More ironic, I think, than the silly "looking for signs and portents" in the WT illustrations is the fact that the book "Your Will Be Done on Earth" (light green as I remember) was a verse by verse interpretation of the book of Daniel that clearly conjectured (of course it was called The Truth at the time) that Russia, King of the North and the US, King of the South would eventually use their terrible (nuclear)weapons on each other and that the resulting world chaos would segue into Armageddon. I clearly remember how superior all us JW's felt to be "on the inside track" of world events.
Time and real world events of course has led the WTB&TS to have completely abandoned their original teaching. What's new? They are masters at getting out of the corners they have painted themselves into. Like the generation of 1914 fiasco.