State’s bid cites requirements that $60 Trump-endorsed God Bless the USA Bible appears to be tailor-made to meet

Oklahoma’s top education official is seeking to buy 55,000 Bibles for public schools and specifying that each copy contain the Declaration of Independence and US constitution, which are not commonly found in Bibles but are included in one endorsed by former president Donald Trump.

The request is part of Republican state superintendent Ryan Walters’ ongoing efforts to require Bibles in every classroom, which has been met with resistance by some of Oklahoma’s largest school districts.

Walters is seeking to spend $3m in state funds for Bibles that fit a certain criteria, including that the pages are supplemented with US historical materials. The Bibles must also be “bound in leather or leather-like material for durability”, according to state bidding documents posted this week.

  • @fine_sandy_bottom
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    174 hours ago

    I know I shouldn’t be but I’m just kind of astonished.

    I get that some states are predominantly red voters, but how many people must be involved in this process, and among them not a single person with a shred of integrity. I’m a lefty, but I’d like to think that if I was in a position to have any input into a process like this, I’m pretty sure I would be screaming blue bloody murder, even if the money was going to my own preferred party.

    It’s just so embarrassingly obviously corrupt. I would be genuinely ashamed to be involved, even if my involvement was simply not saying anything.

    • @madcaesar@lemmy.world
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      54 hours ago

      The problem is that you are not involved. Most normal honest people want nothing to do with politics, so we are run by corrupt pieces of shit.

  • @seaQueue@lemmy.world
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    55 hours ago

    Quick, someone run a Kickstarter for leatherette bound “Bibles” that meet the criteria and unfold into a doormat

  • @Gladaed@feddit.org
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    -102 hours ago

    Doesnt seem like news to me. Neither truly new/interesting or impactful. 3 m$ is less than a Cent per person.

  • @RegalPotoo@lemmy.world
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    2210 hours ago

    Misappropriating funds to buy religious texts for a public school while insisting that the text includes the constitution that makes it misappropriation in the first place is some next level bullshit

    • Schadrach
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      34 hours ago

      …and doing it with requirements that funnel state education funds to a political candidate is just…chef’s kiss

    • @seaQueue@lemmy.world
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      1110 hours ago

      Wait until you hear about the $100k concepts of a watch they’re selling worldwide for cash OR bitcoin. It’s basically tailor made to allow foreign agents to send money to trump anonymously.

      • andrew_bidlaw
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        46 hours ago

        I saw the ad but missed a piece about bitcoin. Probably because I was overwhelmed with their worse-than-parody looks and presentation.

        • @seaQueue@lemmy.world
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          55 hours ago

          The more you look into it the better it gets. It’s basically a drop ship scam run out of a random office in Wyoming (? IIRC) where the only other registered business sells honey to treat erectile dysfunction.

          • Flying Squid
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            45 hours ago

            And from what I’ve read by people who really know watches, they’re pieces of shit too.

            • @seaQueue@lemmy.world
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              75 hours ago

              I mean, yeah, it’s a drop ship front designed to be a money laundering pipe for foreign agents to send money to a Trump business. The product doesn’t actually matter.

              • Flying Squid
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                25 hours ago

                Oh yeah, I expected nothing else. I just think it’s funny that watch collectors and experts took one look at them and said, “yeah, that’s a piece of shit.” They didn’t even have to see the insides.

          • andrew_bidlaw
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            25 hours ago

            Say whaaaaaa

            We are on the ride to hell, but goddamit they have amusing sights on the way.

  • @adarza@lemmy.ca
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    7418 hours ago

    it doesn’t matter how the books are printed or bound…

    THIS is the problem:

    spend $3m in state funds for Bibles

    • IninewCrow
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      17 hours ago

      At this point in history … the only legimate way to be a Christian is to just say you’re one. It’s about the only criteria anyone goes by now.

      It used to mean something a hundred years ago … it doesn’t mean much any more

        • @Evotech@lemmy.world
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          35 hours ago

          You can’t just say you are Jewish. The Jewish community well not accept that.

          Used to be kinda like that

          • Flying Squid
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            5 hours ago

            You can’t just say you are Jewish. The Jewish community well not accept that.

            That highly depends on the Jewish community. There isn’t just one.

            Plenty of ultra-Orthodox Jews would say I’m not Jewish despite being born to two Jewish parents, having a Bar Mitzvah, etc. because I don’t fit into their weird little mold.

            On the other hand, at the temple my mom goes to, they wouldn’t care who your parents are. If you say you’re Jewish and go through the motions, they’ll accept you as Jewish.

            On top of that, there are Jews who would say I’m not a Jew because I’m an atheist and others, like myself, who consider it an ethnicity as well as a religion and argue that if those Jews are right, Larry David isn’t Jewish either. Neither are Billy Crystal, William Shatner, Sarah Silverman, and so many other people that Jews often claim as their own.

            I’ve been called an antisemite by Jews that support Israel when they find out I don’t. That’s how messed up it all is.

        • @catloaf@lemm.ee
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          1816 hours ago

          As opposed to actually practicing being kind to your neighbor. Stuff like that.

            • @fine_sandy_bottom
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              44 hours ago

              Amongst christians I think there’s a general consensus that they’re the good guys.

          • @solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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            415 hours ago

            pretty sure there have always been, probably always will be, people who say “i’m christian” just because that’s what they’re supposed to say.

            “i’m christian” has literally never made someone a good person just because they slapped that label on themself. if anything, if someone is one of those “i’d be a bad person if not for religion,” then that person is still not a good person

    • @Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      the source material is all created and editted by men under orders from the king of england at the time. inasmuch as it was a royal effort i suppose it could be considered heretical but not in an ecclesiastical sense

  • @undercrust@lemmy.ca
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    7419 hours ago

    What a weird, sad, loser Ryan Walters is.

    Man the United States really IS a shithole third world now.

  • Kalkaline
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    4819 hours ago

    He does know that Trump isn’t going to pay him the kickback promised for this deal, right?

  • @DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    I heard it has a copy of the constitution/bill of rights in it, missing amendments 11 - 17, because a lot of those prevent his coup, and allow for his prosecution.

    • @Gork@lemm.ee
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      717 hours ago

      Those morons probably get the Ten Commandments and the Amendments confused if they’re missing that many.

      • qantravon
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        213 hours ago

        It’s not that they cut any in particular, they just only included the Bill of Rights, which isn’t uncommon when pairing them with the Constitution. Not defending them, still a grift going on here, but that particular detail isn’t as nefarious as some people want to think. At least, not on its own.

  • themeatbridge
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    2119 hours ago

    Walters in June ordered public schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons for grades five through 12. The bidding documents also specify that the Bibles include both the Old Testament and New Testament, the Pledge of Allegiance and the Bill of Rights.

    Seems like it’s time to publish an annotated Bible that meets the criteria and costs much less than Trump’s bible.

    • @jonne@infosec.pub
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      618 hours ago

      They thought of that and don’t allow any other commentary in the book, otherwise I could see a great opportunity for the satanic temple to get into book publishing.

      • themeatbridge
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        12 hours ago

        Hmm, going to need to review the bidding documents, but I’m sure we can find an opportunity to make him regret being so specific.

        Edit: After reading the bidding documents, there’s a number of opportunities for malicious compliance. They don’t specify a size, a language, or anything more than the contents. So it might be tempting to make one that’s floormat sized or printed in a font that fits on a single page of water-soluble paper bound in leatherette.

        But I think the better thing would just be to print the books as requested. Make a KJV Bible with the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and whatever other bullshit they asked for, get it printed exactly to spec, and do it for a fraction of the cost of the Trump bible. It won’t coat $55 to produce them, and then Oklahoma won’t be able to justify spending a premium to buy from Trump.

        Then donate all of the money to actual education programs.

        • @jonne@infosec.pub
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          12 hours ago

          Yeah, undercutting in price is probably the best approach. If they still pick Trump’s book there’s probably legal options.

          • themeatbridge
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            34 hours ago

            Exactly. We know this is transparent corruption, but they’re going to get away with it because it’s a garbage state nobody cares about. But it’s still America.

  • @LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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    1819 hours ago

    Every single word of this is horribly disappointing. Even words like ‘the’ and ‘an’ are ashamed to be associated with this story. Jesus wept.