Truth Social and it’s tutor
“Truth Social,” Donald Trump’s social media platform, and Donald Trump’s use of it have two things in common. As a platform, Truth Social is neither truthful nor social. It’s a propaganda machine — untruthful and anti-social. Donald Trump’s self-serving posts are the same, untruthful and antisocial. They reflect the defense strategy Roy Cohn taught him years ago. “Never defend! Always attack! Attack, attack, attack!” Roy Cohn fried whatever and whomever stood in his way.
Two featured news headlines — “Trump reverts to scorched-earth political strategy as he runs for ’24” (NYT), and “In U.S., Phoenix tops them all; climate change threatens health” (Associated Press)— strike me this morning as two sides of the same coin. The US Constitution and Earth are being scorched by an indicted former president and his party. Denial may have worked before now, but it’s harder to ignore when Phoenix and Death Valley hit record-breaking temperatures while the forests are ablaze in the Pacific Northwest and in Canada; the Northeast U.S. is awash with flooding and the scenes are most everywhere around the globe.
It’s time to listen to Bill Nye, the Science Guy
“Do you believe climate change is real? Is human impact making the earth less inhabitable?” should be the FIRST questions a voter asks a candidate. “Yes or No?” If the answer is No, or the candidate does a tap dance, it’s time to turn our backs, and find a candidate who answers “Yes.”
Seven detestable things
This direct question to candidates goes hand in hand with the seven detestable things named in the Book of Proverbs:
• haughty eyes;
• a lying tongue;
• hands that shed innocent blood;
• a heart that devises wicked schemes;
• feet that are quick to rush into evil;
• a false witness who pours out lies; and
• a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
The Faith and Freedom Coalition
At the Gala dinner at the Washington Hilton that ended this year’s Faith and Freedom Coalition Annual Conference (23–24 June 2023), the featured speaker brought his haughty eyes, lying tongue, heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that quickly rush into evil, and mouth that pours out lies to arouse the adrenaline of a crowd that claims to know their Bibles.
“Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists and fascists indict me,” he declares, “I consider it a great badge of courage. I am being indicted for you….” The faithful lift their Bibles and flags in rapturous worship and praise.
Deception, denial, scorched-earth, and scorched Earth
When a candidate blames his criminal indictments and climate change as hoaxes cooked up by “Democrats, Marxists, communists, and fascists,“ Roy Cohn would be proud. But a scorched-earth defense by offense is not only morally offensive; it is a pattern of deception that is scorching the Earth itself.
Gordon C. Stewart, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017 Wipf & Stock),49 brief meditations on faith and life, Brooklyn Park, MN, July 19, 2023.
Views from the Edge 
Wonderfully accurate Gordon. Distressing to read but thank you for posting this.
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Thank you, Chuck. It is distressing, but when one is distressed what comes through the keyboard is distressing. I so wish it weren’t so, but I promised myself many years ago that if and when I would see and American facsimile of Hitler or Mussolini, I would not stay quiet. I would speak and act as best I’m able.
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Spot on Gordon. Perplexing question: why do 70mm + of our fellow citizens find this Narcissistic Sociopath “Christ like”, wonderful? How do we shed the cult?
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Hey, Jim! It IS perplexing. Because it’s true, i.e., 70mm fellow citizens…), I think it requires all of us to step back and ask that question seriously, and to listen carefully to those who see DJT so differently. How to engage the conversation is as perplexing as the questions themselves. The conversation,) for me, begins with open ears or it will go nowhere. But we’re so old and tired, and right (I really do think we are — not as in blue but as in correct) that we may not have what it takes to have that conversation. Gotta go. Thanks, as always, for sharing so thoughtfully.
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