THINGS WHICH FOLLOW: Part E

(Personal note:  My dear mother-in-law passed away this week after being under the care of her two surviving daughters for the last four years, even in the end, passing away in her own bed in our home.  In many countries, this would have been the accepted and expected duty of the family, especially the daughters and many families in this country also  do the task of personal care for their parents and others in their lives despite elderly care facilities .  I say this in praise of those who do it out of love and out of duty.  Thank you so much.  It meant the world to my mom-in-law, even as it did to my mom when she was here years ago. I speak for those who have to work and can't always be there and those who can't speak for themselves anymore:   Thank you!  From all of us.   Your strength is awesome.  God bless every one of you who has done it, is doing it and will face the task in  the future.  Will.)


The other Horsemen lurks among the ones gone before. Disease rides with them, dependent but independent.


The King of the North has lost a battle to the south of his knigdom, seen his alliance depleted and now an attack to his East has lost his main port there.  His dream of expansion and control  crashed like his investment in American  securities.  The U.S. suffers from a trough of ice reaching down to the Texas panhandle arching over California and Nevada and a warm spot over part of Alaska from the pressure sarea holding there. Canada who had saner policies on much of the environment has been plunged into a glacier as well.  They were never a threat to anyone.








But the U.S. certainly remains a threat since it has attacked Russia.  This cannot be allowed to pass as an accident: fate has given the King the opportunity to do what Khrushchev promised and bury the Americans for good.

However, by this time the North Korean Missiles have struck in California.



https://www.croptrust.org/our-work/svalbard-global-seed-vault/


THE NEED

Worldwide, more than 1,700 genebanks hold collections of food crops for safekeeping, yet many of these are vulnerable, exposed not only to natural catastrophes and war, but also to avoidable disasters, such as lack of funding or poor management. Something as mundane as a poorly functioning freezer can ruin an entire collection. And the loss of a crop variety is as irreversible as the extinction of a dinosaur, animal or any form of life.

THE PURPOSE

It was the recognition of the vulnerability of the world’s genebanks that sparked the idea of establishing a global seed vault to serve as a backup storage facility. The purpose of the Vault is to store duplicates (backups) of seed samples from the world’s crop collections.
Permafrost and thick rock ensure that the seed samples will remain frozen even without power. The Vault is the ultimate insurance policy for the world’s food supply, offering options for future generations to overcome the challenges of climate change and population growth. It will secure, for centuries, millions of seeds representing every important crop variety available in the world today. It is the final back up.
THE LOCATION

The Vault is in an ideal location for long-term seed storage, for several reasons:

The area is geologically stable and humidity levels are low.


The Seed Vault has the capacity to store 4.5 million varieties of crops. Each variety will contain on average 500 seeds, so a maximum of 2.5 billion seeds may be stored in the Vault.
Currently, the Vault holds more than 890,000 samples, originating from almost every country in the world. Ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato. In fact, the Vault already holds the most diverse collection of food crop seeds in the world.
The focus of the Vault is to safeguard as much of the world’s unique crop genetic material as possible, while also avoiding unnecessary duplication. It will take some years to assemble because some genebanks need to multiply stocks of seed first, and other seeds need regenerating before they can be shipped to Svalbard.
For a complete overview of the samples stored in the Vault, please visit NordGen’s public online database.
A temperature of -18ºC is required for optimal storage of the seeds, which are stored and sealed in custom made three-ply foil packages. The packages are sealed inside boxes and stored on shelves inside the vault. The low temperature and moisture levels inside the Vault ensure low metabolic activity, keeping the seeds viable for long periods of time.

                                                                                                                                                                   



Some  things about circumstances:

1) The climate change could lead to flooding even as high as that vault but certainly a warming trend will increase the humidity outside the vault and in if any doors get opened to store seed.

2) In any of the seedbanks, power failures could destroy seeds.

3) Many of the crop types are disease resistant but radiation and human tasmpering can alter the diseases they were ince resistant to.

Which leads us the the other horseman of disease.

In the book  The Great Influenza,  John M. Barry explained that the deadliest pandemic in history, the flu disaster of 1918 which  killed as many as 100 million people actually began in an army camp in Kansas at the height of World War I, and, because of the Army's refusal to recognize the threat  despite warnings by physicians at that time whose quarantine demands were superceded by other doctors higher up in the government bureaucracy, infected soldiers were allowed to move east into larger cities and overseas thus spreading the new highly resistant strain of the disease across state and national borders.  Like the officials who refused to recognize the failures on the food programs of China, these American officials took a bad situation and made it incredibly worse by their self serving actions.

It seems incredible that a time with the limited mass transportation of trains and ships could spread a disease so fast but the combination of the rush of soldiers to fortify the front and the failure to consider consequences literally multiplied the speed of the disease's spread.  Now imagine an age of bullet trains and supersonic jet planes and fast ships and autos added to wars and bad weather and food limitations and you can begin to imagine that something that got a 100 million in 1918, in some mutation could easily sweep out billions.

Steven King in The Stand, a New Age look at Armageddon postulated a new strain of flu created by the military being released by accident and wiping out most of the world'spopulation.  He based it on the deadliness of the flu and it's easiness to mutate since it tends to do that by itself every year as we all know from needing flu shots every year and hearing there is, in fact, a new strain.

Now imagine someone crossing the flu and ebola.  Recall we stalked about the CrispR technology that enables the creation of all manner of new disease by enabling the manipulation of genes. It also enables the creation of new treatments such as the ones currently being used to treat cancers that were previously incurable like brain tumors, in the USA.   Medicine see being used on the rich or on political figures.  Telling us today who will be treated and who will be ignored during the final years of the world.

Barry explains on page 103 about the flu:

"The virus itself is nothing more than a membrane-a sort of envelope-that contains the genome, the eight genes that define what the virus is.  It is usually spherical (it can take other shapes), about 1/10,000 of a millimeter in diameter and it looks something like a dandelion with a forest of two differently shaped protuberances-one roughly like a spike, the other roughly like a tree-jutting out from its surface.

"These protuberances provide the virus with its actual mechanism of attack.  That attack, and the defensive war the body wages is typical of how shapoe and form determines outcome.

"the protuberances akin to spike are hemagglutinin.  When the virus collides with a cel, the hemagglutinin brushes against molecules of sialac acid that jut out from the c=surface of the cells in the respiratory tract.

"(These both) have shapes that fit snugly together, and the hemagglutinin binds to the silalic acid "receptor" like a hand going into a glove."

Barry suggests the image of a pirate ship tossing grappling hooks on its target vessel.  The virus is "handcuffed" to  the cell surface and then injects it's genetic material to override the cell's genetic programming and complete its invasion process.

I repeat this simple process to point out that it resembles the actions of Satan himself, arriving and attaching himself to humanity so he could corrupt and kill it, aligning himself with human self interest, using the grappling hooks of temptation and the moment of disobedience to set the claws firmly and "board and destroy" all human beings.

The results of the Fall, particularly the way disease works,  look very like the cause of the Fall itself.

                                                                                                                                                                   

The U.S. President is boarding Air Force One in Florida when word arrives of the nukes in Cal and that news is soon followed,  as the plane is lifting off,  by a call from the Atlantic that a Russian sub off the Florida coast has launched a missile.  On hearing it, feeling utter;y betrayed by the king of the North who he has regarded with envy and awe, the President immediately sends out his order from the plane for nuclear retaliation  assault.  Knowing he will likely not get another order out, he adds: "Scorched!"  He does not get any other orders off.  Air Force One has left the ground,but is not clear.  There is no way to outrun a nuclear blast.

                                                                                                                                                               

Offutt Air Force Base is the host station for the 55th Wing (55 WG), the largest wing of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command. Additionally, the base is home to many significant associate units, including US Strategic Command Headquarters, the Air Force Weather Agency, the Omaha operating location of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, and many others.

The 55 Wing (WG) mission is to "provide dominant intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance; electronic attack; command and control; and precision awareness to national leadership and warfighters across the spectrum of conflict any time, any place".[citation needed] One of the wing's units, the 55th Operations Group, operates 46 aircraft, including 13 models of seven different types.

The 55th Wing is composed of five groups at Offutt AFB and at various locations worldwide:

55th Operations Group

The 55th Operations Group, Air Combat Command's(ACC) largest group, has operational control over 11 squadrons[4] and two detachments worldwide. The group consists of approximately 3,200 personnel. It employs 46 aircraft, including 13 models of seven different types. The 55th Operations Group uses the tail code OF for its aircraft

38th Reconnaissance Squadron (RC-135)
343d Reconnaissance Squadron (RC-135)
45th Reconnaissance Squadron (OC-135, RC-135, TC-135, WC-135)
82d Reconnaissance Squadron (RC-135)
Operates from Kadena AB, Japan
95th Reconnaissance Squadron (RC-135)
Operates from: RAF Mildenhall, England

55th Electronic Combat Group

The 55th Electronic Combat Group, stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB, (Davis–Monthan Air Force Base (DM AFB) (IATA: DMA, ICAO: KDMA, FAA LID: DMA) is a United States Air Force base located within the city limits approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) south-southeast of downtown Tucson, Arizona. It was established in 1925 as Davis-Monthan Landing Field. The host unit for Davis–Monthan AFB is the 355th Fighter Wing (355 FW) assigned to Twelfth Air Force (12AF), part of Air Combat Command (ACC). The base is best known as the location of the Air Force Materiel Command's 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (309 AMARG), the aircraft boneyard for all excess military and U.S. government aircraft and aerospace vehicles)is an operations group and geographically separated unit (GSU) of the 55th Wing. It consists of 5 squadrons, 3 flying squadrons, 1 support squadron and 1 maintenance squadron. All 3 flying squadrons utilize various models of the EC-130 aircraft.
41st Electronic Combat Squadron (ECS)
42d Electronic Combat Squadron (ECS)
43d Electronic Combat Squadron (ECS)
755th Operations Support Squadron (OSS)
755th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron (AMXS)

55th Maintenance Group
The 55th Maintenance Operations Squadron provides centralized direction of all maintenance staff functions providing support to world-wide aircraft reconnaissance missions.

55th Mission Support Group
The 55th Mission Support Group provides vital mission support for Offutt AFB through engineering, security, mission support, services, supply, transportation, contracting & deployment readiness programs.

55th Communications Group
The 55th Communications Group provides worldwide command, control, communications and computer (C4)[5] systems, information management and combat support to warfighting and national leadership. It also provides communications technology and support to the 55th Wing and 44 tenant units.

55th Medical Group
The 55th Medical Group serves 28K enrolled patients with extensive outpatient clinic capabilities, and ancillary support.

United States Strategic Command[edit]
Offutt AFB is the headquarters of United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) which is one of the nine Unified Combatant Commands of the United States Department of Defense (DoD). USSTRATCOM was established in 1992 as a successor to Strategic Air Command (SAC).

It is charged with space operations (such as military satellites), information operations (such as information warfare), missile defense, global command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR), global strike and strategic deterrence (the United States nuclear arsenal), and combating weapons of mass destruction.

595th Command and Control Group[edit]
The 595th Command and Control Group (C2G) was activated in a ceremony held on 6 October 2016.[6]

The mission of the 595th C2G is to consolidate the Air Force's portion of the nuclear triad, including Air Force nuclear command and control communications, under the auspices of Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). Previously, portions of the Air Force's command and control of nuclear operations had been divided among AFGSC, Air Combat Command, and the Twentieth Air Force.

The 595th Command and Control Group is composed of four squadrons:

1st Airborne Command and Control Squadron
595th Strategic Communications Squadron
595th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron
625th Strategic Operations Squadron

557th Weather Wing
The 557th Weather Wing, formerly the Air Force Weather Agency, is headquartered at Offutt AFB. It is the lead weather center of the United States Air Force. AFWA enhances the combat capability of the United States by delivering timely, accurate, and reliable environmental situational awareness worldwide to the Air Force, the Army, joint warfighters, Unified Combatant Commands, the national intelligence community, and the Secretary of Defense.


Also:

Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) is a Major Command (MAJCOM) of the United States Air Force, headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. AFGSC provides combat-ready forces to conduct strategic nuclear deterrence and global strike operations in support of combatant commanders.[10] It is subordinated to the USSTRATCOM.

Air Force Global Strike Command is the direct descendant unit of the Cold War-era Strategic Air Command (SAC). It holds the lineage, history and honors of SAC.[11]

                                                                                                                                                                 

Please recall that our weather map has kept some of the lower U.S. functional.  Louisiana has lost New Orleans which is below sea level but has also lost much of its fresh water flooding from the actions of glaciers to the north.  tems have fallen bu the air fields would remain functional and likely be one place Air Force Command has chosen to keep forces active.

                                                                                                                                                                  

A nuclear torpedo is a torpedo armed with a nuclear warhead. The idea behind the nuclear warheads in a torpedo was to create a much bigger and more explosive blast. Later analysis suggested that smaller, more accurate, and faster torpedoes were more efficient and effective.[1]

During the cold war, nuclear torpedoes replaced some conventionally armed torpedoes on submarines of both the U.S.S.R. and U.S. navies.


The U.S.S.R. developed the T15, the T5 and the ASB-30. The only nuclear warhead torpedo used by the United States was the Mark 45 torpedo.[2] The Soviet Union widely deployed T5 nuclear torpedoes in 1958 and the U.S. deployed its Mark 45 torpedo in 1963.[3]:28 In 2015, there were rumors that Russia was developing a new nuclear torpedo, the Status-6.

(Note all stats above compiled from Wikipedia and official sources. Direct quotes used.)

                                                                                                                                                                   

The nuclear torpedos in the Sea of Japan do their jobs in two ways.

1) The U.S. naval force goes up in a flash.  The few remaining fighters in the air head for South Korea.  And the battle is over with both forces close to annihilated.

2) The use of nuclear torpedos makes it seem that this is also an act of Russia and the immediate world wide reaction is that they are as evil as the U.S. for their use of those weapons.

The King of the East has accomplished his goals and also made his despised "friend"  seem the villain.  His loss in the East stings much less and even now lets him turn his attention to the Middle
East and alliances there now strengthened by the Russian loss of face. He will need to build markets there as well as attach more oil for industry.

Thus he begins to draft his indignant statement for the public, branding both the Russian and American  Imperialists as the cause of so much harm.

                                                                                                                                                                   

Worldwide, the U.S. Naval command issues attack and sink orders on all Russian vessels.  An attack sub shadowing the one who launched in the Atlantic has already sunken it though too late to prevent the launch.  Destroyers and attack subs strategically attack in unison and Russian ships return fire.  Billions of dollars and and rubles worth of equipment and much human life sink into the oceans  that day.

On a request from the EU leader, the U.S. chooses to keep its docked fleet in the Mediterranean Sea and they are allowed to cease any Russian ships in dock and to guard  the Strait of Gibraltar.

https://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/gibraltar.htm

Approximately 9 miles (14 km) wide at its narrowest point, the Strait of Gibraltar is the entry point into the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean.

It is bordered by the continents of Africa and Europe, and the countries of Morocco, Spain, the British colony of Gibraltar, and the Spanish exclave of Ceuta.



The Vice President, ensconced with Congress in Texas at Fort Sam Houston in Austin as the guests of the governor, has been contacted and has turned control of that part the navy to the EU leader on the promise it will be used to pen in Russian forces and throttle oil trade for them.  Control will never be returned to him.

                                                                                                                                                                

The U.S. Air Command orders its planes in the air into Russian air space but they are stopped by the VP before launching missiles after assurances by the EU leader he will handle the crisis and talk the Russians out of  completely obliterating the USA. Missiles are impossible to recall and are launched after the planes break the enemy air space.  So stopping that was easy.

Unfortunately, U.S. bombers have entered enemy air space and cannot be recalled.

And they have the "Scorched" order issued.  

                                   THE BATTLE WIN THAT BEGAN THERE

On the eve of Christmas, recall that this war we are suggesting for "tomorrow" is merely the completion of the war going on since Eden and that the OUR leader in this war arrived in the flesh some 2000+ years ago.  Consider the war this year as well as the child:

https://shaynelooper.com/author/salooper57/

A Christmas Story for Grown-Ups
by Pastor Shayne Looper
Lockwood Church
Coldwater, MI

Most Christmas story books are for kids. They either tell a story that has almost nothing to do with the first Christmas – think, A Christmas Carol, for example, or Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer – or they whitewash the first Christmas and give it a G-Rating. It’s not that there is anything wrong with that – I appreciate having a kid-friendly introduction to Christmas to read to our young grandchildren. But if that is all grown-ups know about Christmas, they’ve missed the point of the story.

In kid’s Christmas books and conventional artistic representations, the first Christmas features fluffy white sheep, clean, fat cows, and humble-looking shepherds, all sanitized. We can’t smell the cows or the sheep (or the shepherds, for that matter), but you can be sure that Joseph and Mary could.

Popular depictions of that night routinely feature a sweet-faced angel hovering in the sky above, proclaiming good news of great joy to the shepherds. And, indeed, that is what the angel proclaimed, but the shepherds had a very different take on his message than we do. We hear the angelic message as the good news that a lovely baby has been born or that good triumphs over evil or, perhaps, that our souls will be saved. These ideas are true, but they would not have occurred to the astonished shepherds.

They heard the angel’s message the way a French Resistance fighter would have heard the news of D-Day: the battle had been joined, and liberation was at hand. Had you tried to talk to them in the language of contemporary children’s Christmas books, about the animals and the stable and the sweet, quiet baby, they would have been confused, chagrined even. They would have asked, “What are you talking about?” For the most part, we don’t see what they saw.

It’s not because the battle motif is hidden in the Christmas story; it is not. For anyone with eyes to see it, it is unmistakable. We just don’t have eyes to see it. We have been taught to think that the Christmas story is either all about a baby, and his birth in the most trying of circumstances, or all about us, and getting our souls into heaven.

Where is the evidence of this battle motif? Start with the annunciation, in which the angel tells Mary that her son will take the throne – held at the time by a usurper in the employ of a foreign power – and reign as king. In the first century Roman province of Judea, talk like that could get a person killed. And when the usurper heard that talk, people were killed. He sent troops to assassinate the child-king and devastate the village where he lived. The same kind of tactic has been employed by tyrants in our own day.

Also in the Christmas narrative, the priest Zechariah applauds the arrival of the one who will bring “salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us…” Zechariah was expecting a war of liberation.

When the Evangelist Luke tells the story of Jesus’s birth, he sets it up by describing a census and tax initiative undertaken by Israel’s hated Roman oppressors. He writes of Caesar’s decree, and references the Syrian procurator who ruled Judea on behalf of the occupational government.

Luke doesn’t mention the angel’s sweet face. He rather writes about the terrified onlookers. As the angel announces the birth of the long-awaited Messiah King, he is flanked by “a great company of the heavenly host.” The word translated “host” is simply the Greek word for “army.” The shepherds would have assumed that the angelic army was an invasion force, and that military operations had begun.

Of course, they were mistaken. The angelic army, arrayed in glory, was not the invasion force. The little baby, wrapped in swaddling, was. Still, the war had begun, but it was not a conventional war. What was being contested was not land but people’s hearts. What was at stake was not the future of Palestine, but the future of the human race. And the secret weapon was love, “wrapped in swaddling and lying in a manger.”

Christmas is not only a reminder that God loves us, it is a reminder that we are at war: a war that will be won by love; a war in which we must take sides.



salooper57 | December 23, 2017 at 3:42 am | Tags: Christmas, Christmas books, Dickens "A Christmas Carol", Luke 1:71, Luke 2:12, Luke 2:13, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, shepherds, Virgin Mary, Zechariah | Categories: Bible, Christianity, Theology | URL: https://wp.me/p3u27l-



God's blessings this Christmas.

Will

                                                        CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS

(Every once in a while I hear a Christmas song that isn't called that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5Tc_B1dBew)


At this time of year things cross my mind related to the end times:

Christmas is a time chosen to celebrate God's' gift to the world: himself in human form, Jesus separate from Him for the first time in eternity.

During this blog, we have seen the Lord with many different faces, from the Angel of the Lord to the human in Flesh amazingly not fallen and then in his Final Spiritual Flesh. In every instance, we see what we were meant to be in perfected flesh, see how we have continually let God down and how he has continually lifted us up.   The story reaches everyone, is meant for everyone and changes everyone who believes.  It even changes those who don't believe.

But something else abides in my mind, a concern raised by the Antichrist and his coming antics. One voiced by the works of Harlan Ellison and his idea of modern techno gods, one "borrowed" by author Neil  Gaiman for his American Gods novels.  One episode of the TV series based on that book portrayed on a cable network supposedly displayed Jesus in many different aspects, from the rich guy to "Jesus Prime" the guy who was fully human in their thinking.  All the aspects have been appropriated by the "goddess" Ishtar to keep her own power alive with the Easter celebration.

We never discuss how the Christmas celebration was appropriated from the winter solstice pagan worship, using everything from the holly and the mistletoe used in pagan seasonal orgies to the Druidic tree worship, all brought in to bring pagans to the church and church membership seen as salvation.  It became a tradition and we see this image of a baby in a manger, of a man on  a cross, and we wrap Him in our social prejudices and our notion of Him.

I recall the blue-eyed Jesus repped by Jeffery Hunter in King of Kings.  I recall a very white Jesus from a picture at the little brick community church where I grew up.  It was in the children's Sunday School.  It wasn't a lesson I should have learned.

I recall a movie with a black Jesus in an attempt to balance the racial view.

I recall someone saying they never saw an Oriental Jesus, back when that was an acceptable word for Asian.

And a song comes to mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEBI0JhSzz8


I wonder if I would know Him.  I will because he will return in the clouds and take us up and I will because he has filled me with the Spirit and I will see beyond the veil.  We will all see.

 1Co 13:10 But when that which is complete is come, then that which is in part will be no longer necessary.
 11 When I was a child, I made use of a child's language, I had a child's feelings and a child's thoughts: now that I am a man, I have put away the things of a child.
 12 For now we see things in a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now my knowledge is in part; then it will be complete, even as God's knowledge of me.
 13 But now we still have faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
 (BBE)

The real danger in Amillennial beliefs lies in these moments we are recounting at the beginning of the end.  Right after the Rapture, right after the voice of the Spirit has been refined to the two witnesses and those who will listen.  Ministers and preachers in New Age influenced churches, in Amil churches where the ministers are there for the job. for possible glory in the pulpit, In Name Only believers. Leaders will be preaching that this is to be expected, that Jesus wants them to go through these trials up to the end.  The examples of Enoch and Noah will never be seen a representative of how He keeps his people from hte Final Judgement of his wrath, from the unleashing of the evil we have fostered by our unbelief and our seeking after false gods.

This examination of Issiah by Chuck Smith touches on both prophecy and false gods in  a way that identifies the connection I see in the denial of prophecies about Christ and the growth of the Antichrist in power.

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/smith_chuck/c2000_Isa/Isa_041.cfm

Now I like this. God makes a challenge to those false gods that the people were worshipping at that time. And He said,

Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen: let them show the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things that are yet to come. Show the things that are to come after these things, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together. Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he who chooses you (Isa 41:21-23).

So God speaks out against the worship of the false gods that the Israelites were involved in at this particular period of their history. "Now look, if they're really God, let them tell us something before it happens, so that after it happens we really know that they know what they're talking about." And He's challenging them in the area of prophecy. Now prophecy is one of the strongest arguments for the inspiration of the scriptures. The fact that God has spoken in advance of things that would happen, giving the names of persons, the names of places, and detailing the events that would be happening and the fact that they have been fulfilled becomes one of the strongest arguments for the inspiration of the scriptures.

For you see, when you delve into this area of prophecy, in order to prove the inspiration of the scriptures, it is necessary that you have one hundred percent accuracy. If one word of God failed, then it means that it wasn't God who spoke. But when you have thousands of prophecies that have come to pass exactly as declared, then it begins to give extremely strong evidence that it was indeed God who spoke. Now there was a very tragic day in the history of Israel when the Roman government took away from the Jews the rite of capital punishment. And when the Roman government removed from them the rite of capital punishment, they felt that at that point they had lost their power to govern. For they related capital punishment to government, for when God established human government under Noah, He established it with the provision of capital punishment.

Now you remember when Jacob was pronouncing the prophecies upon his sons on his dying bed, he said unto Judah that, "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah until the Messiah comes" (Genesis 49:10). The sceptre being the ruling power. And when the government of Rome took away in about 12 A.D., they took away from the Jews the power of capital punishment, the rabbis and the priests put on sackcloth. They put ashes on their heads. And for a week they went wailing through the streets of Jerusalem because they said, "God's Word has failed. The scepter has departed. Shiloh has not come." What they didn't know was that in the village of Nazareth at that time He was there growing up. But they really felt that God's Word had failed. And that means that it wasn't God's Word because God's Word can't fail. And to them it was a national disaster that God's Word should fail. But not one word of God's prophecy has failed.

And so God challenges the other gods, "If you're really gods, you say you're gods, all right then, do something. Show yourself. Make us amazed. Tell us something before it happens so that when it comes to pass, we will really know that you are gods." And I love the way God challenges these false gods. Now God goes on to declare,

I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun he shall call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay. Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that showeth, yea, there is none that declares, yea, there is none that hears your words (Isa 41:25-26).

God was speaking again of Cyrus. "I've raised up one. He's going to come and you're going to know that I know what I'm talking about. But which of you, the false gods, have declared anything before it happened and it actually came to pass?"

The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that brings good tidings. For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counselor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word. Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion (Isa 41:27-29).

These false gods that the people were worshipping. God says there's no counselor among them. They're empty. They're vain.

But in the end times, these will be the only gods left and so many will be deceived even as there are those who will not be fooled.  There is a mighty revival out there in that wilderness after He has gathered us to Him.  The true  Jesus will be preached and we will pursue that in a bit later in the blog.  For now I want you to know that a false Jesus will be preached and depicted, sometimes in what where actual churches for Him.

My point, the only real one I want to make here is this: everything says it's almost time.   Every event from Russia, from  the USA, from Europe, from China, indicates we are running out of time here on Earth.  There are literally billions of lives at stake every second, waiting to hear the Word, in a way they can understand, in a language they comprehend.  Every one of us has reason to say that Word.  If we love, if we cafe, if we are here to think of the Master, of his gift, every one of us has a reason to witness.   Please do.  On what might be the last real Christmas, please do.  Witness with your life, with who you are and with your voice.  With all the false gods that may remain, every voice now, heard and unanswered will remain in the hearts and minds of those who hear it going into this time.  I can't imagine the pressures they will face, to sign with the antichrist or starve to death without the mark.  To lose a job for Christ.  To maybe lose your family, your  hope of tomorrow.  But so many face it NOW in so many countries. it will hardly seem like a change.  In my safe little USA place, I cry against both today and tomorrow with so much against Him and the power of God for Him and us.  Think of them now: think of the ones after the AC begins his reign.  

Somewhere to pray for:

https://www.persecution.com/

https://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/default.htm?gclid=CjwKCAiA693RBRAwEiwALCc3u2eBx0PMoNvpBEJA6JIjB_nF6BX2MSazfyWQ-ojWiRmLzu4ocfBKnhoCvXcQAvD_BwE

                               THINGS WHICH FOLLOW: PART D FOR Doomsday

(Something happened that demands a recognition in this blog:  Iran has increased it's military presence in Syria.  In Yedioth Ahronoth, Ron Ben-Yishal suggests the northern border already troublesome and deadly with Iranian and Syrian support of Hezbollah will become even more threatening.  Russia has given it's blessing to the rise in Iranian strategic placement of support.  Iranian warships could hover close to Israel and threaten shipping from Israel.  Planes could be placed in Syria to threaten an air attack.   Troops could mass at the Syrian border.  Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov who said that any Iranian deployment is legitimate so long as Syria approves, has been meeting this week with the leader of Libya.  The instability there gives  their leader a need for distraction which the rallying cry to destroy Israel  would surely provide. The Biblical scenario is coming much closer to fruition.)

(And in the US, the people of Alabama chose to reject Moore, a man accused of molesting women and actually vote for a democrat.  It seems the stomachs of even the deepest South republicans have a gag reflex after all.   Apparently a monument to the Ten Commandments doesn't insure election if you are busy violating a few of them.  It may also be a reaction to the public actually seeing the depth of betrayal in the latest tax cut for the large corporations and the wealthy.  And the promise from McConnell to continue the tax cutting in six years "if" the repubs are still in power. )


Lookin' Out For Number One


They advertise it on the television
I hear 'em plug it on the radio
How we've come to this, I really do not know
Givin' glory to the human race now
Man's evolving to a "higher plane"
We will see the wrath of God if things don't change
People lead about by blind ambition
And nobody wants to be outdone
And they say ya gotta look out for number one

Jesus is still in control of my life
He's the Master and second to none
One day the Lord will break open the sky
So I guess you could say I'm lookin' out
I'm lookin' out for number One

Usin' people just to gain position
Whatever happened to the Golden Rule
We've become a generation of power hungry fools, yeah
People livin' for their reputation
To make a name that everyone will know
What'll it take to show ya life's no one man show
If ya think that life is out to get you
And you feel you've gotta protect yourself
Turn it over to the one who knows you so well

Jesus is still in control of my life
He's the Master and second to none
One day the Lord will break open the sky
So I guess you could say I'm lookin' out
I'm lookin' out for number One

Oh, Jesus is still in control of my life
He's the Master and second to none
Oh, one day the Lord will break open the sky
So I guess you could say I'm lookin' out
I'm lookin' out for number One

I'm lookin' out for number One
I'm lookin' out for number One
Yeah, yeah,
I'm lookin' out!



http://www.independent.co.uk


THERE was a queue to get into the Chinese market in Vladivostok. It was below freezing on a clear-sky Saturday morning and the ground inside the fenced-off market was solidly packed ice. The Chinese merchants stood in front of their goods, stamping their feet against the cold.
The Russian customers picked through the piles of leather jackets, jumpers, underwear, sunglasses and video games. They pretended to turn their noses up at the quality of the goods, but bargained hard - to the point of fisticuffs - when they wanted to buy something.

The Chinese, mostly from the poor north-east Chinese province of Heilongjiang across the border, have got used to the abuse, the bribes they have to pay, and even the Russian gangs who roam the streets at night looking for Chinese to beat up. The money they make in Vladivostok more than compensates for the hardships. 'I hate it here,' said Li Jinhua, standing in front of a collection of television antennae. 'I hate the food, I hate the cold weather, and I hate the attitude of the people. But the money is good.' Lately, however, the Chinese have also had to deal with the full force of the local government, which last month introduced policies designed to keep them out of the country.

Here, in the Far East corner of Siberia, where Russia is hemmed in between the Pacific and China, the East-West conflict is being waged with gusto - in bare-knuckled form. Friction between the East and the West is nothing new: Britain's confrontation with China in the Opium wars is still being played out in the struggle over Hong Kong and the attempt by the US Navy in 1853 to open Japan to world trade is still unfinished business.


But nowhere are the tensions between East and West more visible, nor racist feelings more raw, than in the newly opened Russian Far East. For 50 years Vladivostok, as base of the Soviet Pacific Fleet, was entirely closed to outsiders. After it opened in 1992 a flood of industrious Chinese labourers and merchants entered the city and the surrounding region and the Russians were not ready for them. As they undercut local merchants in the markets, while taking labouring jobs for lower wages than Russians were prepared to accept, resentment began to grow.

Beatings of Chinese became common last year: few now go out after dark. There are no Chinese restaurants in Vladivostok - perhaps the only city in the world with a large Chinese population so deprived. And last November the provincial government announced strict visa regulations for Chinese coming across the border. At the same time Chinese merchants were de facto banned from the centre of the city and forced to sell their goods on the outskirts. And Cossacks have set up unofficial posts along the border to stop anyone who tries to sneak across without the right papers.

'Our biggest problem now is the police,' said Zao Dongwan, who was selling underwear and running shoes in the market. 'They want bribes all the time - if we do not pay, they either beat us, or take away our passports.' The cost of a visa is officially 1,200 roubles (45 pence) but Mr Zao said police now expect a minimum of 120,000 merely to consider the application. And, even with a visa, police often demand arbitrary contributions from the Chinese.

(This underlines (snicker) that the two Asian giants are not likely to ever smile, shake hands and sing love songs to each other. W)

It is as if history were repeating itself. Before the Russian revolution Vladivostok was a colourful, cosmopolitan city with European and Japanese businessmen and Chinese shop-keepers and labourers mixing easily with the Russian (minority) population. Even in the 1920s 40 per cent of men of working age were Chinese. Russia's Far East has always had a labour shortage and the Chinese were quick to plug the gap. But Stalin gradually got rid of the Chinese, finally shooting several hundred in 1938 as alleged spies and deporting 10,000 to China.

Now the city is opening again - and the old Stalinist suspicions of outsiders are being revived. 'China has begun to carry out a policy aimed at penetrating the territories of Siberia . . . this policy includes shifting surplus population from North-east China,' claimed Victor Larin, director of the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East.

Dr Larin, who specialises in Chinese history, said the Chinese are seen as a potential 'Fifth column within the economy - it is that which the local authorities are trying to stop'. In a survey carried out by Dr Larin's institute last year only 2 per cent in Vladivostok said they would work with Chinese if they had the choice.

Fears of a masterplan in Peking to infiltrate and eventually dominate the economy of Russia's Far East may be exaggerated. But there is no doubt that in the Chinese provinces neighbouring Russia, particularly Heilongjiang, many opportunities glisten just over the border. Heilongjiang has 35 million people, Vladivostok and its province of Primorye a mere 2.2 million. This weight of people, and the pressure to make money at any cost in today's China, will mean more Chinese trying to profit from the rich natural resources of Russia's Far East.

And that in turn will mean racial tension as Russian jealousy of Chinese enterprise and thrift mounts. For the time being, with the Chinese less visible in the city, tension has gone down. But, says Victor Cherep kov, the mayor of Vladivostok, this is temporary. 'The measures against the Chinese are not efficient, and the consequences have been minimal. The numbers of Chinese have not gone down - they are just becoming more clever at getting into Russia.'




War with either Korea means two giants at risk as well as that small country.  No sane person could consider an attack on either the North or the South and expect to not have the two giants involved.




https://www.brookings.edu/articles/siberia-russias-economic-heartland-and-daunting-dilemma/

Siberia has loomed large in perceptions about Russia’s place in the world. Throughout Russia’s
modern history, Siberia’s size—it encompasses more than three-quarters of Russia’s total
territory—and its geostrategic position astride the Eurasian landmass have contributed significantly
to Russia itself. And the exploration and development of Siberia have helped shape Russian national
identity. Siberia has been seen as Russia’s “treasure chest,” the source of new wealth, new territory, and folk traditions that evolved alongside the unique cultures of Siberia’s indigenous peoples. Russian writers have extolled Siberia as the “untamed frontier” and a “New World” savior for the rest of Russia. As late as the 1980s, a statement attributed to Mikhail Lomonosov, the great Russian scholar of the eighteenth century—”Russia’s power will grow with Siberia”—adorned the walls of Russia’s science classrooms.

Siberia, as the primary repository of Russia’s massive natural resource base, has played a vital role in
underpinning the Russian economy. Furs from the forestlands across the Ural Mountains and Siberia,
along with salt and minerals, bolstered the economy of Muscovy and the early Russian empire from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Siberia’s mineral resources fueled the industrialization of the Russian empire in the nineteenth century and the development of Soviet industry after the 1917 revolution. West Siberian oil became the mainstay of the late Soviet economy from the 1960s, and it remains the backbone of the Russian economy today.

According to Russian calculations, Siberia holds just under 80 percent of Russia’s oil resources, about 85 percent of its natural gas, 80 percent of its coal, similar amounts of precious metals and diamonds, and a little over 40 percent of the nation’s timber resources. As a result of this rich base, and its exploitation, Siberia is in many respects what geographer David Hooson would call Russia’s “effective national territory,” or its economic heartland—the region that produces a surplus relative to the size of its population and that essentially supports the rest of the country. As a number of recent studies by geographer Michael Bradshaw and economist Peter Westin have demonstrated, with the exception of the city of Moscow and the industrial region of Samara in the Urals, the major contributors to the Russian economy in terms of per capita gross regional product (GRP) are all natural-resource regions, primarily in Siberia and the Russian Far East. The oil-producing
region of Tyumen in West Siberia tops the list; then Chukotka, also a major energy producer; Sakha
(Yakutia), the site of Russia’s world-class diamond industry; Magadan, a major mining region; Sakhalin, the island repository off the Pacific coast of one of Russia’s richest new finds of oil and gas; and Krasnoyarsk, a vast coal mining, mineral, and precious metal producing region.




http://russiatrek.org/tyumen-city


Tyumen is a city in Russia, the capital of the Tyumen region, the first Russian city in Siberia. It is located in Western Siberia on the Tura River flowing into the Tobol River. The distance to Moscow is 2,081 km.

The population of Tyumen is about 697,600 (2015), the area - 235 sq. km.


The phone code is +7 3452, the postal codes - 625000-625062.









The idea of any war with Russia is daunting enough let alone the realization of the size of the place with Siberia added and all those resources to call upon in any extended war.  The oil resources in Tyumen alone would fuel many long battles.

And what would you attack them with if you were an enemy?

Nuclear weapons would ruin the value of the resources but would be the only potential threat to the vastness of the Russian bear.






Even without the  Ice Age idea, the threat of nculear weapons from either the US or Russia is huge:


http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-nuclear-weapons-expansion-risk-2017-1

 Few words issued by President-elect Donald Trump could matter more than his recent rhetoric on nuclear weapons.

"The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes," Trump posted to Twitter on December 22, 2016.

The next day, he bucked his aides' dismissive spin: "Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all," Trump allegedly told MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Mika Brzezinski over the phone.

Trump is worried about the nuclear weapons modernization efforts of Russia, which in 2014 violated a key arms reduction treaty, plus the emerging threat of North Korea. His tough-guy attitude echoes Cold War-era logic: outmatch your adversaries, or risk a nation-destroying preemptive strike.

But this line of thinking is exceedingly dangerous in a future US president. It not only ignores disquieting facts about nuclear weapons and threatens to further implode a global half-century-long effort to reduce nuclear armaments, it also increases the risk of a nuclear catastrophe.

Trump's push for nuclear proliferation is the worst possible option, not even worthy of being a last resort.

Here's why.

Enough nukes already exist to destroy both the US and Russia

Russia currently possesses 7,300 nuclear weapons. The United States has 7,100. Together, these armaments comprise about 93% of all nuclear weapons on Earth. By contrast, China has about 260 warheads.

Less than a quarter of these weapons are actually deployed in the air, on land, or at sea — the so-called "triad" of defense. Also, an uncertain number are smaller, "tactical" devices meant for the battlefield. (Such devices are their own can of worms, as we'll show shortly.)

But such caveats make little difference.

Most US and Russian arms are officially deemed as "strategic," such as the submarine-launched W88 thermonuclear warhead, and they tend to be many times more powerful than the bombs the US dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Those unprecedented attacks leveled cities and killed more than 100,000 people.

Purely looking at the known numbers of strategic warheads, the US has deployed and stockpiled enough to destroy every Russian city with a population greater than 50,000 (about 300 cities altogether) many times over. Similarly, Russia likely has enough to decimate every US city larger than 100,000 people (also about 300 cities) multiple times.

This is the raw essence behind nuclear deterrence: You won't destroy us because we can destroy you.

(Effectively ignoring that there are plenty of weapons to destroy each other already.  Except for the one truth none of these folks share with anyone.  More on that after this article. W.)

If establishing such a stalemate is still the guiding principle behind the existence of nuclear weapons, then the current US arsenal is more than adequate psychological warfare. Adding more weapons, as Trump suggests, would do little to enhance or change this perceived advantage.

In fact, it'd make a terrifying situation even worse.

Weapons systems — and people — are flawed

Right now, hundreds of strategic US nuclear weapons are on "hair-trigger alert," also called "on alert" or "launch-on-warning".

This dangerous Cold War-era policy means such weapons can be launched within a few minutes of detecting an adversary's preemptive nuclear strike — or a false signal of one.

Many strategic weapons, like Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) deployed across middle America, can't be disabled once they leave a silo.

Yet no human creation is perfect. You can build the world's smartest, most seemingly foolproof machine, and it will still contain flaws. In the case of nuclear weapons systems, such flaws run the risk of accidental launch, detonation, and incredible loss of life.

Tallying up nuclear weapons accidents is exceedingly difficult, especially due to their classified nature, but information that has been released is alarming.

"[M]any dozens of incidents involving nuclear warheads are known to have occurred in the United States — and likely many more that have not been made public," according to a 2015 fact sheet by the Union of Concerned Scientists. It continued: "[T]he more of these incidents that occur, the greater is the chance that one of them will lead to a nuclear detonation."

Thirty-two known incidents were "broken arrows," or when a nuclear weapon was accidentally launched, fired, detonated, stolen, or lost. Eleven are weapons the US military never recovered, including one of two powerful thermonuclear bombs it accidentally dropped and nearly detonated over North Carolina.

A uranium pit from one of the weapons is still somewhere at the bottom of a swamp.

(I emphasize this because any one of those lost bombs could show up somewhere at any time.  When you consider the results of a detontation and add it to the missing weapons factor, you wonder why the recoverey of those weapons has never been prioritized by governments.  That we know of.  W.)


Writer Eric Schlosser has chronicled some of these all-too-common misadventures in "Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety". The 2014 book closely follows the story of a Titan II ICBM that exploded in its silo, nearly setting off a powerful warhead that could have laid waste to Arkansas and nearby states. (The cause? A maintenance worker who accidentally dropped a tool.)

In light of Trump's recent statements, Schlosser revisited some of his book's material in a recent piece for The New Yorker, in which he described alarming, ongoing technical problems with "aging and obsolete" nuclear weapons and their command-and-control systems.

Schlosser also highlighted the risks of being human. Using Minuteman III system as one example, he wrote for The New Yorker:

"[In 2014], almost a hundred Minuteman launch officers were disciplined for cheating on their proficiency exams. In 2015, three launch officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base, in Montana, were dismissed for using illegal drugs, including ecstasy, cocaine, and amphetamines. That same year, a launch officer at Minot Air Force Base, in North Dakota, was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for heading a violent street gang, distributing drugs, sexually assaulting a girl under the age of sixteen, and using psilocybin, a powerful hallucinogen. As the job title implies, launch officers are entrusted with the keys for launching intercontinental ballistic missiles."

National leaders who can order nuclear strikes are also fallible humans.

Take Pakistan's defense minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, for example. Asif publicly rattled his nation's nuclear sabers in late December after reading (and apparently believing) a fake news article about Israel threatening his country with nuclear weapons.

More nukes would increase the chances that a weapons system and the people behind their operation would fail. It would also heighten the risk of a weapon, especially small tactical ones, falling into the hands of terrorists.

Luckily, the US is actively working to reduce the chance of disaster.


During the first presidential debate, Trump claimed that "Russia has been expanding their — they have a much newer [nuclear weapons] capability than we do. We have not been updating from the new standpoint. [...] We are not — we are not keeping up with other countries."

(Now I want you to realize the reason Reaganites say the USSR fell apart was that we caused that regime to overspend itself into such debt it had to give up the union and collapse.  Many of those same Reaganites now back the massive overspending and the Trump idea to kick it up as we race against a successful Russian economy building program.  The failure to remember history leads to repeating it and the repeats are almost never good ones.  W.)

(But you need to remember something else.  The US Defense industry is directly or indirectly responsible for fully 1/4 of the US economy.  The US government is propping up the economy with its spending even as it is collapsing the middle class and letting the poor and desperate go whatever way they may while claiming there isn't enough money.  It is an odd corner the US government under Republican rule has painted itself into.  But it is an obvious one that leads to the feeding of a military industrial complex that has the money and influence to keep supporters in power and help eliminate anyone who disagrees with them.  W.)

While it's true that Russia is upgrading its weapons, partly in response to sanctions and partly in response to US nuclear weapons advancements, Trump's assertion that the US "has not been updating" and is "not keeping up" is either a bold lie or fallacious.

For example, Russia does not currently have a working early-warning satellite system; it went offline 2 years ago, Schlosser said. This means the US gets 30 minutes of warning with an ICBM launch. Russia's land-based radar systems, meanwhile, can give only a few minutes' notice before a warhead lands.

Trump's oft-repeated statements on nuclear weapons also suggest that he does not understand the truly bewildering amount of taxpayer dollars the US has spent maintaining and improving its nuclear weapons systems.

In his book "Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940", Stephen Schwartz, a professor at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, calculated how much the US government spent on nuclear weapons through 1996.

His conservative estimate is that the country spent, at minimum, $5.8 trillion on nuclear weapons. That's in 1996-adjusted dollars, though; in 2016 dollars, this amounts to more than $8.9 trillion.

Putting this titanic amount of money into perspective, Schwartz told an audience during a 1998 presentation at the Brookings Institution:

"[N]uclear weapons spending over this 56-year period exceeded the combined total federal spending for education; training, employment, and social services; agriculture; natural resources and the environment; general science, space, and technology; community and regional development (including disaster relief); law enforcement; and energy production and regulation. On average, the United States has spent $98 billion a year [$150 billion in 2016 dollars] on nuclear weapons."


(When the Congress and President move to cut or destroy every social program that might have rescued the US from the awful consequences of the above spending action because there isn't enough money in the coffers for the social programs and the constant military spending, please remind yourself not to be standing too close to any of these people on Judgement Day. I don't know about you, but I have enough sins of my own I don't want any of the fallout from these guys to catch me.  W.)

Today, a similar spending trend continues.



"The current and planned U.S. investment in nuclear forces is unrivaled by any other nuclear power," stated a December 2016 report by the Arms Control Association.
Business Insider has called Trump's attention to the fact that the US plans to spend more than $1 trillion in taxes over the next 30 years to modernize its nuclear arsenal. (The government pegged the cost at about $450 billion over 20 years, but these estimates aren't realistic, according to several independent reports.)

The nuclear triad modernization program, requested by President Barack Obama, endeavors to refurbish aging weapons systems, improve reliability, narrow targeting, lower the risk of malfunctions, and actually reduce the number of deployed, ready-to-go weapons.

(With one detail ignored.  They are refurbishing weapons but not the missiles that launch them.  The "old reliables"  that have failed in the past remain in place.  W.)

Any call to expand the US nuclear arsenal while failing to address this controversial program, as Trump did throughout the 2016 election, and continues to as president-elect, belies a vast government expenditure and suggests a worrisome ignorance or dishonesty.

The effects of this program could extend well beyond US and Russian borders, too.
.

Despite both the US and Russia taking thousands of warheads offline since 2010 (as part of the New START treaty), some experts believe the arms race Trump seeks is already happening under Obama's watch. A primary concern surrounds two new tactical weapons the US military plans to build.

The first is a new land-launched nuclear cruise missile. Former UK defense secretary Philip Hammond has said such weapons look like non-nuclear cruise missiles to enemies and adversaries, so their existence could lead to confusion that ends in nuclear war.

The second — the US military's B61-12 gravity bomb design — is perhaps more troubling, in that it might lead to routine use of nuclear weapons. While billed as an upgrade, many experts say it's effectively a new weapon with new capabilities.

The B61-12 will recycle four older-style bombs that simply fell to target with a precision of about 300-550 feet. The rebuilt bombs, however, will have new pop-out fins and thrusters to guide them to a target with a precision of less than 100 feet. Their explosions will be adjustable, too, so the military can detonate them at yields several times greater down to several times less than the first atomic bombs.

The Federation of American Scientists and former US military leaders say such features make tactical weapons imminently more usable in battle. And if tactical weapons are used in a future conflict, the taboo against use of any nuclear weapons is likely to fall apart. Some experts even argue that tactical weapons use could lead to a nuclear holocaust. (Of note: As late as August 2016, one of Trump's foreign policy advisors said the incoming president asked at least "three times" why the US couldn't use its nuclear arsenal.)

US development of advanced tactical weapons also sends a signal to other countries: Namely, that it's ok to develop them, too.



The most worrisome country for this to happen is not Russia or even Iran or North Korea, but Pakistan (which has 140 nuclear weapons) in its longstanding and bitter feud with India (which has 110 nuclear weapons).

"Pakistan is outnumbered by India in terms of conventional forces and is growing increasingly reliant on the threat of the early use of tactical weapons to deter an attack," journalist Julian Borger wrote at The Guardian in 2016.

If that does happen, a small-scale nuclear war could ensue — and wreck the planet.

(Moreover, the threat of India as a massive army against China would be greatly reduced if Pakistan were to open fire on its  populous Hindu enemy.  W)

Simulations show that in a war where India and Pakistan each detonate 50 Hiroshima-size nuclear bombs over cities, more than a quarter of the Earth's ozone layer would disappear within 2 years. The surge of incoming ultraviolet light would wreck ocean ecosystems, increase the rate of skin cancers, stunt plant growth, and more.

Also, all the carbon from burning cities would partially blot out the sun, plummet average surface temperatures to 1,000-year lows, and lead to a nuclear winter scenario that'd trigger global famine due to food shortages.

Adding weapons and increasing their capabilities is a surer path toward such a catastrophe. There are, however, ways to steer humanity away from this alarming risk.

What is the solution?


The more nuclear weapons exist and are upgraded, the more likely they are to be used — either intentionally or accidentally — and expose our species to the risk of an unprecedented nuclear calamity and possibly a horrifying extinction.

The solution is not easy but straightforward: Do not expand any nuclear arsenals. Instead, continue to reduce weapons stockpiles, ideally until they are all gone.

(Understand a US strategist would say this is suicide for the US which would be vulnerable ti invasion from lesser more populous countries without this weapons superiority.  Military would likely be tempted to seize power  and "protect the country"  from this "mistake."  W.)

The US can't ignore ongoing threats from Putin to modernize and expand Russia's nuclear arsenal. Nor should we idly sit by while North Korea works toward its first fully functional nuclear weapons system, including an ICBM capable of reaching the US, or as Pakistan develops tactical weapons — and endeavors to give commanders the authority to use them on the battlefield.

...

Most importantly, however, as Schlosser and others argue, it's past time that we stop assuming nuclear weapons are safe or ignorable relics of the Cold War.

Instead, we all need to have frank and honest discussions — in our homes, at work, and with elected officials — about the reality of nuclear weapons, including their numbers, risks, cost, and imminent threat to the future of humanity. Every weapon we dismantle is one step farther away from the worst kind of mishap imaginable.



                                                                                                                                                               

There is a dirty little open secret about all this stockpiling of nuclear weapons: some things in the bombs and missiles may not work.

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/60e8aj/what_is_the_shelf_life_of_a_nuclear_weapon_how/

  There are several "aging" issues with nuclear weapons:if they use tritium for "boosting," it has a really short half-life and needed to be replaced every few years plutonium self-irradiates, which changes its chemical and nuclear composition over time (whether it does so in a way that will make it unviable is what is being studied — so far the labs have said "it'll still work"; JASON said it won't affect yield for at least a century, but as with all tricky issues there are disagreers) there are conventional high explosives, wires, circuits, etc., which, aside from just aging as things do, are also undergoing small amounts of irradiation from the fissile material, and that induces chemical changes
there are also "exotic" materials in the weapons whose long-term shelf-life isn't clear (e.g. weird aerogels), esp. under long-term irradiation.

So you have a lot of things that might go wrong over time, plus one thing (the tritium) that will definitely go wrong over time.
As for straight up regular radioactive decay — the half lives of U-235 and Pu-239 are long enough that this doesn't matter much. If your bomb at 6 kg of Pu-239 and you do nothing to it for a century, you'll have 5.98 kg of Pu-239 at the end of that century. I don't think that's going to make much of a difference. At some point, I guess, you'll get a low level of plutonium, but check this out: if you waited 500 years, you'd have 4.66 kg of plutonium left, which is making you think, oh, maybe that's not viable, right? But in that time the decays would have generate 1.34 kg of U-235! So while your critical properties would have changed a little bit, you still have ~6 kg of fissile material. You have to wait on the order of several million years before you really start to lose fissile material to decay (because the Pu-239 converts to U-235 and U-235 has a much longer half-life). Anyway, this is just an illustration of the decay aspect — it's actually not likely relevant to your question, because the other components will surely decompose long before that's an issue.



NPR transcript:

November 30, 2006
6:00 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
DAVID KESTENBAUM
The National Nuclear Security Administration says the rate at which nuclear weapons materials degrade is slower than they once believed. That means the the nation's nuclear arsenal may not need updating as soon as was thought. But the debate in Congress about the long-term reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile continues.

JOHN YDSTIE, host:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm John Ydstie.

RENÈE MONTAGNE, host:

And I'm Renèe Montagne. Good morning.

A new study suggests that plutonium, the critical component of nuclear weapons, may have a surprisingly long shelf life. Some U.S. weapons are close to 30 years old and scientists have worried the plutonium inside them may be slowly deteriorating. The new findings released yesterday suggest that's not the case, that plutonium could survive a very long time.

NPR's David Kestenbaum reports.

DAVID KESTENBAUM: The problem with plutonium is it's only been around since World War II, so it's hard to say how it ages over the long haul. Plutonium is radioactive. And when the atoms decay, they send bits and pieces plowing through the rest of material, potentially causing damage. The official estimate had been that plutonium should hold up for at least 45 years. The new findings indicate the weapon pits should be okay for almost twice that - 85 years at least.

The Department of Energy is planning to build a new facility to remanufacture plutonium cores for bombs. Stephen Schwartz says the new findings mean there is no rush to do that. He edits the journal called “The Nonproliferation Review.”

Mr. STEPHEN SCHWARTZ (Editor, The Nonproliferation Review): Plutonium aging, other warhead reliability problems, they've all been touted as reasons why we have to go back and start remanufacturing weapons. And if we're going to do that, they'll say well, we've got to build an entirely new weapon's complex. I think this calls into question whether or not that's a wise and necessary course of action.

                                                                                                                                                              

Notice the           sentence.  During the great scrapping of nuclear weapons during  the Reagan- Gorbachev era, many sources suggested that the reason was  the weapons themselves were no longer functional, not because of nuclear deterioration, but because the decaying radioactive materials emitted radiation that went into the surrounding steel casings of the weapons and the nickel in the steel accumulated that radiation  and the effect of the accumulation was to make the various instruments of the weapon malfunction.  One of the rumors for the cause of the missile exploding in the silo recorded above.  Nickel still accumulates radiation and is still used in the highest grade steels.  The possibility is simply that some or many of the older weapons in nuclear arsenals may well fail in a battle situation.  

                                                                                                                                                                 


About Vladivostok's fate and that of any American city hit:

https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200508/viewpoint.cfm

In contrast to a chemical or biological agent, a "small" (10 kiloton) nuclear weapon detonated in a major city would kill more than 100,000 people and reduce tens of square kilometers to rubble almost instantly. Even a crude nuclear device that fizzled would destroy many square kilometers of a city and kill tens of thousands of people. A large (1 megaton) nuclear weapon could kill millions of people and destroy hundreds of square kilometers within a few seconds. Those who survived a nuclear explosion would have to deal with severe physical trauma, burns, and radiation sickness. Vital infrastructure would be destroyed or damaged, and radioactivity would linger for years near and downwind of the explosion. Unlike the effects of a chemical or biological weapon, the devastating effects of a nuclear weapon on a city cannot be reduced significantly by actions taken before or after the attack.

How might a nuclear weapon be delivered to a US city? The current administration has tended to focus on the possibility that an emerging missile state such as North Korea or Iran could use long-range ballistic missiles capable of striking the United States. However, the US intelligence community considers long-range ballistic missiles the least likely method an enemy might use to attack the United States, and no emerging missile states currently have missiles that could reach the US homeland.

Russia currently has about 6,000 nuclear-tipped intercontinental-range missiles capable of striking the US homeland and China has about 20, but neither North Korea nor Iran currently has missiles capable of reaching the United States. The longest-range missile North Korea has tested (once, in 1998) is its Taepodong I. With two stages, this missile is thought capable of lofting a nuclear warhead about 2,000 km, half the distance required to reach Alaska from North Korea and about a third the distance needed to reach Hawaii. In the 1998 test, a small third stage was added and blew up in flight. If the Taepodong I had a third stage that worked, it could probably loft about 500 kg, less than the mass of an unsophisticated nuclear warhead, a distance of 3,000–4,000 km, less than the distance to Alaska or Hawaii. North Korea has for a decade been reported to be working on a more advanced missile, the Taepodong II, which might be able to loft a nuclear warhead far enough to reach Alaska or Hawaii but probably not other parts of the United States. Iran has tested a ballistic missile that has a range of 1,300 km and is reportedly developing a more advanced missile that is expected to have a range of 2,000–3,000 km, far less than that needed to strike the United States.

Developing a system that can deliver a nuclear weapon using a long-range ballistic missile requires mastering many challenging technologies. The nuclear warhead must be light enough to be carried by the missile and must be capable of surviving the harsh conditions of launch and re-entry at hypersonic speeds. If the attacker has only a few nuclear weapons, the missile must be reliable and accurate enough to risk using it to deliver a weapon.



Frederick K. Lamb is Professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Director of the Center for Theoretical Astrophysics, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He was the co-Chair of the APS study group on boost-phase intercept systems for national missile defense.

                                                                                                                                                                   

The new A-Bomb of communication may be quantum encryption.

http://www.newsweek.com/china-using-quantum-physics-take-over-world-695026

Now, thanks to a technology called quantum encryption, the dream of perfectly secure communication is real. It could help free the world from online fraud and identity theft, hacking attacks and electronic eavesdropping. It could also enable terrorists and criminals to communicate with absolute secrecy—and governments to hide their secrets without anyone ever finding out. In a world of unbreakable encryption, all human electronic communication could become entirely private—with mind-boggling consequences, both good and bad, for cybersecurity.On September 29, that world came significantly closer to reality. A team of cryptographers and physicists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences held a half-hour video call with their counterparts in Vienna using quantum encryption, a technology that makes it impossible to hack or overhear communications.

The new encryption standard “is what has me most excited, and most worried, of all recent technological innovations,” says a senior U.K. intelligence official not authorized to speak on the record. “It’s a world-changer.” And at the moment, experts say, while the major technical innovations in quantum technology are still being produced in such Western institutions as IBM in Armonk, New York, the University of California (backed by Google) and the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands (backed by the European Union), it’s the Chinese who are far ahead in terms of implementation.The Beijing-Vienna call was made over a conventional Skype-type internet connection—but what was revolutionary was a secure encryption key generated in a quantum device mounted in a Chinese satellite. And, crucially, the quantum physics that created the key means any attempt to break the code can be immediately detected. “Quantum crypto is as close to unbreakable ciphers as one can possibly get,” says Artur Ekert, a professor at the University of Oxford and inventor of the model on which the Chinese based their system.

Ekert’s encryption method is based on an extraordinary effect known as quantum entanglement. The phenomenon is so bizarre and inexplicable that even the man who discovered it, Albert Einstein, was baffled. In 1935, he described the effect as “spooky action at a distance.”Here’s how it works: Two particles of light—known as photons—in separate locations can be made to precisely copy each other’s behavior even when separated by vast distances. Exactly how this happens is still not understood, but the phenomenon was demonstrated in lab conditions back in 1984. What’s remarkable about September’s Beijing-Vienna experiment is that scientists were able to use quantum entanglement to make a secret key composed of a string of data bits appear simultaneously in different corners of the Earth.What’s more, the Chinese team, led by physicist Jian-Wei Pan, has built an entire real-world quantum-encrypted communications system. The Chinese have linked base stations, satellites and thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable to transmit the quantum keys across the country. “It didn’t require the discovery of a new physical principle,” says Charles Clark, an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland’s Joint Quantum Institute who pioneered quantum communication over distance. What’s impressive is the scale and distance over which the Chinese have made their system work.


“It’s a spectacular demonstration,” Clark says.Until now, all cryptography had basically relied on creating mathematical puzzles that were beyond an enemy’s technological capabilities to solve. Today’s standard for encryption—so-called public key technology, which is the basis of all internet authentication and supposedly secure communications applications, such as WhatsApp—is much more complex than Enigma."

                                                                                                                                                                   

The King of the East orders his armed forces into action.


Before the US attacked, even before calling the US President, the King activated an encrypted communications device which in turn activated  small explosives packages embedded in both the generator and the back-up generator for the bunker of the North Korean command.  He did not have a chance to stop the launching but this act ends their ability to communicate with the outside forces and stops the oxygen recycling and scrubbing action and stops all the elevator escape procedures.  Miles underground, the North Korean command group will slowly suffocate.  Effectively ending their direction of their forces.

In the sea of Japan, the US fleet has been holding it's own for fifteen minutes against the now leaderless armed forces of a small country. Destroyers have been lost to land to sea missiles but the carrier has endured.  It's fleet of planes have outfought anything sent against them.

US military command in South Korea has been attacked by conventional weapons.  The order to launch a nuke against Soule was not given before the communications went down.  They rally their ground troops then see that the nuclear armaments have hit NK and make a physical invasion risky until the dust clears.  SK government orders everyone that can  into available shelters.  Fallout now becomes as much an enemy as North Korea.

US commanders in Japan are caught off guard.  They notify the Japanese government even though they already know from the weapons fire and net postings.  They have begun their efficient movement of their people into shelters and into their designated  positions in case of nuclear disasters.

Three Chinese submarines have been shadowing the US force in the Sea of Japan since they arrived there years ago.   They have become the constant shadow ignored but not forgotten.  Their encrypted messages arrive at the same time and they follow them to the letter.

Nuclear tipped torpedoes are launched from different directions, from the strait with the East China Sea, from the strait with the Sea of Okhotsk.  Nuclear war in a small pocket of water and land becomes even more concentrated.

                                                                                                                                                                   

The King of the North gets word that his port city on the Pacific is lost.  He is now truly aggravated.  His plan in Israel was stymied and his forces were annihilated.   He lost considerable resources.  Then  the US collapse wounded his buying power and the head of the EU gutted the World Bank and established his own bitcoin system for the world to rescue the economy and, of course, establish himself as the controller.  The King of the North has been outplayed.  Now he knows he must conquer Europe to gain any kind of control over his future. But the fools ruling  in the US have made this even more difficult by their attack on North Korea and their "error" with the bomb.  His people are now dying and his port will be useless for decades at least.

If he knew the King of the East was acting, he might be able to await the outcome.  Instead he decides to take action.  Taking the wildcard US out of play will simplify his life and let his people know that Russia still matters.