Peloni: Nelson provides a deep dive into the background and glaring challenges which Gabbard’s nomination faces. This will be quite revealing to those who are not familiar with Gabbard’s background and positions.
By Kelleigh Nelson
There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide. “Foreign Policy Drains U.S. of Main Weapon,” The Los Angeles times, Sept. 9, 1962, G2
In communist terminology “world peace” simply means an absence of resistance to world Marxist-Leninist domination. What would the CPUSA do if the United States got into a full-scale military confrontation with China? Trevor Loudon
To be a socialist is to submit the I to the thou; socialism is sacrificing the individual to the whole. Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propagandist
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. Marcus Tullius Cicero
Is there a difference between socialism and communism? Not really. Karl Marx, who remains the most prominent writer on the subject, used either term interchangeably, following the same convention as many other authors.
Former Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), nominated for Director of National Intelligence (DNI), has a history with this country’s most influential Marxist group, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). She began moving to the left long ago and in 2017 and was a paid-up member of the openly socialist Bernie Sanders Congressional Progressive Caucus. Here is their list of members.
The Progressive Caucus is now almost 100 members strong or 40% of the Democrat caucus. They promote the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, higher taxes, greater union power, illegal immigration amnesty and all of the DSA/CPUSA goals.
The DSA and Communist Party USA (CPUSA) have collaborated for decades and share some cross-membership. Their policy positions are almost identical. The socialist moniker DSA sounds more innocuous, and makes it easier to infiltrate churches, the Democrat Party and other organizations.
In 2015, the DSA boasted around 6,000 members nationwide, but after Trump’s 2016 campaign and the leftist backlash against him, the DSA has grown to 56,000 comrades.
Here is the list of congressional socialists, going all the way back to 1843 with the son of Robert Owens, Democrat Representative Robert Dale Owens from Indiana. Robert Owens Sr. emigrated to America in 1824 and put most of his fortune in an experimental socialistic community at New Harmony, Indiana, as a preliminary for his utopian society.
In 2016, Tulsi Gabbard endorsed Bernie Sanders for president. She addressed “The People’s Summit” in Chicago and communicated several socialist talking points. Over 3,000 people attended including senior figures from the CPUSA.
Sanders spent four years at the University of Chicago where he joined the Young Peoples Socialist League, the youth wing of the Socialist Party USA. He also worked for the communist led United Packinghouse Workers Union. As a Vietnam protestor, he became active in the Liberty Union’s program which included nationalizing all US banks, public ownership of all utilities, ending compulsory education and establishing a worker-controlled government. In 1980 Sanders endorsed communist Andrew Pulley for president of Liberty Union. Pulley was a member of the pro-Cuba Socialist Workers Party.
Sanders married his wife Jane in the Soviet Union and had a Soviet flag hanging in his mayoral office in Burlington, Vermont.
Tulsi also became a Fellow of the Sanders Institute with DSA Members Cornel West and Michael Lighty.
Gabbard introduced the Off-Fossil Fuels for a Better Future Act (H.R. 3671) with co-sponsors, comrades Barbara Lee, Jamie Raskin, Ted Lieu, Keith Ellison and others. Our Revolution endorsed the move. Our Revolution is run by former campaign workers and supporters of former socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. The goal is to support socialist candidates for office at all levels.
In December of 2018, Gabbard endorsed the DSA backed Green New Deal. She willingly spread anti-capitalist, climate change, and peace propaganda for her DSA comrades.
She has heralded continued support of the Two-State Solution, and refused to support the censure of anti-Semite Ilhan Omar. Tulsi supported policies that weakened Israel and Saudi Arabia while strengthening our enemies.
Gabbard also supports FISA-702 and warrantless searches in order to get confirmed as Director of National Intelligence. It is abusive and unconstitutional. The Deep State will most likely easily confirm Kash Patel as FBI Director. Patel is a big believer in the value of FISA-702, as is Speaker Mike Johnson, never mind 4th Amendment privacy protections for American citizens. Congress exempted themselves and their staff, but not the American people. FISA-702 is the door to the AI surveillance system with Peter Thiel’s Palantir providing the AI facial recognition software.
Both left and right have backed Gabbard’s policies of foreign non-intervention including her support and defense of Russian allied leader Bashar al-Assad, intervention of the Russian backed Venezuelan president Maduro, and her calls for engagement with the Russian backed North Korea. She has worked to defend these countries from US pressure.
Her fellow comrades are many. Dennis Kucinich and Gabbard sojourned to Syria. The trip was funded and financed by the Arab American Community Center for Economic and Social Services in Ohio. Kucinich has been involved with the pro-Moscow CPUSA for nearly 50 years. As Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, he was closely allied with the Stalinists of the CPUSA who had significant influence in Cleveland. Kucinich even endorsed Ohio Communist Party chairman, Rick Nagin in 2009 when he ran and won a seat on the Cleveland City Council. Nagin endorsed Gabbard for President in 2019.
Gabbard’s ties to the DSA are significant.
She has worked to ease US pressure on the world’s largest sponsor of terror, The Islamic Republic of Iran. Hoping to break the sanctions on Iran, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Gabbard and 13 other leftist lawmakers, sent a letter to the State Department regarding the dire human impact of the US sanctions on Iran.
In a 2019 CBSN interview, Tulsi criticized Trump’s tough stance on Iran and stated that as president she would re-instate the “Iran Deal” and ease the sanctions.
Along with 18 leftist members of congress, Tulsi urged the Trump administration to achieve a final peace settlement with North Korea. Several far-left organizations endorsed the roadmap for same. Senator Bernie Sanders expressed peace talks with North Korea and the United States. Gabbard was backed in this effort by Christine Ahn, one of the closest collaborators with Pak Chol who is part of the North Korean intelligence apparatus. Ahn is one of Tulsi’s biggest fans.
Tulsi is always in sync with socialists. And like Senator Bernie Sanders, she is continually promoting peace, but the kind of peace that ensures an absence of resistance to world Marxist-Leninist domination.
Radicals such as Gabbard, Bernie Sanders and the DSA continually argue for softer lines on China, North Korea, Russia and Iran.
Gabbard’s Deep Ties to a Hawaii Sect
Gabbard’s childhood in Hawaii included surfing, martial arts and yoga. She was mostly home schooled and learned spiritual principles, such as karma, from the ancient Indian text Bhagavad Gita. As a teenager, she settled into the Hindu faith.
When it comes to religious choice, Gabbard has openly described herself as a Hindu since her 2012 campaign. At her swearing-in ceremony in January 2013, she took the oath of office on the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture, and became the first Hindu in Congress.
The Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), founded by Chris Butler, aka Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa, in the 1970s is a new religious movement that professes to combine some teachings of yoga with aspects of Gaudiya Vaishnava theology. It is a Vaishnava Hindu religious movement inspired by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534) in India.
It is considered a cult. Tulsi Gabbard and her family have deep and intense ties to the SIF. Butler’s teachings stressed environmentalism, vegetarianism, and opposition to homosexuality and “illicit” sex. Gabbard’s husband, Hawaii cinematographer Abraham Williams, is also a member of SIF.
Chris Butler runs the Hawaii religious sect of the SIF, an offshoot of Hare Krishna. The latter is considered a Hindu religious movement that involves chanting the Hare Krishna mantra and following a lifestyle of devotion, compassion, and simplicity. It originated in the 16th century in Bengal, India.
In the past, Tulsi’s parents sat on the board of Chris Butler’s foundation. Butler has produced television specials featuring him surrounded by students. One of which included Tulsi’s father, Mike Gabbard.
Ex-members of the SIF describe it as a cult; and have maintained that Butler’s status has been characterized as “akin to a god” and not willing to be questioned. They’ve said he has mocked them publicly. Butler denies all the allegations and has threatened to sue when a Honolulu newspaper planned to publish personal accounts of former members.
Former members who don’t speak so fondly of the Foundation and others close to Gabbard have said the group’s influence could be affecting her political motives. People have said the Foundation forbids people to speak publicly about the group, requires people to lie face down when Butler enters a room and even sometimes eat his nail clippings or “spoonfuls” of the sand he walked on, The New Yorker reported.
In a November 22, 2024 Newsweek article, former member Robin Marshall exposes the SIF cult she left 20 years previous. “Tulsi was being groomed for a political position because Chris Butler had political aspirations,” Marshall said. “He wanted the influence. It was very unusual because women in Science of Identity aren’t really encouraged to do anything.”
The Science of Identity Foundation has had political ambitions for almost 50 years, when its members created the political party Independents for Godly Government. Members ran for local offices, and in 1977 the Honolulu Advertiser published a series about them called “The Secret Spiritual Base of a New Political Force.”
Sinavaiana 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.
Gabbard’s long involvement with the Science of Identity Foundation raises questions about the judgment and autonomy needed to advise the president on national security.
Conclusion
As nominee for Director of National Intelligence, Gabbard would coordinate the work of the alphabet soup of 18 spy agencies in the country’s intelligence community, including the CIA and FBI. She would have the ability to edit every piece of intelligence that would be transmitted to the president. Her activism is anathema to President Trump’s policies on so many levels that it is impossible to understand why this infiltrator should be anywhere near this administration.
Loyalty be damned!
Gabbard’s claims of becoming a Republican and shedding the Democrat Party policies are duplicitous. She is a Socialist/Communist MAGA infiltrator who should be kept far from national intelligence.
She is the very embodiment of a Trojan Horse.
I would urge every senator to examine Tulsi’s ties to the Democratic Socialists of America and her decades long affiliation with cult leader, Chris Butler, who is seeking political power through Gabbard.
Strange stuff indeed. I hope that they will ask her about this at her hearing. The puzzling thing about this, however, is that it is the Democrats who seem to be holding up her confirmation. With a background like this, you would think that they would be making it easy for her. Worse case scenario, she is a Socialist and a Cultist, but I would still not judge her to be a traitor, as Biden and his entire administration were.
She had an EPIPHANY and quit the LEFT!
But she knows the enemy from inside out and outside in!
A unique asset!
If confirmed, Gabbard will have control of upgrading or downgrading the intelligence briefs which are handed to the president, and on which all policy decisions are gauged. So let us look at a few things related to this fact.
To Leon’s point about Gabbard’s extensive service record, this is not in dispute, but neither is it qualifying for the role which she is about to undertake. In fact I would argue that her judgement, as applied to raw intelligence should be a more important descriptor of her ability to adequately fulfill the role of the DIA, so let us consider what might speak both for and against her ability to review and assess intelligence, which was again, unrelated to her role in either the National Guard or being deployed overseas as she was.
While serving in the US Congress, Gabbard condemned Trump’s actions in withdrawing from the JCPOA and killing Soleimani. While this was not a unique position taken by Gabbard, this position was taken while Gabbard was on the Committee on Armed Services and Foreign Affairs, and was on the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa while on the Committee of Foreign Affairs. This meant that her opinion at the time of chastising Trump’s withdrawal of the JCPOA should have been among the most informed in the country…so why was her well informed opinion so badly flawed? And how does that failure in judgement, having had access to such highly qualified intelligence lead us to believe that her judgement today would be better than when she was advising Trump to not challenge Iran, not to have killed Soleimani and to let Iran continue advancing their nuclear program under Obama’s blanket protection, which was all the JCPOA actually was – something which was well recognized by so many people, but not Gabbard. These were the opinions of one of America’s most informed politicians who seemed incapable of accurately assessing either what Trump should do.
Additionally, Gabbard failed to accurately assess what Iran would do in response to Trump’s actions, as she announced at the time that Trump had take the US to war with Iran. In this latter assessment, flawed as the others, she also indicated that this was an altogether poor outcome.
And let us not forget her long standing support and admiration for the TSS, which is nothing more than a deathknell for Israel.
This is the true context and content of Gabbard’s ability to assess and interpret intelligence. She will of course have an entire staff which will be assessing the intelligence coming in, but so will anyone who might hold the sensitive position she is about to possibly hold, and as the chief executive in the Dept of the DIA, she will have the ability to influence her staff as suits her worldview, which to be honest is both worrisome and inconsistent.
Also, Gabbard need not have a malicious intent, as an ernest supporter on behalf of the topics she has previously advocated in the past, I would challenge that she has been on the wrong side of too many topics when she should have been informed well enough to know better.
And of course, she has held opposing positions on many of these topics as well. Indeed, I do believe that Gabbard seems to have a continuously changing opinion on so many topics, the latest being the use of 702s to support the Intel Community spying on the American public, which she just changed literally a week ago, after being nominated by Trump two months ago when she held the completely opposite view.
What is needed in this role is someone of sound character, unflinching in their ideology, and stable in their support for the views on which Trump was elected. I would argue that Gabbard fails all of these tests.
As Jerry Honigman stated below, I would argue that:
Email received from Janet Levy:
Email received:
Email received from Gerald A. Honigman :
Hi Leon!
I understand your feelings and I am the same way. I want every appointee to be a MAGA supporter 100%. It is necessary to even right a portion of what has been done over these many decades.
People on our side don’t know the truth of her background, but they do know of her service. That has been widely disseminated. Conservatives fawn all over someone who used to be a Democrat and becomes a “Republican”. And when such a person is pretty and speaks well, she gets nominated to top positions.
That said, people do sometimes change who they are. I don’t know whether Gabbard is the same person she always was; or whether she converted, but she still belongs to a dangerous cult and she hasn’t changed her mind on many of her positions. But the wiser course of action is to watch her carefully (for years) before appointing her to high office. I wish I knew how to get this paper to so many who believe all is well. Too many are supporting Gabbard – they think she’s “smart”.
How dangerous for our country will it be if she does keep important intel info from the president? And if she does, when will he find out what has been happening?
Can we take a chance of that at this point? I don’t believe we can.
As well, if she is a Trojan Horse, what does that make us?
Of course, with the rightwing media, the easiest thing in the world is to tell people what they want to hear.
Since I was a little girl, my mom told me to always dig deeper for the truth. I can’t do anything else. That’s why I wrote this article.
In today’s America we must be vigilant and extremely careful.
That was quite the hit piece. I appreciated the insights into her background, including the ones I already knew about. I would have liked the author to also write about the good things that she has done. In order to make us come to the right conclusions, it’s very important to state all of the facts whether they support your point or not. Why did the author omit her service in the US armed forces for example? Or her adamant, overt, public criticism of her former Democrat party? I for one loved her policy of not giving billions of dollars of military aid to Ukraine with no end in sight and potentially setting off a nuclear WWIII with Russia. I am not yet convinced of her malice. I would think that there should be better, safer choices for DNI as this is such an important position but I’m not overly concerned because we’ve seen Trump in action before. If she doesn’t perform properly, he’ll simply fire her ass.
This is a helpful article. I was unaware of Tulsi Gabbard’s involvement in a semi secret religious cult. I was vaguely aware of her being involved with Bernie Sanders but did not realize how involved she has been over the course of her life in “democratic socialism” aka Communism. Thank you for bringing light to this nominee.
If this article is accurate she is a danger to the Trump Administration.
It is difficult to understand how people like Tulsi ended up being included in the Trump Administration. After all Trump has been preparing for this Presidency for 4 years, so he had plenty of time to vet people.
The important thing to recognize is that Communists take a vow that they will work to undermine the USA in any ways they can. Has Tulsi taken that vow?
While we are on the subject, the group known as the Thoogees (from which we got the word “thug”) was also a passionately – and extremely violent – Hindu group. Such things happen. The members of this group were eventually hanged by the British for a variety of nasty offences.
It seems that Sri Chaitanya – a revered saint in India – has been used as a cover for a vile political group. The Israelis ought to be aware of this as they cement their relationship with India.