sites to uniquely identify a person's browser.
In addition to tracking Web visits, this cookie allows NSA to single out an individual's communications among the sea of Internet data in order to send out software that can hack that person's computer. The slides say the cookies are used to "enable remote exploitation," although the specific attacks used by the NSA against targets are not addressed in these documents.
World of Spycraft: 'NSA simply justifies games at work by planting spooks'
Google, Microsoft, Silicon Valley Giants Demand Rollback of out-of-control NSA Spying
In an open letter to President Obama and members of Congress, AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo, write:
We understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens. But this summer’s revelations highlighted the urgent need to reform government surveillance practices worldwide. The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual — rights that are enshrined in our Constitution. This undermines the freedoms we all cherish. It’s time for a change.
For our part, we are focused on keeping users’ data secure — deploying the latest encryption technology to prevent unauthorized surveillance on our networks and by pushing back on government requests to ensure that they are legal and reasonable in scope.
We urge the US to take the lead and make reforms that ensure that government surveillance efforts are clearly restricted by law, proportionate to the risks, transparent and subject to independent oversight. To see the full set of principles we support, visit ReformGovernmentSurveillance.com
“People won’t use technology they don’t trust. Governments have put this trust at risk, and governments need to help restore it," Brad Smith, General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs at Microsoft, is quoted as saying.
Jesselyn Radack, National Security and Human Rights Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization, highlighted the importance of the document, tweeting on Monday: "It speaks volumes when 8 arch-rival tech giants ban together to limit govt #surveillance."
Obama Faces Backlash Over New Corporate Powers In Secret Trade Deal
The Obama administration appears to have almost no international support for controversial new trade standards that would grant radical new political powers to corporations, increase the cost of prescription medications and restrict bank regulation, according to two internal memos obtained by The Huffington Post.
The memos, which come from a government involved in the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations, detail continued disputes in the talks over the deal. The documents reveal broad disagreement over a host of key positions, and general skepticism that an agreement can be reached by year-end. The Obama administration has urged countries to reach a deal by New Year's Day, though there is no technical deadline. ...
One of the most controversial provisions in the talks includes new corporate empowerment language insisted upon by the U.S. government, which would allow foreign companies to challenge laws or regulations in a privately run international court. Under World Trade Organization treaties, this political power to contest government law is reserved for sovereign nations. The U.S. has endorsed some corporate political powers in prior trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, but the scope of what laws can be challenged appears to be much broader in TPP negotiations.
The Latest On A Really Bad Deal
It seems that the talks aimed at producing the monstrous -- in every sense of the word -- Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal have bogged down, which is good news for a lot of people, and for democracy in general. The bad news is that the reason it is bogged down is because the assembled plutocrats from other nations have gotten bugs up their well-tailored asses at how hard the United States is trying to ramrod this beast through.
But the complexity of the issues already caused negotiators to miss the original 2012 deadline set by Obama to reach a deal.They have been divided on a number of issues, including opening up Japan's auto and farm markets, government procurement and limiting the role of state-owned enterprises - said by some countries to distort competition. Patent issues - in particular on medicines - have also been a sticking point. US negotiators, backed by the powerful pharmaceuticals industry (Ed. Note: Just so you know who "your" negotiators are really working for.), want drug companies to get longer patent protection for a new class of drugs called "biologics" which are developed from living tissue. Drug firms say this is necessary to allow them to recoup investments and continue research into fresh cures. But campaign groups like humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) say such patent protection would restrict access to cheaper generic drugs for millions of poor people.
The Volcker Rule: How It Will Work, and Why It May Still Fail
As a starting point, we think the Proposed Rule is simply too tepid.” That was how Senators Jeff Merkley and Carl Levin opened their February 2012 comment letter to federal banking regulators about the “Volcker rule,” designed to prevent large banks from making risky proprietary trades for their own profit, the kinds of trades that nearly took down the financial system in 2008. The senators, who authored the rule in Congress, were displeased about a number of loopholes added to the proposal, which they said did not “fulfill the law’s promise.” They demanded that regulators “draw brighter lines, remove unnecessary complexities, and enable cost-effective, consistent enforcement.”
Twenty months later, five regulators will today finalize the Volcker rule, and Merkley, for one, is pleased with the result. “I believe the loopholes inherent in that [2012] draft have been significantly reduced or eliminated,” he said in an interview on the eve of the final votes. “I have a much more positive feeling about what will be voted on.”
The tougher rule is a pleasant surprise, given how reliably Wall Street lobbyists have gutted such efforts in the past. For once, the hard work of members of Congress, advocates, and the public actually produced something that could work. But if you view financial reform like a football game, today’s votes kick off the third quarter of a contest destined for 34 consecutive overtimes. Today’s vote mostly triggers an extended period of data collection and guideline-setting, giving mega-banks many future opportunities to water down the rules. And even if implementation wraps up strongly—as it certainly could—regulatory spine will be needed to prevent another financial crisis. As Merkley noted, in matters like this, “you need eternal vigilance.” And, in Washington and on Wall Street, vigilance has often been anything but.
Credibility of the Ruling Elite is Being Shredded - Chris Hedges
'Dumb' & 'Cruel': Budget Deal Attacks America's Most Vulnerable
Lauded as a "step in the right direction" by high-level members from both parties, progressives--calling it both 'dumb' and 'cruel'--say that should be a warning to the nation
According to [University of California, Berkely economist Robert] Reich, the "deal doesn't close tax loopholes for wealthy, restore food stamps to poor, or extend unemployment benefits for jobless." ...
And he's not alone in thinking the negotiated deal—designed to stave off another government shutdown threat by the Republican Party in the New Year—is another example where working people, those suffering unemployment, the poor, and public employees are asked to sacrifice as the nation's corporate barons and wealthiest individuals are once again insulated from scrutiny. ...
"I support reaching an agreement that will end the culture of periodic crises that has driven policy in recent years," said Lawrence Mishel, executive director of the Economic Policy Institute. "However, this deal addresses the wrong set of priorities: namely, deficit reduction ten years out rather than a stronger recovery now, and tweaking domestic spending for a few years as we continue to ignore the public investments our country needs."
He continued: "The worst part of the budget deal by far is what it doesn’t address: unemployment insurance for America’s four million long-term unemployed workers. This deal asks essentially nothing of the richest Americans while placing terrible burdens on the unemployed as well as new federal employees, and continuing the fiscal policy drag on our still-unfinished recovery."
A Cruel, Irresponsible and Dysfunctional Budget Deal
Murray and Ryan are excited that they had stopped fighting for long enough to agree to $63 billion in “sequester relief” – as opposed to an actual end to sequestration – and $23 billion in net deficit reduction. They're also glad that they have set the discretionary spending level for fiscal year 2014 at $1.012 trillion, while setting the level at $1.014 trillion for fiscal year 2015. That apparently qualifies – in the eyes of the budget negotiators – as a sufficient alternative to lurching from crisis to crisis.
But the agreement does not address the crises that matter. “This plan won't create jobs, get the economy back on track, or meaningfully cut the deficit,” explains Congressman Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon.
And that's not the worst of it.
What of the 1.3 million jobless Americans who – with a fully Dickensian twist – now stand to lose Federal unemployment benefits three days after Christmas? ...
Members of House and Senate who are paid $174,000 annually, collect generous benefits and – thanks to redistricting and an incumbent-rewarding campaign finance system – enjoy no small measure of job security, can pat themselves on the back for breaking through “the recent dysfunction.” But forcing others to lurch from crisis to crisis so that you can tell yourself you have taken “a step in the right direction” is socially and economically dysfunctional. Not to mention cruel, and irresponsible.
The Budget Deal: A Dirge for the Unemployed
Man's inhumanity to man.
I know, I know. That's a pretty depressing thing to say. But let's look at the facts: Federal workers will be expected to subsidize this deal with an increase in their out-of-pocket pension costs. There will be cuts to Medicare. Airline passengers will pay a new tax. Military retirees -- military retirees -- will see their benefits cut.
And the long-term unemployed, who have paid dearly for Wall Street's excesses, will receive no extension of benefits. The sequester's cuts were disastrous, but this deal is needlessly punitive. It's mean-spirited toward people who are struggling through no fault of their own, people who have chosen a life of public service, and the middle class in general. ...
Despite their crushing political defeat after shuttering the government earlier this year, Republicans took a firm budgetary stand while Democrats seemed again to go soft.
The Freudian overtones in those words aren't accidental: a conservative group chose the words "stand firm" to describe its own position in a friendly news outlet. And Democrats like Sen. Dick Durbin might as well have been tapping out the gelatinous texture of their own position in Morse code when they said, as Durbin did Sunday, that the inclusion of an unemployment extension in the budget deal was not a "take it or leave it" proposition. ...
Democrats say that they'll keep working for an extension of unemployment benefits. Let's hope they succeed, although so far haven't shown anything which might be described as steely-eyed determination.
In the meantime, we'll keep thinking of the millions of unemployed Americans who were left out of the cold by this deal - and about the sad relevance of a phrase which first appeared 229 years ago in a Scottish poet's dirge.
ALEC’s "Institutional Corruption," From Backing Apartheid to Assault on Clean Energy, Public Sector
Corporate Democrats in DC Already in Freakout Mode That Liz Warren Is a Threat to Their Power
On Friday, Jim Kessler, vice president of the centrist Democrat think-tank Third Way, took to the airwaves to defend his organization’s recent attack piece on the Senator. That editorial, which was published in the Wall Street Journal last week, blasted Warren for supporting an expansion of Social Security.
Kessler doubled down on Third Way’s anti-Warren messaging during his appearance on Sirius XM radio, telling host Ari Rabin-Havt that she is “ starting to get out of hand.” ...
Jim Kessler and the corporate Democrat “moderate” types who support Third Way are absolutely terrified. They’re terrified that Elizabeth Warren and her supporters will upend the stranglehold they’ve had on Democratic politics since the Clinton era.
So now they’ve joined Republicans in declaring an all-out war on her and everything she stands for.
Another Batch of Wall Street Villains Freed on Technicality
Dominick Carollo, Steven Goldberg and Peter Grimm were mid-level players who worked for GE Capital. They were involved in a wide-ranging scheme (one that also involved most of America's biggest banks, from Chase to BOA to Wachovia) to skim billions of dollars from America's cities and towns by rigging the auctions banks set up to help towns earn the highest returns on the management of municipal bond issues.
The case was over 10 years in the making and involved offenses that took place long before the 2008 crash. All three defendants were convicted in May 2012, with Goldberg ultimately getting four years and the other two getting three.
Now, they're all free. A New York federal judge last week ordered their convictions overturned in a quiet Thanksgiving-week transaction.
The GE Muni-riggers will now join such luminaries as the Gen Re defendants (executives from an insurance company who were convicted in 2008 of helping AIG conduct a fraudulent accounting transaction) and the KPMG defendants (executives of the U.S. arm of the Dutch accounting giant who were convicted in the 2000s of selling illegal tax shelters) in the ranks of Wall Street line-crossers who improbably made it all the way to guilty verdicts in criminal cases, only to be freed on technicalities later on.
William Hague letter brings hope to Shaker Aamer in Guantánamo
William Hague has written to the last British resident inside Guantánamo Bay promising he is doing all he can to bring him home. The foreign secretary's letter comes as testimony from the prison reveals a new hunger strike is spreading. ...
Following a phone call from the US military prison to Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve, which campaigns for prisoners' rights, Aamer has revealed there are now 29 Guantánamo hunger strikers, including him, of whom 19 are being force-fed. "The hunger strike is back on. The number is increasing almost every day," said Aamer. Yet the US authorities, stung by adverse global publicity from the hunger strike during the summer, appear to be introducing policies designed to bury the news about the latest protest. ...
[Note the disgusting way that Obama is treating the prisoners at his Gitmo gulag. If this isn't indicative of a war crime, there ought to be an update to the law.]
News of the protest coincides with fears that Aamer's poor health means he does not have the strength to endure a prolonged hunger strike. In response to his fragile condition, The US authorities agreed to allow an independent medical assessment, which revealed that Aamer has ailments including rotting teeth, poor eyesight, tinnitus, arthritis, swelling in his leg, kidney pains, heart problems, ringworm, irritable bowel syndrome and an enlarged prostate, although no tests have been undertaken to ascertain whether it is cancerous.
Aamer said: "I haven't seen a doctor for almost two years and they refuse to give me proper vitamins and supplements to help me with my health."
Assange Marks 3 Years in Custody: Still in Great Jeopardy from US
Iran's treasures start to be counted
An extraordinary shift in geo-politics is taking place as President Hassan Rouhani's team energetically addresses the catastrophic mess they inherited in Iran from the Mahmud Ahmadinejad administration by opening Iran for business.
But perhaps the greater shift is the US realization - after spending more time with sophisticated Iranian strategists in a few days than they did in the previous 30 years - of the sheer scale of the opportunity to completely rebalance Middle Eastern energy policy through what Iran's master strategist, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh has called energy diplomacy. ...
There is also a dawning realization, and not just in Iran, that energy co-operation transcends all ideological differences. ... Iran understands that security of demand for producing nations is a perfect fit with the need for security of supply required by consuming nations, and it is interested in supporting its nascent private sector in pursuing long-term energy and technology transfer/management relationships with suitable overseas partners. ...
The Saudis shudder at the thought of the US transferring affiliation to Iran, which is precisely what is happening, in my view, in a fundamental reappraisal by the US, which has no friends, only interests, and is in no doubt as to the true source of the radical strain of Islam afflicting many regional trouble spots.
The Secret History of How Cuba Helped End Apartheid in South Africa
Ukraine protests: outrage as police attack Kiev barricades
Thousands of riot police carried out a co-ordinated attack on barricades in Kiev during the dead of night on Wednesday – a determined and unexpected crackdown on protesters who have occupied the centre of Ukraine's capital for the past fortnight. ...
Several police officers confirmed they had been given orders to clear barricades from the boundaries of the square but not remove the tent camp that has sprung up inside the space.
The fiercest battle came on the north side of the square, where hundreds of black-helmeted riot police struggled for several hours against lines of protesters wearing orange helmets distributed by organisers, in scenes that threatened to descend into all-out pitched battle.
Many police were trapped behind protester lines during the scuffles but the demonstrators set them free and even handed back their shields, only for police to launch new assaults. Eventually chainsaws were used to clear the barbed wire topped wooden barriers and hundreds of riot police moved into the square itself.
The protests, which began when Yanukovych abandoned the pact with the EU, culminated on Sunday with the biggest demonstration since the 2004 Orange Revolution, with hundreds of thousands of people paralysing the centre of Kiev and the city's statue of Vladimir Lenin toppled and hacked to pieces.
The dwindling appetite for protest was given fresh impetus by a brutal crackdown on a relatively small protest a fortnight ago. Few had expected a repeat from the authorities, especially after a day of diplomacy.
Polar Force: Putin orders Arctic military build-up in 2014
The Evening Greens
Gas Pipeline Boom Fragmenting Pennsylvania's Forests
Many of the pipelines to serve fracking are being built deep in the state's 16 million acres of forest. 'The scale of this thing is off the charts.'
Jerry Skinner stands in his garden, looking into the distance at the edge of a forested mountain. Amid the lush shades of green, a muddy brown strip of earth stands out. It's the telltale sign of a buried pipeline.
"The pipelines are all around this property," Skinner said. "When I came here, the county had an allure that it doesn't have anymore. I'm not sure I want to live here anymore."
Skinner is the resident naturalist at the Woodbourne Forest and Wildlife Preserve, a 650-acre forestland that runs through parts of northeastern Pennsylvania that are experiencing intensive gas drilling because of a hotly contested method called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Around his house, in the town of Dimock, gas wells have sprung up and a vast network of interconnected pipelines transports the gas underground. Skinner worries that as drilling activity heads deeper into forests and pipelines chop up large blocks of land, rare species native to Pennsylvania will be driven out. ...
"In Pennsylvania, the gas companies are working in essentially the most ecologically sensitive area of the commonwealth," said John Quigley, who served as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for two years under former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell. "The scale of this thing is off the charts. It's unprecedented."
Are Contractors Responsible for Oil Spill Clean-Up Profiting from Negligence?
Harper's Dismantling of Fishery Library 'Like a Book Burning,' Say Scientists
The Harper government has dismantled one of the world's top aquatic and fishery libraries as part of its agenda to reduce government as well as limit the role of environmental science in policy decision-making.
Last week the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which is closing five of its seven libraries, allowed scientists, consultants and members of the public to scavenge through what remained of Eric Marshall Library belonging to the Freshwater Institute at the University of Manitoba. ...
Nearly 40,000 books and papers were relocated to a federal library in Sidney, B.C.
"It was a world class library with some of the finest environmental science and freshwater book collections in the world. It was certainly the best in Canada, but it's no more," said Burt Ayles, a 68-year-old retired research scientist and former regional director general for freshwaters in central Canada and the Arctic.
Established in 1973, when foreign governments hailed Canada as a world leader in freshwater science and protection, the library housed tens of thousands of reports, maps, charts and books, including material dating back to the 1880s.
The library contained fishery reports on the decline of sturgeon fishing in Lake Winnipeg from the 1890s, said Ayles, and served as invaluable intellectual capital for public researchers at the Freshwater Institute and world famous Experimental Lakes Area.
"The loss of this library and its impact on fisheries and environmental science is equivalent to Rome destroying the Royal Library of Alexandria in Egypt. It's equal to that," said Ayles. At the time, Alexandria boasted the world's largest collection in the ancient world.
Reactor down after explosion at Arkansas nuclear plant
An explosion and subsequent fire Monday morning at Arkansas’ Nuclear One power plant shut down one of the facility’s nuclear reactors.
A nearby resident heard a “loud, ground shaking explosion,” according to River Valley News, and then saw smoke (the local news site has a collection of images taken of the incident). The blaze, which ignited at 7:50 a.m., had been contained by 9:15. The reactor will remain offline while investigators determine the cause of the fire and review any repairs that need to be made. ...
As the Wall Street Journal points out, this represents the second incident to force a sudden shutdown of the plant’s Unit 2 reactor this year.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' is on hiatus
State surveillance of personal data: what is the society we wish to protect?
Nobel Prize-Winning Writers Say NSA Surveillance Power 'Is Being Systemically Abused'
Three-Hopping the Corporate Store, in Theory
How to stick it to the poor: A congressional strategy
Liberal Puritans: The Ted Rall Racism Trial
How Insurgency, Drones and Revolution Are Tearing Yemen Apart
A Little Night Music
B.B. King - Lucille
B. B. King - The Thrill Is Gone
B.B. King - Blues Boys Tune
BB King - Why I Sing The Blues
B.B. King - Sweet Sixteen
BB King - Night Life
BB King & James Brown Band - Let the good times roll
B.B. King - How Blue Can You Get
B.B. King - Fool Me Once
B.B. King and Lowell Fulson - Little by Little
B.B King - Hummingbird
B.B.King - Never Make Your Move To Soon
BB King - Nobody Loves Me But My Mother
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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