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 r&b pianist Lloyd Glenn. Enjoy!
Lloyd Glenn - Old Time Shuffle Blues
“We were very careful to stop short of torture.”
-- Dick Cheney
News and Opinion
The US Government truly is the most hypocritical organization on the face of the Earth. Apparently, when Assad's Syria was torturing people at the request of the US Government there was no human rights problem so serious that it required Assad's removal. Now that the empire has decided to cashier him, of course, Assad is a vicious, torturing criminal.
From the Department of Selective Outrage:
U.S. Says Europeans Tortured by Assad's Death Machine
The U.S. State Department has concluded that up to 10 European citizens have been tortured and killed while in the custody of the Syrian regime and that evidence of their deaths could be used for war crimes prosecutions against Bashar al-Assad in several European countries.
The new claim, made by the State Department’s ambassador at large for war crimes, Stephen Rapp, in an interview with me, is based on a newly completed FBI analysis of 27,000 photographs smuggled out of Syria by the former military photographer known as “Caesar.” The photos show evidence of the torture and murder of over 11,000 civilians in custody. The FBI spent months pouring over the photos and comparing them to consular databases with images of citizens from countries around the world.
Last month, the FBI gave the State Department its report, which included a group of photos that had been tentatively matched to individuals who were already in U.S. government files. “The group included multiple individuals who were non-Syrian, but none who had a birthplace in the United States, according to our information,” Rapp told me. “There were Europeans within that group.”
[Hey looky, those useless bastards at the FBI can investigate torture! -js]
The implications could be huge for the international drive to prosecute Assad and other top Syrian officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity. While it’s unlikely that multilateral organizations such as the United Nations or the International Criminal Court will pursue cases against Assad in the near term, due to opposition by Assad’s allies including Russia, legal cases against the regime could be brought in individual countries whose citizens were victims of torture and murder.
America’s Depraved Leadership Has Created a Depraved Population
A majority of Americans think torture is justified. They are split on whether the Torture report should have been released. And they think Torture prevented attacks. ...
Before Bush, most Americans were against torture. The endless drumbeat of propaganda and the need to justify what America does (America is good, therefore America does not do evil), has had its effect.
I will make an ethical judgment: people think torture is justified are bad people. Depraved people. A society where a majority thinks it is justified is a depraved culture. (And remember, 51% think it was justified, but 20% don’t have an opinion. Only about a third of Americans are opposed.)
I'm putting this here for those that need a temporary break from the awfulness that is the US Government and a reminder that there are still good, beautiful and awesome pursuits that Americans engage in.
Cave-digging artist finds inspiration underground
Billion Dollar Surveillance Blimp to Launch over Maryland
In just a few days, the Army will launch the first of two massive blimps over Maryland, the last gasp of an 18-year-long $2.8-billion Army project intended to use giant airships to defend against cruise missiles.
And while the blimps may never stave off a barrage of enemy missiles, their ability to spot and track cars, trucks and boats hundreds of miles away is raising serious privacy concerns.
The project is called JLENS – or “Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System.” ... Technically considered aerostats, since they are tethered to mooring stations, these lighter-than-air vehicles will hover at a height of 10,000 feet just off Interstate 95, about 45 miles northeast of Washington, D.C., and about 20 miles from Baltimore. That means they can watch what’s happening from North Carolina to Boston, or an area the size of Texas. ...
Aerostats like JLENS aren’t limited to radar. If equipped with extremely high-resolution video cameras, they can see and record everything for miles, with extraordinary detail. In Kabul, for example, residents are used to seeing the U.S. military’s tethered aerostat—called the Persistent Ground Surveillance system—hovering above the city, capturing video of daily life below.
The Army insists that there will be no cameras on JLENS for now.
Extensive redactions in the hundreds of pages of contracting documents related to JLENS in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by EPIC leave the true scope of the project unclear.
One EPIC researcher poring through the documents found an alarming passage. The Army’s contract with Raytheon, it said, will be evaluated based on its “potential to grow to accommodate new and/or alternative missions.”
Press Freedom Fight: Reporter James Risen Faces Subpoena in CIA Whistleblower Case
Hamas Is To Be Taken Off the European Union's List of Terrorist Groups
The European Union must remove Hamas from its list of terrorist groups, a top EU court ruled on Wednesday, a decision that compounded Israeli anger over Europe's stance on Palestine just as the bloc's parliament voted to recognize it as a state.
Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, has been present on the list since it was first drafted and voted on in 2001, a designation that brings with it an asset freeze.
In Luxembourg on Wednesday, the General Court of the European Union ruled that the decision to put Hamas on the list was based on "factual imputations derived from the press and the internet," rather than "elements which have been concretely examined and confirmed."
However, the court was keen to stress that it was not making a substantive judgment on whether Hamas was in fact a terrorist organization, ruling that the designation — which has been challenged by the group — could not be made on the basis of the evidence provided.
In anticipation of further action or an appeal by the EU, the court stated that Hamas' assets can remain frozen for the next three months "in order to ensure the effectiveness of any possible future freezing of funds."
Geneva Conventions invoke rights of Palestinians
The international community delivered a stinging rebuke to Israel's settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, saying Wednesday the practice violates its responsibilities as an occupying power.
A declaration adopted by consensus among 126 of the 196 parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention insists that international humanitarian law must be followed in areas affected by the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Geneva Conventions govern the rules of war and military occupation. Nations that took part in a one-day conference in Geneva "emphasize that all serious violations of international humanitarian law must be investigated and that all those responsible should be brought to justice," according to the 10-point declaration.
Swiss Ambassador Paul Fivat, who chaired the conference, told reporters afterward the declaration is legally binding on all nations that adopted it. Israel and the U.S. didn't participate.
"This is a signal and we can hope that words count," Fivat said. The declaration emphasizes one aspect of the Geneva Conventions: a prohibition on colonizing occupied land.
US and Cuba Move to Restore Diplomatic Relationships and End the Embargo
Senior US administration officials said on a call with reporters on Wednesday that the US will open an embassy in Havana and move to lift restrictions.
"Today, the United States is taking historic steps to chart a new course in our relations with Cuba and to further engage and empower the Cuban people," the White House said in a statement. ...
Both President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro are expected to announce changes in the countries' relationships at noon today, in what marks the most significant diplomatic overture since the two countries severed ties in January 1961. Former president Fidel Castro was not involved in the talks, officials said.
The two presidents spoke on the phone yesterday — the first contact between the countries' presidents since the Cuban Revolution more than half a century ago, officials said.
The announcement followed 18 months of secret talks held in Canada which were encouraged by Pope Francis, who personally wrote letters to Obama and Castro in the summer of 2014, officials said. The last round of talks took place at the Vatican.
Rouble halts fall but remains volatile as Russia awaits Vladimir Putin speech
The rouble stopped its downward spiral on Wednesday but remained volatile during the day, as Russia waited for Vladimir Putin to pronounce on the country’s currency crisis.
The Russian president said earlier in the month that a falling rouble was good for the country as it would stimulate domestic production, but he has not spoken on the matter publicly since the currency’s collapse at the beginning of this week.
Putin will give his annual press conference on Thursday, a ritualised marathon in which he speaks for hours on all areas of policy.
The rouble has lost around half its value against the dollar since the start of the year and the economic stability that has been the cornerstone of Putin’s promises to the Russian people appears seriously under threat. ...
Kremlin watchers will be looking closely to see if Putin takes adopts a more conciliatory tone or comes out fighting on Thursday. In his state of the nation address earlier in the month, he was combative, blaming the west for trying to destroy Russia and justifying the annexation of Crimea as the return of “sacred Russian land”.
Pentagon confirms military buildup along Russia borders for ‘peace & stability’
Despite Warnings of Future War, Obama to Impose New Russian Sanctions
Instead of negotiations designed to end crisis over status of Ukraine, White House says president will sign quietly passed bill that critics says will solidify new Cold War
The White House announced late Tuesday that President Obama will sign into a law a provocative, yet largely ignored, bill passed by both chambers of Congress last week that critics say increases the chances of a future military confrontation with Russia.
Despite some reservations voiced by the president, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said Obama will sign the bill by the end of the week, making law a bill that calls for new economic sanctions against Russia while also authorizing the sale of military equipment to the Kiev government in Ukraine and hundreds of millions of dollars in other support. ...
Critics, including former congressman from Ohio Dennis Kucinich, have raised serious objections to both the contents of the bill and how it was rushed through Congress with little debate. In a scathing op-ed warning that his former colleauges may be recklessly laying the groundwork for a new and deeper Cold War between the U.S./NATO alliance and Russia, Kucinich called the sanctions bill "a hydra-headed incubator of poisonous conflict."
American Indians Denied Permit to Hold #NativeLivesMatter” March in Rapid City
RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA — The Rapid City police chief has denied a group of American Indians its request to hold a #NativeLivesMatter” march in Rapid City, South Dakota on Friday, December 19, 2014.
Cody Hall submitted an application on behalf of the group to the Rapid City Police Department for a special event permit on December 12, 2014 to hold a “police brutality awareness walk” that would wind through the streets of Rapid City’s downtown, originating one side of the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center and finishing on the opposite side of the civic center.
The timing of the event that coincides with the Lakota Nations Invitational (LNI) that brings in some 2,500 basketball players and their families and friends. The annual event is a huge event in Rapid City.
The letter cites the large crowd that LNI attracts as being the reason for denial. ...
The organizing group feels that the timing for the rally is ideal because of the crowd of American Indians in the city for the invitational. In light of the national attention being given around to police violence against victims in Ferguson and Staten Island, the organizers felt it is time to give some attention to what Native people suffer by law enforcement.
Hundreds Gather to Remember Comanche Tribal Member, Who Died While in Police Custody
LAWTON, OKLAHOMA — On December 13, 2014, the family and friends of Christina Tahhahwah, who died under suspicious circumstances while in police custody, held a vigil in Shepler Park, across the street from the Lawton Police Department. Hundreds gathered to honor her memory and to support her family as they seek answers for the many questions surrounding her death.
The Lawton Police arrested Christina Tahhahwah at her grandparents’ home on November 13. She suffered from bi-polar disorder and stopped taking her medications, which led to the family calling the police to aid in taking her to the hospital for medical care. ... On November 14, Tahhahwah was found unresponsive in her cell, minutes after being handcuffed to the cell door for unknown reasons. She had gone into cardiac arrest and resuscitation efforts were given by emergency medical personnel until the ambulance crew arrived and was able to transfer her to the hospital, where she was put on life support and admitted to the intensive care unit.
[T]he family called the Lawton Police Department and the hospital to try to find out what had happened to Christina. Once they knew that she was, in fact, hospitalized they gathered at the hospital. It was there that they heard began hearing reports from fellow inmates that she was tased for refusing to obey a command to stop singing Comanche hymns.
Was Key Grand Jury Witness in Michael Brown Case a Racist, Mentally Ill, Lying Ex-Felon?
Family of Ohio man shot and killed in Walmart sue company, police
The family of an Ohio man shot and killed by police while holding a BB gun in a Walmart store filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit on Tuesday against the police and the national retail chain.
John Crawford, 22, was shot after a 911 caller reported a man with a gun at the Beavercreek Walmart in a suburb of the southern Ohio city of Dayton.
In a surveillance video released by authorities, Crawford, who is black, can be seen picking up an unpackaged BB gun off a shelf and walking through the store while talking on a cell phone until a white police officer shot him. ...
In September, a grand jury opted not to indict the two Beavercreek officers involved in the shooting.
A must-read from David Dayen:
CRomnibus Disaster Signals a Sad New Normal in D.C.
House Democrats, under the thought leadership of Elizabeth Warren, waged a monumental yet ultimately unsuccessful fight against two dangerous provisions in the so-called “CRomnibus” year-end spending package. ... And given how the White House basically turned on its own party, all too happy to accept the roll-backs of liberal priorities, it’s clear that this kind of legislative sausage-making will be the norm, not the exception, come 2015. ...
Under the bill, trustees would be enabled to cut pension benefits to current retirees, reversing a 40-year bond with workers who earned their retirement packages. Voters in the District of Columbia who approved legalized marijuana will see their initiative vaporized, with local government prohibited from taxing or regulating the drug’s sale. Trucking companies can make roads less safe by giving their employees 82-hour work weeks without sufficient rest breaks. Pell grants for college students will be cut, with the money diverted to private student loan contractors who have actively harmed borrowers. Government financiers of overseas projects will be prevented from stopping funding for coal-fired power plants. Blue Cross and Blue Shield will be allowed to count “quality improvement” measures toward their mandatory health spending under Obamacare’s “medical loss ratio” provision, a windfall saving them millions of dollars.
I’m not done. The bill eliminates a bipartisan measure to end “backdoor” searches by the NSA of Americans’ private communications. It blocks the EPA from regulating certain water sources for farmers. It adds an exception to allow the U.S. to continue to fund Egypt’s military leadership. In a giveaway to potato growers, it reduces nutrition standards in school lunches and the Women, Infant and Children food aid program. It halts the listing of new endangered species. It stops the regulation of lead in hunting ammunition or fishing equipment. It limits contributions to the Green Climate Fund to compensate poor countries ravaged by climate change. I could go on. And even if the offending measures on derivatives and campaign finance were removed, all of that dreck would remain.
Policy riders are an enduring feature of must-pass spending bills in divided government — you may remember President Obama telling House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) “I will give you D.C. abortion,” a reference to a prior budget deal that re-imposed a ban on local funding for abortions within the District of Columbia. But the flood of them in this bill, practically all of them benefiting one donor or another, offers a window into how Washington will operate in 2015 and beyond. ...
the White House, seen as the bulwark against the GOP’s imminent legislative dominance, never threatened a veto of the CRomnibus over these riders. ... It actively whipped against its own party leadership in the House. Democrats complained of being “targeted and lobbied by the White House” on the legislation. This is sure to be a recurring policymaking feature of the next two years.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature articles from the United Mine Workers Journal on the end of the Colorado Coalfield Strike.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Wal-Mart must pay $188 million in workers' class action
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered Wal-Mart Stores Inc to pay $188 million to employees who had sued the retailer for failing to compensate them for rest breaks and all hours worked.
Wal-Mart said on Tuesday that it might appeal the decision, which upheld lower court rulings, to the U.S. Supreme Court. ...
The decision, which affects about 187,000 Wal-Mart employees who worked in Pennsylvania between 1998 and 2006, marks the second unfavorable ruling in a week for the retailer, the largest private employer in the United States.
On Dec. 9, a National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge found Wal-Mart had threatened employees trying to organize workers at two stores in California.
The Evening Greens
'Biggest Fracking Victory Ever!' as New York Bans Dangerous Drilling in State
It's official. New York state will ban fracking.
After years of lobbying and aggressive public protest by state residents to make permanent a short-term moratorium on the controversial oil and gas drilling practice, Gov. Andrew Cuomo cited harm to public health as the key reason for the decision to announce an all-out ban. "The potential impacts of fracking on water, air, land resources, community and local services are significant," Cuomo said in a tweet just after the decision was made public.
In response to the news, Wenonah Hauter, director of Food & Water Watch, which has fought aggressively against fracking in New York and across the country, declared the development as the "Biggest fracking victory ever!"
'Pinhole' leak in Great Lakes gas pipeline raises fears
A pinhole leak in a controversial petroleum pipeline running through the Upper Peninsula released an undetermined amount of natural gas liquid that dispersed into the atmosphere north of Manistique, near the Indian River, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced Tuesday.
A spokesman for Canadian oil transport giant Enbridge, which operates the Line 5 pipeline, however, said it was not a leak, but a "pinhole-sized defect, observed in the weld of the pipe," during a planned investigation of the pipeline Dec. 8.
Leak or defect, the incident heightened concerns among some people about a 61-year-old stretch of the pipeline that runs underwater through the Straits of Mackinac, and what a spill there could do to the Great Lakes. ...
Line 5 should be rerouted away from the Great Lakes, National Wildlife Federation vice president for conservation action Andy Buchsbaum said.
The Dec. 8 leak discovery "demonstrates that eventually, all pipelines leak — the question is when and how much," he said. "Knowing that sooner or later Line 5 will leak again, it's simply unacceptable for a portion of that pipeline to be lying on the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac."
Naomi Klein Interview: "A 3-Day Week Will Help to Save Life on Earth"
You write about “selective degrowth” and ideas like a shorter working week and a universal basic income to discourage “shitty work”. Do you think people are ready for those ideas?
I think people know they’re overworked. And overworking is intimately tied to a particularly wasteful model of consumption – you have no time after work to do anything other than grab a takeaway, and less time for low-consumption activities like cooking.
So it’s time to stop pretending big companies are going to change everything?
There’s been a bias among many big environmental organisations to build coalitions with other elite groups. You’d be amazed by how much time green groups in the US spend thinking about how to get the Pentagon using green energy. Really? Is that the best we can hope for?
The idea we’re all guilty is demobilising because it prevents us directing our anger at the institutions most responsible
And it’s time to get angry?
Yes – I think people should be angry. A lot of environmentalist discourse has been about erasing responsibility: “We’re all in this together… We’re all equally responsible.” Well, no – you, me and Exxon (Mobil) are not all in this together.The idea we’re all guilty is demobilising because it prevents us directing our anger at the institutions most responsible.
Bad News for Florida: Models of Greenland Ice Melting Could Be Way Off
Existing computer models may be severely underestimating the risk to Greenland's ice sheet — which would add 20 feet to sea levels if it all melted — from warming temperatures, according to two studies released Monday.
Satellite data were instrumental for both studies — one which concludes that Greenland is likely to see many more lakes that speed up melt, and the other which better tracks large glaciers all around Earth's largest island. ...
The study upends models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change because they "didn't allow for lake spreading, so the work has to be done again," study co-author Andrew Shepherd, director of Britain's Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, told NBCNews.com.
Those lakes can speed up ice loss since, being darker than the white ice, they can absorb more of the sun's heat and cause melting. The melt itself creates channels through the ice sheet to weaken it further, sending ice off the sheet and into the ocean.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Hat tip divineorder:
Three Members of Congress Just Reignited the Cold War While No One Was Looking
This is a truly excellent article:
Policing is a Dirty Job, But Nobody's Gotta Do It: 6 Ideas for a Cop-Free World
This was linked in the previous article and it's also very much worth reading:
The Demand For Order And The Birth Of Modern Policing
We are f***ing sadists: We are not decent, and we are not a democracy
The Sound of Torture
New York Medicaid to cover transgender health care
A Little Night Music
Lloyd Glenn + Clarence Gatemouth Brown - Slow Train #1
Lloyd Glenn/Jesse Thomas - I'm So Blue
Lloyd Glenn's Combo - Chica Boo
Lowell Fulson & Lloyd Glenn - Reconsider Baby
Lloyd Glenn - Southbound Special
Lloyd Glenn - Nite Flite
Lloyd Glenn - The Vamp
Lloyd Glenn - Sleigh Ride
Lloyd Glenn - Blue Ivories
Lloyd Glenn & His Band - Wild Fire
Lloyd Glenn - Rompin' Rhumba
Lloyd Glenn - Twistville
Lloyd Glenn - Tipsy
Lloyd Glenn - Honky Tonk Train
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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