Mike Huckabee, who is apparently Trump’s ambassador to Israel (somehow I’d repressed that memory?), gargled Trump’s balls so hard in a text message that Dumbfuck Hitler felt moved to share it with the world via his janky social media platform. 
I mean, gross and all that, but it’s not like we haven’t heard this North Korea-style fluffing from all of Trump’s minions, so normally I wouldn’t bother sharing it. But this jumped out at me: “Truman in 1945.”
What notable thing happened that year? Oh yeah, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And Huckabee is an End Times-believing evangelical fanatic surrounded by a wide variety of zealots in a regional tinderbox where bombs are flying everywhere.
To recap, a deranged Bible-humper with a fully engorged Rapture-boner is fawning over the demented authoritarian who has the nuclear codes and urging him to listen to Huckabee’s imaginary sky daddy. Like Han Solo, I’ve got a bad feeling about this…
Open thread.
Compilation #3 of No Kings Pics
Steve in the ATL
Jesus H. Tap Dancing Christ.
JaySinWa
Who would Jesus bomb?
ETA or the Father. Or the Holy Ghost for that matter.
I assume this is a call to Nuke Iran, to fulfill the urging of the McCain song.
ETA 2
I’m not up on my apocalyptic prophecy, but it sounds like Huckabee is expecting to be the last man standing when the bomb goes up.
Elizabelle
Jesus Christ! The Huckabee family would be who in fiction? Pretty sure William Faulkner had something to say about their type.
Also, FWIW, Jimmy Swaggart may be at death’s door after a heart attack. He is 90, and it was amazing to learn he was still alive. (His cousin Jerry Lee Lewis passed earlier, and deserved the longer life, IMHO.) Jimmy, Jerry Lee, and Mickey Gilley were all cousins, and born in 1935-36.
FDRLincoln
You know…Trump may very well be the Anti-Christ. A lot of signs point to it, including having fooled all the religious people into following him.
Not that I believe in such things. But, you know. . .
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
@JaySinWa:
@Elizabelle:
Jesus Christ has been demoted.
Steve LaBonne
[“this is fine” dog]
Mr. Longform
“Truman in 1945.”
That sounds very, very, very bad. That addle-pated old Foxnews grandpa with the nuclear codes. Time to duck and cover.
Elizabelle
Baby boy named Chance born to the Georgia woman the state insisted stay on a respirator. He is 1 pound 13 ounces. His mother, Adriana Smith, was declared brain dead after blood clots in her brain, and will be taken off life support today.
BBC has the details. I hope Chance is healthy and has a happy life. His grandmother says he is fighting.
TONYG
Ha. I guess that Mike Huckabee actually believes his own bullshit. It’s always hard to tell with those people who actually believes in their own rhetoric and who is just in it for the money. Both groups are equally despicable.
scav
Sane person gets that screed in their inbox and basically assumes either someone’s taking the piss or is pissed.
Elizabelle
If Huckabee were an ambassador appointed by a Democrat, he would already be hospitalized and/or en route back to the US.
What a lunatic.
AM in NC
What the ever-loving fuck?
These people are freaks.
JaySinWa
Yeah, I guess their daddy issues are in full display now.
Jackie
What the hell is going on?!
Baud
@Elizabelle:
I can believe a baby less than 2 pounds has a chance.
Maybe they won’t after Trump is done destroying medical science.
suzanne
:::nonstop vomiting:::
I have a really hard time with the fact that some of these repulsive people actually get other people to touch them naked.
Steve in the ATL
@Jackie:
What could go wrong?
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
Four years from now, a Democrat will be blamed for it.
Jeffro
JAYsus that’s just gross
oh well…whatever happens, it’s all on MAGA!
<world explodes>
thanks for nothing you effing morons!!
Jeffro
I have this same conversation with myself about every other month, despite my lifelong atheism.
stinger
Does Huckabee never worry that, like Flick and the flagpole, his lips might become permanently stuck there?
Baud
@stinger:
It would be his honor.
MrPug
As a teenager in the 1980’s that was a pretty scary time to be alive re global thermonuclear war and all of the very scary movies. So, again, pretty scary time, but I was also young back then. This time feels far scarier than that time largely because the world is currently run by lunatics and some of those lunatics have lots of thermonuclear bombs.
Elizabelle
In news of way smarter people, like a whole universe away:
Longform article writer William Langewiesche (pronounced long-gah-vee-shuh) died this week, aged 70, of pancreatic cancer. He was phenomenal, and I bet a lot of us read his takes on aviation disasters (he was a corporate pilot earlier in life; wrote for Flying magazine decades ago) and other topics. His father, Wolfgang, was a German emigre and Navy test pilot who wrote the “Stick and Rudder” training manual in the 1940s. William began his flying lessons as a young child.
You will probably remember his articles on the disappearance of the Malaysian Air jet, an EgyptAir jet’s plunge into the sea, and the loss of an Air France jetliner over the Atlantic. He also wrote about the World Trade Center, wine expert Robert Parker, and a lot of other topics. I saw his work in The Atlantic.
Here is a good obit by Trip Gabriel in the NY Times.
GIFT LINK: William Langewiesche, the ‘Steve McQueen of Journalism,’ Dies at 70
He was a master of long form narratives, often involving high-stakes topics. He reported for Vanity Fair, The Atlantic and The New York Times Magazine.
End of the obit:
We are “governed” by people who “write” in tweets. Dog save us.
YY_Sima Qian
The self-humiliation of a bit player such as Huckabee is amusing, but the actual events are frightening. Not sure the Europeans are being “adults in the room” in the Israeli-Iranian War. Posted below downstairs, but this the more appropriate thread:
WTF?
I guess Europeans are really pissed (& justifiably so) at Iran for selling Russia drones to hit Ukraine. OTOH, backing Bibi’s reckless escalation & attempt at regime change in Tehran (w/ no plans for the days after whether the attempt succeeds or fails) is just braindead. Are we going to see the Germany & France backing Trump’s possible intervention to “finish the job”, in an ironic reversal from the run up to the Iraq War of 2003?
If the theocratic regime survives, it will finally follow the Kim Dynasty’s example of acquiring nukes to achieve regime security. If the regime falls, there is the strong possibility possibility of Iran becoming a failed state for quite a while (because there is no organized opposition to take over, & because there is the centrifugal force from the numerous ethnic minorities seeking & receiving support from their brethren in neighboring countries, & because a failed Iranian state is Bibi’s & the US Iran Hawk’s wet dream). While the regime’s fate is being decided, especially if the US gets directly involved in the deciding, Iran will strike US bases in the ME, the oil infrastructure in the Gulf States, & close the Persian Gulf. The resulting spike in the price of oil & gas will do no good for the EU’s economy, & thus its ability to support Ukraine, rearm against Russia, or hold off the domestic reactionaries. A global energy shock will also strongly benefit Russia.,
Can’t anybody here play this game?!!
NotMax
Tom Lehrer, anyone?
JaySinWa
@Jeffro: The Anti-Christ saga may be the only way to dislodge some of the Christian Nationalists from Trump. But Lord help us if they find their next savior to replace him.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: I have to vote in the Virginia primary today, and we have too many good choices for Lt. Gov and AG! Wonderful problem to have.
Do you have any suggestions? I know who I am leaning toward …
Bupalos
I wonder if all the MAGA baboons that try to carry on from Trump after His voice finally falls silent (Inshallah) are going to have to invent their own “God saved me from Death in Smallville” stories from here on out.
Could be entertaining.
YY_Sima Qian
Also posted this downstairs, also more appropriate here:
Gaza is no longer in the news, that does not mean the IDF is not making news in Gaza:
The IDF opened fire w/ tanks. Toying w/ the starving occupied population at their mercy, which they do not view as human beings. You can draw the parallels from history.
The UK/France/Germany sure have not had much to say about Israeli conduct in Gaza (or the WB). They seemed have been building toward some efforts at censure a couple of weeks ago, all of which went quiet once the IDF started to drop bombs in Iran.
oldgold
When they start with God spared Trump at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally, do they ever consider the man who was shot dead by the assassin, Corey Comperatore? What is there explanation for that? Oops?
Geminid
@Jackie: What’s going on? Probably one or both of two things: preparation to enter the war on Israel’s side, or a show of force intended to pressure Iran to return to the negotiating table and sign a deal along the lines presented to the Islamic Republic around two weeks ago. And if they don’t, enter the war on Israel’s side.
Barak Ravid posted a story in Axios saying the U.S. has proposed that White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Arangchi meet this week. That seems to be the administration’s ceasefire track right now.
I’ll post more about the article with a link later on, but it’s worth looking up even though things are happening so fast now the story could be out of date by the time I post.
stinger
@Baud: God. Oh god oh god oh god.
suzanne
@YY_Sima Qian: What is happening in Gaza is a tragedy, a war crime, and a moral stain on this country.
Josie
This shit is about as frightening as anything i have ever read. It’s also totally irreligious.
Bupalos
@YY_Sima Qian: Well, good points. But it’s not exactly an easy game either.
Elizabelle
@oldgold: I just remember how many of us (me!) were grateful that The Felon survived so that he could be walloped by Kamala on Election Day.
Whoops.
We are living through the stupidest history possible. I know that it is taking a toll on me. It is not just age that accounts for the fatigue.
Elizabelle
@Geminid: Suggestions on Virginia primary voting?? For an undecided (sorta) jackal.
We are actually going to have a good ticket headed by Abigail Spanberger no matter who the voters choose today.
planetjanet
@Elizabelle: I support Babur Lateef. He brought sanity to a chaotic school board here and helped usher in a teacher’s union, largest public service union in the state, at least at the time. He is good people.
Baud
@Geminid:
Yeah, even the Arab states like Iran being brought down. Trump will easily take advantage of the opportunity.
Bupalos
@Josie: You don’t think “All that matters to me is whatever God tells Trump” is theologically sound?
YY_Sima Qian
I can’t believe the noted neocon über-hawk Josh Rogin wrote the following:
I guess like JD Vance & Elbridge Colby, he is one of those “China prioritizers” that does not want the US to become distracted again from the much more central (& their preferred) war.
Raoul Paste
Maybe it’s time to cash out my IRA.
OMG
Elizabelle
@planetjanet: Have to say, I like his stands the most. WaPost (??) did an excellent overview of the candidates. Had not heard of Mr. Lateef before, and we are lucky to have people of his caliber.
ETA: No longer living in No VA, I had not heard of him. Humane and intelligent man.
Baud
@YY_Sima Qian:
Just a weird sentence given that it’s conditional.
WereBear
You are one of my fave wordsmiths, Betty Cracker!
Hunter S. Thompson level :)
Also, too, I must admit this hideous timeline has its compensations, because it’s at least a satirical high tech sciece fiction dystopia. Crazed billionaire mad scientists were taking over the world since the 1930s. It could go any number of ways.
Let’s count a blessing. We got Sir Pratchett. It could have been Cormac McCarthy.
Other MJS
Is that a reference to the SCTV Farm Film Report?
Elizabelle
A war will take our minds off the Big Beautiful Bill and the mayhem The Felon is foisting upon our (Blue) cities?
Mike Johnson’s caucus will HAVE to vote for the BBB because TRUMP is now a WARTIME PRESIDENT?
Glad I have mucho alcohol in the house. Jesus Christ. On a cracker.
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: They don’t want to see a nuclear armed Iran, & they don’t mind seeing Iran brought down a few notches by Israel &/or the US, as long as the blow back does not fall on them. However, I doubt any of them wants to see Iran becoming a failed state, given their experiences w/ such failed states in Iraq, Syria, Yemen & Libya.
There is a reason the Gulf States & other Sunni Arab states have been seeking to stabilize relations with/ Iran in the past 3 years, or so.
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: I would have expected Rogin to cheer on a US bombing campaign against Iran to both destroy the nuclear program & collapse the theocratic regime.
Elizabelle
I was really looking forward to what William Langewiesche would have written about Air India 171.
And it is interesting to me that no one has issued a mandate to check every Dreamliner in service. Was this something particular to Air India? Maintenance or fuel contamination issues?
Baud
@YY_Sima Qian:
They’re probably willing to take the risk.
Even if there’s no further war, losers often face domestic discontent.
WereBear
Fall of the House of Usher.
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid: I have zero confidence that the Trump gang can avoid being played by Bibi & close a negotiated deal in the near future:
comrade scotts agenda of rage
In the words of the noted, robot philosopher, C3PO:
“We’re doomed.”
Geminid
@Elizabelle: I have my favorites– Aaron Rouse for LG and Jay Jones for AG– but I think there are other goid candidates and no turkeys among the rest of the two fields.
If I decided I wanted a geograpbically balanced ticket, I might pick Jones and leave Rouse out because they’re both from the Hampton Roads area. But I don’t think geographical balance matters very much these days.
Elizabelle
@WereBear: Ooh. Time to read that. Have missed most of EA Poe’s novels and novellas, sad to say.
WereBear
@FDRLincoln: True. As an escaped Southern Baptist, I can tell you, he checks almost ALL the boxes.
Google AI List: Here’s a breakdown of some common themes and elements that might appear on an “Antichrist checklist”:
1. Opposition to Christ: The core idea is that the Antichrist will be a figure who actively opposes Jesus Christ and his teachings. This includes denying the divinity of Jesus and rejecting the Father and the Son.
2. Deception and False Promises: The Antichrist is often portrayed as a charismatic and deceptive figure who deceives many with false promises and miracles, leading people away from true faith.
3. Political Power and Authority: Many interpretations suggest the Antichrist will gain significant political power and influence, uniting nations under his rule, potentially even rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, as described in the book of Revelation, according to religious scholars.
4. Persecution of Believers: The time of the Antichrist is often described as a period of persecution for Christians, where their faith is challenged and they face increasing hostility from the world.
5. Eschatological Context: The Antichrist’s appearance is typically associated with the end times, a period of chaos and tribulation preceding the second coming of Christ.
6. Physical Characteristics (Varying interpretations): Some interpretations suggest specific physical attributes, such as those mentioned in the Mysterie of Simean ben Yochay, like being very ruddy, having a stye on his eye, or having three signs on his body.
7. Specific Biblical Figures: Some believe the Antichrist is already present in the world or has already appeared in history, and they identify him with figures like the Beast from the Sea, the Beast from the Earth, the Little Horn, or the Son of Perdition from the Book of Revelation and other Biblical texts.
Elizabelle
@Geminid: Thank you. Both good candidates.
And. There are more!
planetjanet
@Elizabelle:
I have worked with him a lot locally and consider him my friend. He is also my eye doctor.
bbleh
@YY_Sima Qian: yes. They’re also not unhappy to see Israel and Iran in open conflict (“let them fight”), imo because neither has the ability to “win” in the sense of defeating the other for the foreseeable future, nor (I think) of causing the other’s regime to fall.
That could change if the US enters the conflict openly and uses some of its weapons against Iran, which is why my bet is that the Gulf States are lobbying the Orange Guy *NOT* to intervene openly and instead to force a “deal.” And I’d bet they’re urging Iran to do the same to the extent they can.
Against that is set the Orange Guy’s vainglory and general mental deterioration, and the urging of the Israeli regime and its allies.
I don’t know which way I’d bet on that question if I had to…
p.a.
Thank dog wars never have unintended consequences.
lowtechcyclist
Iran v. Israel: if it weren’t for still too many (relatively) innocent people in both countries, I’d be rooting for injuries. It’s too bad we can’t just lock the leaders of both regimes and their respective henchmen in a room and let them fight it out.
Archon
@FDRLincoln: The crazy part is you would think there would be a moment of contemplation from Trumps hardcore religious supporters that believe in that stuff. It hasn’t even crossed their mind that Trump might be the anti-christ, much less an evil person.
trnc
@Jackie: Feels like Trump trying to latch onto an already effective Israel campaign so he can claim some credit.
lowtechcyclist
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Or Arthur Dent: “So this is it. We’re going to die.”
Baud
@trnc:
100%
Netanyahu will come out of this stronger than ever. Maybe he’ll even call elections.
satby
@Elizabelle: nothing says prolife like keeping a corpse on mechanical life support to be able to deliver a seriously underweight premature infant who will probably have lifelong health issues while at the same time planning to remove the social safety net that would help with the enormous costs that will be inflicted on that family.
BlueGuitarist
AP reports:
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
“Never tell me the odds.”
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: I voted for Hashmi for Lt Gov and Taylor for AG (which would give VA Dems a very talented, experienced, and all-female ticket!)
Bupalos
@YY_Sima Qian: I think people badly underestimate the degree to which the United States simply cannot pursue any coherent foreign policy goals anymore. It requires more democratic capacity than we enjoy, and has for some time. Now throw Trump II in the mix, I think it’s increasingly difficult to even say what the United States would prefer. Trump himself has no foreign policy goals at all, and increasingly uses language that implies this. His stance is that of a casual observer, watching only to see whether the system happens to accidentally deliver him something useful.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: My twin. Those are my preferences too, because I know them. (Richmond area)
But we will be good whoever is chosen.
May we hear more from ALL these excellent candidates. Deep Democratic bench in Virginia.
ETA: the only thing that gives me pause about this is the all female aspect of the ticket.
Don’t let Virginians retain AG Miyares “for balance” because he is male.
Mike S
For a party that hates gays so viciously, they sure do love sucking his mushroom cap.
Miss Bianca
@Jackie: I heard Blackhawks thundering past my house last night (and I mean, almost at eye level, cuz the Mountain Hacienda is up at almost 9000 feet above sea level) and I immediately wondered what the hell was going on – routine night training? Or something else?
YY_Sima Qian
I guess US entry into the war it is.
Xi Jinping must be even more convinced that China has some kind of “Mandate of Heaven” via these “great changes unseen in a century” to return to its former privileged position in the world. He (& Putin, & Modi) must be hoping the US gets stuck in another ME quagmire for a decade.
The energy price shock will hurt everyone (except Russia & other energy suppliers not located in the Persian Gulf), but the PRC has built up by far the largest strategic reserves for oil & gas (& every other commodity imaginable) in the world during & since the pandemic, & can still purchase cheap(er) oil & gas from Russia, Australia, Venezuela, Africa, etc., perhaps even from the US to mollify Trump for a bit. The massive build out of renewable energy & adoption of new energy vehicles have also caused imports of oil & coal to decrease. & there is always the domestic coal to serve as the backstop.
lou
@WereBear:
@WereBear:
I’m fearing Dr. Strangelove instead. These are people obsessed with precious bodily fluids anti-fluoridation, after all.
Parfigliano
Proof there is no God. What kind of shit God would choose a serial con man rapist dumb fuck like Trump to be it’s voice. I literally wish all these Christopaths would die.
Sister Golden Bear
@NotMax: I see your Tom Lehrer and raise you Fishbone.
Elizabelle
@satby: Whole thing is tragic. You just wanted them to show more curiosity about the original blinding headaches (blood clots on brain), which no one caught in time.
Interestingly, the family has never said what they would do if the state of Georgia had not forced their hand.
And I think the state needs to pick up all medical costs, since they forced the life support and birth upon this family. (Who may still be happy to have a new little grandchild. But do not deserve bankruptcy.)
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
I really do not understand how people like Huckster can write such lovesick homoerotic arglebargle to their leaders yet get bent when I tell my fiance I love him.
Bupalos
@YY_Sima Qian: That would indeed traditionally be an expression of entering the war. With Trump, I don’t know.
I do know the fizzle in LA, the protests, the failed parade, the Musk schism, and going back a bit the Taco trade and loss of attention dominance in the market… this is a set of narcissistic injuries that he will be looking to escalate past.
Elizabelle
@Parfigliano: Christopath. That is good. They are fake as can be, for sure. I wish Jesus would come back and kick them all into the next county.
Tony Jay
@FDRLincoln:
“MAGAts. Fuck me. Say what you will about the tenets of Apocalyptic Satanism, at least it’s an ethos.”
Betty Cracker
@Other MJS: Nope; I was today years old the first time I saw that — thanks for sharing it. (Spouse and I have an in-joke about “blowed up” on account of I am a hick who used to enjoy playing with fireworks when I was younger and dumber.)
YY_Sima Qian
@Bupalos: w/ the massive movement of USAF assets over the past 48 hrs, this is not an idle threat.
Trollhattan
Good god, did he borrow JD’s couch when writing that?
Fucka Hucka Hurla Luncha.
How often is he giving Bibi reacharounds?
Jackie
@lowtechcyclist:
I’ve wished that idea for decades.
Trollhattan
@YY_Sima Qian:
Iran ain’t Japan and this ain’t 1945. WTAF?
Miss Bianca
@YY_Sima Qian: This tool is just *now* coming to these conclusions? Jesus wept.
Actually, I imagine Jesus has been weeping for some now.
Betty Cracker
@FDRLincoln: I don’t believe in gods but may start speculating along those lines with Trumpy kin. He really does check every box!
opiejeanne
@Elizabelle: My little sister was born months early, in 1952. 1 pound 9 ounces. She survived when she wasn’t supposed to and is fine. May Chance have her luck.
Trollhattan
@Miss Bianca:
They are very loud. We get them hereabouts during firefight season and they’re not to be mistaken for any other heli I can name.
Once was at work when three Ospreys overflew downtown. They seem an order of magnitude louder—wake the dead loud.
Mustang Bobby
I haven’t seen that good a blowjob since Kneepad Night at the Ramrod in Ft. Lauderdale.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: Former Delegate Jay Jones comes from a political family. His grandfather was lawyer for the Virginia NAACP during the Civil Rights era, and was the first African-American to serve on Virginia’s state school board, his father, the late Gerald(?) Jones, was a long serving Delegate and then a Circuit Court judge; a Northam ally.
I don’t know much about Aaron Rouse’s familiy background, but I do know he was a big sports star at his Virginia Beach high school and an all-ACC Safety at Virginia Tech. Then Rouse played five seasons in the NFL before coming home. He was a Virginia Beach City Council member before winning the special election to fill now-Representative Jen Kiggans’ state Senate seat, in 2023.
Citizen Alan
@FDRLincoln: TBH, having been raised in the evangelical environment before my escape in to sanity, I have given serious thought to the possibility that Trump is the Antichrist. Because I think God has a sense of humor. And think He would find it hilarious to send the world an Antichrist who is so obviously transparently evil and utterly buffoonish but who was packaged in such a way that all the Fundies who are obsessed with the End Times eschatology will embrace him with a mad religious fervor.
For whoever it was yesterday who was whining about us “dehumanizing” our political enemies, THIS is why I maintain that MAGA Republicans are so alien in mindset, so hostile to human existence, that they are effectively a different species. In this country, we have two species of humans, homo sapiens (us) and homo malus (them).
Elizabelle
@opiejeanne: Wow. That’s wonderful. And during the 50s.
@Geminid: I have heard Jay Jones speak, and he is formidable. Aaron Rouse is also marvelous, and electable.
Embarrassment of riches. Just not a bad choice today.
Jeffro
I hear you.
I also have a hard time picturing a VA voter who goes, “Ok let’s see…Spanberger, Hashmi, Miyares. yeah, that’s the ticket!” =)
(but I’m sure they’re out there!)
Jeffro
@Sister Golden Bear: ha, that’s a good one!
One of our local radio stations has been playing some Fishbone now and then these past few weeks. Good stuff. =)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
They must be paying Brother Huckabee by the word.
“I will be the last one to leave (the embassy)”
Also, want to bet that Huckabee sent that note from some resort outside Israel ?
opiejeanne
@WereBear: And when the survivors are standing in the ruins and rubble, will they shout to the heavens, “Where is The Christ?”
WTFGhost
Betty:
Good on you for putting this up. Cole sounds just too fed up with ALL this trumpy stuff, but the actual tea bagging this guy does, and please, don’t think I’m suggesting he’s making good tea!
(You can’t make good tea with bags, you need boiling water, and tea leaves, plus a strainer. People rarely drink cream in their tea – cream is for coffee. Tea takes milk, and usually, just a splash, or lemon, and again, just a splash, to kill the bitter tannins, and let you taste the tea. Trust me, if I was going to make Huckleberry Hellbound “teabag” I wouldn’t ruin the *tea* with presence, or worse, his… secretions.)
(Oh: remember, when someone catches you saying “hellbound,” say you said “hellhound.” Insist that they are the ones saying Huckleberry hellbound is going to hell. Sometimes, it can be fun to have a language processing problem. “Whattaya mean I said hellbound? Are silly? you need to press your lips to make a B!” (Don’t open your mouth much, and they can’t tell if you’re making a b, or aspirating an h – you shouldn’t need to do this, unless you’re dealing with someone from a large family, who thereby knows super-pettiness in arguments.))
I swear to god, if Cole saw this, he’d probably choke the ever living stuffing out of a giant polar bear! Hopefully one that’s already been stuffed, so, the hard part will be finding the “ever living” stuffing inside, which is probably the polar bear’s soul, if you want to get all metaphysical about this. And do you really want him mucking around with metaphysics? Seriously? A retired tank-man? He’d probably see the pearly gates, and ask about their construction, while he calculates range and angle, just for grins.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: That would be a weird fight. Benjamin Netanyahu is 75 years-old, in his second year with a pacemaker, and (apparently) being treated for prostate cancer. Supreme Leader Khameini is 82, and he had major abdominal surgery in 2022 that took months to recover from.
They Call Me Noni
@Elizabelle: Don’t even know what to say. The whole story is just so tragic.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Jeffro: Same. Odd that the atheists with religious education are more readily able to identify when someone actually meets the criteria than the people who’ve looked for it their whole lives.
brantl
@WereBear: Fall of the House of Dipshits.
Citizen Alan
@oldgold: If Obama had been shot at and survived with only a scratch, the MAGAts would have used it as further proof that he was the Antichrist.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@WereBear: One school of though holds the early Christian were referring to Emperor Nero, while I have never heard of Trump trying to drown his own mother, there are lot parallels between Trump and Nero.
opiejeanne
@Elizabelle: She was in an experimental incubator that gave less oxygen and more nitrogen, which is why she isn’t blind like other preemies born prior to 1953. The terrible things that were said to my mother though, by doctors passing through that hospital nursery! I don’t know why my dad didn’t slug them.
It was in Los Angeles, at either White or Rose Memorial hospital. She was born in Covina at a small local hospital, and rushed by ambulance to the large hospital in LA.
At the same time in New Mexico they were saving preemies by putting them in baskets with warm rocks wrapped in cloth.
RevRick
@WereBear: So-called Apocalyptic theology is garbage, the ridiculous endpoint of Darby’s 19th century fantasy of Dispensationalism. It takes the biblical images of Daniel and Revelation and spins them into a crazy calendar of violence. Heck, it doesn’t even cohere with the book of Revelation itself, which it claims to revere.
Revelation opens with a celebration of Jesus Christ as the “faithful witness (martyr), the firstborn of the dead (resurrection), and the ruler of the kings of the earth (God’s kingdom is a transformed world of justice and peace). And it then declares that we share with Jesus “the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance.”
The patient endurance is our here-and-now equivalent to Jesus’ resurrection. The last thing Christians should do is get involved in schemes to hasten the kingdom through schemes that always devolve into bombs and bulldozers, whether that be a utopia of communism or fascism.
dnfree
@YY_Sima Qian: Let me just say again that I find your insights and observations very valuable.
Elizabelle
@They Call Me Noni: It is. The missed diagnosis, that could have saved a young mother, and then it snowballed. Georgia stepping in, on jackboots, because of what its Christopath legislature enabled it to do.
I have a cousin a few times removed who went in with breathing difficulties and they sent him home with an inhaler, once they learned he had recently given up smoking. Didn’t check overly much.
He died of a heart attack within hours. Left two young teenage children.
Spanky
@Mustang Bobby: Someone please make this a rotating tag!
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@WereBear: There’s also the bit about how the Antichrist’s supporters would wear his mark on their hands or foreheads, like a MAGA hat.
NutmegAgain
Father of dog-torturing moron makes nice with dog-hating asswipe.
Elizabelle
@opiejeanne: What were the doctors saying?
ETA: the 1950s and up to early 1960s had a lot more infant deaths. And then it improved. You can see it walking around a cemetery.
Anyway, yay for medical science. It would be nice if it were better appreciated and respected in this country. RFK the leastest gonna have a body count. Only question is, how large?
rusty
The Iranians have been perfecting drones, there is a lot of unprotected infrastructure out there that could easily be destroyed and cause economic mayhem. The war in Ukraine has dramatically accelerated the ability of small groups and countries to attack larger and more traditionally powerful ones. I guess we will find out.
Beldar
That… that’s in my brain now.
Eeeewww…
Elizabelle
@brantl: It is dipshits all the way down.
Jackie
@Geminid: You left out the 79 yr old orange bloated Ringmaster!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
This atheist says listen to Reverend, he know what he is talking about. To understand these godbotherors like Huckabee, understand Dispensationalism, that’s their real religion.
Citizen Alan
@satby: No one in the Pro-Life movement is actually “pro-life.” There is no other policy area in which they even pretend to support life-affirming policies outside of their opposition to all abortions, even when necessary to save the mother’s life or even to make it more likely for a fetus to survive to delivery or that might reduce infant mortality rates.
The entirety of the Pro-Life Movement is driven, IMO, by one single, solitary concept: Eve ate the apple, and in response, God became angry and declared that woman shall bring forth children in pain.
That’s it. That’s all that really matters to them. These demonic creatures literally believe that God created pregnancy for the primary purpose of torturing women as collective punishment for Eve’s sin. And anything that might help a woman avoid that divine punishment is of the Devil.
Steve in the ATL
@Mustang Bobby: this is quality work. You should post more often like you used to!
MoCaAce
Ho. Lee. FUCK…. That is both nauseating and terrifying!
matt
Things do seem to be trending towards ‘Trump nukes Tehran’.
Geminid
@YY_Sima Qian: Also, Josh Rogin pays a,lot of attention to Syria, and the Israelis have been causing a lot of trouble there. Their Syria policies have been stupid and short-sighted, but this is a very stupid and short-sighted government.
opiejeanne
@Elizabelle: The one that I remember was one doctor saying she should just be turned over and allowed to suffocate, but there were more along those lines, that she should be allowed to die.
And I meant to say she was born 3 months early. There was a group of these children who were called the Miracle Babies, and Mom used to take her in every 3 months to be assessed for growth and development.
One reason young children stopped dying so much in the 50s was the polio vaccine. I had a close friend who was never allowed to go swimming in pools by her family because of the possibility of getting polio, even after she’d been vaccinated.
opiejeanne
@Citizen Alan: I was briefly exposed to a woman who had 6 children because she thought her suffering brought her close to what Jesus experienced on the cross.
I’m sorry, but that’s just so wrong on so many levels.
They Call Me Noni
@matt: I am crossing my fingers and chanting “TACO, his nickname is TACO for a reason”.
Booger
@Elizabelle: Just not the former Richmond mayor.
Booger
Anybody care to weigh in on Anonymous’ warning of a False Flag attack on US soil in the next 18 days?
Redshift
@TONYG:
I definitely would not have pegged Huckabee as a genuine enough believer in the Rapture to try to trigger an apocalypse he would definitely die in if it goes as prophesied.
jimmiraybob
@Elizabelle: “Mike Johnson’s caucus will HAVE to vote for the BBB because TRUMP is now a WARTIME PRESIDENT?”
Bonus: Hello Insurrection Act and Martial Law.
Geminid
Yeah, Huckabee comparing Trump’s situation to Harry Truman’s in 1945 is pretty gross. Huckabee would have done better to use the example of Truman in 1947; when President threw the weight of the US behind the new State of Israel, against the judgement of bis State and Defense Department chiefs.
Huckabee is lobbying Trump hard here, for the US to come into this war on the side of Israel. The flattery tells me Huckabee is not sure his position will prevail. Also, Huckabee is trying to reach over Marco Rubio’s and Steve Witkoff’s heads, and I thonk they and Susan Wiles will take note of that.
Huckabee may end up having his way, but if he does it could be despite this big kiss he just planted on Trump’s ass, not because of it.
WereBear
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Then again, he was sent to military school at twelve, which back-then could mean he tried.
WereBear
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Dang! Missed that one.
Gretchen
I was at the pool yesterday, floating and enjoying my podcast, when this woman insisted on chatting. She was telling me that her bible study is a great way to make friends. I said I’m not religious. That should have been enough, right? No, she insisted on telling me that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and asked if someone hurt me and that’s why I’m not a believer. She just wouldn’t let up – I ended up leaving sooner than I planned just to get away from her. That smug certainty that she had all the answers reminded me of Pastor Mike.
jimmiraybob
@Citizen Alan:
“I have given serious thought to the possibility that Trump is the Antichrist.”
For the record I identify as a secular humanist. That said, I have a lot of Christian friends of the sane variety (often UCC). Since the beginning of the year I have been talking to them, including pastors, about this.
I thought that it would rankle a few feathers but no, they all agreed with me that if there’s ever been a modern vision of the Antichrist, or spirit of anti Christ behavior, Trump is it. And by antichrist I mean possessing all the characteristics that define anti Christ behavior.
Redshift
@Citizen Alan:
That’s still just marketing for the rubes, same as “the baybeez!” It is actually driven by the lust for political power for its leaders. Evangelicals didn’t care about abortion and weren’t very engaged in politics until Falwell et al. began preaching about it to create a political power base.
WereBear
@jimmiraybob: But Trump shaped his political personality based on his base. How he got the response he wanted.
MAGA made him.
Because his fans do long for the end of the world.
Geminid
@rusty: There *is* a lot of unprotected infrastfucture out there, but it all belongs to someone. The Iranians already have an enemy that’s giving them all they can handle, and they don’t need to make any new ones. That factor weighs against attacking nations besides Israel, or even threatening to.
matt
@Gretchen: ‘I don’t like liars, so no.’
jimmiraybob
@WereBear:
“But Trump shaped his political personality based on his base.”
I include his base as those that hail an Antichrist vision. They have raised a savior …. just the wrong one.
cain
@YY_Sima Qian: JFC – this is just fucking frightening. I don’t understand why they would do this??
WTFGhost
@Gretchen: If it was a new convert, it’s like being an ex-smoker. You feel good, and want everyone to experience the good feeling. That said, I’ve known too many Christians who want to score converts, rather than live a good life.
“Go to heaven” is something everyone loves; no one really enjoys the bit about “love your neighbor, even when they’re annoying, or even a bit of an asshole, or even a lot of an asshole; try to do what’s right, and remember, as impatient as you are with your neighbors, so, too, is God frustrated with us, who fumble about, only rarely doing the right thing for the right motives! You can’t control your neighbor, so, instead, control what you can – you.”
jimmiraybob
@Gretchen: Next time that happens ask if Jesus taught humility and against certainty. The answer should be yes.
Miss Bianca
@Gretchen: “Jesus talks to me. And you know what He said? He said to beware of people like you.”
Lyrebird
I thought they said from the start that they did not know and they understandably did not appreciate having the choice, however wrenching, taken from them by the state.
Lyrebird
By all that is good, I hope the infighting takes the momentum out of this. Also, I feel bad for the soldiers stuck marching on Sat., but I hope ALL of their families and friends that are not super MAGA diehards are calling their reps to say NO NO NO.
Elizabelle
@Lyrebird: Yes, I think that’s true.
prostratedragon
@Sister Golden Bear: Fishbone! Thanks, been a long time. Entirely too much unveiling going on these days.
prostratedragon
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): Y’all don’t even have nukes, let alone the hankering to use them.
Urza
Since they’re harvesting data on everyone to know if you’re against them. Have already shown they want to prevent troops from voting by mail. Its entirely possible they may try to put entire groups of people that object on the ground in Iran long term. Hasn’t been opportunity to kill off your opponents like this since kings were in charge of the military.
Geminid
@Lyrebird: Some super-MAGA die-hards are calling for the US to stay out of this war. There’s an interesting split between Isolationist “America Firsters” and pro-Israel conservatives and Reagan-style Internationalists.
satby
Obviously.
Lyrebird
@Elizabelle: Thank you for posting the update. May Ms. Smith’s soul rest in peace, however she and her family would see it. They have clearly shown more grace and diplomacy than the entire Cabinet all rolled up into one. Naming the boy Chance – my hat is off and my heart goes out to all of them.
Captain C
@Elizabelle:
Some poorly-written mid-level characters from the Left Behind series.
Captain C
@lowtechcyclist:
And then not let the survivors out.
Splitting Image
@Elizabelle:
The sleazy old man in Catch-22:
“I was a fascist when Mussolini was on top, and I an an anti-fascist now that he has been deposed. I was fanatically pro-German when the Germans were here to protect us against the Americans, and now that the Americans are here to protect us against the Germans I am fanatically pro-American. I can assure you, my outraged young friend” – the old man’s knowing, disdainful eyes shown even more effervescently as Nately’s stuttering dismay increased – “that you and your country will have no more loyal partisan in Italy than me – but only as long as you remain in Italy.”
They Call Me Noni
@jimmiraybob: They sound like an unusually sane group!
Elizabelle
I would guess Carl Hiaasen might have written about Huckabee types before. He concentrates on Florida Man/Woman, and these are Arkansas Yokels. But they are the same type of shyster, just different environments and opportunities.
Elizabelle
@Splitting Image: Yes, but not enough insane religiosity.
artem1s
@Splitting Image:
Stephen King nailed the type in The Dead Zone. Greg Stillson was the character’s name. Fuckabee made it pretty clear in his WH campaigns that he’s all in on making the Rapture come quicker. Asshole.
Matt McIrvin
@WTFGhost: this includes loving your MAGA neighbors, Proud Boy neighbors, ICE agent neighbors, etc., which is the really hard part. The people who definitely won’t love you back. Jesus was definitely including the Roman Near East equivalent of those goons in his admonitions.
Elizabelle
@Captain C: as long as they come to a bad end.
@artem1s: Hmmm. I bet Stephen King has had more to say about this Huckabee type of poltroon. Will keep an ear out. This type cannot confound Mr. King less, in recent years.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: I could see some of the never-Trumper neocon types flipping the other way, too, though it sounds like it’d be far from unanimous.
KenK
@FDRLincoln: I think that religious people can be easily fooled.
brantl
@Elizabelle:
I wish Jesus would come back and kick them all into the next county/state/country/universe/multiverse.
Fixed that for you.
brantl
@Geminid: I am perversely glad to know that Bibi Netanyahu had prostate cancer. I would also appreciate if he got herpes, boils and hemorrhoids. Ditto Stumpy.
Glory b
@YY_Sima Qian: As I have said on several occasions, Americans are famously unconcerned with foreign affairs as long as there are no American boots on the ground, and sometimes not even then.
Even if we know of foreign conflicts and approve (or disapprove), we don’t rate them high in importance.
Kayla Rudbek
@Jeffro:
@FDRLincoln: Benjamin Corey has a convincing post about this https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/
Kayla Rudbek
@Citizen Alan: I remember reading a SF story that had Adam and Eve born as twins to a mother without a soul, punchline being that ontogeny recapitulated phylogeny (I.e. that human beings came from unsouled ancestors). When dealing with the deplorables or the 27%, (or reading Reddit’s Raised by Narcissists discussion boards) I seriously think that there’s a lot of human bodies walking around without souls (and contrary wise, plenty of animals with more soul than some humans)
Kayla Rudbek
@Citizen Alan: they’re all pro-life until it actually comes down to people with genetic disabilities having kids, then they turn into eugenicists
Kayla Rudbek
@opiejeanne: I was raised Roman Catholic so I had plenty of people talking like that in my schools m with very few of them actually going through with it (although my MIL does not talk like that and she has six children – she was one of two kids so she wanted a larger family)
Gloria DryGarden
@Elizabelle: i trust those medical bills will be paid for by the state of Georgia, since they required her to stay on life support.
of course, to the child, Bonne chance!
Gloria DryGarden
@Glory b: my sense of USians is that in general, they have very little concept that other countries and cultures exist, and that there are people who speak another language, and see the world differently. It’s Not a concern because it isn’t real, it’s a fiction – non fiction situation. You can watch about it on a show, there are news stories, but it’s not real.
going away from this huge rich, monolingual, super powered country, even for a long visit, might be the only way to recognize that the USA is not the Only place.
what an embarrassing thing to be famous for
Chris T.
@oldgold:
I’m convinced that a lot of these God-Botherer types think of God as as mean drunk with bad aim. Why else would Katrina, as revenge for San Francisco Gayness, hit New Orleans instead?