Doug

Curious statement made at the Circuit Assembly with Branch Representative today. BTW - Was anyone else there? Mira Loma Assembly Hall. We had Joel and Ivy Taylor from Patterson. The statement was made during the second talk of the symposium, "Become Watchful, and Strengthen the Things Remaining". The local brother was reviewing "the things remaining", such as 1 Thess 5:3 etc. Then he said "And Russia has been identified as the King of the North, while the King of the South is NATO and its allies". It's hard to imagine that he misspoke to that degree. Although it's possible he meant to say "While the King of the South is the Anglo-American world power and their NATO allies". Maybe he skipped an entire line of his manuscript. The last talk was the Branch Representative and he reviewed all the talks. I was literally waiting for him to clarify what the brother intended to say. But, no.

This is correct. When I was 17-1/2, the "draft ended". I looked into this just now, and it seems that President Ford suspended registration for 18-25 year old males. Then President Carter reinstated registration. And this self-registration is still a requirement. But, no one will be inducted into the military until Congress passes a law and the President signs it. This news item is saying that the Selective Service System wants to move from self-registration to automatic registration. I would compare it to receiving a social security number automatically on the day you're born, as opposed to applying for that when you're ready to enter the work force.

A new word! Thanks! Seems a lot of cultures could have a case for irredentism, given how "lands" have changed hands over the millennium. The story about Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin "carving up" Europe after WW2 comes to mind. "To the victor go the spoils"

Hi Nataly, It seems to be okay with the mods. I think it could be an answer to someones prayers. I'm looking forward to see what jobs you're recruiting for

There's a new Director of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE activity has cooled down a lot. But, the States are passing new laws that will impact those who are undocumented. One example is Texas. The government is (or has) passing a law that requires anyone seeking a professional license (plumber, accountant, dentist) must prove they are in the country legally. Other states are making the same requirement to get a drivers license.

Better yet, Sofia, don't go anywhere. Stick with us. You're a treasure.

Saudi Arabia is an Islamic State ( the Quran and the Sunnah serve as the national constitution. The legal system is Sharia) Qatar, UAE and Iraq declare Islam as the State religion. Iran is bombing all of them, and attempting to bomb Turkey. Yet these sovereign nations aren't retaliating ? Is Iran trying to force them into the conflict, but as an ally against the infidel ? It's very complicated.

In Sweden, a conservative family of Romanian descent would not allow their eldest daughter, 11 , to have a phone or wear make-up. The daughter was upset about it. She told the schoolmaster that she had been physically abused at home. The authorities immediately took the girl and her younger sister, 10 , away from the home. The girl who made the allegations almost immediately recanted and said she was never abused, she was just upset / angry at her parents. The girls are in separate foster homes. Not together. An investigation cleared the parents of any guilt. But, Sweden will not return the children to the home because they say the family are "religious extremists" due to that they attend church three times a week. The government claims the family's church attendance and conservative lifestyle is evidence that the home environment is harmful to their "development". This world is beyond crazy!!!

I wonder why the missiles fired from Iran at Turkey hasn't triggered their Article 5 doctrine, "An attack against one is an attack against all" ? I think the UK has shot down 4 missiles fired at Turkey, a NATO member.

I think so as well. Shutting off the Internet for everyone is nuts. Desperation. Ukraine seems to have the advantage in the war. Russia has lost well over a million troops. They increased the age for conscription, they take from the prisons. Something is going to give.

Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) said ~ "One must not mistake majority for truth." I remind myself that doctors and newspapers are For-Profit entities.

Understood. Of course, I wasn't saying that the people are being deprived of just GPS. They are being deprived of open-source media of all kinds. Iran is known for shutting down the Internet during an internal crisis, to keep their people in the dark. Some can work around that with VPN, but they do so at great peril. Russia, on the other hand, tries to force the people to use only the State-run Internet. That's like having one channel for heavily censored news. Shutting down the world-wide web by a government is an act of desperation. The news reports that Putin is paranoid, that there's dissent among the highest military officials, because the Ukraine "special operation" has been a disaster for the nation. Imagine if a western democracy shut down the Internet !!!! Imagine you couldn't call a relative or pay a bill online. That's what I was sharing

Russia is taking a lesson from Iran. Russia has begun to turn off the Internet in certain areas, including Moscow, a city of 13 million. For the same reasons; They don't want the people to see or hear anything that contradicts their official narrative. They want people to be unaware and uninformed. Censorship is really an act of desperation. They claim that Ukraine is using cellphone towers to navigate missiles. But they are killing a mosquito with a sledgehammer. This is a modern society, and the government is making it impossible to use GPS, request a taxi or call family. And this comes after Starlink disabled their unregistered dishes, and the government is blocking Telegram app as well. Hard to believe !!!

In agreement; Jehovah will put his "one thought" into receptive minds and hearts of the political leaders. A solution is required. It could happen at any moment. But it may become even more obvious to everyone by the time this war ends.

This forum is among the best things I have found outside of official channels. I see it in the spirit of Proverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, so one friend sharpens his friend". We get to know one another through the tone of our comments. "Is this person a peacemaker? Or a scrapper? An up builder? Or a challenger? We may get a reputation as predominately a challenger, or something else. That's okay. We're like a bouquet of flowers. Some flowers have thorns. We just need to learn to handle it with care. I look forward to the week of August 3 when we study the Watchtower article Respect the Decisions of Others. I want to see how that article influences our posts here, because it has a lot to say, very directly, about respecting the opinions that you may personally disagree with. Anyway, YOU dear brothers and sisters are like apples of gold in silver carvings!!!! So much help is given so freely. I love you very much!