Tulsi Gabbard Is No ‘Progressive’ on Foreign Policy

[Jerky]

Yeah, I saw that. No need to cross-spam your excuse-making for Ms Gabbard.

What next? Fake outrage that someone could possibly impugn the motives of someone who (gasp!) served their country in uniform?!

I expect better from you than this weak cup of tea.

J.

Your fake outrage is noted.

[JackRiddler]

not a cross-post, merely an indication of where the response is.

Sooner or later this kind of obvious disinfo-packed thread is going to be locked, so I prefer to post the responses in one that will still be live.

[seemslikeadream]

so now you are saying this thread is going to be locked by...........who?

there is no moderation here other that one thread title being changed

but then again you are able to get it done....house keeping that is

you are the only person a mod has done something anything for in weeks

[JackRiddler]

so now you are saying this thread is going to be locked by...........who?

I am optimistic that the original spirit of RI will prevail, and the moderation when restored will act in it.

[seemslikeadream]

your wish is someones command


there has been no moderation here except for your wishes

2 weeks and counting you are the only person a mod has responded to about anything so I can understand your confidence

I appreciate your new found authority, at least in the past the author of a thread was consulted or maybe asked but you go ahead do your thing of course you are the one to change the title of an 11 years old thread who does not have that authority or exercises it. We've had this discussion before many times in the past and the author choice always won out. You keep complaining about my thread titles it's what you do and no one else does. If you can't limit the number of my OPs at least you get to name them

I understand it is difficult to read that date under the title

What a 2015 name change would have been too soon? How long have you been thinking about changing the thread title 2...3....years? I guess now it was an emergency

[American Dream]

Rama Ranson 12:32 am on September 11, 2015

Chris Butler Displays Homosexual Proclivities

This Chris Butler lecture linked below is a classic type of “members only” Chris Butler lecture. I was raised listening to these lectures, they are 100% Thought reform and conditioning, Chris Butler runs a cult of totally mind-controlled and deluded followers.

https://soundcloud.com/chrisbutlercult/ ... ship-chris

At 4:00 minutes Chris begins the pornography discussion. Chris Butler constantly spoke in graphic detail about pornography and homosexual sex acts, deriding them. But he was clearly obsessed with them and the fact we were all meant to strive for celibacy and not indulge in sexual intercourse for pleasure, Chris Butler created a dynamic of sexualizing himself to his followers subconsciously. We all adored him and hung off his every word, and we all lived for the moments in his lectures when he would be funny, mean, hateful, vulgar, homophobic or talk in graphic sexual ways. Always discussing these aspects of his talks the most, it gave us all the biggest rush, basically satisfying our most base urges while being engulfed in this mind controlled existence. I speak about it in the past tense because I got myself out of all this crap 20 years ago, but it is all going stronger than ever as we seem to near some inevitable conclusion to the Cult of Chris Butler.

You will notice Chris Butler say “people worship the form of the opposite sex, or the same sex, if they have gone even further into their own perversions.” This is classic homophobic Chris Butler, he just mentions it once here but it is constantly reinforced that homosexuality is the lowest of the low and a sign that the person is the most twisted up and demonic type of person. Disgusting shit taught to the youngest kids.

The youngest kids are exposed to all this graphic sexual discussion, there is no age restriction on any of Chris Butlers vulgar pornographic descriptions of straight and gay sex nor his hateful and vulgar verbal abuse of “faggots”. The followers revel in Chris Butler saying faggot and listing every other homophobic slur he can think of. These lectures are shown to all the children without regard for their young age. I witnessed exactly this at the house of Devaki and Rupa Gibbons when I visited in 2005. I believe they wanted me to join the chant but I never did. It was their daily morning “program” (as referred to within the cult) and lasted about an hour if not more. I stayed the fuck away, did some stretches (real yoga) and blasted “At The Gates” then went skateboarding.

They began their daily “program” with a long kirtan, chanting the prayers, worshipping Krishna and pictures of Chris Butler with multiple prayers written to include “siddhaswarupananda” as the object of praise and worship. This is of course Chris Butler. After plowing through all the prayers they made their young kids sit down and watch a video of Chris on the beach doing his most long winded hateful and vulgar homophobic speech, spending most of the time amusing his cult with his profane homophobic slurs.

The children of Rupa and Devaki Gibbons were all made to watch that, and they had two or three young girls and a young son who was the oldest at about 10 or so. The girls were maybe 3, 5 and 8 roughly. They were all made to sit and watch this entire video. It reminded me of being subjected to the exact same bullshit through my youngest memories and that inspired my to begin posting in 2006 on the Cult Institute forum.

Count the number of times Chris says “genitals”. Chris discusses pornography and when bringing up examples of “porno” he says “Playgirl” before he says playboy, and then he says “Muscle men magazines” before thinking then saying “pretty woman magazines.” I suggest Chris Butler is day dreaming first of his own collection presumably Playgirl and Muscle Man Magazine, having to rack his brain for the heterosexual equivalent of each of his favorites.

Chris, buddy, It’s okay just admit it if you like guys. I think he might as he loves his young male disciples.

Continues: https://ramaransonvsthecult.wordpress.c ... clivities/

[American Dream]

I differ somewhat with Dave Emory on how he parses the complexities of the relationship between Tulsi's cult (Chris Butler) and the Prabhupada cult (ISKCON). Nevertheless, this is a powerful episode:

FTR #941 Who Is Tulsi Gabbard? (Part 1)


3. Gabbard, her family, her fiance and in-laws-to-be and their respective milieux are inextricably linked with a branch of the Hare Krishna cult headed by Chris Butler, aka Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa.

“Tulsi Gabbard Still Dogged by Krishna Cult Rumors” by Rul Kaneya; The Huffington Post; 3/16/2015.

Eleven years ago, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, now a rising star in the Democratic Party, was a little-known state representative from a West Oahu district. It was her then-Republican father, Mike, who was in the political limelight.

The elder Gabbard, known for his virulent anti-gay crusade in the 1990s, was challenging Democratic incumbent Ed Case in the race to represent Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District. So, for a profile piece, a writer at Honolulu Magazine emailed him and asked about his family’s ties to a guru named Chris Butler, aka Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa, who leads an obscure offshoot of the Hare Krishna movement in Hawaii.

But Tulsi Gabbard jumped in. “I smell a skunk,” she emailed back. “It’s clear to me that you’re acting as a conduit for … homosexual extremist supporters of Ed Case.”

Much has changed with Tulsi Gabbard since then. She enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard and served two tours in the Middle East before successfully running for a seat on the Honolulu City Council in 2010. Then, in 2012, she got what eluded her father — a seat representing Hawaii in Congress.

For years, rumors about their ties to guru Chris Butler have hounded U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and her father, state Sen. Mike Gabbard. . . .

. . . . Still, the Internet continues to provide a ready forum for the commotion over Gabbard to fester — you need look no further than a thread on the Cult Education Institute’s forum titled, “Chris Butler, Jagad Guru, Science of Identity.” Civil Beat recently scanned the entire thread and found a trove of information, including useful links, scanned copies of news articles and other historical documents.

For this story, Civil Beat drew on information from the forum that could be verified, along with other publicly available documents and news articles, as well as interviews with people who have intimate knowledge about the community of Butler devotees.

What emerged is a fascinating look at the world Gabbard and her close associates grew up in. It’s another lens through which to view the fast-rising congresswoman.

“Science of Identity:”

The Cult Education Institute’s forum on Chris Butler began back in 2004 and is still going strong. It has lasted long enough to reach nearly 500 pages, containing thousands of lengthy posts intended to shed light on Butler and the inner workings of his group, called the Science of Identity Foundation.

The group formed in the early 1970s, and its leaders later sought to turn the organization into a political force in Hawaii by fielding a number of candidates for key political offices over the years. By and large, the candidates pushed for a brand of social reform that seemed to mimic Butler’s teachings, which stressed environmentalism, vegetarianism, and opposition to homosexuality and “illicit” sex.

And they had some successes: former state Sen. Rick Reed; former Maui County Council Member Wayne Nishiki; Mike Gabbard, who came back from his loss to Case to win a state Senate seat; and Carol Gabbard, who was elected to the Hawaii Board of Education.

It’s no wonder that longtime observers see Tulsi Gabbard’s steady climb from the Honolulu City Council to Congress as somehow connected to Butler.

Butler, a Kalani High School graduate and son of a prominent Kailua doctor, Willis, was a disciple of A.C. Bahkitevedanta Swami Prabhupad, who founded the International Society of Krishna Consciousness 1966. The group is better known in Hawaii as Hare Krishnas, and it was widespread throughout the country in the 1960s and ’70s. Its members were highly visible here — with their shaved heads and orange robes, they were often seen in Waikiki, chanting and soliciting contributions.

Chris Butler, aka Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa, formed a Krishna community in Hawaii in the 1970s.

An internal power struggle eventually led Butler to break away from ISKCON in the early ‘70s and form his own Krishna community in Hawaii. The group has since swiftly expanded, reaching the mainland and as far as Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and the Philippines.

By most accounts, the community was made up of a loose-knit collection of individuals who eschewed the street-begging and instead chanted in the privacy of their homes or makeshift worship centers. Over the years, they banded together to start a number of businesses, including Down to Earth grocery stores and a host of other health-food related businesses under a company called Healthy’s Inc. A portion of the proceeds from these businesses usually got diverted to support the movement.

Around 2012, after Tulsi Gabbard announced her candidacy for Congress, the focus of contributors to the Cult Education forum turned from Butler himself to Gabbard and efforts to pin down her ties to the guru. The result: More than 100 pages of the thread now document the activities of Gabbard and her parents, as well as her four siblings and associates. . . .

. . . . But Civil Beat was able to verify a number of the ties that link Butler to Gabbard’s family and associates:

Kainoa Penaroza, who was appointed as Gabbard’s Washington, D.C.-based chief of staff last month despite his relative lack of political experience, is the son of Bill Penaroza, who was among a slate of 14 candidates running for a variety of offices in 1976 under an enigmatic political party called the Independents for Godly Government. The party’s connection to Butler was revealed in a three-part investigative series by the Honolulu Advertiser’s Water Wright in 1977.

Penaroza, 30, and his wife, Alana Leigh Penaroza, who now works as Gabbard’s D.C. fundraiser, at one time lived in a Kailua property owned by Joseph Bismark, a Singapore-based businessman whose company, QI Group, bought Healthy’s in 2007. According to the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Healthy’s owns Noni Connection LLC, which lists Kainoa Penaroza as its director and secretary.

Abraham Williams, Gabbard’s 26-year-old fiancé, is a freelance cinematographer who also grew up in a family with strong ties to Butler. His mother, Anya Anthony, is listed as a registered agent of Wai Lana Productions LLC, a company named after Butler’s wife, Wai Lan, that runs http://www.wailana.com, which sells yoga instruction DVDs, clothing and other accessories.

Anthony is now the manager of Gabbard’s district office in Honolulu. Last month, Gabbard put a post on Facebook introducing Anthony as her soon-to-be mother-in-law. Gabbard noted that she had asked the Congressional Ethics Committee to determine if it was ethical for the congresswoman to employ her future mother-in-law. The committee signed off on Anthony’s continued employment, a committee spokesman confirmed to Civil Beat.

Sunil Khemaney, who accompanied Gabbard on her December trip to India, is listed in Wai Lana Productions’ business registration records as its manager. He is also the director of Healthy’s and one of the trustees of Wai Lana Yoga Trust, whose mission is to “educate and teach the general public about the philosophy, moral standards and practices of yoga for the benefit of mankind.”

Khemaney is also the vice president of the East West Yoga Foundation, a nonprofit registered in Arizona. Chris Butler is listed in Arizona corporation records as its director, along with his wife, who is the president and director.

Mike Gabbard has long maintained that he’s a Catholic, not Hare Krishna. But, in Honolulu Magazine’s 2004 profile, he acknowledged his ties to Butler: “Although I’m not a member of the Science of Identity Foundation, I’m eternally thankful to Chris Butler … whose teachings of karma yoga (selfless service) and bhakti yoga (devotion to God) have brought me back to my Catholic roots and the fundamental teachings of Christ.”

Plenty of evidence suggests that there’s more to the story than that.

Mike Gabbard was in the audience at a taping of Chris Butler’s TV show, “Jagad Guru Speaks,” which aired for several years in the 1980s and 1990s.

Multiple historical documents show that, at various points in the history of the Science of Identity Foundation, both Mike and Carol Gabbard sat on its board. According to various reports, they were bestowed Sanskrit names, “Krishna Katha das” and “Devahuti dasi,” respectively.

The Gabbards were also in attendance at at least one taping of Butler’s local TV show called “Jagad Guru Speaks,” which aired for several years in the 1980s and ’90s. In old footage of the show, they can be seen in the audience, listening and laughing as Butler lectured on spirituality.

The Gabbards also owned a vegetarian restaurant in Honolulu called the Natural Deli, housed inside a Down to Earth health food store on King Street. But they were forced to sell the restaurant to Down to Earth in 1992 after an anti-gay comment Mike Gabbard made on a local radio show triggered fervent protests.

Civil Beat found no evidence that Tulsi Gabbard is — or ever was — a Butler devotee. And we could find no record of her ever speaking publicly about it. [This is patently untrue, as we shall see below–D.E.]. . .

4. An encapsulation of the views of Prabhupada’s views is presented in a review of a book on ISKCON–the Hare Krishna movement. These will be expounded upon in detail below.

“The Hare Krishna Movement: The Postcharismatic Fate of a Religious Transplant” by Edwin Bryant and Maria Ekstrand (Amazon.com)

. . . . ISKCON founder A C Bhaktivedanta Swami’s views were even more bizarre than I expected: rape victims asked for it, Blacks are inferior and should be enslaved, Aryans are the supreme race, Hitler was right when attacking the Jews, and the “non-Aryan” majority of the human race are useless eaters no better than dogs. The preferred form of government is an absolutist monarchy. Racism is apparently an integral part of the ideal Vedic society, since “shudra” (the designation of the worker-caste) means “black”, which in turn literally refers to Blacks, a category which also includes Dravidians from southern India. (As a side point, I’ve actually seen a Black Hare Krishna devotee once, but all other devotees in Sweden are Swedish and hence “Aryan”.) . . . .

5. We note in passing that the Hare Krishna cult passed to the governance (read “rule”) of eleven different gurus after Prabhupada’s passing. Some of them have engaged in the stockpiling of automatic weapons, murder, sexual abuse and racketeering. We note that many of the branches of the cult may not engage in these activities and that many, perhaps most, of the followers of the cult are sincerely unaware of this activity.

“Murder, Sex and Free Food” by Frank Bures; The Portland Mercury; 6/21/2001.

. . . . After Prabhupada’s death in 1977, ISKCON descended into chaos and scandal. The Hare Krishna world was carved up among 11 gurus, and in each guru’s zone, his authority was absolute. Some of the 11 became corrupted absolutely.

In 1998, ISKCON opened a six million dollar temple in India, complete with nine animatronic Gods. The “Glory of India” seemed to show how far the group had come. However, a $400 million lawsuit, filed in the US last year, points to a darker side. If it goes forward, it may be the last chapter of the story–a story of power struggles, drugs, and murders.

EVERY MOTHER’S NIGHTMARE

Those dark problems seem far away at the Portland temple, where about 100 devotees and “fringies” are chanting, being happy, and thinking about Krishna. ISKCON’s shadows don’t hang over the Sunday feast. It’s a mixed crowd of hippies and hipsters, blacks, whites, and a few Indians. Everyone is more or less focused on the two statues at the front of the room, draped in gold robes, sequins and beads; the two brothers who, 500 years ago, first got the idea that chanting Krishna’s name would bring them closer to him.

There are four devotees living at the Portland Temple. Tonight, Janardana das (formerly Louis Jackson) beats the drum. Devaprastha (David Willard) is downstairs cooking. Jaya Ya Ram (John Perdue) and Bakhta Travis (Travis Geyer) chant along with the rest.

Behind me is a small, disturbingly life-like statue, a miniature Prabhupada. Someone put a little purple hat and scarf on him, as if he was cold. His eyes are half-closed, and to me–a karmie, a meat eater–he looks either completely detached, or completely stoned. In another painting of Prabhupada on the wall, the bald prophet has bags under his eyes and looks tired and worn. This may be because he slept only three hours a night and wrote his 51 books between 1:30 and 4:30 in the morning.

The chanting goes on for over an hour, but I don’t feel closer to anything except extreme boredom. Out the window, I can see the Benjamin Franklin High School baseball field and, as time drags on, it looks more and more beautiful–so geometric and familiar. So American. My mind wanders to the Dairy Queen–to dip cones and Mr. Mistys–then back to the temple, and I wonder, “What am I doing here?”

Every now and then, the incense overwhelms, the cymbals ring in my ears, and I feel like I’m on the edge of being transported on the edge of revelation. Suddenly I’m afraid I’ll be sucked in and by tomorrow I’ll be downtown peddling books with a bad haircut.

From behind a curtain, a woman comes out and blows into a shell. The sound is deep and primordial and for some reason makes me hungry, which reminds me why I’m really here: free food. Every Sunday, Hare Krishnas around the world bribe people to come hear their message by offering a meal, even though you could pay with your soul–which, according to the Prabhupada, is all you’ve got.

Devaprastha. Janardana. Ja Ya Ram. Bhakta Travis. Names that strike terror into every mother’s heart. I think of my own mother and how this is her worst nightmare–me, chanting at the Hare Krishna temple, swaying with the rest. She was terrified that I would stop writing, stop calling, and show up years later as Chakradara asking if she wanted to buy flowers.

Now I can’t help wondering if she was right. How do you know when someone is controlling your mind? How do you know when you’re being brainwashed? I feel the urge to run out and purge myself with a banana split, to lie naked in the Benjamin Franklin baseball diamond. But I don’t. I stay and slowly give in to boredom.

GUNS, RACKETEERING, AND SEX: THE KRISHNA MAFIA

For a small organization, ISKCON has had more than its share of bad publicity, and most of it was well deserved. When Prabhupada “left” in 1977, there was a deep power struggle over who would lead the movement. The 11 gurus who carved the world made up the “Governing Body Commission,” which Prabhupada set up before he died. He may or may not have appointed the 11. No one knows for sure.

One thing that is certain is that their unchecked power was too much for most. According to some devotees, 90 percent of Prabhupada’s initiated disciples either left or were pushed out of ISKCON, so the GBC could rule unquestioned. Hansadutta, the West Coast guru, started stockpiling weapons. Kirtanananda, at the “Palace of Gold” in the Appalachian hills of West Virginia, operated a multi-million dollar racketeering operation. There was rampant physical and sexual abuse in the gurukulas (the boarding schools). At least two dissident ISKCON members were murdered, and there is talk of others disappearing in India. All along, there have been rumors of drug smuggling. It sometimes looked like Machiavelli and The Prince had replaced the Krishna and Bhagavad Gita.

In the mid-1980s, some people went to jail for the murders, a few gurus quit, and others broke away to form splinter groups. For a while it looked like ISKCON was self-destructing, because “too many gurus did not want to spread Prabhupada’s teachings, they wanted to be Prabhupada,” according to John Hubner and Lindsay Gruson in their book, Monkey on a Stick. ISKCON teetered for a while, and there was talk of reform, but little came. In the mid-1990s, the president of the New Orleans temple was found tied to a chair with his throat slit. Today, membership is a fraction of what it was.

Nori Muster worked for 10 years as ISKCON’s publicist, before quitting in disgust. She thinks the group is beyond hope.

“They don’t like to let people know there’s really as much chaos as there is,” she says of ISKCON’s leadership. In 1997, Muster published her book, Betrayal of Spirit, about her 10 years in ISKCON’s publicity department.

“What you have now is just a dying thing that’s kind of lingering,” she says. “It would take a lot for them to turn it around at this point. And that would involve being more honest about their history, opening up more about their finances, and where they get their money from, which we still can’t figure out They (the leaders) have access to lots of money and they channel it where they want it.”

For Muster, it’s a matter of the corruption and intransigence of the GBC, especially the core group of gurus. “They took over the organization in about 1970, and they have run it ever since. And they have run it with an iron fist.” . . . .

. . . . “They have a whole side that’s underground,” she says of the GBC. “I think that’s why they’re so secretive, and protective, and uncaring about their members. None of the members know about this stuff. Nobody knows. The younger people don’t know anything. And that’s the way they like it.” Muster worries that this means they will be doomed to repeat ISCKON’s mistakes. . . .

6. The Huffington Post article above discounts any public pronouncements by Gabbard about Butler being her guru. These are contradicted in the third embedded video contained in the post below. At around 3:45, she credits Chris Butler, aka Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa with being her guru.

Tulsi Gabbard, Cult Born And Raised.

7. The views of “Swami Prabhupada” are dealt with at greater length, illustrating a convergence with Nazi philosophy. In FTR #172, we examined how aspects of Hindu philosophy and culture were seen as dovetailing with Hitlerian fascism.

Those views are on display at length and in detail in the article below.

“Swami Prabhupada: Founder Of Hare Krishna Movement, And A Virulent Racist, Anti-Semite”
by Palash Ghosh; International Business Times; 09/27/13.

Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada — better known as A.C. Bhaktivedanta or simply by the honorific “Prabhupada” — was a Bengali Indian Hindu spiritual leader who founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, itself better known in the West as the “Hare Krishna” movement. . . .

. . . . But the man who spearheaded the Hare Krishna empire, Prabhupada, espoused some very controversial views that would likely upset, and even outrage, those who are otherwise sympathetic to spiritual endeavors and theology.

For one thing, Prabhupada spewed vitriolic racial hatred toward black/African people — repeatedly and explicitly. Examples of his racial bigotry are numerous and frequently recorded in lectures and private conversations by his many devotees and disciples over the decades.

Even if some of his comments were taken out of context (as his defenders and apologists sometimes assert), the sheer volume and magnitude of his immense bigotry cannot be ignored nor sugar-coated.

Part of Prabhupada’s hatred of blacks stemmed from his deep-seated Hindu beliefs that dark-skinned peoples represent the very bottom of the hierarchy of the human race — a direct reflection of India’s ancient color-based caste system.

For example, in an April 1968 letter to a senior disciple named Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami (born an Italian Roman Catholic in Staten Island named Stephen Guarino), Prabhupada wrote: “Certainly we are not going to say these things about the Negro people publicly, we have no distinction between black or white, or demon or demigod, but at the same time, so long as one is demon or demigod, we have to behave in the proper way.” These words, which suggested that blacks should be kept at a distance, were uttered shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

During a speech before a class in Los Angeles later that year, Prabhupada told a bizarre tale of how the apartment he was staying at in New York City had been burglarized and his typewriter and tape recorder stolen.

”When I came back [to the apartment] I saw the door [was] broken,” Prabuphada said. “That [building] superintendent, he was a Negro. He [had] done [it], I know that. This is [a] very common case here [in America].”

In a conversation with devotees on the island of Mauritius from 1975, Prabhupada chastised the gross materialism of the West, while simultaneously slurring black people.

“It is all [a] nonsense civilization,” he declared. “A first-class Rolls Royce car, and who is sitting there? A third-class Negro. This is going on. You will find these things in Europe and America. This is going on. A first-class car and a third-class Negro.”

Prabhupada frequently used the term “Negro” even though that word had fallen out of favor in most Anglophone nations.

The theme of black people as cursed by God and hopelessly beyond redemption appeared repeatedly in Prabhupada’s comments.

During an initiation session in Bombay (now called Mumbai), he told some devotes who were preparing to go to Africa: “You have got [a] good opportunity. You are going to Africa to deliver these persons ... These groups of men are considered very fallen … the black men … They are habituated to steal; therefore they have been given a separate place, [the] African jungles.”

For a man who came from a country colonized by the British, Prabhupada made some rather shocking statements about imperialism, in particular as it pertained to the United States. In a discussion with a disciple named Syamasundara Dasa, Prabhupada seemed to equate the Native Americans (pejoratively called “Red Indians”) of North America with the Sudras (the lowest-caste, darkest-skinned Indians of the Hindu system in India).

“Sudras [black people] have no brain,” he said. “In America also, the whole [of] America once belonged to the Red Indians. Why they could not improve? The land was there. Why [did] these foreigners, the Europeans, came and improved [it]? So sudras cannot do this. They cannot make any [improvements].”

Prabhupada apparently also deeply embraced the myth of the “Aryan” super-race and linked the ancient peoples of India to Europe and the U.S. During a talk in Australia one year prior to his death, Prabhupada declared that “the Aryans spread [to] Europe also, and the Americans, they also spread from Europe. So the intelligent class of human being, they belong to the Aryans, [the] Aryan family. Just like [Adolph] Hitler claimed that he belonged to the Aryan family.”

The Swami also equated the Dravidians, that is, the dark-skinned original inhabitants of India who now predominate in the southern part of the country, with black Africans. He also bemoaned that the Dravidians (black people) mixed with the Aryans (white people) throughout Indian history, including in his native Bengal.

“In Bengal the … black mixed up with [the] white,” he complained. “In Bengal and Madras [now called Chennai, a city in South India], so many Dravidian have been mixed up with the Aryan. Therefore in Bengal and Madras you’ll find many [people who are] black.”

The Dravidians, Prabhupada declared, are “non-Aryans. Just like these Africans, they are not Aryans.”

Prabhupada also appeared to warn that the race-mixing that occurred in India was also occurring in Europe and America, and that it would create serious problems in the future.

He also held some deeply pessimistic views about the racial conflict in the United States. Speaking in Tehran, Iran, in 1976, Prabhupada declared, “I don’t think the Negro question [in the U.S.] is solved … The whites, they do not like the Negroes still. Wherever there are Negroes, in that [neighborhood] the whites do not go in …. Although they [black people] have been given equal [rights], but at heart the whites, they do not like it. Is there any improvement? I don’t think [so].”

Prabhupada also appeared to endorse segregation — the separation of the races, by referring to behavior in the animal kingdom.

“[Black] crows will not like to live with the ducks and white swans,” he reportedly said during a train trip in India during the final year of his life. “And white swans will not like to live with the crows. That is [a] natural division.”

In a conversation with an American disciple named Ramesvara, Prabhupada suggested that without government control through welfare, black people would become “out of control” and create disorder in society.

“Especially in your country [the U.S.] it will be dangerous because these blacks, if they don’t get employment, they will create havoc, these blacks,” he said. “And they are not civilized. They want money, and if they don’t get money, then they will create havoc.”

In a February 1977 conversation in Mayapur, along the Ganges, Prabhupada pontificated on what must be done with the “blacks” (the Sudras) of India — again, equating them with African-Americans of in the U.S. Most appallingly, he suggested that black people should remain in bondage.

“[The] Sudra is to be controlled only,” he said. “They are never [to be] given… freedom. Just like in America. The blacks were slaves. They were under control. And since you have given them equal rights they are disturbing, most disturbing, always creating a fearful situation, [blacks are] uncultured and drunkards. What training they have got? They have got equal [rights]? [It] is best, to keep them under control as slaves but give them sufficient food, sufficient [clothes], not more than that. Then they will be satisfied.”

Prabhupada also had some choice words about the Jews.

During another conversation with Ramesvara, Prabhupada alleged that Hitler killed the Jews in Germany because banks in the United States and Western Europe (allegedly controlled by Jews) were helping to finance Vladimir Lenin and the Communist revolution in Russia and elsewhere.

“They [Jewish bankers] were financing against [the interests of] Germany,” Prabhupada said. “Otherwise, he [Hitler] had no enmity [against] the Jews… The Jews have got money. They want to invest and get some profit. Their only interest is how to get money, [not] nationalism, [not] religion, nothing of the sort ... Therefore [William] Shakespeare wrote [of] ‘Shylock, the Jew.’”

Also, speaking in New York in March 1966, the Swami declared: “Hitler was a great student of Bhagavad-gita [classic Hindu scripture]”

A devotee named Gopagopisvara Dasa wrote that Prabhupada clearly embraced racism and eugenics.

“Prabhupada certainly believed that there was a master human race, the Aryans, and that they were white or tan,” he wrote. “Most other races, such as Africans or Native Americans, were inferior.”

Of course, Prabhupada would never admit he was a racialist – at least not in the way westerners understand that word. He likely would not even understand the furor his remarks would have made (had they been broadcast to a wide audience, which they were not during his lifetime). Concepts like “civil rights” and “human equality” are indeed meaningless to someone like Prabhupada who devoted his life almost exclusively to ancient Vedic texts and prepared for the next world.

More: http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ ... rd-part-1/

[American Dream]

No cult here- nothing to see here, nothing to see at all:

Tulsi Gabbard’s run for president brings questions about past
By Sophie Cocke Jan. 27, 2019




POLITICAL RAMIFICATIONS

How all this relates or doesn’t relate to Gabbard and her political aspirations has been a topic of curiosity and debate in Hawaii political circles.

Does Gabbard “sit down and beams come into her head and (Chris Butler) tells her what to do?” said Burris. “I don’t think that.”

But he said Gabbard’s silence on the issue only feeds the concerns. “I think it’s only important to the degree that she doesn’t want to talk about it,” he said. “I think that’s the big issue.”

Gabbard’s aunt, Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard, said she thinks the stakes are high for her niece. She’s the sister of Tulsi Gabbard’s father, Mike Gabbard, and a retired English professor who taught at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She said she withdrew her political support for her niece in recent years over political differences and supported Gabbard’s primary opponent in the last congressional race.

Caroline Gabbard said she doesn’t think the Science of Identity Foundation will stand up to national media scrutiny and described the political risk to her 37-year-old niece in stark terms in a social media post shortly after Gabbard announced her presidential run, writing that the cost will “be higher than she can imagine or afford.”

“Some unholy jumble of delusion and hubris, ignorance and lurching ambition, begs the question: to what and whom exactly is Rep. Gabbard loyal?” she wrote. “The fact this remains an open question does not bode well for Hawaii and beyond, and least of all for Gabbard herself.”

Mike Gabbard, in response, questioned the basis for his sister’s concerns about the Science of Identity Foundation, saying he didn’t think she knew much about its teachings. He also said Butler had never influenced him, or as far as he knew, Tulsi, on matters of public policy.

“Over the course of both my and Tulsi’s many years in public office, where is the evidence to support this?” he said by email. “Although I’ve sought spiritual advice from Chris Butler over the years, I’ve never spoken to him about legislative policies and have never been influenced by him in any policy or legislative decisions. Nor has Tulsi, to my knowledge. Even on the issue of same-sex marriage, my adamant opposition was coming primarily from the influence of Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Church, which I had become very active in, not Chris Butler. Tulsi’s position on the same-sex marriage was primarily because of my influence on her.”

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/01/ ... -her-past/?

[American Dream]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dne94AR5iPY

Tulsi Gabbard Admits her Connections to Leader of Organized Crime Cult
903 views•Jul 22, 2018

2015 Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard's praises her "Guru Dev Srila Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa" (Chris Butler), clearly linking her to his Science of Identity (SIF) cult and its well-documented history of drug smuggling, racketeering, abuse of followers, and international money laundering.

Learn more at https://www.meanwhileinhawaii.org/home/butlersweb

Following is a letter from Tulsi's aunt responding to a NewYorker article:

The Real Tulsi Gabbard
As Representative Tulsi Gabbard’s aunt, it gives me no pleasure to publicly air my doubts regarding my niece’s political agenda, which Kelefa Sanneh describes in his Profile (“Against the Tide,” November 6th). However, I take my role as a citizen seriously, and I would be remiss not to share my concerns. Sanneh raises the issue of Gabbard’s lifelong immersion in the Science of Identity Foundation, an opaque religious organization that she and its founder, Chris Butler, have attempted to reframe as a “resource.” Gabbard’s answer to a basic question about Butler is troubling: despite calling him her “guru dev” (spiritual master) in her own promotional video, she denies that he is more important than any of her other teachers. She also has a notably mixed voting record, and associations that veer from certain progressive causes to the apparent courting of such strongmen as Narendra Modi, Bashar al-Assad, and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (not to mention Trump)—this zigzagging path through positions is vexing. Sanneh’s article walks the fine line of investigation and exposition in a way that points to shadows worthy of further illumination.

Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard

Honolulu, Hawaii

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017 ... rd-believe

[Joe Hillshoist]

What her dad says about the influence of far right Catholicism is worth taking seriously i reckon.

Before I'd even read that it was my opinion that what he said was the case. That he's come out and said it himself seems reasonable.

But you couldn't deny the influence of Butler. Apparantly Butler is a legit Hindu Guru. But ISKCON (and I assume his offshoo is/are different. More centralised and western. I used to think of ISKCON as Hinduism for people who were Christian at heart but wanted an exotic version from somewhere else.

One thing about ISKCON is that they provide cheap, healthy vegan and vegetarian food for anybody who wants to buy it without the propaganda 9tho that is always there if you want to expose yourself to it.

Also Hinduism and Catholicism both have conservative, reactionary right wings that are nasty and independent of Butler. So don't be too quick to assume the origin of Gabbard's potentially sus attitudes are all the SIF.

Modi is a neo liberal and alot of the support he generates is tied to the neo liberal myth of development and whatnot.

[American Dream]

I would say we have to be careful not too exceptionalize Hinduism, as for example how Islam is exceptionalized these days. Whether or not the Chris Butler group SIF is considered legit in the Hindu realm generally- and on this I am not sure- I do consider it to be a destructive cult. It seems very much to be a "closed, high demand" group which has been involved in brainwashing children in ways that go beyond what is acceptable to most people generally. I don't like authoritarian, highly dogmatic groups much- whether religious, secular or what have you. Granted, some of that kind of shit is normalized in the dominant culture.

Add to that the Homophobia (which I hate) and the giant drug cartel (which I consider suspect as hell) and to me there is a lot to be concerned about. Much of the Tulsi Gabbard story I consider to be of deep political interest and I will continue to follow her closely as a researcher in order to see what's coming next. I don't think I will be voting for her, though with all the shady stuff in her background, I don't consider her a serious contender, more of a "spoiler" figure, if anything.

[Elvis]

OMFG

[American Dream]

Who Is Tulsi Gabbard? (Part 2)

Marketed as “the first Hindu in Congress,” Gabbard, her family, her in-laws and political milieu are deeply connected to an offshoot of the Hare Krishna sect in Hawaii led by Chris Butler aka Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa:

Gabbard’s Washington-based chief of staff, [b]Kainoa Penaroza, is the son of Bill Penaroza, linked to a political front for Butler’s organization. ” . . . . Kainoa Penaroza, who was appointed as Gabbard’s Washington, D.C.-based chief of staff last month despite his relative lack of political experience, is the son of Bill Penaroza, who was among a slate of 14 candidates running for a variety of offices in 1976 under an enigmatic political party called the Independents for Godly Government. The party’s connection to Butler was revealed in a three-part investigative series by the Honolulu Advertiser’s Water Wright in 1977[/b]. . . .”

Penaroza’s wife works as Gabbard’s Washington fundraiser. Both lived at a property owned by a group that owned Healthy’s, a store controlled by Butler’s group. ” . . . . Penaroza, 30, and his wife, Alana Leigh Penaroza, who now works as Gabbard’s D.C. fundraiser, at one time lived in a Kailua property owned by Joseph Bismark, a Singapore-based businessman whose company, QI Group, bought Healthy’s in 2007. According to the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Healthy’s owns Noni Connection LLC, which lists Kainoa Penaroza as its director and secretary. . . .”

Abaham Williams, Gabbard’s now-husband, is from a family with deep ties to the Butler cult. ” . . . . Abraham Williams, Gabbard’s 26-year-old fiancé, is a freelance cinematographer who also grew up in a family with strong ties to Butler. His mother, Anya Anthony, is listed as a registered agent of Wai Lana Productions LLC, a company named after Butler’s wife, Wai Lan, that runs http://www.wailana.com, which sells yoga instruction DVDs, clothing and other accessories. . . . .”

Gabbard’s mother-in-law–Anya Anthony–is part of the Butler cult milieu and is the manager of Gabbard’s district office in Honolulu. ” . . . . [Anya] Anthony is now the manager of Gabbard’s district office in Honolulu. Last month, Gabbard put a post on Facebook introducing Anthony as her soon-to-be mother-in-law. Gabbard noted that she had asked the Congressional Ethics Committee to determine if it was ethical for the congresswoman to employ her future mother-in-law. The committee signed off on Anthony’s continued employment, a committee spokesman confirmed to Civil Beat. . . .”

Sunil Khemaney, one Gabbard’s supporters on her trip to India where she networked with Modi, the BJP and the RSS, is tied to the Butler business milieu. ” . . . . Sunil Khemaney, who accompanied Gabbard on her December trip to India, is listed in Wai Lana Productions’ business registration records as its manager. He is also the director of Healthy’s and one of the trustees of Wai Lana Yoga Trust, whose mission is to ‘educate and teach the general public about the philosophy, moral standards and practices of yoga for the benefit of mankind.’ Khemaney is also the vice president of the East West Yoga Foundation, a nonprofit registered in Arizona. Chris Butler is listed in Arizona corporation records as its director, along with his wife, who is the president and director. . . .”

Tulsi’s father Mike is also tied to the Butler cult: ” . . . . Mike Gabbard has long maintained that he’s a Catholic, not Hare Krishna. But, in Honolulu Magazine’s 2004 profile, he acknowledged his ties to Butler: ‘Although I’m not a member of the Science of Identity Foundation, I’m eternally thankful to Chris Butler … whose teachings of karma yoga (selfless service) and bhakti yoga (devotion to God) have brought me back to my Catholic roots and the fundamental teachings of Christ.’ . . . . Mike Gabbard was in the audience at a taping of Chris Butler’s TV show, ‘Jagad Guru Speaks,’ which aired for several years in the 1980s and 1990s. . . .”

Tulsi’s mother Carol is also tied to Butler and both of her parents sat on the board of directors of Buter’s group: ” . . . . . Multiple historical documents show that, at various points in the history of the Science of Identity Foundation, both Mike and Carol Gabbard sat on its board. According to various reports, they were bestowed Sanskrit names, ‘Krishna Katha das’ and ‘Devahuti dasi,’ respectively. . . .”

The Huffington Post article above discounts any public pronouncements by Gabbard about Butler being her guru. These are contradicted in the third embedded video contained in the linked post. At around 3:45, she credits Chris Butler, aka Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa with being her guru.

More: http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ ... rd-part-2/