Why Do People Go to Russia, China, and North Korea?

We need to ban all US citizens from going to nations run by Dictators. I would never visit a country where the leadership could willy-nilly decide to prevent me from leaving their domain. By going to a nation like Russia, China, and North Korea, people are providing them with tourist money, and they are lending them legitimacy.

I would not even want to fly over a nation run by a tyrant. Last year the government of Belarus forced a commercial flight to land in the country so they could arrest dissident journalist Raman Protasevich. A Ryanair flight bound for Lithuania was forced to land because Belarus officials reported a bomb threat. When the flight reached the tarmac, officials from the country’s security forces loaded passengers onto airport buses and took the journalist into custody. Pratasevich was captured because he criticized President Alexander Lukashenko.

The reason why we need a travel ban is that this has turned into a game where dictators like to have a constant supply of hostages so they can trade them for criminals that we have on our side. The latest pawn is basketball star Brittney Griner. She was arrested at Moscow’s main airport when it was discovered that she had hash oil in her luggage.

Our standard policy on Griner should be “if can do the time, don’t do the crime,” but no, we took the bait, and a “free Brittney” movement has popped up. Now that Griner’s name is constantly in the news, there is no way Moscow is going to let her go free. She is currently on trial and will obviously get the maximum penalty.

You know it’s officially become a media circus when the Rev. Al Sharpton shows up. He is seeking the administration’s help in securing a clergy visit to see Griner in Moscow.

Asked about the Biden administration’s response, Sharpton said, “I certainly think they could have done more. I think there has not been a lot of vocal support. I understand the sensitivities in these negotiations, but I think at some point, after four months, you have to raise the public outrage on this.”

President Biden has now become involved in this matter. Griner wrote to him in recent days, saying she was “terrified I might be here forever.” This mess is being described as having “particular sensitivities” because it involves the failure to obtain the release of a black gay woman.

The Russians have offered to trade Griner for someone we have in custody. Moscow would like to obtain the release of Viktor Bout, an infamous Russian arms dealer nicknamed ‘The Merchant of Death.’ Bout was sentenced to 25 years on terrorism charges in a 2012 trial in New York. I would hope that Washington would find this trade unpalatable, both morally and politically.

It’s nice that the White House in April achieved the release of former marine Trever Reed from Russian custody. He was sentenced to nine years in prison in July 2020 for endangering the “life and health” of Russian police officers. They might as well have put Reed in jail because he looked guilty.

A former Marine is now free, but so is a drug dealer. In order to make the trade, President Biden had to commute the sentence of Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian smuggler convicted of conspiring to import cocaine. If Reed was not in Russia, the drug dealer would still be in jail. Now Yaroshenko can go back to smuggling cocaine.

I don’t think we should allow their people in our country. Over the years, China and Russia have stolen vast amounts of our technology. If it wasn’t for spying, Russia would not have developed the atomic bomb until the mid-1950s. China is a master of espionage. It will soon have a bigger economy than us, largely based on the fact that it robbed us blind on all fronts.

I don’t think America should be xenophobic in its relationship with the world. We should at least do better in picking what nations we decide to have as our friends. We poured billions into the Russian economy, and now because of the Ukraine war, we have lost nearly all of our investments. We should let history be our guide, but we will continue to suffer the imprisonment of our citizens and the loss of our money because of simple greed.

“Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).

–Todd

Nuclear War–To Be or Not To Be

There are growing worries among politicians and pundits about the likelihood of nuclear war on the brink. That is, the fear that the Russian/Ukrainian conflict will soon break out in all-out nuclear exchanges.

The Biden administration sending troops to areas such as in Poland to demonstrate to Vladimir Putin America’s determination to thwart Russia’s aggression is at the center of the concern. NATO’s bellicose threats, and particularly rhetoric by European governments, add to the angst.

At the same time, reports coming out of Russia tell that Russian TV broadcasts are announcing that American cities are in Russia’s targeting plans if nuclear war is unleashed. One pundit, who is an author promoting his book, and who is, to my way of thinking, one who believes Americans should prep for nuclear war, says that Russia’s understanding is that the first nation to launch all-out nuclear war has the best chance of surviving as a nation.

Here is some of that cogitating by a book author who simply calls himself “Michael.”

There will be nuclear war if we stay on this path.  Almost every day, we get more news about how both sides are escalating the conflict in Ukraine.  If the American people truly understood what was at stake, there would be giant protests in the streets of every major U.S. city right now.  But they don’t.  Most of us are entirely convinced that our leaders can do whatever they want in Ukraine without sparking a nuclear war.  But the Russians see things very differently.  On Russian television there are endless discussions about how the war in Ukraine is really a proxy war between the United States and Russia, and pundits openly discuss the possibility that eventually nuclear weapons will be used.  In fact, the destruction of specific U.S. cities has even been discussed on Russian television, but most Americans never hear anything about this…

Unfortunately, our leaders seem to have no interest in ending the conflict in Ukraine.  Instead, they just keep doing things to raise tensions even higher. (“If We Keep Escalating This Conflict, the End Result Will Be a Nuclear Cataclysm,” Michael, End Of The American Dream 2022, Rapture Ready News, July 2, 2022)

President Biden said he will be sending thousands of American troops to Eastern Europe, particularly to the area of Poland. Additionally, he plans to send many ships and planes, as well as tremendous battle-support equipment of various kinds.

He announced that the US will reinforce troop deployments in Romania, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. NATO will enhance its battle groups in the eastern part of the alliance up to brigade levels, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced Monday.

The writer of the article concludes that all of this looks to Vladimir Putin to be an invasion of Russian-overseen territory. The Russian leader, himself, is ratcheting up military action by placing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles in Belarus, a NATO-neighboring Russian ally that housed the forces that invaded Ukraine and attacked Kiev.

There is talk of Russia looking at Cuba as an area near America to place Russian missiles. The writer says that should set off alarm bells to those who might remember the year 1962. And, speaking as one who does well remember that year and the Cuban Missile Crisis, it will indeed set off alarm bells if it eventuates.

So, like the question by William Shakespeare’s character, Prince Hamlet, in his soliloquy in a scene in the play by the same name, “To be, or not to be, that is the question,” we ask. “Nuclear war: To be, or not to be?”

I believe the answer is both “no” and “yes.”

The writer of the article gives statistics informing, according to supposed experts, just how total would be a nuclear war between, primarily, the United States and Russia. While the outlook is bleak, there would be many survivors. As a matter of fact, he reported only about 20 percent of people in America would be killed initially by the horrific weapons used. But there would be many more who would starve to death due to weather-related crop failures because of nuclear radioactive fallout and health-related radiation factors.

Like always, we look to God’s Word for answers. And it is there we find both answers above, I’m of the opinion.

“No,” there will not be nuclear war as described by all the people who, rightfully, castigate the military-industrial complex for war-mongering. This is because Jesus, Himself, tells us that people will be buying, selling, planting, building, marrying, etc.—normal activity right up to the time He next catastrophically intervenes into the affairs of mankind. It will be just like in the days of Lot, He said (Luke 17:26–30).

First, Lot and his family, living in a wicked but very prosperous city, were removed to Zoar. Then God nuked both Sodom and Gomorrah–to such an extent that they are just now finding evidence of the destruction of those totally debauched cities.

So the second answer, “yes,” is found in that same story. It will be like in Lot’s day. So there will be great nuclear-level destruction.

Of course, this will take place after the next event on God’s prophetic calendar: the Rapture of the Church.

We see pre-proof of this coming nuclear destruction, for example, when the kings of the east kill up to one-third of all the people of earth when they cross the Euphrates into the occidental world. The ability to destroy that vast number of human beings almost certainly has to be from nuclear weaponry.

I really am convinced that there will be no all-out nuclear war–no World War III–this side of the Rapture.

But there is a matter even more pressing than the fear of nuclear war. If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior from the sin into which you and I were born, you will face much worse than nuclear devastation. You will spend eternity in everlasting torment, apart from God, who loves you and wants you to be with Him.

Here is how to make certain you will go into His presence either at death or when Jesus calls believers to Himself in the Rapture.

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)

—Terry