Welcome! "The Evening Blues" is a casual community diary (published Monday - Friday, 8:00 PM Eastern) where we hang out, share and talk about news, music, photography and other things of interest to the community.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact.
Everyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is very welcome here.
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Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues drummer and singer Sam Lay. Enjoy!
Sam Lay Blues Band at the 2011 Chicago Blues Festival
Will we let ourselves be destroyed in our turn without a struggle, give up our homes, our country bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit, the graves of our dead and everything that is dear and sacred to us? I know you will cry with me, "Never! Never!"
Chief Tecumseh, Shawnee
News and Opinion
Joe is on vacation this week, the Weekend Edition team will be filling in for the following: News, Greens and Hosting. Thanks for stopping by and reading.
Compiled by: Johnny the Conqueroo
Contributors:
Funkygal
enhydra lutris
Johnny the Conqueroo
'Enough is Enough!' Sanders Declares Corporate Greed Must Go
Democratic candidate says that 'we have got to demand' these changes
Submitted by: JtC
As Congressional Democrats on Wednesday took a sharp U-turnfrom their previous opposition to President Barack Obama's corporate-friendly trade agenda, presidential hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders (Vt.) reiterated his disdain for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and demanded that the era of "corporate greed must end."
In an op-ed published at the Huffington Post on Wednesday, the Democratic candidate hit on a litany of items that have become standard fodder for his campaign speeches: tax reform, overturning Citizens United, raising the minimum wage, infrastructure spending, and pay equipty for women workers, among others.
"The reality of the American economy," Sanders says, is that "millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages and median family income is almost $5,000 less than it was in 1999. Meanwhile, the wealthiest people and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well."
Sanders—who has repeatedly stated that his presidential bid is not about him as an individual, but rather a call for "a mass movement"—repeated on Wednesday that "we have got to demand" these changes.
Bernie Sanders & Cornel West: The radical alliance that could change everything
As the democratic socialist from Vermont tries to do the impossible, the firebrand academic could help
Submitted by: JtC
Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign is already enjoying success that few could have predicted. Bernie is a big deal. Well, OK, if you’re a white progressive he’s a big deal. Otherwise, you may have no idea who he is, according to reporting this morning in the New York Times. The Times‘ Patrick Healy and Jonathan Martin write that “black voters have shown little interest in [Sanders]” and that “[e]ven his own campaign advisers acknowledge that Mr. Sanders is virtually unknown to many African-Americans, an enormously important Democratic constituency.”
But as his presidential campaign gains altitude and attention, Sanders may be on the way to securing the most difficult black progressive endorsement there is: the blessing of Professor Cornel West, one of America’s leading public intellectuals. Celebrity is rare in American academe, but the eccentric West (along with MIT’s Noam Chomsky) is something of a superstar scholar. He’s our Slavoj Žižek, but with far better hair and a sense of fashion.
Speaking with Grit TV’s Laura Flanders in early June, the black academic icon was asked by the host if he will be supporting the increasingly popular candidate for president.
“I love brother Bernie,” West replied. “He tells the truth about Wall Street. He really does.”
Under Green Party Banner, Jill Stein Officially Sets Sights on 2016
Power to the People Plan 'would end unemployment and poverty; avert climate catastrophe; build a sustainable, just economy; and recognize the dignity and human rights of everyone in our society'
Submitted by: JtC
Vowing to combat the "converging crises" of racism, militarism, climate change, and "extreme materialism," Dr. Jill Stein on Tuesday announced this week that she is running for president of the United States as a Green Party candidate.
In a campaign kick-off speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Stein laid out the major planks of her platform, excerpted below:
Our Power to the People Plan lays out these solutions in a blueprint to move our economy from the greed and exploitation of corporate capitalism to a human-centered system that puts people, planet and peace over profit. This plan would end unemployment and poverty; avert climate catastrophe; build a sustainable, just economy; and recognize the dignity and human rights of everyone in our society. The plan affirms that we have the power to take our future back:
We have the power to create a Green New Deal, providing millions of jobs by transitioning to 100% clean renewable energy by 2030.
Electronic Voting Fraud: A Real Threat to Any Democrat Running for President
Submitted by: JtC
The way our electoral process now stands, electronic voting machines guarantee a Republican victory in 2016.
No matter what she does, Hillary Clinton - or any other Democratic nominee - cannot be elected without a fundamental change in the basic mechanics of how our votes are cast and counted.
It is a profoundly disturbing reality that casts a long shadow over all that's wrong with our electoral system, no matter who one favors for public office.
Just 15 years after the theft of the 2000 election, the Democrats have finally begun to talk about voter rights and various methods to guarantee public access to the polls.
How One Outlet Covered the Charleston Massacre Right
Submitted by: Funkygal
The day after 21-year-old Dylann Roof allegedly gunned down nine members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., the coverage of the coverage was already piling up, much of it lamenting the apparent pass the media was giving Roof.
Snip...
Yet there was at least one news item that ran the day after the shooting that was not afraid to refer to it as a terrorist attack: “US State Senator Killed by Terrorist With White Supremacist Sympathies, 8 Others Dead,” reads the headline of a news item that appeared on Sahara Reporters, a New York City-based news website that primarily covers government corruption in Africa, with a particular focus on Nigeria.
The Sahara Reporters piece uses the word “terrorist” six times to describe Roof and his alleged action, including in the headline, the subhead and a photo caption. The words “mental illness,” “troubled” and “loner” do not appear — in fact, no speculation whatsoever is made regarding Roof’s mental state or stability. Instead, South Carolina’s “known hate groups” are mentioned to provide context for Roof’s alleged actions, and Roof’s white supremacist activities and the historic allusions made by the patches on his jacket are front and center in the piece. And the massacre is clearly contextualized as occurring at “a time where the persecution of black ethnic minorities in the United States has been making world headlines.
Is Iraq worth the fight? After years of war and chaos, its people no longer know
From a cafe owner to a Sunni leader, there is widespread agreement that the country British diplomat Gertrude Bell helped to shape in 1921 no longer exists
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
For years, Hamid Menhel has trudged through a graveyard in central Baghdad almost every day to tend to one of its few well-maintained tombs. Surrounded by shrubs and a small metal fence, it is the burial site of Gertrude Bell, the British diplomat and explorer whose role in the region a century ago helped enshrine Iraq’s modern state.
The cemetery is hemmed between churches, mosques, government buildings and roads choked with cars on the south bank of the Tigris river, which has been Baghdad’s lifeblood for 3,000 years, but has more recently become a dividing line.
The fortified government district known as the Green Zone stands on its northern banks. Here the business of navigating Iraq through its latest crisis, the battle against Islamic State (Isis), is directed from a safe, insular enclave of Saddam-era palaces and embassies. The rest of the city gets by on its wits.
Iraq’s officials claim that the war is existential and that to win it will preserve the very boundaries that Bell advocated in 1921 after the demise of the Ottoman empire. From his vantage point across the river though, Hamid, 37, believes that much of what has happened in Iraq since – and particularly the current tumult – suggeststhe country Bell envisaged doesn’t exist any more. And if it does, it may no longer be worth fighting for.
President Obama tells Hollande US no longer spying on France
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
President Obama has assured his French counterpart Francois Hollande that the US is no longer spying on France.
Mr Obama spoke to Mr Hollande following reports on the Wikileaks website that the US National Security Agency (NSA) spied on successive French presidents.
The White House said after the two leaders' phone call "we are not targeting and will not target" Mr Hollande's communications.
French intelligence officials are due to travel to Washington for more talks.
Iran hardens stance on nuclear deal as deadline nears
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has hardened its stance less than a week before the deadline for a nuclear deal, with its top leader rejecting a long-term freeze on nuclear research as a constitutional body on Wednesday approved a law banning access to military sites and scientists.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also insisted that Iran will only sign a deal if international sanctions are lifted first, which could further complicate the negotiations. The new law calls for all sanctions to be lifted the first day of any agreement's implementation.
The supreme leader has backed his negotiators amid criticism from hard-liners. But his latest remarks may narrow their room to maneuver ahead of a self-imposed June 30 deadline for a potentially groundbreaking deal with world powers that would curb Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for lifting sanctions.
Iran's constitutional watchdog, known as the Guardian Council, ratified the legislation banning access to military sites and scientists, making it binding law, according to state TV.
Pakistan's MQM 'received Indian funding'
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Officials in Pakistan's MQM party have told the UK authorities they received Indian government funds, the BBC learnt from an authoritative Pakistani source.
UK authorities investigating the MQM for alleged money laundering also found a list of weapons in an MQM property.
A Pakistani official has told the BBC that India has trained hundreds of MQM militants over the last 10 years.
The Indian authorities described the claims as "completely baseless". The MQM said it was not going to comment.
Greek debt crisis: Tsipras turns on creditors
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has criticised Greece's international creditors for failing to accept his government's latest reform proposals.
He said this never occurred with similar measures put forward by other states negotiating bailouts, suggesting creditors might not want a deal.
Mr Tsipras' remarks came before he began new talks to secure a debt deal.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he was "not optimistic" about reaching a deal on Wednesday.
Greek debt talks stumble before EU leaders gather
Submitted by: JtC
Negotiations to avert a Greek debt default stumbled on Wednesday and euro zone finance ministers accused Athens of refusing to compromise despite a deadline next week that could put it on a path out of the euro zone.
With European Union leaders due in Brussels for a summit on Thursday, leftist Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was set to negotiate through the night with heads of creditor institutions to try to thrash out a cash-for-reform deal before the euro zone ministers reconvene at 1 p.m. (1100 GMT).
Greece has to repay 1.6 billion euros to the International Monetary Fund next Tuesday or be declared in default, potentially unleashing a bank run and capital controls, followed by a slide out of the single currency area.
Eurogroup ministers cut short an emergency meeting summoned to approve an agreement after little more than an hour because there was no deal ready for them to discuss
Far-right surges in Croatia as EU disappointment spreads
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — It was one of the biggest nights in Croatia's sporting calendar: a European Championship soccer qualifying match with Italy. Seconds after kick-off in a game beamed around the world, a gigantic swastika materialized on the pitch under the shocked gaze of European soccer officials.
The swastika, sprayed by an unknown vandal with a chemical that became visible only when floodlights went on to start the game, has become the most potent symbol of a rise in ultra-nationalist sentiment that appears to be bleeding into the mainstream population in the European Union's newest member state.
But it's not the only one. In the mixed ethnic towns of eastern Croatia, road signs in the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet have been destroyed and Serbian Orthodox churches have been vandalized with a "U'' symbol representing the Nazi-linked World War II Ustasha regime. On weekends, Ustasha chants echo at sports venues and rock concerts.
The appearance of such symbols is perhaps unsurprising for a country that during World War II which sent tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies to death camps. But the Balkan state's current leaders have called for change after the global outcry prompted by the swastika on the field.
Bloodshed in El Salvador reaching levels of 1980s civil war
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Word on the street is that only the girlfriends of gang members are allowed to be redheads or blondes. So in this violent place, women are scurrying to salons to give up their blond hair and highlights, to dye it all black — not out of fashion sense, but out of fear.
"They also say you can't wear yellow or red clothing," said Claudia Castellanos, a beautician at an upscale salon. "Can you believe it? They've already attacked a woman on a bus for wearing yellow."
There's no evidence the rumors are true. The gangs, sophisticated criminal organizations, even issued a statement to deny the hair-color decree.
But with violence in El Salvador reaching levels rivaling those of the civil war that ended more than two decades ago, few are willing to take risks.
After 13 Years of Hell, Human Held Without Charges Has One Question for US
'If the war in Afghanistan is over,' asks prisoner languishing at offshore prison, 'why am I still here?'
Submitted by: JtC
Moath al-Alwi, who has been a prisoner of the U.S. government and detained at the offshore prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since 2002 without ever being charged with a crime or afforded a trial, has a simple yet urgent question for the American people and the U.S. government: Why am I still here?
If the war in Afghanistan is now over, as he has heard President Obama and other lawmakers say many times, the Yemeni national wonders what possible reason could the U.S. have in keeping a man like himself—guilty of no crime—locked away on an island prison for nearly thirteen years.
Despite the protests of dedicated human rights and legal activists in the U.S. and around the world, the fact that the U.S. government continues to justify the "indefinite detention" of human beings for a war that has become detached from geographical boundaries and has no end date, remains one of the most glaring, yet ignored, realities of post-9/11 America.
In a strikingly personal piece that has now appeared in both Al-Jazeera English and The Nation, al-Alwi expresses his grief, anger, and frustrations. "I wonder now," he writes, "if the U.S. follows any rule of law at all: the Geneva Conventions or even its own Constitution. Where is the freedom and justice for all that it so proudly boasts to the world?"
NSA Chief Wants to Watch, as Well as Listen and Read
Submitted by: JtC
The National Security Agency, while primarily occupied by sweeping up billions of phone calls, emails, texts and social media messages each day, wants better visual information about the earth and its residents, too, Admiral Michael Rogers said Wednesday.
“Signals intelligence … ain’t enough, you guys,” the NSA chief told a gathering of contractors in the geospatial intelligence business. “We gotta create a much broader picture.”
We need “the ability to visualize,” he explained, because “man is fundamentally a visual creature.”
Rogers, who also heads the Pentagon’s United States Cyber Command, spent much of his keynote speech at the GEOINT 2015 conference pitching the technology, intelligence and defense companies in the audience on the importance of working together. The conference’s slogan — appropriate, given the government’s ever-growing demands — is “open the aperture.”
Top German Politician Tells Ash Carter to 'Go F**K' Himself. Finally!
The mood is changing in Europe
Submitted by: JtC
Oskar Lafontaine is a major force in German politics. When he comes out swinging this way, you know something is changing.
He has been an outsized figure in German politics since the mid-70s. He was chairman of the SPD (one of Germany’s two main parties) for four years, the SPD’s candidate for chancellor in 1990, minister of finance for two years, and then chairman of the Left party in the 2000s. He is married to Sarah Wagenknecht, political heavyweight, who is currently co-chairman of Left party.
So it caught people’s attention when he excoriated Ash Carter and Victoria Nuland on his Facebook page yesterday.
Lafontaine’s outburst came a day after his wife, Sarah Wagenknecht, blasted Merkel’s Russia policy in an interview on RT.
Here is the full translation of the post:
“The US ‘Defense’ secretary, i.e., war minister is in Berlin. He called on Europe to counter Russian ‘aggression’. But in fact, it is US aggression which Europeans should be opposing.
“The Grandmaster of US diplomacy, George Kennan described the eastward expansion of NATO as the biggest US foreign policy mistake since WW2, because it will lead to a new cold war.
“The US diplomat Victoria Nuland said we have spent $5 billion to destabilize the Ukraine. They stoke the flames ever higher, and Europe pays for it with lower trade and lost jobs.
“Nuland says ‘F*ck the EU’. We need need an EU foreign policy that stops warmongering US imperialism.
“F*ck US imperialism!”
NATO to boost special defense forces to 40,000 - Stoltenberg
Submitted by: JtC
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has announced that the Spearhead Force deployed in Eastern Europe will be extended to 40,000 troops.
"All together we expect this force to be 40,000 strong," Stoltenberg said.
The announcement was made in Brussels ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers.The current strength of the Spearhead Force is 13,000 troops.Secretary General Stoltenberg said the threefold increase in troops was “substantial.”
"This will enable us to deploy our forces as quickly as we need when crises arise, while maintaining full political control," Stoltenberg said.
Oakland council approves department of race and equity
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Supporters of a controversial department of race and equity packed a special Oakland City Council meeting Monday, ultimately persuading the council to establish the department permanently.
Council members voted unanimously to pass an ordinance that would create the race and equity department the same night they pushed their own amendments to the city’s 2015-17 budget.
During a hearing that lasted well into the night, members of the public invoked potholes in East Oakland and sex trafficking on International Boulevard as examples of entrenched disparities within the city. They urged council members to consider those issues in preparing to divvy up an estimated $2.4 billion in public coffers for the next two years.
Councilwoman Desley Brooks said the department of race and equity, which she first proposed in February, would help rectify those problems.
In NY, a special prosecutor for police killings, for now
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
NEW YORK (AP) — Amid national debate over holding officers criminally accountable for killings by police, New York is giving such cases special consideration by appointing the attorney general to investigate them, for now.
The move comes after police officers weren't criminally charged last year in deadly encounters with unarmed men in New York and elsewhere. Critics pressed to take such cases away from local district attorneys, arguing they didn't have enough professional distance to investigate and prosecute police who help them build cases.
With lawmakers unable to agree on an approach as the legislative session ended, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday he'd use executive power to appoint Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for a year as special prosecutor for police killings.
"I don't believe this is the perfect alternative, but I believe it is the best alternative at this time," said Cuomo, adding that he'd keep working toward legislation next year.
Chinese retail spreads in Uganda amid local jealousy
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The last time men posing as immigration officials showed up at Wei Kun's shoe store in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, the Chinese trader forked out $1,000 in bribes to prevent his business from being shuttered.
"I have many, many problems. It's very difficult to make money here," Kun said as he waited for customers inside his shoe store.
Yet Kun's perseverance in the face of such obstacles, including the rising hostility toward local merchants, is a measure of how profitable it is for Chinese merchants to run small businesses in Uganda — and the rest of Africa. Over the past 10 years, Chinese industrial giants have invested billions across Africa, and there has been an accompanying explosion of petty retailers opening small shops from Senegal in the west to Algeria in the north, Zimbabwe in the south and Uganda in the east.
China's direct investment in sub-Saharan Africa jumped from practically nothing in 2002 to $18.2 billion in 2012. According to the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Africa, there are about a million Chinese living in Africa, mostly engaged in commercial work.
Obama administration clears way for hostages' families to pay ransom
White House says it will retain its policy of no concessions to terrorists but allow officials to help families and remove threat of criminal prosecution over ransoms
Submitted by: JtC
The families of more than 30 American hostages currently held around the world were given a green light by the White House to negotiate private ransom payments, despite a longstanding ban on making concessions to terrorist groups.
Barack Obamaconfirmed new policies on Wednesdayfor communicating with terrorist groups, and for families to pay ransoms to hostage-takers.
Despite insisting the US government would continue its policy of not making direct “concessions” or payments to hostage takers, the president met with families and former hostages at the White House and announced it would help arrange talks, and would not prosecute those involved in ransom negotiations.
“The last thing we should ever do is add to a family’s pain with threats like that,” Obama said.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature from the Pullman Herald of Washington state: "a new microbe threatens to invade the grain fields of the Pacific Northwest this fall!" On Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, sabotage, and the IWW: worse than tuberculosis!
Tune in at 2pm!
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Decades-old frozen meat seized in China food scandal
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Beijing (AFP) - Almost half a billion dollars worth of smuggled frozen meat -- some of it rotting and more than 40 years old -- has been seized in China, reports said Wednesday.
More than 100,000 tonnes of chicken wings, beef and pork worth up to three billion yuan ($483 million) were seized in the nationwide crackdown, the state-run China Daily newspaper said.
"It was smelly, and I nearly threw up when I opened the door," said an official from Hunan province, where 800 tonnes were seized.
Two gangs from the central province were among 14 busted across the country in the operation which concluded earlier this month.
Report blasts secret talks between utilities, CPUC
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The ability of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and other utilities to engage in back-channel talks with top California Public Utilities Commission officials unfairly skews decisions in favor of big-money interests, and the practice should be banned in rate cases, a review requested by the state agency concluded Monday.
Such back-door communications became notorious last year when e-mails showed that a PG&E executive had engaged in a secret campaignto obtain a preferred judge in a $1.3 billion rate-setting case before the utilities commission. Those and other back-channel contacts — known as ex parte communications — are the focus of federal and state criminal investigationsinto whether commission officials violated influence-peddling or other laws.
In the aftermath of the judge-shopping revelations, the utilities commission hired the Strumwasser & Woocher law firm of Los Angeles to review its practice of allowing commissioners and their aides to meet with utility executives in rate-setting cases without other parties, such as customer advocacy groups, being present. Currently, rules require that the commission notify all parties of such solo talks three days in advance and that utilities submit a report on what was said.
The law firm’s report, the product of 88 interviews of current and past commission officials, concludes that such “communications are a frequent, pervasive, and at least sometimes outcome-determinative” in rate-setting cases.
What information does Google hold on me?
Submitted by: JtC
Have you ever wondered how much personal information Google holds on you? The search giant has made it easier than ever before to keep tabs on what you're sharing with it by using its services - from your Google and YouTube search and browsing histories to the places you've been while logged in. Read on for how to control what you're sharing, and who can see it.
My Account
Google recently announced new privacy and security dashboard My Account, which brings together all user controls in one hub. It's here that you'll find all the information it has stored on you, along with how to delete it should you wish.
Visit https://myaccount.google.com/ and sign in using your Google account.
What information does Google hold on me?
You can check what information is held about you under the Personal Info & privacy tab in the central column (circled), where all data including your email address, phone number, search history and settings are stored.
Under Search Settings, you can turn on SafeSearch to automatically filter out any inappropriate or explicit pictures that may crop up in an image search, and access your search history, which you can turn off or edit. Only you can see this data, and it shows you the searches you've made by day, your total number of searches and your top sites visited within the past week, month, year or all time.
You can choose to delete individual searches by selecting them and clicking the 'delete' banner which appears at the top of the page.
In Historic Ruling, Dutch Court Says: Climate Action is a Human Right
Hague District Court says Dutch government has a legal duty to reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent by 2020
Submitted by: JtC
In a landmark ruling that many hope establishes a new global precedent for a state's obligation to its citizens in the face of the growing climate crisis, a Dutch court on Wednesday said that the government has a legal duty to reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent by 2020.
The decision came in response to a lawsuit, launched in November 2013 by the Amsterdam-based environmental nonprofit Urgenda Foundation along with 600 Dutch citizens, which argued that the government was violating international human rights law by failing to take sufficient measures to combat rising greenhouse gas emissions.
"The state must do more to avert the imminent danger caused by climate change, also in view of its duty of care to protect and improve the living environment," read a statement from the Hague District Court.
Marjan Minnesma, Urgenda Foundation's director, called the ruling a "great victory" and that the judge had the "courage and wisdom to the government 'you have a duty of care toward your citizens.'" Minnesma also said that she hoped the ruling would spur similar court cases against governments around the world.
The Day the Earth Died
And Why Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Etc., Were Silent About It
Submitted by: JtC
As the civilizations that we all know, and love, and lived, slide increasingly into totalitarian misery; and the environment, which had been our lives, becomes less and less livable, there will be, in retrospect, one key day, which historians will mark, as the turning-point toward Earth’s death; and it was 23 June 2015. That’s the day when the U.S. Senate, which had previously turned down the procedural move (called “Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority,” and discussed here) that opened the door to passing U.S. President Obama’s falsely-called ‘trade’ deals, was itself passed — it reduced the Constitutionally required two-thirds of Senators that’s needed to approve any of these treaties in order for it to become law, down to merely an unConstitutional 50% of the Senators (+ the Vice President as the tie-breaker), as if a treaty were like any merely ordinary law (which requires only 50%+1); “Fast Track” thus increased the likelihood of passing any of Obama’s world-murderous ‘trade’ treaties, from approximately 0%, to approximately 100%.
Here is how these treaties murder the Earth:
Each of these ‘trade’ deals is about lots more than merely international commerce; it is far more fundamentally about sovereignty — who rules? There is a feature in each one of them that empowers international corporations to sue any member-nation to the treaty, which tries to pass any regulation, including any environmental regulation, that is stricter than what is set in stone forever in the given ‘trade’ deal. If, for example, scientists discover that, in order for our planet not to go into an exponentially increasing temperature — basically, to go environmentally haywire, and a rapid descent into planetary death (unlivable) — then the requirements for cutting back on fossil fuels must be increased, the situation will already be one in which any member nation that would even try to increase those requirements will be sued by international oil and coal and gas corporations for trying to prevent such environmental haywire, and these lawsuits will be adjudicated by panels not of judges who are appointed by democratically elected representatives of the given nation’s public, but instead by mere panels of international ‘arbitrators’ whose careers will be dependent upon how favorably they rule for international corporations. There will be no democracy, at all, in this. The member-nations to the treaty will no longer actually be democracies. (If they ever were.) There will be a higher power, and it’s trans-national: the hundred or so individuals who collectively control all of the major international coporations.
Instead of national democracies, the member-nations of these ‘trade’ deals will have become little more than supplicants to the international corporate dictatorship, which dictatorship rules collectively over all of the national signatories to the international ‘trade’ treaty.
Morgues overflow in Pakistan as heatwave toll nears 800
One hospital in the south has seen more than 8,000 patients as temperatures stay unusually high for fourth day.
Submitted by: JtC
Karachi, Pakistan - The death toll from a severe heatwave in southern Pakistan is edging towards 800, with the threat of more deaths to come as temperatures remain unseasonably high for the fourth consecutive day, officials have told Al Jazeera.
At least 775 people have died of heatstroke, dehydration or other heat-related illnesses in Karachi, the country's largest city, since Saturday, according to government figures.
"The mortuary is overflowing, they are piling bodies one on top of the other," said Dr Seemin Jamali, a senior official at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), the city's largest government hospital.
"We are doing everything that is humanly possible here," she said, adding that since Saturday, the JPMC had seen more than 8,000 patients with heat-related symptoms. Of those, 384 patients had died, she said.
Rare ‘testicle-eating’ fish with human-like teeth found in New Jersey
Submitted by: JtC
A fish native to the Amazon called the pacu was caught in a reservoir in Southern New Jersey over the weekend. The fish has a nasty reputation for occasionally biting people with its human like teeth.
The catch was made by Ron Rossi from the town of Delran, which has an artificial reservoir called Swedes Lake.
“We scoop[ed] this thing up and brought it up. We didn't know what kind of fish it was,” Rossi told a local ABC affiliate.
Though the fish is from South America, they are sometimes kept as pets, according to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and have also been found in far-flung locations such as Washington State, France and Denmark.
Cosmic colors: Astronomers use 'interstellar rainbow' to map distance to star system
Submitted by: JtC
NASA has released an image of a breathtaking 'interstellar rainbow,' made possible by X-ray light echoes reflecting off clouds of dust. The beautiful rings have allowed astronomers to determine how far the double star system Circinus X-1 is from Earth
The rings were the result of a burst of X-rays emitted by Circinus X-1 in late 2013, NASA said in a statement.
While the beautiful colors were certainly a feast for the eyes, they also served a vital purpose for astronomers, who used them to determine how far Circinus X-1 is from our planet.
Using the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the researchers determined that each individual ring was created by X-ray reflections off a different dust cloud.
The Evening Greens
Tonight's Greens submitted by: enhydra lutris
Netherlands ordered to cut greenhouse gas emissions
A Dutch court has ordered the government to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% by 2020, in a case environmentalists hope will set a precedent for other countries.
Campaigners brought the case on behalf of almost 900 Dutch citizens.
They argued the government had a legal obligation to protect its citizens from the dangers of climate change.
Government lawyers did not immediately comment on the ruling at the court in The Hague.
Bad News: Notorious Invasive Worm Just Found in U.S.
One of the world’s most invasive species, the New Guinea flatworm, is on the move and has just invaded six new locations, including the continental U.S. — Florida — according to a new study.
The worm (Platydemus manokwari) is on the “100 worst invasive alien species” list, and is now newly located in New Caledonia, Singapore, the Solomon Islands, Puerto Rico and Florida, according to the study, which is published in PeerJ.
Although the worm lives on the ground, it is able to climb trees to follow and consume prey.
It’s a Small, Small World
Jean-Lou Justine of the Sorbonne’s National Museum of Natural History and his international team of colleagues identified the dreaded worm at the various sites based on observations, DNA sequencing and other techniques.
Why do Americans waste so much food?
Americans throw away nearly half of their food every year, waste worth roughly $165 billion annually, according to a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council(NRDC).
The report estimates that the average American family of four ends up throwing away an equivalent of up to $2,275 annually in food. Even worse, there is evidence that there has been a 50 percent jump in U.S. food waste since the 1970s.
It’s especially troubling that at the same time, one in seven Americans, more than 46 million people, including 12 million children, don’t know where their next meal is coming from, according to a study by Feeding America.
Meanwhile, the rest of America continues to throw away unspoiled nutritious food. If we cut our food waste even by a third, there would be enough food for all those people who must rely on food banks and hand-outs to be fully fed.
GMO lamb with jellyfish protein sold for meat in France
PARIS (AP) — France's national agricultural institute is investigating how a lamb whose mother had been genetically modified with a jellyfish protein as part of a medical experiment was sold as meat.
In a statement Tuesday, the INRA said the lamb was sold for meat in October 2014 in the Paris region. The lamb was part of a heart disease research project, which modified animals with a commonly used protein derived from jellyfish that turned cells fluorescent.
The institute said the jellyfish protein was not a threat to human health but that prosecutors were notified of the lamb's entry into the food chain after an internal investigation at the institute. It warned about inappropriate staff behavior in the unit where the lamb was kept.
It's illegal in France to sell genetically modified food.
Earth science: New estimates of deep carbon cycle
Over billions of years, the total carbon content of the outer part of the Earth -- in its upper mantle, crust, oceans, and atmospheres -- has gradually increased, scientists reported this month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Craig Manning, a professor of geology and geochemistry at UCLA, and Peter Kelemen, a geochemistry professor at Columbia University, present new analyses that represent an important advance in refining our understanding of Earth's deep carbon cycle.
Manning and Kelemen studied how carbon, the chemical basis of all known life, behaves in a variety of tectonic settings. They assessed, among other factors, how much carbon is added to Earth's crust and how much carbon is released into the atmosphere. The new model combines measurements, predictions and calculations.
Their research includes analysis of existing data on samples taken at sites around the world as well as new data from Oman.
A look at N2O: Nitrous oxide emissions may be higher than previously thought
In addition to carbon dioxide there are plenty of other greenhouse gases. Nitrous oxide is one of them. However, a global assessment of emissions from the oceans is difficult because the measurement methods used so far have only allowed rough estimates. Using a new technology for continuous measurements, researchers of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel have now discovered that nitrous oxide emissions from the Southeast Pacific are much higher than previously thought. They publish their data in the international journal Nature Gesoscience.
Originally it became famous as an anesthetic gas used by dentists. However, laughing gas, or chemically correct nitrous oxide, is also found in large quantities in nature and has serious effects on climate: In the lower atmosphere it is a strong greenhouse gas, and in higher layers of the atmosphere it contributes indirectly to the destruction of ozone. “A global assessment of marine nitrous oxide emissions is, however, difficult because we do not know exactly where and how much nitrous oxide is produced," says marine chemist Damian L. Arévalo-Martínez from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. Together with colleagues from GEOMAR and the University of Kiel (CAU), he presents new data in the international scientific journal Nature Geoscience, showing that the Southeast Pacific has been significantly underestimated as a source of nitrous oxide.
The published data are based on three expeditions of the German research vessel METEOR, which took place off Peru between November 2012 and March 2013. Together, the Kiel-based collaborative research centre “SFB 754” and the SOPRAN project have studied the extensive oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) off Peru since 2008. “In that area, like on the eastern boundaries of other tropical oceans, nutrient-rich waters from deeper water layers are transported to the surface,” explains co-author Prof. Dr. Hermann Bange, also from GEOMAR. This results in intense plankton growth close to the surface, which upon death, sinks on the water column.
When microorganisms decompose this biomass, they thereby consume more oxygen than can be supplied by surrounding waters and thus the oxygen concentration decreases. Of all the tropical OMZs the one in the Pacific is the largest. “We know that oxygen depletion also affects the nitrogen cycle and favors the production of nitrous oxide,” says Damian L. Arévalo-Martínez. However, previous measurements allowed only rough estimations of its release to the atmosphere.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
5 Ways the Pope Is Making Right-Wing Heads Explode
SCOTUS Might Be About to Mess With the Fair Housing Act
AUDIO: Chris Hedges on Rebels, Visionaries and ‘Wages of Rebellion’
‘Sentence First, Verdict Afterwards’: The ‘Alice in Wonderland’ World of Secret Trade Agreements
Government Wants to Improve Its Cybersecurity and Weaken Ours
Celebration Day at the US Chamber of Commerce? A Debate on Who Benefits From the TPP
ISIS and the Shia Revival in Iraq
The deep, emotionally- and spiritually-offensive nature of certain political symbols
Dem Senators Made Money Off Their Votes: You Get To Return to School
Hellraisers Journal: Settlement Appears Likely in Chicago Teamsters Strike. Praise for Police Chief
650-year-old dress code modified
A Little Night Music
Sam Lay - Goin' Back To Alabama
Sam Lay in Bluesland - Sam Lay & Mississippi John
The Sam Lay Blues Band - You´re So Fine
Sam Lay Blues Band - Stone Blues
The Sam Lay Blues Band - Eight Feet Baby
Sam Lay Blues Band - Rush Hour Blues
Sam Lay - I Got Two Women
Chicago Blues Reunion (Sam Lay) - Hound Dog & Roll Over Beethoven
Sam Lay - Baby How Long
Sam Lay - Trouble No More
The Sam Lay Blues Band - I´m The One
Sam Lay - Sloppy Drunk
Sam Lay Blues Band - Shuffle Master
Sam Lay - Gonna Boogie
The Sam Lay Blues Band - Mean Disposition
Sam Lay Band - Walkin' Thru The Park
Sam Lay : Rock Me Baby / King Bee
The Sam Lay Band - Mojo Hand