Today's Must-Read: "Christian Nation"

If this doesn't send a chill up your spine. . . .

Recently, a congressional staffer going about his business on the Hill encountered a couple of people who handed him a pamphlet with the scintillating title "Sexual Sin and the Aphrodisiac of Power." Sadly, this was not a post-#MeToo effort to discourage sexual harassment in the halls of Congress. Instead, the document implored "legislators, staff and lobbyists" to adopt a strict fundamentalist view of sexuality, which holds that there is no legitimate expression of sex — including masturbation — outside "the confines and commitment of a husband and a wife (a male and a female) in the bonds of matrimony."

Most urban dwellers, in Washington or elsewhere, have had these chance encounters with religious proselytizers trying to lure in the lost, lonely and emotionally vulnerable. But this was no random encounter with some true believer or doorbell-ringer. These folks were working for Capitol Ministries, a powerful right-wing group that is laser-focused on founder Ralph Drollinger's goal of recruiting public leaders and leaning on them to impose the group's far-right views on a public that overwhelmingly rejects them.


Furthermore, the group has been quite successful so far. As the pamphlet indicated, sponsors of the Capitol Ministries Bible Studies includes seven members of President Trump's Cabinet, the head of NASA, and Vice President Mike Pence. According to Peter Montgomery of People for the American Way, who has been monitoring Capitol Ministries for years now, the group has weekly Bible studies for House members and senators, as well as one for Cabinet officials.

"[Drollinger] uses this really rare and privileged access he has by doing things like a Bible study with members of the Cabinet to tell these powerful public officials that the Bible mandates right-wing economic, social and environmental policies," Montgomery told Salon.

This is what the "religious" right has been working toward for decades -- since Ronald Reagan, in his infinite wisdom, thought he could control the Moral Majority. And as an example as to how far these fanatics have corrupted the teachings of Christ, get this:

As Montgomery has carefully chronicled at Right Wing Watch, a blog for People for the American Way, this relationship between Drolllinger's teachings, right-wing ideology and Trump officials is visible in a number of policy choices. Drollinger is fiercely anti-immigration, claiming that God deliberately separated people at the Tower of Babel and, by implication, that they should stay that way. He opposes environmentalism as a "false religion." And, of course, he opposes same-sex marriage; and teaches that despite all the language in the Bible about caring for the poor and the vulnerable, programs that do so are illegitimate.

So if you were wondering about the origins of those rule changes that target the poor, immigrants, women, and sexual minorities -- minorities of all kinds, actually -- it's not just Trump's petty cruelty. It's the petty cruelty of the religious right.

Read the whole thing -- it focuses mostly on these "Christians'" attempts to control everyone else's sex lives (because, after all, they're obsessed with sex), but there's enough in there to indicate just how wide-ranging their agenda is.

Via Joe.My.God.

The King's Jester Has Spoken

Although I don't know of another jester in history whose word became a policy decision. There's just no end to the nonsense. This is from Sean Hannity's radio show on November 30:

CALLER: I haven't heard an idea that I have, and I don't know if it's feasible or not. With the corruption in the Department of Justice, the people that are demanded to appear, they don't appear, they appear, they lie, everything that's going on with all the corruption -- what about -- does President Trump have the authority to do -- have the JAG in the military do a tribunal, and investigate the Department of Justice that way? Where Congress --

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): He actually does have that authority.

CALLER: -- apparently cannot do its job.

HANNITY: Well, it's the -- again, that would be within the realm of the executive branch of the government, which he is the head of. Yeah, he would. And look, I think the president has been -- look, he could have fired Mueller, he could -- and he could do it legally, Alan Dershowitz said it yesterday. He could fire Rosenstein, he could have done that at any point, he didn't.

How magnanimous of him.

Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars, where Ed Brayton points out:

The only time military tribunals can be used for civilians — and even this is highly questionable — is when they are accused of war crimes or participated in a military action against the United States. They cannot be used for civilians under any other circumstances. The Supreme Court ruled this in 1866.

The Founders (and the courts) were very keen on limiting the military's power -- that's why it's under civilian control.

They were equally keen on limiting the president's power -- see Article II of the Constitution, where those powers are laid out.

Of course, now that Hannity's said it, Trump will take it as Holy Writ. I'm sure he'll at least threaten to unleash the military justice system on the DoJ. At which point any military judge with any integrity would resign. Yeah, well -- one can hope.

It's Not Just Elections Any More

When they go after Star Wars, they've gone too far:

Just like the 2016 presidential election, 2017's release of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" was marred by a massive campaign designed to further undermine American society – a campaign that included Russian trolls, according to new research from the University of Southern California. The study shows that the majority of negative tweets sent to the film's director were "politically motivated," or "not even human" – in other words, Russian bots.

A research paper by Morten Bay, "Weaponizing the haters: The Last Jedi and the strategic politicization of pop culture through social media manipulation," reveals the goal: "further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society," as The Hill reported.

Included in that goal was the support of "extreme right-wing causes and the discrimination of gender, race or sexuality."

I'd call this the shape of things to come, but it's already here. And as usual, the press didn't dig quite deep enough. In fact, I'd say the press is on board, if unwittingly: this is the sort of things that generates headlines and very serious discussions among TV pundits.

"The study finds evidence of deliberate, organized political influence measures disguised as fan arguments. The likely objective of these measures is increasing media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society. Persuading voters of this narrative remains a strategic goal for the U.S. alt-right movement, as well as the Russian Federation."

(Emphasis added.)

I wonder how the Russians have contributed to the Kavanaugh hearings.

PC Amok: The "N-Word"

Just to show how off the rails some people can get, see this story:

The leader of the nonprofit arm of the Human Rights Campaign (the HRC Foundation) has resigned after an investigation found she’d used the n-word twice.

Mary Beth Maxwell, who is white, previously worked for Barack Obama’s administration.

Maxwell was exposed in an email sent to staff by HRC President Chad Griffin which was obtained by Politico.

The email said an investigation was launched after an employee had complained about Maxwell’s use of the term.

No, Maxwell didn't use the word as an insult to anyone; she was relating a couple of incidents in which the word was used.

The President of HRC also wrote that Maxwell did not use the term with intent to insult someone else at HRC, and said that in the first incident she “recounted an upsetting personal story in which the term was used.”

“In the second instance she repeated the word in describing an external situation that they found horrifying, in which racial and homophobic slurs were used,’ Griffin wrote.

What kicks the whole thing up into the realm of face palm is this:

“I share this context because the lesson learned here is that not having bad intent in using the word does not make it acceptable,” Griffin added. “I want to be clear: intent does not matter. It is the impact of the word that matters.”

In other words, Big Brother is watching you.

Let me point out that, Griffin's comment notwithstanding, intent is everything. When it gets to the point where you can't even quote someone else's use of a particular word for fear of offending someone, then we're headed down a steep, nasty slope. This is really nothing more than a few snowflakes setting themselves up as thought police.

The irony here is that this is the position of an organization that regularly uses the word "queer". From HRC's website: "The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer equality." Some of us remember when being called "queer" was an insult.

I had hopes when Griffin became head of HRC that he would whip the organization into line -- historically, it's one of the least effective civil rights groups ever. Instead, it looks like HRC has whipped Griffin into submission.

It's War

Via Joe.My.God., this from the Washington Examiner

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has created a religious liberty task force to “protect and promote religious liberty.”

Speaking from the Justice Department in Washington, Sessions said the task force, which he will chair, is to help implementation of the religious liberty memo he signed in October.

That 25-page memo outlines 20 guiding principles that federal agencies can use to protect religious liberty in employment, contracting and programming.

We all know that "religious liberty" is code for "Christian supremacy," when the "Christian" is a particularly noxious form of Old Testament atrocities.

Joe also refers to Sessions' announcement from the DOJ website. You can read it, but turn your irony meter off:

A dangerous movement, undetected by many, is now challenging and eroding our great tradition of religious freedom. There can be no doubt. This is no little matter. It must be confronted and defeated.

This election, and much that has flowed from it, gives us a rare opportunity to arrest these trends. Such a reversal will not just be done with electoral victories, but by intellectual victories.

We have gotten to the point where courts have held that morality cannot be a basis for law; where ministers are fearful to affirm, as they understand it, holy writ from the pulpit; and where one group can actively target religious groups by labeling them a “hate group” on the basis of their sincerely held religious beliefs.

Sounds like it was written by Tony Perkins. There's not a word of truth in it. That "dangerous movement" is simply the trend toward recognizing the rights of those that right-wing "Christians" don't approve of.

This just puts the seal on the pattern we've seen emerging since Trump took office. A few headlines, with links (with thanks to commenter Gregory in Seattle):

The State Department Is Retroactively Revoking Transgender Women’s Passports, Report Says

U.S. Justice Dept. Files Brief Rejecting LGBTQ Workplace Protections

Trump has declared war on LGBTQ rights. Here’s everything he’s done so far

Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, the stupidest lawyer in America not named Larry Klayman, is ecstatic. I guess he figures that now his outfit can win a case. And Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the worst anti-gay hate groups, is right on board. This article shows just how incestuous this whole thing is.

On July 30, Sessions launched a new “Religious Liberty Task Force” that would enforce discriminatory religious exemptions guidance that the DOJ released in October 2017. (Sessions had worked with ADF on the guidance before its release.) Religious exemptions policies, such as those the DOJ released, allow people and businesses to be exempt from nondiscrimination laws and policies by citing a burden on their religious beliefs. People have frequently used the exemptions to discriminate against the LGBTQ community and others.

ADF was one of the first to break the news of the July 30 “Religious Liberty Summit” in which the task force was announced, noting that the event would feature a panel including the group’s client Jack Phillips, a Christian baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple and who took his case to the Supreme Court in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commision. ADF’s news release, however, did not mention that the panel’s moderator, DOJ media affairs specialist Kerri Kupec, worked at ADF for four years before joining DOJ in January. During his remarks, Sessions said that the DOJ had “been holding listening sessions” with “religious groups across America,” which ADF has acknowledged it has been involved with in the past. Extreme anti-LGBTQ group Liberty Counsel has already praised the announcement of the task force.

I'm sure I'll be adding to this as more bigots are heard from.

Fasten your seatbelts -- it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Melissa McEwen has a succinct and accurate assessment:

We must be very blunt about the creation of the Religious Liberty Task Force: It's another huge step forward in the Trump Regime's creation of a regressive Christian white ethnostate.

And if that sounds like hyperbole to you, you're not paying attention.

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 30, 2018

Remember "Big Brother"? Guess What

If you're flying anywhere for any reason, he's watching you:

A reporter from the Boston Globe has helped lay bare an otherwise hidden program of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA): one that targets all US citizens.

The program, called "Quiet Skies," goes beyond previous TSA efforts, including specific watch lists, air marshals, and other actions designed to secure US airways in a post-9/11 world. In the previously undisclosed program, US citizens are tracked and treated as potential terrorists even though they are not otherwise under investigation.

"Quiet Skies represents a major departure for TSA. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the agency has traditionally placed armed air marshals on routes it considered potentially higher risk, or on flights with a passenger on a terrorist watch list," says the Boston Globe.

They continue, "Deploying air marshals to gather intelligence on civilians not on a terrorist watch list is a new assignment, one that some air marshals say goes beyond the mandate of the US Federal Air Marshal Service. Some also worry that such domestic surveillance might be illegal. Between 2,000 and 3,000 men and women, so-called flying FAMs, work the skies."

I have nothing but contempt for TSA -- as far as I can see, it's done nothing to increase security on flights, and it seems to recruit small people and give them some power, always a bad combination.

Somebody sue them, before Trump stacks the courts even worse.

Today's Must-Read: It's About More than Roe v. Wade

Interesting piece by Michelangelo Signorile on the implications of Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court for the religious right's agenda:

With Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings coming up, it’s important to underscore that some anti-LGBTQ leaders appear to be going for the brass ring, far beyond just dismantling marriage equality. They’re signaling they want to see the Supreme Court allow states to once again ban sodomy.

Kavanaugh, like Neil Gorsuch and the late Antonin Scalia, is a constitutional "originalist," which means that he thinks they Constitution should be interpreted from an eighteenth-century mindset. (They don't say it that way, of course, but that's what it amounts to.) The Founders, as it happens, were a lot more savvy about the processes of history and human society than contemporary "conservatives": they knew damned well that time passes, attitudes change, and the law has to reflect that. As Justice Anthony Kennedy put it, the Founders “knew times can blind us to certain truths, and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress." The goal of the hard-line "Christians" in this country, at least as regards privacy and the rights of LGBT citizens and women, is to put Tony Perkins in your bedroom, watching everything you do.

Via Towleroad.

Footnote: From Digby, this survey on public opinion on Roe v. Wade, another decision the "religious" right wants to demolish:

Historically, the Supreme Court has paid attention to public opinion -- it's the way they have of gauging changing attitudes. We'll see if that still holds.