Yearly Archives: 2022
ANATOMY OF A TIDAL WAVE ELECTION
President Cleveland shrinking through the years
Carlisle, Pennsylvania—It was called the political storm of the century. It would end with the largest single turnover of power in American history—and one for the ages.
It was fall 1894. People were still feeling the effects of the Panic of 1893, which had shut down most of the economy and plunged the nation into a catastrophic recession, with every segment of the country in a world of pain. Farmers were disgusted with the cost of wheat; laborers were desperate for jobs and higher pay.
President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat in the beginning half of his second nonconsecutive term in office, did not know what to do and did not have any solutions. Just four years earlier, Democrats had gained 86 House seats and a majority. On election night 1894, Republicans gained 130 seats—a whopping 35% of the lower chamber, which totaled 357 seats at that time.
Democrats lost 125 seats outright, with Republicans picking up third-party seats as well. It remains the largest numerical loss for a political party in US history, according to the House historian. The House went from 218-D/124-R to 253-R/93-D. Now that’s a wave!
Could history have a repeat performance for the US this coming November? Yes, it could…
THE GOLDEN THRONE OF KING TUT
Now on display in National Museum of Egypt in Cairo, the 3,340 year-old artistic masterpiece of Pharoah Tutankhamun and his wife Ankhesenamun portrayed on facing back of the king’s throne chair was discovered by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922.
I was stunned beyond words when I first saw it in 1971, and every time I’ve seen it since, I’m shocked into the same state of awe. It’s not simply the sheer beauty of the blue lapis lazuli, the red carnelian, the silver and the solid gold plate, nor the breathtaking skill of artistry. It’s that the scene is so profoundly, so touchingly human. As she gently rubs oil on to his arms, they are looking into each other’s eyes with the tenderness of love.
This is not some God-King high and mighty ruler and haughty Queen far above their lowly subjects, but a very human man and wife in love. This golden throne speaks to us from 33 centuries ago that back then people were people like us. Our connection to history is our common humanity. I hope someday you will be able to see the Golden Throne of King Tut in Cairo, and be in awe of it for yourself. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #168 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 05/12/22
George Soros’ dark money outfits conspire against Musk's acquisition of Twitter and his becoming their new CEO:
Musk Blasts Soros 'Dark Money Groups' Threatening Twitter Advertisers
A few words of wisdom to Soros and his minions inflated with hubris: never declare war on someone who is more IQ points ahead of you than the average human is ahead of a gorilla - especially if he has $200,000,000,000 more than you do in resources.
Stock up on popcorn and IPA; I believe that we are about to witness an inflection point in history on a par with the printing press. This edition of Skye’s Links will blow you away…
THE WAGES OF SCOTUS COWARDICE
Karma’s a *****, isn’t it, John? Right now, there’s a mob of pro-abortionists clogging up the street in front of Chief Justice John Roberts’ home in McLean, Virginia.
The same is happening at the homes of Justices Alito, Barrett, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Thomas. Not only is there a federal law making it a felony to protest outside the home of a federal judge -- Title 18 of the U.S. Code, section 1507 – the Biden White House is publicly encouraging such “peaceful protests.”
This might be a good time for Clarence Thomas to give Roberts a call to remind him of the Chief Justice’s fateful words to his colleagues on December 10, 2020: “Are you going to be responsible for the rioting if we hear this case?”
NINE TERRIFYING CONSEQUENCES OF OVERTURNING ROE V WADE
A super spy descended from the ceiling and stole the Supreme Court's majority opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade and leaked it to the press. Dozens of people across the nation are furious because this will "ruin my weekend murder plans!"
Here are just a few of the terrifying consequences of Roe being overturned:
1) You’ll carry your child to term and have the miraculous, joyful, and beautiful experience of giving birth while your life is enriched and filled with meaning: Who could want that? UUUGGGHHH!
2) All women will be issued Handmaid's Tale outfits and then it will be really hard to find your wife at the mall: Super inconvenient!
Read on for more…
A CUP OF YAK BUTTER TEA IN A TIBETAN NOMAD TENT
At 14,000 feet, Tibetan nomads called Drogpa set their summer encampment for their yak herds to graze on green pastures. You find them with difficulty in the remote Himalayan highlands of the Kingdom of Lo. They are happy to welcome you into their home, a single large tent of black yak wool, and serve you a cup of delicious yak butter tea.
It is a rare privilege to be with these people and experience their ancient way of life. It is something we strive to do on our Himalaya Helicopter Expeditions. I took this picture last week. Here is their home from the outside. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #203 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
WHERE JESUS WAS BORN
The exact spot where Jesus was born is marked by this 14-pointed silver star with the Latin inscription Hic De Virgine Maria Jesus Christus Natus Est- "Here Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary."
This is in a cave known as The Grotto of Nativity, enshrining the traditional site of the manger in Bethlehem, over which the Church of the Nativity was built, originally by Constantine the Great after his mother St. Helena visited the Holy Land and confirmed the site in 326.
It is only appropriate to commemorate what happened here over 2,000 years ago on Christmas Day. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #107 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
NINA THE FASCIST FRUITCAKE
You read about Nina Jankowicz in Mike Ryan’s exceptional HFR last Friday. Now you get to take a look at her. Pretty horrifying isn’t she, like AOC on acid and with half the brains (which AOC hasn’t much of).
The young woman (she’s 33) is flat out nuts, an absolute fascist fruitcake. Here she is on a Tik Tok video demonstrating what an expert she is in “disinformation” with an impression of Mary Poppins –
BUCKET LIST IRELAND
Unless you’ve already fully explored Ireland to your satisfaction, the Emerald Isle has to be on your bucket list. I’ll bet when you think of Ireland, there’s a wistful twinkle in your eye. There’s so much magical gloriousness here inspiring you to make Ireland a part of you for the rest of your life.
So now’s the time to experience Ireland as you’ve dreamed of doing, by joining Rebel and me with a small group of your fellow TTPers on our Ireland-Dream-2022-Sep-01-to-10.
One thing that needs to be stressed: Ireland is back to pre-Covid normal. Arriving passengers into Ireland no longer require passenger locator forms, proof of valid vaccination, a negative RT-PCR/Antigen test, nothing. Just book your ticket, fly to Dublin, and Rebel and I will be there to greet you.
Carpe diem, we’re off to Ireland…
KEEPING YOUR SANITY WITH POSITIVE SUBTRACTION
Had my parents not changed the routine that year, Sue and I might never have met; we never would have been married, we would never have had our kids, and the life we know would be different in so many ways it’s hard to fathom.
It's pretty remarkable if you think about it, that two people ever meet. But people do, and we did. If you're married, it might be worth considering there’s a chance the two of you might never have met.
Doing this deliberately can also make you happier. Here’s how and why. Oh, I’ve also added a short essay of Jack’s at the end. Even though he wrote it on TTP 17 years ago, he describes another method of “positive subtraction.”
RUSSIAN SHAME DAY
And with the even more glaring fact that it was a war it was badly losing.
Which is why, in so many places around the world, there were protests and demonstrations today calling it Russian Shame Day – as in New York City’s Times Square:
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – THE MAGIC OF TASSILI
February, 2003. In the deepest hidden heart of the Sahara Desert where Algeria, Libya, and Niger come together, there is a high uninhabited plateau called the Tassili n’Ajjer. It is one of the most magical places on the planet – gigantic rock pillars and arches in spectacular abstract shapes, a forest of 2,000 year-old trees from when the Sahara was once green, the greatest profusion of prehistoric rock art on earth many thousand years old.
This is my son Jackson when we trekked and camped here at age 10. He’ll be guiding our next expedition here with me next January, for it is now safe and secure again. Come with us to have one of the most magically unforgettable experiences of your life. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #122 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
IS IT TRUE?
HALF-FULL REPORT 05/06/22
The War between Optimism and Pessimism
It was a pretty cool week; I mean, look at it.
An Indian national employed by Justice Sotomayor released a position paper describing the end of abortion at the federal level.
The nation did not explode. There were no riots, just some over-the-top demonstrations from Democrats eager to fundraise.
After fifty years of RINOS telling us that the world would stop if abortion were no longer a fictitious federal right, I went outside and looked at the stars and yes, the world still spun.
Why? Because we have become desensitized to propaganda.
The internet click farms jumped the shark twice, thrice, and again.
The masters of the Psyops have lost credibility.
Come on over; let's discuss it in the forum.
THE SMALL-SPOTTED RING-TAILED GENET
It’s not a cat, nor raccoon, nor lemur. Genets are part of a small carnivorous mammal group called viverrids, distantly related to hyenas, mongooses, tigers and lions. They hunt animals smaller than them like mice both on the ground and in the trees which they are very good and quick at climbing. You see them in Tropical and Southern Africa, but rarely will one pose like this as he did for me. Going on an Africa safari is not all about seeing the big iconic animals, but being lucky enough to spot small yet beautiful creatures such as this. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #144 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
CHANGING THE RULES TO VEER LEFT
Court packing—the attempt to enlarge the size of the Supreme Court for short-term political purposes—used to be a dirty word in the history of American jurisprudence.
The tradition of a nine-person Supreme Court is now 153 years old. The last attempt to expand it for political gain was President Franklin Roosevelt’s failed effort in 1937. FDR’s gambit was so blatantly political that even his overwhelming Democratic majority in Congress rebuffed him.
Yet now “court packing” is a law school cause célèbre. It is hailed as a supposedly quick fix to reverse the current 5-4 conservative majority.
SKYE’S LINKS 05/05/22
Some thoughts on the Twitter road ahead for Musk"ELEPHANTS IN THE SAHARA
10,000 years ago, the Sahara was green, with lakes, rivers, and such an abundance of animals it was a hunting paradise for people who lived here. You’ll find their petroglyphs carved on to rock outcroppings like this that my son Jackson and I found on a Trans-Sahara Expedition in 2003.
The Milankovitch astronomical cycles that drive Earth’s climate produced a West African monsoon that greened the Sahara back then. When the cycles shifted ending the monsoon, the Sahara turned dry desert as it remains today. Political cycles that permitted a peaceful crossing of the world’s greatest desert have also shifted, making this too dangerous now.
A Trans-Sahara Expedition is one of the world’s great adventures. Hopefully, one will be possible again in the not-too-distant future. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #7 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
WHY WE SHOULD CHALLENGE BIDEN’S BID TO ELIMINATE STUDENT LOANS
When my kids were in college and complaining about their workload, I was unsympathetic. I reminded them that, to pay for college, I lived at home, commuted 30 hours a week, and worked 20 hours a week, as well as working full time during the summer. I also worked my way through law school. I took out small loans I was able to pay off within a few years of graduating. Count me among the people who deeply resents Biden's plan to cancel $1.6 trillion in outstanding student loan debt. Not only is Biden's plan offensive, but he also has no legal authority and, I believe, no constitutional authority to do so.
There's no question about why Biden is planning to cancel student loan debt:
TODAY’S AGE OF ABSURDITIES
In terms of the absurdities our cultural elites believe, and have convinced masses of people to believe, there has never been a time like today.
The West has gone through many eras—the so-called Dark Ages, the Renaissance, the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Age, and the Postmodern. The present era is the Age of the Absurd.
In terms of the absurdities the cultural elites believe, and have convinced masses of people to believe, there has never been a time like today.
Here is a list of the most ridiculous that immediately come to mind.
CLIMBING THE MATTERHORN AT AGE 14
The Matterhorn at 14,692 ft in the Swiss Alps is arguably the most famous mountain in the world. By extreme luck, I was able to reach its summit with my guide Alfons Franzen at age 14 (in 1958!). The summit is not a point but a ridge 100 feet or so long and only 2 feet wide, like a knife blade in the sky.
This was my formative great adventure that set me on my life path. For over forty years that path has been providing friends and clients with great adventures for their own lives. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #30 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
OPERATION DISINFORMATION
Like a sickening ooze, governments tend to grow into endless unintended areas – which is known as mission creep.
This past week, the American public was served with two dangerous and destructive examples. The very creepy, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of Homeland Security – who has been a fountain of disinformation (lies) – announced he was setting up an operation to combat “disinformation” by others, i.e. free-speech control. And the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a proposed rule to require all firms under its jurisdiction to implement extensive and expensive “climate-related” information. The fact that neither agency seemed to have the Constitutional authority to engage in such activities appeared to be of no bother.
Most government agencies are set up for a single purpose, which may or may not be useful. Far too often, agencies stray from their original mandates because of a lust for more power, influence, and, of course, bigger budgets. Many times, the focus on the “new” activity so diverts attention from the original mission that the original mission is neglected. President Joe Biden announced at the beginning of his administration that every agency of government must be focused on mitigating climate change.
DESPERATE DEMS’ DESIRE FOR WAR
Tucker Carlson's opening monologue on Monday night was a wake-up call to Americans: the Democrat political class, with help from (or no opposition from) Republicans, seems determined to bring America into a direct conflict with Russia. He points out that the Democrats' warmongering is so extreme that even Noam Chomsky longs for Trump to be back in the White House. He recognizes that Trump, whom he dislikes, would keep us off the path of a hot war with Russia.
Tucker rightly traces the Democrats' fulminating hostility toward Putin to the 2016 election. Hillary and her cohorts created the lie that Putin put Trump in office. Now, despite having the lie repeatedly disproven, Democrats have come to believe this lie. They want revenge. They also simply want war.
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY KNOWING HOW TO TELL THE TRUTH
Thomas Jefferson
Honesty is one of the foundations of trust; lying leads to greater distrust. When we lie, we’re not as sneaky as we may think. People figure it out eventually, and they trust us less. Our relationships suffer dearly for it.
This is common sense, but here's where this can get tricky: I have colleagues who believe that if we don't express every feeling or impulse, that we're being dishonest. By this philosophy, the whole concept of honesty and authenticity becomes nebulous. By this way of thinking, if we don't express literally everything that goes through our mind, we can't be honest.
This is of course ridiculous. To be honest is not to be brainless. To be honest does not mean that we let fly anything that comes to mind.
Honesty is one facet of integrity. To have integrity is to integrate our thoughts, feelings, experience, values, and knowledge. In other words, real honesty requires consciousness.
THE MATTERHORN OF THE HIMALAYAS
This is Ama Dablam – “Mother’s Necklace” in Sanskrit – famed by climbers and trekkers as the Matterhorn of the Himalayas. Standing 22,349 ft, the favored climbing route is the southwest ridge, which you’re looking at face on. It towers as sentinel above the Tengboche Monastery of Nyingma (Red Hat) Tibetan Buddhism, and the famous trek to Everest Base Camp (EBC).
We were at EBC this morning, and shortly later flew by Ama Dablam in our expedition AS350B3 helicopter at 20,000 ft. It is from this altitude you can see the summit of Everest. And yes, that’s Everest on the left of the photo. In the shadow is Everest’s southwest face, in the sun the east face, the southeast ridge between them is the climber’s route to the summit. Breathtaking only begins to hint of what it is like to experience such a sight. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #202 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
UKRAINE’S NEWEST CULTURAL HERITAGE SITE
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – THE SHRINE OF SHAH-I-ZENDA
The Shrine of Shah-i-Zenda left an indelible memory upon me when I was first here on my first exploration of Central Asia in 1963. It is one of the many medieval wonders of the ancient Silk Road Oasis of fabled Samarkand. Preserved through the centuries, it is still here in all its glory. Come with me this September to experience it and so much else, like the Pearls of Shing, the Mountains of Heaven, and camping with Kirghiz nomads, in the mysterious and magical heart of Central Asia.
(Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #201 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/29/22
Is Russia’s Nuclear Arsenal a Paper Tiger?
Jack Wheeler is in Khatmandu, leading a helicopter expedition to the top of Mt. Everest.
Guest Author Mike Ryan addresses this critical question as Putin threatens to use his nukes against the United States and Europe for supporting Ukraine.
We cannot afford to get this question wrong, but fortunately, the United States has brilliant physicists looking at the question from many angles.
We all watched the propaganda explode when Russia invaded Ukraine, and so did the rest.
In about two months, the consequences have included a collapse of CNN revenues and a change of ownership at Twitter. Zuck is in trouble, and Soros can’t get anyone to take his calls.
How did this happen? Zelenskyy introduced a new leadership style with politicians everywhere throwing out their late 20th Century neoliberal style.
But we knew this would happen because we talked about it on the forum at length. TTPers had a heads up long before the rest of the world.
We are running out of Jevelin missiles and can’t make them fast enough. This is a problem.
Kremlinologist Condoleeza Rice had a one-hour conversation on Putin and the war, turning out to be a replay of the Battle of Kursk.
All this and more in this weeks Half Full Report.
THE SACRED MONKEY FOREST OF BALI
Near the town of Ubud on Indonesia’s paradise island of Bali there is a Hindu sanctuary of spectacularly luxuriant rain forest providing a haven for over 1,000 Balinese long-tailed monkeys. Here’s one communing with a group of moss-covered monkey statues that dot the sanctuary.
This is a sacred place for the Balinese people, as it contains three temples over 600 years old, and is devoted to the Hindu principle of Tri Hata Karana – “three ways to reach spiritual and physical well-being” -- harmony between people, harmony between people and nature, harmony between people and the Supreme God.
There is perhaps no place on earth in which to better experience the blissful harmony of Tri Hata Karana than Bali. It is a marvelous privilege to be here and experience it for yourself. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #106 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYES LINKS 042822
Google is using G-Mail to tamper with the midterms, by tagging Republican campaign emails as “spam” 8.5 times as much as Dem ones:
Musk buys Twitter:
Elon Wins: Twitter to Be Sold to Elon Musk
The tears and fears are all about loss of 'Crat control:
The Apocalyptic Reaction to Musk Is All About Thought Control
More:
Twitter Locks Down Changes to Platform to Prevent Employee Sabotage After Musk Buyout
ZELENSKY – HOW THE LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD LEADS HIS COUNTRY
This account of Zelensky at war is based on interviews with him and nearly a dozen of his aides. His mission, he told me, is to make the free world experience this war the way Ukraine does: as a matter of its own survival.
He seems to be pulling it off. The U.S. and Europe have rushed to his aid, providing more weapons to Ukraine than they have given any other country since World War II. Thousands of journalists have come to Kyiv, filling the inboxes of his staff with interview requests.
My request was not just for a chance to question the President. It was to see the war the way he and his team have experienced it. Over two weeks in April, they allowed me to do that in the presidential compound on Bankova Street, to observe their routines and hang around the offices where they now live and work. Here is what I saw and learned.
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)
POLITICS IS DOWNSTREAM FROM CULTURE… BUT WHAT IS CULTURE DOWNSTREAM FROM?
In classical, pro-God America, the inspiration for a civilization of freedom and equality came from the unifying assumptions of theistic belief. The assumptive belief in God and in the universal divine nature of all humans enabled the generation of a predominantly uplifting culture, which in turn was upstream from a generally lawfully and respectfully conducted political process.
That one nation under God has been irrevocably broken into two, irreconcilable American civilizations, one based in life and the other based in death.
Why did the civilization of this one nation under God, the greatest constitutional republic in world history, come to be degraded and broken by the Democrats and the Left? Here’s how: culture is now downstream from politics.
IS JOE BIDEN ABOUT TO GET AL CAPONED?
Al Capone mugshot Aug. 22, 1934
Al Capone was one of the early 20th century’s most infamous gangsters but that wasn’t why he ended up in Alcatraz. Instead, what the feds finally got him on was tax evasion.
In Joe Biden’s case, although the facts are a bit different because the problem isn’t one of tax evasion but one of mysteriously reported taxable income, it does appear that we may finally be getting proof that Joe was deeply involved in Hunter’s overseas dealings and may have been doing influence peddling from the White House.
The message could be coming to Joe to resign now before he get’s Al Caponed. Then again, he may up that way anyhow.
ARE THE DEMS AND CHEATIN’ JOE UP TO THEIR OLD TRICKS?
Over the last 16 tortuous months of the Biden presidency, it’s become clear that the Democrats are running on empty.
They are not even trying to reset their electorally poisonous policies.
But while they might not be any good at governing, when it comes to seizing power by foul means or fair, they are world-class. Which brings us to how the stole the 2020 election from President Trump.
The most compelling evidence to date has emerged in “2000 Mules,” the upcoming documentary by conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, who draws on research by election integrity group True The Vote to expose suspicious ballot harvesting.
FRAUD IS THE ONLY ISSUE
With no actual accomplishments to point to, having ruined everything that was running so well for the American people, Democrats are turning to what has become their most effective electoral tool in recent years: Fraud.
They did a magnificent job of perpetrating a total fraud on the country in the 2020 Presidential election. We all know what they did and what they got away with. The big question is what have the Republicans done to ensure that this degree of election-stealing fraud doesn’t happen again?
Unfortunately, it seems Republicans have done essentially nothing truly significant to stop Democrat vote fraud. All the really major drivers of Democrat vote fraud still appear to be in place. Here they are:
FISHING AT DAWN IN HA LONG BAY
Ha Long Bay near Haiphong, Vietman – meaning Descending Dragon – is a World Heritage Site as one of our planet’s great scenic wonders, with thousands of limestone karst rock pinnacles, towers, and islets. The most beautiful time is dawn, peaceful and serene, with small fishing boats of local villagers out for the morning catch. A few days aboard a comfortable junk cruising Ha Long will do wonders for you. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #160 ©photo Jack Wheeler)
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY MASTERING ENTROPY
Entropy is a term from physics that describes the tendency for matter to move from order into disorder. Life can be seen as deliberately working against entropy.
For most living creatures, instincts take charge of a lot of the necessary ordering which life requires; finding food, mating, sleep cycles, protective behavior, etc. But we humans are different in a fundamental way: our basic survival tool is our mind, and unlike instinctual animals, we can choose to use our basic tool of survival... or not.
Let’s talk how we can make that choice and overcome entropy in the process.
THE STONE TURTLE OF GENGHIS KHAN
800 hundred years ago in 1221, Genghis Khan established the capital of the Mongol Empire he created at a place called Karakorum in the grasslands of central Mongolia. It became a city of palaces, temples, and mansions of the Mongol nobility, a place of fabulous wealth that left Marco Polo in awe when he visited in in the 1270s.
When Mongol rule over China ended a hundred years later, the Chinese rulers of the Ming Dynasty ordered Karakorum razed to the ground with all evidence of its existence obliterated. All that was left was this solitary stone turtle lying in mute witness to the glories of what was here once and is no more. Known as the Stone Turtle of Genghis Khan, it’s all there is for you to try and imagine the magnificence of the past amidst what is now an empty wilderness. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #149 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
VALUING LIBERTY
