2017: Rise of the Religious Reich.

President Trump hosts conservative leaders at the White House on September 25, 2017 (Photo: WhiteHouse.gov)

Right Wing Watch has a comprehensive timeline of the ascension of the religious reich into the current regime, and it’s a very ugly look at the coming Theocalypse, if these people get their way, which so far, they are. We do not need to be all concerned over the rise of AI. We do need to be concerned with the rise of the religious reich, and we need to be concerned with the rise of stupid.

Donald Trump wasn’t exactly the dream candidate of the Religious Right. Throughout the Republican primary contest, many in the social conservative movement urged voters to pick what one group of anti-choice activists called “anyone but Donald Trump.”

But once it became clear that Trump was going to win the GOP nomination, he started aggressively courting the evangelical Right, including holding a massive meeting for Religious Right leaders in New York that many cite as a turning point for their support. On the day of that meeting, Trump announced the formation of an evangelical advisory board that included Religious Right leaders including James Dobson and Michele Bachmann. Trump’s selection of Mike Pence as his running mate sealed the deal for many on the Religious Right. Trump’s “amen corner” of prosperity gospel preachers and domininionists eventually expanded to include the large share of Religious Right leaders, who offered various theological explanations for their embrace of a morally flawed candidate.

Once he was elected—with 80 percent of the white evangelical vote—Trump kept his evangelical advisory board intact and promised to give it unprecedented access to the White House. He stacked his Cabinet with friends of the Religious Right, including Tom Price at Health and Human Services, Betsy DeVos at Education and Ben Carson at Housing and Urban Development. Far-right pastor Ralph Drollingerworked with Trump’s transition team to set up weekly Bible studies for Trump’s Cabinet members. The conservative Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society vetted potential judicial nominees.

The White House continues to hold weekly calls with evangelical advisory board members. Conservative leaders also receive a weekly email from the White House compiling “highlights for—and requests for action from—the conservative world.” And Religious Right leaders report enjoying an open door with the Trump administration. Former Southern Baptist Convention official Richard Land told The New York Times that conservative evangelical leaders have a “regular, ongoing and continuing dialogue” with the administration.

The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkinssaid in August, “I’ve been to the White House I don’t know how many more times in the first six months this year than I was during the entire Bush administration.” The Susan B. Anthony List’s Marjorie Dannenfelser said she visited the White House seven times in Trump’s first 100 days in office. Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America said in September, “I’m told from people before me that even under George W. Bush, we didn’t have this kind of access. It certainly is unprecedented and we’re very grateful.” Land gushed about evangelicals having “unprecedented access” to the White House, adding that there “are more evangelicals in this administration as personnel than any administration in my lifetime.”

The timeline is extensive and heavily link rich, there’s enough reading for a day or two. It’s all recommended, because we are at one terrifying confluence here. The Year The Religious Right Moved Into The White House.

Star Wars: The Persecution of White Men!

It’s interesting, how certain factions always see something nefarious in any SW flick, rather than seeing the reality: same old movie, done a zillion times.

Stefan Molyneux, a video blogger popular among the far-right, told viewers this weekend that “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” contains a commentary about the persecution of white men and the failure of diversity.

In a video uploaded on Sunday, Molyneux claimed that the newest Star Wars film contains a hidden commentary about the plight of white men as Western countries diversify.

[…]

“Some of you are going to respond and say, ‘Are you sure that’s what the writers intended?’ and the only people who say that are people who aren’t themselves creative writers,” Molyneux said, going on to claim he wrote a short story when he was six and a novel when he was 11 years old. He began his explanation by comparing Luke Skywalker to white men he believes have been marginalized.

And I’m sure your family patted you on the head when you were six and eleven, and reassured you of your spectacular genius. That does not make you a creative writer. It doesn’t make you a writer of any kind. It does make you come across as something of an idiot.

He began his explanation by comparing Luke Skywalker to white men he believes have been marginalized.

“So Luke Skywalker has checked out of society—ha, isn’t that interesting? He’s a white male who’s checked out of society. And we see this all over the place with white males, right? I mean, they’re not happy. Neither is Luke Skywalker happy. He’s got this bitter, gristled, half-homeless kind of determination to survive another day but for no particular purpose other than to watch the slow extinguishing of his own possibilities and his own life,” Molyneux said. He went on to explain that he believed Luke Skywalker’s lack of children was reflective of “the demographic decline among the whites that is happening in Europe and in North America” and foretold a “quasi-extinction” of white people “in the not so distant future.”

A lot of people aren’t terribly happy. That goes across all societal lines. Again with the babies. Why in the hell is always about the [white] babies? Since the SW movies are always populated with mass amounts of people, it’s fair to assume someone is breeding.

Molyneux explained that when Luke Skywalker abandons the Jedi forces in the film, it reflects how white people have abandoned their culture.

“Whites are not allowed to have a history to be proud of, not allowed to have in-group preferences, the religion of the West must be burned—and this, of course, you see the tree and the Jedi texts get burned down and it’s the end of a lineage. It’s the end of a history. It is the end of culture,” Molyneux said.

Oh gods, not again. What culture? Please, point me to explicitly white culture. If you’re talking about confederate flags and remembering slavery fondly, then yes, that shit has to go. We had the war, it’s over. People at large figured out that yes, people who are not white are people. That’s a good thing. Ustates is now, and has been, a great dumping ground for all manner of peoples from all over the world. There’s no ‘white culture’ here. If you’re all that bent on pursuing it, head back to England. Or wherever it is you think your ‘white’ heritage lies.

The trouble is with white people, in particular, men, always being taught and told how amazingly special they are, why they are entitled to all things ever. You are so damn desperate to believe that, that you do seriously stupid shit like point out the short story you wrote when you were six years old. Outside of your particular heritage, which I’m sure has some sort of culture attached, you get American culture, which is just a fucking mess of pottage from numerous sources.

When Luke Skywalker appears in a battle scene and is targeted by opposing forces, it illustrates “the hatred directed at white males,” Molyneux said.

Okay, I haven’t seen the movie, because I don’t much care for the whole franchise, but this is plain old bullshit. I imagine any such scene was to highlight that “Hey, Skywalker, still a hero!” or somesuch.

He explained: “There’s a lot of frustration out in the world. This is why I talk about race and IQ, is that I want people to get along. I want people to understand and to have peace with the way that the world and its cultures are, because there’s this incredible frustration out there in the world that other cultures are just not able to reproduce the former successes of white male culture.”

Goodness, do you ever have that one backwards. There’s a lot of frustration on the part of white men who have never accomplished a fucking thing, but wanting everyone in the world to acknowledged that white dudes are the smartest, bestest ever at everything. Get the fuck over yourselves.

He continued to explain that the more diverse cast in the new Star Wars film was a reflection on the diversification of the Western world.

Molyneux said, “This increased diversity means decreased success. In fact, it’s just one disaster after another for the Rebels and I’m not really sure if diversity is such a strength. Why, now that the Star Wars universe is more diverse, do the Rebels keep losing? Well, because there’s kind of a truth in that.”

Yes, there’s a truth there, cupcake. It’s “we want to keep milking this cash cow until the next century at least.” Amazing you can’t figure that one out, what with you being a creative genius and all. The plot is ancient, and SW is a recycling plant: underdogs vs big evil powers.

Via RWW.

Word Wednesday.

Heterodox

Adjective.

1: contrary to or different from an acknowledged standard, a traditional form, or an established religion: Unorthodox, Unconventional <heterodox ideas>

2: holding unorthodox opinions or doctrines.

[Origin: Late Latin heterodoxus, from Greek heterodoxos, from heter– + doxa opinion.]

(1650)

“A verifiable fallen academic (from the American University and Tufts, among others), Marston had a gift for dressing sensationally vulgar ideas in pseudo-intellectual jargon, and he exploited it for a few years in Hollywood, advising the studios on how to maneuver around the Hays Office censors and sneak sex in films through symbolism and coded language. Relocated to New York and the publishing industry, he hustled pseudoscience and heterodox titillation through comics and popular magazines (in bylined articles, interviews, and the advertisements for Gillette Razor Blades). – The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, David Hadju.

De Gallo.

Pardon the title, this was to avoid ‘Cock’. Most below the fold, because this does go on. And on.

Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KB, KA 16, Folio 88v.

Text Translation:

Of the cock The cock, gallus, gets its name from the act of castration. For alone among other birds its testicles are removed, and the ancients called castrated men galli. As from the lion the lioness gets her name leena, and the she-dragon dracena from the dragon draco, so the hen gets her name gallina from the cock. People say that the cock’s limbs, if mixed with liquid gold, are consumed by it. The crowing of the cock at night is a pleasant sound, and not only pleasant but useful; like a good partner, the cock wakes you when are asleep, encourages you if you are worried, comforts you if you are on the road, marking with its melodious call the progress of the night. With the crowing of the cock, the robber calls off his ambush; the morning star itself is awakened, rises and lights up the sky; the anxious sailor sets aside his cares, and very often each tempest and storm whipped up by evening winds moderates.

[Read more…]

Shoving The Overton Window Alt-Right.

Paul Nehlen, screengrab.

RWW has an extensive story about Paul Nehlen, an unapologetic nazi who is running again in an attempt to unseat Paul Ryan. Nehlen is intent on shoving the Overton Window as far right as possible, to ‘sanitize’ and normalise white supremacy and nationalism. Just a bit here, because the article is fair long, and rich with links.

Paul Nehlen, who is running again to unseat Speaker of the House Paul Ryan in Wisconsin, told Breitbart radio host Curt Schilling today that he is using his campaign and fiery social media presence to force discourse in the Republican Party further to the right—in his case, toward the white nationalist worldview of the alt-right.

This morning, Nehlen joined Schilling to talk about campaigning for failed Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama and his upcoming 2018 campaign in Wisconsin.

“There’s a lot of followers out there, there’s a lot of people out there, that look up to me and I take that seriously,” Nehlen said. “But you know, people like you who are out there every day—you wake up every morning and you work hard, you get your message out, it’s imperative that you realize, ‘Hey, there’s a bunch of people out there like me, who aren’t going to give up.’ And if we’re all moving forward in the same direction, moving that Overton Window to the right, and saying, ‘Hey, this fake news media, that doesn’t work us, that doesn’t scare us’—you know, I’m standing up for people’s free speech, lawful speech.”

Mmm. Odd how that standing up for people’s free, lawful speech only has to do with things you approve of, while you’re oddly silent in other cases, along with the rest of the freeze peach brigade. Unfortunately, the Overton Window has already been shoved considerably to the right, as we all get more accustomed to seeing and hearing white! white! white! everywhere. We really can’t afford to let this happen, but it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

Earlier this year, Nehlen retweeted photos that celebrated the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Nehlen was also a major proponent of “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory and told the Associated Press in August that he still believed it to be true. Earlier this month, Nehlen told columnist John Podhoretz on Twitter to “do us all a favor” and “eat a bullet.”

Last week, as first documented by the blog Angry White Men, Nehlen appeared on and praised the hosts of “Fash the Nation,” an anti-Semitic podcast popular in alt-right circles, and celebrated that “the red pills are being shot at people like with bump fire stocks.”(Taking a “red pill,” a reference to a scene in the sci-fi film “The Matrix,” is alt-right shorthand for embracing the movement’s views and bump stocks are the type of weapon modification that enabled the mass shooter in Las Vegas to achieve near-automatic fire). Nehlen also appeared on “Fash the Nation” last year, calling for an end to birthright citizenship.

Recently, Nehlen has pushed even harder to the right and dropped any attempt to conceal his affiliations with the furthest fringes of the Right.

It would be really nice is someone like Nehlen could simply be dismissed as ‘lunatic fringe’ without a hope of gaining support. Unfortunately, that’s not the case any longer. While people like this might not be winning yet, the call is too close for comfort. There’s no comfort at all to be had in the fact that it’s someone like Paul Ryan who does win, because while Ryan might not embrace nazism, he’s an awful sociopath, bent on eliminating poverty by eliminating all those icky poor people.

RWW has the full story.

All The Skulls!

image by sean fennessey.

image by sean fennessey.

image by sean fennessey.

Beginning december 15, 2017, the inaugural National Gallery of Victoria Triennial will open its doors to the work of over 100 creatives from 32 countries. Among the artists, designers, technologists, architects, animators, and beyond is Australian hyper-realist sculptor Ron Mueck, who is presenting his largest ever work to date. ‘Mass’ is an installation of 100 individual human skull forms piled up on the gallery floor, each which engage with the architecture of the site.

Amazing! I want those as furniture. You can read and see much more at design boom. You can see more of Ron Mueck’s amazing work here – this is one of my faves:

Angel, 1997
Mixed media
Figure: 110 x 87 x 81 cm / 43 1/2 x 34 1/4 x 31 7/8 in
Stool: 60 x 40 x 38 cm / 23 5/8 x 15 3/4 x 15 in.

Trumpocalypse: A National Day of Repentance.

ruts.org

A National Day of Repentance, why that wouldn’t be promoting one particular religion at all, would it? And yet, we may well find ourselves with one.

End Times authors Paul McGuire and Troy Anderson appeared on SkyWatch TV last week to promote their forthcoming book, “Trumpocalypse: The End-Times President, a Battle Against the Globalist Elite, and the Countdown to Armageddon.”

McGuire and Anderson told host Derek Gilbert that they will be getting the book directly into the hands of President Trump, whom they hope will read it and follow their recommendation that he declares a national day of repentance in hopes of staving off God’s judgment on America.

Trump. Read. No, not a chance. Although, this does not stop the Tiny Tyrant from recommending books.

Anderson said that no president has issued an official call for national repentance since Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and since March 30, 2018, will be the 155th anniversary of Lincoln’s proclamation, that would be a perfect time for Trump to issue his own proclamation.

“A minister friend of ours is working with the White House and members of Congress on a congressional resolution that would call for this national day of repentance,” Anderson said. “The idea is that, from the Oval Office, he would read the Lincoln proclamation, repent of America’s sins before God and there would be a day-long event. Rabbi Jonathan Cahn has agreed to do a Passover seder, Anne Graham Lotz has been praying with our minister friend that is coordinating this and many members of Congress and faith leaders are getting on board with this.”

And wouldn’t it just give you assholes the opportunity to declare that yes, this is too a JudeoChristian nation! Everyone, get on your knees and pray! I’ll stand and try not to drop dead from a near-fatal eyeroll.

Anderson compared this effort to the Book of Jonah, in which the the people of Nineveh repented and God withheld His judgment from their town, saying that having Trump issue a proclamation of national repentance “is very important for America and for the world.”

This is not a fucking christian nation, no matter how much you push this shit. I am not a christian, and I want no part of your hair shirt rituals. You want to stick with trying to appease a psychopathic god, have at it, but don’t bring me into it, ain’t my god. This bullshit is not important for the world – I’m sure the rest of the world would be most thankful if you and Ustates just butted the hell out. This bullshit is also not important for Ustates. It’s only important to a minority population of mostly christians assholes. As your vaunted apocalypse, as always, shows no signs of appearing, you’ll do anything to bring about a theocracy. Fuck that noise.

There’s video at RWW.