That idea of blind justice seems to have never really existed. If you look
at how our laws are applied, they are applied very differently to the
wealthy and to corporations, than they are to less affluent citizens. Banks
can steal billions of dollars from the public. They can launder money from
criminal oligarches. They pay a fine which is a small percentage of their
holdings. Their C E O's never go to jail. On the other hand, a black kid
steals money from a gas station, is held without bail, ends up with a plea
deal, is in jail for years, and ends up with a criminal record which
prevents him from doing certain kinds of work in the future. The average
citizen is unaware of how he is affected by what the banks do, but he
understands what may happen if a gas station is held up so he is OK with the
inequities of our justice system.
The other issue is that if a law is passed making abortion legal or setting
up a system for dealing with medical costs, the way our system works, if a
majority of people appointed to the Supreme Court have a political
disagreement with that law, they can use all sorts of fancy legal language
to invalidate the law. Lawyers can use legalese to do anything. I worked
with a lot of them when I was involved in adoption work. One can use the
law to appear to justify anything one chooses. I can describe what the law
firm I hired, did, to legally make my money disappear so that I was
elligible for Community Medicare. It was legal, and that legal structure
wasn't even set up to benefit me. It was set up to help the government and
private agencies who would make money from the deal.
I have a lot of other stories to tell about real life which demonstrate that
we have been sold a mythology about our laws and our democracy to keep us
controlled and submissive while the people with power and money, continue to
use it.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Andy Baracco
Sent: Monday, September 28, 2020 10:03 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Court of God: How a Catholic Secret
Society Took Over SCOTUS
I am thinking of the lady justice who wears a blindfold and holds a set of
balanced scales. Especially in this day of not only divided society but
such adversity in our Congress and state legislatures, we need something to
provide balance and perspective. As for more justices, the constitution says
nothing about how many justices there should be. Maybe there should be 11
perhaps, but I don't like the idea of them being selected by a political
process like an election. i recently read of an idea that is growing on me.
Perhaps we should have a Supreme Court consisting of 18 justices that would
be divided into 2 9 justice panels. Each panel would hear cases
independently of the other, thus at least twice the number of cases could be
heard each year.
Andy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 28, 2020 6:15 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Court of God: How a Catholic Secret
Society Took Over SCOTUS
What I think is that there is something very wrong with the practicechange the whole process.
of appointing people to judgeships who have extreme agendas in order
to maintain political control. I've been listening to a lot of
discussion on this issue and I think there should be a change in how
judges for the Supreme Court are chosen, in the number of judges, and
in the function of the court. I think they should be elected, not
appointed. I think there should be a larger number, and I think we
need to re-think what their function should be. When a law is passed,
I don't think that they should be able to change the law with a
judicial opinion.
We are supposed to have a separation of church and state in this country.
Unfortunately, we haven't adhered to this at all. But from my point
of view, no one's religious beliefs should be permitted to interfere
with the carrying out of his or her governmental duties.
Unfortunately, we can't control whether or not people will allow their
religious prejudices to influence them. That is why I think we need to
SCOTUS apple.
But in this situation, what is being done is a cynical political act.
When Obama attempted to appoint a moderate judge nine months before
the next presidential election, the Republicans stopped him in his
tracks. They said it wasn't fair for him to appoint someone so clos to
the next election.
But
now they want to appoint someone within 6 weeks of the next election.
Perhaps you haven't been aware of the fact that starting in the mid
70's, there has been a concerted organized effort on the part of the
political far right in this country, to take over our government and
our institutions.
I've been reading about it for a few decades, and it is obvious with
the formation of all those powerful right wing think tanks that the
rise of the Evangelical Christian Right. There are a whole lot of
books about it, nonfiction books, on BARD. So this is not a case of
an innocent Catholic female judge who is just coincidentally being
appointed to the court. This is someone who is a member of a very far
right group, a cult, associated with other far right groups,
attempting to impose their religious views onto an entire country by
re-interpreting legislation which will affect everyone's life.
From your initial question about what my reaction would be if this
appointee were an Orthodox Jew or a Muslim, I get the impression that
you think I may be prejudiced against Catholics. But to the contrary,
most of the people in my life, particularly the important ones, have
come from Catholic backgrounds. My best friend in high school was
Catholic. My husband was Italian Catholic. I have a friend whom I met
at the Lighthouse when I was a child, who is a nun, living in a
Dominican convent in Virginia. And I know that there are many kinds
of Catholics, just as there are many kinds of Jews. Orthodox Jews are
at the extreme right end. At the other, are the secular Jews who were
active in the labor movement, were Socialists and Communists, and
champions of Palestinian rights. When I worked for Helen Keller
Services for the Blind, a young blind Catholic woman worked there as a
rehab teacher. She married. Years later, she and her husband came to
visit me. They had joined an extreme Catholic cult and moved to the
midwest in order to participate in it. What they told me about it was
only that they believed in the "original Catholic Church, and that
they attended only a Latin masse. On the other hand, I remember
Phillip and Daniel Berrigan, part of the Catholic Worker Movement who
were so important in the anti-war movement back in the sixties, and I
just finished reading a recent book on BARD about Dorothy Day. So any
representation of Trump's judicial appointee as a representative of
Catholicism is, as far as I'm concerned, nonsense.
What it is, is an example of a right wing Fascist attempt to take over
our country.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Andy Baracco
Sent: Monday, September 28, 2020 7:08 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Court of God: How a Catholic Secret
Society Took Over SCOTUS
Keep in mind that Dan Brown's books, as well written as they are, are
works of fiction.
What would you think if she were an orthodox jew or devout Muslim?
The group that she may or may not belong to at this particular time is
a group of devout Catholics who take their faith seriously. I have
attended one or two meetings of members of that group. I don't like
that particular style of worship, but it is their right to worship
that way, and the group is in no way dangerous.
Also, it is not established that she actually belongs to that group.
This is the same crap that was used against the Presidential campaign
of Al Smith in 1928 and JFK in 1960.
And, you do know that joe Biden is catholic.
Andy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 28, 2020 3:39 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Court of God: How a Catholic Secret
Society Took Over SCOTUS
Andy,
This isn't any attack on Catholicism, if that's what you mean. It's
one of a multitude of articles that I've encountered today about a
far right secret Catholic organization. Have you ever read any of Dan
Brown's books? There are several on BARD. He's written some novels
about this particular group.
However, when he began writing them, I'm not sure that there were
connections with the Federalist Society and Evangelical Christians.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Andy Baracco
Sent: Monday, September 28, 2020 6:27 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Court of God: How a Catholic
Secret Society Took Over SCOTUS
When rational arguments fail, attack someone's faith.
Andy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 28, 2020 3:10 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] The Court of God: How a Catholic Secret
Society Took Over SCOTUS
The Court of God: How a Catholic Secret Society Took Over SCOTUS
With his latest SCOTUS nomination, Trump advances the designs of a
clique of ultra-conservatives with ties to a Catholic secret society
and Cold War stalwarts leading the US to the brink of overt fascism.
by Raul Diego
September 28th, 2020
By Raul Diego
The Trump White House wasted no time in nominating Amy Coney
Barrett, a devout Catholic, to the Supreme Court after RBG's
passing gave this administration an unprecedented third bite at the
world,"alliance"Barring an improbable successful challenge by Democrats, Barrett is
on her way to becoming a Supreme Court justice and tipping the
scales of the highest court in the land in favor of Conservatives by
a margin of seven to two.
As the American media lurches forward onto the predictable spectacle
that such a lopsided court will, no doubt, elicit from the
irredeemably partisan media, it is worth shining a spotlight on the
links Barrett has to an organization described by a defector as a
"totalitarian" group "imbued with fascist ideas turned to religious
purposes" with direct involvement in the darkest activities of what
some call the permanent or "deep" state.
The man who is said to vet the president's list of SCOTUS
candidates, Leonard Leo, is the executive vice president of the
arch-conservative Federalist Society, which has figured in the
appointment of all but one of the conservative justices currently
sitting on the Supreme Court, including Trump's two now-installed
nominees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
Justice Gorsuch Federalist
Leonard Leo speaks at the 2017 National Lawyers Convention where he
introduced future SCOTUS Judge Neil Gorsuch Sait Serkan Gurbuz | AP
While the Federalist Society itself has plenty of dubious
relationships with individuals like Charles Koch and his network of
billionaire oligarchs hell-bent on reshaping American politics to
serve their ends, it is Leo's association to another organization
that reveals links to far older and more powerful networks that
harken back to the most recondite history of Cold War politics and
the CIA in their ostensible fight against communism through an
"unholy
between the intelligence agency, the Vatican and the Mob.
Sordid connections
Leonard Leo is a board member of the Opus Dei's Catholic Information
Center (CIC), where sitting U.S. Attorney General, Bill Barr, and
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, also once served. The Catholic
lay group has been described as one of the world's "most powerful
and politically committed"
secret societies, with direct ties to the Vatican as a "personal
prelature,"
an official status awarded by John Paul II that made sure the group
only answers to the Pope himself.
Founded in 1928 by a Spanish priest and lawyer, Opus Dei, wouldn't
become the agent of global fascism until later in the twentieth
century when the CIA began funneling money to an Opus Dei think tank
in Chile called the Chilean Institute for General Studies (IGS)
after it drew support for the overthrow of democratically elected
president Salvador Allende from Chilean bishops, and was a pivotal
cog in the implementation of Operation Condor - a transnational
intelligence operation running through Southcom to aid South
American right-wing dictatorships in the 1970s. Many of the members
of IGS went on to become cabinet officials in Pinochet's military junta.
The Pope's special designation was the result of Opus Dei's covert
role, assisted through William Colby's CIA, to effectuate damage
control after the collapse of an Italian bank in the late '70s led
to multiple investigations by Italian authorities that uncovered a
concerted effort to disrupt and dismantle left-leaning groups or
political parties in Europe by financing so-called "stay-behind units"
of former Nazi soldiers and other extreme right-wing elements
through a global money-laundering, drug-running and assassination
network involving the highest echelons of the U.S.
government,
the Holy See and the Sicilian Mafia.
Known as Operation Gladio, it was only as the scheme was unraveling
in the late 70s that Opus Dei began to play its vital role in
covering up the movement of billions of dollars worldwide to prop up
dictatorships in Latin America, as well as acts of subversion and
sabotage throughout the old continent. In 1984, the organization was
recruited to reorganize the Vatican's finances, which were then
under heavy scrutiny from Italian investigators.
Opus Dei POPE
Pope Paul VI is surrounded by Opus Dei personnel near Italy's
International Center for Working Youth, Nov. 21, 1965. Gianni Foggia
| AP
The five-member supervisory board that was formed to carry out this
mission included one of the most important figures in the
establishment of Gladio:
Deutsche Bank CEO Hermann Abs had been in charge of allocating
Marshall Plan funds to German industry after World War II and was
set to oversee the reorganization of the "most secret bank in the
worked under Abs.the Istituto per le Opere di Religione-Institute for the Works of
Religion, more commonly referred to as the Vatican's bank.
Abs' initial appointment to the Opus Dei advisory board was
rescinded as a result of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's protest over
his role as banker for the Third Reich and a director of the IG
Farben chemical cartel, which ran a concentration camp in Auschwitz.
Abs was replaced by Thomas Pietzcker, a Deutsche Bank director who
security.Leo.The recent FinCEN leaks reveal that the German bank's money
laundering days continue as strong as ever.
The religion of national security
Opus Dei or "Work of God" was already a $3 billion enterprise by the
time it took over the reorganization of the Vatican's IOR and
controlled six hundred newspapers, fifty-two radio and television
stations, twelve film companies, and thirty-eight news agencies,
according to a Mother Jones investigation.
It's links to American intelligence through CIA director William
Colby and the banking establishment through members Francis X.
Stankard of Chase Manhattan and William E. Simon, Nixon's Secretary
of the Treasury, are well established and remain strong to this day
through individuals like Bill Barr, who was just awarded the
Christifideles Laici Award - a prize that recognizes "Christlike
behavior" - from the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast (NCPB),
founded by Pat Cipollone and whose president is none other than
Leonard
The rise of extreme right-wing conservatism in America is all but
guaranteed by the new composition of the Supreme Court, which now
looks forward to a generation, if not more, of foundational
jurisprudence shaped by a cohort of judges selected by the most
reactionary clique in Washington, whose views were neatly
encapsulated by Barr, himself, in a speech at the University of
Notre Dame in the fall of 2019.
"Secularism," Barr proclaimed in the Indiana school, was to blame
for "the wreckage of the family" and "soaring suicide rates," among
other social ills. Opus Dei, however, did not figure in Barr's
speech. The CIA, too, prefers not to discuss its relationship with
the ultra-orthodox, secret group deeming it a matter of national
