The Digger

Excerpt: In his masterpiece,  Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II , William Blum, who died in December 2018, wrote chapter-length accounts of 55 U.S. regime change operations against countries around the world, from China (1945-1960s) to Haiti (1986-1994).  Noam Chomsky’s blurb on the back of the latest edition says simply, “Far and away the best book on the topic.” We agree. If you have not read it, please do. It will give you a clearer context for what is happening in Venezuela today, and a better understanding of the world you are living in. Since Killing Hope was published in 1995, the U.S. has conducted at least 13 more regime change operations, several of which are still active: Yugoslavia; Afghanistan; Iraq; the 3rd U.S. invasion of Haiti since WWII; Somalia; Honduras; Libya; Syria; Ukraine; Yemen; Iran; Nicaragua; and now Venezuela. William Blum noted that the U.S. generally prefers what its planners call “low intensity conf...

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. ...

Excerpt: The Neocons who Trump has appointed are accomplishing what seemed unthinkable not long ago: Driving China and Russia together – the great nightmare of Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski. They also are driving Germany and other European countries into the Eurasian orbit, the “Heartland” nightmare of Halford Mackinder a century ago. The root cause is clear: After the crescendo of pretenses and deceptions over Iraq, Libya and Syria, along with our absolution of the lawless regime of Saudi Arabia, foreign political leaders are coming to recognize what world-wide public opinion polls reported even before the Iraq/Iran-Contra boys turned their attention to the world’s largest oil reserves in Venezuela: The United States is now the greatest threat to peace on the planet. Calling the U.S. coup being sponsored in Venezuela a defense of democracy reveals the Doublethink underlying U.S. foreign policy. It defines “democracy” to mean supporting U.S. foreign policy, purs...

Venezuela. Is there any difference? Link:  When Is a Democracy not a Democracy? When It’s Venezuela and the US is Pushing Regime Change Just another group of people for the world elites to exploit. ---- Hurrah for global, anti racist and anti-xenophobic, liberal-progressivism! And this:   John Bolton Openly Admits He Wants Maduro Out, American Oil Companies In | Zero Hedge

Excerpt: Meanwhile, the neocon metamorphosis is nearly complete as many of the neocons, who started out as Democrats, have returned home, where they are being welcomed for their hardline foreign policy viewpoint. Glenn Greenwald  reports that , based on polling of party supporters, the Democrats have gone full-Hillary and are now by far more hawkish than the Republicans, unwilling to leave either Syria or Afghanistan. The neocon survival and rejuvenation is particularly astonishing in that they have been wrong about virtually everything, most notably the catastrophic Iraq War. They have never been held accountable for anything, though one should note that accountability is not a prominent American trait, at least since Vietnam. What is important is that neocon views have been perceived by the media and punditry as being part of the Establishment consensus, which provides them with access to programming all across the political spectrum. That is why neocon standard-bearers lik...

" 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/

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?"