First of all - as mentioned so many times before - the last days of this generation simply cannot include a strong and free America. For instance, an America under Ronald Reagan would be completely inconsistent with the prophetic developments that we know must take place during the Tribulation - A coming world dictator also known as the antichrist. Not only that, but a world dictator who will impose the worse totalitarian regime ever known on planet earth. A freedom loving USA, with a strong president would never allow such and would have the means to thwart such.
Additionally, we all know that the United States, or any reference to such, is no where to be found in the detailed descriptions of the Tribulation as seen in Revelation 6-18 - yet biblically, there is vast detail on the world powers at that time, primarily via the descriptions of warfare that will be taking place.
Admittedly, it is entirely possible that the U.S. gets folded up into an expanding EU (if indeed that is how the 10 kings are formed) - but that would also require a severely weakened U.S. who would take such action through necessity.
Another nail in the coffin is the fact that the U.S. has clearly aided and assisted Israel's enemies while pretending to support Israel via rhetoric (only). Genesis 12:3 makes that fate abundantly clear.
The final straw will most likely be the gathering up of the Church Saints, which will at some point before the beginning of the Tribulation.
However - just as Jesus stated, our kingdom is not of this world anyway - and our real world never really involved a fallen, pre-millennial planet earth anyway, must less the United States. Our real world is in a place called New Jerusalem, and it is led by Christ Jesus. Such realizations make the demise of the United States and any such concerns pale in comparison.
It was a nice, unprecedented ride for this country, but it is over.
The United States is a rapidly declining empire, much like the last days of the Roman Empire - and that will not be reversed as we continue to watch the birth pains increase in both frequency and severity.
It was nice while it lasted.
Just a single day of headlines further confirms these ideas:
The vague "fundamental transformation" promised by Barack Obama prior to his first inauguration is nearly complete. America's political system has been transformed from a constitutionally limited government into a modern administrative state of unlimited government. A vast, extra-constitutional and unelected bureaucracy has been empowered with broad governing authority, including both legislative and judicial powers. The unfolding scandals associated with an alphabet soup of government agencies such as the IRS, DOJ, and NSA, along with a myriad of actions taken by the HHS, EPA, DHS, and NLRB, illuminate the fundamental threat that this type of government poses to individual liberty and to the maintenance of a free society.
The origin of America's contemporary administrative state has been detailed by noted scholar and author Ronald J. Pestritto. The idea began with the late 19th- and early 20th-century Progressive intellectuals, whose premise was that the constitutionally limited government of our Founders, set up to safeguard against the "old" problem of tyranny, was no longer needed in the modern democratic state. Restrictions on government action needed to be lifted in order to solve the new social and economic injustices which these people believed were plaguing society.
The broad range of activities that the Progressives wanted the government to control through regulation was not possible under the existing separation of powers. In order to achieve the degree of control that they deemed necessary, they envisioned an enlarged national administrative apparatus composed of agencies staffed by "thoroughly trained and completely educated men" responsible for setting policies, investigating violations, and adjudicating disputes in matters involving their specific areas of expertise -- a combination of powers completely incompatible with the Constitution.
Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal," a response to the Great Depression, transformed these Progressive theories into a political movement, which in principle mandated a government solution for every economic and social problem. Roosevelt launched a large bureaucracy, empowering it with broad governing authority, which gave birth to the modern American administrative state. It has grown steadily over the years under the direction of both political parties, with major outgrowths during the "Great Society" of the Johnson years and with the proliferation of agency "czars" during the Obama years.
The consequences of implementing these Progressive ideas as the foundation of our contemporary government are profound. Charlotte A. Twight, author ofDependent on DC: The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans, sums it up:
In the span of barely one lifetime, a nation grounded in the ideals of individual liberty has been transformed into one in which federal decisions control even such personal matters as what health care we are permitted to buy (as well as what type of light bulbs we can use, what type of toilets we can have in our homes, what size sodas we are allowed to consume, etc.)[.] ... A vast web of legal rules and regulations now enmeshes Americans in a tangle of law so complex, so contradictory, so uncertain, that most of us can no longer understand or comply with it.
In addition, the principle of equal protection under the law is effectively eviscerated when the government has the ability to play favorites, helping its supporters and harming its enemies. Recent revelations demonstrate that our government is, in fact, engaging in such unlawful behavior regarding the IRS harassment of individuals and groups whose political ideology the current administration disagrees with. Considering these trends, the implications of the recently exposed NSA personal data-gathering on ordinary citizens should be frightening to everyone.
Moreover, the freedom from self-interest and political control of the administrative class envisioned by the early Progressives is not possible. The political party in charge appoints the agency heads, who in turn select the staff. Many are members of public-sector unions who lobby politicians for concessions, using sizeable campaign donations. Collusion develops where agencies quickly align themselves with politicians who will support them. They will oppose those who criticize this cozy arrangement and threaten the beneficial status quo.
When government and its agencies are unbound by the separation of powers and the rule of law and routinely subordinate individual liberty to their arbitrary mandates, to which citizens have little or no recourse, authoritarianism replaces democratic self-rule.
Such is the legacy of "progress" that Progressives have created with their administrative state.
Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) appeared on CSPAN and said the revelations made public dealing with the National Security Agency's (NSA) surveillance program are "Just the tip of the iceberg."
As The Hill reports, Sanchez says she learned "significantly more" after attending a briefing Tuesday with counter-terrorism officials.
As The Hill reports, Sanchez says she learned "significantly more" after attending a briefing Tuesday with counter-terrorism officials.
On Wednesday, Sanchez told C-SPAN:
"What we learned in there is significantly more than what is out in the media today," Sanchez commented. "I can't speak to what we learned in there, and I don't know if there are other leaks, if there's more information somewhere, if somebody else is going to step up, but I will tell you that I believe it's just the tip of the iceberg."
"What we learned in there is significantly more than what is out in the media today," Sanchez commented. "I can't speak to what we learned in there, and I don't know if there are other leaks, if there's more information somewhere, if somebody else is going to step up, but I will tell you that I believe it's just the tip of the iceberg."
The White House assures that tracking our every phone call and keystroke is to stop terrorists, and yet it won't snoop in mosques, where the terrorists are.
That's right, the government's sweeping surveillance of our most private communications excludes the jihad factories where homegrown terrorists are radicalized.
Since October 2011, mosques have been off-limits to FBI agents. No more surveillance or undercover string operations without high-level approval from a special oversight body at the Justice Department dubbed the Sensitive Operations Review Committee.
Who makes up this body, and how do they decide requests? Nobody knows; the names of the chairman, members and staff are kept secret.
We do know the panel was set up under pressure from Islamist groups who complained about FBI stings at mosques. Just months before the panel's formation, the Council on American-Islamic Relations teamed up with the ACLU to sue the FBI for allegedly violating the civil rights of Muslims in Los Angeles by hiring an undercover agent to infiltrate and monitor mosques there.
[Just like the old USSR]
Remember this from last month? On the heels of the revelation that the Department of Justice had been snooping on James Rosen’s e-mails because of his attempt to gain classified information on the administration’s efforts on North Korea from a leaker, Sharyl Attkissontold Chris Stigall on his radio show that her computer had been mysteriously hacked. Attkisson, who has reported on Operation Fast and Furious and Benghazi and sparked ire from the White House while doing do, demurred on the source of the hacking but said CBS News was investigating it.
Erik Wemple reported earlier that CBS has corroborated Attkisson’s claim, and that whoever conducted it went after her material:
“A cyber security firm hired by CBS News has determined through forensic analysis that Sharyl Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012. Evidence suggests this party performed all access remotely using Attkisson’s accounts. While no malicious code was found, forensic analysis revealed an intruder had executed commands that appeared to involve search and exfiltration of data.
This party also used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion.
CBS News is taking steps to identify the responsible party and their method of access.”
What was going on in “late 2012″? Well, that would have been the controversy over the terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi. And, checking the record, we see thatAttkisson had a very interesting scoop on October 20th, relying on anonymous military sources that called into question the Obama administration’s claim that they couldn’t have responded in time to assist in the attack:
Michigan Democratic Representative John Conyers says he fears the nation may be “on the verge of becoming a surveillance state.”
Conyers’ comments follow growing concerns amid revelations about government surveillance of its citizens.
Conyers spoke at Thursday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington D.C. as FBI Director Robert Mueller was questioned about the surveillance programs targeting millions of Americans’ phone records and the Internet use of foreigners using U.S. Internet companies.
The revelation that the National Security Administration (NSA) is collecting millions of U.S. phone records, along with digital communications stored by nine major Internet companies, has touched off a national debate over whether the government has overstepped in it’s efforts to thwart terrorism.
With each day, it gets worse.
Let's start with the IRS scheme to secretly target conservative groups. We now know this program was widespread and has deep connections with the national IRS office in Washington, D.C.
What we still don't know is how all of this began and who ultimately made the decision to launch this invasive scheme.
We know this scheme was widespread and had the approval and participation of top IRS officials in Washington. In addition to correspondence being sent out of the Cincinnati office, our clients also received questionnaires from the Washington, D.C. office as well as two offices in California - El Monte and Laguna Niguel.
Further, we have letters signed by Lois Lerner herself - 15 letters from her to our clients - demanding additional information that was beyond the scope and constitutionality of what the IRS is permitted to ask.
We're moving forward with our federal lawsuit against the IRS representing 25 conservative groups that were unlawfully and unconstitutionally targeted by the IRS simply because of their beliefs. In fact, since we filed the suit a couple of weeks ago, we have been inundated with requests from other conservative groups that were also targeted by the IRS. We will be amending our complaint in the next few weeks adding additional plaintiffs to our lawsuit.
From spy equipment - to semi-automatic weapons. Amazingly, we now learn IRS agents are being trained and equipped with AR-15 semi-automatic rifles. The discovery was made by Rep. Jeff Duncan who is chairman of the House Homeland Security oversight subcommittee: "I think Americans raise eyebrows when you tell them that IRS agents are training with a type of weapon that has stand-off capability. It's not like they're carrying a sidearm and they knock on someone's door and say, 'You're evading your taxes,'" Duncan said.
This article actually says it all:
The question hit me like a lightning bolt as I looked in the mirror upon awaking this morning. Am I a traitor to my country, to my fellow citizens of the United States of America? Have I abandoned all sound reason and logic and lost my moral compass?
It is important to understand that the NSA was actively monitoring a telephone call between me and a very well known journalist also located inside the U.S. It was not a foreign call, but an interstate call. We never spoke of anything that could be considered treasonous to our government, rather, we spoke of the information we each gleaned from our protected sources about several “scandals” plaguing the Obama power structure as we have done many times in the past.
As I stood alone in the solitude of an early morning, I began mulling over the many contacts and conversations with media personalities and reporters, and the information of conspiracies and cover-ups we believe to have identified within the government. What is it, I stressed, as the gravity of my plight began to sink in.
In the stillness of the morning, I knew that the proverbial “poking of the bear” would not be without consequences. After all, this is not my first rodeo, and I knew I was poking at quite a few bears simultaneously. But what was the trigger, or was it everything?
Was it my sources providing me information kept from the public about the murderous attacks in Benghazi on September 11, 2012? Was it my investigation of the video blamed on that attack, a video that appears to have at least peripheral connections to the current CIA Director John Brennan and his privately owned company performing work for the CIA? Was it the apparent lies of Susan Rice to the American people, or the lies of Hillary Rodham Clinton about that very issue? Could it be the extensive reporting on the CIA weapons running operation out of Benghazi to assist the anti-Assad terrorists in their planning of World War III?
I continued to take mental inventory, wondering whether my reporting of Islamic infiltration into the U.S. government might also be a reason. Perhaps it was related to the disclosure of Barack Hussein Obama’s (Barry Soetoro’s) lack of bona fides, his chunks of missing time no one seems to want to address that could have triggered the weight of such a powerful agency being thrust into my life. Perhaps it was my contacts with an elusive DHS insider, who claims that the American people are being targeted with decisive force when the time comes to quell behavior upsetting to this administration. Could it be that they are attempting to identify my sources?
Was it my reporting on this administration’s plans to kill the U.S. dollar, and thus our national sovereignty, ceding our interests to globalist bankers while plundering and pillaging each and every one of us? Perhaps it was my identification of Timothy Geithner as the alleged high-level administration source as the person admitting that this is the Obama economic end-game plan. After all, killing the U.S. dollar is no small or inconsequential act, for it will change the life of every American and many people throughout the world. Could it be that my reporting on such seditious and treasonous activities, something the elected officials of all stripes don’t want the American people to know, have become treason itself?
The more topics I inventoried, the more that came to mind. The attack on Judeo-Christian principles within our military, our government, and our intelligence services. Perhaps it’s hosting a radio broadcast that is unbridled by politically correct constraints, and my writings that attempt to provide factual information to the American people - and the world - that the compromised media refuses to do. Telling readers and listeners that the United States has itself become a captured operation, publicly sharing information from sources within the government that also require moreanswers… answers they are unwilling to provide.
It is equally chilling to see that we’ve gone from freedom to the potential for abuse, from the potential for abuse to actual abuse, and from actual abuse to unlawful conduct… all in record time.
How did we get here? We are here because of many men and women of good and decent moral character who failed to act despite their convictions, and simply looked the other way rather than trying to expose and thus stop the lawlessness they knew exists or were, and are, aiding and abetting. By men and women in similar positions who did speak out, but received absolutely no back up from those proclaiming to have ethics and integrity.
I think an ominous question exists that every person capable of rational thought must ask themselves. What kind of country are we leaving to our children and grandchildren? What will you say when they ask what YOU did to stop the tyranny and destruction of our Constitutional Republic?
As for me, I will keep researching, writing and broadcasting, while asking exactly who the real traitors to our Constitutional Republic are.
[Although that was my title above, it came directly from the article]
Right now there’s an obvious trend in the West. Government insolvency is rapidly pushing those societies down the path of tyranny– drone assassinations, digital spying, pointless wars, confiscation of bank balances, capital controls, and the criminalization of everything from raw milk to collecting rain water.
The world has been here so many times before throughout history. And the trend seems so clear. Yet only a handful of people get it. Most people don’t want to hear about it. And they certainly don’t want to believe it.
You may have experienced this first hand if you’ve ever tried to talk to friends and neighbors about the fallacies of fiat currency.
They’ll probably ignore you. And they’ll probably ridicule you.They’ll accuse you of wearing a tin-foil hat and having lost your mind.
But as the trend continues, we’ll continue seeing a further deterioration in both economic fundamentals and civil liberties. And it will become apparent to everyone.
More stories will break about rampant corruption and gross surveillance. Drones will become a regular part of law enforcement. US debt will pass $20 trillion. They’ll nationalize a portion of pension funds and IRA savings.
They’ll eventually pass a law connecting tax delinquency to passport registration. Social security benefits will be scaled back. They’ll authorize themselves an Internet kill switch… and use it. A national sales tax will be unrolled, and ancillary taxes on things like mobile phone useage and air transport will go through the roof.
Civil asset forfeiture will rise dramatically, and people will have their entire life’s savings caught up in a bureaucratic death trap with no hope of due process. A budding currency crisis will substantially erode people’s standard of living.
An old Zen aphorism wisely states “you cannot fill a cup that is already full.” In other words, you cannot change people’s minds who choose to ignore reality.
We can only strive to be in the best possible position to help our friends, neighbors, and community when they do finally wake up. (And, perhaps occasionally, point out the obvious warning signs…)
For now, the best thing you can do is take care of yourself and your family. Get your own affairs in order. Have a plan, and begin to execute it. We’ll be no use to anyone if we’ve allowed a government to destroy our liberty and wipe out our savings.
Stocks were down, but NOT in a convincing manner. Bulls continue
ReplyDeleteto bid at the lows....not ALLOWING
bears a real chance to get going.
I STILL cannot CONCLUDE that the
top is in.
we will have to see more price action next week, ect.
stay tuned.
Stephen >>>>>>>>>>>>>