Pope Francis: I don’t name Putin because everyone knows I’m talking about him.

Pope Francis was interviewed recently for “America: The Jesuit Review,” a Catholic magazine published by the Jesuits. Francis is the first ever Jesuit pope, which is properly the “Society of Jesus,” hence the name “Jesuit,” though it was founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola.

Jesuits have a history as reformers, and are considered the “brains” of the Catholic church, insofar as academics, particularly higher education, medicine, law, and science, is important to them. In fact, it was a Jesuit priest, Father Georges Lemaître, a Belgian Catholic priest, theoretical physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain, in Belgium — the Université Catholique de Louvain, from where he earned Docteur en Sciences in 1920, and in 1927, earned the Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology — who first came up with the expanding universe theory, years ahead of Edwin Hubble, who later confirmed Lemaître’s work, rather than originating it, as some mistakenly believe. Another magnificent scientific achievement, now considered the scientific standard, is the “Big Bang” theory of the origin of the universe, was also originally proposed by Fr. Lemaître. Additionally, he also served as an artillery officer in WWI. When afterward he began academic pursuits, he studied at the renown University of Cambridge, where he later became a researcher, and an associate researcher at Harvard, and MIT. So, he was definitely no slouch in numerous ways.

But Pope Francis…

The interview was wide-ranging, and covered numerous topics of concern to all, not just to the religious, or to Catholics, which included bishops accused of sexual abuse of children, and adults, and their complicity in those criminal activities, as well as public perception of the church’s lack of concern about spousal/domestic partner abuse.

Toward the conclusion of the interview, Pope Francis was asked about his thoughts on the Russia/Ukraine matter, and made the following remarks.

Editor’s Note: On Nov. 22, 2022, five representatives of America Media interviewed Pope Francis at his residence at Santa Marta at the Vatican. Matt Malone, S.J., the departing editor in chief of America, was joined by Sam Sawyer, S.J., the incoming editor in chief; executive editor Kerry Weber; Gerard O’Connell, America’s Vatican correspondent; and Gloria Purvis, host of “The Gloria Purvis Podcast.” They discussed a wide range of topics with the pope, including polarization in the U.S. church, racism, the war in Ukraine, the Vatican’s relations with China and church teaching on the ordination of women. The interview was conducted in Spanish with the assistance of a translator, Elisabetta Piqué. A transcript of the Spanish text can be found here.

Here is the full transcript of that portion of the interview.

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Gerard O’Connell: Holy Father, about Ukraine: Many in the United States have been confused by your seeming unwillingness to directly criticize Russia for its aggression against Ukraine, preferring instead to speak more generally of the need for an end to war, an end to mercenary activity rather than Russian attacks, and to the traffic in arms. How would you explain your position on this war to Ukrainians, or Americans and others who support Ukraine?

Pope Francis: When I speak about Ukraine, I speak of a people who are martyred. If you have a martyred people, you have someone who martyrs them. When I speak about Ukraine, I speak about the cruelty because I have much information about the cruelty of the troops that come in. Generally, the cruelest are perhaps those who are of Russia but are not of the Russian tradition, such as the Chechens, the Buryati and so on. Certainly, the one who invades is the Russian state. This is very clear. Sometimes I try not to specify so as not to offend and rather, condemn in general, although it is well known whom I am condemning. It is not necessary that I put a name and surname.

On the second day of the war, I went to the Russian embassy [to the Holy See], an unusual gesture because the pope never goes to an embassy. And there I said to the ambassador to tell [Vladimir] Putin that I was willing to

Contradicting Adam Parkhomenko

Adam Parkhomenko recently wrote a brief political Opinion piece which was published on the website Today’s Big Stuff dot com and entitled “This might be our last chance to listen to Hillary.”

Full Disclosure: Mr. Parkhomenko is a 30-something political consultant/strategist who has an extensive record of support for Hillary Clinton, worked briefly on the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2008 as an Assistant Campaign Manager during the Democratic primary, and in 2003, while then a 17-year-old student at Northern Virginia Community College, established the candidate-unaffiliated website VoteHillary.org, an in an effort to convince voters to support her 2004 campaign to be the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee. He promoted his piece on Twitter, writing that, “I haven’t written about Hillary Clinton in a few years but I hope you will take three minutes and read this and retweet to pass it on. I worked for her for over a decade and I think what she’s saying is important and we should listen to.”

Young Mr. Parkhomenko’s ardor for his preferred candidate could be understood in the light of his obvious zeal for her, and overlooked, or even forgiven, since such eagerness often overlooks another’s flaws, because often, when in love, “the object of one’s desire can do no wrong.”

Mr. Parkhomenko couches the introduction of his threadbare piece as Hillary being a political prophetess or seer by using metaphoric imagery such as “time machine,” “villagers,” and “danger that was coming.” Naturally, that presupposes that the “villagers” are morons, or at least seriously daft in some manner.

Of course, one could suppose where he was headed with such colorful descriptors, which is the shaming “but they didn’t listen,” the I-told-you-so taunt of “it turned out she was right,” along with a repeat of the earlier “and the villagers are ignoring her again.”

Next, he takes square aim at blaming external factors, rather than a flawed candidacy, by writing pointedly, “first of all because she’s a woman. And second of all because her name is Hillary Clinton.”

I suppose her name could have been “Rapunzel,” or “Juliet” and she would have been blamed for cakes and biscuits not rising, or any other such nonsensical tripe. That’s not to say that women have not been subjected to some type of sex-based discrimination, for they have. But to blatantly assert or claim, that she was “repeatedly invited by the national media to just go away despite,” he further attempts to spread blame so thinly that it’s quite easy to see through.

It also reminds one a childhood moralistic tale entitled, “The Remarkable Story of Chicken Little,” in which the protagonist, a hen character named “Henny Penny,” had an acorn to fall on her head, and then loudly, though erroneously, warned exclaiming that, “THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!”

Mr. Parkhomenko seems to express bafflement, and befuddlement that his favorite candidate never won the nation’s highest political office, and quoted her, writing that “I’m astonished that more people don’t see, or can’t face…” That quote, of course, was a statement made in agreement by Ms. Clinton in a non-challenging, puff-piece interview with Jennifer Senior, a staff writer at The Atlantic during the Atlantic Festival, where she appeared “virtually” live, Thursday, September 30, at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Mr. Parkhomenko added his own remarks which echoed a similar sentiment by writing “why in the world would the villagers ignore someone who…,” and similarly “why would they ignore someone who…”

So let’s examine just a few things, as he has, in order to allow him – or, anyone else – to more clearly see a picture which apparently, has not yet emerged.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Though I loathed her, and still do, I voted for Hillary Clinton over the Republican candidate, because: 1.) She had some experience in politics, and was 2.) “The devil you know,” whereas the Republican candidate was utterly inexperienced politically, and was “the devil you didn’t know.”

First, like it, or not, Hillary is a lightning rod. And to remind our readers, a lightning rod is a metal stick placed vertically atop elevated structures in order to DRAW lightning, and thereby allow it to be run (conducted) to ground through circuits and conduits in order to prevent damage to the structure. Again, a lighting rod attracts lightning, which is a powerful, and natural destructive force. And that describes Hillary to a ‘T’ — a lightning rod.

To be characterized as a “lightning rod” – a thing which draws powerful, troubling and destructive forces – is not a good thing.

Outgoing CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, MD is a FAILURE as a leader.

Dr. Robert R. Redfield, MD – 18th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

But allow me to be more explicit.

Dr. Robert R. Redfield, MD is a goddamn moron for whom I have no professional respect.

Why do I write that?

Like his soon-to-be former boss – the outgoing 45th President – he is, and remains, an ineffectual (mis)leader, under whose oversight the agency, like America, has languished, and suffered significant loss. Furthermore, also like his soon-to-be former boss – the outgoing 45th President – he refuses to accept responsibility for any of it.

The outgoing President, himself an utterly incompetent goddamn know-it-all moron, has a knack and penchant for identifying and naming the most utterly incompetent boobs to important positions within the administration.

Does that mean Redfield is a “most utterly incompetent boob”?

Not necessarily.

Of course, if you’ve been paying the least bit of attention for the past year, or so, you’d know the moronic and utterly idiotic things he’s done, and the equally moronic and contradictory things he’s said to justify, in response to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

But here below, read what he said recently in an interview with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly on All Things Considered. • [Commentary in italics, within brackets, preceded with a •, following Redfield’s remarks.]

Outgoing CDC Director Warns Of Pandemic’s Peak:
“We’re About To Be In The Worst Of It”

January 15, 20216:07 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
by Mary Louise Kelly

Mary Louise Kelly: “Why has the U.S. done so much worse than the rest of the world?”

Robert Redfield: “I think this virus has a unique ability to have differential pathogenesis in different people. And what it really does is it exploits the underlying health condition of the individual it infects. And so, I would argue one of the reasons we’re having more significant death in this country than, say, Sweden is because unfortunately, the underlying health conditions — with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and the significant health disparities that we have in these illnesses in our nation — haven’t been effectively addressed.”
• [Pass the buck, please. There is EXACTLY ONE research paper in the entire National Library of Medicine with the subject “differential pathogenesis” in its title which is about COVID-19: Molecular Aspects of COVID-19 Differential Pathogenesis. The gist of the paper’s findings is that a type of the female hormone estradiol increases the levels of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2), and that ACE2 apparently has some role in preventing severity of symptoms associated with COVID-19 infection, although, “ACE2 expression is dramatically reduced with aging in both genders. The levels of ACE2 expression, which could be sex- and age-dependent, have a protective role against lung and kidney injuries that could impact the severity of COVID-19 illness in male vs. females and old vs. young individuals.” As well, TMPRSS2, a cellular transmembrane protease, has a role in the severity of the disease, insofar as the “expression levels of TMPRSS2 protein are regulated by levels of androgen and androgen receptors … women and children have a lower level of androgen and androgen receptors than men, and therefore, TMPRSS2 could play a potential role in the severity of COVID-19 pathogenesis in men.” The study’s authors also write that, “it could be possible that the expression levels of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 impact virus infectivity and pathogenesis among different groups of individuals, considering the variation in the expression levels in older men compared to the women and children.” It is well known that individuals with comorbidities of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, heart diseases, and cerebrovascular disease, are at increased risk for poor outcomes, and increased risk of mortality, if infected with COVID-19, and the authors specifically state that the treatments for such conditions may very well place such individuals at increased risk for poor outcomes by writing that they “could be linked to the ACE2 function during SARS-CoV-2 infection and the cardio-metabolic treatments that may interfere withACE2–virus interaction.” The study’s authors conclude that, “variations in the expression levels of SARS-CoV-2 receptors and co-receptors, due to physiological and co-morbidity conditions, could impact the differential pathogenesis of COVID-19.” Contrary to what Dr. Redfield says, the virus does NOT have “a unique ability to have differential pathogenesis in different people.”]

Kelly: “But in terms of how the U.S. has responded, in terms of how the CDC has responded … are you able to defend the Trump administration’s record on this as anything other than a catastrophic failure?”

Redfield: “Well, I’m actually very proud of the response that CDC has done. I think if I have one criticism that

Evangelicals Rethinking Trump Support

‘How Did We Get Here?’ A Call For An Evangelical Reckoning On Trump

January 13, 2021, 5:08 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
by Rachel Martin

https://ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/me/2021/01/20210113_me_how_did_we_get_here_a_call_for_an_evangelical_reckoning_on_trump.mp3

As fallout continues from the deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol, Ed Stetzer, head of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, has a message for his fellow evangelicals: It’s time for a reckoning.

Evangelicals, he says, should look at how their own behaviors and actions may have helped fuel the insurrection. White evangelicals overwhelmingly supported President Trump in the 2020 election.

Some in the protest crowd raised signs with Christian symbolism and phrases.

“Part of this reckoning is: How did we get here? How were we so easily fooled by conspiracy theories?” he tells NPR’s Rachel Martin. “We need to make clear who we are. And our allegiance is to King Jesus, not to what boasting political leader might come next.”

Members of the audience react as U.S. President Trump delivers remarks at an Evangelicals for Trump Coalition Launch at the King Jesus International Ministry in Miami, Florida, U.S., January 3, 2020.
REUTERS/Tom Brenner

In the interview, Stetzer also laments that evangelicals seem to have changed their view of morality to support Trump.

“So I think we just need to be honest. A big part of this evangelical reckoning is a lot of people sold out their beliefs,” he says.

Here are excerpts from the Morning Edition conversation:

You write that “many evangelicals are seeing Donald Trump for who he is.” Do you really think that’s true? There have been so many other things that Trump has said and done over the past four to five years that betray Christian values and their support didn’t waver. You think this time it’s different?

I think it’s a fair question, and I’ve been one for years who was saying we need to see more clearly who Donald Trump is and has often not been listened to. But I would say that for many people, the storming of the Capitol, the desecration of our halls of democracy, has shocked and stunned a lot of people and how President Trump has engaged in riling up crowds to accomplish these things. Yeah, I do think so. I think there are some significant and important conversations that we need to have inside of evangelicalism asking the question: What happened? Why were so many people drawn to somebody who was obviously so not connected to what evangelicals believe by his life or his practices or more.

You write that Trump has burned down the Republican Party. What has he done to the evangelical Christian movement?

If you asked today,

We’re Getting Closer: Perspective On Trump’s COVID-19 Death Count

Let history be our guide.

It’s worse than the infamous Bataan Death March, a Japanese war crime of World War II in which an estimated 22,000 POWs at least, were killed or died.

Much worse.

Worse than the total casualties of the Battle of Stones River during the Civil War, with 24,000 injuries, deaths, and POWs/MIAs.

Worse also than casualties in the Battle of Shiloh, also during the Civil War, with 24,000, where blood flowed like water.

Worse even than casualties in the Civil War’s Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in 1864, which involved 30,000 lives.

Photo of the Chickamauga Battlefield from the Mathew Brady Photographs series, The Battle of Chickamauga, September 19 – 20, 1863, National Achives; https://catalog.archives.gov/id/524418 Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s Army of the Tennessee defeated forces from the Union’s Army of the Cumberland under Major General William Rosecrans in the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia on September 19-20, 1863. However, Rosecrans’ forces were able to slip away to Chattanooga, and later relieved by forces under Ulysses S. Grant.

Worse than the Battle of Chickamauga, with 34,000 casualties in the Civil War in 1863.

And even much worse than the Battle of Gettysburg, with 51,000 casualties in 3 days of fighting.

And the Iraq War, with only 4576 deaths is but a mere pittance.

And the War in Afghanistan, where 2216 lives were lost, is exceedingly eclipsed.

• FIVE major Civil War Battles
• A Notorious World War II war crime
• Two modern wars

ALL COMBINED, it’s only 191,792.

And Trump has beat ’em all.

That’s because he always does the most in everything he’s ever done – so he says.

196,103.

That’s the cumulative total number of COVID-19 related deaths in the United States, as reported by Johns Hopkins University, as of 1023, Wednesday, 16 September 2020 .

3000.

That’s the number of people who died in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center twin towers, and the Pentagon.

6436.76% more have died under Trump’s watch,
than under Bush’s.

And only 16,832 more to go before we eclipse the total deaths in World War I (116,516), Vietnam War (58,209), and Korean War (36,574) combined – 211,299.

Here’s another number:

197,544.

The TOTAL number of casualties – deaths, injuries, POWs, MIAs – from the Top Ten Major Civil War Battles of:

Gettyburg
Chickamauga
Spotsylvania Courthouse
Shiloh
Stones River
Antietam
First Battle of Bull Run
Second Battle of Bull Run
Fredricksburg
Cold Harbor

196,103 is today’s Trump Death Count – Wednesday, 16 September 2020,
as of the 1023 update.

Only 1441 to go.

The next macabre marker for the Trump virus is Civil War Battlefield Deaths – 204,100.

That’s just 7,997 away.

We’re getting closer.

“And – we’re – we have it totally under control. It’s

Overburdened Police

There’s been much “water under the bridge” in the last 50 years, or so.

Like it, or not, America has changed.

And frankly, not all change is good. Not all change is for the better. And we all recognize that fact, whether we voted, and voted for Trump, or someone else.

That’s a common unifier among us all regardless of what political affiliation – if any – we may have. We know that change has come, and some of it hasn’t produced the good it was purported to bring about.

Some of the change has been oblique, some of it has been blatant, some of it may have been justified, and some of it may have been a handout, or a head on a silver platter as a political favor.

Again, not all change is good, nor has all change been good. But neither is it all bad.

Change is necessary. We change diapers on babies regularly, and (should) change politicians regularly for the same reason – when they’re full of poop, they’re stinky, and dirty, and if left in place too long, will irritate the skin, and lead to infection.

In an interview article entitled “How Much Do We Need The Police?” by Leah Donnella, published June 6, 2020 on the NPR website, she spoke with Dr. Alex S. Vitale, PhD, Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College, and is a Visiting Professor at London Southbank University. For the past 25 years, he has consulted with police departments and international human rights organizations, served on numerous boards, conducted research, and authored numerous books, scholarly articles, and articles of public interest on matters of law enforcement.

In the interview, his observations were not merely prescient, but keen, some of which were, quite frankly, obvious – although at the time, we may not have noticed what would have occurred. But after problems did begin to emerge, we did nothing.

It’s the “Frosted Lucky Charms” mindset – thinking that if we do nothing, it’ll all be “magically delicious,” or miraculously go away… like the POTUS said of COVID-19 at a New Hampshire rally, February 10, 2020 when he said in part, that, “Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”

And now, as the saying goes, “the chickens have come home to roost.”

The fruit borne of the changes which have been made in many matters that do NOT pertain to police, that do NOT pertain to law enforcement, that do NOT require law enforcement intervention, that are merely either civil, health, or social matters, have been unfairly and unjustly thrust upon police whom have been tasked with responding to them.

In a very real way, they’ve been unjustifiably overburdened, and have by default, commanded to do many things OUTSIDE the scope of law enforcement. It’d be like asking a groundskeeper to also be a nanny. It’s also patently and preposterously absurd.

That blatantly points to the need for

Sarah Huckabee Sanders: “I’ve Been Called” (By God) To Be Arkansas Governor

Recently, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the once-and-former White House mouthpiece-Press Secretary for the Liar in Chief, Current White House Occupant Donald J. Trumpanzee, and daughter of Arkansas Preacher-Governor POTUS-wannabe Mike Huckabee, a Republican, had a sit-down interview with the Associated Press and New York Times in the quaint little state capitol town of Little Rock.

As described by New York Times writer Annie Karnie, (aka “the failing New York Times,” as POS45 says – of course, this is all “fake news, folks… fake news”) she and Sanders had breakfast tacos, and obliquely suggested at what she has plans to do in 2023 when current Republican Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson’s term is complete.

“I think there are two types of people that run for office: people that are

Rex Tillerson dishes on Donald Trump

“He is a challenging individual – it was challenging for me, coming from the disciplined, highly process-oriented ExxonMobil corporation – where everybody sang out of the same hymnal, or you got kicked out of the choir – and to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn’t like to read, doesn’t read briefing reports, doesn’t like to get into the details of a lot of things, but rather just kind of says, ‘Look, this is what I believe and you can try to convince me otherwise,’ – but most of the time, you’re not going to do that.

“We are starkly different in our styles, we did not have a common value system.

“I’d have to say to him, ‘Mr. President, I understand what you wanna do, but you can’t do it that way. It violates the law, it violates treaty.’ He got really frustrated. I think he grew tired of me being the guy who told him, ‘You can’t do that.’

Criticizing Stephen Hawking

Renown astrophysicist Stephen Hawking appeared on the Larry King Now show June 2016, and was interviewed by the esteemed long-time journalist.

In the interview, among the comments Hawking made was that “We certainly have not become less greedy or less stupid. The population has grown by half a billion since our last meeting, with no end in sight. At this rate, it will be eleven billion by 2100.”

News of the interview was covered by USA Today, and subsequently by The Intellectualist website, both which focused upon Professor Hawking‘s remark as referenced above.

This is worth noting:
The article quoted Hawking as saying,

“He doesn’t talk about the fact that he’s been governor of Massachusetts for four years very much.”

“CBS This Morning” co-host Charlie Rose sat down Thursday, July 12, 2012 with President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama in the blue room of the White House for a wide-ranging exclusive interview.

Q:
How do you take the measure of his business experience?

A:
I do not think at all it disqualifies him.
But I also think it’s important, if that’s his main calling card, if his basic premise is that ‘I’m Mr. Fix-It on the economy’ because I made a lot of money…

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