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 blues and country singer Tracy Nelson who fronted the band Mother Earth, followed by a solo career. Enjoy!
Tracy Nelson - Walk Away
“It has often been suggested to me that the Constitution of the United States is a sufficient safeguard for the freedom of its citizens. It is obvious that even the freedom it pretends to guarantee is very limited. I have not been impressed with the adequacy of the safeguard. The nations of the world, with centuries of international law behind them, have never hesitated to engage in mass destruction when solemnly pledged to keep the peace; and the legal documents in America have not prevented the United States from doing the same. Those in authority have and always will abuse their power. And the instances when they do not do so are as rare as roses growing on icebergs. Far from the Constitution playing any liberating part in the lives of the American people, it has robbed them of the capacity to rely on their own resources or do their own thinking. Americans are so easily hoodwinked by the sanctity of law and authority. In fact, the pattern of life has become standardized, routinized, and mechanized like canned food and Sunday sermons. The hundred-percenter easily swallows syndicated information and factory-made ideas and beliefs. He thrives on the wisdom given him over the radio and cheap magazines by corporations whose philanthropic aim is selling America out. He accepts the standards of conduct and art in the same breath with the advertising of chewing gum, toothpaste, and shoe polish.”
-- Emma Goldman
News and Opinion
I am shocked, shocked, I tell you, to find that the New York Times "journalists" overstated the case that pro-Russian protesters were kicked out of Mariupol.
Who Holds East Ukraine’s Port of Mariupol? No One, Really - NYT Reports of Routed Protesters Greatly Exaggerated
Late last week, reports starting in the New York Times and quickly picked up across the world declared the major Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, part of the Donetsk Oblast, had been taken over by steelworkers, ordered there by an oligarch loyal to the central government, who had “routed” the protesters from the city.
The story turns out to be a lot less cut and dry than that, and in the days that followed, the New York Times report continued to be repeated, but without any corroboration on the ground, while others reporting from the city weren’t noticing anything like a steel magnate takeover.
Kiev army shells Kramatorsk, city ‘left without water’ – self-defense coordinator
The Ukrainian army shelled the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Sunday as fierce clashes erupted between Kiev's military and self-defense forces who stopped the APC convoy from entering the city, local activists said.
A military convoy comprised of six APCs approached the city from the northwest and began shelling it, a member of the self-defense forces told RIA Novosti.
“About 10 fighters wearing black uniforms with no markings, as well as several people in camouflage, were sitting on top of each combat vehicle” as the convoy tried to enter the city, another member of the self-defense forces told Itar-Tass. He believes National Guard and Right Sector militants were among them.
Powerful explosions and intense shooting, including shots from large-caliber guns, could be heard even from the city center, according to witnesses. Residents also said that a civil defense siren was heard in the city.
Several self-defense checkpoints have been reportedly attacked by Kiev's army, and a factory in the suburbs was set on fire. ...
Water and gas lines have also been shelled, and all of the residents of Kramatorsk have been left without water, self-defense coordinator Maksim Vlasov told RIA Novosti. Some are now also without gas, local media reported, citing Karmatorsk deputy Mayor Andrey Bessonny.
US, Kiev after huge natural resources in E.Ukraine
Putin orders Russian troop withdrawal from Ukrainian border
Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian forces on the border with Ukraine back to their bases, the Kremlin has announced. It is the third announcement of a Russian troop withdrawal since the buildup on the border started in March, and experts said this time it might actually happen.
Previous withdrawal announcements have not been borne out by developments on the ground, Nato has said. On 28 April Russia's defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, told his US counterpart, Chuck Hagel, that Russian forces had returned to their places of permanent deployment, and on 7 May Putin said Russia had pulled back from the border.
Nato said after both instances it had not seen evidence of a pullback, and last week the US government published satellite photos that it said showed Russian forces still massed near the Ukrainian border.
On Monday the Kremlin said in a statement on its website that it was pulling back forces from three regions along the Ukrainian border. "In connection with the completion of the routine springtime training phase for troops that involved their deployment to training grounds in the Rostov, Belgorod and Bryansk regions, among others, the president of Russia gave the command to the defence minister to return the troops taking part in the exercises to their home bases," the Kremlin said.
Both Sides in Ukraine Standoff Call For New Tactics
A day after fighting broke out between pro-Russian separatists and forces loyal to the new Kiev government in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk, both sides in the ongoing standoff upped the stakes and called for new tactics: guerrilla warfare and female battalions, among other things. ...
In a statement that could not be immediately verified from Stella Khorosheva, a representative of the Slovyansk "People's Mayor" Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the pro-Russian side said the Ukrainian National Guard had resorted to shooting deserters.
"Ten people [from the Ukrainian soldiers] wanted to go over to our side, but the Ukrainian National Guard — the officers shot them," Khorosheva said, RIA Novosti reported. Khorosheva also said that a drone aircraft had been spotted near the Slovyansk railway station, though there has been no confirmation of that report.
In addition to ongoing clashes between uniformed forces, both sides called for expanding irregular warfare: Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh suggested executing separatist leaders in the east of Ukraine, saying that federalization of Ukraine must be prevented at all costs.
Yarosh also called for guerrilla warfare in Crimea against the new Russian administration, saying that the "Crimean Tatar factor" should be utilized to organize resistance and that "Crimea was and remains Ukrainian."
Yarosh's statement came as Crimean Tatars marked the 70th anniversary of Soviet deportations with a rally attended by thousands. There has been no sign of armed resistance from Tatars to date, however, and even the banned "Hizb ut-Tahrir" Islamist party has called for peaceful interaction with the new government.
Nulandistan Update
Putin tells Crimea's Tatars their future lies with Russia
Vladimir Putin has told Crimea's Tatars that they must accept that their future lies with Russia, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of their mass deportation from their ancestral homeland.
Putin's comments came as the UN warned that the Tatars have been the subject of harassment and persecution since the Black Sea peninsula was annexed from Ukraine in March.
Speaking after meeting Tatar representatives, Putin said: "Today we must all realise that the interests of the Crimean Tatars today are tied to Russia."
He said: "We are ready to work with all people" but added: "None of us can allow the Crimean Tatar people to become a bargaining chip in disputes … especially in disputes between Russia and Ukraine."
Meanwhile, Crimea's prime minister issued a decree forbidding all public demonstrations until 6 June, in an apparent attempt to prevent the annual rally on Sunday commemorating Stalin's deportation of the Tatars in 1944.
Sergei Aksyonov said the ban was necessary to avoid "provocations by extremists" and "disruption to the resort season".
But thousands of Tatars are expected to gather for an event that experts say will determine the course of the burgeoning conflict between the Tatars and the pro-Russia regional government.
Boko Haram Kidnappings An Excuse For The U.S. To Further Entrench Itself In Africa
There's an interesting contrast in coverage in the next 3 articles about recent events in Libya. First Reuters, then McClatchy, then the alternative press take on the subject. Guess which one presents the most useful background for understanding the context of what's happening.
Gunmen loyal to ex-general storm Libyan parliament, demand suspension
Heavily armed gunmen stormed Libya's parliament on Sunday demanding its suspension and claiming loyalty to a renegade army general who has vowed to purge the country of Islamist militants.
Smoke rose over parliament after gunmen attacked and then withdrew, and gunfire erupted across Tripoli, where rival militias clashed in some of the worst violence in the city since the end the 2011 war against Muammar Gaddafi.
Details of who was involved Sunday's chaotic attack were unclear, but loyalists of retired General Khalifa Haftar said his forces and militia allies had planned the parliament assault in a campaign to rid Libya of Islamist hardliners.
Any alliance of militias lining up against Islamist groups threatens to deepen chaos in the OPEC oil producer where a fragile government already struggles to gain legitimacy and impose authority over brigades of former fighters. ...
It was not immediately clear how much backing Haftar's men had within Libya's nascent regular armed forces and the country's powerful brigades of former rebels or whether the parliament was fully under government control after the attack.
Fearing militia control of Libya’s airports, U.S. moves troops to Sicily in case evacuation needed
WASHINGTON — Alarmed by developments in Libya, the United States this week moved 200 troops to a base in Sicily so that they could respond more quickly if the U.S. needs to evacuate its embassy in Tripoli, two administration officials have told McClatchy.
The troop move is the latest acknowledgment from the Obama administration that three years after a NATO bombing campaign helped topple the government of Moammar Gadhafi, conditions in the oil-producing country are deteriorating and security concerns that previously were confined to Benghazi and Libya’s east have spread to Tripoli, the capital, and the country’s west.
Of special concern is that Islamist militias could easily close Tripoli’s airport, complicating any effort to evacuate U.S. diplomats if the situation deteriorates further. Militias also are in position to seize control of Libya’s other airports, including the one in Benghazi, where militants in 2012 attacked U.S. diplomatic facilities, killing four Americans including the ambassador, Christopher Stevens.
The central government’s lack of control over its fragmented military was never more evident than on Friday, when fierce fighting gripped Benghazi after a key commander in the 2011 uprising, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, commandeered government troops and air power to attack Islamist militias. It was the worst fighting there in three years.
The central government said it had not authorized the attack by Hifter, who was a well-known commander during Libya’s incursion into neighboring Chad in the 1980s but left Libya and lived in northern Virginia for years before returning as the anti-Gadhafi rebellion gained momentum. Many expected him to assume command of a post-Gadhafi national army, though that appointment never took place.
[Hmmm... lived in northern Virginia, eh? Smells kinda "Langley" to me. - js]
Heh - I did, I did see a puddytat, er, smell a Langley...
Is US Behind ‘Rogue’ General’s Libya Coup?
On May 14, the US Marines announced the deployment of 200 marines to Sicily, in southern Italy, as a “crisis response” force for Libya. They did so at the behest of the US State Department, who at the time insisted there was no specific threat, nor any imminent plan to evacuate the embassy in Tripoli.
Just four days later, General Khalifa Hifter and his self-proclaimed Libyan National Army attacked Tripoli, took over parliament, and announced his intention to “purge” the nation of Islamists, starting with the parliamentarians themselves.
It’s Gen. Hifter’s second attempted coup this year, and seems to be going quite a bit better than the February fiasco, which began with statements announcing his takeover, and never really expanded much beyond that. The timing of the marine deployment suggests this latest move did not come as a major surprise to the administration, but Hifter’s US connections may run much deeper.
Gen. Hifter got his start, and his generalship, as a close ally of Moammar Gadhafi, but changed sides when he was captured during the failed late 80′s invasion of Chad. Released at the behest of the US, after which he was set up as a military leader in the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL), a rebel faction based out of Chad which was backed by the CIA.
The NFSL didn’t last much longer in Chad, however, as a takeover of Chad by Gadhafi ally Idriss Deby led the US to evacuate the rebels. Hifter quietly relocated to the DC suburbs after that, and lived there through 2011, when he left to declare himself a rebel leader during the fight that ousted Gadhafi.
"The Most Important Journalist You’ve Never Heard Of": Remembering William Worthy (1921-2014)
Cisco CEO Berates Obama for NSA Surveillance
Following revelations contained in Glenn Greenwald's latest book that the NSA intercepted and installed surveillance spyware on Cisco computers while in transit, the CEO of the computer company has personally interceded, sending President Obama a letter calling for government restraint on its surveillance policies.
"We simply cannot operate this way, our customers trust us to be able to deliver to their doorsteps products that meet the highest standards of integrity and security," said Cisco CEO John Chambers in the letter dated May 15 but first reported Sunday. ...
As Re/code reports:
The letter follows a May 13 blog post by Cisco General Counsel Mark Chandler saying the NSA had “overreached.” Chandler said that Cisco does not cooperate with any government, including the U.S. government, to “weaken our products.”
Concern about the aggressive tactics of the NSA have hit Cisco’s results, especially in emerging markets like Russia, Brazil and China. When the company reported quarterly earnings last week, it said that orders from emerging countries fell seven percent, and that Brazil, Russia, India, China and Mexico combined for a 13 percent drop. Individually, orders in Brazil fell 27 percent and in Russia, 28 percent.
This is a must-read commentary:
Everyone should know just how much the government lied to defend the NSA
If you blinked this week, you might have missed the news: two Senators accused the Justice Department of lying about NSA warrantless surveillance to the US supreme court last year, and those falsehoods all but ensured that mass spying on Americans would continue. But hardly anyone seems to care – least of all those who lied and who should have already come forward with the truth. ...
In a sharply divided opinion, the supreme court ruled, 5-4, that the case should be dismissed because the plaintiffs didn't have "standing" – in other words, that the ACLU couldn't prove with near-certainty that their clients, which included journalists and human rights advocates, were targets of surveillance, so they couldn't challenge the law. As the New York Times noted this week, the court relied on two claims by the Justice Department to support their ruling: 1) that the NSA would only get the content of Americans' communications without a warrant when they are targeting a foreigner abroad for surveillance, and 2) that the Justice Department would notify criminal defendants who have been spied on under the Fisa Amendments Act, so there exists some way to challenge the law in court.
It turns out that neither of those statements were true – but it took Snowden's historic whistleblowing to prove it. ...
It's unclear how much Solicitor General Donald Verrilli knew when he told the government's lies – twice – to the justices of the supreme court. ... Lawyers before the supreme court are under an ethical obligation to correct the record if they make false statements to the Court – even if they are unintentional – yet the Justice Department has so far refused.
Can the Surveillance State Be Stopped?
Every day, there are new stories showing duplicity in high places and revealing the existence of new tracking technologies and forced and voluntary collusion between the secret agency and its many “partners” in the private sector. PBS “Frontline” is out with one more exposé.
Just as the publication of the Pentagon Papers in l971 did not end the Vietnam War, the leaks from a world of questionable “intelligence” gathering have only made our spymasters more determined. There were more years of carnage after Daniel Ellsberg dropped the hidden history of our intervention in Vietnam showing how officials knew the truth even as they fed the public a litany of lies to keep a profitable if murderous enterprise going.
The charade was finally ended by the Vietnamese liberation army 39 years ago, but the NSA and its handsomely financed partners in the self-styled “Intelligence Community” will go on and on until someone stops them and their spying, and that someone is hard to identify given the way the agencies seem to have the goods on the government as well as the rest of us.
There is no American liberation army with the clout to shut them down.
NSA to test legal limits on surveillance if USA Freedom Act becomes law
In a secured room beneath the US Capitol last week, legislative aides working to finalize a bill intended to constrain the National Security Agency attempted to out-think a battery of lawyers working for the Obama administration and the intelligence services.
The NSA’s track record of interpreting its surveillance powers to the legal breaking point has been hanging over the ongoing debate about the surveillance reform bill known as the USA Freedom Act, the first post-9/11 effort to constrain the agency that has a realistic chance at passage.
Those behind the legislation, which is expected to head to the House floor as early as this week, have labored to craft the terms of the bill in a way that avoids loopholes for the NSA to exploit. But some wonder whether the agency will lawyer the bill’s restrictions on bulk data collection into oblivion, as recent statements by Obama administration officials have suggested it might. ...
Lawyers for the NSA, the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence presented a variety of hypothetical cases about surveillance, to see if the proposed bill would accommodate them. Some were described as routine or unobjectionable from a privacy standpoint, part of the standard due diligence of crafting legislation. But others raised suspicions that the NSA might be better at thinking of hypothetical cases to expand its authorities than the legislation is at anticipating and checking them.
Some staffers came away thinking that their challenge was, as one put it, “trying to take into consideration what is the most the government can do in this situation”.
Please get out of the "back seat," Mr. President. You know, the one you said that you'd never get in when you were out campaigning and raising money from
gullible people who desperately wanted to believe you your base...
Net Neutrality-Defender Barack Obama Missing in Action
As a president who has professed to be a staunch supporter of net neutrality, Obama must voice his opposition to the proposal just advanced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a group advocating for an open Internet charges.
On Thursday, the Commission voted for a proposal that, as Michael Weinberg, Vice President at Public Knowledge, stated, "falls well short of real net neutrality rules. It would create a two-tier internet where 'commercially reasonable' discrimination is allowed on any connections that exceed an unknown 'minimum level of access' defined by the FCC."
"A two-tier internet is anathema to a truly open internet," he added.
Former FCC chairman Michael Copps, now a special adviser to advocacy group Common Cause, expressed similar disappointment, issuing a statement that "The FCC could have moved decisively to guarantee that the Internet remains an open platform for free expression and the exchange of democracy-sustaining communications."
Oh great, more consolidation...
AT&T to take over broadcaster DirecTV in $49bn deal
Telecoms company AT&T has announced a deal to take over DirecTV, the US's largest satellite broadcaster in the latest in a series of media and telecoms deals that have rattled consumer groups and attracted regulatory scrutiny.
AT&T, the second-largest wireless provider, confirmed on Sunday that it is paying $49bn to takeover DirecTV in a deal that will makes it a major player in the pay-TV business.
With more than 20 million subscribers in the US and 18 million more in Latin America, DirecTV is the second-largest pay-TV provider behind Comcast, which is currently negotiating the takeover of its second biggest cable rival, Time Warner Cable (TWC).
Should the two deals be approved, the telecoms, television and internet accounts of 56m Americans will be controlled by just two companies.
Occupy activist gets 3 months in jail for being sexually assaulted by violent cop:
Occupy activist Cecily McMillan sentenced to three months in jail
Cecily McMillan, who had been facing a maximum sentence of seven years, was told on Monday morning by Judge Ronald Zweibel that she "must take responsibility for her conduct".
"A civilised society must not allow an assault to be committed under the guise of civil disobedience," said Zweibel at Manhattan criminal court. However, he added: "The court finds that a lengthy sentence would not serve the interests of justice in this case."
McMillan, 25, received a three-month jail sentence to be followed by community service and five years of probation. Her lawyers expect her to serve two-thirds of the sentence. She will also receive credit for the two weeks she has been remanded at Rikers Island jail since being convicted.
McMillan was earlier this month found guilty of deliberately elbowing officer Grantley Bovell in the face at a demonstration in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park in March 2012. He suffered a black eye and spent two weeks off work with headaches and sensitivity to light. McMillan insisted throughout her trial that she swung her arm instinctively after having one of her breasts grabbed from behind.
Chris Hedges: They Can’t Outlaw the Revolution
RIKERS ISLAND, N.Y.—Cecily McMillan, the Occupy activist who on Monday morning will appear before a criminal court in New York City to be sentenced to up to seven years on a charge of assaulting a police officer, sat in a plastic chair wearing a baggy, oversized gray jumpsuit, cheap brown plastic sandals and horn-rim glasses. Other women, also dressed in prison-issued gray jumpsuits, sat nearby in the narrow, concrete-walled visitation room clutching their children, tears streaming down their faces. The children, bewildered, had their arms wrapped tightly around their mothers’ necks. It looked like the disaster scene it was.
“It’s all out in the open here,” said the 25-year-old student, who was to have graduated May 22 with a master’s degree from The New School of Social Research in New York City. “The cruelty of power can’t hide like it does on the outside. You get America, everything America has become, especially for poor people of color in prison. My lawyers think I will get two years. But two years is nothing compared to what these women, who never went to trial, never had the possibility of a trial with adequate legal representation, face. There are women in my dorm who, because they have such a poor command of English, do not even understand their charges. I spent a lot of time trying to explain the charges to them.” ...
McMillan’s case is emblematic of the nationwide judicial persecution of activists, a persecution familiar to poor people of color. Her case stands in contrast with the blanket impunity given to the criminals of Wall Street. Some 8,000 nonviolent Occupy protesters have been arrested. Not one banker or investor has gone to jail for causing the 2008 financial meltdown. The disparity of justice mirrors the disparity in incomes and the disparity in power. ...
“We can talk about movement theory all we want,” she went on. “We can read Michel Foucault or Pierre Bourdieu, but at a certain point it becomes a game. You have to get out and live it. You have to actually build a movement. And if we don’t get to work to build a movement now there will be no one studying movement theory in a decade because there will be no movements. I can do this in prison. I can do this out of prison. It is all one struggle.”
Portland, Oregon Is First U.S. City to Divest Funds from Walmart
On Thursday, May 15, the city of Portland got rid of $9 million, or 25 percent, of its investments in Walmart. This marks the beginning of a divestment program that will purge Portland's investment portfolio of $36 million in Walmart bonds by 2016, according to a press release. The divestment plan is part of the city's responsible investment initiative, introduced by City Commissioner Steve Novick, and adopted in October 2013. The initiative also prohibits the city from purchasing Walmart bonds in the future.
Portland is not only discontinuing its investments in Walmart, but has set up a committee to advise it on making socially responsible investments in the future. The committee will address issues like abusive labor practices, corruption, and health concerns, among other things.
Led Zeppelin accused of stealing Stairway to Heaven opening
Led Zeppelin may soon be headed to court over the claim that Stairway to Heaven was stolen, in part, from another band. A lawyer is preparing an injunction against the upcoming reissue of Led Zeppelin IV, arguing that one of the group's most famous guitar lines was nicked from the headlining act at their first US gig.
"It's been a long time coming," attorney Francis Alexander Malofiy said in a feature story for Business Week. Malofiy represents a songwriting trust for the late Randy California, guitarist for the band Spirit. According to California and his supporters, the opening of Stairway to Heaven copies from Taurus, an instrumental track that appeared on Spirit's eponymous 1968 debut album.
The Evening Greens
The War on Climate Scientists
Leaked Trade Doc Portends US/EU Fracking Bonanza
According to a leaked draft (pdf) of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade deal seen by the Huffington Post, a key provision relating to fossil fuels would be a windfall to the natural gas industry in both the U.S. and in Europe.
Most troubling is that the preferential treatment for the industry comes at the same precise moment the world is being asked to dramatically reduce its collective emissions of greenhouse gases in order to avert climate disaster.
The Huffington Post reports:
By encouraging more crude oil and natural gas exports to the EU -- a massive economic force that uses a tremendous amount of global energy -- the proposal could spur more domestic oil and gas drilling and discourage the development of green energy in the EU, dealing a significant blow to efforts to avert climate change. Some environmental and citizens groups also object to the fracking process itself -- in which a high-pressure mixture of chemicals, water, and sand is injected into rock formations to release natural gas -- because of concerns that it might affect groundwater supplies.
"Encouraging trade in dirty fossil fuels would mean more dangerous fracking here in the U.S. and would push more climate-disrupting fuels into the European Union," Ilana Solomon, director of the Responsible Trade Program at Sierra Club, told HuffPost. "The oil and gas industry is the only winner in this situation."
Caution: Toxic Tax Exempt Oil Train Crossing Ahead
Last Thursday, Plains All American’s “Line 2000” pipeline that runs through California ruptured, spraying oil 20 feet in the air and spilling an estimated 10,000 gallons of oil into the street of a Los Angeles neighborhood and creating knee-deep pools of crude oil up to 40-feet wide.
The 20-inch break occurred at a nearby pump station on the pipeline’s 130-mile route between the central California oil fields in the San Joaquin Valley and refineries in Long Beach, including those owned by Phillips 66, Valero, and Tesoro. ...
The company’s blasé attitude towards the safety of its operations was also evident in the apparent lack of a coherent response strategy for the L.A. spill, as demonstrated by the haphazard clean-up operations. Fortunately, firefighters were able to block the oil from spilling into storm drains by constructing a barrier of sand procured from a nearby cement store. After the street was vacuumed, diapers were used to absorb the remaining oil. ...
Like a large share of other midstream oil and gas companies, Plains All American is a Master Limited Partnership (MLP) company, an “income and a tax shelter rolled into one” that allows companies to avoid paying the 35 percent federal corporate income tax. The oil and gas sector increasingly dominates this special status, making up more than three-quarters of total MLP market capitalization in 2012. Thanks to this tax break, fossil fuel companies receive up to $4 billion per year in subsidies. ...
In addition to being a major oil pipeline company, Plains All American is one of the biggest players in the (literally) booming expansion of crude by rail. Plains All American owns more crude by rail terminal capacity than any other company – it currently operates eight terminals with 579,000 barrels per day, with plans to build an additional terminal and expand capacity to 749,000 barrels per day by 2015 (see OCI’s forthcoming report “Runaway Train” for more detail).
National Climate Assessment: Coasts chapter
Climate change has found another way to screw the poor
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Ratings Services has found yet another way that fossil fuel burning by rich countries is going to screw over poor ones — by making it harder for them to borrow money.
S&P analysts identified climate change as one of two “global mega-trends” that will shape countries’ economic risks in the years to come (aging populations is the other trend). In a new report, the analysts said climate change would hurt nations’ creditworthiness, with poor countries the worst affected.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Excellent article, though on the longish side, dig in when you have some time:
Michael Hudson: The New Cold War’s Ukraine Gambit
European contact not land use led to Easter Island collapse
Daily Kos's Blind Spot on Reality
A Little Night Music
Tracy Nelson - Victim of the Blues
Tracy Nelson - Send Me To The 'Lectric Chair
Bonnie Bramlett & Tracy Nelson - When Something Is Wrong With My Baby
Tracy Nelson - Living The Blues
Mother Earth and Tracy Nelson
Tracy Nelson, Marcia Ball, Irma Thomas - Come on in my kitchen
Tracy Nelson - Mother Earth
Tracy Nelson - Down So Low
Tracy Nelson - I feel so Good
Tracy Nelson & Mother Earth Tonight - The Sky Is About To Cry
Tracy Nelson - It's A Sad Situation
Tracy Nelson - You'll Be Mine
Tracy Nelson - It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
Tracy Nelson & Mother Earth - Wait Wait Wait
Mannish Boys Revue with Tracy Nelson - One More Mile
Tracy Nelson - Backstage at Mountain Stage
Tracy Nelson - Every Night Of The Week
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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