Mamdani’s Groceries Are Doomed to Fail

Why do Britain and America keep turning back to failed bad ideas? Britain’s new prime minister promised to take the nation back to the 1970s, when the overt socialism of the Labour Party led to 25 percent inflation, widespread unemployment, rolling strikes and “the winter of discontent.” Now, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants government-run groceries with subsidized food.

[BRIEF]

This week, he announced that these shops will sell staple goods at 30 percent less than standard prices.

Cheap food for everyone. Sounds great. Doesn’t work.

• Existing stores won’t be able to compete. People will flock to the new stores, which will struggle to get enough products. The cost to the taxpayer will grow, the wealthy will continue to flee the area, and New York will eventually run out of other people’s money.

Communism always fails because it denies the basic facts of life and the law of cause and effect. There is a reason communism is associated with inferior products, bread lines, rationing and worse. It is the cause, and they are the effects.

It’s a commentary on the nation: We would rather deny reality than address causes.

Communism fails for an even more fundamental reason. Though it aims to address very real problems, it is founded on a rejection of God and His solutions. As Herbert W. Armstrong said in 1968:

Educated men see … we live in a sick world! … Communism is a new faith! Many people have lost faith in this Western world’s sick society. So they feel they must have a faith to live by. They have a conviction, We must change the world.

The only solutions available to Communists are physical, and they pursue them with religious fervor. Yet man’s problems—poverty, social division, lack of peace—are fundamentally spiritual and cannot be solved without God.

Ukraine Out-Innovating Superpowers

In its five-year fight against Russia, Ukraine is not only scoring victories against one of the world’s most powerful militaries but also accomplishing military innovations that outmatch even those of the U.S. Two stories highlight the trend.

1) The Pentagon admits being years behind Ukraine’s drone manufacturing capabilities.

Travis Metz, who oversees the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program, told Reuters on Monday that the U.S. is unable to match Ukraine’s drone production.

• Ukraine will have produced more than 6 million small, first-person-view attack drones by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the Pentagon plans to order just under 200,000 drones by February 2027.

This isn’t a matter of America simply needing to scale up production. According to a revised supply-chain framework released July 23, the U.S. government wants the drone supply chain to become “wholly domestic.” Most drones currently rely on Chinese-made motors, batteries and other small parts.

• Shifting to all-American manufacturers is obviously desirable, but it will be challenging and expensive—if it’s even possible in a short amount of time.

2) Ukraine claims to have hacked Russia’s own defense systems to shoot down Russia’s high-tech Su-57 stealth fighter.

• In April, Ukrainian drones reportedly damaged two Su-57 jets in the Shagol airfield in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Now, however, Ukrainian sources claim its security service hacked Russian air defense and caused it to down its own aircraft.

Using an enemy’s weapons system against it opens a new world of opportunities. As the Telegraph wrote, “If true, it would represent one of the most audacious intelligence coups of the war. … Throughout military history, superior intelligence has often proved more decisive than superior firepower.”

Goliaths beware: The modern battlefield is changing rapidly, and superpowers of the past century, especially those reliant on computer networks, should beware military surprises. Bible prophecy reveals that not Ukraine but another, much more superior military power that is keenly invested in Ukraine will surprise the modern-day Goliaths.

Zelenskyy: North Korea to Triple Troops to Ukraine

Russia is preparing to receive 30,000 more soldiers from North Korea to fight in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated. He said Saturday, “Since June, preparations have been underway in Russia’s Voronezh region to receive them.” Axios published an interview with Zelenskyy today where he made the same claim and said that North Korea is also supplying ballistic missiles to Russia.

• Since 2024, North Korea has sent an estimated 14,000 to 15,000 soldiers to fight for Russia in Ukraine and in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine counterattacked. Zelenskyy claims North Korea wants to triple this number, making it Russia’s most invested ally in the Ukraine war by far.
• In exchange, Russia has been giving North Korea financial and technical support for military projects. North Korea’s military is also gaining valuable combat experience that its troops haven’t had since the Korean War.

The Bible prophesies that a gigantic Asian army will amass under Russian leadership to fight against Europe.

• Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in his 1972 booklet The Book of Revelation Unveiled at Last! that “a tremendous military power” based around “a Communist Eurasian army of … unbelievable manpower” would march west. He based this on scriptures such as Revelation 16:12, which speaks of the formation of “the kings of the east.”
• A related prophecy in Ezekiel 38 states this bloc will be led by a figure called “the prince of Rosh” (verse 2; New King James Version). Because of this, Mr. Armstrong said this Asian army would be led by Russia.

Gerald Flurry, continuing Mr. Armstrong’s forecast, wrote in 2022 that the Ukraine war would unite Asia behind Russia. He stated this meant “Europe is facing its most serious crisis since World War ii!”

Today, we literally see an Asian Communist power committing tens of thousands of troops under Russian leadership to fight in Europe—the exact trend Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Flurry have forecast for decades.

To learn more about the kings of the east, read Russia and China in Prophecy.