Welcome! "The Evening Blues - Weekend Edition" is a casual community diary (published Saturday & Sunday, 8:00 PM Eastern) where we hang out, share and talk about news, music, photography and other things of interest to the community.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact.
Everyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is very welcome here.
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Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features
Nicky Hopkins. Enjoy!
Nicky Hopkins - Piano Shuffle
Note: We here at the Evening Blues Weekend Edition often step beyond the boundries of traditional blues music. Joe shikspack so adeptly covers the blues genre in his weekday series that we at the Weekend Edition would find most trad blues offerings we could serve up as being redundant. Therefore Joe, in magnanimous manner has allowed us to color outside of the lines and we appreciate and thank him for that. Almost all modern American music has it's roots in traditional blues music anyway, so ultimately we do not stray far from the mother language. As Muddy Waters sang:
The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock and Roll, let us add to that list (jazz, country, bluegrass, ragtime, folk, gospel, soul, swing and rhythm and blues) and all subsets thereof. -- JtC
The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmetic there is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion. So whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.
-Bertrand Russell-
News and Opinion
The Evening Blues
We dig up what the MSM buries.
Contributors:
enhydra lutris
What the Chinese stock bust and US productivity decline have in common
By Reuven Brenner on August 26, 2015 in AT Opinion, China
Though it was recently announced that productivity in the US rose 1.3% from the previous quarter, Alan Greenspan is worried about the collapse in productivity: "I think it's the most serious problem that confronts not only the United States but the world at large and more exactly the developed world especially. American productivity is not significantly different from zero growth in the last 6 or 8 quarters. And the cause of that u2026 is that capital investment has been inadequate to fund the amount of assets that you need."
Others say that the problem is not that investments are too low; but repeat a statement attributed to Charles Duell, commissioner of the United States Patent Office in 1899, that: "Everything that can be invented u2013 has already been invented;" Still others suggest that "productivity" is not well measured. Many make recommendations how to measure better, how companies and government should change their spending patterns to increase productivity and so forth.
ostrichThese recommendations and analyses miss the main issue: Where there is no accountability, or it is weakened, measures of "productivity" lose their meaning, whether they show great improvements or are dismal. Better measurement or spending more on R&D or any other recommendations are useless, unless accountability is dealt with first. Weakened u2013 or, to start with, weak u2014 accountability is the common cause between the China stock market bust and the productivity declines around the world.
The facts are sharp and clear, and measures covering the financial sector illustrate this point with no need for modeling or statistical sophistication.
Central bank interventions: Drunks searching by the light ...
By Chan Akya on August 27, 2015 in AT Top Writers, Chan Akya
"That's where the light is ..."
The oft repeated joke about the drunkard looking for his car keys under the street light rather than in the bushes where he lost them because "this is where the light is" is useful when looking at the actions of governments and more pertinently, central banks in the face of the broader market turmoil over the month of August.
Over the past seven years, this author has railed against the "Keynesian[1]" orthodoxy at the heart of central bankers' response to the global financial crisis. Instead of stepping back and allowing market forces to take care of what was essentially an excess leverage and resulting resource misallocation problem, central bankers since 2009 ("TARP", QE and the rest) focused on expanding the availability of liquidity with a view to arresting price declines across broad asset classes.
This central banking intervention quickly came to be viewed as a "put" by the markets -- when in trouble, simply put the assets back to the central bank and they would buy them whatever the change in fundamentals and pricing dynamics meanwhile. Pavlov's basic premise holds here -- you treat the markets like pets that would respond to a specific variable (a sharp market decline, for example) and pretty soon, they start doing just that.
In so doing though, the efficacy of policy responses declines over time -- markets go up because loose liquidity is (eventually) expected to translate into higher economic growth and when the growth doesn't come through, you have a correction. To counter the asset correction, central banks start loosening policy, which keeps some people in risky assets for a little longer than justified by fundamentals.
Welcome to the trade deal wars: Escobar
By Pepe Escobar on August 28, 2015 in AT Top Writers, China, Empire of Chaos, Pepe Escobar, Southeast Asia
BANGKOK -- China continues to grow at a not too shabby 7%. And yet, because of the yuan devaluation and the sharp drop in the stock market, in most Western capitals the narrative switched to Armageddon descended over an economic model that generated, over the years, six-fold growth in Chinese GDP.
Few are aware that Beijing, simultaneously, is engaged in a thrice titanic task; to shift its growth vector from exports and massive investment to services; to tackle the negative and/or self-satisfied role of state-owned enterprises; and to deflate at least three bubbles -- debt, real estate speculation and the stock market -- in the context of a virtual global economic stagnation.
All this while there is virtually no Western coverage of the China-led Eurasian trade integration push, which will help to eventually consolidate the Middle Kingdom as the largest economy in the world.
And that brings us to a crucial subplot in the Big Picture: Southeast Asia.
Russia's Middle East ship drops anchor in Suez Canal
By M.K. Bhadrakumar on August 28, 2015 in Asia Times News & Features
Anchoring is not so simple as it seems. Determining the location, dropping the anchor, settling the hook and, most important, assessing where the vessel is going to end up -- these involve complex maneuverings. The key is to ensure that the ship is sufficiently protected, has suitable holding ground, enough depth at low tide and enough room for the boat to swing.
After President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's (R) recent visit to Moscow, Egypt has become a pivotal country for Russia's Middle East policies
To be sure, what emerges out of the two-day official visit by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to Moscow on August 25-26 is that Egypt has become a pivotal country for Russia's Middle East policies
There is much poignancy in what is unfolding insofar as it harks back to the halcyon days of Soviet-Egyptian relations that ended with the departure of Gamal Abdel Nasser 45 years ago.
Looking back, President Vladimir Putin made a smart decision to back Sisi to the hilt when the latter snatched power from the elected president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. Sisi's coup, which was sponsored by Saudi Arabia, was viewed with distaste by most countries as a hopelessly reactionary development that might set the clock back in the democratic transformation of Egypt (and the Middle East as a whole). The brute use of force by Sisi to put down dissent and the popular opposition to the coup was found repugnant by the international community.
Japan reports inflation, household spending soften in July
Elaine Kurtenbach, Ap Business Writer Updated 11:19 pm, Thursday, August 27, 2015
TOKYO (AP) -- The backdrop to the wild drama in financial markets over the past few weeks is a less dramatic but more daunting reality: the deep-seated challenges for sustaining long-term growth, especially for aging economies like Japan's.
Japan released data Friday showing its economy has yet to escape the doldrums more than two years after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched an unprecedented effort to jolt the country out of its deflationary rut.
Core inflation excluding volatile food prices flat-lined at its lowest level in more than two years in July and household spending also slowed, the government reported.
Unemployment edged down to 3.3 percent and household incomes rose 5.4 percent in real terms, thanks largely to semi-annual bonus payments. Such trends are leading economists for forecast the economy will return to expansion after a 1.6 percent contraction in annual terms in April-June.
But the middling vital signs, and worries over China's ability to stoke its own growth, may raise pressure on the Bank of Japan to up its unprecedented barrage of monetary stimulus.
Italian energy giant Eni says it has found largest-ever gas field in Mediterranean off Egypt
Associated Press Aug. 30, 2015 | 10:13 a.m. EDT
ROME (AP) -- The Italian energy company Eni SpA announced Sunday it has discovered a "supergiant" natural gas field off Egypt, describing it as the "largest-ever" found in the Mediterranean Sea.
The news came a day after Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi met in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the Egyptian leader's office said.
Japan military legislation changes draw protests
Thousands of people have protested outside of Japan's parliament against new legislation that would allow the military to deploy overseas.
The changes would allow Japanese troops to fight abroad for the first time since World War Two.
The legislation has already been passed by Japan's lower house and is expected to be endorsed by the upper chamber.
Under its constitution, Japan is barred from using force to resolve conflicts except in cases of self-defence.
But a reinterpretation of the law will now allow "collective self-defence" - using force to defend allies under attack.
Huge Malaysia rally for Najib's resignation enters 2nd day
Eileen Ng, Associated Press Updated 11:48 pm, Saturday, August 29, 2015
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) u2014 Big crowds of protesters returned to the streets of Kuala Lumpur on Sunday to demand the resignation of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak over a financial scandal, after the first day of the massive rally passed peacefully.
The protesters camped overnight wearing yellow shirts of the Bersih movement u2014 the coalition for clean and fair elections u2014 even after authorities blocked the organizer's website and banned yellow attire and the group's logo in a bid to deter the rallies, which were also held in other Malaysian cities.
Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has been spearheading calls for Najib's resignation, added momentum to the rally when he made a surprise brief appearance late Saturday with his wife to loud cheers from the crowd, and telling protesters to "carry on."
Tanzania's opposition vows to review mining, gas contracts
Reuters By Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania's main opposition presidential candidate said he would review mining and gas contracts, and also scrap "unnecessary" tax exemptions for mining companies, if elected president of the east African nation in October.
Former prime minister Edward Lowassa, 62, snubbed as the ruling party's candidate last month, switched to become the opposition coalition's contender. He could pose a tough challenge for the CCM, which has ruled since 1961.
"My government will review all major energy and mining contracts and rectify shoddy deals," Lowassa said late on Saturday in a televised statement, without giving specifics.
Bangkok bomb: Thai police charge man 'linked to Erawan blast'
Police in Bangkok have charged a man in connection with the bomb attack that killed 20 people in the Thai capital nearly two weeks ago.
Officers say the suspect, who was charged with illegal possession of weapons, was involved in the attack.
However, they say he is not the man seen on CCTV footage leaving a bag at the Erawan Shrine before the explosion.
Musharraf could be back as head of new Pakistan party
By AT Editor on August 30, 2015 in Asia Times News & Features
(From Press Trust of India)
Pakistan's former military dictator Pervez Musharraf could soon stage a political comeback as head of a new party combining all factions of the Muslim League except the ruling PML-N of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, ahead of local body elections.
Efforts have been intensified to form the party -- United Muslim League -- after uniting all factions of Muslim League except Sharifu2019s PML-N.
PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain Saturday held a meeting with 72-year-old Musharraf, head of All Pakistan Muslim League at his residence in Karachi and agreed to merge all factions except PML-N to form a "new look party".
Lebanon rubbish crisis: Thousands attend anti-government rally
Thousands of people have taken part in a rally in the Lebanese capital Beirut in protest at a government they say is corrupt and ineffective.
Security was high amid fears the demonstrations could turn violent, as similar protests did last weekend.
Organisers of Saturday's mostly peaceful rally demanded the environment minister resign within 72 hours.
The government's failure to solve the crisis over the disposal of rubbish led to the 'You Stink' campaign.
They have been calling on the government to hold snap parliamentary elections, and also want the interior minister held to account for excessive force by police at least week's protests.
Vote tally for Iran nuclear deal rises to 31 in Senate
WASHINGTON (AP) u2014 Oregon's Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley on Sunday became the 31st senator to announce support for the Iran nuclear deal, as momentum builds behind the agreement the Obama administration and other world powers negotiated with Tehran.
Merkley's backing puts supporters within reach of the 34 votes required to uphold a presidential veto of a congressional resolution disapproving the agreement, which curbs Iran's nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.
HELLRAISERS PREVIEW
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature a review of the West Report on the Rockefellers in Colorado: "Anarchism Stripped of Idealism."
Tune in at 2pm!
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UC Berkeley police chief had only herself to blame for stolen gun, experts say
Determined to set the record straight, UC Berkeley Police Chief Margo Bennett sent a mass internal e-mail this week detailing what happened when several valuables, including her department gun, were recently stolen from her vehicle at the Point Isabel Regional Shoreline in Richmond.
She admits, 'in retrospect,' that perhaps she shouldn't have stored her black computer bag, containing her department gun, badge, laptop and iPad, in the darkly-tinted 'back cargo area' of her Ford Escape.
"I should have taken my gun and badge and put them in the spare tire well," she wrote.
Chris Christie: I would track immigrants like FedEx packages
New Jerseyu2019s governor, Chris Christie, said on Saturday he would combat illegal immigration by tracking foreign visitors like FedEx packages.
Christie, who is well back in the pack seeking the Republican nomination for president, told a campaign event in the early-voting state of New Hampshire that, if elected president, he would ask FedExu2019s chief executive officer, Fred Smith, to devise the tracking system.
Immigration has become a top issue in the Republican campaign, with front-runner Donald Trump vowing to deport all the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants and to build a wall along the southern border.
The Evening Greens
The Evening Greens Weekend Editor: enhydra lutris
Report: Carbon Credits Under Kyoto Protocol Actually Increased Emissions
by Gina-Marie Cheeseman on Thursday, Aug 27th, 2015
reforestation projectAt the end of November, governments will come together in Paris to hammer out agreements for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Under the KP, there are two greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions offsetting mechanisms: joint implementation (JI) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
JI allows countries with emissions-reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to generate Emission Reduction Units (ERUs) from GHG reduction projects and transfer them to other countries. Almost 872 million ERUs had been issued under JI as of March 2015, about a third of all Kyoto offset credits. In a nutshell, JIs are carbon credits and include things like reforestation projects.
Perhaps government heads should read this recent report by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), which found that the use of JI actually may have enabled GHG emissions to be about 600 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) more than if countries had met their emissions targets domestically.
Micro-sensors stuck to honey bees to help solve mass deaths
Australian scientists revealed on Tuesday they are using micro-sensors attached to honey bees as part of a global push to understand the key factors driving a worldwide population decline of the pollinators.
There has been a sharp plunge in the population of honey bees, which pollinate about 70% of global crops, or one-third of food that humans eat including fruits and vegetables
Researchers have said the falling hive numbers were caused by threats such as the sudden death of millions of adult insects in beehives -- known as "colony collapse disorder" -- a blood-sucking mite called Varroa, pesticides and climate change.
"The micro-sensors that we are using help us to ask different questions that we couldn't ask before because we've never really been able to quantify the behaviour of bees both out in the environment and in their hives," Gary Fitt from Australia's national science agency CSIRO told AFP.
Brazil builds climate tower in pristine Amazon jungle
Deep in the pristine Amazon jungle, Brazil's newest skyscraper has a mission unlike any other: to save the world.
The white and orange metal frame called Amazon Tall Tower Observatory, or ATTO, is a bold new tool in the push to understand climate change and the vital role of rainforests.
At 325 meters (1,066 feet), the ATTO is a meter (3.3 feet) higher than the Eiffel Tower and a good bit taller than London's loftiest building, the Shard.
But instead of the typical city din of honking horns and engines, the loudest noise around the skinny structure is the chatter of cicadas and tropical birds.
Built in the Uatuma nature reserve, 350 kilometers (217 miles) from the city of Manaus and reachable only after hours of rough roads and a boat ride, the ATTO is seriously remote -- and for the climate scientists that's the point.
Artificial leaf harnesses sunlight for efficient fuel production
Generating and storing renewable energy, such as solar or wind power, is a key barrier to a clean-energy economy. When the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) was established at Caltech and its partnering institutions in 2010, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Innovation Hub had one main goal: a cost-effective method of producing fuels using only sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide, mimicking the natural process of photosynthesis in plants and storing energy in the form of chemical fuels for use on demand. Over the past five years, researchers at JCAP have made major advances toward this goal, and they now report the development of the first complete, efficient, safe, integrated solar-driven system for splitting water to create hydrogen fuels.
"This result was a stretch project milestone for the entire five years of JCAP as a whole, and not only have we achieved this goal, we also achieved it on time and on budget," says Caltech's Nate Lewis, George L. Argyros Professor and professor of chemistry, and the JCAP scientific director.
The new solar fuel generation system, or artificial leaf, is described in the August 24 online issue of the journal Energy and Environmental Science. The work was done by researchers in the laboratories of Lewis and Harry Atwater, director of JCAP and Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science.
Epic walrus gathering on again
Posted on 28 August 2015
GLAND, Switzerland -- On both sides of the Bering Strait, summer sea ice has once more dropped to a level that is driving thousands of walruses onto coastal beaches.
Photos taken in Ryrkaypiy in Chukotka, Russia show an estimated 5,000 walruses hauled out in that spot, while across the strait in the United States, thousands more are hauled out near the village of Point Lay, Alaska. Villagers in both places are working to protect resting walrus herds from curious onlookers, as walruses hauled out in such large numbers on beaches are prone to being stampeded, killing smaller animals in the crush.
Air pollution associated with increased heart attack risk despite 'safe' levels
European Society of Cardiology
London, UK - 30 Aug 2015: Particulate matter and NO2 air pollution are associated with increased risk of severe heart attacks despite being within European recommended levels, according to research presented at ESC Congress today by Dr Jean-Francois Argacha, a cardiologist at University Hospital Brussels (UZ Brussel-Vrije Universiteit Brussel), in Belgium.1
"Dramatic health consequences of air pollution were first described in Belgium in 1930 after the Meuse Valley fog," said Dr Argacha. "Nowadays, the World Health Organization (WHO) considers air pollution as one of the largest avoidable causes of mortality. Besides the pulmonary and carcinogenic effects of air pollution, exposition to air pollution has been associated with an increased risk in cardiovascular mortality."
"In addition to the long term consequences, more recent research suggests that acute exposure to air pollution may trigger some cardiovascular events such as strokes, heart failure or myocardial infarction (heart attack)," continued Dr Argacha. "Myocardial infarction covers a number of clinical conditions and the effect of pollution on these subsets is unknown."
Study Links Air Pollution to Children's Low GPAs
EL PASO, Texas -- A University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) study on childrenu2019s health has found that fourth and fifth graders who are exposed to toxic air pollutants at home are more likely to have lower GPAs.
UTEP researchers analyzed academic performance and sociodemographic data for 1,895 fourth and fifth grade children living in El Paso, Texas that were attending the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD).
They used the Environmental Protection Agency's National Air Toxics Assessment to estimate childrenu2019s exposure to toxic air pollutants, such as diesel exhaust, around the location of their homes.
Children who were exposed to high levels of motor vehicle emissions from cars, trucks and buses on roads and highways were found to have significantly lower GPAs, even when accounting for other factors known to influence school performance. The results of the study were published in the academic journal Population and Environment.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
Hellraisers Journal: "To Save Joe Hill" Eugene Debs in the American Socialist "The days are few."
Malaysia bans the color yellow
The Pacific Coast Farmworker Rebellion | PopularResistance.Org
Majority of Americans support open transgender military service
'My body, my choice' is not true for women in poverty, in federal employment, or in the military
A Little Night Music
Nicky Hopkins with George Harrison - Edward
Nicky Hopkins, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman - "ANGIE " (backing track)
Nicky Hopkins - Blues standard - "The homecoming"
The Rolling Stones - She's a Rainbow from Their Satanic Majesties Request vinyl
Quicksilver Messenger Service - Spindrifter (1970)
Nicky Hopkins, with Ry Cooder and some of the Rolling Stones - Highland Fling
THE KINKS - Mr. Pleasant 1967
The Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday (HQ)
The Beatles - Revolution (2009 Stereo Remaster)
The Who - The Ox
Nicky Hopkins - Banana Anna
The Steve Miller Band - Baby's House
Jerry Garcia Band - Friend Of The Devil (1975)
Jerry Garcia Band - Edward the Mad Shirt Grinder (12-20-75)
Nicky Hopkins - The Dreamer
Jeff Beck Group - MORNING DEW
New Riders of the Purple Sage - Hand Jive
THE ROLLING STONES - WE LOVE YOU
Jamming With Edward - Edward's Thrump Up