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)
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS EXPLAIN THEY NEED PAY RAISES TO KEEP UP WITH THE INFLATION THEY CAUSED
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Though Americans were up in arms when news broke that lawmakers were pushing to give themselves an increase in salary, members of Congress insisted that they needed the pay increase to keep up with the inflation they caused.
Representatives were quick to defend the proposed pay increase in the face of heavy criticism, citing the need to keep up with the rising cost of living due to the economic difficulties caused by Congress' failure to address rampant inflation.
"The last pay increase we voted to give ourselves just isn't cutting it," explained House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. "We need more money to make ends meet after we've spent the last several years making sure everything is more expensive and making sure nobody's money goes as far as it used to. Not only do we deserve this raise, but quite frankly, we need it to pay our bills. And that's what taxpayer dollars are for — paying for someone else's expenses."
Sources from within closed-door congressional meetings warned that legislators may be forced to find ways to solve inflation if they are unable to obtain raises. "How else do taxpayers expect us to keep affording things they can't afford themselves?" one congressman asked under the condition of anonymity. "We've worked hard to make sure living in the United States isn't cheap, and we think we deserve a little reward for that hard work. Is that so wrong?"
At publishing time, members of Congress had grown concerned that failure to secure a pay increase may require them to learn to become fiscally responsible.
HALF-FULL REPORT 12/20/24
Welcome to the Christmas 2024 HFR! And to the Hanukkah 2024! Yes, they coincide on December 25 this year (when the latter begins). This is a glorious time of celebration for all the bountiful blessings of Western Civilization – and this year the cup of those blessings is overflowing.
So much so that the 2024 calendar grants us a head start of a full three-day weekend before Christmas Eve – meaning we can begin right now to exult in Christmas joy and gratitude.
“We” means you and me. Maybe not for a lot of folks in Washington DC. Certainly not for illegals trying to cross our border in Texas. As we await events unfolding on Capitol Hill later today, we’ll start with them. A lot more, so here we go!
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)
TRUMP BLOWS UP “RIDICULOUS” FEDERAL SPENDING DEAL AS SHUTDOWN LOOMS
Yesterday (12/17), House Republican leaders were struggling to cobble together support within their party for a bipartisan stopgap federal spending bill on when, last night at 9:28pm, President-elect Donald Trump weighed in hard against it and imploded the deal.
In a joint statement on X (full text below) with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, Mr. Trump trashed the 1,500-plus-page legislation that would fund the government until March 14.
The two men called on Republican leaders to reject it and renegotiate a “clean” measure with Democrats that would eliminate a trove of spending and policy extras.
Congress, now back to the drawing board, faces a Friday deadline to pass a stopgap bill to keep the federal government from shuttering.
“Republicans must get smart and tough. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, THEN CALL THEIR BLUFF,” Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance posted, with several words capitalized for Trumpian emphasis.
A TSUNAMI OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS THAT’S THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG
How’s that for a mixed metaphor? You do know that when a gigantic fracture of a massive glacier calves off creating an iceberg, the wave it creates splashing into the ocean is so huge it can seem like a tsunami overwhelming any small craft nearby, right? Okay, here we go.
An important feature of Trump’s second term will be his actions on the first day. Trump will sign a flurry of executive orders (EOs) on the day he is sworn in (January 20, 2025) and the following day. The exact number is not known but it will easily be 50 orders or more.
Trump’s executive orders have already been drafted for the most part. Some are still undergoing legal review, some are being tweaked from a policy perspective, and some are being debated internally as to whether they should even go forward. Some EOs may be pulled from the pile if counsel decides that legislation is required to achieve the intended purpose.
Each EO is presented to the president in a separate blue leather binder with the Seal of the President of the United States stamped in gold on the cover.
Each EO is signed with a different pen and then the pens are handed out to supporters of the President as gifts. Now you can visualize Trump sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office signing away on EOs to reinstate Trump policies, establish new policies and abolish as many of Biden’s policies as possible.
The best quick guide to Trump’s first 100 days is to consider the EOs he will sign on Day One of his second term. Here’s a summary broken out by policy area:
WOULD YOU BELIEVE THIS IS A CITY IN CENTRAL ASIA?
This is Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan with over two million people. Originally named Alma Ata or Father of Apples, as here in the western foothills of the Tien Shan mountains is where apples were first domesticated and cultivated.
Almaty is a thriving prosperous city as the financial/economic- but not political- capital of independent Kazakhstan. And but a stone’s throw away from the magnificent snow-clad Tien Shan, a trekker’s paradise in the spring, summer, and fall, a skier’s in the winter. It’s a modern, spotlessly clean city with gorgeous parks and flower gardens- and there’s a terrific Irish Pub flowing with Guinness.
What more could you want? (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #220 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE PHENOMENON OF TRUMP REBORN
President-elect Donald Trump’s most striking characteristics today are clarity, confidence, and calm. This is extraordinary in a man renowned for chaos, confusion, and the thin-skinned hurling of demeaning insults.
But it is a truth that needs to be acknowledged and accounted for to understand what we are witnessing as Trump prepares to resume the presidency.
Van Jones, one of the Left’s level-headed analysts, captured the truth lucidly in an interview with CNN’s Chris Cillizza. When Cillizza asked Jones how such a supposedly unlikely guy as Trump “became the one that cracked the code,” Jones rejected the premise of the question.
“Can we cut it out? … Donald Trump is smarter than me, you, and all critics. You know how we know?
Because he has the White House, the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court, the popular vote, he has a massive media ecosystem bigger than the mainstream built around him and for him, and a religious fervor in a political movement around him, and his best buddy is the richest person in the history of the world, and the most relevant Kennedy is with him.
This dude is a phenomenon. He is the most powerful human on Earth in our lifetime. And we’re still saying, ‘How is this guy doing it?’ We look like idiots.”
ELON MUSK BELIEVES BRITAIN IS IN VERY DEEP TROUBLE

Nigel (R) with Musk and Reform Treasurer Nick Candy at Mar-A-Lago (12/16)
[Nigel Farage is the founder-leader of Britain’s Reform UK Party, which he represents as an MP (Member of Parliament) in the House of Commons. Britain will soon no longer be a two-party Uniparty between Conservative and Labor. The former did such an awful job under a succession of ridiculous Prime Ministers after jettisoning Boris Johnson, the Brits promptly jumped from the Tory frying pan into the catastrophically Woke Marxist fire of Labor. Not long ago it would be laughably delusional among Brits that Reform would supplant the Tories and Farage be Prime Minister. No laughing anymore.
This is a front page essay by Farage in today’s (12/18) London Telegraph, paired with a front-page news report: “Musk Ready To Bankroll Farage With ‘Biggest Donation In British Political History’.” Read them both and you’ll see why Farage may well transform the UK as Trump is doing to the US, both enabled by Elon.]
A Monday afternoon (12/16) visit to Mar-a-Lago, and boy was it busy. Throughout the day, the world’s biggest tech giants were queuing up to meet Donald Trump, from Kris Marszalek, the head of Crypto.com, to Shou Zi Chew, the chief executive of TikTok.
This transition period was nothing like what I saw in 2016: there is a sense of order, determined calm and above all optimism. Trump’s personal ratings continue to rise in a way that’s not been seen before in an incoming president. And is it any wonder?
This is just one example of the atmosphere in Mar-a-Lago and the increasing aura around President Trump himself. It is no exaggeration to say that there is real excitement in the air and no one doubts that, by the date of the inauguration on Jan 20, the Trump administration is going to hit the ground running.
All of this is in such marked contrast to the doom, gloom and misery that is all-pervading in the United Kingdom at the moment.
THE MOST CHRISTIAN ISLAND
Waitangi Bay, Chatham Island. 530 miles east of New Zealand lies an isolated island of windswept rugged beauty that few people have ever heard of. Yet Chatham Island may be an ultimate Christian example of how to prevail over monstrous evil.
In the early 1400s, a Polynesian people calling themselves Moriori sailed from New Zealand across an unknown empty sea to reach an island they named Rekohu, meaning “misty sky.” For 400 years they lived in peace among themselves – and in utter isolation from the world.
But in 1835, another people arrived, and brought Hell with them. They were a group of 500 Maori cannibals from New Zealand determined to take Rekohu for themselves. The Maori killed them like sheep, men, women, children, and babies, and ate them.
The British Governor of New Zealand ignored the Maori Genocide. There were about 2,000 Moriori on Rekohu (renamed Chatham) when the Maoris arrived in 1835. Only 101 Moriori were still alive by 1862. It was Western Christian missionaries who put an end to Maori killing, eating, and enslaving Moriori. Today on Chatham Island there is a Moriori resurgence – but without rancor. The past is past, they say, what counts is the future. Like few other peoples on earth, the Moriori understand the Christian power of abandoning resentment and grievance.
Come to Chatham to experience a unique place in our world, and a people with their souls at peace. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #176 photo ©Jack Wheeler)