Sunday Facepalm.

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Oh, how the mighty hath fallen. Going by the old testament, or the apocrypha, which was cut in the final edit, Jehovah was very much what one could call an interventionist god, even if that isn’t terribly accurate. Jehovah got bored a lot, and had many temper tantrums or warped whims, so any situation it bothered to intervene in was one it had caused in the first place. According to Todd Starnes, Jehovah has once again been busy with intervention:

“I would not discount the power of what Franklin Graham did,” Starnes said. “He did not endorse, but what he did do in 2016 was stage massive prayer gatherings at every single state capital in the country. And I believe that we experienced divine intervention last November and I believe that God was giving us a second chance. So we’ve been given a second chance and Christians, we’ve got to stand up and we’ve got to get it right.”

Huh. That’s not much in the godly intervention stakes, is it? Especially when the reality of the whole sorry mess is right there, plain to see. But no, it must be Jehovah, must! Well, even if you believed such nonsense, it’s quite the sad and sorry show for the god who ran rampant and drenched in blood in the old days. As the Tiny Dictator would say, Loser!

Going by Lance Wallnau, Jehovah is up to a slightly more impressive intervention, by making Trump an exorcist.

Wallnau said he knows the real reason that millions of people marched against the new president the day after the inauguration: Upon taking office, Trump evicted an evil spirit of witchcraft from the White House, causing that demonic spirit to go out into the general population.

“What I believe is happening is there was a deliverance of the nation from the spirit of witchcraft in the Oval Office,” he said. “The spirit of witchcraft was in the Oval Office, it was about to intensify to a higher level demon principality, and God came along with a wrecking ball [Trump] and shocked everyone, the church cried out for mercy and bam—God knocked that spirit out, and what you’re looking at is the manifestation of an enraged demon through the spirit.”

I have to admit, viewing Trump as a wrecking ball is accurate enough, just not in the way Wallnau meant.

Pat Buchanan is leaving Jehovah on the sidelines, perhaps realizing there’s no point to waiting on supposedly divine intervention, and is busy railing for Trump to break the judiciary for all the horrors they have inflicted on the States:

When politicians don black robes and seize powers they do not have, they should be called out for what they are – usurpers and petty tyrants. And if there is a cause upon which the populist right should unite, it is that elected representatives and executives make the laws and rule the nation. Not judges, and not justices.

Indeed, one of the mightiest forces that has birthed the new populism that imperils the establishment is that unelected justices like Warren and Brennan, and their progeny on the bench, have remade our country without the consent of the governed – and with never having been smacked down by Congress or the president.

Consider. Secularist justices de-Christianized our country. They invented new rights for vicious criminals as though criminal justice were a game. They tore our country apart with idiotic busing orders to achieve racial balance in public schools. They turned over centuries of tradition and hundreds of state, local and federal laws to discover that the rights to an abortion and same-sex marriage were there in Madison’s Constitution all along. We just couldn’t see them.

Goodness. No fuzziness about that agenda, mean, brutal, misogynistic, enshrined with bigotry.

Meanwhile, Trump’s White House should use the arrogant and incompetent conduct of these federal judges to make the case not only for creating a new Supreme Court, but for Congress to start using Article III, Section 2, of the Constitution – to restrict the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, and to reclaim its stolen powers.

A clipping of the court’s wings is long overdue.

Okay, I’m in facepalm overload at this point. I hate to say, but Trump probably will try something like this, and there’s no god to help us if he does.

 

No One Expects the Inquisition…

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It seems it’s not enough for Bannon to be busy Nazifying everything, he’s a Catholic Nazi, and he’s not a happy camper about the almighty church’s descent in ugly, ruthless power, having been at least somewhat defanged in recent centuries. Not enough, to be sure, as the church is constantly seeking ways to impose its particular brand of brutality, such as now buying hospitals everywhere, in order to impose a compleat lack of autonomy on women, and the “outreaches” in places where the church can handily refuse medical or other help unless someone agrees to convert, and making sure they lie their unholy asses off about life-saving contraceptives, like condoms. Even largely defanged, the Catholic church continues to do as much damage and harm as possible. That’s not even getting into all the child molesting the church handwaves, nor their ongoing protection via shuffling about of rapists. Even though I don’t think Pope Francis is all that different from his predecessors, to many Catholics, it’s seems he’s viewed as close to heretical – globalism! And making noises about caring for the poor. That sort of thing just isn’t on for those who are more than attached to all the wealth the church is sitting on.

At the root of things is the fact that the pope gave the boot to Raymond Cardinal Burke, a theological reactionary and a guy who was born 500 years too late to be the high cleric of his dreams. This touched off a major squabble with the Knights of Malta. They’re serious power brokers within HMC even though they dress like Albanian ushers and despite the fact that just talking about them makes me start hearing “Hail, Hail Freedonia” in my mind. Burke was their chaplain.

There’s a genuine rebellion brewing in HMC, holy obedience be damned, you should pardon the expression. And today, The New York Times adds a bizarre—but completely predictable—bit of information to the story of that rebellion.

In one of the cardinal’s antechambers, amid religious statues and book-lined walls, Cardinal Burke and Mr. Bannon — who is now President Trump’s anti-establishment eminence — bonded over their shared worldview. They saw Islam as threatening to overrun a prostrate West weakened by the erosion of traditional Christian values, and viewed themselves as unjustly ostracized by out-of-touch political elites. “When you recognize someone who has sacrificed in order to remain true to his principles and who is fighting the same kind of battles in the cultural arena, in a different section of the battlefield, I’m not surprised there is a meeting of hearts,” said Benjamin Harnwell, a confidant of Cardinal Burke who arranged the 2014 meeting.

Just as Mr. Bannon has connected with far-right parties threatening to topple governments throughout Western Europe, he has also made common cause with elements in the Roman Catholic Church who oppose the direction Francis is taking them. Many share Mr. Bannon’s suspicion of Pope Francis as a dangerously misguided, and probably socialist, pontiff… For many of the pope’s ideological opponents in and around the Vatican, who are fearful of a pontiff they consider outwardly avuncular but internally a ruthless wielder of absolute political power, this angry moment in history is an opportunity to derail what they see as a disastrous papal agenda. And in Mr. Trump, and more directly in Mr. Bannon, some self-described “Rad Trads” — or radical traditionalists — see an alternate leader who will stand up for traditional Christian values and against Muslim interlopers.

If it wasn’t clear already, it should be now. Stephen Bannon, the last descendant of House Harkonnen, is not someone who wants to “disrupt the elites,” or whatever techie garbage he likes to toss around. He wants to establish himself at the head of a new, worldwide authoritarian elite that will reach into every institution and that will demolish any of those institutions that stand in the way of what he wants. The man is a political thug, and Burke is a theological thug. Marriage made somewhat lower than heaven.

Given the rise of nazism and fascism across the globe, and the fascist grip firmly on uStates, it will pay to watch just where this unholy as fuck union is going to lead. Nowhere good, that’s certain, but when you combine this with the ongoing efforts to quash dissent, we are facing very dark days, and we need to gather our courage and commit to giving voice to every single wrong, every single outrage. Given the Catholic Church’s willingness to be corrupt as all hells, combining that corruption with what now taints many governments, along with the church’s unquenchable thirst for power…regardless of what people think, there are plenty of evil assholes in the church who will happily collaborate with nazis and fascists.

Full story at Esquire.

Satanic Sedition and Heads on Pikes.

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William Blake‘s illustration of Satan as presented in John Milton‘s Paradise Lost. Illustration was made on c. 1808.

Rick Wiles has decided there’s a Satanic Panic going on, and of course it’s being orchestrated by none other than former President Obama.

“We are witnessing a full-blown Marxist/communist resistance movement, a revolution in America,” Wiles said. “The chief banker funding the Purple Revolution is billionaire George Soros and the chief community organizer directing the insurrection in the streets is none other than Barack Hussein Obama … My gut feeling says Barack Obama is on the phone day and night and he is directing the protests, he is organizing, he is giving clear instructions to the people what to do and how to carry it out.”

Waitaminute, who decided the colour of the revolution? I’m good with purple and all, but we should have been asked. Oooh, it’s Wiles’s gut! I’ll just bet it’s a fact factory, of the alternative sort. I’d love to hear from Pres. Obama! What with being super powerful and stuff, he has my number, right? As for the constant refrain of Soros!, I haven’t seen a bloody penny. If people are getting paid for activism, it’s news to me and everyone else down here in the purple.

Wiles, who repeatedlycalled for Obama to be arrested and imprisoned when he was still in the White House, said that the recent protests against Trump are nothing short of sedition, which is itself inherently satanic.

“This is outright sedition,” he declared, “and we have laws in the United States against sedition…. What the Democrats are doing, and the news media and the Obamanista bureaucrats inside the government agencies, what they are doing is, these are acts of sedition.”

Sedition is so defined: incitement of discontent or rebellion against a government. Sedition is one of those concepts that finds itself entwined on the thorny ground of hallowed free speech. It’s rarely charged, (in uStates) and when it is, most people are acquitted. In 1917, Art Young did this political cartoon (click for full size):

[Read more…]

Confirmed. Fuck.

Education Secretary-designate Betsy DeVos arrives before testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017, at her confirmation hearing. CREDIT: AP/Carolyn Kaster.

Education Secretary-designate Betsy DeVos arrives before testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017, at her confirmation hearing. CREDIT: AP/Carolyn Kaster.

Think Progress has the story. All the bad news is at Pharyngula, where I first saw this, and experienced that caved-in, sinking chest feeling, in spite of being heavily medicated.* All I can say right now is go read. Read, and renew your conviction and commitment to fight back. We are in situation dire as fuck.

*Dealing with extreme stress right now, PTSD shit. Likely to be on the erratic side for a bit, can’t focus right now. There will also probably be mass amounts of typos, please be kind in your corrections.

Arkansas Act 45.

Danny Johnston/AP Photo.

Danny Johnston/AP Photo.

A new Arkansas law bans one of the safest and most common abortion procedures and allows family members to block an abortion by suing the abortion provider.

Arkansas Act 45, signed by Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson last Thursday, bans dilation and evacuation abortions, the most common abortion procedure during the second trimester of pregnancy. Rushed from filing to law in less than two months, the legislation effectively blocks abortions after 14 weeks by making the safest procedure a felony. The earliest current abortion bans block the procedure after 20 weeks.

With no exception for rape or incest, and a clause that allows a woman’s spouse or parent to sue an abortion provider, the law potentially allows the fetus’s father to sue even in cases of spousal rape or incest, abortion rights activists say. The law could go into effect as early as spring.

Emphasis mine. Looks like Arkansas is going full court biblical, reducing women to mere things, at best, nothing more than chattel. Interestingly enough, the fuckwits in Arkansas are also crusading against Sharia law. Apparently, they are utterly immune from irony poisoning.

State Rep. Brandt Smith (R-Jonesboro) introduced HB 1041, which won approval Thursday from a House judiciary committee, to “American laws for American courts,” reported the Arkansas Times.

He claims the measure was not specifically aimed at Sharia law, although it’s similar to legislation introduced in other states based on the conspiracy theory that Islamic law is creeping into the American legal system.

Yes, you could say Islamic law is creeping in, it’s called American laws for American courts, laws which exist for no other reason than to oppress and grind people down into the dirt, stripping them of their human rights and autonomy. At least Islamic law makes exceptions for rape and incest for 120 days when it comes to abortion, which makes that law better than the “American” one in Arkansas. Getting back to the Arkansas law, they aren’t alone:

When not working in the legislature, Mayberry doubles as the president of Arkansas Right to Life, a subsidiary of the National Right to Life Committee. Introducing the bill before the Arkansas House in January, Mayberry announced that the text was “based on model legislation from National Right to Life that has been passed, or similar legislation has been passed in six states.”

Those six states are Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and West Virginia. In all but the latter two, which passed their bills in spring 2016, legal challenges have temporarily blocked the laws from taking effect. As in the other states, the Arkansas legislation takes a hard line against dilation and evacuation procedures, making their use a Class D felony, punishable by a $10,000 fine or six years in prison.

[…]

But one particularly punishing element of Arkansas’s law has not been tested in court, even in Mississippi and West Virginia, where versions of the bans still stand, reproductive rights activists say.

A clause in the Arkansas law allows a woman’s spouse, parent or guardian, or health care provider to sue an abortion provider for civil damages or injunctive relief that could stop the abortion. And because Act 45 does not provide any exceptions for cases of rape or incest, the clause could allow the fetus’s father to sue an abortion provider even in cases of spousal rape or incest.

Full stories at The Daily Beast and Raw Story.

Fuck Nones.

So. There’s an article up about the so-called rise of the irreligious, and how they might change the political landscape. My initial reaction on seeing the headline was a rather cynical hmmm. Ever since people got all excited about the wave of ‘nones’, it’s been my experience in interacting with them that they are remarkably wishy-washy. The thing they seem to be most intensely reluctant to discuss or be involved in, activism wise, is anything to do with religion or secularism. Oh, they don’t believe, but it’s not a big deal, right, live and let live, all that jazz or “I think most religious people are okay, it’s just not my thing” or or or or or. Yeah, great, catch ya later. They don’t want to be rude. They don’t want to be pushy. They don’t care enough, in any direction. For the most part, I’ve found them to be one big shrug. Disclaimer: This is not every single person who identifies as ‘none’. Most, but not all.

I’m reading the article. Nothing I don’t already know, keep reading. Then I get to a bit I didn’t know – most nones can’t be arsed to vote. They don’t care, and even worse, most of them are uninformed about the recent election, out of choice. Fucking idiots. Thanks for fascism, thanks ever so fucking much.

chart

The 2016 Presidential Election

Interest in the Election

Consistent with their lower rates of voter registration, religiously unaffiliated Americans express less interest in the 2016 election, compared to white Christian groups. Fewer than four in ten (37%) religiously unaffiliated Americans say they are following news about the 2016 election very closely. Three in ten (30%) say they are following it fairly closely, while more than one-third (34%) say they are following the election not too closely or not at all closely. In contrast, a majority (56%) of white evangelical Protestants say they are following the election very closely.

PRRI. Oh well, maybe when nuclear winter hits, they’ll organize a nice bonfire or something. Fuck’s sake.

“I sat under the glory spout and it just was coming out all day long on me.”

Rick Wiles.

Rick Wiles.

Rick Wiles has been orgasmic over Trump, and that psychopathic god of his, ecstatically going on about ooze and glory spouts. It’s kinda disturbing. I don’t care what Wiles does in private, but I don’t need to hear about it, either. In this latest outing, Wiles is comparing Trump to Samson, which I find quite amusing, because El Shaddai didn’t do well by Samson.

“Friends, listen to me,” he said. “God’s favor is on us. Please, please, please comprehend what is happening. It’s more than a political revolution. This is a spiritual revolution. God’s favor is shining on us. I can’t get out of my mind what Mario Murillo said Monday, ‘Grace is oozing out of Heaven.’ It’s just oozing towards us right now. I’m basking in it. I’m rolling around in it. I’m enjoying it.”

That’s nice. I’ll stay ooze free if you don’t mind.

I keep getting this picture that Donald Trump is like this Samson, who has been raised up by God to fight the Philistines and all the Philistines have now turned their attention away from the church, turned their attention away from attacking Christianity, and all of the Philistines are running to Washington to attack Samson. But Samson is strong enough for them. He’s been called. He’s been equipped for this battle. That is his job. That is his assignment. He’s going to beat them down. They will not be able to overtake him. He’s Samson. He was designed by God. He was created for this hour to fight these Philistines.

The story of Samson is an interesting one. Warped, seriously fucked up, but interesting. Once again, I highly recommend Drunk With Blood: God’s Killings in the Bible, by Steve Wells. If you don’t have the book, but would like the insightful commentary, head over to SAB, and note the commentary on the right side. Samson wasn’t a terribly smart guy, and you couldn’t give him any points at all for astuteness, even though his mum was knocked up by an angel while her husband was gone. Tsk. Samson is wandering about one day, sees a Philistine woman he likes the look of, and demands his parents procure her. They do, he’s pleased. Apparently at some point, they marry, there’s a week long party, an inexplicable riddle, Samson gets pissed, kills 30 people and steals their clothes so he doesn’t have to pay his buddies, then gives his wife to a companion and leaves. Some hero.

Then there’s a raft of super-nonsense. Samson decides he wants to go back and have sex with his wife (the one he gave away). Now the story is that her father gave her to someone else (women rarely have names in the bible), and offers her younger sister to Samson. He doesn’t want the sister, so he has a cunning plan to get sex with his wife: he’s gonna set the Philistines grain fields on fire. This wouldn’t be a problem for most people. Samson figures the best way to do this is to catch 300 foxes, tie their tails together, light them on fire, and set them loose in the grain fields. Genius! How in the fuck can people not be embarrassed by this shit? Anyway, the cunning plan didn’t work, Samson’s wife and father were burned to death by the pissed off Philistines. Golly, there’s just so much love and light in this How To Be A Psychopath book. Samson then slaughtered a bunch of Philistines. Then that glory spout thing happened, y’know, the spirit of the lord came upon him, and he grabbed that conveniently placed jawbone of an ass and killed 1,000 men. Yeah. As Steve Wells notes, it’s easier to believe stories like this if you don’t know they exist.

Then Samson goes to Gaza, has sex with a prostitute, ripped out the doors and gate posts of the city, carried them up a hill, and fell in love with Delilah. Delilah was paid to find out the magical source of Samson’s strength, y’know, find his wand or whatever. There’s a long, idiotic story about these attempts. Delilah finally gets it right, and cuts his hair. The Philistines nab Samson and gouge out his eyes. They also chained him up, and put him in a prison house. Then someone gets the bright idea to bring Samson out to entertain them. Naturally, Samson prayed to El Shaddai:

Now the house was full of…about three thousand men and women…And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord God…strengthen me…that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes…and he house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at this death were more than they which he slew in his life. Judges 16.27-30.

As Steve Wells notes, this was the first suicide terrorist act. It resulted in the deaths of 3,000 civilian men and women. God approved it, and gave Samson the strength to do it. Why in the hell christians still parade this idiotic story around, I don’t know. Samson was something of a dumbfuck, mostly interested in sex and getting out of paying his bets. He was a murderer and a thief. He wasn’t too kind to animals, either. Point being, there was no reason at all to hold him above the Philistines, who couldn’t really be any worse; at best they were pretty much the same. El Shaddai didn’t love Samson enough to enhance his thinking ability, or to magically give him his eyes back, or find a way for Samson to avenge himself without having to commit suicide. Somehow this awful story never manages to make the point that the situation Samson found himself in was his own doing. It has always baffled me that christians are so damn impressed with this story. It’s awful, and just one more story highlighting the fact that Jehovah is a bloodthirsty, stupid, psychopath.

If Trump is Samson of a latter day…yeah. Maybe the folks in charge of the Doomsday Clock should shave off that 30 seconds.

Wiles added that God is also blessing his radio ministry and that God’s glory has been flowing: “I didn’t get home until after 8 last night and I had some visitors in the house, they were waiting and everybody had already finished dinner and I came in and I was floating, I just said, ‘I’ve been sitting under the glory spout all day.’ That’s what I felt like. I sat under the glory spout and it just was coming out all day long on me.”

Eeuuw. If you happen to be one of those people blessing Wiles’s ministry, I beg of you, please, think. Give me five fucking minutes: think.

Via RRW.

New CIA Director: ‘Jesus Christ Our Savior Is Truly the Only Solution For Our World.’

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Speaking at a church event in Wichita [in 2014], then-Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas), the newly confirmed Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said radical Muslims want “to wipe Christians from the face of the Earth,” and that Christians need to pray, fight, and understand that “Jesus Christ our Savior is truly the only solution for our world.”

[…]

“But I can tell you that this threat to America is from people who deeply believe that Islam is the way and the light and the only answer,” said Pompeo.

“So, as we think about what U.S. policy needs to be, how we will begin to combat this, we need to recognize that these folks believe it is religiously driven for them to wipe Christians from the face of the Earth,” he said.

Right. You think your god [placeholder] is the way and the light and the only answer. You believe, as a christian, you are religiously driven to wipe muslims from the face of the earth, and you want to force your religious beliefs on everyone. As usual, such fanatics completely ignore the fact that you aren’t fighting over two gods [placeholder], it’s the same fucking one. Abrahamaic religions: Judaism, Islam, Christianity. Same fucking god. (If you’re confused, ‘god’ is a generic word, a placeholder for a specific god; ‘allah’ is the same thing, means ‘god’. Unless you specify, ‘god’ in any language could be applicable to thousands of imaginary beings.)

You bloodthirsty christian assholes want a jihad, you want to kill, slaughter, and most likely torture first. No room to talk here, a fanatic is a fanatic, and all you idiotic fanatics want to do this over different interpretations. It’s fair enough to say most christians just want to live their lives, like everyone else, and be left in peace. It’s fair enough to say the very same thing about most muslims. I dearly wish we could just lock up all you fucking religious fanatics in a room, lock it, and walk away.

“But these folks are serious and they abhor Christians,” said the future CIA director. “And [they] will continue to press against us until we make sure that we pray and stand and fight and make sure that we know that Jesus Christ our Savior is truly the only solution for our world.”

Yes, some fanatical assholes do abhor christians. Just like some fanatical assholes abhor muslims. Can’t say I’m altogether fond of fanatics of any stripe, but here in the States, where I live, it’s christians who constantly prove to be a threat to all people who don’t measure up to their fucked up immoral standards. Turn that laser focus on yourself, sir, and let that ‘god’ of yours fight its own fucking battles.

Unsurprisingly, Pompeo is willing to go along with Trump and bring torture back, because torture good.

Via CNS.

Parsing Trumpian Piety.

CREDIT: AP/Patrick Semansky.

CREDIT: AP/Patrick Semansky.

Religious blather is part and parcel of politics, unfortunately. Christians everywhere have a fucking fit if “god” isn’t mentioned enough, or christianity, or the big book of bloody tales. Normally, all of these mentions in Trump’s inaugural speech would not be remarkable, but in the case of our wannabe emperor, it pays to think things through a bit more.

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Let’s set aside for a moment the historical fact that patriotism has long been co-opted as a tool for prejudice, and focus on how Trump is referencing Psalm 133 here. His broader point—that societies function better when people are unified—makes sense generally. But things take a sharp turn when grokking what Trump is communicating theologically.

Take Trump’s use of “God’s people.” He didn’t have to use this phrase, since it varies depending on the Biblical translation— it’s “God’s people” in the New International Version, but others read “kindred” (New Revised Standard Version), “brethren” (King James Version), or “brothers” (English Standard Version). It’s also not clear if he or his speechwriters understand the original Old Testament/Hebrew Bible meaning of the term, which was specifically referencing the Jewish people.

Regardless, Trump parrots “God’s people” anyway, implying that all Americans — or at least all Christian Americans — are somehow chosen by God. And more importantly, he intentionally conflates the spiritual unity of “God’s people” with patriotism, merging commitment to country with a devotion to the Almighty.

[…]

“Let your favor be upon this one nation under God,” White prayed, referencing the Pledge of Allegiance. “Let these United States of America be that beacon of hope to all people and nations under your dominion, a true hope for humankind.”

This interlacing of nationalism and faith was quickly flagged by experts. Peter Manseau, author of “One Nation, Under Gods: A New American History,” told the Washington Post that Trump’s inauguration rhetoric reflected a “desire to fuse the languages of faith and nation.”

[…]

But another paragraph of Trump’s inauguration speech hints that he and his advisers are crafting a new version of this America-focused Christianity—one that keeps Trump at the center.

After suggesting there should be “no fear” while he is in office, Trump assured Americans they will be safe because they will be protected by the military, law enforcement officials, and God.

[…]

It’s not uncommon for presidents to praise the might of the American military, which is, without question, the most powerful fighting force in the world. Nor is it unusual for people of faith to implore God to protect the United States and its citizens—both liberal and conservative religious groups pray similar orisons each week.

But Trump drags both concepts into a very different—and highly unusual—theological space: he appears to be arguing that America will be protected by God because he is president.

[…]

But Trump, flanked by his menagerie of loyal faith leaders, is already preaching a nationalist gospel from the largest of pulpits. And while the exact parameters of this developing theology remain to be seen, it’s clear a revival of American Christian nationalism is on the horizon—with Trump as its high priest.

It’s hardly a secret that the religious reich has been salivating over the prospect of a brutal and bloodthirsty theocracy for a very long time. I highly recommend reading the full article. This is yet another facet of the new fascism to be very worried about.

Full article at Think Progress.

Sunday Facepalm.

facepalm_estatua1

All of life has become one gargantuan facepalm, ennit? Here are a few of them, adding to the whole:

Corey Lewandowski is now on record saying that no republicans ever questioned the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s presidency, no, not those holy rethugs. That’s just so baldfaced, it’s hard to say it qualifies only as a facepalm.

“You’ve seen that the Democrats are trying to say that he’s not a legitimate candidate,” he said. “Can you imagine just for a second if a Republican congressman would have gone out and said this about Barack Obama and continued that narrative? It would be an uproar in the mainstream media.”

Right, because there wasn’t round the clock, constant coverage of all the rethugs screaming for birth certificates and the like.

highlights-magazine-2Kevin Swanson, who is rabid in his hatred for all things queer, is now raging about…Highlights. It’s just as bad as ISIS, did you know? Oh yes, just as evil, and maybe more evil. What brought on this irrational tirade of abuse? Inclusivity, natch. Inclusiveness of any kind is always to be found right at the top of the most evil list the Religious Reich has in their pocket.

Highlights Magazine announced they will be featuring same sex parents in future editions. That’s nice, isn’t it? Well, it’s nice for people who aren’t terrified by inclusiveness, and think it’s a good thing for the children of same sex parents to see themselves and their families represented. That helps to establish healthy, stable children, and a healthy, stable society, things which Christian Republicans are fanatically against. None of that inclusive wholesomeness for them, oh no!

Swanson said that while ISIS is releasing videos showing young children killing prisoners, Highlights is just as evil because it will “encourage the support for the sin of homosexuality among kids.”

It will encourage acceptance, yes. That’s a good thing, at least if you’re a decent, ethical person. I guess we know where that places Mr. Swanson.

“So now, here’s Highlights magazine, an American kids’ magazine promoting homosexuality amongst kids,” Swanson fumed, “and now ISIS is teaching kids how to kill people. Now, I got to thinking: Which sin is worse? Homosexuality or murder? Which is worse? Are we really that much better than ISIS?”

No, Highlights is not promoting homosexuality, anymore than it promotes heterosexuality. It’s simply reflecting their readership, and society as a whole. As for which sin is worse, can we just count Christianity as one big evil stain of a sin? It would save time. There are times I wish the xian hell did exist, because some people definitely deserve an extended dip in it, like Mr. Swanson. Even I’m not nasty enough to think he deserves such for eternity though. I’m simply not evil enough to be a good christian.

Okay everyone, hang onto those hats…

POTUS-Shield-800x458

Yeah. Are you impressed? I think we’re supposed to be impressed.

We reported earlier this week that a group of Trump-supporting dominionists has launched a POTUS Shield project to protect Trump and his presidency from his enemies. They’ve now posted video [warning: autoplay] from last week’s prayer gathering at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. In addition to prayers of gratitude for Trump’s “anointing” and his having “surrounded himself with evangelical people” and “magnified Christianity,” the group prayed individually for each member of the Trump family, as someone came forward to act as a sort of Hollywood-style stand-in for each of them.

Lance Wallnau, who had repeatedly declared that Trump was anointed by God, prayed for Donald Jr., declaring that God would give him a personal heads-up—“a word of knowledge ahead of time”—when the media is trying to trip up or embarrass the family.

Sure, why not get to the really important stuff right away? I’m sure there couldn’t possibly be anything more urgent than embarrassment, given that Trump is sort of the living embodiment of embarrassment.

Frank Amedia, who served the Trump campaign as a voluntary “liaison for Christian policy,” prayed for Eric, saying that he too has “an anointing on him” and that Eric’s “humility for you is already beyond natural.” Amedia prayed that God would “bless his seed and the seed of his seed.”

Eeeuuuw. Seriously, christians, just start fucking more, maybe it will take care of this constant need to shove your noses into crotches, and stop concerning yourself with people’s semen.  As for humility, Eric. Really. Guess they didn’t see those disgusting hunting photos.

Leigh Valentine, a beauty-industry entrepreneur associated with John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel, thanked God for “the anointing” he had placed on Melania to walk alongside her husband. The “wisdom of God”, she said, will be upon Melania, who will “astound the women of her nation.”

What nation are we talking here? Astounded. By what? Her penchant for plagiarism? The fact that she was hawking her QVC crap on the whitehouse.gov site before someone hastily yanked it? Her standing silently by when her husband is busy drooling all over his daughter? Standing by her man when he talks about grabbing women by the pussy?

Mark Gonzalez prayed that young Barron would be given wisdom beyond his years and asked that God protect his heart when he sees “evil” being “launched at his family.”

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such a blank looking kid. Either he’s so overwhelmed he’s close to paralysis, or he’s simply not affected by anything. I think he should be protected too, but that’s a tough call when he’s in the bosom of his family.

Clarence McClendon, a Los Angeles-based preacher who said in post-election Twitter messages to “the Prophetic Community” that the election was “supernatural” and a “Re-Set” for the country, prayed for Mike Pence has his wife, saying that God had told him Pence was “a covenant man.” Pence, he said, is “malleable and pliable” in God’s hand, and prayed that Pence would speak wisdom into Trump’s ears.

I wouldn’t describe Pence as malleable and pliable in the least. Rigid, cold, uncaring, devoid of empathy, and a willing toady, yes. There’s more at Right Wing Watch.

A Prayer Shield and A Wall of Meat.

Christians pray while waiting to listen to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speak during a USA Thank You Tour event in Mobile, Alabama, U.S., on Dec. 17, 2016.Reuters.

Christians pray while waiting to listen to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speak during a USA Thank You Tour event in Mobile, Alabama, U.S., on Dec. 17, 2016.Reuters.

Like angels from heaven, hundreds of “prayer warriors” have descended on Washington D.C. to undertake a crucial mission: protect U.S. President-elect Donald Trump by building a “prayer shield” around him ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Among these prayer warriors are the members of a new group called POTUS Shield (as in President of the United States) who gathered inside the National Press Club on Thursday, CBN News reported.

Pastor Eric Majette from Virginia Beach, Virginia said POTUS Shield is composed of pastors from all over America.

“We’re actually a prayer group. We pray for leaders across our nation — a group of pastors come together to pray for our nation and our leaders, particularly the new administration,” he said.

Okay. This is utterly pointless and useless, but I suppose it makes people feel like they are actually doing something. And I guess they’ll help to make it look like there are actual numbers at the widely spurned inauguration.

“Bikers for Trump” are also traveling to the nation’s capital to act as roaming peacekeepers.

The group’s founder Chris Cox told Fox News, “We’re a force to be dealt with, we’re a political phenomenon,” but insisted they’re not a vigilante organization.

“In the event that we are needed, we certainly will form a wall of meat,” said Cox.

“What does that mean, ‘a wall of meat?’” the Fox and Friends hosts asked.

“We’ll be shoulder-to-shoulder with our brothers and toe-to-toe with anyone that is going to break through any police barriers, that’s going to be assaulting women, spitting on them, throwing things at them.”

A wall of meat. Lovely. Odd how they are focused on the idea of protesters breaking through barriers with the sole intention to assault women. Do they ever have that one backwards – women need protection from Prince Pussy Grabber Trump, not protesters. It’s rather pathetic that both these groups are so desperate in their wishful thinking that they are so needed.

Via Christianity Today and Raw Story.

I believe in a BIG god.

Mike Farris.

Mike Farris.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian hate group, has a new prez, Mike Farris. Mike is intent on “winning”, meaning he’s all fired up to make sure that certain people are not accorded full human rights, what with their being subhuman and all. Primarily, this means all who fall under the LGBT+ umbrella, and women. Mike believes in a BIG god, so he’s confident. Just once, I’d like to see any of you Christian assholes actually leave something up to that god of yours. We both know you can’t do that though, because there is no god out there just waiting to stomp all over people. Unfortunately, this sort of wishful thinking is capable of a great deal of harm, not that these sanctimonious, so-called lovers of life care about that. Unwanted children? Eh, who cares. Dead women? Eh, who cares. Queer people subjected to violence and discrimination? Eh, who cares.

Farris described himself as a problem-solver by nature, and said ADF was founded to address “the general erosion of religious freedom” as well as “attacks” on marriage, human life, and the right to “preach the gospel” and “live the gospel.”

There has not been one single instance of erosion in regard to religious freedom. Religious freedom has expanded, in truth, and you don’t like that at all, no sir. You can’t stand the fact that secular people are allowed to have their own little scenes up in public, you can’t stand that the narrative isn’t just yours anymore. So, say what you really mean: we aren’t a fuckin’ dictatorship anymore, and we want that back! There’s been no attack on marriage. Again, that has been expanded to be more inclusive. No one is knocking on your door announcing “marriage dissolved!” and glitter bombing you. Although that’s a tempting thought. Since when don’t you have the right to preach the gospel and live the gospel? Just who in the fuck is stopping you? From my perspective, you asses never manage to shut up, and your gospelish lives aren’t terribly impressive, so there’s not much there to keep one’s attention. In short form, no one cares. Live your bloody life however you like. All that’s asked in return is that you allow others the same. Oh, but can’t have that, can we?

Winning means religious freedom is robustly protected. Winning means Roe versus Wade is reversed. Winning means that same-sex marriage by judicial edict is reversed, and we go back to the states and let the states make their own policy on this.

Religious freedom is already protected. That’s not what you want. You want to rule, much like Lucifer did. Is it really all that much to ask that you jackasses pay mind to your own fairy stories? Roe v Wade, yes, because viewing women as autonomous human beings who have a right to make their own personal medical decisions is unthinkable, someone must think of the wonders of misogyny, yes? After all, what’s the point of being a patriarch if you don’t get to make women miserable, that’s one of those perks, ennit? Oh, and marriage. Marriage is marriage is marriage. Marriage is a legal contract, it only has to do with a god if you decide that matters. So, some people have church a/o god based weddings, and some people have civil ones. Me, I went civil. It’s all marriage. Mine is not invalid because it did not invoke a god. It’s not invalid because I chose to not have children, even those of your view do consider childfree marriages to be invalid. Basically, it’s none of your business. The right to marry is a basic human right, you don’t get to withhold it from those you don’t like. If we could do that, I’d certainly never approve of you being married or breeding, Mr. Farris. You’re much too busy passing on hate for my tastes. However, that is not the case, so I have to accept your marriage. That’s how these little social contract thingies work.

The “left elites” want to restrict religious freedom, he said, and “that battle is at a pitched fever [sic] right now.” Farris said winning won’t be easy because “the other side is well funded, well organized, smart, and they don’t play fair.” But, he said, “I believe we can win because I believe in a big God and I’ve seen Him deliver before.”

Oh ffs. This idiocy again. I’m left, yes. Elite, no. I’m certainly not swimming in the same money pool as all you Christian hustlers and swindlers. A con, every single one of you, fleecing money left and right from those who can most ill afford it, while you live the high life, busy spoonfeeding lies and hate into those who think the sun shines out your arse.

Mostly, I’d like you to shut up and mind your own business. That’s all. You live your life, and let the rest of us live ours. I’m perfectly willing to make peace, but you aren’t. No, you must rule, you must destroy, you must always be at war of some fucking kind or other. Without your hate, you have nothing. Ugh. I just can’t go on, I feel like vomiting all over this awful excuse of a human being. The whole mess is at Right Wing Watch.

Sunday Facepalm.

facepalm_estatua

In the really bad news department, evangelicals have found themselves in government heaven. Last month, Right Wing Watch reported on the Pendejo-elect’s transition team giving religious right activists, specifically, the members of his evangelical advisory board unprecedented (sb. unpresidented?) input in shaping the new administration. A member of that board, Richard Land, was busy boasting in gleeful surprise about this recently.

Earlier this week, one of the members of that board, Richard Land of the Southern Evangelical Seminary, appeared on the “Point of View” radio program, where he told host Kerby Anderson that he has been shocked by how much influence he and other Religious Right activists have had over the make-up of Trump’s administration.

“Some of my conservative friends and I, we have been pinching ourselves, are we hallucinating or is this actually happening?” Land said. “I know a good number of people on the transition team and I can tell you right now, about half of them, Kerby, think I’m liberal. I mean, these are very conservative people.”

Indeed. Nazis and fascists in general are “ultra-conservative” by typical standards. One could phrase it more precisely as rigidly evil.

Land, a longtime activist and former Southern Baptist Convention official, said that he has “been solicited five times for personnel recommendations” by the Trump administration, which is something that never happened under any previous Republican president. As such, Land said, “this administration is going to have more conservative Christians, Catholic and evangelical, in it than any administration that I’ve been associated with or had contact with, and I’ve been doing this since Reagan.”

For those of us who eschew willful delusions, this is very bad news indeed. “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” I would say they would soon be eyeing suitable candidates for kindling, to set that cross ablaze, but there’s no soon about it. Already happening.

Via Right Wing Watch.