Final evening the Republican-led Congress voted to successfully kill Medicaid and meals and well being look after the poor as a way to please billionaires with new tax cuts.
In an article entitled “Bernie Sanders Is Sending a Piercing Message About Musk and the Oligarchy,” John Nichols stories from the highway on Sanders’ “Battle Oligarchy” tour, a crash course on how billionaire oligarchs are threatening American democracy.*
Sanders, visiting pink states, has drawn 2,000 individuals in Iowa Metropolis and three,400 in Omaha, to remind Individuals that Abraham Lincoln referred to as for a “authorities of the individuals, by the individuals for the individuals” and “not a authorities of the billionaire class, by the billionaire class and for the billionaire class.”
He declared that it’s “morally outrageous” when “the richest particular person on earth—who’s a billionaire 384 occasions over—is ending well being care to the poorest amongst us. Whether or not dismantling USAID in Africa or in final evening’s vote in Congress, the wrestle is obvious for all to see.
Why has the Republican Get together, as soon as Lincoln’s Get together, declared its stand towards Medicaid (Trump mentioned he wouldn’t contact Medicaid)? As a result of the billionaire class desires nonetheless extra tax cuts—as much as 4.5 trillion {dollars} value—and Republicans think about dismembering Medicaid can pay for that reward.
Sanders alluded to the now $2.6 million Musk has put into an excessive proper wing decide’s marketing campaign in Wisconsin—with extra to return. Now, should you become involved in a Supreme Court docket race within the state of Wisconsin, the place are you able to not become involved? You will get concerned in each governor’s race, each Senate race. That’s their intention.
And he asks: Why? These oligarchs aren’t solely pleased to have big quantities of cash. They need extra….I’ll let you know about essentially the most severe dependancy downside we have now on this nation: That’s the uncontrollable greed of this billionaire class….They need extra wealth. They need extra energy. And so they simply can not cease themselves.
Thus we’re requested to select between the frequent good and the “handful of multi-billionaires [who] not solely have extraordinary wealth however unprecedented financial, media and political energy” purchased by way of exploiting “a corrupt marketing campaign finance system.” (Thanks, SCOTUS, for Residents United.)
The reply? Hundreds of thousands of American voters coming collectively “in a powerful grassroots motion” to say “’No’ to oligarchy and authoritarianism and kleptocracy!” And “No!” to tax breaks for the wealthiest on the backs of the working class.
Mystics and saints of outdated have spoken as Bernie Sanders does. Thomas Aquinas taught that “the greed for acquire is aware of no restrict and tends to infinity.” And he supplied drugs for this dependancy we name avarice or greed which we are going to think about in tomorrow’s DM.
Hildegard of Bingen additionally spoke out on this dependancy to energy and “extra” {that a} wholesome society wants to carry in test. She wrote that avarice is “the servant of idols [and] terribly envious….It pillages with harshness and bitterness…it walks and plunders ferociously, sparing nothing when it pillages.”
To be continued
* John Nichols, “Bernie Sanders Is Sending a Piercing Message About Musk and the Oligarchy,”The Nation, February 26, 2025.
Tailored from Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Reworking Evil in Soul and Society, p. 301.
See additionally: Matthew Fox, Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Presents for the Peoples of the Earth.
Banner Picture: Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks at a protest for a $15/hr minimal wage, whereas co-sponsoring 2017 laws for the pay rise. Wikimedia Commons
Queries for Contemplation
Do you agree with Sanders and Aquinas and Hildegard that greed is behind a lot of the political dynamics of our time and that it must be stored in test? And that we’re feeling the outcomes of Residents United when authorities strikes from the individuals to oligarchs and billionaires dominating the media and politics and authorities?
Advisable Studying
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Reworking Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling creator Matthew Fox affords a brand new theology of evil that basically modifications the normal notion of excellent and evil and factors the way in which to a extra enlightened remedy of ourselves, each other, and all of nature. In evaluating the Jap custom of the 7 chakras to the Western custom of the 7 capital sins, Fox permits us to suppose creatively about our capability for private and institutional evil and what we will do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a greater imaginative and prescient and depth of notion far past the grasp of anyone single science. A breath-taking evaluation.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, creator of Quantum Theology: Non secular Implications of the New Physics
Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had all the time shied away from utilizing the time period “Anti-Christ” as a result of it was so usually used to unfold management and concern. Nevertheless, given right now’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables on this ebook using the archetype for the reason for justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a second, for inspecting the archetype of the Antichrist, it’s now…Learn this ebook with an open thoughts. Good and evil are actual forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, creator of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For fast entry to Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white photos, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To obtain a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for fast obtain.
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the which means and observe of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the long run that guarantees private, social, and world therapeutic, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, main the way in which towards a gentler and extra ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate exercise.
“Effectively value our deepest consideration…Places compassion into its correct focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Presents for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the therapeutic and liberation present in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of each spiritual and political persuasion to unite in a brand new imaginative and prescient by way of which we be taught to honor the earth and the individuals who inhabit it because the reward of a superb and simply Creator.
“A watershed theological work that gives a standard floor for spiritual seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Apply.
“I’m studying Liberating Presents for the Folks of the Earth by Matt Fox. He’s one which fills my coronary heart and thoughts for brand spanking new life despite a lot that’s violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
