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 singer, piano player and composer Memphis Slim. Enjoy!
Memphis Slim - Everyday I Have The Blues
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
-- Abraham Lincoln
News and Opinion
Senate Torture Report Will Be Public in 2 to 4 Weeks, Says Feinstein
Senate intelligence committee chair Dianne Feinstein expects the executive summary of her staff’s long-awaited report on the torture of American detainees to be ready for public release before the end of September, she said in an unaired segment of her “Meet the Press” interview this weekend (starts at 10:25 of the video).
The torture report, which was five years in the making, was sent to the White House for declassification in April. But the exhaustive redactions that Obama administration officials sent back in early August included such things as the elimination of pseudonyms, apparently to make the report too confusing to follow, and the blacking out of copious supporting evidence, such as proof that information derived from torture actually came from other intelligence sources. ...
Feinstein also agreed with Mitchell’s suggestion that Islamic militants in Syria tortured Americans — including journalist James Foley, who was reportedly waterboarded before being beheaded — in a “rebuke” to the U.S. for its own use of torture during the Bush administration.
“The United States military has always prevented any kind of torture or waterboarding because they felt that then, whatever the enemy was, would come back and do it to our people,” she said. “In this case, the enemy came back and did it to one of our citizens.”
Shorter Hagel to war profiteers - "Cha-ching!!!"
Hagel Assures Arms Dealers: US Must Maintain Military Dominance
Speaking today at the Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel sought to assure arms dealers of continued US spending on advanced military technology, claiming the US military dominance is being “challenged” and the US needs increased innovation to maintain its superiority.
Hagel claimed that both Russia and China are closing the “technological gap,” and that some of their new designs appear meant to “counter traditional US advantages.” ...
As the Pentagon chief, Hagel seems to be playing up the “threats” posed by these nations, despite them not being enemies, and having much smaller budgets, as an effort to ratchet up military spending in the US, particularly new outlays on advanced armaments.
Iraq Has WMDs and Russia Has Invaded
How did they imagine they’d get away with it, claiming that Iraq had vast stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and even nuclear weapons? ...
The U.S. media has repeatedly been claiming that Russia has invaded Ukraine. They claim it for a while, and there’s obviously been no invasion, so they pause. Then they claim it again. Or they claim that a convoy of aid trucks constitutes an invasion. But the aid trucks look like aid trucks in all the photographs, and yet nobody has taken similar photographs of any invasion. When Ukrainian tanks rolled into eastern Ukraine and were surrounded by civilians, we saw photographs and videos. Now there’s just a Colin-Powellesque satellite photo from NATO supposedly showing Russian artillery in Ukraine. ...
But where are the 1,000 Russian troops invading Ukraine? Ukraine claims to have captured 10 of them, but the captured troops don’t seem to have agreed to the story. And what happened to the other 990? How did someone get close enough to capture 10 but not photograph the other 990? ...
How do they imagine they’ll get away with it? Well, let’s see. Not a single individual responsible for the lies that launched the destruction of Iraq and the death of some million people and the predictable and predicted chaos now tormenting Iraq’s whole region has been held accountable in any way. ...
Why do they think they can get away with it?
Because you let them.
'No more Iraq' US intel veterans ask Merkel to prevent Ukraine war, rely on facts
History Shows Caution Is the Best Approach for Foreign Action
The United States has a well-established tendency to overreact and to shoot itself in the foot. The Bush administration panicked after 9/11 and overthrew Saddam Hussein, at a cost of several trillion dollars and tens of thousands of lives. The result has been a failed state in Iraq, increased power for Iran and the emergence of radical movements such as ISIS. Had Bush and his advisers thought harder about this decision or encouraged a genuine public debate about its wisdom, this fateful blunder might have been avoided. ...
The same lesson applies to today’s policy problems. In Ukraine, the United States should have anticipated that trying to draw that country toward the Western orbit would inevitably trigger a harsh response from Moscow. Ukraine’s fate matters more to Russia than it does to us and Vladimir Putin has shown that he is willing to do great damage to Ukraine to keep it from aligning with the West. Instead of rushing to back the demonstrators who ousted the former president, Viktor Yanukovich, the United States and its European allies should have worked cooperatively with Moscow to craft a deal that would have preserved Ukraine’s status as an independent but neutral buffer state.
The emergence of ISIS calls for an equally calm response. ISIS is a brutal political movement, but it is hardly a “threat beyond any we have seen.” Its forces are small and lightly armed, it has no navy or air force, and it has little chance of expanding beyond Sunni-majority regions. Rushing in to “destroy” ISIS will facilitate its efforts to recruit among those who believe the United States is still bent on dominating the region, and give its leaders greater incentives to attack us here at home.
Ukraine and Isis threat set to dominate talks as Nato summit starts
Nato leaders have descended on the Welsh resort of Celtic Manor for a two-day summit, which formally starts with a meeting about Afghanistan but will be dominated by discussion on Ukraine and the threat of Islamic State (Isis) extremists in Iraq and Syria. ...
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, warned on Thursday that Ukraine's Nato ambitions were threatening to derail peace talks in eastern Ukraine. In televised remarks, Lavrov said statements by senior government officials in Kiev that they would be seeking to join Nato were "a blatant attempt to derail all the efforts" to seek a peaceful solution to the crisis. ...
The organisers had hoped that summit would help mark a new era in Afghanistan at the end of the alliance's combat mission, by welcoming Hamid Karzai's successor as the country's new president. ... The failings of Nato's mission in Afghanistan were underlined by more violence on Thursday as Taliban insurgents detonated two truck bombs in the central town of Ghazni, killing 18 people. ...
The crisis in Iraq and Syria is not on the formal agenda but is expected to dominate discussions at the sidelines, as Barack Obama and David Cameron attempt to build an international coalition for tackling Isis militants.
Vladimir Putin drafts peace plan for eastern Ukraine
Vladimir Putin on Wednesday issued a seven-point peace plan for eastern Ukraine, hours after his Ukrainian counterpart said there was an agreement for a "permanent ceasefire" for the region.
But in a day of confusing mixed messages, Arseny Yatsenyuk, Ukraine's prime minister, dismissed the peace plan, which Putin had apparently jotted down on a flight to Mongolia, calling it a trap.
Soon after, Poroshenko backtracked from the "permanent" claim and the Russian president said the pair had only discussed a ceasefire regime that could be in place by the end of the week.
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told Russian agencies the two leaders had not agreed on a ceasefire – as Russia was not party to the fighting – but had "discussed how to end the conflict".
Later, speaking to reporters on a day trip to the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, Putin said he had drafted a handwritten seven-point plan for an end to hostilities in eastern Ukraine while on his flight to the city. He said he hoped that a deal would finally be reached on Friday, when both sides were expected to meet in Minsk.
Imran Khan sends Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPs back to parliament
After leading almost three weeks of street protests demanding fresh elections in Pakistan, the former cricketer Imran Khan sent his elected MPs back to parliament on Wednesday in a sign that the country's political crisis may be heading towards a resolution.
The leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) last week said he no longer recognised the legitimacy of parliament and announced all his MPs would resign as part of his efforts to topple the government.
Khan claims last year's election was rigged against him, although independent election observers do not think irregularities would have changed the overall result.
The long campaign to force the resignation of the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has, at times, prompted fears the army would step in and derail Pakistan's weak democracy.
But the return of the MPs and the dwindling number of PTI supporters on the streets outside the parliament building suggested Sharif's government had regained the initiative.
Ferguson police to be investigated after shooting of Michael Brown
The US Justice Department may open a wide-ranging investigation into the practices of the Ferguson police department as early as Thursday following the shooting last month of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer in the St Louis suburb.
A person briefed on the matter said Missouri officials were notified about the inquiry on Wednesday.
The investigation will look at the practices in the past few years of the police department, including patterns of stops, arrests and the use of force, as well as the training officers receive, the person said.
The inquiry is separate from an ongoing civil rights investigation the Justice Department is conducting into the shooting of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson on 9 August. A local grand jury is also investigating the shooting, which set off about two weeks of unrest in the streets of Ferguson and became a flashpoint in the national discussion of police treatment of minorities across the country.
A Victory over Justice System’s Failure: Wrongly Convicted Brothers Freed After 31 Years in Prison
Angola Three inmate in longest solitary confinement seeking damages in court
America’s longest-serving solitary confinement prisoner, who has been on lockdown in an isolated cell almost without break for the past 40 years, goes before a federal appeals court on Thursday seeking legal permission to sue the Louisiana prison service for damages.
Albert Woodfox, 67, has been in solitary, known in the jargon as “closed cell restriction”, since 18 April 1972 following a prison riot that resulted in the death of a guard. Apart from a three-year period in which he was kept among the general population of a parish jail, he has spent every day since then entirely alone in a 6ft by 8ft cell with views through metal bars only of the concrete corridor.
He is held in the cell for 23 hours a day. In the final hour he is allowed to shower and walk up and down the corridor or, weather permitting, to have an isolated walk in the exercise yard.
Woodfox, one of three Black Panther prisoners known as the “Angola 3” who faced prolonged solitary confinement, will argue in front of judges of the US Fifth Circuit appeals court in New Orleans that he should be allowed to sue prison officials from the two main penitentiaries for damages. Under the Eighth Amendment of the US constitution, state authorities are banned from subjecting prisoners to cruel and unusual punishment by depriving them of their “basic human needs”. ...
The prison service will on Thursday seek to swat away Woodfox’s lawsuit by claiming that all the prison officials being sued are immune from legal challenge because they have protection known as “qualified immunity”.
Judge may hold Microsoft in contempt after refusal to hand over foreign data
A federal judge may hold Microsoft in contempt of court this week over its refusal to give the US government data stored overseas.
Judge Loretta Preska, chief of the US district court in New York, gave the company until Friday to comply with an order which could further dent trust in the cloud.
In a statement on Tuesday Microsoft, citing privacy concerns, told Ars Technica it would continue to defy the court order. “We will not be turning over the email.”
US prosecutors who are investigating narcotic trafficking obtained a search warrant last December to access an email account controlled and maintained by Microsoft servers in Dublin, Ireland.
The Redmond-based technology company resisted, arguing that emails belong to its customers and that the servers are beyond US jurisdiction, a challenge to the Obama administration’s contention that a company with operations in the US must comply with warrants for data, even if stored abroad. ...
By handing over the data Microsoft would violate Irish law. A graver concern for the company, and other US technology giants, is another blow to public trust in their ability to protect privacy.
What the Hackers did to Celebs? The NSA has been Doing that to All of Us
There has been a lot of justifiable outrage about the invasion of privacy of celebrities and the posting of their private, nude photos at 4Chan by hackers who apparently got into their cloud accounts.
It seems odd to me that the discussion of this issue has been completely unconnected to the Snowden revelations that the US government has been assiduously spying on everyone’s cloud. It has been massively recording who we call, when we called them, and where we were when we called them on on our smart phones. ... Barack Obama’s glib assurances that they haven’t been recording our emails notwithstanding, they’ve been recording our emails (they can actually read them in real time), as well as sweeping up the content of phone calls as data files. NSA personnel routinely passed around nude photos of people captured from the internet, Snowden has revealed, calling it a perk of the job. ...
Defenders of this activity insist that it is necessary to protect us from “terrorism.” But the major terrorist threat in the world, ISIL, appears to have surprised them last June by taking over 40% of the major country of Iraq, which the US surely had under intensive surveillance. If their surveillance did not alert them to this major victory for vicious terrorists, which has pulled the US military back into a war zone, then it isn’t much good, is it?
Large US tech firms plan 'go slow' day in protest over net neutrality rules
Some of the world’s largest tech firms are planning a “go slow” day next week in protest of proposals that could create fast lanes on the internet for some companies.
On 10 September, tech firms including Etsy, FourSquare, KickStarter, Mozilla, Reddit and Vimeo will install a widget on their sites to show how they believe the internet would look if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) overturns “net neutrality” rules.
The FCC is currently redrawing its rules after a series of legal challenges from cable and telecoms companies undermined its authority to regulate the internet. One proposal could allow internet service providers to offer fast lanes to higher paying customers, a move critics charge would break net neutrality – the principle that all traffic is treated equally online.
Evan Greer, co-founder of Fight for the Future, a pressure group helping to organize the protest day, said in an email: “Net neutrality is tough to explain to people, so we wanted to organize an action that actually shows the world what’s at stake. I think the three most hated words on the internet right now are ‘Please wait, loading ... ’ Unless internet users unite in defense of net neutrality, we could be seeing those dreaded ‘loading’ wheels a lot more often on some of our favorite websites, while monopolistic companies get to decide which content gets seen by the most people.”
New York Candidates Zephyr Teachout, Randy Credico, Tim Wu on Challenging Cuomo & Money in Politics
US household food insecurity remains at 2008 levels
New report reveals number of households that did not have access to safe, available foods has stayed around 14% since recession
The number of American households with access to enough food for a healthy, active life has remained largely unchanged since it spiked during the 2008 economic recession, according to the US department of agriculture’s annual report on food security released on Wednesday.
Eighty-five point seven percent of US households had access to enough food for the entirety of 2013, the report found. The number of households that for at least part of the year did not have access to safe, available foods has hovered in the 14% range since 2008 when it jumped from the the 2007 figure of 11.1% because of the economic recession.
“At this rate it would take decades to get back to the rate before the recession,” Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, told the Guardian. “So the progress that is being made is far, far too slow. The rate was far too high before the recession and we’re not moving very fast at getting back towards that rate.” ...
“The cure for all this isn’t a mystery,” said Weill. “We know how to do it: it’s a political problem, not a scientific problem. We know that the cure is better employment rates, higher wages and better income, nutrition and support programs.”
Low-Wage Workers 'Movement' Flexes Its Muscles Nationwide
Fast-food workers are out in force nationwide on Thursday as they participate in a day of action designed to highlight the scourge of low-wages and push a series of demands to combat the persistent poverty endured by those who form the backbone of the profitable multi-billion dollar industry.
Led by organizers at FightFor15—and supported in their call by the Service Employees Union International (SEIU), grassroots organizers, and other workers' rights groups—the fast-food employees say that singular actions that first started in New York City in 2012 and then spread to other cities have now become a national movement. Pushing for a $15 per hour "living wage" for all workers is the central but not sole demand of the workers and those who back them.
Organizers are expecting worker strikes and solidarity protests in 150 U.S. cities as employees of Burger King, McDonald's, Taco Bell, and other chains demand a dramatic increase to the minimum wage, better workplace protections, and the right to organize and join a union.
Even the Council on Foreign Relations Is Saying It: Time to Rain Money on Main Street
When an article appears in Foreign Affairs, the mouthpiece of the policy-setting Council on Foreign Relations, recommending that the Federal Reserve do a money drop directly on the 99%, you know the central bank must be down to its last bullet.
The September/October issue of Foreign Affairs features an article by Mark Blyth and Eric Lonergan titled “Print Less But Transfer More: Why Central Banks Should Give Money Directly To The People.” It’s the sort of thing normally heard only from money reformers and Social Credit enthusiasts far from the mainstream. What’s going on?
The Fed, it seems, has finally run out of other ammo. It has to taper its quantitative easing program, which is eating up the Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities needed as collateral for the repo market that is the engine of the bankers’ shell game. The Fed’s Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) has also done serious collateral damage. The banks that get the money just put it in interest-bearing Federal Reserve accounts or buy foreign debt or speculate with it; and the profits go back to the 1%, who park it offshore to avoid taxes. Worse, any increase in the money supply from increased borrowing increases the overall debt burden and compounding finance costs, which are already a major constraint on economic growth.
Meanwhile, the economy continues to teeter on the edge of deflation. The Fed needs to pump up the money supply and stimulate demand in some other way. All else having failed, it is reduced to trying what money reformers have been advocating for decades — get money into the pockets of the people who actually spend it on goods and services.
The Deep State and the Power of Billionaires - David Cay Johnston
The Evening Greens
Chris Hedges: The Last Gasp of Climate Change Liberals
The climate change march in New York on Sept. 21, expected to draw as many as 200,000 people, is one of the last gasps of conventional liberalism’s response to the climate crisis. It will take place two days before the actual gathering of world leaders in New York called by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the November 2015 U.N. Climate Conference in Paris. The marchers will dutifully follow the route laid down by the New York City police. They will leave Columbus Circle, on West 59th Street and Eighth Avenue, at 11:30 a.m. on a Sunday and conclude on 11th Avenue between West 34th and 38th streets. No one will reach the United Nations, which is located on the other side of Manhattan, on the East River beyond First Avenue—at least legally. There will be no speeches. There is no list of demands. It will be a climate-themed street fair.
The march, because its demands are amorphous, can be joined by anyone. This is intentional. But as activist Anne Petermann has pointed out, this also means some of the groups backing the march are little more than corporate fronts. The Climate Group, for example, which endorses the march, includes among its members and sponsors BP, China Mobile, Dow Chemical Co., Duke Energy, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Greenstone. The Environmental Defense Fund, which says it “work[s] with companies rather than against them” and which is calling on its members to join the march, has funding from the oil and gas industry and supports fracking as a form of alternative energy. These faux environmental organizations are designed to neutralize resistance. And their presence exposes the march’s failure to adopt a meaningful agenda or pose a genuine threat to power. ...
“The march is symbolic,” said Kevin Zeese of Popular Resistance when I reached him by phone, “but we are past the time of symbolism. What we need is direct action against the United Nations during the meeting. This should include blockades and disruption of the meeting itself. We need to highlight the fact that the United Nations has sold out to corporate interests. At U.N. meetings on climate change you see corporate logos on display. During the last meeting on climate change in Poland, the U.N. held a simultaneous conference to promote coal as a clean energy source. These U.N. meetings have become corporate trade shows where discussions on climate are hijacked to promote corporate interests. Barack Obama has announced he will continue the U.S. stance of only calling for voluntary climate goals in advance of the upcoming climate summit in Paris next year.” ...
We have known about the deleterious effects of carbon emissions for decades. The first IPCC report was published in 1990. Yet since the beginning of the Kyoto Protocol Era in the late 1980s, we have emitted as much carbon dioxide as was emitted in the prior 236 years. The rising carbon emissions and the extraction of tar sands—and since the industry has figured out how to transport tar sands without building the northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline, this delivery seems assured—will continue no matter how many police-approved marches are held. Play by the rules and we lose.
Degrowth 2014 - Opening Session - Naomi Klein
"Radical change of some kind, whether physical or political, are our only options left."
"This is why the climate crisis challenges centrist liberals most of all because they subscribe to an ideology that is so resistant to the idea of radical change, to the idea of anything but incremental, reformist change."
Maine lobster and Cape cod under threat from rapidly warming seas
Long-established species flee to colder environment as Gulf of Maine waters heat up faster than 99% of world’s oceans
Imagine Cape Cod without cod. Maine without lobster. The region’s famous rocky beaches invisible, obscured by constant high waters.
It’s already starting to happen. The culprit is the warming seas – and in particular the Gulf of Maine, whose waters are heating up faster than 99% of the world’s oceans, scientists say.
Long-established species of commercial fish, like cod, herring and northern shrimp, are departing for colder waters. Black sea bass, blue crabs and new species of squid – all highly unusual for the gulf – are turning up in fishermen’s nets.
The Gulf of Maine’s warming reflects broader trends around the North Atlantic. But the statistic – accepted by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – underscores particular fears about the gulf’s unique ecosystem and the lucrative fishing industries it supports for three US states and two Canadian provinces.
Federal Judge: BP 'Grossly Negligent' in Gulf Oil Disaster
The 2010 oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was the result of BP's “gross negligence” and “willful misconduct,” a federal judge has ruled.
The ruling on Thursday by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier means the oil giant could be responsible for as much as $18 billion in penalties under the Clean Water Act.
Hat tip Agathena:
City of Burnaby Issues Stop Work Order After Kinder Morgan Employees Arrive in Conservation Area with Chainsaws
Tensions are rising between the City of Burnaby and Kinder Morgan after company employees arrived in the Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area Tuesday with chainsaws to remove trees and brush in order to assess a proposed route for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
The City of Burnaby issued a stop work order for the conservation area, saying Kinder Morgan does not have the right to do damage to property protected by city bylaws. ...
Lizette Parsons Bell, lead of stakeholder engagement and communications for Trans Mountain, said Kinder Morgan is conducting fieldwork and studies “to determine the feasibility of routing a two kilometre section of proposed pipeline between our Burnaby tank terminal and our Westridge marine terminal through the Burnaby Mountain.” ...
Burnaby is willing to grant Kinder Morgan access to the conservation land for “non-invasive work” according to mayor Corrigan, “but absolutely not to do what they arrived to do [Tuesday] – to cut down trees to create helicopter landing pads and sites for drilling bore holes on this protected land,” he said. ...
Greg McDade, legal counsel for the city said Kinder Morgan has overstepped what is allowable under local laws.
“Kinder Morgan has not only damaged the Conservation Area in contravention of the law, they have also attempted to interfere with traffic on public roads and to obstruct park staff in their duties,“ he said.
“The actions of the company are unprecedented, and they appear to believe they can act as if the rule of law doesn’t apply to them.”
He added the city will seek a court injunction to uphold its laws and protect its parkland. The city also plans to ensure “ongoing protection” of the conservation area.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
An Abused Migrant Kid Who Outwitted the Justice Department
Progressive Left's Latest Target: EMILY's List
Transgender...by the arts
Hat tip for the next 2 articles to Don midwest:
Corporate Deadbeats: How Companies Get Rich Off Of Taxes
Three ways that politicians are storing up disaster for pensioners
A Little Night Music
Memphis Slim - Pinetop´s Boogie, Pigalle Love, Boogin´& Bluesin´
Memphis Slim -I'm lost without you
Memphis Slim & Peter Green - Mother Earth
Memphis Slim - Feel So Good
Buddy Guy & Memphis Slim - You Call Me At Last
Memphis Slim - Lend Me Your Love
Memphis Slim - Rockin' This House
Memphis Slim - Wish Me Well
Memphis Slim - Cold Blooded Woman
Memphis Slim - Steppin Out
Memphis Slim - I Am The Blues
Memphis Slim - If You See Kay
Memphis Slim & Canned Heat - Boogie Duo
Memphis Slim - The Blues is Everywhere
Memphis Slim & Sonny Boy Williamson Blues Legende Live In Europe
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.
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