Trump and the War on Women

TRUMP AND THE WAR ON WOMEN
By Gary Stamper

Much like the times we find ourselves living in, the 16th century was a time of uncertainty, plague,  fear, and change. A little Ice Age was digging in, and Europe was hit by droughts and poor harvests. The plague was raging in the Netherlands in 1613, just when its authorities were conducting their witch trials.

You remember witch trials, right, and the holocaust that accompanied it?  The Christian church and the state cooperated in a concerted effort to wipe out the power and independence of midwives, healers, and crones.

More on that below.

The old, stable orders of society were breaking down. The Catholic Church was being challenged, feudalism was crumbling. The upheavals unsettled everyone. “Immense sadness and a feeling of doom pervaded the land,” the scholar Robert D. Anderson wrote. Historical concordances are always inexact, but the tenor of that time sounds acutely familiar to us:

In periods of turbulence, people look for someone to blame.

For Trump and his followers, it’s anyone deemed to be an “other.” Hatred of black people, brown people, red people (racism), people from other countries, anyone perceived to be a stranger or foreign (xenophobia), homophobia (LGBTQ people), and hatred, contempt, or prejudice against women or girls (misogyny).

For Trump, you can add “anyone who opposes him” in any way. He’s clearly more aligned with other authoritarian leaders than he is with his intelligence systems.  John Bolton writes that his former boss was not driven by any world view or philosophy, but, rather, the lone philosophy driving the president was Trumpism.

Trump and QAnon

Some, including people I love, appear to be supporting Trump because they think he will face down a shadowy cabal of Satan-worshipping Democratic pedophiles who are plotting against him while operating a global child sex-trafficking ring.

According to the NY Times, “QAnon followers believe that this clique includes top Democrats including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and George Soros, as well as a number of entertainers and Hollywood celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, Ellen DeGeneres and religious figures including Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama. Many of them also believe that, in addition to molesting children, members of this group kill and eat their victims in order to extract a life-extending chemical from their blood.”

In the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, elements of an unwieldy and unfounded conspiracy theory, QAnon (Q), were percolating on the fringes of the internet. While Q wasn’t fully Q yet, the groundwork was being laid through rumors that falsely claimed a cabal of Democratic leaders and liberal entertainers engaged in satanic rituals and global sex trafficking.

Posts circulating on social media make the claim that U.S. President Donald Trump said that his government is fighting “an ancient sex trafficking ring.” The posts make the further claim that the media chose not to cover his remarks, noting that “not a single reporter” asked for more information.

There is, however, no evidence that Trump ever said this.

Mental health experts have repeatedly pointed out Trump’s propensity to use “the Shadow Effect” in his claims: Whatever Trump complains about the “other side” doing is exactly what he’s doing in an attempt to disguise his own actions.
 

·        The Projection President - Months into his tenure, Trump still responds to controversies by lobbing the same charges at his opponents.

·        Voter Fraud (virtually non-existent) vs. Election Fraud (rampant through the GOP)

·        Child-Abuse – Trump’s record of child abuse includes separating 70,000 migrant children from their parents. That's more kids detained away from their parents than any other country, according to United Nations researchers. See also  Donald Trump sexual misconduct allegations – Wikipedia

Trump and the Evangelical Right

The latest Pew Research poll in June shows that about 82% of white evangelicals said they would vote for Trump, even higher than the proportion who voted for him in 2016. 35% say that Trump has been a “great President” and 34% say he has been “good”. No other religious subgroup rates Trump positively.

Matthew Avery Sutton in the New Republic explained the Christian nationalism behind the evangelical political program, embodying “assumptions of nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and heteronormativity, along with divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism.” Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a historian at Calvin University, minimizes any contradiction between evangelical Christianity and Trump. In her book Jesus and John Wayne, she similarly argues that evangelicals embrace a militantly white patriarchy. Thus the revelations of Trump’s Access Hollywood tapes in 2016 made only a ripple among his evangelical supporters.

Evangelicals have become increasingly desperate, as their more appropriate religious and political leaders failed to preserve the white Christian world they imagine is their birthright. Public opinion polls show that the evangelical agenda continues to lose popular support in America, which might explain why they are so eager to attach themselves to a leader with authoritarian tendencies who is systematically dismantling our traditional democratic processes and norms.

Democracy has not been favorable to hatred of homosexuals, white supremacy, and traditional gender norms.

If this minority ever really believed in their moral transcendence, they have given that argument away by hitching themselves to a remarkably amoral and immoral personality. Their defense of Trump reveals how many supposedly bedrock Christian principles they willingly sacrifice to achieve their political agenda. The self-proclaimed “Moral Majority” has become a frankly political minority, a partisan interest group shorn of the trappings of ethical righteousness. Source


Trump, the Patriarchy, Burning Times, and the Women’s Holocaust

Fundamentalists tend to view God as an authoritarian masculine and father-like figure who is to be obeyed without question, with men (priests) as the intermediary between God and the masses. Fundamentalism is not the birthplace of patriarchy, but it has been the caretaker where patriarchy was fully formed to its abusive fullness.

if you want to know more about sexual abuse of children and coverups and witchhunts, you have to look no further than the Catholic Church.

The Burning Times began on 5 December 1484 when Pope Innocent VIII began the holocaust against women with his directive, Summis Desiderantes Affectibus, which recognized the existence of witches and gave full papal approval for the inquisition team to move against witches and starting 300 years of extreme violence against women.

The peak of witch-hunting was during the European wars of religion, climaxing from 1580 to 1630. The witch hunts declined in the early 18th century, culminating with the British Witchcraft Act of 1735, but there were sporadic witch-trials until the last known which trial in 1782.

Although the total number of victims is unknown, an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 (some experts place the numbers into hundreds of thousands) women were executed over a period of 300 or more years during the witch trials. Some sources place the number of victims much higher. Source

The Burning Times, part two of the Women and Spirituality trilogy by Donna Reed, offers a chilling look at the persecution of women accused of being witches in Europe between the 15th and 17th centuries. The Christian church and the state cooperated in a concerted effort to wipe out the power and independence of midwives, healers, and crones. Thousands were tortured and burned at the stake. Matthew Fox and Margit Adler discuss the misogyny behind this massive campaign and also note the continuation of violence against women in our times.

Trump and the War on Women

President Trump no longer hides his misogyny. It’s completely out in the open as he has lost any sense of subtlety.

After Kamala Harris’ impressive performance at the recent Democratic Convention, he told a Fox Business news interviewer: “She was so angry, such hatred with Justice [Brett] Kavanaugh. I’ve never seen anything like it. She was the angriest of the group, and they were all angry.” On Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, he said the New York Democrat “goes out and yaps,” reducing her to the status of a dog. He lied in calling her “a poor student”; she double-majored in international relations and economics, graduating cum laude in 2011 from Boston University. (Unlike Trump, her parents did not pull strings to get her into college.) source

Trump commonly refers to women as “nasty” or “angry,” Insults he “throws at women, meant to deprive them of respect, status and power.” They are meant to reinforce the stereotype that women must be docile, respectful and pleasing to men.The put-downs are especially egregious in connection with women of color, who for decades were relegated to domestic and service jobs and expected to be non-confrontational.

His insults play into racist and sexist stereotypes about Black women and make clear that Trump does not intend to throw away a playbook filled with misogynistic attacks and dog-whistle racism that have imbued his political career, even as the Biden campaign advances a barrier-breaking ticket.

Here are some examples of Trump’s disdain toward women:

•        First, a tape of Donald Trump from 2005, describing how he treats women — "Just kiss, I don't even wait… Grab 'em by the pussy… When you're a star, they let you do anything.
   
• ·     It's all part of a bigger pattern for the Republican nominee, who has been objectifying and dehumanizing women goes back decades. Trump’s misogyny has been in plain sight for decades.
  
  
•        Trump’s anti-feminism owes more to the gleeful vulgarity and implicit threats of violence of 4chan (now QAnon) than the traditional debate over what a woman’s role should be in the public square.
  
  
•        He called comedian Rosie O’Donnell "a big fat pig," "disgusting," "a slob," and "a very unattractive person." Bette Midler was "ugly." Heidi Klum is "no longer a 10." 
  
  
•        He has told Black reporters who are women that they are asking "stupid" questions, described their queries as "racist," and called one a "loser."
  
  
•        He has repeatedly labeled Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, as "low IQ."
  
  
•        He attacked his former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman as "that dog" and a "crazed, crying lowlife."
  
  
•        House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is “stone-cold crazy"
  
  
•        “Morning Joe’s” Mika Brzezinski is the “ditzy airhead wife” of co-host Joe Scarborough. 

For a comprehensive review of Trump’s history of misogyny, sexism, and harassment, go here.

Make America 1919 again?

In 2016, A group of Donald Trump supporters has begun using the Twitter hashtag #repealthe19th after a map showed he would win the election if only men voted.

After a Los Angeles Times article brought attention to the vile viral trend, the vast majority of tweets came from social media users disgusted by the sexist fantasy.

"First they wanted to take us back to the 1950s ... now they want to take us back to the 1850s?" pro-choice group NARAL posted.

“‘Women, you have to treat ’em like shit.” — Donald Trump to New York magazine, 1992″ (Correctly attributed to the person who spoke it or wrote it)

Given the above, and more, what are the possible outcomes for women in the event Trump should he win a second term?   

•        Trump and AG Barr will continue to pack the federal courts with right-wing anti-abortion appointees
•        A Trump victory in November would likely mean at least one more anti-abortion appointment to the Supreme Court.
•       Trump will pack the Supreme Court with ultra-conservative justices and SCOTUS will become one more branch of government under Trump’s control. Say goodbye to a woman’s right to choose and possibly the 19^th amendment, the right for women to vote. They explored this in 2016.
•        Social Security, Medicare, and Disability insurance will either go away or be turned into a for-profit business.

Why would I think things are going to get much worse for women in a second Trump term? You only have to look at the things he’s already done in his first term, many in the first 100 days.

From Newsweek, Aug 8, 2020: It's Time to Stop the Trump Administration's Global War on Women | Opinion

NBC News reports Trump's anti-abortion agenda emboldened an all-out war on women's rights in dozens of states. Pro-lifers think they now have the Supreme Court votes to overturn Roe v. Wade. And they're setting up the legal fights to get there. Source

But, wait… there’s more.

•         Five major things Trump has done to roll back women’s rights. Source

o   Cutting international funding for women’s rights and reproductive health

o   Blocking laws that promote equal pay in the workplace

o   Inability to appoint women to his administration

o   The White House has asked different governmental agencies to change its verbiage and information relating to women’s health

o   Dismantling reproductive health services available for women

• Trump’s War on the Concept of Women’s Health. Source 
  
  
• There are no positions on equal pay, abortion, paid family leave, child care or sexual harassment on Trump's website. Source
          
• Trump's anti-woman U.N. push puts America in the pantheon of Human Rights offenders, aligning itself with Russia and Saudi Arabia and other oppressive regimes. Source

 
Conclusion

I began this article with a brief accounting of similarities between the 17th century – including witch hunts and pandemics - and what’s going on in the world today.

To combat legitimate accusations of illegal and possible treasonous actions by President Trump, he has countered that charges against him are a witch hunt and that he’s being persecuted in a manner far worse than what happened in those witch hunts.

Witch hunts are still happening today, but they are directed toward various groups who do not share equally in the white male Christian heterosexual power structure. These groups include Muslims, migrants, people of color, and LGBTQ people in order to perpetuate the hierarchical structure of privilege and power. It also includes poor people (sometimes called useless eaters by the privileged elite), women, and, less acknowledged, men, who have also been victims of these patriarchal power structures throughout history as cannon fodder for whatever whims the current power structure was… and is.

These witch hunts are levied against women’s and LGBTQ rights by religious reactionaries, the same group that perpetrated the Salem Trials, and the more egregious witch hunts of Europe perpetrated by the Catholic Church. The reasons today are the same as they were in the 17^th century: the perpetuation of their power and privilege.

There have also been metaphorical so-called witch hunts in American history levied against groups and individuals who challenge the dominant power dynamics. Perhaps most notorious among these was the Truman and McCarthy era persecution of leftists.

It’s no coincidence that Donald Trump now invokes “witch hunt” to describe the perfectly legal investigations that have probed his official behavior. Here we have a man in the White House who is animated by the most vile impulses, incapable of shame, unabashedly exhibiting all of the seven deadly sins of pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth yet presents himself as the best thing ever to happen to minorities and women. Source

As an ordained Shamanic Priest, I move in and out of alternative circles. I use breath to create altered state consciousness and to explore hidden light and darkness concealed inside that consciousness, Reiki to heal the body and soul, guided meditations to explore possibilities, all intended to help people live fuller more conscious lives.

You may also fall into this category, but if you don’t, imagine you are an alternative teacher, a healer, a provider of alternative services that buck the norms of religion, thought, awareness, politics, and business, all to help yourself and others to discover what it means to be as fully conscious as you can…

Last, imagine you’re someone doing this in the middle of a real witch hunt in the middle of a Trump second term.

Gary

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Trashed Plans, Danger and Uncertainty.

by Gary Stamper

In my last post, I wrote about turning 75 and in archetypal terms, coming to terms with moving from the Warrior stage of my life into the realm of the (hopefully) Wise Elder stage of my life.

Only a month has passed and I'm about to ride into the turmoil of change with some trepidation, but thankfully no fear, just an awareness of the danger it involves. Long story short, I'm leaving Napa at the end of July, and I'm going to miss a lot of people I won't get a chance to personally say goodbye to.

I'm going to miss some of you terribly. You know who you are

As the title of this blog mentions uncertainty, I'd hoped to stay in Napa until I could leave for the clear turquoise waters of Bocas Del Toro in Panama.

Not gonna happen. 

In all fairness, as Covid-19 is blowing up again in the US because of an amazingly incompetent cult leader (and adolescent cult immaturity) which I've documented well on my Facebook page, there may not be anywhere that is safe, but there are places that are safer than others (so far).

Unfortunately, I'm not going to one of those safer places. I'm jumping right into the fire!

It's a move I wasn't planning on after moving across the country to be here less than two years at the invitation of my sister, who has now has changed her mind and wants me out. That's another story.

At the end of July, movers will be loading what's left of my belongings into a moving van and I'll be jumping into my car and driving to Galveston, TX close to where my oldest daughter and one of my granddaughters live. Hopefully, I'll only be there until I'm able to get to the Caribbean beach town I hope to wind up in.

Galveston is a little southeast of Houston, which appears to be one of the newest COVID Hotspots with confirmed cases surging out of control with a record number of new infections.

Although cases are also exploding in Florida  and Southern California, the North Bay Area still seems relatively quiet - and still safe - in comparison.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that it's not safe to drive across the country or to move into a strange apartment in the middle of a pandemic. I imagine I'll be eating out of supermarkets instead of restaurants on this trip.

Can't even begin to tell you how much I'm looking forward to staying in hotels for 2-3 nights.

So, you may be thinking, why don't I just go directly to Panama?

Panama has not been hit hard by the virus in comparison to other countries because their president was smart enough to close the borders and completely stop all flights in and out of Panama except for essential businesses. Still, they've had infections and deaths, but have handled the pandemic remarkably well, much better than...well, us.

Another display of American exceptionalism!

The point is that you can't even get into Panama without a 14-day quarantine unless you're a citizen, and even then, it's difficult. Panama has a 6-point reopening plan and they've already pushed the second stage date back as the virus rages out of control in countries and places like the U.S,  Europe, the U.K. and others. If I'm lucky I may be able to get there mid-October earliest, but frankly, spring is probably more likely, so I'm making two moves instead of one.

But wait! There's another problem! 

As is patently obvious, Trump's presidency is built to keep people out of the country, not to govern it, and as a result, while the U.S. is is the current leading COVID-19 hotspot on the planet and closes Its borders, Europe is considering banning Americans.

And if Europe does close its borders to America - after all, we're number 1 - other countries will likely follow suit.

I always knew I should have gotten that second passport! I'm gonna make myself a margarita and go out in the backyard and stick my toes under the hose....

Thoughts on Turning 75: The Last Quarter

By Gary Stamper, CPC, MSPS, DSPS

My first awakening thought this morning was “go back to sleep,” but that was not to be.

As the bright morning Napa sun strained to squeeze past the closed blinds of my bedroom window, I knew continued sleep was a lost cause giving way to a mounting excitement and a deep and profound sense of gratitude.

It’s my birthday. I’m 75.

I didn’t think I’d be so young, and my ego is assuaged by knowing that there are a lot of 60-year -old men that look older than I. Plus, my health is excellent, which I am also grateful for.

I remember thinking about who I’d be at 75 at many different times in my life. The first as I was about to turn 13. At that time I thought about 50 to 60, my grandparents' approximate age at the time. It was apparently as far forward that I could think at that time, I think because 13 was coming up, then 16, 21, and way off in the distance, 30.

What would I look like? What would my life be like? What would my wife (partner?) look like and what would my relationship with her be like? What would I be doing? Don’tcha just love irony?

I've done that many times in my life, but it wasn’t until I reached my fifties that I began thinking about my life as a finite resource.

It was at that time that I began thinking that my life had not yet mattered. Yes, two successful careers already under my belt – ten years as a professional singer that I wouldn’t trade for anything, and then a great career in the sign industry that had already netted me three international design awards – but nothing that mattered…

That was when I had the realization that if I were to have died at that point, my life would not have made a difference. No meaningful contribution to the planet or humanity, no legacy, nothing left behind that mattered, no meaning. In the big picture, I might as well have not existed.

This happens a lot to men in their fifties and sixties. Not finding meaning in our lives and careers, many of us start looking for something beyond ourselves, something bigger.

“Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.” ― Viktor Emil Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

So I set about to change that, fully realizing that finding meaning means different things fo different men. I was looking for my meaning.

My first legacy was the formulation of SeattleIntegral, the second integral salon in the world based around the work of philosopher Ken Wilber and a model for other developing integral salons in the world. A second contribution was my men's’ workshop, The Integral Warrior, and the book that came out of it, Awakening the New Masculine: The Path of the Integral Warrior.”

A world-changing legacy? No, but I’m comfortable with it, and I continue doing my work as it shows up on a day-to-day and person-to-person basis.

This post is meant to be a reflection of that.

So what’s next? I’m now embarking on the beginning of the Last Great Adventurer of My Life.

Today I’m contemplating another change, this one out of the country as I search for the perfect beach community as an “ex-pat” to further semi-retire as a digital nomad in a comfortable lifestyle that isn’t possible for me in the U.S.  I’ve wanted to do that for a while but didn’t want to go alone. I’ve gotten over that. Although I’d love a partner, I don’t have to have one. 

There are a lot of countries where this is not only possible but where thousands of “ex-pats” have gone who are very happy and comfortable, and I’ve pretty much narrowed down my many choices.

As I’m sheltering in place, I'm learning Spanish and further increasing my freelancing from anywhere digital nomad skills, I’m looking for a smaller beach community where I can dip my Margaritaville toes in the crystal clear turquoise and blue Caribbean waters, bury my butt in the sand, leave my car(s) behind, get a bike to get around, walk to the supermarcado for fresh vegetables and staples and the local fishermen for seafood. Start another garden.

As for turning 75, I’m good with that. It’s been interesting watching and observing dispassionately my moving from the warrior stage of my life into the role of the (hopefully) wise elder. I still carry the warrior archetype but it’s been a bit softened by realizing I don’t have to “win” anything anymore.

I've already won.

Original Art by Gary Stamper - Personal Collection Sale

https://www.garystamperdesign.com/new-for-sale

NOW ACCEPTING OFFERS. Over a lifetime of creating art, I've sold hundreds of my original pieces, some commissioned, some in galleries. Displayed here are originals (and some prints) that I've kept in my personal collection. They have traveled with me in my various moves, usually hanging in my home, sometimes in storage or in a family members' home. I've even had a couple disappear without ever knowing what happened to them.

Now, however, as I approach 75, it's time to simplify my life some more and let some of these go. It's the first time many of them have been offered for sale. Some are expensively framed, some are not, but all are being sold as-is, and each carries a brief description and a suggested price. 

If you'd like to make an inquiry about one or more or make an offer, please contact me by email at garystamper@yahoo.com. I'm more than happy to speak with you...

See the entire Collection of Sale Pieces at
https://www.garystamperdesign.com/new-for-sale

A Mind, Body, Spirit Approach to Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones through the Pandemic

by Gary Stamper

Living in California during this viral pandemic, I halfway expected our state to lead the nation in confirmed CoronaVirus cases and deaths. After all, we've seemed to be the nation's trendsetters in so many other ways, why should this be different?.

Thankfully for us, and not so thankful for Washington state and New York City, we are not the early standard-bearers on this.

Together, they have the dubious honors of being the primary entry ports of entry for foreign travelers coming into the U.S., so it's not like California has been doing anything exceptionally right to avoid what's happening in Seattle or NYC. Location, location, location....and luck.

We've had no reported cases here in Napa so far, but, like everywhere, there's no testing, either, thanks largely to an intentionally impotent administration, so there's no way to tell how many cases there might be among us. It's highly likely "they" are among us, and "we" are "they."


Why I'm Concerned

First, the numbers to date: There were almost 4,000 cases reported this morning, up from 1,300 U.S. cases  reported as of Thursday, up almost 400% in 5 days, with beachhead community outbreaks in Washington state, California, and New York. Cities like Atlanta, Miami, Boston, and Denver are reporting dozens of cases each. Total case numbers have grown at a rough average rate of 30% a day in the US since the last week of February. The ordered shutdowns of businesses, events, and even cities and geographical areas are also increasing exponentially.

At that rate, the US will have more than 8,000 cases by next week, 40,000 cases in two weeks, and nearly 150,000 cases by the end of the month. Around 5% of those cases might be critical ones, leaving 7,500 Americans with life-threatening cases of COVID-19. Although the nationwide “social distancing” moves of the last two days — closing schools, theaters, and professional sports events — might cut into this growth, they didn’t help right away in China when even more draconian measures started in late January, noted a preliminary Harvard and Johns Hopkins analysis of intensive care bed needs in a COVID-19 outbreak.

Another model from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests that a “moderate” scenario for the coronavirus pandemic, akin to a 1968 flu pandemic, could lead to 1 million people in the US requiring hospitalization this year. A “severe” outbreak would hospitalize 9.6 million people... or more, see below.

In the U.S., like Italy and just about everywhere else, hospitals have limited capacity to treat patients with severe lung illnesses. If the healthcare system gets overwhelmed with an enormous number of COVID-19 cases requiring intensive care, the quality of care will deteriorate and a larger fraction of patients will die than would die in a well-functioning health-care system. And, like Italy, ours is nowhere near being a well-functioning healthcare system. and patients will die from being denied treatment for lack of available resources.

How many people might die? According to the CDC, if we don't get our act together, and quickly, between 160 million and 214 million people in the United States could be infected over the course of the epidemic that could last months or even over a year, with infections concentrated in shorter periods, staggered across time in different communities, experts said. As many as 200,000 to 1.7 million people could die.

Meanwhile, in a politically led climate (no pun intended), The CDC has declined interview requests about the models and are referring requests for comments and information to the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Devin O’Malley, a spokesman for the task force, said that senior health officials had not presented the findings to the group, led by Vice President Mike Pence, and that nobody in Mr. Pence’s office “has seen or been briefed on these models.”

A Mind, Body, Spirit Approach

I've been paying attention to living a healthy lifestyle for over two decades, sometimes with more awareness than others. For the past decade, deeply so, and today I'm fully enveloped in immunity prevention and caution, and despite recent knee and hip surgery replacements, I'm in excellent health. 

While I fully expect to eventually get the virus (70% of us will, and I'm almost 75), I also fully expect that because of the mitigation profiles I've implemented, it will be mild and that I might not even exhibit any symptoms (Yes, that's possible, and a lot of people will get through this without even knowing they're infected or with merely mild symptoms. Hey, for all I know, I may already have it, although I seriously doubt it. 

My mitigation is an integral and holistic approach, as is my life, of Mind, Body, Spirit, working together to create a whole.  Mind, Body, Spirit means that our well-being comes from not just physical health, but from mental health and spiritual health as well, as they are interconnected. ONE...three aspects of one being. In one form or another, each and every one of these arose through every ancient belief system and is still in place today.

Mind
A person’s mental health and wellness can be nurtured through meditation or through any activity that clears the mind of negative thoughts and inhibitions. That does not mean we ignore real problems or stop acknowledging them. It means that we can face them openly, that we recognize their potential impact on us, and that we're capable of changing our mindset or our thinking mentally and emotionally as needed. If the change you need is difficult, I would suggest working with a coach, or even a therapist. There is so much to be gained in having another person hold the space for you as you do personal and even professional exploration. My meditation practices changed my life

Body

Nurturing Mind, Body, Spirit would not be complete without the care of one’s body and preparing to meet difficulties such as a compromised immune system and having a healthy body. There are many ways to do this. Nurturing your body also involves eating the right kind of food, daily exercise, and remaining strong so your body can fight off what it might encounter now and in the future. Climate change almost guarantees more pandemics. I'm taking immunity-building supplements that I'll talk more about below. In spite of so much information available about the benefits of this,  we see so many people who do not take time to care for their bodies.

Spirit

As a teacher of and a 20+ year meditation practitioner (primarily Buddhist Tonglen and Mindfulness practices), even during stressful times, I am pretty much able to remain grounded and calm (yes, even in relationship). I believe in something bigger than me and adhere to indigenous practices that stress our connections to each other and to our planet, that we are all ONE, and not separate from one another or from nature, that all of it is the expression of God, Spirit, or whatever you wish to call it. One of our problems today is that we have fallen out of love with our planet, our environment, not realizing it is part of us and we are part of it, not separate, but ONE. We need to fall back in love with the planet again, as if it were us because it is.

My Caronavirus Mitigation Protocols

Now that we have examined Mind, Body, Spirit as an integral part of being healthy, let's take look at what I actually do to potentially stave off or, at least, mitigate the effects of the Coronavirus should I actually be infected.

My primary goal is simple: Don't get infected!

Along with the CDC and WHO warnings to wash your hands, don't touch your face, etc., and social distancing, I have been seriously eating organically full-time (as much as is possible) for about 12 years and unless you've done the same, you're not going to able to replicate that in your own mitigation protocol.

Another part of what I've been doing is taking carefully curated hi-grade supplements (not all supplements are created equal) for my general health and that seems to have been working fine. The exception has been chronic prostatitis, which I've gotten under control in the past year through tighter modifications of my basically non-inflammatory diet and I finally discovered a fairly expensive supplement that actually works. My urologist is skeptical but he can't come up with another reason for my improvement and nothing he recommended worked. My win.

When COVID-19 became a threat, I immediately started doing research around how do I avoid catching this or, at least, minimize the impact of getting sick. Will it work? I have high hopes and if I only get a little sick, I'll be perfectly happy giving part of the credit to my COVID-19 Protocol. That really big question cannot possibly be answered without a study, but I'm also perfectly content in knowing my immune system is running at top efficiency. Everything else, as is often said, is "just giving it up to God."
 
The suggestions for the supplements I chose come from a trusted website I've been following for a decade and know well. Chris Martinson, the founder of the website, is a PhD (Duke), MBA (Cornell) is a biochemist,  an economic researcher and futurist specializing in energy and resource depletion. Peak Prosperity has been in the forefront of furnishing accurate detailed information that you couldn't get from official sources about the COVID-19 when it first emerged in December 2019 and he's been dead-on the whole time. 

The initial list of immunity-building supplements came from his Medicinals, Herbals and Supplements Megathread (#2)  posted below. Please feel free to examine it yourself.

1. Coronavirus: Sanitation, PPE and Self Quarantine Megathread
2. Coronavirus: Medicinals, Herbals and Supplements Megathread
3. Coronavirus: Home Prep, Deep Pantry & Gardening Megathread

Supplemental Immunity Protection

In addition to the standard supplements I'd been taking, the following is a list of the supplements in my protocol with a short description of what each does. These are for protection and immunity building and I would continue taking them post-infection to possibly reduce symptoms.

• Vitamin C: 2000mg daily, up to 4000 If I suspect I've been compromised
• Chlorella:  emerging research shows that it could help shuttle toxins out of your body and improve cholesterol and blood sugar levels, among other health benefits. 
• Garlic: raw or cooked, an anti-inflammatory, and a proven immunity booster
• Vitamin D3:  modulates the innate and adaptive immune responses. Deficiency in vitamin D is associated with increased autoimmunity as well as an increased susceptibility to infection,
• Mushroom Mycelium:  highly active in supporting natural immune function. pure mycelium and fermented substrates each offer unique yet complementary health benefits.
• Zinc: helps the immune system fight off invading bacteria and viruses. 
• Turmeric & Curcumin: Powerful anti-inflammatory benefits as well relieving aches and pains,
• Magnesium: has a strong relationship with the immune system, in both nonspecific and specific immune response, also known as innate and acquired immune response
• Probiotics: Probiotics can help to boost the immune system and ward off inflammatory responses in the gut. ... Probiotics also keep the gut healthy, to ensure the immune system functions well. Epithelial tissues in the intestines form a barrier against pathogenic microbes and other harmful substances present.
• B-Complex: essential for the health of the brain and nervous system. Vitamin B-6 helps the body make new red blood cells, which carry oxygen throughout the body. It also helps keep the immune system strong,
• Quercetin: known for its antioxidant activity in radical scavenging and anti-allergic properties characterized by stimulation of immune system, antiviral activity, inhibition of histamine release, decrease in pro-inflammatory cytokines, leukotrienes creation, and suppresses interleukin IL-4 production.
• Mediation and Stress Reduction: Okay, it's not a supplement, but it's just as important, if not more so, than any of the above. Stress can lower your resistance to fight off disease and viruses. Find a way to reduce your stress.

Post-Infection Protection

There is no vaccine for the new virus and no specific antiviral medicine to prevent or treat COVID-19, so treatment consists of supportive care to help relieve symptoms and, for severe cases, care to support vital organ functions, the CDC says.

About 80% of people recover from the disease without needing special treatment, according to the WHO.  For most patients, that means drinking plenty of fluids and resting, just as you would for the cold or flu.

At the first signs of symptoms of the Flu or COVID-19, I'll immediately self-quarantine and add  Elderberry Syrup to my protocol jumping to highest dosage recommended.  This is for symptoms relief only.

In one clinical study, 15ml of Elderberry syrup reduced the symptoms of a cold and the duration of the cold/flu in individuals who were traveling by airplane. Some research suggests elderberry may increase the production of specific cytokines, chemicals that tell the immune system to rev up and fight off an infection. 

Elderberries are also chockfull of antioxidants such as vitamins A and C and various flavonoids – botanical compounds that protect cells from oxidative damage – which may help keep colds and cases of flu under control. No clinical data shows the benefit of taking elderberry syrup every day.

Note that none of the protocols above have been listed as "cures" and I make no medical claims, but only that they may be helpful in building immunity (wouldn't you like to be one of those that don't get infected?), or easing your experience if you unfortunately do. So don't worry about claims of fraudulent cures here. I make no such claims.

Good luck to you and your loved ones. Be smart, be safe, be careful, be kind, and be ready for this to be a life-changing event. We're all going to be playing a lot of catch up when this is over. Let's get through this as the warriors of the heart we are meant to be.

Big Love,

Gary

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Gary Stamper holds a Masters Degree in Shamanic Intuitional Practices and a Doctorate in Shamanic Psychospiritual Studies, and is an ordained Shamanic Priest. Gary is also a Certified Level II Reiki Practitioner, a Pastoral Counselor and a Certified Shamanic Breathwork™ Facilitator. He also has a certificate in "Generating Transformative Change in Human Systems" and is an acknowledged leader in creating altered states of consciousness. 

 

He is the author of "Awakening The New Masculine: The Path of the Integral Warrior," a book about men's work and conscious evolutionary spirituality. Gary currently lives in Napa, CA. where he is the President of the Napa Holistic Chamber of Commerce is the founder of Old Dog New Tricks, an integrally-informed Life Coach practice that supports men in being compassionate badasses after they retire.

 

Gary believes that living a life of purpose is what makes our lives meaningful and that one of humanity's purposes should be to wake up in the spiritual realm and grow up in the manifest realm.

The Boy Who Would Be King... is.

by Gary Stamper, Feb. 1, 2020

I awoke this morning, my brain still in a fog, and in the middle of my morning coffee I realized:

"I'm living in a monarchy."

Well, whaddya know?... Donald Trump could shoot someone on the streets of New York and get away with it.

Make no mistake, even though Donald Trump has been brazenly acting like a monarch long before he became president, he was crowned last night even before it's become official.

Even as many of the cowardly group of men and women voted not to convict sheepishly agreed he did it, they still voted not to convict the dangerous charlatan and a huge segment of us thinks that's good...

I'm deeply saddened that these men and women decided to violate their oaths of office and dismantle the constitution and yet I understand why, and it's not pretty.  I understand why friends and family members who I love dearly and will continue to do so even though they supported this fraud of a man who measures his success by his ability to dominate others in his "winner takes all" mentality.

I understand why fundamentalist evangelicals "sold their souls" for this false god. I understand that any hope of possibly stopping our self-inflicted "omnicide" from climate change has been dashed.

...and I'm saddened to know how they're gonna feel when Trump's pathologies are turned on them as it will.

I shudder to see what despicable act the newly crowned monarch who is blind to his own deathwish will foist upon us.

The country born overthrowing a monarch just changed its mind and he can do whatever he wants. There is no balance of power, no one to stop him... except the people, many of whom know they just got fucked.

Time to go to work because it's the right thing to do... breathe...