 Photography by Lewis Parsons It is arguably the most infamous number in history – 666 – associated in the minds of many with the Book of Revelation’s “number of the beast.” Now, in an ominous development amid the coronavirus crisis, U.S. Rep. Bobby L. Rush, D-Ill., has introduced House Resolution 6666 – igniting a storm of controversy. The debate centers around whether the bill – providing $100 billion in grants to faith-based organizations, clinics, medical centers, and other organizations that perform COVID-19 testing – would allow agents of the government to go into people’s homes and remove family members who show signs of COVID-19 such as a cough or fever. The resolution, the “COVID-19 Testing, Reaching, and Contacting Everyone (TRACE) Act,” states it would, “Authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to eligible entities to conduct diagnostic testing for COVID-19, and related activities such as contact tracing, through mobile health units and, as necessary, at individuals’ residences, and for other purposes.” It further states that “eligible entities” would “conduct diagnostic testing for COVID–19, to trace and monitor the contacts of infected individuals, and to support the quarantine of such contacts, through — (1) mobile health units; and (2) as necessary, testing individuals and providing individuals with services related to testing and quarantine at their residences.” A petition opposing the resolution posted on the White House’s website, already signed by more than 85,000 people, says: “HR 6666 The TRES Act was just proposed in Congress. This Act will allow government officials to enter ANYONE'S HOME and force Test them for COVID-19/ and or antibodies. Then the government officials would have the right to remove children from the home/remove anyone testing positive from the home, etc. I cannot imagine how removing someone from their home is going to protect anyone. I have a husband with Alzheimer's Disease. I don't have Covid-19 but if I tested positive who would take care of my husband if I were removed from my home? We must be living in NAZI Germany for such an Act like this to be brought forth in Congress. Please STOP this ASAP.”  To sign the petition, go here. While the bill has been described by critics as the “Mark of the Beast COVID-19 government digital surveillance plot” – an “unconstitutional bill” that would purportedly create the largest and most “devilishly un-American” governmental surveillance program in the nation’s history, Rush argues that his critics are misconstruing what the legislation, if approved by Congress, would do. “I’ve seen these alarming posts as well, but I can assure you that they are completely false,” Rush said in a prepared statement. “This bill does not authorize anyone to enter your home, for whatever reason, without your permission, nor does it allow the government to remove anyone from your home because of the coronavirus. “Again, this bill is about providing access to testing and outreach for medically underserved communities who want/need to get tested, but currently their needs aren’t being met. This bill is about helping our country safely reopen the economy so we can get back to normal!” Rush asserts the act would establish a grant program run by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to “fully mobilize coronavirus testing and contact tracing efforts.” The grantees would include community health centers, school-based health centers, academic medical centers, non-profits, and other entities who would hire and train individuals to operate mobile testing units, as well as outreach in hot spots and medically underserved areas. “Reopening our economy and getting back to normal will be all but impossible if we do not step up our testing efforts and implement robust and widespread contact tracing,” Rush says. “Until we have a vaccine to defeat this dreaded disease, contact tracing in order to understand the full breadth and depth of the spread of this virus is the only way we will be able to get out from under this.  Bobby Rush (Democrat-IL 1st) “The COVID-19 TRACE Act will allow us to do this by creating a $100 billion dollar grant program for local organizations to hire, train, and pay individuals and to purchase supplies to run mobile testing units and door-to-door outreach as is safe and necessary, with special preference being given to those operating in hot spots and medically underserved communities, as well as those entities who commit to hiring from these neighborhoods.” Nevertheless, despite Rush’s defense of the legislation, experts told GODSPEED Magazine that they are concerned about the bill given the government’s prior history during times of crisis. “9/11 led us down the slippery slope of the Patriot Act and the NDAA wherein U.S. citizens are lumped into the same category for investigation as suspected terrorists (an indiscriminate invitation to track everything about us and throw us into jail nullifying habeas corpus),” says Doug Woodward, a Bible prophecy author, former executive at Oracle and Microsoft, as well as a financial consultant for emerging companies. “H.R. 6666 ... an ironic and unfortunate number to say the least ... will push us further down the slippery slope. Soon we should expect the police to demand a camera in our house to watch us every minute.” Woodward says H.R. 6666 is an “omen of evil in its own congressional identifier” that warns us of the “horrific outcome we should expect.” “Personal liberties are once again sacrificed for the collectivist good,” Woodward says. “How can we not think this is yet another step toward the fascist police state? In the name of creating utopia for the ‘herd’, the plutocrats wrest even more rights from the individual.”  Chaplain (Col.) David J. Giammona, IMCOM chaplain left, and Chaplain (Col.) Milton Johnson present Rev. Kenneth Copeland with tokens of appreciation on behalf of the Installation Management Command during the post's National Prayer Breakfast event. Photo appears courtesy of Army.mil Retired U.S. Army Chaplain (Col.) David Giammona, an author and speaker and expert on the end times, told GODSPEED Magazine that “we must all be prepared for these kinds of things to happen in the end times.” “There are insidious dark powers at work here to bring us into bondage,” Giammona says. “H.R. 6666 is a harbinger of things to come. The enemy is focused on controlling us through political powers just like he did through Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. The left will use any means necessary so that big government can be empowered.”  Troy Anderson is the senior editor of GODSPEED Magazine, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigative journalist, bestselling co-author of The Babylon Code and Trumpocalypse, former executive editor of Charisma magazine, reporter at the Los Angeles Daily News, and a regular guest on numerous television and radio shows. Learn more by clicking here.
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