Chelan Harkin: THE FEMININE

Chelan Harkin is among my most beloved poets and I treasure each of her beautiful books. What I am sharing here today is a chapter from her latest book — The Prophetess. So deeply powerful and wise. And anyone who has read The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran will recognize the parallels with his work. 

I was first moved to share with my husband The Feminine as I absorbed its profound message. And now I am called to share more widely something which I believe holds the potential to be of great benefit to us all. — Molly

Photo by Molly

THE FEMININE

Speak to us of The Feminine. And The Prophetess spoke.

We often mistake The Feminine for a pretty and graceful fair maiden or a Goddess of only nurturance who, subservient to our  comforts, decorates our lives, sings to us, and feeds us only our ease.

But The Feminine is a three-headed Goddess made of Truth, Justice, and Power from within. She breathes the fire of dominion and radical acceptance, and while She is loving, She is rarely comfortable. She is not here to castrate or emasculate men but to help them claim their crown. And She does not only abide in women — She abides in the human soul. She is the eco-warrior who unapologetically bursts through the dams blocking you from the vitality of your grief. She is what will not stay small and tidy and polite to keep you from the immeasurable fullness of your life.

The Feminine is shorthand for the great divine force that lives within you, that wants to restore you to your inner power, that comes from embracing your wholeness. She wants to exonerate and ennoble your messy, imperfect, scuffed, glorious, and completely essential humanity. She bursts through ideological pavings that have covered our soul's knowing to introduce us to the embodied God who is not afraid to roar or weep. She is the revolutionary who will undo conquering consciousness that represses so much of ourselves and has sickened and made limp the heart of the world. She is intolerant of our separation from ourselves to please the old dogma of conditional love. We are malnourished in our continuous competition with others for the resources we first reject in ourselves. She wants us well fed.

She is the primordial form of the holy word "No" that begins forming in our gut, in our hips, in the deepest furrows of our knowing. She is what will not tolerate the denigration of human worth and inherent dignity. She is the toppler of the terrible illusion of hierarchy.

She is the marvelous unraveller of the status quo, that corset stifling the deep breath of society's truth. She is gloriously irreverent to all falsities that make God out to be anything but the infinite embrace of your entirely. She is the wisdom and life stored in your pain that will not stop howling until you stop your busy life to kneel by her side and find value in the voice you once learned to silence.

The Feminine is here to crack open your body, women and men and all, to finally release the poison of every ancient, uncleaned wound.

The Feminine is here to crack open your old ideologies and shoot new life through you like a seed hard and closed for so many years and suddenly kissed into transformation by the great destruction of light.

The Feminine is here to pull you from the measured, surveyed land at the edge of the wild forest of your dreams and finally toss you into that mapless territory of your heart.

The Feminine is here to remind you that God can live in the earth, in the hips, in the deepest shadows. She reminds us that God is planted like a wild rose in the darkest furrows of your pain to teach you to mother your frailties rather than dominate them and bring the wound from exile into embrace.

The Feminine is here to reunite tenderness with power and to help you source this from the great, hidden sea within you — She wants you to feel the intimacy of God pulsing Her embodied song through the rivers of your blood and back to the holy ocean of your heart.

The Feminine is here to tell us in no uncertain terms that though we have tried to bury Her, we are in the process of Her great resurrection. She has been buried in our bodies, but our bodies are not burial grounds but birthing rooms. She has been gestating there. We are carrying Her ancient wisdom, and a great, never-before-seen beauty is soon due to be born.

— Chelan Harkin

Excerpted from THE PROPHETESS: The Return

of The Prophet from The Voice of

The Divine Feminine

You can purchase a signed copy

of this book and others here:

https://www.waucomabookstore.com/chelan-harkin-signed-books

Photo by Molly

Sanders Says There Is No Choice: 'We Must Defeat the Oligarchs'

This is such an excellent article! Thank you Bernie Sanders! In the midst of this chilling and frightening time, it is my belief that we must balance out our conscious awareness of the serious and dangerous assaults on democracy, our country and other nations, and the planet that we face with building ever growing vision and passion and solidarity and activism around their potential solutions. This is the only way that we stand a chance of defeating the oligarchs. And this does indeed mean challenging the power of the oligarchs that have long taken over both major political parties in América. And bless Bernie Sanders and all who inspire us to never give up working for that higher good for us all and no matter how bleak things look today. We must never give up! — Molly

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks on the second day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 20, 2024. (Photo by Charly Triballeau/AFP)

The U.S. Senator from Vermont is asking big questions about how to achieve—even in the face of Trump's return—an "economy and government that works for all, not just the few."

By Jon Queally

With the progressive movement in the United States still grappling with how best to respond to president-elect Donald Trump's victory earlier this month, Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a statement Saturday clarifying his belief that confronting the ruling oligarchy over the "coming months and years" will be the key battle for anyone who wants to build an economy and political system that puts the interests of everyday working people ahead of those of super-wealthy elites.

The Independent U.S. Senator from Vermont suggested Trump's victory was the direct result of a political economy largely controlled by the nation's richest individuals and powerful corporations and a situation in which massive wealth inequality has also created an incredible power imbalance.

"This is what Oligarchy looks like," Sanders said. "Today, while 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, three multi-billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of American society."

With a "greater concentration of ownership than we have seen since the Gilded Age," Sanders continued, from healthcare and financial services to the food, transportation, and housing sectors—"fewer and fewer giant corporations control what is produced and the prices we pay."

Sanders slammed a corporate media system in which corporate consolidation has led to an information and entertainment ecosystem in which an estimated "90% of U.S. media is controlled by just six huge global conglomerates," and a political system "increasingly controlled by the billionaire class" that is allowed to inject nearly limitless amounts of money into elections, most of it secretly and without accountability.

"In the recent elections," Sanders bemoaned, "just 150 billionaire families spent nearly $2 billion to get their candidates elected." Such a reality, he said, must be challenged.

"Our job in the coming months and years is clear. We must defeat the oligarchs and create an economy and government that works for all, not just the few."

How can such a defeat of these powerful forces be achieved? Sanders' latest statement did not reveal a prescription, but in a series of recent missives, social media posts, and interviews over the last week, the two-time presidential candidate has said that focusing on building working-class power is the key.

In a letter to supporters last week, Sanders said the question of "where do we go from here?" is a "very serious" one that demands deep scrutiny in the coming weeks and months. And he asked a series of more specific questions that he said must be addressed, including:

• How do we expand our efforts to build a multi-racial, multi-generational working-class movement?
• How do we create a 50 state movement, not politics based on the electoral college and “battleground” states?
• How do we deal with Citizens United and the ability of billionaires to buy elections?
• How do we recruit more working-class candidates for office at all levels of government?
• Should we be supporting Independent candidates who are prepared to take on both parties?
• How do we better support union organizing?
• How do we put together listening sessions around the country that intentionally seek input from people who did not vote for Democrats in the last election?
• How do we best use social media to build our movement and combat the lies and disinformation coming from the billionaire class and right-wing media?

In a subsequent interview with The Nation, Sanders it is "absolutely" necessary to find ways to challenge both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, both of which are dominated by corporate interests and wealthy donors.

"We just cannot sit back and accept candidates who are not prepared to stand up to Big Money interests and fight for the working class," Sanders said. "We cannot continue to do that. So, in one way or another, we have got to bring forth candidates who [will stand up to Big Money]."

Please go here for the original article: https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-oligarchy

WOW. POWERFUL. — Michael Moore: Last Thoughts in the Final Minutes of November

 So utterly and completely spot on!

— Molly

America, we are here. Photo: Getty Images

Remember, Remember, the 5th of November

By Michael Moore

Dec 01, 2024

1. Thank God this month is over. Now, to prepare for the onslaught, to survive it, then new thinking, we are the majority, flip Congress in ‘26.

Again: We only lost by 12 votes per precinct nationwide! C’mon people!

2. The cost of everything was and still is TOO damn high. What’s the point of Dems trying to convince people that the cost of living is getting better? Or having Dem candidates brag that they are “Capitalists!”? You are proving to the working class that Dems can’t be trusted. Trump never lied about who he really is. Everything we are seeing now from him is exactly what he promised.

3. Early populist promises by Harris were soon quieted or dropped. The people knew she wasn’t serious about offending Wall Street. Hugging billionaires on the stage was akin to her boss hugging Bibi. Yuck and ugh.

4. Trump went to Michigan and stood with Muslims. Didn’t matter that he didn’t mean it. He did it. Harris didn’t. Instead she went and wagged a condescending finger at them and told them to be quiet. And standing there with them in solidarity were scores of Detroiters from Jewish Voice for Peace. A conscious decision to forfeit a critical swing state. If that was the campaign’s attitude toward Michigan, why would they treat Georgia (79,000 Arabs/Muslims) or Pennsylvania (167,000 Arabs/Muslims) any different? Well, it’s one way to win an election — tell an entire ethnic group (over 4 million Arab and Muslim Americans) to go F*** themselves.

5. Trump promised he would end income tax on overtime wages, on tips, on Social Security checks. He said he would lower Credit Card interest rates to 10%. Wow. If you are one of the 60% of Americans who live from paycheck to paycheck this sounded incredible. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t mean it. Working people know politicians are lying to them all the time. It’s more like, if you’re going to make shit up and lie to me, then at least make it good and say it to my face before you make me watch you dance to the Village People. Or wag your finger at me.

6. It’s time to end the Ukraine War. Ukraine won. Putin got his ass handed to him. So many thousands of dead Russian soldiers, sent to their deaths by a madman. How long will the oligarchs let him stay? So Poland and others are now safe. Negotiate the new boundaries. Zelensky should get a medal and a return to TV comedy with a 3-season sitcom order.

7. We need to calmly explain to white heterosexual men that they’re going to be the minority in 2040. Trump told them this truth — but with hate and vengeance. We can do it with love and kindness and offer to help them with their fears. We don’t need the next 15 years to be filled with their violence, packed school board meetings, whining, more whining, and men finally showing up and voting in droves like they did this time. Things were better back when the dude bros thought politics and student council and reading books was for sissies. It was called a man cave for a reason. Let’s bring that cave back and let’s introduce them to those white women who voted for Trump. There’s somebody for everybody!

8. Trump was able to pivot on abortion before the election. He was able to convince just enough white women that things were not going to be as bad as the “woke police” said they were going to be. Of course, they already are. And will be. Women and their male supporters (again, comprising an American majority) have received the message loud and clear. A nonviolent revolt is in the works. (In the meantime, join me in sending donations to groups helping women get safe and legal abortions in states that don’t belong to the SEC.)

9. Trump won both debates. We watched how he won by default in the first debate to a depleted Biden. We thought he lost the second debate because his opponent was bright and strong and likable and honest. But we forgot she was a woman. A woman of color. And that we don’t live in Mexico, a country that has no problem voting for a woman President who also belongs to a religion 99.9 percent of Mexicans don’t subscribe to. Doesn’t matter. It mattered that she was smart. And cared about her people. At least 60 countries have had women presidents and prime ministers. The ones that haven’t include Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Council on Foreign Relations — hardly a bastion of progressive thinking — ranked America #69 out of all the nations on Earth in "progress toward gender parity in political participation.” Not nice. We look like Neanderthals.

10. Dems, the party of writers, actors, filmmakers and storytellers once again had no idea how to tell a story to the American public. Trump told one whopper of a story. We couldn’t even explain why people were paying $20 for eggs or 60% more for a Snickers bar or why, at age 49, they still couldn’t afford to buy their own home! “Don’t blame Capitalism!“ Right.

11. Millions have come to realize that the system no longer works for them. That they’ll never be out of credit card debt, that the Medicare you paid into for 40 years doesn’t cover half the stuff you need, that your boy died in Iraq for nothing, that the police have zero to do with crime prevention and are mostly there to do crime scene cleanup, that no pharmaceutical company is working on the vaccine for the next pandemic and most have stopped working on finding “cures” because where’s the profit if you cure people and they then have no reason to buy pills for the rest of their lives? And on and on. Millions have lost faith. That’s why so many won’t show up to vote. That’s why those who do vote for Trump want to watch him bring the whole thing down. They love the Crazy Cabinet he’s putting together. Crash and Burn it all down, Baby! Fuck the universities! To hell with the environment! Close the FBI! Send a convicted felon and billionaire daddy of my son-in-law to be our ambassador to France! There should be subtitles on the screen underneath Trump when he makes these announcements: I hate this country —and if you haven’t figured that out by now, wait until I pardon P Diddy and make him the head of the Secret Service! This is why you elected me! I am your retribution. l am here to destroy the system that has destroyed you. You’re going to love it!

12. We let this happen. We broke it. We fix it. Stay tuned.

Please go here for the original: https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/last-thoughts-in-the-final-minutes