The old folklore tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes is oh so symbolic of MAGA “thinking”. Ignoring the evidence in front of their noses his sycophants instead have chosen to carry on embracing his lies as “truth” and by doing so they have empowered him to continue. This past week has however been a real joy for those of us that prefer to live in reality. It is one that has seen their orange messiah forced to sit in silence in court all day, every day for the first of his multiple criminal trails.
This past week was week 1 – jury selection. Now that sounds very dull.
Well …. pause that thought, because while he was napping it was not a total snooze for him.
Picture in your mind what was actually going on. As they selected potential candidates for the Jury, part of the vetting process involved reading out tweets by some where they had previously said stuff about Trump. He was legally required to sit there listening to it all and remain silent.
Really?
How has MAGA responded to it all?
Oh come now, you know how this stuff plays out by now.
We have prayer requests like the following pop up from MAGA Pastors …
- Rather obviously Pastor Shane is admitting that Trump is guilty and therefore the jury must be sabotaged by God.
- He could pray to end world hunger, end poverty, bring about world peace, but no, his decision is to pray to God to mess up a trial for his beloved cult leader.
Now that Trump is stuck in court, Blago thinks this is “election interference“. He clearly does not appreciate that because the GOP picked a guy with 91 indictments against him they now face the consequences of making that choice …
Over the next weeks his core base will no doubt continue to cling to their delusions. The impact here is that their “dear leader” presidential candidate is legally obliged to sit silently on the sidelines while others lay out the evidence of his crimes for all to see over the next six to eight weeks. I’m really hoping that this rather robustly alienates the swing voters. They will most probably be the people that get to decide the election in November.
Moving on, below you will once again find my usual selection of some truly bizarre and extreme claims that have popped up during the last 7 days. Each is laced with my snarky commentary.
With my usual hat tip to my various sources, let’s once again dive into this very murky pool of absurdity and stupidity.
Christian Nationalism
The Center for Renewing America, a Christian nationalist organization, released a document asserting that the “Great Replacement” is real and not just a white nationalist conspiracy theory.
- It appears that the goal of the “Center for renewing America” is all about the renewal of the Ku Klux Klan
Ben Zeisloft declares that “the ethics of the Bible should impact every level and facet of our government.”
- Hey Ben, exactly which Bible “Ethics” are you talking about here, do you mean the rules for slaves, livestock, children, the Ruling class, or none believers?
- Ben is very clearly your go-to guy if you are into the idea of being able to buy and sell humans, or stoning and burning people for blasphemy or witchcraft.
Charlie Kirk brought Kyle Rittenhouse to speak at Kent State
- He fitted right in. Kent State has a bit of a reputation for slaughtering protestors
The Cult of Trump
Why are right-wing pastors so eager to align themselves with Trump? Hard to say. Incidentally, Jentezen Franklin brags that his ministry has brought in “tens of millions of dollars” since Trump promoted his church: “If you’ll get some courage, pastor, God will pay your bills.”
- It’s all about the G word of course … no not God because no actual gods are involved. These guys are all in the same business as Trump, Grifting off the deeply Gullible. In other words, for both Trump and these pastors the Venn diagram of their marks is a perfect circle.
- It all reminds me of the bible story about Jesus turning up at the temple and being horrified that it was all about money, so he chased them all out because they had turned a place of prayer into a den of thieves.
Christian “Love”
Christian preacher Kent Christmas says the problem with young parents is that they don’t hit their kids anymore.
- Fact Check: Children who don’t get hit generally tend to have better outcomes in life than those who do – “Physical punishment of children: lessons from 20 years of research“
- He claims, the Bible says ‘spare the rod and spoil the child‘. It’s not true at all. That precise phrase comes from a poem by Samuel Butler called Hudibras. The phrase within that poem is actually a reference to Sadomasochism between lovers and not about beating kids at all.
Scott Lively is livid about former Vice President Mike Pence becoming a fellow at Grove City College: “If I were a parent of college-bound teens, I’d cross this twice-failed ‘college of Christian compromise’ off my list and keep them as far away from the traitor Mike Pence as possible.”
- For some, Mike Pence, whom I suspect actually believes and does not just cosplay, is indeed now a true heretic because he no longer supports their beloved orange Messiah.
This next tweet by Hemant highlights an example of being stuck with people who are quite determined to pop up with easy and simple answers that are just wrong …
- You might indeed be strongly tempted to suggest that the root cause of homelessness is housing supply, excessive rents/house prices, companies purchasing housing, land banking, stagnant wages, poor worker protection and unregulated capitalism … but no, this guy is here to tell you that you are wrong, it is just “sin” and so giving money to a charity to help the homeless needs to be robustly rejected.
- Side Note: He was the only guy to vote against the donation, everybody else voted for it, so I guess we got to see who the sinner here actually is. He also took down his Twitter and Facebook accounts so his constituents can’t contact him to point that out.
Abortion
Ali Alexander says there should be no rape or incest exceptions for abortion. Also, if an Uber driver transports someone they suspect might be getting an abortion, they should go to jail. Oh, and any family member who participates in a discussion about getting an abortion should also go to jail.
- One can only wonder how he feels about attempts to overthrow democracy by promoting rallies that promoted the fraudulent claim that the 2020 election was stolen (Yea, that was him)
- As for going to jail, he is a subject matter expert. Surprise! … he is a convicted felon, and went to jail after pleading guilty to felony property theft in 2007 and felony credit card abuse in 200. He then changed his name to hide all this.
Meanwhile in some good news, Nevada will let the people decide…
Book Ban Rollback in Florida
So yes, this bit of good news happened …
- The religious zealots created the weapon, and should not now be shocked that somebody picked it up and then used it against them. You can’t scour books looking for sexual references or content to be offended about — regardless of literary or social value and context —and then say that the obscenity found in the bible must be judged differently.
Meanwhile here is “Play Stupid Games, win Stupid prizes” part II.
- Meanwhile, you and I can see exactly what comes next. Satanists and Humanists plan to participate in the program whether he likes it or not. This is always how this crazy stuff gets defeated. As with the book ban, when any others step in they back down. If they don’t back down, then they lose on the Establishment Clause in court.
- Wiccans of Florida you also can be a school chaplain now.
Iran & Israel
The moment it happened was the moment I felt that it would trigger “end-times” folks. And yes indeed …
… and since we are on the topic, there was also this excellent observation …
Homophobia on Steroids
Christian hate-preacher Jonathan Shelley says he’s praying for Joe Biden’s death and that trans people should be executed.
- Mr Shelley is as usual making a rather compelling argument … for Atheism.
- If you are curious about what actually happens in his church, then here is a link to a sordid little tale that involves sex workers and much more.
Even Weirder
Right-wing commentator Lauren Chen says that women should not have the right to vote: “I don’t believe in democracy.”
- I’ve honestly no idea why she is speaking if she seriously thinks women should not have a voice.
MAGA pastor and GOP congressional candidate Mark Burns says there must be wall on the southern border because “there is a wall in Heaven” to keep people out.
- He appears to be admitting that having a wall of separation between church and state is actually a rather good idea.
- The weird twist here is that his wall placement justification suggests that immigrants are sinners who need to be excluded from a walled compound
- Reminder: Burns is the guy who manufactured an entirely fictitious biography for himself and then got exposed as a liar on CNN when they fact-checked it all.
George Santos thinks that what Congress needs is more people like him in office. (Santos was being interviewed by far-right broadcaster Stew Peters, who is a vehement antisemite, violent conspiracy theorist, vicious bigot, and virulent racist.)
- … because what we really need are lots more liars, crooks, and grifters in congress.
- It’s weird to see a deeply homophobic guy like Stew Peters interview an openly gay man George Santos. Despite that reality, they still need each other as they strive to be relevant, hence the interview happened.
If you start seeing a bunch of right-wingers claiming that “furries” are being allowed to bite, scratch and attack students at a Utah school, you can thank Libs of TikTok for making the false story go viral.
- Ideal fodder for the perpetually ready to be offended crowd who never actually care if the thing they are angry about is true.
Rudy Giuliani says that while slavery was terrible, “hundreds of thousands of white men died to free black men. Why don’t we celebrate that?“
- It is a rather well-known fact that there was a civil war in which rather a lot of people died fighting against those that wanted to have slaves. The bit that Rudy appears to have missed are all the civil war memorials dotted right across the landscape and also the observation that we have Memorial day every single year.
- One can only wonder what this former Mayor of NYC thought was actually happening during the annual NYC Memorial Day parade.
Rep. Maxwell Frost called out Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for complaining about white supremacists, noting that she eagerly appeared at a white nationalist gathering in 2022 …
The False Profit$
For a mere $100,000, you can sponsor Lance Wallnau and Mario Murillo’s “Courage Tour” political rallies/revival meetings aimed at helping Trump return to the White House.
- Who seriously has $100,000 to donate to a good cause and thinks, “Yep, this is indeed the best value I can get?“
- The only nation state on the planet where women can’t vote is Vatican City. For her, even Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan under the Taliban are places that are far too woke and progressive.
- “I have a 20 year record, over 20 years of prophetic words…” … er yea, of failed prophecies.
- His ego is large enough to form its very own gravity well.
MTG’s Space Lasers are back
This is what happens when you elect an idiot to congress …
- One of her amendments called for space lasers to defend the southern border.
- As for the other … if indeed she refuses aid for Ukraine, then perhaps she should be required to enlist in the Russian military instead.
Would you believe that even Fox News now correctly labels her as an idiot. We have all known this from the beginning of her time in congress, it has apparently taken them several years to work it out …
“Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.” – William Drummond published within the final lines of “Academical Questions” in 1805
Conspiracy Of The Week
Stew Peters has been claiming that it is a verified historical fact that Jesus really was the only blond-haired, blue-eyed white guy in Galilee and that those that dare to doubt that are part of a satanic demonic plot to replace white western civilisation.
- What is perhaps even funnier is that your average Christian Nationalist wouldn’t serve *either* of the above guys at their cake shop.
- Very basic Fact checking says “WTF … er No” …
Statistic of the week?
Who embraces the Prosperity Gospel con as “truth”?
Apparently it is mostly those at the bottom end of the income spectrum.
- It is quite honestly not surprising. I totally get how people that are desperate for hope will reach out for something that offers them hope. It is tragic, not only because the hope is a total sham, but also because there are plenty of charlatans more than willing to take advantage of that desperation.
Reminder: Pro-Life leads to death, not life
Yet more evidence from this past week of what happens when you enact Abortion Bans …
…Pregnant patients have “become radioactive to emergency departments” in states with extreme abortion restrictions, said Sara Rosenbaum, a George Washington University health law and policy professor.
“They are so scared of a pregnant patient, that the emergency medicine staff won’t even look. They just want these people gone,” Rosenbaum said…
- Side Note: The baby in North Carolina later died
Finally…
The guys were also selling a brutally honest “Trump Bible” at a Trump rally with highlights such as “Thou shalt commit Adultery” and much more … (LOL) … here is a 7 min clip of it all …