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!
Tonight's music features Chicago bluesman Fenton Robinson, probably best known for his signature tune, the blues standard, "Somebody Loan Me A Dime." Enjoy!
Fenton Robinson - Somebody Loan Me A Dime
"They’re complaining about the fact that Wall Street wrecked the economy three years ago and nobody’s held responsible for that. Not a single person has been indicted or convicted for destroying twenty percent of our national net worth accumulated over the course two centuries. They’re upset about the fact that Wall Street has iron control over the economic policies of this country and that one party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wall Street and the other party caters to them as well."
-- Alan Grayson
News
Occupy Wall Street Activists Swarm NY Financial District to Mark Anniversary of 99% Struggle
Roundtable: After 1 Year, OWS Gives Voice to Resistance of Mass Debt and Widening Inequality
Obama vs Romney on Human Rights
TPP: Secret Corporate Coup or Business as Usual?
Chicago's Emanuel goes to court over teachers strike
Lawyers for Chicago Public Schools filed a complaint in circuit court against the Chicago Teachers Union seeking a preliminary injunction "to end the strike immediately" citing two reasons: danger to "public health and safety" of the students and alleged violation of Illinois state law that prohibits strikes except for wages and benefits. ...
The dispute between Emanuel, a former top White House aide to Obama, and organized labor had been close to resolution on Sunday when top union leaders recommended to a meeting of union activists that the 5-day strike be suspended.
But a majority of the 800 or so union delegates, wary of promises made by Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools, ignored the leadership and extended the strike until at least Tuesday. ...
"We are done negotiating," Chicago Board of Education president David Vitale said on Monday.
International creditors doubt Greece can meet goals
Greece’s international creditors no longer believe Athens can achieve its financial objectives, especially a reduction in its debt burden, the German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported.
“Until now, creditors worked on the principle that Greece would achieve a sustainable level of indebtedness by 2020. This goal is no longer achievable,” the newspaper said, citing sources close to the so-called troika of creditors — the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank.
New Study Finds Tax Cuts For The Rich Cause Income Inequality, Not Economic Growth
According to a new report by the Congressional Research Service, cutting taxes for the wealthiest does not cause economic growth, despite constant conservative claims that it will. Instead, tax cuts for the rich merely exacerbate income inequality, CRS found:
Throughout the late-1940s and 1950s, the top marginal tax rate was typically above 90%; today it is 35%. Additionally, the top capital gains tax rate was 25% in the 1950s and 1960s, 35% in the 1970s; today it is 15%. The real GDP growth rate averaged 4.2% and real per capita GDP increased annually by 2.4% in the 1950s. In the 2000s, the average real GDP growth rate was 1.7% and real per capita GDP increased annually by less than 1%. There is not conclusive evidence, however, to substantiate a clear relationship between the 65-year steady reduction in the top tax rates and economic growth. Analysis of such data suggests the reduction in the top tax rates have had little association with saving, investment, or productivity growth. However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution.
Boy Scouts helped alleged molesters cover tracks, files show - When volunteers and employees were suspected of sexually abusing children, Boy Scout officials often didn't tell police, files from 1970-91 reveal. In many cases they sought to hide the situation.
Over two decades, the Boy Scouts of America failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters to police and often hid the allegations from parents and the public.
A Los Angeles Times review of 1,600 confidential files dating from 1970 to 1991 has found that Scouting officials frequently urged admitted offenders to quietly resign — and helped many cover their tracks. ...
The details are contained in the organization's confidential "perversion files," a blacklist of alleged molesters, that the Scouts have used internally since 1919. Scouts' lawyers around the country have been fighting in court to keep the files from public view. ...
In the majority of cases, the Scouts learned of alleged abuse after it had been reported to authorities. But in more than 500 instances, the Scouts learned about it from boys, parents, staff members or anonymous tips.
Opponents 'Vindicated' As Shell Halts Arctic Drilling - A series of safety failures, ice floes, and public pressure has put an end to this year's drilling
Following foibles in an Alaskan harbor, a global opposition campaign from environmental activists, revelations of a substandard equipment, the reality of crushing ice floes, and now a self-confirmed failure of an oil spill containment dome on one of its ships, Shell Oil has announced that it is abandoning its planned drilling operation in the arctic waters off the coast of Alaska.
At least for this year.
In a statement by Shell on Monday, the company said "the containment dome aboard the Arctic Challenger barge was damaged" and that due to the necessary repairs and other delays, they would forgo oil drilling operations for the remainder of the season. ...
In anticipation of next year, said Shell, it would use the remaining weeks of its current permit to initiate drilling wells, known as `top holes'. These holes will be drilled and then capped until Shell receives the longer-term drilling permits currently under federal review.
Arctic expert predicts final collapse of sea ice within four years
One of the world’s leading ice experts has predicted the final collapse of Arctic sea ice in summer months within four years.
In what he calls a “global disaster” now unfolding in northern latitudes as the sea area that freezes and melts each year shrinks to its lowest extent ever recorded, Prof Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University calls for “urgent” consideration of new ideas to reduce global temperatures.
In an email to the Guardian he says: “Climate change is no longer something we can aim to do something about in a few decades’ time, and that we must not only urgently reduce CO2 emissions but must urgently examine other ways of slowing global warming, such as the various geo-engineering ideas that have been put forward.”
These include reflecting the sun’s rays back into space, making clouds whiter and seeding the ocean with minerals to absorb more CO2.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
Challenging the NDAA: We Won—For Now - by Chris Hedges
Indefinite Detention: WaPo = Wrong; Judge Forrest = Right - by Jesselyn Radack
Occupy Your Victories: OWS' First Anniversary
Robin Hood Bill Introduced. Time to Tax Wall Street - by National Nurses Movement
Good news! Keith Ellison has introduced the Robin Hood Tax as HR 6411 - time to write/call/pester your congressperson!
A Little Night Music
Fenton Robinson - You Dont Know What Love Is
Fenton Robinson - I Hear Some Blues Downstairs
Fenton Robinson - Rain Check + Country Girl
Fenton Robinson - Stormy Monday
Fenton Robinson - The Getaway
Fenton Robinson - Going To Chicago
Fenton Robinson - From my heart
Fenton Robinson - Checking On My Woman
Fenton Robinson - Blue Monday
Fenton Robinson The Sky Is Crying
Fenton Robinson - Slick and Greasy
Larry Davis w/Fenton Robinson(g) - I Tried
Larry Davis w/Fenton Robinson(g) - Texas Flood
Fenton Robinson - The Blues Hall of Fame
Fenton Robinson - Mississippi Steamboat + Crazy Crazy Loving
We are ready for some serious change. We are ready to take up the tools of a free and analytic press to peacefully undermine the stranglehold of the kleptocrats on our battered democracy. We are ready to expose and publicize their greed, lies and illegal machinations and hold their enablers in government and the media to account. Are you in?
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead
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