Last Word: Do NFL'ers Have A Right To Be Foolish?

Sure, but they have the right to suffer for their bad decisions too. 

Many of them are adolescents in an adult body and are intimidated by other team members or family, and friends back home. Yes, I know ... I am patronizing ... but I too have free speech.

Don't be too hard on youthful ignorance. But be very hard on the Team owners, coaches, and NBA officials who condoned or ignored their players' unreasonable actions. So, the primary fault and responsibility is with the leadership. Your patriotic outrage is what has forced the NFL, coaches, owners, and players to back down. They don't want to admit it, and give other reasons, but that is exactly what it was. They are claiming it had nothing to do with the National Anthem, Flag or Nation. That is disingenuous. It was done during the National Anthem, not before or after. They blame it on Trump. But, who believes they would not have reacted to the uproar had Trump said nothing? 

Here's what the NFL game operations manual says regarding the national anthem ... The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.
"Clubs face warnings and other penalties for noncompliance."

It is not my contention that NFL football players do not have the "right" to refuse to respect our flag, pledge of allegiance or National Anthem. They do have that "right" to express their own opinion. It is called "Free Speech" and that is protected by the Constitution, but that doesn't mean it is "right" to do it, without consequences. Since they are demonstrating on the team owner's and the NFL's time, instead of their own, they can be fired or fined for showing disrespect on the field. They were not hired, by the owners, to do that and the NFL has the authority to punish or fine them for breaking NFL rules. Those rules are clear on respecting our flag and Anthem. They have fined hundreds of other players for breaking rules much less offensive than the anthem one. The NFL officials can, and have, forbidden players to do certain things which were actually highly appropriate and commendable. Things like wearing a special commemorative patch honoring the six policemen who were murdered by terrorists in Dallas in July of 2016. Didn't the Dallas Cowboys have a free speech right to do that? Of course, they did, but the NFL officials forbade it, lest someone be offended. Who would that be? Terrorists? So the NFL is hypocritical and, like all Liberals, use their authority, power, and double standard inaction to promote their own opinions and stifle their patriotic opponent's opinions, who also have a Constitutional right to object and dump the NFL.

Football fans have equal rights too. They have the right to boo those they believe to be bad sports or hypocrites. They have the right to put pressure on the NFL officials and team owner, like Jerry Jones, to put a stop to their "employee" players demonstrating their disrespect on the owner's and the audience's time. They can do that on their own time and at their own expense. The fans also have the right to cease attending, or watching on TV, NFL games and buying their shirts and paraphernalia. They also have the right to condemn the players, coaches, owners and NFL officials for such juvenile, inexcusable, demonstrations as was expressed by showing disrespect to Old Glory and The Star Spangled Banner. The fans also have a right to demand that the State and Federal Governments cancel all financial (taxpayer money) assistance, which runs into the hundreds of $millions being given to NFL teams. It's a fact. Google it.

Now, my rights: I have a Constitutional Right and obligation to our forefathers, my country, my family, my friends and my God to stand up and give you God's word and my free speech, verbally, with a megaphone, microphone, telephone, email or blog. And I have done that in 21,000 sermons over the last 60 years and 1800 blogs over the last 9 years, and will continue to do so until the U.S.KGB, FBI, CIA, DNC, or 666 come and get me. They can't take much from this old bag of bones anyway. In the meantime, my voice, sight, and hearing may have cooled off, but my trigger finger and keyboard are smoking. 

End of story. Their egregious error has backfired in their faces and they are promising it won't happen again. Maybe not, but they still feel anger toward our nation. He who is convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. 

Who Is This Firebrand, Alabama Judge, Roy Moore

Help him win a U.S. Senator seat in December. Call your Alabama friends... Send him money ... Pray for him.

Here is the heart of Judge Roy Moore's victory speech after he won the Alabama, Republican primary election, from Senator Luther Strange, to run against the Democrat Candidate in December. It will give you an idea of what kind of U.S. Senator he will make ... in Washington.

"As long as it's constitutional, as long as it advances our society, our culture, our country, I will be supportive. As long as it's constitutional. But we have to return the knowledge of God and the Constitution of the United States to the United States Congress.

"I believe we can make America great, but we must make America good, and you cannot make America good without acknowledging the sovereign source of that goodness, the sovereign source of our law, liberty, and government, which is Almighty God.

"We have become a nation that has distanced ourselves from the very foundation. [George] Washington said that of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."

Who Exactly Is Roy Moore?

From CNN News

The former Alabama state Supreme Court chief justice has won the Republican senate primary runoff in Alabama, so he stands a good chance of becoming the next US senator out of Dixie, despite running up against a heavily funded Republican establishment pick in the primary and now facing Democrat Doug Jones in December.

Even with President Donald Trump asking his backers to cast a ballot for Sen. Luther Strange, who was appointed to the in-demand seat after Jeff Sessions left to take over the Justice Department, the heat down South was with the firebrand. On Monday night, Breitbart boss Steve Bannon joined the candidate for a rally in Fairhope. He also has the support for right-wing favorites Sarah Palin and Sebastian Gorka. 

But Moore is hardly a product of the present political moment. In fact, he's something of a throwback to a different era of conservative rule -- the George W. Bush years, when his virulent anti-gay, right-wing views made him a national figure.

Roy vs. Rove

"For Mitch McConnell and Ward Baker and Karl Rove and Steven Law, all the instruments that tried to destroy Judge Moore and his family, your day of reckoning is coming," Bannon said at the Monday night campaign rally.

This particular round of animosity is tied to McConnell's efforts, through the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC, to beat back Moore's Senate bid with a flurry of attack ads. But Rove and Moore go further back.

During the 2000 race for the chief justice seat on the Alabama state Supreme Court, Moore's establishment competition, Associate Justice Harold See, drafted Karl Rove to help his wealthy but increasingly unhealthy campaign. To no avail. Moore won the Republican primary, avoiding even a run-off, with 55% of the vote. He defeated the Democratic nominee in the fall and began his first term in 2001.

Roy, the "Rock" and gay marriage

Moore is most famous for the fights that twice led to his departure from the state's high court.

In the 1990s, Moore had done legal battle over a wooden "Ten Commandments" plaque in his courtroom. But after taking over as chief justice, he escalated -- planting a granite monument to the commandments, weighing in at more than 5,000 pounds, inside the state supreme court building.

A series of legal challenges, successful ones, eventually left Moore with a choice: either follow federal orders and remove the rock or be removed himself. And so he was, in November 2003, by a judicial ethics panel

Moore ran and won again in 2012. But again, he defied a federal court decision -- this time striking down state laws banning same-sex marriage -- and found himself facing off with the same ethics body that effectively ousted him nearly a decade earlier. In April of this year, he resigned his post to pursue Sessions' vacated seat.

Roy takes on same-sex parents

The controversies that marked Moore's brief tenure, the first of two abbreviated terms, on the Alabama Supreme Court were not limited to his decorating tastes. A child custody case in 2002 was less of a national cause célèbre, but Moore used the outcome, and his concurrence, to author a vicious attack on same-sex parents.

"I write specially to state that the homosexual conduct of a parent -- conduct involving a sexual relationship between two persons of the same gender -- creates a strong presumption of unfitness that alone is sufficient justification for denying that parent custody of his or her own children or prohibiting the adoption of the children of others," he said in one of the opinion's more tame passages.

In others, Moore labeled "homosexual conduct" by parents as being "detrimental to the children," writing that it "is, and has been, considered abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature's God upon which this nation and our laws are predicated."

Roy's poetry

Moore has often spiced up his political rhetoric with live renditions of original verse. Here's a snippet from one widely quoted poem. It begins, ruefully:

America the beautiful, or so you used to be.

Land of the Pilgrims' pride; I'm glad they'll never see:

Babies piled in dumpsters, Abortion on demand,

Oh, sweet land of liberty; your house is on the sand.

Too soft to put a killer in a well deserved tomb,

But brave enough to kill that child before he leaves the womb.

If you want to read more, this October 2015 feature from The Atlantic includes an extended recollection of a poem Moore recited during a convention of Southern Baptists.

Let America Restore Real Equality To The NFL

What do you call a bunch of millionaire, entitled, talented, adult adolescents who are cheered and loved by millions for the way they play with a little pointy ball and are worshiped as idols by their millions of fanatical followers. But still, they feel inferior, hated, hindered and abused by their adoring fans who are the great, great, great grandchildren of slave owners 156 years ago? These ball babies were not the slaves and we were not their owners. The police they hate are not the enemy. Our common enemy is the lawbreakers who the ball babies relate to, not the police they have contempt for. "Pitiful" is the word. Equality is not what they seek. They are already superior in fame, extreme wealth, privilege and luxury ... adored and excused for their faults and failures by the nation. What they really want is not equality but the domination of the nation. Let us give them true equality by ceasing to worship them and by moving their goal line and goal posts the same distance from the 50-yard line as that of the rest of us. We must repent of our error of giving them too much too young. We must correct our mistake of making them feel more special than others. We must restore to them our own level of equality with equal commonality, equal ignominy, equal love of America, equal income employment, and equal responsibility for their actions. We and the NFL are responsible for their deified illusions. After all, it was not they who put themselves on exalted pedestals but us sports fans. They will not willingly step down from their lofty, superiority perches. We must take them down. History will show that human beings who were elevated to the "worshipful master" level of sports stars, movie stars political stars and pulpit stars, are the worst kind of tyrannical hypocrites who never have enough power and privilege. Such egotistic delusion has a way of working itself into the centers of political power to rule over others. To name a few most infamous ones ... Hitler, Stalin, Mau Ts Tung, Kim Jong Un, Putin, and yes, Obama, Hillary, John McCain, Mitch McConnell .

But even more guilty than the players are the NFL officials who could easily have stopped the disrespect to our nation at its first demonstration ... but didn't, and now it is a political cancer which may kill the NFL and further wound our nation. 


They who would never bend a knee for the Lord,
willingly bend one for a false cause. $$$$$$$$$

Jerry Jones, if you ever had any dignity, its out the window

___________________________________

Source for the following commentary: Washington Times

If you’ve followed the news in the past week–and even if you haven’t–you’re no doubt aware of the NFL debacle. 

Overpaid executives and pampered athletes have joined forces, but not to honor and respect America. No, these members of the National Football League have made sure to reignite and back what Colin Kaepernick started last season: kneeling during our National Anthem. 

How do most veterans feel? 

Republican Congressman Brian Mast, a veteran who lost both legs during combat in Afghanistan, says these players should be shown the door, and at the very least penalized. 

“I have taken a knee after jumping out of a helicopter as we looked for the enemy, taken a knee in front of the Soldiers Cross as we mourned a fallen brother and taken a knee in church. Any player who has taken a knee to protest this great country during its anthem should already be gone,” explained the Florida Republican Congressman. 

But Congressman Mast isn’t the only one. Steelers’ offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva made national headlines after refusing to join the rest of his teammates who decided to sit the anthem out. Villanueva is a West Point graduate and served three tours of duty, earning the Bronze Star for his acts of valor. 

While the NFL claims to care about fighting “oppression” and simply wants to “level the playing field” for all Americans, it’s clear that their current solution is nothing but a cop-out. What have they actually contributed to solve the problems they so desperately claim affect America? It’s interesting that none of the players bent on stirring controversy have actually taken positive action. 

Donate money. Get involved in your community. Affect a positive change. But have any of them done this? No. 

Because protesting is easy. Taking a knee to spit in the face of America’s values–the values that thousands of men and women have died to defend–provides nothing to affect real change. Instead, it has contributed to division and hatred. 

At the end of the day, protecting our Nation’s flag, anthem, and military members should be our number one priority. Because if they didn’t “have our 6”, there would be no NFL in the first place–or America for that matter. 

You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

Fact Is Stranger Than Fiction

This Catholic Church was founded 1000 years ago and burned in the great London fire of 1666. The present building was then rebuilt on the same spot. A thousand years identified as a "Christian Church", with all the trappings of the Roman religion, have not made it one of Christ's Churches. The decreed promise of Jesus that, "... Upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it",  prove conclusively that  Saint Andrew Holborn Catholic Church is neither Saintly, Universal nor a Church of Jesus Christ. The "gates of hell" have, indeed "prevailed" against this counterfeit of a "Christian Church".

This from The UK Daily Mail in London
BLASPHEMY: Bishop's blast at 'satanic' London Fashion Week show that turned a church into a catwalk

• 
  
• Row erupted after part of London Fashion Week was held in London church
• Ex-Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, said satanic aspect 'not acceptable' 
• St Andrew Holborn church said it had always supported London Fashion Week

By Jonathan Petre on Sunday

A bitter row has erupted after a fashion show featuring satanic designs was held at a historic church.

Leading clerics branded the event ‘blasphemous’ after models dressed as devils and vampires sashayed in front of the altar.

The show, part of London Fashion Week, was highlighting the work of controversial Turkish designer Dilara Findikoglu, whose creations have been worn by celebrities including singer Rihanna.

Against a backdrop of demonic images, heavily made-up models wearing horns or displaying upside-down crosses paraded down the aisle-turned-catwalk of St Andrew Holborn church in Central London last week.

Ms. Findikoglu, who has been described as an ‘up-and-coming rebel of the fashion world’, told Vogue magazine earlier this month of her fascination with the occult and magic.

But the former Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, said the satanic aspect of the show was ‘not acceptable’ and could lead people ‘to areas where we don’t want them to go.’

He said: ‘Christians will be outraged. This was not necessary to do. In the sense that Christ’s name is being dishonored, it is blasphemous.’

Theologian Dr. Adrian Hilton wrote in his Archbishop Cranmer blog: ‘How is it possible that a sacred space can be used for what can only be described as Lucifer lauding? How does hosting a Satanic Fashion Show glorify God?’

The church was founded 1,000 years ago and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Its current Vicar is the Bishop of Fulham, Jonathan Baker.

____________________________________

Conservative Catholics have got to be conflicted when they see this sort of thing and hear their "infallible" Pope defending Liberal Atheists and Socialistic politicians on unbiblical social and political issues. Which do you suppose God holds in highest priority ... Truth or Harmony? RB

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron...." 1Tim.4:1-2.

"And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your  heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21:28

Consequences Walk In The Steps Of Hatred And Stupidity

Whatsoever a fool soweth ... that shall he also reap 

The Quarterback of "Citizen, America Haters", King Colin Kaeperneck, Quarterback for the San Francisco 49er's, who refuses to show respect for our American Flag or National Anthem, is the leader of the parade of the growing number of Americans who have come down with his same odious virus. What these, in your face, insulters of our nation, our flag and our Anthem have actually succeeded in doing is not what they intended. They have increased in number alright, but they have also cut off their noses to spite their faces. The crowds attending their team's games are decreasing and the NFL-TV ratings are dropping rapidly because they let it happen and thereby encouraged it. As much as I enjoyed pro-football, I haven't tuned them in this season and am not going to. Below is the "lit fuse" results of what may lead to the end of this strange, fanatical religion ... screaming, wild-eyed, sports fans. Glorifying sports and sports "idols" is far worse than glorifying the U.S. Constitution and the men of God who drafted it for the rights, well being and freedom of all Americans. Maybe its time to tear down the sports idols and false gods which draw larger crowds than Jesus.

________________________________
This photo and Headline from FOX News

NFL players kneel for national anthem in London, but stand for British anthem, after Trump rips athletes
________________________



The Daily Caller reports

It’s Shocking How Empty The Stadium Was For Thursday Night Football

The San Francisco 49ers Thursday night game against the Los Angeles Rams
kicked off in front of a nearly empty stadium

Los Angeles Times reporter Lindsey Thiry tweeted a photo at the time of kickoff, which showed thousands of open seats. In fact, most sections in the photo have more empty seats than fans. 

ESPN’s Darren Rovell reported that 63,500 tickets had been sold for the game, but of course, simply selling a ticket doesn’t mean the buyer will actually show up to the game

This is not a great look for the NFL. TV ratings are already on the decline, and now people aren’t even going to the games.

The NFL is the crown jewel of American sports. It can’t be overstated how awful the optics of an empty stadium for a prime time game is.

NFL management needs to isolate the problem and fix it
before things continue to spiral downward.

One tolerated act of rebellion encourages a host of others.

Navy Sailor Refuses To Stand For National Anthem - IMMEDIATELY Regrets It.

WRITTEN BY DAVID MILLER

A former Navy intelligence specialist recently took a page out of Colin Kaepernick's playbook and refused to stand for the national anthem during morning colors. However, she quickly learned she'd made a huge mistake.

Conservative Tribune reported that Petty Officer 2nd Class Janaye Ervin was stripped of her security clearance and assigned to menial labor for a few days before she was forced to leave the Navy for disrespecting our country so blatantly.

It all started on September 19, when Ervin refused to stand for the anthem when she was on reserve duty at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. The International BusinessTimes reported that Ervin claimed she was trying to make a statement about blacks being persecuted in the United States by doing this.  "I just didn't want to stand at that moment," Ervin said "I can't stand for this song knowing that the song isn't for me, being black. The song doesn't represent me at all. To be honest, I never really thought about the flag my entire life, I had no reason to. It's just a flag."

The next day, Ervin's superiors read her her rights and gave her a warning about potentially compromising her security clearance, which she needed for both her military and her civilian job. One day after that, she was stripped of her security clearance and escorted out of the secure area where she was working.

Ervin is now claiming that she was never told which order she was violating, but this is clearly a lie since she violated the 10th General Order for Sentries, "...To salute all officers and colors and standards not cased....." which is taught in Navy boot camp.                                                 
                                                                                          
All members of the Navy are required to memorize all 11 general orders in bootcamp, and they are aware that violating any one of them is subject to Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and is subject to whatever punishment is decided by court-martial.

On September 21, Ervin took to Facebook to publicly whine about how "unfair" this has been for her.  "The Navy has decided to punish me for defending the Constitution and has taken away my equipment I need to do my Naval job," she wrote, according to PopularMilitary.com.

Hey, Janaye, the Navy did not take ANYTHING from you.  You forfeited your own job when you knowingly violated a general order. 
______________________________

God's Original Plan And Purpose For You Is Still The Same

God's original purpose and plan for man is revealed in the first chapter of the Bible, at creation. His planned purpose was and still is, that we might be in the "image and likeness" of our heavenly Father, Creator.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Gen. 1:26-27

But in order for us to be in our heavenly Father's "likeness", He gave us a tiny fraction of his own Omniscience, Omnipresence, Omnipotence, and Omni-will. That means we got a tiny bit of His own capability, in knowledge, presence, power, and free will to choose. This latter, fractional likeness, allows us to decide to seek to make God's will our will or to rebel against His will and purpose for us. So it was that the first man and woman chose disobedience and thus passed on to all of their descendants the willful human nature to rebel against God's will and purpose, in making us in His likeness, spiritually. Therefore, God planned a means of bringing those who "would" seek His will, whom He "foreknew", back into His will and purpose through a Messiah Savior, Jesus Christ. He would be "the firstborn among many brethren". He would lead the way, pay the price, and redeem the willing back unto Himself to seek our Father's Spiritual "likeness" which was in Jesus Christ, our example and Lord.

"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Rom.8:29.

Through faith in Jesus Christ, God's firstborn, He opened to all who would come unto Him, the doors of invitation into his presence, power, knowledge, and will ... that we might become  "partakers of His divine nature"...  Christ-likeness. 

"According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 2 Pet.1:3-4

Jesus admonished His disciples (us) with this goal for our lives... "Christ-likeness".

"I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." John 13:15.  ...Christ-likeness.

"Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind ...." 1Pet.4:1.  ...Christ-likeness.

"Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Rom.6:4.  ...Christ-likeness.

"If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind..." Phil.2:1-2.  ...Christ-likeness.

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass (mirror) the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Cor.3:18.  ...Christ-likeness.

"Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Phil.2:4-5.  ...

Christ-likeness.

There is a day when we will become fully Christ-like ... God's restored, finished product ... for eternity....

"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.' 1Cor. 15:51-52.  ... Christlikeness.

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." 1 John 3:2-3.  ...Christ-likeness.

New York Post's Report On Illegal Taping Of Trump

Wall Street Journal Also Reported This Yesterday

Wiretaps may prove Trump right,

and that’s absolutely terrifying.

Over the years, a curious habit has taken hold at the United Nations. A body designed to strengthen the best of humanity has too often become a font of doublespeak and appeasement that protects the worst of humanity.

That tragic comity was shattered when President Trump played the skunk at the garden party and dared to tell the truth. Many truths, in fact.

Among them, that Islamic terrorism is a scourge that must be stopped. That Iran is controlled by a “murderous regime” bent on getting nukes.

That North Korea’s “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission” and the United States “will have no choice but to totally destroy” that country if war begins. And that socialism and communism have failed everywhere, including Cuba and Venezuela.

The delegates and heads of state got The Full Trump, including what it means to put America First. It was the president’s finest, most complete expression of his worldview and, thankfully, contained no apologies for American power or history.

Yet even as Trump spoke, a threat to his presidency gained new steam. Reports that special counsel Robert Mueller had wiretapped former Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort and plans to indict him sent Washington into a new tizzy of speculation.

According to CNN, which first carried the wiretapping report, Manafort was surveilled under a FISA warrant, meaning the FBI suspected he was operating as a foreign agent. The network said it is possible G-men listened to the president talking to Manafort because the wiretap continued into this year and Trump and Manafort often talked in 2017.

If so, that would mark an infamous history — an American president being overheard by secret agents of his own government.

It would also be additional support for Trump’s charge that former President Barack Obama “had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory.”

It was in March when Trump made that explosive claim, and the Democratic media rushed to denounce him even before Obama did. Subsequent denials from then-FBI boss James Comey and other Obama aides all were rock-solid in declaring that no such thing had happened. There was no wiggle room in their denials, some of which were made under oath before Congress.

But something certainly happened. And what if it was the worst imaginable something? What if the Republican candidate for president was put under surveillance by a Democratic administration that was trying to elect another Democrat?

There was reason to suspect that was true before the Manafort reports added fuel to the fire.

Recall that, starting last fall, continuing throughout the transition and into the early months of the administration, much of the media was obsessed with the narrative that “Russia hacked the election and Trump colluded.”

It was a feeding frenzy of reports naming various Trump associates who had any contacts with Russians. It was guilt by association, all based on leaks of classified secrets that originated either in law enforcement or intelligence agencies, or the Obama White House.

As I wrote back in April, at least six people from the campaign, including Trump himself, were identified in various reports as having been picked up in intercepted communications.

Always, the reports insisted that the Americans were not the targets of the surveillance, that they were “incidentally” picked up while talking to targets.

Those six included Gen. Mike Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, then-Senator and now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Jared Kushner.

Another was Carter Page, briefly a Trump adviser, and Manafort.

But since then, media reports say that Page was, in fact, being surveilled under a FISA warrant. And now we learn that Manafort was, too.

So those initial reports about the Trumpsters being “incidentally” picked up were wrong. Fake news, you might say, because Manafort and Page were FBI targets whose communications were being intercepted — and the media’s sources had to have known that.

That the public has been lied to repeatedly is beyond doubt. Recall also that Susan Rice, Obama’s last national security adviser, initially claimed, in interviews, to know nothing about the “unmasking” of Americans whose names were picked up in intercepted calls

But before Congress, she told a different tale — about needing to know who in Trump’s circle met with a visiting official from the United Arab Emirates, and so she “unmasked” their names.

Thus, skepticism is required over her insistence that she knows nothing about how those names were then leaked to the media, which could be a felony.

And we still don’t know why Samantha Power, Obama’s UN ambassador, frequently requested the names of Americans picked up in foreign surveillance. Such information would have no bearing on her job, yet her requests were said to be routinely granted.

Related current reasons to doubt our government’s honesty involve the Hillary Clinton email case. For example, the State Department refused to release ­emails to Judicial Watch showing how she arranged government favors for big donors to the Clinton Foundation until a court ordered it to ... last week.

And the FBI still refuses to allow two top aides to appear before Congress, even though the aides told a Justice Department investigator that Comey had written a draft letter exonerating Clinton months before he interviewed her or 15 other witnesses.

These and other incidents appear to be part of the effort to undermine Trump from within the government, and they give rise to a growing belief that America is infected with a “deep state,” a malevolent permanent bureaucracy that feels entitled to power and will stop at almost nothing to keep it.

But I’m beginning to wonder. The more we learn about the last eight years and eight months, the more reason there is to believe that something is rotten in Washington. I have been reluctant to reach that conclusion, believing that “deep state” is a more fitting concept for a Third World country that has corrupted institutions and no rule of law or history of individual freedom.

But I’m beginning to wonder. The more we learn about the last eight years and eight months, the more reason there is to believe that something is rotten in Washington.

I don’t just mean the ordinary corruption of the swamp variety. I mean something fundamental, something that suggests major elements in our government believe they, and not the people, are sovereign.

Which brings us back to the ultimate test: Did Obama or somebody working for him put Trump under surveillance during or after the election for the purpose of a political coup?

It’s a frightening question, all the more so because I suspect the answer will be yes — if we can ever get to the truth.