UKRAINE LEADS WORLD IN DRONE INNOVATION AND PRODUCTION
Russia’s war in Ukraine has become the world’s first drone, digital, and cyber war, and resilience, innovation, adaptation, and quick learning has allowed Ukraine to keep one step ahead of Russia.
Ukraine is fighting a people’s war, and its military-industrial complex has significantly grown during the war. Wars are won in laboratories and factories as much as on the battlefield.
Ukraine’s drone tactics have allowed it to combat Russian aggression in numerous ways, including destroying one-third of its Black Sea Fleet, targeting weapons storage within Russia, and combatting Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian cities.
CARAVAGGIO’S MEDUSA
This masterpiece, of Rennaisance painter Caravaggio (1571-1610) was completed in 1597 and hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence where I took this picture. It is a genius portrayal of one of the most legendary Greek myths, the demigod hero Perseus slaying the gorgon monster Medusa. She was thought unconquerable with her head of snakes, for anyone who gazed upon her was turned to stone. Yet Perseus chose to battle her with a shield that was a bronze mirror on the outside. Thus when they fought, she saw herself in the shield’s reflection, turning herself into stone. The painting depicts the moment of horror she realizes what has happened, which Caravaggio painted on a simulated shield.
A visit to the Uffizi is an absolute must should you ever visit Florence. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #279 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
AIRHEAD: KAMALA IMPLODES OWN CAMPAIGN WITH BIDEN COMMENT
Talk about a softball.
Indeed, it was a beach ball.
Kids, when you sit for that first job interview and your prospective employer asks you about your work history, you’ll almost certainly be asked if you’d have done anything differently during your time there.
Sure enough, as Kamala Harris continued her tour yesterday of unserious “media” interviews with Trump-hating pro-Harris cupcakes, “The View’s” Sunny Hostin asked her precisely that question: “Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?”
Harris, of course, has had difficulty separating herself from the man who made her the first DEI hire in American presidential politics: Joe Biden. Hostin undoubtedly saw this as an opportunity to tee up a differentiating response from Harris.
But no.
HOW TO BLOW UP THE MIDDLE EAST IN FIVE EASY STEPS
When Joe Biden became president, the Middle East was calm. Now it is in the midst of a multifront war.
So quiet was the inheritance from the prior Trump administration that nearly three years later, on September 29, 2023 --and just eight days before the October 7 Hamas massacre of Israelis -- Biden's national security advisor Jack Sullivan could still brag that "The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades."
So, what exactly happened to the inherited calm that led to the current nonstop chaos of the present?
In a word, theocratic Iran -- the nexus of almost all current Middle East terrorism and conflict -- was unleashed by Team Biden after having been neutered by the Trump administration.
FEMA – WHEN YOUR GENITALIA BECOME YOUR MORAL COMPASS
In fiscal year 2023, Congress allocated $29.5 billion to FEMA. You’d think that’s a lot of money, and you’d be right.
However, even as FEMA has been granted massive amounts of funds for illegal aliens through Customs and Border Patrol, it’s managed to run out of money for ordinary Americans facing terrible disasters.
Now, we’re learning that FEMA employees are doing more allocations, this time based on what I can only call “genital equity.” (I scorn the phrase “gender equity.”)
That is, FEMA employees aren’t concerned with the greatest good for the greatest number during an emergency. They’re concerned with the LGBTQ+ crowd.
A FATHER IN CHAD
This is the most anti-Marxist picture I have ever taken. I am a White American. He is a Black African in N’Djamena, Chad. And those differences mean nothing compared to our both being fathers.
Look into his soul through his eyes. Look at the tranquility and peaceful joy his soul feels in being the father of his two beautiful children. It is the same with me.
The Left’s purpose is to divide us into tribal differences of hate – white vs. “people of color,” rich vs. poor, employers vs. workers, exploiters vs. exploited, victimizers vs. victims, the anti-white racist hate of Critical Race Theory. Always, always, they focus exclusively on differences, to separate people apart, to hate other different than them. All in the ancient “divide and conquer” scheme to control people’s lives.
Yet the differences between us are so unimportant compared to what we all have in common, our basic humanity. The bond that I have with this man from Chad is so much greater than anything that separates us. Focusing on what we all have in common with our fellow human beings is the way to rid the world of the anti-human hate of the Marxist Left. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #157, photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE PIAPS LETS THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG ON CONTROLLING SPEECH
One of the things that Elon Musk just warned about at former President Donald Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was the danger that the Democrats posed to free speech and how important it was to vote for Trump to preserve our Constitutional rights.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton let the cat out of the bag during an interview with CNN on Saturday, where she spoke about the need to control social media. She said it should be "at the top" of every legislative agenda:
Whether it’s Facebook or Twitter or X or Instagram or TikTok, whatever they are, if they don’t moderate and monitor the content we lose total control and it’s not just the social and psychological effects, it’s real harm.”
THE PARADISE OF ZIHUATANEJO
Once a small Mexican fishing village far from everything, Zihuatanejo (zee-wah-tan-ay-ho) – Zee-wat to locals – has become a paradisical escape hatch for many seeking refuge from our pressure-cooker world. 150 miles up the northwest coast of Acapulco, Zee-wat is its own world of peace and serenity.
Stroll on the beach or along the Paseo del Pescador (Fisherman’s Path) with its shops, bars, and restaurants unbothered. Just relax surrounded by flowers, warm water, and blue sky. All the worries elsewhere in Mexico, much less in the US or anywhere else are not here.
The time to come is now, the dry season November-May. Prices are a bargain with the dollar way up on the peso. Non-stop flights from multiple cities in the US and Canada. Just a few days here will do wonders for your soul. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #182 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
WEST OF THE DEAD SEA
In white: the internationally legal borders of Israel today
[This week’s Archive was originally published on July 11, 2008. As you know, today, October 7, is the anniversary of the Nazis of Hamas’ slaughter attack on Israel one year ago. You would think it would cause a wave of sympathy for Israel. Instead, an explosion of anti-Semitism was unleashed, with Nazi protestors on colleges all across America chanting “From the river to sea,” meaning exterminate all Jews from the Jordan to the Med, the borders of Israel. Please feel free to share this history of how Israel was created with those you think are in need of it. Note that it contains links to five previous TTP articles for background in greater depth. Enjoy all the photos!
TTP, July 11, 2008
All photos by Jack Wheeler
You're lazily swimming in the Mediterranean Sea just off a beautiful beach. The beach goes on for miles, lined with resort hotels, and it's crowded with people. Young fit men playing volleyball, beautiful bikini-clad young women sunbathing, families relaxing under umbrellas, children making sand castles, multitudes of folks peacefully enjoying themselves in the sun, the sand, and the gentle sea.
You swear you're at one of Spain's great beaches, like Valencia, Marbella, or Barcelona. But you've noticed that a small light plane has flown along the shoreline several times. Your son asks, "Dad, why does that plane keep flying by?"
"It's an IDF spotter plane," you tell him. "Watching for a boatload full of Arab terrorists who might land to machine gun to death as many Jews on this beach as they can. Stuff like that can happen here anyplace, anytime. That's life in Israel."
Nope, we're not in Valencia. We're in Tel Aviv.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – DEWAR’S AT THE NORTH POLE
April, 1979 – on the sea ice at 90 North latitude, the North Pole. I was one of the more unusual Profiles for Dewar’s Scotch. It was the 3rd of my 21 expeditions to the very top of our planet. One thing that stood out for me was the photographer brought false ice cubes of carved polished crystal for the photo you see of a glass of scotch perched on a small pressure ridge. That’s the way the pros do it. One genuine item he brought was a case of Dewar’s. We had one heck of a party on top of the world! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #75 photo of Jack Wheeler)