This past week the Daily Show had a segment on the Santos expulsion …
We also discovered that George Santos now has a new career. He started with $75 a pop and for that he will appear on Cameo and say whatever you want him to say, and yes, people have indeed been leveraging that, so he bumped the price up to $400 and is reported to be making rather a lot.
Senator Megan Hunt was gifted a bit of Santos support.
No she is not giving this corrupt transphobic lunatic any money, it really was a gift …
For context, the above was sent by Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman to Senator Bob Menendez to troll him. Menendez is the Senator who currently faces bribery charges.
Will Santos get to keep all he is now earning, because he is basically cashing in on his convictions?
New York has a “Son of Sam” law, that allows the state or criminal victims to block people from cashing in, but no, that’s a US state law and he is charged with 23 federal statutes, so it does not apply.
However, as any good lawyer knows, if you stand accused of criminal charges the guidance is “Don’t talk to anybody”, yet here he is babbling away on Cameo. If he starts looking for a plea deal, all these Cameos would be evidence that he shows no remorse and so they have the potential to hurt him legally.
“It’s going to be tough to go in front of a judge if he’s being sentenced and ask for some mitigation when he hasn’t really taken the whole process seriously, and that he tried to profit by getting expelled from Congress,” Mangino said. “So I don’t see how this won’t be bad for him in the future.”
Oh and one last thought. Tempting as it might be for some, you probably should not be giving your credit card number in exchange for a Cameo to a guy who stands very credibly accused of numerous forms of financial fraud.
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
Mike Johnson told a gathering of Christian nationalists last night that weeks before he became House Speaker, “the Lord told me very clearly” to prepare to become a “Moses” who will lead the nation through a “Red Sea moment.”
- Soooooo … he is hearing voices telling him he is the chosen one to lead the people to the promised land. Meanwhile back in our reality, when their previous leadership fell apart he was the crud at the bottom of the barrel chosen, not by a god, but by his colleagues.
- However, if this means that he, along with MAGA, spend the next 40 years alone by themselves off in some wilderness, then yes, I’m all in for it.
Tim Barton (son of pseudo-Historian David Barton) declares that Jesus cares deeply about economic issues because “there are more parables [in the Bible] that deal with money, that deal with economics than any other topic.” Tim Barton obviously shares his father’s ignorance about how biblical parables work.
I really can’t resist doing nothing on this one except to literally quote from the Jesus he claims to believe in but rather obviously does not …
- “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Matthew 19:21).
- “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25).
- “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).
- Well OK, one observation. One of the problems with leaning upon religious texts such as the bible and not using reason, empathy, and compassion to think things through yourself is that the text is the ultimate Rorschach test. Reading it is akin to looking up at the patterns formed by clouds and seeing the biases and images that already swirl around inside your own head, then concluding you have seen “truth”. This supposed ultimate guide to morality is so vague and fuzzy, so open to interpretation, that it can be used to justify literally anything. When a stance is then taken, you can always find quotes that rather obviously conflict, such as the above.
Christian “Love”
Hemant flags up this lunacy that was in play this past week …
- To be wholly clear, the fetus is dead, the woman’s life is at risk, she’s not “murdering the child”, yet they still push for her to risk her health for no ethical or moral reason, as an appropriate sacrifice for their insane religious beliefs.
- Quote via CNN here: “Before the state’s Supreme Court weighed in, attorneys for Cox and the Center for Reproductive Rights, an abortion rights legal group representing Cox, said Paxton’s petition to block her procedure was “stunning” and showed a “disregard for Ms. Cox’s life, fertility, and the rule of law.”
Homophobia on Steroids
Lauren Witzke declares that … “we must continue to shame homosexuals and surrogates who participate in the operation of baby-harvesting from rental wombs.”
- Ah yes, Lauren Witzke, the lady who used to work for Mexican drug cartels as a drug mule, and has also claimed that the earth is flat, and that QAnon is all true … we should all pay attention to her intolerant homophobic views because her grasp of reality is indeed well grounded (in Narnia).
Christian hate-preacher Joe Jones says FOX News is “crooked” because they never talk about how “we need to get rid of the sodomites.”
- He justifies his stance by claiming that if gay people are gotten rid of then pedophilia would be down. If he actually cared about pedophilia, then its the priests and youth pastors that actually need to be regulated.
Conspiracies
What is Kirk Cameron up to these days? Giving interviews to QAnon/PizzGate conspiracy theorist Liz Crokin, who naturally asked him about the existence of “pedophilia [and] Satan worship that’s rampant in Hollywood.”
- Er … hold on a moment, why exactly would Kirk Cameron know anything about Hollywood, he is a 53 year old guy who was once playing a kid in a teen show, Growing Pains, more than 30 years ago.
Weird
James Dobson writes on WND (a.k.a. Wing Nut Daily, a site well known for the promotion of numerous whacky conspiracies) about how he is outraged that President Joe Biden … “issued a Thanksgiving proclamation that didn’t mention God at all”: “I believe it reflects the growing secularization of America and the ongoing effort to rip America out of the rich soil of Judeo-Christian civilization.”
- Somebody needs to explain to him using crayons that Thanksgiving is not a Christian festival, nor is everybody in the US a Christian, it is for all of us, not just the religious.
- When it comes to things we are all deeply thankful for, one of the items on the list is that we are indeed sincerely thankful that Mr Dobson is unable to implement his vision for US society. It is one that is deeply homophobic and intolerant, and also includes the belief that kids should be vigorously beaten into submission.
Right-wing pastor Jack Hibbs says Jews are under a “God-given blindness” whereas “true Jews” (i.e., “Jews that are complete”) are those who worship Jesus because “they didn’t get bogged down in Judaism, which … cannot save you.”
- This exact same guy was running a “Stand with Israel” event at his church … way back in the deep depths of … last week. In other words, he wholly supports them when they are murdering lots of innocent people, but does not support what they actually believe.
William Wolfe lays out his plan for restoring the American family: … “End no-fault divorce, End abortion, Reduce access to contraceptives, Require men to provide for their children as soon as it’s determined the child is theirs, End ‘sex education’ in public schools, End surrogacy, Overturn Obergefell.”
- Clearly the 1850s are calling out to this guy.
- He wrote a posting within which he assert that surrogacy is “fundamentally immoral, unethical, and sinful” because it is a “legalized form of ‘man-stealing,’ which God explicitly condemns in the Bible.” … yes, he claimed surrogacy is explicitly condemned by the bible … except of course for the ever so small inconvenient observation that this claim is BS because it’s not. His “justification”, for that that check, will reveal itself to be Olympic level mental gymnastics.
Kandiss Taylor claims that people mock her “because I represent what they have searched for their whole lives.”
- Searched for yes indeed … as in … keeping an eye out to ensure we avoid at all costs.
- For anybody unaware, Kandiss is the GOP candidate who ran for election literally using the banner “Jesus, Guns, and Babies” and then lost. She also promotes the whacky idea that planet earth is flat and anybody suggesting it is a globe is a conspiracist. When it comes to mocking her, it really is not jealousy, but more akin to a profound sense of relief that we are not like that.
- She has 46K followers on Twitter, most of whom don’t actually agree with her, they just hang about for the entertainment generated by her raw stupidity.
- Comedian John Oliver dedicated an entire segment to her last year. It’s 17 mins and truly is a wild ride. Enjoy …
The False Profit$
Evangelist Todd Bentley announced that he has been called by God to go to Congress and the White House in 2024 in order to prophesy and bring revival.
- Hey, what a coincidence. Many of us have also been “called by God” to go to Congress and the White House to keep an eye out for him and if he turns up have been directed by god to tell him to f**k off back home.
- Side note: this guy is not a US citizen, he is Canadian. He was also declared by an investigative panel in 2020 looking into accusations levelled against him, to be “unfit for ministry” (it involved sexual misconduct with both male and female interns, so it sounds like he fits right in with Mr Grab-them-by-the-pussy.
- Apparently his thing was to have sex with male and/or female interns after revivals, which is not exactly a traditional part of Christian ministry … but can be argued involves a missionary position.
Joshua Feuerstein has tossed his hat into the ring
As observed by Hemant … “Christian grifter Joshua Feuerstein says he’s officially a candidate for a Texas State House seat currently held by a pro-gun, anti-abortion Republican… who’s apparently not conservative enough.”
- He might manage to pickup the Mark Driscoll demographic (Driscoll is the bad-boy Evangelical).
- Feuerstein is the guy who would gained his 15 mins of fame back in 2015 making a fuss about Starbucks Festive coffee cups not being sufficiently religious
- Also, during the COVID pandemic, he dictated to Christians that “you don’t have to wear the mask, you got Jesus. You don’t need the vaccine, you got Jesus.”. Unfortunately viruses don’t check your beliefs prior to infecting you. Studies estimate that roughly 232,000 of the over 1 million COVID deaths in the US could have been prevented if idiots like Feuerstein had not taken this insane stance.
- He was also interviewed by the FBI regarding his involvement on Jan 6
Things that Never Happened
One more “miracle” claim, and as always, it comes with exactly zero credible evidence. All those asking the guy making the claim for details, and he just blocks and runs …
- Apparently with God, “All things are possible” … except when it comes to producing credible evidence. That’s always off the agenda
- Side note: this self appointed prophet (who previous promoted a Trump win in 2020) claimed last Feb that the next President will be DeSantis.
Pushing back against Banned Books
So this excellent move happened …
She is quoted, via here, as saying … “I’m not particularly religious. The Bible doesn’t hold significant meaning for me, and given everything that has occurred in the last couple of years, the banned books, they do mean something to me at this point,” Smith said Tuesday. She wanted to make clear “the commitment I’ve had to fighting for the books, and for our students’ freedom to read.”
Meanwhile …
Finally – Greg Locke’s Flat Earth Debate
The following is one truly wild ride of a flat earth debate between two whacky pastors, one of whom is Greg Locke.
Why would he do this?
Well because his church is spilt right down the middle on this.
The debate ends when one tosses his mike at the other. It’s wild that both debaters lost the debate.
In the clip below Owen Morgan slices and dices it all (and spends an hour doing so) explaining what is happening. Be warned, you will not be educated or informed, but you will be entertained.