KULT WATCH

Tulsi Gabbard’s ties to secretive cult may explain her perplexing political journey

Bevan Hurley -  The Independent

Tulsi Gabbard has staked out extreme positions on LGBT+ rights, spread disinformation about Ukrainian biolabs, and claimed she was being shadowbanned by Big Tech while using her vast social media footprint to label Joe Biden a “warmonger”.

In one breath Gabbard expresses a desire to bring love and aloha from her native Hawaii to the world, in the next she is fanning conspiracy theories on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show.

This week, Gabbard announced she was leaving the Democratic Party, claiming it had become “an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness”.

The decision came as little surprise to anyone who has followed her political trajectory from 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to darling of Russian propagandists and the American far-right.

To understand her ambitions, her aunt Dr Carolina Sinavaiana Gabbard tells The Independent in an interview that it is necessary to look to her upbringing in a secretive cult called the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF) whose members show absolute loyalty to a reclusive guru, Chris Butler.

A former member toldThe Independent the group’s teachings are virulently homophobic, often anti-Islamic and misogynist, and how they were forced to worship Butler, who is considered to be akin to a God.

Ms Savaiana Gabbard says her niece’s career is all about the pursuit of power, and her bid for the presidency in 2020 was the culmination of four decades of Butler’s efforts to seek political influence.


Dr Carolina Sinavaiana Gabbard says her niece Tulsi Gabbard is heavily influenced by reclusive Hawaiian guru Chris Butler (Supplied)

“Once again I find my niece’s apparent penchant for parroting extremist toadies such as Tucker Carlson and vile ‘strongmen’ such as Vladimir Putin, to be problematic and deeply troubling,” Ms Sianavaiana Gabbard, a retired professor of English at the University of Hawaii, told The Independent.

“​It gives me no pleasure to ​note that Tulsi’s single governing principle seems to be expedience, which is in effect no principle at all.”

‘Tulsi, our friend’

In her keynote address to the Conservative Political Action Conference back in February, Tulsi Gabbard described the various ways she had been smeared by her political opponents.

“I’m sure you’ve all heard them before,” Gabbard said. “Russian asset. White supremacist. Bigot. Racist. Extremist. Traitor.”

Gabbard was given several standing ovations by the grandees of the Republican Party for her scattershot attacks on cancel culture, the power elite, and “Biden-Clinton-neocon-neolib foreign policy”.

Ms Gabbard is a veteran who served a tour of Iraq, still serves with the National Guard, and has spoken about how witnessing first-hand the horrors of war led her to take an anti-interventionist stance on US foriegn policy.

In statements after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Gabbard contended that Ukraine was not worth protecting because it “isn’t actually a democracy,” and that the US-funded “biolabs” could result in the release of “dangerous pathogens”.

This baseless claim echoed Russian propaganda that the United States was funding labs in Ukraine to make illegal biological weapons for use against Russia.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney responded by saying Gabbard was spreading “treasonous lies”.


Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democrat congresswoman for Hawaii (Fox News)

© Provided by The Independent

Gabbard was not deterred, telling Jesse Watters on 15 March that freedom of speech in the US was at similar risk to Russia, which has banned all criticism of the government and imprisoned tens of thousands of protestors.

“It is striking when you see Putin propaganda and you line it up against Biden propaganda,” she said.

Politifact rated the statement a “pants on fire” lie.

Her pro-Kremlin talking points led to Russian state-TV introducing her as “Tulsi, our friend.”

After airing part of her Fox interview, a panelist asked: “Is she some kind of Russian agent?”

Gabbard went on to guest host Tucker Carlson’s show in August.

Gabbard’s political donations have also come under scrutiny over her pro-Russian positions.

Forbes revealed earlier this year that Gabbard’s biggest political donor in 2021 is a pro-Putin apologist.

And in March, it was revealed that Elena Branson, a dual US-Russian citizen accused of spying for the Kremlin, donated to her campaign for reelection to Congress in 2019.

Gabbard has consistently echoed GOP positions on immigration and LGBT+ issues, and recently claimed that Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill was too moderate.

“When I first heard about Florida’s Parental Rights bill, I was shocked it only protects children K-3. Third grade? How about 12th grade—or not at all,” she said.

In 2015, she flew to Syria to meet with the dictator Bashar al-Assad as he was waging a brutal war against his own people.

She has courted Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, whose regime has killed and imprisoned thousands of subjects since assuming power in a coup in 2014.

And the authoritarian-leaning Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a personal emissary to her 2015 wedding in Hawaii.

She also declined to vote to impeach Donald Trump during his first trial in December 2019, instead registering herself as “present”.

Her defection from the Democrats could pave the way for the 41-year-old to potentially run for the Republican nomination in 2024.



Tulsi Gabbard speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando in February (REUTERS)

‘They said he could read your mind’

Related video: Tulsi Gabbard Announces She Cannot Stay In ‘Today’s Democratic Party’

Despite holding trenchant views on all manner of subjects, Gabbard has been vague about her links to the Science of Identity Foundation, and did not respond to several requests for comment for this article.

In an online biography, she describes herself as “interfaith”, and says some of her earliest memories are from the “fragrant aromas of both Christian and Hindu celebrations”.



Science of Identity founder Chris Butler, who Tulsi Gabbard has referred to as her ‘guru dev’, or spiritual leader (Science of Identity Foundation / YouTube)

But in interviews and speeches, she has acknowledged and defended her links to Butler, referring to him as her “guru dev” – or spiritual leader – in 2015.

Butler is rarely seen in public these days, with the Science of Identity Foundation regularly posting decades old clips of his teachings on YouTube.

The foundation did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

In a 2017 interview with The New Yorker, Gabbard said she had never heard Butler “say anything hateful, or anything mean about anybody”.

“I can speak to my own personal experience and, frankly, my gratitude to him, for the gift of this wonderful spiritual practice that he has given to me, and to so many people.”

Butler gave a rare interview for the same New Yorker article in 2017, saying that he did have disciples, but rejecting claims he was an authoritarian.

Butler, who also goes by the name Jagad Guru, or teacher of the world, said he preferred to think of himself as a follower or student, rather than a teacher or leader.

He described his relationship with his devotees as one of love.

Ms Sinavaiana Gabbard, remembers learning some 40 years ago that her brother Mike – Tulsi’s father and longterm Hawaiian state lawmaker – had joined the Science of Identity.

The extended family were gathering for Sunday brunch, a weekly feast and cultural institution in Samoa. When Mike announced he and his family had become strict vegetarians, her mother was deeply upset.

Then seemingly overnight, her nephews, Tulsi’s older brothers, had new Sanskrit names.

She says as a child of the ‘60s, she didn’t find this strange, but it was an “unsettling” adjustment for her parents.

She later learned that the whole family were “prostrating at the feet” of Butler, a “white surfer dude”.



Dr Carolina Sinavaiana Gabbard with her brother Mike Gabbard, 

a Hawaiian state senator (Supplied)

Tulsi attended a Science of Identity boarding school in the Philippines, according to several sources, and spent her formative years and schooling sheltered from outside influences, her aunt said.

The Science of Identity Foundation (SIF) was formed in 1977 by Chris Butler as a breakaway sect of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), also known as the Hare Krishna movement.

Its stated aim is to “pass on the ancient teachings of yoga in a scientific, logical, and clear manner so that people can, with intelligence, seriously contemplate upon, consider”.

However, former members have been speaking out about the abusive practices of the Science of Identity Foundation for several years.

‘Degrading language’

Oklahoma woman Robin Marshall, 40, who spent six months at a SIF retreat in Hawaii in the early 2000s, told The Independent recruits were taught to be “highly homophobic”.

“They told us: ‘We don’t associate with f***s’,” using a homophobic slur.

“The hatred, the degrading language, it was just one thing after another.”


Robin Marshall, a mother from Oklahoma, said the Science of Identity Foundation are an abusive cult (Supplied)

She was played recordings of Butler who she says espoused extreme homophobic views.

“They said he could read your mind. They were wholly and fully indoctrinated into this idea that Chris Butler was basically God.”

Ms Marshall says she was aware back then of Tulsi Gabbard as a rising star within the foundation. She said it was “inconceivable” that anyone involved with the group was not being directed by Butler.

“I feel like when you vote for somebody who is heavily tied into SOF, you’re not voting for that person, you’re voting for Chris Butler, as a servant of the servant of God.”

In 2019, the Iowa Informer published an investigation by freelance journalist Christine Gralow that reviewed Butler’s decades of teachings, including the many homophobic references he has made over the years.

In a 2017 Medium post, a woman who has since left SIF described how she was taught that life was an “illusion”, and followers were instructed to only develop a relationship with Butler.

“We were in effect isolated from our parents who did their best to not love us as per his recommendation, and instead looked at him like a surrogate father/messiah figure.”

“What I am concerned about is the control I know Chris Butler has over her, the influence he has over her ability to make decisions, decisions that could become law and impact a whole lot of people,” describing him as an abusive, misogynistic, homophobic, germophobic, narcissistic nightmare.

When Gabbard ran for president in 2020, virtually her entire campaign staff were members of the Science of Identity, Ms Sinavaiana Gabbard told The Independent.


Mike Gabbard is running for reelection to the Hawaiian state senate

 (Mike Gabbard / YouTube)

Indeed, her political career has been guided by her father Mike Gabbard, a Hawaiian state senator, and the former “poster boy” of anti-LGBT+ activism in the island state.

Before she was elected to the Hawaii state house of representatives in 2002 at the age of 21 years old, the youngest legislator in the state’s history, Gabbard worked for Mike’s The Alliance for Traditional Marriage, a political action committee that opposed LGBTQ rights legislation.

After 9/11, Gabbard enlisted in the Hawaii National Guard so she could “go after the terrorists who attacked us”.

Gabbard was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2013 at the age of 33, becoming the first Hindu and Samoan-American in Congress.

She quickly became a regular critic of President Barack Obama for his refusal to use the term “radical Islam”, and a favourite of Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Those views align with tapes of Butler’s Islamaphobic teachings that have been widely circulated online.

The Science of Identity Foundation is thought to have just a few thousand members in the US, Philippines, New Zealand and Australia.

But due to its outsize influence on Hawaiian politics, and possible future presidential candidate, Ms Sinavaiana Gabbard said she felt it was important to speak out about the group - and her niece.

“As a historian and lifelong student of eastern philosophies and religions, I find SIF’s role as uncritical cheerleader, if not patron and primary generator, of Tulsi’s checkered political agenda and intemperate, right wing associations to be troubling in the extreme.

“In any case, I feel impelled to state for the record that in no way whatsoever does Tulsi speak for me, nor my family or culture.”

‘Anti-white racism’

In a statement released to Twitter this week, Gabbard claimed the Democrats were trying to “divide us by racialising every issue”, stoking “anti-white racism”, and actively working to undermine “God-given freedoms”.

“President Biden and Democratic Party elites have pushed us to the precipice of nuclear war, risking starting World War III and destroying the world as we know it,” she said, while spouting Republican talking points about “wokeness” and “elites”.

Gabbard also announced the launch of a podcast series on YouTube called “The Tulsi Gabbard Show”.

She did not respond to a request for comment.

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Tulsi Gabbard quits Democratic party, attacking ‘elitist cabal of warmongers’

Erum Salam 

The former congresswoman and 2020 presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard has announced her departure from the Democratic party, calling it an “elitist cabal of warmongers”.

Photograph: Octavio Jones/Reuters

Related: US midterms 2022: the key candidates who threaten democracy

In a video announcement posted to Twitter, she said: “I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers who are driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoking anti-white racism.”

In 2012, Gabbard became the first Samoan-American voting member and Hindu elected to Congress, but her views have often sat uncomfortably with the Democratic party. In 2016, the then congresswoman from Hawaii announced she was leaving the Democratic National Committee to endorse Bernie Sanders for president.

Her attitudes on foreign policy, meanwhile, have often favored authoritarian figures disavowed by the Democrats. In 2013, Gabbard was criticized for voting against a bipartisan House resolution condemning anti-Muslim violence in the state of Gujarat. The 2002 Gujarat riots left more than 1,000 dead, a majority of whom were Muslim, and were widely attributed to Indian PM Narendra Modi’s stoking of sectarian fires.

Gabbard said there was “a lot of misinformation” surrounding the violence and has spoken highly of Modi. She met with him on his visit to the US and even spoke at a fundraising event for his rightwing Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) in 2014.

In a debate during the 2020 presidential race, Gabbard caught flak from then candidate Kamala Harris for not calling Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad a “war criminal”, after she attacked Harris on her record as a California prosecutor. A US army veteran, Gabbard secretly visited Syria in 2017 and met Assad on what she called a “fact-finding mission”. She expressed skepticism about the atrocities carried out under Assad’s leadership.

The late Republican senator John McCain said Gabbard’s trip “kind of legitimizes a guy who butchered 400,000 of his own people”.

Gabbard made the claims about the Democratic party during the debut of her new YouTube show The Tulsi Gabbard Show, the first episode of which was uploaded on Tuesday.

In August she filled in for the far-right Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson.

"War Pigs"

 

Album: Paranoid Song: "War Pigs" ~ LYRICS ~ Generals gathered in their masses Just like witches at black masses Evil minds that plot destruction Sorcerers of death's construction In the fields the bodies burning As the war machine keeps turning Death and hatred to mankind Poisoning their brainwashed minds Oh lord yeah! Politicians hide themselves away They only started the war Why should they go out to fight? They leave that role to the poor Time will tell on their power minds Making war just for fun Treating people just like pawns in chess Wait 'til their judgement day comes Yeah! Now in darkness world stops turning Ashes where the bodies burning No more war pigs at the power Hand of God has struck the hour Day of judgement, God is calling On their knees the war pig's crawling Begging mercy for their sins Satan laughing spreads his wings oh lord yeah!

World Insights: America's looming national debt crunch could spell disaster for world

DEAR U$A; YOUR BANK IS CALLING YOU

A man walks past the U.S. Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., the United States, March 16, 2022. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

The swelling national debt number, edging closer to the 31.4-trillion-dollar statutory ceiling the U.S. Congress placed on the government's borrowing ability, has raised concerns about U.S. fiscal sustainability and its negative spillover effects on global financial markets.

by Xinhua writer Guo Yage

BEIJING, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- More than 33 years ago, a billboard-sized running total display was installed a block away from Times Square in New York City to remind passersby how much money the U.S. federal government has borrowed from the public and has yet to pay back.

However, this tally, well-known as the National Debt Clock, did not seem to bother successive U.S. governments, including the current administration. It read 31.1 trillion U.S. dollars for the first time on Oct. 3, and is still ticking away madly.

The swelling national debt number, edging closer to the 31.4-trillion-dollar statutory ceiling the U.S. Congress placed on the government's borrowing ability, has raised concerns about U.S. fiscal sustainability and its negative spillover effects on global financial markets.



A woman walks on the street after shopping at a supermarket in Washington, D.C., the United States, on June 14, 2022. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

DISGRACEFUL RECORD

The total public debt outstanding reached 31.1 trillion dollars on Oct. 3, including 24.3 trillion dollars in debt held by the public and 6.8 trillion in intergovernmental holdings, said the U.S. Treasury Department's daily treasury statement released on Oct. 4.

In fact, real-time data released by the official website of the National Debt Clock showed that the debt number, having so far well surpassed 31.1 trillion, amounts to more than 93,400 dollars of debt per American citizen, and nearly 250,000 dollars of debt per taxpayer.

Given the new record, the ratio of the U.S. federal debt to the GDP has risen to roughly 126 percent, the data showed.

An estimate by British financial media outlet Finbold showed that in 2022 alone, the U.S. national debt grows by almost 6 billion dollars every day.

The number is more than the value of the economies of China, Japan, Germany and Britain combined, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation (PGPF) noted in an article published last week.

If every U.S. household paid 1,000 dollars a month, it would still take 19 years for the debt to be paid off, noted the article.

"This is a new record no one should be proud of," said Maya MacGuineas, president of budget watch group the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

About eight months ago, the total U.S. public debt outstanding exceeded 30 trillion dollars, hitting a fiscal milestone. In an attempt to avert a looming debt default, the U.S. Congress passed legislation in December to raise the debt limit to the current 31.4 trillion dollars. The hike, however, failed to stop the U.S. national debt from reaching nosebleed levels.

"While much of that new borrowing was necessary to combat COVID, we are now past the most severe challenges of the pandemic, and it is time to budget responsibly -- yet we are still borrowing," MacGuineas said.





DEBT ADDICT

"The coronavirus pandemic rapidly accelerated our fiscal challenges, but we were already on an unsustainable path, with structural drivers that existed long before the pandemic," the PGPF said.

As the foundation noted, the United States has enjoyed a borrowing binge over the past decades, with its gross debt increasing from 3.2 trillion dollars in 1990 to 5.62 trillion in 2000, and then to 13.56 trillion in 2010. The country's gross debt hit 27.72 trillion dollars in 2020, and surpassed 30 trillion dollars in late January.

A significant share of the overall federal spending went to the U.S. national defense budget. An article released by the PGPF in early May showed the U.S. defense spending accounted for more than 10 percent of all federal spending, and has remained No. 1 in the world for years.

Up to Us, a U.S. non-profit aimed at creating national debt awareness on college campuses, noted in an article published in 2020 that the country's national debt hit the 1 trillion mark for the first time in history by 1982 after the Vietnam War and the Cold War.

"By the 21st century, the national debt got to 20 trillion dollars after major events such as the War on Terror," it said.

Adding to the federal government's big spending on endless wars are its massive stimulus packages, rounds of tax cuts as well as the U.S. Federal Reserve's sudden reversal of its monetary strategy from a years-long "quantitative easing" policy to a tighter one, which, noted the U.S. Bank National Association in an article in late September, "will likely result in weakening the job market as businesses slow activity in the wake of higher borrowing costs."

In December 2020, then U.S. President Donald Trump signed off a 2.3-trillion-dollar spending package. In 2022 alone, the U.S. Congress and President Joe Biden have approved a combined 1.9 trillion dollars in new borrowing, and Biden has approved 4.9 trillion dollars in new deficits since taking office.

To prevent the government from defaulting on its legal obligations, the U.S. Congress has acted 78 separate times to permanently raise, temporarily extend, or revise the definition of the debt limit ever since 1960, noted the Treasury Department.

"We are addicted to debt," said MacGuineas, adding that for decades, U.S. lawmakers have chosen to "pass politically easy policies" rather than face the challenges of true governing.

"Basically, Washington has engaged in a long-term debt spree," said a New York Times article published on Oct. 4.



Photo taken on Aug. 4, 2022 shows the White House and a stop sign in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

TIME BOMB

"If we don't cut spending, disaster WILL come," American TV reporter John Stossel tweeted two days after the U.S. national debt reached the new record. Just as he wrote, the galloping U.S. borrowing, if not properly managed, would be nightmares for both the United States and the larger world.

As it stands, the United States is set to breach the 50-trillion-dollar mark in debt by 2030, Forbes estimated in September 2020.

In a report released in May, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) warned that such a debt path would push up borrowing costs for the private sector, which would result in lower business investment and slow the growth of economic output over time.

To make things worse, as the Fed is determined to keep hiking interest rates to tame inflation, the U.S. government will have to pay more for its huge borrowing. The PGPF noted in an article published in September that "interest payments would total around 66 trillion dollars over the next 30 years and would take up nearly 40 percent of all federal revenues by 2052. Interest costs would also become the largest 'program' over the next few decades."

"Interest on the national debt is exploding and heading toward what economists refer to as a 'doom loop' -- the vicious circle in which the government's borrowing to pay interests generates yet more interest and yet more borrowing," a Wall Street Journal opinion noted in late September.

"The risk would rise of investors' losing confidence in the U.S. government's ability to service and repay its debt, causing interest rates to increase abruptly and inflation to spiral upward, or other disruptions," the CBO said in May, warning of the likelihood of a fiscal crisis in the United States.

Meanwhile, if the U.S. government defaults on its bills and shuts down amid bitter partisan wrangles, it would "detonate a bomb in the middle of the global financial system," Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told the Voice of America (VOA) last year.

The VOA article went on to elaborate that a U.S. debt default would echo through the global economy by reducing global trade, make dollarized economies suffer, affect business contracts, erode the dollar's global reserve currency status, among others.

Back in 2011, the U.S. debt-ceiling crisis sparked the most volatile week for financial markets since 2008, with the stock market trending significantly downward. It also resulted in the country's first credit downgrade in history. Last year, when the government risked defaulting on debt again, Moody's Analytics estimated that stock prices would likely plunge 33 percent, setting off a downturn that would rival the Great Recession.

A U.S. default on its financial obligations "would very likely lead to a global financial meltdown," said an editorial published Sunday by Missouri-based newspaper St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Even talking about that is the height of political irresponsibility." Enditem

(Xinhua reporters Xiong Maoling in Washington, and Su Liang, Deng Qian and Fu Yunwei in Beijing also contributed to the story.)■

Kamala Harris Says Clarence Thomas Said 'Quiet Part Out Loud'

Khaleda Rahman - 

Kamala Harris used her first late-night network TV appearance since becoming vice president to urge people to "speak" with their vote as she called the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade a "travesty of justice."


Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a moderated discussion on reproductive rights at LBJ Presidential Library on October 08, 2022 in Austin, Texas.

© Rick Kern/Getty Images for NARAL Pro-Choice America

In an appearance on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers on Monday night, Harris said Justice Clarence Thomas had said "the quiet part out loud" when he urged his colleagues to revisit decisions about same-sex marriage, gay sex and contraception in a concurring opinion to the Dobbs decision that eliminated constitutional protections for abortion.

"The highest court in our land just took a constitutional right that had been recognized from the people of America, from the women of America," Harris said.

"The significance of that is profound in terms of what it means for the rights of individuals and in particular, for the right of an individual to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do."

The rollback of abortion rights "affects all genders," Harris said. "If you have a partner, if you have a sister, if you have an aunt, a mother, this affects you."

"Not to mention on the Dobbs decision when Justice Clarence Thomas said the quiet part out loud, which is that when they took the constitutional right from women on reproductive choice, that he said that in line, in terms of what might come next is your right to contraception. That will affect all genders," Harris added.

"Your right to marry the person you love, same point. And so there is so much on the line with these issues that affects everyone and the people you love," Harris said.

"And for that reason, let's take it seriously and let's, you know, speak with our vote and undo what I think is a great travesty of justice."

Harris said that if Democrats can win a further two seats in the Senate in November, President Joe Biden could sign the Women's Health Protection Act, which would prohibit "governmental restrictions on the provision of, and access to, abortion services" into law.

The passage of the act "would put into law the protections of Roe v. Wade," Harris said.

Harris also spoke on the issue of maternal health, noting that women "are still dying in connection with childbirth" in the U.S.

She pointed out the racial disparities in maternal deaths, noting that Black women are three times more likely to die and Native American women are twice as likely to die.

"A lot of it has to do with again, the disparities in the health care system and that we are not putting enough attention and resources and priority into women's needs especially as it relates to their reproductive health," she said.

Newsweek has reached out to the vice president's office for further comment.

Kamala Harris pushes for marijuana reform on 'Late Night with Seth Meyers'

By Matt Bernardini


U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers Monday, and pushed for more marijuana reform. Photo by Bob Daemmrich/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" and pushed for governors to pardon people for marijuana possessions.

Seth Meyers had asked Harris what the next move for marijuana policy would be, after President Joe Biden announced last week that he would pardon thousands of people who have been convicted for possessing marijuana.

Harris said that if people wanted progress on marijuana reform, then they should come out and vote during the midterms.

"Ultimately, though, as with so many issues, if Congress acts, then there is a uniform approach to this and so many other issues, but Congress needs to act.," Harris said. "We are 29 days away from the midterms. Ask who you're voting for, where they stand on this, and I encourage you to vote accordingly."

Last week Biden issued pardons for all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession, clearing about 6,500 people convicted between 1992 and 2021 and thousands more who were convicted in the District of Columbia, The New York Times reported.

Harris also talked about the importance of reproductive rights, saying that if Democrats remain in control of Congress then they would work to protect and expand those rights.

"This is an issue that affects all genders," Harris said. "If you have a partner, a sister, an aunt, a mother, this affects you."

Harris also criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has bused migrants to Harris' residence in Washington. She called it political theater.

"You are literally playing games with their lives," Harris said. "There are mothers with sleeping babies getting off those buses."

"I just think it's an absolute dereliction of duty," she added.

OUTLAW THE DEATH PENALTY
U.S. Supreme Court refuses to halt execution of black prisoner who suffered racial bias by grand jury


Daniel Stewart
2022-10-11

Archive – U.S. Supreme Court. – Sue Dorfman/ZUMA Wire/dpa

The U.S. Supreme Court — with a conservative majority — on Thursday rejected an appeal to halt the execution of a black prisoner, who was convicted by an all-white jury, some of whom acknowledged racial bias.

Thus, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Andre Thomas, who in 2004 killed his wife, a white woman, their son and her daughter. According to the prosecution, Thomas was in a psychotic state at the time he committed these crimes. While awaiting trial, he removed both of his eyes.

Thomas was unanimously sentenced in 2005 to death for the murder of his wife, Leyha Hughes. His defense filed an appeal in 2021 to challenge the death penalty, arguing that as many as three of the jurors had acknowledged in the selection process their opposition to marriages and relationships between people of different races.

According to the appeal, one of these people who opposed interracial relationships stated that their opposition was motivated by «God’s will,» while another appealed to the alleged need to keep blood pure, while the third claimed that such liaisons were harmful to children not knowing to which race they belonged.

Thomas’ current defense contends that he was not entitled to a fair trial under the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution, as the jury did not act impartially and his former attorney did not object to these appointments to the popular jury, according to NBC.

The U.S. Supreme Court has a conservative majority of six to three. Before the full court dismissed the appeal, one of the three liberal justices on the panel, Sonia Sotomayor, unsuccessfully appealed to her colleagues, reminding them that no jury willing to recommend the death penalty in the interracial crime case «should be tainted by possible racial bias.

Borrell warns of possible breakdown of EU unity in view of Hungary’s consultation on Russia sanctions


Daniel Stewart
2022-10-11

HANDOUT – 10 October 2022, Belgium, Brussels: Josep Borrell – 

Aurore Martignoni/European Commi / DPA

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, has warned that the unity and solidarity of the European Union (EU) «is not clear» how long it can last in reference to the national consultation announced by Hungary to poll the opinion of the population on EU sanctions against Russia.

«Putin was wrong to believe that we were going to break our unity and, beware, it is still not clear how long it can last because there is a European leader who calls for a referendum in his country to propose to its citizens that in December the sanctions on Russia are not renewed,» Borrell warned during his speech ‘How the war in Ukraine has changed Europe’, which took place at the Carlos de Amberes Foundation in Madrid.

«We would be wrong to ignore this situation,» Borrell continued, after emphasizing that the unity that the EU has maintained during the Covid-19 crisis «must continue to be maintained» to demonstrate that «the EU is not just a regional union, it is not just a club of states but a political institution and political community in which sovereign states remain sovereign,» he added.

In this sense, he reiterated that the brotherhood between Member States must continue to be maintained in order to face «the energy crisis that is coming» caused by the invasion of Ukraine.

Borrell called on Europe to «worry» about the countries of the South and the rest of the world. «We have to make a gigantic effort to integrate into our vision the concerns of others, and we Europeans do not do it enough,» he lamented.

In relation to migratory movements, Borrell assured that the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, expects a «migratory stampede» in Africa due to famine and that this will test the reception capacity of European countries.

«Be aware that Putin expects to provoke a migratory stampede in Africa. When he provokes famine in Africa it is because he knows that the consequence of famine is migration and that those who are going to emigrate are going to do so here,» he explained.

In reference to the energy crisis that Europe is facing due to the war, Borrell described as a «great strategic error» having placed Europe’s energy «dependence» «in the hands of such an unreliable supplier as Putin».

Thus, he urged to look for other reliable gas sources without relying on Russian energy which, he pointed out, until before the war began, part of European prosperity «was built around the cheap and abundant energy that came from Russia and the great trade opportunities represented by China».

In this respect, he indicated that it is necessary to «rethink» relations with China «with this relationship that implies being partners, rivals and competitors at the same time».

HE LIES

Putin assures Grossi that they are ready for dialogue to address the situation at the Zaporiyia plant

Daniel Stewart - TODAY
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday at a meeting with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, in the Russian city of St. Petersburg that they are ready to discuss the situation at the Zaporiyia nuclear power plant.


Russian President Vladimir Putin and IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi - -/Kremlin/dpa© Provided by News 360

The Russian president affirmed to Grossi that Moscow "is open to dialogue" on the future of the plant, located in Zaporiyia, one of the regions annexed after the recent referendums held in the areas occupied by Russian troops, together with Donetsk, Lugansk and Kherson.

For his part, Grossi has expressed concern about the situation at the nuclear power plant, as the situation is "increasingly dangerous, precarious and challenging", with "frequent military attacks that can also threaten nuclear safety".

"Now more than ever, during these extremely difficult times, a protection zone must be established around the Zaporiyia nuclear power plant. We cannot afford to waste any more time. The stakes are high," he remarked, according to an IAEA statement.

During the meeting, Putin also stressed that there are "elements of excessively dangerous politicization of everything related to nuclear activity", a "dangerous" rhetoric that we should try to reduce in order to cooperate with each other "in a normal situation", despite "all the turbulence and complex processes taking place on the world stage".

"We have always advocated that all states have equal access to the benefits of peaceful atomic energy and, at the same time, we believe that everything possible should be done to limit the spread of military (use) nuclear energy," he said, according to the TASS news agency.

Thus, Putin recalled that "Russia has not only always supported the IAEA, but has been at the origins" of the UN nuclear agency since 1957. "In many respects, Russia occupies a leading position in the world in the field of nuclear development," he added.

In recent hours, Russia has intensified its attacks on several cities, including Kiev, but also Lviv, Zaporiyia, or Kharkov, in response to what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a "terrorist attack" in connection with Saturday's destruction of the Kerch bridge, which connects Russia to the Crimean peninsula.

NATURAL CAPITALI$M

Should nature have financial value in Canada’s accounting system? YES!

What experts say

Aya Al-Hakim - Sunday


Canada is already feeling the impact of changing climate, much like the rest of the world. When a heat dome settled over British Columbia this summer, 570 people died. Last month, Hurricane Fiona wreaked havoc across the East Coast. While there may be no easy way out of this, some experts believe that adding financial value to natural assets may help in tackling climate change.


A forest is shown in Kingsboro, P.E.I. in this undated handout photo.

 Mike Dembeck, Nature Conservancy of Canada 

Roy Brooke, the executive director of the Municipal Natural Assets Initiative, which aims to make natural asset management a mainstream practice, said the first step in ensuring Canada has healthy biodiverse ecosystems is to recognize the value of nature in its financial and accounting systems because by doing so governments would be able to properly assess the conditions of natural assets like forests and wetlands.

Read more:

Germany wants climate losses to be discussed at United Nations talks

This means that by keeping a financial record of natural assets, if any of the trees in a forest, for example, get a disease, governments would be able to provide maintenance that would increase the quality of its resilience.

"We cannot address climate change without also addressing nature and biodiversity. We cannot reach any climate change targets. We cannot mitigate and we cannot adapt properly without also ensuring that we have healthy, connected, biodiverse ecosystems," said Brooke.

According to Natural Resources Canada, an infographic states that "in 2020, natural resources, directly and indirectly, accounted for 15.5% of Canada’s nominal GDP," with the biggest natural resource being energy.

Climate change linked to extreme drought in new study

About 909 communities were also found to be "economically reliant on at least one natural resource sector."

"Of those communities, 609 are either significantly or highly reliant on at least one of the natural resource sectors," the government website says, with the resources being minerals and metals or forests.

Forests make up a huge portion of Canadian landscape, with Canada having nine per cent of the world's forests, according to the government.

"Forests cover only 40 per cent of Canada’s land base," the website states. "Depending on where you live in Canada, forests may cover over 80% of your region, such as in the Atlantic Maritime ecozone or only 3% of the Prairies."

Read more:

Arctic rainy days are likely to double by 2100. Here’s why

In addition, Canada has "about 1.29 million square km of wetlands, covering 13% of Canada's terrestrial area."

"This is close to one quarter of the world's remaining wetlands," it states.

Brooke explains that if natural assets like rivers, wetlands, and forests were to have a financial value, the economic decisions taken by governments won't end up leading to further degradation of nature.

"Nature provides us with services like flood risk reduction or stormwater management...but (right now) we are ascribing zero value to nature and all of the services that it provides," said Brooke.

For example, Brooke says a local government might build a mall on top of a wetland and not find out for 20 or 50 years that the natural asset was actually providing vital services that helped the environment.

Wetlands have been recognized to absorb large waves or floods and are also found to filter toxic substances, according to the government of Canada website, so losing such a natural asset would harm the environment, says Brooke.

"For the most part, local governments, for example, when they're thinking about nature, they're thinking about it pretty narrowly. They're thinking about it mostly as kind of a social or recreational loan," said Brooke.

"As a result, every hour of every day, we're taking decisions, whether it's the zoning of land, investment decisions, or asset management (we) don't take nature and its services into account," he added.

READ MORE: Under water: Is the real estate industry waking up to ‘climate risk’?

Brooke was part of a study released on Oct. 5 calling for recognition of the financial value of natural assets, conducted by the University of Waterloo’s Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, KPMG, and the Municipal Natural Assets Initiative ahead of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference in November, which Canada will be a part of.

"Canada can be a leader in changing these rules and act now...And over the next number of months, there is a very clear choice," he said.

"Are we going to start counting nature into our accounting frameworks, into our decision making? Or are we going to lean back on the status quo, which is evidently not working for any of us?"

Brooke said in Canada's current accounting handbook there is a specific prohibition against considering natural assets to be tangible capital assets, which is a key barrier.

"We have to lift that prohibition and then provide guidance or direction to the people who do the numbers in local governments and public institutions so that they can start to think about nature more accurately and more practically," said Brooke.

Video: New report highlights growing economic impact of climate change

"From an accounting point of view, we're at a bit of a crossroads here," Brooke said, but added that the Public Sector Accounting Board, which establishes accounting standards, is "absolutely listening."

However, Brooke is worried that the rules won't change fast enough.

"Will they change in the next few years, or will they change in 20 years when it's too darn late?" he said.

The report co-authored by Brooke states that since 2016, over 90 "local governments across Canada have been undertaking asset management-based approaches that recognize natural assets as infrastructure to be protected and managed for the long-term."

The majority of these local governments are based in British Columbia and Ontario, where the making of inventories, modelling, valuing, and managing of natural assets are being overseen.

Like Brooke, Bailey Church, the National Leader of Public Sector Accounting Advisory for KPMG Canada and one of the co-authors of the report, says the problem lies in the pace of the process — it is "really slow."

"It's a time-consuming task...So the 90 municipalities cited, most are working with the Municipal Natural Assets Initiative and building out their inventories of practice. And there are a lot of varying degrees of progress. Some are extremely advanced, and others are in the very early days of it," said Church.

READ MORE: Hurricane Fiona shows how climate change is fuelling severe weather events in Canada, expert says

"You have to involve a lot of stakeholders in that whole process. And there are a lot of pressing issues, demanding resources, demanding attention. But the focus on this has shifted so much in the past 24 months...it's very timely," said Church.

The managing director of the Climate Resilient Infrastructure at the University of Waterloo, Joanna Eyquem, says what concerns her is that Canada doesn't "have time when it comes to tackling climate change and biodiversity loss."

Video: More climate change adaptation needed after storm Fiona: expert

According to the government of Canada website, the feds have "committed to conserving 25 percent of lands and inland waters in Canada by 2025, working toward 30 percent of each by 2030. Canada is also committed to working to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 [in Canada] and to achieve a full recovery for nature by 2050."

Eyquem says that's eight years in the future, so there isn't a lot of time to change the standards.

"We need to be moving forward maybe with interim guidance, but we want this to be mainstream practice," she said.

Climate Changed: Catastrophe experts say retreat from flood risk is 'critical option'

Sunday


VANCOUVER — All climate disasters are not created equal and the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction recommends retreat in the face of only one type of threat.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

"In our opinion, retreat is not an option that is important for most climate hazards in Canada. The hazard where retreat is really important and quite viable and a critical option involves flooding," executive director Paul Kovacs said.

There are relatively affordable ways individual property owners can protect themselves against wildfires, hail and extreme wind like tornadoes and hurricanes, he said.

The institute found that residents of Lytton, B.C., which mostly burned down in a 2021 wildfire, would be significantly better shielded from another blaze if they invested an average of $5,000 to rebuild using fire-resistant material for things like roofs and patios and reducing vegetation near structures.

After Calgary's 2020 hailstorm, the first in Canadian history to cause more than $1 billion in damage, the city offered $3,000 to homeowners who installed hail-resistant roofs.

"The program was incredibly successful," Kovacs said.

Floods caused by rising oceans or overflowing rivers are a different beast, he said. If one property owner builds a wall around his property, it just means the water flows to another. Preventing damage in those cases requires a more costly community-level response, he said, whether that means property buyouts or expensive dyking systems.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2022.

Amy Smart, The Canadian Press