THE DAZZLING WHITE GODDESS
This is Dhaulagiri – Dazzling White Goddess in Sanskrit – the 7th highest mountain in the world at 8,167 meters, 26,795 ft. By consensus of the world’s mountaineers and trekkers, it is the most beautiful mountain in all the Himalayas. Dhaulagiri stands alone, not a part of any mountain range. Far below its east face is the Kali Gandaki River which originates on the Tibetan Plateau. On the other side of the river rises Annapurna, the 10th highest on earth at 8,091m/26,545ft. The river between them is at 2,520m/8,270ft – a difference of well over 18,000 feet making the Kali Gandaki Gorge the deepest in all the world.
You’re looking at the Northeast Face with the North Face to the right. Our helicopters fly past this and around to the West Face where the climbers’ base camp is. Being here is thrilling beyond words. To be with me here, join me on my next Himalaya Helicopter Expedition. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #302, photo ©Jack Wheeler)
IS RUSSIA FALLING APART?
Russian officials are sounding increasingly alarmed and even paranoid in their public statements about the future of their country. Most notably, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed in September of last year that Western governments have assembled a coalition of at least fifty countries in order to dismember Russia.
What may appear to be political paranoia or an attempt to mobilize citizens behind the regime is not necessarily based on imagined enemies. It reveals the official realization that numerous negative trends are converging on Russia and that the current regime, and even the state itself, may be running out of time.
Three overarching fears preoccupy Russian officialdom: losing the war, economic collapse, and state fracture. The prospect of all three simultaneously occurring soon looms on the horizon.
HOW DEMOCRATS RIG ELECTIONS AND CALL IT DEMOCRACY
Stephen Cobert humiliates Illinois Gov Pritzker on Tuesday (8/05)
The Democrat Party is in political free fall. Their approval ratings are sinking, their coalition is cracking, and the message they once rode to power no longer works. A recent Wall Street Journal poll found 63% of Americans now view the party unfavorably — the worst numbers the poll has recorded in three decades.
This wasn’t sudden. Democrats saw their decline coming — and instead of changing course, they rigged the system to survive it.
After the 2020 census, Democrat-run states didn’t redraw their maps — they obliterated them. Republican districts were axed. Competitive seats were split. What replaced them were Democrat fortresses, designed to shield the party from the voters they’d lost.
And they did all of it with a straight face — insisting it was about “equity” and “representation.” It was a con. They used woke buzzwords to rubber-stamp power grabs. They redrew the lines while lecturing the rest of the country about democracy.
No state exposes that hypocrisy more than Illinois. So blatant that Stephen Colbert ridiculed its governor on national television for it.
RUNWAY ABLE
It is a profoundly somber experience to stand here on this abandoned weed-strewn airstrip. For this is Runway Able on Tinian Island in the Northern Marianas, where 80 years ago, on August 6, 1945, a B-29 nicknamed Enola Gay piloted by Capt. Paul Tibbets took off with Little Boy in its bomb bay bound for Hiroshima – and three days later on August 9, a B-29 nicknamed Bockscar piloted by Maj. Charles Sweeney flew off with Fat Boy in its bomb bay headed for Nagasaki.
As a consequence, on August 15, Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan to America. Here is where World War II was won, and the Nuclear Age begun.
This lost bit of tarmac is the most consequential airstrip on earth. Be prepared for a deep complex of swirling emotions if you ever stand here yourself. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #14 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE BRITISH PEOPLE ARE STARTING TO STAND UP TO THEIR FASCIST GOVERNMENT
Britain’s Labor government is in trouble: Its program of massive third-world immigration from places like Pakistan and Somalia is wildly, overwhelmingly unpopular.
But that’s not the real problem.
The real problem is that despite the best efforts of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his leftist captive media, Britons themselves have discovered just how unpopular it is.
You might think that’s absurd — if mass immigration is unpopular, how can everyone not know it? Everyone doesn’t know it because the government has been policing speech about immigration.
You see, Britain has no First Amendment, an inviolate right to free speech. Result? Any criticism of open borders, lax enforcement or — worst of all — immigrant crime has been punished as “racist” and “hate speech” by the Starmer regime. It’s “Islamophobic,” you see.
SOUR GRAPES AND UGLY LEFTIST WOMEN
What in the world happened to these beautiful girls who so grotesquely uglified themselves on purpose? These four are examples of so many more.
We’ve all heard Aesop’s story since we were kids:
“Driven by hunger, a fox tried to reach some grapes hanging high on the vine but was unable to, although he leaped with all his strength. As he went away, the fox remarked, “Oh, you aren't even ripe yet! I don’t need any sour grapes.” — Aesop, ca. 600 BC.
The Fox and the Sour Grapes is one of the oldest fables in Western culture: When we can’t have something, we often devalue the object of our desire to lessen our sense of loss.
That fable reminds me of Democrat women, so many of whom have embraced a self-imposed ugliness and hatred for the family. It’s likely that they’ve done so because they live in a world where husbands and family are impossible. Sour, ugly grapes are the only option.
BURMA’S SACRED GOLDEN ROCK
Some three hours’ drive east of Rangoon brings you to Mount Kyaiktiyo, at the top of which (3,600ft) is a gigantic granite boulder covered in gold leaf perched on the edge about to fall off. But it never does, held in place, legend says, by a strand of the Buddha’s hair put underneath it 2,500 years ago. Ever since, the Golden Rock has been a sacred pilgrimage site for the Burmese people and Buddhists around the world.
There are very few people here other than pilgrims, who devoutly pray, circumambulate the rock, and reverently place small strips of gold leaf upon it. It’s a marvelous experience to be among them. I plan to be here once again in an expedition soon – you might consider joining me. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #112 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE REVEAL OF HOW DEMOCRATS PULLED OFF THE GREATEST POLITICAL TRICK IN HISTORY
The Conjurer (1502), Hieronymus Bosch
Washington has been rocked by new releases in the declassification of material related to the origins of the Russian investigation. The material shows further evidence of a secret plan by the Clinton campaign to use the FBI and media to spread a false claim that Donald Trump was a Russian asset.
With this material, the public is finally seeing how officials and reporters set into motion what may be the greatest hoax ever perpetrated in American politics. There never was a Russian collusion conspiracy.
This is the emerging story of the real Russian conspiracy to manufacture a false narrative that succeeded in devouring much of the first term of the Trump Administration.
What is emerging in these documents is a political illusion carefully constructed by government officials and a willing media. The brilliance of the trick was getting reporters to buy into the illusion; to own it like members of an audience called to the stage by an illusionist.
The effort closely followed the three steps of the classic magic trick: The Pledge, The Turn, and The Prestige.
DOJ DEALS CHINA A CRUSHING BLOW AND DEMS HATE IT
The Bondi Justice Department just dropped a bombshell on Beijing, and it’s about time.
The DOJ recently greenlit theHewlitt-Packard (HPE)-Juniper telecom merger, which may create a company big and strong enough to finally end the reign of terror of Huawei, the Chinese Communist Party-backed tech giant whose goal is global domination of everything from 5G to AI and enterprise networking.
Ten days after President Trump’s inauguration, an interim antitrust chief — acting before President Trump’s core DOJ team was confirmed — tried to block the HPE-Juniper merger.
Why the U-turn?
Well, according to an Axios report that was published last Wednesday (7/30), U.S. intelligence officials (Gabbard & Ratcliffe) warned Trump’s DOJ that this merger was critical to stopping Huawei. Here’s why.
AFRICAN FLATDOGS
Here in Zambia and elsewhere in Africa, crocodiles are nicknamed “Flatdogs.” You can see why. They spend much of their lives lying flat on the mud bank of a pond or river. Yet when on the hunt they can attack with astounding speed and surprise, leaping unseen from muddy water upon an unsuspecting target twenty feet away in an instant. This happened to a young boy fishing along the Luangwa River near our encampment just days ago. Africa is unforgiving of the unwary. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #142 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)