If Trump came up with Ron DeSantimonious himself he may be a little smarter than I thought

 

By Hal Brown

At a rally Saturday Pennsylvania rally Trump had polling numbers on a big screen and said:

"There it is, Trump at 71%, Ron DeSantimonious at 10%, Mike Pence at 7% -- oh, Mike's doing better than I thought," Trump said.

I assume Mike Pence doesn't even warrant a nickname... when he does we'll know Trump feels threatened by him. 

This set off some criticism from conservatives, for example from Matt Walsh (profile):

I wonder if Trump made this up himself or someone made it up for him.

In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if he couldn't even define the word. He used to say his favorite books were the Bible and The Art of the Deal.

It's a common question every presidential candidate is asked: What are your favorite books? It's more than just a curiosity about a candidate's personality; the answers tend to shed light on a would-be president's interests and intellect.With this in mind, I was fascinated to see Donald Trump's answer to this question yesterday.

Donald Trump has high praise for the author behind his two favorite books: himself.When asked this week what his two favorite books are by A.J. Calloway of "Extra," the GOP presidential nominee replied, " 'The Art of the Deal,' 'Surviving at the Top.'"

It's one of the most Trump-like answers Trump has delivered all year. Asked to name his favorite book, the Republican candidate used to say the Bible. Now, he's dropped the pretense: Trump's favorite books are the ones that have his face and name on the cover. Because for Donald J. Trump, everything is always about Donald J. Trump.In the same interview, he added, "I love books. I love reading when I get a chance to."Whether or not one believes this is a matter of perspective. I, for example, find it difficult to see Trump as a voracious reader. Several months ago, asked to name the last book he read, the Republican candidate said, "I read passages, I read areas, chapters, I don't have the time."But even for those inclined to accept Trump's claims at face value should pause to appreciate the narcissism that goes into a perspective like this. MSNBC

The dictionary wasn't on the list. Well, duh, I wonder if he ever owned one, even before the Internet when students all had a copy he probably paid other students to do his work for him.

To be fair, saying the dictionary is one of your favorite books when asked doesn't come to the mind of many well-read people because they consider it a given.

Even if he could define sanctimonious,  I don't want to be snobbish but I  have my doubts many or most of his MAGA crowd would know it was an insult but couldn't define it. 

Oddly, Trump himself isn't sanctimonious in the sense that he believes he is morally superior to other people. Morality doesn't matter to him. Could he even define it? Ask yourself....

The quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct.

A system or collection of ideas of right and wrong conduct.

Virtuous conduct.

They are pesky impediments to getting what he wants. I think he considers morality a "woke" Democratic Party concept. He simply believes he is superior to everyone in all the ways that count.

I think Ron the Con might have had more of a ring to it and people would understand what it meant, though when it comes being a con-artist Trump has no peer. His MAGA cult likes the fact that Trump is a con, they see it as a good thing because they don't grasp that it is them that he has conned. 

Christian Nationalism: This would be some weird snake-handling cult shit but it is dangerous in a far worse way

Snake handling at the Church of God with Signs Following at Lejunior in Harlan County, Kentucky, 15 September 1946 (NARA). Photo by Russell Lee

Christian Nationalism: This would be some weird snake-handling cult shit but it is dangerous in a far worse way

 by Hal Brown

Last light as I was about to go to sleep I was listening to an NPR show about Christian Nationalism and they described a woman whose fairly large cult believed if they could get enough people to march seven times (the number appears several times in the Bible) around state capitol buildings God would destroy them. I couldn't find find a reference on the Internet so I asked in a comment to the HUFFPOST article below and got my answer in a half hour. It's The Jericho March, described here on Wikipedia. Of course they have a website. Either wittingly or unwittingly they ended up with the same name as a group that was trying to do a good thing.

Then I came across a couple of articles which went even further into how beyond the "mere" notion that America had to be a Christian nation  this had become. Everyone is welcome in the Christian Nationalism group no matter how deranged their beliefs are. This includes QAnon believers. Among those attending the tour event were fans of InfoWars and of Tucker Carlson.

Of course believing that God will kill, literally kill, a group of people that all happen to be enemies of Donald Trump is just a lunatic belief.

Aside from Christopher Mathias who wrote the HUFFPOST article I think you can be quite sure that unless another journalist snuck in everyone there was full-on Trump cult MAGA.

I read this and learned more about the fringes of Christian Nationalism:

This article is about Doug Mastriano's appearance at a Great Reawakening Tour event. There's a lot to unpack about the movement in the article aside from the fact that he is associating himself with these people. 

Excepts:

• The “Seven Mountains Mandate” is at the core of the New Apostolic Reformation. This relatively new evangelical movement believes in miracles, the supernatural, and the existence of modern-day apostles and prophets. It’s a movement characterized by Christian dominionism, the belief that Christians must gain control of the “seven mountains” of societal influence to form a perfect world. Only then, the prophecy goes, can Christ return to Earth.
• They are sometimes violent too, like her prophecy that God — any minute now — is going to strike down Democratic politicians “for their planned pandemic, shortages, inflation, mandates and for stealing an election.” She has also falsely alleged that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “loves to drink the little children’s blood” and that the federal government is performing “human sacrifices.”
• From a speaker at the conference Julie Green: “Says God, ‘you can’t stop my son, who is the rightful president, and his name is President Donald Trump…” she said, as the crowd broke into hysterical cheers. “He is on his way back, and how he takes his position back on center stage, you will never see that coming because you won’t see me coming. And I am with him.’” Green said that Trump’s return to the White House might happen before 2024. “God said he can take this country back in unconventional ways. He doesn’t need an election to do it,” she added.
• When you peel away all the “genuinely batshit crazy prophetic aspects,” LeCaque (a professor of history) explained, QAnon at its core is a “mass murder fantasy” about the coming “storm” when all of the MAGA movement’s enemies will be arrested and lynched.

Above: A woman at the Great ReAwakening event shows off a shirt mapping out underground tunnels across the U.S. where she believes the Illuminati are harvesting children's blood.

Eric Trump also was a featured speaker at this event, in fact I suppose you could say so was his father because he put a phone call with him on his speaker phone. There's a HUFFPOST article complete with a video about this.

Here's a hit list of people marked for death by the end of the year. I suppose it's for God, no make that the Angel of Death no doubt on orders from God. It was promoted at a the tour event: 

We know from what motivates people to commit acts of violence is often an idea supported by a fringe group and they can be prompted to acts because they think it will make them a hero or feeds into their paranoid delusions, or both. Would anyone be surprised if someone follows  David DePape's example and tries to kill one of the people shown above?

All this makes the Christian groups who believe handling deadly snakes to prove that God will protect them look downright sane.

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