The truth is under assault in America and has been for some time. Donald Trump lied more than 35,000 times as president. He has added tens of thousands more to the count over the last three years. Accompanying the lies are a legion of threats aimed at anyone who dare oppose or exposes them.
Wow, someone that sees the forest for the trees! Exactly right on all counts. This has been in the making for a very long time. I think you may have missed Education along with the other forces.
Steve thanks for this Warning newsletter and for exposing Bishop Bannon. I’m a Catholic and a fallible fallen follower of Jesus of Nazareth. I watched the Bishop’s video that you included. He sounds full of himself and more like a divider than a healer. Unfortunately there are a lot of hypocrites who hold positions of power in the Church. I wish we could refer to Christian nationalists by another name because their political movement has nothing to do with what Jesus taught us, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, service, and love, especially to our brothers and sisters who struggle on the margins. The American Taliban sounds like a more appropriate name in my humble opinion. By the way is it possible to have Bishop William Barber-the real deal-on your YouTube show sometime in the future? He would be great. Thanks Steve for all that you do.
I always learn when I read your writing. Some good things and some bad things. But it is always something I need to know. So thank you very much. Heidi is a top notch reporter and will always have my respect and support.
Thank You Steve ..maybe Papa Francis should call him home to Rome.. and then send him out to a Mission to take care of the sick and the poor. A little humility is required ...or a good punch in the nose. Sorry, I am losing my mind with what is happening to our stained and beautiful country. I wouldn't really have him punched in the nose.
I read Heidi Przybyla regularly, and think she is a top notch journalist. I’m sorry to hear about this disinformation campaign, but she’s hardly the only one. She has joined a large black list of honorable people, who are being unjustly vilified by MAGA.
Should we be shocked that Leonard Leo is a two-bit cheap snake oil salesman? All of these faux conservative religious fanatics are; he’s no different.
Leo has co-opted the SC, but let’s face, Alito and Thomas didn’t need any persuasion to become the vile, disgusting partisan hacks they are; it’s part of their DNA.
Kavenaugh and Gorsuch are no better, and Comey Barret is being used, and she doesn’t even know it.
All these people and MAGA are intertwined in a conspiracy to destroy our countries institutions, and replace them with the Christian Taliban. If they can’t control government for their own aims, then they will gladly burn down the house and start again.
My only question is how is it that the media doesn’t cover this story more often? If they did, they wouldn’t be shocked that Barr, Bannon, Bolton and others are supporting Trump, because he can rally the base and bring legitimacy to their nefarious cause.
Trump can claim the elections were rigged, and immediately, 25 states will pass legislation that further restricts voting for certain classes of citizens.
Trump can be the most corrupt human on the planet (close call with his current crew), and still label honest people like Biden, more crooked, and a greater danger to our democracy than he is.
If you’re asking how Americans can be so gullible? Ask yourself who are the preachers that delineate such hog wash: prosperity preachers like Barron. Some Americans have been stooges and marks for years, as these hustlers (prosperity ministers) steal their weekly paychecks.
So when people are shocked that Barr, Bannon and other formally sane politicians and civil servants are voting for Trump, even though they know he’s an incompetent fraud; they see the big picture unambiguously.
In order to achieve their dystopian and white nationalist agenda; all roads go through Trump and MAGA.
Quite a lot to absorb here. For starters, we can thank the Bush family for Alito and Thomas. And George W. Bush has been AWOL on Trump, so who knows where he stands.
I was just thinking about this very thing. My suspicion is that he agrees with the “unitary executive” theory that Alito espouses. This is why SCOTUS took up the presidential immunity claim.
Leonard Leo is not my mouthpiece for the word of God. What a skilled trickster he is. I'm not religious, so it's pretty scary having a freak take so much control.
The problem with Bishop Barron's argument is not that rights and laws might come from God, if you believe in a god, it's whose god, and who and how those rights and laws are interpreted and implemented, and that christian nationalists seem to think that it's only their god that matters, and they have the "right" to be the ones to do that, and dictate them to the rest of us, as opposed to having tolerance of other points of view and sorting things out in a democratic manner.
The complete Jefferson quote is "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The Bishop omits entirely the All-Men-Are-Created-Equal part. Christian Nationalism wants to remove rights and freedoms, and we're watching it happen in real time. Like you, I don't see how this is in the Jeffersonian spirit.
In this piece you refer to the 9 years of unabated forward motion by bullies..It is the bullying behavior that has pushed their repugnant ideologies to “wash over” as you put it much of the American people..The issue is that it is being allowed..Those like Leo and Barron move with expediency to flood the country with their lies and propaganda, along with their subversive actions at federal, state and local levels moving openly and clandestinely. Those who oppose it are doing what exactly?
Heidi Przybyla, you and others are writing about this, films are being made such as “Bad Faith”, “God & Country” and “Against All Enemies” to expose and raise awareness to the public..social media is deployed to help in this effort, as well as television news appearances talking about it..
However, who is seeing, reading and hearing any of this? It occurs to me that as well meaning and effective these efforts are on some, it still smacks of bringing the preverbal knife to a gun fight, when one considers the tick tock of time slipping away as we barrel toward November..
The inactions that are referred to in such remarks like “That’s not who we are” or “We’re better than that” and the like are exactly what is being taken advantage of by the people pushing these agendas..They are as you remarked moving on several fronts “unabated”.
At what point do “We The People” do something about it, beyond relying on a ballot box that as we speak, is being pushed further away from those who will cast their votes in opposition to this dogma. As I look around I see a stacked deck and little strategy to unstack it..
I, like you Steve, will be lying down in front of the tanks should they roll into our cities, but why are we waiting to get to that point? Why are we not proactively planning the preventive measures necessary to crush this virus of deliberate stoking of hatred and imagined fear?
What do you propose “we” do? I have served in combat up close, and I like most veterans of combat, want nothing to do with another killing field. I despise the insipid bastard, loathing hardly describes how I feel about the coward, but unless he tries to break into my home I’m not going to shoot him, or any of the other trash that are attracted to him like flies are to shit. Like it or not, and sometimes I don’t, we live under a series of laws that for the most part govern our options and actions. The ballot box is our best option, and if we loose because we have been defeated by a long planned and evolved strategy, that we were inept at defeating, then we will have to live with it and work to mitigate it. That doesn’t sound like a victory chant because it isn’t, but there may be some truth in it. Steve’s essay was a very sobering analysis of the problems and players we are confronting, they are organized with incredible wealth backing their agenda, very much not good. 🙏
Dick, I have something for you meant for government on the whole, but directed at the current SCOTUS. It is not a complete solution, nor has the prescription to deploy been written, though it’s a place to start to inspire an action. Borrowing text from the Declaration of Independence:
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Whatever you decide is appropriate to share, if you feel comfortable doing so at all, based on my question, you have my respect. In the meantime I will suggest this..As much as I completely understand your and other Vets position, there may not be much of a choice considering the gathering storm of evil that is on the horizon..However, I will work on answering your very first question from your reply..
Powerful words Dick, we are speaking to a sickness which I do not have an immediate prescription..What was your job while deployed and where were you that you had to face that kind of trauma, if I may ask?
What is most frightening is the amount of money behind this so called "Christian Nationalism)
They basically own the media, the televangelists , the Supreme Court etc.
The most stunning thing I heard from Trump's lawyer at the immunity case is ;that a president can have his opponent assassinated if he thinks the opponent is corrupt. We all know that Trump is corrupt how come nobody asked his lawyer "you mean that Biden can have Trump assassinated??"
I was wondering when sexual improprieties would materialize. Sure enough, you mentioned it toward the end of the column. It just seems that all these Christofascists also happen to be sexual deviants. Must come with the sociopath genes.
Two people in my family constantly push Barron on me with links and books...I read /watch and then delete, destroy, trash. I would send them your column but they wouldn't read it or even mention it to me. Excellent column today!
The core problem with religion--all religions--is that they are inescapably ABSOLUTIST. Whatever God is proclaimed, that particular religion is bound by the fact that compliance to any God ultimately requires surrender of any personal perception within that religion, or any dissavowance from absolutist imperialism of the God in question. All must surrender to the absolutism of god. In current American religions, all having their own somewhat varying dogmas, all are accompanied by the common fact that the final, all-binding omniscience and omnipotence of gods rules over anything and everything.
Note the commonality of that absolutism in religion and that of a fascist dictator. Note the completely oppositional position of any other philosophic establishment or the open and flexible tenets of especially Democratic institutions.
Cultism reveals the pitfalls. People vexed and confused, made disaffected by events beyond their control or ken, surrender and are set emotionally free to a group who now does all their thinking for them. One concept of narcissism is that you have reached top rung when you think you can get inside someone's head and do all their thinking for them. The guiding catalyst of the Supreme Court is now religious. The guiding catalyst of the happening coup by the Right is weaponizing the absolutism of religion
Religious groups have always been susceptible to grabbing control of people. Any religion that tells their followers that they are the only righteous, good ones and that they are the only true religion are following an age old agenda for power. Christian Nationalism is one of the worst offenders of this practice. It attracts political actors wanting power using the name of Christianity. It ensnares religious people into believing that they have a right to inflict their beliefs onto everyone. Growing up Jewish, there have been Evangelical Christians who have tried to foist their beliefs on me as if they are concerned about me, all the while not realizing the anti-Semitic foundation of their attempt to ‘save’ me. I would respond by saying that I wasn’t trying to ‘save’ them and would politely appreciate it if they would focus on ‘saving’ themselves. I knew it was ignorant and disrespectful, but it was also all about control and power.
𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆, 𝑰 𝒆𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒛𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒙 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑰 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅𝒍𝒚.
𝑨𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍, 𝑰'𝒗𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒋𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒓𝒚, 𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒂 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒔, 𝒍𝒂𝒘 𝒆𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒗𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒔. 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒖𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝑻𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒑 𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒇𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔. 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓, 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚, 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒈𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒖𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆𝒈𝒖𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒏𝒔 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒍𝒐𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒆.
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒕. 𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒐𝒔? 𝑰 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝑻𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒑, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝑶𝑷 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑬𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒄𝒊𝒓𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍. 𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝑻𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒑 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒇𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒓𝒆, 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒍𝒐𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇-𝒂𝒈𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒆𝒇𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝑶𝑷, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑬𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒃.
𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒖𝒏𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒇𝒕𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒚𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒇𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒏, 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒎 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒅𝒎𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅. 𝑰𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘, 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒂𝒍𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚. 𝑶𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒚 𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒆𝒅𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒂 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒘𝒂𝒍.
Wow, someone that sees the forest for the trees! Exactly right on all counts. This has been in the making for a very long time. I think you may have missed Education along with the other forces.
Steve thanks for this Warning newsletter and for exposing Bishop Bannon. I’m a Catholic and a fallible fallen follower of Jesus of Nazareth. I watched the Bishop’s video that you included. He sounds full of himself and more like a divider than a healer. Unfortunately there are a lot of hypocrites who hold positions of power in the Church. I wish we could refer to Christian nationalists by another name because their political movement has nothing to do with what Jesus taught us, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, service, and love, especially to our brothers and sisters who struggle on the margins. The American Taliban sounds like a more appropriate name in my humble opinion. By the way is it possible to have Bishop William Barber-the real deal-on your YouTube show sometime in the future? He would be great. Thanks Steve for all that you do.
I always learn when I read your writing. Some good things and some bad things. But it is always something I need to know. So thank you very much. Heidi is a top notch reporter and will always have my respect and support.
Thank you, Ginny!
Steve
Thank You Steve ..maybe Papa Francis should call him home to Rome.. and then send him out to a Mission to take care of the sick and the poor. A little humility is required ...or a good punch in the nose. Sorry, I am losing my mind with what is happening to our stained and beautiful country. I wouldn't really have him punched in the nose.
I've seen her reporting many times. Heidi's great.
I read Heidi Przybyla regularly, and think she is a top notch journalist. I’m sorry to hear about this disinformation campaign, but she’s hardly the only one. She has joined a large black list of honorable people, who are being unjustly vilified by MAGA.
Should we be shocked that Leonard Leo is a two-bit cheap snake oil salesman? All of these faux conservative religious fanatics are; he’s no different.
Leo has co-opted the SC, but let’s face, Alito and Thomas didn’t need any persuasion to become the vile, disgusting partisan hacks they are; it’s part of their DNA.
Kavenaugh and Gorsuch are no better, and Comey Barret is being used, and she doesn’t even know it.
All these people and MAGA are intertwined in a conspiracy to destroy our countries institutions, and replace them with the Christian Taliban. If they can’t control government for their own aims, then they will gladly burn down the house and start again.
My only question is how is it that the media doesn’t cover this story more often? If they did, they wouldn’t be shocked that Barr, Bannon, Bolton and others are supporting Trump, because he can rally the base and bring legitimacy to their nefarious cause.
Trump can claim the elections were rigged, and immediately, 25 states will pass legislation that further restricts voting for certain classes of citizens.
Trump can be the most corrupt human on the planet (close call with his current crew), and still label honest people like Biden, more crooked, and a greater danger to our democracy than he is.
If you’re asking how Americans can be so gullible? Ask yourself who are the preachers that delineate such hog wash: prosperity preachers like Barron. Some Americans have been stooges and marks for years, as these hustlers (prosperity ministers) steal their weekly paychecks.
So when people are shocked that Barr, Bannon and other formally sane politicians and civil servants are voting for Trump, even though they know he’s an incompetent fraud; they see the big picture unambiguously.
In order to achieve their dystopian and white nationalist agenda; all roads go through Trump and MAGA.
Power, money, and MAGA party over Democracy, Constitution, and country?
(Good message!)
I feel for Heidi. She is intelligent and excellent at what she does. I'd be happy to work for the likes of her any day of the week.
Quite a lot to absorb here. For starters, we can thank the Bush family for Alito and Thomas. And George W. Bush has been AWOL on Trump, so who knows where he stands.
I was just thinking about this very thing. My suspicion is that he agrees with the “unitary executive” theory that Alito espouses. This is why SCOTUS took up the presidential immunity claim.
Perhaps George W’s silence speaks very loud?
Who needs the Republican fight? He will settle it at the voting box!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_moEjsWlFLw
Here the great comedian George Carlin proposes taxing the Catholic Church to solve the budget deficit.
Leonard Leo is not my mouthpiece for the word of God. What a skilled trickster he is. I'm not religious, so it's pretty scary having a freak take so much control.
The problem with Bishop Barron's argument is not that rights and laws might come from God, if you believe in a god, it's whose god, and who and how those rights and laws are interpreted and implemented, and that christian nationalists seem to think that it's only their god that matters, and they have the "right" to be the ones to do that, and dictate them to the rest of us, as opposed to having tolerance of other points of view and sorting things out in a democratic manner.
William, your words echo my thoughts precisely.
The complete Jefferson quote is "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The Bishop omits entirely the All-Men-Are-Created-Equal part. Christian Nationalism wants to remove rights and freedoms, and we're watching it happen in real time. Like you, I don't see how this is in the Jeffersonian spirit.
In this piece you refer to the 9 years of unabated forward motion by bullies..It is the bullying behavior that has pushed their repugnant ideologies to “wash over” as you put it much of the American people..The issue is that it is being allowed..Those like Leo and Barron move with expediency to flood the country with their lies and propaganda, along with their subversive actions at federal, state and local levels moving openly and clandestinely. Those who oppose it are doing what exactly?
Heidi Przybyla, you and others are writing about this, films are being made such as “Bad Faith”, “God & Country” and “Against All Enemies” to expose and raise awareness to the public..social media is deployed to help in this effort, as well as television news appearances talking about it..
However, who is seeing, reading and hearing any of this? It occurs to me that as well meaning and effective these efforts are on some, it still smacks of bringing the preverbal knife to a gun fight, when one considers the tick tock of time slipping away as we barrel toward November..
The inactions that are referred to in such remarks like “That’s not who we are” or “We’re better than that” and the like are exactly what is being taken advantage of by the people pushing these agendas..They are as you remarked moving on several fronts “unabated”.
At what point do “We The People” do something about it, beyond relying on a ballot box that as we speak, is being pushed further away from those who will cast their votes in opposition to this dogma. As I look around I see a stacked deck and little strategy to unstack it..
I, like you Steve, will be lying down in front of the tanks should they roll into our cities, but why are we waiting to get to that point? Why are we not proactively planning the preventive measures necessary to crush this virus of deliberate stoking of hatred and imagined fear?
What do you propose “we” do? I have served in combat up close, and I like most veterans of combat, want nothing to do with another killing field. I despise the insipid bastard, loathing hardly describes how I feel about the coward, but unless he tries to break into my home I’m not going to shoot him, or any of the other trash that are attracted to him like flies are to shit. Like it or not, and sometimes I don’t, we live under a series of laws that for the most part govern our options and actions. The ballot box is our best option, and if we loose because we have been defeated by a long planned and evolved strategy, that we were inept at defeating, then we will have to live with it and work to mitigate it. That doesn’t sound like a victory chant because it isn’t, but there may be some truth in it. Steve’s essay was a very sobering analysis of the problems and players we are confronting, they are organized with incredible wealth backing their agenda, very much not good. 🙏
Dick, I have something for you meant for government on the whole, but directed at the current SCOTUS. It is not a complete solution, nor has the prescription to deploy been written, though it’s a place to start to inspire an action. Borrowing text from the Declaration of Independence:
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Whatever you decide is appropriate to share, if you feel comfortable doing so at all, based on my question, you have my respect. In the meantime I will suggest this..As much as I completely understand your and other Vets position, there may not be much of a choice considering the gathering storm of evil that is on the horizon..However, I will work on answering your very first question from your reply..
Powerful words Dick, we are speaking to a sickness which I do not have an immediate prescription..What was your job while deployed and where were you that you had to face that kind of trauma, if I may ask?
Leo suggests and lines up the appointments, and Barron preaches to them?
“Spread the good word”? Truth be damned?
What is most frightening is the amount of money behind this so called "Christian Nationalism)
They basically own the media, the televangelists , the Supreme Court etc.
The most stunning thing I heard from Trump's lawyer at the immunity case is ;that a president can have his opponent assassinated if he thinks the opponent is corrupt. We all know that Trump is corrupt how come nobody asked his lawyer "you mean that Biden can have Trump assassinated??"
Thank you!
I was wondering when sexual improprieties would materialize. Sure enough, you mentioned it toward the end of the column. It just seems that all these Christofascists also happen to be sexual deviants. Must come with the sociopath genes.
Now there’s some sadly hilarious associations, not really so funny, huh?
Two people in my family constantly push Barron on me with links and books...I read /watch and then delete, destroy, trash. I would send them your column but they wouldn't read it or even mention it to me. Excellent column today!
The core problem with religion--all religions--is that they are inescapably ABSOLUTIST. Whatever God is proclaimed, that particular religion is bound by the fact that compliance to any God ultimately requires surrender of any personal perception within that religion, or any dissavowance from absolutist imperialism of the God in question. All must surrender to the absolutism of god. In current American religions, all having their own somewhat varying dogmas, all are accompanied by the common fact that the final, all-binding omniscience and omnipotence of gods rules over anything and everything.
Note the commonality of that absolutism in religion and that of a fascist dictator. Note the completely oppositional position of any other philosophic establishment or the open and flexible tenets of especially Democratic institutions.
Cultism reveals the pitfalls. People vexed and confused, made disaffected by events beyond their control or ken, surrender and are set emotionally free to a group who now does all their thinking for them. One concept of narcissism is that you have reached top rung when you think you can get inside someone's head and do all their thinking for them. The guiding catalyst of the Supreme Court is now religious. The guiding catalyst of the happening coup by the Right is weaponizing the absolutism of religion
Religious groups have always been susceptible to grabbing control of people. Any religion that tells their followers that they are the only righteous, good ones and that they are the only true religion are following an age old agenda for power. Christian Nationalism is one of the worst offenders of this practice. It attracts political actors wanting power using the name of Christianity. It ensnares religious people into believing that they have a right to inflict their beliefs onto everyone. Growing up Jewish, there have been Evangelical Christians who have tried to foist their beliefs on me as if they are concerned about me, all the while not realizing the anti-Semitic foundation of their attempt to ‘save’ me. I would respond by saying that I wasn’t trying to ‘save’ them and would politely appreciate it if they would focus on ‘saving’ themselves. I knew it was ignorant and disrespectful, but it was also all about control and power.