The Wild Reed

Monday, August 10, 2026

Quote of the Day

The genocide in Gaza is the moral issue of our generation. One reason that candidates are campaigning on it and succeeding is because of the moral clarity it generates. If you listen to these candidates, they are hardly one-issue nominees. They are concerned with capitalist overreach, want to hold Trump accountable for his crimes and misdeeds, advocate for health care for everyone, and want the world to be safer for everyone: immigrants, queer people, and other vulnerable populations. Such a world is much more possible, though, if the U.S. does not continue to commit billions of dollars to fighting wars and advancing genocide. The truth is as clear as spotting a seahawk characteristically singing its unmistakable call.

– Jonny Rashid
Excerpted “Why Gaza Is the
Moral Issue of Our Generation”
Contents and Containers
August 10, 2026

Sunday, August 09, 2026

It’s the 81st anniversary today of the dropping of an atomic bomb by the U.S. on the Japanese city of Nagasaki (above). Three days earlier on August 6, 1945 a first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The two bombings, which took place in the final days of World War II, killed between 110,000 and 210,000 people, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

In commemorating those who perished in these terrible bombings, I share the following excerpt from “The Crime of Nagasaki: The 'Forgotten’ A-Bomb City,” Greg Mitchell’s 2011 article published in The Nation. Mitchell is the author of numerous books about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Greatest Movie Never Made.

In many ways, Nagasaki is the modern A-bomb city, the city with perhaps the most meaning for us today. For one thing, when the plutonium bomb exploded above Nagasaki it made the uranium-type bomb dropped on Hiroshima obsolete.

And then there’s this: “The rights and wrongs of Hiroshima are debatable,” Telford Taylor, the chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, once observed, “but I have never heard a plausible justification of Nagasaki” — which he labeled a war crime. Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who experienced the firebombing of Dresden at close hand, said much the same thing. “The most racist, nastiest act by this country, after human slavery, was the bombing of Nagasaki,” he once said. “Not of Hiroshima, which might have had some military significance. But Nagasaki was purely blowing away yellow men, women, and children. I’m glad I’m not a scientist because I’d feel so guilty now.”

. . . When they’d learned of the Hiroshima attack, the scientists at Los Alamos generally expressed satisfaction that their work had paid off. But many of them took Nagasaki quite badly. Some would later use the words “sick” or “nausea” to describe their reaction.

As months and then years passed, few Americans denounced as a moral wrong the targeting of entire cities for extermination. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, declared that we never should have hit Japan “with that awful weapon.” The left-wing writer Dwight MacDonald cited America’s “decline to barbarism” for dropping “half-understood poisons” on a civilian population. His conservative counterpart, columnist and magazine editor David Lawrence, lashed out at the “so-called civilized side” in the war for dropping bombs on cities that kill hundreds of thousands of civilians. However much we rejoice in victory, he wrote, “we shall not soon purge ourselves of the feeling of guilt which prevails among us. . . . What a precedent for the future we have furnished to other nations even less concerned than we with scruples or ideals! Surely we cannot be proud of what we have done. If we state our inner thoughts honestly, we are ashamed of it.”

To read Greg Mitchell’s article in its entirety, click here.

Related Off-site Links:
Nagasaki Marks 81st Atomic Bomb Anniversary as Mayor Says Nuclear Deterrence Only Increases Risk – Mari Yamaguchi (The Associated Press, August 9, 2026).
Were the Atomic Bombings Necessary? – Garrett Graff (Doomsday Scenario, September 2, 2025).
U.S. Leaders Knew We Didn’t Have to Drop Atomic Bombs on Japan to Win the War. We Did It Anyway – Gar Alperovitz and Martin J. Sherwin (The Los Angeles Times, August 5, 2020).
The U.S. Should Apologize for Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Olivia Alperstein (Institute for Policy Studies, August 5, 2020).

UPDATE: 8:15 a.m. in Hiroshima; 11:02 in Nagasaki – Remembering and Reckoning – Garrett Graff (Doomsday Scenario, August 10, 2026).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Christianity and Nagasaki
• Commemorating the Lives Lost in Hiroshima 80 Years Ago Today
• Remembering Dorothy Day’s Response to the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima
• Chris Hedges: Quote of the Day – August 6, 2012
• Prayer of the Week – August 7, 2011
• The Challenge of Peace
• A Dangerous State of Mind

Friday, August 07, 2026

“Like a Stream Running Into the Ocean”

My exploration of – and walking on – the mystical path of love known as the Sufi Way continues with my sharing this evening of a second excerpt from The Inner Life (1997), a collection of three essential writings by the great Sufi musician and teacher Inayat Khan (1882-1927). This excerpt is from the writing entitled “Sufi Mysticism.”

NOTE: For Part 1, click here.

____________

There is one God and one truth, one religion and one mysticism; call it Sufism or Christianity or Hinduism or Buddhism, whatever you wish. As God cannot be divided, so mysticism cannot be divided.

. . . The God of the mystic is to be found in his own heart; the truth of the mystic is beyond words. People argue and debate about things of little importance, but mysticism is not to be discussed. People want to talk in order to know, and then they forget it all. Very often it is not the one who knows who talks so much, but the one who wants to know. The one who knows but does not discuss is the mystic. She knows that happiness is in her own heart; but to put this into words is like putting the ocean into a drop of water.

. . . People strive for many different things in this world and last of all they seek the spiritual path. And there are some indifferent ones who say, “There is a long life before us and when the time comes that I must awake I shall wake up.”

But the mystic knows that the spiritual path [the inner life] is the one thing he must attend to, that all other things come after that. It is of the greatest importance in his life.

Should he, by working for realization of God, neglect his duties in the world? It is not necessary. There is nothing that a mystic need renounce in order to have the realization of life. She only needs to attach the greatest importance to what is most important in life.

The life of a mystic is meditative, but to him meditation is like the winding of a clock. It is wound for a moment, and all day long it goes by itself. He does not have to think about it all day long. He does not trouble about it. . . . The moments of meditation set the whole mechanism in running order, like a stream running into the ocean. They do not in the least keep the mystic from her duty; they only bless every word she speaks with the thought of God.

In all the mystic thinks and does there is the perfume of God, which becomes a healing and a blessing. And if one asks how a mystic, who has become so kind and helpful, gets on among the crowd in everyday life, since the rough edges of everyday life rubbing against him must necessarily make him heartsore, the answer is that they certainly do, and the heart of the mystic is even more sore than that of anybody else. Where there is only kindness and patience all the thorns will come. But just as the diamond by being cut becomes brilliant, so does the heart; and when the heart has been sufficiently cut it becomes a flame which illuminates not only the life of the mystic, but also that of others.

– Inayat Khan
From The Inner Life
Shambhala, 1997
pp. 65-69

Thursday, August 06, 2026

“A Beautiful Thing”

Notes YouTuber Kyber Carter in introducing his recent 12-minute video tribute to Andor:

Andor broke the Star Wars franchise . . . in the best way possible.

Star Wars has always been known to be the pulpy action adventure we all know and love since the original trilogy. But Andor proved that you could explore more genres, tones and styles within our favorite galaxy far far away.

So let’s dive into what that means for Lucasfilm, Disney and Star Wars as we talk about Tony Gilroy and his addition to the franchise with Cassian Andor, Luthen Rael, Mon Mothma, Dedra Meero, Syril Karn, Major Lio Partagaz, Brasso, Wilmen, Saw Gerrera, Orson Krennic and more!

Related Off-site Links:
The Dark Side of Hope: How Andor Brings Star Wars Into the 2020s – Show Me The Meaning (January 4, 2025).
The Side of Andor That Nobody Talks About – Epic Sell (August 24, 2025).
Tony Gilroy on What Andor Says About Trump’s Fragile Authoritarian Regime – Lovett or Leave It (August 24, 2025).
How Andor Mirrored Israel’s Genocide – Jessie Gender After Dark (June 17, 2025).
How Not to Be Fascist According to Andor (and Jesus) – Bryan Jarrell (Mockingbird, May 20, 2025).

For more of Andor at The Wild Reed, see:
• Welcome to the Rebellion
• Andor’s Depiction of the Rise of Fascism: Not Predictive But Reflective
• Andor: “A Magnum Opus of Anti-Imperialist Art”
• The Revolution Will Be Televised
• Andor: The Star Wars Franchise’s “First Piece of Universally Excellent Television”
• The Brilliance of Andor
• Inauguration Day Thoughts
• How Empires Are Built and Rebellions Are Born
• What Does It Really Take to Build a Rebellion?
• Andor Season One Recap
• The Reckoning Is Here

Why the American Political Establishment Is Panicking

The Montana Department of Propaganda is a Facebook group dedicated to satire and parody, a place “where trolls go to die.” Like all good satirical endeavors, the group imparts deep truths about the times and events we’re living through. Following is an example from earlier today.

__________________

The American political establishment isn’t panicking because the DSA [Democratic Socialists of America] has conquered the country. It hasn’t. They’re panicking because socialists have started proving that corporate money, incumbency and the blessing of professional political parasites do not make anyone invincible.

Zohran Mamdani won New York City. Chris Rabb won in Philadelphia. Claire Valdez won in New York. Donavan McKinney knocked a sitting congressman out of office in Detroit. Across the country, DSA candidates are beating people the party establishment had already selected for power.

Then Abdul El-Sayed [left] defeated the establishment’s chosen candidate for Michigan’s Senate nomination despite being massively outspent.

El-Sayed isn’t a DSA member, but he ran on the same material politics: Medicare for All, free childcare, taxing billionaires and rejecting corporate control. This wasn’t some tiny socialist enclave hidden behind a Brooklyn coffee shop. It was a statewide primary in Michigan.

The right immediately began screeching about “Islamo-communism,” because apparently universal healthcare plus a Muslim candidate equals the Bolshevik caliphate now. Marx is coming for your riding mower and he brought hummus. These people have one terrified little Mad Lib and they just keep changing the nouns.

The Democratic establishment has spent decades telling working people that affordable housing, universal healthcare and taxing billionaires are wonderful ideas that must never actually happen. There’s always some consultant, donor or procedural excuse standing between the public and the policies the public wants.

Then socialists show up with volunteers, knock on thousands of doors and beat candidates with enormous campaign accounts and endorsements from every professional ass warmer in Washington. Suddenly, the machine looks less like an unstoppable force and more like three lobbyists stacked inside a trench coat.

The ruling class understands something it desperately hopes working people never learn: political power comes from organization. Wealth dominates because wealth is organized. Corporations dominate because capital is organized. Workers remain weak when they are isolated, exhausted and convinced nothing can change.

That is the DSA’s real threat. Not one candidate, but the possibility that working people might organize around their shared material interests instead of letting billionaires divide them over bathrooms, immigrants and whatever beer can made conservatives piss their pants this week.

Democrats fear losing control of their primaries. Republicans fear losing socialism as their favorite boogeyman. The donor class fears both.

Different panic. Same underlying terror.

The political establishment just discovered it can bleed.

– Montana Department of Propaganda
via Facebook
August 6, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan Senate Primary in Defining Race for Democrats – Rachel Leingang and Joseph Gedeon (The Guardian, August 5, 2026).
Michigan Primary Shows Continued Shift to the Left in U.S. – Patrick Martin (World Socialist Web Site, August 6, 2026).
The Real Meaning of Abdul El-Sayed’s Victory in Michigan – Robert Reich (The Guardian, August 6, 2026).
After Abdul El-Sayed’s Win in Michigan, Progressives Are Preparing for the Next Round Against AIPAC – Jake Johnson (In These Times, August 6, 2026).
Corporate-Funded Third Way Plans to Spend $15 Million Waging “War” on Progressives – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, August 6, 2026).
Israel Lobby Takes a Beating in Key U.S. Senate Race – Novara Media (August 5, 2026).
Outspent 9-1: Abdul El-Sayed Wins in Michigan – David Doel (The Rationale National, August 5, 2026).
Insurgent Candidate Victories Highlight Growing Movement Against Corporate and Elite Power: An Interview with John Nichols – Democracy Now! (August 5, 2025).
The Meaning of El-Sayed’s Victory – Nathan J. Robinson (Current Affairs, August 5, 2026).
Yes, the Left Won Big Last Night – Branko Marcetic (Jacobin, August 5, 2026).
Breakdown of the Biggest Wins and Losses for Socialist Candidates (So Far) – Mike Figueredo (The Humanist Report, August 5, 2026).
Abdul El-Sayed Could Be the First Muslim Senator. Here Are 5 Religion Takeaways from His Campaign – Ulaa Kuziez and Yonat Shimron (Religion News Service, August 5, 2026).
Centrists Are Not More “Electable” – Nathan J. Robinson (Current Affairs, August 3, 2026).

UPDATES: “Voters Are Fed Up”: Michigan Primary Forces Democratic Party to Accept Leftwing Shift – David Smith (The Guardian, August 9, 2026).
Abdul El-Sayed Embraces Trump Claim He Represents “Very Different” America – Eric Berger (The Guardian, August 9, 2026).
Francesca Hong, the Progressive Leading a “Messy” Race for Wisconsin’s Governor: “They’re Tired of the Status Quo” – Rachel Leingang (The Guardian, August 10, 2026).
“It’s Not Radical to Believe You Should Have Healthcare”: El-Sayed Hits Back at Trump, GOP Attacks – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, August 10, 2026).
Centrist Democrats Dismiss Abdul El-Sayed as a Freak Radical. Do They Want to Win in 2028 or Not? – Nesrine Malik (The Guardian, August 10, 2026).
The Dangerous Corporate-Funded Morons of Third Way – Robert Reich (Common Dreams, August 10, 2026).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• “Tonight Michigan Decides”
• Abdul El-Sayed: The Disruptor Michigan (and the Country) Needs
• “Our Country Right Now Is At a Crossroads”
• Jeff Waldorf: Quote of the Day – July 3, 2026
• Matthew Cooke on the Fallacy That Socialism “Doesn't Work”
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking American Democracy
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
• And So Here We Are

Tuesday, August 04, 2026

“Tonight Michigan Decides”

Today Michigan answers the biggest question facing the Democratic Party.

Does it want a progressive firebrand – or an establishment “centrist”?

Abdul El-Sayed – physician, former Michigan gubernatorial candidate, backed by Bernie Sanders, AOC, the UAW and 200+ endorsements – is facing Rep. Haley Stevens, backed by Chuck Schumer, Gretchen Whitmer and nearly $50 million in AIPAC spending.

This is the most consequential Democratic primary of the 2026 cycle.

Here’s why it matters beyond Michigan:

This seat is genuinely winnable in November. Michigan is a battleground state Trump won by less than a point in 2024. The Republican nominee is Mike Rogers – endorsed by Trump.

If El-Sayed wins: the progressive movement will have proven it can compete in a state Trump won – against $50 million in establishment money.

If Stevens wins: the establishment will claim the center holds – and the progressive movement’s winning streak ends here.

Three democratic socialists swept New York in a single night.

Troy Jackson clinched Maine.

James Talarico leads Ken Paxton in Texas – in three consecutive polls.

Cori Bush is fighting to take back her Missouri seat tonight too.

Tonight Michigan decides.

– Progressives for a Democratic Republic
via social media
August 4, 2026

8/5/2026 UPDATE

Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan Senate Primary in
Major Victory for Democrats’ Progressive Wing
– Associated Press
August 5, 2026

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Abdul El-Sayed: The Disruptor Michigan (and the Country) Needs
• “Our Country Right Now Is At a Crossroads”
• Jeff Waldorf: Quote of the Day – July 3, 2026
• Matthew Cooke on the Fallacy That Socialism “Doesn't Work”
• The Longstanding Fault Lines Within the Democratic Party Have Surfaced Again in Minnesota
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking American Democracy
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
• And So Here We Are

Monday, August 03, 2026

Abdul El-Sayed: The Disruptor Michigan (and the Country) Needs

I’m going to write something here that we all know is true but few are willing to just say out loud: There is a non-zero chance that the national Democratic Party, its donors and its media will decide to abandon/sabotage populist anti-establishment Democratic nominees in the upcoming general election.

Many in this corporate faction would rather such nominees lose – even if that means Democrats losing the Senate and governorships – than see these candidates win.

Why? Because if these candidates win, they threaten to change the Democratic Party and make the corporate faction irrelevant.

– David Sirota
via social media
August 2, 2026

The outcome of Michigan’s Senate race will have major implications for the balance of power in Washington, DC, and for the future of the Democratic Party. With primaries taking place tomorrow, August 4, many are paying close attention to the contest between progressive candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and establishment candidate (and AIPAC darling) Haley Stephens to see who will represent Democrats in November’s general election.

The Michagan race is at the heart of what’s being described as a “civil war” within the Democratic Party. Here’s how Astead Herndon of Vox outlines this longstanding intra-party conflict and explains why Abdul El-Sayed is the current central figure in it.

I’m supporting Abdul, as he’s the type of “threatening” politician we need. He threatens the corporate capture of our politics, and of the Democratic Party in particular. It’s a capture that has had a corrosive, corrupting influence on our politics for the past 40+ years.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson once said we need to “disrupt the corrupt” in order to return the U.S. to the democratic and humanitarian ideals of its founding.

I agree 100%; which is why I supported Williamson’s 2020 and 2024 presidential campaigns, and why I’m currently supporting non-establishment Democrats Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Cori Bush in Missouri, Elijah Manley in Florida, and Francesca Hong in Wisconsin. In addition, I’m also supporting independent socialist Kshama Sawant in Washington state as well as a number of Green Party candidates around the country, including Justin Flip in Oregon, Tony Dastra in Pennsylvania, Anthony Aguiler in North Carolina, Griselda Romero in Illinois, Andy Ellis in Maryland, Greg Stoker in Texas, and Steve Young, Jane Kirby, Seth Kuhl-Stennes, and Ngone Niang right here in Minnesota.

In introducing the following interview with Abdul El-Sayed on its YouTube page, The Lever notes the following.

Why have Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Sens. Chuck Schumer and Gary Peters endorsed Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary?

At a rally in Grand Rapids, The Lever’s David Sirota put that question to progressive Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. El-Sayed argues that party leaders aren’t worried he’s unelectable – they’re worried he’ll win and challenge a political system fueled by corporate money.

El-Sayed says AIPAC, Big Tech, Big Pharma, DTE, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and other powerful interests have helped drive nearly $70 million in spending against him.

“I’m not going there to make friends,” El-Sayed told Sirota. “I’m going there to get stuff done.”

8/5/2026 UPDATE

Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan Senate Primary in
Major Victory for Democrats’ Progressive Wing
– Associated Press
August 5, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
El-Sayed and Stevens Close Michigan Senate Primary Is Offering Different Visions for Democrats – Joey Cappelletti and Jacqueline Ganun (AP News, August 3, 2026).
Contentious Michigan Senate Primary Divides Democrats Over Direction of Party – Lisa Desjardins and Sam Weber (PBS Newshour, August 3, 2026)
Centrists Are Not More “Electable” – Nathan J. Robinson (Current Affairs, August 3, 2026).
Two Big Races: Leaked GOP Memo Admits Leftwing Candidates Frighten Them – David Doel (The Rationale National, August 3, 2026).
Abdul El-Sayed vs AIPAC: Michigan’s Real Primary – Al Jazeera (August 2, 2026).
Democratic Establishment Intensifies Attacks on El-Sayed as New Poll Shows Him Leading by Double Digits – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, July 30, 2026)
Why Is AIPAC Spending $30 million on the Michigan Senate Primary? – Michael Arria (Mondoweiss, July 30, 2026).
Sen. Ed Markey Backs “Bold Progressive Leader” El-Sayed as Pivotal Michigan Primary Nears – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, July 29, 2026).
Why Billionaires Fear This Candidate the Most – More Perfect Union (July 29, 2026).
Can Abdul El-Sayed Reshape the Democratic Party? – The Real News Network (July 28, 2026).
Democrats Need Michigan. They Can Win with Abdul El-Sayed – Sara Pequeño (USA Today, July 28, 2026).
El-Sayed and Stevens Clash Over AIPAC Funding in Final Debate Before Michigan Senate Primary – Democracy Now! (July 28, 2026).
$60 Million “Crutch” From Super PACs Is Proof That Stevens Isn’t Actually “Electable,” Says El-Sayed – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, July 28, 2026).
We’re the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For – Jill Stein (Green Party Videos, July 27, 2026).
Establishment Democrats Threaten to Abandon Abdul El-Sayed in General Election – Status Coup News (July 24, 2026).
“Underhanded” Stevens Sends Out Fake El-Sayed Press Release Claiming He’s Endorsed by Their GOP Opponent – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, July 23, 2026)
“The Fighter Michigan Needs”: Sen. Elizabeth Warren Endorses El-Sayed as AIPAC Spends $30 Million Against Him – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, July 20, 2026)
Rallying in Michigan, Sen. Bernie Sanders Says Primary Race Is Between Abdul El-Sayed “and the Billionaire Class” – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, July 19, 2026)
Progressive Abdul El-Sayed Faces Centrist Haley Stevens as Challenger Exits Michigan Senate Race – Democracy Now! (July 7, 2026).
Political Fault Line Over Israel Comes Into Full View During Michigan Democrats’ Convention – Andrew Roth (Michigan Advance, April 20, 2026)>
Socialist Kshama Sawant Says AOC’s and Progressives’ Strategy Isn’t Working – Jason Lemon (Newsweek, August 3, 2026).

UPDATES: What to Watch in the August 4 Primaries: Michigan Senate Race Tests Democrats’ Path Forward – Mike Catalini and Nicholas Riccardi (AP News, August 4, 2026).
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed Faces Off Against Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic Senate Primary – Democracy Now! (August 4, 2026).
Michigan Democrats Pick Between Moderate and Progressive in High-Profile Senate Primary – Joey Cappelletti (AP News, August 4, 2026).
AIPAC’s 2026 Spending Tops $100 Million – Including $30 Million Against El-Sayed in Michigan – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, August 4, 2026).
Michigan Democratic Senate Primary Is the Latest Test Between Progressives and the Establishment – Curtis Yee (AP News, August 4, 2026).
Progressives Aim to Defeat Both AIPAC Cash and Democratic Establishment in Michigan and Missouri Primaries – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, August 4, 2026).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

THE STATE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
• “Our Country Right Now Is At a Crossroads”
• Scotty T. Reid on James Clyburn as a “Defender of the Political Establishment and Its Policies of Oppression”
• Jeff Waldorf: Quote of the Day – July 3, 2026
• Mike Figueredo on the “Political Malpractice” of the Democratic Party
• The Time for Illusions Is Over: Henry Giroux on the Democratic Party
• David Norton: “The Democratic Party Serves Capital, Not You”
• Mike Figueredo: “Elected Democrats Have No Real Interest in Doing What the Base Wants”
• Ted Rall: Democrats Are Not “the Left”
• Exposing the Dark Money Network Secretly Funding Establishment Democratic Influencers
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• Howie Hawkins: “The Democrats Are Not the Answer to the Trump/Fascism Problem”
• The Longstanding Fault Lines Within the Democratic Party Have Surfaced Again in Minnesota
• Jeff Cohen on How Obama’s “Corporate Liberalism” Led to the Rise of Trump
• Progressive Perspectives on Bernie Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” Tour
• Eric Fernández: Quote of the Day – May 14, 2025
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• Democrat Talk on the Eve of Trump’s Return
• When Democrats Undermine Democracy
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking American Democracy
• “We Must Challenge the Entire System”
• Marianne Williamson: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is Not Enough to Win”
• Nick Cruse: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is the Privileged Position”
• Oliver Kornetzke’s Epic Takedown of the Liberal Tactic of Blaming and Shaming Leftists
• Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t

THE GREEN PARTY
• Campaigning With the Green Party
• With the Green Party at Twin Cities Pride
• Butch Ware on Why Third Parties Are Crucial
• Meet Some of the “People-Powered” Green Party Candidates for 2026
• “Green Wave 2026 is Global”
• “It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”
• Something to Think About – December 8, 2024
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
• We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
• The “Green Smoothie” Option
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
• Butch Ware: “I’m Not Here as a Spoiler”
• Jill Stein: “Americans Deserve Choices”
• Elise Labott on How Third Parties Can Revitalize Democracy
• Third Parties and the Historical Record
• Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
• Howie Hawkins: “The Democrats Are Not the Answer to the Trump/Fascism Problem”
• Demolishing the False Narrative About Jill Stein and the 2016 Election
• Cornel West: “The Next Step Is a Green Step, a Progressive Step”
• Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein: Is a “Historic Collaboration” in the Making? (2016)
• Voting Green: Hope Over Fear

Opening image: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and Sen. Bernie Sanders at a campaign rally on July 18, 2026, in Detroit. (Photo: AP Photo/Jose Juarez)

Friday, July 31, 2026

July Vignettes

Awakenings

If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is illusionary and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.

– Laozi

Notice as human beings eliminate the need for illusions within themselves, forces of illusion are neutralized throughout the world. This occurs as consciousness expands. Our personal renunciation of fear, doubt, negative thoughts, words and harmful acts is reflected in the perception and experience of greater harmony everywhere.

– Liara Covert

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Sufism: A Call to Awaken
• Don’t Go Back to Sleep
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Peng Roden Her
• Awakening
• An Extraordinary, Precious Opportunity
• The Task at Hand
• The Beauty and Challenge of Being Present in the Moment
• Shining On . . . Into the New Year
• Awakening the Wild Soul
• Awakening and Turning

Image: Tyrel Dulvarie in Bangarra Dance Theatre’s production of Dark Emu.

Thursday, July 30, 2026

Living From the Heart

My exploration of – and walking on – the mystical path known as the Sufi Way continues this evening with my sharing of Living from the Heart: Universalist Sufism in America (2020), a 46-minute documentary film by Chuck Davis and Netanel Miles-Yépez.

In introducing this film on its YouTube page, the Inayati-Maimuni Order notes the following.

Living from the Heart offers an introduction to the mystical path of Sufism as expressed in the universalist Sufi teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan by contemporary Sufi teachers in America. [Note: “Hazrat” is an Arabic and Turkish honorific title used to show respect to a righteous person, prophet, and/or teacher. It is commonly used in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. The word literally translates to “presence, appearance.”]

The film contextualizes Sufism as a spiritual path of the heart, addressing the distinction between Islamic Sufism and Universalist Sufism, and introduces viewers to Sufi teachings on Love, Beauty, Music, God, and the Sufi practices of Zikr (remembrance) and Pilgrimage.

Locations in the film include: The Abode of the Message, New Lebanon, New York; The Boulder Dushanbe Tea House, Boulder, Colorado; Lama Foundation, Questa, New Mexico; Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon; Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado; The Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, California; and Precita Park, San Francisco, California.

Living from the Heart features interviews with: Taj Inayat, Senior Teacher, Inayati Order; Shabda Kahn, Pir of the Sufi Ruhaniat Order; Satya Inayat Khan, Inayati Order; Zia Inayat-Khan, Pir of the Inayati Order; Netanel Miles-Yépez, Pir of the Inayati-Maimuni Order; Deepa Gulrukh Patel, Teacher, Inayati Order; and Jennifer Alia Wittman, Executive Director, Inayati Order. Also featured are: Sukhawat Ali Khan, Traditional Qawwali Singer; Amir Peter O’Laughlin, Sufi Musician; Lucas Kestrel Sego, Coordinator, Lama Foundation; and Aziz Isaiah Abbatiello, Traditional Mevlevi Whirler.

The Wild Reed

Monday, August 10, 2026

Quote of the Day

Sunday, August 09, 2026

No Plausible Justification

Friday, August 07, 2026

“Like a Stream Running Into the Ocean”

Thursday, August 06, 2026

“A Beautiful Thing”

Why the American Political Establishment Is Panicking

Tuesday, August 04, 2026

“Tonight Michigan Decides”

Monday, August 03, 2026

Abdul El-Sayed: The Disruptor Michigan (and the Country) Needs

Friday, July 31, 2026

July Vignettes

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