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flashlight_on_roaches
A different dailykos link about Tulsi Gabbard's fund raising plus how funneling was done in the past for her Father's campaign:

[www.dailykos.com]

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SHLIAPNIKOV FEB 18, 2012
You apologize for your choice of title, but it IS bizarre. I can understand why you want to shy away from discussing a candidate's religious beliefs, but as "Sam Kestu" points out in his comment, you CANNOT understand the Gabbards, including Tulsi, without recognizing the centrality of the Science of Identity cult in their lives. Not just their "private lives," but in their political lives as well.

Rather than define her supporters in terms of their religious ties, you define them in terms of their zip code? Forgive me, but WTH? I know you are seeking objective, observable criteria for your analysis, but this is absurd. Unless you take the next step and recognize 96734 is where Jagad Guru, Chris Butler, resides most of the year. (More specifically, in Lanikai). His devotees consider it an honor to live near him, to be granted an audience with him or to otherwise serve him. So Kailua has a cluster of his followers living there. Some work in the Down-to-Earth health food store, which generate s funding for both the cult generally and for Chris's lavish variant of an "austere" lifestyle.

Tulsi was raised totally within the cult. Her parents ran the temple in Honolulu. Her father ran the cult-affiliated school for a couple of years before it failed. (It is still on his resume as proof of his "educational experience.") Once the cult school was shut down, many of the children, including Tulsi were shipped to a school in the Philippines. (This appears on her official bias as "a missionary school." No reporter has bothered to ask which "church" sponsored the "mission.")

Tulsi has had experiences in the broader world which may have broadened her outlook and led to a break with the cult. But the evidence on that is contradictory. For years, she was very active and vocal opposing gay equality and reproductive rights, carrying on the work of the cult in this field. As she positioned to run for congress, she started to tell progressives and environmentalists privately that she had changed her views on gay equality and reproductive choice. Because she was unwilling to say these things publicly, a lot of people were skeptical. The endorsement from Emily's List forced the matter into public view. Even then, she tried to use the endorsement without calling explicit attention to the fact this meant she now supported abortion rights. She briefly had a video on her website explaining her changed views, but took it down.

A recent check of her site shows she now states her pro-choice and (relatively) gay-friendly views prominently, after having hidden them for many weeks.

So has Tulsi broken from the cult in which she lived for all her life? Despite her change on these important issues, there is not evidence to support that view. Her core campaign donations still come from people with long histories of having contributed almost exclusively to the campaigns of other cult members. Her key campaign operatives have long histories of association with cult-controlled front groups and businesses. If Tulsi's thinking has evolved, does that mean the thinking of these cult operatives has also evolved?

The "Science of Identity" teaches that people labor under a false sense of their true identity and are therefore unhappy. We mistaken assume we are our bodies, our ethnicity, our gender, our nationality. That COULD lead to a kind of universalism and tolerance, like that promoted by Vedanta. But SOI is a particularly virulent expression of bhakti fundamentalism. Bhakti teaches that one derives happiness not through pursuit of the senses or development of your individual skills, talents, but through service to God. And you learn how to serve God through submission to the will of a guru. So service to god becomes service to the guru. Chris Butler is Jagad Guru, the spiritual master of the entire manifest universe. Not just earth, not just the solar systems, not just the Milky Way and not just this dimension, but all dimensions.

This is the guy who lives in 96734 and this explains why that zip code shows up so often in the campaign contribution data bases.

Chris Butler long ago developed a strong streak of homophobia. He would refer to gays as "fags" in his lectures. He took what was a general hostility to the pursuit of sexual pleasure and fixated specifically on gay desire. Heterosexual desire could at least lead to the creation of new cult members, provided the married couple spiritually cleansed themselves by chanting for hours in advance of coitus and were thinking of Krishna (or maybe Chris?) during orgasm. Under such conditions, they were more likely to attract a Krishna conscious soul to be reincarnated as their child. But gay sex could not be justified as anything other than pleasure for hedonistic purposes.

But that does not explain the intense passion and paranoia one finds in Chris's writings, or in the activism of the Gabbards against gay equality. Chris became a guru in the late 60s, early 70s. He was a longhaired, somewhat androgynous and goodlooking guy. Some of the attention and devotion he received from devotees likely had sexual elements to it. There were rumors of his involvement with a prominent female devotee from this period. Some of the male devotees may very well have exhibited feelings of attraction which were not solely to Chris's spiritual side. I am not saying Chris is gay. But I have heard rumors that some of his followers in those days were.

Back to the Science of Identity's more formal teaching. False identities, like race, nationality, gender, ideology are garments we can put on and take off, as easily as changing a shirt. Mike Gabbard was a Republican, but that was a superficial label and not his true identity. His true identity comes from serving God (through Chris). Since his approved calling was to seek political power, he could take off his Republican garment and pull on a Democratic shirt, so long as it was to advance his political career.

Does this extend to Tulsi's discarding of MAJOR political positions of the cult: anti-gay and anti-abortion activism and support for aggressive militarism and jingoism?

THAT is the mystery here. I would think breaking with those positions would be too much for the cult. Yet she has explicitly done so and the cult members are moving together as one, lockstep in support of her campaign. They have not broken ranks with her.

There is no question in my mind Tulsi had NO CHANCE of advancing politically within the Democratic Party if she remained identified with her earlier rightwing social views. She could have won lowlevel offices in the state house or city council, but the cult has bigger plans for her. It has been said, and I think you can find it on the Cult Education Forum linked in the diary, that Chris Butler has said one day a devotee of his shall sit in the Oval Office. To quote JFK, "A torch has been passed to a new generation."

Chris is a megalomaniac. But his devotees have been following a continuous political strategy since the mid-1970s with ever greater success. They ahve been disciplined, bold and single-minded. AS napoleon Hill has said, the path to success is to "Plan your work and work your plan." That is as true for political/religious cults as it is for door to door salesmen.

I think Tulsi has discarded her rightwing social views because they were a threadbare garment interfering with her primary mission: to serve God, as directed by Chris Butler and gain more political power.

That analysis may not satisfy your search for objective, observable data points like zip code numbers. But it is the best explanation I have found to explain the extraordinary political trajectories of Mike, Carol and now, Tulsi Gabbard.

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SHLIAPNAKOV
This "network" has been deeply involved in Hawaii politics for about 35 years. And some of us who have also been "deeply involved in Hawaii politics" for years have had brushes with them over the years. So we have had to assess their motives, their membership and their strategic decisions, much like one might do with an opposing chess player.

The longterm political reporters in Hawaii are aware of the cult's network, but are uncomfortable talking about it. As a result, most members of the public see only discrete individuals or, perhaps, a "family" network. And even with the "family ties" model, some argue "Tulsi should not be held responsible for the actions of her parents," a commonsense sort of argument which should appeal --at first-- to all fair-minded people.

Tulsi and her followers have used this talking point themselves, but it falls apart with the slightest scrutiny. Tulsi herself engaged in nasty anti-gay rhetoric and behavior and was a very active participant in the movement to deny gays equal rights for marriage and gay kids protection in the schools. So the argument shifts. "People evolve. Tulsi's thinking evolved as a result of her exposure to religious sexism in Kuwait."

That chronology is bogus. Well after Tulsi returned from Kuwait, she was still expressing opposition to gay equality, including while she was running for the City Council seat slightly over a year ago. Had she publicly expressed her change of heart at the time, when it would have been politically inconvenient for her, I would be more inclined to view it as sincere. Without changing her views on the war, gay equality and abortion, Tulsi's political career as a Democratic candidate was doomed to remain at the state legislature or city council level.

You ask about the value of seeing the network as a "cult" would add. That's a valid question. If you can propose an alternate term which can explain the dedication its members have, the disciplined manner by which they move in unity and without dissension and the personal privation hundreds of them are enduring in order to fund the political and religious activities of the network, I am willing to be persuaded.

Years ago, I took the address information of campaign contributors to candidates from this network and drove around to see where they lived. A lot of the homes were tiny, termite eaten shacks in poor neighborhoods. Yet these people had maxxed out their contribution limits, giving amounts like $2000. Other political activists, seeing this, saw it as evidence money was being donated in the name of these people, and what we were witnessing was campaign finance fraud. Because they were not familiar with the practices of this Hare Krishna group, they were unable to understand that these people were sending all their available income as directed by the leaders of their group. I have heard that many member tithe as much as 50% of their income.

As someone with a background in left activism, as well as Eastern religion, I can respect someone dedicating themselves to voluntary simplicity and directing their energy towards a common strategy to improve the world. Those of us who interacted with some of the "new communist" groups of the 70s and 80s can probably see "cult-like" behavior in some of those groups. Worker's World, anyone? Lyndon LaRouche's followers?

If we were talking about a network of Lyndon LaRouche followers, would people be so hesitant to identify the group by name? If the child of a top aide to Lyndon LaRouche were now running for Congress from the Chicago area, with the obvious assistance of the parent and other longtime LaRouche members, would we shy away from explaining the person's candidacy in the context of the LaRouche movement?

The challenge to my model, that of understanding Tulsi as a member of the Chris Butler cult, is her flip-flop on two MAJOR positions long held by the cult and at the core of most of heir political activism for decades.

You see the network. You have immersed yourself in some of the reports on the Cult Education Forum, the Honolulu Weekly and Honolulu Magazine articles, as well as the PDH blog. You haven't dealt with the people close up, so it may still seem unreal to you. You obviously feel uncomfortable using the term "cult." Which you SHOULD feel uncomfortable about! Religion is a private affair. And particularly when Christian bigotry is running amuck, it's kinda nice to think there is some religious diversity informing the opinions of our politicians.

But what word can best identify what you are seeing? Remain committed to your "social science" framework. You are observing phenomena and processes. Is it rare, put it is not purely "political." If you try to determine what the core of this network has in common, it is a history of practicing bhakti yoga, under the teachings of Chris Butler, working in interlocked small businesses and supporting a small number of like-minded candidates.
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We can try to escape any taint of "anti-Hindu" bias by avoiding any mention of the Hare Krishna roots of this network, but that is just giving into another bias and distorts our perception of the phenomena we are observing.

If the Chris Butler organization were larger and present in more communities, people would be less reluctant to see them for what they are. As it is, they only appear to have made a significant political push in Hawaii and Australia. And their Hawaii operation has been much more successful than the Australian, so the pattern is pretty damn unique. But hey, we also have the highest number of unique (and endangered) species in the world as well. I guess being isolated out here in the middle of the sea has its consequences.

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You ask about the value of seeing the network as a "cult" would add.

That's a valid question.

If you can propose an alternate term which can explain the dedication its members have, the disciplined manner by which they move in unity and without dissension and the personal privation hundreds of them are enduring in order to fund the political and religious activities of the network, I am willing to be persuaded.

Years ago, I took the address information of campaign contributors to candidates from this network and drove around to see where they lived. A lot of the homes were tiny, termite eaten shacks in poor neighborhoods. Yet these people had maxxed out their contribution limits, giving amounts like $2000.

Other political activists, seeing this, saw it as evidence money was being donated in the name of these people, and what we were witnessing was campaign finance fraud.

Because they were not familiar with the practices of this Hare Krishna group, they were unable to understand that these people were sending all their available income as directed by the leaders of their group.

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We can try to escape any taint of "anti-Hindu" bias by avoiding any mention of the Hare Krishna roots of this network, but that is just giving into another bias and distorts our perception of the phenomena we are observing.

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(Corboy note: Taking a sleep deprived jetlagged person and putting her to work, straight off the bat is not only inhumane, its a matter of workplace safety. Exhausted people on a farm are at risk of hurting themselves. )

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dabcult
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=zEzIDP5ipFA

New video link

Its a bit short........but I am directing the public to this web site for more informations

More videos later depending on the interest !