The Greatest Con-Artist Lawyer of All Time

Attorney Michael Avenatti is the most evil and corrupt lawyer I’ve ever read about. I thought He had reached maximum sleaze when I knew him as the ‘Creepy Porn Lawyer’ who was the legal pimp for porn star Stormy Daniels. Avenatti may well go down as the greatest huckster lawyer in American history, considering the absolute number of people he has hoodwinked. The whole time he has gone before the cameras and presenting himself as a nobleman, he was robbing his clients blind.

Among the clients Avenatti allegedly cheated was Geoffrey Ernest Johnson, a mentally ill paraplegic on disability. In 2015, after Johnson won a $4 million lawsuit against Los Angeles County, the money was wired to Avenatti, who kept it for himself, according to the indictment.

After he won another case in 2017, Avenatti allegedly concealed $2.75 million in proceeds from that client’s settlement.

He is accused of stealing $300,000 from Stormy Daniels. He had money from her book deal sent directly to his account. He forged checks made out to her. When Daniels asked about the royalties, Avenatti said there was no money coming because of poor book sales.

“Michael Avenatti allegedly stole from his clients, and he stole from the IRS,” said Ryan L. Korner, the chief of IRS criminal investigations in Los Angeles. “The money was used to fuel a lavish lifestyle that had no limits, including making mortgage payments on a multimillion-dollar home in Laguna Beach and purchasing a private plane.”

In April, a federal grand jury has indicted embattled lawyer Michael Avenatti on “36 counts of fraud, extortion, perjury, failure to pay taxes, embezzlement and other financial crimes.” He is facing 400 years in prison if convicted on all counts of his alleged crimes.

In a series of tweets, he has protested his innocence. He seems to be someone incapable of showing remorse by the way he parrots standard lawyer-talk statements:

“For 20 years, I have represented Davids vs. Goliaths and relied on due process and our system of justice. Along the way, I have made many powerful enemies. I am entitled to a FULL presumption of innocence and am confident that justice will be done once ALL of the facts are known.”
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti)

“I intend to fully fight all charges and plead NOT GUILTY. I look forward to the entire truth being known as opposed to a one-sided version meant to sideline me.”
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti)

The so-called news media were completely fooled by this con artist. Avenatti has appeared on CNN a whopping 74 times. He has made a total of 254 TV news appearances. The 47-year-old attorney has also appeared on broadcast network programs, including NBC’s “Megyn Kelly Today” and “Today,” ABC’s “The View” and “Good Morning America,” HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” and CBS’s “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “60 Minutes.”

Michael Avenatti proves that the liberal media will give coverage to anyone who has something negative to say about President Trump. As long as they have fresh dirt to add to the pile, they don’t care who is making the claim. Russ Vaughn at American Thinker made me laugh with his description of Avenatti’s relationship with the liberal media:

“Avenatti might as well have been on the back of a safari Land Rover throwing out chicken entrails while traversing a hyena preserve. The slavering pack of lefty talking heads greedily gorged themselves on every fetid tidbit, nodding in smug agreement, smacking their feral lips for more.”

The press had almost no reflection of the poor investment it made into this weasel. They just suddenly dropped him like they did a dozen other discredited Trump critics. The New Avenatti doesn’t have to be of any higher moral character because the liberal media are solely guided by a leftist agenda.

A few years ago, it would be easy to predict that Michael Avenatti would likely be spending several years behind bars. Since people like Hillary Clinton and actor Jussie Smollett walked free from similar charges of obvious wrongdoing, I’m unsure if this criminal will ever face justice. We have simply degraded into the time of lawlessness that Jesus warned would be a sign of the end. Since it’s hard to conceive of a greater reprobate than Avenatti, I would cite him as evidence of the nearness of our promised salvation from this corrupt world.

“And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved” (Matthew 24:12-13).

–Todd

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Slithering Toward Sodom

The late Robert H. Bork saw it coming. His book, Slouching Toward Gomorrah, examined America’s decline in morality and movement into cultural decay. He gave the title to his book in terms reflecting on the poet Yeats’ 1919 poem, ”Slouching Toward Bethlehem.”

The United States was not, in Bork’s view, moving toward salvation of any sort, but toward depravity not unlike that which brought the wrath of the Almighty upon the infamous cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Bork was arguably the most distinguished, conservative legal scholar of his era. He served as a Yale Law School professor, solicitor general, acting attorney general, and a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. President Ronald Reagan nominated him for the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987. Many readers will remember the upheaval created by Senator Edward M. Kennedy  and the Democrat Party over the nomination at the time. Bork was ultimately rejected by the Senate.

The proceedings in the “Borking” of the distinguished legal scholar (as Kennedy scoffingly called the travesty he caused against Bork and later Clarence Thomas) was itself indicative of the decline in morality and culture of which Bork forewarned. The salacious accusations–none of which were proven–were but a foretaste of what we’ve since seen take place against another innocent person, President Donald J. Trump.

That we have surpassed the good judge’s prediction that the nation was slouching toward Gomorrah could not, in my estimation, be clearer. The title of this commentary is, therefore, altogether fitting and appropriate, I think.

An emailer a week or two ago set me to thinking seriously on just how far down that slimy slide into the immorality America has moved. The emailer was reporting firsthand what went on in the very streets in front of her shop.

Here is a considerable portion of her report. My thanks to her for permitting me to share it with you.

This past weekend our city put on what they referred to as an arts festival. When I opened the blind on my shop I thought of that old television show, The Twilight Zone, only married to The Walking Dead.

An old friend, who is a police officer, actually kind of sheltered in place in my store for most of the day. He is not a believer but he is very distressed at what he sees and told me of the masses of police officers that are retiring early or committing suicide.

No matter the age, biological sex, race or nationality, full-on weirdness was the order of the day. Two “married” women carrying a small child walking a large dog wearing a huge purple tutu, men holding hands, women with half their heads shaved and the rest dyed in every color you could imagine.

They made a point of making direct and pretty hostile eye contact, almost like a dare.

I told my dad that I thought the aggressiveness of this “pride” movement reminded me of the people of Sodom, hanging around the town square and trying to push into Lot’s home. I see a parallel in behaviors. Homosexuals have been with us for a long time, but, it’s this new aggressive, in-your-face mob that makes me think time is about up.

I kept my door locked the entire day and closed at 4 pm. I sensed a great deal of hostility…not the America of just over a decade ago, Charlie Brown Christmas, and It’s a Wonderful Life…

We have crossed some threshold and I don’t see us going back. I saw an awful lot of rainbow-colored rosaries, the nearest Catholic church having a homosexual priest. Tarot card readings, magical crystals, and pet consultations with the local witch being another attraction.

The emailer expressed, then, the thought of many who anticipate Titus 2:13:

“I would be so sad if I did not know we are all going AWAY very soon to the most wonderful place anyone can imagine.”

Hourly news reports validate our emailer’s concerns. The movement toward cultures and societies becoming more like that of Sodom and Gomorrah is worldwide–and intensifying in its evil. It is becoming increasingly dangerous, for example, for anyone to oppose that evil.

A majority in Brazil’s Supreme Court has voted in favor of making homophobia and transphobia crimes.

Six out of 11 judges voted to consider discrimination against gays and transgender people equivalent to racism…

“Homophobic crimes are as alarming as physical violence,” Supreme Court Vice-President Luiz Fux said on his vote, citing “epidemic levels of homophobic violence”.

For almost 20 years there have been efforts to make homophobia a crime in Brazil, but legislation on the matter has faced resistance among conservative and religious groups in Congress, the BBC’s Julia Carneiro in Rio reports.

The decision at the Supreme Court means that offences are to be punished under the country’s racism law until Congress approves specific legislation to protect LGBT people, our correspondent adds.

The remaining judges will vote in a session scheduled for 5 June. (“Majority in Brazil’s top court to make homophobia and transphobia crimes, BBC, 24 May, 2019)

It is wrong for any people to be mistreated in any way whatsoever. Those caught up in the LGBT and other such anti-God activities are not to be mistreated, but prayed for and given the gospel light so that they might turn to Jesus Christ. However, Satan is turning up the pressure, it is obvious, to prompt the world of rebels to force the rest of us to condone their depravity as acceptable.

That old serpent is, thereby, indeed causing many to slither with him toward Sodom.

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:28-30)  

 –Terry

Today: They Don’t Burn Books; They Bury Them

Mark Levin is an American lawyer, author, and radio personality. He is a firebrand for constitutional conservative beliefs. He specializes in exposing leftist tactics by the Democrats and the liberal media. He is the host of the syndicated radio show The Mark Levin Show, as well as Life, Liberty & Levin on Fox News.

Mark has some of his greatest success in the book world. He authored the 2005 book Men In Black: How The Supreme Court Is Destroying America, in which he advanced his thesis that activist judges on the Supreme Court have “legislated from the bench.” Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto was released in 2009 and became a #1 New York Times bestseller for eleven to twelve weeks. His 2013 book The Liberty Amendments laid out a plan for restoring the American Republic by suggesting eleven new constitutional amendments.

This latest book has just been released. It is called Unfreedom of the Press, and the liberal media are going to need to get the smelling salts. Just check out the Amazon description:

“… A groundbreaking and enlightening book that shows how the great tradition of the American free press has degenerated into a standard profession that has squandered the faith and trust of the American public, not through the actions of government officials, but through its own abandonment of reportorial integrity and objective journalism.”

Because Satan has found that the liberal media make for an effective tool for guiding and controlling society, it is a must order. Levin doesn’t understand the demonic link to the media, but a Christian reading the book can see Satan’s hand at work.

I was motivated to write about Mark’s new book, but not because of its content; I wrote about it because I could not find it on Amazon.com. It will come right up if you type in “Unfreedom of the Press.” If you had never heard of the book, it’s unlikely that you would stumble across the book. As I was searching through the various categories in the Book section of Amazon, I could not find the book that was their current #1 seller.

Wal-Mart sells more bananas than any other product. They are generally located in the front of the store in the central area of the produce department. If Wal-Mart had the bananas in the far back corner in the fabric section, there would be many complaints.

It is very strange that a company that started out as a bookseller and has become the go-to place for ranking of books would make it so hard to find the current top seller. In the book section there is a list of Celebrity Picks, which are books picked out by mostly liberal celebrities. On top is a Book Awards section, which is by leftist-leaning organizations. I didn’t find Levin’s book in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Books, which is a requirement for every book page. There is a Best Books of the Month section, which I’m guessing were hand-selected by Amazon staff.

Mark Levin has set a trap for the New York Times. In one of his chapters, he details how the NYT downplayed the holocaust, the largest mass murder of human beings in history. I think the NYT will break from decades of tradition of listing their book of raw sales. The NYT will create a new form of tabulation that largely overlooks Levin’s book.

It would be a very shocking sight to see piles of books being burned by a government that approved of a set content. Because Amazon can block what people are able to see in their search results, we might as well have scenes of Brown Shirt Nazis emptying physical libraries and burning books that fail to meet up to the new Aryan standard. Because censorship only requires a few lines of computer code, books can be buried with little notice.

The madness that has become the left is likely the same group who will murder tribulation saints. The Democratic Party is so sure of their moral footings that they will soon kill believers with not the slightest trace of guilt.

“They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God” (John 16:2).

–Todd

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The Snare Is Set

Hal Lindsey, of The Late, Great, Planet Earth fame, called it “the great snatching up.” The mental picture is of one of those old Jungle Jim films starring Johnny Weissmuller in his post-Tarzan days.

A leopard or other big cat would be stalking through a thick jungle and suddenly it would be violently snatched up when it hit a certain trip mechanism on the snare. A thick net would grab the beast and it would spring upward with the enraged cat, keeping it encased while it flailed mightily above the jungle floor. Jungle Jim would then have captured a leopard for a zoo or he would have rid the area of a man-eater. It was all very exciting for a boy of ten or so sitting in an air-conditioned  movie theater munching popcorn back in those days.

Before those beasts could be caught up, of course, much preparation was made by the one doing the capture. Jungle Jim would usually order natives of the area to carefully place the net flat in a jungle pathway, then camouflage it. The sapling or thick branch was then bent to provide the tremendous spring the trap would need to capture and hold a 150-pound or larger leopard. With the big cat captured, the people left on the ground would be safe from its prowling about and possibly its attacking the most vulnerable inhabitants of the African countryside.

Hal Lindsey, of course, was talking about “the great snatching up” in reverse, so to speak. He, in his biblically prophetic study of times surrounding his writing The Late, Great, Planet Earth, was talking about the prophecy given by Jesus as recorded by the Apostle Luke:

And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. (Luke 21:34-36)

In this case, as laid out by the Lord, Himself, the viciousness of the beast world will be left on the earth, and the people to be protected will be snatched into the air to safety. Peter the apostle says this about the one who is even now on the ground that surrounds us, looking to attack us: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

The Apostle Paul tells us in great detail about this “snatching up.” Here is the prophecy most directly pertinent:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

 Harpazo, as many know, is the Greek word to express being “caught up.” People who live to experience the Rapture and Christians who have died during the Church Age (Age of Grace) will be “caught up” or “snatched up.” It will happen in the “twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52).

This instantaneous event that removes God’s people from deadly conditions on earth, unlike ol’ Jungle Jim’s snare that leaves people safe on the ground from the leopard while removing the evil, takes no preparation by any human agency. Jesus finished all preparation on the cross at Calvary when He said, “It is finished.”

All one must do to be removed in that twinkling-of-an-eye moment is to believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ according to Romans 10:9-10. While no preparation needs be made beyond simply accepting that call to salvation, the snare is set that will soon leave the world of rebels against God to face the roaring lion described by Peter.

We have, in these commentaries over the years, gone over in depth all of the signals Jesus and the prophets foretold will be in view at the time of this snare-like intervention into the affairs of rebellious earth dwellers. Those indicators are literally everywhere we look upon the planet’s end-times horizon. The spiritually attuned believer can know when that end-times generation will appear at the very end of the age.

Israel, the fig tree in prophetic symbolism, is the key sign.

Again, we look at Scripture to see that the snare is now set that will catapult Christians to Heaven.

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

–Terry

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We at Rapture Ready join Rev Graham in asking all of our friends and RR family to pray for the president June 2.

We also ask that you pray daily for him and for the nation.

Here is Franklin Graham’s request.

 

Dear Friend, Along with 250+ Christian leaders, I am asking followers of Christ across our nation to set aside next Sunday, June 2, as a special day of prayer for the President, Donald J. Trump. President Trump’s enemies continue to try everything to destroy him, his family, and the presidency. In the history of our country, no president has been attacked as he has. I believe the only hope for him, and this nation, is God. This is a critical time for America. We’re on the edge of a precipice. Time is short. We need to pray for God to intervene. We need to ask God to protect, strengthen, encourage, and guide the President. We know that God hears and answers prayer. He can soften hearts and change minds. He is all-powerful, and He rules over the affairs of nations. The Bible instructs us to pray for those in authority, “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior” (1 Timothy 2:2–3, NKJV). On June 2, we ask that pastors would lead their congregations in praying for the President, that Sunday schools and other groups would join together and pray, and that individuals and families across the country would have a special focus on praying for the President that day. Would you please join us in prayer and tell others so that we can have as many people as possible praying? Sincerely, Franklin Graham President, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association & Samaritan’s Purse