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 Harry Manx whose music is a little bit of a departure from the usual here. Manx mixes traditional blues with some other influences including Hindustani classical music. Enjoy!
Harry Manx - Voodoo Child + Foxy Lady
"A fool and his money are soon elected."
-- Will Rogers
News
In Quebec It's Official: Mass Movement Leads to Victory for Students - Naomi Klein: 'This is why radical movements are mercilessly mocked. They can win.'
After a year of revolt which became known as the "Maple Spring"—including massive street protests that received global attention—university students across Quebec were celebrating victory on Thursday night following the announcement from newly elected Premier Pauline Marois that the government was cancelling the proposed tuition hike that led to the student uprising and nullifying the contentious Bill 78 law which was introduced to curb the powerful protests.
“It’s a total victory!” said Martine Desjardins, president of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, which is the largest student association with about 125,000 students. “It’s a new era of collaboration instead of confrontation.”
“Together we’ve written a chapter in the history of Quebec,” she added. “It’s a triumph of justice and equity.”
Koch Brothers Anti-Occupy Rally to 'stand up to Occupy Wall Street extremists' flops
The US conservative activist group Americans for Prosperity, funded by the infamous Koch brothers, held an anti-Occupy movement rally in downtown Manhattan Thursday. ...
< a href="http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/thirty-koch-brothers-funded-activists-">Reportedly, roughly 30 people showed up to the 10 am rally in support of the group, which claims to be "more than two million activists strong" across the country.
Bill Dobbs, an Occupy Wall Street activist who attended the Occupy anniversary event on Monday, told the Guardian that the Americans for Prosperity rally was "an interesting development."
Appeals court skeptical of Obama secrecy around drone killings
A U.S. appeals court responded skeptically on Thursday to Obama administration assertions the government can withhold documents about a program that uses aerial drones for targeted killings overseas.
A suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union is part of a broad legal strategy, also playing out in federal court in New York, to learn more about the drone program that the government says targets al Qaeda militants.
The program is shrouded in secrecy, even as officials up to President Barack Obama acknowledge it exists.
What remains in dispute is whether the government has confirmed the involvement of the CIA in the program, and if so, whether the CIA must turn over documents to the ACLU.
Drone secrecy put to test in court
As Italy Sentences 23 CIA Agents in Rendition Case, Obama Refuses To Prosecute Over Torture
The Black Financial and Fraud Report
"We're almost to the end of the first term of the Obama administration, and the score is still—actually, they upped the number of losses caused by this crisis to over $12 trillion, and not a single elite Wall Street leader who caused this crisis through their fraud [has been] prosecuted, much less convicted."
FHFA Bullying States Into Making Foreclosures Faster
The Federal Housing Finance Agency has decided to raise guarantee fees from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac on mortgages in states that respect the rule of law.
Really, that’s about the size of it.
As Shahien Nasiripour points out today, the g-fees will go up in five states that have slowed the foreclosure process by either mandating mediation before eviction, or created laws that seek to ensure proper documentation in the foreclosure process.
US borrowers in states where home foreclosures are costly and time-consuming will have to pay more for their mortgages, the top housing regulator has proposed.
Lenders originating new loans in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Florida and Connecticut will be forced to pay US-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac up to 30 basis points extra for their credit guarantee, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said in its proposal.
The fee would probably be passed on to borrowers. The agency said the surcharge would compensate for the increased cost of repossessing homes in the five states, costs ultimately borne by US taxpayers
Report: BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Cause of Nearly All Tar Balls on Alabama Coast
Nearly all the tar balls filling the beaches of Alabama in the wake of Hurricane Isaac are from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster that started in 2010 and continues to spread its black legacy to the communities and ecosystems, a report released Thursday from Auburn University shows. ...
By analyzing the chemical fingerprints of samples of tar balls in 2010 soon after the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster (June 2010), after Tropical Storm Lee (September 2011) and Hurricane Isaac (September 2012), the team found nearly identical make-ups, implicating the BP disaster as the effects of the oil disaster continue to unfold, years later.
Beyond the ugly site of tar balls filling Alabama beaches, the report warns of ecological concerns, saying that they "contain a number of hazardous PAH [polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons] compounds" at roughly the same concentrations as those from three years ago, and "in fact, some of the PAHs appear to be concentrating within tar mat." The report states that the "ecological implications of this fact remain uncertain."
Melting Arctic ice cap is like an open door on the earth's freezer
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
Financial Fraud Prosecutions Coming Soozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
Unfit to Serve
A Little Night Music
Harry Manx + David Lindley - Soul of a Man
Harry Manx - Bring That Thing
Harry Manx - Nine Summers Lost
Harry Manx - Can't Be Satisfied
Harry Manx - Spoonful
Harry Manx with the Maple Blues Band - Walking Ghost Blues
Harry Manx - Sittin' On Top Of the World
Harry Manx - Baby Please Don't Go
Harry Manx - Help Me
Harry Manx and David Lindley - Take This Hammer
David Lindley & Harry Manx - Mercury Blues
Harry Manx - Diving Duck Blues
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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