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 Mississippi delta bluesman Eddie "Son" House. Enjoy!
Son House - Grinnin' in Your Face
Much has been said of the want of what you term "civilization" among the Indians. Many proposals have been made to us to adopt your laws, your religion, your manners, and your customs. We do not see the propriety of such a reformation.
We should be better pleased if we could actually see the good effects of these doctrines in your own practices rather than hearing you talk about them, or reading your newspaper on such subjects.
You say, for example, "Why do not the Indians till the ground and live as we do?" May we not ask with equal propriety, "Why do not the white people hunt and live as we do?"
Old Tassel - Cherokee
News and Opinion
Joe is on vacation today and will be back tomorrow 6/30/15. Thanks for stopping by and reading.
Compiled by: Johnny the Conqueroo
Contributors:
janis b
Funkygal
Johnny the Conqueroo
Victory for Democracy as Court Sides with Voters over 'Self-Dealing Legislators'
SCOTUS upholds 'the right of We the People to take redistricting out of secret backrooms run by politicians and into the public light of citizen-driven commissions.'
In a decision hailed as a "major victory for voters," the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld an Arizona ballot initiative, adopted by voters in 2000, which took redistricting power away from elected politicians and gave it to a nonpartisan commission.
The 5-4 decision (pdf), which saw Justice Anthony Kennedy serving as the swing vote, allows redistricting commissions to remain in place across the country and in turn works to curb the practice known as gerrymandering—the manipulation of electoral districts so as to favor one political party.
"This decision reaffirms the people’s authority to rein in self-dealing legislators," said Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, which submitted an amicus brief in the case. "The Constitution is not a barrier to states who want to address the problem of partisan gerrymandering."
What's more, according to the Brennan Center, the ruling "also leaves intact dozens of other election laws enacted by ballot initiative, legislative referendum, or constitutional amendment." The center provided an interactive map detailing the kind of measures that were at risk.
US supreme court refuses to let Texas close 10 abortion clinics
Justices rule 5-4 to grant emergency appeal from clinics that will for now prevent state from enforcing restrictions that would have caused clinics to close
The US supreme court stepped in to postpone reproductive-rights restrictions that would have left the vast state of Texas with fewer than 10 abortion clinics, allowing healthcare providers and women’s rights groups time to petition the nation’s highest tribunal to review their fate.
In a 5-4 decision, the justices granted an emergency appeal to suspend a ruling from a federal appellate court that upheld the most extreme provisions of Texas’s anti-abortion law. Chief justice John Roberts and his fellow conservative justices – Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito – all dissented.
Earlier this month, a three-judge panel on the fifth US circuit court of appeals, one of the nation’s most conservative courts, found that Texas could require abortion clinics to meet hospital-level operating standards, which opponents say are too expensive for small providers and clinics.
The supreme court’s surprise blockade on the shutdown still leaves the second most populous state in the US with just nine abortion clinics until at least autumn, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the clinics in the challenge.
'No to Austerity': Tens of Thousands Back Syriza at Rally in Athens
'We believe that this ultimatum to the Greek people and democracy should be rejected,' write international academics
Tens of thousands gathered in Athens on Monday night, adding their voices to the ranks of the Syriza government officials and international observers who are urging Greek citizens to act boldly and reject the terms of an aid deal offered by Greece's austerity-loving international creditors.
While numerous governments and financial institutions warned Monday that the referendum vote could determine whether or not Greece stays in the Eurozone, other critical implications loom.
A 'No' vote would be a clear rejection of austerity measures as well as other regressive and punitive policies being foisted on Greece by the so-called Troika.
On the other hand, notes Reuters, "a 'Yes' vote would pile pressure on Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to resign—given his adamant resistance to opening the door to new elections and possibly a return to the negotiating table with creditors."
Europe's big guns warn Greek voters that a no vote means euro exit
Germany, France and Italy joined the European commission in insisting that Sunday’s poll was about continued eurozone membership
The eurozone’s three biggest countries have raised the stakes in next Sunday’s Greek referendum with an orchestrated warning to voters that a no vote would mean exit from the single currency and the return of the drachma.
As the Greek economy suffered on its first day of stringent capital controls, politicians from Germany, France and Italy joined the European commission in insisting that the poll was not about whether Athens could secure more favourable bailout terms but was about continued euro membership
The stark assessment was shared by George Osborne, who told MPs that the UK economy would be affected by the chaos that would result from Greece leaving the eurozone.
The chancellor’s comments came as ratings agency Standard & Poor’s issued a grim analysis of the repercussions that could follow an euro exit, the chances of which it has raised from 33% to 50%. S&P said there could be “a serious foreign currency shortage for the private and public sectors, potentially leading to the rationing of key imports such as fuel”.
Bernie Sanders can give America what it needs: Some good old-fashioned class warfare
The democratic socialist from Vermont is well positioned to bring class back to the forefront of American politics
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has struck a nerve in the heart of America. Throughout the country, the Vermont Senator has been drawing enormous crowds, equal to that of Hillary, while also gaining in the polls and prompting Clinton to muster up her best Elizabeth Warren impression. It is clear that Sanders’ populist message, which addresses economic inequality and Wall Street corruption, is resonating with the American people. But what’s most important about the rise of Bernie Sanders, whether you believe he is a true populist or a cog in the Democratic machine, is that he (and other progressives like Warren) is bringing back what has long been stomped out in America: class politics.
Well, thats not entirely true. Class politics never really went away, there was simply a shift in aggression. Since the ’70s, the ruling class has gone on the offensive, while the middle and lower classes have been brought to their knees. Of course, when the lower classes go on the attack, its class warfare; but when the ruling class does it, it’s reform. (At least this is what has been hammered into the minds of so many Americans over the past 40 or so years.)
Just think of Bill Clinton’s welfare reform and his promise to “end welfare as we know it.” The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act was signed into law in 1996, and was a culmination of over 20 years of ruling-class propaganda. Politicians, pundits, and the media managed to create a nasty picture of the poor leaching off of everyone else in America, while popular terms like “welfare queen” were added to the lexicon. But what was particularly clever about this attack on the underclass was how it became as much about race as it was about class. This was not an accident. Since the Civil Rights era, racial prejudices have been used to divide the lower classes, dismantling of the New Deal coalition — which had been racially and culturally diverse — in the late ’60s.
Obama signs bill giving himself fast-track powers for trade deals
President Barack Obama signed a bill giving him "fast-track" powers to conduct and conclude trade legislation. The bill was approved by Congress last week after months of contentious debate and several difficult votes.
In addition to the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), as the fast-track bill is officially called, the president signed the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) act, extending aid to US workers who might lose their jobs as a consequence of free-trade deals.
The two bills were originally bundled together in both the Senate and the House of Representatives as a way of securing bipartisan support. However, Obama faced an uphill battle within his own party, with the House Democrats rejecting TAA in order to hold TPA hostage.
The Church of Self-Help
There’s a reason the poor don’t rise up over inequality. Because our culture shames them.
Link Submitted by: Funkygal
The question of why we aren’t angrier about our increasing income inequality is back, courtesy of Thomas Edsall at the New York Times. In a Wednesday op-ed he asks, “Why are today’s working poor so quiescent?”
While Edsall believes living conditions are better for the poor than they were in the past (affordable televisions and air conditioners go a long way!), he flags something else to blame for the lack of public rage: the United States’ individualistic culture, one that has left all of us ever-more skeptical of appeals to group action. “There is very little social support for class-based protest, “ he notes.
We take the increased economic risk that’s been shifted onto the individual for granted. Instead of anger, there is acceptance and resignation. The “great risk shift”described by Jacob Hacker in his book of the same name is so thorough and complete, most of us no longer realize—never mind believe—that our world could be any different. We’ve internalized the language of the corporate state.
In Search of Life’s Smoking Gun
Link Submitted by: janis b
It was nearly midnight aboard the research vessel Atlantis. The ship was about a thousand miles west of Costa Rica, where she’d sailed from, hovering over a hydrothermal vent field in the eastern Pacific. Rutgers microbiologist Costantino Vetriani, seated a few feet away from me in the dark control room, radiated energy despite the hour. He peered intently through his glasses at dozens of monitors, occasionally running a hand over his shaved head. On the live video feed from the remotely operated submersible on the bottom, we watched thick black smoke with a scorching temperature of over 350 degrees Celsius billow from a rocky tower a mile beneath us. It was a stunning sight, an underwater pillar releasing a storm of pent-up energy from the dark bowels of the Earth. Vetriani, a trim Italian clad in a T-shirt reading “RNA: The Other Nucleic Acid,” observed the raw power, his dark eyes shining. “A black smoker is a window into hell,” he said with a grin.
In fact, the black smoker may be a window into the eruption of life on Earth. Vetriani is part of a team of scientists who have come to the vents to study the microbes that carpet every surface in and around them. Earlier, in the ship’s library, chief scientist Stefan Sievert, a microbial ecologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, had outlined the goals of the month-long expedition. He explained that understanding how the microbes survive in the hellish vents—what nutrients they use and at what rates; how quickly they turn vent fluids into living biomass—could give insight into how biological life evolved. I was tagging along and assisting with record-keeping during the work on the bottom, which ran 24 hours a day, save the occasional interruption when the seas were too rough to deploy the ROV safely.
After midnight, as Vetriani and I took in the black smoker, he explained that the hydrothermal vents were “a relic environment, one we believe resembles what the early conditions on Earth might have been. What we’re doing ultimately is trying to understand how life evolved on the planet.” Being aboard the Atlantis allowed me to learn not only about the primeval microbes that live at vents today, but about how organic life may have first arisen in the ocean’s depths. As we watched the thick, hot fluid venting from the mineral chimney, at the timeless place where rock and water meet at the bottom of the sea, it was as if we were looking directly into life’s birthplace.
There’s a Reason Gay Marriage Is Winning, While Abortion Rights Are Losing
Are these two “culture wars” issues really that similar?
Link Submitted by: Funkygal
Why are reproductive rights losing while gay rights are winning? Indiana’s attempt to enshrine opposition to gay marriage under the guise of religious freedom provoked an immediate nationwide backlash. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has allowed religious employers to refuse insurance coverage for birth control—not abortion, birth control—to female employees; new laws are forcing abortion clinics to close; and absurd, even medically dangerous restrictions are heaping up in state after state. Except when the media highlight a particularly crazy claim by a Todd Akin or Richard Mourdock, where’s the national outrage? Most Americans are pro-choice, more or less; only a small minority want to see abortion banned. When you consider, moreover, that one in three women will have had at least one abortion by the time she reaches menopause, and most of those women had parents, partners, friends—someone—who helped them obtain it, the sluggish response to the onslaught of restrictive laws must include many people who have themselves benefited from safe and legal abortion.
The media present marriage equality and reproductive rights as “culture war” issues, as if they somehow went together. But perhaps they’re not as similar as we think. Some distinctions:
§ Marriage equality is about love, romance, commitment, settling down, starting a family. People love love! But marriage equality is also about tying love to family values, expanding a conservative institution that has already lost most of its coercive social power and become optional for millions. (Marriage equality thus follows Pollitt’s law: Outsiders get access when something becomes less valued, which is why women can be art historians and African-Americans win poetry prizes.) Far from posing a threat to marriage, as religious opponents claim, permitting gays to marry gives the institution a much-needed update, even as it presents LGBT people as no threat to the status quo: Instead of promiscuous child molesters and lonely gym teachers, gays and lesbians are your neighbors who buy Pottery Barn furniture and like to barbecue.
Gay Marriage Victory Is Not About Equality
Link Submitted by: Funkygal
Queer activist Yasmin Nair says that the fight for gay marriage was driven by an elitist, conservative movement
Music in Philosophy
Link Submitted by: janis b
Today some universities have courses in the Philosophy of Music. They study such questions as: What is the definition of music? What makes us say that a particular set of sounds is music while another set of sounds is not? What is the relationship of music to the mind? How does music affect (a) our emotions, (b) our intellect? How can we evaluate the value of any given piece of music? What is the relationship between a piece of music and its performance? What do we mean when we say a piece of music is sad? Where does the ‘sadness’ reside? and so on. Such questions are treated in a highly technical way in, for example, the article ‘Philosophy of Music’ in the on-line Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. There we can see what issues about music are being debated by the current academic establishment.
That is not what I want to do in this article. This is historical, describing what some individual philosophers have said about music. I could not find any website that gives an account of how significant philosophical ideas about music have developed over time. That time seems to me to end with Friedrich Nietzsche, who died in 1900. Since then, it seems to me, no great name in philosophy has given music a significant place in his philosophy – although there are of course many lesser philosophers who are not (relatively) household names who are referred to in the Encyclopedia.
The other thing that struck me is the enormous time gap between, on the one hand, the two philosophers of antiquity, Pythagoras and Plato, who said something about the philosophy of music, and the topic being taken up again in the Eighteenth Century by Leibniz. So the bulk of this article will deal with a relatively short period, from about 1714 to about 1889, during which time famous names in philosophy – Leibniz, Kant, Schelling, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche – concerned themselves with ideas about music.
Puerto Rico governor says US territory 'can't pay $72bn debt'
Puerto Rico's governor has said the US territory cannot pay its $72bn (£45bn) debt and is close to defaulting ahead of emergency talks with legislators.
Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla admitted the island was close to an economic "death spiral", in an interview with the New York Times.
But White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that the US government was not contemplating a federal bailout.
The self-governing US commonwealth has been in a recession since 2006.
Letter of Recommendation: Letter of Recommendation: Alternative Search Engines
Link Submitted by: janis b
The moment Google announced it was letting users download their entire search histories, I clicked — and downloaded a cache of 128,948 searches, the sum total of my last 12 years, five months, one week and three days online.
I fully expected to be reminded of those repeated requests for ‘‘Finnish gymnastics’’ and ‘‘comorbidity of insomnia and brain lesioning,’’ but what surprised me was how regularly I searched for other search engines: ‘‘alternative search engines,’’ ‘‘alt search engines,’’ ‘‘search engines that aren’t Google,’’ ‘‘search engines better than Google.’’
That’s how I first found my way to Mystery Google, a site that within a year of its introduction in 2009 rebranded itself as Mystery Seeker, the name under which it still operates. The site, in any iteration, has always been an enigma. It’s not clear who founded it, or who runs it, or whether it changed its name because Google threatened legal action or just acquired the domain. By contrast, what the site does is remarkably transparent. You type what you please and click Search; what you get in return are the results for the last query given to the site.
Friedman Turns Baltimore Uprising Into Commercial for Wife’s Charter School
Link Submitted by: Funkygal
Today putative liberal and mustachioed wonker Thomas Friedman (New York Times, 6/3/15) did what he does best: take something vaguely topical and use it as a hook to promote whatever topic he and his billionaire friends want to propagandize that week.
Whether it’s advocating collective punishment of Ukrainians to push his CEO friend’s “Green Energy” IPO during its quiet period, or unironically floating the idea of arming ISIS to demagogue Iran, it’s a tried and true formula for America’s most tedious Important Person.
This morning, however, Friedman reached a new low, exploiting the Baltimore Uprising to run a rather shameless commercial for his wife’s charter school organization:
On a warm Saturday in late May 2008, my wife, Ann, talked me into going to an auditorium in Baltimore to watch a lottery. It was no ordinary lottery. Numbered balls were cranked out of a bingo machine, and the winners got a ticket to a better life. It was the lottery to choose the first 80 students to attend a new public college-prep boarding school: the SEED School of Maryland based in Baltimore. (My wife chairs the foundation behind the SEED schools.) SEED Maryland — SEED already had a branch in the District of Columbia — was admitting boys and girls from some of the toughest streets and dysfunctional schools in Maryland, and particularly Baltimore, beginning in sixth grade. Five days a week, they would live at the school in a dormitory with counselors — insulated from the turmoil of their neighborhoods — and take buses home on weekends. Last Saturday, I attended the graduation of that first class.
NSA wiretapped two French finance ministers: Wikileaks
The U.S. National Security Agency wiretapped the communications of two successive French finance ministers and collected information on French export contracts, trade and budget talks, according to a report by WikiLeaks.
The transparency website said the ministers targeted were Francois Baroin and Pierre Moscovici, who between them headed the finance ministry from 2011 to 2014.
The allegations, published jointly with newspaper Liberation and online outlet Mediapart, came a week after Wikileaks reported that the NSA had spied on three French presidents from at least 2006 to May 2012, prompting the government to protest to Washington that such behavior between allies was unacceptable.
US Supreme Court upholds use of disputed execution drug
Judges rule 5-4 that controversial drug midazolam does not violate a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The US Supreme Court has ruled that a controversial drug used by one state as part of its lethal injection procedure does not violate a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, dealing a setback to opponents of the death penalty.
In a 5-4 vote, with its conservative justices in the majority, the court handed a loss to three inmates who objected to the use of a sedative called midazolam, saying it cannot achieve the level of unconsciousness required for surgery, making it unsuitable for executions.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote on Monday on behalf of the court that the inmates had, among other things, failed to show that there was an alternative method of execution available that would be less painful.
Pope 'plans to chew coca leaves during Bolivia visit'
Pope Francis has requested to chew coca leaves during his forthcoming visit to Bolivia, according to Bolivian Culture Minister Marko Machicao.
Coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine, has been used in the Andes for thousands of years to combat altitude sickness and as a mild stimulant.
Mr Machicao said the government offered the Pope coca tea and the pontiff had "specifically requested" to chew coca.
The Vatican has not yet commented. The Pope travels to Bolivia on 8 July.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature a report on day three of the Convention of Industrial Unionists.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Stunning Bird-Eye-View Photos World Landmarks Taken by Drone
Link Submitted by: janis b
New Zealand-based artist Amos Chapple captures the world from a bird-eye view in his beautiful series named “Air”. He uses drone technology to snap remarkable pictures high in the sky. Architectural sights like the Taj Mahal, Lotus Temple, and Saint Petersburg’s Hermitage Pavilion are all featured, along with some less known sights. They’re bathed in a bright, soft light and cover an impossible distance. Chapple was involved in consumer drones as soon as they hit the market. He obtained one, mastered how to fly it, and then began to travel the earth. Those photos were taken before drone photography was banned or otherwise restrained. “There was a window of about 18 months where it was likely to fly these things anywhere, and people were delighted to see it. I’m glad I made use of that time,” Chapple explains.
Many photos here.
“I think America is out of hand”: The shocking numbers that reveal just how burnt out American workers are
Productivity has exploded in the American workforce in recent years, but at a terrible cost
The American worker is overworked, underpaid, and suffering from severe burnout.
This sentiment isn’t populist rhetoric, there are numbers to back it up. A new study from Staples Advantage and WorkPlaceTrends — an HR-focused research firm — polled over 2,500 workers and reached troubling results. According to the data, 53 percent of American workers report feeling burned out at work.
With current working conditions, it’s easy to see why. A 2012 study concluded smartphones and tablets enable employers to further colonize a worker’s time to the tune of two extra hours a day since they can be reached at all hours. In 2014, Gallup estimated the typical American workweek was 47 hours, not 40; the American worker was toiling for almost a full extra day. Of the workers this recent study polled, more than half worked a day longer than eight hours.
“This isn’t the workplace of 10 years ago,” Dan Schawbel, founder of WorkPlaceTrends, co-author of the study, and author of the New York Times bestselling book Promote Yourself, told Salon. “There’s a lot of pressure. And it’s competitive in the sense that anyone in the world could take your job for less money, so you have to work harder.”
John Oliver rips CNN for mistaking pride parade flag for ISIS flag: You work at CNN — and you don’t know what a dildo looks like?
CNN's royal "f-up" this weekend is sure to go down in history right alongside SCOTUS' same-sex marriage ruling
CNN’s royal “f-up” this weekend is sure to go down in history — some type of special history — right alongside SCOTUS’ historic same-sex ruling.
In a live segment following Saturday’s gay pride parade in London, CNN reporter Lucy Pawle claimed that she’d seen an ISIS flag when, in fact, the flag was actually decorated with dildos and butt-plugs.
“I seem to be the only person that’s spotted this, and nobody seems to be raising any questions or pointing it!” she was heard saying in the seven-minute segment which featured a prominent banner reading “ISIS FLAG SPOTTED AT GAY PRIDE PARADE.”
CNN quickly washed their hands clean of the egregious error and took down the video from the Internet. But thankfully, because people like “Last Week Tonight’s” John Oliver exist, it lives on forever.
Google has until Aug 17 to reply to EU antitrust charges
Google Inc has been given until mid-August to head off EU charges of abusing its market power in a dozen EU countries and stave off a possible billion-euro fine.
The European Commission in April accused Google of distorting search results to favour its shopping service, hurting both rivals and consumers.
"We have asked the European Commission for additional time to review the documents they've provided us. The Commission has extended our response deadline to Aug. 17," Google spokesman Al Verney said.
The Evening Greens
Tonight's Greens submitted by: JtC
US Supreme Court Backs Coal Profits Over Public Health
Campaigners warn that power plant ruling threatens to delay critical safeguards, fails to account for savings to human health and environment
Placing the interests of Big Coal over public health, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to back the Environmental Protection Agency's new power plant emissions standards.
In a 5-4 ruling(pdf), the court argued that the Obama administration "unreasonably" interpreted its authority under the Clean Air Act by failing to account for the cost of compliance for polluting coal-fired power plants to meet the new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which were finalized in 2012.
According to the opinion, penned by Justice Antonin Scalia and backed by Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito, "The Agency may regulate power plants under this program only if it concludes that 'regulation is appropriate and necessary' after studying hazards to public health posed by power-plant emissions."
While the court did not deny that such emissions pose grave public health risks, the opinion argues that the financial impact to the coal industry must be considered.
Sixth Great Mass Extinction Event Begins; 2015 on Pace to Become Hottest Year on Record
At the end of May, a few friends and I opted to climb a couple of the larger volcanoes in Washington State. We started on Mount Adams, a 12,280-foot peak in the southern part of the state.
We were able to drive to the Cold Springs Campground at 5,600 feet, where the climb would begin. This itself was an anomaly for late May, when the dirt road tended to still be covered with snowpack. But not this year, one in which Washington's Gov. Jay Inslee has already declared a statewide drought emergency, given this year's record-low snowpack.
In fact, we hiked up bare earth until around 7,500 feet before we even had to don our crampons (metal spikes that attach to climbing boots to improve traction), itself another anomaly. During a short visit to the Forest Service ranger station the day before, the ranger had informed us that we were already experiencing mid- to late-August conditions, though it wasn't yet June.
Extreme makeover: Humankind's unprecedented transformation of Earth
Human beings are pushing the planet in an entirely new direction with revolutionary implications for its life, a new study by researchers at the University of Leicester has suggested.
The research team led by Professor Mark Williams from the University of Leicester's Department of Geology has published their findings in a new paper entitled 'The Anthropocene Biosphere' in The Anthropocene Review.
Professor Jan Zalasiewicz from the University of Leicester's Department of Geology who was involved in the study explained the research: "We are used to seeing headlines daily about environmental crises: global warming, ocean acidification, pollution of all kinds, looming extinctions. These changes are advancing so rapidly, that the concept that we are living in a new geological period of time, the Anthropocene Epoch -- proposed by the Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen -- is now in wide currency, with new and distinctive rock strata being formed that will persist far into the future.
"But what is really new about this chapter in Earth history, the one we're living through? Episodes of global warming, ocean acidification and mass extinction have all happened before, well before humans arrived on the planet. We wanted to see if there was something different about what is happening now."
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Paul Krugman: What Happens When the West Imposes Endless Crippling Austerity on a Country
Robert Reich: Why We Must Fight Economic Apartheid in America
Chris Hedges Wins L.A. Press Club’s Top Award for Activism Journalism
Freedom Flotilla III Exposes Anti-Democratic Extremism of the Israeli "Center"
How Activists Won Reparations for the Survivors of Chicago Police Department Torture
Greece, How would I vote?
Hellraisers Journal: "I entered here to represent..outraged humanity." ~Delegate Lucy E. Parsons
Supreme Court overturns EPA air pollution rule
Joseph Stiglitz: “It’s Time to Get Radical on Inequality”
The Importance of Platform
A Little Night Music
Son House - Death Letter Blues
White Stripes - Death Letter Blues
Son House - Preachin' Blues
Son House - John the revelator
Gov't Mule - John The Revelator
Son House w/Buddy Guy - My Black Mama
Son House - Empire State Express
Son House - Mississippi County Farm Blues
Son House - Pearline
Son House - Levee Camp Blues
Son House - Jinx Blues
Son House - Camp Hollers