5/24/19: President Trump changes his mind again. Stopping on the South
Lawn to chat with reporters, the “extremely stable genius” says he could still
work with Democrats on an infrastructure deal. “I can work with the speaker,
sure. I can work with the speaker,” he insists, when asked about Nancy Pelosi.
He insisted on Wednesday he couldn’t – and said
on Thursday, that Pelosi was crazy and that was why he stormed out of the
meeting on infrastructure.
*
____________________
God talks to a Florida lawmaker and chooses
Trump to be our president. Indeed, He works in mysterious ways.
____________________
IN OTHER RIGHT-WING NEWS, it’s official. America
is a theocracy. Florida lawmaker Mike Hill insists he has been talking directly to God. And God convinced him to introduce a bill
which would have banned abortions in the state as soon as a heartbeat could be
detected. God was clear. Hill had included exceptions for rape, incest, medical
emergency, and human trafficking.
Speaking to a group called Women for Responsible
Legislation, he explained, God “said, ‘you remove those exceptions and you file
it again.’ And I said, ‘Yes Lord, I will.’ It’s coming back. It’s coming back.
We are going to file that bill without any exceptions, just like what we saw
passed in Alabama.”
In other words, like Alabama lawmakers, God
thinks if you are raped, you should have the baby if you get pregnant.
It’s all right there, nowhere, in the Bible.
*
IT HAS BEEN SAID that God works in mysterious
ways. According to Press Secretary Pinocchio, God mysteriously wanted Trump to be president. So did Vladimir Putin – but
that’s a different story.
Pastor Paula White, Trump’s spiritual
advisor, agrees. God wanted Trump. (You thought it had something to do with the
Electoral College!) That means opposition to Trump is opposition to God.
I think, by the same logic, we must assume God
picked Hitler, Stalin, Chairman Mao, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, Robert
Mugabe, Xi Jinping, and Trump’s best buds, Vlad and Kim Jong-un.
God works in mysterious ways - picking Stalin and Trump!!!
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.
2/11/21: These are tough times for many of the most
vociferous leaders of the right. That includes Jeremiah Johnson, 33, a star of the
Christian prophecy movement. Like many in that milieu, Johnson had predicted a
second term for the God-chosen Mr. Trump. He was one of the first to take
Trump seriously in 2015. As a result, hundreds of thousands followed his
predictions.
Okay. Maybe not.
____________________
God is apparently pranking the
poor dope.
____________________
[They] took comfort ahead of the presidential
election last fall when Mr. Johnson shared a prophetic dream of Mr. Trump
stumbling while running the Boston Marathon, until two frail older women emerged
from the crowd to help him over the finish line.
“I was wrong, I am deeply sorry, and I ask for
your forgiveness,” he wrote in a detailed letter he posted online. “I would
like to repent for inaccurately prophesying that Donald Trump would win a second
term as the President of the United States.”
According
to The New York Times, there are hundreds of men and women who now
believe they can channel communications from God.
Many are independent evangelists
who do not lead churches or other institutions. They operate primarily online
and through appearances at conferences or as guest speakers in churches, making
money through book sales, donations and speaking fees. And they are part of the
rising appeal of conspiracy theories in Christian settings, echoed by the
popularity of QAnon among many evangelicals and a resistance to mainstream
sources of information.
The past year has been riddled
with prophecies that did not pan out. As the coronavirus swept the United
States in the spring, several prophets issued public assurances that
it would decline by Passover; Cindy Jacobs, one of the most influential
American prophets, led a global day of prayer to
“contain” the virus in March. And by the fall, so many prominent prophets had
incorrectly predicted the re-election of Mr. Trump that the apologies and
recriminations now constitute a crisis within the movement.
The backlash to Mr. Johnson’s
apology was immediate. On Facebook, he reported that he received “multiple
death threats and thousands upon thousands of emails from Christians saying the
nastiest and most vulgar things I have ever heard toward my family and
ministry.” He also said he had lost funding from donors who accused him of
being “a coward, sellout, and traitor to the Holy Spirit.”
Prophecy is a facet of the
fast-growing charismatic Christian movement, which has an estimated
half-billion followers worldwide and is characterized in part by the belief
that the “gifts of the spirit,” which also include speaking in tongues and
supernatural healing, continue into the present day, rather than being an
artifact of biblical times.
Trump’s
own spiritual advisor, Paula White, is one of the so-called “charismatic
leaders.” Or, as this blogger would put it: “A charlatan.”
A few weeks before the 2020
election, [the president] attended services for the third time at a “healing,
prophetic” megachurch in Las Vegas, where speakers shared predictions and visions about
his second term, to applause from Mr. Trump and the congregation.
In Crystal River, Fla., Scott
Wallis had read Mr. Johnson’s prophecies on Facebook and was encouraged by
them. He trusted Mr. Johnson in part, he said, because of two recent prophecies
that had proven true, including one about the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the
World Series. (Mr. Johnson reported the prophecy two days before the team
clinched the championship.)
For Mr. Wallis, a pastor and
prophet himself, it made perfect sense that God would be involved in the
outcome of the American election, just as he is involved in every human life.
“Some people, like deists, believe God created the earth but abandoned the
people and left them alone,” Mr. Wallis said. “I don’t believe that.” When a
friend prophesied to him in 2014 that he would soon marry, he did not even have
a girlfriend, but he was married by the end of the year.
Jennifer Eivaz, who calls
herself “the Praying Prophet,” realized in college that she could hear God’s
voice in a way she could “prove out.” When she and her husband started to lead
a church in Central California, she would have dreams and receive specific
information about people who attended. She was careful not to scare people, she
said, often opting to check in with them rather than launch into specific
predictions or insights into their lives.
She also started recording
training videos on prayer and prophecy, which caught the eye of Steve Shultz,
who had founded The Elijah List and invited her to contribute. As her profile
rose, she became an internationally sought-after conference speaker at events
with names like the Inner Healing and Deliverance Institute and the Prophetic
Wisdom & Prayer conference, where believers pay to gather for music,
prophecy and inspiration.
Ms. Eivaz occasionally offers
public prophecies about national or international events. In May 2015, she
announced that the yearslong drought in California was over and
that “the rains are coming back.” The message tied together the biblical
prophet Elijah’s experience on Mount Carmel; Ms. Eivaz’s recent trip to
Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif.; a vision of a mother bear fighting for her cubs; the
California state flag; and Gov. Gavin Newsom. (The drought did not formally end
until 2017, although the state experienced unusually high rainfall over
the summer of 2015.)
“You’re
going to have to pray for the rightful president”
And then, to cite just one more example, there’s Pastor Robin
Bullock. Poor Bullock has been running up a string of impressively bad
predictions, despite his claim that his predictions are based on signs from
God. God is apparently pranking the poor dope because Bullock says he was told
Joe Biden would not be elected. Then, after he was, Bullock claimed that the
fact Biden stumbled while walking up the steps to Air Force One was a sign God
planned to “remove” him from office.
Bullock has said that whereas voting in November failed – and
more than sixty court cases filed, claiming the election had been stolen, were
rejected – and recounts in several states showed Biden getting more votes than
previously tabulated – well, there was still one sure way good Christian folk could
stand the U.S. Constitution on its head.
In one of his regular YouTube videos Bullock explained:
You’re going to have to pray for the rightful president
[Trump], whether he wants to walk back into this or not. You must pray that he
wants to do it, because God won’t make him do anything. Is it his will? Yes. Is
he the president? Yes. That’s why he could just walk right back in, and God
will supernaturally move things out of the way.
Yeah. Who needs the Electoral College?
POSTSCRIPT: Democratic House managers finish
laying out their case for the impeachment of Donald J. Trump.
One impeachment manager, Representative Diana DeGette of
Colorado, talked about her experience during the attack and how as she and
others ran to safety, she saw a SWAT team with guns pointed at rioters on the
floor. Ms. DeGette said she wondered: “Who sent them there?”
She shared comments from rioters, including from a Texas real
estate agent named Jennifer
L. Ryan. “I thought I was following my president,” Ms. Ryan said. “I
thought I was following what we were called to do. He asked us to fly there, he
asked us to be there, so I was doing what he asked us to do.”
In another clip, Ms. Ryan said, “President Trump requested that
we be in D.C. on the 6th, so this was our way of going and stopping the steal.”
After Joseph
R. Biden Jr. denounced the attack on television and made a plea to Mr. Trump to
speak on national television and “demand an end to this siege,” one rioter
asked, “Does he not realize President Trump called us to siege the place?”
Rightly so, Democrats credited the Vice
President for his stand on constitutional grounds. Had Mr. Pence been willing
to overturn the electoral vote, every future Vice President might be inclined
to do the same. Vice President Joe Biden could have turned the same trick in
2017, for that matter.
(Trump
fans were too clueless to grasp that fact.)
“Vice
President Pence showed us what it means to be an American,” Mr. [Ted] Lieu said
on Wednesday. “What it means to show courage. He put his country, his oath, his
values and his morals above the will of one man.”
“During the
course of the attack, the vice president never left the Capitol, remained
locked down with his family — with his family — inside the building,” said
Representative Stacey E. Plaskett, a manager and the Virgin Islands’ nonvoting
House delegate. “Remember that, as you think about these images and sounds of
the attack. The vice president, our second in command, was always at the center
of it. Vice President Pence was threatened with death by the president’s
supporters, because he rejected President Trump’s demand that he overturn the
election.”
Would enough Republican have the nuts to join
Democrats and convict? “The
impeachment trial is dead on arrival,” Senator Rand Paul, predicted last
month.
So was the senator’s GOP soul, and the soul of a once-great political party.
BLOGGER’S NOTE,
1/25/22: Defenders of President Trump will later insist that the people who
surrounded Capitol Hill that day were no more than ordinary tourists. Trump himself will
say they were hugging and kissing
police.
The plain fact
remains: Mr. Pence’s secret service detail had to take him to a secure location
in the bowels of the Capitol.
These weren’t
tourists in the building that day – and the question really boiled down to who
sent them to attack.
