Tipping Point

Cleon Skousen made a wise argument years ago.  He said that the big question in the choice of a government system is not between Democrat and Republican, or even Conservative and Liberal - it is the choice between tyranny and liberty.

The source of the following quote is questionable, but I like it anyway - -

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largesse out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy."

America is at an interesting point in its history.  When you look at the political landscape in America, you quickly discover that the urban, densely populated areas of the country incline towards voting Democratic, while the heartland seems to prefer the Republicans.  Union members typically prefer Democrats, as do blacks, Hispanics, women, college students, illegal immigrants, Hollywood and the vast majority of the mainstream media.

Democrats typically argue for bigger government programs, more government control, more entitlement programs, more "redistribution" of private wealth, more taxation, more regulation of businesses, and more safety net programs for the sick and the poor.

In recent presidential election cycles, the actual popular vote for president has been extremely close, sometimes swinging only one or two percent in either direction.  The electoral college system, however, makes certain states - Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Colorado and others - into pivotal swing states.  Win those states and you can be president.

There are reportedly some 12 million illegal aliens in America.  Like black people, these people would likely pick Balack Obama 99 to 1.  Why?  Because Obama wants to give them amnesty and a quickie path to U.S. citizenship.  Why?  Because he knows that if he can get these immigrants the right to vote, they will vote for him - A.) Because he was the one to let them in, and B.) Because he will give them all the free stuff he can possibly give them - free medical care, free food, free housing, free everything.

So, if the voting bloc that prefers to tax the private sector in order to fund public benefits for itself grows by millions, then the liberal Democratic model will take permanent control and never look back.

You may ask why any politician would be so stupid as to desire to take our country in such a direction.  Well, if you are the politician who doles out the free benefits from the public trough, you can control the public resources and control the people who receive them.  So we come back to the liberty:tyranny paradigm.  It is the tension between a local government controlled by the people, and a powerful, centralized government which controls the people.

Don't think that I believe that the Republicans are more righteous than the Democrats.  The tyrannies perpetrated by the Bush administration were breathtaking -  9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the Patriot act.  Corporations bribe politicians and finance their campaigns.

One thing is sure - we are at a tipping point.  We have lost our understanding of the principles of freedom.  We have embraced secular myths such as evolution and atheism.  We have entertained a melting pot of ideas and racial carmelization.  It can no longer be said that our ideals are clear and consistent.  What was a nation of Christians is now a nation of who-knows-what.  The Constitution was voided with the fraudulent passage of the 14th Amendment.  It "hangs by a thread".  Corruption and sin are rampant.  The Gadianton Robbers have confiscated all four corners of the earth.  All men are enslaved. 

We have looked into the heavens and counted some 250 billion suns (solar systems) in our Milky Way galaxy.  So far also, we have counted perhaps 250 billion GALAXIES like ours !!!  I don't believe that any of the life forms here on earth arrived here by any other means than by transplantation. The Gods know what they are doing.  They have been at this terra-forming game for a long time.  I should not be so cynical about the progress and decline of our Father's children on this planet.  He placed us here.  He knew what we would do.  He knows how it will end.  He knows what He will do to wrap things up.  He is doing what He has done on numerous other planets.  If given the chance, we will do the same ourselves one day.

Still, it is bracing to be around at this spectacular tipping point.  Here are some prophetic predictions from Nephi in America 2600 years ago:

 5.   But, said he, notwithstanding our afflictions, we have obtained a ^aland of promise, a land which is ^bchoice above all other lands; a land which the Lord God hath ^ccovenanted with me should be a land for the inheritance of my seed. Yea, the Lord hath ^dcovenanted this land unto me, and to my children forever, and also all those who should be ^eled out of other countries by the hand of the Lord.

 6.   Wherefore, I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that there shall ^anone come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord.

 7.   Wherefore, this ^aland is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of ^bliberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound ^ccursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever.

8.   And behold, it is wisdom that this land should be ^akept as yet from the knowledge of other ^bnations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance.

 9.   Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a ^apromise, that ^binasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall ^cprosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall ^dkeep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their ^einheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever.

 10.   But behold, when the time cometh that they shall dwindle in ^aunbelief, after they have received so great blessings from the hand of the Lord—having a knowledge of the creation of the earth, and all men, knowing the great and marvelous works of the Lord from the creation of the world; having power given them to do all things by faith; having all the commandments from the beginning, and 

having been brought by his infinite goodness into this precious land of promise—behold, I say, if the day shall come that they will reject the Holy One of Israel, the true ^bMessiah, their Redeemer and their God, behold, the judgments of him that is ^cjust shall rest upon them.

 11.   Yea, he will bring ^aother nations unto them, and he will give unto them power, and he will take away from them the lands of their possessions, and he will cause them to be ^bscattered and smitten. (2 Nephi 1, 1-11)

Wizard of Oz

I have never watched the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz" from start to finish.  What I did see though, was, I think, a clever metaphor for an interesting aspect of humanity.  We do not want to be disappointed by our heroes, our clerics or our government.  Who would have thought that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Bakker, Bill Clinton and Tiger Woods were committing adultery?  Who, among the Mormon faithful, would want to discover that the beloved 'prophet', Thomas Monson, has not had any revelations or prophecies?

Still, we press on gullibly.  I was reading yesterday about the three huge bombs found in the Oklahoma City federal building on the day that it was blown up.  Local news reports made no mention of a Ryder truck.  A federal government representative at the time commented that people simply need to have more faith and trust in the integrity of the federal government.

On 9/11/01, the WTC twin towers crashed to the ground.  At some distance away, WTC Building 7 remained largely unscathed, except for having been pelted with some flying, burning debris.  The owner decided, however, that this minor damage to the building warranted its immediate demolition, and called for the building to be "pulled" (code for planned demolition). So, a few hours after buildings 1 and 2 mysteriously imploded, Building 7 collapsed neatly into its own footprint.  Even more bizarre is the fact that a British reporter announced that the building had collapsed 20 minutes before it really did.  If you are not hopelessly gullible, you must already understand that WTC Building 7 could not have imploded without someone having gone in there days earlier and placed demolition explosives. 

I saw a newsflash yesterday announcing that the Japanese government is issuing a stimulus.  If all of the Western nations are over-extended with borrowing, who is lending them money? - - Cuba, North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Germany?  The U.S. just hit the $16 Trillion debt mark, and recent articles report that China's debts rival U.S. debt, so who is lending all this money to these huge nations, and, if those nations don't pay up, how will that "WHO" collect on the delinquencies?

Come on! We both know that if you tally up the debt/credit balances of all the borrower nations, they don't add up to zero $$.  The people lending to the countries are not the countries - it is private bankers - private bankers who lend to corporations AND to governments.  When those banker families lend those governments as much money as there is in circulation in the entire nation, then there are no more shekels left with which to pay the INTEREST !!!!!  Then what?  You know what !!!!

They print more paper money.  Last week Bernanke announced QE3.  What is that?  QE3 (Quantitative Easing) is the third instance (in recent history) of the Federal Reserve (a private bank) printing BILLIONS of funny-money notes.  QE3 will involve the Fed buying $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities each month.  Counterfeiting would be a better description.  When you expand the supply of paper money, its value shrinks, you get SCREWED, and gas and food prices rise.  Just you watch !!

Once again, I ask you - WHY do not the borrower nations (who are doomed to never be able to pay back their gargantuan debts) rise up and repudiate the banker families who have swindled them/us?

Because they are in on the scam, silly!

Nero fiddled while Rome burned.  Will Obama or Romney be the Fiddler on the roof this time around?  (And will the Wizard of Oz salvage us?)

Does He Know?

Does Mitt Romney know what's going on in the world of international usury?  I was fascinated during the last presidential election cycle to learn that Balack Obama and Hillary Clinton were whisked away to a secretive meeting with the Bilderberg group in 2008.

With his V.P. pick (Paul Ryan), Romney may have boosted his chances of being elected.  The big question is - since Bush and Obama have really not been the ones actually running the country for the last decade, will Romney be introduced to the shadowy figures who do run it?  OR - is Romney already intimately familiar with the puppeteers behind the curtain?  When, in the course of a presidential run, is the candidate initiated into the real world of power and control?

Does Mitt Romney know that the British never surrendered?  Does he know that a Constitution is a bankruptcy compact?  Does he know that this nation CANNOT endure (D&C 87:6)?

I met Romney once in an elevator.  I wondered then if he had already been initiated into the inner workings of the Church, and the Olympic Committee, and the rogue money-mongers who print debt currencies and plot to enslave the entire world.

Does he know?

Who's Behind It?

I took a look today at the U.S. debt clock.  It showed that the U.S. owes $15,564,000,000,000 ($15.5 trillion dollars) to the international banks.  Interestingly, the recent escalation of debt ($4.9 trillion) under Obama's rule is more than what George Bush oversaw during his entire eight-year reign.

Apparently, most of the mounting debt is attributable to wars and entitlement programs like Medicare.  Now, don't think I am trying to say that George Bush was somehow much better - he wasn't.  However, where do we point the accusing finger of blame?

Congressman Paul Ryan has just resurrected his much maligned debt reduction measure.  It proposes to chop costs out of just about every federal expenditure - a noble aspiration.  Ron Paul was heard to say that Ryan's plan doesn't really cut any costs.  Bottom line, relatively speaking, our $15.5 trillion dollar indebtedness is far more threatening than that of Greece - we simply have a (temporarily) better-looking credit rating.

Have you not shaken your head along with me in puzzlement over this situation?  Do you think that Santorum or Romney, once crowned, will burst in and clean house - - cut defense and entitlement spending and get the national debt paid off?  Even with the best of intentions, can anyone turn this thing around?  Did Emperor Nero get things turned around before ancient Rome went down in literal and figurative flames?

I wonder sometimes if Romney has yet been brought into the inner circle - the secret back room.  During the last primary election cycle, Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton met in a top-secret rendezvous unanticipated by the national media.  Will the esteemed LDS politician also get schooled by the shadowy power-mongers?  Will they let him pay off or cancel the crushing national debt?

Of course not.

Truth is - there is not a snowball's chance in Hades that we will be permitted to get the national debt erased.  Why not?  Well, because the repo man cannot get your stuff unless you get behind on your payments and cannot get caught up.  Granted, if you buy a car and don't make your payments, the bank has every right to come and take the car.  But how did we finance our country?  When did we sign the mortgage that said that the banks can take the country if we don't keep up on our monthly payments?  Kennedy challenged the international banks, and look where he ended up.  After Nixon's disgrace, the former presidential power to cancel the national debt was curbed so that it could not be exercised without a two-thirds vote of both the House and the Senate.  Good luck !!!!

Nope, let's face it, folks, we are going down with this "ship".  Does it all seem so random and inadvertent, or was it all planned?  Have lenders financed war and welfare entitlements in other periods of our earth's history?  Why are banks able to to convince nations to incorporate and then incur debt ("the wine of the wrath of her fornications")?  D&C 87:6 reminds us that " . . . the consumption decreed" will make "a full end of all nations."  Do we believe the scriptures? - (or does it all seem like "conspiratorial" fantasy?).  Who is behind all this scheming?  What do they want?  Why do they want to significantly reduce the world's population?  Who is driving them to do this?

I know this prompts you to wonder - - if these hugely rich and powerful globalists who control the world already know that they are going to trigger massive war and social upheaval, aren't they worried about getting caught up in the chaos?  Well, they've been planning this for 5,000 years.  No doubt they have contingency ("lifeboat") plans.  If you want to be in their inner circle, you need to be someone like Nancy Pelosi, George Clooney or Bill Maher.  Buy into their tyrannical plans, and give them enough money and obedience, and you will get a ticket for the lifeboat or the underground bunker.  The sad thing for them is that, in the end, the Devil doesn't keep his promises.

A wise friend of mine once said that the Devil wins when he succeeds in corrupting us.  If he can upset the balance of precious resources on this planet, herding rural dwellers into urban metropolises and then depriving them of food, he can incite them to kill each other (see John Taylor's vision).  When he has thus recruited so many murderers, he has prevailed over God and God's hopes for His children.

In truth, all this pessimism must be put in context.  All of us are destined to witness and/or experience a bright new Millennium quite soon.  The real test - the seven-year period of "tribulations" is merely a brief transition phase.  As presaged by Heber C. Kimball and George Washington, it will be a huge and ominous test - a "Marvellous [i.e. DREADFUL] Work and a Wonder".  It is not just about who can set aside enough 72-hour food kits.  It is about measuring our character.  When the going gets tough, will we be selfish or selfless?  Further, will we return to the principles of liberty that inspired those who colonized America, or will we gravitate to the tyranny and oppression of the usurer?

Who is behind this grand test?

You know Who.

In Your Face

Today I saw on the news that the LDS Church is introducing a new PR campaign to help American subjects become more familiar with the Corporate Church and its members. The news anchor wondered if this effort was all geared around promoting Mitt Romney to be the next President (not of the Church, but of America).

I love D&C 101 because it contains an exquisite parable about the master of the vineyard who delegates some servants to occupy a watchtower and keep watch over the vineyard. After a season, the flaky servants lose track of the purpose of the watchtower and contemplate selling it. When the master comes back, he gets pretty wroth with those servants for neglecting their mandate and letting the enemy break in.

49. Might not this money be given to the exchangers? For there is no need of these things.
50. And while they were at variance one with another they became very slothful, and they hearkened not unto the commandments of their lord.
51. And the enemy came by night, and broke down the hedge; and the servants of the nobleman arose and were affrighted, and fled; and the enemy destroyed their works, and broke down the olive-trees.
52. Now, behold, the nobleman, the lord of the vineyard, called upon his servants, and said unto them, Why! what is the cause of this great evil?
53. Ought ye not to have done even as I commanded you, and—after ye had planted the vineyard, and built the hedge round about, and set watchmen upon the walls thereof—built the tower also, and set a watchman upon the tower, and watched for my vineyard, and not have fallen asleep, lest the enemy should come upon you?
54. And behold, the watchman upon the tower would have seen the enemy while he was yet afar off; and then ye could have made ready and kept the enemy from breaking down the hedge thereof, and saved my vineyard from the hands of the destroyer.

Where am I going with this? - - - well, the Church was given the fullness of the restored Gospel. After a season, it doubted the significance of the higher principles. It mortgaged the temples, changed the scriptures, diluted the doctrines and persecuted the stalwart and humble members who clung to the original precepts. Now the nobleman is soon to return, and He cannot be pleased. Does God need PR campaigns His works to fulfill?

The Church chafed over "Big Love" since it glamorized polygamists. This Sunday we'll see the pilot of TLC's "Sister Wives" series about the Kody Brown family. I quote Salt Lake Tribune's Vince Horiuchi:

"Likely, this is the kind of portrait of polygamy that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hates. It’s a vision of plural marriage (which is illegal) that seemingly works in some cases and a reminder of a past the church wants to bury.

Yet if there is a reason to watch “Sister Wives,” it’s less for the drama in the household than for the charm and likability of the Brown family."

I have a vision of a large number of puffy men in dark blue suits in the great and spacious building (50 E. North Temple) popping blood vessels over this one. A couple of years ago, a Utah reporter went to Canada and photographed some of Winston Blackmore's children. The children were smiling, adorable, idyllic, endearing, charming and well-behaved. The reporter immediately received numerous stinging rebukes from readers who felt that it was simply intolerable for a newspaper to allow fundamentalist children to be presented in such a favorable light. I've read a number of blog commenters and noticed that they too are having unprecedented difficulty coming up with sane or sensible criticisms of TLC's polygamy reality show . . . .

"How can TLC stoop to present something so awful and so illegal?"
"Kody has awkward facial hair."
"They have to be on welfare."
"The women have big butts."
"Shame on TLC for putting this crap on TV!"
"The show is sleepy."
"We can't seem to stamp out this new and everlasting covenant."
"Isn't polygamy supposed to be illegal?"
"Polygamy is not a part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' history."
"Polygamists want the "right" to make polygamy mandatory in their society."
"The law's the law. These felons need to be arrested."
"Women in general are the victims of this system."
"Let's just call TLC 'THE WEIRDO CHANNEL'."
"This plural marriage is a direct abomination of God's love."
"I just don’t want to pay for all of this man’s children."
"This is the most outrageous show I've ever heard of... nobody will watch."
"All Mormons are republicans, so I guess this disgusting lifestyle is just fine with them."
"The other wives are nothing more than mistresses."
"Oh, UGH. These people make my skin crawl."

So, dear readers, I challenge you to come up with a better criticism of the "Sister Wives" series. Actually, no, don't bother - you can't. Polygamy might be uncommon, but it is no less normal (and sometimes boring) than monogamy.

Five cheers to the Browns for risking their normalcy to present a perfectly truthful view of a plural family; and, to the Church which so desperately yearns to distance itself from one of its core, founding doctrines, I say, "IN YOUR FACE!" "Try arguing with reality!!!"