Anna

You mention or tag this fellow so often that I am convinced you are a secret fan. Nothing else can account for this constant craving of yours for his attention.
It is sort of like when a fellow accosted Bob Dylan with “I am your greatest fan!” Dylan looked at him speechless for a second and finally said, “Good for you.”

Dogs are kept in quarantine for somewhere between 6 to 12 months over here…..

I agree that Joseph Smith was anything but Charles Taze Russell. But you don't have to dig very deep among early LDS to find a lot of things they should be ashamed and embarrassed about, but they seem oblivious to it.
A couple of their young elders (there's an oxymoron) wanted to study with me around 1995, and I let them come back about 6 times before they tired of me. The Internet was just a startup operation then, but one of the first things I did when I discovered it was to collect a ton of info on them. Our local town library also had a small collection of anti-Mormon books.
I wanted to discuss all these things with the Mormon elders, and one of them was aware of some of the claims, and he apparently mortified his partner, who stopped coming back with him on visit number 3. Normally, they give up on critics and questioners immediately, but I found that if I prefaced every criticism with "I have prayed about this question  . . . " that he would sincerely try to respond.
I took a job in a bank after Bethel and when the interviewer found out I was a JW, he said that they like to hire JWs, Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists. (And when we were looking for a housekeeper/babysitter the agency recommended that we hire Seventh Day Adventists or Jehovah's Witnesses, and this person did NOT know our religion.) I didn't like being classed with "competitors" but it said something about sincerity and honesty. @xero has correctly pointed out in other topics that there are many individuals in the world (and in other religions) who are often "better" in many ways. And here he has said what you quoted: "even though certain beliefs are demonstrably wrong about mormonism, the effects on them seem in many cases to be positive." Agreed.

Maybe. My insurance man was a Mormon. He died, but I am still with the agency he founded. (whether Mormons or not I am not sure—I think they are) I turned to him upon the recommendation of another Witness for business liability insurance. In time he commented on some scheme I had bought into from some brothers for health care insurance. He’s looked it over, he said, ‘and the premiums are unrealistically low.’ I was a young man then. I said how it is different with the Witnesses because they cut out the middleman and they are not greedy and it is not really insurance but pooled resources and all but said it had God’s smile of approval on it, but in time the monthly newsletter began acknowledging subscribers were asking why their bills were not being paid. To my knowledge, it was not dishonesty, just starry-eyed incompetence. I never got any premiums back, but that is true with any insurance. I never had any claim to submit—it was ‘major medical’ only, not routine doctor visits. I recall a Watchtower observing much later that just because someone is a good Christian, that does not mean he is a good businessman.
Yes. Maybe what we see is only what rises to the surface but they are trustworthy people. It is strange because so many of the roots are downright screwy. They originate from my neck of the woods, you know. At an antique/collectibles/junk shop I picked up a set of books by local historian Arch Merrill. Pioneer Profiles (1957) has a chapter on “The Mormon Prophets” There I learned that Joseph Smith was anything but the Mormon equivalent of Charles Taze Russell. 
“To many of his neighbors in the drumlin county around Palmyra and Manchester in the restless 1820s, Joe Smith was a lazy, dreamy young bumpkin, one of a shiftless tribe. To them his claims of conversing with angels and receiving divine revelations were so much humbug.
they knew him as “a gangling lad in a calico shirt and patched pants with his yellow hair sticking through a hole in his dirty hat a mystical sort of fellow who was forever digging for buried treasure. peering into a magic stone and finding water in the earth with a twig when to their mind he should have been toiling on his father's farm. They conceded Joe ‘had a way with him’ and was a glib and convincing talker.”
Is the guy just anti-Mormon? Doesn’t seem so. His next sentence is:
“Today that same Joseph Smith is revered by nearly a million people in 30 lands as a divinely inspired prophet. Those fine thrifty people are popularly known as Mormons and from the unlettered farm boys visions of golden plates hidden in a drumlins breast and from my handful of rustic disciples sprano the now mighty Church of Jesus Christ of latter day Saints.”
Maybe I’ll have to say of them the same thing I say to people who pound us over the head with inconsistencies from years past: “If you have to go back 100 years to dig up dirt, there can’t be that much dirt to dig.”

I appreciate your perspective and @Arauna and @Thinking, too, of course, because you have all put a lot of thought and study into the application of the prophecies. I thought I would get into more hot water than I did by mentioning how arbitrary our identification can seem, and even how non-neutral it can seem.
@TrueTomHarley pointed out that even the world sees the pushing between the two antagonistic world powers, US and Russia. Of course, that's what world powers will always do. It's the nature of the beast(s).
I think that the GB is correct to point out that conflicts between major powers (like Russia and the US, for example) really do fit the kind of pushing that we see described by Daniel about the King of the North and King of the South. But I also don't think it matters that we think we can identify each of them specifically.
It's pretty obvious to me that Daniel 11 is making a specific point about the Seleucid and the Ptolemaic empires, and how that would affect the lives of those who tried to remain faithful among Jehovah's people while "caught in the middle" -- in the Land of Decoration. There is no specific reason, imo, to try to make it any one specific modern drama between two specific powers. Jesus already made use of Daniel 11, showing how it would apply again with Rome.
But I can't see what difference it should make to us if USA/UK and allies are somehow more like Rome, or if Russia and its allies are the ones more like Rome. Is Russia the current entity that is more like the Seleucid empire, or more like the Ptolemaic empire? Is that really the point? Or is it that we should keep our faithfulness when stuck in a world caught between such beasts? I think the point is that we don't take sides with either, we stay alert, use discernment, don't stumble, and we don't think of using violence:
(Daniel 11:14) . . .“And the violent ones among your people will be carried along to try making a vision come true; but they will stumble.
And most importantly, to know that the ultimate solution is our faith in God's kingdom as the only hope even during the worst of all tribulations:
(Daniel 12:1) . . .“During that time Miʹcha·el will stand up, the great prince who is standing in behalf of your people. And there will occur a time of distress such as has not occurred since there came to be a nation until that time. And during that time your people will escape, everyone who is found written down in the book.

We are not voting for anyone and we are not choosing a human leader. We are just having a discussion. Just yesterday in field service the group was having a similar discussion. Of course we know ultimately Jehovah will set matters straight. It's such a no brainer. We are not taking sides with politicians by discussing what's happening in the world right now. Don't let your misguided thoughts mislead you. 

Today, I heard part of an interview with her on NPR. An interesting intrigue about her grandfather, Nikita Krushchev, is that he was a Ukrainian saboteur AGAINST the Soviet Union, and for several years he was secretly supporting the Nazi party in an effort to undermine Stalin. This likely makes very little sense to most of us, but is presented by some Russian scholars to explain some otherwise inexplicable episodes under Stalin. Historically, of course, Stalin was successful in initiating the Nuremburg trials. The United States was not totally on board with this, and the US secretly and sometimes openly hired former Nazis for various government positions. It is fortunate that Stalin actually was successful in pushing for these postwar trials, in that they provide a memorable "punctuation point" to the Nazi regime.

That's right. So it's in what context these discussions take place that matters. I need to explain that to Dmitar as well obviously.

We are not voting for anyone and we are not choosing a human leader. We are just having a discussion. Just yesterday in field service the group was having a similar discussion. Of course we know ultimately Jehovah will set matters straight. It's such a no brainer. We are not taking sides with politicians by discussing what's happening in the world right now. Don't let your misguided thoughts mislead you. 

The open JW club is not really a JW page. The JW page is in the closed club. 

Thanks. Just shows how much I know. But it does confirm what I have always said. Big children playing in a sand pit. I've watched them, that is real children, when I used to take my son to the park. Some of these little ones got real aggressive with their little trucks and buckets and spades. It became a tit for tat battle. 

That's right. So it's in what context these discussions take place that matters. I need to explain that to Dmitar as well obviously.

We are not voting for anyone and we are not choosing a human leader. We are just having a discussion. Just yesterday in field service the group was having a similar discussion. Of course we know ultimately Jehovah will set matters straight. It's such a no brainer. We are not taking sides with politicians by discussing what's happening in the world right now. Don't let your misguided thoughts mislead you. 

We are not voting for anyone and we are not choosing a human leader. We are just having a discussion. Just yesterday in field service the group was having a similar discussion. Of course we know ultimately Jehovah will set matters straight. It's such a no brainer. We are not taking sides with politicians by discussing what's happening in the world right now. Don't let your misguided thoughts mislead you. 

Jehovah is the judge of us all - Titus 1:15
15  All things are clean to clean people; but to those who are defiled and faithless, nothing is clean, for both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
There were many wars in the past, as you mentioned, but this one at present involves one of the players mentioned in the Bible.......... I compare it to the Christians who fled to the mountains in 70CE.  While there, they kept alert to the news when Rome would come back ...... not just out of curiosity but because they firmly believed in the prophecy given by Jesus.
So, I do not neglect prophecy but keep looking to understand.
 

The open JW club is not really a JW page. The JW page is in the closed club. 

Thanks. Just shows how much I know. But it does confirm what I have always said. Big children playing in a sand pit. I've watched them, that is real children, when I used to take my son to the park. Some of these little ones got real aggressive with their little trucks and buckets and spades. It became a tit for tat battle. 

An interesting podcast interview with Nina Khrushcheva on Putin:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2tTjibdYwBJYDems73h1YE?si=Rzgv8KX1TZyPqTdZ3rp-9A

I don't know....why was Krushchev planting all those missiles in Cuba in the first place? So that he could then walk an inexperienced leader back from the edge?

That was a pretext, an excuse to take over the whole country. Just like Donbas is a pretext for Putin to take the whole of the Ukraine. 
Added: In any case, even if we try to excuse Hitler's actions with regard to the Sudetenland, later developments show what kind of a person he really was. 

I don't know.....it seems to me that who the king of the North is will be evident at the last moment, at the point of divine intervention. We used to say Russia was the king of the North during the cold War, (we expected the end to come soon) then when the cold War ended we said Russia was no longer the king of the North.....and now he is the King of the North again. What if Putin is removed and a democracy is put in place in Russia, and China starts misbehaving? Will China then be the king of the North? I'm just thinking out aloud....

I did. It made me wonder that perhaps the sci-fi aspect of mormon beliefs may have contributed to his later sci-fi writing.
Incidentally, I've also noted how even though certain beliefs are demonstrably wrong about mormonism, the effects on them seem in many cases to be positive. Consider that they believe in having large families forces any male mormon to think seriously about doing all he can to acquire the skills needed to get paid or make enough money to support a large family.
Similar things I've seen among JW's...a lot of entrepreneurial activity borne of the desire to be free to better be able to pursue the ministry. Like the brother who invented/patented the propane buffers you see in stores(he wanted to speed up his floor work). I also know of a brother who indexes textbooks (lives out near Copperas Cove) and other books like this for a living. Brilliant brother. 

Yeah you do, but most cannot afford to.
I had a Mormon friend that said Mormons have 6 months of supplies stashed away.
I asked how well his home was defended, and would he please stock up on mustard sardines.

An interesting podcast interview with Nina Khrushcheva on Putin:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2tTjibdYwBJYDems73h1YE?si=Rzgv8KX1TZyPqTdZ3rp-9A

I see patiently sitting on his hands has gone Jewish