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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Albert Ammons

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features boogie woogie piano player Albert Ammons. Enjoy!

^{Albert Ammons - Mecca Flat Blues}

"The real tragedy of human existence is not that we are nasty by nature, but that a cruel structural asymmetry grants to rare events of meanness such power to shape our history."

-- Stephen Jay Gould

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News and Opinion

Israel celebrates the Nakba by shooting 16 Palestinian protesters with live ammunition.

Israeli forces shoot 16 Palestinian protesters at Gaza frontier

Israeli soldiers have shot 16 people at the Gaza frontier on a day of rallies commemorating the mass displacement of Palestinians during the war that led to Israel’s creation in 1948. Each year, typically on 15 May, Palestinians mark the nakba, or catastrophe, when more than 700,000 people fled or were expelled from towns and villages seven decades ago.

On Wednesday, large crowds gathered at the frontier after Hamas, which runs the enclave and supports the rallies, announced a general strike and closed schools to increase turnout.

Gaza’s health ministry said a total of 65 people were wounded by live fire, shrapnel, rubber-coated steel bullets and teargas. It said the 65 included 22 children and three paramedics.

A year ago Israeli snipers killed 60 people in a day at the Gaza frontier as thousands came out to protest against the opening of the US embassy in disputed Jerusalem, part of which Palestinians claim.

Since then, Israeli forces’ bullets have killed more than 200 people and wounded 7,000. A UN inquiry found Israel’s actions may amount to war crimes, as snipers had “shot at journalists, health workers, children and persons with disabilities knowing they were clearly recognisable.”

Leaked Document Pokes More Holes in Establishment Syria Narrative

The report has grabbed the attention of those who’ve expressed skepticism of establishment Syria narratives because it casts serious doubts on the official story we’ve been told to believe about an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria, in April of last year. A document titled “Engineering Assessment of two cylinders observed at the Douma incident” has been leaked to the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media (WGSPM) which reveals that an engineering sub-team of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) fact-finding mission in Douma came to conclusions which differ wildly from the OPCW’s official findings on the Douma incident, yet we the public were never permitted to see this assessment.

The assessment’s findings, which you can locate on pages five through eight of the document, put forward multiple hypothetical scenarios in which two gas cylinders could have wound up in the locations (Location 2 and Location 4) where they were found. The assessment concludes that “The dimensions, characteristics and appearance of the cylinders, and the surrounding scene of the incidents, were inconsistent with what would have been expected in the case of either cylinder being delivered from an aircraft. In each case the alternative hypothesis produced the only plausible explanation for observations at the scene.”

The assessment says more thoroughly and technically what I argued in an article last year, that the physics of the air-dropped cylinder narrative make no sense whatsoever. This is a problem, because the reason we were given for the U.S., U.K. and France launching airstrikes on Syrian government targets in April of 2018 was that two cylinders full of poison gas had been dropped from aircraft by the Syrian air force and killed dozens of civilians.

The assessment is signed by Ian Henderson, who the WGSPM were able to verify as a longtime OPCW-trained inspection team leader. The OPCW reportedly denied that Henderson was involved in its Douma fact-finding mission, but the WGSPM counters that “This statement is false. The engineering sub-team could not have been carrying out studies in Douma at Locations 2 and 4 unless they had been notified by OPCW to the Syrian National Authority (the body that oversees compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention) as FFM inspectors: it is unlikely that Henderson arrived on a tourist visa.” ...

There will be other counter-narratives released by the Syria narrative management machine, to be sure, but the fact that this report has been out for the better part of the day with nary a peep from that lot reveals a great deal about the difficulties they’re having with this one.

U.S. pressures Baghdad over Iran-backed militias

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s surprise visit to Baghdad this month came after U.S. intelligence showed Iran-backed Shi’ite militias positioning rockets near bases housing U.S. forces, according to two Iraqi security sources.

He told Iraq’s top brass to keep the militias, which are expanding their power in Iraq and now form part of its security apparatus, in check, the sources said. If not, the U.S. would respond with force.

As tensions between Washington and Tehran increase, Iraq finds itself caught between neighboring Iran, whose regional influence has grown in recent years, and the United States.

“The message from the Americans was clear. They wanted guarantees that Iraq would stop those groups threatening U.S. interests,” a senior Iraqi military source with knowledge of Pompeo’s trip said.

“They said if the U.S. were attacked on Iraqi soil, it would take action to defend itself without coordinating with Baghdad.”

Yemen: ceasefire broken as fresh fighting breaks out in Hodeidah

Renewed clashes broke out between Houthi rebel fighters and Saudi-backed pro-government forces in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah on Wednesday, breaching a ceasefire and potentially threatening a withdrawal agreement intended to pave the way for wider peace talks.

The fighting prompted the UN’s special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, to warn that peace could yet be a way off, despite earlier signs the pullout by Houthi forces was going to plan. Their withdrawal from Hodeidah and two other Red Sea ports, which began on Saturday, was the most significant advance yet in efforts to end the four-year-old war.

Speaking to the UN security council in New York, Griffiths warned the alarming intensification could wipe out the progress made in Hodeidah, as other UN officials warned of a cholera outbreak on the brink of the rainy season, the risk of massive oil spills into the Red Sea and an 80% shortfall in promised aid.

Germany and Netherlands halt training schemes in Iraq as tensions rise

Germany and the Netherlands have suspended their military training programmes in Iraq because of a perceived security threat in the wake of rising US-Iranian tensions in the region. The announcements came after the US embassy in Baghdad ordered all but emergency staff to leave Iraq. No details of the supposed security threat were provided.

A German defence ministry spokesman, Jens Flosdorff, said that by pausing its small-scale training missions north of Baghdad and the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, Germany was “orienting itself toward our partner countries, which have taken this step”.

However, Flosdorff said the move was not a response to a “concrete threat” but rather to a general security situation being viewed as more tense. ...

In their public pronouncements, European capitals have generally voiced anxiety at the rising US-Iranian tensions, but European diplomats overwhelmingly blame the Donald Trump administration for seeking to provoke a confrontation. US allies have conspicuously avoided echoing US claims of an imminent threat from Iran. ...

In recent days there have been sabotage attacks against oil tankers, two of them Saudi-owned, in the Persian Gulf, and Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for drone strikes against Saudi oil installations. The Houthis receive backing from Iran but most experts say they are not directly controlled from Tehran.

Merkel: Europe must unite to stand up to China, Russia and US

Europe must reposition itself to stand up to the challenges posed by its three big global rivals, China, Russia and the US, Angela Merkel has said before her final European election as German chancellor. Facing challenges that range from Russian interference in elections to China’s economic clout and the US’s monopoly over digital services, Europe needs to get better at putting up a united front, Merkel said in a wide-ranging interview shared with the Guardian.

“There is no doubt that Europe needs to reposition itself in a changed world,” Merkel said in a conversation in her office in Berlin. “The old certainties of the post-war order no longer apply.” She added: “They [China, Russia and the US] are forcing us, time and again, to find common positions. That is often difficult given our different interests. But we do get this done – think, for example, of our policy regarding the conflict in Ukraine.

“Our policies on Africa, too, now follow a common strategy, which a few years ago would have been unthinkable. So we keep putting one foot in front of the other. However, our political power is not yet commensurate with our economic strength.”

Anti-coup activists evicted from Venezuelan Embassy in DC

Pro-Maduro protestors evicted from Venezuela embassy in US

US police on Thursday evicted the last of a group of protestors who have been occupying the Venezuelan embassy in Washington in support of President Nicolas Maduro, ending a weeks-long standoff.

"The liberation of our embassy came about thanks to the struggle of the Venezuelan diaspora," said Carlos Vecchio, envoy for opposition leader Juan Guaido, who declared himself interim president earlier this year in a power play against Maduro. ...

Various police and firefighting vehicles were seen inside the grounds of the diplomatic mission in the US capital, which was taken over last month by a number of left-wing and pacifist activists protesting Guaido's bid to push Maduro out.

The most high-profile of the groups behind the occupation, CODEPINK, denounced what it called the "illegal entry and arrest at DC Venezuela Embassy." ...

"At this moment the authorities are checking the building to ensure its security before taking it over," Vecchio said.

Let it be clear. The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela does not authorize the entrance of any US law enforcement officers into our former Embassy building in Washington. Any such entrance is an unlawful breach of the Vienna Convention.

— Carlos Ron (@CarlosJRonVE) May 16, 2019

Ecuador agrees to return of USAID as relations warm

Ecuador has agreed to the return of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has been kicked out of the country four years ago under leftist former President Rafael Correa.

Foreign Minister José Valencia and U.S. Ambassador Mark Green signed the memorandum of agreement on Wednesday setting terms of the deal. The U.S. agency initially is offering Ecuador $30 million to help it cope with migrants fleeing Venezuela's political and economic crisis.

Valencia said the "special connection" with the U.S. is an expression of President Lenin Moreno's policies.

Brazil's Bolsonaro dismisses 'imbecile' students as he faces biggest protests yet

Tens of thousands of students and teachers have protested across Brazil against sharp cuts to education enacted by Jair Bolsonaro’s administration – the first mass protests since the far-right president took office in January. Brazil’s National Student Union called for demonstrations after the education ministry said it was freezing up to 30% of discretionary spending due to the government’s precarious fiscal situation.

The rally in Rio de Janeiro turned violent when police fired tear gas and percussion grenades and protestors set a bus on fire. Protestors chanted “education is not a commodity” and “there will be no cuts, there will be fight” and referenced Bolsonaro’s connections to militia groups. ...

The cuts to the country’s education system sent shock waves through federally funded universities, generally Brazil’s most prestigious and competitive schools. University hospitals, research grants and federally funded high schools are also affected by the cuts, which the Ministry of Education said was a part of meeting a spending cap imposed by Bolsonaro. ...

The marches marked the first national protests against the administration of Bolsonaro, whose poll numbers are falling as he struggles with a weak economy, rising unemployment, an unruly coalition in Congress and infighting in his cabinet. The protest is the latest development in an increasingly heated battle over Brazilian education. Bolsonaro and many of his supporters have declared war over what they call “indoctrination” by left-leaning teachers in schools by instructing students to record and snitch on their teachers.

Deaths of despair - suicide, alcohol abuse and drug overdoses - have now overtaken heart disease as the second biggest killer of middle aged people in the UK. Shocking revelation from Sir Angus Deaton and @TheIFS. Full story: https://t.co/PU3WAIceip pic.twitter.com/B0IJgDRfGo

— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) May 14, 2019

San Francisco is apparently full of scummy Pelositicians. Look out for the "wolves in sheeps clothing," liberal fascists of California:

In liberal San Francisco, anti-Trump politicians support police raid on journalist

San Francisco politicians pride themselves on defending civil liberties in the face of unprecedented attacks by the White House. But when a Donald Trump-style crackdown on citizens’ rights took place in their own backyard, the city’s Democratic leaders had a different kind of response.

They supported it.

San Francisco police (SFPD) raided the home of a freelance journalist on Friday, handcuffed him for hours and confiscated his devices in an apparent effort to uncover a police leak to the reporter. The state’s leading newspapers, along with first amendment advocates across the US, have decried the raid as an extraordinary and flagrant violation of press freedoms. But as pressure on the city has intensified in recent days, Democratic leaders have chosen to explicitly endorse the police investigation and tactics, criticize the journalist – or remain entirely silent about mounting free speech concerns. ...

Reactions from some city leaders seemed to misunderstand basic tenets of free press laws. The San Francisco supervisor Sandra Fewer said of Carmody: “If he were obtaining this information to write a story, it still is illegal to obtain a police report unless it has been officially released.” The law, however, protects journalists’ right to publish stories on law enforcement files, and Fewer later released a statement acknowledging she was “not a legal expert”. ...

After the raid, the public defender’s office issued a statement that surprised first amendment activists, saying it was “pleased” police were “working to get to the bottom of” the report leak. In the face of backlash, the public defender Manohar Raju, Adachi’s replacement, later released a clarified comment about the raid that said: “Nothing about this statement should be interpreted as condoning specific police tactics in this matter.” ...

The California attorney general, Xavier Becerra, who has repeatedly filed lawsuits challenging Trump, warned two reporters in February that he considered their possession of a list of police officers convicted of crimes to be a violation of the law – and would not rule out the possibility of legal action against the journalists. A month later, police in Sacramento arrested journalists covering a high-profile protest of police brutality.

Chelsea Manning gives a press conference outside Alexandria US District Court

'Stinks to High Heaven': Calls to Investigate Trump Labor Board's Gift to Uber Amid Stock Market Struggles

Uber was in serious need of a lift after a "bleak" and "disappointing" stock market debut last week, and President Donald Trump's National Labor Relations Board gave it just that Tuesday by ruling that the company's drivers are independent contractors—and thus don't have the rights of traditional employees.

In addition to denouncing the substance of the ruling—which could make it virtually impossible for Uber drivers to form a union and bargain for better pay—labor rights advocates raised questions about the NLRB's decision to release its memorandum amid Uber's stock market struggles, particularly given that the document was dated April 16.

The advisory memo (pdf) was made public by the office of NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb, a Trump appointee, just days after Uber drivers throughout the United States and across the globe went on strike for better pay and job security.

The American Prospect's Harold Meyerson wrote in a column Tuesday that it is "hardly surprising" that Trump's NLRB "has now consigned Uber drivers to worker hell."

"What does raise eyebrows is the timing of the release of the counsel's memo—a timing so egregious that it almost makes you wonder if Trump's appointees to the NLRB have shares in Uber that they're frantically trying to unload," Meyerson wrote. "In the Anything-Goes presidential administration of Donald Trump, the egregious has become so normalized and stupidity so commonplace that the board's action not only stinks to high heaven but should be investigated by House Democrats."

Republicans Want to Hold Migrant Kids up to 100 Days in Detention

President Trump’s blueprint for another Electoral College victory in 2020 is all about stoking fears on immigration and building a border wall. So he dispatched his son-in-law Jared Kushner along with immigration hard-liners Steven Miller and Vice President Mike Pence to Capitol Hill Tuesday to rally Republicans around a proposed “merit”-based immigration system that Trump plans to unveil in a speech as soon as this week. ...

While the details of Kushner’s supposed six-point plan were thin, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) effectively opened negotiations with Democrats Wednesday with a proposed bill to directly address the flood of Central American migrants arriving with children that’s been overwhelming the U.S. asylum system.

The bill would:

• Require all Central American asylum claims be made at a consulate in their home country, not at the U.S. border
• Return unaccompanied minors from Central America to their origin country, as the U.S. now does for minors from Canada and Mexico
• Hold families with children for up to 100 days, rather than the current max of 20 days mandated by a longstanding court settlement
• Hire 500 new immigration judges to clear the backlog of claims

The goal of the bill is to stem the tide of families coming from Central America partly because they know if they arrive with children they will soon be released into the U.S.

Abortion Is Still Legal in Alabama, but People Are Already Terrified: “We’ve Never Seen It This Bad”

Hours after the Alabama Legislature passed a bill Tuesday night to ban nearly all abortions in the deep-red state, abortion rights organizations chartered a plane to fly over the state capital of Montgomery trailing a banner that declared “Abortion is OK!” That’s how much confusion there’s been about whether abortion is legal in Alabama. Abortion providers and advocates told VICE News that they’re fielding calls from anxious, confused patients. Women want to know: Is abortion still legal? Is your clinic still open? Can I still get an abortion?

“We’ve never seen it this bad,” said Barbara Ann Luttrell, director of communications and marketing for Planned Parenthood Southeast, which services patients in Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. “It’s never been to the point that folks don’t know that abortion is legal. And that’s for good reason, because this is the most extreme legislation we’ve seen passed since Roe v. Wade.”

Abortion is indeed still legal in Alabama. But the proposed bill would ban all abortion, except for pregnancies that pose a “serious health risk” to the mother. There are no exemptions for rape and incest, and doctors who perform abortions could face up to 99 years in prison.

The three abortion rights organizations that hired the plane want to send a message to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey. If the Republican governor signs the bill, it would not go into effect for six months, and multiple groups, including Planned Parenthood, have already vowed to challenge the legislation in court.

Alabama’s Governor Just Signed a Near-total Abortion Ban She Admits Is Probably Unenforceable

Less than a day after the Alabama state legislature passed a bill to ban almost all abortions in the state, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed it into law. ...

In her statement, Ivey acknowledged that the bill is likely unenforceable thanks to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. But that’s the point: The bill’s sponsors want to trigger a lawsuit that would give the Court’s conservative majority an opportunity to overturn that ruling.

Planned Parenthood has already promised to sue over the legislation. On a call with reporters Wednesday, before Ivey signed the bill, Planned Parenthood Southeast president and CEO Staci Fox promised the legislators who voted for the bill that they “will forever live in infamy for this vote.”

“Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates will make sure that every woman knows who to hold accountable,” Fox went on.

Maine on Track to Ensure More Equitable Access to Abortion With New Insurance Rules

While GOP legislators in several states threaten reproductive rights nationwide with laws targeting Roe v. Wade, pro-choice advocates celebrated a victory Tuesday after Maine's Democrat-controlled Senate voted in favor of a bill that would require both the state's Medicaid program and private insurers to cover abortions by 2020.

The Maine bill, L.D. 820, still faces procedural votes before it heads to the desk of Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, whose administration supports the measure. However, with senators' 19-16 vote Tuesday, which followed a 79-63 vote in the Maine House last week, it is expected to become law.

L.D. 820 would mandate that private insurers which provide coverage for prenatal care cover abortions, with exceptions for religious employers. The bill would also make Maine the 16th state to use tax dollars to cover elective abortions under MaineCare, the state Medicaid program.

For decades, the Hyde Amendment has blocked federal Medicaid funding for abortion services unless a woman's life is at risk, or in cases of rape or incest—but states are allowed to use their tax funds to cover the costs. Critics argue that the federal restrictions block low-income women from terminating pregnancies.

"We don't want a law that stops people who need an abortion from getting one by actually preventing them from using their healthcare coverage," said Nicole Clegg, vice president of the Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. "That's what's happening now and it doesn't feel right. L.D. 820 will ensure that a woman can make her own medical decisions about abortion without her insurance denying care."

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Biden Says He’s More Progressive Than Bernie!

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California power company caused wildfire that killed 85, investigation finds

A major power company is responsible for the deadliest wildfire in California history, an investigation by the state fire agency Cal Fire has found. The Camp fire, which killed 85 people and almost completely incinerated the town of Paradise, was sparked by transmission lines owned by Pacific Gas & Electric in the early morning of 8 November 2018, investigators concluded. “Tinder dry vegetation” and high winds “caused extreme rates of spread”, Cal Fire said in a statement. ...

PG&E filed for bankruptcy in January, facing billions of dollars in liabilities over multiple disasters in the state, and admitted at the time that its lines were the likely source of the Camp fire.

The company supplies power to large swathes of northern California, and runs powerlines connected to hydroelectric power generators in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. A tower on one of those lines, constructed in the 1920s in the north fork of the Feather River canyon and well past its projected lifespan, is implicated in the Camp fire.

Critics say that because PG&E is an investor-owned company, it is incentivized to direct profits to shareholders rather than to safety measures. PG&E counters that its customers’ wellbeing is its top priority. Yet investigators have consistently found cause for concern, and a 2013 report to the California public utilities commission stated that “several aspects of the PG&E distribution system present significant safety issues”.

As EPA Insists Weed Killer Roundup is Safe, a Jury Orders Monsanto to Pay $2B to Couple With Cancer

Heavy metals and harmful chemicals 'poison Europe's seas'

Heavy metals and a cocktail of dangerous chemicals continue to poison Europe’s seas, with more than three-quarters of areas assessed showing contamination, according to a report.

The sea worst affected was the Baltic, where 96% of the assessed areas showed problematic levels of some harmful substances, according to the European Environment Agency. Similar problems were found in 91% of the Black Sea and 87% of the Mediterranean. In the north-east Atlantic, unsafe levels of chemicals or metals were found in 75% of assessed areas. ...

Europe’s environmental watchdog called for greater controls on the way chemicals are used, and better monitoring of marine health. As well as the damage to human health, the toxins found in Europe’s seas are affecting marine animals.

Johnny Reker, lead author of the EEA report, told the Guardian it was important to be vigilant about potential new contaminants, as well as the existing ones. “Every two and a half minutes a new chemical is created, and we do not know the effects,” he said. “New pharmaceuticals are coming all the time, and getting into waste water. This is an emerging problem but we do not know what the effects will be.”

He cited the example of Germany, where young men have been found to produce only a third of the sperm that German men did 30 years ago. He said: “It remains difficult to prove a causal link between specific contaminants and the reduction of fertility. However, results from animal experiments and human health monitoring programmes indicate that the presence of endocrine disruptors in the environment, such as PCBs, may be partially responsible for this reduction in fertility.”

Swamp Thing speaks.

Trump's interior secretary: I haven't 'lost sleep' over record CO2 levels

Donald Trump’s interior secretary hasn’t “lost sleep over”, the record-breaking levels of pollution heating the planet, he told US lawmakers in an oversight hearing.

The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii observed carbon dioxide levels of 415 parts per million in the atmosphere on Friday – the highest ever documented.

Asked to rank his concern on a scale of 1 to 10, by the Pennsylvania Democratic congressman Matt Cartwright, David Bernhardt pointed to US climate progress. “I believe the United States is number 1 in terms of decreasing CO2,” Bernhardt said. ...

The US has put more carbon pollution into the atmosphere than any other nation in history. China is currently the biggest emitter, and the US ranks second. Carbon emissions in the US actually increased last year.

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Also of Interest

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

Intercepted Podcast: The Espionage Axe: Donald Trump and the War Against a Free Press

The Lunacy Of Waging A War On Iran Which China And Russia Will Win

Pretexts for an Attack on Iran

Target Iran!

Police forcibly remove activists living in the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington

Media Stenography Turns Beheaded Saudi Protesters Into ‘Terrorism’

British Government Passes the Buck to Sweden Where the Military Offense Exclusion Protects Julian Assange From Extradition to the Us

'It's my homeland': the trailblazing Native lawmaker fighting fossil fuels

History Repeats Itself as Corporations Join Big Green to Craft Market-Based Climate Plan

New Orleans Prosecutors Routinely Violate Defendants’ Right to Counsel to Keep Them in Jail

Baltimore hospital sued thousands of poor and African American patients, study shows

We froze the salaries of 20 executives – and it improved the lives of 500 employees

Cambridge scientists create world’s first living organism with fully redesigned DNA

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A Little Night Music

Albert Ammons & Pete Johnson - Boogie Woogie Jump

Albert Ammons + Lena Horne (Teddy Wilson Orchestra) - Unlucky Woman

Albert Ammons and his Rhythm Kings - Mile-or-mo Bird Rag

Albert Ammons Rhythm Kings - Jammin' The Boogie

Albert Ammons & His Rhythm Kings - Nagasaki

Albert Ammons - Untitled

Albert Ammons & Sippie Wallace - Bedroom Blues

Albert Ammons - Rocking the Blues

Albert Ammons - Boogie Woogie Stomp

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