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 blues harmonica player and singer Big John Wrencher. Enjoy!
Big John Wrencher - Take A Little Walk With Me
“I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.”
-- Eugene V. Debs
News and Opinion
Black Baltimore residents aren't 'animals'. We punish people for killing animals
After massive protests in the streets of Baltimore to raise awareness about Baltimore City police practices and to demand answers and accountability in the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old man whose spine and neck were severed in 4 different places while in police custody – eventually resulted in the destruction of property and serious injury to some police officers, the protesters’ frustration prompted many white people (on blogs and in social media) to refer to black Baltimoreans as “animals” for their actions.
But “animals” is a misnomer. People – including police officers – are punished for killing or doing harm to domestic animals. Baltimore has busted dog fighting rings and sent offenders to prison for animal cruelty. In 2014, former Baltimore City police officer Alec Taylor was sentenced to a year behind bars for killing a dog. That might not seem like much, but it is longer than the sentences given to the killers of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Rekia Boyd or 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones. ...
If African Americans were indeed animals, perhaps they would have organizations like People for the Ethical Treatement of Animals to stand up for their “ethical treatment”. Peta has 3m members and a yearly revenue of over $30m; it engages in multi-pronged attacks on what it calls “speciesism”, and its influence has made many people spring into action and even adopt vegan diets (despite questionable health benefits). Though Black Lives Matter has white middle class and celebrity support, I do not believe very many white people have changed their entire lifestyles in order to ensure the dismantling of racism. ...
Animals – even ones who kill humans like Tilikum, a SeaWorld orca who has been involved in the deaths of three people – are spoken of with more compassion and understanding than young black boys who shove a store clerk or take pictures giving the middle finger on social media. Tilikum is said to be a victim of his captivity and environment, and former SeaWorld trainers have said that, were he in a more humane or free environment, he would have not harmed a human being.
Black Baltimoreans who are venting their anger at their decades-long economic and social marginalization are not given the benefit of the doubt like Tilikum.
"You Can Replace Property, You Can’t Replace a Life": Voices of the Unheard in the Baltimore Streets
'Structural Looting' of Black Communities Driving Protesters to Baltimore Streets
As media and police spin narrative of 'protester violence,' grassroots voices urge US society to focus on root causes of uprisings
As people across Baltimore prepare for another day of mobilizations to demand justice for the late Freddie Gray, voices from the city's grassroots are calling for broader U.S. society to dig beneath the police and media spin of "looting" and "protester violence" and listen to expressions of outrage and demands for deep change emanating from the streets.
"The systemic oppression we're seeing is the result of decades of people ignoring the cries of black people in Baltimore," Adam Jackson of the Baltimore-based grassroots organization and think tank Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle told Common Dreams over the phone. "People are moralizing about trash cans getting burned. But you should moralize on why black people are being killed by police. Talk about structural oppression." ...
Late Monday, nation-wide news outlets quickly spread stories of "protester violence." They were aided by questionable—and widely circulated—claims by police that an alleged gang truce posed a "credible threat."
Brian Arnold, a former Baltimore City high school teacher, shared a counter-narrative on Facebook that quickly went viral:
Step 1: the police created a "credible threat" about some high school students gathering at Mondawmin to start trouble.
Step 2: the police showed up in force and riot gear before the students got out of school at Mondawmin, which is a major public transit hub, and SHUT DOWN THE TRANSIT, guaranteeing the kids couldn't leave.
Step 3: the police started macing people and brandishing tasers.
Step 4: the kids understandably responded to being stranded and maced by throwing rocks.
Step 5: the media starts reporting it as "a riot" and "violent protesters.
This is 100% bought and paid for by the police department. This is absolutely vile.
"The cynicism inherent in trapping school kids is a reflection of police attitude towards those kids," Arnold told Common Dreams, adding that, as a former teacher, he saw firsthand that police violence against children "is a prevalent issue in the community."
Police Were Harassing Students Before Monday's Outrage
Baltimore protests: police in riot gear disperse hundreds defying 10pm curfew
Police in riot gear drove people from the streets of Baltimore with teargas and smoke grenades on Tuesday night, after hundreds of protesters defied a 10pm curfew to continue demonstrating over the death of Freddie Gray. ...
At least 10 people were arrested after curfew, according to police commissioner Anthony Batts. Seven were detained in west Baltimore for breaking the curfew. Two were charged with looting and one for disorderly conduct away from the main protest. Another three or four were arrested earlier in the day for throwing rocks at officers in south Baltimore. ...
However, another mass confrontation was averted on Tuesday only thanks to members of the notorious Bloods and Crips gangs, who teamed with community activists to push hundreds more protesters, who had demonstrated late into the evening, back to their homes as the curfew loomed. ...
“We’re not helping police, we’re helping our people,” said War, a 23-year-old Blood wearing a red bandana, who linked arms with others in the line pushing protesters back. “I was a knucklehead in my time, but now I’m out here doing this for the community.” ...
Also instrumental in maintaining calm on Tuesday night was Elijah Cummings, the US Representative for Maryland’s seventh congressional district, who walked out into the crowd to call on both sides – police and protesters – to show restraint.
Maryland Cop Lobbyists Helped Block Reforms Just Last Month
A package of police reform bills that Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is scheduled to sign into law today, in part as a response to the death of 25-year-old Baltimore resident Freddie Gray, was weakened under political pressure from Maryland police unions, a major force in state politics.
The bills will allow police to wear body cameras, increase the liability cap for lawsuits against government employees, and encourage the state to collect more data on police behavior.
But more substantial reforms, including legislation to add a civilian review process and to have state prosecutors investigate all killings by police, were shot down during a legislative hearing in Annapolis earlier this year. ...
A recent report from the ACLU of Maryland found that at least 109 people died in police encounters in Maryland from 2010 to 2014. ...
In a major investigation last year, the Baltimore Sun reported that the city has paid out $5.7 million since 2011 to settle police brutality cases. In many cases, charges were never even brought.
Former Maryland Gov. Ehrlich on Freddie Gray’s Death: “Maybe Somebody Screwed Up”
Former Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich this morning used a strikingly mild characterization of the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, calling it “a case where maybe somebody screwed up.” Ehrlich, speaking on WMAL radio, added that “you have to let the process play itself out.” By contrast, Ehrlich emotionally condemned city residents who engaged in looting or arson, saying, “The way you don’t react is to trash somebody’s business and place police lives in danger. It loses all sense of credibility, all sense, none, zero, no rationalizations here, no excuses, no defense.”
Baltimore Radio Host Airs Outlandish Theories About Freddie Gray
Baltimore talk-radio fixture Tom Marr aired outlandish theories about the death of Freddie Gray during his Tuesday morning show, suggesting that Gray’s severed spine could be the result of a botched burglary or a “pre-existing condition.” ...
Marr also pinned the blame for Baltimore’s woes on Reverend Jamal Bryant, the pastor who delivered the eulogy for Freddie Gray’s funeral on Monday. Though Rev. Bryant repeatedly called for calm after the funeral and urged protesters to “go back home,” Marr singled him out for criticism.
“The young black males, the Al Sharptons of the world and the Reverend Jamal Bryants of the world, they’re not out on the streets demonstrating against the blacks shooting and killing other blacks,” said Marr. “They’re out to blame everything on whitey.”
Marr has been on the airwaves in the Baltimore area for decades, first as a play-by-play announcer for the Orioles and in recent years as a popular voice in conservative talk radio. During his term in office, Gov. Bob Ehrlich, R-Md., often served as Marr’s guest host. Recently elected Gov. Larry Hogan, R-Md., is also a friend of the show and frequent guest on the program.
Poverty in Baltimore is No Accident
When U.S. strikes go wrong, not all civilian lives are equal
The unusual announcement by President Barack Obama last week that a U.S. strike on an al Qaida compound in Pakistan inadvertently had killed two hostages – one a U.S. citizen, the other Italian – came with an apology and the speedy pledge of monetary compensation for the families.
None of that happened for another American who was killed in a U.S. strike in 2011. Abdulrahman al Awlaki, the 16-year-old son of al Qaida propagandist Anwar al Awlaki, wasn’t believed to have been involved in militant activities and, by the U.S. government’s own version, was an unintended casualty of the U.S. attack that killed him in Yemen.
Yet four years on, despite a media campaign and a lawsuit, the Obama administration has not apologized for the killing or offered compensation to the Awlaki family. Human rights advocates say the reason is that, when it comes to making amends for civilian deaths in U.S. counterterrorism operations, not all lives are valued the same – even when they’re American.
“All that Abdulrahman’s family got was an acknowledgment that Abdulrahman had been killed and that he had not been specifically targeted,” said Hina Shamsi, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, which handled the Awlaki family’s lawsuit. “They received no apology, no investigation, no compensation.”
The chances for official acknowledgment of and compensation for deadly strikes are even dimmer for the many hundreds of non-Western civilian victims, according to rights groups that for years have pushed for the U.S. government to adopt basic standards for addressing such claims.
Meet The Only Person Being Punished After The Senate Torture Report
Five months after the Senate Intelligence Committee released its gruesome report on the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program, someone is finally paying steep professional consequences. Except it’s not the former torturers. Or their superiors. Or even the CIA officials who improperly searched the computers that Senate investigators used to construct the study.
It’s the person who helped expose them.
Alissa Starzak, a former Democratic majority staffer on the Senate Intelligence Committee, played a critical and controversial role during her time on the panel: She was a lead investigator for the torture report, and was one of two staffers involved in an ongoing feud over damning internal CIA documents obtained by the committee.
Currently serving as deputy general counsel for the Defense Department, Starzak was nominated last July to serve as general counsel to the Army.
But the critics of the torture investigation -- namely, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr (R-N.C.) -- are orchestrating a quiet campaign to stall Starzak's nomination.
Burr confirmed to The Huffington Post that he is working to keep the former investigator from getting approved by the Senate.
Nearly Two Years After Snowden, Congress Poised to Do Something — Just Not Much
Members of Congress appear ready to use a rare moment of leverage over the NSA to place modest limits on only one of the many mass surveillance programs exposed by Edward Snowden.
The USA Freedom Act of 2015, a long-awaited compromise bill negotiated by House and Senate Judiciary Committee members, was unveiled Tuesday. The bill calls for the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records by the National Security Agency to be replaced with a more selective approach in which the agency would collect from communications companies only records that match certain terms. The bill also requires more disclosure — and a public advocate — for the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
But nearly two years after Snowden gave the public a rare and extensive view into the U.S. surveillance state, Congress is doing nothing to limit NSA programs ostensibly targeted at foreigners that nonetheless collect vast amounts of American communications, nor to limit the agency’s mass surveillance of non-American communications. The limited reforms in the new bill affect only the one program explicitly aimed at Americans. ...
Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, has called the bill “the most significant reform to government surveillance authorities since the USA Patriot Act was passed nearly 14 years ago.” But of course that’s a low bar.
Sweden’s top court will hear Assange appeal over arrest warrant
Sweden's Supreme Court said Tuesday it would hear an appeal by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to lift the arrest warrant against him issued by prosecutors who want to question him over allegations of sexual assault. ...
“The Supreme Court grants leave to appeal in the matter regarding the arrest,” the court said in statement, which provided no date for when the appeal will be heard.
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Marks 100th Anniversary as War Rages on Worldwide
Saudis Bomb Yemen Airport, Assuring End to Aid Flights
Calamitous shortages of basic goods have fueled a crisis across much of Yemen, particularly the capital city of Sanaa, where Saudi airstrikes are already putting pressure on hospitals. The Saudis have also harshly limited aid shipments into Sanaa.
Today, they assured that there will be no future air shipments to Sanaa, destroying the runway at the Sanaa International Airport in a bombing run.
Saudi officials insist that the bombings prevented an Iranian cargo plane, that might conceivably have weapons on board, from landing in Sanaa. It did that, surely, but also eliminated any hope for humanitarian relief to the city of two million.
Millions lack water & food in Yemen: 'Coalition has no humanitarian narrative'
Iran Seizes Marshall Islands Cargo Ship in Strait of Hormuz
Regional economic panic ensued today after a false report that Iran’s navy had attacked an American cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. Later the reports were clarified, and the ship, the MV Maersk Tigris, was confirmed to be flagged from the Marshall Islands, not the US.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard acted on the basis of a court order to seize the ship, ordering the Maersk Tigris to move further into Iranian waters. When they refused, warning shots were fired, and the ship changed course. It has since been boarded, with officials saying it is being confiscated related to a financial dispute between the owners and the Iranian ports authority. The ship was from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and bound for Jebel Ali, in the United Arab Emirates. ...
Details of exactly what the deal was with the Maersk Tigris financial dispute are elusive, though US officials appear to be operating under the assumption that the move was retaliation for the US navy chasing cargo ships away from the Yemeni coast last week.
Syria: Turkish Military Provided ‘Support Fire’ in al-Qaeda Takeover of Town
Syria’s Foreign Ministry was quoted on the nation’s state media today as blaming Turkey in large measure for al-Qaeda’s takeover of the border town of Jisr al-Shughour, saying Turkish military forces providing both logistics support and providing “support fire” for advancing Islamists. ...
Though Turkey denies the allegations, it is noteworthy that analysts have been crediting the recent al-Qaeda gains to a deal made between Turkey, who is keen to back Islamist factions in Syria, and Saudi Arabia, who has feared Turkey’s support would also benefit “subversive” Islamist elements inside the Saudi kingdom itself.
Yanis Varoufakis talks his way out of restaurant confrontation with anarchists
Greece’s outspoken finance minister and his wife came under attack by anarchists while dining in a central Athens restaurant. ...
The anarchists, who had their faces covered, demanded the minister leave the area and threw glass objects at the couple, Varoufakis said. Neither of them was hurt. ...
“This was not an organised incident,” Varoufakis said in a statement. He said he eventually spoke with the group outside the restaurant and tempers were calmed.
Supreme court justices fret over 'redefining' marriage as supporters wait in hope
The US supreme court appeared to be heading toward limited national recognition of same-sex marriages at minimum on Tuesday, as justices expressed concern about forcing all states to allow them but remained sympathetic to the argument that weddings held elsewhere should be upheld.
Despite hopes among campaigners that the nine justices might be on the verge of a historic civil rights decision declaring same-sex unions as a constitutional right, however, a majority of the bench expressed concerns about “redefining” marriage in states that had voted to ban them.
“This definition has been with us for millennia, and it’s very difficult for the court to say, ‘Well, we know better’,” said Justice Anthony Kennedy, regarded as the potential swing voter between liberals and conservatives on the court.
Chief justice John Roberts echoed Kennedy’s concerns, pointing out that he had struggled to find a historical definition of marriage that did not describe the practice as between a man and a woman.
“You’re not seeking to join this institution, but change what the institution is,” Roberts said.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg eviscerates same-sex marriage opponents in court
“Marriage today is not what it was under the common law tradition, under the civil law tradition,” said Ginsburg when Justices Roberts and Kennedy began to fret about whether the court had a right to challenge centuries of tradition.
“Marriage was a relationship of a dominant male to a subordinate female,” she explained. “That ended as a result of this court’s decision in 1982 when Louisiana’s Head and Master Rule was struck down … Would that be a choice that state should [still] be allowed to have? To cling to marriage the way it once was?”
“No,” replied John Bursch, the somewhat chastised lawyer for the states who are seeking to preserve their ban on gay marriage.
Bursch was similarly eviscerated by Ginsburg when he tried to argue that the sole purpose of marriage was to ensure a stable relationship for procreation.
“Suppose a couple, 70-year-old couple, comes in and they want to get married?” remarked the 82-year-old Ginsburg, to laughter, after a protracted debate over whether it was fair to ask couples if they wanted children before allowing them to wed.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature reports of Mother Jones at UMWA Headquarters in Indianapolis, and continuing coverage of the trial of John R Lawson.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Bernie Sanders: So-called 'free trade' policies hurt US workers every time we pass them
Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. ...
Trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), the Central American Free Trade Agreement (Cafta) and the granting of Permanent Normal Trade Relations to China have been abysmal failures: they allowed corporations to shut down operations in the US and move work to low-wage countries where people are forced to work for pennies an hour; and they are one of the reasons that we have lost almost 60,000 factories in our country and millions of good-paying jobs since 2001.
The TPP is simply the continuation of a failed approach to trade – an approach which benefits large multinational corporations and Wall Street, but which is a disaster for working families. The TPP must be defeated, but our overall trade policy must also change for corporations to start investing in America and creating jobs here again, and not just in China and other low wage countries.
Before even Congress votes on any final trade agreement, the President has asked for “fast track authority” (also called Trade Promotion Authority or TPA) to complete TPP negotiations with 11 other countries. Fast track would relinquish Congress’s constitutional authority to the President to “regulate commerce with foreign nations”, limit our debate and prevent members of Congress from improving trade agreements to benefit the American people.
I intend to do everything I can to defeat both fast track and the overall TPP agreement. Our goal in Congress must be to make sure that American-made products, not American jobs, are our number-one export. We’ll never be able to do that if we enact the TPP and continue negotiating other treaties based on the same failed policies.
It's On: Bernie Sanders to Announce Bid for Presidency on Thursday
Sanders, the longest-serving Independent member of Congress, will reportedly run as a Democrat
Sources reported Tuesday afternoon that U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), will officially launch a bid for the White House—as a Democrat—on Thursday.
Sanders will release a short statement on that day and then hold a major campaign kickoff in Vermont in several weeks, according to Vermont Public Radio.
A Democratic source close to the senator confirmed to The Hill that Sanders will announce his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in a statement later this week, before heading back to his home state for a campaign kick-off event early next month.
The Evening Greens
Duke Energy to hand out bottled water in North Carolina after wells polluted
Duke Energy, the largest electric utility in the US, has agreed to provide dozens of families in North Carolina with bottled water after state testing found private wells near sites where the company stores coal waste contaminated with potentially toxic chemicals.
Over the last week, the state’s department of environment and natural resources mailed out 87 letters to residents who live near sites where Duke has stored tons of coal ash – the toxic slurry left over from burning coal – in unlined pits. Those letters say that chemicals associated with coal ash – including vanadium, which can cause respiratory problems, as well as carcinogens such as hexavalent chromium had been found at levels that exceed state standards.
“In order to reduce or eliminate this increased health risk, the North Carolina Division of Public Health recommends that your well water not be used for drinking and cooking,” the letters read. ...
The letters are just the latest in a years-long saga in the state involving Duke, North Carolina’s government, and residents and activists who have been pressuring the state to crack down on Duke’s storage of coal ash. North Carolina has some of the weakest coal ash regulations in the country, and Duke has been allowed to store the ash in unlined pits, often next to rivers and other bodies of water. In other states, such as South Carolina, Duke and other coal-producing companies are required to keep their coal ash in lined pits which prevent ash from leaking into groundwater.
Campaign Against Glyphosate Steps Up in Latin America
After the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared glyphosate a probable carcinogen, the campaign has intensified in Latin America to ban the herbicide, which is employed on a massive scale on transgenic crops.
In a Mar. 20 publication, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reported that the world’s most widely used herbicide is probably carcinogenic to humans, a conclusion that was based on numerous studies.
Social organisations and scientific researchers in Latin America argue that thanks to the report by the WHO’s cancer research arm, governments no longer have an excuse not to intervene, after years of research on the damage caused by glyphosate to health and the environment at a regional and global level.
Monsanto sells glyphosate under the trade name Roundup. But it is also sold as Cosmoflux, Baundap, Glyphogan, Panzer, Potenza and Rango. And among small farmers in some countries, it is popularly referred to as “randal”.
It is used not only on transgenic crops but also on vegetables, tobacco, fruit trees and plantation forests of pine or eucalyptus, as well as in urban gardens and flowerbeds and along railways.
Grand Canyon in the Crosshairs? Risky Mega-Development Moves Forward
'The Forest Service is paving the way for foreign investors to exploit America's most treasured natural landmark all to turn a profit,' says Earthjustice
The U.S. Forest Service is considering approval for a mega-development on the outskirts of the majestic Grand Canyon—a project the superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park has called one of the greatest threats in the 96-year history of the park.
The Stilo Development Group, based in Italy, has proposed a sprawling urban development for the tiny town of Tusayan, near the southern edge of the Grand Canyon, which would include more than 2,100 housing units and 3 million square feet of retail space along with hotels, a spa, and conference center.
However, the acreage for which this complex is planned is surrounded by federally owned forest lands. So, in order for development to proceed, Stilo needs a federal permit to expand road and utility access to the properties through public lands within the nearby Kaibab National Forest, which abuts both the North and South Rims of the Grand Canyon. ...
In turn, environmentalists and conservation advocates expressed outrage. Not only would the project transform a quiet tourist town into "a sprawling complex of high-end homes, strip malls, and resorts only a mile from the Grand Canyon National Park boundary," but it would also require vast quantities of water and could lower the aquifer that feeds springs and streams that support wildlife and recreation on the park's South Rim. ...
The Forest Service will take public comment on the Stilo-Tusayan permit application through June 3, and will hold informational meetings on the proposal in the nearby towns of Tusayan, Williams, and Flagstaff toward the end of May.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
In Freddie Gray's neighborhood, more than a third of households are in poverty
Baltimore and the Human Right to Resistance: Rejecting the Framework of the Oppressor
Bernie Sanders Readies a ‘Which Side Are You On?’ Presidential Bid
GENDA rises again in New York
A Little Night Music
Big John Wrencher - Maxwell street alley blues
Joe Carter & Big John Wrencher - Honey Bee
Big John Wrencher - Honey Dripper
Big John Wrencher & Eddie Taylor - Third Degree
Big John Wrencher - How Many More Years
Big John Wrencher - Runnin' Wild
Big John Wrencher - Now Darling
Big John Wrencher - Dust my bed
Big John Wrencher - Lucille
Joe Carter, Kansas City Red, Eddie Taylor & Big John Wrencher - Crawling King Snake
Big John Wrencher - I'm a Root Man
Big John Wrencher & Eddie Taylor - Telephone Blues
Big John Wrencher - Rubbin' My Root
Robert NightHawk & Big John Wrencher - Blues Before Sunrise
Johnny Young, John Lee Granderson And John Wrencher - Green Door Blues
Big John Wrencher - Big John's Boogie
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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