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 features the country jazz stylings of singer/songwriter and guitar player Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks. Enjoy!
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Payday Blues
RIP
Maria Radner (7 May 1981 – 24 March 2015)
I'm a big fan of opera, especially Der Ring des Nibelungen known more commonly as Wagner's Ring Cycle. IMHO, the Ring Cycle is the greatest work of art ever created by humanity, despite Wagner's shortcomings in regards to his personal views. There have been many stage productions of the Ring Cycle, some modern renditions with very wild costumes and stage settings, I prefer the traditional Old Norse performances with it's helmets, breastplates, spears and Valkyries astride snorting steeds. I love the Old Norse mythology. The basic theme of the Ring cycle, greed and lust for power, certainly rings true in today's world.
The following video features Maria Radner, who appears as the first Norn in the 2011 Met production of Gotterdammerung, a tradional Ring Cycle with a modern stage apparatus called "The Machine", it played a couple of years ago on PBS, you may have seen it. The Norns were three female god-like beings who sang of the past, present and future while weaving The Rope of Destiny. Maria Radner died last week in the Germanwings Flight 9525 plane crash along with her husband and infant child. In the prologue to Gotterdammerung the Rope of Destiny breaks as the Norns weave it, foretelling the Twilight of the Gods.
RIP Maria Radner
News and Opinion
Calls for Diplomacy Unheeded as Saudi-Led Assault Pummels Yemen
United Nations staff and other diplomats flee with assistance from Saudi military
Calls for peace and diplomacy in Yemen continue to fall on deaf ears as a Saudi-led coalition launched heavy airstrikes on the impoverished nation Friday evening.
United Nations officials and other foreign diplomats are fleeing Yemen on Saturday after war planes pummeled the capital Sanaa. According to witnesses, bombs fell "all through the night and stopped at dawn."
Meanwhile, fighting on the ground near the southern port city of Aden between also continues to intensify.
"The director general of Yemen's Health Ministry, al-Khadher Laswar, said more than 62 people had been killed and 452 wounded in the city since Wednesday," Reuters reports. Meanwhile, Laswar added, "Explosions at the city's largest ammunition depot on Saturday left at least nine badly wounded."
Why it may suit Iran to let the Saudis win in Yemen
Analysis: For outside powers, the Yemen crisis is part of a balancing act with the nuclear deal at its heart
Submitted by: NCTim
It may appear confusing at first glance that the U.S. is supporting a Saudi-led military intervention against Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen while waging its own air campaign in support of Iran’s allies fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Tikrit, Iraq — and negotiating a nuclear accord with Tehran. But there’s a coherent strategic thread linking these three seemingly disparate processes.
Yemen is Saudi Arabia’s neighbor and has traditionally loomed large in its national security thinking. The recent evisceration of Saudi allies in Sanaa suggest Riyadh took its eye off the ball, but Saudi success in establishing a broad coalition to fight the Houthi takeover in Yemen represents a feather in the cap of the new ruler, King Salman. By persuading states such as Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and the UAE to join forces in what they see as a bid to aggressively roll back Iranian influence, Salman has transcended the divisions among Sunni Muslim powers over the Muslim Brotherhood. The Yemen intervention reflects Riyadh’s success in prioritizing the confrontation against Iran, and it is through this lens that the battle in Yemen is now being seen.
For the Saudi-led alliance to win in Yemen entails reinstalling Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi as president, rolling back Houthi military gains and forming a governing alliance in which the Houthi were at most a distinctly junior partner. Achieving such an outcome could make the Saudi leadership less skittish in its overall regional contest with Iran, which it has been perceived as losing.
Strong backing for the Saudi-led effort in Yemen allows Barack Obama’s administration to dispel the notion — widely (albeit mistakenly) held in Arab capitals and by some critics in Congress and the U.S. foreign policy establishment — that nuclear diplomacy presages a broader U.S. realignment in favor of Iran and at the expense of traditional U.S. allies in the Gulf.
US-Saudi Blitz in Yemen: Naked Aggression, Absolute Desperation
March 27, 2015 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - The "proxy war" model the US has been employing throughout the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and even in parts of Asia appears to have failed yet again, this time in the Persian Gulf state of Yemen.
Overcoming the US-Saudi backed regime in Yemen, and a coalition of sectarian extremists including Al Qaeda and its rebrand, the "Islamic State," pro-Iranian Yemeni Houthi militias have turned the tide against American "soft power" and has necessitated a more direct military intervention. While US military forces themselves are not involved allegedly, Saudi warplanes and a possible ground force are.
Though Saudi Arabia claims "10 countries" have joined its coalition to intervene in Yemen, like the US invasion and occupation of Iraq hid behind a "coalition," it is overwhelmingly a Saudi operation with "coalition partners" added in a vain attempt to generate diplomatic legitimacy.
The New York Times, even in the title of its report, "Saudi Arabia Begins Air Assault in Yemen," seems not to notice these "10" other countries. It reports:
Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday night that it had launched a military campaign in Yemen, the beginning of what a Saudi official said was an offensive to restore a Yemeni government that had collapsed after rebel forces took control of large swaths of the country.
The air campaign began as the internal conflict in Yemen showed signs of degenerating into a proxy war between regional powers. The Saudi announcement came during a rare news conference in Washington by Adel al-Jubeir, the kingdom’s ambassador to the United States.
These Obama administration quotes about Yemen are almost too cringe-worthy to read
Submitted by: NCTim
Yemen is descending into chaos — and the Obama administration's response, at least in its public statements about the crisis, has been a total mess.
The central Yemeni government, which the US had relied on to fight the al-Qaeda branch in Yemen's south, has been deposed by Shia rebels. On March 25, a Saudi-led coalition began bombing those rebels, called the Houthis, in order to stop their advance. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are warning they may invade, and Yemen's president has fled the country.
If this sounds like a disaster, that's because it is. The Obama administration, which just earlier this week was touting its "Yemen model" as a success in counterterrorism strategy, has not been eager to own up to the country's disintegration. And that has come out in a series of muddled, highly cringe-worthy statements given to the press to explain how the US is handling the crisis. It will not leave you feeling confident in the administration's grasp of what to do about Yemen's chaos.
1. "We're trying to beat [ISIS] — and there are complications. ... We have a partner who is collapsing in Yemen and we're trying to support that. And we're trying to get a nuclear deal with Iran. Is this all part of some grand strategy? Unfortunately, the world gets a vote."
More here.
Why Pakistan may be a reluctant ally in Saudis' Yemen campaign
Analysis: Domestic and regional political concerns raise the risks of being seen to ally on sectarian lines against Iran
Submitted by: NCTim
Saudi Arabia’s new policy of uniting Sunni Muslim powers against Iran’s Shia regime has resulted in an impressively broad coalition joining its military campaign against Yemen’s pro-Tehran Houthi rebels.
Along with five Gulf countries, and the poorer monarchies of Jordan and Morocco, it also enlisted the support of its Egyptian strongman ally, general-turned-president Abdel Fattah El Sisi. Even plucky Sudan has dispatched three fighter jets.
Differences over issues such as the Muslim Brotherhood were suppressed in the interests of building a broad anti-Iran coalition that extended beyond the Arab world. Turkey announced on Thursday that it supports the Saudi-led offensive, with President Recep Tayyep Erdogan issuing a spirited harangue that branded Iran’s actions a source of “annoyance.”
But perhaps the biggest surprise has been the reported inclusion of Pakistan. Al-Arabiya, the Saudi-owned broadcaster, said Islamabad was providing military support. The habitually evasive Pakistani Foreign Office said simply that they were mulling a Saudi request for troops, while Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed Thursday to retaliate against any threat to Saudi Arabia’s "integrity."
Attempted ‘Tbilisi Maidan’ Part of a Sinister and Larger Plot
Once again Georgia is in the news as a result of the mass anti-government protest in Tbilisi on March 21. The mainstream media chose to pick up this story, but does that make it actually newsworthy?
Most of the participants of this protest were not disgruntled residents of Tbilisi, which they would have been had it been a genuine protest. They were bused in from West Georgia, where former United National Movement (UNM) people still hold considerable power, either within the official structures or through the criminal networks which touch everyone’s life. Most Tbilisi residents did not join the protest because, whatever problems the present government is causing, they do not see Saakashvili’s UNM as the solution.
As Georgian Mamuka Areshidze, a noted local political scientist had predicted in an interview with the Georgian newspaper “Kviris Palitra” a few days earlier,
“The United National Movement, UNM will not be able to change the Georgian government by force and return to power. The former government has been discredited by its track record of human rights abuses and corruption. To achieve success and a change of government by bringing the people out in mass it would have to have influence and political resources, but apparently lacks both.”
Nuclear Threat Escalating Beyond Political Rhetoric
As a new cold war between the United States and Russia picks up steam, the nuclear threat is in danger of escalating – perhaps far beyond political rhetoric.
Randy Riddel, a former senior political affairs officer with the U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) told IPS he pities the general public.
"They’re being fed two competing narratives about nukes,” he said, in a realistic assessment of the current state of play.
“Oracle 1 says everybody’s rushing to acquire them or to perfect them.”
Oracle 2 forecasts a big advance for nuclear disarmament, as the bandwagon for humanitarian disarmament continues to gain momentum, said Riddel, a former senior counselor and report director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Commission.
Have crises put US-Israel relations on new, more honest, course?
Public tensions between Obama and Netanyahu have exposed fault lines in the US-Israel relationship. But some experts see a silver lining, in that relations may be more realistic and more reflective of changing perspectives in each country.
Submitted by: NCTim
Mounting and unusually public tensions between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have exposed fault lines in the US-Israel relationship that portend a rocky and perhaps uncharted course ahead for the two allies.
Despite what is likely to be a bumpy ride for years to come, some diplomatic experts see a silver lining, in that they say relations will be more realistic and more reflective of changing perspectives in each country.
It may have been the very-public differences between two leaders with clashing worldviews that enabled an airing of an evolving relationship. But for some diplomatic experts, it has been above all Mr. Netanyahu’s public opposition to then American president on key issues and his brazen insertion of his views into the American political arena that have paved the way to a relationship overhaul. The most notable example of the latter was his speech to Congress earlier this month aimed at derailing a prospective nuclear deal with Iran.
“Netanyahu is the gateway drug to a more honest conversation on Israel,” says Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator who directs the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Middle East and North Africa Program in London. “The Netanyahu-Obama rift has accelerated an existing trend,” he adds, “but it’s the Israeli leader’s willingness to be partisan that has exposed the thinking that Israeli actions aren’t always in America’s interests.”
Islamic fighters led by al-Qaida in Syria seize major city
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
BEIRUT (AP) — Islamic fighters led by al-Qaida's branch in Syria seized almost full control of the northwestern city of Idlib on Saturday, taking over major roundabouts and government buildings in a powerful blow to President Bashar Assad whose forces rapidly collapsed after four days of heavy fighting, opposition activists and the extremist group said.
Idlib, a major urban center with a population of around 165,000 people, is the second provincial capital to fall into opposition hands after Raqqa, now a stronghold of the Islamic State group. Its capture by the Nusra Front underscores the growing power of extremist groups in Syria who now control about half the country.
Opposition fighters including Nusra have controlled the countryside and towns across Idlib province since 2012, but Assad's forces have managed to maintain their grip on Idlib city, near the border with Turkey, throughout the conflict.
On Saturday, Islamic fighters jubilantly swept in, taking over key buildings and tearing down posters of Assad. Videos posted online by activists and the Nusra Front showed a group of heavily armed fighters kneeling down in prayer in the city's sprawling Hanana square as others fired their guns in celebration.
New York Times Accidentally Undermines John Bolton “Bomb Iran” Op-Ed in Own Pages
Submitted by: NCTim
The New York Times yesterday published an op-ed by the characteristically bellicose John R. Bolton, headlined ‘To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.’ Bolton, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, was U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration.
In an unusual touch, a link added to the original online edition of Bolton’s op-ed directly undermines Bolton’s case for war:
…Iran will not negotiate away its nuclear program. Nor will sanctions block its building a broad and deep weapons infrastructure. The inconvenient truth is that only military action like Israel’s 1981 attack on Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor in Iraq…can accomplish what is required.
U.S. and Israeli politicians often claim that Israel’s bombing of Iraq in 1981 significantly set back an already-existing Iraqi nuclear weapons program. The truth is almost exactly the opposite. Harvard Physics Professor Richard Wilson, who visited the ruins of Osirak in 1982 and followed the issue closely, has said the available evidence “suggests that the bombing did not delay the Iraqi nuclear-weapons program but started it.” This evidence includes the design of the Osirak reactor, which made it unsuitable for weapons production, and statements by Iraqi nuclear scientists that Saddam Hussein ordered them to begin a serious nuclear weapons program in response to the Israeli attack.
Court Accepts DOJ’s ‘State Secrets’ Claim to Protect Shadowy Neocons: a New Low
Submitted by: NCTim
A truly stunning debasement of the U.S. justice system just occurred through the joint efforts of the Obama Justice Department and a meek and frightened Obama-appointed federal judge, Edgardo Ramos, all in order to protect an extremist neocon front group from scrutiny and accountability. The details are crucial for understanding the magnitude of the abuse here.
At the center of it is an anti-Iranian group calling itself “United Against Nuclear Iran” (UANI), which is very likely a front for some combination of the Israeli and U.S. intelligence services. When launched, NBC described its mission as waging “economic and psychological warfare” against Iran. The group was founded and is run and guided by a roster of U.S., Israeli and British neocon extremists such as Joe Lieberman, former Bush Homeland Security adviser (and current CNN “analyst”) Fran Townsend, former CIA Director James Woolsey, and former Mossad Director Meir Dagan. One of its key advisers is Olli Heinonen, who just co-authored a Washington Post Op-Ed with former Bush CIA/NSA Director Michael Hayden arguing that Washington is being too soft on Tehran.
This group of neocon extremists was literally just immunized by a federal court from the rule of law. That was based on the claim — advocated by the Obama DOJ and accepted by Judge Ramos — that subjecting them to litigation for their actions would risk disclosure of vital “state secrets.” The court’s ruling was based on assertions made through completely secret proceedings between the court and the U.S. government, with everyone else — including the lawyers for the parties — kept in the dark.
In May 2013, UANI launched a “name and shame” campaign designed to publicly identify — and malign — any individuals or entities enabling trade with Iran. One of the accused was the shipping company of Greek billionaire Victor Restis, who vehemently denies the accusation. He hired an American law firm and sued UANI for defamation in a New York federal court, claiming the “name and shame” campaign destroyed his reputation.
Can the US figure out which groups to support in Syria? Not easily.
With large influxes of cash and military training, the US military often 'super-empowered' the wrong people in Iraq and Afghanistan. It faces the same tough issues in Syria.
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
WASHINGTON — As the US grapples with whether it should pursue a larger role in the Syrian War – and just how much military aid to give Iraqi troops battling the Islamic State – it is also trying to figure out how to avoid one of the most basic and nettlesome blunders of all: inadvertently creating a Frankenstein’s monster in the form of corrupt local power brokers.
With large influxes of cash and military training – and in ways both formal and informal – the US military has often tapped the wrong people with disastrous consequences, say senior US military and intelligence officials.
In Afghanistan, by relying on small units of Special Operations Forces working alongside mujahideen forces, the US “super-empowered” these militias, says Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, widely considered to be one of the Pentagon’s premier practitioners of counterinsurgency and now the deputy commanding general of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command.
It was one of the key wrong turns in America’s war in Afghanistan. These militias in turn “morphed into organized crime networks,” he says, and eventually “hollowed out institutions that we, the international community, were trying to build.”
Jeb’s “James Baker” problem: Why hawks are turning on the “anti-Israel” Bush
Neocons have determined that Jeb Bush hates Israel, because he talks to James Baker sometimes
Submitted by: NCTim
Aren’t GOP presidential politics just great? You wake up one morning and suddenly Jeb Bush is the “anti-Israel candidate” in the Republican presidential primary field.
How did this happen? Last we checked, Jeb Bush loved the dickens out of Israel. He’s been very clear about his deep affection for any and everything that (the right wing of) Israel does. “Governor Bush’s support for Israel and its Prime Minister is clear,” Bush’s spokesperson, Kristy Campbell said Monday night. This is perfectly in line with his support for the dumb Tom Cotton letter, and his insistence that the nuclear deal being negotiated with Iran is “bad” and should be rejected because Israel. Et cetera et cetera, SO ON, AND SO ON. Jeb Bush has no interest in straying from the prevailing party line on Israel, which is that American foreign policy should be conducted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But why, pray tell, was Kristy Campbell issuing this reassurance of Jeb Bush’s deep, unwavering, total love for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel late on a Monday night? Because James Baker, the former White House chief of staff, Treasury Secretary, and Secretary of State under Presidents Reagan and Bush Sr., had just addressed the annual J Street conference.
J Street is the advocacy group founded as a more liberal counterpart to AIPAC. It is critical of the Israeli right wing and does not see it as helping the prospects for peace in the Middle East. So naturally conservatives see J Street as a radical extremist left-wing terrorist organization in bed with the mullahs of Iran and hellbent on securing the total annihilation of Israel. (The views of American Jews at large, meanwhile, tend to align with J Street’s.)
TPP vs. Democracy: Leaked Draft of Secretive Trade Deal Spells Out Plan for Corporate Power Grab
WikiLeaks reveals negotiators planning to expand secret corporate tribunals
Submitted by: NCTim
Newly leaked classified documents show that the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, if it goes through as written, will dramatically expand the power of corporations to use closed-door tribunals to challenge—and supersede—domestic laws, including environmental, labor, and public health, and other protections.
The tribunals, made infamous under NAFTA, were exposed in the "Investment Chapter" from the TPP negotiations, which was released to the publicby WikiLeaks on Wednesday.
"The TPP has developed in secret an unaccountable supranational court for multinationals to sue states," said Julian Assange, WikiLeaks editor. "This system is a challenge to parliamentary and judicial sovereignty. Similar tribunals have already been shown to chill the adoption of sane environmental protection, public health and public transport policies."
Responding to the leak, Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, declared: "With the veil of secrecy ripped back, finally everyone can see for themselves that the TPP would give multinational corporations extraordinary new powers that undermine our sovereignty, expose U.S. taxpayers to billions in new liability, and privilege foreign firms operating here with special rights not available to U.S. firms under U.S. law."
Stop Smoking the Democrack
By Cindy Sheehan and David Swanson
The U.S. government is toying with a war with nuclear Russia while already waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, having done severe damage to Libya, Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia. Military spending is climbing ever higher. Presidential war powers are ever more extreme. The proliferation of nuclear technology is combining with the ease and secrecy of drone wars to raise the risk of a Dr. Strangelove finish to the human species. And, let’s face it, you had more time to give a damn when the president was a Republican.
The top means by which war kills is the diversion of unfathomable piles of money away from life-saving initiatives. That spending continues without pause. President Obama and most of Congress want it increased even more next year. The Congressional Progressive Caucus just put out a budget that made no mention of military spending but — if you searched through the numbers — was proposing to cut it by 1% ($13 billion of $1.3 trillion in spending across several departments). We’re talking about the single item that takes up over half of discretionary spending. One or two percent of it could make U.S. college education free, or end starvation on earth. A bigger slice could take on climate protection. Everyone across the inch-wide chasm of the political divide in Washington prefers to see the militarism continue. Of 100 senators, 100 favor sanctions on Iran. Bipartisanship is alive and well when it comes to war promotion.
The top risk from war is nuclear holocaust. That danger continues to grow with active U.S. assistance. The second worst thing a U.S. president can do about war is grab more war powers and pass them on to all future presidents. In that regard, President Obama has outdone President Bush. Lying to Congress is now totally routine: Congress and the United Nations can simply be ignored. Secrecy has mushroomed. President Obama picks out men, women, and children to murder from a list on Tuesdays. The public, the Congress, and the courts have no say and often no knowledge. President Obama has dramatically increased U.S. weapons sales abroad — the U.S. being far and away the top supplier of weapons to regions that the U.S. public thinks of as inherently violent.
While Obama’s body count doesn’t yet begin to approach Bush’s in terms of people directly and violently killed, that’s not a standard that will get us to survival, much less peace and prosperity.
Exclusive: TSA’s Secret Behavior Checklist to Spot Terrorists
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Fidgeting, whistling, sweaty palms. Add one point each. Arrogance, a cold penetrating stare, and rigid posture, two points.
These are just a few of the suspicious signs that the Transportation Security Administration directs its officers to look out for — and score — in airport travelers, according to a confidential TSA document obtained exclusively by The Intercept.
The checklist is part of TSA’s controversial program to identify potential terrorists based on behaviors that it thinks indicate stress or deception — known as the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT. The program employs specially trained officers, known as Behavior Detection Officers, to watch and interact with passengers going through screening.
The document listing the criteria, known as the “Spot Referral Report,” is not classified, but it has been closely held by TSA and has not been previously released. A copy was provided to The Intercept by a source concerned about the quality of the program.
Snowden talks surveillance, privacy with Swedish lawyers in Moscow
Edward Snowden has met with three Swedish lawyers at a secret location in Moscow to discuss matters of surveillance and privacy, adding he hopes “to see them soon in Sweden.”
The meeting was organized by the Stockholm-based Right Livelihood Award Foundation, which awarded Snowden its human rights prize in 2014.
Snowden said in the statement released by the organization that they discussed mass surveillance, privacy and transparency, and added that he “hopes to see them soon again in Sweden.”
The lawyers are from the Swedish Green Party, the junior member of the country’s coalition government, and also from the Moderate and Liberal parties, AP reported.
NC lawyers face bar complaints for Racial Justice Act work
Submitted by: NCTim
RALEIGH
Two defense attorneys face accusations of professional misconduct for a piece of their work on the first successful challenge under the Racial Justice Act.
Gretchen Engel, director of the Durham-based Center for Death Penalty Litigation, and Cassandra Stubbs, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project, were among a team of attorneys who used the short-lived law to convert a North Carolina death row inmate’s sentence in 2012 to life without possibility for parole.
Now the attorneys face possible punishment from the N.C. State Bar.
Some legal analysts have characterized the allegations of wrongdoing as so minor and “questionable” that they think politics could be at play.
Boston police officer shot in face during traffic stop fights for survival
Officer John Moynihan, former army ranger awarded at White House for response to Boston Marathon bombing, is in an induced coma
Submitted by: greenbird
A police officer who was honored for his role in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing was in an induced coma fighting for his life early Saturday after being shot in the face during a traffic stop, authorities said.
The suspect in the shooting hopped out of the stopped car on Friday evening and opened fire on police, striking officer John Moynihan just below his right eye and an apparent bystander in her arm, said police Commissioner William Evans.
Other officers returned fire and killed the suspect at the scene, Evans said. The woman suffered a flesh wound and was in good spirits, and three other officers were taken to a hospital with stress-related problems, he said.
The names of the suspect and wounded woman weren’t immediately released.
Moynihan, 34, is on the police Youth Violence Task Force and is a highly decorated military veteran, Evans said. He is a former army ranger who served in Iraq and was honored at the White House in May with the National Association of Police Organizations TOP COPS award. Moynihan received the award for being one of the first responders in Watertown following the April 2013 gun battle with the Boston Marathon bombers.
Why Should Bergdahl Suffer More Than Generals Who Did Far Worse?
Submitted by: NCTim
What punishment should Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl receive for allegedly deserting his post in Afghanistan? The answer comes by asking another question: What punishment has been handed out to American generals and politicians whose incompetence caused far more bloodshed and grief than anything Bergdahl did?
A key thing about justice is that it should be fair — people should be punished no matter their rank or title. The problem with the bloodlust for more action against Bergdahl — beyond his five years of horrific suffering as a Taliban prisoner — is that inept generals, rather than being court-martialed or demoted or reprimanded, have been rewarded and celebrated despite their dereliction in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This duality is crystallized in a now-famous article written by Lt. Col. Paul Yingling in 2007 for Armed Forces Journal. After describing the failures of general officers after 9/11 as well as in the Vietnam war, Yingling, who served three tours in Iraq and is now a teacher in Colorado, wrote a stinging sentence about justice and responsibility in the military: “A private who loses a rifle suffers far greater consequences than a general who loses a war.”
Let’s be clear about what it means to lose a war in the context of Iraq. It does not only mean that America failed to achieve its political or military goals. It means that more Americans and Iraqis lost their lives than needed to, and it means that war crimes were committed for which general officers bear command responsibility. Due to failures that Yingling and many others have noted — not anticipating the aftermath of the 2003 invasion, not recognizing the emergence of an insurgency, not figuring out the right strategy to respond to it — the war in Iraq ground on and the bloodshed has been enormous on all sides. Afghanistan is yet another graveyard of failures by general officers.
Pentagon paid accused Chilean killer for years despite revoked visa
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon rebuffed efforts to remove a Chilean professor accused of torturing and murdering political prisoners, keeping him on the payroll of a prestigious U.S. military school for almost three years after the State Department revoked his visa because of the alleged human rights violations.
Exploiting legal loopholes and inaction across several government agencies, the accused torturer was able to remain in the United States, renew his work contract twice and even travel widely despite his visa revocation, a McClatchy investigation reveals.
The Pentagon now promises changes to its vetting process for foreign nationals working throughout its National Defense University, with an emphasis on accusations of human rights violations.
Officials with the U.S. military school – the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies – knew by at least 2008 that Jaime Garcia Covarrubias had been accused of being part of Chile’s brutal secret police and stood accused of torture and murder.
Why Utah is bringing back the firing squad for executions
Submitted by: NCTim
The future of executions in Utah may not be lethal injections, but rather five professional shooters firing at a prisoner's heart.
On Monday, Utah became one of the few states to allow firing squads for executions after Gov. Gary Herbert signed a law approving this controversial method as a backup if the state can't restock its depleted supply of lethal injection drugs.
During a firing-squad execution, a prisoner is seated in a chair that's stacked with sandbags to prevent bullets from ricocheting, according to the Associated Press. Five shooters, picked from a pool of trained volunteers, aim their rifles through slots on a wall and target the prisoner's chest (because it's a larger target than the head). If the shooters hit, the prisoner's heart should rupture and cause a relatively quick death from blood loss.
It's unclear whether Utah will run out of execution drugs and actually use the firing squad on any of the eight prisoners on death row who didn't choose the form of execution before 2004, when the state last allowed the option
Fed's Yellen sees gradual rate hikes starting this year
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
(Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen signaled that the U.S. central bank will likely start raising borrowing costs later this year, even before inflation and wages have returned to health, but emphasized the return to normal interest rates will be gradual.
A downturn in core inflation or wage growth could force the Fed to delay the first increase to borrowing costs since 2006, the central bank's chief said on Friday, but policymakers should not wait for inflation to near the Fed's 2-percent goal before tightening monetary policy. The Fed has held short-term borrowing costs near zero since December 2008.
After the first rate increase, Yellen said, a further, gradual tightening in monetary policy will likely be warranted. If incoming data fails to support the Fed's economic forecast, the path of policy will be adjusted, she said.
"With continued improvement in economic conditions, an increase in the target range for that rate may well be warranted later this year," Yellen said at a monetary policy conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
Brace Yourself for Oil Shock Future. It Won't Be Pretty
The current drop in oil prices won't help economic growth, it sets the stage for a succession of oil shocks that may run the world economy into ground
The absolutely stunning drop in oil prices, which hit a new recent low, is really important to both track and understand
There are two issues here, one near term and one long.
In the near term, lower oil prices will help consumers have extra money for other purposes. If they're smart, they'll pay down debts and save money. If they aren't, they'll simply redirect it to other purchases.
The other side of the coin, however, is that the energy producers will take exactly offsetting losses to their revenues which will nullify any broad economic gains. If or when you read about how the lower oil prices will be a big boost to GDP, you'll be reading almost pure spin.
Oil prices crashed, but US output keeps rising anyway. How long can that last?
Submitted by: NCTim
One of the biggest energy stories of the last decade has been the vast oil boom in the United States. But how long can it last?
When oil prices were soaring during the mid-2000s, energy companies found it highly profitable to use fracking, horizontal drilling, and other techniques to extract oil from shale formations in places like Texas and North Dakota. The result: a glut of oil and a major crash in global oil prices back in 2014.
What's surprising, though, is that US oil output has kept growing even though oil prices have fallen by half since last summer. On March 25, the US Energy Information Administration announced that US crude production rose yet again to 9.42 million barrels per day — the highest level since 1973:
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature a statement by Big Bill Haywood denying charges made against the Western Federation of Miners regarding funds donated for strike relief. Such funds were never put into the Union's treasury. Haywood also comments on Gompers needless excitement over upcoming convention of industrial unionist.
Tune in at 2pm!
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S.F. jail inmates forced to fight, public defender says
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Since the beginning of March, at least four deputies at County Jail No. 4 at 850 Bryant St. threatened inmates with violence or withheld food if they did not fight each other, gladiator-style, for the entertainment of the deputies, Public Defender Jeff Adachi said.
Adachi said the ringleader in these fights was Deputy Scott Neu, who was accused in 2006 of forcing inmates to perform sexual acts on him. That case was settled out of court.
“I don’t know why he does it, but I just feel like he gets a kick out of it because I just see the look on his face,” said Ricardo Palikiko Garcia, one of the inmates who said he was forced to fight. “It looks like it brings him joy by doing this, while we’re suffering by what he’s doing.”
An attorney for the San Francisco Deputy Sheriff’s Association, the union representing the deputies, called the allegations “exaggerated,” and said the fighting was “little more than horseplay.”
Deputy in inmate fights faced 2006 complaints
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Bullying behavior, offers of cheeseburgers for silence, threats of violence, rumors of other deputies knowing but doing nothing — the accusations in the 2006 sexual assault civil cases against San Francisco sheriff’s Deputy Scott Neu echo the allegations made Thursday by County Jail inmates who said the deputy forced them to fight each other for his entertainment.
After three inmates in 2006 accused Neu of forcing them to perform sexual acts on him, the case was handled internally by other deputies, and apparently no criminal charges were presented to the district attorney’s office.
Since those accusations, Neu has had four more lawsuits filed against him: one for a false arrest and three for excessive force. One excessive force lawsuit is still ongoing, according to the city attorney’s office.
Despite all these reports of misconduct — and in the sexual assault case, criminal misconduct — Neu has kept his job with the Sheriff’s Department, in a position that allowed him to be in contact with inmates.
Lawmakers, police chiefs clash over secrecy of officer names
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona lawmakers thought they were doing police a favor when they passed a measure that would keep secret for two months the name of any officer involved in an on-duty shooting.
But police chiefs say the proposal would serve only to hamper their ability to manage complex police-community relations, and they are asking the governor to veto the measure. Civil-rights groups and community activists also want to see the bill rejected, saying that adding another layer of secrecy will only deepen the divide between law enforcement and some segments of the public, especially in minority communities.
Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor wrote to Gov. Doug Ducey in his role as president of the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police urging the veto.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, he said it would be wrong to ignore "the elephant in the room" of poor police-community relations that has been the highlight of much law enforcement news coverage in the past year.
Germanwings co-pilot planned to 'make everyone remember' him, ex-girlfriend says
Andreas Lubitz, the Germanwings co-pilot who crashed an Airbus A320 into the French Alps, killing all 150 passengers aboard, had been planning to do something to "make everyone remember him," his ex-girlfriend has claimed in an interview.
Speaking with Bild, Maria W., a 26-year-old cabin crew employee whose full name has not been released to the press, described Lubitz as "tormented" and secretive.
Maria recalled that when she heard about the crash, she remembered how Lubitz had said he would do something one day "that would change the system" so "everyone will then know my name and remember me."
"I did not know what he meant by that at the time, but now it's clear," she told the newspaper.
Maria said Lubitz, 27, sometimes woke up at night screaming, "We're going down!" in terror.
Dusseldorf prosecutors said Friday that police discovered in Lubitz's home a torn sick note covering the date of the crashed Germanwings flight. They believe he could have been concealing his medical condition from the airline. It wasn't specified what prompted Lubutz’s doctor to issue him with a medical certificate, however.
Conservatives Refuse To Believe Germanwings Pilot Wasn’t Muslim Terrorist With Laughable Results
Submitted by: NCTim
Crash investigators have released very little details about the Germanwings plane crash that claimed the lives of 150 people in the French Alps. During these early stages it’s important to start with what we know:
On a clear day and without any warning signs, the plane began what looks like an intentional descent into the ground. One of the pilots was believed to be locked outside of the cockpit, frantically trying to re-enter in time to save the plane. His co-pilot, identified as Andreas Lubitz, can be heard breathing normally (seemingly ruling out a medical emergency). Furthermore, he had reportedly suffered from depression and very recently been ordered “unfit for work” by a doctor, although his specific medical condition has not been released.
Notice that nowhere in this tragedy is there any indication that Lubitz was driven to kill by Islam (or any religion). His motivations are still completely unknown, but one line of inquiry that has been all but dismissed was Islamic terrorism. Yet that hasn’t stopped a contingent of Islamophobic conservatives from jumping to that conclusion nonetheless.
This reaction, while disappointing, is hardly surprising. Like Pavlov’s dogs, conservatives have conditioned themselves to begin crying Islamic terrorism at the very first sign of mass murder. Unable to comprehend an act of violence that didn’t center around the Muslim religion, the pack is left scrambling to justify their assumptions despite the evidence. It’s led to some very, very laughable leaps of logic.
UN Human Rights Council Appoints Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is pleased with the United Nations Human Rights Council's (UNHRC) decision to adopt a resolution appointing a special rapporteur on the right to privacy.
This decision is a key step forward for the UNHRC; it elevates the right to privacy to the priority level that the Human Rights Council ascribes to most other human rights. Most importantly, it gives the right to privacy the international recognition and protection it deserves.
Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the Human Rights Council who serve in a personal capacity and are mandated to report on human rights. They are not UN staff members and do not receive financial remuneration. The independent status of the mandate-holders is essential for the UN to impartially fulfill its functions.
This particular special rapporteur position will be appointed in June. They will play a crucial role in developing common understandings and furthering a considered and substantive interpretation of the right to privacy in a variety of settings. They will be responsible for carrying out systematic analyses, research, and monitoring the right to privacy across the world. The special rapporteur will also play a role in providing much-needed guidance to states and companies on its interpretation of the right to privacy. They will amass input from all relevant stakeholders to ensure a coherent and complementary approach to the interaction between privacy and other fundamental freedoms is developed. They will report to the UNHRC and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on alleged privacy violations, wherever they may occur, including challenges arising from new technologies. They will draw attention to situations of particular concern and submit an annual report to the UNHRC and the General Assembly.
All about that bass: Sound-based fire extinguisher puts out flames
Two engineering students from George Mason University are using the unique power of sound to put out flames – and they’re hoping the technology will become powerful enough to help extinguish forest fires.
The sound-based fire extinguisher they recently demoed uses low-frequency sound waves to take out flames. In a video posted on YouTube, students Viet Tran and Seth Robertson demonstrated their booming new device.
“I see this device being applied to a lot of things. First off, I think in the kitchen, it could be on top a stove top,” said Tran, who also imagines far bigger uses for the technology.
“Eventually, I’d like to see this applied to swarm robotics, where it’d be attached to a drone, and that would be applied to forest fires or even building fires where you wouldn’t want to sacrifice human life.”
A CD exploding in slow motion is surprisingly beautiful
Submitted by: NCTim
CDs have become all but obsolete, as digital music takes over the world. So what better to do with your discs than spin them so quickly in front of a really fast camera that they explode, making for a great viral video!
Of course, you'll need a fancy camera that shoots 170,000 frames per second and a fancy vacuum motor to spin your copy of Britney Spears's Oops ... I Did It Again really, really quickly. You probably don't have those two items. Luckily, YouTube sensations the Slow Mo Guys do. They spun some CDs to the point of explosion for you to enjoy.
The video is eight minutes long and, thus, full of information you may or may not want. So here are some GIFs of some of the video's cooler moments. Watch the whole thing for the full experience.
The Evening Greens
The Evening Greens Weekend Editor: enhydra lutris
France passes law to promote green roofs
Environmentalism is fast becoming a top concern in France – a rooftop concern, to be precise. Excitingly, the nation has just passed new legislation that will require all upcoming commercial construction projects to feature either green roofs or solar panels above their top floors.
By now, most people are at least passingly familiar with the benefits of solar panels, but green roofs remain unknown to the general public. A green roof is one that is covered in lush plant life, and the perks extend well beyond the aesthetic. Because green roofs help to insulate, buildings are able to slash seasonal energy costs for both heating and air conditioning by approximately 25 percent.
That alone should be incentive for buildings to add a “plantscape” to their roofs, but the advantages don’t end there. Green roofs also help to reduce water runoff during rainstorms, combat air pollution, provide food for the buildings’ residents, and even make a good home for birds that are normally displaced by urban development. For more details on the green roof phenomenon, check out Care2’s previous coverage.
To get the law to pass through parliament, environmentalists had to make some significant concessions. First, the plan was to have all new buildings incorporate green roofs, but they agreed to settle for just new commercial buildings since businesses would better be able to afford the related costs upfront. Second, the goal was initially to make roofs entirely covered in plants, but they reduced the requirement to being partially covered for purposes of practicality. Finally, politicians encouraged environmentalists to allow new buildings to have either plants or solar panels to provide businesses with a more of a choice.
U.S. urged to develop Arctic oil and gas
WASHINGTON — The U.S. should immediately begin a push to exploit its enormous trove of oil in the Arctic waters off of Alaska, or risk a renewed reliance on imported oil in the future, an Energy Department advisory council says in a study submitted Friday.
The U.S. has drastically cut imports and transformed itself into the world’s biggest producer of oil and natural gas by tapping huge reserves in shale rock formations. But the government predicts that the shale boom won’t last much beyond the next decade.
In order for the U.S. to keep domestic production high and imports low, oil companies should start probing the Artic now because it will take decades of preparation and drilling to bring oil to market, according to a draft of the study’s executive summary.
“There will come a time when all the resources that are supplying the world’s economies today are going to go in decline,” Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil and chairman of the study’s committee, said in an interview. “This is will be what’s needed next. If we start today it’ll take 20, 30, 40 years for those to come on.”
Nation's biggest nuclear firm makes a play for green money
Exelon Corp. says Illinois lawmakers must revamp the power market or potentially see three of that state’s nuclear plants close. The Chicago-based company operates the largest fleet of nuclear plants in the country.
Exelon Corp., operator of the largest fleet of U.S. nuclear plants, says it could have to close three of them if Illinois rejects the company's pitch to let it recoup more from consumers since the plants do not produce greenhouse gases.
Chicago-based Exelon essentially wants to change the rules of the state's power market as the nuclear industry competes with historically low prices for natural gas. Dominion Resources Inc. recently closed the Kewaunee Power Station in Wisconsin for financial reasons, and Entergy Corp. likewise shuttered its Vermont Yankee plant.
Plans for a new wave of U.S. nuclear plants have been delayed or cancelled, aside from three projects deep into construction at Plant Vogtle south of Augusta, Georgia; V.C. Summer Nuclear Station north of Columbia, South Carolina; and Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in eastern Tennessee. Electric utilities in those states do not face competition.
Georgia passes solar-friendly legislation
ATLANTA (Reuters) – Solar electric power would become far more accessible to Georgia homeowners under a bill approved by state lawmakers on Friday, making it easier to lease solar equipment and then sell the power generated back to electric companies.
Georgia lawmakers loosened up rules that had been designed to prevent neighborhoods from competing with major utilities, joining about 20 other states with similar programs to encourage the use of solar power.
“This changes everything,” said Julie Hairston, spokeswoman for the non-profit Georgia Solar Energy Association. “It will create jobs, promote clean energy and investment across the state.”
While solar power was not banned before, Georgia residents could not lease solar equipment from a company that sold the power back to the electric utility.
Study takes aim at mitigating the human impact on the Central Valley, California
As more people move to different regions of the country it will require planners to use as many tools as they can to develop urban areas that satisfy population demands and not over burden the environment.
A new study from Arizona State University (ASU) details some of the dynamics at play as one region of the country, the Central Valley of California, braces for substantial population growth and all it entails. The study, based on computer simulations using the ASU Advanced Computing Center, of rural to urban land conversion shows that as areas of California grow and develop the resulting built environment could generate additional heat (called the urban heat island, or UHI).
But UHI can be mitigated using new technologies and the latest in sustainable design techniques, said Matei Georgescu, the author of "Challenges associated with adaptation to future urban expansion," which appears in the April 1, 2015 issue of the Journal of Climate. Finding the right combinations of technologies and techniques will be key.
"This research examines for the first time, climate impacts for rapidly expanding urban areas within California exclusively due to anticipated conversion of existing landforms to the built environment, such as variable density residential dwellings and commercial infrastructure," said Georgescu, an assistant professor in ASU's School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and author of the study.
Two most destructive termite species forming superswarms in South Florida
Two of the most destructive termite species in the world -- responsible for much of the $40 billion in economic loss caused by termites annually -- are now swarming simultaneously in South Florida, creating hybrid colonies that grow quickly and have the potential to migrate to other states.
In an article published today in the journal PLOS ONE, a team of University of Florida entomologists has documented that the Asian and Formosan subterranean termite simultaneously produce hundreds of thousands of alates, or winged males and females. Both species have evolved separately for thousands of years, but in South Florida, they now have the opportunity to meet, mate and start new hybrid colonies.
While researchers have yet to determine if the hybrid termite is fertile or sterile, it likely poses a danger, said Nan-Yao Su, an entomology professor at the UF Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, part of UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
"Because a termite colony can live up to 20 years with millions of individuals, the damaging potential of a hybrid colony remains a serious threat to homeowners even if the hybrid colony does not produce fertile winged termites," Su said. "This is especially true when the colony exhibits hybrid vigor as we witnessed in the laboratory."
Lights out in Australia as Earth Hour kicks off
The Sydney Harbour Bridge and the sails on the nearby Opera House went dark Saturday, as lights on landmarks around Australia were switched off for the global climate change awareness campaign Earth Hour.
Millions are expected to take part around the world in the annual event organised by conservation group WWF, with hundreds of well-known sights including the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Seattle Space Needle set to plunge into darkness.
"It's almost like the thing vanished," said Tony Jennings from Earth Hour after standing under the Harbour Bridge as the lights went off at 8:30pm (0930 GMT).
In Australia, Earth Hour this year is focussing on farming, with fears that rising temperatures could ultimately damage the country's ability to produce food.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign Is Now Effectively Over
Will Cash Always Be Trash, Or Will It One Day Be King?
Why on Earth Did the Feds Approve a High-Pressure Gas Pipeline Near a Nuke Plant?
Fear Is the Biggest Threat to Our Democracy
Why Wikimedia Just Might Win Its Lawsuit Over NSA Surveillance
Towards a Media That Is "Good and Just"
Crushing the Occupy Movement - How Wall Street Used Government Forces to Suppress Political Dissent
Hellraisers Journal: Walter Wellman Renews His Attacks on WF of M: "Colorado Strike a Plot of Greed"
First, do no harm
A Little Night Music
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Along comes a Viper.
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Walkin' One And Only
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - The Euphonious Whale
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Cloud My Sunny Mood
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Driftin'
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Flight Of The Fly
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Cowboy's Dream No 19
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Sweetheart
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Where's the Money?
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - I Scare Myself
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - My Old Timey Baby
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Sure Beats Me
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - I'm an Old Cowhand
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - "O' Reilly At The Bar"
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Sure Beats Me
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Lonely Madman
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - It's Not My Time To Go
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Cheaters Don't Win
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Waiting For The 103
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Jukies' Ball
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Evenin' Breeze
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Crazy, 'Cause He Is
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - The Piano Has Been Drinking