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 jazz singer Victoria Spivey. Enjoy!
Victoria Spivey - Black Snake Blues
"The greatest bad guys, you understand where they're coming from. They believe they're doing the right thing. Sometimes it's for greed, sometimes it's for other reasons, but they are what they call the center of good. They always believe they're doing the right thing."
-- John Lasseter
News and Opinion
Fellow Nobel Peace Laureates to Obama: Stain of US Torture Your Job to Repair
Twelve fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureates have written an open letter to President Barack Obama, urging the 2009 recipient of the award to finally close one of the "dark chapters" of recent U.S. history by first acknowledging, and then rejecting, the "flagrant use of torture and other violations of international law" that have been conducted in the name of "fighting terrorism" since 2001. ...
"When a nation’s leaders condone and even order torture, that nation has lost its way," the letter states. "One need only look to the regimes where torture became a systematic practice – from Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany to the French in Algeria, South Vietnam, the Khmer Rouge and others – to see the ultimate fate of a regime so divorced from their own humanity." ...
In addition to pressing for an overall commitment to disclose and disavow the torture practices conducted by the CIA and other agencies, the signers of the letter suggest President Obama take four specific steps in order to begin to repair the damage such actions have had on the nation and the world. They include:
• Full disclosure to the American people of the extent and use of torture and rendition by American soldiers, operatives, and contractors, as well as the authorization of torture and rendition by American officials.
• Full verification of the closure and dismantling of ‘black sites” abroad for the use of torture and interrogation.
• Clear planning and implementation for the closure of Guantanamo prison, putting an end to indefinite detention without due process.
• Adoption of firm policy and oversight restating and upholding international law relating to conflict, including the Geneva Convention and the UN Convention against Torture, realigning the nation to the ideals and beliefs of their founders – the ideals that made the United States a standard to be emulated.
Frustrated CIA Blames Torture Report Delays on Senators Who Want It To Be Intelligible
The CIA today hotly denied that it is intentionally holding up the release of a Senate report on its role in torturing detainees, charging instead that Senator Dianne Feinstein’s intelligence committee is responsible for dragging out the negotiations.
“The suggestion that CIA is delaying or obstructing the negotiations over redactions is patently false,” agency spokesman Ryan Trapani said in a statement to The Interecept. “CIA has been doing all it can to bring the process to a conclusion as expeditiously as possible, in order that we can fully focus on the many threats facing our nation.”
It is “the Committee’s objections to the redactions” that “have delayed the process,” he said. ...
A Senate intelligence committee staffer, who said he was authorized to speak for the committee but not by name, told The Intercept the delays are due to the CIA’s continued refusal to “unredact” crucial elements of the document. ...
The administration originally blacked out 15 percent of the summary — the equivalent of one word for every seven. ...
Either side in a negotiation can technically blame the other for holding up an agreement. But the CIA does have a bad track record here.
All the NSA Will Say About Its Alarmingly Entrepreneurial Top Spy Is That She’s Resigning
Teresa Shea used to be the National Security Agency’s director of signals intelligence, plus the wife of an executive in the business of selling things to agencies like hers, plus the host of a home-based signals intelligence business, plus the owner, via yet another business, of a six-seat airplane and resort-town condo.
She’s going to have to drop the first arrangement. After controversy in the press about her apparent conflicts of interests, Shea is stepping down from the NSA, according to Buzzfeed’s Aram Roston. ...
All the NSA would tell BuzzFeed is that Shea’s exit from her role was routine and long planned — “well before recent news articles” — and that she would remain employed in some capacity.
NSA reviewing deal between official, ex-spy agency head
The U.S. National Security Agency has launched an internal review of a senior official’s part-time work for a private venture started by former NSA director Keith Alexander that raises questions over the blurring of lines between government and business.
Under the arrangement, which was confirmed by Alexander and current intelligence officials, NSA's Chief Technical Officer, Patrick Dowd, is allowed to work up to 20 hours a week at IronNet Cybersecurity Inc, the private firm led by Alexander, a retired Army general and his former boss.
The arrangement was approved by top NSA managers, current and former officials said. It does not appear to break any laws and it could not be determined whether Dowd has actually begun working for Alexander, who retired from the NSA in March. ...
Current and former U.S. intelligence officials, some of whom requested anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said they could not recall a previous instance in which a high-ranking U.S. intelligence official was allowed to concurrently work for a private-sector firm.
They said it risked a conflict of interest between sensitive government work and private business, and could be seen as giving favoritism to Alexander's venture. IronNet Cybersecurity is developing a new approach to protect computer networks from hackers and is marketing it to financial institutions and other private-sector firms.
Hat tip Don midwest:
Glenn Greenwald - Ottawa - 10/25/2014
College police across the US armed with military-grade weaponry
The deployment of police bearing military hardware against the population of Ferguson, Missouri in August shocked the world. But the paramilitary equipment and tactics used by police in Ferguson is only the most visible expression of the militarization of police that has taken place throughout the United States.
This process has even extended to college campuses. At least 117 campus police departments have been recipients of surplus war materiel from the Defense Department under the 1033 equipment transfer program, according to a report published last month by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle filed a battery of Freedom of Information requests with state governments to ascertain the extent of military equipment being deployed on US college campuses. Its findings present a picture of American campuses very unlike the traditional admission catalog photographs of smiling students walking through leafy quads.
At least 60 colleges have acquired M-16 assault rifles, apparently the most popular request under the 1033 program. Arizona State has a government-supplied arsenal of 70 M-16s. A wide range of large and small, four-year and community colleges are involved. ...
The report contains the searchable database of military hardware disbursed to colleges secured by the Chronicle.
On Campus, Grenade Launchers, M-16s, and Armored Vehicles
Should the campus police at the University of Central Florida ever need a grenade launcher, one sits waiting in the department’s armory. Repurposed to fire tear-gas canisters, the weapon was used several years ago for training exercises, according to Richard Beary, the university’s chief of police. It hasn’t left storage since.
At Central Florida, which has an enrollment of nearly 60,000 and a Division I football team, the device was acquired, a police spokeswoman said, for “security and crowd control.” But the university’s police force isn’t the only one to have come upon a grenade launcher. Hinds Community College—located in western Mississippi, with a student population of 11,000—had one too. ...
After the buildup and winding down of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the amount of surplus equipment available to law-enforcement agencies increased drastically. At colleges, where terrorist attacks and shootouts with drug cartels are virtually unheard of, the active-shooter scenario became the primary justification for colleges to acquire tactical gear.
Table of equipment here.
Whisper CEO suspends staff pending inquiry into 'anonymity' revelations
The chief executive of the “anonymous” social media app Whisper has placed at least two employees on administrative leave, pending an internal investigation by the company.
Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed that Whisper, which promises users anonymity and claims to be “the safest place on the internet”, was tracking the location of its users, including some who had specifically asked not to be followed.
Michael Heyward made the announcement the day after it emerged that a powerful Senate committee chairman had written to the company, raising “serious questions” about its use of data.
Heyward did not specify how many members of staff on his editorial team had been suspended or say who they were, but other media outlets reported that those put on leave included Neetzan Zimmerman, the company’s editor-in-chief.
Iraqi Kurds to offer artillery support, not direct combat, in Kobani
Iraqi Kurdish forces will not engage in direct combat in the Syrian town of Kobani but are to provide artillery support for fellow Kurds fending off Islamic State militants there, the regional government's spokesman told Reuters on Sunday. ...
Last week, Ankara said it would allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters passage through Turkish territory in order to reach the besieged border town. The autonomous region's parliament voted in favor of deploying some of its peshmerga forces, which have been fighting their own battle against Islamic State in northern Iraq, to Syria.
"Primarily, it will be a back-up support with artillery and other weapons," Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) spokesman Safeen Dizayee told Reuters. "It will not be combat troops as such, at this point anyway."
The Syrian Kurdish forces defending Kobani have said heavier weaponry is vital to fighting the better armed Islamic State fighters.
They have specifically asked for armor-piercing missiles able to destroy the tanks and other armored vehicles used by Islamic State.
Air strikes hit near Kobani and Mosul dam as US-led coalition targets Isis
US-led air strikes against Islamic State (Isis) militants continued on Sunday with 12 strikes in Iraq and five in Syria. The strikes followed 22 in Iraq and one in Syria on Friday and Saturday.
Kurdish and Iraqi government forces reported gains against Isis forces achieved with the aid of such strikes.
On Sunday, US Central Command said nine air strikes were made around the strategic Mosul dam and three south-east of Fallujah, hitting a small Isis unit and destroying armed vehicles.
The five strikes in Syria were aimed at targets near the besieged town of Kobani, near the border with Turkey.
“In Syria five air strikes near Kobani destroyed seven [Isis] vehicles and an [Isis] building,” Central Command said in a statement.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the death toll around Kobani had reached 815. That number included 21 Kurdish civilians and 302 fighters with the main Kurdish force, the Peoples Protection Units or YPG. The Observatory said 481 Isis fighters had been killed since the battles began
Hmm... seems like there's not much difference between ISIS and some of the Iraqis fighting it...
After victory in key Iraqi town, time for revenge
After helping government forces break Islamic State's grip over a strategic town just south of Baghdad on Saturday, Shi'ite militias decided it was time for payback.
A Reuters witness saw the fighters in green camouflage uniforms scream and swear at members of the Islamist group as they kicked and struck them with rifle butts in Jurf al-Sakhar.
As the angry crowd of militiamen around the unarmed militants swelled, shots rang out. The three men lay soaked in blood in the dirt with gunshot wounds to the head.
"Those dogs are Chechens. They don't deserve to stay alive. We took confessions from them and we don't need them anymore," said one of the Shi'ite militiamen.
The victory could allow Iraqi forces to prevent the Sunni insurgents from edging closer to the capital, sever connections to their strongholds in western Anbar province and stop them infiltrating the mainly Shi'ite Muslim south.
Israeli president warns on Arab-Jewish relations
Israel’s president has delivered a sharp warning on declining Arab-Jewish relations on a visit to the scene of a massacre by Israeli police of 47 Arab villagers in 1956.
Reuven Rivlin – the first sitting Israeli president to visit Kafr Qasim on the day of town’s annual commemoration of the killings – acknowledged the massacre as a “terrible crime” and “murder of the innocents” for which the state of Israel had apologised.
Defying calls from rightwing supporters not to speak at the event, Rivlin – who a week ago called Israel a “sick society in need of treatment” - used the occasion to warn against those on both sides “who wish to sweep us into a maelstrom of destruction and pain”.
Although a member of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party, Rivlin has spoken out against increasing racism and violence in Israeli society since succeeding Shimon Peres as president in July.
Insisting that the state of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, he added: “However, the state of Israel will also always be the homeland of the Arab population, which numbers more than one and a half million … The Arab population is not a marginal group in Israeli society … Many of them experience not uncommon manifestations of racism and arrogance on the part of Jews.”
Jerusalem and the Fate of Palestinians
Jordan warns settlements may 'imperil' treaty with Israel
Jordan warned Israel on Sunday their peace treaty would be threatened by continued Jewish settlement building on disputed land sought by the Palestinians and any change to the religious status of a key Muslim shrine in Jerusalem.
"All such acts are incompatible with international law and international humanitarian law and if allowed to continue will ultimately imperil the treaty," Jordan's ambassador to Israel, Walid Obeidat, said at an event for the treaty's 20th anniversary.
Obeidat was referring to efforts by far-right Israelis to change the status of a plaza near the al-Aqsa mosque holy to Jews as the place where two ancient temples stood, and reports of plans to build more settlements in land Palestinians want for a state. ...
Netanyahu's right-wing political allies have been pressing to introduce legislation to permit Jewish prayer in the vicinity of the mosque which Jews call the Temple Mount, and Muslims know as Haram es-Sharif, the site where the Prophet Mohammed rose to heaven.
Ukraine Votes for New Parliament as Conflict in East Continues
Ukrainians filed into polling stations on a clear, chilly morning Sunday to elect a new parliament, while the nation's leader, whose pro-Western party is projected to win a majority of seats in the contest, visited soldiers in the restive east, where voting in some areas was difficult or altogether stifled.
Sunday was the second time that Ukrainians have plunged paper at the polls since a wave protests swept former Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovych from power in February.
The first round of voting brought the soft-spoken, self-made confectionary tycoon Petro Poroshenko to power in a landslide, while Sunday's parliamentary elections are expected to secure the so-called Chocolate King's authority over the state, allowing him to enact the widespread reforms needed to woo the European Union into formally offering Ukraine a seat at the table. ...
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's Popular Front Party and the Fatherland Party of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko are expected to secure positions in parliament. Polls also suggest that the pro-war Radical Party, led by the alleged neo-nazi Oleh Lyashko, which has been gaining increasing notoriety of late, will also surpass the required five percent vote to enter parliament to gain one or more places in the 450-seat assembly.
Who Are The Rocket Scientists Aiding Senior Fraudulent Bank Officers?
Michigan Bans Tesla Car Sales
Pressure from car dealers and General Motors resulted in Governor Rick Snyder signing at the last minute a law that made it impossible to directly sell in Michigan electric cars manufactured by Tesla Motors, a company that's based in Palo Alto, California, and a company that's rapidly growing. Car dealers claim that the ban was made in the interest of the consumer. Tesla was not mentioned in the law.
For those who want to see how capitalism actually works, this story (the state, the corporations, the law, the ban) will give you the best picture. What it shows is that capitalism is not about free markets and all of the classical and neoclassical nonsense taught in economic courses; it's about this very close relationship between the state and the most powerful members of the business community.
TIME Magazine Criticized for 'Malicious' Anti-Teacher Cover
Educators and parents are slamming TIME magazine editors for their November 3rd issue cover, which they say levies "malicious" and "false" attacks against the nation's public school teachers.
“ROTTEN APPLES," reads the cover, which includes an image of an apple about to be pounded by a gavel. "It’s Nearly Impossible to Fire a Bad Teacher. Some Tech Millionaires May Have Found a Way to Change That.” The picture and text promote a story by Haley Sweetland Edwards.
"TIME magazine is about to use its cover to blame teachers for every problem in America's schools," said American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten. According to Weingarten, the message of the cover does not even accurately represent the magazine's "own reporting," which, she says, raises important questions about "the testing industry's connections to Silicon Valley and the motives of these players."teacher-cover_0.jpg
As one of the top-selling magazines in the United States, the issue will be seen on display in dentists' offices, grocery stores, and news stands across the country. Critics say that the nuance of the article itself is steamrolled by the magazine's anti-teacher cover, which parrots the narrative of the so-called "corporate education reformers," who push policies to break teachers' unions, privatize public education, and emphasize high-stakes standardized testing.
Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Notes on a Wretched Election Season
With a mere 11 days remaining until election day, the news appears grim for the Democratic Party. The general consensus seems to be that it is more likely than not that the Republicans will retake the Senate. And that, Democratic Party diehards argue, would pretty much be the end of the world. ...
It is well documented that the Republican Party is adept at getting people to vote against their own interests. Gerrymandering has made all but a handful of House races utterly non-competitive. Voter ID laws have suppressed the Democratic vote despite there being statistically almost no voter fraud in the nation. But there is more going on than simple Republican malfeasance - the Democratic Party is also at fault here. For the last few decades, ever since Clinton triangulated himself into the presidency, the party has counted on its more left-wing constituents to shut up and take what they’re given because, well, the Republicans are just awful.
The party expects its loyalists to go along, as they have for so many years, voting for whatever sorry excuse for a Democrat they put before the voters because the alternative would be a disaster. It’s long past time for that to stop, for the party to stand for something more than being a slightly more palatable option, for the party to take an actual stand on issues instead of using fear to bully voters into giving them money and our votes. That's not a choice between two opposing sets of public policies.
Former Cream bassist Jack Bruce dies aged 71
Bassist Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce, the singer and bassist for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Cream, has passed away, his family confirmed the musician's passing on his Facebook page. He was 71. ... Bruce's publicist added, "He died today at his home in Suffolk surrounded by his family." No other details were revealed but the Press Association reports that the bassist suffered from liver disease.
As one-third of one of rock's greatest trios, along with guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker, Bruce was the voice and songwriter behind classic tracks like "White Room," "SWLABR," and "Sunshine of Your Love," which Bruce co-wrote with Clapton. Considered to be the first rock "supergroup," Cream pumped out four studio albums in three years – three of which landed on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time – before going their separate ways.
The band reunited briefly in 1993 for their Rock Hall induction, then again in for a triumphant series of 2005 concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall and New York's Madison Square Garden.
Jack Bruce & His Big Blues Band - Estival Jazz Lugano 2011
The Evening Greens
Indigenous Communities Take Chevron to Global Court for 'Crimes Against Humanity'
Chevron's repeated refusal to clean up its toxic contamination of Ecuador's Amazon rainforest constitutes an "attack" on civilian populations and should be investigated by the International Criminal Court in the Hague, impacted indigenous and farming communities charged this week in a formal complaint (pdf) to the global body.
“In the context of international criminal law, the decisions made by Chevron’s CEO, John Watson, have deliberately maintained—and contributed to—the polluted environment in which the people of the Oriente region of Ecuador live and die every day,” states the complaint, which was submitted to the ICC's Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on Thursday on behalf of approximately 80 affected communities, totaling tens of thousands of people.
In 2011, impacted communities won a judgment in an Ecuadorian court against Texaco (acquired by Chevron in 2001) for its toxic waste dumping in the Lago Agrio region in northeastern Ecuador between 1964 and 1992, which created an ongoing environmental and public health crisis, including high cancer rates and reported birth defects among residents. Last year, Ecuador's National Court of Justice upheld the verdict but cut the initial mandated payment from $18 billion to $9.5 billion.
Chevron has repeatedly refused to pay the $9.5 billion ordered by Ecuadorian courts and even took the step of removing most of its assets from Ecuador in an apparent effort to avoid paying. Petitioners slam what they call "multiple collateral attacks against the judgment and the lawyers who represented the affected communities."
Severe Year-Long Drought in São Paulo Threatens Water Supply for Eight Million
São Paulo is experiencing its worst drought in over eight decades. Its largest reservoir, known as the Cantareira system, is on the brink of running dry, putting eight million of São Paulo's 20 million residents at risk of losing their primary water supply.
Peak capacity at Cantareira is 264 billion gallons. But after a year without adequate rainfall and scorching hot temperatures that have baked the landscape, capacity has fallen as low as three percent. ...
Sabesp, the state water utility, has taken drastic measures. It has dipped into an extra 10.6 billion gallons, available under the Cantareira, by pumping it out from deep below ground with three kilometers of specially built pipeline.
Another 28 billion gallons is being extracted from deep under the reservoir by a second emergency pumping system and water from five other reservoirs are being pumped into the Cantareira.
The state has announced it will send 20 tanker trucks to Itu, a city of 165,000 residents who say they have been hit the hardest by water rationing. The shortage has been affecting them for at least eight months, with residents saying they have had to go days without water, and has led to protests and confrontation with police. The tanker trucks will cost the government $2 million reais (US $815,000) for one month of emergency use, with the possibility of renewing the contract for another 30 days, if necessary.
Activists Form Human Blockade to Stop Community from Becoming 'Gas Station for Fracking'
Anti-fracking activists gathered in an act of non-violent civil disobedience on Friday morning near where energy company Crestwood Midstream was scheduled to begin construction on a massive underground gas storage depot on the banks of one of the Finger Lakes in central New York.
Wearing the color blue and calling themselves We Are Seneca Lake, protesters congregated for a rally and human blockade at the gates of the Crestwood compressor station site. Some were prepared to get arrested.
"Seneca Lake is a source of drinking water for 100,000 people and a source of economic prosperity for the whole region, not a gas station for fracking operations," said biologist and author Sandra Steingraber, who lives in the Finger Lakes region and participated in the demonstration. Steingraber spent 10 days in jail last year for blocking the entrance to the Inergy natural gas facility. "It’s a place for tourists, wineries, farms, and families. Speaking with our bodies in an act of civil disobedience is a measure of last recourse to protect our home, our water, and our local economy—with our bodies and our voices, telling Texas-based Crestwood to go home!”
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
The day Jon Stewart quit: Why “The Daily Show” isn’t the satire America needs
One-Fifth of Detroit's Population Could Lose Their Homes
Thomas Frank: “We are such losers”
Saudi Arabia: As Executions Rise, Allies Must Focus More Closely on Warring Anti-IS Forces
Chris Hedges: The Myth of the Free Press
In his own words: Ben Bradlee on liars
A Little Night Music
Louis Armstrong & Victoria Spivey - How do They Do It That Way?
Victoria Spivey- My Handy Man
Victoria Spivey - Detroit Moan
Victoria Spivey - One Hour Mama
Victoria Spivey -TB Blues
Victoria Spivey & Lonnie Johnson - Dope Head Blues
Victoria Spivey - Any Kind A Man
Victoria Spivey - Murder In The First Degree
Victoria Spivey - Funny Feathers
Victoria Spivey - Mama's Quittin' and Leavin' pt.1 & 2
Victoria Spivey - Blood Hound Blues
Victoria Spivey - Don't Trust Nobody Blues
Victoria Spivey - Garter Snake 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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