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Jim Jordan Does Not Have the Courage of His Convictions

"I don't think about things I don't think about" Questioning Marjorie Taylor Greene under oath

Jim Jordan does not have the courage of his convictions. Nor do any of the conspirators who sought to steal the 2020 presidential election, overthrow the government, and replace the Constitution with the rule of Trump. Even now we are still learning new information about how extensive the conspiracy was in the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate, the media, and the family of the loser President. Who knows how much more we will learn before the House Select Committee begins to tell the story in public sessions in June?

JOHN HANCOCK VERSUS JIM JORDAN

One of the iconic legacies of the American Revolution is the signing of the Declaration of Independence by John Hancock. He was the first person to sign. He did not merely sign the document, he signed in large “font” so there would be no doubt. His bold action immortalized him in American culture. “Put your John Hancock here” became a way of asking someone to sign a document the way he had when what was becoming the United States declared its independence from Great Britain. King George III had no doubt what the Americans had done.

Let us imagine for a moment that Jim Jordan or any of the conspirators had the courage of their convictions … assuming they had any convictions beyond “winning isn’t the only thing, it’s everything.” Suppose Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, or Jim Jordan was to say something like:

“The election was stolen. We have mountains of evidence to prove that the election was stolen. We have not had the opportunity to present the mountains of evidence to Congress which has been collected in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the election was stolen.”

Then just as the Declaration itemizes 27 charges against King George III, the conspirators would produce a report that:

1. names the names of the people who voted multiple times
2. names the names of the people who voted for dead people
3. names the names of the people who voted in districts not their own
4. names the names of the people who voted who were not American citizens or eligible to vote
5. names the election workers who counted Biden votes more than once
6. names the election workers who did not count Trump voters
7. names the voting machine companies who rigged the counting process
8. names the countries of foreign entities which manipulated the vote.

Strangely enough, the conspirators have produced no such document. They have had every opportunity on their own to produce a report document. So far only Pillowhead has done so when he revealed the secret computer code that had been used. Of course, he is being sued for everything he’s got.

At this point it is safe to say that none of the conspirators will proudly state what they did in an attempt to save the country.

WHAT HAVE THE GUTLESS COWARDS DONE?

Instead of having the courage of their convictions, what have the conspirators done instead?

Jim Jordan – By now the videos of him responding to questions about his phone calls to the President have made him a laughingstock. On more than one occasion, he has been asked about the phone calls he made on January 6. His responses have been compiled and show him as a person with something to hide and not doing a good job doing it. It is no wonder he has the nickname Gutless Jim Jordan. When you hear the word “gutless,” think Jim Jordan.

Kevin McCarthy – The last week or so has not been kind to the would-be Speaker of the House. He already has been ridiculed for the comparison of what he said in the House of Representatives just after the failed insurrection attempt that threatened his own life and him kissing the ring of his master in Florida days later. It has been known that he was on the phone with the President as the assault was occurring. Now we have the record of what he was saying to his fellow Republican House leaders as well. These conversations included Liz Chaney back when he was in agreement with her and wondering how to implement the 25th Amendment to remove the President from office.

Truth be told, I cannot help but wonder if The New York Times set him up for the kill. First it released the claim of what McCarthy said. Second it allowed him time to refute the accusations. Third, it released the tape exposing him as a liar. Now he has been revealed in a double dose of seditious dishonesty. The result has been the charge that he is a traitor and a liar. So when you hear him referred to as Kevin McLiar, you know exactly who is meant and why.

Marjorie Taylor Greene – No review of the Trump contortionists would be complete without reference to the Representative already renowned before being an airhead. Under oath, she claimed not to remember almost as many times as Roger Stone pleaded the Fifth. She does not even remember when her life was on the line and she was pleading not the Fifth but for help!

In response to her testimony, I could not help but think of one of the great court room exchanges in cinematic history based on real court testimony. In Inherit the Wind, Clarence Darrow is questioning three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan on his expertise on the Bible. During the exchange about the lack of any priests to officiate at the marriages of the pre-Flood patriarchs (Gen. 5), Darrow exposes that Bryan does not have an answer for the questions he is posing. The following exchange ensues:

Matthew Harrison Brady (Bryan):
I do not think about things I do not think about.

Henry Drummond (Darrow):
Do you ever think about things that you do think about?

The audience laughs at the nonsense their former hero for what he has just said. I have always assumed that no one other than Bryan himself could ever say something so stupid under oath. I underestimated the airhead mind. For a member of Congress to fake having Alzheimer is something no one could have anticipated. Instead of being Marjorie Taylor Airhead, she has become Marjorie Taylor Alzheimer.

The willingness of members of the House of Representatives to twist themselves into knots on behalf of their Lord and Savior is staggering to behold. Undoubtedly there is more to come.

On The Morning Joe Show, they like to talk about how Trump is a loser. They like to talk about how he lost the presidency, the Senate, and the House, a rare trifecta of defeat in America politics. They like to talk about how the Loser especially contributed to the loss of two Republican Senate seats in Georgia thereby giving the Democrats the majority in the Senate. They also like to talk about the poll results in that state. The loser of one of those Senate races and handpicked candidate by the Loser Kingmaker for the governor’s race on the issue of the stolen election is being trounced.

What you do not hear being talked about on The Morning Joe Show is that McLiar, Gutless, and Alzheimer will be running the House of Representatives in just eight months.

The Gospel According to Rick Perry and the Rule of Law

America Was Born with Articles of Impeachment (Photo Credit: istockphoto)

The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) and the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) held their annual conferences in San Diego the week before Thanksgiving. The Protestant Evangelical Institute of Biblical Research and the American Academy of Religion also met then. Nothing the approximately 10,000 in attendance said or did made the news.

The religious event which made the news was the Gospel according to Rick Perry as revealed through Fox News host Ed Henry to the world.

God’s used imperfect people all through history. King David wasn’t perfect, Saul wasn’t perfect, Solomon wasn’t perfect….And I actually gave the president a little one-pager on those Old Testament kings, about a month ago. And I shared it with him, I said, “Mr. President, I know there are people that say, y’know, ‘You said you were the chosen one.’” And, I said: “You were.” I said, “If you’re a believing Christian, you understand God’s plan for the people who rule and judge over us on this planet and our government.”

These words echo those of other Trumpicans:

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale: “only God could deliver such a savior to our nation.”
Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders: [God] “wanted Trump to become president.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responding to interviewer Chris Mitchell’s query “Could it be that President Trump right now has been sort of raised for such a time as this, just like Queen Esther, to help save the Jewish people from an Iranian menace?” said: “As a Christian, I certainly believe that’s possible.”

So the Gospel according to Perry is not out of line with the core beliefs of his fellow worshipers.

By coincidence, my own paper during these conferences was “Political Texts of Terror in the Book of Judges.” The paper is about Saul and David and I mention Solomon once. Since Thanksgiving I have been asked by the editor of online The Bible and Interpretation to write an essay of 2,000-3,500 words on my paper for the general public.

With that background in mind, let’s turn to the kings mentioned by Perry.

SAUL

As I am sure Perry knows, Saul was the first person in Israel to be designated a “messiah” or anointed one.

Saul was a warrior; he was not a bonespur boy. He did not pick on women or children or people smaller than him. True he died in battle against the Philistines, but the point here was that fought in the real world against foes who could fight back.

Saul’s Deep State was the Levites represented by the prophet Samuel. He was there to present the law. While not exactly the Constitution, it did provide one key item: only the Levites, priests of Moses, could call Israel to war. Saul did not have the right to initiate a military confrontation without the blessing of Samuel. Scholars debate the historical relationship between the king and the prophet in ancient Israel. One should recognize, as surely Rick Perry does, that in ancient Israel there was a battle of over whether the king was constrained by the law or not. According to the pro-Samuel writers, Saul was bound by the law; according to the pro-Saul writers, Saul did nothing wrong when he acted on his own in the absence of Samuel. Who knew they had Fox and MSNBC in ancient times.

DAVID

David, too, was a warrior in the real world unlike Bonespur Boy. Unlike Saul, David remained successful at it throughout his life although he did have some close calls.

David also could write. He actually was a far greater writer than he is given credit for. He certainly was a far superior writer to the juvenile tweets and 3rd grade letter to Erdogan of Perry’s Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be His Name.

David had to deal with his own famous confrontation with the law. The incident in question is the Bathsheba one. During the incident, the prophet Nathan, from a different priesthood/political-faction than Samuel, said after telling a parable:

THOU ART THE MAN! (II Sam. 12:7 or Two Samuel if you are the chosen one).

Consider now what David did not say in response.

David did not say: “Fake News.”
David did not call Nathan a disloyal traitor.
David did not call Nathan human scum and an enemy of the people.
David did no disparage Nathan as “Little Nathan.”
David did not call Nathan a maniac and deranged human being.
David did not claim Nathan grew up with a complex for lots of reasons that are obvious.
David did denigrate Nathan as a very sick man who lies.

Note: Is it coincidence that Little Donne Waney himself fits his description of Schiff except for the size?

Quite the contrary, David replied that he had sinned before the Lord.

Hard to imagine Perry’s Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be His Name responding as David did.

SOLOMON

Solomon, of course, was not a warrior and is remembered as a builder of the temple among other things. Perhaps the most famous story about him occurs when two women claim to be the mother of the same child. Solomon famously adjudicates the dilemma with the following wisdom:

Kings 3:23 Then the king said, “The one says, `This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; and the other says, `No; but your son is dead, and my son is the living one.'” 24 And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought before the king. 25 And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.”

It’s not exactly Charlottesville with good people on both sides but it is close enough. The difference is that in the biblical story, Solomon’s pronouncement is a ruse to expose the fraudulent claim while in Charlottesville, the assertion was meant to be taken on face value.

It would be interesting to hear Rick Perry expound on his theological musings. What are the imperfections of Saul, David, and Solomon that he refers to? What did the three kings do in the face of these imperfections? What has Perry’s Chosen One done? I do not have the power to ask Rick Perry to comment. Perhaps someone reading this blog can inquire of him for me.

So which biblical figure is most like our current President? Back on March 19, 2018, I wrote
Is Donald Trump Our Rehoboam? – A Bible Penis Story. If you are interested in my opinion, check out that blog.

In the meantime, it is important to note the ancient Israelite tradition of truth to power even involving the king. There certainly was nothing like that in ancient Egypt. The only person who called Pharaoh to task was Moses and he had to leave Egypt after he did so. But that spirit came to define Israel.

There was nothing like that in ancient Mesopotamia either. There the prophets knew their place and to tell the king what he wanted to hear. Ancient Israel followed the Mesopotamian tradition up to a point. But in the end, Israel was different. Before going into battle even the king needed permission as Saul had not done.

1 Kings 22:5 And Jehoshaphat [the king of Judah] said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the LORD.” 6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramothgilead, or shall I forbear?” And they said, “Go up; for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” 7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the LORD of whom we may inquire?” 8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Micaiah the son of Imlah; but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” 9 Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.”

In ancient Israel, they knew to trust not the yesmen who told the king what he wanted to hear but the one who did not. You need to have some adults in the White House!

That spirit of Moses lived on the creation of the United States. The Declaration of Independence was an impeachment of King George III. It is a legal document that indicted the king on multiple counts of an abuse of power. It was written by people who were disloyal traitors to the king and who compounded their disobedience by voting with their guns to remove King George III from power over them. Now we are engaged in battle to determine if the rule of law or a would-be King George will prevail. Where are Moses and David when you need them?