Yearly Archives: 2023
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/20/23
Just got back home from the wilds of Patagonia since early January – such as being at the breathtaking Torres del Paine above – and can’t thank Mike Ryan enough for his spectacular HFR last week (1/13).
Thanks to Mike, TTPers were the first clued in to what others are figuring out this week. So now it’s my shout. Mike keeps raising the HFR bar on me. Let’s see if I can clear the bar now – here we go, and let’s have informative fun doing it.
A CHANGPA NOMAD GIRL ON THE TIBETAN PLATEAU
“Changpa” means “northerners” in Tibetan, the nomads who survive with their herds of goats and yaks in the 15,000-foot high plateau of northern Tibet known as the Changtang.
In 1987, I conducted an overland expedition from Beijing to Kathmandu, crossing the entire Changtang north to south. TTP’s Dr. Joel Wade was with me. Occasionally, we’d chance upon a Changpa encampment. For many of them such as this young girl holding a handful of barley meal, we were the first white people they had ever seen.
The Changpa live in one of the most remote and harshest places on earth. We can hardly imagine what life is like for them any more can they imagine ours. Being with them is an unforgettably profound experience. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #254 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 01/19/23
The Narratives are Falling Fast
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Grab an IPA and get ready to celebrate lots of fantastic news this week!
Narratives are falling all over now that the House is in patriotic hands.
The world is turning on ESG and its enablers at BlackRock in a big way. The Federal Reserve wants no part of social engineering.
The greatest ESG enthusiasts are beholden to big finance, which includes most large public companies and universities. Of note, the most vigorous supporters come from a narrow cohort of students working on a Master's degree. Undergrads, and especially Ph.D. students, want no part. This might be due to the liberal arts nature of most Master's degrees. Or maybe not.
The Vaxx narrative force-fed for three years is dead now that a dangerous drift in the type of antibodies produced in the jabs has been discovered. It's not that the vaxx reduced Covid; it reduced the symptoms. The change in antibody type allows the virus to set up camp and stick around within a person. This might be the cause of long Covid in some.
West Virginia dumped BlackRock, and while the state is small, it impacted the company's bottom line. ESG is Chairman Larry Fink's dream Child to enact a one-world government where he is the new global central banker, and the WEF serves as a Board of Directors.
Speaking of West Virginia, there is talk of a Bill Gates-sponsored liquid sodium reactor to be built by AEP south of Charleston. That's the chemical row where one large, heavy chemical plane after another operates. The base load is large and steady. This part of the USA is to heavy chemicals as Houston is to oil refining.
Come over to Skye's Links; the news is excellent this week. Very good for the good guys…
COURTSHIP IN THE GALAPAGOS
The male Magnificent Frigatebird has a flap of loose bright red skin on his neck called a “gular sac.” During mating season, they huff and puff, filling it with air to blow it up like a balloon. They then parade around showing off for the ladies, for the bigger the red balloon, the more the ladies are aroused. Size matters, even in the Galapagos.
This is only one of many courtship displays among the birds and animals of these extraordinary islands. No wonder the Galapagos are called “evolution’s laboratory.” (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #199 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
GUESS WHO WAS BEHIND THAT GREENIE PUSH TO BAN GAS STOVES
The call to ban gas stoves in the U.S., based on environmental concerns, certainly drew backlash from an angry public tired of seeing their household appliances, critical possessions and standard of living being targeted.
After all, they've already gotten our incandescent light bulbs and flush toilets in many quarters. They've meddled with the design of our cars and guns. They're trying to get our meat, telling us to eat bugs instead. Many consumers, and professional chefs, who say gas is best for cooking, simply put their collective foot down.
Where did this lunacy come from?
About where you'd expect -- from our enemies.
IS JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR ABOUT TO BE PUSHED OFF THE SUPREME COURT?
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is recognized for three things: (1) She was the first Hispanic female justice on the Court; (2) She’s a leftist’s leftist; and (3) she is not wise but is almost staggeringly ignorant and biased.
All those factors benefit Democrats, but now they’re getting worried, not because of her manifest legal and intellectual deficits but because there’s a possibility that they will not hold the White House and Senate after the 2024 election.
Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to the Supreme Court in 2009, following her eleven-year stint as a Clinton appointee on the Second Circuit. Of Puerto Rican heritage, she has the Ivy League credentials that mean so much to Democrats. No matter that she got them being an affirmative action baby.
NEGOTIABLE AFFECTION IN SKAGWAY
When gold was discovered in the Klondike of Canada’s Yukon in 1896, the fastest way to get there was a tiny hamlet at the end of a long inlet of Alaska’s Inland Passage coast called Skagway. By 1898, Skagway was a lawless Wild West boom town flooded with prospectors who needed entertainment and release from the arduous travails of gold searching – and ladies who would provide it for a price.
The Brass Pic (as in a miner’s pic & shovel) was one of many Houses of Negotiable Affection in Skagway that flourished until the gold panned out in 1900. It’s preserved as a museum today in fond memory of those days of commercially consensual delight. Skagway is a terrific place to experience, drawing over a million visitors a year. Come here to see what draws them. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #198 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE CANCER THAT IS PUBLIC HEALTH
Sometimes an institution or movement turns on the society that supports it, harming the whole for its own benefit. A public bureaucracy can forget its underlying purpose and focus on perpetuating itself, or an organization comes to believe that the rest of society owes it special privileges. When an organ within the body of society becomes thus corrupted, and proves itself unwilling to reform, society must excise the diseased tissue before it spreads.
Cancer starts when cells within an organ begin to operate outside the strictures and rules that the body’s cells were programmed to follow.
As a cancer grows, it slowly corrupts the organ it arose within, impairing or changing its function. Demanding more nourishment to support its own rapid growth, it saps the body’s ability to support the rest of its billions of cells. In time the whole body deteriorates, though the cancer continues to grow and extract nourishment to the end, effectively repurposing the body solely towards its own support.
Death may be averted by removing the offending cancer, or even the entire organ from which it arose. But if the organ is vital to survival or the cancer has infiltrated other vital organs, excision is not possible. Sometimes the cancer may be poisoned or killed with radiation or immunotherapy without killing the entire body. But if it cannot be so dealt with, it takes the entire body down with it. This is a relatively common way to die.
Society is in many ways like the human body. Its various organs perform their functions to support the whole, all interdependent for survival. Corruption of one organ will, if left unchecked, corrupt the whole body.
DEMOCRATS GONE MAD AND THEIR MANIC METHODS
For all Joe Biden’s talk about “semi-fascist” and “un-American,” “ultra-MAGA” Republicans, it is the Democratic Party that has far more radically changed. It is descended into a woke, neo-socialist, radically green party. And it is committed, as Barack Obama once promised, to fundamentally transforming America. How it proceeds with that agenda is now as entirely predictable as it is creepy.
KEEPING YOUR SANITY WITH A PATH TO CLEAR THINKING
I’m relaxed and thinking clearly!
Today I want to talk about the positive state that we want to aim for most of the time – which will connect us with the emotional resources and clear thinking we need to make our best decisions. Researchers like Steven Porges call it our social engagement system.
When we feel safe, and trusting, and relaxed, our heart rate and blood pressure lowers, all very beneficial for our immune system, our cardio-vascular system, our organs, and our overall health.
We’re also more connected with our higher brain functions, and the part of our vagus nerve that connects the organs of our body with our brain. This is counter to being in the protect mode of fight or flight, so it lowers our stress levels, and makes it easier to think and create with complexity.
So how do we do this? Here’s how…
THE PERITO MORENO GLACIER
One of the most spectacular glaciers on earth, the Perito Moreno spills off the gigantic Southern Patagonia Ice Field constantly calving into Lago Argentino at the bottom of South America. It is almost 100 square miles of ice some 600 feet thick, and is an embarrassment to climate alarmists because it’s growing, not retreating. Every day, huge chunks of ice on the glacier’s front (which you see in the photo) break off or “calve” into the lake, equal to the glacier’s forward advance of two meters or over six feet a day.
Thunderous cracks and booms accompany the plunge of the calved sections with huge splashes of water. You never know when or where they’ll occur along the mile wide front, but when they do, everyone watching exclaims and applauds. We were lucky to have perfectly gorgeous weather. You can take a boat along the front, view it from several boardwalks for marvelous vantage points, or even hike on it with crampons with an ice-trekking guide. Being here is one of Patagonia’s most thrilling experiences.
(Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #253 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/13/23
Biden's Handlers are Done with Sleepy Joe
The Crisis in Brazil ________________________________________________________
We are being told that White House lawyers, those scions of virtue, found multiple locations where Biden placed top secret and other classified documents while vice president.Come on; his lawyers are reporting this?
His handlers are clearly done with Joe, and they are taking him out. The MSM is salivating over his destruction. Why?
DC insiders say that Susan Rice is behind the coup as she stands the most to gain. As Harris moves up, Rice moves in. Either a quick decapitation of Harris or perhaps the 2024 election placing Rice within the margin of cheating puts the Obama machine back in control of the White House.
Events in Brazil so closely mirror other coups that it is apparent that a script is unfolding. Brazil is now in communist hands, and American firms are heading for the doors. But the events surrounding the removal of Trump and the removal of Bolsonaro are just too similar.
International leftists have boiled the frog too fast. Postmodernist hipsters are noticing the increasing number of deaths from "sudden." The 2020 election, truckers in Canada, Brazil, and especially the consequences of the jab are destroying faith in the government.
While conservatives lose faith in men, the left loses faith in their god, their god of government. They cannot hide; they took the jabs and are afraid.
Please join us at today's HFR. In the end, we win.
DEMOCRATIC WOMEN’S CAUCUS WEARS MATCHING WHITE BUTCHER COATS IN SUPPORT OF ABORTION
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an inspiring show of solidarity with abortionists and other eugenicists, the Democratic Women's Caucus showed up to the Capitol this week wearing stylish butcher coats.
"We will never tire of standing up courageously for the merciless slaughter of human babies so they can be dissected and sold to university researchers for revolting experimentation, er... we mean, 'reproductive healthcare,'" said Pelosi to reporters. "We're courageously standing up for reproductive healthcare and bodily autonomy and euphemisms. Yeah. No further questions, please."
Washington insiders say onlookers were dazzled by the waddling gaggle of women dressed in glittering white slaughterhouse frocks, which as of yet had no spatters of blood on them. "Wow!" said one Capitol intern. "Look at all the feminists! I feel empowered!"
The herd of hunched-over, white-clad crones then danced and shimmied around a large boiling cauldron, waved sharp metal cleavers in the air, and screeched a sacred feminine moon chant to appease Molech before shuffling awkwardly into the Capitol like a flock of broken ducks.
At publishing time, Pelosi had confirmed to reporters that the red stain on her frock was just red wine.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY: GOLD-PLATED LAUGHTER WITH AN UZBEK LADY
In Bukhara, Uzbekistan, I didn’t speak Uzbek and she didn’t speak English, yet laughter is the true universal language.
She gave me a broad smile to display her gold-plated teeth. You don’t often see someone with teeth of gold, but she says what better way to protect your teeth when you’re getting old? The Uzbek people of Central Asia have a wonderful sense of humor. Come with me to Central Asia this September to laugh with these Silk Road people yourself. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #252 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE MARXIST HURRICANE IN SOUTH AMERICA
A lot is changing in South America. As many nations elect leaders with Marxist roots, we are wondering where it all goes from here. The biggest surprise is that for the first time ever, Colombia now has a leftist leader, poised to make huge changes. So is this the beginning of a Marxist revolution throughout South America? Are we going to see these nations embrace the fate of Venezuela and Cuba? What is China’s role in this, and what do they have to gain?
On this episode, we talk about all that’s at stake in South America, how this revolutionary orbit toward Marxism is a lot like the BLM Movement here in the U.S., and how the U.S. should respond.
CERRO CAMPANARIO
This is the view of the lakes of Bariloche in Argentine Patagonia. It was taken yesterday from a viewpoint called Cerro Campanario. This really is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I'm here exploring Patagonia with your fellow TTPers. Wish you were here with us!
(Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #251 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 01/12/23
The Congress has New Leaders
A Fresh Wind is Blowing.
It's about time, we have a new Speaker in Kevin McCarthy, yet nobody doubts where the power now resides. Twenty Representatives led by Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz changed the trajectory of the House of Representatives.
The BLM and queer theory flags over American embassies were hauled down and trashed, the worst of the commies were removed from committee leadership, and the long, hard slog to restore the nation begins.
The economy is in bad shape and getting worse as faith in the United States is at its lowest in history.
The old, drunk hag is gone. Ding Dong, the Witch, is Dead, and a new team of energetic patriots has joined the battle.
It is as if…as if we are experiencing a turning…a Fourth Turning where the old systems have proven themselves incapable of maintaining the fire and vigor that is America's birthright. When we needed heroes, they arose, picked up their swords and shields, and took on the entrenched leech and parasitic class.
Their motto? Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
Things will be different, and there will be tremendous economic repercussions ahead, but we might just be a nation again.
Come on over to Skye's Links. We have a lot to discuss, and we have work to do.
FED CHAIR POWELL GOES BEAST MODE ON GREENIE WOKERY
Well, here's one we didn't see coming.
After months of wokery coming out of the Federal Reserve, with leftists promoting weird ideas like the importance of making global warming the primary consideration in assessing how the nation's money supply is to be managed, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell called out the crap and restated how monetary policy actually works.
DEAR YOUNG PEOPLE, COLLEGE IS LAME. GET A JOB.
Young people, are you ready for success? Want a career in a rewarding field that will lead to a fulfilling life? Don’t go to college. Be an electrician, be a plumber, be a welder, be a carpenter — hell, learn to code — but for heaven’s sake and for that matter, your own, don’t go to college.
I know some of you are months or even years away from high school graduation, but: Don’t. Go. To. College. Okay, so if you want to be a doctor, lawyer, or physicist (more on that below), maybe look for a college that does not double as an asylum. Other than that, treat college campuses like the radioactive waste depots that they have become.
IS THIS THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL BEACH?
According to the many thousands of world travellers on TripAdvisor, it’s #1: Praia do Sancho on the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha. You’ll also find it on just about any list of most beautiful beaches, such as Condé Nast, Harper’s Bazaar, and Luxury Travel.
The whole island is gorgeous. Mention that you’ve been there to any Brazilian who hasn’t and their eyes get misty. Fernando de Noronha (no-rone-ya) is the dream honeymoon, the dream vacation that only comes true for few in Brazil, as it’s hard to get to and hardly any place to stay once you’re there.
You have to get to either Recife or Natal in the far northeast, then fly 220 miles out into the Atlantic. Then take a boat, or scamper down the rocks of a 250ft-high cliff to be on the sugar sand of this enchanting beach – which you’ll have almost to yourself.
For some reason, all those lists have the name wrong, calling it “Baia” or “Baio,” when it’s “Praia” (beach in Portuguese). As the welcome sign proudly announces above the cliff trail: “Praia do Sancho – A Mais Bonita do Mundo,” Sancho Beach – The Most Beautiful in the World. If you’re lucky to ever get here, you’ll surely agree. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #73 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE DANCING FOREST ON THE CURONIAN SPIT
The Curonian Spit is a 60 mile-long and skinny stretch of sand separating the 625 square-mile Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. It is jointly shared by Lithuania and Kaliningrad. The trees of one section of the pine forests covering the spit are weirdly twisted and distorted by some unknown force of nature. Their bizarre undulations have earned it the sobriquet, “The Dancing Forest.” It’s one of the as-yet unexplained mysteries of life on our planet, and a wondrous one to see. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #200 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED
"It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong."
―Voltaire, The Age of Louis XIV
In 2008, Ben Stein released a documentary film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, that addressed the absolute intolerance within academia and the media for even a mention of "intelligent design" as opposed to unguided evolution with regard to the origin of life. The editor of a scientific journal connected to the Smithsonian lost his job for publishing an article by Steven C. Meyer that referenced intelligent design. Journalists who addressed the issue have been fired, and professors have lost their jobs if they admitted to considering it a viable theory. As one might expect, the Wikipedia page on the film mocks it as propaganda. Say the words "intelligent design," and the Darwinian cult hears "creationist."If this sounds familiar, consider the parallel with the lab leak theory of the origin of COVID. The entire country, and most especially virologists, epidemiologists, and doctors, has endured what proponents of the intelligent design theory within academia have experienced for decades. From the outset of the release of COVID upon the world, any voices that opposed the Faustian Faucian narrative were vilified, censored, their careers threatened, just as those scientists or journalists who uttered the words "intelligent design."
Schools must close, masks must be worn, people must "social distance" from one another, vaccines must be mandated. None of those things, it turns out, was necessary. Nor was any of them based on any science, not even the vaccines. They all parallel a plan laid out in Event 201, a World Economic Forum exercise that took place in October 2019.
Curious timing? Indeed — especially considering the participants...
THE US COUP WE NEVER KNEW
Did someone or something seize control of the United States?
What happened to the U.S. border? Where did it go? Who erased it? Why and how did 5 million people enter our country illegally? Did Congress secretly repeal our immigration laws? Did Joe Biden issue an executive order allowing foreign nationals to walk across the border and reside in the United States as they pleased?
Since when did money not have to be paid back? Who insisted that the more dollars the federal government printed, the more prosperity would follow? When did America embrace zero interest? Why do we believe $30 trillion in debt is no big deal?
What happened to Election Night returns? Did the fact that Americans created more electronic ballots and computerized tallies make it take so much longer to tabulate the votes?
Here are more questions to ask ourselves...
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY AVOIDING THE ALLURE OF VICTIMHOOD
One of the most harmful ways of thinking of ourselves is as a victim. It can make it nearly impossible to find success, financially or otherwise, and undermines our capacity for relationships.
Yet this mindset is not uncommon, we’ve probably all experienced it to some degree. But for some it can create a more pervasive atmosphere in their lives.
As researchers Rahav Gabay and his colleagues have shown, this mindset has four specific qualities, that lead to three specific biases and one onerous tendency, that can skew our view of the world.
Today we’ll look at how to move away from this kind of mindset, and re-orient toward taking effective, positive action. We start with understanding that changing a victim mindset is much more complicated than the kind of “get over it” advice that’s so common – and useless.
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 in May. Here is their home from the outside. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #203 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
GOP HINDENBURG
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/06/23
Buenos Aires, Argentina. I am sending this first HFR of 2023 to you from the capital of Argentina at the start of our Patagonia Wonderland exploration with your fellow TTPers.
It’s an unbeatable way to start a new year: with an unforgettable adventure in an extraordinary part of the world far away from home. Particularly now – for it’s a great way to say goodbye and good riddance to the rubbish year of 2022. Into the trash can of history it goes.
That’s a very full trash can. In November, America – Dem cheating making the difference on the margin notwithstanding – voted for more crime, more CRT, more forced child tranny change, more inflation, more woke lunacy, more corruption, the list of nightmares goes on. It's a patient dying of a terminal disease who doesn't want to be cured, who wants to die instead.
So what’s in store for us and the world in 2023? We’re going to start with who will be the biggest Winners and Losers of 2023, then identify the fundamental key to whether a country will flourish and prosper, or decline and suicide itself. That most certainly applies to the USA. And yes, all this involves the three books above.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – THE MAN-EATER OF DALAT
Dalat, South Viet Nam, 1961. I was 17 years old. A friend of my father’s, Herb Klein, came by our house. He was a prominent businessman whose passion was big-game hunting. He had just returned from the mountain jungle highlands of South Viet Nam and regaled us with stories of the Montagnard tribespeople who were plagued by tigers with a taste for human flesh. He told me that after climbing the Matterhorn, living with Amazon headhunters, and swimming the Hellespont, hunting a man-eating tiger should be my next adventure.
“You’d be saving so many lives, Jack,” he told me. “There’s one I heard about from the Co Ho Montagnards that’s killed and eaten almost 20 of them in the forests outside the town of Dalat. I know who can guide you, he was mine, his name is Ngo Van Chi.”
Somehow, I talked my parents into letting me do this. I had saved up the money from giving tennis and judo lessons. So there I was, in pitch dark in a “mirador” of branches and leaves, holding a .300 Weatherby with a flashlight wired to the barrel, waiting for this man-eating tiger to come for the rotting water buffalo we set out as bait. Chi and I heard the tiger, I put the rifle barrel out, Chi clicked on the flashlight, I saw these two enormous red eyes, and fired.
And there he is, the Man-Eater of Dalat, who would never kill another human being ever again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #175 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 01/05/23
The Search for Integrity
Over the past decade or two, the government became the home to an ancient evil; Neo-Platonism or Post Modernism is the belief that a cadre of elites should lead the great unwashed. Their tool is the Noble Lie, the grand narrative meant to grab people by their emotions and compel them to do the elite’s bidding.
Well, on today’s links, we find the Nobel Lie unfolding in all directions. From the fight to find an honest Speaker of the House to the manipulation during Covid, the ESG agenda, and the great migration of Americans in the era of Woke, the truth is coming out.
The economics are ugly as continued inflation appears baked in the cake.
Everywhere, people are waking up to the stone-cold reality that our government manipulated the truth about nearly everything, and they did it in the financial interest of our elites.
Revolutions have occurred over less, and the free fall of trust in government is accelerating.
What institutions are left to trust? Not schools, not churches, not even the Post Office. We can’t even trust that a woman is not a man in drag.
The question is this: Are we nearing the bottom? Is it time to rebuild integrity, and can it even be done?
Please join us at Skye’s Links, and let’s discuss it.
HEAVEN IN THE CARIBBEAN
Quick – name the only country in the world named after a woman. It’s the island nation in the Caribbean of St. Lucia, named after the patron saint of virgins, 4th century Saint Lucia.
The charm, beauty, and serenity of St. Lucia are unequaled in the Caribbean. Here you can have your own private retreat overlooking the twin peaks of The Pitons. The St. Lucian people take great pride in the immaculate spotlessness of their island and in their matchless reputation for personal warmth and hospitality.
While an English-speaking country and member of the British Commonwealth, there is a French tradition here as well, reflected in the fine cuisine and wines in restaurants. Yet I became fond of the local Piton beer as well. St. Lucia is the easiest island in the Caribbean to fall in love with – so it is no wonder that couples come from all over the world to get married or honeymoon here.
If you want to spend a few days of bliss away from all the cares of the world, you can’t do better than this place of heaven in the Caribbean. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #190 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
FLOWER HIGHWAYS, FLOWER TRAILS
For miles and miles, the roads in the Azores Islands are lined with flowers on both sides. Even the foot paths and trails are strewn with flowers.
As you know, I’ve been to every country in the world. I know of no place on earth more beautiful, more flower strewn, more peaceful, serene, and safe than Portugal’s island paradises of Madeira and the Azores in the Atlantic.
So plan on joining me, Rebel, and your fellow TTPers on our exploration of Atlantic Paradises, June 17 to 25. Make this beauty and serenity a part of your life. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #196 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
DAMAR HAMLIN’S “HEART ATTACK”
What everybody who was watching the game witnessed on Monday (1/02) was Mr. Hamlin taking what looked like an ordinary hit to the chest. He and the other player both hit the ground, they both stood up, and then Hamlin collapsed in an instant.
He received at least nine minutes of CPR on the field before an ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital, where he is still in critical condition.
Mr. Hamlin’s collapse was not caused by what most people think of as a “heart attack” – it was something else.
ONCE AGAIN!! CHINA’S COVID LIES COULD PROVE DEADLY FOR AMERICA
The only thing not going viral in China is the truth. Chinese officials are spewing lies to cover up the massive COVID carnage there.
Worse, US public-health officials dawdled for a week, allowing air travelers from China in without testing, while other countries immediately blocked infected travelers from entering.
Aerial photos and videos from China show body bags stacked outside hospitals and crematoria, funeral-home parking lots full and hospitals overwhelmed with COVID patients jammed into hallways. In Beijing and Sichuan, more than 50% of the population is infected, according to internal government documents.
More dangerous, China is also withholding laboratory evidence about what strains are sickening its population. Why do that unless they want to infect the world once more?
DESANTIS GOES TO WAR ON WOKEISM
On election night, I was half-watching Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s victory remarks when something quite extraordinary and encouraging caught my attention.
DeSantis evoked Churchill’s “fighting on the beaches” speech, in which Churchill stirred the resolve and patriotism of the British people in anticipation of the invasion of their homeland by the Nazis. DeSantis, of course, was not warning against Nazism: he was warning against wokeism, which he was implicitly equating with Nazism.
I had never heard a national political figure treat wokeism with such (deserved) gravity. Here’s what he needs to do to help America get rid of it.
THE EUROPE THATS STILL THERE
It’s found here – the fishing port of the ancient village of Sesimbra in Portugal. 3,000 years ago it was called Sempsibriga – high place or briga of the Sempsi Celts. So much of Europe is gone now, steamrollered by modernity. Not here, where Portuguese fishermen sail out in their tiny boats for their daily catch as they have for countless generations. The best fish you’ve ever had is in Sesimbra’s local restaurants – wow, is the swordfish good.
While Portugal is a First World country with all the modernity you could ask for, it is unique not only for the charm of its history, preservation of its culture, and post-card picturesqueness, but the sweetness of its people. They are simply nice in a way that’s so captivating. Their traditional family values are part of their nature. The country resonates with peacefulness, an at ease serenity. It’s the Europe that’s still there.
You can be captivated yourself by joining our WX Exploration of Portugal next month, June 17-26. (Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
Jack Wheeler is Escape Artist’s World Exploration Expert. He is the founder of Wheeler Expeditions at WheelerExpeditions.com.
TURNING 80
Jack and Rebel, New Year’s Day, 2023
I turn 80 years old this year of 2023. It’s a sobering milestone.
I have almost infinitely more to be grateful for than not. I have had an incredible life, lucky beyond belief. I have the two most wonderful sons a father could ask for. As Rebel and I are in our fourth decade of marriage, we love each other more than ever.
And I am in superb health – albeit with that infamous qualifier, “for my age.” I work out several days a week so hard and extensively that a friend recently told me he’s seen fit 40 year-olds in the gym that couldn’t keep up with me. I don’t have an ache or pain in my body.
However… as 80 looms before me, I realize I can’t keep this up. At some point, I’m going to have to call it a day. So I’ve decided that I’m going to give it my all for another year – that year being this one, 2023.
I’m always saying, Carpe Diem – the Time for a Great Adventure Is Now. Well, that time has come. If you’ve always wanted to have a great adventure with me in some awesomely cool place in the world – or have another! – carpe diem, seize the day.
To entice you, I’ve made another decision: to make you a deal I hope you can’t resist.
RESOLUTIONS 2023
Rebel and I received the best Christmas present we could ask for. Jackson and his wife Raya came to spend Christmas-New Year’s with us, and to deliver the news: Rebel and I are going to be grandparents! At last!
The picture you see is Rebel, Jackson, and me standing in front of our Christmas tree, with Rebel holding a 1992 photo of Jackson being held by us on his first Christmas at six months old. He’s now 30, six-foot-two, and soon to be a father himself.
The years pass by so quickly. You look back on them and they seem to have gone by at light speed. That’s why I always advise parents of young children to treasure every day with them – for the day will come so fast when they will be grown and gone.
That’s why each one of us no matter how old should treasure every day we are still alive on this Earth – for the day will come when we will be gone, and that day can come at any moment.
That’s why every January 1st, I renew my two most fundamental Resolutions for the coming year. Here they are – and I’d like to suggest they be yours too.
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY USING HOPE EFFECTIVELY
Hope lies at the heart of our aspirations and ambitions; our dreams and wishes. It fuels us to strive for goals and achievements.
It can also lead us to wish for things we cannot have, aspire to achievements we cannot reach, and fantasize dreams that we cannot fulfill.
To the degree that hope is integrated with reality, it can serve our greatest potential. To the degree that it is disconnected from reality, it can undermine that potential; keeping us floating helplessly in fantasy, unable to find traction and gain fulfillment in our lives.
Let’s talk about how we get to the first and avoid the second…