https://theaquilareport.com/archbishop-viganos-startling-warning-to-the-american-people/
The fact that the Calvinist-affiliated Aquila Report
published this piece by Roman Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano is both
interesting and informative in and of itself. That a publication such as
'American Thinker' found Vigano's comments profound is not too surprising.
Vigano is the hero of the Catholic political Right, and the
Traditionalist factions that are opposed to Francis. And yet in many respects
the Traditionalist identification is a misnomer as these groups have largely
fallen prey to Right-wing thinking which is not always congruous and in fact is
often opposed to genuine traditionalist conservatism and even Catholic Social
Teaching which was drafted to combat secular liberalism.
Vigano is right when he says the Catholic hierarchy or the
Vatican (or some variation thereof) has been captured by Satan or is doing its
work. It's very true but that would be no less true if Vigano was pope and all
his cronies were installed in the Curia. It's a case of theological and ethically
evil forces in a state of civil war. It's noteworthy and given our present
context it should interest us, and it might be wise to follow such happenings
but it needs to be clearly understood – Vigano and all that he represents is
also evil. A Roman Catholic prelate, a champion of the false paradigm of Christendom,
an affiliate of Trump, and frankly a promoter of lies that rival the mendacity
of the Western Establishment – Vigano is no hero and no friend to either truth
in general or New Testament Christianity.
While Thomas Lifson of American Thinker is part of this evil
and deception, one wonders what's happening in the hearts and minds of those
running the Calvinist-affiliated Aquila Report?
In terms of the American order there have been several coups
and coup attempts over the past generation or so. One of the greatest was
associated with 9/11 and was largely championed by the American Right. Another
coup of sorts took place with the rise of the American Tea Party, culminating
in the election of Trump and his movement's attempt to stage a literal coup in
January 2021.
Vigano may decry the efforts of international finance but
their domination is at the heart of the Western order and it would seem that
Vigano (who is quite wealthy) doesn't understand this or has put his own spin
on it. It's evident that his followers do not grasp the nature of the order,
especially those who have signed on with the Austrian School and economic Libertarianism.
Blind and naive in their economic thinking and theorizing, they also represent
a serious ethical departure from paleo-conservatism and certainly Catholic
conservatism.
Vigano's letter is filled with a few truths, many falsehoods,
and even more half-truths. Whatever is true is framed incorrectly and thus
misrepresented. All told his commentary is a complete farce.
There is a conspiracy at work with Covid. The conspiracy is
the cover-up of its severity – a million dead in the United States is not the
flu. If Vigano or his ilk would bother to talk to health care workers, funeral
home directors, or a host of other people in society they would understand this
is not the flu. People are dying and the Christian-Right's claims to pro-life
ethics have been exposed as a sham.
As Christians we should expect such judgments on this culture
and there will certainly be more to come.
The conspiracy is with regard to the cover-up. Mistakes have
been made to be sure and yet the overriding concern has been to get the economy
moving again. The 'elites' are more than happy for people to die so that
profits can continue to be generated. They've said so. In fact they are profiting
from these deaths – a reality that can be probed from multiple angles.
The health officials in the United States have played their
part in this and have sullied whatever integrity they once possessed. They
facilitated Trump's disastrous response and failed leadership and even now they
play word games with protocols and measures – putting lives at risk for the
sake of profit. Schools must be open, airlines must fly and it's clear at this
point that all attempts to halt proliferation are little more than pretense.
The vaccines could have been effective but given reckless
behaviour and the fact that the largely unvaccinated developing world is a Petri
dish for variant proliferation – there's no way to end this. And that's the new
policy – Covid in perpetuity. Far from being some globalist-leftist scheme to
'Reset' society (another farce that continues to be promoted), the new state of
permanent Covid is a cash cow for Wall Street – not the shut-downs (which are
no longer on the table), but the reduction in life expectancy which will allow
the government to alleviate some of the pressure generated by the increasing
demand on programmes like Medicare and Social Security. Palin's Death Panels
have come into being but they're dominated by Right-wing interests and the
policy is mass euthanasia for the sick and elderly. Further if more of the
elderly die, then the savings to the healthcare industry will be significant. That
money can be channeled into other interests which once again will line the
pockets of the capitalist class. And while the insurance industry is taking a
temporary beating in policy payouts – a reality which will require premium
hikes in the near future, the larger corporate sector profits from employee
deaths as they cash in on policies they've taken out on their workforces. And
as long as the stock market stays 'hot', the insurance industry can easily
offset the losses from Covid life insurance policies. Whether Vigano likes it
or not, people are dying. The official figure (now nearly 900,000 in the USA
alone) represents a massive undercount. The true numbers are considerably
higher.
These are issues that have been long discussed – long before
Covid came on to the scene. The Trotskyist World
Socialist Website has honed in on these points in recent days and has even
cited Anthony Cordesman's 2013 paper on the problems of Capitalism and Life
Expectancy. The fact that Cordesman's Center for Strategic and International
Studies (one of the premier geo-strategic think-tanks of the US Establishment)
focused on this issue is telling and was meant to generate discussion in
Establishment circles and to 'float' certain ideas – to get the discussion
going (as it were) in preparation for future events. Cordesman is a familiar
voice to NPR listeners. He is regularly interviewed as a commentator on
international affairs and is one of the voices that represent the interests of
the US Establishment.
Vigano believes a goal is to reduce population but he posits
this as part of a Leftist agenda. The Leftists are not in control. The people
he identifies as Left are 'Left' only insofar as they embrace the ethics of individualist
libertarianism and Enlightenment democracy (including all the internal
contradictions it entails). In terms of power, finance, and Western domination
of the world and its resources, these Leftists are all rank capitalists and wed
to the class and its values. They may disagree over libertine ethics and
questions of sodomy and the like, and some have quibbles over the economics of
feminism (though they largely agree on the premise), they are nevertheless
aligned when it comes to basic social assumptions regarding the role and
acquisition of wealth. Their disagreements over whether or not to let the
crumbs fall to the floor or whether to leave the edges of the field unharvested
are not existential disagreements – though the media and the two-party binary attempts
to play them as such. It's a convenient and deliberately framed distraction
from ever even broaching fundamental and systemic issues.
Another reason for the shifting narratives regarding Covid mitigation
is a reality that few dare to speak of above a whisper – the US government is
losing control of society. State and local governments are disregarding the
law, the citizenry is becoming unruly and is in some cases brazenly defying the
authorities. Washington lost its half-hearted battle to restrain the virus and
now part of the damage control is to spin the story and the context. Dr. Fauci
is no communist villain (as the Right portrays him) but rather a spineless
sycophant drunk on fame and high office. If he had any integrity he would have
called out the Trump and Biden administrations long ago and denounced them for
their negligence and their policies that have led to mass death. He would have
been removed and forced into retirement – a minor thing for someone his age.
And yet it would tarnish his legacy and his standing and so he plays along.
Covid has thrown the economy into turmoil and it's not simply
because of lockdown repercussions and protocols. There's more to the story – a
reality the elites and the Right-wing ideologues have chosen to ignore. The
Federal Reserve has been feeding the economy since the crisis began and the
wealth of the capitalist class has skyrocketed. They don't want this gravy
train to end.
Like many other Covid sceptics, Vigano speaks out of both
sides of his mouth. Covid is sometimes real and very dangerous and other times
it's nothing. You can't have it both ways.
They believe Covid deaths are exaggerated and are based on
false causal connections and yet employ the same reasoning when it comes to
supposed vaccine deaths.
Where I live a local vaccine sceptic caught Covid and died
and yet the sceptics insist he didn't die of Covid but of a pulmonary embolism.
Unlike the flu, Covid is known to attack organs and generate blood clots –
which helps to explain (in part) why the vaccines (in some cases) have led to
temporary myocarditis and in some cases clotting. The people that have suffered
these side effects were certain to deal with the issues had they caught Covid.
The disease's path varies greatly in individuals. A veteran nurse I know
admitted that it is one of the strangest things she's ever seen.
And yet these same Covid sceptics were quick to argue that a
New York Times reporter who has written extensively about Covid died because of
the vaccine. In actuality he died of a heart attack but in that case they want
to make the causal connection and so as a result the story (told with
triumphant irony) has made the social media rounds.
Causality is difficult to determine and yes, many elderly
people have died days, weeks, and months after receiving the vaccine. But in
their case who is to say that the vaccine killed them or their deaths were
related to other health issues connected to their age? They were old and near
death anyway. This is not to say the vaccine killed them but rather they were
going to die anyway (at any time) and Covid and the vaccine had nothing to do
with it. These things are difficult. It's much simpler and effective to utilise
narrative-driven generalisations and rhetoric which fits the political moment. But
under their kind of reasoning, no one dies from a gunshot wound. They bled to
death but they didn't die from a bullet. Such arguments would be deemed
ridiculous but that's the kind of reasoning they employ. Likewise, who dies of
'cancer'? Well, in some respects no one does. They die because of organ failure
and other trauma associated with the cancer and what it does. And yet we all
acknowledge they died of cancer.
Vigano is part of the movement spreading massive
disinformation – arguing that millions are dying from the vaccines, a patent
falsehood. Others argue that hospitals are overwhelmed from vaccine side
effects – another falsehood. Hospitals are overwhelmed by Covid and also by
other non-Covid related issues which have come in waves. The reasons for this
are complicated, due in part to the long period of minimal health care which
was implemented as an anti-Covid measure. This wave combined with staffing
problems – not due to the small number of nurses refusing the vaccine but due
to exhaustion, retirement, and other crises connected to the growing list of
social problems – yes, hospitals are overwhelmed. I've seen it firsthand (we
spent a week in two hospitals in November with one of our children – it had
nothing to do with Covid) and have witnessed some other social phenomena
associated with questions of work ethic and a shift in values associated with
professions like nursing.
Once again the world is a little more complicated than the
likes of Vigano and other Trumpites seem able to grasp.
Likewise the vaccine is not gene therapy. This is based on a
misunderstanding of mRNA vaccine technology. I don't like any of it either nor
did I want to get the vaccine. I'm sceptical but not a rank sceptic. I'm not a
big proponent of modern medicine and certainly an opponent of many of the
ethics that drive the American healthcare system. From its profiteering to its
materialist mindset, to its tech-driven ethics – I'm not a fan. Taking the
vaccine was not a happy choice and when first announced I wanted to wait a good
bit before I even considered it. And yet, given the course of the disease, the
madness, recklessness, and politicisation of the deniers, I believed that in
order to protect myself, my family, and (just as importantly) others I interact
with, it was prudent to have it administered.
Much more could be said about the toxicity of our tech-industrial
world, the myth of all-naturalism and the cultural shifts within the Church
that have taken place in recent years regarding these issues. Conservatives and
conservative Christians (rightly or wrongly) once championed medical
innovations as the fruit of Christian civilisation. How quickly times have
changed it would seem. But that's another story.
And there is no doubt there are wicked people in high places
that will use these events to change society, to increase their power, and to
exploit people. This is indisputable. But that doesn't mean the disease is fake
or that we should simply shrug our shoulders at the death and suffering around
us. The disease isn't the conspiracy. The conspiracies are found in the
responses to it and the manipulation of it. It's right to consider the wider
implications but in the meantime there's still the disease and there are moral
implications and obligations as a result – and yet because of the politicisation
of Christianity, these basic New Testament imperatives and ethics have been
ignored, abandoned, or in other cases rejected with hostility.
The chronic illness Vigano speaks of is not from vaccines or perhaps he means it in the sense that politically everyone is 'chronically ill', but in reality just as he has downplayed and ignored the magnitude of the death and suffering, the full and long term effects of Covid are yet to be seen or understood. He says the farce of Covid it that it has claimed more victims than a war – in what sense? If it's a farce, then we must assume he refers to vaccine related deaths which is a myth perpetuated by the Right. If he grants that Covid has killed millions, then how is it a farce and how are the measures to curtail it tyrannical – when they are meant to save lives and society?