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 guitarist Hip Linkchain. Enjoy!
Hip Linkchain - Cold Chills
"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
News and Opinion
St Louis activists interrupt Black Friday shopping to stage Michael Brown protest
As millions of American shoppers headed to stores in search of post-Thanksgiving bargains, scores of demonstrators interrupted Black Friday shopping in St Louis as part of a retail boycott over the death of the unarmed teen Michael Brown.
The boycott, which used the hashtag #BlackOutBlackFriday on Twitter, was the latest strategy by protesters to draw attention to issues snapped into focus by Brown’s death: racism, economic inequality and police brutality in America. Monday’s grand jury decision not to indict white policeman Darren Wilson for killing Brown on 9 August led to days of violent protests in a number of American cities.
Beginning on Thanksgiving night, dozens of activists turned up at major retailers around the St Louis area with protest signs. They chanted “Hands up, don’t shoot!” as shoppers whizzed past in search of heavily-discounted TVs and vacuums.
The demonstrations, staged at an area Target and multiple Walmart stores, were brief and peaceful. As of mid-morning, there had been no reports of arrests related to the protests. In at least one instance, protesters were ordered by police to leave, and they did so peacefully, Reuters reported. More protests were expected throughout the day on Friday.
#BlackoutBlackFriday: The Time Has Come
Selma and Fruitvale Station directors promote Black Friday protest over Ferguson
The US film-makers behind civil rights dramas Fruitvale Station and Selma are leading a retail protest over the death of unarmed black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
The “Black Friday” protest urges consumers to stay at home on a day when Americans traditionally head to stores for a post-Thanksgiving bargain shopping splurge. ... The campaign says it aims to “make Black Friday a nationwide day of action and retail boycott. Blackout will be organising grassroots events, nationwide, for people to come out and show their solidarity in the fight for equal human rights.” Backers include Fruitvale Station actor Michael B Jordan, Vampire Diaries star Kat Graham, hiphop mogul Russell Simmons and erstwhile Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.
Documentary maker Soledad O’Brien told The Wrap: “They are trying to do the same thing [as the civil rights movement]. What is the impact that black lives can have? Well, they don’t need to spend their one trillion dollars that they spend shopping every year. Would American businesses feel that? So I think it’s a movement to empower people.”
#Blackout: Emerald Garner Can't Buy Her Dad a Christmas Present
The corporate pigs are expecting a big haul...
Surprise driver of holiday spending: Minorities
The minority consumer may be the unlikely hero of holiday 2014. ...
While the overall population says it will spend about 10% more on holidays gifts this year than last year, African Americans say they plan to spend 17% more, and both Asian Americans and Hispanics says they plan to spend 13% more, says the national study of 25,000 demographically-representative households conducted in September. The survey also found that middle income consumers — with household income under $50,000 — say they will spend an average 12% more than last year on holiday items vs. 8% more for consumers with household incomes exceeding $50,000.
"This is a wake-up call," says James Russo, vice president of consumer insights at Nielsen. "Holiday is just a reflection of what's happening across the larger consumer retail landscape. This will continue well beyond the holiday season."
#BlackOut: Somewhere In America
Black Friday shopping crowds thin after Thanksgiving rush
Mall crowds were relatively thin early on Black Friday in a sign of what has become the new normal in U.S. holiday shopping: the mad rush is happening the night of Thanksgiving and more consumers are picking up deals online.
Most major retailers now open their doors Thursday evening and offer extended holiday deals rather than limiting them to one day. The result is a quieter experience on what has traditionally been the busiest, and sometimes most chaotic, shopping day of the year.
"It just looks like any other weekend," said Angela Olivera, a 32-year old housewife shopping for children's clothing at the Westfarms Mall near Hartford, Connecticut. "The kind of crowds we usually see are missing and this is one of the biggest malls here. I think people are just not spending a lot." ...
It was unclear what impact a movement to boycott Black Friday in protest of a grand jury's decision not to indict the police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in Missouri might have on the holiday season. The movement has gained some momentum on Twitter and Facebook.
OUR Walmart, a group of Wal-Mart employees pushing for higher wages and benefits, is also hoping to use Black Friday to spread its message with protests planned at 1,600 stores across the country.
Ray Lewis: The cop the Media Isn't Talking About
US launches 15 air strikes against Isis
The US military and its allies hit Islamic State (Isis) forces with 15 air strikes in Iraq and Syria during a three-day period, US Central Command said on Friday.
Thirteen attacks have been carried out in Iraq since Wednesday, while two more targeted Isis fighters in Syria.
'The Threat Is Real': The Islamic State Is Trying to Influence Political Parties in Malaysia
The Malaysian prime minister has declared that the Islamic State is trying to infiltrate and influence political parties in his country, tabling a white paper which paints a disturbing picture of how far the organization's reach, aided by social media and international acolytes, now extends. ...
The need for a policy response to IS was summed up by the home minister, Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. He explained to journalists at a Q&A session in Kuala Lumpur that "Malaysian fighters are connected to foreign fighters," which meant the country was facing "a whole new level of threat."
"We discovered that the militants were trying to influence political parties through their members," he explained.
Andrin Raj is the managing director of the Stratad Asia-Pacific Studies Center, a think-tank that provides training and consultancy to the Malaysian defense forces, including the training of special forces in counter-terrorism.
"The threat is real," Raj told VICE News from Kuala Lumpur. "ISIS already has a platform in Malaysia, utilizing Jamaah-Islamiya and Darul Islam Sabah [two pre-existing militant Islamic groups] as well as sympathizers.
"ISIS will use these platforms to garner infiltration within political parties and government bodies, and this does not exclude the security agencies."
Police Arrest Group Running Islamic State Online Shop in Sleepy French Town
French police have arrested a group selling Islamic State paraphernalia during a raid on a sleepy French village, after they were apparently alerted by residents who recognized their neighborhood on an undercover TV show.
Officers made the arrests on Wednesday night, according to the local newspaper Le Progrès. They also seized a large quantity of books, DVDs and flags, according to a statement released by the Interior Ministry. ...
The police were reportedly alerted by residents of Ambérieu-en-Bugey, near Lyon, in eastern France who recognized their neighborhood in Enquête Exclusive, a French TV broadcast, on Sunday evening. This episode of the show, known for its hidden camera investigations, centered on the issue of the Islamic State's French recruits.
The program included a segment in which a couple was shown bragging about being the last remaining sellers of Islamic State flags in France, after their main competitor was put in jail.
Russian warships pass through English Channel
A squadron of Russian warships has passed through the Channel.
State-owned Russian news agency Ria Novosti said crews on the vessels from the Russian navy’s northern fleet were “holding drills” in the strait of Dover on Friday, citing the fleet’s press service. But the Russian defence ministry was quoted by other Russian media as saying its ships entered the Channel to wait out a storm after a week of manoeuvres in the North Sea.
The ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that a naval destroyer, a landing craft, a rescue tugboat and a tank ship had to anchor in the international waters of the Bay of the Seine, off the coast of France. It said the ships had been conducting naval exercises in the North Sea since 20 November.
The ships’ presence in British waters comes amid tension between the UK and Russia over Vladimir Putin’s backing of separatist rebels in Ukraine. The European Union has imposed a number of sanctions on Russia, including asset freezes and travel bans on individuals.
At the G20 summit earlier this month David Cameron warned Putin that the west’s relations with Russia had reached a crossroads.
Israeli Security Service Arrests 34 After Foiling 'Transnational Plot' to Attack Jerusalem Stadium, Rail System
Israel's security service Shin Bet announced on Thursday that it had foiled a large transnational Hamas terror network that was plotting to carry out multiple attacks in Jerusalem, including on the city's soccer stadium.
More than 30 Palestinians, two Jordanians and a Kuwaiti were arrested in connection with planning shooting, bombing and kidnapping attacks against Israelis in a September sting operation, the Shin Bet said. Police confiscated M16 rifles, ammunition and explosive devices during the bust. Jerusalem's light rail system was also among the cell's targets. ...
"It's very worrying that these kind of plots can be planned without the security services in the countries where they are operating stopping them. Not in Turkey, not in Jordan, not in Syria. Either because they don't mind them doing it, or because of the mess that the Middle East is in, it is possible to get away with it without being detected," Professor Yossi Mekelberg, an Middle East associate fellow with the UK think-tank Chatham House told VICE News. ...
Thursday's announcement of the arrests -— which were made more than two months ago — comes as Netanyahu faces mounting pressure both at home and abroad, sparking speculation that the release of information about the successful terror bust was politically motivated.
Scotland to control £14bn of income tax and welfare benefits in cross-party deal
The Scottish parliament is to be handed direct control over an estimated £14bn of income tax and welfare benefits in a cross-party deal that will bring about the biggest upheaval of Britain’s taxation system in the modern era.
Unveiling recommendations that powers to set income tax rates and bands be wholly devolved, Lord Smith of Kelvin, head of the commission set up to fast-track further powers to Scotland after the country rejected independence in September’s referendum, described the agreement as an unprecedented achievement.
The far-reaching reforms include the power to create new benefits in devolved areas and to top up UK payments where affordable. About £3bn of welfare powers include the housing elements of universal credit, while attendance allowance, carers allowance, the disability living allowance and personal independence payment will also be devolved, along with the work programme and winter fuel payments. The national minimum wage will remain under Westminster’s control, as will equalities legislation. ...
Responding to the report on behalf of the SNP, the deputy first minister, John Swinney, said the proposals fell “far short” of the powers promised in “the vow” made during the referendum campaign in which UK party leaders issued a joint pledge to give the Scottish parliament further powers. “The proposals clearly do not reflect the full wishes of the people of Scotland, and also fall far short of the rhetoric from the no campaign during the referendum. Then, Gordon Brown promised nothing less than a modern form of Scottish home rule and as close to a federal state as the UK can be. That was the context for the ‘extensive new powers’ promised in the vow.
“Regrettably, the Westminster parties were not prepared to deliver the powerhouse parliament the people of Scotland were promised. Under these proposals, less than 30% of our taxes will be set in Scotland and less than 20% of welfare spending will be devolved to Scotland. That isn’t home rule – it’s continued Westminster rule.”
The Long, Dark Shadows of Plutocracy
'No One Else Is Going to Stand Up For Us': Workers Target Walmart on Black Friday
This Black Friday could be Walmart's biggest yet.
As the annual shopping bonanza commences, Walmart will be hit with what is likely to be the largest nation-wide strike in the company's history, as workers demand the right to organize, full employment, and a living wage of $15 an and hour—and remind shoppers and employers that many of the company's associates can't afford enough to eat this holiday season.
Pickets, strikes, and protests are slated to sweep 1,600 stores across the United States on Friday, with tens of thousands of Walmart workers and supporters pledging to take part. Some major metropolitan areas, from Chicago to Los Angeles, are expected to draw large crowds of protesters. Walk-outs and workplace actions already began earlier this week in numerous cities, including a sit-down protest at a Washington-DC store on Wednesday.
"Many of us are living in deep poverty and going hungry because the Waltons won’t pay us a fair wage," said Sandra Sok, a Phoenix-based Walmart worker who walked off the job on Wednesday. "When my coworkers speak out about these issues, the company tries to silence us. For all of my brothers and sisters who have experienced illegal threats, I am on strike."
Faces of part-time workers: food stamps and multiple low-paid jobs
Earlier this month, Americans got some good news: the US unemployment rate had fallen to the lowest level since 2008.
At 5.8%, the low unemployment rate has been lauded as a sign of recovery.
Yet the jobs being created were disposable ones: part-time work, often at low pay, boosted job creation in the food and drink industry and retail. These jobs, while providing employment to those who need it, do little to improve the overall economy.
As a result, an increasing number of Americans – 800,000 more than last year – have taken on a second or third job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This is the story of America doing jobs it doesn’t really want, insecure about its wages, relying on food banks and welfare to make it all work.
The problem is growing. In October, about 7 million Americans had part-time jobs but wanted to work full time. Over 2.1 million Americans rely on two part-time jobs to see them through. Another 4 million have one full-time job and one part-time job, a number that increased by 444,000 since last year.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature stories about the Colorado coalfield strike and the possiblity of President Wilson appointing a commission to seek possible settlement of strike. Reported in newspapers across country Nov 29, 1914.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Over an OPEC barrel: Decision triggers lowest oil price in yrs, what's next?
Oil price tumbles after Opec decision
The oil price has plunged this afternoon after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) decided not to cut production levels.
At a five-hour meeting in Vienna, Opec resisted pressure from some members to lower their output, from the current target of 30 million barrels per day.
Analysts say that Opec members, led by Saudi Arabia, have decided to focus on protecting their market share rather than slashing production in an attempt to push the price back up. ...
Brent crude is hovering around $72.80, down $5 today. And US crude has marked Thanksgiving by losing $4.60 to $69.05.
Congressional Black Caucus protests against Virginia Indian tribe recognition
Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus are urging the Obama administration to withhold federal recognition of a Virginia Indian tribe over its history banning intermarriage with African-Americans.
In January, the US Department of the Interior proposed recognising the Pamunkey tribe in southeast Virginia, which would make members eligible to receive special benefits in education, housing, and medical care, as well as allow the tribe to pursue a casino. A decision on recognition, which would be the first for a Virginia tribe, is due by 30 March.
Congressional Black Caucus members urged interior secretary Sally Jewell and attorney general Eric Holder to hold off the decision until the Justice Department investigates any discriminatory practices by the tribe. Neither department has responded to the request, made in a 23 September letter, according to a spokeswoman for Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, who signed the letter.
The letter cited a report by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs that quoted tribal law: “No member of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe shall intermarry with anny [sic] Nation except White or Indian under penalty of forfeiting their rights in Town.” The bureau said there was no indication the tribe had changed its ban, but Pamunkey chief Kevin Brown responded in a letter to the CBC that the ban had been repealed in 2012. ...
Brown told the CBC the intermarriage ban was rooted in Virginia’s culture of racism. “Racial intermixture was raised repeatedly as a rationale to divest us of our reservation and our Indian status,” he said.
Brown cited Dr Walter Plecker, registrar of the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics in the first half of the 20th century, who ordered that Indians be classified as “coloured” on birth and marriage certificates.
“His rationale was, of course, racial intermixture among the Indians,” Brown wrote, adding that the “antiquated and now repealed” tribal law was an attempt to protect Indian identity. “It was never an attack on, or reflective of, ill will toward African-Americans.”
“We have members on our rolls who are married to African-Americans,” Brown said.
The Evening Greens
'It Must Be Stopped': Indonesia's New President Vows to End the World's Worst Deforestation
The worst assault on rainforests anywhere in the world has, for several years, been taking place in Sumatra. But on Wednesday, the tide may have finally turned with a visit from Indonesia's populist new president, Joko Widodo.
Known colloquially as Jokowi, the new Indonesian president has been in the job two months. On Thursday, he travelled to remote Sumatra by helicopter to personally inspect the devastation caused by illegal logging that authorities have turned a blind eye to for 17 years after receiving a petition from the local community.
"It must be stopped, we mustn't allow our tropical rainforest to disappear because of monoculture plantations like oil palm," he told the assembled local media. ...
In a gesture that local communities and activists could have only dreamed of a few years ago, Widodo then took part in damming up a canal, used by illegal loggers to drain away water and prepare the rainforest and peatland for burning.
Sumatra has overtaken the Amazon as the site of the fastest deforestation anywhere in the world, and 80 percent of it is completely illegal. But the Indonesian government has long let it go on unchecked. As is the case in so many developing countries, fast economic growth has taken precedence over the environment and quality of life for small communities in resource rich areas.
Deforestation dropped 18% in Brazil's Amazon over past 12 months
Deforestation in the Amazon rain forest dropped 18% over the past 12 months, falling to the second-lowest level in a quarter century, Brazil’s environment minister said on Wednesday.
Izabella Teixeira told participants at a news conference that 4,848 square kilometers (1,870 square miles) of rain forest were destroyed between August 2013 and July 2014. That’s a bit larger than the US state of Rhode Island.
The figures were down from 5,891 square kilometers (2,275 square miles) razed during the same period a year earlier, in the wake of the adoption of a controversial bill revising the Forest Code. The measure, which passed in 2012 after more than a decade-long effort by Brazil’s powerful agricultural lobby, mostly eased restrictions for landowners with smaller properties, allowing them to clear land closer to riverbanks.
Wednesday’s lower figures came as a surprise because many environmental groups had been warning of a second consecutive spike in the annual deforestation numbers, as the forest continues to be razed to make way for grasslands for cattle grazing, soy plantations and logging. Teixiera insisted the numbers were accurate.
Court Throws Out 100+ Arrests at Tar Sands Protest on Burnaby Mountain
More than one hundred people who have been arrested over the last week during dramatic protests against a tar sands pipeline on Burnaby Mountain in British Columbia had their civil contempt charges thrown out by a Canadian court on Thursday, giving a legal boost to the movement that says it will continue to fight the dirty energy project by the Kinder Morgan corporation. ...
For Canadians concerned about resource extraction and climate change, the ongoing protest at Burnaby Mountain has become just the latest battleground in a national fight to resist efforts by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the fossil fuel industry to build an enormous network of pipelines and other infrastructure projects.
Thursday's ruling was a clear victory for those who will have arrests wiped from their record and no longer face the need to challenge the charges in court. The fight goes on, however, because the judge also allowed Kinder Morgan to re-submit accurate coordinates for the construction project and re-established an injunction zone to keep protesters out of the area where the work is being done.
As Quarmby told the Observer, "I wanted our public to recognize the extreme injustice happening in the degradation of the regulatory process. This was really apparent this morning as we saw all the...incompetency demonstrated by (Kinder Morgan) Trans Mountain. If they can’t even get GPS coordinates right, how are we going to trust them to ship oil through our port without an accident? They’re not giving much consideration to the public."
"Fabulous" victory for Burnaby Mountain protesters as court rejects Kinder Morgan contempt charges
SFU molecular biology chair Lynne Quarmby beamed widely as Justice Austin Cullen announced at the B.C. Supreme Court that Kinder Morgan's request to extend the injunction date would be rejected, and said all charges of civil contempt for protesters arrested so far on Burnaby Mountain would be thrown out. ...
"Trans Mountain's incompetence showed up very clearly in the court today...it's a shame you have to be fighting this battle on this level because of laws put into place in an omnibus bill in 2012. Laws that were favouring oil companies, removing all consideration of environmental concerns." ...
The ruling was a big blow to Kinder Morgan, which was applying to both to expand its current injunction zone (which turned out to be "not even overlapping", according to Quarmby, with the police line) and the injunction deadline to December 12. Now, Kinder Morgan must finish its work and leave by December 1.
The judge ruled it was "not necessary" for the company to stay on the mountain past December 1, given that Kinder Morgan already sent a letter to the NEB confirming it "has been able to obtain a sufficient level of information from geotechnical and engineering studies to meet the Board's information requests for the proposed revised pipeline corridor and related to the method of construction." ...
Burnaby Mountain has become the site of worldwide media attention this month, with over 100 citizens ranging from university professors to prominent First Nation leaders to retired seniors getting arrested to protest the injunction that Kinder Morgan has imposed in order to drill boreholes on the mountain. According to the CBC, the cost for RCMP and other police to work on Burnaby Mountain has been more than $100,000 per day, though this is not confirmed.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Asylum seekers beg Barack Obama to be saved from 'Australian Guantánamo'
'Being homeless is better than working for Amazon'
There's your problem right there
A Little Night Music
Hip Linkchain - Same Old Blues
Hip Linkchain - You Must Be Shampoo Baby
Hip Linkchain - Walking Blues
Hip Linkchain - I Had a Dream
Jimmy Dawkins & Hip Linkchain - Boogie Chillun
Hip Linkchain - Hide Away
Hip Linkchain - Diggin' My Potatoes
Hip Linkchain - Last Night
Jimmy Dawkins & Hip Linkchain - Mother In Law Blues
Hip Linkchain - House Cat 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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