SHE WORKED THERE ALRIGHT
FLASHBACK FRIDAY: AMAZON INITIATION
August, 2002. In the remotest Amazon jungle of Brazil, along a tributary of the Upper Xingu River, live the Xicrin-Kayapo people. They live traditionally as they have for centuries, isolated in their forests from the world. Here the young boys, painted and adorned, apprehensively await their initiation ceremonies into becoming young men. They are to be tested to show they have what it takes for the village to be proud of them.
In some of their eyes, there is confidence. In others less so. This is an ancient Rite of Passage, an enthralling experience to witness. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #229 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
TIJI — CASTING OUT THE DEMONS
Once a year in the capital of the Tibetan Kingdom of Lo, the medieval walled city of Lo Manthang, the Lo-pa Tibetans hold a ceremony called Tiji (tee-gee), meaning casting out of demons. It’s meant to prevent any demons or malicious spirits from destroying their barley and buckwheat harvests.
Tiji is colorfully spectacular and dramatic, but this is no tourist show – Tiji is a deeply serious religious ritual. The Kingdom of Lo is in a very remote and roadless region of the Himalayas known as Mustang, lying north of the Himalayan giants of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri in Nepal on the border with Chinese-occupied Tibet.
We were privileged to witness it on a Himalaya Helicopter Expedition. We hope to be so privileged again next year. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #238 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 10/24/24
Skye is still doing poorly. Please pray for him and send him some love here.
Every day is getting crazier as the election approaches. Trump’s McDonald’s stunt sure stirred the hornet’s nest – I swear, the Left must be made up of juvenile delinquents, there’s not a lick of wisdom anywhere to be found among them. But their tantrums have led to a bumper crop of fun memes and cartoons for us to enjoy.
There’s still plenty of serious evil going on though, too. The accusations of the Left are usually a clear indication of what they are doing themselves, and that continues to hold true this week. Then we’ve got some uncomfortable info out of Ukraine, a scary revelation concerning mail-in ballots and mailbox keys, and more machinations among the BRICS.
Then we’ll finish up with two rather satisfying articles. One tells the story of Liberal woe, and the other blows the Climate Blowhards right out of the water and into the desert. Nice.
C’mon in!
WHAT DO YOU SEE HERE?
A young boy playing among rocks on a stream, yes. But where? I took this photo in a nature park in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Gives you a different perspective, doesn’t it? This young North Korean boy, how so innocently playing amidst beautiful streams and waterfalls, has no future except to grow up to be a human robot in subjection to a tyranny. He has no idea of the fate in store for him. That’s why, for me, this is one of the saddest pictures I have even taken.
Perhaps he will escape from his political prison, but the odds are gravely against him. Life does have its somber moments. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #244 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SLOW-MOTION NATIONALIZATION OF THE ECONOMY
Global liquidity is expanding. In the past three months, the global money supply has soared by $4.7 trillion.
This rapid increase started when the Federal Reserve panicked the first time and delayed the normalization of the balance sheet in June.
Since then, we have seen a chain of fresh stimulus policies implemented by developed economies, adding to the large fiscal packages already in place.
Multi-trillion-dollar investment packages like the EU Next Generation Fund now include massive deficit spending plans.
However, money velocity is not rising.
All these programs only lead to secular stagnation. Government projects and current expenditures are consuming money at an unprecedented rate.
Developed economies cannot live without new and larger spending plans. The result is more debt, weaker productivity growth, and declining real wages.
In a recent report, Bank of America showed that the rise of unproductive debt has created a significant problem for the United States economy.
For every dollar of new government debt, the gross domestic product impact has slumped to less than fifty cents. The United States is drowning in unproductive debt.
However, at least the United States has some productivity growth.
If we look at the euro area, the negative multiplier effect of new government debt is extremely evident.
Despite enormous stimulus plans and negative nominal rates, the euro area has been stagnating for years.
Many of you may believe that bad policies and careless government spending are to blame, but I think this is intentional.
It is a slow process of nationalizing the economy.
SOS FROM GEORGIA – SHADY GOINGS-ON WITH SEC. OF STATE RAFFENSPERGER
As Twitchy readers know, we have to be very very very very very (did we say very?) careful when writing about election interference in any way because we don't want Big Tech spanking us. So while we are sharing this post from Kylie Jane Kremer, we can neither confirm nor deny if this is true.
But we think it's important enough to share so here we are.
Sounds like Kremer believes that Secretary of State Bradfor Raffensperger may be up to no good.
Take a look:
🚨GA ELECTION INTERFERENCE🚨
The GA SOS is up to no good and gearing up to go after the Georgia State Election Board (SEB) members and others not willing to certify the election and/or those willing to shine the light on any potential fraud in this electionRaffensperger sent… pic.twitter.com/yMo29RZgzV
— Kylie Jane Kremer (@KylieJaneKremer) October 22, 2024
Her post continues:
“Raffensperger sent an email, in a private capacity, that went to a listserv of trial lawyers across Georgia soliciting $5 million by November 1st to help in his effort for a 501(c)4 called “Election Defense Fund,” asking lawyers to donate or contact him via his private gmail account & personal cell phone number.
In this email, Raffensperger states, “Election Defense Fund, Inc. is a 501(c) (4) dedicated to protecting this year's election results, and standing up against those who attempt to delay certification. EDF will identify local election officials who are most likely to not certify or otherwise attempt to interfere with results."
BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE OBAMA-BIDEN DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Harris and Walz have made a thing of “turning the page,” but the page that must be turned is the one they are on.
In recent years, beginning with Obama, the Democratic party has become unmoored from its basic center-left policies and embraced ideas and policies that are illogical, absurd, and increasingly unpopular. Things like these:
- Allowing open borders coupled with a very generous social welfare system to be tapped by all who enter;
- Endorsing chemical castration of children and allowing transgender women into the private spaces of actual women;
- Engaging in endless wars in which we have no genuine national stake;
- Supporting UNWRA, which exists solely to attack our longtime ally Israel;
- Issuing regulations that limit productivity in everything in the name of preventing the chimerical and unproven climate change;
- Fighting all efforts to make national elections auditable;
- Ignoring the violence on college campuses;
- Committing significant First Amendment violations and pursuing frivolous lawsuits against their opponents;
- Defunding the police and allowing crime to flourish in blue cities;
- Embracing corrupt dictatorial international bodies like WHO and WEF;
- Promoting DEI policies that are discriminatory and result in ethnic and racial identity, rather than merit, being the criteria for hiring and promoting employees.
HYPERSONIC WEAPONS REVISITED
Hypersonic technology is critically important, so it’s time to check in to see where we now stand. According to news reports, nothing much has changed.
Newsweek in March said, “China is winning the hypersonic weapons race and is moving full speed ahead with plans to expand the reach of these hard-to-target weapons.”
Jeffrey McCormick, senior analyst with the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, said in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee, “China’s missile programs are comparable to top-tier producers internationally, and China now has the world’s leading hypersonic arsenal.”
He added, “Russia currently has three deployed hypersonic weapon systems, including two that have been used in conflict against Ukraine.”
Furthermore, “China has an extensive and robust research-and-development infrastructure, including many wind tunnels, devoted to the development of hypersonic systems.”
What defenses do we have against such systems? The answer is essentially none.
THE AMAZIGH
They call themselves Amazigh – meaning “the unconquered” – who are the original people of Morocco having lived there for over 12,000 years. You’ve heard of them as Berbers, a name they find offensive. Another people you’ve heard of are the Lapps, the reindeer-herders of far northern Scandinavia, who call themselves Saami.
Astoundingly, they are directly related, for both are descended from the same stock of Cro-Magnon Ice Age hunters in Western Europe that split in two 15,000 years ago – one moving thousands of miles far north, the other thousands of mile south crossing the Gibraltar Strait to North Africa. Geneticists know this because the Amazigh and Saami share the same mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U5b1b. (See Saami and Berbers – An Unexpected Mitochondrial DNA Link, American Journal of Human Genetics, March 2005.)
So when you visit Morocco and meet a gentleman like that pictured above amidst a display of spectacular Amazigh artwork, you’ll know what incredible history resides within him. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #242 photo ©Jack Wheeler)