THE GRAFTING OF THE WILD OLIVE BRANCHES AND THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL - JACOB 5

Well, if you have followed the blog for long, you will know that I love documenting the doings of the God of Israel when it comes to His children.

Even if you are the most calloused of skeptics, you will have to concede the miraculous doings and careful guidings of this people of Abraham.  If you understand the dynamics and flow of peoples around this globe, you will know that the peoples have been carefully hidden away in faraway places (in terms of ancient geography) such as Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, N/S America, Japan and the islands of the Pacific.

In order to keep the rot from spreading from the infected roots, trunk and branches, God has separated His Chosen from among the rest to keep them as pure as is possible.  Sometimes, He simply has taken an unexpected turn in grafting where no one expected.  This is a pattern.

As my family/extended family situation has languished into various states of decay and spiritual rot - I have also sought to do the same in order to preserve a remnant for myself and my wife.  We have one perfect shot in our child that died of SIDS - and I look forward to raising him in the simplicity of Millennial life where there is no sin, disease or death and where NO "sins of the fathers" are passed along to corrupt his life experience.

Please read Jacob 5 from the Book of Mormon for further light and knowledge as to the workings of God with His children.  We read this the other night and I asked my kids, "What is the most important thing God can do - what is the number one priority??"  The correct answer is Moses 1:39 (basically, to save as many of His children as He can, while operating within the confines of agency, to which He is subject every bit as much as you or I).

In order to do this, He will mix, move, dung, prune and utterly destroy portions and likely most all of His vinyard in order to accomplish it.  My mother was a hobbyist grafter and orchardist and I was her "hired hand" when it came to saving trees that were infected or succombing to disease.  I say likely all - because He will start the Millennium with a nearly clean slate if He has to.  This in a state where only a "remnant" remain to carry the work forward with the righteous Lamanites, the Ten Tribes and other select groupings who were carried away like those who followed Enoch and Melchizedek (Shem) to the higher order.

So, if you look at history whether it is the Nephites, Mulekites, the Jews of Bombay (Nogauker), the Samurai of Japan and SO MANY other leadings and wanderings of the House of Israel - you will know that God has carefully led groups of people hither and thither to save as many of them as He can and as they will.  It is literally a shell game, fighting against time, the natural man and the cunning wiles of the adversary who seeks our destruction.

Here is another instance of a group that was led out:

It has been over a century since J. A. Goodchild first published his translation of the original Gaeilge of the legend of Queen Tephi as it has been sung by the bards (poet-minstrals) of Ireland for centuries. In the annals and legends of Ireland we find the traditions of the origins of the Irish people and the ancient Irish Kings. This rich history speaks of the early settlement of Ireland by a group called "Tuatha De Danaan" (Tribe of Danaan) . Buried this folk-lore is the tale of a Prophet (Jermemiah?), Princess Tephi and Simon Brug (Baruch?) a Scribe. They Landed in Ireland about the same time that the destruction of Jerusalem took place, bearing with them a great chest and a stone wrapped on a banner. The Princess married the Zarahite King, Eochaidh II. Ard-dath, Ard-righ, or Heremon (horse man of all Ireland), and their son was Irial. This Tephi was the daughter of the king of Jerusalem whom Jeremiah went forth to plant in Ireland after the ROOTING-OUT and DESTRUCTION of Zedekiah, the king of Jerusalem in c. 588 B.C. We find in the official lieage of the Royal House of Britain that the House of Stewart are the decendents of Tea Tephi and her husband Eochaidh the Heremon.

From Tephi and Eochaidh descended all of the Kings of Ireland and Scotland and ultimately Britain. It is for this reason that King David’s harp is the symbol of Ireland. I myself find this history of particular interest, as my great-great-grandmother was Margaret Miranda Stewart of the Stewart Clan from which arises the House of Stewart, the House of the Royal House of Britain, making Tephi and ultiametely King David my own ancestors.

This story begins in the Book of Jeremiah, with the commissioning of Jeremiah:
4 And the word of YHWH came unto me, saying: 5 Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you, and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet unto the nations. 6 Then said I, Ah, Adonai YHWH! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. 7 But YHWH said unto me: Say not, I am a child. For to whomsoever I shall send you, you shall go, and whatsoever I shall command you, you shall speak. 8 Be not afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says YHWH. 9 Then YHWH put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And YHWH said unto me: Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. 10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms: to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to overthrow; to build, and to plant. (Jer. 1:4-10 HRV)
YHWH established Jeremish as a prophet over nations and over kingdoms. On the one hand “to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to overthrow” (Jer. 1:10) and on the other hand “to build and to plant” (Jer. 1:10).

It became Jeremiah’s role to speak out against the wickedness of the priests, kings and people of the House of Judah:.

1 The word which came unto Yirmeyah from YHWH, when N’vukhadnetzar, king of Bavel and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the land of his dominion, and all the peoples, fought against Yerushalayim and against all the cities thereof, saying: 2 Thus says YHWH, the Elohim of Yisra’el: Go and speak to Tzidkiyah, king of Y’hudah, and tell him: Thus says YHWH: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Bavel, and he shall burn it with fire.
3 And you shall not escape out of his hand, but shall surely be taken, and delivered into his hand. And your eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Bavel, and he shall speak with you, mouth to mouth, and you shall go to Bavel. 4 Yet hear the word of YHWH, O Tzidkiyah king of Y’hudah. Thus says YHWH concerning you: You shall not die by the sword. 5 You shall die in peace, and with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings that were before you, so shall they make a burning for you. And they shall lament you, Ah master, For I have spoken the word, says YHWH. (Jer. 34:1-5 HRV)
2 Thus says YHWH: He that remains in this city shall die: by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. But he that goes forth to the Chaldeans shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey, and he shall live. 3 Thus says YHWH: This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Bavel, and he shall take it. (Jer. 38:2-3 HRV)
16 Go and speak to a slave melech, the Ethiopian, saying, Thus says YHWH Tzva’ot, the Elohim of Yisra’el: Behold, I will bring My words upon this city for evil, and not for good, and they shall be accomplished before you in that day. 17 But I will deliver you in that day, says YHWH: and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. 18 For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword: but your life shall be for a prey unto you, because you have put your trust in Me, says YHWH. (Jer. 39:16-18 HRV)
So what happened to Jeremiah when Jerusalem fell? The Scripture tells us:
11 Now N’vukhadnetzar king of Bavel, gave charge concerning Yirmeyah to N’vuzar’adan the captain of the guard, saying, 12 Take him and look well to him, and do him no harm, but do unto him even as he shall say unto you. 13 So N’vuzar’adan, the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushazban Rab-saris, and Nergal-Sar’etzer Rab-mag, and all the chief officers of the king of Bavel, 14 They sent and took Yirmeyah out of the court of the guard, and committed him unto G’dalyah, the son of Achikam, the son of Shafan: that he should carry him home, so he dwelt among the people. (Jer. 39:11-14 HRV)
2 And the captain of the guard took Yirmeyah, and said unto him, YHWH your Elohim pronounced this evil upon this place, 3 And YHWH has brought it and done according as He spoke. Because you have sinned against YHWH, and have not hearkened to His voice, therefore this thing is come upon you. 4 And now behold, I loose you this day from the chains which are upon your hand. If it seem good unto you to come with me into Bavel, come, and I will look well unto you. But if it seem ill unto you to come with me into Bavel, forbear. Behold, all the land is before you; where it seems good and right unto you to go, there go-- 5 Yet he would not go back. Go back then to G’dalyah, the son of Achikam the son of Shafan, whom the king of Bavel has made governor over the cities of Y’hudah: and dwell with him among the people, or go wheresoever it seems right unto you to go. So the captain of the guard gave him an allowance and a present, and let him go. 6 Then went Yirmeyah unto G’dalyah, the son of Achikam to Mitzpah, and dwelt with him among the people that were left in the land. (Jer. 40:2-6 HRV)
More details of Jeremiah’s escape from the destruction of Babylon can be found in 2Maccabees:
1 It is also found in the records, that Jeremy the prophet commanded them that were carried away to take of the fire, as it hath been signified: 2 And how that the prophet, having given them the law, charged them not to forget the commandments of the Lord, and that they should not err in their minds, when they see images of silver and gold, with their ornaments. 3 And with other such speeches exhorted he them, that the law should not depart from their hearts. 4 It was also contained in the same writing, that the prophet, being warned of God, commanded the tabernacle and the ark to go with him, as he went forth into the mountain, where Moses climbed up, and saw the heritage of God. 5 And when Jeremy came thither, he found an hollow cave, wherein he laid the tabernacle, and the ark, and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door . 6 And some of those that followed him came to mark the way, but they could not find it. 7 Which when Jeremy perceived, he blamed them, saying, As for that place, it shall be unknown until the time that God gather his people again together, and receive them unto mercy. 8 Then shall the Lord shew them these things, and the glory of the Lord shall appear, and the cloud also, as it was shewed under Moses, and as when Solomon desired that the place might be honourably sanctified. (2Maccabees 2:1-8 KJV)
Zedekiah’s sons were all killed, and Zedekiah himself died in Babylon:
9 Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Bavel, to Rivlah in the land of Hamat, and he gave judgment upon him. 10 And the king of Bavel slew the sons of Tzidkiyah before his eyes; he slew also all the princes of Y’hudah, in Rivlah. 11 And he put out the eyes of Tzidkiyah: and the king of Bavel bound him in fetters, and carried him to Bavel, and put him in prison till the day of his death. (Jer. 52:9-11 HRV)
Now we have seen how Jeremiah had been commissioned “to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to overthrow” (Jer. 1:10) but how did he also go on “to build and to plant” (Jer. 1:10).
5 But Yochanan, the son of Kareach and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Y’hudah, that were returned from all the nations where they had been driven, to sojourn in the land of Y’hudah: 6 The men, and the women, and the children, and the king's daughters, and every person that N’vuzar’adan, the captain of the guard had left with G’dalyah, the son of Achikam, the son of Shafan, and Yirmeyah the prophet, and Baruch, the son of Neriyah. 7 And they came into the land of Egypt, for they hearkened not to the voice of YHWH , and they came even to Tahpanhes. (Jer. 43:5-7 HRV)
Notice that while the king’s sons were all killed. Now Jeremiah had also prophecied:
David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne
of the House of Israel (Jer. 33:17 HRV)
David’s royal lineage was to be preserved through his daughters. Notice that Jeremiah does not say “House of Judah” but “House of Israel”. YHWH did not make a mistake here, but how was this prophecy fulfilled?

To find the answer let us turn to another prophecy addressed to the House of Israel, this time in the Book of Ezekiel:
1 And the word of YHWH came unto me, saying: 2 Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the House of Yisra’el,
3 And say, Thus says the Adonai YHWH: A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, full of feathers, which had divers colors came unto the L’vanon, and took the top of the cedar; 4 He cropped off the topmost of the young twigs thereof, and carried it into a land of traffic; he set it in a city of merchants. 5 He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful soil: he placed it beside many waters; he set it as a slip. 6 And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose tendrils might turn toward him, and the roots thereof be under him: so it became a vine and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs. 7 There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers. And behold, this vine did bend its roots toward him, and shot forth its branches toward him, from the beds of its plantation, that he might water it. 8 It was planted in a good soil by many waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit--that it might be a stately vine. 9 Say you, Thus says the Adonai YHWH: Shall it prosper? Shall he not pull up the roots thereof and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither--yes, wither in all its sprouting leaves? Neither shall great power or much people be at hand, when it is plucked up by the roots thereof. 10 Yes behold, being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither when the east wind touches it? In the beds where it grew, it shall wither. 11 Moreover the word of YHWH came unto me, saying: 12 Say now to the rebellious house: Know you not what these things mean? Tell them: Behold, the king of Bavel came to Yerushalayim, and took the king thereof, and the princes thereof, and brought them to him to Bavel. 13 And he took of the seed royal and made a covenant with him, and brought him under an oath, and the mighty of the land he took away-- 14 That his, might be a lowly kingdom: that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant, it might stand. 15 But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper, shall he escape that does such things; shall he break the covenant, and yet escape? 16 As I live, says the Adonai YHWH: Surely in the place where the king dwells, that made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke, even with him; in the midst of Bavel, he shall die. 17 Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company, succor him in the war, when they cast up mounds and build forts, to cut off many souls, 18 Seeing he has despised the oath, by breaking the covenant: when behold, he had given his hand, and has done all these things, he shall not escape. 19 Therefore thus says the Adonai YHWH: As I live, surely My oath that he has despised, and My covenant that he has broken--I will even bring it upon his own head. 20 And I will spread My net upon him, and he shall be taken in My snare. And I will bring him to Bavel, and will plead with him there, for his treachery that he has committed against Me. 21 And all his mighty men in all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered toward every wind: and you shall know that I YHWH have spoken it. 22 Thus says the Adonai YHWH: Moreover I will take, even I, of the lofty top of the cedar, and will set it. I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs, a tender one: and I will plant it upon a high mountain, and eminent. 23 In the mountain of the height of Yisra’el will I plant it, and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a stately cedar. And under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing, in the shadow of the branches thereof, shall they dwell. 24 And all the trees of the field shall know, that I YHWH have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I YHWH have spoken, and have done it. (Ezekiel 17 HRV)
The Book of Tephi describes in great detail this journey Jeremiah took with one of the daughters of Zedekia, Teia Tephi. Also on the voyage Jeremiah brought with him the Lia Fail (Stone of Destiny) and The Ark of The Covenant then on to Gibraltar. There she is proclaimed queen of the Gadite Israelites who lived there. They continued to Breogan in Spain, Cornwall and eventually landed at Howth, near Dublin, in Ireland on the 18th. of June 583 B.C.. The Book of Tephi also describe many of the significant events which occurred at that time in history and are related to her journey from Jerusalem to Ireland. Finally the book contains many prophecies concerning major events which have occurred in 2,500 years since Tephi’s time.

In closing, while the Book of Tephi is not canonicle, I have no hesitation in presenting this tale long sung by the Irish bards as an account of great antiquity and interest, and a book that is entitled to great circulation among those who take pleasure in studying the Word of YHWH.
One final note: The Book of Tephi is presented here just as it was translated by J. A. Goodchild in 1897. Sacred Names have not been inserted, as doing so would in places disrupt the poetry and Rhyme schemes laid out by Goodchild.

THE MILTON MUSSER QUOTE AND CHICAGO GOING DOWN

Well, I cannot link stuff due to a really tight filter here at my new job - but the Drudge Report says that Chicago may be going down in financial flames (actually this weekend, they are at a brink point).

Here is the quote by Edwin Musser from a previous blog posting from YEARS ago.  And now, look at the mess we are in.....  I have an older daughter who thinks I am full of phoohey - and she is now an engineer...... who should be able to objectively look at facts and data.  Hopefully, she is beginning to see that this stuff I was frothing at the mouth about is not just the vain imaginations of a balding, fat guy with a penchant for Second Coming events.... :)

What I was saying then is now front page news - though at the time, it could def be debated as to how relevant it would be over time.  Chicago has over 120 billion in pension liabilities alone and they have been doing what Kalifornication and now Connectthecuts and Dallas and so many other places have done; kick the can down the road to the next generation instead of doing the hard thing that slimey pols cannot seem to bring themselves to do for the sake of re-election.

Read it and weep:

http://woodyoubelieveit.blogspot.ca/2009/02/civil-war-starting-in-chicago-we-just.html

After the collapse and rioting gets started in earnest, then martial law takes over, then large-scale killing, followed by UN "intervention" to "help us out" - then comes the translation of the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon (actually the coming forth of it - I think it has already been translated or that is in progress right now) which contains the instruction set/blueprint for how to live in a truly Consecrated fashion as the Hopewell/Nephites did right after Christ ministered among them in 33AD.

THE COMING COUP OR PUTSCH? NATIONAL REVIEW ASSESSMENT

Howard, a fellow I work with whom I respect immensely, sent this to me.  We have a history that goes back at least 6 years at work.  I told him when I first met him and we were doing the social exchange that engineers do (what do you know that I do not, and what makes you and your experience unique), I told him we would be in a civil war at some point in our near future.  He was reserved on my assessment.  Now, he is the one clamoring and saying this will be the case.  I remind him of my comments.  He says it may be this year or next after they make a putsch to take our Prez down.

He is of the opinion that we will have to purge the liberals from the country.  A blood bath.  I happen to agree.

Neither of us are blood-thirsty - but the only logical conclusion is that.  Wipe them out and spare only the women and children who agree to make a covenant to uphold the Constitution.  If not - make it total and complete.  And I do not say this lightly.  It will be just as in the times of the Book of Mormon.  It will take real men to see the need and carry it out.  Or, the world will plunge into darkness.  Well, here is the problem; leave it alone and do nothing and we will lose the Republic and it will be plunged into darkness.  Do what has to be done, and the UN will come in to "save the day" and we will still lose our freedom.  Basically, we are between a rock and a hard spot.  Damned if we do; damned if we don't.

At this point, it sounds as if Chicago will have to declare bankruptcy at some point.  They have 251 billion in un-funded liabilities in their public pension program.  This is untenable....  It will collapse.  Dallas is about to collapse.  The entire California system is about to collapse.  Nationally, we are on the verge of economic collapse because of unbridled spending.  Their only solution is to tax harder.  These people are a special kind of retarded.....  Just wow....

Here is the article:

The Architecture of Regime Change
June 20, 2017 11:58 am
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review

The ‘Resistance’ is using any and all means — lies, leaks, lawbreaking, and violence — to overturn the results of the 2016 election.

The problem with the election of President Donald J. Trump was not just that he presented a roadblock to an ongoing progressive revolution. Instead, unlike recent Republican presidential nominees, he was indifferent to the cultural and political restraints on conservative pushback — ironic given how checkered Trump’s own prior conservative credentials are. Trump brawled in a way McCain or Romney did not. He certainly did not prefer losing nobly to winning ugly.

Even more ominously, Trump found a seam in the supposedly invincible new progressive electoral paradigm of Barack Obama. He then blew it apart — by showing the nation that Obama’s identity-politics voting bloc was not transferrable to most other Democratic candidates, while the downside of his polarization of the now proverbial clingers most assuredly was. To her regret, Hillary Clinton learned that paradox when the deplorables and irredeemables of the formerly blue-wall states rose up to cost her the presidency.

And now?

We are witnessing a desperate putsch to remove Trump before he can do any more damage to the Obama project. Political, journalistic, and cultural elites of a progressive coastal culture aim at destroying the Trump presidency before it can finish its full four-year term.

The branches of this insidious coup d’état are quite unlike anything our generation has ever witnessed

I. Political and Judicial

a. Warping the Electoral College. As soon as Trump was elected, progressives mobilized to overturn the very architecture of the Electoral College. They organized efforts to persuade delegated electors not to vote according to their own state results — as they were legally or informally pledged to do so. Had the effort succeeded, it would have destroyed the entire constitutional notion of an Electoral College.

b. Challenging the 2016 Vote. Simultaneously, we saw another failed insurrectionary effort, through the stalking horse of failed leftist candidate Jill Stein, to sue on false grounds of voting-machine fraud that would have required recounts in three swing states that Trump won.

c. Delaying, Stalling, and Accusing. Then Democrats in the Senate systematically delayed customary approval of dozens of key appointments of the newly inaugurated president. Obama holdovers such as Acting Attorney General Sally Yates sought to oppose Trump initiatives while political appointees such as Obama federal attorney Preet Bharara complained of inordinate pressures to step down. The normal assumption is that a new president appoints key federal officials of his own party; liberals abandoned this custom and depicted Trump’s staffing efforts as some sort of insurrectionary subversion of the federal government.

d. Recusal. Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress orchestrated false charges of “Russian collusion” against Trump himself, based on leaks of false information and fake-news stories, some of them originally orchestrated by Never Trump primary opponents and the Clinton campaign.

No evidence emerged of Trump’s culpability. But investigations were aimed at diverting attention from, and thereby stalling, the Trump legislative agenda. Again, the goal was driving his popularity ratings down to levels that would advance the cause of future impeachment should the Democrats ride the anti-Trump collusion hoaxes to midterm victory in the House.

An effective way to emasculate Trump was to demand recusals, supposedly due to some sort of hyper-partisanship on the part of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes. No sooner had each agreed to step aside from some limited aspects of their investigations than Democrats insisted that their magnanimous recusals were both proof of guilt and yet too narrow — as they pressed on to seek recusals from ever more Trump White house officials.

e. The 25th Amendment. A few of the more desperate in the progressive resistance were calling for Trump to be removed due to supposed physical or mental incapacity — a trial balloon sent up that quickly imploded when only a few op-ed writers and fringe talking heads seconded the idea.

f. Justice-Shopping. To stop Trump’s plan to temporarily suspend immigration from war-torn Middle Eastern nations unable to establish proper vetting procedures, attorneys and activists sought out liberal justices on the federal bench. Such judges in some cases extra-judiciously sought to cite Trump’s campaign statements as proof that his orders were unconstitutional, when the law did not provide them with the necessary progressive ammunition.

g. “The Resistance.” Democratic politicians and media figures announced that they had formed a “Resistance” to thwart all initiatives by Donald Trump. The nadir of this movement came when failed candidate Hillary Clinton announced that she too was officially enlisting — as if Trump were some sort of Hilterian or Vichy figure that required Hillary, as a freedom fighter of the Maquis, to metaphorically go up into the scrub with beret and Sten to ambush and harass.

h. “Special Investigator.” The crown jewel in the Democratic efforts to overthrow the Trump administration was to replay, endlessly, the golden moment of Watergate. Here the playbook was to shout out so many purported transgressions — collusions, obstructions of justice, profiteering, etc. — that their sheer number would demand a special prosecutor, who through months of endless and always expanding inquiries could effectively enervate the Trump administration. By first demanding a special prosecutor, Democrats were able to negotiate downward to a special investigator. Former FBI head Robert Mueller — long a close friend to Trump nemesis James Comey — almost immediately staffed his team with a number of Democratic kingpins. And on cue, “unnamed sources” almost immediately leaked news of renewed and expanded investigations to the appropriate progressive papers.

i. Nullification. Following the model of 1860s South Carolina, a number of states declared that Trump’s efforts to enforce federal immigration law were null and void within many of their own counties and cities. California went so far as to pass a bill in its senate that blacklists any employer contracting with the federal government to complete the border wall. Governor Jerry Brown announced that he would be forging special climate-change agreements with foreign government — as if his state was a sovereign nation. Nullification was based on the premise that liberal progressivism trumped existing federal law — and that no conservative state or local jurisdiction would ever dare to employ the same extra-legal strategies to nullify federal progressive statutes.

j. Emoluments. A final rearguard effort brought lawsuits by various Democrats under the so-called emoluments clause found under Article 1 of the Constitution. Forbidding federal officials from receiving foreign titles, perks, and profits, the clause was originally intended to prevent the creation of an entrenched nobility. Democrats are suing Trump on charges that some overseas holdings of his business, now put in a trust, are unconstitutional and grounds for impeachment — although not in the sense that Bill and Hillary Clinton profited enormously, via honoraria and cash payments to their foundation, while Hillary was secretary of state.

II. Media and Popular Culture

a. Fake News. At the same time of the political putsch, the mainstream media outlets, in particular the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and the major networks, via broadcasts and social media, began an orchestrated campaign of defamation and delegitimization.

The crazier and more diverse the media mythologies, the better. Melania Trump was a former call girl and illegal alien. Ivanka Trump was peddling her business wares from the West Wing. Jared Kushner was a profiteering collusionist. Steve Bannon was a racist, Sebastian Gorka an unrepentant Nazi. Baron Trump was a spoiled, autistic child. The late elder Trump had run a racist campaign for mayor. And on and on.
Simultaneously, there were the daily Trump false buffoonery stories: Trump had screamed at the Australian prime minister. He had leaked Israeli intelligence. He had removed Martin Luther King’s bust from the White House. He greedily ate two ice-creams scoops while selfishly offering his guests only one.

Other fake chaos narratives added to the sense of presidential malpractice: Jeff Sessions was about to resign. So was his assistant, Rod Rosenstein. James Comey soon would announce to the Congress that Trump was under current FBI investigation. Steven Bannon was out. General Mattis was liable to quit. Trump threatened the Mexican president with an invasion. Trump was lying about sending carriers to the Korean coast. All false stories, but all useful to the regime-change narrative.

The media’s opinion journalists grew unhinged. Even the past scandals of JournoList and the 2016 WikiLeaks troves — which exposed collusion between the media, the DNC, and the Clinton campaign — did not prepare us for what followed after the election. Journalists Jim Rutenberg, Christiane Amanpour, and Jorge Ramos, among others, insisted that the president did not deserve unbiased news coverage but rather [ un- ] orthodox hostility from journalists who were impatient with the slow progress of the Democrats’ Resistance efforts.

The daily fare of major media columnists and anchors exclaimed that Trump was either inept, criminal, or traitorous, and therefore he should summarily resign, face trial, or be impeached.

b. Scatology and Obscenity. Democratic politicians as well as celebrities felt that by customarily employing crude language and scatology, they could mobilize the base, blame the new uncouth environment on Trump (who deserved such an obscene counterpunch), and lower the bar even further for more attacks.

So Democratic grandees such as DNC chairman Tom Perez, would-be Obama 2.0 candidate Senator Kamala Harris, or New York’s Senator Kirsten Gellibrand routinely began using “f***” and “s***” in efforts to arouse and coarsen. The implication was that Trump’s ascendance had ruined political discourse by forcing formerly sober and judicious politicians like themselves to lower themselves in kind. A New Republic author cheered the politicians on and demanded even more scatology.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper insulted a Trump supporter by saying he’d slavishly defend Trump even if Trump deposited feces on his desk. Politico’s Julia Joffe suggested that Trump had committed incest with his daughter. Bill Maher went graphic by envisioning father and daughter engaged in oral sex. Stephen Colbert thundered that Trump was a routine fellator of Vladimir Putin. The cruder the allusion, the higher the standing of the slanderer in the Resistance — again creating a landscape in which a president guilty of the worst sorts of crimes against nature should logically deserve . . . what next, exactly?

c. Assassination Chic. So far, we have heard that Snoop Dogg wants to shoot an effigy of Trump in the head. Comedian Kathy Griffin dreams of beheading him. A New York Shakespearean troupe night after night stabs an iconic Trump into a bloody pulp, Caesarian style, cheered on by the thrilled audience. Madonna dreams of blowing Trump up, along with everyone else in the White House. Actor Robert de Niro will settle for battering his face. Mickey Rourke prefers a club. Martha Stewart is content with flipping him off, while flashing the V-sign to heroic assassination cultist Snoop Dogg. A writer for the Huffington Post demands Trump’s trial and execution. Even near my home at the CSU Fresno campus, a history professor has openly called for Trump to be hanged while a colleague at the Hoover Institution mused that Trump could be removed by a murder in the White House.

Yet where does one go after rhetorical killing becomes commonplace and the vocabulary of death is exhausted? We almost had our answer last week, with the planned targeted assassinations of Republican members of Congress.

d. Burn, Storm, and Disrupt. Campuses, from Middlebury to UC Santa Cruz, from Berkeley to Claremont, are on fire. Taking their street cue from the Resistance, they now have all but abolished the right of free speech on campus, lawful assembly, and nonviolent protest. At first, careerist campus presidents sought to channel the violence profitably into the larger Trump Resistance. Now their Frankenstein monster threatens to swallow its academic parent. All the while, the subtext of the campus meltdown is $1 trillion in student debt, millions of students unable to do basic college work, and no job guarantees for indebted graduates with worthless therapeutic degrees.

III. Will These Efforts to Remove Trump Work?

Not if he can mobilize the Congress to pass health care and tax reform and give the nation a sense of political momentum, to add to his already substantial executive orders. A 3 percent annual economic growth rate would silence a lot of shrill voices, as would the restoration of U.S. deterrence abroad without the step of invading a Middle East country.

To create a sense of political deterrence, the Congress should call in former Obama attorney general Loretta Lynch to explain to the nation why she sought to massage and impede an ongoing FBI investigation, and why she met — secretly — with the husband of Hillary Clinton, who was then under investigation.

Why is James Comey to be exempt from violating FBI protocols and perhaps federal statutes by leaking a privileged government document to the press, and why did he allow his agency to be manipulated by the former attorney general? No one has adequately explained how Bill Clinton freely and with exemption warped his wife’s office of secretary of state to rake in donations to the family foundation and honoraria for himself.

The House investigations of the improper surveillance, unmasking, and leaking by the Obama administration should accelerate.

Anyone, celebrities included, who talks of maiming or killing the president of the United States should be put on a terrorist no-fly list for six months.

There is an easy standard of acceptable public discourse: If the same violent rhetoric were directed at Barack Obama, would it have been acceptable? (Recall that Obama jailed a YouTube video maker for an inconvenient film, and had political opponent Dinesh D’Souza sent to prison on an inflated campaign-donation violation.)
For now, the Democrats and the progressive movement cannot find ways to oppose Donald Trump through traditional political means either in the Congress or through the ballot box. They have resorted to an any-means-necessary effort to dehumanize Trump and politically emasculate him before the 2020 election.

Unfortunately, the logical succession to such progressive political hate speech, and assassination-wishing, is still more political violence of the sort we saw last week.

And this is only the beginning.

VAL BRINKERHOFF - SOME MEATY DOCTRINAL STUFF

This is my kind of stuff.  Very solid doctrinally and nails stuff down.  I have punched my way through a few articles on the eve of my last day at work and it is hard to concentrate, I am so giddy!!!:

http://www.7witnesses.com/thanks.html

Enjoy!

THE TEMPLE DREAMER - AFTER THE COLLAPSE

December, 2007
These dreams began about a year and a half ago. They were sporadic at first, then began to occur more frequently as time passed. For most of the last year, they have occurred two to three nights per week, and sometimes repeat more than once within a single night. Some are very detailed; others only broad sketches of events. Most are vivid, in that sounds, and sometimes even odors, make themselves known.

I have rearranged these events into what amounts to a very rough chronology. Where appropriate, I've made notes as to when they occurred.

A number of these dreams have involved planning for what I've come to see as an exodus of the prepared Saints from their homes, to places of relative safety. The first dreams that described plans and preparations did not occur until well into the sequence of dreams I've experienced. They did not occur at first. One of the most puzzling things about the dreams as a group is that they did not come to me in a logical sequence, beginning to end. It's been left to me to make sense out of them, even when they appear to be far out of order.

From what my dreams have told me, I gather that the prepared Saints are leaving their homes to escape the end of the world as we've known it. The planning for this exodus has been under way at high levels in the church for years. Vast amounts of preparation have gone into the effort before it is ever made known at the stake or ward levels. Resources are already in place before the events shown in the dreams begin to take place.

The first dreams in the chronology take place in what is obviously my own stake center in xxx, Utah. There are a series of meetings which take place in the High Council Room (which I recognize) of this building, between brethren that I do not recognize, and members of my own stake presidency and High Council. These meetings are attended only by invited brethren, and the strictest confidence is maintained.

Other similar meetings are being held throughout the Church. Each area's responsible leaders report to headquarters at Salt lake City by various means, including telephone, electronic mail, and even satellite link when necessary.

At these meetings, a plan is revealed for getting the prepared Saints from their homes to prearranged places of relative safety. Over the course of a number of these meetings, the effort is organized in a manner strikingly similar to that used when the Saints were preparing to leave the eastern United States for the valleys of the Great Basin.

There are to be overall leaders in charge of large numbers of people. Under these brethren, others serve as captains of 100, and as captains of 20. Logistics are managed using the basic underpinnings of emergency preparedness that the Church has been teaching since the 1930's. Arrangements for trucks to haul food storage items and other necessities are made. Telephone calling trees are arranged as necessary, as are other means of communication, including specific people assigned as runners, couriers, and go-betweens when necessary.

Finally, on one critical Sabbath day, as the normal meeting block nears its end, the bishop of my ward (and presumably bishops throughout the church on the same day) stands at the pulpit, and gives a rather strange announcement. He asks that those who have their year's supply of food and other necessities ready at home stay behind at the end of meeting block. All others (including curiosity seekers) are pointedly asked NOT to attend. This is strictly enforced.

 

 

Once the furor has died down, and the chapel doors have again been closed (being guarded by trusted brethren pre-assigned to the task), the Bishop lays out a plan which requires a great deal of faith from the attendees. He says that very early on the following morning, trucks manned by able-bodied brethren will move around the ward, and these men will upload the food storage supplies, carefully marked as to who they belong to, from the homes of each of the prepared families into the trucks for transport.

Family members will be asked to prepare themselves and their immediate families for a long journey, as they will be away from home for an extended period. These people will be loaded onto buses for a journey to a place of safety. They are warned that conditions will often be quite harsh, and that creature comforts, as such, will be few.

A few families will be allowed to bring RV's, house trailers and the like, with the understanding that these will be used for special purposes after arrival at the destination. Some of these RV's will have been equipped by their owners for special purposes such as generating power or heat, providing makeshift command posts, improvised medical infirmaries and the like. Strict attention will be paid to practicality, and few resources expended on luxuries. Allowances will be made for pregnant women, those currently ill, and for newborn infants to be housed in such "hardened" quarters as the RVs may provide. Most ward members will be quartered in tents. or whatever other shelter may be available at the various destination points.

Most ward members will be asked to leave with only what they are wearing, and a few small bags containing personal items, prescription medications, and other similar necessities. They are to lock their homes securely, and bring with them only essential items, important papers, and so on.

The whole process is to be done quietly, with an effort being made to maintain as much secrecy as possible. It is stressed repeatedly that there is no reason to fear, but that there are real reasons for haste.
One of the most vivid of the dreams (and among the first I experienced) has repeated itself quite a number of times, each time from a slightly different point of view, and with different feelings and impressions noted each time.

 

 

  The scene is the west parking lot of my stake center. It's evident that similar events are occurring throughout the church.

It's very early on what appears to be a morning in late winter. The moon has set in the west not long before, and the constellation Orion isn't far above the western horizon. As I stand in the parking lot of the building, looking toward the east, I see the constellations that will, in a few weeks, be part of the springtime evening sky rising at this pre-dawn hour.

The position of the constellations, coupled with the fact that participants are dressed in winter clothing, and that there are still patches of unmelted snow on the ground confirms that the time of year is indeed, late winter.

People are milling about, speaking in hushed tones. Only a few lights are burning in the stake center. Most light comes from flashlights carried by brethren helping families onto buses which wait grouped around the building. The whole effort is well organized and orderly, as sleepy-eyed children and their somewhat bewildered parents are helped aboard buses, while a careful accounting is kept of which families are aboard which buses. No one must be left behind, and family members must not be allowed to get separated.

The supply trucks and RV's have already moved out when the last of the buses is loaded, and the journey to prepared places of refuge begins. The buses move out in caravan well before the first rays of sunlight touch the mountains to the west.

As this dream ends each time, I hear the squeak of snow underfoot, and the crunching of small cinders under my boot soles as I walk down the steep hills toward home. The air is almost painfully cold in the pre-dawn darkness. The stake center sits now fully darkened, its parking lot empty behind me, and I feel alone almost to the point of fear.

For reasons that have never been made clear, I have been asked (along with a few others in my area) to remain behind. The reasons for this haven't been made clear, except that they have something to do with the xxx temple. One of the greatest mysteries in this whole series of dreams is why I've been asked to stay behind when there are so many better-qualified brethren among us. I just don't know.

As time has gone on, I have had many dreams which speak of economic collapse not just in our country, but around the world. America's great power, both economic and military, has been eroded to the point where America is just one poor nation among many. Oil and related energy prices will have risen to the level where just getting by takes every dollar most families can generate. Gasoline, what little there is of it, is simply too expensive to use for most of us. Personal cars lie abandoned in driveways, or wherever in the streets they ran out of fuel.

 

 

  Natural gas for heating homes no longer flows through the pipelines much of the time. Most of us live in cold, rather dark homes. Candles are at a premium, since electrical power is only available a few hours a day, when it's available at all. People have been forced to hunker down. Times are harder than we've experienced since pioneer days.

Food is in similarly short supply, since the energy costs in producing it have outstripped the resources of the producers. Civilian air travel has virtually ceased, since energy costs have made running a profitable
airline almost impossible. Only military aircraft pass overhead, albeit infrequently. Railroads still operate at skeleton levels, moving what little freight remains to be transported.

Internationally, much of Western Europe is all but dark, since oil flowing to the west from the former Soviet Union has been all but cut off by those running the Kremlin. Old alliances are being firmed up again between mainland China and the Russian bear. Naval fleets are being readied, as are the largest standing armies in the world.

The Middle East is a fire, with Israel hanging on by its fingernails, struggling just to exist in a world bent on its destruction. AI-Qaida and similar organizations have turned much of the world into a killing ground, from the Middle East, through Indonesia and the Far East. Radical Islam holds sway in an ever growing portion of the world. Terrorism is rampant.

Through all of this, the United States military is entirely unable to cope. Its resources have been consumed, and its personnel driven beyond exhaustion in wars of attrition in the Middle East, and on the Korean peninsula. Government leadership has ordered them to fight on, even when it has become obvious that victory is impossible. Aircraft, vehicles, and fighting gear from tanks to rifles are all worn out, and there is no funding to replace them. The once-proud military of the Cold War has been replaced by a force of willing, brave men and women, with nothing to fight with. Determination can only carry these people so far; and they've exceeded that limit.

Australia's position in the world has become untenable. Since Virtually all of its fuel, metal, oil, and other raw material needs must be met via import from overseas, this huge island is effectively just that; a large and helpless island. Starvation has become commonplace, as has disease, and the lawlessness that comes with despair. Airline travel has all but stopped, and ships leaving the country are few. Piracy on the high seas has become commonplace in the waters around both Australia and New Zealand. Murder of crews and passengers is commonplace, and beyond the reach of law enforcement to control. To travel away by sea is not a good alternative.

 

 

  The media have been taken over by propaganda-generating organizations. People are being lied to on the grandest scale in human history. The United States is slowly being invaded by outside forces, military and paramilitary. There are only limited moves to stop the invasion, since most people are unaware that it is happening.

Those Saints who have joined the caravans to relative safety have arrived at their destinations in a number of other dreams. Most are housed in what are effectively tent cities. Again, much of the organization of these tent cities resembles the settlements of pioneer times.

There are local governments in each camp, run strictly along church lines. Communication between camps is mostly by courier, with only occasional communications from church headquarters in Salt Lake City.

Those people who are unable to work (the elderly, the infirm, young children, etc.) are cared for as well as circumstances permit. Those who are physically and mentally fit to work are expected to do so. Those who refuse to work, or who do not adhere to the rules of the camps are dealt with severely. Banishment without supplies or tools is used as punishment in most cases. In extreme instances, these individuals are eliminated.

Those with special training (medical doctors and nurses, engineers with experience in areas such as structural engineering, water purification, agricultural production, and so on) put their talents and training to work at building needed structures, providing drinkable safe water to the encampments, and building and working in greenhouses to help grow food for barter, and to augment the stored food supply for each camp.

My dreams haven't told me precisely where these encampments are located, except to make it clear that at least some of them are in places where they are "hiding in plain sight" from the bands of roving troublemakers (whom I think of as two-legged predators) which fan out from the cities in search of food or whatever else they can find.

I can only make some guesses as to where some of these camps are located. At least one is in the xxx valley of northern Utah. Several more are in various places in the rugged mountains of southern Idaho. I know this because I'm familiar with the terrain in these areas, and it strongly resembles that seen in my dreams. At least one of the Idaho encampments is in a heavily wooded area, where even at midday, only a little sunlight penetrates.

I believe that at least one camp is located not far from xxx, Nevada. Yet another lies in or near the xxx mountains of New Mexico.

Another encampment, largely housed underground in a complex built in the 1950's for protection from atomic attack, lies somewhere in Maryland. There is a second encampment somewhere in the xxx mountains of Maryland, and a third elsewhere in northern Virginia. How I know these things I am not certain, because I've never visited either Maryland or Virginia; but I'm convinced the encampments are there.

There are enclaves in the red rock country of southern Utah, and in northern Arizona.
Many of the world's great cities either lie in ruin, or have largely been abandoned to roving bands of two-legged predators. london is a battleground, as is Tel Aviv. Paris has again been taken over by invaders of various stripes. Berlin is barely habitable.

In the United States, los Angeles and San Francisco are jammed with desperate people trying to ride out the storm. Much of Boston's low-lying areas are in ruin, having been destroyed by water in cataclysmic tidal waves. Only the Boston Temple and its outbuildings are untouched by the waters.
Chicago is another urban battleground, with battle lines being drawn between ethnic groups. In that regard, it resembles London, Tel Aviv, Paris, and Berlin.

The only city I've been shown that may have endured atomic attack is Denver, Colorado. Much of the city is flattened, though this might have been done by conventional explosives if enough of them were used in a coordinated fashion. Survivors along the Front Range have fled to the surrounding mountains. Those trapped in Denver itself are in desperate straits indeed.
In Salt Lake City, life in daytime is rugged. Roving bands of street toughs rob, steal, loot, and take over whole city blocks. Those who remain in the city trying to live, hide almost constantly from these thugs. For those trapped here, it must be like living in Iraq was during the second Gulf War. At night, the streets are deserted. One must never venture out at night.

 

 

  The understory of the area around Temple Square is gridded with an extensive network of well-secured underground tunnels. Temple Square itself is almost pristine. Church government continues to function here, though entry to the square is strictly controlled. Entry to the tunnel network is heavily defended, and the whole system is virtually impregnable to any but those authorized to be here.

Many of my dreams (which recur many times, sometimes separated from each other by weeks) concern my own activities as a "stay-behinder" in this story. It's never really made clear to me why only a few of us have stayed behind at the request of our leaders. Again, the only thing I can say with certainty is that it has something to do with the xxx Temple.

Whether we serve there as caretakers, overseers, workers performing special ordinances, or for whatever reason I cannot tell. I do know that we still dress always in white, maintain the customary reverent silence by talking in whispers, and behave much as we do during today's routine ordinance work.

Since there is little or no electrical power available on the city's grid, and diesel fuel for the temple's generators is extremely expensive and hard to obtain, I can only assume that the halls of the temple are largely dark and quiet. This building was designed in times when electrical power was always readily available so that light coming in from outside wasn't critical. I have no idea how we manage in this tomblike building in the daytime, never mind during the hours of the night when even light from the outside is at a minimum. Somehow, whatever the work is that we're expected to do, we manage.
The temple has become a place dreaded, and often feared by outsiders.

I can't help remembering reading a fable as a child, where Grendel's cave was the terrible place to avoid.
In this case, the xxx Temple is such a place. Most people avoid it as if it were haunted. Many who go there with the idea of breaking into it either to destroy it, or to take whatever treasures they may find within, never return to report their adventures. The temple has a reputation among the desperate of the
area, as a place to watch carefully, and to stay away from.

 

 

  One scenario that has recurred many times in my dreams (interestingly enough, seen through the eyes of more than one participant during multiple repeats) is one where a group of armed men, some on horseback, approach the front door of the temple on the main-floor level. These men are not in military uniform, but are heavily armed with sporting rifles, and the sorts of other improvised weapons that two legged predators are wont to carry in this time.

We inside hear them coming, and for whatever reason, I'm elected to go out and talk to them. Perhaps I'm just taking my turn, since there are other brethren inside at least as able as I am to deal with the situation. As I said, for whatever reason, this time is my time.
We manage to slide open one of the large doors in the glassed-in alcove that fronts the temple, and I step outside onto a patch of snow-encrusted concrete on the easternmost side of the alcove. I'm dressed in the usual white suit, carrying my cane, and limping a bit. The door is slid shut behind me, and the brethren inside quickly disappear (as we always do) behind the screen backing the recommend desk.

The men outside quickly point their weapons at me, until I remind them that they're pointing loaded guns at an unarmed man who limps, and walks with a cane. Even among thugs, there must be at least a particle of honor, since most lower their weapons while glancing at each other through the corners of their eyes.

The leader of the group (one of the men on horseback) tells me that they are at the temple to search it for weapons, food, or things of value, and then to destroy it by fire. I reply that they, the "unclean" (not a word I'd normally use in daily conversation) are not allowed to enter. I tell them that there are no weapons or worldly treasures inside, no soldiers, and only a little food.

I beg them repeatedly to leave the temple, and those of us inside, in peace. They refuse.
There's a disconnect here that is consistent. I've never seen what happens next.
The next thing I DO see is that the horses have dumped their human cargo and are fleeing at top speed, looking over their shoulders as if the very hounds of hell were after them. Most of the humans are making tracks through the heavy snow too, moving as fast as they can in snow almost to their knees. A few men remain face-down in the snow; whether simply unconscious, or dead, I do not know.

Whatever has happened to them, I'm absolutely certain I didn't do it. Someone, or something, else has turned this group of well-armed would-be invaders into fleeing rabble.
The good brethren inside reappear to open the door, and they welcome me inside. We resume our duties as before. The incident is closed. The first time I saw this incident, I realized that the temple itself is essentially pristine. There's not so much as a broken window, or a scratch on the white limestone on the exterior.

It's obvious though, that this isn't the first attempt to enter the temple by outsiders. The fence surrounding the temple is in ruin, having been pushed down from the outside by heavy vehicles of some sort. The snow outside is badly churned up, with the grass underneath having been torn up by what appear by the tracks, to have been heavy equipment of some sort.

Whatever did this, it never touched the temple itself. Whoever wanted in didn't get in. The temple itself is as it has always been.

 

 

  Those of us intentionally left behind evidently do not spend all of our time at the temple. We return to our homes and ward buildings at least occasionally. We appear to move always (or almost always) on foot. Occasionally, I see these visits taking place in the warmer months of the year, but most seen so far occur at times of the year when snow is still evident in some amount.
I often see myself either approaching the temple from the south (the direction of my home), or leaving it heading to the south toward home. The still-spectacular view to the west from the street to my home is impossible to misidentify. This is where It's happening.

As I walk down my street, I see the homes of neighbors, many of whom I've known for decades, lying abandoned. The homes look as if their owners simply walked out the front door, closed and locked it behind them, and walked away.

The signs of vandalism are obvious as many houses and other buildings have broken windows and smashed-in doors. From a few windows, curtains flap in the wind through broken-out windows. My own home seems relatively secure, though it's obvious that vandals have at least attempted to approach it. I can see their tracks in the snow. I have no idea why my home has been spared this destruction, but I'm gratefuI for it.

By now there is a terrible disease evident in the land. People are dying by the thousands, though the shortwave radio stations still broadcasting try to convince the people that the death toll is much smaller than it actually is. People are being reassured that the disease, whatever it is, will soon by controlled by
scientists working in some undisclosed location.

My own training in medical biology makes the fact that these broadcasts are lies obvious.
The disease kills quickly, and is no respecter of age, gender, or ethnic extraction. Infected persons fall ill with influenza-like symptoms, quickly sicken, and die within as little as a few hours, or as much as a few days. Antibiotics are of no help against this malady. The disease bears all the sinister earmarks of a virus, though it behaves in ways that no virus I'm familiar with does.

For whatever reason, those of us left behind seem unaffected by the disease, though we encounter infected corpses on a daily basis, and occasionally encounter people barricaded into their homes, who are suffering and dying from it. Food, it appears, can stave off death for a time; but eventually all who are infected die.
The disease, I learn, is occasionally seen in the encampments of the Saints, though it kills only a few, sparing even those who are in close contact with patients as they care for the sick.

By now it is dangerous to move about outdoors at any time and deadly to move about between sunset and sunrise. People trying to hang on in their homes or places of business have learned the hard way not to be caught outside after dark. Roving predators, most of them human, are hunting at night for the unwary.
One must never show a light at night.

 

 

 Those of us who do move about on our assigned errands encounter wildlife more and more frequently as time passes. Wild things are moving out of the surrounding hills, and returning to their old haunts, though those haunts are now filled with abandoned homes and other buildings. We see deer daily, foraging wherever they can find a bit of green to eat. Raccoons, birds of many kinds, skunks, coyotes, and even an occasional cougar are seen. We can approach them very closely without fear of being attacked, and without their fleeing at the sight of us. I do not know why.

Sadly, we encounter many domestic dogs, abandoned to their fate by those who have gone. Many are obviously skeletal with hunger, and desperate for food and human contact. Those of us left behind are somehow able to approach them without their running in fear from us, and without being attacked ourselves. It seems that if we lead them back to the temple, somehow they can melt into the surrounding hills and regain their strength. As we work in the temple at night, we can sometimes hear them howling, or see them as we watch from the windows or the rooftop, seemingly "patrolling" the area. They alert us to approaching humans by barking, and we're grateful. They are awake when we are
not.

Perhaps this is why the pioneer families often kept their dogs with them. They serve as living alarm systems for intruders.

On many occasions, I find myself having to move around at night on foot. Usually, I am alone; but occasionally one or two other brethren accompany me. We are usually either heading home, or heading out to forage for ourselves. Why we choose to move at night on these errands when moving outside at night is so dangerous, is unclear. We each carry a backpack with a day or two worth of food and water, a sleeping bag and other basic gear, and some sort of optical aid such as a pair of binoculars. We each have with us a source of light, though I'm not certain if this is a flashlight. We never seem to lack for light when we need it, though I never remember seeing any of us using a flashlight or lantern.

Even a trip home, a distance of just over three miles, warrants carrying full gear. In winter, I find myself using a shoulder-height walking stick to struggle along through the snow on the unplowed roads and paths. The stick was given to me many years ago by an old friend, now long on other side of the veil. It brings back fond memories of a fine man, now safely among the "dead" on the other side.

We who are left behind are somehow cared for, though I've seen a number of errands where I/we are foraging for food in abandoned homes. One incident that comes strongly to mind is my finding a large, unopened bottle of peanut butter. I stow it in my pack with regret that I cannot pay for it somehow, or thank its former owner. It goes back with me to the temple, where I presume we consume it together overtime. We must have enough, but just barely enough to keep us going.

On quite a number of occasions on my errands (whether in daylight or in darkness) I encounter two legged predators, armed to the teeth and very dangerous indeed.

Again, there is a disconnect here. As a broken man, I would be an easy target for any of these ruffians. They should rob or kill me at every encounter, but don't seem to get the chance.
For whatever reason, I see them fleeing from me. I have no idea who or what is protecting me. Evidently my would-be attackers do see something. They run as if being pursued by something or someone very dangerous. I never see who or what my protector or protectors are.

Life in the camps becomes routine, and the invaders, some of whom are in gray uniforms, others in khaki or camo gear, don't seem to be able to see the encampments, even when they pass close by. Their air support, mostly helicopters, seems equally unable to detect the righteousness.
The camps and their thousands of righteous occupants hide literally in plain sight. My dreams have yet to show me the resolution of these situations. The story is ongoing. I will amend this document as more information becomes available. For now, on the evening of December 31, 2007, I'II close this account.