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 bluegrass singer/songwriter, guitar and mandolin legend Jimmy Martin. Enjoy!
Jimmy Martin - Lost Highway
Jimmy Martin was one of the very early bluegrass practitioners, joining Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys in 1949. Jimmy's high pitched voice and Monroe's tenor mixed to what was to become the "high lonesome" sound, integral to bluegrass harmony. Jimmy Martin is one of my all-time favorites and inhabits a hallowed spot in bluegrass history.
This war did not spring up on our land, this war was brought upon us by the children of the Great Father who came to take our land without a price, and who, in our land, do a great many evil things... This war has come from robbery - from the stealing of our land.
Spotted Tail - Chief of the Brule Teton Indians
News and Opinion
The Evening Blues
We dig up what the MSM buries.
Contributors:
NCTim
enhydra lutris
Islamic State consolidates grip on Ramadi; executions reported
IRBIL, Iraq — The Islamic State on Saturday consolidated its control over Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province, whose capture by the militants on Friday marked the worst defeat for the Iraqi government since the fall of Mosul nearly a year ago.
Iraqi and local officials said Islamic State fighters were combing through neighborhoods in search of government employees and pro-government tribal fighters and were conducting summary public executions.
The mayor of Ramadi, Mohammed Kubaisi, told McClatchy by phone that some government soldiers and police had withdrawn to a northern suburb in hopes of holding out until promised reinforcements from Baghdad arrive. But as of Saturday evening, despite claims by government officials in Baghdad that fresh troops had been deployed, no reinforcements had arrived and the Islamic State was operating freely in the area, the mayor said.
“There are hundreds of families stuck inside Daash-held areas and they are being used as human shields against the coalition air strikes,” he said, using an Arabic acronym to refer to the Islamic State.
Islamic State crisis: US special forces in Syria raid
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The US says its special forces have killed a senior Islamic State (IS) member and captured his wife in a rare ground raid in eastern Syria.
Abu Sayyaf helped direct oil, gas and financial operations for IS, as well as holding a military role, said a US Department of Defense statement.
It said forces tried to capture him, but he was killed after engaging them.
It is the first time the US is known to have carried out a ground operation to attack IS within Syria.
Doubt cast over seniority of Isis leader killed by US special forces in Syria raid
- Defense secretary hails death of Abu Sayyaf as ‘significant blow’
- Isis specialist says man killed was ‘very close’ to chief spokesman
US special forces entered Syria on Friday night and killed a mid-ranking leader of the Islamic State, in only the second raid of its kind since operations against the terror group began more than a year ago.
The Pentagon said the raid killed Abu Sayyaf, who it said was an instrumental figure in black market oil smuggling. Iraqi officials, meanwhile, said the man’s real name was Nabil Saddiq Abu Saleh al-Jabouri.
US troops also captured the man’s wife and flew her to a base in Iraq, the first time they have seized a prisoner since the start of the campaign.
On Saturday morning Col Steve Warren, the interim top Pentagon spokesman, said the woman, whom the Pentagon called Umm Sayyaf, would not be sent to the Guantánamo Bay detention center that President Barack Obama has vowed to close.
Yemen Conflict is Raising the Regional Stakes
Back in early April the Iranian government sent its destroyer to the Red Sea to patrol the Yemeni coast. Iranian Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said then that the ships would play an important role in the ongoing anti-piracy campaign, aimed at “guarding sea routes in the region, to ensure a safe passage of vessels”. Naturally this step was followed by widespread hysteria among western media outlets that were quick to conclude that it was but another episode in the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia, since the latter is carrying out air strikes in Yemen and delivering weapons to pro-government forces fighting against Shia rebels – the Houthis, along with forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. What those outlets forgot to report was that a handful of warships from other nations were stationed in the area, including Russian and Chinese vessels, but their presence near Yemeni shores didn’t provoke such hysteria.
In the same period of time, according to a U.S. Navy statement: “Theodore Roosevelt and Normandy have joined other U.S. forces conducting maritime security operations in the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb and the Southern Red Sea.” This move has increased the number of US Navy ships stationed in the Gulf of Aden up to seven vessels, including destroyers and missile cruisers. Those ships have enough marines on aboard to overtake almost any foreign ship.
The official excuse for sending even more forces into the region is the “unstable situation in Yemen.” At the same time Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, denied reports that these ships were sent to intercept incoming Iranian convoys which, according to Washington, are shipping weapons to the Houthis. Tehran, in its turn, ignored these accusations, but confirmed that Iranian ships were present in the region to assist other forces in the fight against piracy. Meanwhile, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which can still be safely called a US ally, has already introduced a naval blockade of Yemen, while continuing to carry out air strikes against the country.
On May 11 an Iranian ship carrying humanitarian aid, rescue teams and anti-war activists from the US, Europe and Germany left the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas determined to reach the Yemeni port of Hodeidah on the Red Sea, which is now controlled by the Houthis. Its departure was followed by a threatening statement that Iran would start a war against any state that dares to attack Iraninan vessels carrying humanitarian aid for Yemen. This statement was made Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri who stressed that he is to “clearly announce that the self-restraint of the Islamic Republic of Iran has its limits,” and that by such an attack “they will start a fire which they cannot put out.”
4 U.S. Companies Getting Rich Off Gulf Arab Conflict With Iran
They're are striking contracts with the Department of Defense to supply missiles, helicopters and fighter jets.
In mid-May, President Barack Obama hosted top officials from Gulf Arab states at Camp David, the idyllic presidential retreat in Maryland. The meeting was designed to assure Gulf Arab leaders that the U.S. still has their back, even though the Obama administration is hurtling full-speed ahead toward a landmark nuclear deal with Iran.
Many of the monarchs from the Gulf decided to snub Obama by not showing up for the retreat. Instead, they sent other top officials, a way of showing their displeasure at the impending nuclear deal with Iran, the state they have been battling over Middle East hegemony for years. Despite the snubs, the Obama administration announced at the summit that there will be more security assistance and expedited weapons sales for Gulf Arab states as a way of ensuring their strategic position against Iran.
That promise of more arms is not surprising. In recent years, the Gulf states, flush with oil wealth, have bought massive amounts of American weapons. Since 2010, Gulf Arab states have increased their armaments purchases by 70 percent. Leading the pack is Saudi Arabia, which in 2014 became the world’s largest importer of American-made weapons. One out of every seven dollars spent on weapons in the world comes from the Saudis, according to the IHS’ yearly Global Defence Trade Report. The Obama administration has overseen the sale of over $64 billion in weapons and defense systems to Gulf nations.
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In the past, weapons sales to Gulf Arab nations have been held up because of Israeli concerns over their “qualitative military edge,” the notion that Israel should maintain superior military capabilities over their Arab nations. But that reticence to sell weapons to states like Saudi Arabia has eased in recent years because Israel and the Gulf states share a common interest in boxing in Iran.
U.S., China clash over disputed South China Sea
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The United States and China clashed over a territorial dispute in the South China Sea on Saturday, as China's foreign minister asserted its sovereignty to reclaim reefs saying its determination to protect its interests is "as hard as a rock".
After a private meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi showed no sign of backing down despite Kerry urging China to take action to reduce tension in the South China Sea.
"With regard to construction on the Nansha islands and reefs, this is fully within the scope of China's sovereignty," Wang told reporters, using the Chinese name for the Spratly islands.
"I would like to reaffirm that China's determination to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity is as hard as a rock," he said. "It is the people's demand of the government and our legitimate right."
Chris Hedges: “Why should we be impoverished so that the profits of big banks, corporations, and hedge funds can swell?”
Jeremy Hammond's a hero who exposed surveillance-state secrets. His excessive prison sentence should terrify us all
I sat in the front row of a New York federal court in November 2013 the day Jeremy Hammond was sentenced to 10 years in prison for hacking into the computers of a private security firm that works on behalf of the government, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Marine Corps, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and corporations such as Dow Chemical and Raytheon.
Hammond, then age twenty-six, released to WikiLeaks, Rolling Stone, and other publications some 5 million emails in 2011 from the Texas-based company Strategic Forecasting Inc., or Stratfor. His four co-defendants, convicted in Great Britain, were sentenced to less time combined—the longest sentence was 32 months—than the 120-month sentence meted out to Hammond. The 5 million email exchanges, once made public, exposed the private security firm’s infiltration, monitoring, and surveillance of protesters and dissidents on behalf of corporations and the national security state. And perhaps most importantly, the information provided chilling evidence that antiterrorism laws are being routinely used by the state to criminalize nonviolent, democratic dissent and falsely link dissidents to international terrorist organizations. Hammond sought no financial gain. He got none.
The email exchanges Hammond provided to the public were entered as evidence in my lawsuit against Barack Obama over Section 1021(b (2) of the National Defense Authorization Act. One of my co-plaintiffs was Alexa O’Brien, a journalist and content strategist who cofounded the U.S. Day of Rage, an organization created to reform the election process. Because of the Hammond leaks, we know that Stratfor officials attempted to falsely link her and her organization to Islamic radicals and websites as well as jihadist ideology, setting her up for detention under the new law. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest ruled, in part because of the leak, that we did as plaintiffs have a credible fear, and she nullified the law, a ruling that the higher appellate court overturned when the Obama administration appealed her ruling.
Hammond’s 10-year sentence was one of the longest in U.S. history for hacking. It was the maximum the judge could impose under a plea agreement in the case. It was wildly disproportionate to the crime—an act of nonviolent civil disobedience that championed the public good by exposing abuses of power by the government and a security firm. But the excessive sentence was the point.
Interview: Robert Scheer and Chris Hedges on the Military-Industrial-Intelligence Complex (Part 1)
In the first part of a wide-ranging, seven-part discussion about Truthdig Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer’s new book, “They Know Everything About You: How Data-Collecting Corporations and Snooping Government Agencies are Destroying Democracy,” Scheer says the U.S. government and private industry have merged to turn the Internet into a massive machine for simultaneously selling to and spying on Americans.
Scheer tells Hedges that NSA whistleblower Edward “Snowden provided this incredibly invaluable educational service to say there is no private sector, that the private and the government are merged.”
Scheer continues: “[T]he main reason [the Internet] expanded is because it’s a great source of profit, not for those who produce content,” but “for the aggregators. Why? Google, you know, Facebook, so forth. Because they get this data, they get your private data, and they can do the targeted advertising. … you have this heat-seeking missile of targeted advertising.
Disabled Veterans Shatter the Myths of American Warfare
It is the business of soldiers to be killed, and the job of civilians to be grateful for their human sacrifice, because that’s the way God wants it, or so we have been told by famous generals, patriotic politicians, war profiteers and public relations firms under contract to the Pentagon.
But American wars have produced masses of other, far more troublesome soldiers who instead came home with crippling physical and mental wounds. They are the subject of Paying With Their Bodies: American War and the Problem of the Disabled Veteran, a valuable history by John M. Kinder. His concern is not the multiple problems of individual disabled vets, but the capitalized Problem they collectively present to U.S. policymakers.
Kinder, a professor of American studies and history at Oklahoma State University, focuses his book on World War I and hopes to elevate disabled veterans to the center of our thinking about warfare — to “reshape the way Americans think about the nation’s history of war.” Consider this: when the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, it was still paying pensions to Union veterans of the Civil War that ended in 1865. It stopped paying benefits to veterans of World War I only in 2007, in the midst of the post- 9/11 wars. And when wounded soldiers were shipped home from Afghanistan, VA hospitals were still filled with vets “rehabilitating” from the war in Vietnam. The overlap reveals an unacknowledged truth about American war: it is never over.
During the 18 months American soldiers fought in World War I, 53,000 were killed, and 63,000 died of infectious diseases. Another 224,000 were wounded in combat, and more than 200,000 were permanently disabled. What was to become of them? Who was to be responsible for them? Who was to bear the expense? And what were civilians to think of them? Did a wounded soldier count as a sacrifice — or a burden on the society that had sent him to war?
U.S. wakes up to New (Silk) World Order
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
By Pepe Escobar
The real Masters of the Universe in the U.S. are no weathermen, but arguably they’re starting to feel which way the wind is blowing.
History may signal it all started with this week’s trip to Sochi, led by their paperboy, Secretary of State John Kerry, who met with Foreign Minister Lavrov and then with President Putin.
Arguably, a visual reminder clicked the bells for the real Masters of the Universe; the PLA marching in Red Square on Victory Day side by side with the Russian military. Even under the Stalin-Mao alliance Chinese troops did not march in Red Square.
As a screamer, that rivals the Russian S-500 missile systems. Adults in the Beltway may have done the math and concluded Moscow and Beijing may be on the verge of signing secret military protocols as in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. The new game of musical chairs is surely bound to leave Eurasian-obsessed Dr. Zbig “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski apoplectic.
U.S. puts Russia-China entente to litmus test
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
There is no need to second guess the identity of the third party present in the room in Sochi on Tuesday when the U.S. secretary of state John Kerry met the Russian leaders. Most certainly, if a strong stimulus is to be accounted for as working on the U.S. president Barack Obama’s cerebral mind prompting him to break the ice in the relations with Russia, it is the Sino-Russian entente that has emerged in global politics. See my blog Obama’s overture to Putin has paid off.)
Washington is easing the pressure on Russia and gently disengaging itself from its Middle Eastern allies (who are desperately clinging on to it), while it is moving on to the crucial Asian theatre where China is rising. Kerry is traveling to Beijing in the weekend soon after his visit to Russia and immediately after the U.S.’ summit with the GCC leaders.
The U.S. officials have let it be known through the media that the secretary proposes to to take a “tough approach”in his talks in Beijing regarding China’s recent land reclamation work in the contested waters in the South China Sea. Alongside, Pentagon is threatening to depute military aircraft and ships to challenge the Chinese military’s activities in that region.
This is coercive diplomacy at its best – openly challenging China’s growing international profile and its assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific and compelling it to react. And, call it by any other name you like, it is nothing but a replay, quintessentially, of the U.S. and NATO’s aggressive deployment on Russia’s borders in the recent months.
Poland makes payout to alleged victims of CIA renditions
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland is paying a quarter of a million dollars to two terror suspects allegedly tortured by the CIA in a secret facility in this country — prompting outrage among many here who feel they are being punished for American wrongdoing.
Europe's top human rights court imposed the penalty against Poland, setting a Saturday deadline.
It irks many in Poland that their country is facing legal repercussions for the secret rendition and detention program which the CIA operated under then-President George W. Bush in several countries across the world after the 9/11 attacks.
So far no U.S. officials have been held accountable, but the European Court of Human Rights has shown that it doesn't want to let European powers that helped the program off the hook. The court also ordered Macedonia in 2012 to pay 60,000 euros ($68,000) to a Lebanese-German man who was seized in Macedonia on erroneous suspicion of terrorist ties and subjected to abuse by the CIA.
UK PM David Cameron Proclaims: It’s Not Enough To Follow The Law, You Must Love Big Brother
It’s not just those domestic extremists and crazy “conspiracy theory” kooks who took serious issue with UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent overtly fascist language when it comes to freedom of expression in Great Britain. For example, in a post published today, the UK Independent describes the quote below as “the creepiest thing David Cameron has ever said.”
This statement, and others like it, are a huge deal. This isn’t how the leader of a major civilized Western so-called “democracy” speaks to the citizenry. It is how a master talks to his slaves. How a ruler addresses his subjects. I think the following tweet by Glenn Greenwald earlier today sums up David Cameron’s attitude perfectly well:
This is really the mentality of Her Majesty's Government RT @akaSassinak But now it is not enough to obey. You must LOVE BIG BROTHER.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 14, 2015
Those of us who are in disbelief over David Cameron’s recent language, don’t have to just point to the quote above. There’s a lot more to it than a simple quote. For example, the Guardian reports:
The measures would give the police powers to apply to the high court for an order to limit the “harmful activities” of an extremist individual. The definition of harmful is to include a risk of public disorder, a risk of harassment, alarm or distress or creating a “threat to the functioning of democracy”.
House ignores veto threat, passes Pentagon spending plan
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
WASHINGTON — The House defied a veto threat from President Obama on Friday and approved a $612 billion defense policy bill that Democrats complain busts budget limits on military spending and makes it harder for the president to close the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
The vote was 269 to 151 for the legislation, a blueprint for next year’s spending on military and other national security programs.
While Republicans voted overwhelmingly for the bill, 41 Democrats disregarded Obama’s objections and joined the GOP lawmakers in passing it. Another 143 Democrats voted against it.
A 2011 bipartisan budget deal placed limits on defense and domestic spending. The House defense bill skirts those caps by putting $89 billion of the total into an emergency war-fighting fund, which is exempt from the restrictions.
Losing the American Republic
In The Financial Times of April 23, Philip Stephens begins a perceptive article with the obvious statement that “It is easier to say that Obama never gets it right than to come up with an alternative strategy.”
Of course it is. It was never easy to construct a coherent policy, but it was never impossible. The problem we face today is different. It is that for a long time we have not been presented by our leaders with any strategy. So the obvious question a citizen (and a taxpayer) should demand be answered is why, despite all the effort, all the proclamations and all the lives and money we are spending, does almost every observer believe that we do not have a policy that we can afford and that accomplishes our minimal national objectives? In this first part of a two-part essay, I will address that problem.
In short, where is the problem? It is tempting to say that it is our lack of statesmen. Where are the heirs to the men who put the world back together again after the Second World War? By comparison to those who we empower today, those earlier leaders appear heroic figures.
True, they had monumental faults and made costly mistakes, but they thought and acted on an epic scale and tried to cope with unprecedented problems — the reconstruction of Europe, the ending of colonialism in Africa and imperialism in India, the amalgamation of scores of new nations into an acceptable structure of the world community and the containing of unprecedented dangers from weapons of mass destruction.
In global fight against extreme poverty, a potential game-changer
A groundbreaking new study suggests that one approach to extreme poverty alleviation is compassionate, cost-effective, and potent for years after the aid ends.
Submitted by: NCTim
In efforts to lift some 2 billion people around the world out of extreme poverty by 2030, the "big push" might not be new, but on the right scale, it could be a game-changer, new research suggests.
The big push as an approach to alleviating extreme poverty has recorded successes, typically on small scales in various countries. But it has not been examined rigorously to see how well it works across cultural and political boundaries.
Now, a study released Thursday suggests that the approach can yield lasting improvements for people in diverse countries. And it shows that when properly implemented, such programs are cost effective.
In general, the big push involves a burst of intensely focused help for a limited period of time – cash to meet basic needs, training on how to earn a living, access to health services, and frequent check-ins from field workers, for example. But one of the most important effects of the approach could well be its tendency to spring participants from a mind-set that sees little or no hope of breaching the extreme-poverty ceiling, some development specialists suggest.
Supporting peace in Afghanistan, better checks on drones, US cycle of poverty and racism, helping boys in South Africa, repairing Iraq
A round-up of global commentary for the May 18, 2015 weekly magazine.
Submitted by: NCTim
The news / Karachi, Pakistan
Supporting the quest for peace in Afghanistan
“[T]he two days of [recent] talks between Taliban representatives and Afghan politicians in Doha, Qatar ... produced no outcome...,” states an editorial. “The talks came as increased fighting after the withdrawal of most Nato troops from the country led to the Taliban launching a new offensive in northern Afghanistan.... For now, the major stumbling block appears to be foreign troops in Afghanistan. But the Afghan government appears caught between a rock and a hard place. What guarantee is there that the Taliban will be as amenable once US troops are out? Foreign troops remain the only trump card Afghan President [Ashraf] Ghani appears to possess. A compromise will need to be found soon if the ... Afghan peace process is to go ahead.”
The Japan Times / Tokyo
Better checks on drone use needed
“The accidental deaths of two hostages held by al-Qaida in a U.S. drone strike has reignited debate about the use of that tool in the fight against terrorist groups,” states an editorial. “Drones have become the instrument of first choice in the Obama administration’s efforts to combat terrorist organizations, raising important questions about the legality and utility of that weapon. While the [US] is grappling most intensely with this issue, the proliferation of drone technology means that Washington’s problems and concerns will soon become those of other governments.... [W]e need better ways to ensure that drones are used legally, morally, and in ways that do not undercut their intended purpose by recruiting more terrorists than they kill.”
America’s cycle of poverty and racism
“[D]espite being an economic superpower the United States has severe domestic issues tied to poverty, marginalisation and crime [, which] was made even more evident in the recent protests that turned into riots in Baltimore...,” states an editorial. “[These riots] were just the latest in a series of convulsions that has rocked American cities owing to what is perceived as racist policing and targeting of ‘black’ youth by law enforcement officials.... These ... incidents suggest a disturbing picture of law enforcement in which African-Americans – especially young males – are unfairly targeted, stereotyped and subject to brutal methods of policing. With dwindling employment opportunities due to insufficient education and poverty, the community suffers from high rates of criminal incidence, stereotyping the young African-American....”
Why Amtrak is looking at mysterious flying objects hitting trains
The FBI is now looking at reports that more than one Amtrak train was hit by a projectile shortly before the Amtrak crash in Philadelphia.
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Philadelphia — The FBI has been called in to investigate the possibility that the windshield of an Amtrak train was hit with an object shortly before the train derailed this week in a crash that killed eight people and injured about 200 more.
The revelation came at a National Transportation Safety Board briefing on Friday evening, raising new questions about the accident. NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt declined to speculate about the exact significance of a projectile, but the idea raised the possibility that the engineer might have been distracted, panicked or even wounded in the moments before the train left the rails.
The train sped up to twice the speed limit when it was supposed to be slowing down as it entered a sharp bend in the tracks on its way from Washington to New York.
The NTSB said the FBI will focus its investigation on the windshield of the train.
Cops do 20,000 no-knock raids a year. Civilians often pay the price when they go wrong.
Submitted by: NCTim
Most of the time, when a person kills an intruder who breaks into his home, dressed in all black and screaming, the homeowner will avoid jail time. But what happens when the break-in was a no-knock SWAT raid, the intruder was a police officer, and the homeowner has a record?
Apair of cases in Texas are an example of how wrong no-knock raids can go, for both police and civilians, and how dangerously subjective the SWAT raid process can be. In December 2013, Henry Magee shot and killed a police officer during a pre-dawn, no-knock drug raid on his home. He was initially charged with capital murder, but he argued that he shot the police officer, who he thought was an intruder, to protect his pregnant girlfriend. In February 2014, a grand jury declined to indict him, and charges were dropped.
In May, a Texas man named Marvin Guy also killed a police officer during a pre-dawn, no-knock raid on his home. Guy, too, was charged with capital murder. Unlike Magee's grand jury, a grand jury in September 2014 allowed the capital murder charge against Guy to stand. His trial is likely to happen in 2016.
Guy, who is black, now faces the death penalty. Magee is white.
Anti-Nuke Nun and Fellow Peace Activists to be Released from Prison
The peace activists were found guilty in 2013 of 'sabotage of national defense' for cutting a fence to enter a Tennessee nuclear facility
Submitted by: NCTim
Days after a federal court overturned the 2013 sabotage convictions of 85-year-old nun Megan Rice, 66-year-old Michael Walli, and 59-year-old Greg Boertje-Obed, a judge has ordered the immediate release of the three anti-nuclear activists who have already spent two years in prison.
The Associated Press reports that after the close of business on Friday, attorney Bill Quigley said the court had ordered the activists' immediate release. He said he was working to get them out of prison and was hopeful they could be released overnight or on the weekend.
"We would expect the Bureau of Prisons to follow the order of the court and release them as soon as possible," he said.
The Catholic peace activists are members of the group Transform Now Plowshares, which called the development an "amazing turn of events."
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature quotations from the testimony of Mother Jones before the Commission on Industrial Reltions.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Chinese premier visits Latin America next week
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
There’s no doubt that China is the big dog among the emerging markets of Asia. However, the country is keen to extend its influence to emerging markets in other parts of the world, especially Latin America.
Next week, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will officially visit China’s four major economic trade partners in Latin America, said Vice Foreign Minister Wang Chao and Assistant Minister of Commerce Tong Daochi on Wednesday.
Li’s visit, from May 18 to 26, is to deepen China’s commitment to diversifying trade with Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile. The four countries made up 57% of the total trade volume between China and Latin America in 2014. Li’s visit will focus on bilateral industrial and technology cooperation, infrastructure development, human resources training, and financial support.
Brazil is China’s largest trading partner in Latin America. Last year, China invested $18.94 billion in the country. The two cooperate on agriculture, mining, energy, minerals, electric power, industry, equipment manufacturing, infrastructure, finance, and service industry, Tong said.
Israeli demolition plan for Bedouin village sparks outcry
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
UMM AL-HIRAN, Israel — Israelis are once again locked in a bitter settlement dispute with their Arab neighbors, but this time the conflict is not unfolding in the West Bank, but in Israel’s southern desert.
After years of legal battles, Israel’s Supreme Court last week cleared the way for the government to uproot the nearly 60-year-old Bedouin Arab village of Umm al-Hiran, a dusty hill of ramshackle dwellings without proper electricity or water hookups, and in its place build a new community seemingly catering to Jews that is expected to feature a hotel and country club.
The project has reignited a simmering conflict between Israel’s Bedouin community, which says it is a victim of discrimination, and the government, which says it is trying to bring order to a lawless area and give a better quality of life to the impoverished minority.
Israel says the hundreds of villagers are sitting on state-owned land slated for development and is offering them free plots in a Bedouin township just down the road.
City of Berkeley to require cellphone sellers to warn of possible radiation risks
Lawmakers vote to highlight the potential dangers of keeping devices close to the body as scientists raise raft of concerns, especially for children
Berkeley lawmakers voted this week to require cellphone retailers to provide customers with a notice on the potential health hazards of carrying their device too close to their bodies, making the progressive California city the first in the nation to have wireless warnings if the law is allowed to go into effect in July.
“It’s an important right-to-know issue,” said Berkeley mayor Tom Bates, who voted in favor of the measure. “It’s really just a note of caution.”
Currently, most wireless-capable devices such as smart phones carry FCC-mandated safety recommendations on how close to the skin the devices should be kept. It’s suggested to keep most models at a distance of 5 to 25mm to limit radiation exposure to safe levels.
But those notices are often buried deep inside manuals and online instructions, leaving most consumers unaware they even exist.
Paddle in Seattle Arctic oil drilling protest
Hundreds of people have gathered in kayaks and small boats for a protest in the north-western US port city of Seattle against oil drilling in the Arctic by the Shell energy giant.
Paddle in Seattle is being held by activists who say the firm's drilling will damage the environment.
It comes after the first of Shell's two massive oil rigs arrived at the port.
The firm wants to move them in the summer to explore for oil off Alaska's northern coast.
‘I have to work a lot harder’ in Russia than at NSA – Edward Snowden
Whistleblower Edward Snowden says he has been working harder and doing more significant things while in exile in Russia than he did while being a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA).
“The fact is I was getting paid an extraordinary amount of money for very little work [at the NSA] with very little in the way of qualifications,” Snowden said via satellite link during an event at Stanford University on Friday.
In Russia, “that's changed significantly,” the former NSA contractor, who revealed the agency’s vast and controversial surveillance activities in the US and abroad, said.
“I have to work a lot harder to do the same thing. The difference is that, even though I've lost a lot, I have a tremendous sense of satisfaction,” the whistleblower said, as cited by Business Insider.
The Evening Greens
The Evening Greens Weekend Editor: enhydra lutris
U.S. action on GMOs stops far short of mandatory labels
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture will start offering to verify food companies’ claims that their products do not contain genetically modified organisms, but the agency stopped far short Thursday of requiring the mandatory labeling of GMOs that many food activists say is needed.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who has introduced a bill to require labels for foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients, called the agency’s action “a good first step.” But food activists said the agency’s labels would certify only an absence of GMOs in food, not their presence, which is what they say people care about.
“This has been the most thoroughly debated food issue in America for the last two years, and consumers still overwhelmingly tell pollsters that they want the right to decide for themselves and want mandatory GMO disclosure,” said Scott Faber, executive director of Just Label It, a campaign to require foods to divulge genetically engineered ingredients.
A USDA spokeswoman said the new plan, outlined by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a May 1 letter to employees but not yet announced publicly, simply adds genetically engineered ingredients to an agency audit program that verifies various food claims, including grass-fed, antibiotic-free and humanely raised. The program is voluntary, and producers asking for the no-GMO verification would pay a fee for it.
New oil repellant materials could help clean up oil spills
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have announced a significant step forward in the development of materials that can ward off oil — a discovery that could lead to new protective coatings and better approaches to cleaning up oil spills.
In a new paper in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, professor of chemical and biological engineering David Lynn and assistant scientist Uttam Manna describe new coatings that are extremely oil-repellant (or "superoleophobic") in underwater environments.
Lynn and Manna didn't initially set out to develop highly oil-repelling materials, but their work on fine-tuning the nano- and micro-scale structure of materials led to the unexpected finding.
Manna says a unique, layer-by-layer approach to fabricating thin, multi-layer polymer films allowed the researchers to manipulate both the chemistry and the topography of the material, yielding three-dimensional structures that are porous at the micrometer and nanometer scale.
Trio of humpback whales spotted in San Francisco Bay
Marine mammal aficionados got a treat Wednesday morning when a trio of Humpback whales ventured inside the Golden Gate to take in some sights and do some spring feeding.
“We get a lot of gray whales around this time of year,” said Mary Jane Schramm, a spokeswoman for the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. “But to get three humpbacks is really special.”
Despite a number of recent whale strandings on beaches around the Bay Area, Schramm said the whale’s appearance was not a cause for concern. The whales were likely hungry and pursuing food.
“It’s certainly unusual that they would come inside the Bay, but if they are chasing a shoal of fish they are going to pursue it wherever it goes,” she said. “There is no indication that there is anything wrong with them.”
Which is most valuable: Gold, cocaine or rhino horn?
According to study co-authored by UCLA ecologist, the answer is devastating news for Earth’s largest animals
Many of the world’s largest herbivores — including several species of elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses and gorillas — are in danger of becoming extinct. And if current trends continue, the loss of these animals would have drastic implications not only for the species themselves, but also for other animals and the environments and ecosystems in which they live, according to a new report by an international team of scientists.
The study, which was co-authored by Blaire Van Valkenburgh, a UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, was recently published in the open-access online journal Science Advances.
One of the critical factors behind the disturbing trend is the tremendous financial incentive for poachers to sell animal parts for consumer goods and food. For example, rhinoceros horn is more valuable by weight than gold, diamonds or cocaine, said William Ripple, the study’s lead author, a distinguished professor of ecology at Oregon State University’s College of Forestry. (Bloomberg News reported in 2014 that the price of rhino horn in Asia has approached $60,000 per pound.)
Said Van Valkenburgh: “Decades of conservation efforts are being reversed by the entrance of organized crime into the ivory and rhino horn markets.”
Nigeria: 28 kids killed by lead poisoning from gold mining
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Twenty-eight children have died from lead poisoning from illegal gold mining in a remote west-central village, Nigerian health officials said, while doctors still are treating thousands from an earlier outbreak.
Dozens more children are sick in the Rafi area of Niger state and action must be taken quickly if they are not to suffer irreversible neurological damage, Michelle Chouinard, Nigeria director for Doctors Without Borders, told The Associated Press on Friday.
Her organization still is treating children from a 2010 mass lead poisoning, in Zamfara state, that killed 400 kids and left many paralyzed, blind and with learning disabilities because of a three-year delay in government funding for a cleanup.
Chouinard said they have cured 2,688 of 5,451 people infected and hope to complete treatment next year. They have had most success in the worst-affected village of Bagega, where all but 189 of 1,426 people have had the lead leached from their bodies.
America's premier rail superhighway is slowly falling apart
NEW YORK (AP) — The trains that link global centers of learning, finance and power on the East Coast lumber through tunnels dug just after the Civil War, and cross century-old bridges that sometimes jam when they swing open to let tugboats pass. Hundreds of miles of overhead wires that deliver power to locomotives were hung during the Great Depression.
The rails of the Northeast Corridor are decaying, increasingly strained — and moving more people than ever around the nation's most densely populated region.
The railroad's importance became all the more apparent after Amtrak Train 188 derailed Tuesday as it sped around a curve in Philadelphia, killing eight passengers and injuring more than 200.
The wreck closed part of the corridor all week. On a normal weekday, 2,000 trains run by Amtrak and eight other passenger rail systems carry 750,000 riders on railway between Washington and Boston, making it a vital link for both intercity travelers and suburban commuters.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
How Psychedelics You've Never Heard of Could Help Treat Mental Illness
Video Reveals Baltimore Corrections Officers Were Looting During Freddie Gray Protests
NSA Whistleblower William Binney: Seeking Blackmail Power, U.S. Officials Enabled 9/11
How the US Treasury Department Promotes Israel's Propaganda Lines
Transgender Health Care
PBO. Pls "Stop Sneak Attack on Medicare" via TPP Fail
Hellraisers Journal: Tears stream from the eyes of Mother Jones as she tells of industrial horrors.
A Little Night Music
Jimmy Martin - Freeborn man
Jimmy Martin - Drink up and go home
Jimmy Martin - Truck Driving Man
Jimmy Martin - Dog Bite Your Hide
Jimmy Martin - Lonesome Prison Blues
Jimmy Martin - The Joke's On You
Jimmy Martin - Sunny Side Of The Mountain
Jimmy Martin - Milwaukee Here I Come
Jimmy Martin ~ Ocean of Diamonds
Jimmy Martin - There's Better Times A 'Coming
Jimmy Martin - Widow Maker
Jimmy Martin - Truck Drivers Queen
Jimmy Martin - Tennessee
Jimmy Martin - Goin' Ape (Over You)
Jimmy Martin - My Walking Shoes
Jimmy Martin - Knoxville Girl
Jimmy Martin - Don't Give Your Heart To A Rambler
Jimmy Martin - Brakeman's Blues
Jimmy Martin ~ Night
Jimmy Martin - Moonshine Hollow
Jimmy Martin - It Takes One To Know One
Jimmy Martin - Poor Little Bull Frog
Jimmy Martin & The Sunny Mountain Boys - Homesick
Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys - 20/20 Vision
Jimmy Martin - Save It! Save It!