The U.S. is moving to withdraw from Open Skies, a 1992 treaty that allows NATO countries and Russia to surveil one another from the air to prevent the risk of military conflict.

Why it matters: This is the third major international defense agreement President Trump has abandoned, following the Iran nuclear deal and the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty. The fate of another highly consequential treaty, New START, remains in the balance.

How it happened: “Trump administration officials and some conservative lawmakers have long argued that the Russians have used the Open Skies accord to gather intelligence on U.S. sites while restricting access for Western overflights of Russian territory,” per WSJ.

What to watch: New START, the last treaty constraining the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, is due to expire in February.

• Marshall Billingslea, Trump’s arms control envoy, announced talks with Russia today aimed at bringing China into a new trilateral agreement.
• But he expressed skepticism that Russia could be trusted to comply with any treaty, and he would not discuss the idea of extending New START before the Feb. 5 deadline without Chinese participation.
• “We know how to win these races and we know how to spend the adversary into oblivion. If we have to, we will, but we sure would like to avoid it,” Billingslea said in a discussion hosted by the Hudson Institute.
  

  ---

  Source: https://www.axios.com/new-start-treaty-trump-billingslea-arms-control-545981be-3edb-47df-8751-9b70848f5422.html

  [Disclaimer]

The post Trump to pull U.S. out of Open Skies treaty, leaves New START in limbo first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Note: Briefing begins at 57:25.  Move the slider on the video to this time.

The post Trump, Coronavirus Task Force hold press briefing – 19 April 2020 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post FULL UPDATE: Tuesday [14 April] Coronavirus Briefing in the Rose Garden at the White House first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Just what will they foist upon us on the basis of “keeping everybody safe?” Is there anything else on earth that anyone wants to talk about?  Not while the United States is being economically destroyed!  Any talk of getting back to normal brings howls of derision from the mainstream media.  The socialists are thinking along the lines of an 18-month quarantine.  Yeah, that ought to do the trick.

Strange how the overall death rate in the United States is no higher than the average for this time of year, isn’t it?  What with all the fervent reporting on the daily, weekly “death rate.”  If you’ve seen the instructions from the CDC to hospitals, you know that they demanded that deaths be reported as COVID-19 fatalities regardless of underlying factors.  If doctors “assume” (they actually used that word) that the virus played a part in a patient’s demise it should be reported as a corona-virus death.  It’s time that word be diagrammed, again.

The projection models have been way off base so they change them often to fit “reality.”  But even “reality” is not accurate when all the numbers on the right side of your screen have been goosed.

“If you don’t want more body bags… don’t politicize the virus.”  This apparent threat came from the Ethiopian head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhnom Ghebreyesus. (Don’t worry, nobody’s even trying to pronounce it.)   Articles claim he has deep involvement with a Communist political group back home.  If we dare be so bold, he doesn’t exactly look like somebody from whom we’d take wellness advice anyway.  A little research will confirm that he has a history of working for a violent, pro-China Communist organization in Ethiopia.  Send him back, and kick the UN out.

All the news shows have a heartfelt, tinkling piano playing while they show big, formerly bustling cities looking like ghost towns.  It looks like a neutron bomb went off.  You know, the kind that leaves the buildings standing while getting rid of the population.

It’s been three or four weeks since studies out of France, Italy and China showed that a malaria drug prescribed to millions (including pregnant women and children) since the early 1950’s worked wonders on nearly all suffering from the bat malady.  The President mentioned it, presumably to introduce some hope amid the raging panic.  He was condemned.  News anchors brought on doctors to ask how dare he promote a false hope?  They played up side effects in every way possible, even though there are no serious side effects.  A couple of state governors went so far as to ban use of the substance.

Aside from the economic damage that’s been caused, which is incalculable, maybe the worst thing that’s happened is that governors, mayors, and judges are exerting authority they don’t have.  But they’ve scared the stuffing out of the American public, so most people are not going out.  That is except to a crowded grocery store with no paper products.

Suddenly mayors, in some cases judges, think they have the authority to put everyone under house arrest.  You’ve seen the stories.  Surfers ordered off the beach.  Arrests at the park.  Suddenly all Constitutional guarantees are suspended while power-drunk officials throw their weight around without any chance of being overruled.  The courts are closed, so there can be no legal recourse.  Maybe someday, but that might be a little late.

Now we hear that there will be a vaccination available, courtesy of the Gates Foundation.  If you check the record of that organization in the third world, you’ll find it’s not good.  They tried their high-minded magic in places like India and Kenya.  Let’s just say it resulted in a reduction of population (one of Gates’ goals) and in their expulsion from the places they “helped.”

So let the great vaccination debate begin!  Some people swear by them, others are sure they lead to paralysis, maybe death.  People go ballistic on both sides of every vaccination debate.  But Gates is talking about a vaccination that allows people to be “tracked.”  There is talk of vaccination proof before a place of business can be entered, and that begins to sound downright sinister.

It does make you wonder whether a health scare is what will be used to implement a “trackable” system as to who is and who is not “approved” to come and go and maybe even buy and sell.  Otherwise, “You’re endangering yourself and others!” as they say.  It’s beginning to look like a dry run for implementation of the kind of draconian authority described in the book of Revelation.  Universal compliance may come in under the guise of a health scare.  After all, who doesn’t want to “keep everybody safe?”  If one more celebrity shows up to say, “Stay safe, and stay home!”, or, “We’ll all get through this together!”  Sounds pretty dumb when everyone’s staying apart.

The unelected “expert” doctor and the scarved lady who’ve promoted this stampede suspect we may have to carry certificates of immunity.  Who knows?  Maybe they’ll turn the stampede of panic into full-blown tribulation.  If it would only get rid of Trump.  Somebody (President Trump), assign the deep state doctor to Antarctica before he destroys everything.  Let him teach the penguins to social distance, and send a copy of the Constitution, and a Bible with him!  If there’s any calming reality, it is that God is still on His Throne, and all authority belongs to Him.  Somebody, tell the doctor!

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 10 April 2020 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Trump, Coronavirus Task Force holds press briefing – 5 April first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Trump, Coronavirus Task Force hold White House press briefing – 4 April first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Trump, Coronavirus Task Force hold White House press briefing | 4/2/20 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Trump’s coronavirus task force holds briefing as COVID-19 cases surge – 3/31/2020 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.