LDS tithing fraud case—let the Lord decide. 

Well, this could be difficult. Attorneys for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints argued in federal court that allegations of fraud involving billions of dollars in tithing collected over two decades cannot be decided in a secular court.

That's right Wilson, it means sending it up to a higher power: Let the Lord decide. Which, if you think about it, is a pretty good defense—if it works.

Tithing is a sacred obligation, the Mormon attorneys argued, and as such is off limits under the protections of the First Amendment. It amounts to an intrusion on religious thought. No Wilson, church founder Joseph Smith's Urim and Thummim did not foresee this.

Nine plaintiffs are suing the church claiming that Ensign Peak Advisors, the church's investment arm, amassed $100 billion from investing tithing, while not spending any of it on charity or religious efforts. Meanwhile, they say the church spent $1.4 billion on the City Creek Center mall in Salt Lake City. This could get a little tricky for God's real estate angels: is money made by investing tithing the same as tithing—or not?

The $100 billion investment portfolio came to light in 2019 by an IRS whistleblower. By hiding the largesse, plaintiffs say church leaders defrauded the faithful so they would not stop donating. But as an apostle once said, ignorance is bliss.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock … Is Time Running Out For TikTok?
It's off. It's back on. Trump says he'll save it. We'll see. Four years ago, Trump wanted it banned. Now he loves it. Funny how money can change minds.

Some 170 million Americans use the app owned by Chinese company ByteDance. Worldwide that number is in excess of 2 billion.

TikTok, a video-hosting service, is a whole world unto itself. It connects creators and influencers with new audiences and pushes trends in food, fashion and music and just about everything. It also spreads hate speech, far right extremism, antisemitism, islamophobia, racism and xenophobia.

It added $2 billion to the U.S. economy last year. Originally designed to sell Chinese goods to people all over the world, it has morphed into the globe's most popular website.

In 2022, Mark Zuckerberg and his Meta platforms hired a high-powered lobby firm to create strategies and campaigns portraying TikTok as “a danger to American children and society.” It worked and in 2024, Congress passed a law banning the app unless it was sold from Chinese interests.

The Supreme Court upheld the law ruling it did not violate TikTok's First Amendment rights. Yes, and money is speech and corporations are people. So now let's see if it's possible to close Pandora's Box.

This Time America Really Is Going To Be Great Again
This is going to be so much fun. The 47th President of the United States issued something like 100 executive orders on his first day back in the White House. It was planned to overwhelm regulators, Congress, the news media and everyone else. Gone are the days when Republicans, like Utah Sen. Mike Lee, complained that the executive branch had too much power.

Here's part of the to-do list: deport everyone with brown skin; end birthright citizenship to keep them brown people from spawning Americans; close the border to avocado trucks, pardon all those Jan. 6 patriots; end the war in Ukraine, maybe now, maybe later; make Canada the 51st state; put tariffs on everything from China, including Hot Wheels; drill baby drill; lower the price of eggs; keep transgender women out of sports; make polluting great again; cut funding to “woke” schools; cut funding to everything else “woke;” make DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs a felony; ban travel to Gaza, Yemen and California; outlaw teaching of critical race theory (CRT) in middle schools; extend tax cuts for billionaires; replace Obamacare with Trumpcare; weaponize the Justice Department to prosecute any and all Trump naysayers.

Well, it's a start, anyway. Nobody said making America great again for certain groups was going to be easy.

Postscript—That's a wrap for another historic week here at Smart Bomb, where we keep track of the Village People so you don't have to. Hey Wilson, remember the Village People? They were a late-’70s disco group who dressed up as various macho gay-fantasy characters—an Indian chief, a cop, a construction worker, a cowboy. Their name comes from Greenwich Village in Manhattan that had a reputation as a gayborhood.

Donald Trump adopted one of the Village People's hits, “Y.M.C.A.,” as a theme for his campaign, although it was known as a gay anthem. The band in 2020 asked him not to use the song after he threatened to shoot Black Lives Matter protestors. They later reversed their decision.

The Village People are having another moment and performed at some of Trump's inauguration festivities. The only original member of the band, 73-year-old Victor Willis, said Trump really likes “Y.M.C.A.”

"We know this [won't] make some of you happy to hear, however we believe that music is to be performed without regard to politics. Our song Y.M.C.A. is a global anthem that hopefully helps bring the country together after a tumultuous and divided campaign where our preferred candidate lost."

Trump took the stage with the band at a rally on the eve of his inauguration and danced as they sang their 1978 hit. You can't unsee it.

Well Wilson, you and the band can guess what's coming next. Tell the guys to dress the part and take us out with a rousing rendition of “Y.M.C.A.”:

Young man, there's no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, young man, 'cause you're in a new town
There's no need to be unhappy.

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
“Y.M.C.A.”—Village People