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 singers Carla Thomas and Little Esther Phillips. Enjoy!
Carla Thomas - Gee Whiz
“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”
-- Howard Zinn
News and Opinion
Obama's need for freedom from accountability and transparency claims another victim
Jeffrey A. Sterling, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, was convicted of espionage Monday on charges that he told a reporter for The New York Times about a secret operation to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program.
The conviction is a significant victory for the Obama administration, which has conducted an unprecedented crackdown on officials who speak to journalists about security matters without the administration’s approval. Prosecutors prevailed after a yearslong fight in which the reporter, James Risen, refused to identify his sources.
The case revolved around a C.I.A. operation in which a former Russian scientist provided Iran with intentionally flawed nuclear component schematics. Mr. Risen revealed the operation in his 2006 book, “State of War,” describing it as a mismanaged, potentially reckless mission that may have inadvertently aided the Iranian nuclear program.
On the third day of deliberations, the jury in federal court in Alexandria, Va., convicted Mr. Sterling on nine felony counts. Mr. Sterling, who worked for the C.I.A. from 1993 to 2002 and now lives in O’Fallon, Mo., faces a maximum possible sentence of decades in prison, though the actual sentence is likely to be far shorter. Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of Federal District Court, who presided over the weeklong trial, allowed Mr. Sterling to remain free on bond and set sentencing for April 24. ...
The Justice Department had no direct proof that Mr. Sterling, who managed the Iranian operation, provided the information to Mr. Risen, but prosecutors stitched together a strong circumstantial case. They described Mr. Sterling, who is black, as bitter and frustrated about what he believed was workplace discrimination. Telephone records and emails showed that Mr. Sterling and Mr. Risen had talked frequently, and prosecutors argued that only Mr. Sterling had the information, the motive and the opportunity to leak it.
CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling Convicted of Espionage
Torture If You Must, But Do Not Under Any Circumstances Call the New York Times
Monday’s guilty verdict in the trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling on espionage charges — for talking to a newspaper reporter — is the latest milepost on the dark and dismal path Barack Obama has traveled since his inaugural promises to usher in a “new era of openness.” ...
The Sterling case – especially in light of Obama’s complicity in the cover-up of torture during the Bush administration – sends a clear message to people in government service: You won’t get in trouble as long as you do what you’re told (even torture people). But if you talk to a reporter and tell him something we want kept secret, we will spare no effort to destroy you.
As author Scott Horton explained to me a few weeks ago, Obama’s thinking on these issues was swayed by John Brennan, the former senior adviser he eventually named CIA director. And for Brennan and his ilk, secrecy is a core value — partly for legitimate national security reasons and partly as an impregnable shield against embarrassment and accountability.
The Sterling case was until recently an even more direct attack on a free press, as Obama administration prosecutors repeatedly demanded testimony from New York Times reporter James Risen, who wrote about the botched plot against the Iranian government that they charged Sterling with divulging.
Risen’s testimony was crucial to their case, they said – although evidently it wasn’t. And their argument was that U.S. law recognizes no such thing as reporter’s privilege when a journalist received what the government considers an illegal leak.
Canada’s troops keep getting into firefights in Iraq, and reaction is mixed
Canadian Special Operations troops have engaged Islamic State militants in Iraq in firefights at least three times in recent days while training Kurdish troops, a turn of events that has raised questions about how the military advising mission in Iraq may be evolving.
A week after an announcement that Canadian forces had engaged in their first firefight in Iraq, Navy Capt. Paul Forget told reporters Monday that they had fired on Islamic State militants twice more in recent days. In each case, Canadian officials have said, their troops have only opened fired after coming under attack.
“In both cases, Canadian Special Operations forces, again acting in self-defense, effectively returned fire, neutralizing the threat,” Forget said Monday.
The incidents, however, illustrate how close Canadian forces are coming to enemy fighters. Canadian troops are now engaged in guiding bombs toward targets with laser guidance, a level of involvement that is not believed to have been authorized by U.S. commanders. Most of the airstrikes are carried out by U.S. aircraft, although a variety of partner nations also involved.
The incidents come as the United States and its partner nations in the campaign against the Islamic State grapple with how much danger to expose their troops to while advising Iraqi and Kurdish units. Although President Obama has said U.S. troops will not engage in direct combat in Iraq, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the nation’s top military officer, has suggested that he could recommend American forces be embedded with Iraqi forces on specific missions as advisers.
Putin: Ukraine Army Is a ‘NATO Legion’
In comments today in St. Petersburg, Russian President Vladimir Putin was harshly critical of the Ukrainian Army, saying it wasn’t a real army protecting the national interests of Ukraine, but little more than a NATO foreign legion.
Putin noted that the fighters against eastern rebels were only partially official Ukraine Army to begin with, backed by “volunteer nationalist battalions.”
U.S. Spies on Millions of Drivers
The Justice Department has been building a national database to track in real time the movement of vehicles around the U.S., a secret domestic intelligence-gathering program that scans and stores hundreds of millions of records about motorists, according to current and former officials and government documents. ...
Officials have publicly said that they track vehicles near the border with Mexico to help fight drug cartels. What hasn’t been previously disclosed is that the DEA has spent years working to expand the database “throughout the United States,’’ according to one email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Many state and local law-enforcement agencies are accessing the database for a variety of investigations, according to people familiar with the program, putting a wealth of information in the hands of local officials who can track vehicles in real time on major roadways.
The database raises new questions about privacy and the scope of government surveillance. The existence of the program and its expansion were described in interviews with current and former government officials, and in documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Unionthrough a Freedom of Information Act request and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. It is unclear if any court oversees or approves the intelligence-gathering.
Secret ‘BADASS’ Intelligence Program Spied on Smartphones
British and Canadian spy agencies accumulated sensitive data on smartphone users, including location, app preferences, and unique device identifiers, by piggybacking on ubiquitous software from advertising and analytics companies, according to a document obtained by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The document, included in a trove of Snowden material released by Der Spiegel on January 17, outlines a secret program run by the intelligence agencies called BADASS. The German newsweekly did not write about the BADASS document, attaching it to a broader article on cyberwarfare. According to The Intercept‘s analysis of the document, intelligence agents applied BADASS software filters to streams of intercepted internet traffic, plucking from that traffic unencrypted uploads from smartphones to servers run by advertising and analytics companies.
Programmers frequently embed code from a handful of such companies into their smartphone apps because it helps them answer a variety of questions: How often does a particular user open the app, and at what time of day? Where does the user live? Where does the user work? Where is the user right now? What’s the phone’s unique identifier? What version of Android or iOS is the device running? What’s the user’s IP address? Answers to those questions guide app upgrades and help target advertisements, benefits that help explain why tracking users is not only routine in the tech industry but also considered a best practice.
For users, however, the smartphone data routinely provided to ad and analytics companies represents a major privacy threat. When combined together, the information fragments can be used to identify specific users, and when concentrated in the hands of a small number of companies, they have proven to be irresistibly convenient targets for those engaged in mass surveillance.
"Selma" Director Defends Film’s Portrayal of LBJ-MLK Dispute on Voting Rights Legislation
Supreme Court Upholds Auto Stop With No Traffic Violation
For the first time, in December, the Supreme Court upheld a traffic stop even where there was no traffic violation. The court, in Heien v. North Carolina, continued its steady erosion of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.
In this case, an officer stopped a car that had only one working brake light, thinking that North Carolina law required two working brake lights. But the officer was mistaken about the law. Only one working brake light is required in North Carolina.
Although the court has upheld searches when an officer has made a mistake about the facts, the court has never before said an officer can stop someone due to a mistaken belief the person is committing a crime.
Sgt. Matt Darisse began following a Ford Escort because he thought the driver looked "very stiff and nervous." When the driver of the Escort applied the brakes, only one brake light came on. Darisse then pulled the car over.
Maynor Javier Vasquez was sitting behind the wheel and Nicholas Brady Heien was lying across the rear seat. Darisse gave Vasquez a warning ticket but became suspicious when the latter appeared nervous. Heien, the car's owner, told the officer he could search the car and Darisse found cocaine. Heien was arrested for attempted trafficking in cocaine.
Consent obtained after an unlawful traffic stop is invalid because it is a fruit of a Fourth Amendment violation. In Heien, however, the Supreme Court upheld the stop and thereby, Heien's consent to search.
Hmmm... if Argentina can divest itself of its too-big-for-their-britches clandestine services, why can't we?
Argentinian government moves to dissolve domestic intelligence agency
Argentina’s president announced a major shakeup of her country’s intelligence network on Monday in her most combative step yet to address the fallout from the death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman.
In her first televised address since the prosecutor’s body was found at his apartment on 18 January, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner said she would support a bill to dissolve the existing structure – which employs more than 2,000 people – and replace it with a new federal intelligence agency.
It follows a protracted struggle with the intelligence agency that has come to light after the suspicious death of Nisman, which the president blames on rogue spies who are trying to undermine her.
The prosecutor’s body was found the night before he was due to appear in congress and accuse Fernández and other senior officials of trying to cover up the country’s deadliest terrorist attack – the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.
At the time of his death, Nisman was supposed to be under the protection of a 10-man security detail. He left no note. Friends and associates say he showed no signs of depression and was looking forward to his appearance in congress.
Government officials have pointed the finger of blame at spies whom they say were working with Nisman and feeding him wiretap information.
Russia downgraded to junk status for first time in decade
Russia’s credit rating has been downgraded to junk status for the first time in a decade due to the collapsing oil price, the tumbling value of the rouble and sanctions imposed because of its intervention in Ukraine.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said the downgrade was caused by the country’s reduced flexibility to cut interest rates and a weakening of the financial system.
The ratings agency said the Central Bank of Russia “faces increasingly difficult monetary policy decisions while also trying to support sustainable GDP growth”. It added: “These challenges result from the inflationary effects of exchange rate depreciation and sanctions from the west as well as counter-sanctions imposed by Russia.”
Attempts to shore up the value of the rouble have had only a temporary effect, Standard & Poor’s said, noting that the 750 basis point rise in interest rates last month to take interest rates up to 17% had only a limited impact on the rouble-dollar exchange rate.
New Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Sworn In to Office
New Greek PM Alexis Tsipras appoints radical economist to new government
Greece’s new leftist prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, is set to announce his anti-bailout government, with the post of economics minister – chief negotiator with the country’s international creditors – going to a radical economist who has described austerity programmes as “fiscal waterboarding”.
With Greece set on a collision course with Europe over the Syriza-led government’s plans to reverse draconian belt-tightening and renegotiate the country’s massive debts, Yanis Varoufakis, who calls himself an “accidental economist”, confirmed in a radio interview that he would take up the key position. ...
Varoufakis, 53, studied in Britain and has also taught in Australia, Greece and the US. In pre-election interviews he promised to end what he described as Greece’s humanitarian crisis, slice a chunk off its €320bn debt mountain, and destroy the country’s oligarchs who “viciously suck the energy and the economic power from everybody else”. ...
Varoufakis has long criticised Europe’s handling of the economic crisis, attacking the conservative economic orthodoxy that demands budget rigour and market-friendly structural reforms.
That approach amounted to “a cynical transfer of banking losses on to the shoulders of the weakest taxpayers”, he said on his blog earlier this month. He has also likened the tough terms of bailout deals to “fiscal waterboarding” that risked converting southern Europe into “a form of Victorian workhouse”.
Radical Left Wins in Greece, Leaving the Koch Brothers in a Cold Sweat
Just imagine what would happen in the United States, land of the billionaire Koch brothers’ well-heeled minions and their obsessive hysteria against the government helping those in need, if a political party called the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza is the Greek shorthand) took over the country in a landslide victory.
Even though it happened in Greece yesterday, not the United States, it is sure to provide plenty of fodder for the Kochs to incite fear in their ranks and ramp up campaign spending by billionaires heading into the 2016 U.S. election. Just this past Saturday, Charles Koch was warning his Ayn Rand-worshiping followers at their annual confab in Palm Springs, California that “Americans have taken an important step in slowing down the march toward collectivism.” In excerpts of his speech leaked to the media, Koch said his vision is one of a “society that maximizes peace, civility and well-being.” ...
Tsipras attracted even conservative voters by promising to renegotiate the punishing terms of the Greek bailout which many Greeks feel has stripped the country of its dignity and hope. Tsipras has promised a €2 billion program of social spending to include free electricity and food for several hundred thousand impoverished and hungry households, free medical care for the uninsured, boosting the minimum wage and rehiring public sector workers who were purged as part of the austerity program. ...
It is the charisma and popularity of Tsipras that has many on both sides of the Atlantic worried about a spreading leftist movement – underpinned by the harsh realities of unprecedented wealth inequality. A report released last week by Oxfam found that the richest one percent of people in the world own 48 percent of the wealth, while the richest 20 percent own all the wealth except for 5.5 percent which must be spread across the remaining 80 percent of the people in the world.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature an article from the Appeal to Reason: "Manifesto of the New Trades Unionism." The Manifesto, along with a convention call, was issued on January 4th from a secret conference of labor leaders held in Chicago.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Calling TPP a 'Death Pact,' Health Advocates Rally Outside Secretive Trade Talks
Braving snow and blizzard warnings, health, labor and environmental activists rallied outside a New York City hotel on Monday where industry leaders met with international trade representatives to commence the "final negotiations" over the secret text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Leading the protest and carrying signs that read "Hands Off Our Medicine," protesters with health groups Doctors Without Borders and Health Global Access Project (GAP) warnedthat the TPP will undermine efforts to ensure access to affordable, life-saving medicines in both the United States and abroad.
Roughly one hundred people, including the Teamsters and the Raging Grannies, joined the health activists in chanting "Derail Fast Track," in reference to the Administration's push to pass the agreement quickly without Congressional interference.
"The TPP would create a vicious cycle. The provisions currently proposed will allow for fracking and other practices that fuel environmental degradation and make people sick. Strengthened intellectual property rules will then prevent people from accessing life- saving medicines," said Michael Tikili, national field organizer for Health GAP, in a press statement. "Thirteen million people living with HIV depend on generic AIDS medicines and another 20-plus million are waiting line for treatment. By protecting Pharma’s bloated profits, the Obama administration is undermining its own global AIDS initiative—this isn’t a trade agreement—it’s a death pact."
Five Years After: Long Live Howard Zinn
Today—Jan. 27—marks five years since the death of the great historian and activist Howard Zinn. Not a day goes by that I don’t wonder what Howard would say about something—the growth of the climate justice movement, #BlackLivesMatter, the new Selma film, the killings at the Charlie Hebdo offices. No doubt, he would be encouraged by how many educators are engaging students in thinking critically about these and other issues.
Zinn is best known, of course, for his beloved A People’s History of the United States, arguably the most influential U.S. history textbook in print. “That book will knock you on your ass,” as Matt Damon’s character says in the film Good Will Hunting. But Zinn did not merely record history, he made it: as a professor at Spelman College in the 1950s and early 1960s, where he was ultimately fired for his outspoken support of students in the Civil Rights Movement, and specifically the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); as a critic of the U.S. war in Vietnam, and author of the first book calling for an immediate U.S. withdrawal; and as author of numerous books on war, peace, and popular struggle. Zinn was speaking and educating new generations of students and activists right up until the day he died.
The Evening Greens
Yellowstone National Park Bison Sent to Slaughter — Up to 900 Expected to be Slaughtered This Winter
Up to an estimated 900 bison will be slaughtered this winter. The culling plan calls for the majority of the bison targeted for death to be turned over American Indian tribes to be slaughtered and a small amount to be killed by hunters.
The culling plan is part of the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) to appease the worries of ranchers located in Montana who fear bison will become infected with the bacterial disease brucellosis, which causes miscarriages in cattle. The fear is the disease potentially could be transmitted to their herds. ...
There is opposition to the slaughter by conservation groups.
“It is unthinkable, profoundly incongruent, that Yellowstone National Park and Native Americans would participate in the brutal abuse and slaughter of the only wild population of buffalo remaining in this country,” said Buffalo Field Campaign spokeswoman Stephany Seay. ...
“Yellowstone National Park has been entrusted by the American people as stewards of this country’s last wild buffalo,” said David Martin, coordinator with Buffalo Field Campaign. “Stewards are supposed to protect and defend, not abuse and slaughter, so we can no longer trust them to do the right thing.”
China coal production falls for first time this century
The impact of China’s clean air and renewable energy policies are beginning to have an impact on the country’s coal industry, according to reports suggesting domestic coal production fell last year.
State media reported on Monday that coal production fell in 2014 for the first time this century, with production totalling 3.5bn tonnes between January and November representing a 2.1% fall on the same period in 2013.
The China National Coal Association (CNCA) predicted that full year production will fall 2.5% year-on-year. Meanwhile, Jiang Zhimin vice president at the CNCA, told news agency Xinhua that the sector expected production to decline by a further 2.5% this year.
Tories forced into U-turn on fast-track fracking after accepting Labour plans
The government made a major U-turn on plans to fast-track UK fracking on Monday after accepting Labour proposals to tighten environmental regulations.
David Cameron had previously said the government was “going all out” for shale gas development, but widespread public concern and a looming defeat by worried Tory and Liberal Democrat backbenchers forced ministers to back down.
The Guardian revealed on Monday that George Osborne, the chancellor, was demanding “rapid progress” from cabinet ministers, including delivering the “asks” of fracking company Cuadrilla.
But the changes accepted by ministers would ban fracking in national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty and in areas where drinking water is collected, ruling out significant regions of the UK’s shale gas deposits. The new regulations will slow down exploration by, for example, requiring a year of background monitoring before drilling can begin.
However, an attempt to impose a moratorium on shale gas exploration, as recommended by a report from MPs, including former Conservative environment secretary Caroline Spelman, was defeated after Labour abstained. The infrastructure bill, which contains the new rules for fracking, now goes to the House of Lords, where further changes could be made.
Obama to open Atlantic to drilling
The Obama administration is expected to open the Atlantic Ocean to oil drilling on Tuesday, according to people familiar with the planning and a draft map viewed by McClatchy.
The proposal appears to allow drilling in areas off Virginia and the Carolinas, while excluding Florida, Maryland and Delaware. The Interior Department is expected to release final details of the plan Tuesday afternoon.
It would mark the first time in decades that oil drilling is allowed off the East Coast, and is sure to be highly controversial. The decision does not require Congressional approval but Charles Ebinger, a senior fellow in the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution, said he expects court battles and environmental groups file lawsuits over the plan.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Chomsky Blasts 'American Sniper' and the Media that Glorifies It
Cult heroes: Eddie Bo – the gentleman of soul who never got his due
Short stories
A Little Night Music
Little Esther - If its News To You
Carla Thomas - He's Beating Your Time
Little Esther Phillips - Cupid's Boogie
Carla Thomas - I've Got No Time To Lose
Esther Phillips - The-Double Crossing Blues
Carla Thomas - B-A-B-Y
Little Esther - Wild Child
Carla Thomas - Pick up the pieces
Esther Phillips - Release Me
Esther Phillips - LIttle Esther's Blues
Carla Thomas - You'll lose a good thing
Rufus Thomas ft. Carla Thomas - The Night Time Is The Right Time
Otis Redding & Carla Thomas - Tramp
Carla Thomas - Comfort Me
Otis Redding & Carla Thomas - Knock On Wood
Carla Thomas - I Like What You're Doing To Me
Carla Thomas - I'll Bring It Home To You
Carla Thomas - I Got My Mojo Working
Little Esther Phillips - MoJo Hannah
Otis Redding & Carla Thomas - Lovey Dovey
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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