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Donald J. Trump #wingnut #god-complex businessinsider.com

Former President Donald Trump shared a bizarre fan-made video on Truth Social, which declared that he was divinely chosen to lead the country.

"And on June 14, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, 'I need a caretaker.' So God gave us Trump," the video starts.

The narrator goes on to frame Trump as a messianic figure who was created by God to "fight the Marxists" and "call out the fake news for their tongues as sharp as a serpent's."

Trump has long had a solid base of support among evangelical Christians in the United States, and polls show that a high portion believes that God anointed him to rule — even though he has never suggested having any strong personal faith.

Trump's sharing of the video suggests that he fully embraces the role ahead of the 2024 election.

The video describes Trump's supposed strengths, including his "arms strong enough to rustle the Deep State and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild." It's not clear which of his grandchildren Trump is meant to have delivered.

The video also describes Trump as a workaholic who worked all hours of the night while president.

His work ethic was a source of debate during his time in office, particularly after his private schedules were leaked, showing that half of his scheduled time was unstructured.

The video also claimed that Trump attended church services every Sunday despite no evidence of this.

Last year, former Vice-President Mike Pence, well-known to be a deeply religious evangelical Christian, ridiculed Trump's religious devotion during his remarks at the annual Gridiron Dinner.

Pence joked that he had "once invited President Trump to a Bible study," calling it "an experience," according to The Washington Post.

"I read that some of those classified documents they found in Mar-a-Lago were actually stuck in the president's Bible," Pence said, referencing the ongoing saga of investigations into Trump. "Which proves he had absolutely no idea they were there."

The Dilley 300 Meme Team made the latest adulatory video, which is not directly affiliated with the Trump campaign but makes pro-Trump videos that he often shares on social media.

Kalana Limkin #fundie #wingnut #psycho businessinsider.com

The initial complaint[…]indicates Kalana Limkin of Hawaii has been the subject of a criminal investigation since May and, upon his arrest, admitted to law enforcement that he is the creator of "Cultist," a splinter group of the satanic anarchist organization known as "764," that targets children and uses child sexual abuse material and videos of animal cruelty, self-harm, and other extreme acts of violence to "accelerate chaos in society"

"The group functions together as a coordinated unit by using Discord and Telegram as vessels to desensitize vulnerable populations through sharing extreme gore and child sexual abuse material ("CSAM"), with the purpose of breaking down societal norms and normalizing explicit material to corrupt minors and groom them towards future violence"[…]
Limkin is accused in the complaint of posting at least six images of child sexual abuse material on Discord servers, as well as exploiting a minor he first met through the now-defunct site Omegle[…]
Limkin showed the girl a graphic video of sexual abuse against a child, asked her for photos of herself in her underwear, and told her he had a collage of pictures of girls he had manipulated into cutting his name into their bodies[…]
The 764 group that Limkin based his Cultist faction on is itself an offshoot of The Order of Nine Angles[…]
"O9A advocates 'culling'[…]Jews, people of color, and others deemed to be inferior under their Social Darwinist views, as well as rape and sexual assault as a means of asserting domination, breaking social norms, and propagating the expansion of the white race," according to the complaint[…]"O9A embraces terrorism, including radical Islamic jihadist ideology and the violent tactics of jihadist groups, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham ("ISIS") and al Qaeda, as a means to accelerate the decline of Western society and to attack Jewish people in particular"

Elon Musk and breakingbaht #racist #conspiracy businessinsider.com

On Wednesday, Musk responded to an antisemitic post by a verified X user, @breakingbaht, with the words "You have said the actual truth"

The exchange went like this:

An X user named Charles Weber, who describes himself in his bio as a conservative Jew, posted an ad that ran during NFL games this year titled "Stand Up to Jewish Hate"

The ad campaign shows a man admonishing his son for writing "Hitler was right" online, an obviously antisemitic phrase common on the far right[…]
Another X user, @breakingbaht, replied to this post: "Okay. Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. I'm deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don't exactly like them too much. You want truth said to your face, there it is"

Musk replied to this: "You have said the actual truth"[…]
He then followed this up with a criticism of the Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group against antisemitism[…]
@elonmusk

The ADL unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel

This is because they cannot, by their own tenets, criticize the minority groups who are their primary threat

It is not right and needs to stop
November 15, 2023

Margarita Simonyan #crackpot #dunning-kruger #psycho #wingnut businessinsider.com

(Context: Simonyan is the head of the Russian state news agency RT)

A loyal Kremlin propagandist suggested that Moscow should drop a nuclear bomb over Siberia as a way to convey a message to the West amid the grinding war with Ukraine, sparking backlash from officials in the Russian territory, according to multiple reports.

"If we were to conduct a thermonuclear explosion, a nuclear explosion, hundreds of kilometers above our own territory, someplace in Siberia, nothing scary would happen on the land," Simonyan said, according to a translation by the Russian Media Monitor.

"There will be no nuclear winter where everyone is afraid. There won't be horrific radiation that will kill everyone … None of that will happen,"

Simonyan added, according to the translation, that it would "disable" all electronics and satellites and, "We will return to the year 1993."

“And let me tell you, we lived amazingly well!”

(Submitter’s note, the last line isn’t quoted in the article’s text, but is in the video provided at 7:22)

Sall Grover #transphobia businessinsider.com

An app marketed towards "females" has faced a barrage of online criticism for excluding transgender women with its use of artificial intelligence.

Giggle, which first launched in early 2020, according to The Verge, uses facial recognition to determine if new users are male or female.

"The way the app works is when you install it, you have to take a picture of yourself and it uses AI to analyze your face," said Jenny, a 23-year-old trans woman from California. "And if it decides you're a woman, it will let you in. If it decides you're a man, it will reject you. But if it rejects you, you can just submit another picture."

Giggle's founder and CEO, Sall Grover, has brashly pushed back against online criticism, including claims that the app uses technology that has failed to properly identify women of color, while publicly embracing an ideology that's considered harmful to trans people.

"This particular combination of gender categorization and facial recognition and race is something that we absolutely know is a problem," Casey Fiesler, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies technology ethics, told Insider.

The issue, however, has gone beyond the platform's questionable AI practices. Grover, who has embraced being called a "TERF" — trans-exclusionary radical feminist — told Insider that she decided to exclude trans women from the platform once trans activists began using it.

According to Giggle's website, the app sends a new user's selfie to the facial-recognition AI company Kairos, which analyzes the photo.

"Through computer vision and deep learning, they recognise females in videos, photos, and the real world," according to Giggle. If the Kairos AI is 95% certain the person is female, the person is allowed to create an account, Giggle says. Kairos did not return Insider's request for comment.

Grover said in a December tweet in the wake of the controversy that the app would be temporarily removed from the Google app store after the company was targeted with negative reviews by people she described in a tweet as "male" and "trolls."

The app was restored to Google Play in January and has remained available on the App Store. Neither Apple nor Google returned Insider's requests for comment about whether the app violated any policies.

Marjorie Taylor Greene #conspiracy #crackpot #wingnut businessinsider.com

Marjorie Taylor Greene encouraged Alabama residents to greet vaccination promoters with guns

Aug 7, 2021

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene encouraged Alabama residents to use their guns to scare off officials if they came to their homes to ask about their vaccine status.

The Georgia politician made the comments while speaking to a crowd in Dothan, Alabama, on July 23.
"You lucky people here in Alabama might get a knock on your door because I hear Alabama might be one of the most unvaccinated states in the nation," she said.

She warned them that Joe Biden would send his "police state friends" to their homes to ask about their vaccine status.

"He's going to be sending one of his police-state friends to your front door, to knock on the door, take down your name, your address, your family members' names, your phone numbers, your cellphone numbers, probably ask for your social security number, and whether you've taken the vaccine or not."

"What they don't know is that in the South, we love our Second Amendment rights and we're not real big on strangers showing up on our front door, are we?" she said, to raucous cheers from the crowd.

"They might not like the welcome they get."

...

Alabama has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country and is one of just two states with less than 35% of the population fully vaccinated.

Alabama is the fifth worst state in terms of vaccination rate in the country ...

...

Greene has previously come under fire for making controversial comments about COVID-19, including comparing vaccine passports and mask mandates to the Holocaust.

Greene then criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci, who she said was a president that "no one elected."

She accused Dr. Fauci of orchestrating COVID-19 by funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, a false claim from the right that says he created the coronavirus.

"Dr. Tony Fauci funded, with your tax dollars, he funded it in the Wuhan lab, didn't he? He funded COVID-19," she said.

...

Mitt Romney #elitist #mammon #wingnut businessinsider.com


Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah ripped into the White House on Wednesday for considering widespread student loan forgiveness. He argued it could amount to a slippery slope for other types of debt forgiveness.

"Desperate polls call for desperate measures: Dems consider forgiving trillions in student loans" the Utah Republican wrote on Twitter. "Other bribe suggestions: Forgive auto loans? Forgive credit card debt? Forgive mortgages? And put a wealth tax on the super-rich to pay for it all. What could possibly go wrong?"

Russian Government #wingnut businessinsider.com

Wikipedia has filed an appeal against a Moscow lower court's decision that ordered the website to take down "prohibited" information about the war in Ukraine.

The Russian court initially issued Wikimedia a fine of 5 million rubles ($88,000) for refusing to remove what it called "untrue socially important information" from Russian-language Wikipedia pages, according to Russian media.

According to news agency TASS, Russian prosecutors called the website a tool for "non-stopping information attacks" on Russia and unfair anti-Russian sentiment,

Wikimedia said that some of the articles the court took issue with include "Massacre in Bucha," "The Russian Invasion of Ukraine," and "Battle for Kyiv," all of which the organization said contained "fact-based knowledge."

Russia's demands come after President Vladimir Putin signed new "disinformation" laws in March that allow authorities to punish anyone who shares what it deems as false information about the war with up to 15 years in prison or fines of up to 5 million rubles, which was equivalent to about $44,000 at the time.

Jason Riddle #wingnut #dunning-kruger businessinsider.com

A man who was charged after bragging that he had guzzled wine during the Capitol riot is now running for office — but appears to have accidentally joined the wrong race.

Jason Riddle of New Hampshire was arrested in February after he told NBC10 Boston that he joined rioters on January 6 as they stormed the Capitol.

He is accused of illegally entering a restricted building, theft of government property, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to a criminal complaint.

He has now decided to enter politics and run for state representative, he said Sunday, with the intention of unseating the Democrat Ann Kuster in the 2022 midterms, the channel reported.

Kuster, however, is not a state representative but rather a member of the US Congress.

"I thought Ann was a state representative?" he said, when the reporter Katherine Underwood corrected him.

"No," Underwood said. "So, a state representative is in the State House in Concord."

"Yeah, that's what Ann is," Riddle said.

When Underwood informed him that Kuster actually worked out of Washington, DC, Riddle said: "Well, I guess I've got to run against that then."

Paul Gosar #wingnut #transphobia #racist businessinsider.com

Following Tuesday's mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, Rep. Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, spread a false and transphobic claim that the suspected shooter was a "transsexual leftist illegal alien."

Gosar tweeted the claim even though authorities had already identified the shooter as an 18-year-old male resident of Uvalde, where the shooting occurred.

As of Tuesday evening, the GOP representative had not commented on his tweet, which was deleted about two hours after being published.

Senator Clay Yarborough & Florida republicans #transphobia businessinsider.com

Florida courts could take 'emergency' custody of kids with trans parents or siblings — even if they live in another state

A proposed bill making its way through the Florida State Senate would allow the state "emergency jurisdiction" over children who receive or are "at risk of" receiving gender-affirming care — or if their parent receives it themselves.

Senate Bill 254, introduced Friday by State Senator Clay Yarborough, would grant the court authority to take emergency custody of kids under the same statute that protects them from domestic violence and abuse.

The state could take temporary custody of children if "it is necessary in an emergency to protect the child because the child, or a sibling or parent of the child" is "at risk of or is being subjected to the provision of sex reassignment prescriptions or procedures," according to the proposed bill text.

The proposed bill defines sex reassignment prescriptions or procedures as hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and surgeries or procedures that "affirm a person's perception of his or her sex if that perception is inconsistent with the person's sex" at birth.

The court would also be granted "jurisdiction to vacate, stay, or modify a child custody determination of a court of another state to protect the child from the risk of being subjected to the provision of sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures," according to the proposed bill text. "The court must vacate, stay, or modify the child custody determination to the extent necessary to protect the child from the provision of such prescriptions or procedures."

Representatives for Yarborough, who sponsored the bill, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic and former staff attorney at the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, tweeted that the proposed law would allow "legal kidnapping" of trans kids and is part of a "full on war against trans people in the state of Florida."

[…]

Donald Trump #wingnut #god-complex businessinsider.com

Title: The White House reportedly asked South Dakota's governor how to add another president to Mount Rushmore, and she later gave Trump a 4-foot replica with his face on it

It's not possible to carve a fifth president's face into South Dakota's Mount Rushmore national memorial — there's no secure surface left, according to the National Park Service.

But that didn't stop the Trump administration from asking.

Last year, a White House aide contacted the office of South Dakota's governor, Republican Kristi Noem, to inquire about the process for adding more faces, according to The New York Times. The Times cited a Republican official familiar with the conversation.

Trump's interest in Mount Rushmore, and his desire to be etched in among the four existing presidents, is no surprise to Noem, who says he brought it up during their first meeting in the oval office.

"He said, 'Kristi, come on over here. Shake my hand,'" Noem recounted to South Dakota's Argus Leader. "I shook his hand, and I said, 'Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime. We have Mount Rushmore.' And he goes, 'Do you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore?' "I started laughing," she said. "He wasn't laughing, so he was totally serious."

Noem, a close ally of President Trump's, has since played into that dream, at least with the power she has.

When Trump visited the monument in early July for an Independence Day speech, she greeted him with a four-foot model of Mount Rushmore with his face carved into it, the Times reported, citing a source familiar with the exchange.

The news came amid rumors that Noem could overtake Vice President Mike Pence as Trump's running mate in the 2020 election, though The Times cited a source who said Noem has already indicated to Pence that she isn't trying to replace him.

To be clear, adding another face to Mount Rushmore is not possible. While it looks like there's a spot to the right of George Washington — which is actually where the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, intended to put Thomas Jefferson — the rock surface is unstable.

Noem reportedly joked with Trump that there is another option, Argus Leader reports.

"Come pick out a mountain," she told him.

Christian Collins #fundie #wingnut businessinsider.com

Texas GOP House candidate says young people become 'radical, leftist, hating-America atheists' with no skills when they graduate college

A Republican House candidate on Sunday called college students graduates "radical, leftist, hating-America atheists."

Christian Collins, a Republican running for Texas' 8th Congressional district, made the remarks at an "America First Rally" in Texas, which was also attended by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia and Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina.

"We know how important the youth are to our future because you can raise them the right way. You can work your butts off every day to put food on the table, sent them to college, and then what ends up happening?" Collins said from the stage at the rally in the Woodlands.

"They go off to college not knowing what they believe sometimes, and their teachers, their professors, try to deconstruct everything that you've taught them. And they go off with the college that you paid for and come out radical, leftist, hating-America atheists, and they don't have any usable skills to get employed," Collins continued.

In previous political ads, Collins said he is committed to banning critical race theory from schools. He also founded the Texas Youth Summit, which he said trains young people "to promote principles of fiscal responsibility, free market, limited government, American Exceptionalism, and the Judeo-Christian principles this country was founded upon."

Collins has endorsements from high-profile conservatives, including Taylor Green, Cawthorn, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Alex Stein #sexist #racist businessinsider.com

Alex Stein, a comedian and far-right activist, had on Wednesday catcalled Ocasio-Cortez in racialized terms and made lewd comments about her body

In a video he posted to social media, he can be seen calling her his "favorite big booty Latina" who is "hot hot hot like a tamale" and wants to "kill babies" — the latter being a reference to Ocasio-Cortez' pro-abortion stance

The stunt earned him an hour-long appearance on "MTG:Live," the podcast-style show that Green regularly posts to Facebook, where Greene suggested that Ocasio-Cortez ought to be grateful for the attention

"You're a comedian, you're doing what you do, saying things that are actually quite the compliment," said Greene[…]
Stein said: "I was complimenting! She's Jenny from the Block! I mean, J. Lo is known for her voluptuous derrière, and all I was trying to do is say you look great!"

Stein earlier told Insider's Cheryl Teh that he would "love to date" the New York congresswoman

On the show, Stein noted that he was from Texas and Greene is in Georgia, and described his behavior towards Ocasio-Cortez as "Southern hospitality"[…]
"I don't think that that, for me, is some sort of negative thing, but they live in a society where compliments are bigotry, and based in racism and hate," he said[…]
Greene agreed and suggested that Ocasio-Cortez should have thanked him. "I think women should be confident if a man gives you a compliment, a woman can say 'thank you'" she said

"Or if she's going upstairs and someone's yelling stuff at her, she can just wave and go on, and not go into full outrage"

Joshua McAdams and Taylor Bland-Ball #quack businessinsider.com

A Florida judge ruled that a 3-year-old with leukemia must start chemotherapy despite his parents desire to treat the cancer with medical marijuana, vitamins, and a diet change.

A Hillsborough County judge ruled on Wednesday that 3-year-old Noah McAdams must receive chemotherapy treatment at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, within the next 28 days, WFLA reported.

Joshua McAdams, 27, and Taylor Bland-Ball, 22, lost custody of Noah last week after deciding to discontinue the boy's cancer treatment, according to ABC 11.

Noah, who is in the custody of his grandparents, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia — a cancer of the blood and bone marrow — in early April and underwent chemotherapy treatment at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital.

Bland-Ball told ABC 11 that chemotherapy was difficult for Noah, saying he "had vicious mood swings making him violent, making him very emotional."

The parents then looked into alternative treatments, including medical-grade cannabis, vitamins, and a strict diet.

After Bland-Ball and McAdams missed a round of Noah's chemotherapy at the hospital, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office issued a missing child alert, PEOPLE reported.

They found the couple in Kentucky and placed Noah in custody of his grandparents.

Two doctors testified in Wednesday's hearing, arguing that chemotherapy was necessary for Noah.

The judge ruled that the parents could still use alternative treatments, but the primary course of action must include chemotherapy.

Hayley Geftman-Gold #fundie businessinsider.com

CBS legal executive Hayley Geftman-Gold has been fired for making insensitive remarks about the victims of the Las Vegas shooting, the deadliest shooting in modern US history.

"If they wouldn't do anything when children were murdered I have no hope that Repugs will ever do the right thing," Geftman-Gold wrote in comments that have since been deleted from her Facebook page. "I'm actually not even sympathetic bc country music fans often are Republican gun toters."

Donald Trump #fundie businessinsider.com

Donald Trump: 'Islam Hates Us'

Donald Trump on Wednesday gave some more provocative comments about Islam.

"I think Islam hates us," Trump said when CNN anchor Anderson Cooper asked him whether the US was at war with Islam.

"There's a tremendous hatred," the Republican presidential frontrunner continued. "We have to get to the bottom of it. There is an unbelievable hatred of us."

Trump sparked a national firestorm in December when he proposed that the US bar all Muslims tourists and immigrants from entering the US until the "hatred" in the religion is figured out. Trump announced his plan after the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.

Trump also appeared open in November to some kind of database for Muslim Americans, but he later distanced himself from the idea.

"There's a tremendous hatred. And we have to be very vigilant," Trump told Cooper on Wednesday.

"We have to be very careful," he added. "And we can't allow people coming into this country who have this hatred of the United States and of people that are not Muslim."

Godfrey Kato Kajubi, Sperito Bisekwa, his brother and numerous other Ugandan witchdoctors #fundie businessinsider.com

Kanani and Sylvia, brother and sister aged nine and eight, were grazing the family cattle in rural Uganda when they were approached by a man they vaguely knew.

Sperito Bisekwa was angry. He accused the children of allowing their cows to eat his fodder and dragged them into a nearby forest. He attacked Kanani first. When the boy awoke he had a machete wound on his neck and his sister lay dead beside him.

"He grabbed me, strangled me and cut the back of my neck. When I came to, I realised my sister had been cut everywhere and she was dead," said Kanani.

Sylvia's young body had been gruesomely mutilated, her heart and clitoris cut out with a knife and taken for use in a witchdoctor's ritual, according to police.

[...]

Child protection officer Shelin Kasozi said the charity receives a few cases every month, stressing that the ritual murders "cut across all Ugandan society".

"The rich believe, 'If I sacrifice then my business will prosper'," she said. "The poor believe if they sacrifice a child they'll get rich."

Kasozi pointed to the case of "very, very rich" Kampala businessman Godfrey Kato Kajubi who received a life sentence in 2012 for the ritual murder of a 12-year old boy who was beheaded and his genitals cut off.

[...]

Bisekwa pleaded guilty to the February 2013 attack in Nansaka village, 130 kilometres (80 miles) northwest of the capital Kampala. He is serving a 10-year sentence for the attempted murder of Kanani and awaits sentencing for Sylvia's murder.

He admits sending the body parts to his brother, a witchdoctor, in exchange for the promise of $16,500 (14,600 euros).

Rush Limbaugh #racist businessinsider.com

[Limbaugh was referencing Cochran's unique strategy of reaching out to African-American Democrats, many of whom were allowed to vote in the Republican primary runoff.]

I wonder what the campaign slogan was in Mississippi the past couple days. Uncle Toms for Thad?

Thomas Zabiega #homophobia businessinsider.com

Dr. Nicolosi, a noted psychologist who works with homosexuals said he has never met a homosexual man who has had a good relationship with his father. Homosexual men are simply looking for the love (in the good non-sexual meaning of the word) that they never obtained growing up. The same with lesbians in regards to their moms.

Thomas Zabiega #fundie #homophobia businessinsider.com

Homosexuality is a sign of sexual immaturity, as is having sexual activity outside of marriage, and therefore though there is not test for homosexuality, the Church is now weeding out immature men of both persuasions. A lot of homosexuals in the 1960's and 70's wanted to avoid the destructive gay culture and thought that maybe becoming a priest would change that, so they became priests for the wrong reason. And so when the temptations came, they took advantage of easy access to teenage boys and society's blind eye.