The Digger

I've made myself clear that I'm no avid Counterpunch fan these days, being generally disturbed by Jeffrey St Clair's taste in authors and what that means regarding where he's attempting to steer "the left." So I would have missed this tidbit if a friend had not emailed it to me from St Clair's  Roaming Charges: You Go Back, Jack, Do It Again : "+ Truthdig, one of the few progressive sites willing to call out the Russiagate hysteria, challenge the Democratic Party hierarchy and donor class and lift up the voices of the Palestinians in the face of Israeli war crimes, is imploding. "The publisher, Zuade Kaufman, who has lent the site an estimated two or three million dollars, has had bitter clashes with the legendary Editor-in-Chief and the co-owner of the site, Robert Scheer, over the past few months.  Their disputes, staff members say, revolve around Kaufman’s desire to make the site more mainstream and commercially viable by catering t...

In the times of social decay, the differences between establishment “reality” and true reality become acute and starkly visible to anyone who cares to see. The fight for “reality” has never before been on display as it has been the last few years. Reality, fabricated and otherwise, is viewed as differently as there are egos to corral. For the loyal herd, today’s “reality”, the establishment, is one of two things: 1) a scary place of right-wing white nationalism about to take over with the help of its Russian master, or 2) a scary place of left-wing identity fascism dominating a society that has, somewhere along the line, come under the command of socialists, Bolsheviks or other undefined communists hell bent on civil war just because. Take the words of Democratic shill Michael Moore stoking both sides. Here’s what he said in a recent Rolling Stone interview: Anytime you see three white guys walking at you — down the street toward you — two of them voted for Trump, you ...

Once in a while I actually read a Louis Proyect article to try to disabuse myself of the notion that Counterpunch has sold out pretty much entirely, and the Proyect article discussed below is one of them, so I was grateful that Steppling put some focus into his similar disgust and wrote this excellent article. - EH Capitalists are no more capable of self-sacrifice than a man is capable of lifting himself up by his own bootstraps. — Vladimir Lenin 1 Many on the left seem to have forgotten that capitalism is actually bad. That the reason the planet sinks under the weight of pollution and militarism is because of capitalism. Nothing that works within the capitalist system is going to save anyone and will only reinforce the existing problems and further the suffering of the poor and disenfranchised. Now allow to me first start with a few observations on writers published by leftist sites, in this case  Counterpunch , actually. Louis Proyect titles  his piece as a ques...

20 December 2019 One day after the US House of Representatives adopted two articles of impeachment against President Trump, the House passed Trump’s top policy priority for 2019, the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, by a massive bipartisan margin. The vote was 385-41, with 193 Democrats and 192 Republicans supporting it. The USMCA, assuming it passes the Senate next year, would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which took effect under the administration of Democrat Bill Clinton 25 years ago. The purpose of the measure is to tighten the coordination of economic and trade policy between the United States and its northern and southern neighbors, so as to constitute a stronger trade bloc directed against China in particular, as well as other capitalist rivals like Japan and the European Union. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an agreement on the USMCA last week after months of talks with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, in which the Democrat...

Jeremy Corbyn lost the election but one of his political friends, the progressive Mexican leader named Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has been in power for one year. He is carrying out the plans and priorities described in his 2018 book, “New Hope for Mexico.” With 129 million people, Mexico is the 10th most populous country in the world. It has the largest population of any Spanish speaking country and is twice the size of the United Kingdom.  From 2000 to 2005 Lopez Obrador was head of government for Mexico City. He left office with an 84 percent approval rating according to one study, having implemented 80 percent of his campaign pledges. In 2006, he ran for the presidency as the candidate of the PRD (Party of Democratic Revolution). The election was extremely controversial, with 49 percent of the population believing it was rigged against Lopez Obrador. Felipe Calderón was declared the winner. In 2012, AMLO ran for president again. And again there were widespread “...