July 19, 2018--One-World Government & the Antichrist

I continue to struggle to understand all the reasons why Donald Trump so consistently takes seeming pleasure bashing and undermining global alliances such as the European Union (EU) and NATO. It's not just that he doesn't do "group" very well, preferring bilateral relationships. The reasons are more sinister.

The most obvious reason of course is because by doing Vladimir Putin's bidding Trump contributes to fulfilling Putin's desire to weaken and ultimately dominate the West. Putin has the goods on him and thus Trump is in effect a Putin operative.

Trump is doing a pretty good job of this. Just ask Angela Merkel. Europe's longest standing and most powerful leader is, thanks in significant part to Trump, now hanging by a political thread. Thus expect her to be pushed out of office in the next 6 to 12 months.

Trump is also taking on the EU because by doing so he is pandering to the core of his base--the millennialist-minded evangelicals who, while waiting for the Rapture, support him so fervently that they have little problem overlooking the fact that he has had three wives, has sexually assaulted women, and cavorted with porn stars such as Stormy Daniels.

Part of the End-Time scenario calls for the emergence of the prophesied One-World government and the appearance of the Antichrist, who will preside over it for three-and-a-half years. All will feel oppressed by this government because ultimate power as a result will be concentrated in the hands of the Devil. 

Next, though, will be the Second Coming of Jesus who will establish his own world government, which in time will result in the cataclysmic death of us all and the resurrection for some during the Last Judgement. (See, for example, endtimes.com.)

According to the Christian fringe (which in fact is quite large, variously estimated to be up to a third of Americans--again Trump's base) there have already been a number of organizations that might qualify as this End-Time government as well as who might be the Antichrist.

First, since the early 1970s there is the Trilateral Commission. Founded and funded by David Rockefeller, it is a non-partisan discussion group whose agenda is to foster closer cooperation among Japan, Western Europe, and North America. Millennialists see the Commission quite differently--as an organization that wants to overthrow the current world order.

As might be imagined, David Rockefeller himself was an Antichrist candidate as was Commission member Henry Kissinger.

Then there was the United Nations. An obvious choice with various of its secretary generals suspected to be the Antichrist.

And currently the most likely New-World Order government is the EU. Among other things that make this suspicion persuasive is the belief that its euro is the kind of universal currency prophesied in the Bible as evidence that the time is approaching when the Antichrist will appear.

The list of possible Antichrists is lengthy and diverse. It includes--

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of ISIS (I vote for him)
Alexis Tsipras, prime minister of Greece
Emmanuel Macron, president of France
Barack Obama (not much of a surprise)
Jared Kushner (he does need a real job)
Hillary Clinton (the only woman on the list)
And Canadian prime minister Justine Trudeau, who qualifies because he is anti-Zionist, pro-global government, promotes lawlessness and immorality, and is the leader of the northernmost country on earth--some scholars argue that the "king of the North" is the Antichrist. 

This is what is swirling around in the heads of a majority of Trump's people. It also helps explain why Trump is so motivated to destroy NATO and the European Union.

August 5, 2016--Area 51 and the New World Order

And here I thought that Area 51 conspiracy theories were just about alien invasions and psychic phenomena. Little did I know until the night before last that the military's ultra-top-secret weapons development facility hidden away in the Nevada desert is also where the New World Order is taking shape.

The U.S. government will only fess up to using Area 51 to develop and test aircraft such as the U-2 spy plane and the F-117 stealth fighter.

They deny dabbling in ESP experiments or consorting with aliens who conspiracy theorists claim have been arriving in the area for years, decades, centuries, even millennia.

(The latter limited, of course, to those who believe in Evolution and the earth being more than 6,000 years old.)

I've learned about this by listening to late night talk radio. In recent years especially to George Noory, host of Coast to Coast AM, which for four hours every overnight is devote to things paranormal. I am not alone among insomniacs. His show is carried by over 600 radio stations and listened to by at least 2.75 million.

The other night, needing a break from listeners calling in to report about being abducted by aliens, I switched over to my other favorite late night show--Red Eye Radio, pitched to interstate truckers, shift workers, and fitful sleepers. I of the latter category.

It is broadcast over 38 stations and attracts a nightly audience of perhaps a million. It is political in nature, no flying-saucer people, and hosted by Eric Harley and Gary McNamara, two reasonably intelligent and well informed conservatives who are sane and smart enough to be troubled by Donald Trump's candidacy.

In the midst of their angst about Trump, a caller, perhaps like me straying from Coast to Coast, brought up Area 51. Harley and McNamara moaned, sensing where this was headed--they've heard it all--but, gentlemen that they are, didn't hang up on her. It was as if they were saying--"OK, bring it on. You just got back from Mars and . . ."

She surprised them. She didn't want to report about being teleported from Cleveland to Roswell, New Mexico--she wanted to talk about the quasi-governmental New World Order.

This I knew something about from my interest in Millennialism. The belief that the world is nearing the end and when that is signaled by the Rapture, after a millennium of Tribulation, Christ will reappear and during this Second Coming will sort out who are going to heaven and who are going in the other direction.

Symptoms of the End Times include the emergence of a New World Order (some say the UN or the current American government is its progenitor) and the appearance of the antichrist (some say this is Obama, others that it is Hillary).

The caller had a different spin to share--it was right there in the Nevada Desert that the New World Order is being assembled. And here's the extraterrestrial connection--

It begins with the claim that aliens have been among us for at least centuries. The government knows this and through the deployment of "men in black" has been covering it up since they are collaborating with the aliens, who are manipulating developments in human society so as to be able to better control and exploit earthlings.

According to the caller, these aliens have shapeshifted into human form so they can move among us undetected. They are now close to taking control of our government and corporate and religious institutions and are as a result in the final stages of their plan to take over the world and impose a new order.

In return for the coverup, the U.S. government gets help from the aliens in the development and testing of flying-saucer weapons systems.

Quite a Faustian bargain, I thought.

Finally cutting her off, Harley and McNamara chimed in, "Compared to this, Donald Trump doesn't sound so bad."

December 8, 2015--Muslim Rapture

I have been wondering why so many people are reporting that the massacre in San Bernardino is making them feel more fearful than the events of 9/11.

The nearly 3,000 deaths by terrorists dwarfs the 14 murdered last week. And yet many are saying they are now more frightened than at that time.

I have been informally questioning people I know about this. Mainly well educated, independent-minded, intrepid people who have made their way successfully through life. Some have lived adventurously and, for the most part, the ones I have been surveying are among the politically most progressive people I know.

They tell me that it is not about the numbers. Obviously "only" 14 deaths pale by comparison to the carnage in 2001. What is emotionally occurring this time for them is the difference between the externally-driven attack on September 11th and the fact that in San Bernardino the assault was conceived and carried out by seemingly assimilated Americans.

The husband at least. And his wife, though born in Pakistan, is described as a typical suburban spouse and mother, not apparently alienated by life in the United States. Though she may turn out to be a version of the Manchurian Candidate, she and he felt to neighbors, family, and friends just like the rest of us.

So to be attacked by them brings the terrorist threat home. Makes it, if you will, homemade. Perversely almost mater of fact. Not too, too much planning or preparation was required.

And it occurred right in the neighborhood. Just down the block. Around the corner. As so to those I surveyed, this feels very different than the attack perpetrated by Al Qaeda operatives who trained for and planned an enormously complicated plot against America that culminated on that horrific day in 2001.

So the nature of this most recent assault means everyone is a threat.

Well, I have been hearing, not everyone. Not everyone is a threat.

I have been hearing that the fear and threats are not from all of our neighbors but from Muslims.

And, again, I am not being told this by supporters of Donald TRUMP who is calling for racial profiling and now forbidding all Muslims from entering the country until "we find out what the hell is going on."

 These, once more, are liberals. Otherwise tolerant people. People who pride themselves on enjoying the diversity that is America. This is from those who have spent a lifetime defending and embracing our various forms of difference.

These formerly tolerant people are even going further than TRUMP, saying that if all Muslims could suddenly and painlessly disappear, they would welcome that.

One who shared this opinion called it a Muslim Rapture--that all Muslims in the world, the billion-plus of them--would be taken right up to heaven and those of us Left Behind could go on with our lives.

After hearing this, I asked others about this and quite a few said it sounded to them like a good idea. Everyone would get what they want--Muslims an early departure to heaven while the rest of us could live on in peace.

Everyone who shared this views, of course, realized and acknowledged it is an unrealistic fantasy. But it is an expression of their fears and perceptions that they are not seeing a clear path to a solution to the problem radical Islam represents.

Most were quick to add, as if to mitigate these views, that though it embarrassed them to feel this way, they also deplore the excesses of all religions, the fanatical fringes. Especially messianic ones like millennialist Jews who are waiting for the Messiah to appear and radical Christians such as the Adventists who are eagerly looking forward to the Apocalypse. All anticipating End Times.

One even had a joke--

"What's the difference," he asked me, unsmiling, "between radical and moderate Muslims?"

Also not smiling, knowing where this might be heading, I said I didn't know.

"The radical Muslims want to kill us. The moderates want the radical Muslims to do the killing."

I groaned.

But then turning the tables on me, I was asked what I thought about the Muslim Rapture. Stammering, I said, "Please don't quote me as I won't quote you, but I am ashamed to admit--of course it's a fantasy and not a reality--but . . ."