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This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist Otis Rush. Enjoy!

"Why is it worse for Americans to suffer a fate their government has meted out to others all over the world? The list of coups, invasions, and electoral fraud committed against other countries by the United States is a long one and encompasses every continent on the planet. American expressions of outrage should not be taken seriously."

-- Margaret Kimberley

News and Opinion

I am shocked, shocked to hear this, I tell you, shocked:

Facebook admits governments used it to spread propaganda

Acknowledging what many have long suspected, Facebook admitted Thursday that nations have tried to use the platform as a propaganda machine, directing covert campaigns to influence public opinion by spreading misleading information and manipulating users. But Facebook now understands how these “information operations” work, and it’s ready to fight back.

In a white paper penned by the social media giant’s security team, Facebook outlined just how subtle such operations can be — they include more than just spreading so-called “fake news,” a term the company cautions against using, since it’s become a meaningless catch-all. Not only have countries and non-state groups set up fake accounts dedicated to spreading hacked or false information, but they’ve also used these accounts to cajole Facebook users into believing specific narratives and thus further certain political or ideological outcomes.

Such operations have occurred, the company admitted, during the French and American presidential elections. Facebook also revealed that it had “taken action” against more than 30,000 fake accounts — or “false amplifiers,” which are often operated not by bots but by humans — in France.

And these false amplifiers do more than just spit out posts: They also interact with real users. “In several instances, we identified malicious actors on Facebook who, via inauthentic accounts, actively engaged across the political spectrum with the apparent intent of increasing tensions between supporters of these groups and fracturing their supportive base,” the paper explained.

The Mother of All Bombs Kind of a Dud

On 13 April the US dropped one of its largest non-nuclear bombs on a tunnel complex used by so-called Islamic State militants in eastern Afghanistan. It was the first time such a weapon had been used in battle. The BBC's Auliya Atrafi has been to the area to see if it really had any impact in the battle against IS. ...

There was no chance of quiet contemplation when I visited this area of Nangarhar province. Above, three types of American fighter planes were circling and dropping bombs. One bomb hit the narrow part of the valley. It was there, a young soldier told me, that the weapon known as the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB) had been used.

I was confused. Reports of the bomb had made me think that it had wiped out the IS stronghold here in Achin district. I assumed that US and Afghan troops would have sealed off the area and that IS (or Daesh, as it is known here) would be in disarray. An Afghan officer corrected me. "For a start this bomb wasn't as powerful as you think," he said. "There are still green trees standing 100m away from the site of the impact."

A large number of IS militants were killed by the MOAB, but it is hard to know how many. The Achin district governor, Ismail Shinwary, says at least 90. Either way, the battle against IS continues. "Daesh hasn't gone anywhere; there are hundreds of caves like the one the Americans bombed," the officer says, adding that strikes have continued since the bomb was dropped. "They can't get rid of them like this."

At Reuters, ‘Not Refuting’ Is the Same as ‘Seeing’

“Top US General in Afghanistan Sees Russia Sending Weapons to Taliban” was Reuters’ headline over a April 25 story:

The head of US and international forces in Afghanistan said on Monday he was “not refuting” reports that Russia was providing support, including weapons, to the Taliban….

Asked about reports that Russia was providing a range of help, including weapons, to the Taliban, who control large areas of Afghanistan, [Gen. John] Nicholson replied: “Oh no, I am not refuting that.”

“I am not refuting that”? How does that translate into “General…Sees Russia Sending Weapons to Taliban”? If NASA tells Reuters that they can’t refute speculation that there might be life on Mars, will Reuters run a story headlined “NASA Sees Life on Mars”? That would be a scoop!

Abbas turns screw on Hamas by cutting Gaza's electricity

With the prospect looming of a Middle East peace initiative by a new U.S. administration more sympathetic to Israel, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to turn the screw on the Hamas group that has kept Gaza out of his control for a decade. Abbas's Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) on Thursday told Israel it would no longer pay for the electricity Israel supplies to Gaza, a move that could lead to a complete power shutdown in the territory, whose 2 million people already endure blackouts for much of the day.

The PA declined to say why it had taken the step, but had already put pressure on Hamas by withholding the Israeli fuel that until two weeks ago powered Gaza's only generating plant, and slashing the salaries of the civil servants who are one of the mainstays of Gaza's struggling economy. Medical workers say health services are on the verge of breakdown, while shopkeepers say they are struggling.

Hamas official Ismail Rudwan reacted with fury, warning of "an explosion in the face of the Zionist occupation" and saying that anyone who had "collaborated with the occupation" would have cause for regret, whether from the PA or not. ...

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah, based in the West Bank, made no secret of the PA's political motives on Wednesday, saying at an event in Ramallah that the lifting of the salary cut depended on Hamas moving towards reconciliation. "I think there is a golden and historic chance to regain the unity of our people," he said. "Hamas should relinquish control of Gaza."

On Contact: The Uncivil War with Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton

Tillerson: we will wait as long as North Korean threat is 'manageable'

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday said that the White House will be patient as long as the North Korean threat is "manageable."

"Well, we've got to see a real change on the part of the posture of the regime in North Korea ... we will wait as long as it takes, as long as the threat is manageable," Tillerson said during an interview on Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier."

Tillerson also said that studies have indicated that the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un makes rational decisions and is not unstable.

“All indications, Bret, by intelligence agencies ... are that he is not crazy. He may be ruthless, he may be a murderer, he may be someone who in many respects we would say by our standards is irrational, but he is not insane," Tillerson said. "And indications are in the past that when certain events have happened, he has ... made rational choices."

Democratic Rep. Peter Welch Condemns Trump's "Reckless" Threats Toward North Korea

Trump keeps contradicting himself about the conflict with North Korea

Donald Trump tried his best to defuse some of the tension surrounding the perceived threat from North Korea Thursday, by praising the work of Chinese President Xi Jinping, empathizing with dictator Kim Jong Un and saying he wants to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis. But, in the end, he couldn’t help himself from issuing this stark warning: “There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely.”

As Trump would well have known, this single line from a wide-ranging interview conducted with Reuters to mark his 100th day in office is what has been grabbing all the attention. ...

Despite all the bluster, bombastic statements, and displays of military strength in the region in recent weeks, is it very unlikely that Trump will go to war with North Korea, the New York Times reports, quoting senior Trump administration officials. “We want to bring Kim Jong-un to his senses, not to his knees.” Admiral Harry Harris Jr., the Pentagon’s top commander in the Pacific, told the house armed services committee Wednesday.

Instead of military action, Trump hopes to use China’s influence over North Korea as leverage in limiting Pyongyang’s ability to develop its nuclear arsenal. The relationship between Trump and Xi has been flourishing since the pair met in Mar-a-Lago earlier this month. On Friday he lavished further praise on the Chinese leader, “I believe he is trying very hard,” Trump said. “He certainly doesn’t want to see turmoil and death. He doesn’t want to see it. He is a good man. He is a very good man and I got to know him very well. With that being said, he loves China and he loves the people of China. I know he would like to be able to do something, perhaps it’s possible that he can’t.”

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson revealed Thursday that China has asked North Korea not to conduct any more nuclear tests, warning Pyongyang that it would impose unilateral sanctions if it went ahead.

Wall Street Firm Paying Obama $400,000 Faced Internal Controversy After Pocketing Huge 9/11 Settlement

Barack Obama will deliver a speech this September at a swanky healthcare conference for investors run by Cantor Fitzgerald. As Fox Business News first reported on Monday, the firm is paying him $400,000. The ensuing criticism of Obama for cashing in on his presidency has been thunderous – but has overlooked exactly whose money he is taking.

Cantor Fitzgerald, a major Wall Street brokerage house, lost 658 of its 960 employees when the World Trade Center was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. But when it settled a long-running lawsuit against American Airlines for $135 million in 2013, the proceeds didn’t go to the families of the dead. ... Lutnick and his fellow Cantor partners reportedly kept some of the money for the firm and distributed the rest to themselves, in proportion to their ownership stake. Lutnick, the firm’s biggest partner, may have received as much as $25 million.

And according to Liz O’Brien and Marilyn Rocha-Carmo, widows of two of the Cantor employees killed on 9/11, the firm never informed them of the settlement — nor even that the company had filed the lawsuit in the first place. ... Cantor declined to comment about the lawsuit’s outcome. Because Cantor is a partnership, little about its finances is publicly available.

Activism Won Net Neutrality - Can it Stop Trump's FCC from Rolling it Back?

Formerly Imprisoned Journalist Barrett Brown Taken Back Into Custody Before PBS Interview

Award-winning journalist Barrett Brown was re-arrested and taken into custody Thursday, the day before he was scheduled to be interviewed for a PBS documentary. ...

Jay Leiderman, Brown’s lawyer, told The Intercept Brown was arrested Thursday during a check-in. According to his mother, Brown had not missed a check-in or failed a drug test since he was released to a halfway house in November. Neither his mother nor lawyer has been informed where he is being held. According to his mother, who spoke with Brown by phone after his arrest, Brown believes the reason for his re-arrest was a failure to obtain “permission” to give interviews to media organizations. Several weeks ago, Brown was told by his check-in officer that he needed to fill out permission forms before giving interviews.

Since his release, Brown has given numerous interviews, on camera and by phone. But according to his mother, Brown said that the Bureau of Prisons never informed him about a paperwork requirement. When he followed up with his check-in officer, he was given a different form: a liability form for media entering prisons. ... Leiderman said he had not been presented with a formal justification for the arrest but was told that it had “to do with failing to abide by BOP restrictions on interviews.”

Ex-Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim on Rousseff's Ouster, Trump, Syria & Why Diplomacy Works

Brazil: Nationwide Strike Rebuffs "Disastrous" Austerity Measures

Nationwide strikes halted public transportation in several of Brazil's major cities on Friday as labor unions sought to show widespread opposition to the unelected president's austerity reforms.

"It is going to be the biggest strike in the history of Brazil," said Paulo Pereira da Silva, the president of trade union group Forca Sindical. 

AFP writes: "Major transport networks, schools, and banks partially shut down across much of Brazil." Bloomberg adds: 

Buses and trains were down in several major cities, including Sao Paulo. The access road to airports in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia were temporarily blocked by protesters but, barring some delays and cancellations, flights around the country continued to operate. Police cordoned off the main avenue crossing government quarters in the nation's capital Brasilia in anticipation of protests later in the day.

"Police clashed with demonstrators in several cities, blocking protesters from entering airports and firing tear gas in efforts to free roadways," Reuters also notes.

The strike comes roughly one year after the ousting of President Dilma Rousseff, when former Vice President Michel Temer assumed power in what some observers in and out of the country deemed a coup.

The strike also comes two days after Brazil's lower house of Congress passed an unpopular labor reform bill. That bill, teleSUR explains, "would undermine workers' rights by eliminating payment for their commute from their contracts, reducing compensation for employer abuse, and most importantly, allowing employers reduce workers' salaries while increasing their work hours."

EU leaders say a united Ireland would be an automatic member of the union

The European Union is preparing a declaration which will ensure that, post-Brexit, a unified Ireland could automatically become part of the organization, just as east Germany did when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. However, while the move may cause headaches for authorities in London, there is still no real appetite among voters north or south of the Irish border for reunification.

The inclusion of the so-called “GDR clause” is seen as a victory for the Irish government, which is eager to ensure its position inside the EU after its closest and most important trading partner departs. ... But the most recent opinion poll, conducted last September, showed that 63 percent of voters would vote for Northern Ireland to remain in the U.K., with just 22 percent supporting a united Ireland.

In the south, opinion is also split about the possibility of an all-island Ireland. Asked if they would want such an outcome if it cost the taxpayer an additional £9 billion ($11.5 billion) a year, a third said they would vote no, a third said they would vote yes, and another third said they were undecided.

Northern Ireland remains one of the biggest issues thrown up by the U.K. decision to leave the EU. Because it shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland, which remains an EU member state, there is the possibility of reinstating a “hard border” – complete with physical checkpoints and customs controls.

Macedonian protesters storm the country’s parliament and brutally attack lawmakers

Protesters in Macedonia stormed the parliament and brutally assaulted several lawmakers Thursday night in a show of anger over the deadlocked government. In December, former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski’s conservative party failed to win enough votes to form an administration, leaving Macedonia’s parliament in Skopje struggling for months to put together a coalition government. Talks broke down following demands that Albanian become one of the country’s official languages for the quarter of Macedonia’s population that consists of ethnic Albanians.

Opposition leader Zoran Zaev led a vote for a new speaker on Thursday, resulting in the election of a PM from an ethnic Albanian party and prompting about 200 people — many of whom were reportedly Gruevski supporters — to storm the parliament in protest. There, they attacked politicians, calling them “traitors.” A standoff between police and protesters reportedly lasted for hours.

Texas just made it a crime not to cooperate with ICE

After nearly 16 hours of debate and tearful pleas from legislators, Texas became the first state to pass a bill that creates criminal penalties for law enforcement officers who do not honor Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to hold people in local jails. Senate Bill 4 passed the Texas House at 3 a.m. local time Thursday, along party lines.

The law makes it a criminal offense not to comply with ICE “detainer requests,” where those suspected of being undocumented immigrants can be held for up to 48 hours in local facilities so ICE officers can pick them up.

The bill was hurried through the Legislature after Gov. Greg Abbott made eliminating sanctuary cities — a loose term for jurisdictions that limit cooperation with ICE — an emergency item in his State of the State address in late January.

Yet another billionaire has gotten inside the system to more efficiently have the taxpayers increase his personal wealth.

Tennessee’s Billionaire Governor Works With His Corporate Buddies to Privatize Government Jobs

Tennessee's state government has inked a sweetheart deal with a company linked to the state’s billionaire governor to privatize thousands of facilities and management jobs at colleges, prisons, and other public buildings. ... Gov. Bill Haslam has been adamant about the need to outsource state jobs. And any facility considering outsourcing will no longer be able to seek quotes from a variety of bidders. Their only choice, according to a master contract signed last Friday, will be to hire Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), the world’s largest facilities management firm. Under a process called “vested outsourcing,” JLL actually helped write the contract. ...

The choice of JLL was notable because Haslam disclosed while running for governor that he had a major investment in the company. The governor put the JLL investment into a blind trust upon entering office. JLL also receives significant contracts from the state for consulting. It has advised the state on decommissioning state buildings and leasing new office space (including its own facilities), earning at least $3.7 million. Another $1 million consulting contract went to studying facilities management at all state buildings — precisely the activity JLL now means to take over. One state audit cited this conflict of interest as problematic. ...

“It’s a significant change in how procurement operates,” said Melanie Barron of the United Campus Workers union (UCW). “Normally, the state would say ‘This is what we need, you come and bid on it.’ Companies are now helping tell the state what they need.”

This new “vested outsourcing” concept was championed by two adjunct professors at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s business school, one of whom, industry consultant Mike Ledyard, now works as the “director of facilities management outsourcing” for the state’s uniquely named Office of Customer Focused Government. Consultants specializing in outsourcing have been paid $612,000 a year by the state of Tennessee. Ledyard is the highest-paid employee in Tennessee government.

Trump's Tax Plan & Push To End Net Neutrality Are An "All Out Assault" on Rural America

Bush Already Tried Trump’s Proposed Corporate Tax Holiday and It Was a Total Failure

As part of its radical but still mostly undefined tax plan, the Trump administration proposed a tax holiday for corporate earnings stored overseas. Reporters have been hearing on background that the tax rate would be slashed from 35 percent to 10 percent.

But judging from the last time it was tried, most of the cash Donald Trump would allow megacorporations to bring home from overseas at a bargain-basement tax rate would end up being used by corporate executives to inflate the prices of their stocks, thereby enriching themselves and their biggest investors — and doing little to employ Americans and grow the real economy.

From 2004 to 2005, the Bush administration and Congress tried a one-time tax repatriation holiday, cutting the rate to 5.25 percent.

A Senate study in 2011 found that corporations brought $312 billion they had stashed overseas back to the United States, avoiding $3.3 billion in taxes as a result of the repatriation rate. But the top 15 companies that took advantage of the holiday actually reduced their total U.S. employment by 20,931 jobs. Meanwhile, the report surveyed studies of all 840 corporations that took advantage of repatriation and concluded that there was “no evidence that repatriated funds increased overall U.S. employment.”

US economy turns in weakest quarterly performance in three years

The US economy turned in the weakest performance in three years in the January-March quarter as consumers sharply slowed their spending. The result repeats a pattern that has characterized the recovery: lacklustre beginnings to the year. The Commerce Department says the gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, grew by just 0.7% in the first quarter following a gain of 2.1% in the fourth quarter.

The slowdown primarily reflected slower consumer spending, which grew by just 0.3% after a 3.5% gain in the fourth quarter. It was the poorest showing in more than seven years. Analysts blame in part the unusually warm winter, which meant less spending on utility bills. Economists believe the slowdown will be temporary. They forecast GDP growth will rebound to 3% or better in the current quarter.

Judas raises his fee.

Obama Starts Cashing In Directly For Bailing Out Wall Street

Other than being domestic bribery, and legal, I don’t see a great deal of difference between [Obama's $400,000 lunchtime speaking gig at Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald] and Trump’s conflicts of interest. The bottom line is that Obama made sure the bailouts for Wall Street continued, and he is being rewarded for it.

This is corruption. It is evil. And millions of people suffered for it. Many died. Obama’s administration was very deliberate in not helping homeowners in any serious way (in fact harming them). They didn’t help homeowners because they felt doing so would hurt banks. Millions lost their jobs, and the economy never fully recovered. ...

And now, now he’s getting his pieces of silver.

Obama Continues Hillary's Legacy

Trump voters don’t have buyer’s remorse. But some Hillary Clinton voters do.

While just 4 percent of Trump's supporters say they would back someone else if there was a redo of the election, fully 15 percent of Clinton supporters say they would ditch her. Trump leads in a re-do of the 2016 election 43 percent to 40 percent after losing the popular vote 46-44.

That 15 percent is split between those who say they would vote for Trump (2 percent), Gary Johnson (4 percent), Jill Stein (2 percent), and either other candidates or not vote (7 percent).

Trump won’t be able to take down national monuments without a legal fight

When President Donald Trump signed an executive order to review and potentially abolish at least two-dozen national monuments on Wednesday, he promised an “end to another egregious abuse of federal power." "Today, we’re putting the states back in charge,” Trump said. But tellingly, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who will lead the review, said, “We’re not afraid of getting sued.”

That’s probably good, because like a lot of Trump’s executive actions of the past 100 days, this one will face stiff challenges in the courts, challenges that experts agree Trump will likely lose. ... Back in 1938, when President Roosevelt tried to abolish the Castle-Pinckney National Monument in South Carolina, Attorney General Homer Cummings wrote an opinion now considered precedent. “The statute does not in terms authorize the president to abolish national monuments, and no other statute containing such authority has been suggested,” he wrote.

Since then, the courts have upheld monument decisions, including cases concerning Clinton-era monuments defended by the Bush administration’s Justice Department, often citing the 1938 Cummings opinion. “When an attorney general does such an expert-focused interpretation of a statute, it’s not going to be easy for Mr. Trump to de-designate,” said Zygmunt Plater, a professor at the Boston College Law School.

“Based on 50 years of consistent judicial respect for the attorney general’s opinion, it’s pretty clear that this is a one-way street. The president can designate, but only Congress can de-designate,” Plater said. “It will require an act of Congress to make it a two-way street, and I don’t think they’re going to do that.” Numerous groups, including Sierra Club, Earthjustice, and the Natural Resources Defense Council are gearing up their legal challenges.

East coast readies for fresh climate fight as Trump eyes more offshore drilling

Communities along the east coast are steeling themselves for a fresh round of angst and protest over offshore drilling, with Donald Trump set to throw open vast swathes of the Atlantic seaboard to oil and gas companies. On Friday, the president is expected to sign an executive order that will ask the interior department to review offshore areas potentially rich in fossil fuels that were put out of reach of drilling by Barack Obama’s administration.

The review will scrutinize plots in the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific that the Obama administration said would not be made available for drilling until at least 2022. In the final weeks of his presidency, Obama announced what he called a permanent ban on drilling along much of Alaska’s coast as well as the ocean floor from Virginia to Maine.

Trump is now taking the first steps to undo this, setting up a confrontation with environmentalists and residents concerned about the impact upon wildlife and the potentially ruinous economic consequences of a Deepwater Horizon-level oil spill. “The movement against this drilling never died, it just went into a lower gear,” said Phil Odom, a commissioner for Liberty County on Georgia’s coast. A former commercial fisherman, Odom said the “geological marvel” of Georgia’s coastline – it has 15 barrier islands and large expanses of untouched marshlands – would be in severe danger from any oil spill. "Most of the people in the coastal region do not see the necessity of it, they see what’s happened to the coastlines of Louisiana and Texas. We don’t want that."

Slathering on sunscreen at the beach? It may be destroying coral reefs

For years we’ve been told to slap on sunscreen to protect against the harmful effects of the sun’s UV rays. But eco-conscious beachgoers may want to take care with their sunscreen this summer, as studies show that many contemporary sunscreens pose a threat to the ocean environment.

Oxybenzone is a common chemical found in all types of sunscreen, but particularly in the spray-on variety, that researchers have found harms coral, and is in high concentrations at some of the most world’s most popular reefs.

The UV-absorbing chemical found to poison coral in several ways. In a study published in 2015 and in research set for publication later this year, biologists found that oxybenzone contributes to bleaching, has a similar effect on DNA as gasoline, and disrupts reproduction and growth, leaving young corals fatally deformed. ...

The recent research builds on several years of work by teams in Italy, Spain, Israel and Iran, and found that even small doses of oxybenzone – about a drop in six-and-a-half Olympic swimming pools – damages coral. The researchers found concentrations 12 times that rate in popular waters off Hawaii and the US Virgin islands. Hawaii lawmakers are proposing a ban on the use of such sunscreen on the islands.

Also of Interest

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

Stephen F. Cohen: Mounting Incitements to War With Russia

Putin’s New World Order

Freedom Rider: Do Americans Have No Shame?

The Shame of Killing Innocent People

Le Pen Promotes Holocaust Denier and Plans to Ban Kosher Butchers and Yarmulkes

Slandering Populism: a Chilling Media Habit

Obama Harvests His Presidency

Mountain of Tears: the Vanishing Glaciers of the Pacific Northwest

A Little Night Music

Otis Rush - Ain't Enough Comin' In

Otis Rush - Working Man

Otis Rush - So Many Roads!

Otis Rush - Motoring Along

Otis Rush - Satisfied

Otis Rush - Jump Sister Bessie

Otis Rush - It Takes Time

Otis Rush Live @Piazza Blues Festival