I wish this was just paranoia, but it’s real. It seems to me the current political environment is calculated to stomp all over everything we stand for. It is eery how well-aimed certain activities appear to be in this regard. But the most disorienting thing about it is that Trump has no legal authority and yet, like a bad penny, he remains at the head of our country.
Trump’s election in 2024 was not legal. He was only allowed to appear on the ballot thanks to ‘conservative’ manipulation of the Supreme Court. Therefore, his presence in the White House is nothing more than insubstantial hocus pocus. We betray the Constitution every time we talk about him as though he belongs there.
However, there is a more horrifying part of this–the shadowy cabal in the background with plans to duplicate Trump when he’s gone. The cabal is helped along by the silence of our news media, which is supposed to be helping us. Meanwhile, the media’s pundits harangue us for not doing anything to stop the bad guys. What exactly are they suggesting I wonder? I assume they mean we should protest even though protests are ongoing.
Counting Our Blessings?
If this was the wild west we would form a posse and hang the bastards–anything less would be futile. But I don’t think that’s what the pundits have in mind. If they dared to suggest such a thing, they wouldn’t remain in their cushy jobs for long.
Then there’s the famous progressive tactic of fighting the bastards through the electoral system. Sadly, the only positive effect I can see from our participation the 2016 and 2020 elections is that we forced them to show their hand before they were ready. They have actually been here for decades betraying us in small increments in hopes that we wouldn’t notice what they were doing. Now we see them.
I’ve been re-reading an article from my files about the Mormon Mafia and the JFK assassination by John F. Sweeney. I haven’t written about Sweeney’s paper and I don’t intend to write about it today. It is quite damning and I don’t want more trouble in my life than I’ve already had. Another reason I haven’t written about it is the hundreds of JFK assassination theories that already exist. This article is about a book cited by Sweeney, The Cleansing of America1 by Willard Cleon Skousen. My question is whether we should be connecting Project 2025, Opus Dei & and Mormons?
Conspiracies
If you like to research the books you read, as I do, Cleon Skousen’s book is on another level of believability. It does not depend on sources. In fact, it doesn’t depend on reality at all. Skousen claims to know God’s plan for the United States and the World. And as we all know too well, such beliefs are the political currency of our time.
Cleon Skousen Left Instructions For Future Publication of His Book
The Preface tells us this book represents years of writing and speaking about prophecy and the latter days relative to the United States. Skousen told his family that he wrote it for them, but he didn’t feel comfortable going public with it until the time was right. He left instructions for future publication and included the assurance that his family would know when the time was right. It would be a chaotic time, he said. Abandonment of the constitution would be among the many horrors. (Apparently the time was right in 2010.)
He says The Restoration of the Gospel is What Peter Had in Mind When He Talked About ‘The Restitution of All Things’
According to the Introduction, this book is a sequel to The Majesty of God’s Law, which Skousen says relied ‘almost entirely on the Bible and standard secular sources’. However, for this prophecy concerning the last days in America he had to use the marvelous works of the Restoration (The Book of Mormon). Skousen believes the Restoration of the Mormon Church was what Peter had in mind when he talked about ‘the restitution of all things’.
Summary of the Introduction
The central theme of The Cleansing of America is the preparation of America for six major purposes:
The restoration of the Constitution
The adoption of God’s law
The introduction of a Zion society under the Law of Consecration with individual stewardships.
The great last gathering of Israel
The coming of the ten tribes
The building of the New Jerusalem
Chapter 1: The Divine Destiny of America
In chapter one we learn that the end goal is the ‘divine destiny of America’. But first, nine things must happen:
1. The Message of the Restored Gospel Must Flood the Earth
The message of the restored gospel must flood the earth in order to search out the remnants of Israel and prepare them for the great last gathering. This has increased since 1989 because the world has opened up.
2. But First America Must Be Cleansed
But first we must cleanse America. The near future will see the fulfillment of the time of the gentiles in America. At that time, the wickedness of the gentiles will have so thoroughly sinned against the gospel and desecrated the land that it will go beyond the further endurance of God.
3. The Wicked Will Be Eliminated by a Scourge
The Lord says the means of this cleansing will be a desolating scourge, which will eliminate the elements of wickedness among the gentiles as well as the members of the church.
4. Church Members Will Flee From a Military Dictatorship to America
Members of the church worldwide will flee to a cleansed America before it is too late. A military world dictatorship will draft others into service unless they flee to America first.
5. The Western Hemisphere Will Be Sealed Off
(The dictators? The Church leadership?) will seal off the Western hemisphere to avoid attacks from outside. The roaring seas will prevent anyone from reaching America either by sea or by air.
6. America Will Be the Only Place on Earth Where There Will Be Peace
The scripture says at that time America will be the only place on the face of the earth where there will be peace. This will allow the people organization of the people according to God’s law. Zion’s cities will be built up to provide freedom, peace and prosperity for the inhabitants of all faiths and the new Jerusalem will be set up as the capitol to govern the entire land.
7. After Armageddon Jesus Will Appear to the Jews and Wipe Out the Military Dictatorship. America Will No Longer Be Sealed Off.
After the Battle of Armageddon, Jesus will appear to the Jews and the leaders of the military dictatorship will be wiped out. (Apparently, the military dictators are the bad guys. The text never says who is accomplishing the cleansing and the sealing up.) With only a sixth of the army surviving, the battered remnants will flee back to their homes. America will no longer need to be sealed off. Thereafter, the New Jerusalem in America will be the Zion from which shall go forth the law with the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
8. After Armageddon, the Remnant of Other Nations Will Be Fighting Each Other. The Ten Tribes Will Journey to the Temples of America and Warn the nations for the Last Time. Those who Reject the Message Will be Sealed Up To Destruction In Christ’s Second Coming
After the fall of Gog and Magog, following the Battle of Armageddon, the remnants of the remaining nations will be fighting and quarreling among themselves. Meanwhile, the ten tribes will make their miraculous journey to the temples in America. Twelve thousand will be chosen from each of the tribes. These 144,000 will go out among the nations to warn them for the last time. Those who reject their message will be sealed up to destruction at the time of Christ’s second coming.
9. Before the Second Coming There Will be Gigantic Changes on the Earth.
And just before the second coming there will be many gigantic changes on the surface of the earth. The continents and island will become one land. The mountains will be lowered, the seas will be forced back to the poles, and the earth will be restored to its paradisiacle glory just as it was before the Fall.
According to Skousen, the Lord has said that all of these things must occur before the ushering in of the millennium. So, where are we now on this continuum?
The Signs of the Times (According to Skousen)
“The hedonistic disintegration of the culture in recent years is virtually unbelievable. All the elements of rot and corruption which have destroyed three previous civilizations on this continent are now spreading the same poisonous decadence on every level of American society. Who would ever have guessed that America would outlaw Bible reading, prayer, or the ten commandments in public schools? Or legalize the abortion of 40 million American babies in a single generation…or tolerate a flood of murders, robberies, violent assaults and rapes exceeding that of any other nation in the world? …[W]ho would have thought that with the hundreds of millions spent to build prisons, the most dangerous types of criminals would be turned loose on the streets because officials claimed they had no room to hold them? Or… the filth pouring out in books, magazines, television and motion pictures? [Who woud have believed] the thousands of children being sexually abused, even by their own parents? Or the legalizing of sodomy as an optionally judicially protected lifestyle and calling it part of the new morality?” (Skousen, Chapter 1)
Fatalism
Skousen then informs the reader that many prophets have predicted doom for this nation. They say the only way to avoid destruction is if the entire people repents. However, not one of the prophets, including Maroni, the last prophet of the Nephites, believed repentence would take place.
The Importance of Civilizational Decline in Right-Wing Scenarios
I explained in a previous article the importance of civilizational decline in right-wing scenarios. Here Skousen spins his own version of certain doom for the United States. His warning to the gentiles, those who are strangers to the law of God: if they fail to repent the sword of the justice of God will come upon them.
Giving Goodness a Bad Name
It’s a terrible thing to hold someone’s religious beliefs up to ridicule. But if those beliefs result in judging and physically destroying entire nations, they mock the patience and good will the American people have shown to the Mormons.
No doubt as members of the human race we all have much to repent for, the Mormons Church included. I’m not thinking so much of church members who have strayed. I’m thinking of the church’s leadership. One wonders if Skousen’s prophecy of a scourge was behind Donald Trump’s failure to act during the Covid crisis. And perhaps the South African refugees are members of the church and they are fleeing to America before it is sealed off? Finally, could the imprisoning of immigrants have something to do with building a Zion society?
This may sound farfetched, but what else can explain the unflinching cruelty of the current administration?
The Cleansing of America, W. Cleon Skousen, Valor Publishing Group, April 2, 2010. âŠī¸
This is an essay for politicians who seem to have forgotten the important relationship between mercy and judgment in 2025. It’s also for their colleagues and loved ones.
If you’re wondering why I’m picking on politicians, it’s because there is a raging epidemic of politicians who don’t feel they have to answer to anyone, least of all their constituents. Nor do they bother to respond to the pleas of religious leaders begging them to change their ways. This is particularly reckless behavior because it is the duty of religious leaders to care for their immortal souls.
I should have known this would happen, but I never considered it. And now it’s time to say good bye to Pope Francis. I have spent quite a bit of time watching other people’s tributes to him. I couldn’t imagine how they could say anything so soon, but of course they aren’t writing blogs on their own schedule. They have editors, managers, and advisors. But their tributes were helpful. I’ll link them at the end.
Harold Kaplan entitled his essay on Madame Bovary ‘the seriousness of comedy’. In his view, and that of other literary critics cited by him, this work is a ‘special form of dry comedy’ in that it stresses the conflict between feeling agent and unfeeling object. Its effect is the spirit of comedy without humor.
Can democrats criticize the Enlightenment? In Harold Kaplan’s analysis of modern literature, he doesn’t criticize the Enlightenment (late 17th to early 19th century), but he mentions it as a timeframe for a modern state of mind which has been detrimental to western thought.1 He doesn’t criticize the Enlightenment in Democratic Humanism and American Literature either.2 He mentions it rarely, for example when he mentions that Melville’s ‘insights deserted the confident ideas of the Enlightenment’. Kaplan is a democrat. His analysis of Democratic humanism analyzes how well the writers of American classics defended democracy.
The skeptical mode is the source of modernism’s contempt for the human intellect. Or maybe it’s better to say modernism’s contempt for the human’s ability to know anything. Harold Kaplan1 says we have come to believe this mode is the strongest trait of an enlightened modern consciousness. Metaphysics might seem to be the focus of this skepticism, but its focus is primarily the ordinary human consciousness.
In this series, I want to share my thoughts about Harold Kaplan’s book, The Passive Voice1. Kaplan deals with several related literary topics, but they all arise from the crisis of knowledge in modern intellectual history. I have some doubts about my part in this endeavor, which I’ll state briefly in this introduction to the series.
Diego Fares SJ wrote an article in 2018 about ‘the spirit of fierceness‘. He said this spirit pervades all of human history. It has a certain dynamic–opposition against ‘the other’. I think Fares’s article is important because it provides tools to help us guard against spiritual contagion.
There is a problem with the progressive conversation. Progressives have apparently forgotten everything that has happened since the 2016 election. Maybe that’s why they keep trying to help the Democratic Party. They started doing this while the Biden administration was still in control and they continued through the Harris campaign. Now they’re scratching their heads over what they see as Democratic incompetence in dealing with Trump. This is very frustrating.
Progressives are ignoring certain facts, which I list below. Those with knowledge of American politics will have to decide if the following facts are helpful. It’s important to mention that improving the conversation may not improve the political situation. But if the alternative media channels insist on talking about politics they should consider all the facts. Otherwise they will just add to the chaos.
The 2016 Election
Progressives’ ability to remember certain important facts would improve the conversation.
The Democratic Party demonstrated its ability to keep a candidate out of the White House. Yet Trump is the President.
Some Democrats openly admitted during Bernie’s campaign that they preferred Trump to someone like Bernie.
The DNC’s frantic and obvious effort to destroy Bernie’s candidacy–twice– was suspicious. In my opinion the Democrats chose suspicious behavior over decorum, even though the best competitors they could offer clung to an establishment worldview rejected by progressives.
In the 2016 campaign, the DNC styled Hilary Clinton as the Democratic version of an emperor. Think white pantsuit, golden lighting, arms raised like a prizefighter. Maybe that’s why she couldn’t communicate to the voters why she wanted to be president.
Donald Trump announced his candidacy after a meeting with Bill Clinton.
Hilary received enough cash after her loss to Donald Trump to purchase the estate next to her New York residence.
The 2024 Election
Since Trump’s second inauguration, the Democratic Establishment has continued to act as though they are watching a play. It took Elon Musk’s outrageous behavior to jolt Congressional Democrats out of their stupor.
During Bernie’s campaign, Members of Congress didn’t need an unelected billionaire to wake them up. They were united in their contempt for Bernie. This attitude filtered down to state Democratic parties. I believe the Maricopa County Democratic Party is a good example of the DNC’s thorough organizing effort.
We shouldn’t forget that the DNC did not stand behind Joe Biden in 2024. In addition, they failed to inform the electorate of the Biden/Harris administration’s strengths.
Why did it take so long for Congress to become ‘aroused’, as Chuck Schumer put it? Were they waiting for their cue from the DNC?
At least one Democratic Representative may have received a cue. This is Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Leader of the US House of Representatives. He claims the Republicans are in control and the Democrats can’t do anything about it. Jeffries almost sounds like he’s calling for someone else to step in. But maybe it only seems that way to me because of my own background.
The Enemy From Within
Donald Trump has told us that the problem in America is ‘the enemy from within’.
The Mormon Church has been warning its membership about the enemy from within for decades. There will come a time, the Church claims, when the Constitution will be hanging by a thread. At that time Mormon leaders will be called upon to step in and rescue us.
The Church also predicts that it will be put in charge of ‘poor relief’. This is the exact term used for the Catholic Church when it was still a European institution. At its height, the Catholic Church owned a third of the land of Europe. We don’t know how much land the Mormon Church now owns worldwide because it is often bought furtively. But we know it’s a lot.
The Church in Utah uses the US welfare program to pressure recipients to be active in the Church. This aspect of the current crisis makes me believe these actors are no joke. There is a takeover in progress and its exact characteristics, while not known to us, have already been worked out.
Jonathan Rauch has been making the rounds of certain alternative media channels to promote the Mormon Church as an authority on civic religion.
