Life of R

The very purpose of religion

“If you really take an interest in Buddhism, then the most important thing is implementation-practice.

To study Buddhism and then use it as a weapon in order to criticize others' theories or ideologies is wrong. The very purpose of religion is to control yourself, not to criticize others. Rather, we must criticize ourselves. How much am I doing about my anger? About my attachment, about my hatred, about my pride, my jealousy? These are the things which we must check in daily life.”

~ 14th Dalai Lama

Finally a Federal Judge has publicly stated for the record that Trump and Vance, the elected leaders of the United States are bigots.

A federal judge in Ohio ruled against the Trump administration Monday, citing bigoted comments President Trump and Vice President JD Vance made about immigrants.

U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley ordered the White House to unfreeze immigrants' benefit applications, citing Trump and Vance's "outright hostility towards immigrants, both before and after the 2024 presidential election." These applications include filings for work authorization and green cards from people in the U.S. from countries including Burma, Canada, Iran, Nigeria, Syria, Tanzania, and Venezuela.

"Their ire appears focused on immigrants from countries in the Caribbean, South America, Africa, and Asia," Marbley, nominated to the federal bench by President Clinton in 1997, wrote.

The judge quoted many of Trump's comments against immigrants of color, including the time he railed against people coming to the U.S. from "shithole countries" or when he claimed Haitians are "poisoning the blood" of our country. In his second term as president, Trump attacked Somali Americans and accused them of adding "nothing" to the country, and oversaw violent immigration crackdowns across the country, particularly in Minnesota.

Marbley also highlighted Trump and Vance's made-up accusation that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people's pet cats and dogs.

"If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do," Vance said in 2024, which Marbley quoted directly.

"This general hostility to immigration contrasts with an apparent interest in and preference for the migration of white people," Marbley added.

It’s important to remember that while media obsesses over the Trump’s summersaults of lies and buffoonery, ICE is ever busy, destroying the lives of decent people in America. People are rotting in Dilley and Delaney. Let us never forget them. And fight for whomever pledges to stop the fascists in 2027.

This fall we will need to work every day.

stevebrodner.substack.com