That’s what computer nerds were calling the error message millions of people received on their electronic devices on Friday: the blue screen of death.

It informed them that their systems were offline until further notice, because of a global software error.

The problem came from an update electronically sent to Microsoft users by cyber security giant Crowdstrike. Instead of fixing a potential problem, however, it shut down supermarkets, banks, and airports across the world. On Friday morning, even aircraft were ordered to stay in the air until air traffic controllers could figure out how to land them safely.

Operation’s at Amsterdam’s Schipol airport were “frozen” for several hours. Cyber security gurus were talking about a cyber “doomsday” event. One air traveler in India went through airport security with a hand-written boarding pass he later posted to the Internet.

And this wasn’t even a cyber attack.

Now while Crowdstrike says they are working to fix the glitch, Friday’s outage shows just how dependent the entire world has become on invisible electronic systems. Imagine what would have happened if a global nefarious actor were to hack those same systems and take them down for days?

Or if Russia, China, or North Korea detonated a nuclear warhead in the upper atmosphere, bombarding the U.S. with electromagnetic radiation – an EMP pulse designed to blow out the national electric grid.

That is a capability well within their grasp and probably available to the Iranians as well. And if the grid went down, it’s back to the 1880s, when pre-industrial America had a population between 80-90 million.

In Europe this week, Ursula Van der Leyden, who just won a second five-2024.term as president of the European Commission, vowed to make achieving a European Defense Union her top priority for her second term.

She is not talking about enhancing NATO, but creating a new entity decoupled from the United States. That immediately got Moscow’s attention.

Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov said her proposal  “confirms the general attitude of European states to militarisation, escalation of tension, confrontation and reliance on confrontational methods in their foreign policy.”

Now I get Peskov’s knee-jerk response. But he knows as well as I do that the Europeans have aired this type of project many times before, especially in moments of anti-American pique.

What I find astonishing, however, is that Van der Leyden brought up the project today, in the midst of the Ukraine war and heightened tensions with Russia, when she knows perfectly well it will never happen, because Europe does not have the weapons it needs to defend itself without the United States, and is not willing to spend the money needed to build them.

Poking the bear when he is wounded and angry is never a good idea. It’s called geopolitical mismanagement.

I talk about this, the Trump assassination, and the Iranian election on this week’s Prophecy Today Weekend. As always, you can listen live at 1 PM on Saturday on 104.9 FM or 550 AM in the Jacksonville, Fl, area, or by using the Jacksonville Way Radio app.

Since the events of last Saturday, my wife and I have been praying daily for the Lord to continue to extend his hedge of protection to Donald Trump. I hope you will join me.

Yours in freedom.

©2025. Kenneth R. Timmerman. All rights reserved.