The Evening Blues - 7-15-16



eb1pt12


Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Texas blues guitarist Larry Davis. Enjoy!

Larry Davis - Funny Stuff

“Even though we don't know which companies the NSA has compromised – or by what means – knowing that they could have compromised any of them is enough to make us mistrustful of all of them. This is going to make it hard for large companies like Google and Microsoft to get back the trust they lost. Even if they succeed in limiting government surveillance. Even if they succeed in improving their own internal security. The best they'll be able to say is: "We have secured ourselves from the NSA, except for the parts that we either don't know about or can't talk about.”

-- Bruce Schneier


News and Opinion

Microsoft Wins Major Privacy Victory for Data Held Overseas

In a landmark decision, an appellate court ruled Thursday that the U.S. government could not obtain personal data held overseas by issuing a domestic warrant.

Microsoft appealed an earlier ruling in the Southern District of New York that held the company in contempt of court because it refused to hand over data stored in Dublin, Ireland, during a narcotics investigation. The target’s citizenship wasn’t disclosed to the court.

The New York-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision in what digital rights advocates are celebrating as a victory for privacy in an increasingly connected digital age — though it’s expected the government will appeal. ...

The U.S. and Britain are already negotiating an agreement where both partners could directly serve companies with wiretap orders and warrants — to intercept real-time communications and collect stored communications. But neither country has announced a formal agreement yet.

El Salvador's top court repeals amnesty law in order to prosecute war criminals

Salvador's Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional a 1993 law that prohibited the prosecution of crimes committed by the military and leftist guerillas during the Central American country's bloody civil war.

The court's decision, voted favorably earlier this week by four of five Magistrates, could allow prosecutors to investigate atrocities from the civil war that stretched from 1980 to 1992. ...

The civil war killed 75,000 and left 8,000 missing. A truth commission investigated some of the worst massacres of the war, but El Salvador's Congress passed the amnesty law that impeded the prosecution of alleged war crimes.

Both the military and the guerrilla fighters from the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, which is now the ruling party, were accused of atrocities. Many former combatants have become politicians and lawmakers, like the country's president Salvador Sánchez Cerén.

As Bastille Day Attack in France Kills 84, Is the War on Terror a "Self-Fulfilling Prophecy"?

France stunned after truck attacker kills 84 on Bastille Day in Nice

France has been stunned and sickened by a third massacre in 18 months in which a man drove a heavy goods truck through night-time crowds celebrating Bastille Day on the seafront in Nice. He killed at least 84 people and injured scores more, many of them small children.

The armed man, believed to be a 31-year-old French Tunisian who lived locally, zigzagged the vehicle at high speeds for more than a mile along a beachfront esplanade, instantly turning a festival atmosphere of fireworks and families into carnage. Police shot him dead inside the truck’s cabin.

The atrocity was the third major attack to hit the country since the start of last year, following the Charlie Hebdo killings and the massacre of 130 people in Paris in November. ...

Investigators began searching a local apartment after finding identity papers in the truck cabin belonging to a French-Tunisian man named locally as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. Locals said he did not appear particularly religious. ...

Two grim details stood out from Thursday night’s events. First, the use of a truck is both rare among the many massacres perpetrated against western civilians over the past 10 years, and hard to defend against.

Second, the proportion of children killed and injured is unprecedented in France. At least 10 are thought to have died, and medical sources said another 50 had been taken to hospital overnight, many with life-threatening injuries.

Also among the victims were at least three Germans, two Americans and one Russian national.

Attack in Nice: why target France?

Why does France keep getting attacked?

Why is France suffering a wave of Islamic extremist violence that is more intense – certainly more lethal - than any other seen in the west since the 9/11 attacks?

One reason is a specific decision by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to target France. In September 2014, shortly after the beginning of airstrikes by a US-led coalition which includes France, the chief spokesman for Isis, Mohammad al-Adnani, singled out the “spiteful French” among a list of enemies in a speech calling for attacks across the west by all the group’s sympathisers. ...

Successive governments in Paris have also taken a hard – and much publicised – line on issues such as the wearing of full-body coverings in public and the veil in public places, which has been well noted by Islamic militants. So has the increasingly prominent French military role overseas. French forces have made a series of interventions in the Islamic world in recent years – in Libya, in Mali, where its troops rolled back one of the most successful Islamic militant offensives outside Syria or Iraq for many years, and of course in the coalition against Isis.

Other reasons for the violence are rooted in grave problems within France itself which have made the nation vulnerable. ...

Like other western European nations, France imported large numbers of labourers from former or existing colonies to help with post-war reconstruction, without considering that they would stay, nor that they would bring their families to join them. The integration of the resulting communities posed challenges all over the continent, but they were particularly acute in France, not least because of the violence and trauma of the Algerian war of independence.

Almost all those involved in violence in France in recent years have had similar profiles – between 18 and 36, often with a record of involvement in petty crime, known to police if not security services, often served jail sentences, from backgrounds which if not poverty-stricken were far from wealthy, and with insecure, temporary or poorly paid jobs.

The War We Forgot To End: Why Are We Still in Afghanistan?

Last Wednesday, President Obama once again delayed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Approximately 8,400 troops will remain in the country through the end of his presidency, he announced, rather than the 5,500 he committed to back in October 2015. Meanwhile, casualties continue to mount: Thousands of Afghan civilians were killed in 2015 alone.

It’s time to end the longest war in U.S. history. Begun less than a month after the 9/11 attacks, the war aimed to destroy the al-Qaeda network led by Osama bin Laden and take out the Taliban government that had provided them with safe haven. President Bush’s focus, however, was anything but narrow: “Our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there,” he said shortly before the invasion. “It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.”

Nearly 15 years and over $740 billion dollars later, there are few genuine successes the United States can claim as validation for its efforts. While an American withdrawal won’t remedy the problems of Afghanistan entirely, there’s good evidence to suggest our continued presence is making things worse. ...

We must recognize that an American military presence and constant war undermine humanitarian and reconstruction efforts. In Afghanistan as elsewhere, foreign military occupation and regime change—even if undergirded by the best of intentions—have led to unintended, often terrible, consequences.

After 15 years of death and destruction, not to mention billions of dollars down the drain, we have to admit the military option is not working. Our meddling in Afghanistan has not made that country better off or the world safer. It’s time for an orderly but immediate withdrawal.

Former SecDef: Long-Range Standoff Missile a Step to New Cold War

A former secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton told a Senate panel on Wednesday that going ahead with development and deployment of the long-range standoff cruise missile only makes nuclear holocaust more likely.

"We're now today on the threshold of a new Cold War. We're on the threshold of a new nuclear arms race, and in addition but not related to that there's a rising threat of nuclear terrorism and a regional nuclear war," former Defense Secretary William Perry said. "For all these reasons, I assert today the likelihood of a nuclear catastrophe is actually greater than it was during the Cold War."

Perry, who served as Pentagon chief from 1993 to 1997, supported a modernization of the country's nuclear triad, but said that could be done without the LRSO. "We can reject a modernization program that would increase the risk of a nuclear war by accident or miscalculation," he said. ...

Though none of the lawmakers asked and he did not elaborate, Perry has previously said that warming relations and cooperation that the U.S. and Russia enjoyed after the collapse of the Soviet Union began to fall apart when the U.S. moved aggressively to expand NATO into Eastern Europe.

President George H.W. Bush, in office when the Soviet Union collapsed, reportedly had pledged NATO would not push eastward. That changed during Clinton's presidency.

Perry said that in the first years after Russia shook off communism. the U.S. and Russia cooperated in dismantling 8,000 nuclear weapons, and Russia even embedded a brigade into an American military division for a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.

"So at that time I believed we had ended the Cold War, that we ended the threat of a nuclear holocaust. That was not to be," he told lawmakers.

US Warns Allies Not to Rush to Capitalize on South China Sea Ruling

While the Hague Tribunal ruling against China on its territorial claims in the South China Sea was loudly endorsed by US officials, American diplomats are cautioning their allies in the region, including the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia, not to rush to try to press those claims overtly against China.

China and Taiwan are both spurning the ruling, and China has vowed to defend its interests in the Sea. They accused the US of “stirring up trouble” in backing such efforts against them, and indeed the US has made a habit of backing everybody’s claims in the South China Sea so long as they intersect with China’s claims.

The State Department appears to believe that a quick push against China is more likely to lead to a military confrontation, and with the US confirming it is obliged by treaty to back the Philippines’ claims militarily, they clearly want to avoid that.

How The Hague ruling against China could spell trouble for Japan

Tokyo has been quick to applaud the decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on Beijing’s claims to reefs and atolls in the South China Sea, but experts warn that the ruling could come back to haunt Japan.

Of particular concern, they point out, should be the court’s ruling that the “islands” are little more than rocks that cannot support human habitation and economic life and cannot therefore be used to extend China’s control over the region.

Beijing arguably learned the tactic of enlarging rocks that would otherwise be submerged at high tide from Japan, which has spent billions of yen on reinforcing and enlarging Okinotorishima. This tiny atoll, 1,740 km south of Tokyo extends Japan’s exclusive economic zone over some 400,000 square km of the Pacific Ocean - larger than Japan’s total land area.

“The Hague ruling completely delegitimises Japan’s claim to those waters,” said Stephen Nagy, an associate professor of politics at Tokyo’s International Christian University.

After Week of Violence, Cleveland Prepares for Chaos at Republican Convention

Cleveland, Ohio has spent $50 million preparing for next week’s Republican convention, earning the city a lawsuit and much criticism in the process. But as the fraught relationship between police and black communities was thrust back into the national spotlight last week after police killings in Louisiana and Minnesota, the ensuing protests, and the sniper attack in Dallas, many fear the convention could descend into chaos.

Police officials, who for months have said they are confident they have the best possible security plans in place, said they were adjusting them following the Dallas attack, though they have declined to elaborate. “We have got to make some changes without a doubt,” Ed Tomba, the city’s deputy police chief and head of convention security, told Reuters. “We will have plenty of people watching over different locations. We are beefing up the intelligence component, too. They are going to be very, very active.” ...

But police reassurances that they are ready for the convention have done little to appease activists and civil rights advocates who accused the city of being badly prepared for the influx of visitors and protesters, and who said surveillance tactics deployed in the weeks preceding the convention — including law enforcement showing up unannounced at local activists’ homes — have already crossed a line. ...

In Cleveland, officials are estimated to have spent at least $20 million in federal funds on equipment ranging from bicycles and steel barriers to 2,000 sets of riot gear, 2,000 retractable steel batons, body armor, surveillance equipment, 10,000 sets of plastic flex cuffs, and 16 laser aiming systems, which a technology retailer describes as being used for “night direct-fire aiming and illumination.” And while the city has not fully disclosed all the equipment it has acquired for the convention, Ohio’s chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, which has been monitoring the preparations, raised concerns that police might be planning to deploy Stingray devices, used to monitor and track cellphones, as well as a Long-Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), a sonic crowd-control weapon that emits painfully loud sounds.

Craig Steven Wilder on How Georgetown & U.S. Catholic Church Expanded Thanks to Slave Holdings

Baton Rouge Police Sued Over Arrest of Peaceful Protesters

The Baton Rouge Police Department and state law enforcement officials were sued in federal court on Wednesday for violating the First Amendment rights of dozens of protesters detained at demonstrations in the city last weekend.

The suit, which asks for a restraining order to prohibit officers from arresting or intimidating protesters rallying to express their anger at the killing of Alton Sterling, was filed by a coalition of rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers Guild.

The lawyers note that a litany of violations can be seen in video recorded by protesters and journalists as more than 180 arrests were made over the weekend by heavily armed police officers, including:

a. Excluding lawful protestors from public forum space, including sidewalks, neutral ground, and public property;
b. Engaging with peaceful protestors in a militarized fashion, including full body gear, threatening the use of chemical agents, and keeping live automatic weapons trained on peaceful crowds;
c. Arresting protestors for “obstruction” of a highway in the absence of any impact on traffic or vehicle safety;
d. Giving contradictory and confusing ad hoc orders to protestors, then arresting individuals for noncompliance;
e. Arresting legal observers and members of the press without probable cause;

Divided Nation - is race killing America?

Thousands gather for Philando Castile's funeral a week after fatal police shooting

Faith leaders and relatives of Philando Castile shared words of hope and encouragement to “stay strong” during a 90-minute funeral ceremony on Thursday for the black Minnesota man killed by a police officer during a traffic stop last week.

Mourners filled the 3,000-seat Cathedral of St Paul to pay their respects to 32-year-old Castile, whose white casket arrived and left on a horse-drawn carriage. After the ecumenical service ended, people lined up on either side of the cathedral’s long stairs holding “Unite for Philando” signs as pallbearers dressed in white raised clenched fists while carrying out his casket.

Governor Mark Dayton, who has suggested that race played a role in Castile’s death, attended, as did US senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, and congressman Keith Ellison.

New York reformed its police and all hell didn't break loose

Panic-mongers said that scrapping stop and frisk and mass surveillance would lead to chaos. Instead, violent crime is at an all-time low

Want more evidence that the “Ferguson effect” is a myth? Look no further than the nation’s largest city, where crime is at an all-time low despite the police force slowly being forced to accept more and more accountability.

The New York police department released its crime statistics on Monday, and they showed that over the last six-month period violent crimes and murders are at an all-time low, with shootings down 20% to the lowest total for a six-month period in the city’s history. (So were burglaries, robberies and auto theft for that matter.)

Remember the widespread panic in the Michael Bloomberg administration when they claimed even the mildest of police reform would cause an increase in crime? The new stats, touted by the De Blasio administration this week, come after the NYPD was forced to curtail its unconstitutional stop-and-frisk program that ensnared countless African American and Hispanic people, after it finally had to abandoned its mass surveillance program of the Muslim community, and after it finally named an inspector general for the police force, which the former mayor fought to the very end of his term.

This data also suggests that, at least in New York City, the “Ferguson effect” – the insulting idea put forth by FBI director Jim Comey and others that the transparency and accountability that comes with police being filmed by bystanders in public stops cops from doing their jobs – remains a complete myth.

Is Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Legislation a Hoax?

The problem with stereotyping Republicans is that when they are screaming from the rooftops about a legitimate fraud, Democrats don’t believe them — even when the evidence is overpowering that they are right.

For years now, Republicans have been screaming that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that was signed into law in 2010 by President Obama is a fraud on the public.

Few have examined Dodd-Frank’s failed promises as carefully as Wall Street On Parade. The legislation promised to rein in derivatives – it didn’t. It promised to end the future need for taxpayer bailouts of too-big-to-fail banks. It didn’t. It promised to institute the Volcker Rule to prevent banks from gambling with insured deposits. It didn’t. It promised to reform the practices of the ratings agencies that played a pivotal role in the 2008 collapse. It didn’t. ...

There is no question that some corporate-funded Republicans can have a seismic negative impact on reforming Wall Street. Just look at what Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, has done to the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Under the former Chairmanship of Senator Carl Levin, Democrat from Michigan, the Subcommittee turned out unparalleled reports on financial crimes by Wall Street and foreign banks with such meticulous detail and subpoenaed documents that regulators and the Justice Department were forced to take action. Now the Subcommittee, under the Chairmanship of Portman, has become a corporate lapdog while portraying government as the problem. Portman’s two largest campaign donors between 2011 and 2016 are PACs, executives, or employees of Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

But just because Republicans are often clueless about how to effectively regulate Wall Street, it doesn’t mean that they’re wrong about Dodd-Frank being an abject failure.



the horse race



Cornel West: Obama has failed victims of racism and police brutality

A long and deep legacy of white supremacy has always arrested the development of US democracy. We either hit it head on, or it comes back to haunt us. That’s why a few of us have pressed the president for seven years not to ignore issues of poverty, police abuse and mass unemployment. Barack Obama said it very well, following the shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, that some communities “have been forgotten by all of us”. ...

Obama and his cheerleaders should take responsibility for being so reluctant to engage with these issues. It’s not a question of interest group or constituencies. Unfortunately for so much of the Obama administration its been a question of “I’m not the president of black people, I’m the president of everyone.” But this is a question of justice. It’s about being concerned about racism and police brutality. ...

Obama didn’t go to Baton Rouge. He didn’t go to Minneapolis. He flew over their heads to go to Dallas. You can’t do that. His fundamental concern was to speak to the police, that was his priority. When he references the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s to speak to the police. But the people who are struggling have a different perspective. ...

Unfortunately, Obama thrives on being in the middle. He has no backbone to fight for justice. He likes to be above the fray. But for those us us who are in the fray, there is a different sensibility. You have to choose which side you’re on, and he doesn’t want to do that. Fundamentally, he’s not a love warrior. He’s a polished professional. Martin Luther King Jr, Adam Clayton Powell Jr and Ella Baker – they were warriors.

This November, we need change. Yet we are tied in a choice between Trump, who would be a neo-fascist catastrophe, and Clinton, a neo-liberal disaster. That’s why I am supporting Jill Stein. I am with her – the only progressive woman in the race – because we’ve got to get beyond this lock-jaw situation. I have a deep love for my brother Bernie Sanders, but I disagree with him on Hillary Clinton. I don’t think she would be an “outstanding president”. Her militarism makes the world a less safe place.

Donald Trump Praises Dictators, But Hillary Clinton Befriends Them

While Hillary Clinton runs ads criticizing Donald Trump for praising dictators, Clinton herself has a history of alliances with strongmen in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Honduras. ...

Clinton has described former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak and his wife as “friends of my family.” Mubarak ruled Egypt under a perpetual “state of emergency” rule that involved disappearing and torturing dissidents, police killings, and persecution of LGBT people. The U.S. gave Mubarak $1.3 billion in military aid per year, and when Arab Spring protests threatened his grip on power, Clinton warned the administration not to “push a longtime partner out the door,” according to her book Hard Choices. ...

Egypt is far from the only military dictatorship that Clinton has supported. During her tenure as secretary of state, Clinton approved tens of billions of dollars of weapons transfers to Saudi Arabia – including fighter jets now being used to bomb Yemen. Clinton played a central role in legitimizing a 2009 military coup in Honduras, and once called Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad a “reformer.” And in return for approving arms deals to gulf state monarchies, Clinton accepted tens of millions of dollars in

Republicans quash last-ditch attempt to stop Donald Trump becoming nominee

The desperate last-ditch attempt to prevent Donald Trump from becoming the Republican nominee was quashed in a late night committee meeting on Thursday.

The rules committee of the Republican National Convention shut down an effort by the Never Trump movement to allow delegates to vote according to their conscience and not be bound by the result of their states’ primaries. The hope of these advocates of “freeing the delegates” is that, once unbound and free to oppose Trump, they would deny the presumptive nominee a majority on the floor of the convention and force a second ballot.

The process for them to do so was to gain to the support of one quarter of the rules committee so that they would have the backing of a minority report on allowing delegates to be unbound and freely votes their conscience. However, they fell far short of doing so.

The effort was shut down in a series of votes, many of which were held without debate as the Trump campaign organized delegates to force speedy votes. The only time there was a recorded vote on the topic, only a dozen members of the committee supported the Never Trump effort, far short of the 28 needed to force a minority report.


Donald Trump Ridiculed Iraq War Position Held By His VP Pick, Mike Pence

During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has made the decision to go to war in Iraq a major foreign policy litmus test, concluding that Hillary Clinton was “trigger-happy” for supporting what he called a “disaster.” But his apparent vice presidential pick, Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Pence, was a major proponent of that conflict.

Pence was a congressman then, and not only voted to authorize the Iraq War but was a co-sponsor of the war resolution.

“There is a nation, some 50 nations, that stand ready to end [Iraqis’] oppression, to dry their tears, and to lead Iraq into a new dawn of civilization, a new dawn of freedom from oppression and torture and the abuse of women and the stifling of basic civil and human rights,” he told the House of Representatives on the eve of the war, offering a messianic justification for invading the country that today suffers more from terrorism than any other in the world.



the evening greens


Dear UK, how long can you guys tread water?

'Shocking,' 'Plain Stupid': Theresa May Shuts Climate Change Office

Less than a day after becoming the U.K.'s unelected leader, Prime Minister Theresa May closed the government's climate change office, a move instantly condemned as "shocking" and "plain stupid."

May shuttered the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on Thursday and moved responsibility for the environment to a new Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. The decision comes the same week as the U.K. government's own advisers warned in a report that the nation was not ready for the inevitable consequences of climate change, including deadly heat waves and food and water shortages. ...

May also made several controversial appointments to her new post-Brexit cabinet, including naming her one-time rival for prime minister, Andrea Leadsom, as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Leadsom in 2015 served as Minister for Energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, during which she reportedly asked officials whether climate change was real.

Environmental groups were distressed. Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said Thursday, "The voting record and affiliation with climate skeptics of key cabinet appointees are deeply worrying. They show a lack of understanding posed by climate change to the UK and the world."

Get Ready, a Potentially Record-Breaking 'Heat Dome' is Coming

Temperatures in the central U.S. and Upper Midwest could reach 10 to 20 degrees above average

A massive "heat dome" is heading for the U.S. that will bake much of the country to potentially record-breaking temperatures next week, the Washington Post reports.

Only the Pacific Northwest is expected to escape the heat wave, while the rest of the country can look forward to some of its "hottest weather with respect to normal," the Post's weather editor Jason Samenow writes.

Although it is too early to know exactly how hot it will get, temperatures in the central U.S. and Upper Midwest could reach 10 to 20 degrees above average. Highs in Des Moines, Iowa, for example, may surpass 100°F for three days straight.

According to Atlas Obscura, heat domes are a "meteorological phenomenon" that occur when "a high-pressure system forms in the mid- to upper-atmosphere; the air pressure pushes warm air down towards the surface and traps it there, resulting in higher—often much higher—than normal temperatures."

Zika epidemic has peaked and may run its course within 18 months, say experts

The Zika virus epidemic in Latin America is likely to run its course within the next 18 months, according to a study by researchers in the UK and US.

Zika is currently circulating in more than 35 countries in the Americas and is primarily spread by mosquitoes. It is believed to cause the birth defect microcephaly, that results in babies being born with and unusually small head and possible damage to the brain, as well as the autoimmune disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome that can result in temporary paralysis.

But scientists say that the epidemic might have reached its peak.

Writing in the journal Science, researchers from Imperial College, London and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, describe how they have created a model of the disease to explore how the epidemic will play out. ... The researchers say the findings suggest the current epidemic is likely to last for three years in total. “The three years counts for the transmission we have seen so far, and we have seen at least a year of very high levels of transmission,” said Neil Ferguson, lead author of the research from Imperial College, London. “So we are probably coming to roughly about the halfway point.”

After that, says Ferguson, further large-scale epidemics are unlikely to occur for at least decade because a large proportion of the population will be left immune to the virus in the wake of the current epidemic. That, he says, offers protection by “herd immunity” whereby there are too few people susceptible to the Zika virus for the disease to spread.


Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

The US won't pivot away from the Middle East

After Nice, Don’t Give ISIS What It’s Asking For

Admiral Fabuloso: Hillary, Syria and the Destructive Career of James G. Stavridis

American Sniper

Monetary Policy Is Doing ‘Serious Damage

Why everyone is crazy for Prisma, the app that turns photos into works of art


A Little Night Music

Larry Davis - Penitentiary Blues

Larry Davis - You'll Need Another Favor

Larry Davis - Worried Dream

Larry Davis - 102nd St. Blues

Larry Davis - As The Years Go Passing By

Larry Davis - Texas Flood

Larry Davis Blues Knights - Killin' Floor

Larry Davis - I Tried

Larry Davis - (My) Little Girl

Larry Davis - Live 1980



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Lookout's picture

I found these pieces about Race in America (and the world) insightful. Maybe some of you will like them too.

So appropriate for one of today's slaves. 11 min
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzl0VcMZqTE]

As Black Lives Matter protests have swept the country in recent weeks, we end today’s show with the story of one dishwasher at Yale University who has decided to take the university’s history of racism into his own hands—or his own broomstick, in this case. Corey Menafee worked for Yale for about eight years. In June, as he was cleaning a dining room in Yale’s residential dorm Calhoun College, Menafee stood on top of a table and used a broomstick to break a stained-glass window depicting enslaved Africans carrying bales of cotton. Menafee said the image is racist and degrading and that he had become sick of seeing it every day. Calhoun College is named after former Vice President John C. Calhoun, one of the most prominent pro-slavery figures in history. For years students have demanded Yale change the building’s name. Yale University police arrested Menafee and charged him with reckless endangerment and felony mischief. But on Wednesday, after Yale students and community members demonstrated in support of Menafee, Yale University announced it has dropped the charges. We speak to Corey Menafee and Craig Steven Wilder, author of the book "Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities."

A good 13 min discussion
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD3WD_76p8Y]

Dr. Lawrence Brown tells guest host Janaya Khan that recent police shootings of unarmed black men remind him of the 4000 lynchings between 1877 and 1950, the murder of Emmett Till, and bombings of black churches

Sure is nice to hear race issues discussed by people of color instead of a white talking head.
T. Burroughs 014.jpg

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

joe shikspack's picture

thanks for the vids! both democracy now's and the real news' coverage has been quite good lately. i have really enjoyed real news' interviews of gerald horne.

have a great weekend!

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Ajaradom's picture

I have mixed emotions about Mr. Menefee's actions. I was glad to hear him say he regretted destroying and acting out as he did. However, no one seemed to address the whole issue of destroying works of art just because you don't like it! Stained glass is art --- art is expression and can also be a record of history --- what if some one destroyed ancient cave drawings just because they didn't like what they saw (perhaps that has already happened in history?). I'm reminded of ISIS destroying the beautiful art in Iraq (I think I'm remembering right --- it could have been another country).

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Ajaradom's picture

I agree, America needs a reconciliation process on the same grand scale that South Africa experienced! We need to acknowledge our ugly past --- like Germany had to acknowledge and face her horrific history! Amen, Dr. Brown is so on track ---- we owe both Native Americans and African Americans reconciliation and reparations. We've done a little of this with/for Native Americans, but, really nothing in the African American community. It is way past time to do the right thing!

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Haikukitty's picture

of freedom to Iraq, how we have dried their tears and ended their oppression and torture?

“There is a nation, some 50 nations, that stand ready to end [Iraqis’] oppression, to dry their tears, and to lead Iraq into a new dawn of civilization, a new dawn of freedom from oppression and torture and the abuse of women and the stifling of basic civil and human rights,” he told the House of Representatives on the eve of the war, offering a messianic justification for invading the country that today suffers more from terrorism than any other in the world.

Sigh...

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joe shikspack's picture

isn't it wonderful how the iraqis greeted us as liberators and offered to pay for the costs of their liberation from saddam's liberated largesse. it makes one proud to be an american to see how much we've been able to help them to realize their dreams of independence, liberty and democracy.

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Haikukitty's picture

Yes, doesn't it just feel great being a beacon of light for the world?

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Raggedy Ann's picture

warm and fuzzy all over! Dash 1

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

joe shikspack's picture

the reports that i've seen so far have been pretty muddled, both military figures and (former?) government figures are saying that they are in control at this point.

i hope that this turns out well for the turkish people.

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skod's picture

something of an Islamic theocrat, and the military is largely secular. Wonder how much our deep state had to do with (ahem) encouraging the military to take action? Wouldn't do for a NATO ally to become an Islamic theocracy...

Glad I'm not in the armed services and stationed there. There won't be a lot of sleep for a while for those poor folks. The Turkish people will unfortunately be in the role that the populations of a lot of US client states seem to find themselves in: which is to say, something somewhere in the continuum between "cannon fodder" and "collateral damage"... No smiley. I weep for them.

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joe shikspack's picture

i have been wondering at what point erdogan would outlive his usefulness to the empire. his efforts at rapprochement with israel and russia may have been signals that he was feeling the heat from various external forces.

on the other hand, he has made a huge mess in turkey by encouraging isis and allowing it quarter and at the same time choosing to make war on the kurds internally. that sort of thing can make folks a wee bit upset, so this might be primarily locally motivated, though i would assume that in order to assure success, the military/covert community would have worked it out in advance to a degree with agents of other nations including the us.

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lotlizard's picture

and — after people responded to his video call via iPhone appealing for support, broadcast on CNN Türk before it was shut down — Erdogan has emerged stronger than ever.

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riverlover's picture

Plus a US military base. Is someone dicking around with Russia or with us?

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

OLinda's picture

This might mean the 28 pages have been released? Not sure. Looking around.

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OLinda's picture

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Pluto's Republic's picture

First things first. Let's see why these pages were redacted in the first place.

They were made available to Congress about two months ago, and Congress promptly passed a Bill letting 9/11 victims sue Saudi Arabia for the World Trade Center attack. (Wonder who the Afghans get to sue for the obscene US attack on their sovereign nation and for the wholesale slaughter of tens of thousands of their people?)

The Saudis told the US they would sell off all their Petrodollars in retaliation and destroy the US economy. (China dropped one trillion US Dollars on the market last year and plan to drop another trillion this year. Most nations are letting their Dollar reserves shrink.)

Saudi Arabia Warns of Economic Fallout if Congress Passes 9/11 Bill

Petrodollars has been the only asset backing the US Dollar since 1973. Now the only thing that backs it is the lifelong enslavement of US workers, according to the Constitution. If the TPP and the TTIP pass, the ownership of US slaves will be transferred to supranational corporations as collateral for foreign-owned US debt.

"Nice economy you got there. It would be a shame if anything bad happened to it."

Saudis threaten to sell $750 billion US assets if Congress passes bill that would let 9/11 victims sue Saudi Arabia

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
joe shikspack's picture

i haven't seen the pages yet. i wonder if the us is calling the saudi bluff, or if the us has redacted whatever damning evidence there is in the 28 pages.

i guess we'll see.

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Roy Blakeley's picture

great time for the Obama admin to release an embarrassing and important document. Looks like they want to minimize attention to it.

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OLinda's picture

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joe shikspack's picture

i was wondering if they were finally going to drop today.

i ran across this at my usual stop for 28 pages info earlier today, though i didn't see an announcement there then: Those Secret 28 Pages on 9/11: Read This Before You Read Them

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riverlover's picture

and the text is truly gone, not just pasted over. Those are probably all names?

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

excellent edition of 'news and blues.'

Will have to be less connected to news for a few days. Does anyone know if Trump has selected a VP candidate?

(Heard it was going to be Pence; then, it was put on hold.)

Of his choices, he would be the strongest one, IMO. It won't matter to some extent, 'cause from what I'm reading, the evangelical faction is fired up this cycle. (not surprising with the recent court rulings)

I'll be back later with a piece to post. Oh, hearing that Kaine is definitely looking like the 'pick' for FSC. Can't imagine that most progressives could rally around him. We'll see.

Gotta feed the birds and critters. So hot, I'm breaking up trips with 'the B,' and caring for them.

Whew!

Hey, Everyone have a wonderful weekend!

Bye

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and, therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

National Mill Dog Rescue (NMDR) - Dogs Available For Adoption

Misty May - NMDR

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Haikukitty's picture

although I didn't click it to read the full update.

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OLinda's picture

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

joe shikspack's picture

everyone was speculating that it was pence, and now trump tweeted it. so, there it is, dan quayle mike pence will be rump's running mate.

have a great weekend!

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

OLinda's picture

joe, you mentioned parallel construction the other night. I am familiar with it and it's why I said I thought they just lied. Anyway:

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joe shikspack's picture

yeah, parallel construction and lying are pretty much the same thing. i hope that aclu hits the mother lode on this one.

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GreyWolf's picture

Turkey coup: military attempt to seize power from Erdogan as low flying jets and gunfire heard in Ankara and bridges across Bosphorus in Istanbul closed

  • Coup attempt by parts of Turkish military against Erdogan
  • PM Yildirim: Nothing will harm Turkish democracy
  • Low flying jets and gunfire heard in Turkish capital
  • Both of Istanbul's bridges across the Bosphorus closed
  • Istanbul airport closed
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joe shikspack's picture

reports are still a bit contradictory.

EU source says Turkey coup bid looks substantial, "not just a few colonels"

A coup attempt in Turkey involves a substantial part of the military and "not just a few colonels", a European Union source monitoring events in the EU candidate country said on Friday.

"It looks like a relatively well orchestrated coup by a substantial body of the military, not just a few colonels," the source told Reuters.

"They've got control of the airports and are expecting control over the TV station imminently," the source said, shortly before state television TRT broadcast a military declaration of martial law.

"They control several strategic points in Istanbul. Given the scale of the operation, it is difficult to imagine they will stop short of prevailing," the source said.

Military Attempts Coup in Turkey, Prime Minister Says

The prime minister of Turkey said on Friday night that factions of the military had attempted a coup. There were sharply conflicting statements about who was in control of the country, a NATO member and important United States ally, which has been convulsed by military takeovers at least three times over the past half-century.

“Some people illegally undertook an illegal action outside of the chain of command,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in comments broadcast on NTV, a private television channel. “The government elected by the people remains in charge. This government will only go when the people say so.”

Shortly after Mr. Yildirim spoke, the Turkish military issued a statement, according to the news agency DHA, claiming it had taken control of the country.

“Turkish armed forces seized the rule of the country completely with the aim of reinstalling the constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms, to make rule of law pervade again, to re-establish the ruined public order,” the statement quoted by DHA said. “All the international agreements and promises are valid. We hope our good relations with all global countries goes on.” ...

The whereabouts of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Islamist politician who has dominated politics in Turkey for many years and sought to establish a firm control over the military, was not immediately clear. He was not in the capital but there were conflicting accounts about whether he was in the country.

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Crider's picture

has a pretty good series of updates in the Turkey coop thing.

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joe shikspack's picture

tanks! Smile

when i went out to dinner i was listening to "the world" (pri) and they had a telephone interview set up with a reporter in istanbul. it is apparent from the sounds that there are some very low-flying military aircraft zipping around and that, despite the protestations of the government, this thing is not yet over.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

WOW! The proverbial shit is hitting the fan - take cover! Nice, France, Turkey, Mike Pence. What will tomorrow bring? Everything is up for grabs these days. Interesting times, indeed.

Corey Menafee is now one of my heros. I love people with courage! I hope he gets his job back.

Great bluz tonight, joe. That Larry Davis has got it going on! Jammin' in my office. Dance 4

Have a great Friday evening, everyone, and a beautiful weekend!

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

joe shikspack's picture

the news cycle really picked up speed late this afternoon. Smile

enjoy the music and have a great weekend!

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enhydra lutris's picture

posted the text of Yeats' 'The Second Coming" in Tim's OT -- seems to fit here better.

THE SECOND COMING

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

William Butler Yeats

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Haikukitty's picture

These lines are so powerful:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Not nearly as relevant, but being a kitty, I've always loved:

THE CAT AND THE MOON

by: W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)

THE cat went here and there
And the moon spun round like a top,
And the nearest kin of the moon,
The creeping cat, looked up.
Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon,
For, wander and wail as he would,
The pure cold light in the sky
Troubled his animal blood.
Minnaloushe runs in the grass
Lifting his delicate feet.
Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?
When two close kindred meet,
What better than call a dance?
Maybe the moon may learn,
Tired of that courtly fashion,
A new dance turn.
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
From moonlit place to place,
The sacred moon overhead
Has taken a new phase.
Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils
Will pass from change to change,
And that from round to crescent,
From crescent to round they range?
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
Alone, important and wise,
And lifts to the changing moon
His changing eyes.

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joe shikspack's picture

i was pondering the various streams of news of the day and this poem came to mind, which i'll excerpt here:

"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."

The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head--
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.

But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat--
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.

Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more--
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.

"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed--
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."

"But not on us!" the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!"
"The night is fine," the Walrus said.
"Do you admire the view?

"It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"Cut us another slice:
I wish you were not quite so deaf--
I've had to ask you twice!"

"It seems a shame," the Walrus said,
"To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"The butter's spread too thick!"

"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.

"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.

-- Lewis Carroll

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enhydra lutris's picture

of my favorite authors. His Hunting of the Snark presages the existential absurdists, as, to a lesser degree Sylvie and Bruno

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Haikukitty's picture

It's here:
http://naturalheroes.org/videos/joanna-macy-and-the-great-turning/

Someone (Polkageist??) shared the link and said it was a hopeful take on the climate and economic crises. It was, just got around to watching it. Great video.

Anyway - thanks, whoever you are!

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WindDancer13's picture

While the focus is on GWB, please pay attention to Obama's equally if not worse, due to his current position, behavior. In case it is not clear, this occurred at the memorial services for the slain police officers in Dallas, not some celebration.

[video:https://youtu.be/OsQdzsIMFPQ]

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

joe shikspack's picture

looks like a funeral can be a rollicking good time.

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