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 Chicago bluesman and slide guitar wizard Tampa Red. Enjoy!
Tampa Red - I'm Gonna Get High, It's Tight Like That
"Americans need to watch what they say, watch what they do"
-- Ari Fleischer
News and Opinion
Holder: 'We're not in a time of war'
The United States is not "in a time of war," according to Attorney General Eric Holder. ... Holder made the remark at the National Press Club on Tuesday when asked about the Justice Department's investigation of journalists over the leaking of national security secrets. ... "I think there is a question that members of the press should ask about whether or not the disclosure of the information has a negative impact on the national security of the nation,” according to Holder.
His statement also appeared to contradict remarks he made last month after the Paris terror attacks.
The U.S. is at war with "radical Islam," Holder said at the time, especially "those who would commit terrorist attacks and who would corrupt the Islamic faith … to try to justify their terrorist actions."
"That's who we are at war with," Holder said. "We are determined to take the fight to them to prevent them from engaging in these kinds of activities."
Jailed for Speaking to the Press: How the Obama Admin Ruined Life of State Dept Expert Stephen Kim
Holder: US Not Censoring Journalists Because ‘We’re Not in a Time of War’
Warns Press to Be Aware of 'National Security' Impact of Reporting
Holder conceded that the US is not yet “in a time of war,” but cited censorship during World War 2 as an example of the government’s ability to clamp down on the press when they feel it necessary.
“In World War II, if a reporter had found out about that existence of the Manhattan Project, is that something that should have been disclosed?” Holder asked, by way of providing an “example” of the need to limit media coverage. ...
In reference to Holder’s example, the Cleveland Press actually uncovered the Manhattan Project, and reported openly about the “secret city” of scientists the US had working in New Mexico at the time.
The article, titled Forbidden City, was openly critical of the censorship regime in place at the time, and defiant about the calls for “self-censorship.” Openly reporting on “tremendous explosions” about a year and a half before the atomic attack on Hiroshima, Holder appears not to have had his history right.
President Gollum’s ‘Precious’ Secrets
Not only has Obama continued to wrap the carry-over anti-terrorism wars in maximum secrecy but he has taken unprecedented steps to shut down leaks by prosecuting whistleblowers who talk to the press. And, he has left standing his administration’s misleading rushes to judgment on key issues after U.S. intelligence analysts have refined or reversed the first impressions.
Whether on the Syrian sarin attack in 2013 or pivotal incidents in the Ukraine crisis – who was behind the sniper attacks in Kiev last Feb. 20 and who shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 last July 17 – Obama has withheld evidence developed by U.S. government analysts rather than undercut the propaganda value of the initial accusations.
In the sarin incident, Secretary of State John Kerry and others rushed to blame President Bashar al-Assad’s government – bringing the U.S. military to the brink of war – and similarly the State Department exploited the two most iconic events of the Ukraine crisis by blaming then-President Viktor Yanukovych for the sniper killings and Russia and ethnic Russian rebels for shooting down MH-17 killing all 298 people onboard.
After the State Department had squeezed out the propaganda value of those accusations, U.S. intelligence analysts came to more detailed conclusions with their findings conflicting with the hasty finger-pointing after the events. But instead of refining or correcting the record, the Obama administration typically went silent, leaving the initial impressions in place even when the President knew better.
In the context of Ukraine, I asked one senior administration official about this behavior and he responded that Russia held most of the advantages there by nature of proximity and history but that one advantage the United States wielded was “information warfare” – and it made no sense to surrender that edge by withdrawing accusations that had put Russian President Vladimir Putin on the defensive.
Thus, in this Orwellian world that seems to have swallowed America’s major institutions, what mattered most was how “information” – including false or misleading propaganda – could be deployed for geopolitical purposes even if it also involved deceiving the U.S. public. Or, one might say, especially if it deceived the U.S. public.
Obama’s Legacy: Permanent War and Liberal/Radical Accommodation?
The announcement by the Obama administration that it will seek congressional authorization to expand the war on ISIS in Syria and possibly send more heavy weapons to its client government in Ukraine did not generate the kind of muscular opposition and sense of urgency that one would expect from the anti-interventionist liberals and significant sectors of what use to be the anti-imperialist and anti-war left.
Outside of a few articles written by some of us confined to the marginalized and shrinking left, the reports that the administration was considering both of these courses of action were met with passing indifference. It is as if the capitalist oligarchy’s strategy of permanent war has been accepted as a fait-accompi by the general public and even significant numbers of the left.
The fact that the U.S. President could launch military attacks in Syria, supposedly a sovereign state and member of the United Nations, for six months without any legal justification and not face fierce criticism in the U.S. and internationally demonstrates the embrace of lawlessness that characterizes the current epoch of Western imperialist domination.
And the acquiescence of much of the left in the U.S. and Europe on the issue of Syria and the U.S. supported coup in Ukraine reveals the moderating and accommodating forces within the faux left that attempts to bully and intimidate anti-imperialist critics. ...
However, the current ideological environment did not evolve by accident or by the particular confluence of historical events. The disappearance of anti-imperialism among the cosmopolitan left in the U.S. and Western Europe is reflective of a monumental ideological accomplishment by the propagandists of empire. The professional propagandists of empire and Western dominance were able to adroitly “introject” into the center of the radical world-view and consciousness a liberal ideological framework that privileged “anti-authoritarianism" over "anti-imperialism."
The political consequence of this shift in consciousness has been disastrous for oppositional left politics throughout the West but particularly in the U.S. As the U.S. increasingly turned to lawless violence to advance its interests over the last seven years of the presidency of Barack Obama, “leftists” in the U.S. objectively aligned themselves with the US/EU/NATO axis of domination through their silence or outright support in the name of opposing authoritarian regimes.
Obama, Republicans and the media concur: it's time for war with Isis
It’s sounding like the Bush years all over again: the administration and Congress want a war and the media’s happy to cover it as the government prefers
After more than six months of virtually ignoring the fact that the war against Isis was illegal by almost anyone’s standards – given Congress’s cowardly refusal vote on it and the White House’s refusal to ask them first – the Obama administration has finally submitted a draft war authorization against Isis to Congress.
That means the media can go back to doing what it does best: creating a “debate” over how many countries we should invade, without any discussion of how our invasions created the very situation in which we feel we have to contemplate more invasions. It’s like the early Bush years all over again.
On its face, the White House’s draft looks like a limited war authority that would need to be renewed in three years, only it contains vague wording and legal loopholes that, as legal scholar Ryan Goodman writes, could allow “the next president the power to embroil America in conflicts and in countries that no current member of Congress could predict.” Worse yet, the White House is decidedly not trying to reform or sunset the 2001 authorization to fight the perpetrators of 9/11, which it has also used as legal rationale to conduct its operations against Isis (Isis didn’t exist when the AUMF was passed and has been al-Qaida’s sworn enemy for some time now).
Meanwhile, the featured guests on those major network sunday shows – many of whom have never met a war they didn’t like anyway – tried to out-tough each other this week for who would go to war with Isis harder. It’s their standard script: Just six months ago in the lead up to the first bombs dropping on Iraq and Syria, those shows had 89 guests on to talk about the prospective Isis war. Only one of them was decidedly anti-war.
Television punditry is, as it always has been, all war all the time. No second guessing the administration or the war hawks: just shut up and get out of the way.
‘I Didn’t Join the Taliban Because I Was Poor, I Joined Because I Was Angry’: Report Finds Injustice, Not Unemployment, Radicalizes Youth
On Wednesday, US officials will sit down in Washington to discuss once again how to counter the effective recruiting strategies of militant groups around the world — tackling challenges like winning the narrative war on social media and building partnerships with religious leaders — as part of the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism.
But a report released today by global aid agency Mercy Corps suggests that governments and analysts still understand little about what exactly drives the world's youth to join armed insurgencies and terrorist groups. It also indicates that more than poverty and unemployment, it's the experience of injustice that triggers the decision for many, coupled with exposure to corruption, humiliation, and violence.
"For a long time there has been an 'economics of terrorism' narrative that suggested that young people join terrorist groups because they don't have meaningful employment, they lack opportunities, and therefore they're a ready pools of recruits for al Qaeda," Keith Proctor, the report's author, told VICE News. "Essentially the narrative suggested that terrorism is really just job seeking by another name. We didn't think that was right." ...
"What we found is that unemployment status is a very poor predictor of whether a person is going to join an insurgent group or not," he added. "A far better predictor is the experience of injustice, discrimination, marginalization, being on the receiving end of corruption, and experiences of physical violence and being abused by police, security forces, or having a family member killed. All of this, of course, is not to say that no one has ever joined a terrorist organization or armed militia because they needed food, but it's just generally not the case."
"If poverty and unemployment were driving terrorism, there would be a lot more terrorism," Proctor said. "There are millions of people living in poverty — why aren't more of them joining armed movements? The fact is that most young people are peaceful. They want a future, and they're often optimistic in spite of their circumstances."
Given the stellar US record of vetting "moderates," I can't even begin to imagine what could possibly go wrong with this scheme:
US Will Let Syrian Rebels Call In Airstrikes
While the US plans to create a massive new “moderate rebel force” to fight against both ISIS and the Syrian government have been in place for awhile, the level to which they’ll go to prop up those rebels seems to be growing dramatically.
The latest half-baked scheme, reported by the Wall Street Journal, is to give this yet-to-be-created rebel faction the ability to directly call in US airstrikes against targets of their choosing.
The US intends to provide every cell of 4-6 rebel fighters with a pickup truck that will include a mounted machine gun and a GPS system within, through which they can radio in targets to be attacked by US warplanes.
Iran Negotiation Leaks Won't Affect Netanyahu's Prospect for Re-election
Netanyahu Campaign Ad Says Islamic State Will Prevail if Israelis Vote Left in Election
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a new campaign video, which warns that the Islamic State will invade Israel if voters cast their ballots for the opposition.
The video released Monday opens with a Palestinian rap song and footage of Islamic State fighters driving on a rural road in a white pickup truck decorated with a bumper sticker reading: "Just not Bibi," referring to Netanyahu's nickname. Two men stand in the bed of the truck, waving the standard black flags of the so-called caliphate. The driver, who is sporting a black balaclava, pulls up next to another car with an Israeli man behind the wheel.
Speaking Hebrew, the bearded Islamic State fighter in the passenger seat asks the Israeli driver, "How do we get to Jerusalem, bro?"
The man answers, "Take a left."
The video then cuts to a shot of a black background, to which digital bullet holes and the slogan, "The left will give in to terror" is added. In the next shot, the militants are seen firing gunshots into the air and driving around a bend as the advertisement ends.
CNN/ORC poll: Majority of Americans oppose Netanyahu invite
A large majority of Americans believe that Republican congressional leaders should not have invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress without consulting the White House, according to a new CNN/ORC survey.
The nationwide poll, released Tuesday, shows 63% of Americans say it was a bad move for congressional leadership to extend the invitation without giving President Barack Obama a heads up that it was coming. Only 33% say it was the right thing to do.
And as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to simmer in the Middle East, the survey found that a similar majority thinks the U.S. should stay out of that fight altogether. ...
Americans overall believe the U.S. should stay out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with 66% in the new poll advocating the U.S. remain neutral. Of those who do support picking a side, the majority, 29%, back Israel, while only 2% support Palestine. ...
A significant age gap suggests U.S. sentiment may, in the long term, be moving further in favor of neutrality in the conflict. While 56% of those age 50 or older believe the U.S. should stay out of the Israeli-Palestinian fight, that number skyrockets to 75% of Americans under age 50.
Poland’s Complicity in CIA Torture Program Confirmed as European Court Rejects Warsaw’s Appeal
The European Court of Human Rights today confirmed that the Polish government was complicit in the CIA’s secretive programme of rendition, detention and interrogation.
The Court in Strasbourg today rejected a challenge from the Polish government to a landmark ruling from last July, a decision which now makes that original judgement final.
July’s judgment said that two current Guantánamo inmates, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, were held in a CIA prison in Poland, that they had been subject to torture, and that Poland failed in its duty under European human rights law to protect them or investigate what happened.
Poland had requested a referral to the Court’s grand chamber, effectively appealing the decision, which could not become final while the request was pending.
The grand chamber today refused the request, but did not give any reasons.
It means that the Polish government now faces a substantial bill for damages and legal costs.
In the July judgment, both men were awarded €100,000 in damages and Abu Zubaydah another €30,000 in legal costs.
France Is Getting More Intolerant and Racist, According to Human Rights Report
The Council of Europe's human rights commissioner expressed concern on Tuesday over the rising tide of intolerance in France. Speaking at a press conference in Paris, Nils Muiznieks unveiled a 52-page report highlighting a marked increase in hate speech and discrimination over the past few years.
The report was finalized in December, less than a month before two gunmen opened fire on the Paris office of satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, the beginning of terror attacks that left 17 dead across Paris.
In the report, the commissioner addresses the mounting issues of intolerance and racism, and argues that more should be done to protect the human rights of migrants, travelers, the Roma people, and people with disabilities. Muiznieks also notes a surge in "homophobic, xenophobic, and anti-Muslim" incidents, and says France is struggling with an overall "loss of tolerance."
"In the present context, it's a useful report, because it sparks debate," said Pierre Henry, director of the French advocacy group Land of Asylum (FTDA). "However, the points raised by the commissioner have already been raised and have been widely documented." ...
Muiznieks also called on the government to improve its commitment to migrants in the city of Calais, who live in dismal conditions in makeshift camps dotted around the northern port city. The commissioner has asked officials to implement durable housing solutions for refugees, and to protect migrants from intensified attacks by local right-wing groups.
Ukraine Rebels Win Fight for Key City, But Will Cease-Fire Find Root in Battle's Wake?
After weeks of intense fighting, including the last several days under a cease-fire plan that appeared to have no bearing in the eastern Ukrainian city of Debaltseve, the Ukraine Army on Wednesday ordered a full retreat of its forces as rebels opposed to the Kiev government sounded victory and raised a flag over the strategically important town.
"Today, the armed forces of Ukraine are conducting the organized, planned retreat of units of forces of the antiterrorist operation from the city of Debaltseve," announced Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian national security and defense council, in Kiev on Wednesday. "At the moment, almost 80 percent of the Ukrainian units have retreated from this sector, and this operation is to be completed soon."
Debaltseve, which acts as a key transportation hub between the rebel centers of power in Donetsk and Luhansk, was the final holdout for the cease-fire that was scheduled to begin across the country at midnight on Saturday. It was clear that rebels would not allow the city to be held by Ukraine forces and the fighting had continued over recent days despite the agreement brokered by France, Germany and Russia during an intense diplomatic summit last week in Minsk, Belarus.
On Tuesday, Russian President Putin said Ukraine soldiers in Debaltseve should raise their white flags and, as Reuters reports, "urged Kiev's pro-Western leaders to let their soldiers surrender to avoid more bloodshed."
Ukraine leaders appeared to be down-playing the defeat, with key officials, including President Petro Poroshenko, claiming the withdrawal was both planned and orderly. "Debaltseve was under our control, it was never encircled. Our troops and formations have left in an organized and planned manner," said Poroshenko in televised comments on Wednesday.
Ukrainian Forces Recover Downed Russian Drone
MARIUPOL, Ukraine — A Russian drone was shot down over the weekend during heavy fighting against separatist forces near the government-held port city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian forces.
The drone was quickly identified as a Russian-designed and manufactured drone designated E08 by its manufacturer, the Enics company, whose logo and name appear in Cyrillic on its fuselage. The E08 was principally designed as a target for practice by Russian air and air defense forces, which explains why it is painted a highly visible orange color.
Members of Ukraine’s 37th Mechanized Battalion, who brought down the drone, saw it crash into the Azov Sea, fringing the conflict zone. It then took two days to locate, haul out of the water and transport to their base on the outskirts of Mariupol. ...
Ukraine has been developing its own small unmanned aircrafts, but Russia’s defense industry is several years ahead and there have been previous reports that separatists forces have been using Russian-supplied drones in the conflict.
A source connected with the Russian defense industry confirmed to The Intercept that the drone pictured was the Russian-built E08. But the source, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the record, said the drone “was used as an aerial target and shot down at Eisk military range on the Russian side of the Azov sea two weeks ago.”
Ukraine: US accuses Russia of breaching ceasefire after fighting at key town
Some pro-Kiev troops pulling out of Debaltseve, say paramilitary units, as Moscow sharply criticised at UN
The US has accused Russia of violating the ceasefire in Ukraine, amid reports that some Ukrainian troops are pulling out of the key strategic rail hub of Debaltseve.
The US joined other UN security council members in lining up to pour scorn on a resolution drafted by Moscow approving the truce.
Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, said it was “ironic to say the least” that Russia produced the motion at the same time as it was “backing an all-out assault” in Ukraine despite the ceasefire.
Commanders of pro-Kiev paramilitary units said on Wednesday morning that some pro-government forces were pulling out of Debaltseve, which has been under siege from Russia-backed separatists.
Associated Press reporters on the road to the government-controlled town of Artemivsk saw several dozen Ukrainian troops retreating with their weapons from Debaltseve.
The separatists said they had taken control of the town and offered Ukrainian troops the opportunity to surrender and abandon their weapons, a claim Ukraine denied.
Swiss Prosecutors Raid HSBC Subsidiary in Geneva After Tax Leaks
Prosecutors have raided HSBC's Swiss subsidiary in Geneva, after launching an inquiry into alleged money-laundering activities in the bank.
The search, which comes a week after leaked files surfaced indicating that the subsidiary may have helped wealthy clients avoid taxes, was led by Switzerland's Attorney General Olivier Jornot and First Prosecutor Yves Bertossa.
A statement released by the prosecutors said: "Following the recent revelations related to the HSBC Private Bank (Switzerland), the public prosecutor announces the opening of a criminal procedure against the bank... for aggravated money laundering." ...
Last week, an alliance of news outlets, including the Guardian, Le Monde, CBS and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, released information gleaned from around 60,000 files that suggested the bank, and its Swiss subsidiary, was engaging in various practices to enable clients to circumvent taxes. According to the files, some of the individuals who availed of the bank's services included "high-risk" people, such as international criminals, arms dealers and "traffickers in blood diamonds."
Rejecting Austerity, Greece Squares Off with Its Creditors & Risks Future in Eurozone
AMY GOODMAN: Explain, Paul, what austerity means.
PAUL MASON: Well, austerity in Greece means something like a 50 percent measurable increase in male suicides. It means real wages fell by 25 percent in five years. It means that the economy lost a quarter of its capacity: It has shrunk by 25 percent. And on the—if you sit at a coffee table, sit in a café in Athens, talk to the person who’s serving you, they’ll be a graduate, they’ll be living probably more than one person to a room, and their income will be on—the average income is about 500 to 600 euros a month, so think the same in dollars. But you talk to people, they’ll be earning 400 a month, so a hundred euros a week. And that’s for graduates. That is austerity. And then you’ve got the 300,000 families who can’t afford electricity. And something like—you know, something like sort of 15 percent of people now are on the edge of or have lost their healthcare. And Greece has a healthcare system based on insurance. When you lose it, you join the queue with the undocumented migrants at the Red Cross.
Greece Will Not be 'Blackmailed' into More Austerity, Tsipras Declares
Speaking before a session of the new Syriza parliament in Athens on Tuesday, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras declared that Greek negotiators will not succumb to "blackmail" from European lenders and will adhere to their promise to end austerity policies in the state.
"We are not in a hurry and we will not compromise," Tsipras told the assembled lawmakers. "We are working hard for an honest and mutually beneficial deal, a deal without austerity, without the bailout which has destroyed Greece in recent years, a deal without the toxic presence of the Troika."
Tsipras made the comments as tense negotiations with other European financial ministers and lenders representing the Troika lenders—which include the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund—continued in Brussels.
On Monday, those talks collapsed after finance minister Yanis Varoufakis rejected a proposal put forth by the Eurogroup ministers because it called for an extension of the current bailout scheme with no alterations to the terms. Greek leaders face a Friday deadline by which they must agree on a short term aid package.
'If Greece exits eurozone, the immediate question will be - Who's next?'
Greece – It’s a Revolution, Stupid!
I fear most people have become so fixated on the Greek debt and the fate of the Euro, that they have completely ignored the political dimensions of the current conflict in Europe, shich are no less dramatic. The ongoing dispute between the German and Greek governments is nothing less than a democratic revolution against German hegemony and the attempt of the Germans and their paladins in the EU to dictate Greek domestic policy. It is a struggle by the Greeks to re-establish national sovereignty. What is more, this is the first time in the history of the EU that a political party with true leftist credentials has led a member nation. For reactionary Germany, with its neoliberal agenda, that is intolerable. This conflict is profound, if not existential, and thus could well be intractable.
The Greek people have made a decision to liberate themselves from a repressive regime of austerity and its incumbent humanitarian disaster. The Germans on the other hand refer to the developments of the past five years in Greece as a success. Yes, it has been a success in the sense that the Germans and French were able to rescue their banks and leave the Greek people to foot the bill. It was even more successful in that Greece was stripped of its political and economic autonomy – with the assistance of the quislings Antonis Samaras and Evangelos Venizelos.
The German government has never wanted democratic reform in Greece, leaving the perpetrators of the Greek financial crisis, the political and financial elites unscathed. Success has meant Greece being reduced to a vassal state, raising the market above all other values, where multinational corporations, including German companies, could take over profitable state assets cheaply and German tourists could enjoy cut-rate holidays or buy holiday homes at bargain prices. What occurred in Greece with the bailout is an occupation, not with troops and panzers, but by financial means.
Following the recent elections in Greece, Germany and its EU compradors are making it clear who is in charge. The Germans are currently not offering any compromise, but iterate the same blunt demand: Greece has to accept what is being dictated; in other words, capitulate or be annihilated. This time it will not be the Wehrmacht und Luftwaffe that are to force the Greek nation into submission, but a weapon just as lethal: national bankruptcy. ...
Should Germany come down too hard on Greece or even drive it into bankruptcy and out of the Euro, this will give all the anti-austerity political parties in Southern Europe a fillip. They, as Germany before them, will be able to convert an economic conflict into a nationalistic one, simply from the opposite perspective: the repressive, greedy, power hungry Germans once again plundering Europe as they did seventy-five years ago. This will be utilised by the left as well as the right. Soon Germany may not only have to deal with the Greek government, but the Spanish, Italian, French and Portugese as well.
White House considers swift challenge to judge's immigration ruling
The Obama administration is considering trying to swiftly overturn a court restriction against its immigration reforms amid fears that a prolonged legal threat would deter future applicants and give Republicans a window to rally political opposition.
The decision on Monday by Texas district judge Andrew Hanen to freeze the president’s proposed executive action is widely seen as a temporary setback in Washington, and the White House has pledged to appeal the decision in higher courts.
“At the end of the day, we expect to prevail and we expect this will be a successful process,” insisted White House adviser Cecilia Muñoz in a conference call for reporters on Tuesday. “We are going to appeal. We believe we are on very strong legal footing.” ...
Despite their confidence about the administration’s ability to win an appeal, immigration campaigners fear any prolonged legal uncertainty may permanently deter people from applying for this and a separate program also aimed at the parents of undocumented children – especially if they believe that it risks identifying themselves as targets for deportation in the future.
Eric Holder 'confident' Michael Brown shooting inquiry to conclude soon
In one of his final speeches before leaving office, US attorney general Eric Holder said on Tuesday that he is “confident” the conclusions of the Department of Justice’s investigation into the shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown will be released before he steps down.
The Justice Department has been considering whether officer Darren Wilson should face federal civil rights charges related to Brown’s death, and if the Ferguson police department has violated community members’ rights.
“My hope is, as I said, is that we will do this before I leave office, and I’m confident that we will do that,” said Holder, while speaking to the National Press Club in Washington DC.
“The reviews are under way. I was briefed on both of them, just last week, and I’m satisfied with the progress we have made and also comfortable in saying that I am going to be able to make those calls before I leave office,” said Holder.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature a report on Mother Jones, now back in Denver. Also, lest we forget FW Joe Hill in the Salt Lake County Jail, we will publish a few of his letters to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and other supporters.
Tune in at 2pm!
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New Analysis Shatters Narrative of Charter School Success
Public schools are outperforming charter schools in Minnesota, in some cases "dramatically," according to a new analysis by the state's Star-Tribune newspaper.
In addition, many charter schools fail to adequately support minority students, close examination of the data revealed.
Journalist Kim McGuire looked at 128 of the state's 157 charter schools and found "that the gulf between the academic success of its white and minority students widened at nearly two-thirds of those schools last year. Slightly more than half of charter schools students were proficient in reading, dramatically worse than traditional public schools, where 72 percent were proficient."
Between 2011 and 2014, McGuire reported, 20 charter schools failed to meet the state’s expectations for academic growth each year, "signaling that some of Minnesota’s most vulnerable students had stagnated academically."
Charlene Briner, the Minnesota Department of Education’s chief of staff, told the newspaper that she was troubled by the information, "which runs counter to 'the public narrative' that charter schools are generally superior to public schools."
Russian punk band Pussy Riot release I Can't Breathe, inspired by Eric Garner
The video is dark, claustrophobic and haunting – an “industrial ballad”, in the words of Pussy Riot, inspired by the death of Eric Garner and dedicated to all of those “who can’t breathe”.
On Wednesday, Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina released their first song in English. Titled I Can’t Breathe, it shows Nadya and Masha dressed in the blue uniform of Russia’s OMON riot police, lying in a grave. They are slowly buried alive.
Pussy Riot said they wrote the song after taking part in street protests against Eric Garner’s death at the hands of NYPD officers in Staten Island, New York last July. It was dedicated to Garner and to “all who suffer from state terror – killed, choked, perished because of war and police violence – to political prisoners and those on the streets fighting for change”.
Their own first-hand experience of police brutality in Russia meant “we can’t be silent on this issue,” they said.
The Evening Greens
Doc Shows Canadian Police View Environmentalists, Not Climate Change, as Real Threat
Canadian environmental organizations could pose a potential threat to national security and are attempting to make the fossil fuel industry look bad.
Such was the assessment of what the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) referred to as the "anti-petroleum movement" in a document dated Jan. 24, 2014, and titled Critical Infrastructure Intelligence Assessment.
The existence of the document, obtained by Greenpeace, was revealed by the Globe and Mail on Tuesday and by French language newspaper LaPresse last week. Common Dreams saw a copy of the document Tuesday. ...
The RCMP document says there is a "small but violent-prone faction" of environmental groups, and that criminal actions that target the nation's fossil fuel industry, including the tar sands industry, "represent a credible threat to the health and safety of the workers, the general public, the activists, the natural environment and the facility's operations."
As Keith Stewart, climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace Canada, writes at his organization's blog, "the RCMP document treats climate change as a hoax perpetrated by environmentalists."
US Pays Out 'Peanuts' for Eco-Crime Committed in Philippines
The United States was required to pay just a paltry amount for an environmental crime and violation of the Philippines' sovereignty.
That's what critics are saying of the U.S. payout to the Philippines as compensation for damages a U.S. Navy minesweeper caused to a World Heritage-listed coral reef two years ago.
As Common Dreams previously reported:
In January 2013, the USS Guardian rammed into and got stranded in the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park after reportedly ignoring warnings from park rangers, causing damage to over 2,300 square miles of the park. The ship remained stuck in the reef for over two months, and had to be cut into pieces to be extricated.
A UNESCO World Heritage site, the park website describes it as being at the heart of the global center of marine biodiversity.
The Department of Foreign Affairs issued a statement Wednesday that the Philippine government received on January 20, 2015 the full amount requested from the United States—$1.9 million—as compensation.
But Philippines-based environmental activist group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) said that amount is inadequate, as their studies have indicated that $17-27 million is order to cover environmental rehabilitation for the reef.
Fracking Flowback From California Oil Wells Found To Contain Dangerous Levels Of Carcinogenic and Toxic Chemicals
Adding to the already lengthy list of reasons to be concerned about the disposal of oil industry wastewater in California, the Center for Biological Diversity says it has found dangerous levels of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals such as benzene and toluene in fracking flowback.
Flowback is a fluid that floats up to the surface of fracked wells that contains clays, dissolved metal ions and total dissolved solids (such as salt) in addition to chemical additives used in the fracking process. ...
In California, where the toxic and cancer-causing chemicals were found to be present in flowback by the CBD, oil industry wastewater is not, unfortunately, disposed of in a cautious manner.
The most common wastewater disposal method is to inject it underground. It was recently revealed that California regulators have allowed hundreds of injection wells to pump wastewater into aquifers protected under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Regulators also permitted thousands more wells to inject fluids from “enhanced oil recovery” techniques like acidization and cyclic steam injection into protected aquifers. ...
“Cancer-causing chemicals are surfacing in fracking flowback fluid just as we learn that the California oil industry is disposing of wastewater in hundreds of illegal disposal wells and open pits,” said Hollin Kretzmann, the CBD lawyer who conducted the analysis. “Gov. Brown needs to shut down all the illegal wells immediately and ban fracking to fight this devastating threat to California’s water supply.”
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Destroyed by the Espionage Act
Detroit's 'Walking Man' Walks On
Yanis Varoufakis: How I became an erratic Marxist
Benjamin Netanyahu Is Playing With Fire
Where are the “Progressive” Democrats on Loretta Lynch’s HSBC Money Laundering Wrist Slap?
Delirium
A Little Night Music
Tampa Red - Let Me Play With Your Poodle
Marcia Ball - Play with your Poodle
Tampa Red & Georgia Tom - You Can't Get That Stuff No More
Red Dirt Boogie Sisters - You can't get that stuff no more
Tampa Red - It Hurts Me Too
Elmore James - It hurts me too
Grateful Dead w/ Duane Allman - It Hurts Me Too
Tampa Red - Love Her With A Feeling
Freddie King - Love Her With A Feeling
Junior Wells - You Gotta Love Her with a Feeling
Tampa Red - Let's Get Drunk and Truck
Tampa Red - What Is That Tastes Like Gravy ?
Tampa Red - Seminole Blues
Tampa Red and his Chicago Five - I'm Gonna Get High
Tampa Red - Mama Don't Allow No Easy Riders Here
Tampa Red - No Matter How She Done It
Tampa Red's Hokum Jazz Band - My Daddy Rocks Me With A Steady Roll
Tampa Red & The Chicago Five - Sweetest Gal in Town
Tampa Red - She's Dynamite
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