THE LAND OF THE DRAGON’S BLOOD TREE
This is the Dragon’s Blood Tree, Dracaena cinnabari. It can be found in only one place on earth, a remote island called a Lost World for its uniqueness, the “most alien-looking place on our planet.”
Although it’s known as the most alien, strangest, weirdest, and bizarre place you can go to, it’s also completely safe and incredibly beautiful. Anybody who comes here returns saying, “You have to see it to believe it.” What is this place?
It’s the World Heritage Site of the island of Socotra, the “Galapagos of the Indian Ocean,” 240 miles off the coast of Yemen and now secured by the UAE. It’s hidden, remote, and far away.
We were there in 2014, and it’s been almost impossible to get to ever since. But we’ll be back next April of 2021. Let me know if you’d like to be with us. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #34 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – RETRACING HANNIBAL OVER THE ALPS WITH ELEPHANTS
September 1979 – my Hannibal Expedition took two elephants over the same pass Hannibal used in 218 BC across the Alps to attack Rome. There is only one pass that fits the contemporary descriptions of both Greek historian Polybius and Roman historian Livy: The Col du Clapier on what is now the French-Italian border.
Unrecognized as Hannibal’s Pass in 1979, it is still a roadless trail today crossed only on foot or mountain bike. But since our expedition, there are now signs proclaiming it La Route d’Hannibal, and even a life-size statue of an elephant at the French village of Bramans where the track over the pass begins.
The photo you see is us climbing high above Bramans (I’m the one in front with the red backpack). It took us five days to carefully guide our elephants (from an Italian circus) over Clapier and down to the Italian village of Susa. First time in 2,197 years and never repeated 41 years since.
Hannibal’s crossing the Alps with elephants is one of the most epic events of world history. To retrace it yourself with elephants is to make that famous history a part of your life in the most uniquely powerful way. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #15 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
JUST PLAIN FUN
Forty years ago in 1981, there was a celebrity gala for President Ronald Reagan at Fords Theatre. Who brought down the house was Rodney Dangerfield, whose 10-jokes-a-minute – good clean fun, no bad words whatever – brought tears of laughter to the entire audience.
“My wife's cooking is so bad, the flies got together in the back yard and fixed the screen door.”
“I tell ya, I don’t get no respect. Last week my house was on fire, my wife told the kids ‘Be quiet, you’ll wake up daddy’.”
Enjoy!
HALF-FULL REPORT 02/12/21
But misdirection from what? One answer would be the very first Bill dropped in the 117th Congress, HR 1, a 791-page grotesquerie named “For the People Act,” which it is anything but.
The link is to the full text, but the most accurate summation of it is by Gatestone’s J. Christian Adams on Monday (2/08). It’s a compendium of every crooked shenanigan the Dems could dream to permanently lock in to federal law everything they did to steal the presidency from POTUS last year.
Still – why is this such a clown show? With these clowns in the forefront?
A TOUGH PILLOW TO SWALLOW
Howdy again fellow TTP’ers from CyberTex. It’s been way too long since my last column, but like many of you I have spent the last year with my chin on the floor, completely aghast at the Covidiocy, the direction America has taken, and especially the events since what was clearly a stolen election…
Or was it?
“Ok, Tex, what are you getting at? Of COURSE it was stolen.”
While I agree that it was, it may not have been via the cyber attacks that have dominated the headlines. At least five main methods were used to steal the 2020 election:
FPX’S HONEYMOON IS ALREADY OVER
OPENING THE FLOODGATES
[FPX] has allowed the honeymoon that he has received from the media (and which was so shabbily denied to his predecessor) to be interrupted by what is almost certain to be one of the most absurd fiascos in modern American history.
I speak against the impeachment of the former president for an incitement that he did not make, of an insurrection that he did not wish, an impeachment that was not attempted in order to remove him from an office that he does not hold.
It will be a farce of unconstitutional posturing and recrimination, and will fully air the former president’s significant arguments that the result of the late election is suspect.
And [FPX] will not be able to retrieve his honeymoon after this foolishness has been disposed of. Here’s why.
THE FLATTEST PLACE ON EARTH
The Salar de Uyuni, 12,000 feet high in the Altiplano of Bolivia, is a 4,000 square mile expanse of salt so flat it is used to calibrate the altimeters of NASA observation satellites of the earth. After a rain, it becomes the world’s largest mirror, 80 miles across. The incredible reflective surface extends to the horizon in every direction – it is both hallucinatingly disorienting and makes for amazing mirror-to-horizon photos (especially at sunrise/sunset).
The brine underneath the salt crust contains 70% of the world’s lithium – critical to our battery-fueled global economy – produced in evaporation pools that are a kaleidoscope of colors.
You can stay here in relative luxury at one of the world’s most unique hotels – the Palacio de Sal, built entirely of salt: walls, floors, ceilings, furniture, sculptures. Being here is one of South America’s more astounding experiences. Let me know if you want a Wheeler Expedition to take you there! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #39 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 02/11/21
LOOKING FORWARD
“The USA is now a classic oligarchy” -- a fine analysis of where we are now, how we got here, and where we could go next:
It’s a rant, but it’s an all too true rant:
Washington DC:
National Guard And Razor Wire Everywhere: DC Gets Dystopian As Impeachment Trial Kicks Off
Also in DC. 'Crat factions fight for loot and power - "if we don't get it, burn it down." (Actually, burning DC down to the ground isn’t a bad idea about now…)
GOP STATE ATTORNEYS GENERAL FIGHTING FPX DICTATORSHIP
How about over 3 times as many?
As [FPX] issued 52 executive orders and actions in his first 16 days in office, Republican attorneys general in the states appear poised to be the strongest check on overreach by the federal government.
“Everything is fair game. We are going to defend the Constitution of the United States and look out for the best interest of our states,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association, told me in an interview.
The number of legal actions planned against the FPX dictatorship and the number of states joining in is growing rapidly. Here’s a summary.
DESTROYING DEMOCRACY IN ORDER TO SAVE IT
Time magazine’s “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign that Saved the 2020 Election” by Molly Ball is supposed to come off as an epic tale of left-wing institutions swooping in to save democracy from untold chaos in the aftermath of the election.
Instead, it’s a confessional where the storyteller and her informants unwittingly reveal that the election was indeed rigged. She describes in detail what it took: a coordinated effort among a staggering number of left-wing organizations, the media and tech, titans of industry, an army of activists, #NeverTrumpers, and a whole lotta Benjamins, baby.