Tag: #neo-nazi’s

Opinion: Spiritually Bypassing Politics?

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OPINION: Spiritually Bypassing Politics?

 

OPINION: Spiritually Bypassing Politics?

By Vajra Ma

**For the purposes of this discussion I am not distinguishing between religion which is based in dogma and spirituality which is largely free from specified beliefs. Both come under the umbrella of a world view, that is, who are we, what is Life about, what are we here on Earth for and what is our place in the Cosmos?

The Spiritual is Political

“The personal is political” is a well known phrase in feminism. I go further. I maintain “the spiritual is political.” The spiritual view of a people is what determines politics. It determines the structures of government, corporations, academia, society overall, including family, sexuality, and human rights. To see how the spiritual is political one need only look at the Project 2025 agenda which is rolling out in the United States today, roundly supported by the right wing Christian evangelicals and the right wing Republicans in Congress. The agenda is to dismantle the government and turn the United States into a Christian Nationalist Nation. This is not my opinion, it is a fact. The slimmest of research into the Project 2025 makes this clear. It is no secret.

Treat and Move Your Feet

A phrase used in some spiritual circles is “treat and move your feet.” Treat meaning pray, move your feet means take outward action. What does it mean for me to move my feet? It is one thing to have been apolitical in the past, quite another to be apolitical at this pivotal point in United States history when democracy is being dismantled and fascism established. (If the reader does not recognize fascism when it’s happening, please educate yourself.)  (1) Spiritual bypassing at this time enables fascism. Silence is consent. Lest one say “my prayers are not silence,” I say if we aren’t moving our feet, we’re spiritual bypassing. “Treat and move your feet.”

This and That

Can I live the loving, neutral Divine Principle of Oneness while moving my feet in response to divisive and rancorous worldly circumstances? Yes. To do so, I employ the perspective of “this and that” rather than the polarized “this or that.” To treat only would mean one does not move their feet in the relative (human, 3D) world. The equivalent in the health area would be if one were ill and treated only with prayer, firmly denying the use of medicine or medical procedures. That denial is the stance of Christian Scientists. But most of us are not Christian Scientists and are not bound by their dogma. We can encompass this and that.

SOM Philosophy

Ernest Holmes, the founder of Science of Mind was originally influenced by Christian Science. He eventually broke from that rigid doctrine as he developed the SOM philosophy which synthesizes what he called “the Golden Thread of Truth”–universal principles of love, creative power and oneness woven through all world religions, philosophies, and even science.  Holmes came to say if a pill gives relief by all means take a pill. In other words, treat and move our feet.

The Point is to Traumatize

I wonder, would an Ernest Holmes or anyone of his universal world view advise us to pray but not move our feet in response to the current violations of the U.S. Constitution?  The violations of due process, court orders, habeas corpus, rule of law? Would he counsel us to be silent about the brutality playing out visibly on our streets on both undocumented immigrants and US citizens? How ought we to respond when a pastor looks up at the armed ICE agents on top of a building and preaches the words of Jesus to them with his arms wide open, to which they shoot him in the head with a pepper ball, knocking him to the ground? What ought we do when a man drives up to day care to drop off his toddler but is grabbed by ICE agents, his child crying “Papa! Papa! Please don’t take my Papa!” and the child is put alone in a separate police car and driven away? Even if they are reunited, the terror has been done. Terrorism is the point. Multiply this by many thousands. (Russell Vought, a main architect of Project 2025 said, in a leaked video a year before Trump was re-elected, “We will traumatize the federal employees.” They did. And are.) Their aim is to detain and deport millions. Detention centers are being built across the country. Silence is consent.

Informing Ourselves

I believe to be a responsible citizen, particularly at this time, requires due diligence to at least inform ourselves about what is going on. To not be informed about violations such as those mentioned above and to not speak up in any form about them, how could that be anything but spiritual bypassing? Being informed is the first and irreplaceable step in moving our feet. Being informed is not burdensome. Written blogs can take no more than five minutes a day. My top six recommended blogs and other sources (any one of which is sufficient) are:

1) Heather Cox Richardson — Cannot recommend her too highly!  Articulate, grounded, super-informed professional U.S. historian. A daily five-minute-read email newsletter. Plus up-to-date YouTube videos if one prefers spoken word. What I love about her is she correlates what’s happening today with what has happened in past U.S. history. I find this fascinating and affirmative. Her perspective gives me scope, hope and vision without diluting the gravitas of what is going on in our country. Dare I quote the Bible? “Without vision the people perish.”

2) What the Fuck Just Happened Today (WTFJHT). This daily five-minute email read is a condensed digest of U.S. politics. Fully documented with links. Top of the digest summarizes the contents in a single paragraph and that one minute alone is enough to keep apprised.

3 Ground News. https://ground.news/  “Top Stories from around the world. Compare how different news publishers frame the same news. Read the news from multiple perspectives…See through media bias…”

4) Marianne Williamson Brilliant, clear weaving of spirituality with responsible citizenship. Available on Substack dot com or email newsletter, includes video versions.

 5) Meidas Touch Network  An independent media on YouTube with nearly six million subscribers. It won a Webby Award. The Trump administration is trying to close it down. Videos on YouTube or blog form via meidastouch@substack.com

6) The incomparable Rachel Maddow also gives us scope, hope and vision, with entertaining story telling. Monday nights on MS Now. Plus her documentaries–Ultra and Ultra Two which trace the origins of Trump’s “America First” motto. The original “America First” movement during World War II, which included several Congress members, advocated supporting Hitler. Her latest documentary, Burn Order, which came out just this month reveals the parallels between the incarceration of Japanese U.S. citizens during World War II and what’s happening to immigrants today.

Time and Means

We have the time and means to stop fascism in this country. We’ve done it before. Heather and Rachel have shown us this. We can move the feet of the fascists to the fire! We can adhere to the Constitution and evolve our democracy into “a more perfect union.” But the time and means are short. The time is NOW to treat–and move our feet.

Recommended reading: The End of America: Letters of Warning to a Young Patriot, by Naomi Wolf, (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007. Contains the ten planks of the fascist playbook. Every one is plainly visible in the U.S, today.)

 

Part 3-Trump Racism is Bad for America

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Part 3-Trump Racism is Bad for America

Part 3-Trump Racism is Bad for America

 

By T.K. McNeil 

I ended Part 2 of Trump Racism Is Bad For America worried that immigrants were being transferred from the United States to foreign prisons without due process. I worried aloud about death squads, concentration camps, and gas ovens. Trump racism is obvious for anyone with eyes, ears, or an X account. We are rocked out of our beds daily by angry and racially inflammatory 2 a.m. Tweets. Trump uses a practiced, coded language of dog whistles and red meat taunts that he pitches regularly to his MAGA hatted support base. The intent, an obviously planned effort to keep them frothing at the mouth, agitated, and ready for action.

Protests and resistance.  I can hear the audible gasps and protests. I say, better to think it a possibility than to refuse to face the possibility. Trump’s racism has already led to the separation of children from their parents at the Mexican border. He is now sending immigrants to foreign prisons without due process. He has stated flatly soldiers will have his permission to shoot asylum seekers that might potentially hurl rocks at the soldiers. I’m just going to let that percolate amidst your neuron receptors for a couple of minutes.

History must be studied.  There is this tendency to fall in love with the past and wish for life as it once was. For those of you who are not old enough to have reached that stage of your life let me assure you, beware, nostalgia is a load of crap. If in 40 years time there are Americans wishing for the good old days when Donald Trump was in power, let me warn you, you are in a world of trouble. Chances are, there will no longer be a United States if people are longing for a president who resembles Fat Bastard more than he does the leader of the free world.

The emergence of Barack Obama:  When Barack Obama came into office there was a hope from many sides, particularly moderates that there would finally be that emergence of a color blind America. Unfortunately there was an angry element of the population that was not ready or willing to accept such an outrage. My God in Heaven, there is a black family living in the ‘nation’s house.’ “We” must “do something.” A backlash of white vs all those “uppity” POC quickly coalesced on the alt-right. It quickly became their central purpose to undermine and dismember a hoped for mending of our national division.

Dehumanizing the target is goal one. “Birtherism” bubbled up through the conspiracy theorists. The theory postulated that 50 or so years ago, an all-knowing “group” of Democrats probably funded by George Soros met to bestow false citizenship on a mixed race kid in Kenya who would eventually be smuggled into Hawaii and who would go on to become president of the United States.  Such crazy over the top nonsense was fully embraced and pushed with ceaseless passion for more than 8 years by Donald J. Trump. The endless campaign driven by Trump and other alt-righters had the desired results of casting doubt on President Obama’s legitimacy to rule the country. Effectively undermining our first black president was accomplished. Sadly, a repeated lie often becomes a malignancy on the perceived character of the target.

Other factors.  Despite the constant attack from the right Barack Obama left office as one of the most popular presidents in American history. A fact that enrages Donald Trump. The fact that the first black man elected president of the United States was to be followed in succession by the most openly racist president in American history is sad and deeply troubling.

Plenty of blame.  The 2016 election became a disaster of Godzilla proportions. It would have taken a series of monumental political catastrophes to elect Trump. Unfortunately for the United States that’s exactly what happened. Russian interference, Wikileaks email drops, walking pneumonia, Weiner porn texts, a rogue FBI Director, the first woman candidate of a major American political party, a reality TV has-been all converged together to make the 2016 campaign and election results both  extraordinary and  unprecedented.

Political infighting.  In the final analysis, I blame the Democrats for Trump’s two election victories. The DNC decided to rig their primary process long before the Russians or Comey got involved. The party bypassed a forward thinking man like Bernie Sanders who connected with the future voters of America for a political wife, turned candidate who the GOP had convinced half the country she was the devil incarnate. Bill and Hillary called in a lot of IOU’s to make this outrage happen. HRC was a flawed candidate from the start. As a result of the DNC betrayal, we as a nation have been burdened with Agent Orange and his team of rich and corrupt bullies. The 2016 election of Trump led to a rapidly accelerating  radicalization of American politics. Trump’s 2024 win was in many ways a repeat of the DNC betrayal of the primary process. This time, the anointing of Kamala Harris, by Joe Biden. This kind of crap needs to stop. Let the process run its course. Maybe he or she will lose, but at least that person was the choice of the majority of Democrats.

Moving where? Today, May of 2025, we are moving backwards at a neck breaking speed; on more levels than there is room to cover in this space. In 2016, Trump was on a steroid driven attack on the legacy of his predecessor. I see this as vindictive but also as racially motivated. As Trump has gone to great lengths to undo the forward progressive thinking of the Obama administration what has been the positive result?  In all areas of policy from abortion, to gay rights, to environmental protections, to civil rights protections are being rolled back. Do you think the LGBTQ community embraces Trump? Women? Minorities? The poor? The sick? The Non-Evangelicals? I don’t think I need to give the answer, because it is an obvious and resounding, no.

Lots of show and theatrical ballyhoo. Despite what he wants us to believe, Donald Trump connects with about 35% of our populace. Yet, because of many voters disillusioned by the rhetoric and high prices decided to stay home and not participate in 2024. And because enough Americans had been convinced the caravans of immigrants would soon overwhelm our southern border Trump won again. And because we were not careful, we are once again suffering under his rule. Using the power of the Executive Order Trump is with each day sweeping away protections for more and more citizens, while attempting to erase DEI and other beneficial programs.

Executive Orders. Trump & choir are ramping up the rhetoric to eliminate the 14th Amendment. He claims he can Executive Order it right out of existence. The question then becomes, if the Supreme Court supports his power to eliminate amendments does that mean he can begin writing new constitutional amendments? Sounds crazy but that’s how dictatorships are born. It’s time to wake up America you are watching the actions of a classic racist demagogue.

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