He actually has used that word. During an interview in which he oh so humbly laid it out that actually "I think I'm more humble than you would understand". While sitting on a golden throne, no less. Making shit up is literally my profession and I still couldn't make this shit up. And if I tried, my readers would complain about how ridiculously on the nose it was.
Further Thought: I can't help but notice there's a whole lot of emphasis from the Trump administration on reading the bible, and damned little emphasis on reading the Constitution. Why do you suppose that is?
The endless info about the decline of church attendance and religiousity always prompts cries of the End Times Are Near at CP. Today there is an article at CP about the increase in belief amongst young Republican men and someone is spinning that, with bible verses, that the End Times Are Near.
I’m guessing that your cruise left from the port of Baltimore given that you live in Ohio and had a 6 hour drive home. (If I’m correct, you drove home within 2 miles of my “estate”.) As I’m about an hour from Balt., I really am curious about your cruise.
Had I been on the ball, I would have invited you in.
The Constitution is only as good as it is because the founders understood the Bible. In the words of John Adams, the principles of American and English liberty are the principles of Christianity.
JR doesn't understand that John Adams was a Deist and not a Christian. He signed the Treaty With Tripoli into law. A document which emphatically stated that the government of the United States was not, in any sense, based on the Christian religion. A document that was ratified unanimously and without dissent. A document that is every bit the law of the land as the Constitution.
He also said things like the following:
"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it."
Silly Story: We lived in the original Boston Lincolnshire UK. The town council wanted a ring road constructed, but in that rich farming area, it's thought rich farmers paid backhanders so it didn't cross their land. So, an 'Inner Relief Road' was built running alongside our house. We were served with a notice, that our garden would be extended by 20 feet. Free - and in 10yrs we could put it on the deeds of the property. In all my life, I've never met anyone else who has been given land like that. The road name was attached to our new fence. It was 'John Adams Way.' Learning that quote today, I wish gone out to polish it from time to time!!!
Yes, and every Christian who understands American history agrees with him because like John Adams, Jefferson and Madison and Washington and others, we generally do not conflate the government with the people; the government is an institution created by the people under God to manage the public trust - as expressed in the declaration - We The People are one nation under God, and it's government is a corporate institution governed by the Constitution. That's why when Adams said “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other” it's because the government belongs to the people, like a gun belongs to a man; guns belong only in the hands of moral and religious people who understand right from wrong - in the hands of the wicked, the American government would only do harm.
In the words of Jefferson: “The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.”
The irony is that Jefferson had the same contention with John Adams that we're having today; and John Adams responds to the claim that he - John Adams - believes America is not a Christian nation, based on the quote you provided, was the response I provided, declaring that the people were Christians who fought for America's independence, that the principles of liberty are Christian principles.
However the government has no lawful power over a man's religion, because the government is not above the people, but subject to the will of the people. Therefore the government and its Constitution are not Christian, by design, because the Constitution was designed to be fully limited it it's size and scope and power; that the legitimate powers of civil government extend only to the man who works ill to his neighbour - a Christian principle to govern a corporate institution.
“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That " all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people." [XIIth amendment.] To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.” - Thomas Jefferson
If it's true that the founders of the American government did their best to not emulate any form of government outlined by God's law as given by Moses and the prophets, and by Jesus Christ, then they failed miserably.
Many of the founder's core legal ideas strongly correlate with principles already found in God’s law: equal justice under law (Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 1:17), due process and multiple witnesses before judgment (Deuteronomy 19:15), protection of life, property, and neighbor (Exodus 20:13–17), accountability for rulers under a higher law (Deuteronomy 17:18–20), and honest weights and measures in public dealings (Leviticus 19:35–36; Proverbs 11:1). Even the idea that liberty must be ordered by moral truth rather than mere majority will fits the biblical pattern that law is grounded in justice, not human appetite (Isaiah 10:1–2; Micah 6:8). So the strongest case is not that America perfectly embodied God’s law, but that its best first principles were deeply shaped by truths in Scripture.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.
Have a look at the work of Professors Donald Lutz and Charles Hyneman.
Pardon me, but bullshit. The overwhelming bulk of the bible is aimed at humankind's obligations to that jerk in the Front Office, and especially the part where you either believe in his boy or get condemned to eternal torture. Far as I'm concerned, the bible gets disqualified on that basis alone. Also, while the bible may have some elements which can be found in US law, that doesn't necessarily mean those principles were DRAWN from the bible. "Correlation" does not amount to causation.
The founders also saw what religious governments had done in Europe, and they didn't like what they saw, or doesn't the 30-Years War and the Crusades (among too many other examples) ring a bell? They had also studied the principles of democracy put forward by Solon and other Greeks. The formation of the US government owes a LOT more to them than to some putative "holy book."
Let's be clear, too: the bible thinks that any "rights" (and it is damned thin when talking about human rights!) come from Yahweh. The Constitution puts its source of rights right up front, in the first three words of the Preamble: "WE THE PEOPLE..." No mention of Yahweh, Jesus or any other of those players, and the influence of religion is RESTRICTED in Article VI, paragraph 3, never mind the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
I'll put this bluntly: I REJECT the bible as anything except as a literary referent. It has too much blood on its hands, too much disregard for women, for the LGBTQ+ community, too much reverence for patriarchy and theocracy, never mind an endorsement of SLAVERY, and next to nothing for human rights and democracy for me to ever consider it a valid reference for those two values.
If you want it, fine, run with it. I want no part of it.
He will deviate from the original text, having a rant about Hussein Obama, the stolen 2020 presidential election, and how the king of Sweden has denied him the Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump was notorious for not reading much of anything during his briefings, unless they mentioned him multiple times during those briefings. If Trump is capable of genuine learning at all, you couldn't prove it by me.
Hegseth's favorite quote (or Pulp Fiction, not sure which): "And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them".
Apparently some air squad made the "prayer" up, knowing it was from Pulp Fiction. I don't think Pete knew that, though. He just thought it sounded cool.
Of course he pawned off the responsibility onto some subordinate, both to write the prayer and be the scapegoat. Doing that doesn’t make him look any better, it only makes him look even more pathetically incompetent, not only does he not write his own communication, but he doesn’t even check it over for errors, it makes him easily manipulated.
Donald Trump’s performative religiosity will never change the fact he is the most corrupt, incompetent and grotesquely immoral President in American history. The evangelical preachers who have pledged their unconditional love for Trump demonstrate the disconnect between religion and morality about as well as it can be done. Mixing religion and government is the same terrible idea it has always been.
One bit of scripture that should most definitely be read is from their beloved Leviticus. Chapter 19, Verses 33-34 in particular. In that scripture, YHVH himself directly tells his followers NOT to mistreat foreigners living among them. He says those foreigners are to be treated as native-born and loved.
“They don’t care if they have a leader shaped by the Bible; they just want one who knows how to use the Bible to control everyone else. That’s what Christian Nationalism is all about.”
OT: My husband and I just returned from a trip to Saguaro National Park, AZ. We watched a film at the visitor center about caring for the land and these great saguaros as if they were your relatives from an indigenous perspective. We both had tears in eyes when the film finished and the curtain opened to reveal the park.
Will he be reading from the King James version, the English Standard version, or The Bible for Dummies? Or maybe the Children's Illustrated Bible so he can look at the pictures?
Thanks, I got that word from Aladdin when I was a teen and use it every chance I get. It was rare for a long time, but it’s almost constant now that he’s in charge.
This ridiculous business about Trump and the bible went beyond the pale about 10 squares back. Anyone who actually believes that that man has any serious investment in the bible or Christianity is forgetting the fact that he is entirely about himself and Damned a little else. No great surprise, all this bible reading amounts to is yet one more stunt to cement his connection with his base and Evangelical Christians.
I just wonder how much longer this goes on before the Gen Pop gets a clue. I'm not holding my breath.
… 𝑖𝑓 𝑚𝑦 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒, 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑚𝑦 𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒, 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑘 𝑚𝑦 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠
There's at least a 50% chance that Trump thinks this is about people turning to him.
I'll take those odds. In fact, I'd give you four to one. Trump clearly thinks he's the second coming and his followers are following him, not Jesus.
"I'm not Jesus, but I might be God"
Why would he demote himself in the eyes of his followers.
Because his followers much prefer a vengeful God, not a pacifist Jesus.
If the word 'humble' ever slid past his teeth, he'd go up in flame.
He actually has used that word. During an interview in which he oh so humbly laid it out that actually "I think I'm more humble than you would understand". While sitting on a golden throne, no less. Making shit up is literally my profession and I still couldn't make this shit up. And if I tried, my readers would complain about how ridiculously on the nose it was.
I was going to say exactly this.
Further Thought: I can't help but notice there's a whole lot of emphasis from the Trump administration on reading the bible, and damned little emphasis on reading the Constitution. Why do you suppose that is?
Could be because the Bible justifies their bigotry and the Constitution demands equality.
Sadly, you can use the bible to justify damn near anything on either side of the argument. That has been my problem with it from the get-go.
The endless info about the decline of church attendance and religiousity always prompts cries of the End Times Are Near at CP. Today there is an article at CP about the increase in belief amongst young Republican men and someone is spinning that, with bible verses, that the End Times Are Near.
The End Times have been near since the religious leaders invented them.
Need more coffee. Being stupid this AM.
Not too much coffee here. We're in the process of debarking after a really nice 10-day cruise, and I've got a 6-hour drive ahead of me!
Tell us about the cruise later.
I’m guessing that your cruise left from the port of Baltimore given that you live in Ohio and had a 6 hour drive home. (If I’m correct, you drove home within 2 miles of my “estate”.) As I’m about an hour from Balt., I really am curious about your cruise.
Had I been on the ball, I would have invited you in.
I've got some covfefe you can have.
[groan!] Thanks for the laugh! 🤣🤣🤣
chri$tians: "I'm not a bigot. I hate everyone equally."
Yep, I’m also a MISANTHROPE. ✔ ✔ ✔
…🦘🦘🦘
https://youtu.be/R61_fCwj3Ys
The babble has at least 40000 interpretations while the constitution only has one.
The constitution has at least two interpretations, the correct one and the scalia-alito-thomas interpretation.
You just had ro remind us?
The Constitution is only as good as it is because the founders understood the Bible. In the words of John Adams, the principles of American and English liberty are the principles of Christianity.
Ha ha ha, pull the other one.
Bullshit, where in the Bible does it mention democracy, human rights and tolerance?
Nowhere? Did I win?
Sure, you get a shiny new life-size DALEK! As soon as I can figure how to send it through the space-time continuum!
Maybe I should try and reverse the neutron flow of the artron energy capacitor, while stabilizing the delta wave augmenter!🤔
*cue Rocky impersonation*
"That trick never works."
Nice self-upvote you've got there.
JR doesn't understand that John Adams was a Deist and not a Christian. He signed the Treaty With Tripoli into law. A document which emphatically stated that the government of the United States was not, in any sense, based on the Christian religion. A document that was ratified unanimously and without dissent. A document that is every bit the law of the land as the Constitution.
He also said things like the following:
"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it."
He beat John Lennon to the punch by two centuries with that line.
Did JR runaway after posting that crap! Too bad, I wanted him to answer my question! Went back to his fellow Christians to declare victory no doubt!
Another xtian pigeon.
Silly Story: We lived in the original Boston Lincolnshire UK. The town council wanted a ring road constructed, but in that rich farming area, it's thought rich farmers paid backhanders so it didn't cross their land. So, an 'Inner Relief Road' was built running alongside our house. We were served with a notice, that our garden would be extended by 20 feet. Free - and in 10yrs we could put it on the deeds of the property. In all my life, I've never met anyone else who has been given land like that. The road name was attached to our new fence. It was 'John Adams Way.' Learning that quote today, I wish gone out to polish it from time to time!!!
John Adams also said "The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."
Yes, and every Christian who understands American history agrees with him because like John Adams, Jefferson and Madison and Washington and others, we generally do not conflate the government with the people; the government is an institution created by the people under God to manage the public trust - as expressed in the declaration - We The People are one nation under God, and it's government is a corporate institution governed by the Constitution. That's why when Adams said “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other” it's because the government belongs to the people, like a gun belongs to a man; guns belong only in the hands of moral and religious people who understand right from wrong - in the hands of the wicked, the American government would only do harm.
In the words of Jefferson: “The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.”
The irony is that Jefferson had the same contention with John Adams that we're having today; and John Adams responds to the claim that he - John Adams - believes America is not a Christian nation, based on the quote you provided, was the response I provided, declaring that the people were Christians who fought for America's independence, that the principles of liberty are Christian principles.
However the government has no lawful power over a man's religion, because the government is not above the people, but subject to the will of the people. Therefore the government and its Constitution are not Christian, by design, because the Constitution was designed to be fully limited it it's size and scope and power; that the legitimate powers of civil government extend only to the man who works ill to his neighbour - a Christian principle to govern a corporate institution.
“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That " all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people." [XIIth amendment.] To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.” - Thomas Jefferson
"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed".
The founders knew the bible, all right, and they did their damnedest not to emulate any form of government it purports to represent.
If it's true that the founders of the American government did their best to not emulate any form of government outlined by God's law as given by Moses and the prophets, and by Jesus Christ, then they failed miserably.
Many of the founder's core legal ideas strongly correlate with principles already found in God’s law: equal justice under law (Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 1:17), due process and multiple witnesses before judgment (Deuteronomy 19:15), protection of life, property, and neighbor (Exodus 20:13–17), accountability for rulers under a higher law (Deuteronomy 17:18–20), and honest weights and measures in public dealings (Leviticus 19:35–36; Proverbs 11:1). Even the idea that liberty must be ordered by moral truth rather than mere majority will fits the biblical pattern that law is grounded in justice, not human appetite (Isaiah 10:1–2; Micah 6:8). So the strongest case is not that America perfectly embodied God’s law, but that its best first principles were deeply shaped by truths in Scripture.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.
Have a look at the work of Professors Donald Lutz and Charles Hyneman.
Pardon me, but bullshit. The overwhelming bulk of the bible is aimed at humankind's obligations to that jerk in the Front Office, and especially the part where you either believe in his boy or get condemned to eternal torture. Far as I'm concerned, the bible gets disqualified on that basis alone. Also, while the bible may have some elements which can be found in US law, that doesn't necessarily mean those principles were DRAWN from the bible. "Correlation" does not amount to causation.
The founders also saw what religious governments had done in Europe, and they didn't like what they saw, or doesn't the 30-Years War and the Crusades (among too many other examples) ring a bell? They had also studied the principles of democracy put forward by Solon and other Greeks. The formation of the US government owes a LOT more to them than to some putative "holy book."
Let's be clear, too: the bible thinks that any "rights" (and it is damned thin when talking about human rights!) come from Yahweh. The Constitution puts its source of rights right up front, in the first three words of the Preamble: "WE THE PEOPLE..." No mention of Yahweh, Jesus or any other of those players, and the influence of religion is RESTRICTED in Article VI, paragraph 3, never mind the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
I'll put this bluntly: I REJECT the bible as anything except as a literary referent. It has too much blood on its hands, too much disregard for women, for the LGBTQ+ community, too much reverence for patriarchy and theocracy, never mind an endorsement of SLAVERY, and next to nothing for human rights and democracy for me to ever consider it a valid reference for those two values.
If you want it, fine, run with it. I want no part of it.
Too many inconvenient truths.
Hear! Hear!! 👏👏🙌
Too many big words that the Christian fascist can’t pronounce or understand!
I would not be surprised at all if that is their reason.
I'm pretty sure that reading the Constitution, especially thoroughly, would have a tendency to derail Trump's intentions for his regime.
So there you go.
"𝑂𝑛 𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑦 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑤𝑜-𝑎𝑛𝑑-𝑎-ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑓 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔. 𝐵𝑢𝑡 2 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑠 7:14 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑠 𝑎 𝑓𝑒𝑤 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑."
He will deviate from the original text, having a rant about Hussein Obama, the stolen 2020 presidential election, and how the king of Sweden has denied him the Nobel Peace Prize.
How many Corinthians will be participating?
Two Corinthians walk into a bar. The barkeep says, "What is this, some kind of a joke?"
Both?
He should read the part in Numbers where God orders his minions to take child brides and slaughter everyone else.
Then read the Constitution and tell us where it mentioned God, Jesus, and/or Christ.
Is he capable of reading?
Trump was notorious for not reading much of anything during his briefings, unless they mentioned him multiple times during those briefings. If Trump is capable of genuine learning at all, you couldn't prove it by me.
Trump’s a bit like a dog. Doesn’t understand English but responds to its name.
Every dog I ever knew or befriended was way more intelligent than Trump is.
The End Times have been "near" since Hector was a pup, and that shtick is at least as old, if not a LOT older.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/781aef099291b65e8c598650f62c5ec89220747a9f7ec2570b70a8b1251d7cc1.jpg
Can't say that I'm surprised at all. Now he's got our military taking shots at tankers. Trump wants to turn the US into a pariah nation.
When he's not out golfing, he's rumored to be studying Hooked on Phonics.
He'd probably think that was the title of a phone app for finding prostitutes.
Or getting someone to read to him the book: MY STRUGGLE by Hitler’s, one of his heroes!
Watch for the earpiece.
I'd suggest Ezekiel 23:20. Trump would probably get off on that!
Hegseth's favorite quote (or Pulp Fiction, not sure which): "And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them".
You got the correct scripture. The drunk was riffing with Pulp Fiction (written and directed by an athest).
Apparently some air squad made the "prayer" up, knowing it was from Pulp Fiction. I don't think Pete knew that, though. He just thought it sounded cool.
Of course he pawned off the responsibility onto some subordinate, both to write the prayer and be the scapegoat. Doing that doesn’t make him look any better, it only makes him look even more pathetically incompetent, not only does he not write his own communication, but he doesn’t even check it over for errors, it makes him easily manipulated.
My guess is he had AI look that up for him. And breathing subordinate would know that quote is fake.
Try asking him to read Matthew 6:5
Better to read the Seven Fundamental Tenets of The Satanic Temple. THEY have true value.
But-but-but ... that's SATAN!!! EEEEK!
Who we have been told can use scripture to justify himself.
Yes, the Bible can be used to justify any goddamm fucking atrocities!
Donald Trump’s performative religiosity will never change the fact he is the most corrupt, incompetent and grotesquely immoral President in American history. The evangelical preachers who have pledged their unconditional love for Trump demonstrate the disconnect between religion and morality about as well as it can be done. Mixing religion and government is the same terrible idea it has always been.
One bit of scripture that should most definitely be read is from their beloved Leviticus. Chapter 19, Verses 33-34 in particular. In that scripture, YHVH himself directly tells his followers NOT to mistreat foreigners living among them. He says those foreigners are to be treated as native-born and loved.
Watch Trump and Company squirm.
“They don’t care if they have a leader shaped by the Bible; they just want one who knows how to use the Bible to control everyone else. That’s what Christian Nationalism is all about.”
Indeed. I’m tired.
OT: My husband and I just returned from a trip to Saguaro National Park, AZ. We watched a film at the visitor center about caring for the land and these great saguaros as if they were your relatives from an indigenous perspective. We both had tears in eyes when the film finished and the curtain opened to reveal the park.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dcdd0b3f18da5b7729b228407acfe96d7922db5c9d15b2c45581b18a516cbc83.jpg
On. The. Nose! 👃
...and even if you are wrong, it's likely because the truth is even dumber.
OT
Happy Biirthday to Tim Curry. Dr. Frank N. Furter/Pennywise sees the Big Eight-Oh today.
Also HB to Ashley Judd.
Enjoyed her in "Kiss the Girls" and "Double Jeopardy." She certainly held her own against heavyweights Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRunQOIcuXQ
I Do Da ROCK!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXPCsaO_55o
A fave!
Will he be reading from the King James version, the English Standard version, or The Bible for Dummies? Or maybe the Children's Illustrated Bible so he can look at the pictures?
He’s reading the version that Hegseth transcribed in black sharpie, else the addlepated Twitler won’t be able to see it.
Big thumbs up for 'addlepated', one of my favorite words ☺
Thanks, I got that word from Aladdin when I was a teen and use it every chance I get. It was rare for a long time, but it’s almost constant now that he’s in charge.
A reading from 2 Corinthians: Two Corinthians walked into a strip club....
They must have selected a passage for him with the shortest and most pronounceable words.
In LARGE typeface!
That would be "Jesus wept". And he could still fuck it up.
They should've given him something from the King James Version. His head would explode.
This ridiculous business about Trump and the bible went beyond the pale about 10 squares back. Anyone who actually believes that that man has any serious investment in the bible or Christianity is forgetting the fact that he is entirely about himself and Damned a little else. No great surprise, all this bible reading amounts to is yet one more stunt to cement his connection with his base and Evangelical Christians.
I just wonder how much longer this goes on before the Gen Pop gets a clue. I'm not holding my breath.