The New Pope and Other News

 

 

 

 

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the new Pope Francis I. There has been the Vatican conclave dealing with the new Pope.  In 1973, he was appointed Provincial of Argentina for the Jesuits. In this capacity, Bergoglio was the highest ranking Jesuit in Argentina during the military dictatorship led by General Jorge Videla (1976-1983). Later, he was bishop and archbishop of Buenos Aires. Pope John Paul II elevated him to the title of cardinal in 2001. The military junta relinquished power in 1983. Then, the duly elected President Raul Alfonsin set up a Truth Commission about the crime dealing with the Dirty War or La Guerra Sucia. The military juntas has been covertly aided or supported by Washington. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger played a behind the scenes role in the 1976 military coup. William Rogers was Kissinger's top deputy on Latin America. Rogers told Kissinger two days after the coup that: "...we’ve got to expect a fair amount of repression, probably a good deal of blood, in Argentina before too long.” … (National Security Archive, March 23, 2006). There has been March 2013 trial opened about Operation Condor. The trial in Buenos Aires wants to consider the totality of crimes carried out under Operation Condor. Operation Condor was a coordinated campaign by various U.S. backed Latin American dictatorships in the 1970's and the 1980's to hunt down, torture, and murder tens of thousands of opponents of those regimes. That program dealt with rendition and assassination. The military junta led by General Jorge Vidella was responsible for countless assassinations including priests and nuns who opposed military rule after the CIA sponsored March 24, 1976 coup, which overthrew the government of Isabel Peron. Videla was one of the numerous generals who were convicted of human rights crimes like “disappearances,” torture, murders and kidnappings. In 1985, Videla was sentenced to life imprisonment at the military prison of Magdalena. The military junta advanced neoliberal economic views. One of the military junta leaders was the Minister of Economy Jose Alfredo Martinez de Hoz (he was in the Argentina's business establishment). de Hoz was a close friend of David Rockefeller. The neoliberal macroeconomic policies from Martinez de Hoz came from the Chicago Boys. This was similar to the October 1973 in Chile by the Pinochet dictatorship. After the March 24, 1976 military coup, Argentineans suffered since wages were frozen by decree and real purchasing power decreased by more than 30 percent after the 1976 coup. Wall Street and the IMF determined the central bank monetary policy of Alfredo Martinez de Hoz. The Catholic Church and Wall Street were in league with the military junta of Argentina. They fought against the Peronista movement or the leftists. In 2005, human rights lawyer Myriam Bregman filed a criminal suit against Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, accusing him of conspiring with the military junta in the 1976 kidnapping of two Jesuit priests. Jorge back then ordered 2 leftist Jesuit priests to leave their work or they were fired (during the divisions on how to deal with the military junta). Grassroots Catholic opposed the dictatorship while the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church agreed with the military rule. In 2010, the survivors of the “Dirty War” accused Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of complicity in the kidnapping of two members of the Society of Jesus Francisco Jalics y Orlando Yorio. In the course of the trial initiated in 2005, “Bergoglio twice invoked his right under Argentine law to refuse to appear in open court, and when he eventually did testify in 2010, his answers were evasive." Orlando Yorio and Franscisco Jalics advanced liberation theology. Bergoglio suppoted the military Junta in Argentina. General Jorge Videla took communion from the then priest Jorge Mario Bergoglio. The General was a dictator. Thousands of innocent human beings died from the military junta from 1976 to 1983. 22,000 from 1976 to 1978 died from the junta as well. In the wake of the military coup in Chile on September 11, 1973, the Cardinal of Santiago de Chile, Raul Silva Henriquez openly condemned the military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet. The question is if the new Pope will advance the agenda of the war on terror. The new Pope will influence decisions in Latin America indeed.

 

The Watergate journalist Bob Woodward has sold out on many issues. I called him out on economics and other things. Now, he wants to advance warmongering against Iran. He wrote books favoring the Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan and ex-President George W. Bush. Woodward is angry over the number of U.S. nuclear strike capable aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. Bob Woodward is a veteran Navy intelligence analyst. He writes in the Washington Post. The issue is that the Navy is to pull aircraft carrier from Persian Gulf over budget worries. The text later came to reveal that the Navy is not pulling an aircraft carrier from the Persian Gulf. It was simply to sending a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf. This was part of a 2 carrier policy ordered by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in 2010. The policy spurs up debates in the world. Woodward wants more troops in the Middle East. On the MSNBC show”Morning Joe,”  on Feb. 27, Woodward accused President Obama of exhibiting “a kind of madness I haven’t seen in a long time” for having only one aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. Since the two-carrier policy dates from 2010, Woodward implies he hasn’t seen that kind of madness for almost three years, although he doesn’t say that. This is nonsense since militarization of the region was one of the reasons why we encounter so many tensions in the first place. Woodward believes that we should have a massive military buildup in the region despite our economic problems. We are increasing our debt and deficit massively because of the war on terror in general. We didn't protect our nation when we destroyed Iraqi infrastructure, the infrastructure of Nicaragua via secret wars, etc. It is madness to accept neo conservative deceptive ideology as Bob Woodward loves to accept. If it matters, why wasn’t Woodward on the case when the Navy announced the non-deployment decision three weeks earlier? Why did he wait till President Obama referred to it in a speech in Norfolk, Virginia, on Feb. 26, when he said, “The threat of these cuts has forced the Navy to cancel the deployment [of the aircraft carrier].” No Persian Gulf country was attacked when America attacked Iraq. The violence in Bahrain was caused by the government attacking its own people, because that government wants to reject progressive reforms. Bahrain is an U.S. ally and it is home to a U.S. Navy based. Washington is unconcerned with that. The 2012 deployment of aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf region came about when there was the issue of Iran's nuclear program (and the West supporting military operations in Afghanistan including anti-piracy efforts off Somalia’s coast, in the Gulf of Aden, etc.). The 2012 deployment came just before scheduled talks with Iran about nuclear issues. The current non-deployment came just before scheduled seven-nation talks with Iran about nuclear issues. By not sending the second carrier, is the Obama administration signaling a more peaceful message to Iran? Time will tell. Yet, the White House has displayed their war mongering rhetoric against Iran for years including their advancement of murdering sanctions against Iran as well. Bob Woodward has sold out to extremists in Washington that want the Middle East to be made in the image of colonies run by an Empire. Woodward believes in the austerity agenda of some Grand Bargain.

 

 

The truth always comes out. President Hugo Chavez died on March 5, 2013 of cancer at age 58. He is interrelated with the history of Venezuela and Latin America. There are tons of facts about him and the Bolivarian Revolution. Hugo Chavez won 15 out of the 16 recent elections in Venezuela including the one on October 7, 2012. He defeated his rivals with a margin of 10-20 percentage points. This outlined an incontestable democratic legitimacy. Groups from the European Union, the Organization of American States, to the Union of South American Nations, and the Carter Center unanimous recognized the transparency of the vote counts. James Carter, former U.S. President, declared that Venezuela’s electoral system was “the best in the world.”  Universal access to education was introduced to Venezuela in 1998 with great results. About 1.5 million Venezuelans learned to read and write thanks to the literacy campaign called Mission Robinson I. Even in December of 2005, UNESCO said that Venezuela had eradicated illiteracy. The number of children attending school increased from 6 million in 1998 to 13 million in 2011 and the enrollment rate is now 93.2%.Mission Robinson II was launched to bring the entire population up to secondary level. Thus, the rate of secondary school enrollment rose from 53.6% in 2000 to 73.3% in 2011. With regard to health, they created the National Public System to ensure free access to health care for all Venezuelans. Between 2005 and 2012, 7873 new medical centers were created in Venezuela. The infant mortality rate fell from 19.1 per thousand in 1999 to 10 per thousand in 2012, which was a reduction of 49%.   From 1999 to 2011, the poverty rate decreased from 42.8% to 26.5% and the rate of extreme poverty fell from 16.6% in 1999 to 7% in 2011. In the rankings of the Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP), Venezuela jumped from 83 in 2000 (0.656) at position 73 in 2011 (0.735), and entered into the category Nations with ‘High HDI’. The GINI coefficient, which allows the calculation of inequality in a country, fell from 0.46 in 1999 to 0.39 in 2011. Child malnutrition was reduced by 40% since 1999. Social expenditures increased by 60.6% under President Chavez. Since 1999, 700,000 homes have been built in Venezuela. The minimum wage increased from 100 bolivars ($ 16) in 1998 to 247.52 bolivars ($ 330) in 2012, i.e. an increase of over 2,000%. This is the highest minimum wage in Latin America. Five million children now receive free meals through the School Feeding Programme. The figure was 250,000 in 1999. The nationalization of the oil company PDVSA in 2003 allowed Venezuela to regain its energy sovereignty. Thousands of cooperatives have been created in all sectors of the economy. The list goes on and on about the benefits in Venezuela with the influence from Hugo Chavez. In 2005, during his first interview in the United States, Chavez said: “When we were children, we were told that we have a motherland, and that motherland was Spain. However, we have discovered later, in our lives, that as a matter of fact, we have several motherlands. And one of the greatest motherlands of all is no doubt, Africa. We love Africa. And every day we are much more aware of the roots we have in Africa…. Katrina is—indeed, has a lot to do with racism–no doubt about it. Hate against me has a lot to do with racism. Because of my big mouth, because of my curly hair. And I’m so proud to have this mouth and this hair, because it’s African.” Enough said. He tried to help black people in the world from the victims of Katrina too others. He tried to assist Mozambique. Anytime a human being tries to help Africa via independent means without Western approval, you are a threat to the establishment. In this battle against white supremacy, they or the enemy will always attack populist leaders that refuse to go along with imperialism and plunder of innocent nations in the world. Ironically, over the past 18 months, four progressive leaders of Latin Americans have been diagnosed with cancer. These human beings include the 60 year old Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo diagnosed with a tumor of the lymphatic system, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva being diagnosed with larynx cancer, and others. When you go against the establishment, the establishment tries to stop you literally. I don't know yet if Chavez was killed by a bioweapon, but such weapons are real.

 

 

There is a lot of information about JFK and his assassination that we must continue to remember. JFK was not directly descended from the Blue Bloods, but Joseph Kennedy was a Knight of Malta and Knights of Malta have strong international power just like the Order of the Garter too. According to the "The Fourteen Minute Gap" by Rex Bradford at the Mary Ferrell Foundation site, J. Edgar Hoover once told LBJ that the evidence was not strong enough against Oswald to get a conviction (and like Nicholas Katzenbach, said that the public needed to be assured Oswald was the lone assassin. We know some 14 minutes of tape were removed from a conversation Hoover had with Johnson). According to Summers' "Official and Confidential on pgs. 413-414, Hoover said that the United States government would be rocked to the core by the real truth about the Kennedy murder and he would call the case a mess and a lot of loose ends. Lyndon Baines Johnson even in 1969 has doubts on the sole gunmen view of the JFK assassination. In 1967 Johnson remarked to aide Marvin Watson that the "CIA had something to do with this plot." (Summers, Official and Confidential, p. 414.) Leo Janos' Atlantic Monthly article "The Last Days of The President: LBJ in Retirement", which was printed in July of 1973 two years after Johnson's death, provides us with perhaps the starkest appraisal of Johnson's mindset in later life: "During coffee, the talk turned to President Kennedy, and Johnson expressed his belief that the assassination in Dallas had been part of a conspiracy". A little later Johnson said "I never believed that Oswald acted alone, although I can accept that he pulled the trigger." Johnson said that when he had taken office he found that "we had been operating a d_---- Murder Inc. in the Caribbean." (Atlantic Monthly, July 1973). We know that Washington had great official contempt for New Orleans DA Jim Garrison. There were congressional inquiries, such as the 1975 Church Committee review by Senators Richard Schweiker and Gary Hart into the failure of the FBI and CIA to fully inform the Warren Commission of relevant facts. Then, there was the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), which was in session from 1976-79 and concluded that there likely was a second gunman in Kennedy’s murder. So, we know it is a reactionary myth that President John F. Kennedy is to be blamed for all of the Bay of Pigs fiasco and trying to further militarize the war in Vietnam (when he wanted a withdrawal of advisers from Vietnam). There was the 1954 Operation Vulture. This plan was created by President Eisenhower, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, CIA Director Allen Dulles, and Vice President Richard Nixon to relieve the doomed French garrison surrounded by Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu. Later, the plan calls for the flying of over 150 American air sorties to include the usage of three tactical atomic weapons. Senator Kennedy rose up and challenged the Secretary of State directly. JFK said that the Dulles policy is obsolete in the face of guerilla warfare. He said that the human beings in Vietnam had strong support for Ho Chi Minh and no atomic weapon can solve this issue. JFK was never some radical Cold Warrior and he had many differences ideologically with Richard Nixon. Also, by 1963, JFK did not want Castro dead only the reactionaries and extremists did. In fact, months before his November 22, 1963 assassination, he was sending out peace feelers to Castro. JFK told the Russians in October of 1962 that he wanted no invasion of Cuba. He wanted détente with Cuba and the Soviet Union. Real books that discuss about the real President John F. Kennedy can be found in JFK: Ordeal in Africa, The Kennedy Tapes, Battling Wall Street, and JFK and Vietnam. There are so many others too like JFK and the Unspeakable. JFK led his bold an unprecedented firings of CIA Director Allen Dulles, Deputy Director Charles Cabell, and Director of plans Richard Bissell.

 

 

CPAC of 2013 is a controversial conference to say the least. Many of the college age kids were in the conference. This is a political conference since CPAC means Conservative Political Action Committee. There is no evidence that the free market is neither perfect nor divine. There is no evidence that trickled down economics is divine or that war mongering is great to adhere to at all. The conference stands for the Republican agenda. Those in that conference want to focus on the next generation of conservatives. Their title is about "America's Future: The Next Generation of Conservatives." Their meeting includes a lot of fear mongering, rumors, and ad hominem attacks with those that disagree with them. There has been controversy in that event. There has been one CPAC participant that tried to defend slavery, which is sick and immoral. One audience member lied and said that slavery was good for African Americans. This was in National Harbor, Maryland. The audience member was 30 year old Scott Terry from North Carolina. After the presenter, K. Carl Smith of Frederick Douglass Republicans, answered by referencing a letter by Frederick Douglass forgiving his former master, the audience member said “For what? For feeding him and housing him?” Several people in the audience cheered and applauded Terry’s outburst. That is CPAC for you. It is one thing to be a conservative for whatever reason. It is quite a another to try to defend any portion of the Maafa. Like usual, Terry had a Rick Santorum sticker, wore a Confederate flag emblazoned t-shirt, and wanted segregation too occur in America. He said that he wanted black human beings to be subservient to whites. This racist mentality is common among numerous members of CPAC and the Tea Party movement. Even an African American audience member was challenged in the event by bigots in the event. The token K. Carl Smith tried to blame a black reporter instead of the white racist audience member for the whole controversy. That is typical for folks like that. The reporter just asked a question, which she had every right to do. You know why I could never be a Republican or a CPAC supporter. Well, there you go. The reality is that slavery is always wrong and all men are created equal. Now, Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, and other spoke in the CPAC event as well. When you look at the truth, the truth is apparent and abundant. Paul Ryan's budget is nothing more than the reiteration of his previous offerings that includes huge cuts to Pell Grants including necessary parts of the social safety net.  The GOP is in a crossroads. They can oppose the Violence against Women Act or go into the 21st century. They can follow the McCarthyite views of Cruz or embrace tolerable, accurate thinking. Now, it is not just one party involved in evil. The UN recently said that the U.S. drone war in Pakistan violates international law.

 

 

By Timothy