Branch Trumpvidians

[Soulhuntress]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

I just looked up the station.  American Family Radio is public radio, Christian talk radio genre, broadcast from Victoria, TX at 88.5 on the FM dial.

Before they got into letting us in on the Truth about Obama, there was an overview of global news snippets to highlight how POC are screwing over white people and only they were free enough from PC constraints to point this out.  It was pretty damned nasty and makes me wonder if they understand what xenophobic actually means. 

 HRC about the AFA Homophobic too.

[Howl]

On 5/23/2018 at 1:14 PM, Soulhuntress said:

 HRC about the AFA Homophobic too.

No doubt. It's in their DNA. 

That North Korean painting unwittingly shows a desperate populace begging for relief from generations of the Kim regime.  

 

[GreyhoundFan]

The article doesn't indicate he's a Dumpy supporter, but it seems likely: "‘You don’t deserve American food!’: Muslim students attacked at McDonald’s, police say"

Spoiler

John Jay Smith kept muttering to police “they killed my son,” but really all that the five young men had done was eat some food in a McDonald’s parking lot.

It was sometime past 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. The five friends were having a mini tailgate, finishing their burgers and fries while standing outside their two cars in a Saint Augustine, Fla., McDonald’s lot, when Smith started eyeing them from his truck, the men would soon tell police.

The man was on the phone, but once he hung up he had a question for the five men.

“Are you American boys?” he asked, according to a St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office arrest report.

They were not American boys. They were international students from Egypt, all between the ages of 19 and 23, Omar Abdelmoaty told The Washington Post. But they didn’t tell that to Smith.

“The truth is, we didn’t even look at him,” 23-year-old Abdelmoaty said. “We didn’t respond. We didn’t say anything. And then he said some stuff to us. … Do you really want to know?”

According to the arrest report, Smith flashed his pocket knife, flicking it open and closed, and then he shouted, “Get the … out of my country!” using the f-word, and “You don’t deserve American food!”

“At this point,” Abdelmoaty told The Post, “we thought we were going to die.”

“We said, ‘Okay, sir, we are leaving,’” 20-year-old Mohamed Galal recounted in a sworn affidavit.

They were apparently not leaving fast enough. According to the police report, Smith grabbed a stun gun from his truck to “make this quicker,” as he put it, according to the affidavit.

As the men scrambled to get back into their cars, Smith allegedly charged toward them with the stun gun drawn, pulling the trigger just to “show us that his electric shocker is working,” Abdelmoaty told police.

One of them, 19-year-old Gasser Elkady, swung open the door to the back seat of the red Nissan while Smith “put the [stun gun] behind my back.” Smith did not relent once Elkady was inside. Police say he then stuck his hand through the window and tried, unsuccessfully, to use the stun gun on Elkady again as Elkady retreated farther back into the car.

Then Smith moved on to the driver’s side, allegedly sticking his hand through the open driver’s side window and sticking his stun gun in Galal’s face.

Galal was so spooked that he hit the gas with the car in reverse and struck a pole. Then he and the others peeled out of the lot and called 911.

“Upon my arrival,” Deputy Kristin Pamies wrote in her report, “I made contact with John Smith. John had the smell of an alcoholic beverage emitting from his person and he was slurring his words. John made spontaneous statements advising, ‘I am an American and the guys by the vehicles were making ruckus so I told them to get out of here and one of them pulled a gun and they left in a red vehicle.’”

The red Nissan returned to the scene. No gun was recovered, and in his formal recorded statement to police Smith did not mention a gun again, Pamies noted. He did, however, tell police he went up to the window and initiated a shock with his “zapper.” His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Once in the back of the cop car, an officer reported that Smith made the “spontaneous utterance” that “they killed my son.” His son, he said, was a Marine who died in combat in Afghanistan.

Smith was arrested and booked Wednesday on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, burglary with assault, and armed trespassing. He is out on an $8,500 bond.

Police selected the “hate crime” enhancement on the report, noting that the “statements made by the defendant to the victims showed that he only committed the acts due to the victim’s religion,” but it is not clear if prosecutors will charge him with a hate crime in court.

Abdelmoaty said he and his friends are Muslims.

In the interview early Thursday morning, Abdelmoaty told The Washington Post that he and his friends have not been sleeping since the attack, that they have been trying to get back to studying but that this incident has consumed them, making it difficult to even go out in public to go on with their daily lives. “We’re in a state of fear,” he said.

They have been in the United States for seven to 10 months, and Abdelmoaty said they have never experienced anything like this before. Asked why they believe they were targeted, Abdelmoaty says it seems obvious to him, but that it’s hard to say it out loud, because that makes it real.

“This is the land of the free, so we didn’t think one day that we would encounter something like this,” he said. “We didn’t do anything to anybody. We’re just students. The basic idea that he charged us and attacked us for this, for our religion, for our home country and background, it’s kind of scary. In the first place, we’re just human beings — names and descriptions came afterward.”

“We don’t hate him for what he did,” he said. “We’re just sad.”

In the police report, deputies noted that evidence at the scene corroborated the five men’s version of events. The McDonald’s manager told police she saw Smith get out of his truck with a stun gun and threaten the men through the car windows. The police found damage to the Nissan’s back bumper, its red paint still on the pole it backed into. They found the knife in Smith’s pocket.

They found the burgers and fries and milkshakes scattered in the parking lot.

Luckily he didn't have an AR-15, the knife and stun gun were bad enough.

[Howl]

On 5/23/2018 at 1:14 PM, Soulhuntress said:

HRC about the AFA Homophobic too.

Everything about Pastor Bryan Fisher screams "I am sexually attracted to men and don't know what to do about it."

[Soulhuntress]

49 minutes ago, Howl said:

Everything about Pastor Bryan Fisher screams "I am sexually attracted to men and don't know what to do about it."

That man is nuttier than a fruitcake.  I do not know of any gay man who deserves that self loathing fool as a partner though.  

[JMarie]

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/05/27/almost-half-of-republicans-believe-millions-voted-illegally-in-the-2016-election/23444571/

Quote

Nearly half of Republicans believe millions of people voted illegally in the last presidential election ― a claim that President Donald Trump has repeatedly made, even though neither he nor anyone else has produced concrete evidence to show it’s true.

Forty-eight percent of Republicans said they believe between 3 million and 5 million people voted illegally in 2016, while 17 percent said they do not, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll. Another 35 percent of the GOP said they were unsure.

Just under one-quarter of Democrats said they believed the allegations that millions of votes were cast illegally, while 51 percent said they didn’t and 26 percent said they were unsure.

I'm embarrassed that so many Democrats think this.

Quote

Since November 2016, Trump has said he would have won the popular vote had it not been for millions of people who voted illegally. He convened a presidential commission to investigate voter fraud, which failed to turn up evidence of illegal voting and was disbanded within a year. Still, Trump has continued to say millions voted illegally.

There’s no evidence to support this claim, and several studies have shown that voter fraud is not a widespread problem. The political science professor whose work Trump may have extrapolated from to say he really won the popular vote testified in court earlier this year, saying he could not support the conclusion that voter fraud is a widespread issue.

 

[AmazonGrace]

Ladies and gentlemen, more Jason Miller drama 

 

[47of74]

Ugh

Quote

Nearly half of Republicans believe millions of people voted illegally in the last presidential election ― a claim that President Donald Trump has repeatedly made, even though neither he nor anyone else has produced concrete evidence to show it’s true.

Forty-eight percent of Republicans said they believe between 3 million and 5 million people voted illegally in 2016, while 17 percent said they do not, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll. Another 35 percent of the GOP said they were unsure.

Just under one-quarter of Democrats said they believed the allegations that millions of votes were cast illegally, while 51 percent said they didn’t and 26 percent said they were unsure.

This is why Branch Trumpvidians can go fuck themselves.  I have no interest in reaching out to these people or engaging in tolerant understanding with these people.

[Cartmann99]

52 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Ladies and gentlemen, more Jason Miller drama 

 

I don't like either one of these idiots, but trying to intimidate your child's mother into giving up custody by acting like a stalker is a dick move. 

[47of74]

I fucking hate Branch Trumpvidians

Quote

Officers in the Metro East have arrested a 34-year-old man after he allegedly spray painted swastikas at a community cemetery overnight.

Saturday morning, police were called after black spray paint was found on numerous headstones and a building at the Sunset Hills Cemetery in Glen Carbon. Officials estimate over 200 tombstones were painted with images resembling a swastika. 

“We haven't seen anything of this magnitude in the 30 years that I've been here,” said Mark Johnson, the grounds superintendent of Sunset Hill Cemetery.

“To disrespect the dead like that...I mean, it just ain't right,” said John Lake, who stopped by the cemetery on Saturday morning to see if his family that is buried here was affected by this vandalism.

 

 

[fraurosena]

This op-ed is a very Interesting read indeed.

The Trump effect: New study connects white American intolerance and support for authoritarianism

Quote

Since the founding of the United States, politicians and pundits have warned that partisanship is a danger to democracy. George Washington, in his Farewell Address, worried that political parties, or factions, could "allow cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men" to rise to power and subvert democracy. More recently, many political observers are concerned that increasing political polarization on left and right makes compromise impossible, and leads to the destruction of democratic norms and institutions.

A new study, however, suggests that the main threat to our democracy may not be the hardening of political ideology, but rather the hardening of one particular political ideology. Political scientists Steven V. Miller of Clemson and Nicholas T. Davis of Texas A&M have released a working paper titled "White Outgroup Intolerance and Declining Support for American Democracy." Their study finds a correlation between white American's intolerance, and support for authoritarian rule. In other words, when intolerant white people fear democracy may benefit marginalized people, they abandon their commitment to democracy.

Miller and Davis used information from the World Values Survey, a research project organized by a worldwide network of social scientists which polls individuals in numerous countries on a wide range of beliefs and values. Based on surveys from the United States, the authors found that white people who did not want to have immigrants or people of different races living next door to them were more likely to be supportive of authoritarianism. For instance, people who said they did not want to live next door to immigrants or to people of another race were more supportive of the idea of military rule, or of a strongman-type leader who could ignore legislatures and election results.

The World Values Survey data used is from the period 1995 to 2011 — well before Donald Trump's 2016 run for president. It suggests, though, that Trump's bigotry and his authoritarianism are not separate problems, but are intertwined. When Trump calls Mexicans "rapists," and when he praises authoritarian leaders, he is appealing to the same voters.

Miller and Davis' paper quotes alt right, neo-fascist leader Richard Spencer, who in a 2013 speech declared: "We need an ethno-state so that our people can ‘come home again’… We must give up the false dreams of equality and democracy." Ethnic cleansing is impossible as long as marginalized people have enough votes to stop it. But this roadblock disappears if you get rid of democracy. Spencer understands that white rule in the current era essentially requirestotalitarianism. That's the logic of fascism.

Trump's rise is often presented as a major break with the past, and as a repudiation of American values and democratic commitments. But in an email, Miller pointed out that white intolerance has long served as an excuse for, and a spark for, authoritarian measures.

"People are fond of the Framers’ grand vision of liberty and equality for all," Miller says, "but the beauty of the Federalist papers can’t paper over the real measures of exclusion that were baked into their understanding of a limited franchise."

Black people, Asians, Native Americans and women were prevented from voting for significant stretches of American history. America's tradition of democracy (for some) exists alongside a tradition of authoritarianism (for some). The survey data doesn't show people rejecting American traditions, then, Miller says, so much as it shows "a preference for the sort of white-ethnocentrism that imbued much of the functional form of democracy for the better part of two centuries."

The Founders supported democracy as long as it was restricted to white male property holders. Today, our understanding of democracy is more expansive — at least in theory.

In practice, the GOP has increasingly been embracing a politics of white resentment tied to disenfranchisement. "Since Richard Nixon's ‘Southern Strategy,’ the GOP has pigeon-holed itself as, in large part, an aggrieved white people's party," Miller told me.

Trump's nativist language made the GOP's sympathies more explicit, leading to further erosion of support among non-white voters. George W. Bush won 35 percent of Hispanic voters in 2000; Trump won only 28 percent. His showing with Asian-American voters was only 27 percent — worse than any winning presidential candidate on record.

White people continue to decrease as a percentage of the U.S. population; at some point, it's going to be impossible to win a national, democratic American election with a platform that alienates people of color. The GOP, seeing their coming demographic apocalypse, has pushed voter ID laws and other barriers to voting to try to prevent black and other minority voters from getting to the polls. In Wisconsin, Republican Governor Scott Walker even attempted to delay elections for state seats that he believed Democrats would win.

"The GOP has dug itself into such a hole on this that the most practical effort to stave off these impending losses is to disenfranchise the votes of the same ethnic/racial outgroups against whom GOP messaging has been stoking animosity," Miller tells me. A party built on demonizing and attacking marginalized people is a party that will have to disenfranchise those same people if it is to survive.

Blaming authoritarianism on partisanship suggests that both sides are equally to blame for the erosion of democratic norms. But greater commitment to abortion rights and free healthcare in the Democratic party isn't a threat to the foundations of democracy. The growing concentration of intolerant white voters in the GOP, on the other hand, has created a party which appears less and less committed to the democratic project. When faced with a choice between bigotry and democracy, too many Americans are embracing the first while abandoning the second.

"Social intolerance isn't just leading to GOP support as we know it and see it now," Miller says. "It's leading to preferences in favor of the kind of candidate the GOP ultimately nominated and supported for president." In embracing the politics of white identity, then, the GOP made a Trump possible — and is likely to make more Trump-like candidates successful in the future.

 

[formergothardite]

27 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

and is likely to make more Trump-like candidates successful in the future.

I'm afraid this is going to be true. Many people who wouldn't openly support the things Trump says will go into the voting booths and vote him and other people who say the same things he says. This was discussed a tiny bit in the Zach Bates thread, but people like the Bates and many, many others are willing to overlook a multitude of horrible things as long as they get to oppress certain groups. This attitude has always been festering in American culture, Trump just made it more obvious. Trump supporters can say "MAGA" without having to explicitly say that in their minds America is only great when minority groups are oppressed. 

[fraurosena]

11 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

I'm afraid this is going to be true. Many people who wouldn't openly support the things Trump says will go into the voting booths and vote him and other people who say the same things he says. This was discussed a tiny bit in the Zach Bates thread, but people like the Bates and many, many others are willing to overlook a multitude of horrible things as long as they get to oppress certain groups. This attitude has always been festering in American culture, Trump just made it more obvious. Trump supporters can say "MAGA" without having to explicitly say that in their minds America is only great when minority groups are oppressed. 

On the bright side, now that this is out in the open for all to see, these things can be discussed and dealt with. It won't be easy, and it can't be done overnight, but it can (and must) be done now.

All it needs is for everyone who is eligible to vote to get out and do so! Together a change for the better can be made. 

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

[AmazonGrace]

Heil Trump: 

 

[fraurosena]

I'm putting this in the Branch Trumpvidian thread, because she bloody well is one.

 

And no matter how hard she will try to escape from the backlash, there will be no denying it.

 

[fraurosena]

Oh yeah! This payback is so good:

In case you don't know: Wanda Sykes is a writer on "Rosanne".

[Howl]

Saw this decal on the back of a mini van today.  It said, This family protects my family.

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

I'm putting this in the Branch Trumpvidian thread, because she bloody well is one.

 

And no matter how hard she will try to escape from the backlash, there will be no denying it.

 

My husband and I have been watching our Monk dvds recently, and there's an episode where Laurie Metcalf is one of the guest stars. She's really funny in that episode, but my mind kept wandering back to 2018 where she is part of the cast of the Roseanne reboot. 

[GreyhoundFan]

I'm sure this one is a BT: "A televangelist wants his followers to pay for a $54 million private jet. It’s his fourth plane."

Spoiler

If Jesus were to descend from heaven and physically set foot on 21st-century Earth, prosperity gospel televangelist Jesse Duplantis told his followers, the Redeemer would probably take a pass on riding on the back of a donkey: “He’d be on an airplane preaching the gospel all over the world.”

And Duplantis thinks the Light of the World wouldn’t exactly settle for 30 inches of legroom or getting patted down by TSA.

Why would He choose anything less than the Falcon 7X, a private jet that nears the sound barrier but also has noise-limiting acoustic technology, a Bluetooth-enabled entertainment center and an optional in-flight shower?

Duplantis, saying he needs about $54 million to help him efficiently spread the gospel to as many people as possible, has asked the Lord — and hundreds of thousands of hopefully deep-pocketed followers across the world — for just such a plane.

He is the latest aircraft-seeking preacher to draw raised eyebrows and outright condemnation from critics who say asking for a multimillion-dollar luxury jet is not exactly what Jesus meant when he said “store up for yourself treasures in heaven.”

But this is not the first time Duplantis has been enmeshed in the preacher private plane debate. The Falcon 7X would be his ministry’s fourth jet — all paid for with cash drummed up from followers.

And before anyone asks, he already has an answer for nonbelievers and critics who want to know why, exactly, his ministry requires a luxury jet that would make his fleet the same size as Donald Trump’s.

“We believe in God for a brand new Falcon 7X so we can go anywhere in the world, one stop,” he told people on “This Week With Jesse,” a regular video broadcast on his website. The video on May 21 carefully mixed the gospel with a few insights into the economics of international aviation.

“Now people say … can’t you go with this one?” he said, pointing to a picture of the plane he uses. “Yes, but I can’t go it one stop. And if I can do it one stop, I can fly it for a lot cheaper, because I have my own fuel farm. And that’s what’s been a blessing of the Lord.”

Duplantis didn’t immediately return calls from The Washington Post seeking comment.

In the video, Duplantis didn’t specify which ministry-furthering missions the plane would be used for, although he has indicated in the past that he has an extensive travel schedule.

Duplantis is the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries, which includes a weekly television program that reaches 106 million U.S. households, according to his Amazon author biography. In 1997, he and his wife founded Covenant Church in Destrehan, La., just outside New Orleans.

“It is his mission to reach every soul of the 7 billion people that now inhabit the earth, making sure that each one has an opportunity to know the real Jesus — approachable, personable, compassionate, and full of joy-the way that he knows Jesus,” the biography says.

He preaches the prosperity gospel, which says God shows favor by rewarding the faithful with earthly riches. Giving money to pastors and their ministries, leaders say, is a sort of investment.

And prosperity gospel preachers have encouraged their flocks to invest heavily in aviation.

In 2015, televangelist Creflo Dollar was widely mocked for starting “Project G650,” a means of getting a state-of-the-art Gulfstream G650 plane of his own, financed by his 200,000 followers. According to The Post’s Abby Ohlheiser, Dollar said he “needs one of the most luxurious private jets made today in order to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

The campaign was widely ridiculed online, and Dollar never made it to the waiting list, which consisted mostly of billionaires.

Kenneth Copeland, another prosperity gospel adherent who has appeared on-screen with Duplantis, announced his ministry had purchased a Gulfstream V jet that probably cost millions. The announcement on Copeland’s website showed him wearing a bomber jacket in front of a gleaming white plane.

“Glory to God! It’s Ours!” the website said. “The Gulfstream V is in our hands!”

But the ministry needed more, it told followers. The plane was “an exceptional value” but needed another $2.5 million in upgrades. The ministry also needed to build a new hangar, buy special maintenance equipment and  lengthen its runway to accommodate the new plane.

After making the ask, Copeland prayed on camera for God to bless contributors.

He and Duplantis defended their use of private jets in a widely shared — and mocked — YouTube video.

... < video >

“The world is in such a shape, we can’t get there without this,” Copeland said of private aircraft. “We’ve got to have this. The mess that the airlines are in today I would have to stop, I’m being very conservative, at least 75 to 80, more like 90 percent of what we’re doing because you can’t get there from here.”

“That’s why we’re on that airplane,” he said. “We can talk to God.”

Copeland said he used to travel with faith-healing prosperity preacher Oral Roberts, who flew commercial, and it “got to the place where it was agitating his spirit. People coming up to him. He had become famous. And they wanting him to pray for them and all that.

“You can’t manage that today. This dope-filled world. And get in a long tube with a bunch of demons. And it’s deadly.”

During his request for a new plane, Duplantis said he realized some people would remain skeptical.

He said there was no obligation, and there was only one surefire way to determine what exactly God wanted them to do: pray.

“So pray about becoming a partner toward it, if you like to and if you don’t, you don’t have to, but I wish you would,” he said. “Because let me tell you something about it, it’s going to touch people. It’s going to reach people. It’s going to save lives one soul at a time …

“If you pray about it, I believe God will speak to you.”

Shaking my head.

[Howl]

I'm pretty sure Jesus would fly coach and not mind people coming up to pray. 

[fraurosena]

21 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I'm sure this one is a BT: "A televangelist wants his followers to pay for a $54 million private jet. It’s his fourth plane."

  Reveal hidden contents

If Jesus were to descend from heaven and physically set foot on 21st-century Earth, prosperity gospel televangelist Jesse Duplantis told his followers, the Redeemer would probably take a pass on riding on the back of a donkey: “He’d be on an airplane preaching the gospel all over the world.”

And Duplantis thinks the Light of the World wouldn’t exactly settle for 30 inches of legroom or getting patted down by TSA.

Why would He choose anything less than the Falcon 7X, a private jet that nears the sound barrier but also has noise-limiting acoustic technology, a Bluetooth-enabled entertainment center and an optional in-flight shower?

Duplantis, saying he needs about $54 million to help him efficiently spread the gospel to as many people as possible, has asked the Lord — and hundreds of thousands of hopefully deep-pocketed followers across the world — for just such a plane.

He is the latest aircraft-seeking preacher to draw raised eyebrows and outright condemnation from critics who say asking for a multimillion-dollar luxury jet is not exactly what Jesus meant when he said “store up for yourself treasures in heaven.”

But this is not the first time Duplantis has been enmeshed in the preacher private plane debate. The Falcon 7X would be his ministry’s fourth jet — all paid for with cash drummed up from followers.

And before anyone asks, he already has an answer for nonbelievers and critics who want to know why, exactly, his ministry requires a luxury jet that would make his fleet the same size as Donald Trump’s.

“We believe in God for a brand new Falcon 7X so we can go anywhere in the world, one stop,” he told people on “This Week With Jesse,” a regular video broadcast on his website. The video on May 21 carefully mixed the gospel with a few insights into the economics of international aviation.

“Now people say … can’t you go with this one?” he said, pointing to a picture of the plane he uses. “Yes, but I can’t go it one stop. And if I can do it one stop, I can fly it for a lot cheaper, because I have my own fuel farm. And that’s what’s been a blessing of the Lord.”

Duplantis didn’t immediately return calls from The Washington Post seeking comment.

In the video, Duplantis didn’t specify which ministry-furthering missions the plane would be used for, although he has indicated in the past that he has an extensive travel schedule.

Duplantis is the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries, which includes a weekly television program that reaches 106 million U.S. households, according to his Amazon author biography. In 1997, he and his wife founded Covenant Church in Destrehan, La., just outside New Orleans.

“It is his mission to reach every soul of the 7 billion people that now inhabit the earth, making sure that each one has an opportunity to know the real Jesus — approachable, personable, compassionate, and full of joy-the way that he knows Jesus,” the biography says.

He preaches the prosperity gospel, which says God shows favor by rewarding the faithful with earthly riches. Giving money to pastors and their ministries, leaders say, is a sort of investment.

And prosperity gospel preachers have encouraged their flocks to invest heavily in aviation.

In 2015, televangelist Creflo Dollar was widely mocked for starting “Project G650,” a means of getting a state-of-the-art Gulfstream G650 plane of his own, financed by his 200,000 followers. According to The Post’s Abby Ohlheiser, Dollar said he “needs one of the most luxurious private jets made today in order to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

The campaign was widely ridiculed online, and Dollar never made it to the waiting list, which consisted mostly of billionaires.

Kenneth Copeland, another prosperity gospel adherent who has appeared on-screen with Duplantis, announced his ministry had purchased a Gulfstream V jet that probably cost millions. The announcement on Copeland’s website showed him wearing a bomber jacket in front of a gleaming white plane.

“Glory to God! It’s Ours!” the website said. “The Gulfstream V is in our hands!”

But the ministry needed more, it told followers. The plane was “an exceptional value” but needed another $2.5 million in upgrades. The ministry also needed to build a new hangar, buy special maintenance equipment and  lengthen its runway to accommodate the new plane.

After making the ask, Copeland prayed on camera for God to bless contributors.

He and Duplantis defended their use of private jets in a widely shared — and mocked — YouTube video.

... < video >

“The world is in such a shape, we can’t get there without this,” Copeland said of private aircraft. “We’ve got to have this. The mess that the airlines are in today I would have to stop, I’m being very conservative, at least 75 to 80, more like 90 percent of what we’re doing because you can’t get there from here.”

“That’s why we’re on that airplane,” he said. “We can talk to God.”

Copeland said he used to travel with faith-healing prosperity preacher Oral Roberts, who flew commercial, and it “got to the place where it was agitating his spirit. People coming up to him. He had become famous. And they wanting him to pray for them and all that.

“You can’t manage that today. This dope-filled world. And get in a long tube with a bunch of demons. And it’s deadly.”

During his request for a new plane, Duplantis said he realized some people would remain skeptical.

He said there was no obligation, and there was only one surefire way to determine what exactly God wanted them to do: pray.

“So pray about becoming a partner toward it, if you like to and if you don’t, you don’t have to, but I wish you would,” he said. “Because let me tell you something about it, it’s going to touch people. It’s going to reach people. It’s going to save lives one soul at a time …

“If you pray about it, I believe God will speak to you.”

Shaking my head.

This even made the news over here on the other side of the Atlantic - in the 'WTF' category of course.

[Cartmann99]

21 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

“You can’t manage that today. This dope-filled world. And get in a long tube with a bunch of demons. And it’s deadly.”

Hot damn, I have a bingo! I didn't think I'd ever get that one! 

[CTRLZero]

On 5/29/2018 at 1:21 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

“You can’t manage that today. This dope-filled world. And get in a long tube with a bunch of demons. And it’s deadly.”

Wait - this isn't the Scott Pruitt thread!?!    Those demons are everywhere--in long tubes with televangelists; danglin' from mics in the center of the earth...