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 a blues-rock band founded and led by former Rolling Stone's bass player Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings. Enjoy!
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Anyway the Wind Blows
My friend, I am old but I shall never die. I shall always live in my children, and children’s children.
New Corn, Potawatomi Chief, 1795
News and Opinion
US to Slow Down Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan as White House 'Rethinks' Mission
Defense Secretary Ash Carter says White House wants to make sure "progress sticks."
The U.S. is slowing down its withdrawal from Afghanistan, despite long-held promises that the military would be out of the country by 2016, new Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Saturday.
Carter told reporters in Kabul that the Obama administration is "rethinking" its counter-terrorism mission in Afghanistan and that the U.S. military wants to ensure that "progress sticks" in the country after its withdrawal. In his first trip to Afghanistan since being sworn in as Pentagon chief, Carter said a new plan could change the original schedule, which would have seen the U.S. halving its troops this year and establishing a "normal" embassy presence by 2016.
Reuters reports:
[Carter's] remarks set the stage for talks next month when the Afghan president is expected in Washington.
"Our priority now is to make sure this progress sticks," Carter said at a joint conference with President Ashraf Ghani, hours after landing in Kabul.
.... Carter, who this week became Obama's fourth defense secretary, is a former Pentagon No. 2 with deep roots in U.S. policy on Afghanistan. He said Saturday marked his tenth official visit to the country, even though it was his first at the helm of the Department of Defense.
Ousted Ukraine leader aiming to return as rebel rockets threaten peace plan
Disgraced president Viktor Yanukovych speaks out from exile in Russia as thousands gather for pro-Putin rally in Moscow
Ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych has controversially spoken out from self-imposed exile in Russia, promising, exactly a year after he fled Kiev, to return to Ukraine to “ease people’s lives” and help stop the war.
Yanukovych’s interview with Russia’s state-owned Channel One was his first public appearance since he gave two bizarre press conferences in Rostov-on-Don in February and March 2014, claiming he remained Ukraine’s president.
“I regret that I was unable to do anything,” Yanukovych said. “As soon as it’s possible, I will come back and do everything in my power to ease people’s lives. The main task now is to stop the war.”
In the year since he fled, Russian president Vladimir Putin has annexed Crimea, Russia-backed rebels have established breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine, and at least 5,600 people have died in the conflict.
Mass protest in Moscow against 'coup' in Kiev
Pro-government protesters vow to prevent Ukraine-style uprising in Russia, as Moscow clamps down on opposition groups.
Thousands of pro-Kremlin activists have taken to the streets of central Moscow vowing to prevent a Ukraine-style uprising in Russia.
The rally on Saturday by the Anti-Maidan movement marked one year since scores of demonstrators were gunned down in Ukraine's pro-Western uprising that came to be known as the Maidan protests.
"Ukraine's example has taught us a lot, and we won't allow a Maidan in our country!" organisers said ahead of the rally in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Putinism forever," said a hand-made banner held by an elderly woman, while a column of Cossacks brandished a placard reading "The Maidan is a disease. We will treat it".
US, UK mulling more sanctions against Russia – Kerry
The US and its allies are considering extra sanctions against Moscow over the crisis in Eastern Ukraine. They have accused Russia of undermining a “European-brokered” truce between Kiev and the rebels, US Secretary of State John Kerry said.
The Ukrainian issues are expected to dominate US-British talks, more specifically what other allies they could potentially rally to force Russia to follow western policies towards its historically closest neighbor.
“Russia has engaged in an absolutely brazen and cyclical process over these last days,” declared John Kerry, who has arrived in London to hold talks with his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond.
“We are talking about additional sanctions, about additional efforts, and I'm confident over the next days people will make it clear that we are not going to play this game ... and be part of this kind of extraordinarily craven behavior,” Kerry said.
Islamic State claims responsibility for Libya bombings
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
TRIPOLI, Libya — Islamic State militants unleashed suicide bombings Friday in eastern Libya, killing at least 40 people in what the group said was retaliation for Egyptian air strikes against the extremists’ aggressive new branch in North Africa.
The bombings in the town of Qubba, which is controlled by Libya’s internationally recognized government, solidified concerns the extremist group has spread beyond the battlefields of Iraq and Syria and established a foothold less than 500 miles from the southern tip of Italy.
The militants have taken over at least two Libyan coastal cities on the Mediterranean — Sirte and Darna, which is 19 miles from Qubba. They released a video Sunday that showed the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians who were abducted in Sirte, and Egypt responded Monday with air strikes on Darna.
The Islamic State group has established its presence in Libya by exploiting the country’s breakdown since dictator Moammar Khadafy was ousted and killed in 2011. Hundreds of militias have taken power since then, and some have militant ideologies. A militia coalition known as Libya Dawn has taken over Tripoli, where Islamists set up their own parliament and government. Islamic extremist militias controlled the second-largest city of Benghazi until late last year, when army troops began battling them for control.
‘End of austerity’? Greece claims bailout battle victory, warns hard time not over
The Greek prime minister says a new agreement to extend the country’s bailout voids the previous administration’s austerity commitments. The politician said, “we won the battle, but not the war,” but believes further difficulties lie ahead.
Alexis Tsipras made the comments in a televised statement on Saturday. He spoke of the “important success” of Greece being able to negotiate a funding agreement with eurozone ministers, which will see the bailout extended by four months.
The PM hailed this as, “the end of austerity and the bailout,” as Athens was able to severe ties with the ‘hated’ Troika group, which was responsible for making sure the country stuck to its bailout conditions and repay its international creditors.
``We won a battle, but not the war. The difficulties lie ahead of us,'' he said, following an agreement to draft a new set of proposals and reform measures on how the country will pay back its debt, which it will have to present on Monday. Greek Prime Minister Tsipras is meeting with his cabinet on Saturday to discuss the proposals.
Fire rips through Torch skyscraper in Dubai
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
A fire has swept through the Torch skyscraper in Dubai, one of the tallest residential buildings in the world.
Strong winds helped the blaze to spread across the 336.1m (1,105ft) high building in the marina district.
One eyewitness told the BBC "there was debris flying everywhere, falling into neighbouring buildings". The fire was later extinguished.
It is not known what caused the blaze. Hundreds of people were evacuated and there are no reports of any casualties.
Top-secret military warning on Ebola biological weapon terror threat
Porton Down memo marked ‘UK secret UK eyes only’ reveals scientists analysed use of virus by al-Qaida or Isis
Scientists at the top-secret military research unit at Porton Down, Wiltshire, have been assessing the potential use of Ebola as a bioterrorism weapon, according to confidential documents.
A three-page memo, marked ‘UK secret UK eyes only’,reveals that the unit, where chemical, radiological and biological threats are analysed, was tasked with evaluating whether terrorist organisations such as al-Qaida and Islamic State (Isis) could use the deadly virus to attack western targets.
The heavily redacted document, which has been released under the Freedom of Information Act, reveals that the unit was asked last October to provide “guidance on the feasibility and potential impact of a non-state actor exploiting the Ebola outbreak in west Africa for bioterrorism”.
It goes on to explain that non-state actor threat assessments are “provided by the joint terrorism analysis centre”, while threats to “UK deployed forces are provided by defence intelligence”. The memo outlines three possible scenarios under which terrorists might seek to exploit the Ebola outbreak, which so far has killed more than 9,000 people in the three most affected countries, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Venezuela's struggle against the 'common enemy'
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
With a "slow motion coup" under way in Venezuela, John Pilger is interviewed for Telesur, the Latin American TV network, by Mike Albert.
Mike Albert: Why would the US want Venezuela's government overthrown?
John Pilger: There are straightforward principles and dynamics at work here. Washington wants to get rid of the Venezuelan government because it is independent of US designs for the region and because Venezuela has the greatest proven oil reserves in
the world and uses its oil revenue to improve the quality of ordinary lives.
Venezuela remains a source of inspiration for social reform in a continent ravaged by an historically rapacious US. An Oxfam report once famously described the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua as "the threat of a good example". That has been true in Venezuela since Hugo Chavez won his first election.
The "threat" of Venezuela is greater, of course, because it is not tiny and weak; it is rich and influential and regarded as such by China. The remarkable change in fortunes for millions of people in Latin America is at the heart of US hostility.
Work of prominent climate change denier was funded by energy industry
Willie Soon is researcher at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Documents: Koch brothers foundation among groups that gave total of $1.25m
A prominent academic and climate change denier’s work was funded almost entirely by the energy industry, receiving more than $1.2m from companies, lobby groups and oil billionaires over more than a decade, newly released documents show.
Over the last 14 years Willie Soon, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, received a total of $1.25m from Exxon Mobil, Southern Company, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and a foundation run by the ultra-conservative Koch brothers, the documents obtained by Greenpeace through freedom of information filings show.
According to the documents, the biggest single funder was Southern Company, one of the country’s biggest electricity providers that relies heavily on coal.
The documents draw new attention to the industry’s efforts to block action against climate change – including President Barack Obama’s power-plant rules.
Florida Deputy: “Planting Evidence and Lying is Part of the Game!”
A deputy at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office tells about planting evidence, lying in reports and testimony under Sheriff Ric Bradshaw
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
One of the biggest defenses in contraband cases are that law enforcement officers planted evidence and lie to make their arrests. These cries from defendants are largely ignored by all parties involved, including the juries because of psychology. When it is the word of a defendant against the law enforcement officer, people have been conditioned to rely on the word of authority as truth. The question is, should this be the case?
One of our editors stumbled across a web site where local law enforcement deputies are free to post, and do so with 100% anonymity. In this web site, they exchange tactical information, procedural tips and methods to use to gain compliance of subjects or to arrest them for being difficult.
One such post, titled “Tricks of the trade – let’s exchange!” was started by a deputy who wrote,
“I have a method for getting people off the street that should not be there. Mouthy drivers, street lawyers, assholes and just anyone else trying to make my job difficult. Under my floor mat, I keep a small plastic dime baggie with Cocaine in residue. Since it’s just residue, if it is ever found during a search of my car like during an inspection, it’s easy enough to explain. It must have stuck to my foot while walking through San Castle. Anyways, no one’s going to question an empty baggie. The residue is the key because you can fully charge some asshole with possession of cocaine, heroin, or whatever just with the residue. How to get it done? “I asked Mr. DOE for his identification. And he pulled out his wallet, I observed a small plastic baggie fall out of his pocket…” You get the idea. easy, right? Best part is, those baggies can be found lots of places so you can always be ready. Don’t forget to wipe the baggie on the persons skin after you arrest them because you want their DNA on the bag if they say you planted it or fight it in court.”
Protests of immigrant shooting reflect nation’s political tensions
PASCO, Wash. — Latino leaders will once again be holding their breath Saturday as hundreds of demonstrators are expected to return to Pasco, Wash., a small agriculture city in the Columbia basin, to protest police brutality.
The latest fatal encounter caught on video between police and an unarmed man – in this case a Mexican national – has stoked the wave of nationwide protests over race and inequality that followed other incidents in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y.
But in Pasco, an agriculture city of 68,000, most of whom are Latino, the social unrest over Antonio Zambrano Montes’s death comes with the emotional national immigration debate as a backdrop.
Like many members of the majority Latino community, Zambrano was here illegally. He had been throwing rocks at police officers Feb. 10 – it’s unclear why – when three officers chased him and shot him as he was turning toward them and raising his hands. The shooting was caught on video by a witness.
Austerity in Illinois? Critics Slam 'Morally Reprehensible' Budget Proposal
'The depth and breadth of the proposed cuts to essential services for our state’s most vulnerable residents are staggering and simply unacceptable.'
With its deep cuts to higher education, Medicaid, pension benefits, and social services, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner's proposed budget is being called "reckless," "heartless," and "morally reprehensible."
Rauner, who won a decisive victory over incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn in November, announced his budget plan before the Illinois General Assembly earlier this week. It lays out $6 billion in cuts in state spending on universities, health care, and local governments while calling for sharply reducing pension benefits for state workers—in keeping with Rauner's recent attacks on public sector unions.
The governor called it a "turnaround budget" for a state facing budget shortfalls in the years ahead.
But Democrats, who hold veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the legislature, came out strongly in opposition to Rauner's proposal. State Senate President John Cullerton, for example, said the plan would bring "pain" to working families in the state.
Former NYC mayor Giuliani complains of death threats after ‘Obama doesn’t love US’ comment
Rudy Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and one-time presidential hopeful, claims he has received death threats after recently saying that President Barack Obama “doesn’t love” America.
Giuliani told CNN Saturday that his office and his secretary had received threatening phone calls in the wake of his comments.
"My secretary has received some death threats," he said in a telephone interview, without clarifying whether he had notified police about the threats.
The ex-mayor made the disparaging remarks about Obama during a private dinner for potential 2016 presidential contender Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Politico reported earlier this week.
"I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the President loves America. He doesn't love you. And he doesn't love me,” Giuliani said at the dinner. “He wasn't brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”
The South’s true face of hate: Oozing nonsense from demented and influential corners of religious right
Celebrating the anniversary of Lincoln's assassination? Disturbing people are pushing sick alternative history
When a federal court recently struck down Alabama’s same-sex marriage ban, it wasn’t Governor Robert Bentley who insisted on repeating George Wallace’s ludicrous theatrics of treason, defying the authority of federal law and the Supreme Court. It was Alabama’s Chief Justice Roy Moore, ordering probate judges to ignore the federal court order and refuse to issue same-sex marriage licenses. The local media, to its credit, knew exactly what was going on:
Bentley refused to become the next Alabama governor making a show of defying the law in front of TV cameras and in the process sending the message that our state is still intolerant and a lawless place for some of its citizens who happen to be different from the majority.
But what Bentley refused to do, Moore did do. He is trying to stand in the courthouse door as surely as Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door. Shame on him.
At “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart went for the foolish hypocrisy angle—or at least one of many: Moore and the probate judges following his lead explicitly invoking the Bible as the reason to reject same-sex marriage violates the Alabama Constitution, as just amended in the last election. Stewart played a clip from WSFA 12 news, last Nov. 3, describing the newly passed, so-called “Sharia Law” constitutional amendment, “It would prohibit judges and other state officials from basing any of their decisions on ‘foreign law,’” the newscaster explained in the clip. Pregnant pause. Then Stewart asked, “Where was the Bible written, again?”
It’s not so much that people want to laugh at Alabama’s idea of sober judicial leadership. But what are the alternatives? Anything less leads deep into darkness and confusion. Taking Moore seriously certainly doesn’t work, as CNN’s Chris Cuomo discovered, much to his chagrin. Moore is a first-rate dissembler and fabulist, who even tried comparing the federal judge’s order (and the Supreme Court’s refusal to stay it, which he manfully tried to ignore) to the Dred Scott and Plessy vs. Ferguson decisions, in an attempt to portray his own (sort of) Bible-based gut-level bigotry as just like being opposed to the (somewhat more than sort-of) Bible-based bigotry of slavery and segregation!
West Coast port deal reached with White House prodding
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
With an order from President Obama to end the labor dispute at 29 West Coast ports or face intensified negotiations at the White House next week, dockworkers reached a tentative, five-year agreement late Friday with the association that represents shipping lines and terminal operators.
Ports up and down the coast will be fully operational by Saturday night, said U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, who arrived Tuesday to help end the nine-month fight.
“The impasse took an increasing toll on the economy, with perishable fruit rotting for days and retailers facing empty shelves and angry customers,” he said Friday. “There were far too many victims.”
Perez said Obama has monitored the dispute closely and told Perez “it needs to be resolved immediately.”
The impasse slowed containerships from Seattle to Southern California, and has created a backlog of merchandise that has hamstrung retailers and could delay products to stores for up to two months, said Port of Oakland officials who were caught in the middle of the conflict.
How Wall Street's Greedy Tentacles Sank Into Schools, Trapping Them in Massive Debts
Capital appreciation bonds have wreaked financial havoc on school districts.
The fliers touted new ballfields, science labs and modern classrooms. They didn’t mention the crushing debt or the investment bank that stood to make millions.
— Melody Peterson, Orange County Register, February 15, 2013
Remember when Goldman Sachs – dubbed by Matt Taibbi the Vampire Squid – sold derivatives to Greece so the government could conceal its debt, then bet against that debt, driving it up? It seems that the ubiquitous investment bank has also put the squeeze on California and its school districts. Not that Goldman was alone in this; but the unscrupulous practices of the bank once called the undisputed king of the municipal bond business epitomize the culture of greed that has ensnared students and future generations in unrepayable debt.
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In 2008, after collecting millions of dollars in fees to help California sell its bonds, Goldman urged its bigger clients to place investment bets against those bonds, in order to profit from a financial crisis that was sparked in the first place by irresponsible Wall Street speculation. Alarmed California officials warned that these short sales would jeopardize the state’s bond rating and drive up interest rates. But that result also served Goldman, which had sold credit default swaps on the bonds, since the price of the swaps rose along with the risk of default.
In 2009, the lenders’ lobbying group than proposed and promoted AB1388, a California bill eliminating the debt ceiling requirement on long-term debt for school districts. After it passed, bankers traveled all over the state pushing something called “capital appreciation bonds” (CABs) as a tool to vault over legal debt limits. (Think Greece again.) Also called payday loans for school districts, CABs have now been issued by more than 400 California districts, some with repayment obligations of up to 20 times the principal advanced (or 2000%).
The controversial bonds came under increased scrutiny in August 2012, following a report that San Diego County’s Poway Unified would have to pay $982 million for a $105 million CAB it issued. Goldman Sachs made $1.6 million on a single capital appreciation deal with the San Diego Unified School District.
Big Cities Head for Water Crisis as Populations Explode
This Creative Commons-licensed piece first appeared at Climate News Network.
LONDON—More than 40% of the world’s great cities supplied by surface water could become vulnerable to shortages and drought by 2040, according to new research. And more than three out of 10 were already vulnerable in 2010.
Meanwhile, the vital array of satellites designed to monitor rainfall and to warn of potential flooding is reported to be coming to the end of its shelf life.
For the first time in history, more than half the world’s population is now concentrated in cities, and this proportion is predicted to increase to two-thirds. Cities grow up near plentiful water supplies—and as a population explodes, so does demand. But the flow remains much the same.
Some cities are already under drought stress. Chennai in southern India had to be supplied with tankers in 2004 and 2005, and São Paulo in Brazil is now at crisis point
Noam Chomsky: Republicans & Democrats Have Shifted to the Right, and the GOP Is ‘Off the Spectrum’
Commenting on the current state of American politics, renowned linguist Noam Chomsky highlights just how conservative U.S. political parties have gotten.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature reports of Mother Jones as she travels and speaks on Unionism and Socialism in Illinois.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Find Out if You've Been Spied on—and Join the Fight for Privacy
Want to know if GCHQ spied on you? Now you can find out. Privacy International (PI) has just launched a website that lets anyone find out if their communications were intercepted by the NSA and then shared with GCHQ.
The website is the result of a February 6 ruling by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT). Similar to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in the US, the IPT is a special court in the UK established by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) that deals with issues of surveillance and human rights.
The February 6th ruling held that intelligence sharing between GCHQ and NSA done prior to December 2014 was unlawful. The decision, which applied to information collected by the NSA through Prism and Upstream, was based on the secrecy of the rules governing sharing of that information. This followed a December ruling in which the court held that information sharing between the NSA and GCHQ could continue because the oversight of the data-collection program had been made public, bringing it into compliance with European law. Privacy International disagreed with the decision made by the tribunal on this point and is appealing to the European Court of Human Rights.
As Privacy International points out, “The [February] decision was the first time in the Tribunal’s history that it had ruled against the actions of the intelligence and security services.”
Hackers can track phone users’ location by looking at power supply
Researchers have found out it is possible to track someone’s mobile phone by looking at how much battery has been used. The data does not need the users’ permission to be shared, while it can help track a phone with up to 90 percent accuracy.
The findings were carried out by a group of researchers at Stanford University and the Israeli defense company Rafael. The created a technique, which they have named PowerSpy and can gather information concerning the location of Android phones. It does this by simply tracking how much power has been used over a certain time.
How much power is used depends on a number of factors. For example, the further away the phone is from a transmitter, the more power is needed to get a signal. Physical objects such as mountains or buildings also have an impact on the amount of battery needed as these obstacles can block the phone’s signal, meaning there are temporary ‘power drains’ on the devices.
“A sufficiently long power measurement (several minutes) enables the learning algorithm to ‘see’ through the noise,” the researchers said, which was reported by Wired. “We show that measuring the phone’s aggregate power consumption over time completely reveals the phone’s location and movement.”
Hacker from Anonymous says he was charged after refusing to help FBI
A 28-year-old hacker currently serving a six-month prison sentence for computer crimes now says that authorities asked him to help the United States gather information on Mexican drug cartels, then charged him with dozens of counts after he refused.
Fidel Salinas of Texas
started his half-year prison sentence last Friday, according to
court documents obtained by RT, three months
after he accepted a plea deal that saw him owning up to a single
count of accessing without authorization the computer system of
Hidalgo County in 2012. The activity was part of an operation
that authorities say involved the hacktivist collective
Anonymous.
This Wednesday, however, Wired reported that Salinas said ahead of
surrendering to US Marshals last week that the agreement he
reached with the Department of Justice was hardly the first time
that the two had discussed a deal.
According to Wired, Salinas told journalist Andy Greenberg that
agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation attempted to
recruit him to assist with the FBI’s own intelligence gathering
operations in 2013. After Salinas shot them down, he soon found
himself being charged with dozens of counts through no fewer than
four indictments filed in US District Court for the Southern
District of Texas.
Lenovo offers tool to remove hidden adware 'Superfish'
Chinese computer maker Lenovo is offering customers a tool to help them remove pre-installed software that experts warned was a security risk.
The Superfish adware program - which offered shopping tips - was shipped on some of the companies notebook devices.
Lenovo said on Thursday it had disabled it because of customer complaints.
But a later statement said the company was also aware of a security risks about the software, and the company was "focused on fixing it".
"We apologise for causing these concerns among our users - we are learning from this experience and will use it to improve what we do and how we do it in the future," the company said.
The last Ramone standing: “We were 90 percent fun and 10 percent pent-up animosity”
Marky Ramone on losing his bandmates, why he didn't punch Johnny in the mouth, and that scathing Morrissey review
When you know you are going to meet Marky Ramone in person, and you see him in the flesh, your instinct is to walk first across the street and protect him from oncoming Ubers or falling debris. He is rock’s spotted owl, or black rhino: the very last of a magnificent species (apologies to Richie and C.J.), an original, living, breathing Ramone, and even though he glows with health, and is clearly in great shape, your gut tells you he simply must not come to any harm on your watch. Joey Ramone died in 2001, Dee Dee overdosed in 2002, Johnny lost his battle with prostate cancer two years later and only last year, founding drummer Tommy passed away.
Marky, who joined in 1978 after Tommy decided to work behind the scenes, was regarded as one of the best drummers on the legendary CBGB’s scene on the Bowery, having played with cult rockers Dust, and both Wayne (now Jayne) County’s band (known, believe it or not, as the Backstreet Boys) and Richard Hell and the Voidoids. As a Ramone he appeared in the cult classic “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School,” drummed for Phil Spector on the attendant album “End of the Century,” bottomed out on booze, got sober, and rehired and saw the greatest New York City band to ever pound our pavement to their end in 1996. After a stint in the Misfits, today, he plays in Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg with party rocker Andrew W.K. on vocals. He hangs out with famous foodies like Daniel Boulud and Anthony Bourdain and has his own line of marinara sauce. And now, he’s written a memoir that holds absolutely nothing back and should be the last word on the Fab Five from Forest Hills (and Brooklyn). Titled “Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone,” it’s co-written with Richard Herschlag and was released late last month by Touchstone. (Note of full disclosure: At one point, long ago, my name might have been in the hat briefly as a co-writer; I cannot confirm that, but there was a discussion with my then agent, and I decided, correctly given how much I enjoyed the read, that it would be something that I would rather consume than help create.)
We met on an early February afternoon on a Bowery that looks nothing like it did back in the summer of ’77 (or even 2007). It was freezing and his jet black hair is covered with a wool watch cap. He wears a black mink coat (“I’m not a mink guy,” he explains, “but I swore I’d never freeze again.”). We head toward a high-end Italian place to have tea and (perhaps the only thing appropriate about the surroundings) pizza and talk at length about life in and out of the world-famous Ramones.
The Evening Greens
The Evening Greens Weekend Editor: enhydra lutris
The effects of Global warming on fisheries assessed in new study
A report to be published Thursday in the journal Nature suggests that global warming may increase upwelling in several ocean current systems around the world by the end of this century, especially at high latitudes, and will cause major changes in marine biodiversity.
Since upwelling of colder, nutrient-rich water is a driving force behind marine productivity, one possibility may be enhancement of some of the world’s most important fisheries.
However, solar heating due to greenhouse warming may also increase the persistence of “stratification,” or the horizontal layering of ocean water of different temperatures. The result could be a warm, near-surface layer and a deep, cold layer.
If this happens to a significant extent, it could increase global hypoxic, or low-oxygen events, decouple upwelling from the supply of nutrient-rich water, and pose a significant threat to the global function of fisheries and marine ecosystems.
Warmer ocean blamed for struggling sea lion pups found at beaches
Unusually warm ocean water along the West Coast is to blame for the mass starvation, sickness and deaths of hundreds of sea lion pups in California this winter, scientists said Wednesday.
About 940 sick and starving young sea lions have washed up on California beaches so far this year and were taken into the eight rehabilitation centers between San Diego and San Francisco. That’s four times the number of strandings that occur on average in the first four months of a normal year, marine biologists said.
The number of pinnipeds being treated exceeds the number of rescues during the same period in 2013, a year in which so many sea lions washed ashore that the National Marine Fisheries Service declared a rare “unusual mortality event.”
“We are way above average,” said Justin Viezbicke, the stranding network coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries in California, adding that 550 of the rescued pups were still being treated. “Right now most of our facilities, if they are not at capacity, are close to it. ... The reality is that we can’t get to all of these animals. Our capacity to handle all of these animals coming to shore just isn’t there.”
Giant African land snails invading Cuba
Kennedy couldn’t manage it in 1961, but someone else has. According to the BBC, Giant African Land Snails have been spotted on Cuban soil, which is bad news for native molluscs in the island nation as well as numerous plants. As if that weren’t bad enough, they also pose a health risk to people. This is one invasion Cubans definitely want to stop in its tracks, and for once the CIA has absolutely nothing to do with it.
These snails have a number of characteristics that make them a formidable problem in regions where they’ve been introduced, which includes parts of Asia, Central America, and the US. For starters, they’re big. Really big. Giant African Snails typically grow up to eight inches long, and they’ve been known to get even bigger. They lay hundreds of eggs every month, with a very high hatch rate, ensuring that once a few snails make land, they can quickly spread across a region and they’re extremely difficult to stop — in part because applying molluscicide would kill other species. Also introducing predators is also problematic because all of the snail’s natural predators would be more likely to pick on smaller, vulnerable native species.
The snails are also indiscriminate eaters, comfortable mowing through hundreds of plant species, including fragile varieties indigenous to relatively small regions. They tend to out-compete native snails and other small animals for fodder, which then leads to a drop in biodiversity. In countries like Cuba, that’s an especially acute problem. Islands typically have extremely unique flora and fauna, the result of divergent evolution reflecting thousands of years of separation from the mainland. When an invasive species like the Giant African Snail arrives, it can wreak havoc on the environment.
Some of the snails appear to have traveled to Cuba and other regions of the world via mysterious means, though hitchhiking on cargo ships is the likely cause. Others, unfortunately, have been deliberately introduced, usually by people who want to keep them as pets. Once their owners tire of them, they may release them into the wild, mistakenly believing that they’ll fit in with indigenous species, and the problem snowballs from there. Moreover, some carry a parasitic nematode linked to meningitis in humans, and they can make their handlers potentially fatally ill. Not quite the kind of pet you want to bring home, but some dealers continue to sell them and others smuggle them in.
Millions at risk from rapid sea rise in swampy Sundarbans
BALI ISLAND, India (AP) — The tiny hut sculpted out of mud at the edge of the sea is barely large enough for Bokul Mondol and his family to lie down. The water has taken everything else from them, and one day it almost certainly will take this, too.
Saltwater long ago engulfed the 5 acres where Mondol once grew rice and tended fish ponds, as his ancestors had on Bali Island for some 200 years. His thatch-covered hut, built on public land, is the fifth he has had to build in the last five years as the sea creeps in.
"Every year we have to move a little further inland," he said.
Seas are rising more than twice as fast as the global average here in the Sundarbans, a low-lying delta region of about 200 islands in the Bay of Bengal where some 13 million impoverished Indians and Bangladeshis live. Tens of thousands like Mondol have already been left homeless, and scientists predict much of the Sundarbans could be underwater in 15 to 25 years.
That could force a singularly massive exodus of millions of "climate refugees," creating enormous challenges for India and Bangladesh that neither country has prepared for.
"This big-time climate migration is looming on the horizon," said Tapas Paul, a New Delhi-based environmental specialist with the World Bank, which is spending hundreds of millions of dollars assessing and preparing a plan for the Sundarbans region.
High levels of benzene found in fracking waste water
Hoping to better understand the health effects of oil fracking, the state in 2013 ordered oil companies to test the chemical-laden waste water extracted from wells.
Data culled from the first year of those tests found significant concentrations of the human carcinogen benzene in this so-called "flowback fluid." In some cases, the fracking waste liquid, which is frequently reinjected into groundwater, contained benzene levels thousands of times greater than state and federal agencies consider safe.
The testing results from hundreds of wells showed, on average, benzene levels 700 times higher than federal standards allow, according to a Times analysis of the state data.
The presence of benzene in fracking waste water is raising alarm over potential public health dangers amid admissions by state oil and gas regulators that California for years inadvertently allowed companies to inject fracking flowback water into protected aquifers containing drinking water.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Hillary Clinton Exposed Part 1 – How She Aggressively Lobbied for Mega Corporations as Secretary of State
Cowardly Black Caucus Reacts to Israeli Insults, Ignores Israeli Apartheid
John Kerry: Additional Sanctions Are Coming to Russia
The Endless Tragedy of Vietnam
Hellraisers Journal: A Scab Confesses Regarding His Time Spent as one of Eliot's Heroes
Morality Tales in two parts
A Little Night Music
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Rhythm King
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Tobacco Road
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Mood Swing
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Motorvatin' Mama
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Memphis Woman
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Disappearing Nightly feat.Mark Knopfler
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Tell You A Secret
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Cadillac Woman
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Groovin'
Bili Wyman's Rhythm Kings - I'm Mad
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Rough Cut Diamond
Bill Wyman`s Rhythm Kings - Stuff
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Walking One & Only
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - I Cant Dance
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Harlem Shuffle
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - The Joint Is Jumping
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Hot Foot Blues
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Breaking Up The House
Bill Wiman Rhythm Kings - Melody
Bili Wyman"s Rhythm Kings - Hole In My Soul
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings - Walking On My Own