Yearly Archives: 2023
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – TRANS-SAHARA EXPEDITION
January 2003. Our campsite at dawn in the center of the Sahara called the Téneré in Niger. We found hand stone axes here 8,000 years old when the Sahara was green. Crossing the world’s greatest desert is a true expedition, one of the most astounding adventures to be had on earth, geographically, culturally, and historically. Unfortunately, it is too dangerous with lawless and ideological banditry today. I can hardly wait to do it once more when it is safe again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #70 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 02/10/23
The Three Twitter Perps
Here we see the Three Twitter Perps being sworn in at Wednesday’s (2/08) House Oversight Committee hearing regarding their colluding with the FBI to block anything that could help Trump and hurt Biden before the 2020 election.
E.g., Twitter Files Reveal ‘Laptop from Hell’ Censorship Was Orchestrated by Security State (12/19/22).
Of course, all they did was give a Three Monkeys Saw Nothing-Heard Nothing-Said Nothing performance. As the NY Post put it:
Ex-Twitter Executives Now Say They Forget Key Details Of Censoring Post’s Hunter Biden Laptop Scoop
Jump right on in for another great HFR!
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS
The School of Athens by Raphael (1483-1520) is one of the greatest artistic masterpieces of the Renaissance. Here you see the two principal figures, Plato on the left and Aristotle on the right. It is a classic example of the picture worth a thousand words. Plato is pointing to the heavens and his imaginary world of Forms that didn’t actually exist, while Aristotle has his outstretched hand towards the earth – cautioning Plato to pay attention to Reality. For only in the real world can Plato’s ideals of Truth, Justice, and Virtue actually exist, expressed in concrete human action.
Raphael’s masterpiece was commissioned by Pope Julius II for a room in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican – just as Julius commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Apostolic Palace’s Sistine Chapel at the same time! Raphael from 1509-1511, Michelangelo from 1508-1512.
While the Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, the part of it containing these masterpieces can be open to the public. It is one thing to see a photo of them, and quite another to contemplate them in person. Only then can you be appropriately overwhelmed by the superhuman genius it took to create them. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #257 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 02/09/23
Groupthink Means that No One is Thinking
China's Power Flex in the American Sky
From the Chinese spy balloon through the jabs and on to the media, from the loss of faith in institutions and the increasingly violent tribalism of the left, the world is suffering from Groupthink.
Universities and community colleges everywhere decided their noble mission is to teach people how to think. However, except in rare cases, they define thinking as logical induction. It is a form of pattern recognition logic that meshes well with computer databases.
The numbers are in, and the demographic most jabbed have master's degrees. This is the group most heavily indoctrinated in the university thought paradigm.
Least likely? People that work directly with the physical world and understand deductive thinking. Scott Adams laments that he, the brilliant pattern decoder, was fooled by the vaxx propaganda. Yet the project managers and superintendents running multimillion-dollar job sites, the electricians, auto mechanics, and others tied to the physical world avoided it.
Labor productivity is collapsing due to ESG mandates, and we have a coal shortage.
This means that the cement shortage will get worse.
Come over to Skye's Links and see how the Fourth Turning is progressing.
BIDEN’S STATE OF THE UNION VOWS 2 MORE YEARS OF MISERY
The Biden State of the Union last night (2/07) is the latest phase of the long leftist war on America.
Biden has clawed his way to the highest office in the land by selling out everything he ever claimed to have believed. And now he’s so far gone that he may not even know what he believes.
His pathetic rant, breathy, rushed, angry, was the belligerent tirade of a puppet who takes pride in being seen over the podium even if there’s a hand up his nether regions.
“Covid had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much,” Biden bemoaned. Covid didn’t do that. Democrats did. And, given a chance, they’ll do it again.
This is the criminally treasonous legacy of the Democrats and their corrupt figurehead.
SHE KILLED IT
So it was a revelation to me when she gave the first watchable response to the State of the Union address that I have ever seen. I have no idea how many people watched it, but I am pretty sure that clips from the speech will run for days in the media and on Twitter.
There’s no other way to put it: she killed it. Watch the video to see for yourself, but here are the highlights first.
AGIOS LAZAROS
We’re all familiar with the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead four days after his entombment in John 11:1-44. But what happened to Lazarus afterwards – what did he do with the rest of his (second) life?
He left Judea to live on the island of Cyprus. There he met Paul the Apostle and his evangelizing partner Barnabas who was a Cypriot. They appointed him the first Bishop of Kition (present day Lanarca), where he lived for another 30 years, then upon his second death was buried for the last time.
A church was built over his marble sarcophagus which has undergone many resurrections itself over the last two millennia. But here it stands today after all those ravages of time, Agios Lazaros, the Church of St. Lazarus, over his still-preserved sarcophagus. On every Lazarus Saturday (eight says before Easter), an icon of St. Lazarus is taken in procession through the streets of Lanarca. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #165 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
COMER IS BUILDING A KILLER CASE AGAINST JOE BIDEN
House Oversight Chair James Comer
When they hear James Comer speak with his lilting south-central Kentucky accent and courteous style, it would be an easy mistake for Democrats and targets of his newly fanged House Oversight Committee to underestimate the former Monroe County cattle farmer.
But Comer is a killer — and corruption is his prey.
Everything has changed in Washington since the Republicans won back the House, and Comer, as Chairman of the Oversight Committee, is champing at the bit to hold the Biden administration accountable. That includes getting to the bottom of the Biden family corruption as revealed in Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, and elsewhere, using the awesome power of Congress.
“This is not about Hunter Biden,” Comer said last week in a broad-ranging interview with The Post. “It’s about Joe Biden.” He aims to “prove Joe benefited financially and prove he made decisions against the best interests of the United States.”
THE BIDEN FAMILY PROBLEMS ARE CONVERGING
The Biden Crime Family’s legal problems are beginning to converge in an interesting way. It may be the formation of a perfect political storm.
Objective observers (which excludes the MSM) recognize that the Biden clan has had some shady financial dealings. With recent events, the evidence is becoming undeniable. As criminals often do, one of the co-conspirators may need to turn on the other to cover his tail.
In this case, Hunter Biden may be the one protecting himself at his partner's expense — with Joe Biden being the partner left holding the bag.
Hunter Biden's attempted scorched earth strategy may or may not help him legally. It will definitely burn his father, Joe.
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)
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY UNDERSTANDING WHAT WE REMEMBER
How do I remember what?
We each have, in effect, two selves: an experiencing self and a remembering self. Understanding the difference can help us make the most of our best times, and minimize the memory of our unpleasant ones.
Imagine that you’re asked to hold your hand in ice water for sixty seconds. It’s unpleasant, painful, and not something most of us would choose to do for fun.
Now, imagine that you’re asked to do the same thing, same temperature, but then once that 60 seconds is up, continue holding your hand in the ice water for another 30 seconds. The only difference is that the additional 30 seconds will be one degree warmer than the first 60 seconds.
Which would you choose?
The shorter one, of course! After all, the initial 60 seconds will be identical in both cases, and then you’re adding another 30 seconds more pain to that for the longer one…
Well, strange as it sounds, you’re likely to choose the longer one. Here’s why, and here’s how not to.
WINTER WILDFLOWERS
We’re in Portugal preparing for our WWX Portugal Exploration 2023 (May 12-21) where it’s sunny, clear, 64 degrees, and wildflowers are everywhere. This as an Ice Storm was sweeping across the US from Texas to New York the last few days. Lisbon, by the way, is just about the same latitude as Washington DC. (Not many know how far north Europe is – Rome, Italy for example, at 41°39’ North latitude, is north of New York City, at 40°44’N.)
The weather here is as benign as the culture. Portugal is consistently in the top five of the safest, most peaceful and crime-free countries on the planet. There is a total absence of divisiveness, anger, and woke insanity in this country. It is normal in the way America used to be but tragically is no more.
We all, of course, hope and pray that our country will be normal once again and in the not-distant future. But if you’d like to experience normality right now, with extraordinary history, spectacular beauty, and fabulous food and wine thrown in, join Rebel and me on our WWX Portugal Exploration 2023. You’ll have so much fun with your fellow TTPers!
(Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #256 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 02/03/23
Pfizer's Disaster
What it Means ______________________________________
Pfizer has unleashed its lawyers and lobbyists, bought and owned Congressmen, judges, and every unsavory propaganda house to counter the disastrous videos of their Jordan Trishton Walker. Billions of dollars are on the line, and the company has already lost $64 Billion in capitalization.Pfizer's problems are widespread, which means many others face a financial catastrophe.
The modern philosophical basis of the New World Order, the Great Reset, and everything from the Frankfurt School to the current White House is fully displayed.
In this Week's HFR, we will discuss what this means. What does this mean to the Utilitarian and Hedonistic philosophies that underlie our power elites?
The last time the world saw such a divergence of cultures and ethical systems was during the 1930s in Germany. Pfizer has a severe problem; the vaxxed have serious issues, and the political leadership and educational systems have problems.
Let's talk ethics over at the HFR.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – DIVING IN A GALAPAGOS FISH BALL
Galapagos Islands – November 2015. In the waters here, enormous schools of striped mullet swim together in one huge swirling ball by the tens of thousands.
One of the more astounding experiences a scuba diver can have is to swim far below one of these rotating living balls, then slowly rise straight up into it. The fish do not scatter, but merely create an empty column or vertical tunnel for you – so you float inside the ball with countless thousands of calm unperturbed fish circling around you and your dive buddy (who took this picture of me).
I’ve had the good fortune to go diving all over the world for the past sixty -plus years, and this experience is surely one of the most memorable of all. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #140 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
ELON’S FINANCIAL ADVICE
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)
SKYE’S LINKS 02/02/23
Welcome to the Essence of Fascism Skye’s Links!
Fascism, as its founders Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini propounded, differed from Marxism in which the State owns the means of production (no private business, no private property). In a fascist economy, the State controls the means of production in a collusion between big corporations and government bureaucracies (the Administrative or “Deep” State).
You can see a clear demonstration of this in America displayed here in the collusion between the FDA and Big Pharma. As Milton Friedman once explained to me: “The two most anti-capitalist groups in America are university professors and big corporate businessmen.”
Which is precisely what VDH (Victor Davis Hanson) described this week in TTP (1/31): Anarchy in America – the corrupt lawlessness of fascist collusion between the Woke Left, the Deep State, Academia, Big Tech, Big Media, and so much of Corporate America, like Disney and Pfizer. Call it the Fascist Collusion Alliance.
Now for the good news…
SO WHERE DOES THAT MIGRANT ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY COME FROM IN NEW YORK CITY?
NY Post, January 31, 2023
As if the cost alone weren't enough to make the millions of illegal migrants brought in by Joe Biden's open borders unpopular here, the ingratitude and entitlement mentality of these illegals now seals the deal.
The New York Post noticed a funny resemblance in the migrants' demands and left-wing NGO sloganeerings. Don’t blame the migrants, blame the lefty activists filling them with nonsense.
But there's more to it than just leftists putting ideas into empty migrant heads. News reports say that many of the migrants refusing to move are Venezuelan, denizens of the country that was turned into a socialist dump by the late unlamented Hugo Chavez who really had a thing against private property, or paying at all for anything.
Now they want to turn the US into the same socialist dump they fled.
HOW TO MAKE A WOKE UNIVERSITY LIVE UP TO ITS WOKE RULES
The newly-named University of Richmond School of Law
Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” apply to all radicals, including those who take the radical position that patriotic constitutional conservativism is a good thing. Conservatives need to enshrine his sixth rule: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
That’s the wonderful move the descendants of T.C. Williams made when the University of Richmond deleted his existence. Okay, they said, we want our money back – with compound interest since 1890.
T.C. Williams’ great-great grandson is a smart and savvy lawyer. His lawsuit, entitled “As The University of Richmond Caves to the Woke Mob,” and addressed to university president Kevin Hallock, is seven pages long, and worth reading entire for its bullseye shut down of the woke mentality. Here are the high points.
THE PORTUGUESE RIVIERA
A cliff-top fishing village on the Italian Riviera? Nope, Azenhas do Mar – Watermills of the Sea – is on the Portuguese Riviera. This is a magic place of fairy tale castles, thousand year-old fortresses, luxury boutique hotels, fabulous food, great wine, gorgeous beaches, and postcard-perfect scenery everywhere.
The Portuguese people are among the kindest in Europe, while Portugal is one of the safest countries in the world. Of all the planet’s First World countries, it’s hard to find one more friendly, calm, and welcoming than here.
Who’s the pretty girl? Lucky me – she’s my wife Rebel, mother of our two grown sons, my business partner, and my best friend. We’ve had a home here for many years. Rebel loves Portugal so much she taught herself to be fluent in Portuguese.
If you’d like a personal experience of the best of Portugal, come with Rebel and me on our Portugal Exploration this May.
Let me know if you’d like to have too much fun here with your fellow TTPers: [email protected]. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #123 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
ANARCHY IN AMERICA
The 1960s revolution was both anarchic and nihilist. But it was waged against—not from—the Establishment.
Hippies and the Left either attacked institutions or, in Timothy Leary fashion, chose to “turn on, tune in, drop out” from them. The current revolution is much different—and far more dangerous—for at least three reasons.
The first is: The current Left has no intention of “dropping out.” Why would it? The Left is the Establishment now.
In other words, the greatest levers of influence and power—money, education, entertainment, government, the news, and popular culture—are in the hands of the Left.
They have transformed legitimate debate over gay marriage into a hate crime. Transgenderism went from a modern manifestation of ancient transvestism or gender dysphoria to a veritable litmus test of whether one was good or evil.
TO SAVE AMERICA, ABOLISH THE CIVIL SERVICE
The Progressive Era and its assault on Americans' money and personal freedom began in earnest 110 years ago:
*The 16th, allowing the creation of the IRS (1913).
*The 17th, ending Senators as the representatives of State Legislatures (1913).
*The 18th, prohibition of alcohol (1919).
Yet it's not just the constitutional amendments that have contributed to the decline of the Republic. It's also the actions of an ever-burgeoning federal government, which has simultaneously abandoned its core fiscal, executive, judicial, and legislative responsibilities.This is the Administrative State, beyond the direct supervision of all three legitimate branches of government, to the extent that they now form an illegitimate, constitutionally illegal fourth branch of government.
Like most things involving the feds, it is largely staffed by members of the Civil Service -- nearly three million employees and counting. It’s high time to abolish this entire unconstitutional monstrosity.
THE WORLD’S BEST MOONSHINE
Santo Antão island, Cape Verde. The world’s best moonshine, which the islanders call grogue, is made here. There are ten islands comprising the country of Cape Verde, some 400 miles off the West African coast of Senegal in the Atlantic Ocean. For hundreds of years, Cape Verdeans have been making grogue but the folks like the fellow here on Santo Antão have perfected it.
You’ll find their stills out in the sugar cane fields, where they put the cane in to a press called a trapiche, then cook down the molasses in an old oil drum into a clear distilled rum that’s up to 140 proof or more. This fellow is pouring me a sample to taste in a coconut shell. You have to be really careful because it’s so smooth and silky it goes down like water – making it very easy to get quickly wasted.
If you like it – which of course you will – he’ll pour fresh grogue into an empty plastic liter water bottle and sell it to you for six bucks. People are always partying in Cape Verde, and why not with all this grogue. They don’t mix it with anything except some lime juice and an ice cube. Really fantastic. Come to Cape Verde and have great time yourself! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #171 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY UNDERSTANDING ONE MAN’S ROTTEN INFLUENCE ON US
Today let’s talk about one of my least favorite historical figures: Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). Pretty much all it will take for him to be one of yours too is this opening line in the Wikipedia entry on him:
“His Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract are cornerstones in modern political and social thought.”
Being against reason, science, civilization, individual liberty, and self-discipline, his thinking has been at the root of much of the psychological, political, and cultural trouble of our time. It has specifically popularized a philosophy of emotions that has done and continues to do great harm.
As you’ll discover, the insanities of today’s Woke Left can be traced right back to this foul man.
TRULLI
At the top of Italy’s boot heel, there’s an ancient village named Alberobello that’s become a World Heritage Site.
This is because the villagers have preserved a prehistoric building technique with the conical roofs of their homes built up of corbelled limestone slabs with no mortar. The homes are collectively called trulli (true-lee) as each home individually is a called a trullo (true-low). Some trulli are centuries old albeit regularly rebuilt in the traditional way and maintained immaculately.
It’s a fascinating look into unique millennia-old living. Yet it is only one example of this little-visited part of far southern Italy that’s worth exploring. There’s so much more to Italy than Rome, Florence, Venice and such tourist magnets, as worthwhile visiting them may be. You’ll learn that very quickly when you start exploring Italy’s remoter regions.
(Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #255 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
WOKETARD LOGIC
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – QARI BABA
Afghanistan, 1984. Yes, that’s me with the legendary Qari Baba, Commander of the Harakat Mujahaddin waging a war of liberation against the Red Army of the Soviet Union – and my dear friend. I told him he looked like a combination of Genghiz Khan and Buddha, and he couldn’t stop laughing. We had so many extraordinary experiences together – like blowing up the Soviet High Command of Bala Hissar in Ghazni.
After the war was won with the final Soviet retreat in February, 1989, Qari Baba became the Governor of Ghazi Province. Then Pakistani Intelligence (ISI) created the Taliban to seize control of the country. Qari Baba had to take up arms anew against them. In March of 2006, he was assassinated by a Taliban hit team on orders from the ISI. I will never ever forget him. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #111 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/27/23
Finger-pointing at government corruption elsewhere in the world is small beer, as it’s so painfully embarrassing for us Americans to see that our own government is the most corrupt on the planet.
Our White House is run by a treasonous crime family, put and kept there by a ludicrously corrupt Dem-FBI-Media cabal who stole it from its rightful predecessor. Jesse laid much of this on the table last night (1/26), but the question is – what can be done about it when the Justice Department and FBI are corrupt to the core?
Well, now that Speaker Kevin has promised there will be no cuts in Social Security nor Medicare in debt ceiling resolution (following the wise advice of Trump), how about, say, a full 50% cut of the FBI budget (from last year’s, not from the projected increase of this year)?
Here we go – come on in for another great HFR!
AN ENTICEMENT FOR A MARVELOUS ADVENTURE
There is a paradise of islands of staggering beauty and idyllic weather year round, that’s a tax haven and the cost of living is low, that’s self-sufficient in food and everything grows in abundance, that’s so peaceful and serene crime is virtually unknown and there’s a total absence of wokeism.
What’s more, the people who live here love liberty so much they’ve had this motto emblazoned on their coat of arms for centuries: Antes morrer livres que em paz sujeitos – Rather die free than live in peaceful subjugation.
Oh, you can fly there non-stop from the east coast in a few hours as it’s closer than Europe.
Where and what are we talking about? The Azores of Portugal. They, along with the other Atlantic Portugal island of Madeira, are what Rebel and I call Atlantic Paradises.
So what’s the enticement? I’ll give you $1,000 off if you’ll join Rebel and me on our Atlantic Paradises Adventure this June. The catch? We’re extending our deadline of January 20 to February 3, so you have a week to make up your mind.
Atlantic Paradises Adventure is for anyone in normal health. We stay in great hotels, enjoy fabulous food and wine, and have a marvelous fun time. Click on the link to enjoy all the photos – realize you’ll soon be there. Write to me at [email protected] and I’ll explain how you get your $1K discount.
Carpe diem – life is short – the time for a life-memorable adventure is now!
SKYE’S LINKS 01/26/23
Covid and the War in Ukraine
OR
The Loss of Faith in the System
Readers old enough to remember the Hoover Administration between 1920 and 1930 probably recognize the systemic collapse of faith in the system we experience today. It is truly epic and worth additional study, continuing with this week's Skye's Links. Covid and the war in Ukraine bring to light so much fraud, dishonesty, and institutional incompetence that no one can deny that it's time to clean out the entire system. It's happening.
The life of the United States can be divided into 80-90 year epochs, each about the length of human life, that repeat as the last memories of the previous epoch fade from popular memory. Each of these epochs is divided into four 20-year or so turnings that can be thought of as the seasons. We are in the fourth, in the coldest days of winter yet past the Winter Solstice, and the days are getting longer.
As we continue along the trajectory of the Fourth Turning's final phase, we find faith in institutions collapsing throughout the United States. Internationally, confidence in the WEF and New World Order has dropped so much that only one head of state from a Western country attended the Davos event. They sent many deputies instead. The theme this year was about developing new propaganda methods and tools to restore confidence lost by yesterday's propaganda and means. The people have had enough.
ESG is over. There will be inertia due to the number of positions staffed according to the paradigm, but people will be fired, and normalcy will return.
The war in Ukraine is making energy so expensive and life so uncomfortable in Europe that the entire climate change hoax is being ditched. It's okay for limousine liberals to tell the rest of us to go and die, but now things are getting expensive, even for them.
Nancy Pelosi allegedly invited a few priests for tea and called it an exorcism. What type of priests were these? The local Catholic diocese has no record, and no Catholic priests have reported as participants. If such an event had happened, it would have been a significant event involving at least the local Bishop and regional Arch Bishop. The story is linked because of its pathos; an old drunken Nancy is failing at life after decades of corruption.
So much about Covid appears to have been a psyop. Propagandists leveraged generalized anxiety in society through social isolation and by giving meaningless orders. The general discontent was cranked up and focused on Trump and rationalists for political power and access to the U.S. Treasury.
Come over to Skye's links and let's look at a series of links that discuss this most unusual of times. Perhaps your youngest children or grandchildren will experience the end of the next epoch, but for most, this is a once and a lifetime period of significant consequence. But just as with the end of a frozen winter, the birds are returning, and there are signs of new life.
THE YEZIDI BLACK SNAKE SACRED SPRING
At the Temple of the Peacock Angel in the Yezidi holy city of Lalish, you find this entrance to a Sacred Spring with a carved black snake, revered by Yezidis as they believe a black snake stuck itself into a hole in Noah’s Ark and saved humanity.
The Yezidis are among the most ancient of all peoples in the Middle East. Their heartland is in what is now Northern Iraq, or Iraqi Kurdistan. You may know of them through the horrific butchery perpetrated upon them by the medieval terrorists of ISIS which gained worldwide notoriety.
They are a fascinating people whose syncretic beliefs are a mélange of Zoroastrianism, Syriac Christianity, Sufi Islam spiced with their own interpretation of all three. In other words, they are their own people, no one else like them – peaceful, at ease with themselves, and immensely likeable.
Their protectors are the Kurds – an extraordinary people in their own right. We’ll be visiting Iraqi Kurdistan and the Yezidis once more next year. ((Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #89 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
WHAT THE HELL IS THE WEST WAITING FOR?
[Note by Jack Wheeler: Early yesterday morning (1/24), the London Daily Mail ran this cover story by British former (and quite possibly the future) Prime Minister Boris Johnson. By early this morning (1/25), Germany got the message, Der Spiegal announcing: Ukraine Will Receive 80 Leopard Tanks from Germany and Other European Countries, and the Wall Street Journal reporting: White House Approves Sending Abrams Tanks to Ukraine. Thanks, Boris!]
Come with me into the ochre mud of the churchyard in Bucha, past the bullet-riddled church of St Andrew. Stand over the graves of some of the 416 inhabitants of this town – 9 of them children – who were shot by the Russians in an attempt to terrify the rest.
Look at the photos of their corpses, their hands tied behind their backs, left in the street to rot or to be eaten by dogs.
Stand with me by the blackened remains of an apartment block in Borodyanka, the twisted plumbing and smashed children's toys. Look at what just one of Putin's 500kg airborne bombs can do to an eight-story building.
Try to meet the pleading eyes of the people who pulled 162 corpses from the rubble, and who searched for the 28 whose remains were never found.
Look at those brave Ukrainians and answer me this question: just what the hell are we waiting for?
WHY THE WORLD NEEDS A UKRAINIAN VICTORY
Why does the world need a Ukrainian victory? The answer is inarguable.
Because the world must help Ukraine to stop Russia’s genocidal war before the latter’s fascism and aggression spread and are copied by other nations.
Let’s unpack that with 14 specific reasons:
- To halt atrocity. Russia's occupation is genocidal. Wherever the Ukrainians recover territory, they save lives, and re-establish the principle that people have a right not to be tortured, deported, and murdered.
- To preserve the international legal order. Its basis is that one country may not invade another and annex its territory, as Russia seeks to do. Russia's war of aggression is obviously illegal, but the legal order does not defend itself.
- To end an era of empire. This could be the last war fought on the colonial logic that another state and people do not exist. But this turning point is reached only if Russia loses.
INDIAN TIBET
There is a part of Tibet the British kept from China and is now a part of India. The region is called Ladakh and this is its capital of Leh. It’s the Upper Indus river valley after it flows out of Chinese Tibet and before it reaches the Line of Control with Pakistan.
Ladakh is geographically and culturally Tibetan, where Tibetan culture still flourishes. Here the great gompas (monasteries) of Thikse and Hemis are active, and where you are welcome in hidden mysterious gompas like Lamayuru over a thousand years old.
There is an ultra-remote part of Ladakh called Zanskar where the Zanskar River flows through the crest of the Himalayas to reach the Upper Indus. Running the Zanskar is one of the world’s greatest whitewater experiences. We’ll see and do all of this next August on our Indian Tibet 2023 Expedition. Click on it and, trust me, the photos will blow you away. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #120 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
CLASSIFIED DOCS SCANDAL IS UNBOXING THE BIDEN FAMILY BUSINESS
Courtesy of Fox News, here’s a headline for the ages: “Biden, Hunter Make Presidential History As First Father-Son Duo Under Separate Investigations.”
Yet beyond the history noted by Fox, its headline also spotlights unfinished business when it cites the “separate” Biden investigations. If there is any honest justice left in Justice, sooner rather than later there will be a single investigation involving both father and son.
That is also something they’ve earned. Joe and Hunter clearly were in cahoots on the influence-peddling scam that netted the family tens of millions of dollars. In fact, the more we learn, the more convincing it is that Joe’s role has been underestimated.
The full truth, if we ever get it, will show that Joe was the mastermind and Hunter was the frontman and conduit for the payoffs.
THE FESTERING ROT AT THE FBI — BIGGER AND DEEPER THAN WE EVER GUESSED
Today’s NY Post 1/24/23
Charles McGonigal, a retired counterintelligence investigator from the FBI’s New York Field Office, was just arrested because he allegedly took substantial sums of money from Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire, to get the latter off a U.S. sanctions list.
Where this goes beyond the ordinary corruption that periodically crops up among people with too much power, too few morals, and too little accountability is that McGonigal was one of the people investigating Trump over the Russia Hoax, while Deripaska employed Christopher Steele, whose false dossier seeded the Russia Hoax.
So now the obvious question: was McGonigal on Deripaska’s payroll to invent the Russia Hoax?
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY KNOWING HOW MONEY CAN BUY HAPPINESS
I think the Beatles were mostly right about money and love. But there are ways of spending our money that can actually make us happier.
George Washington once said, “Government is like fire, a useful servant but a dangerous master.”
Money can be like that, too. Money can be a tool in the service of our good life, but for that to happen, we need to be conscious and in charge of how we make and spend our money.
It can also be a dangerous master, when we allow our spending to follow from our impulses and habits, and when we allow debt to pile up.
How we spend our money has the potential to enhance our lives or ruin our lives. The difference comes down to how we choose what we spend our money on.
THE WORLD’S MOST UNUSUAL VINEYARD
The grape vines of Pico Island, one of nine islands of the Azores in the Atlantic, are enclosed within walls of black basalt rocks called currais (corrals). For over 500 years, the Portuguese villagers have been constructing thousands of miles of these currais walled enclosures to protect the vines from wind and sea spray.
The vineyards of Pico are so extraordinary that they are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And the wine is uniquely good! You can order a bottle here. Best, though, is to experience Pico and its viticulture yourself. That’s what we did last June on our Atlantic Paradises adventure with your fellow TTPers.
We had a wonderful time – and you will too this coming June. You won’t believe how much adventurous fun you’ll have on our Atlantic Paradises 2023! Click to join us… (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #213 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
AL GORE AGAIN WARNS THE EARTH WILL NOT MAKE IT PAST THE YEAR 2012
DAVOS — While at the World Economic Forum, rightful President Al Gore delivered a stern warning on climate change, saying the world will not make it past the year 2012 if something isn't done immediately.
"The situation has never been more dire," said Gore while wiping the lipstick of a Swiss hooker off his face. "It's more dire than it was yesterday, and more dire than it was the day before and even more dire than the day before that."
Sources say the crowd began to fall asleep as he continued.
"In fact, we have minus 11 years to fix this," Gore said as he began shouting and waving his arms to hold everyone's attention.
"By 2012, we will have reached the point of no return, and trillions of people will die painful deaths and the polar bears will have to grow gills and live in the water because there will be no more ice and Kevin Costner and his friends will have to help us escape from artificial islands in the ocean and lead us to the mythical 'Dryland' unless someone builds a time machine back to the year 2000 to warn the world of its impending doom! Trust the experts!"
The consensus of climate scientists voiced their agreement with Gore by accepting his funding and then booking tv hits on CNN to warn of the imminent disaster 11 years ago.
At publishing time, experts confirmed that Gore's speech had reduced global temperatures by half a degree.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY: AFGHAN MUJAHADDIN?
When my son Brandon was a cadet at Virginia Military Academy, his professor teaching Modern Military History gave a lecture on the 1980s War in Afghanistan fought by Afghan Mujahaddin against the Soviet Red Army occupation of their country. One of the pictures he showed was the one above of “three typical Mujahaddin fighters.”
Brandon raised his hand. “Yes, Cadet Wheeler,” the professor called on him. “Actually, Professor,” Brandon said, “only the man in the center with the white beard is one. The man on the right is United States Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, while the man on the left is my father.”
The professor was stunned while the rest of the class stifled laughter. “Are you quite sure of that, Cadet Wheeler?” stammered the professor. “Oh, yes sir,” Brandon replied. “I recognize my own father. That photo is framed in my father’s study. It was taken in November 1988. The Afghan Commander’s name is Moli Shakur. I have known Congressman Rohrabacher all my life.”
The cadets all applauded in appreciation. To this day, this remains one of Brandon’s fondest college memories. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #145 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)