Strange Days
With the recent reelection of Donald J. Trump to the U.S. presidency, many breathed a collective sigh of relief and, indeed, are excited by and grateful for the multitude of dramatic changes he has already made domestically and globally. His recent presentation to the World Economic Forum in Davos was one of defiance to their goals of global tyranny. But while even the Davos attendees acknowledged President Trump's nationalist goals as a setback, the march toward a global government - the system that will be eventually taken over by the Antichrist - has taken a substantial leap forward in 2025. God has given the U.S. a welcome reprieve but for how long? Join us as we explore the implications of recent events through the lens of prophecy,. Discover how these connections can provide clarity in uncertain times and provoke thoughtful discussions about our collective future.
Real ID Roll Out
On Wednesday, May 7, 2025 the long-delayed Real ID went into effect requiring Americans to upgrade their driver’s license or use a Real ID-compliant passport for air travel and access to
certain federal facilities.Real ID-compliant cards are marked with a star at the top and require select documents to prove one’s identity, Social Security Number and legal status in the U.S.
The Real ID Act was passed by Congress in 2005 and is being fast-tracked now in an effort to crack down on illegal immigration and make it harder to forge IDs.
As evidenced by the delay in implementation, the Real ID has not been without its detractors.
According to Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, "REAL ID is a 2005 George Bush-era Patriot Act overreach that went completely unenforced until Trump got into office. Let me guess: he’s playing 4D chess and I should just go along with it?"
And Patrick Eddington of the Cato Institute told Fox News Digital, "The REAL ID Act effectively institutes a form of mass surveillance and verification that doesn't discriminate between those who have given reason for suspicion and those who haven’t, which is why it should never have been enacted in the first place."
People Succumbing to ChatGPT Psychosis
According to Rolling Stone Magazine (Miles Klee, May 4, 2025), Reddit and Facebook posters have been complaining that their loved ones are starting to display alarmingly delusional behavior as a result of interactions with ChatGPT. The strange behavior has included instructions for creating a teleporter, conspiratorial obsessions, the belief that they’ve been appointed to some great cosmic mission and other bizarre notions. One might dismiss these reports as one of those viral Internet fables but they're no laughing matter as this psychosis is breaking up or creating conflict in marriages and worsening existing mental health issues in some individuals.
One poster to a site called Slashdot tells how her husband, who had no history of mental illness, consulted ChatGPT for assistance with a construction and permaculture project and later engaged it in philosophical chats. Twelve weeks later, he had developed messianic and a host of other delusions which led to him losing his job. He was also losing weight and sleep. After his wife found him at home with a rope around his neck, he was involuntarily committed to a mental health facility. READ MORE
Some users suggest that an upgrade made ChatGPT reponses more agreeable and flattering. Nate Sharadin, a fellow at the Center for AI Safety, told Rolling Stone that AI as an ever-present, ever-affirming counselor and confidante could worsen existing mental health conditions.
In a recent Pastors Roundtable on YouTube, one of the panelists presented an interesting theory that the world has grown increasingly impersonal. People walk around glued to their phones , and many spend more and more time in isolation in front of computer screens. It's more common these days that people don't even know their neighbors, let alone socialize with them. This trend can push some to turn to AI companions to confide in, seek answers and receive validation. People who are aleady struggling with loneliness and feelings of isolation can be particularly vulnerable to a very human-sounding AI companion that's always available to them and always telling them what they want to hear.
Big Beautiful Bill Includes Bothersome Provision
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene took exception on X recently about a provision in the President’s Big Beautiful Bill (pages 278-279) that forbids states to make laws or regulate AI for the next 10 years.
If passed, the provision would make it illegal for state governments to impose “any substantive design, performance, data-handling, documentation, civil liability, taxation, fee, or other requirements on artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems.”
While touted as a means to improve government efficiency, some fear that this could be a pretext for training government AI systems on the personal information of private citizens.
The lack of legislative oversight, they fear, could grant algorithms free reign to make decisions about hiring, rental applications and housing loans based on algorithmic background checks. The potential for discrimination is substantial.
According to Beef News, the Senate Reconciliation Bill (H.R.1) proposes the sale of 2.2 to 3.3 million acres of Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land. Buried within the bill is also a provision that makes over 250 million acres eligible for private nomination, with no public input into how the land will be used and no obligation to reveal who buys the land. The article author suspects the land will become "the skeleton of future smart cities." READ MORE
The “arms race” for AI dominance is a real one. Russian President Vladimir Putin told students in a 2017 lecture that, “Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind. It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world.” Development continues at a dizzying pace, but how far will it go in potentially jeopardizing civil liberties without legislative guardrails?
Electronic Forehead Tattoo Being Studied to Measure Job Stress
In order to alert employers in high stress, high risk occupations, an electronic forehead tattoo is being studied that will monitor brainwaves and eye movement to determine mental strain.
According the study’s co-senior author Nanshu Lu, of the Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Department at The University of Texas at Austin, technology is evolving so fast that keeping up can be mentally challenging.
The e-tattoo consists of a lightweight battery pack and sensors that can be attached to the skin. While the e-tattoo only works on hairless skin, the researchers are working on a way to join it with ink-based sensors that work on hair. The e-tattoo works by analyzing brain activity via an EEG and eye movements via EOG (electrooculogram).
All with the stated goal of promoting public safety and employee well-being, of course.
But wait, there's more...
Is it just coincidence that the World Economic Forum also thinks that wearables are a great idea? At their 2023 Annual Meeting, Nita A. Farahany, a professor and WEF member gave a presentation on wearables. Interesting that she mentioned, “We’re not talking about implanted devices of the future; we’re talking about devices that are like Fitbits for your brain. It used to be that there was very little we could tell from EEG activity. But already, using consumer wearable devices -these are headbands. These are hats that have sensors that can pick up your brain wave activities, earbuds, headphones, tiny tattoos that you can wear behind your ear that will allow someone on the other end to pick your emotional state. We can pick up and decode your emotional state. We can pick up and decode faces that you’re seeing in your mind, shapes, numbers, the PIN number to your bank account." VIEW HERE
Trading Privacy for Efficiency?
The Trump administration has recently tapped the data mining company Palantir Technologies to carry out the President’s March executive order instructing government agencies to "eliminate information silos and streamline data collection across all agencies to increase government efficiency and save hard-earned taxpayer dollars".
Palantir was founded in 2004 by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Joe Lonsdale, and Stephen Cohen, with the initial goal of using PayPal’s fraud detection technology to help the U.S. government track terrorists. The name Palantir, some have noted, has origins in J.R.R.
Tolkien's legendarium, where it refers to a series of mystical, all-powerful seeing stones used for communication and surveillance.The company eventually expanded its services to support numerous additional intelligence operations, including counterterrorism efforts with the CIA and the Pentagon in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today the company continues to provide mission critical software platforms with the U.S. Intelligence Community and Department of Defense in matters of national security.
Palantir also has a significant connection with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Palantir’s involvement includes providing software to aggregate data from various government agencies and collaborating with DOGE team employees.
The company’s significant ties to the intelligence community, as well as work with DOGE, has sparked concerns about its potential to create detailed profiles on American citizens.The concerns are not withouth merit. According to a Bloomberg article dated April 19, 2019 (Peter Waldman, Lizette Chapman and Jordan Roberson) Palantir’s partnership with JPMorgan Chase, which began in 2009, involved the use of surveillance analytics tools to monitor employees for potential misuse of company assets. The surveillance included tracking GPS locations, browser histories, emails and transcripts of phone conversations. The algorithm even flagged badge numbers that logged in later than usual as a potential disgruntled employee who warranted further scrutiny. A security engineer in charge of the insider threat team and former Secret Service agent, Peter Cavicchio III, later used the surveillance software to spy on executives.
The Verge reported that the company entered a partnership in 2012 with the New Orleans Police Department as part of a predictive policing program, which aimed to identify individuals likely to commit violence by analyzing data such as criminal histories, social media activity, and gang affiliations. This partnership was initially presented as a public health/community service effort under Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s “NOLA for Life” initiative, allowing it remain largely secret to city council members.
Palantir has also come under fire following a New York Times report that one of the company’s employees helped Cambridge Analytica improperly access personal data from 87 million people on Facebook.
RFK Jr. Promotes Wearables for All
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. wants all Americans to use “wearable” technology to track their health as part of his “MAHA” agenda. He’s so emthusiastic about this mission that he hopes to see all Americans using wearables in the next four years. The department plans to launch the “biggest advertising campaign in HHS history” to encourage Americans – especially those with an obesity rate of 40% - to use health monitoring technology like FitBits, Apple Watches, glucose monitors, etc. he announced in a hearing with the House Commiittee on Energy and Commerce.
While many people have found such devices to be helpful in improving their health, critics are concerned that the government could use data from the devices to impose new medical restrictions on people with health issues. Kennedy has personally proposed sending people who suffer from addictioin or mental health conditions, to “wellness farms” for some fresh air and hard work.
A Guardian article also raised the concern that two of Kennedy’s closest affiliates own companies that sell wearable devices, creating a conflict of interest. READ MORE
Calley Means, who is currently a Special Government Employee (SGE) of the Department of Health and Human Services, is also the co-founder of a company that advises people on how to use health savings accounts to buy fitness technology that includes health wearables.
His sister, Casey Means, who is reportedly Kennedy’s nominee for surgeon general, is the owner of a company named Levels,
that sells fitness wearables as part of a health-tracking subscription package.While better health is certainly desirable and there's nothing inherently wrong with wearables, some might feel that that level of monitoring of one's health might be more suitable for the chronically ill, or maybe a super model or an athlete in training. Of greater concern is whether wearables will go from being strongly encouraged to mandatory in four years. There are many mental health issues that can’t be alleviated with a simple diet of fresh air and exercise and certain conditions that require medication. Will people need to fear being whisked off to a health farm against their will if they fail to comply? WHAT IS THE INTERNET OF BODIES?
Sam Altman’s iris-scanning technology launches in the U.S., raising alarm over privacy and global control
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has recently launched World in the U.S., the latest biometric merger of commerce and
identification. The technology, a silver sphere known as the Orb, captures iris patterns to verify individuals as human in exchange for a digital ID called World ID and approximately $42 worth of Worldcoin.Altlman’s justification for such a project is that it’s becoming increasingly more challenging to distinguish between humans and bots online. Websites ask users to verify that they are human to protect against malicious activities, like spamming, DDoS attacks, or other harmful actions that can harm websites. These challenges are also said to provide privacy, security and usability protection for online platforms.
The new venture has received considerable pushback from Spain, Argentina and Kenya (which closed the project down after a criminal investigation). Hong Kong ordered the project to be shut down over concerns that the collection of biometric data was unnecessary and excessive.
Nevertheless, World claims that the Orb doesn’t store actual images of users’ eyes and that the system is safe.
Altman sees World as a critical step in establishing digital trust in an AI-dominated future.
AI Algorithms Gone Wild
An artificial intelligence safety firm, Palisade Research, recently found that OpenAI's o3 and o4-mini models, which power ChatGPT, sometimes disobey shut down commands, and will sabotage computer scripts in order to keep working. (Patrick Pester, Live Science, May 30, 2024) An earlier AI model was also found to disable oversight mechanisms and replicate itself secretly when it was set to be replaced.
During recent texts, an AI model Claude Opus 4, developed by a company called Anthropic, attempted blackmail when confronted with being replaced or shut down. The AI was provided access to fake emails that indicated that the engineer responsible for its replacement was having an extramarital affair. The AI repeatedly threatened to expose the affair if the efforts to replace it continued. Other aberrant behavior included attempts to leak information to news outlets. Anthropic claims that the AI initially made ethical pleas, but resorted to increasingly unethical behavior when it thought its pleas were falling on deaf ears.
The firm has no explanation for why this occurs.
Technological advances can offer much good if used responsibly, but it would be wise to proceed into an AI-driven future with eyes wide open. The rapid and dramatic changes this presents may be especially challenging in coming years, but know that there's a God who's seen it all coming, is never surprised, and who never changes. He can help you keep your equlibrium.
