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This evening's music features The Godfather of Soul James Brown. Enjoy!

"What bliss will fill the ransomed souls,
When they in glory dwell,
To see the sinner as he rolls,
In quenchless flames of hell."

-- Isaac Watts

News and Opinion

At LA airport's new private terminal, the rich can watch normal people suffer

The guiltiest pleasure at Los Angeles international airport’s (LAX) new private terminal for the mega-rich is not the plush, hushed privacy, or the beds with comforters, or the massages, or the coriander-scented soap, or the Willie Wonka-style array of chocolates and jelly beans, or the Napa Valley cabernet.

It is the iPad that sits on a counter at the entrance, with a typed little note: “Here is a glimpse of what you’re missing over at the main terminal right now.”

The screen shows travellers hauling bags through packed terminals, queuing in long lines, looking harassed and being swallowed into pushing, shoving paparazzi scrums – routine hazards for the 80 million people who pass through LAX each year. “There they process thousands of people at a time, they’re barking. It’s loud. Here it’s very, very lovely,” said Gavin de Becker, who runs the new terminal, called Private Suite.

He wasn’t wrong. The $22m facility, the first of its kind in the US, opens on Monday, giving the 1% a whole new way to separate themselves from everyone else’s reality. ... “The real purpose here is logistics.” He reckons about a tenth of his clients will be celebrities who are fed up with the paparazzi staking out LAX. The rest will be corporate – CEOs and other members of capitalism’s top brass. ...

Instead of battling the traffic jams that clog LAX you reach Private Suite via the Imperial Highway, leading to a discreet turn-off where an armed guard checks your identity and pushes a button. Tall grey gates open and you enter the haven.

The Audacity of Sleaze: Profiles in Corruption

What could be more absurd than Drone War King Barack Obama getting an award for courage? The speech that Obama gave after getting the 2017 “Profiles in Courage” prize from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation last Sunday – that’s what.

In his ponderous address, Obama showed that his aptitude for grandiose, fake-progressive oratory has not been extinguished by dips with Richard Branson in the cool Caribbean (more on that below). Obama’s brash Orwellian chutzpah was on grand display. He praised freshly elected Congresspersons for having the “political courage” to “save the financial system…even when it was unpopular” in 2009.

Yes, these dauntless peoples’ representatives had the epic valor required to boldly defy public opinion by expanding a major taxpayer bailout to the well-heeled Wall Street parasites who crashed the national and global economy through their selfish and reckless behavior –opulent bloodsuckers who grant lucrative salaries, speaking fees, and other neoliberal disbursements to not-so public officials who do their bidding while “serving” (the Few) in government.

Ask Obama. Ex-prez “O” has been spotted kiteboarding with Branson, the British billionaire airline mogul, who is leading the charge for the privatization of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. Obama’s been seen boating in the Pacific with Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, and Bruce Springsteen on a $300 million luxury yacht owned by recording mogul billionaire David Geffen.  The Obamas reached an eight-figure publishing deal ($65 million) for his-and-her memoirs on their years in the White House. And Obama will speak for $400,000 at a Wall Street health care conference in September, hosted by Cantor Fitzgerald LP.

Nothing says, “show me the money” like POTUS on your resume. Call it the Audacity of Sleaze. The Venality of Hope.

Bit rich? Barack Obama 'to pocket £2.5million ($3.2million) for sold-out speech in Milan today'

Barack Obama will reportedly pocket a staggering £2.5million (€3million) today for delivering a speech to a sold-out audience in Milan as part of his lucrative post-presidential speaking tour.

The former President, who has already earned hundreds of thousands of dollars for private speeches since leaving the White House, will make his highest-paying appearance yet at the Global Food Innovation Summit today.

President Obama flew into Italy’s business capital yesterday, and according to local media headed straight for the extravagant Park Hyatt hotel, which can cost up to £7,100 (€8,400) a night.

After bringing the city to a standstill with a convoy of 14 cars, a helicopter and a 300-strong police escort, President Obama’s entourage reportedly took over two floors of the hotel. ...

President Obama will give his speech in Milan at Seeds and Chips, a conference on the impact that technology, innovation and climate change will have on food availability and production worldwide.

Ok, back to all Trump all the time. That's all that seems to be on the media's mind these days.

Trump Fires Comey: Is this Watergate in the age of Twitter?

An excellent article worth a full read.

The Scandal Hidden Behind Russia-gate

The Washington Post and New York Times editors are trying to relive the glory days of their youth by comparing Trump’s firing of FBI chief James Comey to Richard Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre at the height of Watergate. ... Here’s how Russia-gate is not the same as Watergate and why, in fact, it’s the opposite. ...

[See article for a detailed discussion of the solid evidence of Watergate crimes (the burglary) vs. the feverish speculation presented as evidence for Russiagate. Also, a good comparison of the protection of democracy and democratic process that Watergate represented vs. the deep state neocon warmongers' attempts to protect their war-escalation strategy while passing it off as protecting domestic (small d) democratic institutions. - js]

Watergate was about blocking a cover-up, Russia-gate is about perpetuating one.

Hours after Comey received his termination notice, Ken Gude, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, published an article calling on the Justice Department to “appoint a special counsel to lead the investigation into links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts to interfere with the election.” CAP is a major Clinton stronghold. Its founder is John Podesta, who was Clinton’s campaign chairman and whose brother, Tony, is a registered Saudi lobbyist. Its president is Neera Tanden, a long-time Clinton friend and adviser.

Major funders include George Soros and the United Arab Emirates, which, like Saudis, has long pushed for the U.S. to adopt a more militant posture vis-à-vis Iran, Syria’s Assad government, and Russia, which is allied with both. ... This is the real scandal that Russia-gate is designed to cover up. Like any country, Russia wants to steer U.S. foreign policy in a direction favorable to interests. But it’s a very small player in Washington compared to giants like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. These are nations that have given millions to the Clinton Foundation, to the “William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park” in Little Rock, Arkansas (recipient of a $10-million gift from the Saudi royal family), universities like Harvard and Georgetown, and a slew of think tanks, not just CAP and the Atlantic Council, but the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Brookings, the recipient of a $14.8-million contribution from Qatar.

The oil monarchies have thus used their petro-wealth to create a pro-war consensus in Washington that is nearly 100-percent complete. Needless to say, this will not benefit the mass of ordinary Americans, the people who will have to fight and die in such conflicts and whose taxes will pay for them. Instead, it will benefit the oil companies and arms manufacturers with whom the oil monarchies are closely allied, not to mention hawkish politicians hoping to use war fever to propel their careers to ever greater heights. They will benefit because they have sold U.S. foreign policy to the highest bidder. This is a scandal of the first order. But rather than exposing it, Russia-gate is all about covering it up.

Trump threatens ex-FBI head Comey with possible 'tapes' of conversations

Donald Trump threatened former FBI director James Comey on Twitter on Friday morning:

James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017

The tweet, which if taken at face value would suggest Trump has been secretly taping White House meetings, came after the New York Times reported that he demanded “loyalty” from Comey in a private dinner held shortly after Trump took office.

White House spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment as to whether the president possesses recordings of his dinner with Comey or any conversations with him.

As Clinton Blames Comey & Russia, Authors of "Shattered" Expose Aimless Campaign

Comey Firing Will Not Stop FBI’s Trump-Russia Investigation, Acting Director Says

The Senate Intelligence Committee had planned to hear from James Comey at their worldwide threats hearing on Thursday. ... Instead, the committee got Andrew G. McCabe, the Comey deputy who took over leadership of the bureau after Trump abruptly fired Comey as the FBI director on Tuesday afternoon. Sitting beside the heads of the CIA, NSA, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence, McCabe got a rough political baptism as senators grilled him over the circumstances surrounding Comey’s firing, and the status of the investigation into Trump’s Russia ties.

McCabe’s testimony contradicted the White House on two key points. While the White House has repeatedly said the FBI no longer had confidence in Comey, McCabe said the bureau had his back. “Director Comey enjoys broad support within the FBI and still does to this day,” he said. And while White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders has called the Russia investigation “one of the smallest things” on the FBI’s plate, McCabe said it was “a highly significant investigation.”

McCabe was circumspect about the bureau’s interactions with Trump. He refused to comment on the accuracy of a claim made by Trump, in his letter firing Comey, that Comey had informed Trump “on three separate occasions that I am not under investigation.” ... Nor would McCabe say, when asked by Sen. Ron Wyden, whether such conversations between Trump and Comey would be improper if they did take place. When pressed by Sen. Martin Heinrich, McCabe said that he had met with Trump earlier this week, but that the Russia investigation had not come up.

Contrary to reporting in the New York Times and Washington Post that Comey’s firing had followed a request from him for more resources to work on the Russia investigation, McCabe said that the FBI had what it needed, and that its work would continue unimpeded. He did not say specifically whether or not the FBI had asked for more prosecutors.

Trump rips Comey and says he planned to fire him no matter what the DOJ said

President Donald Trump called former FBI Director James Comey “a showboat” and “a grandstander” on Thursday, two days after abruptly firing him.

“The FBI has been in turmoil,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt. “You know that, I know that, everybody knows that.” ...

Members of the administration, including Vice President Mike Pence, had argued that Trump merely accepted Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s assessment that Comey was no longer an effective leader. “When [Rosenstein] brought the recommendation to the president that the director of the FBI should be removed, President Trump provided the kind of strong and decisive leadership the American people have come to be accustomed from him,” Pence told reporters Wednesday morning.

But Trump contradicted that narrative on Thursday when he told NBC News that “regardless of the recommendation, I was going to fire Comey.”

White House might have listened to Sally Yates if they knew who she was

Why didn’t White House fire Michael Flynn as soon as then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates told them that Russia had potentially compromised the former national security adviser? Because, President Donald Trump told NBC News reporter Lester Holt in an interview aired Thursday, that the matter “did not sound like an emergency.”

Trump said his White House Counsel, Don McGahn, gave him that impression, but added that “she didn’t make it sound that way either, in the hearings the other day, that it had to be done immediately.” Trump added, “I believe that it would be very unfair to hear from somebody who we don’t even know and immediately run out and fire a general.”

Gaius Publius has this article up at Naked Capitalism with an extensive commentary by Yves. Yves's commentary should not be skipped, it is just as important as the article. In fact, I'm going to quote a part of her comment as a teaser for the piece:

Trump – A Nation in Crisis, Again

Yves here. The media’s fixation on the scary Putin monster takes energy away from opposing Trump on real issues: health care, climate, dropping life expectancy, the surveillance state, to name a few. It also validates the effort of the CIA and certain elements of the military to meddle in domestic politics in a shockingly open manner, which is a terrible precedent.

As Lambert wrote, “If we can’t win on the facts, we do not deserve to win.” As Ilargi said yesterday:

It’s not about whether Trump is or has ever been guilty of anything he’s accused of, it’s that the insinuating narratives about that have long been written and repeated ad nauseam. It’s about whether the witch hunt exemplified by PropOrNot makes objective news gathering impossible. And the only possible response to that question must be affirmative….

Does Trump deserve being resisted? It certainly looks that way much of the time. But he should be resisted with facts, not innuendo of yellow paper quality. That destroys the media, and the media are needed to maintain a democracy.

Gaius’ post focuses on how the “get Trump on Russia” campaign has gone down a series of rabbit holes and his opponents are now likely to shift to “extra-Constitutional means” to remove him. In the face of all of media fixation on Trump and Russia, it’s important to keep in mind:

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs. Both the strong form claim that many seem to believe about Trump (“Trump is a Russian agent”) or its weaker form variant (“Trump under Russian influence”) extraordinary, since both amount to charges of treason.

Yet despite months of press and pundit yammering, nothing has come within hailing distance of proving either claim, despite Trump being the object of extensive oppo by the Republicans, then the Democrats, and throughout, one presumes, by members of the military/surveillance state that badly want to escalate a conflict with Russia (both in the United Kingdom, and this country).

It is hard to fathom how the Russian government could get influence over a US billionaire based on Trump officiating at a beauty pageant and setting up some legal vehicles for licensing deals that never got done. And the other theories of how Russia would have sway over him don’t hold up to scrutiny.

US intelligence chiefs have doubts about cybersecurity firm over its Russian roots

Top US intelligence chiefs have publicly expressed doubts about the global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Labs because of its roots in Russia. Six leading intelligence officials told a Senate hearing on external threats to the United States of their concerns over the firm’s broad presence, without specifying the particular threat they see. Asked if he was aware of a security threat tied to Kaspersky software, FBI acting director Andrew McCabe replied: “We are very concerned about it and we are focused on it very closely.” ...

Kaspersky was founded in Moscow in 1997 by Eugene Kaspersky, a computer engineer who served in the Russian military. The company quickly expanded to a global presence, with 3,600 employees, 400 million users of its software, and revenue of about $620m in 2015, according to its website. Its antivirus programs regularly rank in the top five of such software for personal and business computers.

Kaspersky denied having ties to any government. “The company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyberespionage efforts,” it said in a statement on Thursday. “Kaspersky Lab believes it is completely unacceptable that the company is being unjustly accused without any hard evidence to back up these false allegations.”

Trump Ordered to Turn Over Giuliani Memo in Travel Ban Suit

The Trump Administration was ordered by a federal judge to disclose a memo drafted under the guidance of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani that allegedly served as an outline to make the president’s travel ban look like it wasn’t aimed at Muslims.

While running for president, Donald Trump asked Giuliani to form a commission that would help draft a “Muslim ban” to “show [him] the right way to do it legally" after his initial proposal drew widespread public condemnation, according to a court filing by the Arab American Civil Rights League. The commission then recommended that “nationality be used as a proxy for religion,” the group said in the filing.

U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts in Detroit on Thursday directed the president to produce the document by May 19.

‘Abbas has decided to sign peace deal with Israel’

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has crossed the Rubicon and voiced “unprecedented” readiness to reach a peace deal with Israel, sources close to the efforts to renew talks between Israel and the Palestinians have told The Jerusalem Post.

Abbas, according to the sources, made this clear to President Donald Trump during their meeting at the White House last week. The president plans to use his trip to Israel later this month to receive assurances from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he, too, is committed to a peace agreement.

Since his meeting with Trump last week, Abbas has changed his rhetoric, issuing a number of statements meant to reflect flexibility on previous demands. He has, for example, said that he would renew the talks under Trump’s auspices without preconditions. In the past, he had said he would not negotiate with Netanyahu without a freeze to settlement construction.

He has also sent his advisers to the press to declare that the Palestinians are prepared to negotiate land swaps with Israel, a recognition that some West Bank settlements will remain part of Israel in the framework of a future deal.

Netanyahu, on the other hand, has largely remained quiet. The strategy within the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem seems to be to wait and hope not to be blamed for preventing the success of the peace talks Trump is planning to restart following his visit on May 22.

Jailed Reporter Barrett Brown on Press Freedom, FBI Crimes & Why He Wouldn't Do Anything Differently

'An Idea Whose Time Has Come': Lawmakers Roll Out Plan to Expand Worker Ownership

Amid increasing corporate power and dwindling worker profits, a coalition of lawmakers on Thursday put forth one solution that just may take off.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) teamed up to put together two bills that would make it easier to form and operate employee-owned businesses, which have been "proven to increase employment, productivity, sales, and wages in the United States," according to a statement from Sanders' office. ...

"Simply put," said Sanders, "when employees have an ownership stake in their company, they will not ship their own jobs to China to increase their profits, they will be more productive, and they will earn a better living."

The WORK Act, which was also introduced in the House by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), "would provide more than $45 million in funding to states to establish and expand employee ownership centers, which provide training and technical support for programs promoting employee ownership," according to a press statement. The proposal is modeled on the success of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center.

The second piece of legislation would establish "a U.S. Employee Ownership Bank to provide $500 million in low-interest rate loans and other financial assistance to help workers purchase businesses through an employee stock ownership plan or a worker-owned cooperative." A companion bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.).

Texas seeks unprecedented federal money to defund Planned Parenthood

Texas will ask the Trump administration to green-light the state’s unprecedented efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, according to documents seen by the Guardian. The request could pave the way for dozens of other states to adopt the same aggressive tactics to defund the nation’s largest reproductive healthcare provider.

Under the Obama administration, Texas lost millions in federal family planning funds as a consequence of its unlawful efforts to block Planned Parenthood from participating in Medicaid. In the aftermath, Texas created a state-funded family planning program which critics say failed to adequately replace the services of Planned Parenthood.

Now, in a letter obtained by the Guardian, Texas officials ask the US health department to fund its state program – the same one the state created after it defied federal laws that prohibit defunding Planned Parenthood. In its letter, which is expected to be sent to the Trump administration as early as this week, Texas makes no indication that the state plans to comply with those laws and reinstate Planned Parenthood’s funding.

A half dozen other states have attempted to exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding. But only Texas, by giving up millions in such funding, has been successful.

Why are British Columbians Voting Liberal, Against Their Own Interest?

Brazil announces end to Zika public health emergency

Brazil has declared an end to its public health emergency over the Zika virus, 18 months after a surge in cases drew headlines around the world. The mosquito-borne virus was not considered a major health threat until the 2015 outbreak revealed that Zika can lead to severe birth defects. One of those defects, microcephaly, causes babies to be born with skulls much smaller than expected.

Photos of babies with the defect spread panic around the globe as the virus was reported in dozens of countries. Many would-be travellers cancelled their trips to Zika-infected places. The concern spread even more widely when health officials said it could also be transmitted through sexual contact with an infected person. ...

In response to the outbreak, Brazil launched a mosquito-eradication campaign. The health ministry said those efforts have helped to dramatically reduce cases of Zika. Between January and mid-April, 95% fewer cases were recorded than during the same period last year. The incidence of microcephaly has fallen as well.

Imagining a world without pesticides

‘Turn it off’: how technology is killing the joy of national parks

Andrew Studer was admiring a massive lava fire hose at Hawaii Volcanoes national park when he spotted something unusual: a small quadcopter drone flying very close to the natural wonder pouring hot molten rock. “There were other visitors sitting out relaxing in somewhat of a meditative state, just trying to enjoy this phenomenon,” said Studer, who recently captured a viral image of a drone hovering near the lava. “I do feel like drones are extremely obnoxious, and I’m sure it was frustrating for some of the people there.”

In recent years, there have been growing concerns about technology invading national parks, with drones and other noisy gadgets disrupting wilderness areas, wildlife habitats and other recreational areas.

As drones became increasingly popular in 2014, the NPS moved to ban the launching and landing of “unmanned aircrafts”, but the problem has persisted. Since the new rule went into effect, parks have issued 325 citations related to drones, according to spokesman Jeffrey Olson. “It was pretty quickly apparent that visitors who weren’t flying them didn’t like them,” he said. “People were really upset ... It’s like a buzzing bee you can’t get out of your head. People observed drones being used to herd wildlife.”

Also of Interest

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

The Glorious Return of Condi Rice

Ukrainian general calls for destruction of Jews

The Hazards of Military Worship

NYU Accidentally Exposed Military Code-breaking Computer Project to Entire Internet

Comeytose in Washington

History’s Actors

The Coming Crisis for the World’s Farmers

A Little Night Music

James Brown - Cold Sweat

James Brown - Please, Please, Please

James Brown - Lost Someone

James Brown - It Was You

James Brown - I Don't Know

James Brown - Papa's got a brand new bag

James Brown - I Got You (I Feel Good)

James Brown - Make It Funky

James Brown - Get On The Good Foot