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 rockabilly, rock and roll, rhythm & blues, and country artist Ronnie Hawkins. Enjoy!
Ronnie Hawkins with Duane Allman - Down In the Alley
"The Great Spirit raised both the white man and the Indian. I think he raised the Indian first. He raised me in this land, it belongs to me. The white man was raised over the great waters, and his land is over there. Since they crossed the sea, I have given them room. There are now white people all about me. I have but a small spot of land left. The Great Spirit told me to keep it."
Chief Red Cloud - Sioux
News and Opinion
The Evening Blues
We dig up what the MSM buries.
Contributors:
NCTim
enhydra lutris
Yemen conflict: Civilians 'struggle to flee' Saada strikes
Civilians in the city of Saada in northern Yemen are struggling to flee Saudi-led coalition air strikes targeting Houthi rebels, reports and aid workers say.
Teresa Sancristoval, of medical charity MSF, said fuel shortages meant many people were having to travel by foot.
The UN's representative in Yemen says the indiscriminate bombing of populated areas is against international law.
Air strikes have killed at least 1,400, more than half civilians, the UN says.
Hezbollah opens up about relationship with Al Houthis
Submitted by: NCTim
They are hundreds of miles apart and their local struggles have little in common, yet Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Al Houthi militiamen are opening up about a relationship forged by sectarian politics transforming the Middle East.
With regional tensions exacerbated by a Gulf-backed coalition striking Al Houthis, the long rumoured but never proven ties are becoming visible.
Some sources say Iran-backed Hezbollah may even be providing direct support to their Yemeni allies.
Hezbollah has made no comment on its role with Al Houthis, but a political source close to the group’s leadership said the relationship goes back several years and hinted it may be playing an advisory role to Al Houthi militiamen.
Rights group accuses Yemen rebels of 'war crimes'
Human Rights Watch says rebel forces shot and killed two women and detained 10 local aid workers.
Pro-Houthi forces shot and killed two women and held aid workers hostage in Yemen's southern city of Aden, a rights group has said, hinting at possible war crimes.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Thursday the incidents, which happened last month, exemplify the grave threats to civilians in the embattled port city where Shia rebels and their allies are fighting forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
HRW said the two women were struck by gunfire in separate incidents on April 17 and 18, and died before relatives could find a medical facility to treat them.
Pro-Houthi forces also unlawfully detained 10 local aid workers for 14 days, releasing two only after payments were made. Deliberate attacks on civilians and taking hostages are war crimes, the group said.
Islamic State conflict: US begins training Syrian rebels
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
The US military has begun training a small group of Syrian rebels in an effort to build a force capable of defeating Islamic State militants.
Ashton Carter, US defence secretary, said about 90 people were being trained in a secure location, and they would be paid by the United States.
He said more fighters would begin training soon at sites in Jordan, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Supporting the troops militarily on the battlefield has not been ruled out.
Syria rebels cast doubt on US training program
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels on Friday voiced deep reservations about a U.S. program to train moderate rebels that American and Jordanian officials say has kicked off in Jordan, dismissing it as a drop in the ocean that would not change realities on the ground.
U.S. officials say the program is part of a broader effort to build a force capable of fighting Islamic State extremists — not President Bashar Assad's forces whom rebels blame for fanning extremism in Syria and the region.
That alone has incensed some rebels who said they would not take part in the training even if they had been given the opportunity.
"The principle is wrong — very wrong," said a rebel who goes by the alias Abu Qays, with the Levant Front faction, or Jabha al-Shamiya, which operates in and around the northern province of Aleppo.
Is the Syrian government to blame for chlorine gas attacks?
The US has accused the Assad regime of using chlorine against its own citizens, saying that no other party in the conflict has the means to deliver such weapons.
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
United Nations — A "large majority" of UN Security Council members support a US effort to create a way to attribute blame for chlorine attacks in Syria and are ready to move quickly in the next few days, the council president said Thursday. But Syria ally Russia worries whether it will be objective, with the Russian ambassador saying, "They've done their attribution of blame already."
Lithuanian Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite told reporters after closed-door consultations that the US needs to work out the outstanding doubts and questions and all 15 members need to see the plan in writing.
The council met as Syrian activists and a doctor reported new suspected attacks that left several dozens of people suffering from asphyxiation.
The council has been unable to follow up on a resolution it passed last month that threatened action for such attacks because no one has a mandate to assign blame. Ms. Murmokaite said there has been an increase in alleged attacks since then.
U.S. Government: We Can Classify Anything and Judges Can’t Stop Us
Submitted by: NCTim
At a hearing today on a lawsuit seeking to make videotapes of force-feedings at Guantánamo public, Justice Department attorneys argued that the courts cannot order evidence used in trial to be unsealed if it has been classified by the government. “We don’t think there is a First Amendment right to classified documents,” stated Justice Department lawyer Catherine Dorsey.
The judges at the D.C. Court of Appeals appeared skeptical. Chief Judge Merrick Garland characterized the government’s position as tantamount to claiming the court “has absolutely no authority” to unseal evidence even if it’s clear the government’s bid to keep it secret is based on “irrationality” or that it’s “hiding something.”
“That is our position,” Dorsey agreed. She added that a more appropriate tool to compel the release of the videos was through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Sixteen media organizations, including First Look Media, are seeking footage of Abu Wa’el Dhiab being repeatedly force-fed at Guantánamo. Dhiab was held by the U.S. for 12 years without charges or trial before being released to Uruguay last December.
North Korea boasts of firing ballistic missile from submarine
North Korea said on Saturday it had successfully test-fired a ballistic missile from a submarine, a step that would mark significant progress in the secretive state's military capabilities.
It could pose a new threat to South Korea, Japan and the United States, which have tried to contain North Korea's growing nuclear and missile strength, military experts said.
The North's leader, Kim Jong Un, oversaw the test-launch from an offshore location as the submarine dived and "a ballistic missile surfaced from the sea and soared into the air, leaving a fiery trail of blaze," the official KCNA news agency said.
"Through the test, it was verified and confirmed that the underwater ballistic missile launch from a strategic submarine fully achieved the latest military, scientific and technical requirements."
In WWII 3 out of 4 German KIA Were by Soviet Army
WWII’s Eastern Front was by far the bloodiest theater of war the world had ever seen. It cost the lives of nearly 12 million combatants of which 4.3 million Axis troops including 3.55 million Germans - death tolls far in excess of those in the west
The best available estimate of WWII German military deaths comes from German historian Rüdiger Overmans. Most estimates are based on wartime casualty reports of the German military; but Overmans shows convincingly that the system was unreliable and eventually broke down, so that preceding estimates underestimate the number of German military men who fell in WWII.
Overmans, after extensive research of his own, put the total German military war dead at 5,318,000. This figure includes deaths of Volksturm militiamen and foreign volunteers of the Waffen SS and Wehrmacht. It does not include the deaths of Soviet citizens in German service.
Of these, 459,000 are known to have died in captivity, including 363,000 as prisoners of the Soviets. Overmans suggests the figure of German POWs who perished in Soviet captivity may be far higher than the 363,000 recorded deaths, and could reach as many as one million men. This is speculation, however, since Overmans, working from the German archives, had no way to study the subject.
The Russian historian Krivosheev, who was better positioned to study the subject, instead estimates there were a total of 450,000 German POW deaths in Soviet hands, including the deaths of 94,000 prisoners who never made it to POW camps and whose deaths are thus not reflected in their records.
U.S. & Europe Boycott Russia’s Celebration of Its 9 May 1945 Victory Over Hitler
At first, a few progressive heads-of-state in Europe were appalled at U.S. President Barack Obama’s pressure for them to reject Russia’s invitation to an upcoming 9 May 2015 celebration of victory against Hitler, and Czech President Milos Zeman even came out publicly saying, in a conspicuous face-slap to Obama, on 3 January 2015, that the U.S. overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 had been a coup and that “only poorly informed people” were comparing that to Czechoslovakia’s own “Velvet Revolution” against communism on 29 December 1989. Zeman even said that Ukraine’s 22 February 2014 U.S. overthrow of Yanukovych, or the event (under the cover of public demonstrations at the) “Maidan, was not a democratic revolution” but instead a coup. Or, as the head of Stratfor, the private CIA firm, has acknowledged, it was even “the most blatant coup in history,” because it was so well doumented in videos taken by bystanders at the time, as well as by internal intelligence leaks (such as this and this). So: indeed, “only poorly informed people” didn’t know about it. (And some still don’t.)
On 2 January 2015, the progressive Zeman — a passionate opponent of Hitler and of his Nazis and their nazism — courageously stated his intention to go to Moscow for its upcoming May 9th victory-over-Nazism celebration; but, on 8 April 2015, the Czech deputy prime minister, who leads a conservative party, caved to pressure from the U.S. Ambassador, and said that Zeman would have to do it at his own personal expense if at all; and, so, two days later, on April 10th, Zeman said that he wouldn’t attend — the pressure from the U.S. was just too great.
Then, on 3 May 2015, France’s Boulevard Voltaire, as translated at Fort Russ, reported that no Western leader would be attending, and Fort Russ headlined on May 9th, “Putin ‘all by himself in Red Square’ — with the leaders of half the planet.” (The only Western official to attend is Greece’s Speaker of Parliament.) Obama had, indeed, succeeded at blocking virtually all Western representation at Russia’s 70th-Anniversary victory celebration against nazism.
Mr. Obama had earlier paid homage to Hitler, the historical founder of nazism or racist fascism, by making the U.S., on 21 November 2014, one of only three countries in the entire world to vote against a resolution at the United Nations condemning the recent upsurge in racist fascism in many countries. Although Hitler wasn’t even mentioned in it, Obama had his U.N. representative vote against it — vote against condemning Hitler’s ideology.
How Nike came to embody the good and bad of Obama's free-trade push
President Obama went to Nike Friday to exhort Congress to pass trade legislation. But fair-labor advocates say Nike is a poster child for the pitfalls of free-trade deals.
Submitted by: NCTim
The Friday before Congress takes up trade legislation that President Obama dearly wants, he decided to make his case at the Beaverton, Ore., headquarters of Nike.
He could hardly have chosen a place that speaks more compellingly both to the promise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and to its potential pitfalls.
In an attempt to assuage fears that the TPP would send more jobs overseas, Mr. Obama highlighted that Nike is promising to create up to 10,000 United States-based manufacturing jobs if Congress passes the pact. That is just a taste of the benefits that the agreement will deliver to America and the world by lowering import tariffs, opening new markets to exports, and providing a means to compete with China, he said.
But for years, fair-labor advocates have held up the company as a poster child for why free-trade deals such as the TPP hurt America. They outsource jobs to low-income foreign workers where labor rights are scarce.
Iran’s Khamenei: No place for military threats in nuclear talks
Iran negotiations with western leaders will resume in Vienna next week
Submitted by: NCTim
Ankara: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that Tehran would not take part in nuclear talks if threatened with military force, state television said, as Iran and world powers try to meet a June 30 deadline for a final deal.
“Holding nuclear talks (with major powers) under shadow of threat is unacceptable for Iran ... Our nation will not accept it ... Military threats will not help the talks,” Khamenei was quoted as saying by Iran’s English language Press TV.
“Recently two US officials threatened to take military action against Iran. What does negotiation mean under the shadow of threat,” he said.
He gave no further details on the threats.
Iran bill passes 98 to 1. Sign of a Senate breakdown?
The Senate voted overwhelmingly to give itself a say on President Obama's Iran nuclear deal. But it had to revert to hyperpartisan ways to do it. Still, the bill's author sees positive signs for Congress.
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Washington — On Thursday, the Senate either took another step toward functionality or a step back.
Sen. Bob Corker (R) of Tennessee is ever the optimist.
The Senate voted 98 to 1 to guarantee congressional review, and possibly rejection, of any final Iran deal. It’s a water-tight, veto-proof, majority.
“It is a taking back of power from the president in a bipartisan way on the biggest geopolitical issue,” says Senator Corker, who began work on the bill last July.
Images From Victory Day Parade in Moscow
Submitted by: NCTim
Some countries still celebrate the fall of fascism in 1945 while here in the states, our glorious leaders are doing their level best to rekindle it.
Here area few photos from Russia’s Victory Day Parade. Leaders and military compliments from several nations who came together to stop Germany’s march across Europe attended. India, Mongolia, Serbia, and China were present. Nations that should have attended, the Poland, Ukraine, United States, Britain and France, did not. Go figure.
Pictures here.
Kazakhstan: Another step on China’s Eurasia BRIC road
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Oil prices are still crawling out of the cellar. But Chinese President Xi Jinping may be paraphrasing Sarah Palin’s words, “Drill baby, drill!,” when he arrives Thursday in oil-rich Kazakhstan on the first stop of a Silk Road-inspired journey that will also take him to Russia and Belarus.
Xi’s expected to unveil a series of new Chinese-backed developments when he meets with Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayez. Oil, rail and related projects will likely be on tap in a nation sitting at the gateway of China’s “One Belt, One Road” economic zone that stretches from Central Asia to Europe. Xi’s already announced a bevvy of joint developments on a recent visit to Pakistan and is expected to do likewise in Kazakhstan.
Vestnik Kavkaza, a Caucasus region news site, reports that trade between China and Kazakhstan hit $17.2 billion last year. Chinese interests own big oil assets in the country. This includes a stake in the largest Kazakh oil field at Kashang. China firms are also pouring in money to construct oil and gas infrastructure that can pump products to the Chinese market.
Russian news agency TASS says another bilateral goal is to expand transport links and facilities so Kazakhstan can build part of a highway that links western China and Europe as part of the New Silk Road scheme.
The forgotten and forsaken
Submitted by: NCTim
Two weeks after the earthquake, global media attention is gradually losing its focus on Nepal. Although there has been some coverage of remote areas, the coverage of media and aid has so far focused on Kathmandu.
And as Sindhupalchok has dominated the headlines because of the sheer numbers killed there, Gorkha and Lamjung which were right at the epicentre remains in the shadows.
On these mountains, villages after villages have been reduced to rubble. Everyone has lost a relative, a friend or a neighbour, or all of them. The villagers can tell stories about each landslide, each collapsed household and who lies beneath them.
In Kulgaun, Saurpani VDC, for instance, there is barely a house still standing. A close walk along the side of the hill away from it lies Pokhari, in the neighbouring VDC of Barpak where only tin roofs are visible among piles of bricks and rocks. Most of what remains from the school there is the door, still standing straight while the walls and the roof have collapsed all around it.
Pentagon boosts alert level at military bases following ISIS threats
The US military has increased the security level at US military bases due to unspecific warnings involving the radical Islamic State terrorist group. The alert level is now at its highest since the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
The order to boost the security level on US military bases to “Bravo” – the third of five levels of alert - was ordered by Admiral William Gortney, head of the US Northern Command (NORTHCOM), which commands all military installations on American territory.
The move comes just hours after FBI Director James Comey spoke out on the increasing threat of jihadist attacks being carried out on US soil.
Comey said Thursday there are "hundreds, maybe thousands" of individuals in the United States who are being inspired via social media platforms to carry out acts of violence on American targets.
Military Contractors Behind New Pro-War Group Targeting Presidential Candidates
Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers has formed a new pressure group, now active in Iowa and New Hampshire, to serve as the “premiere national security and foreign policy organization during the 2016 debate” and to “help elect a president who supports American engagement and a strong foreign policy.”
Roger’s group, Americans for Peace, Prosperity, and Security, is hosting candidate events and intends to host a candidate forum later this year. The organization does not disclose its donors. But a look at the business executives helping APPS steer presidential candidates towards more hawkish positions reveals that many are defense contractors who stand to gain financially from continued militarism:
- Advisory Board Member John Coburn is chairman and CEO of VT Systems, a company that delivers communications technology for the Defense Department.
- Advisory Board Member Stephen Hadley is a principal at the consulting firm RiceHadleyGates and serves as a board member to defense contractor Raytheon, a position that pays him $228,007 in annual compensation.
- New Hampshire Board Member Rich Ashooh lists his employment as Director, Strategy at BAE Systems.
- New Hampshire Board Member James Bell is the chief executive of EPE Corporation, a manufacturing company that says it is a “premier supplier to the defense community.”
- Advisory Board Member John Engler, the president of the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group for major corporations, including defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, United Technologies, Northrop Grumman.
- New Hampshire Board Member Ken Solinksy is founder of Insight Technologies, a night vision and electro-optical systems firm acquired by L-3 Communications.
- New Hampshire Chairman and Advisory Board Member Walt Havenstein is the former chief executive of BAE Systems and SAIC, two of the largest defense contractors in America. Havenstein, who left SAIC in 2012, was paid partially in company stock options.
U.S. Government Designated Prominent Al Jazeera Journalist as “Member of Al Qaeda”
The U.S. government labeled a prominent journalist as a member of Al Qaeda and placed him on a watch list of suspected terrorists, according to a top-secret document that details U.S. intelligence efforts to track Al Qaeda couriers by analyzing metadata.
The briefing singles out Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, Al Jazeera’s longtime Islamabad bureau chief, as a member of the terrorist group. A Syrian national, Zaidan has focused his reporting throughout his career on the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and has conducted several high-profile interviews with senior Al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden.
A slide dated June 2012 from a National Security Agency PowerPoint presentation bears his photo, name, and a terror watch list identification number, and labels him a “member of Al-Qa’ida” as well as the Muslim Brotherhood. It also notes that he “works for Al Jazeera.”
The presentation was among the documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Exiled Burundi judge says court forced to back president
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — The Burundian Constitutional Court was forced to validate President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid to seek a third term in office, an exiled judge said as three people were killed in protests Thursday over the president's candidacy.
Protests have rocked Burundi's capital since the ruling party announced April 25 that it had nominated Nkurunziza as its presidential candidate. Three people were killed and 13 wounded during protests, according to the Burundi Red Cross.
Judges met April 30 and found that Nkurunziza wasn't eligible to run for another term, said Constitutional Court Vice President Sylvere Nimpagaritse, who is in exile in Rwanda. He said after that decision, the judges started receiving threatening phone calls, which forced him to flee. The remaining judges then changed their decision in Nkurunziza's favor.
"If we did not give the third term a green light, we were going to be in trouble," Nimpagaritse said.
Snowden says Australia watching its citizens ‘all the time,’ slams new metadata laws
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden accused Australia of undertaking mass surveillance of its citizens and passing laws on the collection of metadata that he says do not protect society from acts of terrorism.
Snowden, addressing the Progress 2015 conference in Melbourne via satellite link, criticized Australia's new metadata laws, which allow the government and intelligence agencies to keep a constant watch on citizens.
"What this means is they are watching everybody all the time,” the former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower said. “They're collecting information and they're just putting it in buckets that they can then search through not only locally, not only in Australia, but they can then share this with foreign intelligences services.”
Last month, Australia passed controversial laws that require telecommunications firms to retain their customers’ phone and computer metadata for two years
Watch Bernie Sanders Destroy Rand Paul During Healthcare Debate
Submitted by: NCTim
Ever since Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy for the 2016 presidential election, the left has been patiently been waiting to see him in a debate. Over the past few years, Sanders has given speeches that have gone viral on the internet. Sanders has the rare ability to deliver a passionate populist message that is based on sound policy. Frankly speaking, standing next to Sanders all other candidates will look almost silly. That goes double for conservative candidates.
Luckily, we get a glimpse of the future, courtesy of a video from 2011 that shows Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul go head-to-head over healthcare. Sanders has been an ardent supporter of establishing a universal healthcare system in the United States. Paul has a vastly different viewpoint on healthcare. Paul has fought against Obamacare since it was implemented. Paul supports completely privatizing the entire healthcare system in the United States.
In the video, Sanders says that he feels that healthcare is a human right. Then, Sanders asks Paul how he feels about healthcare from a philosophical approach. Paul responds saying that he feels that treating healthcare as a human right is tantamount to slavery. Guaranteeing that food and water are covered as basic human rights is also an act of enslaving humankind, because the Constitution.
Yeah, he really said that.
Keep in mind that Paul and Sanders are two candidates that see eye-to-eye on many things. They both are in favor of introducing decarceration policies. They both have a somewhat isolationist stance on military affairs. They both want to roll back the national security state. Imagine if Jeb Bush was thrown between the two in a live debate.
Officer in Freddie Gray case demanded man's arrest as part of personal dispute
Baltimore lieutenant Brian Rice used his position to threaten ‘heads will roll’ if officers did not arrest his ex-girlfriend’s husband, police report reveals
The most senior Baltimore police officer charged over the death of Freddie Gray used his position to order the arrest of a man as part of a personal dispute just two weeks before the fatal incident, prompting an internal inquiry by Baltimore police department.
During an erratic late-night episode in March, Brian Rice boasted he was a Baltimore police lieutenant and warned “heads will roll” if officers in a nearby city did not “go arrest” his ex-girlfriend’s husband, according to a police report obtained by the Guardian.
The incident is the latest in a series revealed by the Guardian that policing experts said raised questions over Rice’s ability to perform his duties as a supervising officer and the Baltimore department’s decision to keep him on front line patrols.
Two weeks later, it was Rice who initiated the arrest of Gray after the 25-year-old “made eye contact” with the lieutenant in a west Baltimore street and ran away. Gray was chased and subjected to a fatal arrest that was declared unlawful by the city’s top prosecutor.
The Reasons for Urban Rioting
If one goes to Wikipedia under the subject of “mass racial violence in the United States,” one will find a “timeline of events” running from 1829 to 2015. There are so many race-related riots listed for these 186 years that, from a historical point of view, rioting appears almost normal.
Prior to World War II, these outbreaks mostly involved ethnic, racial or religious groups going after each other: Germans, Italians, Poles, Jews, Hispanics, African-Americans, Chinese, Catholics, Protestants were all involved in these set-tos. Often the causes were economic with a territorial overtone – one group moving into the neighborhood of another group and/or taking their jobs. When the violence came, it was group against group.
In the post-World War II era, the nature of the still numerous instances of rioting changed. The group-versus-group scenario gave way to group-versus-state. Most of the categories listed above had successfully assimilated under the heading “Caucasian,” and religious affiliations no longer seemed worth bloody murder. The arrival of new immigrants could/can still instill anger in citizens who mistake foreigners for the cause of problems they themselves have caused, but the result of late has rarely been rioting.
Actually, in the present era, the cause of rioting has mostly been black resentment over prevailing inequality: why the distribution of wealth seems never to work to satisfy the needs of African-American poor. Thus, all too many African-Americans, particularly men, have little opportunity for a decent life, while simultaneously having every opportunity to end up in confrontations with the police and then land in prison.
Patriotism at a Price: US Military Paid NFL Teams to 'Honor' Soldiers at Games
New York Jets received hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of years to salute 'hometown heroes'
Submitted by: NCTim
What better way to advertise military culture—and recruit teenagers—than by staging heartfelt salutes to "hometown heroes" at professional football games in front of thousands of fans?
That, apparently, is what Department of Defense officials thought when they shelled out at least $5.4 million of U.S. taxpayer' money to 14 NFL teams between 2011 and 2014—to pay them to promote the military on and off the field.
The vast majority of this money was disbursed by the National Guard, journalists Christopher Baxter and Jonathan D. Salant of New Jersey Advance Media revealed in an article published Thursday.
Sabotage convictions overturned against activists
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
NASHVILLE — An appeals court on Friday overturned the sabotage convictions of an 85-year-old nun and two fellow peace activists who broke into a facility storing much of this country’s bomb-grade uranium and painted slogans and splashed blood on the walls.
In a 2-1 opinion, a panel of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the most serious conviction against Sister Megan Rice, Michael Walli, 66, and Greg Boertje-Obed, 59. The court upheld a conviction for injuring government property.
On July 28, 2012, the activists cut through several fences at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge to reach the uranium storage bunker. Once there, they hung banners, prayed and hammered on the outside wall of the bunker to symbolize a Bible passage that refers to the end of war: “They will beat their swords into ploughshares.”
At issue was whether the nonviolent protest injured national security. The majority opinion of the appeals court found that it did not.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal, which will feature from Chicago: continuing coverage of the Teamsters' Strike. The Broad Ax declares itself against strikebreaking.
Tune in at 2pm!
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The Next Decade Will Decide What the World Looks Like for Thousands of Decades to Come
It could, if we set our minds to it, be the decade when the planet's use of fossil fuels peaks and then rapidly declines.
The next 10 years will be decisive when it comes to the planet's future -- what we do (or don't) will play out over geologic time.
It could, if we set our minds to it, be the decade when the planet's use of fossil fuels peaks and then rapidly declines. We've built a movement that, for the moment, is starting to tie down the fossil fuel industry: from the tarsands of Alberta to the (as yet unbuilt) giant new mines of Australia's Galilee Basin, the big players in coal, gas, and oil are bothered and even bewildered by a new strain of activist. They're losing on the image front: when the Rockefeller family, the Church of England, and Prince Charles have begun divesting their fossil fuel stocks, you know the tide has turned.
And with it comes the sudden chance to replace that fossil fuel, fast and relatively easily. Out of nowhere the price of solar panels has fallen like an anvil from a skyscraper, dropping 75 percent in the last six years. Renewable energy is suddenly as cheap or cheaper than the bad stuff, even before you figure in the insane monetary cost of global warming. So in Bangladesh they're solarizing 60,000 huts a month; the whole country may be panelled by 2020.
That rapid change wouldn't be enough to stop global warming -- we're already seeing drastic changes, as anyone living through California's drought can attest. We'll continue to see record-breaking years (like 2014. And like 2015 so far). We'll have to deal with record flooding. The ocean will grow more acidic. But maybe, if we really ratchet up the transition we'll avoid a challenge of civilization-scale.
Or, of course, we could change slowly, the way the Koch Brothers would like. (And for that matter, most political leaders). We could do nothing out of the ordinary, and wait three or four decades for solar power to replace fossil fuel. It would rattle the fewest cages in the short run.
The other British political battle: Jim Messina vs. David Axelrod
David Cameron's Conservatives won the British elections, and so too did adviser Jim Messina, a former top Obama aide. He beat another Obama adviser, David Axelrod, who advised the Labour Party
Submitted by: NCTim
Washington — There was a curious American dimension to this week’s British elections, but it wasn’t Republican vs. Democrat. It was Democrat vs. Democrat. One former top aide to President Obama, Jim Messina, advised Prime Minister David Cameron and the Conservatives, while another top Obama aide, David Axelrod, advised Ed Miliband and the Labour Party.
Mr. Messina, or rather, Prime Minister Cameron, won. It wasn’t even close, despite election-eve polling to the contrary. Messina was first out of the block with a gloaty tweet at about 1 a.m. Eastern US time: “Things US&UK have in common: completely broken public polling & re-electing their strong leaders.”
Mr. Axelrod conceded about eight hours later, also on Twitter: “Congratulations to my friend @Messina2012 on his role in the resounding Conservative victory in Britain.”
Emeryville council votes to raise minimum wage
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
Workers in Emeryville will be taking home bigger paychecks this summer as the City Council unanimously voted this week to raise the local minimum wage.
Set to take effect July 1, the ordinance mandates that workers at small businesses, defined in Emeryville as 55 or fewer employees, be paid $12.25 an hour, with incremental raises toward a $15-an-hour wage by 2018.
Businesses with more than 55 employees will be mandated to pay at least $14.44. By 2019, all workers in Emeryville must earn nearly $16 an hour, one of the highest minimum wages in the country.
“The primary goal of all this is to lift the floor of poverty for our lowest-paid workers,” said Mayor Ruth Atkin. “We have a tempered regional approach and consensus that includes business. This is a policy for the common good.”
Sheriff Busted For Illegal Quotas Claims ‘Ignorance Of The Law’ As Defense
Submitted by: NCTim
A Michigan Sheriff won’t be prosecuted for issuing illegal quotas to police officers under his jurisdiction. Grand Traverse County Sheriff, Tom Bensley, told prosecutors he was “ignorant of the law” that makes it illegal for law enforcement agencies to offer incentives or punishments to officers, based on the number of tickets they write.
At the end of April, the Sheriff’s Department sent an email to officers promising them a paid day off in exchange for writing at least five tickets in a specified area. WWTV in Grand Traverse County reports that ‘dozens of tickets were written’ while the Sheriff’s Department’s quota was in place.
After concerns about the illegal incentive were raised, the Sheriff and the local prosecutor arranged a meeting. Bensley says he was informed that this kind of incentive program is against the law.
Dozens of tickets and citations that were issued during the time that the quota was in place have been dismissed. The Sheriff’s Department will also be issuing refunds to those people who have already paid their tickets.
GAO: Gov't waste of natural gas costing taxpayers millions
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
WASHINGTON (AP) — Significant amounts of natural gas on federal lands are being wasted, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars each year and adding to harmful greenhouse gas emissions, a congressional investigation has found.
The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office also said the Bureau of Land Management failed to conduct production inspections for hundreds of high-priority oil and gas wells — roughly 1 out of 5 — to ensure full payment of royalties to the U.S.
The report, obtained by The Associated Press before its public release, is the latest to highlight substantial gaps in oversight. An AP review of government records last May found the agency, which manages oil and gas development on federal and Indian lands, had been overwhelmed by a boom in a new drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
The GAO report said it had been urging BLM, an agency of the Interior Department, to update guidelines for the burning or venting of natural gas since at least 2010, when it found 40 percent of it could be captured economically and sold. BLM has yet to do so, although agency officials now say they are in the process of putting together various orders and a proposed rule for comment later this year.
China behind cyberattack on U.S. sites, report says
Submitted by: enhydra lutris
WASHINGTON — The United States voiced concern Friday over a report that China manipulated international Internet traffic intended for a major Chinese Web service company and used it for a cyberattack on U.S. sites.
State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke’s comments follow complaints from antionline censorship group GreatFire.org that Chinese authorities carried out denial-of-service attacks in late March that intermittently shut down GitHub, a San Francisco code-sharing site that hosts some of GreatFire’s data. GreatFire.org said it was a direct target of similar attacks earlier that month.
GreatFire, which has received U.S. government funding, produces mirror websites that let Chinese users see information normally blocked by government censors.
Citizen Lab, a research unit based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, attributed the attack to an offensive system it dubbed the “Great Cannon” that manipulates the traffic of systems outside China, silently programming their browsers to create a denial-of-service attack.
“Does this mean we can clone a mammoth?”: The tantalizing, risky and very real science of de-extinction
Biologist and author Beth Shapiro on the dos and don'ts of bringing extinct species back to life
Beth Shapiro is an evolutionary biologist specializing in ancient DNA, a complex field (which she pioneered) that uses genetic information from long-dead species to learn how past populations responded to previous periods of rapid climate change — lessons she hopes we might use to preserve biodiversity today. But every time her lab publishes research relating to the reasons why the mammoth went extinct, she told Salon, someone calls her up (sometimes it’s her mom) and asks, “Does this mean we can clone a mammoth?”
“I just got so tired of answering that question,” Shapiro said, which might strike some as a strange reason to go ahead and write an entire book about it. But that’s what she did. The result, though titled “How to Clone a Mammoth,” answers the question pretty quickly, with a definitive “no.” Still, she found a lot to discuss — because while we will never see the day when mammoths once again roam the earth, the science of so-called de-extinction is real, and tantalizingly close.
When it comes to de-extinction, Shapiro positions herself as an “enthusiastic realist”: she’s excited about the possibilities, but wary of the potential for abuses. She does not entertain questions referencing Jurassic Park. And if we’re going to get serious about this technology, she warns, there’s a lot we have to consider first.
Our conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows.
De-extinction: I was hoping you could start by just explaining where we are in the realm of feasibility when it comes to this?
We’re all trolls now, for better and for worse: How the Internet lost its prankster lulz and found its outrage
A scholar of online creeps and pranksters explains 4Chan history and the surprising ways they've influenced us all
What is a troll? Even the word itself doesn’t know for sure. The first published usage of the term in reference to online behavior (in the Toronto Star, 1992) explained trolling as the work of those who “fish for flames,” just as fishermen troll for a catch by trailing bait on a line. By now, however, the monster metaphor holds sway. If the Internet is a bridge to the greater world, a troll is the beast who lives under it, extracting a toll in hurt feelings, outraged sensibilities and fear from all who pass.
Once upon a time — before the Web existed, even! — the word “troll” stood for any sort of committed troublemaker in an online community. Trolls were spoilers whose defining practice was deception: They pretended to be people they were not and to believe things they did not. As the scholar Whitney Phillips writes in her new book, “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship Between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture,” the first researchers to study trolling saw impersonation as its most toxic element. Trolls made it impossible to trust anyone encountered on the Internet. And how can you build a utopian virtual society with a bunch of people who might not even be who they say they are?
By now most of us have given up on that utopian dream and adjusted to the provisional identities of the individuals we encounter online, although catfishing (of one form or another) remains a nagging worry. When I hear someone using the word “troll” today, they may or may not be referring to an online actor who conceals his real name and face. Most often, though, “troll” is a word pinned on whoever happens to be upsetting us online: people we disagree with politically; people who posted negative reviews of our books or stand-up routines; people who dislike what we say so much they enlist their friends to berate us; people who express themselves with excessive crudeness and hostility; as well as outright harassers, bigots and obsessive stalkers.
We may wonder why such people behave the way they do, why they devote so much time and energy to, say, taunting a columnist about her father’s death, but we only occasionally doubt that they mean what they say. Yet only a few years ago — during what Phillips calls “the golden age of trolling” — the opposite was the case. This period, between 2008 and 2011, saw the rise of a self-identified troll subculture rooted in the image board 4Chan, where anonymous posters gathered to swap jokes, pornographic images and insults, and to plan elaborate, prankish raids on other sectors of the Internet. Most of the time they couldn’t care less about the topics or people they trolled. They were in it for the lulz.
The Evening Greens
The Evening Greens Weekend Editor: enhydra lutris
Tapping the ocean for drinking water: State lays down the law
California adopted new rules Wednesday to help cities and water agencies figure out the best way to siphon water from the sea and turn it into drinking water without killing fish.
The plan, approved by the State Water Resources Control Board in Sacramento, marks the first time any state or country has developed environmental guidelines for building and operating desalination plants.
“It is a big deal,” said Jonathan Bishop, chief deputy director of the water board. “It sets the ground rules for how to get a desalination facility permitted that is protective of marine life.”
Adopting the rules is among a series of measures the state is taking to head off a water crisis caused by a fourth year of drought.
Belize offshore oil plan sparks worries for reefs, fisheries
BELIZE CITY, Belize (AP) — Belize is considering new offshore drilling regulations that could open nearly the entire coast to exploration and exploitation, environmental groups have warned, calling it a threat to vital reefs, fisheries and tourism concerns.
The proposal recently made public by the Ministry of Energy would even allow drilling in the vicinity of the Great Blue Hole, a world-famous diving destination that can be seen from space and looks just like what its name suggests, the U.S.-based activist group Oceana said.
"They've declared open-season on almost 99 percent of Belize's marine area," Janelle Chanona, Oceana's vice president for the Central American nation, said by phone from the capital, Belmopan. "That includes seven World Heritage sites, that includes marine protected areas ... and it is unacceptable."
The proposal is still in the draft stage. Government officials did not respond to requests for comment Thursday, but have said previously that they are considering possible modifications including feedback from groups like Oceana. Belize currently has a moratorium on offshore drilling
Threats to soil productivity threaten food security
A group of leading soil scientists points out the precarious state of the world's soil resources and the possible ramifications for human security.
A group of leading soil scientists, including the University of Delaware's Donald L. Sparks, has summarized the precarious state of the world's soil resources and the possible ramifications for human security in a paper published Thursday, May 7, in the journal Science.
In a review of recent scientific literature, the article, titled "Soil and Human Security in the 21st Century," outlines threats to soil productivity -- and, in turn, food production -- due to soil erosion, nutrient exhaustion, urbanization and climate change.
"Soil is our planet's epidermis," said Sparks, echoing the opening line of the article. "It's only about a meter thick, on average, but it plays an absolutely crucial life-support role that we often take for granted."
Sparks, who is the S. Hallock du Pont Chair in Soil and Environmental Chemistry in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at UD, has been chair of the National Academy of Sciences' U.S. National Committee for Soil Sciences since 2013.
Biting back: Scientists aim to forecast West Nile outbreaks
New research has identified correlations between weather conditions and the occurrence of West Nile virus disease in the United States, raising the possibility of being able to better predict outbreaks.
New research has identified correlations between weather conditions and the occurrence of West Nile virus disease in the United States, raising the possibility of being able to better predict outbreaks.
The study, by researchers with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), finds strong correlations across much of the country between an increased occurrence of West Nile virus disease and above average temperatures in the preceding year. The scientists also find that precipitation influences subsequent disease outbreaks, although the impacts vary by region.
The weather may influence West Nile virus activity by affecting the breeding habitats and abundance of Culex species mosquitoes, which transmit the virus. The weather may also have other impacts, such as affecting populations of infected birds that pass on the virus to mosquitoes.
"We've shown that it may be possible to build a system to forecast the risk of West Nile virus disease several weeks or months in advance, before the disease begins to peak in summer," said lead author Micah Hahn, a scientist with both NCAR and CDC. "Having advance warning can help public health agencies plan and take additional steps to protect the public."
Environmental exposure to hormones used in animal agriculture greater than expected
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Research by an Indiana University environmental scientist and colleagues at universities in Iowa and Washington finds that potentially harmful growth-promoting hormones used in beef production are expected to persist in the environment at higher concentrations and for longer durations than previously thought.
"What we release into the environment is just the starting point for a complex series of chemical reactions that can occur, sometimes with unintended consequences," said Adam Ward, lead author of the study and assistant professor in the IU Bloomington School of Public and Environmental Affairs. "When compounds react in a way we don't anticipate -- when they convert between species, when they persist after we thought they were gone -- this challenges our regulatory system."
Numerical simulations performed in this study can help to predict the potential impact of environmental processes on contaminant fate to more effectively understand the potential for these unexpected effects.
This study illustrates potential weaknesses in the U.S. system of regulating hazardous substances, which focuses on individual compounds and often fails to account for complex and sometimes surprising chemical reactions that occur in the environment
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
Obama Administration: Judges Can’t Stop Us From Classifying Whatever We Want
Man Shuts Down Unlawful NYPD Search in Just Seven Seconds
What Does Chris Hedges Really Want From Us?
Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Michael Moore and Others in ‘The Legacy of I.F. Stone’
Five More Years of Tory Government: What Fresh Hell Is This?
The Inhuman Failure of "Austerity"
Transgender protections pass at FCPS as hate erupts
Hellraisers Journal: Texas Landlord Evicts Socialists Tenants as a "menace to God and humanity."
A Little Night Music
Ronnie Hawkins - Who Do You Love
Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks - Mary Lou
Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks - Need Your Lovin'
Ronnie Hawkins And The Hawks - Ruby Baby
Ronnie Hawkins - Ramblin´ Man
Ronnie Hawkins - Matchbox
Ronnie Hawkins - The Ballad of Caryl Chessman
Ronnie Hawkins & The Rock 'N' Roll Orchestra - Let It Rock
Ronnie Hawkins with Levon Helm, 1959
The Band & Ronnie Hawkins - Who Do You Love
Ronnie Hawkins - Bo Didley
Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks - I Feel Good
Ronnie Hawkins - Red Rooster (feat Duane Allman)
Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks - Goin' To The River
Ronnie Hawkins - Drinkin' Wine / Red Rooster
Ronnie Hawkins - Home From The Forest
Ronnie Hawkins - Mary Lou
Ronnie Hawkins - Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Duane Allman & Ronnie Hawkins - Don't Tell Me Your Troubles
Ronnie Hawkins - Reason To Believe
Ronnie Hawkins - Forty Days
Ronnie Hawkins - I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow
Ronnie Hawkins - Cold Cold Heart