Sunday, April 25, 2021

Sun 25th April 2021 Anzac Day Current Affairs

Via 2015, yesterday
Tomorrow is ANZAC Day and many are quick to denounce the battle and war, yet claim to embrace freedom. But war is the pointy end of freedom. Without the willingness to fight, and perhaps die, there is nothing to protect the free from the despots. And the ANZAC invasion of Gallipoli (in support of the British who sent more, gave more and lost more) is a salient lesson. It is hard to say what people fought for when they lost. But the dream was far bigger. Maybe Turkey would not have completed her genocide of Armenians and Assyrians and many others. Maybe communism would not have become the fat parasite on the world for the twentieth century. It was a good plan which was almost successful, despite many snafu. Those that lost were not to blame. And those who should be blamed were not entirely at fault. Young newsman Keith Murdoch was opposed to the campaign and conveyed that opposition while still being loyal. He hadn't liked the appalling waste of life. But his machinations meant that the lives lost were wasted. One can support the soldiers without liking the slaughter. None who fought there, or ordered them there remains alive. Those who profited from the defeat are not alive today. But many suffer today from the loss. Today is the anniversary of the fall of Troy. The battle for Troy was prideful and the sacrifice wasteful. But that Greek victory was far less than the loss at Gallipoli. Pride exists before the fall as everyone is humbled. And it is worth thinking of those humble people who fought and died there. They lost that battle, but in winning the war, they gave us a legacy of freedom leaving us eternally in their debt. And by fostering the freedom their lives paid for, we honour them. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

In this day in 1547, Battle of Mühlberg was fought between Spain's Charles I and some minor nobles who were Protestant. Charles was Holy Roman Emperor and catholic. Francis 1 of France was also catholic, but had sided with the Ottomans to fight Spain. That fight had ended a few years previously. So Charles was unencumbered to square off against the band of protestant cities called the Schmalkaldic League. The battle was one sided. the protestants bickered and were over run. Charles I made it to the battlefield, but he was suffering an attack of gout and so came on a litter, not a fine war horse as was painted later by his court painter, Titian. Charles had nearly 30000 troops at his disposal against 15000. The panicked League forces broke rank and fled, so 7000 League forces died in battle. There were a few scattered Protestant forces left over and Charles ended up giving them religious freedom, but many went to England where the young King Edward showed promise. In 1914, the Franck-Hertz experiment showed, using a vacuum tube and electricity, the nature of atoms as suggest in 1913 by Bohr. Einstein described the experiment "It's so lovely it makes you cry."
The selfish, self indulgent former treasurer Swan is wanting to run another term. He is part of the furniture Rudd wanted to save. He was an abysmal treasurer, promising surplus but delivering the largest debt Australia has ever faced, in peace or war. He was part of the policy brains trust which failed to deliver policy in ALP Government. It is sad the ALP are so low. No sensible person wants to see them so weak and pathetic, so incapable of working for their own constituents. A healthy ALP would pass legislation in Australia's interests. This ALP doesn't. 

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School children being the pawns of activists is not new. The sixties peace marches featured children vs tear gas as Soviet Russia exploited the peace movement for political gain. Marxists are still doing that. BLM leaders can afford mansions as they advocate activists facing dire consequences for actions. The truth is not on the side of those seeking to defund police. But as the trial of Derek Chauvin shows, the law is on the side of drug dealers and users against the thin blue line. 


As a policeman, Chauvin sought to protect and serve. As a congress woman, Waters seeks to exploit and divide. And in Lindfield, Sydney, NSW, Australia, we have a modern school where children post poster lies about police. Activists claim police hunt black people. The truth is black people are safer from rare events of police killing citizens than white people. However, mainstream news promotes lies told by radical left politicians. 

=== Bongino Headlines ===
Newsom Wants to End California Fracking by 2024, and All Oil Extraction by 2045

Maddow Warns of “Dangerous” Election Audit in Arizona

AOC Says Biden Exceeding Progressive Expectations

V.P. Harris Still Isn’t at the Border But Migrant Kids Are Being Given Copies of Her Book

Indonesian Sub With 53 On Board Found Sunk in 2,800 Feet of Water

Johnson & Johnson COVID Vaccine Pause Lifted

Capitol Hill
Republican Senators Push Dollar-For-Dollar Spending Cuts in Order to Raise Debt Ceiling
GOP Seeks to Flip Democratic South Texas in 2022
Rules-For-Thee Pelosi Bypasses House Security Measures
Pro-Impeachment Witness Met With Chinese Communist Party Think Tank
#WrongBorder: Kamala Mocked for Visiting New Hampshire
Biden Eliminates Single-Sex Homeless Shelters, Ignoring Safety Considerations for Women
Maxine Waters Says Criticism of Her Minneapolis Incitement Is Just a Distraction from Trump’s “Terrorist Insurrection”
AOC Says She Won’t Be One of the Reps Picked to Attend Biden’s Address to Congress
Kindergarten Press Corps: Psaki Begins Handing Out Cookies During Briefing
AOC Upset GOP Is Using “Statistics and Studies” to Discredit Her Agenda

Culture War
National, Bipartisan Movement Grows For Constitutional Amendment to Keep SCOTUS at 9 Justices
When Everything Is Racist There’s No Room for Reason
Biden Admin to Allow Embassies to Fly LGBT Flag Alongside American Flag
Here’s Why Every Corporation Is Going Woke
Rumble Sees Huge Growth as People Flee Woke Platforms
High School Meeting on Police Brutality Separates Attending Parents by Race
The Database of Canceled Persons
WaPo’s Jennifer Rubin: Republican Lawmakers Don’t “Want Good Things to Happen Even for Their Own People”
Alternate Juror in Chauvin Trial Said She Was Concerned About People Coming to Her House If People Weren’t Happy With the Verdict

Economy
The Democrats’ Unemployment Bonuses Are Causing a Disastrous Labor Shortage
Stocks Face Downturn if Biden’s Capital Gains Tax Hike Passes
Founder Flees as Turkish Crypto Exchange Goes Under
Russia Unexpectedly Raises Interest Rates
The 14 States That Don’t Tax Your Pension
Honda Aims for 100% Electric Vehicles by 2040
Home Sales Surge 21% in March
How Meme Stocks Have Changed Wall Street
United to Add Nearly 500 Flights as Summer Travel Expectations Increase
Biden’s 28% Corporate Tax Rate Would Reduce GDP by $720 Billion Over Ten Years

Swamp Watch
United Nations Votes to Allow Iran to Join Women’s Rights Commission
Congress’s Corrupt 2020 Earmarks
George W. Bush Walks Back “Nativist” Jab at GOP
Indiana FedEx Shooting Reveals Inherent Problems With Red Flag Laws
Russiagate Investigator Slams Washington Post’s Hypocritical Finger-Pointing on Leaks
Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) Says AOC Has Agreed to Debate Her Over Green New Deal
Cartels Using Social Media Ads to Recruit American Teens to Help Smuggle Migrants
Race-Baiters Are Inciting More Violence Than Trump Ever Did
NY Times Reporter Who Covers TikTok Videos Mocked for Saying She’s Experienced “Exhausted Despair”
NY Dems Who Called for Gov. Cuomo’s Resignation Now Appear With Him
=== Newsmax Headlines ===
A new study published by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says you're no safer from COVID-19 indoors at 6 feet or 60 feet, challenging social distance policies. [Full Story]

Biden Presidency
Biden Recognizes Atrocities Against Armenians as Genocide
George P. Bush: Texas Pushing Hard Against Biden Orders |
Rep. Buddy Carter: Biden's New Deal Hurts Poor Most |
Sen. Bill Cassidy to Newsmax TV: GOP Infrastructure Is More for Less |
US Sanctions on Russia Producing Desired Results: Biden Official
Where's Harris? VP Slammed for Going 30 Days Without Border Visit
Dems Divided: Manchin Says Biden Should Focus on 'Conventional' Infrastructure
Blinken to Allow Pride Flag to Fly at US Embassies
Republicans Unveil $568B Infrastructure Plan
Tim Scott to Deliver GOP Response to Biden Speech

Newsfront
Trump Calls on Arizona Gov. to Provide Audit Security
After Democrats refused to fund $1 million bond for the forensic audit of Arizona's presidential election results, former President Donald Trump is calling on GOP Gov. Doug Ducey to provide security.... [Full Story]

Related Stories
Arizona AG Rejects Official's Call for Probe of Voting Audit
GOP-Backed Recount of 2020 Votes in Arizona to Proceed After Delay
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Here is a video I made Homecoming


Narrated by me, with pictures sourced by me
originally posted at Icompositions.com
http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=35710
Bruce Dawe Poem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Dawe

All day, day after day, they’re bringing them home,
they’re picking them up, those they can find, and bringing them home,
they’re bringing them in, piled on the hulls of Grants, in trucks, in convoys,
they’re zipping them up in green plastic bags,
they’re tagging them now in Saigon, in the mortuary coolness
they’re giving them names, they’re rolling them out of
the deep-freeze lockers — on the tarmac at Tan Son Nhut
the noble jets are whining like hounds,
they are bringing them home
– curly heads, kinky-hairs, crew-cuts, balding non-coms
– they’re high, now, high and higher, over the land, the steaming chow mein,
their shadows are tracing the blue curve of the Pacific
with sorrowful quick fingers, heading south, heading east,
home, home, home — and the coasts swing upward, the old ridiculous curvatures
of earth, the knuckled hills, the mangrove-swamps, the desert emptiness…
in their sterile housing they tilt towards these like skiers
– taxiing in, on the long runways, the howl of their homecoming rises
surrounding them like their last moments (the mash, the splendour)
then fading at length as they move
on to small towns where dogs in the frozen sunset
raise muzzles in mute salute,
and on to cities in whose wide web of suburbs
telegrams tremble like leaves from a wintering tree
and the spider grief swings in his bitter geometry
– they’re bringing them home, now, too late, too early. 
https://rumble.com/vapzdd-homecoming-poem-by-bruce-dawe.html


=== From 2018 ===

Don't give up on hope. One gets it that some in the community don't like ANZAC day because it is a cultural asset and they hate Australia. They don't say it that way. They make meaningless dark claims about war, history and activity that don't pass fact checks, if they offer any. But it is appalling that the PM, Malcolm Turnbull, exploits the day for personal popularity, but opposes it too. General Monash had been instrumental in starting ANZAC day to commemorate those who sacrificed everything. Monash had Prussian ancestry and was Jewish and so he was impeded by bigots, despite being recognised as the most capable officer for the Allies. Monash, an engineer, is the name behind a group wanting Coal power stations built in Australia. A historical push to have Monash posthumously awarded Field Marshall status was opposed by the Government under Malcolm. The reason given that if they award something posthumously, they might have to do it again and again. But the issue is Turnbull hates Australia and wants her to be a republic. So PM Turnbull speaks from France and grandstands, but none in his ministry would attend the largest dawn service of the day. Meanwhile, another poll shows Liberals will be slaughtered under Turnbull next election.

ATAR is a rank given leaving high school students wanting to go to university in Australia. It is rigorous, fair and relatively cheap. However, there is a push to replace it with terrible, expensive and unfair regimes. But it could be improved, made cheaper and more relevant. More multiple choice questions computer marked could make the tests even cheaper. The results could be used to inform on school and teacher performance too. But unions are opposed to improving teacher performance.
=== from 2017 ===
IPA Review April 2017 has an article on Courting Freedom by Morgan Begg and Andrew Bushnell both research fellows at IPA. They are suggesting judicial reform to correct the performance of the High Court of Australia which they view as being the worst in the world. Which is a big call, and there are many courts in the Middle East, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela et al which have held their hands high for that honour. Still, Australian judicial corruption corrodes all Australian institutions. What is truly astonishing is the solution suggested, one which gives us USA style examinations of judges through public cat calls and whistles. In fact, Australia does have a problem with judicial corruption, as evidenced by Heiner, by Mabo, by Fair Work and by the entire life of the NSW ICAC. But the solution is not by sensationalising appointments. The solution is standards. Standards which require a free and fair press armed with free speech. And it requires scrutiny of decisions made after the fact. But such a cultural change is not easy. At the moment, only conservatives can prosecute such a cultural change, and Malcolm Turnbull is not up to leading it. 

Some things should not happen, but they do. Le Pen has left the National Front in her bid to be the next President of France. The left wing extremist Macron has bragged he seduced his French literature teacher when he was fifteen, and promised to do the same to France. Does France want a Macron romance? Is Le Pen mightier? Le Pen's move to dump the extremist National Front is a good one. One might know Le Pen's values, but always suspect theirs. Le Pen will never govern France solely on the French right wing. But Macron can win government on left wing support alone. 
=== from 2016 ===
Anzac Day is a day for somber reflection on the great blessings good people have given us. Many who died for us. The great Australian Poet, C J Dennis, gave us a scene in the Gallant Gentleman of a dying soldier asking after his wife. And he resented being called a gallant gentleman. He worked for a living. C J Dennis became famous for his Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, who meets his sheila Doreen and marries her. And fights and has kids and struggles on the land. But another well-received series was the friend of the Bloke, Ginger Mick. Ginger doesn't make it home. Ginger had not wanted to die. Or follow orders. But he died following orders. Good people can do that. They aren't kowtowing to petty authority or senseless rules when they give their lives. But sometimes that is how it seems. Australia paid a big blood sacrifice in WW1. Those men that survived were often crippled in some way. They gave much. And it is incumbent on us to honour their sacrifice by living well and free. Gallipolli was a loss. It was a terrible waste. But it had promise. It had hope that was not realised for more than three years. Some ask why it is that Australians suffer Turks marching with them. It is because the winners have graciously accepted the losers. 
=== from 2015 ===
I was wrong. Maybe neither of my grandfathers were at Gallipoli. My father's father had been a soldier for Britain in Ireland, but was shipped out before the Easter uprising. He was then sent to the Somme where, in artillery, he discovered horses and was bit with the gambling bug. My mother's father was said to have lost his eye at Gallipoli on landing. One time my father had told me his father had said he had known many from Gallipoli and my mother's father wasn't one of them. I'd understood that to mean he had been at Gallipoli, but it wasn't what my father had said and he hadn't corrected me. Happy families are all the same, but each dysfunctional one is unique.

The placing of US families into camps based on race was an abuse of power which has never gone punished. A Democrat President did it in WW2 and never got to present their case for it. Was it because he wanted another term in office? A Democrat who believed in minorities but was scared of unity. While the issue is not the same, it parallels Turkey's genocide of Armenians and Assyrians and other minorities. There too, we have no justifications for what was done. It didn't begin in 1912, but in the second half of the nineteenth century when the Ottoman Empire was a pawn in the great game between Russia and Britain. Ottomans had traditionally worked with their minorities. But when some young Turks began to assert themselves, a new identity was formed which did not include minorities. Ataturk was not the monster behind the genocide, but must have protected them, probably to protect national cohesion. Maybe that is why the UN today endorses the worst of terrorism. 

On this day in 404 BC Athens was defeated by Sparta. It would take some 2200 years before democracy flourished again. In 775, Armenians rebelling against the Abbasids failed. In 799, Pope Leo III fled Rome for the protection of Charlemagne. In 1644, the last Ming Emperor of China, Chongzhen, committed suicide after killing his family so that they would not become prisoners of the next mob. In 1792, a highwayman became the first to be executed by guillotine. Nicolas Jacques Pelletier was caught for something, we aren't certain what. Said to have involved robbery, murder and rape, but typical of revolutionary justice maybe none of it. He was sentenced to death in 1791, but it wasn't until March in 1792 that the revolutionary council agreed on the only acceptable form of execution being decapitation, but not by sword as nobles had been decapitated that way. So the guillotine was made and placed outside a hotel in Paris in the hopes of a crowd. General LaFayette was engaged to control the crowd. A good time was had by many. On the same day, La Marseillaise (the French national anthem) was composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.

In 1829, Fremantle sailed into the coast of Western Australia on board the Challenger. He declared the Swan River Colony for the United Kingdom. In 1846, the Thornton Affair where Captain Thornton with 80 cavalry was beaten by Mexican forces with 1600 Cavalry resulted in the Mexican American war of 1846-48. Many thousands would die and Mexico lost her northern territories. The territories gained for the US included the Rio Grande Valley, and California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada etc. The Whigs opposed the peace and the expansion in much the same way Democrats deplored Democracy in Iraq. In 1901, New York became the first city to demand license plates fr cars. In 1916, the Easter Rebellion began in Ireland. In 1945, the US and Soviet armies met up, dividing the German forces. On the same day, as Germany surrendered in Italy, Mussolini attempted escape of custody. Also German forces left Finland. In 1951, Chinese forces withdrew after encountering Australian and Canadian troops at Kapyong in Korea. In 1953, Crick and Watson published on the helical structure of DNA. In 1954 Bell Laboratories invented the first practical solar cell. 1961, Robert Noyce was granted a patent for an integrated circuit. In 1982, Israel completed her withdrawal from the Sinai in respect to Camp David Accords. So any day now there will be peace. In 1983, an idealistic schoolgirl wanting peace was invited to visit the Soviet Union. She died tragically from a plane crash not long after her successful trip. Samantha Smith meant well. 
From 2014
According to family history, my grandfathers both fought on this day at Gallipoli for different armies. My father's dad, Manchester born and bred fought for Britain. My Mother's dad said he fought as an ANZAC. Mother's dad lost an eye disembarking and blamed Churchill for the rest of his life. There is no army record of him at Gallipoli, but he managed to get himself permanent disability for the rest of his long life. His eye injury was real. He could not see very well out of the other. But he could drink himself silly at Western Suburbs Rugby Union Club, acquiring a name on a face board as patron before dying in '75. As passenger in a vehicle, if another car was aggressive in overtaking on the road, and displayed a registration plate, he could still come out with a "Bloody Queenslander." The Manchester guy was a bigger character. Everyone who knew him liked him, except his wife. He never progressed to corporal, but reached the highest technical grade of Bombadier and knew gradients almost as well as horses. He survived there, and the Western Front, and Ireland, before the uprisings. Then he married and went to Australia. In WW2, he served again, for Roden Cutler's mob in the Middle East, demobbing before Cutler went to PNG. His diary was included in the regimental diary. He died in '75 too. 

Small things change the world. There was no one reason for Gallipoli, but had it been successful then the world would be different. WW1 would have finished much sooner, with allies pushing into Europe through the back door. Russia would still have had Tsars. US would not have entered the war. Britain would have grown. The failure of Gallipoli meant much too. The rise of Murdoch as a newsman and all those other changes .. including the continued existence of a genocidal Turkey. Murdoch had said that there was opposition to the battle, and that could not be reported, but that things were promoted, including casualty lists which sapped the will back home in Australia. One telling statistic not often remembered these days is that the retreat from Gallipoli was bloodless. Turkey was tottering, her ability to fight sapped from her genocidal efforts. Maybe another push would have sufficed? But there were winners in British High Command who opposed Churchill, and who benefited from the loss in a temporary way. Imagine no communism. It is easy, if you try. 
Historical perspective on this day
In 404 BC, Peloponnesian WarLysander's Spartan Armies defeated the Athenians and the war ended. 775, the Battle of Bagrevand put an end to an Armenian rebellion against the Abbasid Caliphate. Muslim control over Transcaucasia was solidified and its Islamization began, while several major Armenian nakharar families lost power and their remnants fled to the Byzantine Empire. 799, after mistreatment and disfigurement by the citizens of Rome, pope Leo III fled to the Frankish court of king Charlemagne at Paderborn for protection. 1134, the name Zagreb was mentioned for the first time in the Felician Charter relating to the establishment of the Zagreb Bishopric around 1094. 1607, Eighty Years' War: The Dutch fleet destroyed the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar. 1644, the Chongzhen Emperor, the last Emperor of Ming Dynasty China, committed suicide during a peasant rebellion led by Li Zicheng. a coalition of England, the Netherlands and Portugal was defeated by a Franco-Spanish army at Almansa (Spain) in the War of the Spanish Succession. 1792, HighwaymanNicolas J. Pelletier became the first person executed by guillotine. Also 1792, La Marseillaise(the French national anthem) was composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.

In 1804, the western Georgian kingdom of Imereti accepts the suzerainty of the Russian Empire 1829, Charles Fremantle arrived in HMS Challenger off the coast of modern-day Western Australia prior to declaring the Swan River Colony for the United Kingdom. 1846, Thornton Affair: Open conflict began over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War. 1847, the last survivors of the Donner Party were out of the wilderness. 1849, the Governor General of CanadaLord Elgin, signed the Rebellion Losses Bill, outraging Montreal's English population and triggering the Montreal Riots. 1859, British and French engineers broke ground for the Suez Canal. 1862, American Civil War: Forces under Union Admiral David Farragut demanded the surrender of the Confederate city of New Orleans, Louisiana. 1864, American Civil War: The Battle of Marks' Mills. 1882, Tonkin CampaignFrench and Vietnamese troops clashed in Tonkin, when Commandant Henri Rivière seized the citadel of Hanoi with a small force of marine infantry. 1898, Spanish–American War: The United States declared war on Spain.

In 1901, New York became the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates. 1915, World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli began—The invasion of the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula by Australian, British, French and New Zealand troops began with landings at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles. 1916, Easter Rebellion: The United Kingdom declared martial law in Ireland. Also 1916, Anzac Day was commemorated for the first time on the first anniversary of the landing at Anzac Cove. 1920, at the San Remo conference, the principal Allied Powers of World War I adopted a resolution to determine the allocation of Class "A" League of Nations mandates for administration of the former Ottoman-ruled lands of the Middle East. 1938, U.S. Supreme Court delivered its opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkinsand overturned a century of federal common law.

In 1940, Merkið, the flag of the Faroe Islands was approved by the British occupation government. 1943, the Demyansk Shield for German troops in commemoration of Demyansk Pocket was instituted. 1944, the United Negro College Fund was incorporated. 1945, Elbe DayUnited States and Soviet troops meet in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in two, a milestone in the approaching end of World War II in Europe. Also 1945, Liberation Day (Italy): The Nazi occupation army surrendered and left Northern Italy after a general partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement; the puppet fascist regime dissolved and Benito Mussolini was captured after trying to escape. This day was set as a public holiday to celebrate the Liberation of Italy. Also 1945, fifty nations gathered in San Francisco, California to begin the United Nations Conference on International Organisation. Also 1945, the last German troops retreated from Finland's soil in Lapland, ending the Lapland War. Military acts of Second World War end in Finland. 1946, Naperville train disaster killed 47 in Naperville, Illinois.

In 1951, Korean War: Assaulting Chinese forces are forced to withdraw after heavy fighting with UN forces, primarily made up of Australian and Canadian troops, at the Battle of Kapyong. 1953, Francis Crick and James D. Watson published "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" describing the double helixstructure of DNA. 1954, the first practical solar cell was publicly demonstrated by Bell Telephone Laboratories. 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opened to shipping. 1960, the U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton completed the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe. 1961, Robert Noyce was granted a patent for an integrated circuit. 1965, Teenage sniper Michael Andrew Clark killed three and wounded six others shooting from a hilltop along Highway 101 just south of Santa Maria, California. 1966, the city of Tashkent was destroyed by a huge earthquake. 1972, Vietnam War: Nguyen Hue Offensive: The North Vietnamese 320th Division forced 5,000 South Vietnamese troops to retreat and trapped about 2,500 others northwest of Kontum. 1974, Carnation Revolution: A leftist military coup in Portugal overthrew the fascist Estado Novo regime and established a democratic government. 1975, as North Vietnamese forces closed in on the South Vietnamese capital Saigon, the Australian Embassy was closed and evacuated, almost ten years to the day since the first Australian troop commitment to South Vietnam.

In 1981, more than 100 workers were exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, Japan. 1982, Israel completed its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula per the Camp David Accords. 1983, American schoolgirl Samantha Smith was invited to visit the Soviet Union by its leader Yuri Andropov after he read her letter in which she expressed fears about nuclear war. Also 1983, Pioneer 10 traveled beyond Pluto's orbit. 1986, Mswati III was crowned King of Swaziland, succeeding his father Sobhuza II. 1988, in IsraelJohn Demjanuk was sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II. 1990, Violeta Chamorro took office as the President of Nicaragua, the first woman to hold the position. 2001, Michele Alboreto was killed while testing an Audi R8 at the Lausitzring in Germany. 2005, the final piece of the Obelisk of Axum was returned to Ethiopia after being stolen by the invading Italian army in 1937. Also 2005, Bulgaria and Romania signed accession treaties to join the European Union. Also 2005, one hundred seven people died in Amagasaki rail crash in Japan. 2007, Boris Yeltsin's funeral: The first to be sanctioned by the Russian Orthodox Church for a head of state since the funeral of Emperor Alexander III in 1894.

=== Bible Reading ===

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Today's reading: 2 Samuel 19-20, Luke 18:1-23 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: 2 Samuel 19-20

Joab was told, "The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom." 2 And for the whole army the victory that day was turned into mourning, because on that day the troops heard it said, "The king is grieving for his son." 3 The men stole into the city that day as men steal in who are ashamed when they flee from battle. 4 The king covered his face and cried aloud, "O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!"
5 Then Joab went into the house to the king and said, "Today you have humiliated all your men, who have just saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters and the lives of your wives and concubines. 6 You love those who hate you and hate those who love you. You have made it clear today that the commanders and their men mean nothing to you. I see that you would be pleased if Absalom were alive today and all of us were dead. 7 Now go out and encourage your men. I swear by the LORD that if you don't go out, not a man will be left with you by nightfall. This will be worse for you than all the calamities that have come on you from your youth till now...."

Today's New Testament reading: Luke 18:1-23


The Parable of the Persistent Widow


1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'
4 "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come and attack me!'"
6 And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

=== Morning and Evening ===


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Morning

"And because of all this we make a sure covenant."
Nehemiah 9:38
There are many occasions in our experience when we may very rightly, and with benefit, renew our covenant with God. After recovery from sickness when, like Hezekiah, we have had a new term of years added to our life, we may fitly do it. After any deliverance from trouble, when our joys bud forth anew, let us again visit the foot of the cross, and renew our consecration. Especially, let us do this after any sin which has grieved the Holy Spirit, or brought dishonour upon the cause of God; let us then look to that blood which can make us whiter than snow, and again offer ourselves unto the Lord. We should not only let our troubles confirm our dedication to God, but our prosperity should do the same. If we ever meet with occasions which deserve to be called "crowning mercies" then, surely, if he hath crowned us, we ought also to crown our God; let us bring forth anew all the jewels of the divine regalia which have been stored in the jewel-closet of our heart, and let our God sit upon the throne of our love, arrayed in royal apparel. If we would learn to profit by our prosperity, we should not need so much adversity. If we would gather from a kiss all the good it might confer upon us, we should not so often smart under the rod. Have we lately received some blessing which we little expected? Has the Lord put our feet in a large room? Can we sing of mercies multiplied? Then this is the day to put our hand upon the horns of the altar, and say, "Bind me here, my God; bind me here with cords, even forever." Inasmuch as we need the fulfilment of new promises from God, let us offer renewed prayers that our old vows may not be dishonoured. Let us this morning make with him a sure covenant, because of the pains of Jesus which for the last month we have been considering with gratitude.

Evening

"The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land."
Song of Solomon 2:12
Sweet is the season of spring: the long and dreary winter helps us to appreciate its genial warmth, and its promise of summer enhances its present delights. After periods of depression of spirit, it is delightful to behold again the light of the Sun of Righteousness; then our slumbering graces rise from their lethargy, like the crocus and the daffodil from their beds of earth; then is our heart made merry with delicious notes of gratitude, far more melodious than the warbling of birds--and the comforting assurance of peace, infinitely more delightful than the turtle's note, is heard within the soul. Now is the time for the soul to seek communion with her Beloved; now must she rise from her native sordidness, and come away from her old associations. If we do not hoist the sail when the breeze is favourable, we shall be blameworthy: times of refreshing ought not to pass over us unimproved. When Jesus himself visits us in tenderness, and entreats us to arise, can we be so base as to refuse his request? He has himself risen that he may draw us after him: he now by his Holy Spirit has revived us, that we may, in newness of life, ascend into the heavenlies, and hold communion with himself. Let our wintry state suffice us for coldness and indifference; when the Lord creates a spring within, let our sap flow with vigour, and our branch blossom with high resolve. O Lord, if it be not spring time in my chilly heart, I pray thee make it so, for I am heartily weary of living at a distance from thee. Oh! the long and dreary winter, when wilt thou bring it to an end? Come, Holy Spirit, and renew my soul! quicken thou me! restore me, and have mercy on me! This very night I would earnestly implore the Lord to take pity upon his servant, and send me a happy revival of spiritual life!

=== Bible Quote ===

=== Message ===

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I am a decent man and don't care for the abuse given me. I created a video raising awareness of anti police feeling among western communities. I chose the senseless killing of Nicola Cotton, a Louisiana policewoman who joined post Katrina, to highlight the issue. I did this in order to get an income after having been illegally blacklisted from work in NSW for being a whistleblower. I have not done anything wrong. Local council appointees refused to endorse my work, so I did it for free. Youtube's Adsence refused to allow me to profit from their marketing it. Meanwhile, I am hostage to abysmal political leadership and hopeless journalists. My shopfront has opened on Facebook.

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I am publishing a book called Bread of Life: January.

Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?


January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc (Gofundme finished the fund raiser, 2017)

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Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August, September, October, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4 The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows a free kindle version.


The Amazon Author Page for David Ball

UK .. http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B01683ZOWG

French .. http://www.amazon.fr/-/e/B01683ZOWG

Japan .. http://www.amazon.co.jp/-/e/B01683ZOWG

German .. http://www.amazon.de/-/e/B01683ZOWG

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Other Stuff

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I'm now on MAGAbook to sidestep FB censorship

https://www.magabook.com/register?invite=11673951025fadd3f055eca4.00045664

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I'm looking for former students to endorse me

https://www.superprof.com.au/write-recommendation-13371374-1cc2cf0f56166c9b04ad4097fc7d0b67.html

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