EUROPE GOES JOHN WAYNE AND RIDES TO THE RESCUE
That’s because no one else has either. From left to right: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, American President Donald Trump. French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
The whole world and all its media was stunned as it happened so suddenly with no warning. How? Because of headlines like this on Saturday (8/16):
The fear lay in that key word in the Daily Mail headline, “summoned.” Zelensky would treated with threats, demands, and insults as he was during his infamous visit to the White House last February. Add to that the nothingburger results of the Alaska Summit, no ceasefire, no consequences, just the world’s greatest mass-murdering psychopath treated with red carpet respect.Giorgia Meloni saw the danger and got on the phone Saturday night with Merz and Macron, then all three on a call with Zelensky to propose they accompany him to the White House on Monday. He immediately agreed in enormous relief. Soon Rutte and von der Leyen were on board. By Sunday morning……
HOLY TOLEDO!
Toledo, Spain. As you drive up the hill upon which this ancient city sits, at the city’s entrance you are greeted by this statue. It is of King Alfonso VI of León and Castile (1040-1109) holding his sword as the Christian cross symbolizing his liberating Toledo from Moslem rule.
The sword has been the symbol of Toledo for over two millennia. In 193 BC, Romans founded the city as Toletum, where their blacksmiths developed a process of making swords of layered steel with different carbon contents, known to history as “Toledo steel,” the finest in the world for millennia until the hi-tech methods of today.
With Fall of Rome, Christian Visigoths ruled Spain from their capital here at Toledo – known as “Holy Toledo,” the center of a flourishing Christian civilization for 300 years until it was overrun by Moslems spreading Islam from Africa in the early 700s.
It was Alfonso VI who liberated Toledo from the Moslems in 1085. It was his great-grandson, Alfonso VIII (1155-1214) who led 30,000 knights in a surprise attack on 200,000 Moslems at the Plains of Tolosa in 1212 to destroy Moslem rule in Spain.
Today, Toledo is a small town of some 50,000, charming, historic, and peaceful. It’s one of the special places places to visit whenever you decide to explore Spain. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #170 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
MARSHMALLOWS, GREEN TEA, AND SUCCESS IN LIFE
The Marshmallow Test
[This Monday’s Archive was originally published on August 22, 2013. In response to my Socialism IS Fascism last week (8/14) regarding Mamdani and his supporters in New York, Mike Ryan commented on the TTP Forum: “He is passing out dopamine hits on social media on a massive scale. Dopamine hits are the currency of the social media generation. They crave it. He provides it. Mamdani is like the candy man to a crack addict.”
To which I responded: ”Right you are, Mike — but those hits only work on those who never passed the Marshmallow Test. How could a whole generation fail that test?"
The cure for addiction to rewards-without-effort (government welfare) afflicting so many millions is needed more than ever today. And note: that cure is about how the brain handles dopamine clearance. Several TTPers have told me they consider this one of the most important articles ever in TTP.]
TTP August 22, 2013
It began in Trinidad. Walter Mischel, a Jewish kid from Vienna whose family escaped from the Nazis to Brooklyn, was doing field work on the Caribbean island for his Ph.D. in psychology. It was 1955, and he noticed the population was split between people whose families came from India and those from Africa.
The Indians thought the Africans were “impulsive hedonists” who lived for the moment and never cared for the future, while the Africans thought the Indians only cared about “stuffing money into their mattresses” and didn’t know how to have fun. He wondered what lay behind such assessments.
In 1966, when the Stanford Psych Department launched its Bing Nursery School to research child development, Walter thought back to his days in Trinidad and came up with an experiment that was to become famous as the Stanford Marshmallow Test.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – SWIMMING THE HELLESPONT
July, 1973. The Hellespont is the famous strait separating Europe from Asia, where the Black Sea after flowing through the Bosphorus at Istanbul and a widening called Marmara empties into the Aegean Sea of the Mediterranean. One of the great stories of Greek Mythology is Leander swimming the Hellespont to tryst with Hero, the woman he loved but was forbidden to see.
Thus he swam at night, and she lit a torch for him to swim to. One night a storm blew out the torch and the strong currents swept Leander onto the rocks to drown. So I first swam the Hellespont at night in 1960 and almost drowned myself (LIFE Magazine, Dec. 12, 1960, pp 91-94).
This was the second time, swimming from Leander’s village site of Abydos on the Asia side to Sestos, Hero’s village site on Europe’s. Here I am having reached the Sestos shore.
The Hellespont is where the Trojan War was fought, where the Persians crossed to lose against the Greeks at Marathon and Salamis, where Alexander crossed to conquer the Persian Empire. Lord Byron swam the Hellespont in 1803 to make all the legends and history a part of his life. I was determined to do the same, twice to make sure. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #100 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
GAVIN NEWSOM VOWS TO DOUBLE CALIFORNIA’S VIOLENT CRIME IF TRUMP DOESN’T STOP CLEANING UP DC
SACRAMENTO, CA — In his ongoing public sparring with the Trump administration over its agenda, Governor Gavin Newsom vowed to double California's violent crime rate if President Donald Trump refused to stop cleaning up Washington, D.C.
Acting as a constant and vocal opponent to Trump's policies, Newsom took things up a notch this week by promising to offset any progress Trump might make in his attempt to crack down on crime in the nation's capital by promoting even more violent crime in the Golden State.
"If Trump insists on lowering crime in D.C., then we're going to commit crimes even harder here in California," Newsom said in a video statement on social media.
"We simply cannot allow him to get away with fundamentally changing the fabric of our nation by protecting innocent, law-abiding citizens from violent crime in our major cities. This ‘crackdown' on violent crime is a crackdown on America itself. Here in California, we're committed to spearheading the increase of murders, rapes, assaults, robberies, and all the other horrible crimes Trump seems to be dead-set on eliminating.
Join me in standing up to Trump and his fascist agenda to make American cities safer."
Newsom reportedly set up a special task force to come up with a plan to increase violent crime in the state if Trump followed through on his promise to curb crime in Washington, D.C., including supplying criminals with the tools and resources they need to carry out their abominable acts.
"I'm here to help," Newsom continued. "I've been a friend to criminals my whole career, and I'm proud to stand by them against President Trump's dangerous policies to promote safety."
At publishing time, Newsom was last seen carjacking an old lady's vehicle in downtown Sacramento.
~ Babylon Bee reporting.
HALF-FULL REPORT 08/15/25
Unless you have the IQ of a meat thermometer, you can see the split in the Democratic Party.
Nobody pays attention to what Presidents Obama or Clinton, Sen. Schumer, or former Speaker Pelosi say anymore.The real leaders are Zohran Mamdani, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, and Sen. Sanders. pic.twitter.com/bCd8DIOimf
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) August 14, 2025
Gotta love Louisiana’s Senator John Kennedy, funniest guy on Capitol Hill at skewering Dem woketards. Can’t wait to hear what he says about the latest escapade of Professional Sociopath/America’s Worst Governor Gavin Newscum. Yesterday (8/14), he held a rally in downtown LA for his blatantly illegal “Election Rigging Response Act”.
Guess who showed up on the street outside the building by sheer coincidence. Yep, ICE and the USBP, led by Chief Border Patrol Agent Greg Bovino, arresting illegals:
BREAKING: Border Patrol has arrived outside of the downtown LA venue where Governor Newsom will be holding a press conference today & appears to have made at least one arrest. Chief Greg Bovino tells @FOXLA cameraman:
"We’re here making Los Angeles a safer place, since we don't… pic.twitter.com/RqrnnPu48U— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) August 14, 2025
And wow, did America’s Worst Mayor Karen Bass get her eggs fried about it.
. @MayorOfLA shows up to Little Tokyo and reacts to the 100 agent ICE/BP raid during @CAgovernor ‘s press conference about redistricting. pic.twitter.com/do9ITQoG2u
— L.A. TACO🌴🌮 (@LATACO) August 14, 2025
Let’s have a fun – and informative – HFR. Let’s go…
THE SKY CAVES OF THE TIBETAN KINGDOM OF LO
Yes, that’s me, waving from one of the cave openings on the cliff face honeycombed with 2,000 year-old Sky Caves in a remote region of the Himalayas called Upper Mustang. The photo was taken by one of your fellow TTPers on our most recent Himalaya Helicopter Expedition last Fall.
Upper Mustang is ruled by the Tibetan Kingdom of Lo, created by Tibetan warrior-king Amne Pal in 1380, with its sovereignty protected today by Nepal from the Chicoms right across the border in Chinese-Occupied Tibet. Lo, with its capital the medieval walled city of Lo Manthang, is where you will find the most traditional Tibetan culture left on our planet.
You can experience it yourself on our Himalaya Helicopter Expedition next year. If not now, when? Carpe diem.
(Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #250 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
A LEGACY ERASED — UNHAPPY BIRTHDAY, GEORGE SOROS
This is not the picture of a happy man. Born on August 12, 1930, George Soros turned 95 ereyesterday, and for his birthday present America brought him the annihilation of his legacy.
Soros has been known for two things: making money and spending it on political influence. Over the last few years, he has handed over control of his empire to his son, Alex, and Alex Soros is proving delightfully unable to do either of those things successfully.
First, Alex ruined his reputation for making money. George was once known as “the man who broke the bank of England,” famous for making $1 billion in one day by sniffing out arbitrage opportunities in currency exchange markets.
Taking control of Soros Fund Management, Alex became the man who broke the bank of Soros. Alex is as talented at making billions vanish as George was at making them appear, but maybe he inherited some of his dad’s skill for political maneuvering and network building?
Nope. He’s a failure at that too.
SOCIALISM IS FASCISM
Sunday’s (8/10) NY Post cover featured this photo of Muslim-Communist Mamdani and his Democratic Socialist Party (DSA) supporters . It’s hilarious that these morons haven’t a clue that Socialism IS Fascism, since the identities are fundamental while the differences are superficial.
So… there are three guys running against Mamdani in the 2025 New York City mayoral election this November 4: Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo, and Curtis Slima. Obviously, a three-way split of votes guarantees Mamdani. Two of these three have to bow out and support the third. In realpolitik calculations that means the two are Slima and Cuomo.
What could clinch it for Adams – get his two rivals to step aside and support him, get POTUS to all-out endorse him, and get him MAGA news coverage and drive the Woke Left bat-guano crazy – is for him to adopt as a campaign theme Socialism IS Fascism.
Print up ten thousand placards and hand-held signs, put it up on billboards and Times Square neon signs. Run Mamdani right into the ground with it, for this two-bit Ugandan Muslim Nobody really is a totalitarian fascist.
Of course, the necessary condition for this to succeed is for Adams to explain clearly and succinctly why Socialism is fascistic. Here we go.
A MONUMENT TO CHRISTIANITY IN THE CONGO
There are two Congos in Africa. The better known is the former Belgian Congo, once known as Zaire, now DR Congo (for Democratic Republic), also called Kinshasa Congo after its capital.
The lesser known is the former French Congo, now Republic of Congo, or Brazzaville Congo after its capital. Brazzaville is on the north side of a widening of the Congo River known as the Stanley Pool, while right across from it on the south side is Kinshasa.
It is in Brazzaville that you will find this magnificent monument to Christianity, the Cathedral of Sainte-Anne, with its roof covered in gleaming green-turquoise tiles, huge copper doors, and soaring arched interior bathed in sunlight. The people of Brazzaville are joyously Christian, attending 5pm Mass dressed in their most colorful finery. You’ll see Christianity truly come to life here. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #174 photo ©Jack Wheeler)