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This evening's music features r&b singer and piano player Willie Egan. Enjoy!

“Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. Anyone who has lived long in a foreign country will know of instances of sensational items of news — things which on their own merits would get the big headlines-being kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact. So far as the daily newspapers go, this is easy to understand. The British press is extremely centralised, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics. But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio. At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was ‘not done’ to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals.”

-- George Orwell

News and Opinion

In 'Blistering' Report, Journalism Watchdog Condemns DNC Lawsuit Against WikiLeaks as Severe Threat to Free Press

As President Donald Trump continues to wage war on journalism with "violent anti-press rhetoric," the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published a scathing analysis on Tuesday arguing that the Democratic National Committee's recent lawsuit against WikiLeaks could set the stage for even more alarming attacks on press freedom by empowering the U.S. government to penalize media outlets that publish leaked information.

Citing the concerns expressed by numerous First Amendment experts and journalists, CPJ's Avi Asher-Schapiro contends that the DNC's suit—which accuses WikiLeaks of conspiring with Russia and the Trump campaign to tilt the 2016 election by publishing a trove of hacked DNC emails—"goes against press freedom precedents going back to the Pentagon Papers and contains arguments that could make it more difficult for reporters to do their jobs."

"What the language in this suit is calling 'conspiracy' is the same thing journalists do all the time—report on leaked or stolen documents. Imagine if Trump had the power to go after 'leakers' for 'conspiracy,'" Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi wrote in a series of tweets highlighting CPJ's "blistering" report on Tuesday. "This case has potentially enormous consequences for the press as a whole." ...

James Goodale, a First Amendment lawyer who represented the New York Times in the 1971 Pentagon Papers case, said the idea that outlets like WikiLeaks should be punished for receiving and publishing stolen documents—an idea that forms the foundation of the DNC suit—is the "greatest threat to press freedom today."

Glenn Greenwald on Julian Assange, Ecuador & Threats to Press Freedom

Hundreds Arrested Nationwide as Poor People's Campaign Demands 'End to the War Economy'

Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s warning that "a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom," the Poor People's Campaign launched its third week of action in cities nationwide on Tuesday with the aim of confronting the American war economy, which pours resources that could be used to provide healthcare and food to the poor at home into the killing of innocents aboad.

Hoisting signs that read "The War Economy Is Immoral" and "Ban Killer Drones," demonstrators gathered at the capitol buildings of New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, and several other states to denounce a militaristic system that profits "every time a bomb is dropped on innocent people."

As of this writing, hundreds have been arrested and many more are facing arrest as they gather outside of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) office in Washington, D.C.

Accused al-Qaida commander undergoes 5th emergency spine surgery at Guantánamo

A Guantánamo detainee awaiting a war-crimes trial as an alleged al-Qaida commander in post 9/11 Afghanistan has undergone his fifth emergency spine surgery at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba, his lawyer said Thursday. The military declined to discuss the condition of the prisoner known as Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, citing "patient confidentiality and privacy." His Pentagon-paid defense lawyers, who call their client by his real name, Nashwan al Tamir, say they can't find out how he's doing either.

Hadi attorney Adam Thurschwell disclosed the surgery to McClatchy. "After nine months and five surgeries of a rolling health crisis, the government still waits to operate until existing serious health problems turn into emergencies and Nashwan is on the doorstep of paralysis." ... He got to Guantánamo in April 2007, after 170 days in secret CIA custody, with a history of degenerative disc disease, according to his attorneys. He had for years complained of chronic back pain, according to medical records, and was at times treated with Bengay lotion.

Court filings show he underwent four surgeries since early September when, as a hurricane was headed toward the base, the Pentagon scrambled a neurosurgery team to stabilize his lower back. Three more surgeries followed, one stabilizing his upper back, another after doctors discovered a blood clot, and the most recent to stabilize screws in his neck. Thurschwell complained that Hadi's Pentagon-based legal team learned about the latest surgery "through a court filing" and could get no further details. "The government has demonstrated again that its priority is covering up its own grossly inadequate medical care, not Nashwan’s health.”

Journalist Debunks Syrian War & Exposes White Helmets

U.S. Military Will Leave Syria Base in Deal With Russia, Reports Say

The U.S. has reportedly considered abandoning one of its most significant military installations in Syria as it prepared to enter into talks with Russia and Jordan over a deteriorating security situation in the war-torn country's restive south.

The report, which first surfaced Sunday in Saudi Arabian newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, came as Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said Tuesday that Moscow "supported the idea of holding a trilateral meeting at a level convenient for our partners," according to the state-run RIA Novosti. The U.S. and its Middle Eastern ally Jordan are opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces—backed by Russia and Iran—are planning a new offensive against rebels and jihadis across southern Syria.

The Saudi publication reported that, in order to prevent an escalation between longtime foes Iran and Israel, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield was attempting to draw up a proposal for the trilateral meeting that would include the withdrawal of all Syrian and non-Syrian militias up to 15-and-a-half miles from the Jordanian border. Insurgents would also be transferred to the rebel-held province of Idlib and the Syria-Jordan border crossing would be opened. In exchange, the U.S. would reportedly dismantle its military base in Al-Tanf, located in a pocket of Syrian rebel control near the Jordanian and Iraqi borders.

Russia has long accused the U.S. of using the Al-Tanf base to shield the remnants of jihadi groups such as the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), against which both the U.S. and Russia are supporting their respective local Syrian partners to fight.

U.S. warns Syria of 'firm' measures for ceasefire violations

The United States warned Syria on Friday it would take “firm and appropriate measures” in response to ceasefire violations, saying it was concerned about reports of an impending military operation in a de-escalation zone in the country’s southwest. “As a guarantor of this de-escalation area with Russia and Jordan, the United States will take firm and appropriate measures in response to Assad regime violations,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement late on Friday.

A war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported on Wednesday that Syrian government forces fresh from their victory this week against an Islamic State pocket in south Damascus were moving into the southern province of Deraa. ...

The U.S. warning comes weeks after a similar attack on a de-escalation zone in northeastern Syria held by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. U.S. ground and air forces repelled the more than four-hour attack, killing perhaps as many as 300 pro-Assad militia members, many of them Russian mercenaries. ...

Anti-Assad rebels still control two large contiguous areas of territory in the northwest and southwest. Kurdish and allied Arab militia backed by the United States hold the quarter of Syria east of the Euphrates. The government’s gains have brought it to a point where any new military campaign risks putting it in conflict with foreign powers.

Syria - Israel Falsely Claims Iran Pull-Back Deal With Russia - Again

Israel loves to pretend that it is an important country which can move other governments to do its bidding. During last fall, when Russia, Jordan and the U.S. negotiated about a de-escalation zone in southwest Syria, Israel demanded to exclude Iranian troops  and militia supported by Iran from a 40 or even 60 kilometer zone from the occupied Golan heights. Later Israel media announced success: Russia agrees to keep Iran, Hezbollah forces away from Israeli border wrote JPost in October. But such an agreement was only rumored by Israel. It was never made. Israel had demanded an exclusion zone but neither Syria nor Iran accepted that. The Russian/U.S./Jordan agreement was not published but it obviously included no such clause. ...

Now Israel tries the same trick again. It sets expectations and announces agreements where none exist. The teaser came yesterday when Haaretz headlined: Russia Considers Pulling Back Iranian Forces From Israel-Syria Border.

Russia fears Israel's strikes in Syria will undermine Assad's rule. Israel believes Moscow may agree to move the Iranians 60 kilometers away from the Israeli border.

Israel's Channel 2 followed up by announcing success: Israel, Russia agree to keep Iran and Hezbollah from border.

After months of diplomacy between Jerusalem and Moscow, the two sides reached an understanding that Iran should be kept away from Israel's northern border with Syria, Channel 2 News reported on Monday evening.

According to the report, Israel and Russia agreed the Syrian army will be allowed to re-take control of southern Syria up to the border with Israel. Iran and Hezbollah, though, will not be permitted to take part in the takeover.

This is again nonsense for at least two reasons. 1. Russia has no way to keep Iran out of Syria or to tell Iranian advisors and militia where to go or not to go. The Syrian government will not do away with its best ally, Iran, which came to its help before Russia came in and will continue to help while Russia lowers its presence in the conflict. Were Russia to play "either-or" hardball with the Syrian government the decision would likely be against Russia and for Iran. 2. Iran already announced that it will not take part in the upcoming Daraa operation in southwest Syria.

“Killing Gaza” with Max Blumenthal and Dan Cohen

This is the New Italy

All over Italy, the neoliberal policies that led to the economic crisis and resulting social decadence have accelerated in the wake of the financial collapse of 2007. Sesto San Giovanni used to be known as ‘the Italian Stalingrad’, due to the strength of its working class and the Communist Party receiving over 50 percent of the vote. Now the strongest party in town is the Lega (The League), a right wing, xenophobic party. This has been accompanied by a demographic shift, as Sesto has lost almost one third of its population, but acquired tens of thousands of immigrants, which today constitute almost 20 percent of its population.

The Italian Communist Party, once the strongest in the capitalist world, has in the meantime disappeared, together with the working class. There is also the destitution of a dwindling middle class accompanying the breakdown of the social fabric with rampant corruption. All the traditional political parties have been wiped away. They have been replaced by the so-called ‘populists’: The Lega and the 5 Star Movement, undisputed winners of the latest elections in March, who are now in the process of trying to form a new government. The Lega expresses the frustrations of the north of Italy that is still productive (fashion, services and some high quality products), and demands lower taxes, as Italian taxes are among the highest in Europe. They also want a parallel national currency, a reduction in circulation of the Euro (which slows down exports, especially to Germany) and limits to immigration.

The 5 Star Movement, which is partly considered to be the heir of the former Communist Party but with a different social base consisting of an undifferentiated lower class replacing the disappearing working class. It advocates a moralization of the political parties and a universal basic income of 750 euros per month ($875) for the poorest to reduce the effects of the social disaster which took place in the south of the country in the last 10 years: 20 percent unemployment, affecting 40 percent of young people, making the mafia and organized crime the biggest ‘employers’ in the most critical southern regions.

This is the new Italy. The old one, the Italy of Fiat, Cassina, small family-run businesses, the Italy of the Christian Democrats, the Communist Party and vibrant working-class culture is no more.

"A recurrent theme in the Italian election campaign was the EU abandoned us"

Brazil faces calls for return to military dictatorship amid truckers' strike

Hundreds of truckers and their supporters had gathered at a gas station on a highway near São Paulo for a rally in support of a nationwide protest that has brought South America’s biggest economy to its knees. But among the slogans and Brazilian flags were signs not usually seen at strike demonstrations: slung from a nearby overpass were banners calling for “military intervention”, a sign that this shutdown has taken on a political dimension all of its own.

As a nationwide truck strike reaches its 10th day, gas stations have finally begun to receive fuel deliveries and truckers have started drifting back to work – some unwillingly. But hundreds of demonstrations have continued on highways across Brazil – and many of those still protesting are calling for a return to the rightwing dictatorship that ran Brazil for two sombre decades until 1985.

“We need help from the military to resolve our problems in Brasília, to remove the bandits from there and to put the house in order,” said one driver, Gabriel Berestov, 44. What began as a nationwide truck strike over rising fuel prices has spiralled into a broader protest over a range of issues including Brazil’s healthcare, education, roads, increasing violence and political corruption. The strike has wrongfooted the left and right in Brazil’s fiercely polarised political climate. President Michel Temer’s conservative government has floundered as the shutdown suffocated the Brazilian economy, forcing harvests to stop and factories to suspend or reduce production, while wiping 15% off the share price of the state-run oil company Petrobras – responsible for fuel distribution and prices here – on Monday.

Only one Supreme Court justice thinks cops shouldn’t need a warrant to search your garage

Yes, cops still need a warrant to search a car parked in a garage, a nearly-unanimous Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. Just one justice, it turned out, thought that letting law enforcement walk up people’s driveways and peer into their cars could be a good idea.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito was the only one on the bench that dissented from the majority’s opinion in Collins v. Virginia, a case which debated whether cops could conduct a warrantless search of a motorcycle parked up a driveway and beside a house. That ruling, Alito wrote, defied logic. Instead, the only question in Alito’s mind was whether the search was “reasonable” under the Fourth Amendment. According to Alito, it was. ,,,

The case hinged on an arcane Fourth Amendment concept called the “curtilage,” the legal term for the structures surrounding a house, like a porch or a garage. Traditionally, cops need a warrant to search the curtilage. “The curtilage is treated as part of the home, and the home is given the most scrupulous protection under the Fourth Amendment,” Tracey Maclin, a professor at Boston University Law, told VICE News in January, when the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case. “That’s where you barbecue, that’s where you have a pool, that’s where you might sit out sunbathing.”

In 2013, two Virginia cops believed that a man named Ryan Collins had escaped them in two high-speed chases. After they found photos of Collins’ motorcycle posted to social media, one officer headed to his girlfriend’s house. He discovered the motorcycle parked in the back of her house’s driveway, beneath an enclosure, and took off its cover. It was stolen. Collins was later convicted for possessing stolen property. Collins’ lawyers argued that the cop had no right to search the motorcycle without a warrant, since it was parked inside the curtilage. But Virginia maintained that the search was legal, thanks to a rule called “the automobile exception,” which lets cops search cars without warrants in public or open places.

Black Defendants Face Harsher Sentences From GOP-Appointed Judges, Study Finds

In the latest study detailing the criminal justice system's failure to deliver equal justice to Americans of varying races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds, judges appointed by Republican presidents were found to give black defendants longer sentences than those appointed by Democrats.

More than 15 years of data on sentences handed out by 1,400 federal judges showed that black defendants are given sentences that are an average of three months longer when a Republican-appointed judge is on the bench, versus a judge nominated by a Democratic president. Female defendants were also served sentences that were two months shorter than those of males who were convicted of similar crimes.

"These differences cannot be explained by other judge characteristics and grow substantially larger when judges are granted more discretion," wrote Harvard Law School Professors Alma Cohen and Crystal S. Yang. The researchers used data from the Federal Judicial Center, the United States Sentencing Commission, and the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. ...

The Brookings Institution estimates that 50 percent of federal district court judges could be Republican appointees by mid-2020 if Trump's pace of nominations continues, up from 34 percent when he took office in 2017.

GOP lawmaker: Porn partly to blame for school shootings

Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) said that pornography is partially to blame for gun violence in schools. ... “Why do we see kids being so violent?” she asked, according to a recording of her comments obtained by HuffPost. “What makes them do that?”

Black, who is running for Tennessee governor, blamed the increase in school shootings on “deterioration of the family,” “violent movies” and “pornography,” though she did not specify what effect pornography had. “It’s available on the shelf when you walk in the grocery store,” she said of pornography. “Yeah, you have to reach up to get it, but there’s pornography there.”

“All of this is available without parental guidance,” she added. “I think that is a big part of the root cause.”

Greenwald: FBI Informant in Trump Campaign Once Ran CIA Spy Operation Helping Reagan Win in 1980

Say hello to Justin Trudeau, the world's newest oil executive

In case anyone wondered, this is how the world ends: with the cutest, progressivest, boybandiest leader in the world going fully in the tank for the oil industry. Justin Trudeau’s government announced on Tuesday that it would nationalize the Kinder Morgan pipeline running from the tar sands of Alberta to the tidewater of British Columbia. It will fork over at least $4.5bn in Canadian taxpayers’ money for the right to own a 60-year-old pipe that springs leaks regularly, and for the right to push through a second pipeline on the same route – a proposal that has provoked strong opposition.

That opposition has come from three main sources. First are many of Canada’s First Nations groups, who don’t want their land used for this purpose without their permission, and who fear the effects of oil spills on the oceans and forests they depend on. Second are the residents of Canada’s west coast, who don’t want hundreds of additional tankers plying the narrow inlets around Vancouver on the theory that eventually there’s going to be an oil spill. And third are climate scientists, who point out that even if Trudeau’s pipeline doesn’t spill oil into the ocean, it will spill carbon into the atmosphere.

Lots of carbon: Trudeau told oil executives last year that “no country would find 173bn barrels of oil in the ground and just leave it there”. That’s apparently how much he plans to dig up and burn – and if he’s successful, the one half of 1% of the planet that is Canadian will have awarded to itself almost one-third of the remaining carbon budget between us and the 1.5 degree rise in temperature the planet drew as a red line in Paris. There’s no way of spinning the math that makes that okay – Canadians already emit more carbon per capita than Americans. Hell, than Saudi Arabians. ...

Is this a clever financial decision that will somehow make Canada rich? ... No, this is simply a scared prime minister playing politics. He’s worried about the reaction in Alberta if the pipe is not built, and so he has mortgaged his credibility. His predecessor, Stephen Harper, probably would not have dared try – the outcry from environmentalists and First Nations would have been too overwhelming. But Trudeau is banking on the fact that his liberal charm will soothe things over. Since he’s got Trump to point to – a true climate denier – maybe he’ll get away with it. ... We know now how history will remember Justin Trudeau: not as a dreamy progressive, but as one more pathetic employee of the richest, most reckless industry in the planet’s history.

Keystone XL Developer Dropping Major Campaign Contributions in Nebraska

TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, "is showering Nebraska public officials with campaign cash as it fights for regulatory approval in a state that is one of the last lines of resistance" against the project, an Associated Press review of public records revealed Tuesday.

The AP found that a TransCanada political action committee has given more than $65,000 to campaigning officials within the past year, including $25,000 to GOP Gov. Pete Ricketts' re-election effort, $15,000 to the Nebraska Republican Party, and $25,500 to state legislators.

"There is no question big political donations have bought some politicians," responded Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and president of the Nebraska-based Bold Alliance, which is helping lead the local fight to block the pipeline.

"I guess from their perspective, they're doing what they think they need to do to get the pipeline built," said Jack Gould, issues chairman of Common Cause Nebraska. Gould added TransCanada's political investments are higher than many other companies that target state officials.

"In addition to the campaign contributions," the AP noted, "TransCanada has previously reported spending more than $1.2 million on lobbying in Nebraska between 2006 and mid-2017."

Deadlier than Katrina & 9/11: Hurricane Maria Killed 4,645 in Puerto Rico, 70 Times Official Toll

Harvard study estimates thousands died in Puerto Rico because of Hurricane Maria

More than eight months after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the island’s slow recovery has been marked by a persistent lack of water, a faltering power grid and a lack of essential services — all imperiling the lives of many residents, especially the infirm and those in remote areas hardest hit in September.

A new Harvard study published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine estimates that at least 4,645 deaths can be linked to the hurricane and its immediate aftermath, making the storm far deadlier than previously thought. Official estimates have placed the number of dead at 64, a count that has drawn sharp criticism from experts and local residents and spurred the government to order an independent review that has yet to be completed.

The Harvard findings indicate that health-care disruption for the elderly and the loss of basic utility services for the chronically ill had significant impacts, and the study criticized Puerto Rico’s methods for counting the dead — and its lack of transparency in sharing information — as detrimental to planning for future natural disasters. The authors called for patients, communities and doctors to develop contingency plans for such disasters.

Also of Interest

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

White Fear: As the GOP Veers Toward Fascism, Establishment Democrats Face a Grassroots Insurgency

Propaganda Killing Kills Propaganda - First The Skripals, Now Arkady Babchenko Come Back From The Dead

Corporations Win Again as Monsanto-Bayer Toxic Mega Merger Wins Approval From Trump DOJ

Media Quote Barney Frank on Rolling Back Dodd/Frank–Not Disclosing He’s Now a Bank Director

Italy’s political crisis is an even bigger problem for the E.U. than Brexit

Italy’s Political Crisis… How Ugly Might It Get?

Rep. Ro Khanna to Introduce Compromise “Jobs for All” Bill

Fraudulence in Flint: How Suspect Science Helped Declare the Water Crisis Over

'Sea, ice, snow, it’s all changing': Inuit culture struggles with warming world

A Little Night Music

Willie Egan - Wear Your Black Dress

Willie Egan - Chitlin's

Willie Egan - Come On

Willie Egan - It's All Right

Willie Egan - I Don't Know Where She Went

Two Crows & The Diggers (Willie Egan) - Poison Ivy

Willie Egan - Rock & Roll Fever

Willie Egan - Sometimes I Wonder

Willie Egan - I Can't Understand It

Willie Egan - I Don't Know Where She Went

Willie Egan - Treat Me Right

Willie Egan - Sad Sad Feeling

Willie Egans - Willie's Blues

Willie Egan - You Must Be Foolin'

Willie Egan - Oh Baby

Willie Egan - What A Shame