Another first, when we have to question whether a presidential candidate’s response to a town hall question is real or is it just an episode from a popular television show on religious hypocrisy and grifting? Because you will have trouble telling the difference, seriously, if you watch both, the Righteous Gemstones and Donald Trump.
The videos you are about to see will put you on the floor. If hypocrisy were gold, Trump would be a billionaire for real and so would these evangelical phonies he surrounds himself with, to wit, Paula White and her sidekick, Benny Hinn. Steve Schmidt’s commentary is likewise witty. You can feel the contempt oozing and nobody is more deserving of our collective contempt than Donald Trump.
This is what got the ball rolling.
There are a few things that stand out from Donald’s deluded answer, which are the following:
1. He made America great. This is the precise quote:
I’ve made America great. We can do it again. Right now, we are not a great country.
2. The FBI is attacking Catholics. This is the precise quote:
They made them like the enemy. It’s horrible. How could a Catholic ever vote for a Democrat or a guy like Biden again after the experience they’re going through?
3. His spiritual advisors are super grifters Pastor Paula White and Franklin Graham. This is the precise quote:
We are not a great country because of this…I‘ve gotten to know…evangelicals. I know so many people, and they feel so good about themselves and their families. They base it on religion, and they have never had that kind of an experience where I got to know so many…and Franklin Graham and Paula White, they are such incredible people.
No Virgin Mary, the thrice-married Paula White is a religious hustler without shame, reserve or boundaries. She speaks in tongues, and makes millions tax-free while doing it. Her schtick is amazing and insane.
Indeed it is that.
Accompanying White on her “faith journey” is none other than Benny Hinn. This guy is new to me. This tape is beyond parody. He literally assaults people (well, I suppose it isn’t “assault” if the touching is consented to. Assault is an unwanted, nonconsensual, offensive touching and these people actually pay money for this.) It may not be assault and battery but it is damn sure kinky. Hang onto your chair.
This is vintage Jim Jones. This is exactly what Jim Jones did at his gatherings, some poor afflicted schmuck would come before him and be “healed” from all manner of things, crippling diseases, blindness. Here’s Jim Jones healing the blind. This isn’t Hollywood, friends, this is real. And you want to know who Jones reminds me of? George Santos. Hand to God, watch Jim Jones and tell me if that’s not the vibe you get.
Where was I? Oh yes, we need to get back to Paula White and Benny Hinn. More from Steve Schmidt’s blog.
Some years ago, Paula was spotted leaving a Rome hotel with tele-fraud and faith healer Benny Hinn. They denied a romantic relationship and their parishioners were assured that any time their shepherds spent on their knees was devotional. Here is Hinn’s schtick. [tape you just saw.] Personally, I’ve always thought Ted Cruz or Trump should try the white suit. It would fit perfectly.
Schmidt has a few choice words about Franklin Graham, who also was mentioned by Trump.
Graham loves Donald Trump. In fact, he has repeatedly compared Christ to Trump, and blasted all criticism of Trump as demonic. Author Eric Metaxas, who “lamented those who question the idea that Trump was ordained for the presidency of God,” said the following in a Washington Post article from 2019:
The idea that Trump was heaven-sent has come with harsh criticism of those who do not support his leadership. In a conversation Thursday in which evangelist Franklin Graham suggested that criticism of Trump was coming from “a demonic power.”
These people are nuts and frauds, and they have well-earned the contempt of millions of Americans who see them as such. They are appalling people. It is no surprise that Donald Trump loves them back. They are each others’ golden calf.
Lastly, the idea that America was “made great” by Donald Trump is a narcissistic fantasy from Donald’s small and wretched imagination. It is the dogma of a disordered mind made more needy by the endless sycophancy and corruption that feeds his brittle ego. He may believe it, but the truth is that the belief is a bad joke. He was the worst president in American history, and stands as a singular marker of national decay and rot.
Donald Trump is the greatest con man in American history. His answer showed you why. There is a name for the people who don’t understand what I’m talking about. They are called “marks.”
Trump’s MAGAs are all marks. Sad that there are so many of them. And beyond the MAGAs were other marks, 73 million all tolled, who voted for him in the last election. That number will haunt me until the day I die. I can see it now, I’ll be screaming and some nurse will be sedating me, and saying, “I don’t know what it is doctor, she keeps screaming ’73 million people voted for that mother f**ker.’ What do you suppose she means? ”’
Let us end on one of my favorite clips. Steve Schmidt excavated this, for our perusal, but I put in the version I like, with the hipster cat rocking in the foreground, while some clown who must be a lost actor, wanders back and forth with a script and Paula White speaks in tongues.
If you wonder why Jesus doesn’t come back right now, maybe it’s because he’s embarrassed? I know I would be if people like this were justifying their actions using my name. These people are kooks and blasphemers, they emphatically are not Christians.
Trump’s ‘faith journey’.
He was born and found he didn’t like anyone except himself, so everything he does is for himself.
HE HAS NEVER CHANGED FROM THIS AND NEVER WILL.
The end.
That’s about it. And it’s succinct enough to where we could put it on a tombstone. And people from all over the world (hell, maybe from all over the galaxy for all that we know) can come and piss on it. :))
I fully intend to pilgrimage to his grave to piss on it.
My grandson peed on an outside wall of tRump Tower on a visit he made to New York. He did it in honor of his grandma (ME! 👵). I’m so proud of him!
For what it’s worth, when Jim Jones started his ministry in the 1960s, he did so in a very racist point in Indiana; a lot of people–especially Northerners–like to believe that, just because all the horrific imagery was coming from the South, they were exempt from racism and racial inequality (the subject of Boston and school busing in the 1970s really puts that point to the lie). Jones’s earliest incarnation of the People’s Temple was a rare example of a church that welcomed members of all ethnic groups (and, as I recall reading, the church membership was almost evenly split between Blacks and whites). Jones would eventually move his church to San Francisco because he believed the city was more racially tolerant than Indiana had been.
That’s not to downplay Jones’s much less savory actions (the sexual predation of members of his congregation, both female and male, for starters; his predation was reportedly “colorblind” and, in the beginning at least, seems to have avoided children and young teens) and, if Jones hadn’t grown so drunk with power and self-importance and developed a Messiah complex in the mid-1970s, he could’ve been a counterweight to the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons since Jones’s early ministry was focused on the kind of social justice preaching that Jesus taught rather than the social conservatism that developed in the Evangelical movement in the latter part of the 1970s.
Amazing how uninformed and naive people are. Jim Jones was always a sociopathic grifter. Try watching one of dozens of documentaries that describe his childhood and early adulthood. 900 people died in his name. To justify or rationalize his entire ministry is insanely vile. He targeted the dispossessed, disenfranchised & lovebombed them before taking total control of their lives. You are wrong.
I saw at least one documentary on Jonestown, maybe more. I get them mixed up with the dramatic interpretations of the Jonestown event and I’ve seen all of those. He came from a troubled childhood and I think that in the beginning he may have been well intentioned, but when the Messiah complex kicked in, that was it. Then it was nutsville from there on out. But they still followed him. I guess following a nut is easier than thinking for yourself. That’s the part that baffles me.
“I guess following a nut is easier than thinking for yourself. ”
A ‘nutshell’ describing Trump’s appeal.
Why do conservative “Christians” support this man? Because “stupid is, as stipid does” – Forrest Gump.
He doesn’t speak about his faith, or any real journey. All he does is talk about how he made America great and the religious people he’s met. As usual, a substance free answer to a question that makes no sense considering who it’s directed at.
His faith is in the Almighty Dollar, because that’s the god that has saved him from his misbehavior his entire life. That may be changing.
She asked 2 questions of the fat fascist, what she got in return was psychobabble, and how great he thinks he is. A calamity of empty words all wrapped around each other like a pretzel which left her trying to figure out what that response was all about.
That’s how the fat fascist treats his uneducated cult…..psychobabble and empty meaningless words……and the sad part is, they love him for it.
I love his “mentors” on his “faith journey.” I can’t decide who I love more, Benny Hinn, cold cocking his congregation, or Paula White and her chanting — but definitely, when the cat is with Paula, that sways my vote.
Where do these clowns come from? It’s like that old Broadway show, Sweet Charity, “And the Lord said Daddy there’s a million pigeons, waiting to be hooked on new religions, dust off your Bible, leave your common law wife, come preach the gospel of the Rhythm of Life.” I’ll have to see if I can find that song.
“I love the poorly educated” Donald tRump recounting the numbers in a poll including categories like “poorly educated””,” during his first run for the presidency.
He loves the poorly educated, yes he does! They are his bankroll. But he never did a thing to help them when he was President, and he would not do so if–GASP–he ever made it back to the White House.
They should only have the schedule A charitable deduction for true charities whose disbursements for food, housing or medical care for the poor are at least 60% for the year. Most churches are just fascist propagandist and should not be supported in any way. Oh, and the deduction should be 60% of the total donation if the organization is at 60%. As they say, when fascism comes to America it will be rapped in a flag and carrying a cross. It is long past the time for the taxpayer to stop subsidizing the enemies of democracy.
The laws regarding tax exemptions for churches are a lot like the gun laws. The founding fathers didn’t anticipate weapons like AR-15s, much less in the home. And whomever made the tax exemptions laws didn’t anticipate the megachurches with the likes of Kenneth Copeland financing a fleet of jets on the taxpayers’ dime. There are aspects of our laws and our culture which have been totally bastardized by the corrupt and the greedy.
Listening to Paula White makes me wonder if it will ever cross any even jelly’s mind (not that most of them have a functioning mind) that in 17th Century English ‘tongues’ meant languages (I recall a ‘requirement’ for the Anglican ministry specifying ‘learned in the Greek and Latin tongues’)
At Pentecost the Disciples were given the gift of conversing in other languages – Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Farsi, etc – all languages that were used in the areas they would be visiting. There’s not a lot of use doing any preaching if the majority of your audience can’t understand what you’re actually saying.
What it did NOT mean was to spew a heap of nonsense words and claim the ‘Holy Spirit’ (probably an over-indulgence in unholy spirits) made them make inarticulate noises.
But then, she’s more interested in the size of the collection plate. Back in the day here when paper money was actually worth something, we did have preachers asking for a ‘silent collection’ (no coins please – just bank notes)
If former guy was sent by the creator of the universe, it was as a warning of the direction we are headed via the election of idiots. It was a very obvious thing and in 2020 we made a course correction. We’re still not out of the woods yet so we have the embarrassment of people like Marjie Kooky Pants, Bobo the Clown and Gym Bag in congress. That might be why we’re still having the sword of former guy hanging over our heads.