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This evening's music features r&b singer Betty Everett. Enjoy!

"Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what it is you want to hear."

-- Alan COren

News and Opinion

Worth reading in full. Taibbi nails it.

It's Too Late to Worry About 'Normalizing' Trump. Decades of Policy Did That For Him

Max Boot, the noted Washington Post columnist, and "Jeane Kilpatrick senior fellow for National Security Studies" at the Council for Foreign Relations, thinks Donald Trump is betraying American values by meeting with Kim Jong-Un. Such a meeting, Boot says, would mean "giving the worst human-rights abuser on the planet what he most wants: international legitimacy."

Let's unpack that one for a minute. We're worried now about giving human rights abusers legitimacy?

The idea that we don't legitimize human-rights abusers is a laugh-out-loud joke everywhere outside America. You could fill a book chapter with the history of the friendly relations between American presidents and just the foreign dictators who are credibly reported to have eaten other human beings. Here's a cheery letter from Gerald Ford inviting Central African Republic dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa (the remains of 30 people were found in his crocodile pond upon ouster) to Washington.

We helped install Idi Amin, too. He later denied rumors of cannibalism, saying human flesh was "too salty," but he had other equally upsetting hobbies. We've supported a couple of generations of Nguemas in Equatorial Guinea, both of whom – uncle Macias and nephew Teodoro Obiang – reportedly ate their political enemies.

This is in addition to the countless Batistas and Suhartos and Diems and Marcoses and Pinochets who were just murdering thieving monsters we legitimized not by sitting down with them at the negotiating table, but by making them allies we showered with things like arms and money.

The problem with Trump is that he's too stupid to be embarrassed by such relationships. He constantly makes all of Washington look bad by jumping too enthusiastically in bed with the blood-soaked juntas and anti-democratic governments we more quietly embraced in the past.

The new CIA director was a key part of the torture program and its illegal cover-up. Her name was on the Top Secret order demanding the destruction of tapes to prevent them being seen by Congress. Incredible. https://t.co/HjVHCPCbpo https://t.co/VamIGa1A8w

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 13, 2018

Gina Haspel, Trump’s Pick for CIA Director, Ran a Black Site for Torture

In May 2013, the Washington Post’s Greg Miller reported that the head of the CIA’s clandestine service was being shifted out of that position as a result of “a management shake-up” by then-Director John Brennan. As Miller documented, this official — whom the paper did not name because she was a covert agent at the time — was centrally involved in the worst abuses of the CIA’s Bush-era torture regime.

As Miller put it, she was “directly involved in its controversial interrogation program” and had an “extensive role” in torturing detainees. Even more troubling, she “had run a secret prison in Thailand” — part of the CIA’s network of “black sites” — “where two detainees were subjected to waterboarding and other harsh techniques.” The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on torture also detailed the central role she played in the particularly gruesome torture of detainee Abu Zubaydah.

Beyond all that, she played a vital role in the destruction of interrogation videotapes that showed the torture of detainees both at the black site she ran and other secret agency locations. The concealment of those interrogation tapes, which violated multiple court orders as well as the demands of the 9/11 commission and the advice of White House lawyers, was condemned as “obstruction” by commission chairs Lee Hamilton and Thomas Keane. A special prosecutor and grand jury investigated those actions but ultimately chose not to prosecute.

The name of that CIA official whose torture activities the Post described is Gina Haspel. Today, as BuzzFeed’s Jason Leopold noted, CIA Director Mike Pompeo announced that Haspel was selected by Trump to be deputy director of the CIA.

Trump Replaces Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo at State; Torturer Named New Head of CIA

Donald Trump just fired Rex Tillerson on Twitter

Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was being replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

Trump made the announcement via Twitter, also revealing that Gina Haspel, deputy director of the CIA, would replace Pompeo as director. She's the first woman to hold the position.

The Washington Post reports that Trump asked Tillerson to step aside last Friday and the former Exxon Mobil executive cut short his trip to Africa to return to Washington on Monday.

Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein said Tuesday, however, that Tillerson never spoke to the president and “had every intention of staying” and is “unaware of the reason” he was fired. The state department also confirmed to CNN that Tillerson found out he was out from Trump's tweet. Other sources have said the same.

US President Trump ousts Rex Tillerson: Why replacing him with CIA director Mike Pompeo?

Kim Jong-un wants to sign peace treaty with Trump

North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un wants to sign a peace treaty and establish diplomatic relations with the US, including allowing an embassy in Pyongyang, according to the Seoul-based Dong-A Ilbo newspaper, which cited an unidentified senior official with South Korea's presidential office.

Mr Kim is likely to raise the possibility of a peace treaty as well as denuclearizing his country during a meeting with US President Donald Trump, the newspaper said, citing an official in the office of South Korean leader Moon Jae-in.

Debate: Syria, Ghouta, and the Left

US Sets New Record For Censoring, Withholding Government Files

The federal government censored, withheld or said it couldn't find records sought by citizens, journalists and others more often last year than at any point in the past decade, according to an Associated Press analysis of new data.

The calculations cover eight months under President Donald Trump, the first hints about how his administration complies with the Freedom of Information Act.

The surge of people who sought records but ended up empty-handed was driven by the government saying more than ever it could not find a single page of requested files and asserting in other cases that it would be illegal under U.S. laws to release the information.

People who asked for records under the Freedom of Information Act received censored files or nothing in 78 percent of 823,222 requests, a record over the past decade. When it provided no records, the government said it could find no information related to the request in a little over half those cases.

It turned over everything requested in roughly one of every five FOIA requests, according to the AP analysis.

What happens when Russia ignores the U.K.’s ultimatum over nerve agent attack

British Prime Minister Theresa May issued an ultimatum to the Kremlin to account for how a Russian-made nerve agent ended up in an attack on British soil.

Russia must explain by Tuesday at midnight how Novichok, the rare Russian-manufactured nerve agent, poisoned a former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia on March 4 in the town of Salisbury. The two are still fighting for their lives. But with a Russian mea culpa looking highly unlikely, the big question is how May plans to follow through.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, May said Russia only has two plausible explanations. “Either this was a direct action by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of its potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others,” she said. ...

May added that if Russia didn’t give a “credible response” by midnight on Tuesday, Parliament would announce an appropriate response to the “unlawful use of force” by Moscow on Wednesday.

National Geographic: for decades, our coverage was racist

National Geographic has acknowledged that its coverage of black and minority ethnic people in America and the wider world has been historically racist, frequently promoting caricatures of the “noble savage” and barely featuring the US’s minority ethnic population. An internal investigation last year showed that until the 1970s, National Geographic in effect ignored minority ethnic Americans who were not labourers or domestic workers, and portrayed non-white people around the world as “exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, happy hunters, noble savages – every type of cliche.”

In the magazine’s April issue devoted to race, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination, the editor-in-chief, Susan Goldberg, wrote that the commemoration is “a worthy moment to step back, to take stock of where we are on race”. The publication republished a number of examples of historical racism in its coverage. One 1916 article about Australia included a photo of two Indigenous Australians with the caption: “South Australian Blackfellows: These savages rank lowest in intelligence of all human beings.” ...

The internal review of National Geographic archives, which was conducted in part by John Edwin Mason, a photography historian at the University of Virginia who specialises in the history of Africa, found that the publication did little to challenge racist stereotypes in the 19th and 20th centuries. “Americans got ideas about the world from Tarzan movies and crude racist caricatures,” he told the publication. “Segregation was the way it was. National Geographic wasn’t teaching as much as reinforcing messages they already received and doing so in a magazine that had tremendous authority.

“National Geographic comes into existence at the height of colonialism, and the world was divided into the colonisers and the colonised. That was a colour line, and National Geographic was reflecting that view of the world.

Democrats Offer Last-Minute, Pretend Defense of Fair Lending Laws, as They Prepare to Weaken Them

In a final indignity, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., has offered an amendment essentially striking a controversial provision from bipartisan bank deregulation bill S.2155 that would limit tools prosecutors use to detect mortgage lending discrimination, while acknowledging that the amendment probably wouldn’t get a vote — and wouldn’t be necessary for his ultimate support. At issue is Section 104, which exempts all banks and credit unions issuing 500 mortgages or less from enhanced Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, or HMDA, data requirements used to identify lending discrimination. ... The 17 members of the Democratic caucus who support S.2155 have taken significant heat from their colleagues over this measure, which critics believe would deeply damage fair lending enforcement. ...

The four lead Democratic senators who co-authored S.2155 – Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., and Mark Warner, D-Va., co-sponsored the amendment, agreeing that effectively nullifying Section 104 would be the right move. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., needs those Democrats on the bill to get to 60 votes. If the Democrats on the Banking Committee backed away, other Democrats would follow and Republicans would need to deal. Why aren’t they doing it?

Tester, Donnelly and Heitkamp are all facing reelection in states Trump won handily, and where he is still popular. The last line of Kaine’s press release tells you everything about this effort: “I hope we will get the opportunity to vote on this change.” That is not a promise to get a vote on the amendment, nor is it a definitive statement that the amendment would be a condition of Kaine’s support. It just means Kaine and his fellow Democrats introduced an amendment he suspects won’t ever see the Senate floor.

Keiser Report: World Order of Chaos

Questions for TSA after reports of laptop and phone searches on domestic flights

There are a growing number of reports of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) searching the electronic devices of passengers on domestic flights in the US, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has sued the federal agency for records.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a lawsuit against the TSA on Monday demanding that the government disclose its policies for searching the computers and cellphones of domestic travelers, arguing that anecdotal accounts have raised concerns about potential privacy invasions.

“We’ve received reports of passengers on purely domestic flights having their phones and laptops searched, and the takeaway is that TSA has been taking these items from people without providing any reason why,” the staff attorney Vasudha Talla told the Guardian. “The search of an electronic device has the potential to be highly invasive and cover the most personal details about a person.”

A TSA spokesman, Matt Leas, declined to comment on the lawsuit but said: “TSA does not search the contents of electronic devices.”

Over the past year, civil liberties groups have repeatedly raised concerns about US border agents expanding the invasive searches of international travelers’ phones. Some travelers reported authorities demanding they unlock their devices and allow officials to review text messages, social media accounts, photos and other private information – without warrants or reasonable suspicion. Now, there are questions about whether similar practices could be happening for passengers traveling within the US, raising fears that the government may be increasing surveillance and privacy violations at airports.

White House to Proceed With Plan to Train Teachers in Handling Firearms

The Trump administration will forge ahead with its plan to arm and train teachers and other school employees, the White House told reporters Sunday night.

That training will be implemented through local officials with funding from the Justice Department, the White House said.

The administration will also respond to calls for addressing school shootings by forming a federal commission to examine other proposals. While the Sunday night announcement appeared to indicate Trump has backed off his early support for raising the age to purchase certain firearms—a proposal the NRA has vociferously opposed—the commission would consider the idea.

The Federal Commission on School Safety will be led by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

Squirrel!

Stormy Daniels' lawyer on Trump missing deadline: 'Time to buckle up'

“Time to buckle up,” said Stormy Daniels’ lawyer on Tuesday as the deadline set by the adult film star for Donald Trump or his lawyer to respond to her offer to return a $130,000 hush fee in exchange for the freedom to speak about an alleged past affair with Trump came and went.

Michael Avenatti declined to explain the phrase or comment further during a phone call with the Guardian to discuss possible next moves by his client. Daniels is best known by her stage name as a pornographic actor but her real name is Stephanie Clifford.

The full text of the tweet, posted moments after noon, read: “The President and Mr Cohen have purposely ignored our settlement offer, thus doubling down on their efforts to muzzle Ms Clifford and prevent her from telling the American people what happened. Time to buckle up. #basta.”

Pro-Trump pastor: Stormy Daniels allegations 'totally irrelevant' to evangelical support for Trump

A member of President Trump’s evangelical advisory board defended Trump over the controversy surrounding his alleged relationship with adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, saying the allegations were “totally irrelevant” to evangelicals who support Trump.

“Evangelicals know they’re not compromising their beliefs in order to support this great president,” Pastor Robert Jeffress said on Fox News Thursday. “And let’s be clear, evangelicals still believe in the commandment ‘thou shalt not have sex with a porn star.’”

“However, whether this president violated that commandment or not is totally irrelevant to our support of him,” he continued.

Jeffress said evangelicals knew they “weren’t voting for an altar boy” when they voted for Trump and maintained they supported Trump for his “policies and strong leadership.”

Extreme winter weather becoming more common as Arctic warms, study finds

The sort of severe winter weather that has rattled parts of the US and UK is becoming more common as the Arctic warms, with scientists finding a strong link between high temperatures near the pole and unusually heavy snowfall and frigid weather further south. A sharp increase in temperatures across the Arctic since the early 1990s has coincided with an uptick in abnormally cold snaps in winter, particularly in the eastern US, according to new research that analyzed temperature data from 1950 onwards.

Extreme cold winter weather is up to four times more likely when temperatures in the Arctic are unusually high, the study found. Researchers compared daily temperatures from across the Arctic region with something called the accumulated winter season severity index, which grades winter weather based on temperature, snow fall and snow depth, across 12 US cities. “There’s a remarkably strong correlation between a warm Arctic and cold winter weather further south,” said Judah Cohen, a climatologist at Atmospheric and Environmental Research. “It’s a complex story – global warming is contributing to milder temperatures but is also having unforeseen consequences such as this.”

The Arctic has just experienced its toastiest winter on record, with parts of the region 20C (68F) warmer than the long-term average, a situation scientists have variously described as “crazy,” “weird,” and “simply shocking”. The far north latitudes are warming around twice as quickly as the global average, diminishing glaciers and sea ice and imperiling creatures such as polar bears.

Two large winter storms recently swept the US east coast in less than a week, unloading up to three inches of snow per hour in places, resulting in several deaths, thousands of cancelled flights, closed schools and snarled traffic. The cold front even reached Florida, contributing to a recent surge in manatee deaths. So far this year, 166 of the marine mammals have been found dead off the state’s coast, with stress from the cold the leading cause of mortality. “Manatees may join polar bears as one of the first iconic victims of extinction in the wild from climate change,” said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

Krill fishing poses serious threat to Antarctic ecosystem, report warns

Industrial fishing for krill in the pristine waters around Antarctica is threatening the future of one of the world’s last great wildernesses, according to a new report.

The study by Greenpeace analysed the movements of krill fishing vessels in the region and found they were increasingly operating “in the immediate vicinity of penguin colonies and whale feeding grounds”.

It also highlights incidents of fishing boats being involved in groundings, oil spills and accidents, which it said posed a serious threat to the Antarctic ecosystem.

The report, published on Tuesday, comes amid growing concern about the impact of fishing and climate change on the Antarctic. A global campaign has been launched to create a network of ocean sanctuaries to protect the seas in the region and Greenpeace is calling for an immediate halt to fishing in areas being considered for sanctuary status.

Frida Bengtsson, from Greenpeace’s Protect the Antarctic campaign, said: “If the krill industry wants to show it’s a responsible player, then it should be voluntarily getting out of any area which is being proposed as an ocean sanctuary, and should instead be backing the protection of these huge swaths of the Antarctic.”

Critics of Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana Decry State Surveillance Effort Targeting Protesters

As a Reminder, Some Flint Schools Still Have Lead in Their Water

It has been almost four years since residents of Flint, Michigan, first started reporting a strange color and smell to their water. Since then, its water has gotten much clearer. But while much of the public attention has long moved on, it’s worth remembering that Flint is still not in the clear.

As the Flint Journal reported Monday, a round of water testing in February by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality found 28 water samples in elementary schools that registered above 15 parts per billion of lead, the threshold under the Lead and Copper Rule. ...

There is no level of lead exposure considered conclusively safe.

Also of Interest

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

The Strange Case of the Russian Spy Poisoning

Senators Will Vote on Pulling Troops Out of Yemen, But When

Netanyahu to Host Last Ditch Talks to Save Crumbling Coalition

Who’s Afraid of Talking With Kim Jong Un?

NBC’s Clueless Boost for Putin

Michigan is at risk of becoming a failed state

The Democratic Establishment Is Moving Closer and Closer to Single Payer, but Activists Want the Real Thing

Why Americans should give socialism a try

A Little Night Music

Betty Everett & Jerry Butler - I Can't Stand It

Betty Everett & Jerry Butler - Ain't That Loving You Baby

Betty Everett - Getting Mighty Crowded

Betty Everett & Jerry Butler - The Way You Do The Things You Do

Betty Everett - Hands off

Betty Everett - You're No Good

Betty Everett - Ain't Gonna Cry

Betty Everett - My Life Depends On You

Betty Everett - My Love

Betty Everett - Until You Were Gone

Betty Everett - I Got To Tell Somebody

Betty Everett - Hey Lucinda