Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features folk blues musician Guy Davis. Enjoy!

“Highly organized research is guaranteed to produce nothing new.”

-- Frank Herbert

News and Opinion

New Cracks in Russia-gate ‘Assessment’

At the center of the Russia-gate scandal is a curious U.S. intelligence “assessment” that was pulled together in less than a month and excluded many of the agencies that would normally weigh in on such an important topic as whether Russia tried to influence the outcome of a U.S. presidential election. The Jan. 6 report and its allegation that Russia “hacked” Democratic emails and publicized them through WikiLeaks have been treated as gospel by the mainstream U.S. media and many politicians of both parties, but two senior Obama administration intelligence officials have provided new information that raises fresh doubts about the findings.

On Tuesday, former CIA Director John Brennan told the House Intelligence Committee that only four of the 17 U.S. intelligence agencies took part in the assessment, relying on analysts from the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the oversight of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Brennan said the report “followed the general model of how you want to do something like this with some notable exceptions. It only involved the FBI, NSA and CIA as well as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It wasn’t a full inter-agency community assessment that was coordinated among the 17 agencies, and for good reason because of the nature and the sensitivity of the information trying, once again, to keep that tightly compartmented.”

But Brennan’s excuse about “tightly compartmented” information was somewhat disingenuous because other intelligence agencies, such as the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), could have been consulted in a limited fashion, based on their areas of expertise. For instance, INR could have weighed in on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would have taken the risk of trying to sabotage Hillary Clinton’s campaign, knowing that – if she won as expected and learned of the operation – she might have sought revenge against him and his country. ... A balanced intelligence assessment would have included not just arguments for believing that the Russians did supply the Democratic emails to WikiLeaks but the reasons to doubt that they did. ...

In other words, the Jan. 6 report has the look of pre-cooked intelligence. That impression was further strengthened by the admission of former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on May 8 that “the two dozen or so analysts for this task were hand-picked, seasoned experts from each of the contributing agencies.” Yet, as any intelligence expert will tell you, if you “hand-pick” the analysts, you are really hand-picking the conclusion. ... The point of enlisting the broader intelligence community – and incorporating dissents into a final report – is to guard against ... “stove-piping” of intelligence that delivers the politically desired result but ultimately distorts reality.

Another painful example of politicized intelligence was President George W. Bush’s 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq’s WMD that removed INR’s and other dissents from the declassified version that was given to the public. The Jan. 6 report – technically called an Intelligence Community Assessment (or ICA) – avoided the need to remove any dissents by excluding the intelligence agencies that might have dissented and by hand-picking the analysts who compiled the report.

More Than 1.1 Million Sign Petition Supporting Impeachment of Trump

Fox drops Seth Rich murder story as Sean Hannity attacks 'liberal fascism'

Fox News has retracted a story on the 2016 murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, which was roundly condemned for perpetuating conspiracy theories, while host Sean Hannity said he would cease further discussion of the subject on his show in the network’s evening lineup.

Both Fox and Hannity invited a torrent of criticism for a report on 16 May that Rich, a 27-year-old staffer at the DNC, had been in contact with the website WikiLeaks prior to his fatal shooting in Washington in July of 2016. The unsubstantiated report was published and promoted on both Fox News, most heavily on Hannity’s primetime show, and the network’s local Washington affiliate, WTTG-TV.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Fox News said the article in question “was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting”. “Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed,” the statement read. “We will continue to investigate this story and will provide updates as warranted.”

Hours later, Hannity addressed the controversy at the top of his program and was largely unapologetic, but said he would back down from the story for the time being. “Out of respect for the [Rich] family’s wishes, for now, I am not discussing this matter at this time,” Hannity said. Even so, the characteristically bombastic anchor blamed what he dubbed as “liberal fascism” amid a campaign targeting Hannity’s advertisers in the wake of his promotion of the false report.

Texas Rep. Al Green Faces Threats of Lynching & Murder After Calling for Trump's Impeachment

Former CIA Chief Says He Can’t Confirm Collusion, But Trump Campaign Associates and Russian Officials Were in Contact

“I encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign,” former CIA director John Brennan testified Tuesday before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill. Brennan told lawmakers he was concerned about that information “because of known Russian efforts to suborn such individuals and it raised questions in my mind, again, whether or not the Russians were able to gain the cooperation of those individuals.”

“I don’t know whether or not … such collusion existed,” Brennan added, forcefully. “I don’t know. But I know there was a sufficient basis of information and intelligence that required further investigation by the bureau.” ...

Brennan filled in some details on the timeline of Russian meddling, telling lawmakers that his agency first became aware of Moscow’s desire to stew chaos in the election in the summer of 2016. Brennan described Russia’s goals as twofold: to smear and damage Hillary Clinton, and to bolster her opponent — though the Russians themselves did not necessarily believe Trump had a chance to win the presidency.

Pressure mounts as Senate subpoenas Flynn again over Trump-Russia inquiry

Congressional investigators on Tuesday issued a fresh warning to Michael Flynn to turn over documents pertaining to the investigation of Russian interference in the US election, escalating pressure on Donald Trump’s former national security adviser to either comply or risk being held in contempt.

Leaders of the Senate intelligence committee, which is overseeing one of the three separate inquiries into potential ties between Trump’s campaign and Moscow, announced two new subpoenas for Flynn’s business records a day after he rejected earlier requests for documents by invoking his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination.

Senators Richard Burr and Mark Warner, the top Republican and Democrat on the panel, told reporters on Capitol Hill they were considering “all options” available to compel Flynn’s cooperation with their investigation. Among the possibilities, the senators acknowledged, was to hold Flynn in contempt of Congress, a criminal charge, if he continued down the path of refusing compliance.

U.S. official: No physical evidence Russia gave weapons to Taliban

The director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said on Tuesday that while there were indications that Russia had offered some support to Taliban militants in Afghanistan, he had not seen physical evidence of a transfer of weapons or money.

"We have seen indication that they offered some level of support but I have not seen real physical evidence of weapons or money being transferred," Marine Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart said at a Senate hearing.

Past month ‘deadliest on record’ for Syrian civilians killed in US-led air strikes

Air strikes carried out by the US and its coalition partners in Syria have killed the highest number of civilians on record since the bombing campaign began, a war monitor has said.

A total of 225 civilians, including 36 women and 44 children, were killed in the period between 23 April to 23 May, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The toll is the highest number of recorded deaths since the international air campaign against Isis began in September 2014. ...

Since US President Donald Trump entered office in January this year there has been a marked uptick in civilian deaths in bombing operations against Isis across both Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

Seven al Qaeda militants killed in Special Forces raid in Yemen: U.S. military

Seven militants were killed during an intelligence-gathering raid by U.S. Special Forces troops against an al Qaeda compound in Yemen on Tuesday morning, U.S. officials said.

Local tribesmen confirmed a raid in the central Marib governorate, which is controlled by forces loyal to the Western-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, but said five people were killed and six others were wounded, all from the same extended family.

It was the latest operation by U.S. forces against the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has exploited a two-year-old civil war between the Iran-aligned Houthi and Hadi's Saudi-backed government to enhance its influence in the impoverished country.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement the AQAP militants were killed "through a combination of small-arms fire and precision air strikes" in Marib, with the support of the Yemeni government.

‘This is a recipe for hideous disaster’ - John Pilger on Western arms deals with Saudi Arabia

The 'ultimate deal'? Trump's Middle East peace plan is actually 15 years old

If Donald Trump is going to pursue “the ultimate deal” between Israelis and Palestinians after his brief visits to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the occupied West Bank, the effort looks likely to be based on a 15-year-old peace plan that was barely noticed at the time, has been gathering dust ever since, but remains a rare green shoot in the arid landscape of Middle Eastern diplomacy.

That plan was the Arab Peace Initiative (API), unveiled by the then Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at a summit in Beirut in March 2002. Its launch was soon overshadowed by a far bigger, bloodier drama: a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed 29 elderly Israelis celebrating the Passover holiday. The worst attack of the second intifada triggered Israel’s direct reoccupation of the West Bank, which it had partly turned over to the PLO after the1993 Oslo accords.

But talk of the API has increased recently. The idea is simple: Arab states will recognise Israel in return for a Palestinian state, its capital in East Jerusalem, in line with the pre-1967 war borders. So far, only Egypt and Jordan have signed peace treaties with Israel, without any linkage to the Palestinian question. ...

Diplomats report that the Trump administration has been urged to revisit the plan by Egypt, Jordan and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who sounded unusually upbeat after visiting the White House last month. Abbas and the US president met again in Bethlehem on Tuesday, but Trump made no mention either of Israel’s occupation or an independent Palestinian state.

Newly revived lawsuit could reveal secrets of NSA surveillance program

Watch out, National Security Agency: Wikipedia’s coming after you.

On Tuesday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 to revive a lawsuit brought by the Wikimedia Foundation — the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia — claiming that the NSA’s massive surveillance program is unconstitutional and invades people’s privacy. The case will now head back to Maryland court, and its impact could be enormous.

Not only will it likely reveal more about the secret NSA surveillance program, but it could also potentially end such surveillance, explained Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. “This is a chance for a real challenge to the programmatic nature of the surveillance.”

“The NSA has secretly spied on Americans’ internet communications for years, but now this surveillance will finally face badly needed scrutiny in our public courts,” American Civil Liberties Union attorney Patrick Toomey said in a statement. The ACLU is representing Wikimedia and the case’s eight other plaintiffs, which include Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International USA.

'You Can't Make This Up': Comcast Threatens Legal Action Against Net Neutrality Proponents

Open Internet proponents who have been fighting the Trump administration's rollback of net neutrality protections, which has been enacted at the bidding of the telecom industry, said Tuesday that Comcast is now threatening legal action saying the website Comcastroturf.com is infringing on its trademark. As the organization Fight for the Future quipped on Twitter, "You can't make this stuff up."

The website in question is currently providing a tool for the public to see if their names are among those stolen and used by anti-net neutrality bots to post comments in support of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plan to undo Title II protections that classify the internet as a public utility. The cease and desist order, dated last week, says the domain name is "confusingly similar to the [Comcast trademark] because it sounds the same, looks the same, and is spelled similarly to Comcast."

The letter, signed by a cyber threat analyst at LookingGlass Cyber Security Center, instructs the domain holder, Fight for the Future, to "take all steps necessary to see that the domain name is assigned to Comcast," and says that if the order is not immediately complied with then the cable giant will "pursu[e] its claims for damages."

"This is exactly why we need Title II net neutrality protections that ban blocking, throttling, and censorship," said Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future. Greer pointed out that if FCC chairman Ajit Pai's plan, advanced with a preliminary commission vote last week, "is enacted, there would be nothing preventing Comcast from simply blocking sites like Comcastroturf.com that are critical of their corporate policies."

An excellent article by Diane Ravitch, here's a taste:

Don’t Like Betsy DeVos? Blame the Democrats.

Listening to their cries of outrage, one might imagine that Democrats were America’s undisputed champions of public education. But the resistance to DeVos obscured an inconvenient truth: Democrats have been promoting a conservative “school reform” agenda for the past three decades. Some did it because they fell for the myths of “accountability” and “choice” as magic bullets for better schools. Some did it because “choice” has centrist appeal. Others sold out public schools for campaign contributions from the charter industry and its Wall Street patrons. Whatever the motivations, the upshot is clear: The Democratic Party has lost its way on public education. In a very real sense, Democrats paved the way for DeVos and her plans to privatize the school system.

Thirty years ago, there was a sharp difference between Republicans and Democrats on education. Republicans wanted choice, testing, and accountability. Democrats wanted equitable funding for needy districts, and highly trained teachers. But in 1989, with Democrats reeling from three straight presidential losses, the lines began to blur. That year, when President George H.W. Bush convened an education summit of the nation’s governors, it was a little-known Arkansas Democrat named Bill Clinton who drafted a bipartisan set of national goals for the year 2000 (“first in the world” in mathematics, for starters). The ambitious benchmarks would be realized by creating, for the first time, national achievement standards and tests. Clinton ran on the issue, defeated Bush, and passed Goals 2000, which provided grants to states that implemented their own achievement metrics.

The Democrats had dipped a toe in “school reform.” Before long, they were completely immersed. After George W. Bush made the “Texas miracle” of improved schools a launching pad for the presidency, many Democrats swallowed his bogus claim that testing students every year had produced amazing results. In 2001, Ted Kennedy, the Senate’s liberal lion, teamed with Bush to pass No Child Left Behind. For the first time, the government was mandating not only “accountability” (code for punishing teachers and schools who fall short), but also “choice” (code for handing low-performing public schools over to charter operators).

When Barack Obama took office in 2009, educators hoped he would return the party to its public school roots. By then, even Bill Clinton was calling No Child Left Behind a “train wreck.” Instead, Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan doubled down on testing, accountability, and choice. Their Race to the Top program was, in essence, No Child Left Behind II: It invited states to compete for $5 billion in funds by holding teachers accountable for test scores, adopting national standards, opening more charter schools, and closing low-scoring public schools.

The Obama years saw an epidemic of new charters, testing, school closings, and teacher firings.

Who Is More Corrupt: Trump, Clinton or Obama? Surprising Answer!

Jeff Sessions finally defined what “sanctuary cities” are

Until now, the definition of a “sanctuary” city or county has been nebulous. But Attorney General Jeff Sessions just spelled it out.

In a memo released Monday, Sessions established narrow criteria for defining sanctuary jurisdictions: those that “willfully refuse to comply” with a single federal immigration law, Section 1373. He also limited what types of funding the government can withhold from jurisdictions that don’t abide by it.

Section 1373 requires state and local officials to share information about individuals’ immigration status with federal immigration authorities. Last month, Sessions sent letters to nine jurisdictions that he had identified as potentially noncompliant with Section 1373, including Chicago, New Orleans, New York City, and Philadelphia. ...

In the memo released Monday, however, Sessions limited the funding the government can deny the jurisdictions: only grants awarded by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. The money at risk still notably funds programs that many law enforcement agencies rely on for technology upgrades, equipment, training, and community engagement, a technique shown to improve the relationship between police departments and the people they serve.

Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Trump's Budget Takes a Sledgehammer to What Remains of the American Dream

Republicans voice opposition to Trump's budget: 'Dead on arrival'

Donald Trump’s proposal to reduce spending by $3.6tn, mostly by slashing antipoverty programs that provide social safety nets for the poor, ran into bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill, where a number of Republican lawmakers rejected the cuts as “draconian” and “nonstarters”.

The president’s plan recommends $616bn in cuts to Medicaid, the government insurance programme for the poorest and many disabled Americans, while increasing border security spending by $2.6bn – including $1.6bn to begin construction on a wall along the US-Mexico border.

While fiscal conservatives welcomed the proposal, which aims to balance the budget by 2027, Republicans raised concerns that the plan would slice too deeply into programs that provide poor Americans access to healthcare, food stamps and student loans, setting the stage for a showdown over budget priorities.

“The cuts are draconian,” Kentucky representative Harold Rogers, a powerful member of the House Appropriations Committee, said of the proposed cuts to Medicaid.

Representative Mark Meadows, the chairman of the arch-conservative Freedom Caucus, praised the budget as “conservative” and said the White House presented a plan that “fundamentally could be implemented”. Though Meadows said he was encouraged by budget reductions to welfare programs, he could not get behind stripping funding from Meals on Wheels, a program that provides meal assistance for senior citizens that the president’s budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, dismissed in March as “just not showing any results”.

Arizona senator John McCain called the proposal “dead on arrival” in a statement, and knocked the $603m defense budget request “inadequate to the challenges we face”.

Get a job, poor people

The Trump administration on Tuesday finally sent a line-by-line $4.1 trillion budget for fiscal year 2018 to Congress, dubbing it “The New Foundation for American Greatness.” The previous budget proposal was a so-called skinny budget; this one has details. ...

The Trump team, in slashing federal programs for the poor, appeared to signal that they would like the disadvantaged to do more work.

“We need folks to work,” Trump budget director Mick Mulvaney said in a conference call with reporters Monday. “We need people to go to work. If you’re on food stamps, and you’re able-bodied, we need you to go to work. If you’re on disability insurance and you’re not supposed to be, we need you to work. There’s a dignity to work, and there’s a necessity to work.”

Trump’s proposal would not decrease the $20 trillion national debt, despite his campaign promises to do so. And in order to balance the budget in a decade, it assumes the economy will start growing by 3 percent per year — an estimate far above what the Congressional Budget Office and other economists predict.

Thousands of protesters brand McDonald's the 'Trump of corporations'

Thousands took to the streets of downtown Chicago on Tuesday night calling McDonald’s the “Donald Trump of corporations” and protesting low wages and sexual harassment at the world’s largest fast food chain a day before the company’s annual shareholder meeting.

The protest, coordinated by pressure groups including Fight for $15, a union-backed lobby group calling for a hike in US minimum wage, plan a second day of protests at McDonald’s annual shareholder meeting in Chicago on Wednesday morning.

The marchers, many of them in red ponchos in the driving rain, marched between Trump Tower and the Rock’n’Roll McDonald’s, the company’s flagship restaurant in its hometown.

“McDonald’s just like Donald Trump steals wages from its workers. McDonald’s just like Donald Trump avoids paying taxes. McDonald’s just like Donald Trump supports low wages. McDonald’s just like Donald Trump harasses women,” Fight For $15 national campaign organizer Kendall Fells said.

McDonald’s did not return calls for comment.

Trump treading water over climate change deal, says deputy UN chief

The UN’s deputy secretary general has accused President Donald Trump of “treading water” over a decision on the future of the Paris climate change agreement, on which the fate of millions of people depend.

Amina Mohammed told the Guardian she was hopeful the US would not renege on the deal signed last year, but that Trump appeared to be avoiding a public declaration after taking such a hard line during his campaign for the White House.

Trump has previously described climate change as a hoax orchestrated by China. During his battle for the presidency against Hillary Clinton he vowed to “cancel” the historic agreement, which commits countries to ensuring that the average global temperature does not rise 2C above pre-industrial levels.

Since being elected Trump, who is on a world tour starting with a visit to Saudi Arabia, has delayed announcing his administration’s position, although it is widely believed he will be forced to make a statement at the G7 summit in Italy next weekend.

Mohammed said: “[The US] coming out of the agreement does put the track for the ambition of attaining the target in jeopardy and we have to claw that back and make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Exxon Loses Appeal to Keep Auditor Records Secret in Climate Fraud Investigation

ExxonMobil lost its appeal on Tuesday to keep records held by its auditors away from the New York attorney general's climate fraud probe. The documents could afford a candid—and perhaps damaging—glimpse into Exxon's private calculations of the business risks posed by climate change. They could contain anything from a smoking gun email to plodding, yet revealing, discussions related to Exxon's posture on global warming, including whether the company was adequately calculating climate change risks for investors. Exxon still has another opportunity to appeal.

Investigators for state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman subpoenaed PricewaterhouseCoopers records pertaining to Exxon's assessment of climate change as part of an investigation into Exxon that was opened in 2015. Exxon fought to have the subpoena voided, arguing the records were privileged communications with its auditor and should be kept from the eyes of investigators. The oil giant, headquartered in Dallas, based its argument on a Texas law that grants a privilege to auditors and clients much like that between a lawyer and client.

A state court judge agreed with Schneiderman's office that there was no such protection afforded Exxon under New York law and ordered the documents handed over last year. Exxon appealed that decision. The appeals court, which had been considering the case since a hearing in March, rejected Exxon's argument.

Also of Interest

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

Growing Poverty Fuels Europe’s Extremism

Government Austerity Demands That We Die Within Our Means

Are we about to witness the most unequal societies in history?

Hat tip NCTim:

Why Trump Didn’t Have to Obstruct Justice: The US No Longer Holds the Powerful Accountable

Trump Called Rodrigo Duterte to Congratulate Him on His Murderous Drug War: “You Are Doing an Amazing Job”

As Trump Prepared to Meet Pope, Bernie Sanders Calls His Budget “Immoral”

The Panthers and the Patriots

Beyond Neoliberal Identity Politics

Donald Trump’s Pick for EPA Enforcement Office Was a Lobbyist for Superfund Polluters

A Little Night Music

Guy Davis & Fabrizio Poggi - Hooray, Hooray These Women Are Killing Me

Guy Davis - Did You See My Baby

Guy Davis - Watch Over Me

Guy Davis - Kokomo Kidd

Guy Davis - Saturday Blues

Guy Davis - Matchbox Blues

Guy Davis - That's No Way to Get Along

Guy Davis and Levon Helm - Waiting on the Cards to Fall

Guy Davis - Candy Man

Guy Davis - Good Liquor