Nov 2, 2020

Packing The Supreme Court – A Zipline to Dictatorship

The confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court has given the highest court in America a 6-3 conservative majority. The Left is hopping mad over what this prospect means for their political priorities. They’re also angered by the GOP’s unwillingness to hold off on filling late liberal stalwart Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat during an election year.

Several top congressional Democrats have openly called for “packing the court.” They want to rewrite the rules to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court so they can add more like-minded judges and tip its balance to the left.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the most idiotic members of Congress. She said in response to the Barrett vote, “Today will go down as one of the darkest days in American history. God have mercy on our country. We must move full steam ahead to expand the courts and protect the will and the rights of the people.” She later added, “Expand the court.”

Ilhan Omar is a member of the Islamic faith, and she wishes to impose the same political thinking that dominated the Muslim world. She said, “Remember that Republicans have lost 6 of the last 7 popular votes, but have appointed 6 of the last 9 justices. By expanding the court, we fix this broken system and have the court better represent the values of the American people.”

Rashida Tlaib is also a Muslim, and she shares the same mindset. She said, “We are going to take back the White House & Senate next week with a resounding mandate from the people to fight back against Trump’s illegitimately stacked judiciary. We must expand the Court if we’re serious about the transformational change the people are crying out for.”

Unfortunately, the number of justices on the Supreme Court is not set in the Constitution itself. So, Congress could pass a law expanding the number of judges on the court, and a president could sign it into law without technically violating the Constitution. This would then give that same president and Congress, presumably of the same party, the opportunity to add judges they know agree with them and will uphold their agenda.

While doing so would technically be within the letter of the Constitution, the number of justices has remained at nine since 1869. Changing this would be a shredding of norms and rewriting of the rules for political gain. It would have grave consequences for our basic liberties.

This isn’t the first time that someone suggested an expansion of the Supreme Court. President Franklin Roosevelt floated the idea in order to get around the justices that were blocking his New Deal projects. Roosevelt had to drop the idea when the public had a massive negative reaction to the plan.

Court-packing undermines the checks and balances that have helped keep us free from government oppression and violations of our rights. As James Madison famously warned us, “Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.”

The greatest check against Congress abusing its power is that the president can veto legislation that goes too far. Conversely, Congress can impeach a president who abuses his power. Meanwhile, both are kept in check by the judicial branch, which ensures laws are properly followed. The judiciary is, in turn, checked by Congress’s ability to impeach judges who abuse their power, and define judicial jurisdictions.

“If the Democrats pack the court, the GOP will respond in kind as soon as they get the chance,” George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin has written. “The predictable result will not only be a loss of ‘credibility’ for the Supreme Court, but also the elimination of judicial review as an effective check on the other branches of government.”

“If the president can pack the court any time his or her party controls both houses of Congress, they can prevent the court from making decisions that curb unconstitutional policies they may wish to enact,” Somin continued. “It is no accident that court-packing is a standard tool of authoritarian populists seeking to undermine liberal democracy, recently used in such countries as Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela.”

The Founding Fathers purposefully enshrined the separation of powers into our system of governance. They knew that if one branch or official wields too much power, nothing prevents the slide into dictatorship. In reaching this conclusion, the founders were heavily influenced by the work of French philosopher Charles-Louis de Secondat.

“There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person,” Montesquieu theorized. “Were the power of judging joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary power, for the judge would then be the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with all the violence of an oppressor.”

The election is a couple of days away from the posting of this article. I hope the Democrats don’t win full control of Congress and the White House. Because we’ve lost three generations to the leftist agenda, it’s only a matter of time before all political power is consolidated under a tyrannical ruler.

“Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire— they all conspire together” (Micah 7:3, NIV).

–Todd


Voting Booth Bible Boundaries

Perhaps it is a bit late in presenting a commentary such as this. The article will be posted the Sunday before Tuesday November 3, Election Day in America. But Christians –true, born again believers in Jesus Christ—should pray and think on this crucial time spent in the voting booth.

Most who study God’s Word from the pre-trib perspective of prophecy yet future are in near consensus. The many things being witnessed in culture and society, in geopolitics and government, in religion and even in science represent convergence of signals that point to the very end of the Church Age (Age of Grace).

In societal and cultural areas there is a break-down of morality that can be viewed as much like the descriptives of Sodom and Gomorrah. –And before that, the descriptives of antediluvian times found in Genesis chapter 6 when violence reigned throughout the earth.

We have witnessed the satanically-spawned erosion of education from k through graduate school levels. For example, children at the kindergarten levels are in some cases being read stories by transvestites, promoting that lifestyle. Children in grade school are being taught that one can be the gender they wish to be, not necessarily the one on their birth certificates. High school through upper-level universities teaches that America is at fault in the wrongs that afflict the world. We were, many professors speciously declare, founded upon white supremacy that relied on Biblical biases and prejudices aimed at enslaving the dark races for economic and pleasurable/leisurely pursuits.

In geopolitics there is an insane enragement spreading throughout America and the world that calls all back to Babel. Minions, both human and demonic are in the stratospherics of globalist elitism –the high places of Ephesians 6: 12— demanding that one-world government be formed. God must be eliminated as the Lord Accuses in Psalms chapter 2. They want to break Heaven’s bands asunder, so that the new world order rulers can construct their Utopian dream-world. Nationalism and patriotism to one’s country must be destroyed so that a Marxist-type social order can divide the wealth and distribute it to the have-nots so the elitists can establish and maintain the power bases they demand.

In religion, we have endured the breakdown of fundamentalist, evangelical churches who have given into the political correctness of the times. The preachers and other clergy now, in a growing number of cases, embrace the GLBT and other homosexuality-oriented lifestyles that are demanded be accepted. The Catholic pope just issued his endorsement in a documentary, approving civil union marriages of same-sex couples. The same pope declares that even atheists will eventually make it to Heaven, and that there are many ways to achieve Redemption, not just through Jesus Christ.

In science we have seen phenomenal developments in every possible area. Daniel’s prophecy that knowledge would increase at the time of the end (Daniel 12: 4,) has come to be in this time in human history.

Like Daniel was told by God’s angel, we are traveling to and fro at phenomenal speeds and to far places even in space. Computer technologies are exploding, with new and faster speeds and to applications that are dazzling to behold.

There has developed satellite and computing interconnections that make possible the marks and numbering system of Revelation 13: 16-18. World economics have gotten so out of control, with the explosion of deficits and the proliferation of greed to the point that a reset, according to economists, will certainly have to be put in place to make corrections. That reset, we believe, will be Antichrist’s 666 systems given in Revelation chapter 13.

So we have witnessed the stage-setting for the fulfillment of Bible prophecy yet the future comes alive in our time.

Rage in our streets, with burning, looting and near-complete anarchy should alert every Christian –that is, those truly born again of the Holy Spirit—that something big is up. Something is about to cleave this world –removing the righteous from the rebellious.

This is to remind us of these things as we step into the voting booths of America on November 3, or mail-in ballots, or howsoever we vote.

There is one political party that opposes the tearing down of society, culture, and national sovereignty. There is one party, and its president, that opposes the defunding of police and the destruction of law and order. There is one party –and president—that defends the exercise of free speech and religious right to worship.

There is another party that has verbally moved to kick God from their platform. That political party, at least a major part of those with influence within that party, are offended by Biblical constraints and restraints. They are speech police, and demand compliance with political correctness that meets their standards, which in many cases are totally counter to those found in God’s Word.

These embrace homosexuality, the murder of babies in their mother’s wombs –and even after birth in some instances. They champion dark values that tear families apart. They covet the change of America into a Marxist-type socialism that will, if they have their way, bring this nation into a configuration, not unlike that of the old Soviet Union.

For the Christian, the choice is clear when you step into the voting booth, or fill out your ballot at home. Prayer, too, is the duty of everyone who is born again, as this election unfolds. And, yes, the following scripture is meant not just for Israel, but for ALL of God’s people throughout the ages.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2 Chron 7: 14)

–Terry

Oct 26, 2020

What Makes Hypersonic Missiles So Dangerous?

What has kept the world safe from nuclear war over the past 60 years is the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). This principle is founded on the notion that a nuclear attack by one superpower would be met with an overwhelming nuclear counterattack such that both the attacker and the defender would be annihilated.

For about two years I’ve been reading about the Russians’ advancement in hypersonic missiles. I didn’t understand the significance of Moscow’s ability to deliver nuclear weapons at vastly faster speeds until I watched a recent YouTube news video on the subject.

If a conventional nuclear missile is launched against a target in the US from Russia, it would take about 30 minutes for the missile to travel from Russia to the US. A hypersonic missile can cut this travel time down by several minutes. Because a hypersonic missile can fly at a very low altitude, it can avoid radar detection. This means an attack on Western targets can occur within a few minutes.

A Russian nuclear submarine off the coast of Louisiana could strike at Offutt, AFB command system in Nebraska and take out our ability to launch a counter strike. In 1948, Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington chose to headquarter the Air Force’s crucial long-range atomic strike force at Offutt primarily because the base was centrally located on the North American continent – placing it well beyond the existing range of potentially hostile bombers or missiles.

The planes that transmit launch codes would be able to get airborne before Offutt was destroyed by a nuclear strike. A hypersonic missile would now be able to span the 850 miles distance between Offutt and the Gulf of Mexico in less than eight minutes. Since it would take three minutes to sound the alarm, there would not be enough time to get the doomsday planes into the sky.

The president and the Pentagon would have almost no time to react. Being only a few miles from the Atlantic Ocean, a hypersonic missile attack would take out the DC area at a speed measured in seconds. A surprise attack on the organizations that have the launch codes could leave the US unable to carry out a retaliatory strike.

Our submarines could be sitting under the Baltic sea with no way to return fire to the enemy. As it became clear that command and control units could be easily wiped out, the ability to launch missiles would have to be greatly relaxed.

I was stationed at Offutt for 19 of 20 years of military service. I remember we had an airborne command post, called the Looking Glass, flying 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. After the demise of the Soviet Union, it was decided that is safe enough to end the continuous flights.

We may need to relaunch Looking Glass with time for a nuclear reaction cut to just a few minutes. During the Cold War there were several times when various glitches caused false alarms that led to the contemplation of the nuclear option.

The Russian advancement in hypersonic missiles has spurred the need for us to develop this technology. The US Air Force is moving forward with a new hypersonic missile that it says can strike a target 1,000 miles away in under 12 minutes, reported Air Force Magazine. The hypersonic missile would be able to fly between 5,000 and 6,000 mph, or roughly between Mach 6.5 and Mach 8, to strike a target at that distance.

Bible prophecy clearly implies that humanity will largely destroy itself with nuclear weapons during the Tribulation. Isaiah 13:12 says that man will become “more rare than fine gold.” Zechariah 14 seems to give a firsthand view of a nuclear holocaust. The graphic descriptions in this ancient prophecy are a good description of what would happen to people exposed to an atomic blast:

“Now this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. It will come about in that day that a great panic from the LORD will fall on them; and they will seize one another’s hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another. Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance. So also like this plague will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey and all the cattle that will be in those camps” (Zechariah 14:12-15).

—Todd


On the Mark, Get Set…

There is growing angst, it seems, about the COVID-19 vaccine and whether we should take it once it’s available. This isn’t to advise on whether to take it or not. That’s up to each individual. But I will say that so far as worrying about it being the equivalent of taking the mark of the Beast—as prophesied in Revelation 13:16–18—there is no need to worry. Taking the vaccine won’t mean you’ve taken he Antichrist’s dreaded mark of “666.”

Maybe it’s unnecessary for me to say why there’s no need to worry in this regard. But some might not know. Most who read these commentaries are savvy about the fact that the Antichrist marks-and-numbering system for buying and selling won’t be foisted upon the Beast’s victims as long as all born-again believers are still on the planet. The Rapture must occur before that “man of sin” can make his appearance, according to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

Whether the would-be world controllers—like, in my opinion, Bill Gates—wants to slip some sort of a tracking chip into the vaccine that’s eventually produced, I have no conjecture to make. I will say that I doubt very much that these wannabees will be able to do so at this time. Will I take the vaccine? I really can’t say at this point.

I take an annual flu shot. That doesn’t prevent one from getting flu; it only lessens the effects if one does get it, as I understand.

So, as I say, this commentary isn’t about whether to take a vaccine. It is, however, to look at that coming Antichrist mark to some extent, in consideration of technologies being developed during these strange days.

Certainly, like all other things we see developing that smack of end-times prophecy about to be fulfilled, the marks-and-numbering system is in the stage-setting mode.

In geopolitics, we see developing enragement that is bursting at the seams to bring in a global order. In religion, we are seeing a coming together of religious thought and a merging with that geopolitics. This movement seems to be more and more influenced by and even led by the Vatican and this apostate pope. In culture and society, the world, and especially our own nation, has reached the point of rebellious rage. God has been all but eliminated from our educational system and even churches have closed their doors en masse to submit to governmental edicts spawned from the coronavirus threat.

It’s no wonder, then, that in science, technologies are developing that presage the coming Antichrist regime.

Satellite tracking systems have existed for some time. GPS and other technologies are an everyday reality. Transponders of varying sorts can be chipped into people, pets, and possessions. And the technology that will one day allow the Beast regime of Antichrist to cause all to receive a mark on their hand or forehead is progressing rapidly. So get set: That feared mark instrumentality is just around the corner.

The following news excerpt might shed some light on how near might be the actual technology for implementing the Revelation 13 prophecy about the 666 mark.

Oct. 12 (UPI) — Engineers have developed a way to print biometric sensors onto skin, like a non-permanent tattoo, without the use of heat.

In addition to being more comfortable and less intrusive than today’s wearable devices, the technology — described Monday in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces — can also collect more precise biometric measurements.

“In this article, we report a simple yet universally applicable fabrication technique with the use of a novel sintering aid layer to enable direct printing for on-body sensors,” first author Ling Zhang, researcher in the Harbin Institute of Technology in China, said in a news release…

Because the sintering process, the bonding of metallic components to the sensor, required temperatures of 572 degrees Fahrenheit, the fabrication wasn’t suitable for human skin…

Researchers were first able to lower the sintering temperature to 212 degrees Fahrenheit by adding a new nanoparticle to the silver components — creating what scientists called a sintering aid layer…

“That can be used to print sensors on clothing and paper, which is useful, but it’s still higher than we can stand at skin temperature,” Cheng said. “We changed the formula of the aid layer, changed the printing material and found that we could sinter at room temperature.”…

In tests, scientists used their new wearable sensor to measure temperature, humidity, blood oxygen levels and heart rhythms…

In a follow-up study, scientists plan to print sensors designed to track symptoms and vital signs associated with COVID-19. (“Wearable Tattoo: Scientists Print Sensors Directly onto Skin Without Heat,” Brooks Hays, https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2020/10/12/Wearable-tattoo-Scientists-print. My thanks to my friend Chris Mangan for the article.)

Today, government has almost boundless capability when it comes to keeping track of us. Electronic wiretapping devices and cameras trained on traffic and on most every corner keep watch. Cameras on every building trace our every movement. From biometrics to radio-frequency identification cards, satellites, and Internet surveillance, we are under watch 24/7. This still will not be enough to control on the scale Antichrist will demand.

Personal tattoos with electronic tracking and controlling properties will doubtless be the next generation of technology dedicated to tracing humanity.

If you know Jesus Christ for salvation, you won’t have to worry with any of it during the time when Antichrist unleashes his horrendous regime. Believers in Christ will be removed in the Rapture in advance of that worst time in human history. (Read Revelation 3:10).

Here’s how to avoid having to endure taking the mark of the Beast during the coming Tribulation:

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