HALF-FULL REPORT 04/25/25
Ouch. The NY Post cover story this morning (4/25) has to bruise our POTUS whose ego is the size of Olympus Mons on Mars.
On Wednesday night (4/23)/early Thursday morning (4/24), in clear response to Trump’s “final peace proposal,” Russia launched a massive missile attack on civilian targets in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv: at least 70 missiles 11 of which were ballistic, and close to 150 kamikaze drones, blowing up a number of residential apartment complexes leaving many dead in the rubble and hundreds wounded (the photo in the NYP cover is one of them).
This video shows the moment a North Korean ballistic missile struck a residential building in Kyiv last night, killing 12 ppl
While Ukraine has been out of U.S. ATACMS & British/French Storm Shadows for months, North Korea keeps sending KN-23 ballistic missiles to Russia🇺🇦🇰🇵🇷🇺 pic.twitter.com/vQlJYrUauQ
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 24, 2025
Trump’s response on his Truth Social?
So much more in this HFR – it will make you think, laugh, get upset, think and reflect more, laugh more, and find news that will make you happy. Jump right on in!
THE TIGERS OF SAMARKAND
The magnificent Sher-Dor Madrassa, built in the early 1600s, is part of the Registan public square complex of the ancient Silk Road oasis of Samarkand. “Sher-Dor” means “Adorned with Tigers” in Persian – flaunting Islamic blasphemy of living beings in art. Here is the mosaic depiction of a tiger chasing a deer and on its back a rising sun deity with a human face. This is honoring the pre-Islamic history of Samarkand that goes back almost 3,000 years.
It was centuries old when Alexander conquered it in 329 BC. For a thousand years as Central Asia’s great entrepot on the Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean, it was a cosmopolitan center for Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Nestorian Christianity. Incorporated into the Islamic world in the 700s, sacked by Genghiz Khan in 1220, rebuilt by the time Marco Polo in 1272 described it as “a large and splendid city,” Tamerlane made it his capital in 1370.
Colonized by Czar Alexander II in the 1860s within the Russian Imperial Empire, and by the Soviets in the 1920s within the Uzbek SSR, Samarkand is flourishing today in independent Uzbekistan. Come with me to explore Samarkand and so many other wonders of "The Heart of Central Asia" soon. It will be like a dream come true. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #208 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
POTUS OUTFOXES PRO-ILLEGAL ALIEN FEDERAL JUDGE
How cool is this?
POTUS and Team Trump have pulled off an incredibly creative move to humiliate an activist judge trying to stop them from deporting dangerous illegal aliens.
As Axios reported, Team Trump revealed yesterday (4/23) how they managed to avoid violating a federal judge’s restraining order barring them from deporting certain illegals.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian E. Murphy, a Biden appointee, ordered the Trump administration to ensure that people with final removal orders have a chance to argue that deportation to a country other than their own could jeopardize their safety.
The Trump White House, though, exploited a loophole in the ruling and deported several illegal aliens anyway. It turns out Murphy’s order only applied to the Department of Homeland Security, not any other federal agencies.
TRUMP’S DEAL WOULD PLUNGE THE WORLD INTO WAR
“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea. There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution.” –Volodymyr Zelensky in response to Trump’s plan, Kyiv, April 22.
Surrender, capitulation, betrayal, appeasement, abandonment. These are the words that better describe the egregious apology of a peace deal that the Trump administration is currently hawking around Europe.
For, rather than attempting to address the fundamental causes of the conflict – namely Russia’s unprovoked invasion of a sovereign state – Trump and his band of fellow travellers have reached the perverse conclusion that the best way to achieve peace in Ukraine is by rewarding Russian president Vladimir Putin for his blatant act of military aggression.
That certainly seems to be the essence of the terms presented in the one-page document given to Western diplomats meeting in London on Tuesday (4/22).
It proposes allowing Putin to keep nearly all the Ukrainian territory he has seized since launching his initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014, while giving the Ukrainians – who are unquestionably the innocent party in the conflict – next to nothing in return.
THE FAIRY TALE CASTLE OF SEGOVIA
This is Spain’s most famous and beloved castle, high on a rocky promontory above the city of Segovia some 60 miles northwest of Madrid. The site of a Celtic settlement, Roman trading post, and Arab wooden fort, when the Reconquista of the Christian knights removed the Islamic invaders from their land in the early 1200s, the building of the idyllic fairy tale castle you see began.
For centuries it was the palace residence of the Kings and Queens of Castille. It was here, on December 13, 1474, that Isabella, daughter of King John II, was enthroned as the Queen of Castille. When her husband Ferdinand, whom she married in 1469, became King of Aragon in 1475, they jointly ruled a unified Spain. As we learned in our early school years, it was Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille who sponsored Columbus’ discovery of the Americas in 1492.
Today, the Castle of Segovia is a World Heritage Site, serving as a museum of the history of Castille and National Archive of Spain. Immaculately preserved and maintained, it’s a thrilling experience to explore. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #266 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
PREPARING FOR CHINA’S NEW PERIOD OF THE WARRING STATES
“The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus has it ever been.” — The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, circa 1400, attributed to Luo Guanzhong.
At some point, Xi’s Chinese Communist Party will either 1) productively address America’s trade grievances, 2) start military action that risks global thermonuclear war, or 3) itself collapse and throw China into chaos.
The first two possibilities have been discussed broadly elsewhere, but let’s think through scenario three because it seems this is Trump’s goal. Trump has backed Xi into a corner and here’s why Xi’s options are bad.
PERSONNEL PROBLEMS ARE BECOMING PERSONAL PROBLEMS FOR XI JINPING
Political developments among the elite are beginning to point to a dramatic truncation of the power of the “core of the party center”, Xi Jinping.
A recent article from the official mouthpiece of the military, the PLA Daily, reminds readers that “our principle is that the Party commands the gun” (我们的原则是党指挥枪) (PLA Daily, March 10). Another from the Party’s primary newspaper, the People’s Daily, urges readers to “ensure that the ‘knife handle’ is firmly held in the hands of the Party and the people” (确保“刀把子”牢牢掌握在党和人民手中) (People’s Daily, January 12).
The “gun” and the “knife handle” are metonyms for the Party’s two sources of hard power, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the domestic security apparatus. For over 18 months, Xi’s protégés—or at least people appointed under Xi—have been disappearing from leadership positions across both these systems.
THE WELL OF JOB
We’re all familiar with the sufferings of Job in the Old Testament’s Book of Job. But what happened to Job after his sufferings were ended? All the OT says is that, with his health and riches restored, he lived long enough to see his great-great grandchildren.
The OT says Job lived in the “Land of Uz,” which was “beyond the Euphrates.” That would place it in modern day Iraq. There is no connection between this Hebraic name and the land of Uzbekistan – meaning the Land of Uzbeks, a Turkic people. Yet the Silk Road city of Bukhara in today’s Uzbekistan is thousands of years old.
Jews have lived in Bukhara for 3,000 years, although almost all have emigrated now (some 150,000 Bukharan Jews live in Israel). Thus it is a very ancient legend that during a terrible drought in Bukhara, Job visited the city and struck the ground with his staff – causing a spring of healing water to gush from the ground, and continues to do so today.
A shrine was built around the spring – the Well of Job – and the water is clear and drinkable. One of the many extraordinary experiences in what we call Hidden Central Asia. We’ll be here again this coming May. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #114 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE DANGER OF NOTHING
I am chagrinned that it has taken me this long to understand the emptiness of Democrat dogma.
I started realizing this some years ago when I began building a curriculum for the college logic class I was going to teach; I was searching for debates that were won by left-leaning apologists, thinking I should present examples from both sides of the social/economic/religious worldviews.
But I began to suspect that such examples weren’t to be found. I found people -- mostly men -- who could slide around from one logical fallacy to another with slippery skill, but none did any convincing.
Then came the Biden administration, when we watched the Democrat hollowness reverberate around in poor Joe’s empty head. It became even more evident in the addled speech of Ms. Significance-of-Time.
Now here we are in the Trump administration, and the reveal is staggering: the Democrat/Leftist agenda just isn’t there. The evidence can be laid out in seven different points:
AMERICA MUST CATCH UP WITH UKRAINE’S GENIUS AT DRONE AUTONOMOUS WARFARE
Washington is sleepwalking through the most significant military transformation of our generation. Ukraine is not just defending its territory; it is rewriting the rules of combat in real time. This is not theory. It is raw, adaptive, high-stakes drone innovation playing out daily over Sumy, Kherson, and Kharkiv.
Over the past two and a half years, I have been on the ground in Ukraine, cutting my teeth by studying and understanding battlefield technology firsthand and forming close relationships with those serving at the front.
These experiences have fundamentally reshaped my understanding of modern warfare and the pivotal role drones now play. Understand: Ukraine is not just deploying drones. It is reinventing drone warfare across every dimension. The scale and sophistication of their ecosystem is staggering.