Priests & Politicians – the Mafia of The Soul

18 min read

“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

The Unfolding Story – Updated Regularly:

January 19, 2021
In 1,458 days, President Trump has made 30,534 false or misleading claims
The Fact Checker’s ongoing database of the false or misleading claims made by President Trump since assuming office. – The Washington Post

January 19, 2021
Woman jailed for record 43 years for insulting Thai monarchy
“‘What is thought to be the toughest sentence ever passed under the kingdom’s strict lese-majesty law,’ lawyers said. The woman, said to be in her 60s, was accused of posting audio clips to Facebook and YouTube with comments deemed critical of the monarchy, according to the group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights. A sentence of 87 years was announced initially, but this was halved because she pleaded guilty. – The Guardian

January 18, 2021
Poisoned Putin Critic Navalny Jailed For 30 Days In Russia, Spokeswoman Says
The politician’s allies said he was being held at a police precinct outside Moscow and has been refused access to his lawyer…. Navalny flew to Russia from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin…. Last month, Navalny released the recording of a phone call he said he made to a man he alleged was a member of a group of officers of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, who purportedly poisoned him in August and then tried to cover it up. The FSB dismissed the recording as fake. – HuffPost

January 18, 2021
Amazon Web Drama Draws the Wrath of India’s Hindu Nationalists
“Artists say officials tied to the country’s ruling party use pressure to stem criticism…. The true objection to “Tandav” may simply be that it’s too real…. The authorities in Uttar Pradesh State, home to many recent police killings and run by one of Mr. Modi’s closest allies, a Hindu monk turned chief minister, seem especially offended. They said in a filing with the police there that the Amazon series portrays the post of prime minister ‘in a very indecent manner.’ On Monday, state officials warned that the filmmakers should ‘prepare for arrest.'” – The New York Times

January 18, 2021
127 Republicans Who Voted To Overturn The Election Results Are Now Praising MLK
“Not only did they try to overturn the election results and give legitimacy to President Donald Trump’s lies of rampant voter fraud, but they essentially tried to erase the mammoth turnout among Black voters that helped Biden win. Twelve days after that vote, 127 of those Republicans ― 86% ― tweeted or put out statements Monday praising the work of Martin Luther King Jr., who is perhaps best remembered for fighting racial injustice…. The hypocrisy was not lost on civil rights leaders. – HuffPost

January 18, 2021

How to Hold Social Media Accountable for Undermining Democracy
“Far from being neutral, social media companies are constantly making decisions about which content to amplify, elevate, and suggest to other users. Given their business model, which promotes scale above all, they’ve often actively amplified extreme, divisive content — including dangerous conspiracy theories and misinformation… Facebook profits by amplifying lies, providing dangerous targeting tools to political operatives seeking to sow division and distrust, and polarizing and even radicalizing users.” – Harvard Business Review

January 17, 2021
The ‘Shared Psychosis’ of Donald Trump and His Loyalists
“Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist and president of the World Mental Health Coalition, led a group of psychiatrists, psychologists and other specialists who questioned Trump’s mental fitness for office in a book that she edited called The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President. In doing so, Lee and her colleagues strongly rejected the American Psychiatric Association’s modification of a 1970s-era guideline, known as the Goldwater rule, that discouraged psychiatrists from giving a professional opinion about public figures who they have not examined in person. ‘Whenever the Goldwater rule is mentioned, we should refer back to the Declaration of Geneva, which mandates that physicians speak up against destructive governments,’ Lee says. ‘This declaration was created in response to the experience of Nazism…. If one cannot have love, one resorts to respect. And when respect is unavailable, one resorts to fear. Trump is now living through an intolerable loss of respect: rejection by a nation in his election defeat. Violence helps compensate for feelings of powerlessness, inadequacy and lack of real productivity.'” – Scientific American

January 17, 2021
‘Our souls are dead’: how I survived a Chinese ‘re-education’ camp for Uighurs
“After 10 years living in France, I returned to China to sign some papers and I was locked up. For the next two years, I was systematically dehumanised, humiliated and brainwashed …They had sentenced me to seven years of re-education. They had tortured my body and brought my mind to the edge of madness. And now, after reviewing my case, a judge had decided that no, in actual fact, I was innocent. I was free to go.” – The Guardian

January 16, 2021
India’s ‘love jihad’ laws: Another attempt to subjugate Muslims
“The new anti-conversion laws not only remove agency from women, but also put a target on the backs of innocent Muslim men and boys. The Supreme Court of India declined to stay controversial laws recently enacted in several states to tackle “love jihad” – a baseless conspiracy theory accusing Muslim men of luring Hindu women into marriage with the aim of forcefully converting them to Islam.” – Aljazeera

January 15, 2021
These Textbooks In Thousands Of K-12 Schools Echo Trump’s Talking Points
“Their religion-centered, anti-Democrat, anti-science, anti-multicultural message mirrors the Christian nationalism seen at the U.S. Capitol riot…. Scholars say textbooks like these, with their alternate versions of history and emphasis on Christian national identity, represent one small part of the conditions that lead to events like last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol, an episode that was permeated with the symbols of Christian nationalism. Before storming the Capitol, some groups prayed in the name of Jesus and asked for divine protection. They flew Christian and “Jesus 2020” flags and pointed to Trump’s presidency as the will of God. – HuffPost

January 14, 2021
Mexico Exonerates Ex-Defense Chief Who Was Freed by the U.S.
“The authorities in Mexico say they will bring no charges against a former top military official who was arrested in the United States last year on drug-trafficking and corruption charges…. His complete exoneration in Mexico came as a shocking about-face after the authorities had promised to bring the full weight of the Mexican justice system to bear in the case…. General Cienfuegos was apparently known as ‘El Padrino,’ or The Godfather, by one of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels. Officials said General Cienfuegos directed military operations away from the criminal group in exchange for large sums of cash.” – The New York Times

January 14, 2021
Trump Ignites a War Within the Church: After a week of Trumpist mayhem, white evangelicals wrestle with what they’ve become.
“Conservative preacher Jeremiah Johnson: ‘Over the last 72 hours, I have received multiple death threats and thousands upon thousands of emails from Christians saying the nastiest and most vulgar things I have ever heard toward my family and ministry. I have been labeled a coward, sellout, a traitor to the Holy Spirit, and cussed out at least 500 times…. I’m convinced parts of the prophetic/charismatic movement are far SICKER than I could have ever dreamed of.’” – The New York Times

January 14, 2021
Up to 1m Hindus gather in India as festival goes ahead amid Covid fears
Millions more are expected to descend on Haridwar in the coming weeks for Kumbh Mela, one of the world’s biggest religious gatherings…. ‘The pandemic is a bit of a worry, but we are taking all precautions,’ said one of the organisers, Siddharth Chakrapani. Most of those walking into the freezing river on Thursday morning were not wearing masks and social distancing was hard to maintain.” – The Guardian

January 14, 2021
The US Capitol riot risks supercharging a new age of political repression
“A new age of political repression is coming at a time in which we need protests the most, and it will be a bipartisan affair…. Following the fascist riot at the US Capitol, progressives and liberals have begun to mimic the calls for “law and order” of their conservative counterparts, even going as far as threatening to expand the ‘war on terror’…. While this may be well-intentioned, it fits neatly within the trajectory of attacks against civil liberties over the last two decades.” – The Guardian

January 14, 2021
China possibly committed ‘genocide’ against Xinjiang Uygurs, says US commission
“China has been widely condemned for setting up complexes in Xinjiang that it describes as ‘vocational training centres’ to stamp out extremism and give people new skills and which others have called concentration camps. The United Nations says at least 1 million Uygurs and other Muslims have been detained in Xinjiang. Faith leaders, activist groups and others have said crimes against humanity, including genocide, are taking place there.” – South China Morning Post

January 13, 2021
Lisa Montgomery: US carries out first federal execution of a woman in nearly seven decades
“’The craven bloodlust of a failed administration was on full display tonight,’ Montgomery’s attorney, Kelley Henry said in a statement. ‘Everyone who participated in the execution of Lisa Montgomery should feel shame. The government stopped at nothing in its zeal to kill this damaged and delusional woman,’ Henry said. ‘Lisa Montgomery’s execution was far from justice.’” – The Guardian

January 12, 2021
Report Gives Glimpse Into Horrors of Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes
“The report, the culmination of a six-year investigation, detailed some 9,000 deaths of children at 14 of the country’s so-called mother and baby homes and four county homes over several decades…. Survivors of the homes say urgent action by the state is needed, and many say the Roman Catholic church, which ran the homes, needs to be held more fully accountable. Mother and baby homes were run by religious orders, starting in the 1920s, and funded by the Irish government. But the institutions where young women and girls were taken, typically against their will, are not a thing of Ireland’s distant past. The last of the facilities was closed in 1998.” – The New York Times

January 12, 2021
A Christian Fundraising Site for Extremists
“GiveSendGo — the world’s number one ‘Christian’ fundraising platform — has helpfully raised over $100,000 for Tarrio’s legal defense after he was arrested for the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner, which he stole from a historic Washington, D.C., Church. Oh… and he was also found in possession of illegal firearms.” – Medium

January 12, 2021
We are Israel’s largest human rights group – and we are calling this apartheid
“The systematic promotion of the supremacy of one group of people over another is deeply immoral and must end…. There is not a single square inch in the territory Israel controls where a Palestinian and a Jew are equal. The only first-class people here are Jewish citizens such as myself, and we enjoy this status both inside the 1967 lines and beyond them, in the West Bank.” – The Guardian

January 11, 2021
How White Evangelical Christians Fused With Trump Extremism
“A potent mix of grievance and religious fervor has turbocharged the support among Trump loyalists, many of whom describe themselves as participants in a kind of holy war. Before self-proclaimed members of the far-right group the Proud Boys marched toward the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, they stopped to kneel in the street and prayed in the name of Jesus.” – The New York Times

January 11, 2021
Why do so many Republicans appear to be at war with both truth and democracy?
“It comes with the idea that a right-minded elite of religiously pure individuals should aim to capture the levers of government, then use that power to rescue society from eternal darkness and reshape it in accord with a divinely-approved view of righteousness….
“It would be a mistake to overlook the powerful role of the rhetoric of religious nationalism in their ranks. At a rally in Washington on Jan. 5, on the eve of Electoral College certification, the right-wing pastor Greg Locke said that God is raising up ‘an army of patriots.’ Another pastor, Brian Gibson, put it this way: ‘The church of the Lord Jesus Christ started America,’ and added, ‘We’re going to take our nation back!'” – The New York Times

January 10, 2021
In a viral video, Schwarzenegger links the Capitol riot to a rampage that was a prelude to the Holocaust.
“In a video posted to Twitter on Sunday that quickly drew millions of views, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie star and former California governor, compared the riot at the Capitol last week to Kristallnacht, a rampage that took place under Nazi Germany in 1938 in which mobs burned synagogues and destroyed Jewish-owned shops.” – The New York Times

January 9, 2021
The American Abyss: A historian of fascism and political atrocity on Trump, the mob and what comes next.
“Our big lie is typically American, wrapped in our odd electoral system, depending upon our particular traditions of racism. Yet our big lie is also structurally fascist, with its extreme mendacity, its conspiratorial thinking, its reversal of perpetrators and victims and its implication that the world is divided into us and them. To keep it going for four years courts terrorism and assassination.” By Timothy Snyder – The New York Times

January 9, 2021
The storming of the Capitol was in large part brought to us by the white, evangelical church in America.
“…The insurrection represents an utter failure in the American church. This anti-epiphany reveals the horrid outgrowths of Christian nationalism, faulty spiritual formation, false teaching, political idolatry, and overriding ignorance.” – Christianity Today

January 8, 2021
This week’s Trump terrorist attack was not random.
“It wasn’t an accident. It was planned, aided and abetted by certain members of the police, the military and the Republican party. And it was only the dry run. This violent attack is not over. Please allow me to share my thoughts about what I think is happening and is about to happen.” – Michael Moore

January 7, 2021
Trump Is Said to Have Discussed Pardoning Himself
“He has long maintained he has the power to pardon himself, and his polling of aides’ views is typically a sign that he is preparing to follow through on his aims.” – The New York Times

January 7, 2021
Arizona becomes Covid hotspot of the world as governor resists restrictions
“Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has declined to institute a statewide mask mandate even as the state reports the highest rate of new cases in the US” – The Guardian

January 7, 2021
India to hold nationwide ‘cow science’ exam
“…in the latest push by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to promote and protect the animal considered sacred by a large section of the Hindu majority. Study material on test includes information on different cow breeds, as well as the theory that slaughtering animals causes earthquakes.” – Aljazeera

January 7, 2021
Trump’s doomed bid to reverse result further damages faith in US democracy
“The angry rantings of a president unwilling to accept defeat with claims of wholesale vote rigging have gained momentum and are now embraced by a majority of Republican voters as fact.” – The Guardian

January 5, 2021
‘A lifetime of torture’: the story of the woman Trump is rushing to execute
“Lisa Montgomery’s first experiences of sexual abuse occurred indirectly when she was three years old. She would lie in bed at night beside her beloved half-sister Diane, close enough to touch, while Diane, then eight, was being raped by their male babysitter. At the age of 11, Montgomery learnt what it was like to be attacked herself.” – The Guardian

January 5, 2021
Jacob Blake: officers will not be charged in shooting that left Black man paralyzed
“Blake was shot several times by Sheskey on August 23 when officers were responding to a domestic incident call…. Blake survived the shooting but was left with multiple injuries to his arms, spinal cord and internal organs along with being paralyzed from the waist down. Three of Blake’s children were in the car at the time of the shooting.” – The Guardian

January 5, 2021
Donald Trump pressures Mike Pence to throw out US election results – even though he can’t
““The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday… part of Trump’s doomed-to-fail, last-ditch effort to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.” – SCMP/Politico

January 5, 2021
India Is Targeting Defenders of Indigenous Rights as ‘Terrorists’
“Indian authorities arrested Stan Swamy, an 83-year-old Jesuit priest affected by Parkinson’s disease, from his home in the state of Jharkhand. Swamy is being held under an antiterrorism law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), that a group of United Nations’ Special Rapporteurs has condemned for enabling the Indian state to designate dissidents as terrorists and detain them for months without access to courts.” – Scientific American

January 5, 2021
Democrat lawmaker’s gender inclusive ‘amen and awoman’ congressional prayer causes stir
“Democrat representative Emanuel Cleaver caused a stir online after he ended his congressional prayer with the words ‘amen and awoman’. Mr Cleaver was invited to deliver the prayer opening up the 117th Congress on Sunday, when he decided to introduce a gesture towards gender neutrality.” – The Independent

January 5, 2021
Jericho March Returns to DC to Pray for a Trump Miracle
“Organizers of the Jericho March, slated for Tuesday and Wednesday, have called on “patriots, people of faith and all those who want to take back America” to travel to Washington on those days for a pair of marches to overturn the recent presidential election.” – Christianity Today

January 4, 2021
Greek Orthodox church to defy lockdown by opening for Epiphany
“Church hardliners have increasingly questioned the public health measures, deploring the prohibition of coveted rituals such as the sacrament of communion, conducted with a shared spoon.” – The Guardian

January 4, 2021
Algerian jailed for 3 years for political protest memes
“An Algerian supporter of the Hirak protest movement was sentenced to three years in jail Monday for satirical social media posts mocking the government and religion, a campaign group said. Walid Kechida, 25, was accused of insulting President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and ‘offending the precepts’ of Islam in Internet memes and other online posts.” – Arab News

January 3, 2021
Toppled Algerian President’s Brother Acquitted of Grave Accusations
After more than a year in jail, the brother of ousted Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, along with two other senior security officials, was acquitted on Saturday of charges of conspiracy against the state. Said Bouteflika, who was said to be the de facto ruler of Algeria following his long-serving brother’s severe stroke in 2013, was arrested in May 2019 during the mass protests led by the Hirak movement. Bouteflika was charged with plotting against the state and was sentenced to 15 years in prison but a military tribunal retried his case in accordance with a Supreme Court order. – The Media Line

January 3, 2021
Misinformer of the Year: Fox News
“The right-wing network has promoted coronavirus misinformation an estimated 13,551 times on its weekday programs over the course of the pandemic. And its lies had a deadly impact.” – Media Matters

January 3, 2021
Trump Pressured Georgia Official to ‘Find’ Enough Votes to Overturn Election
“…and vaguely threatened him with ‘a criminal offense,’ during an hourlong telephone conversation with him on Saturday, according to audio excerpts from the conversation. “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” Mr. Trump said on the call. – The New York Times

January 3, 2021
Pence Welcomes Futile Bid by G.O.P. Lawmakers to Overturn Election
“Vice President Mike Pence signaled his support as 11 Republican senators and senators-elect said that they would vote to reject President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory.” New York Times

January 2, 2021
Trump May Launch ‘Reckless’ Attack on Iran, Experts Fear
“Trump is a very wounded and very cornered animal in an end-game scenario. He’s got a few weeks left, and we know that he is capable of extremely erratic behaviour… It may be the case that his most erratic, most reckless lashing out is yet to come.” – Al Jazeera

January 1, 2021
Hong Kong Democracy Activist Moved to Top Security Prison
“Authorities in Hong Kong have transferred 24-year-old democracy activist Agnes Chow to a top-security prison that places Category A prisoners convicted of violent crime in solitary confinement, …on charges of unauthorized assembly.” – Radio Free Asia

December 31, 2020
Nations in Transit 2020 – Dropping the Democratic Facade in Europe and Eurasia
“A growing number of leaders in Central and Eastern Europe have dropped even the pretense of playing by the rules of democracy.” – Freedom House

December 30, 2020
25 Days That Changed the World: How Covid-19 Slipped China’s Grasp
“Beijing acted against the coronavirus with stunning force, as its official narratives recount. But not before a political logjam had allowed a local outbreak to kindle a global pandemic…. But Mr. Xi’s speech foreshadowed what was to come — rewriting the history of the crisis even as it was happening. – New York Times

December 29, 2020
Alexei Navalny to be investigated by Russian authorities over alleged fraud
“The prominent Kremlin critic, poisoned in August, is under investigation for allegedly mishandling $5m private donations…. ‘They are trying to put me behind bars for failing to die and continuing to hunt for my killers and for proving that Putin was behind it,’ Navalny tweeted.” – The Guardian

December 29, 2020
China jails citizen journalist for four years over Wuhan coronavirus reports
“Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan was sentenced to four years in prison in Shanghai on Monday for her reporting on the coronavirus pandemic in central Chinese city of Wuhan early this year… She was one of the few citizen journalists in China to report on the early experiences of people in Wuhan during the city’s lockdown. The others have either been detained or ordered to stop their online reporting.” – South China Morning Post

December 29, 2020
Australia’s billionaires became 50% richer during pandemic
“The combined worth of Australian billionaires was assessed to be 52.4% higher this week than at the same time last December. By comparison, billionaires in the US and UK recorded an increase of about 25% over the same period, the Bloomberg index shows.” – The Guardian

December 28, 2020
Ted Cruz Got $35 Million For Billionaire Fracking Donors In Last COVID-19 Aid: Report
“The senator’s push was criticized as a massive taxpayer-backed payoff to major campaign contributors. As President Donald Trump complains about ‘pork’ in the current COVID-19 relief package, The Wall Street Journal reports that the last time around, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) helped manipulate the aid program to get $35 million for Texas billionaire fracking brothers who are major Cruz contributors.” – HuffPost

December 28, 2020
Loujain al-Hathloul: Saudi woman activist jailed for five years
A prominent Saudi female activist, who campaigned for women’s right to drive, has been sentenced to more than five years in prison. Loujain al-Hathloul, 31, has already been in a maximum security prison for two and a half years…. Hathloul’s family says she was held incommunicado for three months following her arrest, and that she was subjected to electric shocks, whippings, and sexual harassment. They also allege that she was offered freedom if she agreed to say she was not tortured.” – BBC News

December 28, 2020
Mormon Church Sued For Allegedly Covering Up Boy Scouts Sex Abuse
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was hit with several lawsuits Monday for allegedly covering up decades of sexual abuse among Boy Scout troops in Arizona…. the church believes that same-sex intimacy is a sin…. Around 90,000 sexual abuse claims have been filed against the Boy Scouts. – HuffPost

December 28, 2020
China Jails Citizen-Journalist For 4 Years Over Wuhan Reports On Virus
“Zhang Zhan’s firsthand accounts from crowded hospitals and empty streets painted a more dire picture of the pandemic epicenter than the official narrative… handed a four-year jail term… on grounds of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble,’ her lawyer said…. Detained in mid-May, she went on a hunger strike in late June, court documents seen by Reuters say. Her lawyers told the court that police strapped her hands and force-fed her with a tube.” – HuffPost

December 24, 2020
‘Trapped’: The American women and girls forced into marriage
“Women and girls are still being coerced into abusive marriages, including many under the age of 18. Between 2000 and 2015, more than 200,000 children were married in the US, where some states still allow it.” – Aljazeera

December 24, 2020
The Triumph of Kleptocracy
“With Manafort’s pardon, kleptocracy has successfully waited out its enemies. Under Donald Trump, the corruption of New Britain, the symbiosis of a criminal syndicate and government, has gone national. After years of omertà, Paul Manafort is howling for joy.” – The Atlantic

December 23, 2020
Pardons sink Trump further into swamp of his own shamelessness
“President sanctions first federal execution of a woman in 67 years – but war criminals, fraudsters and Russia-linked cronies go free… Trump’s motivation had less to do with the quality of mercy than a boundless quantity of shamelessness. In his binary worldview people on death row must face implacable justice but those who pass his loyalty test have a ticket to freedom.” – The Guardian

December 22, 2020
The Emiratis in Jerusalem are a slap in the face for Palestinians
“Emiratis are now allowed to visit Israel with ease, but we still have no freedom of movement in our own homeland… The photos of Emirati tourists in their traditional outfits posing in historic Jerusalem next to Israelis were plastered across newspapers. But almost no one wondered what we, the Palestinians, are feeling about all this.” – Aljazeera

December 22, 2020
After 28 years, Priest and Nun are Convicted of Murder
“…Sister Abhaya was murdered as she accidentally found Father Kottoor and Nun Sephie in a compromising position in the company of a second priest… The case had been written off several times allegedly under pressure from Vatican through the highest political authority in the country, judiciary and the administration to the local police and even the CBI as a case of suicide.” – FreePressJournal

December 21, 2020
“If it Hadn’t Been for the Prompt Work of the Medics”: FSB Officer Inadvertently Confesses Murder Plot to Navalny.
“The inadvertent confession was made during a phone call with a person who the officer believed was a high-ranking security official. In fact, the FSB officer did not recognize the voice of the person to whom he was reporting details of the failed mission: Alexey Navalny himself.” – Bellingcat Investigation Team. [CNN Video.]

December 21, 2020
Is Donald Trump cracking under the weight of losing?
“The combination of an unprecedented rebuke meeting an uncommonly vulnerable ego has some people wondering if there is a chance that Trump could he be on his way to a mental breakdown?” – SCMP

December 19, 2020
Why We Have Bad Politicians According to Plato
“Plato argues that philosophers would make the best rulers. They love learning and possess outstanding knowledge. Pride and desire do not concern them. Instead, they are driven by the pursuit of wisdom, truth, and virtue… Unfortunately, the chances of someone who fits this description gaining power is remarkably slim.” – Medium

December 19, 2020
One Year After Mass Protests, India’s Muslims Still Live in Fear
“Last December, hundreds of thousands of people in cities across India joined in protest against the recently passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The law creates a pathway to citizenship for some undocumented residents who have fled religious persecution, but it discriminates against refugees and immigrants who happen to be Muslim… The arrests of anti-CAA activists and students reflect a narrative that pins blame for the riots on the protesters, and by extension the Muslim community.” – ForeignPolicy

December 18, 2020
Florida Police Raids Home of Covid Scientist Whistleblower
“Jones, the creator and former manager of Florida’s online dashboard of COVID-19 data, was fired in May after she discussed filing a whistleblower complaint laying our her accusations that officials pressured her to censor and alter case information to make it more positive.” – HuffPost

December 17, 2020
Britain Covid Spending blighted by Waste, Negligence and Cronyism
“The government handed out thousands of contracts to fight the virus, some of them in a secretive ‘V.I.P. lane’ to a select few companies with connections to the governing Conservative Party.” – NewYorkTimes

December 15, 2020
Hundreds of Thousands of Ethnic Minorities in Xinjiang Forced to Pick Cotton
“Authorities in the XUAR are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of internment camps as part of an extralegal campaign of incarceration since early 2017…In 2018, three Uyghur regions alone mobilized at least 570,000 persons into cotton-picking operations through the government’s coercive labor training and transfer scheme… The actual number likely exceeds that figure by several hundred thousand.” – RadioFreeAsia

December 15, 2020
1,200% Increase in Journalist Arrests in the US in 2020
“A new report, issued by Freedom of the Press Foundation, details the staggering statistics: at least 117 verified cases of journalists being arrested while doing their job in 2020, with more than a dozen more cases still being investigated.” – Medium

December 14, 2020
Catholic Church Pedophilia: A Time of Reckoning
“We live in this church which is not a community of saints only. There are also sinners in it and criminals. So, this is the fact that you have to face reality. This is the reality of the church I work for and I’m in.” – DW

December 13, 2020
Brexit lies do not bring freedom: the truth alone is sovereign
“The surest recipe for killing a lie is to multiply the witnesses to truth.”
“These are the very same members of the worst cabinet in living memory who have the effrontery to claim that the availability of the Pfizer vaccine in the UK is somehow a triumph of Brexit.” – The Guardian

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¹Osho, From Unconsciousness to Consciousness, Talk #15 – Transformation, Not Consolation