The 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings

 

 

Everyone is talking about the events in Boston. On April 15, 2013, there were two pressure cooker explosions that happened during the Boston Marathon. The events were unjustified and tragic. All of us send our condolences and prayers to the victims and their families. This event is complex and vague at the same time. Things have moved quickly about the event, but we do not yet know who is responsible for these demented actions. So far, unfortunately, the bombs killed three people and injured more than 183 human beings. The bombs were placed near the finish line along Boylston Street. They detonated at 2:50 pm EST in about 12 seconds apart. Heroism is characterized by this event as well. The reason is that citizens including the runners came to assist the victims of this tragedy. There were doctors who flown by other locations into the Boston area as a means to treat as many lives as possible. Numerous victims suffered limbs being gone, ruptured eardrums, and shrapnel wounds. From New York, D.C., Chicago, London, and other cities of the world, security has stepped up their presence. There are still mysteries and a whole lot of questions about this event. One Boston Marathon eyewitness and participant named Alastair Stevenson said that drills were taking place during the morning of the Boston Marathon (complete with bomb squads and rooftop snipers). This is what Alastair detailed about what went on before the race started: "At the start at the event, at the Athlete’s Village, there were people on the roof looking down onto the Village at the start. There were dogs with their handlers going around sniffing for explosives, and we were told on a loud announcement that we shouldn’t be concerned and that it was just a drill. And maybe it was just a drill, but I’ve never seen anything like that — not at any marathon that I’ve ever been to. You know, that just concerned me that that’s the only race that I’ve seen in my life where they had dogs sniffing for explosions, and that’s the only place where there had been explosions.” There is footage of a person placing a bag near a location where the second explosion took place. Federal authorities are taking bomb related objects. The FBI is releasing photos of the bomb parts. Officials use surveillance video from a Department store in the investigation of the event. We know that there is a threat of extremism where some are exploiting this tragedy as a means to harm civil liberties via laws and other policies. Since September 11, 2001, numerous terror related laws have violated human rights from the Patriot Act to the NDAA. Even now, we witness militarized police and literally soldiers wielding machine guns (riding around in armored vehicles). We have militarized security, warrantless wiretapping, invasive anti-constitutional searches, TSA humiliating pat downs at airports, and other tyrannies. Yet, these things were ineffective in stopping the bombings inside of the city of Boston. CBS News reported that Homeland Security warned about pressure cooker bombs as far back as nine years ago. The metal pressure can be a means to cause deadly carnage. In 2004 a memo titled “Potential terrorist use of pressure cookers” alerted border inspectors, agents, law enforcement officers and other first-responders that the seemingly-innocuous items could be used to create improvised explosive devices (IEDs).The memo says the bomb-making technique is commonly taught in Afghan terrorist training camps – and had already led to bombing casualties. Meanwhile, the police state grows in home. There has been ricin filled letters and another strange letter sent to Senators and to the President of the United States of America Barack Obama. The United States Capitol Police and FBI are investigating this matter. This comes during the time of the gun debate, the aftermath of the bombings in Boston, and it is similar to the 2001 anthrax attacks (or when deadly letters being sent to elected representatives and newsrooms in the days after 9/11. I was a freshman in college during those days). I don't know if this event was a false flag conclusively, but false flags have occurred (like in Operation Ajax, Operation Gladio, the Dirty War, the Gleiwitz incident, etc.). Human beings have the right to ask questions and deserve the truth.


The political world is interesting. Now, even Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco is now saying that the chained CPI is not a cut to Social Security. Pelosi represents San Francisco. The reality is that it is regardless of what others say. The Wall Street interests back the current administration and previous ones too. Likewise, there has been some 37 Democratic members of the House of Representatives have sent a letter to President Barack Obama to: "promise to vote against any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits -- including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustments that our constituents earned and need.”  These individuals represent less than half of the 80 member Progressive Caucus. These are some of the strongest supporters of these entitlements. We will see if their goal will be successful or not. The newly elected Senator Elizabeth Warren form Massachusetts said that she was shocked at the President's proposal. Yet, during the last fall's Presidential campaign, he said that he wants so-called reforms to Social Security and Medicare. Warren is correct to mention about the CPI in these terms: “chained CPI is just a fancy way to say cut benefits for seniors, the permanently disabled, and orphans…. Two-thirds of seniors rely on Social Security for most of their income; one-third rely on it for at least 90% of their income…. We can't chip away at America's middle class and break the promise we make to our seniors.”  That is why we need to pressure Congressmen and Congresswomen like Warren to use holds, a filibuster, and nay legal means to stop cuts in the economic rights of Americans. Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island rejected Obama's proposal since the chained CPI proposal will cut needed services. Democratic Senator Thomas Harkin of Iowa and Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont don't agree with the plans as well. This CPI plan will harm disabled veterans and their survivors according to Sanders. This austerity agenda is wrong, because as former Clinton Labor Secretary and economist Robert Reich said, Social Security is legally separate from the federal budget. That means that Social Security should not be include in haggling over deficits and debate. So, cutting the Social Security benefits will not do anything to reduce the overall federal deficit. We have Wall Street Democrats like Durbin, Schumer and other vs. more populist Democrats like Elizabeth Warren, Marcy Kaptur, and others. We know that reactionary Republicans like House Speaker John Boehner want genocidal cuts and privatization for America's social insurance program. On April 9, there has been an anti-austerity demonstration in front of the White House. 2.3 million signatures have been gathered by several organizations as a means to issue a strong opposition to any cuts.  This petition reads in part: “President Obama, do not propose Social Security and Medicare benefit cuts in your budget. It’s wrong and it’s not what we voted for. We will fight to kill any bill in Congress that includes cuts to these benefits.” One of the petition’s main backers is Social Security Works, a group which claims one million members. Their speaker pointed out that the COLA is already too stingy, and that recipients of reminded every year that they are being unfairly treated. Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida wants the White House to not cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The UFAA or the United Front against Austerity is adamantly opposed to any and all austerity cuts. They want a 1% Wall Street sales tax on all financial transactions including on stocks, bonds, exchange traded derivatives, and over-the-counter derivatives. In the final analysis, we know the truth. We have to advance immigrant rights, no second class citizenship for any human, voting rights for human beings of color, and giving the poor real liberty.

 

 

There has been Wikileaks cables have confirmed that there was collusion between the Vatican and dictators. Julian Assange's Wikileaks released a new archive of 1.3 million diplomatic cables and intelligence records last Monday. They are called the Kissinger Cables from 1973 to 1976. The database shows documents that details the ruthless operations led by the U.S. worldwide. This was during the era where there was an offensive against progressive movements and others were waging counterattacks. The cables show numerous diplomatic communications between the Vatican and dictatorial regimes from Chile's Augusto Pinochet to Argentina's Jorge Rafael Videla including Spain's Francisco Franco. Now, on September 11, 1973, there was a CIA backed coup (led by General Pinochet. Pinochet overthrew the elected government of President Salvador Allende. In Pinochet's 17 year dictatorship, thousands of left-wing activists, students, trade unionists and anyone suspected of opposing Chilean and international capital were killed or disappeared by the regime). Hundreds of thousands were jailed and tortured, or sent into exile. The criminal operations of killing dissidents of fascists in Latin America was called Operation Condor or the Caravan of Death. Chilean workers especially understand this issue. Pinochet was a terrible war criminal. He wanted to destroy the working class by advancing privatization and deregulation (which benefits the oligarchy primarily and not the people). President Richard Nixon and his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger allocated $8 million for the campaign to destabilize Allende. While maintaining an appearance of liberal reforms and a more relaxed policy toward the USSR initiated by John XXIII, the Vatican, led by Pope Paul VI, lent support to the Chilean dictator. There is a cable dated October 18, 1973. It showed that Archbishop Giovanni Benelli or the Vatican Deputy of State denied the crimes committed by Pinochet's junta. He expressed the views that: “his and Pope’s grave concern over successful international leftist campaign to misconstrue completely realities of Chilean situation.” More precisely, the cable documents Benelli’s view on the “exaggerated coverage of events as possibly greatest success of communist propaganda, and highlighted fact that even moderate and conservative circles seem quite disposed to believe grossest lies about Chilean junta’s excesses.” His source of information was Cardinal Raúl Silva, a staunch opponent of communism. According to the cable, “Cardinal Silva and Chilean Episcopate in general have assured Pope Paul that junta making every effort to return to normal and those stories alleging brutal reprisals in international media secret are unfounded.” This is ironic information since Silva and Paul VI himself were promoted as progressives at the time, but the truth is different. Benelli states that “validity and sincerity of Cardinal Silva cannot be challenged since Silva is known internationally as one of Church’s leading progressives who, moreover, gave tacit support to President Allende.” So, some in the Vatican have denied Pinochet's crimes. There were political changes in Chile. Allende was scapegoated as the sole reason for Chile's economic troubles. There were American blockades, strikes, and multinational exploitation of Chilean resources which influenced heavily Allende's economic reality. In November of 1973, another document talks about negotiations for the renewal and revision of the Concordat, originally signed in 1953, between the Vatican and the fascist regime of Francisco Franco in Spain, which effectively rejected the principle of separation between state and Church. Archbishop Agostino Casaroli—the Vatican’s Secretary of Public Affairs at the time and another “ Ostpolitik reformist” figure that developed new relations with Eastern European countries in an attempt to boost the Church’s influence in more leftist nations. A cable dated November 7, 1973 states that a “difference of views between the Vatican and the Spanish Episcopate is on the fundamental question of whether there should be a new Concordat negotiated.” The record shows that the Episcopate was “amenable to partial accords or revisions of the 1953 one, since they believe a new Concordat might once again associate the Church with the regime” while they are “trying to disassociate the Church from the GoS [Government of Spain] in the eyes of the Spanish public.” The Vatican, according to cables, had close ties between Navy Admiral Emilio Massera (a key accomplish in Spain's Videla's coup. He overthrew President Isabel Peron or the wife of former President Juan Peron). Videla ran a brutal police state. He adopted free market economic policies, which were similar to Pinochet's actions. A cable dated November 7, 1975 reveals that Laghi “talked with Admiral Massera early November 5 on same subject [President Perón], and recently with many other participants. Nuncio [Laghi]’s analysis was that Mrs. Perón must leave as soon as possible by leave of absence, resignation, or golpe " Golpe means coup. Videla's regime killed, tortured, jailed, or disappeared dissidents. Pio Laghi was a friend of Massera. In a cable dated May 14, 1974, Laghi is depicted as “highly educated, personable, speaks excellent English, and is well disposed toward the United States.” So, the Vatican cannot lie this time around because there is documented evidence of them aiding reactionaries and terrorist theocrats for centuries.



There are enumerable benefits from using a treadmill in the duration of thirty minutes. There is an issue of health in the United States and the world. The Centers for Disease Control Prevention or the CDC have issued specific guidelines. One of them is that the CDC believes that all adults should get at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise each week or about 30 minutes a day, five days a week. One way in achieving that goal is to use a treadmill. Experts believe that when someone uses it for only 30 minutes a day and five days a week, it can give human beings numerous health benefits. One benefit is weight loss. When a person uses a treadmill, there is an increase amount of energy being expended by the muscles. In order to keep moving, the body creates new energy by accessing calories that have been recently consumed through food. When these calories are not available, hormones are released. This activates the breakdown of fat in the adipose tissue. When this action is combined with oxygen, there is a creation of energy via aerobic respiration. As the fat is burned and the byproducts are eliminated from the body, there is noticeable weight loss on the scale. Treadmill exercises can improve human lungs. There is an increasing need for oxygen as a human being exercise on the treadmill when it comes to aerobic respiration. The oxygen is provided by the lungs. As oxygen needs increase, your respiratory rate increases as well. This will cause more inhaling of oxygen per minute, which is then transferred into the bloodstream. The increase in lung activity strengthens the lungs, increasing your overall lung capacity. Research from the National Cancer Institute suggests that regular exercise can increase the health of the lungs, possibly reducing your risks for developing lung cancer. Treadmill exercises can help the human heart as well. When there is an increase of oxygen in the blood, there comes a need to transport the oxygen to the necessary cells at an increased rate. This forces the heart to pump faster, strengthening it in process. The strength reduces how hard the heart has to work to pump blood through your body even during times of rest, which can significantly reduce your blood pressure. In fact, the MayoClinic.com suggests that regular activity can lower your systolic blood pressure by an average of 5 to 10 ml of mercury, which is similar to some blood pressure medications. Lower blood pressure reduces your risks for heart disease. Thirty minutes on the treadmill five days a week can also significantly reduce your risks for chronic diseases. On top of lowering the risks of heart disease, regular aerobic exercise can reduce risks of diabetes by lowering your weight and helping balance blood sugar levels. This aerobic exercise can also reduce your risks for arthritis by reducing the pressure placed on your joints by excess weight. Treadmill exercise may even help reduce your risks for cancer, including colon, endometrial, prostrate, and breast cancer according to the National Cancer Institute.




It is not a secret that imperialism is still very huge in Africa. It has been 50 years after the founding of the Organization of African Unity or the OAU. This organization was the forerunner of the African Union of the AU. Abayomi Azikwe, Editor of the Pan-African News Wire and Rita Kiki Edozie, Director of African and African American Studies at Michigan State University are some of the many experts on this subject. The OAU first meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Many heads of state created the organization as a means to accelerate the liberation from colonialism and to have the political, economic, and social unification of Africa. It was created by 33 independent states including some leading human beings of the Pan-African struggle like Presidents Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ahmed Sekou Toure, Modibo Kieta, Julius Nyerere, Gamal Abdel Nassar, H.I.M Haile Selassie, among others. The African Union was created in 2002. Now, we should accurately learn about the progress and challenges that Africa is dealing with now. More imperialist militarism has been carried out by the United States, France, Britain, and other NATO countries. There have been invasions in African nations in 2013 by troops from the Pentagon, various NATO forces, the CIA operatives, and other intelligence agencies from North America including Europe. We know that transnational corporations and banks want western hegemony over the continent (that exploits its people and its resources). AFRICOM is one major instrument of this imperialism. Africom is a Pentagon command entity that is geared toward Africa. It coordinated the overthrow of the government of Libya, which was under the murdered leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Gaddafi made Libya to have a very high GDP and HLI (or human life index). He served as co-founder of the AU and was its chairman in 2009-2010. The headquarters of Africom remains in Stuttgart, Germany. The U.S. has established a military base in Djibouti along with drone and CIA stations in Somalia, Niger, and other countries across the continent of Africa. The current war in Mali is said by the French imperialists that it is just done as a means for humanitarian reasons. When you look at the big picture, the imperialists want the oil, uranium, and gold resources in Mali. The reason is that Africa had huge oil, platinum, natural gas, and other strategic resources. These resources are gotten by Western industrialized capitalist states. The Sahel region is heavily militarized. Many Tuaregs are suffering as well. Africom has not fully conquered Zimbabwe and Eritrea yet. The occupation of Africa by the West is immoral and is a threat indeed. NATO is a part of this militarization and neocolonial effort as well. NATO has been caught committed huge war crimes in Libya. Africom came about in 2008. The establishment use imperialism with a left wing cover as a means to give the puppet (the President) total blame instead of the system of white supremacy harming the Motherland for a very long time. Even the United Nations and some in the African Union have been annexes of the AFRICOM military complex (under the guise of human rights). Even an almost 20,000 troop force of the African Union fought an U.S./European Union armed and financed war to conquer the Somali nation. The genocide in the Congo has been financed by the West since 1996. We know that the West has done illegal drone strikes against human beings all over the world. The U.S. government also aids al-Qaeda related terrorists who are killing Christians, Shias, and even Sunnis in Syria. So, the authoritarians are evil. The elite want to exploit the tragedy in Boston as a means to violate our human civil liberties (as a means to make policies to develop laws that violate human rights. Liberty is superior to tyranny). So, the establishment wants to have a militarization of the world including America. You can look at the news to see the further militarization of American soil. That is why brothers and sisters throughout the world (and folks of good will of every color and background) want a firm anti-imperialist stand. We should have solidarity with all Africans. I believe in pan-African unity or total liberation and unification of all black African peoples from the Motherland to the Diaspora.

 

By Timothy