Tuesday, June 30, 2020

'Rhetorical Question - Is Trump Trying to Kill Us All?' & other Wed midday news briefs


Is Trump Trying to Kill Us All? - It's a rhetorical question and not necessarily just about the LGBTQ community, but one has to wonder.

No, Barstool, you’re not using the LGBTQ community to cancel Jemele Hill - Who should I trust? The present ally who admitted to making a mistake over 10 years ago or the present-day right-wing jerk. Please. 

Meet the LGBT+ charity workers redefining community under lockdown - Heroes.

Evangelical conservatives picked a bad time to feel 'vindicated' about supporting Trump



Though the above video happened last week, its release this week isn't a necessarily good moment for the religious right.

 From People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch:

Religious-right activist Ralph Reed appeared on Daystar’s “Joni Table Talk” program last week to promote his new book, “For God and Country: The Christian Case for Trump.” During the broadcast, Reed complained that evangelical Christians have repeatedly been “demeaned” for supporting President Donald Trump despite the fact that they have been completely “vindicated” as the president has systematically enacting their political agenda. “I think what Christians saw was not a perfect man because none of us are perfect,” Reed said, repeating the standard phrase used by evangelicals in defending Trump. “Not someone who had never failed to sin or make mistakes. He’s acknowledged that he’s a sinner, as we all are.” Reed’s claim that Trump has acknowledged that he is a sinner obviously conflicts with Trump’s own repeated declarations that he doesn’t ask God for forgiveness because he is a good person who doesn’t “do a lot of things that are bad.”

Granted, it's never a good time for anyone, much less anyone who calls themselves "Christians" to claim that they feel vindicated for supporting Trump. But in the middle of a pandemic made worse by his bad leadership coupled with growing controversy about his inaction against Russia when finding out that Putin put a death bounties on our soldiers, one has to question the values of Christians such as Reed. Maybe it's just me, but I've always been taught that Christians don't have to make excuses for or give praise to the devil.

Reed is the second religious right leader in a week to praise Trump for giving conservative evangelicals what they want in terms of power. On Thursday, Family Research Council head Tony Perkins claimed that Trump deserves praise in spite of everything else (which would include his lies, inept leadership, all-around bad character) because he has put 200 judges on the bench.

Just something to file under "keep the receipts."  Evangelical conservative leaders aren't living in a different world from the rest of us. It's the same world but they simply don't care. They don't care about the pandemic. They don't care about Trump's eyebrow raising relationship with Putin. And they certainly don't care about the bounties on the heads of our soldiers. The only thing they seem to care about is having power and influence over American policy and they are willing to attach their lips to the ass of anyone who gives it to them.

If and when Trump goes down to disgrace, folks like Reed and Perkins and their ilk should go crashing with him down the same hole. All the way to the bottom.