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This evening's music features a couple of Detroit blue-eyed soul/bluesrockers Mitch Ryder and Cub Koda. Enjoy!

“Nixon did have a secret plan, and I knew that it involved making threats of nuclear war to North Vietnam.”

-- Daniel Ellsberg

News and Opinion

North Korea: Trump threatens 'major sanctions' after latest missile test

Donald Trump threatened to impose major sanctions on North Korea as soon as Wednesday after Pyongyang’s latest missile test, which demonstrated a reach deep into the US mainland.

Trump said he had spoken with Chinese leader Xi Jinping about “the provocative actions of North Korea”, and promised: “Additional major sanctions will be imposed on North Korea today. This situation will be handled!” ...

After two and a half months of relative quiet, North Korea said it successfully fired a “significantly more” powerful, nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile early Wednesday. Outside governments and analysts concurred it had made a jump in capability.

The ICBM launched early Wednesday morning was described as the Hwasong-15, with the capability to carry a nuclear warhead and with “significantly more” power than missiles it’s tested earlier.

North Korea missile launch: regime says new rocket can hit anywhere in US

North Korea has claimed that the rocket it test-fired on Wednesday morning is a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile that can strike anywhere on the US mainland, as it declared itself a “complete” nuclear state.

In a special announcement broadcast on state TV, the regime said it had successfully tested a Hwasong-15, which appears to be an advanced version of ICBMs it launched in July.

A government statement, read out by the TV presenter Ri Chun-hee, quoted the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, as saying: “Now we have finally realised the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force, the cause of building a rocket power.”

Kim oversaw the launch in Pyongsong, about 18 miles north of the capital, Pyongyang. The official KCNA news agency said the missile was more sophisticated than any previously tested and was capable of carrying a “super-large heavy (nuclear) warhead”.

The regime’s claims have not been independently verified, but experts had been expecting North Korea to demonstrate that it now has all of the US in range – a development that significantly strengthens its position in any negotiations with Washington over its nuclear weapons programme.

North Korea fires ballistic missile, Pentagon claims it’s an ICBM

North Korea Hits Record Altitude in Latest Missile Test

For the first time since September, North Korea has carried out a successful missile test, fired off the base at Sain Ni, traveling about 620 miles before landing in the Sea of Japan. It’s nowhere near the farthest surface distance traveled from launch site.

Still, the missile appears to mark an important advance for the North Korean program, reaching a record height of 2,796 miles in the course of its flight. This further reflects the improved capability of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to survive re-entry.

While there are still questions about North Korea’s ability to steer missiles on long-range flights, the conceivable range of these ICBMs now puts the entire continental US in their sights.

Heh. I think that it is time to paste Rexxon's picture next to the entry for "hubris" in the dictionary...

Rex Tillerson: state department can be cut as we will soon solve global conflicts

Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday that the Trump administration’s proposal to slash the state department and foreign aid budget is in part based on an expectation it will be able to resolve some of the global conflicts that have been absorbing costly diplomatic and humanitarian support.

But in a vivid display of the most urgent diplomatic challenge facing the US, Tillerson was speaking as North Korea carried out a new ballistic missile test – the first since it fired a missile over Japan in mid-September.

The secretary of state presented this rationale for the budget cut at a time when he is under fire from former US diplomats for gutting his state department amid multiple crises around the world – an allegation Tillerson denied. ...

On Tuesday, the former director of the state department policy planning office, David McKean, complained that Tillerson had become fixated on restructuring the department, at the expense of substantive diplomatic work. McKean’s commentary in Politico was titled: Rex Tillerson is Fiddling with PowerPoint while the World Burns.

CNN Crusades Against Slave Trade in Libya, but Knew About It for Years

Hariri: What happened in Saudi stays in Saudi

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has said that the events that unfolded over the past three weeks of his time in Saudi Arabia will remain undisclosed, emphasising that he does not wish to discuss the details of what happened to him during that period. ...

In a televised speech, Hariri blamed interference in Lebanon by Iran and its Lebanese ally, the Hezbollah movement, for his decision to resign, adding that he feared an assassination attempt.

Referring to Hezbollah, Hariri said: "Iran's arm ... has managed to impose a fait accompli on Lebanon through the power of its weapons. They have built a state within a state." Hariri's resignation speech echoed frequent rhetoric from Saudi Arabia against Iran and its allies.

Former El Salvador colonel extradited to Spain over 1989 murder of Jesuits

A former Salvadoran army colonel has been extradited to Spain to face charges relating to the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter in El Salvador.

Inocente Orlando Montano, 76, arrived in Madrid from the United States on Wednesday and was placed in prison, according to the national court in Madrid. He is to be brought before the court on Thursday. Montano face charges for allegedly helping plan the attack on the Jesuit priests – five of whom were Spaniards – and two female victims. US court documents said Montano was part of a group of military officers accused of conspiring to kill the priests, in order to derail peace talks during El Salvador’s 1980-1992 civil war. ...

While two officers served short sentences in El Salvador, Montano and other high-level officials accused of planning the murder were never charged by authorities there over the priests’ killings. Montano has been the only one within reach of Spanish authorities because of legal issues in El Salvador where most of them still live. In 2001, Montano moved to the United States, having lied to immigration authorities about his military record and entry date to obtain work papers. He was eventually discovered while living in Boston and, in 2012, pleaded guilty to six counts of immigration fraud and perjury.

Spain has also issued warrants in an effort to try other former officers who are currently living in El Salvador, but the Central American country declined to allow their extradition.

Bosnian Croat war criminal dies after drinking poison in court

A convicted war criminal killed himself with poison at the Hague

Judges had just upheld a 20-year jail term against former military commander Slobodan Praljak, when the 72-year-old drank from a small bottle seconds after his verdict was read.

“I just drank poison,” he told the judges. “I am not a war criminal, I reject the verdict with contempt.”

Amid chaotic and confusing scenes, the presiding judge suspended the hearing and summoned medical help. Croatian state television, citing sources close to Praljak, later reported that he had died in hospital, although the U.N. court has not confirmed this. ...

Praljak, a former commander of the Bosnian Croat defence forces, was originally sentenced to 20 years jail in 2013 for his role in a campaign to drive Muslims out of an intended Bosnian Croat state in 1993. The appeal led to the judges overturning some of Praljak’s convictions, but his sentence was not reduced.

Electoral Results Delayed in Honduras Presidential Election As Opposition Candidate Leads Incumbent

Time to release the internet from the free market – and make it a basic right

Say goodbye to net neutrality. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman, Ajit Pai, released a plan to repeal the landmark protections enacted by the agency in 2015. This has long been a top priority for Pai and his fellow Republicans, who now enjoy a majority of commissioners thanks to Trump. The vote is scheduled for 14 December, and is widely expected to pass along party lines. ...

When you think of the internet without net neutrality, you should think of the pleasures of modern air travel. You pay for a checked bag, you pay for a modicum of legroom, you pay for a lousy sandwich. The internet without net neutrality will likely look similar: the basics are barely tolerable, and everything else costs extra.

This dystopian scenario is why it’s so important to fight the Trump administration’s agenda. But that fight can’t be limited to saving net neutrality. To democratize the internet, we need to do more than force private ISPs to abide by certain rules. We need to turn those ISPs into publicly owned utilities. We need to take internet service off the market, and transform it from a consumer good into a social right.

Access to the internet is a necessity. It is a basic precondition for full participation in our social, political, and economic life. But so long as the internet’s infrastructure remains private, the corporations that control it will always prioritize piling up profits for investors over serving our needs as users and citizens. Net neutrality addresses one negative consequence of private ownership, but there are many others. Charging discriminatory rates for data is a symptom – the root cause is the antidemocratic nature of a system run exclusively for profit. The solution is to make that system public, and put it under democratic control.

The idea of a public internet might seem utopian, but it’s how the network began. Our money created the internet, before it was radically privatized in the 1990s. Big companies seized a system built at enormous public expense in order to sell us access to it – the equivalent of someone stealing your house to charge you rent.

MacOS High Sierra bug: blank password lets anyone take control of a Mac

A serious security flaw found in the latest version of Apple’s macOS High Sierra could allow anyone to access locked settings on a Mac using the user name “root” and no password, and subsequently unlock the computer.

The security flaw, discovered a couple of weeks ago and disclosed in an Apple developer support forum, has been shown to work within the software’s user preferences screen, among other locations. Once triggered, the same combination will also bypass the lock screen of Macs running Apple’s latest operating system. ...

Apple said it was “working on a software update to address this issue” and advised users to set a root password to prevent unauthorised access to Mac computers.

The bug does not appear to affect previous versions of macOS, including Sierra, El Capitan or older.

U.K. Police Investigation of Snowden Leak Journalists Enters Fourth Year

A secretive British police investigation focusing on journalists who have worked with Edward Snowden’s leaked documents is still active more than four years after it was launched, The Intercept has learned. The investigation – codenamed “Operation Curable” – is being led by a counter-terrorism unit within London’s Metropolitan Police, under the direction of the force’s chief of Specialist Operations, Mark Rowley. The Metropolitan Police confirmed the status of the investigation last week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

The origins of the investigation can be traced back to May 2013, when National Security Agency contractor Snowden turned over a cache of classified documents about government surveillance to journalists including Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald, who was at that time working for British news organization The Guardian. ... British authorities argued that publishing the Snowden files was itself a terrorist act, thereby explicitly conflating journalism with terrorism.

Matt Lauer fired by NBC News

NBC News fired longtime anchor Matt Lauer Wednesday over sexual harassment of a female colleague in the workplace, the network announced. ...

The memo said that a female colleague of Lauer’s had made a detailed complaint against the anchor Monday night, outlining inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace that represented a “clear violation of our company’s standards.”

“While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over 20 years he’s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident,” the network’s news chairman Andrew Lack wrote.

Judge awards Trump administration victory over consumer agency head

The Trump administration has notched up a significant victory in its battle over the future of consumer protection in the US after a federal judge refused to block the president’s choice for acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

US district judge in Washington, Timothy Kelly, declined on Tuesday to impose an injunction on Trump’s appointment of budget director Mick Mulvaney, who is a leading opponent of pro-consumer regulations, to lead the government watchdog. The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by Leandra English, who had been given the job of interim director of the bureau on Friday by its outgoing chief Richard Cordray.

Announcing his decision, Kelly paid lip-service to the executive powers of the White House. “Denying the president’s authority to appoint Mr Mulvaney raises significant constitutional questions,” he said.

The White House was quick to claim political victory over the Democrats who had been backing English in the dispute. “The administration applauds the Court’s decision, which provides further support for the president’s rightful authority to designate director Mulvaney as acting director of the CFPB,” said the deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah. ...

After the judge issued his decision, the lawyer acting for English, Deepak Gupta, told reporters that they would appeal.

As GOP Tax Plan Faces Senate Vote, Critics Say Bill Would Give Hundreds of Billions to Top 1 Percent

Republicans take further step towards tax reform after Trump rallies support on Capitol Hill

Republicans made a significant step towards passing their sweeping package of tax cuts after two conservatives with lingering concerns about the measures came on board. The two holding out joined every Republican member on the Senate budget panel to send the bill to the Senate floor for a vote as early as this week.

The Senate budget committee voted along party lines, 12 to 11, to approve the legislation that will largely benefit America’s highest earners. As they voted, protesters outside chanted “kill the bill”. ...

During the lunch, Trump appeared to endorse several concessions that might persuade reluctant members. Among them he promised Senator Susan Collins of Maine that if the tax legislation repealed a key piece of the health insurance law, he would support a fresh bipartisan healthcare legislation to help low-income Americans continue to afford health insurance.

Before the vote, Republican senators Bob Corker of Tennessee and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin were undecided about whether they would vote for the bill. But Corker, concerned about spiralling US debt, told reporters he had reached an agreement with Senate leadership about how the measure affects the deficit. Johnson said he still has concerns about the legislation’s treatment of businesses known as “pass-through entities” but preferred to keep the legislative process moving.

At least six Republican senators have expressed concerns about various aspects of the bill – including how small businesses are taxed and whether the cost of health insurance will rise. But the vote on Tuesday signaled that leadership was making progress in the frantic, behind-the-scenes negotiations with members.

Corporations Admit Investors, Not Workers, Will Reap Rewards of #GOPTaxScam

Confirming the suspicions of Trump critics and the analyses of the Republican tax plan that have been released by numerous economists, large corporations have admitted that the money they'll save if the plan passes will go towards enriching their wealthy shareholders—not towards strengthening the middle class through job creation.

At Bloomberg on Wednesday, Toluse Olorunnipa reported that executives at Coca-Cola, Pfizer, Amgen, and Cisco have all said in recent weeks that their companies will prioritize increasing dividends or buying back shares from shareholders, before investing their savings in the company by hiring more workers or giving employees raises.

The admission by the country's most powerful corporations runs counter to the narrative the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have pushed, according to Bloomberg:

At a Nov. 14 speech to the Wall Street Journal CEO Council by Trump’s top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, the moderator asked business leaders in the audience for a show of hands if they planned to reinvest tax cut proceeds. Few people responded.

"Why aren't the other hands up?" Cohn asked.

Cohn's speech was followed by an appearance by Vice President Mike Pence, who reportedly told the business leaders, "We need all of you to tell this story" of corporate tax cuts leading to higher wages and more jobs for working Americans.

While corporations' taxes are immediately and permanently cut from 35 percent to 20 percent under the GOP plan, middle-class Americans will owe more in taxes by 2027, even if they see some relief in 2018. According to the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Senate plan, taxpayers making up to $30,000 will see their tax burden increase by 2019. By 2021, that extends to those making $40,000 and under.

Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren Propose $146 Billion “Marshall Plan” for Puerto Rico

Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday unveiled a massive $146 billion “Marshall plan” for Puerto Rico with several other senators. The plan includes immediate relief for the island’s cash-strapped government, billions more for economic development and renewable energy and Medicaid and Medicare parity, a key priority for the island.

“More than two months after Hurricanes Irma and Maria struck Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, half of the people there—American citizens all—still have no electricity,” Sanders said at a press conference Tuesday morning.

“Many are struggling to get clean drinking water, and more than 100,000 people have left Puerto Rico alone. This is not acceptable, and we are here today to tell the people of Puerto Rico and tell the people of the Virgin Islands that they are not forgotten, they are not alone, and that we intend to do everything possible to rebuild those beautiful islands.”

The far-reaching legislation would grant $62 billion to the governments of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, $27 billion to renovate infrastructure, and $13 billion in additional FEMA funding to rebuild the electric grid “with more modern, resilient technologies,” instead of the Stafford Act’s requirements that the grid be restored to its condition before the storms, according to a summary of the bill from Sanders’s office. ... The legislation is not intended to become law as written, but to lay down a marker for Democrats to fight for as negotiations continue over relief for the island.

A really nice bunch of folks run the government in Atlanta:

Atlanta Police Suddenly Enforce Old Law and Hand Out Tickets to People Feeding the Homeless

Atlanta is in Georgia’s Fulton County, which has long had a policy on the books that requires organizations that distribute food to obtain a permit before doing so. Local authorities have in the past turned a blind eye, according to groups that feed the homeless in different parts of the city. Last week, however, that changed.

Atlanta police officers told charitable individuals that they can no longer feed the homeless without applying for and receiving a permit. Georgia State Police also distributed a flyer, produced by Atlanta’s Department of Public Safety, about the enforcement of a county ordinance that requires permits for the “operation of a food service establishment.” According to the flyer, enforcement is necessary for sanitary reasons and because “many people become dependent on these activities, leading them to stay on the streets instead of seeking the help and support they truly need.”

Atlanta has a long history of punitively cracking down on those without shelter. In 2012, the city passed an aggressive anti-panhandling law that makes soliciting for money in certain areas a crime punishable by community service or jail. Keisha Lance-Bottoms, one of the two contenders in Atlanta’s mayoral runoff, supported the bill. “This is not a heartless piece of legislation,” she said. Like others on the city council, she pointed to services the city maintains for the homeless as an alternative.

In 1996, when Atlanta hosted the Olympics, Fulton County offered the city’s homeless population one-way bus tickets to anywhere in the country, conditioned on signing a statement promising not to return.

Worth a full read, here's a taste:

This City Hall, brought to you by Amazon

Last month Amazon announced it got 238 offers for its new, proposed 50,000-employee HQ2. I set out to see what’s in them, but only about 30 have been released so far under public-record acts. Those 30, though, amply demonstrate our capitulation to corporate influence in politics. There’s a new wave, in which some City Halls seem willing to go beyond just throwing money at Amazon. They’re turning over the keys to the democracy.

Example: Chicago has offered to let Amazon pocket $1.32 billion in income taxes paid by its own workers. This is truly perverse. Called a personal income-tax diversion, the workers must still pay the full taxes, but instead of the state getting the money to use for schools, roads or whatever, Amazon would get to keep it all instead. “The result is that workers are, in effect, paying taxes to their boss,” says a report on the practice from Good Jobs First, a think tank critical of many corporate subsidies. ...

But the most far-reaching offer is from Fresno, California. That city of half a million isn’t offering any tax breaks. Instead it has a novel plan to give Amazon special authority over how the company’s taxes are spent. Fresno promises to funnel 85 percent of all taxes and fees generated by Amazon into a special fund. That money would be overseen by a board, half made up of Amazon officers, half from the city. They’re supposed to spend the money on housing, roads and parks in and around Amazon. ...

Seriously, we’ve got Congress slashing corporate taxes, business cash overwhelming elections and the Federal Communications Commission poised to turn control of the internet over to a few private companies. Now a single company is viewed as such a shiny prize that some seem ready to wave the white flag on the whole “for the people, by the people” experiment.

Italian Oil Company Passes Last Hurdle to Start Drilling in U.S. Arctic Waters

The Trump administration has issued the first permit to drill in federal waters of the U.S. Arctic since Shell's failed attempt ended in 2015.

As soon as December, the Italian oil company Eni could begin drilling exploratory wells on a lease that was set to expire at the end of the year.

The approval came after "a thorough and complete review of Eni's well design, testing procedures and safety protocol," according to Mark Fesmire, the director Alaska region of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. "Exploration must be conducted safely, and responsibly in relation to the Arctic environment and we will continue to engage Eni as they move forward with drilling its exploratory well," he said.

There is widespread opposition to offshore drilling in the Arctic among conservationists and some native Alaskans, who fear it could impact marine animals that migrate through the area, including bowhead whales that subsistence hunters rely on for survival. Scientific research also points to the need to keep most fossil fuels in the ground to avert the worst consequences of climate change; a 2015 study in the journal Nature identified oil reserves in the Arctic as unburnable if the world hopes to keep global warming to within 2 degrees of pre-industrial times.

Unlike Shell, which was drilling in the open waters of the Chukchi Sea, Eni plans to access federal waters by drilling more than six miles from an artificial island in the Beaufort Sea. The island, called Spy Island, is in state water and is already home to wells and production facilities.

5,500 U.S. Schools Use Solar Power, and That's Growing as Costs Fall, Study Shows

In a field behind an elementary school in rural Middlesex County, Virginia, near the Chesapeake Bay, an ambitious plan has been taking shape: Schools Superintendent Peter Gretz and other local administrators are preparing to power their school district with solar energy. By next August, Virginia-based solar developer Sun Tribe Solar expects to have an array of solar panels in place in that field that can generate enough electricity to power the county's elementary school and middle school—at a price well below their current electricity costs—while offering students, teachers and the community a way to learn about clean energy. ...

The number of schools powered by solar is growing quickly. About 5 percent of all K-12 U.S. schools are now powered by the sun, and their solar capacity has almost doubled in the last three years, according to a new study by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), The Solar Foundation, and Generation 180, a clean energy nonprofit. The nearly 5,500 schools using solar power today have a total of 910 megawatts of solar capacity, enough to power 190,000 homes, according to the study.

The biggest reason for the surge is the economic benefits of solar energy. Drastic declines in price have made it financially viable for schools. Both public and private schools are reducing their electricity bills with solar, leaving them more money to spend on educational programs, according to the research. Many are also incorporating renewable energy into their science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) lessons.

Native American Woman Olivia Lone Bear, Mother of 5, Missing in North Dakota Oil Fields

Also of Interest

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

Fake News on Russia and Other Official Enemies

Putin: “Publish A World Map And Mark All The U.S. Military Bases On It. You Will See The Difference Between Russia And The US”

Strong Evidence that U.S. Special Operations Forces Massacred Civilians in Somalia

Intercepted Podcast — Very Bad Men: Trump, the Saudi Crown Prince, Sexual Assaulters, and Robert Mugabe

As John Conyers Departs From Judiciary Committee Spot, the First Battle of the Anti-Monopoly Era Begins

Russia-gate Inquisitors Subpoena Journalist

EPA hears worries about climate in heart of coal country

Inequality ... in a photograph

A Little Night Music

Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels - Devil in a Blue Dress

Mitch Ryder and The Mitch Ryder Show - Sock It To Me Baby

Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels - I'd Rather Go To Jail

Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels - Little Latin Lupe Lu

Mitch Ryder & Detroit Wheels - You Get Your Kicks

Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels - Walking the Dog

Mitch Ryder & Otis Redding - Knock on Wood

Mitch Ryder - Ruby Baby

Cub Koda and The Houserockers - Bad Boy

Cub Koda and The Houserockers - Highway 49

Cub Koda - Henrietta

Cub Koda - "Smokin' In The Boys Room"

Cub Koda - Random Drug Testing