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When will we move to impeach certain Supreme Court justices? (Part 2)

Flickr/creative commons

Flickr/creative commons

“In the Potemkin justice of the Roberts
court, the right to vote 
is under attack,
while the power to buy elections

is sanctified by law. Corporations
are called people under a
faux doctrine
of free speech, while women are denied
standing 
to combat discrimination.”
– Brent Budowsky Editorial from The Hill, April 9, 2014.

 

 

Most of us came of age with nearly blind trust in this once-austere body, this third branch of government charged with deciding the most challenging questions of our time. But times have changed, and so has the purpose and direction of the Supreme Court. It’s literally gone off the rails, insane. 

So, yesterday, we formally joined the national conversation by asking when the grassroots-at-large will rise up, start paying more attention to this judicial menace, and act by using the formidable power vested in the people to reshape The Supreme Court?

Budowsky’s April 9 editorial offers a prescription for us, a place to start in the near term:

Democrats, liberals and populists should promote a constitutional amendment to reverse Supreme Court decisions, propose statewide ballot initiatives to take back America from special interests, and make corruption in Washington a defining issue to mobilize the Democratic base, rally political independents and transform the 2014 and 2016 elections.

 

It’s one thing to make corruption in Washington a defining issue, but what of the larger picture? Which body reigns above us all and makes possible the Koch Brothers and their spawn? stands with the National Rifle Association in its total misunderstanding of the Second Amendment? restricts voting among known Democrats wherever and whenever possible? The list of shame goes on and on.

We have seen the rise of something worse than winning or losing a couple of elections. Pre-eminent constitutional law scholar Laurence Tribe calls it the “Roberts Anti-court Court,” not just for the Court’s dismal showing, especially in the last several years with it’s rash of constitution-shredding decisions in favor of monied, self-interested litigants, but for it’s dramatic restructuring of the procedures and rules they formerly operated within, delimiting class actions, and forcing involuntary binding arbitration.

Tribe’s must-read book is entitled, Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution.

“Since 2005, the Roberts Court has issued a string of decisions that make it harder to hold the government accountable in court when it violates the Constitution.”

“The result is a shrinking judicial role in enforcing the Constitution and protecting our liberty.”

[The Roberts Court is] “far more sensitive to the substantial burdens of litigation than to the potential benefits of lawsuits.”

“Whereas the midcentury court saw itself as a protector of the powerless, the Roberts Court is mostly uninterested in that role . . . it has dealt critical legal rules a death of a thousand cuts—leaving many of our rights intact but making them effectively impossible to enforce in any court”

Tribe urges us to “seek justice elsewhere . . . the democratic process, social movements, arbitration, our communities and families, consumer report websites and other means of ensuring that everyone comply with the law. Indeed, the Constitution presumes that democracy, not litigation, is how we’re supposed to resolve many disputes.”

Arthur Bryant, Chairman of Public Justice, a national public interest law firm, writing Thursday for the National Law Journal, agreed with Tribe’s analysis but goes a step further, “We must keep fighting for justice in the courts” and “keep working hard to make the Supreme Court a pro-court court. We need courts to provide access to justice to all.”

First, we need to keep using the courts, as much and as best we can, to hold corporations, the government and the powerful accountable—exposing the truth, righting wrongs and making the wrongdoers pay.

Second, we need to keep fighting to preserve and expand access to justice. Nothing could be more important.

The bottom line is that we cannot accept an anti-court Supreme Court. We need to develop a pro-court court. Then we need to do what everyone in America should be able to do: Go to court and get justice.

 

You can learn more about some of the more egregious recent decisions by the Court by taking a look at  Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, unconscionably awarding people’s free speech to corporations who have exploited this new right only further consolidate corporate and political power; Shelby County v. Holder, a gutting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965; and, McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, legalizing political graft.

Educate yourself for this inescapable campaign to unseat the worse of the worse as it revs up into full gear. Sign the petitions against Chief Justice John RobertsAntonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas. And, connect with organizations and people in your own community who want to step forward to rescue America from these misguided justices. We need really, really wise justices to protect the voiceless, and these three are not that.

Click here for yesterday’s Part 1.

For more:

Budowsky: History to Impeach Roberts

We Cannot Let and “Anti-court Court Eliminate Access to Justice

Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution

And, to learn why VenusPlusX thinks this is important, read A Manifesto for The New Age of Sexual Freedom, and catch our unique mix of posts and videos 24/7 that will get us all to that better future, sooner rather than later.

Right-wingnuts bless progressives

“The Republican base is driving the party toward a political agenda
that makes its candidates increasingly unelectable
for national and statewide offices.”
Howard Dean, former Vermont Governor,
the preceding Chair of the Democratic National Committee,
and founder of Democracy in Action, speaking to Politico Magazine

We spent the entire year before the 2008 presidential election, we only realized later, in a state of distress as we contemplated the downfall of our country should it be taken over by right-wing extremists or nut jobs like PTSD-sufferer John McCain. On election night, with Obama victorious, the tears flowed and flowed. We felt like we had rescued triumph from the jaws of defeat, and then felt the same way when he was re-elected in 2012.

In spite of Obama’s shortfalls politically since he took office, the trend towards sanity, particularly with respect to equality rights, has been brighter than it has ever been, despite the racial hatred expressed by the opposition on a daily basis.

Flickr/creative commons

Flickr/creative commons

With the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 2010 our joy over Obama has been tampered by the awareness of just how much harm and chaos can still be wrought by hate-filled right-wingnuts. Things were likely to get much worse before they could get better, especially with the rise of tea party madness. Make no mistake, these right-wingnuts, all of whom are white christianists with only a handful of exceptions, are just as misguided and murderous as any fundamentalist theocrat you can find in all the world’s trouble spots. And, just like them, right-wingnut politicians have fueled domestic terrorism.

Since that 2008 election eve, however, we also came to understand that each misstep the opposition makes is a gift because their’s are are always self-repudiating, always damaging to their cause, always distancing the speaker further and further from reality, always a sentiment with no legs therefore no future, always a simplistic hope that is destined to die by its own negativity. The more stupid they behave, the better for progressives, even if the results are not immediately apparent.

It used to be that right-wingnuts kept their racism and sexism under wraps, as much as was possible. For example, Nixon’s “southern strategy,” to enrage poor, low educated, white people to resist progressive ideas and candidates, was a direct result of and backlash against the civil rights legislation of the 1960s, just as much as Jim Crow laws were a reaction against the end of slavery. But since the 60s everything was done behind the scenes, as secretive as possible, civil on the outside but treacherous on the inside.

The inevitability of the population shift toward a non-white America, and in particular the election of a black president, has created another backlash, one so fearsome that right-wingnut’s deepening paranoia and hatred has been fully unmasked. For the last 6 years, they speak and act like we can’t see or hear them, a sure sign of mental disease, making their self-repudiation more rapid and complete, hastening their demise. This modern backlash is good for progressives because it brings our opponents into sharper relief, easier to criticize, and, most important, unseat.

When Mr. Brat, an economics professor of dubious merit, can ride Tea Party ideals to unseat a Republican establishment candidate like Cantor in a Virginia primary, that can only be a gift to the opposition if used well. Unfortunately, in this case, Brat’s Democratic opponent is also another economic professor of dubious merit, from the very same small-bore college in the woods of Virginia, so it’s impossible to say which one will be victorious, but the silver lining is nonetheless there for progressive to take note.

Howard Dean deftly defined this silver lining on Monday in Politico Magazine.

First, competing in every state and every district is still vital. You never know when an opportunity will arise to pull off an unexpected victory . . . Democrats can win everywhere only when we run everywhere. That requires committing to and developing grass-roots talent in the deepest-red and darkest-blue corners of the electoral map.

Second, Americans are so fed up with Congress that even the tea party wants to kick it out. . .  House leaders have engaged in very little serious work that would benefit the American people, and voters are sick of it.

Third, organization and shoe leather can beat big money. . . In an upcoming election in which Republicans’ secret corporate money could dwarf Democrats’ progressive message on the airwaves, Cantor’s defeat should remind us that phone calls, door knocks and one-on-one conversations with neighbors can beat back a tidal wave of cash.

Fourth, base support wins elections — unless it drives you outside the mainstream. Cantor’s loss has largely been attributed to his failure to retain the support of a GOP grass-roots base that opposes everything from gun-violence prevention to comprehensive immigration reform. That was bad news for Cantor, but it is even worse news for the GOP nationally. The Republican base is driving the party toward a political agenda that makes its candidates increasingly unelectable for national and statewide offices.

This dynamic stands in stark contrast to the one between Democrats and their progressive grass-roots base, which pushes the party to embrace policy ideas that enjoy broad popular support.

Lastly, and perhaps most important, Democrats need to learn from Cantor’s loss that anything can happen in 2014. Even on the morning of the election, not a single major pundit or politician thought the majority leader would lose. Cantor was considered invincible, and Republicans were expected to win big in November. But voters have minds of their own and the tea party’s right-wing base helped it usher in a truly unexpected result.

The fact is, the Democratic base is much larger than the tea party, and polling shows that most Americans stand with us on issue after issue, from expanding Social Security to raising the minimum wage to getting big money out of politics. If Democrats mobilize our base, stand up for what’s right and force a fight on vote-inspiring issues connected to combating income inequality, we can rack up wins that will stun many in Washington’s pundit class — and elect Democratic majorities in the House and Senate in November.

(The full article, “The Lesson in Cantor’s unexpected defeat” can be found here.)

So progressives take note: Foolish Republicans are there for plucking. Find and support your local candidates who can articulate what we stand for. Let’s sweep both houses of Congress this November!

Flickr/creative commons

Flickr/creative commons

 

 

 

 

 

Desire and accomplishment are inseparable

With the last released excerpt of our upcoming book on sex and spirituality, we introduced the concept of an eventuating Supreme Being, free from superstition or myth, and available for both the believer and non-believer. Here we are continuing this thread, and welcome your feedback.

3759375253_2de9c1992e_bIt is difficult for some of us to imagine how a being can be identical to a desire. Are not our desires just feelings that drive us to act? Are not beings just consciousnesses capable of action? When we unify the desire for action with the accomplishment of that action as one and the same occasion we enter the universe of effective action. Here the desire and accomplishment are inseparably identified.

We seek to perfect this experience in our own lives through the practice of the presence of Love—our “communion” with our desire to do good towards others and our experience of oneness with the Supreme. Although every human has the innate ability to experience this, major enterprises (e.g., human religions) have been established on the false idea that a third party, perhaps a priest, is a necessary intermediary between a human and this highly personal and individual communion. Or that one must have a detailed gnosis of the qualities of God in order to “worship the right way.”

Nonsense!

This communion (our desire merged with the entirety of the Supreme) assures that the true desire is realized insofar as it is synchronous with the manifestation of the Supreme.
© VenusPlusX, 2013. All rights reserved.

Already available now as a companion reference, A Course in Immortality (and in Spanish, Un Curso En Inmortalidad), which will be published as an included Appendix in the new book.

Best Essay Explains Misogyny and Rape Culture in a Way that Men Can Understand

A Gentleman’s Guide to Rape Culture 

We are so grateful to author and actor Zaron Burnett (@zaron3) and Medium (@medium) for bringing his essay that puts misogyny and rape culture in a feminist perspective. It is a must-read for every young (and old) man, women too. It continues the important conversation that has finally (and thankfully) been thrust onto the front burner due to recent events.

Within just a few paragraphs like this one, Zaron transported me back over 40 years ago when these ideas were rightly assumed by the many men who identified as feminists, the most authentic males in my orbit, including my dear partner and husband, Dan Massey, who went on to higher shores recently. These guys, straight, gay, bisexual, and trans, that were with us from the beginning were the most beautiful creatures to us: Behold, The Man!

When I cross a parking lot at night and see a woman ahead of me, I do whatever I feel is appropriate to make her aware of me so that a) I don’t startle her b) she has time to make herself feel safe/comfortable and c) if it’s possible, I can approach in a way that’s clearly friendly, in order to let her know I’m not a threat. I do this because I’m a man.

This is how men behaved in the early feminist movement, it was about being good men, authentic men, giving comfort and safety to the other half of the population while supporting a movement that explicitly stands for political and social justice. Male feminists wanted (and should want to adopt) this perspective because it replaced the awful predatory, conquering control of women they were taught at their parents’ knee and saw among their male peers. Very unfortunately, as feminism aged and stays lodged in radical feminism which express their hatred of men particularly transwomen, it has failed to keep alive the idea that feminism isn’t just for women.

It was always intentionally co-ed and had to do with your perspective on the world and how you wanted to make it better, how you wanted to destroy coercive systems, such as reproduction legislation, preserve good things about the world, such as hospice started in the 11th century, and create new, more human and voluntary systems, such as abortions that are private between a woman, her doctor, and her family. Feminist issues have no gender boundaries.

Zaron continues .. .

Flickr/Creative Commons

Flickr/Creative Commons

If you are a man, you are part of rape culture. I know … that sounds rough. You’re not a rapist, necessarily. But you do perpetuate the attitudes and behaviors commonly referred to as rape culture.

You may be thinking, “Now, hold up, Zaron! You don’t know me, homey! I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let you say I’m some sorta fan of rape. That’s not me, man!”

I totally know how you feel. That was pretty much exactly my response when someone told me I was a part of rape culture. It sounds horrible. But just imagine moving through the world, always afraid you could be raped. That’s even worse! Rape culture sucks for everyone involved. But don’t get hung up on the terminology. Don’t concentrate on the words that offend you and ignore what they’re pointing to — the words “rape culture” aren’t the problem. The reality they describe is the problem.

Men are the primary agents and sustainers of rape culture.

Rape isn’t exclusively committed by men. Women aren’t the only victims — men rape men, women rape men — but what makes rape a men’s problem, our problem, is the fact that men commit 99% of reported rapes.

How are you part of rape culture? Well, I hate to say it, but it’s because you’re a man.

Zaron Burnett III public domain image

Zaron Burnett III
public domain image

The essay goes on to explain it all in great detail. I’m bringing it to every man (and woman) I know because it is so important and educational. It is guaranteed to make you more of man and more of a human as soon as you finish reading it.

 

See also: An Open Letter to Privileged People Who Play Devil’s Advocate (via Feministing) and Misogyny in the News, At Last.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Misogyny in the news, at last

Editor’s Note: There are few if any links in this post about the recent mass murderer because we have to stop sensationalizing perpetrators instead of sympathizing with the victims.

 

[Unfortunately]. . . we don’t see misogyny as an ideology, we see it as a given for young men.

— Jessica Valenti, Author, Guardian columnist, and founder of Feministing.com (@JessicaValenti)

God bless the most recent mass shooting victims. Their senseless sacrifice may mark the beginning of a serious discussion about the evils of misogyny, and Valenti is among the few journalists to hit the nail on the head about the root cause of this tragedy, and all the proceeding tragedies, not just mass murders but the 8 youths murdered every day in this country and the thousands of honor killings in places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and, of course, rape.

Flickr/CreativeCommons

Flickr/CreativeCommons

The roots of racial, sexual, and gender oppression are both overly established and overly ignored, and delaying The New Age of Sexual Freedom.

Misogyny is so endemic in our culture, such a root cause of so many ills (wars, starvation, inequality), women don’t even realize they are unknowingly (and often knowingly) themselves instrumental in strengthening these suffocating roots. Mothers teach their toddlers what their mothers taught them about deference to males. Even ardent feminists might not curtail this deferential behavior in every instance of child-rearing. That is our sad state of affairs, and activists working on all fronts have to keep this subject on the front burner now that it has a running start no matter what their special focus is because each one can trace its roots to misogyny and sexual and racial oppression at the core.

While  ignoring the enlarged picture of how much sexual oppression permeates and is ruining society, most media coverage of this recent mass shooting has shown so little restraint in glamorizing the young and good-looking man that is responsible, much more than for his young and not-so-camera-ready predecessors who didn’t leave behind long manifestos and polished YouTube selfless.  

Media is just another corporation commercializing the misery of the powerless after all, but still. Even liberal media are fawning over this kid and making his victims practically invisible in their coverage, because, shucks, he’s so attractive-looking. 

But there’s something different this time. In the California shooting we are presented with a shooter directly from central casting, a beautiful, erudite boy at war with himself, whose actions are not summarily damned but analyzed in a way to explain his heinous behavior.  This is so much more interesting than profiling any of his victims. What’s the matter with us?

Organizations such as Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence are there educate us and deserve our support, by why do we continue having so much trouble galvanizing grassroots action, boots on the ground, to challenge the notion that 8 children can be murdered everyday in this country because its just the cost of being an open (and armed) society. This daily tragedy and shame is only highlighted when there is a mass shooting because there is an expected and familiar script, a storm of consumer interest then radio silence again.

In a world we we care for each other and understand the implications of our action, male privilege is no longer a given, it doesn’t exist at all. Like any other privilege it is something only to be selflessly bestowed on those with less privilege. Those that don’t yet understand this essential truth are impoverished in a way that no conquest or accomplishment can ever rectify, so we must god bless them too, and pray that they someday soon obtain the values to understand their own behavior and change it, for their sake and for the rest of us.

 

Also see:

VIDEO: Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes (@ChrisHayes) discuss misogyny embedded in our culture

A Gentleman’s Guide to Rape Culture

“If I Can’t Have Them, No One Will”: How Misogyny Kills Men 

Science is teaching us all about Lipophilia

Always Hungry? Here’s why

6361250197_29d92f8079_o[T]he increasing amount and processing of carbohydrates in the American diet has increased insulin levels, put fat cells into storage overdrive and elicited obesity-promoting biological responses in a large number of people .

. . . obesity rates . . . for adults, are almost three times what they were in the 1960s.

Addressing the underlying biological drive to overeat may make for a far more practical and effective solution to obesity than counting calories.

The latest frontier in nutritional research is revolutionary and important to every person, especially activists who wants to be more effective in changing the world. This ground-breaking information embraces our mission at VenusPlusX to help put an end to coercive systems that delay or otherwise interfere with the New Age of Sexual Freedom, such as the food industry that’s driven solely by greedy corporate interests supported by governments and your tax dollars.

Way back in 1908, a German internist named Gustav von Bergmann coined the term, Lipophilia, meaning love of fat, the first signal that metabolic disorder (rather than calorie imbalance or lack of willpower) causes overeating.

At last, new research picks up on this long-ignored theory and has been able to show a direct connection between sugar and modern processed foods and now epidemic rates of obesity (or even just weighing a little more than you would like too). These modern-day medical research heroes are showing us how stored fat inhibits our ability to absorb healthy calories and causes the overproduction of insulin, a vicious cycle that results in a compensating and progressively increased appetite, and, sadly more stored fat.

As it turns out, many biological factors affect the storage of calories in fat cells, including genetics, levels of physical activity, sleep and stress. But one has an indisputably dominant role: the hormone insulin. . . And of everything we eat, highly refined and rapidly digestible carbohydrates produce the most insulin. . . chips, crackers, cakes, soft drinks, sugary breakfast cereals and even white rice and bread.

Setting aside for a moment our urges for sugar and processed foods (including “diet” and “low fat” items), the only true enemy to this enlightenment is the food industry itself which literally banks on making all calories equal thereby justifying its mass production of super-profitable processed foods from corn, rice, and wheat, all of it from farms subsidized by tax dollars. Always calling for calorie balance and more and more personal willpower is the food industry’s first line of defense of their tax subsidized goldmine, all at the expense of our future health and the trillion-dollar obesity problems (diabetes, heart disease, etc.) that every tax payer is and will for some time be financially responsible for.

So you pay, first giving farm subsidies to produce the raw materials (corn, wheat, rice), then with our health after eating sugar and processed food from pesticide-ridden agribusiness (obesity, diabetes, and more) , then paying trillions in healthcare for millions of people with otherwise avoidable conditions. A lose-lose-lose situation we have solve very soon.

There will be numerous by-products of this research in the years to come, aside from making us all more healthy and effective. For example, we may finally see the end of “fat shaming,” that claims it is ignorance or lack of adequate will power causing people to be overweight. And, it will force a still closer look at corporate agriculture’s role in destroying our health through the mass use of pesticides, products like Monsanto’s RoundUp, now shown to have a direct connection to increased Autism, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and other ailments.

As more and more is understood how much we have been enslaved and manipulated by corporate interests, we uncover knowledge and get busy taking better care of each other.

Tip: Fed Up, a movie now playing in theaters from An Inconvenient Truth
producer,
Laurie David, is all about revealing biologic truth
to the masses about what we are eating. Check it out.

 

 

Eric Holder explains it all, now it’s your turn

Holder confronts racial issues in address as White House puts discrimination at the fore

8718692337_1026fd2f33_zAttorney General Eric Holder has withstood savage attacks from his detractors but he has hung on and has emerged as our explainer-in-chief when it comes to racism in this country, really racism everywhere. His recent commencement address at Morgan State University was his most bold and erudite attempt to educate the world, particularly America, on the insidious and subtle nature of racism.

Holder rightly points out that the recent high-profile episodes of racism often mask systematic prejudice and discrimination.

“These [recent] outbursts of bigotry, while deplorable, are not the true markers of the struggle that still must be waged, or the work that still needs to be done,” Holder said.

“The greatest threats,” he continued, “are more subtle. They cut deeper. And their terrible impact endures long after the headlines have faded and obvious, ignorant expressions of hatred have been marginalized.”

In 2009, during Black History Month, Holder began this dialog by calling us “a nation of cowards” without the stomach for an actual conversation about racism. Gradually, with loving care, he (and President Obama) have led us through an increasingly more overt and candid discussion about race, the substance of which will live on as guide to all of us who have the courage to listen, take to heart, and put into action, much like the lessons of Martin Luther King, Jr.

So the next time that the likes of Bundy or Sterling take over the news cycle, it is up to all of us to draw the distinction Holder illustrates to begin a conversation with someone, anyone, about the deep roots of racism that still have stranglehold over our society, and what we can do together to overcome.

 

 

Winning (so far). Net Neutrality Protest Tomorrow

Grassroots efforts to save Net neutrality may be working

. . . more needs to be done to ensure the Internet is protected.

WikiCommons

WikiCommons

There’s no time to waste in feeling gratified even though advocacy organizations such as Free Press, CREDOand MoveOn.org, along with tech companies such as Google and Facebook, and rank-and-file grassroots activists are so far holding back attempts to commercialize the Internet in ways that would impede the otherwise free flow of media and data. 

Corporate special interests will not relent and neither must we. They want to secure fast lanes, the cost of which will be absorbed by everyday consumers, and simultaneously destroy the inherent democracy and equality of access that makes the Internet such a powerful tool of economic growth and social change.

We urge you to participate in a public protest at the Washington, DC, headquarters of the Federal Communications Commission (445 12th Street, SW), tomorrow, Thursday, May 15, at 9 AM.  And, to keep the pressure on.

 

“We absolutely think this is a fight we can win . . . This time people are wiling to fight in a way they weren’t willing to in 2010. People realize what is at stake now. And they don’t want the Internet turning into Comcast.” (Becky Bond, CREDO)

 

Net Neutrality on the front burner, at last

Basically Every Big Internet Firm Signs Letter Against FCC’s Net Neutrality Plan

There has been a rush of public pressure on the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to put off the May 15 vote that would drastically change the Internet. The commission has proposed allowing big providers (Verizon and Comcast to name two) to create higher priced “fast lanes” for big media companies such as Netflix to move their content, costs that will be passed onto consumers. Instead of maintaining the free and democratic access to the utility of the Internet, there would be winners and losers, different classes of Internet users.

WikiCommons

WikiCommons

Now over a 100 tech companies, including Google and Amazon, have come together to oppose these proposed new rules, in an effort organized by New America’s Open Technology Institute. In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler and the agency’s four commissioners, the companies warn of “grave threat to the Internet.”

Right now there is a split among the commission chair and two Democratic members on whether or not these rules go into effect next week. The Republican commissioners are on the side of maintaining the Internet’s existing net neutrality.

As we have pointed out before, this issue should be important to every small business owner, every non-profit organization, and every activist who makes way for the voiceless. Just a casual look at emerging democracies is proof enough of just how important net neutrality is to the eventual peaceful resolution of all differences, and how it will help end of the most destructive forms of nationalism.

Get involved, and make your voice heard.

 

Donate: The New Center Against Religious Extremism

I was so heartened to see yesterday’s press release issued by Wayne Besen’s Truth Wins Out (TWO) regarding the funding of TWO’s new Center Against Religious Extremism (CARE, or TWOCARE).

“If you’re like me, you are tired of American extremists literally getting away with murder from Uganda to Russia,” said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen. “The Center Against Religious Extremism is designed to monitor, counter, and ultimately serve as a bulwark against an ignoble enterprise designed to drag the world back into the Dark Ages.”

It would be a wonderful service to humankind if TWOCARE can disarm and dissolve organizations that are actively spreading hate, especially of women, and queer people. Most notable and deserving of such scrutiny, in my opinion, is The Family/Fellowship, a secretive organization of politicians, military officers, attorneys general, and business people operating within the borders of most countries.

Bless those who are helping fund this important research that will unveil to the world some of the most, if not the most, vile international conspiracies ever known, just as bad as any terrorist organization which happens to have unending billions of dollars at their disposal. Learn more about this work, and if you can, make a donation however small.

There is no hyperbole that could shock you more than the reality of these nefarious organizations, especially because if you went to the best Hollywood scriptwriters, you couldn’t come up with a more devious plan to strangle the course of history. These groups are not trying to take us back to some archaic way of doing things that rejects modernity, but attempting to create a dystopian future devoid of personal choice and human happiness, based on the extreme rightwing agenda of a relative handful of old white men.

The Family has existed pretty much under the radar until the last 5 or 6 years, when it was skillfully unmasked by Jeff Sharlet’s two books, The Family (2008) and C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy (2010). These two books comprise a case study in religious extremism, and what made global human rights and equality advocates start to take notice of The Family and related organizations. These two volumes are must-reads for anyone interested in this issue, although the more attention The Family received, the more scrubbed their website and public face became until every detail was secreted away.

Besides Sharlet’s ground-breaking expose, organizations such as the Center for Responsible Ethics in Washington (CREW), have from time to time tried to expose The Family, famously by bringing ethics charges against certain members of US Congress, who, along with a few US governors, accepted unreported gifts from The Family/Fellowship by virtue of their low-cost residency in a well-known Capitol mansion known as the C Street House. This mansion is one of numerous properties owned and operated for the benefit of The Family’s worldwide network of 10,000 cells operating more or less independently, but this one happens to also be infamous because a good portion of its recent residents have been caught and disgraced by sex scandals (Mark Sanders, John Ensign, etc.).

More than 50 years ago, The Family concluded that the model for spreading a worldwide christianized theocracy (a theocracy based on their all too human and profane imagination) was not progressing well or fast enough through traditional missionaries. Instead they embarked on a program to develop in-country missions by recruiting natives, business leaders and politicians such as Uganda’s President Museveni (and his wife), and especially youth to be educated at The Family’s expense and trained as its future organizational leaders to bring about the organization’s megalomaniacal vision of world domination. Membership is open to christianists and non-christians alike, Muslims especially are shown a way to align with The Family, in a conspiracy to shackle the world’s natural resources under the guise of “doing it for Jesus” but it’s actually all about money.

CC-hiv-abstinence-propaganda

Make no mistake, except for paying lip service to Jesus, there is nothing whatsoever religious about this crusade because anyone can join, even if one’s sole purpose is gaining access to the important business contacts and political leaders and the global natural resources they control. You can be a cynical, non-christian businessman and also a member of The Family for the sterling contacts alone, as long as you support The Family’s agenda to rule the world based on their personal and distorted resurrection of christendom, often termed dominionism.

Wayne and I, along with Jeff Sharlet, have talked now for a number of years about getting big media to finally pay attention to The Family’s secretive world wide movement and its singular goal to supplant established and nascent democracies with theocratic rule based on (their own version of) “God’s Law.” This new center, CARE, will no doubt help expose The Family and other organizations like it for what they actually are.

Right around the time Jeff Sharlet’s first book was published, we executed several very visible protests. The first protest was about the annual National Prayer Breakfast, a function fully funded through The Family although presented to the world and foreign dignitaries as an official US government event, much to the chagrin of our own State Department. Although The Family has operated its international machinations under a shroud of secrecy, it has nonetheless made this Breakfast practically a national institution, on a scale that every sitting US President and a fair share of the US Congress attend every February — so why wouldn’t foreign visitors think this is an officially sanctioned function. But it’s not. It’s a time and place each year when The Family comes together to celebrate, not prayer, but its broadening reach around the world.

Next, local DC activists staged a non-violent civil disobedience action on the C Street House’s doorstop, protesting The Family’s wholesale exporting of hatred of LGBT people in places such as Uganda. This relatively small protest received national attention, and shortly thereafter, The Family’s website was scrubbed clean of any evidence of its deep tentacles wrapped around the US government and nations abroad. To this date, it is only Sharlet’s two books that see into this organization.

I started researching and occasionally writing about this subject at the time, and in the process uncovered a congressional caucus called the Values Action Caucus. Here, members of both houses of congress convene at tax payers expense to set legislative goals. This Caucus’ goals were to forward anti-abortion, personhood legislation and to work towards putting the Ten Commandments in every Federal building in America. By comparing membership in this organization and those reported by Jeff Sharlet to be members of The Family, I found a lot of overlap. This Caucus was, in effect, a government body being led by The Family right under our noses, and we were paying for it.

It’s time for me to pick up my research and write more about this on VenusPlusX, so stay tuned. We now have this new Center for Against Religious Extremism to help focus our efforts in rooting out this theocratic conspiracy and ending its influence on world affairs once and for all. Please do your own research and help support this worth new endeavor.