Welcome! "The Evening Blues - Weekend Edition" is a casual community diary (published Saturday & Sunday, 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 is brought to you by guest VJ NCTim and features singer, songwriter and guitar player extraordinaire Mark Knopfler. Enjoy!
Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris - So Far Away
Each man is good in His sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.
Takanka Yotanka (Sitting Bull), Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux
News and Opinion
Just in Time For GOP-Controlled Congress, Obama Announces Tax on One-Percenters
Though laudable in aspects, political realities make proposal for higher taxes on the wealthiest seem a cruel joke on nation's working poor and middle class
Just days ahead of President Obama's State of the Union on Tuesday, the White House has announced plans for a major tax overhaul which would raise rates on the nation's wealthiest individuals and increase fees for financial firms while offering an assortment of tax breaks designed to help the nation's struggling middle class.
In a media call with reporters on Saturday, an unidentified Obama administration official offered the broad strokes of the proposal. According to Reuters:
Obama’s proposals call for reforming tax rules on trust funds, which the administration called “the single largest capital gains tax loophole” because it allows assets to be passed down untaxed to heirs of the richest Americans.
They also would raise the capital gains and dividends rates to 28%, the level during the 1980s Republican presidency of Ronald Reagan.
As a way of managing financial risk that could threaten the US economy, Obama also wants to impose a fee of seven basis points on the liabilities of US financial firms with assets of more than $50bn, making it more costly for them to borrow heavily.
The changes on trust funds and capital gains, along with the fee on financial firms, would generate about $320bn over 10 years, which would more than pay for benefits Obama wants to provide for the middle class, the official said.
Vox.com also offered a thorough rundown of the various aspects of the White House proposal.
Scahill: White House Attempt to Control Who Journalists Source Is Assault on Press Freedoms
Hostillity towards whistleblowers, investigative reporting, and "inconvenient facts" is a troubling pattern
Though he readily acknowledged that the level of press freedom in the U.S. is not comparable to the repressive polices in countries like Russia and Turkey, investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources on Sunday and argued that the U.S. government does have an openly "hostile posture" towards facts it finds "inconvenient" and that recent urgings by the FBI that newspapers should not quote members of Al Qaeda for news stories is evidence of a broader assault on press freedom by the current administration.
Last week, the director of the FBI James Comey sent a letter to the New York Times in which he criticized that paper and any journalist who would quote an anonymous official from Al Qaeada in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen, which claimed credit for helping orchestrate the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris on January 7. In his letter, Comey called the practice of obtaining comment from sources within these networks of people "disgusting."
For his part, Scahill was among those who recently cited an anonymous member of AQAP while reporting for his news outlet, The Intercept. Asked by Reliable Sources host Brian Stetler about the decision to speak with AQAP members, Scahill made it clear that U.S. officials in the White House and The Pentagon are not the only ones who should be able to comment on the so-called "War on Terror" that has been ongoing since 2001.
"First of all," Scahill said, "in a time of war, good journalists have a responsibility to go to the other side and interview the people we're told we're at war with. In the case of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, this group has been identified by the U.S. government as the single greatest external threat facing the United States. Why wouldn't we want to have an understanding of their thinking?"
Ukrainian troops retake most of Donetsk airport from rebels
(Reuters) - Ukrainian troops recaptured almost all the territory of Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine they had lost to separatists in recent weeks, as thousands gathered in Kiev for a state-sponsored peace march on Sunday.
The offensive brought fighting close to the industrial city of Donetsk, centre of a pro-Russian rebellion, while shelling intensified in other parts of the region known as "Donbass".
With attempts to restart peace talks stalled, pro-Russian rebels have stepped up attacks in the past week and casualties have mounted, including 13 civilians killed in an attack on a passenger bus, which Kiev blamed on the separatists.
Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said the army's operation had returned battle lines near the airport to the previous status quo and thus not violated the 12-point peace plan agreed with Russia and separatist leaders last September in Minsk.
Europe’s far right gets the attention, but the left is making the political running
EU leaders are already assuming that Syriza will win the Greek election. If so, the consequences elsewhere could be profound
Submitted by: Don midwest
For Greeks it’s an election that represents a turning point. When they go to the polls next Sunday, they will turn to a young firebrand of the left – anti-establishment, anti-elite, anti-austerity. Alexis Tsipras will become the new national leader at the age of 40.
At least, that is now the solid assumption in Brussels and other European capitals, where the start of a new era in Greece – highly volatile, highly unpredictable – is taken as a given.
If Tsipras loses, the country’s entire opinion polling industry should retire. There has not been a poll in months predicting victory for the conservative incumbent, Antonis Samaras. EU leaders do not like it. But they are getting used to it. The issue for the Greeks, and for Europe, is not whether Tsipras takes power. Rather it is what he chooses to do with that power.
If it is a big election for Greece, it is arguably an even bigger election for Europe, for many reasons. Greece has fundamentally changed Europe. Almost exactly five years ago, in February 2010, Europe’s existential crisis, centred on the survival of the euro, was triggered by the realisation that the country would need to be bailed out – ultimately to the tune of €240bn, the world’s biggest ever financial rescue.
Greek elections: Syriza’s young radicals plot a political earthquake for Europe
Inside its smoke-filled HQ, the far-left party is making plans to defy the EU over Greece’s debt and abolish draconian austerity measures imposed to shore up the euro. But first it must win next Sunday’s general election
Submitted by: Don midwest
An air of excitement pervades the headquarters of Greece’s far-left Syriza party. In small, smoke-filled rooms, off corridors plastered with posters advertising Marxist seminars and cluttered with coffee cups and leftover meals, staff pore over computers. Most are women, young and intense, cigarettes dangling from lips as they tap into keyboards. The hubbub of chatter is loud. Up narrow staircases people zoom this way and that. For the visitor there is no mistaking that the seven-storey building, overlooking one of Athens’s more rundown squares, is as much a place of workable chaos as it is a well of expectancy.
“Hope is coming,” proclaims a poster pinned to the noticeboards of almost every floor. “Greece is progressing, Europe is changing.”
“Welcome to Syriza,” says Panos Skourletis, the party’s grey-haired spokesman, proffering a guided tour of the offices’ newly renovated media room, “and please forgive the smoke.”
Barely a week before critical elections in a country once again caught up in the eurozone storm, Skourletis is buoyant. It is easy to see why. With every poll giving Syriza an indisputable lead, the radicals are on a roll. For Europe’s growing class of anti-austerians, victory is in sight. “We are going to win,” he enthuses somewhat triumphantly. “There is only one question, and that is by how much.”
Mystery kidney disease killing Sri Lankan farmers
submitted by: enhydra lutris
KONKETIYAWA, Sri Lanka (AP) — Karunawathie isn't hungry for breakfast. She rarely is these days, but she forces herself to choke down a few bites of rice, dried fish and a simple coconut mix. The doctors say it's better to have something in her stomach before the four-hour dialysis treatments.
She's going for her second session of the week, dressed all in pink, right down to her flip-flops. Her fingers and toes are fat with fluid, and her spongy arms feel like soft water balloons. Since she can no longer pass liquids on her own, doctors have told her to drink only 500 milliliters a day — equal to less than a can and a half of soda.
As she walks unsteadily to the door, her two youngest children, 16 and 11, kneel before her and place their heads at her feet in a traditional show of respect.
V.G. Karunawathie is only 40 years old, but she is dying, and no one knows why. Her kidneys have stopped working, and now she's kept alive by a pump that filters waste from her blood twice a week through a snorkel-like tube implanted into her neck.
The cause of her disease, which affects an estimated 70,000 to 400,000 people in Sri Lanka's rice basket, has baffled doctors and researchers for two decades. Even the World Health Organization hasn't been able to pinpoint what's killing as many as 10 people a month in Karunawathie's village — ravaging one house while sparing the next — as it creeps farther and farther into neighboring areas.
Mystery kidney killer spreads fear in Sri Lanka
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
RAJANGANAYA, Sri Lanka (AP) — It's midmorning and hundreds of people are squeezed under a banyan tree's shady canopy to have blood drawn by just three nurses, working assembly-line fast. Others wait outside this dusty rural health center to get their vitals taken and give urine samples.
Most of the 1,000 villagers have come here on foot and have stood for hours under the hot sun — not because they feel sick, but out of fear. They want to know if they will be the next victims of a mysterious kidney disease that has killed thousands of farmers in Sri Lanka's rice basket.
Many have watched neighbors and loved ones — some only in their 30s — quickly succumb to deaths after their kidneys gave out. In the worst-hit villages, it kills as many as 10 people every month. No one knows why.
"In some cases, you only know if a certain person died of kidney disease after the autopsy," says Kalyani Samarasinghe, 47, standing outside the health center with a handful of medical papers and a cotton ball taped to her arm. "If you get a pain in the stomach or something, then you think: Is it the kidney?"
The disease has killed up to 20,000 people over the past 20 years and sickened another 70,000 to 400,000. It has expanded from two districts to seven in the North Central province's dry zone, where farming was transformed after the introduction of modern techniques in the 1960s and '70s. No cases have been detected elsewhere in the country, and research has failed to determine the cause.
Boko Haram 'in Cameroon kidnappings'
Suspected militants from Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram have kidnapped dozens of people in raids in neighbouring Cameroon, officials say.
They said many of those kidnapped in the cross border attack against villages were children.
Four villagers who tried to fend off the attackers were killed, a security source has told the BBC.
Boko Haram has seized control of towns and villages in north-east Nigeria, and begun threatening neighbouring nations.
Chad, which also borders Nigeria, has just sent soldiers to help Cameroon in the fight against the jihadists.
Israeli strikes kill Hezbollah fighters in Syria
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli strike in Syria on Sunday killed the son of a slain top Hezbollah commander and another four fighters in a move that could ratchet up tensions with the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement, which recently boasted of rockets that can hit any part of the Jewish state.
Hezbollah fighters in towns and villages along the border with Israel went on high alert, said an official from the group. In the Shiite-dominated areas of south Lebanon and Beirut the streets emptied quickly, as residents feared an escalation. Hezbollah-run al-Manar TV warned that Israel was "playing with fire that puts the security of the whole Middle East on edge."
A Hezbollah official identified one of the five slain men as Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Imad Mughniyeh, a top Hezbollah operative assassinated in 2008 in Damascus. Hezbollah blames Israel for the killing and has long vowed to avenge his death. The official said the dead included another senior Hezbollah commander, Mohammed Issa, and at least one Iranian national with the group.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the slain Iranian belonged to the Revolutionary Guards. The group, which obtains its information from a network of activists on the ground, said the Israeli strikes hit two vehicles and a home. It said the fighters were in the area to plan attacks along the Israeli-controlled frontier.
Islamic State group releases 200 captive Yazidis in Iraq
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The Islamic State group released about 200 Yazidis held for five months in Iraq, mostly elderly, infirm captives who likely slowed the extremists down, Kurdish military officials said Sunday. Almost all of the freed prisoners are in poor health and bore signs of abuse and neglect.
Almost all of the freed prisoners are in poor health and bore signs of abuse and neglect. Three were young children. The former captives were being questioned and receiving medical treatment on Sunday in the town of Alton Kupri.
Gen. Shirko Fatih, commander of Kurdish peshmerga forces in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, said it appears the militants released the prisoners because they were too much of a burden.
"It probably became too expensive to feed them and care for them," he said.
Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled in August when the Islamic State group captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, near the Syrian border. But hundreds were taken captive by the group, with some Yazidi women forced into slavery, according to international rights groups and Iraqi officials.
Clinton's Democratic allies offer her an economic road map
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Inside the Democratic Party, economic policy is often seen as a contest between President Barack Obama's track record and the anti-Wall Street approach sought by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. As Hillary Rodham Clinton heads for an expected run for president, her allies are pointing her toward something in-between.
As Hillary Rodham Clinton heads for an expected 2016 run for president, her allies are pointing her toward something in-between.
A group of Clinton advisers offered a detailed economic agenda last week that aims to help raise wages for millions of workers and close the gap between rich and poor. The policy road map was produced at the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based think tank stocked with veterans of the Bill Clinton and Obama administrations. It appeared to target those who are disenchanted with Obama and skeptical that Clinton effectively would police Wall Street and champion middle-class workers.
"While there are large forces, globalization, technology and more, that are creating large challenges for many workers, there is no excuse or intellectual basis for fatalism," said Larry Summers, one of its authors and a former treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton who later worked for Obama.
The subject is clearly on Hillary Clinton's mind. In her first tweet in more than a month, she posted this Friday: "Attacking financial reform is risky and wrong. Better for Congress to focus on jobs and wages for middle-class families."
Mystery gunk kills East Bay birds
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
More than 70 birds along the East Bay shoreline have been grounded and incapacitated after becoming coated in a mystery substance over the weekend, with an additional dozen killed by the gray, sticky stuff, according to International Bird Rescue and state wildlife officials.
Dozens of birds — including surf scoters, buffleheads, goldeneyes and horned grebes — were found on land at Alameda’s Crab Cove, the San Leandro Marina and the Hayward shoreline Friday. Another dozen were found Saturday, along with a number of dead birds on both days.
They were covered in a viscous gunk that wasn’t petroleum but nonetheless restricted the birds’ ability to remain waterproof and regulate their temperature, said Barbara Callahan, interim director of International Bird Rescue, which is caring for the birds at its Fairfield facility.
The substance doesn’t smell and doesn’t come off on rescuers’ gloves, Callahan said. And the usual removal agent, Dawn dish soap, didn’t work in initial tests on feathers.
“We’re stumped,” she said. “It is a such an unusual situation that we’re in, I'm not sure I’m optimistic yet.”
This Open Letter From A US Soldier Exposes The Ugly Truth Of The ‘War On Terror’
Submitted by: NCTim
An open letter originally published by Tom’s Dispatch reveals the heartbreaking reality experienced by the men and women charged with conducting America’s felonious “War on Terror.”
The letter is penned by Rory Fanning, who walked across the United States for the Pat Tillman Foundation in 2008–2009, following two deployments to Afghanistan with the 2nd Army Ranger Battalion. Fanning became a conscientious objector after his second tour. He is the author of the new book Worth Fighting For: An Army Ranger’s Journey Out of the Military and Across America.
In his letter, he writes to the ‘Aspiring Army Ranger’ with a warning before they are “sent off to fight in the Global War on Terror.” A war, which in his opinion, should never have been waged.
“When I signed up for the military, I was hoping to make a better world. Instead I helped make it more dangerous.
Your job should be to end war, not perpetuate it. Never forget that.”
German PEGIDA group cancels anti-Islam rally over death threats to leader
German PEGIDA movement, which stands against ‘the Islamization of the West’ has canceled next week’s rally in the city of Dresden after threats were issued against one of its top organizers.
The Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA) movement has been holding protests every Monday in the eastern German city of Dresden since October.
The rallies, which initially gathered no more than 500 people, hit a record attendance of 25,000 last week.
PEGIDA announced on its Facebook page that the rally planned for January 19 has been called off after the police said "there is a specific threat against a member of the organization team.”
According to DPA news agency, the threats were filed by Islamic radicals against the movement’s co-leader, Lutz Bachmann.
The German police were informed of the threats against Bachman by foreign secret services, the agency added.
Shots fired at Delaware home of vice-president Joe Biden
Secret Service says multiple shots fired from vehicle at house
Biden and wife Dr Jill Biden were away at the time
Submitted by: NCTim
The Secret Service said on Sunday that multiple gunshots were fired from a vehicle near the Delaware home of Vice-President Joe Biden on Saturday night. The vice-president and his wife, Dr Jill Biden, were not at home at the time of the shooting, authorities said.
The Wilmington home is several hundred yards from the main road from where the shots rang out, and authorities were searching outside the Biden residence and nearby houses to determine if any rounds hit anything. Police in New Castle County, Delaware, said there were no reports of any injuries related to the shooting.
Secret Service spokesman Robert Hoback said the shots were fired at about 8.25pm on a public road outside the secure perimeter near the home. The shots were heard by Secret Service personnel, who saw the vehicle drive past the home at a high rate of speed and flee the scene.
The Secret Service said about 30 minutes later, an individual in a vehicle tried to pass a county police officer securing the outer perimeter of the area. That person was arrested for resisting arrest and was scheduled to be questioned regarding the shooting incident. County police sergeant Jacob Andrews said it appeared the man was not involved in the shooting.
Guantánamo Diary: ‘The torture squad was so well trained that they were performing almost perfect crimes’
Interrogators subject Mohamedou Ould Slahi to the painstaking use of a new coercive technique: the cold room. Plus: Peter Serafinowicz reads an extract
Declassified diary published at last
• Extract: The flight to Guantánamo
• Extract: Torture at sea
• Extract: False confession
Submitted by: NCTim
I started to recite the Koran quietly, for prayer was forbidden. Once ___ said, “Why don’t you pray? Go ahead and pray!” I was like, How friendly! But as soon as I started to pray, __ started to make fun of my religion, and so I settled for praying in my heart so I didn’t give __ the opportunity to commit blasphemy. Making fun of somebody else’s religion is one of the most barbaric acts. President Bush described his holy war against the so-called terrorism as a war between the civilized and barbaric world. But his government committed more barbaric acts than the terrorists themselves. I can name tons of war crimes that Bush’s government is involved in.
This particular day was one of the roughest days in my inter- rogation before the day around the end of August that was my “Birthday Party” as ___ called it. ___ brought someone who was apparently a Marine; he wore a ___ _______________ ______________.
___ offered me a metal chair. “I told you, I’m gonna bring some people to help me interrogate you,” ___ said, sitting inches away in front of me. The guest sat almost sticking on my knee. ___ started to ask me some questions I don’t remember.
“Yes or no?” the guest shouted, loud beyond belief, in a show to scare me, and maybe to impress ___, who knows? I found his method very childish and silly.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature more reporting on the police attack upon the Chicago Hunger Protest. The Day Book takes a stand for the protesters and against the police rioters.
Tune in at 2pm!
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A Nation in Decline': Majority of US Public School Students Live in Poverty
Devastating report reveals downward trajectory for today's generation of learners
As it turns out, there's no high-stakes test that can account for this.
A new study released on Friday shows that more than half of students enrolled in U.S. public schools live in poverty, a measurement that the report's authors say places the U.S. on the road to overall social decline.
Released by the Southern Education Foundation, the new analysis (pdf) used the most recent national census figures available to confirm that 51 percent of the students across the nation’s public schools were low income in 2013.
Religion is a scapegoat: The problem isn’t Islam — it’s power
Even as the horrific terror attack in France was unfolding, the spotlight of blame was being placed on the religion of Islam. This blame has been severely misplaced.
As a liberal atheist, I sincerely believe that religion has the ability to bring about personal and societal harm; but if we think we can excavate the entire problem of terrorism into the light of day by blaming it solely on religion, Indiana Jones would tell us that we’re digging in the wrong place.
I’d argue that terrorism — and religious fundamentalism generally — arises primarily out of a preoccupation with power. Not power in the sense of brute physical dominance over others, which acts of terrorism surely are, but power as the basic psychological drive of the human animal. The thwarting of that drive is the root cause of both terrorism and violence generally.
Nietzsche was the first thinker to come up with the idea of a “will to power” as an alternative to a “will to life” as the prime mover of human behavior. As he wrote in “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” “Wherever I found the living, there I found the will to power. Only where there is life, there is also will: not will to life but will to power. There is much that life esteems more highly than life itself.” It’s all too obvious that those who risk their lives to commit terrorism and other acts of violence value their cause more than their life
Crooked Narco Cops: 10 Outrageous Ways Police Have Enriched Themselves on the Drug Trade
It's not surprising that some cops who interact with the narco-world decide to go crooked.
The drug trade is a great place to make tons of money fast. In 2003, the UN estimated the total worth of the global drug trade at $320 billion, a figure that has certainly grown in the last 12 years.
So it's not surprising that some police officers, who interact frequently with the narco-world, decide to go crooked. But what makes these cases particularly egregious is that officers used the state's monopoly on violence to enrich themselves while persecuting others for the same crimes. Here are some recent examples.
Why Americans Are Giant Hypocrites About Free Speech
Yeah, the French look like merde arresting a comedian for a Facebook post. But we're free-speech hypocrites too.
Even under the relatively broad construction of freedom of speech we’re accustomed to in the United States, almost everyone up to and including Glenn Greenwald and the ACLU would agree that my right to say what I want has both legal and practical limits. I’m not allowed to make direct threats against the life of the president or other government officials, and I’m not allowed, as the conventional phrase puts it, to shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater. That sounds reasonable enough. But wait – as we have discovered this week, and as we discover over and over again, when it comes to restricting speech, the devil is in the details. What constitutes an unacceptable threat against the leadership class, and who is covered by this restriction? Does the owner of the theater (metaphorically speaking) get to determine whether or not my words have caused a panic? What if the theater is really on fire?
In the eyes of many American civil libertarians and journalists, France and other Western European nations committed a dangerous and self-destructive blunder this week with their widespread crackdown on speech perceived as condoning or supporting Islamic terrorism. Just days earlier, Paris had captured the world’s attention with a massive rally in response to the murderous attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a suburban supermarket. French citizens of many backgrounds, races and faiths had taken to the streets by the hundreds of thousands to demonstrate that the republican ideal, however tarnished and challenged, had not perished.
Now the French cops are rounding people up because of stuff they said, including a drunk driver who tried to talk tough after causing an accident and a notorious comedian who made a nasty joke on Facebook. To say this is ironic feels inadequate. To describe it as going from the sublime to the ridiculous comes closer, but fails to reveal the contradictory kinship between these events. As Greenwald noted earlier this week, it’s impossible to imagine Western media celebrities signing on to a #JeSuisDieudonné campaign, in solidarity with the confrontational French comic who has repeatedly been accused of violating France’s prohibitions on hate speech with anti-Zionist and/or anti-Semitic comments. (Dieudonné is also the pioneer of the “reverse Nazi salute,” meant to skirt or satirize the ban on the classic “Heil Hitler” gesture. Points for innovation, if nothing else.) Think Bill Maher is likely to take up his cause?
Dieudonné, who is of Cameroonian ancestry but does not identify as a Muslim, now faces criminal charges for responding to the “Je Suis Charlie” moment by posting this: “Tonight, as far as I’m concerned, I feel like Charlie Coulibaly.” That implies, I suppose, that he felt sympathy both for the Charlie Hebdo victims and for Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who killed four people in that kosher grocery, after earlier killing a police officer. Is that a startling and disturbing sentiment, likely to strike many people as hateful and offensive? Absolutely. Is it impermissible speech, an incitement to violence, the moral or political equivalent of shouting “Fire!” in that proverbial theater? You and I don’t see it that way, very likely. But I shouldn’t try to speak for you, and more to the point it’s naïve to pretend those questions exist in a vacuum, or have clear objective answers. It all depends on your perspective on the nature of the theater and the nature of the fire.
The Evening Greens
2014 was the warmest year ever measured, confirming a trend
The average surface temperature on Earth was higher in 2014 than at any time since scientists began taking detailed measurements 135 years ago.
The 1.4-degree Fahrenheit rise since 1880 confirms long-term warming patterns and renewed alarm about changes that could flood coasts, provoke more severe storms and dry out croplands around the globe, climate experts at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday.
Scientists at the two agencies relied on data collected by 6,300 land-based weather stations around the world, from research stations in Antarctica and from a network of ships and satellite-communicating buoys that dot the oceans. Experts at NOAA determined that Earth's average surface temperature in 2014 was 1.24 degrees above the 20th century average of 57 degrees Fahrenheit. A related analysis from NASA scientists also confirmed a record increase above a base line period between 1951 and 1980.
In a particularly ominous sign, 2014 marked the first time in 25 years that a global surface temperature record was set without a strong warming influence from the Pacific Ocean current oscillation known as El Nino.
Analysis: Global climate fund on GOP's budget hit list
The yearly battle over the U.S. budget officially begins on Feb. 2, when the president plans to send his fiscal 2016 funding proposal to Congress, where it will be torn to shreds or ignored entirely.
While the annual drama involves trillions of dollars, it's usually of limited interest to far-flung governments around the world. Not this year, though, thanks to a budget line item whose fate will be closely tracked by an international audience.
The line item of interest is President Barack Obama's expected request for money for the Green Climate Fund, which is a key component in the push for a global agreement this year to limit global warming. The fund is meant to collect and distribute money from developed nations to help poorer and developing countries lower future carbon emissions and prevent further damage from the effects of climate change.
It's unclear how much GCF money will be included in the upcoming budget, but Obama pledged to provide $3 billion over the next four years. Whatever the amount, it will be under attack from congressional Republicans who question the science behind climate change and have vowed to block any related funding, including Obama's pledge to the GCF.
The Amazing New Green Cars at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show
I caught the Detroit Auto Show on Saturday afternoon. As always, it was great to see the concept cars of the future. But if you know me, you know I was there for news about electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids. This is mostly just window shopping — most of the EV concept cars there are beyond a middle class budget. But then window shopping is fun, and there are some models that are becoming affordable.
Electric vehicles are best paired with rooftop solar panels, both for price reasons and to reduce hydrocarbon use (the combination typically pays for itself in 6 years, after which the free fuel is cream). I know everyone can’t afford an EV, though they are coming down fast in price, and nor can everyone put solar panels on their roof — even assuming that they are homeowners. But for those who can, it is really important to make this switch as quickly as possible. And better, it is a quite pleasurable switch that saves a lot of money, in my experience.
This is Chevrolet’s 2016 Volt, which gets 50 miles on an electric charge and has been redesigned very pleasingly. It has the longest range of any plug-in hybrid (it goes to gasoline when the battery runs down). You can now fit 5 in the car, something families with 3 children had been asking for. I have the older model and I think it is a dream car– and much more affordable, with the dealer price drop the Federal tax break, than is commonly believed. I love the way it handles on the road, and the new version is even better.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Islamic State Has Tripled Its Territory In Syria Since U.S. Started Airstrikes
Why Did the Air Force’s Top Officials at the Pentagon Delay Responding to the 9/11 Attacks?
Manufacturing Terrorism
Spirituality
Hellraisers Journal: Lucy Parsons Among Those Arrested at Chicago Hunger Protest When Police Riot
Salon: Dump Current Democratic Leadership
A Little Night Music
Mark Knopfler - Whoop de doo
Mark Knopfler - Old Pigweed
B B King & Mark Knopfler - All Over Again
Mark Knopfler - Donegan's Gone
Mark Knopfler & James Taylor - Sailing to Philadelphia
Mark Knopfler & Chet Atkins - I'll see you in my dreams
Dire Straits - Down To The Waterline
Notting Hillbillies - Run Me Down
Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris - All The Roadrunning
Dire Straits - Six Blade Knife
Mark Knopfler - Hill Farmer's Blues
Mark Knopfler - Boom Like That
Dire Straits & Eric Clapton - Sultans Of Swing
Mark Knopfler - El Macho
Mark Knopfler - Atlantis
Mark Knopfler - Postcards From Paraguay
Mark Knopfler - Walk Of Life