tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-154202832024-03-13T22:45:56.664-07:00Words of PowerUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1316125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-54027431094509767612023-11-22T11:01:00.000-08:002023-12-17T16:12:58.337-08:00If You Don't Vote Democratic in 2024, Putin & Iran Will Have Gotten What They Paid For From Hamas On 10/7<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjvF3Ak5uF4cLUFuvuTU9HaSKwuIB6pWUQqfrLYWjUxBsRnDKdlCKnk8qnF0pk7zQ8MsJUhMR0xBr1L_piCexBK77h7lhkdqHLTQP03EU-AKfrA_6XNupQjPFTf3ylkimGUt6irzoLFo3pRThJPSkvphc7TgVa3SmXjuq8cSCuQdYl2AqgSUmXTw/s941/Assassination_of_Prime_Minister_Yitzhak_Rabin,_1995_XI_Dan_Hadani_Archive_(1).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="941" data-original-width="828" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjvF3Ak5uF4cLUFuvuTU9HaSKwuIB6pWUQqfrLYWjUxBsRnDKdlCKnk8qnF0pk7zQ8MsJUhMR0xBr1L_piCexBK77h7lhkdqHLTQP03EU-AKfrA_6XNupQjPFTf3ylkimGUt6irzoLFo3pRThJPSkvphc7TgVa3SmXjuq8cSCuQdYl2AqgSUmXTw/w353-h400/Assassination_of_Prime_Minister_Yitzhak_Rabin,_1995_XI_Dan_Hadani_Archive_(1).jpg" width="353" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="mw-mmv-title" original-title="">Blood-stained copy of the lyrics of "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shir_LaShalom" title="Shir LaShalom">Shir LaShalom</a>" ("Song for Peace"), found in Rabin's pocket after the assassination</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEignFeIrxvbWXy9XOZ3pjwyEgCfP3vdaplVEyc6VIBrKkgByXNMnpt1OXhILOodLeZCenLnkdLItdDlPRd9wHBx5MPpEvcfRhhE4scC-BhincWecmV-XMlRybEScOTMB8dxkJFGNjJrnbUJhJG4nAw1b8uJVM_CLtmKHVQl-dK41J2TZ3Cnwn63xw/s1600/1600px-Sadat_tomb_03-1.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1194" data-original-width="1600" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEignFeIrxvbWXy9XOZ3pjwyEgCfP3vdaplVEyc6VIBrKkgByXNMnpt1OXhILOodLeZCenLnkdLItdDlPRd9wHBx5MPpEvcfRhhE4scC-BhincWecmV-XMlRybEScOTMB8dxkJFGNjJrnbUJhJG4nAw1b8uJVM_CLtmKHVQl-dK41J2TZ3Cnwn63xw/w400-h299/1600px-Sadat_tomb_03-1.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anwar Sadat was buried in the Unknown Soldier Memorial, located in the Nasr City district of Cairo. The inscription on his grave reads: "The hero of war and peace".</td></tr></tbody></table><div> </div><p><b>If You Don't Vote Democratic in 2024, Putin & Iran Will Have Gotten What They Paid For From Hamas' Genocidal Attack On 10/7/23 </b></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">“In this week’s edition we publish The World Ahead 2024, our 38th annual predictive guide to the coming year, and in all that time no single person has ever eclipsed our analysis as much as Donald Trump eclipses 2024.” </blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/11/16/donald-trump-poses-the-biggest-danger-to-the-world-in-2024">- The Economist (11/16/23)</a></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">“I don’t like the way autocrats are running Israel, so I’m going to help elect an autocrat to run the United States” is the most shortsighted, idiot shit take on the planet."</blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">- Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote): </blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"> </blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” </blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">- Audre Lorde, “Learning from the 60s” Sister Outsider (1984)</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><p>Sinclair Lewis wrote "It Can't Happen Here" in 1935. Well, it didn't. Then. (Although it was <a href="https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/why-is-this-happening-live-with-chris-hayes-and-rachel-maddow/1d8d21b3-85c0-38e0-9403-2bb806ce7f7c">a closer call</a> than you might think.) And we are much closer this time.</p><div>Not only can IT happen here, it IS happening here, unless we hold the ground taken in 2020 & 2022 & almost every off year election since 2020, AND expand upon those victories in 2024.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nothing else matters now. All that matters is what is in front of us. Right HERE, right now. </div><div><br /></div><div>No one issue gives you an excuse to walk away from this struggle.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some of you are making declarations such as "I will never vote for Joe Biden or anyone else who had approved military money or weapons to Israel & I won't vote for any Democrats until the party repudiates its pro-genocide members & commits to ending our support for genocides masked as military aid."</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a direct quote. I don't know the person who tweeted this. I don't want to single them out, so I am not going to cite their name or twitter address. I just did a search on "I will never vote for Joe Biden ..." and this one is typical of the many that bubbled up. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here are talking points to refute such dangerous & delusional declarations among friends & family.</div><div><br /></div><div>Before I go any further, it is important to say where I stand, & how this could have played out differently. In the immediate aftermath of 10/7, I was against the bombing of Gaza, & against the IDF going into Gaza on the ground. I say "immediate aftermath" because these options should have been on the table, & all necessary preparations should have been made, but going in immediately gave Hamas exactly what it wanted, & within 48-72 hours after the atrocities of 10/7, all of the world's media coverage was turned away from what happened on 10/7 & re-focused on the plight of the civilian population of Gaza, & soon many of you were in the streets & on social media sloganeering for a ceasefire, & condemning ... Israel ... I would have preferred two weeks of detailed exposes on the atrocities of 10/7, inundating social media with the horrors perpetrated that day, yes, the videos, yes, the mutilated bodies, yes, the decapitated babies, all of it, in granular details, I would have preferred to see the Hamas fighters who participated identified through facial recognition, I would have had bounties put on their heads dead or alive, I would have preferred two weeks of news media reports highlighting the leaders of Hamas, where they live, how they live, endlessly repeating over & over their statements taking credit for 10/7 & that they would do it again & again until Israel was wiped from the face of the earth, I would have placed bounties on their heads dead or alive, I would have welcomed shooting down their private jets, I would have welcomed commando raids on their luxurious living spaces even in third party countries, I would have welcomed those international incidents, all the while demanding the release of the hostages, & threatening the bombing & land invasion if the hostages were not released ... </div><div><br /></div><div>But this is where we are now.</div><div><br /></div><div>Did you know that October 7th is Putin’s birthday? Seriously. October 7th is actually literally factually Putin’s birthday.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hamas wanted this war because it serves the purpose of their sponsors in Moscow & Tehran, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-attack-intelligence.html">Netanyahu wanted this war because he saw it as his best way to hold on to the power</a> that was slipping away from him. <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-20/ty-article-opinion/.premium/a-brief-history-of-the-netanyahu-hamas-alliance/0000018b-47d9-d242-abef-57ff1be90000 ">The people of Israel are the victims of Netanyahu</a> just as much as the victims of Hamas. The people of Gaza are the victims of Hamas even more than the victims of Israel. Hamas knew how the war monger Netanyahu & his extremist faction would respond & they wanted thousands of Palestinian deaths. </div><div><br /></div><div>"Ceasefire! Ceasefire! Ceasefire!" ???? There was a ceasefire ... until 10/7/23 ... when Hamas launched its genocidal attack, featuring rape as a weapon of war & the <a href="https://m.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-767951">decapitation of babies</a> (yes, confirmed) … Another ceasefire was recently achieved, one predicated on the incremental release of hostages. A ceasefire that the Biden team negotiated and forced upon Netanyahu. And yes it too was broken BY HAMAS. Because of the terrible condition of the remaining hostages. Further release would have revealed that the rapes continued during during captivity.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>1. In 2024, No Margin of Error to Spend on “Votes of Conscience," & Indeed ...</b></div><div><br /></div><div>At least three very dangerous third party candidacies are in play for 2024. There is no margin of error to spend on “votes of conscience.” Indeed, your imagined "vote of conscience" is actually a conscienceless vote. Whether you vote for third party candidate or simply do not vote at all.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2024, every vote for a third party candidate, every voter who doesn't vote at all, makes it more likely that Trump or whoever the zombie cult's candidate "wins" There are more of us than them but we have to vote overwhelmingly. If we are divided, if our turn out is low, if too many vote third party, the republic will LITERALLY fall this time</div><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder): Yes, the fact that the US as we know it could cease to exist in fourteen months would seem to be the real story. "The public doesn't understand the risks of a Trump victory" - <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/09/trump-president-democracy-threat-media-journalism">Margaret Sullivan, The public doesn’t understand the risks of a Trump victory. That’s the media’s fault, Guardian (11/9/23)</a></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div><b>2. Have You Weighed the Consequences of Your Abandonment of the Democratic Ticket?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Do you understand what Trump and the MAGA movement are planning if he gets back in? No, do you really understand in detail? Have you heard about “Project 2025”? It’s not a looney tune conspiracy theory it’s a massive undertaking being driven by the Heritage Foundation<br /><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"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." - <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/11/13/trump-loyalists-2024-presidential-election">Jim VandeHei , Mike Allen, Behind the Curtain: Trump allies pre-screen loyalists for unprecedented power grab, Axios (11/13/23)</a></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIoL-ou0c4-2jStwXld6YqupPKyV6uudLz_Vn3IZfL8ra6xGhfzd7rt6hEio-Vs7VHxZXxzWBUKQyyC0Dflq2QqyW0a93KEnu2_S4V2C2sbIBKnx7PPT5WQqiaQfKUdq1auqDx3Ja9bf6x_Zbas4JMHOotHdJu1OcToy0edpxPQ4IqVNHXAkec7w/s1792/404972037_18400652110059938_4163924973356249382_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1792" data-original-width="1440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIoL-ou0c4-2jStwXld6YqupPKyV6uudLz_Vn3IZfL8ra6xGhfzd7rt6hEio-Vs7VHxZXxzWBUKQyyC0Dflq2QqyW0a93KEnu2_S4V2C2sbIBKnx7PPT5WQqiaQfKUdq1auqDx3Ja9bf6x_Zbas4JMHOotHdJu1OcToy0edpxPQ4IqVNHXAkec7w/s320/404972037_18400652110059938_4163924973356249382_n.jpeg" width="257" /></a></div><br /><a href="https://www.rawstory.com/morning-joe-today-2666332436/">Joe Scarborough warns Americans on what Trump will do if he’s back in the Oval Office: </a>“He will imprison, he will execute whoever he is allowed to imprison, execute, drive from the country. Just look at his past. It’s not really hard to read.”</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>3. Does Your Selective Memory of History Allow You To Acknowledge the Damage Done By Those Who Voted Third Party or Just Sat Out Previous Elections?</b></div><div><br /></div>Do you remember the consequences of those who voted for Nader in 2000 & Stein in 2016? A shift of even a few hundred votes in FLA in 2000 and Gore won have won the electoral college. </div><div><br /></div><div>The thousands who voted for Stein in 2016 in MI PA & WI delivered the electoral college for Trump. </div><div><br /></div><div>And the consequences? Well, just off the top of my head: no Bush-Cheney would have meant no invasion of Iraq, no obscene tax cut for the super rich & no leaving the Kyoto protocols on climate action, no Trump would have meant no repeal of Roe v Wade, no second obscene tax cut for the super rich, no leaving the Paris accords on climate action.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the struggle to mitigate the worst impacts of runaway climate change we LITERALLY have only 10 years left (at maximum) to make the significant shift begun since 2020 by Biden-Harris a permanent one. We simply have no time left for another setback in WH policy.</div><div><div><br /></div><div><b>4. Have You Weighed the Consequences for Moslems in General & Palestinians in Particular If MAGA &Trumpism Win In 2024?</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><div>You can look forward to MUCH WORSE if your "vote of conscience" enables Trump's return to power, including this by executive action probably within the first horrifying 100 hours:</div><div><br /></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;">Doubling down on the hardline immigration policies that have long animated his base, Donald Trump on Monday v<b>owed to bar refugees from Gaza and immediately expand his first-term Muslim travel ban if he wins a second term following the deadly attack on Israel last week</b>.<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/17/trump-muslim-ban-gaza-refugees">- Trump vows to expand Muslim ban and bar Gaza refugees if he wins presidency, Former president in speech in Iowa says he would immediately begin ‘ideological screening’ for all immigrants, Associated Press via Guardian (10/17/23)</a></div></div></blockquote><div><div><br />Furthermore, all restraints on Netanayahu & the Israeli hard right will be removed. <div><div><br /></div>You don't think restraint is being applied? Lol. I hope you never get to see how wrong you are. See #8.</div></div><div><br /></div></div><div><div><b>5. Do you understand how bad it was for Palestine when Trump was in power?</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Seriously, do you remember how bad it was for Palestine when Trump was in power?</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">When Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he in effect quashed the possibility that East Jerusalem would ever belong to a Palestinian state. <b>When he moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in 2018, he signaled the abandonment of even the pretense of good-faith negotiations with the Palestinians</b>. Rather than use the prospect of these gestures as an incentive for Netanyahu to adopt a comprehensive peace plan in the region, Trump simply made them ...<b> “Netanyahu got everything he wanted from Trump,”</b> Amit Segal, the chief political analyst for Israel’s Channel 12, told me. <b>Trump’s alignment with Netanyahu has been so total that, ahead of the U.S. election, sixty-three per cent of Israelis supported Trump, and only seventeen per cent supported Joe Biden</b>, according to a November poll by the Israel Democracy Institute. <b>If Israel were a U.S. state, it would be the “reddest state in the Union,”</b> a column in the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz noted. <b>Scroll through the Twitter feeds of some of Netanyahu’s most ardent proponents and you could be forgiven for thinking that you’ve landed on the Hebrew accounts of Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson </b>...<b> </b>Three weeks after the U.S. election, Yinon Magal, a well-known pundit and former right-wing lawmaker, told Israeli radio, “<b>We still pray for a miracle that Donald, son of Fred, will win the election.”</b> <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/donald-trumps-legacy-in-israel "> - Ruth Margalit, Trump’s Legacy in Israel, The New Yorker (1/12/21)</a> </blockquote><p>The worst elements in the Israeli leadership & body politic were sad to lose their greatest enabler. </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Few countries have been as invested in Donald Trump’s presidency as Israel, where a recent survey found that Israelis favor the incumbent by an almost 45 percent margin ... <b>Whereas other world leaders have often strained to maintain constructive relations with the Trump administration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has managed to stay high atop the president’s short list of favorite allies over the past four years</b>. Now, after having been a conspicuous beneficiary of U.S. diplomatic bounty throughout Trump’s tenure ... <b>In 2019, Trump signed a presidential proclamation affording recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights</b>, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike <b>Pompeo signed a declaration that the “establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law.”</b> ... <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/03/has-trump-been-good-for-israel/">-</a><a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/03/has-trump-been-good-for-israel/"> Shalom Lipner, Has Trump Been Good for Israel?, Foreign Policy (11/3/20)</a></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div><b>6. Gabor Mate is Living in the Past & Cornel West has Lost His Mind</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Scrolling through social media a few nights ago, I came across Gabor Mate speaking on the current crisis in Israel & Palestine, it's all way out of his lane of course, but I made myself listen, because I know most of you think he walks on water. Lol. Everything he said was right - TEN OR FIFTEEN YEARS AGO.</div><div><br /></div><div>Someone can be very right on in their understanding of what has gone down in Israel & Palestine over the last forty years or even over the last 80 years, but still be VERY WRONG about this moment.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2016, the world changed for the worse. Putin's information warfare operations succeeded in subverting critical elections in the U.S. & U.K. elections, which is how we ended up with the idiocy of Brexit & the malignancy of Trump. Well, to be precise, the change for the worse started in 2014 with Putin's savage occupation of Crimea. So since 2014-2016 the world order has been reeling. Biden-Harris, working with our NATO & the EU allies have done a lot of good work in returning us all to R-E-A-L-I-T-Y but the balance is still tenuous, & will be until Putin is defeated in Ukraine & Trump (or whoever he is swapped out for) is defeated (again). You need to understand what is happening now in Israel & Palestine within the context of this global geopolitical struggle.</div><div><br /></div><div>Cornel West wants you to see Hamas as "love warriors & freedom fighters." (Yes,<a href="https://x.com/WalshFreedom/status/1723866253498929662?s=20"> that's how he described them a few nights ago</a>.) But, of course, Hamas are not "love warriors," they do not represent the Palestinian people, they do not fight for the Palestinian people, they certainly do not protect the Palestinian people. Hamas is really more like Prigozhin's Wagner Group than a band of freedom fighters. </div><div><br /></div><div>Putin & the Islamic Republic are underwriting Hamas to provide distractions from Putin's looming defeat in Ukraine & the Islamic Republic's femicide against its own people. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C0FEqp1P6ew/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">This is all one struggle.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>This is a different world. The MAGA insurrection on 1/6/21 in the U.S. & Hamas' genocidal rampage in Israel on 10/7/23 are of a different order than previous terrorist attacks, even different from 9/11/01. This is far more dangerous moment than any since WWII itself.</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">“Putin and Hamas hope to collapse broader regional stability and integration and take advantage of the ensuing disorder. America cannot, and will not, let that happen. For our own national security interests — and for the good of the entire world.” - <a href="The U.S. won’t back down from the challenge of Putin and Hamas">President Joe Biden, The U.S. won’t back down from the challenge of Putin and Hamas, Washington Post (11/18/23)</a></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div><b>7. "How can Biden send $15 billion in weapons to Israel for this ...?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Many of you are used to seeing Israel as the "<a href="https://youtu.be/TxzENmD0UIE">neighborhood bully</a>" & rightfully so to a degree. So you say to me with great indignation, "How can Biden send $15 billion in weapons to Israel for this ...?" </div><div><br /></div><div>I am going to assume (perhaps naively) that <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cy10y2DPYAD/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">when you chant "From the river to the sea ..." </a>you aren't really calling for the extermination of the Israeli state, although that is precisely what the Hamas chant is calling for. Israel may seem to possess overwhelming military superiority but they are nevertheless in a very vulnerable position. If Iran & Hezbollah enter this war, & Israel is forced to fight on two <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cz2XgQWtNza/">or three fronts</a>, it will probably all go very bad very fast. Very bad, very fast. Do you want the Israeli people exposed to a war of extinction? In their homeland, established by the U.N. in 1948, as an acknowledgment of the Holocaust? Let's say you are OK with all of that (& <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/symone/watch/why-a-lack-of-media-literacy-could-be-the-reason-for-tiktok-users-osama-bin-laden-obsession-198225477988">after the Tik-Tok love affair with Osama Bin Laden's "Letter to America," I wouldn't be surprised</a>), are you also OK if faced with defeat, the Israeli decide to use the nuclear arsenal everyone pretends they don't have? </div><div><br /></div><div>The U.S. has always given this level of military aid to the Israelis it's certainly not going to cut it off after the atrocities of 10/7 & in the current geopolitical crisis mentioned above. Israel must remain strong. But Israel needs new leadership, bold, progressive leadership. There is a real peace to be had, a real peace, one that does not include Hamas (which must be destroyed. In 1981, Sadat died for this real peace, in 1995, Rabin died for this real peace, in 2000, Arafat didn't feel it was the right time for him to die for this peace. I remember every one of those tragic days, as if it were yesterday. Here we are now.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>8. The BEST & the WORST</b></div><div><br /></div><div>One of the numerous ironies of this moment is that the BEST person possible to deal with this crisis leads the U.S. currently, & yes,<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2023-11-06/ty-article/.premium/fire-israels-far-right/0000018b-a11c-dc0b-a1cb-e5de69890000"> the WORST person possible</a> to deal with this crisis leads Israel.</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">ClearingTheFog (@clearing_fog): A lot of folks won’t read past the first couple paragraphs of Biden’s op-ed today - but don’t sleep on it. In addition to calling out Hamas, it is a direct refutation of Netanyahu’s policies - almost unheard of from an American President. </blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://wapo.st/47jWaIC">Joe Biden: The U.S. won’t back down from the challenge of Putin and Hamas. Washington Post, 11/19/23</a> </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote): Biden calls for peace, a two-state solution, a free Palestine, & will impose sanctions against Israeli extremists in the West Bank. He also calls for support for Ukraine. Here is <a href="https://wapo.st/47jWaIC">a gift link</a> to the President’s opinion piece in WaPo:</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://wapo.st/47jWaIC">https://wapo.st/47jWaIC</a>. <br /></blockquote><div><br /></div>If indeed all you care about is Palestine or if you think it’s importance outweighs all else from abortion rights to climate action, do you realize how much worse it will be for the Palestinians & for Moslems in general if Biden loses? Of course, to answer that question you would have to acknowledge that Biden struggles with Netanyahu & is an important counterbalance to him among the Israeli leadership. You would have to acknowledge that aid trucks & "humanitarian poses" mean something. You would have to acknowledge that there was a CEASEFIRE in place FOR YEARS until 10/7/23, when HAMAS BROKE IT with their genocidal attack. You would have to acknowledge that a new CEASEFIRE is going into effect now, because of Joe Biden's direct engagement. 50 hostages, women & children, are being released imminently because of Joe Biden's direct engagement. The four-day CEASEFIRE going into effect can be extended one day for every 10 more hostages are released, because of Joe Biden's direct engagement. <br /><p><b>9. Genocide</b></p>Addressing the false claims of "Genocide" is a thankless job, it's touching the third rail, it's damned if I do & damned if I don't, but these three points are vital & must be articulated. <div><br /><div><b style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Times; font-size: 16px;"><b style="border-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As horrific as what is happening in Gaza is, it is NOT genocide. And by abusing that term, you are insulting the memory of those who died in Darfur, Rwanda, Cambodia, Armenia & yes, the HOLOCAUST. </b></b></div><div><br /><div><b>9a.</b><br /><br /><b>Massive civilian casualties do not equate to "Genocide." It's an ugly fact, but it is a fact.</b> Please do not cheapen the term with your sloganeering.<br /><div> <blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">If the massive death toll in both Israel and the Gaza Strip was not horrendous enough, the false claim continues to be spread that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza in retribution for the massacres carried out by Hamas October 7. </blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2023-10-25/ty-article/.premium/walkouts-protesting-gaza-genocide-planned-on-campuses-across-u-s/0000018b-66b9-d326-a39b-66b9b8130000">The genocide claim</a> bus has a range of passengers.</blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">Among them are antisemites who believe Jews are the ultimate evil in the world, conspiracists, “influencers” who, in addition to caring about the Palestinians, have their eye on their social media clout, pro-Palestinian activists who support the Palestinians' right to "armed resistance" and who are trying to bridge the unbridgeable gap between their supposed concern for human rights and the atrocities committed by Hamas by shifting the focus to the “bigger atrocity” of genocide.</blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">Also along for the ride are some cynical politicians, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/turkeys-erdogan-calls-israel-stop-attacks-gaza-amounting-genocide-2023-10-20/">including Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan </a>who said Israel’s assault “amounted” to genocide as well as some human rights activists, journalists, who may have honest intentions but are simply wrong.</blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">There’s a very high bar set for defining genocide laid out in international conventions and law. <a href="https://international-review.icrc.org/sites/default/files/irrc-876-ambos.pdf">These state that it is not enough to count the dead</a>, but one must also prove "intent to destroy" in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.</blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">For now, that is not what is happening on the ground in Gaza and this is why the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-khan-kc-cairo-situation-state-palestine-and-israel">International Criminal Court Prosecutor didn't mention it</a> in his statement in Cairo.</blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">That's because there is no evidence for this special intent. Civilians in Gaza were killed not because Israel specifically targets them, but <a href="http://aaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-24/ty-article/.premium/israel-plays-a-nerve-wracking-waiting-game-ahead-of-a-gaza-ground-offensive/0000018b-5e32-d8e2-a1eb-ff36c1350000">because of the extensive Hamas military infrastructures</a> that are located near, inside civilian buildings and in the tunnels beneath them ...</blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">As long as it is not based on facts, the genocide claim will not be useful for ending the war or promoting the freedom of the people in Gaza. It could also lead to deadly attacks on Israeli citizens, those in Western countries and embassies around the world.</blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">It is true that international law is flawed in its protection of civilians, both in definitions and in practice. We need to make up for these flaws by upholding the morals and universal values that Hamas, its jihadist partners and also the Israeli far-right oppose –not by getting lost in the false claims of genocide.<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-11-01/ty-article-opinion/.premium/israel-is-not-committing-genocide-in-gaza/0000018b-8785-d055-afbf-b7a75d450000?lts=1700512205408"> - Eitay Mack, Israel Is Not Committing Genocide in Gaza, Haaretz (11/1/23)</a></blockquote><div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></div><b>9b.</b><br /><br />I have a logic question for you. You say you’re raising your voice against genocide. <br /><br />Well, Israel says it is not committing genocide & has a substantive argument to validate its position.<br /><br />On the other hand, Hamas officials have openly acknowledged the genocidal nature of the 10/7 attack on Israel,<a href="https://twitter.com/MEMRIReports/status/1719662664090075199"> & boast that they will do the same again & again</a> until Israel no longer exists. <br /><br />For the sake of my logic question, it doesn't matter whether or not you believe the Israeli denial, it doesn't matter whether or not that denial is objectively true under international law. Both are irrelevant. <br /><br />I am simply asking you to explain your logic. <br /><br />Why is it that you say Biden supports genocide but you cheering Cornel West for calling Hamas “love warriors” is not supporting genocide? Why aren't you carrying both Palestinian & Israeli flags in your protests? There is legitimate dispute about whether or not the Israelis are committing genocide, there is no dispute about the genocidal nature of the way that HAMAS BROKE THE CEASEFIRE ON 10/7, they openly boast of it & they promise more & more genocidal attacks.<br /><br />Seriously. Check yourself.<div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></div><b>9c.</b></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div>In the last few nights, I have seen many of you go on social media to shame your friends who not posted about "CEASEFIRE" or "GENOCIDE," you say "Why the silent? Why ..." As if you are reading from a script, or at least repeating what you have heard over & over as the bots play the algorithm & in turn the algorithm plays you. Take a look at this chart of "Post Cold War Conflicts Death Toll In Proportion" (Virgil Hawkins, "Stealth Conflicts: How the World's Worst Violence is Ignored"). Take a long look at it & then <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0SdLKLvgIv/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">ask yourselves some hard questions about disproportionality, ignorance, hypocrisy</a> ...</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIdfL6RRMtBD8d5xuyRPl8qsJ1U9dFJ82M2eBzIfIxJqH-TJP6m0yaCq3Xv_e-0ev2a3beMrZ80eJzKOEvAMzthlPI1sQv4CqFl7BRP-BNPmXed1UrkZf5gZcamGdupVlo9JgpjFE6ibtgwN-BwYD69vbv7aSzOWsMFB21GrKOcWwF9JAZj1dsVw/s650/Untitled.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIdfL6RRMtBD8d5xuyRPl8qsJ1U9dFJ82M2eBzIfIxJqH-TJP6m0yaCq3Xv_e-0ev2a3beMrZ80eJzKOEvAMzthlPI1sQv4CqFl7BRP-BNPmXed1UrkZf5gZcamGdupVlo9JgpjFE6ibtgwN-BwYD69vbv7aSzOWsMFB21GrKOcWwF9JAZj1dsVw/w386-h400/Untitled.jpg" /></a></div><div><br />The Congo, Sudan, Rwanda, & many others, some recent history, some ongoing. Do you have any idea how small this conflict is in relation to the horrors of the Congo or Sudan or even Bosnia, Kashmir or Columbia? Of the 29 conflicts displayed, Israel-Palestine, along with Chad, are the smallest.* AND YET, you declare that you will not vote for Biden or any Democrat because of U.S. support of Israel? <br /><br />Well, as huge a horror as the Congo is, as UNSPEAKABLE as the total death toll as all of these 29 conflicts combined truly is, all of it is as if a single drop of blood when compared to the LOOMING DEATH TOLL OF THE GLOBAL CLIMATE EMERGENCY CURRENTLY ACCELERATING. <br /><br />Humanity has ten years, at the most, to mitigate the worst of what is coming. We can. We must. We will. Unless the U.S. government is turned over to the control of fascist tools fronting for the oligarchs East & West. So much, everything really, is at stake. <br /><br />The 2024 election will determine whether this republic's democratic institutions are strengthened or utterly hollowed out. The 2024 election will determine whether or not the new demographic reality of our body politic (more women, more people of color, more youth) is allowed to produce an assault weapons ban, the restoration of women''s reproductive rights, the protection of voting rights, & an even more sweeping climate action than what Biden-Harris & the Democrats have already delivered. <br /><br />If you vote for a third party candidate or you don't vote at all, you will actually be voting for the the unthinkable, truly, pure, unbridled fascism.<br /><br />These are the real stakes. So tell me now, what does a "vote of conscience" really look like in 2024? <br /><br />Have you really thought this through? Or have you just been played?<br /><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;">It’s clear now that while the Palestinian cause has been hijacked in the Middle East by terrorist death cults like Hamas and Hezbollah, it has been hijacked in America by those in the progressive movement who suffer from some poisonous mixture of ignorance, ideological blindness, and latent anti-Semitism (by which I mean they know nothing about the Middle East and its history, they hold the inane view that every conflict reduces to white colonialists oppressing virtuous people of color, and they just hate Jews). Now, here we are, witnessing a growing storm of hatred and violence toward Jews. How can this be the response of our fellow Americans? Think about the fact that Pakistan is forcibly returning 1.7 million Afghan refugees to the clutches of the Taliban or that Russia slaughtered an estimated 200,000 Chechen Muslims or that Serbia committed an internationally recognized genocide against Bosnian Muslims or that China has disappeared or locked in concentration camps 1.3 million Muslim Uyghurs, all with no comparable reaction from America’s progressive left. They are not assaulted by mobs on the streets of New York. They do not have to barricade themselves inside college libraries or dining halls. They do not have their murdered friends and relatives mocked by BLM Chicago posters glorifying hang-gliding terrorists. </div></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-terrible-consequence-of-a-hijacked-cause/">- Jonathan Foxman, The Terrible Consequences of A Highjacked Cause, Times of Israel (11/18/23)</a></div></div></blockquote><div><div><div><div class="css-1dbjc4n" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; background-color: white; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><b>10. Credible Casualty Numbers? We Have None</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The "Post Cold War Conflicts Death Toll In Proportion" chart shown above will have to be revised to reflect casualties in the current phase of conflict. But whatever the updated number is it will not impact the relative proportionality in any significant way. There<a href="https://twitter.com/MalcolmNance/status/1729097962939146580"> are no credible, independent numbers yet, everyone is using the numbers reported by Hamas-controlled entities in Gaza</a>. In other words, we have no idea how many casualties there really are. IF & when we do get credible numbers from an independent source don't be surprised if they are substantially less than the very numbers you yourself have been spreading with great certainty & outrage. Of course, whatever the real number of civilian deaths actually is, it is too many, whatever the number is it is an obscene number. That blood is on Hamas' hands at least as much as on the Israelis hands.<a href="https://twitter.com/MalcolmNance/status/1729097962939146580"> But do not accept Hamas' numbers. Demand independent substantiation.</a></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVuaOs6mjAhjjEUX0F0W1vLNIxp4j9aeC4mGLl9SWvPHKAIsHSAMODmHTkgF9GY4ytDuKVjLWfJ6aW6az-JphbIkb5ZGwcJn7uf7mwhQZ4O8sRmF7PwC1zRiXa10Ze8M2kX9-OHjzqfrsufYFBCh9PwvQ4kYAH4Kdu2bxlt8it9L102AVmdC4X5g/s1668/0E520E6E-CF3C-4F47-B5A8-D8BAB0E92442.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1668" data-original-width="1440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVuaOs6mjAhjjEUX0F0W1vLNIxp4j9aeC4mGLl9SWvPHKAIsHSAMODmHTkgF9GY4ytDuKVjLWfJ6aW6az-JphbIkb5ZGwcJn7uf7mwhQZ4O8sRmF7PwC1zRiXa10Ze8M2kX9-OHjzqfrsufYFBCh9PwvQ4kYAH4Kdu2bxlt8it9L102AVmdC4X5g/s320/0E520E6E-CF3C-4F47-B5A8-D8BAB0E92442.jpeg" width="276" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH_0Hek9x9tKyEKdfCjmKCJlvRdLARThm2y2EXAiD_1xPHEsRBm64TLGWjTsyu49cNPxwwo20MO3KYJYo1jqVPSI2ZQ98p-gef2NpNIhF9aFEQxT2urbdnoqehbh0zHIopH_iDTGp2M-OB0lW5FLdSkCjgOts1ofG5R5oSJ25jUkbiMcBpaA4QWw/s1668/0530856B-4027-443B-BAE9-5D7A13869962.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1668" data-original-width="1440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH_0Hek9x9tKyEKdfCjmKCJlvRdLARThm2y2EXAiD_1xPHEsRBm64TLGWjTsyu49cNPxwwo20MO3KYJYo1jqVPSI2ZQ98p-gef2NpNIhF9aFEQxT2urbdnoqehbh0zHIopH_iDTGp2M-OB0lW5FLdSkCjgOts1ofG5R5oSJ25jUkbiMcBpaA4QWw/s320/0530856B-4027-443B-BAE9-5D7A13869962.jpeg" width="276" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Remember the innocents. In Israel & in Palestine.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwn_RFeFXZGmNRrnWRWk6ttnCiYb4F2U-wqSqAs4UwyN9Ez9oAUjnaMoBdYTVq1B0LTh1IejPz2ec9z7LQRRsDOPhSz2uJ1Q-mLYE3iqxbsS4YaRUgVaJ5l3HPQMFoWlhXMvLqD_Bjru8CQht9hSCb0gOJVVRe64el0dBnBmv0MfTJV9MPmfDFiw/s2048/404578927_10232334558846516_2871219668380991816_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="946" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwn_RFeFXZGmNRrnWRWk6ttnCiYb4F2U-wqSqAs4UwyN9Ez9oAUjnaMoBdYTVq1B0LTh1IejPz2ec9z7LQRRsDOPhSz2uJ1Q-mLYE3iqxbsS4YaRUgVaJ5l3HPQMFoWlhXMvLqD_Bjru8CQht9hSCb0gOJVVRe64el0dBnBmv0MfTJV9MPmfDFiw/w296-h640/404578927_10232334558846516_2871219668380991816_n.jpeg" width="296" /></a></div><br /><div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-85970711751383664922023-04-30T00:50:00.013-07:002023-05-02T19:56:03.153-07:00Of Goddesses<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglzMg5z3GTa5pseilPfXsc29QrWFMnmOv216APNvx3LxzZebsKZG_lHSg2TRBXRYyIRJeYqJKxWgzrBr5rF1fi-7N9NMFr-J2RMGDuQ42wWE8uptMe1-k-ffc6wWE3IqdfH3A_2dkHemmVmU-kFl6Z5O67-sUfbP0ysUyDREab79n3DJEu1Vs/s1081/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglzMg5z3GTa5pseilPfXsc29QrWFMnmOv216APNvx3LxzZebsKZG_lHSg2TRBXRYyIRJeYqJKxWgzrBr5rF1fi-7N9NMFr-J2RMGDuQ42wWE8uptMe1-k-ffc6wWE3IqdfH3A_2dkHemmVmU-kFl6Z5O67-sUfbP0ysUyDREab79n3DJEu1Vs/w640-h360/Slide1.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/xDOIwBfwv1s">VIDEO: Richard Power - "Of Goddessess" (Gaia Talk #3, 4/29/23)</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xDOIwBfwv1s" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div><div><br /></div>In “Secret Engine of the World” (2021), I spoke of 3 doom-defining or doom-defying deadlines: the US elections in 2022 & 2024, & a 2031 drop-dead deadline for any significant mitigation of Anthropogenic Climate Disruption (ACD) & the Sixth Great Extinction.<br /><br />In 2022, I chronicled the run-up to the first of the 3 deadlines w/ a series of monthly updates from July to November. In 2024, I will chronicle the run-up to the second deadline, similarly. <br /><br />A series of talks & writings on the third deadline is also underway.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Of Goddesses" is the third in this series of Gaia Talks.</div><div><br /></div><div>The first, “Gaian Poetics & Gaian Politics,” was delivered in November 2022 & the second, "The Emerald Tablet: 21st Century Insights on Its True Nature” was delivered in March 2023. </div><div><br /></div><div>The full text of each talk, along with accompanying PowerPoints & embedded videos, are available here. The videos also reside on my YouTube channel, "Spoken Words of Power."</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ3THjFUMSD0nwQ8IPd3bHPh9vCK1jUJRkZy8Rm0r6VIJsRme15z7nVUn3mlcgtBAtUSm-MGARvTni5EnD9jioCEA9Ax8_GyO1c4BC3XIlLAgspkwT5w2D7d9ffzy1hX1biXY9Xw2XB5WMg4QebmCCaBtPSW7H_dfEVnbIUSbuI5nkmvQKSgo/s1081/Slide2.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ3THjFUMSD0nwQ8IPd3bHPh9vCK1jUJRkZy8Rm0r6VIJsRme15z7nVUn3mlcgtBAtUSm-MGARvTni5EnD9jioCEA9Ax8_GyO1c4BC3XIlLAgspkwT5w2D7d9ffzy1hX1biXY9Xw2XB5WMg4QebmCCaBtPSW7H_dfEVnbIUSbuI5nkmvQKSgo/w640-h360/Slide2.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><br /></div><div><b>God Is A Concept, God Is Dead</b><br /><br />In the 1970s, rock star, political dissident & eventual martyr <a href="https://youtu.be/xf7yMMRaXVU">John Lennon declared "God is a concept by which we measure our pain.</a>" A century earlier, in the 1880s, Friedrich Nietzsche, tortured genius, true giant of Western philosophy, had already declared,"God is dead." </div><div><br /></div><div>From very different vantage points, both of these magical beings were actually, albeit unconsciously, heralding the collapse of the patriarchal narrative. This has been a painfully slow & dangerous process. And now, at long last, we are finally nearing the denouement.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYSKYns4pNph0r9O0H2Hxwua2cgcCLlmYvkWySZZF0yb8JAywwSYDPf-6tgMSekNRjJuPmXoKiawveKAiZqUARq2QL3fNXQ3AjYWNhILJN0Jq21Choy3uCia2RRoR3djYWp2UjKlwWAiv12AUE8u3O7WQLjZUOuPYMxFACXmnRlPsIOXGJbj4/s1081/Slide3.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYSKYns4pNph0r9O0H2Hxwua2cgcCLlmYvkWySZZF0yb8JAywwSYDPf-6tgMSekNRjJuPmXoKiawveKAiZqUARq2QL3fNXQ3AjYWNhILJN0Jq21Choy3uCia2RRoR3djYWp2UjKlwWAiv12AUE8u3O7WQLjZUOuPYMxFACXmnRlPsIOXGJbj4/w640-h360/Slide3.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><br /><div><b>God Is A Woman, God Is A Black Woman</b><br /><br />On Friday the 13th, in July 2018, <a href="https://youtu.be/sKm4YqadSGw">Ariana Grande released her "God is a Woman,"</a> a song that celebrates both female sexual power & feminist liberation. </div><div><br /></div><div>"When all is said and done, You'll believe God is a woman ..." </div><div><br /></div><div>In February 2022, <a href="https://www.christenacleveland.com/god-is-a-black-woman">Christina Cleveland published her "God Is A Black Woman,"</a> a book that deconstructs the “whitemalegod” & reveals the Sacred Black Feminine. </div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">“Imagination is theology; we can only believe what we can imagine. And our cultural landscape hasn’t given us many tools to imagine a non-white, non-male God.”</div></blockquote><div><br />Grande's song and Cleveland's book epitomize vital new cultural memes.<br /><br />The "God Is A Woman" meme is more accurate mystically and cosmologically than dominant "whitemalegod" thought-form. Furthermore, "God Is A Woman is perfectly calibrated for this critical juncture in the evolution of our species, i.e., the end of history and the beginning of herstory, the end of the patriarchy and the beginning of what evolves even beyond matriarchy.</div><div><br />The "God Is A Black Woman" meme is even more apropos for the personification of this great shift.</div><div><br /></div><div>Cleveland explains.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">“We are unable to imagine a God who is with us while we wonder if our beloved sister will survive the night. We are unable to imagine a God who proclaims #blacklivesmatter, a God who says #metoo, a God who stands not atop the social hierarchy, but at the bottom with the people who have been cast aside, silenced, and forgotten. When god is solely male, he can only show up as fatherskygod who is nowhere near us.”</div></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">“Indeed, social science scholars agree that what’s good for Black women is good for all people. The liberation of all Black women requires the dismantling of all systems of oppression—white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and more. These systems harm all of us. So, if Black women are thriving and free, it also means the oppressive systems have been eradicated and we are all thriving and free."</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDAWiu4pxmGnXcfvZ4jqSXyUr9ZQUmW2d4e-nNcD6w6BLvQOWjoJ6-op8rAVmD7GK3lAFv9xE3qE4l-6vAcFTV_PpyOs-EDsPgXCCtTgpkGIe-gV8bTjKvnoOSGYITax_Q6PG0jsMt72aa2fyPTu55Epan36-6IIyOw40oBkIO9VGNYt0s6RE/s1081/Slide4.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDAWiu4pxmGnXcfvZ4jqSXyUr9ZQUmW2d4e-nNcD6w6BLvQOWjoJ6-op8rAVmD7GK3lAFv9xE3qE4l-6vAcFTV_PpyOs-EDsPgXCCtTgpkGIe-gV8bTjKvnoOSGYITax_Q6PG0jsMt72aa2fyPTu55Epan36-6IIyOw40oBkIO9VGNYt0s6RE/w640-h360/Slide4.jpeg" width="560" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Clockwise from Bottom Left: Venus of Dolní Věstonice, Artemisia Gentileschi - Sleeping Venus (1630), Kali Yantra, A golden statue of Durga slaying Mahisasur. Delhi (Oct 22, 2004), Kiki Smith - Lilith (1994), Andres Zorn - Freya (1901), Ekajat, the Blue Tara, Ferocious, Single-Breasted, One-Eyed, Single-Toothed Protectress of Nyingmapa Lineage, Painted by Shri Ram Bahadur Lama, Kathmandu</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /><b>Pantheon</b><br /><br />A pantheon of Goddesses smuggled Life, Nature & Reality through thousands of years of metaphysical misogyny & gender slavery providing cover for actual, literal misogyny & gender slavery, & some of these Goddesses could stand as the divine power behind the next civilization:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Celtic Triune Goddess in the West, Durga Ma in the East, both all-powerful representations of FULL EMBODIMENT & FULL INDIVIDUATION</div></blockquote></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"> Freya the Nordic Goddess of BOTH Love & War. </p></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">Venus Aphrodite of course, expressive of the Ultimate Power, D-E-S-I-R-E. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The incomparable Tara, in all her 21 flavors, offering, oh, boundless compassion, salvation from suffering, & so much more, e.g., Ekajat, the Blue Tara, Ferocious, Single-Breasted, One-Eyed, Single-Toothed Protectress of Nyingmapa Lineage</div></blockquote></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;">In the East, the indigo blue skinned Kali, in the West, the raven winged Morrigan. Holy ferocity, primal security. Self-defense. War of liberation. Sacred rage. </p></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"> Lilith too. Like Daath, the abyss at the center of the Tree of Life, Lilith is the Shadow of them all.</p></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPQw8NTvIaBZm7YtybgDK-uwxYHe1YFokaPnRSvY-BdPWR-3OOqoSAYMJO9GdKzrGETlVHWIUakLyVnFErSd47C8vwzHM3ihmAv0r58fFyh5iuQ2CLM3TIKq9TwpFcYucXlf3a88X52YMG9l204w4Spl8nr-t6-W3LdVCZ1hRBQ3NLwcen1pc/s1081/Slide5.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPQw8NTvIaBZm7YtybgDK-uwxYHe1YFokaPnRSvY-BdPWR-3OOqoSAYMJO9GdKzrGETlVHWIUakLyVnFErSd47C8vwzHM3ihmAv0r58fFyh5iuQ2CLM3TIKq9TwpFcYucXlf3a88X52YMG9l204w4Spl8nr-t6-W3LdVCZ1hRBQ3NLwcen1pc/w640-h360/Slide5.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><br /><div><b>Gaia</b></div><br />All of the Goddesses in this global pantheon are of the Sambhogakaya, they are like the rays of the Sun (Dharmakaya) warming & nurturing those human incarnations who open to them (Nirmanakaya). They are Mythoi, they are not unreal, they are realer than real, they are Supra Real. They feed the psychological body, the Manamaya Kosha, with the stuff of the Vijnanamaya Kosha, the Intuitive Body, The Jungians would say they are from the realm of the archetypes.<br /><br />There is one Goddess who pre-exists the Pantheon, that pre-exists our species, that pre-exists all but herself, because all else is her creation. She is the ONLY truly IMMANENT Divinity, she was the forging of oceans, the flow of lava, the bacteria in a dark crevice organizing itself into the first neural network, & now many billions of years later whoever you are, when you look in the mirror you are seeing only Her. She is the Divine Intelligence. She is both the Temple and the Oracle within it. Yes, Her name was taken from the ancient Mythoi <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01969-y">by a 20th Century scientist</a>. But only Her name, The rest of Her new narrative is composed of scientific fact, corroborated by shamanic vision. In the South of the Americas, She is known by another name, Pachamama. Gaia-Pachamama is the only Divinity which offers direct, irrefutable proof of Her own existence every moment of every day in every place in all the world.<br /><br />For those with eyes to hear and ears to see.<br /><br />Without her you would not be, no five bodies, no incarnation, no path of individuation, no psyche, no soma, no karma, no you. Without her you would never have felt the sun rise from inside the stillness of your meditation or heard the coyotes massing for a hunt in the hills on a moonless night. Without her, no Iceland, no Uluru, no <a href="https://youtu.be/xjgXwJ_kmpo">Kahlo</a>, no <a href="https://youtu.be/HT_Zs5FKDZE">Coltrane</a>, no Amazon, no Congo, no <a href="https://youtu.be/QnxpHIl5Ynw">Lana Del Ray</a>.<br /><br />If we are going to overcome the folly of our genius & survive the pathologies that poison us, we need to rapidly retool this scarred & conflicted civilization into a green, feminist world in which altruism & sustainability are the defining imperatives of governance. Gaia is the Goddess to place at the center of all you do to pursue this new beginning.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="text-align: center;">-- Richard Power, Yoga & Meditation Teacher, Writer, Speaker, Global Intelligence & Security Expert. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>See Also</b></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2023/04/words-of-power-2023-2024-end-of-cycle_47.html">The Emerald Tablet: 21st Century Insights on Its True Nature & Meaning</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2023/03/gaian-poetics-gaian-politics.html">Gaian Politics, Gaian Poetics</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1_IpdXAnaczZFzQhsx-bjNqiujsxwaL9z9BhzmOrwSCCc9VIphPjRBFsfDGV9H-w7-DGQBOWHP4hqQqRgcM4FtIXPsHFfTeRU4ZNgZX9s2irfONInFGIap8sY_ss-_FYa-O1H8ton9bgEE4UuypIaQuHqWPS788J3zMky4fKpNiRTimLeSr0/s1081/Emerald_T_2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1_IpdXAnaczZFzQhsx-bjNqiujsxwaL9z9BhzmOrwSCCc9VIphPjRBFsfDGV9H-w7-DGQBOWHP4hqQqRgcM4FtIXPsHFfTeRU4ZNgZX9s2irfONInFGIap8sY_ss-_FYa-O1H8ton9bgEE4UuypIaQuHqWPS788J3zMky4fKpNiRTimLeSr0/w640-h360/Emerald_T_2.jpg" width="560" /></a></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":1bo"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnS9lVunfJZ8eS06vHlwdFsS-YTqxEOMJRy_I3yQK3giXLLHHzwrHrig5cntsEP3bzrBSYW2yv8KReUHTWf0e_5jX8iB7abfAQtddYqhuuU5KTIeWV_5Ul3fkH2bfALkKktGqw10MRTVTQ8UJyFBBRPCcN_Qag04ay_UbO4LU_vjJXOa-9jEA/s1800/271129783_10227528427976248_8265357075453770177_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1440" height="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnS9lVunfJZ8eS06vHlwdFsS-YTqxEOMJRy_I3yQK3giXLLHHzwrHrig5cntsEP3bzrBSYW2yv8KReUHTWf0e_5jX8iB7abfAQtddYqhuuU5KTIeWV_5Ul3fkH2bfALkKktGqw10MRTVTQ8UJyFBBRPCcN_Qag04ay_UbO4LU_vjJXOa-9jEA/w512-h640/271129783_10227528427976248_8265357075453770177_n.jpeg" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/ref=sr_1_1">"Secret Engine of the World: Further Insights into Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution" (2021) is available from Amazon.com</a><br /><br /><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><span style="text-align: left;">[All images are sourced and published as Fair Use.]</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-30211019562890474612023-04-06T13:33:00.009-07:002023-04-08T01:56:37.305-07:00Words of Power 2023-2024: The End of A Cycle, & the Beginning of the Next <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivg751cD1H-2tts4IZfUhhsbC-Qo74wkxpoBOS4-nWKiKeThArv9norsFzKAxpQhsu2mqqhtcfUNzubSF_AwaPB_8K7O3n4rFzs2PKHaJ3cp15O83_0rYkara1C1IS6j9kvZ0_Db2iZjfVXG0KmtVDpf2SOgDN8UwI2zw1UyJhaqFaD-b5ZQI/s1000/327A9039-2E77-481D-AC84-C3401800376B.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="1000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivg751cD1H-2tts4IZfUhhsbC-Qo74wkxpoBOS4-nWKiKeThArv9norsFzKAxpQhsu2mqqhtcfUNzubSF_AwaPB_8K7O3n4rFzs2PKHaJ3cp15O83_0rYkara1C1IS6j9kvZ0_Db2iZjfVXG0KmtVDpf2SOgDN8UwI2zw1UyJhaqFaD-b5ZQI/w640-h426/327A9039-2E77-481D-AC84-C3401800376B.jpeg" width="580" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">San Francisco Theosophical Society Lodge, 6/16/17</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">"Thank you for being everything you are and upholding this world, you secret tsaddik ... <br />Deep bow to the living mystery school that you are, Richard Power.<br />Such a blessing to the world.” - Vera de Chalambert (@vera_de_shalom)"</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div dir="ltr"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">“These books by Richard Power are portals of mythic truth and transmit Sovereignty Codes. I highly recommend reading them as you navigate all the changes - whenever I open the pages, it's like sitting at the feet of a great Oracle. Thank you Richard."</div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div dir="ltr">- Rhiannon Seraphine Morgana (@awakeningavalontemple)</div><div dir="ltr"><br /></div><div dir="ltr"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFLT8nMvs_WHWCkKVUEz4Sw4kzPovkYapoJGKSVGPvxqmCfN2b27BiNDuiQOXoRHZBR26dtysQvMOtDQq6-FxmdvDNulseqFqhP7N5bO0rCSLC-F2BeaDJTFgR7fgxa3P7ZS9NVUqugd3p65IXwlqJBZMsRtQja8NEJ_ciO6B6MkduOzXpeCE/s1080/327056357_1567115723796560_5961440236755389772_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFLT8nMvs_WHWCkKVUEz4Sw4kzPovkYapoJGKSVGPvxqmCfN2b27BiNDuiQOXoRHZBR26dtysQvMOtDQq6-FxmdvDNulseqFqhP7N5bO0rCSLC-F2BeaDJTFgR7fgxa3P7ZS9NVUqugd3p65IXwlqJBZMsRtQja8NEJ_ciO6B6MkduOzXpeCE/w640-h640/327056357_1567115723796560_5961440236755389772_n.jpg" width="580" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Center, San Francisco, 7/23/18</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div dir="ltr"><br /></div></div></div><div><div>At 2:00 a.m., sometime after Yule 2022, before the end of the Muggle calendar year, I picked up “Wyrds of Power” to look up something for someone. Flipping through, searching for the passage I wanted to reference, I kept running into whole chapters I hadn’t laid eyes on in several years. I was awestruck by the sweeping scope of my work.</div><div><br /></div><div>That same month, a close friend and ally chose to no longer be a friend or ally. It happens.</div><div><br /></div><div>Both experiences left me NOT in the mood for having my work forgotten or my life disappeared.</div></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcRlaCiHqwtGHwgixNZ87bJ3vWK8nw-2xK_XNvco81lBjbiJKE2Fob2Sna97W9E8mm3wgYLJiSprj-V8uR84YdAR42UKnzxog8LChn88q_zgcfwIBDlP_aEYl4wf0xzSTYG1zcg0GdtpphFh8kA5lWLEEHcrufe8vmeHTOXlD_gnisMPojvpY/s1081/Emerald_T.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcRlaCiHqwtGHwgixNZ87bJ3vWK8nw-2xK_XNvco81lBjbiJKE2Fob2Sna97W9E8mm3wgYLJiSprj-V8uR84YdAR42UKnzxog8LChn88q_zgcfwIBDlP_aEYl4wf0xzSTYG1zcg0GdtpphFh8kA5lWLEEHcrufe8vmeHTOXlD_gnisMPojvpY/w640-h360/Emerald_T.jpg" width="580" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><div><b>Curating Legacy & Legend</b></div><div><br /></div><div>To further the curation of legacy & legend, first, I released 3 series of Instagram and Facebook posts (IG/FB) that underscore the scope & depth of the creative cycle stretching from 2010 thru 2021.</div><ul style="text-align: center;"><li style="text-align: left;">Hashtag Series: 21 IG/FB posts highlighting major themes running through “Wyrds” “Dragon” & “Engine” </li><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/primalreality/"></a><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/primalreality/">#PrimalReality</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/ancientfuture/">#AncientFuture</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/secretsoftheuniverse/">#secretsoftheuniverse</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/epiphanies/">#epiphanies</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/thisisthetruth/">#thisisthetruth</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/art/">#Art</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/photography/">#Photography</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/mysticism/">#Mysticism</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/ascendancyofthefeminine/">#AscendancyoftheFeminine</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/masks/">#masks</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/mysterium/">#mysterium</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/thisisthetruth/">#thisisthetruth</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/singularity/">#Singularity</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/tantra/">#Tantra</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/gaianpolitics/">#GaianPolitics</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/gaianpoetics/">#GaianPoetics</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/spiral/">#Spiral</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/lilith/">#Lilith</a> ...</blockquote></div></ul><ul style="text-align: center;"><li style="text-align: left;">Gatherings for the Spoken Word: 10 IG/FB posts featuring 10 photos each from some of the 25 in-person talks that were foundational in the shaping of these 3 books</li><ul><li style="text-align: left;">2010: "User's Guide to Human Incarnation: Yoga of Primal Reality" (series of 3)</li><li style="text-align: left;">2012-2013: "Mapping Primal Reality: Further Notes for A User's Guide to Human Incarnation" (series of 7)</li><li style="text-align: left;">2014: "Planetary Emergency, Personal Emergence (series of 4)</li><li style="text-align: left;">2015: "Cauldron Yoga, Gaian Poetics & the Way of the Ancient Future"</li><li style="text-align: left;">2016: "Wyrds of Power: New Language for A New Reality"</li><li style="text-align: left;">2016: "Matrika, Midi-Chlorians & the Mysterium"</li><li style="text-align: left;">2017: "7 Beasts, Tale of the Mysterium"</li><li style="text-align: left;">2017: "5 Survival Tips for Your Journey into the Wilderness"</li><li style="text-align: left;">2018: "I, the Dragon"</li><li style="text-align: left;">2018" "Dragon Medicine: A Journey into Healing & Redemption"</li><li style="text-align: left;">2019: "Dragon Bone Broth"</li><li style="text-align: left;">2019: "Legends of the Ancient Future: Cauldron of the Dark Goddess, Secret Engine of the World, & the Riderless Horse that Crosses the Himalayas"</li><li style="text-align: left;">2020: "Pandemic 2020: Dreamtime Dweller"</li><li style="text-align: left;">2020: "Straw Dogs, A Mysterious Valley & the Power of Nothing"</li><li style="text-align: left;">Many of these talks on my YouTube channel: <a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2F%40rgpowerIII%2Fvideos%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2qeLmlc0Ymrms3d-EHm54KYu_eYUvNv-z4pfdMa5tloDgENiNIy1F1Btw&h=AT1bUQZb1XNraQeftKaJ-nC0O_xw2zpjDEb4xYrQP5EJLfu9ijnN_eXZxAF6paUELfxYeC2p6MiGRizSnP8lCKZ9rAqTUkuQgphKDht8wx7GUxGSeVtdIcgQr23X2RkMou1mX3IYcvnLGzghjR9gxos&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AT3Z_N5LZsr6wy0_m2VJ-p44h1ea5yYahQP4zg9HLon3Q_bYgbDh4C48GxMU3Y2-lFkmBzgwJKILN_sEuzHYKaF0Vs7xyyqgf414o2V2F06csvLPnppgdCTdgbp-qW3aOtvt">https://www.youtube.com/@rgpowerIII/videos</a></li></ul></ul><ul style="text-align: center;"><li style="text-align: left;">Readers Testify: 7 IG/FB posts enshrining 39 rave reviews from friends & allies, e.g., </li><ul><li style="text-align: left;">“With his feet rooted firmly in the earth and his head in the Mysterium, Richard Power has written a dazzling book of great scope and meaning. It is a literary Ouroboros - Power’s extraordinary experiences, confessions, insights, revelations, and epiphanies unite to serve his fearless pursuit of truth and his inspiring vision of the infinite. Having just finished it, I am starting it again." - Susan Gammie </li><li style="text-align: left;">"I'm so moved by your transparency... Your book is a gift. It will help heal many hearts. Including mine." - Kim Amadril (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/undertherug/">@undertherug</a>)</li><li style="text-align: left;">“Truth infusion that feels like time travel through mystical traditions. Richard Power brings these ancient tools to our modern day ground zero so we might remember who we are.” - <a href="https://www.instagram.com/RobinGorn/">@RobinGorn</a></li><li style="text-align: left;">For more, see below.</li></ul></ul></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfrgbLIlsl5cdd7R12qFN6iiSlogiu1zXKfsDxe4tsonKq-GcRqjq0r5UTYuRoRlij9aXLRa67dtZDiR2QJVK4K5O_69FJRzMYsJFG-i2R8OCrzI0tY5cyCwpVXgI4kbs3gyvJJGWYWvjdA_VW8gvDfVBEjLIO77F96paaoE7FKrfgOMXemCk/s1440/327109107_2431023927072986_308583266959646663_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1440" height="580" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfrgbLIlsl5cdd7R12qFN6iiSlogiu1zXKfsDxe4tsonKq-GcRqjq0r5UTYuRoRlij9aXLRa67dtZDiR2QJVK4K5O_69FJRzMYsJFG-i2R8OCrzI0tY5cyCwpVXgI4kbs3gyvJJGWYWvjdA_VW8gvDfVBEjLIO77F96paaoE7FKrfgOMXemCk/w640-h640/327109107_2431023927072986_308583266959646663_n.jpg" width="580" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">San Francisco Theosophical Society, 9/20/19</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />“Wyrds of Power," "I, the Dragon," "Secret Engine of the World" were not brought forth from my mind, in a seated position, at my laptop. They arose exclusively from talks & walks, from what yoginis call “the Throat Chakra” & from what Gurdjieff called “the Moving Center.” <div><br /></div><div>The talks were delivered over the course of 11 years (2010-2021). Many at the sftslodge, some online, late at night, from an urban cave. The walks that led to what I call the “Epiphanies” (some might call them poems or prayers) took place over that same span of time. Some in a lush, deeply magical forest (incinerated in the Climate Catastrophe of 2021). Some in the City of the Golden Gate, on the high hills or amidst flocks of pelicans at the ocean. 25 talks & 156 epiphanies. </div><div><br /></div><div>The talks formed the skeleton & the nervous system of this body of work, these epiphanies shaped & animate its vital organs & 6 senses. These galleries of images offer powerful witness: magical beings coming together in celebration of the Mysteries.</div><div><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKAkrKtJcaMo3fag_5MoHWurTWKFKLGfgg-V95yO_Ffs9kNXYvLLqwlANKSHlzBHkoELV-bdMgj-i7gyD2WH2IgcgQmggBEKBdkGtD_KFDLaRWBb8QK7MWK5MAqLjLlQ4hDVgDZSRIGuXigFfc0TFQohF-R7-s-q0BtJ_UIpy7J4My_0Pn7MQ/s1280/822C4D95-4F16-4ED9-A9E7-E5A211EE0937.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKAkrKtJcaMo3fag_5MoHWurTWKFKLGfgg-V95yO_Ffs9kNXYvLLqwlANKSHlzBHkoELV-bdMgj-i7gyD2WH2IgcgQmggBEKBdkGtD_KFDLaRWBb8QK7MWK5MAqLjLlQ4hDVgDZSRIGuXigFfc0TFQohF-R7-s-q0BtJ_UIpy7J4My_0Pn7MQ/w640-h360/822C4D95-4F16-4ED9-A9E7-E5A211EE0937.jpeg" width="580" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"San Francisco Theosophical Society Lodge, 9/23/16</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>"I, the Dragon" Audio Book Released</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">On the Spring Equinox, with the help of friend & producer Harrison Nir, I pushed out the audiobook version of “I, the Dragon.” (A project that had been halted during the pandemic.) </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Available now via Audible, iTunes & Amazon.</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkO2CwdScFeFHlYe0fBZ2WO_SCoxG5UP13QGsF4mZS1tG7e09VrUh8ieE1PUZ2veOwPnR07O5HHTDKKqFgKm3cIa05eMOpWd23e01EUNfcgINksld-9iQn5TwE7uaPwqkdb1WCRR-poBLi6rwHczDckp90pk36Bqg637eNTsRYnpGyToM2vLY/s1081/Slide04.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkO2CwdScFeFHlYe0fBZ2WO_SCoxG5UP13QGsF4mZS1tG7e09VrUh8ieE1PUZ2veOwPnR07O5HHTDKKqFgKm3cIa05eMOpWd23e01EUNfcgINksld-9iQn5TwE7uaPwqkdb1WCRR-poBLi6rwHczDckp90pk36Bqg637eNTsRYnpGyToM2vLY/w640-h360/Slide04.jpeg" width="580" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCsJY8b3NMrM--YgU7oKWOfLPO8xWVZlLXcFPGEqED3LzRZlgz-fcwovFTnGQVnfrr69Z0ZlAdT9qlQ0iZMaTrMshuyaW7Y-Q1i9qZOtsSFP515pSrtoetNjomKnmVDbQPanio2HEVv6HNzQiY7K2A6LDZEMGUb3kGUs3oyuK94-oVd5Ntx50/s1081/Slide05.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCsJY8b3NMrM--YgU7oKWOfLPO8xWVZlLXcFPGEqED3LzRZlgz-fcwovFTnGQVnfrr69Z0ZlAdT9qlQ0iZMaTrMshuyaW7Y-Q1i9qZOtsSFP515pSrtoetNjomKnmVDbQPanio2HEVv6HNzQiY7K2A6LDZEMGUb3kGUs3oyuK94-oVd5Ntx50/w640-h360/Slide05.jpeg" width="580" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><div><b>The Three Deadlines & The Taxonomy </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div>In “Secret Engine,” I spoke of 3 doom-defining or doom-defying deadlines: the US elections in 2022 & 2024, & a 2031 drop-dead deadline for any significant mitigation of Anthropogenic Climate Disruption (ACD) & the Sixth Great Extinction.<div><br />In 2022, I chronicled the run-up to the first of the 3 deadlines w/ a series of monthly updates from July to November. In 2024, I will chronicle the run-up to the second deadline, similarly. </div><div><br /></div><div>A series of talks & writings on the third deadline is also underway. Most recently, “Emerald Tablet: 21st Century Insights on Its True Nature” (@sftslodge 3/26/23), & before that, “Gaian Poetics & Gaian Politics” (@mpowerdanceproject 11/13/22).</div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>This narrative tracking of the 3 deadlines will be incorporated into my next book.<br /><br />The centerpiece of this new work will be the full text of “Taxonomy of Magical Beings: Field Notes of An Occult Anthropologist.” I offered a glimpse into this research in the talk “Dragon Bone Broth” & included that transcript and accompanying illustrations in “Secret Engine.”<br /><br />The full “Taxonomy” will detail the characteristics of the magical species we have identified so far, it will also offer examples of how we determine a being’s species classification & examine the complex interrelationship of the magical & muggle worlds.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTMZUZeLunrjS3fIqGJkhJ1LhqPiMw7Yi9t-MdL10AMUW9Y7K0wBzPTj7DdhAdi6cPI-pF6oGRYA-_uTwBPYisWWMezznoO2d8AtoySzDjgHrlcS2gc68zWlHQ2xjvXkayFiEzFcqwY3o9BtwyT4T6N6DhH1k-NLYRXf6VRAZqLHAAqMuYh1U/s1081/Slide06.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTMZUZeLunrjS3fIqGJkhJ1LhqPiMw7Yi9t-MdL10AMUW9Y7K0wBzPTj7DdhAdi6cPI-pF6oGRYA-_uTwBPYisWWMezznoO2d8AtoySzDjgHrlcS2gc68zWlHQ2xjvXkayFiEzFcqwY3o9BtwyT4T6N6DhH1k-NLYRXf6VRAZqLHAAqMuYh1U/w640-h360/Slide06.jpeg" width="580" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS9S8xOllfKi8QIqfZCWCrsD-Oo6bW63HSMK8tqU5VYKLgPV9kdPC6C6jaJmsi6zvy7L0N-2OahjPera2kDRExzNA3pECt5iIDqCnARvpd8qm2ljAT6Sv1Sw4huFLkOpAhs3lxYXEt358xfTl33U3cHvcLcpoq5ZHS-f8l3F1ZMdYcdwk5wtk/s1081/327994811_1256145774936849_3930483769730478006_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="571" data-original-width="1081" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS9S8xOllfKi8QIqfZCWCrsD-Oo6bW63HSMK8tqU5VYKLgPV9kdPC6C6jaJmsi6zvy7L0N-2OahjPera2kDRExzNA3pECt5iIDqCnARvpd8qm2ljAT6Sv1Sw4huFLkOpAhs3lxYXEt358xfTl33U3cHvcLcpoq5ZHS-f8l3F1ZMdYcdwk5wtk/w640-h338/327994811_1256145774936849_3930483769730478006_n.jpg" width="580" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">San Francisco Theosophical Society, 10/24/14</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div></div><div><b>Rave Reviews from Readers</b></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>"Reading Richard's words while in college supplemented a kind of learning, of growth that I wasn't finding in my assigned work, but so desperately wanted. His was the first language that worked on my body like yoga, a poetry that explained little and somehow still delivered me to heights of feeling! Reading 'I, the Dragon' is an experience of transformation, not just a retelling but an active process of reliving. Within its pages, Richard gives us the greatest gift possible: his life." -- Harrison Nir (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/just_a_har/">@just_a_har</a>) </p></blockquote><div><div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span face="-apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">“</span>Still the greatest book I have ever read. You have never read anything like it. The format is like no other ... Richard Power is one of the most relevant writers of our time. As the world moves deeper into chaos, Richard presents his personal saga, 'I, the Dragon,' as proof that one can come from complete madness, see how madness is effecting humanity politically, economically, environmentally, and yet still find healing and the ability to love unconditionally." - Brenna Geehan (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/brennageehan/">@brennageehan</a>)</blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"I’m not sure how else to tell you this. You must read this book. An essential artifact from the Ancient Future ... A necessary survival guide for humanity and where we are going... Written by one of the greatest living writers Richard Power <a href="https://www.instagram.com/rgpoweriii/">@rgpoweriii</a> Genius dragon devotee of the Dark Goddess, channel of a new language for a new reality. Weaver of the anthropological spiritual political arc of human evolution at this critical juncture on planet earth. His writings are water in a desert. Inoculations against spiritual delusion. Seeds planted in the heart that awaken the reader to their own depth of wisdom & direct knowing ... You know where to find it. This is a must, required reading for incarnated beings." - Maya Luna (depravedanddivine)</blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"Richard Power is magnificently depicting the jagged layers of our underworld and the absolute and fucked up perfection of everything. The ugly, disorderly, unforgivable … He shamelessly offers truth. Uncensored … His heart wide open in this book. His knowledge & experience vast, daring & evermore melding into the holy, deep, dark & feral beauty of this world …” - Aurora Rose <a href="https://www.instagram.com/aofthisplace/">@aofthisplace</a></blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">How genuine, honest, authentic and whole ‘I, the Dragon' feels. With all the facets, ebbs, flows, textures and malleability of a human being, with a gift for sharing life and truth in a way that is so relatable. Touching, moving, and inspiring!! Your book is like advice that is neither unsolicited nor unwelcome! It is just magical, intuitive, deep, personal connection." - Jenn Jackson (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/lovejennik/">@lovejennik</a>)</blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"Reading 'I, The Dragon' I was struck by the tests, trials and tribulations Richard has endured that began as a young child and have woven throughout his life. And I sense the hero’s journey he has lived, learning to rely on his intuition ... To forgive is not to forget. The true hero must undergo a death and resurrection in order to progress. Richard has achieved this multiple times within his life, emerging each time to a higher level of understanding and release. His story is raw and penetrating and touched me at the depth of my being." - Wendy Ellsworth</blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"Richard Power is a dear friend, soul brother, true blue ally, real-life magician, 21st-century bard, fountain of authentic wisdom, and all-around extraordinary human. I am blessed to have him in my life and now the world is blessed to have his memoirs in the collective consciousness. 'Epic Life' is not an exaggeration! Richard's life and work is a channeled articulation of the most profound Truths about the human experience, conveyed with wit, brilliance, poetry and pathos. I love this man SO MUCH. THANK YOU, dear wizard, from the bottom of my heart, for existing and for delivering this gift to a planet in desperate need …" - Sarah Hendlish</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhilPWMjrzyT6-2u8InhyS6jj5R8wWibzfC6IpETrV5zJciqI1uKDLn2UmEm3Dnokk0EUD29qAtjyEVWwzffMFOKbNP_v5V8VjWN_2QbCeD6oniowS7bTrOwPrMXCjJx4RSCe6YHRDdEqbqRp5KYRMqkg6-xBUhvQRyoeA-GHP3uBTJsY1n28s/s1800/FD82F1A9-4558-49A5-BE1B-41435AEC4EF0.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1440" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhilPWMjrzyT6-2u8InhyS6jj5R8wWibzfC6IpETrV5zJciqI1uKDLn2UmEm3Dnokk0EUD29qAtjyEVWwzffMFOKbNP_v5V8VjWN_2QbCeD6oniowS7bTrOwPrMXCjJx4RSCe6YHRDdEqbqRp5KYRMqkg6-xBUhvQRyoeA-GHP3uBTJsY1n28s/w512-h640/FD82F1A9-4558-49A5-BE1B-41435AEC4EF0.jpg" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">"Into the Sublime. A Must Read." - Terence Smith (</span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/Callmenadu/" style="text-align: left;">@Callmenadu</a><span style="text-align: left;">) </span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><br /></blockquote></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>"’I, the Dragon’ is more than an incredible work of art. Richard Power delivers a personal nakedness never before shown, one that breathes healing into the deepest shadow of torture and survival. A most important work, masterfully written in three styles: porn cult-classic, polished blade of a global security expert and literary philosopher-poet. An undercurrent exists throughout this book, taking us beyond the desolation of his experience. Power never fails to find a way that leads us all into a new green oasis." - Mary Power (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/mpowerdance.project/">@mpowerdance.project</a>) </p></blockquote><div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>"I, the Dragon is equal parts intimate memoir, zen treatise and firsthand historical document. Across a life filled with both trauma and triumph, Richard Power has traveled the world, witnessed extraordinary things, met an astounding list of fellow travelers and emerged with a story—many stories, many of them remarkable—that is both resonant and beautiful." - Kali Holloway (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/kaliholloway/">@kaliholloway</a>) </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"’I, The Dragon’ is a book of healing. There is vast tenderness in the transformative journey that this hero took upon himself as he embraced his power. The journey & the tenderness are gifts of Great Medicine from a courageous soul. The magic of this unique epic is that it can uplift anyone ..." - <a href="https://www.instagram.com/rosalynvintageshop/">@rosalynvintageshop</a></blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">“No words to describe what your words do to me. Thank you. You changed my life." - Maya Luna (depravedanddivine)</blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"Summer is almost gone except here in the SF Bay where winter happens in July and summer happens in October. I am thoroughly immersed in "I, the Dragon" this powerful page-turner that chronicles the extraordinary life of the incomparable Richard Power. You will be entertained, you will be dazzled, inspired and magically transformed through these pages." - Courtney Wynn Sheets <a href="https://www.instagram.com/eyesofcourtneywynn/">@eyesofcourtneywynn</a></blockquote><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6PCyblbWPv9USyegRXMgL-pOH9N-F5ANvcJUVH9LnWDXrzIf8qVAeva9XzUsTTOsXfQGZ01Yh8XCB9AHJAMTsZq3wEGwAQJ-IhvU24MPDcBcZ8aclxdY9rkJRqNDdm6csxLjCdJvgz7lsSkruH-hNWb81FvX6glMm-QcKhyTElZtQLyEOU_Q/s1472/330989238_738783917767761_7878884217376895853_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1472" data-original-width="1261" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6PCyblbWPv9USyegRXMgL-pOH9N-F5ANvcJUVH9LnWDXrzIf8qVAeva9XzUsTTOsXfQGZ01Yh8XCB9AHJAMTsZq3wEGwAQJ-IhvU24MPDcBcZ8aclxdY9rkJRqNDdm6csxLjCdJvgz7lsSkruH-hNWb81FvX6glMm-QcKhyTElZtQLyEOU_Q/w548-h640/330989238_738783917767761_7878884217376895853_n.jpg" width="548" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">San Francisco Theosophical Society Lodge, 2017</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><br />"This book has a hypnotic effect that pulls you deeply inward into the most subtle spaces that typically can only be felt versus read, but Richard has the ability to successfully convey these inner landscapes in such a way through word that I gained much personal insight and clarity as a side effect of the read. His personal stories have transpersonal gifts and the tone of mystery painted throughout the book way-showered me into a deep sense of the familiar. This multi-dimensional book led my psyche into an awareness, as if inner doors kept opening into a homecoming of mysterious revelation. On the same note, the aha! moments I received when reading were inspired from the book's great practicality, rawness, and depthful wisdom that is acquired through direct experience, age, and the courage to embrace the full journey of a mystical, inter-dimensional life." - Maalika-Shay DeviDasi<br /><br />"Reading & re-reading Richard.... what has struck me most strongly about 'I the Dragon' is the beauty of the lyricism in some of the narrative passages... the content is yours (you lived it) yet I, the reader, own the breath, joy & tears that all rise with each turned page .... it's a staggering work of memoir and literature, so much so I want to take this copy to Sligo, place it on W.B's grave stone, photograph it and send it to you...." -- Kevin McLaughlin (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/thesolarboutiq/">@thesolarboutiq</a>)<br /><br />“With his feet rooted firmly in the earth and his head in the Mysterium, Richard Power has written a dazzling book of great scope and meaning. It is a literary Ouroboros - Power’s extraordinary experiences, confessions, insights, revelations, and epiphanies unite to serve his fearless pursuit of truth and his inspiring vision of the infinite. Having just finished it, I am starting it again." - Susan Gammie<br /><br />"I'm so moved by your transparency... Your book is a gift. It will help heal many hearts. Including mine." - Kim Amadril (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/undertherug/">@undertherug</a>)<br /><br /></blockquote><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpRv5TFlL8-erKZaF82Ml0kr6VT9Os9eiSDA-35r9u3feS2wBSosme8NCZpua4zV8FTA0IU-TfnbpbxIQO_otIk1E32P-dPWNKKWjpXavkH_HKIgf7fFNPCL79W29yKlHEKI8Udn58z1DLXJ-Lj7NmidSoSa-vZ2sle_RJ0C0-jM6z2YFGa5c/s1080/D8DB8CB0-A4BA-4A3C-A57E-953DA5CD365A.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpRv5TFlL8-erKZaF82Ml0kr6VT9Os9eiSDA-35r9u3feS2wBSosme8NCZpua4zV8FTA0IU-TfnbpbxIQO_otIk1E32P-dPWNKKWjpXavkH_HKIgf7fFNPCL79W29yKlHEKI8Udn58z1DLXJ-Lj7NmidSoSa-vZ2sle_RJ0C0-jM6z2YFGa5c/w640-h640/D8DB8CB0-A4BA-4A3C-A57E-953DA5CD365A.jpeg" width="580" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">"Richard Power your words infuse my soul with Musings of the worlds unseen. <br />I can’t seem to put this book down ..." - Alita Arose (</span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/alitaarose/" style="text-align: left;">@alitaarose</a><span style="text-align: left;">)<br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">“Truth infusion that feels like time travel through mystical traditions. Richard Power brings these ancient tools to our modern day ground zero so we might remember who we are.” - <a href="https://www.instagram.com/RobinGorn/">@RobinGorn</a> </blockquote><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>"This book has rocked my world on so many levels! The story pulled me in and wouldn’t let me go! An amazingly honest, personal account wrapped in revelation, wizardry and mystery. This intensely heroic life is written with poetic mastery ... Inspiring medicine …” - Kate Henke</div></blockquote><div><div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><br />“‘I, the Dragon’ brought me on a journey into a very profound life. It aligns with anyone searching for their truth in healing & becoming Self. It is honest, deep, & tells a wonderful story of a life well lived. Thank you Mr. Power for your strength, compassion & words.” - <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lucienshapiro/">@lucienshapiro</a><br /><br />"This book ['Secret Engine'] is a treasure for humanity, an experience to be lived, a download of love filled with remarkable insights and visions written by a poet. Richard Power, a modern mystic, is gifting us an unusual yet practical life raft for our times. If I were you, I would reach out and grab it.” - Courtney Wynn Sheets (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/eyesofcourtneywynn/">@eyesofcourtneywynn</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/outriderart/">@outriderart</a>)<br /><br />"Captivating, riveting. A wild ride of a read. The wisdom of an incredible man whose precious l<div>ife was recovered from the heart and soul of a young boy." -- Helena Zera (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/helenavyana/">@helenavyana</a>)</div></blockquote><p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6ZrfiT3bgXBqsEpUfNcw1_G5944yquun0gwUmez30APekJKEdn450EU_bvlOMt3F2OmBlBc1qmVqaYpfoCGrum5jzxmOvUwY646Y67Cf1khrwUZCdiEK9kdpwjV8IIPAtrhF8_ZVlJJGadkPmmW38I3RyBAviFf-9zMH1LHIRaWxAMi_oyc/s1799/327812271_1487984488399880_4424418128336551141_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1799" data-original-width="1440" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6ZrfiT3bgXBqsEpUfNcw1_G5944yquun0gwUmez30APekJKEdn450EU_bvlOMt3F2OmBlBc1qmVqaYpfoCGrum5jzxmOvUwY646Y67Cf1khrwUZCdiEK9kdpwjV8IIPAtrhF8_ZVlJJGadkPmmW38I3RyBAviFf-9zMH1LHIRaWxAMi_oyc/w512-h640/327812271_1487984488399880_4424418128336551141_n.jpg" width="512" /></a><a href="#"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">San Francisco Theosophical Society Lodge, 9/25/15</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p></div><div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">“What a gift you are to this world.” - Allison Hodge (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/kalikscollective/">@kalikscollective</a>)</blockquote><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"This novel has me engrossed. The title alone set me into a completely compelling desire to get absorbed in the secrets of each page. Richard Power your words infuse my soul with Musings of the worlds unseen. I can’t seem to put this book down. Thank you for your honesty, your courage, your truth. I’m honored to know you." -- Alita Arose (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/alitaarose/">@alitaarose</a>)</blockquote><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"Yes, 'I, the Dragon' arrived just in time to begin savoring it in conjunction with blood blue moon. Which as we know is as it had to be. It is remarkable and anchoring and fracturing, all at once. A shard of reality in these illusion-filled times." -- Jennifer Ruth Keller (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/aplaceapart/">@aplaceapart</a>)</blockquote><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">“The book that I cannot put down and at the same time I have to put down to catch my breath. “The sands are spilling through the hourglass for all of us. There is a finite number of grains. Don't waste your time in this world." - Lalyn Curtis <a href="https://www.instagram.com/breathingskyhealingarts/">@breathingskyhealingarts</a></blockquote><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"Your words pierce my heart. Your exquisite words, You vast ocean! So much wisdom - all alchemized within." - Lauren Searles (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/loveangelcoach/">@loveangelcoach</a>)</blockquote></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>"Into the Sublime. A Must Read." - Terence Smith (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/Callmenadu/">@Callmenadu</a>) </p></blockquote><div><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfoKCaeQl4bttLvFMGoaT7vqcIs3AsiZetGFFLC1VlG1uDS21ze9Bxp3IXWGs7uS72_8XABdhIMxI4XNAiD0xmJ7kyyVohrdlKplnExqDchh-ngN7TC0GZLelRpUT9cjWMO3t949_YeivswgI_Mb5WAI3DiHaJo8_CciJk_69S1mNV1TgmgKk/s1800/766F1474-973B-44FF-9C55-43118EE0B38D.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1440" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfoKCaeQl4bttLvFMGoaT7vqcIs3AsiZetGFFLC1VlG1uDS21ze9Bxp3IXWGs7uS72_8XABdhIMxI4XNAiD0xmJ7kyyVohrdlKplnExqDchh-ngN7TC0GZLelRpUT9cjWMO3t949_YeivswgI_Mb5WAI3DiHaJo8_CciJk_69S1mNV1TgmgKk/w512-h640/766F1474-973B-44FF-9C55-43118EE0B38D.jpeg" width="512" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div>Emily Shurr is a gifted poet whose work I have encouraged. Her review of my book is itself a work of utter brilliance:<div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"A short review of I, THE DRAGON is like a week in Paris. Overwhelmed with beauty and majesty, art and revolution, with just enough squalor to keep it really real, you just have to hit the high points and promise to come back soon ..."</blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p> "It’s ecstatic, it’s bizarre, it’s frantic, it’s tender, it’s like Whitman gone wild ..."</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">“It takes the form of a complex chronicle … including a historic timeline of world events alternating with deeply personal narratives, often in footnotes that go on for pages. Our story begins with tales of horrific abuse and exquisite transcendence, told in waves and incantations. Statues and stones speak from across aeons, pouring the Presence of Archetypes into author and reader alike ... This is deep and high, this telling. This is a wild, precise, elegant rampage of the Goddess Herself through a single man’s life -- a man who has carried fire for the whole world ..."</blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">"These blessings are unending. Each one contains myriad others. They open into themselves in a fractellating way. So many, so thick, pouring like complex spiced honey, I obviously can’t address them all here. Tackling the nature of Evil, page 395. Obviously a gigantic topic, one which most professional ethicists actually avoid. How to access Grace in no uncertain (deeply uncertain) terms, page 400. A closing Feast with goddesses Grace and Gratitude, guests Anger and Bitterness, the 7 Beasts and the 5 Richards, page 404. Nothing like it in all of literature …”</blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2019/05/this-eden-does-not-tolerate-cowards_1.html">Full text of "This Eden Does Not Tolerate Cowards -- A Personal/Universal Review of Richard Power’s "I, THE DRAGON" (NSFW)" </a></blockquote><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnSyZK3Uh52TAbuq4oks1EfXKPsRF6O5SjwOwFt9JtyCf_LAKHvrgpPLdjhzvhlpzebny1d21dqc4oIJF-B7mCLZluRXz4Ax6Pilj1wym6dztWQ7pQ_P7RBdFeqTCCl2aIsx4GI74bV5nHeho3YaUJX4vDAh7W1OdHnHKl_qaeABCMbkavigI/s1081/Emerald_T_2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnSyZK3Uh52TAbuq4oks1EfXKPsRF6O5SjwOwFt9JtyCf_LAKHvrgpPLdjhzvhlpzebny1d21dqc4oIJF-B7mCLZluRXz4Ax6Pilj1wym6dztWQ7pQ_P7RBdFeqTCCl2aIsx4GI74bV5nHeho3YaUJX4vDAh7W1OdHnHKl_qaeABCMbkavigI/w640-h360/Emerald_T_2.jpg" width="580" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p> </p><p> </p></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-24062031947947492172023-03-27T15:08:00.012-07:002023-04-06T13:20:01.256-07:00Emerald Tablet: 21st Century Insights on Its True Nature and Meaning (SFTS, 3/26/23)<p> </p><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8uYNEntMiWa9EdOlqivSI4R8uMSxRMqUSbciZ8QcvRjrmB8-PKy7hPIuMc4PHcr6qqKLInaV0jEH4HC22z5d69mfQU1TW77sdgA5BaXad2VnPZx6Ef8LHi9cWDRI18fR3MfSrdnATEe7W9wiE4Of-QEICx_8zZdPsyUubrWGF7gaD0IvSCtc/s1081/Slide01.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8uYNEntMiWa9EdOlqivSI4R8uMSxRMqUSbciZ8QcvRjrmB8-PKy7hPIuMc4PHcr6qqKLInaV0jEH4HC22z5d69mfQU1TW77sdgA5BaXad2VnPZx6Ef8LHi9cWDRI18fR3MfSrdnATEe7W9wiE4Of-QEICx_8zZdPsyUubrWGF7gaD0IvSCtc/w640-h360/Slide01.jpeg" width="580" /></a></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/74gqARJwL7c">VIDEO: Emerald Tablet: 21st Century Insights on Its True Nature and Meaning (SFTS, 3/26/23</a>)</div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/74gqARJwL7c" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtaVUhlZwiM7PZ8RANA4bxYDeJIkGoUSWZE5t45ZJm_Z2oMtq-Md8BeZYRH9KO06D9LTevybid7eyALEy6TikcMzCr5WoyyZgWYbih7VmvwKnoKg7O8rUPrJkZygZVxWGE0cF0oUA2MgJZO4XSoImjG-TdjkZSiKt1txHUcfsVqjODNg9347Y/s1081/Slide07.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtaVUhlZwiM7PZ8RANA4bxYDeJIkGoUSWZE5t45ZJm_Z2oMtq-Md8BeZYRH9KO06D9LTevybid7eyALEy6TikcMzCr5WoyyZgWYbih7VmvwKnoKg7O8rUPrJkZygZVxWGE0cF0oUA2MgJZO4XSoImjG-TdjkZSiKt1txHUcfsVqjODNg9347Y/w640-h397/Slide07.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Emerald Tablet - Legend</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Tabula Smaragdina (Latin)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Lawḥ al-zumurrudh (Arabic)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (“Hermes the Thrice-Greatest”), aka Thoth</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">noun: demi-god</div></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">a being with partial or lesser divine status, such as a minor deity, the offspring of a god and a mortal, or a mortal raised to divine rank. – Oxford Languages</div></div></div></blockquote><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"> “…in Egyptian religion, a god of the moon, of reckoning, of learning, and of writing” - Encyclopedia of Britannica</div></div></blockquote><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">8th-9th Century - Arabic sources</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">12th-13th Century - Translated into Latin</div></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Earliest known version appeared in Apollonius of Tyana’s</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Sirr al-khalīqa wa-ṣanʿat al-ṭabīʿa (The Secret of Creation and the Art of Nature)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Apollonius was a Neo-Pythagorean, just as Plotinus was a Neo-Platonist</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A contemporary of Jesus and Buddha, he too performed numerous miracles.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Unlike Jesus and Buddha who chose to move among the poor and downtrodden, Apollonius chose to move among the upper classes, nevertheless, according to H.P. Blavatsky, “the three ‘miracle-workers’ exhibited striking similarity of purpose”</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">“His existence is surrounded with such a veil of mystery that he is often mistaken for a myth … It is quite true that this Sage, who stands unrivalled in his thaumaturgical powers to this day – on evidence historically attested – came from it, no one seems to know whither. But the reasons for this are evident. Every means was used – especially during the 4th and 5th centuries of our era --- to sweep from people’s minds the remembrance of this great and holy man.” – H.P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine, Vol. III</div></div></blockquote><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">According to Apollonius, he discovered a vault hidden below a statue of Hermes. Inside the vault, he found an old corpse on a golden throne. The corpse held the Emerald Tablet in its hands.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Much has been projected on to the Emerald Tablet over the centuries.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Medieval alchemists looked to it for the secrets of the Philosopher’s Stone.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Modern mystics and occultists have woven their world-views around the Tablet’s signature declaration, “As above, so below.”</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> “it is first and foremost and fundamentally an alchemical formula, relating both to the alchemy of the base metal and the divine alchemy of human regeneration” - Manly Palmer Hall, “Secret Teachings of All Ages”</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> The Emerald Tablet is only fourteen lines long.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In preparation for this talk, I compared and contrasted numerous translations and renderings, including those of the great Sir Isaac Newton, Theosophical Society founder H.P Blavatsky and Sufi author Idries Shah. The differences are mostly insignificant. The version I chose to use here is that of the early 20th Century French alchemist Fulcanelli (translated into English by Sieveking), Fulcanelli was the author of the brilliant “Mystery of the Cathedrals.” …</div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjamkKJleYuWZjT-uFv9IdAfLSLnx7RisVvUFOopfGDmXXhKcifPtF-MJUgKTAF1Jt_DIrmpLTBwTBF5Lp5pTwREBDbyLqUEeALqphuDJIFLIH_6CjJUerVhyt-1B2FMrIgcXZP3nwbW_whLsxe2hjGwVrNMfdsYCdbKaxoyXKG87l832RF6lE/s1081/Slide08.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjamkKJleYuWZjT-uFv9IdAfLSLnx7RisVvUFOopfGDmXXhKcifPtF-MJUgKTAF1Jt_DIrmpLTBwTBF5Lp5pTwREBDbyLqUEeALqphuDJIFLIH_6CjJUerVhyt-1B2FMrIgcXZP3nwbW_whLsxe2hjGwVrNMfdsYCdbKaxoyXKG87l832RF6lE/w640-h360/Slide08.jpeg" width="580" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div><br /></div><div><div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":1je"><div aria-controls=":1n1" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":1n1" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":1ja" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 363px;" tabindex="1"><b>Emerald Tablet – The One</b><br /><br /><div>“Above” and “below” are so limited and limiting. Even though this phrasing is healthier than that of the religionists who exalt “Heaven” and debase the so-called mundane world, this phrasing still warps and denigrates the meaning of the teaching it is meant to convey. This powerful truth is not about “Heaven” and “Earth.” They are not two. They are not separate. It’s not “Gods” and “Angels” above and “humans” and other “animals” below. And even though it says “as above, so below,” it’s still a separation that only exists in the human mind, you are not “a soul” in “a body,” you are not “here” now and going “there” after, they say “as” – it’s not “as” it’s “IS,”<br /><br />‘IS above IS below’ would really work better.<br /><br /> This phrasing is the old patriarchal paradigm repeated over and over. And no, the Sky is not “Masculine,” just because the Earth is “Feminine.” It’s a false correspondence.<br /><br />So in my rendering of the Emerald Tablet, I supplant “As above so below” with –<br /><br />The Microcosm is within the Macrocosm and the Macrocosm is within in the Microcosm.<br /><br />The next lines in this particular translation show a deeper understanding, so no strikethrough.<br /><br />“all things exist in and emanate from the ONE Who is the ultimate Cause, so all things are born after their kind from this ONE”<br /><br />Yes, indeed. Now who is this “ONE”?<br /><br /></div><div>Gaia is the Macrocosm, I am, you are, the Microcosm. The Ecosystem of the Planet, which is itself the Intelligence of the Planet, is the Macrocosm, my five bodies are the microcosm. All of it spirals upward and outward, downward and inward, SIMULTANEOUSLY. Gaia is the Microcosm, the Solar System is the Macrocosm. The Solar System is the Microcosm, the Galaxy is the Macrocosm, and on and on …</div><div><br /></div></div></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">For nearly the entire history of life on this planet, 85 percent of that history in fact, life consisted solely of of microorganisms. The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) for every life-form on this planet was bacterial. Again: The last universal common ancestor for every life-form on this planet was bacterial ... In fact, every life-form we see - again, every life-form, including you and me - is simply a modification of bacteria in a more complex form ... The Gaian ecosystem, the self-organized system that we know as Earth, came into being with the emergence of the global bacterial community. The bacterial community is still the foundation of the world. It is Gaia. It is the interconnected network of millions of bacterial biofilms, individual bacteria, and symbiogenenic, bacterially generated, complex life-forms that lies deep within the crust of the Earth (perhaps by as much as 5 kilometers), covers the surface of the planet, and extends at least 50 kilometers above the Earth's surface ... The original neural networks that are present in all bacteria and their communities have been expanded in both shape and extent over long time lines. All the living self-organized systems that we know of as life-forms contain neural networks based on the original neural network that emerged. And the neurochemicals that bacteria originally developed have been refined over long time lines and are now used by virtually every life-form that exists. Our neural network is only modification of an already extant neural reality that pervades the entire Earth ecosystem; it is only a specific instance of a general condition.This expansion of the neural net, in multiple forms, all interconnected, facilitates the intake and processing of environmental information at ever more sophisticated levels of the Gaian network as a whole. Each self-organized system, that is, each subset of the larger whole, possesses a drive to fulfill its ecological function within the whole, and each possesses a sophisticated neural network with which it gathers data about the local environment in which it exists. Each also possesses free will as to how it accomplishes its function and how it responds to environmental perturbations. Gaia does not use top-down control over the parts that make-up the whole. - Stephen Harrod Buhner, Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm</blockquote><div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBEc-NnIFTVTPHO7lNSZmgsdaYqLYdEj7jh3bK4cMvkcLVUKkid5L7SB2__1fWj7129I1dVOPunSkqu_uMvPLxqQZa88qHRIxdncedWhqwhNwDXUaCsdi5hHTt4hYIDBuvLxLQja3XsrYaF1OQ1YK1kvmMgAOENFinF3QM6p_VQjG2jX_bF0/s1081/Slide09.jpeg"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBEc-NnIFTVTPHO7lNSZmgsdaYqLYdEj7jh3bK4cMvkcLVUKkid5L7SB2__1fWj7129I1dVOPunSkqu_uMvPLxqQZa88qHRIxdncedWhqwhNwDXUaCsdi5hHTt4hYIDBuvLxLQja3XsrYaF1OQ1YK1kvmMgAOENFinF3QM6p_VQjG2jX_bF0/w640-h360/Slide09.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">Emerald Tablet - Sun & Moon<br /><br /></p><div><b>The Emerald Tablet - Sun and Moon</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Languaging is so important, so pivotal … Languaging impacts the stream of consciousness, if it’s off, if it’s unhealthy, it can warp a truth, it can flatten it out, make it brittle and thin, make it square, drain it of its Sakti … Esoteric, metaphysical, mystical, spiritual languaging concerning the Sun and the Moon offers vivid examples of this abuse … In all of the Table of Erroneous Correspondences, nothing is as egregious as the characterizations of the Sun and Moon as “Active and Receptive, Male and Female, Yang and Yin,” wrong, wrong, wrong … To anthropomorphize the Sun and the Moon into “Father” and “Mother” is patriarchal, sexist, Samsaric … it is trivializing and misleading .. </div><div><br />Consider the Sun …<br /><br /></div><div>26,000 light years from the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, the Sun holds the planets of this solar system in its thrall, pulling them with it as it circumambulates that galactic core.<br /><br /> At an average speed of 450,000 miles an hour, each circumambulation takes 230 million years.<br /><br />All the while, the Sun is delivering the heat and light that make life on Earth possible.<br /><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div>Noun: photosynthesis</div><div>the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct. – Oxford Languages</div><div><br /></div><div>“It would be impossible to overestimate the importance of photosynthesis in the maintenance of life on Earth. If photosynthesis ceased, there would soon be little food or other organic matter on Earth. Most organisms would disappear, and in time Earth’s atmosphere would become nearly devoid of gaseous oxygen. The only organisms able to exist under such conditions would be the chemosynthetic bacteria, which can utilize the chemical energy of certain inorganic compounds and thus are not dependent on the conversion of light energy.” - Britannica</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">“Sunlight kills bacteria. Many of us spend a lot of time indoors ... Sunlight may reduce high blood pressure ... Sunlight can regulate the immune system ... Sunlight strengthens bones ... Sunlight can improve sleep quality ... Sunlight boosts mood …” - GoodRx Health, 5/27/22</blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"> “Nothing is more important to us on Earth than the Sun. Without the Sun's heat and light, the Earth would be a lifeless ball of ice-coated rock. The Sun warms our seas, stirs our atmosphere, generates our weather patterns, and gives energy to the growing green plants that provide the food and oxygen for life on Earth.” - NASA</blockquote><div><br />And as for the Moon …<br /><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">“The Moon's radius is larger than a quarter of Earth's radius, a much larger ratio than most moons to their planets.” - Space.com</blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">“The brightest and largest object in our night sky, the Moon makes Earth a more livable planet by moderating our home planet's wobble on its axis, leading to a relatively stable climate. It also causes tides, creating a rhythm that has guided humans for thousands of years.” - NASA</blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"> “Earth's moon is vitally important in making Earth the planet we know today: the moon controls the length of the day and ocean tides, which affect the biological cycles of lifeforms on our planet. The moon also contributes to Earth's climate by stabilizing Earth's spin axis, offering an ideal environment for life to develop and evolve.” - The Week, 2/7/22</blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>Father and mother? Putting the gender stereotypes aside, even if it were a metaphor predicated on healthy parenting, your parents bring you into the world, then you grow up and live your life, you individuate, maybe at the end of theirs you help them out of this life just as they helped you in … But the Sun and the Moon, they did not just give birth to the world, and these mysteries, they are at the center of them moment by moment, sustaining it all, organizing it all at every level, now and ever since, and for as long as they endure, they are central to it all, and allow for the rise of Gaian Intelligence, they empower Gaia to paint her masterpieces upon the canvass of her own luminous flesh, yes …<br /><br /></div><div>So in my rendering of the Emerald Tablet, I supplant ““The Sun is the father and the Moon the mother …” with –<br /><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">Within the Cauldron of the Creatrix, the Yin and the Yang swirl ceaselessly, likewise the Yin within the Yang and the Yang within the Yin swirl ceaselessly. Feel all of this.</blockquote><div><div><br />The true alchemy of this living planet owes a lot to the Taoists –</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">Every whole "thing"--from a tree to a person to a business, an atom, planet, or universe--can be seen as a metaphorical Tai-Chi, with corresponding Yin and Yang aspects. Once Yin and Yang are distinguished, each one can also be seen as a whole and broken down further into its own integral Yin and Yang parts. We can see this creative process unfold all around us. The universal process of Being arising from Non-Being through the fusion of opposites, followed by the differentiation and increase of complexity from oneness to myriad forms, can be observed in the studies of modern cosmology, the evolution of species, the conception and development of individuals, and the arising of ideas ... - Simmone Kuo</blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"> “Yin and Yang are one vital force -- the primordial aura.” – Yangming Wang</blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><br /></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">“The motion of yin and yang generates all things in nature” - Meh Jiuzhang & Guo Lei</blockquote><div><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCIBfJdecFfdU1AkERo-S2qxtoAhs4RzOJIIGOcb9L2NZzOY3mFvzh2gYwfVs6y5cT1p49_K2hPOczoklj3068dWKV4uAx6fL-VijZLRIEAq-wyMQwKM9ql5s0a3hdPhq2emOhr3mZaa9O22LrxQRTjxjGYI9WVnBH_EBVoYvTgx0Dz4nMJVY/s1081/Slide10.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCIBfJdecFfdU1AkERo-S2qxtoAhs4RzOJIIGOcb9L2NZzOY3mFvzh2gYwfVs6y5cT1p49_K2hPOczoklj3068dWKV4uAx6fL-VijZLRIEAq-wyMQwKM9ql5s0a3hdPhq2emOhr3mZaa9O22LrxQRTjxjGYI9WVnBH_EBVoYvTgx0Dz4nMJVY/w640-h360/Slide10.jpeg" width="560" /></a></p><b>Emerald Tablet - Philosopher's Stone</b></div><div><br />Hajar al-Falāsifa (Arabic)<br />Lapis Philosophorum (Latin)<br /><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">“The alchemists believed that the universal formula contained in the Emerald Tablet was the basis for a spiritual technology first introduced on the planet in ancient Egypt more than 10,000 year ago. The formula consists of seven consecutive operations, performed on the ‘matter’ – whether it be of a physical, psychological, or spiritual nature.” – Dennis William Huack, The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation</div></blockquote><div><br />I looked up ‘Philosopher’s Stone” in the index to Manly Palmer Hall’s “Secret Teachings of All Ages,” I had to laugh. Among the numerous references, two in particular stood out.<br /><br />One entry read “Philosopher’s Stone contains all the powers of Nature CLVIII” Lol.<br /><br />You know what else “contains all the powers of Nature”? N-A-T-U-R-E! Nature Herself. Gaia.<br /><br />Another entry read “Philosopher’s Stone represented by Isis XLVII”<br /><br />Well, yes, but really it’s not “symbolism.” It would be more accurate to say “Isis is the Philosopher’s Stone, and the Philosopher’s Stone is Isis.”<br /><br />Isis, of course, being one of Gaia’s many divine disguises.<br /><br />Please don’t misunderstand me, “Secret Teachings of All Ages” is a marvelous tome, a rich resource, but the minds of white men from earlier centuries (even the 20th but especially the 19th) are utterly at a lost when it comes to the deep feminine mysteries of this planet.<br /><br />I find myself wanting to declare “This is the true alchemy of our living planet!” Because, well, it is. But I need to add a caveat, I am not saying this is the only true alchemy. There is the true alchemy of Carl Jung and his path of individuation. Jung’s encounter with the Emerald Tablet in particular, and his inquiry into alchemy as a whole, would be a talk unto itself, and such a meaningful one, there is the true alchemy of novelist Paolo Coehlo. In “The Alchemist,” he writes, “Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life.” The history of alchemy is vast and sprawling. There is Chinese alchemy, there is Indian alchemy, deep troves overflowing with treasures. There is a whole alternate, suppressed herstory of alchemy, Mary the Jewess is considered the first known alchemist. 200 CE. And, of course, here in this very Lodge, we honor the life and work of the legendary African American alchemist Light Devoy Edward Harris who left this plane of existence in December 2014. “L-I-G-H-T Light! S-O-U-N-D Sound! Light and Sound! Sound and Light! Light and Sound Sound and Light. L-I-G-H-T Light! S-O-U-N-D Sound!” Yes, there are many true alchemies! This talk is just a reflection on my encounter with the Emerald Tablet, it is what I feel to speak through these five bodies with my voice in my words, calibrated to our present circumstances. We are in the throes of this Planetary Emergency. Anthropogenic Climate Disruption and the Sixth Great Extinction pose an existential threat to civilization itself. And only through the Ascendancy of the Feminine and the spread of Eco-Feminism, in philosophy, psychology, mysticism and the arts, in politics, science and commerce. The arc of human evolution is leading us beyond patriarchy. Thus I say this is the true alchemy of our living planet.<br /><br />“The Tablet supposedly contains the secrets of alchemy and the recipe for the philosopher's stone, an artifact capable of giving its user eternal life.” – The Archaeologist: Civilizations of the World<br /><br />Well, yes, but …<br /><br />I suggest to you that the great Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) knew more than the men who came before her, more than the men of her time, and more than the men who came after her.<br /><br />And Hildegard wrote about what she called Vriditas, the “Green Flame,” the “Greening Force.”<br /><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">“O most honored Greening Force, You who roots in the Sun; You who lights up, in shining serenity, within a wheel that earthly excellence fails to comprehend. You are enfolded in the weaving of divine mysteries. You redden like the dawn and you burn; flame of the Sun.” - Hildegard of Bingen, “Causae et Curae”</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><br />In my rendition of the Emerald Tablet, I swap out the cryptic lines about alchemical operations involving four (of the five) elements, e.g., “… the wind carried it in his belly. Earth is its nurse and its guardian …” and I supplant it all with this –<br /><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">The Green Flame is the Emerald Tablet in ceaseless motion, the Emerald Tablet is the Green Flame in utter stillness. They occupy the same space. Within that space, every incarnation is lived and all karmas are played out. The Green Flame forges the Emerald Tablet. The Emerald Tablet fuels the Green Flame. Immerse yourself in this mystery and realize that you are a mystery within a mystery, a miracle within a miracle.</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Within Nirvana, Gaia is the Philosopher’s Stone. Within Samsara, the individuated being, the woke being, the being that has fallen awake, is the Philosopher’s Stone. And yes, Nirvana and Samsara occupy the same space. So that’s where it all is, what it all is, utterly INCOMPREHENSIBLE, utterly UNSPEAKABLE, and yet, we can know it and speak it …<br /><br />Worlds without End!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-55859252921598600962023-03-27T11:38:00.006-07:002023-03-27T15:12:43.706-07:00Gaian Poetics, Gaian Politics <div style="text-align: center;">VIDEO: Gaian Poetics, Gaian Politics (SFTS, 11/13/22)<strike>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tOnheDog9Ts" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>
<p><br /></p><p>[NOTE: On November 11, 2022, I was honored to speak at the closing reception for MPOWERDANCE Project's year long year long exhibition of MOTHERpeaceMOTHERwar at the Theosophical Society of San Francisco. It was a powerful event featuring dance p, art, music and spoken word. Here are a video recording and transcript of my remarks. - Richard Power]</p><p>#GaianPoetics #GaianPolitics</p><p>I was asked to speak about Climate Action and our Planetary Emergency. I have spoken and written a lot on this subject, and we have all been living through it in our own ways.</p><div style="text-align: left;">In my “Secret Engine of the World: Further Notes on Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution,” which I published in 2021, I articulated three deadlines that would define the next decade – for me and for anyone who resonates with my perspective.<br />The first two deadlines are the U.S. federal elections in 2022 and 2024, but we’re not going to go into any of that here tonight. The third of the three is kind of an arbitrary one that I set for the Climate Crisis, for the Climate Emergency, for the threat we face as a species, along with all of the other species that we have endangered with our genius and our foolishness. And that deadline is ten years after the publication of “Secret Engine,” so 2031.<br />I spent over 20 years trying to scare people about Climate Change, because that was the appropriate thing to do, to try to scare people in power so that they might come to understand what we were trying to tell them. Cassandra. Those with reasons not to listen do not listen. Of course, I was right, we were right, whatever. Now I find myself trying to calm people down. Not to reassure them at all, but to make people feel that there is hope. I am not talking about people in power now, I am talking about people in general, my friends and allies. I am trying to show There is some way forward. We’re talking about thirty or forty years here. It happened. It’s already underway. It’s no longer about trying to stop Climate Change, we are in its throes now, we can see the floods that are more than floods, the droughts that are more than droughts, the fires that are more than fires, the storms that are more than storms. The death of the soil. The places in which the temperature is becoming uninhabitable. The melting poles. The glaciers that feed the Ganges. We can see it all around us. So It’s happening. But there is still a narrow window in which humankind can make some course corrections and mitigate the worst impacts, the worst consequences, of what we have unleashed. So there are in this moment, in the month, in this week, there are encouraging trends in the world, and there haven’t been many times when we could say this. One encouraging development is that the Congress of the United States passed the Biden administration’s massive climate action as part of an even larger piece of legislation that is now law. Hundreds of billions. Desperately needed. Designated for truly meaningful climate action. Now is it enough? Of course it’s not enough. But it’s the most that’s ever been passed, it will be the most that’s ever been spent in the history of the world. It’s a turning point. We’ve gone from “Is Climate Change real?” and “Yes, it is!” to “Are we doing enough?” and “No, we’re not doing enough.” That’s a different conversation. That’s a healthier conversation to have. So that’s a big shift for this country. And at the same time, in the Brazilian elections, Bolisnaro, a huge climate denier and enabler of predatory capitalism in terms of deforesting the Amazon, LOST, and the incoming Lula administration is committed to climate action, and in fact the incoming President Lula is working with the leaders of Indonesia and the Congo, and they’re going to form a “Rainforest OPEC” to leverage their power – because they control most of the rainforest in the world, and those are the lungs of Gaia. They’re going to try to dictate terms rather than the other way around. This is a big shift. These are not insignificant steps forward. And right now in Cairo, COP27 is meeting. Don’t look necessarily for anything much more to come out of all the talking and the speechifying, but just know there is a shift going on in the world, and we are part of that shift. Well, actually, there was one bold, significant stride forward at COP27: “Deal on compensation for climate impacts represents major milestone for climate justice. The 27th UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) has ended with an historic deal to create a new fund, in which countries responsible for high carbon emissions will compensate vulnerable countries suffering from climate impacts” (The Lancet, 12/8/22)<br />I am laughing because the President stopped by COP27 on his way to the G20, and he said in his speech: “The science is devastatingly clear; we have to make vital progress by the end of this decade. That's why the United States is rallying the world around climate game changers." <br />So I just want to say that President Biden and I are on the same page, and that the page is from this book, “Secret Engine of the World.”<br />Because in that speech, he said “by the end of this decade.”<br />That’s the first time in these DECADES, where I could say any POTUS and I were on the same page literally in terms of the dwindling number of years we have left to make sufficient impact.<br />Now we’re going to jump to Aristotle. S-Q-U-A-R-E. Both Aristotle and Plato were pretty square. The Pre-Platonic Philosophers (e.g., Heraclitus) and the Neo-Platonists (e.g., Plotinus) were/are much more interesting to me and relevant to our circumstances.<br />But in Aristotle wrote Poetics in 335 BC and Politics in 350 BC. And they sit there in all of the university libraries. Everyone bows to them. Hardly anyone reads them, of course, or references them, because, well, Aristotle is so square. But they are foundational to the story that western civilization tells about itself, as it goes forward from ancient Greece.<br />So these two tomes are there at the beginning of the long arc that brought so much - from the Sistine chapel to the Hubble telescope, from Illuminated manuscripts in Irish monasteries to global communications through social media on your iPhone, from Beethoven’s 5th to the life-saving science of vaccines, but this is life, there is both evolution and devolution, so of course the story of these two thousand years also includes pathologies – oligarchy, patriarchy, misogyny, racism, predatory capitalism, authoritarianism, weapons of mass destruction and yes, overshadowing all of them Anthropogenic Climate Disruption. Have you ever heard that term? That’s actually a more accurate, technically precise term than Climate Change or Global Warming. In the sense that humans have done this. Not a volcano, not a comet, not some nonsense about “natural cycles of cooling and warming.” No, no, this was us! We did this. And we didn’t just do this with the burning of fossil fuels, although that’s a huge piece of it – we also did it with deforestation, with overpopulation, and with our appetite for meat mass produced through industrialized agriculture, I would say those are the big four contributing factors.<br />So here we are. The genius that was unleashed across that long arc has so far outdistanced our sanity and our conscience that we are destroying the very balance, the global climate, that this civilization is predicated upon, by punching holes in it and jacking up the heat. Here we are in this moment. At this crossroads..<br />In the midst of this must-win ten year stretch.<br />This is how, in the course of writing the first of these three books, “Wyrds of Power” (actually five books all together in one volume), I coined the phrases “Gaian Poetics” and “Gaian Politics.” OK, Aristotle, step aside, we need new ways to think about our languaging and our governance.<br />By Gaian Poetics I don't mean writing about the beauty of "Nature" although of course that's wonderful, and a part of it, and always to be done.<br />By Gaian Politics, I don't mean activism or environmentalism, although of course that's a vital, critical, absolutely essential aspect.<br />I’m talking about something else. Most important, by Gaian Poetics and Gaian Politics, I mean an internal shift within us, within each of us.<br />Gaia isn't a goddess whose world this is, She isn’t a statue, She isn’t something we pray to, She isn’t some anthropomorphized “Divine Being” who has rulership over this planet, Gaia IS this planet we are not Gaia’s children, we are Gaia’s cells, we’re not Gaia’s “stewards,” I know they mean well but whenever people start talking about being “stewards” of Nature I get very uncomfortable, because that’s this madness, the human pathologies got started, you are not the “stewards” of anything, you are the cells of one vast planetary being.<br />The true Oneness is our life within Her, science and shamanism are seeing the same reality now. We are not Gaia’s children, we are not Her stewards, we are a part of her. The planet, Gaia, is alive, sentient, a self-organizing intelligence, we all exist within that being, we are all cells of Her body, every creature, every plant, every stone, every river, the seas, the atmosphere.<br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">Sentience is in some ways the mystery of mysteries</div><div style="text-align: left;">Gaia dreams her world-dream. And within her world-dream, she dreams the whales dreaming their world-dreams, and the humans dreaming their world-dreams. Yes, our world-dreams are utterly dependent upon hers, they arise within hers, and they are re-absorbed into hers. Likewise the world-dreams of the tree frogs, the world-dreams of the salmon, the world-dreams of the madrones, the world-dreams of the emeralds. Gaia herself is a sentient being and ALL life on the planet has its existence within her, all life here is composed of her, sustained by her, and reabsorbed into her.</div><div style="text-align: left;">This isn’t only a shamanic truth, this is a scientific truth.</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">OK, so stay with me here, every once in a while, not often, but now and then, our friend, the legendary American sage Joe Miller would say something like this:<br />“At some future time and place, we'll have grown to a stature where our bodies can be an entire planet and all the humanity the same as the particles within our physical bodies now. We'll know about all that when the life itself is love. Love and life are one.” (Joe Miller, Great Song, p. 53)<br />He's saying on this arc of human evolution, assuming we don’t go the other way, we can evolve into celestial beings. Meaning not some anthropomorphic goddess or god, no, the actual intelligence of a planet or a star, a different order of intelligence, completely inhuman, incomprehensible to the human mind. We can only project what we know. We evolve into these different realms of intelligence.<br />I see this view of Joe’s as very relevant to the science of Gaia that is coming out from brilliant thinkers like Stephen Jay Buhner and James Lovelock (as problematic as he can be).<br />In Plant Intelligence, Buhner writes, “… that the world is alive, intelligent, aware, communicative and filled with soul; that we are not alone; that we are part of something much larger than ourselves; that we are companioned by millions and millions of related life-forms; and that the dead mechanical world we have been taught about in school does not exist and never has.” <br />Gaia is a divine intelligence, a self-organizing being of divine intelligence. And we are all part of that. This is why the Japanese talk about “forest-bathing.” This is why we feel so renewed when we enter into a true forest. This is like a sorceress stirring a tonic for you to drink, that’s what a forest is. So that’s on the arc for each of us if we go deeper and deeper into the nature of reality.<br />To deal with our current planetary and national emergencies, we have to tap into our Gaian Poetics and our Gaian Politics. Gaian Poetics is when the words are informed by Her from the inside out, Gaian Politics is when our governance philosophy is informed by Her from the inside out.<br />What do I mean by Gaian Politics? Well, the “Founding Fathers” modeled the U.S. Constitution selectively on the Iroquois federation’s “Great Law of Peace.” They took a few very good ideas from it, but conveniently left out other very good ideas. It’s time now, way past time really, to embrace more of that wisdom medicine.<br />For example, it was a matriarchy. Their Senate was composed of the Grandmothers. They could remove the Chief if they didn’t approve of his actions. And in the process of making important governance decisions, they pondered the impacts and consequences seven generations into the future.<br />Can the governing principles be grounded in altruism? Can our governing principles be grounded in sustainability? Can we be guided by those two overarching imperatives, altruism and sustainability?<br />I will close with one more reading, this one from “Secret Engine” –<br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">Gaia is a Mistress of Disguises. She has a safe deposit box in the Central Bank of the Cosmos. She has stashed many passports under fabricated identities, from “Tara” to “Zeus” to “Isis” to “Thor.” She has stashed bundles of cash in all the world’s currencies. She has stashed pouches of brilliant diamonds and fat bricks of gold and platinum. This treasure allows her to cross any border and do business in any country. Her true identity is the Earth itself. She is the Divine Intelligence of the planet.</div><div style="text-align: left;">All life thriving within the thin sheath of atmosphere she has spun around this globe is hers. We not only “live and move and have our being” in her, our “being” itself is hers, we are her at the cellular level, we are the strands of her hair, the drops of her blood, we are her very embodiment, every tree, ever mountain, every human, every whale, every insect, every mushroom, every cloud, every mongoose, every body of water, every forest, everything and at every order of magnitude, from microcosm to macrocosm, all of this. Hers. Our sentience. The Chi that animates us. All of this is literally her.</div><div style="text-align: left;">For those of us in human incarnation, there are many paths. In one sense, there are as many paths as there are beings. The pathless path is the truest, and all of the other paths empty out into it before the end.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Life. Not beyond life. Not life after death. Life. This world. Not some other world. Not the next world. This world. But not a dream of this life, not a dream of this world, no, the reality of it all. Here and now. From before and beyond. And always on, ON, and ON …</div><div style="text-align: left;">Gaia, Sakti, Lilith, Dark Goddess, Durga Ma, Madonna, Isis, so many names for the Divine Intelligence, revealing herself ceaselessly.</div><div style="text-align: left;">To celebrate her, to serve her, embodied as she is in life and the world, this is our true purpose. To feast on her, and be fed to her.</div><div style="text-align: left;">This is the pathless path. To alleviate or at least mitigate suffering</div><div style="text-align: left;">To see clearly what is, to discern the reality of what is, and so live and move FREELY. This is true story of it all. To know her, we must know ourselves. To know ourselves, we must know her …</div><div style="text-align: left;">Each atom is a temple of her celebration. Each strand of hair. Each cell. Each leaf. Each drop of rain. Each blossom. Each pool of molten lava. East wasp nest. Each coconut. Each tortoise. Each hunk of amethyst. Each heap of yak dung. Each glacier. Each of the five bodies that constitute every single human incarnation. All are temples in which she is celebrated ceaselessly, simply by being fully and truly ourselves. She is the Divine Intelligence within all of this. And there is a unique architecture for each class of these seemingly infinite temples. To know ourselves is to know her.</div></blockquote><p></p><div></div><p></p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-21500494540837853962022-10-25T16:46:00.439-07:002022-11-07T14:41:45.164-08:00"Secret Engine" Update #5 (10/25/22): What You Need to Know As We Hurdle Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTps3Cp2zRASsPKcz8MZuJpCqICLwNKPQbUW82hoqZxO12jh_uHWZI-uAljrwxwzgKAyeYsF9IBHBA8ACHENm5L68ThsTomwQeNjAqFrdZm2DutpMVlNz89vPi4F_jD7mt1NmoYRqxnpSsL7--322wVwBN7tlv4YYl8XxIGGKEn0e6cbDU6FU/s1081/Slide01.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTps3Cp2zRASsPKcz8MZuJpCqICLwNKPQbUW82hoqZxO12jh_uHWZI-uAljrwxwzgKAyeYsF9IBHBA8ACHENm5L68ThsTomwQeNjAqFrdZm2DutpMVlNz89vPi4F_jD7mt1NmoYRqxnpSsL7--322wVwBN7tlv4YYl8XxIGGKEn0e6cbDU6FU/w640-h360/Slide01.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><p style="text-align: right;"></p><div>An orc assassination attempt on the Speaker of the House of Representatives. 2nd in line of succession. Most powerful female political leader in U.S. history. Have you voted? Do u understand where we are? Or have you chosen delusion & denial?<br /><br />“There r more of us.” More who want abortion rights, more who want gun control, more who want climate action, more who want to protect voting rights.<br /><br />If we lose the House, it will be because of gerrymandering and dark money. If we lose the Senate, it will be because of dark money & the mainstream news media’s normalization of insane, dangerous candidates.</div><div><br /></div>We must embrace the reality that the majority want sanity & decency & yet at the same time prepare ourselves, inwardly, for a potential second Civil War, one in which we will the U.S. Federal government and those states loyal to the union must confront the Neo-Confederacy and its sympathizers. Because even though we are in the majority (by a lot), the system is skewed for minority rule i.e. white male privilege, patriarchy & oligarchy. Unmoored from reality & contemptuous of our democratic institutions, the Death Eater overlords and the Orc legions seek to impose racist & misogynistic oppression & remove any and all governmental constraints on predatory capitalism. <div><div><br />This United Front for Sanity & Decency can only be overcome if it fails itself. Do not succumb to despair. Do not choose delusion or denial. “There is no hiding place down here,” as the African-American spiritual declares. You must choose sides & fight.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBZejxam-XrIvgEuUDo5teX2e093a1BNeifiOPGOLINFPQBcwqdGAJ4WEm3qjTNyQOf67wKJJUztka7mmPAs6ygyc9eQUW_n2a_IrE6_9XQ6WpdxBSWJHwKG8XHeUNcjrYUzWNSUG55qW_Z108pXWGObe14DlOCO0xFxMHM_Ddclg7FcLUIsc/s1081/Slide02.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBZejxam-XrIvgEuUDo5teX2e093a1BNeifiOPGOLINFPQBcwqdGAJ4WEm3qjTNyQOf67wKJJUztka7mmPAs6ygyc9eQUW_n2a_IrE6_9XQ6WpdxBSWJHwKG8XHeUNcjrYUzWNSUG55qW_Z108pXWGObe14DlOCO0xFxMHM_Ddclg7FcLUIsc/s600/Slide02.jpeg" width="600" /></a></div> <div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/Atx4wYNnkMA">VIDEO: "Secret Engine" Update #5: What You Need to Know As We Hurtle<br /> Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Atx4wYNnkMA" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">These are my notes for the talk. I post them here in the hope that they might be useful to you for your own clarity and in your efforts to engage other voters.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div>All of the images included in the first of these five presentation were from tweets related to Russia's genocidal attack on Ukraine. The images I selected were all of women, women journalists, women in the military, civilian women casualties. Why? Because victory in this war is vital for the future of the West and of democracy and because the leadership of women is vital for the future of all life on this planet. The images included in all four subsequent presentation are also of women (except for two slides, lol); the women whose images I share in this presentation are all agents of the Ascendant Feminine, whether in the United States, or Ukraine, or Belarus or Russia itself, or from Africa or Iran. </div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, it is all one struggle, one great conflict, one shining portal to step through into a real future.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3g237UWuDhuDaApoK6fv3d4TTjUl_0BFtWTaflrLNOfwJ9MMuKKEnheEkmmKjbi1JZ5rofC8-yXRqIR17Q-OP5BpySNwlnznDy2jumZMp36isJEz5ZOGHgGsZYe7wMIYrkAv_OdIQhez4XxdfiPxbsegB5L80iweKMx9Oe_VM3XVWWxjN-YI/s1081/Slide03.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3g237UWuDhuDaApoK6fv3d4TTjUl_0BFtWTaflrLNOfwJ9MMuKKEnheEkmmKjbi1JZ5rofC8-yXRqIR17Q-OP5BpySNwlnznDy2jumZMp36isJEz5ZOGHgGsZYe7wMIYrkAv_OdIQhez4XxdfiPxbsegB5L80iweKMx9Oe_VM3XVWWxjN-YI/w640-h360/Slide03.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>1st of 3</b></div><br /><div>These five talks are focused on this year's mid-term elections in the United States, the first of the three deadlines I outlined in "Secret Engine of the World." These three deadlines are either doom-defying or doom-defining, depending upon outcomes. It is truly up to us, by us I mean what I call the United Front for Sanity and Decency (Left, Liberal, Center and True Conservative).</div><br /><div>For SCIENCE. For HUMAN RIGHTS. For GAIA. For SANITY and DECENCY.</div><br /><div>Three Deadlines -</div></div><div><ul><li>2022: U.S. Mid-Term Elections</li><li>2024: U.S. Presidential Elections</li><li>2031: Climate Apocalypse?</li></ul><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyu_bi7hRvonT983xCnx4UPkQuSYVGPc-UoE0Jud8TYHzgkO_1uIxVG6C53oG_8R5a8-_lROdz3ppCt0QIXjPu88s245Rk-Vi9xTElIaPTyb4PgeSRIxur4qh9BTQs9EgZZ1RD6PNfN1oWVGuZArfd-WKcvdQp_eq9R63zoE_SeYpyu0u1X68/s1081/Slide04.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyu_bi7hRvonT983xCnx4UPkQuSYVGPc-UoE0Jud8TYHzgkO_1uIxVG6C53oG_8R5a8-_lROdz3ppCt0QIXjPu88s245Rk-Vi9xTElIaPTyb4PgeSRIxur4qh9BTQs9EgZZ1RD6PNfN1oWVGuZArfd-WKcvdQp_eq9R63zoE_SeYpyu0u1X68/w640-h360/Slide04.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div><p></p><p><b>The Facts on the Ground</b></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: left;">Planetary Emergencies</li><ul><li style="text-align: left;">Climate Collapse</li><ul><li style="text-align: left;">Pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions will lead to global heating of 2.5C, a level that would condemn the world to catastrophic climate breakdown, according to the United Nations. Only a handful of countries have strengthened their commitments substantially in the last year, despite having promised to do so at the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow last November. Deeper cuts are needed to limit temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, which would avoid the worst ravages of extreme weather. Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, said: “This does not go far enough, fast enough. This is nowhere near the scale of reductions required to put us on track to 1.5C. National governments must set new goals now and implement them in the next eight years.” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/26/current-emissions-pledges-will-lead-to-catastrophic-climate-breakdown-says-un">- Fiona Harvey, Current emissions pledges will lead to catastrophic climate breakdown, says UN, Guardian</a></li></ul><li style="text-align: left;">Pandemic</li><ul><li>MSNBC: Responding to news of police investigating bizarre, hateful flyers that mix anti-Semitism with Covid conspiracies, Dr. Fauci talks with Alex Wagner about "the normalization of untruths" as being more worrisome to him than personal attacks from Republican politicians. <a href="https://youtu.be/pVpqRLfirCM">'The Normalization Of Untruths' Worries Dr. Fauci More Than GOP Threats"</a> (See video below)</li></ul></ul><li style="text-align: left;">The Big Lie, 1/6 & Beyond</li><ul><li>"Perpetuating the big lie is an attack on the core of our constitutional republic ... Trump is the spark but the Republicans are the oxygen. There is no slide to autocracy without Republicans.” - <a href="https://youtu.be/5Q1d3EyTxu8">Nicolle Wallace, MSNBC</a></li></ul></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: left;">Ukraine</li><ul><li style="text-align: left;">“Ukrainians have made significant gains during the last weeks and months. And this is of course, a great example of the bravery, the courage of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a press conference following a meeting with Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca on Oct. 26. He assured that the Alliance is ready to support Ukraine for as long as it takes. “We cannot allow President Putin to win,” Stoltenberg stressed. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://euromaidanpress.com/2022/10/26/nato-will-not-allow-putin-to-win-war-against-ukraine-stoltenberg/&source=gmail&ust=1666922491627000&usg=AOvVaw2Wx7yeOg9ST7IafPOU1zK5" href="https://euromaidanpress.com/2022/10/26/nato-will-not-allow-putin-to-win-war-against-ukraine-stoltenberg/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" target="_blank">- EuroMaiden Press, "NATO will not allow Putin to win war against Ukraine – Stoltenberg"</a></li></ul></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: left;">Guns & Abortion</li><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/brianklaas/status/1586013743749947392?s=20&t=aDGH9pYZ4PMzDajOtmc3xQ" style="color: #1155cc;">Brian Klaas (@brianklaas):</a> 5x the population. 692x more gun homicides. This is a policy choice. It’s that simple. Republicans have made a policy choice that inevitably leads to mass slaughter.<br /><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail-css-1dbjc4n" style="align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; z-index: 0;"><div class="gmail-css-1dbjc4n gmail-r-1habvwh" style="align-items: flex-start; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; z-index: 0;"></div><div class="gmail-css-1dbjc4n" style="align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; z-index: 0;"><div class="gmail-css-1dbjc4n gmail-r-1s2bzr4" style="align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 12px 0px 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; z-index: 0;"><div class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-r-18jsvk2 gmail-r-37j5jr gmail-r-1blvdjr gmail-r-16dba41 gmail-r-vrz42v gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-bnwqim gmail-r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="gmail-id__adklb4azxu7" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><span face="TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="font-size: 23px; height: 1.2em; margin-left: 0.075em; margin-right: 0.075em; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 1.2em;"><img alt="🇺🇸" class="gmail-r-4qtqp9 gmail-r-dflpy8 gmail-r-sjv1od gmail-r-zw8f10 gmail-r-10akycc gmail-r-h9hxbl" src="https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f1fa-1f1f8.svg" style="display: inline-block; height: 1.2em; margin-left: 0.075em; margin-right: 0.075em; vertical-align: -20%; width: 1.2em;" /></span></span><span class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" color="inherit" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">Pop. 330 million</span></div><div class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-r-18jsvk2 gmail-r-37j5jr gmail-r-1blvdjr gmail-r-16dba41 gmail-r-vrz42v gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-bnwqim gmail-r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="gmail-id__adklb4azxu7" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><span class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" color="inherit" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;"></span><span face="TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="font-size: 23px; height: 1.2em; margin-left: 0.075em; margin-right: 0.075em; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 1.2em;"><img alt="🇬🇧" class="gmail-r-4qtqp9 gmail-r-dflpy8 gmail-r-sjv1od gmail-r-zw8f10 gmail-r-10akycc gmail-r-h9hxbl" src="https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f1ec-1f1e7.svg" style="display: inline-block; height: 1.2em; margin-left: 0.075em; margin-right: 0.075em; vertical-align: -20%; width: 1.2em;" /></span></span><span class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" color="inherit" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">Pop. 65 million</span></div><div class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-r-18jsvk2 gmail-r-37j5jr gmail-r-1blvdjr gmail-r-16dba41 gmail-r-vrz42v gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-bnwqim gmail-r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="gmail-id__adklb4azxu7" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><span class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" color="inherit" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;"></span><span face="TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="font-size: 23px; height: 1.2em; margin-left: 0.075em; margin-right: 0.075em; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 1.2em;"><img alt="🇺🇸" class="gmail-r-4qtqp9 gmail-r-dflpy8 gmail-r-sjv1od gmail-r-zw8f10 gmail-r-10akycc gmail-r-h9hxbl" src="https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f1fa-1f1f8.svg" style="display: inline-block; height: 1.2em; margin-left: 0.075em; margin-right: 0.075em; vertical-align: -20%; width: 1.2em;" /></span></span>Gun homicides (2020): 19,380<span class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" color="inherit" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;"> </span></div><div class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-r-18jsvk2 gmail-r-37j5jr gmail-r-1blvdjr gmail-r-16dba41 gmail-r-vrz42v gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-bnwqim gmail-r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="gmail-id__adklb4azxu7" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><span face="TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="font-size: 23px; height: 1.2em; margin-left: 0.075em; margin-right: 0.075em; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 1.2em;"><img alt="🇬🇧" class="gmail-r-4qtqp9 gmail-r-dflpy8 gmail-r-sjv1od gmail-r-zw8f10 gmail-r-10akycc gmail-r-h9hxbl" src="https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f1ec-1f1e7.svg" style="display: inline-block; height: 1.2em; margin-left: 0.075em; margin-right: 0.075em; vertical-align: -20%; width: 1.2em;" /></span></span><span class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" color="inherit" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">Gun homicides (2020): 28 </span></div><br /></div></div></div></div></li></ul></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/pVpqRLfirCM">'The Normalization Of Untruths' Worries Dr. Fauci More Than GOP Threats"</a></div><div allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" dr.="" fauci="" frameborder="0" gop="" he="" height="315" iframe="" more="" normalization="" of="" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pVpqRLfirCM" style="text-align: center;" than="" threats="" title="YouTube video player" untruths="" width="560" worries=""></div></div></div></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pVpqRLfirCM" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJOu8VB8Fo9FWzJOjTAXHUAO1xgWdy6ZUHOn29FoF_or0DMmzIQXKxEUY2jSxg7Vw_5wX8GZfTvGXLbrX37VH5uq9grRIWYz18D0sP46TswkT9GrEvKrMijikacr2clnaEIIVFRTbzhsXlzHQxFrdwe2HNW1sEBu2eKNXp0Qu30Ggu6ZaCeBs/s1081/Slide05.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJOu8VB8Fo9FWzJOjTAXHUAO1xgWdy6ZUHOn29FoF_or0DMmzIQXKxEUY2jSxg7Vw_5wX8GZfTvGXLbrX37VH5uq9grRIWYz18D0sP46TswkT9GrEvKrMijikacr2clnaEIIVFRTbzhsXlzHQxFrdwe2HNW1sEBu2eKNXp0Qu30Ggu6ZaCeBs/w640-h360/Slide05.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><p></p><p><b>Peter Thiel & the Billionaires, Bane of the Republic </b></p><p>In the third update, I told you about Leonard Leo and his $1.6 billion radical right-wing war chest and of radical right-wing billionaire John Malone taking control of CNN and German industrialist Axel Springer taking control of Politico.com, in the fourth update, I told you about Elon Musk coming up with $44 billion to take control of Twitter, in this fifth and final update, consider radical right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel's investment of tens of millions of dollars in a GQP takeover of the Senate:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The German-born investor and tech entrepreneur, a Silicon Valley “disrupter” who helped found PayPal alongside Elon Musk and made his fortune as one of the earliest investors in Facebook, has catapulted himself into the top ranks of the mega-donor class by pouring close to $30m into this year’s midterm elections. He’s not merely favoring one party over another, but is supporting candidates who deny the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s election as president and have, in their different ways, called for the pillars of the American establishment to be toppled entirely. Thiel’s priorities this midterm cycle have partly aligned with those of Donald Trump, with whom he has had an on-again, off-again relationship since writing him a $1.25m check during the 2016 presidential campaign. Thiel, like Trump, has made it his business to end the careers of what he calls “the traitorous 10”, Republican House members who voted to impeach Trump in the wake of the January 6 insurrection. Four of these members opted not to run for re-election at all, and four more, including Liz Cheney, the vice-chair of the House committee investigating January 6, went down in the primaries. But there are also signs that Thiel is thinking around and beyond the former president. The lion’s share of his largesse – $28m and counting – has been directed towards two business proteges who, with his help, have established themselves as gadfly rightwing darlings: JD Vance, the best-selling author of the blue-collar memoir Hillbilly Elegy, who is running for Senate in Ohio, and Blake Masters, a self-styled “anti-progressive” and anti-globalist who is running for Senate in Arizona. Over the past decade, ever since the supreme court dramatically loosened the rules of political campaign giving in its Citizens United decision, Thiel has placed sizable bets on candidates who are not only conservative but have sought to challenge longstanding institutional traditions and break the Republican party’s own norms ... Thiel himself opined as far back as 2009 that he no longer believed democracy to be compatible with freedom and expressed “little hope that voting will make things better” ... Steve Bannon, Trump’s ultra-right campaign manager and political strategist, told a Thiel biographer: “Peter’s idea of disrupting government is out there.” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/15/peter-thiel-who-is-he-republican-donor-tech-entrepreneur">- Andrew Gumbel, Peter Thiel’s midterm bet: the billionaire seeking to disrupt America’s democracy, Guardian </a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/RBReich/status/1582781480228425728?s=20&t=39T4bJUcvxvXFlT59KsqKw">Robert Reich (@RBReich):</a> Peter Thiel has poured nearly $30M into the midterms — backing his personal protégés JD Vance and Blake Masters. Nike co-founder Phil Knight is throwing millions into Oregon's governor race — siphoning votes from Democrats. Billionaires are shaping our elections to their whims.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/1583639471655833601?s=20&t=39T4bJUcvxvXFlT59KsqKw">Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew):</a> These are the top 5 corporate contributors to election deniers running for federal and state offices: <br />1. Koch Industries, $629,000 <br />2. AT&T, $619,500 <br />3. Home Depot, $544,500 <br />4. UPS, $441,100 <br />5. Boeing, $427,500</li></ul></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdBzsE_0D_bRR1rZKY6nioxZ3xUUOGMHTuvds0u82Whp-kSkJqtJsiMIUH_IxLF0WZPFP6Id3tDQHE0AnROIgWT0BkP9hcK71T3V4_PZEJDvsxjI91pfBaapz_6nc_BW_UjU0h0plu12UiY4tOOT4RuGgqnmcPF7JmUR0KUVberU-S-Ab0oo8/s1081/Slide06.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdBzsE_0D_bRR1rZKY6nioxZ3xUUOGMHTuvds0u82Whp-kSkJqtJsiMIUH_IxLF0WZPFP6Id3tDQHE0AnROIgWT0BkP9hcK71T3V4_PZEJDvsxjI91pfBaapz_6nc_BW_UjU0h0plu12UiY4tOOT4RuGgqnmcPF7JmUR0KUVberU-S-Ab0oo8/w640-h360/Slide06.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div><div><div><br /></div><div><b>In the Palace of Mirrors ...</b></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/gregpinelo/status/1583832080752201728">Greg Pinelo (@gregpinelo):</a> There's something sinister about all these stories of Republicans gaining momentum. Every time voters have actually gone to the polls since the Roe decision, Democrats have out-performed. Early vote numbers, which typically favor Dems, are breaking records...<br />If Democrats prevail in midterms, then "GOP surging" stories are going to fuel election denialism. "What happened? We were winning, look at all these polls and stories! Democrats stole it!" Republicans will throw gas on the fire for 2022. Media is killing democracy for clicks.<br />Every pollster is sampling conservatively. There is no historical norm for an election held on the heels of half the electorate being relegated to second-class citizenship. No one knows what turnout of women will look like. All I know is Kansas.<br />This election is no longer about persuasion. It's about the composition of the electorate. If there is a Kansas effect (doesn't have to be as huge), Dems will shock the world. If turnout of women is within historical norms and white women vote GOP at typical rates, we lose.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/matthewjdowd/status/1585335294618107904?s%3D20%26t%3DTW14aFQYFZX7X5Y_qMI-iA&source=gmail&ust=1667184344445000&usg=AOvVaw20COVt1WNaw3KMZsM5i2aG" href="https://twitter.com/matthewjdowd/status/1585335294618107904?s=20&t=TW14aFQYFZX7X5Y_qMI-iA" target="_blank">Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd):</a> Too many in the news media and pundits/analysts jumped on growing gop support way too quickly as I have said. Three new national polls out in last 24 hours show Dem generic ballot lead at 4 points. [Tweeted 10/26/22]</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/embedded-video/mmvo151676997734" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>"></a><a href="<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/embedded-video/mmvo151676997734" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>">Lawrence on what was actually 'painful to watch' in Fetterman-Oz debate</a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;">MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell explains why the “painful to watch” reaction to<br /> Pennsylvania’s Senate debate between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz ignores<br /> the history of illness & disability in the Senate and White House.</div><div style="text-align: center;"> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/A2y6hxPgFdw" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
</div><div><br /><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTYMx3L6r4NHICMmDaPaKMaQwH-Lx231cAgcAe36QkKRa1ezObiO3stTJDKgBGyLBfgj_jYmgrCMU1eRdJSRaeiwV6R54JO1SQaeugl_G0r57qIRSi1Ii09K4yWKZi78fUj_4xliGAf8VBdkpOJg1v48cJsoevlW0TI4sL7BoBrFEQFUZoT8c/s1081/Slide07.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTYMx3L6r4NHICMmDaPaKMaQwH-Lx231cAgcAe36QkKRa1ezObiO3stTJDKgBGyLBfgj_jYmgrCMU1eRdJSRaeiwV6R54JO1SQaeugl_G0r57qIRSi1Ii09K4yWKZi78fUj_4xliGAf8VBdkpOJg1v48cJsoevlW0TI4sL7BoBrFEQFUZoT8c/w640-h360/Slide07.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><br /><div><b>Do You Really Understand What Will Happen IF ...</b></div></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/TomthunkitsMind/status/1583006454759718912">Tomthunkit™ (@TomthunkitsMind): </a>Republicans’ newly-introduced national abortion ban would put doctors in prison for up to 5 years, force women to undergo extremely invasive transvaginal ultrasounds, and keep in place statewide bans that force rape victims to give birth. Mark Joseph Stern, "The Perverse, Potentially Lethal Consequences of Lindsey Graham’s Federal Abortion Ban" Slate, 9/14/22</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/UROCKlive1/status/1583181214701142016?s=20&t=uEcbzk7oPrxzAPVs6FDOVA">Khashoggi’s Ghost (@UROCKlive1):</a> Dems need one ad playing over and over on a loop, and I haven't seen it yet. Kevin McCarthy saying they're going to shut down the government and put us in default to blackmail us into ending or cutting Social Security and Medicare. This is their goal and these are their tactics.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1582839068127531008">Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1): </a>Rep. Liz Cheney: "It's really disgraceful that Minority Leader McCarthy suggested that if the Republicans get the majority back, we will not continue to provide support for the Ukrainians. What's happening in Ukraine today shows that democracy must be better armed than tyranny."</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1583605515933712385?s=20&t=dtMtOez8p-h0OEZdQvK9Sw">Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski):</a> Marge: “We are going to be leading a revolution in Congress. Biden and his family will be a top target. So will the CDC, FBI, DOJ, DOE, Homeland Security, and many other govt entities that have abused power.”</li></ul><div style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ3JBROtwVMazoQaG3-pGv8jl4mAa78sK63aNPntxx8og-4O-v45TfXqoeAGgiNJyOG9vu8WoCZPRxoCYtebxOdH6l1xUeR-qxjarY6M7vqR_fBtcyd1T-S3HTpbfsdve20Pg92SOAtGZwxWnXowiOBZ4EY5MB5WPXgeP62eaev-F9KL5-9XA/s680/Ff7aPZpXoAAWAdk.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="680" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ3JBROtwVMazoQaG3-pGv8jl4mAa78sK63aNPntxx8og-4O-v45TfXqoeAGgiNJyOG9vu8WoCZPRxoCYtebxOdH6l1xUeR-qxjarY6M7vqR_fBtcyd1T-S3HTpbfsdve20Pg92SOAtGZwxWnXowiOBZ4EY5MB5WPXgeP62eaev-F9KL5-9XA/s320/Ff7aPZpXoAAWAdk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>“The notion that now Kevin McCarthy is going to make himself the leader of the pro-Putin wing of my party is just a stunning thing,” Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) told NBC News on Sunday. This was a provocative way of reminding the country about the House minority leader’s recent declaration that a GOP-controlled House might seek to roll back U.S. military funding for Ukraine’s war effort ... Greg Sargent: The guy likely to become House speaker is openly declaring that Republicans might not continue U.S. military aid to Ukraine. A number of House GOP and Senate candidates are also hostile to such aid. How seriously do you take this threat? Timothy Snyder: I take it very seriously, because democracy around the world depends on Ukrainians winning this war. I also find it puzzling, because the Ukrainians are doing more for declared bipartisan American national security interests than any American foreign policy has done for decades. By pinning down the Russian army and substantially weakening it, they are weakening China’s cat’s paw, which is Russia. By showing how difficult it is to carry out this kind of invasion, Ukraine is making the scenario for war with China — a Chinese invasion of Taiwan — much less likely. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/24/kevin-mccarthy-ukraine-funding-timothy-snyder-interview/">- Greg Sargent, Why Putin hopes for a GOP victory, as explained by a top Russia expert, Washington Post</a></li></ul></div><div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8l2SXLeTa-kC3TDFId1pn6D1CpYviQAicvX4-z5_OkiVJ5x5ifKaDdioISV20ab4Cy9I6jT1eof1XWTn6Yk8dRl-_RTFdnrtPCuQUchU97jw2HeE0Ij5-iK7Awh6TPSpsD3Dt3lni-gBK44pRGdQce9s3mZ81tozMuSuh4dO0nDtsgKr8egc/s1081/Slide08.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8l2SXLeTa-kC3TDFId1pn6D1CpYviQAicvX4-z5_OkiVJ5x5ifKaDdioISV20ab4Cy9I6jT1eof1XWTn6Yk8dRl-_RTFdnrtPCuQUchU97jw2HeE0Ij5-iK7Awh6TPSpsD3Dt3lni-gBK44pRGdQce9s3mZ81tozMuSuh4dO0nDtsgKr8egc/w640-h360/Slide08.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>ESPIONAGE & SEDITION</b></div></div><div><ul><li>A Trump employee has told federal agents about moving boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago at the specific direction of the former president, according to people familiar with the investigation, who say the witness account — combined with security-camera footage — offers key evidence of Donald Trump’s behavior as investigators sought the return of classified material. The witness description and footage described to The Washington Post offer the most direct account to date of Trump’s actions and instructions leading up to the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of the Florida residence and private club, in which agents were looking for evidence of potential crimes including obstruction, destruction of government records or mishandling classified information. The people familiar with the investigation said agents have gathered witness accounts indicating that, after Trump advisers received a subpoena in May for any classified documents that remained at Mar-a-Lago, Trump told people to move boxes to his residence at the property. That description of events was corroborated by the security-camera footage, which showed people moving the boxes, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation ... <a href="https://wapo.st/3g2xsXs">- Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey, Trump worker told FBI about moving Mar-a-Lago boxes on ex-president’s orders, Washington Post</a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Carter ruled that Trump purposefully lied about several facts in the Dec. 2020 lawsuit in Georgia, despite being warned by John Eastman not to go that route. "On December 4, 2021, President Trump and his attorneys alleged in a Georgia state court action that Fulton County improperly counted a number of votes including 10,315 deceased people, 2,560 felons, and 2,423 unregistered voters," said the Court. "President Trump and his attorneys then decided to contest the state court proceeding in federal court and discussed incorporating by referencing the voter fraud numbers alleged in the state petition. On December 30, 2020, Dr. Eastman relayed 'concerns' from President Trump's team 'about including specific numbers in the paragraph dealing with felons, deceased moved, etc.' The attorneys continued to discuss the President's resistance to signing 'when specific numbers were included.'" According to the decision, the following day, Eastman said: "Although the President signed a verification for [the state court filing] back on Dec. 1, he has since been made aware that some of the allegations (and evidence proffered by the experts) and has been inaccurate. For him to sign a new verification with that knowledge (and incorporation by reference) would not be accurate." The emails “show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public,” Carter wrote. <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/john-eastman-emails-trump-georgia/">- Sarah K. Burris, Judge: Trump signed court documents he knew were false, Raw Story</a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/stevebenen/status/1585350475565735936?s=20&t=9D4M1VXYmIOCnKWrRmSn9A">Steve Benen (@stevebenen):</a> The list of folks from Team Trump who've pleaded the Fifth recently keeps growing: - Kash Patel - Donald Trump himself - John Eastman (in two different investigations) - Eric Trump - Roger Stone - Alex Jones - Jeffrey Clark - Michael Flynn - Kelli Ward <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwGdCouO6rOCbHa0EkNHMi7TK9J2koTgpdCPOOtU0jJ27hular_lVqqCvNfGf6Soy2JU6h1ox_hpoJpC9LeNAMQNifHSxO92oDafqIHUjKiiWFG_59L2ewDJTHl6kBmmsz3BayWBfcbuJR7E4nVj960xXhcR2ux2PvPkuG-jHb2AzW60gxU-A=s1600"> (Another member of Trump’s inner circle reportedly takes the Fifth, Maddow Blog)</a></li></ul></div><div><br /></div><div><b><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDCqXO-7t_-BDaW2UjmmqN7yS3tkVqDjmo6p9lj8511zg_DTUcTyZ03BsP2de8pcwJxuwCgHzDv2P4O2P0Ey23X-WOQSVYUORXRhWBmfRdVxOa-Pq5OUCxsCBGxX8fXgAyfQ2NviwV71r7dscL2GGCuKscIXK_Jb-UUQHe_n1QKljK-IkoxS0/s1081/Slide09.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDCqXO-7t_-BDaW2UjmmqN7yS3tkVqDjmo6p9lj8511zg_DTUcTyZ03BsP2de8pcwJxuwCgHzDv2P4O2P0Ey23X-WOQSVYUORXRhWBmfRdVxOa-Pq5OUCxsCBGxX8fXgAyfQ2NviwV71r7dscL2GGCuKscIXK_Jb-UUQHe_n1QKljK-IkoxS0/w640-h360/Slide09.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><br /></div>Dark Brandon & the Democrats Deliver, They Could Do So Much More, IF ...</b><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Speaking to Politico, [White House Chief of Staff] Klain said: “The president has delivered the largest economic recovery plan since Roosevelt, the largest infrastructure plan since [Dwight D] Eisenhower, the most judges confirmed since Kennedy, the second-largest healthcare bill since Johnson, and the largest climate change bill in history.” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/19/joe-biden-ron-klain-interview-historic-successes-fdr-jfk-lbj">- Guardian, 8/19/22</a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1583820571221299200?s=20&t=39T4bJUcvxvXFlT59KsqKw">The White House (@WhiteHouse): </a>Thanks to President Biden’s economic plan, 17 states have unemployment rates below 3%. And, 11 states are at their lowest unemployment rates on record.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1583805596180320257?s=20&t=39T4bJUcvxvXFlT59KsqKw">The White House (@WhiteHouse): </a>Yesterday [10//21/22], President Biden announced that the deficit fell by $1.4 trillion this year. This is the largest one-year drop in American history.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1583805596180320257?s=20&t=39T4bJUcvxvXFlT59KsqKw">The White House (@WhiteHouse):</a> Close to 22 million Americans have already given the Biden-Harris Administration the information to be considered for life-changing student debt relief. Apply today at <a href="http://studentaid.gov/">http://StudentAid.gov</a>.</li></ul></div><div>Dark Brandon standing in the breach, on the issue of women's reproductive rights: </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>"One of the most extraordinary parts of that decision [Dobbs] was when the majority wrote, 'women are not without electoral or political power.' Let me tell you something - the court & extreme Republicans who have spent decades trying to overturn Roe are about to find out"</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>"[McCarthy] wants the US Congress to pass a law that would ban abortion nationwide... if Republicans get their way with a national ban, it won't matter where you live in America. So let me be very clear-- if such a bill were to pass in the next several years, I will veto it"</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>'Today in America, there are women who have been turned away from emergency rooms while having miscarriages … and told they need to wait until they’re sicker before they get the care they need"</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/CAPAction/status/1582414965176078337">CAP Action (@CAPAction)</a>: The extreme right-wing Supreme Court Justices practically dare women to make their voices heard. "They ain't seen nothing yet." </li></ul></div></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/kYXtjopnkyc">FULL SPEECH: U.S. President Joe Biden gave an update on what his administration is doing to preserve access to abortion.</a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kYXtjopnkyc" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div></div></blockquote><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZY-l2YiXcD9se5d1jvWatQJ4dosmp75T4VbKhs23k24TfQSGbBm8wG742tfQFgODET-57HtXrkdAe8dkH9KYTbUFjTrv38OQggd6b6kU8PmVUSzWro_u_ko-z_wAbCrbjn6-VcyfjXxJ6AfzJOM8cjOV36jStucwgWB2Xkhr4vve5sKDyYbw/s1081/Slide10.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZY-l2YiXcD9se5d1jvWatQJ4dosmp75T4VbKhs23k24TfQSGbBm8wG742tfQFgODET-57HtXrkdAe8dkH9KYTbUFjTrv38OQggd6b6kU8PmVUSzWro_u_ko-z_wAbCrbjn6-VcyfjXxJ6AfzJOM8cjOV36jStucwgWB2Xkhr4vve5sKDyYbw/w640-h360/Slide10.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div><br /></div><div><b>ROEVEMBER!</b></div><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/MarkJacob16/status/1584339231224508417?s=20&t=BLFYQGu6FCn-Nmwshi3rpQ">Mark Jacob (@MarkJacob16):</a> Dear women in Republican families, You don’t have to tell anyone how you vote. It’s a secret ballot. So you can stand up for your rights as a human being and vote against anti-choice Republicans without having to fight with any relatives. Thanks for considering, Mark</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1584549588802752513">Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren):</a> Right-wing extremists schemed for decades to overturn Roe v. Wade and turn women into second-class citizens. But we can restore abortion rights nationwide with a Democratic House and two more Democratic senators. If we fight together, we can win together.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/KathyHochul/status/1584338900830781440?s=20&t=spVsFroZA2NHUNmQFv9xHQ">Kathy Hochul (@KathyHochul):</a> Your access to an abortion shouldn't depend on who your governor is. But let me be clear: under my watch, your fundamental rights will always be protected in New York.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/VP/status/1584280752761769984?s=20&t=spVsFroZA2NHUNmQFv9xHQ">Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP):</a> There’s a clear difference in approach when it comes to women’s health care: Our Administration wants to pass a national law protecting abortion. Republicans in Congress are proposing a national abortion ban that will criminalize doctors for providing health care.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/gretchenwhitmer/status/1584322105902272512?s=20&t=spVsFroZA2NHUNmQFv9xHQ">Gretchen Whitmer (@gretchenwhitmer): </a>Because of my lawsuit, abortion is legal in Michigan — and I will keep fighting like hell to make sure Michigan women are protected. Tudor Dixon pledged to enforce Michigan’s dangerous 1931 abortion ban — which would criminalize doctors and nurses.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/JoshShapiroPA/status/1584545454259601408?s=20&t=spVsFroZA2NHUNmQFv9xHQ">Josh Shapiro (@JoshShapiroPA):</a> Doug Mastriano has made clear: the single most important issue of his campaign is banning abortion outright — with absolutely no exceptions. He’s not focused on our economy, workforce, or defending our freedoms. He's only focused on forcing his extremist agenda on Pennsylvania.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/katiehobbs/status/1584574687845044225?s=20&t=spVsFroZA2NHUNmQFv9xHQ">Katie Hobbs (@katiehobbs):</a> I can’t imagine if my doctors’ medical decisions about my health care after my miscarriage could result in their imprisonment. We can’t let Kari Lake’s unhinged stances on abortion rights be anyone’s reality in Arizona.</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Electing state Attorney Generals who will fiercely defend women's reproductive rights is also vital.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Here is an excerpt from Teen Vogue's compelling interview with New York State AG Tish James:</div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Teen Vogue: </b>The midterms are coming up in a few weeks. By all accounts, there are going to be many close races. What role do you think the overturning of Roe and the desire to protect abortion access is going to play in how people vote?<br /><b>Tish James: </b>We are seeing more and more young people, young individuals, as well as women register to vote, and I think, obviously, they're going to be voting on one single issue and that is reproductive rights. I think it's an issue that has galvanized particularly women in the suburbs, and young people all across this nation who care about fundamental freedom and the rights and reproductive rights of all individuals. I think that Democrats were concerned in the past about losing both houses in Congress and other close races, and now our fortunes have changed somewhat.<br /><b>TV: </b>Absolutely. In many states, attorneys general have taken center stage since Roe was overturned, with AG's in states like Ohio, Indiana, and Texas becoming involved in denying abortion access. What is it like for you to see your peers use their power in that way?<br /><b>TJ: </b>The attorneys general, as you know, have defended democracy in the past, and have continued to stand up to those forces that seek to turn back the clock of progress. We will continue to defend the rights of women and other vulnerable and marginalized populations. We've done it before, we'll continue to do it — which is why attorney general races are so critically important, particularly in light of the fact that we may have a divided federal government. It'll be up to the states, and that's why we need to elect more Democratic attorneys general. So I urge all of your readers to pay special attention to the reelection of Dana Nessel in Michigan, Josh Kaul in Wisconsin, Aaron Ford in Nevada, and Keith Ellison in Minnesota. And I would hope that we could change Georgia from red to blue — or, I should say, light red to light blue — by electing Jen Jordan there, and then also Rochelle Garza in Texas. I hope that we will elect the first African American woman attorney general in Massachusetts by voting for Andrea Campbell.</li><ul><li>- <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/tish-james-abortion-decision" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">MARISA KABAS, Tish James on Her Decision to Get an Abortion, the Post-Roe Future, and the Midterms, Teen Vogue</a><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">:</span></li></ul></ul>NEW MAGA Republican Law DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES Revealed in POWERFUL Stories</div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6bNscNHsSMA" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6OObG8h1oBqgBgaezwfmdrW516XcYCuSN-kPhWzhouQFNmV-ESKiohIbjsr1Y0KZq8mUHHHCJ8bVbYrN-vRTsvu7aSbyz5w4XKjPYEMQzzRTIksayCrV96PebtXqWVuNXVTaJAW5d-sbKBfyv0B1k-Ajw3Mxjq_fhVKU9j5U3GdWAJtZIHPo/s1081/Slide11.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6OObG8h1oBqgBgaezwfmdrW516XcYCuSN-kPhWzhouQFNmV-ESKiohIbjsr1Y0KZq8mUHHHCJ8bVbYrN-vRTsvu7aSbyz5w4XKjPYEMQzzRTIksayCrV96PebtXqWVuNXVTaJAW5d-sbKBfyv0B1k-Ajw3Mxjq_fhVKU9j5U3GdWAJtZIHPo/w640-h360/Slide11.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>A Survey of Critical Races</b></div><p>In each update, my "Survey of Critical Races" has focused on races for Senator and Governor, but of course, there are dangers all down the ballet. It is imperative to vote the straight Democratic ticket <a href="https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1580414157425324032?s=20&t=V0X8xvw2XTZXB1ULP_WlvQ">(unless you're in Utah) </a>up and down the ballot.</p><p>Consider this - </p><p></p><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1579427671133786113"></a><ul style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1579427671133786113"></a><li><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1579427671133786113"></a><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1579427671133786113">Duty To Warn (@duty2warn):</a> Trump has normalized coups. The GOP boast that if their secretaries of state are elected they’ll make sure Republicans win. They’re running for election on the platform that they will corrupt elections and overthrow democracy. </li><ul><li>“<a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1579431870424838144">When my coalition of secretary of state candidates get elected</a>, we're gonna fix the whole country and president trump is going to be president again”—Jim Marchant, Republican candidate for Nevada Secretary of State</li></ul></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/tEbrhIrJQJ0"></a><a href="https://youtu.be/tEbrhIrJQJ0">Exclusive: Hillary Clinton WARNS about MAGA Secretary of State Candidates in URGENT MESSAGE</a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tEbrhIrJQJ0" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><a href="https://youtu.be/W8UMQyCZbrY">‘A Five-alarm Fire’: Michigan’s Jocelyn Benson On Election Deniers Running For Secy. Of State</a></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Nearly half of the nominees for Secretary of State nationwide believe in the Big Lie, according to the report “Replacing The Refs.” Michigan Secy. of State Jocelyn Benson discusses her election denier opponent and how she plans to defend voters from far-right harassment. <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W8UMQyCZbrY" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div><b>Michigan</b></div><a href="https://twitter.com/AccountableGOP/status/1585049574259015681"></a><ul style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/AccountableGOP/status/1585049574259015681"></a><li><a href="https://twitter.com/AccountableGOP/status/1585049574259015681"></a><a href="https://twitter.com/AccountableGOP/status/1585049574259015681">Gov. Whitmer on Tudor Dixon: </a>“She refuses to accept the outcome of the last election. She has not yet said she will accept the outcome of the next election."</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/gretchenwhitmer/status/1585057905924923392?s=20&t=3GSNEGwKzRfBViC1pyqmqA">Gretchen Whitmer (@gretchenwhitmer): </a>Throughout the pandemic, Tudor Dixon spread dangerous misinformation and conspiracies about the life-saving COVID-19 vaccine — even claiming they would lead to implanted microchips. We cannot put Michiganders' health and safety into the hands of someone this dangerous. #MIgov</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Three men accused of supporting terrorism in the plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor were convicted of all charges Wednesday in a trial that focused on paramilitary drills and fierce contempt for government ahead of the 2020 election. Joe Morrison, his father-in-law Pete Musico, and Paul Bellar were found guilty of supplying “material support” for a terrorist act as members of a group known as the Wolverine Watchmen. They held gun training in rural Jackson County with a leader of the kidnapping scheme, Adam Fox, who was disgusted with Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other officials and said he wanted to snatch her. The trial in state court was an offshoot of the main case in federal court, which produced mixed results: Fox and an ally were convicted of conspiracy, two more men pleaded guilty but two others were acquitted. Jurors in Jackson, Michigan, read and heard violent, anti-government screeds as well as support for the “boogaloo,” a civil war that might be triggered by a shocking abduction. Prosecutors said COVID-19 restrictions ordered by Whitmer turned out to be fruit to recruit more people to the Watchmen.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/michigan-gretchen-whitmer-jackson-adam-fox-kidnap-plot-trial-0a5a930cf86e74f8a1365040b783de0d"> - Associated Press, 3 men convicted of supporting plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer</a></li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/KKEjg0LdYIE"></a><a href="https://youtu.be/KKEjg0LdYIE">Election Denier Tudor Dixon</a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KKEjg0LdYIE" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div><b>Pennsylvania</b></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/SawyerHackett/status/1585036222581264385">Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett):</a> Dr. Oz: -kills 300+ puppies -mocks stroke victims -makes millions selling bogus products -gives speech in front of Hitler’s car -admits to tasting his own urine Political media: “Fetterman needs to prove in tonight’s debate that he’s fit for office.”</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/LEBassett/status/1585068797978824704?s=20&t=_tAN8vzU62d5Z4444bR3xQ">Laura Bassett (@LEBassett):</a> Everybody tweeting about the Oz / Fetterman debate like we're talking about two similarly legitimate candidates. Is everyone insane? Fetterman has been working (successfully) in public service in Pennsylvania for a decade. Oz is a quack TV doctor!</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1585071060445433857?s=20&t=TW14aFQYFZX7X5Y_qMI-iA">The Recount (@therecount): “</a>I would support Donald Trump if he decided to run for president.” — Dr. Oz (R) commits in #PASenateDebate to supporting a potential Donald Trump 2024 run, adding that he hasn’t followed Trump’s legal woes very carefully</li><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/MaxBoot/status/1585084073994657792?s=20&t=TW14aFQYFZX7X5Y_qMI-iA">Max Boot (@MaxBoot): </a>Given that Trump fomented an insurrection against our government, this should be disqualifying for any political candidate.</li></ul></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1585071423059820544">Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts):</a> Mehmet Oz says abortion should be between "a woman, her doctor, and local political leaders." #PASenateDebate</li></ul></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://youtu.be/_tg5JHDEluw">Puppies</a></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_tg5JHDEluw" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><p></p><p><b>Wisconsin</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/JoJoFromJerz/status/1583576442805575680">Jo (@JoJoFromJerz): </a>Wow — this is huge… Mike Holmgren, one of the greatest coaches in football history (who’s also a Wisconsinite) just came out in support of Mandela Barnes! He’s also hosting a major online event this weekend. This is awesome! Please share this far & wide.<ul><li><i>"I’m Mike Holmgren, former coach for the Green and Gold. Wisconsin is a special place and the folks here deserve a similarly exceptional senator. Someone like Mandela Barnes, who is committed to defending democracy, voting rights and the integrity of our elections. Ron Johnson, on the other hand, was actively engaged in the insurrection. He lied about his involvement in January 6th and won’t commit to upholding the results of the 2022 election of any election after that. If you’re running for office, you have to be honest. If we don’t agree on anything, we have to agree on that. Ron Johnson lied about the 2020 election. He lied about Joe role in the insurrection. And he won’t commit to upholding the truth in future elections. So, Wisconsin, I’m urging you, get rid of the liar Ron Johnson and elect Mandela Barnes this fall."</i></li></ul></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/Tony4WI/status/1584943201273905153?s=20&t=TW14aFQYFZX7X5Y_qMI-iA">Tony Evers (@Tony4WI): </a>My opponent is dangerous. Tim Michels wants to criminalize abortion and has a long history of standing against exceptions for rape or incest—even saying it’s “not unreasonable” to force rape victims to give birth. He is too radical for Wisconsin and must be defeated in November.</li></ul><p></p></div><div><p></p><p><b>Ohio </b></p><p></p><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/TristanSnell/status/1584209237722296321?s=20&t=f5_11sg099H_d3SXotgYgw">Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell):</a> JD Vance: “I gotta be honest with you, I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other." We don’t need any more Putin stooges in the Senate. Ohio deserves a Senator who supports freedom and democracy.</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1584234023685353477?s=20&t=BLFYQGu6FCn-Nmwshi3rpQ">Republicans against Trumpism (@RpsAgainstTrump): </a>The Washington Post reports that the large Ukrainian-American community in OH, traditionally Republican-leaning voters, are backing Tim Ryan for Senate due to JD Vance’s pro-Putin stances. #RepublicansForTimRyan #OHSen</li></ul></div></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGgu8ovFaRxQTSx_JiNEPBQ5qPAN-5to2m77dYxDHtrzTdsTp11FV6cNxDzyVBVeUzL0MBfpNAudDbxVPfIkNBzlMFjJEqNVebjT5uQl1St1JgCCccnAUgMbd8W7lJt9wW51GMBCUoNTuoPBc38wHhVC9dxAFoavVGHQxsOJcOJ5efmc1jPpY/s1081/Slide12.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGgu8ovFaRxQTSx_JiNEPBQ5qPAN-5to2m77dYxDHtrzTdsTp11FV6cNxDzyVBVeUzL0MBfpNAudDbxVPfIkNBzlMFjJEqNVebjT5uQl1St1JgCCccnAUgMbd8W7lJt9wW51GMBCUoNTuoPBc38wHhVC9dxAFoavVGHQxsOJcOJ5efmc1jPpY/w640-h360/Slide12.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><b>Georgia</b></div><div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/MarkJacob16/status/1584013078148313093">Mark Jacob (@MarkJacob16): </a>Herschel Walker is a mentally unstable liar who thinks a mysterious mist kills Covid, who hid the existence of 3 of his children, who pretends to be a cop, and who has threatened to shoot multiple women in the head. Republicans think he’s a fine representative of their values.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A second woman has come forward to say Herschel Walker urged her to abort their child, claiming that the football star turned GOP Senate candidate personally drove her to a clinic in the 1990s to have an abortion against her wishes. The woman, identifying herself as “Jane Doe,” said that after she first went to an abortion clinic in Dallas, Texas, she left in tears because she was unable to move forward with the procedure. But, according to the woman, Walker was unmoved. He drove the woman back to the clinic and pressured her to get the abortion. She had the procedure while he sat in the parking lot. He then drove her to a pharmacy to get the medication prescribed afterwards.<a href="https://news.yahoo.com/second-woman-set-reveal-herschel-161750459.html"> - Roger Sollenbergerm, New Woman Alleges Herschel Walker Urged Her to Have Abortion, Daily Beast via Yahoo News</a> </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/greenhousenyt/status/1583822231943057408?s=20&t=BLFYQGu6FCn-Nmwshi3rpQ">Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt):</a> VOTER SUPPRESSION > Jennifer Jones, a Morehouse School of Medicine student, went to vote, excited to cast her ballot for Stacey Abrams & Raphael Warnock. But she was informed she couldn't cast a regular ballot because right-wing folks were challenging her <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/22/georgia-early-voting-obstacles-new-election-law">Early voters in Georgia face obstacles under state’s new election law</a></li><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/jbf1755/status/1584384426011553792?s=20&t=BLFYQGu6FCn-Nmwshi3rpQ">Dr. Joanne Freeman (@jbf1755): </a>Folks -- if someone tries to prevent you from voting and you're qualified to vote, ask questions and seek guidance (as the woman in this story did). Don't surrender your vote!</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/1584267445765697536?s=20&t=BLFYQGu6FCn-Nmwshi3rpQ">Joy-Ann Reid (@JoyAnnReid): </a>This is how MAGA fascism works. Pay attention because it only gets worse. The end goal is to make elections inaccessible for the out-groups and therefore meaningless, because The Party decides who can vote, counts the votes and always wins, so they remain in permanent control.</li></ul></ul><p><b>Arizona</b><br /></p><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1584498211305058305">Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw):</a> Kari Lake is “Donald Trump in lipstick. But she delivers her divisiveness in the calm and measured tones of a person reading the news rather than a man who froths at the mic.” Lake is extremely dangerous to democracy — and a decent future for America.</li></ul><ul><li>ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl fact-checked Kari Lake, the Republican gubernatorial nominee in Arizona, on her false claims about the 2020 election.Lake, a former reporter for Fox’s KSAZ-TV, has repeatedly made voter fraud claims in line with former President Donald Trump and has referred to the 2020 election as stolen and corrupt. Lake refused to answer CNN’s Dana Bash last week about whether she’d accept an election loss in November. On Sunday, she told Karl that she’d accept the election results if the election was “fair, honest and transparent.” Lake recently claimed that Arizona’s Maricopa County had accepted 2,000 mail-in ballots after Election Day in 2020. Election officials in the county said that wasn’t true. In his report, Karl noted that a county investigation had determined that there were only “100 potentially questionable ballots cast out of 2.1 million, hardly enough to change the results.” Karl also pushed for an answer from Lake on her claim that 740,000 ballots in the county had no chain of custody. ″[You said] those ballots shouldn’t have been counted. Are you really saying you would throw out the ballots of 740,000, that’s nearly three-quarter of a million Arizonans? I mean, those were ballots...” Karl asked before Lake interjected. “740,000 ballots violated chain of custody requirements in Maricopa County,” Lake replied. Karl said her claim was not true. “I mean the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors put out a 98-page report that went through these allegations,” Karl said. “OK, that is a fact. That is a fact. Check yourfacts,” Lake said. <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/reporter-questions-kari-lake-2020_n_6355f750e4b03e8038e06dbd">- Ben Blanchett, "Kari Lake Doubles Down On False 2020 Election Claims, Calls Them 'Facts'" Huffington Post</a></li></ul><div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/WHiIMCYv7ZU">Liz Cheney Airs New Ad In Arizona Slamming GOP Candidates Kari Lake, Mark Finchem</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WHiIMCYv7ZU" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> </div></div><p></p><p><b>Texas</b></p><p></p><a href="https://twitter.com/RochelleMGarza/status/1584220508593135616"></a><ul><a href="https://twitter.com/RochelleMGarza/status/1584220508593135616"></a><li><a href="https://twitter.com/RochelleMGarza/status/1584220508593135616"></a><a href="https://twitter.com/RochelleMGarza/status/1584220508593135616">Rochelle Garza (@RochelleMGarza):</a> Last night, two men under FBI investigation campaigned in Texas, telling the crowd how scared they are that I’m days away from being elected the next AG. When I’m AG this office returns to the people of Texas and Paxton will finally have to answer for his crimes. He’s terrified.</li></ul><ul><li>The Houston Chronicle's editorial board called Beto O'Rourke "one of the most impressive candidates" they had ever seen. After a long history of endorsing Republican candidates, the Houston Chronicle is shifting gears to throw its support behind Rep. Beto O’Rourke, the Democrat challenging GOP Sen. Ted Cruz in the midterm elections. “With eyes clear but certainly not starry, we enthusiastically endorse Beto O’Rourke for U.S. Senate,” the paper’s editorial board wrote on Friday. “The West Texas congressman’s command of issues that matter to this state, his unaffected eloquence and his eagerness to reach out to all Texans make him one of the most impressive candidates this editorial board has encountered in many years.” The Chronicle noted that O’Rourke faces difficult odds. The last time Texas elected a Democrat to the Senate was in 1988. But the race has been closer than expected for red Texas. Polling in the months leading up to the November election has shown O’Rourke and Cruz virtually neck-and-neck. O’Rourke’s campaign has raised more than $38 million, triple what Cruz’s team has collected. <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/houston-chronicle-endorses-beto-orourke-senate_n_5bca368be4b0d38b58780341?">- Antonia Blumberg, "Houston Chronicle Endorses Beto O'Rourke For U.S. Senate" Huffington Post</a></li></ul><p></p><p><b>Florida</b></p><p></p><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="display: inline;"></div></div></b></div><p></p><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://youtu.be/Gx0uEsqIPVw">Val Demings Owns Marco Rubio</a></b><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Gx0uEsqIPVw" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div></div><p><br /></p></div></div><div style="display: inline;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="display: inline;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY00W4fbWwIGEFKff3nNdJYO34lAWUctZj-dLOwRrX530SJ26jVDnmLKCbHtUN8Vsd39o6XnbqgoqH6m2iLqeaY6fPXqquOjvv3PVgFB3OqXE9e0Xse4_onrCdycPLb_1WqFKptCHvoozRO2QHEbK6JBx802u5fOALAXQU6Hk-GEEHi18bIeE/s1081/Slide13.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY00W4fbWwIGEFKff3nNdJYO34lAWUctZj-dLOwRrX530SJ26jVDnmLKCbHtUN8Vsd39o6XnbqgoqH6m2iLqeaY6fPXqquOjvv3PVgFB3OqXE9e0Xse4_onrCdycPLb_1WqFKptCHvoozRO2QHEbK6JBx802u5fOALAXQU6Hk-GEEHi18bIeE/w640-h360/Slide13.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div></div>Grimly Confident</b></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1566500375095418881">Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote), 9/4/22:</a> Here’s the really hard math for you MAGAs. There are about 240M eligible voters in the US. 71M voted for Donald. That’s about 29%. “Half” would be 50%. 29 does not equal 50. I hope that clears it up for you. I know numbers can be scary.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1585785967276965888?s=20&t=hvoZeLeI2lXCcd8BWjMViA">Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1): </a>According to the U.S. Elections Project, more than 15,568,000 early votes have now been cast. </li><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/1585871781746745344?s=20&t=sFEgRm7MsfCjqvxqhRgrvw">Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance):</a> Good news for people who care about the future of democracy</li></ul></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1585685428060901376?s=20&t=sFEgRm7MsfCjqvxqhRgrvw">Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1):</a> Harvard Youth poll: 40% of 18-to-29-year-olds will "definitely" vote in the midterms — that's on track to match or potentially exceed the record-breaking 2018 youth turnout in a midterm. Young voters prefer Democratic control of Congress 57% to 31%.</li></ul>"The country is split down the middle.' No, it isn't. </div><div><br /></div><div>The country is split. Yes. But it's split 70% to 30%, and we're the 70%. </div><div><br /></div><div>That's what Lando was telling Poe at the dire moment in The Rise of Skywalker: </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://youtu.be/I2UTjZBho5Y">"There are more of us ..."</a></div><div><br /></div><div>But you have to vote, and you have to vote Democratic, and you have to vote all the way up and down the ballot, you have to vote for the election officials and the school board, you have to vote, you have get your friends and family to vote, you have to pull some people out of their dream states, out of their fantasies, and you have to pull other people out of their misguided sense of ideological purity, you've got to get people to vote. Because in their common sense, in their hearts, most people, the vast majority of Americans, are for abortion rights, they're for gun control, they're for climate change action, they're for protecting the sanctity of the vote, they're for the rule of law. These are not things that the majority of Americans are divided over. But as I talked about in the first presentation, the country in its inception was hard-wired to protect minority rule, and they've done everything they can, and they are getting more and more desperate (the oligarchs, the patriarchy, the guardians of white privilege) as the demographics shift continues in the body politic, because they can't win real elections anymore, so now they just want to throw away the elections completely, they want to say the state legislatures can throw away the ballots and declare a winner for their state. (And they control many of those state legislatures, even in blue and purple states, because of gerrymandering and dark money.) This has to end here and now.<div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div></div>I know many of you have been told most of your life that 'this is the most important election you'll ever vote in,' and I know many of you are tired of hearing it. Well, you know every time you were told that it was true, it wasn't hyperbole. We don't keep saying it over and over again, because it doesn't get done, we have said it over and over again because it's a long arc. That's what the Doctor said, that's what Dr. King meant. It wasn't a rhetorical flourish, it was a fact, and a prophecy, 'the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.' This is what he meant. We are on that arc, living and struggling on that arc, we are leaning forward on that arc. This is what he meant, that you would be here many times in your life, 'this is the most important election of your life.' The arc of the moral universe is LONG, but it bends towards justice, it curves towards justice. With each election victory, the arc accelerates. We can do this, if we get through 2022 and 2024, we will have broken the back of fascism, we will have broken the fever, we will have routed the orcs.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="text-align: center;">-- Richard Power, Yoga & Meditation Teacher, Writer, Speaker, Global Intelligence & Security Expert. </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/ref=sr_1_1" style="text-align: center;">"Secret Engine of the World: Further Insights into Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution" (2021) is available from Amazon.com</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>See Also</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div><br /><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2022/10/secret-engine-update-4-101522-what-you.html">"Secret Engine" Update #4 (10/15/22): What You Need to Know As We Hurtle Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines</a><br /><br /><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2022/09/secret-engine-update-3-91922-what-you.html">"Secret Engine" Update #3 (9/24/22): What You Need to Know As We Hurtle Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines</a></div><div><br /><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2022/08/secret-engine-update-81722-what-you.html">"Secret Engine" Update #2 (8/23/22): What You Need to Know As We Hurtle Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines</a><a href="#"></a><br /><br /><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2022/07/secret-engine-update-what-you-need-to.html">"Secret Engine" Update #1 (7/22/22): What You Need to Know As We Hurtle Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines</a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />[All images are sourced and published as Fair Use.]</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":1bo"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnS9lVunfJZ8eS06vHlwdFsS-YTqxEOMJRy_I3yQK3giXLLHHzwrHrig5cntsEP3bzrBSYW2yv8KReUHTWf0e_5jX8iB7abfAQtddYqhuuU5KTIeWV_5Ul3fkH2bfALkKktGqw10MRTVTQ8UJyFBBRPCcN_Qag04ay_UbO4LU_vjJXOa-9jEA/s1800/271129783_10227528427976248_8265357075453770177_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1440" height="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnS9lVunfJZ8eS06vHlwdFsS-YTqxEOMJRy_I3yQK3giXLLHHzwrHrig5cntsEP3bzrBSYW2yv8KReUHTWf0e_5jX8iB7abfAQtddYqhuuU5KTIeWV_5Ul3fkH2bfALkKktGqw10MRTVTQ8UJyFBBRPCcN_Qag04ay_UbO4LU_vjJXOa-9jEA/w512-h640/271129783_10227528427976248_8265357075453770177_n.jpeg" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/ref=sr_1_1">"Secret Engine of the World: Further Insights into Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution" (2021) is available from Amazon.com</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div aria-controls=":1f0" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":1f0" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":1bk" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 351px;" tabindex="1"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-44246773268906609072022-10-12T18:11:00.133-07:002022-11-07T13:32:14.963-08:00"Secret Engine" Update #4 (10/15/22): What You Need to Know As We Hurdle Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdRvPh4ibqlULsrOvdFIHqnISRX-DT_u8nXeJ0g1LABFdczOJCarGAKmF_jK-J_PUJihFkrBXCVF_v3qgn8FLtvnSWJxXbCee-b1XVogul1CJVfadZeZlpSTGcIJVCXmkav4p56MATb1Q-zlQQOtVesxMWuW1ahrGiD60aES4nRJBV6iS6GDM/s1081/Slide01.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdRvPh4ibqlULsrOvdFIHqnISRX-DT_u8nXeJ0g1LABFdczOJCarGAKmF_jK-J_PUJihFkrBXCVF_v3qgn8FLtvnSWJxXbCee-b1XVogul1CJVfadZeZlpSTGcIJVCXmkav4p56MATb1Q-zlQQOtVesxMWuW1ahrGiD60aES4nRJBV6iS6GDM/w640-h360/Slide01.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>I live in the Real World. And I fight for the Future. Many among us do.</div><div>We fight for our country, and for all of humanity, for all of the other species and for Gaia Herself.</div><div>We live in the Real World. We fight for the Future.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYYoF_kcdypGk0mDiCTCR_JzLE6n_VDcgtpobwzPATFTKkD7V2pO7IOoKPgDTecFii9ZdjLKH0ChWC3u6-RYUsYwow-Us_RIiNTPdXg4KpSxqgapVKGgc7mor9Ixg--nfhw0ac5mM9XEsRjZwLHo4eF1mtFid_AF20w67JhZs1DJfPFVniNSg/s1081/Slide02.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYYoF_kcdypGk0mDiCTCR_JzLE6n_VDcgtpobwzPATFTKkD7V2pO7IOoKPgDTecFii9ZdjLKH0ChWC3u6-RYUsYwow-Us_RIiNTPdXg4KpSxqgapVKGgc7mor9Ixg--nfhw0ac5mM9XEsRjZwLHo4eF1mtFid_AF20w67JhZs1DJfPFVniNSg/w640-h360/Slide02.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/8r_mS27_jOU">VIDEO: "Secret Engine" Update #4: What You Need to Know As We Hurtle<br /> Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8r_mS27_jOU" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>These are my notes for the talk. I post them here in the hope that they might be useful to you for your own clarity and in your efforts to engage other voters.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div>All of the images included in the first of these five presentation were from tweets related to Russia's genocidal attack on Ukraine. The images I selected were all of women, women journalists, women in the military, civilian women casualties. Why? Because victory in this war is vital for the future of the West and of democracy and because the leadership of women is vital for the future of all life on this planet. The images included in the second, third and fourth presentation are also all of women (except for two slides, lol); the women whose images I share in this presentation are all agents of the Ascendant Feminine, whether in the United States, or Ukraine, or Belarus or Russia itself. </div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, it is all one struggle, one great conflict, one shining portal to step through into a real future.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4du66arRHv1carCbsOu84pBaPvU5IJD_nXgGFkV_c6aCWbefgE5yfFKvklTPb16LDomyMa8B4aFO-Lyv148baVAePBdRX_8_8R2XM_3WQoXws6pXFtorAe5_M0F9lFLSh2xv5mcfiqie7KD2S_S_amjGfWTA9lGqYA38FB9sHDuzUd2tMqmM/s1081/Slide03.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4du66arRHv1carCbsOu84pBaPvU5IJD_nXgGFkV_c6aCWbefgE5yfFKvklTPb16LDomyMa8B4aFO-Lyv148baVAePBdRX_8_8R2XM_3WQoXws6pXFtorAe5_M0F9lFLSh2xv5mcfiqie7KD2S_S_amjGfWTA9lGqYA38FB9sHDuzUd2tMqmM/w640-h360/Slide03.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">0<b>1st of 3</b></div><br /><div>These five talks are focused on this year's mid-term elections in the United States, the first of the three deadlines I outlined in "Secret Engine of the World." These three deadlines are either doom-defying or doom-defining, depending upon outcomes. It is truly up to us, by us I mean what I call the United Front for Sanity and Decency (Left, Liberal, Center and True Conservative).</div><br /><div>For SCIENCE. For HUMAN RIGHTS. For GAIA. For SANITY and DECENCY.</div><br /><div>Three Deadlines -</div></div><div><ul><li>2022: U.S. Mid-Term Elections</li><li>2024: U.S. Presidential Elections</li><li>2031: Climate Apocalypse?</li></ul></div><div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDj5puxPVgIQo32dFhPdS2ADauaoMffJUaWPvbM0bhD-f-hhi6bubnwYhwHo_Uzol5MoHhhf7kbHocfUx0hxBp7SMYmOWktK3gWdNnIZxRsjzm5qgxQO1EvaWOnzZRgeXX3BKcNd-CWZZ9qVT9T4Mu4rgDVVXChWeiyZkVpQ0c86peJXoEwc8/s1081/Slide04.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDj5puxPVgIQo32dFhPdS2ADauaoMffJUaWPvbM0bhD-f-hhi6bubnwYhwHo_Uzol5MoHhhf7kbHocfUx0hxBp7SMYmOWktK3gWdNnIZxRsjzm5qgxQO1EvaWOnzZRgeXX3BKcNd-CWZZ9qVT9T4Mu4rgDVVXChWeiyZkVpQ0c86peJXoEwc8/w640-h360/Slide04.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><p></p><p><b>The Facts on the Ground</b></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: left;">Planetary Emergencies</li><ul><li style="text-align: left;">Climate Collapse</li><ul><li style="text-align: left;">“We are approaching a precipice. And I would strongly suggest that those of us who have not yet been greenwashed out of our senses stand our ground. Do not let them drag us another inch closer to the edge. Right here, right now, is where we draw the line'" <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/08/greta-thunberg-climate-delusion-greenwashed-out-of-our-senses">- Greta Thunberg, "Greta Thunberg on the climate delusion: ‘We’ve been greenwashed out of our senses. It’s time to stand our ground’" Guardian, 10/8/22</a></li></ul><li style="text-align: left;">Pandemic</li><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/AliVelshi/status/1579124324111646721">Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi):</a> Dr. Fauci says calling the pandemic over is “cavalier.” Today, Dr. @PeterHotez said, "Get the bivalent booster... This is not the time to be spiking the ball at the 20 yard line." COVID-19 cases are on the rise.</li></ul></ul></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: left;">The Big Lie, 1/6 & Beyond</li><ul><li>"Perpetuating the big lie is an attack on the core of our constitutional republic ... Trump is the spark but the Republicans are the oxygen. There is no slide to autocracy without Republicans.” - <a href="https://youtu.be/5Q1d3EyTxu8">Nicolle Wallace, MSNBC</a></li></ul><li style="text-align: left;">Ukraine</li><ul><li style="text-align: left;">Republicans want America to abandon Ukraine, a sovereign nation invaded by a tyrannical dictator. They’d rather we support a man who’s killed thousands and threatened to strike our homeland with nuclear weapons. If Republicans win, Putin wins. Americans and Ukrainians lose. <a href="https://youtu.be/z0c-orRuYwg">- Lincoln Project, Ukraine</a> (See video below)</li></ul></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: left;">Guns & Abortion</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/z0c-orRuYwg">Lincoln Project - Ukraine </a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z0c-orRuYwg" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji0Yz5Zw5gr5A3XDZga9gm4t2ICN0AvW9rBgmnbE1tY7_mUwRnakZK3AlCQVBK1NDvBd8YCf1j0CGK34s9-_ZdGYFsfGpa7T4rtjbnwzLTwdo_zc8xxNF_VozzKAxSeiA053pXMBx8mEjJ36qrhZXiEnq_YbJbJh6prT-aifNyf9-nomBc2jY/s1081/Slide05.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji0Yz5Zw5gr5A3XDZga9gm4t2ICN0AvW9rBgmnbE1tY7_mUwRnakZK3AlCQVBK1NDvBd8YCf1j0CGK34s9-_ZdGYFsfGpa7T4rtjbnwzLTwdo_zc8xxNF_VozzKAxSeiA053pXMBx8mEjJ36qrhZXiEnq_YbJbJh6prT-aifNyf9-nomBc2jY/w640-h360/Slide05.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><p></p><p><b>Elon Musk is Dangerous, & Twitter is in Peril</b></p><div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1577360300747145223?s=20&t=m4YbPDiz79lLBJxaTr_m8A">Duty To Warn (@duty2warn):</a> Elon Musk is a national security threat. A Russia-friendly Republican billionaire who has promised to flood Twitter with misinformation (aka “free speech”) and bring back Trump is threatening to buy Twitter, again. He must be stopped. <a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1577368691133456384">Most important,</a> we're 5 weeks away from a CRUCIAL midterm election, and we know the Right wants to distract us with shiny objects and put forth any messaging that might keep us from voting. So it's important to see any "new development" announcement like this one in that context.</li></ul></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/shanvav/status/1576980106731405319?s=20&t=WrWJ0hT0iA7X9c-A6kGRgw">Shannon Vavra (@shanvav): </a>Elon Musk suggests Ukraine should be "neutral" in Russia's war in Ukraine and in an approach to peace, and says Crimea is "formally part of Russia" (US/other allies recognize Crimea is Ukrainian). Ukraine's Ambassador to Germany weighs in: "Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply" (<a href="https://twitter.com/shanvav/status/1576980585322463239?s=20&t=WrWJ0hT0iA7X9c-A6kGRgw">Musk adds </a>"This is highly likely to be the outcome" in Ukraine "just a question of how many die before then")</li></ul><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1579941475613229056">ian bremmer (@ianbremmer):</a> elon musk told me he had spoken with putin and the kremlin directly about ukraine. he also told me what the kremlin’s red lines were.</li></ul><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1577109919979175936">Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe): </a>Elon Musk's "thoughts" on Russia and Ukraine today prove the theory of why Trump likes Putin and Kim. All these guys like one another because they think they think alike, like power-obsessed sociopaths for whom human lives are mere statistics and inconveniences.</li></ul>BTW<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/Strandjunker/status/1577248641663705088?s=20&t=WrWJ0hT0iA7X9c-A6kGRgw">Andrea Junker (@Strandjunker):</a> Just for those who may be a little confused: Elon Musk did not generously donate his Starlink satellite internet to Ukraine. The Biden administration had to pay him for it.</li></ul>AND</div></div></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>On 10/11/22, as the Ukrainian forces press on into Russian-occupied regions, Elon Musk<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-blocks-starlink-in-crimea-amid-nuclear-fears-report-2022-10"> denied a Ukrainian request to enable the use of Starlink</a> in Russian-occupied Crimea.</li></ul>FURTHERMORE, this is nothing new, this is who the Orc entrepreneur has been all along -<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Musk tweeted, "Take the red pill." And Ivanka Trump, upon seeing Musk's tweet, responded, "taken!" Lilly Wachowski, in response to their tweets, posted, "Fuck both of you." Raw Story: The term "the red pill" has come to be identified with far-right anti-feminist websites such as Return of Kings, that's not where it originated: the expression made its debut in sisters Lilly and Lana Wachowski's first of three "Matrix" films. Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently used the expression in a tweet that White House Senior Adviser Ivanka Trump forwarded — and Lilly Wachowski is calling them out for it. In the first "Matrix" film, taking "the red pill" means accepting a dystopian world as it really is. But when the alt-right adopted the term, they give it a far-right, socially conservative anti-feminist connotation — one in which someone who "takes the red pill" has had an alt-right awakening and rejects liberal or progressive ideology. On Sunday, May 17, Musk tweeted, "Take the red pill." And Ivanka Trump, upon seeing Musk's tweet, responded, "taken!" Lilly Wachowski, in response to their tweets, posted, "Fuck both of you." In a separate tweet, Musk (who has 34 million followers on Twitter), described "the red pill" as "one of my fav Matrix memes." <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/18/matrix-creator-criticizes-elon-musk-and-ivanka-trump-for-urging-people-to-swallow-the-red-pill_partner/">- Alex Henderson, "Matrix" creator criticizes Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump for urging people to swallow "the red pill," Salon</a></li></ul><div><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeLZlGd8w7xTl7xL1oqDqJsnm5p_Fs5SZp7AhALBwpjE9i-n0omLkhGQhO9LTgKdvzPWKCh21Kywk9j7Ucu-RGTI4307ZvFko8xpL5Ej6DE0YdRuoPZRCj0Z2ahCPgo7AbRE63ueNY-xv80KGChmfdgk_MuB_LuLHsaM42ASv9OhL6-6gXJhQ/s1081/Slide06.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeLZlGd8w7xTl7xL1oqDqJsnm5p_Fs5SZp7AhALBwpjE9i-n0omLkhGQhO9LTgKdvzPWKCh21Kywk9j7Ucu-RGTI4307ZvFko8xpL5Ej6DE0YdRuoPZRCj0Z2ahCPgo7AbRE63ueNY-xv80KGChmfdgk_MuB_LuLHsaM42ASv9OhL6-6gXJhQ/w640-h360/Slide06.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><br /></div><div><b>MBS & OPEC Side w/ Putin, Trump & MAGA</b></div><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/0liviajulianna/status/1577710892095086593">Olivia Julianna (@0liviajulianna)</a>: It is not a coincidence that oil companies are purposefully driving up prices by slashing production before an election & after the U.S. passed a climate bill. This is being done to brand fighting climate change as problem inducing & make it seem like democrats are failing</li></ul><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/lindyli/status/1577878377918337025?s=20&t=4wadHv_F1nwHTqyAq83TcQ">Lindy Li (@lindyli):</a> Make no mistake This is a deliberate attempt by the Trump-Saudi-Kremlin axis of horror to screw Biden right before the midterms To send energy prices soaring to threaten the Western coalition backing Ukraine To make Americans miserable so they’ll punish the governing party Kushner took $2 billion from the people who just jacked up gas prices for Americans Mnuchin took $1 billion from the people who funded the 9/11 attack Trump took blood money from the people who used golf to sportswash their murder of Khashoggi Trump works for MBS, not the USA</li></ul><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1578077766569934854">The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln):</a><br /> Choose a side<br />Vladimir Putin Volodymyr Zelensky<br />Tucker Carlson President Biden<br />MAGA Republicans Decent Americans</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>“There’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done with Russia,” Biden said, though he declined to get into specifics about the action he is considering. “There will be consequences,” he repeated. The cut in supply is expected to boost oil prices, which will help Putin continue funding his war in Ukraine, and also test the strength of Europe’s support for Ukraine ahead of a projected economic squeeze on the continent this winter. The move would also increase gas prices in the U.S. ahead of the midterm elections in November. Senate Democrats have been calling for a tough response. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused the Saudis of underwriting “Putin’s war through the OPEC+ cartel,” adding that the U.S. should freeze arms sales and minimize security cooperation with the kingdom. “There simply is no room to play both sides of this conflict ― either you support the rest of the free world in trying to stop a war criminal from violently wiping off an entire country off of the map, or you support him,” Menendez said in a statement Monday. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia chose the latter in a terrible decision driven by economic self-interest.”<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-saudi-arabia-opec-oil_n_6346bb7ce4b0e376dc07c887"> - Huffington Post, "Biden Vows 'Consequences' For Saudis After OPEC+ Moves To Cut Oil Production</a></li></ul></div><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz5WQSQiSC_1diCc_-5-XLCXVjrekLlxXlNLkOiDgK83U7D25UkKK0Zz9Ls9dxlxPgTKw18L8aUuaWtWEBLxdisveWgCB8oiMg7g2ixx7NYsDMP1aZKO_eiYVM8ztVgcQgFVhb3tkZxCHdyTNQNXeT-EabbV3osrJirWopZCLlyq7V-tpqrTg/s1081/Slide07.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz5WQSQiSC_1diCc_-5-XLCXVjrekLlxXlNLkOiDgK83U7D25UkKK0Zz9Ls9dxlxPgTKw18L8aUuaWtWEBLxdisveWgCB8oiMg7g2ixx7NYsDMP1aZKO_eiYVM8ztVgcQgFVhb3tkZxCHdyTNQNXeT-EabbV3osrJirWopZCLlyq7V-tpqrTg/w640-h360/Slide07.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></div><div><b>ESPIONAGE & SEDITION</b></div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I have been observing Garland closely for months. I’ve talked with his closest friends and most loyal former clerks and deputies. I’ve carefully studied his record. I’ve interviewed Garland himself. And I’ve reached the conclusion that his devotion to procedure, his belief in the rule of law, and in particular his reverence for the duties, responsibilities, and traditions of the U.S. Department of Justice will cause him to make the most monumental decision an attorney general can make. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/10/merrick-garland-donald-trump-investigation-indictment/671683/">- Franklin Foer, THE INEVITABLE INDICTMENT OF DONALD TRUMP, The Atlantic</a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>"The real questions before Merrick Garland are not whether to indict, but when, and where, and for which crimes ... & when it comes to trying the case in Washington, there one could include Insurrection, and Seditious Conspiracy, in addition to Espionage, Theft of Government Documents and Obstruction of Justice ... This will be an indictment that is absolutely over the top, leaving no stone unturned. It's important, despite the angst that will generate, & the threatened violence & all the rest. That will be the beginning, I predict, of national healing, when we will see that no one really is above the law, the fact that even the President of the United States, the former President, is accountable, & that will make a big difference." <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/prof-tribe-lays-out-how-many-crimes-ag-garland-could-indict-trump-with-150441029684">- Laurence Tribe speaking to Lawrence O'Donnell, The Last Word, MSNBC, 10/11/22</a></li></ul><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1578869641945919489?s=20&t=9AG6BwrU5GvqaufVC9eaQQ">Duty To Warn (@duty2warn):</a> Jamie Raskin says that the names Michael Flynn and Roger Stone come up so often in Jan 6th Committee discussions, that they've begun calling them "The Flynnstones." Yabba Dabba Coup.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A Trump employee has told federal agents about moving boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago at the specific direction of the former president, according to people familiar with the investigation, who say the witness account — combined with security-camera footage — offers key evidence of Donald Trump’s behavior as investigators sought the return of classified material. The witness description and footage described to The Washington Post offer the most direct account to date of Trump’s actions and instructions leading up to the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of the Florida residence and private club, in which agents were looking for evidence of potential crimes including obstruction, destruction of government records or mishandling classified information. The people familiar with the investigation said agents have gathered witness accounts indicating that, after Trump advisers received a subpoena in May for any classified documents that remained at Mar-a-Lago, Trump told people to move boxes to his residence at the property. That description of events was corroborated by the security-camera footage, which showed people moving the boxes, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation ... <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/12/maralago-witness-trump-boxes-moved/">- Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey, Trump worker told FBI about moving Mar-a-Lago boxes on ex-president’s orders, Washington Post</a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The panel dedicated a large part of Thursday’s hearing to arguing that Trump’s efforts to overturn the election were “premeditated”. The committee aired footage of comments from Trump associates Steve Bannon and Roger Stone saying before the vote in November 2020 that Trump would prematurely declare victory and dispute the results if he were to lose. “I suspect [the results] will still be up in the air. When that happens, the key thing to do is to claim victory. Possession is nine-tenths of the law. ‘No, we won. F**k you,’” Stone said in documentary footage from November 2020 that was aired on Thursday. Democratic Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren also said during the hearing that Trump had a plan to dispute a potential election loss even before the votes were counted. “This ‘Big Lie’ – President Trump’s effort to convince Americans that he had won the 2020 election – began before the election results even came in,” she said. “It was intentional. It was premeditated. It was not based on election results or any evidence of actual fraud affecting the results or any actual problems with voting machines.” For her part, Cheney stressed that Trump knew that his election fraud claims were false – a central theme of the committee’s hearings this year. “There is no defence that Donald Trump was duped or irrational,” the Republican congresswoman said. “No president can defy the rule of law and act this way in a constitutional republic – period.” <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/13/five-key-takeaways-from-ninth-january-6-committee-hearing">- Five key takeaways from ninth January 6 committee hearing, Al-Jazeera</a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1579532347141410816">Duty To Warn (@duty2warn): </a>Just a reminder: Steve Bannon's sentencing is coming up October 21. At long last, a cell door will open, a MAGA criminal will enter, and the cell door will close. Followed by ... silence. While I'm sure he'll continue to bloviate, nobody will hear except others in his cell block.</li></ul></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/prof-tribe-lays-out-how-many-crimes-ag-garland-could-indict-trump-with-150441029684">Prof. Tribe lays out how many crimes AG Garland could indict Trump with</a></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" loading="lazy" scrolling="no" src="https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/embedded-video/mmvo150441029684" width="560"></iframe></div></div></div><div><div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_RWzHNprxWVZSXW-dytCZkQqRdNkd3ItlFTnd5zkxDWQYD_GlgoAjIG9VE8U0BL726zjTt9VuV4AJTYd11OaLcHPFQkAhKZT-9XKqOmyrrxfF2QDq7lb9fN1gZge6k6Hf6jBos2BiKK8Y7KHSCOap77if-C0Ux4w28-EfPq10x0QmGEbqRc/s1081/Slide08.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_RWzHNprxWVZSXW-dytCZkQqRdNkd3ItlFTnd5zkxDWQYD_GlgoAjIG9VE8U0BL726zjTt9VuV4AJTYd11OaLcHPFQkAhKZT-9XKqOmyrrxfF2QDq7lb9fN1gZge6k6Hf6jBos2BiKK8Y7KHSCOap77if-C0Ux4w28-EfPq10x0QmGEbqRc/w640-h360/Slide08.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><b>Dark Brandon Gives Young Voters A Taste of BFD</b><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/amandalitman/status/1578102649391644672?">Amanda Litman (@amandalitman):</a> Biden has delivered big for young people with historic action on climate change, student debt relief, & massive steps forward on marijuana policy -- our collective next step is to talk about all that endlessly in every space & place possible until (and after) polls close.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1578155139487207425">Joe Biden (@JoeBiden):</a> Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. Today I announced a pardon of all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana, urged governors to do the same, and asked HHS and DOJ to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit. That's before you address the clear racial disparities around prosecution and conviction. Today, we start to right these wrongs.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Using the authority Congress granted the Department of Education, we will forgive $10,000 in outstanding federal student loans. In
addition, students who come from low-income families which allowed them
to qualify to receive a Pell Grant will have their debt reduced
$20,000. Both of these targeted actions are for families who need
it the most — working and middle-class people hit especially hard
during the pandemic making under $125,000 a year. You make more than
that, you don’t qualify. No high-income individual or high-income
household, on top of the 5 percent — in the top 5 percent of incomes,
by the way, will benefit from this action. Period. In fact, about 90
percent of the eligible beneficiaries make under $75,000 a family. Here’s
what that means: If you make under $125,000, you’ll get $10,000 knocked
off your student debt. If you make under $125,000 a year and you
received a Pell Grant, you’ll get an additional $10,000 knocked off that
total for a total of $20,000 relief. <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/08/25/remarks-by-president-biden-announcing-student-loan-debt-relief-plan/">- White House: Remarks by President<span class="gmail-dewidow"> </span>Biden Announcing Student Loan Debt Relief<span class="gmail-dewidow"> </span>Plan </a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>President Biden will travel to Egypt to attend this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP27, according to two people familiar with his plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a trip that is not yet public. Biden’s planned attendance at the climate conference will give a boost to the gathering, which had been at risk of delivering little concrete action amid disputes over ambition and funding. The developing world has been asking for sharply more assistance from the rich nations that are responsible for the bulk of global warming over history. But those industrialized nations have been reluctant to make any promises. Now Biden, who also attended last year’s conference in Scotland, will have a chance to showcase the progress his administration has made in the past year – and to cajole other countries to make similar efforts. Climate advocates say the Inflation Reduction Act will help deliver a boost to green industries that can outlast the Biden administration, helping to bypass some of the climate whiplash that comes from sharply different visions toward global warming from Democrats and Republicans. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/07/biden-will-attend-cop27-uns-climate-change-summit-egypt/">- Washington Post, Biden will attend COP27 — the U.N’s climate change summit — in Egypt"</a></li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBCJXOYz88vQH5yIZDuPYV4I9VwyTZy1IQytFSvLoQO_nlHBmS-2a88Rm8DMMRGDGWvom5xKvpbE9tu0Rs14XkFPQ9IK7ixFJt2MU2T4oiLWkxpj4vcwACpI42KKnX6itNkteCpSY7mARM5rclVoRnKrSjni_79G_vEqzy3kbq1m6itsYVY-E/s1081/Slide09.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBCJXOYz88vQH5yIZDuPYV4I9VwyTZy1IQytFSvLoQO_nlHBmS-2a88Rm8DMMRGDGWvom5xKvpbE9tu0Rs14XkFPQ9IK7ixFJt2MU2T4oiLWkxpj4vcwACpI42KKnX6itNkteCpSY7mARM5rclVoRnKrSjni_79G_vEqzy3kbq1m6itsYVY-E/w640-h360/Slide09.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>ROEVEMBER!</b></div><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1579277785255710720">Joe Biden (@JoeBiden): </a>Republicans want a national ban on abortion—but if you give me two more Democratic senators and Democrats keep the House, I promise you we will codify Roe v. Wade.</li></ul><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/piper4missouri/status/1579617766687899649">Piper for Missouri (@piper4missouri), Teacher, Democratic Nominee for State Representative in MO HD1:</a> I just had a man tell me that if a woman dies from an ectopic pregnancy, that’s God‘s will. He’s voting on November 8. Are you?</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div><a href="https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger/status/1576915542241587201">Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger): </a>The attack on women’s self-determination and autonomy is as much a part of MAGA’s fascistic affinities as is the cult’s fondness for violence and white Christian nationalism. It's always part of fascism.</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div>According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, in the 100 days, as of Sunday, since the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, nearly 80 million people find themselves in 13 states that, in effect, ban abortion. There will be a record number of abortion-related measures on the midterm ballot. It would be a mistake to see the focus on abortion as distinct from the MAGA war on democracy ... “Fascism is a rejection of the notion of equality, of an expansive definition of the people. And it comes at a time where people are pushing the parameters of an existing definition, one that basically included males, often male property owners only,” Anne Wingenter, professor of history and women’s studies at Loyola University Chicago, explained in a radio interview in April. “It was pushback against expanding that definition to excluded groups. What we seem to be experiencing today, to me, looks a lot like an attempt to define down that notion of the people again. And some people get to be fully autonomous, and some don’t.” That was certainly the pattern in 1930s fascist Italy. Wingenter explained, “[Benito] Mussolini was known for his kind of pithy little quotes. And he is on record as saying, ‘War is to man, as maternity is to woman.’ ” She continued, “The ideal woman in fascist Italy was the wife and mother of many children” ... In sum, MAGA support for government intrusion into Americans’ most intimate decisions reflects an authoritarian outlook. It is not a coincidence that this targeting of women is occurring in tandem with a developing voter registration gender gap favoring women. They understand all too well that the GOP’s quest for a national abortion ban is about their reproductive rights — and also about their inclusion in society and ultimately the preservation of democracy. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/03/maga-fascism-women/">- Jennifer Rubin The war on abortion rights meshes perfectly with MAGA authoritarianism, Washington Post </a></div></li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4rDS341c6xsP_igIVZiTSYzy6UlFjHbcv2J3XUKeo1Ve1Kzq_N88bH_HDF1MBPiF9VOFzk8e4WEqeCPsVrt9GpeE7eyK0-taz5ehWWlVGOV06HYBHNzk_V-CE70Qs5U6adVS00y6F9N500ZYAFa-7Nfw709wTC8lMjYlTIKCLP4x0Z48D8i0/s1081/Slide10.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4rDS341c6xsP_igIVZiTSYzy6UlFjHbcv2J3XUKeo1Ve1Kzq_N88bH_HDF1MBPiF9VOFzk8e4WEqeCPsVrt9GpeE7eyK0-taz5ehWWlVGOV06HYBHNzk_V-CE70Qs5U6adVS00y6F9N500ZYAFa-7Nfw709wTC8lMjYlTIKCLP4x0Z48D8i0/w640-h360/Slide10.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>A Survey of Critical Races</b></div><p>In each update, my "Survey of Critical Races" has focused on races for Senator and Governor, but of course, there are dangers all down the ballet. It is imperative to vote the straight Democratic ticket <a href="https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1580414157425324032?s=20&t=V0X8xvw2XTZXB1ULP_WlvQ">(unless you're in Utah) </a>up and down the ballot.</p><p>Consider this - </p><p></p><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1579427671133786113"></a><ul style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1579427671133786113"></a><li><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1579427671133786113"></a><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1579427671133786113">Duty To Warn (@duty2warn):</a> Trump has normalized coups. The GOP boast that if their secretaries of state are elected they’ll make sure Republicans win. They’re running for election on the platform that they will corrupt elections and overthrow democracy. <br />“<a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1579431870424838144">When my coalition of secretary of state candidates get elected</a>, we're gonna fix the whole country and president trump is going to be president again”—Jim Marchant, Republican candidate for Nevada Secretary of State</li></ul><p></p><p><b>Michigan</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A Michigan man involved in a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in 2020 was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday, federal prosecutors announced. The big picture: Kaleb Franks, 28, of Waterford, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiring to kidnap the Michigan governor, had faced up to life in prison. But his sentence was reduced due to factors including testifying at federal two trials, per a Department of Justice statement. Those trials "cumulatively resulted in the convictions of co-defendants Adam Fox and Barry Croft and the acquittals of Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta," the DOJ noted. Ty Garbin, who was the first person to plead guilty in the case, had his prison sentence reduced from 75 months to 30 months due to his cooperation at the trials Context: The FBI said in October 2020 its agents uncovered a plot to violently overthrow the government and kidnap Whitmer because the plotters believed she and other elected officials were violating the U.S. Constitution with measures such as pandemic restrictions. What's next: Fox and Croft are due to be sentenced in December.<a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/10/07/michigan-governor-whitmer-kidnap-plot-man-sentence"> </a><a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/10/07/michigan-governor-whitmer-kidnap-plot-man-sentence">- Rebecca Falconer, Michigan man sentenced to 4 years over plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer, Axios</a></li></ul></div><div><b>Pennsylvania</b></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/TheDailyEdge/status/1577843536619356160">The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge):</a> Calling him #DogKillerOz may sound hyperbolic… until you realize that Columbia University was fined for violating the Animal Welfare Act after it was shown Dr. Oz euthanized puppies without anesthetic in some of the cruelest animal experiments imaginable.</li></ul><p style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EnBVRl2ZhqU" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p><p></p><p><b>Wisconsin</b></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Wisconsin Democratic Party Ben Winkler cited data from the 2018 election to compare to this year's midterm vote. According to him, they've already surpassed their goals for participation. Typically during midterm elections, the president's party flops. So, in 2018, that was supposed to be a horrific election for Donald Trump. But according to Winkler, the numbers are favoring the Democrats more in the state there than when Trump was in office. "You know, Wisconsinites, like most Americans, love freedom. When someone takes away a basic, fundamental freedom, for more than half the population, it doesn't sit well," said Winkler of the Supreme Court decision to eliminate Roe v. Wade. "We have seen people come out of the woodwork, to run for office because we are so infuriated by what Republicans are doing in our state. Volunteers, we begin our midterm records from 2018 hands down for knocks on the door, phone calls, text messages, and everything else." He also noted what other states are seeing as well, that there has been a dramatic increase in voter registration among women. "And we see, among voters, a huge gender gap in who is registering to vote. Normally a midterm election goes against the president's party," said Winkler. "But this is not a normal moment. I think the reaction to the Republican attack on the freedom to decide what to do with people's own bodies, the decisions about when and whether to start a family, those things are producing a massive, massive backlash that has rendered a governor's race and a senate race that are now 'coin tosses' in the state of Wisconsin."<a href="https://www.rawstory.com/wisconsin/?"> - Raw Story, "Data shows Wisconsin Democrats are seeing dramatic election enthusiasm ahead of the Nov. vote: party chief" 10/9/22</a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I was a reliable Republican voter since I was a Wisconsin College Republican at the same time as future governor Scott Walker and future Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. From the time I managed a Republican campaign for Congress in 1992 until my days as the editor and owner of RightWisconsin, I supported the conservative movement and Republican candidates. But this year party loyalty is asking too much. I am going to vote for Mandela Barnes for U.S. Senate and Tony Evers for governor. I am under no illusions that I have any policy positions in common with Barnes or Evers. I am pro-life. I support school choice. I support smaller government and lower taxes. I believe that we need to reduce crime by putting more police officers on the street and closing the revolving door at our courthouses. But even more dear to me, and more important to the country, is protecting the Constitution. On this, Sen. Ron Johnson and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels cannot be trusted. <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/2022/10/12/opinion-lifelong-wisconsin-republican-vote-democrats-mandela-barnes-tony-evers-2022-election/10465035002/">-- James Wigderson, "I'm a lifelong Republican but sometimes party loyalty asks too much. I'm voting for Mandela Barnes and Tony Evers" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>He’s an election falsifier who recklessly promoted lies about the 2020 presidential race long after it was clear Donald Trump lost. He’s a science fabulist who suggested, without evidence, that the COVID-19 vaccines could make the pandemic worse and who repeatedly touted unproven remedies for the disease — from Ivermectin to mouthwash. He's tried to rewrite the sordid history of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, claiming the attackers were "people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law." He suggested the government should rewrite the rules for the two government programs seniors rely on most — Medicare and Social Security — making them subject to annual political fights in Congress rather than mandatory payments as promised. For years, Ron Johnson has demonstrated that he should be retired to his family's seaside Florida home — and not representing Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate. Voters should send him packing this November. <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/2022/10/12/ron-johnson-has-no-business-being-wisconsin-senator-any-longer-editorial/7888310001/">- Editorial Board, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel </a></li></ul></div><div><p></p><p><b>Ohio </b></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>He opposes same-sex marriage and wants to ban abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest. He said people in “violent” marriages shouldn’t get divorced. He said that rape and incest were “inconvenient.” That’s certainly putting it mildly. Instead of distancing himself from extremists in his party, he welcomes them. He said he was “proud” to have Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s endorsement. Greene, in case you don’t know, blamed wildfires on space lasers funded by “Rothschild Inc.” and said there’s no evidence that a plane crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11. She is, in other words, a lunatic. But rather than denounce her, Vance embraces her. These flip-flops and contortions aren’t just embarrassing. They show exactly the kind of person J.D. Vance is—a craven shapeshifter who will say whatever he needs to say to get elected. <a href="https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2022/10/03/joan-w-lawrence-j-d-vance-has-changed-tune-about-donald-trump-for-votes-ohio-senate-columbus/69530645007/">- Joan W. Lawrence Former Ohio lawmaker: J.D. Vance a 'craven shapeshifter' regurgitating MAGA speak, Columbus Dispatch</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1580290790860869632?s=20&t=-c0Oa4uVmq2aVCpyXQAAaA">Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts):</a> This man is running for US Senate. Don’t let him win.<br /><a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance1/status/1434552375117860870">J.D. Vance (@JDVance1):</a> Alex Jones is a far more reputable source of information than Rachel Maddow. One of them is censored by the regime. The other promoted by it.</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/rRej2EXw1ZU">Tim Ryan HUMILIATES JD Vance to his face with the LINE OF THE YEAR</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rRej2EXw1ZU" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> </div><div> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKWZz4HbrTwGz7c2SAhrH8KuUMPUHt-9BwQez66b7TJ3QdICpEMmF5azvjIYgvGKTg1laucZpEcduYf89oDa1GTebY4GFz72MmIEM8RDvDxr5HE_nRGptLIiE19Sger4NU25n7dD-AEWI0Ug-sGn00G2jbziGRxYhlhf7LEnh8f2hDwl8Lkz4/s1081/Slide11.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKWZz4HbrTwGz7c2SAhrH8KuUMPUHt-9BwQez66b7TJ3QdICpEMmF5azvjIYgvGKTg1laucZpEcduYf89oDa1GTebY4GFz72MmIEM8RDvDxr5HE_nRGptLIiE19Sger4NU25n7dD-AEWI0Ug-sGn00G2jbziGRxYhlhf7LEnh8f2hDwl8Lkz4/w640-h360/Slide11.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><b>Georgia</b></div><div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1577824920662200320?s=20&t=ZXzMgi1K9WJMlYKDYyxGpA">Duty To Warn (@duty2warn): </a>Sen. Raphael Warnock has opened up a 12-point lead against Herschel Walker, according to a SurveyUSA poll released today, amid Walker's mounting scandals.Before tweeting, I checked 538 dot com to see if they reflected the SurveyUSA data in their polling averages and whether they likewise showed change in Warnock's direction ... and yes - they did.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/ElginCharles/status/1580350113066590208">Elgin Charles (@ElginCharles):</a> “Brian Kemp has made it lethal for women to live in the state of Georgia.”- @staceyabrams</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1580236709278932992">Marc E. Elias (@marceelias): </a>This is a national scandal. <br /><a href="https://twitter.com/markniesse/status/1580214602876739584">Mark Niesse (@markniesse): </a>The eligibility of tens of thousands of Georgia voters has been contested before Election Day under the state's voting law that allows unlimited challenges.</li></ul><p><b>Arizona</b></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1577870685006970880">Republicans against Trumpism (@RpsAgainstTrump):</a> Liz Cheney urges Arizonans to reject anti-Democracy candidates such as Kari Lake, adding: “For almost 40 years now I've been voting Republican, I don't know that I have ever voted for a Democrat. But If I lived in AZ now, I absolutely would…for governor and for SOS."</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/thehannahgoss/status/1578861665969311745?s=20&t=iEXH7ZRu8W6GppkPsIh4gQ">Hannah Goss (@thehannahgoss): </a>Today in Blake Masters' hometown paper @TucsonStar, his former classmates & teachers published their letter urging their neighbors to reject him. #AZSen "His threat reaches beyond a single school, beyond a single city — it jeopardizes every Arizonan." </li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJgQs8nXoqgKuH-nudQgBvDx0koXzphsyixdrYo29Mn4Po9bmBwEiibjxJudl6IKDRZku8Iin2FcPHlMck69jWc-te7pZiCtwCpJ25x6PQ1qOcXUZjY5Hf6nwWMVELE1aYx2xeQpbD8Lr_QdPpkbnv-DY5yfW5aHM4oCYDBhENDzbX443ZnrI/s680/Fek7EolVsAIMPhE.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="680" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJgQs8nXoqgKuH-nudQgBvDx0koXzphsyixdrYo29Mn4Po9bmBwEiibjxJudl6IKDRZku8Iin2FcPHlMck69jWc-te7pZiCtwCpJ25x6PQ1qOcXUZjY5Hf6nwWMVELE1aYx2xeQpbD8Lr_QdPpkbnv-DY5yfW5aHM4oCYDBhENDzbX443ZnrI/s320/Fek7EolVsAIMPhE.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div><p><b>Texas</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/antifaoperative/status/1579117172781355009?s=20&t=oxgRO8ns1_9xe8a_cDKgHw">𝐁𝐞𝐤𝐬 (@antifaoperative):</a> Greg Abbott won’t give pardons for marijuana charges, will allow rape survivors to be charged with murder for seeking healthcare and lines his pockets with blood money from the deaths of innocent children. Choose wisely, Texas</li></ul><p></p><p><b>Florida</b><br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1579576588974592000?s=20&t=oxgRO8ns1_9xe8a_cDKgHw">Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts):</a> Nearly 70% of Florida poll respondents OPPOSE passing permitless carry in the state. Yet Gov. Ron DeSantis has promised gun extremists and gun lobbyists he’ll prioritize this demonstrably dangerous and deadly legislation.</li></ul></div></div></div></div><div style="display: inline;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="display: inline;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-uaWKVzrD2VM1XKANXd5P5lzYlwQWdT0iQOG9iyl3857vP4urPcxZm18U7HpxUKDg1O4ewQRcpKCbOLbx8OIa_Argzhv1NfYZKB7CufZW4h-zJHHYOcZrc6xdlL9NmrznjH4JVrSBSApWiR7EmIw9ul5285fManpE2y0zzVO9jCpMjzZ5WRU/s1081/Slide12.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-uaWKVzrD2VM1XKANXd5P5lzYlwQWdT0iQOG9iyl3857vP4urPcxZm18U7HpxUKDg1O4ewQRcpKCbOLbx8OIa_Argzhv1NfYZKB7CufZW4h-zJHHYOcZrc6xdlL9NmrznjH4JVrSBSApWiR7EmIw9ul5285fManpE2y0zzVO9jCpMjzZ5WRU/w640-h360/Slide12.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><br /></div></div>Grimly Confident<div style="display: inline; text-align: center;"><br /></div></b></div><div><p></p><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1566500375095418881">Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote), 9/4/22:</a> Here’s the really hard math for you MAGAs. There are about 240M eligible voters in the US. 71M voted for Donald. That’s about 29%. “Half” would be 50%. 29 does not equal 50. I hope that clears it up for you. I know numbers can be scary.</li></ul>"The country is split down the middle.' No, it isn't. </div><div><br /></div><div>The country is split. Yes. But it's split 70% to 30%, and we're the 70%. </div><div><br /></div><div>That's what Lando was telling Poe at the dire moment in The Rise of Skywalker: </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://youtu.be/I2UTjZBho5Y">"There are more of us ..."</a></div><div><br /></div><div>But you have to vote, and you have to vote Democratic, and you have to vote all the way up and down the ballot, you have to vote for the election officials and the school board, you have to vote, you have get your friends and family to vote, you have to pull some people out of their dream states, out of their fantasies, and you have to pull other people out of their misguided sense of ideological purity, you've got to get people to vote. Because in their common sense, in their hearts, most people, the vast majority of Americans, are for abortion rights, they're for gun control, they're for climate change action, they're for protecting the sanctity of the vote, they're for the rule of law. These are not things that the majority of Americans are divided over. But as I talked about in the first presentation, the country in its inception was hard-wired to protect minority rule, and they've done everything they can, and they are getting more and more desperate (the oligarchs, the patriarchy, the guardians of white privilege) as the demographics shift continues in the body politic, because they can't win real elections anymore, so now they just want to throw away the elections completely, they want to say the state legislatures can throw away the ballots and declare a winner for their state. (And they control many of those state legislatures, even in blue and purple states, because of gerrymandering and dark money.) This has to end here and now.<div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div></div>I know many of you have been told most of your life that 'this is the most important election you'll ever vote in,' and I know many of you are tired of hearing it. Well, you know every time you were told that it was true, it wasn't hyperbole. We don't keep saying it over and over again, because it doesn't get done, we have said it over and over again because it's a long arc. That's what the Doctor said, that's what Dr. King meant. It wasn't a rhetorical flourish, it was a fact, and a prophecy, 'the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.' This is what he meant. We are on that arc, living and struggling on that arc, we are leaning forward on that arc. This is what he meant, that you would be here many times in your life, 'this is the most important election of your life.' The arc of the moral universe is LONG, but it bends towards justice, it curves towards justice. With each election victory, the arc accelerates. We can do this, if we get through 2022 and 2024, we will have broken the back of fascism, we will have broken the fever, we will have routed the orcs.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /><div><div><b>See Also</b><br /><br /><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2022/09/secret-engine-update-3-91922-what-you.html">"Secret Engine" Update #3 (9/24/22): What You Need to Know As We Hurtle Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines</a></div><br /><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2022/08/secret-engine-update-81722-what-you.html">"Secret Engine" Update #2 (8/23/22): What You Need to Know As We Hurtle Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines</a><a href="#"></a><br /><br /><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2022/07/secret-engine-update-what-you-need-to.html">"Secret Engine" Update #1 (7/22/22): What You Need to Know As We Hurtle Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines</a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div><span style="text-align: center;">-- Richard Power, Yoga & Meditation Teacher, Writer, Speaker, Global Intelligence & Security Expert. </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/ref=sr_1_1" style="text-align: center;">"Secret Engine of the World: Further Insights into Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution" (2021) is available from Amazon.com</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":1bo"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnS9lVunfJZ8eS06vHlwdFsS-YTqxEOMJRy_I3yQK3giXLLHHzwrHrig5cntsEP3bzrBSYW2yv8KReUHTWf0e_5jX8iB7abfAQtddYqhuuU5KTIeWV_5Ul3fkH2bfALkKktGqw10MRTVTQ8UJyFBBRPCcN_Qag04ay_UbO4LU_vjJXOa-9jEA/s1800/271129783_10227528427976248_8265357075453770177_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1440" height="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnS9lVunfJZ8eS06vHlwdFsS-YTqxEOMJRy_I3yQK3giXLLHHzwrHrig5cntsEP3bzrBSYW2yv8KReUHTWf0e_5jX8iB7abfAQtddYqhuuU5KTIeWV_5Ul3fkH2bfALkKktGqw10MRTVTQ8UJyFBBRPCcN_Qag04ay_UbO4LU_vjJXOa-9jEA/w512-h640/271129783_10227528427976248_8265357075453770177_n.jpeg" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/ref=sr_1_1">"Secret Engine of the World: Further Insights into Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution" (2021) is available from Amazon.com</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div aria-controls=":1f0" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":1f0" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":1bk" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 351px;" tabindex="1"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[All images are sourced and published as Fair Use.]</div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-75976443427161796422022-09-19T14:04:00.224-07:002022-11-07T13:32:34.646-08:00"Secret Engine" Update #3 (9/24/22): What You Need to Know As We Hurdle Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br />
<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZjfpQAP6RzNjhFf7qT6V8vNGvFK0uFnPA8cz17CPFFyWOA5Gn_qTBCGyiCEbToVp6WDXN2dw7Rw4OJQ9a8gsLT-keJqZVThICU1oelw0zOqWWWf6VJthUIM9InbC96XpL3beWzYURIKycaCVAdE6qtMMeRhDpWqnSKmyF6J3K-_NAyD9NiKQ/s1081/Slide01.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZjfpQAP6RzNjhFf7qT6V8vNGvFK0uFnPA8cz17CPFFyWOA5Gn_qTBCGyiCEbToVp6WDXN2dw7Rw4OJQ9a8gsLT-keJqZVThICU1oelw0zOqWWWf6VJthUIM9InbC96XpL3beWzYURIKycaCVAdE6qtMMeRhDpWqnSKmyF6J3K-_NAyD9NiKQ/w640-h360/Slide01.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I live in the Real World. And I fight for the Future. Many among us do.</div><div style="text-align: left;">We fight for our country, and for all of humanity, for all of the other species and for Gaia Herself.</div><div style="text-align: left;">We live in the Real World. We fight for the Future.</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfjl8H6157jy7d1mq1kZNJ34Bm-SyTFMk96ZgrhPMRvfEHtcPPRtM1CA-d2iQQS2NGx0YBhSNxFLRajrJaCvk_vBmbrE9e-dLBJ81DFNBN8l7aLVrjbsGUz0P6oKM9KLXiBl7feTId-HYOu1J4EB92JFGnyu9e-7OgRWU8nUaBo_C-KuVDA_A/s1081/Slide02.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfjl8H6157jy7d1mq1kZNJ34Bm-SyTFMk96ZgrhPMRvfEHtcPPRtM1CA-d2iQQS2NGx0YBhSNxFLRajrJaCvk_vBmbrE9e-dLBJ81DFNBN8l7aLVrjbsGUz0P6oKM9KLXiBl7feTId-HYOu1J4EB92JFGnyu9e-7OgRWU8nUaBo_C-KuVDA_A/w640-h360/Slide02.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/Y9L8A0ETQ6o"><br /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/BxOqL2BSvPs">VIDEO: "Secret Engine" Update #3: What You Need to Know As We Hurtle Toward <br />1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BxOqL2BSvPs" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />This is not a transcript. These are my notes for the talk. I post them here in the hope that they might be useful to you for your own clarity and in your efforts to engage other voters. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div>All of the images included in the first of these five presentation were from tweets related to Russia's genocidal attack on Ukraine. The images I selected were all of women, women journalists, women in the military, civilian women casualties. Why? Because victory in this war is vital for the future of the West and of democracy and because the leadership of women is vital for the future of all life on this planet. </div><div><br /></div><div>The images included in the second and third presentation are also all of women (except for two slides, lol); the women whose images I share in this presentation are all agents of the Ascendant Feminine, whether in the United States, or Ukraine, or Belarus or Russia itself. </div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, it is all one struggle, one great conflict, one shining portal to step through into a real future.</div></div></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG0snK3Z8PHCFjpLGfzuEdW8_-BHQ_gtJMOYDuFslIF6c-qVkYiB6KMXJEjrTNz2j4rrc6kkBJnVaM4bpXxndXQbW_wB0rdcU-zMAZ3TMmVHPO07Hqkw1P-bFFfn2xWv3Xd2rdkz_vQqonKWHrq9YJXYvxsp08DZtfDH6jxv7TGJBJaogUObE/s1081/Slide03.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG0snK3Z8PHCFjpLGfzuEdW8_-BHQ_gtJMOYDuFslIF6c-qVkYiB6KMXJEjrTNz2j4rrc6kkBJnVaM4bpXxndXQbW_wB0rdcU-zMAZ3TMmVHPO07Hqkw1P-bFFfn2xWv3Xd2rdkz_vQqonKWHrq9YJXYvxsp08DZtfDH6jxv7TGJBJaogUObE/w640-h360/Slide03.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>1st of 3</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">These five talks are focused on this year's mid-term elections in the United States, the first of the three deadlines I outlined in "Secret Engine of the World." These three deadlines are either doom-defying or doom-defining, depending upon outcomes. It is truly up to us, by us I mean what I call the United Front for Sanity and Decency (Left, Liberal, Center and True Conservative).</div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">For SCIENCE. For HUMAN RIGHTS. For GAIA. For SANITY and DECENCY.</div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Three Deadlines -</div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>2022: U.S. Mid-Term Elections</li><li>2024: U.S. Presidential Elections</li><li>2031: Climate Apocalypse?</li></ul></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKNHYFDK3DDQrErIKe9awlrdmETeld-kcjcHUP3TN2PdKZp7xYxYkX1FQyohCGZin6nT5ZeW-pnzH2TDUkMTD4u3HvsuFJEHkTuJ_CwtY6fnPKfrq1aRSXSjca20dzzGuA7Bz-hXfLjt13pKYSECcWrgUZpnOgzJt8dui7gSG8fXl5OGb4tuk/s1081/7_for3_Part_3_c.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKNHYFDK3DDQrErIKe9awlrdmETeld-kcjcHUP3TN2PdKZp7xYxYkX1FQyohCGZin6nT5ZeW-pnzH2TDUkMTD4u3HvsuFJEHkTuJ_CwtY6fnPKfrq1aRSXSjca20dzzGuA7Bz-hXfLjt13pKYSECcWrgUZpnOgzJt8dui7gSG8fXl5OGb4tuk/s600/7_for3_Part_3_c.jpg" width="560" /></a><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The Facts on the Ground</b></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: left;">Planetary Emergencies</li><ul><li style="text-align: left;">Climate Collapse</li><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/shahmiruk/status/1570515482373136384">Shahmir Sanni (@shahmiruk):</a> Imagine ALL of England & Wales under 2-10 feet of water, and more than half of the UK’s population without ANY livelihood or shelter. That’s the scale of the Pakistan floods. Please, continue to raise awareness.</li></ul><li style="text-align: left;">Pandemic</li><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1572609848725966850">TIME (@TIME):</a> Today's Daily Spotlight: They say long COVID is "the greatest mass-disabling event in human history"</li></ul></ul><li style="text-align: left;">The Big Lie, 1/6 & Beyond</li><li style="text-align: left;">Ukraine</li><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><div><a href="https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1573140018851450880">Igor Sushko (@igorsushko): </a>Putin's #mobilization virtually guarantees the elimination of the worst possible outcome for #Ukraine: a never-ending frozen conflict which the world will forget and move on from. Human civilization is committed in ensuring a Ukrainian victory against this evil.</div></li></ul><li style="text-align: left;">Guns & Abortion</li></ul></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDJQsfExmLUIpJpoQ_ZHIN-AlMJ-mOjqhBIsNUKguOQeMZalNR2GJrUSLmQD8JuAaTlh1ofX2qlm7uYqR-Tp9ZwV6voL8gVIM1D73wYWzmwh8F2BadaF9KE8-ZvMoJCRURd0d_QKlVXEt3j9IQorr18J0QJzif83QjuvFLpiTnwiWi3jy5FWg/s1081/Slide05.jpeg" style="text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDJQsfExmLUIpJpoQ_ZHIN-AlMJ-mOjqhBIsNUKguOQeMZalNR2GJrUSLmQD8JuAaTlh1ofX2qlm7uYqR-Tp9ZwV6voL8gVIM1D73wYWzmwh8F2BadaF9KE8-ZvMoJCRURd0d_QKlVXEt3j9IQorr18J0QJzif83QjuvFLpiTnwiWi3jy5FWg/w560-h360/Slide05.jpeg" /></a></div><div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>$1.6 Billion in Dark Money</b></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>This is the largest known single donation made to a political influence organization. The money came from Barre Seid, a 90-year-old electronics company executive, and the new organization, Marble Freedom Trust, is controlled by Leonard A. Leo, the co-chair of the Federalist Society, who has been behind the right-wing takeover of the Supreme Court. Leo has also been prominent in challenges to abortion rights, voting rights, climate change action, and so on. He announced in early 2020 that he was stepping back from the Federalist Society to remake politics at every level ...<a href="https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-22-2022"> - Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from An American, 8/22/22</a></li></ul><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A new conservative nonprofit group scored a $1.6 billion windfall last year via a little-known donor — an extraordinary sum that could give Republicans and their causes a huge financial boost ahead of the midterms, and for years to come. The source of the money was Barre Seid, an electronics manufacturing mogul, and the donation is among the largest — if not the largest — single contributions ever made to a politically focused nonprofit. The beneficiary is a new political group controlled by Leonard A. Leo, an activist who has used his connections to Republican donors and politicians to help engineer the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/01/us/supreme-court-term-roe-guns-epa-decisions.html">conservative dominance of the Supreme Court</a> and to finance battles over <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/03/us/conservative-legal-movement-roe-v-wade.html">abortion rights</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/us/Voting-republicans-trump.html">voting rules</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/19/climate/supreme-court-climate-epa.html">climate change policy</a>. This windfall will help cement Mr. Leo’s status as a kingmaker in conservative big money politics. It could also give conservatives an advantage in a type of difficult-to-trace spending that shapes elections and political fights. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/us/politics/republican-dark-money.html">- "An Unusual $1.6 Billion Donation Bolsters Conservatives," New York Times, 8/22/22</a></li></ul><div style="text-align: left;"><ul><li>An elderly, ultra-secretive Chicago businessman has given the largest known donation to a political advocacy group in U.S. history — worth $1.6 billion — and the recipient is one of the prime architects of conservatives’ efforts to reshape the American judicial system, including the Supreme Court. Through a series of opaque transactions over the past two years, Barre Seid, a 90-year-old manufacturing magnate, gave the massive sum to a nonprofit run by Leonard Leo, who co-chairs the conservative legal group the Federalist Society ... As President Donald Trump’s adviser on judicial nominations, Leo helped build the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, which recently eliminated Constitutional protections for abortion rights and has made a series of sweeping pro-business decisions. Leo, a conservative Catholic, has both helped select judges to nominate to the Supreme Court and directed multimillion dollar media campaigns to confirm them. Leo derives immense political power through his ability to raise huge sums of money and distribute those funds throughout the conservative movement to influence elections, judicial appointments and policy battles.<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/dark-money-leonard-leo-barre-seid"> - "How a Secretive Billionaire Handed His Fortune to the Architect of the Right-Wing Takeover of the Courts," Pro Publica, 8/22/22</a></li></ul><div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT7g4hSax6MqzTdRzCc6VjBFgcU3C2nAtx8l6DcUJv7xpVuZGBhEe69xe0IjEXIcQIyw3qIPvI6ffD0i_i2IRLjgn5LuQsDfTUImZo9Oex5RoER0AwV307j-N0lcncBwC9L9rZUazEwFBcoIBWhDmg9DplcXY0q3Mmfq8CiZ-hGAm3Qf8GYg0/s1081/Slide06.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT7g4hSax6MqzTdRzCc6VjBFgcU3C2nAtx8l6DcUJv7xpVuZGBhEe69xe0IjEXIcQIyw3qIPvI6ffD0i_i2IRLjgn5LuQsDfTUImZo9Oex5RoER0AwV307j-N0lcncBwC9L9rZUazEwFBcoIBWhDmg9DplcXY0q3Mmfq8CiZ-hGAm3Qf8GYg0/w640-h360/Slide06.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div><b>CNN Falls (Politico Too)</b></div><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/lindyli/status/1565911556583473152">Lindy Li (@lindyli):</a> Billionaire John Malone donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration He also donated to Trump’s Save America PAC whose purpose was to overturn the election Now Malone controls CNN Another Republican oligarch who wants Trump back in power so he can keep his tax cuts. Another selfish robber baron who’s willing to undermine our hard-won, blood-purchased republic for more yacht money What’s a republic in the face of super-yachts and mega-mansions? Greedy MFers</li></ul><ul><li>Harwood, the network's White House correspondent, announced on Friday that he was leaving the network, one day after calling Donald Trump a "dishonest demagogue" on the air. In a televised prime-time intervention on Thursday night, Harwood talked positively of Biden's speech in Philadelphia, during which the president warned of an assault against democracy led by former President Trump and his supporters."The core point [Biden] made in that political speech about a threat to democracy is true. Now that is something that is not easy for us as journalists to say," Harwood said."We're brought up to believe there's two different political parties with different points of view, and we don't take sides in honest disagreements between them. But that's not what we are talking about. These are honest disagreements. The Republican party right now is led by a dishonest demagogue" ... </li><li>Harwood's exit follows that of former CNN anchor [Brian] Stelter, who walked out of the news network in August after new chief executive Chris Licht canceled his media show Reliable Sources, the network's longest-running program, having launched in 1992. Stelter, who led the show for the past nine years, was known as a harsh critic of Trump and those conservative news channels, such as Fox News, backing the former president.</li><li>However, the new CNN leadership, which took over in April after the Discovery-Warner Bros merger, has reportedly said it wants the network to adopt a more neutral voice for its news coverage, featuring less opinionated takes from its hosts, including Stelter. CNN chief executive David Zaslav has said that he wants a network for both Republicans and Democrats, while John Malone, a Warner Bros. Discovery shareholder, told CNBC in November 2021 that he wanted the network to "evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with." Licht <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/scoop-new-cnn-boss-chris-licht-wants-staff-to-stop-calling-it-the-big-lie/">reportedly</a> told staff that they were not to call Trump's debunked stolen election claim the "big lie" as the words sounded like a Democrats' slogan.<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/boycott-cnn-calls-grow-viewers-fear-network-shifting-right-1739744"> - Newsweek, 9/5/22</a></li></ul></div><div><ul><li>Months after his company bought Politico, Mathias Döpfner stood atop Axel Springer’s 19-story headquarters, gazing out at the double row of cobblestones that mark the outline of the demolished Berlin Wall, and explained his global ambitions. “We want to be the leading digital publisher in democracies around the world,” he said. A newcomer to the community of billionaire media moguls, Döpfner is given to bold pronouncements and visionary prescriptions. He’s concerned that the American press has become too polarized — legacy brands like the New York Times and The Washington Post drifting to the left, in his view, while conservative media falls under the sway of Trumpian “alternative facts.” So in Politico, the fast-growing Beltway political journal, he sees a grand opportunity. “We want to prove that being nonpartisan is actually the more successful positioning,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post. He called it his “biggest and most contrarian bet." How exactly Döpfner, Axel Springer’s CEO, hopes to define nonpartisan journalism at an especially fragmented time for American politics is a question of intense interest as he aims to leave his mark on American media. His own politics have remained something of a mystery, too. But weeks before the 2020 U.S. presidential election, he sent a surprising message to his closest executives, obtained by The Washington Post: “Do we all want to get together for an hour in the morning on November 3 and pray that Donald Trump will again become President of the United States of America?” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/09/06/mathias-dopfner-trump-email-axel-springer-politico/">- Washington Post, 9/6/22</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/WajahatAli">Wajahat Ali (</a><a href="https://twitter.com/WajahatAli">@WajahatAli</a>): Right-wing take over of Politico and CNN, plus mainstream outlets like CBS News and others actively courting Trumpers and pulling their punches for sake of GOP "access" reveals everything terrible about mainstream media and its normalization of fascism. It's going to get worse.</li></ul><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAcTo0Ux3ZXHqUynw03pocvTDuMyz87w7rgu3DULptiCa53aZCDg12efTvNwXLKYhSWG9QAlaUMHsR0hZZ2Mx5X21L_YFX9cegqu7szaxKYseTbOybnSNkwTkIpNgLXXLdaGnSGni8IazzX8APCPFbWhx9YR_0ei3ukpN77Lxp5dufCD6AEXw/s1081/Slide08.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAcTo0Ux3ZXHqUynw03pocvTDuMyz87w7rgu3DULptiCa53aZCDg12efTvNwXLKYhSWG9QAlaUMHsR0hZZ2Mx5X21L_YFX9cegqu7szaxKYseTbOybnSNkwTkIpNgLXXLdaGnSGni8IazzX8APCPFbWhx9YR_0ei3ukpN77Lxp5dufCD6AEXw/w640-h360/Slide08.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><br /></div><div><b>ESPIONAGE & SEDITION</b></div><br />There are at least two federal grand juries investigating Trump, OR is it that there are at least THREE federal grand juries investigating Trump? </div><div><div><div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":1jx"><div aria-controls=":1n9" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":1n9" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":1jt" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="min-height: 538px;" tabindex="1"><ul><li>"Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and former deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin were subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The move to subpoena the two men has signaled an even more dramatic escalation in the Justice Department's investigation into the Jan. 6 attack than previously known. Members of former Vice President Mike Pence's staff have also appeared before a grand jury." <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/cipollone-philbin-expected-friday-federal-grand-jury-probing/story?id=89163658&fbclid=IwAR2K4b3fF3oQvw0Hr0qpeAlBnO7C6NivFBW0_z8XGj1dcV8sxvgs_RM5tsw" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">- ABC News, 9/1/22</a></li><li>Dozens of subpoenas issued last week show that the Justice Department is seeking vast amounts of information, and communications with more than 100 people, as part of its sprawling inquiry into the origins, fundraising and motives of the effort to block Joe Biden from being certified as president in early 2021. The subpoenas ... are far-reaching, covering 18 separate categories of information, including any communications the recipients had with scores of people in six states where supporters of then-President Donald Trump sought to promote “alternate” electors to replace electors in those states won by Biden. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/15/trump-january-6-subpoenas-meadows/">- Washington Post, 9/15/22</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1568669644197875714" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote), 9/10/22: </a> The former president of the United States and head of the GOP is under criminal investigation for espionage and sedition.</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1568009953499312129">Duty To Warn (@duty2warn), 9/9/22: </a>We predict when the damage assessment is complete, Trump’s espionage will prove to be THE most catastrophic breach of national security in US history. It won't be about mere pilferage or possession. He's passed secrets to Russians from Day 1, and to the Saudis shortly thereafter.</li><li><a href="https://www.rawstory.com/clear-and-present-threat-to-democracy-republican-former-defense-secretary-suggests-trump-should-be-prosecuted/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Raw Story, 9/7/22: </a>Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen says he agrees Donald Trump a “clear and present threat to democracy,” and adds his possession of classified documents including one revealing the nuclear capabilities of a foreign government is “offense enough” for him to be “subject to criminal prosecution.” Cohen, a Republican and former U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator from Maine, served as President Bill Clinton’s Defense Secretary. He noted that if he had the same documents in his house where he left office as Donald Trump did, “I would be in handcuffs.”</li><li>"It was intentional," said Brennan. "He knew he shouldn't have those documents. This absurd claim he declassified things is just absurd. There's no way. The fact that he brought them down there — it does seem as though there was a fair amount of obstruction of justice as they were moved around. The National Archives and Department of Justice were told untruths." The whole situation, argued Brennan, is similar to the behavior Trump exhibited during the Russia investigation — and in that case, as well, seasoned prosecutors who investigated the matter concluded that the former president and his allies had likely committed obstruction. "You are talking about the investigation into Russian interference in the election and Bill Barr's blatant mischaracterization what the Mueller Report found, the Mueller Report found although there was collusion, there wasn't the evidence that he was able to uncover for criminal conspiracy," said Brenna. "I would think criminal conspiracy here in terms of trying to avoid any type of understanding that these documents were in Mar-a-Lago is something that I think Donald Trump and others are vulnerable to potential future indictment." <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/trump-committed-obstruction-of-justice-by-hiding-classified-documents-from-the-archives-former-cia-director/">- Raw Story, 9/15/22</a></li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/a718Q6DqfuY" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Former CIA chief: Trump committed obstruction of justice</a></div><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a718Q6DqfuY" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWaD8GHnEXZKU6jEkedM7JXeB8rDXxFW3zMRqgfLZvyKB9jwab-lBHbLr7hR00UI_-Q4Bj4ihPrpfHB60ZnCj_cyu-czjFW7wLcd0JudboN8Ctp7ESuFXv9fe3sxQa34aBStY6Wd774aai4zepj93RvwCQ8wWOS5GC-c5-G49uW79eV3_J6Mk/s1081/Slide07.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWaD8GHnEXZKU6jEkedM7JXeB8rDXxFW3zMRqgfLZvyKB9jwab-lBHbLr7hR00UI_-Q4Bj4ihPrpfHB60ZnCj_cyu-czjFW7wLcd0JudboN8Ctp7ESuFXv9fe3sxQa34aBStY6Wd774aai4zepj93RvwCQ8wWOS5GC-c5-G49uW79eV3_J6Mk/w640-h360/Slide07.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><p></p><p><b>Dark Brandon Goes Prime Time</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic ... They refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself. MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards — backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love. They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country. They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th — brutally attacking law enforcement — not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots ... We can’t allow violence to be normalized in this country. It’s wrong ... We can’t let the integrity of our elections be undermined, for that is a path to chaos. <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/09/01/remarks-by-president-bidenon-the-continued-battle-for-the-soul-of-the-nation/">- Remarks by President Biden on the Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation, Philadelphia, PA, 9//1/22</a></li><br /><li><a href="https://twitter.com/Strandjunker/status/1568303359945236480?s=20&t=9wNuC-xR1mdrcJOF93TGxg">Andrea Junker (@Strandjunker):</a>cThe fact that ABC, NBC, and CBS are all airing King Charles’ first speech, but none of them aired President Biden’s primetime speech about the ongoing threats to American democracy shows exactly what is terribly wrong with today’s political mainstream media.</li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/djrothkopf/status/1565501059593805825">David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf): </a>The MAGA GOP will no doubt call Biden's speech divisive but it was the opposite. He sought to unify the vast American majority to stand up to the ugly, loud minority that is a threat to all we stand for. It's the kind of stand against fascism that FDR & Churchill once called for.</li><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/djrothkopf/status/1565505247493095424">David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf):</a> Commentators portraying the coming elections campaign(s) as politics as usual are failing as journalists. One side is trying to destroy democracy & strip away Americans' rights. The other is trying to defend the country & its ideals. Both-sidesing it is doing MAGA-fascist's work.</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/djrothkopf/status/1565500411414552576">David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf): </a>Biden has boiled 2022 down to it's essence. Are you pro-democracy or against it? Are you pro-Constitution or against it? Do you want to preserve our vital rights and freedoms or carve them away? The MAGA GOP is a threat to each of us & what's best about America. Vote vote vote</li></ul></ul><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/jaredlholt/status/1567191246153596928?s=20&t=urtkbqc3YeZVb5-XAjIeZw" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Jared Holt (@jaredlholt): </a>Great work: FiveThirtyEight found 195 of 529 GOP nominees running for office in midterms "fully denied" the 2020 election. Another 61 "raised questions" about its legitimacy. No answer for 115 candidates. 71 accept results fully. 87 accept w reservations.</li><ul><li><a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/republicans-trump-election-fraud/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">FiveThirtyEight: 60 Percent Of Americans Will Have An Election Denier On The Ballot This Fall, 9/18/22</a></li></ul><li><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/most-americans-see-trumps-maga-threat-democracy-reutersipsos-2022-09-07/" style="color: #1155cc;">Reuters/Ipsos poll:</a> “Fifty-eight percent of respondents in the two-day poll - including one in four Republicans - said Trump's ‘Make America Great Again’ movement is threatening America's democratic foundations.”</li><ul><li><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/most-americans-see-trumps-maga-threat-democracy-reutersipsos-2022-09-07/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Most Americans see Trump's MAGA as threat to democracy: Reuters/Ipsos poll, 9/7/22</a></li></ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/democracydocket/status/1567865335973400578" style="color: #1155cc;">Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket):</a> "Since the Jan. 6 insurrection, Republicans have launched a massive election subversion effort aimed at undermining the accurate counting of ballots and certification of election results."</li><ul><li><a href="https://www.democracydocket.com/news/republicans-insist-either-they-win-or-they-were-cheated/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Marc Elias, Republicans Insist Either They Win, or They Were Cheated, Democracy Docket, 9/3/22</a></li></ul></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/JemWkV2Vcic">President Biden Full Speech on Democracy (9/1/22)</a> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JemWkV2Vcic" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB4Exkm-S8oC8oYJL5m6QcmTDCVyke95m12f2r3NZRQl7PAQbn9U1G-Z58sasn4ttJ3PaHFCqLFl3XlzQMtyPiPKfJFXmwhO20NZE7nAhRArx5zkg-QL2xeDt_-V3xvNc-y2grSRx20WOn82kkFnZoIBSmTajBDhxJoyfNWRmQ2q9aSkIjEEk/s1081/Slide09.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB4Exkm-S8oC8oYJL5m6QcmTDCVyke95m12f2r3NZRQl7PAQbn9U1G-Z58sasn4ttJ3PaHFCqLFl3XlzQMtyPiPKfJFXmwhO20NZE7nAhRArx5zkg-QL2xeDt_-V3xvNc-y2grSRx20WOn82kkFnZoIBSmTajBDhxJoyfNWRmQ2q9aSkIjEEk/w640-h360/Slide09.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><b><br /></b><p></p><p><b>ROEVEMBER!</b></p><p></p><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1566779791117787137">Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw), 9/5/22:</a> Tom Bonier — a Democratic strategist & CEO of TargetSmart, a data and polling firm — says a "Roe wave of new women voters, fired up by the S.Ct’s abortion decision, could swamp GOP hopes in the midterms ... In his 28 yrs analyzing elections, he’s never seen anything like this."</li></ul><ul><li><span><a href="https://twitter.com/TerriForIdaho/status/1570554316766973953" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Terri Pickens Manweiler For Idaho (@TerriForIdaho):</a><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> </span></span>We’re not letting anyone take away our freedoms without a fight . Almost 60% of the new voters registered in Idaho since the Supreme Court decision are women. Time to reclaim our rights at the polls. #roevember #idpol</li></ul><h4></h4><div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggZVKFDDHu9Jt0XrtkbV66mLt7zFFi_DH_R74Yo9Ylc4O6uVv09g2orU2Yoby4KFsy85F9vaJcgcNxSrspzMm_C5PyKLaGLVNxSVlb4hALyffyeIZRB_gNIQjTWB57vvajnXtJVl2UmYS_r6xR2w3EOpbyKfKvQnxI3V2LVIHiWcubiGWDLWk/s1200/Fcu6ybiaMAA_alB.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggZVKFDDHu9Jt0XrtkbV66mLt7zFFi_DH_R74Yo9Ylc4O6uVv09g2orU2Yoby4KFsy85F9vaJcgcNxSrspzMm_C5PyKLaGLVNxSVlb4hALyffyeIZRB_gNIQjTWB57vvajnXtJVl2UmYS_r6xR2w3EOpbyKfKvQnxI3V2LVIHiWcubiGWDLWk/w400-h400/Fcu6ybiaMAA_alB.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJy5rT9Nch5iD0-yYTBGGL0mCAloNLqCCcQStQzUjP_n-2dZYJIqL9Pfwm0zpgpUDAUlBRPYISLg3pJy0tG3R7Lh3d-xO2GXU0XtUO-jaaqOGNUPQhTKAXz66ZAhBfUmGngE3AXZFAgOeeeKGiTL-i0jnildm-RZINpAj3Mg-JKqUXiWgpk4I/s1081/Slide10.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJy5rT9Nch5iD0-yYTBGGL0mCAloNLqCCcQStQzUjP_n-2dZYJIqL9Pfwm0zpgpUDAUlBRPYISLg3pJy0tG3R7Lh3d-xO2GXU0XtUO-jaaqOGNUPQhTKAXz66ZAhBfUmGngE3AXZFAgOeeeKGiTL-i0jnildm-RZINpAj3Mg-JKqUXiWgpk4I/w640-h360/Slide10.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><b><br /></b><p></p><p><b>A Survey of Critical Races</b></p><p><b>Michigan</b></p><p></p><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1567975513024774144">Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat):</a> Michigan is ground zero for election fraud tactics. They are training them to be part of a vast GOP corruption scheme to wreck democracy one stolen election at a time. </li><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/noraneus/status/1567838109349339137">Nora Neus (@noraneus): </a>Shocking new video obtained by @DrewGriffinCNN shows Republican leaders in Michigan training poll workers to **break the rules** so they can act as "undercover agents" during mid-term elections in November.</li></ul></ul><p><b>Pennsylvania</b></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"></span></p><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1567260340857016325?s=20&t=y7TTtGEK0LJQ2r_x-u2Qeg" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC):</a><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> </span>Unearthed audio shows Dr. Oz saying incest is “not a big problem” as long as “you’re more than a first cousin away.” He added his daughters don’t want to have sex with him because “my daughters hate my smell... Girls don’t like their fathers’ smell.”</li></ul><ul><li>Doug Mastriano] Republican candidate for Pennsylvania’s governor spoke during a video call hosted by a Christian nationalist group member ... "I pray that ... we’ll seize the power ... I pray for the leaders and also in the federal government, God, on the 6th of January that they will rise up with boldness."<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"> -</span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/09/doug-mastriano-prayer-republican-capitol-attack" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> Guardian, "Doug Mastriano prayed for Trump to ‘seize the power’ before Capitol attack" 9/10/22</a></li></ul><p></p><p><b>Wisconsin</b></p>"OXFORD LANGUAGES DEFINITION: Fifth Column: a group within a country at war who are sympathetic to or working for its enemies." Example: "Senator Ron Johnson, R-WI, is a Fifth Columnist"</div><div><p></p><p><b>Ohio </b></p><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1567653031595970569">Duty To Warn (@duty2warn):</a> J.D. Vance suggested that Trump should fire all civil servants and replace them with “our people.” “He should do what Viktor Orban has done.”</li></ul><ul><li>“J.D. is kissing my ass. Of course he wants my support,” Trump told the crowd. “The entire MAGA movement is for J.D. Vance,” he added.</li><ul><li>Former President Trump drew more than 6,000 fans for a rally Saturday evening in this industrial northeast Ohio city — and mocked venture capitalist J.D. Vance, his pick in the state’s surprisingly tight U.S. Senate race, in the process. <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-09-17/trump-rally-ohio-vance">- "In Ohio, Trump mocks Senate candidate J.D. Vance as he rallies for him," Los Angeles Times, 9/17/22</a></li></ul></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTHM-bnmmTLS1H32aIdqhhJZjyUMTYWGcCtmJX0rv1V_0K5bbWpmKDzxs_5oRl175MqWvTJ9bJEie9MhbwgY8kS3jGci1s1ZAJSLiMjwA24AbazjLux6CcISQQrpYHTxZgkxmQGiTZMm473OEt09Qcbhan3JZGFhUTv7_V884-UJ0kGSDbXCE/s1081/Slide11.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTHM-bnmmTLS1H32aIdqhhJZjyUMTYWGcCtmJX0rv1V_0K5bbWpmKDzxs_5oRl175MqWvTJ9bJEie9MhbwgY8kS3jGci1s1ZAJSLiMjwA24AbazjLux6CcISQQrpYHTxZgkxmQGiTZMm473OEt09Qcbhan3JZGFhUTv7_V884-UJ0kGSDbXCE/w640-h360/Slide11.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div><div><br /></div><b>Georgia</b></div><div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1570140392875757568" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln), 91/4/22:</a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span>A recent poll from @NARAL in Georgia:</li><ul><li>62% of mail ballot requests are for likely Dems</li><li>60%+ of ballot requests are from women</li><li>37% of ballot requests are from black voters (up 11% from 2018)</li><li>44,000 black Georgians have requested ballots (4x more than from 2018)</li></ul></ul><p><b>Arizona</b></p><cite class="el-editorial-source"></cite><div class="zn-body__paragraph" data-act-id="paragraph_8" data-paragraph-id="paragraph_9141994C-2B8B-7393-55C4-483BF0397B95"><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/RachelBitecofer/status/1571313043098972160?s=20&t=nEM-V7vDEkQ2X4ZTDywBaA" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Rachel Bitecofer (@RachelBitecofer):</a><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> </span>The only way to protect Arizona women from the Republican Party's cruel & inhumane abortion regime is to beat Kari Lake.</li></ul><ul><li>The outgoing <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/21/politics/who-is-rusty-bowers/index.html" target="_blank">Republican speaker of the Arizona House</a> says Trump-backed GOP candidates might send the country "back into the dark ages" if they win key midterm races and help enact laws to make it easier to overturn elections -- which he said was tantamount to "fascism" ... Last month, Bowers<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/02/politics/arizona-michigan-missouri-primary-election-takeaways/index.html" target="_blank"> lost a Republican primary</a> for an Arizona state Senate seat. His opponent: former state Sen. David Farnsworth, who said that he had "no doubt" that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and that there was a "<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/20/politics/rusty-bowers-censure-arizona-republican-party-jan-6/index.html" target="_blank">conspiracy headed up by the devil himself</a>." This helped earn him an endorsement from Trump, who posted online that "Bowers must be defeated." Enough Arizona voters agreed, and Bowers lost by 30 points. Bowers admitted to CNN that he "lost big," adding that the outcome doesn't bode well for democracy in the Grand Canyon State. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/18/politics/rusty-bowers-fascism-trump-election-cnntv/index.html?utm_term=link&utm_medium=social&utm_content=2022-09-18T13%3A45%3A06&utm_source=twCNN">Marshall Cohen - 'Welcome to fascism': Top Arizona Republican blasts Trump-backed candidates who might try to overturn future elections, CNN, 9/18/22</a></li></ul></div><p><b>Texas</b></p><p></p><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1569354036813484032" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Republicans against Trumpism (@RpsAgainstTrump), 9/13/22: </a>A group of Republicans in TX announced their support for Mike Collier, the Dem nominee for Lieutenant Governor running against Republican Dan Patrick: "Our leadership needs to adapt to that diversity and try to represent all of the people...Dan Patrick is an extremist."</li></ul><p></p><p><b>Florida</b></p><a href="https://twitter.com/valdemings/status/1570067837628329985"></a><ul><a href="https://twitter.com/valdemings/status/1570067837628329985"></a><li><a href="https://twitter.com/valdemings/status/1570067837628329985"></a><a href="https://twitter.com/valdemings/status/1570067837628329985">Val Demings (@valdemings), 9/14/22:</a> Marco Rubio just cosponsored the bill to ban abortions and criminalize doctors. He’ll stop at nothing to strip women of our constitutional rights. We have to hold him accountable in November.</li></ul><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/tbonier/status/1564737498424680454?s=20&t=ODqgXzNOwCGWeLvZgNGwCA" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Tom Bonier (@tbonier), 8/30/22:</a> New voter registrants in Florida since Jan 1 of this year:</li><ul><li>Jan 1 until Dobbs leak: +1.7% men</li><li>Dobbs leak until Dobbs release: +0.4% men</li><li>Since Dobbs release: +5.5% women</li></ul></ul></div></div></div></div><div style="display: inline; text-align: left;"><b><div style="display: inline; text-align: center;"><div><div style="display: inline;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwoQjDDnT9vqvmQHhBJTlYtlNcGwKveDcZpq3mdiK1K_NToYgutBzrRdREHeUUSokehCuQPRvUOiDsW_-ERZly7rBlqRx2CzHK4xZtdi7CfWY-xYJ9RlN6yLft5LBfZFziJeH6sXfl7tQGWKvG3whVJglEZnhIcALJ0c4rGCbRyG_0wM5OlDc/s1081/Slide12.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwoQjDDnT9vqvmQHhBJTlYtlNcGwKveDcZpq3mdiK1K_NToYgutBzrRdREHeUUSokehCuQPRvUOiDsW_-ERZly7rBlqRx2CzHK4xZtdi7CfWY-xYJ9RlN6yLft5LBfZFziJeH6sXfl7tQGWKvG3whVJglEZnhIcALJ0c4rGCbRyG_0wM5OlDc/w640-h360/Slide12.jpeg" width="560" /></a></div></div></div></b><br /><b><br />Grimly Confident<div style="display: inline; text-align: center;"><br /></div></b></div><div><p></p><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1566500375095418881">Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote), 9/4/22:</a> Here’s the really hard math for you MAGAs. There are about 240M eligible voters in the US. 71M voted for Donald. That’s about 29%. “Half” would be 50%. 29 does not equal 50. I hope that clears it up for you. I know numbers can be scary.</li></ul>"The country is split down the middle.' No, it isn't. </div><div><br /></div><div>The country is split. Yes. But it's split 70% to 30%, and we're the 70%. </div><div><br /></div><div>That's what Lando was telling Poe at that dire moment in The Rise of Skywalker: </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://youtu.be/I2UTjZBho5Y">"There are more of us ..."</a></div><div><br /></div><div>But you have to vote, and you have to vote Democratic, and you have to vote all the way up and down the ballot, you have to vote for the election officials and the school board, you have to vote, you have get your friends and family to vote, you have to pull some people out of their dream states, out of their fantasies, and you have to pull other people out of their misguided sense of ideological purity, you've got to get people to vote. Because in their common sense, in their hearts, most people, the vast majority of Americans, are for abortion rights, they're for gun control, they're for climate change action, they're for protecting the sanctity of the vote, they're for the rule of law. These are not things that the majority of Americans are divided over. But as I talked about in the first presentation, the country in its inception was hard-wired to protect minority rule, and they've done everything they can, and they are getting more and more desperate (the oligarchs, the patriarchy, the guardians of white privilege) as the demographics shift continues in the body politic, because they can't win real elections anymore, so now they just want to throw away the elections completely, they want to say the state legislatures can throw away the ballots and declare a winner for their state. (And they control many of those state legislatures, even in blue and purple states, because of gerrymandering and dark money.) This has to end here and now. <div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div></div>I know many of you have been told most of your life that 'this is the most important election you'll ever vote in,' and I know many of you are tired of hearing it. Well, you know every time you were told that it was true, it wasn't hyperbole. We don't keep saying it over and over again, because it doesn't get done, we have said it over and over again because it's a long arc. That's what the Doctor said, that's what Dr. King meant. It wasn't a rhetorical flourish, it was a fact, and a prophecy, 'the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.' This is what he meant. We are on that arc, living and struggling on that arc, we are leaning forward on that arc. This is what he meant, that you would be here many times in your life, 'this is the most important election of your life.' The arc of the moral universe is LONG, but it bends towards justice, it curves towards justice. With each election victory, the arc accelerates. We can do this, if we get through 2022 and 2024, we will have broken the back of fascism, we will have broken the fever, we will have routed the orcs.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b>See Also</b></div><br /><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2022/08/secret-engine-update-81722-what-you.html">"Secret Engine" Update #2 (8/23/22): What You Need to Know As We Hurtle Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines</a><a href="#"></a><br /><br /><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2022/07/secret-engine-update-what-you-need-to.html">"Secret Engine" Update #1 (7/22/22): What You Need to Know As We Hurtle Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines</a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div><span style="text-align: center;">-- Richard Power, Yoga & Meditation Teacher, Writer, Speaker, Global Intelligence & Security Expert. </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/ref=sr_1_1" style="text-align: center;">"Secret Engine of the World: Further Insights into Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution" (2021) is available from Amazon.com</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":1bo"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnS9lVunfJZ8eS06vHlwdFsS-YTqxEOMJRy_I3yQK3giXLLHHzwrHrig5cntsEP3bzrBSYW2yv8KReUHTWf0e_5jX8iB7abfAQtddYqhuuU5KTIeWV_5Ul3fkH2bfALkKktGqw10MRTVTQ8UJyFBBRPCcN_Qag04ay_UbO4LU_vjJXOa-9jEA/s1800/271129783_10227528427976248_8265357075453770177_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1440" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnS9lVunfJZ8eS06vHlwdFsS-YTqxEOMJRy_I3yQK3giXLLHHzwrHrig5cntsEP3bzrBSYW2yv8KReUHTWf0e_5jX8iB7abfAQtddYqhuuU5KTIeWV_5Ul3fkH2bfALkKktGqw10MRTVTQ8UJyFBBRPCcN_Qag04ay_UbO4LU_vjJXOa-9jEA/w512-h640/271129783_10227528427976248_8265357075453770177_n.jpeg" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/ref=sr_1_1">"Secret Engine of the World: Further Insights into Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution" (2021) is available from Amazon.com</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div aria-controls=":1f0" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":1f0" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":1bk" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 351px;" tabindex="1"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[All images are sourced and published as Fair Use.]</div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-45450842537396494882022-08-23T00:42:00.085-07:002022-11-07T13:32:54.968-08:00"Secret Engine" Update #2 (8/23/22): What You Need to Know As We Hurdle Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCejS6KFPV7mFpiK72hxgnzZ4zLdcVAizS7RVtlpDDY9mKCfnJqYvCpmZZNqrexMq3pIKOKzeflx5XwjxO0e5HHXZsSMTUsTMMrBt39ryLoEIJTlR0gowWFQK2wqADGibsc1vs-ks29x7Pn0tgA0EeU4l_nLdcVzW7cXAGNygVTuv708fhDno/s1081/Slide01.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCejS6KFPV7mFpiK72hxgnzZ4zLdcVAizS7RVtlpDDY9mKCfnJqYvCpmZZNqrexMq3pIKOKzeflx5XwjxO0e5HHXZsSMTUsTMMrBt39ryLoEIJTlR0gowWFQK2wqADGibsc1vs-ks29x7Pn0tgA0EeU4l_nLdcVzW7cXAGNygVTuv708fhDno/w640-h397/Slide01.jpeg" width="540" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I live in the Real World. And I fight for the Future. Many among us do. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We fight for our country, and for all of humanity, for all of the other species and for Gaia Herself.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span>We live in the Real World. </span>We fight for the Future.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiePsH6PCY11uunrmjRlOgof6ZTtl8WXyXoTy9OVlu040yW82mjrteoW_g-FHjmicIISTikGDkJ7bui0_aHnMmXmaaUIAKrSm21IgzT9htB7tCY8l315x3tDLXvdwaSABTWuaIVqDfWHo8TzxYgGdqDExgrcQXhmn4ufgNJaag2DuAlY2Zr6_M/s1081/Slide02.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiePsH6PCY11uunrmjRlOgof6ZTtl8WXyXoTy9OVlu040yW82mjrteoW_g-FHjmicIISTikGDkJ7bui0_aHnMmXmaaUIAKrSm21IgzT9htB7tCY8l315x3tDLXvdwaSABTWuaIVqDfWHo8TzxYgGdqDExgrcQXhmn4ufgNJaag2DuAlY2Zr6_M/w640-h397/Slide02.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>VIDEO: <a href="https://youtu.be/8Pa4UwxiV6Y">"Secret Engine" Update #2: What U Need to Know As We Hurtle</a></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/8Pa4UwxiV6Y"><b>Toward the1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines</b></a></div></div><p style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8Pa4UwxiV6Y" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
</p><p style="text-align: left;">This is not a transcript. These are my notes for the talk. I post them here in the hope that they might be useful to you for your own clarity and in your efforts to engage other voters. </p><div style="text-align: left;">All of the images included in the first of these five presentation were from tweets related to Russia's genocidal attack on Ukraine. The images I selected were all of women, women journalists, women in the military, civilian women casualties. Why? Because victory in this war is vital for the future of the West and of democracy and because the leadership of women is vital for the future of all life on this planet. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The images included in this second presentation are also all of women (except for two slides, lol); the women whose images I share in this presentation are all agents of the Ascendant Feminine, whether in the United States, or Ukraine, or Belarus or Russia itself. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Yes, it is all one struggle, one great conflict, one shining portal to step through into a real future.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisHm2S7IgzF293C_hnZlefQP-U00nYgzBwn6X2x45VySua5YyKg_Tx9t9_4PLTn8oLa6Qz5BcbISTVImFK371kEv623cUMxRL_LeM7sOq7H5Pk7ZwHbhXr6ZgrMZbrAJKegAOys8M-mu2S1M5IVjt3U4Ql7XblBZhVKy9bRjG0Bmq9MkWvIGU/s1081/Slide03.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisHm2S7IgzF293C_hnZlefQP-U00nYgzBwn6X2x45VySua5YyKg_Tx9t9_4PLTn8oLa6Qz5BcbISTVImFK371kEv623cUMxRL_LeM7sOq7H5Pk7ZwHbhXr6ZgrMZbrAJKegAOys8M-mu2S1M5IVjt3U4Ql7XblBZhVKy9bRjG0Bmq9MkWvIGU/w640-h397/Slide03.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><b>1st of 3</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">These five talks are focused on this year's mid-term elections in the United States, the first of the three deadlines I outlined in "Secret Engine of the World." These three deadlines are either doom-defying or doom-defining, depending upon outcomes. It is truly up to us, by us I mean what I call the United Front for Sanity and Decency (Left, Liberal, Center and True Conservative). </p><p style="text-align: left;">For SCIENCE. For HUMAN RIGHTS. For GAIA. For SANITY and DECENCY.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Three Deadlines -</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>2022: U.S. Mid-Term Elections</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>2024: U.S. Presidential Elections</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>2031: Climate Apocalypse?</li></ul><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbWIKeayIJiEtMGFj0AY2tVJR_laV6sswHIcwK6RJpk6Pw1KQOe0CmMKOk9vlcSsVXQ1UlRq6qLkHEg7tAHE820aQQDVQ4_5Q24bb-HxaE4bazS_PmXSZsKz17k_8m0A0EA8xZdA4YWfWDNFk5ZR_o7mrLGKbJ3Tn220FmX7aZUTY1B5PFH0A/s1081/Slide04.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbWIKeayIJiEtMGFj0AY2tVJR_laV6sswHIcwK6RJpk6Pw1KQOe0CmMKOk9vlcSsVXQ1UlRq6qLkHEg7tAHE820aQQDVQ4_5Q24bb-HxaE4bazS_PmXSZsKz17k_8m0A0EA8xZdA4YWfWDNFk5ZR_o7mrLGKbJ3Tn220FmX7aZUTY1B5PFH0A/w640-h397/Slide04.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Facts on the Ground</b></p><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Planetary Emergencies - </li><ul><li>Climate Collapse</li><li>Pandemic</li></ul></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The Big Lie, 1/6</li><ul><li>& Beyond</li></ul></ul></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Ukraine</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Guns & Abortion</li></ul><span style="text-align: left;"><div>When I spoke to you in July, Biden's poll numbers had fallen, precipitously, into the mid-thirties. Furthermore, the "conventional wisdom" among political "pundits" was that the Democrats would almost certainly lose control of both the House and the Senate. In my presentation, I articulated four factors that were driving his numbers down. No, not inflation, not gas prices, not baby formula, not trans rights, not "Critical Race Theory," not his age, no. Four other factors. Well, over this last month, as if the Universe Herself had responded directly, three of these four factors were turned inside out and right side up.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lo and behold, the poll numbers began to rise rapidly, for Biden and for the Democrats.</div></span><div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5K_hsOBFUpwM-fk0955-eGR8OHTdRghbv6NvroqoKMMxtIGj0NgTbwtI1uqChxCIPKYV77dpvwWnOQpy4Cz-mGthECAIFuQL5M7UO00vkI8QXLrMzPR06OEzvUtAqjwKYSnHpRS2iT8_h-OW8KsCIooFhOpR1-EXRS47RHSN4yFXSzYe4RMY/s1081/Slide05.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5K_hsOBFUpwM-fk0955-eGR8OHTdRghbv6NvroqoKMMxtIGj0NgTbwtI1uqChxCIPKYV77dpvwWnOQpy4Cz-mGthECAIFuQL5M7UO00vkI8QXLrMzPR06OEzvUtAqjwKYSnHpRS2iT8_h-OW8KsCIooFhOpR1-EXRS47RHSN4yFXSzYe4RMY/w640-h397/Slide05.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><b>DoJ Running Silent, Running Deep</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">One of the negative factors I cited was the "understandable, depressing assumption" that Trump and his co-conspirators would get away with their brazen but failed attempts to disrupt the peaceful transition of power and mount a coup. I said I believed the Garland DoJ would deliver, that the rule of law would be upheld, there would be accountability. Well, less than a week later, DoJ activity suddenly started accelerating or perhaps more accurately, DoJ's activity started to become more visible ...</p><ul><a href="https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1549856742577684480"></a><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1549856742577684480"></a><a href="https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1549856742577684480">Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw), 7/20/22: </a>If you still think AG Garland doesn’t fully intend to have DOJ prosecute EVERYONE responsible for trying to overturn the 2020 election, you need to listen carefully to what he said today: “For people who are concerned as I think every American should be about protecting democracy, we have to . . .hold accountable EVERY PERSON who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election.”</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/25/pence-chief-of-staff-january-6-00047772">Politico, 7/25/22: </a>Two top Pence aides appear before the Jan. 6 grand jury - Marc Short and Greg Jacob have both testified recently, according to two people familiar with the matter.</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1556775176783667202">Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins), 8/8/22: </a>The FBI executed a search warrant today at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, the former president confirms to CNN in a lengthy statement. Trump says the raid was unannounced and adds, "They even broke into my safe."</li></ul><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBfPRxZC34ZF9chx77fB-MttaJs6ouNgpMbncVaJH3zoeRnvgldv248AT05r_7f0CSGJB_iyP_mCPie0h6Tmc4EisEfRI5RTHtFDmqh-hfMe4KjmfGbQ4nkEj4YRfrfxo2G4auF0FygnF1MKHFUafFjEuzXzweLihtnFDqqNZ5RPoBkUV8PB0/s1081/Slide06.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="443" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBfPRxZC34ZF9chx77fB-MttaJs6ouNgpMbncVaJH3zoeRnvgldv248AT05r_7f0CSGJB_iyP_mCPie0h6Tmc4EisEfRI5RTHtFDmqh-hfMe4KjmfGbQ4nkEj4YRfrfxo2G4auF0FygnF1MKHFUafFjEuzXzweLihtnFDqqNZ5RPoBkUV8PB0/w640-h443/Slide06.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But this renewed confidence in the Justice Department isn't just related to the pursuit of 1/6 coup plotters:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>#BlackLivesMatter</i></div><ul><li style="text-align: left;">Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers sentenced to life in prison for federal hate crime <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/08/travis-mcmichael-murderer-ahmaud-arbery-sentenced-life-federal-hate-crime">- Guardian, 8/8/22</a></li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;">Saying "Breonna Taylor should be alive today," Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday that four current and former Louisville Metro Police officers have been federally charged in Taylor's March 2020 slaying that touched off a firestorm of protest in the city and across the nation. <a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2022/08/04/ex-lmpd-detective-joshua-jaynes-charged-fbi-breonna-taylor-case/65391852007/">- Louisville Courier Journal, </a><a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2022/08/04/ex-lmpd-detective-joshua-jaynes-charged-fbi-breonna-taylor-case/65391852007/">8/4/22</a></li></ul><i><div style="text-align: left;"><i>#BansOffOurBodies</i></div></i></div><div><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/johnson_carrie/status/1554530777559334918">Carrie </a><a href="https://twitter.com/johnson_carrie/status/1554530777559334918">Johnson (@johnson_carrie):</a> First big action from the Biden administration task force designed to protect reproductive freedoms: DOJ sues Idaho over that state's near total abortion ban, as it applies to women suffering medical emergencies.</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/johnson_carrie/status/1554530777559334918">Carrie </a><a href="https://twitter.com/johnson_carrie/status/1554530777559334918">Johnson (@johnson_carrie):</a> The reproductive rights task force led by Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta is evaluating other state actions with possible legal responses in mind, AG Garland says.</li></ul></div><div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib4LUIBUscdwhmIK161auxrLSRJhmFJ96pXHUqOo1maSZGOsNkwXY8whrYQcVQwF_RBlp50hZtm-Ijl_Nb2w6upR4N0wRzC2jKbjkBaSIK5U7RYYTp3Qg2-tui0mYPxvnuEL0nhqhsNLb2hS-irzbHzbqIYwepJSGQaO4lYWKhxG_903E15JA/s1081/Slide07.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib4LUIBUscdwhmIK161auxrLSRJhmFJ96pXHUqOo1maSZGOsNkwXY8whrYQcVQwF_RBlp50hZtm-Ijl_Nb2w6upR4N0wRzC2jKbjkBaSIK5U7RYYTp3Qg2-tui0mYPxvnuEL0nhqhsNLb2hS-irzbHzbqIYwepJSGQaO4lYWKhxG_903E15JA/w640-h427/Slide07.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Resusicating Our FDR(ish) Moment</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Another negative factor was the Democrats' failure to deliver on Biden's $1.75 trillion Build Back Better (BBB) package. Biden was going to go big. It was going to be our FDR Moment, but Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WI) robbed us of that bold step forward. Repeated attempts to strike a deal on a streamlined version failed. It seemed hopeless, but then seemingly out of nowhere, Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced a deal with Manchin, for a $740 billion version. Yes, less than half of the original proposal, nonetheless it delivered in some big ways -- on the Climate Emergency, on pharmaceutical drug prices, on corporate taxes. Hurtling toward the mid-terms, we got an FDR(ish) moment after all.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The legislation's title, "Inflation Reduction Act" (I.R.A.), is gimmicky and doesn't do it justice. </p><ul style="text-align: center;"><li style="text-align: left;">“In crossing this threshold we have changed history and will never go backwards,” Gore told the Guardian in an interview. “I’m extremely optimistic that this will be a critical turning point in our struggle to confront the climate crisis.” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/12/al-gore-climate-turning-point-inflation-reduction-act">- Oliver Milman, Al Gore Hails Biden's Historic Climate Bill As 'A Critical Point,' Guardian, 8/12/22</a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: center;"><li style="text-align: left;">Now signed into law, the I.R.A. will reduce U.S. emissions by 40% and take us two-thirds of the way to our Paris Accord goals</li></ul><span style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">Is it enough? Of course not. Paris itself, in toto, isn't enough. We know that, we've known that. But what we need to do in this country, which is still the most influential on the planet, is get ourselves on tract, inexorably, we need to establish a new baseline, we need the debate to shift from whether or not this is real (after all, climate denialism has always been a deceit), we need to shift from the debate about whether or not it is a hoax, we need the debate to center around "Are we doing enough? Are we moving fast enough?" The climate upon which civilization itself has been predicated for millennia is collapsing. So the answers will be "No, no we are not doing enough, we are not moving fast enough," and then we can lean in. We need to move boldly forward, and we need to accelerate, we need to gain momentum. </div></span><p style="text-align: left;">The passing of the I.R.A. is a profound good, a profound blessing. We must build on it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAJjPZCr3cpYNM5gBrfM9yEWSKMFLg0VgKc0InxnbdOFYXuBDlrs4IqN0K4o0UTKmEIlFoPqsOmTCM_O0n6UxwlIl3Iwnv7VZlh5jw_nuFYxkmPEprWIIsEBTw55_2XrJ3YFu51NqoGMoEMxbvEqMV2KySLWL7IjhxTfNHCDgnayoL-Kohe6w/s1081/Slide08.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAJjPZCr3cpYNM5gBrfM9yEWSKMFLg0VgKc0InxnbdOFYXuBDlrs4IqN0K4o0UTKmEIlFoPqsOmTCM_O0n6UxwlIl3Iwnv7VZlh5jw_nuFYxkmPEprWIIsEBTw55_2XrJ3YFu51NqoGMoEMxbvEqMV2KySLWL7IjhxTfNHCDgnayoL-Kohe6w/w640-h360/Slide08.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;">This is a great victory for Biden and the Democrats and for Sanity and for Gaia Herself.</p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>"we're disappointed that some of the things we put in this package originally aren't there, we're going to continue to fight for child care, it's important, people need it, we're going to fight for elder care, we're going to fight for more housing, all the things that aren't part of this package are still very, very important to the President. But make no mistake about it, this bill is a history-making bill for two reasons: first of all, these historic investments in fighting climate change, Sen. Schatz' ... said not only is it this most significant climate legislation enacted in the United States, it's the most significant climate legislation enacted in the world ... but there's a second reason ... for thirty years we were trying to defeat the drug industry on this Medicare pricing thing, and we've never been able to do it, we've been trying to defeat the climate deniers on climate legislation but never been able to do it, trying to defeat the big corporations who have a minimum tax so that billion dollar profit corporations have to at least pay some taxes, these are long-standing, generational fights against special interests, and the President and the Democrats have come together and found a way to win those fights for the first time, and I think that is also a very historic pivot here." <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/white-house-champions-biden-s-history-making-climate-and-health-bill-145843269975">- Ron Klain, White House Chief of Staff, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, 8/9/22</a></li></ul></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivIcmUTB0tIIFFe58ELuzcWVIzXdJoGl-I-ZtZyh8zUGHSIFPUZGS7hS2TmotCTo1eR6_AJWLD_tdp7WOwGCAQvjHkAZYh9VMQ3zeU_IcNgTePhqlpEQXdx4rIznlsaWiAGlijcy4ULRrdQRFGhLFMzDgI2A8Th4RbugcxlMBOP0gLZp41Gos/s1081/Slide09.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivIcmUTB0tIIFFe58ELuzcWVIzXdJoGl-I-ZtZyh8zUGHSIFPUZGS7hS2TmotCTo1eR6_AJWLD_tdp7WOwGCAQvjHkAZYh9VMQ3zeU_IcNgTePhqlpEQXdx4rIznlsaWiAGlijcy4ULRrdQRFGhLFMzDgI2A8Th4RbugcxlMBOP0gLZp41Gos/w640-h360/Slide09.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>"What's the Matter w/ Kansas?"</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">In 2004, journalist historian Thomas Frank published his "<a href="https://tcfrank.com/product/whats-the-matter-with-kansas/">What's the Matter w/ Kansas: How the Conservatives Won the Heart of America</a>." It spent 18 months on the NYT bestseller list. The book explored the rise of a populist (posturing) anti-elite (funded by billionaires lol) conservatism (misnomer, radicalism, really). It documented that mind-warping ideology's impact on the politics of Kansas. </p><p style="text-align: left;">A year later, in 2005, while Frank's book about the radical right indoctrination of Kansas was still on the NYT bestseller list, George W. Bush appointed <a href="Samuel Alito">Samuel Alito</a> to SCOTUS. Yes, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/09/alito-roe-sir-matthew-hale-misogynist/">Alito, the deeply disturbed</a> author of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/supreme-court-roe-handmaids-tale-abortion-margaret-atwood/629833/">the hateful, delusional decision</a> overturning Roe v. Wade. (Farewell,<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stare%20decisis"> stare decisis</a>). </p><p style="text-align: left;">Ironically, future herstorians may look back on Kansas and its overwhelming rejection of an abortion ban ballot initiative as the beginning of the end for all of this madness.</p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1nBrOOmqfYU2HlV8AeXObAe-xWf-RMhPZ5FgR_M91UfcTxq3yneKfEPtSZSfZM9PuuSblz0M-2IkLF1yh_0dD9VFacaH72AJvc77bb8egaY0pxwT5LV9e6pZE_biNNBmd4pekgtndrFhKsEoqybkUFSvu92oOjrb_gM7qSa7R5gnmhToAEzQ/s1000/2450764386509903276.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="1000" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1nBrOOmqfYU2HlV8AeXObAe-xWf-RMhPZ5FgR_M91UfcTxq3yneKfEPtSZSfZM9PuuSblz0M-2IkLF1yh_0dD9VFacaH72AJvc77bb8egaY0pxwT5LV9e6pZE_biNNBmd4pekgtndrFhKsEoqybkUFSvu92oOjrb_gM7qSa7R5gnmhToAEzQ/s320/2450764386509903276.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul><li style="text-align: left;">The overwhelming defeat of the anti-choice referendum came despite a very heavy Republican thumb on the scale going into Election Day. Republicans scheduled the vote at an odd time of year when way more Republicans would turn out than Democrats. The language of the ballot initiative was confusing, clearly meant to trick people who wanted to protect abortion into voting the wrong way. Advocates of the ballot initiative lied about the initiative, blasting voters with texts that falsely claimed a "yes" vote supported "choice," when in reality, a "yes" vote was to ban abortion. They ran ads with the misleading claim that a "yes" vote does not ban abortion. Due to all of that misinformation, polls as recently as a couple of weeks ago suggested this would be a nail-biter ... Six out of 10 voters who showed up voted against the abortion ban. It probably would have been more, if not for all the misleading ads and the election timing heavily favoring Republican voters. People may say they're "personally" against abortion or parrot ugly stereotypes about women who get abortions. Americans love to judge the sex lives of strangers. But when it comes to their own sex lives and those of their friends, they tend to be more forgiving — and therefore interested in keeping the option to abort unwanted pregnancies on the table. <a href="https://www.salon.com/2022/08/03/kansas-abortion-win-is-a-wake-up-call-americans-do-not-want-bans/">-- Amanda Marcotte, Salon, Kansas abortion win is a wake-up call: Americans do not want GOP bans, Republicans did everything they could to keep pro-choicers from the polls, yet the abortion ban went down in flames, 8/3/22</a></li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;">Whether in red or blue states, Democrats sense that voters are with them when it comes to their opposition to forced pregnancy. When they talk to voters, the blowback against Dobbs is palpable. It would be ironic if the most partisan Supreme Court majority in memory handed Democrats a political lifeline by shredding nearly 50 years of constitutional precedent and demolishing women’s rights. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/14/democrats-midterms-betting-on-abortion-might-pay-off/">- Jennifer Rubin, Democrats in tight races are betting on Dobbs blowback. It might pay off, Washington Post, 8/14/22</a></li></ul><ul><li><div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/katiebparis/status/1559745266151997440" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Katie Paris (@katiebparis): </a>Women are out-registering men to vote in states where politicians want to mandate our pregnancies. Since Roe was overturned, new women voters outnumber men in:</div><div style="text-align: left;">PA by 17%</div></div><div style="text-align: left;">WI by 15.6%</div><div style="text-align: left;">OH by 11%</div><div style="text-align: left;">MI by 8.1%s</div><div style="text-align: left;">This isn’t the 1950s. We won’t go down without a fight.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://insights.targetsmart.com/not-just-kansas-women-motivated-to-vote-in-states-with-repro-rights-at-risk.html">https://insights.targetsmart.com/not-just-kansas-women-motivated-to-vote-in-states-with-repro-rights-at-risk.html</a></div></li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><a href="https://youtu.be/8eQohM_MxFU" style="font-weight: bold;">Organizers mobilize voters to send message on abortion rights</a></span> (MSNBC): The high turnout in Kansas where voters overwhelmingly protected abortion rights is the work of organizers. Zerlina Maxwell talks to two young organizers, Yazmin Bruno-Valdez, who knocked on doors advocating for abortion in Kansas, and Olivia Julianna, activist and strategist for "Gen-Z for Change" who raised over two million dollars for abortion rights in response to Rep. Matt Gaetz, about their efforts to make change by galvanizing voters for abortion rights. </li></ul><div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8eQohM_MxFU" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpom_Y0VA8r5w1aYDZyAXZA45qcL1_mcujMKm3bpif-N5jFSappBzvawc1DnTFJ_6qchYibTU9I8w6HwyvNhsi504HEtUlZzj17ZjMm_Bk2swzBw5FRH-2QNFFNmoez3tjRJQwKopMYKA-43SofKnxhSfzRA4llf6yRMwEriP8pXvZsOAfi3g/s1081/Slide10.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpom_Y0VA8r5w1aYDZyAXZA45qcL1_mcujMKm3bpif-N5jFSappBzvawc1DnTFJ_6qchYibTU9I8w6HwyvNhsi504HEtUlZzj17ZjMm_Bk2swzBw5FRH-2QNFFNmoez3tjRJQwKopMYKA-43SofKnxhSfzRA4llf6yRMwEriP8pXvZsOAfi3g/w640-h360/Slide10.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div><div><br /></div><b><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Changing the Narrative in Spite of Beltwayistan Media Bias</b></div></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As soon as Trump left the building, the Beltwayistan news media wanted to return to the familiar, boiler-plate narrative of Republicans versus Democrats. But this isn't a horse race. Not now anyway.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The reality is that a pathology (anti-science, anti-women, anti-Gaia, anti-BIPOC, anti-LGBTQ) has taken control one of the two major political parties in this country. This is a very dangerous time. Moving forward, it doesn't matter if the Republican Party is led by Trump. or some other depraved successor, DeSantis for example. This election cycle is a struggle for national sanity and survival, and the next election cycle will likewise be a struggle for national sanity and survival.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So yes, another one of the four factors driving down poll numbers for Biden and the Democrats was our dysfunctional news media's compulsion to ignore the facts, to pretend that reality is somehow up for debate, to "both sides" it all, to pretend the genii was put back in the bottle, to pretend we're off to the races. Circumstances had forced mainstream news journalists to be tough on Trump now they would bend over backwards to show that they could be just as tough on Biden, even if "there is no there there."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But the mainstream news media's desperate attempt to return to its hackneyed horse race framing was up-ended by the over-turning of Roe v. Wade, the cruelty of the ruling, the horror of it, the hatefulness of it. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Alito's radical right-wing SCOTUS majority went too far (yes, it's Alito's court, Roberts has lost control).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Now it's not going to be so easy to deep-six the Biden and the Democrats, the corporatist media might not be able to save the billionaires above us from paying their fair share of taxes after all.</div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/8797257603156324553#">Republicans against Trumpism (@RpsAgainstTrump): </a>Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight forecast for the first time this election cycle that the Dems will keep the Senate: “It seems clear that there’s Something Happening Here and movement toward Democrats in recent polls isn’t just statistical noise.”</li></ul>There are more of us than them. Most Americans support mask and vaccine mandates. Most Americans opposed the overturning of Roe v Wade. Most Americans know that Climate Change is an emergency and much more should be done. Most Americans support term limits, an age cap and a code of ethics for SCOTUS. Most Americans support expanding SCOTUS.</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">We're not split down the middle. It isn't close on these issues (unless you don't vote). </div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Hard to overstate how wrong the red wave take was. Look at the Senate races. Fetterman, Warnock, Kelly, Cortez Masto, Hassan all have public polls at 49/50. There are polls w/Rubio, Abbott, Kemp, Grassley in the 40s, and Johnson, Vance, Oz, Walker are in low to mid 40s. <a href=" https://twitter.com/SimonWDC/status/155338766155721933">- </a><a href=" https://twitter.com/SimonWDC/status/155338766155721933">Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC), 7/30/22</a></li></ul></div><div><div style="text-align: left;">Poll numbers can change overnight. Trends can shift over these long weeks and months. I've added dates and sources to all the numbers I've cited here. Of course it can turn against us. Attempts will be made to blow it all up. BUT this is where we are right now and we're winning, it is possible to hold the House and expand the Senate, and we must, we really must prevail.<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/LarrySabato/status/1521885099041730563">Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato)</a>: Big change: Americans want term limits for Supreme Court justices by 66% to 21%, and favor expanding the Court by 55% to 36%. (Morning Consult poll for @politico) When I tested public appetite for Court reforms in 2007 (part of "A More Perfect Constitution") resistance was great.</li></ul></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgikuMeQKvvYyL2Fn3LbdBA21Lf8u7l_3__t7p0Sc9jpXMWHl-cWY9doAdk-ZC0rArDvRnOTQBy3Yzc-DcvBZ4lkb9nJ4X09YbUltCco5NLvsQ0ssEs1KO7YJBjdmAoG7gupIeDrXznGnnjcg2sTHUzEuBZ381x_-dkQv6_Et2MUiEFytlkO8I/s1081/Slide11.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgikuMeQKvvYyL2Fn3LbdBA21Lf8u7l_3__t7p0Sc9jpXMWHl-cWY9doAdk-ZC0rArDvRnOTQBy3Yzc-DcvBZ4lkb9nJ4X09YbUltCco5NLvsQ0ssEs1KO7YJBjdmAoG7gupIeDrXznGnnjcg2sTHUzEuBZ381x_-dkQv6_Et2MUiEFytlkO8I/w640-h360/Slide11.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div><div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>A Survey of Critical Races</b></p><div style="text-align: left;">Here is glimpse into a few of the critical races for Senate seats and Governorships in 2022.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's just a collection of damning revelations concerning those to vote against, inspiring utterances from those to vote for and encouraging poll numbers for this United Front for Sanity and Decency.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">We will check back in on these and other important campaigns in each update from now until November.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Michigan</b></div><ul><li style="text-align: left;">“And then about 45 minutes later, we started to hear the noises outside my home. And that's why my stomach sank. And I thought, it's me. And there — and then it's just we don't know what's gonna — the uncertainty of that was what was the fear. Are they coming with guns? Are they going to attack my House? I'm in here with my kid. You know, I'm trying to put him to bed. And so it was — yeah, that was the scariest moment just not knowing what was going to happen.” <a href="#">- Joycelyn Benson, House Select Committee on January 6th, Hearing #4, 6/21/22)</a></li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;">Two anti-government extremists sought to spark a “second American revolution” by kidnapping Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday, as the government tried <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/following-verdict-in-whitmer-kidnapping-case-some-see-freedom-and-others-danger">for a second time</a> to get convictions in an alleged plot to shock the country into chaos before the 2020 election. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/jury-is-told-2-men-wanted-to-kidnap-gretchen-whitmer-start-a-second-american-revolution">- Jury is told 2 men wanted to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, start a ‘second American revolution, Associated Press, 8/10/22</a></li></ul><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Pennsylvania</b></div><div><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/JohnFetterman/status/1535303967474958338?" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman):</a><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> </span>If you were horrified by what you saw on January 6, 2021 understand that 35 Senate Republicans voted against a bipartisan commission to investigate that day. Flipping PA blue + protecting our Democratic majority has *never* been more urgent.</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1532859125175943169" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Duty To Warn (@duty2warn):</a><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> </span>Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) said he's confident Lt. Gov. John Fetterman will flip the seat this fall. "Republicans have no answers ... no economic agenda ... no jobs plan or health care plan. They're bankrupt as a party. And they accommodate and embrace loopy and racist theories ... " </li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/JoshShapiroPA/status/1560399503676641280" style="text-align: center;">Josh Shapiro (@JoshShapiroPA):</a><span style="text-align: center;"> When asked about his stance on climate change, Doug Mastriano said: "it's fake science." And yes, that's a real quote. We can't afford to elect a conspiracy theorist to serve as Governor of Pennsylvania. He's too extreme. He's too dangerous.</span></li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2022/07/25/doug-mastriano-gab-tree-of-life-shooter-antisemitic-andrew-torba/stories/202207250010" style="color: #1155cc;">Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:</a> Associating with Gab — paying it for services, palling around with its CEO, posting on it knowing that doing so will generate anti-Semitic backlash against one’s opponent — is a slap in the face to Jewish communities around Pennsylvania, especially in Squirrel Hill. It’s beyond unbecoming. It’s heinous. Mr. Mastriano paid $5,000 to the company, and now every new user automatically follows his account. He has also posted at least 60 times on the site; during the primary he gave an interview to Gab CEO Andrew Torba, who insists his social media platform is dedicated to radical free speech. The Anti-Defamation League, however, rightly identifies Gab as a "haven for extremists, conspiracy theorists and misinformation."</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;">In a poll commissioned by Pittsburgh Works Together and conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, John Fetterman and Josh Shapiro held commanding 18 and 15 point advantages, respectively, over their GOP opponents in the chase for the U.S. Senate and Pennsylvania governor’s mansion. <a href="https://www.politicspa.com/poll-fetterman-shapiro-extend-leads/111049/">- Poll: Fetterman, Shapiro Extend Leads, Politics PA, 8/17/22</a></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Wisconsin</b></div><div><div><ul><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1559968319821778946">Josh Marshall (@joshtpm):</a> Barnes up over Johnson by 7 points in new premium poll. Poll found a tie two months ago. <a href="https://law.marquette.edu/poll/2022/08/17/mlsp71-press-release/">https://law.marquette.edu/poll/2022/08/17/mlsp71-press-release/</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/AlexandraChalup/status/1348142382836051970?s=20&t=SrDa4Ervbjd0Btle7-zr2Q" style="text-align: center;">Alexandra Chalupa (@AlexandraChalup):</a><span style="text-align: center;"> Ron Johnson is a Kremlin agent and has spent years betraying his nation. Yes, he should have been expelled long ago.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/maddow/status/1347645730652041216" style="text-align: center;">Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow): </a><span style="text-align: center;">Calling Sen. Ron Johnson a "leading member of the Senate's Sedition Caucus," Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel says he "deserves to be expelled, just as 10 senators were expelled in 1861 for refusing to accept the will of the voters who elected Abraham Lincoln."</span></div></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/OlgaNYC1211/status/1294882091566608385?s=20&t=MAJt8s1xNhJz3XLeXLz8aQ" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Olga Lautman (@olgaNYC1211):</a> How is a senator allowed to work with Russian operatives to attempt to take out Trump's opponent? @SenRonJohnson is literally working with Putin's operatives in Ukraine and disseminating Russian intel created crap. This is unbelievable.</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1294786356267417601">Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES):</a> You are a disgrace. You are a US Senator who is laundering Russian misinformation incepted by Russian Intelligence Services through the US Senate Committee you chair. @ProjectLincoln </li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1560403100351041538">Republicans against Trumpism (@RpsAgainstTrump):</a> A NEW Fox News poll of the Wisconsin Senate race: Mandela Barnes: 50% Ron Johnson: 46%</li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Ohio</b></div><div><ul><li style="text-align: left;">"Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/tim-ryan-crushing-j-d-vance-ohio-senate-race-poll-1722482">is leading</a> Republican general election challenger and Trump endorsement-recipient J.D. Vance by 9 percent in a new poll of the Ohio Senate race in which the two are running." - Bi-Partisan Report,<a href="https://bipartisanreport.com/2022/08/06/tim-ryan-trounces-trump-ally-j-d-vance-by-9-in-ohio-poll/">Tim Ryan Trounces Trump Ally J.D. Vance By 9% In Ohio Poll</a>, 8/6/22</li></ul></div><div><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1555911688611831809?s=20&t=zxT86EcmN1udOUoH6yKQNw">Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw):</a> Excellent news. But Dems supporting Tim Ryan against the reactionary and dangerously extreme J.D. Vance mustn’t take anything for granted. These ghouls are determined to win by any means necessary, and they won’t hesitate to commit crimes to do it.</li></ul></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0v5oJ9D7KaHbtapgJ797L1xRuu18vLoTvOrlGtlzToGtnpQ6bliW6znZuzpiz8XLqOoDge20mGlgc8yAc7AcI5-WKzXKy6lKmlUWRz0zxPP2ODMBX5t9IVttjwsaGjAi5l2F3OyL-W3V3pzfqVGDFfn5FgFbkZyt9x_MqCfpKGG6zndwZpBM/s1081/Slide12.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0v5oJ9D7KaHbtapgJ797L1xRuu18vLoTvOrlGtlzToGtnpQ6bliW6znZuzpiz8XLqOoDge20mGlgc8yAc7AcI5-WKzXKy6lKmlUWRz0zxPP2ODMBX5t9IVttjwsaGjAi5l2F3OyL-W3V3pzfqVGDFfn5FgFbkZyt9x_MqCfpKGG6zndwZpBM/w640-h267/Slide12.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Georgia </b></div><div><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7iUYCeJprtE<">This is the real Herschel Walker.</a></li></ul></div><div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7iUYCeJprtE" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div><div><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/staceyabrams/status/1556669584194904066" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams):</a> In Georgia — where 82 counties don't have an OB/GYN — women have not only lost their right to choose, they could be investigated for having miscarriages. Brian Kemp has made it lethal for women to live in the state of Georgia with his extreme and dangerous six-week abortion ban.</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/Mikel_Jollett/status/1556373355262906369" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett):</a><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> </span>Stacey Abrams and grass-roots groups registered 800,000 voters in Georgia in an off year (2019/2020) which flipped the balance of power in the senate making historic changes in climate and health care possible. I can’t think of a better example of how activism changes the world.</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/PpollingNumbers/status/1557125603425411074">Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers):</a>Georgia General Elections:<br />#GAGov: Brian (R-inc) Kemp 47% Stacey Abrams 47%<br />#GASen: Raphael Warnock (D-inc) 49% (+3) Herschel Walker (R) 46%<br />@RA_Insights/@charlie4georgia (D) Internal Poll (7/26-8/1)</li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Arizona</b></div><div><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1555888155210948609?s=20&t=zxT86EcmN1udOUoH6yKQNw">Steve Schmidt:</a> “Our politics is producing some of the worst people ever to stand for office. They’re running to burn it down. Kari Lake & Blake Masters affirm that. They should be sent packing in November. If not, it won’t just be Arizona that pays the price in 2024.” </li><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://steveschmidt.substack.com/p/arizona-crazy">Arizona crazy</a> </li></ul></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/axidentaliberal/status/1556619572672872451?s=20&t=zxT86EcmN1udOUoH6yKQNw" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Adam Cohen Lawyers for Good Government (@axidentaliberal):</a><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> </span>For his entire life, Mark Kelly has made life and death decisions to protect this country The only decisions Blake Masters makes are which antisemitic quotes he will use and how can he do whatever Peter Theil orders him to do Arizona-this is a no-brainer Vote for Mark Kelly</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/katiehobbs/status/1555965196526444544?s=20&t=zxT86EcmN1udOUoH6yKQNw">Katie Hobbs (</a><a href="https://twitter.com/katiehobbs/status/1555965196526444544?s=20&t=zxT86EcmN1udOUoH6yKQNw">@katiehobbs):</a> My doctors performed a common medical procedure after my miscarriage. My opponent @KariLake supports the Civil War-era law in AZ that now makes this procedure a crime.</li><ul><li style="text-align: left;">Jezebel (@Jezebel): <a href="https://jezebel.com/she-could-be-the-next-governor-of-arizona-where-her-mi-1849365753?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">She Could Be the Next Governor of Arizona, Where Her Miscarriage Is Now a Crime</a></li></ul></ul><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/DemGovs/status/1556678126893137921?s=20&t=zxT86EcmN1udOUoH6yKQNw">Democratic Governors (</a><a href="https://twitter.com/DemGovs/status/1556678126893137921?s=20&t=zxT86EcmN1udOUoH6yKQNw">@DemGovs):</a> Kari Lake is a diehard MAGA extremist who has centered her campaign on promoting far-right conspiracy theories, peddling the Big Lie, talking about banning abortion without exceptions for rape or incest, and pushing fringe views on gun safety. She’s way too extreme for Arizona.</li></ul></div><div><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/remynuma/status/1560388981635833856?s=20&t=SrDa4Ervbjd0Btle7-zr2Q">Rémy Numa (@remynuma): </a>Fox News Poll - Arizona<br />Choice for Senator: Kelly (D) - 50% Masters (R) - 42%<br />Choice for Governor: Hobbs (D) - 47% Lake (R) - 44%</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn7BvStXUdUEYZLC_Nc4JcewDp8rbRCYZnYyWgF8jEBus1tk4a7BrzRR6LduY_3jOqul11pNK4FTpWNnPOyxT12FVVbMNXKpRh4DHYzhmDYj8iALS0C8RwjEJwxaLLyX7WWakmXcD0NON4OKktz5Jn3844mdeaUdsRykZHX145j9qeYDp3OPc/s1080/FZpugZiXkAES0KG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn7BvStXUdUEYZLC_Nc4JcewDp8rbRCYZnYyWgF8jEBus1tk4a7BrzRR6LduY_3jOqul11pNK4FTpWNnPOyxT12FVVbMNXKpRh4DHYzhmDYj8iALS0C8RwjEJwxaLLyX7WWakmXcD0NON4OKktz5Jn3844mdeaUdsRykZHX145j9qeYDp3OPc/s320/FZpugZiXkAES0KG.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Texas</b></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1545593481422196736" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke):</a> First, Abbott enacted America's most extreme abortion ban. Then, his GOP said they'd strip women of the freedom to travel out of state to get care. Now, they want to prosecute businesses for providing health benefits. This is Abbott’s Texas, but we won’t let it be our future.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="#">Duty To Warn (@duty2warn):</a> Beto O’Rourke was speaking to a small crowd of people and when he mentioned Uvalde, an idiot heckler in the crowd laughed. Beto stopped and looked right at the heckler, and without missing a beat, loudly said: "It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it's not funny to me!"</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>“Most of us here in Texas … do not want to see our friends, our family members, our neighbors shot up with these weapons of war,” he said. “So yes, I still hold this view.” O’Rourke was responding to a question Bash posed about whether he maintains a position he shared in 2019 while expressing support for mandatory buybacks for semiautomatic weapons. He said: “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47, you’re not going to be allowed to use it against your fellow Americans anymore.”<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/beto-military-weapons-responsible-gun-ownership_n_619a945ce4b025be1add7958"> - Huffington Post, O’Rourke: Military-Style Weapons, Permitless Carry Prevent Responsible Gun Ownership, 11/21/21</a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1559371503627603969?s=20&t=mROQBuewqqMd4ZKjBW5xyA">No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC): </a>The Republican Party of Texas’ new platform: — Declares Biden was “not legitimately elected” — Declares “homosexuality” an “abnormal lifestyle choice” — Declares that schools much teach that fertilized eggs are humans A vote for Greg Abbott is a vote for these platform planks.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/lacjap/status/1556716046886772739" style="text-align: center;">Champagne (@lacjap):</a><span style="text-align: center;"> Texas Governor Greg Abbott is trying to hide this photo he took with the Proud Boys leader who just got indicted for Seditious Conspiracy against the United States… Let’s make sure he can’t keep it hidden.</span></li></ul></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtjFOLJ-Cr8TWg20URwxsAjuUO2URgVWY5b6t7Ty0a3ffZBjzflOEfDBYYROdhFJNAcD7juWgnTnD7JV2E8BsSGHi4dCHoCDyv2P5gYpV1jxOCwjQVoHNCFuN5z3lNnJxkz_i0xiZTPVvWqGUfkR3FsopGGL8X_iWjNs2Wq0CiQ9CzeCsUL3g/s1170/FZqQ_pFXoAMj5__.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1165" data-original-width="1170" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtjFOLJ-Cr8TWg20URwxsAjuUO2URgVWY5b6t7Ty0a3ffZBjzflOEfDBYYROdhFJNAcD7juWgnTnD7JV2E8BsSGHi4dCHoCDyv2P5gYpV1jxOCwjQVoHNCFuN5z3lNnJxkz_i0xiZTPVvWqGUfkR3FsopGGL8X_iWjNs2Wq0CiQ9CzeCsUL3g/s320/FZqQ_pFXoAMj5__.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Florida</b></div><ul><li style="text-align: left;">EMILY’s List — a national group supporting pro abortion rights candidates — released a poll showing Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Demings and Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio tied in Florida’s 2022 U.S. Senate contest. The poll, done by Change Research, a Democratic polling firm out of California, finds both candidates drew 46% in a survey of likely Florida voters, with 7% saying they are unsure and 2% saying they would not vote. <a href="https://floridapolitics.com/archives/546419-survey-done-for-emilys-list-says-val-demings-and-marco-rubio-are-tied/">- Florida Politics, 8/11/22</a></li></ul><div style="text-align: left;">As one of the Impeachment Managers in the Senate trial (2019, Trump's first of two impeachments) -</div><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1204966531165310979?s=20&t=A353_wNsFvOXNPX1m-GtIQ">U.S. Representative Val Demings (@RepValDemings): </a>"I come before you tonight as an African American female. I come before you as a descendant of slaves, slaves who knew they would not make it, but dreamed & prayed that one day I would... in spite of America's complicated history, my faith is in the Constitution"</li></ul><div style="text-align: left;">On the campaign trial, in the race to defeat the shameless, seemingly soulless <a href="https://twitter.com/axidentaliberal/status/1558633403481817088">Marco Rubio</a> -</div></div><div><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/valdemings/status/1468354639749918723">Val Demings (@valdemings):</a> I served when it wasn't ordinary to see a woman on the force - let alone a Black woman. I never tired, and became the 1st woman to lead as chief of police. I’m running for the U.S. Senate with the same principles, never tire. I will never tire of putting the work in for Florida.</li></ul></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDGWJ6Bg9IVClRmRswD6UCm7UdSXYiQyOm8riyJkkExM61VUwjHd21e20LORn7hHurhrq0PWZkcP-dQ5tDIaYjjIQswNee3HNLhWPpFz4eVkhDjNHqFgHi4f93i-18GyKn5Gc4o3rhbjAphp3CDUPOlzEhftFcreyy-rV_IfkUeN94PyPPaX4/s1081/Slide13.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDGWJ6Bg9IVClRmRswD6UCm7UdSXYiQyOm8riyJkkExM61VUwjHd21e20LORn7hHurhrq0PWZkcP-dQ5tDIaYjjIQswNee3HNLhWPpFz4eVkhDjNHqFgHi4f93i-18GyKn5Gc4o3rhbjAphp3CDUPOlzEhftFcreyy-rV_IfkUeN94PyPPaX4/w640-h360/Slide13.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>"They Want to Kill Americans"</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">On Monday, August 8th, the FBI executed a Federal search warrant on Trump's lair at Mara-Lago.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">On Thursday, August 11th, one of Trump's cult followers attacked the FBI office in Cincinnati.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">He was chased down and killed in a stand-off.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul><li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/4545084253739649488#">Mike Rothschild (@rothschildmd):</a> Ricky Shiffer: just another antivax, Musk-worshipping, antifa/BLM hating, trans-panicking stolen election truther. These guys are your neighbors, your coworkers, and your extended family. And many of them want to kill you.</li></ul><ul><li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/4545084253739649488#">Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid)</a>: In a 6 hour gun fight, Police have killed the terrorist who attacked the FBI in Cincinnati. His name is Ricky Walter Shiffer, he’s a MAGA Trumper, & he was a Jan 6 insurrectionist. No need to wonder where he was radicalized—a reminder of the CPAC banner a few days ago.</li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;">On Saturday, August 13th, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2022/08/14/phoenix-fbi-trump-supporters-armed-mar-a-lago-search-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/">as CNN reports</a>: "Armed Trump supporters gathered outside the Phoenix FBI office after what they call the 'unlawful search of Mar-a-Lago."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">FBI and DHS have issued <a href="https://twitter.com/JakeMRosen/status/1558798941843603457">"a Joint Intelligence Bulletin"</a> warning of "the potential for domestic violent extremists to carry out attacks...in reaction to the FBI's recent execution of a court-authorized search warrant in Palm Beach, Florida." </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So as Trump sinks deeper and deeper into the consequences of his attempted coup, his brazen abuse of national security and whatever else of a criminal nature that sticks to him, will the threat intensify or dissipate? It could go either way. We don't really know. What we do know is that there is no alternative. Trump and his made-men must be held accountable. For their misdeeds. We must walk through this fire. If we don't, it will only be worse down the road. If we don't, we might not survive as a nation. Seriously.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That's why the great<a href="https://www.salon.com/2022/07/25/malcolm-nance-on-the-insurgency-jan-6-was-a-template-to-do-it-correctly-next-time/"> Malcolm Nance</a>'s latest book, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/They-Want-Kill-Americans-Terrorists/dp/1250279003">”They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency</a>" is profoundly well-timed. Just as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Plot-Hack-America-Cyberspies-WikiLeaks/dp/1510723323">"</a><span style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Plot-Hack-America-Cyberspies-WikiLeaks/dp/1510723323">The Plot to Hack America: How Putin's Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election"</a> was profoundly well-timed in OCTOBER 2016! On <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/american-voices/watch/malcolm-nance-trump-insurgency-is-self-radicalizing-just-like-isis-99214405805">cable news</a>, on <a href="https://twitter.com/MalcolmNance">Twitter</a>, and <a href="https://youtu.be/7Dmy16fInUE">on the frontline</a> against Putin's genocidal war in the Ukraine, Malcolm has been "a Force of Nature" in this, the "<a href="https://youtu.be/VkSlhqGrY6w">great battle of our time.</a>"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Recently, he returned from the Ukraine (he's since gone back) to do some promotion for the new book, and raise spme money for the cause. I was honored to attend his event at the CommonWealth Club of San Francisco. Watch and share the full video embedded below.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">What he fleshes out in "They Want to Kill Americans" is the worst case scenario, but it is also may be the most likely scenario. And so we must work for the best, pray for the best, and PREPARE for the WORST.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP0hv-iw5xSWW8n7LbD09tjN16FF2utF1HuDxY5XA3nt5DkbVcpNBeCrfd5X8fGY9Rb23IipnljuDDrLr91w324JFDnqiTZ9u9KTA8B_ABmnHZmy2_3_8HG8NDv5v9M8wTpp1JiN1Onu6pM4VRF-4RIJlbBxT4eI6i2xXF66gM2FKUX2IoyKc/s1081/Slide14.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP0hv-iw5xSWW8n7LbD09tjN16FF2utF1HuDxY5XA3nt5DkbVcpNBeCrfd5X8fGY9Rb23IipnljuDDrLr91w324JFDnqiTZ9u9KTA8B_ABmnHZmy2_3_8HG8NDv5v9M8wTpp1JiN1Onu6pM4VRF-4RIJlbBxT4eI6i2xXF66gM2FKUX2IoyKc/w640-h360/Slide14.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I urge you to heed Malcolm's warning:</div></div><ul><li style="text-align: left;">“I call this gathering movement the Trump Insurgency in the United States (TITUS). The people who support TITUS look like your neighbors, because right-wing violent extremist terrorists, insurrectionists, & insurgents are your neighbors. And they want America to take a hard right turn away from democracy toward authoritarianism ... ‘They Want to Kill Americans” shows how the last five years have, to varying degrees, transformed 74 million Americans into advocates for dictatorship & enemies of democracy … The urge to return to ’normalcy – to forget about Trump & his followers – though emotionally understandable, is the worst possible response we can have to potential future dangers. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/They-Want-Kill-Americans-Terrorists/dp/1250279003">– Malcolm Nance, ”They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency"</a></li></ul><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>VIDEO: <a href="https://youtu.be/OhdInjJyIPs">Malcolm Nance: Behind the Ideology of the Trump Insurgency</a></b></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OhdInjJyIPs" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGp3iT_IimOsmjzgc52caff4d-QkMdRjm3fSRAR9oK_Ir64I8eU3Wl7nv5yKHnOv6qpjNcEQheRdujLUE3HJro0HpLq2G4TwJzfKqumzgbGpJzDErdht53uyVGNnhR2riaTAfuSNARYZzLOLqXf5iRJ7mYdhob03kYOAvsbkfcEpOfRU50NQA/s1081/Slide15.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGp3iT_IimOsmjzgc52caff4d-QkMdRjm3fSRAR9oK_Ir64I8eU3Wl7nv5yKHnOv6qpjNcEQheRdujLUE3HJro0HpLq2G4TwJzfKqumzgbGpJzDErdht53uyVGNnhR2riaTAfuSNARYZzLOLqXf5iRJ7mYdhob03kYOAvsbkfcEpOfRU50NQA/w640-h360/Slide15.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Grimly Confident</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: center;"><li style="text-align: left;">2018: #MeToo, 2020: #BlackLivesMatter, 2022: #BansOffOurBodies</li></ul><ul style="text-align: center;"><li style="text-align: left;">Polls Are Encouraging</li></ul><ul style="text-align: center;"><li style="text-align: left;">In Its Madness, GQP is Devouring Itself w/ In-Fighting</li></ul><ul style="text-align: center;"><li style="text-align: left;">Voters are Turned Off By GQP’s Toxic, Extremist Agenda</li></ul><ul style="text-align: center;"><li style="text-align: left;">Demographic Shift, Evolutionary Arc Continues to Align</li></ul><span style="text-align: center;">-- Richard Power, Yoga & Meditation Teacher, Writer, Speaker, Global Intelligence & Security Expert. </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/ref=sr_1_1" style="text-align: center;">"Secret Engine of the World: Further Insights into Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution" (2021) is available from Amazon.com</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div><div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":1bo"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnS9lVunfJZ8eS06vHlwdFsS-YTqxEOMJRy_I3yQK3giXLLHHzwrHrig5cntsEP3bzrBSYW2yv8KReUHTWf0e_5jX8iB7abfAQtddYqhuuU5KTIeWV_5Ul3fkH2bfALkKktGqw10MRTVTQ8UJyFBBRPCcN_Qag04ay_UbO4LU_vjJXOa-9jEA/s1800/271129783_10227528427976248_8265357075453770177_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1440" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnS9lVunfJZ8eS06vHlwdFsS-YTqxEOMJRy_I3yQK3giXLLHHzwrHrig5cntsEP3bzrBSYW2yv8KReUHTWf0e_5jX8iB7abfAQtddYqhuuU5KTIeWV_5Ul3fkH2bfALkKktGqw10MRTVTQ8UJyFBBRPCcN_Qag04ay_UbO4LU_vjJXOa-9jEA/w512-h640/271129783_10227528427976248_8265357075453770177_n.jpeg" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/ref=sr_1_1">"Secret Engine of the World: Further Insights into Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution" (2021) is available from Amazon.com</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div aria-controls=":1f0" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":1f0" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":1bk" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 351px;" tabindex="1"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[All images are sourced and published as Fair Use.]</div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-74415989399625241842022-07-22T20:11:00.127-07:002022-11-07T13:33:10.334-08:00"Secret Engine" Update #1 (7/22/22): What You Need to Know As We Hurdle Toward 1st of 3 Doom-Defying Deadlines<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcCku0lPRUFowj0dqFeZCfpga_h_Dox29eWbM9m5ZrmozZbEZews0B1GwP2gqP6ibT3D68XqhgSD9lD9a-FvmeXWO70cX3vFWDgxNgwUuxQ4zVIjtBtDoRj5idFkNWT7Rhxomw729R4ft4q_8k-0cUoK2eVadhwpqyxrrZhQ7Yc0Ib0yUzyA4/s1081/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcCku0lPRUFowj0dqFeZCfpga_h_Dox29eWbM9m5ZrmozZbEZews0B1GwP2gqP6ibT3D68XqhgSD9lD9a-FvmeXWO70cX3vFWDgxNgwUuxQ4zVIjtBtDoRj5idFkNWT7Rhxomw729R4ft4q_8k-0cUoK2eVadhwpqyxrrZhQ7Yc0Ib0yUzyA4/w640-h360/Slide1.jpeg" width="580" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div> <div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"Secret Engine" Update: What You Need to Know As We Hurtle Toward 1st of 3 <br />Doom-Defying Deadlines (VIDEO LINK)
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KQtxLiPUZIM" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> </div><div><br /></div>This is not a transcript. These are my notes for the talk. I publish them in the hope that they might be useful to you for your own clarity and in your efforts to engage other voters. <div><br /></div><div><div><div>All of the images included in this presentation are from tweets related to Russia's genocidal attack on Ukraine. The images I selected are all of women, women journalists, women in the military, civilian women casualties. Why? Because victory in this war is vital for the future of the West and of democracy and because the leadership of women is vital for the future of all life on this planet.</div><div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCP28_xIL7ZBpwZP8h3vIsv-KwksI0eYnYI-FsrgeueAPlxObwKZhCWXp6tnICrRjokAckQD8moEqC7Ea5OFeIFtDqMWvmlrm9HvfWGVcuClolwx_iVRY0FD0KV4rzsmJxbTGbsDJ3d0J3TU05V6qeRcgySmiufOk-8_2I0u0-NvEJgsukrcM/s1081/Slide2.jpeg"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCP28_xIL7ZBpwZP8h3vIsv-KwksI0eYnYI-FsrgeueAPlxObwKZhCWXp6tnICrRjokAckQD8moEqC7Ea5OFeIFtDqMWvmlrm9HvfWGVcuClolwx_iVRY0FD0KV4rzsmJxbTGbsDJ3d0J3TU05V6qeRcgySmiufOk-8_2I0u0-NvEJgsukrcM/w640-h360/Slide2.jpeg" width="580" /></a></div><br />Some of us resonate deeply in our political and geopolitical views. Some of us agree on a few issues and disagree on others. But Left, Liberal, Centrist and true Conservative, we're all leaning forward, in a United Front for Sanity and Decency.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have, however, identified a few other categories.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Toxic Left: Those who chose their imagined ideological purity over compromise and incremental progressive. Those who would rather feel self-righteous than win a victory for the greater good. Those who say they're tired of being forced to choose "the lesser of two evils." If you think this, you have no real knowledge of evil, you have never faced it directly in this life. If you had real knowledge of evil, if you had faced it directly in this life, you would not hesitate for an instance if there were a choice between the lesser of two evils. And it's a false frame anyway, because the Democratic Party is not evil.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Woo Woo Contingent: Those who imagine themselves beyond politics. Those who think it is isn't "spiritual" to choose sides. Those who have tuned out. Those who imagine they are "architecting Civilization 2.0" in a bubble of white privilege from some eco-tourist retreat.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Pseudo-Cynical: Those who hide behind cynicism. Those who just critique. Those who reflexively say "Oh that will never happen ..." or "Nothing is going to change..." Always deflating, always dismissing. Those who acknowledge the worthiness of our goals but are unwilling to expend their own intellectual or emotional capital in the struggle to achieve them. I say "Pseudo-Cynical" because Cynicism, as expounded among the pre-Platonic Greeks, by Diogenes for example, was itself a great and holy philosophy. Diogenes the true Cynic would be on the barricades alongside us.</div><div> </div><div>The Doom Infatuated: Those who refuse to even entertain the possibility of victory. It is as if they are eager for the onset of Dystopia and Doom. The Doom Infatuated are like those who are drawn to the cliff overlooking the yawning chasm, entranced, they feel its pull, they want to let go and fall in.</div><div><br /></div><div>All four of these stances have an essential common denominator, all four make it easy to hide, all four make it easy to escape, all four are a lot less work than seeing it and feeling it and leaning into it and assuming personal responsibility to playing your part in it all. </div><div><br /></div><div>I don't have anything to say to "Independents" who hide behind "both sides" and cling to the false premise that there is some moral equivalences between Democrats and "Republicans." There just aren't. </div><div><br /></div><div>Nor do I have anything to say to "Republicans" who are willing to go along with the madness that has overtaken their party as long as taxes keep getting cut and regulations keep getting gutted. If you're not a "Never Trumper," or didn't walk away after Trump's attempted coup on 1/6, well, I don't have much hope for you. </div><div><br /></div><div>"Is this glass half-full or half-empty?" It's a false frame and a flawed question, which says much less than it purports to. The truth is that the half-empty glass and the half-full glass are the same glass, they occupy the same space, the glass is both half-full and half-empty simultaneously.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is for real. Choose sides. Politics is holy. Ugly, but holy. Your vote is a sacrament. To not vote or throw your vote away on a third party candidate is a sacrilege. The fate of all hangs in the balance.</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgq1cUC1s3RL2mVcJF3c3OMrbeku-LK3myUgDx19eJ_c-gqukCe_ybbHbZoEHRDQLnf7k-HYN2OCfcGAt4sNJJwEGbaTpiLnqEv0YpJ7XqIGumVsCncX3_RdiDW8M7Qwhd3Ryj_pyvLWr-F-2VzNnMH2LVTZxJDtuj9-FXvWgoTTJrSBC6zkQ/s1081/Slide3.jpeg"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgq1cUC1s3RL2mVcJF3c3OMrbeku-LK3myUgDx19eJ_c-gqukCe_ybbHbZoEHRDQLnf7k-HYN2OCfcGAt4sNJJwEGbaTpiLnqEv0YpJ7XqIGumVsCncX3_RdiDW8M7Qwhd3Ryj_pyvLWr-F-2VzNnMH2LVTZxJDtuj9-FXvWgoTTJrSBC6zkQ/w640-h360/Slide3.jpeg" width="580" /></a></div><br /><b>1 of 3</b><br /><br />"Secret Engine of the World" was framed around three deadlines, two for our nation, and one for the whole of humanity and all the other species on this beautiful planet. <br /><br />Three Deadlines:<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>2022: U.S. Mid-Term Elections</li><li>2024: U.S. Presidential Elections</li><li>2031: Climate Apocalypse?</li></ul>These deadlines are not a literary device or a rhetorical flourish, they are very real, they are existential, they are doom-defining and doom-defying.<br /><br />And I am going to honor them, and dedicate this decade of my life, from 2021 when I published "Secret Engine" to 2031 when we reach the third and final of these three deadlines.<br /><br />Beyond that, none of us can see, not even me, and it is foolish and bad juju to speculate.<br /><br />I am honoring this first of the three deadlines, with this series of five talks, one a month, from July to November. The content of these talks will alternate between political and geopolitical updates and explorations of purely mystical teachings. Both are needed here and now.</div><div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyNwX7_-6Vq0en9AS8RVGQj6YB4LJMHwGcnKxVWquyJNcFxgY5yLL-qruTYiS-pcJ8FMuNyssa0jQ2vEWN4HtHI_u1eSzBEpsaJomYW71Cx6H-CAXM6-Uk8QFaos8XMsZazE1PHFOVxtlH9spjplfSvrIS-yZb6WvXh9QOGuZlHuEu3CDVyZs/s1081/Slide4.jpeg"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyNwX7_-6Vq0en9AS8RVGQj6YB4LJMHwGcnKxVWquyJNcFxgY5yLL-qruTYiS-pcJ8FMuNyssa0jQ2vEWN4HtHI_u1eSzBEpsaJomYW71Cx6H-CAXM6-Uk8QFaos8XMsZazE1PHFOVxtlH9spjplfSvrIS-yZb6WvXh9QOGuZlHuEu3CDVyZs/w640-h360/Slide4.jpeg" width="580" /></a></div><b><br />The Facts On The Ground</b><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Guns & Abortion</li><ul><li>Meant to Be Just Red Meat for the Base, But …</li><li>They Created A Monster that Took on A Life of Its Own</li><li>Misogyny, Racism, Patriarchy, Oligarchy, i.e., Evil is A Disease (& It Is Communicable)</li><li>PsyOps to Break Our Hearts & Wills</li><li>Nihilism</li></ul><li>Ukraine</li><ul><li>"It is a war for the future of the world, for its ability to unite [...] It is a war of decolonization, because Ukraine is fighting for the right to exist. But for me, as a journalist, it is also a war of truth and lies." <a href="https://time.com/6184962/sevgil-musaieva-time100-summit-2022/">- Sevgil Musaieva, Ukrayinska Pravda</a> </li></ul><li>The Big Lie, 1/6 & Beyond</li><ul><li>"Perpetuating the big lie is an attack on the core of our constitutional republic ... Trump is the spark but the Republicans are the oxygen. There is no slide to autocracy without Republicans." - Nicolle Wallace, MSNBC</li></ul><li>Planetary Emergencies</li><ul><li>Climate Collapse & Pandemic</li></ul></ul><ul></ul><div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8TEC3YADoksrxtX40auDyUWT7bK99Eum-RQxO2zuB31dSQpsT4PXtUPPRZo33y6fFHdElJ8aZG-OevCFewzDqS08CBTj_DPDUWaadIuAjMxX19Xq-SMYAY2OM0IVLEEphSk4cwHppLPuI33mJ35CnwwbqF3RvKdbWVmSnMeYqltDFXrwbk6o/s1081/Slide5.jpeg"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8TEC3YADoksrxtX40auDyUWT7bK99Eum-RQxO2zuB31dSQpsT4PXtUPPRZo33y6fFHdElJ8aZG-OevCFewzDqS08CBTj_DPDUWaadIuAjMxX19Xq-SMYAY2OM0IVLEEphSk4cwHppLPuI33mJ35CnwwbqF3RvKdbWVmSnMeYqltDFXrwbk6o/w640-h360/Slide5.jpeg" width="580" /></a></div><br /><b>IMPERATIVE THAT YOU EMBRACE THIS TRUTH<br /></b><br />We are not divided. Well, we're not divided down the middle. That's not why we can't deliver powerful sweeping change. Sure, we're divided. But it's not 50%-50%, on some of the most pressing issues it's more like 70%-30%. We're the 70%.<br /><br />"There are more of us than them," as Lando tells Poe in the most recent Star Wars trilogy.<br /><br />Consistently, in the most credible polls –<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/1522494894224424960">70%-80% of us want abortion safe, legal and accessible</a> for anyone who needs one </li></ul></blockquote></div></div></div><div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Likewise <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90755595/the-polling-is-clear-americans-want-background-checks">70%-80% of us want universal background checks</a> for potential gun owners, and almost as many, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23141651/gun-control-american-approval-polling">at least 55%-65% want a nation-wide ban on assault weapons</a> </li></ul></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><ul><li>"Fifty Senators in Washington are going to hold us hostage. Do you realize that 90 percent of Americans, regardless of political party, want background checks, universal background checks? Ninety percent of us. We are being held hostage by 50 Senators in Washington who refuse to even put it to a vote, despite what we the American people want." <a href="https://twitter.com/NotoriousOHM/status/1529244558239973376?">- Steve Kerr, Head Coach, Golden State Warriors</a></li></ul></ul></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/sep/15/americans-climate-change-crisis-cbs-poll">Two-thirds of us say the government should do more on climate change</a>, 72% want CO2 regulated, 60% want fossil fuel companies to pay a carbon tax. </li></ul></blockquote><div>We are actually united, in a robust majority -- numerous urgent issues.</div><div><br /></div><div>IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU EMBRACE THIS TRUTH AND THESE FACTS, HERE AND NOW IN THIS PERILOUS MOMENT. "There are more of us than them."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHysNEmkPY_OAIGMjnEEIEfkWbzYPQdsbnlcevOHMo5gZYq0UOktfnUOupKRHB-4s7NIbPBEn5UKKtANOpXEY_1vM2KbpTnJiXLyf4_Zh4UjiuUv82_izYkYE85yUu0cZbRwFebtc-BLeDubbdTgTrUcdzh0JhOUD6vQbsd3jMVhOj9-W1mBg/s1081/Slide6.jpeg"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHysNEmkPY_OAIGMjnEEIEfkWbzYPQdsbnlcevOHMo5gZYq0UOktfnUOupKRHB-4s7NIbPBEn5UKKtANOpXEY_1vM2KbpTnJiXLyf4_Zh4UjiuUv82_izYkYE85yUu0cZbRwFebtc-BLeDubbdTgTrUcdzh0JhOUD6vQbsd3jMVhOj9-W1mBg/w640-h360/Slide6.jpeg" width="580" /></a></div><br /><b>Well, If That's True, Why Is This Happening?</b><br /><br />Constitutional Impediments:<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Senate</li><li>Electoral College</li><li>SCOTUS</li></ul><div>These Structural Limitations Proved Insufficient, So …<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Media Consolidation</li><li>Right-Wing Echo Chamber</li><li>Gerrymandering</li><li>Citizens United, Dark Money, etc.</li><li>Vote Suppression</li><li>Perversion of the Filibuster</li><li>Still Not Enough, So Bring in the Global Gangsters, i.e., Putin/Trump, Supplementing the American Oligarchs w/ Russian Oligarchs</li></ul><div>And now the bogus “Independent Legislature” theory, etc.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD2Q8Rw-uGDXChWNwANDK1zFTaSZddJyuxa6uKUg2Bz6ExfSKnE2m_FXJ1yAQzyFfSqv58mNAE-E2LcivtIZgOcurvNxRVvphzZcKDFvLhmV5Jn7xTox47ye4JGdQ1o_KHmw26xTXj4JnVWClg45gcTHKc5dNi3MmfT8QWSJ1aG7jsG86qWgo/s1081/Slide7.jpeg"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD2Q8Rw-uGDXChWNwANDK1zFTaSZddJyuxa6uKUg2Bz6ExfSKnE2m_FXJ1yAQzyFfSqv58mNAE-E2LcivtIZgOcurvNxRVvphzZcKDFvLhmV5Jn7xTox47ye4JGdQ1o_KHmw26xTXj4JnVWClg45gcTHKc5dNi3MmfT8QWSJ1aG7jsG86qWgo/w640-h360/Slide7.jpeg" width="580" /></a></div><br /><b>Altruism v. Sociopathy</b><br /><br />Clinton (1992-2000):<br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Assault Weapons Ban (1994)<br /></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">“When we passed the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down. When the law expired, mass shootings tripled.” – Joe Biden, 5/24/22</blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">SCOTUS: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer<br />Converted the largest budget deficit in American history into the largest surplus<br />Protected millions of acres of American land<br />Delivered Internet to 95% of U.S. Schools<br />Signed on to Kyoto Accords on Climate Change</blockquote><p> <b>Obama (2009-2017):</b></p><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>$787 billion America Recovery and Reinvestment Act to spur economic growth during the Great Recession</li><li>Affordable Care Act</li><li>Iran Nuclear Agreement</li><li>SCOTUS: Sotomayor, Kagan</li><li>Expanded embryonic stem cell research leading to groundbreaking work in areas including spinal injury treatment and cancer</li><li>Commando raid that killed Osama Bin Laden</li><li>Paris Accords on Climate Change</li></ul><div>There is a profound difference between the governance philosophies of the Democrat Party and what today calls itself the Republican Party (although it's not the GOP now it's the GQP), it is literally altruism as a philosophy of governance v. sociopathy as a philosophy of governance.<br /><br />If you are either what I call toxic left or naive left, and you consider your imagined ideological purity superior to compromise with "liberals" or "centrists," I ask you this simple question:<br /><br />If you had a list of ten vital issues, ten vital actions, and given some power, the Democrats could deliver on five of those issues wouldn't it be better than the zilch zero nada your ideological purity will deliver. And yes, of course, given more power, enough power, they would deliver on 7, 8, maybe even 9 or all 10 of those desired actions. It is the ideological purity of those who stayed home or throw away their votes on Putin's dinner date (Jill Stein) that allowed Trump to take the electoral college vote in 2016, leading to the over 30,000 lies and over 30 crimes while in office, and of course, the three abominable SCOTUS appointments, which brought the end of Roe, and oh so much more Woe.</div><div><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGu0yykcfVTU8c4FaB93YWdBhN4CXp3-kx9dINf-BtOk9zz0ZQRu4tfX0zsM52sNwqI78d2XxgdwlMI1mD-UiUE7N987M3It3GTgqy7hW209Wb6zYSYAqPUffCtt-8CJOOA_j7D6BuedaDmVWxvG4c3_u-rMiLYl28BSajMoBZYR4fP-g9H_g/s1081/7_for3_Part_1d.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1081" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGu0yykcfVTU8c4FaB93YWdBhN4CXp3-kx9dINf-BtOk9zz0ZQRu4tfX0zsM52sNwqI78d2XxgdwlMI1mD-UiUE7N987M3It3GTgqy7hW209Wb6zYSYAqPUffCtt-8CJOOA_j7D6BuedaDmVWxvG4c3_u-rMiLYl28BSajMoBZYR4fP-g9H_g/w640-h360/7_for3_Part_1d.jpg" width="580" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><b>Denied Our FDR Moment & Praying for Indictments</b><br /><br /><div>Take this in -</div><div><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Senators each Democratic President had when taking office:<br />FDR: 58 (of 96)<br />Truman: 57 (of 96)<br />Kennedy: 64<br />LBJ: 66<br />Carter: 61<br />Clinton: 57<br />Obama: 58<br />Biden: 50<br />Every Dem President of the last 100 years got at least 57 Dem Senators to start with. Except Biden who only got 50.</blockquote><p>Nevertheless, Biden has gotten a lot done. It's all documented right here: <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">@What46HasDone</a> </p><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#"><b>American Rescue Plan</b></a><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div>Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen says the Child Tax Credit in the American Rescue Plan reduced food insecurity for families by 24%. She calls it “a profound economic and moral victory.” Bear in mind, zero Republicans voted for the American Rescue Plan that created the increased Child Tax Credit. - <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">The Recount, 11/3/21</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package will give the poorest 20% of Americans a 20% boost in income, according to an analysis by the non-partisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">- Axios, 3/9/21</a> </div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><br />Vaccine doses given 599 million. Fully vaccinated 223 million. 67.6 percent of population. - <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">Our World In Data, 7/12/22</a><div><div><br /></div></div><div><div>"This is the new Democratic governing coalition moving forward, w/ a strong left wing that knows when to choose its battles, behind a president who survived the era when government was a dirty word, & now gets to live up to the ideals ... What’s most important about the Biden plan is not its size but the thinking behind it. For one thing, it rejected old notions about government support as a morally hazardous 'handout' to the undeserving that would discourage work." <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">- Joan Walsh, The Nation, 3/11/21</a></div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /><b>Cabinet </b><br /><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div>"NBC analysis of all Cabinet-level members from the past four administrations found that Biden’s cabinet has the highest percentage of women heading Cabinet-level departments; as well as secretaries, administrators and directors of color compared to his predecessors overall. Close to half of his current Cabinet are women; half of his current Cabinet self-identify as Black, Latino, Asian American, Native American or multiracial" - <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">NBCDFW, 4/29/21</a></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">Perhaps most important of all, most meaningful of all, most impactful of all, Biden named Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">"</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">a historic move ... the first Indigenous American appointed to the position of a cabinet secretary in the United States" </a>And not just any cabinet post, she's running the Interior Department, which not only deals with our forests, our wildernesses, our natural resources, but provides vital services <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">to all of the Native American tribes</a> in the United States.</div></blockquote><div><br /><b>Judiciary (Federal bench, lifetime appointments)</b></div><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div style="text-align: left;">“the most demographically diverse set of judicial candidates in history, including the first LGBTQ woman to serve on a court of appeals, the first Muslim American to serve as a federal judge, and the first Black woman to ever serve on the Supreme Court. Twenty-six percent of all Black women currently serving as active judges were nominated by President Biden. Nearly 30 percent of Biden’s nominees have served as public defenders” <a href="#">(Brennan Center, 4/5/22)</a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><br /><div>Perhaps most important of all, most meaningful of all, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">Ketanji Brown Jackson, first African American woman appointed to SCOTUS</a>.</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div><b>Revoked Keystone XL Permit</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">“On the campaign trail, Biden vowed to cancel the Keystone XL cross-border permit should he win the presidency—and on his first day in office, he made good on that promise. The revoked permit became the final nail in the pipeline’s coffin” <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">(NRDC)</a></div></blockquote><div><div><br /><b>Re-Joined the Paris Accords</b><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;">In one of his first acts in the Oval Office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to have the United States rejoin the Paris climate agreement, the largest international effort to curb global warming. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">- NPR, 1/20/21</a></div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>Oh yeah, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a $1 trillion dollar infrastructure bill.<br /><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act), a once-in-a-generation investment in our nation's infrastructure and competitiveness. For far too long, Washington policymakers have celebrated “infrastructure week” without ever agreeing to build infrastructure <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">- NPR, 11/15/21</a></div></blockquote><div><br />Yet, as the "pundits" will tell you breathlessly, Biden's poll numbers have plunged and his agenda is stalled. It's vital that you understand how and why. No, not inflation, not his age, not that he went to far to the left, not that he didn't go far enough to the left, not CRT, not supply chain, or gas prices, none of it.<br /><br />Four factors started the downward spiral in Biden’s poll numbers -<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Manchin & Sinema killed BBB & Voting Rights, $15 Minimum Raise</li><ul><li><a href="#">Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (</a><a href="#">@ayanaeliza), 7/15/22:</a> In a devastating blow to the planet, Senator Manchin informed Dem leadership last night that he will not support the climate, justice, and clean energy portions of the legislative package that has been mired in negotiations since December 2021.</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/ResisterSis20/status/1544504041111261184?s=20&t=W7bZVE-KDzIfw5KuWmLRCw">Southern Sister Resister (@ResisterSis20), 7/5/22: </a>Because of Manchin and Sinema, Roe is not codified, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is not passed, Build Back Better is not law, AR15s are not banned, and Climate Crisis legislation is not a priority. To solve this, #ExpandTheMajority in the Senate ...</li></ul><li>Beltwayistan Media Normalization, Horse Race Coverage</li><ul><li>For example, <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/575067-journalism-has-comforted-the-comfortable-for-too-long-now/">Joe Ferullo, The Hill, 10/3/21:</a> As the Biden administration pushes forward on social programs and foreign policy moves that have consistent voter support, the mainstream media too often under-reports that support, and instead headlines the rallying cries of the opposition and glosses over deeper reasons why expanding middle- and working-class benefits ignites such resistance in this country. Coverage of the Democrats’ efforts to craft a reconciliation bill has been relentlessly superficial. Reporting from inside the Beltway resembles campaign horse-race journalism, with an unwavering focus on minute-by-minute assessments of who’s up and who’s down.</li></ul><li>Weaponization of the Pandemic in several ways</li><ul><li><a href="#">Frida Ghitis, CNN, 9/10/21:</a> The US is one of a few major countries where the people pushing against common-sense measures hold positions of power, where they can shape policy, influence large swaths of the population, and weaponize the pandemic for their own political benefit. (In Brazil, another place where this has happened, President Jair Bolsonaro, known as "the Trump of the Tropics," faces investigations for his pandemic shenanigans and their catastrophic consequences). Some in the Republican Party have turned the coronavirus crisis into the vehicle they hope will propel them to new political heights. As President Joe Biden tries to slow the deadly march of the virus, it's not hard to see what's behind his opponents' continuing efforts to thwart the White House's plans. It's a cynical game of unspeakable cruelty. If Biden fails to contain the pandemic, their hope is that they can use that failure to gain control of Congress in the 2022 midterm elections and pave the way for a Republican president in 2024 ...</li></ul><li>The understandable, depressing assumption that Trump & his co-conspirators will get away with it</li><ul><li><a href="#">Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw): </a>If you still think AG Garland doesn’t fully intend to have DOJ prosecute EVERYONE responsible for trying to overturn the 2020 election, you need to listen carefully to what he said today (7/20/22)</li><li><a href="#">AG Merrick Garland, today (7/20/22):</a> “For people who are concerned as I think every American should be about protecting democracy, we have to . . .hold accountable EVERY PERSON who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election.”</li><li><a href="#">Glenn Kirschner, MSNBC, 7/22/22:</a> Now, I have long cautioned that we should give the DOJ enough time to do its thing. But my view has always been premised on the assumption that DOJ has, indeed been doing a thorough, far-reaching, aggressive investigation behind the scenes. My growing concern with each new data point is that for reasons that may have little to do with the facts or the law, DOJ is not doing the kind of investigation our democracy needs to survive</li></ul></ul>BBB was our centerpiece of our FDR moment.<div><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">The most transformative investment in children and caregiving in generations<br />The largest effort to combat climate change in American history<br />The biggest expansion of affordable health care in a decade<br />The most significant effort to bring down costs and strengthen the middle class in generations<br />Fully paid for<br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">- White House, Build Back Better Framework</a></blockquote><br />This tweet from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) captures the inspiring moment"<br /><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">What’s in the Build Back Better Act?<br />Universal preschool<br />Free community college<br />Lower prescription drug costs<br />Nutrition assistance for kids<br />Investments in green jobs<br />We’re going to pay for it by ensuring the uber-wealthy and corporations finally pay their fair share in taxes.<br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">- Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan), 9/14/21</a></blockquote><br />It was all set to be passed via a Reconciliation Bill, this escaping filibuster. 48 out of 50 in the Democratic Caucus were on-board. VP Kamala Harris would have been the tie-breaking vote. On this bill, Manchin and Sinema betrayed the President and the Party. They betrayed us all. Likewise with <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">two extremely urgent Voting Rights bills</a>. And <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/7745600163812901749#">Sinema herself deep-sixed a $15 minimum wage </a>even earlier in the term. The Biden agenda, the forward momentum of the administration, our chances in the mid-term elections this November. All took of hit. Because of cash flowing into the coffers of two members of the Democratic Caucus in a 50-50 Senate. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ1Rx8bX5N4LL1s9k4bwBLoihRw4WVeaLsmyK53WWyJ0P6hjiypdk4pAiWv77aQ_JRE1wdFfIrBVHPSLu2dmS9m10dQdtCcMoSf7h2MyDfGY3Ibl40ZmNDx_fLETtiJO_FosQfxeug2XSHasc_s9B8sqP3K_p-zdVGOJcWIkE8T5WklhVFtM4/s1081/Slide9.jpeg"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ1Rx8bX5N4LL1s9k4bwBLoihRw4WVeaLsmyK53WWyJ0P6hjiypdk4pAiWv77aQ_JRE1wdFfIrBVHPSLu2dmS9m10dQdtCcMoSf7h2MyDfGY3Ibl40ZmNDx_fLETtiJO_FosQfxeug2XSHasc_s9B8sqP3K_p-zdVGOJcWIkE8T5WklhVFtM4/w640-h360/Slide9.jpeg" width="580" /></a></div><br /><b>Grimly Confident </b><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>2018: #MeToo, 2020: #BlackLivesMatter, 2022: #BansOffOurBodies</li><li>Polls Are Encouraging</li><li>In Its Madness, GQP is Devouring Itself w/ In-Fighting</li><li>Voters are Turned Off By GQP’s Toxic, Extremist Agenda</li><li>Demographic Shift, Evolutionary Arc Continues to Align</li></ul>As you know if you have read my posts or listened to my talks over these last few years, or if we share tea or take walks, you know that in spite all of that has befallen us, I have said again and again, "I am wildly optimistic about our future." This is still the truth. The fundamentals, the verities, the verifiable trends on which that wild optimism is based have not changed. But we have suffered so much now, and been so traumatized, not only us, our allies as well, at this dire moment, it would be inappropriate to say "wildly optimistic," so until we do what we must do this November, I will simply say "I am grimly confident."<div><div><br />At a recent Commonwealth Club event promoting his powerful new book, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/They-Want-Kill-Americans-Terrorists/dp/1250279003/ref=sr_1_1">They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency</a>," the great <a href="https://youtu.be/6YL2e-9U5G4">Malcolm Nance</a> declared, "We need 20% more voters to turn out than in 2018." In the mid-term election, two years into Trump, we got the House back but the Zombie Death Cult held to the Senate. That's the truth of it. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here we are. At the end of everything? Or the beginning of a new, better America? </div><div><br /></div><div>-- Richard Power, Yoga & Meditation Teacher, Writer, Speaker, Global Intelligence & Security Expert. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/ref=sr_1_1">"Secret Engine of the World: Further Insights into Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution" (2021) is available from Amazon.com</a></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc44DiUIeLle29JDn4ui7PLsLVtXQhoIP7_01UqJjDtBlVidyjLwmboaEJfUcpfwMl8dxjlIiy6jJ3-21w68wK4N0rDzZ7dPLLv9L0rmz44pVrZ-uvj0XVPjKk_GOvHAaw46kWunG9jnLlCBF8kOIoHa7KB6zsElHawL6f6tptQWQl0bRwIB0/s1800/271129783_10227528427976248_8265357075453770177_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1440" height="580" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc44DiUIeLle29JDn4ui7PLsLVtXQhoIP7_01UqJjDtBlVidyjLwmboaEJfUcpfwMl8dxjlIiy6jJ3-21w68wK4N0rDzZ7dPLLv9L0rmz44pVrZ-uvj0XVPjKk_GOvHAaw46kWunG9jnLlCBF8kOIoHa7KB6zsElHawL6f6tptQWQl0bRwIB0/w512-h640/271129783_10227528427976248_8265357075453770177_n.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-55401571331585196962022-04-24T01:26:00.057-07:002022-05-01T02:06:06.562-07:00There Is A Future, It Is Worth Fighting For Here and Now <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiglEOhaL-aWxtyQ1t9dVoNxk5FL2H0U9390Sbw78Xxre36O5RQ7_-wMCHnsiOIip24qLz9-pUCOY5rAWupscdxCbYMVRXVKnnG52-z8YzEsitqhckE-7GxZ8ZwIHkfrp1gfxn_I6CiHIbIwZb9B9vSM_xgsWs86Enme1XyXpfaEz7rWSecNGA/s1024/768px-Sofia_statue,_Sofia_(P1070773).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiglEOhaL-aWxtyQ1t9dVoNxk5FL2H0U9390Sbw78Xxre36O5RQ7_-wMCHnsiOIip24qLz9-pUCOY5rAWupscdxCbYMVRXVKnnG52-z8YzEsitqhckE-7GxZ8ZwIHkfrp1gfxn_I6CiHIbIwZb9B9vSM_xgsWs86Enme1XyXpfaEz7rWSecNGA/w300-h400/768px-Sofia_statue,_Sofia_(P1070773).jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption">Sophia. Goddess of Wisdom. She is 24 feet tall and stands on a 48 foot pedestal. She was erected in 2000. (A statue of Lenin had previously occupied that spot.) Six years later, in 2006, I stood before her and prayed. I had been flown to Sofia, the Bulgarian city that bears her name, to deliver a briefing on cyber war and terrorism at a NATO conference.<br />Photo Credit: Matti Blume. 2018. <a href="#">CC BY-SA 4.0</a></td></tr></tbody></table></div><br />Yes, we are in a war, a real world, a 21st century war, an asymmetric war, you can call it WWIII if that helps you focus (unless you're saving that term for nuclear conflict, which would be understandable). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It is not a war between East and West, or North and South, no, it is not a war between Light and Dark. (The Darkness has been wrongly accused for millennia, the Darkness is Yin as in Yin and Yang, it has NOTHNG to do with Evil, Evil exists, but it is colorless, like Sarin gas). This is a war between Altruism and Sociopathy. This is a war between Relative Good and Absolute Evil, between Ignorance and Intelligence, between Evolution and Devolution, between Sanity and Madness. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">On one side are the real democrats, small "d" and big "D" Democrats, along with a few former small "r" and big "R" Republicans (shout-out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/TheLincolnProject">@ProjectLincoln</a>); arrayed on the other side are the operatives, stooges and overlords of Patriarchy and Oligarchy (in numerous flavors, notably Putin mafiya, MAGA, Murdoch, Brazilian, <a href="https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/reports-publications/reports-publications-2021/item/2186-assessing-the-saudi-government-s-role-in-the-killing-of-jamal-khashoggi">Saudi</a>, Chinese, Iranian, North Korean, etc.). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Of course, those among you who have fled into Spiritual By-Pass are probably telling whoever will stil listen that you're "uncomfortable" with this "frame" and you're imagining there is some way other than choosing sides and fighting for humanity, for the planet and for the future. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But you're wrong. There isn't. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">For those with eyes to hear and ears to see, here is some medicine.<br /><br /></div><div><b>The Weight of the World</b> </div><div><br /></div><div>Christopher, the "Patron Saint of Travelers,” was a Canaanite. And a giant. 7 feet 5 inches tall. <div><br /><div>According to some legends, he had the head of a dog, which makes sense, because his huge heart was true, a wolf heart, a rescue dog heart.</div><div><br /><div>He served the poor and vulnerable by ferrying them across a deep, wide, dangerous river. Later, he would be martyred. Beheaded by one of the Roman emperors. For following Jesus and Mary on the path of Love. But we only know of him because of a singular event that occurred one stormy night. </div><div><br /></div><div>The wind was howling, torrents of rain were falling. Somehow Christopher found an infant seemingly abandoned in the reeds. He just knew he had to carry the baby to the safety of the village across the river. He hoisted the infant up his broad shoulders & waded into the raging river. But with each stride Christopher took, the child got heavier & heavier.</div><div><br /></div><div>Half away across the river, Christopher's knees buckled. Shaking uncontrollably, he looked up at the child, smiling, silent, it held a dazzling green-blue orb. Christopher realized he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. And so, for the sake of all life, he leaned forward. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Force itself, Universal Chi, rose up through his legs and groin and coursed along his spine.</div><div><br /></div><div>He delivered the child and its dazzling blue green orb to the far shore. </div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, once he reached the bank, the orb vanished, and the child too. Christopher stood alone in the pouring rain, knowing that in some mysterious way he had saved the world that night.</div><div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQrVECyIFL_pqSjVq7vIpXJisfDJNMxhzYk5LDgp3LUaom0-DXjgweF7uxsexylXHIRiqTLaRFMIJVp5n1Oee0jw2NVNfqtfxHoi-ix-lgm-dGua-S9W2UIdL_HB9t2WUobL2qIKGVk915v3ZSxPo8AuzRW2AvluZLxqwNrM-7Vq2orn-LcDk/s460/Christopher_icon.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="187" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQrVECyIFL_pqSjVq7vIpXJisfDJNMxhzYk5LDgp3LUaom0-DXjgweF7uxsexylXHIRiqTLaRFMIJVp5n1Oee0jw2NVNfqtfxHoi-ix-lgm-dGua-S9W2UIdL_HB9t2WUobL2qIKGVk915v3ZSxPo8AuzRW2AvluZLxqwNrM-7Vq2orn-LcDk/w163-h400/Christopher_icon.jpg" width="163" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><div style="text-align: center;">Russian icon of Saint Christopher. Мученик Христофор. XVII в. <br />Museum of Rostov Kremlin</div></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><b>Where Bodhisattvas Make Their Stand</b><br /><br />The Diamond Sutra was hidden in a cave, on the Silk Road, at the edge of the Gobi Desert, a thousand years ago. In 1900, a monk discovered it and now the seventeen-and-a-half-foot-long scroll rests in the British Library. It is considered <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/5540157133158519696#">the oldest, dated, extant book</a> on the planet.</div><div><br /></div><div>In "Section 17: No One Attains Transcendental Wisdom," Buddha tells Subhuti that Bodhisattvas should cultivate "this resolved attitude of mind" - "I must liberate all living beings, yet when all have been liberated, verily not any one is liberated." And so it is. </div><div><br /></div><div>Without a deep understanding of this Divine Paradox, in all its dimensions, there is no real progress on the path. Fullness and emptiness, success and failure, personal and impersonal, will and surrender, all of these opposites occupy the same space. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is where the Bodhisattvas make their stand.<br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPmIgZmDud4mPuB6YO0VPE0w47eEz9rK_hmlwHjJa9HnfSNZpT0v62JUwiSfuWkouFKoX0yNYrlpu9Fu-lsluyxUrO-32NcQYB0E9b_UdYOJEbCRkoIGq6_Fp2YoS47_TBLTUN5RtCoR_M4QR-A7IdYxmv1JMGJGsU9WY3c_m2kL8qLLvLjUs/s1280/1280px-Jingangjing.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="895" data-original-width="1280" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPmIgZmDud4mPuB6YO0VPE0w47eEz9rK_hmlwHjJa9HnfSNZpT0v62JUwiSfuWkouFKoX0yNYrlpu9Fu-lsluyxUrO-32NcQYB0E9b_UdYOJEbCRkoIGq6_Fp2YoS47_TBLTUN5RtCoR_M4QR-A7IdYxmv1JMGJGsU9WY3c_m2kL8qLLvLjUs/w400-h280/1280px-Jingangjing.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Buddha, surrounded by 9 disciples, an imperial court, bodhisattvas,
and other celestial beings, instructs his tenth chief disciple, the
kneeling Subhutii ..." - A page from the <a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Sutra" title="en:Diamond Sutra">Diamond Sutra</a>, printed in the 9th year of <a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Yizong_of_Tang" title="en:Emperor Yizong of Tang">Xiantong Era</a> of the <a class="extiw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_Dynasty" title="en:Tang Dynasty">Tang Dynasty</a>, i.e. 868 CE. </td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><b>The Holy Power That Sustains</b></div><div><div><br /></div><div>In "<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/5540157133158519696#">I, the Dragon</a>," I wrote about the Thirty-Six. It is one of the Kabbalistic mysteries.</div><div><br /></div><div>Without the Thirty-Six, our world would rapidly slide into the abyss. The Thirty-Six uplift the collective psyche simply by being themselves, and living their lives. </div><div><br /></div><div>Some are beings of recognized greatness, e.g., <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/15420283/5540157133158519696#">Ammachi</a>, but others simply toil in obscurity, maybe mopping a hospital floor, or driving a bus. They are mostly unknown to each other, and often unknown even to themselves. But they all radiate a powerful vibration that is woven into a web of empathy and clarity that sustains the world. Their being is doing.</div><div><br /></div><div>When one of the Thirty-Six perishes, some other being is elevated to take their place. </div><div><br /></div><div>I have felt the membrane of the web torn when one of them dies, and I have felt it made whole again when another takes their place. </div><div><br /></div><div>Having become increasingly intimate with the reality of the true mystical order behind the veil of this world, and realizing in ever deeper ways what a great Sufi meant when he said that the true secret of the spiritual hierarchy was simply "the expansion of the heart, I have come to understand that there are concentric circles radiating outward from the Thirty-Six, there is a circle of 360, and a circle of 3,600, and a circle of 36,000, maybe a circle of 360,000, I doubt more than a circle of 3,600,000 …</div><div><br /></div><div>However dire our circumstances are, it is helpful to remember that it could be much worse, and the Thirty-Six and all the circles radiating out from them are vital to the margin of difference between how bad it happens and how much worse it could be ...</div><div><br /></div><div>What is the difference between one of the Thirty-Six and the rest of humanity?</div><div><br /></div><div>Regardless of any particular religion (often in spite of it), regardless of gender or ethnicity, the Thirty-Six have "fallen awake," they are truly "woke" psychically, somatically, irrevocably "awake" and in their "wokeness" they exude clarity and compassion on a planetary scale, whether conscious of it or not.</div><div><br /></div><div>In<a href="https://jewishstudies.ace.fordham.edu/2019/10/27/researching-isaac-myer-and-his-work-on-the-kabbalah-at-the-nypl/"> Isaac Meyer</a>'s brilliant 19th Century study,"Qabbalah," there is a powerful illustration of the Sephiroth diagramed in concentric circles. Typically, you will see the Sephiroth diagramed as correlating to different areas of the physical body. But in my view, this alternate depiction is far more insightful. (NOTE: The Sephiroth, like the Koshas and the Chakras in Yoga, are simply a modality with which to partially comprehend the incomprehensible nature of our being, from the terrestrial perspective of incarnated individuals.) All human beings are internally organized in this way. Each Sephiroth is a portal to the Inner, the Beyond & the All-Pervading, just as each human incarnation itself is a portal composed of these ten portals. Each of these portals opens into the different dimension, a different level of vibration.</div><div><br /></div><div>The only question which of these portals if any are open and how the switch gets flipped on each & every one of them. In the instance of any one of the Thirty-Six, all of these portals are open, and holy power pours through them ceaselessly, whether the individual is aware of this or not.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJsjV7CfYvQgmq_sZ6LrdILDGG3n5L6W-VNVlG05ChDlzt6EVDAPU9qa_e_yYTRasFQIMJ0QkN--uejYFzap53U1UBf79tVA_47WOiFIQsXAoC3nnAd_Eym9-DcqN1rLuRxqAmoKNbCdBinqbCZCBGODVWGyosQYUfNdm1u7vYQhEySBGBQtI/s2975/IMG-0350%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2690" data-original-width="2975" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJsjV7CfYvQgmq_sZ6LrdILDGG3n5L6W-VNVlG05ChDlzt6EVDAPU9qa_e_yYTRasFQIMJ0QkN--uejYFzap53U1UBf79tVA_47WOiFIQsXAoC3nnAd_Eym9-DcqN1rLuRxqAmoKNbCdBinqbCZCBGODVWGyosQYUfNdm1u7vYQhEySBGBQtI/w400-h361/IMG-0350%20(1).jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Table of the Sephiroth in Circles<br />Isaac Meyer: "<em>Qabbalah, Philosophical Writings of Solomon Ben Yehuda Ibn Gabirol ...</em>" (1888), p. 100 </td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The Three Deadlines and The Voice</b></div><div><br /></div><div>As I wrote in “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/">Secret Engine</a>,” we are hurtling toward three deadlines. </div><div><br /></div><div>The 2022 and 2024 elections will determine our fate as a nation. Either we lean hard into the future, into robust multi-racial feminist democracy, or backlash will drive us off the cliff into a fascist abyss.</div><div><br /></div><div>The decade from 2021 to 2031 will determine our fate as a species. Either we radically, irrevocably turn our civilization greener, or the violence we have done to Gaia will blowback on us and plunge us into an inescapable ecological hell realm. </div><div><br /></div><div>To do all this, we must smash the patriarchy, we must break the oligarch strangleholds, i.e. defeat Putin in Russia and the GQP in America. I warned of all of this 25 years ago, and ever since I have been exhorting, framing, articulating, contextualizing, and bearing witness, first in board rooms, and now, all along the barricades.<br /><br />In both "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wyrds-Power-New-Language-Reality/dp/1533410690/">Wyrds</a>” and “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/I-Dragon-Richard-Power/dp/1983912050/">Dragon,</a>” I wrote of the Voice, a mysterious presence that has been with me all my life. It speaks only very rarely but always with profound import. Recently, it spoke again. At 4 a.m.</div><div><br /></div><div>I had been asking myself hard questions. In the blessedness of the pre-dawn darkness. </div><div><br /></div><div>"Does it matter at all that I do what I do? Does it make any difference?" </div><div><br /></div><div>The Voice, which had been silent for some years, answered ....</div><div><br /></div><div>“We needed someone who could hold this container without breaking their heart or losing their mind.”</div><div><br /></div><div>And so it is and here we are. </div><div><br /></div><div>Courage, friends, allies, sisters and brothers, courage. Lean forward.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a future. It is greener and kinder. It will arrive suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere.</div><div><br /></div><div>-- Richard Power</div></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><br /></div></div><div>#StandbyUkraine #ClimateEmergency #SmashthePatriarchy #BlackLivesMatter #MeToo #VotingRights </div><div>#UnitedFrontforSanityandDecency</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH2tNgNhZVb9gCT5QGOjBWceVInVyp97Q1AN08BmMA_x1BwR81aYs_w48J0HtwyUNR8bUll6AeprPWr-GqI-BPFnyB92XdeIrwur064VTNoIZNJcvHDJ6VvAu_ErqW3pzgGAQ9TJk3NK24Qds-gPLozNq1W5aoXVhyF3elPQi94rdBFK7hddM/s384/2002.10-PS-06_Sophia_Jook_Leung_photo_9294r2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="243" data-original-width="384" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH2tNgNhZVb9gCT5QGOjBWceVInVyp97Q1AN08BmMA_x1BwR81aYs_w48J0HtwyUNR8bUll6AeprPWr-GqI-BPFnyB92XdeIrwur064VTNoIZNJcvHDJ6VvAu_ErqW3pzgGAQ9TJk3NK24Qds-gPLozNq1W5aoXVhyF3elPQi94rdBFK7hddM/w640-h406/2002.10-PS-06_Sophia_Jook_Leung_photo_9294r2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Judy Chicago - <em>Sophia Place Setting</em>, 1974-1979, The Dinner Party. <span class="clearfix"></span>Brooklyn
Museum<br /> Photo: 2002.10-PS-06_Sophia_Jook_Leung_photo_9294r2.jpg</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-56148407527205450302022-03-22T14:52:00.048-07:002022-03-24T16:30:54.304-07:00The Attempted Rape and Murder of the Ukraine by Vlad the Pathological, Global Crime Lord, & His Very White Russian Gang Bangers<p></p><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiqk_C_JCqIRXXPJmj6UQAYSGWGhNxLJvpB2UHCIWvjQa-gPHyZJpnuHCcUJZMczoOwfY8lPt4jhr68o70W1QK1W38HJfbSZ62ngjyDB2_tQoH7oN-qBm8eBkTc-GItrUDoxhB6bH0HHKvG-0CX9k_Gaj5ZDhMFvLFahfYcsmzfAsJsPJEkQ8s=s1280" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="853" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiqk_C_JCqIRXXPJmj6UQAYSGWGhNxLJvpB2UHCIWvjQa-gPHyZJpnuHCcUJZMczoOwfY8lPt4jhr68o70W1QK1W38HJfbSZ62ngjyDB2_tQoH7oN-qBm8eBkTc-GItrUDoxhB6bH0HHKvG-0CX9k_Gaj5ZDhMFvLFahfYcsmzfAsJsPJEkQ8s=w266-h400" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption">This is Anastasiia Yalanskaya She was killed yesterday, just outside Kyiv, delivering supplies to a dog shelter that was without food for 3 days. The car she was in was targeted at close range. Yalanskaya stayed behind in Kyiv to volunteer as everyone fled around her. - <a href="https://twitter.com/Ash_Stewart_/status/1500221871760949250">Ashleigh Stewart @Ash_Stewart_ (3/5/22) </a></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><i>"What I saw, I hope no one will ever see. Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them–Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad," said Manolos Androulakis, the last EU diplomat to leave - <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">Reuters, 3/20/22</a></i></div></blockquote><div><i><br /></i></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><i>Mariupol is now a ghost city – 80% of its infrastructure is damaged or destroyed, 40% of which cannot be rebuilt, authorities say. One of the largest in the country, a beautiful, developed city razed to the ground In case, just in case someone still has to hear this – a majority Russian-speaking city too. - <a href="https://twitter.com/lapatina_/status/1505628897861419008?s=20&t=p1eWIhFEDuumMfPJZ4ELdQ">Anastasiia Lapatina @lapatina_ (3/20/22)</a></i></div></blockquote><div><i><br /></i></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><i>When Putin says that there is no Ukrainian nation and no Ukrainian state, he means that he intends to destroy the Ukrainian nation and the Ukrainian state. Everyone gets that, right? - <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">Timothy Snyder @TimothyDSnyder (3/19/22)</a></i></div></blockquote><i><br /></i><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><i>We will win. There will be new cities. There will be new dreams. There will be a new story. There will be, there’s no doubt. And those we've lost will be remembered. And we will sing again, and we will celebrate anew. - <a href="https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1505563566480498692?">Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine (3/20/22)</a></i></blockquote><div><i><br /></i></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><i>"At this fateful moment we stand united with free, independent and democratic Ukraine and strongly reject the Russian government’s misuse of history to justify its own violence." - <a href="https://www.jns.org/opinion/statement-on-ukraine-by-scholars-of-genocide-nazism-and-wwii/?fbclid=IwAR3U4JDjIJZmV0ntuy-Wt0WXdtvozEnh94BGIh7oEf9IMGT4MkdqTk4_Pec">Statement on Ukraine by Scholars of Genocide, Nazism and WWII (2/28/22)</a></i></blockquote><div><i><br /></i></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><i>Russia’s war displaces nearly 10 million Ukrainians. The United Nations Migration Agency now estimates that 6.5 million Ukrainians have become internally displaced by the war. An additional 3.2 million have fled abroad, over 2 million of them to Poland. - <a href="https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1504897525857333250">The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent (5/18/22)</a></i></div></blockquote><div><i><br /></i></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><i>WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION REPORTS ON 3/18/2022 THAT RUSSIA HAS ATTACKED 44 HOSPITALS AND MEDICAL FACILITIES IN UKRAINE. - <a href="https://twitter.com/anders_aslund/status/1504815883130183719">Anders Åslund @anders_aslund (3/18/22)</a></i></div></blockquote><i><br /></i><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><i>Almost 10,000 Russian KIAs in 3.5 weeks of fighting according to the leaked numbers from the Russian MoD. That's the most casualties Russia has sustained in the shortest period of time since 1945! - <a href="https://twitter.com/DAlperovitch/status/1505999241013043207">Dmitri Alperovitch @DAlperovitch (3/21/22)</a></i></blockquote><div><i><br /></i></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><i>Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who formerly served as the Commanding General, U.S. Army Europe, claimed that Russia's Ukraine invasion is going so poorly that it could collapse within five days ... ''I do believe my professional assessment is that Russia is going to culminate, the culminating point, within the next five to six days because they have serious manpower shortages, serious logistical problems" ... I have got to believe that there are people around him that are thinking about life after this, that they do not want to be with him when he drives the bus off the cliff - <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/putin-inner-circle/?fbclid=IwAR0wnzrA-4hbEyiVWLiF04wafKcLswCZrrnrPc4pxBYFbJf8xISC_tzYlMI">Raw Story (3/20/22)</a></i></div></blockquote><div><i><br /></i></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div><i>It is going to be really disturbing when we fully uncover just how much Putin influenced our system & gained from the Trump years all by exploiting our divisions in America & paying off politicians & news personalities. No wonder the @gop is trying to create all these memory laws - <a href="https://twitter.com/saribethrose/status/1505229806580998146">Sari Beth Rosenberg @saribethrose (3/19/22)</a></i></div></div></blockquote><div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj97qdwgV2ZKVN7wH899-fFcpOaQkQaHrKs8r5LiDi601NPudugqIvGi7ufXd-It0Un8XjYjwqpdUHSuQxRBUr4JOkvHz6OWhGZNh4OjEpLIEa8vC1DO1_0kiF3-fzeeulqaYEdd6_WfOY7ogwQZjG8RIY708_p-dHhzTgDv1yguWpVqjvK_UE=w365-h400" width="365" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"This is the Madonna of Kyiv. This is the reality of Putin’s war."</div><div style="text-align: center;">- <a href="https://twitter.com/NataliaAntonova/status/1505366649024786436">Natalia Antonova (@NataliaAntonova)</a></div><br /></div><div><div><b>The Attempted Rape and Murder of the Ukraine by Vlad the Pathological, Global Crime Lord, & His Very White Russian Gang Bangers</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Equinox. March 2022. </div><div><div><br /></div><div>The Great Wheel turns, turn with it. </div><div><br /></div><div>Like the Gaia, the Earth Herself, Democracy is a Goddess. Gaia's Daughter, in fact. (The <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/center/articles/2012/mother-nature-network-11-04-2012.html">deer </a>know this.) Like Her Mother, She is everywhere. Always. At the Louvre, bare-breasted, holding aloft the French flag in Eugene Delacroix's<a href="https://www.wikiart.org/en/eugene-delacroix/the-liberty-leading-the-people-1830"> </a><i><a href="https://www.wikiart.org/en/eugene-delacroix/the-liberty-leading-the-people-1830">La Liberté guidant le peuple</a>. </i>In New York harbor, holding aloft <a href="https://youtu.be/U0nlEcKSjmY">the torch of freedom</a>. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ..." For four mystical days and nights, She shone forth from <a href="https://www.cnn.com/style/article/tiananmen-square-goddess-of-democracy/index.html">Tiananmen Square</a>, as a call and a cry, as a beacon and a promise. Like Her Mother, Gaia, She is everywhere. Always. And like Her Mother, Gaia, She will triumph in the end, and that end will be another beginning, either for our species and this world, OR for this world without our species. That is yet to be determined.</div><div> </div><div>Right now, the <a href="https://youtu.be/VkSlhqGrY6w">"great battle of our time"</a> is centered on Ukraine.</div><div><br /></div><div>High time for some harsh facts and hard truths.</div><div><br /></div><div>Why is this happening? No, not because of any push for NATO expansion. No, not because of "appeasement" after Putin took Crimea and parts of the Donbar in 2014. Why is this happening? It's much simpler really. It is pathology not geopolitics. There is a predator, sadistic and perverted, irretrievably soulless. He lives next door to a beautiful young woman. He watches her day and night. He goes through her garbage. He sneaks into her house and to take trophies. He has been clever up until now. He has gotten away with everything. But one day, he simply cannot control himself any longer. He climbs over the fence and breaks into the beautiful young woman's house. He wants to rape and kill her. He cannot hold himself back any longer. It really is that simple. Putin is a predator.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you stand with Putin, if you support him in any way, if you cheer on Putin's aggression against this peaceful neighboring country, you are touched with the same E-V-I-L that has already consumed him, you are in danger of losing your soul and falling into the abyss.</div><div><br /></div><div>Furthermore, if say you’re simply “anti anti-Putin” you’re really pro-Putin. Period. Full stop. And that's true whether you're toxic “left” (e.g., <a href="https://twitter.com/john_sipher/status/1492862239069646857">Glenn Greenwald</a> or <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/treasonous-lies-mitt-romney-calls-out-tulsi-gabbard-for-parroting-russian-propaganda/">Tulsi Gabbard)</a> or toxic right (e.g., <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/tucker-carlson-has-seen-the-future-and-it-is-fascist.html">Tucker Carlson</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1506339231626665992">Marjorie Taylor Green</a>). The only open question is are you <a href="https://twitter.com/wordsofpower/status/1496923127095324672">Fifth Column</a> or just a “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/useful%20idiot">useful idiot</a>”</div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgLL2IO10pT85H1LKMIPN21kkhk2087u2-YUEokKMxaNuW8x-HwbkL3qS0Siz5tQ4mZOMMyz5Xxd9q4i0M8QM5tdI0v4pp_eUQj5sxiPbeTAC3v-t4TSJOIoRyTVxUbjyMJ4vyZe2uvDA9Ov68ffXEs3PMbJJnWJ746_7oELv7bDPQPYK7jRuw=w320-h400" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I am Olena Zelensky, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodmymr Zelensky. We were married in 2003. In 2004, our daughter Oleksandra was born. In 2013, I gave birth to our son Kyrylo. I am a writer and architect. I am also being targeted for death by Mr. Putin." <a href="https://twitter.com/BeaHowse/status/1498458797316222977">- Beatrice Howse @BeaHowse (2/28/22)</a></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><div>There is need for a short list of grave wrongs that are not relevant in the context of the current crisis: </div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The U.S. war on Iraq was HORRIFIC, DISASTROUS, and worst of all, UNNECESSARY. I spoke out against it loudly at the time (and paid a price for it in my professional life). But some on the toxic left are trying to change the narrative of this moment by looking backward to that foolish military adventure. So let's be clear, the U.S.'s shameful aggression in Iraq does not take away at all from the U.S.'s moral and strategic leadership in this current confrontation. The U.S. was wrong then, the U.S. is right now. Do not let those on the toxic left change the subject to suggest some moral equivalency. There is none. Do not let anyone or anything undermine the unity and clarity we are experiencing in this moment. It doesn't matter now where you stood then, all that matters here and now is whether or not you stand with Ukraine and with the West. Some among us who were wrong then are right now, some among us who were right then are wrong now. </li><li>Likewise, yes, the U.S. committed war crimes in Iraq and yes, Bush-Cheney regime officials should have been held accountable. But war crimes don't cancel each other out. The U.S. condemnation of Putin's war crimes in the Ukraine has no less moral authority. What was, was, what is, is. All you are doing by changing the subject to the U.S.'s shameful actions THEN is deflecting from Putin's real-time atrocities in Ukraine NOW. Is that your intention? To deflect? To distract? To misdirect?</li><li>And yes, yes, Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen (and our complicity) is under-reported. And yes, yes, Israeli's cruel treatment of the Palestinians, although not under-reported, certainly has been normalized. There are numerous under-reported or normalized abominations throughout the world. But in the context of this crisis, one which involves war in Europe and therefore increased danger of a nuclear confrontation, the fact that these ongoing tragedies don't receive the same media attention is simply not relevant. Again, this line of argument is meant to distract, to deflect, to misdirect. </li></ul><div>The United Front for Sanity and Decency (left, liberal, right & center) that coalesced in 2016, to defeat Trump, to keep the House gavel in Speaker Pelosi's hand and to deliver a 50-50 tie in the Senate, this United Front from <a href="https://youtu.be/LovnS__1hCQ">the Lincoln Project</a> to <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aoc-most-important-feminist-speech-generation_n_5f1afeb3c5b6128e68251cf9">AOC</a>, it must must MUST hold together but now not just for the 2020 and 2024 election cycles, but for this defense of Ukraine and the West. It is all the same war.</div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiOwn2zr4uisbn7X_Hznz7ZT63uK0_oqWzWt85agqeNAdOdDRgp6UvukDWAaD3sTVl5poLmfeFL7NIVORpIDFrJpOh-wqugELemac4M2Bfh-GgwsZh-pDO_jpI-tBRzSXwNc3tbT7dID1ui79ik4rsjZksi8GN3hb8hlcvv3SXXYza7LE5vCKM=w400-h328" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><span>Lesya Vorotnyk. Ballerina of the Kyiv National Opera. </span><a href="https://twitter.com/avalaina/status/1498708691436150787" style="text-align: center;">- Oleksandra Matviichuk @avalaina (3/1/22)</a></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><div>Some among you ask, "Is this the beginning of World War III?"</div><div><br /></div><div>My answer is twofold:</div><div><ul><li>This is not the beginning of a conflict between Putin and the West. This war started in 2014 when he took Crimea and parts of the Donbas in his initial invasion of Ukraine. He soon expanded the theatre of battle by undertaking serious, sustained attacks against the U.S. and the U.K. Yes, Putin fueled and facilitated both <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/11/uk-government-delay-of-russia-report-is-shaming-says-clinton">Brexit</a> and <a href="https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf">the rise of Trump</a>. Devastating political and geopolitical blows to two of the great powers that anchor the Western Alliance. All of this is documented, in open source. And although none of those who collaborated with the enemy have yet to suffer the full consequences of their treachery, a reckoning with the rule of law may yet come to pass (and sooner than later). It is vital for you to see the current war in Ukraine in the context of the greater scheme of overcoming the hegemony of the West.</li><li>Of course, more often then not, when someone asks the WWIII question, what they are getting at is are we going to end up in a confrontation involving nuclear weapons? It is unthinkable. Or it was unthinkable. The only honest answer is no one really knows. There really is no precedent for where we are now. This is not like the Cuban missile crisis or the Berlin airlift. Nor is it like the invasion of Czechoslovakia or the triumph of Solidarity. Despite his fiery rhetoric, Khrushchev was sane and <a href="https://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/oct27/doc4.html">proved to be a man of peace</a>. Brezhnev and the others were sane too, ruthless bureaucrat overlords, yes, but sane, pragmatic. Putin is pathologically ill, a predator, and clearly his grip on reality has slipped. So it is difficult to know how to play this out with him. The Biden-Harris national security team has been brilliant so far. Some of those who are second-guessing their decisions are too directly involved emotionally with the plight of the Ukraine, and that is understandable, others are just being opportunistic, but none of these critics bear the unspeakable weight of those decisions. There really is no margin for error. </li></ul></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhh1hFf2Q6GNVkjJAYCE6x9r3RExLdgGL6jUHNO64DNH6LsH7CUSomIOIkLrXicv1irkNeU5tVL7LAOd4u_KyHZoRte5xUadJ6DCEWPogWrBdfxOzihT9zYmpc6TEktY7o67thdB9N9bHcdI9rjb0p9kxPfZeBuUTyIYSRwaT4g40RV9TWZjYQ" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2560" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhh1hFf2Q6GNVkjJAYCE6x9r3RExLdgGL6jUHNO64DNH6LsH7CUSomIOIkLrXicv1irkNeU5tVL7LAOd4u_KyHZoRte5xUadJ6DCEWPogWrBdfxOzihT9zYmpc6TEktY7o67thdB9N9bHcdI9rjb0p9kxPfZeBuUTyIYSRwaT4g40RV9TWZjYQ=w400-h250" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><div style="text-align: center;">Marina Ovsyannikova, the woman who ran onto a live state TV news broadcast, even recorded a message beforehand. In it, she says her father is Ukrainian. She calls for anti-war protests, says she’s ashamed about working for Kremlin propaganda, and she denounces the war absolutely. - <a href="https://twitter.com/KevinRothrock/status/1503453014643949576">@KevinRothrock (3/14/22) </a></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><div>I take all of this personally.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the mid-1990s and throughout the 2000s, I delivered intelligence briefings in over 40 countries. I warned government officials and corporate executives about the greatest threats to global security. It was not what most of them expected to hear, and certainly not what they wanted to hear: I said the number one threat was already rapidly accelerating Climate Crisis, and i said the number two threat was the rise of organized crime in Russia and Eastern Europe. I said it over and over, unequivocally: Russian organized crime poised a far greater danger than Islamic terrorism, which of course is what they were all obsessed with at the time. It was much more convenient. I was not the only one who said this. But here we are. Putin acting out of his predatory fantasies of rape and murder is the end result of ignoring the warnings. For what it's worth I say the beautiful young Ukraine will defeat her attacker, with the help of a resurgent NATO and a rejuvenated Western alliance (Trump and Brexit failed, that plot depended upon Trump having a second term).</div><div><br /></div><div>In the mid-2000s, I was flown to Sofia, Bulgaria to be featured speaker at a NATO conference. The attendees were recently appointed judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers from Poland, Moldavia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Georgia, and yes, the Ukraine. They had been tasked with establishing the rule of law in those newly democratic societies. </div><div><br /></div><div>I remember reading their faces, looking for who was going to shine forth, who was going to be compromised, and of course which ones were actually Russian spies. I remember those faces now, I recall our conversations, I pray for them, even the Russian spies (after all, it is probably the Russian security and intelligence services who will bring Putin down for the survival of their own people).</div><div><br /></div><div>I am writing this post as a marker to bear witness as the sands of time shift.</div><div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjbQBbOACxydNl82YGpZAAShS7WtlbYUGmejotpKtJS_vkA4-kwRog1XyrThYKIEIXgeWNuRtOU-YcAm1aV0iYDfzOCgmla_iG18yIL-DBaQwltIvuJT9MeE_tWl3CJHpqpoUAxlDoNFGOpVeommrVyUCQtoiErAUQI-Yz3irs5gaamcn6ceV8=s976" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjbQBbOACxydNl82YGpZAAShS7WtlbYUGmejotpKtJS_vkA4-kwRog1XyrThYKIEIXgeWNuRtOU-YcAm1aV0iYDfzOCgmla_iG18yIL-DBaQwltIvuJT9MeE_tWl3CJHpqpoUAxlDoNFGOpVeommrVyUCQtoiErAUQI-Yz3irs5gaamcn6ceV8=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;">"A leading Bolshoi prima ballerina, who recently denounced Russia's invasion of Ukraine, is leaving the country to join Dutch National Ballet. Olga Smirnova, 30, said last week she was 'against this war with every fibre of my soul' and was supported by other Russian ballerinas."<br />- <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-60767490">BBC (3/16/22)</a> </span><span style="text-align: start;">Image: Getty / Fair Use<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Here are some extensive excerpts from a brilliant piece by the great Anne Applebaum (of course)in The Atlantic (of course). Follow the link below and read the full text. It is a vital read.<div> <blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><i>Before you can achieve something, you have to imagine what it will look like. And in this war, victory can be imagined without difficulty. It means that Ukraine remains a sovereign democracy, with the right to choose its own leaders and make its own treaties. There will be no pro-Russian puppet regime in Kyiv, no need for a prolonged Ukrainian resistance, no continued fighting. The Russian army retreats back over the borders. Maybe those borders could change, or maybe Ukraine could pledge neutrality, but that is for the Ukrainians to decide and not for outsiders to dictate. Maybe international peacekeepers are needed. Whatever happens, Ukraine must have strong reasons to believe that Russian troops will not quickly return ...</i></div></blockquote><div><i><br /></i></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><i>A victory for Ukraine really will be a victory for all who believe in democracy and the rule of law. Citizens of existing democracies and members of the democratic opposition in Russia, Cuba, Belarus, and Hong Kong will all be emboldened. “Their struggle is ours,” a Venezuelan acquaintance told me last week. The institutions protecting the states that embody those ideas, most notably the European Union and NATO, will be strengthened too ...</i></div></blockquote><div><i><br /></i></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><i>In Mariupol, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/20/ukraine-crisis-claims-mariupol-women-and-children-forcibly-sent-to-russia">authorities report</a> that citizens are being forcibly deported to Russia, just as Soviet secret police deported Balts, Poles, and others to Russia after the invasions of 1939 and 1945. In the case of a Russian victory, these tactics would be applied all over Ukraine, creating mass terror, mass violence, and instability for years to come. And, yes, if we accept that outcome, autocrats from Minsk to Caracas to Beijing will take note: Genocide is now allowed.</i></div></blockquote><div><i><br /></i></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><i>Precisely because the stakes are so high, the next few weeks will be extremely dangerous. Putin will do what he can to create fear ...</i></div></blockquote><div><i><br /></i></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><i>How should the West respond? There is only one rule: We cannot be afraid. Russia wants us to be afraid—so afraid that we are crippled by fear, that we cannot make decisions, that we withdraw altogether, leaving the way open for a Russian conquest of Ukraine, and eventually of Poland or even further into Europe. Putin remembers very well an era when Soviet troops controlled the eastern half of Germany. But the threat to those countries will not decrease if Russia carries out massacres in Ukraine. It will grow.</i></div></blockquote><div><i><br /></i></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><i>Instead of fear, we should focus on a Ukrainian victory. Once we understand that this is the goal, then we can think about how to achieve it, whether through temporary boycotts of Russian gas, oil, and coal; military exercises elsewhere in the world that will distract Russian troops; humanitarian airlifts on the scale of 1948 Berlin; or more and better weapons.</i></div></blockquote><div><i><br /></i></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><i>The specific tactics will be determined by those who best understand diplomacy and military strategy. But the strategy has to be clear. A month ago, nobody believed this war would matter so much, and I’m sure many people wish it did not. But it does. That’s why every move we make must have a single goal: How does it help Ukraine win?</i></div></blockquote><div><i><br /></i></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><i>“It’s not our war” was something we might have been able to say three weeks ago. Not now.</i></div></blockquote><div><div> </div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div>- <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/how-democracy-can-win-ukraine/627125/">Anne Applebaum, Ukraine Must Win, The Atlantic (3/22/22)</a></div></div><div></div></blockquote></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiv38BqXXmyV6AT7kw302lBzaoHeMbETV4MoS-PZHWuwqiDHpJW5vbZHOitnAxe-liRieVfgy59hSzFiJP4T5qIgAn8PUy60o2DjUGwy3jn1mLArvovxsonmXUfMs8JuLvqS84P3fg8PWoTv6BJzpb6cGjOOidsYgLDEHVO2fP2OAjOHwvUULg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="732" data-original-width="806" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiv38BqXXmyV6AT7kw302lBzaoHeMbETV4MoS-PZHWuwqiDHpJW5vbZHOitnAxe-liRieVfgy59hSzFiJP4T5qIgAn8PUy60o2DjUGwy3jn1mLArvovxsonmXUfMs8JuLvqS84P3fg8PWoTv6BJzpb6cGjOOidsYgLDEHVO2fP2OAjOHwvUULg=w400-h364" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><div style="text-align: center;">A new symbol for global pro-democracy. Happy Equinox!</div><div style="text-align: center;">Credit: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mpowerdance.project/">mpowerdance project</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/spring?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZXn9DviKFmjRXGzkwQlGBqzbtk6xfAk5rudbW6HHbE28W3w3_D0vDSxEMzsTFG_AeN3iIPvO3baLsZQi2cb3gL1KzA_vHdFicvweLvz0kh-Dr9vKHPk5lR6KZ03GSN77qc&__tn__=*NK*F">#spring #ukraine #prodemocracy #mpowerdanceproject</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-69996449174109752112022-02-14T17:35:00.420-08:002022-02-23T14:03:09.700-08:00"Secret Engine of the World" In High Gear (2/15/22)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/e3bpy2BSC5A">VIDEO: "Secret Engine of the World" In High Gear (Facebook Live, 2/15/22)</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e3bpy2BSC5A" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhh3_DLR7zTE5VrUckiHD9GrvH7lwow3hyO6Y0MQDpZmdCVW_ZF2qn7UfGZxp_92rSYVWx3Ul5ALRigImVTM6QU2DDEUpjZl8fbXMGA85CTFBTVSEljGjqOQgCWpWaNhjh8SZWrCv990V_64Y3Can5pm9C3BfCABMIlXHoVcfMZGXrrBXsLrRA=s1081" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1081" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhh3_DLR7zTE5VrUckiHD9GrvH7lwow3hyO6Y0MQDpZmdCVW_ZF2qn7UfGZxp_92rSYVWx3Ul5ALRigImVTM6QU2DDEUpjZl8fbXMGA85CTFBTVSEljGjqOQgCWpWaNhjh8SZWrCv990V_64Y3Can5pm9C3BfCABMIlXHoVcfMZGXrrBXsLrRA=w400-h300" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEggR0OdNFWIG6BrpFg_oFZog_J581Lu-_YWMK1ZXsz5dSK-fypMCVT-NF70abUnzlRWMcnZgoOgovPgNjMs7YUcmwfFhg6XyGfq_dHcpAHA0T1dOHR9Op--8A5RoHiChBA1eKl08VNKdKNg9qYmXuZ4E7vKW3IPDXE6OMQuOltmv6yTYgViHCw=s1081" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1081" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEggR0OdNFWIG6BrpFg_oFZog_J581Lu-_YWMK1ZXsz5dSK-fypMCVT-NF70abUnzlRWMcnZgoOgovPgNjMs7YUcmwfFhg6XyGfq_dHcpAHA0T1dOHR9Op--8A5RoHiChBA1eKl08VNKdKNg9qYmXuZ4E7vKW3IPDXE6OMQuOltmv6yTYgViHCw=w400-h300" width="400" /></span></a></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>This need for this presentation arose from recent developments relating to three of the numerous themes I explored in “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/">Secret Engine of the World</a>,” specifically: STDS, CADS and The Problem with Men.” And of course, as I will do whenever I speak on any aspect of “Secret Engine,” I will also address the “Three Deadlines” that we are hurtling toward as a nation and as a species.<br /><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7wxHxKa9lz3iAd_ax6qtyQnZwnkLtWysh-R5XpsBoTXLiZUbma8fBBVNCly0ScDlKt2bZkuo3IJ8QkAYPxvKgeTrQbG9UoZzxcVDJVBrUc3PvDgldHf9OnyJUtMX3804BFFxNRh465blHdns6EYKlUSEIHvpSKI4pYb2lK4mtPOxWbJKd7KY=s1081" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1081" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7wxHxKa9lz3iAd_ax6qtyQnZwnkLtWysh-R5XpsBoTXLiZUbma8fBBVNCly0ScDlKt2bZkuo3IJ8QkAYPxvKgeTrQbG9UoZzxcVDJVBrUc3PvDgldHf9OnyJUtMX3804BFFxNRh465blHdns6EYKlUSEIHvpSKI4pYb2lK4mtPOxWbJKd7KY=w400-h300" width="400" /></span></a></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><b>STDs Update</b><br /><br />I coined the term “Spiritually Transmitted Diseases” (STDs) in one of the talks included in “Secret Engine.” [Secret Engine pp. 55-61]<br /><br />STDs are like viruses. People become carriers and spread them. These STDs undermine your spiritual health. They lead you to waste your precious time here.<br /><br /> I offered an example of one such STD, which I call the “Usurper,” and three of its variants:<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> “Table of Erroneous Correspondences.”</li><ul><li> For example, Masculine does not correspond to Sun and Female does not correspond to Moon, nor does Dark does correspond to Evil or Light correspond to Good</li></ul><li> “Disempowering Memes”</li><ul><li>For example, “What you resist, persists” It’s the wrong prescription in many circumstances, and a wrong prescription can be dangerous.</li></ul><li> “Big Picture Perversion”</li><ul><li>For example, “Divine Authorship of Everything.”</li><ul><li>No, Hitler’s extermination of the Jews was not an expression of Divine Will, no, the Rwandan genocide was not an expression of Divine Will. Yes, it’s all a Oneness, but no, it isn’t. Two opposite truths occupy the same space, i.e., Divine Paradox.</li></ul></ul></ul>I have added two more STDs that warrant our attention -</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Disassociater (separates you from your true identity)</li><ul><li>“I am not my body” </li><ul><li> We see this pervasively promoted in religion, mysticism, yoga, meditation, etc. – it is a perversion, it is a truncation of a deeper, subtler truth, it is a kind of violence against one’s primal reality</li></ul><li>Patriarchal Gender Binary</li><ul><li>“Masculine” & “Feminine“</li><li>“Divine Masculine” & “Divine Feminine” </li><li>This mold is what you are, this mold is what you are supposed to be, this is what a "man" is supposed to be, this is what a "woman" is supposed to be</li><li>Thus sayeth the Colonizer, the Oppressor, the Pimps of Patriarchy</li></ul></ul></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Eviscerator (separates you from your reservoirs of power)</li><ul><li>“BothSiderism”</li><ul><li>For example, a cable news segment on the Climate Emergency – the overwhelming consensus among scientists says yes, over 95%, but the segment will be framed as a debate, with the nay-sayers, representing less than 5% of scientists, treated as equal in gravitas</li></ul><li>“Surrenderitis”</li><ul><li>As if “Surrender” is always the holier, wiser choice, & that “Will,” “Defiance,” etc. are somehow a lesser way, the truth is situational, it depends, in some circumstances, one applies, in a different circumstance, the other applies</li></ul></ul></ul>Disassociator and Eviscerator weaken one’s alignment with reality, our common reality, the reality of shared facts and observable laws of nature, and disrupt one’s experiential ground in one’s own primal reality, the reality of one’s being, one’s five bodies, one’s karma and dharma, Disassociator and Eviscerator take us out of ourselves and away from the world as it really is.<div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0YvaCiRnGkP5oOW7JJLv9yOjAvION1lhNjJ4fquMTEp1ObbhLOwQMGNFPeDfzX1keiIqZdGOQPUpOrkorpLaHd1haIl10_SoV7Bq2Dtvf_sBpO_1lvd4jSbqMMQGewURpImdId0CjxJubhuYUJTsMAWcZPQ_qAND6OI4np0jE2HwjxdhUFWc=s1081" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1081" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0YvaCiRnGkP5oOW7JJLv9yOjAvION1lhNjJ4fquMTEp1ObbhLOwQMGNFPeDfzX1keiIqZdGOQPUpOrkorpLaHd1haIl10_SoV7Bq2Dtvf_sBpO_1lvd4jSbqMMQGewURpImdId0CjxJubhuYUJTsMAWcZPQ_qAND6OI4np0jE2HwjxdhUFWc=w400-h300" width="400" /></span></a></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><b>CADS Update</b><br /><br />I coined the term “Cognitive Atrophy and Dissolution Syndrome” (CADS) in another one of the talks included in “Secret Engine.” [Secret Engine pp. 105-110]<br /><br />I had been pondering both the personal and societal impact of succeeding generations with a baseline continually receding from physical reality, and from one’s own creative imagination and reasoning skills, into a new baseline first ordered around television, then video games and the Internet, and then finally smartphones. I had been feeling a weakening in people’s intellectual capacity and autonomy.<br /><br />And in certain social media circles, I had been felt this weakening was further aggravated by powerful influences within some of the sub-cultures, in which we travel as yogis, artists, meditators, adventurers: social media itself, "neo-Tantra,” the misuse of plant medicine, Burning Man and the festival scene in general etc. … All of these technological innovations, all of these explorations of psyche and soma, all of it, was wonderful, freeing, mind-expanding, accelerating, but it also brought unintended consequences. Many people were, I felt, starting to lose their minds …<br /><br />But then factor in four years of a pathological ill man in control of the bully pulpit, factor in one of the two major political parties in the world’s dominant democracy succumbing to authoritarianism, factor in the collapse of the ecological and climatic balance on which civilization itself is predicated, factor in two or three years of a global pandemic … And NOW we are dealing with massive, collective delusion that threaten to engulf significant swarths of the population … </div><div><br /></div><div>Consider QAnon. </div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><br />“A secret cabal is taking over the world. They kidnap children, slaughter, and eat them to gain power from their blood. They control high positions in government, banks, international finance, the news media, and the church. They want to disarm the police. They promote homosexuality and pedophilia. They plan to mongrelize the white race so it will lose its essential power. Does this conspiracy theory sound familiar? It is. The same narrative has been repackaged by QAnon. I have studied and worked to prevent genocide for forty years. Genocide Watch and the Alliance Against Genocide, the first international anti-genocide coalition, see such hate-filled conspiracy theories as early warning signs of deadly genocidal violence. The plot, described above, was the conspiracy “revealed” in the most influential anti-Jewish pamphlet of all time. It was called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was written by Russian anti-Jewish propagandists around 1902 ... QAnon’s conspiracy theory is a rebranded version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/72339/qanon-is-a-nazi-cult-rebranded/">- Gregory Stanton, Just Security, 9/9/20</a><br /><br />“Russian government-backed social media accounts nurtured the QAnon conspiracy theory in its infancy, earlier than previously reported, according to interviews with current and former Twitter executives and archives of tweets from suspended accounts.” <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-qanon-cyber/qanon-received-earlier-boost-from-russian-accounts-on-twitter-archives-show-idUSKBN27I18I">– Reuters, 11/2/20</a></blockquote><div><br /></div> Consider the Anti-Vax movement.<div><br /></div><div>There are two virulent strains of anti-vax madness, there is the MAGA strain, which impacts our governance and the body politics in dangerous and destructive ways, and there is the Woo Woo strain, which infects the realms of Wellness and Alternative Life Styles<br /><br />Look, let me break it down for you:<br /><br />Vaccines are a blessing that result from a profound collaboration between human genius epitomized by science and the unspeakable incomprehensible intelligence of Gaia herself, because these bodies are after all Her creation. The vaccines carry a message from human genius into the body and deliver the message to the Divine Intelligence of Gaia, which responds accordingly and works with the vaccines to save human life. If you are fully vaccinated (including the booster), and you wear a real mask, and you exercise common sense social distancing, you have a high degree of protection against getting infected, a high degree of protection against communicating the disease to others, an even higher degree of protection against hospitalization and almost 100% protection against death. Period. Full stop.<br /> <br />And yes, Putin has been promoting Anti-Vax DISinformation in the West –</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div>“Russian intelligence agencies have mounted a campaign to undermine confidence in Pfizer Inc.’s and other Western vaccines, using online publications that in recent months have questioned the vaccines’ development and safety, U.S. officials said. An official with the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, which monitors foreign disinformation efforts, identified four publications that he said have served as fronts for Russian intelligence. </div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div>The websites played up the vaccines’ risk of side effects, questioned their efficacy, and said the U.S. had rushed the Pfizer vaccine through the approval process, among other false or misleading claims.</div><div>Though the outlets’ readership is small, U.S. officials say they inject false narratives that can be amplified by other Russian and international media.</div><div> “We can say these outlets are directly linked to Russian intelligence services,” the Global Engagement Center official said of the sites behind the disinformation campaign. “They’re all foreign-owned, based outside of the United States. They vary a lot in their reach, their tone, their audience, but they’re all part of the Russian propaganda and disinformation ecosystem ...” <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-disinformation-campaign-aims-to-undermine-confidence-in-pfizer-other-covid-19-vaccines-u-s-officials-say-11615129200">– WSJ, 3/7/21</a></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Consider “The Big Lie”</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><a href="https://twitter.com/Liz_Cheney/status/1389225154639695881?s=20&t=2IWXN0R-Ml7Av6Odara27g">Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney), 5/3/21</a>: The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">"Behind the Republican embrace of disinformation is a calculus of both ambition and self-preservation." Beware the power of the Big Lie. As it threatens to overwhelm the truth, it prefigures the advent of fascist authoritarianism and the death of liberty <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/us/politics/jan-6-capitol-riot-pelosi.html">- Lisa Lerer and Nicholas Fandos, NY Times, 7/31/21</a></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/JocelynBenson/status/1467480877177344004">Jocelyn Benson (@JocelynBenson), 9/27/21</a>: The Big Lie is no longer about overturning the last Presidential election. It’s about planting seeds to overturn the next one.</div></blockquote><div><div><br />And yes, Putin’s hand is in this too -</div><div><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">“Key Judgement 2: We assess that Russian President Putin authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electrical process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the U.S. …” <a href="https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ICA-declass-16MAR21.pdf">– Foreign Threats to U.S. Federal Elections, National Intelligence Council, Intelligence Community Assessment, 3/10/21</a></div></blockquote><div><div><br /><b>Orc PSYOPS</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I want to offer you a glimpse into another one of the poisonous delusions that can be found spreading in the fever swamps that dot our social media landscape. It’s something called the “neo-polarity” or “female submission” movement. This poisonous delusion is made possible by rampant STDs and late-stage CADS.</div><div><br /></div><div>The premise is that men are naturally dominant and superior and women are naturally submissive and kept as, well, vessels of Eros only (although they would deny this characterization it is the truth of it). </div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, the languaging isn't troglodyte, it's all wrapped up in Woo Woo, and calibrated to seduce women of the "Wellness" sub-culture. It's deep Orc PSYOPS really. </div><div><br /></div><div>And it offers an apt segue to my update on “The Problem with Men.”</div><div><br />Here some posts from this movement’s leaders (no, I'm not going to mention their names).<br /><br /><b>WARNING: I consider what follows to be as ill as an excerpt from "Mein Kampf" or "The Turner Diaries." If you don't want to scan it, just look for the "All Clear" below.</b><br /><br />First, a few aphorisms from one of this delusional movement's male leaders:</div><div><div><div><br /></div></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div><div><div><i>The Dominant Man is a Master of comporting himself around women who wear no Armor. Because he is the reason they don't have to.</i></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Only when a man becomes Dominant can he be Devoted to a woman. Emasculated men are too much in their feelings to be Devoted. </i></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><i> The "devotion" of the Emasculated man enables the Trauma of the Masculinized woman. Her wounds lead because he doesn't know how.</i></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>"When men are not dominant, women become neurotic."</i></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br />Can you hear the sickness in those formulations? How twisted, how perverse.<br /><br />Now listen to some of the poison posts from one of this movement's female leaders:</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><i>A woman cannot spiritually repair her relationship to men, money, or God (the energetic trinity of “the Masculine”) without erecting “him” within FIRST ... Until she can activate and *hold* the imprint of the Masterful *FATHER PRINCIPLE* within her own system, she so often unconsciously magnetizes vortexes of re-traumatization, which then only corroborates the incomplete/distorted narrative of the “toxic masculine.” However, it is only when she can open to the full penetration and cosmic ejaculatory thrust of the energetic imprint of “the Masculine” that she can begin to receive and live the life of her hearts desire.</i></div><div><i>Remember: Devotion flows — and can only flow — UPWARD. So.....it just may be....that the dark gift of being chosen to love a man who is in all dimensional metrics *BETTER THAN YOU* could just be the most sublime, ego-detonating, Eros-drenching, relentlessly orgasmic Golden Ticket to Devotional Ecstasy known to womankind ...</i></div></blockquote><p> <b>[ALL CLEAR. I won't be quoting any more of this. I just needed you to get a sense of it.]</b></p><div>And yes, as incredible as it might seem to you, some of our STD-ridden, CADS-positive Facebook “friends” and Instagram followers have indeed fallen for this ORC PSYOPS.<br /><br />I was struck by how many “mutual friends” I shared with the movement leaders I audited. Thirty-one, thirty-one out of six hundred ninety (iI intentionally keep my number of FB "friends" as close to 500 as I can, I'll explain why in another post). And yes, some (perhaps most) of those “mutual friends” are just indulging in morbid curiosity, or suffering from a bout of “BothSiderism,” and yes, maybe some are just a little orc-curious, but wow. <br /><br />It is unsustainable, of course. It will implode. It will get ugly. Sources tell me it already has. But wow.<br />Dakini poet and oracle <a href="https://www.deepfemininemysteryschool.com/">Maya Luna,</a> author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/OMEGA-Feral-Secrets-Deep-Feminine/dp/B0863TX3SS/">Omega: Feral Secrets of the Deep Feminine</a>, is at the cutting edge of feminist mysticism. I asked her to provide some context since I know she has encountered some of the movement's trolls and sympathizers in the course of her work:<div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">“I would call it an attempted interference in the Ascendency of the Feminine through the exaltation of patriarchalized femininity, a resurgence of misogynistic abuse paradigms, and trauma bonding dressed up as ‘divine union.’”</div></blockquote><p>Yes. And this is to be expected, of course, the arising of such powerful, dangerous delusions, it is all part of the savage backlash we are already dealing with at a societal level. The Patriarchy is fast losing its grip on the vertical and the horizontal, and so, it is increasingly violent. As its desperation intensifies, its rage intensified. This is an inexorable process. In 2020, we were removing statues celebrating Robert E. Lee and other traitorous leaders of the slavers’ rebellion known as the Confederacy. So in 2021 and 2022, we are struggling with local school boards banning Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” and Margaret Atwood’s “Handmaid’s Tale.” This is where we are. This, “the great battle of our time,” it’s ongoing.</p><div style="text-align: left;"><div>Misogyny, Racism, Anti-Semitism, Homophobia, Transphobia, etc. it is all of a whole cloth, and that whole cloth must be ripped to shreds.</div><div> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgloBfBjb_q1sWIu1sJKsvRdAutXP7iDu2-3HXEtJix827t_H3b6WPfR32vNxtkZ4UwNOQHgcj9hVgSsnKPgP-s2DIj2bIUGX1mKte1dKXgmHZzsdBoimtEGY1ZRM7ZcNP_2GAFUAci0LFcgx9X5i5Q56ASHaPP9hQh0e6hqPQ4z1Pw8b_gU5s=s1081" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1081" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgloBfBjb_q1sWIu1sJKsvRdAutXP7iDu2-3HXEtJix827t_H3b6WPfR32vNxtkZ4UwNOQHgcj9hVgSsnKPgP-s2DIj2bIUGX1mKte1dKXgmHZzsdBoimtEGY1ZRM7ZcNP_2GAFUAci0LFcgx9X5i5Q56ASHaPP9hQh0e6hqPQ4z1Pw8b_gU5s=w400-h300" width="400" /></span></a></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><b>INVERVENTION</b><br /><br />The Ascendancy of the Feminine (Human and Divine) has been one of several overarching themes in my writing, including Altruism and Sustainability as Spiritual (and Existential) Imperatives. I speak about the "Ascendancy of the Feminine" extensively in both “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1533410690/">Wyrds</a>” and “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1983912050/">Dragon</a>,” and in “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/">Secret Engine</a>,” I added to it, specifically addressing “The Problem with Men.” [Secret Engine, pp. 62-71] And in this talk, I am going to take it a little further.<br /><br />The magnitude of “the Problem with Men,” the full scope, the planetary scale, it is not dealt with adequately, it is a profound problem, perhaps the most profound of all, it is an existential threat, if left unchallenged, unmitigated, uninterruptedly, it will be the end of us, our species, our world … this is not hyperbole … I am deathly serious …<br /><br /> In “The Problem with Men,” I articulated some remedies, yes, but here I want to put a new emphasis on it, and a bigger frame …<br /><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Men in general, as a gender, and almost all men, individually, need an INTERVENTION. Just as you would with a friend or loved one with an addiction or a serious mental health issue. Men need some tough love. They need to hear a harsh truth. They need to face something grim and painful. We need a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html">1619 Project</a> moment for the Patriarchy and the toll it has taken on human civilization. Our nation’s wealth derived from slavery, our nation’s land was won through genocide. The White House itself was built by slaves. It is not all we are, or all that we have come from, not at all. But it is real and it must be acknowledged and kept present in our psyches until we go much deeper into the transformation and healing of our society, our body politic, our economic order. All white Americans have to come to terms with these historical facts and understand our responsibility to add all of the pain and suffering caused and all of the privilege bestowed. Similarly, all men, across the planet, the whole male gender must come to realize that our position in this world is derived from the subjugation of women, from the brainwashing of women, from the exploitation of women, from the imposition of a false binary of “masculine” and “feminine” which only serves the needs of the Patriarchy, not of any woman, nor really of any man, it is a curse on us all, a savage wound, a mutilation of us all … men need to come to grips with the historical and psychological facts, that by birth all men are complicit until they prove themselves to be otherwise, all men should welcome a recognition of our collective guilt and shame, just like white privilege, male privilege is an injustice and an illness, and it must revealed, disrupted and dismantled. </li><li>Where you need to find the Feminine, the Goddess, first and foremost, where you need to bow to it, and surrender to it, is inside your own psyche and soma, and I don’t mean by running around Burning Man in a tutu, and I don’t mean by “feminizing” some part of yourself based on a patriarchally warped view of the Feminine, I mean find the truth of Yin and Yang, beyond the false binary of “Masculine” and “Feminine” ginned up to serve the Patriarchy, beyond the “Table of Erroneous Consequences,” yes, begin to live from emotional intelligence, from creativity, from agape, from conscience, from interconnectivity, from vibration, from authenticity in your feelings and states, from holy rage, which is not a rage not based on identity or possessions, yes, live from a more sensitive present aware alignment, live from and into intimacy. The way to truly worship Her is to find Her inside yourself and resource Her power in your daily life.</li><li>Other men cannot really help you. This is vital to know. What you need to get in terms of help, in terms of acquiring new inner technologies, in terms of learning to language differently, what you need in terms of counsel - it can only truly come from women, female psycho-therapists, female yoga teachers, etc. Men can’t help you.</li></ol><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgPyMYCQWeiKl4nbWpeHzta3PwwMyWMVMMS-bjvr6XLDhYaPJGy3iHsNvEjNAl4poAh6SNsTwWFF-wRiBvr5NAKlBimi91q7vajdozpLP1BnOXW1h0R8NrpiVqAIBBglRgbt8vRsOIdXtxOaBWKVfSqR1ALJ58FV5cQebAkfjr6CiCvGf4Csqk=s1081" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1081" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgPyMYCQWeiKl4nbWpeHzta3PwwMyWMVMMS-bjvr6XLDhYaPJGy3iHsNvEjNAl4poAh6SNsTwWFF-wRiBvr5NAKlBimi91q7vajdozpLP1BnOXW1h0R8NrpiVqAIBBglRgbt8vRsOIdXtxOaBWKVfSqR1ALJ58FV5cQebAkfjr6CiCvGf4Csqk=w400-h300" width="400" /></span></a></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><b>Evolutionary, Not Ideologue</b><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div>Now as we accelerate into the Great Shift, and we move inexorably to supplant this rotten patriarchal civilization with a vibrant feminist civilization, I am going to leave this cautionary note here and hope you heed the admonishment: BE AN EVOLUTIONARY, NOT AN IDEOLOGUE!<br /><br />What do I mean by this? Perhaps it’s best expressed with some examples.<div><ul><li>Hold space for the work of Chopin and Rothko and Botticelli and Coltrane, et al. Hold space for those great artists who carried truth and beauty forward through the many bloody, ignorant centuries of male-dominant culture. The great paintings, the great musical compositions, these great artistic treasures of the past two millennia, they actually offered a durable container for evidence of the Deep Feminine even as we passed through the ugliest of eras. Sometimes even in spite of the toxicity of the artists themselves (e.g., Picasso and Richard Wagner). Their space in the galleries and on the playlists will be limited as culture turns over, but those that carry actual truth and beauty should always have a place.</li><li>Learn to discern the difference between the core mystical secrets of the human race and the perverse patriarchal trappings with which they have been enmeshed and encrusted down through the many centuries. A friend once enthusiastically sent me an excerpt from a book she was devouring, it was a feminist take-down of patriarchal age religion and spirituality. The excerpt was an attempt at a critique of Buddha’s fundamental teachings. It was ridiculous, of course. It was an ideological attack launched against a religionist misrepresentation of what Gautama Buddha’s actual teachings. Both the ideological attack and the religionist misrepresentation were by definition bounded within the mind, and A-L-L of Buddha’s message was and is beyond mind. As I have said over and over for DECADES now, Gautama Buddha wasn’t a Buddhist, and Jesus Christ wasn’t a Christian. Go after the patriarchal religions that have imprisoned our greatest truths, yes, please. The monasteries, the priesthoods, the patriarchal languaging, yes, all of it. Put an end to all exploitation and subjugation East and West. But leave Gautama Buddha to Pema Chodron. She is best equipped to sort it out and break it down for you.</li><li>Three powerful mythoi bring the collective psyche to the end of Patriarchy and the threshold, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the Star Wars, taken together they constitute an Opening into the Great Shift, they are Portals … yes, they are told from within the patriarchal frame, yes, they are wrapped in the trappings of kingdoms and told as the tales of great warriors have been told down through the ages, BUT there is so much more at work in these three mythoi … they herald the feminist civilization to come, they carry the energy of the Deep Feminine, they are steeped in it </li></ul>Lord of the Rings begins with the highest of the high Elvin sorceresses speaking from inside her oneness with the five bodies of the great green goddess Gaia Herself:</div></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Galadriel (speaking partly in Elvish):</div><div style="text-align: left;">(I amar prestar aen.)</div><div style="text-align: left;">The world is changed.</div><div style="text-align: left;">(Han matho ne nen.)</div><div style="text-align: left;">I feel it in the water.</div><div style="text-align: left;">(Han mathon ned cae.)</div><div style="text-align: left;">I feel it in the earth.</div><div style="text-align: left;">(A han noston ned gwilith.)</div><div style="text-align: left;">I smell it in the air.</div></blockquote></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>The power of both Gaia and Tara course through the whole of the saga … the tree shepherd giants, the Ents, marching to war to defend their ancient forests from ECOCIDAL violence issuing from Isengard, the Elves of Rivendell arriving unexpectedly, at Helm’s Deep, in the darkest hour of the night, to stand with Theoden against the GENOCIDAL violence of the Orc legions .. all are moved by agape, all are moved by conscience and the common good … in the Council of Elrond, as the kings and warriors argue amongst themselves as to the best coure of action, it is Frodo, a hobbit, the smallest, gentlest among them, who stands up and says, “I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way.”<br /><br />Both Frodo and Harry Potter sign up for self-sacrifice and almost certain death in desperate attempts to save all that they love … Agape is the banner … L-O-V-E- is the deepest, oldest, most powerful magic …<br /><br />Dumbledore reveals this to Harry in Order of the Phoenix</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div>"There is a room in the Department of Mysteries, that is kept locked at all times. </div><div>It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you.”</div></blockquote><div><br />Dumbledore reminds Harry again in The Half-Blood Prince<br /><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div>”But I haven’t got uncommon skill and power,” said Harry, before he could stop himself.</div><div>“Yes, you have,” said Dumbledore firmly. “You have a power that Voldemort has never had. You can…”</div><div>“I know!” said Harry impatiently. “I can love!” It was only with difficulty that he stopped himself adding, “Big deal!”</div><div>“Yes, Harry, you can love,” said Dumbledore, who looked as though he knew perfectly well what Harry had just refrained from saying. “Which, given everything that has happened to you, is a great and remarkable thing. You are still too young to understand how unusual you are.”</div><div>“So, when the prophecy says that I’ll have ‘power the Dark Lord knows not,’ it just means – love?” asked Harry, feeling a little let down.</div><div>“Yes – just love,” said Dumbledore ...</div></blockquote><br />The hidden truth of the Force is that it is the both Light and Dark, both Yin and Yang, swirling within and all around each other they are the circle of Life itself, and Evil is outside that circle.<br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div>Luke: Breathe. Reach out with your feelings. What do you see?</div><div>Rey: The island. Life. Death and decay, that feeds new life. Warmth. Cold. Peace. Violence.</div><div>Luke: And between it all?</div><div>Rey: Balance and energy. A force.</div><div>Luke: And inside you?</div><div>Rey: Inside me, that same force.</div><div>Luke: And this is the lesson. That Force does not belong to the Jedi. To say that if the Jedi die, the light dies, is vanity. Can you feel that?</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Consider Yoda’s admonishment to Luke as they sat and watched the sacred texts of the Jedi burn in a lightning strike brought down by Yoda himself.</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">"Heeded my words not, did you? "Pass on what you have learned." Strength, mastery, hmm...but weakness, folly, failure, also. Yes: failure, most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters." – Yoda</div></blockquote><p> All of three of these transformational mythoi culminate in the third movie of the third trilogy in the Star Wars series, as the young female padwan Rey triumphs over Palpatine, who like Voldemort and Sauron was an evil that had survived death …</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div> “I am all the Sith,” Palpatine bellows.</div><div>“And I am all the Jedi,” Rey roars.</div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><div>After obliterating Palpatine, Rey takes the name Skywalker, and in possession of both Luke and Leia’s light sabers, she walks into the future to generate new legends for a new world.<div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhUqUepewyTDr1TG9FNwaV9pGm6J2lRFtHOmHIkt2LhYYDUp8sRescPxex20rKn3cKogXDGgn9bIcwrtMYG-q7s9IZM_pNOG6kP5o2NsWVFfqOkpMw0Gh7si_nmhEML_C5ptzAnhLb0whNm562nFWp2bn4-fFy16zf6n6Na8aYvEUflyiBtQ3Y=s1081" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1081" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhUqUepewyTDr1TG9FNwaV9pGm6J2lRFtHOmHIkt2LhYYDUp8sRescPxex20rKn3cKogXDGgn9bIcwrtMYG-q7s9IZM_pNOG6kP5o2NsWVFfqOkpMw0Gh7si_nmhEML_C5ptzAnhLb0whNm562nFWp2bn4-fFy16zf6n6Na8aYvEUflyiBtQ3Y=w400-h300" width="400" /></span></a></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><b>Three Deadlines</b><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>Even though “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/">Secret Engine</a>” explores many rich and deep issues related to our primal reality, and the arc of human evolution, more than anything else this is a call to action and a warning.<br /><br /> We are faced with three looming deadlines. These deadlines are hurtling toward us. They are closer every day. When “Secret Engine” was published these deadlines were only two, four and ten years away. Now they are one, three and nine years away. There are no second chances. This is it for us. Each deadline is essential in and of itself, and they are dependent on one another. If we fall to deliver on the 2022 mid-term election deadline, and we don’t hold the House and expand our majority in the Senate, then it will be even harder to secure the White House for another term in 2024. And if we fail in 2022 and/or 2024, it will be almost impossible to for us to deliver on the 2032 planetary deadline. Without control of the House, the Senate and the White House, we will be unable to make the radical moves required to mitigate the impact of the Climate Collapse already underway.<br /><br />If you feel like you’ve been told over and over again every two years that this is the most important election cycle of your life and that the future of our republic hangs in the balance, well, you’re right. We have told you this every two years, and it has been true every time, as it is now. But we’re running out of runway. Finally. This is it. Some of us have spent our whole lives in this struggle, some of us will never see the moment of final triumph, but it will come and many of you who hear my voice now will be alive to see, as I hope to be.<br /><br /> I didn’t plan on becoming a mystical ward-healer for the Democratic Party, but it’s what is demanded of me in this era. Listen, politics is holy, UGLY, yes, but H-O-L-Y. Your vote is sacred, do not commit sacrilege, use your vote, choose altruism as our philosophy of governance, if you don’t vote, if you’re too cynical or you feel you’re “beyond” the coarseness of politics, you are in effect voting for sociopathy as our philosophy of governance.<br /><br /> This is tomorrow. There is no future if we fail in this struggle.<br /><br /> In “Secret Engine,” I wrote about what my “Yoda,” the legendary American sage Joe Miller, called the “Power of Nothing.” I also wrote about his prophecy concerning this next 100 years. Well, we are half-way through that 100 years now, and poll after poll, election after election, confirm his prophecy. Wave after wave of new voters are entering into the body politic, and they know, they just know …</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgY9y8SmumhMXxxk4t1Hu6zR1I8Qrqqu_RX_NvTlUIvJCa6HHlJAjdE2NNkfSrx5wTg6Z2nTC0wPlzmfzR-pOHR8kxShe9461QEQvzcch5MTQRNaTvt2Gaod7k3YOIIKmkxvFBFn81mkU7s78O10eTni2Y2U6o9fhLhb0WlpBcktvG2j7-QtzY=s1081" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1081" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgY9y8SmumhMXxxk4t1Hu6zR1I8Qrqqu_RX_NvTlUIvJCa6HHlJAjdE2NNkfSrx5wTg6Z2nTC0wPlzmfzR-pOHR8kxShe9461QEQvzcch5MTQRNaTvt2Gaod7k3YOIIKmkxvFBFn81mkU7s78O10eTni2Y2U6o9fhLhb0WlpBcktvG2j7-QtzY=w400-h300" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><b>Fog of War </b><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>Some among you are warriors; by that I mean your life experiences have shown you what it means, what it requires, what you must be capable of - to fight for your freedom, or someone else’s, or your life, or someone else’s, or even perhaps most desperately of all, for your sanity, or someone else’s. Others among you find yourself in such circumstances, and confronted with such challenges for the first time. No one alive today has ever stood in a moment as dire as the one that is our now. Even in the grim pit of World War II, there was a clarity, there were lines that could advance or retreat in ways that could be grasped simply. But this is all asymmetrical. We are in a chaos so seemingly bottomless, a chaos so utterly fraught with peril, a chaos that directly threatens not only our individual sanity but our collective sanity. <br /><br />If you don’t feel this way, well, you’re living in a dream, in a bubble, and I don’t envy you when that bubble bursts, you will be ill-equipped to come to grips with the impact of what is actually going on all around you. Maybe you are one of those who say something like "Oh, we really need to move beyond that language, 'us v. them,' 'civil war,'" etc. Well, it's not an issue of languaging or framing, it is a FACT, a REALITY, it is not viewpoint or opinion, it is not something you can nuance. It's as if fire fighters raced into a burning building and the people that they were trying to save started objecting to terminology like FLAMES, EXPLOSION, SMOKE, BLOWBACK, suggesting kindler, gentler framing, LOL, it doesn't change the FACTS of the smoke and flame or the REALITY of the fire ... </div><div><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, .SFNSText-Regular, sans-serif" style="color: #e4e6eb;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span> In “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/">Secret Engine</a>,” I document the three great scourges of our time: the Climate Emergency, the Global Pandemic and the Rise of Authoritarianism. We don’t have to reiterate all of that here tonight. I just want to talk to you briefly about how it is impacting us, and what we must do in this to keep ourselves and our collective reality moving forward.<br /><br /> There is a phrase, “the fog of war.” These last six months or so, I have been turning this phrase over and over again in my psyche. As I look around me and check in on those I care for. One night recently MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell uttered the phrase in his opening monologue. I smiled, a grim smile, but a warrior’s smile. Of course, he had heard it in his psyche too.<br /><br /> “The fog of war.” Oxford Languages defines it as “Confusion caused by the chaos of war or battle.” Yes. There is a such time in every great battle, maybe it’s a moment that feels like a day, maybe it is a day that feels like a moment. You can’t see ahead, you can’t see behind, you can’t see to either side of you. You dare not look up because in that moment you might be decapitated or disemboweled. All you have is your weapon, and maybe your shield. All you can do in that suspended time is meet what comes at you. All you can do is what you were last implored to do. If it was to advance, you advance. If it was to hold your ground, you hold your ground. You destroy what seeks to destroy you. Period. Full stop. There is nothing else. You cannot sense the tide of battle. You cannot know if you’re side is winning or losing. The only way you can serve the greater good is to keep fighting. You have no idea when it will end or if you will survive for even another moment. For all you know your cause is already lost, but you cannot succumb. What is YOU are the last thread that holds the collective reality together.<br /><br />We are all exhausted. We have all been horrified. What had hitherto been considered abominable has been normalized before your very eyes. Orcs and zombies have been chipping away at the pillars of human decency and social order. For years now. We have indulged in hope and optimism and had them stripped from us again and again. Yes. I know. If you feel. If you allow yourselves to feel. This is what is there to be felt. And they are relentless. The orcs and the zombies, and their death-eater overlords, the sociopaths and oligarchs.<br /><br />In the throes of the “Fog of War,” you can’t kneel down and cast the yarrow sticks, so I will give you the hexagram that applies to this moment – it is #29, “K’an,” it’s named “The Abysmal.”<br /><br />The two trigrams that constitute the hexagram are the same: a broken line above, a unbroken line in the middle, and a broken line at the bottom.<br /> <br />From Richard Wilhelm’s translation:<br /></div><div><u><br /></u></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><u>The Judgement</u></div><div>The Abysmal repeated.</div><div>If you are sincere, you have success in your heart,</div><div>And whatever you do succeeds.</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><u>The Image</u></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div>Water flows on uninterruptedly and reaches it goal:</div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">The image of the Abysmal repeated.<br /><div>Thus the superior [human] walks in lasting virtue</div><div>And carries on the business of teaching.</div></blockquote><div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">So here and now, lost in the “Fog of War,” be like water, flow forward, for us as humans flowing forward is taking one step after another. A step is simple. Just a step. If you take enough steps, one after another, you arrive at your destination.<br /><br /> What are our steps in this moment, in these dire circumstances?<br /><br /> Oh, the list could be a very long list, but a short list is just as powerful, no, a short list is much more powerful. And it will give you a good sense of what to add to it if you can.<br /><br /> Do not underestimate the importance of these steps.</div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>VOTE. Vote the Democratic ticket straight down the ballot. But right now, it’s not enough to just say “VOTE.” I mean check your registration. Especially if you live in a “Red State. You don’t want to go to the polling place or mail in your ballot and discover you’ve been wrongly purged through some voter suppression tactic. And likewise DON'T JUST VOTE, but nudge, cajole, shame everyone to do the same. And ORGANIZE, SHOW UP, MAKE YOUR VOICE BE HEARD. Engage, educate, LEAD.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Get vaccinated. And if you’re vaccinated, get BOOSTED. Keep up with the wearing of masks, and sensible social distancing. Issue your own personal mandates in your own life. Until this really has receded for good. And likewise nudge, cajole, shame everyone to do the same. Engage, educate, LEAD.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Exercise deep self-care. Whatever that is for you. But, for example, sleep, hydration, yoga, meditation, “forest bathing,” unplugging from your electronic devices for some time in the course of every 24 hour cycle (and not just when sleeping). Know that this deep self-care is an EVOLUTIONARY act. And likewise nudge, cajole, shame everyone to do the same.</li></ul>Remind yourself every day, and every night, that YOU are not alone, and that WE are not alone, and that we are surfing the crest of a great wave, we are riding the Arc of Human Evolution. Remind yourself every day, and every night, of the “Power of Nothing.” Remind yourself, every day, and every night, of the legendary American sage Joe Miller’s 100 year prophecy. These are all powerful forces. <br /><br />But there is something more, something incomprehensible, and unspeakable, the power of Gaia Herself, the Divine Intelligence within which we all LITERALLY move and live and have our beings, She wants the human species to right itself, She wants us to emerge from this Singularity, as a new, better, saner, kinder wiser version of ourselves. And yes of course, if we lose ourselves, if we succumb in this “Fog of War,” if we give up, She will deal with us mercilessly and summarily for the sake of the countless other species that LITERALLY live and move and have their beings within Her.<br /></div><br />But we have a chance. Hence the three deadlines I have articulated.<br /><br />#LeanForward #UnitedFrontforSanityAndDecency <br /><div><br /></div><div>#SmashthePatriarchy #BlackLivesMatter #ClimateEmergency </div><div><br /></div><div>#NotACaravanofDespair <br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgNeAG8XDWwobB238P7dQC61mNnLthVxabHZynHXm5YyktpUpxvebxMgSC0-tL5tFFRbdUMtQwoQkjEw7u9e20DKM1JXJAYnJvtOZ2Y6QD5btYkQWiZYvQE9jm8X6O-2kLWsNoROqdNMgED-PA_rSXbnngAH_1GeOcgDDj2i_DewvWAdCwex5o=s1081" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1081" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgNeAG8XDWwobB238P7dQC61mNnLthVxabHZynHXm5YyktpUpxvebxMgSC0-tL5tFFRbdUMtQwoQkjEw7u9e20DKM1JXJAYnJvtOZ2Y6QD5btYkQWiZYvQE9jm8X6O-2kLWsNoROqdNMgED-PA_rSXbnngAH_1GeOcgDDj2i_DewvWAdCwex5o=w400-h300" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><div><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div><br /><br /></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-86274342789494595182022-01-20T23:18:00.018-08:002022-01-21T13:45:53.287-08:00Mpowerdance Presents "Survivors Dreaming 2021" - Richard Power on "Secret Engine of the World" (SFTS Lodge, November 2021) <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhcjr0uTxy2W1vmJM-givQHGuE06_AyWsWDlVLzfzMhvuCyQvFhgv-1z0CWBAKlmDPUqyOVrrLQuB37MWIEryb19fjwudMI3nMwSNrjmyTk0TBZ7r5BcI95Ar8aiswVpb6-IBOEvN_xHRN5gN6G_mRG1GyRDWMMi1Mvd4FfWuYmTghL8Gq0zdc=s1024" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="746" data-original-width="1024" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhcjr0uTxy2W1vmJM-givQHGuE06_AyWsWDlVLzfzMhvuCyQvFhgv-1z0CWBAKlmDPUqyOVrrLQuB37MWIEryb19fjwudMI3nMwSNrjmyTk0TBZ7r5BcI95Ar8aiswVpb6-IBOEvN_xHRN5gN6G_mRG1GyRDWMMi1Mvd4FfWuYmTghL8Gq0zdc=w400-h291" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098GY3YFT/">Secret Engine of the World: Further Notes on Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution</a>" <br />by Richard Power. Available via Amazon.com</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>[NOTE: Late last year, I was honored to deliver a presentation on my latest book as part of <a href="https://www.mpowerdance.net/">Mpowerdance Project</a>'s "Survivors Dreaming 2021." Held at the legendary <a href="https://theosophicalsocietyofsanfrancisco.blogspot.com/">San Francisco Theosophical Society (SFTS)</a>, this three night gala featured Art Exhibits, Dance Performance, Spoken Word, Live Music and Group Discussion. It marked the first in-person meeting of the SFTS since the beginning of the pandemic. Here is an embedded You Tube video of my segment, along with an edited transcript. More poignant artifacts documenting this powerful event are forthcoming from the <a href=" https://www.mpowerdance.net/ ">Mpowerdance Project</a>. - Richard Power] </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">VIDEO: <a href="https://youtu.be/pqNlYj7TuQg">Mpowerdance Presents "Survivors Dreaming 2021" - Richard Power on "Secret Engine of the World" (SFTS Lodge, November 2021) </a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pqNlYj7TuQg" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div></div><div><br /></div><div>“Don’t bury the lede.” That’s one of the most important rules in journalism. “Don’t bury the lede.” (The New York Times, BTW, violates this rule quite often.) Well, I am not going to.<br /><br /> “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098GY3YFT/">Secret Engine of the World</a>” is about three deadlines. Two deadlines for us as citizens of this nation. And one deadline for us as a species on this planet. The deadlines for us as a nation were two years away, and four years away, when I wrote this book. Now they are one year away and three years away. These deadlines are 2022 and 2024. The deadline for us as a species, and for this planet, was ten years away, now it’s nine years away.<br /><br />So that’s the lede.<br /><br />What am I talking about?<br /><br />Without getting into politics, we don’t talk about politics here, without getting into ideology, in terms of 2022 and 2024, I am talking about a mental health crisis we are having in this country, and a mass psychosis that is threatening the future of our country, and therefore, the future of the world, and I am talking about diseases that have been with us since the beginning of our country, racism and misogyny … We are at a crisis point as a people, and the direction we take will be decided in the 2022 and 2024 elections …<br /><br />And then as a planet, we face the Climate Emergency, the Sixth Great Extinction, a global ecological crisis. We know what the impact of our footprint has done, how much it has disrupted, how much it has destroyed, how much it threatens, including our own species.<br /><br />I started talking about climate change thirty years ago. I remember saying we had thirty years, I remember saying we have twenty years, I remember saying ten years, now it’s nine … Even to say nine or ten years is a stretch, but there really is still a window of nine or ten years, a window of opportunity to make a difference – beyond that there will still be life, but our options will be severely limited …<br /><br />So that is the lede, but there is a third element to this book, it explores those three deadlines, yes, but it also explores how to live anyway, win or lose, and I do look at it as win or lose.<br /><br />Whatever happens, we have to celebrate this time, we have to live our lives, and take this time to deepen our inquiry into the nature of our own beings, to savor our experience of life, and to do what we can for all that we love.<br /><br /> That’s what “Secret Engine” is about.<br /><br />After “Wyrds of Power” and “I, the Dragon,” which are both over 400 pages (and published within a year of each other), people would ask me, “Are you working on a new book?”<br /><br />And I would answer, “NO!”<br /><br />I had no desire to do any more writing for some time.<br /><br /> Nevertheless, after answering this question with an adamant “NO!” for a while, I realized I had to add, “but there is one organizing itself.”<br /><br />And that would turn out to be “Secret Engine of the World.”<br /><br />My friend Rhani, one of the first people to read “Secret Engine,” said, “This book is different than the rest, it’s like an epilogue.”<br /><br />“Yes,” I said, “it is like an epilogue isn’t it?”<br /><br />But not the kind of epilogue you can’t read until after you’ve read the others, no, it’s the kind of epilogue that says, “you can just read this, if you don’t read the other books, you can just read this, and then if you want to drill down into the other two you can, but whatever you do read this one." It’s that kind of epilogue.<br /><br />This talk is in one sense going to be like a time capsule …<br /><br />In 2010, the inner Voice said, “It’s time to make your move.” I’ve written about all of that in both “Dragon” and “Wyrds.” So I won’t go into much, except to say, in my consciousness, “making” my “move” didn’t mean writing a book, I made a list of three tasks I had to do, and one of them was to give a series of three talks here at this Lodge.<br /><br />That series of three talks led to a series of seven talks and all of that lead to this book, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0119VRCS6/">Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity In Search of Itself</a>.“<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgViVm0KbjIStsjDA8zbbgjNfXpS8NHORoztU7Y35du4tyvXq11mpj3B6jQz5HAaMQnR1IoyxnAAXa6VDALNyEY8Yw3aMtt42LuTh6Jzp77l3h_g6Vz9rabD6RR03cmLQQD-k5Ag2HujFl9c7mnbbxJlwO5FjxiN1aqZEZWR3NmxXK63iMVgB4=s240" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgViVm0KbjIStsjDA8zbbgjNfXpS8NHORoztU7Y35du4tyvXq11mpj3B6jQz5HAaMQnR1IoyxnAAXa6VDALNyEY8Yw3aMtt42LuTh6Jzp77l3h_g6Vz9rabD6RR03cmLQQD-k5Ag2HujFl9c7mnbbxJlwO5FjxiN1aqZEZWR3NmxXK63iMVgB4" width="160" /></a></div><div><br />This was 2010. “The Singularity In Search of Itself.”<br /><br />At that time, there was a lot of conjecture, a raging debate, about the potential for a Singularity in the rising of Artificial Intelligence and a lot of concern about unintended consequences of it taking on a life of its own. But in these discussions, I would point out, you know, the Singularity you ought to be more concerned about is arising in the human species itself. We are something that has not happened before, and we are this strange mix of ignorance and genius, and out of this strange mix a Singularity is arising. And we don’t know what will happen, what will emerge from this Singularity.<br /><br />So that work led to more talks, and to another process which I have come to call my “Epiphanies.” My friend Brenna said, “Well, what do you call these?” I said, “Someone else would call them ‘poems’ and/or ‘prayers.’” And she said, “What do you call them?” I said, “I call them ‘Epiphanies,’ in the way James Joyce used that word.” “Well," she said, "then call them ‘Epiphanies.’” And so I have, formally, ever since.<br /><br />By this time, in 2012, I had decided I had to do an “unTED talk” articulating my further explorations of this Singularity arising within our species. I knew, of course, what I had to say would never accepted for a “TED Talk.” The message I was delivering wouldn’t be alignment with the kulchur of TED, which to me always felt like “If we’re just clever enough, and cool enough, and together enough, everything will be alright.” TED to me always felt Pollyannish. That’s why I called it my “unTED” talk. This book, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008GTIXME/">Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in An Era of Global Peril</a>” is composed of talks and epiphanies from that period.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgVuDfBsKMTVQ57g_IQKxf_-5WVmbYm7tQle331PUBZ78re-JmHiwTapRRngIhIdP8aP_hza33m7uV_ILwRew1PM5xrZNKN-5vs9AIyUCxjiPNrrJvTgNvWUc-WLVZc-Lx4o6ubxN9I3cu3dyHkYF1KloA7_J8q5Xm_ss6wktnPiwwpOe-yKhg=s240" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgVuDfBsKMTVQ57g_IQKxf_-5WVmbYm7tQle331PUBZ78re-JmHiwTapRRngIhIdP8aP_hza33m7uV_ILwRew1PM5xrZNKN-5vs9AIyUCxjiPNrrJvTgNvWUc-WLVZc-Lx4o6ubxN9I3cu3dyHkYF1KloA7_J8q5Xm_ss6wktnPiwwpOe-yKhg=s16000" /></a></div><br /><div><br />I called it “Humanifesto because I didn’t want to call it a “MANifesto,” because the Ascendancy of the Feminine is so essential, so central, to the Great Shift we must undertake if some new version of what we are is to emerge whole and sane from this Singularity. <br /><br />I really wanted to call it “Woomanifesto,” but I felt that might terrify people.<br /><br />But then out of all that came more talks, and more epiphanies … These epiphanies would come out of long walks in either the deep forest or in the city, and by the end of the hike, I would literally have to immediately write something down that had arisen during the hike, and it would be a whole cloth, I might refine a phrasing or re-arrange a sentence or two, in writing it down, but they were essentially birthed complete and finished … And, in 2013, out of all of this came “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FCYQP76/">User’s Guide to Human Incarnation: The Yoga of Primal Reality</a>.”</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzStSoTQBBwSifzwjd7_CGn-WwJlyZLMVTeP4NISrCK2M6vqKkiWzqOR5aHZF3IPps0L9HRMS6Ewmzq03ulJxyNSHeypONxnbSANeafkuHwWD8fJwtLRerHiNMi5v-paN3osBNto7BOKWkDy_Il3dV2vGrsj7reD0I_-z6GuWOiatuxhYSh9E=s240" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzStSoTQBBwSifzwjd7_CGn-WwJlyZLMVTeP4NISrCK2M6vqKkiWzqOR5aHZF3IPps0L9HRMS6Ewmzq03ulJxyNSHeypONxnbSANeafkuHwWD8fJwtLRerHiNMi5v-paN3osBNto7BOKWkDy_Il3dV2vGrsj7reD0I_-z6GuWOiatuxhYSh9E" width="160" /></a></div><div><br />On the cover, that’s the lava flow on the Big Island.<br /><br />Pele has been present with me through this whole process.<br /><br />And, lol, it kept going. In 2014, there were more talks, more epiphanies, and from all of this came “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01188MXX4/">Planetary Emergency, Personal Emergence: Path of the Evolutionary</a>.”</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2jQxag1mPeV3X4xcOqH8dE_7CDwBfLTUpEU35LtOgYAfTqlXxnudwmaAGhpRrF9XJjgmSl6xLBnV85KEBMNF-k_x-HjpHuAyV8dDx4qSy_zeTVhOWHXyuFK6T8iltVA2X8pp8ubuVTLuEQFbJbpHPLXxjSIK2xY1_rVQcBObXoIyO-ZeHVw4=s240" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2jQxag1mPeV3X4xcOqH8dE_7CDwBfLTUpEU35LtOgYAfTqlXxnudwmaAGhpRrF9XJjgmSl6xLBnV85KEBMNF-k_x-HjpHuAyV8dDx4qSy_zeTVhOWHXyuFK6T8iltVA2X8pp8ubuVTLuEQFbJbpHPLXxjSIK2xY1_rVQcBObXoIyO-ZeHVw4" width="160" /></a></div><br /><div>Finally, in 2015, came “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019M4K2ZW/">Cauldron Yoga, Gaian Poetics and the Way of the Ancient Future</a>."</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEikMPiiJrRRprJVUzW0v2enINSe-R7VHbmCkJQ1Dg1Wq0L8jzDbT1EAt0w1q-dzn2Iu-0P8p1GquJ7HN3dyct7AtVj4JyUD5RxUqCy2VWFSBKW8HdnQCz3aoxV1JLMGenLRAsWNfRUFM7amTor2qCcldHhDZqzlIBFpxjxlP-1VxmwNMqXzqfg=s240" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEikMPiiJrRRprJVUzW0v2enINSe-R7VHbmCkJQ1Dg1Wq0L8jzDbT1EAt0w1q-dzn2Iu-0P8p1GquJ7HN3dyct7AtVj4JyUD5RxUqCy2VWFSBKW8HdnQCz3aoxV1JLMGenLRAsWNfRUFM7amTor2qCcldHhDZqzlIBFpxjxlP-1VxmwNMqXzqfg" width="160" /></a></div><div><br />So, all of a sudden, there were five books in the course of six years, that came out of this internal instruction.<br /><br />At that time I was working for Carnegie Mellon University, which is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but I worked out here at Moffit Field, down 101.<br /><br />I had a windowless office inside NASA Ames Research Park.<br /><br />I had been there for seven years. I could hear the footsteps down the hall. They were coming for me. The administration had changed. The visionary who had hired me was gone. The brilliant researcher he had left in charge was gone. I have an 8th grade education (and a GED, lol), but I ended up a “Distinguished Fellow” in the Engineering Department of a prestigious university. I hadn’t covered up my educational background, and I had been hired for who I was, what I could see and the things that I could do. But I could that the new people in charge were not people who understood what I do. So I left that world, and cleared the slate …<br /><br />Then I put all of the series of five books into this one book, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1533410690/">Wyrds of Power: New Language for A New Reality</a>,” and published that opus in 2017. So you don’t ever have to bother with those five books anymore, it’s all in “Wyrds of Power.”</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhaX167_PETXP8eZ_Q5SX3_4CHBja7P9HjYqdcxmNC9sKEnPIxnay9uXf6vq_Sot-ZnP8IIKyHHp_6zYjdLLrfh_2Eg3JtDabWPbFGowjCrhLsPlvgklSSppkvuTG7mw7sR57VRHnwJ-2ytYyl-uSl-1bevfqhBwf8D9ZpXSrqPXhHwwS1Ku5I=s240" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhaX167_PETXP8eZ_Q5SX3_4CHBja7P9HjYqdcxmNC9sKEnPIxnay9uXf6vq_Sot-ZnP8IIKyHHp_6zYjdLLrfh_2Eg3JtDabWPbFGowjCrhLsPlvgklSSppkvuTG7mw7sR57VRHnwJ-2ytYyl-uSl-1bevfqhBwf8D9ZpXSrqPXhHwwS1Ku5I" width="160" /></a></div><br /><div>When this was all done, it was time to write a story of my life, I say “a story” because I realize there are others ways I could have told the story. And as I assumed it would be, it was a very intense experience to write and publish it, and to read it aloud and speak out on it.<br /><br />“<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1983912050/">I, the Dragon: Chronicles of An Epic Life Among the Humans</a>.” This was 2018.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhW-oRdHzFSwKzazNRduA-o-qfrUOdLjzg9s0qHoPgC-E9USMUpx_4oLrRGJZhmMP6GLAEOPLyHjTLtIasJD4pWPgQA_T5vvUcD6GKQQ_8cjzc-JrHjoUW6iFHBtIi6Ucphk-wpZ7aFBh1c-gQeIKcES88W9blafRc4DamMBwDHaFJ2u0E8Ohs=s240" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhW-oRdHzFSwKzazNRduA-o-qfrUOdLjzg9s0qHoPgC-E9USMUpx_4oLrRGJZhmMP6GLAEOPLyHjTLtIasJD4pWPgQA_T5vvUcD6GKQQ_8cjzc-JrHjoUW6iFHBtIi6Ucphk-wpZ7aFBh1c-gQeIKcES88W9blafRc4DamMBwDHaFJ2u0E8Ohs" width="160" /></a></div><br /><div>So that’s why after putting out these two 400+ page books in 2017 and 2018, and then socializing them through 2019 and 2020, whenever someone asked if I was writing a new book, I would say, “No!” But I still had to admit that one was organizing itself.<br /><br />What did that mean?<br /><br />There were fifteen more epiphanies that had to have a home. They were spread all over Instagram and Facebook, but they had to be collected somewhere and held together so they wouldn’t get lost. And there were four or five more talks I had delivered, and then transcribed, that also needed to be collected somewhere. Talks starting from 2016. Delivered during all the upheavals in our country, all that we have had to face: the existential threats, the rise of authoritarianism, the mass psychosis, the coming of the Pandemic, the deepening of the Climate Crisis, the burning of the West, the flooding of the South, all of it … These talks belong together and they too needed to be held somewhere accessible so that people could reference them … I just had to collect them all together and lay them out … Then the cover announced itself. This painting. It’s a Pre-Raphaelite depiction of Lilith. So I’m very fond of it. It just announced itself one night, and I say yes, that’s the cover. It’s Lilith combing her hair and looking at herself in a handheld mirror … And the title came from one of those fifteen epiphanies … It all organized itself …</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4CGY7PNoX681a3rtxv2xMIlaybqGYTiT3nrO91wBw1LQsa_eRiD-6r42dw7dI3TaB7im9Xd92C5SQLsroH6Cy6PqgP-yJLAD-jTEN3T4IWcBvpXNtJeXKSTFWi8UL3tiwhtqtGzYDT50inLZ9UdpLFSXZ66pzdENCz0Hu7NY8iiE86s-dEwE=s240" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4CGY7PNoX681a3rtxv2xMIlaybqGYTiT3nrO91wBw1LQsa_eRiD-6r42dw7dI3TaB7im9Xd92C5SQLsroH6Cy6PqgP-yJLAD-jTEN3T4IWcBvpXNtJeXKSTFWi8UL3tiwhtqtGzYDT50inLZ9UdpLFSXZ66pzdENCz0Hu7NY8iiE86s-dEwE" width="160" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Recently, I have been pondering the nature and function of stupas.<br /><br />All through the East, there are stupas.<br /><br />It’s like lightening a candle on an altar, you do it, you know why, but then all of a sudden it takes on a new reality - deeper, vaster. They’ll build a stupa around the bones of a saint. They’ll build a stupa and stuff it full of scrolls, rattles, drums, bells and ashes, everything holy … You go on pilgrimage to the stupas, you circumambulate the stupas, pray in front of the stupa, live around the stupa … stupas are concentrations of energy, reservoirs of power …<br /><br />All of us in our own ways are building our own etheric stupas: it might be a body of profound yoga teachings that you are translating from the 19th century and the 20th century, from the patriarchy, and from the East, into a planetary language, a feminist language, for the 21st century, it might be someone whose life journey has gone from circumambulating Arunachala to playing the great golf courses of the world, it might be a person who has led a life of dance and art to inspire people with the beauty and vision in their work, but all of us really are building stupas in our living, in which we are collecting relics, objects of vibration and holiness …<br /><br />And it occurred to me that those five books that went into “Wyrds” are like the building blocks of a pyramid. The Pyramid at Giza is, after all, the ultimate stupa – a trans-historical stupa, an interstellar stupa, an inter-dimensional stupa. That’s one of the things that the Pyramid is … So I started to see “Wyrds” as my pyramid, and “Dragon” as the Sphinx that guards the portal that opens there … Then I wondered, well, what is “Secret Engine” in relation to the Pyramid and the Sphinx? Oh yes, “Secret Engine” is the map that shows were the hidden chambers are …<br /><br />That clicked for me.<br /><br />There is another aspect of the Pyramid that I have been pondering recently, in relation to all of this, our lives in this time of trail and tribulations, and the incredible poignancy and joy of just being alive and sharing a few moments together, all of the potential that is here … <br /><br />Have you seen “The Pyramid Code” on Netflix or You Tube?<br /><br />It is a series of five documentaries on the Pyramid ...<br /><br />In the course of the series, they interview the <a href="https://egyptexperience.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/abdul-hakim-aywan-mystical-wisdom-keeper/">"Mystical Wisdom-Keeper” Abd’el Hakim Awyan</a> and he shares the oral history of the Egyptian pyramids. This isn’t woo-woo colonizer theorizing, this is an indigenous person sharing an oral history handed down … twenty two pyramids, running north to south, parallel to the Nile, establishing a zone they called “the Band of Peace,” and then within that “Band of Peace,” one of the pyramids with three chambers, in which they were doing healing with Sound, and another pyramid with two chambers, in which they were working with Sound, with Vibration …<br /><br />So what I wanted to bring to you tonight is this sense of building your own stupa … Even if the meaning you are putting into your stupa is meaninglessness, you know, an existentialist stupa would have meaninglessness in it, and it would be a profound teaching, one that Gautama Buddha would certainly understand … It is all meaning, it is all power, whether it is music, or raising children, launching an enterprise, whatever it is, we are building stupas, concentrating energy …</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwGdCouO6rOCbHa0EkNHMi7TK9J2koTgpdCPOOtU0jJ27hular_lVqqCvNfGf6Soy2JU6h1ox_hpoJpC9LeNAMQNifHSxO92oDafqIHUjKiiWFG_59L2ewDJTHl6kBmmsz3BayWBfcbuJR7E4nVj960xXhcR2ux2PvPkuG-jHb2AzW60gxU-A=s1600" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwGdCouO6rOCbHa0EkNHMi7TK9J2koTgpdCPOOtU0jJ27hular_lVqqCvNfGf6Soy2JU6h1ox_hpoJpC9LeNAMQNifHSxO92oDafqIHUjKiiWFG_59L2ewDJTHl6kBmmsz3BayWBfcbuJR7E4nVj960xXhcR2ux2PvPkuG-jHb2AzW60gxU-A=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><div style="text-align: center;"> Piprahwa Stupa, Kapilavastu, Uttar Pradesh, India, One of the Earliest Surviving Stupas</div><div style="text-align: center;"> Source: <a href="https://www.photodharma.net/India/Stupas/Stupas.htm">https://www.photodharma.net/India/Stupas/Stupas.htm</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en"> CC-BY-SA-3.0</a></div><table cellpadding="4" class="fileinfotpl-type-information toccolours vevent mw-content-ltr" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr style="vertical-align: top;"><td lang="en"></td>
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<td class="fileinfo-paramfield" id="fileinfotpl_src" lang="en"></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>Along with this consciousness of building a stupa out of your life experience, I want you to remember what Hakim, the “Mystical Wisdom-Keeper,” shared about those pyramids, and working with holy S-O-U-N-D to heal through vibration, and find your own voice.<br /><br />The legendary American sage Joe Miller, who I call my “Yoda,” bellowed over and over: “Don’t pay any attention to what I say, just feel what’s radiating out of my heart.” After he was gone, I would often point out to people, “you know, he SAID that, he used words to communicate to you the truth that you can’t find it in words.” Yes, because it’s flowing out of his heart and he’s formulating words, because “in the beginning was the word …” Word is Sound, Word is Vibration. When they cast a spell in Harry Potter they using the power of the Word. And when we use Mantra, we are using the power of the Word. So many are preoccupied with the Third Eye. As I have said over and over, we live in a Third Eye civilization. Enough already with the Third Eye. The power of the Throat Chakra is so under-appreciated and under-utilized.<div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCips53Aw3Zjtvg-ohalzKawfLetR54eRFwdDJPTd3yL41hcMWClf5PypWs1vTsLnLcQfdi5MkgwVPgNM_pDApCNYR_V_84T_gs8NBACreSn-7cBHbAUnKDuXGWju92NGkE-HXz_wCGx0_Bp1CgaMb0Xpj8CzG0Geax22244CqYnQFHcO6Lt0=s1200" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCips53Aw3Zjtvg-ohalzKawfLetR54eRFwdDJPTd3yL41hcMWClf5PypWs1vTsLnLcQfdi5MkgwVPgNM_pDApCNYR_V_84T_gs8NBACreSn-7cBHbAUnKDuXGWju92NGkE-HXz_wCGx0_Bp1CgaMb0Xpj8CzG0Geax22244CqYnQFHcO6Lt0=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Vishuddha (Throat Chakra)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Yes, BUILD YOUR OWN STUPA, your own etheric stupa, build it out of your experiences, your meaning, your gifts, your challenges, your memories, your dreams, and ... </div><div><br /></div><div>FIND YOUR OWN VOICE. Because when you do, yes, in one way you will be articulating philosophically, psychologically, but in another way, what's coming out of you will be pure SHAKTI.</div><div><div><br />I will close with this short reading (one of the "Epiphanies") from “Secret Engine of the World” –<br /><br /></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"> What are you called? Bruja? Baul? Bodhisattva? Tantrika? Aghori? Troubadour? Dakini? Bhakta? Curandera? Yogini? Wizard? Sorceress? These are all just cover stories. Your true designation is beyond human speech. Authentic, mystical love, real love, is the secret engine of the world. But this authentic, mystical love, this real love, does not act like fire or water; it does not incinerate or drown that which it encounters. Authentic, mystical love, real love, moves like a vast glacier; whatever it does not crush or bury, it pushes forward. Yes, this love glacier levels mountains and forges canyons, it breaks the unbreakable and reshapes the earth. The love glacier is so massive that it takes a lifetime just to glimpse it, and even then, it can only be seen as far as the horizon; it moves so slowly it is almost undetectable, and so it takes a lifetime to measure its grinding progress. Authentic, mystical love does not act like fire or water; it does not incinerate or drown that which it encounters. this love moves like a vast glacier; whatever it does not crush and bury, it pushes forward. This is the secret engine of the world. How utterly empty and free you must be to revel in the movement of this glacier, knowing that all you have ever had or wanted will be torn up and ground under, and that then in the glacier's aftermath there will be only a long fathomless silence, in which you will be no more than the shadow of a raven on the white stillness of the deep snow. -- Richard Power, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098GY3YFT/">Secret Engine of the World: Further Notes on Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution</a>" (July 2021). Available from Amazon.com.</div></div></blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-80706166851913531752021-09-19T22:17:00.010-07:002021-09-20T00:47:51.611-07:00Cassandra Medicine (An Excerpt from "Secret Engine of the World: Further Notes on Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution")<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1k4dPKBZbjI/YUgRuIkU9wI/AAAAAAAAFu8/ij5-JIHEDAAgX1ljzsl9dnE8NcTnyw4mwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1800/240119200_10226688304053675_7635842249094729057_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1440" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1k4dPKBZbjI/YUgRuIkU9wI/AAAAAAAAFu8/ij5-JIHEDAAgX1ljzsl9dnE8NcTnyw4mwCLcBGAsYHQ/w512-h640/240119200_10226688304053675_7635842249094729057_n.jpeg" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;">Richard Power - "Secret Engine of the World: Further Notes on Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution" <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/">Available from Amazon.com</a></b></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x6EJcjWwvc8/YUgQjq2lyOI/AAAAAAAAFus/yNibDGuiTocF5aOU-KtCYoxdW9sDX4aNQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2094/Cassandra1300DPI.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2094" data-original-width="989" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x6EJcjWwvc8/YUgQjq2lyOI/AAAAAAAAFus/yNibDGuiTocF5aOU-KtCYoxdW9sDX4aNQCLcBGAsYHQ/w302-h640/Cassandra1300DPI.jpg" width="302" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"> 80. Evelyn De Morgan – Cassandra (1898)</td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>Cassandra Medicine (An Excerpt from "Secret Engine of the World: Further Notes on Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution")</b></p><p><i>Definition of Cassandra</i><br /><i>1: a daughter of Priam endowed with the gift of prophecy but fated never to be believed<br />2: one that predicts misfortune or disaster</i><br /><br />Cassandra was a Trojan princess. Her brother Hector was a great warrior. Once upon a time, Cassandra fell asleep in a temple. She woke up with snakes coiling all over her. Her inner eye had suddenly opened. She had received the gift of prophecy. She could see the future. According to the official, patriarchal version of her legend, the god Apollo had bestowed this gift upon her, and then, after she spurned his lustful advances, he had cursed her so that her prophecies although painful accurate would never be believed. Of course, this version is a lie. Just as it is a lie that the Creator had made Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. Just as it is a lie that the goddess Tara was born from the single tear of Avalokiteshvara. If you have ever truly opened to the magic of the deep forest, if you have even truly opened to the majesty of the sea, you know that all of the great occult powers, all of the siddhis, all of the mysteries of life, flow directly from Primordial Mother, the Creatrix, the Dark One. Beyond. Before. Here and Now. The snakes were drawn to Cassandra during her transformative sleep. They felt what was happening. They were the heralds of her heralding. They were basking in the inner sun of this woman, coiling in her arm pits, on her belly, between her breasts, on her yoni. They could feel the herstoric moment. It called them forth as witnessing presences.<br /><br />Yes, this gift of true prophecy that Cassandra received was both a blessing AND a curse. But the curse was not the work of a spurned lover god, it is inherent in the blessing itself. They are inextricably bound. The true prophet or prophetess sees a vision of some great catastrophe and wants to warn the nation that she or he loves. But all too often, the warning falls is mocked, ignored or downplayed. Because human nature (magical and muggle alike) usually chooses numbness over pain and comfort over a challenge. Until it is too late. Cassandra saw the sacking of Troy before it happened. She knew there were Greek warriors concealed inside the gift horse that the Trojans unwittingly brought inside their fortress walls. But her warnings were met with derision. She even ran toward the gift horse with an axe and a burning torch, but the Trojans restrained her. She was seen as a madwoman. She was locked up. Cassandra travelled a hard road. After Troy fell, she was first raped by Ajax, one of the conquering Greeks, and then taken as a concubine by Agamemnon, another of the conquering Greeks.<br /><br /> Her ghost has been with me throughout the years. In the late 1990s, I felt her with me as I warned that the Climate Crisis was our greatest national security threat, that Russian and Eastern European organized crime were far more dangerous to us than radical Islamic terrorism, and that cyber war would threaten democratic societies and become an integral element geopolitical struggle. My warnings were not heeded. All of what I prophesied back then has indeed come to pass. And now, in a twist of the bitterest irony, my latest batch of warnings are tempered with declarations of promise and optimism (yes, we are on threshold of great good, miraculously), and yet, these declarations too are being tuned out by too many who could make a profound difference in the world around them, too many who would rather choose delusion over reality and distraction over responsibility. In the late 1990s, and on through the first decade of the 21st Century, I was speaking primarily to government officials and corporate executives. Since the Voice said “It’s time to make your move” in 2010, I have been speaking primarily to a very different audience, less mainstream, more counter culture, younger, drawn from intersecting circles, e.g., the yoga scene, Burning Man, the Arts, social media, etc. In 2010, I spoke of “the Singularity in Anticipation of Itself,” by 2017, the Singularity had arrived its fullness and we had all crossed over the Event Horizon. The tortured stretch of time from 2016 to 2020 was a wormhole. In the corridor from November 2020 to January 2021, we emerged from the mouth at the other end of that wormhole. And that is where we are in this moment, from this inflection point, we could move on into a healthier republic, and a better world, or we could plunge beyond all help into an inescapable pit, a hell-realm in which your worst nightmares would be institutionalized. In this period, however long it lasts, the Demographic Shift in the U.S. Body Politic is aligned with the Arc of Human Evolution.</p><div><div>There is a dash of quantum in this moment. If each of us engages with our dash of quantum it will form a collective dash of quantum which could help to fuse together the Demographic Shift and the Evolutionary Arc. That’s how important each of us is individually, that’s how important we all are collectively. Evolution is not a straight line, and it is not pre-determined. Evolution is more like Ceridwen’s Cauldron. Evolution is interactive. What we put into it, how we stoke the fire, the way we stir the contents, all of this effect how it turns out in the end.<br /><br />What do I mean when I say the U.S. Body Politic is aligned with the Arc of Human Evolution? With each succeeding generation, over the last few decades, young voters, female voters, African-American voters, which means many more progressive voters, environmental and economic justice voters, human rights voters, smash the patriarchy voters have been an increasingly significant element of the electorate.<div><br />#MeToo fueled voter turnout in the 2018 mid-term elections and resulted in the Democratic Party’s rise to power in the House of Representatives. #BlackLivesMatter fueled voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election and resulted in the not only the election of Biden-Harris but also Democratic Party control of the Senate (albeit by the single thread of the Vice-President’s tie breaking vote). The trend is inexorable. It is no longer possible for a Republican Party based on white supremacy, male dominance and AnyRandism to win a national election in the U.S.A. IF there is high voter turnout. That’s why they are propagating the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, that’s why in the months since Biden-Harris (and Ossoff and Warnock) were sworn in the Republican have been furiously pushing hundreds (literally) of vote suppression bills through state legislatures. It is vital that high level of engagement we rode in 2018 and 2020 be kept going in 2022 and 2024. If young voters, female voters, African American voters, progressive voters, environmental and economic justice voters, human rights voters, smash the patriarchy voters continue to vote in unprecedented numbers, despite the obstacles that currently being deployed to waylay them, the American people, and by extension, the species itself (we are the melting pot, after all) will have changed the underlying fundamentals and altered the spectrum of political debate for the foreseeable future, and that means that there actually could be a future for our species and for the planet as we know it. If we fail, then America, and by extension, our species and countless others, and the planet itself, will fall through into the abyss. It really is that simple, it really is that stark.<br /><br />Now, as I mentioned, within the interpenetrating circles of my influence, there are some that tune out this vital message concerning of our collective circumstances and responsibility. These denialists are of two types. Some among us choose to tune out “politics,” thinking themselves somehow beyond it. But politics is just the subplot of GOVERNANCE, so when you tune out politics you are effectively saying that you don't care whether it is sociopathy or altruism that guides our way. Seriously. Politics is as vital and holy as art, or science, or mysticism itself. This is an occult truth that too many refuse to acknowledge. And, of course, I mean a politics predicated on altruism.<br /><br />Perhaps the most dangerous “spiritual” delusion of all is thinking that “Us vs. Them” is unholy, and that you are somehow above this "duality." This is pure escapism. "Partisan" is a beautiful, HOLY word. Unlike these denialists who imagine themselves somehow above ideological struggle and beyond all "labels," there are those who are so consumed in this struggle that they deem themselves the sole arbiters of ideological purity, e.g., those leftists who hold liberals and centrists in such contempt that they would rather forfeit achieving half or even two-thirds of their policy agenda than comprise and achieve consensus with liberals, centrists and yes, even conservatives motivated by love of country. But politics isn’t rooted in purity tests, it is rooted in survival skills and alliance-building. True rEvolutionaries know that progress requires both great leaps and incremental steps. Each great leap is preceded by countless incremental steps. Each series of incremental steps contains a cloaked great leap. More occult truths.<div><br />Here and now, in America, in the second decade of the 21st Century, if you tune out politics, if you refuse to engage, if you refuse to choose the side of altruism, or you are politically engaged but you refuse to ally with those who do not meet your own narrow ideological definition of ideological purity, you are contributing to the DEVOLUTION of the species, you are ceding power to racism and misogyny, you are servicing patriarchy and sociopathy. Another occult truth.</div><div><br />Don’t spiritually by-pass the great challenges of our time. Politics is a subset of governance. Governance determines whether Sociopathy or Altruism rule. Politics is a mystical art and a sacred responsibility.</div><div><br />Love is intolerant. It does not indulge delusions that result in mass suffering, e.g. Climate Denialism, Pandemic Denialism and Anti-Vaxerism. There are no "alternate realities," or “alternate facts.” Reality is not a “viewpoint.” Reality is like Mathematics. It Just Is.<br /><br />Your mystical poetry is not one iota more relevant to the arc of human evolution than protecting the votes of African Americans. Period. Full stop. If you don’t engage in this struggle to overcome Authoritarianism, if you feel yourself beyond politics, you are spiritually by-passing, and in doing so, you are enabling patriarchy, sociopathy, misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia ...<br /> <br />We have very little time left. We have this 2022 mid-term and the 2024 presidential race to finish the task of demolishing the zombie death cult formerly known as the Republican Party, and we have the next ten years at best meet the planetary Climate Emergency in a real way; this means undertaking a sweeping transformation of our society and our economy and leading the world in doing the same.<br /><br />If we fail in either of these great endeavors, the future will be an utter, unending horror. If we succeed, we will strengthen and accelerate the arc of human evolution. It is all that simple. Do not miss this moment. Do not turn away. Do not embrace delusion.</div></div></div></div><div><br /></div><b>7 Reasons to Read "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/">Secret Engine of the World: Further Notes on Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution</a>":</b><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The energies of the prophetess Cassandra & the dark goddess Lilith flow through the vessel of this book.</li><li>This is a moment of great peril and great promise. The USA has only the next two election cycles (2022 & 2024) to overcome the internal threat of authoritarianism, domestic terrorism & white supremacy. The human species has only the next ten years to thwart the Climate Apocalypse & mitigate the Sixth Great Extinction. Win or lose, you must use this time to deepen your relationship with the occult blessings of your primal reality.</li><li>This book is the third movement of a symphony. The first movement, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wyrds-Power-New-Language-Reality/">Wyrds of Power: New Language for A New Reality</a>," was published in 2017. The second movement, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Chronicles-Epic-Among-Humans/dp/1546377395/">I, the Dragon: Chronicles of An Epic Life Among the Humans</a>," was published in 2018.</li><li>"Secret Engine" consists of 15 epiphanies, 4 talks & 2 essays, all written in the years since the publication of "Dragon.”</li><li>Written after the arrival of the Singularity, written from the other side of the Event Horizon, "Secret Engine" offers revelations in "Occult Anthropology" such as the "Taxonomy of Magical Beings," the "Power of Nothing," how to wield your "Dash of Quantum," some "Radical Remedies" for "The Problem of Men," “Woomanifestatjion & MahaMudra,” the “Mysterious Valley,” insights concerning two rampant psychological & spiritual illnesses, "Spiritually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)" & "Cognitive Atrophy & Dissolution Syndrome (CADS),” & much more.</li><li>This book is only 198 pages long. I'm grateful that it worked out this way. Wyrds is 473 pages, Dragon is 407 pages, & so I wanted to give you something shorter.</li><li>"Secret Engine" is FULL-COLOR, and includes 84 images (great art from across the centuries, powerful photographs, vital memes, wild drawings of primal secrets). <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Engine-World-Politics-Evolution/dp/B098GY3YFT/">Available via Amazon.com</a></li></ol></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KFGyEu7az5o/YUgSZubtZZI/AAAAAAAAFvE/Lz--ikjOef4_-s0jCW1jJz6jIaDShzCWwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1440/239183203_10226672812106386_4965835791083836159_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1440" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KFGyEu7az5o/YUgSZubtZZI/AAAAAAAAFvE/Lz--ikjOef4_-s0jCW1jJz6jIaDShzCWwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/239183203_10226672812106386_4965835791083836159_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-81297378389186904522021-04-17T02:18:00.105-07:002021-04-17T18:13:40.940-07:00101 Days After the Seditionist Attack on the Capitol, The Republic Stands (At Least For Now). We Must Remain Engaged, Vigilant, & United. There Must Be Bold Progress, & Dire Consequences. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qd1orHNekZM/YHp71Vyv6mI/AAAAAAAAFlI/07FXq--N_TomVGTFNlcc33LQoXjCyd6oQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1599/210120-D-WD757-2531_%252850861220401%2529.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1599" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qd1orHNekZM/YHp71Vyv6mI/AAAAAAAAFlI/07FXq--N_TomVGTFNlcc33LQoXjCyd6oQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h266/210120-D-WD757-2531_%252850861220401%2529.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amanda Gorman recites her inaugural poem, "The Hill We Climb," during the 59th Presidential Inauguration ceremony in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. (DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II)</td></tr></tbody></table></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><b><span style="font-weight: 400;">"There is a line from Oklahoma City forward to Jan 6; and there is another line from Oklahoma City all the way back to Reconstruction and Ku Klux Klan crimes against the newly freed slaves." </span><a href="https://twitter.com/harrylitman/status/1363869832639258624?s=20" style="font-weight: 400;">- U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland at his Senate Confirmation Hearings in 2/22/21 </a></b></p><p>"But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated. In this truth, in this faith we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us. This is the era of just redemption. We feared it at its inception. We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour, but within it, we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves."<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/news/535052-read-transcript-of-amanda-gormans-inaugural-poem"> - Amanda Gorman, "The Hill We Climb," Inauguration Day, 1/20/21</a></p><p>"[Garland] called the attack on the Capitol the most "heinous attack on a democratic process" that he's ever seen and said that he will pursue all leads in the investigation. "We begin with the people on the ground and we work our way up to those who are involved and further involved and we will pursue these leads, wherever they take us," he said.<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/garland-tells-senators-priority-prosecuting-capitol-insurrection/story?id=76043920"> - ABC News, Garland tells senators his first priority will be prosecuting Capitol insurrection, 2/22/21</a></p><p>"So, while once we asked: 'How could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?' Now we assert, 'How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?'" <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/news/535052-read-transcript-of-amanda-gormans-inaugural-poem">- Amanda Gorman, "The Hill We Climb," Inauguration Day, 1/20/21</a> </p></blockquote><p>I have not posted here since 11/8/20, just a few days after the American people delivered Biden-Harris a decisive victory (both in the popular vote and in the electoral college). Of course, I knew it would be a perilous few months leading up to the inauguration. And, indeed, it was. I have chosen to post here again today. Yes, 101 days after thousands of white supremacists, seditionists, domestic terrorists really, stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the 2020 election <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/02/10/impeachment-trial-managers-trump-fueled-rage-capitol-riot/6702506002/">and murder the Speaker of the House, the Vice-President and others</a>. (They set up a gallows and hunted their prey.)</p><p>In 2018 and again in 2020, the Resistance coalesced, rose up, endured and triumphed. Yes, the Republic stands, at least for now. Yes, we have a viable chance to hold the present and win the future. Nevertheless, the situation is fluid, and still very dangerous. </p><p>The ground is still moving beneath our feet. </p><p>Three existential threats hang over us here and now:</p><p></p><ul><li><b><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-are-living-in-a-climate-emergency-and-were-going-to-say-so/">The Climate Crisis</a></b></li><li><b><a href="https://www.axios.com/brazil-covid-death-toll-4000-first-7962bd21-faf1-437a-8424-e5ee991bc720.html">The Covid-19 Pandemic</a></b></li><li><b><a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/431646-national-security-experts-warn-of-rise-in-authoritarianism-efforts">The Rise of Authoritarianism</a></b></li></ul><p>Each threatens not only the republic, but civilization itself.</p><div><p style="font-weight: 400;">If we are to have any real hope of overcoming these existential threats, we must consolidate power at the federal level, and hold on to it through the 2022 and 2024 elections.</p><p style="font-weight: 400;">In pursuit of this goal, three vital imperatives overshadow all else: </p><p style="font-weight: 400;"></p><ul><li><b>Sustain the United Front for Sanity and Decency</b> (yes, Left, Right and Center, from <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1382104098275786755">AOC</a> to Chuck Schumer to <a href="https://twitter.com/stuartpstevens/status/1290815559085568000?s=20">Stuart Stevens</a>, through 2022 at the very least)</li><li><b>Bold Progressive Governance</b> (e.g., American Rescue Plan, <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/american-rescue-plan-biden/">American Jobs Plan</a>, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/house-for-the-people-act-hr-1_n_603fd6c2c5b6ff75ac410f1d?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004">For the People </a><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/house-for-the-people-act-hr-1_n_603fd6c2c5b6ff75ac410f1d?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004">Act</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/ahead-house-vote-pelosi-says-bill-george-floyd-s-name-n1232114">George Floyd Justice in Policing Act</a>, D.C. Statehood, etc.)</li><li><b>Dire Consequences</b> for "Enemies Foreign and Domestic" (e.g., all those high and low who instigated, planned, enabled and/or participated in the 1/6/21 attack, and yes, of course, Trump himself for numerous political and financial crimes) </li></ul><p style="font-weight: 400;">Trump is disgraced. Trump has fallen. He lost the popular vote twice. He was impeached twice. He has been banned from Twitter PERMANENTLY. He is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/16/trump-dementia-claims-steve-bannon-25th-amendment">not well</a>. He is being <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/watch/michael-cohen-predicts-an-indictment-against-trump-sooner-than-later-101426757675?">probed criminally</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/30/politics/us-capitol-police-sue-trump/index.html">pursued civilly</a>, on numerous legal fronts. And yet ... We must not forget that over 74 million Americans apparently voted to give him another four years, and that Democratic control over the Senate rests solely on the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris. Don't look down. We are making our way along a very narrow ledge. There is no net below us, and nothing to break our fall ... </p><p style="font-weight: 400;">If the Republican Party somehow survives its current crisis, without the purging of those who have enabled Trumpism, without cleansing itself of its racist and sexist toxicity, without renouncing sociopathy as a philosophy of governance, if it is allowed to re-assembly itself under a slicker, smarter, hate-spewing new "Dear Leader" daddy, fueled by the dark-money of foreign and domestic oligarchs, amplified by Fox News and the rest of the right-wing media machine, and given a leg up by <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/02/republicans-are-taking-their-voter-suppression-efforts-to-new-extremes/">new voter suppression laws</a>, everything could go to hell. Again. And fast. </p><p>The Zombie Cult and its Death Eater Overlords cannot be allowed to continue their decades-long battle against the further evolution of the Republic. They are terrified of the vibrant democratic, richly diverse society that is emerging here and now, in this third decade of the 21st Century. And they are terrified of the economic and environmental justice that this vibrant democratic, richly diverse society will demand from a restored and renewed Republic. </p><p>I have no doubt that the clear and present danger of domestic terrorism from the likes of the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/proud-boys">Proud Boys</a>, <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/oath-keepers">Oath Keepers</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/01/boogaloo-prepare-civil-war/617683/">Boogaloo Bois</a>, etc. is something that U.S. federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/kirschner-oath-keeper-pleading-guilty-will-start-the-dominos-falling-110362693575">can and will deal with swiftly and efficiently</a>, once empowered and unleashed. </p><p style="font-weight: 400;">It is the Zombie Cult formerly known as the Republican Party that will prove more problematic. This lawless delusional aberration must not be allowed to regain power. There is no greater danger. It must either be purged or demolished. </p><p style="font-weight: 400;">Speaking to Lawrence O'Donnell <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/evan-mcmullin-the-republican-party-is-rotten-to-the-core-100901445667">on "The Last Word" in February, Evan McMullen,</a> Executive Director of <a href="https://twitter.com/StandUpRepublic">Stand Up, Republic</a>, former GOP policy director and CIA operations office, laid it all out bluntly "Looking at Donald Trump's presidency, the four years of that presidency, and how it all led to January 6th, and then to see that deadly insurrection happen, that threatened our democracy, and then to watch a majority of House Republicans still vote to overturn the results of the election, and then to watch all of this additional evidence come to light, and to learn that Senate Republicans would still vote overwhelmingly to protect [Trump], even though he led a violent insurrection to overturn an election, just so he could stay in power, all of that just describes of course a party that is sick, that is rotten to the core ..."</p><p style="font-weight: 400;">None of this should surprise you. Noam Chomsky has been sounding the alarm for YEARS (and I have been quoting him to you for YEARS: "Has there ever been an organisation in human history that is dedicated, with such commitment, to the destruction of organised human life on Earth?"<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/noam-chomsky-republican-party-most-dangerous-organisation-human-history-us-politics-mit-linguist-a7706026.html"> (Maya Oppenheimer, "Noam Chomsky: Republican Party is the most dangerous organisation in human history," Independent, 4/27/17)</a></p><p style="font-weight: 400;">The 1/6/21 domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol must NEVER be forgotten. There must be serious consequences for all those high and low who participated or enabled it in any way.</p><p style="font-weight: 400;">Yesterday, 100 days out from the 1/6 attack, our allies at the Lincoln Project <a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln">(@ProjectLincoln)</a> tweeted out a minute by minute, hour by hour timeline of the horrific event. </p><p style="font-weight: 400;">I have cut and pasted the @ProjectLincoln timeline here, with links to their original tweets. </p><p style="font-weight: 400;">I have also interspersed images representative of the Great Good that ensued in the weeks and months since the attack was thwarted. </p></div><b><div><b>Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) 1/6/21 Timeline in Tweets:</b></div></b><div><b><br /></b><div>Today marks 100 days since the events of January 6th and the Capitol Insurrection. Republicans want you to forget about what happened that day. We cannot look away from this moment. </div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a><div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383043075338027015">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383043075338027015</a></div><div><br />9:16AM: Congressman Mo Brooks incites the crowd, demanding that American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.</div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383046535731159042">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383046535731159042</a></div><div><br /></div><div>9:45AM: Capitol Police informed that over 30,000 protestors are gathered at Freedom Plaza for the Save America rally hosted by Women for America First. Speakers include multiple far-right propagandists leading up to a Trump headline speech <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383053835741097993">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383053835741097993</a></div><div><br />10:26AM: Donald Trump, Jr. proclaims that the Republican Party is Donald Trump's and this is their time to send a message to members of Congress too weak to stop the steal. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> </div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383064198721179648">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383064198721179648</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>10:43AM: Madison Cawthorn smears his new colleagues in Congress as "cowards" and tells crowd to send them all a message. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383068449337974784" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383068449337974784</a></div><div><br /></div>10:53AM: Rudy Giuliani repeats <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> and says its time for "trial by combat" <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383071002645659651">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383071002645659651</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>11:00AM: Save America rally kicks off <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383072980327149573">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383072980327149573</a><div><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>11:50AM: Multiple sources confirm massive crowd is starting to gather on the east side of the Capitol, majority wearing pro-Trump material. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383085330274906113">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383085330274906113</a><div><br /></div>12:00PM: Donald Trump takes the stages at Save America Rally. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> </div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383088098746232836">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383088098746232836</a><br /><div><br /></div>12:19PM: Trump demands that Congress overturn the fraudulent election and tells crowd they must show strength to take their country back. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383092610118656007">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383092610118656007</a><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mfSR50Sgjqc/YBfTg67JRzI/AAAAAAAAFhY/K-s7UUzpYRoONsGZrluF1Eajyqvn-pWFACLcBGAsYHQ/s680/ErHqJgoXAAAVl8x.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="510" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mfSR50Sgjqc/YBfTg67JRzI/AAAAAAAAFhY/K-s7UUzpYRoONsGZrluF1Eajyqvn-pWFACLcBGAsYHQ/w300-h400/ErHqJgoXAAAVl8x.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://twitter.com/kaikahele" style="text-align: start;">Kai Kahele (@kaikahele</a><span style="text-align: start;">): </span><span style="text-align: start;">The certificates of election of all 50 states have departed the House. The 2020 election is over. Our constitution is intact. Democracy prevailed. The Capitol is secure.</span><br style="text-align: start;" /><a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden" style="text-align: start;">@JoeBiden</a><span style="text-align: start;"> will be the 46th President of the United States. Good nite & god bless America.</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div>12:20PM: Federal Protective Services have been alerted that Trump has encouraged protestors to march on the Capitol <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <div>https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383092836913065991<div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>12:29PM: Pro-Trump crowd has been spotted moving down Constitution Avenue <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383095113530888192">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383095113530888192</a><div><br /></div>12:30PM: Senator Josh Hawley pumps his fist at pro-Trump crowd gathered at the east side of the Capitol before heading into the joint session of Congress. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383095396923244545">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383095396923244545</a><br /><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>12:49PM: Multiple reports have been received that possible explosive devices have been found outside the RNC and DNC committee buildings <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383100155096883202">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383100155096883202</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>12:53PM: Northwest barricades of Capitol have been breached by pro-Trump crowd that has become increasingly violent towards law enforcement.<span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383101127802114050">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383101127802114050</a><div><br /></div>12:57PM: Capitol Police are reporting that barricades on west side of the Capitol building have been breached and urge members of Congress to take safety precautions <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> </div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383101127802114050">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383101127802114050</a><div><br /></div>1:12PM: Republicans, led by Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), have objected to certifying Arizona’s electoral college votes. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> </div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383105960022052867">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383105960022052867</a><div><br /></div>1:13PM: Trump has told the crowd to march down Pennsylvania Ave and on the Capitol <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383106236548255748">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383106236548255748</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>1:15PM: Crowd outside west side of Capitol has become extremely violent with Capitol Police, multiple barricades have been breached. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383106748840558593">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383106748840558593</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>1:26PM: Capitol Police have now ordered evacuations of Library of Congress, Madison Building and Cannon House Office Buildings <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383109437091635208">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383109437091635208</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>1:30PM: Trump supporters have been spotted marching down Constitution Ave towards the Capitol building. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383110479850127364">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383110479850127364</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>1:34PM: DC Mayor Bowser has requested troops to support Capitol Police and local law enforcement <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383111453176123395">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383111453176123395</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>1:35PM: In Senate deliberations, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warns that refusing to certify the results of the presidential election under false pretenses would push American democracy into a "death spiral" <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383111703991320583">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383111703991320583</a><div><br /></div>1:40: DC Mayor Bowser has officially ordered a citywide curfew beginning at 6pm <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383112969891016705">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383112969891016705</a><br /><div><br /></div><div>1:46PM: Rep Elaine Luria tweets "Supporters of the President are trying to force their way into the Capitol and I can hear what sound like multiple gunshots" <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383114494948343809">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383114494948343809</a><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fhYSCmkt7J4/YHp2Nl-a0kI/AAAAAAAAFk4/MRY9nT89jrE50GMr9RoXVvGNw8W8Wt-vwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1320/f7765167-c58d-440a-bc07-762d36848a68-AP_Harris_Senate.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="744" data-original-width="1320" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fhYSCmkt7J4/YHp2Nl-a0kI/AAAAAAAAFk4/MRY9nT89jrE50GMr9RoXVvGNw8W8Wt-vwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/f7765167-c58d-440a-bc07-762d36848a68-AP_Harris_Senate.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;">USA Today (1/20/21): Democrats officially take control of Senate after Harris<br />swears in Ossoff, Warnock and Padilla. Photo Credit: AP <br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table></div>1:48PM: Ted Cruz is speaking on his own objections to election certification <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> </div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383115026354016256">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383115026354016256</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>1:49PM: Capitol Police Chief Sund requests immediate assistance from District of Columbia National Guard Commander Major General William J. Walker. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383115244101197825">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383115244101197825</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>1:57PM: Multiple rioters have hijacked scaffolding and are banging on second floor windows near McConnell's office. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383117269342031887">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383117269342031887</a><br /><div><div><br /></div>1:59PM: Chief Sund receives the first reports that rioters had reached the Capitol's doors and windows and were trying to break in. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383117742279176201">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383117742279176201</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>2:03PM: Trump rioters have entered the Senate chambers. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383118780826587138">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383118780826587138</a><br /><div><br />2:05PM: Kevin Greeson has been declared dead after suffering a heart attack outdoors on Capitol grounds <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383119286454128647">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383119286454128647</a><div><br /></div>2:11PM: Rioter Dominic Pezzola breaks a window on the northwest side of the Capitol with a plastic shield <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383120777990565892">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383120777990565892</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>2:12/2:13PM: Officer Goodman turns Senator Mitt Romney around and has him evacuate away from the Trump rioters entering the Capitol building. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383121068735488000">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383121068735488000</a><div><br /></div>2:14PM: Officer Eugene Goodman is chased by pro-Trump rioters up stairs as he leads them away from the Senate chambers <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383121569518645248">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383121569518645248</a><br /><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>2:16PM: Federal Protective Service officers reporting that the House and Senate are being locked down. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383122022553772033">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383122022553772033</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>2:16PM: Trump rioters have flooded into the Capitol <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383122074915504129">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383122074915504129</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>2:17PM: Congresswoman Boebert just tweeted that members are locked down in the House Chamber <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383122270953086979">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383122270953086979</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>2:18PM: Congresswoman Boebert tweeted that "The Speaker has been removed from the chambers" <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383122525220179972">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383122525220179972</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J9FCuOiEDE8/YHp35dQPVlI/AAAAAAAAFlA/kP0Qa2rydD8Oj2Ho0YZdw0aEw3CS5sfkwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/EsSp0DFW4AY8yyR.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J9FCuOiEDE8/YHp35dQPVlI/AAAAAAAAFlA/kP0Qa2rydD8Oj2Ho0YZdw0aEw3CS5sfkwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/EsSp0DFW4AY8yyR.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://twitter.com/VP" style="text-align: start;">Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP</a><span style="text-align: start;">): </span><span style="text-align: start;">Earlier today, I swore in our first Cabinet member, Avril Haines, after her confirmation by the Senate last night. As the Director of National Intelligence, Director Haines will be dedicated to keeping the American people safe.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="text-align: center;">2:20PM: The joint session has adjourned and reports state lawmakers are attempting to evacuate the Capitol </span><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click" style="text-align: center;">#RelivingJan6</a><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click" style="text-align: center;">#TheBigLie</a><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click" style="text-align: center;">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383123031577477122">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383123031577477122</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>2:22PM: Reports say Vice President Pence has been evacuated from the Senate chamber to an undisclosed location <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383123532289347586">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383123532289347586</a></div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383123532289347586"><br /></a><div>2:24PM: Trump targets VP Pence in tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383124034368512000">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383124034368512000</a><div><br /></div>2:28PM: Capitol Police Chief Sund reasserts his request for National Guard support to help secure the perimeter of the Capitol. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> </div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383125038954610690">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383125038954610690</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>2:32PM: Trump rioters are now making their way through Statuary Hall. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383126085001445378">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383126085001445378</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>2:32PM: Trump rioters are fighting with Capitol Police in Statuary Hall inside the Capitol <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383126089418088449">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383126089418088449</a><br /><br /></div><div>2:39PM: Trump rioters have broken through the Capitol doors and are flooding into the building. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> </div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383127835594854409">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383127835594854409</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>2:40PM: Members of Congress are escorted out of the chamber as reports confirm the rioters are getting closer. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383128087475458052">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383128087475458052</a><div><br /></div>Jan 6, 2:44PM: Reports of shots fired coming from the House chamber <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> </div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383129066988048394">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383129066988048394</a><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C8qs_jR1FFU/YHqNrzKnF8I/AAAAAAAAFlY/n7xfzG25cwgEKAX0IR74qtrgwxdVDYdRgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1000/safe_image.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="521" data-original-width="1000" height="209" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C8qs_jR1FFU/YHqNrzKnF8I/AAAAAAAAFlY/n7xfzG25cwgEKAX0IR74qtrgwxdVDYdRgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h209/safe_image.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;">Tara Copp (@TaraCopp)</span><span style="text-align: start;">: </span><span style="text-align: start;">Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrives at the Pentagon, <br />greeted by </span><span style="text-align: start;">@thejointstaff</span><span style="text-align: start;"> Gen. Mark Milley</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Jan 6, 2:49PM: Capitol Police are attempting to hold off crowd of Trump rioters from inside the House chamber. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383130373832474624">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383130373832474624</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>Jan 6, 2:53PM: Rep. Mooney tweets he has been safely moved from the House chamber. He says he and others were given an escape hood, a respiratory hood and mask for protection in fires or chemical accidents <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383131361846960137">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383131361846960137</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>Jan 6, 2:55PM: Rep Burchett has texted that shots have been fired inside the Capitol. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383131840144420869">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383131840144420869<br /></a><br /></div><div>Jan 6, 2:55PM: The Department of Defense has REJECTED a DC request to deploy the National Guard to defend the Capitol building. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> </div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383131841620770816">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383131841620770816</a><br /><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>Jan 6, 3:04PM: Secretary Miller has approved the full activation of 1,100 DCNG troops for Capitol support <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383134099624300557">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383134099624300557</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>Jan 6, 3:15PM: House Speaker Pelosi calls Virginia Governor Northam to detail dire situation at Capitol. Gov Northam confirms that all assets of the State of Virginia including the National Guard are being sent to aid the U.S. Capitol. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383136896755376128">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383136896755376128</a></div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383136896755376128"><br /></a><div>Jan 6, 3:34PM: CBS reports Ashli Babbitt is in critical condition after being shot in the neck inside the Capitol. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383141648553623555">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383141648553623555</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>Jan 6, 3:37PM: Maryland Governor Larry Hogan orders mobilization of Maryland National Guard forces in anticipation of a request for support of the Capitol. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383142404446957570">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383142404446957570</a><div><br /></div>Jan 6, 3:39PM: Senator Schumer implores Pentagon officials, “Tell POTUS to tweet everyone should leave.” <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383142906232516610">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383142906232516610</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>Jan 6, 3:51PM: DC National Guard fully mobilized to support overwhelmed local law enforcement as they struggle to contain pro-Trump rioters across the Capitol. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383145927599357957">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383145927599357957</a><div><br /></div><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UKoEcFUIA7U/YHp0vr0pPbI/AAAAAAAAFkw/5zQGvAXAVt0yqvc2rwlrdmY51plf8z00gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/EvAX9pDXEAEA77i.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UKoEcFUIA7U/YHp0vr0pPbI/AAAAAAAAFkw/5zQGvAXAVt0yqvc2rwlrdmY51plf8z00gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h266/EvAX9pDXEAEA77i.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://twitter.com/USAmbUN" style="text-align: start;">Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, @USAmbUN</a><span style="text-align: start;">: I am honored, and beyond humbled, to have been sworn in today by </span><a href="https://twitter.com/VP" style="text-align: start;">@VP</a><span style="text-align: start;"> Kamala Harris as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Diplomacy is back. Multilateralism is back. America is back. Photo Credit: </span><span style="text-align: start;">U.S. Mission to the UN</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><div>Jan 6, 4:05PM: Reports confirm that congressional leaders have been evacuated from the Capitol building <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383149457898885123" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383149457898885123</a></div><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>Jan 6, 4:05PM: President-elect Biden gives televised speech demanding that Trump call off the deadly siege at the Capitol. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> </div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383149462193893377">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383149462193893377</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>Jan 6, 4:17PM: President Trump releases video after pressure: "I know your pain, I know you're hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now." <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383152472152285192" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383152472152285192</a><div><br /></div>Jan 6, 4:26PM: Rosanne Boyland is trampled to death by rioters at a Capitol tunnel entrance while Capitol Police are attacked with flag poles and shields carried by other rioters, as shown in bodycam video. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383154738728947714">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383154738728947714</a><br /><br /></div><div>Jan 6, 4:32PM: Secretary Miller authorizes DCNG to conduct perimeter and clearance operations against any remaining pro-Trump rioters in support of the U.S. Capitol Police<div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383156244433809415">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383156244433809415</a><br /><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>Jan 6, 5:02PM: 154 members of the D.C. National Guard depart the D.C. Armory for the US Capitol. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383164599118204930">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383163794155831299</a></div><div><br /><div>Jan 6, 5:05PM: The Capitol building is engulfed in smoke and tear gas as Capitol Police deploy measures to counter massive crowd and push back rioters from entrances around the building. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383164599118204930">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383164599118204930</a><div><br />Jan 6, 5:20PM: The first 115 National Guard troops arrive wearing full riot gear to propel crowds from Capitol grounds <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a><div><br /></div><div>Jan 6, 5:21PM: "I never thought I'd see a day like this in America. All Americans should be outraged by this attack on our nation's Capitol." Hogan gives orders to mobilize 200 Maryland State Police troopers and 500 National Guard troops. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383168575201021952">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383168575201021952</a><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yRPaJWFd9Hk/YHqMLKQNuqI/AAAAAAAAFlQ/7YMF8t_veYwuxZwJWZfaYkWDB-ymDiICwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/garland_big_2_ewngazqwgaa_atm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="640" height="275" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yRPaJWFd9Hk/YHqMLKQNuqI/AAAAAAAAFlQ/7YMF8t_veYwuxZwJWZfaYkWDB-ymDiICwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h275/garland_big_2_ewngazqwgaa_atm.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/further/2021/03/11/long-arc-universe" style="text-align: start;">Abby Zimet, Common Dreams (3/11/21):</a><span style="text-align: start;"> On his first day as Attorney General, the honorable, long maltreated Merrick Garland was movingly welcomed by an applauding crowd of jubilant DOJ employees and survivors of the last regime visibly relieved to witness the return of competence and normalcy ... </span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div>Jan 6, 5:40PM: National Guard and Capitol Police conduct sweep of Capitol grounds to evacuate any remaining staff and search for any rioters still on federal property. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">#Jan6NeverAgain</a><br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383173364555071491</a><br /><br />Jan 6, 5:45PM: Capitol Police announce that Ashli Babbitt, the rioter shot inside the Capitol, has died. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">#Jan6NeverAgain</a><br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383174622795997185</a><br /><br />Jan 6, 5:46PM: Capitol Police riot squads push Trump rioters back from the west side of the Capitol building to establish perimeter. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">#Jan6NeverAgain</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383174871434326016</a><br /><br />Jan 6, 5:53PM: Rioters are pushed further back as police secure the U.S. Capitol and lawn out front shortly before 6 pm curfew <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">#Jan6NeverAgain</a><br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383176662817374210</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>Jan 6, 6:00PM: DC Curfew in full effect as National Guard troops arrive in the Capitol to help flush out remaining rioters and shut down the city <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Jan 6, 6:01PM: Trump makes false election claims and list excuses for his supporters while asking them to leave federal property. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLe?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLe</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383178645376802816">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383178645376802816</a><br /><div><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>Jan 6, 6:09PM: Rosanne Boyland is pronounced dead at a local DC hospital, after being trampled to death by people rushing to breach a tunnel entrance on the west side of the Capitol building hours before. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383201050782535682">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383180653911539716</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>Jan 6, 6:30PM: Sund briefs VP Pence and senior members of congressional leadership on the new Capitol security situation, advising that both chambers are able to reconvene by 7:30. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383201050782535682">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383185954761015297</a><div><br /></div>Jan 6, 7:00PM: Facebook removes Trump's posts. "We removed from FB and IG the recent video of President Trump speaking about the protests. We made the decision that on balance these posts contribute to, rather than diminish, the risk of ongoing violence" <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a></div><div><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383193569117274118</a><br /><br />Jan 6, 7:02PM: Twitter removes Trump’s tweets and shuts down his account for 12 hours for “repeated and severe violations of [its] Civic Integrity policy.” <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> </div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383201050782535682">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383193993878593540</a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--HB70LVmdgs/YFpzrlTy9OI/AAAAAAAAFjs/4MOIKqsC64AgyWYZMuLyGYKNpxuHOmXNACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/EwxS_HyXEAIzir7.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--HB70LVmdgs/YFpzrlTy9OI/AAAAAAAAFjs/4MOIKqsC64AgyWYZMuLyGYKNpxuHOmXNACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/EwxS_HyXEAIzir7.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vice-President Kamala Harris (@VP): We must create a future that lifts up all communities. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">@SecDebHaaland</a> has committed her life to ensuring justice, equality, and fairness for all. Today, as she makes history, I am proud to swear her in as our Secretary of Interior.</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>Jan 6, 7:30: Officials have declared the U.S. Capitol complex “secure” after heavily armed police moved to end a nearly four-hour violent occupation by supporters of President Donald Trump. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383201050782535682">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383201050782535682</a><br /><div><br /><div>Jan 6, 8:00PM: Congress reconvenes to resume counting Electoral College votes <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383210113805250562">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383208633559830530</a><div><br /></div>Jan 6, 8:06PM: VP Pence reconvenes the Senate to continue debating the objection to the Arizona electoral count and return to joint session in order to certify election results. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383210113805250562">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383210113805250562</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>Jan 6, 8:36PM: Facebook blocks Trump’s page for 24 hours because of policy violations, preventing any posts for that duration. This ban would remain in effect for the foreseeable future. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383217653435695107">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383217653435695107</a><br /><div><br /></div>Jan 6, 9:00PM: Speaker Pelosi reopens the House for debate <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383223728679518211">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383223728679518211</a><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>Jan 6, 10:15PM: The Senate votes 93–6 against the objection raised by a handful of Republican senators against the counting of Arizona's electoral votes. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a></div><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383242570948440078">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383242570948440078</a><div><br /></div>Jan 6, 11:30PM: The House votes 303–121 to reject the Republican objection to the counting of Arizona's electoral votes. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelivingJan6?src=hashtag_click">#RelivingJan6</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a> <div><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/02/republicans-are-taking-their-voter-suppression-efforts-to-new-extremes/">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383261440480403456</a><div><br /></div><div>Until the infection that brought insurrection to our Capitol is removed, it's always January 6th, 2021 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheBigLie?src=hashtag_click">#TheBigLie</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jan6NeverAgain?src=hashtag_click">#Jan6NeverAgain</a><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383239422443868161">https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1383239422443868161</a><div><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4VljF2iMpcU/YBfTjt-MOKI/AAAAAAAAFhc/0K7rr_NqVl8eiM6ISREV7xA1DRJSnOilwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/EsQtj3tW4AEq3D9.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4VljF2iMpcU/YBfTjt-MOKI/AAAAAAAAFhc/0K7rr_NqVl8eiM6ISREV7xA1DRJSnOilwCLcBGAsYHQ/w300-h400/EsQtj3tW4AEq3D9.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;">Garrett M. Graff (</span><span style="text-align: start;">@vermontgmg): </span><span style="text-align: start;">Three Thursdays in America.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div><div><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-47310054429988885032020-11-08T13:57:00.045-08:002021-01-02T01:35:42.766-08:00Toward An Agenda for the First 100 Hours of the Biden-Harris Era: "... to restore the soul of America, and to make America respected around the world again and to unite us here at home ..."<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OmL21KUbbs0/X6hYyc_zKLI/AAAAAAAAFeE/s81L3XC648AGYDkB6QnSPWsrwrdyKEzUgCLcBGAsYHQ/s465/124322412_10224434862999057_6191042240511740818_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="465" data-original-width="465" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OmL21KUbbs0/X6hYyc_zKLI/AAAAAAAAFeE/s81L3XC648AGYDkB6QnSPWsrwrdyKEzUgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h400/124322412_10224434862999057_6191042240511740818_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-stroke: 0.45px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); color: #222222; font-family: "Tiempos Headline Light", "system serif"; font-variant-numeric: lining-nums; font-weight: 300; grid-column: 1 / 2; grid-row-start: 2; letter-spacing: 0.5px; line-height: 1.23; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Kamala-Harris-rode-the-buses-that-integrated-14060240.php">Kamala Harris rode the buses that integrated Berkeley schools</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div>Before I lay out my recommendations for the "First 100 Hours ..." let's take a snap shot of this moment at what is hopefully the end of history and the beginning of HERstory: </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> "Biden’s victory & Trump’s defeat is a testament to the resilience of American democracy." - Washington Post Editorial Board, 11/7/20</li><li>"They gutted the Voting Rights Act. They sabotaged the Postal Service. They closed polling places, purged voter rolls, attacked mail voting, tried to throw out ballots. And yet voters turned out in record numbers to overcome these barriers & make their voices heard." - Ari Berman (@AriBerman), 11/7/20</li><li>"Trump follows the legacy of Andrew Johnson, as only the second one-term and impeached POTUS." - Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal), 11/7/20</li><li>"The Americans have chosen their President. Congratulations @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris! We have a lot to do to overcome today’s challenges. Let's work together!" - Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron), President of France, 11/7/20</li><li>"I congratulate @JoeBiden on his election as the next U.S. President & @KamalaHarris as Vice President. I know Joe Biden as a strong supporter of our Alliance & look forward to working closely with him. A strong <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/nato?__eep__=6&__tn__=*NK*F">#NATO</a> is good for both North America & Europe." - Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg), NATO General Secretary, 11/7/20</li><li>“Joe Biden will be the 46th President of the United States,” Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany wrote. “From my heart, I wish him good luck and success, and also congratulate Kamala Harris, the first woman Vice President-elect of her country.” - New York Times, 11/7/20</li><li>"Trump isn't just facing a humiliating loss. He's facing several criminal investigations, debts being called in, an existential threat to his business empire, and financial ruin." - Brian Klaas (@brianklaas), 11/7/20</li><li>"I warmly congratulate @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris for their victory in the U.S. Presidential elections. The EU and the USA are friends and allies, our citizens share the deepest of links. I look forward to working with President-elect Biden." - Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen), President of the E.U. Commission, 11/7/20</li><li>"Congratulations, @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris. Our two countries are close friends, partners, and allies. We share a relationship that’s unique on the world stage. I’m really looking forward to working together and building on that with you both." - Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau), Prime Minister of Canada, 11/7/20</li><li>"Congratulations @JoeBiden on your win as President elect of the United States of America. I wish you well in office and look forward to further strengthening our countries relations on crucial matters such as climate change and human rights." - Katrín Jakobsdóttir (@katrinjak), Prime Minister of Iceland, 11/7/20</li></ul></div><div><div>Well, despite seemingly coordinated, fascistic, terroristic utterances from <a href="https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1324481449614024715?s=20">Steve Bannon</a>,<a href="https://crooksandliars.com/2020/11/newt-gingrich-demands-bill-barr-arrest"> Newt Gingrich</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1324560122581045248">Alex Jones </a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1324528644719480834?s=20">Vernon Jones </a>and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/05/politics/fact-check-trump-speech-thursday-election-rigged-stolen/index.html">the would-be tyrant himself</a>, their new <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/background-and-overview-of-kristallnacht">Krystallnacht</a> was stillborn. And, as I prophesied, "the Power of Nothing" moved from the depths of the ocean of universal Love into and through our collective psyche. We did indeed coalesce into a United Front for Sanity and Decency, and we did indeed take action to "Survive the Pandemic and Save the Republic." </div><div><br />Of course, the usual framing for an incoming administration is structured around "the First 100 Days."<br /><br />Well, that's a luxury we don't have.<br /><br />Here are my priorities for the First Hundred Hours ...<br /><br />1. Launch a full-bore NATIONAL effort led by SCIENTISTS, to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, including a mask mandate, massive roll-out of testing and contact tracing and the production and distribution of PPE. And re-join <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01586-0">the WHO </a>and join with the nations of the world in the coordinated global effort to develop and deliver a safe and effective vaccine for Covid-19.<div><br /></div><div>2. Decisively <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/11/07/next-president-joe-biden-economy-growth-stimulus/6151943002/">address the economic devastation</a> caused by the pandemic, including extended emergency unemployment benefits, direct stimulus checks and rent relief, as well as substantive aid to state and local governments and genuinely small businesses. <br /><div><br /></div><div>3. Take immediate action to reunite the families of 666 refuge children that Trump-Pence stole from the parents, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/lawyers-can-t-find-parents-666-migrant-kids-higher-number-n1247144">the ones whose parents have not been tracked down</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>4. Re-enter the <a href="https://www.axios.com/trump-paris-climate-agreement-formal-withdrawal-6e3140dd-5b96-474b-a0e8-9c8f8a5b4800.html">Paris Climate Accords</a>.</div><div><br /><div>5. Declare the United States' <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/14/trump-biden-foreign-policy-alliances/">clear, unequivocal commitment to NATO</a> and the Western Alliance.</div><div><br /></div><div>6. Acknowledge the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/biden-calls-racial-justice-during-emotional-george-floyd-funeral-speech-n1228566">murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many others</a> from the bully pulpit of the Presidency and commit to swift and sweeping measures to address structural racism in police departments. </div><div><br /></div><div>7. Move forcefully to undo Trump-Pence sabotage of other major Obama-Biden accomplishments, for example, and in particular, re-join the <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/08/iran-advances-nuclear-program-withdrawal-jcpoa/">Iran nuclear agreement,</a> and re-dedicate the U.S. federal government to <a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/a34483668/trump-daca-election-biden/">DACA</a> and the <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/news/2020/10/01/490916/chaos-repealing-affordable-care-act-coronavirus-pandemic/">Affordable Care Act</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Much is still to be accomplished, <a href="https://twitter.com/staceyabrams/status/1324865042148421633?s=20">the run-off election on January 5th, 2021</a> for both of Georgia's Senate seats is of paramount importance. </div><div><br /></div><div>Lean forward.</div><div> </div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jb-YKTVo9mE/X6hYJem-GgI/AAAAAAAAFd0/EcLz99H3Z-k5LNLfl2Dks_W0AgX6k0KbgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/EmQUuvIXUAIgD4C.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1174" data-original-width="1200" height="390" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jb-YKTVo9mE/X6hYJem-GgI/AAAAAAAAFd0/EcLz99H3Z-k5LNLfl2Dks_W0AgX6k0KbgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h390/EmQUuvIXUAIgD4C.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro): Madame Vice President.</td></tr></tbody></table><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pfFRN-zb1XQ/X6hY49eUjUI/AAAAAAAAFeI/-ymSwczOtAYx0UCd180NzbWML5I7vgAEACLcBGAsYHQ/s1345/ESEd181U8AAUth5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a></p></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-1379243163438291772020-09-23T02:21:00.010-07:002020-09-28T23:48:50.315-07:00Straw Dogs, A Mysterious Valley & the Power of Nothing: Deep Magic for A Time of Great Peril<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AObUn2gvniU/X2Okoh0jkLI/AAAAAAAAFYM/2jtn9ZQOWgwFlbsCu4hxI2desvOX9dbPQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/Slide01.jpeg" style="text-align: left;" width="400" /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">NOTE: The views I will articulate in this talk are mine, and although they are in </span><span style="font-family: arial;">accord with the Three Avowed Objects, </span><span style="font-family: arial;">they are not the views of the Theosophical Society of San Francisco. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">We do not discuss politics here at the
Lodge. Just as we have no religious dogma or creed, we do not have a
political ideology. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">This not a political talk. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">But I will discuss history, psychology and governance, and I will discuss human
rights and environmental protection. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">One of the central themes in my work over
these last two decades has been the championing of altruism and sustainability as both spiritual and existential imperatives. These two imperatives transcend politics.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">"I just have something inside me that tells me that there is a problem, and I have got to do something about it. I think that is what I would call the </span><a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/God" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">God</a><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> in me. </span><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all </span><a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Life" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">life</a><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">, everything that is on </span><a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Earth" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">this planet</a><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">. It must be this </span><a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voice" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">voice</a><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> that is telling me to do something, and I am sure it's the same voice that is speaking to everybody on this planet — at least everybody who seems to be concerned about the fate of the </span><a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/World" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">world</a><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">, the fate of this planet." -- <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2004/maathai/biographical/">Wangari Maathai</a>, Environmental Activist, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, as </span><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">quoted by </span><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">Priscilla Sears in </span><a href="http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Sears.htm" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">Wangari Maathai:"You Strike The Woman ..."</a> (<span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">Context #28, Spring 1991)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Do you remember the time before? Can you remember what was
what even nine months ago?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Maybe you live inside of a bubble of denial, maybe you’ve
lost your discernment in the onslaught of DISinformation, maybe you are bound
up in your own selfishness and narcissism, maybe you’ve gone numb from fear or
exhaustion … </span><span style="font-family: arial;">But if you are one of those among us who listens to Gaia (she
is always whispering encouragement to you, she sings you lullabies and she
shouts out warnings, she is always speaking to you), and/or if you follow what Lao-Tzu called the Way of the Tao, and/or if you follow what
Tathagata called the Wheel of the Dew-Sweet Law, then perhaps you will hear this
message and it may resonate with you … </span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-17ex_Bu12k0/X2ZMbUPJA4I/AAAAAAAAFbM/scAsDUjuc5I1EHhxbORE4WkaLHJuO_jfQCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/Slide02.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-17ex_Bu12k0/X2ZMbUPJA4I/AAAAAAAAFbM/scAsDUjuc5I1EHhxbORE4WkaLHJuO_jfQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/Slide02.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2010, I began writing and speaking about what I called "the Singularity in Anticipation of Itself." At that time, there was much conjecture and debate, among philosophers and futurists, concerning the potential for unintended consequences from the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI). But I suggested that those concerned with AI were missing a far greater and much more imminent threat, I suggested that we ourselves were the Singularity, that it was Human Intelligence itself, and its unintended consequences that we should be concerned with. That Human Intelligence was leading itself into an Impossibility, and that for our species and our civilization to survive, something new, something inconceivable would have emerge from this Singularity, a new us. By 2019, I declared that the Singularity had arrived, and that we had crossed over the Event Horizon, that we had fallen into the Black Hole of this Singularity. Of course, it is assumed that anything entering a Black Hole is crushed. Unless of course this Black Hole is actually one mouth of a Wormhole. So now, in 2020, we lean forward hoping this is a Wormhole, and that we come out of the Wormhole's other mouth, into a new being, a new universe, before we are crushed. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">This is where we are. As a species. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HwWsPPxzfFM/X2OktU8gerI/AAAAAAAAFYU/yjBa93mwe8EQykX2zIJiMFRiuk_N6INCgCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/Slide03.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HwWsPPxzfFM/X2OktU8gerI/AAAAAAAAFYU/yjBa93mwe8EQykX2zIJiMFRiuk_N6INCgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/Slide03.jpeg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Merriam-Webster Definition of scourge</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">1: WHIP especially one
used to inflict pain or punishment</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">2: an instrument of punishment or criticism</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">3: a cause of wide or great affliction</span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Currently, we are being driven downward, deeper and deeper into Dystopia, We are staggering under the painful lashes of three great scourges: the Climate Crisis (and the Sixth Great Extinction), the Covid-19 Pandemic
and the Rise of 21st-Century Authoritarianism. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">Climate Crisis & the Sixth Great Extinction</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Ninety-seven large fires have burned more than 6,200 square
miles across the western states, and evacuation orders were in place for
40 large fires in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Idaho and Utah, the
National Interagency Fire Center said Saturday. Some evacuees have fled with just the clothes on their backs. Smoke
from the blazes has impacted the entire West Coast, posing a health hazard to
millions. - <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/09/12/wildfires-oregon-california-washington-cooler-weather-mass-fatalities/5778187002/" style="color: blue;">USA
Today, Wildfires race across the West: Smoke poses health hazard to millions;
unprecedented pollution in Oregon, 9/12/20</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">The global climate crisis could see more than a
billion people displaced from their homes in the next 30 years, as ecological
disasters drive mass migrations and greater armed conflict, according to a new report released Wednesday. The Ecological Threat
Register, conducted by the Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace
(IEP), projected that as many as 1.2 billion people around the world could be
displaced by 2050. No country will be able to escape the impact of the climate
crisis -- but the world's poorest and most vulnerable populations will be
hardest hit.” -<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/10/world/climate-global-displacement-report-intl-hnk-scli-scn/index.html" style="color: blue;">-
CNN, Climate Crisis Could Displace 1.2 Billion People by 2050, 9/10/20</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">The world is losing its mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles
and fish, and with them, the security of ecosystems that have supported
humanity since it first emerged. That’s the conclusion of the Living Planet
Report 2020, a biannual assessment by World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological
Society of London, which records the decline in vertebrate life. This year’s
report, released Wednesday, shows that these animal communities shrunk on
average 68% between 1970 and 2016. Parts of the world are much worse off. The
tropical Americas have seen animal populations decline 94% in the same period. -- <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-09/climate-change-and-food-businesses-are-driving-environmental-failure-globally" style="color: blue;">Bloomberg
Green, Animal Populations Fell by 68% in 50 Years and It’s Getting Worse,
9/10/20</a></span></li></ul><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">Covid-19 Pandemic </span></b></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">A coronavirus models projects deaths due to the virus in
the United States will top 400,000 by the end of the year, with 410,000
projected by January 1, according to new data. That would more than double the current U.S.
death toll, which stood at more than 188,000 as of Saturday, according to Johns Hopkins
University. -- <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-united-states-coronavirus-deaths-projection-400000-by-end-of-year/" style="color: blue;">CBS
News, Coronavirus model projects U.S. deaths will surpass 400,000 by end of
year, 9/4/20</a></span></li><li>New analysis by Amnesty International has found that at least 7,000 health workers have died around the world after contracting COVID-19. At least 1,320 health workers are confirmed to have died in Mexico alone, the highest known figure for any country. Amnesty International also recorded high numbers of health worker deaths in the USA (1,077) and Brazil (634), where infection and death rates have been high throughout the pandemic, as well as alarming figures in South Africa (240) and India (573), where infection rates have soared in recent months.- <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/09/amnesty-analysis-7000-health-workers-have-died-from-covid19/">Amnesty International, Global: Amnesty analysis reveals over 7,000 health workers have died from COVID-19, 9/3/20</a></li><li>As students across the country return to classrooms, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the majority of children, teens and young adults who die from COVID-19 are Hispanic, Black or Native American. Researchers found there was a staggering racial disparity in the more than 390,000 coronavirus cases and 121 deaths among people under the age of 21 reported to the CDC between Feb. 12 and July 31. Hispanic, Black and Native American children accounted for 78% of those deaths even though those groups represent just 41% of the United States population, a disproportionate effect that reflects a similar disparity among adults. <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/09/16/covid-deaths-cdc-finds-majority-kids-who-die-black-hispanic/5814985002/">- N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY: Majority of kids who die of coronavirus are Hispanic, Black, or Native American, CDC finds, 9/16/20</a></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">The economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic could
push as many as 86 million more children into poverty by the end of 2020, a
joint study by Save the Children and UNICEF showed Wednesday. That would bring
the total number of children affected by poverty worldwide to 672 million, an
increase of 15 percent over last year ... <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/pandemic-puts-up-to-86-million-children-at-risk-of-poverty-study/"> Agence France Press, Pandemic puts up to 86 million children at risk of poverty, 5/28/20</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">As the pandemic spreads, the threat to livelihoods around
the world is yielding an alarming rise in hunger ... This is not a famine, which generally results from war
combined with environmental disaster. Rather, incomes are being destroyed just
as food prices rise in much of the world ... -- <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/business/covid-hunger-food-insecurity.html" style="color: blue;">Peter
S. Goodman (@petersgoodman), New York Times, The Other Way Covid Could Kill:
Hunger, 9/11/20</a></span></li></ul><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
</p></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">21st Century Authoritarianism & Climate Barbarism</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="text-align: left;">A group of national security experts testified Tuesday on
Capitol Hill about the rise of authoritarianism, warning lawmakers that
countries such as China and Russia are seeking to gain power by
undermining democratic systems. In a hearing before the House Intelligence
Committee, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former NATO Secretary
General Anders Rasmussen, Open Constitution Initiative co-founder
Teng Biao and Center for a New American Security’s transatlantic security
expert Andrea Kendall-Taylor said there are indicators popping up worldwide
that suggest a growing return to dictators and despots. “Warning signs
abound across the globe: the discarding of mainstream politicians, the
emergence of leaders who seek to divide rather than unite, the purist of
political victory at all costs and the invocation of national greatness by
people who identify greatness only with themselves,” Albright told the
committee in her opening remarks. “Tyranny is once again awakening from its
slumber,” Rasmussen said in his opening remarks, echoing Albright … “This is
the most trying time for democracy since the 1930s when fascism spread across
much of Europe,” said Kendall-Taylor.-- </span><a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/431646-national-security-experts-warn-of-rise-in-authoritarianism-efforts" style="color: blue; text-align: left;">The
Hill, National security experts warn of rise in authoritarianism, 2/26/19</a></span></li><li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Climate barbarism is a form of climate adaptation. It’s no
longer denying that we have begun an age of massive disruption, that many
hundreds of millions of people are going to be forced from their homelands, and
that huge swathes of the planet are going to be uninhabitable. And then, in
response to that, rather than doing all the things that are encoded in the UN
Convention on Climate Change, which recognizes the historical responsibility of
many of the countries that happen to have a little more time to deal with the
impacts of climate change — are insulated both by geography and relative wealth
— instead says, look, we simply believe we are better, because of our
citizenship, because of our whiteness, and our Christian-ness, and we are
locking down, protecting our own, pulling aid ... We live in societies, whether
they admit it or not, that do rank human life based on race and religion. And
climate change forces us to reckon with that, and ask, are we going to live up
to the rhetoric of equality and the idea that we actually believe people are of
equal value by right of being alive on this planet? If we believe that, we need
to radically change our ideas of national borders, and we need to open our arms
and talk about how we’re going to share what is left. Or are we going to double
down and get monstrous? We are getting monstrous. It’s not a future
idea, it is happening ... --<a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/against-climate-barbarism-a-conversation-with-naomi-klein/" style="color: blue;">
Los Angeles Review of Books, Against Climate Barbarism: A Conversation with
Naomi Klein, 9/30/19</a></span></li></ul><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It didn’t have to be this way. But it is.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now, as horrific as all of this is, it is not insurmountable. Our circumstances are not hopeless.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We need to wear masks. We need to practice social
distancing. People need rent relief and unemployment. We need to hunker down and
wait for a vaccine, a proven, safe and effective vaccine. Pandemic denialism is
as sick and evil as climate denialism. Yes, I said sick and evil, sick on the
part of those that follow denialist opinion-shapers, and evil on the part of those opinion-shapers who propagate pandemic denialism. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>We need to rapidly phase out the burning of fossil fuels. Robust, economically viable alternatives are available to us. We need to drastically reduce our consumption of meat. We need to empower women. And yes, we need to confront the problem of</span> <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/population/">unsustainable human population growth</a>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>We need to rededicate ourselves to human rights and environmental protection. We</span><span> need to strengthen our democratic institutions. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">All of this is do-able. All of this is our n<span>atural inclination. All of this serves to heal our species and our planet. It is within our reach. </span><span>Altruism and sustainability are spiritual and existential imperatives. </span><span>This is not ideology. This is humanity. It is science, not politics.</span><span> It is humanism, not a political ideology.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Some among us have lost their livelihoods to the pandemic. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Some among us have
lost their homes and belongings to the wildfires</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Some among us are even dealing with both tragedies simultaneously. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Great
forests, old, deeply richly magical forests, have been devastated. The powerful
wisdom of all of the trees, the trees that you know, the trees that have laughed and
wept and stood in silence with you. The exquisite throbbing life of all the forest creatures you have come to know. All those wild beings who recognize you as part of their own mandalas. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Such loss. Unbearable.
Unspeakable. Inconsolable. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Grief and gratitude, like inhalation and exhalation. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The pandemic continues. S</span><span style="font-family: arial;">ome among us</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> face eviction. Some among us face hunger. Some fear for the lives of their children if they send them to school. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Hundreds of thousands have died of Covid-19, in isolation, cut off from their </span><span style="font-family: arial;">loves</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> ones. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Recently, </span></span><span>I have been remembering my Yoda, the legendary American sage Joe Miler, toward the end of his life, during a stay in the Intensive Care Unit. He just wanted to go home, he just wanted to lie down in his own bed. Even if it was just to die. His bed was narrow and simple. Like a monk’s bed, But it was his. Joe Miller did make it home. But in the misery of this pandemic, many have not. </span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Now, every night, as I move toward my bed, I wonder if or when I will find myself in such circumstances. And I am grateful for each opportunity to just lie down in my own bed. I am grateful that I am not homeless. I am grateful that I have not fallen ill.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Such loss. Unbearable. Unspeakable. Inconsolable. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Grief and gratitude, like inhalation and exhalation. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But there is still more ...</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">The brutal deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">These atrocities</span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">traumatized our collective psyche and</span> triggered many weeks of massive, nation-wide demonstrations; yes, tens </span><span style="font-family: arial;">of thousands of peaceful, masked citizens in the streets.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Such loss. Unbearable. Unspeakable. Inconsolable. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Grief and gratitude, like inhalation and exhalation. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Take nothing for granted. When you
get in your bed to go to sleep, feel the gratitude. Always, always listen for the sound of the sands
falling in the hour glass. We do not know the number of sand grains, but we do know </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">it</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> is a finite number. Feel the gratitude. </span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">It can all be taken away from
you in a moment. It will all be taken away from each of us. One way or another. We
know not the hour. G</span><span style="font-family: arial;">ratitude and the grief, like inhalation and
exhalation. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">This is what it means to be alive.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So this is where we are. In this moment, An <span>extraordinary inflection
point.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>There are some further insights and perspectives I want to share with you: f</span><span>irst, some lessons from the </span><span>history of the 20th Century, </span><span>and then some occult teachings from the </span><span>Ancient Future.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BEYRXZ6a_fU/X2OlLhOkTuI/AAAAAAAAFY8/tZSO-lN2Ei4p_jPazApX4Q14eiPqnbJmwCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/Slide08.jpeg" style="clear: left; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BEYRXZ6a_fU/X2OlLhOkTuI/AAAAAAAAFY8/tZSO-lN2Ei4p_jPazApX4Q14eiPqnbJmwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/Slide08.jpeg" width="400" /></span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><b><br /></b></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Lessons from History As We Move Into Herstory</b></div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Ours is a republic predicated on democratic principles and built upon democratic institutions. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: left;">Democracy is Gaian, authoritarianism is not. Democracy is indigenous to the Mysterious Valley of the Dark Goddess. But like everything Gaian, democracy cannot live in a vacuum, it is interdependent with a free press, the rule of law, the universal declaration of human rights, and without the nutrients provided by these other vital elements of its eco-system, democracy dies. </div><div style="text-align: left;">Authoritarians will always try to make you fearful of the mob to turn you away from democracy, but, ironically, democracy is the opposite of mob rule, and authoritarianism is dependent upon mob rule … Authoritarianism is a form of governance preferred by weak men, the weak man always wants to imagine he is a strong man, he wants to identify with the strong man. Plato and Heidegger were weak men. That’s why authoritarian rule is Plato’s only answer to the challenges he explores in The Republic. That’s why Heidegger’s letters and diaries <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">confirm his complicity and support </a>for the Nazis. Weak men want "a strong man" in control. Quite often, unconsciously, they want to feel once again the power of their abusive father.</div><div style="text-align: left;">I have studied the authoritarian regimes of the 20th Century, and pondered the lessons to be learned. There are four lessons I want to share with you in the here and now.</div><div style="text-align: left;">An authoritarian regime needs Hitlers, pathologically ill men desirous of acting out their sadistic fantasies, and it needs Eichmanns, it needs yes men willing to be cogs on the wheels of woe, shameless enough to wrap their own passive soul illnesses in rationales like “just following orders.” But an authoritarian regime also needs the hidden hand of those who underwrite it all, oligarchs… maybe it’s diamonds, maybe it’s fossil fuels, maybe it’s narcotics or munitions, but there is always some economic agenda hidden behind the political agenda … these are the three elements that turn the wheel of woe that is authoritarianism …</div><div style="text-align: left;">There is something else authoritarian regimes require, and that is a bizarre, delusional world-view with which to overwrite a society's collective reality, just as in a cult … The sicker the men, the more bizarre and delusional this world-view will be … Hitler, Himmler and others in their circle were obsessed with occultism, and the paranormal, but of course their approach to all of this subject matter was warped and perverted by their underlying pathologies, as warped and perverted as their view of moral and political philosophy …</div><div style="text-align: left;">What do I mean by a warped and delusional world view?</div><div style="text-align: left;">Well, consider these recent news stories, they are poignantly germane:</div></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"></p><ul><li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A secret cabal is taking over the world. They kidnap children, slaughter, and eat them to gain power from their blood. They control high positions in government, banks, international finance, the news media, and the church. They want to disarm the police. They promote homosexuality and pedophilia. They plan to mongrelize the white race so it will lose its essential power. Does this conspiracy theory sound familiar? It is. The same narrative has been repackaged by QAnon. I have studied and worked to prevent genocide for forty years. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.genocidewatch.com/&source=gmail&ust=1600556470687000&usg=AFQjCNHmcIvN1AxyYuSMZx1JW2k_K4kzOg" href="http://www.genocidewatch.com/" style="color: blue;" target="_blank">Genocide Watch</a> and the Alliance Against Genocide, the first international anti-genocide coalition, see such hate-filled conspiracy theories as early warning signs of deadly genocidal violence. The plot, described above, was the conspiracy “revealed” in the most influential anti-Jewish pamphlet of all time. It was called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was written by Russian anti-Jewish propagandists around 1902. It collected myths about a Jewish plot to take over the world that had existed for hundreds of years … QAnon’s conspiracy theory is a rebranded version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion … Many people are perplexed at how any rational person could fall for such an irrational conspiracy theory. But modern social science shows that people in groups don’t always think rationally. They respond to fear and terror. They blame their misfortunes on scapegoats. They support narcissistic demagogues they hope will rescue them. - <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.justsecurity.org/72339/qanon-is-a-nazi-cult-rebranded/&source=gmail&ust=1600556470688000&usg=AFQjCNEb--KH4GffBuEj07AudDTN8BrlcA" href="https://www.justsecurity.org/72339/qanon-is-a-nazi-cult-rebranded/" style="color: blue;" target="_blank">Gregory Stanton, QAnon is A Nazi Cult, Rebranded, Just Security, 9/9/20</a></span></li><li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"The editors at BuzzFeed News have become uneasy about using conspiracy theory to describe QAnon ... QAnon has shifted, and so should how we write about it. QAnon is a collective delusion, and that's what BuzzFeed News will be calling it from now on." - <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/drumoorhouse/qanon-mass-collective-delusion-buzzfeed-news-copy-desk&source=gmail&ust=1600556470688000&usg=AFQjCNG6YQpD5yW8BS9H_75Qw8OLjd6G5A" href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/drumoorhouse/qanon-mass-collective-delusion-buzzfeed-news-copy-desk" style="color: blue;" target="_blank">Buzzfeed, Here’s Why BuzzFeed News Is Calling QAnon A “Collective Delusion” From Now On, 9/4/20</a></span></li><li style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Seane Corn never thought her duties as yoga instructor would one day include warning people about the dangers of an international right-wing conspiracy theory.The Los Angeles yoga teacher is one of several high-profile Instagram influencers using their platforms to combat the rise of the QAnon conspiracy theory in wellness spaces. "I just didn't think that I would be having to talk about things like a cabal of people in the U.S. that are kidnapping children and drinking their blood to gain power," Corn told As It Happens host Carol Off. "I never thought that this would be a conversation I would have to have with my community to say, like, 'This isn't true. This isn't happening. Please use more discernment.'" - <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.5728151/this-yoga-instructor-is-fighting-the-rise-of-qanon-in-the-wellness-community-1.5728153">CBC Radio, This yoga instructor is fighting the rise of QAnon in the wellness community, 9/17/20</a></span></li></ul></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A third important lesson to draw from the history of 20th Century authoritarianism concerns the Spanish Civil War. Generalissimo Franco and the Fascists didn’t have the support of the majority of the populace. Not even close to a majority of the populace. Closer to the quarter of the populace than even half of the populace. There was a vast front, a popular front arrayed against them, from across the ideological spectrum and from all factions, but they could not overcome their own differences, they could not truly unite for the common good, and so, Franco and the Fascists won, AND Franco ruled for 36 years …</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The fourth lesson concerns Mussolini, Il Duce. He ruled Italy for twenty years. He joined with Nazi Germany and militarist Japan to form the Axis powers. He conquered the Horn of Africa. His thugs could grab you off the street and disappear you. He was a tyrant. But when it all came apart, it happened fast, and when he fell, he fell hard: “Mussolini refused to consider flying out of the country, and he made for the Valtellina, intending perhaps to make a final stand in the mountains; but only a handful of men could be found to follow him. He tried to cross the frontier disguised as a German soldier in a convoy of trucks retreating ... But he was recognized and, together with his mistress, Claretta Petacci, who had insisted on remaining with him to the end, he was shot and killed ... Their bodies were hung, head downward, in the Piazza Loreto in Milan. Huge jubilant crowds celebrated the fall of the dictator and the end of the war.” (<a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">Britannica.com)</a>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Tao Te Ching</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Lao-Tzu. Tao Te Ching. 6th Century BC, yes, but even early 4th Century BC. A small book. Maybe 5,000 Chinese characters. Organized into 81 chapters. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My Yoda, the legendary American sage Joe Miller, once told someone that if he had to go live on a desert island and could only take one book with him it would be the Tao Te Ching. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That remark made me smile deeply, when it was recounted to me, because, as I mention in “I, the Dragon,” Lao-Tzu has been with me since I was maybe 14 years old.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If you had asked me for my favorite chapter when I was fourteen, or thirty-three, I would have said #71, if you asked me in my forties, I would have said #70, but for the last two or three decades, I have spent the most time with #5 and #6. #5 is fierce and #6 is gentle. They illuminate each other. They underscore each other. They occupy the same space. One cannot realize the truth of one without the truth of the other.</div></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZH0rAvvTRSE/X2PLI0hyWmI/AAAAAAAAFaQ/rTxh1lUYS6w32VoaGiW0UACEKBjgUowXwCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/Straw%2BDogs%2BIII.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZH0rAvvTRSE/X2PLI0hyWmI/AAAAAAAAFaQ/rTxh1lUYS6w32VoaGiW0UACEKBjgUowXwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/Straw%2BDogs%2BIII.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: arial; text-align: center;"><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: arial; text-align: center;">Chapter 5: Straw Dogs </b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">“Heaven and Earth are not kindly;<br />They equate the ten thousand things with straw dogs.<br />The Sage is not kindly;<br />He equates the people with straw dogs.<br />The space between Heaven and Earth,<br />It is hollow, yet it never fails to supply.<br />The more it is worked, the more it gives forth ..."<br /> - <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Guiding-Light-Lao-Henry-1982-01-25/dp/B01FJ1FL8A">Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching,” (Dr. Henry Wei)</a></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“Heaven and earth aren’t humane. To them the ten thousand things are straw dogs. Wise souls aren’t humane. To them the hundred families are straw dogs. Heaven and earth act as a bellows: Empty yet structured, it moves, inexhaustibly giving.” </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">– <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lao-Tzu-Ching-about-Power/dp/1611807247/">Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching,” (Ursula Le Guin)</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pgOCL5AnsYU/X2OlAQS8w7I/AAAAAAAAFYs/2SI5Rpj1ajMcGHQF93QJCrgD5_1w8wMCACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/Slide04.jpeg" width="400" /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Mysterious Valley</b> <br /><br />"The valley spirit never dies. <br />Call it the mystery, the woman. <br />The mystery, the Door of the Woman, is the root of earth and heaven. <br />Forever this endures, forever. <br />And all its uses are easy." <br />–<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lao-Tzu-Ching-about-Power/dp/1611807247/"> Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching,” (Ursula LeGuin)</a><br /><br />“The Spirit of the Valley never dies.<br />Hence comes the name Mysterious Female.<br />The gateway of the Mysterious Female<br />Is the root of Heaven and Earth.<br />Continuous like a thread it seems to exist;<br />Its utility is inexhaustible.” - <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Guiding-Light-Lao-Henry-1982-01-25/dp/B01FJ1FL8A">Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching,” (Dr. Henry Wei)</a></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ETTqzhS5tqk/X2U3lib8NFI/AAAAAAAAFak/IEvwfWAMM6cJH_1OCdnOZsQYCogL_zAAQCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/Straw%2BDogs%2BIII%2BMirror.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ETTqzhS5tqk/X2U3lib8NFI/AAAAAAAAFak/IEvwfWAMM6cJH_1OCdnOZsQYCogL_zAAQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/Straw%2BDogs%2BIII%2BMirror.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br /></p><div dir="auto">This is a time of trial and tribulation.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">I don’t want us to analyze the nuances of meaning in these texts, I don’t want to study the subtle differences in the translations, I don’t want to tell you “what it means.” I just want to somehow impart to you something of an experiential nature. </div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">The valley, the verdant valley, the valley of richness, fecundity, interdependence, complexity, the green and the brown valley of mystery, empathy, ecstasy, all of it ... anyone who has ever walked or slept or lived in one of the true Lothloriens of our world knows this valley. It's green and brown power is resilient. Each of its womanifestations is utterly unique, exquisite, irreplaceable, utterly, utterly, when it is lost, it is lost, but the green power is indomitable, indestructible in its essential nature, it is irresistable, it is life itself, it cannot be voided by anything dependent upon that green power itself, for life, and everything is dependent upon that green power for life, nothing existing within the membrane of its love can escape it, or live without it, nothing, it always arrives anew.</div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto"><div dir="auto">The straw dogs were used in religious ceremonies, they were imbued with meaning and great significance, but once the ceremonies were finished, they were discarded, tossed aside, lost. This truth is inescapable. The Straw Dogs teaching simply says all things must pass away. all things must pass away. and we know not the hour, and we are the space in which it all rises and falls away. I don't just mean life turning to death, I mean EVERYTHING, all of it. The Straw Dogs teaching is the Four Noble Truths in a tincture. This is the way the sage sees the 10,000 things (everything) and the 100 families (everyone). This isn’t detachment or indifference, it’s Vairagya. I almost don’t want to translate Vairagya, it’s been so misinterpreted. For me, it's a word like Bodhicitta, it can't really be explained. I say the best way for me to define Bodhicitta is to give you a long list I made. It consists of various combination of two words that when coupled together might best define Bodhicitta on English; I say that taken as a sum total, the various combinations on this list might actually convey to you some sense of what Bodhicitta truly means. But with the term Vairagya, I wouldn't offer you a list, I would use the opposite approach, I don’t really want to use any words, but I guess it’s best for me to say it is something like presence and clarity. Vairagya doesn’t mean you don’t feel the empathy or the ecstasy or the agony, oh no, you feel all of it, and it’s not that they don’t break you, oh no, it breaks you, but you are also the space that holds the you that breaks. A great loss befalls us suddenly, an irretrievable utterly shattering loss, unbearable. unspeakable, unconsolable, utterly, but this presence and clarity abide even as all is lost ... </div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div dir="auto">Now you want to feel the Mysterious Valley’s richness, interdependence and fecundity and concurrently you want to feel the Straw Dogs' utter clarity and unwavering presence, yes, fullness and emptiness, at once, occupying the same space. This is how we lean forward. Moving ever deeper. Feeling our way. To the other mouth of the Wormhole. </div><div dir="auto"><br /></div><div>Don't make the mistake of turning these two teachings into polar opposites, there is no polar opposite of the Deep Feminine, this is upstream from all of that, upstream from gender, upstream of any binary or post binary formulations, this is source, there is no other, this is the circumference circle sea of Chi, within which waves of Yin and Yang distinguish themselves while interpenetrating. The Mysterious Valley IS the Deep Feminine within all of us and everything. Straw Dogs is a way we hold space for the turning of the Great Wheel, it is an attitude, a Maha Attitude, a Great Attitude, a Mahamudra, a Great Gesture.</div><div><br /></div></div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hoTXyR33u3M/X2U41_JFApI/AAAAAAAAFaw/w1i7SKob7-cmFsjW1CxgAF9K6P7qsdhcQCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/Slide06.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hoTXyR33u3M/X2U41_JFApI/AAAAAAAAFaw/w1i7SKob7-cmFsjW1CxgAF9K6P7qsdhcQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/Slide06.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br /><b>The Power of Nothing </b><br /><br />No one really knows what's going to happen. No one really knows how this will all turn on. But despite all of the suffering inflicted by these three great scourges, despite the human race falling into a star-crushing Black Hole, I am wildly optimistic about our future. <br /><br />To explain, I will reference two perspectives that my Yoda, the legendary American sage, Joe Miller, shared with some of us in the 1980s. I have spoken about these two perspectives before, both in public talks and private conversations, and I have written about them in both Wyrds, but at this remarkable inflection point on our collective journey, here and now, as history shifts into herstory (something else Joe foresaw), I feel that these two perspectives have more meaning and more relevancy, than ever before. And I am confident in the coming weeks, months and years, they will become ever more relevant and ever more meaningful.<br /><br />In this very Lodge, thirty-three years ago, in 1987, Joe gave a talk just after the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge. The event had moved him deeply. Planners had expected maybe 150,000 to 200,000 people to show up for the celebration. But it turned out to be 800,000. No one was hurt. There wasn't any trouble. "Nobody jumped off," Joe said, "There were even little kids walking on the catwalks outside the railing and nothing happened to any of them." It was just a joyous, beautiful few hours. Throngs of people strolling across the span. So many that they flattened out the bridge. Joe said it was "the Power of Nothing that called forth all of those people that day.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"... remember that's a bridge, a bridge on the Golden Gate. Something inside them told them something, and maybe that something that hasn't come clear to them goes something like this:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">'Only through the orchid door of the heart</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">And the violet flame therein,</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Can you place your feet on the rainbow bridge</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">That leads to the city of the Golden Gate</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">And the shrine of Clear Light therein.'</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Stop and think about that for a minute. Nobody said anything to them about anything like that but they felt the pull ...</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">So from now on never tell me that NOTHING can't move things. That NOTHING was something in their hearts, something they realized as part of their nature, an ideal. They thought, 'This is the Golden Gate Bridge, it's the most wonderful thing of its kind in the world,' and they went there. But it was their hearts speaking to them, and they probably didn't know why.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">There is more in NOTHING than you think. Well, everything in life that we can think of is divided up into dualities anyhow. There is always a dual side to everything. There is a right-hand side of the brain and a left-hand side of the brain. The left-hand side is strictly intellectual. These people were moved from the other side, the right-hand side. They weren't moved by anything outside themselves either, they moved themselves from INSIDE. They knew that the Golden Gate Bridge took them to the City of the Golden Gate. They knew that reality. It hit 'em and it hit 'em from NOTHING. Explain it? You can't. – <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Great-Song-Life-Teachings-Miller/dp/0961891688/">Great Song: Life and Teachings of Joe Miller</a>, pp. 93-95</span></div></blockquote><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />We have seen the Power of Nothing move at some milestone moments over the last 50 years. <br /><br />Consider these examples from that same 1980-1990 time frame in which Joe shared the insights I'm referencing here: <br /><ul><li><span style="font-family: arial;">The rise of Solidarity movement in Poland in the 1980s</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">The massive non-violent Goddess of Liberty protest in Tiananmen Square in 1989</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Nelson Mandela emerging from prison in 1990, AFTER TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS incarceration, to negotiate the end of Apartheid and get elected the first President of a new South Africa</span></li></ul>Of course, it doesn't always turn out well. Bad can come from Good and Evil in turn can come from Bad. Nevertheless, when the Power of Nothing moves, it opens a portal, it opens up an opportunity, a quantum moment, and if we lean forward in those moments, then even when setbacks occur, we have still progressed, and more hope is inscribed in the hearts of those who listen to Gaia, in the hearts of those who follow the Way of the Tao, in the hearts of those who follow the Way of the Dew-Sweet Law …<br /><br />Now the last bit of all this that I want to touch on with you in this talk is, as I mentioned, a second perspective offered by the legendary American sage Joe Miller, this one is really more of a prophecy than a perspective. Like the story of the GG Bridge and the Power of Nothing, this story too takes us back to the 1980s. It was a weekday. It was winter. It was dark. I had fought my way through heavy traffic up from Silicon Valley. It was the Muggle High Holidays, that time of year. It was after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. The energy was intense. Lots of shoppers, lots of party-goers. I parked my car and staggered up Joe and Guin Miller's stairs and sat down on the couch with Joe. Guin was in the back of the flat, playing solitaire and listening to a S.F. Giants baseball game on the radio. Joe and I were drinking coffee and eating what he called "rat cheese" (slices of Kraft's cheddar cheese and Ritz crackers). <br /><br />Something terrible was going on in the world at that time, I can't remember which terrible thing, it was before the Tiananmen Square Massacre, it was before the Rwandan Genocide, I can't remember what it was, but it was something terrible, maybe it was a couple of horrific story lines developing simultaneously, anyway, I had been brooding over it all the way up from work. "Joe, evolution? Really, human evolution? There's no evolution going on. What the fuck? How can this be? Nothing is happening here."<br /><br />Joe didn't miss a beat. He just took a took a breath, and from a great depth, but very matter-of-factly he said, "We just have to make it through the next 100 years."<br /><br />Now, remember, this was in the 1980s. "We just have to make it through the next 100 years."<br /><br />I said "What do you mean?"<br /><br />He said, "A hundred years from now, more and more children are going to be coming into incarnation, and they're just gonna know, they're just gonna know." They're gonna know and feel. The kind of knowledge that is feeling. They're just gonna know and feel what is. "And you're going to be able to sit down and describe the practice of [Sri Ramana Maharshi to them and tell them to ask themselves who they are and they're just going to know ..." Really know. Not intellectually. Not psychologically. Not emotionally. Deeper. "They're just gonna know." <br /><br />The answer to "Who am I?" is not an intellectual answer, it is a mystical answer that cannot be put into words. There is no answer. <br /><br />Now that was 40 years or so ago, so we are well into that 100 years, we're almost to the halfway point, we have maybe 60 more to go. But it's all incremental. It is not going to happen all at once, it is already underway. You can already see it happening. In the children. You can already see it happening. In the youth. A kind of knowing. A knowing that is feeling. But not emotion. Deeper. Deeper. Knowingness. Emotional intelligence yes, but even beyond, into the Intuitive Knowing of What Is ... This is incremental. We are holding space. Our job is to survive and hold space. For the great transformation. For the arc of evolution. The arc of herstory. We are holding space. For something that is going on in human evolution. And it is already quickening. <br /><br />The final feeling and conviction I want to share with you in this talk is this - <br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">When I had that conversation with Joe in the 1980s, I had no hope for humanity, I was hopeless. Here and now, in 2020, I am wildly optimistic about the future of our world and of our nation, IF the Power of Nothing moves, and IF we make it through the rest of this 100 year gauntlet, IF we make to the other end of this Wormhole. AND it is much worse now than it was in the 1980s, I was hopeless in the 1980s, I am wildly optimistic now, and our circumstances much much much worse, DIRE ... But I have seen, I have felt, I have heard, I have witnessed the beginning of this 100 years in the arc of human evolution ... Remember the 100th Monkey? There was a species of monkey on a group of islands all cut off from each other. But a monkey on one of the islands learned how to do something on its own, a way to wash sweet potatoes. And a few monkey close by picked up the skill, and soon other monkeys on that island knew, BUT THEN when the hundredth monkey knew, BAM, all the monkeys on all of the islands KNEW, they just knew ... Now I don't know what our number is, maybe it's the 500 millionth, maybe it's a billionth monkey, or well, in our case, the billionth ape ... We are going to move through what we are moving through ... and IF, IF, IF ... we don't know what's going to happen, but IF the Power of Nothing can flow, and we can hold this space, we will come out the other side of the wormhole ...<br /><br />-- Richard Power, Writer, Speaker, Yoga and Meditation Teacher, Author of "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wyrds-Power-New-Language-Reality/dp/1533410690/">Wyrds of Power: New Language for A New Reality</a>" and "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Chronicles-Epic-Among-Humans/dp/1546377395/">I, the Dragon: Chronicles of An Epic Life Among the Humans</a>."</span></div><div><br /></div><div>YOU TUBE VIDEO: <a href="https://youtu.be/jIaWHkaefFA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">Straw Dogs, A Mysterious Valley & the Power of Nothing: Deep Magic for A Perilous Time </a><a href="https://youtu.be/jIaWHkaefFA" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">(9/20/20)</a></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jIaWHkaefFA" width="560"></iframe></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xZ5bLzNYJb0/X2OlLptp94I/AAAAAAAAFY4/l9wN7IGMTO45qFvSgP6L_0Zs-1W8cVdmACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/Slide10.jpeg" width="400" /></span></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-41882121432903494642020-07-20T05:47:00.009-07:002020-07-22T20:02:21.297-07:00That Infinite Cascade of Ripples Flowing Out from This Rare Gem Stone Soul Dropped into the Great Salt Sea of Our National Psyche (For John Lewis)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8nNgWgEiJC8/XxWP-uixMgI/AAAAAAAAFUs/uvvFNDO9vdQ4J-DC4KslGFs8fJ50DQaQACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/ESEd181U8AAUth5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="954" data-original-width="1345" height="451" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8nNgWgEiJC8/XxWP-uixMgI/AAAAAAAAFUs/uvvFNDO9vdQ4J-DC4KslGFs8fJ50DQaQACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/ESEd181U8AAUth5.jpg" width="540" /></a></div>
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"You are the light. Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim or diminish your light. Study the path of others to make your way easier and more abundant. Lean toward the whispers of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates. […] Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won. Choose confrontation wisely, but when it is your time don't be afraid to stand up, speak up, and speak out against injustice. And if you follow your truth down the road to peace and the affirmation of love, if you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry of all the great dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a world community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself.” - <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Across-That-Bridge-Vision-America/dp/0316510939">John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America (2012)</a><br />
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John Lewis in Newly Unearthed Mugshots in the 1960s,</div>
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<span class="credits" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> (Nashville Police Department), <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/john-lewis-arrest-records-are-finally-uncovered-180961255/">Smithsonian Magazine, 12/1/16</a></span></div>
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I am not a sentimentalist. At least not about death. I have been around too much of it. I know what it is, I know what it isn't. I don't do obituaries. I don't write them, read them or post them. I get it, I understand the need. I understand the function, I just don't do obituaries. I am not a "rest in peace" person, I am not a "sorry for your loss" person. My relationship with death is seemingly paradoxical: On the terrestrial plane, I am an existentialist -- when someone falls, they fall, they're gone. I live with the living. I don't look back, I lean forward. But on the occult plane, I know with utter certainty that what the humans call "death" is not what they imagine it to be. The terrestrial life and work of a great being, whether in the arts, the sciences or in politics (yes, I said politics), it just the beginning in one sense, or the continuation in another sense, resulting in an infinite cascade of ripples through all time and space, i.e., all being. Death is death. Period. Full stop. Death is not death. Period. Full stop.<br />
Can you embrace this divine paradox? Sooner or later, you will have to.<br />
So this is is not an obituary for Rep. John Lewis, D-GA. This is a dispatch from the barricades where John Lewis stood, leaning forward on the terrestrial plane, advancing the front line with each forward step. He has fallen. We must hold the line, and advance the line. Step by step. But meanwhile, on the occult plane, that infinite cascade of ripples that flow out from this rare gem stone soul dropped into the great salt sea of the human psyche, that infinite cascade has only just begun ...<br />
Any truthful dispatch from the front line of this forward movement cannot help but also be a call to non-violent action, the facts compel it, reality itself compels it, the narrative demands it, mass action on the streets, yes, but also court action, legislative action, social and cultural action within our own interpenetrating circles and holiest of all, electoral action (yes, the vote, your vote).<br />
The terrestrial life of John Lewis embodied all of these actions, and the occult life of John Lewis, that infinite cascade of rippling Love Supreme (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll3CMgiUPuU">yes, I bow to the great Coltrane</a>), the occult life of John Lewis' "good trouble" moves forward world without end ...<br />
As a citizen, as a human being, I have spent almost all of my life on these barricades, one way or another, many of us have, whether for you that means a decade or two, or as for me too many decades ... But for as long as I have stood on this barricade and leaned forward, I could hear the voice of John Lewis somewhere along the line ...<br />
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<li>"Mr. Lewis was arrested 40 times from 1960 to 1966. He was repeatedly beaten senseless by Southern policemen and freelance hoodlums. During the Freedom Rides in 1961, he was left unconscious in a pool of his own blood outside the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Montgomery, Alabama." <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/us/john-lewis-dead.html">- John Lewis, Towering Figure of Civil Rights Era, Dies at 80, New York Times, 7/17/20</a></li>
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A brave voice, a true voice, a voice that did not falter, a voice that always spoke from a place of adamantine love and determination ...<br />
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<li>Civil rights icon and US Democratic <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/02/22/us/john-lewis-fast-facts/index.html">Rep. John Lewis</a> of Georgia made a surprise appearance at this year's <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/15/us/1965-selma-to-montgomery-march-fast-facts/index.html">"Bloody Sunday" </a>commemorative march in Selma, Alabama, where he delivered an impassioned plea to voters to use the ballot box as "a nonviolent instrument or tool to redeem the soul of America." Lewis, who had his skull broken by white police officers during the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/29/politics/john-lewis-pancreatic-cancer/index.html">diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer</a> in December ... "We were beaten, we were tear-gassed. I thought I was going to die on this bridge. But somehow and some way, God almighty helped me here," Lewis said in an emotional speech on Sunday at the apex of the bridge. "We must go out and vote like we never, ever voted before." "I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to give in. We're going to continue to fight. We need your prayers now more than ever before," he said. "We must use the vote as a nonviolent instrument or tool to redeem the soul of America." <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/01/politics/john-lewis-bloody-sunday-march-selma/index.html">- John Lewis urges attendees of Selma's 'Bloody Sunday' commemorative march to 'redeem the soul of America' by voting, CNN, 3/1/20</a></li>
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I remember it all ... </div>
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In 2000, the shell of a man formerly known as Ralph Nader declared that there was no difference between Bush and Gore, and there he was in the final days before the election, campaigning in Florida. Gore won, but Bush was sworn in. Not all of Al Gore's votes got counted, but <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/05/31/nader_elected_bush_why_we_shouldnt_forget_130715.html">enough of Nader's votes got counted to turn the electoral college, and the country, over</a> to Cheney and Rove. Al Gore wouldn't have invaded Iraq or pulled out of the Kyoto Climate Accords or ... </div>
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So, in 2016, tell me, <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/flynn-putin-dinner-payment-security-clearance-photo/">in Moscow in December 2015</a>, was Mike Flynn Dr. Stein's dinner date, or was she Vladimir Putin's dinner date? Or was it a dirty tricks menage a trois? Like the shell of a man formerly known as Ralph Nader before her, Jill Stein told you that there was not enough of a difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Clinton won, but Stein's votes (and her "recount efforts" in key battleground states turned the electoral college, and the country, over to Putin and put his weaponized clown in the White House. "I'm the last thing standing between you and the Apocalypse," Clinton warned, and she was right. </div>
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In between, of course, Barack Obama held the high ground, setting the U.S. on an incremental but inexorable path to universal healthcare, signing the U.S. on to the Paris Climate Agreement, and not only avoiding war with Iran, but working successfully with the other world powers to arrive at a peace agreement. But throughout it all, even as <a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/on-sixth-anniversary-of-citizens-united-decision-senator-warren-lays-out-steps-to-tackle-the-influence-of-money-in-politics">Citizens United</a> hollowed out our democratic institutions, some among us, those who had become toxic, those who had lost touch with reality, chose to spend the eight years carping at Obama and the "Democratic Establishment." They had learned nothing from 2000.</div>
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And, in 2000, in 2012, in 2020, do you know what I told those I knew who argued that there was no difference (or not enough) between the two major parties and who argued for a third party or just don't even bother to vote? I said, "I will leave the Democratic Party when John Lewis leaves it." If he felt it was worth fighting for, then so did I. None of them had any real response to that. It was inevitably the end of the argument. Oh, some of them went ahead and threw away their votes, but they had no answer to my reason for not throwing away mine. Because, well, John Lewis ...</div>
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Yes, for as long as I have stood on this barricade and leaned forward, I could hear the voice of John Lewis somewhere along the line ...<br />
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Throughout his life, John Lewis not only put his shoulder to bending the arc of the moral universe toward justice, he also stood at the fulcrum of history.<br />
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Consider John Lewis in January 2009 and in January 2017 --</div>
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<li>As Obama left his swearing in, Lewis approached him with a sheet of paper and asked the new President, the first black President, to sign it. And he did. He wrote, “Because of you, John. Barack Obama.” - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-ongoing-struggle-of-john-lewis">David Remnick, The Ongoing Struggle of John Lewis, New Yorker, 12/30/19</a></li>
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<li>In an exclusive interview with NBC News' "Meet the Press," Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., said he does not believe Donald Trump is a "legitimate president," citing Russian interference in last year’s election ... When pressed to explain why, he cited <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sen-mccain-russia-s-election-meddling-unprecedented-attack-n700981">allegations of Russian hacks during the campaign</a> that led to the release of internal documents from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign co-chairman, John Podesta. “I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton,” Lewis told NBC News. - <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/meet-the-press-70-years/john-lewis-trump-won-t-be-legitimate-president-n706676">Rep. John Lewis: 'I Don't See Trump as a Legitimate President', NBC News, 1/13/17</a></li>
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As a young man, John Lewis was arrested and beaten over and over again, in non-violent resistance, and as an elder statesman <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CCyllE6AyVx/">he often broke into dances of jubilation </a>after speaking on the campaign trail. Whether surrounded by hate or love, John Lewis led. But now he has fallen.<br />
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And you and I are still here at this barricade, leaning forward, advancing the front line step by step. </div>
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On the terrestrial plane, his dances of jubilation have ceased, but on the occult plane, that infinite cascade of ripples still flows out from this rare gem stone soul dropped into the great salt sea of our national psyche ...</div>
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<li>Lewis was sitting in the Supreme Court chamber when it heard a challenge to the Voting Rights Act and told me he almost cried when Justice Antonin Scalia compared the VRA to a “racial entitlement.” He called the decision <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/us/supreme-court-ruling.html">gutting the law</a> “a dagger into the very heart of the Voting Rights Act.” (I tell this story in my 2015 book Give Us the Ballot, which extensively details Lewis’s long fight for voting rights and which he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/john-lewis-how-we-won-and-are-losing-the-right-to-vote/2015/09/10/5f77e644-50bc-11e5-933e-7d06c647a395_story.html">reviewed for the Washington Post</a>.) ... In December 2019, Lewis presided over the House as it passed legislation to <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/12/house-votes-to-restore-the-voting-rights-act/">restore and modernize the Voting Rights Act</a>, requiring states with a long history of voting discrimination to once again get federal approval for any changes to voting procedures. In a primary season marred by <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/06/thought-covid-wreaked-havoc-on-the-primaries-just-wait-until-november/">voting problems</a>, like six-hour lines in Lewis’ home state of Georgia, it’s been sitting on <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/06/kentucky-votes-today-here-are-all-the-ways-mitch-mcconnell-has-made-that-harder/">Mitch McConnell’s desk</a> for 225 days. - <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/07/john-lewis-legacy-is-the-right-to-vote-and-its-under-attack/">Ari Berman, John Lewis’ Legacy Is the Right to Vote. And It’s Under Attack, Mother Jones, 7/18/20</a></li>
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This is the great battle of our time. This is it. All of the praying, the marching, the voting, the decades, it all comes down to this November, and to the dangerous time between this November and next January. The demographics are with us, the arc of the moral universe is accelerating, evolution has been grinding on relentlessly. The Death-Eater Overlords' stranglehold on the electoral college is going to be broken. A second consecutive tsunami is building. A 2020 #BlackLivesMatter tsunami to follow on the 2018 #MeToo tsunami. A united front for sanity and decency is coalescing, Right, Left and Center. We must survive the pandemic and save the republic.<br />
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The forces of evil (yes, evil, it's a diagnosis not a moral judgment) have a ruthless grip on the levers of power, but if we take the Senate and topple #MoscowMitch, it's all over for them. In spite of the dirty tricks, the information warfare, the vote suppression, the dark money, the gerrymandering, the electoral college, in spite of all of it ... a new world is coming, the great shift is already underway ... we must not fail to show up for this moment ...</div>
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John Lewis died a few days ago at the age of 80. I found myself pondering the length of his life, how deep into it he had gone, and how the sands in the hourglass finally ran out. 80 years. And then it occurred to me, he was only fourteen years older than me. Fourteen years ...<br />
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Pull yourselves together. Make #GoodTrouble. Lean forward. Make #GoodTrouble. Vote. </div>
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-- Richard Power is the Author of "I, the Dragon: Chronicles of An Epic Life Among the Humans" and "Wyrds of Power: New Language for A New Reality." Both are available from Amazon.com.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kTbwYMVMuLA/XxWNNqjJ-rI/AAAAAAAAFUU/zjfZltb-DBwa7vBKjAxRb21qm8X9FCufACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/ESEI0BFXUAIXI8n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kTbwYMVMuLA/XxWNNqjJ-rI/AAAAAAAAFUU/zjfZltb-DBwa7vBKjAxRb21qm8X9FCufACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/ESEI0BFXUAIXI8n.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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55th Anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," Selma, Alabama 3/1/20</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: small;">President Barack Obama awards the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Congressman John Lewis in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House February 15, 2011</span></span></td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-21698166204963143562020-06-21T03:37:00.001-07:002020-06-26T12:25:23.690-07:00For Those of Us Massing Here on the Other Side of the Event Horizon: 7 Verities for Aligning with Reality from Inside the Vortex, Including "Black Lives Matter"<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ow0lmqcSCKc/Xu6O1kXF9dI/AAAAAAAAFR8/mcxca5V8Y1EWuulRDl2Mw2Wd5XjktstSwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/s-l640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="469" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ow0lmqcSCKc/Xu6O1kXF9dI/AAAAAAAAFR8/mcxca5V8Y1EWuulRDl2Mw2Wd5XjktstSwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/s-l640.jpg" width="289" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/cover-story-2020-06-22">Kadir Nelson, "Say Their Names," New Yorker Cover, 6/22/20</a></td></tr>
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<i>The ugliest claim made by John Bolton in the former national security adviser’s new “tell-all” book is that President Donald Trump encouraged Chinese leader Xi Jinping to continue rounding up Uighur Muslims into the concentration camps where they are tortured, separated from their families, and “reeducated" ... Throughout his presidency, nine current and former senior administration officials say, Trump has exhibited a callous indifference to what has been described as crimes against humanity and cultural genocide taking place in China’s western Xinjiang province.</i> <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-couldnt-give-a-shit-about-china-rounding-up-millions-of-uighur-muslims">-- </a><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-couldnt-give-a-shit-about-china-rounding-up-millions-of-uighur-muslims">Asawin Suebsaeng, Erin Banco, Spencer Ackerman, Sam Brodey, Daily Beast, 6/18/20</a><br />
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<i>American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it. </i><a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2994/the-art-of-fiction-no-78-james-baldwin">-- James Baldwin</a><br />
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<i>Our analysis shows that with the same actions actually taken by other nations large and small, from East and West, the U.S. could have prevented 70% to 99% of its Covid-19 deaths. This has been a needless tragedy.</i> <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/19/faster-response-prevented-most-us-covid-19-deaths/">-- Stat News, 6/19/20</a><br />
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<i>I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.</i><br />
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/04/your-silence-will-not-protect-you-by-audre-lorder-review">-- Audre Lorde</a><br />
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Yesterday. 6/19/20. A profound celebration of Juneteenth.<br />
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<li>In a city that has become known as a landmark to black pain, Friday was a day for black joy ... In any year, Juneteenth in Tulsa means something different than it does in other cities, according to black residents. The exuberance more palpable, the music more soulful, against the backdrop of the 1921 white riot that killed an estimated 300 black Tulsans and destroyed the area once known as “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/20/us/tulsa-greenwood-massacre.html">Black Wall Street</a>.” “We’re celebrating the emancipation of slaves, but we’re really celebrating the idea of being black,” said Jacquelyn Simmons, who has lived in Tulsa for 45 years." <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/us/politics/juneteenth-tulsa-trump-rally.html">-- Astead W. Herndon, New York Times, 6/19/20</a></li>
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Tonight, 6/20/20. The great wheel turns, turns with it.<br />
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Solstice. Feel the planetary polarity. Summer in the global North, Winter in the global South. And a New Moon, with her shadow sister Solar Eclipse. Immerse yourselves in the radiant darkness.<br />
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As this vast multitude of wounded healers and peaceful warriors prepares to exercise the sacred power of the vote, I present seven verities for aligning with reality from the inside the vortex.<br />
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1. A Prescient Vision At 14th and L</div>
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During the Civil War, Walt Whitman moved from Brooklyn to Washington, D.C. to work as a nurse tending to injured Union army soldiers. He would stand at the corner of 14th and L, and wait for President Lincoln to pass by on his way between the White House and his summer cottage. Their eyes would meet, and Lincoln would give a slight bow to the stranger who would come to write <i>Leaves of Grass</i>. In his journal of those years, Whitman wrote of "the deep latent sadness" in Lincoln's countenance. Recently, I have been pondering the impersonally personal encounters of those two legendary beings, and I am certain that they shared a prescient vision of our time and saw much for which there were simply no words. And now it has fallen on us to finish this great battle.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
The Confederacy was defeated in the year 1865; the Neo-Confederacy, ascendant since Nixon's "Southern Strategy," will be defeated in the year 2020.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uKg10Odva5w/Xu6P7uVuFiI/AAAAAAAAFSE/c_VQStFnpegWyik13rUnfoD4YNkS0UCawCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/EZPDi2bXYAY7Ou-.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1048" data-original-width="1600" height="256" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uKg10Odva5w/Xu6P7uVuFiI/AAAAAAAAFSE/c_VQStFnpegWyik13rUnfoD4YNkS0UCawCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/EZPDi2bXYAY7Ou-.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><a href="https://twitter.com/DBCarper">Dalton Carper</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/DBCarper">@DBCarper</a>): Another photo from tonight <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloydprotest?src=hashtag_click">#GeorgeFloydprotest</a><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlackLivesMatters?src=hashtag_click">#BlackLivesMatters</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/72ndAndDodge?src=hashtag_click">#72ndAndDodge</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Omaha?src=hashtag_click">#Omaha</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/icantbreathe?src=hashtag_click">#icantbreathe</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
2. Black Lives Matter<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This time frame, from the murder of George Floyd to Election Day, this is our Berlin Wall moment. Well, it's either that or our Tiananmen Square moment. We all must choose sides. Yes, choose sides.<br />
<ul>
<li>Mary Elizabeth Taylor, one of the highest-ranking African American officials in the Trump administration, resigned on Thursday over President Donald Trump’s response to racial tensions across the nation, The Washington Post reported. Taylor, 30, was the youngest person and first Black woman to serve as assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs in the State Department. In her resignation letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, obtained by the Post, Taylor said the president’s “comments and actions surrounding racial injustice and Black Americans” had “cut sharply against my core values and convictions.” “Moments of upheaval can change you, shift the trajectory of your life, and mold your character,” wrote Taylor, who has served with the Trump administration since its first day in January 2017. “I must follow the dictates of my conscience and resign as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs.” <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mary-elizabeth-taylor-state-department-resigns-trump_n_5eebf7b1c5b66437e72f320b">-- Huffington Post, 6/18/20</a></li>
</ul>
Appearing on MSNBC, the great Susan Rice shared some perspective on Taylor's resignation.<br />
<ul>
<li>Former national security adviser Susan Rice slammed the Trump administration as “racist to its core” and said that supportive senators belong in the “trash heap of history.” “I'd say better late than never. You know, to serve an administration which has been racist to its core for the last three and a half years, from comparing the peaceful protesters at Charlottesville to white supremacists, calling white supremacists very fine people, all the way through to the recent weeks where the administration has disparaged the Black Lives Matter movement, disparaged the peaceful protesters, and basically made plain that they prefer to stand by a Confederate legacy than a modern America, it's been an administration whose record on race is just disgraceful ...” <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1274318356263436289">-- The Hill, 6/20/20</a></li>
</ul>
3. The Second Blue Tsunami</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Earthquakes cause Tsunamis. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/metoo?__eep__=6&source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG">#MeToo</a> led to the 2018 Blue Tsunami. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/blacklivesmatter?__eep__=6&source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG">#BlackLivesMatter</a> will lead to the 2020 Blue Tsunami.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Women, African Americans, and in particular, African American Women will be the vanguard.<br />
<ul><a href="https://people.com/tag/amy-klobuchar/"></a>
<li><a href="https://people.com/tag/amy-klobuchar/"></a><a href="https://people.com/tag/amy-klobuchar/">Amy Klobuchar</a> is removing her name from the pool of potential Democratic vice presidential candidates — instead calling on <a href="https://people.com/tag/joe-biden/">Joe Biden</a> to pick a woman of color as a running mate. On Thursday, the U.S. Senator from Minnesota, 60, revealed to <a href="https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1273803046687047681">MSNBC</a> that she officially withdrew her name from the shortlist of possible VPs. During the news appearance, Klobuchar said she thinks it's time for diversity on the ballot, given the current "historic moment" of pushing for racial justice. "America must seize on the moment, and I truly believe — as I actually told the VP last night when I called him — that I think this is a moment to put a woman of color on that ticket," she said. "And there are so many incredibly qualified women. ... If you want to heal this nation right now, my party yes, but our nation, this is a hell of a way to do it." -<a href="https://people.com/politics/amy-klobuchar-removes-herself-from-vice-president-nominee-consideration/">- People Magazine, 6/19/20</a></li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S7LYO1myEGE/Xu6Sp5S9ObI/AAAAAAAAFSY/vQRIhJeirTk6hMd51B-izHcno-m2l5GRgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Key-Photo_Patrisse-1024x576.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S7LYO1myEGE/Xu6Sp5S9ObI/AAAAAAAAFSY/vQRIhJeirTk6hMd51B-izHcno-m2l5GRgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Key-Photo_Patrisse-1024x576.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/patrisse-cullors-performance-ahmaud-arbery-1887902">Patrisse Cullors, the performance artist and activist best known for co-founding Black Lives Matter in 2013, unveiled a new work on Saturday in collaboration with UCLA’s Fowler Museum. The performance piece, A Prayer for the Runner, honors the life of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old who was murdered in Georgia this year for the crime of jogging while black</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
4. Surviving the Pandemic<br />
<br />
To save the Republic we must first survive the Pandemic.<br />
<br />
Wear a mask. Practice social distancing. Wash your hands often. Shelter in place as much as possible. This is not nearly over. Many people are in deep denial. And the Bully Pulpit is being used to mislead many more. Plan for this to grind on through the rest of 2020 and on into 2021. Don't fear the Bat's Kiss, but make certain you R-E-S-P-E-C-T it. We are on our own.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/heres-the-msnbc-interview-with-michigan-gov-gretchen-whitmer-that-drove-trump-up-the-wall/">May the Goddess bless the Blue State governors</a>.<br />
<br />
It didn't have to be this way, but it is ... </div>
<ul>
<li>To compare each country’s responses to the pandemic on a consistent basis, we turned to the work of an Oxford University team that has constructed a <a href="https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/research/research-projects/coronavirus-government-response-tracker">stringency index</a> based on 13 policy responses (lockdowns, border closings, tests, etc.) to measure how strongly each country responded over time. The Oxford index shows that 14 days from the date of the 15th confirmed case in each country — a vital early window for action — the U.S. response to the outbreak lagged behind the others by miles. The U.S. stringency score of 5.7 at that point was 25% of Australia’s (23), 23% of Germany’s (25), 18% of Singapore’s (32), and only 15% of South Korea’s (38). Due to exponential viral spread, our delay in action was devastating. In the wake of the U.S. response, <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/">117,858 Americans</a> died in the four months following the first 15 confirmed cases. After an equivalent period, Germany suffered only <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/germany/">8,863</a> casualties. Scaling up the German population of 83.7 million to America’s 331 million, a U.S.-sized Germany would have suffered 35,049 Covid-19 deaths. So if the U.S. had acted as effectively as Germany, 70% of U.S. coronavirus deaths might have been prevented ... Our conclusions are strengthened by their consistency with the results from different methodologies. Two notable epidemiological projections, based on theoretical models of transmission and “<a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.15.20103655v2.full.pdf">idealized hypothetical assumptions,</a>” have estimated that between <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/us/coronavirus-distancing-deaths.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage">80%</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/opinion/covid-social-distancing.html">90%</a> of American deaths could have been averted had lockdowns and social distancing begun two weeks earlier. <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/19/faster-response-prevented-most-us-covid-19-deaths/">-- Stat News, 6/19/20</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Chauncey DeVega: For several years you have been one of the most prominent public voices warning the American people and the world about the dangers represented by Donald Trump. Now, facing the coronavirus pandemic, where are we as a country and people, relative to the events you predicted would result from Trump's presidency?<br />Dr. Bandy Lee: This a real crisis, both in terms of Trump's presidency and in terms of his psyche. At first Trump tried to manage the coronavirus in his mind by pretending that it was nothing. It was something that would go away in no time; the virus would somehow magically disappear. That is Trump's fantasy world. When that wasn't happening, and the stock market was in crisis and tumult, Trump then tried to look like he was in charge by giving a speech to the whole country. Trump continues to have these televised speeches and press conferences to make it look like he is control of the coronavirus crisis, all while he has Mike Pence and other government officials praise him on TV. Trump is not in touch with reality. He cannot control the coronavirus with his mind and by living in a fantasy world, as he has done for most of the crisis. Mental health professionals have been warning for years that Trump's mental health issues would lead to such a dire situation. Trump is not showing just a lack of presidential leadership. What he is doing is so irresponsible and inept that having him as president is in some ways worse than having no leadership in the country at all. Trump is spreading disinformation, suppressing reality, and threatening those experts and other people who are telling him things about the coronavirus pandemic that he doesn't want to hear. Now we in America and around the world are living through the horrible results of Trump's behavior. His mental health issues are translating directly into deaths and widespread calamity. <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/03/23/dr-bandy-lee-trump-is-spreading-a-mental-health-pandemic-thats-making-coronavirus-worse/">-- Chauncey DeVega interviews Dr. Bandy Lee, Salon, 3/23/20</a></li>
</ul>
<div>
5. Saving the Republic</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Saving the Republic requires a United Front for Sanity and Decency. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This is not a moment for ideological purity, this is the moment for a broad, popular action, embracing elements of the Left, Right and Center. Such a Front is actually coalescing.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
On the Left, Bernie Sanders (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/15/bernie-sanders-joe-biden-irresponsible-not-support">"It would be irresponsible not to support Biden"</a>) and Noam Chomsky (<a href="https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1251259137830379522">"Failure to vote for Biden in this election in a swing state amounts to voting for Trump"</a>).</div>
<br />
On the Right, the brilliant media campaigns of The Lincoln Project (<a href="https://youtu.be/5w7kwtLJtVc">e.g., "Flag of Treason"</a>), Republicans for the Rule of Law, (<a href="https://youtu.be/7yCsTmpMahY">e.g., "GOP Governor: Trump Thinks He’s Above the Law"</a>) and Republican Voters Against Trump (e.g., <a href="https://twitter.com/RVAT2020/status/1272895454670229504">"</a><a href="https://twitter.com/RVAT2020/status/1272895454670229504">Justin, a retired Army Ranger, explains why he left the GOP over Donald Trump"</a>).<br />
<br />
<div>
AND of course, most recently, there is this irrefutable, unimpeachable testimony --<br />
<ul>
<li>ANGELA DAVIS: I’m not going to actually support either of the major candidates. But I do think we have to participate in the election. I mean, that isn’t to say that I won’t vote for the Democratic candidate. What I’m saying is that in our electoral system as it exists, neither party represents the future that we need in this country. Both parties remain connected to corporate capitalism. But the election will not so much be about who gets to lead the country to a better future, but rather how we can support ourselves and our own ability to continue to organize and place pressure on those in power. And I don’t think there’s a question about which candidate would allow that process to unfold. So I think that we’re going to have to translate some of the passion that has characterized these demonstrations into work within the electoral arena, recognizing that the electoral arena is not the best place for the expression of radical politics. But if we want to continue this work, we certainly need a person in office who will be more amenable to our mass pressure. And to me, that is the only thing that someone like a Joe Biden represents. But we have to persuade people to go out and vote to guarantee that the current occupant of the White House is forever ousted. <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/12/angela_davis_on_abolition_calls_to">-- Democracy Now, 6/12/20</a></li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vbT_zyhq5QI/Xu6RlKsDZkI/AAAAAAAAFSQ/TJwK52wduAo6DJRhnImKZ-ZnU3zrhVRIACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Breonna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vbT_zyhq5QI/Xu6RlKsDZkI/AAAAAAAAFSQ/TJwK52wduAo6DJRhnImKZ-ZnU3zrhVRIACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Breonna.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
6. Trump's Truthful Tweet</div>
<br />
According to the Washington Post, the pathologically ill man in the White House has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/14/president-trump-made-18000-false-or-misleading-claims-1170-days/">lied over 18,000 times since his installation</a>, nevertheless, on 6/7/20, he actually tweeted a truth:<br />
<div>
<ul>
<li>If I wasn’t constantly harassed for three years by fake and illegal investigations, Russia, Russia, Russia, and the Impeachment Hoax, I’d be up by 25 points on Sleepy Joe and the Do Nothing Democrats. Very unfair, but it is what it is!!! -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)</li>
</ul>
Lol. Trump understands something that the toxic Left (e.g., @cornelwest @aaronjmate @ggreenwald @MMFlint etc.) doesn't, i.e., Mueller and the Impeachment took a heavy toll on him.<br />
<br />
As I have mentioned in previous Words of Power posts, the Resistance has three dimensions, there is the Progressive Resistance, there is the Conservative Resistance, led by Never-Trumper refugees from the Zombie Cult formerly known as the Republican Party, AND there is the Governmental Resistance, those career professionals in Federal law enforcement, intelligence, diplomatic services, judiciary, EPA, etc., who sustain the continuity, integrity and institutional memory of the Republic.<br />
<br />
And yes, they have dealt Trump some mighty blows (e.g., <a href="http://www.americareadsthemuellerreport.org/">the Mueller Report </a>and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/house-judiciary-committee-publishes-full-impeachment-report-n1102531">the Impeachment</a>), weakening him, harrying him, preoccupying him, keeping on the defensive since 2016.<br />
<br />
We would not be in the position we are now if they had not dealt these mighty blows. Some have sacrificed their careers to stand against this abomination.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Well, they are not finished. They continue to resist. But they cannot hold out forever. We must come to their rescue in November. We must justify their confidence in the blessedness of the Constitution.<br />
<div>
<ul>
<li>A former federal judge appointed to oppose the U.S. Justice Department’s bid to drop the case against Michael Flynn said Wednesday the trial court should reject the move and instead proceed with sentencing the former Trump national security adviser, who has twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. <a href="https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2020/05/15/unimpeachable-character-john-gleeson-former-judge-and-prosecutor-returns-to-court-to-take-on-bill-barr/">John Gleeson</a>, now a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, was appointed last month to counter the Justice Department’s extraordinary retreat from the prosecution and also address whether Flynn’s judge should begin a perjury inquiry. Gleeson on Wednesday recommended against a stand-alone perjury investigation, instead advising the trial judge, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan of the District of Columbia, to consider Flynn’s statements at sentencing. “The government has engaged in highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the president. The facts of this case overcome the presumption of regularity,” Gleeson wrote in his <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qOr66B3TquXTyo-wGL1qaC6T_DRvSKDT/view">82-page friend-of-the-court brief</a>. “The court should therefore deny the government’s motion to dismiss, adjudicate any remaining motions, and then sentence the defendant.” Gleeson called the Justice Department’s move to abandon the case a “gross abuse of prosecutorial power.”<a href="https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2020/06/10/michael-flynn-should-be-sentenced-for-lying-to-fbi-court-appointed-amicus-tells-judge/"> -- National Law Journal, 6/10/20</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Trump was told in advance that Wikileaks would be releasing documents embarrassing to the Clinton campaign and subsequently informed advisors that he expected more releases would be coming, according to newly unredacted portions of special counsel Robert Mueller's report into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. In July 2016, political consultant Roger Stone told Trump as well as several campaign advisors that he had spoken with Julian Assange and that WikiLeaks would be publishing the documents in a matter of days. Stone told the then-candidate via speakerphone that he "did not know what the content of the materials was," according to the newly unveiled portions of the report, and Trump responded "oh good, alright" upon hearing the news. WikiLeaks published a trove of some 20,000 emails Russians hacked from the Democratic National Committee on July 22 of that year. Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen told federal investigators that he overheard the phone call between Stone and Trump. Agents were also told by former campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates that Stone had spoken several times in early June of something “big” coming from WikiLeaks. Assange first mentioned having emails related to Clinton on June 12. The new revelations are the strongest indication to date that Trump and his closest advisors were aware of outside efforts to hurt Clinton’s electoral chances, and that Stone played a direct role in communicating that situation to the Trump campaign. Trump has publicly denied being aware of any information being relayed between WikiLeaks and his advisors ... <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/roger-stone-warned-trump-wikileaks-clinton-dump">-- </a><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/roger-stone-warned-trump-wikileaks-clinton-dump">Jason Leopold, Anthony Cormier, Ken Bensinger, BuzzFeed News, 6/19/20</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>“I learned in a press release from the Attorney General tonight that I was ‘stepping down’ as United States Attorney. I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position, to which I was appointed by the Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption. I cherish every day that I work with the men and women of this Office to pursue justice without fear or favor – and intend to ensure that this Office’s important cases continue unimpeded.” -- <a href="https://twitter.com/SDNYnews/status/1274178732476059650">Statement of Geoffrey S. Berman, U.S. Attorney, SDNY, Full Text</a> </li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UASN9O5EP-I/Xu8KXkl0KII/AAAAAAAAFSk/Lbs7h7sK-zcYLEJwFr_kdwkKEcRmgFFIwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Audre_Lorde.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1489" data-original-width="993" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UASN9O5EP-I/Xu8KXkl0KII/AAAAAAAAFSk/Lbs7h7sK-zcYLEJwFr_kdwkKEcRmgFFIwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Audre_Lorde.jpg" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><a href="https://youtu.be/EpYdfcvYPEQ">Audre Lorde</a>, Austin Texas, 1980. Self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet"<br />
Photo Credit: K. Kendall, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0">CC BY 2.0</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
7. The Oath<br />
<br />
On 6/1/20, with Black Lives Matter protesters engulfing Lafayette Park, Trump sought to indulge his authoritarian appetite for state violence. He ordered the U.S. military on to the streets of the nation's capitol. He wanted to use the 82nd Airborne to crush this peaceful demonstration.<br />
<br />
Even though he did get an obscene photo op holding a Bible upside down in front of the neighboring church, he didn't get to order the bayonets wetted. Something went wrong for him. He didn't get what Stephen Colbert would call his <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/stephen-colbert-trump-tiny-man-square_n_5ed88517c5b6dfbd777f5c77">"Tiny-Man Square."</a><br />
<br />
Looking back on what didn't happen that night, future herstorians, chronicling the fall of pathological patriarchy, may well determine that this was a pivotal moment. And ironically, the U.S. military <a href="https://t.co/2e3KZA6HcH">which bent but did not break</a>, may yet prove to be the final bulwark of the Republic ... If ...<br />
<div>
<ul>
<li>Former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday predicted President Donald Trump will “try to steal” the general election in November by limiting Americans’ access to voting ... “I was so damn proud. You have four [chairman of the Joint] Chiefs of Staff <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/colin-powell-s-criticism-means-four-ex-chairmen-joint-chiefs-n1227101">coming out</a> and ripping the skin off of Trump, and you have so many rank-and-file military personnel saying, ‘Whoa, we’re not a military state. This is not who we are,’” Biden said. “I promise you, I’m absolutely convinced they will escort him from the White House with great dispatch.” <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/11/joe-biden-donald-trump-voting-access-312879">- Politico, 6/11/20</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>IN UNION THERE IS STRENGTH. I have watched this week's unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words "Equal Justice Under Law" are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand — one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values — our values as people and our values as a nation. When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside. We must reject any thinking of our cities as a "battlespace" that our uniformed military is called upon to "dominate." At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict — a false conflict — between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them. James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that "America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat." We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law. Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that "The Nazi slogan for destroying us ... was 'Divide and Conquer.' Our American answer is 'In Union there is Strength.'" We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis — confident that we are better than our politics. Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children. We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln's "better angels," and listen to them, as we work to unite. Only by adopting a new path — which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals — will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/james-mattis-denounces-trump-protests-militarization/612640/">-- Statement by Jim Mattis, 6/4/20, Full Text, The Atlantic</a></li>
</ul>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0xhoaaRE0MM/Xu8LVg8W7YI/AAAAAAAAFSs/nvpZMt22EogYpn9Kt7aJ_IqWzEUYvd4TQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/FireNextTime.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="259" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0xhoaaRE0MM/Xu8LVg8W7YI/AAAAAAAAFSs/nvpZMt22EogYpn9Kt7aJ_IqWzEUYvd4TQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/FireNextTime.jpeg" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQejcZc4uFM">James Baldwin </a>- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fire_Next_Time">Fire Next Time</a> (First Edition Cover, 1963)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-73839920383060647662020-05-17T18:47:00.001-07:002021-02-04T03:03:14.414-08:00Pandemic 2020: Dreamtime Dweller, A Treatise on Laying Down and Leaning Forward<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
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<b>Preamble</b><br />
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<span face=""calibri" , sans-serif" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">From the nineteen nineties, through the twenty-aughts, and into the twenty-teens, I traveled the world, I briefed officials of allied governments and executives of major corporations. I shared what I saw as I looked into the future: I was one of those few who warned of the ways in which cybercrime and information warfare would be used to undermine elections, I was one of those few who warned that the Climate Crisis was the greatest global and national security threat of all, and that it threatened civilization itself, I was one of those few who warned that Russian organized crime, rising from the elements of the former KGB, posed a greater danger to the West than Al Qaeda or any other Islamic terrorist group, and yes, I was one of those who warned that we must prepare better for the inevitability of a major pandemic in the years ahead, I saw it all, I prophesied it all, and over the years, before walking away in 2016, I realized that my warnings were not going to thwart any of it. And now that all of it has indeed befallen us, and all at once, well, there are no words to articulate how it feels ..</span></span><span face=""calibri" , sans-serif" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. </span></span><br />
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<span face=""calibri" , sans-serif" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Introduction</b></span></span><br />
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In January, February and early March of 2020, I was driving for Uber, I was the Ubermensch, I had been driving for over a year, and I was actually ramping up, increasing my hours, I had a plan for the rest of this year, I loved driving for Uber, in some ways, it was my favorite job ever. Yes, even though I had traveled the world, and had been a global services passenger and a million-mile flyer on United, even though I had been quoted extensively in mainstream press, even though I had appeared numerous times on CNN and the BBC, even though had testified in historic U.S. Senate hearings on cyber security, even though I spent the last seven years of that life working as a “Distinguished Fellow” for a major university from my office inside of NASA AMES Research Park, in a very real way, driving for Uber had become my favorite work experience … <o:p></o:p></div>
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But then the spread of Covid-19 intensified. Mayor Breed declared a state of emergency. Governor Newsome declared a state of emergency. The populace was urged to shelter in place. On 3/12/20, the day after the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, I just knew I had to stop driving … <o:p></o:p></div>
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Most of us fall into one of four categories:</div>
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The essential workers, those of us who have to keep working outside of our homes, regardless of the threat, including those who worked for very little pay, in markets, in the fields, meat packers, truck drivers, those who are keeping the food distribution system from collapsing, and at the other end of the spectrum, those professionals who have sworn an oath to run toward the danger, instead of away from it, our police officers and fire fighters, our first responders, our nurses, doctors and hospital workers …</div>
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Those whose work allows them to continue work while sheltered in place.</div>
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Those who have lost their income but nevertheless remain sheltered in place.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">And yes, those who live in denial, refusing to modify their behavior, telling themselves that this is a “hoax,” and obsessing over conspiracy theories about Bill Gates, micro-chips, 5G, “forced vaccinations,” etc</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I am in that third category, i.e., those who have lost their income but must remain sheltered in place. Still, I count myself among the fortunate, and pray for all of us, even those in deep denial …</span></div>
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Our current circumstances are grave. And although I am very optimistic about our future, it is vital to start here. Our current circumstances are grave.</div>
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<b>Pandemic Dreamtime</b><br />
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On 3/14/20, just after I stopped driving and started to shelter in place, there were 58 reported U.S. Covid-19 deaths. Two months later, on 5/14/20, there were 85,886 <span style="font-size: 12pt;">Over 85,000 dead AND over 36 million jobless in LESS THAN THREE MONTHS. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">CDC now projects at least 100,000 deaths nationally by 6/1/20. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It didn't have to be this way.</span></div>
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Laying down and leaning forward, simultaneously, this is what we are called to.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Two dominant images from the Dreamtime paintings of the Australian Aborigines call to me in the liminal space of the pandemic timeline, this laying down, this pass over, this alternate spiraling through the three times. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the image is the Rainbow Serpent, the primordial energy which birthed the world from the cosmic egg at Uluru, this Rainbow Serpent is always coiling, creating, destroying, a creating that is destroying, a destroying that is creating. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Rainbow Serpent coils within each of us. It is as accessible as your next in-drawn breath. It strikes in the space between thoughts. It is your life force itself.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The other image is that of Pleiades. Yes, the Seven Sisters, the Matrika, the Mothers of the Wyrd. They are an omnipresent, omnipotent source. They radiate clarity and hope. And they are shining over us. But you will only feel their light if you open yourself to the night sky. Don’t look for them. Listen for them. Breath into them. They are watching, and their blessing pours on us ceaselessly.<o:p></o:p><br />
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It is vital to respect the COVD-19 pandemic. It is not a “hoax.” The science of its origins is real. The science of how to mitigate its dangers is real.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Pandemics change the world. Pandemics alter the course of history. And in this instance, hopefully, it will end “history” and hasten HERSTORY, i.e. the Great Shift.</div>
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<li>Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality. Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it. -- Arundhati Roy, Financial Times (4/3/20): </li>
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This talk is about BOTH laying down while this plague passes over, AND leaning forward to reassert the rule of law and save the Republic.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>How I Live</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">As I laid down in Dreamtime, in the course of my contemplation, four books that I had intended to write at different times in my life presented themselves. These books will not be written, their purpose has been eclipsed, and subsumed, but they asked me to include them in this treatise, </span>sort of like cave paintings in this Dreamtime talk, dormant<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> seeds that were dialed in to blossom here, in this moment, time-release capsules, for this pandemic portal …</span></div>
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The first of the four is simply a raw notebook I kept for myself, exhaustive, technical, I called it How I Live, it was a project with which I kept the thread of my sanity in the Death Planet years, the premise was to distill, and condense, everything essential that I had studied in my time with my Yoda, and in my own studies in the years after his death, the premise was what if I did not have access to my shelf of the most hallowed texts, the ones from Kashmir and Tibet, what if all I had was my own notes, what would I need to include …<o:p></o:p></div>
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It started with the Four Great Samaya, which I had extracted from the <i>Nang Jang</i>:</div>
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<li>Non-Existence</li>
<li>Oneness</li>
<li>Uniform Pervasiveness</li>
<li>Spontaneous Presence</li>
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Here is an excerpt of what I wrote about the Four Great Samaya in Wyrds:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Four Great Samayas aren't something you adopt, or something that is designated for a certain realm of existence or a certain dimension or a certain strata of consciousness or something. The Four Great Samayas cover everything and everyone everywhere.</span></div>
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And it says to understand non-existence, the truth of the great samaya of non-existence, you have to relentlessly inquire into the nature of the self and the world. Sound familiar? And that if you -- and the way to inquire relentlessly into the nature of the self and the world, the place to start is the root of the idea of I. It's Ramana Maharshi's teaching, but in a Tibetan text. And then -- so they kind of unfold into each other. So if you say, "Who am I?" and you realize that as resilient and ever-present, and as tenaciously assumed as that premise of “I” is, you really can't place it anywhere.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Once you get beyond that false premise -- then you can open up to the idea that it's all a oneness. Everything exists, but it does not exist as separate from anything else. It's non-existence in the sense of non-existence as separate from anything else. And then if you can open up to that, you can open up to how everything and everyone, everywhere really are all oneness. Although everyone and everything everywhere are unique, it is still all and only oneness.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And then if one's opened up to that oneness, then one can see how the truth of non-existence and oneness is uniformly pervasive. If everything is non-existent, i.e., not separate and everything is the oneness, then it's uniformly pervasive. There's nowhere where it cannot be.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And then if you have opened up to the idea -- it's not even an idea. It can't be an idea … If you open to the drift, if you will, of non-existence, oneness, and uniform pervasiveness, then it also becomes clear that it must be spontaneously present, always and everywhere, in everything and everyone, for all time – it is spontaneously present, not past, not present, not future. Spontaneously present. Not a cause or an effect. Not a beginning or an end. Spontaneously present, uniformly pervasive, oneness that has no separate existence within it, and yet, each reflection of itself is utterly unique ..<span style="font-size: 12pt;">. (Richard Power, <i>Wyrds of Power: New Language for A New Reality</i>, 2017)</span></div>
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The Four Great Samaya are omnipresent, but I feel compelled to share them anew with you in the context of our present circumstances. <o:p></o:p><br />
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<b>The Other Side of the Razor's Edge</b><br />
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The second book seed, time-release capsule, that belongs in this dreamtime talk is my intended sequel to Somerset Maugham’s 1944 novel <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31196.The_Razor_s_Edge">The Razor’s Edge</a></i>, it’s a story of the Lost Generation. The protagonist Larry Darrell launches on a spiritual quest after his experiences as a pilot in WWI leave him a stranger in a strange land upon his return "home." So he travels to India and encounters a true master of Jnani yoga. Although not named in the book, it was Sri Ramana Maharshi. Maugham had sat in satsang with Ramana on his own travels in India. Ramana Maharshi was, of course, very important in inner journey of my Yoda, as well as my own. (And coincidently, there’s another curious resonance, in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqYPxtmHX74">the 1946 Hollywood film</a>, Larry Darrell was portrayed by Tyrone Power, yes, my father’s cousin.) Anyway, in the story, Larry returns from India a changed man, an awakened being, a mystic. He is not who he was before. And, of course, he can’t save his circle of friends from themselves. No one can "save" anyone else. So he leaves for America, to disappear into the crowd, <span style="font-size: 12pt;">to lead the life of a common worker, in obscurity, and anonymity … </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The premise of my sequel was that Darrell becomes a taxi cab driver in New York City …</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">To live as an undercover bodhisattva. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I wrote a short story which I included in Between Shadow and Night, but did not include in Wyrds, my</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> compilation of the Primal Reality series) </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> ... </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Anyway, I had always assumed that I too would drive a taxi cab someday, it turned out that I would drive for Uber in the end …</span></div>
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Why did I choose the role of cab driver for Darrell in my proposed sequel?<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It seems to me the perfect accommodation for the cultivation of Bodhisattvaship. And what are the elements of Bodhisattvaship, beyond the prerequisite of unconditional love for all life? What are the true Bodhisattvic functions?</span><br />
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<li>Abiding Presence</li>
<li>Bearing Witness</li>
<li>Holding Up A Mirror</li>
<li>Delivering Oracular Messages</li>
<li>Experiential Insight</li>
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<span face=""calibri" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">That’s not Buddhist canon. It’s just my own synthesis. Hopefully it will be useful to you. It is nothing more or less than what we can offer each other as friends, the deeper we go into our inner life, the deeper we go into our practices.</span><br />
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<b>True Romance of Arthur</b><br />
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The third never to be written book that finds its mooring in this talk from within the pandemic dreamtime is what I called “The True Romance of Arthur.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, there have been hundreds of versions of the Arthurian legend over many centuries, in numerous European languages, and thousands more exploring the myth from historical, psychological, mystical and occult perspectives.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I will only mention four, the most important to me:</div>
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<li>T.H. White’s charming <i>Once and Future King</i> (in which Merlin lives life backwards)</li>
<li><i>The Mabinogion</i>, the original source material, a 12th to 13th century collection of Welsh tales, from which the later romances develop</li>
<li>And above all, two versions written by 20th Century women, Mary Stewart’s <i>“<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Merlin-Trilogy-Mary-Stewart/dp/0688003478">Merlin Trilogy</a>” </i>and above all others, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s “<i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mists-Avalon-Marion-Zimmer-Bradley/dp/0345350499">Mists of Avalon</a>.”</i></li>
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In my “True Romance of Arthur,” I wanted to pick up with Zimmer Bradley left off, and in the process, I wanted to leverage some of the raw richness of the Mabinogian, I would have told the same story, but from deeper into the Celtic, deeper into Pagan, deeper into the Wild … <span style="font-size: 12pt;">A few fragments of this work remain. But time, circumstance, life lessons, karma, overtook the project … And I didn’t yet understand in fullness what I was reaching for …</span></div>
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Arthurian legend is not simply steeped in the Magic of the Deep Feminine, it is predicated upon it, framed upon it, built upon its foundations: </div>
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<li>Lady of the Lake, who gives Excalibur to Arthur and to whom it is returned by one of Arthur’s knights after his final battle. The Lake is Psyche, the Lady of the Lake is Intuition and Excalibur is Discernment.</li>
<li>Avalon. The blessed hidden island of the sorceresses. Where Lancelot was raised. Where Arthur was taken to die in peace.</li>
<li>San Graal. Its magic pre-existed the blood of Christ, it is the Shakti Yantra</li>
<li>Morgan Le Fey. Vilified, defamed, demonized throughout the white male patriarchal retellings of the legend, truly a sorceress, a powerful woman of the Shadow, perhaps the most important, most powerful character of all.</li>
<li>The Magic Sow and Ceridwen’s Cauldron. The primal origins of the Graal myth, and so much more</li>
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Drifting in Dreamtime, looking back, I realize now that inspiration to write the “True Romance of Arthur” was my psyche reaching forward, groping forward, on a quest for the head waters of the Deep Feminine … <span style="font-size: 12pt;">Now, of course, three decades later, and on the other side of a long healing journey, I have written at length, in both “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wyrds-Power-New.../dp/1533410690/">Wyrds</a>” and “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/I-Dragon-Richard-Power/dp/1983912050/">Dragon</a>,” about the Ascendancy of the Feminine as a spiritual and existential imperative, about Ardhanari as the Avatar of the 21st Century and about what I called the “dazzling permutations of gender.”</span></div>
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And then after the publication of these two books, I advanced the theme further in my talk “Dragon Bone Broth,” by addressing what I call “The Problem with Men,” and offering a short list of radical remedies …<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are process of an evolutionary leap which will subsume patriarchy, matriarchy and all of the gender identity and expression buckets. We are moving forward into a new reality, in which, each individual comes from the whole of their psyche-soma, i.e., with both energy signatures of their essence fully integrated and activated, yes, the yin and the yang, and the yang within the yin, and the yin within the yang. In this new reality, there will be no more “men” and “women” as defined in patriarchal times, there will simply be human beings, and therefore, no more “sons” and “daughters,” only children. And then each individual will look into the mirror of their own beings, in the frame of their life experience, and discover for themselves who and what they are, and so there will no more buckets, and each person’s “gender” will be as unique as their fingerprints, AND ALL, whatever what their unique gender fingerprint, will be living, moving, and choosing, from their WHOLE psyche-soma, with both its energies intact, the yin and the yang, and the yin within the yang, and the yang within the yin, all of it healthy, activated, fully integrated. What it means to be human will no longer be predicated on a separateness from half of one’s own nature … But this evolutionary leap only advances through the great portal of the Deep Feminine. The patriarchy must be smashed. Women must rise to power in all realms of human endeavor: government, science, business, culture, religion, all of it. Hence, I say that the Ascendancy of the Feminine is a spiritual and existential imperative, it is essential to both our inner growth and to our very survival.</span><br />
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<b>Fire and Ice</b><br />
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The fourth unwritten book I want to share with you in the context of this talk was called "Fire and Ice." The title of my would-be dystopia alluded to a delusional pseudo-scientific theory, a kind of alternate cosmogony, promoted by Nazi SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler. The premise of my would-be dystopia was that Germany and Japan had defeated the Allies and America was under occupation. World War II was a struggle against evil, against authoritarianism, fascism, sociopathy as a philosophy of governance. So what would civilization, or what passed for it, look like if the Nazis and their Axis Allies had triumphed? <o:p></o:p></div>
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The inspiration for "Fire and Ice" came to me in the late 1960s, as I read <i>"Morning of the Magicians"</i> by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier. Wikipedia aptly described this cult classic as "a collection of 'raw material for speculation of the most outlandish order,' covering topics like cryptohistory, ufology, occultism in Nazism, alchemy and spiritual philosophy." I drew maps. I made lists of what would change and how. I pondered the nature of the resistance that would arise. I didn't get beyond a book outlines and some notes. But the idea stayed with me over the years, as an occasional exercise in creative imagination. I didn't know to much later in life that the great Phillip K. Dick had actually had the same inspiration some years before me, he titled his work "<i>The Man in the High Castle</i>." <o:p></o:p></div>
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Oh, the dark goddess' hand moves upon the waters of the collective psyche.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Lo and behold, on 1/15/15, a year before the rise of Trump, Amazon Prime debuted a powerful TV version of "<i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/The-New-World/dp/B00RSI4WY2/">Man in the High Castle</a></i>."</div>
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<ul>
<li>In the parallel universe, <span class="MsoHyperlink">Nazi Germany</span> and the <span class="MsoHyperlink">Empire of Japan</span> have divided the <span class="MsoHyperlink">United States</span> into the Greater Nazi Reich in the east, with <span class="MsoHyperlink">New York City</span> as its regional capital, and the Japanese Pacific States to the west, with <span class="MsoHyperlink">San Francisco</span> as the capital. These territories are separated by a neutral zone that encompasses the <span class="MsoHyperlink">Rocky Mountains</span>. The series starts in 1962 and follows characters whose destinies intertwine when they come into contact with newsreels and home movies that show Germany and Japan losing the war. The title of the series refers to the mysterious figure believed to have created the footage. (Wikipedia)</li>
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Two years later, on 4/26/17, Hulu debuted a powerful TV version of Margaret Atwood's <i><a href="https://www.hulu.com/series/the-handmaids-tale-565d8976-9d26-4e63-866c-40f8a137ce5f?">Handmaid’s Tale.</a></i><br />
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<li>In a world where fertility rates have collapsed as a result of sexually transmitted diseases and environmental pollution, the totalitarian, theonomic government of Gilead establishes rule in the former United States in the aftermath of a civil war. Society is organized by power-hungry leaders along with a new, militarized, hierarchical regime of fanaticism and newly created social classes, in which women are brutally subjugated. By law, women in Gilead are forced to work in very limited roles, including some as natal slaves, and they are not allowed to own property, handle money, or read. (Wikipedia)</li>
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Both series provide a tour de force exposition of the fascist mentality, what fuels it, how it takes shape, what leads people to lose their souls in it. Both series have run for multiple seasons. Both are excellent for pandemic shelter-in-place binge watching. <o:p></o:p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They are primers on the nature of "evil" and how to resist it.</span></div>
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Like the film versions of the J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter tales, like Peter Jackson's film versions of <i>Lord of the Rings</i> and The Hobbit, like nine episodes of the <i>Star Wars</i> saga, these two dystopian epics, <i>Man in the High Castle</i> and <i>Handmaid's Tale,</i> arrived just in time, produced and launched just in time, to enlighten, exhort and empower the resistance.<br />
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“Live” spelled backwards is “Evil.” And that says it all. “Evil” is ANTI-WOMAN, ANTI-NATURE, ANTI-SCIENCE, ANTI-LIFE. "<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Live” spelled backwards is “Evil.”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Blowback in reaction to the Great Shift already underway. Backlash for the Great Shift already underway. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Misogyny, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, anti-semitism. Hatred, demonization, objectification of the "Other" ... </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I don’t use the word "Evil" cavalierly. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I don’t use it as a moral judgment. I don't use it to dehumanize or demonize our adversaries. But I don't shy away from it either. I use it to signify the diagnosis of a spiritual disease, a psychological disease. </span><br />
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We are fighting a disease in the body politic, just a surely as we are fighting Covid-19. We seek to contain the disease, i.e., limit its spread. And if possible, we seek to mitigate the suffering of those who have succumb to it. But most important, yes, we seek to metaphorically vaccinate the populace against it (particularly the children). No good at all to pretend mental illness isn't mental illness. No good at all to pretend that there are no sides to choose. No good at all to pretend that there is no baseline of sanity to insist upon.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We are waging spiritual war, a psychological war, a political war, against sociopathy as a philosophy of governance. Corporations are not people, and money is not speech. The madness of Citizens United and related court decisions made it possible for Trump to debase the White House, and for Mitch McConnell to debase the Senate. The money pouring into the coffers of the Republican Party turned it into a Zombie Cult, controlled by Death-Eater Overlords. <span style="font-size: 12pt;">That's how we got here over these last two decades.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> J</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">ust as a crack addict deteriorates rapidly, the Zombie Cult and its Death-Eater Overlords soon found themselves bending over for Trump and his master Putin. Just as some crack addicts have sold their children for another fix, just so some men, yes, mostly white men, have sold their country to stay high on power and greed for another term. </span><br />
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<b>"Last Battle on Earth"</b><br />
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A powerful multi-dimensional resistance has fought the abomination of Trump since that grim day he was sworn into office in January 2017. I say "multi-dimensional" because it isn't just an ideological resistance, a partisan resistance, although as I always say "partisan" is a beautiful word, not a pejorative word at all, it comes from WWII, the resistance fighters battling the Nazi occupation in France, Yugoslavia, etc., self-identified as "partisan." It's a beautiful word. Anyway, the resistance to Trump has not just been a partisan one, there is also an institutional resistance among non-partisan, non-ideological career professionals in the Intelligence community, in the DoJ, in the State Department, etc., patriots who honor the rule of law and take their oaths to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic" quite seriously. (Trump, of course, is represents "enemies" both "foreign and domestic.") There is also a third resistance to Trump among those on the Right who did not drink the Kool-Aid, i.e., the Never Trumpers, embodied, e.g., in <a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln">The Lincoln Project</a>. All three dimensions of this resistance are vital to saving the republic.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The arc of the narrative from 2017 to 2020 flows through the special counsel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx3RoMk1BAs">Robert Mueller's investigation into Putin's interference in the 2016 election</a> and the degree to which the Trump campaign coordinated with Putin's black ops, and then on into <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/07/democrats-house-of-representatives-blue-wave-midterms">the Blue Tsunami </a>that returned control of the U.S. House of Representatives to the Democrats, and then on into <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUm6OD_93g8">the Impeachment of Trump</a> for his "high crimes and misdemeanors" re: the Ukraine and Biden, and then on into the early months of the 2020 presidential campaign, and then on into <a href="https://twitter.com/CAPAction/status/1262373980616433664?s=20">this Covid-19 pandemic and the lethal negligence </a>of the <span style="font-size: 12pt;">Trump administration's "response."</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
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All along the arc of this narrative, my friends have been asking me for my view on how it was going? Invariably, I would say, "It's going very well, and so, we are all in grave danger." Now, with Trump's cratering in almost all polling for weeks, and almost ninety thousand deaths, and almost forty million jobs lost, and the electoral system itself in jeopardy, maybe you can see what I meant. <o:p></o:p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"It's going very well, and so, we are all in grave danger."</span></div>
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What is required of us in these dire circumstances is a united front, not an ideological united front, no, a united front for sanity and decency, one which allows for all three dimensions of resistance to move forward together and produce a second consecutive blue tsunami, which will not only hold the House of Representatives, but either take the White House and/or the Senate. This united front is actually coalescing. On the Left, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bernie-supporters-irresponsible-oppose-joe-biden_n_5e964b2ac5b65eae709bd0b4">Sen. Bernie Sanders has said</a> that it would be “irresponsible” not to get behind former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. And re: <span style="font-size: 12pt;">the </span><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: blue; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/neverbiden?__eep__=6&source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG" style="color: #954f72;">#NeverBiden</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> movement, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1251259137830379522">Noam Chomsky himself has said</a> “You can debate a lot of things, but not arithmetic. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Failure to vote for Biden in this election in a swing state amounts to voting for Trump.” On the Right, outspoken conservatives like <a href="https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1221796860995743745">David Frum</a>, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/08/15/2020-democrat-will-get-my-vote-never-trump-ex-republican-column/2013614001/">Tom Nichols</a> and <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/never-trump-gop-joe-walsh-would-vote-for-bernie-sanders_n_5e55e8e5c5b649ec432f7248">Joe Walsh</a> had all declared they would even have voted for Bernie Sanders against Trump, so they will certainly vote for and enthusiastically champion the centrist Biden in November.</span><br />
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This is where we are here and now.<o:p></o:p></div>
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How many times over the last two or three decades have you been told that this is "the most important election of your lifetime"? Well, you know, each time it was the truth. Because this has really been just one long struggle against the Neo-Confederacy. The conflict started in 1968, when Nixon introduced the "Southern Strategy," and has raged on ever since, with the stakes getting higher, and more desperate, with each election. This election, the 2020 election, isn't simply "the most important election of your lifetime," it could be THE LAST ELECTION of your lifetime.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Yes, we must lean forward together, left, right and center, in a vast united front for sanity and decency, but let's be real, it will be the Women, the African-Americans, and especially the African-American Women who will be the vanguard of this vast united front.<br />
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Pull yourselves together, brothers and sisters.<br />
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Approach this next 171 days as if it were your "Last Battle on Earth." <o:p></o:p></div>
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Don Juan, the Yaqui man of knowledge explains:</div>
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<li>“Focus your attention on the link between you and your death, without remorse or sadness or worrying. Focus your attention on the fact that you don’t have time and let your acts flow accordingly. Let each of your acts be your last battle on earth. Only under these conditions will your acts have their rightful power. Otherwise, they will be, for as long as you live, the acts of a timid man.” – Carlos Castaneda, <i>Journey To Ixtlan</i> (1972)</li>
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<li>“The spirit of a warrior is not geared to indulging and complaining, nor is it geared to winning or losing. The spirit of a warrior is geared only to struggle, and every struggle is a warrior's last battle on earth. Thus the outcome matters very little to him. In his last battle on earth a warrior lets his spirit flow free and clear. And as he wages his battle, knowing that his intent is impeccable, a warrior laughs and laughs.” ― Carlos Castaneda, <i>A Separate Reality: Teachings of Don Juan</i> (1971)</li>
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Laying down to let the pandemic pass over us, leaving us untouched, while simultaneously leaning forward into the gauntlet of the 2020 election, to save the republic. <span style="font-size: 12pt;">Survive the pandemic and vote in the November election.</span></div>
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This is our charge. This is our mission. To survive, and to vote. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In conclusion, I want to remind you once again of what Lando Calrission said to Poe in "Rise of Skywalker," at the moment of the Resistance's deepest despair, when all is seemingly lost in the final battle against the Galactic Emperor Darth Sidious' seemingly invisible forces: <span style="font-size: 12pt;">"There are more of us." </span><br />
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That's what I want you to remember, "There are more of us." <o:p></o:p></div>
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This is the Power of NOTHING. It is moving among us. This is the Force.<br />
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It is flowing through you.<o:p></o:p></div>
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-- Richard Power, Author of "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Chronicles.../dp/1546377395/">I, the Dragon: Chronicles of An Epic Life Among the Humans</a>" and "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wyrds-Power-New.../dp/1533410690/">Wyrds of Power: New Language for A New Reality</a>." Both available via Amazon.com.<br />
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<a href="https://youtu.be/TZnXJYlgARc"><b>You Tube: "Dreamtime Dweller: Treatise on Laying Down & Leaning Forward"</b></a><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TZnXJYlgARc" width="560"></iframe></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-92226033491152192772020-02-03T02:20:00.001-08:002020-02-04T20:13:33.795-08:00 As We Lean Forward Into The Dangers of 2020, Remember, "There Are More of Us."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Rise of Skywalker" Movie Poster, Sonoma, California, 2020.</td></tr>
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"We are at the point where we are not living in a constitutional republic anymore...if we don’t reverse this in this upcoming election & fight to defend the American Constitution, that will be it for America as we’ve known it.” -- <a href="https://twitter.com/LaF3mm3Nikita/status/1223655647335587842">@MalcolmNance w/ #AMJoy on MSNBC</a>, 2/1/20<br />
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"It is a sad day for America to see Senator McConnell humiliate the Chief Justice of the United States into presiding over a vote which rejected our nation’s judicial norms, precedents and institutions which uphold the Constitution and the rule of law." -- <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1223614899034652673">Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Nancy Pelosi. D-CA (@SpeakerPelosi)</a>, 2/1/20<br />
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"They have mutilated the Constitution so they can claim its broken remains." -- <a href="https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger/status/1222741248735399938">Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger), 1/31/20</a><br />
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"Trump didn’t bother merely swatting aside the rule of law and the Constitution. No, he dropped all pretense and went full-on authoritarian, tapping no less a figure than Jeffrey Epstein pal Alan Dershowitz to present the Putin Defense: If it’s good for Trump, it’s good for the country, and that means it can’t be illegal ... Vladimir Putin presides over a mock democracy with mock elections and a mock free press and a mock economy that keeps his oligarch buddies in rubles and the citizenry in rags. He has ordered the deaths of journalists who displease him and poisoned those he thinks have been disloyal. Right now he is maneuvering to keep himself in power indefinitely. Donald Trump used the Putin Defense for a reason. Do the words, 'exercise of emergency powers' send a chill down your spine? -- <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/the-putin-defense-how-far-will-donald-trump-go-now-to-stay-in-power/">Lucian K. Truscott IV, Salon via AlterNet, 2/1/20</a><br />
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"What comes next? Expect massive efforts to keep Democrats from voting or prevent their votes from counting. The focus will be minority communities. I’ve spent years fighting suppression. I expect the worst election cycle we’ve ever experienced. We all have to fight for fairness." -- <a href="https://twitter.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/1223641569628213254">Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance)</a>, 1/31/20<br />
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"I don't think people fully grasp the constitutional danger of this moment. If the Senate were to refuse to call relevant witnesses with direct testimony of grave presidential wrongdoing then we can no longer understand impeachment to be a genuine check on executive overreach." -- <a href="https://twitter.com/Susan_Hennessey/status/1222905891663552513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&fbclid=IwAR1HouftmLPz9aRgXodsP2ISLGigsDl-1xzPlzjwGoPL7xX4En1p5gu9Nmk">Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey), 1/30/20 </a><br />
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"The GOP is now the pro-totalitarian party. It is a clear and present danger." -- <a href="https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger/status/1222741248735399938?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&fbclid=IwAR2tSoZCOWyIefIeYclOCZ3Rfq7Ou2-8Rz48BmmGb_4gH94PYhRGlEgqJ58">Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger), 1/29/20</a><a href="https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger/status/1222741248735399938?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&fbclid=IwAR2tSoZCOWyIefIeYclOCZ3Rfq7Ou2-8Rz48BmmGb_4gH94PYhRGlEgqJ58"></a><br />
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"Not presumably forever; not perhaps for a day after Nov. 3, 2020; not on every issue or in every way until then. But for the time being one has to say: We are all Democrats now." -- <a href="https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1223639550209200129">Bill Kristol (@BillKristol)</a>, 2/1/20<br />
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<b>As We Lean Forward Into The Dangers of 2020, Remember, "There Are More of Us."</b></div>
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In "Rise of Skywalker," the ninth chapter in the Star Wars saga, at the moment of the Resistance's deepest despair, when all is seemingly lost in the final battle against the Galactic Emperor Darth Sidious' forces (Sith Eternal and Final Order), the heroic Poe speaks to his fellow fighter pilots over the intercom, "My friends, I’m sorry, I thought we had a shot. There’s just too many of them."<br />
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Suddenly, a vast fleet of ships great and small emerges from hyperspace. Led by Lando Calrissian, who had marshaled the galaxy's inhabitants to answer the call and make a final stand for freedom and all that is good. "There are more of us," Lando replies to Poe.<br />
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"Where did they get all these fighter craft? They have no navy," asks one of the Emperor's officers, another answers, "It's not a navy, sir, it's just... people."</div>
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That's what I want you to remember, "There are more of us." </div>
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Together, left, right and center, in a united national front of sanity and decency, we can overcome the ongoing degenerative effects of Citizens United and Fox News, the toxic foolishness of those who will betray reason to vote third party as they did in 2000 and 2016, the institutionalized wrong of the Electoral College, and yes, even Putin with his military intelligence operations, his oligarchs' not so laundered money and his overflowing trove of kompromat. "There are more of us." </div>
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BUT you must vote. Approximately<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/12/about-100-million-people-couldnt-be-bothered-to-vote-this-year/"> 43% of registered voters didn't fill out a ballot in 2016, that's about 100 million</a> "citizens." Clinton won the popular vote nationally. And only "lost" Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania (and thus the Electoral College) by fewer than 80,000 votes combined. In both Michigan and Wisconsin, Trump's alleged margin of victory was <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/308353-trump-won-by-smaller-margin-than-stein-votes-in-all-three">less than the number of votes for Putin's dinner date Jill Stein</a>. I say "alleged margin of victory" because, well ... you know ... don't you? Those recounts just never got done. And as for the Russian attacks on the state election systems themselves, well ... you know ... don't you? The public hasn't been read in ...<br />
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I wondered when I would write you again, at length, concerning the fate of our nation and this world.<br />
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I almost did at several recent inflection points, but I held off.<br />
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The time just wasn't right.<br />
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But this is the moment.<br />
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On 2/3/20, in the Iowa Caucuses, the first actual votes of the 2020 election campaign will be cast.<br />
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On 2/4/20, impeached <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/01/pelosi-to-trump-you-are-impeached-forever-and-your-tweets-are-crazy">(forever)</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/billmaher/status/1223497778833195008">increasingly impaired</a>, the <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/12/20/mental-health-professionals-read-trumps-letter-a-study-in-the-psychotic-mind-at-work/">Mad King</a> is scheduled to deliver the State of the Union. I would not be surprised if he and Jvanka come up with a reason for him to cancel it. If he does go through with the speech, both his serious cognitive decline and <a href="https://medium.com/@bandyxlee/statement-by-the-world-mental-health-coalition-donald-trump-is-a-danger-to-himself-and-others-e05c0d2b55b4">his all-consuming pathology</a> will be on full display for all to see. Lurching toward all time ignominy, Trump will clutch the podium, and <a href="https://twitter.com/TomJChicago/status/1223418975520018432?s=20">will rant and rave and ramble on incoherently</a>, unable to finish sentences.<br />
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On 2/5/20, having turned the Senate trial into a travesty by blocking the testimony of John Bolton and others, #MoscowMitch and the Zombie Cult formerly known as the Republican Party will (absent some miracle) refuse to remove Trump from office in spite of his proven high crimes.<br />
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Ever since Trump's installation as Putin's weaponized clown in the White House, we have been running a race against our own doom. It is a marathon relay race run through a savage gauntlet that covers the whole length of the course. We are now over two thirds of the way through the marathon relay race. Along the first stretch of the race was Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller and his team carried the baton. Along the second stretch of the race, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her caucus have carried the baton. And now, as the campaign begins for real, the baton must be passed on again, to Democratic candidates for the Senate and the White House.<br />
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Mueller did not fail. Mueller did what he could. <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/65863/expert-summaries-of-mueller-report-a-collection-of-short-essays/">His report is devastating.</a> His prosecutions were successful. He would have gone farther. More indictments were in the works. The walls were closing in. IF he had not been constrained from going after Trump's finances. IF Manafort had actually flipped. IF he had not been shutdown by <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/bill-barr-is-just-a-liar-house-judiciary-chair-shreds-attorney-general-for-working-to-make-trump-a-dictator/?fbclid=IwAR1PVRhc5m9G8N5GHi90lUvhKvq7sQc9_Uz8WRhqbXD4Q3s4oxYJeLjbkrw#.XNworZqArqU.facebook">Bill Barr.</a> (And yes, he was shutdown by Bill Barr and someday the full story will come out.) IF Barr hadn't pissed, shit and puked all over the roll out of the report. Nevertheless the report stands on its own, and it is devastating.<br />
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Mueller's investigation exposed and weakened Trump. Mueller's report details Putin's attack on America, along with Trump's collusion (yes, collusion) and obstruction of justice. It is an important historical document. It helped us all get to the mid-term elections in 2018, it emboldened us all, it contributed to the blue tsunami which turned over power in the U.S. House of Representatives.<br />
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Speaker Pelosi and her caucus started off by <a href="https://www.axios.com/jeffries-hakeem-mcconnell-mitch-house-bills-93d704be-58f4-44c8-89f7-9a8daab492cd.html">passing hundreds of healthy pieces of legislation (including election security) and sending them on to the Senate where they still languish on #MoscowMitch's desk</a>. In this way, Pelosi reminded the nation of what real governance looks like and simultaneously shed bright light on the utter cravenness of McConnell and his minions.<br />
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Meanwhile, the House Committee chairs jump-started constitutionally mandated oversight ...</div>
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And then a Whistleblower came forward.<br />
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The Ukraine scandal IS the Russia scandal. It is all of one cloth. Putin and Manafort are threaded through all of it. It is a continuum of corruption and betrayal. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/18/politics/full-mueller-report-pdf/index.html">Mueller's final report (448 pages)</a> and the <a href="https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20191216/CRPT-116hrpt346.pdf">House Judiciary Committee's Impeachment report (650 pages)</a> document it all for posterity.<br />
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12/18/19 will forever mark a very important turning point in the struggle to restore some degree of sanity and decency to America's governance and collective psyche. Concerning the House voting for impeachment, the analogy of a grand jury and an indictment is often used; by extension the analogy goes on to say that the final verdict is rendered in the Senate trial. But that analogy is not exact, indeed it is misleading. It would be just as valid to say that the House voting for impeachment IS the verdict, and that the Senate trial is really more like a sentencing hearing (i.e., should the person impeached be removed from office, etc.) The Senate tries the case to determine if it concurs with the verdict of the House, if it does agree then the removal from office is ordered. Nothing that happens in the Senate will undo this verdict. Impeachment is not an indictment, it is a verdict. Putin's weaponized clown in the White House has been found guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. All U.S. laws flow from the Constitution. But the Constitution is at the center of it all, and in a dimension of its own. It is a living document, and it has provided the means to render a verdict on Trump. Guilty.<br />
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<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/31/1915389/-Nancy-Pelosi-and-Adam-Schiff-did-everything-right-and-the-House-management-team-are-American-heroes?fbclid=IwAR2e8bmYd4gNqWcDJESWmwmyClDECKXYXjLmag7b-8EwxlFOcIeDHOFZpE8">Despite Pelosi's masterful leadership and the brilliance of Adam Schiff</a>, the best we could have hoped for out of the Senate trial is that it would become <a href="https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1223414330412163072?s=20">a trial of the Senate itself</a> -- in the Court of Public Opinion. <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/01/with-trumps-impeachment-trial-republicans-have-convicted-themselves/">And that is just what happened.</a> Polls consistently show <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/28/politics/quinnipiac-impeachment-poll-witnesses/index.html?fbclid=IwAR2wIk8i4TILgGGBKT16wuTqWqVd8v_4UoT_K6lW7YhisXRYy_bWqWK5E5w">a majority of the American people want to hear from new witnesses</a>, and that <a href="https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1221435448679157760">a majority of the American people want Trump removed from office</a>. But collaborating with the White House to perpetuate the cover-up, #MoscowMitch has engineered a sham "acquittal." <a href="https://twitter.com/JonFlan/status/1223819287003127808?s=20">Control of the Senate is now in play!</a><br />
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Which brings us to the 2020 election and the campaign that starts for real in Iowa.<br />
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Toppling McConnell and breaking the Death Eater grip on the Senate is almost more important than liberating the White House at this juncture, but one of the other, along with holding the House is a MUST, and honestly, to really do what must be done we need all three victories.<br />
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I hesitate to say anything about the race for the presidential nomination, but the time has come, I am going to be as careful as I can in the words I choose but there are some important points that must be made. All of the serious contenders have some path or another to winning the general election, but some are much narrower than others. As I stated previously, I feel strongly the nominee should be a woman, which leaves of with Elizabeth Warren or Amy Klobuchar, since Kamala Harris (perhaps the strongest general election candidate) is no longer in the race.<br />
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Warren is <a href="https://twitter.com/Deb4CongressNM/status/1156266759743311873">formidable</a>. And brilliant. And she connects with voters, directly, in a real way. <a href="https://twitter.com/ProudResister/status/1181428148925276160">Something powerful is coming through her.</a><br />
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Klobuchar too has <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/amy-klobuchar-pete-buttigieg-democratic-debate/">earned serious consideration</a>. She is <a href="https://twitter.com/amyklobuchar/status/1223753236907200515">savvy, and she speaks and carries herself in a way that can reach voters in the crucial "battleground states" </a>of the midwest.<br />
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Micheal Bloomberg has surprised me. Declaring <a href="https://www.axios.com/bloomberg-trump-funding-democrats-2020-2d9122fd-736e-4bed-8818-0b322b88b6b4.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twsocialshare&utm_campaign=organic">he will spend billions to defeat Trump, whoever the candidate is, even if it is not him (and yes, even if it was Sanders)</a> is a commitment worthy of R-E-S-P-E-C-T. And the sophisticated commercials with which he is flooding all media platforms are devastatingly effective. That too is worthy of R-E-S-P-E-CT.<br />
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As I stated previously, I prayed that Biden and Sanders would not run. This is not the year for an old white man. My prayers were not answered.<br />
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However, Biden has one of the clearest, broadest paths to winning in the general election, in spite of being an old white man prone to verbal gaffes. There is evidence he has gotten his sea legs back. And like Bloomberg, <a href="https://twitter.com/MalcolmNance/status/1223539526066491393?s=20">his commercials are well-calibrated to the existential threat we face.</a><br />
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Sanders, who I supported for the nomination in 2016, is more problematic. The biggest problems with Sanders are a) he would be McGoverned and marginalized quite successfully as <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/01/29/bernie-sanders-socialist-ideas-will-lose-2020-election-column/4595571002/">a socialist </a>and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/5/28/8682503/bernie-sanders-rape-fantasy">a kinky weirdo</a> as soon as he secures the nomination, and b) there is <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/joe-rogan-endorsement-sanders/">a toxicity</a> among a significant percentage of his supporters, e.g., the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-maga-supporters-twitter-bernie-bros-have-ugly-tactic-ncna1117901">"Bernie Bros"</a> etc. Sanders has so far failed to address it effectively, and in so doing, he is failing a vital test of leadership.<br />
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The cruel twist of Buttigieg's campaign is that he is <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/henrygomez/pete-buttigieg-2020-polls-iowa-republicans">sanctimoniously appealing to Republican voters</a> who simply will not pull the lever to put him and Chasten in the Lincoln Bedroom; while at the same time, he exhibits <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/24/pete-buttigieg-south-carolina-103325">a troublesome disconnect </a>in his attempts to communicate with African American voters. So, seriously, in the general election, would he be able to deliver the electoral college votes of Indiana, his own home state? His is path is the narrowest ...<br />
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Nevertheless, any of these candidates can and should win in November, and I will support whoever turns out to be the nominee (assuming it isn't Putin's troll, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/tulsi-gabbard-being-used-russians-former-us-double-agent-evidence-clear-opinion-1466750">Tulsi Gabbard</a>) ...<br />
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Now as for the ticket, here are some ideas:<br />
<ul>
<li>Elizabeth Warren with Julian Castro or Kamala Harris, </li>
<li>Amy Klobuchar with Cory Booker or Kamala Harris</li>
<li>Michael Bloomberg with Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris or Stacey Abrams</li>
<li>Joe Biden with Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams or Michelle Obama</li>
</ul>
These are just my views. Vote for whoever inspires you in the primaries and caucuses, just pull yourselves together at the end of the process, and lean forward in a united front.<br />
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But you really are not voting for the nominee, whoever it is, you are voting for yourself, for the republic, for <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/greta-thunberg-davos-message-climate-change/">the planet</a>, for <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mother-of-charlottesville-victim-heather-heyer-im-proud-of-what-she-did_n_59907c45e4b09071f69a796c">Heather Heyer,</a> for the <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/how-the-trump-administration-is-defending-its-indefensible-child-separation-policy.html">refugee children stolen from their parents, caged and abused, some sexually molested, some killed, some lost</a>, for <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kamala-harris-christine-blasey-ford-time-100_n_5cb72060e4b098b9a2dd5b0a">Christine Blasey Ford</a>, for <a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/11/21/mob-boss-gone-mad-trump-longs-to-go-after-clinton-apologizes-for-murderers/">Jamal Kashoggi</a>, for <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/e-jean-carroll-on-her-allegations-against-trump-he-did-kill-something-in-me-62910533819">E. Jean Carroll </a>and <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2016/10/all-the-women-accusing-trump-of-rape-sexual-assault.html">over two dozen other women who have accused Trump of violating them sexually</a>, for <a href="https://twitter.com/richardengel/status/1195865204850122752">the Kurds</a>, for the human waves of patriot professionals in law enforcement, intelligence and national security who have stood against the madness, corruption and betrayal of all that is good, simply by doing their jobs, and honoring their oaths, for former CIA Director <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/20/politics/john-brennan-john-durham-fbi-russia-2016-election/index.html">John Brennan</a>, for Ambassador <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/01/donald-trump-marie-yovanovitch-recording">Marie Yovanovich</a>, for <a href="https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2020/01/23/judge-reggie-walton-is-fired-up-again-in-mccabe-related-foia-suit/">Andrew McCabe</a>, <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/andrea-mitchell-reports/watch/james-baker-defends-fbi-against-trump-s-claim-of-attempted-coup-59742277734">James Baker</a>, <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/why-the-fbi-firing-peter-strzok-frequent-trump-target-matters">Peter Strzok</a>, and <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/lisa-page-speaks-theres-no-fathomable-way-i-have-committed-any-crime-at-all">Lisa Page</a> who were all forced out of the FBI, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/441040-sally-yates-trump-would-be-indicted-on-obstruction-of-justice-if">Sally Yates</a> who resigned from the DoJ, for <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/appalling-attack-alexander-vindman/601000/">Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindeman</a>, for <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/06/adam-schiff-pence-jennifer-williams-impeachment-077532">Jennifer Williams</a>, for <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/why-ambassador-william-taylors-testimony-was-so-damaging-to-trump">Ambassador Bill Taylor</a>, for <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-extraordinary-impeachment-testimony-of-fiona-hill">Fiona Hill</a>, for <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/11/david-holmes-public-impeachment-testimony">David Holmes</a>, and of course for the Whistleblower ... Hell, for <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/key-things-we-learned-lev-parnas-revealing-msnbc-interview-n1116931">Lev Parnas </a>and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/27/full-text-michael-cohen-statement-to-congress">Michael Cohen</a> who both came clean, and for their families, AND for so many more known and unknown ... For all who have suffered the rise of racism, misogyny, anti-semitism and homophobia during the Trump reign ... For the futures of all you love ... For the "<i>e pluribus unum" </i>promise of the United States of America ...<br />
<br />
Check your voter registration, and encourage your friends, colleagues and loved ones to check their voter registration. Vote, and encourage your friends, colleagues and loved ones to vote.<br />
<br />
If we fail, the republic will fall. And in spite of all of its crimes, blunders and blind-spots, you will miss the geographical hegemony of the United States, you will miss the Western Alliance, you will miss NATO, you will miss the notions of human rights and international law, you will miss the reality of a free press, yes, you will miss liberal democracy, and how it protected you while you railed against it ...<br />
<br />
Are you ready? Ready or not, it is here. As Gandalf said on the parapet in Minas Tirith, “So it begins, the great battle of our time.” This is a war. Don’t be afraid to speak the truth of it. Your vote is your weapon, your voice is your weapon, your heart and mind are your weapons. Wield them. Smash the patriarchy. Deliver the decisive blow to misogyny, racism, homophobia. Finish off sociopathy as a philosophy of governance. Hold the House. Take the Senate. Reclaim the White House. Join the united front for sanity and decency. We will simultaneously stand our ground and advance upon “all enemies foreign and domestic.” Arise. On. Lean forward. <br />
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Remember, "There are more of us."<br />
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I will write to you again, maybe in the middle of what is to come, but certainly before the end. Hopefully before then <a href="https://www.axios.com/anonymous-author-trump-to-hear-from-me-in-my-name-e39ffa40-0edb-476d-9b1d-6af65c052d29.html">you will have heard from Anonymous</a>.<br />
<br />
-- Richard Power<br />
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<b>See Also</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2019/07/lean-forward-from-within-vortex-and.html">Lean Forward from Within the Vortex and the Vortex Moves with You: Words of Power and the Yoga of Primal Reality -- 2019-2020 Programme</a> (July 2019)<br />
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<a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2019/06/pull-yourselves-together-seven.html">Pull Yourselves Together. Seven Imperatives As We Enter the 2020 Vortex.</a> (June 2019)</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Full moon on Nob Hill. In the fog and the rain.</td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-57906430414411988342019-10-12T12:17:00.000-07:002019-12-01T00:22:34.377-08:00Legends of the Ancient Future: The Cauldron of the Dark Goddess, the Secret Engine of the World and the Riderless Horse that Crossed the Himalayas <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SId-TQ5XmOM/XY29zimriaI/AAAAAAAAFBo/1XhSl6wi1mAbpEyeJ1zvRRUzV-AjqkPlwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Slide01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="520" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SId-TQ5XmOM/XY29zimriaI/AAAAAAAAFBo/1XhSl6wi1mAbpEyeJ1zvRRUzV-AjqkPlwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Slide01.jpeg" width="540" /></a></div>
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[NOTE: This is the expanded, full text version of a talk delivered on September 20th 2019, in celebration of the Global Climate Strike and my birthday. Video artifacts are forthcoming via the Spoken Words of Power You Tube channel. -- Blessing, Richard Power]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am grateful for the love that flows among all of us in this space tonight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Each of this talk's four movements ends with an epiphany written since the publication of "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wyrds-Power-New-Language-Reality/dp/1533410690/">Wyrds of Power</a>" and "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Chronicles-Epic-Among-Humans/dp/1546377395/">I, the Dragon</a>." </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">(You could call these writings poems or incantations, but I call them “epiphanies," it's a word I was introduced to in the writings of the great James Joyce.) </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In the course of my presentation, I will share some powerful images ("Fair Use"); most are the works of great women artists from the 20th and 21st Centuries (which is in itself an important statement).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>The Singularity Has Arrived</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In 2010, I spoke and wrote about “The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Many of <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/stephen-hawking-world-government-stop-technology-destroy-humankind-th-a7618021.html">our greatest minds had been expressing grave concerns</a> about the possibility of a Singularity arising from the growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI). And for good reason.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Meanwhile ...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I was suggesting that no matter what happened with AI, there was a Singularity already arising from within the evolution of Human Intelligence, a Singularity resulting from our unbridled folly and genius, a Singularity </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">epitomized by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/opinion/al-gore-climate-change.html">the Planetary Climate Crisis</a> and <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/elements_of_biodiversity/extinction_crisis/">Sixth Great Extinction</a>, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">a Singularity that has disrupted the geological timeline itself and hurled us all into an abomination that scientists have named the <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anthropocene-documentary-climate-change_n_5d8e5620e4b0019647a8682f">Anthropocene Age</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Well, here and now, in 2017, 2018, 2019, the Singularity I spoke of in 2010 as "in an anticipation of itself," that Singularity has arrived:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/12/11/indication-whats-coming-melting-north-and-south-poles-worse-previously-thought">The Poles melting</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">T<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/02/things-are-getting-unstable-global-heating-and-the-rise-of-rockfalls-in-swiss-alps?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR0CJ4fIXo45GUzL7DSMeCuc6w9b8CgGaQqftEbL_iFO1Qjyinct0x466WY">he Alps crumbling</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/chennai-india-water-shortage-2638940908.html?xrs=RebelMouse_fb&ts=1561128119&fbclid=IwAR3P3WyMK70eJnFnHJqk53kf25OzBloOsFpOt6k-LKWPIGJWWjFyF0bhUlU">The city of Chennai has run out of water</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The nation of Indonesia <a href="http://theconversation.com/indonesia-discards-its-capital-jakarta-for-a-new-one-but-we-cant-just-dispose-of-cities-123196">is moving its capital from Jakarta</a> because of the rising seas</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The first <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/jun/23/sudan.climatechange">Climate Wars </a>have been raging for years (e.g., Darfur and Syria).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/climate-migrants-may-number-143-million-by-2050?ref=home&fbclid=IwAR2joMHqeAzxF9UO2DowTMvHM9Bm5X4w7eMXmiX8hsjahcTXwir0hxDdPwc">Climate refugees</a> are streaming across the southern border of the United States and rafting across the Mediterranean into southern Europe.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And what Naomi A. Klein aptly calls <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/climate-change-naomi-klein/">“Climate barbarism” is on the rise</a>. Not in "third world countries" as you might imagine, but in some of the world’s oldest and most important democratic nations.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Four or five overarching themes run through my writings and talks since 2010.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">We will touch on some of them in the course of this presentation, for example, the need to champion Altruism and Sustainability as Spiritual (and Existential) Imperatives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">As corroboration, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I draw your attention to this recent message from Jane Goodall --</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“We must eliminate poverty. We must change the unsustainable lifestyles of so many of us. We must abolish corruption. And we must think about our growing human population … It is no wonder people have despaired. But I believe we have a window of time to have an impact.” <a href="https://time.com/5669043/jane-goodall-climate-change/">-- Jane Goodall. These 4 Issues May Not Seem Related to Climate Change. But They Are and We Need to Solve Them Now, Time Magazine (9/12/13)</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>The Other Side of the Event Horizon</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So yes, the Singularity has arrived and we are on the other side of the Event Horizon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What do I mean by "event horizon"?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's the Oxford Dictionary definition:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>e·vent ho·ri·zon</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>noun</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>ASTRONOMY</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>noun: event horizon; plural noun: event horizons</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>a theoretical boundary around a black hole beyond which no light or other radiation can escape.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>a point of no return.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is no frame of reference for where we are now. Nothing stored in our DNA to prepare us. No institutional memory to drawn on. No testament left behind by some other civilization that disappeared beyond the event horizon. No NDE could have prepared you for where you are now. This is something else entirely. Nothing has ever returned after slipping into the black hole of the utter unknown. The only way through is on, if there is anyway through at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is real fear and real grief, mind-warping fear, soul-wrenching grief. Or at least there should be. Some of us run far away from it, embracing the illness of climate denialism. Some of us try to block it out and live the best life they can for as long as it lasts. Some of us struggle on attempting to make a difference in some meaningful way. It impacts all of us, whether we realize it or not, whether we verbalize it or not. This is happening. No one is going to escape it.</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">It’s hardly surprising that researchers who spend their lives exploring the dire effects of climate change might experience emotional consequences from their work. Yet, increasingly, Cobb, Shukla, and others in the field have begun publicly discussing the psychological impact of contending with data pointing to a looming catastrophe, dealing with denialism and attacks on science, and observing government inaction in the face of climate change. “Scientists are talking about an intense mix of emotions right now,” says Christine Arena, executive producer of the docuseries Let Science Speak, which featured climate researchers speaking out against efforts to silence or ignore science. “There’s deep grief and anxiety for what’s being lost, followed by rage at continued political inaction, and finally hope that we can indeed solve this challenge. There are definitely tears and trembling voices. They know this deep truth: They are on the front lines of contending with the fear, anger, and perhaps even panic the rest of us will have to deal with.” </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">-- </span><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/07/weight-of-the-world-climate-change-scientist-grief/" style="color: #954f72;">David Corn, It’s the End of the World As They Know, Mother Jones, 7/18/19</a></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The impact of climate change on mental health is a looming public health crisis … “We are searching for terms to capture this deep feeling of pain in Arctic nations – words like eco-anxiety or ecological grief – but for me, something called ‘solastalgia’ perfectly sums up how people living on the frontline of climate change feel. It was coined by the Australian environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht. It is also related to an Inuit word that refers to a friend behaving in an unfamiliar way. It means feeling homesick when you are home. Many of these islanders are in mourning for a disappearing way of life.” Howard’s biggest concern is the lack of acknowledgement. We are challenging the medical profession to acknowledge the world we are inheriting. Schools and universities aren’t considering how climate change will affect people from a medical or a psychological perspective, so we are not training a new generation of medical professionals to help people in a fast-changing planet, and this is intolerable. We are moving too slowly on this.” -- </span><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: blue; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2019/aug/12/life-on-thin-ice-mental-health-at-the-heart-of-the-climate-crisis" style="color: #954f72;">Dan McDougall, Life on Thin Ice, Mental Health at the Heart of the Climate Crisis, Guardian, 8/12/19</a></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Just as the planetary state of emergency demands rEvolutionary action, i.e., voting, marching, protesting, greening your life, going to court, divesting, whatever, just so this planetary state of emergency demands deep, true, sustained self-care be embraced as a rEvolutionary act.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Unplug frequently. Eat consciously. Indulge in <a href="https://time.com/5259602/japanese-forest-bathing/">forest bathing</a>, and if that's not available to you, maybe commune with the night sky on your rooftop. Meditate (which simply means wrap yourself in the shawl of silence, breath as if each breath was just a gentle kiss on the brow of your soul, and let go, let go, let go for just a little while). Sleep more, and better. Move into fuller embodiment through yoga. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Allow yourself unstructured time. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Choose well.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Whatever self-care means to you, cultivate that, because it is</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> as meaningful as any other aspect of your commitment to all you love, to the planet, to all of life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>“You Must Do the Impossible ...”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Another overarching theme running through both "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wyrds-Power-New-Language-Reality/dp/1533410690/">Wyrds"</a> and "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Chronicles-Epic-Among-Humans/dp/1546377395/">Dragon</a>" is the Ascendancy of the Feminine. I have spoken and written about numerous aspect of this particular theme, which I consider the most vital and impactful of all of the contributing factors in our further evolution. Yes, if we are to have a future, if there is to be a great shift, if something new is to emerge from within the Singularity, it is, I am certain, dependent upon the Ascendancy of the Feminine in the human psyche, in society, in culture, in business, in science and especially in government.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Consider <a href="https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg">Greta Thunberg'</a>s rise to the world stage:</span></div>
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<li style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In August 2018, she began striking (i.e.,taking off from school) on Fridays, and stationing herself, holding her protest sign outside of the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">By December 2018, she was speaking before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) in Poland. </span></li>
<li style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">By April 2019, she was speaking before the European Parliament.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In March 2019, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize (NOTE: Although the Committee did not award it to her, at least in 2019, she's in excellent company, Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Noble Peace Prize five times and never received it, even after he was martyred.)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In September 2019, she led many millions of people in a world-wide climate action.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Now, the Old Testament is a troubling and hurtful book in many ways, a relic of the patriarchal violence that will be mostly (but not wholly) irrelevant in the ancient future that is on its way. But one particular prophecy has been speaking to me recently, whenever I ponder the world-wide uprising of Greta Thunberg and her young cohorts: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><i>The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. -- </i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Isaiah 11:6</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Of course, this prophecy is often cited in regard to Jesus of Nazareth, in different ways by different theologians and mystics. He taught in the Temple when he was a little boy, and later, in the course of his mission, he exhibited a powerful connection to the children that came into his presence. The example of Jesus is drenched in the innocence and love that overflows from that prophecy. But I don't think Isaiah was talking about him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Jesus was grounded in the Deep Feminine. It'</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">s so warped that he became the poster boy of the perversion that has been the patriarchy. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I once wrote a story, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/wordsofpower/lost-years-of-jesus-excerpt">"The Lost Years of Jesus</a>." In that story, I wrote that the Madonna was not his biological mother, she was his Guru, a great Bhakti saint, like <a href="https://amma.org/about/how-she-began">Amma</a>. Her darshan was his immaculate conception. And yes, the Magdalena, maybe she had a professional life, maybe she was the mother of his children, but certainly she was his Tantrika, she initiated him into the dark mysteries. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This is the Jesus that I know.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> And I am certain that if he were approached for his insights into Isaiah's prophecy, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Jesus would point down the corridor of time directly to young Greta Thunberg and her cohorts throughout the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"You must do the impossible," Thunberg said in her speech to the U.S. Congress on her September 2019 visit, "Because giving up can never ever be an option."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Well, the Singularity has arrived. And we are beyond the Event Horizon. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">A little child is leading us. And we must do the Impossible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>The Secret Engine of the World</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first of the new epiphanies, "Secret Engine of the World" --</span><br />
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<li>What are you called? Bruja? Baul? Bodhisattva? Tantrika? Aghori? Troubadour? Dakini? Bhakta? Curandera? Yogini? Wizard? Sorceress? These are all just cover stories. Your true designation is beyond human speech. Authentic, mystical love, real love, is the secret engine of the world. But this authentic, mystical love, this real love, does not act like fire or water; it does not incinerate or drown that which it encounters. Authentic, mystical love, real love, moves like a vast glacier; whatever it does not crush or bury, it pushes forward. Yes, this love glacier levels mountains and forges canyons, it breaks the unbreakable and reshapes the earth. The love glacier is so massive that it takes a lifetime just to glimpse it, and even then it can only be seen as far as the horizon; it moves so slowly it is almost undetectable, and so it takes a lifetime to measure its grinding progress. Authentic, mystical love does not act like fire or water; it does not incinerate or drown that which it encounters. this love moves like a vast glacier; whatever it does not crush and bury, it pushes forward. This is the secret engine of the world. How utterly empty and free you must be to revel in the movement of this glacier, knowing that all you have ever had or wanted will be torn up and ground under, and that then in the glacier's aftermath there will be only a long fathomless silence, in which you will be no more than the shadow of a raven on the white stillness of the deep snow. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BvGTzYNFM_Z/">-- Richard Power, March 2019</a></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Yoga of Primal Reality</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">A third overarching theme in my work since 2010 has been what I call "the Evolution of Yoga and the Yoga of Evolution," and as a subset, my "Yoga of Primal Reality." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Yoga is evolving rapidly, in our lifetimes, and this evolution is being driven by women, particularly in the West. Many of us in this circle are intimately involved in that evolution, in one way or another. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">What do I mean by “Yoga of Primal Reality”? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">It isn't a school or a system or a certification, it's just a suggested frame of reference, a perspective, an attitude toward the path of yoga and toward human incarnation itself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I will touch on two aspects, just to give you a sense of what I mean.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The technology of yoga reveals that we have five bodies:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Physical Body (Annamaya Kosha)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Energetic Body (Pranamaya Kosha)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Psychological Body (Manomaya) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Typically, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">in translation, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Manomaya is referred to as the "Mental Body," but I call it the "Psychological Body," because I say it includes the intellect and the emotions, the whole psychological construct.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Wisdom Body, or Intuitive Body (Vijnanamaya Kosha)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Bliss Body, or as I call it Sat-Chit-Ananda Body (Anandamaya Koshas </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">When these five bodies are discussed in the traditional literature, and in most YTT manuals, they are depicted with the Physical Body as the outermost and the Bliss Body as the innermost.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But I suggest you view the five bodies in a very different way, in the opposite way, actually. I say that the Bliss Body, the Sat-Chit-Ananda Body is the all encompassing one, the outermost one if you are drawing a diagram, and then the next one in is the Intuitive Body, and then the Psychological Body and the Energetic Body, and then the Physical Body is the innermost, the one at the center of it all. It's held there, the Physical Body, deep inside the immensity of your primal nature as pure Sat-Chit-Ananda, pure Being/Consciousness/Bliss, pure Sakti/Siva, pure Energy and Intelligence, wrapped in the swaddling garments of the Intuitive Body, the Psychological Body and the Energetic Body, pulsating inside of a bubble, a luminous bubble (aka the Universe, the galaxy, the star, the planet), inside of that radiant bubble, you live and move and breath as a human in this incarnation, as if in the palm of the Goddess' hand, and this is Dreamtime. I suggest to you that turning our understanding of the Five Bodies inside out changes everything -- if we allow it to. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">We have five heads. We have ten arms and ten legs. That's the meaning of all the iconography of goddesses and gods with multiple heads and multiple limbs. Not something outside and beyond to pray to or worship, and not something in the distant future to aspire to over lifetimes of sadhana. No. This is our reality here and now. This is our primal reality. Here and now. And the mystical journey, the quest, whatever name you want to give it, it is nothing more than self-discovery and celebration.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This view changes our understanding of the nature of siddhis (i.e., powers). I suggest that even and especially in your present condition and circumstances, you are dripping with siddhis, bristling with siddhis, siddhis that you have taken for granted throughout your life: the five senses are siddhis, creativity is a siddhi, sleep is a siddhi, common sense is a siddhi, sexuality is a siddhi, sense of humor is a siddhi, walking, dancing, running, singing, all siddhis, powerful, magical powers. Here and now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Hal, Makam and …</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Most of us here tonight identify in some way as being on the path, I experience it as a pathless path in truth, perhaps you do too, but it is also aptly described as mystical path, spiritual path, occult path, yogic path, tantric path, depending upon the shades and hues of your particular predilections …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Forward movement on the path is identified in Sufi terminology as the interplay of Hal (state) and Makam (station). You experience a Hal, some revelation, some exalted state, some breakthrough into vibrating at a higher frequency, and then your baseline changes, your Makam, your station. Hal after Hal, your Makam becomes broader, wider, smoother, deeper ... That's the dynamism of the path ... that's how real Sufism works, and real Bhakti Yoga ...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But whatever you call your path, whatever technologies you rely on, whatever iconography you have decorated your interior reality with, however far the dynamism of Hal and Makam has taken you, it is vital to ... </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Well, I will just read you this excerpt from "</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Chronicles-Epic-Among-Humans/dp/1546377395/">Dragon</a>" -- </span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“There is no way around the psychological realm, or beyond it, the way to traverse it is to go straight through it, there is no other way, no matter how vast your understanding of the Adwaita Vedanta is, it doesn’t matter how profound your realization is, you will still have to make your way through the psychological realm, no, there is no way to transcend it or transmute it or escape beyond it, you have to go through it ..." -- Excerpted from "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Chronicles-Epic-Among-Humans/dp/1546377395/">I, the Dragon: Chronicles of An Epic Life Among the Humans</a>," p. 241</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now my circumstances were extreme, dire, life-altering in irreversible ways. Part of healing is understanding what will never heal, and then adapting as best we can ... But some way or another, some time or another, you have to do some real work in the psychological realm. You can't by-pass it. There are no quick fixes, there are no woo woo solutions. You have to find someone to work with one on one, someone who has actually done the work on themselves, i.e., worked with someone who held the container for them, within an actual modality, someone who is accountable to someone who is accountable. There are no quick fixes. No woo woo solutions! If someone is recommended to you, ask them how they trained, where they trained, what was their process like, how long was it, what work did they do on themselves before they started “helping” others. If what you need to work on in therapy involves child abuse and in particular sexual abuse as a child, you need to find someone who has gone through such abuse themselves, otherwise they really won't be able to help you significantly. If someone tells you how long it will take, they are either lying (maybe to themselves too) and/or don't know what they are talking about. A<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">n authentic psycho-therapist, particularly a<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">n authent<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">i<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">c</span> somatic psycho-therapist is a te<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">chnician o<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">f the sacred just as surely as a<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">n au<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">th<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">enti<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">c curand<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">e<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ra or an authentic shaman<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. But they ar<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">e workin<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">g in different <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">realms<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. The</span> work o<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">f one is no<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">t the work o<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">f the other, they <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">canno<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">t supplant each other.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>The Cauldron of the Dark Goddess</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The second of the new epiphanies, "Cauldron of the Dark Goddess" --</span></div>
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<li>In the beginning, the dark goddess knew a loneliness so fierce that no creature could possibly comprehend it. Indeed, the revelation of such a loneliness would obliterate you before you ever arrived at its fullness. Before the dark goddess there was utter nothingness. She is the shadow of that nothingness, and as she emerged from it she was already dancing. Undulating, she shaped a huge cauldron. And into that cauldron she poured five elements that she pulled from her root, from her yoni, from her brain and from the midnight blue flesh of her vastness. The fresh water of intimate, personal tenderness. The love of the all in one. The salt water of agape. The love of the one in all. The blazing magma at the core. The lava flowing. The blazing hearth. The raging forest fire. The dark wet soil. The adamantine. The avalanche. The high winds that carry the Saharan sands over the Atlantic. Myrrh and frankincense wafting from an altar. The very breath moving in and out of your lungs. And of course Akasha, the laughing, sighing emptiness of space itself. These five elements swirling in the dark goddess' great cauldron form a world, three worlds in one actually. A beauty so exquisite it is unbearable. And then on that three-in-one world, a sorceress takes shape from within the swirling elements. And as she dances, this sorceress casts her own long shadow, and this shadow is itself a portal, which opens back into the being of the dark goddess, whose shadow, in turn, is a portal opening back into the ferocity of that original emptiness. The sorceress stomps on the earth as it engulfs her. She whirls in the fire as it incinerates her. She spreads her great wings into the insatiable hunger of the sky as it devours her. This is the truth of all creation, of every incarnation and of each beat of your heart. How deeply are you willing to lean into this truth? How ready are you to meet what awaits you there? <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/ByYpcvJHuTu/">-- Richard Power, June 2019</a></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Occult Anthropology</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />All of my talks since 2010 have evolved organically, I haven’t been executing some grand vision that was revealed to me, I have just acted upon one intuition after another, but looking back I can see how they are all interconnected and interdependent … </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">D</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">elivered in January 2019, "</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dragon Bone Broth" </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">was maybe the twenty-first or twenty-second of these talks, and it introduced my explorations into what I call "Occult Anthropology." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />The presentation was organized into four sections. <br /><br />The full text, slides and embedded videos are included in posts on this blog:</span><br />
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<li><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2019/03/dragon-bone-broth-in-palace-of-mirrors.html">Palace of Mirrors</a></li>
<li><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2019/03/dragon-bone-broth-stds-spiritually.html">Spiritually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2019/03/dragon-bone-broth-problem-with-men.html">The Problem with Men</a></li>
<li><a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2019/03/dragon-bone-broth-on-nature-of-magical.html">A Taxonomy of Magical Beings</a></li>
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So I am not going to go over it again in this talk, except to say that our work on the classifications of magical and muggle species continues, and to update you on three new areas of research.<br /><br />Two new ways to classify humans (both magical and muggle) have revealed themselves.<br /><br />First, we are looking at whether a creature is feral or non-feral.<br /><br />Note that I did not say "feral or domesticated." This is because our research indicates that the opposite of feral is not "domesticated." We have encountered numerous beings who although raised as "domesticated" humans had strong feral strains in them. Therefore, feralness is not something limited to those among us who have raised ourselves on the streets and on the run. Feralness is something else, something mysterious. It is both a powerful energy and a peculiar way in which psyche and soma are structured. You are either feral or non-feral. It's how you're wired. You could have been raised "domesticated" and yet be quite feral, you could have been raised yourself, on the run, and yet be quite non-feral (although this is much rarer). The origins of feralness remain mysterious, and perhaps that's for the best, but it is detectable, palpable, undeniable. Determining whether a creature is feral or not reveals a lot about their psychology, the nature of their journey here and their reasonable expectations in regard to circumstances and relationships.<br /><br />Second, we are looking at which of the seven <a href="https://biologydictionary.net/phylum/">phylums</a> a human (whether magical or muggle) belongs to, e.g., Chordata (reptile, amphibian, mammal, bird, fish), Mollusca (e.g.octopus, squid, etc.) or Anthropoda (spiders, insect, crabs, etc.). And what family of animal within that phylum the being belongs to, e.g., if within the Cordata phylum, is the human's psyche-soma reptilian or mammalian, etc. or if within the Mollusca phylum, is the human's psyche-soma cephalopod, e.g., octopus?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">How these two new methods of classification relate to the taxonomy of magical and muggle beings is yet to be determined. For now, these classifications are all independent of each other. If, for example, a being is classified as a peri or a centaur or a dakini, it does not mean by definition that being is feral or non-feral or reptilian, mammalian or </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">cephalopod.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>CADS</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Following up on our research into Spiritually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and its various strains, we have discovered a new mystical and mental health issue: "Cognitive Atrophy and Dissolution Syndrome" (CADS). </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">CADS is not an STD. (Although those who have CADS are likely to be ridden with STDs.) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">CADS is a progressive disease, which leads to a kind of atrophy of the cognitive function, and if allowed to rage untreated,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> the utter dissolution of it, i.e. there's no healing it, no getting it back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What does CADS look like?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />A friend of mine, an authentic Tantric worker, posted something about climate change and the sixth great extinction, it wasn’t a political statement, it was a humanistic statement, a mystical statement, a Gaian statement. My glance happen to fall on a comment made by one of her “FB friends”: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">“The Green New Deal is UN global control. Please, please stop spreading this fear based propaganda and use your critical thinking skills to look at the actual facts. The planet changes climate in cycles, along with the other planets in our solar system. Any solution that doesn't involve stopping all wars, and using the advanced antigravity technology the government already has, is ridiculous. Look for global control offered as the solution after all the well-meaning public has worked themselves up into so much fear from articles like these, that they are willing to give up their rights in order for solutions that won't do a thing about the real problems: pollution and deforestation.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Well, that’s just insane.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The comment wasn’t made by someone on that side of the ideological spectrum typically associated with climate change denialism, it was from someone who probably see themselves as either very progressive or somehow beyond politics. T</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">he person's political ideology and aesthetic sensibilities would resonate with ours in many ways. But they're </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">suffering from CADS.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Two years ago, in Manhattan, at a book event for “I, the Dragon,” I found myself engaged in a dialogue with four people in their late 20s or early 30s, creative professionals, living in Brooklyn, They were all emphatically arguing that the earth was flat. They were serious. I offered some tangible proofs and several compelling thought experiments to counter their delusion, but it was a futile effort. These young people were suffering full blown CADS. It's</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> a form of disassociation. I don't think they really believe the earth is flat. I think that just don't really believe that there is any reality at all, so they embrace the absurdity and run with it. And again, these young people weren't from the extreme opposite end of the ideological or cultural spectrum, you and I would resonate with most of their political views and aesthetic sensibilities. They've just been driven crazy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">These are just two examples of those among us suffering from CADS. I could offer you countless others, but you might start recognizing some of your friends, or even yourself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">We have identified several contributing factors in the rise of CADS (it is important to note that all of these contributing factors are PROFOUNDLY BENEFICIAL in many ways, BUT yes there are some UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES and unfortunate side-effects):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Communications and Entertainment Technology: There are successive baselines. First, we had <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-tv-rot-your-brain/">a generation that grew-up watching TV</a>, then they were followed by a generation that grew up watching TV, playing computer games and surfing the Internet, and now we have a generation that has grown up <a href="https://psychcentral.com/news/2018/04/12/survey-heavy-smartphone-use-tied-to-anxiety-loneliness-depression/134590.html">dependent upon the amazing reach of the smartphone</a>. Furthermore, e</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">ach wave of new technologies has been embraced by those who grew up along the previous baseline. And yes, w</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">ith each successive wave, there has been a furthering weakening of the cognitive function. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Social Media: Have you gone down the Rabbit Hole? Gotten lost in the real and/or imaginary lives of others? Gotten lost in generating the stream of your own real and/or imaginary life? Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, down, down, down ... Entranced ... If not checked, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/social-media-mental-health-negative-effects-depression-anxiety-addiction-memory-a8307196.html">it can lead to further weakening</a> of the cognitive function ... Meanwhile, as your social media activity is tagged and analyzed, news stories begin to appear in your feed, news stories which some artificial intelligence has determined would be of interest to you, some of that news is real news, which would indeed be of interest to you, it is benign, but some of that "news" is <a href="https://phys.org/news/2018-07-social-media-globally.html">actually weaponized, toxic, i.e., disinformation.</a> Malignant. Calibrated to send you down a rabbit hole within the rabbit hole. Weaponized disinformation meant, in turn, to weaponize (or disarm) your mind. Some of it generated to serve corporate agendas, some generated to serve geopolitical agendas. Poison. It weakens your</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> cognitive function even further.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Festivals: To walk off the threshing floor for a few days. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">To shed the armor of coping.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> To immerse yourself in the desert or the deep forest. To drop the mask of getting by and getting on, and for just a little while, choose a mask of ritual power. To celebrate. Self-discovery and self-expression. To swim in a sea of resonance. Tribal discovery. Tribal expression. The great festivals of our privileged sojourn on this sacred land. "<a href="https://lightninginabottle.org/">Lightening In A Bottle</a>." "<a href="http://symbiosisgathering.com/">Symbiosis</a>." "<a href="https://twitter.com/enchantedmendo?lang=en">Enchanted Forest</a>." "<a href="https://www.northernnights.org/">Northern Lights</a>." "<a href="https://belovedfestival.com/">Beloved.</a>" "<a href="https://burningman.org/">Burning Man</a>." </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">All this, yes. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Transformative. From burn-out to bliss-up. But tell me, do you organize your life around the festival circuit? Have you come to view the expanded space and slowed down time of the festival experience as not just a needed respite and renewal but somehow more real than the daily grind? Do you harbor the illusion that the altered states induced could or should supplant the ordinary mind of the everyday? You could be suffering CADS.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"Neo-Tantra": If you are wondering why "Neo-Tantra" has been included on this list, you may well be suffering from CADS. Patriarchy is the scourge of our civilization, its profound dysfunction threatens all of the genuine good that has come from our collective evolution, and in the two or three millennia that we have been held in the Patriarchy's vise, no aspect of our primal reality has been as viciously savaged as our sexuality. Humans need authentic sexual healing, collectively and individually, and humans need authentic sexual exploration to realize the potential of passion and pleasure. BUT much, if not most, of what presents itself as such "healing" and "exploration" is crazy-making. Especially if it is led by men. However cleverly disguised, however beautifully adorned, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">it is predominantly driven by aspects of patriarchal perversion. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.bescofield.com/">There is abuse, there is exploitation.</a> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> fantasy world-views conjured up in the ungrounded activities of "Neo-Tantra" can contribute significantly to the further weakening of the cognitive function. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The teaching of Tantra can only be authentic if it is grounded in the reality of what the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Yantra" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Sri Yantra</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> actually reveals. In such authentic, grounded work, sexuality is just one of several vectors into the adventure. It is organically integrated with the whole of the divine architecture of the Sri Yantra. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Plant Medicine: So this is happening. The rise of plant medicine, and by that I mean the movement to popularize and legalize it in our oh-so-ill society. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">From the mystical, occult and shamanic perspectives (yes, all of them), this </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">is one of the most important developments of our time. <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/05/ancient-hallucinogens-oldest-ayahuasca-found-shaman-pouch/">Ayahuasca</a>. Peyote. San Pedro. Iboga. Portals for deep exploration of the soul's vast landscape. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Powerful medicines for the healing of the psyche. Yes. But as in every other great transformative movement, much nonsense and yes abuse gets mixed up with the truest intentions and the purest actions. Too many ingest plant medicine too cavalierly. Too many reel from one experience to the next without authentic work to integrate what has been revealed to them, or more precisely what the plant has attempted to reveal to them. And I mean real work. In other modalities. For example, long-term commitment to somatic psycho-therapy, disciplined, pristine daily meditation, dedicated Tai Chi or Yoga practice, etc. The path has to be full spectrum to truly honor what the plant goddess tells you in the night. And of course, plant medicine abuse would not be possible if it weren't for too many who have re-branded themselves as priests and priestesses of plant medicine, setting themselves up as gatekeepers, when in fact, they are 1) not really working on their own dysfunction in any sustained, full-spectrum way, 2) do not have the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">capacity to truly hold sacred space for the journeys of others, and 3) are a</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">nswerable to no one (except perhaps the IRS for all the money they're taking in). Anyway, if you are going from plant medicine journey to plant medicine journey, and aren't doing the sustained day to day, night to night, week to week, month to month, year to year ordinary mind work of integrating your visions you're at risk. Plant medicine can help optimize your healing journey and accelerate your soul exploration. But plant medicine abuse can just as surely increase your odds of getting CADS.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And just as a reminder, as I said, all of the contributing factors listed here are profoundly beneficial powerful agents of the Ancient Future to come, really, but they also have UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES which can be dangerous if not understood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">There are antidotes and yes, VACCINATIONS, f</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">or example, a) it’s good to periodically unplug from social media for a while b) when on social media, it’s good to not scroll for too long, try not allowing yourself to scroll more than three or four posts either up or down, in any one session, before jumping out of the app, c) reading books, tactile, in paper, novels, works of imagination, instead of just binging on Netflix, binging on Netflix is a wonderful indulgence, therapeutic in its own way, but like all of the elements here it too has unintended consequences, d) having a real job helps, e) chopping wood and carrying water helps, f) taking care to curate the news and information that you consume and share, for example, it’s clear that to just consume mainstream news is mind-warming and false-meme perpetuating, but it’s also true that consuming alternate or counter-culture news and information can be mind-warping and false-meme perpetuating, you have to always ask what is the hidden agenda here, what is the unconscious motivation here, g) and most important, as mentioned above, one's journey of self-discovery, healing self-care must be full-spectrum, you must work, pray, celebrate, love, rage, struggle, surrender, die and be reborn again and again, in all five bodies, in all five dimensions of your primal reality ... Feel the Force/Chi/Prana flowing throughout of all you 24x7 and dance with it, sing with it, speak and move and breath with it ... Take deep self-care of your cognitive functions. Just as surely as you consciously choose what to eat, choose what (and how) you feed your psychological (mental/emotional) and energetic bodies ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>A Temple, Hallowed and Empty </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The third of the new epiphanies, "A Temple, Hallowed and Empty" --</span></div>
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<li>There will come a moment, maybe in the predawn darkness, maybe in the late afternoon sun. In that moment, you will realize that this life has become a sanctuary, a temple, hallowed and empty. Many stories will be scrawled on its walls. Stories of valor. Stories of betrayal. Stories of healing. Stories of heartbreak. Wanderers will enter. Each foot step will echo. Some will sob. Some will drink from the spring in the garden. Some will just sleep. Eventually almost all will move on. Some for better, some for worse. Some may fall into the labyrinth of a new delusion right before your eyes. Often the most gifted. It happens. But a few others will stay on. Portals will open between your sanctuary and the one organically taking shape inside their own beings. This is the way the spiderwoman's web grows stronger, expands farther, reaches deeper. Each such sanctuary is a node on her network. Can you feel the silken roof beams stretching out within you? Can you feel the silken foundations laid deep in your dark ground? Can you feel the four walls? Pulsating, like membrane. Each wall has a door that opens on to a vastness beyond. Through the East and West doors, the sun rises and sets. Simultaneously. Likewise, the moon waxes and wanes. Simultaneously. Through the North and South doors, the planetary poles reveal themselves. For many millions of years, these two poles gazed fiercely into future. But now they weep, and their tears of grief are transforming everything. It didn't have to be this way. Can you feel it? All of this? The hollowed emptiness? The echoing footsteps? The stories of valor and betrayal? The wanderers coming and going? Those who forget right before your eyes? The portals opening? Spiderwoman's web expanding, deepening? The roof beams? The foundations? The walls? The doors opening to the four directions? The moon and sun? The grieving poles of this world? Can you feel it all? Well, then ... <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BwaATGfFJZL/">-- Richard Power, April 2019</a></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b> The Seventh Beast</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The tale of the "Seven Beasts"</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> is one of the structural components that frame the narrative of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Chronicles-Epic-Among-Humans/dp/1546377395/">I, the Dragon</a>.” These "Beasts" are animal energies that came to me at critical junctures on my journey. Five from the natural world -- Lizard, Wolf, Cave Bear, Raven and Vulture. Two from the supernatural world – Dragon and this last "Beast" that I called the 7th Beast. It is a shapeshifter. It has appeared to me in the forms of several different avatars. It is indeed a series of emanations from some deeper dimension of my own being. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Although this shapeshifting avatar has been with me from before the beginning and has appeared over and over in its various forms, we are now very much in the time of the Seventh </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Beast. Recently, it revealed itself in yet another emanation. And this emanation, like Michael and Narasimha had been with me for a long time, I just hadn't recognized it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Lung Ta (Wind Horse)</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">S</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">ometimes a revelation is not something utterly new, but instead, it's some previously unrealized connection between two different threads of insight: suddenly, you see how they were entwined all along, upstream from where they have seemed separate … This painting </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">by the Russian mystic <a href="http://www.roerich.org/">Nicholas Roerich</a> depicts</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> the Lung Ta (the "Wind Horse") carrying the Chinamani (the "Wish Fulfilling Jewel"). Of course, this Wind Horse is also depicted on countless prayers throughout the Himalayas and beyond … </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I was fortunate to often sit up late at night, talking and drinking coffee, with the legendary American sage Joe Miller (my "Yoda"). One night he dug out a small print of this Roerich painting and shared it with me, and told me about a friend of his who had written a lot of good books, this friend had fallen into despair because he felt nothing much had come from all of his work. So Joe brought his friend’s attention to this painting and told him that he was that horse and that he had carried treasures wisdom across the Himalayas and brought vital teachings to the world and that great good would come of it albeit in ways other than he might have imagined or hoped. Anyway I have always remembered that image and the story that went with it. It has been in my consciousness for decades, just hanging there … Concurrently but </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">unconscious of any connection to that image or that moment, a feeling had grown up in me, an attitude, an inner imperative, it told me I had to extract the most important, the most potent, the most direct, the most powerful “secrets,” those open but obscured secrets, and I had to extract them from the tombs of tradition to bring them with me into the now and on into the future, to share them with those who might not otherwise have come across them … </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Indeed, at times, this drive in me had a desperation to it, I have a notebook that I’ve not published, or even referenced, ever before, I don’t think I have, anyway. That notebook is from <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq_42t8gTZ-/">the Death Planet years</a>, from my double down dark night of soul years, from the ultimate Fight or Flight meltdown years. It was a desperation exercise. To extract and distill those secrets from all that I had studied, both experientially and intellectually, to distill it, like tinctures, it was all very technical, there was no poetry in it. I collected it all in this notebook, so that I didn’t need any books with me, so that I wouldn't even need one shelf of books, I could walk away from everything with only this notebook, and still carry the greatest truth, the greatest power, and in the process I was taking it so deep into myself that I didn’t even need the notes. But the notes would exist, and someone sometime would be able to reconstitute a certain depth of truth and power by simply activating it's freeze-dried potentiality with some tear drops. A few bites of the Siva Sutras were in it, and shards of some related Kashmiri texts, e.g. the 112 techniques that the Goddess Devi gave to the world in the Vijnanabhairava. There were a few excerpts from a Bon text on Dzogchen, and a couple of excerpts from the Bhakti Sutras. It was filled with rare gems gathered from here and there, across the millennia … S</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">ince 2010, when the Voice said "It's time to make your move," my focus has been on putting these secrets, these open secrets, into new language for a new reality and threading it through, braiding it, with other strains, strong, rich strands from other realms of the Ancient Future, from both what has not been for a long time and what has already arrived from the time that is yet to come; indeed, the subtitle of "Wyrds of Power" is literally "New Language for A New Reality." And only recently,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> as my glance fell upon the image of the Wind Horse once again, I had the revelation that these two previously known threads had been entwined from before the beginning, and gazing anew at the Wind Horse, I realized it was yet another emanation of the Seventh Beast ...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Chintamani (Wish-Fulfilling Jewel) </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Now what is the Chintamani, the "Wish-Fulfilling Jewel"?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">How do you come into a state in which the nature of the Wish Fulfilling Jewel reveals itself to you? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">How do you become establish in a succession of stations from which you can access and avail yourself of the power of the the Wish-Fulfilling Jewel? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">How do you access the power of the Chintamani?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I want to focus on two sacred words that I’ve stolen from the Buddha Dharma -- Bodhicitta and Bodhisattva. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But I urge you to disregard the dictionary or text-book definitions. Just put all of that aside and come with me into an exploration of their primal meanings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You could describe Bodhicitta a thousand ways, and yet never be able to describe exactly what it is, but each time you would be saying something insightful about it, and if you strung all of the attempts together they would be a beautiful poem: Loving Kindness, Luminous Caring, Irrepressible-Joy-Clarity-of-Mind, Luminous-Mind-Generous-Heart, Boundless-Positivity-Irresistable-Calm ... H</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">ear just a few and you get carried away and just keeping adding variations … </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You could just riff on it and you would always just touch it and it would slip away, but it is always there ... Luminous-Mind-Generous-Heart is a functional description, a useful description; in other words, a mind that's clear and a heart that's open. Technically, we would talk about Relative Bodhicitta and Absolute Bodhichitta. Relative Bodhicitta is when one of us performs an act of kindness, or we try to cultivate in ourselves kindness or cheerfulness in the face of adversity, that's Relative Bodhicitta. Absolute Bodhicitta is what we are utterly immersed in all the time, whether we know it or not, whether we feel it or not, it is the substance of the universe, many people only realize this at the moment of death, or beyond the moment of death, but other people realize it before death, realizing that under the layers of everything that's happening, under all of the swirling, and in and through all of the swirling, the substratum of it all is this incredible power, and this power is love, the secret engine of the world. But a love that is a sea, it isn't directional, it just is, everything rises from it, everything falls back into it, as inconceivable as that truth sometimes seems to us, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Bodhicitta, Bodichitta, Bodhicitta, but not as a state (a Hal) and temporary condition, or a moment, no, Bodhicitta, Bodichitta </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Bodhicitta </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">as the INFINITE RESERVOIR of Loving Kindness or Luminous Caring or Irrepressible-Joy-Clarity-of-Mind or Boundless-Positivity-Irresistible-Calm that we are all steeped in ... </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Now concerning Bodhisattva, we all know the story, the meme, that the arhats go on to paradise after they realize the nature of reality and become fully established in it, bye bye, but the bodhisattvas forswear escape, they vow not to go on until all of humanity is liberated, the Bodhisattvas says "I will be the last one out the door and I will turn off the lights as I leave, I will be the last person of the ship. I will stay until everyone achieves enlightenment." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well, that's the exoteric version of what the Bodhisattva energy is, and what the Bodhisattva attitude is, but I have different feelings, two different feelings, about it all: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For me, it's more like this, "Wait a minute, what? You want me to leave? I don't want to leave this place. I love this world. You mean I could stay? You need somebody to stay? I'll stay. I would love to stay here. This is incredible. You want me to go off to some paradise. No, I want to stay here. I'll stay Sign me up. I will be the last person out. I will turn off the lights behind me. I am staying on this planet with these crazy people and this fucked up situation, I'm in. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Hell, no, I’</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">m</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> staying. I want these five bodies and when it all breaks down I’ll try to get another ticket to ride, so yeah, I’ll stay, I’ll take the night watch, I love it here, leave Gaia? no way … </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That's one way I look at Bodhisattvahood, another way I look at it is like this, "Wait a minute, w</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">hat are you saying? </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Leave now? What about them? </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I’m not leaving without them. I love them. I’m not going to leave them here alone and uncared for.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why would I leave the beings that I love? You mean, oh, I have a ticket, but they don't have tickets, so I'm supposed to use my ticket and leave them behind because they're not ready yet? </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">You don’t just leave behind those you love. Unless you don’t have a choice. You’re telling me I have a choice. Well, I choose to stay with those I love. Where else would I go? Don’t you love anything or anyone? How could you choose otherwise?</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">" So it's not "Alright, I'll stay behind, I'll make this great sacrifice ..." No, it's more like, "What else would you do but stay? Would you abandon your children or your four-legged, IF you had a choice? You wouldn't!" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Someone said to Inayat Khan, "Master, when you talk everyone in the room gets an answer to some question that they never said out loud, how do you have all of this psychic power?" And Inayat Khan said, "I don't have any ... How does a mother just KNOW when her child is sick?" Love is the mode of communication. So the Bodhisattva is just a being who has that kind of feeling that most people might have for a certain someone, or something, or for their family, or for their tribe or their nation, well, the Bodhisattva is just a person who has that kind of love for EVERYTHING! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So then Bodhisattva kind of feels like a different job than "OK, I'll stay and forgo my bliss in paradise until all of these people fall awake," and more like "No, this place is great. I want to stay," and "Leave the creatures that I love? No, I'm not going to leave them." </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"Hell, no, I’m staying," the Bodhisattva says, "I want these five bodies and when it all breaks down I’ll try to get another ticket ride, so yeah, I’ll stay, I’ll take the night watch, I love it here, leave Gaia? No way."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The point is that these two energies, these two attitudes, Bodhicitta, Luminous-Mind-Generous-Heart, and this irreverent, alternate view of Bodhisattvaship that I have offered you tonight, they open us up to the possibility that we ourselves as the Wish-Fulfilling Jewel ...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The Bodhisattva principle, the Bodhisattva imperative, is alive within all of us, within those who has ever loved anyone or anything, within those who have ever opened up to the unspeakable beauty of this world, yes, unspeakable beauty bound just as it is to unspeakable horror. Bring it, I’m in, I’m all in. That’s the Bodhisattvic attitude. It just has to be awakened, and may this Singularity wake it up in a critical mass among us, here together as we all are on the other side of the event horizon, yes, may it spread among us ... </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Bodhicitta is the pure, vital energy of our blessedness, as Goddesses, Gods, and Divine Theys, and Bodhisattvaship is the indefatigable, indomitable attitude of our blessedness as Goddesses, Gods and Divine Theys … </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Embrace these powerful insights into your own nature and Chintamani will become humanifest woomanifest within you, it will be within your grasp and when you grasp it you will be embracing yourself and within that embrace, held there between you and yourself, will be everyone and everything worthy of such magic …</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Chintamani (Wish-Fulfilling Jewel)</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">So about this Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, some might say, "Well, I have wished for many things ..." Yes, but would you know if your wish had actually been answered in some way you didn't expect it to be answered?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel is a portal. Just as incarnation is a portal, and every breath is a portal, and every step is a portal, and every act is a portal, every syllable is a portal, it's all portals, portals opening into portals ... </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And in the throes of that revelation, you will come to see that you yourself, with your five bodies, your five heads, your ten legs and ten arms, and all of our siddhis (creativity, conscience, the phases of sleep, sexuality, sense of humor, common sense, all of it, all of your maha siddhis), yes, you will come to see you yourself are the Wish Fulfilling Jewel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">We ourselves, our lives, our incarnations, are in toto, the Chintamani.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And then, y</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">ou will know for certain that you carry in you what I call our “dash of quantum.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I say "dash of Quantum," and that distinction is important.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">There is a lot of woo-woo nonsense around the notion of "Quantum," some among us talk of the "Quantum field" and there are a lot of "life coach and "ascension guides" telling how you can change your world, change your circumstances, heal yourselves, etc. solely through some kind of mental or "spiritual" manipulation in some so-called "Quantum field." Most of that is nonsense. I'm not talking about some CADS-infused nonsense, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">à la </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_the_Bleep_Do_We_Know!%3F" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">"What the Bleep?"</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">There are the <a href="https://www.livescience.com/the-fundamental-forces-of-nature.html">four fundamental forces of nature </a>(e.g., law of gravity).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And there is <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-chaos-theory-10620">Chaos Theory</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And there is the mystery of Karma. Karma is not some moralistic cause and effect mechanism. Karma is a mystery beyond human comprehension.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And there is also randomness. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Now I know that Einstein said “God does not roll dice,” but I suggest that the Goddess does play with dice. This doesn’t make Einstein wrong, of course, it just factors in another set of dimensions, the God that doesn't role dice, and the Goddess that does role dice occupy the same space. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">It is a divine paradox. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Just don't assume that everything is purposeful, there is randomness in it too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">All of these factors are at work i</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">n ways that are beyond our understanding, and</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> there</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> is an aspect of it all in which something, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">anything,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> can be both wave and particle at once, and so like the fate of Shroedinger’s Cat, it is mysterious, so we reach for our dash of quantum when it seems appropriate, it can’t hurt, maybe we can reverse the field, maybe we can, and we can always at least engage our own perspective in some different way if we choose, if we have the energy for it … </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">E</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">ach of us is an open portal ...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“You must do the impossible," </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> and we act on Greta Thunberg's exhorts, "</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Because giving up can never ever be an option."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Life and Life Only</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The fourth of the new epiphanies, "Life and Life Only" --</span></div>
<ul><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
<li>I remember numerous hells. Vividly. I remember numerous heavens. Vividly. Waves of grief and gratitude. Crashing against the steep cliffs of knowing, the waves intermingle and fall far below into the tide pools of yes. The roaring of this ceaseless tumult reverberates, and from the wall of sound, an utterance rises over and over, like a drumbeat: "Life and life only." Late some night, at a time not yet known to me, the sands in this hourglass will run out, and without hesitation, I will reach for the next heaven, and the next hell, feeling ahead of my shadow and on into the Mysterium. Stepping through one portal after another, I will pursue it all again and again. "Life and life only." When your heart is broken, beyond all healing, I encourage you to reach into the open wound and feel for the new heart that is being birthed deep within the tears. Even when your mind seemingly shatters, I want you to reach into the chaos and feel for the new mind being birthed from those countless, vicious shards. It is all an endlessness. "Life and life only." You carry a rolled up parchment sewn into your Elvin cloak, whether you have hidden it from yourself or not. Written there, in your own blood, is a short list of true would-have-beens or should-have-beens. Late some night, at a time not yet known to you, that parchment will erupt in flames and devour itself. All that will be left behind in what the great Comte de Lautréamont aptly termed "the Cage of Time" will be the deep amethyst mine of your heart, the fractal-generating engine of your psyche and the tremulous, ever-shimmering membrane of your soma. And you will offer it, for whatever it is worth, to those few who dare enter. "Life and life only." This is the truth. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B122WSFHNjQ/">-- Richard Power, August 2019</a></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wyrds-Power-New-Language-Reality/dp/1533410690/">"Wyrds of Power"</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Chronicles-Epic-Among-Humans/dp/1546377395/">"I, the Dragon" </a></b></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-27743616220670868342019-07-21T23:40:00.001-07:002019-08-31T21:10:43.915-07:00Lean Forward from Within the Vortex and the Vortex Moves with You: Words of Power and the Yoga of Primal Reality -- 2019-2020 Programme <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d_qDfIkQoiU/XTVRjZ6p06I/AAAAAAAAE_w/OamiSfgeQsYUd9CBecceiR3LxxspLH5_ACLcBGAs/s1600/nike-victory-goddess-of-samothrace-appears-in-a-tree-bathed-in-light.jpg%2521Large.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="325" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d_qDfIkQoiU/XTVRjZ6p06I/AAAAAAAAE_w/OamiSfgeQsYUd9CBecceiR3LxxspLH5_ACLcBGAs/s640/nike-victory-goddess-of-samothrace-appears-in-a-tree-bathed-in-light.jpg%2521Large.jpeg" width="345" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Salvador Dali -- Nike, Victory Goddess of Samothrace, Appears in a Tree Bathed in Light (c. 1977)</td></tr>
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<br />
“The moon in all her immaculate purity hung in the sky, laughing at this world of dust. She congratulated me for my carefully considered maneuvers and invited me to share in her eternal solitude.” -- Shan Sa, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/801708">Empress</a><br />
<br />
“I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone.” -- Rainer Maria Rilke<br />
<div>
<br />
"Now I understand<br />
why the old poets of China went so far and high<br />
into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.”<br />
-- Mary Oliver, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/69388">Why I Wake Early</a></div>
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“The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.”<br />
-- Aldous Huxley<br />
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<br />
IN RESPONSE TO NUMEROUS INQUIRIES:</div>
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<br /></div>
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We are over half way through 2019 and hurtling toward 2020.<br />
<br />
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This year and next frame an important cycle for me, the third in a sequence.<br />
<br />
<b>Red Pill or Blue Pill?</b><br />
<br />
During the first cycle (2010-2015), I delivered 15 public talks and shared 126 “epiphanies,” which I organized into 5 books, consisting of 633 pages, 125,759 words and 209 images.<br />
<br />
The second cycle (2016-2018) was a period of consolidation, culmination and roll-out, in which I wove those 5 books into a single all-inclusive volume, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1533410690/">"Wyrds of Power: New Language for A New Reality"</a> and also wrote and published <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1546377395/">"I, the Dragon: Chronicles of An Epic Life Among the Humans"</a> Part autobiographical novel, part world history, "Dragon" tells the story of my six decade journey into and through the Mysterium. Both "Wyrds" and "Dragon" are now available via Amazon.com.<br />
<br />
"Dragon" can be purchased in either <a href="https://www.amazon.com/I-Dragon-Richard-Power/dp/1983912050/">black and white</a> or <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1546377395/">full color</a> editions.<br />
<br />
These are important works. Maybe the future will validate my boast, maybe it won't. But you can avail yourself of this medicine. In the here and now. After all, you have ears to see and eyes to hear. You are engaged in an ever deepening awakening into your own primal reality. You are willing to bear witness to the naked truth of our circumstances. You feel the arc of human evolution.<br />
<br />
Of course, those who just want a better dream should take the other pill.<br />
<br />
It's the same choice that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ1_IbFFbzA">Morpheus</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EgazvVNknA">the Oracle</a> offered Neo.<br />
<br />
<b>Yoga of Primal Reality</b><br />
<br />
In this third cycle (2019 and 2020), I have three major concentrations:<br />
<ul>
<li>Continuing to promote "Wyrds" and "Dragon" </li>
<li>Production and release of audio books version of both "Wyrds" and "Dragon"</li>
<li>Leading "Dragon Medicine: The Yoga of Primal Reality" -- a monthly two-hour yoga and meditation practice in a sacred, legendary venue in downtown San Francisco.</li>
</ul>
<br />
"Dragon Medicine" is free, but it's invitation only, because the space is limited to eleven mats.<br />
<br />
This practice is an intimate journey into Meditation, Breath, Sound, Yoga (Hatha Flow and Yin), Self-Healing Energy Work and Occult Philosophy. Ours is a time of great crisis and peril in the nation and on the planet. In such times, genuine, life-affirming self-care is itself a potent rEvolutionary act.<br />
<br />
In sharing deep practices, in authentic presence with each other, we not only heal and nourish ourselves for the road ahead, we also create an etheric bubble in which powerful beneficent energies are generated. "Bodhicitta, Bodhicitta, Bodhicitta ..." These energies are, in turn, utilized by those unseen beings dedicated to holding this world together.<br />
<br />
If you're interested, message me either via Facebook or Instagram.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://matrix.fandom.com/wiki/Jacking_in">Jacking In</a></b><br />
<br />
Meanwhile ...<br />
<br />
The hub of my online presence is <a href="http://wordsofpower.earth/">http://wordsofpower.earth</a>.<br />
<br />
The three most recent posts are of particular import:<br />
<br />
In "<a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2019/06/pull-yourselves-together-seven.html">Pull Yourselves Together. Seven Imperatives As We Enter the 2020 Vortex</a>," I offer perspective on the harrowing gauntlet from where we are to election day (i.e., judgment day): November 3rd, 2020.<br />
<br />
"Pull Yourselves Together" articulates seven rEvolutionary imperatives for those leaning forward:<br />
<ol>
<li>How This All Came to Be</li>
<li>Mueller's Mission</li>
<li>Freeing the White House</li>
<li>Freeing the Senate</li>
<li>Who We Really Are</li>
<li>The Bitterest Lesson</li>
<li>The Inner Challenge</li>
</ol>
"<a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2019/05/this-eden-does-not-tolerate-cowards_1.html">This Eden Does Not Tolerate Cowards -- A Personal/Universal Review of Richard Power’s 'I, THE DRAGON' (NSFW)</a>" is an in-depth analysis written by gifted poet and philosopher Emily Shurr.<br />
<br />
Emily's essay is in itself a work of brilliance.<br />
<br />
"Dragon Bone Broth" was the first of two public talks in 2019 (look for the second in September).<br />
<br />
Previewed at the Theosophical Society of San Francisco on 1/18/19, the full version was delivered a month later via Facebook Live on 2/17/19. It is composed of several segments. Each segment could be a talk on its own, or a book on its own. But I just stirred it all into this black pot.<br />
<br />
Subsequently, I posted each segment here (including text, PowerPoint slides and embedded videos:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2019/03/dragon-bone-broth-in-palace-of-mirrors.html">"Dragon Bone Broth: In the Palace of Mirrors"</a><br />
<a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2019/03/dragon-bone-broth-stds-spiritually.html"><br /></a>
<a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2019/03/dragon-bone-broth-stds-spiritually.html">"Dragon Bone Broth: STDs (Spiritually Transmitted Delusions)"</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2019/03/dragon-bone-broth-problem-with-men.html">"Dragon Bone Broth: The Problem of Men (And Some Radical Remedies"</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2019/03/dragon-bone-broth-on-nature-of-magical.html">"Dragon Bone Broth: On the Nature of Magic, Magical Beings and the Structure of the Magical World"</a><br />
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You can find other spoken word artifacts of my work on both my YouTube channel and SoundCloud:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/rgpowerIII/">https://www.youtube.com/rgpowerIII/</a><br />
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/wordsofpower/">https://soundcloud.com/wordsofpower/</a><br />
<br />
And as we move deeper into the Vortex, I will continue to contribute to the collective stream of consciousness 24x7 via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/wordsofpower">http://twitter.com/wordsofpower</a><br />
<a href="http://facebook.com/wordsofpower">http://facebook.com/wordsofpower</a><br />
<a href="https://instagram.com/rgpoweriii/">https://instagram.com/rgpoweriii/</a><br />
<br />
<b>Private Consultation</b><br />
<br />
I am not teaching public classes, and probably won't be, except perhaps for occasional workshops, but I am available for private consultation on yoga and meditation.<br />
<br />
If you have a developed yoga practice, but want to deepen your relationship with meditation, or if you have developed meditation practice but want to bring asana and flow into your inner work, AND/OR ESPECIALLY if you are on some path of healing from deep trauma, PTSD, etc., OR you are a creative (e.g., poet, painter, performer, programmer) in need of cultivating a greater well-being and an authentic relationship to the divine in the five bodies, I have some insights to share.<br />
<br />
As with the monthly "Yoga of Primal Reality" practice, if you're interested, message me either via Facebook or Instagram.<br />
<br />
<b>Sands in the Hourglass</b><br />
<br />
The exact number of sand grains in the hourglass is unknown, all we know is that it is a finite number. So I take nothing for granted anymore. Not tonight, and certainly not tomorrow. I asked the Universe if She would give me this year and next, and I simultaneously declared to the three worlds that I would take this year and next. Lean forward from within the Vortex, and the Vortex moves with you.<br />
<br />
Om Ah Hung Benzar Guru Peme Siddhi Hung. Om Sri Matre Namaha, Jai Ambe Gauri, Jaya Shyaamaa Gauri, Jaya Jagatambe, Hey Maa Durga. Om Ah Hung Benzar Guru Peme Siddhi Hung. Om Sri Matre Namaha, Jai Ambe Gauri, Jaya Shyaamaa Gauri, Jaya Jagatambe, Hey Maa Durga.<br />
<br />
-- Richard Power</div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9FBwiBIJvS4/XTVP4YPZQfI/AAAAAAAAE_k/YPrRDKPCEWgqljoO_EobUlY646-85u7zgCLcBGAs/s1600/the-damsel-of-the-sanct-grael-or-holy-grail-1874.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="962" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9FBwiBIJvS4/XTVP4YPZQfI/AAAAAAAAE_k/YPrRDKPCEWgqljoO_EobUlY646-85u7zgCLcBGAs/s640/the-damsel-of-the-sanct-grael-or-holy-grail-1874.jpg" width="399" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Dante Gabriel Rossetti -- "Damsel of the Sanct Grael" (1874)</td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15420283.post-82547485858333082972019-06-29T07:41:00.002-07:002019-07-09T15:18:02.793-07:00Pull Yourselves Together. Seven Imperatives As We Enter the 2020 Vortex. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GgdxexqWUM0/XRllPcGWNDI/AAAAAAAAE-Y/DeanV9C6i4AzwMlD4qqEYA43VElfv4KuQCLcBGAs/s1600/10628366_10205001137568067_2240822059521686112_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="417" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GgdxexqWUM0/XRllPcGWNDI/AAAAAAAAE-Y/DeanV9C6i4AzwMlD4qqEYA43VElfv4KuQCLcBGAs/s400/10628366_10205001137568067_2240822059521686112_n.jpg" width="260" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Edward S. Curtis - Mohave Water Carrier (1903)</td></tr>
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<i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Former President Jimmy Carter questioned the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s presidency on Friday, adding that a full investigation of the 2016 election would likely prove that Trump only won because of Russia’s assistance “There’s no doubt that the Russians did interfere in the election and I think the interference, although not yet quantified, if fully investigated would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016,” Carter said during a panel discussion hosted by the Carter Center. “He lost the election and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf.” When asked if he believed that Trump was, therefore, an illegitimate president, Carter responded: “Based on what I just said, which I can’t retract.” The extraordinary comments marked some of the harshest language a former US president has ever directed at a sitting president. They came just hours after Trump, who is in Japan for the G20 summit, appeared to once again belittle the threat of foreign interference in US elections.</i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/06/jimmy-carter-donald-trump-illegitimate/" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">-- Inae Oh, Jimmy Carter Calls Donald Trump an “Illegitimate” President Who Only Won Because of Russia, Mother Jones, 6/28/19</a><br />
<br />
<i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">All the biggest Trump scandals are concentrated into this week. His administration is torturing children. He's credibly accused of rape. He's joking with Putin about murdering journalists. And our political system has lost the capacity to respond.</i><a href="https://twitter.com/michelleinbklyn/status/1144626164687888384" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"> -- Michelle Goldberg (@michelleinbklyn), 6/28/10 </a><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Pull Yourselves Together. Seven Imperatives </b></span><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">As We Enter the</b><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"> </b><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">2020 </b><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Vortex. </b><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"> </b></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here we are. At the barricades. For the greatest struggle of our time. This nation itself is dangling over the precipice, held up by just a few frayed threads.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At this juncture, I can’t really sort out who I find more annoying: </span><br />
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Liberals with blind spots toward leftists</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Leftists with blind spots toward the liberals, or ...</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Liberals and leftists with blind spots toward the “Never Trump” refugees from the cult formerly known as the “Republican Party”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Perhaps most annoying are those, whether liberal or leftist, who hide behind cynicism, the kind of cynicism that denies the wealth of factual evidence showing we can win this struggle (it's such bad juju)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And, of course, I should also mention all of those among us engaged in "spiritual by-passing," imagining that they have evolved beyond the dirty work of politics and social action.</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Just pull yourselves together. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That's the message I keep feeling to communicate to those on the left and right of me, here at the barricades. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Just pull yourselves together. And lean forward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Many years ago I decided I wouldn’t enter into dialogue about geopolitics and security issues in the Middle East with anyone unless they could either pass a test I wrote, consisting of 20 multiple choice questions about the political history of the region, or alternately write me a coherent essay on Robert Fisk’s voluminous “Great War for Civilization: Conquest of the Middle East.” T</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">hat decision has served my sanity well. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />Recently, I pondering doing the same concerning our domestic political crisis. A test composed of twenty multiple choice questions, but without the alternative essay-writing option, since no single tome comprehensively frames this crisis.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So instead, I will just post these seven rEvolutionary imperatives for consideration:</span></div>
<ul><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
<li>1. How This All Came to Be</li>
<li>2. Mueller's Mission</li>
<li>3. Freeing the White House</li>
<li>4. Freeing the Senate</li>
<li>5. Who We Really Are</li>
<li>6. The Bitterest Lesson</li>
<li>7. The Inner Challenge</li>
</span></ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you resonate with all or any of these imperatives, I urge you to share them on the barricades, with those to the left and right of you. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Because this is it. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The end and the beginning. Of everything.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">
"Give me your tired, your poor, </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Goddess of Liberty, New York Harbor, U.S.A.</div>
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<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>1. How This All Came to Be</b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is imperative to know the how and why of what has befallen us. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What made it possible for sociopathy as a philosophy of governance to take control of the horizontal and the vertical?</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Corporations are not people, and money is not speech. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To declare that they are is </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">the moral and political equivalent of Orwell's "2 + 2 = 5." </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And yet, tragically, these absurd notions</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">have been used to pervert our democratic institutions. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> greatest spiritual damage has been done to the political organization formerly known as "the Republican Party." The "GOP" is now functionally little more than a Zombie Death Cult controlled by Death-Eater Overlords. "</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Citizens United" and all that flowed from it has acted upon the "Republican" psyche like some powerful narcotic. And l</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ike crack or meth, this </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">narcotic is fast, and devastating. It strips you of your humanity. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Of course, the "Republican Party" has been skidding downward for decades. From Reagan's "Kitchen Cabinet" to G.W. Bush's "Pioneers" to the Koch Brothers to Adelson and the Mercers and finally to those butchers of journalists, Putin, the Oligarch of Oligarchs, and MSB, the Crown Prince of Saudia Arabia. It is debilitative. The Republicans of the Reagan-Bush era would not have allowed Putin's weaponized clown and his toxic male Neo-Nazi clique to take over their party, nor would even the Republicans of the</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Bush-Cheney era</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. But the "Republicans" of the <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/153275/mitch-mcconnell-profile-nihilist-chief">Mitch McConnell</a> era Zombie Death Cult? </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Yes, filthy lucre has turned the "Republican" Senate caucus into a den of campaign cash drug addicts. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">just as some drug addicts have pimped out their children, "Republican" office holders have now </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">pimped out their own nation.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was a very slippery slope, and we are at the bottom now.</span><br />
<br /></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Edith Vonnegut -- Day 60 of the First 100 Days of Trump:</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
FBI director James Comey confirms they are investigating ties </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
between the President’s campaign and Russia. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Title: Angel Roasting Little Devils</div>
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<b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">2. Mueller's Mission</b></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is imperative to acknowledge what David Corn accurately frames as <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/trump-mueller-report-russia/">"the greatest scandal in American history."</a> And Robert Mueller has made this acknowledgement possible with <a href="https://youtu.be/BIBr2szoJE0">his Report</a>. If he could have done more, he would have. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That's the truth. He said as much himself, albeit in DoJ speak. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mueller made the tough decisions necessary to ensure that the Report itself could get written and published. W</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">hat he did was of vital importance and powerful agency, but only IF you are willing to hear the story it tells and share that story with your fellow citizens before it is too late.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><i><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Chauncey DeVega:</b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> In your new book "Siege: Trump Under Fire," you claim that Robert Mueller had actually written a draft document indicting Donald Trump for obstruction of justice. Obviously, Mueller then decided to not go down that path. Why not?</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><b>Michael Wolff: </b>I don't know what was on Robert Mueller's mind. The Mueller investigation was two years behind closed doors — which is in itself a little odd. Mueller came out and said, "The report speaks for itself." In fact, the report is not very clear. I may not know what was on Robert Mueller's mind, but I do know that among the documents that I have are a set of research papers on the nature of the special counsel's office itself. These papers conclude that the Office of the Special Counsel is a pretty fragile construct. Can the president of the United States directly fire the special counsel? These researchers concluded the answer is "yes." If the special counsel's office is closed down, what happens to the work product? The answer is not clear. But is it possible that in this case, Mueller's findings could have been destroyed? Just run through the shredder? Yes. So I think Mueller came to focus on his own vulnerability. I think that Mueller came to see his goal here as not just holding Donald Trump accountable but as not being fired. Because if Mueller is fired then he is not able to hold Trump and his inner circle accountable in any way. Remember, there are people within the special counsel's office such as Andrew Weissman, who are among the most aggressive pursuers of white-collar criminals. It would have been perfectly logical for the special counsel's team to formulate the kind of indictment that they thought might have been possible and then to make the argument that the special counsel — despite standing Justice Department policy — could in fact indict a sitting president. So where does Bob Mueller come out on that? I think in the end Mueller decided, "Let's stay in business." Mueller's decision was to be Delphic, really, rather than prosecutorial.</i> </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/06/18/michael-wolff-on-why-mueller-didnt-indict-trump-was-ready-to-blow-up-everything/?fbclid=IwAR35sBMPWJpzRG5TycG_hsRDhc5q4PeulZ74A9uqmjI2GgKB5Amj0ERTNDw" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">-- Chauncey DeVega, </span><span style="color: #212529; font-family: "domaine display extra bold" , sans-serif;">Michael Wolff on why Mueller didn't indict: Trump was ready to "blow up everything," Salon, 6/18/19</span></a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
“Now I Am Speaking to the Whole World.”</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Greta Thunberg, Time Magazine Cover, May 2019</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>3. Freeing the White House</b></span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is imperative to hold a bold but open perspective on the race for the Democratic presidential nomination and to share it with those to the left and right of you</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is not a surprise at all that <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/elizabeth-warren-presidential-campaign-2020/">Elizabeth Warren</a> and <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/06/28/kamala-harris-leaves-joe-biden-a-smoking-crater-in-second-democratic-debate/">Kamala Harris</a> emerged emboldened leaders after the first two debates of the campaign. Months ago, I wrote that the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nominee should be a woman, and she should probably run with a woman as her vice presidential nominee. The nominee should be a woman with serious experience in government. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Of course, i</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">f she is in a position to win, she will probably have taken at least a few policy positions, in the past (or even now) with which you vehemently disagree. You will have to cope with that, and so will she. Ideological purity is a luxury we can't afford. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Elections have consequences. Dire consequences. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I prayed that Biden and Sanders wouldn't run. Biden isn't the Biden of 2008 or 2012, and Sanders isn't the Sanders of 2016. Nevertheless, whoever emerges from among the credible, viable, plausible candidates (and that excludes the likes of <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/tulsi-gabbards-campaign-is-being-boosted-by-russophiles">Tulsi Gabbard</a> or <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/4/22/18300323/seth-moulton-running-for-president">Seth Moulton</a>), the nominee must not be savaged, the nominee must be rallied around, the nominee must be propelled forward.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Furthermore, and this is very important, do not assume that Trump will actually be the Republican candidate. Seriously. The wheel is still in spin. The Mueller Report and all that flows on behind it is still in play. Trump's grip on reality is gone, his grip on power is slipping. How would Biden or Sanders look running against Nicki Haley or John Kasich. If Trump craters, and he is forced to resign, the mainstream news media will instantly become infatuated with the new "Republican" candidate, whoever it is, even Pence. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Democratic candidate must be adept in more than one style of the political martial arts.</span><br />
<b><br /></b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>4. Freeing the Senate</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is imperative to understand that in 2020, it may be more important to hold the House and take the Senate than even to win the White House itself.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For example, the</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> House could prepare articles of impeachment and but only pass them for trial in the Senate AFTER McConnell's perverse reign has been ended. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And either way there would be no more <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/progressive-groups-congress-investigate-brett-kavanaugh">Kavanaughs</a> or <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/bill-barrs-dangerous-pursuit-executive-power/592951/">Barrs</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Taking the Senate is a daunting task, not only because of Citizens United, but also because of the inherent corporatist bias of the mainstream news media. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nevertheless, the Tsunami that swept away Zombie Cult control of the House in 2018 was just the first. We are in the throes of a Teletsunami, i.e., a series of waves. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Also, Zombie Cult control of the Senate is more vulnerable to overthrow than in 2018. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This time around, 22 of the 34 seats being voted upon are held by "Republicans." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Only 3 or 4 seats would have to be turned.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
"I freed a thousand slaves </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
I could have freed a thousand more</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
if only they knew they were slaves."</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Harriet Tubman (1885)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
National Portrait Gallery</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>5. Who We Really Are</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />It is imperative to drink in the reality of who we really are, and who we are becoming, and share it loudly and widely. The dominant narrative is a false narrative. Yes, we are a conflicted nation, we are deeply but not evenly divided, we are not a largely racist, misogynistic and homophobic nation. This false narrative is shredding before our eyes. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is all in the beauty of the mathematics. Consider this. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /><i>The generation gap is even more powerful when it comes to Republicans. To put it bluntly, young adults hate them.<br />In 2018, voters under 30 supported Democratic House candidates over Republican ones by an astounding 67 percent to 32 percent. A <a href="https://www.people-press.org/2018/03/20/1-trends-in-party-affiliation-among-demographic-groups/">2018 Pew survey</a> found that 59 percent of millennial voters identify as Democrats or lean Democratic, while only 32 percent identify as Republicans or lean Republican.<br />The difference is ideological. <a href="https://www.people-press.org/2018/03/01/the-generation-gap-in-american-politics/">According to Pew</a>, 57 percent of millennials call themselves consistently liberal or mostly liberal. Only 12 percent call themselves consistently conservative or mostly conservative. This is the most important statistic in American politics right now.<br />Recent surveys of Generation Z voters (those born after 1996) find that, if anything, they are even more liberal than millennials ...</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>But it’s hard to look at the generational data and not see long-term disaster for Republicans. Some people think generations get more conservative as they age, but that is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/us/gop-liberal-america-millennials.html?module=inline">not borne out</a> by the evidence. Moreover, today’s generation gap is not based just on temporary intellectual postures. It is based on concrete, lived experience that is never going to go away.</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Unlike the Silent Generation and the boomers, millennials and Gen Z voters live with difference every single day. Only 16 percent of the Silent Generation is minority, but <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/16/how-millennials-compare-with-their-grandparents/">44 percent</a> of the millennial generation is. If you are a millennial in California, Texas, Florida, Arizona or New Jersey, ethnic minorities make up more than half of your age cohort. In just over two decades, America will be a majority-minority country.<br />Young voters approve of these trends. Seventy-nine percent of millennials think immigration is good for America. <a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/01/17/generation-z-looks-a-lot-like-millennials-on-key-social-and-political-issues/psdt_1-17-19_generations-00/">Sixty-one percent</a> think racial diversity is good for America.<br />They have constructed an ethos that is mostly about dealing with difference. They are much more sympathetic to those who identify as transgender. They are much more likely than other groups to say that racial discrimination is the main barrier to black progress. They are much less likely to say the U.S. is the best country in the world.<br />These days the Republican Party looks like a direct reaction against this ethos — against immigration, against diversity, against pluralism. Moreover, conservative thought seems to be getting less relevant to the America that is coming into being.</i> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/opinion/republicans-generation-gap.html">-- David Brooks, The Coming GOP Apocalypse, New York Times, 6/3/19</a></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/opinion/republicans-generation-gap.html"><br /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /><br /><b>6. The Bitterest Lesson</b><br /><br />Franco's triumph and long reign is one of the bitterest lessons of the 20th Century. It is</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> imperative that you take in the full import of</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> this bitterest lesson and share the message with those to the left and right of you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Trump's base is less than the actual base of the Zombie Death Cult formerly known as "the Republican Party," which is itself a minority party. Look at what the Zombie Cult has to do to hold on to power, even with the evil twin notions (i.e., corporations are people, and money is speech), even with Citizens United and subsequent rulings having removed even some of the most basic campaign finance restrictions, even with the inherent corporatist bias of mainstream news media, the Zombie Death Cult and its Death-Eater Overlords still has to implement large scale voter suppression and gerrymandering to keep their grip on power. And, in 2016, not even all of this could get Trump elected; in 2016, it was the black ops of Putin that erased the margins. And by black ops I don't just mean social media manipulation or the treachery of Assange (yes, that's what I said, the treachery of Assange). It is indeed unfortunate that it was <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/russia-jill-stein-2016-election-interference-48dff3966227/">Jill Stein </a>who pursued the recount in MI, WS and PA. Clinton won, and I don't just mean the popular vote.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So yes, Trump's base is less than the actual base of the Zombie Death Cult formerly known as "the Republican Party," which is itself a minority party. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Franco's base was small. Never more than what? 35% of the population? </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And yet, Franco ruled Spain, with a clenched fascist fist, for almost FORTY YEARS! </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why? How? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Franco was willing to lie, cheat, kill and torture. He was ruthless. Franco was willing to do what he had to do to hold on to power. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">AND even though those forces arrayed against Franco, the centrists, the liberals, the socialists, the communists and the anarchists, constituted an overwhelming majority, they could not form a successful united front against the fascists. If the united front had indeed been a united front, if it had held together, emphasizing shared values and putting aside serious differences, in service to the greater good, the common good, for the sake of human decency and sanity, Franco would not have gained power.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>7. The Inner Challenge</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The seventh and most vital imperative is to fully embrace the inner challenge. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For a true united front to take shape in the streets, at the ballot box, on the air waves, it must begin in our own psyches, in our own beings. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Can you make enough space in your being to allow for liberals with blind spots for leftists, and leftists with blind spots for liberals, and liberals and leftists with blind spots for the "Never Trump" true Republican refugees from the Zombie Cult and Putin's weaponized clown, even for those liberals and leftists who hide behind the veil of cynicism (if you can keep them from discouraging everyone around them), even for those who are attempting to avoid political action through spiritual by-passing (assuming you can get them to vote)? Can you hold space for those Never Trump neocon refugees, for <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/the-lie-to-end-all-lies-nicolle-wallace-goes-line-by-line-in-epic-fact-check-of-trump/">Nichole Wallace</a>, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://wapo.st/2HTSmo4">Max Boot</a>,</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2019/03/spineless-gop-senators-regurgitate-trumps-garbage-get-burned-ground-conservative-commentator/">Jennifer Rubin</a>, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">even </span><a href="https://twitter.com/billkristol/status/1134137830299590656?lang=en" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Bill Kristol</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">? We must stand shoulder to shoulder. We must find common ground. Somehow we need to create a coalition broad, strong and resilient enough to embrace almost everyone from <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1077776366450429958">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> to <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/justin-amash-tweets-trump-impeachment"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Justin Amash</span></a>. Can you hold them all in your being, stand shoulder to shoulder with them, and lean forward together? This is the inner challenge. It is how a true united front is coalesced. It doesn't have to be called a united front, it just has to contain enough of us meeting this inner challenge, enough of us, left, right and center, to hold the line all along the length of this barricade.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To do this, to create this space, to be this accommodation, you will have to play three-dimensional chess. <a href="https://words-of-power.blogspot.com/2018/10/four-occult-secrets-of-evolutionary.html">Just as I wrote in the lead up to the 2018 mid-term elections</a>. Can you hold opposite truths in the space of your being? Can you feel how Pelosi's slow walk toward impeachment occupies the same space as the urgency of those howling for her to hurry? Can you feel how the </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">shadowy dignity of </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mueller's cryptic silences occupies the same space as the legitimate frustration of those wanting more clarity than has been offered up in the mysterious DoJ kabuki he has been performing? Can you feel how contradictory truths can occupy the same space? Can you work with the dynamism of paradox? Don't be intimidated. You already know how to play three-dimensional chess. If you feel deep, authentic empathy, you know how to play. If you can whisper the word of power that looses the dragon-fire of courage, you know how to play. You're actually damn good at it. The mastery is within you. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We must all be sorceresses and wizards now. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Pull yourselves together. Lean forward. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the time. This is it. The greatest struggle of our time. For the nation herself, for the planet herself, for the goddess of liberty herself, for agape.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Abyss upon abyss stretch out before us. What to do about the Supreme Court. What to do about the Electoral College. What to do about the state legislatures, in order to purge the disease of gerrymandering. But do not despair. Our</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">constitutional</span> republic is like an eco-system, if you give the process a jump start, it will begin to heal itself, and it will move swiftly. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It has an emotional intelligence of its own, it's just been traumatized.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is up to us to conjure this deep magic. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The mainstream news media had a bit of a renaissance, under Trump's unprecedented assaults, but only just as long as Mueller was out there, investigating, because while Mueller was still at work, there was a reasonable hope that the smoking gun would be found and that Trump would be forced from office.<i><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/paul-manafort-looking-disheveled-assailed-at-hearing-for-16-new-charges-traitor"> Oh, the smoking gun was found, it's Manafort himself, he is the evidence,</a></i> he himself is the lynchpin, but he didn't sing, even when he swore he would, he didn't so here we are. Now the mainstream news media is showing signs of getting weak-kneed again, and reflexively falling back into the bad campaign coverage habits that helped give rise of Trump. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So this is a very dangerous time. The danger deepens night after night, week after week. We need unite, sane left, sane right and sane center, we need to stand shoulder to shoulder and sort the rest out later. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mueller needed to prosecute what he could, gather all of the evidence he could find and document it all in a published report. That got done. The Democrats needed to take the House of Representatives in the mid-term. That got done. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now Trump needs to be defeated and the Zombie Cult grip on the Senate needs to be broken. We need to do both really, but at a bare minimum we need to hold the House and win either the White House or the Senate. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The alternative is unthinkable, and its already crossed your mind, hasn't it?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">-- Richard Power, Author, Speaker, Yoga Teacher. His <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1533410690/">"Wyrds of Power: New Language for A New Reality"</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Chronicles-Epic-Among-Humans/dp/1546377395/">"I, the Dragon: Chronicles of An Epic Life Among the Humans"</a> are both available from Amazon.com</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3Mg-tmL21VU/XRlpLcpZIHI/AAAAAAAAE-w/eDApNtXiRAALAGPKeikDfIxLUyIJpooFgCLcBGAs/s1600/childern-mexican-laborer-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="894" height="312" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3Mg-tmL21VU/XRlpLcpZIHI/AAAAAAAAE-w/eDApNtXiRAALAGPKeikDfIxLUyIJpooFgCLcBGAs/s400/childern-mexican-laborer-large.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dorothea Lange - Children of Mexican Cotton Laborers, Casa Grande, Arizona (1936)</td></tr>
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