“Learn Big Numbers as you Play.” Or not.
Thomas B. Edsall at The New York Times cranks out another keeper about the unholy combination of church and casino that is the Il Douche re-election campaign.
This dude alone is worth the price of a subscription to Mother Times. He throws a wide loop and brings ’em back alive.
A Democratic tech strategist describes the campaign website as a casino, “purposefully built to keep gamblers inside and at the table … trapping people inside an ecosystem of dangerous misinformation, conspiracy theories, and grievance politics. And it’s doing so while making the experience as fun and exciting as possible.”
In the nation’s “political churches,” meanwhile, a survey of hymn-singing white Protestants finds “clergy speech is driving up the religious significance” of Il Douche. In short, a strong plurality of respondents believe this gibbering gobshite was anointed by the Lord to be our Leader.
While elite “right wing media are having a profound effect on public opinion, serving to insulate Trump supporters,” the authors write, the process is also “built and sustained from the bottom up. That is, political churches, among Republicans especially, reinforce the argumentation that is also coming from above.”
I consider this another solid argument for taxing churches. Uncle Sugar gets a cut of what I earn for preaching my gospel. You want to play too, padre? Ante up, sucker, the pot’s light again.
Tags: Bingo, Il Douche, The New York Times, Thomas B. Edsall
Mad Blog Media 
May 13, 2020 at 9:21 am |
people
are
stupid
May 13, 2020 at 11:17 am |
It’s ok, He will take care of us. It doesn’t matter that Hitler is our new leader. He believes in Him too….
May 13, 2020 at 11:55 am |
Hold on Mon Ami! Please don’t paint all Christians with the same broad brush! Some of us still know how to think.
May 13, 2020 at 1:27 pm |
It’s true, Rev’, and I have met a few. I favor the ones who prioritize works over faith, among them a neighbor in B-burg who did for folks who couldn’t do for themselves and rarely said boo about it. Her kids did likewise, dropping whatever they had going on to help a little old lady with her groceries and whatnot.
That said, Industrial Christianity in all its various guises is an abomination. Jesus must have missed a moneychanger or two when he was cleaning house.
May 13, 2020 at 1:42 pm |
I’ve always said, “There are way too many out there giving Christianity a bad name!”
May 13, 2020 at 2:01 pm |
The atheists are nearly as bad. They have a shorter reach, though. Marc Maron did a nice bit on atheists, vegans, and atheist vegans in “Thinky Pain.”
May 13, 2020 at 12:11 pm |
Churches, and their institutions of higher brainwashing, are receiving COVID-19 relief tax money right now. Churches and organized religions are parasites. Like the man said, I paraphrase cause my memory stinks, we won’t be free until the last priest is hung by the entrails of the last king.
May 13, 2020 at 2:40 pm |
Wow! This is a tough crowd! But you’re still fun and I enjoy the snark and the comments. Truthfully, this is the only site where I read the comments. Overall I agree with you. I have a couple of books on religion gone bad.
May 13, 2020 at 2:52 pm |
We do have a pretty good crowd, don’t we? A pretty wide variety of people, I think.
The peanut gallery at Live Update Guy and here made both places work as well as they did/do. Some days LUG basically ran itself … and occasionally had to, because Charles and I both wore many hats simultaneously. And if I disappear for an extended period here, the readers tend to take over and start/resume their own conversations.
May 13, 2020 at 4:47 pm |
First Bruce, no malice intended and I apologize if I offended anyone in the Mad Dog’s house. That said, I have a real problem with my tax dollars (COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Act) being given to churches and theological schools. I agree with the last paragraph of Patrick’s 1:27 PM reply above. Religious organization’s influence on government needs to be examined, reined in, and clear lines of separation drawn pronto. It seems my fuze has gotten too short during my “house arrest.” I need to pour a beer on it and put it out.
May 13, 2020 at 5:51 pm |
No offense taken, Pat. This is a great place to discuss without offending. And you’re quite correct. We must keep anything smacking of “religion” out of government. Fundamentalism in any form is dangerous. Problem being that the Right Wing wants “their” faith in the forefront, not yours or mine if we fail to believe as they do. Damn it would be fun to pour a beer and engage in some give and take, appropriate distances of course!
May 13, 2020 at 7:29 pm |
I must also clarify my brief comment. It is not to offend in any way. I only make the comment to keep us thinking and our dialog open. I am proud of the friends and family I have that “believe” a bit more than I do. They fortunately, are wise enough to think for themselves and make decisions based on a balance of evidentiary science, fact and belief. Thank you to all of you and to Mr. O’Grady for allowing us velocipedalers to virtually associate literally…, or to literally associate virtually…, or to associate literally virtually….
May 13, 2020 at 4:12 pm |
I was a terrible history student, but I don’t recall learning about any wars fought over atheism.
May 13, 2020 at 5:56 pm |
You’re pretty close, Ira, but wars have been fought over lots of other things, land, ways of life, and up in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington, even one dead pig. Okay, that wasn’t really a war; it was a “stand off.” 🙂
May 13, 2020 at 5:57 pm |
Oops. Posted under the wrong login. That was me. BruceM.
Now how can I fix that???
May 13, 2020 at 6:06 pm |
Fixed it for ya, Rev’.
May 13, 2020 at 6:03 pm |
One good thing about atheists: They rarely pop round at dinnertime with a sheaf of literature, asking whether you do not believe in God.