The Nehor

This isn’t correct. The two remaining tribes were Judah and Benjamin. The other ten (eleven if you count Joseph as two tribes for both Ephraim and Manasseh) were believed to be largely lost after the defeat by the Assyrians. The return of the lost tribes isn’t something you will find anything recent about.

When I was younger and stupider I heard about a child trafficking case involving someone who created sadistic child porn. I looked into it because the punishment seemed incredibly harsh. Then I found out that hardened members of Interpol and other law enforcement organizations who primarily worked these cases called it the worst they had ever seen. I obviously didn’t see it but I did read a description. I barely made it to the bathroom before I emptied my whole stomach. I know of one case where a guy in the FBI (family member of a friend) retired after about a decade in that kind of department. He killed himself a few days after leaving. It is a messed up world. I don’t think Ballard falls into that group though. It sounds like he was making up his past in order to fundraise. He would boldly claim he worked for the CIA and other federal agencies but got very cagey when pressed for specifics. Also the terminology he used to describe his job when he was supposedly in the CIA is not CIA terminology. https://www.fox13now.com/news/fox-13-investigates/operative-or-intern-tim-ballards-story-of-working-for-the-cia-keeps-changing I think he is a case of always being bad. I am basing this on an acquaintance of mine who knew him years ago. He described him as self-aggrandizing and a habitual liar about anything that could make himself sound good. This person was glad not to have to work with him anymore. When law enforcement breaks under the strain or become too jaded Ballard is not what you get. You don’t get a flashy “look at me” daredevil bragging about how much good they do and trying to convince everyone they are a special forces version of Rambo. They usually become an alcoholic or succumb to depression or become abusive to try to deal with the pain.

I don’t agree with the Zion’s Camp bit. The purpose of the Camp/militia wasn’t to protect the Saints after the state gave them their land back. They might have done that if the state had stepped in but they were also told they might have to fight and take the land by force.

That is not a wild statement. It is the accepted historical reality. Not sure if you were joking there. I assume you were. Yahweh was originally a polytheistic storm deity. Then someone (Josiah?) tried to make the Yahweh cult the sole religion. Then someone wrote up a kind of vassal contract with God (Deuteronomy). Then they lost the given land and Judaism spent a lot of time trying to figure out what it meant to be a vassal of a God who gave them a promised land when the land wasn’t held by them anymore. He started out in opposition to another storm deity Baal. Yahweh won. Eventually El and Yahweh basically fused together. Here is a good video tracking what we know about the origins of Yahweh within the polytheism of the time. Long but worth it. Also the prophets of Israel and Judah were not anything like modern apostles and prophets. They were more into ecstatic trances and mysticism and there is evidence they used mind-altering substances.

But it will give us experience and be for our good!

I believe he is morally guilty even if he is not legally culpable. I read the text messages. He creepy. I talked to someone who knew him. He creepy. I suspect Elder Ballard was more involved than the Church might wish he was. Too many events where they were together. I don’t need the courts to adjudicate what I think about him and his antics. Even if the whole thing was a fever dream his anti-trafficking campaign was stupid and counterproductive. I think you are confused. The Constitution isn’t there to guarantee or deny someone respect and a good character by providing courts to figure that out. Being found not guilty doesn’t make you a good person. I remember your previous comments where you were convinced he was a good guy based solely on his demeanor (or that he was a rabid hidden sociopath). Most likely neither of those are true. He is probably just a deeply flawed human being who used manipulation and predatory tactics to seduce women. He is a lot like a garden variety cult leader. He has some charisma but uses it primarily to try to feed his ego and his sex drive. Like most cult leaders.

Spoilers: Eru-Iluvatar is reali. Also Azathoth.

And the general answer is often that it is general preparation for the next life. This just makes me worried about the afterlife. If God thinks this kind of suffering is this valuable and instructive and good and prepares us for the next life what is heaven and/or exaltation actually like? What new instructive torments await?

George Soros is a common antisemite bogeyman. He is a billionaire philanthropist. To the nutty he is also part of a secret cabal bent on world domination and the destruction of everything good and pure because he is a wealthy Jew. Talking about Soros being behind something is an anti-Semite dogwhistle. He did use a psychic. She was talked about here before. She was a nut. Yeah, many people are morally terrible but can’t be convicted of anything. Sounds like garden variety megalomania to me. Unrealistic plans (being president and/or prophet), recklessness, and being very intrusive. Excessive self-confidence and a superiority complex. Thinks the rules don’t apply to him. Checks a lot of the boxes.

I suspect recreational drug use. His mannerisms and his megalomania might have been created or exacerbated by it.

I want to know which option brings me closer to understanding reality and not which one might make me feel better. If I was choosing a belief on how it made me feel there are far happier options to pick from. Also nihilism is not always atheistic nor is it always despair. It can be. Then again a belief in a divine judgement can lead to despair too. So can a belief in reincarnation or that you will die and go to Sheol.

That is a folklore belief. I don’t. Not really. It is not purely a choice. Many have little to no reason to believe God is trustworthy.

I don’t find the idea that a lot of evil comes from the decisions of humans convincing. We were put in a world that fosters this kind of competition and predation on each other. It is baked into the system. If God created the world he was okay with the suffering we would inflict on each other since the environment and our own nature actively encourages it. It is like putting three rats into a cage with only enough food for two to eat enough to survive and enough for one to eat their fill and then tutting them as bad for getting violent about it.

Critics usually think they are gonna be an action hero and take out a shooter.

Sounds accurate. When you put yourselves in someone else’s shoes and can only imagine nefarious motives for their decisions it is not likely to help with empathy. Putting yourself in another’s shoes is not as valuable as actually listening to what they have to say as to why they are doing what they are doing. If the reasons they give are trite or superficial or a fabrication then you can feel pity for them but it is unlikely to build any kind of respect. On the other hand if you learn about their experience and allow it to work with you a bit and maybe overwrite some preconceptions you might get somewhere.

How dare you use my tithing to support those horrible dreamers? Those foul children who *checks notes*spent most of their childhood in America and possibly don’t even remember living in their country of origin? They are horrible criminals and we should scream about a fraction of our tithing money hypothetically going to support their nefarious plan to *checks notes*….. get an education? I suspect far too many members are overdosing on propaganda.

That is a little off. They didn’t just refuse to take up arms in their nation’s defense. They took up arms in rebellion against their nation. After they were defeated they were given the choice to fight for their nation or be executed.

Really, Antifa is busting up polling sites and intimidating voters? How many Trump rallies has Antifa trashed and shut down? That was what the SA’s most common functions were. Instead we have a few fascists getting a good punching that had nothing to do with an election.. That is about it and even that doesn’t happen much anymore. Don’t compare things to the SA unless you actually have a grasp of what the SA did. It is irresponsible. Peaceful prayers and protests. And attempting to cancel people who said mean things about Charlie Kirk. And government officials threatening to violate the First Amendment and use government power to punish people who said mean things about Charlie Kirk. Some were suggesting that people who said mean things about him should lose their passport or be denied driver’s licenses and the like. So just ripping up the Constitution for funsies. That is far scarier than a bunch of protests. Or even the imaginary riots the non-legacy media made up to scare people like you. Trump does not support the separation of powers. He attempts to boot out any who oppose him. He threatens to investigate and jail political opponents. He ruins the careers of Republicans who don’t follow his whims. Not the party’s ideology, him personally. He is anti-Constitution. This is conspiracy nonsense. I was on the internet right before January 6th. I saw the planning. It was not orchestrated by the imaginary deep state. It was maniacs frothing at the mouth over losing an election. I expected it to happen. So did the President. That is why he wouldn’t tell the insurrectionists to leave until it was clear they had failed. Until then he was stirring it up with his speech and giving permission to act. Then he watched it on television. He was reported to be gleeful. The one bit of disapproval he reportedly conveyed was disappointment about how “low class” the whole thing was. On the day when I heard the speech I knew it was going to go badly. It did. There was no need for the imagined undercover FBI agents to stir it up. Also it would be basically impossible to orchestrate such an operation. 250 undercover FBI agents and not one of them spoke out about how they were being used as political operatives. Not one was conservative? The conspiracy wouldn’t work. It is just a big and audacious lie.

Losers celebrating losers. The Nazi regime lasted 12 years and was so bad at leading that the entire regime was completely deposed. They were bad at economics, bad at governing, and horribly bad at war.

Nothing about Antifa’s supposed objective. Also the chalkboard is a bunch of evidenceless imaginary hookum. If they could tie these supposed Antifa activists to anything concrete they would. If they could actually trace these supposed funding sources they would. They can’t. It is all conspiracy theory nonsense. Anyone could claim to be Antifa. There are no funding sources. There is no rash of far-left violence being perpetuated by the supposed network of Antifa agents. There is as much truth to this as there is in the old Protocols of the Elders of Zion nonsense.

And some of them supported or voted for the fascists because they thought it would serve their own ends and could be controlled and hoped that it wouldn’t be “that bad”.

He went way too far to make that realistically believable. There is compliance with a murderous regime and then there is enthusiasm for it. He was enthusiastic. The Church Mission Presidents were a little too enthusiastic about getting along with the changing regimes in Europe. There was a big push to dust off the 12th Article of Faith as a rationale for compliance. Even after the war Hubener was not loved by many of the German saints, some of whom did some terrible things. Arnold Schwarzenegger said this about his childhood. He grew up in Austria and was born in 1947: The damage that comes from compliance can be devastating. After the war many of the German saints resented Hubener for taking another path.

What Charlie Kirk wanted (whether consciously or not) was a world where a white male pilot is assumed to be competent. They are the default. Anyone else must prove themselves and is assumed to have achieved their position due to some unfair advantage that makes their competence inherently suspect.

He is gonna keep burning bridges. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up in Russia in a few years appealing to their thrilling propaganda. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot_MO0-oZdc

I’m shocked. Seriously this is my shocked face. It just looks like my regular face. Right. Someone felt so strongly they had to support Ballard for some reason that they decided to leak this to him but wouldn’t give any details. Guessing this never actually happened. Now we are relying on pagan omens as signs of divine favor? Did he consult the livers of sacrificed animals to confirm? Also don’t think this happened. It is a safe lie since few can contradict it and most wouldn’t. His inner Trump is what got him into this mess in the first place. It is not about the supposed victims. Gotta focus on the movie career where I pretend to be a supersoldier. So….. rebranded blood libel mingled with satanic panic tropes. How original. And of course it is all made-up rubbish.