Every time a Republican politician has refused to bow down and worship the MAGA god-king messiah they have in effect done the equivalent of taking their entire future political career prospects out into the yard, put a match to it, and burned it all to the ground. Despite knowing that this will most probably be the outcome, Pence has now very publicly refused to endorse Trump.
Well gosh; I just can’t imagine why, surely it can’t have been Trump setting a mob upon him on Jan 6 who wanted to murder him.
I know, I know, like me you might be thinking that Pence had no sign of finding his backbone for the past eight years. Only now, when he knows that he will not be VP, he decides to think “Ah Fu@k it”, and does this on Fox News.
He most probably understands that Jan 6 had already sealed the views of MAGA concerning him, so doing this now will at best only sway a few moderates who are on the fence.
Perhaps it’s a calculated move and he knows that Mr T is in the end game, so he hopes to ride in afterwards and make a bid for the big seat, or perhaps he really has had way too much of the shit and decided “Nope no more, I’ll take a pass on supping from the poisoned chalice“. Quite honestly I don’t know. While there has been, and still is, plenty to criticise him for, the act of finally growing a bit of backbone does merit a small round of applause.
I guess it was clear to those that had their finger on the pulse that this was coming. During the first GOP debate all who took part were told to sign a pledge to support the eventual nominee. Haley, Vivek, Tim Scott and DeSantis all signed. Pence, Christie, and Hutchinson refused.
Pence is not alone. Many who have been close to the orange turd-in-chief and know him best have also refused to endorse round two …
It is in one sense understandable. In all the years of working closely with Trump he only tried to have Pence lynched once.
Here is the actual announcement.
While he will not endorse Trump, I’d love to know who he will be voting for.
He was also asked this and said “I’m gonna keep my vote to myself. I would never vote for Joe Biden.”. He then proceeds to make a pitch for traditional Republican values. That really does feel like a long-game is being played here.
Meanwhile I speculate when he votes he will simply write himself in.
And yes, some such as Kristi Noem are indeed confused by it. Luckily they have friends who can help …
Trump Just Loves Court – It’s his favourite Place
Late Night TV is having a field day over Trump, and rightly so. No doubt they have worked out that clips on him will go viral, but hey, I’m up for it, so here you go.
Seth Meyers on Trump: ‘The guy loves court. He’s always there’ … and highlights the corruption and self-enrichment …
Jimmy Kimmel was also in the game … “The fun thing about these hearings is you don’t know if he’s going to show up,” he said. “He doesn’t have to come, but he sometimes does. It’s like when you go on a boat and sometimes you see a whale and sometimes you don’t.” …(From about the 3:17 mark to roughly 6 mins on the following clip) …
Meanwhile there was also this court revelation this past week …
To clarify what this is about, here it is.
- Alexander Smirnov was paid $600,000 in 2020 – the same year he began lying to FBI about Bidens’ role in Ukraine business
- “Follow the money” is a golden rule, and in this case it leads back to Trump. The US company, Economic Transformation Technologies (ETT), that paid the now indicted FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, in 2020 is connected to a UK company owned by Trump business associates in Dubai,. The source comes via business filings and court documents.
I’m honestly not at all surprised.
Christian Nationalism
Next is the stuff that we should also be deeply worried about – Christian Nationalism. These are the religious fanatics whose wet dream is to impose and force their utterly absurd extremist beliefs, not just upon themselves, but on all of us, both you and me. Here are a few samples from just this past week.
Ben Zeisloft admits that as a Christian nationalist, “I have no problem forcing my beliefs on others.”
- Jesus did a rather good job of telling his followers to not be like Ben.
- One can only wonder what Ben’s thoughts are concerning previous attempts at similar stuff such as witch burnings and the inquisition
- To be honest, I can’t help but wonder if he is simply trolling to provoke a twitter shit storm and thus earn income as a blue tick guy, or if he actually believes this. It may actually be both. (The link above is to his tweet in archive.com and not the actual tweet, so no traffic to him via me. The original tweet gleaned him half a million views and thousands of comments. When he get’s his ad revenue sharing income (as a blue tick guy) from Elon, he will be motivated to do more of the same. Twitter now rewards and encourages these blue-tick trolls).
Texas State Rep. Matt Schaefer said in a recent interview that every elected official in the country—from President down to dog catcher—must “worship God.” Their options, he added, are “obedience or rebellion.”
- Not “should”, or even “ideally”, but “must”!
- When faced with embracing crazy demands such as a divine right to dictate vs rebellion, then just like all the founding fathers, I vote for “rebellion”.
- As always, I wonder which specific god he has in mind, and wonder if we can simply make one up and then pick that one.
- Meanwhile, unlike him, you all know that the Constitution very clearly says “nope”.
Televangelist Kenneth Copeland recently made a slew of statements about George Washington and the founding of this nation, nearly all of which are false, starting with his claim that Washington put the phrase “all men are created equal” in the Declaration
- The RWW debunking of his fraudulent claims can be found here.
- As is often pointed out by many, if the various claims by Christian Nationalists were actually true, they why would they need to continuously promote rather blatant lies to establish their claims.
- As Washington himself “famously” said and is practised by Copeland “all men are entitled to private jet planes”, so he wants you to keep donating because those jet plans don’t buy themselves. (you do of course believe that qu)
Christian nationalists like Dutch Sheets love to spread pseudo-history that has been repeatedly debunked. No, God was not “the most quoted person among all the writings of our Founding Fathers.”
- And here is the RRW for this bogus claim.
- “It’s an indisputable fact …” says the guy quoting lies that are not just disputed, but completely refuted by actual historians.
- “This is all undeniable” says the liar who promotes very deniable fiction.
Floyd Brown explains what it means for right-wing Christians to take dominion over the “Seven Mountains” of society: “If you’re a teacher and you’re in the school system, it’s your job to be Christ in that school system.”
- Background: Floyd Brown, is currently serving as chair of Kari Lake’s Senate campaign. This is part of her attempt to tap into the Evangelical demographic for support.
- Things we all know: When he says “to be like Christ”, he does not mean feeding the hungry, tending to the sick, or loving them unconditionally. The phrase refers to Republican Christ, and so it is code for hating LGBTQ people, pissing all over healthcare choices, and banning lots of books.
This intense sermon would be disturbing enough coming from a random pastor. It’s even worse when you realize it’s Oklahoma State Sen. Dusty Deevers calling on Christian men to go to war for Jesus.
- For context, he was preaching on 2 Timothy 2:1-7, which is imagery about Christians being soldiers for Jesus. As written, the text is explicitly about working to please your commander, the one in charge. It says [“Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer“] The imagery isn’t at all about imposing Christian beliefs on others, but that’s exactly what it is being re-purposed and perverted for here, and that’s the problem.
- The issue with such texts is the vagueness. How do you please commander Jesus? For some that would mean feeding the poor and helping the homeless, but for guys like Deevers and many others, it means hating the LGBTQ community and forcing his beliefs on others so that we all become “dominionized”.
Lies, Damn Lies, and Barton
David Barton is the source of much of the false history peddled by Christian nationalists. For instance, he originated the claim that the Founders quoted the Bible more than any other source. That was debunked over a decade ago, but Barton keeps repeating it.
- It is important to keep pointing out not only that he is lying, but that he knows he is lying.
- Call me a tad picky, but doesn’t the God he believes in have a commandment about lying?
Tim Barton, son of David Barton above, says that the “history” produced by he and his father is different because “we know there is a God, and therefore we don’t try to disconnect the God aspect from the story of history.”
- Er … yes … it is indeed different, principally because neither of them are actual historians. Instead, as he confirms, they are religious fanatics with an agenda.
Trump vs Biden
Christian “Love”
Right-wing pastor Jack Hibbs is trying to pretend that the controversy over him delivering a prayer in the House of Representatives last month is being driven by people who are upset by the Christian content of his prayer. In reality, the controversy is over House Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to invite Hibbs to deliver a prayer in the first place, because Hibbs is a bigoted conspiracy theorist.
- Reminder: When considering why he is controversial, then consider … his anti-LGBTQ stance … and … him praying that God will forgive California for electing “people with antichrist worldviews to office,” like Nancy Pelosi, a devout Catholic, and Kamala Harris, a Baptist, … and … him bizarrely declaring that anyone who believes in evolution must oppose gay marriage because “Nothing comes of it. No life can come from it. No family can come from it.” … and … his declaration that being trans is satanic and is caused by demons … and … well you get the idea, just rinse and repeat ad nauseam.
Fundamentalist Christian preacher John MacArthur recently claimed Martin Luther King, Jr. was “not a Christian at all.” In the past, he’s also said that slavery can come with “benefits.” He’s getting backlash. But not nearly enough.
- There’s no hate greater than Christian love!
Homophobia on Steroids
Gordon Klingenschmitt is angry with Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin for signing a law protecting marriage equality in the state: “Youngkin betrayed conservatives, but God will never recognize sin, even if states do. Youngkin did no favors to the sodomite community.”
- Younkin betrayed nobody, he simply listened to his constituents
- Don’t get too excited about him being reasonable, while signing the marriage equality bill, he also vetoed a bill designed to dial back the book-banning frenzy in Virginia.
Alex McFarland says that “gay nationalists are the real threat to America”: “With contempt for God and His followers, traditional Americans are slammed as ‘Christian nationalists.’ But let’s call the woke zealots what they are: Gay Nationalists.”
- “contempt for God and His followers” … Did it ever perhaps occur to Mr McFarland that enduring a lifetime of hatred, oppression, and denial of basic human rights from Christians is not exactly an effective strategy for winning hearts and minds or is he simply too stupid to make that leap?
- As for his claim that Christian Nationalists, those that strive to impose a religious dictatorship, are “traditional Americans” … er no, just no, there is literally nothing American about a Theocracy.
Christian pastor Mark Driscoll says the “demonic realm is transgender, non-binary, on a spectrum,” and that men who “serve the Jezebel spirit have to be castrated.”
- It’s weird that there are guys like this that appear to spend an extraordinary amount of time thinking and speaking about peoples genitals.
- Alternative Headline for this: “Pastor Mark Driscoll endorses and supports non-voluntary gender realignment surgery“
- Reminder: Driscoll was the pastor of the Mars Hill church that collapsed because he was vicious, abusive and controlling
- He also rather famously was caught plagiarising when writing his books, and also used church funds to boost the rankings and get on a bestseller list by buying ten of thousands of copies of his own book.
Racism Alert
Ben Zeisloft likes using AI to generate idealized images of white families in church because “it gets under the right people’s skin” and “white people are image-bearers of God.”
- Created in the image of Aryan Republican Jesus, the miracle of the only while blond-haired blue-eyed guy in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, and apparently nobody noticed except some medieval artists and Ben
Lauren Witzke is growing more overt about her racism.
- In her specific case, not being racist would be a huge surprise.
- Reminder: Before being a failed GOP candidate for election in Delaware, she was drug mule for Mexican cartels and also an addict. She then progressed to being a nutty QAnon promoting racist flat-Earther and so naturally got nominated as a GOP candidate for election.
Nazis-R-Us
Judging by the new promotional video he released for his show, radical right-wing broadcaster Stew Peters is now fully embracing Nazism.
- It did not work out all that well for the folks in Germany who tried this stuff, so I’m really not sure why he thinks giving Nazism another go will make it any better.
- And yes, this was on twitter where Elon continues to enable it to become more and more like Gab with each passing day.
Even More Deeply Weird stuff from the past week
John Amanchukwu fumes about criticism of North Carolina gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson, asserting that it is “overt racism” and “an acceptable modern day form of lynching.”
- When you say shitty stuff you will face criticism for saying that shitty stuff – no free passes.
- Mark Robinson: “Famous” for his Antisemitic remarks; Holocaust denialism; Anti-gay and transphobic comments; the claim that COVID was just a conspiracy to help defeat Trump and much much more. This is the GOP’s candidate for Gov in North Carolina, so a vote for him is a vote for all of that batshit crazy stuff. Apparently I’m now a racist according to Mr Amanchuk for pointing all that out
- You would think that electing a guy to an office that has a lots of financial responsibilities might be a tad concerning in the context of him having been bankrupt three times, and also failed to pay his taxes for almost seven years … but apparently not. So what could possibly go wrong?
- This next bit will not shock you, but apparently his inspiration, his hero, is Rush Limbaugh
Eric Metaxas’ hatred of President Biden is making him increasingly unhinged, as he calls Biden a “puppet of the devil” and declares that “this man is wicked”: “There’s an absolutely horrifying malevolence [about him].”
- “It’s just undeniable” says the guy who touts stuff that is not only way over the top but is also very deniable. Metaxas tosses out this judgemental rhetoric and then fails to cite any specifics at all to make his case.
- If he was actually talking about his beloved messiah, the orange rapist, then he would be on the mark.
David Lane says that “America has reached a point where we will have to decide whether to be pagan or Christian … and then get on with it. The restoration of America’s once Biblically based culture – put in place by the Founders – will require the de-paganization of the State. And with the State becoming less pagan and profane, the culture will naturally become more scriptural and spiritual.”
- The choice is not, and never was “pagan or Christian“, nor was the US ever a “Biblically based culture“. Either we have a neutral state that grants total freedom of religion, or you have one variation of religion enabled to oppress the majority with batshit crazy fanatical BS. That appears to be the choice we now face in Nov.
- When he says the state should … “become more scriptural and spiritual.”, then exactly what does that mean, who gets to decide that? He of course means his variation of belief, and would be deeply pissed if it turned out to be a Catholic or Mormon variation instead because as far as he is concerned, both of those are heresies.
Ben Zeisloft declares that “we need criminal penalties for adultery.”
- This will indeed be a popular proposal that Trump will be delighted to support … right?
- Translation: Another Blue Tick guy on twitter looking for a bump in his ad revenue sharing income, so is trolling his own base
The False Profit$
Retired Evangelical Pastor Jim Garlow declares that Glenn Beck is a modern-day prophet.
- Are Mormons also now permitted to be Evangelical prophets?
Self-appointed “Prophet”, Kent Christmas, owes $12 million to the bank to pay off his church’s mortgage, but he insists that the debt is “illegal” and a “lie of Hell” because the Bible says God’s followers are to be lenders, not borrowers.
- Bible enters stage left to announce … “The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously.” (Psalm 37:21)
- Apparently, it was not wicked and sinful when he was taking out the mortgage, that only happened when he needed to pay it back.
- It would be fascinating and also profoundly entertaining to listen in on the meeting between him and his bank when he tries to play this card.
Roasting Libs of TikTok
QAnon update
Dave Hayes, one of the leading promoters of the QAnon conspiracy theory, now claims that whenever Q specifically predicted the arrest or indictment of someone, it was “intentionally disinformation.”
- A conspiracy theorist is now claiming that there is a conspiracy to use conspiracy theorists to spread disinformation via conspiracy theories.
- … or to translate that for you, a prominent QAnon advocate now admits that all the Q stuff was a pack of lies and that all those that believed it stupidly fell for it.
- “I’m right! And when I’m proven wrong, I intended it that way”, and he actually believes there are people out there stupid enough to buy that (and sadly he would be correct about that).
- When faced with a 0-999 win/loss average (where dividing all the losses by all the wins means dividing by zero) then I guess this is the only move left to play.
If your response to the news in the tweet below is WTF, then yes, that is indeed the correct response …
McMansion Insights
Fraudsters using religion to con the gullible and enrich themselves.
Finally…
If you think we are weird, always remember that there are others nations that can do weird on steroids …
- How does this naming work, did somebody read the Lord of the Rings and think, “hey, I can also have titles like that“.
Anniversary reminder that there is “losing the plot”, and then the next level up from that is called “Jordan Peterson” …
Being 16th was “stolen” from me …
We also all enjoyed “Isn’t it past your jail time?” this past week at the Oscars …
… and Tucker got successfully Pranked … (having announced via twitter it was a prank, let’s see if Tucker spots that or not and broadcasts it anyway next week) …