Thursday, April 08, 2021

Thu 8th April 2021 Current Affairs

Editorial for Easter Sunday

Miracles happen, unexpected, during times of great evil. And some miracles are underpinned by ordinary things. Jesus' resurrection was no ordinary thing. His killing was unwarranted, but carried out by the complicit world. Yet that very terrible, evil act, was the basis of God's victory over the Devil. 

In a more modern context, great evil has been perpetrated on the US peoples with the 2020 election fraud. A complicit technocracy has facilitated worse to come. NYY's manager, Boon, has praised MLB for moving their all star game from Georgia as Georgia moved to protect voting rights for their constituents, so voter fraud like 2020 does not happen again. Thank you Mr Boon, we know where you stand on freedom and racism. Former President, Trump, has called for there to be a ban on MLB from MAGA supporters. I will watch and follow, but contribute nothing to MLB. Just as I despised the NYY team I follow last year when their star player, Judge, proudly announced he would take the knee in support of racism. NYY finished the year on their knees. 

In Hollywood attacks on conservatives predate the invention of motion pictures. STAN, the streaming business in Australia, has two series worth comparing, Blue Bloods and City on a Hill. Blue Bloods harks back to the Giuliani years where a police force was effective and committed. The Reagan family and their nightly dinners show decent people fighting the good fight. City on a Hill is a name with religious overtones, suggestive of the light USA shines around the world to maintain freedom. It is narrated around the so called Boston Miracle where authorities limited young kids from killing each other with guns. 0.03% of people usually account for over half of all crime. The New York experience suggests only GOP will reduce crime. City on a Hill begins with race baiting and lying about what police are like, and how responsible adults behave. In their world, it is a free thinker that despises God, and has a hard bitten attitude to sex, drugs and crime. STAN, in Australia has shadow banned the clean cut Blue Bloods and promoted City on a Hill. 

But, now for the ordinary miracle. Some will get upset and Ban MLB, or STAN. The majority of States will implement improvements to voting regulation. Disenchantment with Dem politics and antics will see GOP crush them in '22 and reverse the damage done. Hidden by the fraud, is the observation that those who supported Trump in '20, but not '16, some twelve million voters, were traditional Democrat supporters who liked Trump policy. Democrat support base is imploding, held up only by fraud where, were every voter who supported them to hold up two hands, they would not reach 82 million. 
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Tucker Carlson destroyed this Republican Governor last night for caving to the liberal pressure mob. The video is priceless.
In this episode, I discuss the clip. I also address the growing problem of cowardly corporations selling out conservatives.

News Picks:

=== Bongino Headlines ===
White House Defends “Border Czar” Kamala Doing Nothing About Border Crisis

Sen. Gillibrand Says Paid Leave, Child Care, and Caregiving Is “Infrastructure”

Biden to Announce Series of Executive Actions on Gun Control Thursday

U.S. Navy Sends Warship Near Taiwan as China Flies 15 Warplanes

Trump Debunks Media Claim That Matt Gaetz Requested a Preemptive Pardon

Indiana AG Launches Investigation Into Five Big Tech Companies Over Censorship of Conservatives

Capitol Hill
Psaki Oddly Defensive When Asked About Caitlyn Jenner California Gubernatorial Run
NY Passes Budget That Gives Illegal Aliens $1.1 Billion More Than Small Businesses
Far-Left Activists Call for Senate Dems to Add Hundreds of New Federal Judges to Lower Courts
Rep. McCarthy Demands Classified Briefing on CBP’s Apprehension of People on Terrorism Watch List
While Harris Is Supposedly in Charge of the Border Crisis, She Visits Water Plant Near San Francisco, Vaccine Site In Chicago
White House Tries to Claim That Border Terror Suspects are “Rare”
Odessa Kelly, First Major Progressive 2022 Primary Challenger, Attended Farrakhan Speech
Following Biden’s Easter Getaway, Psaki Urges Americans Not to Travel
Biden Leans Close to Person to Tell Them to Socially Distance
Trump’s Leadership PAC Has $85 Million in Cash on Hand as He Prepares for Midterms
The Media Sure Seems to Hate Gov. DeSantis

Culture War
Arizona Gov. Signs Bill to Preempt Federal Gun Laws
Mike Pence Launches Trump-Backed “Advancing American Freedom” Advocacy Group
Seattle Public Schools Ask Parents If Racism Is an Obstacle to Students Returning to Campus
Key Witness Believed to Be George Floyd’s Drug Dealer Pleads the Fifth
Trump Adviser Teases “Busy Morning” for the MAGA Movement
The Democrat Party Is Becoming the Party of AOC
Congressional Dems Endorse Southern Poverty Law Center Report Naming Everything That Moves a Hate Group
Democrats Are Going to Cry Racism No Matter What Republicans Do
Corporate Media, Leftist Corporations Living in an Alternate Universe
Piers Morgan Speaks to Tucker for First Time Since Being Forced off Good Morning Britain
Navy’s Push for “Diversity and Inclusion” Is Threatening Unity in the Ranks
New Utah Law Requires Fathers to Pay for Half of Pregnancy Costs

Economy
Trade Deficit Grew to Record $71.1 Billion Biden’s First Full Month in Office
MLB Moving All-Star Game “Crushing” for Atlanta Small Business
Facebook User Data Leak Included Mark Zuckerberg’s Own Personal Details
Biden Tells Georgia to “Smarten Up” so Businesses Don’t Boycott State
Biggest Bitcoin Fund May Be Turned Into an ETF
IMF Upgrades 2021 Global Growth Forecast to 6%
Jeff Bezos Says He Supports Biden’s Corporate Tax Hike to 28%
Consumers Spent $900 Billion Online in 2020
Schumer Looks to Bail Out Rich Liberals by Repealing the SALT Deduction Cap
Biden Is Covering Up the Real Cost of His Infrastructure Plan
Mortgage Refinance Demand Drops 20% as Rates Rise
State Department Backs Away From 2022 Beijing Olympics Boycott
Buttigieg Retracts Bogus Claim Infrastructure Bill Would Create 19 Million Jobs
Janet Yellen Wants a Global Minimum Corporate Tax

Swamp Watch
Why Do U.S. Colleges Hate America and Love Socialism?
Senators Grassley and Johnson Push Secret Service for Answers to Hunter Biden Gun Incident
A Big Winner in Biden’s Green Energy Plan is His Energy Secretary’s Former Employer
Conservative Group Highlights “Dark Money” Ties to Biden’s Judicial Nominees
Feds Open Two Additional Detention Centers for Unaccompanied Migrant Children
James Woolsey, Former CIA Chief, Is No Longer A UFO Skeptic
Former Intelligence Officer Accused of Attempting to Extort Matt Gaetz for $25 Million Plays Defense on CNN
Gov. Cuomo Signs Bill Repealing Nursing Home Coronavirus Liability Protections
=== Newsmax Headlines ===
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/matt-gaetz-trump-pardon-ny-times/2021/04/07/id/1016689/?oRef=mixi

Biden Presidency
Latinos Slam Biden For Nominating Only 1 Hispanic Judge
Georgia Gov. Kemp: Biden Needs to 'Smarten Up' on Bill |
Justice Breyer: Packing Supreme Court Would Weaken Its Influence
Kevin Hassett: Companies Will 'Stampede' Out Over Biden Tax Hikes
Fauci Warns Mask Wearing Still Necessary
Democrats Differ on Taxes to Pay for Infrastructure Plan
Senate Democrats Find Way to Bypass Filibuster
Biden Did Not Discuss COVID Origins With China's Xi Jinping During 2-Hour Call
Biden Tasks Progressive Foe With Undoing Trump Immigration Policies

Newsfront
CDC: UK Variant Now Most Common Virus Strain in US
The B.1.1.7 variant of the coronavirus, first found in the U.K., has [Full Story]
Related
Fauci Warns Mask Wearing Still Necessary

Study: Skin Rashes, 'COVID Toes' Vaccine Side Effects Don't Last Long

Greg Abbott Bans ‘Vaccine Passports’ in Texas

Tennessee Gov Joins GOP Push Against Vaccine Passports

California to Lift COVID-19 Restrictions on June 15, but Continue Mask Mandate
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Here is a video I made English is TOUGH STUFF 

Said to be what the NATO troops use to pronounce English words right.
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/stuff/english-pronunciation.html
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.

I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)

Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;

Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,

Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;

One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.

Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,

Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.

River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.

Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,

Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.

Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.

Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.

Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.

We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;

Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.

Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.

Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.

Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.

Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.

Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.

Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?

It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough --
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!
https://rumble.com/vbhnpj-english-is-tough-stuff.html

=== From 2018 ===
Don't give up on hope. An awful experiment conducted in the West on families is showing results. Children of broken families suffer. They are academically stunted, worse off economically and miss out on many social cues needed to advance in society. There is a theory that divorced parents are better than parents locked in a loveless relationship. But the results are not showing that. Just as abortion does not mean happiness. Which is not to say that divorce should be illegal or is never an option. But it comes down to love and what it means to love. Love of self is important. But raising a child right should not be an either/or situation. Children are resilient, but the obstacle course of broken families is too harsh. 

I am a supporter of the Australian Liberal Party. I will vote for them above and below the line. But it is not loyal of me to say that I accept Malcolm Turnbull as federal leader. Turnbull is a proven failure as leader. Turnbull's sole achievement in public office is to harm the Liberals, from ruinous leaks in '07 through to AGW alarmist advocacy as PM. Australia needs coal and gas energy moving forward. Only coal provides cheap, effective base load power. 

In Europe, a mentally ill man drove into a crowd and suicided. Authorities have not yet determined a motivation. Trump is rising in popularity in his second year in office, which is unique to US Presidents. Media have not yet worked out why. Is it the hair? 
=== from 2017 ===
Some things should not happen, but they do. Ayaan Hirsi Ali has cancelled her Australian tour despite the 18c protections of free speech. She is not allowed by agreement to say why. But death threats and the security issue fostered by 18c's 'protection' of free speech has played a role. Meanwhile Xenophon has sacked his top SA candidate after they correctly noted 50% renewables is an insane ambition for SA. NXT is captured by Green activists who do not get responsible government. Meanwhile Dan Andrews Victorian government is keen to police fairytales so as to prevent domestic violence. There is a stronger link between domestic violence and drugs and hard core porn. 
=== from 2016 ===
A Sydney man has been jailed for nine years for stabbing to death his pregnant girlfriend who carried his child. Allira was 23 years old when she was killed in 2013. The nine and a half year minimum sentence was for manslaughter. It was said at trial that the couple had a volatile relationship and had, in the days leading up to the killing, exchanged terse emails. She was at a friends house, early one morning, when he forced his way in and refused to leave. He said he would 'get' her. She was over six months pregnant. It is claimed she grabbed a kitchen knife, he took it from her and stabbed her with it. His sentence would have been 16 years, but he pled guilty. Both had recently taken Ice. 

Legal experts may explain why the aggravated assault didn't warrant a murder charge. 

For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility. 
=== from 2015 ===
Mr Abbott is a good man, and is defended by a transgender officer whom he befriended and supports. Naturally the Left hate Mr Abbott. ALP is too close to unions in NT and Victoria to the great cost of their constituents. Media prepares for meeting of state and federal treasures inflating division. 

On this day in 217, Emperor Caracalla was assassinated by his personal guard, and succeeded by the prefect of that guard. As a child, Caracalla's name was changed to link him to the great emperor Marcus Aurelius. His father, Severus, made him co emperor, but after Severus died, his brother, Geta was co emperor. Caracalla had his brother killed. Caracalla is not known as a good man, but one who cheated and killed to get money. His lasting legacy is public baths which are a tourist attraction in Rome today. In 632, King Charibert II of Aquitaine was assassinated, probably on order of his half brother Dagobert. Charibert's infant son was also killed. Family is hard. In 1730, the first synagog was established in New York, called Shearith Israel. In 1820, Venus de Milo was discovered in Milos.  In 1886, Gladstone introduced a home rule bill for Ireland. Gladstone was a Liberal and his proposal was not trusted by many, being strong on empty symbolism and secretive. In 1924, Ataturk reformed Turkey. He promised religious authorities he would not change female dress customs. He didn't regulate it. But he did regulate prostitution, making sure that prostitutes needed to wear traditional coverings. Soon no respectable woman dressed that way. In 1929, Singh and Dutt tossed bombs and hand outs to court arrest in India. Singh was popular for his socialist ideals, including killing a policeman for which he would be executed, inspirationally. In 1942, Japan took Bataan in Philippines. In 1943, in order to exercise control of the US, FDR froze work and wages and prices. When the restrictions were finally lifted prices sky rocketed. In 1945, a train going to a concentration camp was hit by an Allied bomber. So Nazis killed all the 4000 detainees. In 1959, COBOL became a new programming language. In 1968, twenty two year old air stewardess Barbara Jane heroically gave her life freeing passengers from a burning plane. She became the only woman to earn the George Cross in peacetime. In 1992, Arthur Ashe announced he had Aids after a heart operation. He was an all time tennis great. 
From 2014
It sounds like a joke, The War of Jenkin's Ear. But with 20,000 dead, wounded, missing or captured British and 407 ships lost over nine years, starting in 1739, similar casualties for the Spanish Empire, it was serious. Named over a hundred years later by essayist Thomas Carlyle in 1858, the war was over Britain asserting her right to extract profit from the Spanish slave trade in South America. Merchant Captain Robert Jenkins returning from West Indies on April 1731 was stopped by a Spanish ship. The Spanish captain told Jenkins to stop trading, and cut off his ear with a sword, saying the same would happen to the English King if they were found trading in the West Indies too. Jenkins took his complaint to the government. His severed ear was tabled in parliament. 

As wars go, it served a benefit in improving relations between Britain and Spain, so that Spain did not engage early in the seven year war, which is often described as the first world war. On this day in 1740, Three British ships captured the Spanish third-rate HMS Princess.  But amidst such seriousness, we have the joke. Three third rate Brit ships and one Princess. It was a tough battle. But, afterwards, the British had a ship which they used as a prison hulk. before scrapping her in 1784. It all seems so pointless. Much like the ALP's carbon tax policy. Officially, the ALP are opposed to the tax. They promised not to implement it in '10, and claimed they were forced to after. They claimed to have dumped it in '13, but they continue to oppose its removal. The carbon tax is the ALP Princess. Hard fought for, but ultimately only worth scrapping. 
Historical perspective on this day
In 217, Roman Emperor Caracalla was assassinated. He was succeeded by his Praetorian Guard prefectMarcus Opellius Macrinus. 632, King Charibert II was assassinated at Blaye(Gironde), along with his infant son Chilperic. 876, the Battle of Dayr al-'Aqul saved Baghdadfrom the Saffarids. 1093, the new Winchester Cathedral was dedicated by Walkelin. 1139, Roger II of Sicily was excommunicated. 1149, Pope Eugene III took refuge in the castle of Ptolemy II of Tusculum. 1232, Mongol–Jin War: The Mongols began their siege on Kaifeng, the capital of the Jin dynasty. 1271, in Syria, sultan Baibars conquered the Krak des Chevaliers. 1665, English colonial patents were granted for the establishment of the Monmouth Tract, for what would eventually become Monmouth County in northeastern New Jersey. 1730, Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, was dedicated. 1740, War of Jenkins' Ear: Three British ships captured the Spanish third-rate Princesa, taken into service as HMS Princess.

In 1808, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baltimore was promoted to an archdiocese, with the founding of the dioceses of New YorkPhiladelphiaBoston, and Bardstown (now Louisville) by Pope Pius VII. 1820, the Venus de Milo was discovered on the Aegean island of Milos. 1832, Black Hawk War: Around three-hundred United States 6th Infantry troops left St. Louis, Missouri to fight the SaukNative Americans. 1864, American Civil WarBattle of MansfieldUnion forces were thwarted by the Confederate army at Mansfield, Louisiana. 1866, Italy and Prussia ally against the Austrian Empire. 1886, William Ewart Gladstone introduced the first Irish Home Rule Bill into the British House of Commons. 1895, in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. the Supreme Court of the United States declares un-apportioned income tax to be unconstitutional.

In 1904, the French Third Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Irelandsigned the Entente cordiale. Also 1904, British mystic Aleister Crowley transcribed the first chapter of The Book of the Law. Also 1904, Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan was renamed Times Square after The New York Times. 1906, Auguste Deter, the first person to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, died. 1908, Harvard University voted to establish the Harvard Business School. 1911, Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnesdiscovered superconductivity. 1913, the 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring direct election of Senators, became law. 1916, in Corona, California, race car driver Bob Burman crashed, killing three, and badly injuring five, spectators. 1918, World War I: Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin sold war bonds on the streets of New York City's financial district.

In 1924, Sharia courts were abolished in Turkey, as part of Atatürk's Reforms. 1929, Indian independence movement: At the Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw handouts and bombs to court arrest. 1935, the Works Progress Administration was formed when the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 became law. 1942, World War IISiege of LeningradSoviet forces opened a much-needed railway link to Leningrad. Also 1942, World War II: The Japanese took Bataan in the Philippines. 1943, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, froze wages and prices, prohibited workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby, and barred rate increases by common carriers and public utilities. 1945, World War II: After an air raid accidentally destroyed a train carrying about 4,000 Nazi concentration campinternees in Prussian Hanover, the survivors were massacred by Nazis. 1946, Ã‰lectricité de France, the world's largest utility company, was formed as a result of the nationalisation of a number of electricity producers, transporters and distributors.

In 1950, India and Pakistan signed the Liaquat–Nehru Pact. 1952, U.S. President Harry Truman called for the seizure of all domestic steel mills to prevent a nationwide strike. 1953, Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta was convicted by Kenya's British rulers. 1954, a Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard collided with a Trans-Canada Airlines Canadair North Star over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing 37 people. Also 1954, South African Airways Flight 201 A de Havilland DH.106 Comet 1 crashed into the sea during night killing 21 people. 1959, a team of computer manufacturers, users, and university people led by Grace Hoppermet to discuss the creation of a new programming language that would be called COBOL. Also 1959, the Organization of American States drafted an agreement to create the Inter-American Development Bank.

In 1960, the Netherlands and West Germany signed an agreement to negotiate the return of German land annexed by the Dutch in return for 280 million German marks as Wiedergutmachung. 1961, a large explosion on board the MV Dara in the Persian Gulf killed 238. 1964, Gemini 1 (unmanned test flight) launched. 1968, BOAC Flight 712 caught fire shortly after take off. As a result of her actions in the accident, Barbara Jane Harrison was awarded a posthumous George Cross, the only GC awarded to a woman in peacetime. 1970, Bahr El-Baqar primary school bombing: Israeli bombers struck an Egyptian school. Forty-six children were killed. 1974, at Atlanta–Fulton County StadiumHank Aaron hit his 715th career home run to surpass Babe Ruth's 39-year-old record. 1975, Frank Robinsonmanaged the Cleveland Indians in his first game as major league baseball's first African American manager. 1987, Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigned amid controversy over racially charged remarks he had made while on Nightline.

In 1992, Retired tennis great Arthur Ashe announces that he had AIDS, acquired from blood transfusions during one of his two heart surgeries. 1993, the Republic of Macedonia joined the United Nations. 1999, Haryana Gana Parishad, a political party in the Indian state of Haryana, merged with the Indian National Congress. 2004, War in Darfur: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement was signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups. 2005, over four million people attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II. 2006, Shedden massacre: The bodies of eight men, all shot to death, were found in a field in Ontario, Canada. The murders were soon linked to the Bandidos Motorcycle Club. 2008, the construction of the world's first building to integrate wind turbines was completed in Bahrain. 2013, the Islamic State of Iraq entered the Syrian Civil War and began by declaring a merger with the Al-Nusra Front under the name Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham

=== Bible Reading ===

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Today's reading: 1 Samuel 7-9, Luke 9:18-36 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: 1 Samuel 7-9

1 So the men of Kiriath Jearim came and took up the ark of the LORD. They brought it to Abinadab's house on the hill and consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of the LORD. 2The ark remained at Kiriath Jearim a long time--twenty years in all.

Samuel Subdues the Philistines at Mizpah
Then all the people of Israel turned back to the LORD. 3 So Samuel said to all the Israelites, "If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." 4 So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only....

Today's New Testament reading: Luke 9:18-36

Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah
18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?"


19 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life."
20 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Peter answered, "God's Messiah...."

=== Morning and Evening ===


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Morning

"O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame?"
Psalm 4:2
An instructive writer has made a mournful list of the honours which the blinded people of Israel awarded to their long expected King.
1. They gave him a procession of honour, in which Roman legionaries, Jewish priests, men and women, took a part, he himself bearing his cross. This is the triumph which the world awards to him who comes to overthrow man's direst foes. Derisive shouts are his only acclamations, and cruel taunts his only paeans of praise.
2. They presented him with the wine of honour. Instead of a golden cup of generous wine they offered him the criminal's stupefying death-draught, which he refused because he would preserve an uninjured taste wherewith to taste of death; and afterwards when he cried, "I thirst," they gave him vinegar mixed with gall, thrust to his mouth upon a sponge. Oh! wretched, detestable inhospitality to the King's Son.
3. He was provided with a guard of honour, who showed their esteem of him by gambling over his garments, which they had seized as their booty. Such was the body-guard of the adored of heaven; a quaternion of brutal gamblers.
4. A throne of honour was found for him upon the bloody tree; no easier place of rest would rebel men yield to their liege Lord. The cross was, in fact, the full expression of the world's feeling towards him; "There," they seemed to say, "thou Son of God, this is the manner in which God himself should be treated, could we reach him."
5. The title of honour was nominally "King of the Jews," but that the blinded nation distinctly repudiated, and really called him "King of thieves," by preferring Barabbas, and by placing Jesus in the place of highest shame between two thieves. His glory was thus in all things turned into shame by the sons of men, but it shall yet gladden the eyes of saints and angels, world without end.


Evening

"Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness."
Psalm 51:14
In this solemn confession, it is pleasing to observe that David plainly names his sin. He does not call it manslaughter, nor speak of it as an imprudence by which an unfortunate accident occurred to a worthy man, but he calls it by its true name, bloodguiltiness. He did not actually kill the husband of Bathsheba; but still it was planned in David's heart that Uriah should be slain, and he was before the Lord his murderer. Learn in confession to be honest with God. Do not give fair names to foul sins; call them what you will, they will smell no sweeter. What God sees them to be, that do you labour to feel them to be; and with all openness of heart acknowledge their real character. Observe, that David was evidently oppressed with the heinousness of his sin. It is easy to use words, but it is difficult to feel their meaning. The fifty-first Psalm is the photograph of a contrite spirit. Let us seek after the like brokenness of heart; for however excellent our words may be, if our heart is not conscious of the hell-deservingness of sin, we cannot expect to find forgiveness.
Our text has in it an earnest prayer--it is addressed to the God of salvation. It is his prerogative to forgive; it is his very name and office to save those who seek his face. Better still, the text calls him the God of my salvation. Yes, blessed be his name, while I am yet going to him through Jesus' blood, I can rejoice in the God of my salvation.

The psalmist ends with a commendable vow: if God will deliver him he will sing--nay, more, he will "sing aloud." Who can sing in any other style of such a mercy as this! But note the subject of the song--"Thy righteousness." We must sing of the finished work of a precious Saviour; and he who knows most of forgiving love will sing the loudest.

=== Bible Quote ===

BQuote

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” - Galatians 2:20
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Excellent food from Turkey may be attributed, in part, to some Gauls from Thrace who settled there around 300 BC. Romans called that area Galatia. Paul wrote to the Galatian churches some time from the late 40's to early 60s.

Here, we have Paul describing his faith, in common with all who follow Christ.

=== 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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