Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Mark Armstrong on the Fourth of July

Mark Armstrong, leader of the Intercontinental Church of God, son of Garner Ted Armstrong, grandson of Herbert Armstrong, has released yet another weekly update (July 6, 2018). Let's see what he has to say.

He starts with mentioning what he and his family did to celebrate the fourth of July.
Greetings from Tyler, 
Here's hoping you enjoyed a delightful Independence Day.  We thought it was the best one since this time last year, maybe better.  For the first time ever, the home owner's association in my neighborhood organized a parade, of sorts.  There were heavily decorated bicycles, lawn tractors pulling trailers full of kids, jeeps wrapped in red white and blue tinsel and flatbeds with lounge chairs with women and more kids. Flags were in every other yard and people were out in front of their houses, happy to make acquaintances and enjoy the company of neighbors.  When several of our family members went to the nearby marina, we saw quite a crowd and fireworks bursting overhead and all around the lake in the distance.  It sure seemed like there might be more to celebrate than there has been in recent memory, and the happiness seemed infectious. 
But partisan rancor is ever present in Mark Armstrong's weekly updates even on such a happy occasion. 
But there are those, somewhere other than here that are anything but happy. I'm pretty sure they're mad that we're happy.
He states that those who belong to the other political party are quite distressed at the state of affairs in the United States. It is hard to not perceive an element of glee in his writing.
People are doing crazy things, making fools of themselves in public, verbally attacking their philosophical foes, throwing drinks, cursing in their faces, and it's all the fault of you know who. It's just an illustration of how crazy this man, and his supporters, are driving supposedly sane individuals bonkers. Most telling of all, it's a morality play!  Those who justify every hideous debauchery are having an emotional meltdown over perceived “uncaring, racist, bigoted” and potentially criminal attitudes they assign to President Trump and his deplorable supporters without any recognition of the irony in play. 
Mark Armstrong slurs liberals as being unreasonable. He alludes to the mass separation of families by the Trump Administration but he brings it up simply to condemn liberals.
Word went out in recent years that illegal aliens crossing the border with children, theirs or otherwise, will get special treatment. Adults can't be detained because they can't be separated from “their children,” and everybody knows you can't put “children” in jail. So there is no solution.  Either let them disappear into the population or be accused of operating “concentration camps.”
He accuse liberals of advancing various goals which are viewed as goals that are deliberately and carefully pursued instead of being analysed as being the result of messy circumstances. He also accuses liberals of seeking to "alter... the demographic character of population" once again alluding to xenophobic motives.
So the solution is crystal clear, even though the most preening moralists just tumbled to it in the past ten days or so.  Abolish ICE!  That ought to fix it.  And the border patrol too.  “They've strayed from their mandate,” say the organizers of protests, and no longer represent the “values” of America.  As was so often repeated over the last decade, our national “values” consist of honoring debauchery, altering the demographic character of population, embracing regulations that kill whole industries while insisting that the United States assume a subordinate role to the UN, the EU, the World Bank, the WHO, and every other globalist institution.
Mark Armstrong then takes comfort in the thought that his preferred president is in power. Then he accuse liberals of being constant killjoys even though his weekly updates are constantly filled with angry accusations against politicians and various interests he opposes.
Against all odds, we seem to be breaking out of that mold.  Just when it looked as though there would be no turning back, there is suddenly momentum under the leadership of a man who no one thought could be dedicated to conservative principles let alone honor God for our freedom and blessings.  And yet there he is, and here we are.  Maybe not one nation as would be most desirable, but under God nevertheless, as stated unapologetically in one ecstatic rally after another.  The self “righteous” socialists among us, presiding over the mainstream media and nearly every educational institution in the land, are furious and can't illustrate their anger often enough.  Nothing's funny at all anymore.  Nobody dares say anything in jest, because there is no such thing.  Only insults, hurt FEELINGS, anger and outrage.  No matter how silly or funny, you better not laugh out loud or let anyone see you do that or you might be the victim of a snowflake hurling curses or chasing you out of an establishment. 
Mark Armstrong continues his bizarre feud with Pope Francis. Shamefully he implies that hiding criminal behavior somehow explains the Pope's approach with the gay community. That is disgusting. There is no comparison between the two topics.
You might not have heard because it's not exactly big news, but the pope is in serious trouble.  It seems he presided over the cover-up of serial molester priests down in Argentina before being elevated to the highest perch in the “Christian” world.  Furthermore, he's admitted his role in conversations that have been published.  It begins to make a little more sense that some of his first utterances were to confer acceptance and honor upon the “gay” community.  He's denouncing our president, worrying like a protester about “the children!” (many of whom appear to be in their late teens), while ducking a scandal involving abusive priests and Argentine mothers whose sons fell victim to his beaded slipper buddies.
Mark Armstrong then once again condemns Pope Francis' call for environmentalist action. As he often does he equates environmentalism with having the United States be rendered subordinate to the United Nations. Our planet is getting polluted like never before and Mark Armstrong is worried about his nation being too close to the UN.
But he's saving the planet.  He's holding one global warming confab after another, generating headlines and news stories almost daily.  He's worried about the rain forest in the Amazon.  You know, the one that would have disappeared in the 80's if Sting hadn't done a series of benefit concerts?  To hear the pope tell it, it's about to turn into “desert and garbage” if we don't get alarmed about carbon dioxide and whatever the UN says.  He and his priesthood may be embarrassing themselves beyond belief, having ruined the lives of countless children entrusted to them, but at least he's doing his part to “save the planet,” while changing the subject to global warming panic.  Doubtful the mainstream will ever figure this out, let alone report it. 
Mark Armstrong discusses recent political events in Germany. He also makes the inflammatory insinuation that immigration leads to criminal activity. Even though Mark Armstrong's ancestors were immigrants themselves he constantly scare mongers about immigrants to his followers.
In Germany, Angela Merkel's government has survived the standoff over refugees, at least temporarily.  They reached a compromise on what to do with certain categories of “immigrants” coming in through Austria.  In no way does it serve to solve the problem, rather pushing the crisis down the road for another day.  And there will be another day.  Sentiment across Europe has largely turned.  All the rhetorical good will and caring rings a little hollow when the neighborhood goes, the crime wave arrives, and people can't go out without facing danger. 
He then mentions a tragic example of human trafficking and he seems to connect this with immigration but he does not bother to state how this incident is connected with immigration.
It's happened in London, in Paris and nearly every European capital.  There are many examples across our nation too, almost every day.  The first network break on the radio this morning was of a woman in Texas who sold her son for $2500 in drug money.  It seems she may have been negotiating another deal for her two little toddler girls.  Doubtful this will make national coverage.  It doesn't fit the narrative, in fact it just might raise a lot of questions they don't want asked.  If you look it up, you'll understand completely.
He ends his weekly missive by implying that his preferred president is specially blessed by the Armstrongite God.
Isn't it remarkable that the nation's mainstream institutions are being dragged kicking and screaming into a scenario where the Constitution is followed, the law is enforced, and to the sheer panic of the left, the Supreme Court is seeing appointments along those lines.  Some believe that God has His hand in it, and maybe He does.  We see many Biblical examples of imperfect vessels being used to accomplish His will.  If that is the case, it may be a last chance for America if not the entire Western world.  Can you imagine how the pendulum might swing the other way?  You don't have to look very far to get an inkling of how that might go.  Maybe as far as the book of Revelation.   
Mark
Mark Armstrong also includes a call for prayers for a minister of his.
PS:  We are asking prayers for minister, Ray Fain who has been suffering from a low heartbeat and low blood pressure and has had to visit the hospital several times.  They think they have it solved by putting in a pacemaker.
And so we see that Mark Armstrong is still the same cantankerous person even after the fourth of July.

17 comments:

  1. "And so we see that Mark Armstrong is still the same cantankerous person even after the fourth of July."

    Not as bad as Gerald Flurry and lil Davy Pack however. That's to his credit.

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  2. If Trump’s economy goes south, and if the people who object so strongly to his radical policies are chosen by the electorate in the next election cycle, there is going to be a way out of proportion reaction in the opposite direction. Donald Trump is conducting an imperial presidency, not governing according to the will of the core majority of Americans. The kinds of people who elected him are those who believe you make America great by reintroducing the N word.

    Our superpower status is ours to lose. If we allow those who would like to see multiculturalism fail balkanize America, with civil war dissipating our resources, will, and strength, it’s going to do far more damage than any external enemy could possibly inflict. Mark is actually doing his part to foment civil war. Good thing he is nearly invisible!

    BB

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  3. I wonder if Mark supports the Trump administration defacto kidnappings at our southern border. Most Americans, even Trump supporters, do not. That has been a moral travesty.

    BB

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  4. Bob,
    Multiculturalism will balkanize America. Ever hear of La Raza and do you not know what their intentions are? Bet ya you don't.

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    1. LOL! I was married into the Chicano community.

      BB

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  5. And did the Chicano community ever assimilate into the American culture?

    40 years ago my Mexican friends were part of the American experience. Otherwise fully assimilated into the culture. Now days the grandkids of these men embrace the Mexican culture and shun their grandparents Americanism. This is caused by the politicians that divide the people of this nation into racial, political, sexual groups. Everyones a activist lobbying their own positions.

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    1. My own experience has been this: Back in the ‘60s Mexican-American people were largely on the fringes of the American culture. Excluded in so many ways. Heavy accents, because Spanish was spoken at home. Young people were guided by the public school sysyems into careers involving manual labor rather than higher education. This artificially held people back. There were angry missives and diatribes written as founding documents for movements, during that era, not only for Chicano activists, but also for the Black Panthers, and Students for a Democratic Society (primarily white college students). The larger communities looked to, and respected these groups in higher percentages, because they were aggressive in legal defense, and in advancing their interests.

      Ideas which are now considered radical were presented in the early founding documents. Amongst the Brown Berets (Chicanos, La Raza) Reconquista was one such concept. It involved retaking the Southwest from the white people. As the objectives for the movement were gradually met, and demeaning stereotypes were taken down, and opportunities were opened up, much of the early anger was dissipated. One of the great indignities in the ‘60s was that police officers often assumed that anyone of brown skin was here illegally. Mexican-American people born and raised in the USA, just doing normal activities, were often thrown to the ground as if they were criminals, and asked for their green cards or papers. The activists worked untiringly in the legal and political arenas to get that changed.

      The 1980s were heralded as the “Decade of the Chicano”. It was a new era, with new opportunities. We actually received magazines and publications at home that were dedicated to the emerging Mexican-American culture, and attended events geared to Hispanic people. There was a more positive tone, and much of the angst and anger of the early movement were largely gone because many objectives had been made.

      The founding documents for La Raza are of great historic value, but it would be an egregious error to assume that they reflect the thinking of the Mexican-American mainstream of today, just as it would be ludicrous to assume that the Weather Underground, Yippies, or SDS of the ‘60s represent white college and university students of today.

      Make no mistake. The powerful factions and pressure groups of the ‘60s and ‘70s could have caused the balkanization of America back then. It appeared during that era that the US was coming apart. As these groups began working through the system and making real progress towards full inclusion, they were taken more seriously, and the radicalism was no longer necessary. Today, there is a movement to actually rename groups such as La Raza, and discard terms such as Chicano because they have a negative connotation from the past.

      BB

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    2. July 12, 2018 at 8:35 AM
      Excellent response. Great strides were made. The newest generation that I know seem to want some sort of segregation from whites. I was astounded.

      It really seems that some people never learn from the past.

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  6. Fast forward to the present. The problem today, is that 40 years after the fact, we seem to have a belated backlash within a segment of the white population to all of this progress. It isn’t the old antiquated racial advocacy groups from the ‘60s who are in danger of balkanizing the USA. It is the emergence of white nationalism, and the election of a president supported by these white nationalists. Obviously, even though their major battles were fought and considered won years ago, minority people are concerned about the current climate. They will defend themselves and their communities, and the normal rights and privileges of all Americans which they have enjoyed for the past decades. It is not they who are the aggressors. The comfort level which they’ve enjoyed had rendered the radicalism of the disenfranchised previous generations as unattractive and counter-productive. They’ve had vested interest, and hopes and dreams in the American system.

    If this new white nationalism begins to attempt to reverse the progress, and to take it away, people will take to the streets, and many, many white people will join in defending them. In fact, they already have. Civil war and martial law would be very real possibilities, and it’s possible that the UN could ultimately become involved just as extreme right wingers had feared. Let us pray that something better than that happens.

    BB

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  7. white nationalism, I think not.

    Corrupt politicians that only lie, taxes, and war contributed to Trump being elected. I do not buy the crap the left wing nor the right publish. I only know how bad things have occurred over the last 2 decades.

    Taking sides is to enable politicians. Support liberty and freedom for all groups.

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    1. I hope I’m wrong on the white nationalism. It’s a little bit late to reassert that into our current national demographics. Wouldn’t end well.

      I listen to left wing, right wing and mainstream sources, and make all my own decisions. Back in the ‘80s, I not only subscribed to Chicano publications, but also to Ebony Magazine. The postman must have really been confused!

      I definitely have Libertarian leanings, and am a big fan of Claire Wolfe’s “Freedom Outlaw Handbook”.

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  8. As to white nationalism, I never ever thought about race until we got Obama who pushed it like a dope dealer. I have no respect for a divisive man. They are the epitome of evil that leads to warfare.

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    1. I play with the race card sometimes. If someone hassles me, I ask them “Is it because I’m Jewish?” (I’m not, but know enough from Armstrongism that I can pull it off)

      BB

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  9. I've listened to many Trump supporters, and it's all about white nationalism. They're afraid that they're losing their country to foreigners and globalism. This manifests itself in their attitudes toward immigration, trade and environmental policy. Most of them also resent not being able to say exactly what's on their mind - they don't like being politically correct (or what the rest of us refer to as politeness and being respectful of differences).
    I've said it before: It is ironic that these white nationalists have chosen Donald Trump as their spokesman (A man whose paternal grandparents were born in Germany and whose mother was born in Scotland - a man with NO ancestral ties to the American Revolution or the Civil War - a man who has many of the products he sells made in foreign countries). And they get super mad when you point these things out!

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  10. Race is part of the constituencies concerns. The main US caracteristics regarding its view of the world have been "isolationism" vs "internationalism". Someone needs to educate the American people that its current status as superpower is a "gift" from its creditors based on the merits of the international system it has been leading. Leaders can be changed and reserve currencies aswell.

    It is not a fact of life that US military hubs should operate from european soil. Trump is playing a dangerous game made possible by 50 years of excellent leadership of the alliance and world system ending with bush jr and the rise of the neocons.

    Nck

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  11. I am slightly surprised that Mark seems to be a 'climate change denier'.

    Back in the seventies the WCG, and his dad in particular, highlighted the environmental crisis, when very few other were.

    That was one area which I found very positive at that time.

    Looks like Mark has abandoned any such leanings.

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