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 one of the great blues harmonica players, George "Harmonica" Smith. Enjoy!
George Harmonica Smith - Juke + Leavin' Chicago
“No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious & charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful.”
-- Kurt Vonnegut
News and Opinion
Eric Holder's Corporate Law Firm Is Turning Into a 'Shadow Justice Department'
The revolving door between the Department of Justice and a certain corporate law firm is spinning faster than ever. On July 6, former Attorney General Eric Holder returned to his previous employer, Covington & Burling — a firm that's represented the biggest banks on Wall Street, and is internationally known for its white-collar defense practice. A week later, his DOJ chief of staff Margaret Richardson announced that she would be following him there.
Meanwhile, the latest data from the DOJ reveals that criminal prosecutions for white-collar crimes are at a 20-year low. ... Some media outlets and commentators have begun referring to Covington as a "shadow Justice Department" — a place for talented lawyers to become familiar with how corporations work before entering public service, and a landing pad for former federal prosecutors transitioning to the private sector.
Holder worked at Covington for eight years before Obama tapped him to lead the DOJ in 2009. Plotting his return to the fold became a six-year "project," Covington chairman Timothy Hester told the National Law Journal. The firm even reserved a vacant corner office for Holder's expected return. ...
Covington's white-collar defense division, which represents clients accused of corporate, financial, or regulatory crimes, is particularly well stacked with government talent.
"Our team includes former senior SEC officials, a former Secretary of Homeland Security, three former heads of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, former federal judges, numerous former federal prosecutors with extensive criminal trial experience, as well as former senior Treasury Department, State Department, and EU officials," boasts the firm's white-collar defense and investigations web page. ...
Lanny Breuer, the firm's current vice chairman, was in charge of financial fraud prosecution in the Obama administration until 2012. Like Holder, Breuer also worked at Covington before joining Obama's DOJ. Under Breuer, the DOJ did not bring a single criminal case against big banks or other companies involved in mortgage servicing, even though "copious evidence has surfaced of apparent criminal violations in foreclosure cases," according to an investigation by Reuters.
Only three of 116 Guantánamo detainees were captured by US forces
Only three of the 116 men still detained at Guantánamo Bay were apprehended by US forces, a Guardian review of military documents has uncovered.
The foundations of the guilt of the remaining 113, whom US politicians often refer to as the “worst of the worst” terrorists, involves a degree of faith in the Pakistani and Afghan spies, warlords and security services who initially captured 98 of the remaining Guantánamo population.
According to an analysis of long-neglected US military capture information, 68 of the residual Guantánamo detainees were captured by Pakistani security forces or apparent informants. Another 30 were sent to the notorious wartime facility by forces from Afghanistan – mostly warlords and affiliates of early US efforts to topple the Taliban after 9/11.
No US official nor human rights critic believes all 116 detainees are innocent of all terrorism charges. Yet the reality that nearly 85% of detentions at Guantánamo stem from foreign partners with their own interests in round-ups – overwhelmingly of Arab men in south Asian countries – rarely factors into the heated rhetoric from conservative politicians who warn of dire consequences should Barack Obama finally close the facility. ...
“There is great reason to disbelieve claims that detainees at Guantánamo are the ‘worst of the worst’, including the fact that many were sold to the US for a bounty, not based on any real quality intelligence the US had gathered,” said Laura Pitter of Human Rights Watch.
Reduced to Just 75 lbs, DOJ says Gitmo Hunger Striker "Not Sick" Enough for Hospitalization
Lawyers for languishing detainee say their client is near death, but government has fought to keep details secret
The U.S. Department of Justice has argued to a federal judge that a hunger-striking Guantánamo inmate who weighs just 74 pounds "is not sick enough" to be hospitalized and that his petition for release must be rejected because, if granted, it could encourage other detainees to also starve themselves to near death in protest of their endless detention at the offshore prison.
According to new reporting by the Miami Herald's Carol Rosenberg, citing a recently unsealed court filing, the DOJ argued that Tariq Ba Odah, who has been held at the U.S. Navy-run prison for over 13 years without charge or trial, should be held longer even as his weight has dropped from 135 pounds, when he first started his strike in 2007, to approximately 74 pounds as of July 15 — just 56 percent of his ideal body weight.
In June, Rosenberg reports, Ba Odah's lawyers wrote to a fedeal judgethat their client "teeters on the precipice of death — his body struggling, but ultimately failing, to properly absorb the liquid nutrients he is being force fed."
The DOJ, however, countered by saying the man was solely responsible for his condition, brought about by his voluntary refusal to eat. The government cast his "underlying medical condition" as "self-inflicted" and said his "current possible consequences are all due to his seven-year hunger strike."
UK newspaper claims US blocking crucial data about Iraq invasion
NATO Troops Back in Combat as Taliban’s South Afghanistan Gains Grow
The Taliban has been gaining ground in the Helmand Province for quite awhile, locking up important districts in the opium farming region in a sustained offensive against Afghan ground troops. Now, NATO is sending its own troops back into Helmand to try to stall the offensive.
Details on troop numbers in Helmand are not public yet, but the Pentagon confirmed US airstrikes against Taliban targets inside Helmand were meant to target Taliban groups “threatening” NATO coalition troopsin the area, as Musa Qala District Governor called for yet more military support for the region. ...
NATO has made much of “ending” the Afghan War and moving to a purely support role, but with the Taliban taking more and more territory across Afghanistan, they’re looking to again get more pro-active to avoid more calamitous losses for an Afghan military which seems in many cases outmatched.
Obama's great new partners in action:
Syrian rebels: Turkey tipped al Qaida group to U.S.-trained fighters
The kidnapping of a group of U.S.-trained moderate Syrians moments after they entered Syria last month to confront the Islamic State was orchestrated by Turkish intelligence, multiple rebel sources have told McClatchy.
The rebels say that the tipoff to al Qaida’s Nusra Front enabled Nusra to snatch many of the 54 graduatesof the $500 million program on July 29 as soon as they entered Syria, dealing a humiliating blow to the Obama administration’s plans for confronting the Islamic State.
Rebels familiar with the events said they believe the arrival plans were leaked because Turkish officials were worried that while the group’s intended target was the Islamic State, the U.S.-trained Syrians would form a vanguard for attacking Islamist fighters that Turkey is close to, including Nusra and another major Islamist force, Ahrar al Sham. ...
The abductions opened the program to ridicule in the United States, where supporters of arming Syrian rebels quickly used it to make their case that Obama administration policy toward the Syrian conflict is inept. ...
Division 30 spokesman Capt. Ammar al Wawi stopped short of saying Turkey had betrayed the operation, though he agreed that the only people aware of the trainees’ plans to enter Syria were Turkish and American staffers at a joint command center in Gaziantep. He grew visibly uncomfortable when pressed on the subject.
“I have to live here in Turkey and have been targeted for kidnapping or assassination twice in the last month,” he said. “But we know someone aligned with Nusra informed them of our presence. They were taken within 10 minutes.”
Turkey PM appointed to form interim government in run-up to election
Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, has been appointed to form an interim government that will lead the country to a new election later this year after attempts to form a coalition government failed.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan formally called for the election on Monday, after an inconclusive vote in June. The election board confirmed the poll would take place on 1 November.
Davutoğlu has five days to form a temporary cabinet, which would include members of the opposition, to oversee the poll. Two main opposition parties, however, have said they will not participate in the interim administration.
The opposition accuses Erdoğan of triggering a new election in the hope that the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which he founded, can win back its parliamentary majority and rule alone again. Opinion polls, however, suggest November’s poll may not reverse the AKP’s losses, and another hung parliament is a possibility.
Germany Is Set to Accept Asylum Applications From all Syrians Who Arrive There
Germany appears to be setting a new precedent for countries impacted by the European migrant crisis — signaling that it's now willing to suspend European Union (EU) regulations and accept applications from any Syrian asylum seeker who reaches German territory. ...
Germany has issued what appears to be an internal instruction saying that it will now disregard the EU rules when Syrian refugees are involved. Dated August 21, it says that all those fleeing the devastating Syrian conflict will be now allowed to apply for asylum in Germany regardless of whether they have previously been registered.
The European country said on August 20 that it expects to receive some 800,000 refugee arrivals this year. By the end of July, Germany had already received 218,221 asylum applications.
The latest move by Germany comes as European leaders continue to grapple and debate about how best to deal with the influx of migrants, and overburdened border countries like Greece and Italy continue to beg for help in easing the pressure they've been put under.
United Nations (UN) figures showed that some 158,000 migrants reached Greece by mid-August this year, while 90,000 arrived in Italy.
As Peace Talks Collapse in South Sudan, Film Shows "Pathology of Colonialism" Tearing Apart Nation
Giving War a Chance
On August 5, US President Barack Obama compared the rhetoric employed by opponents of the P5+1/Iran nuclear negotiations to that used by the Bush administration during the run-up to America’s catastrophic war in Iraq, noting (Washington Post, 8/5/15) that “many of the same people who argued for the war in Iraq are now making the case against the Iran nuclear deal.” ...
Yet Obama’s own rhetoric in defense of the Iran deal shares more in common with his opposition than he might like to admit. In the same speech (Washington Post, 8/5/15) during which he criticized Iraq War proponents for opposing the Iran deal, Obama stated that, “absent a diplomatic resolution, the result could be war with major disruptions to the global economy, and even greater instability in the Middle East.”
Obama’s rhetorical tactic illuminates the new reality of American foreign policy discourse: For nearly all commentators, regardless of their position, war is the only alternative to that position.
The specter of war in American foreign policy discourse has thus produced a rather troubling framework: Advocates of diplomacy with Iran cite war as the inevitable alternative, while critics of diplomacy cite war as its inevitable outcome. No matter which side you choose, it seems, you are choosing war.
Barak Reveals ‘Childish’ Netanyahu Resisted Deal for Hostage Shalit
More leaked tapes of former Defense Minister Ehud Barak continue to be released, adding to the embarrassment and outrage emanating from Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. The latest release centered on the exchange for hostage Gilad Shalit, which Barak insists Netanyahu didn’t really want to do.
Barak described Netanyahu as “childish to an embarrassing agree” about the trade, and that after the 2012 exchange Netanyahu was only interested in photo ops and using the deal to get as much publicity as possible. In particular, Netanyahu was said to be most concerned that he get the first picture with Shalit.
Barak went on to describe Netanyahu as “embarrassingly petty” about the exchange, and says he and others had to push the premier for months to even get him to agree to the deal. Netanyahu’s office says it was “irresponsible” to release the tapes.
The Honduran Coup’s Ugly Aftermath
Every Friday evening for the past three months, thousands of protesters have marched through the streets of Tegucigalpa and smaller cities, carrying torches and signs reading “The corrupt have ripped apart my country” and “Enough is enough.” ...
The Obama administration has expressed sympathy for anti-corruption movements in Central America, but has yet to acknowledge its failure to protect democracy in Honduras against a military coup in 2009, which set the stage for that country’s current crisis.
Bowing to pressure from conservative Republicans in Congress, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refused to condemn the ouster of leftist President Manuel Zelaya in 2009. By her own admission, she began plotting within days to prevent him from returning to office.
Her recently released emails show that she sought help from a pro-coup lobbyist for Honduran business interests to establish communications with the new military-backed president. She also approved the continuation of U.S. aid to the illegitimate new regime, blocked demands by the Organization of American States for Zelaya’s return, and accepted subsequent presidential elections that were condemned by most international observers as unfair and marred by violent intimidation.
In 2011, President Obama officially welcomed Honduras’s dubious new president to the White House and praised his “strong commitment to democracy.” ... A year later, two leading human rights organizations reported that more than 100 political killings had occurred since the coup, accompanied by “death threats against activists, lawyers, journalists, trade unionists, and campesinos, as well as attempted killings, torture, sexual violence, arbitrary arrests and detentions.”
Days of Revolt: State Violence and Counter Violence
US Cops Aren't Getting Warrants to Spy on People's Cellphones for Petty Crimes
Law enforcement's secretive and often-times warrantless use of the cellphone tracking device known as StingRay is receiving fresh scrutiny this week following an investigation into the Baltimore Police Department's widespread use of the device in crimes both large and small. ...
An investigation by USA Today found that Baltimore police have used the device in 837 criminal cases, including serious crimes such as homicide and shooting cases, as well as petty crime cases involving credit card theft and harassing text messages.
Most significantly, however, was not how often the devices were used but how infrequently their use was made known to prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys as the cases made their ways through court. When officers did seek permission from the courts, not through warrants but through "pen register" orders, USA Today found that police officers in Baltimore described the devices as "advanced directional finding equipment" or "sophisticated electronic equipment" when seeking court permission for their use. ...
Maryland, like most of the rest of the country, has no laws requiring police to get warrants for StingRay use.
It is Time We Discussed Abolishing the Police
“If I was an anarchist or even a regular protester,” explained the president of the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild Ron Smith, “I would probably not want to be infiltrated by the police… Just like the dope dealer on Third and Pike doesn’t want to get busted. That’s the price of doing business. It’s the whole package.” This startling bit of honesty from the Seattle police regarding their imperative to infiltrate and spy on social justice protests came as Ansel Herz, a reporter for the local newspaper The Stranger, questioned Smith regarding undercover cops at a Black Lives Matter protest last December.
For those involved in Left protest movements this is hardly news. I remember my early days in the antiwar movement at Texas Tech University. During the first rallies protesting the invasion of Iraq in 2003 local police with their crew-cuts, wraparound shades, and shirts tucked into Wrangler jeans would “blend effortlessly” into the crowd of college students. Campus police even intruded into a graduate student’s office—much to his surprise—in order to peruse our flyers and posters that were stored there. A year later an investigation by Salon revealed that police had infiltrated antiwar groups in Boulder, Fresno, Grand Rapids, and Albuquerque. A federal prosecutor even demanded Drake University turn over all of its records regarding an antiwar conference held there by the National Lawyers Guild. ...
Last week documents obtained by The Intercept revealed that undercover officers for the NYPD regularly attended Black Lives Matter events. Pictures of activists are kept on file by the department and their movements are tracked. In a statement on these revelations the Metropolitan Transit Authority which has been using its counter-terrorism task force to also spy on Black Lives Matter justified the spying by equating protesters with terrorists. And this is not just the view of local police departments, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force have both been monitoring Black Lives Matter protests across the country showing the dangerous and unfounded link in the minds of police between social justice movements and terrorism.
It is notable that the problem of police infiltration is unique to Left-leaning political groups. Right wing organizations like the Tea Party, the Oath Keepers, and the Ku Klux Klan are more likely to have police as enthusiastic members than moles. Even the FBI’s oft celebrated infiltration of the Klan during the Civil Rights Movement led to more cheerleading for Klan activity than arrests of its members. While police frequently paint Left organizations as violent in order to justify the violation of people’s right to organize politically these right wing terrorist groups are regularly leftunmolested by the supposed keepers of the peace.
There are many people who think the police exist to fight crime. The reality is that the police exist to maintain the status-quo with the rich on top and everyone else fighting for scraps. ... The police represent the first line of defense between the rich and the rioters. Those involved in the Black Lives Matter movement—the latest challenge to the racist status-quo—learn quickly the true function of the police as they are shouted at and insulted by police in riot gear who hem in their marches, as they have their photos taken by police surveillance teams for further investigation, as they deal with the never ending stream of plain-clothes cops intimidating, monitoring, sowing seeds of distrust. Knowing the political role of the police perhaps it is time to stop hoping for reform and start imagining a world without the police.
Ferguson judge withdraws arrest warrants
The new judge in the Ferguson Municipal Court announced an order Monday to withdraw all arrest warrants issued before December 31, 2014.
Judge Donald McCullin, who was appointed in June 2015, also announced changes to conditions for pre-trial release in a Ferguson news release Monday afternoon. Defendants will be given new court dates along with alternative dispositions like payment plans, community service, or commuting fines for indigent persons.
"These changes should continue the process of restoring confidence in the Court, alleviating fears of the consequences of appearing in Court, and giving many residents a fresh start,” said McCullin. “Many individuals whose license has been suspended will be able to obtain them and take advantage of the benefits of being able to drive. Moreover, defendants will not be disadvantaged in being afforded pre-trial release because of the inability to make bond.”
"Casino Capitalism": Economist Michael Hudson on What’s Behind the Stock Market’s Rollercoaster Ride
Dow Jones Rebounds After China's 'Black Monday' Triggers Financial Panic
The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 350 points when markets opened in the US on Tuesday morning, a rise that came after the index dropped more than 1,000 points at the opening bell yesterday.
China's main index, the Shanghai Composite, dropped 8.5 percent on Monday, and the country's faltering economy caused a knock-off effect in other world markets.
The 1,100-point decline in just the initial six minutes of trading on Monday was the highest single-day loss in Dow Jones history, edging out a previous record daily fall of 800 points. Regulators attempted to quell some of the fear in China by slashing interest rates, and eager buyers helped give the Dow a bump on Tuesday morning.
China seeks to reassure stock markets with rate cut and looser lending
China has sought to calm its panic-stricken stock markets by cutting interest rates and loosening constraints on bank lending after a second day of plunging share prices.
The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) reduced the one-year lending rate to 4.6% in a clear signal that it was prepared to head off a repeat of the stock market crash that hit the country in June. The benchmark Shanghai Composite fell by 7.6% on Tuesday, bringing its loss in the last two days to more than 15%.
The central bank also cut the one-year deposit rate to 1.75% in an effort to persuade Chinese savers to spend cash hoarded in the country’s banks.
China’s fifth interest rate cut since November lifted global markets, which recovered much of their losses after plummeting in response to China’s Black Monday.
Hellraiser Preview
Sherman, set the time machine for tomorrow's Hellraisers Journal which will feature news from David Bruce in Chihuahua: "The faces of the merchants went white. Villa stood surveying them..."
Tune in at 2pm!
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We shouldn't treat the homeless like criminals
The captions below the pictures of homeless New Yorkers are blunt and derisive: “disgusting,” says one; “bed and breakfast” mocks another. The subjects have not asked to be photographed, and many of them look visibly upset and agitated by the intrusion.
No, this isn’t a throwback to the days of ‘bumfights’, where homeless people were filmed in dangerous and humiliating situations in the name of entertainment. This is a new initiative from the union that represents NYPD sergeants. Called Peek-a-Boo, we see you, it asks “concerned citizens of New York” to “help make the city great again” by taking pictures of homeless people, panhandlers and other quality-of-life offenses, and sharing them online.
Union representatives have insisted the project is simply meant to draw political attention to the increase in homelessness, and is in no way intended to demean or humiliate homeless people. Others aren’t buying that argument. City council members have condemned the project as “irresponsible,” “appalling” and “dehumanizing.” Unfortunately, it’s just another example of a country-wide trend: the growing criminalization of homelessness. ...
In a recent report, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty found that between 2011 and 2014, city-wide bans on camping in public increased by 60%, loitering, loafing and vagrancy laws by 35% and bans on sleeping in vehicles by 119%. Some cities are even preventing people from sharing food with the hungry. And as we saw last November, when police in Fort Lauderdale arrested a 90-year-old man for feeding the homeless, local authorities are serious about enforcing these laws.
It’s no coincidence that while we are seeing an increase in laws that demonize the homeless, we are also witnessing an alarming number of attacks targeting people living on the streets: between 2012 and 2013, there was a 23% increase in violent crimes against the homeless. When law enforcement officers and policymakers – those who should be setting our collective moral compass – treat society’s most vulnerable with such contempt, is it any wonder that some people set out to rid the world of “the most foul vagrants,” as one New Yorker described homeless people on the Peek-a-Boo website?
How “Brother” Bernie is Making Labor’s Day
Although criticized by some on the left for his own platform failings, Sanders pulls no punches in the “fight for fifteen,” immigration reform, free college tuition, campaign finance reform, single payer health care, and workers rights in general. His history of pro-labor activism and solidarity has produced diverse backers, including two bastions of blue-collar unionism in Boston, IBEW Local 2222 and Ironworkers Local 7 in Boston, and the California Nurses Association-led National Nurses United.
Last month, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), steered her much larger organization in the other direction. Yet the AFT’s hurried endorsement of her close friend, Hillary Clinton, came with little public re-assurance that the latter’s stance on school privatization, standardized testing, or job rights for teachers will be any better than Obama’s has been.
As a result, hundreds of public school teachers–normally quiescent about or resigned to such union headquarters decision-making–bombarded the AFT’s Facebook page with criticism of the candidate selection process and its outcome. They circulated on-line protest petitions, took their complaints to Twitter, and, in many cases, enlisted in a nationwide “Labor for Bernie” network that now has grown to 15,000 supporters.
William (“Buffy”) Buffenbarger, leader of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) apparently missed this display of dues-payer dismay. So the IAM plunged ahead with its own premature embrace of Clinton, just a few weeks later, after doing some sketchy AFT-style “polling” of a small fraction of its membership.
A similar on-line uproar ensued among rank-and-filers demanding to know how their union could back Clinton after her past support for free trade deals, like the proposed TPP, has helped decimate the IAM membership. More than 80 percent of those posting comments on the union’s official Facebook page favored Sanders; they’ve now launched their own “Machinists for Bernie” network. ...
Whether he wins or loses, Sanders is already helpfully tapping into rank-and-file discontent about who gets to decide what in our unions. While other big union endorsements of Clinton may soon be announced, the Labor Day buzz—at the grassroots, in early primary states—is largely about Bernie.
Hailing His 'Authenticity and Integrity,' Dr. Cornel West Backs Bernie Sanders
Extolling his "authenticity and integrity" in the struggle against greed, imperialism, and injustice, civil rights activist and intellectual Dr. Cornel West on Monday announced his endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders for president.
"The American Empire is in decline. Our market-driven culture is in decay. The criminal justice system has failed us. And the political system is collapsing due to the weight of corrupt lobbyists and greedy capitalists," West wrote on Twitter. "Only organized power of courageous and compassionate people can turn around these catastrophic realities."
Though acknowledging some of the criticisms levied against Sanders, West continued, saying that "prophetic politicians—always with their faults and blind spots—who tell the truth about Wall Street, white supremacy, empire, patriarchy and homophobia, deserve our critical support." ...
He added that the endorsement "is not an affirmation of the neo-liberal Democratic Party," which must be fought against "by social movements in the streets."
The Evening Greens
Claims that uranium mining near the Grand Canyon is safe don't hold water
It only takes a few Grand Canyon hikes to realize the importance of its springs and other water sources. When refilling a water bottle in the cool depths below multi-colored rock walls, listening to a summer frog symphony at sunset or maybe snapping an icicle from a weeping ledge in winter, it’s clear that the living desert depends on its pockets of water.
That’s why, as a hydrologist and longtime Grand Canyon hiker, boatman and scientist, I am profoundly concerned about continued uranium mining in or near it. It has great potential to irreparably harm Grand Canyon springs and the plants and animals that depend on them.
I am concerned because industry and agency officials are relying on a justification that isn’t supported by past investigations, research or data to promote uranium mining in the Grand Canyon region. Specifically, they claim that mining will have minimal impact on springs, people and ecosystems there.
Instead, the science shows that it is unreasonable to assume that uranium deposits, when disturbed by mining, can’t leak into groundwater. The deposits in the Grand Canyon are typically found in geologic features known as breccia pipes, formed millennia ago when caves in the main groundwater system collapsed, leaving shattered, rock-filled chimneys that extend upwards thousands of feet to the canyon’s rim. These chimneys act as conduits that have allowed groundwater to move vertically through the rock layers over thousands of years. The vertical movement of groundwater combined with low oxygen levels caused the uranium deposits to form over millennia. Inserting a mine shaft into these features disrupts geologic formations, increases the permeability and oxygenation of these vertical pipes and increases the ability of ore deposits to be suddenly dissolved, mobilized and carried with groundwater.
Anti-Tar Sands Activists Take Pipeline Opposition to John Kerry's Front Door
Roughly 100 young climate activists and their allies are rallying—with about 20 risking arrest through civil disobedience—outside the Washington, D.C. home of Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday morning, in an attempt to halt the "scandal" of tar sands expansion in the U.S.
Organized by Midwest Unrest—a group of students and recent graduates organizing young people across the Midwest against tar sands — the protest aims to call attention to a "backroom deal" between the State Department and Canadian oil company Enbridge that is allowing a massive expansion of its Alberta Clipper tar sands pipeline to proceed without going through the legally required environmental review process.
Environmental and Indigenous groups are fighting the scheme in federal court, but Midwest Unrest, which is supported by groups including 350.org, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Oil Change International, says Kerry "has the power to put a stop to this scandal at any time." ...
"For two years we have sent petitions, called the White House, and brought thousands of people to rally against this scandal, but Secretary Kerry has still not responded or done anything to stop it," said Kendall Mackey, national tar sands campaign manager with Energy Action Coalition and one of the main organizers of the event. "With our communities and our future on the line, we have no choice but to bring our message right to Secretary Kerry’s front door to expose this dangerous and illegal scheme and urge him to put a stop to the Alberta Clipper pipeline."
Barack Obama singles out Koch brothers over fossil fuel lobbying
Barack Obama has railed against US political and business figures who oppose the expansion of wind and solar power in a speech where he singled out the influential Koch brothers for criticism.
Accusing opponents of his energy policies of “wanting to protect an outdated status quo” based on fossil fuels, he warned them away from “standing in the way of the future” and his efforts to combat climate change.
Obama delivered the closing address at the eighth National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, co-sponsored by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada.
Blog Posts of Interest
Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.
What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus
Donald Trump Just Stopped Being Funny
Santa Muerte, Full of Grace
U.S. Army Reopens Criminal Inquiry Into Afghan Civilians’ Deaths
Remember when al-Qaeda was our enemy?
Pemberton just defending his honor
A Little Night Music
George "Harmonica" Smith - Blowin' The Blues
Muddy Waters & George Harmonica Smith - Walking thru the park
George "Harmonica" Smith - Roaming
George Harmonica Smith & Bacon Fat - Too Late
George Harmonica Smith - Goin' Down Slow
George Harmonica Smith - .44
George Harmonica Smith - Rocking
George Harmonica Smith - Tight Dress
Little George Smith - Have Myself a Ball
Phillip Walker & George Harmonica Smith - That's Alright
George "Harmonica" Smith - Teardrops Are Falling
George Harmonica Smith - Loose Screws
George Harmonica Smith and Bacon Fat - Telephone Blues
George "Harmonica" Smith - Sunbird
George Harmonica Smith - Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose
George Harmonica Smith - Astatic Stomp
George Harmonica Smith - Woke up this mornin'
George Harmonica Smith - Mellow Down Easy