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 boogie woogie piano player Meade "Lux" Lewis. Enjoy!
Meade Lux Lewis - Boogie Woogie
“More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”
-- Woody Allen
News and Opinion
Feinstein: CIA torture report will be delayed as Senators fight Obama over redactions
The public release of a long-awaited US Senate report detailing the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation techniques could be held up for weeks as the Senate Intelligence Committee and Obama administration negotiate what material can be included in the document, the committee’s chairwoman said on Monday.
The committee had hoped to release its 600-page summary of the report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of tactics many label as “torture” before Congress left for its August recess, a target that was pushed to September as discussions continued.
On Monday, as Congress returned from its five-week break, Senator Dianne Feinstein said the document would not be released this week, and might not come out before lawmakers leave later this month to campaign for the 4 November congressional elections.
That would push its release to mid-November at the earliest.
#WeTorturedSomeFolks: CIA methods bring suspects to point of death
ISIS fighters using US arms given to "Syrian moderates": study
Islamic State fighters appear to be using captured US military issue arms and weapons supplied to moderate rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia, according to a report published on Monday.
The study by the London-based small-arms research organisation Conflict Armament Research documented weapons seized by Kurdish forces from militants in Iraq and Syria over a 10-day period in July.
The report said the jihadists disposed of "significant quantities" of US-made small arms including M16 assault rifles and included photos showing the markings "Property of US Govt".
It also found that anti-tank rockets used by IS in Syria were "identical to M79 rockets transferred by Saudi Arabia to forces operating under the Free Syrian Army umbrella in 2013."
"Syrian moderates" sold Steven Sotloff's location to ISIS for thousands, family rep says
The family of slain American hostage Steven Sotloff believes ISIS paid as much as $50,000 to rebels who alerted the militant group that the journalist had entered Syria, a spokesman told CNN.
The family had learned from "sources on the ground" that a member of a moderate rebel group reached out to ISIS, Barak Barfi told CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" on Monday.
"Somebody at the border crossing made a phone call to ISIS, and they set up a fake checkpoint with many people," Barfi said. "Steve and his people that he went in with could not escape."
Barfi said the tipster was one of "the so-called moderate rebels that people want our administration to support."
Americans Now Fear ISIS Sleeper Cells Are Living in the U.S., Overwhelmingly Support Military Action
I’ve long considered this September, 2003 Washington Post poll to be one the most extraordinary facts about the post-9/11 era. It found that – almost 2 years after 9/11, and six months after the invasion of Iraq – “nearly seven in 10 Americans believe it is likely that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the Sept. 11 attacks . . . . A majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents believe it’s likely Saddam was involved.”
Is it even possible to imagine more potent evidence of systemic media failure than that (or systemic success, depending on what you think the media’s goal is)? But in terms of crazed irrationality, how far away from that false belief is the current fear on the part of Americans that there are ISIS sleeper cells “living in the United States”?
If the goal of terrorist groups is to sow irrational terror, has anything since the 9/11 attack been more successful than those two journalist beheading videos? It’s almost certainly the case that as recently as six months ago, only a minute percentage of the American public (and probably the U.S. media) had even heard of ISIS. Now, two brutal beheadings later, they are convinced that they are lurking in their neighborhoods, that they are a Grave and Unprecedented Threat (worse than al Qaeda!), and that military action against them is needed.
It’s as though ISIS and the U.S. media and political class worked in perfect unison to achieve the same goal here when it comes to American public opinion: fully terrorize them.
[Gosh, golly-gee whillikers, do ya really think so? I'm shocked, shocked... - js]
So We’re Going to War Again, and All Anyone Wants to Talk About is the Optics?
President Obama has started describing his new strategy to confront the Islamic State, and despite it being a mishmash of wishful thinking and perpetual militarism, the focus of the Washington elites in the press and elsewhere has been almost entirely on the optics: Is he overcoming the perception that he wasn’t doing enough? What will the political reaction be? ...
Granted Obama isn’t talking about launching another all-out invasion. “You… cannot, over the long term or even the medium term, deal with this problem by having the United States serially occupy various countries all around the Middle East,” he said in an interview for NBC’s “Meet the Press” broadcast on Sunday. “We don’t have the resources. It puts enormous strains on our military. And at some point, we leave. And then things blow up again.”
But he is apparently planning on re-upping the country for another 3-year hitch in the endless war he used to talk about wrapping up. ...
His plan calls for stepped-up airstrikes, inevitably leading to civilian casualties; for the kind of Middle-Eastern diplomatic needle-threading that has consistently eluded him in the past; for a political miracle in Iraq; and, despite all the precedent to the contrary, for American-trained indigenous military forces that actually fight.
Despite all the cause for skepticism, however, the press coverage of his remarks was largely stenographic — with the aforementioned overlay of politics and optics.
Is The Anti-ISIS Campaign Attempting to Renew War Against Assad?
Kerry leads diplomatic drive to boost Arab support in fight against Isis
US efforts to galvanise Arab support to fight the threat from the Islamic State (Isis) are intensifying with a diplomatic drive led by John Kerry, the US secretary of state, in advance of President Barack Obama's announcement of a new strategy to fight the extremist group.
Kerry was on his way to Jordan on Tuesday amid signs the pro-western kingdom would likely play a leading if discreet role in the anti-jihadi coalition. Isis fighters in Rutba, in southern Syria, are uncomfortably close to the border of a nervous Hashemite kingdom, which is already playing host to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees from the war next door.
On Wednesday Kerry is to attend talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah along with foreign minsters from Egypt, Jordan and the six Gulf Arab states as well as Iraq.
Arab and western officials say they hope that the formation of a new more inclusive government in Baghdad under prime minister Haider al-Abadi will help rally Sunni opposition to Isis and bolster wider Arab efforts to help Iraq. Kerry called it "a major milestone".
On Sunday the Arab League endorsed action by Nato's "core coalition" and pledged to take individual and collective measures to fight Isis, but it did not explicitly support western military moves.
Austria freezes Bush admin diplomat's wife in money laundering investigation of Iraq graft
Former top U.S. diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad and his wife are fighting the seizure of her Austrian bank accounts, lawyers for the couple said after a magazine reported U.S. authorities were investigating him for suspected money laundering.
Profil magazine cited legal documents discovered in paper recycling bins outside a Vienna justice facility for its report this week that Khalilzad - U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations under President George W. Bush - was being investigated. ...
Profil said Khalilzad, 63, was suspected of collecting large sums from construction and oil companies in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates and sending $1.4 million dollars of this to Benard's bank accounts in Vienna.
University of Illinois Urged to Reinstate Professor Steven Salaita, Critic of Israeli War in Gaza
EU Delays Russia Sanctions as Ukraine Ceasefire Holds
The European Union has adopted a new round of sanctions against Russia’s economy today, but also announced they are delaying the implementation indefinitely, because of the ongoing ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.
Though the sanctions were nominally meant to “punish” Russia for the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine, the decision to delay over the ceasefire is surprising, as the EU finalized the sanctions deal after the ceasefire had already been agreed upon.
MH17 crash caused by 'objects penetrating aircraft from outside'
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 broke up in mid-air as a result of structural damage caused by "a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside", according to the Dutch investigators' preliminary report.
The report into the downing of the plane over eastern Ukraine does not apportion blame or say a missile was fired. But the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) says: "There are no indications that the MH17 crash was caused by a technical fault or by actions of the crew."
The Boeing 777 was blown up in mid-air on 17 July over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.
The black boxes were retrieved intact, with the flight recorders showing a completely normal flight before impact.
Radio communications with Ukrainian air traffic control confirm that no emergency call was made by the cockpit crew.
MH17 penetrated from outside by hi-energy objects, broke up mid-air - probe
Amnesty International Document - Ukraine: Abuses and war crimes by the Aidar Volunteer Battalion in the north Luhansk region
Members of the Aidar territorial defence battalion, operating in the north Luhansk region, have been involved in widespread abuses, including abductions, unlawful detention, ill-treatment, theft, extortion, and possible executions.
The Aidar battalion is one of over thirty so-called volunteer battalions to have emerged in the wake of the conflict, which have been loosely integrated into Ukrainian security structures as they seek to retake separatist held areas.
In the course of a two-week research mission to the region, an Amnesty International researcher interviewed dozens of victims and witnesses of the abuses, as well as local officials, army commanders and police officers in the area and representatives of the Aidar battalion.
Our findings indicate that, while formally operating under the command of the Ukrainian security forces combined headquarters in the region members of the Aidar battalion act with virtually no oversight or control, and local police are either unwilling or unable to address the abuses.
Some of the abuses committed by members of the Aidar battalion amount to war crimes, for which both the perpetrators and, possibly, the commanders would bear responsibility under national and international law.
Murky Special Ops Have Become Corporate Bonanza, Says Report
The U.S. government is paying private contractors billions of dollars to support secretive military units with drones, surveillance technology, and “psychological operations,” according to new research.
A detailed report, published last week by the London-based Remote Control Project, shines a light on the murky activities of the U.S. Special Operations Command by analyzing publicly available procurement contracts dated between 2009 and 2013. ...
Researcher Crofton Black, who also works as an investigator for human rights group Reprieve, was able to dig through the troves of data and identify the beneficiaries of almost $13 billion worth of spending by USSOCOM over the five-year period. He found that more than 3,000 companies had provided services that included aiding remotely piloted drone operations in Afghanistan and the Philippines, helping to conduct surveillance of targets, interrogating prisoners, and launching apparent propaganda campaigns.
“This report is distinctive in that it mines data from the generally classified world of U.S. special operations,” says Caroline Donnellan, manager of the Remote Control Project, a progressive thinktank focused on developments in military technology. “It reveals the extent to which remote control activity is expanding in all its facets, with corporations becoming more and more integrated into very sensitive elements of warfare. The report’s findings are of concern given the challenges remote warfare poses for effective investigation, transparency, accountability and oversight.”
'Scotland's what?' US caught napping as Scots prepare to vote on independence
The buzz in Washington about Scotland’s proposed independence from the United Kingdom, even as a shock new poll this weekend showed the Yes campaign ahead 51% to 49%, is that there is practically no buzz in Washington.
But if Scotland votes for independence from the United Kingdom on 18 September it will have serious policy ramifications for the United States. First among these is the fate of the 58 Trident II D5 missiles leased from the US by the British government that have served as the UK’s primary deterrent against nuclear attack since 1990, and the four Vanguard-class submarines which carry them. There are other important questions too, ones about maintaining the balance of power in Nato; the relationship between the UK and the European Union, which could be jeopardised; and the larger foreign policy effect of a weakened United Kingdom.
Nonetheless, when asked for comment in July, the US official reaction was, essentially, no response at all. Lt Vanessa Hillman, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense (DoD), told the Guardian that this was “not something the DoD would take queries on,” and referred questions to the State Department. The State Department, getting a little testy – the Guardian asked the same question three times over the course of a week – said: “We don’t have anything on this at this point.” ...
The White House, when asked about contingency plans, referred to President Obama’s remarks at the G7 summit in Brussels in June, when he commented that the United Kingdom worked “pretty well, and we obviously have a deep interest in making sure that one of the closest allies that we will ever have remains strong, robust, united and effective partner.” When pressed further, the White House said, “We’re not going to comment beyond the president’s remarks. Thanks!”
The Wall Street second-chances rule: scandal makes the rich grow stronger
Wall Street is a place where memories are short, profit is amoral, and money is the only thing that settles all the scores.
That's why financiers and CEOs are largely destined to overcome any scandal. Money and influence reserve a permanent place at the trough of money. It's usually absurd to hope that any kind of setback – a loss, a bankruptcy, a harrowing proximity to eight insider-trading convictions – will leave a mark. They never do. Disgrace is not a functional term in a business that is still, at its core, based upon relationships with a closed circle of people.
For the powerful movers of money in this country, second acts are not the exception – they are very much the rule.
If you doubt that, you need only keep watching the life and career of hedge-fund manager Steve Cohen. In a traditional middle-class morality tale, he'd be in disgrace after a judge last week told his firm, SAC Capital, to pay the largest-ever fine for insider trading – a cool $1.8bn – to federal regulators. SAC, which is the first firm to ever become a convicted felon, will abide by a five-year period of probation.
But this isn't the middle class, and Steve Cohen is not some hapless homeowner caught helplessly in foreclosure. He is rich, and on Wall Street that means he has leverage. He can negotiate for his own redemption – like so many of his fellow billionaires before him. ... Even if prosecutors manage to find a way to link him to unsavory trading behavior, Cohen will still thrive, and he has every reason to sail on optimistically as long as his money holds up. As the Dowager Countess on Downton Abbey correctly quipped, defeatism is reserved for the middle class.
NYPD officers in fresh assault claims: 'They were taking turns like a gang'
The New York police department is facing renewed questions over the conduct of its personnel after a man alleged he was viciously assaulted without provocation by a group of uniformed officers.
Santiago Hernandez, 23, claims that he was kicked, punched and zapped with pepper spray by up to six officers in 157th Street in the Bronx on 18 August. A video of his arrest captured by a nearby security camera and published by the local TV channel ABC 7 shows the police initially frisking him, then handcuffing him and finally piling on top of Hernandez as he lay on the sidewalk while apparently hitting him with batons.
“They was taking turns on me. One kicks me, he steps back. Another one comes to punch me and he steps back. And another one comes and grabs my arm and hits me like 10 times with the baton. Another one comes and pepper sprayed me … they were taking turns like a gang,” he told ABC 7.
The new allegations, that are being investigated by the NYPD’s internal affairs section, come at a difficult time for the force and its high-profile commissioner Bill Bratton. A grand jury has been called to decide whether to bring charges against an NYPD officer involved in the attempted arrest in Staten Island of Eric Garner for selling loose cigarettes.
Putting off Immigration Reform May Backfire on Democrats
Obama Broke His Promise to Latinos
[Barack Obama's] announcement last weekend that he would delay executive action on immigration is his fifth broken promise to Latinos on this all-important issue for our community. ...
The question for us Latinos — especially the nearly 24 million of us eligible to vote — is, what to do about this? ... There are no obvious or even satisfactory answers, but one thing is clear: We’ve been slapped in the face one too many times by this president. And it probably won’t be the last: Obama has a long record of betraying Latinos — and it predates his days in the White House. ...
When Obama ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004, he promised to represent Latinos and lead on immigration reform. ... But as Illinois’ new senator, instead of working to pass immigration reform, Obama in 2006 voted in favor of building a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. Security first, then reform, we were told. ... When Obama ran for president, he promised immigration would be the top priority in the first 100 days. ... Obama delivered an immigration speech at American University in 2010 promising action on immigration reform. With a Democrat-controlled Senate and House, how could changes not be forthcoming? As always, Obama said all of the right things, while doing the opposite of what he pledged. ...
Obama vowed that immigration would be the top priority in his second term. Latinos made their mark on election night 2012 ... We delivered for Obama, with 71 percent of us supporting the president. Only 27 percent favored Mitt Romney — a lower percentage than Republican candidates received in the last three presidential elections. Our votes made a difference: We helped Obama win the key states of Nevada, New Mexico, Florida and Colorado. ... This year, Obama promised us action on immigration at the end of spring. Then he promised movement after the summer recess, when federal lawmakers returned to Washington. Now, he promises to take up the issue after the November elections.
Lie to me once, shame on you. Lie to me five times, what do you expect us to do? ... It’s hard for me to imagine many of us voting for Republicans, who have at times been downright hostile to immigrant communities. But maybe Latinos in places like Colorado, Florida, Arkansas and North Carolina — states with closely contested Senate or governor’s races — should sit this election out. Maybe only by paying a price at the polls will Democrats finally stop throwing us under the bus.
The Fed Just Imposed Financial Austerity on the States
The Federal regulators adopted a new rule that requires the country’s largest banks – those with $250 billion or more in total assets – to hold an increased level of newly defined “high quality liquid assets” (HQLA) in order to meet a potential run on the bank during a credit crisis. In addition to U.S. Treasury securities and other instruments backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government (agency debt), the regulators have included some dubious instruments while shunning others with a higher safety profile.
Bizarrely, the Fed and its regulatory siblings included investment grade corporate bonds, the majority of which do not trade on an exchange, and more stunningly, stocks in the Russell 1000, as meeting the definition of high quality liquid assets, while excluding all municipal bonds – even general obligation municipal bonds from states with a far higher credit standing and safety profile than BBB-rated corporate bonds.
This, rightfully, has state treasurers in an uproar. The five largest Wall Street banks control the majority of deposits in the country. By disqualifying municipal bonds from the category of liquid assets, the biggest banks are likely to trim back their holdings in munis which could raise the cost or limit the ability for states, counties, cities and school districts to issue muni bonds to build schools, roads, bridges and other infrastructure needs. This is a particularly strange position for a Fed that is worried about subpar economic growth.
The Evening Greens
The Climate Change Defense? Citing Global Warming, DA Drops Charges Against Anti-Coal Activists
Illegal loggers blamed for murder of Peru forest campaigner
Illegal loggers are being blamed for the murder of four Asheninka natives including a prominent anti-logging campaigner, Edwin Chota, near the Peruvian frontier with Brazil.
Authorities in Peru have confirmed that Chota, the leader of Alto Tamaya-Saweto, a community in Peru’s Amazon Ucayali region, fought for his people’s right to gain titles to their land and expel illegal loggers who raided their forests on the Brazilian border. He featured in reports by National Geographic and the New York Times that detailed how death threats were made against him and members of his community.
“This is a terribly sad outcome. And the saddest part is that it was a foreseen event,” said Julia Urrunaga, Peru director for the Environmental Investigation Agency, an international conservation group.
“It was widely known that Edwin Chota and other leaders from the Alto Tamaya-Saweto community were asking for protection from the Peruvian authorities because they were receiving death treats from the illegal loggers operating in their area.” ...
A 2012 World Bank report estimated that as much as 80% of Peru’s logging exports are harvested illegally [PDF] and investigations have revealed that the wood is typically laundered using doctored papers to make it appear legal and ship it out of the country; while a 2012 report by the Environmental Investigation Agency indicated at least 40% of official cedar exports to the US included illegally logged timber.
We Must Degrow the 'Corporate Food Regime'
It's necessary to "degrow" the "corporate food regime" that over last five decades has impoverished the climate, water resources, local communities and crop diversity, and has not solved the problem of hunger.
This was the argument made by Eric Holt-Giménez, Executive Director of Food First, an organization whose mission is to work towards ending hunger by bringing about food justice, at a presentation Friday at the Fourth International Conference on Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity, which took place in Leipzig, Germany. ...
"Clearly something has to change, and simply growing more food isn't going to solve the problem of hunger," he said. "This contradiction runs even deeper when we realize that most of the hungry people in the world are farmers. They're peasant farmers," most of whom are women, he added.
Yet "peasant farmers produce most of the food in the world — and they do it on less than a quarter of the agricultural land on the planet."
"So there's a tremendous amount of inequity bound up in the food system which creates poverty and in turn creates hunger even in a world of abundance."
How Many Crude Oil Scientists Will Testify At Congressional Science Committee Hearing on Bakken Crude? Zero
When North Dakota congressman Kevin Cramer first announced he would hold this hearing, he promised to bring together the top scientists to discuss the properties of Bakken crude.
“I want three good solid scientists… consultants apart from all of the politicians and the presidential appointees. And I’ve promised them a very fair thorough review of the data and the evidence and the information. So that we can, you know, answer definitively and scientifically what is the volatility, if you will, of Bakken crude. How does it compare to other crudes?”
Congressman Cramer was apparently unable to find those three good scientists ... So for a hearing with the goal of determining the characteristics of Bakken crude oil, the experts include two firefighters, one oil industry lobbyist, a banker with oil industry experience and one engineer who just happens to work for the firm that issued the report saying Bakken is no different from other crude oils and does not require stabilization to make it safe for rail transport.
[Here's some background on the Bakken Crude bomb trains:]
The Crude Gamble of Oil by Rail: Bomb Trains
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Urban Shield: after Ferguson, police and suppliers consider fate of military-grade tactical gear
Goldman Sachs Warns Investors About Tar Sands By Rail Challenges While Investing in Tar Sands By Rail
NY Times Reports Ferguson City Government To Announce "Broad Changes" To Its Municipal Courts Today
Fed Makes Way For 'Detroitization' of Cities, States?
HT to Alan Grayson: Jail Time Possible for 'Too Big to Jail' ?
Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United - 3 Million Petitions Delivered
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal issues ruling protecting allies
A Small Victory: Urban Shield, the Police Militarization Glorification Convention, To Leave Oakland.
A Little Night Music
Meade Lux Lewis - Low Down Dog
Rod Piazza And The Mighty Flyers - Low Down Dog
Meade "Lux" Lewis - Bugle Call Rag
Meade Lux Lewis - Honky Tonk Train Blues
Bob Robinson w/ Meade Lux Lewis - The Preacher Must Get Some Sometime
Meade Lux Lewis, Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons - Boogie Woogie Prayer
Meade Lux Lewis - Cow Cow Blues
Meade 'Lux' Lewis - Don't Put That Thing in Me
Meade Lux Lewis - Bear Cat Crawl
Meade Lux Lewis - The Boogie Tidal
Meade "Lux" Lewis- Chicago Flyer
Meade Lux Lewis - Tell Your Story
Meade Lux Lewis - Roll 'em
Albert Ammons & Meade Lux Lewis - The Sheik of Araby
Meade "Lux" Lewis- Blues' Whistle
Albert Ammons / Meade "Lux" Lewis / Pete Johnson - Lady Be Good
Meade Lux Lewis - Yancey's Pride
Meade Lux Lewis - Melancholy Blues
Meade Lux Lewis - Doll House Boogie
Meade Lux Lewis - Celeste 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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