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 harmonica player Big Walter Horton. Enjoy!
Big Walter Horton & Charlie Musselwhite - Chicago Blues Festival
“In a culture that is becoming ever more story-stupid, in which a representative of the Coca-Cola company can, with a straight face, pronounce, as he donates a collection of archival Coca-Cola commercials to the Library of Congress, that 'Coca-Cola has become an integral part of people's lives by helping to tell these stories,' it is perhaps not surprising that people have trouble teaching and receiving a novel as complex and flawed as Huck Finn, but it is even more urgent that we learn to look passionately and technically at stories, if only to protect ourselves from the false and manipulative ones being circulated among us.”
-- George Saunders
News and Opinion
Turkey Calls NATO Meeting, Says Territorial Integrity Under Threat
NATO has announced that the North Atlantic Council, the alliance’s decision-making body, will be holding a Tuesday meeting after being called by Turkey invoking an Article 4 request, meaning the country believes its territorial integrity is under threat. ...
ISIS carried out a bombing in southern Turkey, near the Kurdish city of Kobani, killing 32 people last week. Since then, Turkish troops have fought ISIS along the border and carried out airstrikes against ISIS targets in northern Syria. At the same time, Turkey began attacking PKK targets in northern Iraq on Friday, and are accusing the PKK of being behinda bombing that killed two Turkish soldiers Sunday.
Since Turkey is a member nation, NATO is obliged to provide military support to defend its borders from foreign threats. This could be used by hawkish NATO nations, parlaying Turkish sovereignty into an excuse to make the ISIS war a formal NATO operation, and one that would be dramatically escalated in the process.
Turkey’s New “War on Terror” Mainly Targeting Kurds
What was at first announced as a new Turkish turn toward attacks on Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on Friday has quickly become largely a campaign against Kurds instead. It is being alleged that the Turkish Air Force launched dozens of strikes against bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party over the border in Iraq on Saturday, and just 4 against Daesh positions in Syria.
What is weird about the Turkish campaign against the Kurdish forces is that they have been the only really effective fighters against Daesh with the exception of Shiite militias in Iraq. If you were going to launch a campaign against Daesh, would you do it by damaging Daesh’s most effective foe on the ground?
Early on Sunday Turkish police in the capital of Ankara dispersed hundreds of Kurdish activists who gathered to protest the bombardments, and arrested 25. the headlines say something about the protesters not wanting the campaign against Daesh, but these were mostly Kurds and they weren’t demonstrating in favor of the beheaders. Turkey’s twin campaign has a propaganda element that the press is sometimes falling for. ...
The PKK had had a truce with the Turkish government since 2013, but a PKK spokesman said Saturday that the truce, and any peace process are at an end given the bombing campaign Ankara launched against them.
Assad Admits Syrian Army’s 'Shortage of Manpower' — But Vows to Win Bloody Conflict
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad vowed in his first public speech in a year that his forces would eventually prevail in the bloody conflict that has gripped the country for five years, even as the regime seeks more troops to help fight.
In a televised speech on Sunday morning, Assad admitted to a "shortage of manpower" as his government fights on multiple fronts with both Islamic State (IS) militants and other rebel groups that have seized control of several key areas of the country.
"We are not collapsing. We are steadfast and will achieve victory," Assad said, according to the Associated Press. "Defeat does not exist in the dictionary of the Syrian Arab army." ...
The Syrian leader addressed how the army was fighting in multiple areas, and had retreated along some fronts. Major sections of the country have fallen under IS control, including the city of Idlib and the historic city of Palmyra.
"It was necessary to specify critical areas for our armed forces to hang on to," Assad said, referencing territory lost to insurgents. "Concern for our soldiers forces us to let go of some areas."
He acknowledged the losses have led to "frustration" among Syrian residents, adding "every inch of Syria is precious."
Israel Launches Diplomatic Push to Kill Human Rights Groups
Between war crimes, settlements, and intermittent military demolitions of Palestinian villages, the Israeli government faces a lot of criticism from human rights groups, and they don’t very much like it. Years of railing at such groups as “terror enablers” hasn’t gained much traction, however, and now Israeli Deputy FM Tzipi Hotovely has announced a major diplomatic push, demanding Europe and the rest of the world end all funding for human rights groups that have anything to say about Israel. ...
Hotovely warned EU officials that if they didn’t agree to end all European funding to all human rights groups, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset,would pass a law to ban all the groups outright, suggesting that Europe could save the groups’ existence, albeit in a defunded manner, by blocking any money going to them.
Chinese shares tumble 8.5 percent in biggest one-day drop since 2007
Chinese shares slid more than 8 percent on Monday as an unprecedented government rescue plan to prop up valuations ran out of steam, throwing Beijing's efforts to stave off a deeper crash into doubt.
Major indexes suffered their largest one-day drop since 2007, shattering three weeks of relative calm in China's volatile stock markets since Beijing unleashed a barrage of support measures to arrest a slump that started in mid-June.
"The lesson from China's last equity bubble is that, once sentiment has soured, policy interventions aimed at shoring up prices have only a short-lived effect," wrote Capital Economics analysts in a research note reacting to the slide.
Beppe: Nationalize Banks to Throw Off 'Anti-Democratic Straitjacket' of Eurozone
Longtime critic of the Eurozone's destructive commitment to austerity, Italian comedian-turned-political activist Beppe Grillo has launched what one news outlet called a "full-throated attack" on the single currency, saying his country should throw off that "anti-democratic straitjacket" by nationalizing its banks and taking a stronger stance against the demands of elite financial interests.
Grillo, who the Guardian says "transformed Italian politics when he launched his anti-establishment Five Star Movement in 2009," called for Italy to exit the Euro in order to guard against the threat of bankruptcy and German-imposed austerity.
In comments written at his blog, Grillo criticized Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras while comparing Germany's conduct during recent bailout negotiations to "explicit Nazism." He said that in the wake of the Greek crisis, Italy should be prepared to use its whopping debt as a weapon against foreign creditors. ...
In a separate interview this week with the Financial Times, Grillo said of the so-called Troika: "They don't care if they have to put tens of millions of people into hunger to balance an account, it's collateral damage. We've entrusted our lives to people who know nothing about life."
Responding to Grillo's comments, Open Europe's Vincenzo Scarpetta told the Guardian and Portuguese business daily Jornal de Negócios: "The Greek deal and negotiations have helped [Italy’s anti-euro parties] make the case that it is impossible to reform the euro from the inside."
How the Greek Shipping Industry Schemed to Win Big in the Debt Crisis
Varoufakis claims had approval to plan parallel banking system
Former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has claimed that he was authorized by Alexis Tsipras last December to look into a parallel payment system that would operate using wiretapped tax registration numbers (AFMs) and could eventually work as a parallel banking system, Kathimerini has learned.
In a teleconference call with members of international hedge funds that was allegedly coordinated by former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont, Varoufakis claimed to have been given the okay by Tsipras last December – a month before general elections that brought SYRIZA to power – to plan a payment system that could operate in euros but which could be changed into drachmas “overnight” if necessary, Kathimerini understands.
Varoufakis worked with a small team to prepare the plan, which would have required a staff of 1,000 to implement but did not get the final go-ahead from Tsipras to proceed, he said.
The call took place on July 16, more than a week after Varoufakis left his post as finance minister.
Yanis Varoufakis defends secret plan for parallel Greek payment system
Yanis Varoufakis has just released a statement defending his work creating a parallel payment system during his time as finance minister.
The statement, from “the Office of Yanis Varoufakis”, insists that he was fully authorised to carry out the work.
It also criticises the media for their “far-fetched” articles, and denies the claim that he ever planned to hijack all taxpayers tax file numbers [which he does not actually say on the leaked Tapes].
[Here's part of Varoufakis' statement - js]
During the Greek government’s negotiations with the Eurogroup, Minister Varoufakis oversaw a Working Group with a remit to prepare contingency plans against the creditors’ efforts to undermine the Greek government and in view of forces at work within the Eurozone to have Greece expelled from the euro. The Working Group was convened by the Minister, at the behest of the Prime Minister, and was coordinated by Professor James K. Galbraith. (Click here for a statement on the matter by Professor Galbraith).
It is worth noting that, prior to Mr Varoufakis’ comfirmation of the existence of the said Working Group, the Minister was criticized widely for having neglected to make such contingency plans. The Bank of Greece, the ECB, treasuries of EU member-states, banks, international organisations etc. had all drawn up such plans since 2012. Greece’s Ministry of Finance would have been remiss had it made no attempt to draw up contingency plans.
Ever since Mr Varoufakis announced the existence of the Working Group, the media have indulged in far-fetched articles that damage the quality of public debate. The Ministry of Finance’s Working Group worked exclusively within the framework of government policy and its recommendations were always aimed at serving the public interest, at respecting the laws of the land, and at keeping the country in the Eurozone.
Greek insiders: Alexis Tsipras considering November 8 election
Over in Athens prime minister Alexis Tsipras marks six months in office today with his party divided and almost every promise he ever made overturned.
Alexis Tsipras’ political dexterity will be tested again this afternoon when he presides over a critical meeting of his Syriza’s party’s political secretariat. It will not be easy. The coalition of the radical left (if that is what Syriza can now be called) is in shellshock over Tsipras’ embrace of the neo-liberal policies he had once so stridently opposed, in return for talks on a third bailout.`
The argument that no plausible alternative exists is not washing with hardliners who will be in attendance. Indicative of that stance, the Left Platform’s website, ISKRA (so named for the paper set up in exile by Vladimir Lenin) has declared “the battle continues” with hardliners drawing their line in the sand. ...
Tsipras is expected this afternoon to ram home the message that with Greece’s exit from the euro zone presaging assured catastrophe, a third bailout is the only option. “We will demand a central committee party convention,” said one well-placed source who now aligns with the hardliners.
“Tsipras won’t want that because the central committee [Syriza’s governing body] is against the measures but that is what we will do.”
Insiders say Tsipras has a road-map of sorts – one that starts with the new loan agreement being negotiated by August 18, Syriza calling an urgent party conference (which would deal with dissidents) at the end of September and elections being held on November 8.
If Syriza Ruptures, Will Greece's Left Unite to Oppose Austerity?
New Greek bailout talks start, creditors seek more action
Talks between Greece and its international creditors on a third bailout began in Athens on Monday but the lenders want to see more reforms turned into law before they disburse the first loans to keep the near-bankrupt country afloat.
The government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has pushed two packages of measures through parliament this month as conditions for starting negotiations on a three-year loan program worth up to 86 billion euros ($95 billion) to keep Greece in the euro zone.
A spokeswoman for the European Commission said teams from the creditor institutions were now in Athens. "Work has started, meaning that the institutions are talking to the Greek authorities," she said.
Sandra Bland Laid to Rest; First Black Judge in Waller County Demands Sheriff Resign over Her Death
Feds Regularly Monitored Black Lives Matter Since Ferguson
The Department of Homeland Security has been monitoring the Black Lives Matter movement since anti-police protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri last summer, according to hundreds of documents obtained by The Intercept through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The documents, released by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Operations Coordination, indicate that the department frequently collects information, including location data, on Black Lives Matter activities from public social media accounts, including on Facebook, Twitter, and Vine, even for events expected to be peaceful. The reports confirm social media surveillance of the protest movement and ostensibly related events in the cities of Ferguson, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and New York.
They also show the department watching over gatherings that seem benign and even mundane. For example, DHS circulated information on a nationwide series of silent vigils and a DHS-funded agency planned to monitor a funk music parade and a walk to end breast cancer in the nation’s capital.
The tracking of domestic protest groups and peaceful gatherings raises questions over whether DHS is chilling the exercise of First Amendment rights, and over whether the department, created in large part to combat terrorism, has allowed its mission to creep beyond the bounds of useful security activities as its annual budget has grown beyond $60 billion.
White officer pepper-sprays crowd at Black Lives Matter summit in Cleveland
A transit police officer has pepper-sprayed a crowd in Cleveland protesting the arrest of a 14-year-old at a Black Lives Matter conference inspired by police brutality.
The incident occurred near Cleveland State University in the city’s downtown where the first Black Lives Matter conference was taking place. More than 1,200 participants spent the weekend organizing and discussing a range of social justice issues.
According to the Greater Cleveland regional transit authority, its officers were taking an intoxicated teenage bus rider to a police station just as the conference was ending about 5pm. A large crowd blocked the squad car and tried to get the youngster out. One of the officers turned and began pepper-spraying the crowd.
Other law enforcement agencies responded, including Cleveland police department. The youngster was taken examined in an emergency medical service unit, and released to his mother about 6pm.
No arrests were made. The transit authority did not release the officer’s name. The agency’s officers are not affiliated with the city’s police department.
“Collective Healing” at Nat’l Black Lives Matter Convergence Ends with Police Pepper-Spraying Teen
Just the fax: internet activists go analog to fight Congress on cybersecurity bill
Internet activists determined to halt what they see as another ill-conceived Washington cybersecurity bill are hitting Congress where it hurts: right in the fax machine.
Protesters have programmed eight separate phone lines to convert emails sent from a handy box at FaxBigBrother.com (as well as tweets with the hashtag #faxbigbrother) to individual faxes and send them to all 100 members of the US Senate.
The rationale, said Evan Greer of activist group Fight for the Future, is that Congress doesn’t appear to understand technology invented in the current century.
“Groups like Fight for the Future have sent millions of emails, and they still don’t seem to get it,” said Greer. “Maybe they don’t get it because they’re stuck in 1984, and we figured we’d use some 80s technology to try to get our point across.” All 100 members of Congress will receive each of the faxes.
The deluge of badly printed screenshots is in protest of the the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), sponsored by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, which proposes cooperation between government agencies and private tech companies and gives the latter broad latitude to collect as much data as possible from users in the name of cybersecurity and then share it with specific federal agencies, who in turn have latitude to share it with all federal agencies.
Economists Join the Fight For $15!
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature news from New Jersey: "30 Company Guards Arrested by Sheriff in Bayonne; Two Martyred Strikers Buried."
Tune in at 2pm!
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Social Security Trustees' Report Lacks the Usual Panic
Every year the Social Security trustees issue their report on the financial condition of the program. In the past this release was generally accompanied by some serious deep breathing as reporters warned of multi-trillion dollar shortfalls and the impending bankruptcy of the program. This could be accompanied by appeals on behalf of our children by politicians and advocates of cuts to Social Security.
The panic was largely absent from the reporting this year. ...
For more than two decades there have been well-funded efforts to try to scare the public into supporting cuts in Social Security and/or privatizing the program. The most visible person in this effort has been private equity billionaire Peter Peterson, but many other wealthy individuals have signed up for the cause. ...
The scare story could easily be dismantled for anyone willing to take the time to think it through. Yes, the ratio of workers to retirees will fall in the decades ahead, but it has also fallen during the last five decades. That has not prevented both workers and retirees from enjoying large gains in living standards during this period.
Furthermore, while the multi-trillion dollar shortfalls may be lots of money, they are not especially large relative to the size of our economy. In fact, the projected shortfall for Social Security is well under of 1.0 percent of future GDP, a considerably smaller burden than the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A remarkably under-reported aspect of this story is the sharp falloff in the projection of the combined Social Security and Medicare shortfall. Back in 2008, the combined shortfall for these programs was projected at 2.2 percent of future GDP. In the most recent projections the 75-year shortfall in these programs was projected at less than 1.3 percent of GDP. The main reason is a sharp slowing in health-care costs, which translates into large savings for Medicare.
In case any Democrats are interested in exploring the reasons why lots of people, including those who would seem to be the Democrats' natural constituency don't choose to vote - here's an interesting essay ...
I won't vote in US elections anymore – I don't want to be part of a racist system
After 20 years of casting a ballot in every US election, I’m now done with the electoral system. For many Americans, it’s not difficult to find a reason to stay home, be it inertia or unappealing candidates. But I’m not voting because I cannot participate in the electoral system of a government that doesn’t care if black people live or die.
As black Americans, we’ve grown up with the mantra that our ancestors died for the right to vote, so we should never take voting for granted. This was especially true for black Americans like me, who grew up in Southern states where white-dominated legislatures denied their black neighbors access to the ballot for nearly a century. ... But that narrative didn’t take into account the broader history of how the fight for voting rights fit into the greater civil rights movement. The fight for suffrage was only one of the many strategies that black activists used to advance political autonomy and human rights. The struggle for voting from 1865–1965 was merely a means to an end, not the end itself. ...
Democratic party leadership sees nothing wrong with trotting out the history of anti-black oppression during election season to get black people to come to the polls. Electoral staff on Democratic campaigns pull out the same talking points about how John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson supported civil rights and how many current Democratic politicians participated in racial justice activism back in the 1960s.
Yet these same Democrats can’t be bothered to defend black humanity when we are under attack from nearly every sector of society the rest of the year. And no, Bernie Sanders, it is not enough to talk about economic justice and jobs when black labor is devalued as inherently worthless. And no, Hillary Clinton, rallying women to your campaign means nothing when you refuse to acknowledge how women in black communities are specifically subjugated as black women in this country, including black transgender women, who are constantly under attack from both transmisogynist vigilantes and the racist penal system. And no, Martin O’Malley, you don’t get trot out empty promises about criminal justice reform when as Baltimore’s mayor and Maryland’s governor you personally oversaw one of the most viciously brutal and anti-black penal systems in this country. ...
The electoral system’s grudging acknowledgement isn’t enough for me anymore. These days, I choose to focus my time and energy on the work of activists fighting for genuine liberation, instead of a plutocratic electoral system desperate for legitimacy and relevance in a world that is rapidly leaving them behind.
Guess Who Else Is Fundraising for Clinton: Private Prison Lobbyists
In addition to Wall Street and the fossil fuel industry, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is turning to lobbyists for the two biggest private prison companies in the country, Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group, to raise money for her 2016 presidential candidacy.
Lee Fang of The Intercept made the discovery after examining Clinton's list of lobbyists who are bundlers for her presidential bid, released last week. Bundlers are people who raise money for campaigns by organizing and collecting contributions from other donors.
Among those funneling money into Clinton's campaign are:
- Richard Sullivan of the firm Capitol Counsel, documented lobbyist for GEO Group.
- Five employees of lobbying and law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which received $240,000 from CCA last year.
- "Akin Gump lobbyist and Clinton bundler Brian Popper disclosed that he previously helped CCA defeat efforts to compel private prisons to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests," noted Fang.
Fang's reporting comes on the heels of revelations that Clinton's campaign has also benefited from the largesse of the fossil fuel industry and Wall Street.
Critics say the fresh evidence of Clinton's ties to lobbyists for the private prison industry raises a host of new concerns.
Hillary Clinton pledges half a billion solar panels for US if she wins office
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has announced goals for increasing US reliance on renewable energy, pledging to have more than half a billion solar panels installed nationwide within four years of taking office.
Clinton, the frontrunner for her party’s 2016 presidential nomination, also pledged on her website on Sunday that the US would generate enough clean renewable energy to power every home in the country within 10 years of taking office.
The two goals were the first elements of what she said would be a comprehensive climate change agenda to be announced over the next few months.
Her campaign said the goals would lead to a 700% increase in the nation’s installed solar capacity from current levels, and eventually could generate at least one third of all electricity from renewable sources.
Clinton’s plans also call for extending federal clean energy tax incentives and making them more cost effective both for taxpayers and clean energy producers, her campaign said.
Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz could face off in debate – under Senate rules
Bernie Sanders could participate in a one-on-one, leftwing versus right debate with Ted Cruz during the presidential primary, without violating restrictive rules set by the Democratic and Republican national committees. The two senators would just have to face off at their workplace, the US Capitol.
The first debate of the extended primary election will see the top 10 Republican candidates in a field of 16 face off in Cleveland on 6 August, in an event hosted by Fox News. Both parties have made clear that if candidates appear in unsanctioned debates, they will be barred from any official debates.
But staffers for both the DNC and RNC confirmed that the restrictions on presidential debates do not apply to debates held on the floor of Congress.
Sean Spicer, the chief strategist for the RNC, told the Guardian: “Senate business would not be a violation.”
Sanders, a self-professed democratic socialist who represents Vermont as an independent but is running for the Democratic nomination, attracting large crowds and performing well in the polls, has long expressed a willingness to debate Republican rivals one on one.
Sanders' National Favorability Doubles as Clinton Lead Slides
Under the headline, 'Sanders Surges, Clinton Sags,' Gallup on Friday released new survey data showing that the two-leading Democratic nominees are currently heading in opposite directions when it comes to favorability ratings among likely U.S. voters with the grassroots populism of the Sanders' campaign outshining the strong name recognition and more centrist policies of Clinton.
According to the latest polling, Sanders' favorability rating has doubled since March (from 12% to 24%), while people's positive perception of Clinton has fallen five percentage points since the questions were asked about her candidacy in April.
While Sander's unfavorability rating has also risen slightly, Clinton experienced her worst performance yet on that score since 2007, with 47% of respondents who were able to make a judgement saying they think of her negatively. Overall, Clinton's negativity rating of 46% percent is now higher than her favorability rating of 43%.
The Evening Greens
Alaskan villages imperiled by global warming need resources to relocate
Coastal erosion, forest fires and storm surges are threatening the physical and economic safety of settlements across the Arctic Ocean shoreline. Further inland, thawing permafrost is compromising the stability of transportation, sanitation and public service infrastructure built upon once-sturdy foundations. In Alaska alone, 31 villages face imminent threat of destruction from erosion and flooding. Many of these villages have 10 to 20 years of livability before their streets, schools and homes become uninhabitable. At least 12 have decided to relocate – in part or entirely – to safer ground to avoid total collapse. ...
In early 2015, President Obama proposed $50.4m in federal spending to help Native American communities adapt public infrastructure to the effects of climate change. That is less than half of what the US Army Corps of Engineers estimates to be needed to relocate just one Alaskan town. Moving an entire community to a safer location mere miles away can cost anywhere from $80m to upwards of $250m.
Currently, federal programs for disaster assistance are limited and mostly unavailable to villages that require relocation. Relief programs focus on sudden natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy at the expense of financially supporting the adaptation and relocation of towns facing dangers from gradual natural processes. Because of this, communities in Alaska must rely on ad hoc federal and state grants to build single buildings, in hopes of relocating in full before an emergency evacuation is needed.
An Iconic Lion Named Cecil Was Skinned and Decapitated by Hunters in Zimbabwe
Authorities in Zimbabwe are reportedly looking to arrest a Spanish hunter who paid guides 50,000 euros to hunt down, decapitate, and skin a famous protected lion named Cecil.
Two Zimbabwean guides who allegedly helped bait a trap for the lion just outside his protected park reserve have already been arrested, according to the Guardian.
Cecil, a 13-year-old male lion, was a popular tourist attraction at the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, and the leader of his own pride of lions.
Johnny Rodrigues, chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, told VICE News that Cecil's death was a "total loss."
"He was an icon, everyone around the world knew him," Rodrigues said. "He's got a pride and now we're going to lose all the cubs. The next male is going to kill the cubs… It's been a total loss." He added that the cubs will likely be killed so that a new male leader can mate with females in the pride. ...
"These animals, we're supposed to be preserving them for future generations," Rodrigues said. He added that the creatures are at risk of going extinct in the next 10 to 15 years due to "the greed and corruption in this country."
Only 100 tigers left in Bangladesh's famed Sundarbans forest
Only around 100 tigers remain in Bangladesh’s famed Sundarbans forest, far fewer of the endangered animals than previously thought, according to a census.
Some 440 tigers were recorded during the previous census in 2004 in the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and one of the last remaining habitats for the big cats.
But experts said better methodology was the reason for the huge drop in the numbers, saying hidden cameras used this time around, rather than pugmarks, gave a much more accurate figure. ...
About 74 tigers have previously been counted on the Indian side of the Sundarbans, which makes up nearly 40% of the forest straddling both countries over 10,000 sq km (3,860 sq m). ...
The World Wildlife Fund says tigers worldwide are in serious danger of becoming extinct in the wild. Their numbers have fallen from 100,000 in 1900 to around 3,200 now.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
A Crucial Realization About Journalism is Learned by Being its Subject
Taking a road trip this summer? Enjoy America's crumbling infrastructure
The ‘gig economy’ is coming. What will it mean for work?
Spying On Our Friends Is Not a Good Idea
Can Bernie Sanders Be Less White?
God's Masterpiece or the Devil's Bad Joke?
The Greek Warrior
Hat tip dharmasyd:
Could Japan Become America’s New Proxy Army?
Obama goes soft on human slavery because of TPP
Federal Judge nixes Title IX legal theory
A Little Night Music
Big Walter Horton - Tin Pan Alley
Big Walter Horton - All Star Boogie
Big Walter Horton, Floyd Jones + Eddie Taylor - Stockyard Blues
Big Walter explains the harp:
Big Walter Horton - Card Game
Walter Horton - They Call me Big Walter
Tampa Red & Big Walter Horton - Evalena
Johnny Shines & Walter Horton - Evening Sun
Big Walter Horton - Southern Women
Big Walter Horton-Hard Hearted Woman
Big Walter Horton- Walter's Blues
Big Walther Horton - That Ain't It
Big Walter Horton - Rockin' My Boogie
Big Walter Horton - Have A Good Time