So many among us have been so deeply played. Victims of a powerful PSYOP. Lost inside digitally disseminated delusions specifically designed to capture and hold weakened minds. A PSYOP designed to break minds & divide people of good will in a do or die American election year. Yes, that's right. A PSYOP as potent on the Left, & in Spiritual/Yoga/Wellness circles, as QAnon has proven to be on the right. (The anti vax movement truly was like a gateway drug for these mass delusions.) This conflict is not what you think it is. We are in a sprawling geopolitical struggle. There is a through line from Putin's invasion of Ukraine to Iran's femicidal crackdown on its own women and girls to Hamas' use of rape as a weapon of war on October 7th to the MAGA denial of women's reproductive rights in the U.S., even in the case of rape or incest, even when a mother's life is endangered, even when the fetus itself is doomed.
The horrific acts of sexual violence perpetrated against Israeli women & girls on Oct 7 were indeed crimes against humanity, & yes, of a nature unprecedented in the annuals of modern terrorism. Fortunately for Hamas, Netanyahu stepped on the lede. Now the 10/7 atrocities are almost never mentioned in the mainstream news media and certainly never by the "pro-Palestinian protesters" acting out on campuses across the U.S. And NO, I will not stop demanding attention be focused on this abomination. Disturbing, very, to see Western women covering their hair in “solidarity” with Hamas’ sadists rapists mutilators while Iranian women are being dragged off the streets imprisoned raped tortured and murdered - for refusing to cover their hair. (the “Islamic Republic” which of course sponsors and funds Hamas.) WTF are you doing? It has been credibly reported that Putin’s orc legions killed as many as 20,000 Ukrainians during the siege of Mariupol (the “City of Mary”). At least as many as the actual number of Palestinians have died in the Israeli military response to 10/7. And a higher percent of civilian causalities. (Hamas, as almost everyone ignores, has already had to back off of its inflated death toll.) More deaths in Mariupol alone! But you said nothing, posted nothing, wept not one social media tear! And yet here you are seeking to lecture all, shame all, vilify all who remain silent on Gaza, or, worse yet, dare to disagree with you.
In its laziness & timidity, the mainstream news media has been hiding behind a facile narrative likening the current "pro-Palestinian" actions (pro-Hamas really) to some of the great protest movements in modern U.S. history. This narrative is not only facile, it is false. These actions bear no resemblance to the massive anti-war movements that arose to counter wrong-headed U.S. military action in Indochina in the 60s-70s and in Iraq post-9/11. These actions bear no resemblance to the deeply rooted, heart-felt and massive protests after the murder of George Floyd, no resemblance to the authentic moral power of #MeToo and the Women’s March. Those four great outpourings of collective awakening actually were genuine calls for peace and justice, and they actually were massive. These are not. The people occupying campuses (and swarming in front of Starbucks lol) are mouthing Hamas slogans, targeting Jewish students for harassment and Jewish organizations for vandalizing, refusing Jewish students access to campus territory that has been seized. The speechifying is hateful and delusional. Openly rationalizing and justifying October 7th. Contextualizing rape as "resistance." A true peace movement in the current crisis would be framed completely differently. Protesters would feel it in their hearts to display both or neither flag, not just the flag of "Palestine." No speech or statement of purpose would fail to begin with the denunciation of October 7th. Demands for ceasefire would be aimed at Hamas as well as Israel. Both Netanyahu AND Hamas would be denounced in every utterance. New leadership would be demanded in Tel Aviv and in Gaza (or I should say Qatar where the Hamas leaders live in luxury).
This is all very different from what a real peace movement would look and sound like.
Reality is like a cold bath. Bitter cold. It’s scary. But you’ll feel much better if you take the plunge.
Here are three powerful artifacts from the struggle to redeem the present and rescue the future.
An important post from the indomitable Malcolm Nance (U.S. intelligence expert), an insightful Twitter thread from the intrepid Zabrina Zabrisky (Ukrainian journalist) and a vital video message from the indefatigable Noa Tishby (Israeli author, activist).
The indomitable Malcolm Nance elucidates how it all started:
Soon after HAMAS’s October 7 invasion of Israel, young Americans in universities adopted the HAMAS position that Israel’s war against the terrorist group was part of a “genocide” to wipe out the Palestinian people. Despite no evidence of this, they quickly joined with Palestinians and Arab Americans to create a protest movement centered in the most elite universities ...
Almost universally, the movement focused on and amplified the internal hatred of Palestinians against the Jews. Their anger at Israel’s war on HAMAS made subtle antisemitism socially acceptable to American University students. So long as the students didn’t specifically call to kill Jews, their positions were safe. They just made universities so utterly unfriendly to Jews that they and uninvolved students would fear for their lives. Attacks, blockades, and intimidation against Jewish students became commonplace ...
Less than a week after my rant, TikTok started exponentially disseminating videos of attractive, college-aged, black and white women who breathlessly claimed some secret information had been hidden from them by the US Government ... and now it was found!
The content creators had supposedly found and read Bin Laden’s “Letter to America” twenty-two years later. Read in the context of the Gaza war, they were somehow “shocked.”
They almost all started their TikTok videos, saying, “I need you to stop what you are doing and read the Letter to America. I can’t believe they kept this from us!” That was an interesting take since the letter was easy to find. It sat on the internet for decades and was prominent in my book and other terrorism studies. The young Americans in the videos acted as if some secret CIA vault had been opened and a mysterious Hidden truthwas revealed. One woman said the frankness of the mass murdering al-Qaeda leader had been such an eye-opening experience that it “made me go through an existential crisis.” Others parroted the exact words, repeating, “He [Bin Laden] was right!" ...
Within days, hundreds of videos praising Osama Bin Laden’s prescience about how the Israeli “Zionists” were oppressing the Palestinian people spread to tens of millions of viewers ...
Between the #FreePalestine movement’s demonization of Israel, the success of HAMAS propaganda, and the Chinese amplification of Bin Laden’s letter, American university students became so enmeshed in the hatreds of their Palestinian allies that they ruthlessly attacked Israel for defending itself on October 7th. In the same breath, students would ignore Israeli deaths, rapes, and abductions during the HAMAS invasion. A terror act that saw the summary execution of over one thousand Jews in cold blood ... - Malcolm Nance, "Will the Free Palestine College Protests End American Democracy?" (4/29/24)
This tweet thread from the intrepid Zarina Zabrisky pulls back the curtain on the machinery:
#protestforPalestine are used by Russia, China and Iran to sow division, confusion in order to demoralize Americans; undermine the U.S. globally and to influence the US presidential elections outcome. 2 important new articles: quotes/links.
“Russia is seeking to exploit America’s divisive debate over Israel’s offensive in Gaza through overt and covert propaganda, with the aim of aggravating political tensions in the U.S. and tarnishing Washington’s global image”
“In its ongoing information war against the United States, Russia has shifted its focus in recent months to the Israel-Hamas conflict, seeking to inflame existing divisions in the West and to portray Washington as fueling the violence”
“The effort includes AI, fake social media accounts, a long-standing tactic used by Moscow, and a spike in propaganda from Russian state media. The sources declined to share examples of Russian-generated bots on SM to avoid revealing U.S. intelligence-gathering methods.”
“In the first seven weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, posts on Facebook from Russian state media, pro-Russian commentators and Russian diplomats increased dramatically — by 400 percent, according to the Alliance for Securing Democracy.”
Moscow is targeting Europe as well. In November 2023, France accused a Russian-linked network of bots of stoking antisemitism by amplifying images of Stars of David graffiti on buildings in Paris with 2,589 posts on the X social media platform.”
“France, Germany and Poland have accused Russia of launching a barrage of propaganda to try to shape the outcome of the European parliamentary elections in June.
“This new operation of Russian digital interference” is "to sow confusion and create tensions in the public debate” The full article is here: https://nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna149759
“Russia is also spreading disinformation to damage President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats in advance of the U.S. election, using fake online accounts and bots”
Russia is trying to exploit America's divisions over the war in Gaza
"Prof Ruth Halperin-Kaddari said she saw footage of women in several locations whose condition left her in "no doubt" that they had been raped. There has been anger over the delay of some UN bodies to acknowledge claims of Hamas's sexual atrocities on 7 October."
Examiners found evidence that conflict-related sexual violence took place on October 7
There is “clear and convincing information” that sexual violence continues and hostages are still at risk.
The UN report should put to rest deniers’ appalling claims that allegations of sexual violence by Hamas on October 7 are unsupported
Hamas’ use of sexual violence as a weapon of war is clear.
Hamas must be held accountable.
As I told you at the beginning, it really is much more complex than you want it to be. So many among us have been so deeply played. This conflict was designed (in Moscow & Tehran) to break minds & divide people in the West & particularly in the run-up to the November 2024 U.S. presidential election.
The leaders of Hamas who live in luxury far from Gaza were paid very well for their blood sport. Hamas is not a liberation movement, it is more like the Wagner Group. I pray that your eyes are opened. Rape is not an act of resistance, nor is self-immolation. Please do not excuse the one or exalt the other. Such horrors. Yes, many have been so deeply played.
What must happen?
Hamas must be destroyed. Netanyahu & his cronies must be removed from power & face accountability for their crimes. There must be a two state solution. BTW, that’s something neither Hamas or the Israeli right wing really want. Yes, it’s much more complicated than you want it to be. Hamas instigated this war, & welcomed the deaths of its own innocents ...
Putin needed this distraction from his war crimes in Ukraine. The “Islamic Republic” needed this distraction from its own ongoing femicide. Netanyahu needed this distraction from the massive protests against him in the streets of Tel Aviv. And yes, Trump needed this distraction from Biden’s success and his own numerous civil & criminal trials. Make no mistake about what is really going on. Putin wants Trump to win so he can succeed in his war on Ukraine. Netanyahu wants Trump to win so that he can do what Trump has publicly exhorted him to do -“finish the job”
Yes, it’s a very complex situation, but this much is certain: Hamas must be destroyed. Netanyahu must be removed from power and face the consequences of his crimes. There must be a two-state solution with sovereignty and security for both peoples.
Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), chairperson of the US House intelligence committee, says some of his fellow Republicans are “absolutely” repeating Russian propaganda on the chamber floor, echoing a similar claim made recently by another rightwing American lawmaker. “It is absolutely true we see, directly coming from Russia, attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor,” the Ohio congressman told CNN’s State of the Union show. - Guardian, "House intelligence chair says Republicans are ‘absolutely’ repeating Russian propaganda," 4/8/24
The powerful messaging of the Lincoln Project, the brilliance of Stuart Stevens, the indomitable leadership of Lynn Cheney, the gravitas of Judge Luttig, the courage of Cassady Hutchinson. I offer them to you as proof that America is not divided down the middle, America is not half crazy, America is less than half crazy. I agree with them on almost nothing, they are conservative Republicans, and I am progressive Democratic, but they are not crazy, and neither am I, and we all belong to what I call the #UnitedFrontforSanityAndDecency, which is indeed a moniker for the Greatest Bi-Partisan Action in American History. That’s how I describe it. It is an empowering frame for patriots, it should be embraced. It is one of hope and clarity. But you will never hear it described in that way in the mainstream news media … BECAUSE … they are wholly invested in the horse race narrative, Blue v. Red, battleground states, “a country deeply divided,” yada yada yada, and that obsolete narrative doesn’t allow for the more complicated landscape we are actually living in …
Indeed, IF the evening news did cover this for what it really is - The Greatest Bi-Partisan Action in American History, the narrative of all that we have endured these last few years would read very differently ...
One of the bulwarks of this Greatest Bi-Partisan Action in American History, Republican Voters Against Trump, is investing tens of millions of dollars in advertising to tell the story of disaffected Republican voters and hopefully encouraging even more into not voting for Trump:
A Republican group dedicated to opposing former President Donald J. Trump is planning to spend $50 million to stop him through a series of homemade testimonial videos of voters who backed him in past elections but say they can no longer support him in 2024. The group, Republican Voters Against Trump, first emerged in the 2020 campaign and made a return appearance for the 2022 midterm elections. It is run by Sarah Longwell, a leading figure in Never-Trump politics whose focus groups and polling are a staple of center-right podcasts and have made her a go-to figure for political reporters aiming to decipher the motivations behind Trump supporters. Unlike Democratic organizations that aim to help President Biden by promoting his record in office, Ms. Longwell’s group focuses solely on attacking Mr. Trump through the voices of his former backers. The Republican Voters Against Trump website features 100 videos, from one to three minutes long, of Republicans speaking to a computer or mobile-phone camera about why they voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 or 2020 and will not do so in 2024.- NYT, Anti-Trump Group of Republicans Lays Out $50 Million Plan of Attack, 3/12/24
Another GOP senator announces she won’t vote for Trump in 2024 And then there were two: Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney are incumbent Republican senators who’ve publicly said they won’t vote for Donald Trump in 2024. - Steve Benen, MSNBC, "Another GOP senator announces she won’t vote for Trump in 2024," 3/4/24Mike Pence is easy to mock, NEVERTHELESS, Trump’s VP, was on the right side of history on 1/6/21, when he refused to violate his oath to the Constitution, and he is on the right side of history now in refusing to endorse Trump in 2024.
January 6th Committee Final Report. 531 pages. “a comprehensive investigation into the events surrounding the attack on the United States Capitol that occurred on January 6th, 2021”
The Four Trump Indictments. Two federal criminal indictments, two state criminal indictments (GA & NY). 400 pages.
These are holy books. The facts they enshrine are hallowed.The laws and oaths they mirror are sacred. They are songs of devotion to the Goddess Justice.
And yet the dangers of Trump and MAGA are still looms over the 2024 election. What is wrong with us, with our body politic, with our system of government? How could this be? How could Trump be running again? How is he still the apparent choice of tens of millions of Americans? Like the real answers to most real questions, it isn’t simple. (It certainly isn’t because of any failure on the part of Robert Mueller, or even Merrick Garland. Twitterati who impugn the integrity or competency of these honorable public servants are just misdirecting their followers into despair and defeatism.)
To answer the question of how this abomination is still with us, we must first answer the question how did Trump become president in 2016. And the real answer to that real question isn’t simple either. Without decades of Fox News, radical right hate radio, news media consolidation, gerrymandering and dark money, without the Electoral College, and yes, without a serious, sweeping, sustained Russian intelligence operation to influence the 2016 election, Trump never would have been sworn into office.
And unfortunately, instead of dealing with the fall of the Republican Party, and reporting it as what it is, a catastrophic development, the mainstream news media has simply continued as if this is all just politics as usual, trying to frame it all as a partisan divide, instead of a dire fracturing of reality itself, in which all us left, right and center must choose the harsh reality over a massive delusion.
The Mueller Report, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report and the January 6th Committee Final Report informed those among us willing to accept who and what Trump really is, and they also succeeded in snatching the factual narrative from the fire, preserving that factual narrative for history, or more accurately, moving forward, for HERSTORY. All of vital importance.
The Four Trump Indictments are of a different order. All four indictments were issued in 2023. The first indictment has turned into the first trial. It focused on election interference and hush money payments. It is now to begin in New York on April 15th, after having been delayed thirty days. The Georgia case as yet to receive a trial date, having just weathered a failed attempt to remove prosecutor Fani Willis. Federal prosecutors are battling through delays thrown in their way by corrupt judges are attempting to delay these trials until after the election, so that Trump can shut it all down should he win in November. Cannon in Florida, and radical right-wing Supreme Court (with three "justices" appointed by Trump himself). These four criminal indictments are real. They will result in convictions, if and when they are brought to trial. It is imperative that Biden wins to protect the DoJ’s two prosecutions, IF they are successfully delayed until after the election. We must prevail in the 2024 election. This is the Second Deadline. The decisive battle.
Meanwhile, even though Trump is NOT YET convicted in these cases, all of the legal struggle, the criminal investigations, the subsequent indictments, the victorious civil cases brought by Tish James ($360 million) and E-Jean Carroll ($83.3 million), AND the 1/6-related civil cases in the pipeline, all of it has harried & weakened Trump politically, financially & yes psychologically. All of this pose a very real threat to him. It is bleeding him. Trump would be much stronger if all of these efforts hadn’t been brought through to final reports, criminal indictments and civil court verdicts.
We will see Trump politically defeated, financially ruined and convicted, and we will see the MAGA movement dwindle, diminish, deteriorate, with it’s worst elements slipping back into the sewers of psyche, and the rest of those who got swept up in the madness just trying to slip quietly back into normative ideological frames. Evil dies hard, yes, but this fascist movement will be brought down, it must be.
The reckoning is quickening now, but it has been underway for awhile.
3 years later, Jan. 6 by the numbers: More than 1,200 charged. Prosecutors have secured more than 718 guilty pleas in Jan. 6 cases, 171 others have been found guilty at trial or otherwise found guilty. More than 460 imprisoned for their role in Capitol attack, hundreds of others have been sentenced for lesser offenses to periods of home detention or probation." - ABC News, 1/5/24
"In remarks Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland described the Justice Department's sprawling probe of the Capitol attack as "one of the largest and most complex and resource-intensive investigations in our history.
New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks after Trump civil fraud ruling (CBS News, 2/14/24) New York Attorney General Letitia James spoke Friday night following a judge's ruling in her office’s civil fraud trial against Donald Trump and the Trump Organization. Judge Arthur Engoron fined the former president and his company $354 million. The decision also includes a three-year ban on Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation. <
Altruism v. Sociopathy, Democracy v. Authoritarianism
It is very important that you understand what MAGA may try to do between the election and the inauguration, & what they are preparing to do after the take power, whether legitimately or illegitimately.
What They Are Planning for the Time Between the Election Itself & the Inauguration
First, Republicans need to make sure they’re in control of the House of Representatives on January 6th, 2025, when the new president will be certified. To do that, even though Democrats might have won enough seats to take back the House in the 2024 election, Speaker Johnson will refuse to swear into Congress on January 3rd a handful of those Democrats, claiming there are “irregularities” in their elections that must be first investigated … There’s nothing Democrats can legally do to stop Speaker Johnson from pulling this off: he can postpone swearing a member in for as long as he wants. That keeps Speaker “MAGA Moscow Mike” Johnson in charge of the House, so they can also refuse to accept the Electoral College certificates of election from a handful of states where they claim there are “problems” … Then, regardless of how many votes Biden won by, electoral or popular, the House simply refuses to certify the electoral college votes of enough states that the minimum of 270 isn’t reached. Under the 12th Amendment, like with the election of 1876, that throws the election to the House, where each state has one vote. While a majority of Americans live in a state run by Democrats, a majority of the states themselves are run by Republicans. Each state gets one vote for president in the House, and right now 26 state delegations are GOP-controlled, meaning that a majority of the House would simply vote to put Trump back into the White House, 26-23 (Pennsylvania’s delegation is 50/50). All totally legal. The Putin/Trump caucus in the House — led by Speaker Johnson — has largely given up on democracy when elections don’t give them power. As outrageous as this scenario sounds, they justify it to themselves as being essential to “save America” from “woke” Democrats … The best way to prevent this from happening is to widely publicize their scheme so public opinion will become so intense that they fear the consequences. It’s a thin thread holding our republic together, but at least it’s something. Pass it along. – Thom Hartmann, “The New ‘Over the Top’ Secret Plan on How Fascists Could Win in 2024” (2/26/24)
What Are They Planning to Do If They Regain Power
Project 2025 is an initiative of the Heritage Foundation, a rightwing think tank that has helped staff and set the agenda for every Republican administration since Ronald Reagan … GOP operatives have already crafted an expansive blueprint, 887 pages long, laying out in painstaking detail how they intend to govern, including plans to leverage virtually every arm, tool and agency of the federal government to attack abortion access. The document explicitly names their intention not just to rescind FDA approval for the abortion pill if they regain control of the White House in 2024, but to revive a 150-year-old law that criminalizes sending or receiving through the mail any “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing” that could be used to facilitate an abortion ... - Rolling Stone, Inside the MAGA Plan to Attack Birth Control, Surveil Women and Ban the Abortion Pill, 12/22/23
Former President Trump's allies are pre-screening the ideologies of thousands of potential foot soldiers, as part of an unprecedented operation to centralize and expand his power at every level of the U.S. government if he wins in 2024, officials involved in the effort tell Axios ... Hundreds of people are spending tens of millions of dollars to install a pre-vetted, pro-Trump army of up to 54,000 loyalists across government to rip off the restraints imposed on the previous 46 presidents …His inner circle plans to purge anyone viewed as hostile to the hard-edged, authoritarian-sounding plans he calls "Agenda 47” … - Axios, “Behind the Curtain: Trump allies pre-screen loyalists for unprecedented power grab” (11/13/23)
Former top officials from Donald Trump’s administration are warning he is likely to use a second term to overhaul the nation’s spy agencies in a way that could lead to an unprecedented level of politicization of intelligence … POLITICO talked to 18 former officials and analysts who worked in the Trump administration, including political appointees from both parties and career intelligence officers, some who still speak to the former president and his aides and had insight into conversations about his potential second term.- Politico, “The prospect of a second Trump presidency has the intelligence community on edge,” 2/26/24
There is a through-line from Putin's war on Ukraine, to Putin ally Iran's war against its own female population, to the Putin/Iran Sponsored Hamas femicidal attack on 10/7, to the Putin sponsored Trump/MAGA subjugation of Red State women & girls. WWW 3 is a War on Women.
Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, in the Red States, misogynistic MAGA rulers are inflicting unbearable suffering to American women and girls.
And it isn’t just the victims of rape and incest who are being subjugated in this hateful and barbaric way. MAGA seeks control the lives and destinies of all women.
Consider Texas' sadistic attempt to exert control of the life of Katie Cox:
Kate Cox, the 31-year old mother of two who recently sued the State of Texas for the right to terminate her fatal nonviable pregnancy, has fled Texas to receive an abortion according to her lawyers at the Center for Reproductive Rights ... From a statement from the Center for Reproductive Rights: After a week of legal whiplash and threats of prosecution from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, our client Kate Cox has been forced to flee her home state of Texas to get the time-sensitive abortion care needed to protect her health and future fertility. Kate has been unable to get an abortion in Texas, even though her fetus has a fatal condition and continuing the pregnancy threatens her future fertility. – Meidas Touch, Kate Cox Forced to Flee Texas After Court Halts Her Abortion, 12/11/23
This is not who we are. This is not what America has chosen to be over the many decades since the defeat of fascism in WWII. This is not what the West is, this is not what the Western Alliance is. This is what Putin’s Russia is, this is what the “Islamic Republic” of Iran is, this is what Hamas is, and yes this is what MAGA is.
Cox is now speaking out for Biden-Harris in battle ground states.
The brilliant Ruth Ben-Ghiat, historian of authoritarianism & author of "Strongman," confirms the powerful link between misogyny & authoritarianism:
In an authoritarian state, women are as much the enemies of the strongman as the press, prosecutors, and the opposition. We can correlate the appeal of strongmen to moments when men feel their status is threatened due to changes in gender roles and distributions of economic and social power.
Control over female bodies in the name of population growth is a throughline of authoritarianism, as are persecutions of LGBTQ+ individuals ...
In Europe and America, the century-long focus of the far right on demographic emergencies supposedly created by declines of White births and upticks in non-White immigration have created support for controls on female bodies. These controls are predicated on negating the personhood of women and consigning them to roles as vessels of population growth.
For men to preserve their “natural” right to dominate, and White Christian civilization to continue, women must be deprived of reproductive rights and demeaned, disciplined, and criminalized if they resist.
Last summer, on Fox News, in an "Exclusive Town Hall" moderated Sean Hannity (I know, WTF?!?!), RFK Jr. blamed the war in Ukraine on the United States. "Because of our pushing the Ukraine into the war ..."Even the craven Hannity was taken aback: "We pushed them to it or did Putin invade?"
This perverse statement engendered revulsion among the defenders of democracy:
Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat), 7/25/23: So sick of this individual. The meaning of his candidacy is related to his ability to spread far-right propaganda and have the right people see him doing that
Stuart Stevens (@stuartpstevens), 7/25/23: There is something deeply disturbed with RFK Jr. Was it the heroin or the steroids or just his own broken soul but defending genocide is evil.
Alexandra Chalupa (@alexandrachalupa)7/25/23: The United States can protect itself and the free world by shutting down the Kremlin’s influence industry in America that continues to poison the nation and even successfully weaponized a Kennedy.
Indeed, in this deadly dangerous third party candidacy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is advancing the fascist agenda of Trump/MAGA and Putin (and indulging his own narcissism). Nothing more. Nada. Nyet. Nothing more.
Not only is he is proffering Putin’s talking points on Ukraine, he whitewashing the 1/6 insurrection, & equating Biden w/ Trump, saying that there is no difference between the two, even suggesting that Biden is "a greater threat to democracy."
Not only has he associated himself with Flynn, Stone & other Trump/MAGA operatives, much of his financing is coming from radical right-wing billionaires
Even before this sick move, he had become a menace. Anti-vaxxerism is itself a bioweapon, & RFK Jr’s public life had become a super spreader event. (Measles and Polio are making a come back thanks to this madness.) But now ...
What could explain this utterly evil trajectory? A pathological illness? RFK Jr.'s descent into [Dr. Bandy Lee, please fill in the blank] is a tragedy, yes, another Kennedy family tragedy, just of a very different nature from the others.
BTW, the Kennedy family has publicly denounced him.
"The decision of our brother Bobby to run as a third party candidate against Joe Biden is dangerous to our country. Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgement. Today's announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country." - Members of Kennedy Family Denounce Candidacy of RFK Jr.: 'Dangerous to Our Country' Meidas Touch, 10/9/23
Consider the artifacts of abominations I have gathered for you here.
Any one of them should be damning enough to warn you off of RFK Jr. & agent saboteur candidacy. But taken all together ... WTF?!?!
RFK Jr. super PAC rolls out ballot access priorities, Politico, 12/22/23
Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq), 12/26/23: If this is all they can do, RFK will at most be on the ballots of three swing states (AZ, MI, GA). His own campaign admits his only hope is to keep both Trump and Biden under 270. He's a chaos agent, nothing more.
RFK Jr.’s Super PAC Got More Than 50% of Its Funding From Trump Megadonor - Rolling Stone, 7/31/23
Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski), 4/5/23: RFK Jr issued a reprehensible statement on J6 today (4/6/24] that looks like it was written by Tucker Carlson. He said, “reasonable people .. tell me there is little evidence of a true insurrection,” and he will investigate “prosecutorial misconduct” by DOJ.
RFK Jr. Repeats Russian Propaganda on Ukraine: Comes same day as candidate reveals Jan. 6 trutherism - Los Angeles Magazine, 4/5/24
RFK Jr. Endorses Rand Paul To Replace Mitch McConnell as Senate Republican Leader: ‘He’s Shown Great Judgment’ - Mediate, 2/28/24
RFK Jr.'s Siblings Issue Scathing Statement On His 'Perilous' Third Party Run: 'Dangerous to Our Country' - Mediate, 10/9/23
Proud Texas Democrat (@maketexasblue22), 3/27/24: After RFK's second wife Mary and RFK Jr. had been separated for a year, Mary hung herself in a barn, her siblings sued Kennedy to have her buried in Westchester, N.Y., closer to where her four children lived. But Kennedy disregarded their wishes and won in court, and she was buried near Kennedy’s aunt and uncle, Eunice and Sargent Shriver. A few months later while he was dating Cheryl Hines, he exhumed her body and had her moved away from the main family plot and transferred 700 feet away and reburied in an empty part of the St. Francis Xavier Cemetery in Centerville, Mass where it was unmarked. He said so it would be less crowded. That's who he is.
"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was one of Jeffrey Epstein’s celebrity guests, the sex offender’s former house manager claimed in newly unsealed documents. The ex-employee, Juan Alessi, listed Kennedy as one of numerous high-profile visitors, along with Prince Andrew, Donald Trump, attorney Alan Dershowitz, hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai, beauty pageant stars, and at least one Nobel Prize winner ..."
'Kids died.' The story of RFK Jr., anti-vaxxers, and a measles outbreak: Mehdi’s deep dive - MSNBC, 7/6/23
Keith Edwards, Occupy Democrats: Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign just got rocked by an explosive bombshell as new video just surfaced that is damning smoking gun evidence that he is only running as part of a sinister plot to help Donald Trump get elected in November.
Keith Edwards, Occupy Democrats: In an unhinged new interview, RFK Jr. revealed himself to be a spoiler who only joined the presidential race to steal votes from President Biden and help Trump win. Simply deplorable…
NOTE: I had intended to deliver this talk on the Ides of March but decided at the last minute to do it four nights later on the Equinox. The Ides supplies a lot of gravitas, of course, but this Equinox, Vernal in the Northern Hemisphere, felt like it would emit a more hopeful vibe. As I prepared & posted the video, a very close friend, a young Fey, died. After a long battle with cancer. My nickname for Kelly was “Captain Marvel.” She passed with a smile on her face. a powerful night.
In “Secret Engine of the World, published in 2021, I articulated “Three Deadlines.” Two for this country, the 2022 and 2024 federal elections. Without significant success in both, we will not survive as a democratic republic. One for the planet as a whole, the year 2031, one decade on from the book’s release date. That’s the year I take to be the point of no return. Either we will have decisively moved on from our climate-destroying, resource devouring ways, or extinction itself is in play.
The First Deadline, the 2022 mid-term, has passed.
We survived, overall. We defied “conventional wisdom” in some ways, we advanced on several fronts, but we also suffered a serious setback, narrowly losing the Speaker’s gavel to the zombie death cult and its orc captains.
This talk will address the Second Deadline, the 2024 federal election.
Mystical Ward Healer
Merriam-Webster definition -
ward heeler (noun): a worker for a political boss in a ward or other local area
Yes, I declare it unequivocally, unabashedly, I am acting as a mystical ward healer for the Democratic Party in the 2024 election.
I say a “mystical ward healer” because I am not just using a political rational, or the political calculus, I am also drawing on the mystical rationale, the occult rationale, the spiritual rationale, the existential rationale, the HUMAN rationale, the HUMANE rationale.
My goal is to reach as many of you as possible. And to call on you for the sake of all sentient beings to CHOOSE SIDES and VOTE. Not just for President, but for Senator and Congressional Representative, for Governor, and Secretary of State, and State Attorney General, and Mayor, and School Board, all of it, every line on the ballot, up and down the ballot …
Red Deer Medicine
Over the years, since I started speaking out in 2010, I have often referred to what my Yoda, the legendary American sage Joe Miller, called “the Power of Nothing” and also to the critical “100 Years” that he told me about late one night in the early 1980s. So I am not going to go back over all that again here. You can look it up in “Wyrds of Power” “I, the Dragon” and “Secret Engine”
All three touch on those vital insights.
But for here and now, in this talk, hurtling toward this particular deadline, I will add a third theme to go along with “the Power of Nothing” and “the 100 Years” - Red Deer Medicine.
The red deer of Eurasia live in large herds, spending lots of time either grazing or lying down to ruminate. Some deer are ready to move on before others are, and scientists have noticed that herds only move when 60 percent of the adults stand up — essentially voting with their feet. Even if a dominant individual is more experienced and makes fewer mistakes than its underlings, herds typically favor democratic decisions over autocratic ones. A major reason for this, according to research by biologists Larissa Conradt and Timothy Roper, is that groups are less impulsive: "Democratic decisions are more beneficial primarily because they tend to produce less extreme decisions, rather than because each individual has an influence on the decision per se." - Seven examples of animal democracy, Mother Nature Network, November 4, 2012, Center for Biological Diversity
I want you to feel into this conviction that Democracy isn’t only a human concept or something exclusive to humans, it’s not just a human scheme. It exists elsewhere in Nature, it is something that has occurred to Gaia, in her scintillant, limitless intelligence. And indeed it has emerged from within Gaia herself, not for every species, but also not just for ours alone, for many other species as well, from honey bees to chimpanzees, in one way or another.
Now we not a pure democracy. Nor would we really want to be. We are a democratic republic. The Constitution, which is an ever evolving organism, provides structure, e.g. the three branches of government, and establishes verities, e.g. the Bill of Rights. We are a republic that uses democratic institutions to determine its direction. It doesn’t always work out in the best way, the highest way, the deepest way, the most human/humane way, but it often does, and in our experience here in America, at the most crucial moments, at the most critical moments, at the most perilous moments, the herd, the multitude, the majority does move in the wiser direction, the better direction … This happens when enough of us click into our innate common sense, achieving critical mass, and then a collective common sense arises. It happens when enough of us click into our innate conscience, achieving critical, so that a collective conscience arises. It is this luminous individual and collective common sense, this pulsating individual and collective conscience that can, that will, that must bring us through.
So Much More Than Poetical Maxims
“Macrocosm within Microcosm, Microcosm within Macrocosm”
In the West, this maxim bubbled up among the ancient Greeks … It made Aristotle uncomfortable, so that’s good … It got more traction in the Renaissance, with that period’s Hermetic and Neo-Platonist influences ... Bruno, Paracelsus & Robert Fludd …
“Chop Wood, Carry Water”
This saying is from a well-worn Chan/Seon/Zen tale.
The sage is asked, “What did you do before you came to direct, immediate realization of the nature of reality?” “I chopped wood and carried water.”
“What did you do after you came to direct, immediate realization of the nature of reality?” “Chopped wood and carried water.”
Most of us have heard both these poetical, philosophical sayings many times.
Familiar with them, we hear what we want to hear or have been told to hear. They are shiny, clean, reassuring, even calming … BUT in the course of this talk I am going to reveal some other dimensions of meaning to both.
Politics is HOLY. UGLY and HOLY. Likewise, Geopolitics, UGLY and HOLY. These two so much more than poetical maxims apply directly to both. Yes, Microcosm within Macrocosm, & Macrocosm within Microcosm. Politics and Geopolitics. What happens in one intimately interacts and influences what happens in the other. And voting, protesting, engaging, raising money, donating money, volunteering at call banks, showing up, raising your voice, whispering, reaching out, and yes staying somehow in touch with what’s really going on, or at least relying on a trusted friend who does, all of this is … Chopping Wood and Carrying Water …
Singularity
We will start this exploration at the Macrocosmic Level -
So, in 2010, the true voice of my deepest inner guidance spoke to me: “It’s time to make your move.” That’s what I heard, and felt, and knew. When I opened my mouth to speak, I found myself talking about “THE SINGULARITY IN ANTICIPATION OF I”
That’s what the moment felt like to me. Indeed, the title of the first series of talks (there would be many more) & by extension the title of the first in a series five books became “Between Shadow & Light, The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself” (2012).
These are the five books that would eventually by compiled in & subsumed by “Wyrds of Power” (2017).
While ”the Best & the Brightest” were all (& still are) fretting debating mentally masturbating over an AI Singularity, I was suggesting that we ourselves this species had become a Singularity an Impossibility which would either result in our extinction or lead to something utterly new version of us, a new iteration of our species.
EXCERPT: What I suggest to you is that the human race, in its journey of self-discovery, has created a singularity; the life we have made for ourselves is unsustainable, our genius for developing has eclipsed our capacity to reduce the mass of our ignorance, our population is growing beyond all nature’s built-in checks and balances, our demand for fresh water and our exploitation of soil have outstripped the capacity of these vital resources to renew themselves, our climate is deteriorating, our oceans are dying, our collective footprint has begun to crush the world on which we depend, we are no longer walking in this world, we are walking over this world, and crushing it beneath us. The political, economic and religious structures with which we frame our shared reality have caved in on themselves. With our genius and our ignorance, we have created an impossibility, and we are fueling it every moment of every day. There is no way out of this impossibility, because what could lead us out is leading deeper into it at every twist and turn. We cannot turn, we cannot change course. We cannot stop sliding backward, and yet we cannot stop hurtling forward. Our problems have become our solutions; our solutions have become our problems. This impossibility is our crisis. It has a created a singularity. What will come from this singularity? If anything but extinction (or near extinction) comes from this crisis, it will be because something unforeseen, something unprecedented, something miraculous, something utterly new emerges from this singularity, i.e., from within us, in the midst of our meltdown, after everything has gone on full-tilt. We are the singularity, and we are poised here in anticipation of what will emerge from the unthinkable, unimaginable collapse of our collective self. Therefore, we must learn to see in the dark. - Richard Power, Wyrds of Power: New Language for A New Reality (2017) [Otiginally, “Between Shadow & Night” (2012) and republished in “Wyrds of Power” (2017)
Civilizational Meltdown, Evolutionary Crisis!
In 2010, I wrote and spoke of “The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself” In 2017, a year into Trump, I declared ”The Singularity has Arrived”
Occult Cosmology
There is some context for my premise, my postulate, I found a couple of strands of occult cosmology that offer a backdrop …
There is legend which relates to it all, & there is even math …
HP Blavatsky wrote of a “Ring Pass Not” that quarantines the Solar System.
One of the many occult terms found in H. P. Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine is what is called the “Ring-Pass-Not,” an intriguing term found in Śloka 6 of Stanza V ... In his Occult Glossary, G. de Purucker provides a definition that only deepens the mystery: A profoundly mystical and suggestive term signifying the circle or bounds of frontiers within which is contained the consciousness of those who are still under the sway of the delusion of separateness … It does not signify any one especial occasion or condition, but is a general term applicable to any state in which an entity, having reached a certain stage of evolutionary growth of the unfolding of consciousness, finds itself unable to pass into a still higher state because of some delusion under which the consciousness is laboring, be that delusion mental or spiritual. Purucker goes on to explain that although the phenomenon of a Ring-Pass-Not applies to globes, planetary chains, solar systems, and so forth, the main point to remember is that it pertains in some mysterious way to “phases or states of consciousness.” Blavatsky adds to the mystery when she says, ‘The full Initiate knows that the Ring ‘Pass-Not’ is neither a locality nor can it be measured by distance …’”THE MYSTERY OF THE “RING-PASS-NOT”
The human race will not be able to physically travel beyond the “Ring Pass Not” around this solar system unless and until it has evolved beyond its pathologies, its “seven deadly sins,” its cruelty, its short-sightedness …
This isn’t just some special effect in a Star Trek re-run on the SyFy channel. No, there is math! Math that I suggest actually points to the Ring-Pass-Not. Math that shows us something about what it might really be, how it might really work, what it actually is.
In 1961, astrophysicist Frank Drake produced “a probalistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way” (Wikipedia).
Drake's Equation:
N = R* • fp • ne • fl • fi • fc • L
Where,
N = The number of civilizations in The Milky Way Galaxy whose electromagnetic emissions are detectable.
R* =The rate of formation of stars suitable for the development of intelligent life.
fp = The fraction of those stars with planetary systems.
ne = The number of planets, per solar system, with an environment suitable for life.
fl = The fraction of suitable planets on which life actually appears.
fi = The fraction of life bearing planets on which intelligent life emerges.
fc = The fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space.
L = The length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.
fc = The fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space.
L = The length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.
That’s it right there, right around fc and L, that’s where we have been for a while now. This is where we are. With one foot we are stepping into the great shift toward a green, woke, feminist civilization, and yet, SIMULTANEOUSLY, with our other foot we are stepping off the cliff and into the abyss. We are at the cusp, forward from this moment, it’s either the upward, onward arc of human evolution, OR the downward spiral of devolution into an Age of the Orcs. The Ring-Pass-Not is coded into us. Either we choose altruism and sustainability, and the Vulcan ambassador will lead a delegation welcoming us to the “Federation of Planets,” or we degenerate. That’s what these three thresholds are all about.
This Singularity is us, our civilization in the “Ring-Pass-Not” moment of truth. It’s Pass or Fail. This is either the beginning or the end. This century.
#ClimateEmergency
Here and now, within this Singularity, the Planetary Climate Emergency and the Sixth Great Extinction overshadow all else.
There is no call to action more urgent, no need that is more desperate.
This is true for everyone and everything everywhere.
The Gulf Stream system could collapse as soon as 2025, a new study suggests. The shutting down of the vital ocean currents, called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc) by scientists, would bring catastrophic climate impacts. Amoc was already known to be at its weakest in 1,600 years owing to global heating and researchers spotted warning signs of a tipping point in 2021. The new analysis estimates a timescale for the collapse of between 2025 and 2095, with a central estimate of 2050, if global carbon emissions are not reduced. Evidence from past collapses indicates changes of temperature of 10C in a few decades, although these occurred during ice ages … Amoc carries warm ocean water northwards towards the pole where it cools and sinks, driving the Atlantic’s currents. But an influx of fresh water from the accelerating melting of Greenland’s ice cap and other sources is increasingly smothering the currents. A collapse of Amoc would have disastrous consequences around the world, severely disrupting the rains that billions of people depend on for food in India, South America and west Africa. It would increase storms and drop temperatures in Europe, and lead to a rising sea level on the eastern coast of North America. It would also further endanger the Amazon rainforest and Antarctic ice sheets - Damian Carrington, “Gulf Stream could collapse as early as 2025, study suggests,” Guardian (7/25/23)
Don’t allow yourself to be overwhelmed by it all. Just keep it simple.
70% of Americans say “no” to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
74% of Americans think CO2 should be regulated as a pollutant
75% of Americans say schools should teach about global warming
81% support creating more parks and green spaces in low income communities and communities of color
82% support federal funding to help farmers improve practices to protect and restore the soil so it absorbs and stores more carbonThe Red Deer have gotten the message.
We are shifting from a false debate about whether or not climate change is real to true debate about whether or not we are doing enough. Of course we aren’t, but we’ve come a long way in the last few years.
World War 3
In one way, in a very real way, we are already in the throes of WW3. Putin is waging 21st Century information warfare against the democracies of the West. It all started in 2014, when Putin attacked the sovereign nation of Ukraine and seized the Crimea. In 2016, the conflict escalated further with Putin’s fueling of Brexit in Britain & Trump/MAGA in the U.S.A. These two psychological black ops were designed to weaken the Western alliance & thereby contribute to the overturning the established world order that relies heavily on that alliance. Using PSYOPS & cyber war, leveraging the hypnotic power & vast reach of social media, while also utilizing old-fashioned spy craft ala “Red Sparrow” and “Killing Eve,” Putin has exploited the inherent vulnerabilities of democratic societies.
In the U.S.A., he has effectively co-opted one of the two major parties, turning the Republican Party into an asset. Unfortunately, many among us don’t know how to recognize it for what it is, or simply refuse to. Far too many of us are in denial.
This is not a reigniting of the Cold War. Disbelieving friends on the Left want to make it out to be so. It is something totally different. This is not Soviet communism. This is the rise of the Russian organized crime. Something I was warning about in briefings, 25 years ago …
Also, as you shall see in this presentation, in a very real way & for very good reason, WW3 IS A WAR ON WOMEN.
So Much More Than Hashtag Slogans
So YES, WW3 is a war on women and girls, a war on Gaia Herself, a war on the Ascending of the Feminine, the Deep Feminine … In several dimensions -- societal, political, economic, psychological, evolutionary, mystical …
Just as the Climate Emergency and the Sixth Great Extinction reflect the enslavement of Gaia in the Age of Patriarchy and Oligarchy, so too the aggression that led to these three hashtag slogans reflect a reactionary backlash against the Ascendancy of the Feminine and the civilizational shift that depends on it … A green, woke, feminist civilization, that’s where we’re going, that’s what is being birthed, that is our aspiration, that is what our circumstances call for, that Gaia demands of us. We want to L-I-V-E. Spell L-I-V-E backwards? Yes, E-V-I-L. And E-V-I-L die hard. That’s why this is such a dangerous moment in human herstory.
Ever since 2016, friends have asked me “how is it all going?” My answer throughout has been “It’s all going very well, therefore, we are in great danger.”
The three entities that these hashtag slogans target - Putin’s Russia, the so-called “the Islamic Republic of Iran” and Hamas - are all allied.
Iran provides weapons for Russia in its war against Ukraine. Russia and Iran are Hamas’ sponsors. And all three are using rape as a weapon of war.
Rape constitutes a war crime under the Geneva Conventions that establish international legal standards for conduct of armed conflicts. Widespread or systematic sexual violence amount to crimes against humanity. Rape is used as a part of a Russian terror tactic arsenal. Its use meant not only to devastate individual victims, but to send out a message of intimidation, punishment, and subjugation to the targeted country ... According to Think Global Health, sexual violence during war can be divided into three overarching categories: 1) Deliberate war tactic, widely committed with an intentional purpose; 2) Tolerated, but not specifically ordered, by leaders; 3) Committed independently -- @Saint Javelin
On Mar. 16, 2022, Russia conducted an air strike on the #Drama Theatre in #Mariupol, #Donetsk region. At the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of #Ukraine, the theatre was a shelter for more than a thousand Mariupol residents, including #women and #children. People wrote “CHILDREN” on the ground in front of the building to protect themselves. As a result of the Russian attack on the Mariupol Drama Theatre, approximately 300 people [innocent civilians] were estimated to have been killed. - @weareukraine.info
Bucha and Bucha district. 33 days of occupation. More than 1,400 deaths, including 37 children. More than 175 people were found in mass graves and torture chambers. - @saintjavelin
Russian forces committed more than 9,000 war crimes in Kyiv Oblast's city of Bucha and its district, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin said on March 31. - @kyivindependent_official
The International Criminal Court has issued (March 2023) an arrest #warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. The ICC alleges Putin is responsible for war crimes, including the unlawful deportation of #children from #Ukraine to Russia - @weareukraine.info
The so-called "stolen generation," of Ukrainian children are usually adopted by Russian families and brainwashed with Russian propaganda, stripping them of their Ukrainian identity and taking them away from living relatives. The deportation of Ukrainian children to Russian territory is a war crime and constitutes genocide according to one of the five definitions given in the United Nations' Genocide Convention - @kyivindependent_official
Russian troops are using violence against women as a weapon of war with rape victims as young as 4 and as old as 85, according to Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska. In a speech to MPs and peers on Tuesday evening, Zelenska – the wife of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy – accused Russian forces of sexual violence and rape during the months-long Ukraine crisis, which is now heading into a long winter. - Olena Zelenska: Russian troops raped four-year-old girl in Ukraine, Yahoo News (11/30/23)
Through line to Iran
The “Islamic Republic” of Iran is allied with Putin’s Russia. They are supporting Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. They are supplying weapons to the Russians. And yes the “Islamic Republic” is also using rape as a weapon of war – in this instance, against its own female population.
#WomenLifeFreedom
For decades, gender inequality and discrimination against women have been legally enshrined in Iran. Under Iran's Islamic Penal Code, Iranian women's rights are severely restricted, a form of gender apartheid. Women must comply with the Islamic Republic’s mandatory hijab laws from the onset of puberty, and they are unequal in matters of marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance and more. In the Fall of 2022, hundreds of protesters, including dozens of children, have been killed by Iranian authorities. These nation‑wide protests were triggered by the tragic death of 22 year old Mahsa Jina Amini who died in police custody after being arrested by Iran’s “morality police” for failing to properly cover her hair. - https://www.womanlifefreedom.today/
Armita Abbasi, a 20-year-old woman from Karaj, near Tehran … Armita had multi-colored dyed hair and an eyebrow piercing. She wrote about her life, cats and dreams on Instagram until she was arrested in October 2022 for joining the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest movement triggered by the September death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police … A lot of what we know about Armita’s detention was revealed in a shocking report published by US television news network CNN on November 21, 2022. The report was titled “How Iran’s security forces use rape to quell protests.” Earlier, private Instagram messages between medical staff of Karaj’s Imam Ali Hospital circulated on social media and mentioned the case of a young woman who was brought by security forces to the hospital one week after her arrest. This woman was suffering from symptoms associated with violent sexual assault such as hemorrhage and rectal lacerations. The security agents took Armita away before her family arrived at the hospital. The young woman’s head was shaved, and she was trembling out of fear. The medics wrote about the horror they felt when they saw evidence of brutal rape. “When she first came in, [the officers] said she was hemorrhaging from her rectum…due to repeated rape. The plainclothes men insisted that the doctor write it as rape prior to arrest,” one of the messages reads … - “She Suffered Beyond Belief:” 20-Year-Old Armita, A Symbol Of Iranian Resistance, Iran Wire, 1/31/23
Unlike many others, Armita Abbasi made it out - alive.
In the Fascists' Wide War on Women There is Through Line to Hamas
Putin and the “Islamic Republic” are sponsors of Hamas. And lo and behold, here again is rape as a weapon of war.
"Prof Ruth Halperin-Kaddari said she saw footage of women in several locations whose condition left her in "no doubt" that they had been raped. There has been anger over the delay of some UN bodies to acknowledge claims of Hamas's sexual atrocities on 7 October."
Examiners found evidence that conflict-related sexual violence took place on October 7
There is “clear and convincing information” that sexual violence continues and hostages are still at risk.
The UN report should put to rest deniers’ appalling claims that allegations of sexual violence by Hamas on October 7 are unsupported
Hamas’ use of sexual violence as a weapon of war is clear.
Hamas must be held accountable.
As I told you at the beginning, it really is much more complex than you want it to be. So many among us have been so deeply played. This conflict was designed (in Moscow & Tehran) to break minds & divide people in the West & particularly in the run-up to the November 2024 U.S. presidential election.
The leaders of Hamas who live in luxury far from Gaza were paid very well for their blood sport. Hamas is not a liberation movement, it is more like the Wagner Group. I pray that your eyes are opened. Rape is not an act of resistance, nor is self-immolation. Please do not excuse the one or exalt the other. Such horrors. Yes, many have been so deeply played.
What must happen?
Hamas must be destroyed. Netanyahu & his cronies must be removed from power & face accountability for their crimes. There must be a two state solution. BTW, that’s something neither Hamas or the Israeli right wing really want. Yes, it’s much more complicated than you want it to be. Hamas instigated this war, & welcomed the deaths of its own innocents ...
Putin needed this distraction from his war crimes in Ukraine. The “Islamic Republic” needed this distraction from its own ongoing femicide. Netanyahu needed this distraction from the massive protests against him in the streets of Tel Aviv. And yes, Trump needed this distraction from Biden’s success and his own numerous civil & criminal trials. Make no mistake about what is really going on. Putin wants Trump to win so he can succeed in his war on Ukraine. Netanyahu wants Trump to win so that he can do what Trump has publicly exhorted him to do -“finish the job”
Yes, it’s a very complex situation, but this much is certain: Hamas must be destroyed. Netanyahu must be removed from power and face the consequences of his crimes. There must be a two-state solution with sovereignty and security for both peoples.
There is a through-line from Putin’s war on Ukraine to Putin ally Iran’s war against its own female population to the Putin/Iran Sponsored Hamas’ femicidal attack on 10/7 to the Putin sponsored Trump/MAGA subjugation of Red State women & girls.
WWW 3 is a War on Women.
Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, in the Red States, misogynistic MAGA rulers are inflicting unbearable suffering to American women and girls.
And it isn’t just the victims of rape and incest who are being subjugated in this hateful and barbaric way. MAGA seeks control the lives and destinies of all women.
Consider Texas' sadistic attempt to exert control of the life of Katie Cox:
Kate Cox, the 31-year old mother of two who recently sued the State of Texas for the right to terminate her fatal nonviable pregnancy, has fled Texas to receive an abortion according to her lawyers at the Center for Reproductive Rights ... From a statement from the Center for Reproductive Rights: After a week of legal whiplash and threats of prosecution from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, our client Kate Cox has been forced to flee her home state of Texas to get the time-sensitive abortion care needed to protect her health and future fertility. Kate has been unable to get an abortion in Texas, even though her fetus has a fatal condition and continuing the pregnancy threatens her future fertility. – Meidas Touch, Kate Cox Forced to Flee Texas After Court Halts Her Abortion, 12/11/23
This is not who we are. This is not what America has chosen to be over the many decades since the defeat of fascism in WWII. This is not what the West is, this is not what the Western Alliance is. This is what Putin’s Russia is, this is what the “Islamic Republic” of Iran is, this is what Hamas is, and yes this is what MAGA is.
Cox is now speaking out for Biden-Harris in battle ground states.
The brilliant Ruth Ben-Ghiat, historian of authoritarianism & author of "Strongman," confirms the powerful link between misogyny & authoritarianism:
In an authoritarian state, women are as much the enemies of the strongman as the press, prosecutors, and the opposition. We can correlate the appeal of strongmen to moments when men feel their status is threatened due to changes in gender roles and distributions of economic and social power.
Control over female bodies in the name of population growth is a throughline of authoritarianism, as are persecutions of LGBTQ+ individuals ...
In Europe and America, the century-long focus of the far right on demographic emergencies supposedly created by declines of White births and upticks in non-White immigration have created support for controls on female bodies. These controls are predicated on negating the personhood of women and consigning them to roles as vessels of population growth.
For men to preserve their “natural” right to dominate, and White Christian civilization to continue, women must be deprived of reproductive rights and demeaned, disciplined, and criminalized if they resist.
Altruism v. Sociopathy, Democracy v. Authoritarianism
It is very important that you understand what MAGA may try to do between the election and the inauguration, & what they are preparing to do after the take power whether legitimately or illegitimately.
What They Are Planning for the Time Between the Election Itself & the Inauguration
First, Republicans need to make sure they’re in control of the House of Representatives on January 6th, 2025, when the new president will be certified. To do that, even though Democrats might have won enough seats to take back the House in the 2024 election, Speaker Johnson will refuse to swear into Congress on January 3rd a handful of those Democrats, claiming there are “irregularities” in their elections that must be first investigated … There’s nothing Democrats can legally do to stop Speaker Johnson from pulling this off: he can postpone swearing a member in for as long as he wants. That keeps Speaker “MAGA Moscow Mike” Johnson in charge of the House, so they can also refuse to accept the Electoral College certificates of election from a handful of states where they claim there are “problems” … Then, regardless of how many votes Biden won by, electoral or popular, the House simply refuses to certify the electoral college votes of enough states that the minimum of 270 isn’t reached. Under the 12th Amendment, like with the election of 1876, that throws the election to the House, where each state has one vote. While a majority of Americans live in a state run by Democrats, a majority of the states themselves are run by Republicans. Each state gets one vote for president in the House, and right now 26 state delegations are GOP-controlled, meaning that a majority of the House would simply vote to put Trump back into the White House, 26-23 (Pennsylvania’s delegation is 50/50). All totally legal. The Putin/Trump caucus in the House — led by Speaker Johnson — has largely given up on democracy when elections don’t give them power. As outrageous as this scenario sounds, they justify it to themselves as being essential to “save America” from “woke” Democrats … The best way to prevent this from happening is to widely publicize their scheme so public opinion will become so intense that they fear the consequences. It’s a thin thread holding our republic together, but at least it’s something. Pass it along. – Thom Hartmann, “The New ‘Over the Top’ Secret Plan on How Fascists Could Win in 2024” (2/26/24)
What Are They Planning to Do If They Regain Power
Project 2025 is an initiative of the Heritage Foundation, a rightwing think tank that has helped staff and set the agenda for every Republican administration since Ronald Reagan … GOP operatives have already crafted an expansive blueprint, 887 pages long, laying out in painstaking detail how they intend to govern, including plans to leverage virtually every arm, tool and agency of the federal government to attack abortion access. The document explicitly names their intention not just to rescind FDA approval for the abortion pill if they regain control of the White House in 2024, but to revive a 150-year-old law that criminalizes sending or receiving through the mail any “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing” that could be used to facilitate an abortion ... - Rolling Stone, Inside the MAGA Plan to Attack Birth Control, Surveil Women and Ban the Abortion Pill, 12/22/23
Former President Trump's allies are pre-screening the ideologies of thousands of potential foot soldiers, as part of an unprecedented operation to centralize and expand his power at every level of the U.S. government if he wins in 2024, officials involved in the effort tell Axios ... Hundreds of people are spending tens of millions of dollars to install a pre-vetted, pro-Trump army of up to 54,000 loyalists across government to rip off the restraints imposed on the previous 46 presidents …His inner circle plans to purge anyone viewed as hostile to the hard-edged, authoritarian-sounding plans he calls "Agenda 47” … - Axios, “Behind the Curtain: Trump allies pre-screen loyalists for unprecedented power grab” (11/13/23)
Former top officials from Donald Trump’s administration are warning he is likely to use a second term to overhaul the nation’s spy agencies in a way that could lead to an unprecedented level of politicization of intelligence … POLITICO talked to 18 former officials and analysts who worked in the Trump administration, including political appointees from both parties and career intelligence officers, some who still speak to the former president and his aides and had insight into conversations about his potential second term.- Politico, “The prospect of a second Trump presidency has the intelligence community on edge,” 2/26/24
A Rare Opportunity
So what will it look like if we survive this threat, if we shift through, if we emerge from the worm hole on the other side of this singularity?
Before answering, that question, please consider what Bide-Harris have done:
§ senschumer: With @POTUS, this Senate Democratic Majority has confirmed:188 judges to lifetime appointments on the federal bench!That includes120 womenAND120 people of colorAll excellent, all well-qualified, and all helping to ensure that the federal bench looks more like America!
§American Rescue Plan
“Helped create millions of jobs. Delivered relief to American households. Reopened all K-12 schools. 79% of adults fully vaccinated.”
§The Most Aggressive Climate Action in American (and Global) History
o“America now positioned to achieve its climate goals of cutting emissions in half by 2020 and net-zero by 2050”
§Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Law
o“Largest investment in public transit in American history. Builds first ever national network of EV charging stations. Largest investment in rebuilding our roads and bridges since the Interstate Highway System. Creates good paying jobs in every part of the country …”
§Restoring American Leadership Internationally, Reinvigorating NATO & Mobilizing the Democracies of the World for the Defense of Ukraine
§Student Loan Forgiveness
o$136 billion forgiven. 3.7 million borrowers. More to come.
§Pardoning Marijuana Sentences
oPardons for 13,000 Americans
§Symbolism: Joe Biden joined a Union of Auto Workers’ strike to become the first POTUS to ever walk a picket line, Kamala Harris went to Minnesota to become the first VP (or POTUS) to ever visit an abortion center.
And so much more … Remarkable, unprecedented … truly .. AND so much more they WOULD have done if the narrow Senate majority hadn’t been weakened by the duplicity of Manchin and Sinema, AND/OR if we hadn’t narrowly lost the Speaker’s gavel in the 2022 mid-terms, e.g., passing serious, substantive voting rights protection, raising the Minimum Wage, making the child tax credit permanent, AND twice as much spending to address the Climate Emergency!
What should we expect if the Democrats win control of the WH, Senate and House of Representatives in November AND are sworn in next January?
Here are just a few of the major actions that Democratic control will trigger:
§Codifying of Women’s Reproductive Rights §An Assault Weapons Ban §Passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act §Doubling down on the Biden-Harris climate action investment & accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels … §Making the child tax credit permanent §RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE
This is microcosm/macrocosm & macrocosm/microcosm, small changes are big changes, big changes are small changes. This is chopping wood and carrying water …Achieve any one of these things and you are automatically racing down the road to achieving the others, achieve all of them and we are well on the way to the goal – a green, woke, feminist civilization
Now please listen to the mystical ward healer, TO DO THIS, we need to crush the zombie death cult that has wrapped itself in the dried skin shell of the Republican Party we need the house the senate and the white house for at least two election cycles – so from 2024 to 2026 and from 2028 … For decades, candidates were told to not run on reproductive rights, not run on gun control, not run on climate change … the mainstream news media establishment marginalized these issues, That’s all changed now – look at the numbers – decisive majorities of American votes support reproductive rights, and an assault weapons ban, and real action on the climate emergency.
This is the demographic shift in alignment with the evolutionary arc. And it is all being driven by WOMEN, YOUNG PEOPLE & PEOPLE OF COLOR.
The Goddess Justice
Mueller Report. The 448 page investigative report, including 10 actionable incidents of Trump obstructing justice.
January 6th Committee Final Report. 531 pages. “a comprehensive investigation into the events surrounding the attack on the United States Capitol that occurred on January 6th, 2021”
The Four Trump Indictments. Two federal criminal indictments, two state criminal indictments (GA & NY). 400 pages.
These are holy books. The facts they enshrine are hallowed.The laws and oaths they mirror are sacred. They are songs of devotion to the Goddess Justice.
And yet the dangers of Trump and MAGA still loom over the 2024 election. What is wrong with us, with our body politic, with our system of government? How could this be? How could Trump be running again? How is he still the apparent choice of tens of millions of Americans? Like the real answers to most real questions, it isn’t simple. (It certainly isn’t because of any failure on the part of Robert Mueller, or even Merrick Garland. Twitterati who impugn the integrity or competency of these honorable public servants are just misdirecting their followers into despair and defeatism.)
To answer the question of how this abomination is still with us, we must first answer the question how did Trump become president in 2016. And the real answer to that real question isn’t simple either. Without decades of Fox News, radical right hate radio, news media consolidation, gerrymandering and dark money, without the Electoral College, and yes, without a serious, sweeping, sustained Russian intelligence operation to influence the 2016 election, Trump never would have been sworn into office.
And unfortunately, instead of dealing with the fall of the Republican Party, and reporting it as what it is, a catastrophic development, the mainstream news media has simply continued as if this is all just politics as usual, trying to frame it all as a partisan divide, instead of a dire fracturing of reality itself, in which all us left, right and center must choose the harsh reality over a massive delusion.
The Mueller Report, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report and the January 6th Committee Final Report informed those among us willing to accept who and what Trump really is, and they also succeeded in snatching the factual narrative from the fire, preserving that factual narrative for history, or more accurately, moving forward, for HERSTORY. All of vital importance.
The Four Trump Indictments are of a different order. All four indictments were issued in 2023. The first indictment has turned into the first trial. It focused on election interference and hush money payments. It is now to begin in New York on April 15th, after having been delayed thirty days. The Georgia case as yet to receive a trial date, having just weathered a failed attempt to remove prosecutor Fani Willis. Federal prosecutors are battling through delays thrown in their way by corrupt judges are attempting to delay these trials until after the election, so that Trump can shut it all down should he win in November. Cannon in Florida, and radical right-wing Supreme Court (with three "justices" appointed by Trump himself). These four criminal indictments are real. They will result in convictions, if and when they are brought to trial. It is imperative that Biden wins to protect the DoJ’s two prosecutions, IF they are successfully delayed until after the election. We must prevail in the 2024 election. This is the Second Deadline. The decisive battle.
Meanwhile, even though Trump is NOT YET convicted in these cases, all of the legal struggle, the criminal investigations, the subsequent indictments, the victorious civil cases brought by Tish James ($360 million) and E-Jean Carroll ($83.3 million), AND the 1/6-related civil cases in the pipeline, all of it has harried & weakened Trump politically, financially & yes psychologically. All of this pose a very real threat to him. It is bleeding him. Trump would be much stronger if all of these efforts hadn’t been brought through to final reports, criminal indictments and civil court verdicts.
We will see Trump politically defeated, financially ruined and convicted, and we will see the MAGA movement dwindle, diminish, deteriorate, with it’s worst elements slipping back into the sewers of psyche, and the rest of those who got swept up in the madness just trying to slip quietly back into normative ideological frames. Evil dies hard, yes, but this fascist movement will be brought down, it must be.
The reckoning is quickening now, but it has been underway for awhile.
3 years later, Jan. 6 by the numbers: More than 1,200 charged. Prosecutors have secured more than 718 guilty pleas in Jan. 6 cases, 171 others have been found guilty at trial or otherwise found guilty. More than 460 imprisoned for their role in Capitol attack, hundreds of others have been sentenced for lesser offenses to periods of home detention or probation." - ABC News, 1/5/24
"In remarks Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland described the Justice Department's sprawling probe of the Capitol attack as "one of the largest and most complex and resource-intensive investigations in our history.
New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks after Trump civil fraud ruling (CBS News, 2/14/24) New York Attorney General Letitia James spoke Friday night following a judge's ruling in her office’s civil fraud trial against Donald Trump and the Trump Organization. Judge Arthur Engoron fined the former president and his company $354 million. The decision also includes a three-year ban on Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation.
The Greatest Bi-Partisan Action in American History
“Historically speaking, it is very significant when conservatives break with fascists.” – Tim Snyder (@timsnyder)
Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), chairperson of the US House intelligence committee, says some of his fellow Republicans are “absolutely” repeating Russian propaganda on the chamber floor, echoing a similar claim made recently by another rightwing American lawmaker. “It is absolutely true we see, directly coming from Russia, attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor,” the Ohio congressman told CNN’s State of the Union show.- Guardian, "House intelligence chair says Republicans are ‘absolutely’ repeating Russian propaganda," 4/8/24
The powerful messaging of the Lincoln Project, the brilliance of Stuart Stevens, the indomitable leadership of Lynn Cheney, the gravitas of Judge Luttig, the courage of Cassady Hutchinson. I offer them to you as proof that America is not divided down the middle, America is not half crazy, America is less than half crazy. I agree with them on almost nothing, they are conservative Republicans, and I am progressive Democratic, but they are not crazy, and neither am I, and we all belong to what I call the #UnitedFrontforSanityAndDecency, which is indeed a moniker for the Greatest Bi-Partisan Action in American History. That’s how I describe it. It is an empowering frame for patriots, it should be embraced. It is one of hope and clarity. But you will never hear it described in that way in the mainstream news media … BECAUSE … they are wholly invested in the horse race narrative, Blue v. Red, battleground states, “a country deeply divided,” yada yada yada, and that obsolete narrative doesn’t allow for the more complicated landscape we are actually living in …
Indeed, IF the evening news did cover this for what it really is - The Greatest Bi-Partisan Action in American History, the narrative of all that we have endured these last few years would read very differently ...
One of the bulwarks of this Greatest Bi-Partisan Action in American History, Republican Voters Against Trump, is investing tens of millions of dollars in advertising to tell the story of disaffected Republican voters and hopefully encouraging even more into not voting for Trump:
A Republican group dedicated to opposing former President Donald J. Trump is planning to spend $50 million to stop him through a series of homemade testimonial videos of voters who backed him in past elections but say they can no longer support him in 2024. The group, Republican Voters Against Trump, first emerged in the 2020 campaign and made a return appearance for the 2022 midterm elections. It is run by Sarah Longwell, a leading figure in Never-Trump politics whose focus groups and polling are a staple of center-right podcasts and have made her a go-to figure for political reporters aiming to decipher the motivations behind Trump supporters. Unlike Democratic organizations that aim to help President Biden by promoting his record in office, Ms. Longwell’s group focuses solely on attacking Mr. Trump through the voices of his former backers. The Republican Voters Against Trump website features 100 videos, from one to three minutes long, of Republicans speaking to a computer or mobile-phone camera about why they voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 or 2020 and will not do so in 2024. - NYT, Anti-Trump Group of Republicans Lays Out $50 Million Plan of Attack, 3/12/24
Mike Pence is easy to mock, NEVERTHELESS, Trump’s VP, was on the right side of history on 1/6/21, when he refused to violate his oath to the Constitution, and he is on the right side of history now in refusing to endorse Trump in 2024.
These two photographs tell you everything you need to know about the third party candidacies of Jill Stein and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The left hand photo in this Treachery tableau features retired U.S. Army General Michael Flynn and Green Party leader Jill Stein dining with Putin in Moscow in 2015.
Flynn, Stein and Putin. Quite a black op ménage à trois.
The right-hand photo features RFK, Jr. posing with Flynn and Roger Stone.
Both Stone and Flynn were 1/6 coup co-conspirators.
In the span of time between these two photos, Flynn went through some things.
Prosecuted by Mueller, Flynn pled guilty to making false statements to FBI investigators about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. After Mueller’s probe ended in March 2019, Flynn changed course, hired new lawyers and began fighting to undo his plea deal. Trump pardoned Flynn in 2020 before leaving office.
Flynn is now a QAnon Christo-Fascist cult leader.
Stone, the infamous political dirty trickster, also ran afoul of the law.
Prosecuted by Mueller, Stone was found guilty on all seven counts, including lying to Congress, tampering with a witness and obstructing a congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Sentenced to 40 months in prison. Sentence commuted by Trump just prior to the day he was to report to prison.
Nor is the MAGA enthusiasm for RFK, Jr. limited to Stone and Flynn.
Steve Bannon is apparently a huge RFK Jr. supporter, floating Kennedy as “an excellent choice for President Trump to consider” as a running mate. Roger Stone called a Trump-Kennedy ticket a “dream.” Infowars’ Alex Jones was struck by Kennedy’s anti-vaccine conspiracies and told listeners he was “definitely awake.” Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk and QAnon-linked Michael Flynn both said they like the guy as a presidential candidate too. So why are all these right-wingers supporting a Democrat? It could be that he kind of sounds like them: He talks about government institutions betraying the trust of the American public, and published a whole book attacking Anthony Fauci. But there’s also very likely another reason.It seems important to mention here that Kennedy, to put it mildly, is a crank. As conservative Noah Rothman wrote in National Review, “Kennedy has promoted the view that the COVID vaccines were concocted only to enrich the medical establishment, that 5G cell towers are designed to ‘control our behavior,’ and that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is engaged in an effort to ‘genetically modify’ humanity" ...For years RFK Jr. has lurked in the shadows as the anti-vaxxer Kennedy; now his politics not only have a base among the MAGA right—he’s proving politically expedient for Republicans as well ...Republicans are worried; they know that indictments don’t help grow the electorate. They know that as the chasm between the mainstream and the primary voters grows, so do the chances of a Biden reelection. There are few options left to help pump up their guy. RFK Jr. is one.- Molly Jong Fast, "Of Course the Right Has Welcomed RFK Jr. With Open Arms," Vanity Fair, 6/21/23
The third party candidacies of Kennedy, Stein and Cornel West are all nothing more than efforts to make it easier for Trump to return to power.
