“No God and no religion can survive ridicule. No political church, no nobility, no royalty or other fraud, can face ridicule in a fair field, and live.”
– Mark Twain

Trump the Bible salesman: NAJ screen shot

The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson – 

Glynn Wilson

WASHINGTON, D.C. — We will see if Mark Twain’s satirical wisdom holds water still in these craziest of times.

The ridicule now being dumped on convicted rapist and grifter Donald Trump all over social media for hawking a “God Bless the USA” Bible during the Easter season — complete with an American flag and a copy of the Constitution — could very well be the end of him and his signed ticket straight to hell.

This could have more impact than all the legal cases piling up against him put together, although if enough people in this country are still foolish enough to fall for his con, it might save him from bankruptcy. I doubt it will work in a world where most people don’t buy books anymore anyway, and many certainly don’t read them as they are too hooked on X tweets, Facebook memes and TikTok videos.

“How is this guy still a candidate for President of the United States?” people are asking all over the world, wondering if America has lost its collective mind. Yes, Virginia, he’s actually the Republican Party’s standard bearer and presumptive nominee.

Nothing in all the literary imaginations of all the writers to date could have dreamed this up. Even Elmer Gantry would have been appalled at the flagrant hypocrisy of Trump. As Sinclair Lewis wrote about his corrupt, power-hungry, narcissistic, womanizing preacher, “He had, in fact, got everything from the church and Sunday school, except, perhaps, any longing whatever for decency and kindness and reason.”

In other literary treatments, a Bible salesman in Flannery O’Connor’s Good Country People attempted to seduce a one-legged woman and then ran off with her prosthetic leg.

In “O Brother Where Art Thou,” the satirical comedy-drama released in 2000 based on Homer’s epic Greek poem The Odyssey, the Bible salesman whacks two characters in the head with a tree branch and steals what he mistakenly believes to be their treasure box. Finding nothing but a toad, he crushes it to death just for the fun of it, smashes it against a tree and drives off in their stolen car.

Even Shakespeare would have had a hard time deciding whether this story is a comedy or a tragedy. It’s hard to decide whether to laugh or cry.

Even the straight news writers for the New York Times had a hard time keeping a straight face while writing their breaking news version of this unbelievable tale.

“Before he turned to politics, former President Donald J. Trump lent his star power and celebrity endorsement to a slew of consumer products — steaks, vodka and even for-profit education,” the Times wrote.

“Days before Easter, Mr. Trump posted a video on his social media platform in which he encouraged his supporters to buy the ‘God Bless the USA Bible,’ named after the ballad by the country singer Lee Greenwood…”

“All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many,” Trump said. “It’s my favorite book. It’s a lot of people’s favorite book.”

Especially people who can barely read and probably don’t.

Priced at $59.99, plus sales taxes and shipping, the King James Bible contains a handwritten version of the chorus of Greenwood’s ONLY hit song, along with copies of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance. This should strike anyone with the most basic knowledge of American history as a blatant violation of the principle of a separation of church and state outlined in the very same Constitution.

But hey, actual facts and knowledge of history count for nothing in Trump World. Are enough people tired of all this nonsense yet to doom his candidacy? We will see just how deranged America has become based on how many people fall for this scam and actually buy one.

“Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country,” Trump says, obviously oblivious to the drive all over the country by MAGA Republicans to replace secular education, textbooks, libraries and other institutions with Christian dogma, not to mention the Supreme Court’s intent to replace democracy with Catholicism’s power over the state.

“We must make America pray again,” he said more like an order from an authoritarian dictator than a fervent prayer for saving the souls of poor sinners. Jesus must be rolling over in his grave while getting ready to rise up from it on Sunday morning. Oh wait, that’s just a Bible story turned capitalist holiday.

Even if you are a devout Christian who believes in Jesus and the Bible, how can you believe in a political future in this country for such an obvious con man? I know preachers in the South who will no longer support this guy.

This is just the latest attempt by Trump to frame his campaign as a “crusade” to defend white, nationalist Christian values from what he and his MAGA cohorts like to bash as the atheist, socialist left in America. Of course these charges are all false and misleading claims trying to fool an ignorant, uneducated base of supporters that Democrats are in the business of persecuting Christians by “tearing down crosses.”

His Bible sales pitch comes as he confronts a significant financial crisis. His legal fines and fees are growing daily while he fights four criminal cases and several civil lawsuits.

Trump was required to post a $175 million bond this week while he appeals his loss in court in the New York civil fraud case. Yes, Virginia, he was found guilty of fraud for over valuing his real estate to secure loans, and under valuing it to avoid paying taxes. The judge gave him a break from having to post a bond guaranteeing his $454 million penalty.

And that’s just one case. He also had to post a $91.6 million bond to secure the judgment in favor of E. Jean Carroll for sexually molesting her, denying it and defaming her by lying about it publicly.

According to Greenwood’s Bible sales website, Trump’s “name, likeness and image” are being used “under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC,” the same company responsible for Trump’s “Never Surrender” gold sneakers selling for $399 that he announced at a shoe sales convention in Philadelphia last month.

You literally can’t make this stuff up. But we will take every political gift we can get in these times in the ongoing effort to save democracy from the tyranny of a dictatorship, and the planet from the corporate grifters who would profit from a final meal of the last endangered species, if they could get away with it.

In another gift, it looks like Katie Britt is a political goner.

Meanwhile it’s hard to decide whether to laugh or cry. Today we vow to spread the word about this con man and mob boss wannabe, who would if allowed become America’s first dictator, like his friend Vladimir Putin in Russia.

Today we laugh out loud, with the help of Stephen Colbert of CBS.

“The former president wants to make America pray again, NBC parted ways with Ronna McDaniel mere days after announcing her hiring, and her former employer, the Republican National Committee, will only hire people who swear the 2020 election was rigged.”

Also the Saturday Night Live Easter Cold Open

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