Turns out Vermont is one of those states where people have rushed to be vaccinated.  It is also a state that is one of the “hot spots” for infection.  They’re a “victim of their own success,” whatever that’s supposed to mean.  Oh wait.  It means that the state let down it’s guard, and people went about catching up on mundane activities, like getting together with family and friends.  The inference is that the population should have been kept in lock down.

It reminds me of what Victor Davis Hansen said sometime ago.  “The authorities are trying to save our lives by stopping us from living.”  Wouldn’t you know it, now they’ve got a full blown medical emergency on their hands.  Maybe the vaccine isn’t such a medical miracle after all?  Not that social media wouldn’t ban such a statement.  People can’t even relay the most minor side effects without adjudication from the censors, always on the prowl for “dis-information.”

This embarrassment of an administration, in league with those who pull all the levers of power media-wise, is in the process of beating January 6 to death at the same time they bludgeon the public COVID-19. The media keeps telling us it was a deadly insurrection.  But the pictures and the video tell a different story.  One question that seems pertinent, since when does a “deadly insurrection” require that people stroll politely between the velvet ropes?  No doubt there were some violent incidents that people will be arguing about until the end of time.  But who was responsible?  The pullers of levers are going to make sure everybody gets their face rubbed in the official version of events, even though antifa leaders were in the mix, maybe even some undercover operatives.

You’ve probably heard, the head of the New York chapter of BLM (used to stand for the Bureau of Land Management) has threatened riots, fires and all the scenes emblazoned on our memories if the mayor should carry out plans to reduce the explosion of crime in that city.  Black Lives Matter won’t stand for it, and they’re making promises they can keep.  Whatever you do, don’t look at the crime statistics, the rate of inflation, or America’s tattered reputation  in the wake of the Afghanistan debacle, these things couldn’t have been helped.  It’s all the fault of the last administration, we’re told, and things will return to the official narrative at last.

We’re casualties of that great success, but too dim to understand. The supply chain is so complicated, we couldn’t begin to comprehend the complexities.  Inflation is a result of the wealth of the average Joe.  People are spending and buying so much that goods can’t be kept on the shelves.  All those container ships anchored off-shore Los Angeles?  That’s way over your head.  Besides, there are higher priorities.

Global warming, for instance.  Between the media, the corporations and official mandates, we’ll be forced into “saving the planet.”  It’s really entertaining, watching a conga line of buffoons claim they will save the planet by forcing us to live in a world we want nothing to do with.  But they’ve got higher priorities than what we think.  They’ve got a “planet” to save.

If there’s a bright side to all this deceptive bravado, it is that pride comes before a fall, and I don’t mean Autumn.  How nice that it’s a law of nature, and it works like a charm.  There are several recent examples, but we’re looking to the future.  All the pompous blowhards who want credit for “saving the planet” at the expense of the civilized world will get what’s coming to them.  Maybe not on our timeline. But soon enough.  Dr. Fauci may strut around like he’s ten feet tall, but his day is coming just like others who’ve shot off their mouths deceitfully.

But maybe we should look inward to see the cause of so much bad news.  Maybe you turn away when some demonic images appear amid a perfectly innocent program.  They’re trying to sell some movie or video game for the holiday season.  A trip to the gaming section of an electronic store is startling.  Somebody’s buying this stuff.  Maybe we’re not just victims of circumstance.  The stench of mainstream acceptability of heinous activities just might fall into the category of what God can’t stand.

The themes portrayed throughout the Bible is that mankind has choices.  Some lead to peace and prosperity, others to ruination.  It looks like we’re on the road to the latter.  It seems we cannot hold attitudes or beliefs sanctioned by the mainstream without reaping the whirlwind.  Stand by.

Mark

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

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 12 November 2021 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

It seems every day that goes by contains more false information that eventually will have to be straightened out.  But will it ever be?  The mountain of lies, accepted and repeated by nearly every media outlet just keeps growing.  There’s now so much that needs to be fixed, we’re wondering whether it will ever happen, or will we just have to live in a never-ending whirlwind of deception for the rest of our lives.

It’s not easy to know where to start.  They’ve been cramming the man-made global warming scam down everybody’s throats since they changed their minds about the “Coming Ice Age” in the 1980s.  We were supposed to have been incinerated, or starved to death in our feeble efforts to flee the wrath of Al Gore.  Universities lost their reputations, and scientists had to go into hiding after getting caught altering data designed to scare everybody half to death.  (East Anglia University, Climate Research Unit, Phil Jones, Michael Mann, “hockey stick”).

But no, the whole thing was a misunderstanding, the media concluded.  The claim is that we’re in an “existential climate crisis.”  What we’re still doing here, after decades of being told we’re all going to have to flee unsurvivable heat, is anybody’s guess.  But never fear, the “president elect’s” teleprompter says that we must treat global warming the same way they’ve treated COVID-19!  What exactly that means is not immediately clear.  But we all know that Americans have been subjected to the heavy-handedness of governors who issue un-Constitutional orders on the basis of emergency powers.  Governor Newsom in California has hobbled and bankrupted so many that he is the subject of a recall effort, and it’s gaining support.

The news-breaks sound just like last month, and the month before.  They’ve got record COVID-19 infections, record hospitalizations, record death tolls, just like they’ve had for every day, week and month since early last year.  Meanwhile we find out that everything from heart-attacks to gunshot wounds to motorcycle accidents are being counted.  We find out that the national death toll numbers from 2020 are no different than they were in 2019.  How can that be, with record deaths from something unknown one year ago?

Everyone is free to believe what they want and do as they please for at least another couple of weeks.  Then choices, and possibly freedom itself may be the stuff of bygone daydreams.  It turns out that corporations, not government, are the most stern of COVID-19 mandate enforcers.  We’re “lucky” that some state powers have allowed any businesses to stay open.  Let their employees wear masks and gloves.  But it would be nice to be able to get an oil change without the COVID lecture!

If you’re sick to death of the whole thing, better not turn on the radio or any device for that matter.  If you thought things were a little scary six or eight months ago, they’ve ramped it right up.  Every radio break tells nightmare stories.  Any explanation or disputation gets banned from social media.  If you don’t agree to be in a panic, tell no one.  Otherwise, there will be consequences.  Isn’t freedom great?

The United States has lost freedom as we knew it.  This time last year, they’d have thought you were out to rob the CVS pharmacy.  Suddenly, you’re doing the right thing by following the latest protocol.  Businesses in New York, New Jersey and California daring to serve the public and make a living have been visited by police and “health officials,” had their doors blocked by police, or been raided, like a hair salon in California was.  “Drop the clippers or else!”  The proprietor said it was like a drug bust.  There went freedom.

We’ve learned the hard way that the news media HATES the United States, hates freedom, and will call us cultists, racists, selfish, there is no end to the accusations and epithets they apply to anyone who doesn’t willingly relinquish their freedom immediately.  We must recognize the EXPERTS, even when they vacillate and change their minds, know better than us and have our best interests at heart.

As Victor Davis Hanson said a couple months ago, “They are trying to save us by stopping us living.” But those were the good ole days.  It’s much worse now, and new records are set every moment.  At least it’s reassuring to know the national death toll is no worse than it ever was.  There must be some explanation.  Or are we hip-deep in an unmentionable substance?

Everybody dies sooner or later.  The question is, then what?  You always here about the dear departed looking down and being proud, or being present at critical moments.  It seems our society has universally embraced the idea that dead relatives are “looking down.”  Nobody seems to look forward to the time that they’ll be “looking down.”  We’re not sure why not.  It sounds like a comfortable existence.

No, the truth is what God tells us in His Word.  The dead know not anything.  And they won’t until the resurrection.  We don’t know how going to heaven and the resurrection don’t conflict, but nobody seems bothered about the contradiction.  There is no coherent explanation.  But what’s new?

We’ve been extremely concerned about the impending loss of freedom, which is being accomplished by deceit of all kinds, and has implications for everybody on earth.  Those who would rule over us are warning that extreme measures will be necessary to save our lives from the “existential crises” they’ve invented or hyped beyond reason.  The time for debate is OVER, they tell us.  We’re not qualified to weigh in, only to obey their scientifically created mandates!  It’s for our own good, they say!

We know that the understanding and realization that the United States and the western nations are decedents of Israel is not a necessity for salvation.  But it sure does explain everything.  Captivity is at the door, whether or not we realize it.  Though not a linchpin of salvation, it would be nice if we didn’t have to experience the blight of captivity after having enjoyed Divinely ordained freedom.  We’re about to find out whether we continue in freedom or fall under captivity.  The media has already celebrated our impending captivity.  Hopefully they’ll be disappointed.  They’re not God, after all.

Mark

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

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 1 January 2021 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.