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 delta bluesman Big Joe Williams. Enjoy!
Big Joe Williams - She Left Me A Mule To Ride
News and Opinion
Chris Hedges: The Menace of the Military Mind
Repetitive rote learning and an insistence on blind obedience—similar to the approach used to train a dog—work on the battlefield. The military exerts nearly total control over the lives of its members. Its long-established hierarchy ensures that those who embrace the approved modes of behavior rise and those who do not are belittled, insulted and hazed. Many of the marks of civilian life are stripped away. Personal modes of dress, hairstyle, speech and behavior are heavily regulated. Individuality is physically and then psychologically crushed. Aggressiveness is rewarded. Compassion is demeaned. Violence is the favorite form of communication. These qualities are an asset in war; they are a disaster in civil society. ...
When I was in Central America the U.S. officers who were providing support to the military of El Salvador or Guatemala, along with help to the Contra forces then fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, did not distinguish between us journalists and the rebel forces or the leftist Sandinista government. We were one and the same. The reporters and photographers, often after a day or two of hiking to reach small villages, would report on massacres by the Salvadoran army, the Guatemalan army or the Contras. When the stories appeared, the U.S. officers usually would go volcanic. But their rage would be directed not at those who pulled the triggers but at those who wrote about the mass killings or photographed the bodies.
This is why, after Barack Obama signed into law Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act, which permits the U.S. military to seize U.S. citizens who “substantially support” al-Qaida, the Taliban or “associated forces,” to strip them of due process and to hold them indefinitely in military detention centers, I sued the president. I and my fellow plaintiffs won in U.S. District Court. When Obama appealed the ruling it was overturned. We are now trying to go to the Supreme Court. Section 1021 is a chilling reminder of what people like Clapper could do to destroy constitutional rights. They see no useful role for a free press, one that questions and challenges power, and are deeply hostile to its existence. I expect Clapper, if he has a free hand, to lock us up, just as the Egyptian military has arrested a number of Al-Jazeera journalists, including some Westerners, on terrorism-related charges. The military mind is amazingly uniform.
The U.S. military has won the ideological war. The nation sees human and social problems as military problems. To fight terrorists Americans have become terrorists. Peace is for the weak. War is for the strong. Hypermasculinity has triumphed over empathy. We Americans speak to the world exclusively in the language of force. And those who oversee our massive security and surveillance state seek to speak to us in the same demented language.
War Culture On Display At Super Bowl
The Defense Department will provide security and entertainment for Sunday’s Super Bowl at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said today.
The Armed Forces Color Guard featuring two percussionists, a local military chorus accompanying National Anthem singer Renée Fleming, the renowned soprano, a U.S. Army rotary-wing aircraft flyover, and deployed service member greetings, will appear during the game, which is expected to be watched by more than 100 million people around the world.
“We’re … providing military assets to the Super Bowl as part of the department’s community relations efforts,” Warren said. “It has potential recruiting benefits and it helps connect our military to America.”
Environmental Groups "Shocked" by Reports of NSA Spying of U.N. Climate Talks
Obama administration won't divulge cost of Guantanamo camp, asks court to dismiss FOIA lawsuit
The Obama administration is refusing to divulge how much it spent to build the secret prison facility at Guantanamo where the accused 9/11 co-conspirators are held and has asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit by a Miami Herald reporter demanding documents that would reveal the number.
In a filing Friday, the Justice Department said that the Pentagon had found just one document that would provide information relevant to a 2009 Freedom of Information Act request reporter Carol Rosenberg filed seeking that cost figure. That document was exempt from disclosure, the filing said, because it contained details of internal deliberations and the names of many officials who were entitled to privacy.
The Justice Department also made a separate secret filing with the court that provided more details on why the document should remain secret. That filing was not shared with Rosenberg's attorneys, and its contents are unknown.
Rosenberg, who has covered the detention center at Guantanamo since it opened in 2002, originally had sought the cost of the facility, known as Camp 7, as part of her reporting on how much building and maintaining Guantanamo costs U.S. taxpayers. The Defense Department had provided construction costs for all other portions of the detention center. When it refused to provide any documents responding to her request for information on Camp 7, Rosenberg sued in federal court in the District of Columbia, accusing the Pentagon in part of not conducting a thorough search for documents.
The information is particularly relevant now because the Southern Command, the military entity that controls Guantanamo, is seeking $49 million to replace the eight-year-old facility, which apparently was built improperly and is suffering from serious structural defects, including a cracked foundation.
Tunisia Passes Progressive Constitution
After decades of dictatorship and two years of arguments and compromises, Tunisians finally have a new constitution laying the foundations for a new democracy.
The document is groundbreaking as one of the most progressive constitutions in the Arab world — and for the fact that it got written at all. It passed late Sunday by 200 votes out of the 216 seats in the assembly of the Muslim Mediterranean country that inspired uprisings across the region after overthrowing a dictator in 2011. ...
The constitution enshrining freedom of religion and women's rights took two years to finish. During that period, the country was battered by high unemployment, protests, terrorist attacks, political assassinations and politicians who seemed more interested in posturing than finishing the charter.
New Tunisian Constitution More Progressive than the US in some ways
According to the most recent unofficial draft available in English, the government takes on responsibilities that the U.S. government has had to struggle to provide. Most of these principles are laid out in a Chapter 2 of the constitution, a section titled “Rights and Liberties” in the translation, which lays out 29 areas that the Tunisian state must provide for the betterment of the people — both now and in the future.
1. Climate change - “Contribution to a sound climate and the right to a sound and balanced environment shall be guaranteed,” the constitution promises. “The state shall provide the necessary means to eliminate environmental pollution.” Given Tunisia’s location in the Maghreb, with portions of the country within the Sahara Desert, the state also is given custody over ensuring the “conservation and rational use of water” as one of its duties.
2. Health care - “Health is a right for every person,” the document announces, declaring that Tunisia shall “guarantee preventative health care and treatment for every citizen and provide the means necessary to ensure the safety and good quality of health services.”
3. Women’s rights - “The State shall commit to protecting women’s achieved rights and seek to support and develop them,” the constitution reads. “The State shall guarantee equal opportunities between men and women in the bearing of all the various responsibilities in all fields.” “The state shall the necessary measures to eliminate violence against women,” the constitution guarantees.
4. Workers’ rights - Under the terms of the document, the right to form trade unions in guaranteed along with all of the powers that grants laborers — including the ability to strike. ... The constitution also promises that all citizens, male and female alike, shall “have the right to adequate working conditions and to a fair wage.”
Israeli Officials Lash Out After Kerry Mentions 'Talk of Boycotts'
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's mere mention (or interpreted mention) of the 'boycott, divestment, and sanctions' (or BDS) campaign targeting the continued occupation of the West Bank was enough to set off a barrage of angry responses from Israeli officials and lawmakers over the weekend, creating new diplomatic tensions as Kerry continues to push a U.S.-brokered peace accord between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
While speaking about the ongoing negotiations in Germany on Saturday, Kerry stated: "The risks are very high for Israel. People are talking about boycott. That will intensify in the case of failure. We all have a strong interest in this conflict resolution. Today's status quo absolutely, to a certainty, I promise you 100%, cannot be maintained. It's not sustainable. It's illusionary. There's a momentary prosperity, there's a momentary peace."
Mention of 'boycotts'... met with swift rebuke by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli lawmakers. ...
According to the Associated Press:
Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz of Netanyahu's Likud party said Israel can't be expected "to conduct negotiations with a gun pointed to its head," calling Kerry's comments offensive.
Economics Minister Naftali Bennett, from the religious, pro-settler Jewish Home party, suggested Kerry was siding with Israel's foes. "We expect our friends around the world to stand beside us, against anti-Semitic boycott efforts targeting Israel, and not for them to be their amplifier," said Bennett, a fierce critic of the Kerry-led talks.
Poll Shows Diminishing Support for Two-State Solution
Twenty years of the Oslo peace process between Israelis and Palestinians have made a solution more difficult to attain, rather than easier. That was the conclusion of a poll of Israelis and Palestinians released on Friday.
The poll, conducted by Zogby Research Services, showed that barely one-third of Israelis (34 percent) and Palestinians (36 percent) still believe that a two-state solution is feasible. And, while the two-state solution remains the most popular option among both peoples, that support is much stronger among Israelis (74 percent) than among Palestinians (47 percent). ...
“The way the two-state solution has been framed in the dominant narrative, it is defined by Israeli needs, not Palestinian needs,” Zogby told IPS. “If I had added details to the question of a two-state solution such as the 1967 borders [as the basis for territorial negotiations] and a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, Israelis would have been less supportive.
“Israelis always poll in favour of negotiations, but are less favourable regarding specific outcomes,” Zogby continued. “Palestinians support outcomes more but support negotiations less because they don’t trust the process. But when you’re in the dominant position, as Israel is, your attitudes are framed by the fact that you’re in control.”
Ukraine allows injured activist to receive treatment in Lithuania
The Ukrainian government bowed to intense western pressure on Sunday and let an opposition activist fly abroad for treatment after his abduction, torture and then attempted arrest by police outraged critics of President Viktor Yanukovich.
The embattled head of state, caught in a tug of war between Russia and the west and facing mass protests that have prompted fears of civil war, announced he would return from four days of sick leave on Monday. It was unclear whether he might resume hesitant moves toward compromise or hit back at his opponents.
The European Union and United States want him to compromise, while Russia is holding back much needed financing until he names a new government following last week's departure of his prime minister in a concession that failed to appease the protesters.
Dmytro Bulatov, 35, whose bloodied face and account of being "crucified" during a week in the hands of mysterious kidnappers has dominated opposition media since Friday, flew to EU state Lithuania. Intense negotiations with western diplomats had led to a court lifting a charge of mass disorder against him, on which police had tried to arrest him at a Kiev clinic.
"Without the support of the European community, this would not have happened," former world champion boxer and opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko told Reuters. "International pressure gives us a chance to fight for freedom in Ukraine."
Death Sentence: 'Alarming' number of inmates dying in local US jails
Turkish government fights graft scandal with probe of 'parallel state'
Turkey is launching a criminal investigation into an alleged "parallel state" backed by a U.S.-based cleric and accused by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan of orchestrating a corruption scandal to unseat him, senior Turkish officials said.
A close ally of the cleric accused the government of conducting a campaign of 'incitements and lynchings".
The move intensifies a struggle at the heart of the Turkish state between Erdogan, its most powerful leader in over half a century, and preacher Fethullah Gulen, whose sympathizers say they number in the millions and whose network is thought over decades to have built influence in the police and judiciary. ...
The investigation aims to expose the extent to which Gulen's Hizmet ("Service") network holds sway over public institutions and to charge those responsible with "forming an illegal organization within the state", one of the officials said. ...
Erdogan has cast the graft scandal, which has led to three cabinet resignations and the detention of businessmen close to him, as an attempted "judicial coup" by Gulen's followers and has moved to purge the police and judiciary of his influence.
The Middle Class Is Steadily Eroding. Just Ask the Business World.
As politicians and pundits in Washington continue to spar over whether economic inequality is in fact deepening, in corporate America there really is no debate at all. The post-recession reality is that the customer base for businesses that appeal to the middle class is shrinking as the top tier pulls even further away. ...
Although data on consumption is less readily available than figures that show a comparable split in income gains, new research by the economists Steven Fazzari, of Washington University in St. Louis, and Barry Cynamon, of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, backs up what is already apparent in the marketplace.
In 2012, the top 5 percent of earners were responsible for 38 percent of domestic consumption, up from 28 percent in 1995, the researchers found.
Even more striking, the current recovery has been driven almost entirely by the upper crust, according to Mr. Fazzari and Mr. Cynamon. Since 2009, the year the recession ended, inflation-adjusted spending by this top echelon has risen 17 percent, compared with just 1 percent among the bottom 95 percent.
More broadly, about 90 percent of the overall increase in inflation-adjusted consumption between 2009 and 2012 was generated by the top 20 percent of households in terms of income, according to the study, which was sponsored by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, a research group in New York. ...
While spending among the most affluent consumers has managed to propel the economy forward, the sharpening divide is worrying, Mr. Fazzari said.
“It’s going to be hard to maintain strong economic growth with such a large proportion of the population falling behind,” he said. “We might be able to muddle along — but can we really recover?”
U.S. sees slowdown in manufacturing growth, construction spending
U.S. manufacturing activity slowed sharply in January on the back of the biggest drop in new orders in years, suggesting the economy had lost steam at the start of 2014.
The economic picture was also darkened by other data on Monday showing spending on construction projects barely rose in December.
The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity fell to 51.3 last month, its lowest level since May 2013, from a recently revised 56.5 in December.
"This offers a sobering glimpse on the weakening in growth in recent months, confirming the souring tone in other important economic indicators," said Millan Mulraine, deputy chief economist at TD Securities in New York.
Obama's Aversion to Income Inequality Doesn't Extend to TPP
January 2014 marks the 20-year anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement. After 20 years of the US population suffering economic exploitation at the hands of transnational corporations and bought-off politicians, President Obama is carrying on the free trade torch - and lighting a wildfire. As his administration negotiates a massive new free trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), President Obama is set to become an unprecedented champion of corporate globalization. The 12-country TPP will bring on a swath of new handouts to transnational corporations, including weakened environmental regulations, internet policing (remember SOPA?), higher medicine prices and even a clause that gives foreign corporations the power to sue governments for laws that interfere with profit. The effects on working families will be far-reaching: according to a recent study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, 90 percent of American workers will see a decrease in real wages if the TPP is passed.
And yet, Obama continues to parade his so-called commitment to reducing income inequality. ...
Obama campaigned on a fair trade platform in 2008, promising to renegotiate NAFTA to represent the needs of labor and the environment. He quickly abandoned that promise and swung the pendulum far to the other side. After deciding that "NAFTA isn't so bad after all," he then solidified his pro-corporate trade stance when he launched negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2010. Despite the devastating impacts of the cruel NAFTA experiment, the TPP is meant to take the most harmful elements of this model and expand them across the Pacific to encompass 40 percent of the global economy. The administration clearly hopes the American people won't notice - the TPP has been negotiated in unprecedented secrecy in which even Congress did not have access to the negotiation texts until just six months ago.
Progressives are faced with a choice. The Obama administration has carried out historically unprecedented levels of deportations, prosecutions for espionage and drone strikes. Will the left let him get away with the TPP?
Treasury's Lew warns that U.S. default could happen quickly
The Obama administration warned on Monday it could start defaulting on the government's obligations "very soon" after hitting a limit on the national debt later this month.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said the federal government should hit the ceiling by the end of February unless Washington raises the nation's limit on public borrowing.
The federal government would then burn through its remaining cash more quickly that it would at other times of the year because the Treasury will be issuing tax refund checks, Lew said.
[Click here for a graphic memory jogger if you think you've heard this before, but just can't put your finger on when and where.]
Obama’s Retirement Security Proposals Slammed By Advocates As Far Too Little
There are 75 million Americans without access to workplace savings programs, White House officials said this week, emphasizing that this U.S. Treasury Department version of a Roth IRA—where after-tax income is invested—was a good first step for them.
But liberal retirement security experts have spent the week trying to put the best face on what’s at best a disappointment because Obama did not even mention the big picture—that the financial floor provided by Social Security has been shrinking compared to rising costs of living since the mid-1980s, to say nothing of the aging baby boom generation’s inadequate retirement savings. That’s because most people lack pensions (deferred paydays) and private 401K plans haven’t filled in that gap in most cases. ...
“In the context of an administration that has been tone [deaf] on Social Security and a Congress, especially the Republicans, who have been worse, the MyRA proposal, automatic IRA proposals, strike me as distractions from the real issues,” said Syracuse University Professor of Social Work Eric Kingson, who also is co-director of Social Security Works, the national coalition calling for expanding Social Security. ... The President did not discuss the real problems and possible solutions for a nationwide crisis where tens of millions of people will slip toward poverty, he said. ...
“When the financial services industry doesn’t actively oppose something, it usually means it secretly embraces it,” said Monique Morrissey, an economist with Economic Policy Institute. “I think we can assume the industry views this initiative as a welcome distraction from serious reform efforts, or worse, a feeder system for high-fee IRAs.”
Others said that Obama was doing essentially the same the same thing that he did with Obamacare, giving up a public sector solution like Medicare-for-all for what instead is a mostly privatized solution. That was especially harmful because also shifts the political discussion away from proposals to modernize Social Security, which is what Senators like Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Warren and Vermont’s Bernard Sanders have pushed.
Goldman Deal Threatens Danish Government
When Denmark gave the global financial giant Goldman Sachs the go-ahead on Thursday to buy a stake in its state utility, the move was not exactly followed by a celebratory signing ceremony.
So divided was the Socialist People’s Party that it withdrew its ministers from the country’s governing coalition. Some party members said the deal ceded too much power to Goldman. Annette Vilhelmsen, the party’s leader, who supported the deal, stepped down from her leadership role since she could not reach agreement within her party.
The party’s withdrawal from the coalition left the government of Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the prime minister, with a tenuous grip on power.
That so many Danes have been aghast at the idea of giving Goldman Sachs a prominent role in the country’s energy future reflects how far the damage to the investment bank’s reputation has spread since the financial crisis. ...
Thousands of people have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest the deal; a prominent banner featured the vampire squid that critics have come to embrace as a symbol of Goldman Sachs. Nearly 200,000 Danes signed an online petition against the deal, a record.
Iceland Lets Banks Fail; Now 2% Unemployment In Sight
Unlike other countries who haven’t seemed to learn the lessons that the financial crisis forced upon them, Iceland’s position was “never again.” Frankly, Icelanders knew they couldn’t afford to let banks play dice with their entire country’s economy. Repeated over and over in the streets and in Iceland’s parliamentary house came the words “Let banks fail.” In 2008, while America was hastily putting together a bailout package for its largest banks, Iceland let theirs crash.
Far from being suicide, the gamble seems to have paid off.
Over half a decade later and Iceland’s economy has bounced back. Questions about what to do with the unemployed – common in the U.S. – are not heard in Iceland. Iceland has managed to drop unemployment to around 4 percent, but even that isn’t good enough. There are serious discussions taking place in Iceland about whether it’s possible to get as low as 2 percent.
“Politicians always have something to worry about,” Sigmundur D. Gunnlaugsson, the 38-year-old Prime Minister said in an interview last week. “We’d like to see unemployment going from where it’s now — around 4 percent — to under 2 percent, which may sound strange to most other western countries, but Icelanders aren’t accustomed to unemployment.”
Lost Youth: UK voters back away from ballot box, losing faith in mainstream politics
The Evening Greens
Groups: This is an 'All Hands On Deck' Moment to Stop KXL
Following controversial Environmental Impact Statement, indigenous communities and environmental groups prepare to mobilize
Over 17 groups — including CREDO, Rainforest Action Network, and Forest Ethics — are urging nationwide vigils the night of Monday, February 3 to protest the pipeline.
"This is an all-hands-on-deck moment to send the message to President Obama that Keystone XL fails his climate test and he must reject it," reads a joint statement about the day of action.
Members of seven Lakota nation tribes, as well as indigenous communities in Idaho, Oklahoma, Montana, Nebraska and Oregon, are preparing to take action to stop Keystone XL, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network reports. This includes “moccasins on the ground” — a Lakota Nation program to train and support indigenous communities in taking action against the pipeline — as well as plans to set up spiritual camps along the proposed route.
“[The pipeline] poses a threat to our sacred water and the product is coming from the tar sands and our tribes oppose the tar sands mining,” said Deborah White Plume, of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Lakota Nation in South Dakota, in an interview with APTN. “All of our tribes have taken action to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline.” ...
The Sierra Club is urging a mass emailing of President Obama to demand that he say "no" to the deal. "Big Oil won't give up, so we can't stop until we finish this," reads their announcement of the drive.
Meanwhile, over 75,000 people have pledged to commit civil disobedience to stop the Keystone XL pipeline from being built.
Michigan Activists Face Up to 2 Years in Prison for Protesting Oil Pipeline Behind 2010 Spill
Japanese whaling ship ’attacks’ Sea Shepherd boat
The Antarctic whaling conflict appears to have taken a dangerous turn, with claims Japanese ships attempted to sabotage Sea Shepherd vessels in the ice-strewn Ross Sea.
Ships from the two sides collided on Sunday and Japanese harpoon ships are said to have tried repeatedly to foul the propellers of the acivists' ships with steel cables and rope.
Despite the clashes, Sea Shepherd's Peter Hammarstedt said the activists were still in contact with the fleeing Japanese factory ship, Nisshin Maru.
Mr Hammarstedt said his ship Bob Barker and the Steve Irwin were following the Nisshin Maru for the eighth day, preventing it from whaling, at a distance of about two nautical miles when a concerted attack began. ...
Three Japanese harpoon boats trailing 300 metre lengths of steel cable and ropes made repeated close passes over the bows of the Sea Shepherd ships, he said.
"They managed to entangle the propeller of the Steve Irwin with a rope, but the prop cut it free," he said.
"Then in one of the passes the Yushin Maru No. 2 hit the bow of the Bob Barker as it crossed in front."
He said his ship has sustained buckled bow plates.
Anti-whaling activists accuse Japan of ramming vessel
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Does the Debt Ceiling Have to Be Raised?
Did you hear the one about the man who hit his head on the debt ceiling?
West Virginia chemical spill: how residents are coping three weeks later
Dear America, I Saw You Naked And yes, we were laughing. Confessions of an ex-TSA agent.
The Powers-That-Be Are Secretly Terrified of the People’s Power … And Only PRETEND They’re Firmly In Control
Why West Virginia No Longer Trusts Its Water, Government or Coal Industry
A Little Night Music
Big Joe Williams - Baby Please Don't Go
The Devil's Music Part 2 - All American Collection
Big Joe Williams - Low Down Dirty Shame
Big Joe Williams - Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
Big Joe Williams - Highway 49
Lightnin' Hopkins,Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry & Big Joe Williams- Whiskey Blues
Big Joe Williams - Someday Baby
Big Joe Williams - Sloppy Drunk Blues
Big Joe Williams - Meet Me At The Bottom
Big Joe Williams - Stack Of Dollars
Big Joe Williams w/Paul Butterfield - Whistling Pines
Big Joe Williams - Kings Highway
Big Joe Williams - Crawlin' King Snake
Big Joe Williams - Providence Help The Poor People
Big Joe Williams - Watergate Blues
Big Joe Williams - Mellow Peaches
Big Joe Williams - Pony Blues
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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