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 blues and jazz guitarist Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson. Enjoy!
Lonnie Johnson - Another Night To Cry
Strong, responsible unions are essential to industrial fair play. Without them the labor bargain is wholly one-sided. The parties to the labor contract must be nearly equal in strength if justice is to be worked out, and this means that the workers must be organized and that their organizations must be recognized by employers as a condition precedent to industrial peace.
-- Justice Louis Brandeis
News and Opinion
Fight for $15: workers across US protest to raise minimum wage
In addition to the protests in the US, workers in 123 cities in 35 countries were expected to join the demonstrations in the first worldwide coordinated strike.
“Workers occupied a McDonald’s in Glasgow, stormed a McDonald’s restaurant in Sao Paolo and blockaded a McDonald’s in Paris, holding a six-meter long sign that read, ‘Stop Social Destruction and Tax Avoidance’,” organizers said in a statement.
The world-wide protests were coordinated by the International Union of Food Workers.
The 'Fight for $15' and the Return of the Vanishing Worker
There were times in recent history when observers of our political and economic debates might have been forgiven for thinking that America’s working men and women – the teeming millions who built this country and were the engines of its economy during its most prosperous years – had vanished from the face of the earth.
They were always here, of course, even in the nation’s capital. Their fading footprints could be glimpsed in an occasional statistic or economic report, and they reappeared like clockwork every four years come election time. But even then they were treated like offstage characters in a one-act play, unseen and unheard, there only to be addressed by the principal actors in loud declamatory tones.
The employees in this coalition of “fast food cashiers and cooks, retail employees, child care workers, adjunct professors, home care providers, and airport workers” were still among us, of course – teaching our children, providing us with goods and services, helping us return home after long days of travel. But as far as political insiders were concerned, they had no lines of dialogue in the drama of their own lives. ...
And yet, in a few short months, the Occupy movement began shifting the national dialogue away from the faux centrism of corporate-friendly Washington insiders and back toward the majority. That demonstrated the power which a mass movement can deploy against an insular political system.
Despite this shift – and a resulting change in presidential rhetoric which may have ensured President Obama’s reelection – the centrifugal forces driving democracy away from its majoritarian center are stronger than ever. It takes a mass movement to counter forces that powerful. The Fight for $15, born of a handful of fast-food workers but growing quickly, has the potential to be such a movement. ...
Labor movements are a symbol of our values and an expression of our renewed hope. The Fight for $15 is a fine cause on its own merits. But its greatest importance may lie in the fact that it represents the return of the “vanishing worker” – which in the end means the return of our friends, our families, and our neighbors – to the American political stage.
"The Congress Shall Have Power to Declare War."
War Authorization Dies in House But US Bombs Keep Falling on Iraq and Syria
Analysts say that killing of proposed legislation exposes 'political posturing on all sides'
President Barack Obama's controversial proposal for the authorization for use of military force (AUMF) in the war on ISIS, submitted to Congress in February, is now officially dead in the House.
However, its floundering has no bearing on the war itself, which has now entered its 36th week, with at least 3,249 coalition bombings in Iraq and Syria so far, including 17 reported on April 12th and 13th alone.
This reveals—analysts say—the proposal was nothing more than a political stunt in the first place, aimed at drumming up support for intervention while warding off real limits to the war.
UN Security Council Hits Yemen's Houthis with Arms Embargo and Sanctions
Amid unabated fighting in Yemen and an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe that has left millions struggling to find food, the United Nations Security Council decisively approved a resolution on Tuesday that targets Shia Houthi rebels with an arms embargo and sanctions — but what effect the resolution will have on the conflict, if any, remains unclear.
Arab states represented the text, authored by Jordan, as offering clear support for Saudi-led airstrikes on Houthi forces, which are now in their third week. Russia had wanted a countrywide arms embargo, applying to government forces as well as the rebels, but after several weeks of negotiations only filed an abstention, allowing passage of the resolution by a vote of 14-0.
Gulf States and Western officials have accused Iran of supporting the Houthis. Russia is seen as Iran's closest ally among permanent members of the Security Council. It had requested a pause in the airstrikes during the negotiations, ostensibly to allow aid and medical supplies to reach beleaguered areas. The Arab nations claimed that a pause would let the Houthis regroup, and the final text only urged parties to "facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance."
The resolution's other elements, including a reiteration that the Houthis immediately lay down their arms and withdraw from areas seized in recent months, are binding and explicit. ...
Despite the focus on Iran's role in the crisis, the Houthis have benefited significantly from alliances with forces loyal to Saleh and Saleh's son, who until last month was head of the country's Republican Guard. Those forces likely have access to significant arms stockpiles, in addition to what the Houthis already possess from years of conflict. It is unclear to what extent the Houthis and their allies are currently receiving arms shipments from abroad.
UN Security Council Slammed for 'Endorsing Siege and Mass Starvation' of Yemenis
Resolution passed Tuesday imposes arms embargo on Houthis but not the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition bombing and blockading Yemen
The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday passed a resolution, drafted largely by the Gulf countries leading the war on Yemen, imposing an arms embargo on Houthis but not the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition pummeling and blockading the impoverished country.
Analysts warn that the measure amounts to an endorsement of the siege on Yemen, which is cutting off vital supplies of food and medical aid and unleashing a profound humanitarian crisis.
U.N. confirms new push for Syria talks, Iran to be invited
The United Nations said on Tuesday that its Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura planned to consult Syrian factions and interested countries on a new round of peace talks, confirming a Reuters report.
"Starting in May ... de Mistura will proceed with a series of in-depth, separate consultations with the Syrian stakeholders and regional/international actors to take stock of their views as of today," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. ...
A U.N. source in Geneva said Iran would be among those invited, but a senior Western diplomat in New York said on condition of anonymity the question of Tehran's participation remained unresolved, despite the U.N.'s clear desire to include the Iranians.
Iran's proposed involvement has been contentious in previous rounds of Syria talks, although many countries see it as an indispensable part of any political deal, since Iran is a major ally of Assad.
Brushing Off US Senate, Rouhani Says Iran's Goal Remains Finalizing Nuke Deal
President of Iran Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that the passage of a measure giving congressional lawmakers the ability to review a pending nuclear agreement should not interfere with his ultimate goal of signing a deal with the U.S. and other world powers in the coming months.
"What the U.S. Senate, Congress and others say is not our problem. We want mutual respect... We are in talks with the major powers and not with the Congress," Rouhani saidduring speech in the northern Iranian city of Rasht. What the Iranian people and its government want, he added, is an to end international isolation by having "constructive interaction with the world and not confrontation."
White House willing to sign compromise Iran bill as it clears committee hurdle
After months of tensions with Congress over a bill giving the legislature a say in the potential Iran nuclear deal, the White House indicated Tuesday that the president would be willing to sign the compromise version of the measure. ...
According to a Corker aide familiar with the details of the bill, it requires Obama to submit the final agreement to Congress, which will have up to 52 days to weigh in on the deal. That includes an initial review period of 30 days, with 12 more days added automatically if Congress passes a bill and sends it to the President, and an additional 10 days of congressional review if Obama vetoes the legislation.
If the deal is submitted late, after July 9, the review period reverts to 60 days.
During that time, the President is prohibited from waiving the congressional sanctions. And Obama is required by the legislation to certify to Congress every 90 days that Iran is complying with the terms of the deal.
The bill also requires the President to make a series of detailed reports to Congress on a range of issues, including Iran's nuclear program, its ballistic missiles work and its support for terrorism globally, particularly against the U.S. and its allies.
Iranian president says no nuclear agreement without end to all sanctions
The Iranian president has said Tehran would not accept a comprehensive nuclear deal with major powers if all sanctions imposed on Tehran were not lifted, state television has reported.
“If there is no end to sanctions, there will not be an agreement,” Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech on Wednesday. “The end of these negotiations and a signed deal must include a declaration of cancelling the oppressive sanctions on the great nation of Iran.”
Iran wants sanctions that include nuclear-related UN resolutions as well as US and EU nuclear-related economic sanctions to be lifted immediately. The US says sanctions against Iran will be removed gradually.
In what was seen as a setback for Barack Obama, the US president agreed on Tuesday that Congress should have the power to review any deal with Iran, backing down to pressure from Republicans and some in his own party.
The move blocks Obama’s ability to waive many US sanctions on Tehran while Congress reviews the deal. It also allows Congress a final vote on whether to lift sanctions imposed by US legislators.
Obama to Remove Cuba from Terror List After Latin American Outcry, Will the Embargo Follow?
Obama to remove Cuba from list of state sponsors of terrorism
Barack Obama will remove Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, the White House said on Tuesday, marking the president’s biggest move yet towards the resumption of diplomatic ties with Havana.
The White House confirmed that Obama had notified Congress of his intention to remove Cuba from the list, reversing a designation that has been in place since 1982. The announcement came days after a historic meeting between Obama and Cuban president Raúl Castro on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas in Panama, in the first formal talks between the two countries’ leaders in more than 50 years.
In his letter to Congress, Obama wrote that the Cuban government “has not provided any support for international terrorism” in the past six months, and has “provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future”. ...
Cuba welcomed the move, adding that it “rejects and condemns” all acts of terrorism. A statement by Josefina Vidal, the Cuban foreign ministry’s chief of US affairs, said: “The Cuban government recognized the fair decision made by the president of the United States to eliminate Cuba from a list that it never should have been included on, especially considering our country has been the victim of hundreds of acts of terrorism that have cost 3,478 lives and maimed 2,099 citizens.”
Lessons from the Summit of the Americas
NSA and FBI fight to retain spy powers as surveillance law nears expiration
With about 45 days remaining before a major post-9/11 surveillance authorization expires, representatives of the National Security Agency and the FBI are taking to Capitol Hill to convince legislators to preserve their sweeping spy powers.
That effort effectively re-inaugurates a surveillance debate in Congress that has spent much of 2015 behind closed doors. Within days, congressional sources tell the Guardian, the premiere NSA reform bill of the last Congress, known as the USA Freedom Act, is set for reintroduction – and this time, some former supporters fear the latest version of the bill will squander an opportunity for even broader surveillance reform.
Republican leaders of the House intelligence committee arranged for NSA and FBI representatives to hold secret briefings for members of Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday. Staff did not name the officials addressing legislators.
The classified briefings come amid an unsettled surveillance debate in Congress that rushes up against an unforgiving deadline. On 1 June, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which permits US law enforcement and surveillance agencies to collect business records, expires.
Section 215 is the authority claimed by the NSA since 2006 for its ongoing daily bulk collection of US phone records revealed by the Guardian in 2013 thanks to leaks from whistleblower Edward Snowden. While the Obama administration and US intelligence agencies last year supported divesting the NSA of its domestic phone metadata collection, a bill to do so failed in November.
But the FBI and its supporters fear that the expiration of Section 215 will cut deeper than the loss of bulk collection. The FBI is warning that it will lose access to investigative leads for domestic terrorism and espionage, such as credit card information, hotel records and more, outside normal warrant or subpoena channels
European commission announces antitrust charges against Google
The European Union accused Google on Wednesday of cheating competitors by distorting Internet search results in favour of its Google Shopping service and also launched an antitrust probe into its Android mobile operating system.
In a statement, Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the US tech giant, which dominates Internet search engines globally, had been sent a Statement of Objections - effectively a charge sheet - to which it can respond.
“I am concerned that the company has given an unfair advantage to its own comparison shopping service, in breach of EU antitrust rules,” she said. “If the investigation confirmed our concerns, Google would have to face the legal consequences and change the way it does business in Europe.”
Both Vestager and her predecessor, Joaquín Almunia, have been under pressure from European and US tech concerns to investigate Google’s activities on the continent, where competitors – including Microsoft – say Google has abused its 90% market share by using its products, particularly search, to illegally promote its other products and services. Google-made products like Google+ and the company’s e-commerce sites are placed higher in search, detractors say, whether or not they are the superior option, and users are not aware they’re seeing what amounts to advertising.
'End ECB dictatorship': woman disrupts Draghi speech, throws paper at officials
A female protester has interrupted the European Central Bank’s press conference screaming: “End ECB dictatorship”. ...
Some activists accuse the bank of trying to enforce budget austerity measures on eurozone countries, such as Greece, that are under financial bailout programmes.
Greece downgraded further into 'junk' as black hole in public finances widens
Greece's sovereign debt rating has been slashed further into "junk" territory as the depth of country's financial woes were laid bare on Monday.
Figures from the country's finance ministry showed the economy slipped further into the red following the election of its Leftist government.
Athens' primary budget surplus, which excludes its debt interest payments, shrunk to just €1bn during January and February, compared to €3.17bn over the same period in 2014, according to figures from the Ministry of Finance. ...
The debt pile has grown from 154pc of economic output in 2012, as the economy has undergone severe growth-retarding austerity in order to remain eligible for its €240bn international bail-out.
Greece prepares for debt default if talks with creditors fail
Greece is preparing to take the dramatic step of declaring a debt default unless it can reach a deal with its international creditors by the end of April, according to people briefed on the radical leftist government’s thinking.
The government, which is rapidly running out of funds to pay public sector salaries and state pensions, has decided to withhold €2.5bn of payments due to the International Monetary Fund in May and June if no agreement is struck, they said.
“We have come to the end of the road . . . If the Europeans won’t release bailout cash, there is no alternative [to a default],” one government official said. ...
The warning of an imminent default could be a negotiating tactic, reflecting the government’s aim of extracting the easiest possible conditions from Greece’s creditors, but it nevertheless underlined the reality of fast-emptying state coffers. ...
Although it would not automatically force Greece to drop out of the eurozone, a default would make it much harder for Alexis Tsipras, prime minister, to keep his country in the 19-nation area, a goal that was part of the platform on which he and his leftist Syriza party won election in January.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature reports of the arrival of Mother Jones in Michigan's Copper Country to assist the organizing efforts of the Western Federation of Miners.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Khalil Muhammad: To Stop Police Killings, Transform the Political Culture That Threatens Black Lives
Seizing on Latest Police Killing, National Protests Declare: 'This Must Stop!'
Mass demonstrations held in 30 cities calling for end to police brutality against people of color
Seizing on the growing backlash against police brutalization and discriminatory mass incarceration, people across the country on Tuesday took to the streets. With mass demonstrations, sit-ins, and blockades, protesters in 30 cities demanded an end to "business as usual" within the U.S. criminal justice system.
According to organizers, 1,500 people marched in the streets of New York City, stopping traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, while close to 1,000 rallied outside police headquarters in Los Angeles and hundredsconverged on Daley Center Plaza in Chicago. And in smaller cities like Springfield, Mass.; Cleveland, Ohio; Stockton, Calif.; and Gainesville, Fla., community members also joined in the growing chorus of voices calling for change.
The police, however, came out in force against the largely peaceful demonstrations, with numerous reports of injuries and arrests: 15 arrested in Springfield; 3 in Birmingham, Alabama; and roughly a dozen detained in New York City with reported incidents of violence against protesters.
NYC rally against police brutality
Alzheimer's disease study: caveats aside, the findings are encouraging
There is now mounting evidence that by the time beta-amyloid plaques, the most visible indication of Alzheimer’s in the brain, are visible, irreparable damage may have already been done to the brain: vital connections between brain cells will already have been severed, and neurons will have been lost for ever.
Scientists are now starting to solve the mystery of what causes sticky proteins to accumulate in the first place, why neurons die out and whether there are genetic markers that pinpoint which of us is at greatest risk of losing their memory in old age.
The latest study suggests that in Alzheimer’s, immune cells that normally protect the brain instead begin to consume a vital nutrient called arginine. By blocking this process with a drug, the team from Duke University in North Carolina were able to prevent the formation of plaques and also halt memory loss in mice. ...
Before declaring the research a firm step towards a drug that does the same in humans, though, it is worth noting that “Alzheimer’s mice” are not a perfect parallel for what happens in the brains of people with the disease. Normally, laboratory mice can be made to have Alzheimer’s-like plaques but do not generally suffer from the two other main features of the disease: loss of connections and death of brain cells. This means it can be easier to reverse memory loss in mice than in humans, where the neurons holding memories have physically vanished.
Caveats aside, it is hugely encouraging that scientists appear to be on the brink of understanding the causes of one of the most complex and destructive diseases we face. To cure Alzheimer’s, we first need to figure out why some of us are unlucky enough to get it.
The Evening Greens
China Is Poised to Overtake the US as the Biggest Modern Contributor to Climate Change
The United States has long occupied the notorious position of the world's leading contributor to climate change, pumping into the atmosphere over the past decades more greenhouses gases than any other nation.
But later this year — or sometime next — China will ascend to the top of the heap, as it has done with so many other indicators, whether the size of its economy, its population, or its energy consumption.
And, analysts tell VICE News, China's overtaking of the US brings into sharp focus the changing dynamics of international climate change negotiations — as well as growing pressure inside China's borders to cut down on pollution.
The US Energy Information Administration projects that China's total carbon dioxide emissions between 1990 and the end of next year will reach 151 billion tons, compared to 147 billion tons produced by the United States. ...
In November, President Xi Jinping pledged to cap China's emissions by 2030. Investment in renewable energy in China ballooned to $83 billion in 2014, more than double that of the second largest clean energy market — the United States.
Many experts and environmentalists see China's commitment to curbing emissions and boosting renewable energy development as a response to internal dynamics. Only seven of the country's 74 major cities met national air quality standards in 2014. Just prior to the release of those figures, Beijing's mayor, Wang Anshun, said that the capital was "not a livable city."
Price on carbon key to Canada tackling global warming, say researchers
Report says a carbon fee is vital and country should exploit renewable energy to decarbonize electricity grid – but doesn’t discuss highly polluting tar sands
65 researchers from provinces across Canada have published a report, Acting on Climate Change, that details how the country can successfully decarbonize its electric grid to slow global warming.
The team unanimously endorsed putting a price on carbon pollution as a key strategy. Without a carbon fee, the price of electricity on the market doesn’t reflect its true costs to society. This is a market failure that economists call an “externality,” where the costs associated with a product (in this case, damages incurred via climate change) aren’t captured in its market price. Instead they’re paid by taxpayers in what could be considered a massive subsidy to the fossil fuel industry.
Most economists support putting a price on carbon pollution in order to correct this market failure. Acting on Climate Change notes that this could be accomplished with either a carbon tax or cap and trade system. So far, the province of British Columbia has implemented a highly popular and successful revenue-neutral carbon tax, while the province of Québec has adopted a cap and trade system in coordination with California as part of the Western Climate Initiative, and Ontario has just announced that it will also implement a carbon cap and trade system.
The Federal Government Killed Nearly Three Million Animals Last Year
When the US government spends money on wildlife, it's usually to protect it. But there's also an agency tasked with killing wild animals — and last year it took out nearly three million of them.
Wildlife Services, which operates under the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), is tasked with responding to conflicts between humans and wildlife and to manage invasive populations.
But critics say the agency's methods are crude and not in line with the latest conservation science.
"The whole approach of just getting rid of the perceived problem by killing it is something that this agency has been doing for well over 100 years," Bradley Bergstrom, a biologist at Valdosta State University, told VICE News.
In 2014, Wildlife Services killed more than 2.7 million animals, 1.3 million of which were native, noninvasive species. They included 570 black bears, 322 gray wolves, 61,702 coyotes, 2,930 foxes, and 305 mountain lions.
The agency also killed three bald eagles and five golden eagles using methods like cyanide capsules, neck snares, and foot traps. Accidental kills are a frequent byproduct of the agency's methods. Of the 454 river otters killed, for example, 390 were unintentional, likely during attempts to kill beavers, which can flood property with their dams.
In Drought-Ridden California, Activists Demand Repercussions for Nestlé
Following a damning investigation by the Desert Sun last month which revealed that Nestlé had been using a long-expired permit to pipe and transport water from a national forest in drought-ridden California, activists are slamming the U.S. Forest Service's promises to make an investigation into the company a priority.
An investigation is an insufficient consequence—and the possibility of permit renewal is downright unacceptable, activists said. ...
"It's pretty amazing that the Forest Service doesn't keep better track of its environmental permits," Earthjustice attorney Trent Orr told Common Dreams, adding that the agency should be seriously considering not renewing Nestlé's permits. "We are in a drought," Orr said. "Why the Forest Service would allow that to continue to happen seems pretty strange."
In its reporting, the Sun found that although Nestlé had long drawn water from wells that tap into springs in California's Strawberry Canyon, the company's permit to transport water across the San Bernardino forest expired in 1988.
Moreover, the Forest Service had not assessed the impacts of the bottled water industry on streams in environmentally fragile areas, nor has it closely tracked the volume of water being extracted, the Sun found.
Hat tip (and comment) Agathena:
The Harper government is making drastic cuts to our Coast Guard at the same time that oil & gas are increasing tanker traffic. The government claims "world class response mechanisms are in place to handle any spills." Here's the coast guard's side of the story:
Coast guard union warns that more cuts increase risk from spills
Amid criticism about the Canadian Coast Guard’s response to last week’s fuel spill in Vancouver’s English Bay, the union representing coast guard workers says imminent cuts to communication centres on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland could have disastrous consequences for managing future oil spills.
The coast guard, the lead agency for managing a fuel spill, plans to close three of five marine communications centres, including the centre in Ucluelet on April 21, the Vancouver centre on May 6 and the Comox station by next year.
“That will put delays into the alerting and notification system for pollution incidents,” said Allan Hughes, Comox-based western director of Unifor 2182.
“[The federal government] has cut the coast guard so much that services that have traditionally been provided for generations are no longer going to be there for the public to protect their waters,” he said.
Fred Moxy, former commander of the Kitsilano coast guard station, which closed in 2013, told reporters in Vancouver on Saturday that if the station was still open, the response time would have been 10 minutes as opposed to several hours.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Neocon ‘Chaos Promotion’ in the Mideast
Saudi War Crimes
School Days
A Little Night Music
Lonnie Johnson - Swing Out Rhythm
Lonnie Johnson - Uncle Ned Don't Use Your Head
Eddie Lang & Lonnie Johnson - Guitar Blues
Lonnie Johnson - Blue Ghost Blues
Lonnie Johnson w/Victoria Spivey - Toothache Blues
Lonnie Johnson - 6 88 Glide
Lonnie Johnson - Got the blues for murder only
Lonnie Johnson - The Dirty Dozen
Eddie Lang & Lonnie Johnson - Bull Frog Moan
Lonnie Johnson - She's Making Whoopee In Hell Tonight
Lonnie Johnson - He's A Jelly-Roll Baker
Lonnie Johnson - Get Yourself Together
Lonnie Johnson - Why Women Go Wrong
Lonnie Johnson - Away Down on the Alley Blues
Lonnie Johnson - Woke Up With the Blues In My Fingers
Lonnie Johnson + Eddie Lang - A Handful of Riffs
Lonnie Johnson - Tomorrow Night
Lonnie Johnson - Swingin' The Blues
Lonnie Johnson - The Last Call
It's National Pie Day!
The election is over, it's a new year and it's time to work on real change in new ways... and it's National Pie Day. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to tell you a little more about our new site and to start getting people signed up.
Come on over and sign up so that we can send you announcements about the site, the launch, and information about participating in our public beta testing.
Why is National Pie Day the perfect opportunity to tell you more about us? Well you'll see why very soon. So what are you waiting for?! Head on over now and be one of the first!
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