Romneys vs Rockefellers

Today, few remember that the shoo-in candidate to be the Republican nominee in 1968 was a man named George Romney, Mitt Romney's father. A rarer minority recall that George was thrown under the bus, on the road to the convention, by a Rockefeller.

The background of what happened to George Romney and why he was derailed on his way to becoming the Republican candidate in 1968 is worthy of revisiting.

A Gallup Poll after the November 1966 elections showed Romney as favored among Republicans over former Vice President Richard Nixon for the Republican nomination, 39 percent to 31 percent; a Harris Poll showed Romney beating President Johnson among all voters by 54 percent to 46 percent. California's Nixon considered Michigan's George Romney his chief opponent.

Romney was pressed for his opinion on the Vietnam War, which hawk Richard Nixon supported. Finally, on August 31, 1967, in a taped interview with talk show host Lou Gordon of WKBD-TV in Detroit, Romney stated: "When I came back from Viet Nam [in November 1965], I'd just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get." 

Romney then shifted to opposing the war: "I no longer believe that it was necessary for us to get involved in South Vietnam to stop Communist aggression in Southeast Asia." 

Decrying the "tragic" conflict, he urged "a sound peace in South Vietnam at an early time." 

Thus Romney disavowed the war and reversed himself from his earlier stated belief that the war was "morally right and necessary." It was a flip-flop placed in a disturbing context.

The connotations of brainwashing, following the experiences of American prisoners of war (highlighted by the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate), made Romney's comments devastating, especially as it reinforced the negative image of Romney's abilities that had already developed. The topic of brainwashing quickly became newspaper editorial and television talk show fodder, and Romney bore the brunt of topical humor. Senator Eugene McCarthy, running against Johnson for the Democratic nomination, commenting on the "brainwashing," said that in Romney's case, "a light rinse would have been sufficient."

Two weeks before the March 12, 1967 primary, an internal poll showed George Romney losing to Richard Nixon by a six-to-one margin in New Hampshire. Nelson Rockefeller, seeing the poll result as well, publicly maintained his support for Romney but said he would be available for a draft; the statement made national headlines and embittered Romney. Seeing his cause was hopeless, Romney announced his withdrawal as a presidential candidate on February 28, 1968. Romney wrote his son Mitt, still away on missionary work: "Your mother and I are not personally distressed. As a matter of fact, we are relieved. ... I aspired, and though I achieved not, I am satisfied."

Richard Nixon went on to gain the nomination. At the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, George Romney refused to release his delegates to Nixon, something Nixon did not forget.

The battle that was thus set to be played out was one in which Cowboy Nixon would take on another Cowboy, LBJ. But LBJ would withdraw from the race, Eugene McCarthy would score some Democratic wins, RFK would set the stage for his nomination, and be assassinated.  LBJ's Vice President, a late entry, Humbert Humphrey would run as the Democratic candidate. Then George Wallace would run as on the American Independent Party, taking Democratic votes from the South. Nixon would win in 1968. 


Lost in that violent history of 1968, is what happened to Romney. But George Romney never forgot why he wasn't in the race. Romney would later claim it was Nelson Rockefeller's entry into the mix, and not Romney's own "brainwashing" remark, that doomed him.

Popular history has it wrong, insisted George W. Romney, the three-time Governor of Michigan whose run for the 1968 Republican Presidential nomination is widely believed to have been destroyed by his assertion that he had been misled or ''brainwashed'' by American generals and diplomats on a 1965 trip to Vietnam.
''That wasn't true,'' said Mr. Romney, who celebrated a nostalgic 80th birthday over the weekend by treating his four-generation clan to a fling in Washington. ''I didn't drop out of the race because of the 'brainwash' statement.''
What actually happened, he added Friday on their insiders' tour of the White House, was that Nelson A. Rockefeller retreated from a commitment to support him and decided to woo for himself the elements of the Republican Party not supporting Richard M. Nixon, who went on to win the nomination and the election.
''When Rockefeller said he'd accept a draft, that meant he was a candidate,'' Mr. Romney told his progeny, ''and I knew it was all up.''
Soon after, Mr. Romney continued, he and his wife, Lenore, encountered the New York Governor at a White House reception.
Rockefeller ''threw his arms around Lenore and said, 'Why did you let him pull out?' '' Mr. Romney remembered. ''And she pushed him back and she said, 'Well, Nelson, there couldn't be two candidates -and he turned red in the face and walked away.' ''

~ "Romney, Recalling 1968, Explains It All," Robert D. Hersey, New York Times, July 6, 1987.

How can this moment in history be brought into a larger overview?

There has been a war in the Republican Party, not just between the Yankees and Cowboys, but between those associated with J. P. Morgan and those tied to John Rockefeller.

 John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), American financier, banker, and art collector. 

John Davison Rockefeller (1839-1937), American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist.

Lloyd Miller, Research Director for A-albionic Research in Michigan, in 2000, noted the Morgan versus Rockefeller battles this way:

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the British Empire was at it peak. Not only was there the official Empire but networks of influence in every significant country. In America, this pro-British Party was lead by the Morgan Bank, the leading force amongst East Coast Anglophile Blue Bloods. Standard Oil arose as a primarily self-financing entity by consolidating oil refinery and pipeline capacity outside the control of the Morgan orbit. (Rockefeller's financing to the extent he needed it came from German Warburgs' Manhattan Bank which later became the Chase Manhattan under Rockefeller control.) The British Imperialists dared not let such a powerful independent entity arise and challenge their control of the US Government. Thus, Morgan backed Progressives, Teddy Roosevelt, etc. trying to torpedo the "bad trusts," i.e. the Rockefeller behemoth. This scenario is also confirmed in many ways by Gabriel Kolko's Triumph of Conservatism. Kolko exposed the covert ruling class agenda behind the Progressive Era. Geopolitics explains the detail, not the other way around!

My theories on the Rockefeller-Morgan conflict stem from [Murray] Rothbard and the books of Dr. Emanuel Josephson which Rothbard recommended. For some reason, Rothbard only rarely expounded on this topic in public. Further, other conspiracy theorists, usually the anti-Semitic ones, have presented some of the same theory as the Rockefeller-Rothschild conflict theory based on the incorrect idea that the Rothschilds have controlled the "City" and "Britain" since their financial coup after Waterloo. A better theoretical framework in my view is The British Empire or Crown vs the upstart Rockefellers.

J. P. Morgan

J. D. Rockefeller

There have been subtle conflicts between the J. P. Morgan branch versus the John Rockefeller branch of the Republican Party for a long time. Both the Morgan and Rockefeller divisions are variously described, nevertheless, as "liberal," "moderate," or Yankee, as opposed to the more conservative Cowboy segments of the Republican Party.

Carl Oglesby’s Cowboys ~ whether Republicans or Democrats ~ are associated with the aerospace and petroleum industries of the South and West. They spread from Florida to Texas, and then into the SW, with the addition of the more recent electronics and Internet revolution, especially of California.

But history is the prelude to the present. Old events unfold new truths. The fight between the Cowboys and Yankees often overshadows the ongoing conflict between the Morgan vs Rockefeller parts of the Yankee Republicans. But sometimes there are glimpses of what might be occurring.

In a discussion of the deaths of Presidents in office, researcher Murray Rothbard writes of how these battlegrounds are evidenced, in the extreme:

Next president to die in office was William McKinley of Ohio, long-time Rockefeller tool. Another lone nut was responsible, the "anarchist" Leon Czolgosz, who, like Guiteau, was quickly tried and executed by the Establishment. Even though Czolgosz was considered a flake and was not a member of any organized anarchist group, the assassination was used by the Establishment to smear anarchism and to outlaw anarchist ideas and agitation. Various obscure anti-sedition and anti-conspiracy laws trotted out from time to time by the Establishment were passed during this post-McKinley assassination hysteria. Beneficiary? The vaulting to power of Teddy Roosevelt, long-time tool of the competing Morgan (as opposed to Rockefeller) wing of the Republican Party. Teddy immediately started using the anti-trust weapon to try to destroy Rockefeller's Standard Oil and Harriman's Northern Securities, both bitter enemies of the Morgan world empire. Exhume McKinley, and also start a deep investigation of the possible role of Teddy and the Morgans. Was Czolgosz only a lone nut?

Next sudden death in office was that of my favorite president of the twentieth century, Warren Gamaliel Harding, in the camp of the Rockefellers. His death was quickly dismissed by the Establishment as of natural causes, but Gaston Means, a Secret Service agent in the Harding White House, wrote a sensational book, The Strange Death of Warren Harding, charging that Harding was poisoned by his wife, for two possible, though somewhat contradictory reasons: (a) Harding's notorious womanizing, and (b) to spare Harding the scandal of the Teapot Dome revelations, which were just emerging. Means's charge was brusquely dismissed on the grounds that he was an unreliable character. Perhaps, but so what? Surely, the grounds for exhumation are overwhelming. Chief beneficiary of Harding's death? Vice President Calvin Coolidge, member of the prominent Massachusetts family long in the Morgan ambit. (Hmmm. Another sudden death that replaced a Rockefeller person with a Morgan man?!)

~ "Sudden Deaths in Office" by Murray N. Rothbard

Where are we in 2012? In the ongoing battle, who is on top? The Rockefellers or the Morgans?

Some of the largest supporters of the Mitt Romney campaign are the banking executives of JPMorgan Chase. The hedge fund unit of JPMorgan Chase is one of the largest hedge funds in the United States. It was formed in 2000, when Chase Manhattan Corporation merged with J.P. Morgan & Co. In December 2000, the combined Chase Manhattan completed the acquisition of J.P. Morgan & Co., one of the largest banking mergers to date. The combined company was renamed JPMorgan Chase. In 2004, the bank acquired Bank One, making Chase the largest credit card issuer in the US. JPMorgan Chase added Bear Stearns & Co. and Washington Mutual to its acquisitions in 2009. 

Did the Rockefellers win the war?

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Pop Quiz:


Of the current 2012 Republican presidential candidates, who was aligned and use to work for Nelson Rockefeller (who would became Vice President under Gerald Ford after Nixon resigned)?


That would be Newt Gingrich. See below a 1988 clip of Gingrich saying he was “a Rockefeller state chairman in the South.” The information has also surfaced in at least one recent profile, as has his membership on the Council on Foreign Relations.

Yankees and Cowboys War

Carl Oglesby, 1989.

Carl Oglesby died of lung cancer at his home in Montclair, New Jersey on Tuesday, September 13, 2011, at the age of 76. 

I knew of Carl for decades, and briefly overlapped with his life in the JFK assassination research circles in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the 1970s-1980s. Yesterday, I posted of being a panelist at the A.S.K. conferences in Dallas. Carl's books Who Killed JFK?  (1991) and The JFK Assassination: The Facts and the Theories (1992), reflected those years, as well as his lifelong passion for investigating the underpinnings of the JFK assassination. (Another friend from those days, Tom Miller, author of The Assassination Please Almanac, 1977, went on to be a well-known travel writer.)

One of Carl Oglesby's often-forgotten books, which I think reveals a twilight language view of the world and should be read by students of political history, is The Yankee and Cowboy War: Conspiracies from Dallas to Watergate and Beyond (1976).

As you can hear, above, from Carl's own words upon looking back at the 1960s, a view of the ongoing "Civil War" in this country was a metaphor he used. It was a foundation critique.

Carl's 1976 book, The Yankee and Cowboy War describes the historical, current, and future power struggles between the old-money Eastern Establishment ruling class and the upstart new-money oil/real-estate/aerospace ruling class of the South and West. The book used Carl's (and Kirkpatrick Sale's) interpretation of Dallas (a Cowboy assassination of a Yankee president) and Watergate (a Yankee overthrow of a Cowboy president) to make his main points to a public with a short memory. Of course, it would take a Rockefeller Republican, Gerald Ford, former member of the Warren Commission, as a Yankee President, to give amnesty to Vietnam-era draft resisters and placate the Cowboys by pardoning Nixon.

The Yankee and Cowboy battle is written in our history.

Many would see later that the Cowboys won when the scion of the relatively old-money (Rockefeller-aligned) Bush family moved to Texas and pretended to be a Cowboy so Bush the Younger had a chance of succeeding his father, Bush the Elder.

The sometimes covert, sometimes overt war between Yankees and Cowboys continues into the present, during 2012.

Few today are willing to look too deeply at the ongoing "Civil War" that rages in this country, the Yankees vs Cowboys divide, or even the Morgan vs Rockefeller Yankee conflicts.  


For most Americans, the insights today of Mitt Romney, for example, hardly ever look at the moderate Yankee background of his father, George Romney, and George's defeat at the hands of the Cowboy Richard Nixon. Few will examine closely the history revealed in the undermining of George Romney by his subtle rival Nelson Rockefeller.

But Mitt Romney, try as he might, is still a Yankee fighting the Yankee versus Cowboy War in the glaring view of today's media.

When Mitt Romney was battling for a victory in the state of his birth, blue-collar Michigan in February, Romney told voters about the four cars he and his wife own, including "a couple of Cadillacs." 

In late February, Romney traveled to Florida to attend the Daytona 500 and was asked whether he followed NASCAR closely: "Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans," he said, "but I have some friends who are NASCAR team owners."

Mitt Romney admitted that "it's a bit of an away game" as he struggles to secure votes in the Deep South, during a campaign stop at the Port of Pascagoula, Mississippi on Thursday, March 8, 2012, in an appearance with Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant.

On Friday, March 9, 2012, the call out by Mitt Romney, at one Southern whistle stop, was an uncomfortable Mornin' Y'All. 

"Mitt Romney, a Yankee born and bred, is trying hard for the Southern vote. Real hard. Aside from shouting out the regional greeting to a Jackson, Miss., audience, Romney shared with them his breakfast menu: cheesy grits with a biscuit on the side," wrote Michele Salcedo of the Associated Press, on March 10th. 

Later Romney talked about eating catfish, for the second time in his life. At other stops in the South, Mitt Romney attempted to play up his everyman credentials. But failed, miserably, again.

"I’ve got a lot of good friends — the owner of the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets — both owners are friends of mine," Romney said in an interview with an Alabama radio host Paul Finebaum on Monday, March 12.

Stephen Gordon, a Republican consultant based in Birmingham, Alabama, told the Boston Herald that the former Bay State governor is a Yankee, and will always face skepticism no matter how many catfish filets he raves about.

"People in the Deep South have a bit of a natural distrust for Northerners, especially folks from the Northeast," said Gordon, who is not affiliated with any campaign in the Republican presidential contest. "There are cultural differences, stemming all the way back to the Civil War, and they affect the way people perceive Mr. Romney."

Avoid being distracted by the media game with the Yankee versus Cowboy jokes. There is a much more serious background battle being played out here. Romney appears to be the Republican Yankee here, with various other Republicans trying to appear to be Cowboys. Some may be. 


Meanwhile, President Barack Obama seems to be firmly entrenched as a Yankee Democrat, with ties to the Zbigniew Brzezinski camp. 


Ask yourself, what are the real histories behind these current political candidates, and who are their advisors, their mentors, and their fiscal supporters?


Carl Oglesby was correct. 

Yankee Pitcher Suicide: Hideki Irabu

Former New York Yankees right-handed pitcher Hideki Irabu was found dead of an apparent suicide in the wealthy Los Angeles suburb of Rancho Palos Verdes, authorities said. The body of Irabu, 42, was found at 4:25 p.m. PDT Wednesday, July 27, 2011, county sheriff's Sgt. Michael Arriaga said. "He was found dead by an apparent suicide," Arriaga said.

TMZ reported that he died by suicide by hanging himself. Irabu lived in LA with his wife and two children, where he had investments in various Japanese restaurants.

Baseball player suicides are not as rare as one assumes, and my study of them in the mid-1980s predicted a wave of self-deaths in 1989. Half of the suicide victims were pitchers, and all of those during the 20th century were right-handed.

Hideki Irabu (Japanese: 伊良部 秀輝) (May 15, 1969 – July 27, 2011) was a professional baseball player of Okinawan and American mixed ancestry. He played professionally in both Japan and the United States. Irabu's biological father is American, according to the father who raised Hideki, Ichiro Irabu. Ichiro also indicated that his wife, Kazue, is Hideki Irabu's biological mother. Hideki Irabu grew up in Amagasaki, Hyōgo Prefecture.

Irabu lived in Rancho Palos Verdes but it was not immediately clear whether it was his home, the sergeant said. Other details were not immediately released.

Messages left at the county coroner's office were not immediately returned.

Irabu pitched for the Lotte Orions, who later became the Chiba Lotte Marines, of the Pacific League from 1988 to 1996. He was known as a high-speed pitcher and in 1993, he threw a 158 km/h (98 mph) fastball against Kazuhiro Kiyohara of the Seibu Lions. This was the fastest clocked pitch in all of Japanese Professional Baseball (NPB) until 2005, when the record was broken by Marc Kroon of the Yokohama BayStars. It remains the Pacific League record.

Irabu led the Pacific League in wins in 1994 (27 games, 207 1⁄3 innings, 15 wins, 10 losses, 239 strikeouts, ERA 3.04), and in ERA in 1995 and 1996 (1995 - 28, 203, 11-11-0, 239, 2.53; 1996 - 18, 157 1/3, 12-6-0, 167, 2.40). In these successive years, Irabu monopolized the title of greatest strikeout pitcher in his league.

In 1997, the San Diego Padres purchased his contract from the Chiba Lotte Marines. This signing is especially notable because it led to the creation of the posting system currently used by Japanese and MLB teams. Irabu, however, refused to sign with the Padres, saying he would only play with the Yankees. For the negotiating rights to Irabu, the Yankees offered the Padres a choice of one from a list of players including Brian Boehringer, David Weathers, Chris Cumberland, Andy Fox, and Matt Luke. The Padres would eventually include him as a player-to-be-named-later in a trade that involved Homer Bush and Irabu traveling to the New York Yankees in exchange for Rafael Medina, Ruben Rivera, and $3 million in cash. The Yankees signed him to a $12.8 million, four-year contract, and after only eight minor league games, the Yankees put him in their rotation. He played with the Yankees from 1997 through 1999, winning two World Series rings (1998, 1999) despite only pitching in one postseason game and having no postseason decisions (coincidentally, the 1998 win was against the Padres). 

George Steinbrenner publicly expressed disgust at his weight, at one point calling him a "fat pussy toad" after he failed to cover first base on a ground ball during a spring training game. Steinbrenner refused to let Irabu accompany the team to Los Angeles, but two days later, Steinbrenner apologized and allowed Irabu to join the team. Steinbrenner's own dissatisfaction with Irabu was parodied in the final episode of Seinfeld; with the fictionalised Steinbrenner on the witness stand, George Costanza's father stands up in the court gallery, and tries to impeach Steinbrenner's credibility by asking him "How could you spend $12 million on Hideki Irabu?"

1998 was Irabu's best season in MLB, featuring career bests in games started (28), complete games (2), innings pitched (173), wins (13), and ERA (4.06).

After the 1999 season, he was traded to the Montreal Expos for Ted Lilly, Christian Parker, and Jake Westbrook. He started only 14 games for the Expos in 2000 and 2001, pitching 71⅓ innings with a 6.69 ERA and only 2 wins against 7 losses. 

In 2002, Irabu signed as a free agent to pitch for the Texas Rangers as a closer. At the end of the year, Irabu moved back to Japan to pitch in the Hanshin Tigers' starting rotation for the 2003 season, helping the team win the Central League pennant for the first time since 1985. When Major League Baseball opened its 2004 season in Tokyo, he pitched against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays

.

Over the course of six MLB seasons, Irabu's career totals are 126 games, 514 innings, 34 wins, 35 losses, 16 saves, 405 strikeouts, and a 5.15 ERA. His Japanese totals for eleven seasons are 273 games, 1,286 1/3 innings, 72 wins, 69 losses, 11 saves, 1,282 strikeouts, and a 3.55 ERA.

In 2009, Irabu had come out of retirement and made a contract with Long Beach Armada of the independent Golden Baseball League. He posted a 5-3 record in 10 starts, with an ERA of 3.58. In 65 innings Irabu struck out 66 batters while walking just 19. In August, he announced his intention to return to the Japanese professional leagues.

On August 20, 2008, Irabu was arrested on the suspicion of assaulting the manager of a bar in Umeda, Osaka. He was upset that his credit card was not accepted in the bar. At the time of the suspected assault, Irabu had consumed at least 20 glasses of beer. Irabu admitted to the assault, the bartender sustained no injuries, and Irabu paid the bill with another credit card.

On May 17, 2010, Irabu was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol in the Los Angeles suburb of Gardena (although it was also reported to have been Redondo Beach). Police said he was stopped after his car drifted outside of traffic lanes and he nearly collided with a parked car. He posted $5,000 bail but it was not immediately clear whether he was criminally charged. The press release of his arrest states he resided at the time in Rancho Palos Verdes.

Final MLB statistics

Win–loss record:    34–35

Earned run average:    5.15

Strikeouts:    405