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This evening's music features Chicago blues singer, harmonica player and songwriter, Shakey Jake Harris. Enjoy!

"The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care vested the question of war to the Legislature."

-- James Madison

News and Opinion

NYT Says Congress Has ‘Duty’ to Make War–Rather Than the Right to Reject It

As reports come in detailing the degree to which Donald Trump has escalated the “War on ISIS”—and killed hundreds more civilians in the process—this would seem like a good time for the country to sit back and examine the United States’ approach to fighting “terrorism” and its recent iteration, the so-called Islamic State.

Not for the New York Times editorial board, which didn’t take the wave of civilians deaths as a reason to question the wisdom of America’s various “counter-terror,” nation-building and regime-change projects in the Middle East, but instead chose to browbeat Congress into rubber-stamping a war that’s been going on for almost three years.

The editorial, “Congress’s Duty in the War With ISIS” (3/26/17), began with a false premise:

But as the American military is doing its job, Congress is refusing to do its duty. Nearly three years into the war against ISIS, lawmakers have ducked their constitutional responsibility for making war by not passing legislation authorizing the anti-ISIS fight.

Congress does not have a “constitutional responsibility for making war”; it has a constitutional right to make war, which is to say it can authorize it or not authorize it. Congress is under no obligation—legal, moral or otherwise—to rubber-stamp existing wars started without its consent.

Presidents, on the other hand, do have a duty under the Constitution to get Congress’s approval before waging war.

This is an excellent article worth reading in full:

Ending Syria’s Nightmare will Take Pressure From Below

Ominous developments in East Syria have drawn the United States and Russia into closer proximity increasing the likelihood of a violent confrontation. The Trump administration has embarked on a dangerous plan to defeat the terrorist militia, ISIS, in Raqqa. But recent comments by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggest that Washington’s long-term strategy may conflict with Moscow’s goal of restoring Syria’s sovereign borders. Something’s got to give. Either Russia ceases its clearing operations in east Syria or Washington agrees to withdraw its US-backed forces when the battle is over. If neither side gives ground, there’s going to be a collision between the two nuclear-armed adversaries. ...

In a matter of weeks, Washington’s approach to the war in Syria has changed dramatically. While the US has reportedly ended its support for the Sunni militias that have torn the country apart and killed over 400,000 people, the US has increased its aid to the SDF that is making impressive territorial gains across the eastern corridor. The ultimate goal for the SDF fighters is an autonomous Kurdish homeland carved out of West Iraq and East Syria, while US objectives focus primarily on the breakup of the Syrian state, the removal of the elected government, the control over critical pipelines routes, and the redrawing of national borders to better serve the interests of the US and Israel.

The idea of breaking up Syria is not new. The plan first appeared in an article by Oded Yinon in 1982 titled “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties”. Yinon believed that– for Israel to survive– it must become an imperial regional power that “must effect the division of the whole area into small states by the dissolution of all existing Arab states.” (Israel Shahak)

The most recent adaptation of Yinon’s plan was articulated by Brookings Institute analyst Michael O’ Hanlon in a piece that appeared in the Wall Street Journal titled “A Trump Strategy to End Syria’s Nightmare”. In the article, O’ Hanlon states bluntly:

“To achieve peace, Syria will need self-governance within a number of autonomous zones. One option is a confederal system by which the whole country is divided into such zones. A less desirable but minimally acceptable alternative could be several autonomous zones within an otherwise still-centralized state—similar to how Iraqi Kurdistan has functioned for a quarter-century….

Security in the Sunni Arab and Kurdish autonomous zones would be provided by local police and perhaps paramilitary forces raised, trained and equipped with the direct support of the international community. …(“A Trump Strategy to End Syria’s Nightmare”, Wall Street Journal)

In an earlier piece, O’ Hanlon referred to his scheme as “Deconstructing Syria” a plan that “would produce autonomous zones that would never again have to face the prospect of rule by either Assad or ISIL.” Many of the details in O’ Hanlon’s piece are identical to those in Trump’s plan which was announced by Secretary of State Tillerson just last week.

ISIS, U.S.-Backed Forces Battle Over Syria’s Tabqa Dam

U.S.-led coalition forces in Syria dismissed ISIS claims that the country's largest dam was at imminent risk of collapse. The dam is located on the Euphrates about 25 miles upstream from ISIS' stronghold of Raqqa.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias supported by a U.S.-led international coalition, has been battling to capture the facility since Friday.

ISIS said in messages carried on its social media channels that the dam's operations had been put out of service and that all flood gates were closed. It said the dam was at risk of collapse as a result of airstrikes and increased water levels. ... But U.S.-led coalition forces said the 2.5-mile long dam was structurally sound and denied that any of its strikes had hit it.

Mosul: Did Trump's administration ease restrictions on airstrikes to fight islamic state group?

The innocent lives already lost amid Trump’s war on terror

Though the incident is still shrouded in confusion, reports over the weekend indicated that the United States launched an airstrike on the Iraqi city of Mosul that may have killed more than 100 people.

U.S. officials have confirmed that the coalition conducted the attack March 17 over the crowded neighborhood of Mosul al-Jadida, located near the front lines of the Iraqi-led offensive against the city's Islamic State occupiers. The U.S. military and Iraqi authorities have both launched formal investigations into the incident. "If confirmed," my colleagues reported, "the March 17 incident would mark the greatest loss of civilian life since the United States began strikes on Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria in 2014." ...

Of course, there's nothing new about Iraqi civilians dying in American airstrikes — the country has been the target of U.S. military operations for decades. But Trump's aggressive approach seems a poor fit for the complexity of the current fight. The Trump administration is reportedly seeking ways to bypass Obama-era operational constraints meant to prevent civilian deaths. An Iraqi special forces officer, speaking anonymously to the New York Times, said there has been a clear relaxation of the rules of engagement since Trump took office. That claim was denied by a Pentagon spokesman. ...

Trump's stated focus on a military solution also obscures the trickier battle that will remain even after Mosul is fully liberated: reconciling Mosul's embittered and traumatized majority Sunni population with Iraq's Shiite-dominated government. Otherwise, a new version of the fundamentalist outfit could find a foothold.

Did RAF Tornados kill Iraqis fleeing ISIS? MoD confirms UK planes were operating in Mosul where hundreds of civilians lost their lives in alleged coalition airstrike

RAF jets were operating in the region of Mosul where hundreds of civilians were allegedly killed in coalition airstrikes, officials have said. British Tornado aircraft destroyed five terrorist Islamic State targets using laser-guided Paveway IV missiles weighing 500lbs each.

The planes were flying in 'very challenging conditions with heavy cloud' on the day that as many as 200 civilians are said to have lost their lives in coalition strikes on the al-Jadida neighbourhood in western Mosul. The US-led coalition said it had carried out a strike on ISIS militants and equipment in the area of the reported deaths on March 17 and had launched an investigation.

RAF officials refused to confirm whether their jets were flying in the specific area of the deadly bombings but said they were 'supporting the liberation of western Mosul'.

Islamic State releases video threatening Iran for tolerating Jews

The Islamic State group threatened Iran for its role in the region’s conflicts, in a rare Farsi-language propaganda video released on Monday. The 36-minute video, entitled “The Farsi Land: From Yesterday ’till Today,” was issued through IS’s social media channels from Diyala province in neighboring Iraq.

A masked man directs his message to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Oh, Khamenei, you cursed person who controls the so-called Islamic Iranian regime, rest assured that soon we will destroy your house like this,” he says, pointing to ruins behind him.

The video also chastises Iran for its tolerance towards Jews. “Iran raised its slogans against the US and Israel to deceive the Sunnis, while Iranian Jews live safely in Iran under its protection, and it has provided them with temples and churches as seen in Tehran and Isfahan,” the narrator says.

Lawsuit Seeks Transparency as Searches of Cellphones and Laptops Skyrocket at Borders

A lawsuit filed today by the Knight First Amendment Institute, a public interest legal organization based at Columbia University, seeks to shed light on invasive searches of laptops and cellphones by Customs and Border Protection officers at U.S. border crossings.

Documents filed in the case note that these searches have risen precipitously over the past two years, from a total of 5,000 searches in 2015 to 25,000 in 2016, and rising to 5,000 in the month of February 2017 alone. Among other questions, the lawsuit seeks to compel the federal government to provide more information about these searches, including how many of those searched have been U.S. citizens, the number of searches by port of entry, and the number of searches by the country of origin of the travelers. ...

The legality of warrantless device searches at the border remains a contested issue, with the government asserting, over the objections of civil liberties groups, that Fourth Amendment protections do not apply at ports of entry. Some particularly controversial cases of searches at the border have involved journalists whose electronic data contains sensitive information about the identity of sources. Last year, a Canadian journalist was detained for six hours before being denied entry to the United States after refusing to unlock devices containing sensitive information. It has also been alleged that border agents are disproportionately targeting Muslim Americans and people with ties to Muslim-majority countries for both interrogation and device searches.

Scots of two minds on independence

Canadian government aims to legalise marijuana by 1 July 2018

The Canadian government is scrambling to craft legislation to legalise recreational marijuana by 1 July 2018 – a move that would fulfill a campaign promise by the prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

The Liberal government will reveal the legislation in the second week of April, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, putting Canada on course to become the first G7 country to fully legalise marijuana use.

Since becoming the Liberal leader in 2013, Trudeau has spoken out about the need to decriminalise and regulate recreational marijuana, arguing that it would help ensure that marijuana is kept away from children and that profits don’t end up in the hands of what he has described as “criminal elements”.

Shortly after taking power, his government signalled that legalisation remained a priority, promising to unveil legislation by spring. Medical marijuana is already legal in Canada.

Mexican Archdiocese: Companies That Help Build Trump's Wall Are "Traitors"

Denouncing President Donald Trump's proposed border wall between Mexico and the United States as "an open threat that violates relations and peace," the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico City said Sunday that companies who profit from its construction are "traitors to the homeland."

The country's largest archdiocese made the charge in an editorial (Spanish) published in its weekly newsletter, Desde la fe. A spokesman said the editorial represented the views of the diocese.

"Joining a project that is a serious affront to dignity, is to shoot yourself in the foot," the editorial declared. "The wall is a monument of intimidation and silence, of xenophobic hatred."

It continued: "Any company with the intention to invest in the wall of the fanatic Trump would be immoral, but above all, its shareholders and owners should be considered traitors to the homeland."

The archdiocese also blasted what it described as "the timidity of the Mexican government's economic authorities, who have not moved firmly against these companies," which it said numbered in the hundreds. "For them, the end justifies the means," the editorial said of such firms.

Local Lawmakers Fight Back Against AG Sessions's Threats to Cut Funding to Sanctuary Cities

Jeff Sessions vows to “claw back” federal money from sanctuary cities

After months of tough talk about cracking down on jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with the feds on immigration enforcement, the Trump administration just took the first step toward punishing so-called “sanctuary cities.”

In a surprise appearance at the start of the White House press briefing Monday, Attorney General Sessions said he would take “all lawful steps to claw-back” federal funding from sanctuary cities, an undefined term that typically refers to jurisdictions where local law enforcement refuses requests by immigration agents to hold non-serious offenders who face deportation.

Following Trump’s election, more than 100 cities — including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, and Austin — have affirmed their “sanctuary” status. Trump signed an executive order during his first week in office that called for increased cooperation between local, state, and federal authorities to target, arrest, and detain undocumented immigrants — and threatened to pull federal grant money from jurisdictions that refuse to comply.

Will Dems Derail Sanders's Push for Public Option?

Is the US facing an epidemic of 'deaths of despair'? These researchers say yes

In 2015, the Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton’s groundbreaking paper in the National Academy of Science’s magazine reported that mortality rates among a section of Americans were suddenly surging – something unheard of in previous decades. Mortality was only rising in a certain group: middle-aged non-Hispanic whites without a college degree.

Case and Deaton have returned with a new paper published last week by the Brookings Institute. It paints a grim picture of two Americas, in which one has recovered from the 2008 economic crisis and the other hasn’t. The latter, once called “blue-collar aristocrats”, consists of families who were previously able to get by with jobs not requiring college degrees. The disappearance of those jobs has been accompanied by an alarming rate of suicides, overdoses, and diseases caused by drugs and alcohol.

Case and Deaton call these “deaths of despair” – and argue they have recently reached disturbing levels. While opioids account for many of the deaths, drug abuse may only be a symptom of a larger, unseen epidemic of despair.

[An interview with one of the study's authors follows at the link. - js]

Cheney: Russian meddling possibly 'an act of war'

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that Russia’s meddling in the U.S. presidential election could be "considered an act of war.”

Cheney, who served as President George W. Bush’s No. 2, spoke about Russia at The Economic Times’ Global Business Summit on Monday.

“There’s not any argument at this stage that somehow the election of President Trump was not legitimate, but there’s no question that there was a very serious effort made by Mr. Putin and his government, his organization, to interfere in major ways with our basic, fundamental democratic processes,” he said. “In some quarters, that would be considered an act of war.”

Dick Cheney Says There's No Doubt That Russia Has WMDs — I Mean, Hacked The Election

Today in a speech at the Economic Times’ Global Business Summit, former Vice President Dick Cheney has said in no uncertain terms that Saddam Hussein definitely has weapons of mass destruction— I mean, that Russia definitely hacked the election.

Citing a “rising number of threats” in the world, Cheney asserted that there is “no question” that Saddam Hussein, I mean Vladimir Putin, has 600 metric tons of chemical weapons that are still unaccounted for, I mean, ordered a hacking campaign to tilt the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump. Calling this behavior an “act of war”, Cheney went on to accuse Saddam I mean Putin of plotting a 9/11-style attack on America I mean of having designs on the Baltic states.

Gosh this is hard. I keep mixing these two stories up for some reason!

US - Democrats call for House intelligence chairman Devin Nunes to recuse himself from Russia probe

The Democrats are flinging poo at an incredible rate:

Top Democrats call for Devin Nunes to recuse himself from Trump-Russia inquiry

Leading Democrats have escalated the controversy over the erratic behavior of Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, calling on him to recuse himself from the investigation into alleged links between the president’s associates and Russia.

Both Adam Schiff, Nunes’ counterpart on the committee, and Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, demanded that he step aside from the ongoing Russia affair that has become an enduring sore for the young Trump administration.

The intervention of senior Democrats takes the dispute to a new level of intensity, raising the prospect of the governing party being forced to make a second humiliating concession after US attorney general Jeff Sessions was forced this month to stand back from all Russian inquiries after he failed to disclose meetings with Moscow’s ambassador to Washington. ...

The open partisan split within the powerful intelligence committee came as Schiff complained that members of the panel continue to wait for Nunes to present them with documents ostensibly relating to intelligence collected on Trump days after he had briefed the president. The embattled committee chairman raised further questions when he said he had no choice under classification rules except to view the sensitive intelligence at the White House, a statement likely to intensify speculation that the Trump administration fed Nunes the material.

The source who made the materials available to Nunes “could not simply put the documents in a backpack and walk them over to the House intelligence committee space”, Nunes’ office said on Monday.

US Media’s Global Warming Denialism

An annual climate report issued this month by the World Meteorological Organization confirms that average global temperatures and global sea levels continued their inexorable rise in 2016, setting new records. Global sea ice dropped to an “unprecedented” extent. Extreme weather conditions, probably aggravated by climate disruption, displaced hundreds of thousands of people, left millions hungry, and caused “severe economic damage.”

Yet in the midst of such frightening changes, and a national presidential campaign with enormous consequences for U.S. climate policy, the four major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox News Sunday — significantly decreased their coverage of climate issues on evening and Sunday news programs, according to a new analysis by Media Matters. Television programs like these are the major source of news for 57 percent of adult Americans.

The four networks devoted a mere 50 minutes on their evening and Sunday news programs to climate change in all of 2016. That was a two-thirds drop from the meager time they gave to perhaps the most important issue of our time in 2015. (These figures reflect deliberate coverage by the networks, not incidental mentions of climate by talk show guests.) ...

The networks can hardly claim there was nothing of substance to cover. Audiences love news about political controversy, weather, and disasters — and the issue of climate disruption provided all three. The 2016 election, for example, offered a stark and highly controversial choice between Donald Trump, who dismissed global warming as a “hoax” and promised to revive dirty coal as a fuel of choice in the United States, and Hillary Clinton, who supported major new investments in clean energy.

Yet the major TV network news programs “did not air a single segment informing viewers of what to expect on climate change and climate-related policies or issues under a Trump or Clinton administration,” according to Media Matters. Similarly, their reporters did not ask even one question about climate change during all of last year’s presidential and vice presidential debates. Instead, they waited until after the election to inform viewers about how the country’s vote for Trump would affect the future of climate policy. ...

In the long run, nothing the Trump administration does about health insurance, tax reform, or military spending — short of getting us into nuclear war — will matter nearly as much as its determined efforts to prevent global action on climate disruption.

Only Sweden, Germany and France are pursuing Paris climate goals, says study

Sweden, Germany and France are the only European countries pursuing environmental policies in line with promises made at the Paris climate conference, according to a new ranking study. The UK is in fifth position in the table which assesses policy actions taken by EU states to meet Europe’s pledge of a 40% cut in carbon emissions by 2030.

Poland, the Czech Republic, Spain and Italy are judged to be propping up the league, due to their support for forestry and carbon accounting dodges that weaken the greenhouse gas reduction effort. ... “Relying on credits from planting trees is troublesome as the carbon removals can be reversed at any time when trees are cleared and burned,” the report says. “Emissions from fossil fuels, on the other hand, stay in the atmosphere for centuries.” ... When [this and accounting loopholes] were taken into account, only Sweden’s record was judged compatible with the Paris goals.

An underlying problem confronting EU policy-makers is the profound, costly and rapid nature of the changes needed to limit global warming to 2C, as agreed at Paris. Carbon emissions would have to halve every decade between now and 2050, with land use emissions following the same trajectory, according to a report published earlier this week.

'Sightings' of extinct Tasmanian tiger prompt search in Queensland

“Plausible” possible sightings of a Tasmanian tiger in north Queensland have prompted scientists to undertake a search for the species thought to have died out more than 80 years ago.

The last thylacine is thought to have died in Hobart zoo in 1936, and it is widely believed to have become extinct on mainland Australia at least 2,000 years ago.

But sightings of large, dog-like animals that are neither dingos nor foxes have persisted over the decades, despite widespread scepticism.

Recent eyewitness accounts of potential thylacines in far north Queensland have spurred scientists from James Cook University to launch a search for the animal long considered extinct.

Also of Interest

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

Trump’s Incoherent Foreign Policy

At Site of Deaths, Our Reporters Find Cost of U.S.-ISIS Battle

After 12 Rejections, Apple Accepts App That Tracks U.S. Drone Strikes

The feminists of Farc: ‘We are not demobilising, we are mobilising politically’

Gorsuch’s Soft Style and Hard Line

Republicans' choice after AHCA failure: back Obamacare or undermine it?

Bill Black: Why Did Preet Bharara Refuse to Drain the Wall Street Swamp?

I am an Arctic researcher. Donald Trump is deleting my citations

A Little Night Music

Shakey Jake & the All Stars - Hold That Bus, Conductor

Shakey Jake - Call Me If You Need Me

Shakey Jake - Do The Boogie With You

Shakey Jake - Jake's Cha Cha

Shakey Jake Harris - Ragged and Dirty

Shakey Jake - Respect Me Baby

Shakey Jake - Hey Baby

Shakey Jake Harris - Good Times

Shakey Jake - It Won't Happen Again

Magic Sam & Shakey Jake - Live At Sylvio's