Yearly Archives: 2020
SKYE’S LINKS 09/24/20
What will be happening during the next four months: A Textbook Case Of Treason
Original source document - please read!
Using the excuse of the China Virus, the November 3 election has already been irreversibly disrupted and turned into a late September through 8 December fraudulent ballot chase election. It is going to get a lot worse. Be prepared. There will be far more violence in urban areas. This is a coup.
Yes, it really is rigged:
Bokhari: Big Tech Prepares the Public for a Rigged Election
Facebook Says It Will Restrict Posting if Elections Cause 'Unrest'
Russia, Russia, Russia, without end. Isn’t there a clinical name for the neurotic obsession to keep beating a dead horse?
THE WORLD’S MOST UNUSUAL GRAVES
East of Borneo in Indonesia is a large starfish-shaped Island called Sulawesi, where in the south-central mountains the Toraja people have created one of the most exotic cultures on earth. They bury their dead in caves carved out of vertical cliffs, with balconies at the entrances lined with clothed wooden effigies called a Tau Tau as guardians for the departed.
The Toraja live in villages composed of family long houses with enormous peaked roofs of wood and thatch, decorated with exquisite painted art and scores of buffalo horns. While Indonesia is predominantly Moslem, the Toraja are a blend of Christian-animist. They are a gentle, peaceful people, marvelously welcoming and friendly. It is a priceless privilege to spend time with them, as I was able to during the summer of 2016. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #49 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
OCTOBER COMES EARLY – BIDEN SCREWED SIX DAYS BEFORE FIRST DEBATE
The headlines this morning (9/23) are huge:
Breitbart: Senate Report Says Joe Biden Allowed Family to Enrich Themselves Abroad While He Was VP
New York Post: Senate Republicans release explosive report on Hunter Biden, Burisma… Senate report links Hunter Biden to ‘prostitution or human trafficking ring’
And the headlines on CNN, WaPo, NY Times, or Fox? Zip, zero, nada – not a word, not a peep. ROTFLMAO City – let’s see how long they can keep this up.
Not for long, that’s for sure. The Title of the official Senate Report is above. Just look at the Table of Contents:
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF PRESIDENT TRUMP
Mr. & Mrs. America
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” teamed up to get those out to kill them, but they can’t compare to Mr. & Mrs. America gunning for those out to kill our country and everything it stands for.
Because so many people asked for a document with all of this listed in one place, here it is. No links provided to remove bias as Google search is easy. Fact check it all you want. Print this out for family, friends, neighbors, etc. I encourage you to drop this list off to voters before November 3rd too!
Donaldus Magnus, supported by his closest confidant The First Lady, has been in office for 44 months and has accomplished almost infinitely more than Basement Joe has in 44 years (36 as US Senator, 8 as Vice-President).
Here you go. I ask for your patience – it’s a long list… really long.
THE POLYNESIA PARADISE YOU NEVER HEARD OF
Have you ever seen the ocean turn day-glo pink? It does here naturally during a sunset (this is not photoshopped). Between Samoa and Tonga in the South Pacific is a raised coral atoll, 100 square miles of old limestone between 60 and 200 feet high: the island of Niue (new-way), and it’s is uniquely fabulous.
With no silty river runoff, the water is incredibly clear – visibility can reach over 200 feet. There are a multitude of chasms through which you clamber to these out-of-a-movie tidal pools perfect for snorkeling surrounded by colorful reef fish. The limestone cliffs encircling the coast are riddled with caves with multi-colored stalactites and stalagmites.
You can snorkel or dive with spinner dolphins and humpback whales. The big game fishing is world class – within a few hundred yards off shore. The Niueans are unfailingly friendly and welcoming, the beautiful Matavai Resort is the best bargain in the Pacific, the food and beer is inexpensive, the weather is balmy. It’s a Polynesian paradise you never heard of. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #48 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
ACB – THE WORTHIEST REPLACEMENT FOR RBG
Federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett, 7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Picture a female jurist who has consistently defied social expectations imposed on women and whose legal thinking is closely bound up with her faith.
No, I’m not talking about Amy Coney Barrett, affectionately known as “ACB,” and reported to top President Trump’s list of candidates to fill the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat. I’m talking about RBG, Ginsburg herself.
Ginsburg believed fervently that conventional expectations shouldn’t hinder women as they seek their full, fair share of public life. Nor was she shy about how her Jewish faith shaped her judicial mind. In an essay for the American Jewish Committee published in 1993, she wrote:
“Laws as protectors of the oppressed, the poor, the loner, is evident in the work of my Jewish predecessors. . . . The biblical command ‘Justice, justice shalt thou pursue’ is a strand that ties them together.”
By those criteria, Barrett would make a most worthy successor to RBG.
WOKE JOE EMERGES FROM HIBERNATION – TO ANY AVAIL?
“You don’t have to do this, Joe.”
The Democrat presidential nominee had embraced one of the most bizarre but—until recently—effective strategies thus far in a presidential campaign.
Like some fictive vampire, Joe Biden has been ensconced in a basement tomb and, now pale, he is reemerging into the light and finding the glare all but lethal.
As his former boss, Barack Obama, reportedly warned Biden of the looming 2020 ordeal, “You don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t.” That’s turning out to be sage advice. Here’s why.
DEAD VLEI, NAMIBIA
Many consider this the most surrealistic place on earth. The clarity of the air turns the sky deep cobalt blue, the dunes are so old they’ve rusted red, combining with the white clay floor to give the skeletal trees a scene out of a Dali painting or a science fiction movie. But it’s real.
A thousand years ago the river watering these trees dried up, leaving a white clay pan amidst red sand dunes almost as tall as the Empire State Building. It’s so dry here these acacia trees can’t decompose, their skeletons standing scorched in the sun for ten centuries.
Dead Vlei is in a region of enormous dunes called Sossusvlei. It’s a mind-boggling experience to float over Sossusvlei in a hot air balloon. Namibia, in fact, is full of such experiences – the largest fur seal colony anywhere at Cape Cross, the marvelous abundance of African wildlife at the Etosha Pan, the dramatic shipwrecks dotting the Skeleton Coast, traditional people living untouched by the modern world like the Himbas.
Plus it’s one of the safest and best-run countries in all Africa – certainly worth consideration for your bucket list. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #47 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
CLIMBING JACOB’S LADDER ON THE ISLAND OF SAINTS
Jamestown on Saint Helena in the South Atlantic is two blocks wide and a mile long in a narrow deep ravine. One of the world’s longest straight staircases, Jacob’s Ladder, was an original way to get out – 699 steps each 11 inches high – and it’s a workout.
People who live here call themselves “Saints” and pronounce their island “sent-uhl-LEEN-ah.” It’s famous of course for where the Brits exiled Napoleon after Waterloo. His residence and gardens on a high promontory, Longwood House, is preserved with original furnishings and his death bed. Dying in 1821, he was buried in a beautiful peaceful glen nearby (in 1840 he was reinterred at Les Invalides in Paris).
After climbing the Ladder and visiting Longwood, you’d want to refresh yourself at one of Jamestown’s pubs, where local Saints will be happy to hoist a pint with you. And don’t pass up a visit to the Saint Helena Distillery, the world’s remotest distillery, to learn how Head Distiller Paul Hickling makes his memorable Prickly Pear Whiskey, White Lion Spiced Rum, and Jamestown Gin – all in unique stepping stone bottles in honor of Jacob’s Ladder. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #46 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
NO FEAR OF THE EVIL EYE: The Religion of Envy
Kibo Summit Crater of Kilimanjaro, 1971, photo ©Jack Wheeler
East of the Serengeti, there is a town called Moshi. It lies at the southern base of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the former German then British territory of Tanganyika. Some 50 miles away from Moshi is the town of Arusha, the traditional starting point for an East Africa safari (Swahili for journey) to such places as Manyara, Ngorongoro, and the Serengeti plain.
The way Africans get from Moshi to Arusha is by mini-bus or small van. The driver races madly round and round the town's central square beeping his horn and yelling, "Arusha! Arusha!" Only when it is physically impossible for there to be one more human body squeezed into his vehicle will he depart.
Such circumstances require you to establish a friendly relation with the person next to you, who is virtually sitting in your lap. On this particular occasion, I found myself next to a young fellow who spoke quite good English (Britain was mandated German East Africa by the League of Nations after World War I, and administered it until independence in 1962).
He was clearly intelligent and well-educated. Our conversation went like this (with his words in italics).
THE REAL VIRUS
HALF-FULL REPORT 09/18/20
You’ve seen the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, right? Murray is caught in a time warp where he keeps reliving the same day over and over. For quite a while now, Miko and I have a running joke between us, calling HFR Friday our Groundhog Day as every week we can’t believe how quickly the time has sped by. It’s Friday again – didn’t I just write the last HFR a day or so ago?
The joke ends now, because time in the upcoming weeks will not be going by fast but interminably slow. November 3rd is 46 days away, which will seem like 46 weeks, and then every day after that for 2 or 3 months will take forever.
This is a way of dramatizing just how screamingly bad the nightmare that’s coming may be. Note the “may” and not “will.” We just might float past this unscathed, carried by a high tide of so many Trump votes it drowns the Dems’ demonic plans.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – CLIMBING MOUNT OLYMPUS
August, 1971. Here is where the Ancient Greeks believed their 12 Olympian Gods lived, on the summit of the highest peak of Olympus – Mytikas at 9,571ft/2,918m. There are 52 jagged prominences of Olympus, but if you want to commune with Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite, Athena and the rest, this is where you go.
It takes just two days: morning drive from Athens (4 hrs) to Litochoro, then the roadhead at Priona (2,500ft). Afternoon hike of some 3 hours through pretty pine forests to the comfortable Spilios Agapitos refuge (6,700ft) for dinner and a bunk bed overnight. You’re up at dawn for a strenuous but not technical climb up to Skala peak at 9,400ft. In my photo, you’re looking at Mytikas from Skala. It’s a Class B rock scramble – no ropes or gear, but this shouldn’t be your first mountain rodeo. Be careful!
I was by myself at the Mytikas summit and no selfies in those days, so I said my greetings to the gods, and I was back down at the refuge by lunchtime. You’ll be back at the Plaka below the Acropolis in Athens for ouzo and dinner. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #45 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE GLOBAL ELITE IS USING THE CHINA VIRUS TO CREATE THEIR TOTALITARIAN UTOPIA
If people were living in a dystopia, how many of them would know it?
The current situation certainly raises the question, as we experience unprecedented restrictions on individual freedom adopted in response to the China Virus, coupled with left-wing riots that undermine the legitimacy of America’s core institutions.
It’s becoming clear that these social changes are dystopian, not merely because they are harmful and coercive, but because they seek to replace the American way of life with a new social order rooted in their vision of a totalitarian utopia.
Let’s look at how this is happening – here in America and elsewhere in the world.
SKYE’S LINKS 09/17/20
Anti-Twitter Protest
Stalin would have been green with envy:
How the 'Crats are planning to irreversibly fundamentally change America:
Pollak: Democrats' 'War Room' to Kill the Filibuster Aims to End the Republican Party
The AI overlords of Far Left Big Tech really are out to get us:
Bokhari: Big Tech Can 'Turn Down the Volume' on Entire Movements
Do you wonder what the term "systemic racism" means? These demands are a good example:
Faculty Demands Cornell U. Publish Data on the Race of Professors' Spouses
And there’s so much more!
BRANDON WHEELER AT THE DOOR TO HELL
We camped here overnight in May a year ago crossing Turkmenistan’s Kara Kum (Black Sand) Desert, and we’ll be here again in May next year. The Darvaz Gas Crater – known to locals as “The Door to Hell” – has been burning nonstop since 1971, when Russian engineers set it on fire expecting it to burn off and it never has. This is a night -- and a sight -- you’ll never ever forget. My son Brandon can vouch for that! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #44 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE DEMOCRATS’ STORMTROOPERS OF BLM/ANTIFA
The Sturmabteilung or Stormtroopers were Hitler’s Brownshirts, civilian thugs whose job was to beat up anyone who was against the Nazis. That’s what BLM/Antifa has become for the Democrat Party.
And now, when the tactics of Black Lives Matter coincide with the ideology of NPR (taxpayer-funded National Public Radio), Americans should realize that the Democrats have crossed yet another line on the indecency scale.
This is the nadir to which the radicalized Democrat party has brought this nation as the election nears. Can it get worse? Most assuredly.
AWE AND ALARM IN THE KREMLIN OVER BELARUS
Demonstrating for freedom in Minsk, Belarus
On Sunday (9/13), over 100,000 people flooded the streets of Minsk, Belarus’ capital, demanding “Europe’s last dictator” who has ruled them for 26 years resign.
Five weeks of peaceful (actually – not peacefully violent like the US) mass freedom demonstrations in Belarus after the falsified elections on August 9, have profoundly changed this formerly rather stable country. They have impressed its European neighbors, and set a sharp challenge for Russia.
How soon will the unquenchable protests against dictatorship be coming to Putin’s door?
DARK HEDGES
You’ve seen this spooky place called King’s Road in HBO’s The Games of Thrones – but where is it and what is it really? It’s in Country Antrim in Northern Ireland near the town of Armoy. Originally it was the driveway to a mansion built in 1775 by James Stuart, descendant of King James I of England (1566-1625), who lined either side with beech trees. Now almost 250 years old, their branches intertwine eerily, giving rise to its name of “Dark Hedges,” and legends of ghosts haunting it like the “Grey Lady.”
Northern Ireland has had its terrible Troubles as we all know, but that’s history now. It’s a place of stunning scenery and natural wonders like the Devil’s Causeway and Marble Arch Caves, and those man-made in addition to Dark Hedges, such as Dunluce Castle and Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. Then there’s the Victorian opulence of the Crown Liquor Saloon in Belfast. All in all, Northern Ireland is a marvelous place to visit. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #43 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
BIDEN THE GREAT AND POWERFUL
Nothing is new to the media’s fusion and collusion with the “progressive party.”
Yet never in American history have mainstream journalists not merely promoted a candidate but actively fused with his political candidacy to the point of warping, fabricating, and Trotskyizing the news and indeed history itself.
The trope of a vast charade to create an illusionary powerful figure out of nothing is an old one in fiction, Hollywood and television. We remember “The Great and Powerful” Wizard of Oz fakery, a formidable screen image created backstage by gears and levers operated by a tiny man “behind the curtain.”
But reality has outdone movie-making with the Biden campaign.
DEMS GO HAYWIRE OVER TRUMP THE PEACEMAKER
Historic peace agreement between Israel, UAE, and Bahrain signed at White House today (9/15)
Democrats are having a shattered-glass crack-up to the continuous good news coming from President Trump on the global peace front. Their famously disciplined lockstep "narrative" has gone haywire.
Over in Sweden, a legislator has nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize over his role in bringing peace to longtime foes Kosovo and Serbia. That's the second one who's done it. It follows a Norwegian legislator's nomination of Trump this same week for the same prize over his role in brokering an Israel-UAE entente.
Instead of saying "nice job" with a pat on the back, hoping the news cycle moves on, Democrats are going nuts. The Swedes have noticed! Now Dem responses are absolutely crazy.
THE WORLD’S REMOTEST INHABITED ISLAND
That would be Tristan da Cunha in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. Some 260 Tristanians live here, all British citizens as the island is a UK Territory, in the island’s only community of Edinburgh-of-the-Seven-Seas. There’s no way to fly here – you have to take a boat for at least a week from Cape Town (and then a week back).
Tristanians are among the world’s most special people. Since the island was first settled in 1810, there has never been a single murder, abortion, or divorce among them. They are at peace with themselves, unfailingly cheerful, hospitable, and contented. If you are lucky enough to reach here, you may not want to ever leave. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #42 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
NO FEAR OF THE EVIL EYE: Envy and Black Magic
Fifth installment: Chapter Five of Part I: Envy. Your Forum comments are very helpful – and interesting!
ENVY AND BLACK MAGIC
It took me a year to get the book – the American edition finally came out in 1970. I immediately recognized it was a work of prodigious scholarship encyclopedic in scope. Schoeck’s research of anthropological field studies of traditional cultures across the globe was exhaustive.I learned that the Jivaro belief that death is always murder was in no way unique – a lack of the concept of natural death, that death was always malevolently perpetrated by demons, sorcery, or physically for real, was prevalent among the majority of traditional cultures, whether in the Amazon, Africa, or the Pacific.
It’s commonly understood that the lives of people in traditional or peasant societies everywhere is suffused with superstition. The world for them is teeming with demons, spirits, ghosts and gods, all of whom are malicious, dangerous, and must be placated.
But why are they so malicious? Why are they out to get us, instead of being on our side? Why do they have to be constantly appeased?
THE SACRED LAKE OF PHOKSUNDO
West of the Himalayan giants of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri in Nepal lies a roadless high wilderness inhabited only by Tibetan nomads called Dolpa. The region is named after them, Dolpo. The Dolpa practice the ancient pre-Buddhist animist religion of Tibet called Bön. They worship sites of nature they consider holy. And holiest of all is the Sacred Lake of Phoksundo.
The Dolpa consider the blue of Phoksundo an act of magic by the gods. Once you see it, you can only agree. This picture is not photoshopped – it is real. We visit it in late October when it is ice free on our Himalaya Helicopter Expeditions. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #41 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SIGN OF THE YEAR
HALF-FULL REPORT 09/11/20
Remember when the constant fear was of the next Islamofascist terror attack? Seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it? Sure seems like Donaldus Magnus has cooked that goose. Maybe not for good, but it’s certainly something to celebrate today.
And so we open with a celebration of MAGA with Ricky Rebel – a Grammy-winning pop star glam rocker who’s a bisexual Trump supporter. How about that to mess Leftie minds up? The BLM-Antifatards in Beverly Hills simply forgot how to riot with this patriot rocker dancing in front of them. The BH police were thoroughly confused but happy.
Here we go with another great HFR…
WHAT ISLAMISTS AND WOKEISTS HAVE IN COMMON
Naive observers explain this summer’s protests in terms of African-Americans’ material disadvantages. Yet they aren’t the main driver of the protests, which appear to be led mainly by well-off white people.
Their ideology goes by many names: cancel culture, social justice, critical race theory, intersectionality. For simplicity, I call it all Wokeism.
I am not about to equate Wokeism and Islamism. There are many differences. But consider the resemblances.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – JOHNNY AND THE TSANTSA
November 17, 1976. When I wrote my book “The Adventurer’s Guide,” it was a fantasy of mine to go on the Tonight Show and have Johnny Carson hold a “tsantsa,” a human shrunken head – as a book chapter was “How To Live With Headhunters.” As you can see, that fantasy came true. I still can’t believe how relaxed I was in the studio photo. That’s because Carson had a magical ability to put a guest like me, no professional performer, at ease. The cameras and lights, the audience, millions watching on TV all went away. It was just me talking to this friendly fellow with no one around. An amazing experience. Some dreams can really happen! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #40 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE UGLY PRIVILEGE OF RICH WHITE PROTESTERS
NYPD mug shots of rich kid domestic terrorists
The so-called revolutionaries who were busted for rioting at a New Afrikan Black Panther Party rally took a break from their yacht club lives and modeling careers to be a part of the mayhem.
The seven “comrades” — including wealthy Upper East Sider Clara Kraebber — had their mugshots tweeted out by the NYPD early Wednesday (9/09), days after their arrests for smashing storefront windows in the Flatiron District.
They were cuffed during a protest organized by the Panthers and the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement groups condemning the death of Daniel Prude, who was killed while in custody of the Rochester Police Department in March. Yes, six months ago.
All come from privileged backgrounds — leading one police source to call their actions “the height of hypocrisy.”
SKYE’S LINKS 091020
“He would mess with every single woman or teen, it was horrible”
This is significant because someone may have retained a copy of that file or there may be other records; Biden appears to be eminently blackmailable. Now what happens if two or more different blackmailers have the goods on Biden and issue opposing incompatible demands? If the 'Crat powers that be didn't have the goods on a candidate, I doubt whether they would be allowed to become a finalist, and that includes Harris.
Secret Service Admits To Destroying Records In Alleged Biden Breast-Grabbing Incident
How to construct a propaganda narrative:
"Infiltrated By Nazis..." - The Rise Of The New Normal 'Gleichschaltung'
Do as we say, not as we do:
San Francisco Gym Owners Irate After Learning City Government Gyms Are Open
There’s LOTS more!
THE FLATTEST PLACE ON EARTH
The Salar de Uyuni, 12,000 feet high in the Altiplano of Bolivia, is a 4,000 square mile expanse of salt so flat it is used to calibrate the altimeters of NASA observation satellites of the earth. After a rain, it becomes the world’s largest mirror, 80 miles across. The incredible reflective surface extends to the horizon in every direction – it is both hallucinatingly disorienting and makes for amazing mirror-to-horizon photos (especially at sunrise/sunset).
The brine underneath the salt crust contains 70% of the world’s lithium – critical to our battery-fueled global economy – produced in evaporation pools that are a kaleidoscope of colors.
You can stay here in relative luxury at one of the world’s most unique hotels – the Palacio de Sal, built entirely of salt: walls, floors, ceilings, furniture, sculptures. Being here is one of South America’s more astounding experiences. Let me know if you want a Wheeler Expedition to take you there! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #39 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
ANDY TIFA’S FEET ON FIRE
Andy’s comrades tried ineffectually to extinguish the flames which the police efficiently put out. There are other videos of Antifa people injuring themselves or each other, but this one has legs (burning legs, if you will).
There's a reason for its popularity: that short video encompasses everything wrong with Antifa, and it's okay to laugh because no one was seriously hurt in the making of that video. Don’t know about Andy, though
From the beginning, there's been a duality about Antifa.
DEMOCRATS WALLOWING IN SLIME
In terms of political ethics and tactics, the Democrats have hit rock bottom.
The Atlantic has worked hard to become a third-rate New Yorker in terms both of literary quality and the vitriol of its hatred for President Trump; the magazine has probably confirmed its position with the confection of the uncorroborated and totally implausible allegation that Trump disparaged American World War I veterans who died in France as “suckers” and “losers.”
It is indicative of the fact that the Democrats are much less overconfident than they were four years ago. In this latest incident, many people, including almost everyone who would have been present, have all denied that any such utterance had been made. It is inconceivable that this president would think or say anything of the kind.
But the odium of the incident is magnified by the fact that it was clearly staged in a tight sequence coordinated between the Biden campaign and its most rabid media partisans.
THE WORLD’S MOST SACRED MOUNTAIN
This is the North Face of Mount Kailas (6,638 m/21,778 ft) in a remote region of far western Tibet inhabited only by Changpa nomads. For 22% of all people on Earth – 1.2 billion Hindus, 510 million Buddhists and many millions of others – it is the spiritual Center of the Universe, the Navel of All Creation.
Kailas and surrounding glaciers are considered the source of four of Asia’s great rivers radiating out from it: the Indus, Tsangpo-Bhramaputra, Sutlej, and Karnali-Ganges. As a sacred mountain it has never been climbed.
For thousands of years, people from all Asia have made the arduous pilgrimage to Kailas to perform the sacred act of circumambulating around the mountain – most clockwise, counterclockwise for others such as the Changpa adhering to the ancient Bön Tibetan religion.
It is not easy. Huffing over the high point of the pilgrimage route with TTPer Big John Perrot, our altimeter said we were as high as Kilimanjaro, over 19,000 feet. The highlight, however, is being among so many pilgrims from so many diverse cultures. This is one of our world’s thrilling adventures, and such a privilege to participate in. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #38 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
TIME TO LOCKDOWN THE LOCKDOWNS
Take off the masks and remove the “social distancing” circles from the floors. Open the schools, liberate college campuses, fill the restaurants and the gyms and the churches and the salons. Enough.
In mid-March, Americans were asked to suspend their personal freedoms, business pursuits, and schooling for 15 days to “flatten the curve” of rising cases of the novel coronavirus. Americans, fearful of the unknown and willing to do what they imagined was the right thing to protect themselves and their family, acquiesced.
That was 175 days ago. What has happened since will be studied and debated for decades with one likely conclusion: Global lockdowns, particularly in the United States, were one of the costliest man-made disasters of all time.
The decision was rooted in unscientific hocus pocus that resulted in economic, educational, mental, physical, and emotional catastrophes on a scale that can never be fully quantified—not to mention the way stay-at-home orders fueled racial and civil unrest across America months before a national election.
DESPERATE DEMS’ DERAIL DONALD FAIL
The effort to stop President Trump is growing comical.
One always expects the media surprise leak of a purported hidden scandal as a presidential campaign winds down. Remember the October 7, 2016 effort of the Washington Post to publish the hoarded 11-year-old “Access Hollywood” tape, just two days before Donald Trump’s second debate with Hillary Clinton?
We should expect lots of these “bombshells” and “walls are closing in” pseudo-derailments. Except Trump has been the most widely investigated, probed, attacked, and smeared president in history.
And so the scandal-field has pretty well been picked over. In Jussie Smollett fashion, the demand for scandals is outrunning the supply and time grows short.
THE GREAT BLACK OF MAKALU
The 5th highest mountain on earth at 8,463 meters/27,765ft, Makalu is Sanskrit for “Great Black” – a name for Shiva, the Hindu god of creative destruction, as here is one of his homes. You’re looking face on the Southeast Ridge (the right side in sun, the left side in shade), which is the primary climbing route.
You’re seeing the entire south side of Makalu in Nepal, while the north side is in Tibet with the border running along the horizon crestline. Makalu Base Camp lies below the bottom right corner of the photo. This was taken at over 20,000 feet on our approach from Everest and Lhotse – 12 miles away – during our Himalaya Helicopter Expedition, or “HHE.”
Everyone is understandably entranced with Everest – yet the other 8,000 meter Himalayan giants are breathtakingly magnificent in their own right, and you can see why with Makalu. On our HHE, we go to them all! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #37 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
NO FEAR OF THE EVIL EYE – Books That Changed My Life
Author at age 17 in the mirador ©Jack Wheeler
Fourth installment: Chapter Four of Part I: Envy. Your Forum comments are really appreciated!
BOOKS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE
I read a lot. Ever so often, I come upon a book that is seminal for me – profoundly affecting my view of the world.
Reading Richard Halliburton’s The Complete Book of Marvels did that to me when I was 14. Halliburton was a famous adventurer in the 1920s and 30s whom the world had long forgotten when I read a twenty year-old book of his in 1958.
I was a kid in Glendale who knew next to nothing about the rest of our planet. Halliburton opened my eyes to see a world of endless wonders and magical experiences. I still see the world in that way to this day.
That’s what motivated me to climb the Matterhorn at 14, live with the Jivaros and swim the Hellespont at 16, and how I found myself in a “mirador” – a small hunting blind of branches and leaves – in the jungles of South Viet Nam at 17 waiting for darkness in hopes that a man-eating tiger would show up.
THE ARK OF BUKHARA
The ”Ark” was the palace-fortress of Bukhara rulers since 500 BC. The ancient Silk Road oasis has a history of 5,000 years. Today Bukhara is in Uzbekistan, one the Five Stans of Central Asia. Each of the five – Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrghizstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan – are uniquely enchanting. Together they comprise one of the most culturally, historically, and scenically spectacular, yet mysterious and unknown, regions on our Earth. Let me know if you’d like to experience all five with me this coming May 2021. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #36 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HFR UPDATE!! PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THE HFR HERO OF THE WEEK
Friday’s HFR (9/04) closed with Casey Petersen of Sandia Labs declared HFR Hero of the Week.
He had the courage to email all 16,000 Sandia employees a video he had made denouncing the Sandia Human Resources Department’s narrative of modern systemic racism and white privilege.
Early this morning (9/05) – thanks to TTPer Yasuhiko Kimura – we learned that after the HFR was posted yesterday evening, President Trump directed White House OMB Director Russell Vought to issue an order to all federal agencies – which includes Sandia – to “cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund these divisive, un-American propaganda training sessions.”
That specifically includes “all contracts or other agency spending related to any training on ‘critical race theory,’ ‘white privilege,’ or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either (1) that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil.”
The directive concludes: “The divisive, false, and demeaning propaganda of the critical race theory movement is contrary to all we stand for as Americans and should have no place in the Federal government.”
The full White House directive is here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/M-20-34.pdf. Read it with celebration.
Late this morning, President Trump began issuing a full court press Tweet barrage attacking the anti-America racism of “critical race theory” and “white privilege” that Black Lives Matter and Antifa use to justify their existence. There are at last count over 20 tweets, starting with:
You can enjoy reading them all here: @realDonaldTrump.
POTUS has launched a gut-punch, nads-kick, all-out offensive on the Marxist ideology that has completely taken over the Democrat Party, the Biden Campaign, and the entire “Mainstream Media.” They all are going to lose their minds over finding themselves flat-on-their-backs defenseless.
And what catalyzed this now, at this moment? An electrical engineer at a science lab in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He had the brains and moxie to make an incredibly well-thought and argued video, then sent it out to his 16,000 co-workers: Pushing Back on the Narrative of Modern Systemic Racism & White Privilege.
When the President of the United States saw this and the positive response from Casey’s co-workers, he knew now was the time to strike.
What a lesson of the power of one unknown individual to help change the world for the better. Casey Peterson, American Hero. And thank you, President Trump.