Tag: rick wiles
This Week In Crazy: Or, How Not To Respond To A Tragedy

This Week In Crazy: Or, How Not To Respond To A Tragedy

When 49 people were massacred in a gay nightclub in Orlando last weekend, the vast majority of Americans responded with outrage, sympathy, and resolve to do better. And then there were these people. Welcome to “This Week In Crazy,” The National Memo’s weekly update on the loony, bigoted, and hateful behavior of the increasingly unhinged right wing. Starting with number five:

5. Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh rode close on the coattails of his Cheeto-hued demigod when he insinuated on his show that President Obama was working in concert with Islamic terrorists. (Trump, you’ll recall, suggested that Obama was aligned with the terrorists during a call-in interview on Fox & Friends shortly after the attack.)

Limbaugh took to his microphone Tuesday to accuse the president of behaving like the terrorists’ “defense lawyer,” who “speak[s] on behalf of their clients,” simply because he pointed out to his critics that using the words “radical Islam” doesn’t actually do anything productive.

Limbaugh said:

When I saw him go into this protracted two-and-a-half minute segment on why it is irrelevant to call ’em militant Islamists and why he doesn’t use the term because it doesn’t any strategic value, you know what the guy sounded like?  Honestly, and this is… I don’t know.

It sounds to me like it’s the way defense lawyers talk.  You know, when there’s a suspect, you got a defense lawyer saying, “Well, there’s no conclusive evidence here.  We’re still looking for a motive.  We haven’t found the right motive.”  Obama comes out after every one of these things, every one of these events, and Obama ends up sounding like defense lawyers speaking on behalf of their clients.

Video and hat tip Daily RushBo

Next: Rick Wiles 

4. Rick Wiles

Insane preacher Rick Wiles thinks the Orlando attack was God’s judgment on America because of course he does.

The TruNews host and occasional tourist to this plane we call reality enjoined Americans to get on their knees (no, actually). “I’ve said for years, America, if you continue to reject the mercy of the cross, you will live by the tyranny of the sword, and that’s what’s happening right now,” he said.

Wiles, of course, is more than a little allergic to reason and common sense. He previously said that Bernie Sanders would somehow “use global warming to impose global socialism” and then “take control of property, eliminate private property rights, [and] take control of natural resources.”

He likes to call the president “Jihad Barry” and accuse him of leading an “Islamic invasion of America.” Wiles also posited that Obama was responsible for the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, whom he apparently murdered as part of some pagan festival to mark the beginning of Lupercalia. Oh, and he thought Ebola was a good cure for homosexuality and atheism.

So, grain of salt and all that.

Hat tip and audio courtesy of Right Wing Watch

Next: Joseph Farah 

3. Joseph Farah

A conservative columnist who’s too afraid to type the word “gay” without scare quotes has some insightful ideas about gay identity in America.

“My strong advice to the LGBT community is to add another “G” to their identity – for GUNS,” writes Joseph Farah

In his column filed this week (in which he hilariously buffers the word “gay” with quotation marks throughout, as if he cannot handle even the notion of being “gay” without the typographical equivalent of surgical gloves), Farah writes:

“Gays” have demonstrated their effectiveness at defending their “rights” to do with their bodies as they please. Now it’s time for “gays” to defend their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Managers of bars and nightclubs catering to “gays” should exercise some social responsibility and provide more protection for their clientele.

If there’s as much “homophobia” as we keep hearing about in America, why don’t “gays” and “gay” establishments take security into consideration?

I don’t know what Farah “thinks” nightclubs are “for.” Or if he’s ever “danced” in his “life.” But “packing heat” probably isn’t conducive to a “good” club-going “experience.” And maybe just “maybe” people deserve the right to exist and live and love in this country without having to worry about being slaughtered like chattel anytime they enter a club, movie theater, or elementary school classroom.

Next: Pat Robertson 

2. Pat Robertson

Gays and Muslims should just kill each other, according to semi-sentient wax-encrusted automata and host of The 700Club, Pat Robertson.

The fervently anti-gay, anti-reason, anti-Muslim Robertson rubbed his two remaining neurons together and dished that liberals were caught in a conundrum, since they supported both “homosexuals” and Muslims, who, he averred, wanted to kill “homosexuals.” What’s a lib to do?

“The left is having a dilemma of ma,jor proportions and I think for those of us who disagree with some of their policies, the best thing to do is to sit on the sidelines and let them kill themselves,” he said.

Man, you know Robertson has gone far afield of even his craziest handlers when the Christian Broadcasting Network has to issue a statement clarifying what Robertson’s definition of “kill” is. (Though, as of this writing, that statement has itself been taken down, so who knows. Maybe he did want mean “kill” to actually mean… kill.)

I don’t recall any such clarification when he said that miscarried babies are God’s deliverance from future Hitlers, that anorexia should be treated like a case of demonic possession, or that marriage equality will lead to Christians being forced into sodomy. I suppose you have to choose your battles.

Hat tip and video courtesy of Right Wing Watch

Next: James David Manning

1. James David Manning

Imagine, if you will, exactly what kind of flaming, fetid sewage fire of a human being you have to be to a.) support Donald Trump in the first place, and then b.) disavow your support if and only if he makes some conciliatory gesture towards the LGBT community (as hollow as that gesture was).

Such a person is James David Manning, the self-proclaimed “sodomite slayer” pastor from Harlem who came out in favor of Donald Trump last December only to withdraw his support this week following Trump’s proclamation that he would be “friend of the gays.”

Manning justified his about-face by saying (multiple times) “Sodomy is more dangerous to America than radical Islam”

On the other hand, the tragedy in Orlando brought out of the woodwork several radical Religious Right activists who sounded their hypocritical and hollow sympathies, apparently forgetting the years they spent lobbying against the full and equal rights of LGBT Americans. Manning’s solidarity with his own rotten views is refreshingly honest, if contemptible.

Photo: University of the Philippines students display glasses with lit candles and a placard as a tribute to those killed in the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, during a protest at the school campus in Quezon city, Metro Manila, Philippines June 14, 2016.   REUTERS/Erik De Castro

Check out previous editions of This Week In Crazy here. Think we missed something? Let us know in the comments!Get This Week In Crazy delivered to your inbox every Friday, by signing up for our daily email newsletter.

PhotoUniversity of the Philippines students display glasses with lit candles and a placard as a tribute to those killed in the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, during a protest at the school campus in Quezon city, Metro Manila, Philippines June 14, 2016.   REUTERS/Erik De Castro

This Week In Crazy: Our Long National Nightmare

This Week In Crazy: Our Long National Nightmare

Prognostications of the apocalypse, puritanical fools, and punditocratic blowhards. Welcome to “This Week In Crazy,” The National Memo’s weekly update on the loony, bigoted, and hateful behavior of the increasingly unhinged right wing. Starting with number five:

5. Rick Santorum

Erstwhile presidential candidate Rick Santorum has made clear that deeply felt dedication to the cause of religious liberty is strictly limited to establishing his own extremist brand of conservative Christianity as law. And his utter ignorance of Islam has not stopped him from implicating every Muslim wholesale in his condemnations of terrorism. (““Islam is not just a religion; it is also a political governing structure,” he said at the fifth GOP debate.)

The depths of his ignorance about Islam were neatly and rather pathetically laid bare recently in a confrontation with college student Hamzah Raza, which was captured on cell phone video (below). Santorum sounded his usual notes about the monolithic evils of “Sharia law,” but when asked to clarify exactly what that was — other than a convenient talking point — the former senator was unable to do so.

Raza wrote Monday in Alternet:

I asked Santorum to name the 5 foundations of Sharia, which he was unable to do. It was also difficult for him to fathom the fact that Muslim scholars across the religious spectrum have all condemned ISIS. And that ISIS does follow not a legitimate interpretation of Sharia, according to basically every Muslim in the world. Although he could not name a single Muslim scholar who supports ISIS, he still insisted that ISIS is very popular (a claim that is statistically untrue). Santorum also found it difficult to fathom the fact that religion is up to interpretation. 

Hat tip Raw Story

Next: Rick Wiles & Mark Taylor 

4. Rick Wiles & Mark Taylor

Perhaps the only thing more alarming than Donald Trump are his fans, who can count among their dubious ranks apocalypse prognosticator Mark Taylor. Taylor recently appeared in Rick Wiles’ TruNews program to enlighten listeners on his frankly insane visions of a cosmology in which Trump is an avatar of God himself, and his enemies are the armies of Satan.

Right Wing Watch’s Brian Tashman writes:

Naturally, Wiles was overjoyed by his “amazing” prophesy.

Taylor also alleged that God made Fox News host Megyn Kelly “violently ill” for asking Trump “gotcha” questions at the first GOP presidential debate: “God was firing a warning shot: Don’t attack my anointed. Period.”

“The kingdom of darkness is attacking this man like never before,” Taylor said. “God is using this man — he’s not rattling the gates, because when you rattle the gates you don’t make entry — this man is literally splitting the kingdom of darkness right open.”

He claimed that protests at Trump rallies are a sign that “the kingdom of darkness is actually noticing the authority that God has put on this man and those are demons manifesting at this man’s rallies.”

“God is using him to literally split hell right open and stop this New World Order,” he added.

Hat tip and audio courtesy of Right Wing Watch

Next: Bryan Fischer 

3. Bryan Fischer

If you are a conservative in favor of comprehensive tax reform, surely you can make a cogent argument without literally comparing income tax to the Dred Scott decision and literal slavery. Unless of course you are American Family Association (AFA) mouthpiece (and perennial, but richly deserving, TWIC piñata) Bryan Fischer.

In a post published this week on the AFA’s Stand blog, Fischer outlines his philosophy of how income tax is both “immoral and unconstitutional.”

(As a side note, it is awfully precious for Fischer to express any grievance over taxes since he operates — and spews his virulent, hateful garbage — from under the aegis of the AFA hate group, which enjoys non-profit status even as it militantly campaigns to erase people’s civil rights.)

He ends his screed thusly:

In essence, every wage earner is now in a state of involuntary servitude. We are obligated to pay an unjust and unconstitutional tax or face the full wrath and fury of the federal leviathan.

What the American people need is a second Emancipation Proclamation to free us from this bondage. Such an Emancipation Proclamation can be issued by Congress in the form of a law in line with the 16th Amendment that prohibits the federal government from collecting a tax on wages and salaries. Or an Emancipation Proclamation could be issued by the Supreme Court led by originalists who would issue a ruling that bound the federal government down by the chains of the Constitution and declared that it was not allowed to collect a tax on the wages and salaries of working Americans. Until that day comes, we will continue to be in the same condition as Dred Scott, slaves to an immoral, illegal, and utterly unconstitutional edict from the central government.

An Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863. There is no reason another cannot be issued in 2017. [emphasis added]

On a separate episode this week, Fischer claimed on the radio Wednesday that Reuters — yes, Reuters — had written an article disproving the Theory of Evolution and validating Fischer’s own brand of young earth creationism.

The only problem — as I pointed out to him on Twitter — was that his main source was not an article by the venerable news organization, but rather the heavily slanted Christian Times, which used a Reuters photo. Fischer, in effect, confused the photo caption for a byline, and so went on the air boasting that the secular media was writing articles confirming his unintelligent designs. “The Bible forbids evolution,” he said. “This book. This book does not lie.

He later tweeted that he was “Not perfect. Just forgiven.” By whom, he did not say.

Next: Brigham Young University

2. Brigham Young University

After a female student at the Mormon institution of higher learning Brigham Young University told police that she had been raped, her school busted her for violating the university’s bylaws.

BYU’s “honor code” — essentially a catalogue of puritanical, religion-inflected prescriptions — allows for the student to be punished for having had a member of the opposite sex in her home or for consuming alcohol.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the university is magnanimously allowing the student to complete her semester but has barred her from registering for future classes. The Tribune‘s Annie Knox writes:

[S]he filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, saying BYU denied her services available to victims under Title IX, a federal law barring sex discrimination at schools that receive funds from the U.S. government.

If a school is found to have violated Title IX, it usually reaches a settlement with the Office for Civil Rights and must show it is making new efforts to comply with the federal law.

She “is one of several students at the school, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who have said they were investigated by the school’s Honor Code Office after reporting a sexual assault.”

Next: Sean Hannity

1. Sean Hannity

The Fox News host is finally coming under fire from both within and without his network for treating Donald Trump with the breathless adulation of a fawning fanboy. (To cite just one example, Hannity teed up the exact same obsequious question, “Do you have a nickname for Hillary?” at both last week’s and previous week’s town hall.)

When the host lost his cool at Ted Cruz this week for playing politics with the delegates, he all but laid his bias for The Donald naked on the table. Hannity then went on a long Twitter tear, blasting his critics and asserting that any pro-Trump, anti-Cruz agenda was “BS.”

“Now let me go back to this other idea about the media,” he said on his radio show Wednesday. “The media has accused me of going soft in interviews on Republicans. I plead guilty. I absolutely plead guilty. You know why? Because I want one of them to win.”

Here he echoed remarks he had made last week, when he said: “If I’m interviewing Hillary Clinton, it’s gonna be a hundred times harder than any Republican, because I believe the Republicans represent, and have, a far better vision, one that I agree with.”

“I’m not a journalist,” he admitted. (No kidding.) “I’m a talk show host.”

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Check out previous editions of This Week In Crazy here. Think we missed something? Let us know in the comments!Get This Week In Crazy delivered to your inbox every Friday, by signing up for our daily email newsletter.

This Week In Crazy: The Scalia Memorials

This Week In Crazy: The Scalia Memorials

Last Saturday, Justice Antonin Scalia passed away, leaving a vacant seat in the nation’s highest court and opening a vacuum into which conservatives poured their wildest obstructionist agendas and kooked-out conspiracy theories. Welcome to “This Week In Crazy,” a special Scalia-themed edition of The National Memo’s weekly update on the loony, bigoted, and hateful behavior of the increasingly unhinged right wing. Starting with number five:

5. Phyllis Schlafly

Of course it isn’t enough to block President Obama from appointing Scalia’s replacement — it is incumbent upon Senate Republicans to block any and all appointments to federal courts. This is the latest gospel from Phyllis Schlafly, writing in her column published Monday.

Schlafly writes:

Several GOP candidates promised to appoint a justice who will interpret the Constitution as it was written, rather than changing it as liberals want. But by now it should be painfully obvious that picking good judges is not sufficient to stop liberal activism by the courts.

Of course Senate Republicans should block President Obama from filling this Supreme Court vacancy in an election year, and they have 80 years of precedent on their side. But Republicans should go further and block nominations for all the other vacancies in the federal judiciary, too.

Schlafly was not content to leave it at that of course — the conservative activist, who has previously railed against abortion, same-sex marriage, the Equal Rights Amendment, and even microbrew, enjoined Congress to basically tear down the entire judicial system because, you know, liberals.

“Congress should also defund use of taxpayer money by the Department of Justice to push the liberal agenda in the liberal courts,” she wrote. “Congress should cut back on the funding for the courts themselves, too, and eliminate rather than fill some of the vacancies.”

In other words, no judges at all are better than judges who want to move the country forward.

Next: Grant Stinchfield 

4. Grant Stinchfield

Grant Stinchfield, a radio host and former Republican congressional candidate, demonstrated virtually unheard of humility (at least among right-wing shock jocks) when he confessed that he did not “know for a fact that [Scalia] was murdered.” But still, he thinks he’s pulled the crucial thread on a conspiracy regarding the president and the unions in cahoots with him, and he wants the Feds to look into it.

Speaking on his radio show Monday, Stinchfield cited a “whole host of factors” that led him to believe that a murder was possible. “The more reporters that tell me I’m nuts about this, it tells me that maybe I’m on to something,” Stinchfield said.

He also, in a curious maneuver, decried the fact that with a potential year’s worth of null 4-4 rulings, President Obama would have “free rein” to impose whatever nefarious liberal agenda he wants, glossing over the fact that if there should be a year-long vacancy on the SCOTUS, it will be despite — not because of — the president’s efforts.

should be investigated by the FBI,” Stinchfield wrote on Twitter. “To [sic] many red flags. and Unions have motive to want him dead.” The plot thickens.

Stinchfield is of course only one of many, many conservative pundits who are calling for an investigation into the circumstances of Scalia’s death. As we shall see…

Hat tip and audio courtesy of Media Matters

Next: Glenn Beck 

3. Glenn Beck

Well, this is a murder conspiracy of a sort.

Glenn Beck downloaded his latest dispatch from his private satellite in orbit that relays the secret plans of God to let his audience know that the Man Upstairs took Scalia to that great seminar on originalism in the sky, as a way of paving the road for His chosen candidate — Ted Cruz.

As reported by Right Wing Watch, Beck speculated that Scalia’s death was God’s way of galvanizing Americans into realizing just how close they are to losing their liberties, and accordingly spurring them to punch their chads for Cruz.

“I just woke the American people up,” Beck said, presumably channelling the true intentions of God. “I took them out of the game show moment and woke enough of them up to say, look at how close your liberty is to being lost. You now have lost your liberty. You replace one guy and you now have 5-4 decisions in the other direction. Just with this one guy, you’ve lost your liberty. So you’d better elect somebody that is going to be somebody on, because for the next 30 years, if you don’t, the Constitution as you know it … is hanging by a thread. That thread has just been cut.”

Beck took to Facebook Wednesday night to blast the “MSM” for basically reporting that he had told listeners that “God killed Scalia to help Ted Cruz.”

“Outrageous,” Beck wrote. “What I did say is ‘perhaps God allowed Scalia to die at this time to wake America up to how close we are to the loss of our freedom.'”

Ah, thank you for clarifying. His full Facebook post is below.

As I am driving to the airport to come home I check the news.Apparently the MSM is reporting that I said “God killed…

Posted by Glenn Beck on Wednesday, February 17, 2016

This is not the first time Glenn Beck has espied the hand of God in Ted Cruz’s candidacy. He has previously said that he sees divine providence animating both the life story of the Texas senator, as well as his political aspirations. You could reasonably protest that the Almighty probably could have found a more humane, surefire way to give Cruz a boost in the race than offing one of His most effective servants — but I guess Beck hasn’t yet received a transmission that explains that one away yet.

Hat tip and video courtesy of Right Wing Watch 

Next: Michael Savage 

2. Michael Savage

Well naturally, the shock jock guru Michael Savage has a theory that Scalia was murdered. After all, how else to can you explain the sudden death of a 79-year-old man?

“We need a Warren Commission-like federal investigation,” he said on his show. “This is serious business.” Donald Trump conceded to Savage that the unprecedented event of a septuagenarian passing away in his sleep was “pretty unusual.”

In an essay entitled “Was Scalia Murdered?” posted on his website, Savage expanded upon his theory:

The question is, is it a conspiracy theory to ask questions that are so obviously in need of answer, or is it just common sense. And where is the common sense both in the press and the Republican Party. The answer is nowhere. And that’s why I am Michael Savage.

[…]we have a picture of Barack Obama shaking hands with John Poindexter. A Texas millionaire businessman, who is also a donor to the Democrat party, who also received an award from Barry Obama, related to his service in Viet Nam. You see, Mr. Poindexter, is the owner of the Cibolo Creek Ranch that Supreme Court Justice Scalia was found dead at this weekend. Did you know any of this?

“My friends,” he concluded, “something stinks.”

Audio courtesy of Right Wing Watch 

Next: Rick Wiles 

1. Rick Wiles

But it gets worse (or better) than a “mere” murder.

Of all the Scalia truther conspiracies that I’ve heard, Rick Wiles’s certainly takes the prize for the most creative, baroque, and paranoid. Wiles, the radio host of End Times, weaves his political assassination drama together with some deeply held misgivings about the dark practices of American pagans, as well as his all-enveloping fear and loathing of the president, which is basically the background radiation noise for any good conservative rant.

Positing “possible occult connections” to the death of Justice Scalia on Trunews Monday, Wiles spun a most creative theory, uniting several distinct conservative Christian bugaboos: an insidious liberal plot, witchcraft, and the dark lord holding dominion over all, Barack Obama.

As reported by Right Wing Watch:

[Scalia] was murdered by President Obama and was a human sacrifice to mark the pagan festival of Lupercalia.

Wiles explained that the “Luciferian” “devil-worshipers” who control the government are out for blood, noting that Lupercalia is observed between February 13 and 15. Scalia’s body was discovered on the 13th. “There’s always human sacrifice involved,” he said, claiming that Scalia was “killed” to mark the beginning of pagan fascism ruling over the U.S.

“This is the way a dictatorial, fascist, police state regime takes control of a nation,” Wiles said, averring that the pillow had been left on Scalia’s face as a warning to any in Washington who would oppose the Satanic cabal. The day of Scalia’s death marked “the day the justice died, the day justice in America died,” he continued, “they got away with it.”

Wiles cited as evidence the fact that Scalia died on Feb. 13, which was the 44th day of the year — and this is the smoking gun, you see, because this devilish numerology points to the 44th president.

It all adds up.

Hat tip and audio courtesy of Right Wing Watch

Images: Scalia (DonkeyHotey/Flickr), Courthouse (Phil Roeder/Flickr)

Check out previous editions of This Week In Crazy here. Think we missed something? Let us know in the comments!Get This Week In Crazy delivered to your inbox every Friday, by signing up for our daily email newsletter.

This Week In Crazy: Jesus, Get Your Gun!

This Week In Crazy: Jesus, Get Your Gun!

What would Jesus do? Oppose background checks, naturally.

Welcome to “This Week In Crazy,” The National Memo’s weekly update on the loony, bigoted, and hateful behavior of the increasingly unhinged right wing. Starting with number five:

5. Sarah Palin

Although it is my inclination not to feed the troglodytic troll that is former Alaska governor Sarah Palin by giving her a dram of attention, her latest post on Facebook — a cattle call to preorder her new e-book — is such a remarkably dense concentration of conservative crankery, it could not be ignored.

In what can only be described as bullion cube of vintage ‘Murican stupid, Palin, resembling a Marine Todd meme brought to life, argues (in all-caps) that Jesus Christ would fight for Americans’ right to buy and carry guns with impunity. She writes:

JESUS WOULD FIGHT FOR OUR SECOND AMENDMENT

Taking concrete defense measures (ie. arming ourselves) away from the good guys? Yeah… that… we don’t want that. As this hilarious parody says, “…it will really suck when only the bad guys have guns.”

Shoot, even the Lord said to take up arms and defend yourself and protect the innocent! We’re expected to take responsibility to defend ourselves and to protect the innocent, certainly not relying on fallible leaders to do it for us.

Don’t believe me? Look it up! Luke 22:36. I wrote about it in #sweetfreedom.
Proof, Jesus is a proponent of carrying!

Luke 22:36 quotes Jesus as saying “he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one,” however Jesus does a mere two verses later say that two swords is “enough.” That would indicate to me that Jesus advocates for caps on gun ownership, governor.

Then again this is all quite speculative since Jesus has as much to say about guns as he has to say about the U.S. Constitution, which is not a thing at all, having predated both of them by some several centuries.

Next: Donald Trump

4. Donald Trump

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump (those four words in a row still get me) has been characteristically vocal throughout his campaign about his willingness to curtail the civil liberties of American Muslims, suggesting in the past that he would “certainly look at” whether or not mosques should be shut down.

The attacks in Paris have given the Twinkie-toned mogul the occasion to double down on this, saying that he might have “absolutely no choice” but to close mosques, and that he would be in favor of tracking Muslims in a database, assigning them specialized identification, and subjecting them to warrantless searches and new levels of surveillance.

It’s not just American Muslims — Trump sees peril from within and without. In discussing the supposed dangers posed by the Syrian refugees, Trump has assiduously ignored mentioning the fact they are subjected to a rigorous screening process. In an Instagram video posted to his account Tuesday, The Donald exclaimed: “Refugees are pouring into our great country from Syria! We don’t even know who they are. They could be ISIS. They could be anybody. What is our president doing? Is he insane?”

What is our President doing?

A video posted by Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) on

And speaking to Yahoo News, The Donald made clear his eagerness to boot out any refugees that may have already settled in the U.S. by the time he enters the Oval Office:

“They’re going to be gone. They will go back. … I’ve said it before, in fact, and everyone hears what I say, including them, believe it or not,” Trump said of the refugees. “But if they’re here, they have to go back, because we cannot take a chance. You look at the migration, it’s young, strong men. We cannot take a chance that the people coming over here are going to be ISIS-affiliated.”

Trump wasn’t much more sympathetic to Muslims who are already American citizens, suggesting ominously that “security is going to rule” and that the country would “have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago.”

“We’re going to have to do things we never did before. And some people are going to be upset about it,” Trump said. “Certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learning about the enemy.”

This week witnessed the leading Republican candidate cross the line, unambiguously, loudly, and repeatedly, into full-blown fascism. In the same Yahoo News interview, Trump said he would have to look “very closely” at the possibility of tracking and registering Muslims in a special database.

On Morning Joe Monday Trump spoke to the possibility of shutting down mosques: “I would hate to do it, but it’s something that you’re going to have to strongly consider because some of the ideas and some of the hatred, the absolute hatred, is coming from these areas.”

Speaking to Sean Hannity the following day, Trump went a step further, exclaiming: “There’s absolutely no choice. Some really bad things are happening and they’re happening fast. Certainly a lot faster than our president understands because he doesn’t understand anything.”

“Nobody wants to say this and nobody wants to shut down religious institutions or anything, but you know, you understand it,” Trump said. “A lot of people understand it. We’re going to have no choice.”

And on Thursday Trump dug himself in further, telling NBC News that “absolutely” he “would certainly implement” a database tracking Muslims in America, and that Muslims would legally “have to be” in the database. Asked how that was any different from Nazis registering Jews, Trump said: “You tell me.”

Next: Rick Wiles

3. Rick Wiles

In his latest dispatch from his rust-ridden raft anchored off the coast of reality, End Times radio host Rick Wiles warned Americans of President Obama’s imminent plans to lead an “Islamic invasion of America.”

Repeating a notion familiar to his listeners, that there are ISIS cells infiltrating American churches, Wiles warned that the current refugee crisis with Syria is a smokescreen for a far more insidious plot.

“This mass migration is not an accident,” Wiles said. “It’s not the fruit of bad policy. It’s the fruit of deliberate policy.”

“Jihad Barry,” as Wiles calls the president, “knows what he’s doing, and this is to create total confusion in the West.”

Audio courtesy of Right Wing Watch:

In recent months, Wiles has claimed that Bernie Sanders’ candidacy heralded the End of Days, he praised Russia for enacting a brutal anti-gay agenda, and even suggested — in one of those delightful historical ironies — that conservative Americans might one day find safe haven there after Obama’s mass slaughter begins.

ViaRight Wing Watch

Next: Steven Anderson and Theodore Shoebat

1. & 2. Steven Anderson and Theodore Shoebat

TWIC ends in a draw this week, because at some point vile is just vile, and I honestly don’t know which of these hateful, deplorable responses to the ISIS attacks in Paris last Friday is worse.

Two conservative Christians, apparently working independently, reasoned that the 129 people who were killed, and the hundreds more who were injured, got what they deserved — for the simple reason that they either attended a concert, were out eating at a restaurant, or maybe just because they were French.

Conservative Christian pastor Steven Anderson spent his Sunday sermon (called “The Sinful Nation of France”) admonishing his flock that if you happen to be a French person, and especially if you listen to a band called Eagles of Death Metal, you basically have invited your own just demise.

Anderson said:

When you go to a concert of death metal, somebody might get killed! You know, you’re worshiping death, and then, all of a sudden, people start dying!… Well, you love death so much, you bought the ticket, you love worshiping Satan! Well, let’s have some of Satan’s religion come in and shoot you!

I mean, that’s what these people should think about before they go into such a wicked concert…

As if it mattered, the band Eagles of Death Metal is not actually a death metal band. Their style is described as “feelgood, bluesy boogie-rock.”

Anderson also called the group’s leader a “drug-pushing hillbilly faggot,” and excoriated the culture of France for being, he said, pro-adultery, a moral failing that justified the attacks.

Anderson’s comments about the concert begin at the 5:45 mark:

Self-described “Christian militant” Theodore Shoebat said the attacks were “part of God’s Providence,” because “Suffering is needed, in order to bring people to the One Who suffered for them.”

Shoebat has poured his vile thesis into a rambling, raging screed on his website, subtly and succinctly titled “Don’t Pray For France, France Is A Godless Nation That Deserved To Be Attacked. France Supports Terrorists And Kills Christians, And Needs To Be Punished.”

Shoebat sprays his scattershot venom on “feminist garbage,” “the evil reprobates of Charlie Hebdo,” Planned Parenthood, which “slaughters more people in a day than what those terrorists ever did,” and the audience at the Bataclan Theater, which constituted the majority of those slain in the attacks.

The concertgoers were, in Shoebat’s words, “singing a song, ‘Kiss the devil’. They died, not as martyrs for Christ, but as worshippers of the devil.”

“They were worshipping Satan,” he continued, “and we are suppose to feel sorry for them? They kissed the devil, and the devil came to them and slaughtered them. I say, to hell with them. The Lord works in mysterious ways.”

ViaRight Wing Watch andPatheos

Photo: Alpine425 via Flickr

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