The Digger

This “U.S. coup manual,” recently  highlighted by WikiLeaks, serves as a reminder that the so-called “independence” of such financial institutions as The World Bank and IMF is an illusion and that they are among the many “financial weapons” regularly used by the U.S. government to bend countries to its will. WASHINGTON –  In a leaked military manual on “unconventional warfare” recently highlighted by WikiLeaks, the U.S. Army states that major global financial institutions — such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) — are used as unconventional, financial “weapons in times of conflict up to and including large-scale general war,” as well as in leveraging “the policies and cooperation of state governments.” The  document , officially titled “Field Manual (FM) 3-05.130, Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare” and originally written in September 2008, was   re...

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...

February 7, 2019 Introduction: There is a great deal of controversy about the true shape of the Venezuelan economy and whether Hugo Chavez’ and Nicholas Maduro’s reform and policies were crucial for the people of Venezuela or whether they were completely misguided and precipitated the current crises. Anybody and everybody seems to have very strong held views about this. But I don’t simply because I lack the expertise to have any such opinions. So I decided to ask one of the most respected independent economists out there, Michael Hudson, for whom I have immense respect and whose analyses (including those he co-authored with Paul Craig Roberts) seem to be the most credible and honest ones you can find. In fact, Paul Craig Roberts considers Hudson the “best economist in the world“! I am deeply grateful to Michael for his replies which, I hope, will contribute to a honest and objective understanding of what really is taking place in Venezuela. The Saker 1. Could you summari...

By Marjorie Cohn. This links to Alexander's NYT editorial, of course.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As a progressive Jew, I find that many of my family members and friends are still what we call “PEP” — progressive except Palestine. Amid ever-worsening injustices created by the Israeli system of apartheid and Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, it is past time for this to change. I am hopeful that the firestorm sparked by Michelle Alexander’s recent New York Times column , “Time to Break the Silence on Palestine,” will finally generate the heat necessary to force more people and groups on the left to overcome the fundamental hypocrisy of the “progressive except Palestine” approach. I was deeply inspired by Alexander’s column and her decision to speak so honestly about the difficulty of overcoming the fear of backlash over taking a public stand against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Striking a comparison between the risk taken by prominent critics of I...

Every day is going to be  Take Your Child to Work Day for the babies of some Vermont state employees, under a new Scott administration initiative. Gov. Phil Scott on Thursday launched an “Infants in the Workplace Program” for children between the ages of six weeks and six months old. life while allowing them to remain in the workforce if they choose to.” The governor touted the Infant in the Workplace program as an extension of his bi-state voluntary paid family leave program, which was announced last month with New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu. Democrats in the Vermont Legislature rejected the governor’s voluntary paid leave proposal out of hand. House and Senate Democratic leaders, which hold supermajorities in both chambers, are pushing for a mandatory paid leave system. Dan Pouliot, the deputy commissioner of the Vermont Department of Human Resources, said when the governor’s office called a little over a year ago asking him to look into the possibility of an Infant...

A little bathos: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SOTU update — Wed.Feb 6 Apparently, the new class of Democratic congresswomen think that they’re back in junior high school, since they all decided to dress alike in austere white costumes that signified… what? That they just came over from choir practice? That they’re all virgins (cough cough)? That all must be believed ? And about what? ( Everything .) For his part, and in his usually awkward way, Mr. Trump proffered the idea, at least, of conciliation, with an overlay of tough love. House speaker Nancy Pelosi glowered in torment and despair behind the rostrum as if she were acting out an Edvard Munch painting. Judging by their demeanor, the ladies-in-white think that a coherent immigration policy is the absolutely most ridiculous thing they ever heard. It’s pretty obvious that the Golden Golem of Greatness means business on this. He made it clear: “ten days.” Standing by on that. And then there was Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), up...

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