The Digger

The only way we'll defeat the foreign policy establishment is if the Left and Right can be brought together. By  ANDREW J. BACEVICH  •  March 8, 2019 Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) speaks at The American Conservative’s 5th Annual Foreign Policy Conference on Nov. 15, 2018.  Danny Delgado/Delgado Photos     This past week, I participated in a forum convened in Washington by Democrats of a decidedly progressive persuasion. The purpose of the gathering was to explore alternatives to the existing over-militarized pattern of U.S. foreign policy. Although a conservative, I have over the years come to admire more than a few progressives, even without necessarily sharing their views, especially on cultural matters. More to the point, I have long believed that the forging of a progressive-conservative coalition on America’s proper role in the world is a prerequisite for wresting control of U.S. policy from the existing and utterly hidebound national s...

Given a certain mood in a few local disqus threads the following two essays seemed aprops: Bernie Sanders: Just What Kind of Socialist? - LA Progressive Trump and Russia: What Can Go Wrong? Longish excerpt: Bernie Sanders: Just What Kind of Socialist? BY  WILLIAM BLUM  POSTED ON  FEBRUARY 5, 2016 "Self-described socialist” … How many times have we all read that term in regard to Vermont senator Bernie Sanders? But is he really a socialist? Or is he a “social democrat”, which is what he’d be called in Europe? Or is he a “democratic socialist”, which is the American party he has been a member of (DSA – Democratic Socialists of America)? And does it really matter which one he is? They’re all socialists, are they not? Why does a person raised in a capitalist society become a socialist? It could be because of a parent or parents who are committed socialists and raise their children that way. But it’s usually because the person has seen capitalism up c...

War Is  Not  Part of Human Nature War may not be in our nature after all By  R. Brian Ferguson   on   September 1, 2018 ° ° ° War Is Not Part of Human Nature - Scientific American

Link:   Green New Deal Advocates Should Address Militarism  — by Medea Benjamin, Alice Slater Excerpt: " Where is the call for the New Peace Deal that would free up hundreds of billions from the overblown military budget to invest in green infrastructure? Where is the call to close a majority of our nation’s over 800 military bases overseas, bases that are relics of World War II and are basically useless for military purposes? Where is the call for seriously addressing the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons? [...] Environmentalists need to contest the Pentagon’s staggering global footprint. The US military is the world’s largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels and the largest source of greenhouse gasses, contributing about 5 percent of global warming emissions. Almost 900 of the EPA’s 1,300 Superfund sites are abandoned military bases, weapons-production facilities or weapons-testing sites. The former Hanford nuclear weapons facility in Washingto...

Link:   The End of the Weekly Standard  — by Justin Raimondo Excerpt:  "The rumored demise of the  Weekly Standard  is yet another of Donald J. Trump’s achievements that will go uncelebrated by his liberal enemies: indeed,  they  are even  now  mourning the death of the neoconservative flagship. [...] Whither the neocons? A long time ago –  1999!  —  I predicted that they would abandon the GOP and go back to where they came from—the left, and the Democratic party. That proved to be correct, but this time around I think I’ll just wait and see what transpires – because, after all, where else can they go after this?"