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<\/a>\u2022 Rep. Jackie Speier has announced that, after 14 years as a Member of Congress, she would retire from the seat once held by her boss, Rep. Leo Ryan.<\/p>\nSpeier was one of two congressional aides who accompanied the congressman to Guyana in November 1978, and was grievously wounded during the shooting at the Port Kaituma airstrip which killed Ryan and four others.<\/p>\n
Making the announcement in a short video on November 16, 2021, Speier said, \u201cForty-three years ago this week, I was lying on an airstrip in the jungles of Guyana with five bullet holes in my body. I vowed that if I survived, I would dedicate my life to public service. I lived, and I survived.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the course of her congressional career, Speier referred back to her Jonestown experience numerous times in discussing pending legislation. The most recent example came in June 2022, following mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas, when she spoke in favor of a bill that would raise the minimum age to buy a semi-automatic weapon from 18 to 21.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a victim of gun violence,\u201d she said<\/a> during a hearing on the Protecting Our Kids Act.\u00a0\u201cI know what it does to a body, and I cannot believe that my colleagues don\u2019t recognize that prohibiting the sale of an assault weapon until the age of 21 isn\u2019t going to save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 \u201cDonald Trump also has well-documented mental illness, as do most messianic cult leaders. But his mental illness is what makes him dangerous to society, just like [Jim] Jones, [David] Koresh, and [Charles] Manson.\u201d \u2022 \u201c[Trump has] decided to become a warlord, and he\u2019s gathering his people around him much the way Jim Jones when he was under fire decided to hand out the Kool-Aid, much the way the movement in the 1930s around Mussolini and the one around Hitler in Germany, let\u2019s just be honest,” [Joy] Reid said. \u2022 \u201cKOOLAID VIDEO: Donald Trump’s rally in Ohio compared to Jim Jones’ lifestyle and referred to as ‘cult’\u201d \u2022 \u201cWhat’s the difference between Donald Trump and Jim Jones? Donald Trump would have charged you for the kool-aid!” \u2022 \u201cOn January 6, Trump was not much different from Jim Jones at Jonestown, as he urged his rabid followers to kill American democracy.\u201d \u2022 \u201cMany readers are probably too young to rememberJim Jones<\/em>\u00a0and Jonestown.\u201d \u2022 \u201c[The people of Jonestown] all died from cyan\u00adide poisoning, in blind support of Jim Jones\u2019 religious Big Lie.\u00a0\u2026 By way of comparative fast-forwarding to the scenario of cult personality leader former president Donald John Trump, one finds that a similar political Big Lie has been proselytised, promulgated and spread to the extent that the November 3, 2020, presidential election was \u2018stolen\u2019 from him.\u201d \u2022 A splinter group of QAnon \u2013 which itself has been the subject of comparisons with Peoples Temple \u2013 has suggested that the campaign to return Donald Trump to the White House could emphasize “the importance of physical death” and the need to “prepare” for a mass “termination event.” Negative48, a conspiracy group considered more violent than its progenitor, has included discussions of \u201cdrinking the Kool-Aid\u201d \u2013 although whether the reference is to the group\u2019s would-be opponents or to itself is unclear. According to one anonymous source<\/a>, the group \u201cis now quaffing a cocktail featuring industrial bleach,\u201d even as another reports that its followers are being “primed for violence.” Reminiscent of language from Jonestown\u2019s so-called death tape, the second unnamed source says Negative48 has begun “telling people that death is the transmigration of the soul, basically that after you die, you\u2019re going to be reincarnated \u2026 There are people who are convinced this is going down to Jonestown \u2026 I don\u2019t think this is going to end un-violently, whether it ends in mass death or not.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0The Jonestown site in Guyana continues to attract attention as a potential draw for tourists to the remote Northwest District of the country.<\/p>\n In late 2020, the Port Kaituma Tourism Working Group has formally dedicated the beginning of what it calls \u201cthe Trail to Jonestown.\u201d As the announcement on Facebook<\/a> read, \u201cThe group hopes Guyanese and international visitors will come to the site which is about 30 minutes drive from central Port Kaituma.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>\u2022 As the repercussions of the January 6, 2021 attack upon the U.S. Capitol continue to ripple across the country, and as former President Donald Trump continues to repeat his claims that that he is the legitimate president since the election of 2020 was stolen, the comparisons between him and Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones also continue to be made. Among the articles published within the last 12 months:<\/p>\n
\nTrump\u2019s Messiah Scam Increases His Threat to America<\/a>, Thom Hartmann, September 23, WhoWhatWhy<\/p>\n
\nFox News<\/a>, September 19, 2022<\/p>\n
\nKossy Derrick, Trending Gist<\/a><\/em>, September 18, 2022<\/p>\n
\nVox Populi: \u2018What’s the difference between Donald Trump and Jim Jones?<\/a>\u2019 Savannah Morning News<\/em>, July 24, 2022<\/p>\n
\nThe Cult of Donald Trump<\/a><\/em>, by James Risen, The Intercept<\/em>, July 22, 2022<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAre Trump loyalists part of a dangerous cult?<\/a>\u201d Editorial, Eastern Arizona Courier<\/em>, July 21, 2022<\/p>\n
\nDr Kwame Nantambu, \u201cExposing the danger of cult leaders<\/a>,\u201d The Trinidad Express, December 24, 2021.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n