The Digger

  The Official 2020 Democratic National Convention Drinking Game No one gets out of this thing sober Matt Taibbi 25 min 56 12 Imagine a four-day Zoom meeting in which the likes of John Kasich, Michael Bloomberg, and Nancy Pelosi warn you for the fifty through sixty millionth times about the “existential threat” of Donald Trump, and you come close to envisioning both hell on earth and what we’re all in for this week with the  Democratic Party’s Biden/Harris virtual coronation . The alternative is to start drinking early. The 2020 DNC represents the culmination of one of the most exhausting, repetitive, and depressing primary races America has seen. It was extreme both by number of candidates – the official count seems to be  29  – and by sheer quantity of identical-sounding rhetoric. The race from the start was itself like a giant drinking game, in which candidates were rewarded in polls for delivering the most pleasing versions of oft-repeated terms like “kids in cag...

Here is the Republican 2020 congressional battle plan. There are 51 Democrats on this hit list that Republicans intend to vigorously contest.  The results for the Trump/Clinton election for each district are provided as an indication of the potential boost that a presidential ticket could provide. So the question is whether the Republicans could take back the House in 2020? Even if Trump gets a 3% boost over 2016, it is unlikely that Republicans will scrape up enough votes to have a solid majority. It is most likely that House of Representatives will be closely split such that a handful of moderates could hijack the agenda. Alternatively it could also end up stalemated unable to even pass a budget. The next Democrat House still appears to be a California driven House with Trump unlikely to be helpful to recover those lost neocon Orange County districts. Expect the remaining Democrats to be even more radical in leadership as moderate Democrats take most of the losses. Do wa...

Link:  A Passionate Attachment, by Philip Giraldi - The Unz Review Excerpt: I predicted  three weeks ago  that the Senate bill on the Middle East, which was rejected three times while the government was shutdown, would quickly receive cloture by a comfortable margin to end debate and proceed to a full vote in the Senate after the federal bureaucracy reopened. That has  proven to be the case . Senate Bill S.1 was approved on January 29 th   76 for votes to 22 against . Every Republican voted for it, minus only Rand Paul and Jerry Moran, who did not vote. The Republicans were joined by 25 Democrats, all of whom had previous voted “no” to embarrass the White House over the shutdown. Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer, who has described himself as Israel’s protector in the Senate, switched his vote as did notoriously pro-Israel Senators Ben Cardin and Bob Menendez. The bill must now be passed by the Senate, which is certain to take place, before being se...

It all seems eerily familiar. Is this to be Maidan deja-vu all over again? The Kagans Are Back; Wars to Follow – Consortiumnews Robert Kagan’s Jungle Book of Forever War | The American Conservative The Neoconservative Comeback – LobeLog Excerpts: Venezuelan President Niсolas Maduro has called for early elections to the National Assembly – a legislative body dominated by the opposition and led by Juan Guaido who declared himself interim leader last week. Maduro’s statement comes as thousands are rallying in the streets of Caracas both in support of and against his government. • • • The regular parliamentary elections were expected to be held in Venezuela in 2020. However, Maduro said that the body needs to be  “re-legitimized”  as he addressed a large crowd of his supporters during a rally in Caracas. The president said that he would consult the Venezuelan Constituent Assembly – a body elected in 2017 to draft the new constitution – on the issue. ...

By Glenn Greenwald The Intercept 1/12/2019 “A core ethos of the anti-Trump #Resistance has become militarism, jingoism, and neoconservatism.” https://www.sott.net/article/404797-As-Democratic-elites-reunite-with-Neocons-the-partys-voters-are-becoming-far-more-militaristic-and-pro-war-than-Republicans

Excerpt: "On Dec. 21sthis nearsightedness emerges with even greater clarity. In order to secure $5 billion in funding for a completely unnecessary border wall Trump is willing to shut down the government just in time for Christmas. Forget the fact people don’t want it, and that it cannot get the votes to pass, the cost to taxpayers for a government shutdown is $6.5 billion per week. It is a repetition of his coercive practice. Trump has regularly used this terrorist tactic, earlier this year in an effort to block funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program is one example. But what if it is all much much worse? Trump is making everyone pay a huge price. His nuclear bomb on the economy could very well be another stunt. He has called himself a debt master, so I wouldn’t doubt that he has plans. He seems to have learned that destruction is easier than creation decades ago; he stole fortunes and left people in ruins by not paying his own bills. His echo chamber continues to...

“And it is clear that in the colonial countries the peasants alone are revolutionary, for they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The starving peasant, outside the class system is the first among the exploited to discover that only violence pays. For him there is no compromise, no possible coming to terms; colonization and decolonization is simply a question of relative strength.”  ―  Frantz Fanon,  The Wretched of the Earth And to the "Marxists" in these threads: “The unpreparedness of the educated classes, the lack of practical links between them and the mass of the people, their laziness, and, let it be said, their cowardice at the decisive moment of the struggle will give rise to tragic mishaps.”    ―  Frantz Fanon,  The Wretched of the Earth   How to take on fascism without getting played Excerpt: "Fascism grows in polarized times The growth of polarization makes it possible for haters to come out from the margin...

Excerpt: " Black Agenda Report has spent over a decade analyzing the numerous manifestations of the Obama family’s hatred of Black America. Michelle Obama is currently on a book tour of her latest release,   Becoming . The overpriced book is but another addition to the post-Obama Presidency family fortune. Barack and Michelle Obama have been busy building a   billionaire brand   with book deals and speaking arrangements with Wall Street. As Paul Street noted, the Obama Foundation is putting the donations of Wall Street corporations to good use   by opening a “library” in the heartland of Black Chicago. Just as during its tenure in the White House, the Obama family is profiting from the promotion of white supremacist policy and ideology directed against Black America. Nowhere is this clearer than in the very words that have come out of the mouths of both members of the Obama “power couple.” At a recent speaking event at the Barclay’s Center in New York City, Miche...

Excerpt: " On Friday, 139 Democrats joined with Republicans to pass a $717 billion National Defense Authorization Act, which included a rider preventing Trump from reducing the amount of U.S. imperialist troops on the Korean peninsula. This NDAA was approved on the 65th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the outright bombing and destruction of Korea, but didn’t end the U.S. war on the Korean people. Presidents in recent history have all helped the transnational ruling class loot more and more wealth. Obama’s recent Mandela lecture was a prime example of the cognitive dissonance—or perhaps outright fraud—of these servants of the ruling class. In his lecture, Obama described how globalization led to the politics of fear and resentment, but he wouldn’t acknowledge how global capitalism and his presidency created the conditions for it . BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka also spoke about Democratic Party warmongers and the backwardness of Russiagate in an episo...

" The whole focus of classical economics is to tax wealth not income, and obviously, the tax burden was going to fall on the wealthy, on the landlords first and foremost, then on the bankers and then on the monopolists. That was what socialism was, the idea of creating an economy with a circular flow that the taxes would be paid by the wealthy and the government would use this tax revenue to spend on infrastructure, schools, productive credit to help the economy and to make economies more competitive. It seems that in that sense socialism was going to be the most efficient capitalist economy." Two interviews with Bonnie Faulkner of Guns and Butter: "You can’t bail out the banks, leave the debts in place, and rescue the economy. It’s a zero-sum game. Somebody has to lose. That’s what happened in 2009 when President Obama came in. He invited the bankers to the White House and he said, “ I’m the only guy standing between you and the mob with pitchforks,” by whic...

"Political parties in the United States are nonideological, mass-based coalitions that by their very nature are best understood as vehicles for winning elections—nothing more and nothing less." Excerpt: "There are few controversies in American politics more enduring than the argument over whether the Democratic Party should be a “big tent” on the issue of abortion and welcome candidates and officials who oppose reproductive rights. The debate recurs every four years over the terms of the Democratic Party’s platform, and it simmers consistently beneath the surface of the party’s generally strong support for reproductive rights and access to abortion services. The controversy has flared with particular intensity in recent months in response to Sen. Bernie Sanders and DNC Chair Tom Perez offering their support to “prolife” Democratic mayoral candidate Heath Mello in Omaha, Nebraska. Perez backed down pretty quickly in the face of outrage among prochoice activists wit...

" Menendez – a Cuban-American whose legal defense from corruption charges was bankrolled by the pro-Israel lobby – joined his neoconservative colleagues in referring to Nicaragua’s democratically elected president, [in line with "socialist Bernie Sanders referring to Hugo Chavez as a "dead dictator" and lodging no disagreement regarding Nicaragua] Daniel Ortega, as a “dictator” who leads a “regime.” -  Every Single Member Of US Congress Approved Crushing Sanctions On Nicaragua | PopularResistance.Org Every Single Member of US Congress Approved Crushing Sanctions on Nicaragua -  https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/12/14/congress-sanctions-nicaragua-nica-act/

With a potential government shutdown just days away, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) dug in on Sunday, telling  Meet The Press  that President Trump is " not going to get the wall in any form ." Trump invokes Israel’s wall in tense budget negotiation with Pelosi and Schumer -  Trump invokes Israel’s wall in tense budget negotiation with Pelosi and Schumer - Jewish Telegraphic Agency  

By now, the response to such a headline: what else is new?! Two paragraphs deep, however, the lede: " According to  strategy documents obtained   by   The Intercept   and the watchdog group Documented, the private healthcare industry is working aggressively alongside corporate Democrats to spread   anti-single payer propaganda   and "minimize the potential" for Medicare for All as an alternative to the current for-profit status quo. Folks at the  @theintercept  got their hands on some documents that show how private insurers intend to join with centrists who want to confuse what single-payer and, specifically, what Medicare for All mean  https://t.co/fyYGYv7g9l   pic.twitter.com/y5t4CkiRGB — Chris Middleman (@_Middleman)  November 20, 2018 Directed by former Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton staffers and leading insurance industry lobbyists, an alliance called the Partnership for America's Health Care Future worked h...

Link:   USA – The World’s Invasion Nation   — by  Eric Zuesse Excerpt: "On November 29th, Gallup headlined  “Democrats Lead Surge in Belief US Should Be World Leader”  and reported that “Three-fourths (75%) of Americans today think the United States has ‘a special responsibility to be the leading nation in world affairs,’ up from 66% in 2010. The surge is driven by Democrats, whose belief in this idea has increased from 61% eight years ago to 81% now.” This finding comes even after the lie-based and catastrophic US invasions of Iraq in 2003, and of Libya in 2011 (and of so many others, such as Afghanistan, where the US and Sauds  created the Taliban  in 1979). Americans — now even increasingly — want ‘their’ (which is actually  America’s billionaires’)  Government to be virtually the world’s government, policing the world. They want this nation’s Government to be determining what international laws will be enforced around the ...