Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Let the Headlines Speak
Aug 8th, 2019
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines

UK Continues Preparing For No-Deal Brexit After Boris Johnson Takes Charge
UK companies are getting ready for a no-deal Brexit even though the new prime minister, Boris Johnson, has indicated he would try to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement with the European Union. At the same time, Johnson has stressed that the United Kingdom would have to leave by October 31, whatever the circumstances are, and Brussels has reiterated it does not want to reopen negotiations on the withdrawal deal.

Rouhani says Iran favors talks but US must lift sanctions
He said Iran was ready for talks regardless of whether or not the US was party to a landmark nuclear deal. However, Rouhani also warned: “Peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, war with Iran is the mother of all wars”

Taliban say differences resolved on US troop withdrawal
KABUL, Afghanistan: A Taliban official says the United States and the Taliban have resolved differences in peace talks over troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, as well as Taliban guarantees to cut ties with extremist groups. The development came during talks over the past two days in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office.

Stay out of Syria, US defense chief tells Erdogan
A military offensive by Turkey against Kurdish forces in northeast Syria would be “unacceptable” and the US would act to prevent it, the Pentagon warned on Tuesday. The warning came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed threats to drive US-backed Kurdish militia away from its border, because Ankara considers them a terrorist threat to its security.

Hitler’s secret history revealed: Study suggests Nazi leader’s grandfather was Jewish
For years, the rumor existed that Adolf Hitler’s paternal grandfather was Jewish, but the claim went unsubstantiated. Now, a new study suggests that the grandfather of the Nazi leader was indeed Jewish.

Colorado fighting plague-infested fleas
‘It is getting very serious’ that’s why we’re out here today,” Gilbert Cazier is with the Tri-County Health Department. “We’re assessing the situation, we’re posting signs, and we’re also dusting some of the holes with insecticide to try to prevent flea transmission.” The concern is that fleas carrying the plague have begun infecting and killing a prairie dog colony just north of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

Boy Scouts running ‘largest pedophile ring on Earth’
Claiming to represent hundreds of sexual abuse victims, an organization called Abused in Scouting called on Congress to address what it calls the “largest pedophile ring on earth.” At a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, AIS lawyers announced their first lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America, the Daily Caller reported.

Will Ban On Gas Appliances Be The Next Push To Save The Planet?
As more cities and states try to cut carbon emissions, some are taking aim at a new target: natural gas inside homes. Buildings, through heating and cooking, use almost a third of the natural gas consumed in the U.S.

July was the hottest month ever measured across the world
July was the hottest month across the globe ever measured, and 2019 is on track to be one of the warmest years, according to data released Monday by the European Union’s Earth observation network.

6 asteroids are headed for Earth this month, and 1 is bigger than the Empire State Building
Scientists at NASA are tracking six asteroids that will be heading in the direction of our planet during the next few weeks, and one of them is larger than the Empire State Building.

Military suicides reached an all-time high in 2018, Pentagon says
Military suicides reached their highest recorded level last year, the Pentagon reports, highlighting a crisis affecting both civilians and veterans.

Ruby Rose Hopes Lesbian Batwoman Appeals to Everyone
The CW drama features the first out lesbian superhero to have her own show.

Pentagon’s Next Dystopian Surveillance Exercise Will Launch Spy Balloons Over These States
The Guardian reported Friday that the US military is conducting a surveillance exercise across six midwest states using surveillance radars attached to high-altitude balloons.

We Won’t Get Fooled Again! The Anatomy of a False Flag Event
With regard to JFK, RFK, MLK, 9/11, Oklahoma City, Ruby Ridge, Waco, Vegas Massacre; We won’t get fooled again! History shows that when the FBI moves into control the crime scene and manage the scene, the first casualty is the truth.

“The End Of The World As We Know It” – China Going Nuclear Means There’s No Turning Back Now
At the end of last week, President Trump announced that the U.S. would be imposing a 10 percent tariff on 300 billion dollars worth of Chinese imports, and that marked a dramatic escalation in our trade war with China.  This move by Trump came as a total shock to Chinese officials, and global financial markets were thrown into a state of turmoil.  Since that announcement, we have been waiting for the other shoe to drop, because we knew that the Chinese would retaliate.  But honestly, very few of the experts expected something like this.  On Monday, China announced that it is going to completely stop buying U.S. agricultural products…

President Trump Announces His Call For A National ‘Red Flag’ Gun Law That Will Allow The Government To Begin Confiscating Guns From US Citizens
An estimated 88,000 people die every year from alcohol, and yet alcohol is legal in all 50 states. Over 324,000 babies are killed in abortion each year, and yet abortions are legal in all 50 states. Over 40,000 people each year die in car crashes, the majority of which are linked to alcohol, and yet automobiles are legal in all 50 states.  In 2018, less than 15,000 people died from gun violence in America. Yet somehow, guns are the real problem, go figure.

Spain No Longer Catholic Country as ‘Non-Believers’ Now Make Up Majority
Since the Catholic Church was established in Spain in the 1st century, it has remained the majority religion in the country, with most Spanish people identifying themselves as practicing Catholics, until now.

The Declining Empire Of Chaos Is Going Nuts Over Iran
The transition in recent years from a unipolar to a multipolar world order has created international tensions that seem to threaten to escalate into clashes between regional and global powers.

U.S. Air Force and Raytheon Join Navy and Lockheed Martin by Introducing Directed Energy Weapons
After many years of speculation as to whether the use of Directed Energy Weapons in war would be unleashed upon the world, we now have our answer.

Merkel’s Germany in ‘Economic Meltdown’ Amid Trump’s China Trade War
Germany is facing an economic meltdown as the trade war between the US and China continues to escalate, according to reports.

Gold Hits Record Highs!
Gold hit record highs in a number of currencies this week as trade war worries, geopolitical uncertainty drove investors to seek safe haven… following central banks buying a record amount of the precious metal in the first six months of the year…

IT IS THROUGH THE CHURCH THAT GOD'S WISDOM IS MADE KNOWN. (Ephesians 3:10)
Aug 8th, 2019
Morning MeditationF. B. Meyer
Categories: Meditation;Inspirational;Book Study

Men learn God's manifold wisdom in creation: in the limpet whose fragile shell may be pierced by a tiny insect, yet resists the blow of the mightiest wave; in the eye that is able to adjust itself immediately to the waxing or waning light; in the hand, so marvellously adapted to its myriad purposes, that the study of its manipulating dexterity has before now convinced infidelity of the being of God. But angels learn the manifold wisdom of God by studying the adaptation of his grace to the varied needs of his saints. As students discover the wonderful resources of the surgeon, who passes through the wards of the hospital adapting himself to the need of each sufferer; so do angels and the lofty spirits of heaven learn secrets they had never known, but for the infinite variety of sin and need and sorrow with which God has to deal, and which become so many prisms to break up the white ray of his character into its varied constituent hues.

El Paso, Dayton, & Gilroy: the Heart of the Matter
Aug 8th, 2019
CommentaryJOHN STONESTREET/BREAKPOINT.ORG
Categories: Contemporary Issues

"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds," Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote, "and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them."

Of course, there are evil people. We know that far too well, especially after this past weekend. In fact, that there are evil people out there is the one thing, maybe the only thing, everyone still agrees on. We disagree on who the people are: The evil shooter. The evil racist president. The evil progressives who want to take our guns. So we go on and on, identifying who the evil people are--always them--and we go on and on missing the real problem right in front of our face.

Solzhenitsyn's point wasn't, as some argue, that people aren't really evil. Far from it. His point was that to assume evil exists only in them (whoever our "them" is) and not in us, is just plain wrong. Rather, as he continued: "... the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being."

The finger pointing that immediately followed the mass shootings in Gilroy, El Paso, and Dayton started before any facts were known, and came even quicker than usual. (Let's pause there ... "than usual." What a tragic way to talk about mass murders.) The finger pointers had already decided who the bad guys were, and many of us joined in on the chorus.

So, we tweeted and reported and assumed the evil ones belonged to the other side while hoping they did not belong to ours.

If it's discovered the evildoer does belong to us, we know how to twist and contort and accuse in order to explain any connection away.

 But, if he belongs to them, we also know how to leverage the tragedy to indict the entire lot.

I say this as a 2nd Amendment guy. I fully agree that "guns don't kill people, people kill people." Read the online manifestos of these young men and tell me that they wouldn't eventually find some other way to carry out their violent fantasies.

Even if gun control were the answer, how would we ever go about implementing it? Does anyone really think someone so radicalized to that degree of hatred would trade in their weapons for a gift card?

At the same time, the idea that "the best way to stop bad guys with guns is with good guys with guns" needs to be reconsidered. At face value, I fully agree. What I fear, however, is that those who repeat this idea are working off of old math. 

When bad guys are willing to target innocents, even children, at schools, movie theaters, churches, festivals, and Wal-Marts ... what then? 

In Dayton, the good guys showed up in one minute, one minute, and the bad guy still killed nine people. 

Facing that sort of evil, how many good guys with guns will we need to protect us? Where exactly will we need them? Everywhere? 

That's called a "police state," and it's the inevitable end of any society that sinks so deeply into moral chaos.

If that is our fate, make no mistake, we'll have brought it on ourselves. And by "we," I mean us and them. 

As the progressive left finds new ways to deconstruct the family, reconstruct morality, and scandalize the innocence of children at every level and in every area of culture while demonizing their evil other by state force and financial leveraging, the libertarian right demands unfettered license to say whatever and think whatever and post whatever on 8chan while demonizing its own evil other as the cause for all so-called ills.  All this while the church faces scandal after scandal of its own making.

Yet, we wonder how lonely young men without meaning or moral formation or fathers, who have no way to fulfill their pornographic-fueled fantasies, but have access to plenty of self-medication options, could be driven to white-supremacist or progressive extremism.  

We need to ask what it is about our culture that's producing these young men bent on killing and chaos. And we need to ask: Where is the church?

Do we really think we are immune to the historically repetitive realities that have marked every crumbling civilization since the dawn of time? Do we really think we can keep our freedom in a society not only without virtue, but without any of the "little platoons" that form virtue?

Can freedom be sustained where virtue is not flourishing? Chuck Colson asked this every time he spoke the last few years of his life. The answer to Chuck's question is still, of course, no.

As Chuck said, it's either the conscience or the constable. Unless we are willing to look at us, to as Solzhenitsyn said, "destroy a piece of our own heart," our future is increasingly obvious.

Only Christ can restore this mess. We must be about His work of restoration.

Battlefield of the Future: Israeli Autonomous Vehicles Powered By Ai
Aug 8th, 2019
CommentaryYAAKOV LAPPIN/JNS.ORG
Categories: War

At a military base in northern Israel, the Israeli Defense Ministry and leading defense industries provided a glimpse on Sunday at the battlefield of the future.

The concept that they unveiled--called the Carmel combat vehicle--is a response to three years of planning solutions to the asymmetric, Middle Eastern warfare conditions taking shape.

These modern challenges include hidden enemy cells, embedded in built-up areas, which fire missiles from residential buildings. Such cells send explosive drones hurling into advancing military forces, and pop out of tunnels to open fire and vanish. Such cells surround areas in Gaza and Lebanon that are packed with rockets aimed at Israeli cities, forming "rings" around rocket-launch zones.

Israeli ground forces would need to punch their way through those rings in order to extinguish the rocket fire with the help of the air force.

These challenges have made ground offensives highly complex affairs.

But the solution showcased by the Defense Ministry this week represents nothing less than a revolution in Israel's ability to maneuver in enemy territory.

Carmel armored vehicles will, for starters, be autonomously driving themselves--planning their routes and taking a major burden off the personnel inside. They will blow up roadside bombs on the way, detecting targets and prioritizing threats automatically, while advising the soldiers on which weapon to use against which target.

Just two personnel will be onboard, managing the entire system, because the vehicle's artificial intelligence (AI) will be able to do so much on its own. After receiving human approval, the vehicle can fire on targets with a speed and accuracy that are unknown today.

The same vehicle will be able to deploy its own drones and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), and send them forward to gather intelligence and attack enemy targets.

The onboard crew will be able to see 360 degrees around them, using cutting-edge display technology that will stream day and night camera feeds and radar feeds into the vehicle, including the ability to see enemy combatants hiding inside buildings.

This means that they will be able to remain under closed hatch, protected the entire time.

A U.S. Army delegation flew into Israel especially for the demonstration and briskly returned home to share notes with their colleagues.

"Three years ago, we decided to revolutionize the way we maneuver and to change our state of mind," said Brig. Gen. Yaniv Rotem, head of Research and Development at the Defense Ministry's Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D).

While the future Carmel vehicle has yet to be produced, the capabilities put on display on Sunday will already be installed on current Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers.

The first technology to be installed is Elbit's Iron Vision "see-through" helmet mounted display, which is similar to the Elbit-made helmet worn by F-35 fighter-jet pilots around the world. Operators wearing the helmet will be able to see targets appear before them as they peer "through" their vehicle's walls and direct weapons to fire on targets.

To kickstart the program, the Defense Ministry asked Israel's three biggest defense companies--IAI, Elbit and Rafael--to each develop their own Carmel vehicle prototypes.

"The Carmel program ... is built on very sophisticated variety of sensors," Rotem told journalists. He added that AI and a 360-degree "situational awareness for the people in the vehicle" all came together to meet the challenge of allowing just two combat soldiers in a closed cockpit to manage operations.

"I can say that in the last month, we did many tests for those three industries in the field ... we made unique, complex scenarios defined by the ground forces. All the industries were successful, and we were successful in showing that only two soldiers can operate armored vehicles and conduct mission," he stated.

In the coming two months, the Defense Ministry will study the results in detail and launch the second phase of the Carmel program. This phase is aimed at getting the vehicles to work in formation, linked together by a sophisticated command network.

Augmented reality and an Xbox joystick

The Carmel prototype produced by Elbit systems is based on the Iron Vision helmet, which the company said will accelerate the two-person crew's decision-making and "facilitate target engagement with dramatically increased rapidity and accuracy."

Rafael, meanwhile, created a vehicle with a transparent cockpit design using augmented-reality (AR) displays. Its prototype depicts enemy targets, tells them apart from friendly forces and has an autonomous mission-planning system.

IAI presented a platform with a panoramic screen display, individual control screens and a vehicle control based on the Xbox joystick--something that young operators will intuitively grasp in little time.

The Carmel Program "places the State of Israel at the forefront of the worldwide effort to develop advanced combat vehicles. This is made possible by the creativity and innovative capabilities of Israel's defense industries," said the Defense Ministry.

Defense industry sources said during the event that their prototypes could, if programmed to do so, be able to return fire automatically at enemy targets that fire on the vehicle. Ultimately, they said, the long-term trend is towards unmanned armored fighting vehicles that will require no onboard personnel at all.

For now, however, humans are still needed, said Rotem. "AI can find the target, but a human sees the overall environment."

At the same time, he added, the Israel Defense Forces' General Staff has discussed a possible vision of unstaffed tanks in the decades to come.

"We are going to promote and continue the Carmel vision," he said. "Each vehicle will operate in parallel with unmanned ground vehicles and drones, which means manned and unmanned teaming."

Armies from the around the world are expected to send delegations to study Israel's revolutionary concept, he indicated. "I believe we are one of the leaders in this field today, and this will be very good opportunity for cooperation with other countries."