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 New Orleans r&b singer and self-appointed "Emperor of the Universe," Ernie K-Doe. Enjoy!
Ernie K-Doe - Mother-in-Law
"I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. They told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness. I have frequently found myself in tears while hearing them. The mere recurrence to those songs, even now, afflicts me; and while I am writing these lines, an expression of feeling has already found its way down my cheek. To those songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any one wishes to be impressed with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let him go to Colonel Lloyd's plantation, and, on allowance-day, place himself in the deep pine woods, and there let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that shall pass through the chambers of his soul, - and if he is not thus impressed, it will only be because "there is no flesh in his obdurate heart."
I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion.”
-- Frederick Douglass
News and Opinion
Barack Obama wins support from Gulf leaders for nuclear deal with Iran
Barack Obama has secured support from Gulf leaders for his attempt to reach a nuclear deal with Iran as a summit outside Washington concluded on Thursday with the first glimpses of possible rapprochement on an issue that has alarmed many US allies in the region. ...
White House officials were optimistic of a possible breakthrough in attitudes more broadly after warmer than expected praise from the official delegation of six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Officials from the Saudi delegation, which was without King Salman after he pulled out at the last minute, were less enthusiastic but echoed growing Gulf acceptance of the deal which is expected to be finalised in Switzerland next month.
“We welcome any deal that stops Iran from having a nuclear capability and this is what we have been assured by the US and by the other P5+1 countries – that all pathways to a bomb will be closed to Iran,” the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, told reporters in a separate briefing. ... “Over the next six weeks the discussions will continue in order to see if this can be brought about, so it would be too early to prejudge what we accept and we don’t accept because we haven’t seen the final details,” Al-Jubeir added. ...
Gulf leaders appeared reassured by US insistence that defence of Gulf states was a “fundamental tenet of American policy” and an “iron-clad commitment”, even though they failed to secure the formal defence agreement some had hoped for.
Hmmm... looky here, seems like there was a bit of bribery going on out there in the woods...
US Likely to Designate Gulf States as ‘Major Allies’
The White House today announced its intentions to dramatically deepen military ties with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states today, saying they will jointly cooperate to deal with “external threats.”
The most dramatic part of this deal is that the White House is likely toadd all the GCC nations to the official list of “major non-NATO allies.” (MNNA)
This designation has broad implications on military ties and US provision of advanced arms. ... The Saudis have been seeking an official US pledge of mutual military defense, and while MNNA theoretically stops a bit short of that, it is likely a distinction without a difference in practice, putting the Saudis and their allies at parity with Israel, Japan, and South Korea.
Iranians fire warning shots at commercial ship in Gulf
Iranian Revolutionary Guards fired warning shots Thursday at a Singapore-flagged commercial ship in the Gulf that had collided recently with an Iranian oil rig, US officials said Thursday.
After hearing a radio call for help, the United Arab Emirates dispatched coast guard vessels to aid the tanker and the Iranian boats then departed the area, US officials said.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels tried to intercept the Singapore-flagged ship, the Alpine Eternity, "in order to settle a legal dispute stemming from an incident on March 22, 2015, when the Alpine Eternity reportedly hit an Iranian-owned oil platform," a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
"Iran claims that the vessel is liable for damages to the oil platform," the official said.
Government Watchdog: Afghan Military “Will Need Our Help for the Foreseeable Future”
A top federal watchdog on Wednesday delivered an extensive speech on the dour outlook for Afghanistan’s ability to govern itself in the medium term.
Appearing at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko stated that “Afghan self-sustainment of its security institutions is long way away … the ANDSF [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] will need our help for the foreseeable future.”
Sopko pointed out that Congress has appropriated $110 billion to rebuild Afghanistan, more than was spent on the Marshall Plan after World War II. And of the $110 billion, said Sopko, $62.5 billion has gone to Afghan security institutions, yet the most recent assessment by the U.S. military showed that the country’s army “has not achieved the highest rating level of ‘sustaining’ in any category assessed.”
During the 14 years of U.S. and NATO presence, the Afghan government has never even implemented a “verifiable, centralized personnel and payroll system to accurately track ANDSF numbers” — so there’s no way to know something as basic as how many Afghan soldiers and police there actually are. ...
Sopko also explained that he’s concerned about the ability of Afghan government ministries to function without support. At the Defense and Interior Ministries, Sopko said, “only four offices at those ministries were deemed ‘capable of autonomous operations’ while 21 were ‘capable of executing functions with Coalition oversight only.'”
What is Nakba Day?
Palestinians have been mourning the loss of their homeland since 1948, but Nakba Day, an annual day of commemoration inaugurated by the Palestinian Authority, is a relatively new addition to the calendar.
"Nakba" is just the Arabic word for disaster. After 1948, with the definite article “al” (i.e., al-Nakba), it became the proper name for the displacement of hundreds of thousands of persons and the establishment of a Jewish state following the Israeli War of Independence.
As Israelis were preparing an elaborate celebration for the nation's 50th anniversary, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat decided that Palestinians should mark the 50th anniversary of the Nakba as well. He declared May 15, the day after Israeli independence in 1948, as Nakba Day.
In 2005, Nakba Day and Israel's Independence Day fell in the same week for the first time. This caused some conflation of the two events, with left-wing activists and Palestinian Israelis holding Nakba Day events, such as visiting deserted Palestinian villages on Independence Day, to the moral indignation of some other Israelis.
From that year, joint Nakba Day-Independence Day commemorations became an annual event. In 2011, however, the Knesset passed the so-called “Nakba Law” in 2011, which empowered the finance minister to defund NGOs marking Independence Day in a mournful manner.
The more Israel represses the Nakba, the stronger the memories
One can respect the other’s pain, about which there is no historical doubt, and, if we want to be honest and brave, one can also ask if the State of Israel has ever atoned for what it did, whether deliberately or accidentally, with forethought or lacking choice, in 1948. Has it ever abandoned the policy that caused the Nakba? Isn’t it the same policy of dispossession, occupation, oppression, destruction, and expulsion that continues to this day, 67 years after 1948, and 48 years after 1967? ...
But the truth is that there is no greater proof of Israel’s insecurity about the justness of its cause than the battle waged to forbid marking the Nakba. A people confident in its path would respect the feelings of the minority, and not try to trample on its heritage and memories. A people that knows something terrible is burning under its feet sees every reference to what happened as an existential threat.
Israel started to battle the Nakba immediately after it occurred; it did not allow the refugees to return to their homes and lands and confiscated their abandoned property. It destroyed nearly all of their 418 villages out of foresight, covered them with trees planted by the Jewish National Fund and prevented any mention of their existence.
The primitive concept was that one could erase the memory of a people with trees and suppress its pain and consciousness with laws and force. This country of monuments forbade any monument to their tragedy. This country of commemoration days and wallowing in grief forbade them to mourn. Every Arab carrying a rusty key is considered an enemy; any sign marking a destroyed village is an abomination.
Not only is there no justice in this, there’s no benefit in it, either. The more Israel tries to repress the memory, the stronger it gets.
Greek finance minister says he won't sign bailout deal that won't work
Greece's finance minister insisted Thursday that he will reject any deal with international bailout creditors that does not help the country exit its economic crisis.
The radical left-led government in Athens is locked in very slow-moving negotiations with its European creditors over a package of reforms demanded in exchange for a long-overdue rescue loan installment. Without the funds, Greece risks bankruptcy within weeks, and eventually, a possible exit from the euro currency.
Yanis Varoufakis said Greece must escape the "strictness trap" of budget measures that might hurt the economy and so prevent the country from reducing its debt mountain to manageable levels.
After emerging briefly last year from a six-year economic depression, Greece is officially back in recession, adding urgency to the need for a swift deal in the bailout talks.
Greece pays public sector workers
Athens, which had been expected to easily make Friday’s payments, will find it harder to meet wage and pension commitments later this month as well as debt payments in June.
“The mid-May payments of wages and pensions ... were made within the scheduled time frame,” the ministry said.
A ministry official said that the amount paid was about €500m.
In a sign of the precarious nature of Greece’s finances, the ministry also said that there was a delay in paying workers at a fund that disburses EU subsidies to farmers (OPEKEPE) “due to bureaucratic reasons”, but promised the funds would be paid later on Friday.
Scheer and Hedges: They Know Everything About You
FBI had internal concerns over licence plate readers, documents reveal
The FBI has deployed surveillance technology that can read car license plates around the country despite its own internal worries about the privacy implications of the mass tracking devices, newly released documents reveal.
An email exchange between FBI agents dated June 2012 records that the assistant director of the FBI postponed the purchase of a particular type of camera linked to LPRs after he was advised by his own legal department, the office of general counsel (OGC), of privacy concerns. The document is redacted, thus obscuring the precise nature of the camera, but it does note that the OGC is “still wrestling with LPR privacy issues”.
Another batch of documents obtained by the ACLU records the interest of the FBI’s Video Surveillance Unit (VSU) in LPRs stretching back some time. One document notes that the “VSU has spent years evaluating LPR products”.
Later in the same document it is revealed that LPRs were bought in “limited quantities and deployed to numerous field offices”. The equipment was purchased from a company called ELSAG North America headquartered in Brewster, New York, that claims to be able to record up to 1,800 license plates a minute with cameras mounted on police cars or on fixed points such as bridges or overpasses. ...
Jay Stanley, the ACLU’s expert on technology-related privacy issues, said that the heavily redacted documents released by the FBI left many questions still unanswered. “As is so often the case, we are left with the feeling that the public should know more about the policies that the FBI has developed – if the agency has guidance relating to privacy concerns over this very sensitive technology, then the public should be told about it.”
Politico Gives CIA’s Worst WMD Liar a Platform to Slam Seymour Hersh
It’s hard for anyone to judge the accuracy of Seymour Hersh’s blockbuster story on the killing of Osama bin Laden, given its reliance on unnamed sources. I personally would trust him more than most people stuck in the oozing miasma that is Washington, D.C., but he does ask readers to rely completely on his judgment. So it’s certainly appropriate and useful for other journalists to provide context on whether Hersh’s previous reporting has proven correct.
What’s neither appropriate nor useful is to give former government officials the chance to attack Hersh’s story without giving readers the context of their track record of veracity. But that’s exactly what Politico did in this piece, “U.S. officials fuming over Hersh account of Osama bin Laden raid”:
“If you were to believe Sy, you would have to believe this massive conspiracy that President Obama, Robert Gates, Leon Panetta and Mike Morell were all lying to you,” said Bill Harlow, the [CIA]’s former top spokesman, referring to two recent secretaries of defense and a former acting CIA director. “It makes absolutely no sense.”
The next paragraph would have been the right place for Politico to say this:
In 2003, Harlow himself participated in a massive conspiracy to lie to you about Iraq’s purported WMD. Indeed, he personally engaged in some of most egregious government dishonesty on the issue when he blatantly lied about a Newsweek story published just before the war that strongly suggested Iraq had no remaining banned weapons. Since leaving the CIA, Harlow has co-written three books with former top CIA officials, all of which defend the agency’s use of torture, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein recently accused Harlow of making “false charges” about the Senate’s torture investigation.
That would have provided a real service: readers would have heard what Harlow had to say about a specific news article, but also learned that Harlow has a history of dishonesty when he wants to discredit accurate reporting. After all, “history matters,” as Harlow himself said in At the Center of the Storm, his book co-written with former CIA director George Tenet.
But Politico didn’t say that.
Lapdogs, redux: How the press tried to discredit Seymour Hersh’s bombshell reporting on CIA domestic spying
Seymour Hersh found himself in the middle of an F-5 shitstorm this week after breaking his biggest blockbuster story of the Obama Era, debunking the official heroic White House story about how Navy SEALs took out Osama Bin Laden in a daring, secret nighttime raid in the heart of Pakistan.
According to Hersh’s account, OBL was given up by one of his Pakistani ISI prison wardens—our Pakistaini allies had been holding him captive since 2006, with backing from our Saudi allies, to use for leverage. Hersh’s account calls into question a lot of things, starting with the justification for the massive, expensive, and brutal US GWOT military-intelligence web, which apparently had zilch to do with taking out the most wanted terrorist in the world. All it took, says Hersh, was one sleazy Pakistani ISI turncoat walking into a CIA storefront in Islamabad, handing them the address to Bin Laden’s location, and picking up his $25 million bounty check. About as hi-tech as an episode of Gunsmoke.
The celebrated Navy SEAL helicopter raid and killing of OBL was, according to Hersh, a stage production co-directed by the US military and Pakistan’s intelligence agency, who escorted the SEALs to Bin Laden’s room, pointed a flashlight at the captive, and watched the SEALs unload hot lead on the old cripple, turning him into spaghetti bolognese. (Raising other disturbing questions—such as, why would the White House want to silence forever the one guy with all the names, the most valuable intelligence asset in the world… unless of course that was the whole point of slaughtering him in his Abbottabad cell? Which leads one to wonder why the US wanted to make sure Bin Laden kept his secrets to himself, should one bother wondering.)
Hersh has pissed off some very powerful people and institutions with this story, and that means the inevitable media pushback to discredit his reporting is already underway, with the attacks on Hersh led by Vox Media’s Max Fisher, CNN’s Peter Bergen, and even some on the left like Nation Institute reporter Matthieu Aikins. Yesterday Slate joined the pile-on, running a wildly entertaining, hostile interview with Hersh.
Such attacks by fellow journalists on a Sy Hersh bombshell are nothing new—in fact, he used to relish them, and probably still does. He got the same hostile reaction from his media colleagues when he broke his biggest story of his career: The 1974 exposéof the CIA’s massive, illegal domestic spying program, MH-CHAOS, which targeted tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of Americans, mostly antiwar and leftwing dissidents.
As Chicago Pays Victims of Past Torture, Police Face New Allegations of Abuse at Homan Square
The Guardian article referenced in Democracy Now report is here:
Homan Square detainee: I was sexually abused by police at Chicago 'black site'
It’s Been 6 Months Since Tamir Rice Died, and the Cop Who Killed Him Still Hasn't Been Questioned
When the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department made its first public comments on Tuesday about its ongoing investigation into the death last November of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, it provided few details. Nearly six months since Cleveland police fatally shot Rice at a community center park where he had been waving around a toy gun, questions are mounting as to why the investigation has taken so long, especially given explicit surveillance footage of the shooting and the troubling police record of the officer who pulled the trigger.
Mother Jones has learned that the two officers involved in the shooting—Timothy Loehmann, who fired the shots, and Frank Garmback, who drove the police car—still have not been interviewed by investigators from the sheriff's department. According to an official familiar with the case, investigators have made more than one attempt to interview Loehmann and Garmback since the Cleveland Police Department handed over the case in January. ...
Michael P. Maloney and Henry Hilow, the two attorneys representing the officers, declined to comment to Mother Jones about the officers' participation in the investigation, saying it would be inappropriate to do so while the investigation was ongoing.
Venezuelan Policeman Receives 18 Year Sentence for Murder of Teen
Javier Mora Ortiz, 23, of the National Bolivarian Police (PNB) was found guilty of fatally shooting 14 year old Kluivert Roa Nunez in the head with a plastic bullet on February 24 following a clash between hooded protesters and security forces in the western city of San Cristobal. ...
Following the teen’s death in February, Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, moved quickly to demand a full investigation into the incident and took to the television to officially condemn the circumstances surrounding the teen’s murder at the hands of the police. ...
The sentencing of Ortiz is just one of the latest cases of security personnel being prosecuted for using heavy handed tactics or taking part in illegal activities in Venezuela.
Back in March, the head of the country’s recently formed presidential commission for police reform and former police official, Freddy Bernal, confirmed that the body had arrested 57 police officials since last year and dismissed more than 300.
According to Bernal, mafias have been operating inside the Venezuelan police force, taking part in lucrative activities such as extortion and kidnapping.
Coups, Massacres And Contras: The Legacy Of Washington’s New Point Man In Latin America
The Obama administrationannounced in December that it would immediately re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, a policy shift that ended 54 years of isolation. In another move that was diametrically opposed to this policy shift, it then imposed economic sanctions on Venezuela in March.
Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and president of Just Foreign Policy, argues that Obama realized his administration made a mistake implementing the sanctions, and so attempted to back-pedal bystating: “We do not believe that Venezuela poses a threat to the United States, nor does the United States threaten the Venezuelan government.”
Weisbrot added: “And then he did something that no U.S. president has done since 1999, when Hugo Chávez was president-elect of Venezuela: he met with Venezuela’s head of state. This was arguably as important for hemispheric relations as his meeting with Raúl Castro.”
But with the appointment of Feierstein, Weisbrot told MintPress News that he believes U.S. policy toward Latin America may not have changed at all.
“Feierstein’s been involved in campaigns against left governments since the U.S.-backed war against the Sandinistas in the 1980s,” Weisbrot told MintPress, adding that he can’t understand why nobody has reported on Feierstein’s appointment yet.
Indeed, a quick review of Feierstein’s track record in Latin America reveals that the new senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council has played an integral role in facilitating destabilization of South American countries since the 1980s.
'We Will Not Surrender Our Voices': British Teens Lead Thousands-Strong Protest Against Austerity
A spirited protest against austerity reportedly led by teenagers swept Bristol, England on Wednesday, drawing thousands to the streets and garnering widespread media attention just days after the country's electoral lurch to the right.
The group Bristol Against Austerity put a call-out for the mobilization, declaring:
This is a protest against the government who propose to make £12bn in welfare cuts over the next 3 years, who introduced the bedroom tax and the privatization of the NHS, that has targeted the poorest people and will continue to do so with devastating consequence. A protest against the party who has the backing of the right-wing press, manipulating and scaremongering voters. The party who secures it’s donations from it’s wealthy friends, who dodge their taxes as we foot the bill.
We want an end to austerity. An end to the right wing media who are allowed to run amok. An end to the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer. An end to an unfair voting system. This protest is about standing up for all that is so frightening about this tory government. It is a clear message from our city to Westminster that we will not surrender our voices.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature reporting of the testimony of Mother Jones before the Commission on Industrial Relations.
Tune in at 2pm!
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Obama’s Ugly Reign - Fast Track
So this is how Barack Obama is moving into the final 20 months of his dismal neoliberal presidency, which he once (proudly) described as ideologically akin to the Eisenhower White House. He is nauseating much of his own Wall Street-captive party’s electoral base by trying to push through the absurdly regressive, secretive, eco-cidal, and global-corporatist Trans Pacific Partnership treaty – a massive investor rights measure that promises to reduce wages, deepen inequality, undermine popular sovereignty, and assault already endangered livable ecology in the name of (what else?) “free trade” and “growth.”
The treaty is so toxically capitalist and transparently authoritarian that even the leading right-wing corporate Democrats Bill and Hillary Clinton – champions of the arch-neoliberal North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – have to keep their distance from it in accord with Mrs. Clinton’s presidential ambitions.
After going on television to childishly claim that U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s elementarily logical and evidence-based “arguments [against TPP] don’t stand the test of fact and scrutiny” (harsh if inept words for a top party colleague and ally), Obama was at first unable to persuade all but one U.S. Senate Democrat not to block his bid for “fast-track” legislation, which would grant the president to bring the TPP to an up-or-down floor vote with no amendments. A subsequent re-do secured enough sold-out Democratic votes to combine with unanimous Republican support to succeed in the upper Congressional body.
Hall of Shame
Reversing Grassroots Win, US Senate Approves Fast Track Trade Measure
Senate Democrats blocked the first attempt to proceed on the trade legislation on Tuesday, but backtracked in the wake of further negotiations—and intense pressure from the White House.
13 Democrats voted with Obama, big business and the Republicans Thursday; winning their Traitor to Working People Badge are:
Michael Bennet (D-CO)
Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Tom Carper (D-DE)
Chris Coons (D-DE)
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)
Tim Kaine (D-VA)
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Mark Warner (D-VA)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)
The Traitor to Working People badge is redeemable at any Dark Corporate Overlord outlet for obscenely large amounts of campaign donations and media support, or for a trip through the Golden Revolving Door to a highly-compensated corner office sinecure.
Congratulations, you thirteen Democrats, and please, avail yourselves of the fast track to hell.
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Joe Stiglitz: TTIP is for special interests
Trade Deals and the Logic of the Middle Finger
Optimism Finds a Cure
After news broke that Senate Democrats had voted against giving President Obama fast-track authority for his TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) ‘trade’ agreement there was a moment when true knowledge of the world was held ever-so-briefly in suspension. Eternal optimists of the liberal and progressive persuasions instantly declared that Democrats had acted on, if not quite their moral compasses, at least credible threats from the electorate that their futures as professional collectors of campaign contributions might be at risk. However, upon reading the ‘reasons’ for the vote it became clear that said Democrats were only moving slowly to assure they would be paid their proper tribute for endorsing the deal.
While optimism is certainly within the range of normal human emotions, those expressing it in socially beneficial forms can be found facing down militarized cops in Ferguson, Missouri, fighting mountaintop removal in West Virginia and occasionally burning cop cars in Baltimore. As Senate Democrats were quick to demonstrate, where optimism is never rewarded is in expectations that they will act in the public interest. It took only twenty-four short hours for the graftariat to ready itself to once again conduct the (rich) people’s business. If the fact of the reversal fails to impress, the speed with which it took place certainly should. With the capitalist coup (TPP, TTIP) now so near completion, the call of opposition has been rephrased as it always should have been, to ‘take the politics out of money.’ ...
Conspicuously missing from the current ‘moment’ is the soundtrack, the anti-commodity of social expression that makes official absurdity visible by offering contrast to it. The institutional panic that hit Senate Democrats when they realized they had momentarily slowed the trajectory of total capitulation to capitalist interests was met by equally panicked interpretation from the cooperative opposition that a crack had appeared that had not been made to appear. House Democrats may or may not pass ‘fast track’ and the TPP but jobs will nevertheless be outsourced, pensions looted, wedding parties in the Middle East bombed and Democrats (and Republicans) will remain craven and self-serving until a different order is established.
Rematch 2016: Wisconsin Progressive Russ Feingold to Run for US Senate
Former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat from Wisconsin, on Thursday announced plans to run for reelection and regain the seat, setting up a rematch with Republican Ron Johnson, whom Politico describes as "one of the most vulnerable incumbents on the 2016 Senate map."
Feingold represented Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate for 18 years before he was defeated by the conservative Johnson in 2010's "Tea Party wave." However, as Politico points out, Feingold appears to have an advantage even two years ahead of the election, with a Marquette Law School poll conducted last month giving him 54 percent of the vote.
In a video announcing his run, Feingold singled out money in politics as a major factor in his campaign.
"People tell me all the time that our politics in Washington are broken and that multi-millionaires, billionaires and big corporations are calling all the shots," he stated. "They especially say this about the U.S. Senate, and it's hard not to agree."
Hillary Clinton Isn't Ready to Disclose Who's Funding Her Campaign
On the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton has been pushing hard to overhaul of the country's broken campaign finance system. "We need to fix our dysfunctional political system and get unaccounted money out of it, once and for all, even if that takes a constitutional amendment," Clinton said during one of her first official speeches in Iowa last month.
Clinton's campaign finance rhetoric appears to be aimed at super-PACs, the quasi-independent organizations that bolster campaigns by buying ads. But when it comes to the major funders behind her own presidential campaign, the Democratic front-runner has yet to answer questions about how transparent she's willing to be. When Mother Jones questioned the Clinton camp about whether it will disclose the names and fundraising totals of the key supporters—known as "bundlers"—who raise vast sums of cash, a spokesperson declined to provide an answer, saying only that the campaign was still figuring out its plans. ...
Lavishing bundlers with perks is standard practice for presidential campaigns. George W. Bush created tiers of bundlers with hokey names such as "Rangers" and "Pioneers." In June 2012, Mitt Romney invited over 800 people who had bundled at least $50,000 for his campaign to an exclusive retreat in Utah, where they could hobnob with the candidate and his senior campaign staff. Bundlers may also receive more valuable rewards. A 2011 study by the Center for Public Integrity found that 184 of the 556 publicly named bundlers from Barack Obama's 2008 campaign had landed administration roles for themselves or their spouses. That figure increased to about 80 percent for the top bundlers who raised more than $500,000.
In most cases, there are no rules mandating that candidates release the names of their bundlers. Federal law does require campaigns to list lobbyists who bundle more than $16,000, but even this modest rule is easy to skirt. Large lobbying firms can divvy up the fundraising among various partners to avoid being listed.
The Evening Greens
We Are Seneca Lake: Josh Fox & Fracking Opponents Fight Natural Gas Storage Site in Upstate NY
'Paddle in Seattle' Protesters Welcome Shell Drilling Rig with Two Words: Go Away
Paddling activists rolled out the un-welcome mat as Shell Oil's hulking 'Polar Pioneer' drilling rig—whose presence is opposed by many local citizens, environmentalists, and city officials—pulled into the Port of Seattle on Thursday afternoon.
About 20 kayakers met the 307-foot-tall, 400-foot-long rig in the waters of Elliott Bay, singing, chanting, linking arms, and bearing a banner that read, "Arctic Drilling = Climate Change." Among the group were members of the Duwamish Tribe, who paddled through the waves in a long wooden canoe and led the group in chanted songs, according to the Seattle Times.
The Times adds:
Law-enforcement officers were on the water and overhead to enforce a 500-yard safety zone while the Polar Pioneer was in motion. Coast Guard officials warned the activists beforehand that any disruption of safe navigation could result in arrests.
But the authorities allowed the activists relatively close to the rig when it briefly stopped, and there were no disturbances of note during the afternoon demonstration.
Thursday's protest came in advance of a larger sHell No! demonstration planned for the weekend, including a family-friendly #PaddleinSeattle flotilla on Saturday and a mass direct action on Monday. Zarna Joshi, an organizer with the sHell No! Action Coalition, told Democracy Now! that Monday will involve "land-based actions in order to show Shell that we can shut them down on the water and on the land. They cannot hide."
California attacked by viscious corporate overlords!
Nestlé boss says he wants to bottle more water in California despite drought
The boss of Nestlé Waters has said the company wants to increase the amount of water it bottles in California despite a devastating drought across the state that has triggered demonstrations at the corporation’s bottling plant.
Tim Brown, chief executive of Nestlé Waters North America, said the company would “absolutely not” stop bottling in California and would actually like to “increase” the amount of ground source water it uses.
Asked in a local radio interview if Nestlé would consider following Starbucks’ lead and stop bottling water in California during the drought, Brown said: “Absolutely not. In fact, if I could increase it, I would.
“The fact is, if I stop bottling water tomorrow, people would buy another brand of bottled water,” Brown said in a discussion with a Nasa hydrologist on 89.3 KPCC radio. “People need to hydrate. As the second largest bottler in the state, we’re filling a role many others are filling. It’s driven by consumer demand, it’s driven by an on-the-go society that needs to hydrate. Frankly, we’re very happy they are doing it in a healthier way.”
Brown admitted that Nestlé currently wastes about 30% of the 700m gallons of water a year it draws from the ground in California. On Tuesday, the company announced plans to reduce water waste at its bottling plants in Bakersfield and Tulare by 12%.
Walmart, which also bottles water in California, has refused to move its production out of the state.
University of Washington to divest from coal companies
The University of Washington will remove direct investments in thermal coal from its $2.8bn (£1.8bn) endowment, following a vote by the board of regents, its governing body.
In a statement on Thursday, the board’s chair Bill Ayer said: “The regents take very seriously their responsibility for managing the university’s investment portfolio. It has made divestment decisions only a few times on matters it felt represented important values. That we decided to divest from coal companies today reflects the seriousness of the climate change problem.”
Thermal coal is mainly used in power generation.
The decision follows a three year campus campaign. Alex Lenferna, who has lead the effort, said: “The University of Washington’s divestment from thermal coal represents one important step forward towards climate justice.”
Opah, the world's first warm-blooded fish species, flaps fins to generate heat
The opah is the first fish species found to be fully warm-blooded, circulating heated blood throughout its body much like mammals and birds, research has revealed.
The fish, found in the waters off the US, Australia and several other countries, generates heat by constantly flapping its fins and has developed an internal “heat exchange” system within its gills to conserve the warmth.
This adaptation means warm blood that leaves the opah’s body core helps heat cold blood returning from the surface of the gills where it absorbs oxygen, maintaining an average body temperature of about 4C to 5C.
This system, likened by scientists to a car radiator, is similar to that used by mammals and birds, which are known as endotherms for their ability to maintain body temperature independent of the environment.
While tuna and some sharks can warm certain parts of their bodies, such as their brains and eyes, fish are generally classed among cold-blooded animals, known as ectotherms.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Leaked Video Reveals Omissions in Official Account of Police Shooting
Israel continues to criminalise marking Nakba Day
Taibbi: “The Democratic Party Would Triangulate Its Own Mother”
Hillary & Establishment Groupthink Are Consistently WRONG
Bureaucracies out of control
PBS: The science of being our authentic selves
The Raiders Of Your Lost Retirement: Saudi Solar, Carbon Bubble, TPP
A Little Night Music
Ernie K-Doe - A Certain Girl
Ernie K Doe - Waiting At The Station
Ernie K-Doe - Te-Ta-Te-Ta-Ta
Ernie K Doe - Crazy 'Bout You Rock
Ernie K-Doe - Popeye Joe
Ernie K-Doe - I'm The Boss
Ernie K-Doe - I Got To Find Somebody
Ernie K Doe - Real Man
Ernie K-Doe - Hurry Up And Know It
Ernie K-Doe - Rub Dub Dub
Ernie K-doe - Don’t Kill My Groove
Ernie K Doe - Suffering So
Ernie K-Doe - Fly Away With Me
Ernie K-Doe -T'aint it The Truth
Ernie K-Doe - Come On Home
Ernie K. Doe - Here Come The Girls
Ernie K-Doe - Hotcha Mama
Ernie K Doe - Whoever Is Thrilling You (Is Killing Me)
Ernie K Doe - Dancin' Man
Ernie K Doe - Gotta Pack My Bags