The Two Beasts Of Revelation

The Book of Revelation talks (among other things) about a beast which rises up out of the sea and one which rises up out of the earth. They are commonly known as the Antichrist and the False Prophet.

Many believe the two will work together to form a one world government and one world religion in the End Times, and that their partnership will be a rebirth of the Holy Roman Empire. I have always resisted that interpretation, because I don't believe the historic City of Rome (or its remnants) has the influence it once did.

But today's trends seem to support such a rebirth:

• The US, for whatever reason, is seeking "peace" and is trying to take us out of the geopolitical picture;
• A New World Order with European roots appears to be rearing its ugly head (see https://jonathanturley.org/2025/03/24/a-new-world-order-with-european-values-the-unholy-union-of-globalism-and-anti-free-speech-measures/);
• A new form of false Christianity appears to be growing among the movers and shakers of the tech world (see https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/christianity-was-borderline-illegal-in-silicon-valley-now-its-the-new-religion); and
• For some strange reason, Europe's new "leaders" seem hell bent on provoking World War III with Russia, a war which almost certainly will go nuclear.

We live in troubled times, and when you add to them the absolute disaster now unfolding in the Middle East, one has to ask, "Can the biblical End Times be all that far off?"

Pray hard, and DO NOT take the Mark of the Beast.

Who Will "Win" The AI War ???

Here is a good discussion about where the US and China stand with respect to ability to "win" the AI war:

https://www.unz.com/bhua/part-3-predicting-what-comes-after-deepseek/

Add to the discussion at least two other impediments:

• The "never Trump, never Elon" crowd will be sabotaging every move, and
• Any DOGE "savings" likely will be wasted on war preparations, new nuclear bombs/missiles/planes/subs, etc.

Even if we "win" this so-called war, the result will be a loss by any reasonable standard. Most of us will be out of work, under constant surveillance, forced to take dangerous "vaccines", and living in a dystopian dictatorship which will make a mockery of our freedoms.

Just another Faustian bargain ... and possibly the worst one ever.

Corruption - Theirs And Ours

Here is a wonderful analysis and comparison of Chinese and American corruption:

https://www.unz.com/bhua/corruption-in-the-us-and-china-a-comparative-analysis/

Once again, we're not the force for good we pretend to be. And I think most people outside the US have known this for quite some time.

America's Demise ???

When I read this essay a while back, it reminded me of the fall of the USSR:

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/how-trumps-dismantling-usaid-marks-seismic-historic-shift-americas-role-world

Their demise happened slowly, then all at once. It really seems like we're on a similar trajectory.

And the current "soft" civil war in which we are engaged isn't helping much, is it?

Ivy Bells Go Boom ???

By now you've all heard of the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage and at least one of the theories about how it was done and by whom.

In case you missed it, one of the latest theories was just published under the byline "Retired US Navy Admiral James Stavridis". You can find it here:

https://21stcenturywire.com/2025/02/26/nord-stream-revelation-submarines-in-the-nato-lake/

One of the things strangely missing from Admiral Stavridis's report was any mention of Operation Ivy Bells. You can read all about it here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivy_Bells

https://www.military.com/history/operation-ivy-bells.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20101207163630/http://www.specialoperations.com/Operations/ivybells.html

The gist of that story is that the US tapped at least one Soviet undersea communications cable using submarines modified for that specific purpose. It was all hush-hush back then, but has since come into the public record. The capabilities needed for that operation appear to have been exactly what was needed to kill the Nord Stream pipelines, and (no surprise!) they appear to have been first developed and used by the US.

I knew two officers who may have been involved in such underwater surveillance:

• RADM Richard Riddell, my CO on USS NAUTILUS (SSN-571), who was a junior officer on USS HALIBUT (SSGN-587) at the time it was modified for such surveillance activities, and
• A navy nuclear power school classmate of mine who served on USS SEAWOLF (SSN-575) around the same time I was on NAUTILUS.

Neither one ever mentioned Ivy Bells or any other such operation, which is a bit strange considering how we all liked to brag about the nifty things we had done underwater. My guess is that someone told them to keep their mouths shut due to the extreme sensitivity of such operations. Strictly need to know.

The whole thing makes me suspicious that the reports of Admiral Stavridis and Seymour Hersh both are limited hangouts, with the implication that additional such undersea cable and pipeline disruptions either are or will be underway ... and thanks to such complex but misleading theories as those mentioned above will NEVER, EVER be discussed in public.

But that's the beauty of submarines - nobody (sometimes even including members of the crew) ever knows exactly what they're doing.

The Dumbest Thing We've Ever Done

These are two of the scariest reports I have read so far this year:

https://bombthrower.com/the-singularity-has-already-happened/

https://archive.is/2025.03.08-232055/https://www.forbes.com/sites/craigsmith/2025/03/08/chinas-autonomous-agent-manus-changes-everything/

Face it ... there is ZERO control over AI research. Anyone can do more or less anything they want regardless of the possible consequences.

And as the saying goes, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

I think we're going to discover this principle applies to machines as well as humans. Perhaps even more so.

Update - 3/20/2025

You can add this to the list of "scary" reports:

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ai-integration-crisis-special-operators-view-tactical-edge

Making AI faster, more capable, more lethal just adds to the problem - we're creating something like Skynet ... and it doesn't matter whether or not it becomes self-aware. Even if it's fully under human control, do you trust anyone you know with that kind of power?

I don't.

Dumbest thing we're ever done. By far. And everyone seems to agree it's unstoppable.

Who Knew ???

Half the people living today originated in what is now Ukraine:

https://archive.is/2025.03.08-041219/https://www.wsj.com/science/the-ancient-horsemen-who-created-the-modern-world-ba4b314d

Is this for real, or is it just a coincidence we're only learning this now that the US, Russia, and much of the EU are trying hard to kill all the people now living there?