Posted in bible, enemy, media, prophecy

"Infomercials for dictators", or How the Media is now our Enemy

I read a headline the other day I didn’t follow up on. I’m following up on it now, because I read a second headline that startled me even more. The first headline was from Pat Caddell, who said that the “press is the enemy of the American people”. Pat Caddell is a former Democratic pollster. He said in his speech in part,

“it is one thing for the news to have a biased view, but It is another thing to specifically decide that you will not tell the American people information they have a right to know.”

“But all I want to conclude to this is that we face a fundamental danger here. The fundamental danger is this: I talked about the defense of the First Amendment. The press’s job is to stand in the ramparts and protect the liberty and freedom of all of us from a government and from organized governmental power. When they desert those ramparts and decide that they will now become active participants, that their job is not simply to tell you who you may vote for, and who you may not, but, worse—and this is the danger of the last two weeks—what truth that you may know, as an American, and what truth you are not allowed to know, they have, then, made themselves a fundamental threat to the democracy, and, in my opinion, made themselves the enemy of the American people. And it is a threat to the very future of this country if that—we allow this stuff to go on. We have crossed a whole new and frightening slide on the slippery slope this last two weeks, and it needs to be talked about.”

The reference to “the last two weeks was about the terrorist attack in Libya, killing an American Ambassador, and the subsequent refusal of the White House to admit it was a terrorist attack, the collusion of the media to not press the issue, nor even report on the many embassy attacks after the Libyan attack.

I agree with Caddell that the media is the Peoples’ enemy. The Media is colluding with the ones the media is supposed to inform us about and protect us from by giving good information. We cannot make informed choices if we are not informed. We saw that clearly in the 2007-2008 Presidential campaign. Just ask Joe the Plumber.

I lived in a small town in the 90s. There was one weekly newspaper in addition to the daily big city paper. The little paper reported on the doings around town, the activities of the council and school board, had a religious column in it, as well as the obits and lunch menus. You know the kind of paper.

Well, when it started in the 70s, it was a good, activist, journalistic paper. It did its job with courage and without favor. But as the 80s wore on it became tame and innocuous, but at least it did no harm. When the paper was taken over by its new editor in the 90s, it became a lapdog organ for local government and a club to browbeat active citizens. It published without impunity innuendo, sarcasm, and outright lies, if it thought it would help their friends in town hall. The paper even moved into a town building, where it got its rent for free! The whole thing sucked swamp water.

Well, I was not active nor interested in town doings for most of the decade. I traveled widely with my husband and much of the time we were not at home. When I was, I didn’t read the rag.

But then I did get involved through no volition of my own. The government came to us, and it wasn’t here to help us. So we sought redress for our grievance through the regular means available to all citizens, committee advocacy, positive change through petitioning, and began a process of a charter change. [The charter was the governing document of the town]. All this was outlined in normal methods available to any citizen, However, most normal citizens never availed themselves of those means, due to the browbeating they’d get in the paper. We ignored that and went forward.

As the issues wore on and I knew the truth because I was living it, and read the lies the paper was producing, and wondered about the gap, I mulled over what to do. As soon as our government issue was concluded (satisfactorily to my side), I decided I’d start a newspaper to compete with the monopoly-stranglehold going on in my town. Citizens were being hurt, freedom of speech was not allowed, and the government and media had too close a relationship. This is never a good thing for a democracy.  I started my paper to shoehorn in a crowbar between the coziness of the other paper and the local government, which was run by the way, via nepotism and patronage.

My paper was successful and won awards. It grew economically as the advertiser base expanded. In content, I sought to educate the citizenry as to their rights and duties, to put the local government on notice they were being watched, fairly, but watched nonetheless, to show what journalistic standards should be, and to reflect a vibrant and lovely community back to itself.

The other paper did not go gently into that good night. They employed every dirty trick, every lowbrow act, and every mean thing they could to subdue us. I would not be cowed, and eventually I ran the other paper into the ground. They sold out and then I sold the paper and moved to GA. My work there was done, lol.

I was saved by Jesus during that 8 years. As I grew in faith I began to realize the Lord’s provision was such that the event (and there was much more I haven’t told you, including spiritual warfare!) was a microcosm for what went on nationally in 2007-2008. During the first Obama campaign, we saw a media abdicate its responsibility to the citizens, collude with government, exist by nepotism, monopoly, and patronage, fail to properly vet the candidates or inform the electorate as to the issues in a fair manner, and browbeat citizens, companies, or candidates who didn’t conform to the media’s standards or ideals. Just ask Joe the Plumber.

When you have a media that refuses to reflect the society back to itself you have a society with a skewed view. An uninformed society. An apathetic society. All these things are anathema to an active democracy. In that sense, the media as the Fourth Estate has become the enemy of freedom, a treasonous entity set to destroy us. I am convinced of this. Just look at the words of Mr Caddell.

Now I want to bring you to another article I read today. As you read the excerpt I’ll post, keep in mind that America’s Fifth Fleet docks at Bahrain. We NEED Bahrain to maintain our presence in the Gulf. On Russia Today’s website, they published the following:

‘Bahrain buys favorable CNN content’
“Amid a violent crackdown on a popular uprising, Bahrain paid CNN to get favorable coverage, says a former reporter who believes her documentary on the protests there was censored by the network. What CNN is doing is they are essentially creating what some people have termed “infomercials for dictators.” And that’s the sponsored content that they are airing on CNN International that is actually being paid for by regimes and governments. And this violates every principle of journalistic ethics, because we’re supposed to be watchdogs on these governments. We are not supposed to allow them to be a paying customer as journalists. And that’s the issue here – that CNN is feeding, then, this propaganda to the public and not fairly disclosing to the public that this is sponsored content.”

I’ve often thought about the Tribulation and media. As we watched the Iran uprising and then the Arab Spring on Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook, I know, and you know, that the unfettered access to citizen journalism will be the first thing to go. The Main Stream Media is already gone. Dear ones, do not even trust Fox News. Pastor JD Farag noticed a distinct shift in tone regarding Israel over the last year and a half, and he noted this may be due to the fact that News Corp.’s second-largest shareholder, after the Murdoch family, is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the nephew of Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, and one of the world’s richest men.

The powers that be will NOT allow people to express themselves. Christians certainly will be shut off.

I read an article about  Duck Dynasty today. Duck Dynasty is a reality TV show on A&E that follows the Robertson family, makers of duck calls. The family has a staunch faith in Jesus. Each show ends with a prayer around the family dinner table, and though each and every prayer is ended with the phrase, “In Jesus’ name” each and every time, the editors chop that part out. Hardly any depiction of their faith is given light of day. The folks on the show do not swear, so to spice things up, the editors bleeped a couple of non-curse words anyway! The article is here, and it is really good in showing how the Robertsons, fervent and relentless evangelizers, plan to get around the censorship.

If media won’t even allow a faithful family, on a hit show  (which means America WANTS to see the Robertsons) to express their faith by saying Jesus, what do you think it will be like during the time of total sin, the Tribulation? Total censorship. Total collusion with power-brokers, and what you see on tv and in the movies and in the papers will be at your peril. Satan has surely claimed Hollywood. I think we all recognize that. The media IS our enemy.

The Tribulation will be a time for total sin to saturate the world. That means every organization will also be total sin. Media included. Revelation 18 shows the mourning of the world’s merchants, kings, captains, and seafarers at the fall of Babylon. Revelation 17 shows the death of the world’s religious system. So if the economic organization is total sin, media will not escape that economic death. Their collusion by filthy lucre to the governments will be exposed and the cause of death on their certificate will be “FORNICATION.” Their prostituting of themselves may seem sweet to them now, but it will cost them heavily on the LORD’S Day.

The media is an enemy of the state, taking money from dictators to produce infomercials. Read/watch/listen at your own risk.

How wonderful we can turn to the bible for all truth! I find it exhilarating that the world’s headlines are in the bible right now. The things the dictators are saying are almost word for word in the bible. The events we see happening are lining up exactly. We can take heart that His word is not polluted, but pure. He is the Sinless Groom, glowing and holy, and His word is the same. The bible is the enemy of the world but is the friend, comforter, and sustainer of the Christian who seeks truth. Seek it not in the news media, but in the holy scriptures. It does a body good!

Posted in enemy, iran, neighbor, uss stennis

Stennis rescues Iranian fishermen aboard pirated vessel

This week, in wonderful news and an unintended demonstration of US Military capabilities and intent, the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier stationed as part of the Fifth Fleet at Bahrain, came to the rescue of an Iranian fishing vessel which had been overcome by Somalian pirates. The pirates had been using the Iranian fishing vessel as a mother ship to stage further piracy and for sea-borne support of their operations. The Stennis steamed in, rescued the 13 ship’s crew, got the pirates, distributed food and water to fishermen and pirates alike and secured that patch of sea for safety’s sake. Just days before, the USS Stennis had been harassed by Iranian navy in the Strait of Hormuz during Iran’s war games, and telling them to stay OUT of the shipping lanes, which in fact is a de facto declaration of war

On the USS Stennis Facebook page, “We are ready hope that America sleeps well tonight knowing we’ve got the watch”–RDML Faller USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) Strike Group Commander

“This was an opportunity to help hostages in need—had no bearing on nationality”–CDR Ellinger, Commanding Officer USS KIDD (DDG-100)

The NY Times wrote:
“ABOARD THE FISHING VESSEL AL MULAHI, in the Gulf of Oman — Senior Iranian military officials this week bluntly warned an American aircraft carrier that it would confront the “full force” of the Iranian military if it tried to re-enter the Persian Gulf. On Friday, Fazel Ur Rehman, a 28-year-old Iranian fisherman, had a warmer greeting for the carrier task force.“It is like you were sent by God,” said Mr. Rehman, huddled under a blanket in this vessel’s stern. “Every night we prayed for God to rescue us. And now you are here.” In a naval action that mixed diplomacy, drama and Middle Eastern politics, the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis broke up a high-seas pirate attack on a cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman, then sailors from an American destroyer boarded the pirates’ mother ship and freed 13 Iranian hostages who had been held captive there for more than a month. The rapidly unfolding events began Thursday morning when the pirates attacked a Bahamian-flagged ship, the motor vessel Sunshine, unaware that the Stennis was steaming less than eight miles away. It ended Friday with the tables fully turned. The captured Somali pirates, 15 in all, were brought aboard the U.S.S. Kidd, an American destroyer traveling with the Stennis. They were then shuttled by helicopter to the aircraft carrier and locked up in its brig.”

Go Navy!

I can’t wait for the day when we are all truly brothers. When there are no enemies, and when THE enemy is banished forever. When we can all unite hands and hearts irrespective of nationality, praising the glory of God purely. Back in 1979 Iran in effect declared war on us when they captured people from a diplomatic ground, supposed to be internationally neutral and any peoples on it free from arrest, violating centuries old principles. According to diplomatic and military definitions, they are an enemy of the US.

In Luke 10:25 -28, we read, “And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”

The lawyer was quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. But then the Lawyer went on, going from testing to justifying, “But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?””

Jesus answered with the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritans, people who lived in adjacent Samaria, were hated by Jews. This hatred was longstanding. The Samaritans were descendants of the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh and was part of the northern kingdom of Israel. The southern kingdom of Judah was to the south. The northern Samaritans were conquered by Assyria, most carried off, those who remained intermarried with the pagans and also began worshiping the foreigners’ idols. The southern Jews hated the northerners for not being full blooded Jews and for opposing their own repatriation when Judah was later carried off and then years later tried to re-settle the lands. The Jewish saying, “With whom you have no dealings” refers to the Samaritans. In other words, they are driven to hatred by ethnic and racial barriers. Jesus was saying that it isn’t the unknown enemy whose individual face you don’t see who is easy to hate, but the ones near to us who look and act different. But they all are our neighbors.

Acts of kindness, doing good to those who curse you, giving the enemy the very shirt from your back, is a demonstration of God through us.

“But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matthew 5:44)

“If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:” (Proverbs 25:21)

I’m not naive. I know that war exists and we are asked by the government or by self-defense to protect our land or property or persons from invading enemies who want to do us harm. But the remarks after the incident was made public, that the Navy is there to protect one and all irrespective of race of ethnicity, the Iranian government’s rare extension of thanks were all remarked upon. Imagine how much MORE it would be remarked upon if we were to show the love of our neighbor or our enemy, if it was at the behest of God and not the US Government. It is an unusual thing to love an enemy, to give him food and water, to help him in a moment of need. People notice.

In the end of the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus asked, “So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Jesus said to go and do likewise.

Jesus said to love our neighbor, and to love those who persecute us. I know it’s easy to generalize about the bad actors in the last days and the upcoming Tribulation. “They flew planes into OUR buildings!” They kill fellow Christians!” But when the Navy sailors got on board the Iranian fishing vessel, we were all brothers. Not necessarily brothers in Christ, but neighbors. We saw the faces of the young fishermen, we hugged, we rejoiced in release from harm’s way. We restored husbands to families and sons to mothers. In looking at the wounded man on the road to Samaria, the Samaritan saw simply an individual person in need, not a faceless, hated enemy. He gave him water to drink and food and brought him to safety.

When the crafty Lawyer said “Who is my neighbor?” seeking an excuse not to love someone, Jesus, in effect, turned it around and asked, “Who is your enemy?” Who can we legitimately identify as a person NOT to love?
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