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Hey! Good Evening!
Tonight's music theme is Chicago, a timely subject given the recent actions there.
Johnny Shines - Sweet Home Chicago
CHICAGO
HOG Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I
have seen your painted women under the gas lamps
luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it
is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to
kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the
faces of women and children I have seen the marks
of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who
sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer
and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with
white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young
man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has
never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with
Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
-- Carl Sandburg
News
Attorney: "NATO 3" Activists Detained on Terror Charges Are Victims of Police Entrapment
NATO Meeting Kicks off With Harassment of Protesters, Ominous Warnings to Press
The Chicago police wasted no time harassing protesters Wednesday evening when they raided a Bridgeport apartment complex without a valid warrant and detained up to nine people without cause. The individuals have been identified as NATO activists, and the NLG quickly responded to the arrests. ...
The theme of harassment continued over the weekend when a memo allegedly from the Chicago Police Department Office of International Relations, marked not intended for general distribution was posted online.
The three-page document outlines press behavior that will and will not be tolerated, including normally acceptable media maneuvers that will no longer be considered acceptable and actually might be grounds for arrest.
Unlawful Search and Detention at the 2012 NATO Summit
Should NATO Exist?
As NATO concludes its largest-ever summit in Chicago, we host a debate on whether the trans-Atlantic military alliance should exist at all and its new agreement to hand over control to Afghan forces next year. "When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When you’re a military alliance, every problem looks like it requires a military solution," argues Phyllis Bennis, an author and fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. "NATO is a giant, big hammer. The problem is, Afghanistan is not a nail, Libya is not a nail. These are political problems that need to be dealt with politically. And by empowering ... a military alliance, NATO is really serving to undermine the goal of the United Nations Charter, which speaks of the importance of regional organizations, in political terms, for nonviolent resolution of disputes, not to put such a primacy and privilege on military regional institutions that really reflect the most powerful parts of the world."
Who Are The Protesters?
In the aftermath of the NATO summit, attention will undoubtedly focus on the relatively small sub-section of protesters who did not disperse after the march’s end in the late hours of May 20, as thunder rolled over Michigan and Cermak, and eventually engaged in violent confrontations with police officers. Ultimately, 45 protesters were arrested by the Chicago Police Department.
But these individuals represent just a fraction of the thousands who devoted their Sunday to protesting the NATO summit. The protesters were far from monolithic – dominated by Occupiers and anti-war activists, the group also included veterans from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, feminists, nurses, Socialists, Communists, critics of the Obama administration’s use of drones, and those calling for an intervention in Syria.
Protests on Day 100 of the Quebec student conflict
Students take to the streets again in large numbers to mark the 100th day of their fight against tuition hikes and Bill 78. Announced after the tentative deal with the province fell apart, demonstrators bussed in from all over the province and were joined by supporters like teachers, professors, parents, unions and other social movements who have rallied around their cause to express a larger social malaise. Now, with a special law attempting to impose an end to the 15-week strike, tensions are at an all-time high. Two months after a huge and peaceful demonstration brought as many as 200,000 into the streets, another massive protest makes its way through downtown Montreal.
Quebec protesters explain why they march
MONTREAL - Interspersed with the tens of thousands of students protesting Tuesday were many demonstrators whose school days were far behind them — parents, grandparents, Communists, politicians and citizens upset over the direction their government is taking. The Gazette spoke to demonstrators to see what spurred them to march. Here are some of their comments:
“Since 1995, the government cut taxes to industries and the rich, so the proportion they pay is minimal compared to what a middle class family earning $100,000 pays — it’s us that’s taking the hit, and will continue forever to pay. Bill 78 is an anti-democratic law designed to muzzle the population. ... To put an end to the strike, the Liberals have to sit down and negotiate in good faith, and not like they did the last time, making an agreement, then announcing in the newspapers they’ve succeeded in screwing the students.”
“For us it’s much larger than the tuition hikes — it’s a fight against the politics of austerity of this government that serves essentially to save capitalism from its current crisis. ... We want to push for a socialist revolution. ... We want political institutions where workers will have a say every day in how society is run, and not just once every four years when they get to vote. ... The main goal is a more egalitarian society.”
Check the math: Study touting ‘safer’ fracking reveals Big Oil’s ties to academia
What do you call a report that makes major math mistakes, pulls language directly from other publications without citation, and fails to disclose the researchers’ financial conflicts of interest?
In the fight over fracking, it might just be called “peer-reviewed” science.
The most recent example of such sketchy research comes from the University of Buffalo, which released a report [PDF] this month concluding that fracking is getting safer and pointing for proof to Pennsylvania, ground zero for drilling.
The problem isn’t just that the study itself is misleading and riddled with errors (which it is). It’s that in their efforts to win public favor, the fracking industry increasingly hides behind academia to circulate misinformation — and the University of Buffalo is the latest cover.
Senators hope to end Federal Reserve’s conflicts of interest
Proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and backed by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Mark Begich (D-AK), The Federal Reserve Independence Act (PDF) would prohibit the leaders of risk-taking firms from simultaneously sitting on a Federal Reserve board, or being employed by one. The bill would also keep the nation’s top bankers from selecting Fed board members, and block those members from owning stock in companies they regulate or supervise. ...
While Sanders has long been an opponent of the Fed, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon exacerbated attacks on the Fed after overseeing $3 billion in trading losses that resulted in a 19 percent drop in his bank’s stock price — bringing total losses to nearly $30 billion. Dimon also sits on the board of the New York Federal Reserve, and his bank took over $390 billion in bailout loans from the Fed after the financial crash of 2008.
“In other words, the people ‘regulating’ the banks are the exact same people who are being ‘regulated,’” Sanders said in a document published to his website (PDF). “If this is not a clear example of the fox guarding the henhouse, I don’t know what is.”
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to receive extradition ruling on May 30
Britain’s Supreme Court said on Wednesday it will give its judgement in the case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s long-running fight against extradition to Sweden on May 30.
The court announced the date in a statement on its website, saying the judgement would start at 9:15 am (0815 GMT) next Wednesday and would last around 10 minutes.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Entrance Blocked As Protestors Criticize Huge Tax Break
Friends of Traditional Banking Super PAC plans surgical strikes on uncooperative politicians
Wanted: Torturer, salary £16,000 – £21,000
White House, Pentagon assist big-budget Hollywood film about Bin Laden operation, film to be released at election time
Time Ignores Climate Change to Paint a 'Golden Age' of Fracking
A Little Night Music
Crosby Stills Nash & Young - Chicago
President Obama and the White House Blues Allstars - Sweet Home Chicago
Tom Waits - Chicago
In case you have trouble hearing the lyrics:
The seeds are planted here
But they won’t grow
We won’t have to say goodbye
If we all go
Maybe things will be better in Chicago
To leave all we’ve ever known
For a place we’ve never seen
Maybe things will be better in Chicago
Well It’s braver to stay
Even braver to go
Wherever she goes I go
Maybe things will be better in Chicago
What we need the lord will give us
All we want we carry with us
You know where I can be found
Where the rainbow hits the ground
I’m not alone
I’m not afraid
This bird has flown from his cage
There’s so much magic we have known
On this sapphire we call home
With my coat and my hat
I say goodbye to all that
Maybe things will be better in Chicago
Maybe things will be better in Chicago
Born in Chicago - Steve Guyger
Chicago Bound - Jimmy Rogers
Some further listening:
Bessie Smith - Chicago Bound Blues
Michigan Water Blues - Little Brother Montgomery
Michigan Water Blues - Paul Rishell & Annie Raines
Tom Morello and a cast of thousands: