Jane Sanford's translation of Krishna's words to Arjuna who refuses to kill his own relatives despite his duty as a general to war against them.

Krishna teaches that the soul is real and passes through successive bodies, the soul never dies and cannot be killed. Bodies are illusory, no more than clothes taken on and off. So, do not mourn.

Krishna's words of compassionate wisdom: Chapter 2 Verse 11

You grieve for those you should not
And yet you talk about wisdom
The truly taught do not mourn the dead or the living.

Now, in the world of Krishna's compassionate wisdom, as taught in the Bhagavad Gita, Justice delayed is justice denied has no meaning.

In Krisna's world, Sri Shim's body is no more than a torn and discarded garment.

We should not mourn for him if we are truly taught.

Well, those of us who are ignorant unenlightened types who mourn our dead
fight like hell for our living and who do believe that justice delayed is justice denied -- we are going to keep yelling:

Justice for Sri Shim!

Now, lets go from Jane Sanford's translation of the Bhagavad Gita and looke at the Bhagavad Gita As It Is.

Here is the cantos quoted above in the version used by Srila Prabhupada, which Butler would have used during his own days in Srila Prabhupada's group.

I do not know if Tulsi uses this translation.

[asitis.com]

TRANSLATION

The Blessed Lord said: While speaking learned words,
you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief.
Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor the dead.

PURPORT -- Srila Prabhupada (Chris Butler's guru) wrote this commentary.

Quote

The Lord at once took the position of the teacher and chastised the student, calling him, indirectly, a fool.

The Lord said, you are talking like a learned man, but you do not know that one who is learned—one who knows what is body and what is soul—

does not lament for any stage of the body, neither in the living nor in the dead condition.

As it will be explained in later chapters, it will be clear that knowledge means to know matter and spirit and the controller of both.

Arjuna argued that religious principles should be given more importance than politics or sociology, but he did not know that knowledge of matter, soul and the Supreme is even more important than religious formularies.

And, because he was lacking in that knowledge, he should not have posed himself as a very learned man.

As he did not happen to be a very learned man, he was consequently lamenting for something which was unworthy of lamentation.

The body is born and is destined to be vanquished today or tomorrow; *therefore the body is not as important as the soul.

One who knows this is actually learned, and for him there is no cause for lamentation, regardless of the condition of the material body.

What about those of us Americans who do believe that our bodies are important?

What about those of us who have a religious commitment where we experience God as having created matter and the world and who said it was good.

Who works through bodies, who works through history?

And those of us who do not devalue the body and do not believe in reincarnation as the Krishna people do?

We cry

Justice for Sri Shim!

We do not live in cyclical time as the Krishnas do.

We feel ourselves to be in linear time. Congress was created and the constitution and laws written by people who believed in linear time.

Which means court calendars and filing deadlines are important to those of
us who are NOT krishna devotees.

Justice for Sri Shim!

[www.newyorker.com]

Hello
Anybody there?

This article just adds to the rah-rah Tulsi - she's so pretty, she's a surfer, she served in the military, etc etc
it barely touches on the "cultivation" of all the Gabbards that has gone on by Chris Butler.
it briefly mentions the perversity of Butler worship (would YOU eat his tonails as "prasadam" ?)
the world is full or former Butler "devotees" whose lives were ruined by the cult - my sister was one.
No mention of the fact that Butler lives like a very very rich 1% type, while his devotees have literally nothing unless he "bestows" it on them
Plus it doesn't give a clue of the reality that Butler is an asshole - he's evil, AND he's actually pretty ignorant.
I do NOT have much hope that this article will help the electorate in Hawaii "wake up" and refuse to vote for this Chris Butler "puppet"

That New Yorker writer-

He could have written the truth
He could have pointed out the criminality of the Butler cult.
He could have wriiten about the drug money that has provided much comfort to the guru.
He could have wriiten about all the suffering of the people who became victims of Butler- such as the suicide of a young man who could not please him, or the young child that was run over by a car, because the mother was too busy serving at the lotus feet of her guru, or the numerous young bramacharinis who have been abused by their fathers, brothers and other male relatives, because well, you know, the Vedic Injunctions and all that.
He could have written about Sri Shim, who lost his life, at the hands of a cult member last year.
He could have posted about the vile way that Butler treats his devbots- which Miss 'Rah Rah” glibly dismisses by saying she knows of no such thing.

If that article didn’t turn your stomach, maybe this will.

Shall we count the lies in this fine piece of “prose”?

[sif.yoga]



Oh look- here is another picture of his divine haughtiness, Mr. Perfectly Clean Swan and his loyal duly elected minion- Pinocchia, the Political Puppet #....3. Or, maybe its #4 now, we’ve lost count-there’s been so much political pimping here.

He is telling her what to say for her next photo op. No sir, no hidden earpieces for our little Miss Holy Basil- she gets her programming ‘mainlined' regularly.

Hello, subscribers to New Yorker:

You deserve full value for your subscription.

Fact checking is what separates journalism from mere publicity.

We pay lots of extra money in the form of subscriptions so we can get journalism.

Publicity can be had for free by running a Google search.

[hoodline.com]

Quote


Supervisors Reject Sunset District Medical Cannabis Dispensary

Quan, Huen and Apothecarium communications director Eliot Dobris previously told Hoodline in an interview

[hoodline.com]

that more than 3,000 potential patients could patronize a medical cannabis facility in the neighborhood.

Huen noted that many in the Chinese-American community who are monolingual could benefit from a MCD that could provide services in both English and Cantonese. “There’s a huge underserved community,” Dobris noted.

Much of the opposition from neighbors came after Ark of Hope Preschool hired Pacific Justice Institute (PJI)

[www.pacificjustice.org]

—a religious freedom group known for promoting anti-LGBT laws

[hoodline.com]

—to build opposition to opening an MCD in the community, Quan said.

PJI is listed as a hate group on the Southern Poverty Law Center website.

[www.splcenter.org]

BTW, Chris Butler, Tulsi Gabbard's family guru, is homophobic.


[www.culteducation.com]

[shadowproof.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2017 06:22AM by corboy.

Hi there, I've been lurking here for a while and finally got onto the forum!

First I want to thank you all for your tireless efforts in exposing the truth about science of identity. Your posts contributed to at least three people I know leaving the cult and I/they can't thank you enough. Our lives would have been very different to what they are now and I cannot comprehend the extent of damage that could have been caused beyond what damage has already been done.

I have been in touch with two other forum members here and I'm very grateful for their trust, respect and support over a long period of time.

I want my first post to speak to anyone who is in the cult still and afraid to leave. I'm afraid it's a long one.

No matter how deep you are in this cult, it is never too late to leave. I know with leaving there may be great feelings of embarrassment, shame, fear, anger and loss but don't let these feelings trap you into staying, don't live in fear of these feelings, embrace them and accept them as a part of the process of leaving and disengaging from the cult. Those feelings are transient and will lessen with time, and eventually you will realise the gains, the emotional, intellectual, social and possibly financial and spiritual gains will far outweigh the losses.

You have no reason to feel embarrassed or ashamed, so many people fall into cults and you falling into a cult is a sign of an open mind and heart and a willing spirit. These are not negative characteristics, however it unfortunately does mean that sometimes they can be exploited by someone or a group that is skilful in exploiting them. But it doesn't have to happen again, you can be aware of the red flags and you will have strength and awareness that the majority of people won't have due to your experience.
Having left the cult I discovered a new strength in me, not a weakness, the experience made me stronger and gave me a powerful insight into human behaviour and myself.

Getting caught up in a cult is not your fault. Period.

Here are a few things I learned along the way...

Being love bombed is quite nice! Getting attention, validation and acceptance from a group of people you don't know, who are falling over themselves to welcome you, offer you gifts, share their personal thoughts with you and wanting to listen to yours, is a really nice experience! Especially when there is so much negativity in the world. However always ask yourself what is in it for them? Do you normally get this from any other group in your life? Is it really free? Are the long term losses really worth the short term gains? If this is something you will miss or do miss what changes can you make in your life to get that kind of acceptance from within yourself so you are not searching for it outside of yourself? Question everything.

You do not have to write off your life when you leave a cult. What I mean by this is that your experiences there do not have to be written off, they are still part of the rich tapestry of your life. It is not wrong to have happy or unhappy memories, it is okay to think that some parts of your experiences were good, helpful and if there are aspects you would like to carry on. The difference is that you get to dictate what you parts you want to continue or not, you get to decide what value those experiences have, you will have autonomy over your beliefs, jobs, relationships and your body.

Just because you leave a cult doesn't mean that your spiritual experiences are not genuine. This was a particularly difficult one for me to get my head round. I had experiences I still cannot explain or rationalise, and regardless of my beliefs now those experiences are still valid, no matter how they came about.

I was speaking to someone about how after discovering I was in a cult made me feel vulnerable and wary of trusting anyone again. That person asked me to examine what it was I was looking for in that cult that I couldn't find with in myself, why I was looking for someone else to dictate so much of my life, why I couldn't find that authoritative and decisive voice from within? In finding the answer to those questions from within I no longer feel vulnerable.

Why do you need a religion or a 'guru' to decipher or dictate your relationship with a higher power who is seemingly so keen to have a relationship with you? Why in a world so rich in diversity in all things are you ready to believe that there is only one way to have this relationship and through one person out of 7 billion people on this planet? What kind of healthy relationship in your life needs someone else to mastermind it for you? Could you describe that kind of relationship as healthy? Be critical always, it's not a sin to question things, we were born with a critical mind as a tool to survive, use it.

The four most helpful things I found were...

Speaking to people who had left, share experiences, find a community, get support.

Keep asking questions, use your critical mind in all things, read other accounts, fact check anything that has been told to you and if things have been hidden ask yourself why.

Watch Holy Hell! Thanks for the member(s) here that suggested that, it really helped me! Lots of parallels between science of identity and that film.

Acceptance. Accept your feelings, accept your losses, let go of negativity because it can trap you as much as the cult did and focus on building a stronger you and a better future for yourself so that one day you will be able to look back and just be thankful for where you are now rather than get caught up in the negative emotions of where you were then.

Thank you to the members here again. I know alot of you have suffered and are still suffering great losses through trying to expose science of identity . You are making a difference, and I hope that provides you with some comfort and determination to continue.

I began reading the New Yorker article with hope and came away pissed off. But I wasn't surprised. I came away wondering if the writer was not a Butler follower laying out Tulsi's campaign strategies and spin.

You will not find out what Tulsi really believes if you read this article by publicity writer Kelefa Sanneh.

To promote Tulsi, this lazy journalist ripped off 10 years of our research on the Cult Ed forum and dismissed all who have suffered in the cult. I doubt he interviewd one ex member, but he says he spoke on the phone with Chris Butler.

No one asks Tulsi the hard questions. She is lying if she claims she was not aware of any abuses in the cult in spite of her elite status. "Christ-like" indeed, Trey.

Cui bono?

When looking at any article or statement, you have to ask "Who benefits?" You will be hard pressed to find out who has controlling interest in the New Yorker.

If nothing else, Butler is aware that he is detrimental to Tulsi's career in politics. They are laying out their new strategy. They can no longer deny she grew up in a cult, but they can change the language and attempt to change perceptions. Check out all the same old SOI euphemisms in the article. "Gee, we're just a band of friends who get together and surf and do yoga!" "Servant leadership!" "Home schooled." meh . . .

What is heart breaking is how dismissive the writer was in regards to people who have been genuinely harmed by the cult. It's like how the media trashed Corey Feldman over child abuse acusations. Somehow a switch gets flipped in people's minds to not believe the truth.

Sadly, we lost one of Butler's escapees to cancer recently. Perhaps the daughters who were deprived of his presence for 30 years will come forward now. He feared coming forward publicly and his story may be lost.

I am so angry at the incompetence of the New Yorker writer who never explored the machine behind Tulsi's political career, nor the ravages of the cult on others. Maybe he's interviewing for a position in her administration . . . ?

What does Tulsi really believe? Christine Gralow's article about Butler is real journalism.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2017 04:08PM by Vera City.

Caste violence continues in India. It is reported in the news.

But the Hindu Nationalists do not want your kids to know this. In America.

This is why we have to pay attention to Tulsi Gabbard and whom she associates with.

And SHAME on New Yorker Magazine for not examining any of this. The New Yorker does excellent political coverage in other areas.

Reuters

[www.google.com]

BBC

[www.google.com]

But if you, a Californian tax payer have a child in the public schools,
your child cannot learn about this from school textbooks.

Hindu nationalists have got what they wanted, via pressure groups that most
California parents are too tired and exhausted to even know about.

How many parents have the energy to review their children's school work
and tell them, 'Honey, the Indian history module in your lessons says nothing
about ongoing caste violence in India. Tonight, you and I are gonna read the news online. Here, let me show you how to work Google search terms."

"Next, you and I are going to read about something called Hindu Nationalism. They are in California and lobbied to keep genuine information about caste discrimination and violence out of your textbooks. Which I pay for because I pay taxes."

Now, how many California parents are going to have to time and stamina to do this?


The Hindu American Foundation, The Hindu Education Foundation, The Uberoi Foundation, Hindupedia


Take a look at this, Second District of Hawaii.

This is the kind of history Chris Butler, the Gabbard family guru learned from
his guru, Srila Prabhupada of the Hare Krishnas.

Tulsi Gabbard, your elected US Congresswoman has been making friendly with some emigre Hindu Nationalist groups in the USA -- the BJP Part.

Well, this crap is going on in California. Hindu Nationlists are reportedly lobbying to get some history textbooks re-written -- textbooks to be used
in tax funded public schools.

This Hindu Nationalist substitution of a political mythology for evidence based history is sneaking in under the guide of "multi culturalism"

Do you think the average exhausted parent is going to be aware that Hindunationalist fairy tales might be substituted for evidence based history
in their children's school books?

Most of us do not know enough about evidence based Indian history to recognize when the saffron nationalist wool is being pulled over our tired eyes.


Hello, tax payers!!!!.

Spicy Masala news for breakfast!

Right Wing Hindu nationalist groups are in the USA and are pushing for changes
get textbooks in California public schools

Here are new informative articles hot off the tawa -griddle.


Mythologizing History : How to spot a Hindu Ethnonationalist
November 14, 2017
By Maari Zwick Maitreyi, TwoCircles.net

[twocircles.net]

Quote

The Hindu American Foundation, The Hindu Education Foundation, The Uberoi Foundation, Hindupedia, and all the cohorts of the Diasporic Hindu Fundamentalist Complex are serving up the fascist propaganda of their grown-in-India ethnonationalist indoctrination. They are waging an ongoing battle in California aiming to embed these fabrications into school textbooks.

and

Quote

Mythology in History Books

In comparison to peer-reviewed research, false narrativizing is much easier in the textbook processes and especially so when the government is run by your fundamentalist machine and you can form whole governmental bodies to fund your propaganda. The same myths of the “Saraswati Civilization” are now the proud feature of textbooks in many states including Gujarat, Prime Minister Modi’s former stronghold state.

These revisionists projects are underway not only in India but are being simultaneously fought for in California where the California State Board of Education is finalizing new social science and history textbooks. In the past decade, there has been a strengthening of an American Hindu ethnoationalist diasporic base in California vis-a-vis the RSS and VHP. Organizations like the Hindu American Foundation are a direct offshoot of these organizations. They front fascist organizing with performances of pluralism, LGBTQ-friendliness and concern for Bangladeshi Hindus (while experiencing no concern for Muslims and Dalits being lynched and killed in India).

And this is what the HAF requesting the renaming of the Indus Valley Civilization and teaching children about “the Saraswati” River are about in California. A transnational fascist historical revisionism project. Unfortunately, the California Board of Education has given into the guise of multiculturalism to support the creation of alternative facts.

The Hindu Nationalists got much of what they wanted.

Controversial U.S. textbooks get nod
Varghese K. George WASHINGTON , NOVEMBER 10, 201

Quote

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/controversial-us-textbooks-get-nod/article20109769.ece

Quote

HAF leaders said they were happy about the outcome. “Most of our demands have been met,” said Suhag A. Shukla, executive director, HAF. Samir Kalra, HAF’s Senior Director, said the organisation had worked with most publishers who incorporated suggestions made to them. “We wanted the drafts of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to be rejected and it has been accepted,” he said.

Legal remedies

Thenmozhi Soundararajan, co-founder of South Asian Histories for All Coalition (SAHFA), and representing “caste-oppressed immigrant groups”, said the hearing on Thursday was a “systematic disenfranchisement” of Dalits. “They completely overwhelmed the process with numerical strength. We will seek legal remedies.”

She said the approved textbooks had “discriminatory content that rewrite South Asian history to be in line with Hindu nationalist fiction.”

“The approved textbooks erase the inherent, institutional and ongoing caste oppression of Dalits and religious minorities like Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and Sikhs. They also erase the historical and ongoing resistance to Brahmin Hindu violence by Dalits, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and others.”

Adverse reflection

Asked to explain “adverse reflection upon Hinduism” — a complaint raised by the HAF — Ms. Shukla said: “Many of these adverse reflections are rooted in the images and captions selected for use by textbook publishers.” She said many of the drafts showed “subsequent Indic religions as an improvement upon or superior to Hinduism, and gloss over the dynamic relationships between the various Indic religions” and the HAF sought replacement of “stereotyped and exoticised images depicting Hinduism and India as poor, primitive, and dirty”.

The HAF argued that according to the the framework approved last year, “textbooks are required to explain the difference between varna and jati — varna being best understood as an individual’s personality type based on gunas or inherent qualities, and jati or class which is often based on occupation or guild”.

The SBE’s approvals and rejections are based on textbook drafts as they existed on September 28, when the Instructional Quality Commission considered them. Further representations made by groups and changes promised by publishers have not been incorporated. Ms. Shukla said the HAF hoped these changes would be incorporated as well.

Keywords

"Saraswati Civilization" replacing "Indus Valley Civilization"

"American Hindu ethnoationalist diaspora" (translation, Non Resident Indians and Indians who are US Citizens who are right wing are using multiculturalism to sneak religious political mythology into tax funded schools exactly the way right wingers are trying to shove out evidence based science by claiming science is just another belief system and should share equal time with Intelligent Design.

Products of scientific method and products of history derived from archeology and textual analysis are arrived at by an entirely different set of
rules than ideologies.

Practitioners of evidence based history change and at times discard earlier findings if new archaeological and textual evidence becomes available. Findings from --new catagories of evidence -- genetics, microbiology, chemistry, weather science and geology are also now incorporated into the practice of evidence based history.

Genuine historians and scientists publish conflicting findings and discuss them publicly. Those who disagree with scientists and historians are not threatened by mobs, their books are not destroyed or censored. Scientists and historians disagree but do not stir up goonda mobs.

Ideology driven politicians are the ones who drive genuine scientists and historian into exile.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2019 09:17PM by corboy.

A very good article appeared yesterday on Bart Dame’s FB page.
It addresses some salient issues on Tulsi Gabbard, in light of the recetn New Yorker article. Also interesting to read are the comments below his article.

Quote:”
Bart Dame
Yesterday at 12:06pm ·

A friend asked me my opinion of the New Yorker article on Tulsi Gabbard. I tried to post this reply, but it was not allowed. Maybe it is too long? So I am posting it here. Maybe it will benefit from more visibility.
BTW, I know this topic can trigger strong emotions. I will delete comments that go too far by my standards. Thanks.
-------------


I thought the New Yorker article was very fair. I think Tulsi may have had the most unconventional upbringing of any member of Congress and I do not think people can understand her without understanding that background.
Frankly, many of her online defenders share that background and find meaning in their lives by subordinating their will to that of Chris Butler.

It is ridiculous when people say her religious views should not be scrutinized. At the same time, there are a lot of people who are bigoted against any religious tradition which is not Christian. So it may be tough to have a fair discussion in public on this. But I think the writer did a good job bringing things out into the open which the cult has tried to keep secret.


My sense is that Tulsi is sort of in a trap and is trying to evolve despite being bound by her ties with the group. Chris {Butler] has been sneaky and dishonest for decades. When Chris started the Independents for Godly Government political party back in the 70s, he forced his followers to lie and say it drew candidates from multiple religious backgrounds rather than admit it was totally controlled by the cult. He actively directed their activities, but they all had to pretend he was too pure to dirty his hands with "politics.”


When he ran Rick Reed and Wayne Nishiki for the US Senate, they tried to hide their connection with Chris and accused those of us who spoke of the relationship of "religious bigotry." When Mike Gabbard first published his flyer for Stop Promoting Homosexuality Hawaii," he had the integrity to describe himself as a "Vedic minister." (I have the flyer, but it is lost in my stack of papers. But that's how I remember the wording.)


As Mike's anti-gay campaign grew, he dropped that description, benefiting from the public perception that someone so hateful MUST be a Christian. (I say that without irony). As time went on, he found it convenient to very publicly reconnect with the religion of his childhood, Catholicism. It helped that the Vicar General of the local church, who had actually worked at the Vatican in the Office for the Propagation of the Faith (AKA, "the Office of the Holy Inquisition") was also virulently anti-gay and willing to overlook how many heretical beliefs it required to practice Bhakti devotion to Chris Butler and Krishna AND be a Catholic.

So Mike took pains to hide his ties with Chris Butler and lied about his religious beliefs. This left him vulnerable to an "expose" and limited how far he could rise before the secret he treated as shameful would be revealed.
Tulsi did not, so far as I know, publicly disclose her religious views once she became a politician. Not until after she won the Democratic primary against Mufi.

It was when she was only facing the eccentric Republican candidate, "Smoking Guy," that she disclosed she is a Hindu. Trapped by Mike's insistence he is a Catholic, she has settled on a misleading talking point in her official biography, that she was born to a Catholic father and a Hindu mother. That is less than candid. As far as I can tell, Mike became a Hare Krishna before Tulsi was born and became one of the top leaders in the cult, famously serving as Chris Butler's butler. (Or executive assistant). And headmaster of a school for the growing number of children cult members were producing.
The matter becomes complicated because the cult has used the term "Hindu" opportunistically. Sometimes they say they are Hindu, when that is of benefit. Sometimes they deny they are "Hindu."


I think Tulsi was smart to stop hiding her religious beliefs. She had started to come out of the "saffron closet." This is the first major article in the US to state clearly her upbringing in this Hare Krishna splinter group run by Chris Butler. Which brings me to two surprises. In discussions with the writer, it appears she tried to deny the centrality of Chris Butler in her spiritual life. I think she stumbled badly on that one. The relationship is so well known in Hawaii that it did not make any sense to deny it. Yet she foolishly does so in the article. I think it is helpful if she stops treating it as if it is a shameful secret.


Second, Chris Butler has been notoriously suspicious of reporters for decades. As far as I know, this writer is the first reporter Chris has agreed to talk with in decades. Not sure why.
I may be too close to the story but I expect a typical reader of the New Yorker article will conclude Chris is a bit "off" and the group may legitimately be called a "cult." I think these questions merit more discussion and investigation.
BTW, I do call them a cult, not based on religious criteria but on the sociological way the group functions. Dragging the cult out of the shadows might very well weaken the paranoia essential to the groupthink and their hostility to the dominant culture, which, over time, may cause the psychology to become more healthy, less "cult-like.”


I think Tulsi herself has been on such a path. I doubt she agrees, for example, with Chris and AC Bhaktivedanta before him, that the moon landing was fake. She has probably broken from ACB's teaching that women have smaller brains and are inherently less intelligent than men. Yet, within that religious tradition, both men are regarded as infallible on questions such as these. They are Lord Krishna's "best friend" and representative to the Universe. If they are infallible, then the moon landing was fake and women are inherently less intelligent than men.


I am confident she was given permission by Butler to change her public position on same sex marriage and reproductive rights in order to win the Democratic congressional primary in 2012. Because of her vulnerability on this issue, the cult, whose members had previously flooded public meetings and the comment sections online with mean spirited anti-gay statements, has gone silent.

And Chris's anti-gay pamphlets have disappeared from the shelves of Down to Earth.


I think Tulsi's upbringing in a secretive, anti-materialist subgroup of people who seek to do what they think is right rather than to become "successful" by more mainstream criteria helps explain her freedom from the pressures most other politicians allow to constrain them. It allows her the courage to speak out when she thinks "the Emperor has no clothes." We benefited from this when she criticized Debbie Wasserman Schultz's corrupt leadership of the DNC. As a current member of the DNC, also trying to speak the truth and reform that body, I respect her truth-telling. Few members in Congress had the courage to endorse Bernie Sanders rather than stick safely within the herd and support Hillary Clinton. And, yes, I think support for Clinton often reflected a timidity rather than merely "political agreement," though a lack of courage is related to the adoption of centrist policies.
And I think Tulsi's upbringing and distrust of the dominant American mindset helped her speak out against the reliance on "regime change" in American foreign policy and appreciate that she joined Bernie's campaign to drive home that point, again and again.
While she has been forced to repudiate her early anti-gay activism, I have not seen her discuss and criticize the way she and her father positioned themselves as two of the biggest cheerleaders for Bush's war in Afghanistan and Iraq, contributing to the climate of war fever in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. To me, that was as demagogic and hateful as their anti-gay activism. I am glad she has moved beyond that into a critic of reliance upon mass violence in US foreign policy.
I am still unhappy by her uncritical support for the rightwing Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. He remains a nasty Hindu chauvinist and an impediment to efforts to isolate those terrorists who claim to represent Islam. I do think her ties with the Hindu religious right that supports Modi are not just explained by her "Hinduism," but are part of Chris's drive for legitimacy for his cult in India. In general, the Hare Krishnas are seen in India as eccentric Western wannabes, imitating Hinduism.


Tulsi has developed ties with hardline Zionists, not just AIPAC, but even worse, Sheldon Adelson. She went to Israel and made the obligatory, mindless remarks the trip was designed to produce, expressing sympathy for the Israelis while ignoring the humanity of the Palestinians. Adding a photo of her doing yoga at sunrise added her particular exotic bit to the pro-Zionist narrative. When forced to chose between AIPAC and diplomacy, she was one of the last Democratic members of congress to announce support for the Iran nuclear deal, showing she may be able to overcome her anti-Muslim phobia as well as the influence of AIPAC. Unlike Colleen Hanabusa, Tulsi has not sponsored the bill which threatens imprisonment of people who advocate an economic boycott of Israel.
(Anyone who can overlook Hanabusa's support for this bill is a traitor to the First Amendment. No excuses!)
I spent more time on this than I had intended. I will criticize Tulsi when I think she is wrong and defend her when she is right. I think a discussion of her upbringing within the Chris Butler cult is fully appropriate and does merit concern.
At this time, I am undecided in the Second Congressional race, a position which I know annoys some of my anti-Tulsi friends. Let both candidates make their case as to why they deserve to win. I think we can only benefit from the competition and debate.” End quote.

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