The Digger

  June 28, 2019 " Information Clearing House " -     Children who die in this way suffer immensely as their vital organ functions slow down and eventually stop. Their immune systems are so weak they are more prone to infections with some too frail to even cry. Parents are having to witness their children wasting away, unable to do anything about it.— Tamer Kirolos , Save the Children’s Country Director in Yemen. Some Context Remember the “Arab Spring,” that misleading, Euro-centric term used to characterize a period of dramatic political change in the Middle East? It began in late 2010 in Tunisia when an impoverished fruit and vegetable vendor set himself on fire in front of a government building. The young man—   Mohamed Bouazizi—was the sole provider for his widowed mother and six siblings. The local police wanted to see his vendor’s permit; he didn’t have one. So they attempted to confiscate his cart. Mr. Bouazizi resisted; the cart was his sole m...

"Chants of “Free Chelsea Manning!” rang out on the streets of Baltimore during the city’s annual LGBTQ2S Pride Parade on June 15. Members of the Peoples Power Assembly, Baltimore Peace Action, Struggle-La Lucha, the Socialist Unity Party and Youth Against War and Racism formed an anti-imperialist contingent in this year’s parade. Carrying a banner highlighting both Chelsea Manning and Marielle Franco, which included large pictures of both women, the contingent raised the call to free Manning and honor the name of Franco, a Brazilian queer activist who was murdered for organizing in opposition to the ultraright in that country. The banner drew much applause along the march route. Many people joined the chants to free Chelsea Manning, with some pumping their fists into the air. The anti-imperialist contingent set the political tone of the parade, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, when trans people of color along with other LGBTQ2S patrons of the ...

By Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture June 28, 2019  I know, you may think I am deluded. How could life in an Embassy with a cat and a skateboard ever amount to torture? That’s exactly what I thought, too, when Assange first appealed to my office for protection. Like most of the public, I had been subconsciously poisoned by the relentless smear campaign, which had been disseminated over the years. So it took a second knock on my door to get my reluctant attention. But once I looked into the facts of this case, what I found filled me with repulsion and disbelief. Surely, I thought, Assange must be a rapist! But what I found is that he has never been charged with a sexual offence. True, soon after the US had encouraged allies to find reasons to prosecute Assange, two women made the headlines in Sweden. One of them claimed he had ripped a condom, and the other that he had failed to wear one, in both cases during consensual intercourse — not exactly scenarios th...

My favorite moment in the Wednesday night “B” Team installment of the Democratic primary debates was Julian Castro’s “defense” of transgender abortion rights. Say what…? I almost dropped my bag of Dinamita Mojo Criollo Doritos. Did that really come out of Little Julian’s mouth? Apparently so. But how does it actually work? Like, say, in theory, someone “transitioning” from female-to-male gets inadvertently knocked-up after a (perhaps mistaken) romantic encounter with an actual man and has to, you know, get rid of the  little problem  zhe has acquired? Could be… but is this a relatively common occurrence down San Antone way? And how might it apply in male-to-female trans cases of merely hysterical pregnancy? Sounds like something that the  auteur  Guillermo Del Toro might have fun with. Such are the thorny issues of “reproductive justice” that dot the arid terrain of Progressive Thought — like unto the poisonous fruit of the sacred datura bush in the Sonoran Deser...

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14560 Plans allegedly included the assassination of President Maduro. Caracas, June 27, 2019 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government has reportedly dismantled a plan to stage a violent putsch in recent days. Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez revealed on Wednesday that a large scale plan was set to be executed on June 23 or 24. The operation allegedly included the assassination of President Nicolas Maduro, National Constituent Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, and other high-ranking officials. Maduro condemned the latest plot, accusing the opposition of looking to seize power through a “bloodbath.” “They talked about a killing spree that could last two or three days,” Maduro said during a televised event. “How can a better country emerge from all that death?” he asked. Venezuelan authorities claim to be in possession of 56 hours of intercepted communications, as well as confessions from several accused plott...

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/06/27/cia-finances-another-group-of-fraudsters-venezuelan-opposition/ Once again, the Central Intelligence Agency has been caught financing a group of grifters and fraudsters at the expense of the American taxpayers. In the latest case, just another in the agency’s 72-year history, the Trump administration-appointed ad hoc board of CITGO, the US subsidiary of the state-owned Venezuelan oil company, PDVSA, stands accused of steering $70 million of escrowed funds, earmarked for PDVSA’s fiscal year 2020 bond, to the pockets of CIA-supported officials of the Venezuelan opposition “Popular Will” party headed by the so-called “interim president” of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó. In addition to Guaidó, who is accused by the legitimate Venezuelan government of money laundering, treason, and corruption, other Popular Will leaders under investigation by both the Venezuelan Attorney General and the US Justice Department include Carlos Vecchio, Guaid...