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

April 17, 2026
Hegseth Says Climate Change Is ‘Crap.’ The Military Is Still Bracing for It
Climate is now a verboten topic in the Pentagon, but the battle against storms, fires, floods and rising seas hasn’t stopped.
“In a March 2025 memo to military leaders, Hegseth called climate change a “distraction” from fighting wars, ordered that references to it be removed from mission statements and barred any environmental initiatives from being included in the Future Years Defense Program, a strategic plan.” – Bloomberg

April 4, 2026
Populists will regret doing God
A movement founded on loucheness is making an electorally risky turn towards religion
“I am looking at a photo of Donald Trump, taken in the Oval Office on March 6. Around him are 20 pastors. A few are laying hands on the wartime leader. All are praying with him. No one’s eyes are open. On this holiest of weekends for some readers, it would be bad manners to make fun of such a tableau. Also, in fairness to the president, he exudes all the enthusiasm of a cat being bathed. The prayer stunt is not for himself, but for voters. Just don’t assume that it will work.” – Financial Times

March 29, 2026
Why Marriage, for So Many, Is Less Appealing Than Ever
“As of 2023, the last data available from Pew Research Center, there were about 111 million single adults ages 18 and up in the United States. That was a sizable increase from 70 million in 1990.
“There is now consensus among researchers that after years of a steady decline in marriage rates the institution has lost its luster for many.
“’I used to say we didn’t know if marriage was being delayed or foregone,’ said Richard Fry, a social and demographic trends researcher at Pew. ‘I think the evidence is pretty clear now. It’s not just that adults are delaying marriage.’ Increasingly, he said, they are dismissing it.” – New York Times

March 29, 2026
Full network of clitoral nerves mapped out for first time
“Almost 30 years after the intricate web of nerves inside the penis was plotted out, the same mapping has finally been completed for one of the least-studied organs in the human body – the clitoris…..
“Cultural taboo around female sexuality has held back scientific investigations and the clitoris did not even make it into standard anatomy textbooks until the 20th century. And in the 38th edition of Gray’s Anatomy in 1995 it was introduced as just ‘a small version of the penis.’
“A Melbourne urologist, Helen O’Connell, says the clitoris has been ignored by researchers for far too long. ‘It has been deleted intellectually by the medical and scientific community, presumably aligning attitude to a societal ignorance,’ she said….
“‘This is the first ever 3D map of the nerves within the glans of the clitoris,’ said Lee. She is amazed it has taken so long, considering a similar level of knowledge regarding the penile glans was reached back in 1998, 28 years ago.” – The Guardian

March 27, 2026
Trump’s ‘God Squad’ Will Weigh Gulf Oil Drilling Against the Survival of Endangered Whales and Turtles
Citing national security, the Trump administration wants to exempt all federally regulated offshore oil from protections for endangered animals—even if it could cause their extinction.
“The Trump administration is turning to the nuclear option on endangered-species protections in the name of national security.
“A rarely tapped panel nicknamed the ‘God Squad’ will meet Tuesday to discuss whether overriding Endangered Species Act regulations for all federally regulated fossil fuel operations in the Gulf of Mexico is more important than preventing the extinction of several imperiled species. That includes sea turtles and a whale species down to its last 51 individuals.” – Inside Climate News

March 26, 2026
It Was One of the Cold War’s Greatest Crimes. No One Has Paid a Price.
“Mr. Lumumba’s overthrow and assassination was one of the Cold War’s great crimes — a conspiracy involving White House officials, C.I.A. spooks, U.N. diplomats, Congolese separatists, and, yes, Belgian envoys. It cut short the life of a young and charismatic leader, installed a kleptocratic dictator in his place and set what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo on a ruinous path from which it has never entirely recovered.” – The New York Times

March 17, 2026
Admiral’s Comments Undercut Pentagon’s Cluster Munition Policy
The first Trump administration defended cluster munitions as ‘legitimate,’ but on Monday, Adm. Brad Cooper condemned them as ‘inherently indiscriminate.’
“In a video posted on social media on Monday, Adm. Brad Cooper, the leader of U.S. Central Command, condemned a recent Iranian cluster munition attack on Israel.
“Calling them ‘an inherently indiscriminate type of munition,’ Admiral Cooper said the ‘Iranian regime’ had launched ‘a reckless attack against civilian neighborhoods in Tel Aviv.’…
“The first Trump administration, however, defended the use of cluster munitions in a policy that remains in effect today.” – The New York Times

March 17, 2026
Inside the Supply Line Delivering American Guns to Mexican Cartels
A surge of weapons is flowing from the U.S. to Mexico. These firearms — sourced from gun shops, shows, websites and apps — are funneled across the border to fuel the country’s most violent crimes.
“The 17-year-old sat in a hotel room, running a high-stakes logistics hub from his smartphone. He scrolled through listings of weapons for sale on WhatsApp and fielded requests like a call-center operator, dispatching orders in real time: Kalashnikovs, AR-15-style rifles and lots of ammunition.
“The pace of business has become relentless, said the arms smuggler, the Arizona-born son of a local cartel cell leader. Though still in high school here in Phoenix, he is now handling as many as 200 firearms orders a week, roughly double what he shipped to Mexico before President Trump returned to the White House and pressed for a crackdown on the cartels.
“Moving the weapons into Mexico is easy, he said, despite increased surveillance and enforcement on both sides of the border. ‘No one stops you unless you run a red light,’ he said.
“As the Trump administration pushes the Mexican government to do more against drug cartels, an unintended beneficiary has emerged from the U.S. pressure campaign: the weapons smugglers who supply guns to the Sinaloa Cartel, the criminal powerhouse behind much of the fentanyl flooding American streets.” – The New York Times

March 14, 2o26
Epstein Files: What Are We Missing?
Katie Couric interviews The Atlantic’s Sarah Fitzpatrick
“Our team feels like it’s really important to continuing to continue covering the Epstein story because there’s so much speculation that that this war was an effort to distract from that really damaging story to President Trump….
“Julian Roger Sullenberger broke the story that the Justice Department had withheld some really incriminating files related to allegations that President Trump had sexually abused a minor.”…
“So I think it’s really important to recognize this is a significant development, but this is what has been reported by other journalists is just one set of files related to one accuser.
“My reporting actually has brought it much broader. I have nine sources familiar that have told me that and we’ve reported this in my piece a couple weeks ago that there people had shared information with the FBI including me specific mentions of Trump and allegations that are nowhere to be found in the files.” – YouTube

March 14, 2026
‘You are all worse than each other’: anti-regime Iranians turn on Trump
Mood among some in Iran shifts from hope of being rescued to dismay at destruction of infrastructure, culture and lives
“After years of arrests, disappearances and mass killings of protesters, the hatred in Iran from some quarters for the hardline, oppressive governing regime had boiled into such a desperate rage that many believed Donald Trump’s promise that the US would ‘come to their rescue.’
“Now, after a fortnight of war, with US and Israeli airstrikes killing hundreds as they hit residential blocks, shops, fuel depots and even a school, the mood is changing.
“‘They are also lying! Like the regime has been lying to us,’ said Amir*, a student at the University of Tehran. ‘You are all worse than each other.'” – The Guardian

March 13, 2026
Iran is an imperial trap. America walked right in.
Trump’s decision to return to the Middle East echoes the strategic folly that undid Britain.
“America is, once again, fighting a war to reorder a society in the greater Middle East. And like in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, this war seems unlikely to turn out quite as its proponents may hope.
“Why does this keep happening?” – The Washington Post

March 12, 2026
China approves ‘ethnic unity’ law requiring minorities to learn Mandarin
“On paper, it aims to promote integration among the 56 officially recognised ethnic groups, dominated by the Han Chinese, through education and housing. But critics say it cuts people off from their language and culture.
“It mandates that all children should be taught Mandarin before kindergarten and up until the end of high school. Previously students could study most of the curriculum in their native language such as Tibetan, Uyghur or Mongolian.
“The law was approved on Thursday as the annual rubber-stamp parliamentary session drew to an end.
“‘The law is consistent with a dramatic recent policy shift, to suppress the ethnic diversity formally recognised since 1949,’ Magnus Fiskesjö, an associate professor of anthropology at Cornell University said in a university report.
“The children of the next generation are now isolated and brutally forced to forget their own language and culture.'” – BBC

March 12, 2026
Fears about nuclear war are reaching a fever pitch. Another grim sign of the times
News stories are weighing nuclear risk as experts muse on the possibility of global warfare
“Intimations of world war three – the big one, nuclear Armageddon – didn’t arise yesterday. But they got more urgent when Donald Trump was elected the second time. In December 2024, Newsweek published a map of the “safest US states to live during nuclear war”. The article was not reassuring. ‘Nowhere is truly “safe”’ from such consequences as ‘contamination of food and water supplies and prolonged radiation exposure,’ said the senior policy director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. Another expert noted that ‘even a “small” nuclear war would … kill at least a billion people.’” – The Guardian

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

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