The Cult of Fools – “Trump Empire in Financial Trouble” – Oct 31, 2021

Since you have kindly come to my virtual door on Halloween by opening up this posting, I have a real treat for you.

Reuters reported on Fri (Oct 29th) that Trump’s real-estate empire is in serious financial trouble because of his poisonous politics. They point out that the root cause of the challenge he now faces financially is that the Trump Business Brand is now utterly toxic to many. Here are a few key extracts …

…Revenues from some of his high-end properties have declined, vacancies in office buildings have increased and his lenders are warning that the company’s revenues may not be sufficient to cover his debt payments…

…Prospective tenants in New York are shunning his buildings, one real-estate broker said, to avoid being associated with Trump. Organizers of golf tournaments have pulled events from his courses…

…The Doral resort and Washington hotel, along with a hotel in Chicago, are secured by about $340 million in loans from Deutsche Bank AG, Trump’s biggest lender. But the bank has no appetite for more business with Trump and has no plans to extend the loans after they come due in 2023 and 2024, a senior Deutsche Bank source told Reuters on condition of anonymity…

That alone is not the full story, there is also this twist …

…The company and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, have been charged with a scheme to evade payroll taxes, and investigators continue to probe whether Trump or his representatives committed fraud by misrepresenting financials in loan applications and tax returns…

If I was booking a hotel room and faced a choice of a Trump hotel room for next to nothing or anything else at a higher rate, I’d personally not pick the Trump option. Many others feel the same.

To be honest, given his utterly toxic politics, I do indeed get a truly warm fuzzy glow at the thought that his reward for all his efforts might be bankruptcy and poverty. As the old saying goes, it really could not have happened to a nicer guy.

I could perhaps quote the bible – “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.“, but there would be no point because Mr. Two Corinthians only uses that book for photo ops.

So what else happened this past week?

Below you will find a selection of some truly bizarre claims that popped up during the last 7 days. So, with a hat-tip to my main source, Right-Wing watch, it is time to dive in.

The cult of Trump

Rachel Hamm claims that God told her that former President Donald Trump “sacrificed greatly” by leaving office after losing the 2020 election because he is “a good father” who knows that “sometimes their children do not learn lessons unless they learn it the hard way.”

• LOL … when you lose an election you leave office. It was not his “choice”.
• Her rhetroic has some rather creepy North Korean style “Dear Leader” overtones
• As an aside, as the candidate for Seceratery of State in CA, the only person who appears to have actually endorsed Rachel is Mike Lindell, AKA Mr Pillow. (See bottom of her website here)

Roger Stone Declares That ‘God Himself Gave Donald Trump the Strength and the Courage and the Wisdom to Pardon Me’

• Hot Tip: Neither God, Strength, Courage, or Wisdom played any part. The pardon was a very blatent abuse of the rule of law. Even Mitt Romney called it an “unprecedented, historic corruption,“
• Is this on par with Nixon’s “dirty trickster” getting a pardon? Indeed yes, Stone started his career working for Nixon in the 1970s as Nixon’s “dirty trickster”.

The Big Lie and Other Conspiracies

Rolling stone (Oct 24): Jan. 6 Protest Organizers Say They Participated in ‘Dozens’ of Planning Meetings With Members of Congress and White House Staff

• Now we know why the GOP were desperate to shut down the Jan 6 investigation.

Charisma is promoting a documentary about the “ReAwaken America Tour” that has been spreading right-wing anti-vaccine, election, and QAnon conspiracy theories in churches around the country.

• Charisma is fast becoming a leading light within this pro-death cult.

Lauren Witzke is now claiming there were 123,000 fraudulent ballots cast in Delaware and that the 2020 Senate election was stolen from her: “Chris Coons is not the U.S. senator from the state of Delaware. It’s looking like Lauren Witzke is.”

• And the evidence for her claim is …. oh come now, you know this song … exactly nothing credible at all.
• Incidently, this is the same girl who previously claimed that the COVID-19 vaccine is a Satanic plot to cause mass death
• If you are perhaps wondering if she is on drugs or something, you may actually be correct. In August 2017, she was arrested in Tennessee on a series of charges including violating both heroin and methamphetamine laws, driving under the influence, resisting arrest, and introduction of contraband into a penal facility. She has also previously admitted that she worked for Mexican drug cartels or “cartel families” as a “low-end drug-runner” … and this was the GOP candidate for election.
• Perhaps the cherry on this cake is her self-confessed belief that the world is flat because it beautifully illustrates the strength of her disconnect from reality.

COVID-19

Dan Corner of Evangelical Outreach warns that “the nearness of the mark of the beast (MOTB) via the ongoing worldwide covid PLANdemic and the ever-tightening restrictions on humanity are aligning with scripture in amazing detail.”

• Whatever is currently happening generally tends to “align with scripture in amazing detail”. It’s been like that for the last 2,000 years because vague Bible imagery can be applied to almost anything. It’s the ultimate Rorschach test.

Stella Immanuel, one of MAGA world’s leading anti-COVID-19 vaccine “experts,” claims that many world leaders are clones inhabited by demons whose “job is to make laws that will cause people to die. And you know why? Because they are blood drinkers.”

• If your COVID vaccine “expert” is a grade-1 class-a nutter, then you really do need to find another “expert”.
• The above is not her having an off day or being quote mined, she has always said crazy stuff.
• Here is a gem of a claim: many gynecological illnesses are the result of having sex dreams with succubi and incubi, and receiving demon sperm; and that endometriosis, infertility, miscarriages, and sexually transmitted infections are caused by spirit spouses.
• Competing with that is this rather infamous claim claim of hers: space alien DNA is used in medical treatments and that “reptilian spirits” and other extraterrestrials run the U.S. government.
• She appears to be trying to compete with David Icke with that last one. Icke is the guy who promotes the “all our leaders are alien reptilians” claim, and also claims that he is Jesus. She is very much in the same league.
• She also said Illuminati are using witches to destroy the world through abortion, gay marriage, children’s toys, and media, and much more, it just goes on and on. Yes, you read that last bit correctly, in her muddled brain, “children’s toys” are part of an Illuminati plot to destroy the world. Remember now, for some, she is the “COVID vaccine expert” that they listen to.

Speaking of nutters, Rick Wiles claimed this past week that the COVID-19 vaccine is really “an operating system” that “takes control of your DNA”: “This is Satan himself bringing forth a diabolical scheme to alter the creation of mankind.”

• So … if the Vaccine is Satan’s tool, then is COVID itself from God, how does this work? It it a claim that God, the supposedly good one, wants you to die and be with him ASAP, but Satan, the supposedly evil one, is trying to keep you safe and keep you alive?
• Fact Check: If you have managed to read this far then I don’t need to tell you this, but for completeness here it is – none of the various vaccines can in any way alter your DNA, not even the mRNA ones.

I bet you thought that you were already in the “Truly Bizarre” section. Nope, not yet, that comes next.

Truly Bizarre

I started with Rachel Hamm, but hey, it has been a good week for her, so here is another entry. This past week she also proclaims that she is “kind of a forerunner,” meaning that she experiences in her personal life “whatever God is getting ready to do” on a national or global scale.

• Is she trying to tell us that the chosen one, her Lord and Saviour, her personal Messiah, Trump, F**ked her before he became president and did the same to the entire nation?
• Incidently, this past week she also says that she is running for secretary of state in California with the full knowledge that “they” might kill her and her entire family because “there are some things worth dying for. … I would rather be dead than live in a communist country.”. In reality the only actual thing that will happen is that she will not get enough votes to be elected and so will move on to step 2 in the GOP playbook and proceed to dine out on “stolen election” claims.

Mario Murillo declares that “a growing number of Americans believe Democrats are a threat to freedom, prosperity, and morality. And they are not just alarmed by voter fraud—they are enraged because the Left hates the middle class. They are enraged because the FBI has declared that moms who go to school board meetings are domestic terrorists.”

• He has a typo there. Where he has the word “Democrats” he really needs the word “Republicians” … the folks who don’t do demoracry anymore.

Pastor Shane Vaughn boasts that he has read everything written by the Founding Fathers during their time in Philadelphia while drafting the Constitution in 1787 and asserts that most of them wanted to create a monarchy and coronate George Washington as king.

• This is laughably untrue.
• If it was true that all he needs to do is cite a historical reference, but this is Pastor Shane, so facts are utterly irrelevent.

QAnon Influencer Accuses Democrats of Being Pedophiles. He Hides His Own Conviction With an Alias

• The title says it all – A QAnon influencer, David Todeschini, who has baselessly accused high-ranking Democrats of being pedophiles, is himself a convicted sex offender.
• He is apparently not just your average sex offender. He is officially categorized as a level three threat, according to New York sex offender registry, meaning that he is at “high risk of repeat offense and a threat to public safety exists.” That registry entry categorizes him as a “sexually violent offender.” Todeschini was convicted in 1999 of coercing an 8-year-old boy into sexual acts three years earlier when he was in his mid 40s

Gordon Klingenschmitt declares that legislators “need to obey God’s law and not man’s law.”

• Er .. no, we are not (yet) living in the Handmaids tale. I do wonder if the author, Margaret Atwood, is concerned that her book is being embraced by some as a to-do list.
• Kilngenschmitt’s stance of ignoring “man’s laws” is understandable. He wore his military Navy uniform while in the service at a political rally after being directly ordered not to do so, and was subsequently Court-martialed and tossed out of the Navy for doing this. They really needed to toss this guy, he was a real thorn in their side and was constantly pushing back against regulations so that he could promote his religious and political beliefs.

The American Life League proclaims that “Joe Biden is no more Catholic than is Lucifer”: “Pope Francis needs to hold Biden accountable and demand he spend every moment he has left on this earth publicly repenting and atoning for the evil of abortion that he has empowered.”

• Meanwhile, when Biden actually met with the Pope on Oct 29 he was warmly welcomed. Francis told him he was pleased he was a “good Catholic,” and that he should continue receiving communion.
• How should we read this guidance from the American Life League? Like this perhaps – Pope warmly greets “Lucifer” and advises him to continue receiving communion.

Glenn Beck says that the violence directed at Christians in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S. forces will soon start happening in the United States: “Tell me we are that far away from this in our own country.”

• Glenn is in one sense correct, but not in the way he means. It is the right-wing nationalist Christians in the US, such as Glenn, who deeply yearn to behave like the Taliban and impose their beliefs upon everybody by force.

Do you remember when former President Barack Obama was in office, and it was almost impossible to say “Merry Christmas,” but then Donald Trump was elected and everything was great? Delora O’Brien and Rachel Hamm sure do.

• Delora and Rachel are suffering from False Memory syndrome.
• Fact Check: Obama went on TV every year and literally said “Merry Christmas” to millions, for example 2016.
• Meanwhile, in Trump’s own stores and hotels … no “Merry Christmas”.

The False Profit$

Pastor Perry Stone is “beginning to believe that a majority of elected leaders are actually either smoking dope on the side, or living in a total fantasy land.” …. “Only when the King returns will the planet be saved and the Kingdom have peace and prosperity.“

• Well … that’s a valid comment when you look at how many of the Republician elected officials have been voting in the house.
• He does not appear to know that we are not a “Kingdom”, we settled that issue back in 1776.

Lance Wallnau prophesied over right-wing conspiracy theorist Anna Khait.

• “Prophesied over” is basically proformative theatre. What he actually said was religious speak that is actually meaningless and content free.
• If you are wondering “who”, she is the Professional Russian poker player, and reality TV star on Survivor, who was implicated in the plot to spy on US government employees, so naturally the right-wing fundamentalists have embraced her as one of them.

Mark Burns, a MAGA pastor who is running for Congress, spoke at Greg Locke’s church Sunday, where he fired up the congregation by declaring that Locke likewise needs to run for office “because we need demon-killing machines” to serve as elected officials.

• I had no idea that “demon killing” was part of the job description for elected officials. This guy aoppears to think that the 2012 movie, “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” was a historical documentary.
• If demons actually existed, how does one kill a supposedly eternal supernatural entity? (answers on a postcard please)
• If you are wondering if these guys are clowns, then wonder no more. Locke holds his services in a circus tent.

Pastor Shane Vaughn Promises That God Will Remove ‘Profane, Wicked’ Biden and ‘Overturn the Election’

• And here is this week’s clickbait from Shane.
• He had of course previously promised that Trump would win.
• Meanwhile in Shane’s topsy-turvy world, Biden, the guy who faithfully goes to church every single week, is the evil one, and Trump, the guy who never goes to church and mocks those that do, is his personal Lord and Saviour of choice.

Should we be angry about all of this Rhetroic?

No, not at all. A far better response is laughter and mockery.

I look upon it all as free entertainment.