This evening's music features April Fools music.

Here are some stories from tonight's post:

Obama Personally Tells the Egyptian Dictator that U.S. Will Again Send Weapons (and Cash) to his Regime

Yesterday, the Egyptian regime announced it was prosecuting witnesses who say they saw a police officer murder an unarmed poet and activist during a demonstration, the latest in a long line of brutal human rights abuses that includes imprisoning journalists, prosecuting LGBT citizens, and mass executions of protesters. Last June, Human Rights Watch said that Egyptian “security forces have carried out mass arrests and torture that harken back to the darkest days of former President Hosni Mubarak’s rule.”

Today, the White House announced that during a telephone call with Egyptian despot Abdelfattah al-Sisi, President Obama personally lifted the freeze on transferring weapons to the regime, and also affirmed that the $1.3 billion in military aid will continue unimpeded. ...

The move comes as the U.S. is also heavily supporting the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen, also involving some of the region’s worst tyrants (also known as: the U.S.’s closest allies). So the U.S. is, as usual, standing shoulder to shoulder with some of the region’s most oppressive regimes, whose survival at least partially depends on the abundant U.S. largesse they receive, once again provoking that age-old mystery: Why do they hate us? 

Sadly, I don't think that this warmongering idiot who has become Secretary of Defense Offense intended his remarks quoted here as an April fools prank:

Defense Secretary: Nuclear Deal Won’t Preclude US Attack on Iran

In a highly controversial open letter earlier this month, a number of Senate Republicans warned Iran against signing a nuclear deal with President Obama, arguing the US couldn’t be trusted to keep the deal. They didn’t know how right they were.

Today, US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter sought to downplay the Iran talks, during remarks at Syracuse University, saying the deal wouldn’t have any impact on a potential US military strike on Iran.

“One of my jobs is to make sure all options are on the table,” Carter said, insisting that the US would reserve the right to attack Iran at any time even if the nuclear deal is reached.

Iran nuclear negotiators have reached broad understanding, says UK

Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, has said negotiators at the Iran nuclear talks in Switzerland have reached “a broad framework of understanding”, but that details still have to be agreed.

Hammond was speaking after the negotiations missed a midnight deadline to produce a preliminary accord on the main issues in dispute in Iran’s nuclear programme. After breaking off in the early hours of the morning, talks among foreign ministers and senior diplomats resumed on Wednesday.

“I think we have a broad framework of understanding but there are still some key issues that have to be worked through,” the foreign secretary told a group of British broadcasters.

“Some of them are quite detailed and technical so there is still quite a lot of work to do, but we are on it now and we’ll keep going at it.”

He added: “We have made significant progress over the last few days but it has been slow going. We decided to break last night because some of the staff had been working through the previous night. We wanted people to be fresh as we tackle the last few isssues that remain.

Seattle workers hail 'historic moment' as city sets course for $15 minimum wage

By 2017, all workers in the city of Seattle will earn $15 an hour – after a long battle by city workers who felt they weren’t getting a fair deal

Nearly 40,000 low-wage workers will get an instant pay rise on Wednesday, when Seattle begins to phase in a landmark $15 minimum wage law that was passed amid controversy last year.

Beginning April 1, the minimum wage for an employer with more than 500 employees rises from just over $9 to $11 per hour; for smaller employers, it becomes $10 per hour.

Over the next few years, stepped increases in the minimum wage will continue, until all workers in the city of Seattle earn at least $15 an hour by 1 January 2017, more than double the federal minimum wage. ...

One of the most vocal campaigners for the $15 minimum wage has been Kshama Sawant, an Occupy Wall Street activist and social justice campaigner, who was elected to Seattle city council in 2013 on a socialist platform. ...

“Initially, big business had no intention of giving in at all,” Sawant said. “Then, they had to make huge concessions, because the public opinion shifted so dramatically in favour of a fight against income inequality.

“This is a testament to how much the public mood has changed since Occupy.”

Also of interest:

Yemen’s Houthis Are No Iran Proxy