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 early urban bluesman from St. Louis, Clifford Gibson. Enjoy!
Clifford Gibson - She's Got the Jordan River in Her Hips
“There simply can be no honor in claiming you are protecting the country, if you are shitting on the Constitution while you do it.”
-- Morgan Clements
News and Opinion
AT&T Helped U.S. Spy on Internet on a Vast Scale
The National Security Agency’s ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T.
While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly disclosed N.S.A. documents show that the relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and especially productive. One document described it as “highly collaborative,” while another lauded the company’s “extreme willingness to help.”
AT&T’s cooperation has involved a broad range of classified activities, according to the documents, which date from 2003 to 2013. AT&T has given the N.S.A. access, through several methods covered under different legal rules, to billions of emails as they have flowed across its domestic networks. It provided technical assistance in carrying out a secret court order permitting the wiretapping of all Internet communications at the United Nations headquarters, a customer of AT&T. ...
The company installed surveillance equipment in at least 17 of its Internet hubs on American soil, far more than its similarly sized competitor, Verizon. And its engineers were the first to try out new surveillance technologies invented by the eavesdropping agency.
So, um, just who is the Commander-in-Chief? Is he really so craven that he can't abide standing up to his subordinates when they show contempt for his office and leadership? Or are they really doing his bidding as he lies to the public about the nature of his orders?
The military ignores Obama's order to release Shaker Aamer from Guantánamo
The contravention of the president’s orders indicates that there is a profound problem with the state of democracy in America
Recent history demonstrates that if President Barack Obama, arguably the most powerful person on planet Earth, wants to prioritize almost anything – from pardoning 46 convicted drug felons to bombing a foreign country without the consent of Congress – little can stand in his way. Why, then, is Shaker Aamer not home in London with his wife and four children? ...
On Thursday, we came a little closer to understanding the reason that Aamer’s youngest child, Faris – who was born on Valentine’s Day 2002, the day that Aamer was rendered to the detention center at Guantánamo Bay – has never even met his father. The Guardian revealed that “the Pentagon [is] blocking Guantánamo deals to return Shaker Aamer and other cleared detainees.” President Obama, it seems, has personally ordered Aamer’s release, and his subordinates have ignored and thwarted his order.
However, Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution provides that the “President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States”. Under Article 90 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to disobey an order in peacetime is punishable by life in prison. If we believe the Pentagon theory that we are involved in a “Global War on Terror”, then there is an ongoing war, and the punishment for disobeying orders is death. ...
President Obama should certainly call General Dempsey into the Oval Office and read him the riot act. And though Obama is right to try to close Guantánamo Bay in general, the broader issue at stake is whether he is willing to allow the Pentagon to undermine the very essence of the US constitution. The president has given an order to the military; they need to obey it.
In Secret Filing, DOJ Opposes Release of Hunger-Striking Gitmo Prisoner
Bid to stop Tariq Ba Odah's release shows that 'Obama administration’s interagency process for closing Guantánamo is an incoherent mess,' says CCR
In a maneuver blasted by constitutional rights experts as "rare and unusual," the Obama administration late on Friday submitted a long-awaited filing urging a federal judge not to order the release of a hunger-striking prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, whose condition has been described by his lawyers as deteriorating rapidly.
The filing was kept under seal, though the Justice Department said a public version will be released later.
According to the Guardian's Spencer Ackerman, "U.S. officials said the objection to freeing Tariq Ba Odah, who is undernourished to the point of starvation, and the decision to challenge his legal gambit outside of public view, are indications that the Obama administration will fight tenaciously to stop detainees from seeking freedom in federal courts, despite Barack Obama's oft-repeated pledge to close Guantánamo."
Thirty-six-year-old Ba Odah has been held at Guantánamo since he was 23, and has been on hunger strike for eight years in protest of his indefinite detention. He has never been charged with a crime and he was cleared for release by a multi-agency review board in 2009. He has been subjected to force-feeding and he reportedly weighs about 75 pounds. ...
Responding to the Justice Department's sealed filing on Friday, Naureen Shah, director of Amnesty International USA's Security and Human Rights Program, said the case was a "bellwether for what's to come and a blow to President Obama's legacy."
"Tariq Ba Odah may die at Guantanamo without ever having been charged with a crime," she said. "If that happens, it will be because the White House was unwilling to step up and make good on President Obama’s pledges to close Guantanamo."
Chelsea Manning denied access to legal library prior to prison hearing, she says
Chelsea Manning, the soldier and Guardian columnist, has been denied access to a prison legal library days before a crucial hearing at which she will represent herself against charges including possession of unapproved reading material, according to a message posted to her official Twitter account at the weekend.
The hearing is part of a legal process that could result in indefinite solitary confinement for Manning, for reported violations that also include storing a tube of expired toothpaste in her military prison cell. ...
“Prison staff are now denying me access to the law library @ scheduled times – w/only 2 days until my board,” read the tweet, which was posted by supporters in contact with the prisoner.
A call to the US disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth was not immediately returned. ...
A petition calling on the military the drop charges against Manning for the reported prison infractions has gained 64,000 signatures, said Evan Greer, campaign director of the activist nonprofit Fight for the Future, one of four groups circulating the petition.
Fear of ‘Nightmare Scenario’ Has US, Russia Leading Talks on Syria
There has been arecent proliferation of conferences and behind-the-scenes meetings among various regional and world powers on the situation in Syria in recent days, with Russia leading the charge for some sort of anti-ISIS unity among rebel and government factions, and the US no longer spurning the idea.
There are a lot of reasons behind this, and a lot of moving parts keeping such deals from happening readily, but the main driver is a fear of the “nightmare scenario” of the Assad government collapsing outright and ISIS sweeping in to take the rest of a country they already control over 50% of. ...
US officials have previously conceded that their goal in Syriawas not necessarily a military-imposed regime change, but to keep the civil war stalemated so long that they could come in and negotiate a resolution that was more favorable to American interests. Clearly, that’s not ISIS taking over outright, and the effort to keep the combatants in stalemate isn’t working so well anymore.
This is an interesting article, rich in details - here's a taste:
Is Putin Planning to Sell-Out Assad?
Russia does not want a divided Syria. Aside from the fact that Moscow and Damascus are long-term allies (and Russia has a critical naval facility in Tartus, Syria), a balkanized Syria poses serious threats for Russia, the most significant of which is the probable emergence of a jihadi base of operations that will be used to deploy terrorists across Central Asia thus undermining Moscow’s grand plan to integrate the continents into a giant free trade zone from Lisbon to Vladivostok. Russian President Vladimir Putin takes the threat of terrorism very seriously, which is why he has been working around-the-clock to engage leaders from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran, the Kurds and Syrian opposition groups in negotiations to put an end to the fighting and reestablish security in Syria. It’s worth noting that there’s been an effective blackout of these crucial negotiations in the western media, mainly because they make Putin look like a peacemaker who is respected among other world leaders and who is making every effort to stop the spread of terrorism. Obviously, that doesn’t jibe with the media’s portrayal of Putin as the new Hitler, so they’ve simply omitted the meetings from their coverage.
The differences between the US and Russia are irreconcilable. Washington wants and end to the nation-state system and create a new world order, while Putin wants to maintain the current system in order to preserve national sovereignty, self determination, and multi-polarity. This is the basis of the clash between Russia and the US. Putin rejects unipolar global rule and is working as fast as he can to build a coalition capable of resisting persistent US intervention, manipulation and aggression. This is no small task, and it involves a great deal of discretion. Putin does not have the wherewithal to confront the US Goliath at every turn, so he must pick his fights carefully and operate largely in the shadows, which is what he is doing.
In the last few months, Putin has convened meetings with all the main players in the Syria drama, and has made remarkable headway in resolving the crisis. The main sticking point now, is whether Assad will remain as president or be removed as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the US demand. Putin is resisting this outcome for many reasons. First, he doesn’t be seen as betraying an ally which would seriously hurt his reputation as a reliable partner. Second, he can’t allow himself to comply with a “regime change” doctrine that eschews international law and that could eventually be used against him in a future coup. Allowing foreign leaders to pick and choose who is a “legitimate” leader and who isn’t is a prescription for disaster, as is evident in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Yemen. Finally, Putin cannot simply hand Washington an easy victory on a matter of this magnitude although, in the end, Assad will probably be gone.
Greece Buying Israeli Drones Tested on Palestinians
It’s Not The First Time Military Reporters Have Fought The Pentagon Over Wartime Reporting
The Pentagon’s massive new Law of War Manual drew criticism from the New York Times editorial board on Monday for its section on how to treat journalists, which the Times said would “make their work more dangerous, cumbersome and subject to censorship.”
The manual delineates the military’s power to embed journalists with U.S troops, censor their work, and even deem them “unprivileged belligerents” should they be suspected of somehow spying for, or supporting the work of, the enemy. Legally, people deemed “unprivileged belligerents” are no longer considered civilians, and are afforded even fewer protections than actual combatants. ...
There’s a long history of tension between military reporters and the Pentagon, whose relationship crumbled during the Vietnam War, leading to decades of battles over press access to war zones and government meddling in coverage.
Just six years ago, Stars and Stripes, an independent Pentagon-funded news outlet, revealed that the Department of Defense had hired a PR firm to vet journalists hoping to travel to Afghanistan and report on the war.
The Rendon Group was hired to assemble profiles of the reporters — ranking the slant of their previous work toward the U.S. military as “positive,” “negative,” or “neutral.” ... The Pentagon and the Rendon Group insisted that the profiles never led to reporters being blacklisted from working overseas, but several war correspondents contested that narrative, including one Stars and Stripes reporter, Heath Druzin, who said that he was barred from covering a certain unit in Mosul, Iraq, because he “refused to highlight” good news. Jason Motlagh, Time’s former Kabul correspondent, said he was accidentally included on an email containing his own Rendon assessment, which concluded that his stories were 6 percent positive. A day later, he was denied his embed request “without explanation,” he wrote.
Bland Monster Jeb Bush “Proud” of His Brother’s Torturing People
Maybe you’ve seen that Jeb Bush has refused to rule out more torture if he’s elected president. But what’s gone unnoticed — perhaps because Bush is so dreary it’s hard to listen to him without losing consciousness — is he actually said he’s “proud” of his brother’s torture policies.
BUSH: I do think, in general, that torture is not appropriate. It’s not as effective, uh, and the change of policy that my brother did and was then put into executive order form by the president was the proper thing to do. I also would say that right after 9/11, I mean, we were attacked, and, uh, my presid — my brother — and I’m not saying this because I’m a Bush, I’m saying this because I love this country just like everybody in this room — I’m proud of what he did to create a secure environment for our country.
Brazilian president under fire as tens of thousands protest in 200 cities
Tens of thousands of Brazilians took to the streets in cities across the country on Sunday, to protest against President Dilma Rousseff.
Angered by a massive, unfolding corruption scandal, an economy mired in recession and harsh austerity measures, many of the protesters called for the president’s impeachment.
In São Paulo, an anti-government event drew around 135,000, according to Datafolha, a polling institute. Though significant, the numbers were down on a similar event in the city in March this year, which attracted 210,000.
.In Brasília, police numbered the crowd at around 25,000. Demonstrations took place in more than 200 cities, including Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Salvador.
In Rio de Janeiro, thousands marched along Copacabana’s Avenida Atlântica, many dressed in the yellow and green of the Brazilian football team. The crowd followed six mobile sound-systems, each commandeered by a different protest movement, loudly broadcasting a mixture of anti-government speeches and music.
Yanis Varoufakis just trashed Greece's bailout agreement with a line-by-line takedown
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is not a fan of the country's new bailout deal.
And if you weren't clear on that already, he's got the annotated evisceration of the agreement to prove it.
Here's a snippet of the document. The normal text of the agreement is unbolded, while Varoufakis' edits are bolded and in brackets:
A fairer society will require that Greece improves the design of its welfare system, so that there is a genuine social safety net which targets scarce resources at those who need it most [to be achieved without a single new euro again by some magic formula yet to be invented].
The authorities plan to benefit from available technical assistance from international organisations on measures to provide access to health care for all (including the uninsured) [i.e. using advice of well paid foreign “technocrats” as a substitute for funding, nurses, doctors and equipment] and to roll out a basic social safety net in the form of a Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) [which would be great, except that not one fresh euro will be made available for the GMI program whose funding will be siphoned off existing benefits provided by the Greek state, e.g. child benefit].
Julian Bond (1940-2015): Remembering Civil Rights Freedom Fighter Who Chaired NAACP, Co-founded SNCC
Acoustic Cannon Sales to Police Surge After Black Lives Matter Protests
During a company conference call with financial analysts last week, Tom Brown, the chief executive of LRAD, a military contractor, informed investors that sales were rolling in, not just from Chinese government agencies and the U.S. Navy, but also from American law enforcement. ...
Over the last year, following a wave of protests over officer-involved killings of black Americans, LRAD has seen an uptick in inquiries from police departments around the country.
Brown told financial analysts in a May conference call about the “renewed interest” from police departments. “A lot of grant money starts to flow to law enforcement, and we’re getting a lot of inquiries” following protests, he said. One inquiry he mentioned came from the Maryland Sheriff’s Department following the protests in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray. ...
The LRAD device can reach 152 decibels, a level that can cause permanent hearing damage. In December, Vice reported on the potential dangers of the LRAD cannon, noting, “Permanent hearing loss begins with a sustained sound that’s louder than 90 dB SPL — for example, a subway train 200 feet away — but you won’t start to feel immediate pain until 120 decibels, about the loudness of a shotgun blast. At 160 dB — a little less loud than a rocket launch — your eardrum will burst.”
Keiser Report: Hot show in the ‘great state of Chicago’
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature from the International Socialist Review: French Comrades "never deviate from the platform of the class struggle."
Tune in at 2pm!
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US Consulate to Citizens: Stay Away From New Zealand TPP Protest
Stay away from the Trans-Pacific Partnership protest taking place Saturday in New Zealand's largest city, the United States Consulate has warned its citizens.
The Auckland action is one of over 20 that organizers have planned as part of a national day of action against the controversial pending trade deal.
The Consulate's security message reads, in part: "Approximately 8,000 people are expected to attend the protest. We urge citizens to avoid the protest march route as even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational. We remind citizens to always exercise caution when in the vicinity of any large gatherings, protests, or demonstrations."
Greens trade spokesperson Russel Norman, who is taking part in the actions, told Radio New Zealand that such fears are unfounded.
"I'd just say to the U.S. Embassy, Auckland isn't Ferguson and the police won't be shooting people," he said. "It'll be a peaceful demonstration, they should just relax and maybe they should come along—they might learn something."
Trump, Sanders and Clinton take Iowa … and 2016 goes through the looking glass
The Republican insurgent gave children rides in his helicopter, the top Democrat joked about an FBI investigation and an avowed socialist drew huge crowds. This was the weekend the primary election went full weird
The 2016 presidential election is shaping up to be the most surreal political contest in modern American history.
The Democratic frontrunner is openly mocking an FBI investigation of her behaviour in office. The Republican leader is Donald Trump. And a socialist is drawing crowds that stopped traffic at the Iowa State Fair. This is the year American politics has truly gone through the looking glass. ...
In a speech at the Iowa Democratic Wing Dingin Clear Lake on Friday, Clinton not only painted the scandal which has led to an FBI investigation as a partisan witch-hunt – she made a joke of it.
Clinton said: “You may have seen that I recently launched a Snapchat account. I love it. I love it. Those messages disappear all by themselves.” ...
As Trump was flying in to Des Moines on Saturday, he passed over the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist who is mounting a strong challenge to Clinton.
“I apologize,” Sanders told his crowd. “We left the helicopter at home.” ...
In sweltering heat, Sanders drew 1,000 to the Des Moines Register’s soapbox. The crowd had to be corralled at times to avoid stopping traffic. The attendees were diverse by any standard, let alone those of a state such as Iowa where 94% of residents are white. They cheered after almost every other sentence of Sanders’s stump speech as he attacked the “billionaire class” and called for single-payer healthcare and a $15 minimum wage.
Jeb Bush Shouted Down by 'Black Lives Matter' Protesters
The Evening Greens
After Animas river spill, experts warn of next disaster: 'We were lucky this time'
The mustard-tinged cloud of toxic wastewater that last week colored Colorado’s Animas river an unappealing tangerine was not the first spill to dye the river – nor is it likely to be the last, according to engineers, if government and private industry fail to take action as they have in the past.
One expert called the mines north of Durango near Silverton and the abandoned mining town of Gladstone “ticking time bombs”. Another expressed relief that the Gold King spill was not larger – if a slurry of mine waste known as tailings had spilled from the area, he said, there could have been “100 times the volume” of waste.
Mark Gibson, the principal engineer at the environmental regulatory consulting company Kyklos Engineering in Denver, said the industry has expected a big blow-out like this for years.
“Most of us in the industry have been predicting this for 30 years,” said Gibson.
Climate Change: Have We Reached the Point of No Return?
PERIES: ... The recent James Hansen report surpasses all previous predictions related to sea level rises. Why is that happening?
JAMAIL: It's because a phenomena is occurring called abrupt climate change, and it's actually something I started to really become acutely aware of back in 2013, and became aware of Dr. McPherson and his work and conducted a long interview with him, and wrote a long article for TomDispatch.com called Are we already off the climate precipice?. And you read the article and the answer is clear, yes.
And the fact is, when we look at, connect all the dots, which Dr. McPherson has done and has been doing for quite a number of years now, that it shows when we look at the pattern of for example the IPCC worst case predictions of, whether it be temperature increases or sea level rise, or CO2 in the atmosphere, the reality continues to dramatically outpace the worst case scenarios. And so the worst case scenarios in the modeling keep being amended with more new data coming in, and the reality is that the reality keeps outpacing it to the extent that even the modeling can't even keep up. And we're seeing things happening on such a fast pace now regarding extreme weather events, 1,000-year floods turning into 100-year floods turning into 10-year floods. Same with fires and temperature increase records, and all of this is happening so quickly and dramatically that there's no question that this has been going on for years now.
And I think, to cut to the chase, to kind of put this out there from the start, I think that any ideas of changing the situation are a pipe dream and don't really show an extent of the knowledge of how far along we already are. And we're in a position now where it's kind of brace for impact.
Google is trying to take over America’s rooftops (with solar panels)
Is cheap, clean energy harnessed from the sun and applied straight to your electricity bill right for you?
Now, you can Google it to find out.
Google’s newest tool, Project Sunroof, combines the company’s aerial mapping technology with weather data to users to calculate just how much they’d benefit from investing in solar — and, ideally, to get them started on creating their own solar-powered dream homes. After receiving a custom recommendation for a solar installation size that could cover close to 100 percent of their energy needs and reviewing a simple break-down of different options for how to finance it, users who like what they see can also find information about local solar providers who can actually come and set the whole thing up.
Here’s the pitch:
California drought’s dangerous toll: Millions of dying trees are putting human lives at risk
Four years of drought is continuing to take a punishing toll on California’s trees, with implications for habitat, landscapes and even human safety.
Aerial surveys conducted by federal officials earlier this year found that already, more than 12.5 million trees have fallen victim to the severe lack of rainfall. ... Dying trees, of course, are also flammable, making the state’s lengthening wildfire season all the more dangerous. They affect water quality by allowing more runoff to make it into streams, and their loss, as a carbon sink, can in the long term make climate change — a factor in the current drought — even worse. They pose an immediate risk, moreover, to those who stroll, or sit, or build beneath them. ...
According to biologist Jeffrey Moore, acting regional aerial survey program manager for the U.S. Forest Service, it’s “almost certain” that a million more trees will be counted among the dead before summer’s end.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Why Did the FBI Spy on James Baldwin?
Rising Up Against Police Violence, From the Black Panthers to #BlackLivesMatter
New Orleans: 10 years after hurricane Katrina – in pictures
'I dream about it every night': what happens to Americans who film police violence?
Four Ways Mexico’s Indigenous Farmers Are Practicing the Agriculture of the Future
Neocons to Americans: Trust Us Again
Katie Couric’s Hit Job on Social Security
Every voice counts
A Little Night Music
Clifford Gibson - Sneaky Groundhog
Clifford Gibson - Old Time Rider
Clifford Gibson - Don't Put That Thing On Me
David Bromberg - Don't Put That Thing On Me
Clifford Gibson - Bad Luck Dice
Clifford Gibson - She Rolls It Slow
Clifford Gibson - Blues Without A Dime
Clifford Gibson - Drayman Blues
Roosevelt Sykes/Clifford Gibson - Tired of Being Mistreated
Paul Rishell - Tired of Being Mistreated
Clifford Gibson - Society Blues
Clifford Gibson - Ice And Snow Blues
Clifford Gibson- Jive Me Blues
Clifford Gibson - Keep Your Windows Pinned
Jimmie Ridgers with Clifford Gibson - Let Me Be Your Side Track
Clifford "Grandpappy" Gibson - It's Best To Know Who You're Talking To
Clifford Gibson - I Don't Want No Woman