When Fascism Comes to America It Will Be Wrapped in the Flag and Carrying a Trump Bible

Axios: Few politicians have commanded the loyalty of the religious right like former President Trump, whose decision to begin selling $60 Bibles for Holy Week has outraged his critics — but drawn little reaction from evangelical leaders.

Why it matters: Trump has developed a sense of impunity when it comes to religious messaging, forged through a grand compromise with Christian conservatives who see him as a flawed — but effective — champion of their movement.

Hawking Bibles is just the latest example.

Flashback: Trump was neither a regular churchgoer nor prone to displays of faith before running for president. His 2016 campaign produced a series of memorable gaffes as he courted the GOP’s evangelical base.

  • At the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa in 2015, Trump said he had never asked God for forgiveness and called Communion his “little wine” and “little cracker.”
  • In an interview with Bloomberg the following month, Trump repeatedly refused to name his favorite Bible verse — calling it “very personal.”
  • In a speech at Liberty University in January 2016, Trump cited a verse from what he called “Two Corinthians” instead of “Second Corinthians,” drawing laughter from the crowd and mockery from his GOP rivals.

Trump’s Mental Decline on Display at Ohio Rally

From the Star Spangled Banner that was intentionally and repeatedly interrupted by Donald Trump reciting lines from the Pledge of Allegiance to his inane and inappropriate salute during the anthem (proper national anthem etiquette calls for removing one’s hat and holding it in one’s right hand placed over one’s heart), his declining mental state was on full display in Ohio last Saturday.

We dare you to watch the whole thing:

GOP Nominee for NC Public Schools Called for Violence against Democrats, Including Executing Obama and Biden

 Michele Morrow
CNN screen grab from video posted March 3, 2024, North Carolina superintendent candidate Michele Morrow

CNN: The Republican nominee for superintendent overseeing North Carolina’s public schools and its $11 billion budget has a history marked by extreme and controversial comments, including sharing baseless conspiracy theories and frequent calls for the execution of prominent Democrats.

Michele Morrow, a conservative activist who last week upset the incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction in North Carolina’s Republican primary, expressed support in 2020 for the televised execution of former President Barack Obama and suggested killing then-President-elect Joe Biden.

[…]

Psychiatrist Interviewed about Trump’s Diminishing Acuity and ‘Hypomanic’ Dementia

Says it will only get worse

Salon.com: Dr. John Gartner is a psychologist and former professor at the Johns Hopkins University Medical School. Gartner was a contributor to the 2017 bestseller “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.”

In this conversation, Gartner argues that it is actually Donald Trump and not President Biden who is showing diminished mental acuity and dangerous behavior related to aging. Gartner explains that Donald Trump’s escalating dangerousness is connected to what he believes is a diseased mind that will only get worse. Gartner warns that given Trump’s dangerous personality and emotional state, (Gartner describes this as “hypomanic” behavior) he is almost certainly plotting revenge and how to make his “enemies” suffer as revenge for finally being held accountable by the courts and the rule of law. At the end of this conversation, Gartner explains how even on his worst day as an older person, President Biden is a far superior leader and decision-maker (and human being) than Donald Trump.

House GOP Unhappy with Speaker Johnson’s Preachifying During Leadership Retreat

GOP Speaker Johnson preaching
GOP Speaker Johnson preaching

Boredbat.com: Members of House Republican leadership expressed frustration at Speaker Mike Johnson after a GOP leadership retreat over the weekend, organized to outline plans for keeping the majority, quickly turned into a religious service.

“I’m not at church,” an anonymous attendee said in response to Johnson leading the group in prayers and Christian sermonizing. According to two people in the room the sermon was not well received, with one Rep. calling the session “horrible.”

Johnson was reportedly railing against government, saying that without God in their lives people will turn to the government for guidance. The sermon lasted for a full third of the meeting according to the anonymous members.

“I think what he was trying to do, but failed on the execution of it, was try to bring us together,” the anonymous source said. “The sermon was so long he couldn’t bring it back to make the point.”

Meduza Collected the Carlson-Putin Interview Memes So You Don’t Have to Watch


Russian opposition media site meduza.io collected some of the funniest memes from Tucker Carlson’s “interview” with Vladimir Putin so you don’t have to watch it. Some of them are pretty funny. The one where Putin’s leg starts to crawl away reminds me of the scene in “Dr. Strangelove” where the doctor’s hand keeps doing a Hitler salute as he fights with his own body part.

See the memes here.

N.Y. Fraud Case Likely to Turn Trump from Billionaire to Thousandaire

Daily Beast

Jose Paglieri of the Daily Beast has a trenchant analysis of the likely outcome of the Trump Organization’s New York fraud case, and it’s all bad news for Donald Trump. Besides the hundred millions of dollars in fines, two obscure state laws look set to balloon the fines into the fiscal stratosphere.

The first is a requirement that he immediately put up the amount of the fine before he can appeal the decision, and the second is a sky-high 9% state interest rate that could add another $200 million to the minimum $370 million fine the attorney general has requested.

As Paglieri lays it out:

Whatever the enormous judgment will be, the state-mandated 9 percent interest rate on the sum is likely to date back to the start of AG Letitia James’ investigation in 2018, which means Trump could be in the hole for nine-figures more. If the judgment against Trump is, for instance, $370 million, he would face an additional $33.3 million tacked on annually to the base amount of the original judgment. It’s simple interest, which means it only applies to the original judgment, but if the time period stretches back six years, Trump would automatically owe 54 percent more than whatever the judgment comes out to be. (In this hypothetical of $370 million with six years of interest, it’d be almost exactly $200 million more.)

Then there’s the matter of Trump’s inevitable appeal. The $315 filing fee will be the least of his worries. According to New York state court rules, Trump will have only a month to front a massive appellate bond worth anywhere from 110 percent to 120 percent of the judgment. Experts who spoke to The Daily Beast said Trump has two options: pay it directly to the court system, or find a surety company that would provide the state a guarantee on his behalf.

But if the Trump Organization is dissolved, as AG Letitia James wants, Paglieri notes, “Trump might not be able to rely on tainted goods to pay off the punishment for having tainted goods.”

DeSantistan: ‘A Refuge of Freedom and Sanity’


Except it’s not. Gov. Ron DeSantis gave his State of the State address yesterday to open the Florida Legislature’s 2024 60-day session. It was a tissue of lies, exaggerations, misrepresentations and coverups of the reality on the ground in the Sunshine State. Lil’ D did not bother to paint a vision for the state’s future because his focus is on his losing bid for presidency.

“It was a speech written for Iowa and New Hampshire voters, House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said afterward,” reported the Tampa Bay Times. “I was surprised that there was no real vision for Florida,” Driskell said. “I came away feeling, OK, so where do you want to take us next?”

DeSantis’s “small government” is more intrusive in citizens’ lives, his robust state budget relies on federal handouts and his anti-woke agenda is based on curtailing individual constitutional freedoms of assembly, speech and privacy.

So much for the “free state of Florida.”