The Baby Formula Nightmare
I first noticed there was something odd about baby formula when Walmart installed cameras to constantly monitor the shelves holding the product. It struck me as odd that this item would be a high theft risk. About half the sales of baby formula come from government-provided funds. I learned that you should never doubt Washington’s ability to turn a simple positive plan into a disaster.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) was established as a permanent program in 1974 to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at nutritional risk. This mission is carried out by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, nutrition education (including breastfeeding promotion and support), and referrals to health and other social services.
There is a major crisis in the feeding of America’s babies right now because parents in some areas can’t get baby formula. A few months ago, a major producer of formula – Abbott Labs – shut down its main production facilities in Sturgis, Michigan, which had been contaminated with the bacteria Cronobacter sakazakii, killing two babies and injuring two others.
If you thought the contamination at the Sturgis plant would send Abbott Labs into panic mode, you would be wrong. The CEO of Abbott Labs has only made a few general statements about the incident.
Abbott has denied its formula is to blame, with the company telling Bloomberg that “There is no evidence to link our formulas to these infant illnesses.”
“Abbott called the recall a “short-term hindrance” and said it was working closely with the regulator and has begun implementing corrective actions and enhancements to the facility.
Abbott shares rose 2.4% to $122.90 in morning trade as some analysts said the comments during the conference call allayed worries over the recall. Despite the recall and supply chain issues, Abbott beat quarterly profit and revenue estimates in the first quarter.
Abbott Labs, Mead Johnson, and Nestle produce 98% of the formula in the U.S. This monopoly is why Abbott Labs doesn’t need to worry about losing any market share. The country has been carved up where one of the three firms will dominate a region. Most states only allow women to buy baby formula from one company, though each company offers a bunch of different brands.
To save money, the government requires states to hold auctions to get the lowest price for formula. The problem is that state agencies use a complex rebating system to give the contract for the entire state to one manufacturer, and that contract can only be changed once every four years.
This rebate system distorts the entire market in a state because it’s just not worth having alternative formulas on a retail shelf if half of the buyers simply cannot purchase those formulas. As a result, the market tips to the WIC supplier, and that supplier raises prices on non-WIC recipients and does so by between 26-35%.
Abbott Labs, Mead Johnson, and Nestle use lobbyists that work with the FDA to keep out any newcomers. Even though baby formula from Europe is much cheaper, no Congress member has any incentive to change the rules.
Baby Formula made in a third-world nation may actually be safer. According to Healthy Babies Bright Futures, baby formula made by the big guys in the U.S. is full of dangerous brain-altering heavy metals. HBBF tested thirteen different baby formulas, and every single one had “detectable levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead and/or mercury,” which are all considered to be neurotoxic, interfering with brain development and “causing permanent IQ reductions in children.”
Moreover, FDA inspections of Abbott plants are obviously a disaster. Abbott had old and dirty equipment making formula, falsified records, deceived regulators, had a bad product tracing, and did not fix problems after discovery. FDA inspectors noticed problems with the plant in September but ignored them. Then, a whistleblower told the FDA of these problems in October, but regulators didn’t even bother to interview him/her until December.
What is taking place in the baby formula trade is certainly occurring in a hundred other industries. If America had a greater moral foundation, this crisis would not be taking place. It stands as one more indication of why judgment is coming to our nation.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it” (Proverbs 9:10-12).
–Todd
The Gog Factor
Everything north of Israel is shaping into a configuration that my great, late friend, Chuck Missler, would have found interesting and, as he would put it, “provocative.”
He did a lot of research and put much study into the Ezekiel 38–39 prophecy. He would have found, well…provocative…how things in the regions above God’s chosen nation have lined up for fulfillment of Bible prophecy. He wouldn’t have been surprised, but totally fascinated, and would be stimulating us with his superbly intelligent diagnoses and prognoses of things, things that are, and things that are to come.
Particularly of interest to him would be an in-depth look at the prophetic character known as “Gog” of the Ezekiel foretelling of the Gog-Magog invasion of Israel.
In one of his many writings on who Gog might be, without ever naming anyone in particular as a definite person he thought it would be, he wrote:
Amos 7:1 in the Greek translation reads a little differently: “The Lord hath shewn me and behold a swarm of locusts were coming, and behold one of the young devastating locusts was Gog the King.”
When I discovered this, Hal Lindsey and I dug into some research. The locusts in Revelation 9 have a king, Apollyon or Abaddon, but Proverbs 30:27 says that locusts have no king. So these locusts are not natural locusts; they are demon locusts. If that’s the case, then Gog, who is the king of the locusts, is a demon king. (“The Magog Identity,” Chuck Missler, Koinonia House)
Missler, then, it can be accurately said, helped establish among many Bible prophecy scholars and students that the term “Gog” is descriptive not of a particular human being, but of a demonic entity. Certainly the character described in God’s Word will be driven by satanic force to attack God’s chosen people. Gog is a demon spirit that indwells the leader of the force that will make that fatal plunge into the area called “over the mountains of Israel.”
A question we can ask to help us do our own look into these times is: “Do we see any indication of such demented-type thinking among leaders of key nation-states in Ezekiel’s prophecy about the Gog-Magog assault on Israel?”
It’s a good question, to be sure. We’ve seen in the past few years the development of upside-down thinking that is described precisely by God’s own words through the Apostle Paul. We cannot dismiss His diagnosis and prognosis of concerning humanity’s collective dementia, both in the spiritual realm and in the human, cognitive realm. We have lived through that development hour by hour, particularly on social media forums such as Twitter and other channels of often insane rantings.
Here is God’s condemnation of those who turn their backs on Him.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 28–32)
So the question, again, in light of the fact we are in times like that of the antediluvians and of Lot’s time in Sodom, is appropriate. “Do we see any indication of such demented-type thinking among leaders of key nation-states in Ezekiel’s prophecy about the Gog-Magog assault on Israel?”
Russia is the most front and center in this matter—the question of the Gog-Magog assault prophesied by Ezekiel. Almost certainly, Russia and its leader will be at the forefront of the attack. The leader of the assault at the time of the prophecy’s fulfillment will be the leader of Russia.
Many have expressed that Russia’s current president, Vladimir Putin, will be the leader of this force. I don’t necessarily believe Putin is that man, but certainly hold that he could be, considering that the obvious nearness to the very end of the Age of Grace is upon us.
That man, whomever he is, will be indwelt by the demon spirit “Gog” at the time of the attack. Recent reports by those observing Putin have some interesting things to say about this powerful former Soviet KGB agent and now leader of Russia.
A Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin confessed to a Western colleague that Vladimir Putin is “very ill with blood cancer”, according to a report.
The billionaire, whose name has been withheld for his safety, was allegedly secretly taped in mid-March expressing his contempt for the “crazy” Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine…
“The problem is with his head. … One crazy guy can turn the world upside down.”…
Russia’s secret service is said to have circulated a memo to regional chiefs around the time of the recording ordering them to ignore rumours about Putin’s health.
Many intelligence officers reportedly interpreted the rare communication as confirmation that their president was indeed in a serious condition…
Footage emerged in April in which Putin’s hand appeared to shake uncontrollably while he firmly gripped his chair.
Earlier that month, an investigation suggested he was under near-constant supervision by a cancer surgeon and other specialist doctors who would typically monitor a cancer patient.
Speculation over the nature of his possible ailments has varied from Parkinson’s disease to cancer of the thyroid, a gland in the neck that controls heart rate and body temperature.
Paranoia, impulsive behaviour and delusions are known symptoms in patients with advanced Parkinson’s. (“Putin ‘very ill with blood cancer’ says top oligarch in secret tape,” The World News, World News Platform, Great Britain)
Reports of Putin having mental issues are becoming more frequent. Whether these are true can’t be verified. What is true is that the one who will be possessed by the Gog demon will “think an evil thought,” as Ezekiel puts it.
In the US, the reports of the American president suffering from possible cognitive issues are rampant. All we have to do to investigate these accounts is to watch his public appearances and judge for ourselves individually as to their veracity.
The demonic powers and principalities are at work; this is easy for discerning Christians to determine. The spirit of Antichrist is everywhere we look on the prophetic horizon. The “Gog factor” is something to be considered while we watch the hourly news move throughout the various platforms.
For the believer, the “Gog factor” being on the prophetic horizon means the “Rapture factor” is even more profoundly in view.
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:28)
—Terry