People who "don't like our religion" being excluded from entering the country is the first step towards expelling those same people who are already here. How very fascist of the NSGOP.
No, it will not. I see them as fighting a rear-guard action to try to win the culture wars they lost a long time ago, with an authoritarian, top-down approach. It won't work, and may even speed up the demise of organized religion, but they can sure cause a lot of grief in the process.
They are already doing that, and it is already not working. Look at the draconian abortion laws in republican controlled states, and compare when those same states put the issue up for a vote.
It’s not working in gaining support for the laws, however, they’ve done the prep work to ensure they can enshrine these laws anyway. By cheating in elections to get the majorities, and by creating unconstitutional laws that provide more power for their positions to make edicts rather than passing legislation. Look at what the Florida legislature did to allow DeSantis his free rein over the state. Look at Wisconsin, we just elected a progressive state Supreme Court justice by a landslide, and the legislature is trying to impeach her before she has had a chance to hear a case. And they don’t even have grounds, they’re just throwing a temper tantrum. This shit is happening all over the country and we’re seeing theocratic authoritarian regimes trample the rights of the citizens, and we all have no recourse because the ultimate law of the land is so obviously and blatantly corrupt and no one is trying to do a fucking thing about it.
They’re winning, even though they’ve lost. No one wants them but there’s no way to depose them. I’m afraid it’s gonna take war to correct the course our country has taken.
I think the war will be 20 years in coming. People won't revolt until day-to-day life gets too uncomfortable. They want their services and jobs and war would disrupt that, so they'll put up with it until they can't stand it anymore. Until it's their family being hauled off to the camps.
For the evangelical crowd at least, religious freedom means having their sense of religious privilege enshrined in law. The dog whistle couldn't have been more clear here. Trump is saying he intends to bar Muslims from entering the United States. Even his dim witted base couldn't miss that bit. I think the weight of those ninety-one felony indictments is bearing down on Trump as he becomes a little more incoherent and irrational with every passing day.
This is really telling, taken in context of current events. Where would Muslims be coming to the USA from right now? We haven’t been dealing with a great deal of immigration from majority Muslim countries, no we’ve been getting Central American immigrants, mainly Catholic. But in the near future, we’re going to be seeing refugees from Palestine and probably Israel as well. Neither group are desirable for him and his base. Muslims, of course, are all terrorists and the Jewish people are supposed to stay in Israel so they can bring about the apocalypse. And one of them are evangelical Christians.
I saw somewhere that some of the classified documents in the “royal latrine” contained Israel’s military secrets. Things that Hamas might want to know to put on an attack exactly like they did. Hamas being cozy with Russia, and Trump being cozy with Putin, seems shady that while Congress was debating the funding of Ukrainian defense, Hamas suddenly attacked Israel. Now the USA is obligated to defend Israel and cannot afford to support Ukraine. So, Putin has won the war in Ukraine, it just needs to play out without our support. (Even though he was losing on all fronts, militarily, propaganda wise, and on the world stage.). This was treason, and this was Trump. This type of war crime is abhorrent and deserves (pretty much the only time I believe in it) the death penalty.
Trump’s base will never connect the dots, they’ll even defend the actions if they ever believe it happened, or blame Obama for it.
From Chump, to Russia, to literally anyone who cared to buy the intel. That orange bastard is the worst single-source intelligence leak in fucking history, and I very much doubt we've seen the end of the damage he's caused.
To be fair, there's only so much worse he can get from where he started. Although... I have a hunch that his base will still be listening to his bullshit when he can't even complete a syllable anymore.
“Our religion” and n this context is Trumpism, with a thin layer of Christianity painted on to make it look gold.
He’s worried about terrorists not loving the USA, but let’s never forget that he sold classified documents to whomever would pay him a compliment, while in office and since from his “gilded” bathroom. Fuck this traitorous rapist. He needs to be tried for treason and punished accordingly.
I agree, though I wouldn't punish Trump with death. That's the easy way out for him. I would absolutely incarcerate him for the rest of his life, no chance of parole (Parole??? HA!!!). Solitary confinement with no access to the internet as well ... and that would be hell on Earth for him.
I'd be far more cruel- I'd sentence him to house arrest... in a dingy studio apartment, with no internet access or TV, and a window overlooking the entrance of one of his resorts, so that his only entertainment for the rest of his miserable life will be 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘸𝘯.
I cannot imagine anything that would cause that bastard greater torment.
*𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵- ...and no McDonalds, ever again. He gets a super-nutritious 𝘷𝘦𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 diet. No burgers, ever again. No fried 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. Make the fucker eat healthy, so he gets to see that view for as 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘨 as possible.
Nope, just put him out of our misery. He can be more harmful in prison, even without internet. His base will grow as long as he’s still kicking. Plus, there’s the secret service to deal with and so much more. His base would get all martyrbated over his death, but in time they will forget him. Our only real hope is that stroke he’s working on.
Everybody, please listen up. We need you to send triple bacon cheeseburgers and buckets of KFC to the Rotting Mango on a daily basis until he kicks the KFC bucket.
Good lord you guys are punitive. He's a corrupt businessman who committed tax fraud, plus leaked secret documents. He should get the penalties the law says for those things. Which aren't death, or solitary, or even life.
No, spillage is not treason. Treason requires some intentional transfer to a foreign power. Taking classified material home with you is not that. The latter happens in every administration because there is always some idiot official who thinks their job is more important than the rules, and we never execute anyone or bring them up on treason charges for it. For that matter, we don't charge people who take classified documents for "trophy" use with treason either. Jack Teixeira, the guy who showed clas material to his gamer friends on Discord, isn't a traitor, won't face treason charges, and nobody will call for his execution. The charges he faces will put him in jail for 10 years max, maybe 15 if the judge is really harsh and has the two charges run consecutively instead of concurrently. This is even though his actions allowed foreign powers access to more info than Trump's Mar-a-Lago boxes ever did.
He was handing secrets to Russia directly while in office and from Mar-A-Lago after. He was committing treason throughout. Teixeira wasn’t the president sucking enemy dïck in public. And whatever he leaked wasn’t even close to what Trump was selling.
You are still downplaying his crimes. He wasn’t collecting trophies, he was selling national secrets and allied intelligence documents to foreign governments and corporations. He destroyed our relationships with our allies by making them vulnerable to attacks by their worst enemies. This isn’t a USA crime it’s a world crime and should be addressed as such. Spillage, forsooth.
You left out those migrant kids whose psychological torture he green lit. I want the creature hauled before a Nuremberg tribunal for crimes against humanity for that child separation policy.
I would point out that by and large, Trump's base has repeatedly endorsed considerably more violence for less cause. I don't consider any part of "Hang Mike Pence" to be ambiguous or confusing, neither do I think "Lock her up" was directed at anyone other than Hillary Clinton. Paul Pelosi was personally attacked just for being married to his wife. Seems to me you've got the wrong group of people for the definition of the term 'punitive' here.
Which is why shady businesses slap Christian symbolism all over their advertising. Thankfully this mindset is slowly going away. Not fast enough, but it is going away.
To tell the truth, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with a business that slapped Darwin fish all over their advertising. I don't want to know about your religion when I'm doing business with you. I cringe a little when I hear 'Have a Blessed Day', though I know the person has good intentions.
I deeply appreciate businesses which paste their religion all over everything they do. It tells me which businesses to avoid like the plague, because they clearly don't think highly enough of their own goods or services to advertise 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 instead.
This nonsense from a guy who thinks churches are backdrops for photo ops. He hasn't seen the inside of a church in his entire adult life, but evangelicals like to think of him as a reincarnation of the Persian hero-god, Mithras, or his imitator, Jesus. It isn't surprising that Republicans look the other way and put their fingers in their ears when he says these things. That's the only way they can look themselves in the mirror when shaving in the morning. And that's the problem with religion: it is so easily co-opted by amoral people like Trump.
Well, I guess Trump has indeed seen the inside of a church. What would be correct is to say that there has never been a church inside Donald Trump. He's a user.
The church is still a backdrop for a photo op, he’s just inside instead of out. He’s still as shallow a believer as possible and it is more about appearance than anything else with him. And like every other relationship in his life, it’s transactional, being inside the church brings him followers, which then give him money. Once this stops being true, his visits will cease and he has never been to church, it’s sad, church is a loser, the worst.
A lot of people have no shared concept of what being American is supposed to mean, and they don’t have a working concept for what are democracy, society, and quality of life. They don’t expect their tax dollars to work for them, and they believe whatever they are told. Culturally, their definition of religion is based in stereotypes and reinforced by propaganda, like marketing. If government was permitted to work for the people as intended, rightwing and religious propaganda wouldn’t have such sway over people’s views. They are fed positive reinforcement by sources that oppose them having higher standards and critical thinking skills.
Trump has fashioned himself as a god, and his cult now worship him as a false idol. Trumpism is his religion. Of course he wants no separation of church and state! He wants to have total control over both.
I read 1984 in the sixth grade, and even though it terrified me, and I was heartsick at the fate of Winston Smith, I also consoled myself that something like this could never happen. It would require a populace that willingly disregarded the evidence of their senses. A crowd that would witness the switch from one enemy to the other literally in midsentence, by the keynote speaker at a rally...and even as the old banners are torn down and the new ones put up, accept that the new Enemy had always been the enemy and this was the way things had always been....
That was too "out there" for my 11-year-old self to believe. So I believed it was a cautionary tale, and a compelling story, but I didn't think it could ever happen.
No matter how bad his religion comes off looking day after day here, he's still a Christian. His apologies and embarrassment are meaningless, since he never learns his lesson and abandons his faith.
We had better do our best to get out the vote in 2024. Some people think Dems and Repubs are just 2 sides of the same damaged coin and just plan to sit it out. This could gift the election to front-runner Trump - a disaster in so many ways, not the least of which is his appeal to christian nationalists.
I was wondering why the Democrats don't seem to be making a huge fuss about abortion, but someone claimed they are. Maybe it's because I'm not American, but I can't see a much of it myself. Are they?
Not yet, but the national election is a year away. It has been used in some local, off-year elections and abortion rights have generally won. Campaigning will ramp up after the nominating conventions and we will see where the focus goes.
There was a HUGE fuss when the Court overturned Roe v Wade. It will be in the run up to 2024. It is the reason the Republicans barely gained a House majority in 2022 - they expected to crush Democrats. Elections since then have not gone their way largely due to this issue.
What they want is a gated community of privileged white conservative Christian assholes. Minorities can live in their America if they're willing to cater to and serve those privileged white assholes, otherwise, they would like to deport or exterminate them.
I'm pretty sure they aren't that internally consistent. They want the caterers but not the caterers living in their state, etc. It's a "keep your government off our medicare!!" sort of request.
I'm a follower of the Druid reformist Martin Juniper who advocates this inclusion of worshipping shrubbery into the parthenon of sacred trees. All hail the sacred shrub. The Appalachian foothill branch still practices hugging trees, but hugging junipers is decidedly frowned upon due to the prickly god enshrined therein.
As was con-splained (conservatives tell me things) to me, "Freedom of religion means you are free to worship any religion you want, it's not freedom from religion." Now it's being extended to "You are free to worship any religion somewhere else if it's not christianity."
"His comment wasn’t theological. It was political." - Is there a difference with them anymore?
No, there is no difference with them., especially considering that they equate themselves with their religion. Still, I have to throw the following out there, just on GPs:
My response to that "argument" is to ask them if any given person has the freedom to practice their religion, even if it isn't Christianity. The typical answer is an uncomfortable "yes." Then I ask if that same person has the freedom to leave their original religion so they can convert to Christianity. That answer tends to be a somewhat more enthusiastic affirmative.
Then I tell them that 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘷𝘦 just proved that freedom of religion 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴 freedom from religion- because in order to practice one religion, a person must be free to 𝘯𝘰𝘵 practice all the others, and in order to convert to a different religion, they must 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 be free to 𝘯𝘰𝘵 practice the one they started with. They therefore have the freedom to 𝘯𝘰𝘵 practice every single religion in existence.
I just choose to exercise that freedom over one more religion than they do.
Our religion, you know with Jebus. No one heard of Jebus until I starting talking about him. Great guy that Jebus. Treated so poorly. But he said, Donald, they might have treated me bad, but nobody has been treated worse that you. and then Jebus wept.
The worst part is that he’s on a 5 week vacation. While the folks he’s supposed to represent get fired for taking a sick day.
The gun charge is no big surprise, as the GOP can’t let go of their pacifiers like the babies they are. Though, I don’t know how something so beloved could accidentally wind up on a plane.
There has been the occasional question on Quora – one that I particularly remember was something like "Can I take my gun to England, or is there some paperwork involved?" Honestly the dumbassery of some people beggars belief. People have been arrested on arriving in Britain for having guns in their luggage. It's pretty much frowned on. I mean people bring guns to NZ all the time for hunting purposes, but there is certainly paperwork.
Back in 1990, I was with a group going to the PTK National Convention in San Francisco when we ran into one of the group's boss. He was taking his son to an expedition in South America to hunt big cats. They were walking through Tampa International Airport with their hunting rifles in rifle-shaped card board boxes. 😕 My, how times have changed.
Ahem. Most French people* have 5 weeks of vacations a year. Some go to exotic locations.
*If you have a work contract without ending called a CDI. It's more complicated for other work contracts and I am not well enough to navigate the specific of each one.
My company announced yesterday that we are getting Juneteenth and the day after Thanksgiving added to our company holidays next year. Of course, they are taking the two floating holidays we had away to give us those. So, yes, net gain of nothing.
Jesus Christ, $840,000 or whatever is weak? There are politicians in NZ who would commit multiple murders for that sort of money. Probably wouldn't be allowed anyway though.
He's made a career of escaping accountability. Now his tactics are failing him. As more of his co-conspirators are flipping on him, the great orange whale continues to grow more desperate and irrational. The thought of prison mortifies him.
The problem is nothing seems to get done when he does violate gag orders – apart from fines he probably won't pay, or are risible amounts. When are they going to put this bastard in jail? Like many conservatives say 'these people need a short, sharp lesson.'
People who "don't like our religion" being excluded from entering the country is the first step towards expelling those same people who are already here. How very fascist of the NSGOP.
That might prove to be quite a challenge given the fact only about 47% of adult Americans now claim any kind of religious affiliation.
It won't stop them from trying.
No, it will not. I see them as fighting a rear-guard action to try to win the culture wars they lost a long time ago, with an authoritarian, top-down approach. It won't work, and may even speed up the demise of organized religion, but they can sure cause a lot of grief in the process.
They are already doing that, and it is already not working. Look at the draconian abortion laws in republican controlled states, and compare when those same states put the issue up for a vote.
It’s not working in gaining support for the laws, however, they’ve done the prep work to ensure they can enshrine these laws anyway. By cheating in elections to get the majorities, and by creating unconstitutional laws that provide more power for their positions to make edicts rather than passing legislation. Look at what the Florida legislature did to allow DeSantis his free rein over the state. Look at Wisconsin, we just elected a progressive state Supreme Court justice by a landslide, and the legislature is trying to impeach her before she has had a chance to hear a case. And they don’t even have grounds, they’re just throwing a temper tantrum. This shit is happening all over the country and we’re seeing theocratic authoritarian regimes trample the rights of the citizens, and we all have no recourse because the ultimate law of the land is so obviously and blatantly corrupt and no one is trying to do a fucking thing about it.
They’re winning, even though they’ve lost. No one wants them but there’s no way to depose them. I’m afraid it’s gonna take war to correct the course our country has taken.
I believe you're right, which scares the living daylights out of me.
I think the war will be 20 years in coming. People won't revolt until day-to-day life gets too uncomfortable. They want their services and jobs and war would disrupt that, so they'll put up with it until they can't stand it anymore. Until it's their family being hauled off to the camps.
Exactly. They pass these laws with the assumption people will just passively submit.
For the evangelical crowd at least, religious freedom means having their sense of religious privilege enshrined in law. The dog whistle couldn't have been more clear here. Trump is saying he intends to bar Muslims from entering the United States. Even his dim witted base couldn't miss that bit. I think the weight of those ninety-one felony indictments is bearing down on Trump as he becomes a little more incoherent and irrational with every passing day.
This is really telling, taken in context of current events. Where would Muslims be coming to the USA from right now? We haven’t been dealing with a great deal of immigration from majority Muslim countries, no we’ve been getting Central American immigrants, mainly Catholic. But in the near future, we’re going to be seeing refugees from Palestine and probably Israel as well. Neither group are desirable for him and his base. Muslims, of course, are all terrorists and the Jewish people are supposed to stay in Israel so they can bring about the apocalypse. And one of them are evangelical Christians.
I saw somewhere that some of the classified documents in the “royal latrine” contained Israel’s military secrets. Things that Hamas might want to know to put on an attack exactly like they did. Hamas being cozy with Russia, and Trump being cozy with Putin, seems shady that while Congress was debating the funding of Ukrainian defense, Hamas suddenly attacked Israel. Now the USA is obligated to defend Israel and cannot afford to support Ukraine. So, Putin has won the war in Ukraine, it just needs to play out without our support. (Even though he was losing on all fronts, militarily, propaganda wise, and on the world stage.). This was treason, and this was Trump. This type of war crime is abhorrent and deserves (pretty much the only time I believe in it) the death penalty.
Trump’s base will never connect the dots, they’ll even defend the actions if they ever believe it happened, or blame Obama for it.
𝐃𝐢𝐝 𝐇𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥’𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐤?
https://hartmannreport.com/p/did-hamas-somehow-get-inside-information-23e
There's been enough coverage at this point that it's more than just a suspicion, to me:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-revealed-highly-classified-information-to-russian-foreign-minister-and-ambassador/2017/05/15/530c172a-3960-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html
https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-us-intelligence-warned-israel-over-trumps-ties-to-russia/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/russias-lavrov-meets-with-hamas-politburo-chief-haniyeh-in-moscow/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia/senator-paul-delivers-letter-from-trump-to-putins-government-idUSKBN1KT1RV
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/15/us/politics/trump-putin-meetings-phone-calls.html
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-israel-intel-russia-hamas-attack-1833094
https://www.newsweek.com/us-officials-warned-israel-not-share-sensitive-intel-trump-609782
From Chump, to Russia, to literally anyone who cared to buy the intel. That orange bastard is the worst single-source intelligence leak in fucking history, and I very much doubt we've seen the end of the damage he's caused.
Don’t forget the closed-door, no witnesses meeting with Putin.
The party of personal responsibility always has someone to blame.
Only a LITTLE more?
To be fair, there's only so much worse he can get from where he started. Although... I have a hunch that his base will still be listening to his bullshit when he can't even complete a syllable anymore.
"We don't want you. Get out of here. You're fired!"
Think that's what America told you back in 2020, Donny.
To be fair... we told it to him in 2016, too.
The fucking Electoral College just didn't listen.
“Our religion” and n this context is Trumpism, with a thin layer of Christianity painted on to make it look gold.
He’s worried about terrorists not loving the USA, but let’s never forget that he sold classified documents to whomever would pay him a compliment, while in office and since from his “gilded” bathroom. Fuck this traitorous rapist. He needs to be tried for treason and punished accordingly.
I agree, though I wouldn't punish Trump with death. That's the easy way out for him. I would absolutely incarcerate him for the rest of his life, no chance of parole (Parole??? HA!!!). Solitary confinement with no access to the internet as well ... and that would be hell on Earth for him.
I'd be far more cruel- I'd sentence him to house arrest... in a dingy studio apartment, with no internet access or TV, and a window overlooking the entrance of one of his resorts, so that his only entertainment for the rest of his miserable life will be 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘸𝘯.
I cannot imagine anything that would cause that bastard greater torment.
*𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵- ...and no McDonalds, ever again. He gets a super-nutritious 𝘷𝘦𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 diet. No burgers, ever again. No fried 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. Make the fucker eat healthy, so he gets to see that view for as 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘨 as possible.
Nope, just put him out of our misery. He can be more harmful in prison, even without internet. His base will grow as long as he’s still kicking. Plus, there’s the secret service to deal with and so much more. His base would get all martyrbated over his death, but in time they will forget him. Our only real hope is that stroke he’s working on.
Everybody, please listen up. We need you to send triple bacon cheeseburgers and buckets of KFC to the Rotting Mango on a daily basis until he kicks the KFC bucket.
Feed him the Elvis Presley Diet?
Deep-fried everything with a side order of uppers and downers? We could try that too if it would speed things along.
Good lord you guys are punitive. He's a corrupt businessman who committed tax fraud, plus leaked secret documents. He should get the penalties the law says for those things. Which aren't death, or solitary, or even life.
Leaking secret documents is treason. Leaking secret documents has killed people already and is threatening to kill millions more.
You’re downplaying the crimes he’s committed.
No, spillage is not treason. Treason requires some intentional transfer to a foreign power. Taking classified material home with you is not that. The latter happens in every administration because there is always some idiot official who thinks their job is more important than the rules, and we never execute anyone or bring them up on treason charges for it. For that matter, we don't charge people who take classified documents for "trophy" use with treason either. Jack Teixeira, the guy who showed clas material to his gamer friends on Discord, isn't a traitor, won't face treason charges, and nobody will call for his execution. The charges he faces will put him in jail for 10 years max, maybe 15 if the judge is really harsh and has the two charges run consecutively instead of concurrently. This is even though his actions allowed foreign powers access to more info than Trump's Mar-a-Lago boxes ever did.
𝐃𝐢𝐝 𝐇𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥’𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐤?
https://hartmannreport.com/p/did-hamas-somehow-get-inside-information-23e
He was handing secrets to Russia directly while in office and from Mar-A-Lago after. He was committing treason throughout. Teixeira wasn’t the president sucking enemy dïck in public. And whatever he leaked wasn’t even close to what Trump was selling.
You are still downplaying his crimes. He wasn’t collecting trophies, he was selling national secrets and allied intelligence documents to foreign governments and corporations. He destroyed our relationships with our allies by making them vulnerable to attacks by their worst enemies. This isn’t a USA crime it’s a world crime and should be addressed as such. Spillage, forsooth.
You left out those migrant kids whose psychological torture he green lit. I want the creature hauled before a Nuremberg tribunal for crimes against humanity for that child separation policy.
I am not kidding.
Were you in a coma on January 6, 2021?
I would point out that by and large, Trump's base has repeatedly endorsed considerably more violence for less cause. I don't consider any part of "Hang Mike Pence" to be ambiguous or confusing, neither do I think "Lock her up" was directed at anyone other than Hillary Clinton. Paul Pelosi was personally attacked just for being married to his wife. Seems to me you've got the wrong group of people for the definition of the term 'punitive' here.
You left out his attempt coup, witness intimidation, election interference and a multitude of other crimes.
I have the feeling he'd Epstein himself if he had to spend a weekend in jail for contempt of court.
Ha ... would he know HOW? 🤔
His tiny hands wouldn’t be able to manage it.
🤣🤣🤣
Isn’t there something in the Amendments about not endorsing any religion?
They really are the party of “The Constitution Is Just A Piece Of Paper.”
A Piece of Toilet Paper
FIFY
No hate quite like Christian love.
𝑇𝑜 𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑦, 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑦 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡 “𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛” 𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑦𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑦𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ “𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑.”
Which is why shady businesses slap Christian symbolism all over their advertising. Thankfully this mindset is slowly going away. Not fast enough, but it is going away.
To tell the truth, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with a business that slapped Darwin fish all over their advertising. I don't want to know about your religion when I'm doing business with you. I cringe a little when I hear 'Have a Blessed Day', though I know the person has good intentions.
They think they do. What they are really doing is virtue signaling. 😇
I deeply appreciate businesses which paste their religion all over everything they do. It tells me which businesses to avoid like the plague, because they clearly don't think highly enough of their own goods or services to advertise 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 instead.
When I see a business play up a connection to Christianity, it puts me on my guard and I am a Christian.
This nonsense from a guy who thinks churches are backdrops for photo ops. He hasn't seen the inside of a church in his entire adult life, but evangelicals like to think of him as a reincarnation of the Persian hero-god, Mithras, or his imitator, Jesus. It isn't surprising that Republicans look the other way and put their fingers in their ears when he says these things. That's the only way they can look themselves in the mirror when shaving in the morning. And that's the problem with religion: it is so easily co-opted by amoral people like Trump.
https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/508454/trump-christianity.jpg
https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/10/AFP_8TD3KH.jpg
There's more.
Well, I guess Trump has indeed seen the inside of a church. What would be correct is to say that there has never been a church inside Donald Trump. He's a user.
The church is still a backdrop for a photo op, he’s just inside instead of out. He’s still as shallow a believer as possible and it is more about appearance than anything else with him. And like every other relationship in his life, it’s transactional, being inside the church brings him followers, which then give him money. Once this stops being true, his visits will cease and he has never been to church, it’s sad, church is a loser, the worst.
One of the few things to admire about Trump: 'He hasn't seen the inside of a church in his entire adult life.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnHxPC3u3yU
And doesn't he look bored out of his mind? 😁
He looked like a petulant child who wanted to be anywhere but outside the church where protestors got tear-gassed for that photo op.
He always looks like a petulant child, on the brink to throw a tantrum. Except when he throws a tantrum.
PS: Please tell me what's wrong with the above sentences.
Well, I stand corrected! Trump posing as an Evangelical, hands held up in supplication (very Muslim, very Orthodox Jewish!) is a sight to behld.
He's identified as a non-denominational Christian since 2020, but there wasn't a time too long ago where he openly declared himself a Presbyterian.
You can see the wonders religion has done for him (NoGodz says, his voice dripping with sarcasm)
Trump's denomination is 100s and 20s. Unmarked.
True, but he does like a Jew to look after his money right?
Yep. That's why I say tho he's been inside a church, the church has never been inside of Trump.
There's no room for church in there with his ego (and all those hamberders).
But at least one Corinthian has!
A lot of people have no shared concept of what being American is supposed to mean, and they don’t have a working concept for what are democracy, society, and quality of life. They don’t expect their tax dollars to work for them, and they believe whatever they are told. Culturally, their definition of religion is based in stereotypes and reinforced by propaganda, like marketing. If government was permitted to work for the people as intended, rightwing and religious propaganda wouldn’t have such sway over people’s views. They are fed positive reinforcement by sources that oppose them having higher standards and critical thinking skills.
Trump has fashioned himself as a god, and his cult now worship him as a false idol. Trumpism is his religion. Of course he wants no separation of church and state! He wants to have total control over both.
Trump in charge of literally everything, like a medieval king. That's a horror movie waiting to happen IRL.
Monsters in horror movies are easier to kill.
This is a dystopian nightmare that makes Orwell look like an optimist.
IKR?
I read 1984 in the sixth grade, and even though it terrified me, and I was heartsick at the fate of Winston Smith, I also consoled myself that something like this could never happen. It would require a populace that willingly disregarded the evidence of their senses. A crowd that would witness the switch from one enemy to the other literally in midsentence, by the keynote speaker at a rally...and even as the old banners are torn down and the new ones put up, accept that the new Enemy had always been the enemy and this was the way things had always been....
That was too "out there" for my 11-year-old self to believe. So I believed it was a cautionary tale, and a compelling story, but I didn't think it could ever happen.
What a dumbass.
Our very own Christian commenter disabused me of that thinking years ago.
No matter how bad his religion comes off looking day after day here, he's still a Christian. His apologies and embarrassment are meaningless, since he never learns his lesson and abandons his faith.
Aren't people trying to ban that book from schools?
I'd be surprised if they weren't.
We had better do our best to get out the vote in 2024. Some people think Dems and Repubs are just 2 sides of the same damaged coin and just plan to sit it out. This could gift the election to front-runner Trump - a disaster in so many ways, not the least of which is his appeal to christian nationalists.
I was wondering why the Democrats don't seem to be making a huge fuss about abortion, but someone claimed they are. Maybe it's because I'm not American, but I can't see a much of it myself. Are they?
Not yet, but the national election is a year away. It has been used in some local, off-year elections and abortion rights have generally won. Campaigning will ramp up after the nominating conventions and we will see where the focus goes.
There was a HUGE fuss when the Court overturned Roe v Wade. It will be in the run up to 2024. It is the reason the Republicans barely gained a House majority in 2022 - they expected to crush Democrats. Elections since then have not gone their way largely due to this issue.
What they want is a gated community of privileged white conservative Christian assholes. Minorities can live in their America if they're willing to cater to and serve those privileged white assholes, otherwise, they would like to deport or exterminate them.
I'm pretty sure they aren't that internally consistent. They want the caterers but not the caterers living in their state, etc. It's a "keep your government off our medicare!!" sort of request.
Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism
I'm a follower of the Druid reformist Martin Juniper who advocates this inclusion of worshipping shrubbery into the parthenon of sacred trees. All hail the sacred shrub. The Appalachian foothill branch still practices hugging trees, but hugging junipers is decidedly frowned upon due to the prickly god enshrined therein.
A shrubbery!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69iB-xy0u4A
Yes.
As was con-splained (conservatives tell me things) to me, "Freedom of religion means you are free to worship any religion you want, it's not freedom from religion." Now it's being extended to "You are free to worship any religion somewhere else if it's not christianity."
"His comment wasn’t theological. It was political." - Is there a difference with them anymore?
No, there is no difference with them., especially considering that they equate themselves with their religion. Still, I have to throw the following out there, just on GPs:
𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜 𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑜𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑜𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑠𝑒.
-- David Hume
Do they explain how "freedom of religion" works without "freedom from religion".
My response to that "argument" is to ask them if any given person has the freedom to practice their religion, even if it isn't Christianity. The typical answer is an uncomfortable "yes." Then I ask if that same person has the freedom to leave their original religion so they can convert to Christianity. That answer tends to be a somewhat more enthusiastic affirmative.
Then I tell them that 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘷𝘦 just proved that freedom of religion 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴 freedom from religion- because in order to practice one religion, a person must be free to 𝘯𝘰𝘵 practice all the others, and in order to convert to a different religion, they must 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 be free to 𝘯𝘰𝘵 practice the one they started with. They therefore have the freedom to 𝘯𝘰𝘵 practice every single religion in existence.
I just choose to exercise that freedom over one more religion than they do.
Our religion, you know with Jebus. No one heard of Jebus until I starting talking about him. Great guy that Jebus. Treated so poorly. But he said, Donald, they might have treated me bad, but nobody has been treated worse that you. and then Jebus wept.
𝘍𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴! Everybody knows Jebus would've called him "Sir!"
“Master”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hong-kong-gop-state-senator-arrested_n_6537a7a0e4b011a9cf7afc28
Someone else who thinks that the Second Amendment applies outside the US?
The worst part is that he’s on a 5 week vacation. While the folks he’s supposed to represent get fired for taking a sick day.
The gun charge is no big surprise, as the GOP can’t let go of their pacifiers like the babies they are. Though, I don’t know how something so beloved could accidentally wind up on a plane.
What a fucking dumbass. Does he sleep with his gun? Shower with it? And why did no one notice when he went through security at the airport in the US?
"Do you know who I am?"
Who who? Who are you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYb_nqU_43w
The policeman knew my name. He said "You can go sleep at home tonight if you can get up and walk away".
That's all that matters.
Now I'm thinking of George Eads again and I can't go to my bunk, I'm in the office today.
There has been the occasional question on Quora – one that I particularly remember was something like "Can I take my gun to England, or is there some paperwork involved?" Honestly the dumbassery of some people beggars belief. People have been arrested on arriving in Britain for having guns in their luggage. It's pretty much frowned on. I mean people bring guns to NZ all the time for hunting purposes, but there is certainly paperwork.
Back in 1990, I was with a group going to the PTK National Convention in San Francisco when we ran into one of the group's boss. He was taking his son to an expedition in South America to hunt big cats. They were walking through Tampa International Airport with their hunting rifles in rifle-shaped card board boxes. 😕 My, how times have changed.
I do hope that the 𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘴 had the last laugh on that expedition.
I read this story in my paper this morning. Who on Earth brings a gun on a vacation?
He's from Longview, the 3rd-most conservative city in my state. Surprise surprise.
Depends on where and why. Hunting in the Dakotas, sure. Off-Broadway and an eclectic eatery, nope.
Ahem. Most French people* have 5 weeks of vacations a year. Some go to exotic locations.
*If you have a work contract without ending called a CDI. It's more complicated for other work contracts and I am not well enough to navigate the specific of each one.
I only have 21 days of PTO a year. And that’s actually 5 days more than the usual, but only because the company doesn’t close for the minor holidays.
My company announced yesterday that we are getting Juneteenth and the day after Thanksgiving added to our company holidays next year. Of course, they are taking the two floating holidays we had away to give us those. So, yes, net gain of nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDK7ZsOfVLQ
Boebert. 😁
Jesus Christ, $840,000 or whatever is weak? There are politicians in NZ who would commit multiple murders for that sort of money. Probably wouldn't be allowed anyway though.
She's reduced to digging into other peoples pockets looking for change.
See? THAT'S what she was doing at Beetlejuice!
"𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘸𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴..."
They make a pill for that.
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxDm7mCr_dwLdf5h9fOOHT28JB8Zn9AbPD?si=8dK6a7-kueP4U2e-
Christ on a crutch, if that's change I'd like some of it. 😁
Ammosexual ignores trigger safety and repeatedly shoots herself in the foot.
"A republican who won't embarrass us every 5 minutes."
Good luck with that. Given the state of the party, I assume any challenger she has is even worse than she is.
And an election campaign in the U.S. is usually counted in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Especially a Republican.
He's made a career of escaping accountability. Now his tactics are failing him. As more of his co-conspirators are flipping on him, the great orange whale continues to grow more desperate and irrational. The thought of prison mortifies him.
Let him violate just one more gag order. I dare him to do it.
The problem is nothing seems to get done when he does violate gag orders – apart from fines he probably won't pay, or are risible amounts. When are they going to put this bastard in jail? Like many conservatives say 'these people need a short, sharp lesson.'
He should've been jailed after he doxxed Letitia James, not to mention charged with yet another crime.
I do wish they'd stop handling him with kid gloves, and slap him across the mouth with one instead.
A glove from a suit of medieval armor.
Or a glove with a well-placed brick
https://imgur.com/t/looney_tunes/kzVactg
https://i.redd.it/tcwgs8z3two81.gif
There are a few immutable things in the universe. Trump keeping his yap shut isn't one of them.
He's no more capable of silence than he is of ever telling the truth.