Can we learn from history JUST ONCE??
POSTED BY: WISHIMAY
UPDATED: Sunday, August 30, 2026 21:36
VIEWED: 4650
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https://www.thedailybeast.com/when-a-flat-earther-refused-to-concede-a
nd-all-hell-broke-loose
In 1909, a notorious flat Earth preacher led a ballot-box putsch to maintain his stranglehold over an Illinois town. With declarations of “war,” two competing governments that claimed to be legitimate, and an armed siege between the two factions’ police chiefs at the county jail, the forgotten saga of Zion, Illinois, is evidence that America’s political situation could still be a whole lot stupider.
Wilburn Glenn Voliva was a flat Earther who lived on a strict diet of Brazil nuts and buttermilk. He also, for a time, enjoyed dictatorial control over an entire city.
“When Voliva named his political party the ‘Theocratic Party,’ it was a simple statement of fact.”
Born in 1870, Voliva trained as a preacher and became a leading member of a faith-healing church headed by John Alexander Dowie. Dowie was a gifted grifter, amassing a large following and absurd wealth while performing sham “miracles” on the desperately ill (some of whom later sued him when their ailments remained). When authorities finally cracked down on Dowie for practicing medicine without a license, he founded the city of Zion, a new “utopia” governed by strict religious law.
Maybe the city was a utopia for Dowie, but not for many others. He spent lavishly on himself and drove the city into debt. Eventually, Voliva deposed him in a church coup, in part by accusing the elderly faith-healer (whose own health was failing) of trying to assemble himself a harem of young wives.
Now at the helm of Dowie’s “Christian Catholic Apostolic Church,” Voliva effectively ruled the city. Zion had a mayor and a government, but all of them answered to Voliva, who held the title of “general overseer.” After wresting control from Dowie (who died soon thereafter, a broken and betrayed man), Voliva set about making Zion even less fun. Alcohol and dancing were banned, smokers were hauled into jail, and many newspapers were verboten.
When Voliva named his political party the “Theocratic Party,” it was a simple statement of fact.
“I’ve hired two big attorneys to prosecute those who perpetrated these election frauds. I mean business.”
— Wilburn Glenn Voliva
By 1909, anti-Voliva mutiny was brewing. In this town where theaters, dancing, and eventually even whistling were banned, rivals wrote “a little song concerning Voliva which is hummed sotto voce by some of his opponents,” the Chicago Tribune reported that April. The lyrics of the song unfortunately are lost to history, but the verse was “most decidedly unscriptural in its composition,” the paper wrote.
While unholy verses about Voliva drifted around Zion that month, the city was preparing for one of its most consequential elections ever. For the first time, a slate of anti-Voliva candidates stood a decent chance of beating the preacher’s stooges, who controlled the entire city government.
The two groups’ warring slogans sounded eerily like those of 2020. The anti-Voliva “independents” accused him of trying to build a “wall” around the city—an echo from the future when Democrats would campaign against Trump’s border wall. Voliva’s side accused the independents of being degenerate Satan-worshippers. “Down with the devil’s ticket!” they chanted, according to Chicago’s Inter Ocean newspaper.
Voliva even deployed one of Trump’s favorite insults more than 100 years before the eventual president, calling his opponents “haters.”
Voliva’s camp printed cards contrasting his “Zion Ticket” with his opponent’s “Devil’s Ticket.” The pamphlets accused the independents of lobbying for “free whiskey,” “free theatre,” “doctors,” “dancing,” and “democracy,” as opposed to Voliva’s platform: “anti-saloons” “no theatres,” “divine healing,” “no dance halls,” and “theocracy.”
Incredibly, the advertisements for joyless theocracy did not inspire voters, and the independents won by a narrow margin. Voliva accepted his loss about as well as Trump has.
Much as Trump would later accuse his opponents of relying on illegitimat
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That does sound a lot like Trump.
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Can we learn from history JUST ONCE??
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=64082&p=1
Quote:
Sunday, December 27, 2020 3:31 PM Originally posted by WISHIMAY:
Furious and alleging voter fraud, Voliva’s Theocratic Party simply refused to leave office.
I'm going to put this in the predictions thread. Because until Biden is sworn in, Trump MUST NOT leave office. That would leave the country without any president at all. Trump may be the very definition of a 'lame duck' president, but he's still president.
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Quote:V.P. Mike Pence immediately becomes president once Trump is dead, disabled, or retired. You'd know that if you weren't a Russian troll.
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
. . . until Biden is sworn in, Trump MUST NOT leave office. That would leave the country without any president at all. Trump may be the very definition of a 'lame duck' president, but he's still president.
25TH AMENDMENT
Presidential Disability and Succession
https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendment/amen
dment-xxv
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Signy must'a really stung you with those doxxing comments.
You also know EXACTLY who **I** am, and have known for at least 2 years.
BTW, if YOU knew how to read English, you'd know that the amendment talks about REMOVAL, and RESIGNATION, not RETIREMENT.
Quote:Just sayin'.
In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
That does sound a lot like Trump.
Not really.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
That does sound a lot like Trump.
Sure does. Bat-shit crazy and leading a fascist death cult.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
That does sound a lot like Trump.
Not really.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
Not at all.
What have you done today to earn your place in this crowded world? :)
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Quote:Just sayin' that Trump only has to speak the words and Mike Pence instantly becomes President. As President, Pence could give Trump an airtight, perfectly legal pardon, but Trump can't give himself a pardon that's worth the paper it is written on. Plus, we would see for 23 days the contrast been Trump the fat dumb lazy fucker and President Pence who isn't.
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Signy must'a really stung you with those doxxing comments.
You also know EXACTLY who **I** am, and have known for at least 2 years.
BTW, if YOU knew how to read English, you'd know that the amendment talks about REMOVAL, and RESIGNATION, not RETIREMENT.Quote:Just sayin'.
In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:So, tell us. SECONDRATE, how do you REALLY feel about Trump???
Originally posted by second:Quote:Just sayin' that Trump only has to speak the words and Mike Pence instantly becomes President. As President, Pence could give Trump an airtight, perfectly legal pardon, but Trump can't give himself a pardon that's worth the paper it is written on. Plus, we would see for 23 days the contrast been Trump the fat dumb lazy fucker and President Pence who isn't.
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Signy must'a really stung you with those doxxing comments.
You also know EXACTLY who **I** am, and have known for at least 2 years.
BTW, if YOU knew how to read English, you'd know that the amendment talks about REMOVAL, and RESIGNATION, not RETIREMENT.Quote:Just sayin'.
In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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