Religious Crook & Swindler Rodney Howard-Browne Arrested

Rodney Howard-Browne: Florida Megachurch Pastor Arrested

Rodney Howard-Browne. Credit: Hernando County Detention Center

Rodney Howard-Browne, the leader of a Pentecostal megachurch in Tampa Bay, Florida, has been arrested after continuing to hold large church services amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff announced on March 30 that he had obtained an arrest warrant for the pastor’s arrest. About an hour later, Howard-Browne was booked into the Hernando County Detention Center, inmate records show.

Although the governor of Florida has not issued a statewide “stay at home” order, local communities have taken steps to curb the spread of the virus. In Hillsborough County, gatherings are limited to no more than 10 people and residents are instructed to remain at their homes as much as possible. In the order, which can be read here, religious institutions are not included in the list of essential businesses.

Howard-Browne has been dismissive of the threat from COVID-19. During a sermon on March 16, he told the River at Tampa Bay congregation that the church would never close and encouraged people to shake hands.

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1. Rodney Howard-Browne Has Said Only the Rapture Could Force His Church to Close & Referred to Those Concerned About COVID-19 as ‘Pansies’

Exactly !!! 🙄 https://t.co/2s1lnztRO2

— Rodney Howard-Browne (@rhowardbrowne) March 15, 2020

Rodney Howard-Browne told his congregation during a service on March 15 that his church would remain open and that only the end of the world could force him to close it. He retweeted a portion of his sermon that was shared to Twitter from that day. The clip is embedded above.

In the clip, Howard-Browne urged everyone to shake hands. “I know they don’t want us to do this, but just turn around and greet two, three people. Tell them you love them, Jesus loves them.” He reassured the congregation, “This has to be the safest place. If you cannot be saved in church, you in serious trouble.”

Howard-Browne then said, “This church will never close. The only time the church is closed is when the rapture is taking place.” In Christianity, the rapture refers to the second coming of Jesus Christ, when he will destroy the devil and the “Last Judgement” of mankind will take place.

Howard-Browne then suggested that his congregation is not afraid of contracting the coronavirus and that anyone who does it weak. “This Bible school is open because we’re raising up revivalists, not pansies.”

The Orlando Weekly reported that during one of his sermons, Howard-Browne insisted the coronavirus was less of a threat than the flu. “Suddenly we are demonized because we believe that God heals, that the lord sets people free, and they make us out to be some kook… we are free in America to worship God freely.”

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2. Sheriff: Howard-Brown’s ‘Reckless Disregard For Human Life’ Put Thousands of People’s Lives in Danger

Rodney Howard-Browne

Sheriff Chad Chronister of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office said his office received an anonymous tip that Rodney Howard-Browne was continuing to hold services with hundreds of people, even after legal orders were enacted barring large gatherings. The sheriff explained during a news conference on March 30 that law enforcement officials attempted to speak with the pastor at his church days earlier, but that he refused to see them.

Officials instead met with the pastor’s attorneys. Sheriff Chronister said the goal had been to “educate” the pastor about the “dangerous environment” he was creating by continuing to hold large services with hundreds of people packed into one room. Officials pointed out that Howard-Browne has the capability to broadcast his sermons over the internet, and therefore does not need to have services in-person during this pandemic. The River already streams its services online each week.

The sheriff added that other religious institutions have adopted this practice and encouraged their own congregations to practice social distancing. But Howard-Browne instead insisted on members of the congregation attend in-person and provided bussing to the church.

Howard-Browne’s defense has been that holding the services is within his first amendment rights. Hours before his arrest, the pastor even retweeted the sheriff office’s statement that his church was violating “the President’s guidelines for America, recommendations made by the CDC, and orders from the Governor.” Howard-Browne wrote that his attorneys were “meeting with authorities to resolve any issues!” He used the hashtags #thestand and #1stamendment.

But the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and the State Attorney’s office disagreed with his argument that the first amendment was applicable in this case, because large gatherings had been designated as temporarily illegal. Sheriff Chronister argued that the health and safety of the community has to come first, stating that Howard-Browne’s “reckless disregard for human life put hundreds of people in his congregation at risk, and thousands of residents who may interact with them this week, in danger.”

Howard-Browne is charged with unlawful assembly and violation of public health emergency rules. Both charges are second-degree misdemeanors. He turned himself into authorities and was booked into the Hernando County Detention Center around 2:20 p.m. on March 30, inmate records show.

He was taken into custody there instead of Hillsborough County, because that is where he lives, the sheriff explained. Sheriff Chronister added that his office worked with Howard-Browne’s attorneys to allow him to turn himself in order to protect the safety of law enforcement. He referenced Howard-Browne’s past statements about possessing an arsenal of weapons and having private security. In 2017, the pastor posted on Instagram that the church was “heavily armed,” the Miami Herald reported at the time. The post was shared after a gunman killed 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

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3. Rodney Howard-Browne Claimed He Cured Zika & Promised to Rid Florida of the Coronavirus

RWW News: Rodney Howard-Browne Issued A ‘Restraining Order’ To The Antichristhttp://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/rodney-howard-browne-saved-america-by-issuing-a-restraining-order-to-the-antichrist/

Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this clip, right-wing pastor Rodney Howard-Browne issues a “restraining order” to the Antichrist and the global cabal that seeks to destroy America.

Rodney Howard-Browne has made large claims in regards to his abilities as a religious leader. In a clip shared by Right Wing Watch in February 2020, Howard-Browne claimed that he cured Florida of the zika virus “in the name of Jesus” and vowed that he would do the same against the coronavirus.

In the clip, the pastor said he had been asked why he couldn’t rid the entire world of these viruses. He said it was because he “can’t be responsible” for every city in the world.

In July of 2018, Howard-Browne took credit for saving the planet from the devil. During a sermon, he claimed that he had issued a “restraining order” against the Antichrist. “If you think I’m crazy, that’s fine. I didn’t come here, I don’t care what people think. I’m here to deliver a message whether people like it or not. I’m not gonna change anything. I’m not looking to become accepted. I’m already accepted by Him. I’m just a messenger boy.”

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4. Howard-Browne Prayed Over President Trump In 2017 & Said Jesus Would Have ‘Beat the Crap’ Out of John Bolton For ‘Turning On’ the President

Rodney Howard-Browne

Rodney Howard-Browne and his wife, Adonica Howard-Browne, has previously spent time at the White House. He shared a photo to Facebook on July 11, 2017, as he stood over President Donald Trump with his hands on the president’s back. Vice President Mike Pence can be seen amongst the men in the group, with his head bowed in prayer. Howard-Browne and his wife were invited by televangelist Paula White-Cain, Vanity Fair reported.

Howard-Browne explained, “Yesterday was very surreal for @ahowardbrowne & I. 30 years ago we came from South Africa to America as missionaries. Yesterday I was asked by Pastor Paula White-Cain to pray over our 45th President – what a humbling moment standing in the Oval Office – laying hands and praying for our President – Supernatural Wisdom, Guidance and Protection – who could ever even imagine – wow – we are going to see another great spiritual awakening.”

Facebook Rodney Howard-Browne and Donald Trump

President Trump appears to have met Howard-Browne along the campaign trail. The pastor gave the opening prayer before a rally at the Florida State Fair Grounds in November 2016.

In January 2020, Howard-Browne also made headlines for his defense of President Trump amid the impeachment hearings. He specifically addressed former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s decision to write a book about his time in the administration. Howard-Browne wrote on Twitter, “You are a slime ball of the highest order. I should have knocked your sorry butt through the door of the Oval Office into the rose garden when I saw you. I would have gladly been arrested … what a Benedict Arnold … I am glad you were fired!!!” In a follow-up tweet, Howard-Browne wrote that Jesus would have “made a whip and beat the crap” out of Bolton.

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5. Rodney Howard-Browne Said He & His Wife Were ‘Called By God’ to Be Missionaries In the United States

Revival Ministries Rodney Howard-Browne and wife Adonica

Rodney Howard-Browne was born and raised in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. His wife, Adonica, was born in Zimbabwe before her family relocated to Johannesburg, according to their church’s website.

After getting married in 1981, the couple traveled around South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia as ministers. They had three children together: Kirsten, Kelly May, and Kenneth.

Howard-Browne explained that the family moved to the United States in 1987 in order to answer a calling from God to spread the faith in the United States.

He wrote, “The Lord had spoken through Rodney in a word of prophecy and declared: ‘As America has sown missionaries over the last 200 years, I am going to raise up people from other nations to come to the United States of America. I am sending a mighty revival to America.’”

Howard-Browne added, “The Lord supernaturally provided for their air tickets and they came to America with only $300, four suitcases, and their three children, then aged five, three and seven months.”

The couple founded The River at Tampa Bay Church in December 1996.

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The Wages of Delusion; Virus Denying Pastor Dies Of COVID-19

Christian pastor who thought COVID-19 is just ‘mass hysteria’ among the first in Virginia to die from virus

By Sky Palma

One of the first deaths in Virginia from coronavirus was a 66-year-old Christian “musical evangelist” who fell ill while on a trip to New Orleans with his wife. As the Friendly Atheist’s Bo Gardiner points out, Landon Spradlin had previously shared opinions that the pandemic was the result of “mass hysteria” from the media.

On March 13, Spradlin shared a misleading meme that compared coronavirus deaths to swine flu deaths and suggested the media is using the pandemic to hurt Trump. In the comments, Spradlin acknowledged that the outbreak is a “real issue,” but added that he believes “the media is pumping out fear and doing more harm than good”

“It will come and it will go,” he wrote.

That same day, he shared a post from another pastor that told the story of a missionary in South Africa who “protected” himself from the bubonic plague with the “Spirit of God.”

“As long as I walk in the light of that law [of the Spirit of life], no germ will attach itself to me,” read a quote from the post.

If the truth instead of self-serving lies had been told from the first, from the bully pulpit, he might well still be walking around.

There will be more victims. Many more. Including victims who have never believed a word of the lies themselves.

Religion Kills. By artist Andrei Moga.

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Trump Uses Coronavirus Press Conference to Confirm He’s an Actual Sociopath

Even with everything we know about the guy, the moment was still chilling.

By Bess Levin

By Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Over the past three years, many terms have been thrown around to describe Donald Trump. Phrases like “huge moron,” “colossal jerk,” “massive prick,” and, our personal favorite, “malignant tumor.”

Obviously many have agreed that the 45th president of the United States is both a terrible person and an idiot incapable of tweeting a coherent sentence, let alone running the country. Still, some have worried it would be taking things too far to diagnose the man as a full-blown sociopath. Are we being too cavalier with the designation, they’ve likely fretted. Shouldn’t we wait until the Mar-a-Lago groundskeepers find a few dozen heads in the basement, they’ve probably wondered. On Friday, however, Trump confirmed for all the world to see that he indeed has no conscience.

During a press conference at the White House, NBC reporter Peter Alexander asked Trump, “What do you say to the Americans who are scared, though? Nearly 200 dead, 14,000 who are sick, millions, as you’ve witnessed, who are scared right now. What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?” In reality this was a softball question that anyone with a semblance of a soul would be able to answer, responding with something like, “That’s an understandable feeling. I would tell them we’re in this together and we’re doing everything we can, as fast as we can.” But Trump literally only thinks about himself, so instead he told Alexander: “I say that you’re a terrible reporter. That’s what I say. I think it’s a very nasty question, and I think it’s a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people. The American people are looking for answers and they’re looking for hope, and you’re doing sensationalism and the same with NBC and con-cast. I don’t call it Comcast, I call it ‘con-cast.’ Let me just tell you something. That’s really bad reporting, and you ought to get back to reporting instead of sensationalism.” Seemingly responding to criticism that he’d irresponsibly hyped the drug chloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, despite the fact that it hasn’t yet been approved by the FDA for the virus, Trump snarled, “Let’s see if it works. It might and it might not. I happen to feel good about it, but who knows. I’ve been right a lot.”

Caroline Orr @RVAwonk : Peter Alexander was trying to get the president of the United States to address the fears Americans have about #coronavirus. His attack on Peter is absolutely shameful and hard to watch — but realize that he attacked Peter so he could avoid answering to you.

Peter Alexander was trying to get the president of the United States to address the fears Americans have about #coronavirus. His attack on Peter is absolutely shameful and hard to watch — but realize that he attacked Peter so he could avoid answering to you. pic.twitter.com/fJ0PC4Hk9N

— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) March 20, 2020

As many have noted, employees at NBC, where Alexander works, lost a colleague to the virus today, but obviously it shouldn’t take such an event for the president to muster up or even fake some empathy for people who are terrified about a fast-moving pandemic. Later, given the opportunity to prove to the American people that he’s not a total monster, Trump declined:

Kyle Griffin ✔ @kylegriffin1

CNN’s Kaitlin Collins follows up: “Do you really think going off on Peter, going off on a network is appropriate when the country’s going through something like this?”
Trump responds: “I do.”

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1241042158569676800 … Kyle Griffin ✔ @kylegriffin1

NBC’s Peter Alexander: “What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?”

Trump: “I say you’re a terrible reporter.”

As did his merry band of sycophants, who would apparently rather kiss the ring than calm the nation during an unprecedented, petrifying time:

Rebecca Ballhaus ✔ @rebeccaballhaus

After Pompeo asks Americans to rely only on trusted sources of information, @colvinj asks him: “Does it undermine you at all when the president stands up here and he attacks news outlets, calling us untrustworthy?”

Pompeo: “Somebody else have a question?”

266 3:50 AM – Mar 21, 2020Twitter Ads info and privacy 170 people are talking about this

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Blood On His Hands! Man Dies After Dose of Trump Touted Coronavirus Cure

Man dies after self-medicating with chloroquine phosphate to treat coronavirus

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By Tamar Lapin

A bottle of the anti-malaria drug Chloroquine.

A man died after ingesting an additive used to clean fish tanks — the pharmaceutical drug version of which has been touted by President Trump as a potential coronavirus cure.

Within 30 minutes of taking chloroquine phosphate, the man in his 60s experienced “immediate effects” and had to be admitted to a nearby Banner Health hospital, the medical system in Arizona said in a press release Monday.

His wife, also in her 60s, is in critical condition after taking the additive, which is used in aquariums to kill some organisms, like algae, that may harm fish.

Prices of the product on eBay skyrocketed after some studies found that the pharmaceutical version, the anti-malarial drug chloroquine, and a derivative of it called hydroxychloroquine, were effective in killing the virus in laboratory experiments.

Trump said last week the drug would soon begin to be distributed to treat some coronavirus patients. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn clarified that the drug would be made available as part of a clinical trial.

Officials warned people not to take the drugs to treat coronavirus symptoms unless it has been specifically prescribed by their doctor.

“The last thing that we want right now is to inundate our emergency departments with patients who believe they found a vague and risky solution that could potentially jeopardize their health,” said Dr. Daniel Brooks, medical director of the Banner Poison and Drug Information Center.

Chloroquine is especially not recommended for use by non-hospitalized patients.

“We are strongly urging the medical community to not prescribe this medication to any non-hospitalized patients,” Brooks said.

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White Supremacists Encouraging Members to Spread Coronavirus to People of Color, Jews, Cops: FBI

White supremacists are encouraging members to infect Jews with coronavirus: FBI

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The FBI is warning that white supremacists have started encouraging their followers to contract COVID-19 and then intentionally spread it to police officers and Jews.

ABC News reports that the FBI’s New York office sent out an alert recently that warned neo-Nazi groups are pushing members to spread the virus though “bodily fluids and personal interactions” to their perceived enemies.

“The FBI alert, which went out on Thursday, told local police agencies that extremists want their followers to try to use spray bottles to spread bodily fluids to cops on the street,” ABC News reports. “The extremists are also directing followers to spread the disease to Jews by going “any place they may be congregated, to include markets, political offices, businesses and places of worship.”

Michael Masters, the head of Secure Communities Network that coordinates security for synagogues, tells ABC News that neo-Nazis have been claiming that Jews are responsible for the spread of the virus in the United States.

“From pushing the idea that Jews created the coronavirus virus to sell vaccines to encouraging infected followers to try to spread the illness to the Jewish community and law enforcement, as the coronavirus has spread, we have observed how white-supremacists, neo-Nazis and others have used this to drive their own conspiracy theories, spread disinformation and incite violence on their online platforms,” he explains.

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American Taliban: Washington’s Evil Cult of Authoritarian Theocrats

Roman Catholic theocratic fascist William Barr; a self-confessed enemy of America's Constitution

As the nation lurches closer towards being ruled by a tyrannical dictator with unwavering support from the Republican Party, the American people are ignoring an even greater threat to their waning secular democracy – rule by tyrannical theocrats. 

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The rise of theocrats in powerful positions of authority is particularly disconcerting because not only was America created as a secular nation with a secular Constitution, but because the theocrats running the federal government represent a very small minority of the population. And now Trump has given that vicious minority what they elected him to do in the first place; another radical Christian extremist, William Barr, in a powerful federal government position. 

J. Beauregard Sessions was a legitimate threat to America’s secular government as Trump’s attorney general, but his theocratic aspirations paled in comparison to Trump’s latest theocratic cabinet member – a conservative Catholic malcontent who is unlikely to ever defend the U.S. Constitution because it is a secular document. It is noteworthy that Sessions only stated that, according to his mind, the separation of church and state in the Constitution is a concept that is unconstitutional. However, his replacement ardently believes that America’s government is duty-bound to enforce god’s laws because there is no place for secularism. 

In a 1995 essay, Barr expressed the extremist Christian view that “American government should not be secular;” secularism is an abomination in Barr’s theocratic mind despite the law of the land is unmistakably secular. Furthermore, Barr contends America’s government is supposed to be imposing “a transcendent moral order with objective standards of right and wrong that flows from God’s eternal law;” eternal law best dictated by the Vatican and taught in public schools at taxpayer’s expense.

It is true that as attorney general William Barr will defend Trump’s criminality and corruption; it is one of the only reasons Trump nominated him. However, the real danger to the nation is Barr’s belief that the government’s primary function should be defending and enforcing his god’s moral edicts while ardently opposing any legislative branch effort to make secular laws according to the secular Constitution.

As noted by Michael Stone a couple of weeks ago, in addition to the racism and misogyny one expects from a radical conservative Christian, “Barr is also a bigot when it comes to non-religious people and others who respect the separation of church and state.” 

Barr epitomizes the typical extremist religious fanatic by blaming everything from crime to divorce to sexually transmitted diseases on what he alleges is “the federal government’s non-stop attacks on traditional religious values.” In fact, he joins no small number of Republican evangelical extremists who demand that taxpayers fund religious instruction, specifically Catholic religious instruction, in public schools. Barr, as a matter of fact, has called for the United States government to subsidize Catholic education and categorically called for federal legislation to promote Vatican edicts to “restrain sexual immorality;” an explicit reference to his religion’s ban on homosexuality, extramarital sex, and “artificial” birth control. Don’t believe it? 

In an address to “The Governor’s Conference on Juvenile Crime, Drugs and Gangs,” Barr condemned the idea of adhering to the U.S. Constitution’s mandated separation of church and state in the public education system. The theocrat said: 

“This moral lobotomy of public schools has been based on extremist notions of separation of church and state or on theories of moral relativism which reject the notion that there are standards of rights or wrong to which the community can demand adherence.” 

Barr also penned an article in The Catholic Lawyer where he complained vehemently about what he asserted was “the rise of secularism;” something he claims is anathema to a nation he believes should be ruled by theocrats. Barr attempted to give an answer to “the challenge of representing Catholic institutions as authorities” on what is considered right and wrong, or morally acceptable in a secular nation. In discussing what Barr termed was “The Breakdown of Traditional Morality,” the new attorney general complained thus:

“We live in an increasingly militant, secular age…  As part of this philosophy, we see a growing hostility toward religion, particularly Catholicism. This form of bigotry has always been fashionable in the United States. There are, today, even greater efforts to marginalize or ‘ghettoize’ orthodox religion…” 

Barr is also a bigot when it comes to people who respect the Constitution’s separation of church and state in providing equal rights for all Americans whether theocrats agree or not. Barr’s belief that government is bound to enforce Vatican dictates is what drives his assertion that, for example, equal rights laws demanding that colleges treat homosexual groups like any other student group is inherently wrong.  

He claims treating LGBTQ people like everyone else is detrimental because: 

“[Equality] dissolves any form of moral consensus in society. There can be no consensus based on moral views in the country, only enforced neutrality.” 

It is noteworthy that what Barr considers “enforced neutrality” is what most Americans understand is the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal rights for all Americans. If this country was not plagued with religious extremists, bigots, misogynists, and hate-driven conservatives there would never be a need to “enforce neutrality,” or protect all Americans’ equal rights guaranteed according to secular law. There is no such thing as equality in Barr’s theocratic mind and the idea of the government not enforcing the privilege and superiority the religious right has enjoyed for too long is abominable, and now he wields federal government authority to right that abomination.  

It is too bad that Barr’s religious mind incites him to believe the federal government’s job is enforcing his religion’s concept of “morality,” and that the purposely-conceived “secular” law of the land is “militant” and “hostile toward religion, particularly Catholicism.” If any American believes Barr will defend the Constitution, or equal rights, or freedom from religious imposition, they are deluded beyond belief. As the religious right’s attorney general, Barr will be the de facto enforcement arm of the evangelical extremists and aid in implementing all of the horrors a theocratic dictatorship entails – beginning with an increased government assault on women.

For an idea of how an avowed anti-choice theocrat leading the Justice Department will be the enforcement arm of the evangelical extremist cult, consider Trump’s latest evangelical edict forbidding medical professionals from giving women medical options the religious right and Vatican oppose.

Trump and Pence issued a gag order banning the term “abortion” as a woman’s option to carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term. The order will certainly face lawsuits, but instead of defending a medical professional’s ability to practice medicine, or exercise their freedom of speech, the theocratic-led DOJ will defend the religious right’s assault on women and medical professionals’ free speech because such speech is opposed by evangelicals. Trump’s latest theocratic edict was, by the way, a direct result of the evangelical right’s strict adherence to Vatican dictates banning women’s bodily autonomy and self-determination regarding reproduction. 

There is no good outcome going forward with an avowed theocrat serving as the nation’s top law enforcement official. This is particularly true since Barr has made no secret that he considers the secular government “militant” and “bigoted” for  not promoting “god’s eternal laws” of right and wrong. The very inconvenient truth for Americans is that long after Trump and Barr are out of power, the theocratic authorities will continue unimpeded because Trump has dutifully created a hard-line conservative judiciary specifically to ensure that America as a secular nation is, for all intents and purposes, coming to an end after resisting theocracy for over two centuries.

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Christian Swindler Kenneth Copeland “Touch My Oily Hand” To Cure Coronavirus

Why haven't these disease spreading, poisonous clowns been designated Christian terrorists?

Televangelist: Touch My Oily Hand Through the TV and I’ll Cure Your Coronavirus

By Hemant Mehta

During a livestream last night, televangelist Kenneth Copeland cured coronavirus.

It’s gone now. He just held out his hand, asked viewers to touch their screens to meet it, and… somehow coronavirus is no longer a thing. Who knew.

… Put your hand on that television set. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord Jesus. He received your healing. Now say it: “I take it. I have it. It’s mine. I thank you and praise you for it…”

…

According to the Word of God, I am healed. And I consider not my own body. I consider not symptoms in my own body, but only that which God has promised. Only that what the Word has said. And by His stripes, I was healed. And by His stripes, I am healed now. I am not the sick trying to get healed. I am the healed, and the Devil is trying to give me the flu!… Or whatever else kind of thing he’s trying.

Kenneth Copeland healed viewers of the coronavirus through their televisions last night. pic.twitter.com/8lwHufTIy4

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 12, 2020

Christ, I don’t know what’s creepier: his smile or his oily hand.

This is just as dangerous as Jim Bakker selling Silver Solution as a cure for the virus — and that got him sued. Why is Copeland allowed to use Christianity to brainwash people into thinking they’re okay when they might be contagious? It’s dangerous.

And it only continues because too many Christians seriously think prayer fixes problems. Just because most of them aren’t trying to scam you out of money doesn’t mean their beliefs are any more legitimate than Copeland’s.

If people with symptoms thinks they’re cured of the virus after watching this, it’s possible they’ll make irrational decisions that put even more lives at risk. All in the name of Jesus.

This man is going to get people killed.

(via Right Wing Watch)

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ABC journalist Sarah Ferguson on making Revelation and coming face to face with two of the Catholic Church’s worst serial paedophiles

ABC journalist Sarah Ferguson on making Revelation and coming face to face with two of the Catholic Church’s worst serial paedophiles

By Backstory editor Natasha Johnson

YouTube: Revelation is a ground-breaking documentary featuring interviews with a convicted paedophile priest and religious brother, survivors of clergy abuse and senior figures in the Catholic church.

Sarah Ferguson spends her working life wading through murky waters, tackling difficult, confronting and harrowing stories but none has tested her like the project that consumed her for the past year: Revelation — a three-part documentary investigation into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, in which she comes face to face with two of Australia’s most notorious serial paedophiles.

“I’m used to intense projects but this one has been more intense and more challenging than anything I have ever done,” says Ferguson.

“Throughout the long-running scandal of clerical abuse in Australia, there was one voice we hadn’t heard and that was the perpetrators.

“I wanted to ask them how they led their double lives and how the church enabled them, but how do you interview men whose crimes are so vile and disturbing, who’ve committed crimes against vulnerable children?

“It was a struggle not to let my revulsion at their crimes drag me off course.”

Ferguson preparing for her interview in prison with convicted paedophile Bernard McGrath. (ABC News)

In a series of television firsts, Revelation (airing weekly from Tuesday, March 17 at 8:30pm on ABC TV and iview), features in-depth interviews with an ordained priest and a religious brother convicted of historical child sexual abuse, and, with unprecedented access granted by the courts, films their trials as they unfold.

“Apart from an excellent US documentary in 2006, as far as I know, this is the only time it’s happened in the world — certainly, long interviews with child-abusing priests still in the priesthood we have never seen. And this is the first time we have seen their trials on camera,” says Ferguson.

Former Catholic brother Bernard McGrath is serving 39 years in jail. (ABC News: Revelation)

One of the interviews was done behind bars in a maximum-security prison where Bernard McGrath, a former St John of God brother, teacher and headmaster in residential schools in Australia and New Zealand, is serving 39 years for crimes against children.

“A prison warden brought McGrath into a secure room where we’d set up the cameras and he tried immediately to draw me into a whispered private conversation,” recalls Ferguson.

“I was prepared for this because one of his team had warned in court that he would try to manipulate me.

“I moved backwards on my stool, making him lean in and shifting the power balance.

“I was apprehensive, not because of who he was but because of the professional challenge of drawing him out.”

Ferguson also interviewed Vincent Ryan, a priest of the Maitland-Newcastle diocese who became known in the media as a monster.

He’d already spent 14 years in prison and was facing trial on new charges from men who had been altar boys in his church in the 1970s and 1980s.

Vincent Ryan is a Catholic priest who served 14 years in jail. (ABC News: Revelation)

“The interview went for hours across two days because the material was exhausting to both of us,” says Ferguson.

“Ryan looked at me at one point and said whatever we thought of him, he was sure of God’s forgiveness.

“I am not easily offended because it obscures critical thinking, but this outraged me.

“Not because it wasn’t possible according to his faith but because he had not earned it.

“He was so far from understanding the effect of his crimes that he was nowhere near forgiveness.

“They were both really difficult interviews because the nature of child abuse is something that perpetrators need to cover up — they’ve spent many years practised in deception, both deceiving themselves and other people.

“So even though they have been convicted, they don’t want to talk about what they did except on their own terms, they don’t want to talk about how the church enabled them, there is still a strong sense of solidarity towards the church.

“They told us more than they intended but their allegiances remain.

“After the interviews I was physically and mentally drained.”

Throughout filming, Ferguson was conscious of the confronting nature of the material and the impact on the audience.

“There is a risk in putting criminals like this on camera and the material has to justify the affront and I had to ensure the interviews had meaning,” Ferguson says.

“You have to be very conscious of what the effect will be on the viewer of hearing and watching a paedophile priest talking about his life, that’s right on the edge.

“But the moment of seeing the person themselves, the person who actually perpetrated these crimes, in their ordinariness, it is a revelation.

“It’s dark but it’s compelling and the experience of the few people who have seen the series is you can’t take your eyes off it, but it also leaves a lot to think about afterwards.

“This is this ultimate double life — you are standing up in church on Sunday preaching about morals and committing heinous acts before and after, sometimes immediately before and immediately after.

“How is someone capable of leading a life like that?”

Investigating child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church has been the toughest story Ferguson has done. (ABC News)

Finding a suitable case, an accused — let alone two — willing to take part in the documentary, and navigating the legal hurdles to get cameras into court was an enormous task for Ferguson and the production team, particularly executive producer Nial Fulton, working with principal cinematographer Aaron Smith and researchers Sophie Randerson, Kate Wild and Alison McClymont.

“Finding priests or brothers willing to have their trial filmed was extremely difficult,” says Ferguson.

“In America there’ve been cameras in court for a long time, but not much in Australia, although that’s changing.

“But this was a new frontier, filming sexual assault trials.

“We had the support of the Chief Judge of the NSW District Court, Derek Price, and the Chief Judge of the County Court in Victoria, Peter Kidd, who, to their immense credit, got the arguments to bring into the public domain how these cases go through the system.

“They made it possible.

“The DPP in NSW and Victoria and three trial judges were all crucial parts of the process, along with barristers and solicitors.

“These are heavily protected cases.

“There is great concern in the system to protect the victims of child sexual abuse going to court, there are individuals you can’t identify but we found a way to tell the stories.”

Ferguson and crew filming in Rome. (ABC News)

Ferguson has also spoken to a number of survivors, including those who were abused by Ryan and McGrath.

She travelled to Ireland and the Vatican to interrogate church leaders and the final episode reveals the story of a man who has kept a shocking secret for decades.

The access the Revelation team secured is extraordinary but when you consider how reviled paedophiles are, how dreadful their crimes, and how adept they’ve been at concealing those crimes, it’s hard to comprehend why they’d agree to such intense public exposure and scrutiny of their actions.

“People will say that paedophiles often display narcissistic traits, I’m not a psychiatrist so I can’t say if that’s right or wrong, but perhaps that narcissism makes them want to talk about it,” says Ferguson.

“They say they want to make some kind of amends for what they’ve done by adding to the sum of human knowledge, you can believe it or not as you watch and decide if there is any truth in that.

“Over the years, though, I have found that some people want to talk about things they’ve done, even very bad things.”

Over her career, Ferguson has witnessed and reported on dreadful things — mass death from the Boxing Day tsunami, the suffering of abused women and children escaping domestic violence, the exploitation of the people smuggling trade, cruel treatment of cattle sent for live export.

All have left a mark, but none like Revelation.

“The experience of making this series has scored deep lines of sadness and understanding in me, of the crime, of the complicity of a powerful, self-serving institution and above all the ruinous consequences of child abuse on an innocent being who is ripped from childhood in that moment,” she says.

“I’ve spent my professional life understanding power and trying to give succour to the weak when abused by power but nothing before this took me so deep into human selfishness and suffering.

“But I believe that understanding is our best defence against a repeat of these crimes in the future.”

Revelation airs weekly from Tuesday, March 17 at 8:30pm on ABC TV and iview. Read more behind-the-scenes stories on ABC Backstory.

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Hindus Hold Cow Urine Drinking Party to Guard Against Coronavirus Cow Dung Baths a Bonus!

Hundreds of Hindu worshippers in India hosted a cow urine drinking party on Saturday in the belief that it will ward off cornavirus.

March 15, 2020

There is not yet a vaccine available for the virus, which is sweeping across the world and has so far infected more than 140,000 people, with more than 5,000 deaths.

But a group called the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (All India Hindu Union) hosted the urine-drinking ‘party’ on Saturday in Delhi, the country’s capital, in the hope of shielding themselves.

It was attended by around 200 people and organisers hoped to host similar events elsewhere in India, which has seen 84 cases, with two deaths.

‘We have been drinking cow urine for 21 years, we also take bath in cow dung,’ said Om Prakash, a person who attended the party.

‘We have never felt the need to consume English medicine.’

Chakrapani Maharaj, the chief of the All India Hindu Union, posed for photographs as he placed a spoon filled with cow urine near the face of a caricature of the coronavirus.

Photos also showed groups of men and women drinking the urine from paper and ceramic cups.

Leaders from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party have previously advocated the use of cow urine as medicine and a cure for cancer.

A leader from India’s north eastern state of Assam told state lawmakers earlier this month during an assembly session that cow urine and cow dung can be used to treat the coronavirus.

On Saturday, the country declared COVID-19 as a ‘notified disaster’ which would enable the country to provide assistance and spend more funds to fight the pandemic.

Ten people who had the virus have recovered fully and the health ministry said that more than 4,000 people who had contact with the confirmed cases are under surveillance.

Yesterday, the start of the Indian Premier League, the world’s most lucrative cricket competition, was postponed from March 29 until April 15 due to the pandemic.

Sports events worldwide have been upended by the deadly virus, including the Premier League, this weekend’s Formula One Australian Grand Prix as well as PGA Tour golf and NBA basketball.

‘The Board of Control for Cricket in India has decided to suspend IPL 2020 till 15th April 2020, as a precautionary measure against the ongoing Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19) situation,’ the BCCI said in a statement.

The two-month Twenty20 competition is estimated to generate more than $11billion (£8.7bn) for the Indian economy and involves cricket’s top international stars like England’s Ben Stokes, Australia’s David Warner and India captain Virat Kohli.

Chinese mobile-maker Vivo paid $330million (£261m) to be the top sponsor for 2018-2022 for the league.

It involves eight franchises playing 60 matches to packed, raucous stadiums of tens of thousands of spectators – plus cheerleaders – all around India.

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Margaret Court’s Church Reckons “The Blood Of Jesus” Will Protect Them From Coronavirus

[Insane and dangerous religious lunatics; they preached and acted the same way during the black death and in doing so, assisted and accelerated the spread of disease and death. Arrant in their shameless insanity.]

By Alasdair Duncan

This week in ‘Good Ideas’, sub-category ‘What Could Possibly Go Wrong?’, Margaret Court and her congregation have declared that they are safe from the coronavirus pandemic because the blood of Jesus will protect them.

The Victory Life Church released a statement to followers yesterday, saying that daily prayers and additional hand sanitiser are the only measures they’ll take to combat the rapidly-spreading disease. The statement read:

“Your health and safety is a top priority for us and we have taken a proactive approach to keep our church family health and safe. We are in agreement that this Convid-19 will not come near our dwelling or our church family. We are praying daily for you, knowing that we are all protected by the Blood of Jesus.”

It continued:

“For your convenience, hand sanitiser [is] readily available at all our sites. Our desire is for you to be informed and know that out heart is to protect and ensure the safety of all so we can continue to worship together, all [our services] will operate as per normal.”

Margaret Court founded the Victory Life Church in Perth in 1995, and she is currently the senior pastor there. The blood of Jesus is not known to have any effectiveness against coronavirus, but you can read the federal government’s latest advice and medical reports here.

Court recently made headlines when she used the church to establish a consulate for the east African nation of Burundi, whose government has been investigated for “crimes against humanity” and torturing gay people.

Image: Getty Images / Cameron Spencer

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Missouri Sues Televangelist Jim Bakker For Selling Fake Coronavirus Cure

Televangelist Jim Bakker, shown here in 2018, faces a legal challenge from the state of Missouri for selling a false remedy against the coronavirus. The COVID-19 disease currently has no cure.

Matthew S. Schwartz

Snake-oil salesman and religious conman, Jim Bakker

Televangelist Jim Bakker, shown here in 2018, faces a legal challenge from the state of Missouri for selling a false remedy against the coronavirus. The COVID-19 disease currently has no cure. Chuck Burton/AP

Televangelist Jim Bakker held up a blue and silver bottle, gazing intently at the label, as he questioned the woman sitting next to him.

“This influenza that is now circling the globe,” Bakker said on the Feb. 12 broadcast of The Jim Bakker Show, “you’re saying that Silver Solution would be effective.”

His guest, the so-called “natural health expert” Sherrill Sellman, falsely implied that the liquid would likely be effective. The coronavirus impacting more than 120,000 people worldwide does not yet have a known treatment or cure.

“Well, let’s say it hasn’t been tested on this strain of the coronavirus, but it has been tested on other strains of the coronavirus and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours,” Sellman said. “Totally eliminate it. Kills it. Deactivates it.”

Silver Solution “has been proven by the government that it has the ability to kill every pathogen it has ever been tested on, including SARS and HIV,” Sellman continued. Four 4-ounce bottles could be yours,a message on the screen said, for just $80.

Selling a fake “treatment” for the COVID-19 disease violates state and federal law. On Tuesday, the state of Missouri filed a lawsuit against Bakker and his production company to stop them from advertising or selling Silver Solution and related products as treatments for the coronavirus.

Swindler Jim Bakker’s previous frauds and scams landed him in jail.

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Sweep of arrests hits US neo-Nazi group connected to five murders

Five senior members of Atomwaffen Division charged with federal crimes in recent weeks, including harassing journalists and activists

Jason Wilson @jason_a_w

US attorney Brian Moran stands next to a poster that was mailed earlier in the year to the home of Chris Ingalls, an investigative reporter with KING-TV in Seattle, during a news conference on 26 February. Photograph: Ted S Warren/AP

A sweep of arrests of a neo-Nazi group in the US has dealt a major blow to an organization associated with at least five murders and raised questions as to whether the extreme far-right movement the group is at the center of has been largely undone by pressure from law enforcement, journalists and anti-fascist activists.Five senior members of Atomwaffen Division (AWD) have been charged with federal crimes in the past weeks, including former leaders and a man who was concurrently a member of the similar neo-Nazi terror group the Base. The recent charges involve members in four states in connection with two separate criminal cases.

In Virginia, a Texas man, John Denton, 26, was charged over an alleged “swatting” conspiracy – a practice involving making false reports about a targets address in the hope police will stage an armed raid on the address.

Denton – reported by ProPublica in 2018 as “involved in nearly every aspect of the organization” as its leader – is known inside Atomwaffen by the alias “Rape”. He allegedly coordinated swatting attacks in 2018 and 2019 on journalists, Old Dominion University, and a historically black church.

Four more members were charged with conspiracy to threaten journalists and people associated with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in Washington state.

One of those arrested, Taylor Parker-Dipeppe, 20, was a former Florida chapter co-leader under the alias “Azazel”. Recent social media materials given to the Guardian by Australian anti-fascist group the White Rose Society show a muscular, bearded young man with fresh neo-Nazi tattoos.

Two more of those charged lived in Washington. Kaleb Cole, 24, alias “Khimaere”, who was the Washington chapter leader, and Cameron Shea, 24, alias “Krokodil”,have long histories in the neo-Nazi movement.

Cole is described in court documents as a former co-leader of the group. He had guns seized last October under Washington’s so-called “red flag” laws. He and another Washington Atomwaffen member and close associate, Aiden Bruce-Umbaugh, 23, were apprehended in November by Texas police, who found several firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and marijuana in their vehicle.

Bruce-Umbaugh was charged with and pleaded guilty to possessing weapons together with a controlled substance.

Cole visited eastern Europe with Bruce-Umbaugh in 2018, and the two made pilgrimages to sites associated with Nazism, posing for photographs with an Atomwaffen flag at the Auschwitz death camp. In 2019, he was detained for 42 days under Canada’s anti-terror laws and banned from the country.

Shea was described in court documents as a “high-level member and primary recruiter” for the group. Information obtained from confidential sources by the Guardian shows he was also a member of the like-minded group the Base for several months in late 2018.

A fourth arrestee, Johnny Garcia, was known in the movement as “Roman”.

According to court documents, the men allegedly cooperated in specifically targeting journalists with lurid violent threats, bearing slogans like “These people have names and addresses”, and “You have been visited by your local Nazis”. The plan was in response to reports on the group in late 2018 in outlets including the Seattle Times.

The men have been charged with conspiracy, stalking, and postal offenses.

Already, six members of Atomwaffen have been convicted since 2018 on charges including firearms offenses, planning terrorist attacks, hate crimes, and murder.

Not all charged members may stand trial. Devon Arthurs, accused of killing two other members of Atomwaffen, remains involuntarily in Florida state hospital. Nicholas Giampa, accused of killing his former girlfriend’s parents, has yet to stand trial. Initially he was unable to stand trial because of the effects of a self-inflicted gunshot wound

Atomwaffen was the first of a number of Neo-Nazi groups which emerged from 2015 and later that embraced a so-called “accelerationist” ideology, which preaches that western society is corrupt and violent acts sowing chaos will speed up its downfall and allow a white supremacist state to be built in its place.

They drew increasingly on the writings of the American neo-Nazi James Mason. Mason prescribed violent terrorism and a leaderless cellular structure, and praised the convicted murderer Charles Manson.

Mason became an advisor to Atomwaffen, and has appeared in propaganda videos made by the group.

Accelerationist groups also embraced a distinctive aesthetic which took in half-balaclava skull masks, bold and gruesome graphic design, and slickly edited propaganda videos, frequently depicting armed training camps.

All of those groups have now been subjected to significant legal consequences after their activities, their internal communications, and their identities were repeatedly exposed by antifascist researchers and investigative journalists.

The FBI appeared to be accelerating its efforts to crack down on the groups even before director Christopher Wray defined white supremacist extremists as a “national threat priority” which was “on the same footing” as Isis in early February. There have been at least 13 arrests of members of such groups since last October.

The better part of Atomwaffen’s leadership structure is now awaiting trial. Eight members of the Base have been arrested, and the identity of their leader exposed. Smaller groups, like Feuerkrieg Division, have now publicly called a halt to recruiting.

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‘He’s gonna get us all killed’: sense of unease after Trump coronavirus speech

The president began his speech as many leaders do, then reverted to his familiar nationalism and threw in a bit of campaigning

David Smith in Washington @smithinamerica

Trump announces travel ban from Europe to the US in bid to stem coronavirus – video

Donald Trump’s first Oval Office address – that almost sacred altar for US presidents on prime time television – came in January 2019 amid a partial government shutdown and asserted that only a border wall can keep out dangerous illegal immigrants.

His second such address on Wednesday night was again couched in terms around the need to resist a foreign invasion that is someone else’s fault. The problem is that the coronavirus is already inside America and spreading.

And the message was delivered by a 73-year-old man with a sniffing habit who did not seem to be a glowing picture of health nor entirely at ease reading from a TelePrompter. His bold assertion last week – “I like this stuff. I really get it … Maybe I have a natural ability.” – seemed even more incredible than before.

Addresses to the nation from the Oval Office are meant to be defining moments for a president to act as commander in chief or consoler in chief.

After the crew of the space shuttle Challenger perished in a disaster in 1986, Ronald Reagan promised: “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God’.”

George W Bush made half a dozen Oval Office addresses, including on the night of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Barack Obama delivered three. Trump has typically resisted conventions – it has been exactly a year since the last White House press briefing – but even he finds some of them necessary or useful.

On Wednesday he wore a blue suit, white shirt and blue patterned tie – not his favourite red. He also sported a stars and stripes pin and had hands his folded before him (he said nothing about the potential perils of shaking hands). His face looked undeniably orange. Behind him were framed photos, including portraits of his parents, and flags and gold curtains. Advertisement

At 9.02pm, Trump began as presidents so often do: “My fellow Americans.” But in the next breath, he reverted to his familiar us-versus-them nationalism, referring to the coronavirus outbreak “that started in China” and is now spreading throughout the world. “This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history.” Not just a virus. A foreign virus.

The president touted his own sweeping travel restrictions on China and, far from expressing sympathy and solidarity with allies, argued the European Union “failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hotspots. As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe.”

Trump announced the US will bebanning travelers from many European countries to the US for the next 30 days with exemptions for Americans, permanent residents and family of US citizens who have undergone screenings and, mysteriously, the UK, despite it having a higher caseload than some other European countries. Could Brexit be the new TSA PreCheck?

The president then made an awful bungle. He said “these prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval”. Such words could trigger global economic panic. Trump was forced to hastily clarify on Twitter: “… very important for all countries & businesses to know that trade will in no way be affected by the 30-day restriction on travel from Europe. The restriction stops people not goods.”

He went on to talk of the pathogen as if it was a foreign army or terrorist network. “The virus will not have a chance against us,” he said. “No nation is more prepared or more resilient than the United States.”

And seen in the midst of an emergency, Trump could not resist some campaigning. “Because of the economic policies that we have put into place over the last three years, we have the greatest economy anywhere in the world by far,” he said.

“This is not a financial crisis, this is just a temporary moment of time that we will overcome together as a nation and as a world.”

Many observers found the address unreassuring and downright weird. Susan Glasser, a staff writer from the New Yorker, tweeted: “The militaristic, nationalistic language of Trump’s speech tonight is striking: a ‘foreign virus,’ keeping out China and Europe.”

David Litt, who wrote speeches for Obama, posted: “As a former presidential speechwriter, my careful rhetorical analysis is that he’s gonna get us all killed.”

Trump’s second Oval Office address was over in 10 minutes. Then a man off camera said: “We’re clear.” The president unbuttoned his jacket and exclaimed with relief: “OK!”

To millions of viewers, it was anything but.

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Matt Gaetz, Who Mocked Coronavirus by Wearing Gas Mask on House Floor, Is Now in Quarantine

The Trump-loving congressman had been joking about COVID-19 since CPAC, where he was exposed to an attendee who tested positive

By Ryan Bort

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) announced on Monday that he is quarantining himself after being informed that he came into contact with an attendee of the Conservative Political Action Conference who tested positive for COVID-19. Gaetz, a Trump loyalist known for orchestrating outlandish stunts to get media attention, mocked coronavirus last week by wearing a gas mask onto the House floor to vote for an emergency spending bill to combat the virus.

• 

  Matt Gaetz; Uber moron

In a Twitter thread, Gaetz’s office claimed the congressman donned the gas mask as a sincere precautionary measure rather than as a stunt to get headlines, writing that he was simply “demonstrating his concern.” His office added that “while the Congressman is not experiencing symptoms, he received testing today and expects results soon,” and that “he’ll remain self-quarantined until the 14-day period expires this week.”

This is the second time in two days Gaetz has had to pretend that wearing the mask was not a stunt. On Sunday, he argued from his personal Twitter account he was “quite serious” when he wore the prop around the Capitol. He was responding to a Washington Post story about one of his constituents dying of COVID-19.

The idea that Gaetz brought out a mask out of a genuine concern about COVID-19 spreading through Congress is hard to believe, not only because of his penchant for publicity stunts and the ludicrousness of wearing a freaking gas mask on the House floor, but also because of an interview with Vanity Fair conducted at CPAC in which Gaetz joked about coronavirus. He even lamented how it was taking his name out of the news and that his office might need to find a way to get him infected:

“We have been bumped off of television the last two nights because of the coronavirus, and I am just low-key convinced that Jillian would give me coronavirus to get me back on television,” he said, in reference to his chief of staff, Jillian Lane Wyant. When Wyant rattled back a handful of statistics about the low prevalence of infections among infants and children, Gaetz joked, “Do you think someone weaponized the disease to take out the boomers?”

Also working against Gaetz’s argument is that the Centers for Disease Control has urged Americans who are not experiencing symptoms to refrain from wearing masks for fear of causing undue panic. God forbid he consult with an expert.

Gaetz joins Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Doug Collins (R-Ga.) in quarantining himself after learning that late last month he was exposed to a CPAC attendee who later tested positive for COVID-19. It’s unclear which other conservative lawmakers came into contact with the unnamed conference attendee. So too is whether President Trump — who in a speech at CPAC suggested the coronavirus scare was a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats — may have come into contact with anyone infected.

Regardless of whether Trump was exposed to the attendee in question, the president could be at risk. Last week, he greeted and shook Collins’ hand during a trip to Georgia, and on Monday he flew with Gaetz on Air Force One. Trump was also photographed at CPAC shaking hands with American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schapp, who has since announced he had contact with the attendee who tested positive. The White House is reportedly concerned that the president could contract the virus, given his exposure and old age.

Though Trump has publicly played off the threat, telling reporters on Saturday that he’s “not concerned at all” about contracting the virus, this may not be the case behind closed doors. Earlier on Monday, Vanity Fair reported that the president is in a “total meltdown” over coronavirus, and has even expressed concern that journalists in his press pool may purposely contract COVID-19 in order to infect Trump while on Air Force One.

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Israeli rabbi: Coronavirus outbreak is divine punishment for gay pride parades

Meir Mazuz falsely claims Arab states spared, because they ‘don’t have this evil inclination’; modern Orthodox group blasts him for ‘inciting against the LGBT community’

By TOI staff

Ultra bigot Rabbi Meir Mazuz speaks at a press conference the 'Yachad' political party in Bnei Brak, March 27, 2019. (Yehuda Haim/Flash90)

An Orthodox Israeli rabbi has claimed the spread of the deadly coronavirus in Israel and around the world is divine retribution for gay pride parades.

The remarks by Rabbi Meir Mazuz, reported by the Israel Hayom daily on Sunday, drew condemnation from rights groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, which urged him to apologize.

An influential Sephardic rabbi, Mazuz is the former spiritual leader of the defunct ultra-nationalist and homophobic Yachad party, and is head of the Kiseh Rahamim yeshiva in Bnei Brak.

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On Saturday night he gave a talk at the yeshiva, during which, according to the report, he said a pride parade is “a parade against nature, and when someone goes against nature, the one who created nature takes revenge on him.”

Mazuz said that countries all over the world are being called to account because of their gay pride events, “except for the Arab countries that don’t have this evil inclination.” That was why, he claimed — falsely suggesting there has only been one case of infection in the Arab world — they have not seen a spread of coronavirus.

The outbreak in Iran, one of the most serious in any country, he explained as being due to the wicked ways of Iranians and “their hatred of Israel.”

According to the newspaper, Mazuz had earlier claimed Israel would be protected from the coronavirus.

“It is regrettable that in times like these when the whole world comes together to eradicate coronavirus, Rabbi Mazuz finds it appropriate to blame the virus’s outbreak on the LGBTQ community. We harshly condemn his statements and urge him to apologize,” the ADL’s Israel branch said in a statement.

The modern Orthodox Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah group also condemned Mazuz’s remarks.

“Using this time of need to incite against the LGBT community is unacceptable. Trying to get people to return to religion cannot come at the price of harming others,” it said in a statement.

Israel has thus far had 39 cases of coronavirus, including 14 new cases announced on Sunday night, but no deaths.

Mazuz is no stranger to controversy or hateful rhetoric. In November 2015 he claimed gay pride parades and other forms of “sinful behavior” were the reason terrorists murdered Eitam and Naama Henkin on October 1, 2015.

At a memorial event for the Henkins, Mazuz said that their shooting death at the hands of Palestinian terrorists had been a form of divine retribution.

In 2016 Mazuz attributed the collapse of a Tel Aviv parking garage that killed six people and an explosion that destroyed the Amos-6 satellite to Shabbat desecration.

Israel has two major gay pride parades each year, one in Tel Aviv and another in the capital, Jerusalem, which is billed as promoting tolerance.

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Byrne describes Catholic Church as ‘force for evil’

Irish actor launches stinging on attack on church, calling it a corrupt and nefarious institution

Actor Gabriel Byrne says he remains unrepetentant on his views of organised religion Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Getty Images

Actor Gabriel Byrne has launched a stinging attack on the Catholic Church and described it as a “force for evil”.

The veteran Hollywood star had a strict Catholic upbringing in Dublin and spent five years in a seminary training to be a priest.

But he said it was his own unhappy memories of the seminary, where he says he was sexually abused by a priest, that made him decide not to raise his two children as Catholics.

And in an interview, the 62-year-old says he remains unrepetentant on his views of organised religion and even claimed the Catholic Church once drew inspiration from Hitler’s Nazis.

Recalling the the time he was sent away to an English seminary at just 11 to study for the priesthood, he said: “It was part of the culture. It was a very religious, oppressive society, though we didn’t see it as oppression at the time.

“I remember walking with my mother along a narrow pathway and she was holding onto a pram and two priests came along the footpath and she had to wheel the pram into the road to allow them to walk by, these mysterious men in black. I think the religion I had — and I don’t have any now — was rooted in a kind of childish fantasy.”

He continued: “The Jesuits have that expression, ‘give us a child until he is seven and he will be ours for life’. That was why the Catholic Church and the Nazi party fed off each other. “

After the rally at Nuremberg, the then pope said: “We need to be doing something similar and we have the theatre for it with St Peter’s, so that was when he started coming out on the balcony to address the crowds.

“And the Nazis meanwhile were learning from the Jesuits and making sure they got the child by seven in order to have them for life. The Hitler Youth. “De Valera signed the book of condolence when Hitler died. There was a sneaking regard among many Irish people for Germany and Hitler. England’s pain was Ireland’s gain.”

The New York-based actor, who recently triggered a storm when he described The Gathering as a “scam”, said in the interview with the Sunday Telegraph’s Seven magazine that he feels fortunate to have escaped from the clutches of the Catholic Church.

“They have way too much hold on this country. It’s a very corrupt and nefarious institution. The nuns were vicious because you have all these women living together in denial of love.

“They turned inward on themselves, became twisted creatures. I saw nuns being awfully cruel to me and to my sister. Horrific. Horrific.”

He went on: “I think if you are lucky you eventually come to a place where you are able to question these things, and I did. I read a lot on the subject and had many conversations and I have come to the conclusion that the Catholic Church is a force for evil.

“How can you enslave women? How can you deny men who are supposed to be serving you the comfort of marriage and children? How can they deny sending condoms to Africa? How can they deny women becoming priests? It’s an anti-woman and anti-love church.”

Referring to his decision not to raise his two grown-up children [he had with ex-wife, actress Ellen Barkin] as Catholics, he added: “I never discussed religion with them. As far as I’m concerned, it didn’t do me any good.

“And it’s interesting to watch two people grow up without it and find their own kindness and conscience.”

Byrne’s latest move, All Things To All Men, is out next Friday.

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Religious Fraudster Jim Bakker: “Cease & Desist” from Attorney General

New York AG to Jim Bakker: Stop Saying Your “Silver Solution” Cures Coronavirus

By Hemant Mehta March 5, 2020

For nearly two years, televangelist Jim Bakker has been hawking a “Silver Solution” that functions as a faith-based miracle drug. At first, he said it could get rid of “all venereal diseases.” But in the past several weeks, he’s been promoting it as a cure for coronavirus (in under 12 hours, no less) as well as a way to prevent SARS and HIV.

He has also said the silver is “almost like a miracle” and that “God created it in Heaven.”

A 12-pack of 16-oz. bottles of Silver Solution will run you about $300.

All of this is insanely dangerous. Who knows how many people have bought the snake oil in lieu of something useful? Plus there are serious side effects. On his online store where the solution is sold, there’s a link specifically for California residents — a Proposition 65 Warning — that says “This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.”

Now the state of New York is taking action.

Attorney General Letitia James announced today that her office sent a cease and desist order to Bakker this week as part of an overall action plan against coronavirus scams. The letter was signed by Lisa Landau, the chief of the Health Care Bureau.

Ridiculous religious quack Jimmy Bakker: a dangerous charlatan

The World Health Organization (“WHO”) has noted that there is no specific medicine to prevent or treat this disease. Therefore, any representation on the Jim Bakker Show that its Silver Solution products are effective at combatting an/or treating the 2019 novel coronavirus violates New York law.

Your show is hereby advised to immediately cease and desist from making misleading claims regarding the Silver Solution’s effectiveness as they violate New York’s consumer protection statutes… which prohibit fraudulent and deceptive business practices and false advertising.

Additionally, you are advised to immediately affix the disclaimer – “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.” – to all Silver Solution products listed on the show’s online store.

A Jim Bakker show without misleading claims would be more like a 30-second commercial, but the point is clear: He’s lying to people. He needs to stop.

And yet, even if he’s not saying outlandish things about the silver, the scary thing is that no amount of disclaimers will ever stop his gullible viewers from handing over their money. If the cancer warning didn’t do the trick, why would noting the lack of approval from the FDA?

This is Jim Bakker. He’ll just say the product has the approval of God and then continue peddling it. It’s the way he’s always duped his viewers.

In other words, Bakker can avoid the “$5,000 per violation” penalty while still pretending Silver Solution has power. The attorney general’s office doesn’t have the power to stop him from fleecing the most ignorant Christians in the country. He just has to use the proper language when doing it.

Incidentally, Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr., a Democrat from New Jersey, sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons and U.S. Food and Drug Administrator Dr. Stephen Hahn asking them to investigate Bakker’s claims as well.

… During his web show and on his website, televangelist James Bakker has repeatedly made misleading claims that a nanosilver formula product he sells, Optivida Silver Sol (16 oz.), successfully treats novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and cures venereal disease among a plethora of preposterous assertions by Bakker that threaten the public health,” Rep. Pascrell writes the FTC and FDA.

A prominent televangelist, Bakker was imprisoned for nearly five years after being convicted in federal court for mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, and defrauding his followers. On public broadcasts, Bakker has claimed that the Optivida Silver Sol product he sells can cure “viruses, wound and skin conditions, anti-inflammatory, sinus infections, allergies, cold and flu, bronchitis.” These claims are not only dangerous, they are false, misleading, and can only steer consumers away from legitimate ways to prevent infections.

The FDA and FTC have not yet taken action.

Whatever the outcome, give a lot of credit to Right Wing Watch for keeping tabs on Bakker and reporting on his lies. Without their scrutiny (and ability to let Bakker’s words do the heavy lifting), who knows when Bakker’s claims would ever catch up to him?

(via Right Wing Watch)

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Here’s a Picture of Mike Pence’s Team Attempting to Pray Away Coronavirus

Right Wing, superstitious, religious nut jobs; deluded that a completely fictional sky fairy and their worthless prayers will save them. Dangerous, anti-science, religious lunatics threaten the safety of a nation.

Elizabeth Johnston (a.k.a. the “Activist Mommy”) has spent the past day or so talking about her meeting — along with other anti-abortion zealots — with Vice President Mike Pence.

That’s disturbing enough, but it’s even more troubling that she posted this photo of Pence “praying with the Caronavirus Team.”

Dangerous anti-science, religious lunatics threaten the safety of a nation.

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More here:- https://tinyurl.com/wc7zk6f

‘Brexit film’ producer jailed for £500k loan application fraud

The endless slurry of conservative crooks, liars and grifters.

Brexit: The Movie is a feature-length documentary advocating the UK’s departure from the EU, released in the weeks before the referendum

David Shipley has been jailed for more than three years

https://tinyurl.com/sfs76ph

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