You’re a pervert, you’re a loser, you’re ugly, You have penis envy!

Donald Trump and Wayne Allen Root (YouTube/screen grab).

Wayne Allen Root, in his latest attempt to defend the endless and mind numbing corruption on the part of the Tiny Tyrant, unleashed an incredibly immature rant against Robert Mueller. The arrested development seen in so many conservatives is rather fascinating, and the older they become, the more they regress. I can’t imagine such a rant having the slightest effect on me, being 60 years old, it’s barely worth an eye roll. I expect if Mr. Mueller was aware of it, the reaction would be the same. Someone should perhaps inform Mr. Root that such rants tend to reveal a great deal more about the ranter than anyone else.

“Robert Mueller has probably never had sex in his life,” Root said. “I know he has never had sex with a beautiful woman. Did you ever see the angry look on Robert Mueller’s face? Robert Mueller needs sex badly and he is so jealous that Donald Trump was a billionaire playboy and obviously had sex with the most beautiful women in the world.”

Hmm. Mr. Mueller is married with two children. As for the Tiny Tyrant, well, a long history of sexual assault, and a descriptor of average from a porn star. Not exactly  bragging material.

“Robert Mueller has penis envy,” he continued. “This is so obvious. This was high school, guys. In high school, there were handsome guys, and then there were handsome guys who were jocks, and then there were handsome guys who were jocks and had rich fathers. And that is Donald Trump. And then all the little nerds like Robert Mueller, who had never had sex in their whole lives, they hated the jocks, they hated the handsome guys, and they really hated the jocks who were handsome guys who were rich. This guy, Muller, has never had sex with a beautiful woman, so he hates Trump with a passion.”

I’ve noticed that Mr. Root often talks about high school. About time you got the fuck over it,  no? Mr. Mueller has a job to do, and I don’t recall him expressing personal feelings about people at all. That would be called professionalism.

“The greatest president in modern history, a man is trying to take him down who is a pervert,” Root added. “Robert Mueller is a pervert. He probably sits home and watches porn. He has probably never had a girl in his whole life, a beautiful woman, so he sits and watches images and then he realizes there is someone like Donald Trump who is living every man’s fantasy … [Mueller] doesn’t even know what sex feels like. Robert Mueller is an ugly lawyer, he’s got nothing going for him.”

Jesus Christ, most 5 year olds are more mature than you are, Mr. Root. The greatest president? Hahahahaha, no. The greatest crook, perhaps.

“Mueller is a little pervert,” Root continued to rant. “Mueller is vicious, Mueller is disgusting, Mueller is a pervert. Can you imagine what he does at home at night? Who knows what he does, watching his computer images of Donald Trump and beautiful women. I can just guess what Mueller is doing in the dark, with the light of the screen glaring on him inside is office at 12 midnight. Quote me, Robert Mueller: You’re a pervert, you’re a loser, you’re ugly, you have never had a beautiful women in your life and you’re jealous of Donald Trump. It is all so clear now.”

I can pretty much guarantee you that whatever Mr. Mueller does in the evenings, it has nothing to do with watching the Tiny Tyrant and women. You, on the other hand, Mr. Root, that I can envision.

“It’s penis envy,” Root declared triumphantly. “Mueller’s is smaller than Trump’s.”

Who is the official penis inspector, and when is the report coming out?

RWW has the story, such as it is.

The Black & White of Voter Fraud.

Reid Wilson:

NC white woman who admitted voter fraud: No charges.

CO white man convicted of voter fraud: Probation, comm service.

IA white woman convicted of voter fraud: Probation, $750 fine.

TX black woman convicted of voter fraud: 5 years IN PRISON. Which of these is not like the other?

Clear as crystal, isn’t it? But we just don’t have a gosh darn problem with racism in Amerikka, no. You can read more about this at RawStory.

Sunday Facepalm.

Students protest for tighter gun laws in Washington, DC, on March 14, 2018. (Photo: Bradley Williams for People For the American Way).

Students protest for tighter gun laws in Washington, DC, on March 14, 2018. (Photo: Bradley Williams for People For the American Way).

Master of rabid frothery Kevin Swanson is upset about guns, sort of. He can’t seem to figure out why those meddling kids are upset, but da youth is going to destroy Amerikka, yessir, just like every generation gone before them.

Radical right-wing pastor Kevin Swanson was not impressed with yesterday’s nationwide walkout in which thousands of students left school to protest gun violence in the wake of the mass shooting last month at a Florida high school, saying that the fact that the movement is being led by young people is a sign that America is under the judgment of God.

[Snips irrelevant passage from Isaiah]

“In other words, the young folks have all this revolutionary zeal but no real wisdom to govern what they are doing,” he said. “This is the result of the breaking of the commandment of God. Things are not going well with us in the land, we are not seeing things going well for tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of people across the country largely because the massive violation of the Fifth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother.”

Oh, the same old shite argument: you don’t have experience! Taking action is one way to gain experience, Mr. Swanson, and all kids need to start somewhere. Also, I am sick to death of these self-righteous assholes acting as though all the high school students are toddlers. A good many of these young people are mere months away from legal adulthood and voting. Others are quite a few years away from that, but you don’t get to act as though they have no right to think about issues and come to a conclusion about them. As issues go, guns are an easy one. We don’t need the fucking things, they should be under strict control, if for no other reason, to prevent more young people from needlessly dying. Most of these kids are in favour of gun reform, so they don’t even want to completely take your lethal toys away. The kids are alright, they are doing the right thing. As for your commandment, did it not occur, Mr. Swanson, that the majority of these kids have parents who stand behind them one hundred percent? Parents who are proud of their children for taking action and refusing to back down?

I’ve always hated that idiotic commandment. A lot of people end up with shit parents, you know, and no, they aren’t deserving of honour, or obedience, or any other thing. When it comes to parents and children, that whole ‘honour’ business needs to work both ways. Parenting is a difficult business much of the time, but you are supposed to be raising up individuals who can think for themselves. Well, at least if you’re not an asshole christian, who is more into brainwashing and numb obedience.

“Young people need to come to grips with the fact that they have not honored their parents’ wisdom,” Swanson said. “For this, God is bringing his judgment upon these individuals and upon this nation.”

Uh huh. Perhaps you’d like to say that to the parents who have lost a child to gun violence. Seems to me that a lot of parents are embracing their children’s wisdom, and they are acting together for the greater good. They don’t want more dead children and parents lost in a lifetime of grief, which is more than I can say for you asshole christians, who think some dead kids here and there are an acceptable price to pay in order to keep your lethal toys.

The whole thing is at RWW.

Trophy Hunting: an enhancement to foreign wildlife conservation and survival.

Cecil the lion gained fame after he was killed by Safari Club International member Walter Palmer during an illegal hunt in Zimbabwe. Paula French/ZUMA.

Cecil the lion gained fame after he was killed by Safari Club International member Walter Palmer during an illegal hunt in Zimbabwe. Paula French/ZUMA.

Just the other day, I posted about Amerikka doing its best to reach shithole country status. Naturally, no matter how great a country truly is, there’s always the fucking idiot contingent who moans that they have higher taxes, so bad. I would be more than happy to pay taxes which went to the common good, that’s the point of taxes. Here in Ustates, taxes rarely go to the common good. They certainly don’t under the current regime. Taxes end up in the pockets of the obscenely wealthy and corrupt. Today brings you a fine example of where tax dollars in this shithole go.

The Trump administration has launched a commission at the Interior Department to promote big-game trophy hunting and the “economic benefits that result from US citizens traveling to foreign nations to engage in hunting.” The council, which will cost taxpayers $250,000 a year, is charged with making recommendations to Secretary Ryan Zinke about removing barriers to importing trophy hunting animals—such as the recently overturned ban on elephant and lion trophies from some countries—and relaxing legal restrictions on hunting and importing endangered species.

Anyone impressed by this? Anyone happy about having their pocket picked for this utterly immoral, corrupt bullshit? Wait, it gets worse.

The members of the International Wildlife Conservation Council, which is holding its first meeting Friday, include a reality-TV safari hunting guide, a former beauty queen, gun industry representatives, members and affiliates of a controversial trophy hunting group, and a veterinarian associated with an exotic animal breeding facility in Florida that sells endangered animals to roadside zoos.

“It’s really embarrassing,” says Masha Kalinina, the international trade policy specialist for the wildlife department at the Humane Society International. “I just question the qualifications of each and every one of these people. Notably missing from this trophy hunting council are legitimate representatives of the conservation community with proper scientific credentials and a record of successful conservation programs, along with wildlife law enforcement experts and biologists who have no financial stake in promoting trophy hunting.”

The council’s charter calls hunting “an enhancement to foreign wildlife conservation and survival.” Along with pushing to relax imports of trophy animals, it will also review the way the US complies with an international treaty designed to protect endangered plants and animals that guides regulation of the exotic animal trade. But the membership of the council seems heavily weighted toward people who think the best way to conserve wildlife is to kill it.

Indeed, the country’s largest trophy-hunting lobby seems to have an outsized role on the council. Of the 16 IWCC members, at least 10 have an affiliation with Safari Club International, which represents wealthy big-game hunters who often tangle with the Fish and Wildlife Service over permits to import of game trophies from overseas, particularly for endangered species. The advocacy group, with 50,000 members, frequently lobbies Congress and federal agencies to fight environmental regulations. It sued to overturn the Obama-era ban on importing elephant and lion trophies from Zimbabwe and Zambia. The Trump administration ended the ban earlier this month, despite the president’s earlier objections and comments that elephant hunting is a “horror show.”

Those members include Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist and asshole extraordinaire who killed Cecil the Lion.

The principal deputy director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Greg Sheehan, who is effectively running the agency in the absence of a congressionally confirmed director, oversees the IWCC. He is an SCI member and attended the group’s convention in Las Vegas last month when it awarded its “professional hunter of the year” honors to a South African man who has been fined for leading hunts of endangered black rhinos.

It gets much worse from there. It’s a sickening read, and its symptomatic of the rot spreading out like gangrene from the current regime to poison everything. Those people who want to point to higher taxes in other countries, countries which provide healthcare, free education, and many other benefits to their citizens, you need to shut the fuck up when tax dollars here go to such evil, corrupt enterprise.

Mother Jones has the full story, with all the relevant links, and you can read about all the members of this “council”.

Does 18 Make For A Shithole?

 Esplanade Park in Helsinki. Finland, is the happiest country in the world, according to the newest World Happiness Report. Credit Martti Kainulainen/Lehtikuva, via Associated Press

Esplanade Park in Helsinki. Finland, is the happiest country in the world, according to the newest World Happiness Report. Credit Martti Kainulainen/Lehtikuva, via Associated Press.

According to The World Happiness Report, Ustates has plummeted to 18th on the list. If you really want to be happy and feel secure, you need to go Nordic. Finland made the top of the list.

Finland was ranked number one on the World Happiness Report, compiled by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The country was joined by other Scandinavian nations—Norway, Denmark, and Iceland—in the top four, followed by Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, and Australia.

All these nations are based on strong social welfare structures, and look, people are happy! Looks like that evil socialism has a lot going for it. Turns out that when people feel secure, they tend to be happier and much more laidback.

“I think there really is a deep and very unsettling signal coming through that U.S. society is in many ways under profound stress, even though the economy by traditional measures is doing fine,” Jeffrey D. Sachs, an editor of the report, told the New York Times. “The trends are not good, and the comparative position of the U.S. relative to other high-income countries is nothing short of alarming.”

The drop followed President Donald Trump’s first year in office, during which the majority of Americans reported disapproval of the country’s top elected official, and hundreds of thousands protested his regressive policies on immigration, women’s reproductive rights, and gun control—as well as widespread concerns that the president is blatantly profiting off his position in public office.

The past year also saw reports of America’s widening wealth gap, with the average upper middle-class household holding 75 times more wealth than low-income families.

While other countries have focused on social welfare of all their citizens, Ustates has been in the process of removing rights and the very last shreds of social programs. We’re in the middle of dismantling education, nazis are running rampant all over the place, and you never know when you might be walking into a nightmare massacre. Sounds like a shithole to me.

The World Happiness Report ranks countries according to per capita GDP, social support, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and corruption levels.

Going by that alone, seems Ustates should be at the bottom of the list.

Life expectancy in the U.S. dropped for the second year in a row in 2017, with researchers suggesting that the opioid addiction epidemic and inequality are related to the decline.

I expect no health care has a lot to do with that one, along with a hefty percentage of the population living in food deserts and being unable to eat well.

Reigning political ideologies in the highest-ranking nations contrast sharply with that of the U.S., noted the researchers.

The countries in the top 10 tend to “believe that what makes people happy is solid social support systems, good public services, and even paying a significant amount in taxes for that,” said Sachs.

Yep. I’m more than happy to pay taxes, when they are used for the common good. That’s supposed to be the bloody point of taxes.

Every top-ranking country also ensures that every citizen has access to free or affordable healthcare, while millions of Americans remain uninsured despite the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Oh, there it is. Yep, other countries seem to have all figured out that having healthy citizens is to their benefit. That strikes me as simple common sense, but not here in Amerikka, no. I’m quite surprised we ended up as high as 18. Now I can’t get this song outta my head:

Via RawStory.

Oh, The Morality!

A member of President Trump’s evangelical advisory board defended Trump over the controversy surrounding his alleged relationship with adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, saying the allegations were “totally irrelevant” to evangelicals who support Trump.

“Evangelicals know they’re not compromising their beliefs in order to support this great president,” Pastor Robert Jeffress said on Fox News Thursday. “And let’s be clear, evangelicals still believe in the commandment ‘thou shalt not have sex with a porn star.’”

“However, whether this president violated that commandment or not is totally irrelevant to our support of him,” he continued.

None of this bullshit is surprising, Jeffress slithers about like a snake in an oil slick when it comes to the Tiny Tyrant. What is amusing is a look back to 2008, when Jeffress had some very definite views about how christians should vote:

This argument struck us as rather remarkable and reminded us of a debate the Jeffress had with Jay Sekulow back in 2008 over the propriety of evangelical Christians voting for a Mormon like Mitt Romney, during which he insisted that it was unacceptable for Christians to overlook questions about a candidate’s faith, worldview and behavior simply for the sake of “some temporary change in the law.”

Back then, Jeffress blasted “the hypocrisy of some evangelical leaders … who, for the last eight years of the Bush administration, have been telling us how important it is to have an evangelical Christian in office who reads his Bible every day. And now, suddenly, the same leaders are telling us that a candidate’s faith really isn’t that important. In fact, one of those leaders—a good friend of mine—said on national television, when it came to supporting Mitt Romney, he said, ‘Well, after all, we are not electing a theologian in chief, we are electing a commander in chief.’ My fear is such a sudden U-turn is going to give people a case of voter whiplash. I think people have to decide, and Christian leaders have to decide once and for all, whether a candidate’s faith is really important.”

Evangelical christians certainly put the squirm in how the worm turns. There is not one thing they can honestly say they stay staunchly “moral” on – no matter what happens, no matter what someone does, if that person has the power to give them what they want, oh, everything is just dandy! Sexual assault? Eh, no biggie. Compulsive liar? Who cares?! Adulterer? Oh, everyone needs forgiveness. And on and on the list goes. Mormon? Oh, hell no!

“Christians need to remember that the kingdom of God is not going to come riding in on Air Force One,” Jeffress said. “The danger in all of this discussion is that Christians sometimes are willing to sacrifice the temporal for the eternal, that in order to get their candidate elected, to enact those laws that they feel are crucial, somehow we fool ourselves into thinking we are going to bring about the kingdom of God here on earth. We are not going to do that. I’m not willing to trade people’s eternal destiny for some temporary change in the law.”

My, my, look at that, stated a mere 10 years ago. It would seem that Jeffress now believes that Jehovah got himself a first class seat on Air Force One. Oh the corruption a small taste of power brings. Tsk.

Via RWW.

“Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive, ah, ah, ah, ah,”

 “Staying Alive” is among the buckets of emergency food available from “The Jim Bakker Show” for a donation. Inside: 241 servings of buttermilk pancakes, potato flakes, vegetable stew blend, Morning Moo’s low fat milk alternative and more. Tim Funk, Charlotte Observer.


“Staying Alive” is among the buckets of emergency food available from “The Jim Bakker Show” for a donation. Inside: 241 servings of buttermilk pancakes, potato flakes, vegetable stew blend, Morning Moo’s low fat milk alternative and more. Tim Funk, Charlotte Observer.

Oh The Bakkers, always shilling. They’re just trying to stay alive! They have some seriously nice digs for people who are supposedly hangin’ by fingernails.

Televangelist Jim Bakker used Friday’s episode of his television program to warn that the volcano under Yellowstone National Park will soon erupt and urge his audience to buy his buckets of survival food to prepare. Bakker, whose business dealings around his prepper food are murky, told his audience that he was selling them the food at a very low margin. “I feel like we’re more of a co-op, you help me and I’m helping you, and we’re a co-op,” he said.

Mmm. Feeling like you’re a co-op doesn’t make it so. I suspect that Bakker doesn’t even know what an actual co-op is or how one works. I imagine he’d be horrified by the idea.

After offering his audience a soon-to-expire deal on food buckets, Bakker explained that his ministry takes “a piece” of the payment. “A little part of it goes to keep us on the air,” he said, “and it’s really a small part, it’s not even what a big store would have, a lot of stores would have a lot more profit in it than we do, but it’s what we do. It’s keeping us alive, but it’s going to keep you alive.”

Oh just a bit, a tiny bit! And everyone has to take him at his word, because the Bakkers have their con registered as a church, and they disclose nothing. This is their “church”:

Morningside Church, in Blue Eye, Mo. Tim Funk, Charlotte Observer.

Morningside Church, in Blue Eye, Mo. Tim Funk, Charlotte Observer.

Perhaps it’s just me, but that looks considerably higher than ‘stayin’ alive’ to me.

He went on to explain that he keeps buckets of food stored away in “hidden places” in his house so that he won’t get robbed in the End Times. “Just keep it a secret at your house,” he advised. “Because in the last days, perilous times comes, and see what kind of people are going to roaming around? Killers, without any love, without mercy. They’re just going to hate each other and judge each other.”

This is Bakker’s routine chorus, he’s been preaching end times for one hell of a long time now. I always find this interesting, because it always comes across like there’s no expectation of getting swept up by the rapture. I think if the whole planet is going to be 90% killers running about, perhaps having a stash of ick inna bucket might be a low priority. If Jim truly believes this line of crap, I’d think he’d be fervently in favour of gun control, but no.

“Remember that song you sang, ‘Staying Alive’?” he asked his wife, Lori. “Well, we’ve got to stay alive and we’ve got to pay the bills, that’s all. I feel like we’re more of a co-op, you help me and I’m helping you, and we’re a co-op.”

Everyone has to stay alive and pay the bills, Lori. It’s not a problem unique to you. Most people work honest though, rather than grifting and fleecing people, and doing it in the most gruesome of ways:

Yes, this is the compleat slaughter of My Girl. :shudder:

RWW has the story.

Angel Armies vs Deep State. Or Something.

Dutch Sheets speaks at his Turnaround: Appeal to Heaven event at the Trump International Hotel in February 2018. (Screenshot via livestream).

Dutch Sheets speaks at his Turnaround: Appeal to Heaven event at the Trump International Hotel in February 2018. (Screenshot via livestream).

Oh, all the self-styled prophets are “prophesying” and praying. RWW has the full coverage, which is quite lengthy, here are some highlights:

A new era in American and human history began at the end of last week, according to self-described apostles and prophets who gathered on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. … Sheets said he had never seen such intense spiritual warfare over the nation, saying the battle was not about Trump but about “whether the devastation caused by 50 years of anti-Christian activity will be reversed or, God forbid, continue.” He said then, “The antichrist forces are almost rabid in their anger over the potential loss of progress.”

[…]

Now, according to conference leaders, it’s time for the church to move from pleading with God to ruling with him—and with Trump, who one speaker described as “the father of this nation.” A speaker from Northern Ireland, Rose Sambrook of Rhema Restoration Ministries, proudly claimed Trump as one of her own. “Your president is a Celt,” she said. “That’s why he’s wild!”  She said Trump has the “seeds of revival” in his DNA because his great aunts prayed for five months for revival to come to the island of Lewis decades ago.

[…]

Jacobs told attendees God had spoken to her at a Miami gathering of thousands of pastors from 60 nations, giving her the word “basta!”—Spanish for “enough!” “We’re here to say ‘basta’” she shouted at the Trump hotel, adding, “Enough of God’s people being attacked! Enough of the photographers and the bakers having to close their shops! Enough of our loss of our religious freedoms! Basta!”

Ummm, I thought everyone was supposed to hate immigrants and speak nothin’ but Amerikkan.

Tim Sheets, Dutch’s brother and apparently an expert on angels, led a prayer on Friday night that God would break “the collusion of hell in our government”:

And Lord, I hear you say tonight, ‘Disregard the fake collusion, and come against the real collusion, and the real colluder.’ We bind the kingdom of darkness and we ask that the strategy of our king and his angel princes that assist us now, would come against the collusion of darkness into our government, that would come against the collusion of darkness into our media, and in the name of Jesus we declare, this Ekklesia declares tonight, that the collusion of hell in its diabolical schemes, to those that are bent in iniquity, will be bound in Jesus name.

[…]

Dutch Sheets also prayed that Trump “would accomplish everything Almighty God sent you into that house to do, regardless of who likes it or who doesn’t.” He also predicted that Trump will have “a visitation from heaven” that gives him “an intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ.” Sheets had a warning for those who resist Trump or who want to turn the nation away from its Judeo-Christian roots:

You will fail! … The Ekklesia will take you out. The outpouring of Holy Spirit will take you out. Angels will take you out. You are no match for any of the above. You are no match for father, son, Holy Ghost, or his family or his angel armies. You are no match for his word. You are no match for his prophetic decrees …. So we push you back. And we say your finest hour has come and gone, and the church now rises to the place that he has called us to walk in …. We now rise up and I call that new order into the earth.

Gad, I’m queasy all over. I really have no problem with people who want to roll the clock back a couple of eras, but you can’t be doing it in the middle of an established society. Please, do some real estate shopping and go set up your little kingdom, far from the rest of us. It’s what Jehovah wants. Really.

RWW has the full story and video, all of which require a rather strong stomach.

Another NO: Religious Tax Exemption.

Focus on the Family has posted a tax return on its website that declares that it is a church, but has not filed the return with the government.

Focus on the Family has posted a tax return on its website that declares that it is a church, but has not filed the return with the government.

I’m just about to head out for chemo, but this caught my eye, and this should be a huge, furious NO NO NO – no more tax exemption for religious anything. Most ‘churches’ have more money than 10 gods combined, this is not something they need, especially when they constantly violate the rules of the exemption. The latest to join in the tax free haven religion provides is Focus on the Family, James Dobson’s little hate group.

…The IRS’s master database of tax-exempt organizations, last updated on February 13, also indicates that Focus is listed as a church that is not required to file a 990.

Focus on the Family declaring itself to be a church is puzzling. While the Colorado Springs-based organization has somewhat softened its image since it was led by the firebrand Dobson, it remains active in political debates and advocacy (even in a nominally nonpartisan way). A “social issues” section on the group’s website currently features information on a supposed threat to bathroom safety posed by transgender people thanks to LGBTQ activists fighting in politics, churches and popular culture, and contains an update on “cultural issues in the courts.” In June, Focus invited Vice President Mike Pence to speak at an event celebrating its 40th anniversary, where he promised the group it had an “unwavering ally” in President Trump.

Gail Harmon, an attorney who has advised nonprofits on tax law for more than 30 years, said that she had never before seen a nonprofit organization declare itself a church. “I just found it shocking,” she said.

“There’s nothing about them that meets the traditional definition of what a church is,” she said. “They don’t have a congregation, they don’t have the rites of various parts of a person’s life. There’s a whole system for what a church is.”…

You can read the whole thing at RWW.

Raising A Government For A Nonexistent God.

Capitol Ministries' February 13, 2018 fundraising dinner at the World Ag Expo.

Capitol Ministries’ February 13, 2018 fundraising dinner at the World Ag Expo.

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has joined Ralph Drollinger in his quest to raise the Jehovah government, not just here, but globally. Granted, this effort will go much further here in Amerikka than elsewhere, which is bad enough. It seems the department of agriculture has now turned into a giant “hey, cough up money for gawd! We have to get this religious reich going!”

All the conservative christian lunatics are in on this, stumping away god and guns and every other evil.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and former Rep. Michele Bachmann were the featured speakers at a Tuesday evening fundraising dinner for Capitol Ministries, the group that sponsors weekly Bible studies for members of the House and Senate and President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Also offering testimony on behalf of this “special type of ministry” was Rep. Jeff Denham, whose relationship with the group goes back to his days in the California legislature. The show was emceed by Frank Sontag, a Los Angeles-based Christian radio host who voices the audio versions of the written Bible studies that Capitol Ministries publishes every week.

Hundreds of people packed an event tent at the massive World Ag Expo in Tulare, California, the heart of the state’s agriculture industry, to hear Perdue, Bachmann and Capitol Ministries’ founder and leader Ralph Drollinger. Tulare is a reliably Republican area of the state, now represented in the U.S. Congress by Rep. Devin Nunes, a local boy from a farm family. At the event, tables were sponsored by wealthy farming families and an array of agriculture-related businesses, along with Bank of America and local branches of Wells Fargo.

[…]

Some sponsors may be supporters of Capitol Ministries’ mission of encouraging public officials to embrace conservative Christianity. Some may have bought tables based on personal and professional connections to Capitol Ministries board member and event host Rob Hilarides, who heads a dairy operation in the area. Some may appreciate Drollinger’s teachings that “God is a capitalist” and that because of excessive environmental regulations in the U.S., “the economic benefits God intends from private property ownership have been greatly diminished.” And some may have given to express support for the Trump administration’s rollbacks of regulations governing their industry.

Perdue told Capitol Ministries’ sponsors that he is “the beneficiary” of their “investment,” saying he hoped the Capitol Ministries fundraiser would become an annual event. Perdue talked about how God had guided his life and career moves, from the time God told him to give up his veterinary practice and go into agribusiness to his election as Georgia’s first Republican governor. Like Bachmann, Perdue gave an altar-call-like pitch for people to give their lives to God.

[…]

Drollinger is on a mission to recruit public officials at all levels of government to his conservative version of Christianity and his particular fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible. Part of Drollinger’s pitch for his ministry is that Religious Right groups have spent too much time lobbying public officials to change laws. Capitol Ministries focuses instead on “the most influential component in the legislative process: the people who make the decisions and create the statutes.”

Drollinger says he doesn’t lobby, but he does instruct public officials that the Bible mandates adherence to right-wing policy positions on a wide range of issues, including environmental regulation, the death penalty, abortion, LGBTQ equality and more. He says it is the government’s job to quell evil and punish sin. He teaches that care for the poor is meant to be a job for the family and church, not the government, and that entitlement programs have no “biblical authority.” And he says that once “righteous” people hold positions of power in government, they should hire only other “righteous” people.

Drollinger’s efforts should wake everyone up, they are terrifying, and unfortunately, effective. He has a great deal of influence on capitol hill, and like most christian lunatics, his views are that the way things were in Medieval age are splendid, and we should go right back there. He has no use whatsoever for christians who go all Jesus, or think things like compassion and care have a place in life:

Drollinger is not particularly open to other interpretations of scripture. He has called Roman Catholicism “one of the primary false religions in the world.” He has written that liberal Christians are “simpletons.” In a September 2017 Bible study, he wrote that the Social Gospel, a major strain of American Christianity in the 20th century, is a “perversion” or “corruption” of biblical teaching, and “not Christianity whatsoever.” As for Christians in Congress who do not share his conservative theology and right-wing politics, Drollinger wrote, “I believe the biggest deception on the Hill today is this: the religion of the Social Gospel proffers itself as being ‘Christian’ when it isn’t even close to being biblical.”

Last July, Drollinger warned public officials, “Do not be deceived by syncretistic ‘prayer breakfasts’: God only hears the prayers of leaders and citizens who are upright, who live righteously through faith in Jesus Christ.”

This is a man who is fully in favour of an inquisitorial government, in spite of his hate for the catholic church. He’s very much an inquisition and crusades kind of guy. The article at RWW is in-depth and link heavy, lots of important reading there. If liberal/moderate christians find such efforts to be repulsive, you have to stop being milquetoasts on the sideline, shaking your heads. You need to stand the fuck up, and put this effort down. Time to roar. Naturally, all us godless/religionless folk need to roar our faces off, too. This all starts with awareness, so go read, become aware, and start yelling.

The full article is at RWW.

Flu Shot Jesus.

If you know who to credit, let me know.

Gloria Copeland, wife of Kenneth Copeland, who was recently boasting about the Gulfstream plane “Jesus bought” for him, has something to say about influenza.

A video was posted on the ministry’s Facebook page featuring Copeland’s wife, Gloria, telling people that there is no such thing as flu season and that they don’t need to get a flu shot because “Jesus himself gave us the flu shot.”

“Listen partners, we don’t have a flu season,” Gloria Copeland said. “And don’t receive it when somebody threatens you with, ‘Everybody is getting the flu.’ We’ve already had our shot, He bore our sicknesses and carried our diseases. That’s what we stand on.”

Right, it’s all part of Jehovah’s plan when people get sick and die, so no worries there. These idiots tangled with measles in the recent past, and measles won. A person might think they would have learned something, but no.

Praying for those who may already have the flu, Copeland proclaimed, “Flu, I bind you off the people in the name of Jesus. Jesus himself gave us the flu shot, He redeemed us from the curse of flu.” Those who don’t have the flu, she promised, can protect themselves by simply declaring, “I’ll never have the flu.”

“Inoculate yourself with the word of God,” Copeland advised.

Oh, I’m so sure “I’ll never have the flu” works a charm. The curse of flu? Okay, that’s a new one, where in the bible is that little gem, because I’d like to read it. What else do you tell people who do have the flu, that Jesus doesn’t love them as much? He got behind with the inoculations? As for “binding” the flu, uh, isn’t that kind of a witchcraft thing? While the bible doesn’t mention influenza, it does mention witchcraft. Might want to watch your step there, Ms. Copeland.

And while I don’t care if you want the misery of flu, you have no business inflicting it on others, you nasty, thoughtless ass.

You can see the whole mess at RWW.

That’s Quite The Poll…

The Tiny Tyrant’s fundraising committee has released a survey: Official Presidential Job Performance Poll. And here it is:

Wow. Impressive, right? Every time you think the bar of stupid just cannot possibly get lower, it defies reality and gets down, down, down in the pit of fuckin’ idiocy. Obviously, they are hoping for a sop to toss into the void of Donny’s ego, reassuring him that yes, he’s so much better than a former president.

If you’re thinking of having a bit of fun, think twice, because:

respondents must submit identifying information, including their names and email addresses, raising concerns that the details will be raided for marketing purposes.

The site’s fine print below the form notes that, “by providing your phone number, you are consenting to receive calls and texts, including autodialed and automated calls and texts, to that number from TMAGAC and its participating committees.”

The full story is here.

I can’t even talk about it, but I won’t shut up.

Screengrab.

Jim Bakker. Now whining and wailing about how he cannot, cannot I say, preach the gospel, no! I cannot, because if I do, they will kill me! Now I’m going to whine and moan and cry about not being able to talk or preach, because that makes all manner of sense!

The people who hate God, Bakker said, “have beat back all opposition, they have changed America” but have so far been unable to destroy the word of God.

“The warfare is against the God of heaven,” he said. “The God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.The God whose son is Jesus Christ. I’m serious. You have no idea. I can’t even talk about it because they will kill me. And I don’t care what you say, I know what I’m talking about. They’ve already threatened my life because they disagree with the Bible.”

There are self-proclaimed shitlords all over the ‘net who delight in threatening all kinds of people. I’ll admit, it’s difficult for me to imagine anyone taking you so seriously, but I guess you never know. I don’t disagree with the bible, it does a fine job of disagreeing with itself. I dismiss it as irrelevant. I don’t care if you have intense bible spanking sessions or whatnot, just keep it private, please. Of course you don’t care what anyone says, you know it all, and the nebulous “they” are out to get you. Right. I would think if someone was threatened, they might go dark for a while, but not Jim! He’s gonna go right on preaching about how he can’t preach!

Bakker said that the God-haters had just about gained total control of America until the election of President Trump, so now “they are trying to bring in millions of illegals … to build a new voting group” in order to seize control of government. Christians must therefore unite behind Trump, Bakker added, because his opponents “want to kill, they want to march, they want to burn, they want to break windows, they want to burn up cars.”

Oh, constant plaint of the white male: X is coming to get you! They’ll march, loot, burn, go after your white women…the white people reasoning to commit and justify horrific acts. I’ll cop to the wanting to march business, nothing wrong with protesting, which should not be a crime, and isn’t, in spite of all the old white men attempts to make it so. We would also dearly like for the political system to work correctly for once, and oust the Idiot King and his Henchasskisser. You? I don’t care about you at all, Jim. Well, your constant whinging does provide opportunities for delicious mockery now and then. I do think all you evangelical assholes need to kicked out of the current regime, as you never should have been allowed in in the first place.

I can’t be arsed to hate your psychogod, but I certainly don’t harbour any love for all its ugly followers, whose inner lives are fantasies about being the world inquisition. That’s why you’re always maundering on about how non-theists want to kill and persecute you, because you can’t imagine doing anything else yourselves, if you get the power you crave. You’re the ones who hate this life, because you’re preoccupied with your supposed pie-in-the-sky when you die belief.

“I think the biggest miracle is President Trump has lived almost a year as president of the United States,” Bakker said, which prompted his guest, Tom Horn, to declare that Trump “has accomplished more in one year than in the last 20 combined.”

Oh please. Yes, the Tiny Tyrant has set a record for most golf ever played by a prez in the first year ever. Yes, the Idiot King has set a record for the most fuckwitted and WTF moments, ever. He’s fucked up one thing after another. He’s embraced Nazis. He’s paving the way for a theocracy. Now outside of those things, please, point me to a concrete list of all his “accomplishments”.  I’ll wait.

Via RWW, where there’s playable video.