Trump Says Whoops! Pardon Me

My intense distaste for tRump and his totally repugnant (and often illegal) antics (both before and after the election) have prompted me to share with you the following post. I’ve referenced this writer before because  (1) I really like the way he writes, and (2) he pretty much says what I’ve been thinking.

In this particular article, the writer talks about how tRump’s past actions of shirking his responsibilities are coming back to haunt him, why it scares the crap out of him, and how he hopes to push it all under the rug by using an action similar to that which has served him well in his business ventures.

It is a well-known and documented fact that Donald Trump companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection six times. For those of you unfamiliar with this process, a company can remain in business while wiping away most if not all of its debts. A bankruptcy court approves a corporate budget and a plan to repay any remaining debt while shareholders and or investors lose all if not most of their equity. Think of Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a pardon, past sins are erased, the slate is clean and in the case of Trump’s Taj Mahal Atlantic City casino ready for another bankruptcy one year later.

If you want to know what this Russia, fake news thing is really all about these six bankruptcies is where a special counsel investigating Trump and his connections to Russia would begin and guess what, it appears that is what is happening.

Over the course of several years and several bankruptcies American banks quit loaning Trump money. Again, a documented fact. Think the old adage “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”. Each Trump property is in separate Limited Liability Corporation, a LLC, and it is highly unlikely that Trump signed a personal guarantee for any of the loans, so when one property fails the only recourse a bank has is to liquidate the failed property and hope the assets equal or exceed the debt. They never do.

Trump gets his money out of these properties on the front end, through development fees, management fees, mark-ups on materials and labor, etc. When the revenues being generated can’t support the debt service, Trump files for bankruptcy. What he gets is a pardon, a do over. The guy that he owes $650,000 for purchasing and installing gold-plated toilet levers gets pennies on the dollar or worse, nothing at all. 

As you can imagine, banks got tired of this game as Trump crowed about using the system to his advantage. If you recall during one of his debates with Clinton he characterized his use of the bankruptcy laws as “What I’ve done is I’ve used, brilliantly, the laws of the country.” U.S. banks disagreed and closed the money the spigot to Trump. Unfortunately for Trump, he needed dollars, lots and lots of dollars to prop up and feed his machine, and to pay for the lifestyle he was accustom to living. This is the point where Trumps door opened and the Russians stepped in.

Several press outlets are reporting that Trump and his legal team are now exploring the possibility of Trump pardoning his top advisers, his family members and even himself. What has precipitated this thinking? Special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian investigation appears to have expanded into Trump’s past finances which means getting his tax returns and loan documents from Deutsche Bank an institution known as a conduit for Russian rubles and Trumps primary lender in recent years.

For Trump, a pardon would simply be like filing for bankruptcy and, as he would describe it, using the laws of the country “brilliantly”. Most of us see the character flaw in this line of thinking and action, but 35% of you still celebrate his behavior. His supporters have thrown morals, standards and character out the window. They don’t care. But here is the issue, they honestly don’t know what they are supposed to care about. They are to busy watching the show, the train wreck. They think they are rooting for their hero but they have forgotten what the battle is all about. At this point it doesn’t matter if they are winning or losing they no longer remember what the game is. It is all about the show, the pageant, the spectacle and for that his 35% have hooked their wagon to the perfect star, the perfect ringmaster for this circus of chaos.

What are you going to do?

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You can read the original here.

More on New Testament Reliability

After a lengthy discussion on the Reliability of the New Testament, the two primary debaters eventually presented their positions and closing remarks, so I decided to close comments.

However, along the way, there were many others who contributed thoughts and viewpoints that stimulated discussion as well. Therefore, I decided to open a new discussion post and I’m leading with a question that Arkenaten (Ark, for short) asked. His inquiry was directed to a specific person, but anyone who has thoughts/answers/opinions is urged and encouraged to participate.

reliable
rɪˈlʌɪəb(ə)l/
adjective
1.
consistently good in quality or performance; able to be trusted.
“a reliable source of information”
synonyms: dependable, good, well founded, well grounded, authentic, definitive, attested, valid, genuine, from the horse’s mouth, sound, true;

Of these (minimal) New Testament events listed below one would reasonably expect to find at least some mention within independent sources especially as we are dealing with the birth, life and death of the Creator of the Universe, Therefore, please list any independent source that corroborates some or all of the following:

The Three Wise Men and the Wandering Star
Herod’s Slaughter of the Innocents
Feeding of the 5000
Feeding of the 4000
Resurrection of Lazarus
Mention of the life and deaths of any of the 12 disciples, including corroborating independent testimony.
Paul’s missions, including his arrest and deportation to Rome.

Please note. We are discussing the biblical character, the miracle working, Jesus of Nazareth , and not an itinerant eschatological 1st century rabbi who may have been called Yeshua.
Thanks.

As a reminder, I will be somewhat absent except for occasional input when I just can’t help myself. 😀

How Reliable is the New Testament?

In previous discussions with a blogger who goes by the handle of “Scientific Christian,” a question related to the reliability of the New Testament came up. Since it’s a topic that cannot be answered in a few words (by believers or by non-believers), I have added this post and opened it up to any and all who wish to offer their claims/proof on either side of the issue.

Please try to keep the discussion “civil” and refrain from insults just because you don’t agree or because the other person may be using what you consider “questionable” sources to validate their belief. Simply refute the claims and provide your own proof.

I will most likely be absent as we are moving within a couple of weeks and there’s still much to be packed. I will, however, check in on occasion — especially if someone says something that demands a response. 😀

HAVE FUN!

Destroying a Paradigm?

Recently I had a new visitor to the blog where I promote my book (EscapeFromReligion.wordpress.com) and this person left a rather lengthy comment. Since the remarks were primarily directed to non-believers rather than the merits or failures of my book, I decided to publish it on this blog instead. I felt certain my readers and/or followers would enjoy offering their perspectives on what this person had to say (plus, I have some feedback of my own 🙂 ).

Hello Nan. I read your article on “Why I left Christianity”, (NOTE: I believe this person is referring to the “sticky post” on this blog.) and saw how your Christian faith was dismantled. My goal here is to destroy your new paradigm, I hope that’s OK with you.

Upon reading it, it’s evident that beyond all your problems of history, psychology of religion, etc, etc, etc, the biggest problem you had with Christianity that you stressed is the lake of fire. “Truth hurts”, as they say. The truth is that the price of sin is death. The truth is that sin is so inexplicably evil, terrible, that the only conceivable just punishment for it is death. That is how evil it is to a holy God. The truth is that you and I don’t realize it’s that bad, we don’t think it’s nearly that bad, and therefore, we cannot possibly understand why such a punishment can be given for something as small as lying!

But lying is not a ‘small’ thing, it’s inconceptually evil. We however, are no longer aware of its evil because we ourselves are sinners. We’ve become so used to sin that we no longer see the evil in it. A mass murderer no longer sees why murder is evil because he has been doing it for so long. The mass murderer cannot possibly contemplate why something as small as killing another sack of chemicals on this irrelevant planet we call Earth should warrant him going into prison for the rest of his life. But we can see exactly why murder warrants such a punishment, because we’ve never murdered and so we understand how evil it is. Likewise, God has never sinned and understands how evil sin is.

Another thing to notice is that the sources you espouse, for example, this one for addressing the history of Christianity;
https://infidels.org/library/modern/james_still/jesus_search.html

Are completely ridiculous and hyper-biased to unbelievable levels. As I read this source, I found that it was even sympathetic with the arguments of the Jesus Seminar, a group of crazy people that determine the historicity of what Jesus said by voting on it. These sources are all invalid, extraordinarily misrepresentative of the scholarly view, and hence you need a complete rewashing of your brain. You need to start looking at the positive case again to get the full view instead of just examining the arguments of one side. In this case, I’d recommend you start with this video right now:

Once you’ve started, we can begin once again examining the historicity of the New Testament literature and what scholars really think. Perhaps we can even have a debate through our blogs on whether or not the Gospels are reliable.

Yes indeedy. A debate is most definitely in the works. 🙂

Stay In Your Own Backyard

In a recent comment on the blog, “In My Father’s House,” our own “Ark” wrote this (in part) related to religion in the public domain:

Simply keep it out of the public domain. Schools, Government, local councils, saying prayers before sports matches etc., over meals at public or company functions ( where non believers are among the staff etc)

I started to write a response comment, but decided to devote a blog post to what I had to say. Here is what I was going to write:

Awoman to that!

I would add … worship your god all you want in your home, in your church, in gatherings with like-minded people, at the bedside of the sick, etc., etc. But please! Out of respect and deference to those who do NOT believe in your god (this includes people of other faiths as well as those with no faith), keep your beliefs within your own community.

I’m aware of your “Leader’s” instructions to reach out to the non-believer, but I daresay you will derive far more results/satisfaction through one-on-one meetings. Further, can you truly say that putting crosses on hillsides, “Jesus” signs on your lawn, religious messages on cars, billboards, government property, etc., or offering prayers at public events is going to “win the world for Jesus”? In truth, all it does is puff up your own sense of Christian virtue.

In case someone wants to make the claim that I’m seeking a secular-only world, this is not my intent. I’m just a firm believer in the strict division of church and state.