From the article.
“Today, he was taken to the emergency room, and under medical advice, was admitted to the hospital. He is currently on oxygen and is expected to remain there for a number of days. Susan remains ill, but also needs your prayers as well. We would request that you would pray for healing for her body, but that you will also pray that the Lord will give her peace regarding Rick’s condition,” the letter states.
Why the oxygen? Aren’t prayers enough?
The rest of that quote from Pastor Wiles:
“I am not going to be vaccinated. I’m going to be one of the survivors. I’m going to survive the genocide”…
Let us ponder that statement for a moment. Wherein lies the genocide of which he speaks? Is COVID the genocide? Or are the vaccinations the genocide? If it’s COVID that is the genocide, his statement admits that people have died of it, so it must be real, right? But I guess it wasn’t the virus but the Deep State that killed the ones who died? [I know, I know… trying to find even *internal* logic is futile…]
OR, the 550,000+ Americans who died did so because their faith wasn’t strong enough, or they weren’t fighters, or not enough people prayed for them. 
This statement by one of his devoted followers is the kind of thing that infuriates me!
“I can assure you, our friends and ministry partners, that Rick and Susan are fighters and survivors. They have each seen tremendous challenges in their lives, and it was their steadfast faith in the promises of the Word of God that saw them through those challenges. It is that same faith that will see them through this one as well. …
Resisting the temptation (as it were) to get all theological here, but this kind of thinking, while rampant, is cruel, insulting, insensitive, unsound, and flies in the face of human experience! Grrr.
And modern medicine is evil when it wants to give you a vaccine, but really not all that bad, I guess when it wants to keep you breathing?
There is such a thing as will to live, and it can make a difference in some (though obviously not all) cases. And I suppose that, in some cases, faith can give someone the will to live. But I would think that the more common case, and the one that those with faith would rather highlight, would be the cases where faith gave one the courage to die.
In a just world, this doofus would be given a sugar pill and told to lie in the hospital hallway and pray for recovery, while the doctors and nurses care for actual patients who understand that medical professionals are there to help them.
I’m picturing God in heaven shaking his head in frustration, saying “I sent you masks, I sent you a damn vaccine. What more do you want? Use them already and stop bothering me.
And frankly, when I think about the past 18 months or so — it would be really difficult for any religious person with a shred of common sense to draw any conclusion other than God Hates Trump. I mean, God send a freaking plague to get him out office, how much more biblical can you get? It’s almost enough to make me convert.
It’s like watching Trump try to sing along to patriotic songs. “Buncha bombs in the air…”
That doesn’t sound like a just world. That sounds like a vengeful world. Schadenfreude does not equal justice.
A lightning bolt* I suppose but I am so stealing this.
*Edit: or a piano.
The thing is, for a corrupt politician in the middle of a political crisis, something like a plague or a terrorist attack can be a godsend - the sort of thing where even a minimally competent response can boost your approval ratings and make people forget whatever stories have been dominating the news up to that point. I think the fundies might be correct: Trump is God’s chosen one to lead the United States, and he sent a plague just to make sure he’d get re-elected. But Trump, being himself, couldn’t help fucking it up, and lost anyway.
Trump: so incompetent, even God can’t help him out.
God is supposed to omnipotent. He couldn’t see that coming?
He knew but even God could not believe someone could be THAT stupid, so He convinced Himself it would work.
This is kind of what’s happening with Biden.
The democrats in the Texas state legislature left the floor, preventing the Republicans from passing their voter suppression law because there wasn’t a quorum.
Well, at His age you’d think He’d have learned…
…but noooo, He has to keep giving humankind the benefit of the doubt.
…for now.
Michael Flynn says the US needs a coup like the one in Myanmar.
What a classy guy, 
(Follow-up to the Dems walkout.)
The threat is more symbolic than real-world, but still…
…
Abbott’s tweet referred to Article X of the budget, which pays not only lawmakers and staff but also funds legislative agencies, such as the Legislative Budget Board. Under the current budget, the legislative branch is funded through the end of August, and the budget Abbott is referring to covers the fiscal year starting Sept. 1.Abbott has until June 20 to carry out the veto.
State lawmakers are paid $600 a month, equal to $7,200 per year. They also get a per diem of $221 for every day they are in session, including both regular and special sessions.
…
No real home for this one, More anecdotal than anything.
I frequent the OAN board, mostly to lurk and roll my eyes. But I couldn’t help but engage someone saying this:
"Not if there is fraud proven from the election. Either Trump is installed and a new inauguration is held or a new election is held. Those who perpetrated the fraud do not get to keep their ill gotten gains nor the succession as laid out in the Constitution which would result in denying the rightful winner the people’s choice in leadership. Either the rightful winner is made whole or is given another chance.
[…]
The Constitution is not where you find criminal code. Look at state elections throughout the country and even in lower federal positions where evidence of fraud was found and the court addresses the remedy. The victor is removed from office due to fraud and the loser is sworn in as the rightful will of the people. The Constitution is a framework. It is not absolute absent of fact and criminal action including treason."
So true. Just look at how Bush Jr. did after the 9/11 attacks. His popularity soared, and all he did was not step on his own dick. It took some time for the polls to slowly, inexorably whittle his popularity down to where it belonged.
