WORLDWIDE EVENING NEWS FROM RAY
A free service of Jesus Christ is Lord Ministries
News written and delivered by Ray Mossholder
Monday evening, August 18, 2014
Hello America. Hello world.
From the headquarters of reachmorenow.com in Fort Worth, Texas, this is Ray Mossholder, and this is the news……
Something new is beginning with this newscast. One of my two great concerns has been that the newscasts I’ve been doing may be too long for many of my listeners to stay through the entire broadcast. The other concern has been the long delay between newscasts. So beginning right now I am going to keep the newscasts shorter and at the same time do more of them. I will still keep you receiving the most important news of the day and of the night with vital information with each story. And I will keep the Thought for the Day at the end of each newscast, which so many have commented that they deeply enjoy.
I fully admit what I’m doing right now is experimental, and I very much want your input on what you think of this idea. If I can produce a really important morning edition and evening edition for you whenever possible, I’ll be with you more than I ever have, and you will know what’s happening in America and the world.
On my most recent newscast, I promised to take you overseas on this newscast, and I will. But something has happened here in the United States that demands all of our attention before we swim the oceans together. Unless cooler heads prevail there is a war starting here that could easily spark America’s second Civil War.
It has to do with developing events in Ferguson, Missouri, where in spite of the governor’s imposed nighttime curfew, everything from heavy looting, destruction of property, and even the possible death of another black person, has come to United States Attorney General Eric Holder’s attention. He has ordered a second autopsy on Michael Brown, the African-American unarmed teenager who was shot to death by a policeman in that town 8 afternoons ago. Michael’s parents requested the second autopsy. The story has continued to spread that the boy wasn’t shot three times but six. The purpose of the autopsy will be to be absolutely sure how many bullets were used to kill Michael. The Attorney General insists that the first autopsy will also be included in any further examination of Michael’s body.
Last night was another hideous night in Ferguson. Racial hatred raged to the boiling point and overflowed, ended only by tear gas and seven arrests from police dressed in riot gear and using armored vehicles to chase away the growing, angry, crowd.
Eliot Engel
Protesters and their supporters gathered together this afternoon at Greater Grace Church in Ferguson for a rally to remember Michael Brown. Speakers at the rally included Michael Brown’s parents, Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson, Al Sharpton, and Missouri Democrat House Representative Lacy Clay.
Captain Johnson began by promising the protesters that their right to free speech would be protected. He said the protesters were not the cause for the escalated police reaction early this morning. Rather, it was a report after the midnight curfew that a group of vandals had broken into a barbecue restaurant and went up on their roof. The police said also received the report that a man flashing a handgun was in the street.
Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson
Overnight two men were shot. One of them was critically wounded and is reportedly near death. This time it was not a policeman who shot this man, but someone in the crowd. Authorities are searching for the shooter. Someone in the crowd also shot at a police car.
After a Sunday night of violence that topped Saturday night, Missouri Governor Nixon has called in the National Guard. At the same time, the Governor issued this statement: “Tonight, a day of hope, prayers, and peaceful protests was marred by the violent criminal acts of an organized and growing number of individuals, many from outside the community and state, whose actions are putting the residents and businesses of Ferguson at risk. I am directing the highly capable men and women of the Missouri National Guard to assist…in restoring peace and order to this community.”
Officials said that on Friday forty FBI agents began going door-to-door in Ferguson to get everyone’s perspective on the shooting of Michael Brown and the riots that followed his killing.
The police waited six days to release the name of the policeman who shot the fatal bullets. His name is Darren Wilson. He has been on the police force for six years. He and his family remain in hiding.
MSNBC’s Reverend Al Sharpton said yesterday at the church gathering that the United States is at “a defining moment.” He further said “America as a nation, Missouri as a state, Ferguson is a city, is it a defining moment on whether or not we know and are mature enough to handle policing – whether it goes over the line or not. We cannot lecture nations around the world about how they handle policing we have an inability of handling it in our own nation. All policeman are not bad; most policeman or not bad. But all of them are not right all of the time. And when they’re wrong, they must pay for being wrong just like citizens pay when they are wrong.
Looting is wrong. We condemn the looters. But when will law enforcement condemn police who shoot and kill our young people? We gotta be honest on both sides of this discussion.”
Reverend Al Sharpton
Al Sharpton may have been prophetic when he told the church crowd, “Michael Brown is going to change this town.” It is obvious that he already has.
The question is whether the violence occurring in Ferguson this week can somehow be contained there and not spread. Parts of America are still going through growing pains from what happened in the 60s with civil rights. And black, brown or white, they have not struck an honest balance of acceptance. As long as unacceptance remains an oozing sore that will not heal, a second Civil War threatens to divide our country once again.
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Now, let’s do go overseas…….
Two weeks ago, Isis captured the Mosul Dam on the Tigris River that controls most of the electricity and the water supply that irrigates a large part of Iraq. Today Kurdish fighters have retaken most of that dam, though pockets of resistance remain. The Kurdish had control of the eastern part of the dam yesterday but have now have much more control of a larger part of the entire dam. There is much more at stake than even the dam, as important as that dam is. If the Kurdish gain back the entire dam, it will mean a major victory over Isis and prove once and for all that Isis is not invincible.
Mosul Dam
The Kurdish fighters, known as the Peshmerga, are the best Iraqi troops in that country and that includes women soldiers on the front line.
Both U.S. and Iraqi planes are doing a tremendous work, by bombing militant hotspots near the dam 23 times this weekend. The fighting and airstrikes continued Monday.
U.S. bombing Isis
It was a week ago when American planes began bombing Isis and our planes have barely stopped. That gave the Peshmerga the freedom to send Isis into retreat, away from their regional capital of Irbil, which until then Isis was about to capture.
Isis, or Isil, or Is, or the Islamic state of Syria and Libya, which is all the same terror organization, has a habit of planting roadside bombs that Kurdish General Tawik Desty calls “obstacles” his troops are having to surmount in order to keep moving forward. He said “Roadside bombs are a Daash tactic” – (“Daash” is an Arabic acronym for Isis.)
The battle is now concentrated on Isis last stronghold – the southern side of the dam.
Another Kurdish commander spoke on the condition of anonymity and said, “We have reached the inside of the dam. There is no fighting here, but the abandoned buildings are all rigged with explosives. We will continue to advance until we are given further instruction.”
One of the big question marks around all this action is why President Obama has still not sent the kinds of state-of-the-art U.S. artillery to the Kurdish that Isis has stolen from towns and military bases they conquered earlier. The Peshmerga are still forced to use what they have, outdated weaponry that allows them to accomplish far less than what America could supply them with. There is no easy answer to that question. But perhaps the today break-in vacation that President Obama has taken today to come back to Washington DC will change that.
Obama is meeting with his top advisers over these two days. Everything from Iraq Ferguson, Missouri, will undoubtedly be on his agenda. This past week there have been numerous photos of our President playing golf and riding a bicycle while the death toll continues to mount in Ukraine, Syria, and all points East and West. The photos have gained great disfavor nationally. As one critic put it, “Obama is known as the playing president and sure not the praying president.” The seriousness of Isis and the other terror groups leave little room for vacations, but all Congress remains away from their duties too. For any of them who complain about the president playing golf at Martha’s Vineyard, it’s simply a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
The White House sent a letter to Congress Sunday saying that it’s air campaign in Iraq “is consistent with the president’s directive that the U.S. Military protect U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq, since the failure of the Mosul Dam could threaten the lives of large numbers of civilians and threaten U.S. Personnel and facilities – including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad,” confirming once again that our whole reasons in America’s limited return to Iraq is immediate self-interest and has nothing at all to do with helping to defeat Isis, the militant Sunnis, or any other terrorists.
In spite of this partial victory, Isis is in control of a huge part of northeastern Syria and Northern and Western Iraq. The gigantic scale of the humanitarian crisis in these areas now has the United Nations at its highest emergency level. Some 1.5 million people have been totally displaced by fighting since Isis began its June massacres.
As soon as Isis captured the village of Kocho at the bottom of Mount Sinjar, they went to the homes of every Yazidi living in that village and brought them outside. 480 men and teenagers, thirteen and up, were taken by automobile to the edge of the village, lined up and shot to death with assault rifles. Then the Isis extremists abducted their wives and children ages 12 and under – a thousand women and children.
Just to be sure, Isis military walked among the corpses and shot and killed any man or boy who appeared to yet be alive. A 42-year-old man told the Associated Press by phone from a hiding place, that he had been wounded but got away. He said, “They thought we were dead, and when they went away we ran away. We hid in the valley until sundown, and then we fled to the mountains.” This report was verified by many witnesses.
The Yazidi flee Isis
CBN includes the tragic story of Nayef Jassem’s cousin who called Nayef Saturday morning. His cousins voice was weak and breaking as he pleaded for help. His cousin said, “I can’t walk, and we will die.” Jassem quickly called Yazidi rebels in the mountains, pleading with them to rescue his cousin and the others with him. He told them, “They need first aid. Send them a donkey they can sit on, something to carry them on.” Jassam knew that it was a six hour journey between where the Yazidis were and his cousin was. Mournfully, he knew that his cousin would be dead before they got to him.
There is a Yazidi lawmaker, Mahama Kalil who told a reporter, “We have been calling on the United States administration and Iraqi government to intervene and help the innocent people. But it seems like no one is listening.”
This brings up the question “Who are the Yazidi’s?” And at this moment, I apologize to you. I have thought all along that the Yazidi were an extension of the first century Essenes. But tonight I can tell you who they really are.
According to Wikipedia, The Yazidi are mainly Kurdish speaking people and have a Kurdish culture. The Yazidi believe in God as the creator of the world and that He has placed seven angels in charge of it. Each angel is holy and the “chief” angel is Melek Taus, which means in English “Peacock Angel.” The Peacock Angel as the world’s ruler causes both good and evil to every human. They say the Peacock Angel once in a temporary falling away from God’s favor, but that his repentant tears extinguished the fires of hell and he was reconciled with God.
The Peacock Angel
Yazidi’s further believe there is an angel called Ibis who proudly refused anything but one man/one woman marriage. Their religion then gets tied up with mysticism on steroids. They believe the Peacock Angel is Satan and this has led to the rest of Islam calling the Yazidis’ “devil worshipers” and apostate.
One of the reasons that the Yazidi have a hard time getting other Iraqis to rescue them is because of their non-Islamic beliefs. In the mind of an Islamist, that would be equal to Christians reaching out to rescue a large group of Satanic worshipers.
More and more Democrats are becoming critical of decisions being made by President Obama. In fact, doves are flying out of the trees as hawks, no longer wanting to allow Isis to grow, but strongly stating we need to stop them in Iraq or the will soon be stopping us at home.
Representative Eliot Engel a Democrat from New York said on “Fox News Sunday” that the United States may soon need boots on the ground to stop Isis in both Iraq and Syria. He added “That’s not something I want, but we cannot put our heads in the sand.” Engel is the leading Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He said “The United States should have armed The Free Syrian Army in the early stages of Syria’s Civil War.
Fellow congressional Democrat Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii agreed with Engel that the Obama administration’s objective mission to stop the all terrorists including the Islamic State “has been lost.”
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Gabbard, also a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said “We’re missing a critical question here. I joined the Army National Guard after 9/11 because U.S. leaders vowed to “take out Islamic extremists wherever they are. That mission has been lost. The administration said this week that our airstrikes are not a campaign against Isis. If our mission is not about taking out extremists, then we’ve got a real problem here.”
With Congress vacationing for three more weeks and the midterm elections just seven weeks from now, chances are slim, as they pay attention to polls, that Congress would say either yes or no to reauthorizing the use of force in Iraq. Either way they vote, a congressperson risks losing votes.
Republican Ron Johnson from Wisconsin told FOX News that he had already met with eight or nine members of the Armed Services And Foreign Relations committees to talk about a new authorization. He said the response was positive and that Congress is “really tired of presidents just going in by themselves.”
Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is the Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs committee and he told The Hill last week that Congress should have a full debate on whether to continue only having limited military action in Iraq.
Michigan Republican Representative Mike Rogers, who is Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee said about President Obama, “He does not play well with others. And I don’t think he legally needs a vote for reauthorization. But I think he should work with Congress, and he should step up that part of the game right now, given the world threats that we face today.”
Michigan Republican Representative Mike Rogers
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It seems obvious to most people in Ukraine that at last Ukraine has gained the upper hand over the Russian rebels. But it has not come without a great loss in lives. In the war between sides is still costing lives every day. Although Ukrainian military have raised Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag over a police station in the center of the city of Luhansk, that has been like a rebel hotel for several months. The bad news for Ukraine is that rebels still control other parts of the city.
Luhansk is the smaller of the two cities rebels have had complete control of until now. But in spite of their victories in the past, unless Russia intervenes, the rebels days do aren’t seem numbered. Not only has the ragtag military of Ukraine been outfighting the Russian-speaking army in the past month, but the rebels seem to be falling apart. In Luhansk, three of their key battlefield commanders have quit and left the others. Also squabbles among the red military and a breakdown of the discipline they have had until now is helping them to defeat themselves.
Nothing I’m saying means the rebels aren’t fighting furiously to survive. These separatists shot down a Ukrainian fighter plane yesterday after it launched an attack on them. Ukrainians report that the pilot was rescued and taken to a safe place.
All of this was happening while the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France were meeting in Berlin discussing a possible humanitarian cease-fire, and aid to be given to the injured on both sides.
A 200 ton convoy of 16 white trucks, a gift of humanitarian relief from Russia, are ready and have been waiting for the Ukrainians to allow them to enter their border. A mystery surrounds the convoy that a few nights ago was supposedly destroyed by Ukraine when it entered without welcome. But Russia claimed all of their convoy was still waiting to enter by permission.
Rebels in Luhansk
If any trucks were destroyed by Ukraine, no one knows who was driving them or what they carried. Yet reporters examining the scene where the destruction was supposed to occur could find no sign of such action having happened.
There is great humanitarian need in Luhansk. Ukrainian forces have stopped all ground delivery of basic provisions for the people of Luhansk and cut off both electricity and running water.
Vladimir Putin has said after annexing Crimea he was not going to invade Ukraine any further. However it is obvious by the best of military equipment and weaponry the rebels are using, that they were heavily stocked by Russia. Ukraine doesn’t trust anything Putin says or does.
Because of the great need, Ukraine brought a huge x-ray machine to the border. Paul Picard, who is the head of the Organization For Security and Cooperation in Europe, a neutral organization that monitors all things that happen at the Russian/Ukrainian borders, said the machine would be used to x-ray the cargo in the trucks.
Frequent shelling and fighting continues in Donetsk, Ukraine’s largest city which is still being held by the rebels. The rebel leader in that city, Alexander ZACH – ARCHENKO, proudly announced Friday that 1200 fighters who were trained in Russia have joined the rebel cause.
In a video of his speech that was posted online over the weekend, Zacharchenko said that the new troops have arrived at a “crucial moment.” He also said his military now as 150 armored vehicles that includes 30 tanks, and have gathered near a “corridor” along the Russian border. He did not say whether the armored vehicles had come from Russia. But the answer appears obvious.
Vladimir Putin’s military spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, yesterday however continues to deny that Russia supplied any armored vehicles to the separatists.
Vladimir Putin’s military spokesman, Dmitry Peskov
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For those who might be complaining about the money President Obama is spending at Martha’s Vineyard, he is not the only one with exorbitant tastes. In fact, he is totally outclassed by Hillary Clinton.
And if Hillary Clinton isn’t sure she is running for president, why does she demand from any group she speaks for The Presidential Suite in the top five-star hotel in any city, along with up to three adjoining rooms for her travel aides, and up to two additional single rooms for the advance staff?
Bellagio Presidential Suite, Las Vegas
And not just a private jet, but it has to meet her specifications – a thirty-nine million dollar, sixteen passenger Gulfstream G450 or larger.
Bill Clinton – that’s her husband – only gets two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars for a single speech. But Hillary gets three hundred thousand dollars for a single speech. And the two remain single most of the time.
In her standard contract as a speaker, she insists that she will be the only one on stage during her remarks. Her speech will last no longer than ninety minutes. She will pose for no more than fifty pictures with no more than one hundred people. And she will allow no press conferences or either audio or video taping of her speech.
The only recording of Hillary’s speech will be done by her stenographer and the only copy of the speech will be given to Hillary. The stenographer will be given one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars – the money to go to the Clinton Foundation.
Her lead travel aide is to be given five hundred dollars for Hillary’s out-of-pocket expenses.
All meals and incidentals are also to be five-star for herself, her travel aides and advance staff. All phone charges for any of them will be paid for by hosts.
Hillary must also have final approval of all moderators or introducers.
Not bad for a woman who left the White House broke and may return there richer than a queen! I wonder where she’d go on her vacations?
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The real measure of a person’s value is how much they’d be worth it they lost all of their money.
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So until tomorrow morning, this is Ray Mossholder praying for you my friend. May you have a miraculous night!
WORLDWIDE EVENING NEWS FROM RAY August 18, 2014