Welcome! "The Evening Blues - Weekend Edition" is a casual community diary (published Saturday & Sunday, 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 the best session artist you may never have heard of. Singer, songwriter and guitarist Jesse 'Ed' Davis. Jesse Ed Davis was born in Oklahoma, his father was Muscogee Creek and Seminole and his mother a Kiowa. He was one of the best, and some like Taj Mahal, say he was THE best session guitarist of his time. Throughout the 60s and 70s Jesse Ed Davis sat in for just about everybody who was anybody. He cut three solo albums in the early 70's and sadly was found dead of a heroin overdose in 1988. I wore his albums out in the early 70's, see you farther on down the line, Jesse, you made a joyous sound. Enjoy tonight's music folks!
A Tribute to Jesse Ed Davis - Farther On Down The Road
"Once I was in Victoria, and I saw a very large house. They told me it was a bank and that the white men place their money there to be taken care of, and that by and by they got it back with interest. We are Indians and we have no such bank; but when we have plenty of money or blankets, we give them away to other chiefs and people, and by and by they return them with interest, and our hearts feel good. Our way of giving is our bank."
Chief Maquinna, Nootka
News and Opinion
Greece, confident as EU meeting looms, sticks to no-austerity pledge
(Reuters) - Greece said on Sunday it was confident of reaching agreement in negotiations with its euro zone partners but reiterated it would not accept harsh austerity strings in any debt pact.
A day before a euro zone finance ministers' meeting in Brussels to shore up Greece's dwindling finances and help keep it in the euro zone, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told Germany's Stern magazine that Athens needed time to implement its reforms and shake off the mismanagement of the past.
"I expect difficult negotiations; nevertheless I am full of confidence," he said. "I promise you: Greece will then, in six months' time, be a completely different country."
The Eurogroup of finance ministers meets in Brussels on Monday to try to find common ground with Tsipras' new government, elected on a pledge to scrap the austerity strictures of Greece's international bailouts, on issues such as debt management, financing, privatization and labor reform.
‘Dying out of poverty!’ Thousands gather for anti-austerity rally in Athens
Some 20,000 protesters gathered outside the parliament building in Athens for an anti-austerity, pro-government demonstration ahead of Monday’s planned bailout talks in Brussels.
Protestors waved banners reading “Dying out of poverty” and other messages, caling for an end to the strict austerity measures imposed as a condition of the massive 2010 bailout package doled out by the so-called troika (the IMF, EU and ECB).
"We want justice here and now...for all the suffering Greece has gone through the past five years," 58-year-old Theodora, who has been unemployed for the last three years, told AFP.
Greece’s new leftist government, which was swept into power in the January elections, has promised to renegotiate the country’s debt and pull it out of its long-brewing financial crisis.
Many of the protestors showered Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the new government with praise for challenging Brussels.
Ukraine crisis: Minsk ceasefire 'generally holding', say EU leaders
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
France and Germany believe the ceasefire in Ukraine is "generally" being observed, a statement from the French presidency says.
But the countries' leaders, who helped broker the truce, said some "local incidents" must be "quickly" resolved.
Shelling has continued around the besieged town of Debaltseve.
However, fighting in the area is reported to have lowered in intensity since the ceasefire began at midnight Saturday (22:00 GMT).
Pro-Russian rebels had previously said they were entitled to fire in the town, as they believe the territory belongs to them.
‘Right Sector could destroy Minsk peace deal before it even starts’ – analyst
By rejecting a ceasefire agreed upon by the so-called “Normandy 4,” the leader of Ukraine’s Right Sector movement may undermine the fragile deal in the situation when there’s no unity even within the Kiev government, political expert Lode Vanoost told RT.
In a statement published on his Facebook page on Friday, ultranationalist leader Dmitry Yarosh claimed that the peace agreement has no legal merit and that it is contrary to Ukraine’s constitution.
Vanoost told RT that Yarosh’s pronouncements could jeopardize a fragile peace accord.
RT: Do you think the Right Sector could derail the peace deal, agreed in Minsk?
Lode Vanoost: This could be devastating for the whole agreement. It could destroy it before it even starts. Now the fact that they announced it already, one day ahead, could of course mean that they sort of tried to force some kind of provocation so that the other side would react, giving them an excuse to go on. But nevertheless, this is indeed a very dangerous situation, yes.
Read more of the interview here.
Analysis: NATO expansion at heart of Ukraine crisis
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Cold War didn't end. It just took on a 24-year pause. The East-West showdown over Ukraine makes that clear.
As the non-Russian republics broke free in the Soviet collapse and Eastern European Soviet satellite countries snapped the chains of Moscow's dominion, common wisdom held that the Cold War was over. The victors: The United States and its European allies, bound together in the NATO alliance to block further Soviet expansion in Europe after World War II.
Since the Soviet collapse — as Moscow had feared — that alliance has spread eastward, expanding along a line from Estonia in the north to Romania and Bulgaria in the south. The Kremlin claims it had Western assurances that would not happen. Now, Moscow's only buffers to a complete NATO encirclement on its western border are Finland, Belarus and Ukraine.
The Kremlin would not have to be paranoid to look at that map with concern. And Russia reacted dramatically early last year. U.S.-Russian relations have fallen back into the dangerous nuclear and political standoff of the Cold War years before the Soviet collapse
It began with prolonged pro-Western demonstrations in the Ukrainian capital. The upheaval caused corrupt, Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych to flee to Moscow nearly a year ago. The political turmoil broke out after Yanukovych — contrary to an agreement with the European Union for closer trade and political ties with the pan-European political and trading bloc — backed out and accepted Russian guarantees of billions of dollars in financial aid.
This is How the World Ends: Twelve Risks That Threaten Human Existence
'Mass deaths and famines, social collapse and mass migration are certainly possible in this scenario,' report authors write of extreme climate change
Extreme climate change. Global pandemic. Major asteroid impact. The rise of artificial intelligence.
These are just a few of the potentially world-ending events that threaten civilization as we know it, according to a new report from researchers at Oxford University.
The study, "Global Challenges" (pdf), urges readers to consider a new category of global risks—low-probability, high-impact scenarios that hover at the extreme end of the spectrum.
"This report has, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, created the first list of global risks with impacts that for all practical purposes can be called infinite." However, the authors note, "the real focus is not on the almost unimaginable impacts of the risks the report outlines. Its fundamental purpose is to encourage global collaboration and to use this new category of risk as a driver for innovation."
Copenhagen Gunman, Known to Intelligence Services, Killed By Police
Suspect 'may have been inspired by the events in Paris some weeks ago'
The suspect in this weekend's attacks on a free speech event and a synagogue in Copenhagen had been "on the radar" of the intelligence services and "may have been inspired by the events in Paris some weeks ago," Denmark's spy chief Jens Madsen said on Sunday.
Two civilians were killed and five police officers were wounded in the attacks. The gunman was reportedly shot dead by police on Sunday, following a manhunt.
Al Jazeera America offered the following summary of the events:
The first shooting in the normally tranquil Danish capital occurred before 4 p.m. local time Saturday, when police said a gunman used an automatic weapon to shoot through the windows of the Krudttoenden Café, which was hosting an event titled "Art, Blasphemy and the Freedom of Expression" when the shots were fired.
The event was organized by Lars Vilks, 68, a Swedish artist who has faced numerous threats for caricaturing Prophet Muhammad in 2007. Police confirmed that he was the target of the attack.
... Police believe the same shooter later targeted the synagogue, killing another man and wounding two police officers. Denmark's Jewish Community identified the victim at the synagogue as 37-year-old Dan Uzan, who was guarding a building during a bar mitzvah when he was shot in the head at about 1 a.m. local time on Sunday morning.
Several aspects of the case mirrored last month's attacks at a satirical newspaper and kosher grocery store in Paris.
Netanyahu urges European Jews to move to Israel after Denmark attack
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, has urged European Jews to immigrate to Israel following the shooting dead of a Danish Jew outside a Copenhagen synagogue on Sunday.
Netanyahu announced the government will discuss Sunday a $46 million plan to encourage Jewish migration from Belgium, France and Ukraine and said at the start of a cabinet meeting that Israel is the home of all Jews.
The shooting at the Krystalgade synagogue that killed a 38-year old Jewish security guard came just hours after another deadly shooting at a free-speech event featuring an artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad.
Five Danish police officers were also wounded in the shootings. Police said Sunday they had shot and killed the man who had carried out both the attacks.
Germany: Braunschweig parade halted over terror alert
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
A carnival parade has been called off at short notice in Braunschweig, northern Germany, due to the threat of an Islamist attack, police said.
A "specific threat of an Islamist attack" was identified by state security sources, they said in a statement.
Police urged people planning to attend to stay at home.
The parade - a well-known regional attraction - was cancelled only 90 minutes before it was due to start.
"Many people arriving at the train station were already dressed up and very disappointed - but we didn't want to take any risks," police spokesman Thomas Geese was quoted as saying.
Egyptian Church confirms 21 killed in Libya after Islamic State issues video
(Reuters) - Islamic State released a video on Sunday purporting to show the beheading of a group of Egyptian Christians kidnapped in Libya, violence likely to deepen Cairo's concerns over security threats from militants thriving in the neighboring country's chaos.
Egypt's state news agency MENA quoted the spokesman for the Coptic Church as confirming that 21 Egyptian Christians believed to be held by Islamic State were dead.
In the video, militants in black marched the captives, dressed in orange jump suits, to a beach the group said was near Tripoli. They were forced down onto their knees, then beheaded.
The video appeared on the Twitter feed of a website that supports Islamic State, which has seized parts of Iraq and Syria and has also beheaded Western hostages.
US ‘eyeing new air base’ in Iraq amid talk of major offensive on ISIS
Washington is working to install a new air base in Iraq’s Kurdistan to be used in a campaign against Islamic State (ISIS), media report. This comes as the White House’s special envoy on ISIS speaks of a ground operation in Iraq against the militants.
This time an American stronghold in the region will be deployed in Erbil, the capital of semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq that is expected to be used as a logistics hub to supply primarily munitions for warplanes of the US-led coalition against ISIS militants.
“The base is close to Erbil, the capital of the regional government…The warplanes will do surveillance, but the warplanes which will bomb ISIL targets will not take off from here,” Helgurt Hikmet, spokesperson for the Ministry of Peshmerga (Kurdish self-defense forces) said, as cited by Anadolu Agency.
Turkey’s Hurriyet also reported that the US is preparing documents to get land leasehold for the next 15 years to station US military personnel and warplanes. A number of the US Air Force’s Black Hawk helicopters have already been deployed to Erbil earlier this month, to ensure quick rescue operations to save downed pilots bombing ISIS positions in Northern Iraq. Such operations became a priority after ISIS fighters burnt alive a downed Jordanian pilot.
Modi, Sharif in ‘win-win’ setting
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India [TAPI] gas pipeline project has been making progress — albeit under the radar and visible only to keen observers — during the past year. The fact that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a meeting of the petroleum ministers of the TAPI member countries in Islamabad today would signal that the project is likely approaching the takeoff stage.
The presence of the Indian minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Islamabad also underscores that the climate of the India-Pakistan relations could be transforming. Conceivably, there has been gentle prodding by the United States from behind the curtain. The American oil companies have shown interest in the project, including in equity participation. But, more than that, TAPI forms a template in the US’ New Silk Road strategies. Unsurprisingly, US and Japan have a renewed interest in the TAPI as a mega regional project against the backdrop of China’s rival Asian Infrastructure Development Bank and the ‘Belt and Road’ strategies. Interestingly, the president of the Asian Development Bank [ADB] Takehiko Nakao visited Delhi last week and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, the esoteric ‘great game’ apart, if the TAPI project takes off, that would do a world of good to India-Pakistan relations, which is the key point here from our point of view. The project’s uniqueness is that it could make Pakistan a ‘stakeholder’ in stable relationship with India – and vice versa. More importantly, it enables the two countries to bury the backlog of the past and move on to a new phase in the geopolitical arena where the stabilization of Afghanistan becomes a shared concern rather than an issue of rivalry. The single biggest element of distrust in the Pakistani mind about India’s intentions would also get removed – namely, Pakistan’s suspicions regarding Indian activities in Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Modi has paid great attention to improving India’s relations with China. That is indeed far-sighted statesmanship. But, on the contrary, he has relegated the Pakistan policies to the back burner; in fact, this state of play recently drew a pointed observation by President Pranab Mukherjee. (See my blog The President jogs Modi’s memory.)
John Boehner: Republicans will let Homeland Security funding lapse
White House condemns GOP effort to block executive actions on immigration
Speaker also says administration would have interfered with Netanyahu visit
John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said on Sunday he was willing to let funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapse as part of a Republican push to roll back President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
“Senate Democrats are the ones standing in the way. They’re the ones jeopardising funding,” Boehner told Fox News. Asked if he was prepared to let financing for the department lapse, he said: “Certainly. The House has acted. We’ve done our job.”
Boehner also said he did not consult the White House over his invitation to the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to speak to Congress because the Obama administration might have interfered with it.
With a 27 February deadline near for funding Homeland Security, more than 40 Senate Democrats have voted three times this month to block consideration of the homeland security appropriations bill, which has already been approved by the House.
Marshall Islands setback on disarmament
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
UNITED NATIONS - A lawsuit by the Marshall Islands accusing the United States of failing to begin negotiations for nuclear disarmament has been thrown out of an American court.
The Marshall Islands is currently pursuing actions against India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom in the International Court of Justice, for failing to negotiate nuclear disarmament as required in the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Action against the US had been filed in a federal court in California, as the United States does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICJ.
David Krieger, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, said the US conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958, the equivalent of 1.6 Hiroshima bombs detonating daily for 12 years.
White House summit to address violent extremism
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
MINNEAPOLIS — Prosecutors and civic leaders from several U.S. cities will convene at a White House summit this week to discuss ways of countering violent extremism, eager to share ideas on how to shut off terrorist recruiting pipelines that have sent Western fighters to conflicts in the Middle East and Africa.
The U.S. attorney’s offices from Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Boston will discuss the progress of pilot programs in those cities to stem the causes of radicalization, particularly among immigrants, in hopes of breaking the recruiting cycle.
From Minnesota, which has struggled with the issue for much of the past decade, U.S. Attorney Andy Luger will lead a delegation of 15 people, including law enforcement officials and Somali community leaders, to Wednesday’s meeting.
Minnesota’s program gets its formal launch next month. Luger said key elements developed with Somali community leaders include more youth programs, more mentors, expanded job opportunities and job training, more dialogue between youth and religious leaders, and help affording college.
American: Bin Laden asked him in '90s to use plane as weapon
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
NEW YORK (AP) — In the terrorism trial of a man accused of being one of al-Qaida's early leaders, an American described being asked in 1995 by Osama bin Laden to kill Egypt's president by ramming his plane with his own in midair.
"It took me by surprise," Ihab Mohammad Ali testified recently in New York. "I responded, 'Well, wouldn't I be killing myself?'"
Ali, 52, said bin Laden answered: "Well, then you would be a martyr.'"
The glimpse into the early days of al-Qaida when bin Laden had a private jet and was barely known to law enforcement officials came amid the government's presentation of evidence over the past three weeks against Khaled al-Fawwaz, a man portrayed by prosecutors as a key player in the terror group when it was in its infancy.
Al-Fawwaz has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill Americans in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The attacks killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans. The government rested Thursday.
Ali testified he met bin Laden 25 years ago at an al-Qaida guest house in Pakistan, around the time he pledged allegiance to al-Qaida. He said he also met al-Fawwaz, whom he identified in court as a member of al-Qaida.
‘Ferguson everywhere’: Hundreds protest cops killing Latino worker in Washington
Around 1,000 people took part in a peaceful protest to denounce the recent fatal police shooting of a Mexican-born 35 year-old American in a town of Pasco, Washington State.
Hundreds of people, mostly from the Pasco’s Hispanic community, gathered in Volunteer Park on Saturday to commemorate Antonio Zambrano-Montes, an unarmed Mexican national, who was killed by police officers on Tuesday.
Speakers from local and state levels, as well as clergy addressed the crowd, reminding it of the importance of maintaining peace – and the rally confined to Ferguson-styled placards and mottos, like “It’s protect and serve, not obey or die,” “Use your training not your guns” or even “We are all Antonio.”
“We have not yet had the time to cry. We are angry, we are very angry but we also know that getting angry and violent is wrong,” Sandra Barragan, a cousin of the Zambrano-Montes, whose death is now being compared to those of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York last year, told the Guardian. “Everyone said [the police action] was not right, there could have been a different method. We still can’t believe this … we lost a family member.”
Surveillance, Privacy Concerns Raised as FAA Gives Domestic Drones a Nod
FAA and White House release rules and memo governing commercial drone use on same day
Domestic non-military drone use took one step closer to widespread implementation on Sunday, as the Federal Aviation Administration issued proposed regulations for small unmanned aircraft systems in the U.S.
According to an FAA press release, the rule would limit flights to daylight and visual-line-of-sight operations. It also addresses height restrictions, operator certification, aircraft registration and marking, and operational limits. In a blow to Google and Amazon, it does not permit drone delivery.
Also on Sunday, the White House issued an Executive Order requiring every federal agency to develop "a framework regarding privacy, accountability, and transparency for commercial and private [Unmanned Aircraft Systems] use" within 90 days and with an eye toward protecting personal privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.
"Together, the FAA regulations and the White House order provide some basic rules of the sky that will govern who can fly drones in the United States and under what conditions, while attempting to prevent aviation disasters and unrestrained government surveillance," the Washington Post declared.
Behind Russia's gold buying spree
As Moscow buys the yellow metal in record amounts, we ask if gold is a geopolitical financial weapon.
Russia is spending more on gold than at any time since the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Over the past year, Moscow has spent more than $7bn on gold, and now its total gold holdings of 1,208 tonnes are worth $49bn - making Russia the fifth biggest holder of gold in the world. The United States has the most, with almost eight times that amount.
At the same time, Russia's currency reserves have shrunk by more than $100bn as it defends the rouble's rout. Russia is a nation in recession, its economy is under Western sanctions, and its biggest export, oil, is under pressure.
So could President Vladimir Putin be pushing back through this gold shopping spree?
He has railed against the dominance of the dollar and has dumped some of the country's holdings of US government debt. It has been termed as a kind of financial weaponisation.
The War on the War on Poverty
North Carolina conservatives are ousting the state's anti-poverty advocates
Ten years ago, fresh off his loss to Bush/Cheney as John Kerry's running mate, John Edwards returned home to open a center on poverty at the University of North Carolina School of Law, his alma mater.
Today, that move looks downright prescient: Ranked better than average in poverty in 2005, North Carolina has since experienced the greatest increase in concentrated poverty in the country. Charlotte has the worst upward mobility of America’s 50 biggest cities. In the east, hundreds of black agricultural towns are neglected and abandoned, and in the west, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia are suffering from a meth and prescription drug epidemic.
The Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity was formed by Edwards—the son of a mill worker—and UNC Law School Dean Gene Nichol with a stated mission to “advocate for proposals, policies and services to mitigate poverty in North Carolina.” Edwards used the center to hone his “Two Americas” platform for 2008, and an early bipartisan event featured former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp. Then Edwards left to run for president.
After a controversial stint as president of the College of William & Mary, Nichol took over the Poverty Center in 2008. The following year, the Great Recession forced education cuts that ended public funding for the center, which carried on with a $117,000 budget made up of private grants from the UNC Law Foundation and Z. Smith Reynolds.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature a report from The Day Book: Mother Jones departs Chicago, heading back to Colorado to "her children" of the mines. Leaves Chicagoans with few parting words regarding the plight of working women and the moral cowardice that allows society to stand for such conditions of oppression.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Managers bunk down at U.S. refineries as strike enters third week
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
TOLEDO, Ohio (Reuters) - U.S. oil refinery managers are going to the mats, literally, during the biggest fight with union workers in 35 years, bedding down for a third strike week that experts and some employees say raises concerns over safety and operations.
At the 135,000 barrel-per-day refinery just outside of Toledo, Ohio, run by BP Plc and Husky Energy Inc , most of the nearly 300-person staff have been calling the refinery home since Feb. 9. For the last week, they have slept on recently purchased mattresses inside rental trailers to rapidly respond to any problems and avoid striking workers, sources say.
On Tuesday, a van full of washing and drying machines gingerly cut through about a dozen United Steelworkers carrying pickets and walking a strike line at the facility's front gate.
Those efforts underscore how far operators are willing to go to retain normalcy in the face of the largest national U.S. refinery strike since 1980. And as more replacement workers join the ranks here and the other eight refineries where strikes have occurred, more questions are arising about potential safety and production risks from an extended walkout.
West Coast port dispute hurts California citrus growers
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The sun was blazing in the San Joaquin Valley as Al Bates drove from one fruit packing plant to another, glancing nervously at the oranges hanging in the trees and wondering how much of the multimillion-dollar crop would be lost.
The president of Sun Pacific Shippers and Farming is intimately aware of the devastation that the contract dispute at 29 West Coast ports, including the Port of Oakland, is causing the citrus industry, and, amid a four-year struggle with drought, he isn’t happy about it.
“It’s a disaster,” said Bates, referring to the impact four months of work slowdowns and the shutdown of loading and unloading operations at the ports this holiday weekend are having on growers.
Sun Pacific, the largest navel orange grower in California and largest kiwi grower in the United States, is exporting half the oranges it normally ships because of the port impasse, a loss of at least $3 million a week, he said. This comes at a time when farmers are already struggling, paying premium prices for the precious little water that is available.
‘Biggest failure’? Obama aide regrets not securing UFO files disclosure
Outgoing senior US presidential adviser John Podesta has revealed that the main regret of the past year of his service at the White House was keeping Americans away from learning the truth about UFOs.
Law professor Podesta, 66, published in his Twitter microblog on Friday – his last day as Obama’s counselor with a special interest in climate and energy matters – a list of his “favorite memories” of the year, concluding with his biggest regret that once again proves his fascination with aliens and TV show “The X-Files”, of which he is known to be a huge fan.
Podesta has been a longtime proponent of the disclosure of government UFO investigations to the public. Back in 2002, at a press conference organized by the Coalition for Freedom of Information, he said: “It’s time to find out what the truth really is that’s out there. We ought to do it, really, because it’s right. We ought to do it, quite frankly, because the American people can handle the truth. And we ought to do it because it’s the law.”
In 2007, a Washington Post journalist asked Podesta about reports on Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain email correspondence to and from the former chief of staff on such terms as “X-Files” and “Area 51” – terms, popular with UFO conspiracy theorists. Podesta’s response through a spokesperson was, “The truth is out there,” the tagline for “The X-Files” American science fiction TV show.
“Saturday Night Live” at 40: A stubborn habit we can’t bring ourselves to kick
"SNL" isn't about being good. Maybe it never was. It's about being live, together
There is something different about the grande dame of late-night variety shows. “Saturday Night Live” is the late-night variety show, in part because it’s the only late-night variety show on a major network. It’s both a position gained by default and one gained by endurance—“Saturday Night Live” is, inexplicably, still standing.
There are many patently obvious observations to make about “Saturday Night Live” on the occasion of its 40th anniversary. Forty years is a long time to be young and edgy, and the media landscape in particular has changed dramatically from 1975 to today. “Live” doesn’t mean what it used to; and the comedy landscape has diversified and exploded. The present incarnation of “Weekend Update” is the least sophisticated late-night news/comedy hybrid currently on-air; “SNL” sketches that make it online compete with pageviews for bits from Comedy Central’s “Key and Peele,” FX’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and IFC’s “Comedy Bang! Bang!”—those other sketch (or sketch-y) shows with rabid fanbases.
As a result, “Saturday Night Live” is sort of a dinosaur, a relic, maybe a zombie—a show that stubbornly refuses to die, despite being past the point where it consistently has a heartbeat. It’s never going to be the show that matters the way its early years did, even though recent cast members have gone on to become stars and recent sketches have become instantly iconic. Lately, the show has felt like it is buoyed exclusively by its history, and the furor around former cast member Eddie Murphy returning to the show for its 40th anniversary special on Sunday night just further proves that. It will, no doubt, be fascinating. But it does also seem like a sad attempt to reclaim lost glory.
So here are the obvious conclusions. One: Here’s something that has lost the cultural relevance it once had. “Saturday Night Live” used to have the cream of America’s comedic crop; now it feels like it’s been hastily cast from a high school yearbook (Rolling Stone ranked most of this year’s new cast in the same below-average spot, deeming them mostly indistinguishable and mostly terrible). Two: Here’s something that has stayed mostly the same in a world that has mostly changed. Now that you can watch it all in bits and pieces on YouTube—or DVR it and watch it later—why even bother with 90 minutes of mediocre performance? And yes, the inevitable three: Here’s something that used to be better (though when “SNL” started to suck is hard to pin down). How many viewers, really, are turning on “SNL” confident that they are about to watch something really good? The quality of the show is inconsistent at best—not just over a season, but from sketch to sketch.
Jewel v. NSA: Making Sense of a Disappointing Decision Over Mass Surveillance
Yesterday marked a frustrating juncture in EFF’s long-running lawsuit against mass surveillance, Jewel v. NSA, filed on behalf of AT&T customers whose communications and telephone records are being vacuumed by the National Security Agency.
A federal court in San Francisco sided with the U.S. Department of Justice, ruling that the plaintiffs could not win a significant portion of the case—a Fourth Amendment challenge to the NSA’s tapping of the Internet backbone—without disclosure of classified information that would harm national security. In other words, Judge Jeffrey White found that “state secrets” can trump the judicial process and held that EFF’s clients could not prove they have standing.
To be perfectly clear: this decision does not end EFF’s case. The judge did not find that it is legal for the NSA to tap into the Internet backbone. Nor does the ruling apply to the portion of the case that covers the NSA’s capture of telephone records on a massive scale. EFF will continue to fight in court, both in Jewel, as well as our two other ongoing lawsuits challenging NSA surveillance.
We disagree with the court’s decision and it will not be the last word on the constitutionality of the government’s mass surveillance of the communications of ordinary Americans.
Facebook's Name Policy Strikes Again, This Time at Native Americans
What do drag queens, burlesque performers, human rights activists in Vietnam and Syria, and Native Americans have in common? They have all been the targets of "real names" enforcement on Facebook. And despite reportsfrom the media last year that seemed to indicate that Facebook has "fixed" the issue, they’re still being targeted.
The account suspension of Lakota woman Dana Lone Hill got some media attention earlier this week. Lone Hill has had a very similar experience to other users who’ve been booted of the site for name policy violations—with one important difference.
Last year, when drag queens were affected by the policy, they got messages saying it looked like they weren’t using their "real names." Member of Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and activist Sister Roma stated that she "was instructed to log in and forced to change the name on my profile to my 'legal name, like the one that appears on your drivers' license or credit card.'"
Now, however, Facebook’s language has changed. Instead of being told that she needed to use her "legal name," Lone Hill got a message from Facebook saying it looked like she wasn’t using her "authentic name," and that Facebook would "like to work with [her] to verify the name that best represents [her] identity."
The Evening Greens
The Evening Greens Weekend Editor: enhydra lutris
UM Study Finds Air Pollution Harmful to Young Brains
MISSOULA – Pollution in many cities threatens the brain development in children.
Findings by University of Montana Professor Dr. Lilian Calderón-Garcidueñas, MA, MD, Ph.D., and her team of researchers reveal that children living in megacities are at increased risk for brain inflammation and neurodegenerative changes, including Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.
Calderón-Garcidueñas’ findings are detailed in a paper titled “Air pollution and children: Neural and tight junction antibodies and combustion metals, the role of barrier breakdown and brain immunity in neurodegeneration,” which can be found online at http://iospress.metapress.com/....
The study found when air particulate matter and their components such as metals are inhaled or swallowed, they pass through damaged barriers, including respiratory, gastrointestinal and the blood-brain barriers and can result in long-lasting harmful effects.
Study: Oklahoma's daily small quakes raise risk of big ones
New federal research says small earthquakes shaking Oklahoma and southern Kansas daily are dramatically increasing the chance of bigger and dangerous quakes, new federal research indicates.
This once stable region is now just as likely to see serious damaging and potentially harmful earthquakes as the highest risk places east of the Rockies such as New Madrid, Missouri, and Charleston, South Carolina, which had major quakes in the past two centuries.
Still it's a low risk, about a 1 in 2,500 years' chance of happening, according to geophysicist William Ellsworth of the U.S. Geological Survey.
"To some degree we've dodged a bullet in Oklahoma," Ellsworth said after a presentation to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
But, he added, "This is not to say we expect a large earthquake tomorrow."
Can cattle grazing management technique help capture and store carbon in soil?
Can beef production help restore ecosystems? A team of scientists, advisors and communications specialists are banding together to explore whether ranching management can create robust soils, watersheds and wildlife habitat while sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide.
The Arizona State University-SoilCarbon Nation team is examining the adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) grazing management technique that involves using small-sized fields to provide short periods of grazing for livestock and long recovery periods for fields. The method mimics the migrations of wild herd animals, such as elk, bison and deer. The science team proposes a whole system science measurement approach in comparing AMP grazing with conventional, continuous grazing methods.
Peter Byck, professor of practice at the School of Sustainability and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU, is helping organize the project.
"By using measures -- such as the carbon stored, the water absorbed and retained, populations of fungi, bacteria, wild life and insects, and rancher and animal well-being -- we are comparing adaptive grazing with conventional grazing to see if the former actually improves ranch ecosystems," he said. "We hope to study and compare 36 ranches located in four diverse eco-regions across the U.S. and southern Canada."
Geoengineering blessing or curse?
The geoengineering genie should remain firmly stopped up in its bottle until a robust case is made for letting it out, writes Clive Hamilton - and that's something the NRC's new report signally fails to achieve, providing no rationale for deploying the technology, or even experimenting with it.
An essential mistake of the report is the unwillingness to recognise that field experiments that do not change the physical environment can radically change the social and political environment.
The publication of a hefty two-volume report on geoengineering by the US National Research Council represents a marked shift in the global debate over how to respond to global warming.
To date, the debate has been about mitigation, with the need for some adaption because of the failure to reduce emissions adequately. The new report, backed by the prestige of the National Academy of Sciences of which the NRC is the working arm, now argues that we should develop a "portfolio of activities" including mitigation, adaptation and climate engineering.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Hard to Believe: Police are Treating Protest Movements Like They are Terrorists
These Motel Rooms Are the Last Resort For Homeless Families
Ancient Shells Offer Evidence of How Ice Age Ended
Some Thoughts on Mercy: An Essay on Race and Redemption
Zimbabwe's Famed Forests Could Soon Be Desert
Sunnis boycott Iraqi government after Shia militia attack
Hellraisers Journal: Frank P Walsh Speaks to Chicago WTUL, Demands a Living Wage for Telephone Girls
Interviews
A Little Night Music
Although he was most well known for his back up sessions with some of the biggest stars of the time, Jesse had some stellar artist backing him on his 3 solo albums. For instance on his first album,
Jesse Davis, the green one, the band consisted of Leon Russell on piano, Eric Clapton on guitar on most tracks, and background singers Gram Parson, Merry Clayton, and Nikki Barclay.
On his second album, Ululu, the beige one, The core band featured Dr. John on keyboards, Donald “Duck” Dunn on bass, and Jim Keltner on drums.
And on his third album Keep Me Comin', artist joining him were Leon Russell, Bonnie Bramlett, Merry Clayton, Jim Keltner and Jim Gordon.
Throughout his career starting in the late 50s into the 80s, Jesse backed too many top artists and albums to list here. These are all cuts from his solo recordings.
Jesse Ed Davis - Washita Love Child
Jesse Ed Davis - White Line Fever
Jesse Ed Davis - Keep Me Comin'
Jesse Ed Davis - Alcatraz
Jesse Ed Davis - Red Dirt Boogie Brother
Jesse Ed Davis - Strawberry Wine
Jesse Ed Davis - Tulsa County
Jesse Ed Davis - Reno Street Incident
Jesse Ed Davis - Every Night Is Saturday Night
Jesse Ed Davis - Ululu
Jesse Ed Davis - Bacon Fat
Jesse Ed Davis - She's A Pain
Jesse Ed Davis - My Captain
Jesse Ed Davis - Oh Susannah
Jesse Ed Davis - Who Pulled The Plug?
Jesse Ed Davis - Sue Me, Sue You Blues
Jesse Ed Davis - Bugalu
Jesse Ed Davis - Big Dipper
Jesse Davis - Rock N Roll Gypsies
Jesse Ed Davis - Natural Anthem
Jesse Ed Davis - Make A Joyful Noise
Jesse Ed Davis - No Diga Mas
Taj Mahal on Jesse Ed Davis
Jesse Ed Davis Interview