“The Department of Justice’s mission is to uphold the rule of law and ensure fair and impartial justice for all Americans"
Well, it used to be their mission. Now it's mission is whatever the Pedodent wants them to do, no matter how illegal and unconstitutional it is. When the entire barrel of Nazis are thrown out of power, there needs to be actual justice in the form of prison for all of them, starting at the top.
I suggest that the reason this commission never provides legally required information is because it isn't a legitimate commission. This was nothing more than shameless pandering by Trump to Christian Nationalists in order to secure the evangelical vote. Trump doesn't care about religion and doesn't have any interest in religious plurality. He wants the unconditional support of a major voting bloc. It's all transactional - he's throwing them a bone so they'll provide support for Republican elections.
The RLC amounts to little more than another dumb-ass move by Donnie that he thought he would get away with and didn't. Trump still thinks he's a king and can rule by fiat, and his paddy-whackers are getting slapped again and again because the rest of us actually CARE about how this country and its government works.
It could be that this current foofaraw will wind up being a lot of sound and fury and little else ... or not. Either way, I trust Hemant to keep a weather eye on it.
Definitely. It’s an illegitimate presidency as well, both legally (an insurrectionist) and politically (he doesn’t govern, but rather rules over his subjects).
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, known as the Disqualification Clause, prohibits any person from holding federal or state office—including Congress or the presidency—if they previously took an oath to support the Constitution and subsequently engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the U.S. or gave aid to its enemies.
The very Amendment he attempted to rewrite, usurping a power the Constitution explicitly denies to him, the moment he oozed back into office (the E.O. on birthright citizenship).
It conveniently obscures the massive antisemitism American Jews endured since the founding of murica. Slavery gets all the attention, but antisemitism has been around long before Jesus the Jew was born a virgin birth.
It is important for everyone to understand that White Christian Nationalists believe their faith is the One True Faith. Therefore, all other faiths are false. As in, not worthy of representation on a "religious liberty commission" or religious freedom protections. Growing up, my WCN church called Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jehovahs Witnesses, and Mormons "cult members." Cult members are heretics. This is exactly in line with what they believe: They are the only "real" religion and the only one deserving of representation or protection.
One of the things that led me to atheism was that each and every religion claims they and they alone have the truth and all the other religions are wrong. All the religions can't be right that they all have the truth but all the religions can be right that all the other religions don't have the truth. That led me to realize that none of them had the truth.
Many religious believers are tolerant of others, but it's the more fanatical sects that believe others have to conform to their beliefs, or else they are not being true to their faith.
They care about the law about as much as Donnie does. They see Trump as a wheel-horse that can put them in the proverbial Catbird Seat, and they're going to ride him for all he's worth.
Shout this from the rooftops. The thirteen Christian bigots and one Jewish bigot can't hear you. You might need to have some people pulling their fingers out of their ears, because they won't do that willingly.
We all knew that the Religious Liberty Commission wasn't about promoting religious freedom but was about pushing conservative Christian privilege. Now we have a paper trail.
No, not really. This was the plan. I am not incredulous.
Trumps MO has always been do what he wants, see whether he gets caught, if he does fight/delay it in court until the other side runs out of resources or will. I will be amazed if the courts *don't* let the administration get away with it. Then again, I doubt Trump will spend political capital on what is basically a bone thrown to his supporters, so maybe a ruling against them gets a giant shrug from the administration and they are forced to change.
Though frankly speaking, would any remedy actually help? After 2028, will anyone pay attention to 90% of the reports issued by this administration?
So second thought - let them be. Let them publish their worst. The fundies will truly think they've scored some victory, while the rest of us can preserve it as a historical document that illustrates the dangers of corruption, partisanship, and authoritarianism.
Well, this is hilarious. I said something about Christians murdering “witches” and that elicited this excuse: “People who want to bash Christians, usually secular bring up witch trials. There is nowhere in the New Testament that says to do that. They might have been religious, but they didn't get their doctrine from Jesus or the New Testament.”
To which I asked if the murdered women should take comfort from the notion that their killers simply got their theology wrong.
There is nowhere in the New Testament where it says to post the 10Cs in schools or force children to learn bible stories during classes either, and it doesn't mention trans people at all, yet...
As if Christians actually read their badly written, poorly edited book of fan fiction! Yet, Christians keep telling me that the Bible is the most important book in the world; so IMPORTANT that Christians DON’T EVEN READ IT THEMSELVES. So why should children be forced to read the goddamm book of crap in school, if Christians don’t even read it!
“ I don't think a school is required to allow in the whole alphabet of groups. It just can't discriminate based on viewpoint. And you were right on that point. If they allow in Bible study groups they must allow in Quran study groups or a Necronomicon club (or whatever you guys read. LOL)
But that doesn't mean they must allow in the recruiting arm of the Lord's Resistance Army. Recruiting and proselytizing is not a specific viewpoint, it's an activity.”
I asked what distinguished a viewpoint from an activity.
LRA - like gangs - could easily be denied by pointing out that they directly advocate for + have a long history of + regularly incite, illegal behavior.
Now I don't know how their theology differs from other flavors of Christianity, but if some club wanted to study it as an academic exercise, that would probably need to be allowed.
When it has the word "liberty" or "freedom" in the name (unless it's Freedom From Religion, of course) it's going to be right-wing Christian bullshit that has absolutely nothing to do with either liberty or freedom.
Our friend in New Zealand, guerillasurgeon, posted the following link late last night on yesterday’s blog. Commission members are shouting at each other about anti-semitism. How much is too much or some such.
That's actually well known that there is some serious antisemitism in Luther's* writing. Equally you can find oodles of very anti-Jewish writings and actions in the catholic church^.
(*, ^) - There is a discussion to be had to what extent this reflects the attitudes of the time(s), but I don't intend to have that discussion here. Please note that I am also not defending Luther nor the catholics.
Back in school, for one semester I took a class on the relationship between christianity and Judaism. As part of that class we looked at some of the theology and also the history eg the church's involvement in pogroms.
I can remember bits of that class, e.g. I remember Werner of Oberwesel and I remember that we looked into Luther. We read some of his antisemitic writings, we read them in context with his contemporaries, but I cannot remember whether he was more virulent than others.
There, fixed it for you. I mean, seriously, this was the intent of the Religious Liberty Commission from the get-go, wasn't it? To boost Christian influence in American government and not that far down the road, grease the wheels for the advent of a Christian Theocracy in the United States. Trump & Co. no more care about the religious liberty of any other belief system than they care about the well-being of undocumented immigrants at the hands of ICE. What pleases me is the clear amount of flak they're getting from all quarters, including Christians who understand the nature of our secular government.
This is yet one more massive fuck-up on Donnie's part, and I hope it gets a LOT more attention
“The Department of Justice’s mission is to uphold the rule of law and ensure fair and impartial justice for all Americans"
Well, it used to be their mission. Now it's mission is whatever the Pedodent wants them to do, no matter how illegal and unconstitutional it is. When the entire barrel of Nazis are thrown out of power, there needs to be actual justice in the form of prison for all of them, starting at the top.
The Department of Justice has become the Department of Just Us.
I'm with you here.
I suggest that the reason this commission never provides legally required information is because it isn't a legitimate commission. This was nothing more than shameless pandering by Trump to Christian Nationalists in order to secure the evangelical vote. Trump doesn't care about religion and doesn't have any interest in religious plurality. He wants the unconditional support of a major voting bloc. It's all transactional - he's throwing them a bone so they'll provide support for Republican elections.
The RLC amounts to little more than another dumb-ass move by Donnie that he thought he would get away with and didn't. Trump still thinks he's a king and can rule by fiat, and his paddy-whackers are getting slapped again and again because the rest of us actually CARE about how this country and its government works.
It could be that this current foofaraw will wind up being a lot of sound and fury and little else ... or not. Either way, I trust Hemant to keep a weather eye on it.
Definitely. It’s an illegitimate presidency as well, both legally (an insurrectionist) and politically (he doesn’t govern, but rather rules over his subjects).
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, known as the Disqualification Clause, prohibits any person from holding federal or state office—including Congress or the presidency—if they previously took an oath to support the Constitution and subsequently engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the U.S. or gave aid to its enemies.
No matter what the illegitimate SCOTUS says 🫠
The very Amendment he attempted to rewrite, usurping a power the Constitution explicitly denies to him, the moment he oozed back into office (the E.O. on birthright citizenship).
The First Amendment precludes it being a legitimate commission. It is NEVER the job of our secular government to backstop anybody's religion.
Judeo-Christian AGAIN? They need to bury that phrase because it is a purely Christian notion that Jews find laughable.
They even have a token Jewish person for their "see we aren't really Nazis" cosplay.
My bride is not shy about “educating” people when they use that term.
It conveniently obscures the massive antisemitism American Jews endured since the founding of murica. Slavery gets all the attention, but antisemitism has been around long before Jesus the Jew was born a virgin birth.
It is important for everyone to understand that White Christian Nationalists believe their faith is the One True Faith. Therefore, all other faiths are false. As in, not worthy of representation on a "religious liberty commission" or religious freedom protections. Growing up, my WCN church called Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jehovahs Witnesses, and Mormons "cult members." Cult members are heretics. This is exactly in line with what they believe: They are the only "real" religion and the only one deserving of representation or protection.
One of the things that led me to atheism was that each and every religion claims they and they alone have the truth and all the other religions are wrong. All the religions can't be right that they all have the truth but all the religions can be right that all the other religions don't have the truth. That led me to realize that none of them had the truth.
The best way I have heard that put is "all religions cannot be right, but they can all be wrong."
I got to remember that. Not that the many religions practised in Norway does much wrong*, but anyaway.
*) The JVs are in their own class of evil though.
Many religious believers are tolerant of others, but it's the more fanatical sects that believe others have to conform to their beliefs, or else they are not being true to their faith.
Of course that is what they believe and that is how they act, but that is no reason for the rest of us to accommodate them.
I’m not saying it is. Merely underscoring that a lot more people believe this than people outside it may be willing to credit.
Attempting to sort out who was, or was not, a TRUE Christian has spilled enough blood to float the Navy.
Christians not following the law even though their book tells them to obey the law?
Say it ain't so!
They care about the law about as much as Donnie does. They see Trump as a wheel-horse that can put them in the proverbial Catbird Seat, and they're going to ride him for all he's worth.
I could say it, but I would be lying.
They do obey the law, just not law everyone else has to obey.
“𝑅𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑜𝑚 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑜𝑚 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑒.”
Shout this from the rooftops. The thirteen Christian bigots and one Jewish bigot can't hear you. You might need to have some people pulling their fingers out of their ears, because they won't do that willingly.
We all knew that the Religious Liberty Commission wasn't about promoting religious freedom but was about pushing conservative Christian privilege. Now we have a paper trail.
Did they really think anyone would be fooled by the RLC and its NatC agenda?
They know they aren't fooling anyone- they're just banking on nobody being able to 𝘥𝘰 anything about it.
Dan Patrick's involvement is really all you need to know. He is a four-star religious nut case.
I just woke up, I’m on my 1st cup of coffee, and I can already tell them how to deal with obstacles to religious freedom.
Get radiclly conservative, Dominionist, authoritarian loving religious people and denominations out of the commission.
It isn’t rocket surgery.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
But it is brain science. 😏
(The commission) quoted a statement that the nation should “prefer Christians for [our] rulers.”
I find it telling that they used the word "rulers" instead of leaders."
Oh, LOVELY. Saying the quiet part out loud ... AGAIN.
Does it even count as the quiet part anymore when they've traded their dogwhistles for bullhorns?
Isn't there a line in the constitution, saying that there should be no religious tests for office holders??
It's only there until Trump finds his Sharpie. Then it's redaction time!
Maybe it's up his ass. He can get Kristi Noem to find it for him.
Yes, but Trump & Toadies are doing everything in their power to render the whole thing useless.
Yup. That would be Article 6, Clause 3.
Maybe it's about imperial vs. metric?
𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑏𝑎𝑑𝑙𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑎𝑑𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠.
No, not really. This was the plan. I am not incredulous.
Trumps MO has always been do what he wants, see whether he gets caught, if he does fight/delay it in court until the other side runs out of resources or will. I will be amazed if the courts *don't* let the administration get away with it. Then again, I doubt Trump will spend political capital on what is basically a bone thrown to his supporters, so maybe a ruling against them gets a giant shrug from the administration and they are forced to change.
Though frankly speaking, would any remedy actually help? After 2028, will anyone pay attention to 90% of the reports issued by this administration?
So second thought - let them be. Let them publish their worst. The fundies will truly think they've scored some victory, while the rest of us can preserve it as a historical document that illustrates the dangers of corruption, partisanship, and authoritarianism.
Well, this is hilarious. I said something about Christians murdering “witches” and that elicited this excuse: “People who want to bash Christians, usually secular bring up witch trials. There is nowhere in the New Testament that says to do that. They might have been religious, but they didn't get their doctrine from Jesus or the New Testament.”
To which I asked if the murdered women should take comfort from the notion that their killers simply got their theology wrong.
There is nowhere in the New Testament where it says to post the 10Cs in schools or force children to learn bible stories during classes either, and it doesn't mention trans people at all, yet...
New testament? The one where Jesus said something about being here to not cancel the laws or some such? That Jesus?
As if Christians actually read their badly written, poorly edited book of fan fiction! Yet, Christians keep telling me that the Bible is the most important book in the world; so IMPORTANT that Christians DON’T EVEN READ IT THEMSELVES. So why should children be forced to read the goddamm book of crap in school, if Christians don’t even read it!
Exodus 22:18, but I guess the OT doesn't count.
Apparently not but I need all the ammo I can get.
See my reply above. They're happy to use Leviticus.
She turned me into a newt!
We see you got better.
Not when they want to use it to condemn gay people.
The latest:
“ I don't think a school is required to allow in the whole alphabet of groups. It just can't discriminate based on viewpoint. And you were right on that point. If they allow in Bible study groups they must allow in Quran study groups or a Necronomicon club (or whatever you guys read. LOL)
But that doesn't mean they must allow in the recruiting arm of the Lord's Resistance Army. Recruiting and proselytizing is not a specific viewpoint, it's an activity.”
I asked what distinguished a viewpoint from an activity.
LRA - like gangs - could easily be denied by pointing out that they directly advocate for + have a long history of + regularly incite, illegal behavior.
Now I don't know how their theology differs from other flavors of Christianity, but if some club wanted to study it as an academic exercise, that would probably need to be allowed.
Post the 7 Tenants. That's a viewpoint.
Recruiting and proselytizing. Which group does that? Hint, it's not TST.
When it has the word "liberty" or "freedom" in the name (unless it's Freedom From Religion, of course) it's going to be right-wing Christian bullshit that has absolutely nothing to do with either liberty or freedom.
Or "Family!" 😝
Yup, if it's got "family" in the name it's also going to be full of child abusers (and homophobes and transphobes) who hate education.
Hee hee. I’m on Christian Post arguing that Good News clubs should have no fewer rights than After Satan School clubs to be in elementary schools.
Excellent! Give 'em both barrels!
https://www.gunmart.net/images/made/images/uploads/gun_reviews/blaser1_696_399_84_int_c1.jpg
To hell with that – give them all three.
Whoa! I've heard of "over-under" but "over-middle-under?" THAT is a new one on me!
Called a drilling I believe ... German mostly. Two or 3 different calibers.
That's gotta hurt their tiny cerebellums.
No one has noticed yet. The article just went up.
Oddly enough, the only commenter who is engaging so far is one of the (very few) liberal progressives.
"The Religious Liberty Commission" has precisely the same ring as "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea."
Maybe they should have called it "The PEOPLE'S Religious Liberty Commission," and REALLY put a proper dose of skank on it!
Judean People's Front.
Splitters!
Cute. 😝
Indeed.
Our friend in New Zealand, guerillasurgeon, posted the following link late last night on yesterday’s blog. Commission members are shouting at each other about anti-semitism. How much is too much or some such.
https://www.alternet.org/trump-religious-liberty/
Interesting. It just so happens that the following was what I posted today on Atheist Universe's Quote of the Day group:
𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑤𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐽𝑒𝑤𝑠? ... 𝐼 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑦 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑎𝑑𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒: 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡, 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑡 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑠𝑦𝑛𝑎𝑔𝑜𝑔𝑢𝑒𝑠. . . . 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑠. . . . 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦.
-- Martin Luther
Gee ... anti-Semitic, much, Marty?
That's actually well known that there is some serious antisemitism in Luther's* writing. Equally you can find oodles of very anti-Jewish writings and actions in the catholic church^.
(*, ^) - There is a discussion to be had to what extent this reflects the attitudes of the time(s), but I don't intend to have that discussion here. Please note that I am also not defending Luther nor the catholics.
I haven't studied Martin Luther that much, but for what I've seen, it's pretty clear that he was a FLAMING anti-Semite!
Back in school, for one semester I took a class on the relationship between christianity and Judaism. As part of that class we looked at some of the theology and also the history eg the church's involvement in pogroms.
I can remember bits of that class, e.g. I remember Werner of Oberwesel and I remember that we looked into Luther. We read some of his antisemitic writings, we read them in context with his contemporaries, but I cannot remember whether he was more virulent than others.
PS that class was taught by a protestant minister
Good, let them eat each other.
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑒ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 r̵e̵l̵i̵g̵i̵o̵u̵s̵ 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎...
There, fixed it for you. I mean, seriously, this was the intent of the Religious Liberty Commission from the get-go, wasn't it? To boost Christian influence in American government and not that far down the road, grease the wheels for the advent of a Christian Theocracy in the United States. Trump & Co. no more care about the religious liberty of any other belief system than they care about the well-being of undocumented immigrants at the hands of ICE. What pleases me is the clear amount of flak they're getting from all quarters, including Christians who understand the nature of our secular government.
This is yet one more massive fuck-up on Donnie's part, and I hope it gets a LOT more attention
What? All Christians?
OT: Bears in Iowa.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/we-are-ready-to-get-off-the-sidelines-a-third-state-has-entered-the-race-to-build-the-new-bears-stadium-and-why-it-s-the-worst-option-yet/ar-AA1W8ycK?
I guess we have solved all our other problems.
The Chicagoish Bears?
Well, the San Francisco 49ers have been playing their home games in Santa Clara for years now.
To add: As for the Raiders, they may as well call themselves The Your Name Here Raiders.
How 'bout them Arlington Cowboys!
And then there’s the New Jersey Giants
And Jets too?
And you'll find Buffalo Wild Wings all over the place, not just in Erie Co., NY.
it would be sweet if next year the Seahawks can win in Inglewood
“Raiding” the opponent’s territory, so to speak.
Damn. And I thought Cleveland had it bad now that Jimmy Haslam wants to move the Browns out of Downtown Cleveland and over to Brookpark! 😝😝😝
I just got back from the SB Parade celebrating a certain team dat is known as...Da Hawks.
DAAA HAAAAAAWKS
(sorry. couldn't resist it)
Weather was gorgeous and I got confetti'd. Even the Jesus freaks and their stupid signs and the portable PA systems couldn't spoil things.
I'm from Iowa. We used to have high literacy rates. Then racism took over and things went bad. So glad I left before then.