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 singer Jimmy Witherspoon. Enjoy!
Jimmy Witherspoon & Richard ''Groove'' Holmes - Goin' to Chicago
“And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. The great owners ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of the dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at repression. The money was spent for arms, for gas to protect the great holdings, and spies were sent to catch the murmuring of revolt so that it might be stamped out. The changing economy was ignored, plans for the change ignored; and only means to destroy revolt were considered, while the causes of revolt went on.”
-- John Steinbeck
News and Opinion
I hope that Trumka really means it this time...
AFL-CIO To Democrats: We'll Work To End Your Career If You Cut Social Security Or Medicare
With fresh Capitol Hill budget battles on the horizon, the head of the leading labor federation planned to issue a blistering warning to unions' Democratic allies on Monday, saying the AFL-CIO would "never stop working" to end the political careers of Democrats who cut entitlement programs. ...
The AFL-CIO has long opposed any cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, and the labor federation has suggested in the past that it would consider pulling support from Democrats who help make those cuts happen. But Trumka's remarks on the issue Monday amounted to a far more aggressive threat: That the AFL-CIO would actively use its war chest to unseat Democrats on the other side of the issue.
An AFL-CIO spokesperson clarified for HuffPost that the federation still considers so-called "chained CPI" to be part of the off-limits cuts to which Trumka was referring. A chained CPI inflation index would alter the way cost-of-living adjustments are made for Social Security recipients, slowing increases and reducing the benefits for seniors and the disabled. Many Democrats have shown an openness toward chained CPI, and the measure was included in President Barack Obama's 2014 budget, where it was paired with extra money for the elderly and poor.
Damon Silvers, the AFL-CIO's policy director, told The Washington Post last week that chained CPI was "the vampire of American politics," saying that it "keeps being shot through the heart and it keeps reviving." Silvers told the Post that the AFL-CIO also opposes a form of Medicare means testing in the president's budget.
Bill Moyers: Martin Wolf on the Debt Ceiling Circus
What About Medicare and Social Security?
In twelve weeks or so our new system of government-by-crisis will resume its regularly scheduled programming: more threats, more confrontations, and even more extreme rhetoric.
There are only a few ways this could play out, and most of them involve cuts to Medicare and Social Security. The ones which don't probably involve either A) catastrophic gridlock or B) a mobilized citizenry. ...
This weekend we saw Sen. Dick Durbin proclaim that "entitlement cuts" were acceptable in return for tax increases. In doing so, he repeated a couple of the right-wing misconceptions that have put this fundamentally sound program in political jeopardy. "Social Security is gonna run out of money in 20 years," Durbin was quoted as saying. "The Baby Boom generation is gonna blow away our future. We don't wanna see that happen." ...
But this kind of inflammatory and inaccurate rhetoric is wrong. It fuels the flames of intergenerational war in a nation that has always thrived on mutual cooperation, and betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of economic and actuarial reality. Statements like these aren't just false. They come dangerously close to demagoguery.
US CEOs break pay record as top 10 earners take home at least $100m each
For the first time ever, the 10 highest-paid chief executives in the US all received more than $100m in compensation and two took home billion-dollar paychecks, according to a leading annual survey of executive pay.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's co-founder, was the US's highest paid boss last year, according to GMI Ratings annual poll of executive compensation, released on Tuesday. Zuckerberg's total compensation topped $2.27bn – more than $6m a day. His base salary was $503,205 but the vast majority of his enormous payday came from exercising 60m Facebook share options when the company went public last year.
Richard Kinder, CEO and chairman of energy firm Kinder Morgan had a base salary of just $1 in 2012 and received no other bonuses. But he made $1.1bn selling restricted stock. The payout follows a nearly $60m profit from stock in 2011.
All told, the top 10 CEOs in this year's poll took home over $4.7bn between them and for the first time ever none earned less than $100m. "I have never seen anything like that," said Greg Ruel, GMI's senior research consultant and author of the report. "Usually we have a few CEOs at the $100m-plus level but never the entire top 10." ...
The report further illustrates the widening gap between CEO pay and that of the average worker. According to the US census bureau, median household income, adjusted for inflation, was $51,017 in 2012, broadly unchanged from 2011. Wages for the average household have fallen about 9% from an inflation-adjusted peak of $56,080 in 1999. The census figures show a sharp recovery for those at the top of the wage scale as those at the bottom continue to see falls.
America's Working Destitute: Full-time jobs, yet homeless
US unemployment little changed at 7.2% as recovery remains sluggish
Report delayed by shutdown shows American economy fell short of forecasts in September, adding just 148,000 jobs
The report, delayed by the government shutdown, fell short of forecasts but the unemployment rate dipped to 7.2%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected a payroll gain of 180,000 jobs for the month – up from 169,000 jobs added in August – and for the unemployment rate to stay at 7.3%.
In previous months drops in the unemployment rate have been driven by people leaving the workforce. September's fall appears to be driven by employment growth, one bright spark in an otherwise lacklustre report. ... The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) has remained high and was little changed in September at 4.1 million. These individuals accounted for 36.9% of the unemployed. The unemployment rates for teenagers (21.4%), black people (12.9%) and Hispanics (9%) also remained high and unchanged. ...
Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, ADP's partner on the report, said: "The job market appears to have softened in recent months. Fiscal austerity has begun to take a toll on job creation."
Employment Population Ratio Remains Unchanged For Entirety Of Obama's Presidency
[Despite all of the brewhaha about Unemployment numbers going up and down, and Obama's many plans to improve employment, his commitment to austerity in behalf of the 1% continues to screw the rest of us.]
Stealth Bill Would Allow Cuts to Current Pensions
If there was a bright side to the government shutdown, it’s that Congress has delayed taking up a little-publicized bill that would leave some pensioners high and dry.
The law says pension plans can’t cut the pensions of those already retired. But some multi-employer plans are in big trouble, so their unions and employers are uniting to lobby for the right to slash members’ benefits. [!!!]
“Until now,” said Karen Ferguson of the Pension Rights Center, “it was unheard of that benefits of a multi-employer retiree would be cut, except in the very rare instance that their pension plan runs out of money.” Multi-employer plans are more likely to be healthy than single-employer plans, precisely because they aren’t dependent on one company.
But a coordinating committee for multi-employer plans, a group that includes both unions and employers, is pushing for what it calls a “solution” for “deeply troubled plans”: the right to preemptively cut promised benefits for everyone in their plans, including those already retired.
Multi-employer pension plans represent 10 million workers in construction, mines, grocery, hotels, health care, and Teamster employers. The plans had worked well for 40 years, and 60 percent are still in good shape. But others could run out of money in 15 to 20 years, hit by employer pull-outs, stock market reverses, deregulation, globalization, deunionization, and low interest rates.
Federal Reserve in Uncharted Territory
Spain's 'Partido X': From Seeds of Anti-Austerity Movement, New Party Rises
The 'indignados' movement in Spain—which responded with action and gave voice to those rejecting the country's austerity drive in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis—is neither dead, dormant, or in mourning. It's organizing.
Credited as a precursor and the partial model for what became the Occupy Movement in the U.S., the indignados in Spain have continued their organizing despite the end of mass encampments in the nation's city centers.
Simmering below the surface, as The Guardian's Paul Hamilos reports from Madrid, the seeds planted amid the economic calamities of recent years are now growing into a new kind of political party that believes it is now ready to harness the energy and ideas of that movement in order to build a new kind of political and economic future for Spain.
So far ignored by most beyond Spain's borders, Hamilos paints a picture of the newly emergent 'Partido X' (or Party X) as an antidote to the resilient, yet destructive, politics of corruption and top-down economic policies that are hampering progress across Europe.
As Simona Levi, the equivalent of a spokesperson for the new political party, told Hamilos, "In Spain there is a political class that, at best, doesn't understand the needs of civil society, and at worst is completely corrupt and bankrupt. They have to go."
Partido X enters Spanish political ring to break up fight between left and right
[A] new political party, Partido X, has emerged from the [indignados] protests, with the intention of breaking the hegemony of the People's party (PP) and the Spanish Socialist Workers party (PSOE) that have taken turns to run the country for the last 30 years. ...
The PP and PSOE have lost millions of voters since the crisis began five years ago, and it is this space that Partido X wants to occupy. ... The chief focus of attack is corruption. Listing the number of open investigations into financial and political corruption is almost impossible. At national and regional level, at least 130 politicians of all stripes are facing charges ranging from pillaging state coffers to handing family members plum jobs. But that barely scratches the surface, and is reflected in the social standing of politicians, with poll after poll putting them at the bottom of the ladder. ...
Like many young parties, it is light on policy proposals in some areas, but says it has its sights set on tackling corruption with a "Nuremberg-style trial for bankers" and a dedicated anti-fraud unit, and to bring in more participatory democracy, with regular referendums.
The party promises to provide financial aid for Spain's small businesses, increase the minimum wage and introduce a maximum wage so no boss can earn more than 10 times his or her staff. ... The party refuses, however, to be drawn on whether it is of the left or right. It describes itself as "progressive", a rejection of old-style politics. Partido X has not yet committed to putting forward candidates in next year's European elections or Spain's general elections in 2015, but believes it could have millions of supporters by then.
New, Improved Obamacare Program Released On 35 Floppy Disks
WASHINGTON—Responding to widespread criticism regarding its health care website, the federal government today unveiled its new, improved Obamacare program, which allows Americans to purchase health insurance after installing a software bundle contained on 35 floppy disks. ... President Obama told reporters this morning, explaining that the nearly three dozen 3.5-inch diskettes contain all the data needed for individuals to enroll in the Health Insurance Marketplace, while noting that the updated Obamacare software is mouse-compatible and requires a 386 Pentium processor with at least 8 MB of system RAM to function properly. ... Obama added that the federal government hopes to have a six–CD-ROM version of the program available by 2016.
On the Prospect of Blackmail by the NSA
Sometimes when I hear public officials speaking out in defense of NSA spying, I can’t help thinking, even if just for a moment, “what if the NSA has something on that person and that’s why he or she is saying this?”
Of course it’s natural, when people disagree with you, to at least briefly think, “they couldn’t possibly really believe that, there must be some outside power forcing them to take that position.” Mostly I do not believe that anything like that is now going on.
But I cannot be 100% sure, and therein lies the problem. The breadth of the NSA’s newly revealed capabilities makes the emergence of such suspicions in our society inevitable. Especially given that we are far, far away from having the kinds of oversight mechanisms in place that would provide ironclad assurance that these vast powers won’t be abused. And that highlights the highly corrosive nature of allowing the NSA such powers. Everyone has dark suspicions about their political opponents from time to time, and Americans are highly distrustful of government in general. When there is any opening at all for members of the public to suspect that officials from the legislative and judicial branches could be vulnerable to leverage from secretive agencies within the executive branch—and when those officials can even suspect they might be subject to leverage—that is a serious problem for our democracy.
Shocker: NSA surveills high profile people in business and politics
Knock me over with a feather:
Le Monde said the documents gave grounds to believe that the NSA targeted not only people suspected of being involved in terrorism but also high-profile individuals from the world of business or politics.
But I don't understand. What possible incentive could they have for doing that?
* cough * Strauss-Kahn * cough * Petraeus ** and so forth.
Barack Obama calls François Hollande following NSA revelations in France
The White House conceded on Monday that revelations about how its intelligence agencies have intercepted enormous amounts of French phone traffic raised "legitimate questions for our friends and allies".
In a statement released after a phone call between Barack Obama and his counterpart, François Hollande, the White House made one of its strongest admissions yet about the diplomatic impact of the disclosures by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. ...
"The president and President Hollande discussed recent disclosures in the press – some of which have distorted our activities, and some of which raise legitimate questions for our friends and allies about how these capabilities are employed," the White House said in a statement.
"The president made clear that the United States has begun to review the way that we gather intelligence, so that we properly balance the legitimate security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share. The two presidents agreed that we should continue to discuss these issues in diplomatic channels."
Security Check Now Starts Long Before You Fly
The Transportation Security Administration is expanding its screening of passengers before they arrive at the airport by searching a wide array of government and private databases that can include records like car registrations and employment information.
While the agency says that the goal is to streamline the security procedures for millions of passengers who pose no risk, the new measures give the government greater authority to use travelers’ data for domestic airport screenings. Previously that level of scrutiny applied only to individuals entering the United States.
The prescreening, some of which is already taking place, is described in documents the T.S.A. released to comply with government regulations about the collection and use of individuals’ data, but the details of the program have not been publicly announced.
It is unclear precisely what information the agency is relying upon to make these risk assessments, given the extensive range of records it can access, including tax identification number, past travel itineraries, property records, physical characteristics, and law enforcement or intelligence information.
'Will I Be Next?' Pakistan drone survivor evidence prompts calls for US war crime trials
Amnesty International calls on U.S. to explain its ‘license to kill’ with drones
The United States should end the secrecy surrounding its drone campaign in Pakistan and Yemen and bring those responsible for illegal attacks to justice, rights campaigners said Tuesday.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) published separate reports on drones on the eve of White House talks between US President Barack Obama and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, at which the weapons are expected to be discussed.
Amnesty highlighted two drone attacks in northwest Pakistan last year, one of which killed a 68-year-old grandmother as she picked vegetables, saying there appeared to be no justification for either. ...
Amnesty said that without more transparency it was impossible to test US claims that the attacks conform to international law.
Beheading videos are cool with Facebook, but topless ladies are not
Facebook has announced that it will not remove videos or images of people being beheaded as long as they are uploaded with good intentions.
The firm said that there are controversial acts that happen in the world and that often people want to share photos of them so that they can be condemned. This can be extended to all sorts of things, of course, and beheadings might just be one of them. ...
While topless bodies are fine, topless ladies remain a no no on Facebook. Images of breastfeeding are okay, but images of breasts that are not attached to a baby are not welcome and if they are reported to it, then Facebook is likely to remove them.
The Evening Greens
US Chamber, Kochs join ‘social cost of carbon’ lobbying battle
The nation’s most powerful business group has joined the growing ranks of parties formally lobbying against the Obama administration's use of the “social cost of carbon,” a metric used to help tally the benefits of federal regulations that cut emissions. ...
The social cost of carbon is an estimate of monetary damages from changes in agricultural productivity, human health, rising sea levels and flood risks and other effects of climate change. ...
A growing number of oil and coal interests are opposing use of the metric in federal rulemakings, alleging the Obama administration has not been transparent in creating the estimate or in its recent increase.
Koch Brothers Could Make $100 Billion if Keystone XL Pipeline Approved
A new study released today concludes that Koch Industries and its subsidiaries stand to make as much as $100 billion in profits if the controversial Keystone XL pipeline is granted a presidential permit from U.S. President Barack Obama.
The report, titled Billionaires' Carbon Bomb, produced by the think tank International Forum on Globalization (IFG), finds that David and Charles Koch and their privately owned company, Koch Industries, own more than 2 million acres of land in Northern Alberta, the source of the tar sands bitumen that would be pumped to the United States via the Keystone XL pipeline.
IFG also finds that more than 1,000 reports and statements in support of the Keystone XL pipeline project have been made by policy groups and think tanks that receive funding from the Koch brothers and their philanthropic foundations.
"The Kochs have repeatedly claimed that they have no interest in the Keystone XL Pipeline, this report shows that is false," said Nathalie Lowenthal-Savy, a researcher with IFG.
Lac-Mégantic oil spill even worse than first feared, investigation shows
More oil spilled in the Lac-Mégantic train disaster than was previously reported, according to new information made public by Quebec’s environment department.
While the department had previously estimated that the 72-car train that crashed July 6 was carrying 7.2 million litres of crude oil, it now says it was in fact carrying nearly a half million litres more of oil — an estimated 7.6 million litres.
In July the environment department estimated 5.6 million litres of that oil spilled from the crashed train cars or burned in the ensuing fire. But the department’s October update now says nearly 6 million litres — 5.978 million to be precise — burned or was spilled in the devastating accident that left 47 people dead. ...
Oil saturated the ground around the crash site, the town’s sewer system, and spilled into the lake and nearby Chaudière River. Oil also reached as far as 120 kilometres downriver from the crash site, the environment department said last month. An estimated 100,000 litres of oil spilled into the Chaudière River.
Worldwide Protests Challenge Fracking Industry
On Saturday, October 19th, from Romania to Canada and beyond, protests of varying size took place all over the globe to bring attention to the dangers of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
The events, part of a worldwide effort by Global Frackdown, are designed to raise public awareness about the environmental and health threats posed by fracking, as well as to signal to oil and gas companies that citizens are not willing to be passive when it comes to the health of their communities. Global Frackdown held their first mass protests in September 2012, spanning 20 different countries.
This past weekend’s events saw more than 250 protests take place in 26 different countries around the globe, making it one of the largest mass protests against fracking.
In Romania, more than 1,000 protestors showed up to demonstrate against Chevron. ... Chevron has been forced to temporarily halt their activities in Romania due to the massive public backlash, but currently has plans to resume if the protests die down.
In the United States, hundreds of protesters gathered in fracking hot spots like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, California, and New York.
Rally Against Mass Surveillance
October 26th, 2013 in Washington, D.C.
Right now the NSA is spying on everyone's personal communications, and they’re operating without any meaningful oversight. Since the Snowden leaks started, more than 569,000 people from all walks of life have signed the StopWatching.us petition telling the U.S. Congress that we want them to rein in the NSA.
On October 26th, the 12th anniversary of the signing of the US Patriot Act, we're taking the next step and holding the largest rally yet against NSA surveillance. We’ll be handing the half-million petitions to Congress to remind them that they work for us -- and we won’t tolerate mass surveillance any longer.
StopWatching.us is a coalition of more than 100 public advocacy organizations and companies from across the political spectrum.
Click here for more information
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Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin'
Dick Durbin Insults Everyone Else’s Intelligence About Social Security
Pension Theft Crime Wave
A Mother's Defense
A Little Night Music
Jimmy Witherspoon - In The Evening
Jimmy Witherspoon & Don Weller - Money's Getting Cheaper
Jimmy Witherspoon - It's a Low-down Dirty Shame
Jimmy Witherspoon - Blues in the morning
Jimmy Witherspoon & T-Bone Walker - I've been treated wrong
Jimmy Witherspoon - Good Jumping
Jimmy Witherspoon - Love Me Right
Jimmy Witherspoon - Sweet's blues
Jimmy Witherspoon - Fast Women And Sloe Gin
Jay McShann & His Sextette with Jimmy Witherspoon - Strange Woman Blues
Jimmy Witherspoon & Groove Holmes - Take this hammer
Jimmy Witherspoon - One Fine Gal
Jimmy Witherspoon & Robben Ford - Walkin' By Myself
Jimmy Witherspoon - Drunk, Broke and Hungry
Jimmy Witherspoon - Drinkin' Beer
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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