They're speaking in tongues in the West Wing
Donald Trump makes assertions that seem to make sense at first blush to many people who share a deep ignorance about American history and the US Constitution.
These aren’t bad people. They are all around us. They are our friends, co-workers, parents, kids, neighbors, journalists, lawyers, doctors, members of Congress and governors.
Every American is born with a right that does not come from Donald Trump or MAGA. No one in America is told what they must believe regarding a creator, or to even accept that there is one.
What binds Americans is an inheritance of liberty that is guaranteed by the United States Constitution, which was written and ratified for a specific purpose, as follows:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The ratification of this document in the moment of its passage was aspirational, historic and unprecedented.
Two-hundred and thirty-eight years later it is no exaggeration to say it marked a demarcation point from one epoch of humanity’s story into another.
It didn’t begin the American era of history, but it marked the beginning of the United States of America. It prefaced the inauguration of George Washington, who would sanctify the nobility of THE CAUSE he led and for which his friends died, with one of the greatest acts of humility in recorded history.
The government of the United States was architected by a cluster of geniuses who were ordinary people in an extraordinary moment of history. What they produced made them the founders of the United States — some of the most important political philosophers in human history.
We are heirs to their wisdom, genius and foresight.
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is the first of ten amendments that are our Bill of Rights.
Here it is:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
My friends, this is the holy grail of American civilization. More than 1,000,000, mostly young men, have died over 238 years to pass this down to us.
There is no other protection required regarding religious liberty in the United States, so what Donald Trump is doing regarding the declaration that he must act to protect Christians singularly is a political act. It is also a desecrative one that manages to assail the US Constitution, while claiming to protect it.
Like all of Trump’s bombastic declarations and orders of executive nothingness, his declaration that he has protected Christians from persecution is nonsense. According to The New York Times:
President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday aimed at eradicating “anti-Christian bias” in the federal government by having agencies review policies and practices that he says have tried to squelch religious activities and activism.
Mr. Trump, who announced the order at the National Prayer Breakfast, appointed his new attorney general, Pam Bondi, to lead a task force at the Justice Department to spearhead the effort. Mr. Trump said the task force would “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society” and “move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.”
“You’ve never had that before, but this is a very powerful document I’m signing,” he said. “You got it now — first time you’ve had it. If we don’t have religious liberty, then we don’t have a free country. We probably don’t even have a country.”
The executive order is meant to reverse what it calls an “egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses” under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. It cited the convictions of anti-abortion demonstrators for blocking access to abortion clinics.
This is a lie. It’s meaningless beyond sending a political signal around who is favored and who is not. This explains why Franklin Graham gets to keep his $9 million in USAID funding, while Catholic charities get cut off.
Christian nationalism is fueled by grievance and imaginary sleights that are the basis for demands and special privileges that have much less to do with faith than the maintenance of political power.
Whether it was the Confederacy, Jim Crow segregation, or MAGA, the snake-handling American religious hustler has always been close by and ready to defend the cause in Jesus’ name so long as power and property were at stake.
The greatest idea in world history might well be the wisdom of America’s genius founders to separate church and state irrevocably and permanently. They knew the most dangerous men and women in the world are the ones who seek political power, while declaring that they were sent by God because those people have a habit of ultimately declaring they are God, and then disaster happens.
Antisemitism is surging in America, but Donald Trump has chosen a religious fanatic — or more precisely, a cheap hustler — who plays a religious fanatic on a never-ending cycle of grift, frauds and abuse that makes a mockery of every concept of decency, morality and godliness that could possibly be pissed on.
Pastor Paula is moving into the White House to lead its Faith Office.
His choice is a sacrilegious super grifter and huckster with a bucket full of rattlesnakes in one hand and an ATM machine in the other. She is a fraud and an insult to the concept of faith and every devout American.
No Virgin Mary, the thrice-married Paula White is a hustler without shame, reserve or boundaries.
She speaks in tongues, and makes millions tax-free while doing it.
Her schtick is amazing and insane:
Mesmerizing, isn’t she?
So far as wack jobs go, Pastor Paula resides in the thin air where lunacy, cynicism, and hucksterism combine to assault the weak-minded, lost and vulnerable with an open air con that declares itself the word of God.
Some years ago, Paula was spotted leaving a Rome hotel with tele-fraud and faith healer Benny Hinn.
They denied a romantic relationship and their parishioners were assured that any time their shepherds spent on their knees was devotional.
Here is Hinn’s schtick. Personally, I’ve always thought Ted Cruz or Trump should try the white suit. It would fit perfectly:
Franklin Graham, who delivered an invocation at Trump’s inauguration, is another fraud and political extremist who is sitting high in his court.
His father had a nose for power and an addiction to it, but also a sincerity and obvious faith that his wretched son dishonors with each faithless hour of his corrupted life and ministry of profit and power. He is a man who loves political power above all things, and has been a useful tool for the extremist political movement led by Trump.
Graham is a divider whose rants are pure bigotry, dressed up as the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s compare the two:
Here is Jesus and “The Sermon on the Mount:”
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Here is Franklin Graham:
Every Muslim that comes into this country has the potential to be radicalized — and they do their killing to honor their religion and Muhammad. During World War 2, we didn’t allow Japanese to immigrate to America, nor did we allow Germans. Why are we allowing Muslims now?
Here is a great summation from GLAAD about his anti-gay bigotry.
Graham loves Donald Trump. In fact, he has repeatedly compared Christ to Trump, and blasted all criticism of Trump as demonic. Author Eric Metaxas, who “lamented those who question the idea that Trump was ordained for the presidency of God,” said the following in a Washington Post article from 2019:
The idea that Trump was heaven-sent has come with harsh criticism of those who do not support his leadership. In a conversation Thursday in which evangelist Franklin Graham suggested that criticism of Trump was coming from “a demonic power.”
These people are nuts and frauds, and they have well-earned the contempt of millions of Americans who see them as such. They are appalling people. It is no surprise that Donald Trump loves them back. They are each others’ golden calf.
Lastly, the idea that America was “made great” by Donald Trump is a narcissistic fantasy from Donald’s small and wretched imagination.
It is the dogma of a disordered mind made more needy by the endless sycophancy and corruption that feeds his brittle ego. He may believe it, but the truth is that the belief is a bad joke. He is the worst president in American history, and stands as a singular marker of national decay and rot.
His previous excesses and incompetence will be scantly remembered as little beyond the preface to the present moment when even still there are too many powerful people in Washington who think everything is fine.
There is a name for the people who don’t understand what I’m talking about. They are called “marks.”
Don’t be a mark for hustlers like these. They are the worst people in America, and that is no small mountain to summit.
Christians are the oppressors in this country. Take a look at the oppressive and medieval policies toward women in Iowa, Arkansas, and Alabama — three states ruled by self-professed Christian female Governors. I’d add South Dakota to that mix, but I forgot Herr Commandment Noem is running the National death camps now.
And lest I forget, wasn’t it Christians who consigned six million Jews to death in Europe?
“Christian nationalism is fueled by grievance and imaginary sleights that are the basis for demands and special privileges that have much less to do with faith than the maintenance of political power.”
Steve, all this is excellent, but useless. We know Christian Nationalism is just as bad as the Taliban; In fact, it’s worse! You need to stop with the history lessons, or cut them short and focus on the elephant in the room. This is a hair on fire moment, and no one in the media is talking about the true impact of these petty, vindictive, reckless and impulsive behavior by the Orange Bloviator, and his cabal of ruthless hatchet men, and tween incel tech bro’s!
What he is doing at the NIH, CDC, and FDA is going to have consequences that we cannot fathom. I personally know several people including family, who get research grants for cancer, and are seeing decades of their research burn up in flames.
Additionally, Trump’s cuts to the National Science Foundation will serve to destroy our future intellectual Property and patent protections. The NIH and National Science Foundation are the cornerstones of our advancement in science and technology. The breakthroughs have been a godsend to our nation, and the reason we are a superpower. Who do you think developed our Nuclear arsenal, the military? It’s our best university professors, using cutting-edge technology at the time, developed on university campuses, not the War Department.
Yet, Trump is taking a sledgehammer to everything. The dismantling of USAID will not only impact how the world views us, it makes us less safe; a national security threat to our health and food supply!
We need people to stand up now. All the institutional knowledge is being lost. Data sets that took decades to compile, have been erased from the databases permanently; not for any logical reason, but because it doesn’t conform to the American Taliban’s own obtuse ideology.
This is no different than the Taliban erasing the history of other civilizations and religions. That said, as sick as the Taliban is, they do t deny science. Only in America do scientific quacks exist. It won’t be long before all of us are subjected to Christian healthcare: which covers only thoughts and prayers.
Moreover, forcing websites to take down gender, sex and ethnicity information is ludicrous. It’s used to help treat different people and genders who suffer different side effects from drugs and treatments, will set this nation back scientifically for decades.
Yet, this isn’t considered an issue that our representatives in Congress feel is worth dying for? This is our future technological edge disappearing in plain sight! If this isn’t the “hill” worth dying for, what is? Our food supply will suffer. The cost to treat illnesses and diseases will rise exponentially.
Therefore we need leadership now, not history instructions.
Steve, your newsletter is awesome, but this is the five alarm fire from hell, and all we are doing is talking about distractions. People don’t care about democracy, they made that point in November. However, when the shit hits the fan, five dollars for a carton of eggs will be the least of our worries.! IMHO!