Our trip to Soldotna was pleasant, as we watched our retirement pay disappear so very fast to retailers. Hit the food bank, expecting to get a small load for the church's and our food banks ( some people in the area dislike going to the church), and ended up filling up the truck. They had gotten in a lot of can goods, which store nicely. By the time we left for home the back of the truck was dragging. But hey, I got my donuts. Sadly, they're nearly all gone now. Tragic!
I spent several hours working on my book the night before. It feels good to be writing again and warming up on this journal is a major help in loosening up my gray matter. Have to locate the peanut and move it into place. Strangely enough, I am saddened by Geronimo's latter life and the number of times he was lied to by the army leadership. It was no wonder why he didn't trust them at the end, but figured his life was at an end and needed to have his warriors live so the young one could raise strong sons and pass on the old legends. I haven't reached that point in the book yet and haven't decided how I'll cover it. A lot of books have already covered this part of his life, some fiction and some in truth. But Geronimo did surrender and was transported to Florida to be with his family. After that it becomes a mixture of lies told in bars and true accounts laid down by missionaries and Indian agents. Oh, the Apache have their own accounts, but no one took time to listen to them back then...they were only Injuns. I may or may not have mentioned this before, and a couple of you may be first time readers as this journal is passed about to friends, by in high school my best friend and foster-brother - Andy, was a full-blooded Apache. I'm sort of partial to the American Native. But I don't forget that back in time they were a true warrior race and non-Apache meant enemy.
Now to the news-
Japan Times: India is preparing to launch its first Nuclear-armed attack submarine and about to become the world's sixth country to put such a vessel at sea. This will of course increase the tension already in place between India and Pakistan, both of which already have nuclear weapons capability.
Washington Free Beacon: Top Democratic outraged over Obama's efforts to ignore Pro-Israel provisions. Senators are urging Obama to enforce these provisions, "as enacted and intended." Bill was passed to bolster US-Israeli economic relationship and combat a boycott of Israel. ( This is just another attack Obama has made against Israel, since the Israeli Prime Minister showed him up on television and refused to give up any land to Palestine.)
Free Beacon: Pacific Commander of US Forces warns China not to impose new air defense zone in South China Sea. "Destabilizing and provocative" the Admiral said. Such will be ignored by the U.S.- China's Global Times printed a rebuttal which said in their headline, "China slama U.S. Admiral's South China Sea Remarks China Also Asks The US to Stop Playing Up The Situation." ( Sounds like the first stages of saber rattling and we all must hope it ends at that.)
Gatestone News: Sweden reports problems with sudden influx of refugees. 9 out of 10 people seeking asylum do not have identification. They are also seeing an upsurge in gang rapes of young women and boys, and people lying about their ages to obtain better housing and hospital care. 66% of the refugees reported to be coming from Afghanistan, but Swedish Police report one of their worst problems concerning street crimes being caused by illegal Moroccan gangs-thugs. Leader of the Christian Democrat Party- Ebba Busch Thor, wants all asylum seeking sex offenders, even those with residence permits, to be deported. One school board reported the high school in Gothenburg received reports from their teachers of receiving threats and physical assaults at the hands of the older boys. Teachers are afraid that students might kill each other and tell of a general anxiety in their school. The also feel there is a risk of a riot breaking out. In November 2015, a riot did break out in their high school and police had to be called in. Extensive damage was done and people were injured. The towns of Stockholm and Gothenburg both have a Moroccan gang presence made up of illegals. One police officer reported, "These guys are a giant problem to us." Female school bus drivers have taken to calling in sick due to verbal and physical abuse they have suffered from the older boys.
China Daily News: Viacom, a US Media Company and holder of a minority stake in Paramount Pictures is looking to sell off their shares and Chinese Companies are crowding in to win the shares. They've already bought in to Universal Pictures, and now Paramount- if a deal closes. (But can you imagine Chinese influence going into the next Star Trek Movie? Russia once said they would bury us and threatened us with a shoe in the UN, but it appears China may simply want o take their time to buy our country out. They have already proved themselves to be a patient people.) In France, China's Wanda Group announces it will spend 3.3 Billion Euros to build a super cultural, tourism and commercial center right beside the Charles de Gaulle Airport in France. This will be the groups largest project yet.
Japan Times: (Yuk! Photo says it all). New documents indicate chemical leaks at Kedena Air Force Base, Okinawa have polluted the islands water supply. Lax standards may be to blame for the recent contamination. ( Good time to invest in the bottled water supply, knowing how fast the military can act on large projects).
Taipei Times: Iran indicates jailed US National has not met with attorney, yet. Iranian- American businessman Siamal Namazi was "detained" October 2015 and not given access to a lawyer or officially advised what his charges were.He was to be released in a prisoner exchange, when 4 prisoners were being handed over in exchange for 7 Iranians and dropped arrest orders against 14 others. ( We always seem to take a beating in Obama's new trade platform policy for prisoners.) However, Namazi's name was dropped from the list. Five Iranian-American groups have written US Secretary of State John Kerry, urging him to work on Namazi's case. Namazi was picked up while visiting his family in Iran. His father, Baquer Namazi was later arrested when he came to Iran to to check on his son's welfare. It has apparently been made clear that Iran does not recognize dual citizenship and sees these two men as Iranians only. Others, Americans and British with dual citizenship have been picked up and held for lengthy period without charges and used for trading purposes. ( This all began when Obama broke with American policy of not dealing with terrorists. Such outlandish trade agreements, such as one of ours for 7 of theirs, was one of the reasons this policy was put into place and Obama thinks it a victory he broke it. Already the release and so called promises of the terrorists had shown them to be back in the field, leading their organization. There is no telling how many lives these people will take because we released them.).
Telegraph News/England: A human interest story from Salem, Oregon was run throughout Britain and I found it a wee bit humorous. The State Capitol, which was using goats, 75 of them, to devour invasive plants, have found it more expensive than using their "Human Equivalents". So the goats were "sacked". "They smell too much and cost 5 times as much of the grounds keepers". ( I had to wonder what might have happened to the goats? Made me ask the question, were they retired to the tall grass beside the Salem Airport, or actually sacked up and handed out to the capitol employees to take home for their freezers? You have to remember each one of these goat was a line number on a state budget sheet and each one had to be handled as one would handle an office desk or possibly a trooper's police dog. Number punchers are always looking for budget mistakes and the loss of 75 goats...that's enough to fire some guy over. )
Russian Herald: Halliburton, US Petroleum Giant reports it will be laying off 5,000 more jobs. Holden Cruze vehicle manufactures to drop 400 jobs, but then eventually drop 1700 jobs when it closes its factory Adelaide, Australia. Cruze is reported to be the smallest car on the highways, now going out of business. ( Shows that even the Russians like to keep up on the job markets.)
Manila Times: Japan, India and Australia meet to"express strong concerns" about China and its "Rising maritime assertiveness" of the South China Sea. It is also their plan to bring in the U.S. Island of Hawaii to safeguard maritime interests in a "Security Diamond" strategy to counter China's show of force in both South and East China Seas.
Cairo News: Four Coptic Christians jailed for mocking Islam. 3 of them were sentenced to 5-years, while the youngest one was sent to a juvenile detention facility. The boys had made a video which mocked the very recent beheading incidents of numerous Coptic Christians by ISIS. The teacher who filmed the video was sentenced to 3 years in prison in a separate trial.
That it!
Now I don't know about you and how many of you follow the news through television, radio and newspapers. I have noticed a slow, but growing pace of civilians who no longer believe the media. This is being reported largely in Europe right now, but there have been some case right here in the US. People began to mistrust the media, believing it is being controlled by the government. In some ways the government can control the news by popping up with the national security reasoning. A lot of good storis have been blacked out because of this. We had this great UFO story at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, with great evidence, but the FBI blacked it out and the evidence disappeared. Similar happenings occurred at Edwards AFB, California ad the evidence disappeared, along with all my reports. I was the Air Force Security Police desk sergeant and I disliked writing reports only to have them disappear. But different political parties can sway a media outlet because the owner happens to be from one party or another. A large number of historians blame Randolf Hearst, the multi-millionaire and owner of mega newspapers, for the U.S. invasion of Cuba in the Spanish-American War. No, not tghe one that put Castro into power and he turned on us to go with Russia. Hearst was a lot earlier. But he sold newspapers and they reported what he wanted them to say. So, when I can I try to verify my stories by checking with another foreign paper. I also try not to report on something you'll read in your local paper. I have to tell you I was really surprised to find the story of the 4 yr old mass murderer in Egypt printed in the Anchorage Dispatch. I can't remember the last time I'd seen a story in our paper from Egypt. But it was an extremely odd tale.
In researching the sites it begins to bother me on seeing where and how many hot spots we have around our planet right at this moment. They used to say 3 hot spots and you'll see the big one real soon. Well, we've passed that by and continued to hold our breaths. Maybe its the common thread of fighting communism or the nuts, like North Korea's leadership. Why there hasn't been a military coup over there or a single assassin revenging a family member....got me. If you sneeze wrong or don't laugh at his jokes, you're next in line for the firing squad. He's killed off 80 of his top generals. If this keep up will have 30-year olds wearing four stars of high general in charge of the missile button..
But look around, fold out a map of the world and identify the trouble spots. Then take a moment to pray over them. Except for World War II,we've never had so many danger zones in our history and some, but not all, we owe to Obama. He was never a soldier, never a commander and shows little respect for the men and women out there spilling their blood for our defense.
I'm not going into strategy, way above my old pay grade, but you can see those proverbial hot spots yourself. Our pastor is taking us through the Book of Revelation. He is also a teacher of history and he makes the time and the land come to life. I'm finally gaining some understanding in this Book, one that I've tried to understand for nearly 35 years. Its not a Book to frighten you, but one to enlighten you and prepare you. We're only on Chapter 6 and its been two months of study. We spend a lot of time in the various Books of the Old Testament, that lifts this last book up with forming its foundation with earlier prophecies. A couple of the recent news stories line up with the Word. I remember so long ago receiving the dreams I had before I set down to write A Coming Storm. I've found it pretty interesting when some of the news stories I read lined up with 6 of the 10 prophecies I was shown in my dreams that I used in my book. All I could do was smile and laugh. I had a rash blooming of pride I needed to stomp on and writing that book was long and tiring. Now it hasn't sold well. Cover art was spoken of as a one of the things, but it was also my second book in the use of my version of the English Language had to be offending to a few people. But hopefully when the trilogy is eventually released, the new cover will be on it and the books edited.
My new editor is nearly finished on Apache Snow and we're hoping for a second issue of this book by Summer.
All for now, folks. Now go do something positive, you've been sitting around long enough reading this. I know I have. God Bless. BILL