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Two Corinthians Walk Into A Bar …

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Donald Trump would be nowhere without religion. More precisely, he would not be occupying the White House if not for the near total support of Evangelical Christians.

From declaring the Bible his favorite book (while on the campaign trail) to last week claiming “Easter is a very special day for me,” Trump can do no wrong when it comes to his devoted base of believers.

It didn’t matter that then candidate Trump could not name one verse from his favorite book, as it doesn’t matter now that he doesn’t attend regular Sunday services, instead opting for golf. Evangelicals follow the word of Trump.

It certainly didn’t matter when Trump flubbed a Bible reference while speaking at a campaign event at Liberty University. He was still able to offer the gathered crowd at the Virginia evangelical school what they wanted to hear.

“We’re going to protect Christianity. I can say that. I don’t have to be politically correct,” Trump said. “Two Corinthians, 3:17, that’s the whole ballgame is that the one you like?”

Trump, of course, messed things up as you probably know. The verse, “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,” comes from what Christians refer to as “Second Corinthians” – not “Two Corinthians.”

Last week Trump said it would be “beautiful” to see packed churches throughout the country on Easter Sunday, only two weeks away. It’s just his latest suspect offering to the religious group. 

While the great majority of churches will be closed on Easter Sunday, some pastors will heed Trump’s call and open for business.

Now, many critics are accusing Trump of wanting so desperately to get the country back to normal that he is willing to sacrifice people’s lives.

Sadly, yet predictably, many Evangelicals don’t see it that way. One can be sure if those large Easter gatherings take place, the coronavirus will spread among the faithful, perhaps condemning some to meeting their maker way before their time.

Is there any doubt left that, if asked, Trump’s devoted religious followers would drink the Kool-Aid? Jim Jones must be laughing somewhere.

Photo | Flickr/christianmessenger.in

Remember Trump’s Vote For Me, “What Do You Have To Lose?”

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Ah, the good old days when we could laugh at the buffoon running for president!

Such harmless fun, right?

Well, things are not so funny anymore now that the orange clown is sitting in the Oval Office calling the shots. The joke, as it turns out, is on us.

We now know what we had to lose by “electing” Trump. Forget about the rule of law or fidelity to the Constitution; forget about our standing in the world; even forget about the loss of “united,” as in United States of America.

No, we are now in danger of losing our very lives because of the court jester the Electoral College recklessly installed in the White House.

Donald Trump is not responsible for the coronavirus that has turned into a global pandemic. No, he is only responsible for irresponsibly downplaying the threat of the outbreak once it hit our shores and for failing to take the steps necessary to stem its spread.

First it was nothing to see here, just another Democratic hoax to bring him down. Then it was, “It’s bad. It’s bad.”

On March 16, Trump called for social distancing that could last until at least July or August.

But as the markets tanked and businesses of every stripe were facing steep losses, and Trump’s reelection chances were cratering along with the economy, we saw a third Trump pivot. The man that only one week ago declared himself a “wartime president” said it was time for the country to get back to work. The war was over.

Trump is now embracing the trendy new philosophy of the economic right: Death happens, live with it. 

In a recent Fox News interview, Trump noted that we would see many deaths from the coronavirus (which he conveniently called the flu) but it was worth it to get the economy back on track. He even implied more people would die, by suicide, if we went into a recession or depression.

“You are going to lose a number of people to the flu, but you are going to lose more people by putting a country into a massive recession or depression,”Trump said. “You are going to have suicides by the thousands — you are going to have all sorts of things happen. You are going to have instability. You can’t just come in and say let’s close up the United States of America, the biggest, the most successful country in the world by far.”

Strangely enough, many sycophantic Republicans are OK with Trump’s cost-benefit analysis over death and the economy. The new talking point is that the cure is worse than the problem.

Speaking to Fox’s Tucker Carlson, Texas lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick said:

“You know, Tucker, no one reached out to me and said, ‘As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren? And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in.”

As the saying goes, elections have consequences. But the now false choice between saving lives and saving the economy?

Sorry, Mr. Patrick, but the majority of Americans refuse to drink Trump’s Kool-Aid.

Photo |abcnews.go.com

10 Ways The Coronavirus Outbreak Has Changed The Way We Think About Things

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Now that the country is in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, our ways of thinking about things is changing. Here are 10 things we never really thought about before:

  1. Snagging that last package of toilet paper off the shelf can feel like hitting the jackpot
  2. Acquiring a whole new appreciation for the shelf-life of canned tuna 
  3. Seeing how impossible it is to live without sports on TV
  4. Realizing how much money can be saved not eating out
  5. Understanding money can’t save you from an equal opportunity virus
  6. Learning that checking our 401(k)s on a daily basis is a terrible idea
  7. Finding out how hard it is not to touch your face
  8. Discovering a handshake could be lethal
  9. Reaching a point were paying $200 for a bottle of hand sanitizer doesn’t seem outrageous
  10. Concluding we need to rally together as one American family in order to defeat this deadly threat

Stay home. Keep smiling. Practice good hand hygiene. Take social distancing seriously. And listen to the experts!

Photo | lowes.com

No, God Is Not Punishing Us With Coronavirus Because Of Gay Marriage

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Now that we are in the midst of an alarming pandemic, many are wondering why God would do this to us … why now? We’ve been good, haven’t we?

Yes, there were times in the past when we deserved divine retribution. Floods, plagues and the deaths of our firstborn were ways by which God punished us for our evil ways.

Now, according to some men of the cloth, God is punishing us with the coronavirus because of gay marriage … and abortion rights.

Tennessee preacher Perry Stone suggested that the spread of the coronavirus was a response to the legalization of the “abomination” of equal marriage and abortion.

“So why is there a reckoning? I’m gonna explain it in these simple terms. There’s a reckoning because the courts of the land passed a law to take an infant’s life… and for marriage, that we have known it, to be changed into something we’ve never known,” said Stone.

I am not a preacher nor claim to be a religious scholar, but I’m suggesting God is punishing us with this vicious virus because we had the audacity to elect Donald Trump president.

I think the Lord became doubly upset when 52 Republican senators refused to do their sworn Constitutional duty and remove Trump from office.

Has there ever been a leader, like Trump, who is the walking embodiment of the seven deadly sins … pride, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, sloth, and wrath?

God is probably also ticked off that so many of his children are worshipping at the feet of Donald J. Trump. Have they forgotten their Ten Commandments? Specifically, God’s first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me”?

I fear we will not get over this fast-moving pandemic until the false idol, Trump, is removed from office. Until we are back to God’s good graces, I do not see an end to the needless suffering and death.

I must confess I attended religious instruction, religiously, as a youngster. So, I know a thing or two about how vindictive God can be.

Photo | abcnews.go.com

Could Trump Cancel 2020 Elections?

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As the coronavirus outbreak worsens, could the 2020 elections be at risk? Can they be cancelled just like the NCAA today scrubbed its basketball tournament?

What if Trump declares a state of emergency and orders that elections be postponed to a later date?

Not possible you say? Think again.

The truth is we are in uncharted territory. 

While it’s nice to think our laws and institutions protect us from a dangerous president and that a lawless chief executive can only do so much without bumping up against the limits set by the Constitution and Congress (and enforced by the courts), that just might not be the case.

Did you know the moment the president declares a “national emergency”—a decision that is entirely within his discretion—more than 100 special provisions become available to him? 

While many of those concessions are geared to reasonable responses to genuine emergencies, some appear dangerously suited to a president eager to amass or retain power. 

As Elizabeth Goitein writes in The Atlantic, “This edifice of extraordinary powers has historically rested on the assumption that the president will act in the country’s best interest when using them. With a handful of noteworthy exceptions, this assumption has held up. But what if a president, backed into a corner and facing electoral defeat or impeachment, were to declare an emergency for the sake of holding on to power? In that scenario, our laws and institutions might not save us from a presidential power grab. They might be what takes us down.”

The coronavirus pandemic has the potential of turning into a catastrophe the likes of which our country, and the world, has never seen… and a golden opportunity for Trump to remain in power until he declares the “emergency” over.

I fear the odds of Trump taking such drastic action will only increase as his odds of winning reelection decrease.

If we’ve learned anything by now it’s that Trump … and his Republican enablers … have total disdain for our Constitution and the rule of law.

The scary part is that, historically, the Supreme Court has often upheld declarations of “national emergency” or found ways to avoid reviewing them, at least while the crisis still remained.

Uncharted territory indeed!

Photo | wsj.com

What People Liked Most About Bloomberg Was The Idea Of Bloomberg

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Oh, if only Mike had not found his way onto that February 19 Democratic debate stage!

The former New York mayor’s strategy of saturating the airwaves with his political ads was working like a charm. He was well positioned to be the “moderate” alternative to the “radical” Bernie Sanders. Joe Biden was fast sinking into “afterthought” status.

But in that infamous February 19 debate, Mike Bloomberg proved you can create buzz for a product with countless, well-made ads but you ultimately have to deliver the goods. To say Bloomberg underwhelmed during his first appearance in a Democratic presidential debate would be putting it mildly. He was eviscerated by fellow candidate Elizabeth Warren and his performance was universally panned by political analysts.

Now that Bloomberg has withdrawn from the Democratic presidential race after a disastrous showing in the Super Tuesday primaries, some people are trying to wrap their heads around how someone who looked so formidable … who spent half a billion dollars on a political campaign … could not end up with the brass ring.

It seems clear that what people liked most about Mike Bloomberg was the “idea” of Mike Bloomberg. They liked his ads.

Here was a guy whose stated goal was to do whatever it took to defeat Donald Trump. If that meant spending a cool billion or two of his own money, Mike was the man.  People liked the prospect of a real billionaire who could outspend a fake billionaire and his Republican Party.

Democrats thought if supporting a billionaire was the price to pay for kicking Trump out of office, they were willing to set aside their hatred of big money in politics and go with Mike. Some pre-Bloomberg-debate polls even showed he had the best chance to defeating Trump.

Yes, he was a fat cat willing to spend an obscene amount of money but he would also be the one to save the country from another four years of Trump.

But then it came time for Bloomberg to back up his ad blitz with a solid debate performance.

It didn’t happen. Not in his first debate nor in his second.

Say what you will about Bloomberg … that he wasted his money on a vanity campaign. The truth is his hard-hitting ads did real damage to Trump and he succeeded (for better or worse) in steering the Democratic Party back into the arms of the Party establishment by making Joe Biden the likely Democratic presidential nominee.

Photo | floridapolitics.com

Maybe Trump And The Kremlin Are Betting On The Wrong Horse?

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We found out last week Russia is at it again … interfering in our upcoming elections. U.S. intelligence agencies not only warned that Russia is trying to get Trump reelected, they are also trying to swing the Democratic presidential nomination to Bernie Sanders.

For his part, Trump appears to agree with his Russian handlers. He seems to want to face off against Bernie, the democratic socialist, in November.

“Looks like Crazy Bernie is doing well in the Great State of Nevada. Biden & the rest look weak, & no way Mini Mike can restart his campaign after the worst debate performance in the history of Presidential Debates,” Trump tweeted last Saturday. “Congratulations Bernie, & don’t let them take it away from you!”

The thinking is simple. Once Bernie becomes the Democratic nominee, both Trump and Putin’s cyber-warfare machine will smear him as a dangerous socialist, a Marxist, a Castro sympathizer. Funny how all this election interference is being brought to you by the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics!

However, a close look at Sanders’ landslide victory in Nevada should give both Trump and Putin pause. Bernie won with an amazing across-the-board coalition … “men and women, whites and Latinos, voters 17-29, 30-44 and 45-65, those with college degrees and those without, liberal Democrats (by a lot) and moderate/conservatives (narrowly), union and non-union households.” 

Yet the Democratic establishment is fearful of a Sanders candidacy. How could a socialist win the presidency, even against a complete horror show like Trump, they worry? But for all the concern over Bernie’s “radicalism,” are his signature policies such as a national healthcare program, a living wage, free public college education, and a serious green energy investment plan really that far out of the mainstream?

As Nathan Robinson of the Guardian writes, “It’s shocking that there is such opposition to such sensible plans. On what planet are these things so politically toxic that Democrats are afraid to run on them? Voters like these ideas, and so long as Democrats unify behind Bernie rather than continuing to try to tear him down, they will have a very good shot at defeating a radical and unhinged president like Donald Trump.”

I am certain Democrats will rally around whoever is their presidential nominee. But if it looks like the Democratic Party establishment is trying to tip the scales against a Sanders nomination, you can be sure of two things … a civil war within the Party, and another four years of Trump.

Don and Vlad, be careful what you wish for.

Photo | abcnews.go.com

Why Bloomberg’s Pitiful Performance In Vegas Might Prove He Made The Wrong Bet

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Mike Bloomberg, the former Republican, had a simple plan for becoming the Democratic presidential nominee … he’d just buy the nomination.

With his vast fortune, he would overwhelm his rivals with “saturation advertising.” He would not have to bother campaigning in the early primary and caucus states. The refined New York billionaire just isn’t another one of your Iowa corn-dog-eating politicians!

And for a while, the strategy was working. Bloomberg went from nowhere in the charts to second or third in some presidential polls.

But then came the moment he had to step out from behind his curtain of megabucks and onto the Las Vegas debate stage.

To say the billionaire was underwhelming, and showed major unpreparedness, would be putting it mildly.

Bloomberg was attacked from all sides with questions about his past that were so obvious you didn’t need to be a political strategist to predict them. He was hammered most effectively by Elizabeth Warren. She pounded him from the get-go with this classic burn, “I’d like to talk about who we’re running against: a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians. And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”

Bloomberg has staked his run for the presidency on his sincere, intense desire to beat Trump in November. “The stakes could not be higher, we must win this election,” said Bloomberg. He called Trump an “existential threat to our country.”

It does not appear, however, that his effort to do so by trying to win (buy) the Democratic nomination was the way to go.

A better bet for ousting Trump would have been for Bloomberg  to run as a Republican – the party affiliation he had as Mayor of New York City. While he probably would not have beaten Trump for the party’s nomination, history has shown that incumbent presidents who face strong primary challenges are severely weakened by them. 

Did Bloomberg really think he could skate to the Democratic nomination by flooding the airwaves with ads bought by an unlimited reservoir of cash … what Democrats hate most about our post-Citizens United political landscape?

Okay, it’s only Bloomberg’s first debate and who watches them anyway? He might get better. His ad blitz is still effective.

But after his dreadful performance in Las Vegas, the belief that Bloomberg is the most likely Democrat to save us from another four years of Trump is seriously in doubt.

Photo | AP/John Locher

Trump’s Support For Bernie Is A Win-Win … For Trump

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Donald Trump wants to run against Bernie Sanders. How do we know? Just consider what he said last week during an Oval Office rant. “Frankly, I would rather run against Bloomberg than Bernie Sanders,” Trump told reporters, “because Sanders has real followers, whether you like them or not, whether you agree with them or not — I happen to think it’s terrible what [Sanders] says.”

For anyone who’s been following Trump’s pronouncements, you know he usually says the opposite of what he truly believes. So, Trump wants to run against Bernie Sanders, not Mike Bloomberg. Unlike Trump, Bloomberg is a real self-made billionaire who could, and would, outspend him big time. He has stated he is willing to “spend whatever it takes” to defeat Trump. This is very appealing to many Democratic voters.

You just know Trump is salivating at the chance of running against a self-described democratic socialist. The word “socialist” is such a toxic, and misunderstood, word, that many political pundits do not think it would play well with swing voters in crucial states that would reject the radicalism of Sanders’ background and ideas.

So, in Trump’s mind, he gets re-elected if Sanders is the Democratic nominee. A win.

Then there’s this pro-Bernie tweet today:

The Crooked DNC is working overtime to take the Democrat Nomination away from Bernie, AGAIN! Watch what happens to the Super Delegates in Round Two. A Rigged Convention!

Like his own cultish followers, Trump knows Bernie supporters are fiercely loyal. If there is a brokered convention, which looks quite possible, and it appears to Sanders’ die-hard army of supporters that they have been cheated out of the nomination by the Democratic establishment … again … many will protest by not voting for the eventual nominee.

You could call it the ultimate voter suppression … but totally legal and brought to you courtesy of the Democratic Party.

So, in Trump’s calculation, if a good chunk of Bernie backers stay home and do not vote for the Democratic nominee, or vote for a third-party candidate …. like last time … again he wins.

There you have it. Whether or not Bernie is the Democratic presidential nominee, it’s a win-win … for Trump.

Photo | commondreams.org

The Case For Michael R. Bloomberg – Opinion

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Democrats are divided over which candidate is best suited to take on Donald Trump in the upcoming election. They can’t seem to decide, or coalesce around, who is the most electable.

Here’s a good way to pick Trump’s challenger … choose the one most unlike Trump. Select the candidate who is closest to the polar opposite of the man currently occupying the White House.

So, is it the progressive firebrand Bernie Sanders? Or the equally progressive Elizabeth Warren? Is it Andrew Yang?

No, it’s none of the above.

The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate closest to being the anti-Trump is Mike Bloomberg.

Okay, okay, hear me out.

Unlike Trump, Bloomberg is a real billionaire. He will get under the skin of our fake billionaire “president” like no other. The man who Forbes estimates is worth $62 billion has promised to spend “whatever it takes,” of his own money, to defeat Trump. So, what’s a billion or two to Mike? And you can almost hear this line coming from Bloomberg’s mouth, “A real billionaire has no problem releasing his tax returns. What are you so afraid of, Donald. What are you hiding?”

Bloomberg is a Republican-turned-Democrat. He is the opposite of the former Democrat, Trump, turned Republican. This could be very appealing to Republicans who might want to follow Bloomberg’s lead.

Bloomberg has actual experience running a large organization. While many New Yorkers were calling Trump an obnoxious buffoon, all New Yorkers were calling Bloomberg, Mayor.

Bloomberg is Jewish. He is well suited to put our racist, white supremacist president in his place. Bloomberg could put Florida into play like no other.

Bloomberg wants to raise taxes on the rich. He has proposed a $5 trillion-dollar tax increase to pay for what Democrats want most … expanded health care, improvement of the nation’s infrastructure, more affordable housing and investments in clean energy. Other Democratic candidates also want to increase taxes on the wealthy but only Bloomberg can go there without being labeled a “socialist” engaged in “class warfare.”

Yes, it’s a longshot for the man who got into the race too late to compete in the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina but, if the race remains divided, and we have a brokered convention, who knows?

And sure, Bloomberg is running an unconventional race … but so did the candidate who succeeded the last time around!

Don’t get me wrong, I am not necessarily endorsing Bloomberg but I do know that desperate times often call for desperate measures. These are desperate times for Democrats … and the nation.

So, as unlikely as his nomination may seem, I’m just saying Democrats might want to refocus some of that attention away from Mayor Pete to that other mayor, Mayor Mike.

Photo | townandcountrymag.com

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