Demons of Energy & MAGA: Alligator Alcatraz

In yesterday’s DM, we meditated on Rabbi Heschel’s commentary that “man’s worship of energy has resurrected the demon of energy.”

To look into the face of the “demons of energy,” one want look no additional than the swamp land of Florida the place a spot referred to as Alligator Alcatraz was constructed not too long ago with our tax {dollars}.

This notorious $450 million Dachau-like detention camp now awaits the upcoming peak hurricane season. (Its ground was already underneath water on its first night time of existence on account of an bizarre rainstorm.)

It has been referred to as a “ethical catastrophe zone—an environmental time bomb, a human abomination and a golden goose for Republican donors.”  A “demise entice ready for a storm surge.” Detainees live in “flimsy tents” surrounded by chain-link fencing. What may presumably go mistaken?

We’re knowledgeable that the meals is maggot-infested, there isn’t any entry to bathing, 24-hour lighting and Bibles are forbidden. “They took the Bible I had and so they stated right here there isn’t any proper to faith,” one detainee stated. 

Evidently cruelty and sadism are at its core and the message Steve Miller and others need to undertaking to the nation. Apparently, our tax {dollars} are within the fingers of sadists with limitless money to spend now that the newest price range invoice consists of billions of {dollars} for such establishments.

Greed can also be within the combine. The place has been constructed by personal contractors, CDRR Maguire, Doodie Calls and Garda World, who contributed over $2 million to PAC’s supporting governor Ron de Santis. The remainder of the Florida MAGA cult is cashing in as nicely by promoting ghoulish merchandise branded “Alligator Alcatraz.” Experiences are they’re “promoting like hotcakes” and donations to the state Republican celebration have surged.

In the meantime, environmental legal guidelines are being ignored—no environmental affect examine was made earlier than it was unexpectedly erected and environmental teams are suing based mostly on the Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act. The endangered Florida panther can also be jeopardized.

Says one commentator: “This isn’t America. It is a grotesque perversion of justice, governance and primary human decency.”

It might not be America, however it’s MAGA and final time I regarded MAGA gained an American election. So possibly we should always look tougher: Possibly hatred and sadism do lie within the coronary heart of (at the very least some) Individuals together with the Republican senators and congresspeople who voted for the newest price range that assures that sadism and institutional violence flourish in our nation.

I might hope that the 90 million Individuals who sat out the final election may get up a bit (oh,that’s proper. MAGA and Florida have banished the phrase “woke” from our vocabulary, haven’t they?). Ninety million Individuals sat out the final election and 76 million voted for a felon 34 occasions over for president and Alligator Alcatraz is what all of us acquired. And SCOTUS in its infinite knowledge says the president can’t be prosecuted for crimes. So I’m sorry to say that I believe that is America. For now.

Nevertheless it doesn’t should be if individuals select to intervene. Which is, as Rabbi Heschel instructs us, the work of the prophet. Which should be everybody with a conscience.

And allow us to not neglect that the identical individuals who introduced us Alligator Alcatraz are additionally aspiring to deliver concerning the finish of Nationwide Public Radio and PBS tv.

Why? As a result of they dare to report factual information–information which isn’t at all times flattering to the expensive chief. Will America plummet even deeper into ignorance in consequence? Did voters vote for that? I hope not. Keep tuned. Resist. Protest. Intrude.

Laurie Woodward Garcia, “Swamp of Corruption: How Republican Donors Cashed In on Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Whereas Detainees Face Inhumane Circumstances.” Folks Energy United, July 12, 2025.

See Matthew Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Prophet for Our Occasions, pp. 7f.

See Fox, Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election.

And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Remodeling Evil in Soul & Society.

And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice.

And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Presents for the Peoples of the Earth.

And Fox, Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.

Banner Picture: The White Home occupant views the inside of “Alligator Alcatraz”: chain-link cages in canvas tents supported by aluminum poles. Official White Home photograph, Wikimedia Commons.

Queries for Contemplation

How are you selecting to intervene with the demons of energy which have given us Alligator Alcatraz and are fatly funded in  the brand new price range handed by Congress? And with the hassle to close down NPR and PBS?

Really useful Studying

Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time

Whereas Matthew Fox acknowledges that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers all through historical past, he additionally needs to introduce Eckhart to as we speak’s activists addressing modern crises. Towards that finish, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Wealthy, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and plenty of others.
“Matthew Fox is maybe the best author on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has efficiently bridged a spot between Eckhart as a shamanistic persona and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith motion, to disclose simply how cosmic Eckhart actually is, and the way remarkably related to as we speak’s non secular disaster! ” — Steven Herrmann, Writer of Non secular Democracy: The Knowledge of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Ahead

Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election

Matthew Fox tells us that he had at all times shied away from utilizing the time period “Anti-Christ” as a result of it was so typically used to unfold management and worry. Nevertheless, given as we speak’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables on this e-book using the archetype for the reason for justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a second, for inspecting the archetype of the Antichrist, it’s now…Learn this e-book with an open thoughts. Good and evil are actual forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, creator of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For rapid entry to Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE. 
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white photos, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE. 
To obtain a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for rapid obtain.

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Remodeling Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling creator Matthew Fox gives a brand new theology of evil that essentially modifications the standard notion of fine and evil and factors the way in which to a extra enlightened remedy of ourselves, each other, and all of nature. In evaluating the Jap custom of the 7 chakras to the Western custom of the 7 capital sins, Fox permits us to suppose creatively about our capability for private and institutional evil and what we are able to do about them. 
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a greater imaginative and prescient and depth of notion far past the grasp of anyone single science.  A breath-taking evaluation.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, creator of Quantum Theology: Non secular Implications of the New Physics

A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice

In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the that means and observe of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the longer term that guarantees private, social, and international therapeutic, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, main the way in which towards a gentler and extra ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate exercise.
“Properly price our deepest consideration…Places compassion into its correct focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Presents for the Peoples of the Earth

Fox’s spirituality weds the therapeutic and liberation present in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of each non secular and political persuasion to unite in a brand new imaginative and prescient by means of which we be taught to honor the earth and the individuals who inhabit it because the reward of a great and simply Creator.
“A watershed theological work that gives a typical floor for non secular seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Apply.
“I’m studying Liberating Presents for the Folks of the Earth by Matt Fox.  He’s one which fills my coronary heart and thoughts for brand spanking new life regardless of a lot that’s violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.

Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

Matthew Fox lays out a complete new course for Christianity—a course that’s in actual fact very historical and really grounded in Jewish considering (the truth that Jesus was a Jew is commonly uncared for by Christian theology): the 4 Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an prolonged and deeply developed approach.
“Unique Blessing makes obtainable to the Christian world and to the human group a radical remedy for all darkish and derogatory views of the pure world wherever these might have originated.” –Thomas Berry, creator, The Dream of the Earth; The Nice Work; co-author, The Universe Story