Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

This fight is for everything.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

We’re not going back!

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

“They not like us!” (that’s for sure!)

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Democrats are back in array!

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

People are weird.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Thieves in the Temple

Thieves in the Temple

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Because everyone in the Trump administration is a garbage human being, it’s no surprise that Jay Sekulow is even worse than I previously thought, and I previously thought he was a fucking human petri dish:

More than 15,000 Americans were losing their jobs each day in June 2009, as the US struggled to climb out of a painful recession following its worst financial crisis in decades.

But Jay Sekulow, who is now an attorney to Donald Trump, had a private jet to finance. His law firm was expecting a $3m payday. And six-figure contracts for members of his family needed to be taken care of.

Documents obtained by the Guardian show Sekulow that month approved plans to push poor and jobless people to donate money to his Christian nonprofit, which since 2000 has steered more than $60m to Sekulow, his family and their businesses.

Telemarketers for the nonprofit, Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism (Case), were instructed in contracts signed by Sekulow to urge people who pleaded poverty or said they were out of work to dig deep for a “sacrificial gift”.

“I can certainly understand how that would make it difficult for you to share a gift like that right now,” they told retirees who said they were on fixed incomes and had “no extra money” – before asking if they could spare “even $20 within the next three weeks”.

In addition to using tens of millions of dollars in donations to pay Sekulow, his wife, his sons, his brother, his sister-in-law, his niece and nephew and their firms, Case has also been used to provide a series of unusual loans and property deals to the Sekulow family.

I hate these people:

He founded Case in 1988 to build on a successful appearance at the US supreme court on behalf of the group Jews For Jesus, after an earlier career as a real estate attorney ended in bankruptcy and legal disputes. Sekulow has gone on to use Case as a platform for legal action to defend Christians against perceived encroachments on their rights.

Case raises tens of millions of dollars a year, much of it in small amounts from Christians who receive direct appeals for money over the telephone or in the mail. The telemarketing contracts obtained by the Guardian show how fundraisers were instructed by Sekulow to deliver bleak warnings about topics including abortion, Sharia law and Barack Obama.

“It’s time to let the president know that his vision of America is obscured and represents a dangerous threat to the Judea-Christian [sic] values that have been the cornerstone of our republic,” one script from 2015 said.

If there is a hell I hope these people rot in it.

Reader Interactions

124Comments

  4. 4.

    Achrachno

    Not rot. It’d be better if he sorta mummified, thus persisted, but with working nerve endings. Eternal discomfort. He’s the worst of the worst, and we knew that before this recent information. Figures that Trump would hire him.

  7. 7.

    eric

    He was Pat Robertson’s lawyer long before he was Trump’s That should tell you everything you need to know right there.

  11. 11.

    efgoldman

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I am a lawyer. I have my prejudices.

    Of what state bar is the evil prick a member? How can he keep going without multiple ethics complaints?

  12. 12.

    lollipopguild

    One good thing that might come out of this is that people like Sekulow are publicly exposed to millions for who they are. A lot of folks around trump may not end up in jail but the public exposure may end their ability to grift.

  15. 15.

    Mnemosyne

    @MomSense:

    I am not. I am laying around feeling guilty for not working on my novel. I’m really far behind on my self-imposed deadline. ?

    I hear they’re cool, though.

  16. 16.

    efgoldman

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Look it up yourself. Not my job.

    Jesus you’ve been pissy lately. It’s just possible that someone else who hangs around here might know offhand.

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    @MomSense: I am here. I did a post this afternoon. I did one last night. I did take most of the weekend off to just not have to deal with the meshugas. But I am feeling much better. Aside from the 10 lbs I gained during the two weeks I was out of the gym and on an antibiotic that gave me a craving for every fattening thing you could eat for ten days! Thanks for asking after me.

  19. 19.

    efgoldman

    @lollipopguild:

    A lot of folks around trump may not end up in jail but the public exposure may end their ability to grift.

    But unless they at least incur fines or sanctions, it won’t cost them anything from their bank accounts, legal or offshore.

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    @MomSense: Thanks. It was good to get back into the gym. Running with the dogs on Sunday was very painful. We’ll see how tomorrow’s run goes.

  26. 26.

    burnspbesq

    @lollipopguild:

    One good thing that might come out of this is that people like Sekulow are publicly exposed to millions for who they are. A lot of folks around trump may not end up in jail but the public exposure may end their ability to grift.

    I wish I could believe that, but I think it’s more likely that Sekulow will be able to use his impending “martyrdom” to double down. The kind of marks he goes after are not, generally speaking, among the sharpest saws in the toolbox.

  27. 27.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @John Cole: In which way have either of us (We both agree on a lot of shit) stepped past your rules? You let asshole trolls do what they want, but you threaten two longtime commenters?

  28. 28.

    efgoldman

    @burnspbesq:

    The kind of marks he goes after are not, generally speaking, among the sharpest saws in the toolbox.

    The holy roller bible thumpers have been grifting the rubes since before there was broadcasting. Why would they stop now?
    Whole cable networks have been built on the foundation of these small-dollar thieves.

  30. 30.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Omnes Omnibus: You seem to under mistaken impression that Cole is bound by rules, a simple lawyer mistake. Go forth an sin no more*.

    ETA: *You and efgoldman may also have say 13 Hail Bauds for absolution(and a small campaign contribution to Baud!2020!).

  36. 36.

    efgoldman

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    *You and efgoldman may also have say 13 Hail Bauds for absolution(and a small campaign contribution to Baud!2020!).

    Not until I find out what Baud did with the last one.

  43. 43.

    Redshift

    When I was a teenager, a bunch of friends got summer jobs doing clerical work at what turned out to be a conservative grift outfit. They had to listen to the call center scamming the elderly out of their social security checks with “President Reagan urgently needs your help” to fight some issue which in fact had been settled weeks before.

    Eventually, they couldn’t take it any more and quit en masse after some mild sabotage of the (paper) records they worked on.

    Grifting has been central to movement conservatism since the 70s, at least. A lot about the conservative base can be explained by the fact that for decades they’ve been carefully selected for gullibility, to maximize the profit-making potential of mailing lists.

  45. 45.

    eemom

    If there is a hell I hope these people rot in it.

    Doesn’t go far enough. I am prepared to set up my own charity to gather funds to construct such hell.

  47. 47.

    efgoldman

    @Redshift:

    Grifting has been central to movement conservatism since the 70s, at least.

    Long before that. It was traveling tent shows, then radio, then TV. And of course the mega jumbo churches.

  48. 48.

    MomSense

    @Mnemosyne:

    It really was impressive especially the end. There is inenof a little boy about 6 I’d say who does a full two minutes of dialogue. Such a cutie.

  57. 57.

    FlyingToaster

    @Mnemosyne: If the car gets turned around, I’m quite certain that there’s a farmer’s field in its future.

    Though probably not in WV this time.

  58. 58.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: Sure, sure. But I was thinking of accidentally opening a gateway to the faerie realm (if you’re Jewish and from Scotland or Ireland) or giving yourself indigestion from running your ki in the wrong direction (if you’re Jewish and from Japan). But not kosher works too.

  60. 60.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Omnes Omnibus: Not unique, there are many like them. Every last fucking televangelist, for example. The DeVos family, with their Amway/Whatever they’re calling it this week to avoid the stink of Amway operation.

    The DeVos family is, at least, a bit more obvious that they are into the open worship of Mammon at their recruitment drives.

  70. 70.

    hellslittlestangel

    Airplane! sure hasn’t aged well. Mostly it’s the kind of stuff right-wingers would laugh at. Black people talk funny, haw haw! Queers are queer, haw haw!

  72. 72.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    In any normal administration, this guy would be truly, horrifically awful, but in this crowd it’s hard to see how this guy could even make it to triple A ball playing this kind of low minor league shit. Scamming old, white, fearful Christians out of their rent money? Ehh, that’s nothing. This guy needs to really get in the game here if he wants to hold his own with the big time players.

  73. 73.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @John Cole: Aw, fuck it, Cole, I was hoping for once you were serious. Some of us are good & god-damned sick of O-O and goldie using any handy thread to throwi their used Depends at one another.

  75. 75.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: That’s why this blog always wins the annual Internet comity award. It’s like the Lady Bing for websites and blogs.

  83. 83.

    sm*t cl*de

    I previously thought he was a fucking human petri dish:

    Assumes culture not in evidence.

  85. 85.

    Juice Box

    It’s what, 7 or 8 a.m. in Bulgaria? Why hasn’t Jonathan Hollandaise Bechemel arrived? Is he sleeping in?

  86. 86.

    divF

    @Adam L Silverman:
    For my part, it was my first application of the new built-in pie filter. For a major infestation like that one, the results were impressive.
    I can see the advantage of the filter, rather than the old-fashioned approach of just scrolling past offending the comments – you don’t get even a glancing exposure to the vileness, thus keeping the BP down and eliminating the temptation to feed the troll.

  87. 87.

    GregB

    When does Trump pry off the lid to the Ark of the Covenent and bring the whirlwind down upon his masterful assemblage of villains, cranks, thugs and grifters?

  90. 90.

    Adam L Silverman

    @divF: Email Alain and let him know. We don’t want to give him too much positive reinforcement, but a little should be okay…

    As for me it is not an option. Important for the front pagers to see what is going on in case we have a real problem.

  93. 93.

    Aleta

    @efgoldman:

    In October of 1897, Prescott Ford Jernegan, a Baptist minister, and Charles Fisher, both from Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, arrived in Lubec and immediately set an elaborate plan in motion that ultimately resulted in financial ruin for hundreds of defrauded investors throughout New England and dashed the hopes of Lubec townspeople.
    The two newcomers leased Hiram Comstock’s tidal grist mill located at Mill Creek in North Lubec. According to Reverend Jernegan in the prospectus he prepared for potential investors, “Millions of dollars in gold were flowing through Lubec Narrows every single day.” He and his boyhood friend, Fisher, founded the Electrolytic Marine Salts Company, an endeavor that promised to extract millions of dollars in gold from the seawater racing through the Mill Creek site.

    Thousands of shares were sold, primarily to investors in Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut. Among the incredible claims was the following: “One is at a loss to comprehend the enormous wealth floating in solution in the ocean. At the lowest estimate, a cubit mile of seawater contains gold to the value of $65,000,000. It is probably nearer the mark to place it at $100,000,000.”

    Why were so many people willing to invest their life savings and even mortgage homes to become participants in this scheme? (In) The Lubec Herald … very favorable articles appeared lauding the good character of Jernegan and Fisher – “The presence of these people is not only desirable for the amount of money they will bring into the town, but we should welcome them for their social qualities. The officers of the company are earnest, Christian gentlemen, and many of their employees are Christians. We wish them all success in their undertaking and hope that they will take millions of dollars from old Passamaquoddy Bay – and we believe they will! With quantities of gold in the salt water there is little need of a trip to Alaska!” (The Alaskan Gold Rush was in full swing at this time, the major difference being that actual gold was being found there.)

    Rest of the story at the historical society link.

  95. 95.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    As for me it is not an option. Important for the front pagers to see what is going on in case we have a real problem.

    This was before your time here, but we once had a somewhat comical situation where a trollish commenter called AsianGrrlMN the “c” word, but she had him in her pie filter, so she couldn’t figure out why people were suddenly yelling at him.

    (He was, of course, banhammered.)

  98. 98.

    NotMax

    When it comes to being fully realized human beings, these people are factory seconds.

  99. 99.

    Ruckus

    @divF:
    Been using Cleek’s pie filter for a while. It has done wonders for my BP and general disposition. Without it I would never check in as often it just didn’t seem worth it some days. I like that it’s now built in as in the early days Cleek had to rework it every time FYWP had a hiccup. That seemed to be over with a few iterations ago but this is nicer, now I can use it on my phone.

  100. 100.

    Ruckus

    @NotMax:
    You sully the good name of factory seconds.
    And besides they don’t come close in any way to second line humans.

  102. 102.

    Redshift

    @efgoldman:

    Long before that. It was traveling tent shows, then radio, then TV. And of course the mega jumbo churches.

    Yeah, but that was around the time they merged with the GOP.

  103. 103.

    Raven Onthill

    15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17 In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will know them by their fruits. — Matthew 7

  105. 105.

    TenguPhule

    I am willing to support a religion that sacrifices Jay Sekulow by having his heart cut out of his chest.

  107. 107.

    TenguPhule

    @different-church-lady:

    What do I have to do to get threatened around here?!?

    Be old, white & male.

    Or else have a National Security background. Which gets you creepy online stalkers as a bonus.

  111. 111.

    NotMax

    @Sab

    Hawaiian Standard Time zone. Currently 6 hours earlier than the east coast. (As we don’t change the clock, we are 5 hours earlier when you guys change the time.)

  112. 112.

    TenguPhule

    @NotMax:

    Pricey proposition as it requires an electron microscope to see it.

    Not really. If large portions of his chest get ripped out in the process, well you can’t make an omelet without cracking a few eggs.

  113. 113.

    Sab

    @TenguPhule: @NotMax: So I am listening to the pre-dawn annoying birds chirp, and you guys have barely gone to bed? Internet is amazing.

    No wonder Cokie Robert’s thinks you are exotic.

  115. 115.

    Sab

    @TenguPhule: I have an academic sister who travels. I frequently call her at a reasonable time my time and wake her up in the middle of the night somewhere in East Asia.

  116. 116.

    Gvg

    @Aleta: huh, so Passamaquoddy was a real place. Disney’s original Pete’s Dragon took place in Passamaquoddy and there were con men selling quack medicine who,couldn’t say the name.

  118. 118.

    NorthLeft12

    Miserable excuses for human beings like Sekulow are almost incomprehensible to me. I guess I will never understand how greed, selfishness, and avarice can reach such levels that rich [by any measure you want] people would bilk poorer people to build their pile of gold even further.
    Damn I hate those people.

  121. 121.

    apocalipstick

    @lollipopguild: Nope. I run in this subculture and I can tell you that nothing will change. There is an ancillary stream of “Christian” “financial experts” (Dave Ramsey) who have spent decades hammering home the message that accrual of wealth is never, ever sinful. On top of that, the old Fox News paranoia will allow the “faithful” to claim that Jay is just bein’ persecuted.

    As a Christian who has tried to take Jesus’s teaching on morality and the poor to heart, I’m beginning to think monasticism might be an appealing option.

  124. 124.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I took an unusual antibiotic, 1 week a month for 6 months, just finished my last week long dose. Really the first pharma drug to have any strong side-effects for me. Worked though, apparently.

    Every so often I will look up an unfamiliar word and learn about things I would rather not know. Like on a list of bodily fluids, one I was unfamiliar with led me to learning about ________________________________. — You can’t unlearn that. I removed what I learned there, no one wants to know about that. Be hygenic!!! Keep clean!!! Wash your hands often!!!!!

    Glad you’re feeling better!!

    FL is filled with biosphere all around you. Up here, at least we get periodic dry spells and cold spells to set the biome back a little bit. Caught a flying mosquito-like bug the other night, appeared to have weighed a couple of grams, over an inch long. Caught it with a fly-swatter, don’t know if it was dead, was past bet-time, saw wings fly off, knew it wasn’t going to be buzzing us in the dark. Like a FL Palmetto Bug, only not a beetle… prolly not a blood-sucker, but???

    And we’ve started seeing lone-star ticks here, which have a tiny white dot on their back… evidently their bite can sometimes cause a new allergy to red meat… mechanism completely unknown. Sometimes lessens with time, can come back with a second bite. What’s with that? I could do without steak, but fresh home grown tomatoes are coming in now, and you gotta have bacon for BLTs, can’t live without BLTs in the summertime!

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