Saturday Report 1/13/24 - How Did Trump Become Jesus?

The Best of the Rest of the News

— Violent political threats are surging as we enter 2024: trickle down fascism? Hitler was a loser at everything he tried: he failed as an artist, failed as a soldier, failed at every romantic or personal relationship he ever had. Trump, similarly, was handed a massive real estate empire by his father and by the nineties had pissed it away so completely that he had to declare bankruptcy six times. Dozens of his businesses failed, from steaks to an airline to his phony university and fraudulent charity: he only kept what was left of his real estate empire alive by lying to banks and insurance companies, as we’re now learning from his prosecution by the New York Attorney General. But what both had in common — what all fascist leaders have in common — is being an insecure, narcissistic bully. And Trump’s followers are imitating his bullying style, trying to get judges, prosecutors, and political opponents killed by police through swatting. This kind of violence and threats of violence are absolutely characteristic of fascism: as the late Madeline Albright wrote in her book on fascism, it’s really just bullying in a political context. Five people died on January 6th, over a hundred police officers were injured, and five subsequently died of their injuries on that day: Trump delights in this. Since one of his most ardent followers attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer, Trump now makes jokes about it — encouraging more violence against Democrats — in every single one of his rallies. Now, as his fascism trickles down across the GOP itself, Trump has made it known that he’s keeping track of Republican politicians who have failed to endorse him: the threats are now turning inward, just like they did with the Night of the Long Knives in Germany in Hitler’s early years. They’re both losers who incite violence to make up for their own failures and insecurities.

— MAGA has taken over much of the evangelical movement. Like a cancer growing within the church, the racist and fascist MAGA movement is eating church after church — and it’s destroying attendance. Trump’s penchant for racism and violence are causing so many people to turn away from their churches that in Iowa attendance is down around 10 percent over the pre-Trump era of a decade ago. What’s most astonishing about it all is the backstory. Back in 2015, when he started a serious run for the presidency, Trump brought Jerry Falwell, Falwell’s wife, and other evangelical leaders to Trump Tower and told them that he’d had a “conversion experience” and was now dedicating his life to Jesus. They believed him, as Franklin Graham, publicly said: ““I think there’s no question that he believes.” Immediately after the meeting was over and the evangelical leaders had left, Trump walked into Michael Cohen’s office shaking his head at their incredulity and laughed: “Can you believe that they believe that bullshit?” But believe it they did, and it’s transforming much of American Christianity from a religion grounded in the teachings of Jesus into an all-white grievance- and revenge-filled cult that behaves as if Trump, not Jesus, is their savior. Just like this mentally ill loser has gutted the GOP, he’s now actively destroying a storied religion and the lives of the people who once adhered to it. It’s an American tragedy.

— Following Trump’s new religion, Republicans are spitting in the face of Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount and the Parable of the Sheep and Goats, Jesus told his followers that the only way to join him in heaven was to feed the hungry, heal the sick, house/clothe the homeless/naked, and have compassion on those in prison. Trump’s GOP has now fully rejected all of these commandments. Most recently, the Biden administration (led by a man who actually attends mass every weekend) has again offered to expand Medicaid to every state in the union and also put $2.5 billion on the table for states to expand free meals to poor children during the summer months when school lunches are not available. Almost every Red state has rejected the Medicaid money and fifteen of them have turned down the money for kids to eat this coming summer. But the GOP and televangelists across the nation continue to tell anybody who’ll listen that they’re the “Party of Christ.” Disgusting.

— Telling a gay-basher that he’s “homophobic” will cost you $35,000 in fines under new Republican legislation just introduced to the Florida House. Seriously. Plus the bill would eliminate the current provision of US law that lets people to criticize elected officials: criticizing DeSantis or his toadies could see you (or me) hit with millions in fines for defamation. This is what Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin did in Hungary and Russia that has effectively shut down dissent in those countries, and the GOP is eager to bring it to America, particularly since Trump has been campaigning on “reforming” our libel, slander, and defamation laws so he can lock up his critics. Get ready: these people are dead serious.

— Book bans, another import from Nazi Germany, are getting absurd in Florida and other Red states. One Florida county, to comply with DeSantis’ new book banning law, has removed from the shelves of schools and public libraries over 2,800 books including: “eight different encyclopedias, two thesauruses, and five editions of The Guinness Book of World Records. Biographies of Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, Nicki Minaj, and Thurgood Marshall. Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, The Adventures and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile, as well as twenty-three novels by Stephen King.” Welcome to the GOP’s Brave New World. Oh, yeah: that book is banned, too.

— Hunter in a Farmer’s World Alert! ADHD: Learning how to focus your attention. I first learned meditation back in the 1960s from one of the Maharishi’s people (among others) and now regularly use the Muse headband to improve my meditation practice. Over at our new website about ADHD, there’s a new story from an Irish physician about how this practice helped him get his hyperactive mind under control. Check it out!

— Wisdom School Alert! The Motivation Code revealed. Over at our new site for non-political information and insights, I’m laying out how to best motivate ourselves and others. There’s actually a science to this! So, the next time you’re trying to get a particular behavior out of somebody else, or trying to build a strong internal motivation for yourself, ask yourself: which strategy will work best for the future? 

— Who are the Houthis and why should we care? A Shiite Muslim cult has taken