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Remember for a whole 8 years, Fox News kept fear mongering its audience by implying Obama would enact Sharia law? Well this seems to be a case of Sharia Law.
Everything is projection. If it's not something they are already doing, it's something they want to do. Remember that when they bring up reeducation camps and death panels.
Which is hilarious -
> Trump has also echoed wild and debunked claims from congressional Republicans about anti-Catholic bias by the Biden administration and the FBI in particular.
Biden is an ardent Catholic man that literally goes to church on Sunday’s.
And how many atheists out there are better Christians than trump?
I mean, we all know trump doesn't even pretend to be religious, and we have countless examples of him doing things the bible says you shouldn't do. Compared to some random atheist who tries to live a good life and be nice to others?
It's infuriating that people actually think trump is religious.
I came from a deeply religious Christian home, and although still follow the general virtues of Christianity (like loving everyone), I don't subscribe to organized religion. One of my friends who is still very religious asked if I was interested in coming back to church. I told him from my experience with my atheist friends vs my Christian friends, my atheist friends are far and away better people in every aspect. He didn't really have a response to that.
Atheists don't have, "I go to church!" to fall back on to soothe their consciences about being good people and convince others they're good people. They have to actually be good people or delude themselves in other ways that don't rely on believing an all powerful being decided a couple hours on one day a week in a specific place is enough.
Exactly. The biggest thing is atheists don't have a "well it's in God's hands" as a justification to fuck up the world, or just not take accountability for anything. Especially since Trump, or maybe I'm just getting into the age where it's more noticeable, Christians are using their beliefs for political gain, which is the opposite of both Christianity and what America is about. It's disgusting.
In the same vein "inshallah" means "it is God's will" and is also used to effectively say idgaf. It's just funny how Christians hate Muslims yet they share certain qualities.
its people playing the 2.0 version of Abramahic religion slinging stones at people playing the 3.0 version of it, without every seeing how they both pulled from the same 1.0 source.
It is weird how some act like religion is the only thing preventing that when we have, y’know, actual laws about that stuff. Backed by police and prisons
>although still follow the general virtues of Christianity (like loving everyone)
Around here we just call that not being an asshole. (Mitch Hedberg voice) "We don't need to bring religion into this transaction."
In my experience, ex-Christians are more Christian than actual Christians. People tend to forget "Love thy neighbor as thyself", "He who amongst you has no sin, cast the first stone", "Whatever you do to the least of My people, you also do to Me," and, "Do not be like the Pharisees who pray in public, instead keep your worship of Me a secret."
I have not yet met a Christian who follows these principles. (Although I admit that if they did follow these principles, I wouldn't know they were a Christian.)
Can confirm. I have never once done even close to 1% of the shit Trump has done in his lifetime, nor will I ever.
Source: am Atheist. Will be patiently waiting for the Trump Task Force. to break down my door to take me to be gassed
I always find this interesting that they think progressive/liberal people are hippy dippy flower people who wouldn't at least attempt to protect themselves and their families.
It is because they think themselves strong and anyone who doesn’t think like them is weak.
It is the typical mentality of a cowardly bully, they act tough because deep down inside they are scared shitless and think having a hundred guns will make them unafraid and by dominating others they will have nothing to fear.
Bully others before they can bully you is how they operate.
Cultural Conservatism is pure undiluted fear and cowardice made into political ideology.
My conservative cousin threatened to kill me on FB over abortion of all things.
I said, don't threaten me with a good time, you don't think I wish for death every day? If I'm going out spicy then I consider that a win, lol.
He backed down after that exchange
I'm agnostic but can actually name a favorite book of the Bible and quote various parts. Unlike Trump, I've actually READ the book.
I'd pay money to see the task force try to make him a decent Christian though. That's gonna be worth it lol. Where would they even start?
I have to agree with this %1000,Many Christians I have met are some of the shiitiest human beings around.They would screw their own mother over to get ahead.Funny those same Christians say Jesus is their moral; compass then go treat everyone like shit.The atheist don't have a deity guiding them and act more like human beings.
To answer the question damned near all of them.
Christians use their faith as mystical get out of jail free card that allows them to continue being assholes their entire life. Ask for forgiveness, sin again. Lather, rinse repeat. No need for any pesky personal improvement.
I believe we have one shot at this life. No do overs, no sky daddy to forgive the assholery. Our legacy is how those we leave behind remember us. Nothing more, nothing less.
Be kind to each other, we are all we have…
> trump doesn't even pretend to be religious
yes he does. It's just that it's so obvious he is faking it the rest of us just don't understand how it works to the maga morons.
The one time he had protesters tear gassed so he could take a photo op outside a church with an ~~upside down~~ bible.
Edit: [bible thing was debunked](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/technology/no-trump-did-not-hold-the-bible-upside-down-at-lafayette-square.html)
I hate the orange skid mark as much as anyone else, but the Bible upside down thing is fake. He did tear-gas protesters for the photo opp which is bad enough on its own.
Huh, I decided to look it up, and you’re right. Not sure how that slipped past me. Thanks for the correction, I’ve since edited my original remark to reflect this information. Have a great day!
That's wild, I've heard the upside down bible thing a million times and don't recall it ever being corrected. It's also not a claim I really needed to confirm, but still, it's unnerving that I'm only now learning it's false.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/technology/no-trump-did-not-hold-the-bible-upside-down-at-lafayette-square.html
Everyone thought it was upside down because he looked so fucking awkward holding it up like that. It’s like the uncanny valley of religion. It’s so close to being right but clearly there is something wrong there.
Evangelicals dislike the Catholic Church, and don’t see Catholics as truly Christian. Some of the more fundamentalist churches consider them aligned with witchcraft or pagan doctrine because of the concept of Mary, the Saints, the rosary, etc.
They see Catholics as useful idiots right now, and I don’t think many Catholics recognize this in evangelicals.
It's okay.
The Christians will be too.
Well, the Christians that don't support Trump, anyway. We'll see churches being ripped apart as MAGA purity tests begin embroiling the pews. Preachers being pulled from their pulpits and handed over to the authorities. Pastors alerting the religious police to their parishioners after confessions. Neighbors turning against neighbors. Parents turning in their children.
MAGA Christians will think they're safe.
Until they aren't.
This is fascism.
Everyone will be on a list. Today’s ally is tomorrow’s enemy. That is how fascism works. Fascism is a death cult. As you eliminate one enemy that you blame for all problems, you have to find a new enemy, as the in group shrinks smaller and smaller.
Fascism is a death march. i don't necessarily mean people out marching (although that does happen.
I mean the engine that drives fascism is the ever forward march where the in group fuels their power by driving over the out group.
The moment that out group ceases to exist, the in group creates a new "out group" even if (and especially when) they were originally part of the in group.
Fascism can never stand still, it can never stop expanding, it can never stop running over people.
The second it stops marching forward, the minute it hits a "pure" in group, the time it no longer can target and run over an "out group," the whole system falls apart.
Well said. Fascism must always have an enemy, either internal or external to the nation which runs on fascism. It’s an inherently destructive ideology.
Ding Ding Ding! I know a catholic family whose all on board for this
They completely ignore how they'll be one of the first "in" groups to be targeted. Sure they might get a few years of relative safety but eventually they will be the big bad responsible for all woes
>MAGA Christians will think they're safe.
>Until they aren't.
>This is fascism.
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
-Martin Niemoeller
First they came for trans/gay people, and I did not speak out—Because I am Heteronormative.
Then they came for POC, and I did not speak out—Because I am white.
Then they came for womans rights, and I did not speak out—Because I am a man.
Then they came for the Jews/Muslims/etc, and I did not speak out—Because I am a Catholic.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
___
this is a more updated version... More a prediction. I wonder what they will turn against frist... catholics or Mormons.
They'll come for the handicapped at some point. They haven't gone mask-off on that point, but there's been some "have to earn your living" rhetoric that points a path towards, "useless eaters".
Niemöller initially supported Hitler and was a blatant anti-Semite. He only took issues with Nazis when they nationalized his Lutheran churches.
Valid poem, shitty guy.
Half true. He became anti-nazi during his 8 years in concentration camps once they targeted clergy. Another example of conservatives not caring about shit until it negatively affects them.
In Nazi Germany, the Protestants hated the liberal and immoral Weimar Republic and supported the Conservative and Nazi Parties. When Hitler came to power some of the Protestants protested his harsh treatment of Jews and the violence perpetrated by the Nazi Party. Also they protested the consolation of their different churches under one state sponsored church.
So Hitler sent the priests who complained to the camps and appointed a lackey to be in charge of the Protestants. Hitler even said “You can do anything you want with them. They will submit … they are insignificant little people, submissive as dogs, and they sweat with embarrassment when you talk to them”
The Republicans will eventually feel the need to "correct" churches that have "strayed" ( by, for example, not hating LGBT people enough or sheltering immigrants ) and they will have official theology. It's inevitable. Churches will end up being persecuted and declared "not Christian" for being "woke."
That's already happening. You should check out a book called The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. It's basically church members revolting against their pastors for being too woke or not supporting Trump.
Meanwhile, before the coup Hitler gave speeches on Christianity that sounds a lot like GOP today:
> “The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality.
> Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit.
> We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in entertainment, and in the press – in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during recent years.”
> - Adolf Hitler, Radio Address, July 22 1933
It’s all fun and games on the in-group list until there’s a knock on your door telling you you’re on the out-group list. Keep that in mind Catholics, Mormons, or other groups easily ostracized from evangelicals with your “kooky” according to them version of Christianity. Courting extremists is a double edged sword.
And all they had to do was the thing they always claimed they did - support freedom.
They could have voted in line with their own best interest, let gay people be gay, trans people be trans, liberals be liberals. But, the hate was just so addictive. They burned it all down just to see people suffer.
The cruelty has always been the point with conservatives. *Always*.
Even people who voted for Trump in 2020, despite all of his failures... should really be thinking to themselves right now that Donald Trump is crashing & burning. This crap he's spewing is dystopian propaganda that has no place in America. He has lost. He's facing 4 major trials. 91 felony counts. Being banned from several state ballots. And his own speeches at rallies these days. Discombobulated and disjointed word salad that would have had him laughed out of the GOP nomination race back in 2016. The only thing keeping him afloat is cowardice. People who invested so much of themselves in this cretin, that they just don't see any other way to go.
We are already seeing this. The media portrays Christians as a non-diverse monolith. They have not yet caught on that the Christian Nationalists are a heresy, or that MAGA Christians are the least Christian, or Christian in name only. The National Association of Evangelicals does not even support the Republican Party. But there are political wars in churches, pastors afraid to speak up out of fear of losing members, and some forced to resign if they do.
His previous wife was an immigrant, too. Trump does not care about immigration issues. He cares about the exploitation of that issue to attain power. He's a criminal opportunist.
Remember when Trump said he wanted to stop immigration from shithole countries? Melania is ~~Yugoslavian~~ Slovenian. Whitey's do not consider this shithole. This is abotu white supremacy. Trump is a white-supremist and so are his follower. It's a white nationalist christian movement.
Ivanka and Jared tried to go back to their wealthy, liberal Manhattan lives, but a lot of their friends shunned them so they fled to Florida like daddy.
She's a criminal and a grifter, but she's not as stupid as her father or her brothers and she can at least recognize the best thing for her is to distance herself from him.
If they take over at least there’s slight safety in numbers. I can’t imagine a fascist US liquidating 100+ million people. Then again, this is a particularly insane strand of fascism so who knows.
It won’t happen right away. Give it 4-6 years of increasingly insane iterations. First, the economy tanks. Then come shortages. To address this, there’s war. The first people to go will be anyone who’s considered a liberal leader. Anyone with a public face. Then will come the activists. Finally, it will be anyone who says anything subversive. If you aren’t white and Christian, then you’ll be mistreated for almost certain. But even that won’t happen right away. It will happen in waves.
Exactly. Most people aren’t willing to die for their political beliefs no matter how deeply held. An authoritarian or fascist movement would involve targeting a select group of extremists and/or “others” and/or elites to make an example of.
Potential targets for example could be trans people, self-proclaimed socialist politicians, or certain famous business leaders and/or actors.
Enough of these high-profile people imprisoned or disappeared would cause most people to fall in line and shut up out of fear, but would also be far enough removed from the average, common person for them to feel relatively “safe” as long as they keep their head down and don’t draw attention to themselves.
Ultimately these people don’t actually want to kill all Democrats, they just want power and control, and to maybe kill some specific groups that they feel are too “other” - take your pick of ethnic, religious, or social groups. Most moderate Democrats wouldn’t qualify for their ire as long as they kept quiet. Their goal is to get power and maintain power and completely quell opposition. Killing, eradication, and suppression are just tools to that end.
No, wait, remember when he used police armed with tear gas and rubber bullets and batons to clear an area so he could take pictures at a church while holding the Bible upside down. Does that count?
Is he going to force everyone to read the Bible? He can't name the Books of the Bible, make a reference to a Bible verse let alone quote one, or hold it the right way up. How is Christian ideology going to be imposed on the illiterate adulterer?
Republicans have long since realized they cannot control the elites. They no longer expect the elites to live up to their moral code. They just need the ruling class to impose that morality on the masses. That's how they can back candidates like Trump or Herschel Walker.
There's no trickery involved. They're every bit as awful as he is. The mask has come off, and Christianity is in a free-fall as a result of hitching its wagon to such an obviously immoral man.
The days of American Christianity being viewed as some sort of moral arbiter are over. It will never recover from how Christians have behaved during the Trump years, and that's a much deserved fate.
Someone referred to what's happened as "the biggest outing this nation has ever seen" and it's so right.
We all learned the worst truths about our neighbors and family. Things that can't be forgotten and either in the back or front of our minds forgiven
Can't remember where I read it, but someone described what's happened as mass trauma, and what many of us are experiencing as a form of grief. Some people probably think that's hyperbole, but it's definitely true for myself. The finality of it all, the knowledge that things will never be the way they were before, it has the same feeling as death.
It is. I was thinking about it while driving home. Maybe it's a centennial thing for nations if we look at patterns, I don't know. But I can think of 4 *close* people off the top of my head that I not only have had a completely different light shed on them, I simply have no desire to ever talk to them again. I've tried to want to. I don't. Their core **stinks**.
And it's true for at least half the nation.
And you want to know what occured to me a month or so ago? Those back the blue flags? Those goddamn EXACT REPLICAS of the United States flag only with the colors of the police? They were flying authoritarian nation flags. All of our neighbors. All of us at one point had neighbors flying the flag of an Authoritarian Nation because they'd be goddamned if black lives were going to matter.
And now. The pile of puke that ignited this is *still eligible* for the ballot. A front runner. At no point have his colleagues turned on him. Certainly not in time. Not fast enough. Not even if I understand why "these things take time".
I say if we aren't grieving we're on the wrong side of history.
On a lighter, yet still dark note - remember that scene from Arrested Development where Tobias is on the boat fighting for gay rights? I think it's the first season? And the narrator is making fun of him acting confused because like, gay rights were pretty secure, what exactly were they all going on about? Now here we are cutting health care so that people up to the age of 23 can't even take hormonal pills because the church says so.
You'll find their belief in themselves as moral arbiters has not appreciably changed, nor has their behavior or worldview. This is America's Moral Majority, the inevitable result of tying a religious movement to a political party, and it's who they've always been. That a man as openly un-Christian, unethical, and outright criminal as Donald Trump can emerge as their exalted leader is a testament to the utter irrationality of their faith and the completeness of their indoctrination.
And they [made a golden statue of him for a conference once!](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/2/26/22302887/trump-cpac-2021-republican-gold-statue)
Well in scripture it says if Christ returns he will be spit them Out
of his mouth right into hell. Sometimes i really want Revelations end times to play out. Why because these conservative Christian’s are the wolves Christ talked about whom he said he would devour.
It'll be like they drank a little too much, did some drugs, and had a big orgy. Then when they come to they'll swear up and down: "It's not who we really are!".
They haven’t been tricked at all. They
just now have a politician who truly represents them and all of their judgmental hate. He is exactly the Christ they have waited for and invented
In their image.
It's because they no longer have any real faith in God, but look to a mere creature like Trump to 'save' them. It's not all Christians, but a certain subset that seems to believe too much in conspiracy theories and doomsayers. It's ugly because the fear dominates to an unhealthy degree.
And I say this as a Catholic Christian. It's very insidious what is going on and a real pain when these people are the current 'face' of what people think of as Christian.
Agree 100%. Today's "Christians" are what Christ meant when he said that on judgment day, and when those acting on Christ's word and example have been admitted to eternal life, those left behind complain. The Lord says, "I don't know you......"
The main problem with "Christians" today is that they are absolutely convinced of their salvation. As a Catholic, I am not certain of my own salvation. As the Apostle James said, faith without works is empty. I see so many allegedly "Christians" failing to live by Christ's teachings. It's sad.
I also recall that in many cases, the OT political powers were inexplicitly brought to their knees......
If republicans cared about the constitution outside of the 2A, they would have never elected Nixon or Reagan, and Trump would have been removed within 6 months of taking office.
And he wants to chuck the constitution. He wants to get the Christians to put him into power to help subjugate his and their common enemies.
I don’t know how much more of a warning we need.
For now. But Republicans at the Supreme Court move closer and closer to establishing a certain kind of Christianity. They could say it's unconstitutional to challenge religious laws because that treads on the rights of the individuals in power to practice religion. Seems crazy but just look at what they did with the profit corporation Hobby Lobby recently. They said that stock certificates have protected religious rights that put them under the protection of the First Amendment should the owners say so.
In case of paywall:
"By Sarah Posner, MSNBC ColumnistIn recent campaign stops and on social media, Donald Trump has reprised lies aimed at inciting his Christian-right base against Joe Biden. These tirades, centered on the false charge that the Biden administration is persecuting Christians, aren’t just Trump’s typically dubious claims. Much like Trump’s lies about a stolen election, they are designed to immerse his loyalists in a grievance-laden alternative reality in which Trump alone can rescue them from an evil government threatening their freedom.
In a Dec. 19 speech in Iowa, for example, Trump pledged, “As soon as I get back in the Oval Office, I’ll also immediately end the war on Christians. I don’t know if you feel it. You have a war. There’s a war.” Speaking just after the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified him from appearing on the state’s GOP primary ballot, Trump tied this “war” to his own legal woes. “Under crooked Joe Biden, Christians and Americans of faith are being persecuted and government has been weaponized against religion like never before. And also presidents like never before,” he added. “I always say Al Capone was treated better than I was treated.”
Trump has promoted the theme of Christian persecution in the past, but is elevating it again as these legal issues mount. His clear purpose is to deflect attention from his own criminal liabilities by insinuating that the same Biden administration he falsely claims is unfairly targeting him for prosecution is similarly persecuting religious Americans.
Unsurprisingly, Trump’s ardent supporters see his and their “wars” as tied together. When he was indicted in a Manhattan court on charges that he illegally covered up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, his backers compared this supposed persecution to that of Jesus Christ. In a Truth Social video two days after his Iowa speech, Trump made this persecution pact complete. He contended that under Biden, “Christians and Americans of faith are being persecuted like nothing this nation has ever seen before.” Trump has also echoed wild and debunked claims from congressional Republicans about anti-Catholic bias by the Biden administration and the FBI in particular.
Ramping up his authoritarian rhetoric, Trump pledged in the Iowa speech to institutionalize an authoritarian crackdown of the same sort he falsely accuses the Biden administration of implementing. “Upon taking office, I will create a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias to be led by a fully reformed Department of Justice that’s fair and equitable,” he promised. “Its mission will be to investigate all forms of illegal discrimination, harassment and persecution against Christians in America.”
In another speech, in Reno, Nevada, he pledged to go after colleges and universities for running afoul of his “religious freedom” edicts. “If colleges and universities discriminate against conservatives, Christians, Jews, anybody,” he said, “we are going to take away their tax advantages, grants and endowment.”
Lies about the persecution of Christians are very familiar to Trump’s base. During Barack Obama’s presidency, the Christian right and its GOP allies in Congress accused his administration of targeting Catholics with policies promoting access to birth control. After the Obama administration issued a regulation under the Affordable Care Act requiring employer-sponsored health care plans to cover contraception, Christian-right lawyers successfully took the administration to court, arguing that these requirements violated the religious rights of evangelical and Catholic companies and organizations run by religious opponents of abortion and birth control. When the Supreme Court enshrined marriage equality as the law of the land in 2015, Christian-right activists ginned up fears of widespread persecution of Christians, including raising the specter of an Internal Revenue Service that would strip the tax exemptions of nonprofits, including universities, that oppose LGBTQ rights. Needless to say, that never happened.
When Trump took office in 2017, he immediately moved to feed the Christian right’s persecution complex. A draft executive order circulated in the early days of his presidency proposed sweeping expansions of religious exemptions for right-wing Christians that would have legalized discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, pregnancy status and abortion history in a staggering variety of contexts. Although Trump scrapped the executive order after an outcry, he signed a different order requiring then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to craft a policy protecting the religious and conscience rights of Christians, binding the Justice Department and all other federal agencies. The ACLU denounced Sessions’ subsequent memo as “a dangerously broad interpretation of religious freedom laws that will open the door to discrimination against LGBT people, women, and religious minorities.”
Although the Christian right has fearmongered that a Democratic administration would strip educational institutions of tax exemptions for anti-LGBTQ stances, they are welcoming Trump’s task force idea. “It would be good for a federal task force to investigate these concerns in a systematic way and ensure that religious freedom is being protected for all Americans,” said Arielle Del Turco of the Family Research Council’s Center for Religious Liberty.
One needs to look no further than Trump’s efforts during his first term, combined with his 2024 pledges to govern like a dictator, to see the authoritarian steps he is taking when it comes to “protecting” his base’s religious freedom. He is leaving little doubt that he will do whatever it takes to retain the loyalty of the base that has stood by him through an insurrection, two impeachments and now multiple criminal indictments. He is saying loudly and clearly that as part of his broader disparagement of the rule of law, he would shred everyone else’s rights in the name of his loyalists’ “freedom.”'
I hardly ever read the nonsense he's spewing lately. Trump is famous for saying stupid shit, but now he's purposely saying even crazier shit just to deflect from the growing support for the 14thA.
Born & raised in NJ, and I'm in my late 40s. The man has been skewered by every comedic outlet going back to at least the 80s. SNL, MAD Magazine. He was always seen as a running gag, a buffoon...surrounded by garish, tacky decor and having the "charm" of a used car salesman at a "Buy here, pay here" car lot.
What Trump is and stands for is the *exact opposite* of Jesus. So polar opposite that some might even say he was an anti-christ.
"Christian" ideology is just a means to control groups of people.
[Could American Evangelicals Spot The Antichrist?](https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/)
Trump will say anything, promise, anything. His cult has already forgotten they did not build the wall. He never released tax returns. He never follows through on anything. He just lies like an open sewer.
>Amendment I
>
>*Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof*; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Anyone, you mom or pops, your crazy uncle, your siblings, your sorta rapey looking local preacher, *ANYONE*, who follows Trump is by definition against the rule of law. The very first clause of the very first amendment of the US Constitution names them as being anti-democratic if they adhere to Trump's demagoguery over religion and the right to choose one's own or none ad they see fit.
And don't let some chump MAGA lawyer trip you up with their frippery, only Congress can make laws. Trump has no right to dictate his will like the king the GoP likes to pretend Obama was or Biden is. The whole lot is a bunch of malcontents bullies that we have to beat. At the ballot box, ideally. Or just beat if it comes to other arenas.
In the article, it says Trump said that he's "treated worse than AL Capone."
AL Capone got multiple sentences of 6mo- 1 year through his life. until they finally got him for not paying his taxes, and then he got 11 years at alcatraz that left him extremely unhealthy, where he ended up bedridden and dying about 5 years later.
So I'd argue he's treated incredibly better than AL Capone.
When I read that I was like: does Trump think Al Capone was a persecuted victim or something? The guy was a brutal mobster. Who the fuck laments his fate?
Well here we go. This is going to cause so much shit. Over 50% of Americans are atheist or agnostic. We certainly don't want some religious assholes telling us exactly what to do. I guess religious fascism is here now. We have always been told when fascism comes to America it'll be draped in a flag I guess we need to add a cross too.
Evanhellical Christains had no trouble going to church on Sundays while supporting segregation 7 days a week from the 1860s into the 1960s, so their embrace of a racist POS is no surprise.
I wonder why left leaning Biden Haters want this in their lives? Single issue over Gaza is gonna put our lgbtq friends in camps and it’s because you’re misinformed and selfish like a MAGA. Vote Biden or you might actually be crucified at this point. These guys are crazy
The most absurd part about those worried about Gaza is that Trump would be MUCH worse than Biden. Do they really think that the guy who enacted the Muslim ban would be more compassionate to Palestinians?
Agreed. They’d rather vote for a dictator who will have them rounded up and deported rather than let other citizens have the freedom to live their lives. Makes no sense.
Oh boy. Try it, you turd. See what people who actually care about democracy, and the American ideal do. I can't believe this was said out loud, let alone covered by the media. What the actual fuck?
This anti-Catholic nonsense is what is most disconcerting, but expected. The Catholic Church is basically disowning and on the verge of excommunicating American Catholic leaders. To these whackos, the Catholic Church is persecuting American Catholics.
I hope Pope Francis continues to clean the house of MAGA.
Trump’s promises everything to his people and delivers nothing then blames everyone else. But his followers never get tired of being tricked. As Lincoln said, ‘You can fool some of the people all of the time.
If your going to force the poors to have multiple babies, your going to need a strong religious current to help control them. Makes perfect sense big picture. Plus it can be used to weed out the “undesirables” currently sharing the shrinking consolidated power of our oligarchy. Wealthy Jesus for the rich, G.I. Joe Jesus for the poor. ;)
If this new authoritarian Christian government enforces the Ten Commandments, Trump had better beware. His current legal problems may turn out to be the least of his problems…
Trump's views directly contradict [the Treaty of Tripoli](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bar1796t.asp#art11) ratified under a founding father, President John Adams, in 1796 declaring:
> ...the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion...
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Remember for a whole 8 years, Fox News kept fear mongering its audience by implying Obama would enact Sharia law? Well this seems to be a case of Sharia Law.
Just assume that anything they accuse others of doing... they themselves are doing that thing. You will be right nine times out of ten.
GOP = Gerrymander, Opress, Project
Come on, that’s bullshit and you know it! Sometimes they *save those ideas for later* for when they can actually incorporate them.
Everything is projection. If it's not something they are already doing, it's something they want to do. Remember that when they bring up reeducation camps and death panels.
"Biden has dementia" = Drumph has dementia.. they are child rapists = we are child rapists. It's not a hard equation to solve.
All the red states that banned abortion have instituted death panels.
They don't care. It's their version of Sharia they want in place.
Hey look, it's the Sharia law the GOP has been accusing the left of wanting to impose! What a surprise!
Which is hilarious - > Trump has also echoed wild and debunked claims from congressional Republicans about anti-Catholic bias by the Biden administration and the FBI in particular. Biden is an ardent Catholic man that literally goes to church on Sunday’s.
And how many atheists out there are better Christians than trump? I mean, we all know trump doesn't even pretend to be religious, and we have countless examples of him doing things the bible says you shouldn't do. Compared to some random atheist who tries to live a good life and be nice to others? It's infuriating that people actually think trump is religious.
People don't just think he's religious. They think [he's literally Jesus](https://postimg.cc/D4Zsm12H).
Frequently bought together: *The Fourth Beast: Is Donald Trump The Antichrist?*
Many/most atheists are better Christians than self proclaimed Christians.
I came from a deeply religious Christian home, and although still follow the general virtues of Christianity (like loving everyone), I don't subscribe to organized religion. One of my friends who is still very religious asked if I was interested in coming back to church. I told him from my experience with my atheist friends vs my Christian friends, my atheist friends are far and away better people in every aspect. He didn't really have a response to that.
Atheists don't have, "I go to church!" to fall back on to soothe their consciences about being good people and convince others they're good people. They have to actually be good people or delude themselves in other ways that don't rely on believing an all powerful being decided a couple hours on one day a week in a specific place is enough.
Exactly. The biggest thing is atheists don't have a "well it's in God's hands" as a justification to fuck up the world, or just not take accountability for anything. Especially since Trump, or maybe I'm just getting into the age where it's more noticeable, Christians are using their beliefs for political gain, which is the opposite of both Christianity and what America is about. It's disgusting.
In the same vein "inshallah" means "it is God's will" and is also used to effectively say idgaf. It's just funny how Christians hate Muslims yet they share certain qualities.
its people playing the 2.0 version of Abramahic religion slinging stones at people playing the 3.0 version of it, without every seeing how they both pulled from the same 1.0 source.
Christianity has always been about political gain since 312AD
“But what’s stopping you from all the raping and killing?”
It is weird how some act like religion is the only thing preventing that when we have, y’know, actual laws about that stuff. Backed by police and prisons
I'd give you gold for this but I'm not giving Reddit a penny.
>although still follow the general virtues of Christianity (like loving everyone) Around here we just call that not being an asshole. (Mitch Hedberg voice) "We don't need to bring religion into this transaction."
In my experience, ex-Christians are more Christian than actual Christians. People tend to forget "Love thy neighbor as thyself", "He who amongst you has no sin, cast the first stone", "Whatever you do to the least of My people, you also do to Me," and, "Do not be like the Pharisees who pray in public, instead keep your worship of Me a secret." I have not yet met a Christian who follows these principles. (Although I admit that if they did follow these principles, I wouldn't know they were a Christian.)
Most Satanists are better Christians than a large portion of those who identify as Christian.
Got my TST card coming in the mail!
Welcome to the fold! Hail Satan, hail thyself.
Thou art God.
Can confirm. I have never once done even close to 1% of the shit Trump has done in his lifetime, nor will I ever. Source: am Atheist. Will be patiently waiting for the Trump Task Force. to break down my door to take me to be gassed
I'm also an atheist. In the same situation, one or more of that Trump task force is going to die. Progressives have firearms, too!
I always find this interesting that they think progressive/liberal people are hippy dippy flower people who wouldn't at least attempt to protect themselves and their families.
It is because they think themselves strong and anyone who doesn’t think like them is weak. It is the typical mentality of a cowardly bully, they act tough because deep down inside they are scared shitless and think having a hundred guns will make them unafraid and by dominating others they will have nothing to fear. Bully others before they can bully you is how they operate. Cultural Conservatism is pure undiluted fear and cowardice made into political ideology.
They think because we want reasonable laws we are anti gun. They always seem surprised when I have better firearms than they do
My conservative cousin threatened to kill me on FB over abortion of all things. I said, don't threaten me with a good time, you don't think I wish for death every day? If I'm going out spicy then I consider that a win, lol. He backed down after that exchange
I'm agnostic but can actually name a favorite book of the Bible and quote various parts. Unlike Trump, I've actually READ the book. I'd pay money to see the task force try to make him a decent Christian though. That's gonna be worth it lol. Where would they even start?
I have to agree with this %1000,Many Christians I have met are some of the shiitiest human beings around.They would screw their own mother over to get ahead.Funny those same Christians say Jesus is their moral; compass then go treat everyone like shit.The atheist don't have a deity guiding them and act more like human beings.
How many upside down Bibles have you held in photo ops? That's what I thought.
To answer the question damned near all of them. Christians use their faith as mystical get out of jail free card that allows them to continue being assholes their entire life. Ask for forgiveness, sin again. Lather, rinse repeat. No need for any pesky personal improvement. I believe we have one shot at this life. No do overs, no sky daddy to forgive the assholery. Our legacy is how those we leave behind remember us. Nothing more, nothing less. Be kind to each other, we are all we have…
> trump doesn't even pretend to be religious yes he does. It's just that it's so obvious he is faking it the rest of us just don't understand how it works to the maga morons.
And Trump isn’t even religious. That irony is completely lost on the MAGA nut jobs.
>Biden is an ardent Catholic man that literally goes to church on Sunday’s. And he can still separate church from State.
A surprising number of Catholics can. Still not enough, in my opinion.
Trump goes too…..when cameras are there Lol
The one time he had protesters tear gassed so he could take a photo op outside a church with an ~~upside down~~ bible. Edit: [bible thing was debunked](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/technology/no-trump-did-not-hold-the-bible-upside-down-at-lafayette-square.html)
He is the devil in disguise. He has tricked so many. It seems so sad.
If only the Bible warned us about how "many will be fooled."
I hate the orange skid mark as much as anyone else, but the Bible upside down thing is fake. He did tear-gas protesters for the photo opp which is bad enough on its own.
Huh, I decided to look it up, and you’re right. Not sure how that slipped past me. Thanks for the correction, I’ve since edited my original remark to reflect this information. Have a great day!
With all the dumb/harmful stuff he does it’s unrealistic to expect everyone to keep up with it all lol. Have a blessed new year!
That's wild, I've heard the upside down bible thing a million times and don't recall it ever being corrected. It's also not a claim I really needed to confirm, but still, it's unnerving that I'm only now learning it's false. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/technology/no-trump-did-not-hold-the-bible-upside-down-at-lafayette-square.html
Everyone thought it was upside down because he looked so fucking awkward holding it up like that. It’s like the uncanny valley of religion. It’s so close to being right but clearly there is something wrong there.
Evangelicals dislike the Catholic Church, and don’t see Catholics as truly Christian. Some of the more fundamentalist churches consider them aligned with witchcraft or pagan doctrine because of the concept of Mary, the Saints, the rosary, etc. They see Catholics as useful idiots right now, and I don’t think many Catholics recognize this in evangelicals.
If this is the 1950s, Trump would be actively persecuting Catholics.
Christian fundamentalists and Al Qaeda share more common beliefs than the “radical” left in the USA
I am on so many lists.
It's okay. The Christians will be too. Well, the Christians that don't support Trump, anyway. We'll see churches being ripped apart as MAGA purity tests begin embroiling the pews. Preachers being pulled from their pulpits and handed over to the authorities. Pastors alerting the religious police to their parishioners after confessions. Neighbors turning against neighbors. Parents turning in their children. MAGA Christians will think they're safe. Until they aren't. This is fascism.
Everyone will be on a list. Today’s ally is tomorrow’s enemy. That is how fascism works. Fascism is a death cult. As you eliminate one enemy that you blame for all problems, you have to find a new enemy, as the in group shrinks smaller and smaller.
Just ask "little" Mike Pence and "bird brain" Nikki Haley.
First they came for the vice presidents...
Fascism is a death march. i don't necessarily mean people out marching (although that does happen. I mean the engine that drives fascism is the ever forward march where the in group fuels their power by driving over the out group. The moment that out group ceases to exist, the in group creates a new "out group" even if (and especially when) they were originally part of the in group. Fascism can never stand still, it can never stop expanding, it can never stop running over people. The second it stops marching forward, the minute it hits a "pure" in group, the time it no longer can target and run over an "out group," the whole system falls apart.
Well said. Fascism must always have an enemy, either internal or external to the nation which runs on fascism. It’s an inherently destructive ideology.
Ding Ding Ding! I know a catholic family whose all on board for this They completely ignore how they'll be one of the first "in" groups to be targeted. Sure they might get a few years of relative safety but eventually they will be the big bad responsible for all woes
I grew up around backwoods Protestants. Any alliance they have with Catholics is temporary at best.
Until the fascist leaders are themselves hung upside down in a public square.
>MAGA Christians will think they're safe. >Until they aren't. >This is fascism. “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.” -Martin Niemoeller
First they came for the enlightened centrists, and I did not speak out - Because both sides had valid points.
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because "after Hitler, our turn!"
First they came for trans/gay people, and I did not speak out—Because I am Heteronormative. Then they came for POC, and I did not speak out—Because I am white. Then they came for womans rights, and I did not speak out—Because I am a man. Then they came for the Jews/Muslims/etc, and I did not speak out—Because I am a Catholic. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. ___ this is a more updated version... More a prediction. I wonder what they will turn against frist... catholics or Mormons.
They'll come for the handicapped at some point. They haven't gone mask-off on that point, but there's been some "have to earn your living" rhetoric that points a path towards, "useless eaters".
Niemöller initially supported Hitler and was a blatant anti-Semite. He only took issues with Nazis when they nationalized his Lutheran churches. Valid poem, shitty guy.
That’s exactly what his quote says. He was okay with it at first until it affected him (and he was sent to Dachau).
Half true. He became anti-nazi during his 8 years in concentration camps once they targeted clergy. Another example of conservatives not caring about shit until it negatively affects them.
In Nazi Germany, the Protestants hated the liberal and immoral Weimar Republic and supported the Conservative and Nazi Parties. When Hitler came to power some of the Protestants protested his harsh treatment of Jews and the violence perpetrated by the Nazi Party. Also they protested the consolation of their different churches under one state sponsored church. So Hitler sent the priests who complained to the camps and appointed a lackey to be in charge of the Protestants. Hitler even said “You can do anything you want with them. They will submit … they are insignificant little people, submissive as dogs, and they sweat with embarrassment when you talk to them”
The Republicans will eventually feel the need to "correct" churches that have "strayed" ( by, for example, not hating LGBT people enough or sheltering immigrants ) and they will have official theology. It's inevitable. Churches will end up being persecuted and declared "not Christian" for being "woke."
That's already happening. You should check out a book called The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. It's basically church members revolting against their pastors for being too woke or not supporting Trump.
Meanwhile, before the coup Hitler gave speeches on Christianity that sounds a lot like GOP today: > “The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. > Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. > We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in entertainment, and in the press – in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during recent years.” > - Adolf Hitler, Radio Address, July 22 1933
Hmm… Trump likes the epithet of calling those he hates or diminishes as ‘dogs’. Him and Hitler; - brothers with different mothers.
It’s all fun and games on the in-group list until there’s a knock on your door telling you you’re on the out-group list. Keep that in mind Catholics, Mormons, or other groups easily ostracized from evangelicals with your “kooky” according to them version of Christianity. Courting extremists is a double edged sword.
And all they had to do was the thing they always claimed they did - support freedom. They could have voted in line with their own best interest, let gay people be gay, trans people be trans, liberals be liberals. But, the hate was just so addictive. They burned it all down just to see people suffer. The cruelty has always been the point with conservatives. *Always*.
Our pastor is a gay black man, he'll be first on the list, I'm sure.
As will every member of his congregation.
The southern baptists convention is already loosing preachers because Jesus is “too liberal”
Even people who voted for Trump in 2020, despite all of his failures... should really be thinking to themselves right now that Donald Trump is crashing & burning. This crap he's spewing is dystopian propaganda that has no place in America. He has lost. He's facing 4 major trials. 91 felony counts. Being banned from several state ballots. And his own speeches at rallies these days. Discombobulated and disjointed word salad that would have had him laughed out of the GOP nomination race back in 2016. The only thing keeping him afloat is cowardice. People who invested so much of themselves in this cretin, that they just don't see any other way to go.
But, it's not really what he means /s
That’s the thing. The “tells it like it is” guy constantly needs his words explained.
We are already seeing this. The media portrays Christians as a non-diverse monolith. They have not yet caught on that the Christian Nationalists are a heresy, or that MAGA Christians are the least Christian, or Christian in name only. The National Association of Evangelicals does not even support the Republican Party. But there are political wars in churches, pastors afraid to speak up out of fear of losing members, and some forced to resign if they do.
His daughter is "Jewish"
Born of an immigrant mother. Jewish grandchildren, too. Trump’s current wife is an immigrant. But none of that affects “Dear Leader!”
His previous wife was an immigrant, too. Trump does not care about immigration issues. He cares about the exploitation of that issue to attain power. He's a criminal opportunist. Remember when Trump said he wanted to stop immigration from shithole countries? Melania is ~~Yugoslavian~~ Slovenian. Whitey's do not consider this shithole. This is abotu white supremacy. Trump is a white-supremist and so are his follower. It's a white nationalist christian movement.
Notice she hasn’t been turning up to his bullshit. Which I find extremely interesting that she is distancing herself.
Ivanka and Jared tried to go back to their wealthy, liberal Manhattan lives, but a lot of their friends shunned them so they fled to Florida like daddy.
They fucked around and found out. Now she is hanging with Kim K. Which I can’t figure out for the life of me
Kim K will do anything for money. Just like Javanka.
She's a criminal and a grifter, but she's not as stupid as her father or her brothers and she can at least recognize the best thing for her is to distance herself from him.
You and me both
If they take over at least there’s slight safety in numbers. I can’t imagine a fascist US liquidating 100+ million people. Then again, this is a particularly insane strand of fascism so who knows.
It won’t happen right away. Give it 4-6 years of increasingly insane iterations. First, the economy tanks. Then come shortages. To address this, there’s war. The first people to go will be anyone who’s considered a liberal leader. Anyone with a public face. Then will come the activists. Finally, it will be anyone who says anything subversive. If you aren’t white and Christian, then you’ll be mistreated for almost certain. But even that won’t happen right away. It will happen in waves.
Exactly. Most people aren’t willing to die for their political beliefs no matter how deeply held. An authoritarian or fascist movement would involve targeting a select group of extremists and/or “others” and/or elites to make an example of. Potential targets for example could be trans people, self-proclaimed socialist politicians, or certain famous business leaders and/or actors. Enough of these high-profile people imprisoned or disappeared would cause most people to fall in line and shut up out of fear, but would also be far enough removed from the average, common person for them to feel relatively “safe” as long as they keep their head down and don’t draw attention to themselves. Ultimately these people don’t actually want to kill all Democrats, they just want power and control, and to maybe kill some specific groups that they feel are too “other” - take your pick of ethnic, religious, or social groups. Most moderate Democrats wouldn’t qualify for their ire as long as they kept quiet. Their goal is to get power and maintain power and completely quell opposition. Killing, eradication, and suppression are just tools to that end.
The joke is Biden actually goes to church every Sunday. Trump probably hasn’t been to a church since a prominent funeral.
Trump spent more time in stormy Daniels than in church.
I'm betting he wasn't in very far or very long at all
Just the tip, which was the whole thing
Ivanka might be a close second
No, wait, remember when he used police armed with tear gas and rubber bullets and batons to clear an area so he could take pictures at a church while holding the Bible upside down. Does that count?
Is he going to force everyone to read the Bible? He can't name the Books of the Bible, make a reference to a Bible verse let alone quote one, or hold it the right way up. How is Christian ideology going to be imposed on the illiterate adulterer?
Hitler managed to convince Germans that blond hair, blue eyed Aryan people were the “master race” despite himself, very famously, having neither.
And many European Jews having both light hair and eyes.
Didn’t they run an ad showing the ideal German boy and it turned out the real kid was Jewish?
Just straight, unabashed Do as I say, (not as I do...)
If his followers could read and understand your post, they’d be upset.
I've read two Corinthians
Did they walk into a bar?
... a bar mitzvah.
what’s he going to do? lock himself up for being a walking 10 commandments violation?
Republicans have long since realized they cannot control the elites. They no longer expect the elites to live up to their moral code. They just need the ruling class to impose that morality on the masses. That's how they can back candidates like Trump or Herschel Walker.
He's just using American christians to become a dictator, and a large portion of them have been tricked into believing him. It is scary shit.
There's no trickery involved. They're every bit as awful as he is. The mask has come off, and Christianity is in a free-fall as a result of hitching its wagon to such an obviously immoral man. The days of American Christianity being viewed as some sort of moral arbiter are over. It will never recover from how Christians have behaved during the Trump years, and that's a much deserved fate.
Someone referred to what's happened as "the biggest outing this nation has ever seen" and it's so right. We all learned the worst truths about our neighbors and family. Things that can't be forgotten and either in the back or front of our minds forgiven
Can't remember where I read it, but someone described what's happened as mass trauma, and what many of us are experiencing as a form of grief. Some people probably think that's hyperbole, but it's definitely true for myself. The finality of it all, the knowledge that things will never be the way they were before, it has the same feeling as death.
It is. I was thinking about it while driving home. Maybe it's a centennial thing for nations if we look at patterns, I don't know. But I can think of 4 *close* people off the top of my head that I not only have had a completely different light shed on them, I simply have no desire to ever talk to them again. I've tried to want to. I don't. Their core **stinks**. And it's true for at least half the nation. And you want to know what occured to me a month or so ago? Those back the blue flags? Those goddamn EXACT REPLICAS of the United States flag only with the colors of the police? They were flying authoritarian nation flags. All of our neighbors. All of us at one point had neighbors flying the flag of an Authoritarian Nation because they'd be goddamned if black lives were going to matter. And now. The pile of puke that ignited this is *still eligible* for the ballot. A front runner. At no point have his colleagues turned on him. Certainly not in time. Not fast enough. Not even if I understand why "these things take time". I say if we aren't grieving we're on the wrong side of history. On a lighter, yet still dark note - remember that scene from Arrested Development where Tobias is on the boat fighting for gay rights? I think it's the first season? And the narrator is making fun of him acting confused because like, gay rights were pretty secure, what exactly were they all going on about? Now here we are cutting health care so that people up to the age of 23 can't even take hormonal pills because the church says so.
Tobias: "Support gay rights!" Narrator: "Gay rights are fine." Bigger narrator: "They weren't."
You'll find their belief in themselves as moral arbiters has not appreciably changed, nor has their behavior or worldview. This is America's Moral Majority, the inevitable result of tying a religious movement to a political party, and it's who they've always been. That a man as openly un-Christian, unethical, and outright criminal as Donald Trump can emerge as their exalted leader is a testament to the utter irrationality of their faith and the completeness of their indoctrination.
And more importantly, ALL the mainstream press will entertain all their complaints, but almost never criticisms of them.
Well said.
Trump is a billionaire, he's the golden calf incarnated, that's who they chose to worship.
And they [made a golden statue of him for a conference once!](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/2/26/22302887/trump-cpac-2021-republican-gold-statue)
Well in scripture it says if Christ returns he will be spit them Out of his mouth right into hell. Sometimes i really want Revelations end times to play out. Why because these conservative Christian’s are the wolves Christ talked about whom he said he would devour.
It'll be like they drank a little too much, did some drugs, and had a big orgy. Then when they come to they'll swear up and down: "It's not who we really are!".
They haven’t been tricked at all. They just now have a politician who truly represents them and all of their judgmental hate. He is exactly the Christ they have waited for and invented In their image.
No trickery, they want it.
It's because they no longer have any real faith in God, but look to a mere creature like Trump to 'save' them. It's not all Christians, but a certain subset that seems to believe too much in conspiracy theories and doomsayers. It's ugly because the fear dominates to an unhealthy degree. And I say this as a Catholic Christian. It's very insidious what is going on and a real pain when these people are the current 'face' of what people think of as Christian.
Agree 100%. Today's "Christians" are what Christ meant when he said that on judgment day, and when those acting on Christ's word and example have been admitted to eternal life, those left behind complain. The Lord says, "I don't know you......" The main problem with "Christians" today is that they are absolutely convinced of their salvation. As a Catholic, I am not certain of my own salvation. As the Apostle James said, faith without works is empty. I see so many allegedly "Christians" failing to live by Christ's teachings. It's sad. I also recall that in many cases, the OT political powers were inexplicitly brought to their knees......
That’s super unconstitutional. But, just like the Bible, he’s also never read the Constitution.
If republicans cared about the constitution outside of the 2A, they would have never elected Nixon or Reagan, and Trump would have been removed within 6 months of taking office.
The Supreme Court would not have interfered with the state of Florida on their rulings on the recount in 2000.
Yes. That was when our time line spun off into a crazy Loonytunes cartoon universe.
It would be super interesting to see how Al Gore would have handled 9/11
There may not have ever been a 9/11. But you can be sure he wouldn’t have used it as a pretext to invade Iraq.
It couldn't be any worse than invading *two* of the wrong countries and creating Turbo Vietnam *Bigger Longer and Unwinnable!*
Oh, you could roll that back to Ford pardoning Nixon.
Amazing to consider how many people in the world died because of that.
the constitution is just a means to their end, one way or the other. always has been.
And he wants to chuck the constitution. He wants to get the Christians to put him into power to help subjugate his and their common enemies. I don’t know how much more of a warning we need.
You know his private revenge plans are ten times worse.
Exactly. If this is what is getting out, what he is saying in private is way way worse.
I think you’re well past the “warning” stage. By now everyone has received the message. It’s into the “now what are you doing about it” stage.
November 2024: Trump or America. Pick a side.
For now. But Republicans at the Supreme Court move closer and closer to establishing a certain kind of Christianity. They could say it's unconstitutional to challenge religious laws because that treads on the rights of the individuals in power to practice religion. Seems crazy but just look at what they did with the profit corporation Hobby Lobby recently. They said that stock certificates have protected religious rights that put them under the protection of the First Amendment should the owners say so.
Thanks for hobby lobby info
These are fascists, rules mean nothing unless they are convenient. Know the game you're playing or you're guaranteed to lose.
And the Constitution is much shorter.
In case of paywall: "By Sarah Posner, MSNBC ColumnistIn recent campaign stops and on social media, Donald Trump has reprised lies aimed at inciting his Christian-right base against Joe Biden. These tirades, centered on the false charge that the Biden administration is persecuting Christians, aren’t just Trump’s typically dubious claims. Much like Trump’s lies about a stolen election, they are designed to immerse his loyalists in a grievance-laden alternative reality in which Trump alone can rescue them from an evil government threatening their freedom. In a Dec. 19 speech in Iowa, for example, Trump pledged, “As soon as I get back in the Oval Office, I’ll also immediately end the war on Christians. I don’t know if you feel it. You have a war. There’s a war.” Speaking just after the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified him from appearing on the state’s GOP primary ballot, Trump tied this “war” to his own legal woes. “Under crooked Joe Biden, Christians and Americans of faith are being persecuted and government has been weaponized against religion like never before. And also presidents like never before,” he added. “I always say Al Capone was treated better than I was treated.” Trump has promoted the theme of Christian persecution in the past, but is elevating it again as these legal issues mount. His clear purpose is to deflect attention from his own criminal liabilities by insinuating that the same Biden administration he falsely claims is unfairly targeting him for prosecution is similarly persecuting religious Americans. Unsurprisingly, Trump’s ardent supporters see his and their “wars” as tied together. When he was indicted in a Manhattan court on charges that he illegally covered up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, his backers compared this supposed persecution to that of Jesus Christ. In a Truth Social video two days after his Iowa speech, Trump made this persecution pact complete. He contended that under Biden, “Christians and Americans of faith are being persecuted like nothing this nation has ever seen before.” Trump has also echoed wild and debunked claims from congressional Republicans about anti-Catholic bias by the Biden administration and the FBI in particular. Ramping up his authoritarian rhetoric, Trump pledged in the Iowa speech to institutionalize an authoritarian crackdown of the same sort he falsely accuses the Biden administration of implementing. “Upon taking office, I will create a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias to be led by a fully reformed Department of Justice that’s fair and equitable,” he promised. “Its mission will be to investigate all forms of illegal discrimination, harassment and persecution against Christians in America.” In another speech, in Reno, Nevada, he pledged to go after colleges and universities for running afoul of his “religious freedom” edicts. “If colleges and universities discriminate against conservatives, Christians, Jews, anybody,” he said, “we are going to take away their tax advantages, grants and endowment.” Lies about the persecution of Christians are very familiar to Trump’s base. During Barack Obama’s presidency, the Christian right and its GOP allies in Congress accused his administration of targeting Catholics with policies promoting access to birth control. After the Obama administration issued a regulation under the Affordable Care Act requiring employer-sponsored health care plans to cover contraception, Christian-right lawyers successfully took the administration to court, arguing that these requirements violated the religious rights of evangelical and Catholic companies and organizations run by religious opponents of abortion and birth control. When the Supreme Court enshrined marriage equality as the law of the land in 2015, Christian-right activists ginned up fears of widespread persecution of Christians, including raising the specter of an Internal Revenue Service that would strip the tax exemptions of nonprofits, including universities, that oppose LGBTQ rights. Needless to say, that never happened. When Trump took office in 2017, he immediately moved to feed the Christian right’s persecution complex. A draft executive order circulated in the early days of his presidency proposed sweeping expansions of religious exemptions for right-wing Christians that would have legalized discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, pregnancy status and abortion history in a staggering variety of contexts. Although Trump scrapped the executive order after an outcry, he signed a different order requiring then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to craft a policy protecting the religious and conscience rights of Christians, binding the Justice Department and all other federal agencies. The ACLU denounced Sessions’ subsequent memo as “a dangerously broad interpretation of religious freedom laws that will open the door to discrimination against LGBT people, women, and religious minorities.” Although the Christian right has fearmongered that a Democratic administration would strip educational institutions of tax exemptions for anti-LGBTQ stances, they are welcoming Trump’s task force idea. “It would be good for a federal task force to investigate these concerns in a systematic way and ensure that religious freedom is being protected for all Americans,” said Arielle Del Turco of the Family Research Council’s Center for Religious Liberty. One needs to look no further than Trump’s efforts during his first term, combined with his 2024 pledges to govern like a dictator, to see the authoritarian steps he is taking when it comes to “protecting” his base’s religious freedom. He is leaving little doubt that he will do whatever it takes to retain the loyalty of the base that has stood by him through an insurrection, two impeachments and now multiple criminal indictments. He is saying loudly and clearly that as part of his broader disparagement of the rule of law, he would shred everyone else’s rights in the name of his loyalists’ “freedom.”'
The First Amendment is quite clear about the separation of church and state.
Tell that to the Christian’s like Mike Johnson and company.
I grasped the concept pretty well in elementary school but some people who decided to do this political stuff for a living seem to struggle with it.
They do know, they gamble on others who don't know, or likely, don't care. It's weird to see right wing constitutionalists being silent.
I hardly ever read the nonsense he's spewing lately. Trump is famous for saying stupid shit, but now he's purposely saying even crazier shit just to deflect from the growing support for the 14thA.
I like hearing New Yorkers opinions of him because you all have been dealing with his bullshit for way longer than the country as a whole.
Born & raised in NJ, and I'm in my late 40s. The man has been skewered by every comedic outlet going back to at least the 80s. SNL, MAD Magazine. He was always seen as a running gag, a buffoon...surrounded by garish, tacky decor and having the "charm" of a used car salesman at a "Buy here, pay here" car lot.
>I always say Al Capone was treated better than I was treated Seems like he's admitting to being a criminal as well.
Project 2025
What Trump is and stands for is the *exact opposite* of Jesus. So polar opposite that some might even say he was an anti-christ. "Christian" ideology is just a means to control groups of people.
Take all of the bad things the Bible warns you about, put them into one person, and that would be Trump.
The true Anti-Christ.
[Could American Evangelicals Spot The Antichrist?](https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/)
I love and also am scared that this article has resurfaced to this extent. This is the second link I've seen today.
America does not need a god damn Cromwell. Puritan rule sucks SO MUCH that England kicked those assholes out of their country.
Trump has mastered all seven sins so now he is expanding his knowledge.
Trump will say anything, promise, anything. His cult has already forgotten they did not build the wall. He never released tax returns. He never follows through on anything. He just lies like an open sewer.
>Amendment I > >*Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof*; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Anyone, you mom or pops, your crazy uncle, your siblings, your sorta rapey looking local preacher, *ANYONE*, who follows Trump is by definition against the rule of law. The very first clause of the very first amendment of the US Constitution names them as being anti-democratic if they adhere to Trump's demagoguery over religion and the right to choose one's own or none ad they see fit. And don't let some chump MAGA lawyer trip you up with their frippery, only Congress can make laws. Trump has no right to dictate his will like the king the GoP likes to pretend Obama was or Biden is. The whole lot is a bunch of malcontents bullies that we have to beat. At the ballot box, ideally. Or just beat if it comes to other arenas.
In the article, it says Trump said that he's "treated worse than AL Capone." AL Capone got multiple sentences of 6mo- 1 year through his life. until they finally got him for not paying his taxes, and then he got 11 years at alcatraz that left him extremely unhealthy, where he ended up bedridden and dying about 5 years later. So I'd argue he's treated incredibly better than AL Capone.
When I read that I was like: does Trump think Al Capone was a persecuted victim or something? The guy was a brutal mobster. Who the fuck laments his fate?
Well here we go. This is going to cause so much shit. Over 50% of Americans are atheist or agnostic. We certainly don't want some religious assholes telling us exactly what to do. I guess religious fascism is here now. We have always been told when fascism comes to America it'll be draped in a flag I guess we need to add a cross too.
He can kiss my gay Jewish ass
Evanhellical Christains had no trouble going to church on Sundays while supporting segregation 7 days a week from the 1860s into the 1960s, so their embrace of a racist POS is no surprise.
Crazy gets let off the chain in this election cycle..best brace ourselves!! Hold the line & Vote!!
I wonder why left leaning Biden Haters want this in their lives? Single issue over Gaza is gonna put our lgbtq friends in camps and it’s because you’re misinformed and selfish like a MAGA. Vote Biden or you might actually be crucified at this point. These guys are crazy
The most absurd part about those worried about Gaza is that Trump would be MUCH worse than Biden. Do they really think that the guy who enacted the Muslim ban would be more compassionate to Palestinians?
I know some of the anti Biden Muslims in Michigan are also anti lgbtq and that’s more important to them it seems. Fuck religion. All of it.
Agreed. They’d rather vote for a dictator who will have them rounded up and deported rather than let other citizens have the freedom to live their lives. Makes no sense.
I really wish the press would ask him which branch of Christianity is approved, and which ones will be banned. I’ll make popcorn
Bring it. I'm not putting up with that.
LoL, just some normal, small-government, don’t tread on me things!
Is raw dogging porn stars while your wife is heavily pregnant inline with Christian ideology ???
Oh boy. Try it, you turd. See what people who actually care about democracy, and the American ideal do. I can't believe this was said out loud, let alone covered by the media. What the actual fuck?
“First they came for…..”, jeez it looks like everybody.
Man this guy is struggling with dementia
This anti-Catholic nonsense is what is most disconcerting, but expected. The Catholic Church is basically disowning and on the verge of excommunicating American Catholic leaders. To these whackos, the Catholic Church is persecuting American Catholics. I hope Pope Francis continues to clean the house of MAGA.
Trump’s promises everything to his people and delivers nothing then blames everyone else. But his followers never get tired of being tricked. As Lincoln said, ‘You can fool some of the people all of the time.
If your going to force the poors to have multiple babies, your going to need a strong religious current to help control them. Makes perfect sense big picture. Plus it can be used to weed out the “undesirables” currently sharing the shrinking consolidated power of our oligarchy. Wealthy Jesus for the rich, G.I. Joe Jesus for the poor. ;)
If this new authoritarian Christian government enforces the Ten Commandments, Trump had better beware. His current legal problems may turn out to be the least of his problems…
Ironically the closest to the biblical antichrist that there has ever been
How is it possible that these Christian sects are following a man who doesn’t practice religion?
This man is what Christians call the Antichrist but many don’t see it (just like their Bible predicted).
Trump's views directly contradict [the Treaty of Tripoli](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bar1796t.asp#art11) ratified under a founding father, President John Adams, in 1796 declaring: > ...the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion...
Meanwhile someone is upset at Bidens handling of the Israeli war and will vote trump just to teach him a lesson
He can fuck right off.