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 blues legend Taj Mahal. Enjoy!
"Statesboro Blues" with Taj Mahal and Gregg Allman
When you are in doubt, be still, and wait;
When doubt no longer exists for you then go forward with courage.
So long as mists envelop you, be still;
Be still until the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists
As it surely will.
Then act with courage.
Chief White Eagle - Ponca
News and Opinion
Greek leftist Tsipras hails victory against austerity, bailout
(Reuters) - Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras hailed the projected victory of his anti-austerity Syriza party in Sunday's snap election as a defeat for austerity and the EU/IMF bailout program keeping the country afloat.
"The Greek people's mandate is undoubtedly closing the vicious circle of austerity. Your mandate in undoubtedly cancelling the bailouts of austerity and destruction, Greek people's mandate has put the troika in the past," Tsipras told thousands of cheering supporters in his first comments after partial results showed his party on track to win.
"Our victory is useful for the European people who fight against austerity." Official projections show Syriza trouncing the ruling conservatives and possibly winning outright to govern alone.
"The new Greek government will be ready to cooperate and negotiate for the first time with our lenders for a fair and mutually beneficial solution," Tsipras said, adding that he would seek to avoid a "destructive" collision with European partners. "Our priority is that all Greek people regain their dignity."
Greece shows what can happen when the young revolt against corrupt elites
The rise of Syriza can’t just be explained by the crisis in the eurozone: a youthful generation of professionals has had enough of tax-evading oligarchs
At Syriza’s HQ, the cigarette smoke in the cafe swirls into shapes. If those could reflect the images in the minds of the men hunched over their black coffees, they would probably be the faces of Che Guevara, or Aris Velouchiotis, the second world war Greek resistance fighter. These are veteran leftists who expected to end their days as professors of such esoteric subjects as development economics, human rights law and who killed who in the civil war. Instead, they are on the brink of power.
Black coffee and hard pretzels are all the cafe provides, together with the possibility of contracting lung cancer. But on the eve of the vote, I found its occupants confident, if bemused.
However, Syriza HQ is not the place to learn about radicalisation. The fact that a party with a “central committee” even got close to power has nothing to do with a sudden swing to Marxism in the Greek psyche. It is, instead, testimony to three things: the strategic crisis of the eurozone, the determination of the Greek elite to cling to systemic corruption, and a new way of thinking among the young.
Of these, the eurozone’s crisis is easiest to understand – because its consequences can be read so easily in the macroeconomic figures. The IMF predicted Greece would grow as the result of its aid package in 2010. Instead, the economy has shrunk by 25%. Wages are down by the same amount. Youth unemployment stands at 60% – and that is among those who are still in the country.
Obama, India's Modi Hail 'Breakthrough' Nuclear Deal that Limits US Corporate Liability
"We think we came to an understanding of the liability" issue, stated U.S. Ambassador Richard Verma.
President Barack Obama and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced a "breakthrough" after reaching a deal on commerce that appears to shield U.S. companies from liability from nuclear accidents.
Obama is in India for a three-day visit.
A decade-old deal that would allow the U.S. to provide India with nuclear reactor components and fuel had met obstacles, one of which was about tracking where the material went. Siddharth Varadarajan, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Public Affairs and Critical Theory at Shiv Nadar University, explained the second at the Huffington Post:
Nuclear commerce is stuck because American companies like GE and Westinghouse -- which regard being sued for a nuclear accident as part of the risk of selling reactors inside the U.S. -- are unwilling to subject themselves to any claims for damages in the event of an accident in India. India's liability law is seen by them as an obstacle and the Obama administration has spent the past four years trying to get the Indian side to dilute its provisions.
Chart Shows How Saudi Arabia And ISIL Compare On Punishment, Hint: Not Much Difference
Submitted by: NCTim
We have seen how ruthless the Islamic State has been with prisoners and those they consider to be enemies. We’ve seen them cut a swath of terror and bloodshed through Iraq in the past year. They behead, stone, and maim with no regard for anything but their own warped version of Islam. They throw homosexuals off of roofs and stone women they think are adulterers.
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand…. well, they are an American ally, right? They keep us in the black drug that we mainline with abandon. They are buddies with American presidents. Who can forget this image?
As friends of the West, Saudi Arabia surely would have adopted some of our values, you’d think. You’d be wrong. Oh sure, they have some modern things: cars, shopping malls, TV. But their government is very much trapped in the Dark Ages.
Middle East Eye compared the punishments for hadd crimes — ones that are considered to be against the “rights of God” — applied by both ISIS and Saudi Arabia. It’s not pretty:
Yemen Unrest Won't Stop Drone War: Pentagon, White House
Thousands take part in protests against Houthi rebels as crisis deepens
As thousands of Yemenis protested against Houthi rebels on Saturday, the White House and Pentagon have indicated the continuing unrest in the country is no impediment to continuing the drone campaign.
The Washington Post reported earlier:
Armed drones operated by the CIA and the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command remain deployed for now over southern Yemen, where al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is based. But some U.S. officials said that the Yemeni security services that provided much of the intelligence that sustained that U.S. air campaign are now controlled by Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, who have seized control of much of the capital.
Reuters also reported:
The collapse of the U.S.-backed government of Yemen on Thursday has left America's counter-terrorism campaign "paralyzed", two U.S. security officials said, dealing a major setback to Washington's fight against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a potent wing of the militant network.
Three U.S. officials said the halt in operations included drone strikes, at least temporarily, following the abrupt resignation of the president, prime minister and cabinet amid mounting fears the Arab world's poorest country was veering toward civil war.
White House chief of staff tries to defuse tension over Netanyahu trip to US
Denis McDonough stresses relations with Israel remain strong despite plan to address Congress and calls relationship ‘many faceted, deep and abiding’
White House chief of staff Denis McDonough moved to defuse a dispute over Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming trip to Washington on Sunday, calling relationships between the two countries “many faceted, deep and abiding”.
Administration officials told Israel’s Haaretz last week Netanyahu had “spat” in Obama’s face by arranging with Republican House speaker John Boehner to speak before Congress in March without first informing the White House.
The comment “does not reflect the views of this president or this White House”, McDonough told CBS. He said the importance of the relationship meant it was “above partisan politics”.
McDonough appeared on all the US’s major morning politics shows on Sunday – a move known as “the full Ginsburg” after William Ginsburg, an attorney for Monica Lewinsky who first completed the circuit in 1998.
Rebels press Ukraine offensive, Obama promises steps against Russian-backed 'aggression'
(Reuters) - Pro-Moscow rebels, backed by what NATO says is the open participation of Russian troops, pressed on with their offensive on Sunday after restarting the war in eastern Ukraine with the first all-out assault since a truce five months ago.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Washington was considering all options short of military action to isolate Russia. The European Union called an emergency meeting of foreign ministers of its 28 member states.
"We are deeply concerned about the latest break in the ceasefire and the aggression that these separatists -- with Russian backing, Russian equipment, Russian financing, Russian training and Russian troops -- are conducting," Obama told a news conference during a visit to India.
"I will look at all additional options that are available to us short of military confrontation and try to address this issue. And we will be in close consultation with our international partners, particularly European partners."
Ukraine conflict: Poroshenko vows to 'calm' Mariupol fighting
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has vowed to "calm" fighting with pro-Russia rebels in east Ukraine after 30 people were killed there on Saturday.
Speaking after an emergency meeting of Ukraine's security council, Mr Poroshenko said that a peace deal signed in September in Minsk was the only solution to the conflict.
Russia's foreign minister also urged "comprehensive political dialogue".
Both sides blame each other for the continuing fighting.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in fighting since the rebels seized a large swathe of Donetsk and Luhansk regions last April, UN officials say. More than a million people have been displaced.
Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of arming the rebels and sending its troops into Ukrainian territory.
Russia has denied directly arming the separatists, and blames Ukraine for the upsurge in fighting.
Military-clad English-speakers caught on camera in Mariupol shelling aftermath
Armed people in uniform speaking fluent English with no accent have been spotted in Mariupol in the aftermath of the rocket hit, fuelling allegations that foreign private military contractors are serving among Ukrainian troops.
The port city in eastern Ukraine, under Kiev’s control, saw a surge of violence on Saturday, when several rockets hit a residential area in the east of the city, reportedly killing 30 civilians. Numerous videos from the scene showed destruction in the aftermath of the attack, for which local militia and Ukrainian troops blamed each other.
But among footage shot in Mariupol, there are some videos showing armed men in military uniform, who speak English fluently.
One video uploaded on YouTube is apparently raw footage of a local news channel MSN (Mariupol News Service). One episode shows a man passing resolutely by the camera.
Abolish West Point — and the other service academies, too
Submitted by: NCTim
Most Americans are familiar with the prestige that surrounds the United States military service academies. Various names and phrases, spoken like solemn incantations, attest to their sacrosanct status: the Point, the Long Gray Line, Annapolis, cadets. Their graduates constitute a who’s who of American greatness, including Ulysses Grant, Jimmy Carter, novelist James Salter and sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein, to name a few. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, in a 1962 address at West Point, typified the veneration when he told the cadets that they were “the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense.”
The service academies — the U.S. Military Academy for the Army (West Point), the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy — promise to educate and mold future officers charged with leading the enlisted members of the military.
But they are not the hallowed arbiters of quality promised by their myths. Their traditions mask bloated government money-sucks that consistently underperform. They are centers of nepotism that turn below-average students into average officers. They are indulgences that taxpayers, who fund them, can no longer afford. They’ve outlived their use, and it’s time to shut them down.
The most compelling and obvious argument is the financial one. It officially costs about $205,000 to produce a West Point graduate, although a 2003 Government Accountability Office study put the price tag at more than $300,000; officers at the Air Force and Naval academies are minted for $322,000 and $275,000, respectively. According to at least one measurement, that’s about four times as much as it costs to produce an officer through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, which trains officers-to-be while they attend civilian colleges.
Secrets of modern mercenaries: Inside the rise of private armies
We don't know all the details about the opaque world of military contractors. An expert lays out the real story
Excerpted from "The Modern Mercenary: Private Armies and What They Mean For World Order"
The private military industry has surged since the end of the Cold War and is now a multibillion-dollar business. Today’s military firms are sophisticated multinational corporations with subsidiaries around the world and quarterly profit reports for investors. These companies are bought and sold on Wall Street, and their stocks are listed on the London and New York exchanges. Their boards consist of Wall Street magnates and former generals, their corporate managers are seasoned Fortune 500 executives, and their ranks filled with ex-military and law-enforcement personnel recruited from around the world. They work for governments, the private sector, and humanitarian organizations. The industry even has its own trade associations: the International Stability Operations Association (ISOA) in Washington, D.C., the British Association of Private Security Companies in London, and the Private Security Company Association of Iraq.
Despite the surfeit of coverage in recent years, the industry remains confusing, because it is notoriously impervious to outside investigators. Consequently, little is known about how and why these private military actors exist.
Why So Little Is Still Known
The private military industry has become a fashionable subject for study over the past decade, but knowledge about the industry is still thin. The primary obstacle to research is the lack of data available on the industry. The firms themselves can be more opaque than the US military or intelligence agencies, because they are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act or similar legislative tools that impose transparency. Even members of Congress do not have direct access to the contracts by which these firms are employed, even though Congress is writing the checks.
Journalists’ and academics’ analyses of PMCs are anemic, because the industry is media-phobic, owing to its roots in the military, which traditionally eschews public scrutiny. Reporters, who are typically not even allowed to interview members of, much less embed in, PMCs, can only record the events surrounding the industry. Academics depend almost entirely on the work of journalists for their analyses of these firms. Consequently, their mutual conclusions can be speculative and even factually erroneous. This has stultified understanding of the industry.
McCain Calls 'Cold Warriors' to School Senate on National Security
TRNN's Jessica Desvarieux reports on former national security advisors Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft testimonies related to Iran, Syria, and Ukraine.
‘Is that a stimulus package in your pocket?’ Pick-up lines you may hear at Davos.
Submitted by: NCTim
Every year, global leaders, financiers, development experts and technology titans descend on the snowy town of Davos, Switzerland, to discuss the world’s most pressing challenges at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. But there are other reasons to attend. In the words of The New Yorker’s Nick Paumgarten: “Davos is, fundamentally, an exercise in corporate speed-dating.”
Unlike the Olympic Village, where the world’s greatest athletes can count on their physical beauty to attract a date, Davos, one imagines, is a more cerebral hookup scene — where the usual pickup lines don’t quite cut it. Here are some that might be uttered in between panel discussions, fondue receptions and mindfulness sessions.
Did it hurt? When you fell from heaven in one of those 1,700 private jets.
Life without you is like that Thomas Piketty book: Pointless.
I must be last quarter’s Japanese market reports, because I’m falling for you.
Do you believe in love at first sight? Or should I hit replay on my Google Glass?
Continued
Davos Man and his defects
The global-leadership industry needs re-engineering
Submitted by: NCTim
THE two most popular words in the business lexicon are probably “global” and “leadership”. Put them together and people in suits start to salivate. That is perhaps why more than 1,000 corporate bosses are flocking to Davos, a Swiss ski resort, this week. There, at the annual bash of the World Economic Forum (WEF), they sip vin des glaciers with some 50 heads of state and 300 cabinet ministers. Whatever the topic, from deficits to deadly diseases, the talk is all of providing “global leadership”. And not just in the short term: the WEF rigorously selects and nurtures “Young Global Leaders” to form a “next-generation leadership community that is mission-led and principle-driven”.
The rise of the rootless
The cult of the global leader is spreading. Business schools are full of it. INSEAD calls itself “the business school for the world” and has campuses in Singapore and Abu Dhabi as well as Fontainebleau. Fuqua School of Business at Duke University boasts that it is “the world’s first legitimately global business school”; it has campuses in six countries. Big firms no longer aspire merely to train competent managers. They pride themselves on their ability to select and train leaders for global roles.
This is not all guff. Many industries are globalising fast, creating waves of disruption. Parochial companies may perish. Global ones complain that a shortage of global talent impedes their growth, especially in emerging markets. Yet they rapidly burn through what global talent they have: by one estimate, nearly 80% of CEOs of S&P 500 firms are ousted before retirement.
So there is clearly a need for global leadership. But when the public look at what is on offer, they are not impressed. Many of the bankers and politicians caught dozing by the financial crisis were regulars at Davos. Ordinary folk trust Davos Man no more than they would a lobbyist for the Worldwide Federation of Weasels. A survey by Edelman, a public-relations firm, finds that only 18% of people trust business leaders to tell the truth. For political leaders, the figure is 13%.
Egypt: Protests marking uprising leave 16 dead
The BBC's Yolande Knell says Tahrir Square was sealed off by police
At least 16 people have been killed in clashes between police and protesters across Egypt, officials said.
One policeman was among the dead and dozens of protesters were also injured, health officials confirmed.
The clashes follow the death of an activist in a march in Cairo on Saturday.
The protests were staged to mark the fourth anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising, which toppled long-time leader Hosni Mubarak.
The Saudis - Oil, ISIS and Revolution
Loretta Napoleoni says little will change after death of King Abdullah, but the Saudis cannot sustain low oil prices for much longer; they have lost control of ISIS; and their big fear is revolution
“We murdered some folks” in Guantanamo
Murder at Camp Delta is a new book by Joseph Hickman, a former guard at Guantanamo. It’s neither fiction nor speculation. When President Obama says “We tortured some folks,” Hickman provides at least three cases — in addition to many others we know about from secret sites around the world — in which the statement needs to be modified to “We murdered some folks.” Of course, murder is supposed to be acceptable in war (and in whatever you call what Obama does with drones) while torture is supposed to be, or used to be, a scandal. But what about tortures to death? What about deadly human experimentation? Does that have a Nazi enough ring to disturb anyone?
We should be able to answer that question soon, at least for that segment of the population that searches aggressively for news or actually — I’m not making this up — reads books. Murder at Camp Delta is a book of, by, and for true believers in patriotism and militarism. You can start out viewing Dick Cheney as a leftist and never be offended by this book, unless documented facts that the author himself was deeply disturbed to discover offend you. The first line of the book is “I am a patriotic American.” The author never retracts it. Following a riot at Guantanamo, which he led the suppression of, he observes:
“As much as I blamed the inmates for the riot, I respected how hard they’d fought. They were ready to fight nearly to the death. If we had been running a good detention facility, I would have thought they were motivated by strong religious or political ideals. The sad truth was that they probably fought so hard because our poor facilities and shabby treatment had pushed them beyond normal human limits. Their motivation might not have been radical Islam at all but the simple fact that they had nothing to live for and nothing left to lose.”
As far as I know, Hickman has not yet applied the same logic to debunking the absurd pretense that people fight back in Afghanistan or Iraq because their religion is murderous or because they hate us for our freedoms. Hickman will be a guest on Talk Nation Radio soon, so perhaps I’ll ask him. But first I’ll thank him. And not for his “service.” For his book.
The US' Dark Empire Has Secret Operations in Over 100 Countries
The United States deployed special forces to 70 percent of the nations on earth.
In the dead of night, they swept in aboard V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. Landing in a remote region of one of the most volatile countries on the planet, they raided a village and soon found themselves in a life-or-death firefight. It was the second time in two weeks that elite U.S. Navy SEALs had attempted to rescue American photojournalist Luke Somers. And it was the second time they failed.
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On December 6, 2014, approximately 36 of America’s top commandos, heavily armed, operating with intelligence from satellites, drones, and high-tech eavesdropping, outfitted with night vision goggles, and backed up by elite Yemeni troops, went toe-to-toe with about six militants from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. When it was over, Somers was dead, along with Pierre Korkie, a South African teacher due to be set free the next day. Eight civilians were also killed by the commandos, according to local reports. Most of the militants escaped.
That blood-soaked episode was, depending on your vantage point, an ignominious end to a year that saw U.S. Special Operations forces deployed at near record levels, or an inauspicious beginning to a new year already on track to reach similar heights, if not exceed them.
During the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2014, U.S. Special Operations forces (SOF) deployed to 133 countries -- roughly 70% of the nations on the planet -- according to Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bockholt, a public affairs officer with U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM). This capped a three-year span in which the country’s most elite forces were active in more than 150 different countries around the world, conducting missions ranging from kill/capture night raids to training exercises. And this year could be a record-breaker. Only a day before the failed raid that ended Luke Somers life -- just 66 days into fiscal 2015 -- America’s most elite troops had already set foot in 105 nations, approximately 80% of 2014’s total.
After Spending More Than Half His Life Behind Bars, Innocent North Carolina Man Now Free
State's Innocence Inquiry Commission leads to Sledge's exoneration.
Joseph Sledge became a free man on Friday after a three-judge panel declared him innocent of a 1976 murder for which he had been convicted.
Seventy-year-old Sledge, who always maintained his innocence, had already spent 37 years behind bars.
As WRAL reported: "Last month, the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission recommended the case of Joseph Sledge for judicial review after newly discovered evidence cast doubt on whether he had anything to do with the killings of Josephine Davis, 74, and Ailene Davis, 53, in their Elizabethtown home."
Sledge escaped from prison in 1976 where he was serving a four-year sentence for misdemeanor convictions. The same night of his escape, Josephine Davis and her daughter Ailene were murdered.
From CNN: "Sledge was picked up after he was spotted in Dillon, South Carolina, driving a stolen car, arrested and brought back to North Carolina, where he was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of the Davises."
Where do the wealthiest 1% live?
As the business and political elite met at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, there was much talk of rising inequality, and many references to the "wealthiest 1%". The phrase conjures up images of billionaires living on private islands - but is that who the 1% really are?
A report by the charity Oxfam released to coincide with the Davos gathering caused a stir by predicting that the wealthiest 1% will soon own more than the rest of the world's population.
It drew on research from the bank Credit Suisse, which estimated total global household wealth in 2014 at $263tn (£175tn).
That's wealth, not income. It is calculated as assets minus debt.
Obviously billionaires like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg are part of the 1%. But who else is? According to Credit Suisse, another 47m people - everyone with wealth of $798,000 (£530,000) or more.
Even When Sharing Top Billing with Edward Snowden, the NSA Is Unrepentant
A year and a half after NSA contractor Edward Snowden shocked the world with evidence of pervasive government surveillance, the NSA is still defending its actions, with an agency director saying the organization acted lawfully and with an eye toward preserving privacy and civil liberties.
The comments, from the Director of the NSA’s Commercial Solutions Center, John DeLong, came at a symposium on surveillance and digital privacy at which Snowden also appeared. The event, “Privacy in a Networked World,” was hosted by Harvard University’s Institute for Applied and Computational Science.
Although the top-billed participants could not actually share a stage for obvious reasons, Snowden appeared live via videolink and was interviewed by cryptography expert Bruce Schneier. Describing the evolution of the NSA from a “primarily defensive to primarily offensive” agency with regards to digital subterfuge and surveillance, Snowden alleged that NSA activities had become increasingly aggressive until the media scrutiny from the 2013 leaks ultimately forced the agency to focus on issues of transparency and accountability.
Speaking of the NSA’s own internal auditing processes, Snowden was dismissive, citing his experience that internal auditors were often “the friends and associates of those being audited,” as opposed to professional external auditors who could vet internal practices impartially.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature a special edition of WE NEVER FORGET in honor of the martyrs of the Roosevelt Massacre of 1915.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Climate change is not a concern for CEOs? That should keep us all awake
Apart from insurers, the future of the planet is not something that most chief executives lose sleep over
Submitted by: NCTim
The first day of the World Economic Forum in Davos was dominated by calls for 2015 to be a year of action on climate change. But while some in the business community worry about sustainability, there is plenty of evidence that the vast bulk of business executives give it no consideration at all.
“We are seeing the accelerated impact of climate change,” World Bank boss Jim Yong Kim said in a speech on Wednesday. “Last year was the hottest on record. That matters. Extreme weather is real. It’s a complete no-brainer to move towards cleaner, more livable cities.”
Former US vice-president Al Gore teamed up with pop star Pharrell Williams to launch a second round of Live Earth concerts to raise awareness before crucial UN talks in November.
He accused fossil fuel companies in particular of using the atmosphere as “an open sewer” for carbon emissions, which are in danger of driving global warming to ruinous levels.
Yet according to PwC’s 18th annual survey of global chief executives, climate change is not among the top 19 risks that keep them awake at night.
A Point of View: Why tyrants are afraid of art and beauty
Beauty - and art - may seem unnecessary luxuries, but they're are as essential to our survival as food and water, argues AL Kennedy.
A while ago I was at my mother's house and - as I walked into the hall - there was a tray set out and on the tray was a dish of rose petals. A single petal wasn't in the bowl, it was on the tray. Without thinking, I put the petal into the bowl because I'm anal retentive and controlling and don't really enjoy, or even understand ornaments. I live in hotels a lot - mostly the only ornaments there will be a kettle.
The thing was, at the time of my visit, my mother was still a teacher, but after decades of pursuing what was a true vocation, she could no longer enjoy her job. She was working in what had been a wonderful primary school at the heart of a highly stressed community, but the school's goals and its generosity, its ability to educate, had slowly been undermined from without and within until my mother went to work each day and watched her colleagues get ill, or take early retirement, while a generation of children with very few chances, had even those taken away. And the situation was undermining her health and, in a way, breaking her heart.
I moved the petal, just to be neat, but then I heard my mother say - very quietly and as if she might be wrong - that she'd meant it to be where it was. And then I realised, of course I did, that at a time when my mother needed to be sustained, she had made something beautiful which pleased her and which she saw every day when she came in from work. And I'd spoiled it and made her doubt it. I hadn't meant to, but by hurting what she'd made, I'd hurt her. And in hurting something she had used to expand who she could be in the world, I had made her feel smaller than she already did. Telling her that I'd done it on instinct and not as a judgement and that it was fine and could be put right didn't absolutely mend what had been disturbed. This was a minor event in the great scheme of things, not dramatic, but I've never forgotten it because its implications ran so suddenly so very deep and because I love my mother.
I should have known better - I'm her daughter. Not only that, I earn my living making things that I hope are beautiful and which, although they aren't me, are expressions of me and of what I understand of the world and they're supposed to please others, but the making of them pleases me, I wouldn't be without it. Which is to say I produce art, or hope to, in a small way I create things. And I'm familiar with that strange and often tender link between a creator and a creation.
Obama proposes to make ANWR a wilderness
WASHINGTON — The White House is proposing to designate the oil-rich coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness permanently off limits to drilling.
The proposal sets up a showdown with Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, who said the White House also intends to put much of the Arctic Ocean off limits to drilling in the new five-year offshore leasing plan to be released this week.
Murkowski described the moves as "a stunning attack on our sovereignty and our ability to develop a strong economy that allows us, our children and our grandchildren to thrive."
"It’s clear this administration does not care about us, and sees us as nothing but a territory," Murkowski said in a written statement. "I cannot understand why this administration is willing to negotiate with Iran, but not Alaska. But we will not be run over like this. We will fight back with every resource at our disposal."
Obama’s proposal to designate 12.3 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness would require Congressional approval, and there is no chance the Republican-controlled Congress will agree. But there are heightened protections the Interior Department will start implementing on its own.
Mourning Our Planet: Climate Scientists Share Their Grieving Process
I have been researching and writing about anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) for Truthout for the past year, because I have long been deeply troubled by how fast the planet has been emitting its obvious distress signals.
On a nearly daily basis, I've sought out the most recent scientific studies, interviewed the top researchers and scientists penning those studies, and connected the dots to give readers as clear a picture as possible about the magnitude of the emergency we are in.
This work has emotional consequences: I've struggled with depression, anger, and fear. I've watched myself shift through some of the five stages of grief proposed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance I've grieved for the planet and all the species who live here, and continue to do so as I work today.
I have been vacillating between depression and acceptance of where we are, both as victims - fragile human beings – and as perpetrators: We are the species responsible for altering the climate system of the planet we inhabit to the point of possibly driving ourselves extinct, in addition to the 150-200 species we are already driving extinct.
Can you relate to this grieving process?
The Evening Greens
Evening Greens Weekend Editor: enhydra lutris
New Technologies, Contracts Bolster Growing Energy Storage Business
Promising technological advances and a host of lucrative new contracts and incentives are encouraging signs to alternative energy watchers who say that the market for storing wind and solar-generated electricity could become a multibillion-dollar industry in the next decade.
Electric engineers have long argued that affordable and reliable energy storage is an essential component of an electric power grid that is supplied by an ever-growing share of renewable energy. That's because the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow exactly when utilities need it to.
But the cost of energy storage, until recently, remained too high to serve as a practical option. Instead, utilities largely relied on so-called "peaker plants" that they can ramp up within a few minutes to meet demand when, for example, air conditioners are cranked up on a steamy summer day.
Now, however, falling costs and industry friendly policy incentives are merging to make energy storage a "cost competitive" solution to balance the grid without having to build new generation, said Mike Hopkins, chief executive officer of California-based Ice Energy, a thermal energy storage company.
Millions to billions
Today, the energy storage business is measured in the tens of millions of dollars, according to Matt Roberts, the executive director of the Energy Storage Association, a Washington-based trade group. While the pace of the sector's growth hinges on policy, "it is definitely a multibillion-dollar industry once we get past 2020 or so," Roberts said
Anadarko Pays Record $5.15 Billion Environmental Settlement
WASHINGTON, DC, January 23, 2015 (ENS) – Anadarko Petroleum Corp. today paid a record $5.15 billion settlement to the U.S. government and others – the largest environmental enforcement recovery payment ever obtained in a lawsuit by the Department of Justice.
As a result, more than $4.4 billion will be distributed to fund environmental cleanups and to settle environmental claims across the country
Last April, Anadarko Petroleum and subsidiaries it acquired when it bought Kerr-McGee Corp. in 2006 agreed to pay the $5.15 billion to settle fraudulent conveyance allegations brought by the U.S. government and co-plaintiff Anadarko Litigation Trust in the bankruptcy of Tronox Inc.
As explained by U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest, who approved the settlement in November, this case arises from a “series of transactions by the Kerr-McGee Corp. that resulted in the spin-off of Tronox, which Kerr-McGee left saddled with the massive environmental and tort liabilities it had accumulated over the course of decades of operating in the chemical, mining, and oil and gas industries, but without sufficient assets with which to address these liabilities.”
Ebola impacting Chimps and Gorillas even more than humans
While the whole world is aware of the many human fatalities from the Ebola epidemic in Western Africa, you may not realize that the disease has claimed hundreds of thousands of other victims in the area. Unfortunately, Ebola is simultaneously working its way through gorilla and chimpanzee populations with no sign of stopping. In the past 25 years, Ebola has wiped out 33% of all apes, reports the Daily Beast.
Apes are already up against a number of obstacles that threaten their lives like poaching and habitat destruction. The last thing they need is to have a highly fatal disease reduce their numbers further. It’s even more devastating when you reflect on the fact that many of these primate species that are ravaged by Ebola were already officially listed as endangered.
Though prompt and adequate medical treatment gives humans a better chance of surviving the disease, primates are not so lucky. Infected chimpanzees die 77% of the time, while gorillas have a glum 95% mortality rate.
Given the epidemic, many conservationists and animal activists have called for increased efforts to discover an Ebola vaccine for gorillas to help limit the spread of the disease. While the interest is there, prioritizing this research is pretty controversial with the public and some scientific communities. With thousands of people dying from Ebola, it’s hard to convince people to focus on the ape side of the problem. As such, available resources are primarily devoted to the search for a human vaccine.
Sea Sparkle: Eerie Blue Glow Off Hong Kong Blamed on Pollution
Eerie fluorescent blue patches of water glimmering off Hong Kong's seashore are magnificent, disturbing and potentially toxic, marine biologists say. The glow is an indicator of a harmful algal bloom created by something called Noctiluca scintillans, nicknamed sea sparkle. It looks like algae and can act like algae. But it's not quite. It is a single-celled organism that technically can function as both animal and plant.
These type of blooms are triggered by farm pollution that can be devastating to marine life and local fisheries, according to University of Georgia oceanographer Samantha Joye, who was shown Associated Press photos of the glowing water. "Those pictures are magnificent. It's just extremely unfortunate that the mysterious and majestic blue hue is created by a Noctiluca," Joye wrote in an email Thursday.
This is part of a problem that is growing worldwide, said Joye and other scientists. Noctiluca is a type of single-cell life that eats plankton and is eaten by other species. The plankton and Noctiluca become more abundant when nitrogen and phosphorous from farm run-off increase. Unlike similar organisms, Noctiluca doesn't directly produce chemicals that can attack the nervous system or parts of the body. But recent studies show it is much more complicated and links them to blooms that have been harmful to marine life.
Noctiluca's role as both prey and predator can eventually magnify the accumulation of algae toxins in the food chain, according to oceanographer R. Eugene Turner at Louisiana State University.
View video here.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Barry McDaniel and 15 Reasons to Investigate Stratesec
7 States That Are Next in Line to Legalize Marijuana
‘We Are Going to Destroy the Greek Oligarchy System’
Eighty People Control Half of the World's Wealth and All of the Elected Officials
Hey Obama, Take your Nuclear Cooperation and Shove It
Why the Greek election is a BIG deal
Hellraisers Journal: Funerals Held for Roosevelt Strikers "Sacrificed to the Gunmen of Capitalism."
Podcast: Journalist Marcy Wheeler Reports on Trial Against Former CIA Officer Jeffrey Sterling for Alleged Leak
Getting Real
A Little Night Music
Taj Mahal - She Caught The Katy
Taj Mahal - Checking Up On My Babe
Taj Mahal-21st Century Gypsy Singin' Lover Man
Taj Mahal - Lovin' In My Baby's Eyes
Taj Mahal - Ooh Poo Pa Doo
Taj Mahal - Having A Real Bad Day
Taj Mahal - Take A Giant Step
Jimmy Smith featuring Taj Mahal - Strut
Taj Mahal - Queen Bee
Black Crowes with Taj Mahal - Leaving Trunk
Taj Mahal - Ain't That A Lot Of Love
Taj Mahal - Here in the Dark
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Taj Mahal with Vassar Clements - Fishin' Blues
Taj Mahal - Things Are Gonna Work out Fine
Taj Mahal - Six Days On The Road
Taj Mahal - Cakewalk Into Town
Taj Mahal - New Stranger Blues & Going Up To The Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue