Tulsi Gabbard Is No ‘Progressive’ on Foreign Policy

[American Dream]

Is "cult mind control" a factor?

An Insiders Perspective on Tulsi Gabbard and her Guru

Lalita
Sep 24, 2017 · 8 min read

I was recently asked a question about US politics that is related to an issue very close to my heart. In the US there is a state representative, Tulsi Gabbard, who is gaining attention and interest of the media and general public. To most, this politician seems amiable, a war veteran who is attractive and articulate, who has had an interesting life and seems very together. I get her appeal. But to me, I know the awful truth behind her amicable facade.

I grew up in what is now termed a High Demand, Closed Group. Most people know them as cults, but personally I detest the term cult because it usually conjures images of Kool Aid and terrible TV shows featuring Kevin Bacon. That’s not what I grew up in. Instead a High Demand Closed Group is a group that has isolated itself from mainstream life and lives by the demanding and usually arbitrary rules set by the leader of the group. The leader is usually a charasmatic personality who encourages their followers to treat them as some sort of Messiah. The entire group dynamic is centred around gaining favour of the leader, who uses this dynamic in a controlling and abusive manner. In many of these groups the leader uses their position to manipulate their followers into performing sexual acts against their will, or in others, the relationship becomes emotionally abusive, where the leader verbally or physically attacks their followers, doling out increasingly severe punishments including sleep deprivation, starvation and physical self harm. The latter is the type of group that I grew up in.

The group I was involved in is called The Science of Identity Foundation, and it was started by a man called Chris Butler, who has variously been known as Siddhaswarupananda, Srila Prabhupada or Jagad Guru. His “philosophy” is a mishmash of Buddism, Vaishnava Hinduism and Christianity. There’s around 1,000 or so followers across Australia, New Zealand, Philippines and the US. Chris Butler himself was born in Hawaii and from what I’ve been able to glean from my research, was a college drop out who started a small group in the mid 60's. When the Hare Krishna movement started gaining traction in Hawaii during this time, he found it difficult to find new followers and instead of competing with the Hare Krishna movement, decided to take his current followers, along with a $20,000 donation, and join the Hare Krishna’s instead. During his tenure with the Hare Krishna movement, he struggled often with the leadership of the group (AC Bhaktivedante Swami who was his initiating spiritual master), and was repeatedly reprimanded by Bhaktivedante for publishing booklets expounding Chris's own philisophical views. This was heavily frowned upon, and when he refused to curtail his actions, he was sent away to a small temple in New Zealand. It was during this time that he met a fellow Hare Krishna by the initiated name of Tusta Krishna Swami. They became close friends and when the relationship between Butler and AC Bhaktivedante Swami further fractured in the late 1970's he and Tusta founded their own small group, bought a farm in Australia and all of his new followers left New Zealand for Australia around 1980–1981. My parents were amongst them.

I remember very clearly the plane ride to Australia, the mix of excitement and fear.

I also remember Chris Butler held this larger than life presence in my childhood. Everything I did I had to think about how it benefitted him.

He was my parents spiritual master and they looked to him for guidance on everything, from what to eat, to how to raise their children, and they did it all without question. When I talk to people about the lack of questioning, they find that aspect odd. It is odd, but to put it into perspective, I was raised to believe Chris Butler was God’s voice on earth, and if you questioned him or offended him in any way, you were effectively offending God, and because we believed in reincarnation, that meant that you would be reborn as the lowest lifeform imaginable and then have to spend eon’s working your way back into God’s good graces. So questioning the leader was spiritual suicide, which was seen as worse than death. So no-one questioned. Chris Butler also would ridicule the intelligence of anyone he didn’t like, belittling anyone he felt was questioning his authority even slightly. He demanded the utmost dedication and loyalty from his followers and if he didn’t get it, the punishments were swift and severe. I remember hearing stories of people who were told they weren’t allowed to eat because they didn’t make food to his liking, who were not allowed to sleep because there was a light making a buzzing noise in the house, and the follower didn’t have the foresight to fix the issue ahead of time.

Literally everything we did had to go through Chris. If you wanted to work outside of the group, you had to ask his permission. No-one could get married without his consent. From the late 80's all of us kids were removed from public schools because he didn’t want them influencing our minds away from our service to him. So from that point we were home schooled, until there were schools established in the Philippines. After that all the children were sent to the boarding schools there for intensive schooling. From the small pieces of information that made it out of the schools to me, a lot of the kids were traumatised by the environment, as it was almost prison like. Classes were on hygiene and cooking and all the ways that they would need to serve Chris Butler best. It’s only speculation, but I am certain that this was because places like the US and Australia had standards of education that the home schools has to meet, and they just weren’t. They could avoid scrutiny by having the kids in boarding schools in the Philippines. I can’t even imagine how dreadful it was for my friends who got sent there. I was lucky to avoid it. I didn’t avoid the lack of schooling though, and by the time I officially left the Science of Identity Foundation in 1997, just before I turned 20, I had only received up to a 5th grade education.

From a young child I remember one of the main features of my life was the lectures that were sent to us via tape for us to listen to. Basically these were 1 hour long sessions of Chris talking about his beliefs – how evil and out of control gay people were, how women were inferior and sub human and should be controlled by their husbands, how messed up and evil the outside world was, and how his relationship with God was so special, only he could lead you back to Godhead (Heaven) and that he had so much control over his existence on earth, he could choose the moment of his death. We worshipped him, loved him even. Another part of his teachings was that all life is an illusion, and because of that all relationships were an illusion. We were encouraged to not invest in any relationships other than with him, so we were in effect isolated from our parents who did their best to not love us as per his recommendation, and instead looked at him like a surrogate father/messiah figure. He was this imposing force in our life that we weren’t supposed to offend, which is frankly terrifying when you’re a small child. I remember having many nightmare’s and a condition called sleep paralysis which can be brought on in times of great stress. My sister developed stress induced epilepsy during the time when we were supposed to be taken out of school. For my parents part, they did try to keep us in school for as long as they could, but when Chris heard parents were resisting him, his directive was clear – get them out or else. Every time my parents would try to take us to school, my sister would become hysterical and then she started having seizures. That was the power he had over us.

I really wanted to paint this picture of my childhood, because Tulsi Gabbard grew up in the same group that I did. She was subjected to the same environment I was. She’s still surrounded by this group and calls Chris Butler her guru. This is why the increased interest and her rise to power concerns me so greatly. I want to be very clear, I have no issue with Tulsi, as far as I am concerned, she’s as much a victim as I am, more so because she was groomed from an early age specifically for the path she is now on. What I am concerned about is the control I know Chris Butler has over her, the influence he has over her ability to make decisions, decisions that could become law and impact a whole lot of people. I know what an abusive, mysogynistic, homophobic, germophobic, narcissitic nightmare Chris Butler is. And I know what kind of relationship he has with Tulsi.

If I could put it in a way that maybe more people could understand, look at the relationship between Ivanka Trump and her father. It’s very clear to me that Ivanka walks a very fine line between trying to be her own person and trying not to piss off her father by doing so. Donald, by many accounts, is a person who demands utmost loyalty, and will attack anyone who doesn’t give it, and remove them swiftly from his life. So you can imagine Ivanka while being her own person, would immediately shut down her own feelings and opinions if she knew her father would see her as disloyal. She would get cut off if she lost favour. There’s a lot she has to lose if she opposed her father.

Tulsi Gabbard is in the same position, only the stakes are higher. Not only would she lose support for the position she holds, but she would lose her family, all of her friends, and this messiah/father figure if she opposed Chris Butler. She would be outcast from the only existence she has ever known. That’s a hugely powerful reason to continue to please Chris Butler without question.

I truly feel for Tulsi. Hers is not an enviable position. I know because I spoke out about Chris Butler a few years ago, and my family cut off all contact from me. This has happened to every other person I know of who got out. I hope one day Tulsi does reject Chris and finds her own voice. She has done amazing things and it makes me sad to think that another victim who was been abused and manipulated her whole life isn’t able to have the career she’s worked so hard for, free and clear of Chris’s toxic influence. Maybe one day she will, but while he is her guru, his influence over her makes her dangerous and unreliable, because Chris is dangerous and unpredictable.

https://medium.com/@lalitamann/an-insid ... e2650f0d09

[American Dream]

Much weirder than I thought:

Butler's Web, Part 3: Grooming the Second Generation


Dark Days - Inside the Baguio Boarding School

In the late '80s, in addition to Mike Gabbard's school on O'ahu, SIF began running a remote boarding school for the children of Butler's disciples in Baguio City, Philippines. The school was modeled loosely after traditional Indian gurukuls, where children studied directly with a guru away from home. Unlike traditional gurukuls, however, Butler – the guru – did not reside at the Baguio school or have any direct interaction with the children. In place of direct spiritual and educational guidance from their guru, the students listened to Butler's recorded lectures and bowed to pictures of Butler. Children of Butler's followers from the U.S., Australia, the Philippines, and New Zealand were sent to the school.

Butler was "never there," said Ian Koviak, who attended the Baguio boarding school for over four years, from ages 12 to 16.

"My mother joined SIF in late 1989 in New York City," Koviak explained in an email to Meanwhile in Hawai'i. "It was not long before we moved to LA, Malibu, where Butler was at the time, and not too much longer after that I went to the Philippines school."

Koviak, now 38, said he listened repeatedly to Butler's lectures while at the Baguio school, including the 1984 education lecture.

"Some lectures bashed scientists like Carl Sagan and other modern thinkers," Koviak wrote. "Then there were the private tapes that were only for his disciples and close followers. Those went into graphic detail about homosexuality and male on male intercourse."

Koviak said the students also watched a video produced by Mike Gabbard's Stop Promoting Homosexuality organization, which included footage of men having sex in public. Koviak said he began seriously reflecting on this school experience and reconnecting with old classmates in 2011, when he started a blog about the school.

"I started the blog because I was feeling odd about what we went through," Koviak wrote, "I wanted to see if this was the feeling others shared."


Ian Koviak started a blog about his childhood experience at a Science of Identity school in the Philippines. (Courtesy of Ian Koviak)

​Koviak and four other former students of the SIF boarding school all say they were regularly hungry and sleep deprived while at the school. They also all say they spent at least four hours a day chanting, often in a dark room. They say Butler disciples Ramon "Toby" Tamayo and Allan Tibby (aka Acharya das) led the school. The former students emailed school pictures and old school newsletters to Meanwhile in Hawai'i. In one of the newsletters, Patrick Bowler – a long-time Butler disciple and SIF financier who was arrested in 1997 for running a major international hashish smuggling ring – is listed as a cash contributor to the school.

While the former students all say their school days involved some traditional classes taught by outside teachers - such as math and grammar – they say the main focus of the school was the SIF philosophy and worship of Butler. Per Butler’s 1984 lecture, they did not take history classes, learn about evolution, or watch television. The men all painted a strikingly dark picture of their experiences at the school, and they all say they have struggled psychologically as adults. Four of the men used the term “indoctrination” when describing the school experience.

Only Koviak and Rama Ranson - who has become a vocal anti-Butler critic online - wished to be publicly named. The three other men requested anonymity, because they wish to remain in contact with relatives who still worship Butler, and they fear retaliation. Meanwhile in Hawai'i confirmed these three men’s identities, their parents' status as Butler disciples, and their attendance at the SIF Baguio school.

Ranson, also now 38, said his parents sent him and his younger brother to the boarding school in 1993, when he was 14 and his brother was 12. Ranson said he felt "a deep impulse to get out of that school immediately."

After two weeks at the school, Ranson said, he exaggerated an illness to "escape," and he was eventually allowed to return home to his father. He said his younger brother, Sudama, stayed at the school, was raised by non-relative SIF members for the remainder of his childhood, and currently closely serves Butler in Kailua. Ranson now runs the website Rama Ranson vs. the Cult.

A third man, who attended the Baguio school for four years from ages 11 to 15, said, "We were taught to follow the teachings and words of Butler as if they were the holy divine word itself."

"At first it was kinda' cool to go to a new place," the man continued. "But soon I did not like it. We were always hungry. I almost committed suicide when I was there. I really wanted to go home but was told that my parents did not want me to go back home."

The students were taught that, "Fag**ts are taking over and doing disgusting things," the man said. He also told Meanwhile in Hawai'i that he reported sexual abuse at the school and was accused by school leaders of lying about it.

A fourth man, who attended the school for a year in the early '90s said, “We were taught Butler and [his wife] Wai Lana were the only true messengers of God, and serving them would be the ultimate mission in life."

"They strip you of your individual identity," the fourth man said, recalling his memories of the SIF boarding school. "They humiliate you, try to figure out your strengths and weaknesses. You weren’t allowed to talk to any outsiders. You were not allowed to contact your family."

"Everything we did there was in preparation for whatever they wanted us to do next."

A fifth man who attended the Baguio school in the early '90s said he suffered from depression and addiction as an adult after realizing that his guru, Butler, did not love him.

Three of the men also attended Mike and Carol Gabbard's SIF school on O'ahu, the Ponomauloa School. They said the O'ahu school was "more mellow" than the Baguio school. Children lived at home with their parents while attending the Gabbards' school, the men said, but they were still taught to worship Butler, and they were repeatedly exposed to sexually graphic, anti-homosexual material.

One former student said the Gabbards were at times good teachers, but all school lessons essentially tied back to Butler's philosophies.

"I know nothing of U.S. history or world history," one of the former students wrote in an email to Meanwhile in Hawai'i. "I am just now reading poems and books, like Catcher in the Rye, one would normally read in school."

The men all say they believe SIF's schools in the Philippines are now run more responsibly, but one man said there is still a "full on indoctrination school" in Bukidnon, Philippines, called Madana Mohana Academy.

The Madana Mohana Academy's website advertises its service to underprivileged children from preschool through 12th grade. The school claims to be "non-sectarian." The website includes a quote by Jagad Guru (aka Butler) and refers to him as "a renowned philosopher and educator." Children can be seen bowing in front of a large, framed picture of Butler in a video shared publicly on the Madana Mohana Academy’s Facebook page.

Mike Gabbard did not respond to inquiries from ​Meanwhile in Hawai'i. Neither did the Science of Identity Foundation.


Rama Ranson said he turned to art and dark comedy to help process his childhood within Butler's Science of Identity Foundation. (Courtesy of Rama Ranson, Creative Commons Copyright)

Tulsi Then and Now
​
The five men who attended the boys' boarding school in Baguio City all say there was also a SIF girls' boarding school in the Philippines at the time. They all believe Rep. Tulsi Gabbard attended the SIF girls' school as a teenager in the '90s. Two of the men say they also grew up around Rep. Gabbard on O'ahu. Male and female students were strictly separated at the Philippines boarding schools, per Butler's instructions, the men say.

Rep. Gabbard has been strikingly evasive with journalists and constituents regarding her continued close discipleship with Butler and her teenage years in the Philippines. Though it seems she has removed mention of the experience from her official biography, several articles referencing her "two years spent at an all-girls missionary academy in the Philippines" can still be found online.

A Nov. 2017 article on Rep. Gabbard in The New Yorker also mentions that, "as a girl, she spent two years in the Philippines, at informal schools run by followers of Butler." (It is also clear from the The New Yorker article that Rep. Gabbard was less than forthcoming with the reporter regarding her relationship with Butler and SIF.)

Other than these two mysterious years in the Philippines, Rep. Gabbard was home-schooled as a child by her parents. Her ex-husband, Eduardo Tamayo, is the nephew of Ramon "Toby" Tamayo, who ran the Baguio City boys' school. Her current husband, Abraham Williams, is also a second generation Butler disciple. So are at least three of her current, key Congressional staffers, including Chief of Staff Kainoa Penaroza, whose father, William Penaroza, chaired a Butler-connected political party in the '70s called Independents for Godly Government. At least two of Rep. Gabbard's current Congressional staffers are first generation Butler disciples, including her mother-in-law, who manages her Honolulu office.

Rep. Gabbard did not reply to multiple inquiries from Meanwhile in Hawai'i.

Mike, Carol, and Tulsi Gabbard all began their political careers at roughly the same time, in the early 2000s, ostensibly following Butler’s advice to go into politics – "or a school board." They all demonstrated strong anti-gay and pro-environmental agendas at the time, reflecting Butler and SIF's views.

Carol Gabbard won a seat on the Hawai'i State Board of Education in 2000. Her agenda as a school board member included supporting private schools and opposing efforts to protect gay students from harassment in public schools. Tulsi Gabbard supported her mother's apparent effort to whitewash the school harassment problem, telling The Honolulu Advertiser in 2004 that figures released by her mother proved, "our schools are not rampant with anti-gay harassment."

​Mike and Tulsi Gabbard both won local elections in 2002 – Mike as a Honolulu City Councilmember and Tulsi as a member of the Hawai'i House of Representatives. At 21, Tulsi Gabbard was the youngest legislator in Hawai'i's history.

In 2004, Mike Gabbard ran as a Republican and lost the race for the Congressional seat his daughter now holds. He campaigned heavily against same-sex marriage, and his daughter vocally supported his efforts at the time. He won a seat in the Hawai'i State Senate in 2006. In 2007, he switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party, causing significant controversy within the Hawai'i Democratic Party.

Tulsi Gabbard joined the Hawai'i Army National Guard in 2003 and served two tours of duty in the Middle East. She ran successfully for her current Congressional seat as a Democrat in 2012, and she won re-election in 2016. She began publicly stating that she supported same-sex marriage equality during her 2012 Congressional race. Her voting record on the issue has since been consistent with that stance.

Rep. Gabbard raised eyebrows within Hawai'i's LGBTQ Caucus, however, when, in 2015, she reportedly told an Ozy journalist that although she officially supported the legalization of same-sex marriage, her "personal views haven't changed" regarding homosexuality.

And just last month, The New Yorker reported, when asked about Butler, Rep. Gabbard said, "I've never heard him say anything hateful, or say anything mean about anybody."

To former Butler disciples like Koviak and Ranson - who say they grew up repeatedly hearing profane, hateful comments from Butler - that statement is hard to stomach.

"It's silly to even conceive that she never heard her own guru's rants and raves about 'fag**ts and homos,'" Koviak wrote.


Rep. Gabbard in Atlanta in 2014 with Vijay Jolly, a leader of India's far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Photo released Aug. 23, 2014, on Jolly's public blog. Gabbard has spoken and fundraised at BJP events in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

More: https://www.meanwhileinhawaii.org/home/ ... generation

[peartreed]

It’s intriguing to me to read about the alleged background of Tulsi Gabbard as a possible insight into her political and social views, including some of the contradictions she herself has expressed in her admitted left and right wing policy departures from opposing political party dogma. There may be a broken wing explanation to some of it.

People who have experienced cult-like indoctrinations often retain psychological scars from the intense ‘brain washing”, including extreme reactions to authority figures. That, in turn, is sometimes expressed in social maladjustment and emotional overreactions that defy an otherwise rational view or response to issues.

Much like the surprising behavior of some online participants there may be influences and associations in their earlier development that still trigger apparent irrationality, particularly overreacting emotionally.

[American Dream]

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Tulsi Gabbard's Cult Tied to "Billion Dollar Drug Empire"-- Funded Taliban

By Selected News Articles @ 3:27 PM :: 22505 Views :: Congressional Delegation, Military, Drugs

The Sunday Star-Times and Timaru Herald of New Zealand are reporting the story of two drug kingpins tied to the so-called "Science of Identity" Hare Krishna cult whose members reportedly include Hawaii State Senator Mike Gabbard and US Rep Tulsi Gabbard.

Since returning from India, where she learned first-hand about the foreign policy goals of Indian PM Narendra Modi, Gabbard has made a name for herself as a sharp critic of President Obama's approach to Islamic terrorism.

Ironically, the dope-smuggling ring bought hashish and marijuana by the ton -- from the Taliban.

How much? As the New Zealand papers explain: "...The Ring operated on such a vast scale that just one shipment was enough to lower the price of pot along the entire West Coast of America...."

Here are the details....

* * * * *

Revealed: the Kiwis behind a billion dollar drug empire

by Bevan Hurley, Stuff.co.nz, April 26, 2015 (excerpts)

EXCLUSIVE: Once, they ran the world's biggest dope-smuggling ring. But after giving evidence against their violent criminal associates and doing 15-year stints in some of America's toughest jails, two New Zealanders have returned home to escape their lives of crime. This is their story - a story that has never before been told.

"He is 54 years old. He has nothing. He has done everything he can do to atone for his life as a hash smuggler."

So said lawyers acting for Patrick Christopher Bowler, as they pleaded for mercy at his sentencing in 2008 for trafficking 240 tonnes of hashish into the United States.

Bowler pleaded guilty to charges in the United States of conspiring to sell marijuana on a grand scale, and was convicted and sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in jail....

Bowler, a vegan yoga fanatic, was released in 2010, and has returned to New Zealand where he said he had led a "quiet peaceful life" since then.

But the court records suggest he may never have found himself incarcerated without the testimony of his former friend and fellow Kiwi smuggler, Gregory Paul Timewell, who also proved an invaluable source of information to authorities.

Timewell, was sentenced in 2010 for smuggling 120 tonnes of marijuana into the United States. He had been arrested in 1995 over an attempt to import 25 tonnes of hashish from Pakistan through Long Island to upstate New York and Canada, and cut a deal with prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import hashish, provide complete cooperation, give full disclosure of all his assets and forfeit his property....

According to the sentencing records, Timewell's testimony helped secure the prosecutions of over 180 defendants around the world, at least US$20 million in forfeited assets seized as well as tens of thousands of kilograms of marijuana seized in the United States and overseas, the court heard at his sentencing in 2010.

'Blondie' as he had been known, is now 65 and believed to be living under a new identity back in New Zealand. He has changed his name by deed poll. But the US court records reveal that at one time he was near the helm of a billion-dollar global drug empire....

Court documents show that between 1980 and 1995, a group of dealers loosely associated with the Kiwi duo smuggled thousands of tonnes of marijuana and hashish from Asia, mainly Thailand and Afghanistan, into Europe and North America.

"They were close to the biggest in the world at the time, they were tremendously active and with organisations all over the world," said Burton Ryan.

Ryan confirmed information contained in court documents about how the pair's influence extended from the tribal lands of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and Pakistan, to Thai generals, the IRA, Dutch shipping experts and the Hell's Angels on the West Coast of America. The court records show they used camels, trucks, planes, and shipping routes across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to shift their product....

read ... Revealed: the Kiwis behind a billion dollar drug empire

* * * * *

'Chris Butler Worked to Help' Drug Kingpin tied to Taliban

by Bevan Hurley, Stuff.co.nz, May 17, 2015 (excerpts)

The Sunday Star-Times revealed last month how Bowler and fellow Kiwi Greg Timewell turned Federal witness in return for reduced sentences. When Timewell was arrested in 1995, he turned in his former mate Bowler, and Timewell's testimony led to hundreds of convictions worldwide. Bowler was arrested in Switzerland and became a prolific informant, flying to Thailand, Holland and around as a DEA undercover operative, and risking his life on perilous assignments.

They were released from prison in the United States in 2010 after serving lengthy sentences, and their stories were revealed in the Star-Times last month.

The paper has now tracked Timewell down to a remote border town in Thailand. He had changed his name by deed poll. He and his girlfriend declined to speak.

But Timewell's cousin Greta Jourdain said he was a bit of a "wild child" who had found solace in the Hare Krishna religion.

"He had a magnetism, he always had a beautiful lady on his arm."

Listed on Bowler's US indictment were his many aliases, which included the Guru, Top Hat, and Das Paramahaja, a misspelling of his initiated name Paramahansa Das. In the judge's sentencing notes, it was noted how Bowler "always seems ready to help others and share in the spiritual resources" while in prison.

"He leads classes in meditation to assist in keeping the level of the activities there calm. He teaches yoga and meditation classes there."

Rama Ranson remembers Bowler from his time within the Science of Identity.

"I have known him and his children my whole life.

"He was known through the whole cult, he was the man and everyone knew he had tonnes of money."

He says Bowler was heavily involved in the Science of Identity in New Zealand, which is believed to number several hundred.

Bowler declined a request for an interview.

In a statement, Jeannie Bishop, president of the Science of Identity Foundation, said: "As a branch of Vaishnava Hinduism, the Science of Identity Foundation recognizes the free will of every individual to follow the path of life they want to follow.

"Rama das Ranson has never been a member of the Foundation and we have respected his right not to follow the path of Vaishnava Hinduism.

"Patrick Bowler is not a member of the Foundation, but to our knowledge, is now sincerely trying to practice Vaishnava Hinduism, which includes using his life to help others.

"We are aware of certain allegations but do not wish to dignify them with a response other than to say you should be very critical of the motivation of people making many of these allegations.

"Chris Butler and the Foundation have worked to help many people get their lives back on track, including Patrick Bowler and will continue to do so."

Continues: http://hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain ... liban.aspx

[American Dream]

It’s intriguing to me to read about the alleged background of Tulsi Gabbard as a possible insight into her political and social views, including some of the contradictions she herself has expressed in her admitted left and right wing policy departures from opposing political party dogma. There may be a broken wing explanation to some of it.

People who have experienced cult-like indoctrinations often retain psychological scars from the intense ‘brain washing”, including extreme reactions to authority figures. That, in turn, is sometimes expressed in social maladjustment and emotional overreactions that defy an otherwise rational view or response to issues.

Much like the surprising behavior of some online participants there may be influences and associations in their earlier development that still trigger apparent irrationality, particularly overreacting emotionally.

Yes- but the political ambitions of the cult leader Butler, go back many decades, seem quite methodical, and clearly drew on the slavish loyalty of his cult followers- very much including Tulsi's father, the intensely homophobic State Senator. As Christine Gralow noted in 2017, "At least five of Rep. Gabbard's current, key Congressional staffers are also Butler disciples. There is also the question of the role of shady money within campaign finances.

Butler's Web, Part 2: Who is Gabbard's Guru?

Also in 1977, Honolulu Advertiser investigative reporter Walter Wright was on Butler's trail. Through the course of his investigation, Wright began to see clearly what had eluded his Advertiser colleague Janice Wolf in 1970 - that Butler's group had staying power. While Wolf had certainly seen the intense hold that Butler had on his followers – a hold so strong they were willing to do anything for him - she never imagined they would organize and enter politics.

In a hard-hitting, three-part investigative series, Wright exposed Butler's close ties to a new political party called Independents for Godly Government (IGG). Wright uncovered how IGG candidates William Penaroza and Kathy Hoshijo were Butler disciples, as were the other IGG candidates. Although none of the IGG candidates won election that year, Wright was struck by the group's political ambitions.

"It is just the beginning," Wright reported of the Butler group's political movement in 1977.

Wright also wrote that the IGG party's significant connection to Butler had gone unreported during the 1976 election, because, "The news media didn’t dig hard enough, and several candidates skillfully ducked and dodged the questions."

Regarding the IGG candidates' 1976 campaign finances, Wright reported that an unusually high percentage of the strikingly few people who had funded the campaigns were connected to a budding health food business called Down to Earth (the same store now owned by QI Group, covered in Part One.) Wright's campaign finance analysis also found that the legality of Hoshijo's campaign contributions fell in the "mathematically impossible" range.

"The Advertiser was no more successful this year than last in determining precisely where the major contributors to Hoshijo and IGG got their money," Wright reported.

Wright, now retired, recently discussed his 1977 reporting in an interview with Meanwhile in Hawai'i. He went straight to the mysterious finances.

"What struck me was the small, very tight, intricate network of business and politics," Wright said. "Almost all the money was coming from about 20 people."

Wright also recalled how, as a reporter, the Butler/IGG story felt, "so big and had so many tendrils," and he commented on the "worrisome cult aspect."

"And just soaring right out of that stuff now is Tulsi," Wright added.

https://www.meanwhileinhawaii.org/home/ ... bards-guru

Science of Identity is the reason why Tulsi takes so many strange turns in her votes and alliances.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1084 ... 01029.html

[American Dream]

Butler's Web: Krishna, Politics, and QNET's International Pyramid Scheme
10/20/2017

Featured Story, Part One of a Three-part Series
​
by Christine Gralow

KAILUA, HI - Toward the end of Hawai'i's plantation economy and the beginning of the psychedelic counterculture movement of the 1960s and '70s, a charismatic young yogi named Kris Butler developed a small following of surfers, drifters, and chanters.
​
Heavily influenced by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), the group lived for a while in its early days under Lunalilo Freeway, near U.H. Manoa. In September 1970, Honolulu Star-Bulletin reporter Nadine Wharton found 20 of Butler's young followers living together in an oversized tent, freely chanting the Hare Krishna mantra "at the top of their lungs" and beating bongos beneath the traffic. At the time, Butler went by Sai Young and was "very familiar with mind expanding chemicals," as stated in the biographical section of his self-published, 1970 booklet, Sai Speaks: Pleasure is the Goal.

By the mid-'70s, after formally joining then bitterly breaking with ISKCON amid allegations of a stolen temple, the once free-spirited group grew increasingly organized and protective of its leader. Butler claimed ISKCON's "big men" were plotting to kill him. ISKCON founder A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada dismissed the claim as "childish."

On Kaua'i and Maui, Butler's loyal devotees – now at least a few dozen - began organizing a vast political and financial network, centered on Butler as their spiritual master and earthly conduit to the Hindu deity Krishna. Initially amateurish, the group's political arm - formally started as Independents for Godly Government (IGG) in 1976 – became a major force in Hawai'i's politics, reaching the U.S. Congress in 2012 with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawai'i).

A key part of the Butler group's financial arm, rooted in Hawai'i's Down to Earth vegetarian grocery chain and the QNET international pyramid scheme, is currently being scrutinized by the Supreme Court of India. QNET executives, including two men who currently serve as the Butler group's primary financiers, have been arrested or are wanted by police in at least half a dozen countries for alleged organized financial crimes.
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Hippie History

Historical documentarian and Kaua'i resident John Wehrheim recalls the Butler group running "a beautiful farm operation" in the '70s on the North Shore Kaua'i land that is now owned by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. Wehrheim said the success of the farm was due partly to the free labor of Butler's devotees. He got to know Butler and his group while documenting the lifestyle at Taylor Camp - another Kaua'i North Shore hippie group - for the Kaua'i Historical Society.

Wehrheim said he and the Taylor Campers regularly attended events at Butler's farm for the free vegetarian food, or prasadam (food offered to Krishna). He recalls that Butler was "extremely charming, but he also had a massive ego."

Wehrheim, who is married to former Kaua'i Mayor and current Kaua'i Councilmember JoAnn Yukimura, said he also observed Butler's early interest in politics. He said Butler unsuccessfully attempted to recruit Yukimura. (Yukimura declined to comment.)

Butler's "MO was to recruit influential locals who could run for office," Wehrheim said.

Though the IGG party that Butler's followers founded in the mid-'70s did not formally last, the group's heavy involvement in Hawai'i's politics did. Elected officials who have been Butler devotees include former Hawai'i State Sen. Rick Reed, former Maui County Councilman Wayne Nishiki, current Hawai'i State Sen. Mike Gabbard, former Hawai'i State Board of Education member Carol Gabbard, and current U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

Rep. Gabbard celebrated Butler (now Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupanda Paramahamsa) as her "guru dev" in a video presentation for a 2015 ISKCON anniversary event. She has been recognized as the first Hindu U.S. Congressmember, and she co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans. She identifies as a Vaishnava Hindu, Karma yogi, and Bhakti yogi. She is the daughter of early Butler followers Sen. Mike and Carol Gabbard.


The North Shore Kaua'i land that Hawai'i historical documentarian John Wehrheim reports was once used for Butler's farm and is now owned by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. (Photo courtesy of John Wehrheim, taken from atop Zuckerberg's controversial Kaua'i wall.)

​Leaked '80s Letters

More than 60 pages of internal letters leaked by former members of Butler's Science of Identity Foundation (SIF) chronicle a period in the 1980s when SIF faced organizational conflict and a negative cash flow. In one letter, a SIF disciple who served as Butler's personal secretary urged Butler's “disciples around the world” to “take whatever steps necessary to ensure that we do not run out of cash --- it is imperative.”

Other letters document Butler's abusiveness toward disciples and his view that SIF money belonged to him personally. An internal memo describes how Butler became angry and cursed at a disciple because the disciple used SIF money to buy a lei for Butler. The disciple wrote in a September 1987 letter that Butler was "extremely displeased" by the lei incident "and gave the following message to me and the other people involved: [CAPITALIZED EXPLETIVE] YOU!" (The disciple typed the actual expletive.)

A December 1987 letter details how SIF money was used to charter a private jet for Butler from Hawai'i to the U.S. mainland. The letter describes how Butler complained that there was not enough room for him in the private jet cabin, so he threw the air filters that had been custom installed for him off the jet, then griped about the poor air quality on the jet. May 1988 letters describe how Butler accused disciples of poisoning him through light bulb fumes and blamed "90 percent" of his personal health problems on the behavior of his disciples.

Former Butler followers leaked the letters and asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. The subject of one message from an ex-Butler follower, who wanted to share information with journalists but expressed fear, was, "The Retaliation is Real." News tips from this person consistently factually checked out. Details in the internal letters, including phone numbers and mailing addresses, are factually verifiable. Details in the letters also correspond with the independent accounts of four men who grew up deeply within SIF and have since taken steps to leave the group.

Ex-Followers and SIF Schools

Two of the men who grew up within SIF - Ian Koviak and Rama Ranson - have been publicly critical of Butler and SIF online. Meanwhile in Hawai'i confirmed the identities of the other two men and their previous deep involvement in SIF through communication with the men over periods of six and nine months respectively. They asked not to be named for fear of being cut off from relatives who still follow Butler.

Three of the men attended a SIF boarding school in the Philippines, and two attended Sen. Gabbard's Ponomauloa School in the late '80s in Wahiawa, O'ahu. (One man attended both schools.) They all said they were taught at the schools to worship Butler and his wife Wai Lana as messengers of God. They also all said they were repeatedly exposed as children to Butler’s sexually graphic, deeply homophobic lectures.

In an interview with Meanwhile in Hawai'i, the man who attended both schools discussed Butler's "secret," tape-recorded lectures. He said these lectures were repeatedly played for children at the SIF schools. The lectures were "full of vitriol and hate," he said. "So much hate towards gays, and basically anyone else who doesn't follow the path."

"These tapes don't make it out to public for obvious reasons," he added.

The men all stated that they did not celebrate Diwali or identify as Hindu while growing up within SIF. Rather, they said, they practiced Butler’s unique interpretation of ISKCON tenets, combined with some Christian traditions.

"We did not identify at all as Hindus growing up in Butler's group," wrote Koviak, who attended the SIF boarding school in the Philippines for four and a half years. "That's a new thing that really fits in with the Tulsi agenda."

"We sang Christmas carols like you wouldn't believe," said another man, who attended Sen. Gabbard's Ponomauloa School. "So many Christmas carols."

The men are all of the same generation as Rep. Gabbard, and - like Rep. Gabbard - grew up with parents who followed Butler. One man provided class pictures of himself and other children wearing SIF uniforms at both the Philippines and Hawai'i schools. In the Hawai'i school photo, Carol Gabbard stands behind the female students on one side, and Sen. Gabbard stands behind the male students on the other side. Sen. Gabbard's official website still lists "Ponomauloa School, Wahiawa— Headmaster/teacher (7/83 to 6/87)" as professional experience.

All four men say they clearly recall growing up around Sen. Gabbard, aka "Krishna Katha das" (sometimes spelled Krsna Katha das), in the '80s. None recalls anyone other than Sen. Gabbard going by Krishna Katha das within SIF.

Butler's "Ninjas"

The leaked internal SIF letters from the '80s repeatedly refer to Krishna Katha das/Krsna Katha Das as Butler's "Secretary for Personal Affairs." A July 1987 letter states, "Krsna Katha das is no longer Secretary for [Butler's] Personal Affairs due to the stupid or extremely unresponsible [sic] things that he has done."

In addition to Sen. Gabbard, those heavily named in the internal letters as Butler's close personal assistants include Down to Earth CEO Mark Fergusson (aka Mahabhagavat das) and Sunil Khemaney (aka Syamasundara das.) The letter regarding the call for Butler's disciples to do whatever necessary to ensure SIF did not "run out of cash" was signed by "Syamasundara das" (Khemaney).

Khemaney now works for Rep. Gabbard, assisting her with fundraising and political relations with the Hindu American community on the U.S. mainland. He facilitated her talk at an August 2014 event in Atlanta hosted by Overseas Friends of BJP, a group that supports India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Khemaney also traveled with Rep. Gabbard to India, where she met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in December 2014.

At the Overseas Friends of BJP event, Rep. Gabbard described Khemaney as her "team member," and said, "He’s been like an uncle to me since I was a child. And he didn’t have any involvement in politics until I ran for Congress, and now he cannot escape. He's in this."

One of the men who grew up deeply within SIF and requested protection of his identity described Khemaney as, "Butler's ninja. His right-hand man." The man said he clearly recalls Khemaney from the '80s and early '90s.

"He was always running around with a big phone, and we all knew he was talking to Butler," the man said of Khemaney. "He didn't chant at the [SIF] events like the rest of us. He had a different status."

Khemaney can be seen sitting to Butler's immediate left in an old episode of Butler's 1980s TV show, Jagad Guru Speaks. Sen. and Carol Gabbard also appear in the episode, titled, "Sex I Can't Get No Satisfaction," which was dubbed in Polish and recently shared on YouTube by SIF's European affiliate. (Note: The episode was deleted from YouTube shortly after publication of this article. An account of SIF's activities in Poland from a mother whose son joined SIF can still be read here.)
Trouble in India

Another Butler follower repeatedly named in the leaked letters is New Zealander Allan Tibby (aka Acharya das). One letter describes how Tibby, Sen. Gabbard, Khemaney, and Down to Earth's Fergusson were all part of a committee in the late '80s that aimed to organize SIF to better serve Butler.
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As Butler has become increasingly eccentric and reclusive, Tibby - a jet-setting international businessman with continued close ties to the Gabbard family - has served as SIF's public spiritual teacher, marriage officiant, YouTube face, and international tour speaker. Tibby has led Kirtan (devotional chanting) sessions at Church of the Crossroads in Honolulu and the Bhakti Yoga Shack on Kaua'i. Former SIF members Koviak and Ranson both say Tibby was also an administrator of the SIF boarding school they attended in the Philippines.

Tibby has been wanted by police in India on money laundering charges since 2009. He is prominently named as "absconding" in a police document filed by the Chennai City Prosecutor's office. Chennai police charged Tibby with financial fraud under India's Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes Banning Act.

Chennai-based attorney Mahesh Kanna, who has spearheaded legal action against white collar crime in India, says Tibby's legal status in Chennai remains "absconding accused." Tibby did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations.

​Chennai police accused Tibby of conspiring with QI Group (aka QNET) Chairman Vijay Eswaran, in a case allegedly involving over US$170 million earned through an illegal pyramid scheme operated in India's southern Tamil Nadu state. QI Group has repeatedly changed names after facing legal trouble. The company has operated as QNET, GoldQuest, QuestNet, Vihaan Direct Selling, V Dimension, etc. Tibby and Eswaran are accused of attempting to launder and diversify the pyramid scheme money through resort and construction front companies. Police froze Tibby's Indian bank accounts.

Continues: https://www.meanwhileinhawaii.org/home/butlersweb

[American Dream]

Hindu nationalism must be defeated — also in the US

October 25, 2019


UNCOVERING YANKEE HINDUTVA


BJP activists wear Prime Minister Narendra Modi masks and shout slogans during a campaign rally on April 03, 2019 in Calcutta, India. Photo by Saikat Paul / Shutterstock.com

The saffron seeds of Hindu nationalism have taken root in American soil for some time now, cross-pollinating with American capitalism, white supremacy, settler colonialism, and imperialism in the process. Anti-fascists and anti-authoritarians in the United States have to join the fight against Hindutva for all of the following reasons:

1. Hindu nationalist organizations in India receive a significant amount of funding and support from the Indian diaspora in the United States. These organizations in turn provide financial and logistical support to sister organizations and key American figureheads who spread their message and share their interests.

In September of 2018, a group of progressive South Asian activists interrupted the World Hindu Congress in Chicago, organized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) of America (VHPA). Attendees choked, kicked, and spat on these protestors, with BJP lawmaker and foreign ambassador Vijay Jolly yelling, “We should have bashed them up!”

This sequence of events and the very fact that they unfolded in the American Midwest may appear bewildering at first. However, they make perfect sense in light of how the RSS and its affiliates have sought to spread their influence not only to every corner of India but also to Indian diasporic communities around the world, especially in the United States.

The VHP entered the United States in 1970, just six years after its foundation in India; the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, the American counterpart of the RSS, maintained 172 branches in the USA as of 2016; and the American branch of the Overseas Friends of the BJP (OFBJP) has some 4,000 members and up to 300,000 supporters.

At first glance, these organizations seem to spend most of their time on relatively harmless or even beneficent cultural programs and charitable campaigns, such as yoga sessions, prayers, and food donation drives. However, a report published by the South Asian Citizens Web in 2014 reveals that these and other largely tax-exempt nonprofit Hindu nationalist organizations pour millions of dollars into the Sangh Parivar’s on-the-ground efforts to Hinduize India.

Between 2001 and 2012, five Sangh-affiliated charitable groups from the United States allocated more than $55 million to projects mostly in India; two of these projects were the post-earthquake construction of a Hindu-exclusive village in Gujarat and the creation of teacher schools for indoctrinating Indigenous people into pro-Hindu militarism. Indian elections, like these nonprofit organizations, tap into the considerable social and economic clout of the Indian American diaspora.

The BJP considers Non-Resident Indians — above all Indian Americans, who are the richest ethnic group in the United States — its biggest individual donors, and Modi has gone out of his way to court overseas Indians, encouraging them to engage in “diasporic diplomacy.” This courtship seems to have made its mark: numerous Hindu Americans phonebanked for Modi prior to the 2014 and 2019 general elections.

The Sangh Parivar does not rely solely on its own sister organizations, proxies, and individual supporters in the United States to protect its image. Its defenders have attempted to make inroads into the most prestigious quarters of the American higher education scene. Between 2001 and 2013, the Infinity Foundation set up by Rajiv Malhotra, one of American Hindutva’s most ardent intellectual promoters, gave $1.3 million in funding to researchers, academic associations, and academic departments around the world, including at Harvard, Columbia, and UT-Austin.

It has all the while maintained ties with a range of Sangh-affiliated organizations, with Malhotra harassing and encouraging the harassment of his secular critics both in India and the United States. In 2015, the University of California at Irvine turned down a $1.5 million endowment from the Dharma Civilization Foundation in response to student and faculty complaints regarding the Foundation’s ties to the RSS and HSS, as well as the endowment’s stipulation that recipients should not be “confused and distorted by secularism.”

The Sangh’s forays into the American political arena present perhaps the most visible and immediate concerns for American progressives and radicals seeking solidarity with their Indian counterparts. Modi developed a “close friendship” with Barack Obama during the 44th American President’s last two years in office. Among other things, this friendship translated into India’s designation asa “major defense partner” for the United States, with the Trump administration subsequently signing a landmark agreement to supply surveillance technology to India in 2018.

However, no single figure perhaps epitomizes the Sangh’s influence upon American politics more than Tulsi Gabbard. Though her 2020 presidential campaign may have petered out, Gabbard is still regarded as a rising progressive star within the Democratic Party. Progressive South Asians, on the other hand, deem her the “Princess of the RSS” — and for good reason.

Though Gabbard is not of Indian or otherwise South Asian descent, she was raised in a reactionary Hare Krishna splinter group and began publicly identifying as a Hindu early in her political career. Encouraged by the support she subsequently began to receive from the HAF and OFBJP, among other American Hindu nationalist entities, she further enamored herself to the Sangh by opposing a 2013 House Resolution that highlighted incidents of mass violence against religious minorities during Modi’s tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Touched by her vote of confidence, Modi personally invited Gabbard to visit India in 2014 and even sent her a personal greeting and gifts on her wedding day. In the years since her adoption by the Hindu Right, Gabbard has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations for her congressional campaigns from RSS and other Sangh affiliates. She has also spoken at several conferences organized by these affiliates and was in fact scheduled to speak at the 2018 World Hindu Congress before pulling out at the last minute.

Unlike Gabbard, Raja Krishnamoorthi, the Democratic House Representative for Illinois’ 8th Congressional District, did speak at the 2018 World Hindu Congress. So did Rajiv Malhotra. And Mohan Bhagwat, the Sarsanghchalak or Supreme Leader of the RSS. The WHC cannot be dismissed as a one-off event disconnected from the overall American political landscape, with the protests against it going down as an internal matter for the Indian American community to handle by itself.

On the contrary, these flashpoints highlight on a multi-million dollar economic, social, and political network decades in the making, linking some of the most powerful individuals, associations, and institutions in India and the United States through philanthropy, education, and elections.

Even more worryingly, many Stateside members and supporters of this network have sought alliances with reactionary political forces with whom American anti-fascists and anti-authoritarians may be much more familiar.

Read more: https://roarmag.org/essays/hindu-nationalism-must-be-defeated-also-in-the-us/

Butler's Web, Part 3: Grooming the Second Generation


Rep. Gabbard in Atlanta in 2014 with Vijay Jolly, a leader of India's far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Photo released Aug. 23, 2014, on Jolly's public blog. Gabbard has spoken and fundraised at BJP events in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

[American Dream]

Podcast: Tulsi Gabbard, paradoxical hippie fascist
Submitted by WW4 Report on Sun, 08/11/2019 - 19:17

Is Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard a pseudo-peacenik fraud who supports US military adventures as long as they target Islamist terrorists but not the bloody dictators she is enamored of? Actually, yes. In Episode 38 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg traces Gabbard's trajectory, from a youthful devotee of a Hare Krishna schism to her current embrace of the Hindu fascism of Narendra Modi and political love affair with the genocidal Bashar Assad. Based on Weinberg's profile of Gabbard's strange politics on Freedom Leaf website.

Listen on SoundCloud

[Jerky]

Wow.

I REALLY haven't been paying enough attention to Gabbard if her ties to the nationalist Hindu Right - a topic in which I am interested - have completely escaped my notice.

Once again, AD, infinite thanks for your tireless (and mostly thankless) efforts on all our behalves. I, for one, appreciate it.

YOPJ

[American Dream]

I tend to think that the repackaging of Gabbard as simply Hindu is an intentional ploy to obscure her cult ties. That said, the reactionary Hindu Nationalism of the BJP tends to slip under the radar- for example at yoga studios and New Age centers where they might organize events that simply pass as groovy "spiritual" happenings. And yet this is a huge source of funding for their evil designs...

[American Dream]

Trigger warning: Homophobia, Islamophobia

This man is Chris Butler (b. 1948), aka Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa. He's the founder of the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), a fringe yogic sect based in Hawai’i.

He is the “guru” of #Tulsi Gabbard, who was a child of the Science of Identity cult.





Tulsi Gabbard’s parents bought what Jagad Guru was selling, hook line & sinker. She & her siblings were raised in the cult, immersed in the homophobic, Islamophobic teachings of Chris Butler.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1159 ... 93984.html

[American Dream]

Raised in Chris (aka Kris) Butler's Science of Identity cult, Tulsi Gabbard grew up listening to Butler's "fa**ot" lectures, but here's what she told @NewYorker's Kelefa Sanneh in late 2017. @charliearchy @TrickFreee @propornot @mmpadellan @pplswar @LeanOnAndLead @hehawaiiau





The word "f*g" or "fa**ot" is mentioned at least 128 times in Butler's transcribed Science of Identity cult lectures. “I’ve never heard him say anything hateful, or say anything mean about anybody.” - Tulsi Gabbard @girlsreallyrule @cmclymer @Sam6869 @LGBTQ_Caucus @mgolojuch

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1154 ... 76770.html

[American Dream]

So much of this information has only "broken" for me in the last 48 hours. Thanks, Joe!

Tulsi Gabbard, Cult Born And Raised.

Rama Ranson 2:55 pm on September 29, 2015


Tulsi Gabbard is completely surrounded by known cult members like her inexperienced chief of staff to the high ranking Sunil Khemaney.

Tulsi Gabbard/Wai Lana Yoga/Blue River Productions/Oahu Surf Shots/Down To Earth Natural Foods are all extensions of the Butler cult. All are staffed by fanatical members who are all working for very little if anything at all. it is all “devotional service” and each of these are so interconnected with all the others it further demonstrates that Tulsi Gabbard is currently under extremely heavy undue influence of Chris Butler.

Since her first breaths in the world, Tulsi has been fed into the worship of Chris Butler the drug trafficking and extremely homophobic cult leader. Few of these cult children ever have a chance to get outside the undue influence of the thought reform and spiritual abuse inherent in serving Butler’s megalomania.

This video shows a little of the “Hinduism” within Tulsi’s cult. Serving Chris Butler is the only direct route to God.


https://youtu.be/c-92CIcUJN0

It is well understood within the cult that Chris Butler is the only “bona fide spiritual master” living on earth currently. All other Hare Krishna gurus are forbidden and our parents programmed us with this line:

“How can I find a pure devotee to follow if I had to?”

“He (Chris Butler) is here now. You don’t need to follow anybody else. He is here for us, just follow him!”

More: https://ramaransonvsthecult.wordpress.c ... nd-raised/

[Jerky]

If this information all checks out (and I add this caveat only because I didn't do the research myself, so I really only know most of it from the above thread), how could any self-respecting person of average or above intelligence countenance supporting Gabbard as a candidate for the most powerful position in the American government?

I mean, for Pete's sake, even if she shared every single one of my preferred policy positions, I STILL couldn't bring myself to swallow the dark suspicions raised by the unresolved issues surrounding her upbringing, and by the kinds of people she has chosen (or not!) to surround herself with. Cults of this type usually harbor some deep, dark, evil shit... and the kind of people who used to frequent this board used to intuit this fact, quite rigorously.

Not anymore, it seems. As long as it's against the "mainstream", it gets a pass with some here. As long as someone stokes the lazy embers of their "Hillary Clinton is history's greatest monster" delusions, the pom-poms get waved for them, and any critics get screamed at, spit on, shouted down, subjected to mass bullying and perma-ban conspiracies, etc.

J.

[JackRiddler]

Your fake outrage is noted.