The post Armed protests are picking up, and a new study says they’re more likely to turn violent first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Maybe the approaching hurricane will supplant the excited COVID-19 reporting for a couple of days.  That would be a welcome respite.  Every news report begins with “spikes,” “hot-spots” and concerns that some are not doing all they can to “keep everyone safe.”  Talk about a divided country!  You can get yourself hurt depending on the “message” you send when leaving home.

   It was shocking to see the treatment that the Attorney General received from the Judiciary Committee this week.  It was beyond rude.  Many “representatives” called him names and leveled utterly unjustified accusations at him, then refused to let him respond.  They shouted him down and claimed they controlled the “time.”  At one point of complete exasperation, Mr. Barr allowed as how he thought it was a “hearing,” and he was the one to be heard.  WRONG!  He was supposed to sit quietly while they accused him continuously without ever responding.  The chair’s hammer nearly got broken over some members not wearing their masks properly.  It was as embarrassing as nearly anything we’ve seen.  Well, almost.

It seems that we’re watching helplessly as many “authorities” all around the United States stand with the “mostly peaceful protesters.”  You know, the ones with black helmets and backpacks loaded with various incendiary devices and projectiles. Maybe those gut-wrenching images beamed from our big cities are just a “myth.” Never mind what you think you’ve seen, repeat the catch-phrases and take a knee.  It’s beginning to look like the “authorities” actually want the destruction to take place.  Nobody better obstruct the “protests,” lest they be called “stormtroopers.”  Not that the “stormtroopers” were doing much other than playing defense anyway.

Some national agency type police had been sent to Portland, where they were accused of every evil intent imaginable.  They’ve been called off as of late, and “state police” will now be responsible for the security of public buildings including the Federal Courthouse.  Maybe the arsonists will give it a rest now that the “stormtroopers” are gone.  Sure they will.

We’ve all heard of the “1619 Project.”  It’s a work of journalistic fiction promoted by the N. Y. Times, awarded by the Pulitzer Prize Board, and expected to be taught as part of a “history” curriculum across America.  It endeavors to say that all U. S. founding documents are invalid, and credits slavery for the national wealth.  Even the authors have said that it’s NOT HISTORY, but a work of “journalism.”  That’s perfect for the age in which we live.

With very few exceptions the corporations represented by our household products, familiar retail chains, food franchises, entertainment conglomerates, newsprint outlets and TV networks side with those who are working to destroy the American way of life.  Anybody who steps out of line in any form of communication is banned, fired and held up to public ridicule.  That’s where we are with free speech. It’s been outlawed by the public sector.  These self-righteous entities are out to purge everything the mob calls “racist,”  which is pretty much everything you can think of.

Who will stand up?  Nobody in harm’s way of any national conglomerate, that’s who.  Disagree with the communist narrative, and they’ll see that your life is ruined.  The examples are many.  It doesn’t even matter what someone may or may not have meant, social media will decide if you’re allowed to participate, and often destroys the ability of some unlucky American to earn a living.  You can’t afford to participate in the public square unless you symbolically take a knee, and agree with people who believe in “micro-aggressions” and omnipresent American racism.

The NBA took a knee at a game last night.  All the players, the coaches and even the referees!  The NFL will do likewise.  What do they care?  Their futures exist in China.  My suggestion is that they move the whole operation over there, and just once imply something negative about the communist leadership.  If ballplayers are going to run interference for communism, they ought to have to live under it.  We have no such intention, especially not here.

This isn’t the United States of yesteryear.  Everything has been turned on its head.  Who knew that freedom was the “myth”?  Governors, mayors and county commissioners will decide whether you come outside or not, go to work or not, take the kids to play or not, and you will wear a mask and abide by all quarantine mandates or be accosted or arrested.  American freedom is under attack from all directions.  The mob, the “authorities” and the media have all officially determined what we will and won’t do or they’ll cancel somebody’s future.  We’ll see how they feel about it when THEY GET CANCELED.  And they will.  Maybe they think they’ve got not only the mob, but the majority of people and the media on their side.  It’s doubtful that’s true but even if it were, it won’t matter.  May they enjoy their time siding with what they perceive to be the “majority” while it lasts.  This thing is not unlike the French Revolution, in that new offenses against the narrative keep getting raised, and every time they do everyone has to go a little further with their appeasement efforts.

Meanwhile, some 12,000 American troops are to be transferred out of Germany.  Mind you, there’s been an American presence in Germany since the end of World War II.  But Germany has apparently not lived up to promises made on funding its own defense.  President Trump says Germany is “delinquent,” and the U. S. will no longer be responsible for funding its defense.  News outlets are predictably alarmed that NATO is being undercut, and that this is a “gift to the Russians.”  They’re grieved about the expense and the time squandered in the move.  But Trump plays hardball.  He expects promises to be kept, otherwise he’ll take matters into his own hands to every extent possible.

Iran is playing offense again.  You can find reports of them test-firing missiles at a mock-up of a U. S. aircraft carrier.  But Iran hardly rates a mention in the midst of the COVID-19 excitement.  After all, this is the one thing that just might bring down the United States.  And that’s what the mainstream is demanding.

Who’s going to draw the line?  It looks like the whole American experiment is on defense.  It was months ago when this update said things might get ugly.  Have things ever gotten ugly! It appears that major segments of the economy will remain shuttered until everyone takes a knee, buys into the 1619 narrative and sides with the anarchists.  Whether some remaining hope of law and order prevails over the nearly universal corruption is anybody’s guess.  Not only have the national agencies been corrupted beyond all recognition, the courts (in many cases) are no longer dependable.  All bets are off.  Well, almost all.  We didn’t want to have to wait for Jesus Christ to have to come down here and straighten everybody out.  But that may be our last hope.  If all else fails, it’s a sure thing.

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 31 July 2020 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

We still don’t know what various governors and mayors will demand by the time of the Feast of Tabernacles.  Having suspected it all along, we’re now hearing that the “numbers” (which of course never lie) are being juiced in Florida and Virginia at least.  The “testing stations” that have popped up all over the state of Florida are reporting that 100% are infected, and there are zero who are not.  It’s doubtful that their numbers are anywhere near accurate, but news anchors are nevertheless using the reported infections to panic everybody into emergency submission.

You know from the reporting that anyone who tests positive is subjected to daily testing, even if they’re not sick or showing any symptoms.  Every time there is a “positive” test result, it is recorded as an additional case in Virginia.  There is a single individual who has accounted for FIFTEEN cases, and that’s been verified according to Laura Ingraham’s reporting on her FOX news program.  There’s also news that Texas has had to alter their “numbers,” after realizing that many sicknesses and deaths had been incorrectly blamed on the virus.  Surprise, surprise!

On the international front, the U. S. is disputing China’s claim to the entire South China sea. U. S. warships are on patrol there to make the point. That’s where things may be headed. The confrontation between the U. S. and China may transition from trade disputes to war drums.  Assuming America survives the incalculable damage caused more by mandates and closures than the virus itself, a coming military standoff with China may well be next.

This update is intentionally short, due to the article that accompanies it.  But we have some additional details.  The local news reported this morning that meetings have determined that the names of both public high schools in Tyler must undergo a change of names.  One is Robert E. Lee, the other is John Tyler.  Now we can’t help wondering if the name of the city itself is not on the chopping block.

Much that we hear and see in the way of so-called “news” is pure insanity.  Even here in East Texas, there is a tendency to give the “mob” its way, maybe thinking that the craziness will be satisfied and life can go on.  But that will not be the case.  You never stop a bully by giving in.  You can bet the mob will be back with more demands.  It’s a vicious cycle that will never end until they are confronted, but nobody wants to stick their neck out, for obvious reasons.  The “cancel culture” will destroy anybody who gets in their way.

But we’re about to take a respite from all of it for the Sabbath day.  We plan to obey the “mandates” of God’s Law, whether or not they run afoul of some power-drunk official, wielding un-Constitutional “emergency powers” to keep everyone safe.  I think you know who wins in the end.  The meantime may try all our souls.

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 17 July 2020 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

We can only hope the looting and the burning is over, though we know otherwise.  The media personalities are losing their minds over the prospect of life ever returning to normal.  They’re reporting new “spikes” in virus cases everywhere that has dared return to something approaching normal life.  Little doctors are basking in their new-found fame, apparently expecting we’ll find them to be of superior intellect and hang on their every word.  Trouble is, they keep changing their minds about things that affect everybody, and just laugh it off.  Aren’t they cute!  Maybe the “shutdown” wasn’t necessary after all, ha ha ha.

Tearing down every memorial of Robert E. Lee wasn’t satisfactory to the mob or the media.  They’re getting much greater satisfaction now that they’ve toppled George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Christopher Columbus.  One statue nearly killed a “protester,” cracking his head wide open and making him convulse in front of everybody.  Guess he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  But it looks like the mob has gained tremendous strength, and few if any stand in their way.

Corporations donate to these anti-American entities.  The media runs interference, constantly excusing their actions while hiding the true extent of it.  All the alphabet agencies and the Pentagon are populated by activists who are sworn to uphold the Obama legacy, and add to it.  They’ve thrown everything imaginable at President Trump, sure that one thing or another would drive him from office.  But their best, nefarious efforts have failed to remove him from the Presidency.  Now they’re siding with the mob, preaching that America is inherently racist.  If you think you’re not, it’s just further proof of how racist you are.  That’s what passes as news!

Meanwhile the mob is threatening nearly every city from coast to coast.  The celebrities are posting videos and messages all over social media, hoping they’ll escape the wrath that threatens all society.  They’re begging forgiveness, and “taking responsibility” for things they had nothing to do with, in the hopes that the mob will find other targets and pass them by.

The NFL, NASCAR, the NBA and the PGA have all taken a symbolic knee.  They’ve bowed down to the accusation of racism, and they’ve prostrated themselves before the dreaded virus.  Who dares not bend a knee to their developing new religion.  Everybody’s scared to death that they’ll be bankrupted or burned out if they don’t acquiesce to every new demand.

Mayors are begging the Texas Governor, Gregg Abbot, for the authority to arrest, fine or jail people who refuse to wear a mask in public, but so far he’s not given them that power.  But they have figured out the perfect solution.  Maybe they can’t jail individuals who refuse to comply with their every whim, but they can come down on businesses!  So they’ll apparently fine every business one thousand dollars for every infraction of allowing somebody on their premises without a mask, or who is refusing to follow “social distancing guidelines.”  Oh, that’ll be good.  Like businesses haven’t already had a near-death experience with the “shutdown.”  California has issued a statewide demand that everyone wear masks in public.  The criminals must love it.

Now you can’t even go to the VA hospital for a routine checkup without wearing a mask.  Apparently you can’t fly.  They’ll kick you off an airplane if your mask is not securely in place.  That is, after the TSA has groped you mercilessly, making sure there’s no bomb in your underwear.  They’re just doing their “job” after all.

Houston, we’ve got a problem.  Some of us might not submit to every whim some local yokel dreams up.  We knew they’d try to bend us to go along with their “mandates.”  But we didn’t realize they’d use the “public health and safety” to enslave us.  No, this is but a trial run for what they (the media, Black Lives Matter, the corporations and the government agencies) and the anarchists have in store.

If black lives matter, why is there no outcry over the hundreds who’ve been shot or killed by each other in nearly every metropolis?  They’ve canceled Cops and Live PD.  Not because the police are misbehaving, but more likely because they don’t want us to see who is committing most of the crime and how they behave when confronted.  What else are they going to cancel?  The First Forty Eight?  20/20?  Snapped?  Lieutenant Joe Kenda?  Where does it stop?  There are probably at least a dozen other “reality” shows that chronicle investigations of murder, kidnap, arson.  Are they going to cancel them too?  Is Perry Mason still OK?

It’s pretty disheartening watching everyone take a knee.  They’ll have to break our legs.  And they just might.  Try to think about something else.  It’s the Sabbath.

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 19 June 2020 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.