Shadows of the Beast: Europe's Digital Dragnet and the Ominous Echo of Revelation, By Richard Miller (Londonistan)

As October 2025 chills the air across the Atlantic, a digital chill is settling over the West, one that whispers of ancient prophecies amid the hum of servers and the scan of fingerprints. Michael Snyder's latest Substack dispatch hits like a gut punch: Canada's plotting secret phone blackouts for "misinformation" peddlers, the EU's gearing up to harvest biometrics at every border crossing, and the UK's Starmer regime is dangling jobs on the hook of a mandatory digital leash. It's not hyperbole; it's headlines. And from a vantage echoing the Book of Revelation, where a "Beast" rises to mark souls for commerce and control, it feels less like policy tweaks and more like the stalking steps of something biblical. We're not there yet, but the path? Paved with pixels and passports, leading straight to a surveillance state that would make Nero blush.

Canada's Silent Switchblade: Bill C-8 and the Art of Digital Exile

Picture this: You're firing off a tweet questioning the latest vaccine narrative or election tallies. No fanfare, no warning, just a void. Your calls drop, your Wi-Fi ghosts you, and poof: You're a digital pariah, courtesy of Ottawa's faceless overlords. Enter Bill C-8, the "Critical Cyber Systems Protection Act," tabled June 18, 2025, by Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree. On paper, it's a bulwark against cyber threats, amending the Telecommunications Act to let the Industry Minister, after a hush-hush huddle with Public Safety, "prohibit" or "suspend" services to "any specified person." Grounds? "Reasonable belief" in threats like "interference, manipulation, disruption, or degradation." Vague enough to snag a grandma's Facebook rant on "misinformation," right?

The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) is sounding alarms louder than a foghorn in fog: This empowers secret orders to giants like Telus, Bell, and Rogers, severing lifelines without notice. No appeal, no transparency, just compliance or crippling fines: $25K-$50K for individuals, up to $15 million for firms per breach. Opposition MPs torched it in today's Commons session, branding it a tool to "target individuals" and erode encryption standards, potentially backdooring your data for "national security." Trudeau's Liberals, fresh off their "disinformation" crusades, swear it's for hackers, not heretics. But in a post-Freedom Convoy world? Scepticism's the smart play. If this passes, Canada's not just cold, it's a black hole for dissent.

Fortress Europa: Biometrics at the Gates, Starting Next Week

Hop the pond? Pack your paranoia. On October 12, just five days from now, the EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) flips the switch on Schengen's borders, rolling out over six months to April 2026. Non-EU travellers (that's Yanks, Aussies, and beyond) face the drill: Facial scans, four fingerprints, and a digital dossier etched in eternity. No opt-out, refuse, and you're bounced faster than a bad cheque.

Brussels pitches it as efficiency: Automated tracking of 90-day stays, flagging overstays with Big Brother precision. Pre-register via app or self-service kiosks to "speed things up," they coo on the EU site, as if surrendering your mug and mitts is a time-saver. France, Italy, Portugal, and 25 others (UK's tagging along post-Brexit) kick it off, with full rollout by spring. Critics howl surveillance state: Your data's slurped into a central vault, ripe for hacks or mission creep, next up, linking to ETIAS travel authorisations.

It's not invasion; it's enrolment. And once digitised, good luck scrubbing it. Europe's borders aren't walls anymore; they're welcome mats to a panopticon.

Britain's Digital Leash: No ID, No Job, Petition Hits 1.6M

Across the Channel, Keir Starmer's Labour is threading the needle of "security" through the throat of freedom. Announced September 26, 2025, the UK's digital ID scheme mandates a verifiable profile for anyone punching a clock by 2029, no card in your wallet, but a blockchain-ish badge proving your right to toil. Starmer's blunt: "You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID. It's as simple as that." Aimed at illegal migrants, it balloons to "vast majority" access for services, voting, and borders, hello, function creep.

The backlash? Volcanic. A petition blasting it as a "step towards mass surveillance and digital control" has surged past 1.6 million signatures since late September, triggering a Commons debate (though history's littered with ignored ink). Left and right unite in uproar: Lib Dems decry privacy erosion, Tories smell Big Brother redux, and civil liberties groups warn of data breaches waiting to happen. Polls show Labour's support cratering, a "reverse Midas touch," as one Guardian scribe quipped, with 62% opposing compulsion. Yet Starmer soldiers on, tying it to "secure borders" amid migration woes. Want a paycheque? Pony up your soul to the system.

Prophetic Parallels: The Beast Stalks in Silicon Garb

String these threads, secret cutoffs, biometric tollbooths, work-tied trackers, and the silhouette sharpens: A control grid where dissent's silenced, movement's mapped, and livelihood's licensed. Revelation 13 paints the Beast's empire: A global enforcer demanding a "mark" on hand or forehead, without which "no one may buy or sell." Hyper-literal? Maybe. But metaphorically? Spot-on for our pixelated peril. Digital IDs aren't tattoos, they're trojans, gateway drugs to CBDCs, AI-vetted social scores, and 24/7 audits. Snyder nails it: This is the "Beast system" inching from fringe to firewall.

AI's the accelerant: Exponential leaps mean tomorrow's tools could pre-crime your posts or ghost your gig economy hustle. Europe's not alone, Australia's mulling similar IDs, the US flirts with REAL ID expansions. The West's liberal democracies? Trading Magna Carta for metadata, one "security" sop at a time.

Resist the Reckoning: Before the Mark Becomes Mandatory

We're not in end-times lockdown … yet. But with EES live next week, C-8 grinding through Commons, and UK's petition pounding Parliament's door, the window's narrowing. Flood those inboxes, amplify the uproar, shun the scan where you can. As Snyder urges, speak now or surrender the script.

The Beast may stalk Europe, but it's a shadow we cast, through apathy or avarice. Revelation ends with a roar for the faithful: "Come out of her, my people." In 2025? Log off the grid, vote the visionaries, build the backups. The Dragon's digital, but dragons die.

https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/while-americans-sleep-there-is-concern