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.
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Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features coronet player and bandleader Muggsy Spanier. Enjoy!
Muggsy Spanier - At The Jazzband Ball
“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
News and Opinion
Revealed: Gov't Used Fusion Centers to Spy on Occupy
U.S. government Fusion Centers, which operate as ill-defined "counter-terrorism" intelligence gathering and sharing centers, conducted spy operations against Occupy protesters involving police, the Pentagon, the FBI, military employees, and business people.
So finds a report released Friday by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund based on 4,000 public documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The release was accompanied by an in-depth article by the New York Times.
"The U.S. Fusion Centers are using their vast counter-terrorism resources to target the domestic social justice movement as a criminal or terrorist enterprise," PCJF Executive Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard stated. "This is an abuse of power and corruption of democracy."
"Although the Fusion Centers’ existence is justified by the DHS as a necessary component in stopping terrorism and violent crime, the documents show that the Fusion Centers in the Fall of 2011 and Winter of 2012 were devoted to unconstrained targeting of a grassroots movement for social change that was acknowledged to be peaceful in character," the report states.
Obama Did Not End Torture
On January 9, 2009, then President-elect Barack Obama announced, in what was to be a departure from Bush administration era “war-on-terror” tactics: "I was clear throughout this campaign and was clear throughout this transition that under my administration the United States does not torture.” In April 2014, Senator Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Bush administration era torture programs "a stain on our history that must never be allowed to happen again." Attorney General Eric Holder also weighed in, arguing that declassification of the Senate Intelligence Committee report would ensure that “no administration contemplates such a program in the future."
While it is essential that the truth be revealed regarding the systematic torture of detainees under the Bush administration, it is equally essential that we recognize the claim that President Obama ended torture as the myth that it is. Under President Obama, the United States continued to imprison individuals in Afghan detention facilities fully aware of the systematic torture that takes place. The continued practice of transferring detainees to Afghan detention facilities despite full knowledge of the systematic torture being perpetrated therein is an unequivocal violation of the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Obama has also directly authorized and publicly defended the force-feeding of Guantanamo Bay hunger strikers. Despite Obama’s claim that force-feeding is “performed in a humane fashion, with concern for petitioners' well-being,” his administration is doing everything in its power to hide or destroy evidence that documents what we already know—that the force-feeding of Guantanamo detainees, many of whom have been cleared for years to be transferred out of the prison, is a clear violation of U.S. obligations under the Torture Convention.
[numerous embedded links in the original - js]
Chris Hedges: Thomas Paine, Our Contemporary
Cornel West, Richard D. Wolff and I, along with moderator Laura Flanders, next Sunday will inaugurate “The Anatomy of Revolution,” a series of panel discussions focusing on modern revolutionary theorists. This first event will be part of a two-day conference in New York City sponsored by the Left Forum, and nine other discussions by West, Wolff and me will follow in other venues later this year.
Sunday’s event will be about Thomas Paine, the author of “Common Sense,” “The Rights of Man” and “The Age of Reason”—the most widely read political essays of the 18th century, works that established the standards by which rebellion is morally and legally permissible. We will ask whether the conditions for revolt set by Paine have been met with the rise of the corporate state. Should Paine’s call for the overthrow of British tyranny inspire our own call for revolution? And if it should, to echo Vladimir Lenin, what must be done? ...
Paine’s brilliance as a writer—his essay “Common Sense” is one of the finest pieces of rhetorical writing in the English language—is matched by his clear and unsentimental understanding of British imperial power. No revolutionist can challenge power if he or she does not grasp how power works. This makes Sheldon Wolin’s book “Democracy Incorporated” and his concept of “inverted totalitarianism” as important to us today as Paine’s writings on the nature of the British monarchy were in 1776.
There were numerous American leaders, including Benjamin Franklin, who hoped to work out an accommodation with the British crown to keep America a British colony, just as many now believe they can work through traditional mechanisms of power, including electoral politics and the judicial system, to reform corporate power. Paine, partly because he did not come to America from England until he was 37, understood that the British crown had no interest in accommodation; today, the corporate state similarly has no interest in granting any concessions. ... “Where liberty is, there is my country,” Benjamin Franklin once said to Paine. “Where liberty is not, there is my country,” Paine replied. For Paine, the role of a citizen extended beyond national borders. The fight of those living under any system of tyranny was his fight. “When it shall be said in any country in the world ‘My poor are happy; neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive; the rational world is my friend, because I am a friend of happiness’: when these things can be said,” Paine wrote, “then may that country boast of its constitution and its government.”
Presidential Elections in Ukraine Will Usher in Direct Rule of Oligarchs
Russia ready for talks with Kiev after pro-west victory in Ukrainian election
Moscow and Kiev promised to resume dialogue on Monday after preliminary results suggested that the pro-west businessman Petro Poroshenko had won Ukraine's presidential election – although renewed fighting in the east of the country dampened hopes of an immediate solution to the crisis.
Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow was ready to enter talks with the new leadership, in his country's first high-level response to Saturday's election. "We shouldn't miss the chance that we have now to establish an equal dialogue of mutual respect considering the vote that has taken place, the results of which Russia is ready to respect," Lavrov said.
Pro-Russia forces who have occupied government buildings in eastern Ukraine since April followed Moscow's lead in welcoming Poroshenko's election. Denis Pushilin, supreme council chairman of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, said they were ready to negotiate with Ukraine's new leadership, but only with the participation of intermediaries including Russia. ...
Late on Sunday night the first deputy PM, Vitaly Yarema, promised that Kiev's "anti-terrorist operation" would be renewed after a pause during the presidential vote, which in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions involved only a handful of polling stations.
Lavrov said the renewal of the anti-terrorist operation would be a "colossal mistake" and could threaten the resumption of dialogue.
[Poroshenko] also promised to return Crimea to Ukraine, arguing that the annexation of the territory was hurting Russia's economy.
'Poroshenko has tough road ahead after winning Ukrainian election'
Ukrainian Miltary Bombing Donetsk Airport
Intensive gunfire and blasts have been heard in the vicinity of Donetsk International Airport in eastern Ukraine, as fighter jets resume strikes at the self-defense forces at the facility, witnesses report.
RT’s Maria Finoshina, who is in eastern Ukraine following the developments at Donetsk Airport, said that Ukrainian fighter jets and helicopters were unleashed at the armed self-defense occupying the airport amid reported negotiations with the Kiev forces surrounding the scene.
The Ukrainian military have resumed bombing the Donetsk airport. Earlier, at least three helicopters were seen flying towards the airport. ...
Early on Monday morning, forces belonging to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic came to the airport demanding that Ukrainian troops leave it. The self-defense troops said some 200 Kiev soldiers were guarding the inner perimeter of the hub. ...
Airstrikes started after the self-defense forces failed to comply with the ultimatum put forward by Kiev's troops, that is to surrender by 13pm local time, Vladislav Seleznyov, the head of the counter-terror operation, said on his Facebook page.
New Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko vows to stop war
Ukraine's new president, Petro Poroshenko, has vowed to make his first goal in office to stop the war in the east of the country.
The pro-European businessman won the presidential election with 54% of the vote, according to early results on Sunday, clearing the 50% threshold to win outright without a second round. The former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was trailing far behind, with about 13%.
In an impromptu victory speech after an official exit poll showed his convincing first-round win, Poroshenko praised the record turnout and reiterated the pledge that his first official trip would be to conflict-riven eastern Ukraine. He promised an amnesty to pro-Russian rebels who turned in their weapons, but said those who had killed people in the region were terrorists who deserved no quarter.
"Today we can definitely say all of Ukraine has voted, this is a national vote," Poroshenko said. "The first steps that we will take at the beginning of our presidential term should be focused on stopping the war, to put an end to this chaos and bring peace to a united Ukraine."
The State Department’s Ukraine Fiasco
American diplomacy, by definition, is supposed to advance the national interests of the United States, not contribute to international crises that undermine those interests. Yet, by that standard, the U.S. State Department and Secretary of State John Kerry have failed extraordinarily during the current Ukraine crisis.
Besides ripping Ukraine apart – and getting scores of Ukrainians killed – the U.S.-supported coup in February has injected more uncertainty into Europe’s economy by raising doubts about the continued supply of Russian natural gas. Such turbulence is the last thing that Europe’s fragile “recovery” needs as mass unemployment now propels the rise of right-wing parties and threatens the future of the European Union. ...
[T]he State Department’s endless stoking of tensions between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin has caused other complications for U.S. foreign policy, including what is emerging as a historic rapprochement between China and Russia, a coming together highlighted by the signing of a major new gas deal on Wednesday. ...
The two longtime adversaries, who faced off as communist rivals during the Cold War, have joined together recently as a bloc on the United Nations Security Council to block Western initiatives on Syria, for instance. That means that instead of isolating Russia at the UN, the State Department’s hawkish approach to Ukraine has had the opposite effect. Russia now has a new and powerful ally.
The Ukraine crisis could inflict other collateral damage on President Obama’s initiatives toward resolving thorny disputes around Syria’s civil war and Iran’s nuclear program. In both areas, President Putin provided important assistance to President Obama in securing agreements: Syria to surrender its chemical weapons and Iran to accept constraints on its nuclear activity.
Ray McGovern: WPost Seeks US-Patrolled ‘Safe Zone’ in Syria
The Washington Post’s neocon editors have made another strident appeal for President Barack Obama to “abandon his passivity and do something to help” the rebels in Syria, complaining that they “continue to receive far too little help from the United States.”
The Post ups the ante by boldly asserting that “Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad … continues to launch chemical attacks … in rebel-controlled neighborhoods.” Yet, even premier Bashar-basher John Kerry has been more discreet in inching that dubious claim into the public arena.
In effect, the Post’s editors on Saturday called on the Obama administration to undertake a “responsibility to protect” – or R2P – mission by violating the sovereignty of Syria, i.e., by breaking international law through military action inside Syria’s borders to establish and patrol a “safe zone” for the rebels.
Yet, that is exactly the opposite position that the Post took Sunday regarding Ukraine, where the Post condemned Russia for doing anything to deter the coup regime in Kiev from imposing its will on ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s east.
As far as we know, all Russia has done to shield eastern Ukrainians from Kiev’s recent attacks is to position troops on Russian territory near the Ukrainian border as a deterrent, although some if not most of those troops have now been withdrawn.
Still, the Post called for imposing new sanctions on Russia for not stopping the eastern Ukrainians from rejecting Sunday’s elections to fill the seat of Ukraine’s coup-deposed President Viktor Yanukovych. ...
The Post’s editors justify their double standards on international law by looking at the world through a decidedly neoconservative lens. Neocon geopolitical desires always trump international law as well as intellectual consistency. A decade ago, the same Post editors rationalized the invasion of Iraq based on phony claims about WMD.
Obama to lay out defense of foreign policy in West Point speech
Stung by criticism, President Barack Obama will use a speech on Wednesday to launch a sweeping defense of his approach to foreign policy, one that he will say is reliant on multilateral diplomacy instead of military interventions.
Obama is to deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, the first in a series of speeches that he and top advisers will use to explain U.S. foreign policy in the aftermath of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and lay out a broad vision for the rest of his presidency.
The president has come under withering fire in recent months for what his critics say is a passive approach to foreign policy, one that has allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin to flex his muscle in Ukraine, and left the Syrian civil war to fester and China to threaten its neighbors in the South China Sea.
Thai king endorses army chief as new leader
Thailand's king has endorsed the army chief who seized power in a coup last week, amid widespread international criticism and increasing detention of those considered to be opposed to the takeover.
General Prayuth Chan-ocha told journalists on Monday morning that the much revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 86, had officially backed him as the leader of the military council now running the country.
Prayuth seized power on Thursday after six months of political in-fighting between the now-deposed government and its critics, who had taken to the streets and besieged government buildings in an effort to oust it. At least 28 people were killed and more than 700 injured in sometimes violent clashes after anti-government protests began in November.
Thai coup leader threatens crackdown if protests resume
Thai coup leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Monday he had been formally endorsed by the king as head of a military council that will run the country, and warned he would use force if political protests flare up again.
Prayuth seized power on May 22, saying the army would restore order after nearly seven months of sometimes deadly street demonstrations. The military has taken into custody scores of politicians, activists and others.
"Will we go back to where we were before? If you want to do that, I will need to use force and impose the law strictly," Prayuth said in a statement he read on television. "You will have to forgive any tough measures as they are necessary."
Renegade former Libyan general says PM must go, vote must wait
A renegade former Libyan general says the country's new prime minister is not capable of restoring stability in the major oil producer and has called for a postponement of parliamentary elections planned for June.
Khalifa Haftar launched a campaign more than a week ago to rid Libya of what he calls "terrorists" and Islamist extremists, who are especially active in the oil-rich east.
Gunmen claiming loyalty to him attacked the parliament building in Tripoli a week ago to demand lawmakers hand over power, triggering the worst clashes in the capital for months.
Speaking to Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location in eastern Libya, Haftar did not rule out talking to Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeq but dismissed him as illegitimate and not up to the job.
"We are open to talk to anyone who can defend the nation," he said. "(But) he is a businessman, not a man of war."
[Reuters does not mention Hifter's CIA connections. - js]
'Political Earthquake': EU vote huge success for UK, French Euroskeptics
Anti-Austerity Left Wins in Greece, But Far-Right Rises across Europe
As election results for European Parliament across the continent showed a popular disgust for elite parties and the economic status quo, in Greece it was the leftwing Syriza Party that best exhibited political victory for those pushing a progressive anti-austerity agenda in Europe.
"This is a historic win," declared Syriza's youthful leader Alexis Tsipras to a crowd of enthusiastic supporters in Athens early on Monday. "Today, the whole of Europe is talking about Greece because it condemned austerity." ...
In addition to a notable win by Sinn Fein in Ireland, which also embraces a left critique of EU-imposed austerity, the broader election results in Europe suggest that anti-austerity and anti-elite sentiment has also created political opportunity for the continent's far-right parties who exploit the economic pains many are feeling to push their anti-immigrant and nationalist agendas.
This was true in Greece, where even as Syriza soared in the polls, the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party also secured ten percent of the EU parliament vote. That is enough to send three MEPs to represent the country in Brussels, even as most of the party's leadership remains in prison on charges of political violence and conspiracy.
Leftwing Syriza party triumphs in European elections in Greece
The election marked a turning point for Greece on Sunday with voters delivering a resounding victory for the radical left Syriza party while sending at least three neo-nazi Golden Dawn members to Brussels.
In a historic day for the left, the anti-austerity Syriza won the ballot by a margin of nearly four points over the conservative New Democracy party led by prime minister Antonis Samaras. Addressing supporters as the results rolled in, Alexis Tsipras, Syriza's leader, called for general elections to be held immediately, saying the outcome robbed the government of any "political or moral legitimacy" to continue enforcing policies that were overwhelming rejected.
As the country on the frontline of Europe's debt crisis, Greece has been forced to adopt excruciating reforms and spending cuts in return for rescue packages sponsored by the EU and International Monetary Fund.
"Tomorrow all of Europe will be talking about Syriza," said the 39-year-oldTsipras, also the European Left's candidate for commission president. "Already the peoples of Europe are celebrating the defeat of the memorandum [the accord outlining Athens' two bailout agreements] in the country chosen as a guinea pig by the European leadership."
Ukip wins European elections with ease to set off political earthquake
Nigel Farage has unleashed his much-promised political earthquake across British politics as Ukip stormed to victory in the European elections, performing powerfully across the country.
The Eurosceptic party's victory marked the first time in modern history that neither Labour nor the Conservatives have won a British national election.
In a stunning warning to the established political parties, Ukip was on course to win as much as 28% of the national poll. That is a near doubling of the 16.5% it secured in the last European elections in 2009, when it came second to the Tories with 13 seats.
Thomas Piketty accuses Financial Times of dishonest criticism
Thomas Piketty has accused the Financial Times of ridiculous and dishonest criticism of his economics book on inequality that has become a publishing sensation.
The French economist, whose 577-page tome Capital in the Twenty-First Century has become an unlikely must-read for business leaders and politicians alike, said it was ridiculous to suggest that his central thesis on rising inequality was incorrect.
The controversy blew up when the FT accused Piketty of errors in transcribing numbers, as well as cherry-picking data or not using original sources. The newspaper concluded there was little evidence in Piketty's original sources to bear out his theory that the richest were accumulating more wealth, widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots in Europe and the United States.
In an interview with the Agence-France Presse news agency, the economist said: "The FT is being ridiculous because all of its contemporaries recognise that the biggest fortunes have grown faster."
While the available data was "imperfect", it did not undermine his central argument about widening inequality, he said. "Where the Financial Times is being dishonest is to suggest that this changes things in the conclusions I make, when in fact it changes nothing. More recent studies only support my conclusions, by using different sources."
The Evening Greens
UN Plea for Urgent Climate Action: 'Time Is Running Out'
The world is running out of time to take the urgent action need to rein in runaway greenhouse gases and "preserve our planet for future generations," a United Nations body warned Monday.
While the world first hit last year the "sobering milestone" of 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it was April 2014 that prompted the current climate warning from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Last month marked the first time in human history that average CO2 levels in the northern atmosphere were above 400 ppm for the entire month.
In addition to that measurement recorded by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego's Mauna Loa station, which the agency refers to as a "benchmark site," the WMO states that some of the other stations that also form part of its Global Atmosphere Watch network — those in Cape Verde, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Spain (Tenerife) and Switzerland— reported concentrations above 400 ppm for both March and April.
Ecuador 'Green-lights Environmental Disaster' in Biodiversity Hotspot
In a move condemned as paving the way for an environmental disaster, the environment minister of Ecuador on Thursday authorized permits for oil exploration to begin within the Yasuní National Park, an area home to two indigenous communities living in voluntary isolation and an area some consider the most biodiverse place in the world.
Oil production in the area could happen as soon as 2016.
In August last year, Ecuador announced that it was abandoning its plan to use international funds to leave the oil in the ground in the preserve, citing a lack of necessary funds raised. Then in October the parliament gave the green light to drilling in the park.
That decision was followed by widespread criticism. "Yasuní is exceptionally rich in species and home to diverse cultures — including some living in voluntary isolation," stated Stuart Pimm of Duke University. "Its protection defends nature and peoples: destroying it would be a particular tragedy." ...
According to its own records, Ecuador's state oil company averages nearly an oil spill every week, and just one spill in the most biodiverse and culturally sensitive part of the Amazon would be tragic," [Environmental and Human Rights Campaigner at indigenous rights NGO Amazon Watch, Adam] Zuckerman stated.
This essay is resistant to abstraction and too good to miss; it'd be good to read the whole thing...
Vandana Shiva: We Are the Soil
We are made up of the same five elements — earth, water, fire, air and space — that constitute the Universe. We are the soil. We are the earth. What we do to the soil, we do to ourselves. And it is no accident that the words “humus” and “humans” have the same roots.
This ecological truth is forgotten in the dominant paradigm because it is based on eco-apartheid, the false idea that we are separate and independent of the earth and also because it defines soil as dead matter. If soil is dead to begin with, human action cannot destroy its life. It can only “improve” the soil with chemical fertilisers. And if we are the masters and conquerors of the soil, we determine the fate of the soil. Soil cannot determine our fate.
History, however, is witness to the fact that the fate of societies and civilisations is intimately connected to how we treat the soil — do we relate to the soil through the Law of Return or through the Law of Exploitation and Extraction.
The Law of Return — of giving back — has ensured that societies create and maintain fertile soil and can be supported by living soil over thousands of years. The Law of Exploitation — of taking without giving back — has led to the collapse of civilisations. ...
Soil, not oil, holds the future for humanity. The oil-based, fossil fuel intensive, chemical intensive, industrial agriculture has unleashed three processes which are killing the soil, and hence impacting our future.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Internet giants wooed us, but the honeymoon is over
How Many Iraqis Died in the Iraq War?
Mark Twain: The War Prayer
A Little Night Music
Muggsy Spanier - Moonglow
Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band - Shimmy Like Sister Kate
Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band - Big Butter and Egg Man
Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band - Relaxin' at the Touro
Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band - Dippermouth Blues
Muggsy Spanier - Lonesome Road
Muggsy Spanier - Memphis Blues
Muggsy Spanier and his Ragtime Band - Dinah
Muggsy Spanier - Someday Sweetheart
Muggsy Spanier - Tin Roof Blues
Muggsy Spanier - Riverboat Shuffle
Muggsy Spanier - Hesitating blues
Muggsy Spanier - I've Found A New Baby
Muggsy Spanier - Bluin' the Blues
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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