Guest Post by Tom Englehardt
Recently, I did something rare in my life. Over a long weekend, I took a few days away and almost uniquely — I might even say miraculously — never saw Donald Trump’s face, since I didn’t watch TV and barely checked the news. They were admittedly terrible days in which 50 people were slaughtered in New Zealand. Meanwhile, the president indulged in another mad round of tweeting, managing in my absence to lash out at everything and everyone in sight (or even beyond the grave) from John McCain, Saturday Night Live, and the Mueller “witch hunt” to assorted Democrats and even Fox News for suspending host Jeanine Pirro’s show. In his version of the ultimate insult, he compared Fox to CNN. And I was blissfully ignorant of it all, which left me time to finally give a little thought to… Donald Trump.
And when I returned, on an impulse, I conjured up the initial Trumpian moment of our recent lives. I’m aware, of course, that The Donald first considered running for president in the Neolithic age of 1987. He tried to register and trademark “Make America Great Again,” a version of an old Reagan campaign slogan, only days after Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential election to a charismatic, young, black senator. He then rode that new president’s “birth certificate” into the post-Apprentice public spotlight amid a growing wave of racism in a country founded on slavery that has never truly grappled with that fact.
Still, the 47 minutes and eight seconds that I was thinking about took place more recently. On June 16, 2015, Donald and Melania Trump stepped onto a Trump Tower escalator and rode it down to the pounding beat of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” (a song the singer would soon demand, without success, that the presidential hopeful not use). A minute and a half later, they arrived in the Trump Tower lobby. There, a clapping Ivanka greeted her father with a kiss on each cheek — the first signal of the corporatist, family-style presidency to come. Then, The Donald stepped to the microphone and promptly launched his run into fake-news history.
Sometimes, the only way to go forward, or at least know where you are in the present, is to go back. Yes, Donald Trump garnered much news with his announcement that day and was already visibly having the time of his life, but no one in or out of the media then thought he had a shot at being president. Even he was only burnishing his brand. As Michael Wolff reported in his book Fire and Fury, even on election night 2016, almost a year and a half later, with the possible exception of Steve Bannon, no one in the Trump camp, including The Donald, had the slightest expectation of his winning the presidency. All of them were just burnishing their future brands.
And yet, in the spring of 2019, those largely forgotten 47 minutes are worth another look because, in retrospect, they provide such a vivid window into what was to come, what’s still coming. They offer the future president not naked at last, but naked at first, and so represent an episode of revelatory wonder (and, had anyone then believed that he might actually win the presidency, of revelatory dread as well).
The Candidate Naked as a Jaybird
Having taken another look at that first speech, I now think of the Trump era so far as the 47-minute presidency. It’s nothing short of wondrous just how strikingly that de-escalatory ride and the Trumpian verbal strip tease that followed before a cheering crowd revealed, point by point, the essence of his presidency to come. And by the way, it was certainly indicative of that future presidency that the audience (reporters aside) listening to him in the lobby of Trump Tower seems largely to have been made up of out-of-work actors being paid $50 a pop to cheer him on. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the email sent out by Extra Mile Casting to recruit those extras read in part: “We are looking to cast people for the event to wear t-shirts and carry signs and help cheer him in support of his announcement. We understand this is not a traditional ‘background job,’ but we believe acting comes in all forms and this is inclusive of that school of thought.”
And given what would happen, never has an audience been bought more cheaply or effectively.
It’s hardly news today that Donald Trump would prove a unique candidate in American presidential history. On that first day, the most uniquely unique aspect of his speech (and, in the age of Trump, I offer no apologies for such an over-the-top superlative) was the utter, even brutal, honesty with which he presented — or perhaps the better word would be displayed — himself to the American people. To paint an even more honest picture, the one thing he might have done was ride that escalator up, not down, to his announcement. After all, his would be an escalation presidency of the first order. In crisis — and when is The Donald not in crisis? — it’s in his nature to escalate.
So bear with me here as I take us back almost four years to look once again at how it all began, at the way in which, after those 47 minutes, you could have turned off your TV, blocked out all those cable news talking heads, and never looked at the man again. After all, by then you knew everything you truly needed to know (except one thing that I’ll return to below) in order to grasp the Trumpian moment to come. In that sense, I think it’s fair to say, without a hint of Trump Tower-style exaggeration, that The Donald was the most honest presidential candidate we’ve ever had.
Honesty may be an odd label to slap on such a man. After all, he lies incessantly. He misstates regularly. He creates false facts anytime he needs them and then sticks with them forever — and he did just that, with alacrity and aplomb, on his very first day. In some sense, almost everything he says might be considered a lie of sorts, but the lying, misstating, absurd claims, and over-the-top pronouncements are done so nakedly, are so easy to debunk (or, if you prefer, like much of his base, to accept as reality), that they might almost be considered another form of honesty. They are, at least, a form of Trumpian revelation and so nakedness.
The general rule of politics is, of course, that the one thing you don’t do is offer yourself exactly as you are, warts and all (or even all warts) and naked as a jaybird for everyone to see. But Donald Trump did just that. In those first 47 minutes and eight seconds, he undressed in front of America. And nearly four years later, it’s worth looking back to grasp just how clearly his future presidency could be viewed in that first naked moment of moments.
King Toot
In a sense, all you needed to know was this. In that announcement speech, it took him barely two minutes to make it to the Mexican border, where he remains today. Nor should it have taken long for any viewer to grasp a few other things about him: he wasn’t a man for scripts, but was a man for insults; the Trump brand was far more crucial to him than the American one; he wouldn’t just interrupt you or anyone else, but also himself; he was ready to use blunt, everyday language never before associated with presidential candidates, no less presidents, in public (“They talked about environmental, they talked about all sorts of crap that had nothing to do with it”); there were no claims too big (or false) for him to make, especially when it came to himself and his effect on the world; he had already perfected his own unique version of incoherence, or stream-of-consciousness speaking, into a vibrant art form (that, in another sense, couldn’t have been more coherent); and he had an ego, invariably on display, as big as… well, not just the Ritz but perhaps his then-still-under-construction Trump International Hotel just down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House — and all of that was obvious even before he mentioned that “great, great wall” of his.
Despite an already existing following, thanks to his promotion of the Obama “birther” conspiracy theory, his adoring base did not yet exist. For him, however, it already did. It was, you might say, born ahead of its time. His first two words in that speech were “Wow. Whoa.” His reference point: the crowd of hired actors in front of him. “That is some group of people. Thousands.” Of them, he would momentarily say — no need to wait for the crowd controversy over his inaugural address more than a year and a half later — “There’s been no crowd like this.” But first, of course, just 20 words in, there had to be a plug for his brand. (“It’s great to be at Trump Tower.”)
And it didn’t take 30 seconds for the first insult du jour of his presidential run to make its appearance. Yep, there was that crowd, Trump Tower, and then naturally the matter of sweat and air conditioning. (“And, I can tell, some of the candidates, they went in [to announce their candidacies]. They didn’t know the air-conditioner didn’t work. They sweated like dogs… How are they going to beat ISIS?”) This was assumedly the first of what would be many insulting references to Republican senator and candidate Marco Rubio’s propensity to sweat, assumedly during his announcement of his candidacy that April. Though The Donald had barely begun, in what would be his typical fashion, he had already connected not blood, sweat, and tears, but air conditioning, sweat, and ISIS in the fashion in which he’s connected seemingly disparate things ever since.
And as Dr. Seuss might once have said: That was not all! Oh, no, that was not all! Those listening, at $50 a pop or not, quickly found themselves on the sort of high-speed train ride you can have in significant parts of the world — there are 27,000 kilometers of it China — but not in the United States, unless you’re at a Trump rally.
Just over two minutes in and the candidate-to-come had already zipped past China and Japan (“…they beat us all the time”) and arrived at that Mexican border. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists…” A minute later, he leapt to the Middle East and “Islamic terrorism,” claiming “I’m in competition with them” because, he insisted, ISIS now had the Iraqi oil that “we should’ve taken” after the invasion and occupation of that country. With that oil money, he claimed, they had built “a hotel in Syria.” (Okay, it was, in fact, in Mosul, Iraq, and they didn’t build it, they took it over, but no matter.)
A headlong dash across the Iraqi border into Iran somehow brought him to American nukes (“Even our nuclear arsenal doesn’t work”) and next thing you knew you were ripping past the U.S. gross domestic product, which, he swore, was shockingly, unbelievably “below zero.” (He evidently meant growth in the GDP, not the GDP itself, not that that was true either.) And none of it — ISIS, Iraqis, Mexicans, Muslims, failing nukes, or even sweat and air conditioners added up to much of anything compared to “a disaster called the big lie: Obamacare. Obamacare.”
And that, mind you, was just the first nine minutes of his announcement, the rest of which — from China envy to Saudi love — similarly proved a remarkably apt outline of the presidency (and president) to come. But don’t let me forget one more thing: at the heart of that speech, as at the heart of everything else in the years that followed, was you-know-who and you-know-whose brand and business.
From those first moments, Donald Trump was always King Toot (as in, tooting his own horn). Yes, in that speech he plugged making America great again, mentioning the phrase, in whole or part, nine times. And it was indeed a brilliant slogan for him to adopt. It allowed him to say something all too real that no other politician of that moment dared to say: that America wasn’t then the most exceptional or indispensable or greatest country on Earth; in those initial moments, that is, he inaugurated himself as our first genuine declinist presidential candidate (or at least the man who could save us all from further decline). And whether as a repeated slogan or four words on a red cap, he rang a bell, loud and clear, in the white American heartland.
Still, read that speech now and you won’t doubt for a moment that his truest slogan wasn’t MAGA at all, but MTGAAA (Make Trump Great Again and Again and Again). In that sense, at the first rally of his presidency, he offered a remarkably forthright picture of what was to come.
He billed himself as a businessman of the first order for a country desperately in need of economic resuscitation — and his would indeed be a business presidency, if you mean his (and his family’s) businesses. That first speech would be larded with references to, and praise for, those very businesses and, of course, himself. He assured listeners that he was worth no less than $8,737,540,000 (though not according to Forbes) and that he wasn’t even bragging about it. (“I’m not doing that to brag, because you know what? I don’t have to brag. I don’t have to, believe it or not.”)
It took just 12 minutes for him to make it to his golf courses and then to his most recent book. (“I have the best courses in the world… Now, our country needs… a truly great leader now. We need a leader that wrote The Art of the Deal.”) No matter that Tony Schwartz, its ghostwriter, would later denounce him as “incapable of reading a book, much less writing one.”
In fact, no subject he raised that day seemed to lack a reference to the monuments, with their giant golden letters, that he had already erected to himself. The Saudis (“I love the Saudis. Many are in this building”), the Chinese (“The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower. I love China”), you name it and he linked it to his businesses. In, for instance, a passing discussion of the country’s sagging infrastructure (still crumbling almost four years later) — “It’s like we’re in a third world country,” he’d say that day — he promptly focused on his hotel-to-be in the nation’s capital. (“You know, we’re building on Pennsylvania Avenue, the Old Post Office, we’re converting it into one of the world’s great hotels. It’s gonna be the best hotel in Washington, D.C.”)
The emoluments clause in the Constitution? Don’t make me laugh. From the first second, Donald Trump couldn’t have made it clearer that, were you to vote for him, you would be putting his business and no one else’s, including yours, in the White House. Again, it was a rare moment of honesty, even if few truly took it in (or, at that moment, cared).
The Bankruptcy King in Person
All of this is, of course, ancient history, but as a document that first speech is anything but yesterday’s news. In many ways, it remains tomorrow’s headlines in a media world that, so long after, still can’t get enough of him. Had any of us truly been paying attention to more than the circus quality of the former ringmaster of The Apprentice taking his moment in the electoral sun, we might have noticed that Donald Trump was — give him credit — a strangely open book, no ghostwriters in sight. He’s remained so ever since.
That June 16th, he displayed himself nakedly — except for the orange hair — before that audience of reporters and hired actors, as well as the rest of America, and he’s never put on a stitch of clothing since. His initial TV moment was not a once-in-a-lifetime but a first-in-a-lifetime performance by a man in the process of creating a genuine what-you-see-is-what-you-get presidential run and presidency.
As I mentioned, however, there was an exception to everything I’ve written above, as there usually is to all rules in life. One thing was missing from his speech, as it would be from all of the speeches, tweets, and rallies to follow. The single hidden factor in the Trump presidency (even if, like everything else about the man from bone spurs to Roy Cohn, it was always in plain sight) contradicted his endless presentation of himself as the ultimate businessman and dealmaker for a floundering and foundering America.
Donald Trump wasn’t actually a successful businessman at all, not in the normal sense anyway. He was an economic magician (or, in classic American terms, a con man) who regularly ground business after business — a set of casinos (at a time when other casinos were thriving), hotels, an airline, and a series of other endeavors ranging from Trump Steaks to Trump Vodka to Trump University — into the dust of bankruptcy or failure. What made him such a magician was that, in case after case, his greatest “business” skill proved to be jumping ship, dollars in hand, leaving those who trusted him, had faith in him, believed in him holding the bag.
He had a history of screwing anyone who relied on him, whether we’re talking about the investors in his Atlantic City casinos or a bevy of small business types and others who worked for him — plumbers, waiters, painters, cabinet makers — and were later stiffed. In other words, Americans elected a bankruptcy king as their president and character will tell.
There really are no secrets here. In the end, Donald Trump clearly cares about nothing but himself (and perhaps his family as an extension of that self).
So read or listen to that first campaign speech again. Reintroduce yourself to Donald Trump presenting himself with naked honesty — with that single exception — and then consider the future for a moment. Whether in his first or second term (should he win again in 2020), if things start to head south economically, count on this: he’ll repeat his well-documented history and jump ship, leaving the American people, including that beloved base of his, holding the bag.
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I thought we are already bankrupt.
That’s on hold for a little while until the Fed has no other choice than to let interest rates double or triple; at that point there will not be enough money to pay interest on the $22T+ debt and something is going to have to give.
Tuesday,
We are…just waiting for rigor mortis bankster death to whats left to the Middle Class to stiffen and set in for massive SERF conversion.
We went bankrupt in 2008…its a loooooooog process in the world of QE & uncounted trillions of dark – digital – despicable currency.
Picture Mr. Potter in: “Its a Wonderful Life” making his own movie – Producer, Director and the Star.
Yeah, when you use debt notes for money, you are bankrupt. US citizens think the Constitution applies to them also!? Like Carlin said, there are some dumb motherfuckers in this country!
Dear Tom, during the disastrous 8 years of BO, he DOUBLED the national debt and you Looney Liberals did not utter one word of protest. Now that President Trump is in office, all of a sudden you care about it!!!!!!!! Me thinks I smell a partisan political hack!!!
Oh by the way, remember these words “brevity is the soul of wit”!!! In other words, you could have said in one paragraph what it took you to say in 10 long rambling incoherent paragraphs!!! Please get back on your ADHD meds!!!
Tom’s overlong piece is one of the worst hit pieces I have ever seen on TBP. I too watched Trump’s ride down that escalator, Tom. But unlike insufferable pinhead Tom, I I thought: Well! There is my man. Warts and all. He was the only candidate who said illegal immigration was hurting this country. He was the only candidate who promised to do anything about it. He has been fighting the Deep State and the Dem-Repub cabal which is Owned by the Chamber of Commerce and corporate bullies and slavedrivers ever since. Damn right I sent him money every damn week. We are a nation with borders or we are a mass of screeching hordes demanding ‘help.’ I and millions of people like me are sick and tired of getting hosed by the ‘powers that be.’ So we went with a Queens street fighter. He has exceeded my expectations, Tom. Far exceeded them. And, Tom, nothing tells me that ‘we morons’ were right more than the treasonous effort to overthrow the government led by the Deep State Cabal, including their mainstream media whores and nauseating hangers on like you. We need many lampposts for your crowd, Tom.
And Tom, in case you did not notice this, Obama weaponized the IRS to destroy his opponents and got away with it; he weaponized the DOJ and FBI and got away with it (so far); he ran a corrupt foreign policy shop that specialized in extremely dangerous gambits like overthrowing the Ukrainian government, weaponizing Iran and then sending pallet loads of cash to help them do it and got away with it; he decapitated the leadership of Libya and then walked away to leave it to its fate, which now includes the largest slave markets openly operating in more than 200 years and got away with it; he ran guns for ISIS terrorists through a pseudo diplomatic outpost in Benghazi and then abandoned American fighters to die there while he flew off to Vegas for a fundraiser and got away with it; he ran a domestic political operation that included proclaiming – even from the Oval Office – 28 times that Americans would be able to keep their doctor and keep their health insurance and would enjoy a $2,500 annual reduction in their insurance premiums when in fact more than Eight Million people lost their health insurance, lost their doctors and lost their health security and he got way with this, too. Finally, Tom, he doubled the national debt and he destroyed the confidence of millions of people that their government is on their side.
Not anymore, Tom. We get it. We don’t like it. And that’s why Trump was elected. We parachuted the poor guy onto the deck of the Titanic and now we are cheering him on and praying to God that he can withstand the constant, batshit crazy attacks from tin foil hat people like you. Oh and Tom? Why yes, I am a Racist, a White Supremacist, a Moron, a Prole, an Islamaphobe, and a Bigot, Tom! Yes indeed. Have a nice day.
Fuck you downvoters. No offense.
No one could have said it better, Ranchwoman. I agree totally and I would give you 1000 thumbs up if Admin would allow.
Very nice riposte ma’am. If Trump is 100 percent con, he’s offering a 100 percent better con than the 100 percent cons he ran against, most especially Hilry.
He could have just said “I hate Trump” and then gone on to mop the floor like his wife told him a couple of days ago.
Perfect comment.
What Mustang said…..
Engelhardt has his head “up and locked” as my father occasionally remarked about me as a lad, suggesting I needed a glass belly button to see where I was going.
Everybody has already sidestepped Tom’s liberal, hypocritic puke, ad nauseum. We’ve seen it all over the pavement of congested parking lots hosting liberal opinion.
“Donald Trump wasn’t actually a successful businessman at all, not in the normal sense anyway.”
How wrong can anyone be?
Trump became a billionaire the same way anyone does, by fucking all the fucking fuckers around you before they can get their dicks out.
Con man? Grifter? Cheater? Liar? Unabashed Narcissist?
Resume stuffers for politicians who have never done anything except promote themselves. That’s most of them. In every country on this planet.
Obama’s Hope and Change Bankruptcy Hat Trick: Promising, in his Inaugural Address, his Administration would work tirelessly to rid the world of Nuclear Weapons (KaCHING!: Nobel Peace Prize) and ending his second term by handing taxpayers a $1 Trillion dollar bill for new, Nuclear Weapons. Liberals praised the his “protection”.
Eventually, at city hall, in state capitals, and every building in DC, pissed off partisans will insist on conducting Romper Room classes for corrupt politicians and their policia.
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2019/04/02/cartel-gunmen-disarm-and-kidnap-11-cops-in-mexico/
I had read a long ass time ago that Trump was great at building shit, he sucked at running a business. He billed himself as a great businessman and duped an entire generation.
Millions of morons failed to understand that a man who wanted free coverage from the [[[mega-media]]] and who refused to take campaign donations from the hoi polloi is a person who owes nothing to nobody (except the media). Hand him the reins of state, what can go wrong and who can call him on it since he doesn’t owe anything to the little people?
So, WTF didn’t you run and get elected?
You are billing yourself as a long ass?
Go back to your ESL class, moron.
Back from my ESL class after getting help with conjunctives.
You are billing yourself as a long ass who dumped on an entire generation?
Shit. F- at ESL today
I forgot to stick “accordingly” in your long ass
One of the Dem lower tier candidates is already promising each person $2000/month in UBI* if elected, out-Yanging Chairman Yang. Trump is going to have to offer at least $5000/month in UBI to remain in office. A huge bag of cash. It’ll be great.
*UBI is a Swahili word that means Free Shit.
I thought it stood for U Bin Injected.
Your EBT card show up late this month?
Well played….
When Donald the Great locks up all the evildoers (1,000,000 secret indictments) and takes their ill gotten gains and closes down the Federal Reserve, there will be plenty of money and we won’t be bankrupt.
You’re a day late.
Tom Englehardt. Whos that?
O Nobody.
Lets ask some failed 80’s sitcom star what she thinks next?
It’s really sad in a horrifically painful sort of way how clueless this author and 99% of the world population is regarding Trump.
Trump sees himself as an instrument of God to uplift Israel, initiate the building of the third jewish temple in Jerusalem and bring about world peace.
He is right about the instrument of God and the first two items but not about the last.
God’s true purpose for Trump is to set up the world conditions for the Rapture of the true church or Body of Christ and the coming NWO and reign of the Antichrist or false messiah for the last seven years of world history prior to the second coming or return of Jesus at Armageddon in approximately 2032.
At the LAST TRUMP. The TRUMP of God.
It doesn’t take a godly man to do this, just a man who truly believes he is acting directly on God’s behalf.
Speaking of blind Nazis, where is Yokes?
“God’s true purpose for Trump is to set up the world conditions for the Rapture of the true church or Body of Christ and the coming NWO and reign of the Antichrist or false messiah for the last seven years of world history prior to the second coming or return of Jesus at Armageddon in approximately 2032.”
Show me the scripture.
Open your eyes GCP. Don’t be cognitive dissonant. Don’t just be another cluess born again christian because it is to difficult or takes to much effort to truly know or understand. Or is easier to apathetically ignore.
It is your job not only to declare the Good News or the Gospel of Christ Jesus by grace and through faith but also what is soon coming and when on God’s prophetic timeline.
Do your homework. There is not just one scripture but many woven throughout the whole bible. Antone who truly knows God’s word cover to cover and is honest knows how it ends.
How it ends is one thing. When it ends is paramount.
2000 years after He came He will come again. Approximately 7 years prior to that He will rapture His true church.
Be ready or be left behind to suffer the reign of the false messiah or Antichrist and the Great Tribulation and judgement of God on an unbelieving world.
Beginning at the last trump. The trump of God.
I’m not born again. I’m a new creature. We are living in a mystery dispensation; an intentional pause in the prophetic timeline. I understand Daniels 70 years to the degree that I know we are not in them. I know how the book ends… you can’t know when Gods longsuffering grace toward humanity will end and that prophetic time clock begins to once again tick. It’s a mystery. To say you do is to lie.
“2000 years after He came He will come again. Approximately 7 years prior to that He will rapture His true church.”
Show me the scripture!
I also understand that the saved are not appointed unto wrath. I have zero fear of experiencing Gods wrath poured out on this world as it was already poured out on His Son on my behalf. We are to be ready for the translation at any moment just as Paul was; redeeming the time because the days are evil.
Stop trying to gauge Gods patience with humanity and be about His business seeing souls saved and saints edified.
Start here with Hosea 6:1&2 and 2nd Peter 3:8. 2 days or 2000 years after Christ’s first triumphal entry and crucifixion He will return in great fury, judgement and redemption for the 1 day or 1000 year millenial reign.
It’s not gauging it’s scripture. It doesn’t get any clearer than that.
Many people like you are just to afraid of being wrong about the timing you won’t admit the obviousness of it so you blow it off.
If Paul never was, I’d agree with you. But Paul happened… and a parenthetical time period was opened inside the prophetic calendar.
Prophesy was interrupted by the mystery kept secret since the world began. It can’t be found in Hosea or any of the major or minor prophets.
1 Corinthians 2:7-8 KJB… “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom , which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it , they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
People have been predicting the Lords return for a long time. With scripture. Exactly none of those people understand the mystery revealed to Paul.
I do not fear His physical return nor am I “blowing it off”. I won’t be here. Neither do I wish to hasten His return. The longer He tarries the more opportunities there are for men to be saved. When His offer of free grace is withdrawn, the body (his ambassadors of grace and peace – 2 Cor 5) will be called out and then and only then can the prophetic clock begin to tick.
Prophesy is an exact timeline. Something happened at the end of week 69 that no man nor angel expected. That “thing” is not found in scripture. It is unsearchable. It was “hid in God” till He chose to reveal it via Paul.
Ephesians 3:9 KJB… “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:”
The mystery is, among other things, a period of unprophesied (unknowable, uncountable, unreconcilable) time. We are 2,000 years and counting that time outside of prophesy. What you see in Hosea and Peters letters have to do with prophesied time… time that is knowable, searchable in scripture. The opposite of that which I speak.
All I can do is encourage you to learn of the mystery revealed to Paul. It is the last thing satan wants you to know. He’s done a phenomenal job obscuring it with religion and false “bibles”. We may have a day left to work; a hundred years, another thousand… it’s unknowable. I don’t need to know it. I have my instructions for this mystery dispensation; they are found in Paul’s epistles. I would see as many souls saved and saints edified as possible. God will end mystery and resume prophesy when He is good and ready.
Mysteries are meant to be revealed in due time or season and if you are not alive and around for Jesus’s coming for His true church to transform and gather them in the air unto Himself at the last trump, the trump of God, it will only be because you have physically died first. Even so you still go. The dead in Christ shall rise….
Focus on salvation and discipleship. Focus on His very soon return.
Come quickly Lord Jesus!
“Even so you still go. The dead in Christ shall rise….”
Agreed and amen.
“Focus on salvation…”
Agreed and amen.
grace country pastor, The blind who will not see,
I had just finished reading this post below on Don Koenig’s site, THE PROPHETIC YEARS when I read both your posts and thought you both would find his opinions and the commenters of interest. I have been a long time follower of his as I find his mix (in his blog) of scripture, prophecy and current day politics fascinating.
His site has been up since 99 and is a huge body of work. He is a man of strong opinions, a bit tart in what I find a non nonsense likable way.
If you scroll through his blogs you will find he deals directly with a host of prophcy, cultural and political issues.
WORLD TYRANNY ARRIVING SOONER OR LATER COURTESY OF FABIAN PROGRESSIVES
Posted on March 30, 2019 by Don KoenigMarch 31, 2019
Main site: http://www.thepropheticyears.com
Thanks for the link Mark, I’ll check it out!
I’m in agreement with nearly everything this fellow sees Mark. I even have to say that the 6,000 year lifespan 1,000 year reign makes sense to me. What I can’t do is put my finger on the scripture and say it’s true, so I don’t. It might be, it might not…
The mystery nature of this dispensation may very well last 2,000 years. If that’s the case we’re down to minutes here… time is more or less up.
I hope the Lord tarries even if it means my continued persecution that more people have a chance at salvation by grace alone.
Pastor,
I whole heartily agree with the tarrying hope as there are so many unsaved in my family who I regularly am trying to reach and I believe making progress with. Everyone knowing me so well (I was a hard case after coming home from war) and then witnessing my radical conversion in 93 that obviously changed my heart, mouth, conduct and attitude etc. I have credibility with them.
I had one old friend who was going through a life crisis call me up asking me questions about God. I finally asked him what he wanted from God. He emotionally said:
“I want God to do to me…what he did to you!”
To be candid I am also not sold on Pre-Trib. Not looking for a debate with anyone, it is a delicate point with Believers. I’m not saying it’s not possible, I just believe Pre Wrath (sometime during the 6th Seal) is possible. (I have studied that one for years).
If Pre-Wrath is correct the persecution will be, wide, deep and relentless. That is one of the reasons why I am a committed Prepper and planning to be able to live (by next fall) off grid and feed myself and immediate family.
How about this one:
“For He bruises, but he binds up; He wounds, but His hands make whole. He shall deliver you in six troubles, yes, in seven no evil shall touch you. In famine He shall redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and you shall not be afraid of destruction when it comes. You shall laugh at destruction and famine and you shall not be afraid of the beasts of the earth. For you shall have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you. You shall know that your tent is in peace; you shall visit your dwelling and find nothing amiss.” Job 5:18-24 NKJV
However, if Pre-Trib is correct my farm/homestead/solar home will be a God-send for many in my family, every pun intended.
CNBC?
Still, it is better than what Hillary Clinton would have provided us.
Peq, you understand the choices well.
Pretty sad when these are these are your only choices. I agree that Obama was a fraud but isn’t Trump just more of the same. He is supposedly fighting against illegal immigration but doesn’t mention E-Verify or prosecuting those who hire illegals. Talks about draining the swamp but hires John Bolton , Steve Mnuchin, Pompeo, etc. etc. Campaigns against foreign interventions but all the wars continue. Why should we be satisfied that at least he’s better than Clinton?
And I do remember an article in the Philadelphia Daily News back in the late 80s or early 90s about the small contractors who got screwed when one of his casinos went bankrupt.
Help us understand by giving your vision of what Hillary would have done in her role as “Leader of the Free World”?
Thanks.
Never heard of this Englehardt before. And never will again. There are – by my count – three main reasonably legitimate grievances against the Trump presidency: 1) He’s accomplished very little on the Wall, ending illegal immigration and deporting a shit-ton of people who need deporting 2) the deficit has gotten a lot worse and 3) we’re butting our nose into other countries’ shit (Venezuela). This Engelhardt says little about those three issues. Instead he’s rattling on about Trump being a racist. What the fuck ever.
Let’s see if T can do 4 years’ work in under 2. If he does, it will be fun to watch.
It amazes me how people can pin all their hopes and dreams onto one person, get him into office, and think everything is going to turn out for the better. The only way things will change is for enough people to come together and make that change for themselves. There is no voting our way out of this.
Yellow vests?
Black guns?
Author carrying the water for ol’ Hill. Some people can’t get enough of her. The hatian children she murdered in ritual sacrifice got more than too much of her, sure, but some other people can’t get enough of her wicked old self.
Don’t forget about her girlfriend, Huma.
I’m voting for him again and again and again!
Are you a caravanero, Jose?
Read a couple of paragraphs, switched to reading the comments… much better.
Often the case.
I would like to ask Mr. Englehardt if he was still pissed off over Hillary losing. That set can never cloak their feelings and reactions. Each and every time you ask one of those people that question they will get pissed off at you real quick, right now, and all the time.
Could it be that the Mueller report deflated his ego?
No, it pissed him and his ilk off even more and now they talk about even crazier shit. There’s no back down for these people. They’re like a pit bull who thinks he’s going to maul some person to death even though the intended victim is holding a pistol.
It is going to happen sure as the sun coming up in the morning. Trump had a lot of help and we would be remiss not to remember them.
Sorry but it is hard for me to take the rest of this seriously when he starts off telling us that Mitt ran against young Senator Obama in 2012 when Obama had been POTUS for four years by then.
I was tricked into voting for a con-man, instead of the immoral, lying, murderous, thieving, sickly nasty cunt who thought she was owed the presidency.
My bad.
Major budget cuts coming in the second term
Hey: Tom Engelhart… Really dumb article… THINK!!! $22 trillion current US Debt; $200+ trillion in unfunded liabilities; deficit spending at $790million annually – just like Barry.
Besides the numbers – available to all who can pull their head out of where the sun don’t shine – ( you excluded obviously), you miss the bigger point. The establishment: Progressives, RINOs and general dumb-ass congressional reps have owned the bankrupting of the US for the past 75 years – whetgher it is welfare or warfare.
This is hardly a Trump problem even though he has not reigned in the Swamp and missed the chance to kill off some of the swamp creatures by restricting spending.
This Steel video is a year old (I just watched it) and I found it fascinating. The time distance provides some perspective.
Some here I respect have said Steele is controlled opposition.
However, I agree with much of what he says on this video as he viciously attacks the Zionists (especially Israel – the NeoCons) and the Banksters, and names the Lidless Eye Rothschild’s in no uncertain terms…yet he believes Trump (who he says has 9 Banksters alumni he has brought into the White House) is keeping his enemies close. I find that many not auspicious chess but suspicious checkers.
I thought there was much here to contemplate. The man does not chew his cabbage twice and has an amazing intellect.
ROBERT DAVID STEELE ON ZIONISM, THE MIDDLE EAST AND CENTRAL BANKS
100,207 views
Published on Apr 7, 2018
Robert David Steele, former US Marine and spy, condemns Zionist control of US national security policies and spending. Steele was recently recommended for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The opinion expressed here is not necessarily the editorial policy of PanOrient News.
So, a Presidential candidate telling the world who he is by creating his own narrative, laying out the foundation of policies and beliefs, and using the tax code to get rich (including utilizing bankruptcy as a strategy) is somehow bad, wrong and corrupt. Dude you are off your rocker. You just mad because all the leftist candidates got (had) was a campaign on criminalizing DJT, a russian collusion fake news narrative and white hate. And you wonder why leftsist keep on losing amd DJT is truly making us all sick of winning just like he said he would. This snowflake author needs to find a safe space on some leftist college and utilize the playdough as therapy because he cannot stand alpha capitalist men. Probably having soy latte withdrawals and missing bis boyfriend…..
The Trump Files: Watch The Trumps Not Be Able To Multiply 17 By 6
The Stupidest Ass Hole On Earth!
The Trump Files: Watch The Trumps Not Be Able To Multiply 17 By 6
The Stupid SON Said 17×6=96
The Fuckface Motherfucker AKA The Extremely STABLE GENIUS said 17×6 = It’s ELEVEN TWELVE, IT’S ONE TWELVE.
America is FUCKED!
This one turned into a Steaming Pile of Shit didn’t it ? it’s Sept. 5th 2022