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This evening's music features "The Master of the Telecaster," Texas bluesman Albert Collins. Enjoy!

"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. `Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, `controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. `Reality control,' they called it: in Newspeak, `doublethink.'"

-- George Orwell

News and Opinion

Media Erase NATO Role in Bringing Slave Markets to Libya

Twenty-first century slave markets. Human beings sold for a few hundred dollars. Massive protests throughout the world. The American and British media have awakened to the grim reality in Libya, where African refugees are for sale in open-air slave markets. Yet a crucial detail in this scandal has been downplayed or even ignored in many corporate media reports: the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in bringing slavery to the North African nation.

In March 2011, NATO launched a war in Libya expressly aimed at toppling the government of longtime leader Muammar Qadhafi. The US and its allies flew some 26,000 sorties over Libya and launched hundreds of cruise missiles, destroying the government’s ability to resist rebel forces. US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, along with their European counterparts, insisted the military intervention was being carried out for humanitarian reasons. But political scientist Micah Zenko (Foreign Policy, 3/22/16) used NATO’s own materials to show how “the Libyan intervention was about regime change from the very start.” ...

Secretary Clinton, who played a decisive role in the war, declared live on CBS News (10/20/11), “We came, we saw, he died!” The Libyan government dissolved soon after. In the six years since, Libya has been roiled by chaos and bloodshed. Multiple would-be governments are competing for control of the oil-rich country, and in some areas there is still no functioning central authority. Many thousands of people have died, although the true numbers are impossible to verify. Millions of Libyans have been displaced—a staggering number, nearly one-third of the population, had fled to neighboring Tunisia by 2014.

Corporate media, however, have largely forgotten about the key role NATO played in destroying Libya’s government, destabilizing the country and empowering human traffickers. Moreover, even the few news reports that do acknowledge NATO’s complicity in the chaos in Libya do not go a step further and detail the well-documented, violent racism of the NATO-backed Libyan rebels who ushered in slavery after ethnically cleansing and committing brutal crimes against black Libyans.

[See article for detailed analysis of media coverage of NATO's seminal role in creating a brutal slave state in Libya. - js]

Donald Trump's menacing talk on North Korea is leaving the US isolated

Donald Trump’s latest threat to destroy North Korea’s regime by force produced an angry response from Russia on Thursday. Yet elsewhere, the menacing talk from Washington was mostly met with uncomfortable silence.

While there is no shortage of international concern about Kim Jong-un’s latest, “breakthrough” missile test on Wednesday, Trump’s bellicose talk of war is rendering the US increasingly isolated.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, appeared to voice doubts shared by other countries when he claimed on Thursday that Trump was deliberately pushing Pyongyang towards military confrontation. “It seems they have done everything on purpose to make Kim lose control and make another desperate move,” he said.

Lavrov rejected imposing additional sanctions demanded by Trump. Lavrov suggested previously unscheduled US military exercises in December were part of an undisclosed plan to trigger a conflict. “The Americans need to explain to us all what they are actually up to. If they seek a pretext to destroy North Korea, they should openly say so.”

Reacting to Wednesday’s test, Trump’s ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, upped the ante again, pinning blame wholly on Kim’s shoulders. “If war does come, it will be because of continued acts of aggression like we witnessed yesterday … If war comes, make no mistake, the North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed,” she said.

North Korea Crisis: "US looks to pressure China as UN meets to discuss Pyongyang's missile launch"

U.K. Government Pressured Over Secret Base’s Role in Trump’s Drone Strikes

Thr U.K. government is facing fresh calls to clarify its role in U.S. drone strikes after acknowledging that there are potentially hundreds of British spy agency personnel working inside a U.S.-controlled surveillance base that has played a key role in so-called targeted killings.

Earlier this month, British Minister of State for the Armed Forces Mark Lancaster disclosed to the U.K. Parliament that employees of eavesdropping agency Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, are stationed at a remote base in the north of England called Menwith Hill. An unknown number of GCHQ employees are among 578 British civilians, military, and contractors at the site, Lancaster confirmed in a previously unreported written statement, alongside 627 Americans. ...

Menwith Hill is the National Security Agency’s largest overseas surveillance facility, located near the small town of Harrogate in North Yorkshire. As The Intercept revealed in 2015, the base has been used to aid “a significant number of capture-kill operations” across the Middle East and North Africa, according to top-secret documents. The facility operates spy satellites used to pinpoint the locations of people on the ground below, and it is equipped with eavesdropping technology that can harvest data from more than 300 million emails and phone calls a day. ...

One former drone operator previously told The Intercept that the NSA helped locate drone targets by analyzing the activity of a cellphone’s SIM card. “It’s really like we’re targeting a cellphone,” said the former drone operator. “We’re not going after people — we’re going after their phones, in the hopes that the person on the other end of that missile is the bad guy.” The use of such methods was effectively confirmed in 2014 by former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden, who declared during a debate at Johns Hopkins University: “We kill people based on metadata.” ...

Jennifer Gibson, a staff attorney with London-based human rights group Reprieve, said lethal U.S. operations have “skyrocketed” since Trump’s inauguration, “killing scores of civilians in countries like Yemen.” She questioned the role of British personnel in the attacks, which have never been approved by or debated in Parliament.

Wow, this creep keeps popping up like a bad penny:

Blackwater founder pitches plan to quell Libya migrant crisis with private police

Erik Prince, the founder of the private military contractor Blackwater, is pushing a plan to intervene in the migrant crisis in Libya with a proposal involving a privately-trained police force that would mirror his company’s work in Afghanistan. The proposal, he said, would be a more humanitarian option for the European Union compared to the chaos that is now gripping the oil-rich nation, given widespread reports of grave human rights abuses by militia groups against migrants.

Prince, who is close to the Trump administration and is mulling a run for Senate in Wyoming, said it would be relatively easy for his company, Frontier Services Group, to stop, detain, house and “repatriate” hundreds of thousands of African migrants who are seeking a path to Europe through Libya.

He has also proposed to do so for a “fraction” of the price the EU is spending on boats that intercept migrant vessels in the Mediterranean.

“The traffic of human beings from Sudan, Chad, Niger is an industrial process,” he told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. “To stop it, you have to create a Libyan border police along the southern border.” Prince suggested that his plan would be more “humane and professional” than the programmes that are being supported by the EU to try to stop the flow of migrants.

White Helmets taboo: Why is Reporters Without Borders trying to cancel panel on controversial group?

Russia Accuses US of Trying to Partition Syria

While the US was long in opposition to federalization of Syria, demanding the nation remain heavily centralized, that seems to have been changed with the Kurdish YPG having captured massive amounts of territory from ISIS.

Now, US allies have a lot of territory to rule, and the US is looking to help them to do so, setting up infrastructures of government, and being very careful to not let the Syrian central government have anything to do with it.

That’s not in keeping with previous US positions, nor even with federalization, and Russian officials are now accusing the US of being in the process of establishing a de facto partition of Syria between the government territory and Kurdish territory.

In an Unprecedented Move, 10 Democratic Senators Demand That Netanyahu Halt Israel Demolition of Palestinian Village

In a startling demonstration of support for Palestinian human rights from Capitol Hill, 10 Democratic senators wrote a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday urging him to halt the impending demolition of two Palestinian and Bedouin towns. Israel has been actively planning the demolition of the West Bank Palestinian village of Susiya for months. Its government claims that the village is not authorized, despite the fact that it is in the occupied West Bank, which is internationally recognized as Palestinian territory.

For the past couple years, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has been a lone voice on the issue, writing directly to Netanyahu to demand he halt the demolition. Feinstein’s efforts have been successful, as Israel has put off Susiya’s demolition multiple times. But there are reports that Israel will begin demolishing structures in the village within weeks.

On Wednesday, Feinstein finally got some backup. She was joined by nine other Democratic caucus senators — Vermont’s Bernie Sanders and Pat Leahy, Illinois’s Dick Durbin, Delaware’s Tom Carper, Minnesota’s Al Franken, Massachusetts’s Elizabeth Warren, New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich, Oregon’s Jeff Merkley, and Hawaii’s Brian Schatz — in a letter from her office demanding Israel not demolish Susiya and the Bedouin town of Khan al-Amr.

The letter is unusually strong in its description of Israeli government behavior. “Instead of forcibly evicting these communities, we encourage your government to fairly re-evaluate Susiya’s professionally developed master plan and provide the residents of Khan Al-Ahmar equal building rights. Your government’s threats to demolish these communities are particularly distressing in light of the Israeli Civil Administration’s efforts to dramatically expand settlements throughout the West Bank,” it reads.

US Congress Revokes RT’s Capitol Hill Press Credentials

RT Network’s press accreditation was pulled Wednesday following the Justice Department’s move to require that RT register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act earlier in November.

"The Executive Committee of the Congressional Radio & Television Correspondents' Galleries' exercised its authority, as granted by the ruled of the House and the Senate, to withdraw the news credentials of the RT Network by unanimous vote on November 21," the government office said in a letter to the RT production office dated November 29. ... The loss of accreditation is effective immediately, according to Craig Caplan, Executive Chairman of the Congressional Radio & Television Correspondents' Galleries. ...

The Justice Department vowed that FARA would not interfere with RT's mission to report the news. "The law does not restrict registrants from operating, however. Other U.S. agents of foreign media entities are currently registered under FARA and continue to operate freely in the United States," DOJ said November 13. ...

The US State Department has echoed these claims. "When the United States tells someone to register under a foreign agent requirement, we don't impact or affect the ability of them to report news and information. We just have them register. It's as simple as that," Heather Nauert, spokeswoman for the State Department, said in October.

Has Trump Made It Easier to Spy on Journalists? Lawsuit Demands Answers.

Press freedom groups filed suit today to force the government to disclose more about how and when it obtains journalists’ communications, amid reports that the Department of Justice under Attorney General Jeff Sessions is pursuing a record number of leak investigations.

The question the groups hope to answer is whether the Trump administration — openly hostile toward news media — has jettisoned or modified rules that limit the government’s ability to spy on journalists while they do their jobs. ...

Carrie DeCell, a staff attorney with Knight First Amendment Institute, which is bringing the suit along with the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said that “we have seen the DOJ media guidelines that Obama released, but we understand that Sessions is reconsidering those guidelines, and the way the government uses subpoenas against journalists.” In August, Sessions announced that his department was reviewing the guidelines as part of a crackdown on leaks but did not specify what changes might be made.

Iceland seeks return to political stability with new prime minister

The leader of Iceland’s Left-Green movement has become the country’s new prime minister at the head of a broad three-party coalition that could restore a measure of political stability after a succession of scandals. Katrín Jakobsdóttir, 41, a popular former education minister who is considered to be Iceland’s most trusted politician, took office on Wednesday after formally signing a new government accord with the centre-right Independence and Progressive parties.

She told local media the administration’s focus would be on greater investment in healthcare, education and transport infrastructure, sustaining Iceland’s economic recovery from the 2008 financial crash, and improving gender equality and LGBT rights.

The outgoing prime minister, Bjarni Benediktsson’s Independence party narrowly won the 28 October election – the country’s second snap poll in less than a year – but lost a quarter of its seats, paving the way for Jakobsdóttir to form a left-led coalition. ... Amid widespread dissatisfaction with the cronyism and corruption many see as endemic in the country’s political and business classes, polls have shown almost half of Iceland’s voters wanted Jakobsdóttir to become their next prime minister.

Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Trump Tax Plan to Worsen Inequality, Expand Loopholes

Whistleblower: Mnuchin's Touted Analysis Claiming 'Tax Cuts for Rich Pay for Themselves' Doesn't Even Exist

The Trump White House has pulled out all the stops in its efforts to help the GOP ram through its widely disliked tax bill, including—as the New York Times reported Thursday—citing a Treasury Department analysis one government whistleblower says doesn't even exist.

For months, Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin has peddled the ambitious claim that not only would the GOP's proposed tax cuts for the rich "pay for themselves" through a massive surge in economic growth, but also that the cuts would help the U.S. "pay down debt."

"In our models, we believe there will be $2.5 trillion of growth," Mnuchin said during a recent CNN interview. "And we're happy to go through the numbers. We're happy to give the details. We want full transparency to the American public."

Despite such lofty promises and his expressed commitment to "transparency," however, Mnuchin has yet to release the promised analysis, even as the Senate is expected to vote on the GOP tax plan as early as Thursday night. According to an economist at the Office of Tax Analysis, he hasn't done so for good reason: there is no such study.

As the Times reports:

Mr. Mnuchin has promised that Treasury will release its analysis in full. Yet, just one day before the full Senate prepares to vote on a sweeping tax rewrite, the administration has yet to produce the type of economic analysis that it is citing as a reason to pass the tax cut.

Those inside Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy, which Mr. Mnuchin has credited with running the models, say they have been largely shut out of the process and are not working on the type of detailed analysis that he has mentioned.

An economist at the Office of Tax Analysis, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize his job, said Treasury had not released a "dynamic" analysis showing that the tax plan would be paid for with economic growth because one did not exist.

Tax analysts expressed shock and dismay at the fact that, on the eve of the vote on a plan that could have devastating consequences for millions of families, the Treasury Department still hasn't released anything resembling a comprehensive exploration of the it's long-term implications.

Latest Evidence Rich Don't Need Tax Cut: Top 1% $4.9 Million Wealthier Since 2007 While Everyone Else $4,500 Poorer

If any more evidence were needed to show that the wealthiest Americans really don't need a tax cut, here it is: Between 2007 and 2016, the average wealth of those in the top one percent grew by a whopping $4.9 million.

What about everyone else? In that same period, the average wealth of the bottom 99 percent declined by $4,500.

This is according to an analysis put out Wednesday by Matt Bruenig of the People's Policy Project, based on data from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances.

Recent nonpartisan analyses have consistently found that the Republican tax plan, expected to hit the Senate floor for a vote as early as Thursday, would deliver even more wealth to the richest Americans. And contrary to GOP rhetoric, the plan would also hike taxes on millions of low-income and middle class families.

Rex Tillerson makes unexpected White House visit amid reports of his firing

The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, made an unannounced visit to the White House on Thursday after multiple press reports emerged that Donald Trump was hatching a plan to oust him and replace him with the CIA director, Mike Pompeo.

Asked on camera if he wanted Tillerson to stay at his post, Donald Trump did not reply directly, saying only: “He’s here. Rex is here.” As reports of his imminent departure swirled in Washington, the secretary of state had been spotted by reporters on the White House grounds, a visit that had not been on his public schedule for the day.

The White House spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, repeated Trump’s statement about the secretary of state’s current whereabouts, adding: “There are no personnel announcements at this time. Secretary Tillerson continues to lead the state department and the entire cabinet is focused on completing this incredibly successful first year of President Trump’s administration.”

The New York Times first reported on Thursday morning that a plan had been developed by the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, to force Tillerson out, move Pompeo, a former Republican congressman, to the state department and replace Pompeo at the CIA with the Arkansas senator Tom Cotton. The report was quickly confirmed by other media outlets quoting White House sources, but all the reports said Trump had not yet made up his mind whether to execute the plan.

Pundits Funded by Drug Company Applaud Its Takeover of Trump Health Department

In an article for the Associated Press, two former senators defended President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Health and Human Services Department, Alex Azar. But the AP neglected to mention that the pair are affiliated with a Washington think tank that receives money from Azar’s recent employer, drug giant Eli Lilly.

On Wednesday morning, AP turned to two former senators to offer a defense of Azar, who has come under fire for his close ties to the pharmaceutical industry, which the HHS regulates. “While there may be disagreements on policy, I do think he’s willing to hear people out,” said former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat, in the AP article. Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist offered a similar take: “Will he carry pharma’s water? I don’t think so, based on my interactions with him,” he said.

AP noted that both former senators have positions at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington-based think tank. But the esteemed wire service omitted that the Bipartisan Policy Center is funded by a variety of health care industry interests, including Eli Lilly.

White House Defensive as Trump Shares British Hate Group Videos, Drawing International Condemnation

A Kingdom United in Revulsion at Donald Trump’s Embrace of Far-Right Racists

Britons have rarely been more divided than they are at present over the headlong rush toward an exit from the European Union nearly half the electorate rejected. But on Thursday, the United Kingdom was nearly united on one point: a widespread revulsion at U.S. President Donald Trump for his decision to fold the far-right, racist fringe group Britain First into his warm Twitter embrace.

The condemnation of Trump from leading politicians across the spectrum, which began on Wednesday, accelerated on Thursday during a debate in Parliament on what was formally termed the “urgent question” of “the activities of Britain First, online hate speech and the sharing of inflammatory content online by the president of the United States, Donald Trump.”

Feels like a pivotal historic moment as MPs on all sides of the Commons line up to call Trump "stupid", "racist or incompetent", "fascist" and so on: consequences could be far-reaching.

— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) November 30, 2017

The debate began with the Home Secretary Amber Rudd, a Conservative whose office maintains a list of extremists banned from entering the U.K. for hate speech, repeating Prime Minister Theresa May’s position that “this government will not tolerate any groups who spread hate be demonizing those of other faiths or ethnicities and who deliberately raise community fears and tensions — and we have been clear, President Donald Trump was wrong to retweet videos posted by far-right group Britain First.”

Diane Abbott, the Labour politician in line to become home secretary should her party form the next government, said that Trump’s promotion of anti-Muslim propaganda by Britain First “is not just offensive to British people of Muslim heritage, it is not just offensive to British people of black and minority heritage, it is offensive to all decent British people.”

UK lawmaker: "Wouldn't the world be a better place if the Prime Minister could persuade the President of the United States to delete his Twitter account?"

Home Secretary: "To note my honorable friend's advice regarding Twitter accounts- I'm sure many of us might share his view." pic.twitter.com/WUg6sPWBEb

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 30, 2017

Nancy Pelosi urges John Conyers to resign: 'The brave women who came forward are owed justice'

Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that Democratic congressman John Conyers should resign in the wake of multiple allegations of sexual harassment by women. Pelosi, the House minority leader, said during a press conference on Capitol Hill that the allegations against her fellow Democrat were “serious, disappointing and very credible”. The House minority leader on Sunday defended Conyers, who has served in Congress since 1964.

Pelosi said: “It is very sad. The brave women who came forward are owed justice. I pray for Congressman Conyers and his family and wish them well. However, Congressman Conyers should resign.” ...

Conyers, who vigorously denies the allegations against him, has no intention of stepping down, said Arnold Reed, Conyers’ lawyer, during a combative press conference in which he attacked Pelosi for not being a strong enough advocate for women. “She sure as hell won’t be the one to tell the congressman to leave,” Reed said outside the Conyers family home. The congressman, who is 88, was hospitalized overnight for issues related to stress, Reed said. Conyers was taken to the hospital in Detroit after experiencing shortness of breath and dizziness.

Al Franken: two more women accuse senator of sexual misconduct

Two more women have come forward to accuse Democratic senator Al Franken of sexual impropriety, according to reports on Thursday.

Stephanie Kemplin, an Ohio army veteran, told CNN that Franken groped her breast in 2003, while she was deployed in Kuwait and he was a comedian on a tour of the Middle East to entertain US troops.

Separately, a former elected official in New England, who requested anonymity, told the website Jezebel that Franken attempted to kiss her onstage at an event in 2006.

In total, six women have accused the Minnesota senator of sexual misconduct.

EPA Hosts the Beginning of the End of the Clean Power Plan in Coal Country

As the Trump administration continues down its warpath to eliminate environmental protections, it found a perfect venue for a planetary funeral party: the heart of coal country. The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday concluded a two-day hearing on its plan to repeal the Clean Power Plan — a 2015 rule that formed the centerpiece of the U.S. plan to reduce its emissions in line with the targets laid out in the Paris Agreement — in Charleston, West Virginia. And the irony was not lost on people who live there.

“I think the EPA decided to hold these hearings in Charleston because we are right in the heart of the coalfields. If the EPA thinks it’s going to come here and only hear from people who oppose the plan, I think they’re wrong,” said Karan Ireland, a Democratic member of Charleston City Council and an advocate for bringing more solar energy to the state.

“You can’t just stereotype the typical West Virginian,” Ireland, who testified against the repeal on Tuesday, told The Intercept. “It’s a difficult thing to talk about here,” she said of the plan. “It’s absolutely true that there are communities that have been devastated by the loss of coal jobs. As a West Virginian and a person who enjoys electricity, I respect and honor our heritage as a coal-producing state. Having said that, I believe the science on climate change.”

This week’s hearing is so far the only scheduled chance for the public to comment on the repeal. The Obama-era EPA, by contrast, held 11 public listening sessions before proposing the CPP, in addition to four public hearings during a public comment hearing on the plan.

Did a coal baron make his miners attend today’s EPA hearing?

Robert Murray, the founder and CEO of Murray Energy, America’s largest privately owned coal company, looked frail as he approached the dais in West Virginia’s capitol building for the EPA’s only public hearing on repealing the Clean Power Plan. Breathing through an oxygen tube, he argued that President Barack Obama’s signature climate change regulation would decimate the coal industry and ruin the lives of coal workers—more than 20 of whom were sitting in the hearing room dressed in full work gear, hardhats and all. “Thank you fellas for being here,” Murray said, “and God bless you.”

[S]eeing the coal workers in the hearing room in Charleston on Tuesday, I asked Murray if he had asked his employees to come. “No, I did not. They came on their own,” he said. “Their lives have been destroyed and they’re here because they wanted to be there. Nobody asked them to be here, and I certainly didn’t ask them to be here.” Later, as the coal workers filed out of the hearing room during a 15-minute break, I asked a Murray worker, Ryan Wilson, whether Murray had asked him to attend. “He did ask,” he said. “He asked for volunteers.”

Also of Interest

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

Is Trump Going to Lie Our Way Into War With Iran?

What’s Wrong with Talking to North Korea?

Trump retweets 5-year-old violent videos from Syria, Egypt

Trump’s Acting Directors Are Quietly Dropping “Acting” From Their Titles

Supreme Court Hears Arguments About Cellphone Location Tracking in Landmark Privacy Case

The Web Began Dying in 2014 – Here’s How

NSA Secretly Helped Convict Defendants in U.S. Courts, Classified Documents Reveal

Behind the Push for Catalonian Independence

Republicans Did the Same Thing in Oklahoma They Want to Do Nationally, and Democrats Swept Special Elections as a Result

A Little Night Music

Albert Collins - Put The Shoe On The Other Foot

Albert Collins - Too Many Dirty Dishes

Albert Collins - Soulroad

Albert Collins - Angel Of Mercy

Albert Collins - Master Charge

Albert Collins - My Woman Has A Black Cat Bone

Albert Collins - Collins Shuffle

George Thorogood & Albert Collins - Madison Blues