Priests & Politicians – the Mafia of the Soul

“These politicians and these priests have been constantly in conspiracy, working together hand in hand. The politician has the political power; the priest has the religious power. The politician protects the priest, the priest blesses the politician – and the masses are exploited, sucked; their blood is sucked by both.”¹ Osho

You can also read more in the book: Osho, Priests & Politicians: The Mafia of the Soul

We are asking three questions:

One, if this is illegal, why is no one prosecuted?
Two, if it is legal, who made those laws?
Three, then whose action or inaction allowed those lawmakers to have that power?

The Unfolding Story – Updated Regularly:

Read the 2025 Edition HERE

February 11, 2026
‘A step in the wrong direction’: Israel’s West Bank plans prompt global backlash
US, Britain, EU and Arab nations condemn plans that Israeli ministers say will ‘kill the idea of a Palestinian state’
“Israeli measures to tighten its control of the West Bank have prompted a global backlash, including a signal from Washington restating the Trump administration’s opposition to annexation of the occupied territory.
“Announcing the measures, which involve extending Israeli control in areas that are currently under Palestinian administration, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, made clear they were aimed at strengthening Israeli settlements in the West Bank and pre-empting the emergence of an independent sovereign Palestine.
“The measures, passed by the Israeli security cabinet, also make it easier to find out who owns land in the West Bank and for non-Arabs to buy property in the territory. It was not initially clear when the new rules would come into effect but they require no further approval.
“‘We will continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state,’ Katz said in a joint statement with the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich.” – The Guardian

February 10, 2026
Israel used weapons in Gaza that made thousands of Palestinians evaporate
Al Jazeera investigation reveals how US-supplied thermal and thermobaric munitions burning at 3,500C have left no trace of nearly 3,000 Palestinians.
“Mahani is one of thousands of Palestinians whose loved ones have simply vanished during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed more than 72,000 people.
“According to the Al Jazeera Arabic investigation, The Rest of the Story, Civil Defence teams in Gaza have documented 2,842 Palestinians who have “evaporated” since the war began in October 2023, leaving behind no remains other than blood spray or small fragments of flesh.
“‘Experts and witnesses attributed this phenomenon to Israel’s systematic use of internationally prohibited thermal and thermobaric weapons, often referred to as vacuum or aerosol bombs, capable of generating temperatures exceeding 3,500 degrees Celsius [6,332 degrees Fahrenheit].'” – Al Jazeera

February 10, 2026
Former Police Chief Said Trump Told Him ‘Everyone’ Knew of Epstein’s Actions
“After it became known that Jeffrey Epstein was under investigation in the 2000s, one of the first calls the Palm Beach police received was from Donald J. Trump, the local police chief at the time told the F.B.I. more than a decade later.
“Mr. Trump reportedly told the chief, Michael Reiter, ‘Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this,’ according to a document recounting their conversation that is part of the tranche of Epstein files released by the Justice Department.
“Mr. Trump said it was known in New York circles that Mr. Epstein was disgusting and suggested that the police also focus their investigation on Mr. Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell, according to the memo. ‘She is evil,’ Mr. Trump reportedly said.
“Mr. Trump also told the police chief that he was around Mr. Epstein once when teenagers were present and that he ‘got the hell out of there,’ according to Mr. Reiter’s account….
“But in July 2019, shortly after Mr. Epstein’s arrest, Mr. Trump was asked by reporters if he had ‘any suspicions’ that Mr. Epstein ‘was molesting young women, underaged women.’
“‘No, I had no idea. I had no idea,’ Mr. Trump said at the time. ‘I haven’t spoken to him in many, many years. But I had — I didn’t have no idea.’” – The New York Times

February 4, 2026
One year on from dismantling of USAID, study projects that global aid cuts could lead to 9.4 million deaths by 2030
“It’s been one year since the Trump administration dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID), with aid cuts leading to the closure of HIV clinics in South Africa, the termination of medical programs in Afghanistan, and the end of numerous programs tackling malnutrition and preventable diseases around the world.
“The slashing of US foreign assistance was followed by cuts by the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and other developed nations, which are set to take effect this year and next year, compounding the impact.
“Now, a new study published in The Lancet medical journal aims to quantify the human toll of those budget decisions – projecting that global aid cuts could lead to at least 9.4 million additional deaths by 2030, if the current funding trend continues. About 2.5 million of those deaths are projected to be children under the age of 5.” – CNN

January 28, 2026
If ICE Can Kill With Impunity, the Rule of Law Is Already Gone
“If ICE agents can shoot civilians at point-blank range and never be held accountable, then we aren’t living under the rule of law. We’re living in a police state.” – Bloomberg

January 21. 2026
‘I could not stay silent’: Palestinian prisoner tells of sexual abuse in Israeli jail
Sami al-Saei has defied social stigma to speak out about what a report calls a ‘grave pattern’ of sexual violence
“Sami al-Saei said he heard the Israeli prison guards who raped him laughing through the assault, before they left him lying blindfolded, handcuffed and in agony on the floor to take a cigarette break….
“He bled from his rectum for more than three weeks after the assault, which happened soon after he was detained in February 2024. He described sexual torture that lasted more than 20 minutes including beatings on his buttocks, a guard applying extreme pressure to his genitals, and forced anal penetration with two different objects….
“Extensive and extreme sexual violence in Israel’s civilian and military jails has been documented by domestic and international observers including doctors, Israel’s military prosecutor, and the UN committee on torture.
The human rights group B’Tselem described a “grave pattern of sexual violence in detention facilities and prisons”, in a report released on Tuesday detailing abuse of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
It ranges from “threats of sexual assault, through forced stripping, to actual sexual assaults”, the report found. “These include beatings to the genitals that caused severe injuries, setting dogs on prisoners, and forced anal penetration with various objects.'” – The Guardian

January 21, 2026
I’ve Studied How Democracies Fail. Here’s My Unified Theory of Trump. By Daron Acemoglu
“There’s a through line that runs from tariffs to toppling a foreign leader. It’s all about expanding the power of the presidency.”
“Most of the administration’s actions—the questionable crypto dealings, the appointment of unqualified allies to high-level positions, the unconstitutional deportations and National Guard deployments, the ouster of a Latin American head of state—have a logic. They’re all attempts to expand executive power, steps toward a type of imperial presidency.” – Bloomberg

January 19, 2026
Trump has invited Putin to join ‘Board of Peace’, Kremlin says
“US President Donald Trump has invited Vladimir Putin to a ‘Board of Peace’ set up to mediate in Gaza and other geopolitical hotspots, the Kremlin said on Monday. Dmitry Peskov, the Russian president’s spokesperson, told reporters that Russia was ‘studying all details of the offer’ and ‘hopes for discussions with Washington to go over all the nuances,’ according to RIA Novosti. The apparent offer indicates that Trump is eager to maintain his warm relationship with Putin even as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nears its fourth anniversary and despite Moscow’s uncompromising resistance to a US-backed peace plan.” – Financial Times

January 11, 2026
Trump’s ‘Superstar’ Appellate Judges Have Voted 133 to 12 in His Favor
President Trump promised to fill the appeals courts with “my judges.” They have formed a nearly united phalanx to defend his agenda from legal challenges.
“When Mr. Trump criticized a ruling from a so-called ‘Obama judge’ in 2018, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. responded that ‘we do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.’
“But the data suggests that in the 13 appellate courts, there is increasingly such a thing as a Trump judge. The president’s appointees voted to allow his policies to take effect 133 times and voted against them only 12 times. Ninety-two percent of their total votes were in favor of the administration. That figure far outstrips support for Mr. Trump’s agenda from appeals court judges appointed by other Republican presidents, and from Mr. Trump’s appointees to the district courts.” – The New York Times

January 8, 2026
Trump Lays Out a Vision of Power Restrained Only by ‘My Own Morality’
On topic after topic, President Trump made clear that he would be the arbiter of any limits to his authorities, not international law or treaties.
“President Trump declared on Wednesday evening that his power as commander in chief is constrained only by his ‘own morality,’ brushing aside international law and other checks on his ability to use military might to strike, invade or coerce nations around the world.
“Asked in a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times if there were any limits on his global powers, Mr. Trump said: ‘Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.’” – The New York Times

January 6, 2026
The Great Unraveling Has Begun
“President Trump’s decision to launch a secretive predawn military operation in Venezuela to grab President Nicolás Maduro is a blatant assault on the international legal order….
“Last year marked the 80th anniversary of the 1945 United Nations Charter, a document signed by 51 nations at the close of World War II. The signatories pledged to act ‘to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.’ ‘But over the past decade, that peace has begun to unravel. Today, it is on the precipice of collapsing altogether. If that happens, the consequences will be catastrophic. We can already see the devastating cost: According to my calculations, from 1989 to 2014, battle-related deaths from cross-border conflicts averaged less than 15,000 a year. Beginning in 2014, the average has risen to over 100,000 a year. As states increasingly disregard limits on the lawful use of force, this may be just the beginning of a deadly new era of conflict.’…
“As the United States fails to abide by the underlying principle of the international legal system it once championed, the already ailing system faces total collapse.” – The New York Times

January 6, 2026
Stephen Miller Offers a Strongman’s View of the World
President Trump’s trusted adviser is casting his hard-right gaze abroad, saying the world must be governed by “force.”
“According to Mr. Miller, using brute force is not only on the table but also the Trump administration’s preferred way to conduct itself on the world stage.
“‘We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,’ Mr. Miller told Jake Tapper of CNN on Monday, during a combative appearance in which he was pressed on Mr. Trump’s long-held desire to control Greenland.” – The New York Times

January 1, 2026
They, Too, Died After Beatings by Guards. No One Raised an Alarm.
Two brutal killings, less than three months apart, in New York State’s prison system raised troubling questions: Had other inmates met similar fates?
“When an inmate named Ladale Kennedy stopped breathing one night in a New York State prison cell, no one paid it much mind.
“No one opened a broad inquiry into the death of Mr. Kennedy, the 1,055th to be recorded in the prison system since 2014.
“The local medical examiner classified the incident, in July 2022, as something of an official mystery: cause and manner ‘undetermined.’
“In fact, just before he died, Mr. Kennedy, 41 and mentally ill, had been pepper sprayed by guards, beaten, handcuffed, held face-first under running water and fitted with a ‘spit hood’ — a mesh restraint that is sometimes used to prevent inmates from biting or spitting on officers.
“All because he had failed to return some food trays and cups that had been handed to him in his cell.
“He had said, ‘I’m sorry’ at least eight times as they pulled him from his cell, video shows. He had told the officers he could not breathe at least 20 times during the entire encounter.” – The New York Times

Subscribe