gagablog 107: The Lama, The Gaga, and The Bern: Completing Spirituality

I’ve been promising a magic spell or guide to get Gaga to truly follow her heart and endorse Bernie Sanders. Here it is. This is not just for Gaga, of course, but for all who have been misled into supporting Hillary or are scared of Bernie. There is hope for all of us. This gagablog has been following my spiritual journey with Gaga as my Goddess for years. She has helped me, and millions of little monsters, saved our lives too many times to count, and now it is time to return the favor. I’ve been focused on getting Gaga’s endorsement for Bernie for months and started talking more specifically about it in the last few editions. And while I began this just a few days ago I was just leading up to “what to do about it” when Gaga met with the Dalai Lama. Last Tuesday, I believe, the 28th, is when they met, or when it became the Top Trend on facebook. Gaga was also the Top Trend yesterday when the news was that China had banned her in response to her meeting with him. I have not been on facebook today but I would guess she is trending high again, or at the top, because they announced she and Lenny Kravitz would be performing at the DNC in Philly this year.

These are some of the media events, lately, and I will explain how they fit into my plan to get Gaga, and everyone, to support Bernie. As soon as I heard she met with the Dalai Lama I shared the story with the claim that he better convince her to switch to Bernie or he is no true spiritual leader and we need to primary him. I don’t know if anyone got the “joke” about the primary, but I kind of meant it, too. I bet people would say it is unreasonable to expect Gaga to be involved enough in politics to make an informed decision. They might say the same thing about the Dalai Lama. I personally believe the Lama has been outspoken and involved enough in world politics that he Knows how important it is to elect Bernie. He is a pacifist, surely, but he even gets into specifics, including agreeing with Vladimir Putin that the US created the ISIS terrorists. (http://isis.trendolizer.com/2016/05/dalai-lama-putin-is-right-us-created-isis-world-truthtv.html)

If he believes this, and criticizes Obama’s administration and their foreign policies in the Middle East, how could he possibly support Hillary who was so instrumental in those policies? And of course he could not support Trump, that’s a no-brainer. And he could not be so involved in politics and be unaware of Bernie. For all I know he does endorse Bernie, but I was expecting him to do so in his conversation with Gaga. I know it is “too much to ask” but I certainly believe it was possible. The “ironic” or magical thing about the interview was that it was just like the Leonardo DiCaprio Oscar acceptance speech about saving the environment: everything they said Meant “Bernie” but they never said Bernie. I took notes and just for an overview it was about increasing the sense of inner value that comes from connectedness and helping others to combat a culture of individualism that leads to isolation, strife, depression, suicide, and sickness in individuals and society. The Lama pointed the finger at the culture that needs to change so people can be healthy. These are the exact things Bernie stands for, “Not me, Us” and everything about democratic socialist ideals, and changing the culture to make all the changes we need possible. He specified the educational system that does not teach inner value. I just smoked one and returned from that and realized the basic American principle of “what college you can afford to attend determines your value in society” is undone by Bernie’s free college for everyone. He said life will not be free of problems but our mental attitude is key to addressing them, then talked about being able to keep calm by reaching a deeper level, where we sense our interconnection with others, and that the Future can change and is up to the kids. All of these things mean Bernie: we have to solve problems with the greatest hope for the future, not make decisions based on fear. Trump motivates people with fear of others, terror, the government, etc, and Hillary motivates people with fear of Trump. Neither of them are offering anything positive, but Bernie is. And that is why he is the one who has the most appeal to the youth today, even though he is a little older than the other candidates and has much more of an Old Man image. Bernie sounds more hopeful, confident, and involved than the Lama does, though the Dalai Lama is a little older he was talking like his time was near over and it was up to us while Bernie is leading us and with us all the way.

It’s not “just coincidence” everything they were talking about were the factors of why Bernie needs to be President and I wrote the last edition about why Gaga had been misled on the same day. It's the media magic I’m talking about. I didn’t know they were going to meet. I was finally writing something I’ve been increasingly focused on. So when I saw they met, I was hopeful, I said “This is the chance for her to learn, Bern, and turn to the Light side again.” I really did hope that the Lama would tell her to switch to Bernie. This is supposed to be about how to get her, and everyone, to change their mind about Hillary and support Bernie. It’s important because the consequences are dire. I do expect the Lama to be aware of all of this and on the right side of history, on Bernie’s side. And I fully expect that of Gaga, too. I think analyzing what is holding them back can provide a blueprint for saving them, and others, from a fate of supporting evil or fatal neutrality. The two types of meditation the Lama described, focused and analytical, are what I am employing for this magic. The focus is making Bernie president and all that this will mean: World Peace, Justice, Equal Rights, ending poverty and disease and saving the planet.The analytical part is this, focusing on what is holding us back, individually, collectively, and spiritually.

When I posted about this in the Bernie Sanders Activists facebook group, one response I got was “It makes sense for the Dalai Lama to remain neutral.” I don’t know if he even is neutral, so I don’t want to sound like I am condemning him if he is not, but I am disappointed that he is not more vocal about it if he supports Bernie. I know there is a media blackout about most Bernie-related things but celebrities and others manage to pierce that so I want to know about it if he is a supporter. But I am a pacifist and one reason I respect him is as an advocate for peace. I saw another article that he was recently criticized for advocating diplomacy with ISIS. I feel that my greatest fear associated with the nightmare of Hillary in the White House is that she would start World War 3 basically to look tough and truly for the same reasons she does everything, to make money for the evil Status Quo. I’m not as scared of Trump because he is not as experienced or connected in that way, but then again he could very easily start World War 3, too. And like the meme says, the choice is yours, Civil War (Trump) or World War 3 (Clinton). And whenever I share that one I then add “OR” and a Bernie World Peace one. This is the choice we are making, and  Bernie will avoid World War 3 and lead us into a future where war does not exist. The Lama surely knows enough to know this if he criticizes the Obama administration for creating ISIS. And it doesn’t make sense for anyone who can possibly know this, or any of the other many horrible things about Clinton to remain neutral. And she’s in a lot of bad things, from escalating instead of resolving problems in the Middle East to opposing wage increases to rigging the primaries to KKK support to completely representing evil corporate interests to killing people who are about to testify against them, just to name a few off the top of my head. Oh,and supporting fracking here and around the world. And not legalizing marijuana, and supporting the prison industry, blaming “superpredators” and other racist statements. And taking money from foreign dictators and corrupt businessmen and people indicted by the #panamapapers. The Dalai Lama should know all of this and speak up. World War 3 is not a chance any of us can take, so if you see that much of what is going on you can’t stay neutral and risk that. I assume the person meant it makes sense for him to remain neutral so he has a better chance of working with whoever the next president is, but by that logic you shouldn’t criticize Trump, either. This is a question of principles but more importantly if we all die in war there won’t be any Free Tibet movement or countries to negotiate. If you see it this way, you must choose Bernie. Maybe the Dalai Lama does not see it that way, or maybe he is just another politician “playing his cards right” instead of doing the right thing.

Gaga is not a politician even as much as the Lama certainly is, in his way, as a symbol of Tibet and the conflict within China. But she has had plenty of political involvement especially in the Gay Rights movement and anti-bullying, making speeches and meeting with the president, creating the Born This Way Foundation, raising money for causes/ disaster relief, and motivating all of us little monsters to create change in our multifaceted ways. It is because of her close association with Gay Rights that we expected her to support Bernie from the beginning since he has supported the cause from the beginning. As mayor of Burlington VT he made Gay Pride Day official in 1985 and has always stood up for gay rights his entire career. Thus the meme “what If I told you…. The exact same thing I’ve been saying for 40 years.” Hillary has only recently “evolved” and accepted gay marriage, which is why I say we need the Pre-Evolved, Mega-Evolved Bernie, not an opportunistic politician with no real belief. Gaga should know this, she should have enough people around her and enough little monsters all over the world who care enough about these issues to tell her. And this is not the only issues we associate with Gaga because she claims to stand for them. She has expressed environmentalism, pacifism, and support for legalizing weed. Bernie truly represents these causes and will achieve them while Hillary works for the industries causing these problems. She really should support Bernie. She will support Bernie. Now all that remains is how it will happen.

I don’t feel like I have to predict how it will transpire, but I do feel like I am in a magical state and moment. Just as I finally got into it last edition and was rewarded with Gaga being the Top Trend for meeting with the Lama and a Chance, as I saw it, for her to be swayed, after I watched it I knew his words could have a deeper effect and cause her to realize and Feel the Bern in her heart, but of course how that would happen depends on what is holding her back. I want to free us all from that thing and I want to focus on freeing Gaga from it because I love her for her art and magic helping set me free from difficulty and worry all these years. So I want to analyze what could possibly be holding her back and predict a breakthrough. If it doesn’t happen just as I say I won’t be disappointed, as long as it happens, and long and Bernie wins. I feel, personally, like Gaga coming around to Bernie before it becomes The Future is somehow key, at least for her retaining her current connection to the culture. It might not be THE key to turning things around and making him the nominee, but then again it could help a Lot and actually could be.

And maybe that was the plan all along. I want to give Gaga the most credit possible, first, which is why I was totally shocked by her endorsing Hillary but quickly thought “maybe it’s all part of a plan.” The only other mistake I felt Gaga made was wearing fur - she asked for us not to criticize her for it, which I took to mean she had some deeper reason. It could be friendships in the fashion industry, an issue she did not want to address, but giving her the most credit possible, even if it is too much, I like to believe she was “playing along” to reach a prominent position in the fashion industry from which she could have a better chance of ending fur altogether. It is the same basic idea, here. I respected her desire to not talk about fur, also feeling like I would like to be vegetarian myself for many reasons and would like that for Gaga, too, but feel hypocritical if I do not first hold myself to higher standards and stop eating meat. The idea that she is supporting Hillary is okay as long as it is part of a plan and another major part of that plan is myself and other little monsters doing all we can to convince her to switch to Bernie, because the activity and discussion will build support for him through social media. But she can’t ask us not to criticize her endorsement of Hillary, even if she thinks she believes it, because the outcome will affect all of us. It is our duty to try to get her to feel the Bern, even if she already secretly does, in order to convince others. And when she does switch to Bernie it will have an even greater effect to bring others over as the right thing to do.

This is where I feel like the timing of recent events in the media are so key as to be obvious magical signs. You can also see it as orchestrated by the media, but if Gaga has a “trump card” to play and is manipulating the media I will be gratified, not surprised. She met the Dalai Lama on the 27th, I believe, and was the Top Trend ever since. Yesterday, or this morning, they announced that she and Lenny Kravitz would be performing at the DNC. Of course that set my mind racing, with excitement for the show but more for the whole event since Berners are going to show up in Yuge masses to protest, and the mecca of little monsters will add some interesting magic and spice. But also of course my conspiracy hat told me that this was how they got Gaga’s endorsement of Hillary, a quid pro quo. It would be beneath her and a betrayal to all of the little monsters and Love itself, a betrayal to the world, if she goes through with it. But now that they have announced it, she can switch to Bernie. If they cancel her, it will look bad and get the little monsters and their media power more actively against them. If they let her play even after she endorses Bernie then it will help swing all the momentum in his favor even more, but whether she plays or not it will do that, because all the Media is already involved, in motion. She will make news either way, but of course my most hopeful plan is that she endorses him fairly soon, plays the show as the magical culmination of the Berning of the Tide and him winning the nomination.

Of course I know most people probably think I am giving Gaga too much credit. As I’ve been writing for years, for her inspiration, art, and liberation of peoples’ creativity and sexuality she is the Goddess of Love, or Ozma, I have been envisioning since I was a kid in the 80’s. As such, if this is true, she would have to support Bernie. As a Spirit of Feminism she will have to support Bernie. But of course most people won’t see her that way or expect that, although I believe many other little monsters do. I’ve heard the same arguments from people about why they assume she could never support Bernie. I used to hear it  a lot in magical groups when people would object to Gaga as a goddess figure that she is a tool of the Illuminati and someone brought that up again in #WitchesforBernie, too. Then there are the insults about her character, or intelligence, that show the people really react with jealousy or animosity to Gaga or something they associate with her without really getting her at all. But another criticism was that she was only focused on her as a woman and that trumped every other concern, having a woman president. I truly don’t think Gaga is that shallow, uninformed, or gender-specific. I do think she knows more about Clinton than the fact that she is female. And I don’t think you have to know too much to realize you can’t support her. I saw Bell Hooks in a video explaining how she could not support her anymore in about one minute and Susan Sarandon’s “Why I broke up with Hillary” appearance on Stephen Colbert is pretty direct, too. And if it is not a plan, a way Gaga is using the media in a trick to get even more support for Bernie, then I can only conclude that she does not know enough about Hillary, Bernie, and what is happening in the primaries and at stake for the future. In one way I want to say “maybe that is because she is in love with Taylor and living it up, maybe why we’re waiting for her next album longer than we hoped” but I have to say something about that. From seeing him act on Vampire Diaries I wondered if Taylor was a good match for Gaga but gave them the benefit of the doubt and put aside the fantasy that it could be me, that we were complimentary artistic spirits. Now I have to question everyone in Gaga’s sphere, everyone she is around, because I would expect artistic folks to feel the Bern and for one of them to feel it strongly enough for Gaga to catch it, too. I truly believe anyone with a good heart, especially with luxurious lifestyle and free time, a sense of conscience and no barriers to doing right would learn enough to feel the Bern in a short time of researching. So if Gaga is truly uninformed about Bernie, it does make me suspicious of her team, friends, everyone close to her, including Taylor, and conclude that while they might still all be good people she just deserves better, still. If she is uninformed there are still a few weeks to become enlightened. I don’t believe she is so focused on gender that she can’t see anything else. She is Jo Calderone and made “G.U.Y.” after all, and never expressed negativity about the suggestions that she was transgender or hermaphrodite. Some people might be like that but I think more often others assume that someone could be that way when in fact they just don’t have enough information. Because the truth is that Bernie is the Feminist candidate, not Hillary.

Maybe I shouldn’t give Gaga so much credit as to say she is planning all of this out to use the media to Bernie’s advantage, to sway more people to him just in time for the convention and tip the balance so he wins. If she does, it would make sense that she would not announce it until after they announced that she would perform at the DNC. Also, it would make sense, even if they didn’t talk about it, for her to say that her conversation with the Dalai Lama made her look more deeply, follow her heart and support Bernie. In fact, that could be “what happens”, with no prior plan in place. Or maybe little monsters, or a meme or artwork or statement by someone, or even myself or something here, magically, will be the ones to change her mind. The reason I write this as if it is all part of a Divine plan, and as a Goddess she is aware of this and doing it intentionally, is that this is my style. I would like her to prove me prophetic in this regard. But I also allow that she can make mistakes, as a Goddess and as a human. One reason I focus on the many things I see as divine about her is that I do see her as a true guide toward Perfection - the world of art, love, and magic - but of course endorsing Bernie is that path and anything else would be a mistake. Of course, just as the Dalai Lama said, what is divine in her is the same thing in all of us, connecting us all. I like how she brings it out and feel it has become a spiritual path for me to become the artist I truly am. So when I talk about her having a plan, or not having a plan, I don’t have to be talking about “Her,” specifically. It applies to all of us. Even those of us who support and believe in Bernie give in to despair sometimes. And those of us who have not felt the Bern yet are in even more despair. It is because they can’t be hopeful enough yet that they can’t Feel the Bern, because it is in all of us.It IS Love.

Whatever you call the Goddess, or whatever you call “It”, we all have Love inside us, connecting us. It comes out and transforms us and transforms the world. Gaga has all the love and ties with little monsters and the world through these same ideals that are The Bern -  it’s the same yearning for justice, peace, and harmony with nature and each other.  But in another video I saw recently she mentions that she still suffers from depression. The Dalai Lama gave her the prescription for that, to connect with others by helping them, to see beyond yourself and stay calm and positive, to create the best imaginable future. All of this means Bernie, he stands for all of these things and the movement, the Bern, manifests and shows these principles working in actions. If she IS only thinking about her career, playing for the presumptive “winner”, then she is guilty of this mistake me mentioned, focusing on individualistic concerns instead of the whole. The answer is to look within, to what she truly believes and connects her with all of us, The Bern, Love. That is the key to happiness, to truly seek it for others as much as yourself. I know Gaga knows and understands this just like I know we all get it, deep down. The solution is to uncover this heart within all of us, to strip away the false, individualistic concerns because none of us is isolated, but feeling so is the source of great misery. If we don’t increase our internal value, which is the divinity or value we all have in common so it means we value others infinitely, too, we turn to false forms of “feeling good about ourselves” that ultimately lead to feeling disconnection, isolation, and suffering.

Other people might have other things, issues, beliefs, experiences, prejudices, or greedy interests that prevent them from Feeling the Bern, that hold them back and isolate them from the Love that truly connects us all. Maybe Gaga doesn’t have a plan, it’s not a big trick to use her powers to manipulate the media. Still, I hope that what is divine inside her, inside all of us, shines through and makes her have a change of heart and feel the Bern. If you believe in Guardian or other angels, call it that. I hope all our angels wake us up to what we need to do. Someone said “the more you learn, the more you Bern” and I believe that. We learn “what’s happening” much better from each other than from the news media, which is working for Hillary. But we also just learn from each other about all kinds of things every day and come more together as we do so.  There are spirits and angels of truth guiding us and they want the truth to come out through us. Sometimes the truth is best expressed, most compelling, when it comes from someone who is transformed by it. Maybe this is why some of the best preachers are or were the worst sinners, or something like that. But we all have this truth, and more truth, about how we can solve our problems and live better together. It’s trying to come out of all of us. Each of us has our own issues, our own considerations, but the Love, the Truth, trying to connect us all is the same. As we come together, sharing our different perspectives and approaches will benefit everyone. All it takes is truly respecting each other through realizing our infinite inner value. Our culture distracts us into devaluing ourselves and each other, into hopelessness. But we can overcome that and change society and craft a culture that teaches all of us to love ourselves and each other fully and unconditionally. Bernie is the way to do this. We all can play a part in making it happen, especially in this campaign. It does take all of us, in our own ways. I focus on Gaga, in this context, because it’s something we will all hear about when she changes her mind. But I want everyone who hasn’t yet felt the Bern to open up their  hearts and be transformed by it, so we can save the world together.

Before I move on to some recent media magic examples, I do want to say a few things to the Dalai Lama. I will primary you, bro. If you are a peacemaker, make peace with China. If you say it is internal value, not individualism, that leads to happiness, why not apply that on a national scale, to Tibet? The people are still the value even if it is not individualistic or independent. Maybe if you could help yourself overcome some ego you could help Tibet overcome the ego of insisting on independence and at the same time help China overcome the ego of authoritarianism. Be Tibet in China and help the rest of the country, don’t try to isolate yourself just as you advise individuals not to isolate themselves to avoid depression. I know there must be problems with China, just as there are problems in the US. But one good solution is to have faith in people, in humanity, and work within the system. That is still my hope, for a few more weeks, that the Democratic Party can be redeemed and saved by nominating Bernie, but if they don’t then it has just outlived it’s usefulness and just like the Republicans will crumble after this year. When I say I will primary you, people totally don’t get the joke and point out that you are not an American political figure. The “joke”, by the way, is that Berners are going to primary every Democrat who does not end up supporting Bernie and get them out of office. But for the Lama, there is a twist. He has announced that he will not reincarnate after this lifetime. I don’t know if that is up to him so I’m just saying I will put my laugh in the ring. I know that China has been authoritarian but I also know they have 5 times our population yet we have more people in prison. I know we are authoritarian, too, but only the even more authoritarian places like Texas consider seceding. I have to mention the way colonial powers drew the map of the middle east to “balance” (or manipulate)  tensions and the way America set up an “Iraq” that some say will become three or more countries are examples of division. Authoritarian governments can oppress the minorities or even the majority, as in Syria, but such arrangements can’t last, they are doomed to fail by their nature.  A counter-example is the Brexit and catastrophe, financially and politically, that followed. Everyone regrets it because it was the wrong thing to do for the wrong reasons. People were motivated by xenophobia and lies and the leaders who led them, that Boris guy, just tried to step aside. They will probably get to revote and correct the mistake but the rich already took a big hit in stocks and I laugh about that. This is the outcome when you don’t educate people and let them be politically exploited by fear. The western world set up Strongman dictators in the Middle East based on the belief that people “can’t get along.” Now we are realizing the mistakes of this belief. We have to rely on people to be able to get along, to share a country and a region and live harmoniously with each other. Yes, some have advantages others don’t have, just as England was the second strongest economy in Europe. What makes an advantage good is the ability to help others with it, not to exploit the difference between you and those less fortunate. England will learn this lesson from the Brexit: their strength lies in being part of something greater. This is true for all of us, because a whole is more than the sum of it’s parts, far more.

When we are whole, as people, when we escape despair into hope, we can be More of ourselves, more connected to others, more whole and more a part of a greater whole. We might have to step back from some of our roles to do this best, like the Dalai Lama might have to see himself more as a human than Tibetan Freedom fighter. Fight for human dignity for everyone, from within China. As a Berner, I don’t want to retreat to some Berner state and secede, and I don’t want Bernie to win to secure more rights for “my” people or just some people. I want it for everyone. I want us to spread the word all over the country, even the least Bernie-friendly areas, because the message is the truth. You can do that within China and ultimately attain much more dignity for the Tibetan and Chinese people by giving up on misguided isolationism. I certainly don’t believe America should be the world’s policeman but I oppose isolationism as a reaction that is based on the idea that force is the only thing anyone can do. There are problems in the world, just as there are problems in individual life. The Dalai Lama’s advice works for both - it’s all about attitude. If we, as a nation, have an attitude of seeking peace and helping others, which we will have with Bernie, we will lead the world in coming together to end the problems of climate change, war, poverty, injustice, and disease. We have to do it and call on everyone to do what they can. We have to expect more from those in positions of influence and hold them to our ideals they claim to share, whether they are Lamas, Gagas, or Superdelegates. And we just need to talk about it and act on our beliefs through art or protest and other expressions to watch it manifest around us.

I just want to mention a few media magic examples that make me feel like I am getting more and more in tune with the world. If I don’t put them here I won’t likely reflect to include them later and like all media magic they relate to everything that is going on. One I forgot from last gagablog was the anniversary of the killing of all those kids at Sandy Hook and some of the parents were on the news. That same day, reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the Abraham Lincoln sailed past Sandy Hook on it’s way out to sea. I wanted to mention it for the coincidence, magic, that made me feel I was reading “the right” book, but just noticed as I typed that the connection with Lincoln also being a victim of gun violence. I mentioned Renaldo to my friend the other day, talking about sexism in the reporting of the Icelandic men’s soccer team making the big tournament. A feminist said she was protesting the celebration because they were making it out like it was the first time an Icelandic team had made it to that level when the Women’s team did so years ago but they didn’t celebrate it. She gave more examples of sexism in their culture by saying that when Reynaldo tweeted something about Iceland an Icelandic actor responded “Reynaldo? Who is she?” as if it was in insult to be a girl. We were talking about sexism and it came up, but I also made the comment that I’m not at all a soccer fan but I know who Reynaldo is from the media and the Simpsons. Later that night the CW showed that episode of the SImpsons where Reynaldo appears. The second episode began with Burns getting an award for being the oldest man in town. The oldest man had died at the podium when Britney Spears kissed him so Burns stole his speech when the award went to him. He starts to read the speech, all about how he loves the whole town and everyone in it, and I’m already reminded  of an old man, Bernie, who Loves us all and the country, and that meme “Bernie is just a kind old man who wants to save America, why not let him?” Then Burns skims through the rest of the speech: “... puppies….patriotism...bluebirds…” Of course the “bluebirds” stuck out to me as another magical symbol of Bernie, the Bernie Bird. But I don’t have to stretch at all to say this is the recipe for The Bern: The Bluebird representing nature, goodness, hope, and even democrats, ideally. Patriotism is for the country, the land, the people, and in honor and to make up for errors in our history, and also especially for democracy - if Bernie doesn’t win democracy may come to an end since people will stop believing it is possible. And Puppies, well, puppies are just good and loving and fun and young, like The Bern. But also Puppies, especially in Autumn, are symbols of the Buddha-nature. It is the Love, compassion, the Bern, in ALL of us. That is what all good things are about and what will bring us together the more we honor it.

For all the examples of strife and conflict between different communities we have plenty of examples of diverse communities living in harmony, too. We just need a culture, and thence government and institutions, that promote this ideal and we can have it. Bernie can do this for us in America and we sorely need it here. We elected our first black president and are making progress but Obama has not been all we hoped he could be or done all we needed. The fact that the #blacklivesmatter movement is so influential yet still so underground and has only been accepted by Bernie’s campaign during the Obama years shows the danger of thinking we’re making progress fast enough. We need to come together to save ourselves, our country, but also to set an example to the rest of the world of how it can really be done. For all our flaws we may still be the best country in the world, potentially, to set that example. We just have to live up to our ideals and believe in them and act on them instead of acting out of fear.

And there have been some bad, terrible things in the news lately, too. There was a terrorist attack in Turkey, at the airport, that killed many people and is a shift in the balance. American and Iraqi forces blew up a couple hundred ISIS vehicles, too. The news I heard today suggested the Erdogan government in Turkey was not focused on destroying ISIS but instead relying on them to destabilize Assad. According to the Dalai Lama and Putin and others, America has been doing the same thing. But the attack in Turkey suggests they could “get in the fight” more. The attackers were from countries around Russia and ISIS has not claimed responsibility but the media is treating it like it is them. I wonder sometimes how much we are involved, allowing or fostering uprisings or dictatorships just to sell weapons and to sell the very idea that war is necessary to the public. ANd of course my greatest fear is that Hillary, a pseudo-liberal war-hawk, with her connections to the Establishment, will start World War 3, thinking she can manage it or win it, when in fact such a war could be the loss of all humanity. Since we have the power to destroy ourselves we really must stop just playing around to satisfy someone’s ego and live up to our responsibility to save humanity and the world from ourselves. An Turkish girl in America was on NPR talking about how authoritarian the government there was becoming, that two years ago people were hopeful about joining the European Union and making progress and now there was little hope. I feel the same could be said of us and our hope for Obama. While some gave up and settled when things did not get as much better as it seemed possible, the rest of us demanded what we’ve been hoping for and see as possible and necessary and Bernie rose to the challenge to champion it. It could be said of our hope in Bernie, now, if we are thwarted. This is our chance, millions are feeling the Bern and getting involved but letting Hillary steal the election will certainly turn them off to Democrats and some to politics altogether. I’m not surprised because the other recent news is how the Democratic platform refused to adopt any of the  actual progressive agenda including the $15/hr minimum wage. It’s not just Hillary herself, all establishment Democrats, non-Berners, are Republikkkans in disguise. And many good people are realizing, partly thanks to the evil of Trump, that they are not really Republikkkans and many of them have already discovered Bernie and overcome their issues that would keep them  from supporting him. I’ve said many times online that politics is like a magical ethics class we are all in together. Yes, there are bad things we have to deal with. But with the right attitude we can view them as challenges and ways to forge new creative solutions to benefit everyone.

There were two more stories I heard today that I wanted to mention. One is the American military officially allows transgender people to enlist, as of today, though they don’t expect to start doing it until next year. I’m a pacifist but I appreciate how some changes in society can be shown to “work” in the military, first, to help people appreciate, understand, and accept them. I may have mentioned it last edition but I will say again that it was good news that Obama designated Stonewall as a national monument, the first monument for the Gay Rights movement. But it seemed like a token or attempt to buy support from the gay community after selling out to Hillary when Bernie is the actual pro-gay, and feminist, candidate. And it was the timing, so I hope it backfired on him, that people were celebrating the monument and movement but including in their expressions that the best way to honor them and reach equality and justice would be to elect Bernie. I believe Obama must know and believe this, too, and just be wrapped up in the System, controlling him. Or maybe he has the same plan I hope Gaga does, to bring even more people to Bernie in the end. But whether it is a plan or something that we realize I know we all have it in us and it will come out as this country prepares for the long-needed transformation that is coming. There was a local news story about a man who shot his estranged wife and then himself. He had once threatened to fly a plane into the building where she worked and went in there and shot her instead. They had people from the scene, traumatized, on the news broadcast then more details today. I never watch morning news and just happened to be this morning. Of course the questions come up, maybe a gun was better than a plane but why can someone who says that, who had mental issues, have a gun? We do have some laws against people buying guns specifically if they are angry at their spouse and maybe some gun sellers ask a question to try and “enforce” that but it is obviously an example of the Gun problem in america as well as mental health. And like magic, another story came on the local news after that one, that an active shooter was at Andrew’s Air Force Base, where the President’s Air Force One is. There was an idea that it could be confusion since there was a drill scheduled for today and luckily that is what it turned out to be. But for about an hour even the White House press secretary was tweeting that it was a real event, not the drill. I felt bad for the local FOX News folks because they even said “some would criticize us for reporting on this when we just don’t know yet” but to me it was fascinating to see, on TV, how uncoordinated our government is and how it can lead to such mistakes. Mostly, though, my idea was that no one should expect it to be true because there just should not be any way to take a gun there, and that should be the case for many places, why not everywhere? But of course I am totally against guns. I’m glad it turned out to be imaginary but the sad truth is it got coverage because of  where it is but in our society there is an “active shooter” somewhere everyday. That is something we can change as we change our culture. Also I heard China made an $80 billion dollar oil deal with Nigeria, who would use some of the money to update their refineries so they don’t have to import oil, and also that rebels there were demanding more oil money. I wish it was already a green energy world but as it is I suppose this can be good for Nigeria if it is done well and they use the opportunity to help people so they don’t feel rebellious. There are great fears about globalization because of the idea of the strong preying on the weak. But in a new culture, a new paradigm, where strength is understood as the ability to help the disadvantaged become stronger we will all grow in our own unique strengths with mutual support and we will honor helping others the most so that will become what we all strive towards.

The last news story I will mention was a local Colorado Public Radio report about Weed arrests. Now that weed is legal here the arrests are mostly of young people, under 21, who still can’t legally smoke weed. They did say that since legalization arrests of adults have been cut in half but I still see that is an example of a police force that is out-of-touch and corrupted by power. I know that after Denver decriminalized weed in 2005, when I moved here, the cops still gave out tickets for years and when asked said they didn’t want the tickets to go to waste, they were already printed. But the real evil that the story exposed is that arrests of kids for smoking weed is completely racist. The arrests of white kids has gone down in recent years but the arrests of black and latino kids has increased. They said out of 12 cases in the courthouse that day, one was a white kid. This is the same racism inherent in the “Drug War” all over, as someone pointed out in response to the police claim that it is not racist. The police say they are call-driven reports, but of course this relates directly to the issue of having legal weed but excessive restrictions on where we can smoke it. And it also relates to the other issue the cops recognized, but did not see it as a racial issue. They said since they patrol black and latino communities more of course there are more arrests there. But this contradicts the claim that they are only call-based. It implies when cops see kids of color smoking weed in public they arrest them. They don’t have to do that but it’s like they can’t help themselves. One cop excuse was that the weed stores were mostly owned by white people but that is completely ridiculous as a factor. Maybe, since some towns don’t allow weed stores, there are more illicit sales to “bust”. I guess my point is this simply does not need to be a priority or even happening. It’s not helping anyone to give them a record for smoking weed “too early.” There was another story in the news about this bias against weed, just retaining a “Drug War” mentality. Some events with street kids on the 16th Street Mall have prompted a response from the media and police. The police requested that the pot stores in the area stop selling single joints since that is what poor people are likely to smoke. The response from a weed store owner was “Are they going to ask the liquor stores to stop selling shooters?” which is a much more pertinent question since weed chills people out and alcohol makes us violent. When the Broncos won the Superbowl in the 90s there were riots, everyone was drunk. Last year it was totally chill, everyone was stoned. We have biases towards some things, including racism, that are just inappropriate and untrue and we will learn better. Weed is really good and helpful to people and we have the opportunity, finally, to openly show and discover even more benefits.  Liberating weed is one example, like seeking peace, that tests our faith and demands we stay true to our principles. Gaga supports legalizing weed and credits weed for helping inspire her lyrics. I assume she would also want to reform the prison system since it is driving this evil Drug War and many others. Bernie is the one who will legalize weed. He has already put motions before the Senate to do so. Bernie is the one who will reform the prison industry, already calling to end the business of private prisons. We have a 2 trillion dollar prison in Colorado that is empty because they decided solitary confinement was a bad idea  -thankfully  -with a new director. But we pay 10 million dollars a year on taxes for it, just to pay it off. They are also building a 2 Trillion dollar VA hospital here. It reminds me of a joke someone told on a Carson rerun, so in the 80’s, that the government spent 180 billion dollars that year on Defense. He said he would just take his 10 million a year and take his chances. But this is the same math that applies to healthcare and defense and college, etc, today. These programs are so expensive if they just gave us the money, split up 300 million ways, it would make us all rich. But it’s not like the programs are bad or unnecessary  -well, defense  is - it’s just that they are so badly run and include all the slush profits all the way up. We can reform that, make the systems work properly and have PLENTY to go around so we don’t need nearly as much health care and prisons in the first place because we can all take better care of ourselves and others. And the institutions we will have will be focused on health, rehabilitation, not punishment and coercion. And within all the evils of the justice system the racism of America is most apparent. It’s a place to focus, to expect to fix the problems and heal from them, not blame them on a demonized “other” as Hillary did with her “Bring the Superpredators to heel” comment. I’ve turned that into #bringthesuperdelegatestoheel and I know we will. And we won’t forget why it is dangerous to settle or only talk but not walk.

We can’t just claim to  believe things,we have to let those beliefs guide our actions and even guide us to change and transform and become better versions of ourselves. Bernie is the one doing this, politically, and the way we can all help each other do it better, together. Technically it is possible for Hillary to become enlightened and become that kind of person, too, and I hope she does, but I don’t expect it as she is now and certainly don’t expect it to come from her getting even more power. Maybe another defeat will help her understand. If she had focused on becoming a better person after Obama won she might be a good candidate, now, but instead she focused on getting better at stealing elections. It’s just not right and she does not deserve to win after closing so many polling stations, getting Berners kicked off the roles, refusing to seat our delegates, rigging machines and more hands-on vote-stealing like I suspect in Colorado, plus who knows what else. I do completely trust Bernie, and Tulsi, and of course I had that psychic instinct years ago, when I first saw Tulsi, that she would be our first woman president. I believe in Gaga and the Dalai Lama and the American people, the people of the world, too, since there are Berners all over, to get on the bright side of history, the Future, and support Bernie. I’m excited to see it as it all comes true! Let’s hold ourselves and each other up to our highest ideals and make it happen!

gagablog 106: The Goddess is Mistaken - Bernie, NOT Hillary! Modern Collaboratve Shamanism

I promised this edition would be about Gaga being wrong for endorsing Hillary Clinton and what to do to to bern her around to supporting Bernie, us, the Future and - really everything for which she stands. I was of course hoping, spelling, and encouraging others to get her endorsement for Bernie since he is the perfect candidate for our ideals. I won’t go into the details of why Hillary is not, if you are associated with Bernie groups online or other Berners you know, if not you probably don’t since the media doesn’t report it. But of course I expect Gaga to have better sources for info than the media, I know she is busy and doing her own thing but especially with a large team of creative people around her you would expect the Haus of Gaga to be Berning down. As it turns out, magically, more media magic examples in the last two days helped illustrate the points I wanted to make here so I will bring them up as they happened, culminating in an awesome bibliomancy reading session I did for the Denver Pagan Pride (Aug 28th 2016, Civic Center Park!) in 5 sessions for 7 people over 4 hours where a lot of cool magic happened. I put on Artpop to write this, forgot to mention it though Venus reminded me, now G.U.Y is, as “Mars rammed in... face up... I wanna” -  I put the first one on I easily drew off the shelf, the censored version, and decided she is censored as a Hillary supporter, versus what she really is, and I will play the full one when she comes around to supporting Bernie as a magical celebration. Now Sexxx Dreams…. Or  “X Dreams”, when you get it at Wal-Mart - hey,I was there and thought I could get a golden Ticket, okay?

It all started two days ago with a discussion of shamanism while we were toking in the morning and I made the comment that in more natural communities there would be a shaman or group of shamans to serve the group but in the modern world of much larger and complex communities it would make sense that while some people would still be shamans in their own right, other shamanic abilities could be dispersed through different people who will become most effective when they work together in a group. An hour later I went to Finding Dori and was struck by a media magic example of what I was talking about: there is a manatee who fears his echolocation is permanently broken but he needs to discover he can use it to help save the hero - but he must use it in combination with skills of others, as a team. It was exactly what I was talking about - we all have powers to discover, but will be able to, and use them best, when we do so with others who have different powers they will discover and refine in the same process. In the context of Gaga, maybe she doesn’t have the time or inclination to be on the internet Bernie Sanders groups, which is apparently the only place you can get any information about how Hillary has been stealing the primaries and all the “really nasty things” they have been doing, as Gaga just reminded me at the end of X Dreams as I typed that. But you do expect someone associated with her to have that Power - the craving for Justice and Truth, the importance and potential of politics, and the connection to the campaign or the millions of Berners. WIth millions of little monsters who have the same concerns as Berners, from civil rights to environmentalism to seeking peace and international cooperation,and especially the common focus on Gay Rights, which Bernie has supported his entire life while Hillary is “recently-evolved” - I always says Bernie is Pre-evolved, Mega-evolved on these issues others have only come around to now that there is a millennial demand for it. They have always been holding us back from the future but now enough of us know that they can only continue to do so with established power, they no longer have the will of the people.

Which is why it is unfortunate that she has the support of any people, but especially artistic and influential people, and especially Gaga. I look at it as an opportunity - of course I was always trying to associate Gaga with Bernie in my online activities, using the hashtag #bernthisway - look it up! - I do wish, in a way, that I had personally taken more chances to send Gaga the message about Bernie, via more comments on her posts, etc - but there are always so many comments I had gotten out of the habit of hoping to get her attention - looking back I feel silly because the comments could have become popular, noticeable, for the same reason I was counting on, that many little monsters would also be Berners - and I guess I was counting on the ones of us who were closer to her, or more active on her threads, to make the case for Bernie for me,but I just wish I had. Still, I look at the current situation as a chance for more discussion, dialog, and ultimately transformation. If Gaga supports Hillary and then comes to change her mind and support Bernie it could end up having a much greater effect for drawing other of her supporters over to him, for instance. I truly hope it is as calculated as that, for Gaga, and I totally believe that is possible. Just as I want to give Obama credit, despite the fact that he has done so many things that show how entrenched he is in the System instead of willing to reform it, I still want to give him credit for possibly supporting Hillary, now, to be as positive about the “feminist” angle of it as possible, knowing she won’t really be the nominee but getting credit for being on board as long as it lasts, a few weeks. I hope Gaga is just doing this, too, focusing on the positive, that we could, can, elect a woman to be president, and if we don’t happen to elect Hillary and wait for Tulsi to succeed Bernie in 2024, that will be good and hopeful, too. But “might as well” get in on the celebration, because if you pretend she is not terribly flawed it would be a great moment. If it were someone else, Elizabeth Warren or Tulsi, it would be worth Celebrating. Unfortunately, Warren has even come over to Hillary, and did their charade of a sit-in, and is, like Obama, proving herself to be beholden to the Machine, too, in spite of all our best hopes. But I expect all of these people can be redeemed, can come to see the light and feel the Bern. This is how I connect it with the Dori scene - you need someone with echolocation, the extrasensory perception of being able to see the real news in social media, to guide the blind whale shark, Destiny - the Goddess, the President, the one who is “too big” to see the details but has the huge power of influence, their size and love for the Hero, for Truth, once that has a chance to manifest in the Quest.

Now we are all on this quest together. I should not have relied on other monsters to get the message to Gaga, I should have been there commenting and supporting the ones who did. But I did my part outside, always spreading the message and trying to connect with anyone else to spread the word until it reached her. If she does know about Bernie, I can only think that supporting Hillary is part of a plan, as I mentioned earlier. Maybe other berner monsters assumed she would certainly endorse Bernie, too, for all the obvious reasons. But when she didn’t I expect we ramped up the discussion - i certainly will see what is going on in her comments on her page next time I am on facebook and see what the mood is like and Bern it up as much as I feel appropriate.  There is the possibility she just does not know - this makes me question other things about why this could be so, but the important thing is to let her know. “Even though she knows she’s misunderstood” she just sang as I typed the last sentence. Thing happen in the time they happen and they way they happen, ultimately, to prove magic. When it seems “Bernie has lost” it will be so much more magical when he wins (“Listen to her radiate her magic” was the part as I typed THAT sentence) But we have to make it happen. The next media magic example i noticed was about how important this decision is, because we need to start fixing things now.

I mentioned last time how a classic media magic example is when the man in the Seven Year Itch says “like Dorian Gray!” in the mirror, then his publisher calls him in the other room to tell him they will be publishing The Picture of Dorian Gray. When I did my bibliomancy at the fundraiser one introductory example of media magic was when you have a conversation and say “oh, that reminds me of something I saw last night on TV” or talk about something then see it on TV later that day. Well, when I signed into facebook yesterday I saw a post by a beautiful girl I’ve kinda had a crush on since middle school who always posts environmentalist things. In her comment she said it struck her that this story was on her wall after seeing a new story about Venezuelan News Stories. At this point I might as well mention her name is Mary Anne and as I type this the song happens to be “mad magical in Amsterdam” as I type that - Mary Jane Holland. The story she saw was that, due to food shortages in Venezuela, people in cities were putting dirt in cooking pots to grow food. The magical irony of that image, but mostly the desperation it conveys, should wake us up - “...I’m a mess, but it’s alright because I’m as rich as piss” - well, only “alright” if we start using those riches on a global level to fix the mess we made environmentally. That is what electing Bernie is all about. The article she shared, that reminded her of the food shortage, was one in which a scientist predicts Humans will cause ourselves to be extinct in 100 years. We don’t have time to pretend and certainly don’t have time to allow any more frakking here or promote it around the world as Hillary does and Bernie promises to end it.

The other big news of the last few days has been the Brexit  - and now the internet is begging the Texit losers to try it again (my spell-check is allowing Brexit and red-underlining Texit, btw - funny, well, it’s Google Docs - btw, thanks Google!)  - and I won’t get into details of how it is racist, Trumpy, bullshit, and will come back to bite them. Sorry if that was all very redundant. My initial prediction is that the EU will help Greece return fully, it and other EU countries will become gold mines for tourism as the economy keeps improving in more places  - and especially as we finally end war forever (“I don’t wanna be alone forever” in Gypsy, now, her “Forever” was as I typed mine)  - then the EU will be booming, the UK will be suffering and begging to get back in, but they will be re-admitted on terms that takes the snob out of them, which will be good for all of them, for the world. The reason I bring this up is because of my whole theory about the purpose of government - to take care of shit. So your government joins with other governments, in a larger government, and part of that arrangement is that “stronger” areas support “weaker” ones - and of course everyone and everywhere have different things to contribute - but you have the Opportunity, and really the Duty, to do all you can to help more people, which means Better Government. Being able to help more people is the test of Good Government, so if you make the decision “it is too much trouble to help These People, too” then you are basically deciding “We want to have worse (and worse) government, that’s what We choose.” We need to prove that idea wrong, that “this” is only for “us”, we have to show how sharing is the way. And if we have to learn by bad consequences from bad decisions, so be it. But we already learned with Bush how bad it can be to ignore evil or let someone steal an election. We are saving democracy itself, too, if we take a stand on this and demand the will of the people be honored. This is our chance. And 100 years in not long, we need to get busy.

I got a mechanical clock, pocketwatch, at the thrift store yesterday thanks to my amazing friend and bandmate Calvin finding it. It was three dollars and I’ve been wanting one for like three decades. I listed it in my notes, along with a note about musical timespaces, as Applause plays to my delight in the background, it’s been too long since I listened to Gaga! I didn’t know how I would work it in, but that last line about a century made it seem more fitting - it’s a half century old, at least, I think. Basically I have ideas about time, that there are Kinds of Time we are trying to get into, more eternel times, more expansive, lasting times. We have entries to this timespace through music, love, art, magic, and also from who knows how many fairies and other magical features and details of the world we live in. I guess I just want to say, here, to set myself up for the next paragraph instead of infinite tangents, that Time is not a food or something but a chance.

I said the other night, about 10:45 mountain time, that I would “give Colbert a chance to apologize” for being disrespectful to Bernie, I would turn him on one more time and if he apologized for that and recognized Bernie is still a candidate I would forgive him. Well, I turned on the TV and the first thing i saw him say was “I would like to apologize for something that happened on last night’s show.” I was alert. But then the thing he apologized for was apparently a captioning error that ended up saying something about Harriet Tubman. He took the chance to “apologize” with “captions” which were going to be “correct” but ended up saying more, intentional, rude things about Harriet Tubman. I’m not trying to over-object to this just because I am upset with Colbert, but my son is deaf and captions have become a sensitive subject for me. Also, if it was an accident to say something about Tubman, why drag her further into it? But I am being sensitive, the thing is I don’t usually have to be sensitive about Colbert because he is, at heart, on the liberal side of truth. Unfortunately the position he has been put in, and accepting it instead of fighting it, has brought out the #OldColbert , the one who was fake and conservative and an ass and obviously pretending. It’s time for redemption, Colbert, I know you haven’t been able to sleep well especially since Bernie called you out the other night and said, to your face, that your sponsors were covering up the truth. When your only response was to joke that you would call Paul Ryan to cut the TV feed, which was funny since they did that to the Democratic Senators’ fake Sit-in at the capitol, it implies you have Ryan’s number in your phone, etc, like you are the old Colbert, in “actuality” - except we all know there is no Truth in that person so you will have a crisis, Feel-the-Bern-come-to-Jesus moment.

I’m just trying to help you, Colbert, and Gaga, and Obama, and anyone who has been trolled into supporting Hillary. The only positive reason to do that is to have an even greater impact by changing your mind, as I said earlier, and hopefully that will still be the outcome even if that wasn’t the plan. It would fit with the nature of things that the Truth comes Out. The truth is that the Stonewall nightclub where the Gay Rights Movement began should have been a national landmark a long time ago. It is nice that Obama designated it so just a few days ago. But the timing takes something that should be celebrated and makes it suspicious. He could have done this at any time in the last 7 years. Why now? Did he have to evolve some more to truly support gay rights and civil rights struggles? Was he holding onto it like a card to play when he needed it? Like, maybe when we have Bernie, who for forty years, his entire career, has supported gay and transgender rights and always does so with great dignity and compassion, but you endorse his opponent who had to “evolve” to support gay marriage in the last few years. Bernie was mayor of Burlington VT in 1985 and made their Gay Pride celebration an official town celebration that year. He is very familiar with these issues and so many issues specific to varied communities in America. He is the one to get the most justice for the most people and save the world, save us from ourselves, with the global cooperation he can foster instead of promoting more war and Hillary and Trump would do.

The last thing I have to mention is the WV floods, the worst they have seen in decades. They say the river did not get that high in 125 years. But another thing I heard was that a lot of the damage was from mudslides. I know they do a lot of mountaintop removal coal mining in WV and it is bad for all kinds of reasons but one of them is mudslides. They had a terrible mudslide here in Colorado a few years ago and that was why, a mountain-removal mining operation leaving large swaths of exposed dirt. I’m not saying it vengefully that you get what you deserve, just that bad decisions will have bad consequences and for “other people”, usually, since the ones who make decisions are empowered to shield themselves from the results, like the people who could let Flint residents drink leaded water because they didn’t have to drink it. ANyone who is not trying to be responsible to Everyone, as much as they can, should not be in government. ANd the best government will be the one run by people who are the most caring, considerate and responsive. That is one reason I have always hoped and yearned for a woman president in America, because those traits are often promoted in women and it seemed natural that a woman president would reflect a collective recognition of that need in society. It just happens that the far more compassionate, considerate, thoughtful, effective, and responsive candidate is the male, Bernie, not the female, Hillary, this time around but there are plenty of good women in his campaign, and men too, who will help achieve the best agenda. And as I have said for years, before Bernie even started running, Tulsi will be our first woman president, after the experience of 8 years as Bernie’s VP.

Oh, I also wanted to mention that the Senate Sit-Inn was fake - I’m leaving that typo, “Inn” since they got it catered in fancy buffet-style. It was a photo opportunity and the memes say it best” “Look, millennials, we can ‘Revolution’, too!” over the picture of them sitting down. They didn’t force a vote or get anything done, but got to look like they care, got to pretend they cared and that therefore Hillary cares, since they are all still committed to her, but none of Us fell for it. The Berners all know that the DNC party heads are the ones who prevented us, not just from voting for Bernie, not just from actually getting out delegates counted, but prevented us from even getting pizza sent to our delegates as they waited for the party leaders who were trying to wear them down so they could steal the caucus with less resistance. I witness this, online, in Nevada as the caucus lasted all day, over 1,000 Bernie delegates and they stopped us sending food to them, kept until midnight from like 10 AM, with “debate” over 60 Bernie delegates, probably representing 100,000 votes or more, that they refused to “sit”, meaning they refused to count them or all the voters they represented. The at midnight they called a sudden end to it all, pronouncing Hillary the winner since if they had counted the 60 Bernie would have won easily, and then sent in a few dozen cops to flush the people out. All day long I was telling them to Sit-In if they didn’t count the delegates, that it would make the news and turn the whole campaign around, and Nina Turner was there but didn’t lead a protest. I think that invalidates her as a candidate for VP because she could have won it for Bernie that day by making the news, physically, and forcing the media to start reporting on ALL the shenanigans. You can’t convince me that a sit-in at the Nevada caucus would have been completely blacked out by the media. The “blackout” of CNN for the fake Senate “sit-in”, but still getting plenty, even more media coverage - Colbert said CNN’s ratings went up 800% after they cut the feed - shows you can’t ever really suppress the truth and actually it will always backfire on you, eventually.

I promised to say what to do about it, how to change people’s minds and help them see the truth, especially with magic. I am eager to talk about that, and also about the unique position i am in. My Goddess, Gaga, whom I worship and believe, fully, is divinely inspired, manifesting truth purely in her lyrics, art, image and performance, True Magic, is also wrong about Hillary and really will support Bernie when she changes her mind, realises her mistake. I want to talk about how that is a special kind of worship most people don’t get to experience but I also want to address what to do about it. I’m going swimming now and can’t put it off any longer but I am eager to return to this topic with those details, soon, and of course I hope this is the discussion as people realize, maybe surprisingly, that Bernie will win and be our next President. I am fully confident that as people, from any perspective, come to actually consider him they will all realize he is the best, perfect choice, and the only choice for such trying times.

Thanks for reading, please share / excerpts if you like! See you soon! Have fun and Magic!   

gagablog 105: Media Magic Escape Tricks

I wrote the first 7 pages of this 2 weeks ago, 6-9-16. It is now 6-23-16

“I finished reading Lorna Doone and started reading Mansfield Park” is what I considered writing for the entire edition of this a few weeks ago. Some things happened to change my mind: in the classical media world I had been lingering on Lorna Doone, not wanting the fantasy I associated with it to end, then began racing through Mansfield Park to end that nightmare as soon as possible. I found some things enjoyable about it but was mostly knocked up by it. I guess I don’t want to get into the details of how it reflected my life. Then I started re-reading The Picture of Dorian Gray which I last read 20-some years ago. More about that later. In the TV media magic world so many things kept happening I started taking notes on index cards. In my own artistic world I had a flurry of fairy tales around the last time I wrote this, the fairy-love, and I want to get back to that, and always want to get back into love, and feel closer to it again with my lover after another awful, for me, period of separation. In the classic rock media magic world I went to see Bad Company and Joe Walsh at Red Rocks and was hoping to meet a girl there, at the height of that separation when my ex/lover was strongly encouraging me to meet someone else, and met an exceptionally beautiful girl there after the show which was itself a strange mystical experience. Meeting her was completely magical, her name is Chelsea and I was not sure if she was with her boyfriend or flirting with me or both. I like the memory of it and maybe just want to make the fantasy “more real” by writing about it since most likely nothing will come of it.

In this same recent time period there have been two major developments in the Gaga media magic world, too. One, most recently, it looks like her next Jazz album with Tony Bennett may come out before her 5th album, referred to as “LG5”.But most importantly for me at this moment is her support of Hillary Clinton when I was really hoping she would support Bernie Sanders. I kept trying to tie their causes together, well, they ARE the same cause, but to get people to realize it. Maybe posting directly to her comments COULD help more, I was hoping the idea would catch on among the public and happen naturally. Of course I was and am still disappointed in her supporting Hillary and still hopeful that it is not an official endorsement and for one reason or another she will be endorsing Bernie, officially, before it is all over. I have too much to say about this so I am planning to address it in the next edition, which I may write as soon as I finish this one. My approach is that I am lucky to be in a position where I can say “My Goddess is Wrong about something, my Goddess is making a mistake and I am here to help make it better.” Not many people, in modern times, get to think about things like that. I will say that my initial conclusion is that she has a questionable influence persuading her, or is even out of touch somehow despite having other creative, artistic, caring people around her. I’ve been assuming little monsters who are more passionate about the issues Bernie stands for would speak up and influence her, and maybe they have, but again I feel like I could have done more, “directly” (through social media) to set this example and give others ideas and support to bring up the issues. As I write this, expecting my next gagablog to be critical and examine the idea that she could be being misled, etc, it occurs to me that she might know more than I give her credit for and is just playing the game, revelling in the “victory-for-feminism” moment that it is SUPPOSED to be, but isn’t, just to get the positive side of that - because a GOOD woman president WOULD be a wonderful thing - but knowing, even more insiderly than I do (since “all I have” is magic), that Bernie will win, she can endorse him, etc, at an even more pivotal junction than CA or NY, just before the convention in Philly, or after the “bad news” finally comes out about Hillary.

Before I move on entirely to “what I was going to say” about media magic in this edition, I do want to mention that Obama is meeting with Bernie today. The media reports it will be an attempt to get Bernie to drop out, a promise of influencing the party structure or platform or some sort of buy-off like that, presumably. But of course they, NPR / media, would say that, being owned by Hillary - some of her biggest donors, I mean. Whatever. Trump is already making an issue of the fact that Hillary is only winning because of stealing primaries and caucuses and we all have first-hand experience of this, it happened so much. So we are all frustrated that the media is not reporting on it, but Trump is talking about it a lot so one way or another it will get out. I hope Bernie tells Obama this - and Obama should already know - but I hope he makes a point that there is NO reason for him to leave the race because of a cheater - she doesn’t even need our votes, just rig the machines some more. It completely destroys the faith in democracy of the people who are currently putting the most faith in democracy. It will certainly be the end of the Democratic Party, just as Trump will be the end of the Republican party. It will be the end of the career of every “Democrat” who supports her, because it will become the sole passion of Berners to primary them, to start a new party. I could be happy about how it COULD mean the Green Party becomes the ONLY viable party after this election. But I just wanted Democrats to not completely sell out for money and old-style power and actually change the system. It’s what we wanted with Obama. Now it has gotten so bad with Hillary stealing everything, and I truly fear her starting WW3 more than anything Trump could do, since he would be completely ineffective or just get impeached. It makes me want to call for Obama’s impeachment if he supports her. He knows, or should know, she is rigging the election. He should know how much money she is taking from foreign dictators. And he should know that she represents everything bad about what he has become while Bernie is everything we hoped he would be. And everything Obama himself hoped he would be, but wasn’t when the power structure took over. He might be jealous of Bernie, who could actually do what he couldn’t, including universal health care, and so much more. We have refined the mandate and given it to Bernie. Obama could be jealous, but that would be silly. Obama will always be historically cool as the first black president, but he will be a known as a sell-out if he supports Clinton and will always be a hero and more so if he supports Bernie.

Tulsi will be Vice President as well, if I have not said that enough. I have a lot of magical evidence of this, I will review it sometime but I think I wrote about it in the last edition.

But I write this before the meeting between Bernie and Barack because I want to predict a surprise for all, that Obama will come out of the meeting endorsing Bernie, even, or something that breaks the camel’s back or really shakes things up. It seemed like they were scared enough of Bernie they were talking about running Biden for a few weeks there - I truly think they are scared of him, of us, and the ones who feel the threat have immense power - in the old system. It shows what power you have in the new world to just overthrow that power’s hold over yourself. Our governor thinks he has a shot at VP if he endorses Hillary. What he needs to understand is he has a shot at remaining governor if he follows the will of the people and endorses Bernie. In fact, he can ensure his job for the rest of his life, since once he did that we would also hold him accountable to to other actual liberal things like expanding medical marijuana and “allowing” us to ban frakking when we voted to vote on it - both of which he has personally obstructed.

Really this edition is about TV, books, movies, art - media magic. I’ve had a lot to “escape” lately, stresswise, and I’m indebted to art for helping through this difficult time. I want to show how “easy” it is, even in extreme difficulties, but of course my difficulties have been mostly love-sickness, not like bombs dropping around me or being in a blockaded city. I imagine media magic, even prayer or singing yourself a song, could help in some ways, maybe the only kind of help there is in such situations, but of course it can’t help completely, it can’t make the bombs go away or food appear. But magic can make war and bombs go away, ultimately, and can solve all of our problems, if we really go with it. I was not faced with violence and destruction, physically, but emotionally I felt that kind of panic and fear due to changes in our relationship. I feel panic and fear when I feel we as people are up against the ruthlessness of the political machine, too. But the way out of it all is art. Art, what I often call magic, is the key to it all. I learned two cures for war from just last week from watching TV and netflix. Janet on Three’s Company said “if men gave up more easily there would be no more war” and the waitress in The Seven Year Itch said if men were naked there would be no more wars. That was 40 and 60 years ago but I saw them last week and we still haven’t tried those ideas.

I might give up on this for now, or I will be back in a few minutes with all the details, media magic examples, I noted in the last few weeks. If I don’t make it back soon I will go ahead and publish this one as is, to be before Bernie and Obama meet, and continue in the next one before making a whole edition about how Gaga is wrong if she endorses Hillary and why Bernie perfectly represents her ideals and all of us. After that I am reading the lyrics of Artpop and finishing my series talking about it.

I did not have a Sex Dream last night, that I know of, but I did meet a beautiful red haired girl.  She was in my dream, I have no idea in what way, right now, and then I “woke up” and she was there in Real Life and I told her about how I had just had a dream about her and we talked about what that could mean. Now I see a notification by a fellow fairy-lover in #WitchesforBernie and I will take a little break from this, or save the details for next edition if I go ahead and publish it. But of course talking with the girl that time was a dream, too.

I had already resolved to get right into whatever the ACTUAL lyrics of Sexxx Dreams are, instead of any more of my “Getting it Wrong” series. Then I had that dream last night, after all this year expecting and hoping for some type of romance in dreams or meeting anyone.

She has shortish, curly bright red hair, I believe. She wore a hat. She came up after I woke up, I told her I was just dreaming about her. There was a very different feel to dreaming about her, in the dream, and Seeing her - in the dream, of course. I can’t think of anyone she is, looks like, or represents. But it reminded me, hopefully, in a way, of a girl I randomly met at the train station. If I don’t finish this now, know it is because my wish came true and I will finish it, continue it in the next edition, soon. Wish me luck!

Well, nothing worked out as I hoped, nine hours later. I didn’t post this but cut out part and put it on facebook. As it is I am disappointed Obama endorsed Hillary instead of Bernie but I am giving him a chance - I’m hoping he wants to participate in the excitement about the first woman to “win” a party’s nomination but knows she will be invalidated as a candidate before the convention. I feel like both Bernie and Obama must be aware of the election fraud she committed but aren’t addressing it, even covering it up - maybe just to avoid turning everyone off to the process, knowing something is about to happen to her and she will have to drop out. My whole focus now, politically, is for Obama, Superdelegates, and Gaga and more famous folks to see the light and feel the Bern, as all of this ultimately comes out, soon. In a way this theme fits the Dorian Grey theme, as well as Lorna Doone and even Mansfield Park in a way, but I will mention these as they come up, I just have a lot of movie and TV connections to mention.

About two weeks ago I was thinking about how I lost my job after 9 years and seemed to have lost my love of 18 years. It was like an extended “7-year” period, nine for some reason, at least as I was thinking of it, but it made me think of the phrase “7-year itch.” Later that day I mentioned to my dad on the phone that I was reading Dorian Gray. He said I should watch the 7 Year Itch and said he had seen it dozens of times. George Jefferson is on now talking about his dad or friend, dad’s friend, giving him money for movies and fun when he was a kid, now dressed as Santa. Anyway, my dad told me he loved that movie and saw themes of Dorian Gray in it. I had not seen it but decided to and now have watched the first half hour, including the restaurant scene he mentioned. He spoke of incidents at the vegetarian cafe, including the waitresses speech that she could not accept a tip but would donate it to the nudist colony, then that nudism would save the world, that no one could fight wars without uniforms, in the nude- which is historically untrue but the principle is sound and the same one Janet expressed on Three’s Company later that night or a few nights later - if men would give up, give in more easily, there would be no more wars. I don’t know the theme of Dorian Gray in the movie yet but I can see themes that connect with other media I have seen and the other books. Uncle Buddy turns out to be the same actor who goes to the Evans’ to die in Good Times. He just called Weezy a younger woman when she, the actress, was 20 years George’s senior. (Sorry for the Jefferson digressions, it was on. I finished the book and movie since then, more later - 6-23 edit)

Before I consult my notes, I will just say it is Love in different forms in Lorna Doone, Mansfield Park, and Dorian Gray. Lorna Doone is a classic fantasy adventure - like I said last time, it was like an entry to fairyland for me, as it was relating to events in my life, and I wanted to stay there and savor it, a  favorite escape, and a magical one: the more closely I felt to Fairy the more I was writing fairy tales and other stories of my own. But other things in my life were a wreck, especially lovesickness, and I wanted to move past that. Now the actor who played Sanford's brother-in-law is telling Weezy that Buddy had a fling with George’s mom. So I finished the book and cleaned the fantasy out with Mansfield Park. At one time I was considering how a dream within a dream, waking up and waking up again, or any world-within-world theme could be used and re-used in a story, but you have to “stop” at some layer. In Mansfield Park there is a section where they are putting on a play that I read later that day after thinking about that. I guess in a way Mansfield Park, that era of my recent life, including indulging in video games and avoiding trying to “do” anything, was a way of moving out of the fantasy land I was in. And Dorian Gray was a different way back into Fairy, through Art and modernity and magic.

There was a movie Gilda on TV, I was watching it after another Bogart movie, Sahara, about a week ago. She sang the song about the Chicago Fire, Put the Blame on Me, and then later that night Colbert mentioned either the cow or the song or the fire in some way - I didn’t make a detailed note. Also in Gilda she was dancing with Bogart, maybe, or another man, anyway he said he could not dance and talk at the same time. Earlier that night or the day before Alex in Family Ties told his girlfriend he couldn’t dance and talk at the same time.  I noted that I am also reading the Bhagavad Gita and (just got a facebook notification that someone, Brown Jones, posted in BERNIE SANDERS IS GOING TO WIN!) that there is a common theme of “being oneself” and fulfilling one’s role, but also of observing life and being dispassionate that is echoed, in a twisted way, in Dorian Gray. Whatever day this was is the same day that North Korea officially endorsed Donald Trump for president and a convoy of medical aid and baby food finally was allowed a suburb of Damascus where 600,000 people have been  trapped for months. They didn’t allow any food in yet, just baby food and medicine, but it is a start, and seems to be uniting the world, or must, to address the humanitarian catastrophe. (Later on 6-9, after writing this, I heard an update on the news that food WAS being allowed in, starting that day, the news of the day was that, the day I wrote this, more breakthroughs were being made - 6-23 edit)

My other note card is dated 5-9-16, one month ago today. If I wrote these more often they could be shorter and more to the point, include more things because for every note I took there would be at least one more noteworthy serendipitous occurrence. Especially when many happen on the same day, but at least I wanted to note it. My next goal with this, after the “what to do when your goddess is wrong about something” edition next, is to finish exploring Artpop, with the help of the lyrics, and just “Getting On With It” from now on. But if I get into the habit of doing these frequently the dates and connections between things occurring will be more easy to make and hopefully trigger more frequent realizations in whatever strange audience this has. Thank you, by the way.

There was a rerun of the Simpsons where Homer quit drinking and goes on a date with Marge. It reflected my life at the time, but even tonight, we talked of going out for a drink tonight, something we never do, or haven’t in many years, but are deciding to go for ice cream tonight instead. But at the time this aired a month ago it struck me because I had just marked the calendar as a promise to change my behavior, for a week, then that night the episode aired and showed Homer marking the calendar for month without drinking to win Marge back. I guessed it was one of the only episodes in which it shows them marking a calendar and two weeks later I did the same thing, marking the calendar, and they showed the one where Bart meets Jessica Lovejoy and marks a calendar for a month of not thinking about her, I believe.

Later the same night, May 9th 2016, they showed a Dear John on Antenna TV. There was a woman politician whom Kate was endorsing and very fired up for. She got the 1 to 1 club to go to a campaign event and the married politician starts hitting on John. They really vilified her character for this, it must have been around the Gary Hart days. Kate was completely disillusioned. John consoles her in a bar and she says everywhere she looks are the same losers and looks at him, after he tells her he is “almost...positive”  (I think) that she will meet a man who really loves and deserves her, meaning himself, and he leaves, disheartened, and she then calls out to him, after he shuts the door, “John?”, realizing he means himself, and you wish she realized a moment earlier, then he comes back in “yes?” - but it is the end of the episode so if it is continued in the next one I don’t know, the next one they showed was about Christmas eve. I guess the reason I connect this to the books I’ve been reading is the contrasts and similarities behind the theme of Getting a Man  - in Lorna Doone it was part of escaping the evil clutches of the robber barons and the upper class, (but Mostly about Love - 6-23 edit) In Mansfield Park it was a way of achieving security and status. In Dorian Gray it is a few other things entirely. In the 1980’s it was not supposed to be about these same things but there was still some type of promotion of the idea, as there is today, and still some manufactured need for it, that continues today, as shown by the wage gap between men and women and various other oppressions and inequalities in our system based on gender.

My notes for the Christmas Eve Dear John is that all his friends were sad about being lonely for the holiday, he is excited his son is coming, but plans change and he will be alone but by the time he invites his friends they all have other plans. He is talking with his neighbor, an elderly Polish woman, and his ex-wife calls him for sex and he is eager to go to her but the neighbor comes over, he got her a record, they dance, she invites him to dinner and she says she is alone all the time and he should not be alone and he chooses to stay with her. I guess this was sweet to me for many reasons including their connection over music, but mostly it was the idea of different kinds of love and their powers.

That night’s Burns and Allen had a new cigarette girl and idea that Ronnie was going to elope with her or that Harry Morton was flirting with her. Of course George tried to troll Gracie by doing all the things Harry was doing, blowing cigarette smoke in her face, as she said she would never put up with someone like Harry. George’s monologue included this: “They say married couples fight because making up is so much fun. The Mortons have been fighting for twelve years and haven’t made up yet - when they get to it, it should be fantastic.” The end of my notes was that the next Monday Night the Marriage Retreat episode of the Simpsons aired where they try to fix their marriage with such classic lines as “Here’s your crown, your majesty!” etc. Then on Wednesday was a Family Ties where Alex Graduates and I believe breaks up with Monica, Courtney Cox, I forget her name on that show, and learns a lesson about love and himself which is another kind of Graduation. I think they grew apart, yes, and he fell for another girl, I believe it was that episode, but it seemed too close to my own life and I am glad I am out of it. (And out of school, too - or is there a reason so much of life is described as “just like high school all over again,” a  media-magic reason? Wink or *wink* or ;)  - 6-23-edit)

I guess one of the simplest ways I talk about media magic, an easy introduction, is to mention how when you fall in love you hear certain songs more, or differently. You feel everything more deeply, more magically, it’s true, but one way we notice it is when the radio seems to be just for us, etc. I guess I just want to point out that it is all Love, Art, ultimately - art we relate to and respond to, life that we process and make into art. The ideal and fun side, falling in love, is always an awakening to more magic. But there are other corners and sides of love, tough ones sometimes, and art continues to provide solutions to, reflections of, and escapes from these spaces if we believe in it and go with our trust in it. I want to be in love, I really value it, but some of my mistakes have not shown that, so I want to correct them. Some things take time and it helps to have something wonderful, magical, to do, some form of entertainment. But this will also naturally, magically, reflect what you need.

What I wanted to say about the Bad Company concert was many things about the feelings I had during the show, which I don’t have time to explore now. But mostly this beautiful girl was walking near me afterwards, with a guy I thought she seemed romantic with, and they were asking for cigarettes. I did not have any but offered weed and she called to him that she found “something better” and this along with her being completely beautiful was all it takes my heart to dreaming, especially since I was sent out that night with the idea to meet someone new. But I assumed they were together, she sang “Feel Like Making Love” then seemed to be saying something to me but I maybe misunderstood. I wish I could have lived up to that moment, in a way, what I thought might have happened had things turned differently, but it was a magical moment just as it was. It reminds me how just the hope and belief in love is enough to make magical things happen and believing in that magic is all it takes to make more.

Mostly as much as I enjoy all forms of beauty I love my lover most of all and am happy to be more together with her again after all of this year of difficulties between us. That is my real happiness, now, and I feel it again internally and between us instead of just as a wish and memory and belief, but it reminds me to nurture it in all times, in all ways.

In regards to the events of the day, it seems like All is Against us, with Bernie, but that is the time faith works the best. It has to work out this way, in a way, in order to prove magic and belief to people in the ways that we ultimately prevail, miraculously even. It is all about people waking up, realizing and coming around and it will happen, it does happen in all of us. Please enjoy yourselves, the art and society and media around us, and the stuff we make, too - we can use this magic to carry us through in all the other ways we heal the world!  

We were talking the other day and seemed about to argue, turned on the TV and the 2 Broke girls (“of all people” was supposed to be here, not after “us” but interesting how I mess it up - 6-23 edit) had a message for us, of all people, that one thought the other was a rock to her balloon and they decided at the end they were both balloons. I think that is good for all of us, to realize as different as we all are we truly are the same with the same dreams and goals and can work best together if we just stop trying to blame anyone or demonize anyone. Bernie is the one who brings us all together without cheating or scaring us. I have to go but more soon, and thanks! Have fun!

6-23. Now, having reread all of this and preparing the completion of it - first, a bowl. My greatest concern is of course my own love life and magical, artistic life - that is always my main focus, really, but maybe not the easiest to talk about. The main thing “on my mind” that is easier to discuss is the political situation. I believe there is a magical parallel between these things, between everything, that can be explored. In this case I felt like the love illustrations of Lorna Doone, Mansfield Park, Dorian Gray, TV, the Seven Year Itch and everything were the best way of discussing all of this. I managed to transpose my notes but no real explanation of why when I wrote this in such a hurry two weeks ago - I hoped I could finish it, make a spell to result in Obama endorsing Bernie, which is why I copied that part to facebook even though I did not end up publishing this one immediately. I’m glad I didn’t, it could be fun to read like this. And I will explain it now.

I did end up watching the rest of “The Seven Year Itch. And finished Dorian Gray.

And began 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which I’ve never read before. I felt sure this would not be a love story but in this context it is - the hero at least is in love with learning, there is a kind of love or bond between him and his servant, and Nemo has a love-hate for mankind, so far. A bit of media magic that I started reading this because it was next to Wilde on my “shelf” of my DS game - I usually picked them randomly or alternated between a male and female author but now that I have read all the ones penned by women I decided on a new method and just read the whole shelf left to right. So this was the next book to read and I started it with minimal recollections of anything I knew about it, that it was a marine adventure that I thought involved a giant squid, from a commercial for classic books on TV when I was a kid. Not until I read his name did I remember the famous Captain Nemo, but I thought it “ironic” - magical - that I had begun reading this the same week that the sequel to Finding Nemo comes out. The other little media magic I remember was reading in the bath. I usually read in the bath but had actually showered previously so I hadn’t read in the bath yet while reading this book. But as I started the bath he was on the ship Abraham Lincoln and I had the feeling it would be wrecked or he would go overboard or at least get wet while I was reading in the water and sure enough he did a few pages later. I guess I wanted to mention this, and the Nemo name coincidence, as an example of magic echoes in life even from a “non-love” story, if such a thing exists. Nemo is special to me because I only knew it was about a fish, if I knew that, when I took my son to see it. It was the first movie we went to just the two of us. It was magical to be a story about a father and son, and other kinds of love, too. Family love of course ultimately traces back to a source in romantic love, but it is all love. I want to discuss how these stories and modern life intertwine but before I rewind pre-Nemo I just want to say that problems with Love, either in romantic love or in childhood, are the reasons we suffer or cause others to suffer. Finding Nemo is a story of healing, of overcoming problems and reuniting - this is what we hope for through our suffering, what makes the trials worthwhile, if we come through it into a good, healing story. I imagine the Nemo from 20,000 Leagues is the counter-example, the cautionary tale. You don’t want to end up like the bitter captain, no matter how rich and genius he might be. You want to address, quest, and heal any problems you have from lost love as a child or pain from romance later. If you don’t find the healing story for your life you end up cruising the depths, avowing hatred for humanity and all your acquaintances become your captives. It is how every tyrant, bully, and killer is made. And we can unmake them or make them along the ideal path, towards healing and reuniting, instead of the evil path of pain and murder.

I’ve always said magic is the key to everything because love is the solution to everything and everything we do to create and experience love is magic. I believe in words and art, even these less artful words have magic. I think there is more magic in music, poems, and stories, especially fairy tales, but I have to be in the mood for those and one way to work into it is to get all this “lesser” stuff out of my system in interminable gagablogs. Talking about magic, dancing about art, might not quite be an art in itself but it is better than arguing. I was just about to try to say something about criticism and art, compare Dorian Gray and the Seven Year Itch, but I can’t quite puzzle it out. There is a complementary relationship between the two stories. Dorian is free from shame, at least from the shame of his image showing the consequences of his actions. He lives “as art” in a way, Above criticism even when critique is valid. The man in The Seven Year Itch is overwhelmed by the same feelings of shame, of what will people think, and it prompts him to wild fantasies, the “art” of his life, imagined, while he lives the repressed life of the critic pointing out what is wrong with these fantasies. In the end wanting to be good redeems him - with the help of the influence of a good woman. He accepts that influence, that kind of love as well as the ideal love he is romanticising but comes to realize he already has, and it heals him and makes him more whole, more alive, a hope for us all. Dorian ends up scorning the love of the two women who might have saved his soul, and probably Basil and some other men, too. Dorian Gray might have been a different story in some ways the context was not a homophobic society but the same “story” could be written regardless of the gender of the characters. Dorian cannot escape his soul and keeps it hidden, isolated. The rest of us, it shows in our face and eyes and influences how we relate to the world, it is our relation to the world. And yet we see each other less and less, in some ways, and still make mean faces and hostile attitudes. We are all artists and critics and audience for each other, the other artists, critics, and audience - we are all three at the same time. We emphasise and become more one than the other in turns and phases. This is how we connect with each other. When we over-emphasise one and become too much of a critic or audience  we disconnect and lose the sense of being the artist of our own lives and miss out on art we might make. I have some inklings about what the dangers of being “too much of an artist” are, too, but personally I know I need to put more emphasis there and don’t mind risks of becoming more pretentious or isolated, for a time, but I would not want to turn into an asshole who let narcissism disconnect me from the world.

I believe these words will have magical effect.  All words do, but those with magical intention more so. When we have ideas, maybe they escape from someplace into our minds, or maybe they originate there. Once in our minds they escape through words, art, and other expression. Escape is manifesting, becoming, transforming, magic. I wanted to say all magic can be seen as a kind of escape, a trick out of something. It i is just a way of looking at things. When I was thinking about the idea of the 7-year itch and my dad recommended that movie, I knew it would be a magical clue for me. I had only seen the first half hour of it when I started this and I was eager to see the connection to Dorian Gray. WHen the man in the movie looks in the mirror and declares “The picture of Dorian Gray!” I said “well, there it is!” but the next moment was even more media magic, magic within the magic - his boss calls him in to tell him they will be publishing a new edition of the Picture of Dorian Gray. This is a simple example of this kind of “media magic” that can happen even when no media is involved, you just think something then someone says it.

When I wrote this two weeks ago I felt my magical timing was confirmed - I mentioned the news story I had recently heard about the Syrian war. A convoy of medicine and baby food was allowed into a blockaded suburb of Damascus, they said 600,000  people were there then they said it was 9,000, i think, in the next report - maybe I misheard. But the day I actually wrote this, June 9th, the news story came out that they just allowed a convoy of food, too. I’m not saying the words here caused further improvement - surely the main cause for that was the response to the initial story. Horrible things have been going on for years in Syria but it is like if the media is not reporting on it then people, most people, just won’t be aware of it. These words don’t convey the information to many more people, just a few, but they do set more magical intention out there, to believe in things working out. It is belief in the future and the future is an escape from the problems of today, and the path that leads there will be magical.

My lover- I love calling her that now that we are thankfully re-united - was talking to her brother the other day and asked if he thought anyone was named Jose Cuervo. She said later that night a reality TV show had someone named Tequila on it. This is an example of this kind of simple media magic but it was enough for her to comment on it. We came across Teen Witch on Netflix, an old movie from the 80’s. She had seen it on TV as a kid and even mentioned it to me once years ago. It was bad and super awesome in that cheesy way but it even had a powerful message for me, how magic just works without You doing anything. I’ve always believed in things like a future of peace and love and felt there are things I can do to usher it in, but I also believe in it and know it is true. I forget sometimes about how much magic works “on it’s own” or without any sign in advance. It is fun to look at all the signs but there is an escape from meaning and intention which is liberating and happy. There is doing, art, magic, beyond thinking about it, planning or analyzing it. There is a magical approach to living in which everything is good. You could assume that is the message of religions but there are things in them that have been misunderstood and we need the better interpretations of religion to prevail and new forms of religion, too. We need to escape from the problems of This World, as it has been for so long, and look for clues to how to do it in the promise of the new world. This is why I keep seeing some of these same themes, love striving to overcome perverse order, in all of the media I’ve enjoyed lately, from this century and the last few.

There is a theme of oppressive society in all the works I read spanning the last few centuries. It is very clear in Lorna Doone, he is always talking about it, the oppression of the robbers and the oppression of the worse robbers, the government, and living and loving despite all of that. I also saw Zootopia twice in this month and the same theme is prominent there: we create governments to help deal with things we fear. The corruption of government is using fear to control people instead of proving your value by truly alleviating fear. Good government could ultimately end all causes of fear and suffering on earth, so one first step is to fix the government. I say One step because the first actions of any are truly within us and there are things we can do to change ourselves to make every other endeavor more successful. The nice thing about politics is it is like that process for everyone together and we can, potentially, know what the issues are and act on them to fix things.

True belief in a liberal utopian dream, encouraging of all people and of sexuality, promoting art and communication instead of violence and greed-based power, is the heart of my belief in democracy and reason for supporting Bernie Sanders. Trump is obviously the example of trying to rule by fear, the classic corruption and the fruit of all the evil the Republican party has always stood for but he is being open about it and reaping much of their praise and the scorn of the rest of the world. But Hillary is another version of ruling by fear, as if she is the only alternative to Trump and therefore we should be scared into voting for her. While Trump is the poseter child for the evils of Hate and pettiness, Hillary is the symbol of Lies and the evil that they bring. When you have the power to change things it is evil to give into forces that say to preserve the status quo, no matter how much you say you want to change. Bernie will actually change things which is why they are so scared of him they rigged the election at every turn to presumably nominate her. It has been completely undemocratic the way they kicked people off the registration and invalidated delegates at conventions or even technologically rigged voting machines to give her “wins” in many places, more and more of which are being overturned and decided in Bernie’s favor after all, but we still won’t ever get an actual count of all the people who wanted to support him. Winning by cheating isn’t really winning. Bush won by cheating and got to be president to the detriment of the entire world. It wasn’t right and it wouldn’t be right again. We can still avoid it, but it is mostly up to convincing the superdelegates to support Bernie and / or something happening to reveal she is not a viable candidate. It is important because her whole campaign has been about being afraid of Trump or afraid we can’t do what Bernie promises and trying to convince people to settle. Politics, the best politics, are for the idealists and dreamers who can see a much better future and a path to get there sooner.

I guess that is my lesson to trust in magic. I know that good future is there, calling to us. I know I can help blaze those paths but I also know it simply must be. I can have more faith in it coming to get me, to get all of us, instead of having to show people. So I can put my time and efforts into more magical ways I  enjoy  showing people even more: art, stories, and music. I had to get out of where I was stuck recently to be ready to do this. I had to complete this blog, for instance. And the days after I wrote the first half were all about the murderer in Miami who killed 50 people in a nightclub. I have a lot to say, and had a lot on my mind I wanted to say, while that was the conversation - I still do, and would go on about it, but simply I am completely against guns. I am proud of the Senate Democrats for having  a filibuster, now a sit-in, to force a vote on some simple gun regulations. It does remind me of being online in the Bernie Sanders Activists facebook group while the Nevada State Caucus was going on, urging them to have a Sit-In if they continued disenfranchising about 64 delegates for Bernie, representing probably 100,000 voters - especially after all the long lines and other voter suppression in that state. And they did, but the delegates did not sit-in. I personally called the TV news in Vegas, and others did to, to try and get them to report on it, throughout the day. I felt sure the only way to make a story of how they were stealing the election was to have a sit-in, that it would surely make the news, even if it took until the next day. Removing hundreds of delegates would have made the news even if it was over the next day. But that is just one way I felt we missed a chance to save democracy. And I am proud of the Democrats for having  a sit in. There are so many issues that came up for me around this attack. There was immediate focus on his religion and subsequent calls from the right that this is a reason for more war against “radical Islam.” I suspected something different as I heard about it being a gay club, that his dad said he had reacted to seeing two men kiss a month or so before, then the news that he had frequented the club and used dating apps to meet or flirt with men. I don’t know what happened to the story, what further investigation might have shown. It seemed like the connection to being terror-related was something he did for attention at the time but then again I did hear some stuff about him recently getting into terroristic materials. I am curious about what the conclusions will be. My own intuitive conclusion was that it had more to do with repressed sexuality. And of course access to guns. But the reason I think it is important is that some media people and politicians want to use the outrage over the attack to motivate people to support more war. Gun control is certainly a central issue that needs to be addressed and it is terrible that more and more of these events prompt people to claim to act but result in political gridlock. My concern with motives is that it is the fundamentalist, right-wing people in America who are more likely to support war and to demonize Islam in response to this. But if he became a murderer over repressed sexuality then whatever extent conservative/right-wing  Islam played in that, for him, fundamentalist christianity does the same things to people. I saw a sign from a vigil that said “End Hate” and I had kind of a cynical, sarcastic response when I saw it, due to my emotion at the time. I totally believe in ending hate, I just felt like it goes so much deeper than just “don’t ever shoot people again” - though that is a wonderful start. It just made me think if we truly end hate then So much would change. If we end all hate the current financial system would collapse, for instance. There would be no excuse for war, we’d just have to always find another way. And we will and we will get better at it.

I regret that I did not write this in sections, in a way, as the events occurred, but then again I am glad I was not writing it during this last week between turmoil in my personal life and all the news of violence and frustration trying to address it. There were some things about the books, movies, and TV I wanted to explore in more detail - like what it meant, to me, at the time, to “not be able to walk and dance at the same time”. Looking back in it now I think it has to do with not analyzing all the time, ending the critic role, and being an artist, going for it, dancing, not talking about it. Maybe that is what it meant at the time, for me, too - but I felt it had to mean something or I would not have seen it echoed twice in the same day, in the midst of the month I’ve been composing this blog all about these connections in media and life. But I don’t know, now, if it had more specific meaning for me then when I made a note of it. And I am glad I don’t feel that way anymore and I don’t want to, I am glad I escaped that. I know we will reach a future where we are free from violence, guns, war and fear in general. I believe in it. I know all these conversations along the way are part of reaching that.

I truly believe we will elect Bernie Sanders to be our next president and Tulsi Gabbard will be vice president and our next president, our first president who is a woman. When Obama endorsed Hillary I was upset at first, hoping someone who truly hates her, a Republican, would even impeach him for supporting treason, bringing up her ties to foreign dictators, or based on her stealing the primaries and bringing all of that to light. Then I thought I would give him a week to change his mind before wishing for anything extreme. It has been two weeks, now, and Gaga has supported Hillary, too. I will focus on that in my next edition, coming very soon, about What to Do When Your Goddess is Wrong. For now I just want to say that I give them both credit for being more connected than I am and I assume they both know she is cheating. Why support her? Maybe they also know something will be coming up which changes everything and makes it obvious for everyone to support Bernie with no shame for hesitation or changing their minds. If so, they could enjoy the moment of pride that a woman would be nominated as President then come around to the true progressive, Bernie, when The Event takes place. We still have a month to rally and exert our influence, make our voices heard, in so many ways before the convention, and at the convention and outside of it. But I don’t pin my hopes on protest. Now, more than ever, art and magic can save us, can help us escape a fate that seems “inevitable.” I must be more effective than talking “about” it, I need to create things that themselves become part of the conversation - not just better memes but art, music, and stories inspired by it all. I do wish I had tried more directly to converse with Gaga about the way Bernie perfectly exemplifies our loving, open-minded ideals. I never had any luck getting in touch with her before but hoped it would be something that got around the community. I don’t regret it since I had no delusions that I “could” talk with her, even though that is possible. As it is, I feel like the discussion it will start will be more enlightening to more people, about more issues, than if she had said “Support Bernie” and all the Little Monsters got on the Bernwagon. Even if that had happened, we would have had some discussion, not as much since there aren’t many Hillary supporters, and people would have found out more about Bernie as they discovered him. As it is, it will have to be a discussion and hopefully many more people will get involved and Gaga herself will change her mind. But the next edition will be all about this and other issues about divinity and truth.

When I was reading Dorian Gray I was struck by the word “escape” since this entire month of June I have had this “escape tricks” blog on my mind. The first time I noticed it was before the descriptions of all the Finer Things that he was enjoying, the fabrics and jewels, etc, and the stories about legendary examples throughout history. These were his media escapes at the time. Later I think it mentions that he could not escape the conscience that oppressed him.  A traditional refuge, the church, is not an option or not a satisfying one - I don’t recall if it is mentioned. But my idea is the redemption he seeks, that anyone seeks, can only come from someone else which is part of the tragedy of the curse of youthful looks and not having a “true” form with which to relate to people. This is the problem with not being yourself or being fake. Colbert showed the clip last night of Hillary laughing at one of her own jokes. He provided inner dialog for her like “My staff tells me mirth makes me appear relatable and human.” It was just a fake laugh, a fake face, carried on far too long. The problem is it isn’t human to lie - in a way it is since we are the only animals to do it, but it is not that relatable human thing we connect with, just something we recognize we have all done and seen too much of. We accept lies as part of the system but we can make it better and expect more.

We can all sense the truth, deep down, we all know it. We can be fooled, even for decades, by something that just isn’t true. Usually this happens because someone is trying very hard to fool us. Often, maybe always, it is to fool us into something they don’t believe themselves. When they do this they have an impassioned way of talking, kind of hopeful but mostly strained - Ted Cruz is probably the most prominent example. But they are all like this, getting worked up about stuff to talk about, not because they really want to fix it. If anything, they want problems to continue so they still seem necessary to deal with them. Bernie isn’t like that, though, and his supporters won’t accept that anymore. We know there are real problems, from saving the environment to avoiding nuclear war to ending poverty and disease. And we know we can fix them but not by being scared of the industries and systems we will have to revolutioniz to do it.

The truth, the future free from fear, is the Big Escape for all of us from all the problems we have made for ourselves by making the world this way. We will remake the world, not with guns and bombs, but with paint and words and music. It is not us against them because there is no Them, we are all in it together. It is all of us against It - an evil troll, accumulated from all our mistakes, fears, and selling-out. But we can remake it at the source, within ourselves, by living true to our hearts and not accepting lies or facades anymore.

I feel like “I” pulled of the greatest escape trick of my life by getting out of our relationship going down in flames. The idea was to get out of it, it’s over, but I was lucky to receive the miracle that we both got out of it, and the relationship, too, and hopefully we won’t have to go through any more crashes, let the crashes fall away. I know it was my belief in love, in the Goddess of Love, and mostly in my lover, that the miracle happened. I also feel like it will keep getting better and be better than ever since we got through it. I feel like I had to fix some misperceptions of me, but the thing that helped me most was getting out of some of my own ideas about who I am or have to be, overcoming fear and insecurity. Love is always possible and always the solution, it just might not take the form we are focused on. I realize my own desire to meet someone else, to feel that excitement, can also be the excitement of a new story, song, or picture. But it can also be the excitement my lover and I have had before, and more. If you are really in love, even if it has been a long time and some things have gone awry, the reasons you fell in love were always better than reasons for falling apart, if you can just get back to them and let them work their magic. And sometimes there is nothing you can do, directly, and can just take a break, enjoy some art or doing things in the world and for others, and let the magic bring you back together as it will. Art, enjoying it and the lessons it inspires in us, or making it and magically transforming the world, is the universal means of making love when we can’t be “making love”. And the more we do of each the more we can do of both.

It really is Love Versus War, but we are all on the same side. It is just a matter of recognizing each other, reminding each other, and coming together. We are all “wrong” in different ways, and all divine in ways, too. If we accept each other, remembering the magic we all share, we can overcome all of our wrongs. Our truest selves are all in love with each other and it's an exciting and even scary journey to discover that. But all the bad things we encounter we do so to make the fall away, to get to the true love we all share beneath the false layers. For me Gaga as the Goddess of Love has been inspired, divine, and showed how to lead others into the heart of magic. Bernie has become the political example of this and even surpassed Gaga in this kind of influence, currently, because he is more active at the heart of this world-transformation. As close is she is and has been to the heart of it all, her support for Hillary shows you can still be mistaken, even as a Goddess. Bernie is just living the truth he has been living for a long time and it has taken this long for this magic to come around, to come out of all of us, to make this revolution happen.

A couple editions ago I wrote some of my Oz-themed understanding, that for years I have associated Gaga with Dorothy and Ozma of Oz, and the Good Witches and others, too- but mostly Ozma and Dorothy. I realized that Bernie is like the WIzard but had to include a spoiler, for those who have not read the books, that the Wizard gets real magic powers in the later books. The analogy did not break down when Gaga supported Hillary, it just made me realize we are still in the midst of the story, in this analogy. It’s not like Bernie sent Gaga to Hillary for her broom, it’s not quite that close, either. Or like Bernie is ever a humbug. He has been standing for the same things, saying the same things, for years - the difference is that he will be empowered. The Wizard we saw in the movie never got his power. Read the books and you will see. When Bernie is President it will be like the Wizard with his Power - with Ozma on the throne - and all things harmonious. This is an analogy of even when Bernie is president he will be serving the greater good. I’ve always associated Gaga with Ozma, since 2008, due to her origin story and the whole Goddess of Love aspect - just everything about her representing, to me, the path of art and magic to the fairy world of Oz, our Peaceful Future. But I also always associated her with Dorothy, the girl we can all relate to, who we all are on this same magical journey. Dorothy has to come to realize her own power, the power of her love and family but mostly her own power that  connects with that “home”, and we all have that journey. When we are realizing our power, expressing it to rule the world, to transform magically, we are Ozma, like Gaga, when she is like that. But we are on that journey, and we do it again in new ways, to discover ourselves. Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, always knew Dorothy had the power but the journey is so she can learn it for herself, so she can believe in herself. It is the same for all of us. Right now, thinking it will take a miracle to make Bernie the nominee and president, we can believe in it and believe in whatever we think to do to help it come true. But as long as we don’t believe in us, don’t believe we can all do it together, we might be convinced  - by “the System” - that our only chance is the broom of a Wicked Witch. We might go to her only for good things, hoping to work together and not have to destroy her but if her own wickedness prompts a bucket of truth to be thrown and melt her,so be it. So Gaga, and all of us, are approaching the witch’s castle, in the forest, now. We’re dealing with the minions and obstacles she is putting in our way - the primaries, the media, etc, take your pick who are the bees and who the flying monkeys, etc. Soon there will be a confrontation at the castle, possibly the convention, maybe before, in which she is melted and all her wonderful wickedness destroyed. The people previously under her sway will cheer their liberation. Then we will take the broom back to the Wizard, Bernie. I guess the broom represents the nomination. The point is that we realize after all of this that we have the power, in us. The Wizard flying off in the balloon represents the end of the old, fake, All-Talk presidency. The Return of the Wizard, with magic, is a symbol of what he will be like as president. The Rule of Ozma and Glinda at that time will represent the way Bernie has respect for Mother Nature and will be in her service, but also will represent female leaders in the future. Glinda knows that Ozma is coming back someday which is why she is not worried when the Wizard flies away. False power is based on fear and bluster, true power can only come from an accord with nature, an accord with the truth we can all sense inside of us. That is what makes Bernie so empowering and uniting a figure, because it is not about him but about all of us, together, and in respect of nature and truth. That is what makes the story, the journey, of self-discovery so important, so we learn it for ourselves. That is why it is important to make mistakes and have others there to help us along. Gaga has gone through Dorothy’s Journey before, to get to her stardom, and in other ways. She is going through it again now, in this political cycle. We are all going through the same journey, in this way, when the whole world thinks this is our only hope. But we will discover, as we come to believe in ourselves, that magic is real, all our best dreams are real. All it takes to make them come true is to escape the things that hold us back, to really believe in them and go for them. The irony of magic is that when everything, anything is possible we are the limits on ourselves, just holding ourselves back because we’ve learned to be that way, in this world. But we all sense the other world calling us to be our true selves and there are those out there who see it and help us along the way, only as is best for us learning it “on our own”, truly taking it to heart. And we find our heart best with others, and realizing we are not alone. We can’t rely on government, on someone else, to save us. But won’t it be nice when we have institutions and communities based upon the idea of making salvation, happiness, and peace available to all? We can, we just have to believe in it, in us, in our home in that place, and we will be there. We all have roles to play and the best dreamers in those roles will take us to the world of our dreams the best ways, especially when we include ourselves to be our best, too, and play the best roles we can play.