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 blues guitarist, singer and songwriter Lowell Fulson. Enjoy!
Lowell Fulson @ Mark Naftalin's Blue Monday Party
“The lobby is the army of the plutocracy.”
-- William Graham Sumner
News and Opinion
Big Money Stalls Key Dodd-Frank Anti-Corruption Rule for 5 Years and Counting
When Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill five years ago, on July 21, 2010, he looked extremely pleased with himself. It had been a tough fight, he said: “We had to overcome the furious lobbying of an array of powerful interest groups and a partisan minority determined to block change.” But now, Obama proclaimed, the bill’s reforms “will become the law of the land.”
HA HA PSYCH.
The reality of U.S. politics is that good ideas don’t win and take effect just because they’ve “become the law.” ... One case study is Dodd-Frank’s Section 1504. Congress, on July 21, 2010, gave the Securities and Exchange Commission 270 days to issue a rule on how exactly to implement it. Today, 1,821 days later, there still is no rule. ...
Section 1504 requires corporations traded on U.S. stock exchanges to publicly disclose the payments they make to governments for natural resources on all of their projects around the world.
The SEC did finally issue a rule for Section 1504 in August 2012, after a lawsuit by Oxfam America. But then the American Petroleum Institute, the main trade group for the oil industry, challenged the rules, and they were vacated by a U.S. District Court. Now the SEC claims it will issue a “proposed rule” — only the first step in the process — in April 2016.
Eurozone ready to start formal talks with Greece over €86bn bailout
The eurozone is ready to start formal talks with Athens over an €86bn (£60bn) bailout, paving the way for a month of wrangling over the bitterly disputed question of easing Greece’s debt burden.
Greece is also getting a €7bn emergency bridging loan from an EU-wide rescue fund, ensuring it will not crash out of the eurozone on Monday when a critical debt repayment falls due.
The emergency €7bn loan was approved with the unanimous consent of 27 EU countries, after the UK and other non-eurozone countries were offered safeguards aimed at protecting their taxpayers from a Greek default.
Clearing EU Hurdles, Greek Austerity Package Moves Forward
The German Parliament on Friday voted yes on entering a new round of negotiations for a Greek bailout, and the European Union formally approved a bridging loan—two steps that move the controversial €86 billion rescue package for debt-ridden Greece forward past a significant hurdle.
With tempers running high in the streets on Friday, members of German Parliament cast their ballots on Greece's financial future following a tenacious—if rambling—speech by finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble. Both he and Merkel said the deal was a "last attempt" to help Greece, which has taken two previous bailouts in the past five years.
Germany is not the only country voting on the bailout on Friday. Austria approved it earlier in the day, and next in line are Latvia and Estonia.
EFSM: Council approves €7bn bridge loan to Greece
On 17 July 2015, the Council adopted a decision granting up to €7.16bn in short term financial assistance to Greece under the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM).
The loan will have a maximum maturity of three months and will be disbursed in up to two instalments. It will allow Greece to clear its arrears with the IMF and the Bank of Greece and to repay the ECB, until Greece would start receiving financing under a new programme from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). ...
The Council also adopted a decision approving a macro-economic adjustment programme setting out specific economic policy conditions attached to the financial assistance. The reforms undertaken by Greece are aimed at improving the sustainability of its public finances and the regulatory environment. Specifically, Greece was required to adopt legislation to reform its VAT and pension systems, strengthen the governance of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), and implement by 15 July 2015 the relevant provisions of the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance. The adjustment programme will be set out in a memorandum of understanding (MOU).
The financial assistance would be disbursed once the MOU and a loan facility agreement setting out in detail the financial terms have entered into force. Both are to be signed by the Commission and the Greek authorities.
Lapavitsas Calls for Exit as the Only Strategy for Greek People
Germany, Not Greece, Should Exit the Euro
Now that the idea of exit is in the air ... it's worth thinking beyond the current political reality and considering who should go. Were Greece to leave, possibly followed by Portugal and Italy in the subsequent years, the countries' new currencies would fall sharply in value. This would leave them unable to pay debts in euros, triggering cascading defaults. Although the currency depreciation would eventually make them more competitive, the economic pain would be prolonged and would inevitably extend beyond their borders.
If, however, Germany left the euro area -- as influential people including Citadel founder Kenneth Griffin, University of Chicago economist Anil Kashyap and the investor George Soros have suggested -- there really would be no losers.
A German return to the deutsche mark would cause the value of the euro to fall immediately, giving countries in Europe's periphery a much-needed boost in competitiveness. Italy and Portugal have about the same gross domestic product today as when the euro was introduced, and the Greek economy, having briefly soared, is now in danger of falling below its starting point. A weaker euro would give them a chance to jump-start growth. If, as would be likely, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Finland followed Germany's lead, perhaps to form a new currency bloc, the euro would depreciate even further.
The disruption from a German exit would be minor. Because a deutsche mark would buy more goods and services in Europe (and in the rest of the world) than does a euro today, the Germans would become richer in one stroke. Germany's assets abroad would be worth less in terms of the pricier deutsche marks, but German debts would be easier to repay. ...
Perhaps the greatest gain would be political. Germany relishes the role of a hegemon in Europe, but it has proven unwilling to bear the cost. By playing the role of bully with a moral veneer, it is doing the region a disservice. Rather than building "an ever closer union" in Europe, the Germans are endangering its delicate fabric. To stay close, Europe's nations may need to loosen the ties that bind them so tightly.
China and Greece Wobble, Canada Dips Into Recession, Yellen Unfazed
Protesters were throwing fire bombs in the streets of Athens last evening over harsh new austerity measures being imposed on Greece, where banks and the stock market remain shuttered. One third of the stocks on the Chinese stock market remain suspended from trading in an effort to avert a crash. Bloomberg Business is reporting that institutional investors are holding the highest levels of cash since shortly after the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008. And just yesterday, America’s largest export market, Canada, slashed interest rates as its central bank announced its economy had contracted in the first two quarters of this year.
The global landscape is beginning to look like the inevitable dystopian reality of a world ruled by the 1 percent.
Against this backdrop, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, with her incessant chatter about raising interest rates before the year is out to dampen the potential for an overheating economy in the U.S., is increasingly sounding like the weatherman who is forecasting sunshine and clear skies without bothering to pull back the drapes to see gale force winds, a torrential downpour and rowboats in the streets. ...
Since the Wall Street induced financial crash in 2008, unfortunately, the “natural sequence” has been tepid U.S. growth in the range of 2 percent with periodic quarters of contraction. That tide continues to lift a lot of boats on Wall Street, but around the U.S. and around the globe we are witnessing sinking and leaky boats. ...
There is a growing feeling as we look at debt strapped Detroit, Puerto Rico, Greece and China, that the debt liquidation cycle that should have played out after the 2008 crash, was artificially preempted by central bankers in the U.S. and around the world flooding the markets with liquidity and postponing the day of reckoning. ... At some point in the not so distant future, Yellen is going to have to walk back her rate hike talk. Expect to hear a lot of finger-pointing at Greece, China, the Eurozone and Canada and none at Wall Street, the casino that broke the banks in 2008.
Welcome to Don Quixote airport: cost €1bn, sold to China for €10,000
It cost €1bn (£694m) to build and was on sale for a knockdown price of €40m, but has finally been sold for just €10,000. Ciudad Real airport, one of the most notorious emblems of Spain’s economic crash, has found a buyer.
A Chinese-led consortium has bought the deserted site 100 miles south of Madrid for an apparent bargain after no one met the much reduced valuation. Its facilities include a runway long enough to land an Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger plane, along with a passenger terminal that could handle 10m travellers per year. It is also in pristine condition because it has barely been used, having opened to international flights in 2010 as the eurozone crisis raged, only to shut two years later. ...
But Tzaneen International, a Chinese company set up in March with just €4,000 in capital, believes it can succeed where others have failed. Its bid – the only offer – succeeded at a public auction. Its initial €10,000 outlay buys all the land and most of the buildings, including the runway and control tower. Tzaneen says it also wants to acquire the terminal building and the car parks and is prepared to invest up to €100m in the project because “there are several Chinese companies that want to make the airport the European point of entry for cargo”. ...
The airport went into administration with debts of €529m and a judge ordered that an auction be held to pay these off. In an outcome typical of Spain’s financial crisis, the biggest creditors are savings banks, who are owed €233m. Locals whose property was compulsorily purchased to allow the construction of the airport are claiming a further €106m. The airport drove the Castilla-La Mancha savings bank, a 68% shareholder in the scheme, to bankruptcy, but not before it had handed out multimillion-euro payoffs to its directors.
First US-Trained Rebels, All 54 of Them, Enter Syria
A convoy of vehicles crossed into Syria from neighboring Turkey, and are being called the “New Syrian Force” by Pentagon officials. 30 vehicles strong, the force amounts to 54 fighters with some rudimentary training and some pricey US aid.
The Pentagon is refusing to confirm the details of the new deployment of NSF fighters, saying that for “operational security” they aren’t allowed to discuss where they are and what they’re doing. ... CENTCOM spokesman Major Curtis Kellogg did, however, insist that the NSF personnel are going to be “countering ISIS” now that their training is over. With 54 troops, however, the real question is whether ISIS will even notice they’re being confronted by this new faction.
Retired General: Drones Create More Terrorists Than They Kill, Iraq War Helped Create ISIS
Retired Army Gen. Mike Flynn, a top intelligence official in the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, says in a forthcoming interview on Al Jazeera English that the drone war is creating more terrorists than it is killing. He also asserts that the U.S. invasion of Iraq helped create the Islamic State and that U.S. soldiers involved in torturing detainees need to be held legally accountable for their actions.
Flynn, who in 2014 was forced out as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, has in recent months become an outspoken critic of the Obama administration’s Middle East strategy, calling for a more hawkish approach to the Islamic State and Iran.
But his enthusiasm for the application of force doesn’t extend to the use of drones. In the interview with Al Jazeera presenter Mehdi Hasan, set to air July 31, the former three star general says: “When you drop a bomb from a drone … you are going to cause more damage than you are going to cause good.” Pressed by Hasan as to whether drone strikes are creating more terrorists than they kill, Flynn says, “I don’t disagree with that.” He describes the present approach of drone warfare as “a failed strategy.”
“What we have is this continued investment in conflict,” the retired general says. “The more weapons we give, the more bombs we drop, that just … fuels the conflict.” ...
Before his tenure at JSOC, operatives of the force had already become notorious for operating secretive prison facilities in Iraq where the torture of detainees had become routine. In his interview, Flynn denied any personal role in these abuses, while calling for accountability for U.S. soldiers who had been responsible. “You know I hope that as more and more information comes out that people are held accountable,” Flynn says. “History is not going to look kind on those actions … and we will be held, we should be held accountable for many, many years to come.”
U.S. Aid to Yemen Has Been Rotting Away in Virginia Warehouse for 8 Years
Two hundred parcels of U.S. taxpayer-paid supplies intended to help Yemen protect itself from terrorists have been literally rotting away in a private storage facility in Virginia since 2007.
The items “remain unshipped in a private warehouse in Virginia rather than meeting the intended goal of building and maintaining Yemeni security forces’ capability to counter threats such as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP),” wrote the Government Accountability Office in a report issued Wednesday.
A large portion of the equipment has deteriorated in some way, including expired medical supplies, corroded batteries, and low-grade explosives. Some of the materials are hazardous and will require special disposal techniques.
Among the parcels: Night-vision goggles originally valued at around $600,000, which require a special license from the State Department to export to foreign military units. Those licenses have since expired.
The government of Yemen purchased the equipment from the United States using Foreign Military Financing grants. Those taxpayer-funded grants allow the U.S. to offer defense and training equipment to certain partner nations.
It’s time to rewrite the Constitution: Why our governments ability to decide war & peace is totally broken
It’s time to rewrite Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution, or at least the part that says “the Congress shall have power … to declare war.” Given Congress’ recent behavior, it seems they’d prefer that clause to read, “the Congress shall have power to thwart peace, but the Executive can go to war any damn time he wants.”
After all, while most members of Congress have proven completely disinterested in declaring a war on the Islamic State – even though we’ve been at war against them for almost a year – a large percentage Congress seems intent on squelching President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. ...
It took Obama six months before he asked Congress for an “Authorization to Use Military Force” against ISIS. But it was framed such that both Democrats, trying to place real limits on the Executive, and Republicans, pushing for ground troops, had reason to oppose it. When Congress held hearings in March, some were unhappy with the Administration’s admission that they had written the AUMF to preserve flexibility. Predictably, Congress refused to pass the AUMF in that form. Republicans asked the Administration to write a new draft — but why would they? So in spite of ongoing efforts from a few in Congress — who believe the Legislative Branch should fulfill the role enumerated in the Constitution to declare war — to generate some enthusiasm for actually authorizing the war that has been going on for 11 months, it is just not happening.
So, for political and legislative reasons, Congress seems unlikely to ever actually authorize this war. But unless they defund it, that won’t stop the Administration from doing what it wants in the name of fighting ISIS.
Japan's Continued Lurch Toward Militarism Prompts Public Outcry
Inciting public protests and a walkout by opposition lawmakers, Japan's lower house of parliament passed a set of controversial security bills on Thursday, paving the way for the country's military to potentially fight abroad for the first time since World War II.
The move offered further evidence of the pacifist nation's march toward militarism, with one protester telling NBC News: "This is going to make it easier to go to war. It's wrong." According to news outlets, hundreds of protesters stood outside the parliament building on Thursday, chanting anti-war slogans during the debate and vote. Some held banners that read: "No to war legislation!"
According to Irish Times reporter David McNeill in Tokyo, most members of Japan's opposition parties walked out of the chamber in protest before the vote on Thursday afternoon. Some shouted "shame" and held signs calling the bills "unforgivable." ...
According to the Associated Press, polls show about 80 percent of Japanese oppose the bills and the majority believe the legislation is unconstitutional. Sheila Smith, writing at the Council on Foreign Relations' Asia Unbound blog, states that "[c]itizen activism against the prime minister’s policies is spreading, and on the streets and in town halls across Japan, there is a push to build a coalition of opposition to Abe’s effort at defense policy reform."
Outrage Grows After Mysterious Death of #BlackLivesMatter Activist Sandra Bland in Texas Jail
How Racist Is Solitary Confinement?
A new study authored by health officials with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) shows that racial disparities in jail run far deeper: black and Hispanic inmates are vastly more likely to be punished with solitary confinement than their white counterparts, and less likely to receive diagnoses of mental illness. The study, which is based on the records of 45,000 first-time inmates in the New York City jail system between 2011 and 2013, found that black people were 2.52 times more likely than whites to be put in solitary, where inmates spend 22 to 24 hours a day alone in a cell. Hispanics were 1.65 times more likely to enter solitary. And while blacks and Hispanics represented 40 and 46 percent of the study population, respectively, they comprised a much smaller portion of those admitted to the jail system’s mental health service: 16 and 13 percent. Twenty-two percent of mental health patients were white, though they made up just 9 percent of the study.
The federal government does not keep track of the racial composition of the roughly 80,000 people in solitary in America, though the study findings fall in line with data from a handful of states suggesting that people of color in other jurisdictions are locked in extreme isolation at similarly disproportionate rates.
“Jail is a microcosm of society,” said Dr. Daniel Selling, who ran mental health services at Rikers until mid-2014. “A lot of society thinks that black and brown people are criminals.” Diagnosing mental disorders is a very subjective process, he added. “You’re using objective criteria, but three different people could come up with three different diagnoses.” Racial bias creeps in. White inmates, the study found, are more likely to be diagnosed with mental problems that are generally thought to be more “legitimate,” disorders like anxiety or depression — afflictions that respond well to medication. White patients are also more likely to be diagnosed with “serious mental illnesses” like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, both of which exempt prisoners from solitary in New York state, can help them secure benefits when they’re released, and tend to elicit more sympathy. Whites are also more often diagnosed within seven days of being incarcerated.
Although jail medical staff are less likely to give black and Hispanic patients a mental health diagnosis, when they do they will more often assign these inmates mood, adjustment or antisocial personality disorders. The latter can be “pejorative,” Selling said, meaning the diagnosis is more of a reflection of a negative interaction between the patient and the clinician, “where maybe somebody was a dick because they were angry or they were frustrated.”
“It’s like a scarlet letter,” Selling adds. Clinicians who see the patient down the line will expect “someone who is going to be manipulative, who is going to be gaming the system, who is going to be aggressive.”
The War on Drugs is a War on Minorities: Former El Reno Prison Inmate Freed by Obama Speaks Out
Northeast ‘Joe Hill 100 Roadshow’ Kicks Off in DC
On a summer night, what could be better than laughing, singing, and toe-tapping your way through some radical labor history?
If you live in the Northeast, you’re in luck. The second leg of the “Joe Hill 100 Roadshow” kicks off in Washington, DC, on July 23 with Magpie, Charlie King, and George Mann among the featured artists.
It’s part of a year-long celebration of the life and songs of famed Wobbly (Industrial Workers of the World) organizer and songwriter Joe Hill, who died 100 years ago but famously “never died.”
“Joe Hill created a body of very practical, well-crafted songs that wear very well a century later,” says Charlie King. “The 1% are as tenacious as then, and the 99% need the demystifying reminders found in Wobbly songs. An injury to one is still an injury to all.”
The tour continues through Baltimore, New York City, and New England, ending in Boston on August 2. Special guests at some concerts include Joe Jencks, Evan Greer, and the NYC and DC labor choruses.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature from the Chicago Day Book: the U. M. W. A. Should call a nation-wide general strike for Lawson, says Haywood.
Tune in at 2pm!
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What would our founders make of this nightmare?
Four qualities have distinguished republican government from ancient Athens forward: the sovereignty of the people; a sense of the common good; government dedicated to the commonwealth; and resistance to corruption. Measured against the standards established for republics from ancient times, the American Republic is massively corrupt.
From Plato and Aristotle forward, corruption was meant to describe actions and decisions that put a narrow, special, or personal interest ahead of the interest of the public or commonwealth. Corruption did not have to stoop to money under the table, vote buying, or even renting out the Lincoln bedroom. In the governing of a republic, corruption was self-interest placed above the interest of all—the public interest.
By that standard, can anyone seriously doubt that our republic, our government, is corrupt? There have been Teapot Domes and financial scandals of one kind or another throughout our nation’s history. There has never been a time, however, when the government of the United States was so perversely and systematically dedicated to special interests, earmarks, side deals, log-rolling, vote-trading, and sweetheart deals of one kind or another.
What brought us to this? A sinister system combining staggering campaign costs, political contributions, political action committees, special interest payments for access, and, most of all, the rise of the lobbying class.
Worst of all, the army of lobbyists that started relatively small in the mid-twentieth century has now grown to big battalions of law firms and lobbying firms of the right, left, and an amalgam of both. And that gargantuan, if not reptilian, industry now takes on board former members of the House and the Senate and their personal and committee staffs. And they are all getting fabulously rich.
Support for Sanders Grows in Unions
Bernie Sanders’ campaign for president is drawing impressive crowds to rallies across the country—from 7,500 in Burlington, Vermont, to 300 in Birmingham, Alabama.
And it’s no wonder that many union members are part of this groundswell of support, or that he’s already won endorsements from a number of locals and support resolutions from the Vermont and South Carolina AFL-CIOs.
“It would be hard to find many other elected leaders in state or national office who have supported the issues of working families, working people, the working poor, and workplace justice any more than Senator Sanders,” said nurse Mari Cordes, a member of Vermont’s Teachers (AFT) local.
Sanders’ platform includes a $15-an-hour minimum wage, guaranteed vacations and sick leave, lifting the payroll tax cap on Social Security, and single-payer health care. He’s a vocal opponent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the latest corporate-friendly trade deal. He rails against income inequality and how the “billionaire class” dominates politics.
“It’s clear that Bernie, like Elizabeth Warren, has been out there speaking about the issues that are boiling up in union halls across the country,” said Larry Hanley, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union.
While he and the ATU have backed Hillary Clinton for years, Hanley said, “Hillary thus far has not offered us the path that Bernie has.”
So endorsements pose a strategic dilemma. “We don’t want to bruise Hillary so much in the process that she can’t win. We don’t want to lead our members down a dark alley,” he said.
“But at what point do we get our share? At what point do workers get what we had 30 years ago? We don’t just get that by saluting the status quo.”
Hillary Clinton's plan for the minimum wage: low on details, big on going local
The Democratic presidential candidate has seemingly punted the idea of a federal minimum wage – a departure from her fellow Democrats on the trail
Hillary Clinton might have rolled out her economic policy on Monday, but many specifics of what she intends to do as president of the United States remain unclear. Among them: the federal minimum wage.
The former secretary of state and current frontrunner for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination has so far declined to say what she thinks would be the ideal national minimum wage. While campaigning in New Hampshire this week, she implied that the ideal wage might differ depending on location.
“I support the local efforts that are going on that are making it possible for people working in certain localities to actually earn $15,” Clinton said in a response to a question from a BuzzFeed News reporter on Thursday while campaigning in New Hampshire.
Among those opposing raising the federal minimum wage are businesses big and large. As she has campaigned the past few months, more than once Clinton has said she wants to be a small-business president, and referring the issue of minimum wage increases to local government could be just the way to win them over.
Other Democratic presidential candidates have a different approach.
Climate Activists Protest Clinton In NH
The Evening Greens
Here's Why Alaska's Wildfires Are Really Bad News for Everyone
With more than 300 wildfires and nearly 4.5 million acres burned this year, 2015 is already Alaska's fifth largest fire season and on pace to be its largest ever.
Alaska is warming up twice as fast as the lower 48 states and projected to get 2 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit hotter by mid-century. Across the state, 2014 was the hottest on record and Barrow, the state's northernmost city, located in the Arctic Circle, saw its hottest May and June ever.
Make no mistake: intense forest fires are normal for the state, but the New Jersey-sized chunk that's burned so far this year "is a pretty amazing start" to the fire season, said Scott Rupp, a fire ecologist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
"We had record hot, dry conditions. We lost our snowpack, which was minimal in some parts of the state. There was little-to-no snow cover whatsoever [in others]," Rupp told VICE News. "That really set up the landscape to be quite conducive to burning." ...
An increasingly fiery North could be especially consequential due to what lies underneath: permafrost, the icy soil which spans 85 percent of Alaska, half of Canada, and a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere. Made up of frozen organic matter, permafrost locks away a vast amount of greenhouse gasses — an estimated 1,700 to 1,850 gigatons of carbon, more than double what is currently in the atmosphere.
The top "active" layer of permafrost thaws and refreezes each year, with the deeper layer remaining frozen. Depending on the thaw, carbon dioxide or methane — which is 25 times more effective at trapping heat on a 100-year time scale — is released.
While nobody is projecting that most or all of the permafrost will melt, if enough does, the Earth could hit a key feedback loop. The more permafrost that thaws, the greater the amount of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere. With more heat trapping gases, temperatures rise, which leads to more permafrost melt.
Climate change seen as greatest threat by global population
Climate change is what the world’s population perceives as the top global threat, according to research conducted by the Pew Research Center, with countries in Latin America and Africa particularly concerned about the issue.
It is followed by global economic instability and the Islamic State militant group.
The survey, conducted in 40 countries and taking in the views of more than 45,000 respondents, attempts to measure perceptions of global threats. In 19 of the 40 countries polled, climate change was found to be the issue of highest concern.
SeaWorld suspends employee accused of infiltrating animal rights group
The American theme park SeaWorld has suspended an employee who allegedly infiltrated an animal rights group in a bid to undermine its work.
The animal welfare group People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) claims that SeaWorld deployed a man to masquerade as an activist in the San Diego area, taking part in protests and organisational meetings. ...
Peta, which says that the man known as Thomas Jones is actually Paul McComb, a human resources employee at the San Diego theme park, criticised SeaWorld’s response and said it was prepared to expose two more SeaWorld infiltrators.
“SeaWorld is scrambling to distance itself from something that it cannot talk its way out of,” Peta president Ingrid Newkirk said in response to the SeaWorld statement. “Chances are that the McComb affair is just the tip of the iceberg in SeaWorld’s dirty tricks department.”
New Report Shatters Myth of 'Nuclear Renaissance'
If renewable energy advocates need more evidence that solar and wind are better investments than nuclear power, a new report may offer just that.
The findings come from the newly releasedWorld Nuclear Industry Status Report 2015, which looks at global nuclear developments over the past year.
Marking a first in five decades, Japan went without nuclear power for an entire year, the report states. And three of the world’s largest economies—China, Germany, Japan—as well as Brazil, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Spain, now all generate more electricity from non-hydro renewables than from nuclear. ...
Global generation from solar was up 38 percent, and wind power increased over 10 percent. In contrast, nuclear power generation was up just 2.2 percent.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
The Chattanooga Shootings: Can Attacking Military Sites of a Nation at War be "Terrorism"?
How Belgian anti-Greece hawk Verhofstadt hid his financial interest in Greek energy privatisations
The end of capitalism has begun
The Next Gaza War
Economic Update: Capitalism and Its Others
The Troubling Implications of Hillary's Anti-BDS Letter
Tourists in Greece: 'Don't tell the cook we're German'
Legal News out of Oklahoma
Senator Warren: "Anyone running for President should say loud and clear:"
A Little Night Music
Lowell Fulson & Lloyd Glenn - Reconsider Baby
Lowell Fulson - You're Gonna Miss Me
Lowell Fulson - Black Nights
Lowell Fulsom - Everyday I Have The Blues
Lowell Fulsom - Tramp
Lowell Fulson - Low Society
Lowell Fulson - Three O'Clock Blues
Lowell Fulson - Strange Feeling
Lowell Fulson - The Thing
Lowell Fulson interview
Lowell Fulson Feat Lloyd Glenn - Blue Shadows
Lowell Fulson - Jukebox Shuffle
Lowell Fulson - Bluesway
Lowell Fulson - Stoned to the Bone
Lowell Fulson - Mean Old Lonesome Song
Lowell Fulson - Check Yourself
Lowell Fulson - Guitar Shuffle
Lowell Fulson - Cash Box Boogie
Lowell Fulson - Love Grows Cold
Lowell Fulson - Blues Pain
Lowell Fulson - That's Allright
Lowell Fulson - Rollin' Blues
Lowell Fulson w/ Henry Oden and the St Vitas Dance Band
Lowell Fulson, Jimmy McCracklin Real Name is Danger Zone
Lowell Fulson - Baby Won't You Jump With Me
Lowell Fulson - Blues Rhumba
B.B. King and Lowell Fulson - Little by Little
Lowell Fulson - Hung Down Head
Lowell Fulson - I Feel So Good
Lowell Fulson - Working Man
Lowell Fulsom - Talkin' Woman
Lowell Fulson - Rock This Mornin'