MODERN SOLUTIONS
Elon Musk Disguises IRS Building As Tesla Dealership So Democrats Will Burn It Downhttps://t.co/W1QoSXVU3I pic.twitter.com/JEBGBe4aA9
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) March 24, 2025
FLASHBACK FRIDAY: A DAZZLE OF ZEBRAS
Groups of animals have collective nouns, like a pride of lions or a school of fish. A group of zebras is called a dazzle. The term is excellently appropriate. You may wonder why zebras have such clearly obvious stripes that any predator can see. The reason is that predators like lions or hyenas always target a specific individual in the group that’s weak, young or vulnerable. To be dazzled is to be confused or bewildered, and that’s just what zebra stripes do to attacking predators. As the zebras merge on the run, it’s far more difficult for the predator keep focused on the selected target – so the zebras escape unscathed far more often than not. Their stripes are a marvel of evolutionary survival. This photo was taken on the plains of the Serengeti and we just finished visiting it last week. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #285, photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/04/25
Response to the Dragon Bear
Tariffs are a key part of President Trump's strategy to shift the global balance of power away from the Dragon Bear (China and Russia) and back to the United States. The old world order, based on the flawed concept that trading partners don't go to war with each other, has crumbled. Ukraine proved this.
Trump is working to restore power to the Executive Branch and recalibrate manufacturing, supply chains, finance, alliances, energy, and the military to align with the new world paradigm. The US is reengineering its global presence, integrating Canada and Mexico into its sphere and reasserting the Monroe Doctrine over South America.
The military is expanding into the Arctic and Indo-Pacific, preparing for the struggles of the 21st century. China and Russia's strategic alignment threatens to determine the economic rules and legal operating system of the planet if the US doesn't stand up. Europe's reliance on Russian energy, Chinese manufacturing, and American defense puts them at risk of losing economic self-determination.
The war in Ukraine has exposed weaknesses in the Western Alliance, and Trump's tariffs are meant to disrupt the status quo and swing the world order back in favor of the US. The introduction of cheap drones has changed warfare, leading the US to replace senior military leaders and redeploy funding.
Countries not listed on Trump's new tariff schedule face a 10% tariff, with the exception of Argentina's 0% tariff. China increased reciprocal tariffs by 35%, while the EU struggles to respond. Ontario, Canada has offered to drop all tariffs against the US if Trump does the same.
The UK's propaganda efforts to terrify Americans into liquidating their 401Ks have failed, and the American middle class is awakening to the reality that the UK has been an interest, but not a friend, for 250 years. The anti-tariff propaganda is not working, and the Fed may be forced to slash interest rates in May, refinancing $9 trillion of US debt at a lower interest rate.
Commodity prices are declining, and Trump is boosting the middle class while borrowing from the shareholding class. Democrats and RINOs are attempting to stop the tariffs, but America stands behind Trump. Re-shoring is happening, labor markets will tighten, and the US will regain its national dignity and some of its former independence.
Come on over to this week’s HFR and let’s talk about it.
THE SACRED LAKE OF PHOKSUNDO
West of the Himalayan giants of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri in Nepal lies a roadless high wilderness inhabited only by Tibetan nomads called Dolpa. The region is named after them, Dolpo. The Dolpa practice the ancient pre-Buddhist animist religion of Tibet called Bön. They worship sites of nature they consider holy. And holiest of all is the Sacred Lake of Phoksundo.
The Dolpa consider the blue of Phoksundo an act of magic by the gods. Once you see it, you can only agree. This picture is not photoshopped – it is real. We always visit it in late October when it is ice free on our Himalaya Helicopter Expeditions. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #41 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
FUEL YOUR BRAIN FOR SUCCESS
[As you know, Durk and Sandy have passed on. Durk as “Skye” was beloved on TTP. We are preserving his and Sandy’s legacy through these “Live Long and Prosper” TTP columns. —Greg and Michelle Pryor of Life Priority]
Many believe that success is driven more by persistence than IQ.
Even Albert Einstein once said, "It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer."
I can personally relate.
When I reached Major League baseball (MLB) in 1978 for good, it took immense persistence. I had spent seven seasons in the minors before I played ten seasons with the Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, and Kansas City Royals.
I am very proud that I was a member of the 1985 World Champion Kansas City Royals. I wrote a book about my career at www.baseball.town.
Playing infield in MLB demands exceptional persistence, concentration, and mental energy.
While I focused on training and healthy eating during my career, I only discovered after retiring how powerful certain nutrients can be for brain function.
Had I known then what I know now about neurotransmitters, my MLB stats might look much better.
Proper nutrition isn’t just about physical health—it’s essential for brain function, too. By providing your body with the right nutrients, you can optimize neurotransmitter production and enhance focus, energy, and mental clarity.
Let’s talk about the power of Neurotransmitters…
GROWING A SENSE OF RESILIENCE AND POSSIBILITIES
One of the ways we can access some of the hidden strength within us is to look for the people, events, and opportunities about which we can feel grateful.
But there’s another category of strength that we can often ignore: the things we’ve brought into being through our own decisions and actions.
All too often it’s tempting to be drawn toward memories and events that were painful or traumatic. We have a negative bias that’s about four times as strong as our positive experiences.
There’s a gravitational pull toward these negative experiences that had survival value for our species – remembering what happened to our friend when he tried to pet the saber-toothed tiger reminded us not to ever do that ourselves, no matter how cute the kitty might be.
But orbiting around our negative experiences in today's world, which is far less dangerous than the one our ancestors inhabited, is a recipe for depression and anxiety, and keeps us blind to opportunities and relationships that could be truly expansive and wonderful.
We are forward thinking beings. We can envision possibilities, anticipate consequences, and choose actions that go against our natural habits or impulses in order to achieve our goals. While we don’t want to deny any painful truths about our own history or circumstances, it’s not useful to dwell on them. The major purpose of our memory of past experiences is to help us move more effectively into our future.
If we want to grow our own sense of resilience and possibilities, there are two things to look for and remind ourselves of about our past:
THE IDEAL ESCAPE HATCH
What would be an ideal place to escape from all the lunacy washing over our country – for a few days to a second home?
Let’s see… it would have to be a First World country with all the civilized amenities of modern life, and a cultured, educated, and welcoming people many, many of whom speak English.
A First World country that brushes aside all Woke nuttiness engulfing the US as silly rubbish to be ignored, and traditional Christian family values revered instead. That is not much farther away than a US cross-country flight. That has Goldilocks weather, not too hot, not too cold. That has sunsets in the ocean, fabulous food and wine, incredible castles in the sky, history that’s thousands of years old yet so hip and current it’s the cultural capital of its continent.
We’ve had Glimpses of this place before: The Europe That’s Still There, and The Portuguese Riviera. Yes, the Ideal Escape Hatch for us is Portugal – a quick overnight flight getting there, a morning flight return.
For 10 days in October of 2022, Rebel and I conducted a Portugal Exploration for TTPers. Rebel and I and your fellow TTPers will be doing it again next month. Just click on Portugal Exploration – May 2 -11, 2025 -- you owe it to yourself to be entranced by the photos, for a glimpse of this ideal place. (Glimpses of our Breathtaking World #157 ©photo Jack Wheeler)
MUSK AND THE METASTATIC WOKE MIND VIRUS
Before Donald Trump arrived at the White House in January 2017, we were noting various manifestations of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Given the benefit (or detriment) of holding several advanced degrees, including one in psychology, I defined TDS in detail as a form of hysteric cognitive dissonance:
“Thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes resulting in dissociative behavioral and emotive expressions, which render the afflicted incapable of free thought or critical evaluation, and subject to fear and blind hatred of all people and things associated with Trump, to the extent they will abandon normative logic and reason, sever familial and fraternal relationships, and exhibit increasingly angry emotionally incontinent verbal and physical outbursts.”
I would conclude that the escalating frequency and intensity of hysterics associated with TDS are greatly exacerbated by the consumption of the hateful rhetoric spewed 24/7/365 by Leftmedia talking-heads and scribes, and across social media platforms.
Realizing the potential for an endless income stream, therapists adopted a kinder, gentler name for TDS, rebranding it as “Trump Anxiety Disorder,” a designer diagnosis for snowflakes and social justice warriors who fear a sociopolitical climate that does not comport with their safe-space value system.
The symptoms generally include a sense of helplessness and lack of control, resulting in anxiety, confusion, and insomnia.
While that may be a nicer diagnostic tag for a revenue annuity, the word “derangement” is a much more accurate description of the behavior of leftists and their Democrat Party socialist influencers.
To be clear, the election of Donald Trump did not create the epidemic of emotional incontinence and resulting hatred — the outbreak of TDS and cognitive dissonance on the Left.
Rather, the election revealed it.
THE BRITISH DISCHARGE AS OF RIGHT—A MODEL FOR AMERICAN SERVICE REFORM?
The U.S. armed forces staff themselves according to a system that has gone mostly unchanged since the Continental Army first appeared.
In this system, an enlisted service member signs on and takes an oath to serve a required amount of time. After they complete their time, they may be discharged (that is the default) or “re-enlist.”
In the case of officers, they have a commission and may resign after completing a mandatory service obligation.
Officers probably arrive at their first assignment better prepared for it mentally and physically than most enlisted members by virtue of their service academy or ROTC training.
For the enlisted member, who may have signed on for a variety of reasons ranging from the highest (if not theoretical) level of enthusiasm to a dearth of life goals or a personal fable of what to expect, it can be quite different.
It is on these enlisted people we will primarily focus for this article, although the concept could be easily carried over to commissioned officer service.
The outcomes of the young enlisted member trying to adapt to military life can range from the humorous to the macabre as the individual—oftentimes very young and lacking life experience and horizons—seeks to cope.
Some adapt well. A good number do not.
ALBANIA’S BLUE EYE
This is not a Monet painting. It is a real photograph looking straight down upon the swirling clear blue water of the Syri i Kaltër – Blue Eye – Spring burbling up from a deep karst hole of the Bistricë River in the mountains of southern Albania.
The water surges up with such force that scuba divers trying to determine the spring’s depth could only get down to 50 meters (164ft) and no more, thus the depth of the underwater source is unknown. The water is cristal clear, drinkably pure, and very cold. Found between the World Heritage mountain town of Gjirokaster and the Adriatic beach resort town of Saranda, it’s a hypnotic, mesmerizing experience. The Blue Eye is the beauty of nature at its most entrancing. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #293, photo ©Jack Wheeler)