1/30/19: In an interview with the
Christian Broadcasting Network, Sarah Sanders makes it clear that if her boss
is having trouble here on earth there’s no cause for worry. He has one
celestial Fan. “I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at
different times,” she tells her CBN hosts, “and I think that He wanted
Donald Trump to become president [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted], and
that’s why he’s there.”
Apparently, God likes to play pranks.
Unlike Eric Trump (see below), this Democrat does the dirty work himself.
The blogger begins repointing his main chimney
*
____________________
“God lays claim to all firsts. So when you keep for yourself something that belongs to God you
are desecrating what is to be consecrated to God.”
Rev. Paula White, asking listeners to send
cash
____________________
Another Trump fan made it clear this week that we should not take chances when
it comes to His wrath. God, I mean. Not Trump.
Paula White, described as “the president’s spiritual adviser,”
and the woman who delivered the invocation at his Inauguration, believes her
supporters should, if they want God to bless them, pony up the dough.
$$$$$
“Each January,” she wrote in a missive to fans, “I put God
first and honor Him with the first of our substance by sowing a first fruits
offering of one month’s pay. That is a big sacrifice,” she admitted. “But
it is a seed for the harvest I am believing for in the coming year. And God
always provides!” (Certainly, God will always provide for White – so long as
her followers fall for her shtick.)
The results, White promised, would be “miraculous,” whether
her followers sowed a month’s pay, a week’s pay, or a day’s. “First Fruits has
impacted my life personally and the lives of countless others!” she wrote.
“First Fruits is more than just an offering … it’s a principle.”
Best of all, if you sent Ms. White $75 or more (and hopefully
one-twelfth of what you were going to earn in 2019) you would get one of her
books. Also: a Paula White calendar! Or you could NOT give and risk God’s fury.
“God lays claim to all firsts,” White insisted. “So when you keep for yourself something that belongs to God you
are desecrating what is to be consecrated to God.”
I think she meant you should send her a fat check before God
zapped you with a lightning bolt or sent locusts to eat all your crops.
*
Good wages, health care and a pension of some kind.
ERIC TRUMP, son of President Twitter Thumbs, wraps another day with an appearance on Sean Hannity’s
show.
We report, as they say at Fox News…that the president is great…that
Democrats are bath scum…and you decide we’re right.
Boiling down Eric’s message to its essence, we learn
Democrats have been “radicalized.” They’re a bunch of “socialists.” If they
aren’t stopped, the U.S.A. is going to end up like Venezuela.
The Democrats, he insists, don’t want law and order. They
want to tax people to death. They want to get businesses out of this country.
They want to let all the criminals in Mexico come waltzing across the border.
They want to bankrupt the system through free healthcare for all. “America’s about hard-working people,” Eric assures Hannity. “America’s
about capitalism. America’s the greatest country in the world because people
work for that American dream.”
Speaking as a typical Democrat, I can say that Eric is a
jerk.
I can also say with absolute confidence that our side has no
desire to destroy the American dream. In fact, as a liberal – not a socialist –
I believe all workers deserve good wages, health care and a pension of some
kind.
Unlike the Trump Organization, I do not hire the undocumented
to do all the hardest work around my house. And if I did, I wouldn’t be a
hypocrite and vilify immigrants at every turn. (See: 1/27/19.)
*
ERIC ISN’T THE ONLY TRUMP fired up today. Dad is furious after
his top intelligence officials called into question several of his claims.
Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on
Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and CIA Director Gina
Haspel both warned, in the words of Politico, that
the Islamic State remains a
forceful presence in Iraq and Syria, that North Korea is not likely to give up
its nuclear weapons, and that Iran is not yet seeking a nuclear weapon. They
also warned about foreign interference in U.S. elections, and declined to
classify the migrant crisis on the southern border a security crisis as Trump
has previously claimed.
This infuriated Dad and he responded with Twitter rage. “The Intelligence people seem to be
extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran,” he fumed.
“They are wrong! When I became President Iran was making trouble all over the
Middle East, and beyond. Since ending the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, they are
MUCH different, but a source of potential danger and conflict.”
Trump
also had the red ass over the comments by his intelligence chiefs about North
Korea, insisting angrily in another tweet, “North Korea relationship is best it
has ever been with U.S.”
As for
Coats and Haspel, the president grumbled, “Perhaps Intelligence should go back
to school!”
BLOGGER’S NOTE (4/24/21): In the last half of his administration, we now
know, Trump fails to bring Iran to the table for a better nuclear deal than the
one he ripped up. North Korea gives up exactly zero nuclear weapons. Again:
Diplomacy proves to be bitch. Trump leaves his successor with the same mess he
whined about inheriting when he took over. Diplomacy, the Golfing Leader of the
Free World finds out, is much harder than it looks.
11/5/19: Tuesday, 11,258 scientists
from 153 countries sign an open letter, warning the other 7.6 billion people
riding around on the only globe any of us have, that we’re all in trouble.
____________________
“Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity
of any catastrophic threat and to “tell it like it is.”
Open letter signed by 11,258 scientists,
warning of the dangers of climate change
____________________
They explain:
Scientists have a moral
obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to “tell it
like it is.” On the basis of this obligation and the graphical indicators
presented below, we declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from
around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a
climate emergency.
The climate crisis has arrived,
and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected. It is more severe
than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity
[emphasis added, unless otherwise noted].
The science they lay out in support is complicated and
extensive. Their warning is easily grasped.
“HOLY SHIT!” is what they’re saying.
Profound and sometimes wrenching social change may be forced
upon us in years to come.
How to achieve those changes will be cause for serious
debate.
Or we can do what President Trump does and ignore the problem
completely and go play golf.
The man in the cart really loves golf.
*
IN OTHER NEWS, Iran announces it has started up advanced new
centrifuges. This means the Iranians can more quickly produce material to
construct an atomic bomb. Some experts fear they can have a nuclear weapon within a year.
Iran has also announced that it doesn’t really want to build
a bomb. What Iran wants is “full
implementation of the nuclear deal.” That is: the deal that was signed by the
United States under Barack Obama, and by Britain, France, Germany, Russia,
China, and Iran.
That was the deal Trump tore
up.
Nice move, slick.
*
IMPEACHMENT is in the air. That means we can count
on Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Tx.) to say something asinine. On the floor of
Congress, he warns that Democrats are “about
to push this country to a civil war if they were to get their wishes.”
Yes, if Trump were to be
impeached and removed from office it would be time for all Trump fans to grab their
guns and start blazing away at anyone not
sporting a red MAGA cap. “And if there’s one thing I don’t want to see in my
lifetime, I don’t want to ever have participation in,” Gohmert says, “it’s a
civil war. Some historian, I don’t remember who, said, guns are only involved
in the last phase of a civil war.”
As a good liberal blogger, I
think I’ll just google: “Bill Clinton supporters threaten civil war if
president is impeached.”
Yeah.
Nothing.
No one talked about civil war.
*
HAS
ANY PRESIDENT ever been involved in as many court battles in office (and
before) as Trump?
Monday,
the Second U.S. District Court of Appeals rules that a lower
court order, requiring the president’s accountants to turn over his tax and
business records, as part of an investigation into possible campaign law
violations and fraud, should stand. Next stop: The U.S. Supreme Court.
The
president’s lawyers had argued that a president – any president – is immune
from any and all types of investigation while in office.
Another
court win for the people
of the United States could be shaping up. Lev Parnas, who had been toiling away
with Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine – only to be arrested – has signaled through his
lawyer that he will comply with a subpoena from the House Intelligence
Committee.
According
to Joseph A. Bondy, his new lawyer (Parnas had to fire his old attorney), “Mr. Parnas was very upset by President
Trump’s plainly false statement that he did not know him.” Parnas has
claimed to have had extensive business dealings and contacts with the
president. So,
if the House wants documents, Parnas will produce them. If they want testimony,
Parnas will speak – the only caveat being that he will retain his right to
plead the Fifth.
Meanwhile,
former Trump campaign gadfly, Roger Stone, is also battling federal charges in
court. Stone has been accused of perjury, witness tampering, and general
skullduggery. A good liberal never shouts, “Lock him/or her up!” till the
evidence is heard and a jury has rendered a verdict.
Still,
something tells me both Parnas and Stone may soon be joining the Team Trump
Felons’ Club.
*
WE
ALSO LEARN TUESDAY that Mr. Trump has added another grifter to his team. Paula
White will now be offering advice as part of a White House “Faith and
Opportunity” initiative.
My
comments here are not meant as an attack on religion, generally, or
Christianity, in particular. A good liberal supports the right of Christians to
worship as they please. Jews, Sikhs, Muslims, and Mormons are also cool.
Send those
“First Fruits” to Pastor White.
It
is not an attack on religion, however, to point out that Pastor White is
exactly the kind of charlatan one would expect to find joining Team Trump.
First, she’s been married three times, which is kind of a thing with Trump and
his crew. Second, as a disciple of Jesus, she goes in big for the perks that
come from preaching the Gospel. At one point, she and her second husband lived
in a Tampa Bay mansion worth $2 million. They also owned a condo worth several
million more – in Trump Tower New York City. Ms. White is much like
Trump when it comes to diligent pursuit of Mammon. She preaches the “prosperity
gospel,” which holds that God wants his faithful to find wealth and health. One
way to prove one’s faith is to send “First Fruits” to Ms. White.
God
be praised!
And
bank accounts!!
“Each January,” she wrote in one missive to fans, “I put God
first and honor Him with the first of our substance by sowing a first fruits
offering of one month’s pay. That is a big sacrifice,” she admitted. “But it is
a seed for the harvest I am believing for in the coming year. And God always
provides!”
(Certainly, God always provides for White, so long as her credulous
followers fall for her shtick.)
The results, White promised, would be “miraculous,” whether
followers sowed a month’s pay, a week’s pay, or a day’s pay. “First Fruits has
impacted my life personally and the lives of countless others!” she wrote.
“First Fruits is more than just an offering … it’s a principle.”
“I don’t
want pie in the sky by and by,” she likes to tell congregants. “I want some ham where I
am.”
As White
tells it, her life is proof God rewards those who worship Him. She has gone
from “a pit to a palace,” from childhood poverty to phenomenal success all by
bilking suckers. (She doesn’t say that, of course.) Then again, there was a
detour in 2012, when the ministry she and her second husband ran filed for
bankruptcy. Allegedly, they stiffed the Evangelical Christian
Credit Union for $29 million in loans, which I think we can all agree would not
please Jesus.
Still, it’s easy to see why the president might want to have
White around, particularly now that he’s facing impeachment. According to her
interpretation of the Bible, you can’t oppose him anyway.
Even in the early days of Trump’s presidency, she was arguing,
He is authentically – whether
people like it or not – has been raised up by God. Because God says that
he raises up and places all people in places of authority. It is God who raises
up a king. It is God that sets one down. When you fight against the plan of
God, you are fighting against the hand of God.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, once
questioned White and her Gospel interpretations. Since getting to know her in
the wake of Trump’s election, he’s become a fan. He, White, and other members
of the “Faith and Opportunity” initiative are working with Trump and his staff.
“We’re there to influence public policy and move this nation forward,” Perkins
says, “where faith is openly welcomed, so that you don’t have to hide the fact
that you’re a person of faith.”
Well, then, more power to Perkins and all people of faith in
the world, including Druids. But can someone explain? If God raises Trump up,
and we can’t “fight against the plan of God,” doesn’t the logic hold for every
ruler, past, present, and to come? Here, you have Ms. White restating the
theory of “divine right of kings.” In the 1600s and 1700s, Christian kings
often argued that absolute power was vested in their hands and the common folk
had no right to complain.
White isn’t the only minister warning that if the president
is impeached, all the fiends in hell will break loose. Pastor Rick Wiles has
explained that Trump fans are “guys who knew how to fight.” And they are “going
to make a decision” and go to war for Trump and Jesus and fat tax cuts for
billionaires and a really big wall. “Veterans,” he said, would rise up. And
“cowboys!”
And f**king “mountain men!!”
Wiles did not use the “f-word,” but, really, he should have.
Like Louis Gohmert, he sounds nuts.
Cowboys are coming!
BLISTERING BOOK REVIEW: David
Robinson’s review of Pastor White’s most recent book, in Christian
Today, offers proof that it’s not just liberals who think she’s a fraud.
Robinson describes Something Greater as “cringe-worthy” in its
narcissism. The book is “profoundly dishonest” and “shallow.” White shows a
total lack of “self-awareness.” Her materialism and spending on herself, he
finds “grotesquely sinful.”
Robinson lambasts Pastor White for what a non-religious
person might see as garden-variety greed.
The obsession with money,
wealth, power and influence is a real problem in the Church. We seem to think
that Jesus did not mean it when he said we cannot serve both God and Mammon
(Matthew 6:24).
But that does not stop Paula
from manipulating people. In a recent telethon she devoted her
preaching to convincing them to send money to help Jim Bakker build a new TV
studio. “Right now,” youcan watch her
shout, “someone is about to send you [she means Rev. Bakker] that $1 million
cheque in the name of Jesus, you [the viewer] just have to be obedient, whether
it’s $100,000 or $10,000 you send.”
She says that there is a
“Department of Treasury in Heaven” which will write up your name. It’s just a
straight-out blasphemous lie.
“The self-justification for
greed is breathtaking,” Robinson says. White’s book, he says, is “Trumpesque”
in its focus on cashing in – with the help of Jesus – and in
how White focuses on White as the center of the universe.
“After spending time around
Donald Trump,” White writes at one point in her book, “I find myself inspired
by his vision, thought process, keen insight, and overall discipline. He’s a
brilliant thinker who tends to walk several steps ahead of the masses. I want
to share his wisdom with the world in my own way.”
Send $19.44 to Amazon right now and get your copy of
White’s book. I am thinking, if you read it, and send her “First Fruits,” you
will soon find your pockets crammed with cash.
