There has been a lot of competition this past week for the weekly highlight of the stupidest/craziest stunt. Notable candidates included …
- Ted Cruz babbling about Micky and Pluto sex scenes
- Sen Madison Cawthorn being pictured wearing women’s lingerie in public setting (the issue there is not him wearing lingerie, but rather that he has staked his political persona on arch-traditional Christian principles and the insistence of the importance of a kind of hypermasculinity, so it exposes his raw hypocrisy)
- There there was also the Gov DeSantis attempt to come down hard on Disney by (checks notes) giving them a huge tax break and passing $1 billion of their debts on to local counties. If he keeps attacking them like this, then they might consider funding him.
- We also saw MTG take the stand and demonstrate that she can’t remember anything until her lawyer asked questions – writeup of it all can be found here in law and Crime.
- Recordings of Trump sycophant, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, saying he would urge Trump to resign – it has made him rather unpopular with the MAGA Mob.
She which do I pick as the craziest and stupidest of the week?
(insert drum roll here)
Yes, the title gives it away, it is Ted Cruz. It was a tough decision, there is lots of very worthy competition.
If indeed Disney is “the enemy”, then you are clearly playing on the wrong team. That’s especially true when your team is making up wild and utterly absurd claims.
Moving on, below you will find my usual selection of some truly bizarre claims that have popped up during the last 7 days. Each is laced with my snarky commentary. With my usual hat tip to my main source, Right Wing Watch, let’s dive in.
Enjoy.
Easter Fallout
Gordon Klingenschmitt is very upset that President Joe Biden did not mention Jesus during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll: “Somebody tell Biden, Easter isn’t about bunnies or eggs, it’s about Christ who was raised from the dead.”
- Somebody needs to tell Gordon to chill. The various festivals are whatever you want them to be. Self-appointing himself as the “Easter Police” simply makes him a jerk.
An Easter message from Patrick Howley: “This Easter, I sincerely pray that unrepentant Jews who push so much anti-White propaganda learn to embrace Jesus Christ and turn away from the New World Order they are carrying out. Jesus was willing to die to show us the Truth. Let’s hope you see the Light.”
- To be honest, I’m impressed. He has managed to successfully combine and blend multiple whacky conspiracy theories along with his religious beliefs into one single sentence.
COVID-19
Stella Immanuel declares that the doctors and nurses who worked to treat COVID-19 patients should be hanged, just like Nuremberg criminals
- If you are wondering how crazy she is, then permit me to just quote her Wikipedia page: “She has said endometriosis, infertility, miscarriages, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are caused by spirit spouses, and has also endorsed a number of conspiracy theories that include the involvement of space aliens and the Illuminati in manipulating society and government.”
- If she is your doctor … run … just run hard and fast.
Jarrin Jackson argues that “if God would have wanted us to wear a mask” to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we’d have “come out of the womb with a mask on.”
- Working out what is satire or real is at times challenging. In this case, yes, he is being serious.
- The blindly obvious observation is that if he following this to a logical conclusion then he will not fly, wear glasses, or for that matter clothes. However, being logical is really not in his wheelhouse.
- Oh OK, one more – If God did not want us to be stupid, then we would have been born educated.
- It always strikes me as odd that the folks who don’t need a mask for protection because God will look after them, cling to their guns because they need protection.
Midterms
Rep. Lauren Boebert is already “declaring victory in the 2022 midterms.”
- It will not go well for her. Her local voters have been discovering that she does not give a toss about them. Her door is closed and she does not return calls.
- Quote from a Politico article where the reporter talked to her voters: “People here feel Boebert doesn’t represent their values,” … “There is a lot of passion around seeing her removed.”
Homophobia
Vincent James believes that “we’re starting to see people become reactionaries,” which he thinks is exciting because he hopes it means people will eventually support his proposal to establish task forces for “kidnapping the children away from gay people.”
- He literally wants to fight the scourge of children being abducted… by abducting children.
- I bet you thought these crazy folks could not get any crazier.
- And Republican Jesus said unto them, “You know what, fuck it, just do shit and then ask for forgiveness later.”
Truly Bizarre
Patrick Howley issued this warning this past week: “The globalists are illustrating the end of America with a mentally-vacant pedophile ‘president,’ and a nationwide borderless supply-starved masked Hunger Games-style anarcho-tyranny frenzy driven by jewish propaganda to whip up violence against Whites.”
- There is a reason he has been banned from twitter. I suspect you can now begin to see it.
Nick Fuentes says the military is “creating this mercenary army of N-words and homosexuals” who are being trained “to obediently murder whites when the time comes.”
- Words such as “unhinged” and “crazy” simply don’t cut it anymore, this kid (he is just 23) has gone way beyond that
- Nick is so far to the right that he makes Genghis Khan look like a soft socialist.
Michele Bachmann accused Rep. Ilhan Omar of being an Islamic supremacist who arrogantly looks down her nose at every other faith. Bachmann then proceeded to pray that all Muslims will “come to true faith, faith in Jesus Christ.”
- I never cease to be amazed at how her accusations turn out to be confessions.
- I’d speculate that for Bachmann the Crusades are the good old days that she would love to see revived.
- Would this “True Jesus” be the one that told her to run for president back in 2012, then dumped her half way into the campaign?
- If indeed Republican Jesus was real, I’m not too sure how pleased he would be that she rather corruptly still keeps her 2012 campaign fund running and taps into it for religious purposes.
- Then again, being self-aware, or honest, or truthful, has never been her thing.
Laura Loomer remains outraged that nobody cares that she’s been banned from just about every mainstream social media platform: “Do I just not exist? Am I not a real human being? Am I invisible? Am I just imagining that I am a real human being on this planet? Am I just imagining everything that has happened to me and the abuse that has been carried out against me at the hands of our terroristic DOJ and big tech?”
- Actually, people do care that she has been banned from every mainstream social media platform – we all literally celebrate it.
- Spouting hate speech has consequences, well gosh, what a shocker.
- What is quite impressive about her is that she has not only managed to get tossed off of Social Media, but has also been banned by : PayPal, GoFundMe, Venom, Uber, and Lyft. Conferences such as BitCoin 2021 and even CPAC have banned her. Some collect stamps, she collects bans.
Dan Ball of One America News says the media is “treasonous” and calls for every CEO and news host to be tried by “a military tribunal for treason to this nation.”
- Dan is simply pissed that DirecTV did not renew the OAN contract on April 5th. That will greatly impact their ability to spread disinformation.
- His rant demonstrates stupidity incarnate – he simply does not understand that “Military” tribunals don’t have any jurisdiction over non-military people.
Rachel Hamm, a GOP candidate for secretary of state in California who is running because she claims Jesus appeared in her closet and told her to do so, is praying that if anyone tries to steal votes from her, “God will send the angels to steal the vote back.”
- When she fails to win, she can’t claim “The Dems rigged it“. Instead she can only blame the angels?
Jim Bakker claims that Christian pastors are being murdered for preaching on controversial social issues: “We’re not going to be able to preach much longer because they’ll shoot us in the pulpits. They will kill us in our pulpits. You don’t believe me? They’re already doing it.”
- Hey Jim … name one, just one.
- You know in your heart that if really asked, his “example” would be anti-vaccine folks who refused the vaccine, got COVID and then died.
Josh Bernstein asserts that former President Barack Obama is still in control of the White House but is hiding behind “a 78-year-old dementia patient and his fake Black whore.”
- An informal question often asked to see if somebody is truly suffering from dementia is to ask them who the president is. Josh would clearly fail.
The False Profit$
Christian Nationalist Tony Spell Says Prophets Should Reign Over Government and the People
- The ever so tiny flaw in his plan is that today’s self-appointed prophets are all grifters, con-men, and charlatans – there are no exceptions to that, not one.
- His other claim in the same talk was that Joe Biden is “possessed with the devil”. The bit in the bible that tells believers to pray for those in authority (1 Tim 2:2) apparently went whooshing right over his head.
- His claim: ““America is in trouble today. America is in trouble with God, It’s supposed to be the prophet, then the priests, then the government, then the people.” … er … No Tony, it really really is not “supposed” to be like that anywhere except perhaps within your religious fantasy.
Even on Easter Sunday, Hank Kunneman couldn’t make it through his sermon without ranting about … “this fake administration that we call president.”
- For this self-appointed and failed prophet, right-wing autocratic political fiction is the new religion. Any actual mention of the teachings of Jesus would simply be accidental.
Mario Murillo is hosting a series of prayer meetings and he has big plans: … “We will win more souls to Jesus in the next month, than we have ever won in any 30-day period. We will also see more healings. This will be the greatest month in the 50-year history of our ministry. I will not be surprised if God rocks the medical community. I will go even one step further. This month will be the greatest impact our ministry has ever had on America.”
- I really don’t need to be a prophet to make a prediction here: Lots of hand waving, garnished with a hint of something supernatural happening, but when looked into rapidly evaporates. All will be top and tailed with many many pleas for cash and donations.
- This very pro Trump pastor explains in his letter that … “Satan is flooding America with evil” … er yes, he is Mario. I suspect you don’t quite grasp which team you are playing on.
Chuck Pierce prophesies that the United States will soon split apart: “I only see a maximum of 23 states aligning … God showed me a capital arising out of San Antonio.”
- There has already been a complete split. On one side we have the small cadre of self-appointed prophets who consistently fail to actually predict anything, and on the other side we have the entire reality-based community of everybody else in all states.
Self-proclaimed “prophet” Robin Bullock continues to insist that former President Donald Trump is still the legitimate president and actual President Joe Biden is not.
- If this was indeed true then there is no legal way for him to run for a 3rd term in 2024.
- Robin’s only real motivation here is to ensure his “prophecy” was not wrong.
No week is complete within a Pastor Shane Vaughn gem. Here is this past week’s – He declares that any woman who doesn’t “marry, bear children, [and] guide the house” is following “the WAY OF SATAN – the Selfish way.”
- I’d love to see him try and have this “If you are not at home cooking, then you are satanic” conversation with MTG
Statistic of the week
I’ve always wondered why the revelations of all the abuse and the associated coverup did not impact the numbers of Catholics. Statistically their numbers have remained flat over the last 50 years.
Ryan has an interesting statistic that reveals that under the covers things really have been in sharp decline …
Interesting Articles that caught my eye
- Jill Colvin and Julie Carr Smyth @ The Associated Press: Josh Mandel runs Ohio GOP Senate campaign ‘through churches.’
- Jane Mayer @ The New Yorker: The Slime Machine Targeting Dozens of Biden Nominees.
- Dan Friedman @ Mother Jones: Far-Right Paramilitary Member Warned 1/6 Committee Witness Against Speaking Out.
- Mary Papenfuss and Nina Golgowski @ HuffPost: Alex Jones’ InfoWars Files For Bankruptcy Following Sandy Hook Defeat.
- Sarah K. Burris @ Raw Story: The man who calls himself ‘Trump’s top pastor’ just lost his bid for Trump’s endorsement.
- Taylor Lorenz @ The Washington Post: Meet the woman behind Libs of TikTok, secretly fueling the right’s outrage machine.
- Roger Sollenberger @ The Daily Beast: Trump’s Most Loyal Lawmakers Are Actually Losing Money.
Quote of the week
“We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid.”
Christopher Hitchens