The Terribly Tiny God of MAGA Christians
I feel sorry for professed Christians who support this President.

They have a profound and fundamental spiritual problem: their God is too small.
They passionately worship a deity made in their own image: white, American, Republican, male—and perpetually terrified of Muslims, immigrants, gay children, Special Counsel reports, mandalas, Harry Potter, Starbucks holiday cups, yoga, wind turbines, Science—everything. Their God is so laughably minuscule, so fully neutered of power, so completely devoid of functioning vertebrae that “He” cannot protect them from the encroaching monsters they are certain lurk around every corner to overwhelm them.

MAGA Christians sure put up a brave face, I’ll give them that. They shower this God with effusive praise on Sunday mornings, they sing with reckless abandon in church services about Him, they brazenly pump out their chests on social media regarding His infinite wisdom, they defiantly declare this God’s staggering might at every opportunity—but their lives tell the truth: They believe He is impotent and scared and ineffectual. You can tell this because they insist on doing all the things that a God-sized God would simply do as part of the gig.

They need to be armed to the teeth at all times because they don’t really believe God will come through to defend them in a pinch—and will always be outgunned.
They want to change gay couples and transgender teenagers themselves, because they don’t trust God to work within people as He desires. (Apparently God keeps making LGBTQ people, which really pisses them off.)
They want to stockpile and horde wealth, health insurance, and opportunity—because this is a zero sum game; because the God they claim turned water into wine, and fed thousands with a few fish and some leftover bread—can’t make enough for everyone.
They are obsessed with building a wall and defending a border and turning away refugees—because their God isn’t generous or smart or creative enough to help them figure out how to welcome and care for everyone who requires it.
They want no other religious traditions to have a voice, because their insecure and terribly tiny God is mortally threatened by such things.

MAGA Christians’ daily existence testifies that their God is a microscopic, myopic coward, who has appointed them to morally police a world He cannot handle or is not equipped to direct and renovate. That’s pretty sad.
In short, their God isn’t a God worth believing in or worshiping—which is why they have to play God while they’re alive. It’s why they are furrowed-browed and white-knuckling their journey here—not content to let Jesus take the wheel for fear he’d drive them outside their gated community and into the hood and ask them to get out and care for the people they’re so used to condemning.

If you’re going to have a God, it may as well be right-sized. The world deserves this.
People deserve a God who is bigger than Franklin Graham’s and Mike Pence’s and Sarah Sanders’ and Jerry Falwell’s and the GOP’s God. Their God is small and terrified—and it suspiciously resembles them.
People deserve a God who so loves the world, not a God who thinks America First; whose creation begins without divides and borders and walls, because there is only a single, interdependent community.
People deserve a God who touched the leper and healed the sick and fed the starving and parted the seas and raised the dead—not a quivering idol who builds walls and drafts bathroom bills and launches social media crusades against migrant families.
People deserve a God who is neither white nor male nor cisgender-heterosexual, nor Republican—because any other God isn’t big enough to bear the title or merit any reverence.

MAGA Christians believe in God earnestly, pray to God passionately, serve God with unflinching fervor. The problem is their God is too small, and as long as they are oriented toward such a tiny, useless deity—they will continue to be compelled to do for God what they believe God should be doing, but can’t or won’t.

I feel sorry for them and for the world that has to be subjected to their pocket-sized theology when there is an expansive space waiting.
I hope and pray that these people soon find a God who is big enough so that they stop living so small.
For their sake—and for ours.
https://johnpavlovitz.com/2019/04/11/the...RzlDu79wfmLszVQ

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t...b9f&oe=5E881B2F

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t...280&oe=5E464B0E

Former Trump official compares GOP to French collaborators who helped the Nazis
On CNN Monday, former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci compared the Republican Party’s complicity in President Donald Trump’s assault on constitutional principles to the Vichy regime assisting Nazi occupation of France.

“I understand the strategy. I understand why they’re doing it. But again, what I’m calling into question is the rationality,” said Scaramucci, who was fired from the Trump administration after just ten days in office following an obscene rant about other members of the White House. “Five years from now, people will look back and say, what were you doing? You had a fever going on related to President Trump. The guy broke the law. He’s a traitor to the Constitution of the United States. You took an oath to the Constitution you’re going to disavow for him? Why are you doing that?”

“What’s at risk right now is the American voter,” said Scaramucci. “50 percent of them right now say they want him impeached and removed from office. More information comes out, I think Speaker Pelosi is going to be correct about this. As more information comes out, I think it has to go to 60 percent or 65 percent. I would have thought — and this was my surprise because I’ve read the Constitution, took constitutional law — I thought that these guys took an oath to that Constitution. It’s been so sacred and it’s worked so well for so many years for so many people, I would have thought those people who took that oath would have said, you know what, I’m not going to disavow the oath to the Constitution, but now you’ve got a group of — they’re like Vichy Republicans.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/former-...lped-the-nazis/

Jon Cooper 🇺🇸@joncoopertweets
If you’re wondering why Republicans in Congress all seem to be in Putin’s back pocket,remember that Russia hacked the RNC server in 2016 but conspicuously released no documents stolen from the Republicans.
Russia/Trump are likely using dirt they found to blackmail GOP lawmakers.
5:33 AM - 3 Dec 2019

U.S. Senator: Republican Party Is Turning Into Russia’s ‘Most Important Global Asset’
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called out the Republican Party for advancing Russian conspiracy theories as it continues to defend President Donald Trump during the impeachment inquiry.

“Call me old fashioned, but I think it’s a little unsavory the Republican Party is becoming the most important global asset of Russian intel,” Murphy tweeted on Sunday. “I get it, Russia’s bonkers ‘Ukraine did it, not Russia’ story is all the GOP has to defend their guy, but really?”
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/chris-mur...-083729736.html

Julia Davis@JuliaDavisNews
The percentage of Republicans who view Russia as an ally has nearly doubled since Trump took office.
“GOP” might as well stand for “Gang of Putin.”
By turning into apologists & advocates for a Russian dictator, the GOP has become all that it once despised.
7:31 PM - 5 Dec 2019

Republicans Suppress Their Own Voters
Eight state parties have canceled 2020 contests or limited them to Trump.

The Georgia and North Carolina Republican parties decided this week that Donald Trump will be the only name on their 2020 presidential primary ballots, and they aren’t alone. The Minnesota Republican Party pulled the same move a few weeks ago, and earlier the parties in South Carolina, Arizona, Kansas, Nevada and Alaska canceled their nominating contests outright. The party is disenfranchising GOP voters in eight states—so far.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans..._mobilewebshare

The shit Congress has to deal with -with these criminals is mind boggling:
https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t...3a8&oe=5E6E0E33

The Russification of the Republican Party
GOP lawmakers used to oppose the president’s embrace of Putin and the Kremlin. Not anymore.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc..._source=twitter

Mueller made one thing clear: Republicans are a national security threat
How did Republicans react to Robert Mueller's testimony? By lying, deflecting and blocking election security bills
https://www.salon.com/2019/07/26/mueller...ecurity-threat/


I used to work in US intelligence advising presidents on risk. The biggest threat to our country today is the Republican Party
Donald Trump and his coterie of criminals have done more in two years to weaken the United States than the Soviet Union was able to achieve in decades

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/tru...e-a9009441.html

The GOP Is the Russian Propaganda Party Now
I’m so old, I remember when the Republican Party proudly stood up against Russian aggression and interference.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-gop-is...ganda-party-now

A former Republican Congress member explains what happened to his party
And why it belongs to Trump now.

... I reached out to David Jolly, a former GOP Congress member from Florida. Jolly left Congress in 2017 and has since renounced his membership in the Republican Party. He explained his reasoning in an article last year, rejecting not only Donald Trump, but what the Republican Party had become.
“Republicans in Congress,” he told me, are now “tearing at the fabric of the Constitution every bit as much as Donald Trump” and “undermining the institution of Congress every bit as much as Trump.”

We talked about what that means, why Republicans have been forced into an impossible position by Trump, and why Trump’s impact on the party will continue long after he leaves office.
A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows....
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/...ess-david-jolly

Ein exzellenter Artikel. David Jolly ist ein Insider und Zeuge von hohem Wissen und Integritaet. Es gibt keinen besseren. Fuer den, den es interessiert wie es um die ehemalige GOP bestellt ist, das vorstehende erklaert es gut.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EKb7YbHX0AANYD_.jpg

Trump is no Abraham Lincoln. That Republican voters think so should mortify the party.
My former ideological home had principles once. Now it has Donald Trump.

As someone who was a lifelong Republican until 2016, nothing is more surprising that, nearly three years into his tenure, Trump remains wildly popular among Republicans despite all of the tumult around his presidency.

How popular is he among Republicans, exactly? Forget Gallup polls that show him with a 90 percent approval rating among members of his party; a recent YouGov/Economist survey shows that 53 percent of Republicans believe that Trump is a better president than Abraham Lincoln.
And that's despite the fact that, according to a 2017 C-SPAN survey of the nation’s top presidential historians, Lincoln sits above all other presidents as the greatest of all time.

The Republican party has strayed far since the days of Lincoln; it’s shameful to see how Trumpism has hijacked it. It’s truly shocking how Republicans are allowing him to carry the mantle of conservatism too with little-to-no hesitation. Trump’s years in office have been full of nepotism, scandal, profiting from his position as president and now he is about to become the third-ever president to be impeached.

Republicans warned Americans about this type of behavior... if Hillary Clinton were elected, which is why they chanted “lock her up” so enthusiastically. So how can those same Republicans now honestly believe that Trump has, in any way, been a good president, let alone one of the best?

First off, he has given members of his family and personal friends with no qualifications unprecedented access to the Oval Office — something that Republicans suggested Clinton might do if elected president. Republicans now rush to offer support for the high-level positions that members of the Trump family occupy within their father’s administration.

Just imagine if Chelsea Clinton was named to a high-profile position in her mother's administration with access to classified information; conservatives would surely put up a fight. But between Ivanka Trump sitting in for her father at a G-20 summit and her husband, Jared Kushner, leading trade and foreign policy talks — let alone being put in charge of building the wall, fixing the opioid crisis, reforming veterans' health care, making the government run like a business and fixing the immigration crisis — there has been nothing but crickets from Republicans.

What’s more, when Jared Kushner was denied security clearance, Trump himself reportedly pushed it through, even though federal law “prohibits government employees from participating personally and substantially in official matters where they have a financial interest.” And while Kushner has divested from some of his family real estate interests he still has a lot of financial entanglements, causing real ethical concerns. Where is the outrage?

But even more fascinating in retrospect was the Republican concerns over the impact of the Clinton Foundation's dealings with and donations from foreign government officials if Clinton were elected. In the wake of the House Intelligence Committee's impeachment hearings and the release of the Mueller report, it's clear that Trump, people who worked on his campaign and his cronies had less than savory — and occasionally outright illegal — dealings with foreign governments, particularly Russia and Ukraine. But Republicans are rushing to Trump’s defense, claiming that there was no collusion with Russia in the last election and no quid pro quo with Ukraine over the upcoming election.

And if all of that isn’t bad enough, it's further clear that Trump and his business empire are profiting from his position as the president of the United States. Take, for example, Mike Pence traveling on official business to Ireland and staying at a distant Trump property after it was suggested by the president himself. While the vice president eventually paid for his family's stay personally, the expense for the security detail was footed with taxpayer dollars — and all that money went into Trump's pockets. ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/tr...ify-ncna1097266

Ein gutes Beispiel dafuer, wie weit die kollektive Volksverbloedung bereits fortgeschritten ist.

GOP senator blocks bill aimed at preventing Russia election meddling
Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) on Tuesday blocked an attempt by Democrats to pass legislation meant to prevent Russia and other countries from interfering in elections.

Crapo's move came after Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) asked for consent to pass the Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines, or DETER Act. Van Hollen argued the bill would underscore that there would be a "very tough price to pay" if Moscow meddles in U.S. elections.

"It's designed to send a very clear and simple message to Russia or any other country that is thinking about interfering in our elections and undermining our democracy that if we catch you, you will suffer a severe penalty," Van Hollen said.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4739...ection-meddling

GOP is hopelessly outclassed because they’re ensnared by the nonsense gushing from Fox News: conservative
In a piece for The Washington Post this Thursday, opinion writer Jennifer Rubin recounted the floor speeches from Democrats during Wednesday’s impeachment debate, writing that House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-CA) gave the “best speeches of their respective careers.”

“Their speeches incorporated facts into logical arguments, interwove historical references and were peppered with sardonic humor,” Rubin wrote.

“Such speeches were miles from Republicans’ juvenile, screeching and irrational remarks. Republicans insulted and ridiculed their opponents, stomped and snorted; they deflected and twisted evidence,” she continued. “They glared, rolled their eyes, booed and (in the case of the minority whip) melodramatically tore up papers. All in all, it was a remarkable display of how far the party’s collective intellect has deteriorated. Today’s Republicans talk and act like thugs, trash the institution in which they serve and make no effort to engage on a rational basis with their opponents.”

How did it all come to this? According to Rubin, we can thank the “nonsensical arguments and conspiracy theories gushing from Fox News” — a culture that inspired Republicans to “conform to Trump’s non-reality and never stray from his intellectual wasteland.”

“In short, the divide is vast and still widening between the parties,” Rubin writes. “One appeals to college-educated voters who consume factual information and develop emotional intelligence as they navigate through diverse workplaces and school settings. The other party appeals to non-college-educated voters who claim the bully president as their own and consume hours upon hours of right-wing media, which panders to ignorance and prejudice, not to mention to amoral profiteers who have figured out how to monetize the right-wing nuttery.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/gop-is-...s-conservative/

GOP Strategist Reveals The Only Thing Republicans Now Stand For
“Republicans are now officially the character doesn’t count party,” wrote Stuart Stevens in a scathing op-ed for The Washington Post.

... “Republicans are now officially the character doesn’t count party, the personal responsibility just proves you have failed to blame the other guy party, the deficit doesn’t matter party, the Russia is our ally party, and the I’m-right-and-you-are-human-scum party,” wrote Stevens, who is now working with a political action committee backing former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld’s (R) run against Trump’s 2020 reelection.
“Yes, it’s President Trump’s party now, but it stands only for what he has just tweeted,” he added.

Stevens said the impeachment of Trump over the Ukraine scandal “and all that has led to it should signal a day of reckoning.”
“A party that has as its sole purpose the protection and promotion of its leader, whatever he thinks, is not on a sustainable path,” he wrote, adding: “I’d like to say that I believe the party I spent so many years fighting for could rise to the challenge of this moment. But there have been too many lies for too long.” ...
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gop-strat...5b6b5a713b5b556

'Unparalleled privilege': why white evangelicals see Trump as their savior
The president is about as far from a model of piety as can be imagined but many reach for a biblical figure to justify their support

Before the end of 2016 there was little in Donald Trump’s life, or frequently offensive political campaign, to suggest that as president he would be hailed as God’s appointee on Earth, be beloved by born-again Christians, or compared to a biblical king.

Yet that is exactly what has happened in the three years since Trump took office, as he has surrounded himself with a God-fearing cabinet and struck up an unlikely but extremely beneficial relationship with white evangelical supporters.
It’s a relationship that, for Trump, has ensured unwavering support from a key voter base and for his religious supporters, seen a conservative takeover of the courts and an assault on reproductive and LGBTQ rights.

It’s also a relationship that is raising concerns about what another four years of Trump governance could achieve when it comes to fulfilling the policy ambitions of his evangelical backers.
“It’s incredibly troubling,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United, a non-partisan organization dedicated to the separation of church and state.
“Trump is conferring unparalleled privilege on one narrow slice of religion,” Laser said. “He confers privilege in exchange for constant loyalty at the ballot box, no matter what he does.”

The unlikely alliance between those nominally following biblical interpretations of right and wrong, and a thrice-married man who has been credibly accused of sexual assault and infamously paid off a pornographic actor, has thrown up a rich – and bizarre – cast of characters.

A sustained effort by influential Christian voices to justify Trump’s personal misdeeds and political cruelty has led to the frequent portrayal of Trump as a flawed vessel for God’s will. In particular, Trump has been compared to King Cyrus, who, according to the Bible, liberated the Jews from Babylonian captivity, despite himself being a Persian ruler. ...

Rank-and-file evangelicals have also embraced the imperfect vessel concept, and Wallnau is now selling Trump-Cyrus “prayer coins” – the king is in the background, a brooding profile of Trump is in the foreground – for $45 a coin.
“If you’re a faith community and you make a political deal with the president, and sell your soul, you stretch to come up with a theological justification, and this seems to be the go-to, this idea,” Laser said.

The concept has since gone international, with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, making the comparison in March 2018....
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020...ians-cyrus-king

Prosecutors recommend almost 5 years in prison for former GOP Rep. Chris Collins
Federal prosecutors recommended Monday that former Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) be sentenced to up to 57 months in prison for pleading guilty to insider trading last year.

Why it matters: Collins was the first congressman to endorse President Trump in 2016 and resigned in September after changing his not-guilty plea. Prosecutors argue that he should not receive leniency because he continued to serve in Congress while hiding his crimes.
https://www.axios.com/chris-collins-sent...b1789d703d.html

And there goes another one.

Chris Collins, First U.S. Lawmaker To Endorse Trump, Gets 26-Month Prison Sentence
The ex-House member from western New York pleaded guilty to illegal insider trading in September.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chris-col...5b632117610484b

Google "psychology today conservative brains" to learn about the more than 80 scientific studies (including brain scans) that prove beyond question that conservatism is literally brain damage. Or just watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzvDtdXt...HbTT2Ev7hTh2wg8

I used to cover Republicans who are cowering to Trump. I don't recognize them now.
Until Trump, I found something to like or respect about most politicians I encountered, even those I strongly disagreed with. That's no longer true.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/v...umn/4642177002/

Republican Party Official Resigns From GOP, Claims Party Is Now A Cult
Marion County GOP Precinct Committeeman Ed Adams resigned from the Republican party over President Donald Trump's impeachment process, according to The Indy Star.
"After watching the impeachment process transpire, it has become patently obvious that nothing remains of the party I knew and faithfully served," Adams said. He has been a Republican since 1984 when he voted for President Ronald Reagan.

During the impeachment process, he realized that he no longer wanted to be affiliated with the party and what Donald Trump has changed within it. He stated that, "at some point Trump will be done. He'll be gone. But the question is, what's left? But right now I just don't see anything left."

However, Adams believes that it is more than Trump who has contributed to the changes. He mentioned Republican Senators and House Republicans who gave a blind eye to Trump's wrongdoings. "For the life of me I don't understand why people don't want the truth. American people deserve the truth—and why are you enabling the hiding of truth? It has become the party of Donald Trump with cultish enthusiasm."

Ed Adams resigned from his position in the Republican party because he believes the party is now a cult.
https://mavenroundtable.io/theintellectu...KiuSGXs885DiYmg

Zitat von Willie im Beitrag #67

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Google "psychology today conservative brains" to learn about the more than 80 scientific studies (including brain scans) that prove beyond question that conservatism is literally brain damage. Or just watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzvDtdXt...HbTT2Ev7hTh2wg8

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