Cliff Kincaid
Pope lays out global Marxist agenda
By Cliff Kincaid
Socialist Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is ecstatic over the pope's address to Congress. In a message to his supporters titled "Why we must listen to Pope Francis," he was particularly pleased with the fact that in his address to Congress, "Pope Francis spoke of Dorothy Day, who was a tireless advocate for the impoverished and working people in America. I think it was extraordinary that he cited her as one of the most important people in recent American history." Day was a Marxist apologist for socialism and communist regimes. We covered this territory in my column "With Pope's Help, U.N. Bypasses Congress on Global Socialism."
With Republican congressional leaders under fire from conservatives for cowering in the face of a Democratic Party onslaught, all they needed was to roll out the welcome mat for a Marxist pope who would put them further on the defensive. But that's exactly what happened.
Phyllis Bennis of the Marxist Institute for Policy Studies was right: "Pope Francis' address to Congress was almost certainly not what John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and other congressional leaders had in mind when they invited the pope to speak." Speaking for many on the left, including the pro-abortion lobby, she said, "His clear call to end the death penalty was the only example he gave of protecting the sanctity of life: Even amid a raging congressional debate over Planned Parenthood, he never mentioned abortion."
The list of left-wing causes in the pope's address was extensive. Bennis noted "his calls to protect the rights of immigrants and refugees, end the death penalty, preserve the planet from the ravages of climate change, and defend the poor and dispossessed." And then there was the attack on the policies of peace through strength, which keep us free. "Being at the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world," the pope said. He then asked, "Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society?"
He should ask that of Vladimir Putin.
Most Americans understand the rationale for legal immigrants. But illegal aliens who commit crimes are something else. The pope seems not to recognize a difference.
The death penalty is a punishment reserved for heinous killers. But he doesn't mention abortion, which has taken tens of millions of innocent lives. This seemed strange to conservative Catholics, who are starting to come to grips with the fact that this is a "progressive" pope, who is not hostile toward what anti-communist Pope John Paul II called the "culture of death" through population control and reduction.
Francis's answer on the arms control issue was to challenge the United States alone and blame its spending for national defense on monetary motives. "Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood," said the pope. "In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade."
That's a slander of our brave fighting men and women, many of whom have given their lives or sacrificed their limbs to bring freedom to people around the word, especially Muslims in such places as Iraq and Afghanistan.
Against the global Jihad, what does the pope expect the U.S. to do? Disarm?
Praising "his uniquely progressive papal perspective," far-left radio host Amy Goodman noted that "The pope has been frank in his criticism of much of the core of U.S. society: capitalism, consumerism, war and the failure to confront climate change." This is a fraud, of course. They used to warn us against global cooling. It then became global warming and now climate change. The cause always changes until they find something to lure people into schemes for bigger government and higher taxes.
Recognizing the socialism of the pope, Al Jazeera posted an article, "Bernie Sanders, the pope and the moral imperative of systemic change," by Gar Alperovitz, the co-chair, with James Gustave Speth, of the Next System Project. Speth, former administrator of the United Nations Development Program, put his name on its 1994 "Human Development Report," which openly promoted global taxes for world government.
The "Next System" is another name for the replacement of global capitalism by global socialism.
Those endorsing this project, in addition to Alperovitz and Speth, include:
The group goes on, "Large-scale system change is needed but has until recently been constrained by a continuing lack of imagination concerning social, economic and political alternatives. There are alternatives that can lead to the systemic change we need."
Yes, there are. They are called socialism and communism. But the group would rather call these alternatives "sustainable development," in order to confuse people about how the American way of life is being targeted for extinction.
© Cliff Kincaid
September 26, 2015
Socialist Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is ecstatic over the pope's address to Congress. In a message to his supporters titled "Why we must listen to Pope Francis," he was particularly pleased with the fact that in his address to Congress, "Pope Francis spoke of Dorothy Day, who was a tireless advocate for the impoverished and working people in America. I think it was extraordinary that he cited her as one of the most important people in recent American history." Day was a Marxist apologist for socialism and communist regimes. We covered this territory in my column "With Pope's Help, U.N. Bypasses Congress on Global Socialism."
With Republican congressional leaders under fire from conservatives for cowering in the face of a Democratic Party onslaught, all they needed was to roll out the welcome mat for a Marxist pope who would put them further on the defensive. But that's exactly what happened.
Phyllis Bennis of the Marxist Institute for Policy Studies was right: "Pope Francis' address to Congress was almost certainly not what John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and other congressional leaders had in mind when they invited the pope to speak." Speaking for many on the left, including the pro-abortion lobby, she said, "His clear call to end the death penalty was the only example he gave of protecting the sanctity of life: Even amid a raging congressional debate over Planned Parenthood, he never mentioned abortion."
The list of left-wing causes in the pope's address was extensive. Bennis noted "his calls to protect the rights of immigrants and refugees, end the death penalty, preserve the planet from the ravages of climate change, and defend the poor and dispossessed." And then there was the attack on the policies of peace through strength, which keep us free. "Being at the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world," the pope said. He then asked, "Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society?"
He should ask that of Vladimir Putin.
Most Americans understand the rationale for legal immigrants. But illegal aliens who commit crimes are something else. The pope seems not to recognize a difference.
The death penalty is a punishment reserved for heinous killers. But he doesn't mention abortion, which has taken tens of millions of innocent lives. This seemed strange to conservative Catholics, who are starting to come to grips with the fact that this is a "progressive" pope, who is not hostile toward what anti-communist Pope John Paul II called the "culture of death" through population control and reduction.
Francis's answer on the arms control issue was to challenge the United States alone and blame its spending for national defense on monetary motives. "Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood," said the pope. "In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade."
That's a slander of our brave fighting men and women, many of whom have given their lives or sacrificed their limbs to bring freedom to people around the word, especially Muslims in such places as Iraq and Afghanistan.
Against the global Jihad, what does the pope expect the U.S. to do? Disarm?
Praising "his uniquely progressive papal perspective," far-left radio host Amy Goodman noted that "The pope has been frank in his criticism of much of the core of U.S. society: capitalism, consumerism, war and the failure to confront climate change." This is a fraud, of course. They used to warn us against global cooling. It then became global warming and now climate change. The cause always changes until they find something to lure people into schemes for bigger government and higher taxes.
Recognizing the socialism of the pope, Al Jazeera posted an article, "Bernie Sanders, the pope and the moral imperative of systemic change," by Gar Alperovitz, the co-chair, with James Gustave Speth, of the Next System Project. Speth, former administrator of the United Nations Development Program, put his name on its 1994 "Human Development Report," which openly promoted global taxes for world government.
The "Next System" is another name for the replacement of global capitalism by global socialism.
Those endorsing this project, in addition to Alperovitz and Speth, include:
- Jane Mansbridge, Harvard University
- Gerald Hudson, Service Employees International Union
- Annie Leonard, Greenpeace USA
- Robert B. Reich, University of California at Berkeley
- Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research
- Barbara Ehrenreich, Author
- Jeffrey D. Sachs, Columbia University
- Gerald Torres, Cornell University Law School
- Larry Cohen, Communications Workers of America
- Julie Matthaei, Cornerstone Cohousing
- Leo Gerard, United Steelworkers
- Rep. John James Conyers, Jr., 13th District, Michigan
- Bill McKibben, 350.org
- Saskia Sassen, Columbia University
- Frances Fox Piven, City University of New York
- Manuel Pastor, University of Southern California
- J. Phillip Thompson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Oliver Stone, Academy Award-winning Filmmaker
- Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK
- Timothy E. Wirth, United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund
- Sarita Gupta, Jobs With Justice
- Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Van Jones, The Dream Corps & Rebuild The Dream
- Lawrence Mishel, Economic Policy Institute
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, California State University
- Daniel Ellsberg, Author
- Herman E. Daly, University of Maryland
- Ralph Nader, Consumer Advocate, Author, Former Presidential Candidate
- Ai-jen Poo, National Domestic Workers Alliance
- Anna Galland, MoveOn.org Civic Action
- Danny Glover, Actor, Social Activist
- Tom Morello, Musician, Activist
- Jill Stein, 2012 Green Party Presidential Nominee
- Nancy Fraser, New School for Social Research
The group goes on, "Large-scale system change is needed but has until recently been constrained by a continuing lack of imagination concerning social, economic and political alternatives. There are alternatives that can lead to the systemic change we need."
Yes, there are. They are called socialism and communism. But the group would rather call these alternatives "sustainable development," in order to confuse people about how the American way of life is being targeted for extinction.
© Cliff Kincaid
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