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 76 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)
TRUMP AND TRUMAN
[This Monday’s Archive was originally published on August 6, 2018. It is even more critically relevant now than back then. America failed to heed its message six years ago, it is mortally important it succeed this time, for this is our country’s last chance.]
TTP, August 6, 2018
[This essay is in honor of the 73rd anniversary of August 6, 1945]
Tinian Island, Pacific Ocean. It’s a small island, less than 40 square miles, a flat green dot in the vastness of Pacific blue. Fly over it and you notice a slash across its north end of uninhabited bush, a long thin line that looks like an overgrown dirt runway. If you didn’t know what it was, you wouldn’t give it a second glance out your airplane window.
On the ground, you see the runway isn’t dirt but tarmac and crushed limestone, abandoned with weeds sticking out of it. Yet seventy-three years ago today, August 6, this became the most historical airstrip on earth. This is where World War II was won. This is Runway Able.
This is where President Truman had the courage to achieve victory over a fascist enemy because he knew the American people would vindicate it.
President Trump has that same courage. His presidency is a gift to America from Providence. Now the moment is arriving when Americans must prove worthy of that gift.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – WITH THE KHAMPAS IN TIBET
October 1987, on an overland expedition across the entire Chang Tang Tibetan Plateau. Here is where you find the warrior nomads of Tibet, the Khampas. Renowned and feared for fierceness, they couldn’t have been friendlier to me when I gave them each what they treasured most in the world – a photo of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, far more valuable to them than gold.
Before, they were suspicious and angry at a stranger intruding upon them. Instantly with gifting the photos, they were joyous and smiling. They had no idea who I was, all they knew was that I was their friend, insisting I sit down and have a cup of yak-butter tea with them. It was the most memorable cup of tea in my life. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #55 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
WEIRD EVEN FOR WOKE
HALF-FULL REPORT 08/09/24
Why would Kamabla (as in Kama-blahblah) pick a weirdo woke leftie from a safe blue state and not the obvious choice – a young (50), popular, and far less woke gov from a must-win state, Josh Shapiro? Two reasons, supplied by Kamabla’s puppetmaster, Obama.
First, Shapiro is Jewish and once-proudly so – untl he publicly “Un-Jewed himself” in desperation and still didn’t get picked. That’s because Obama leads the Democrat Anti-Semitic Caucus that dominates the party now. Nope, no Jews, Ms. Harris was told.
She was happy to comply. Trump explained this morning (8/09): Donald Trump: Kamala Harris ‘Hates Israel,’ ‘Doesn’t Like Jewish People Even Though She’s Married to One’
(Their marriage is pretty rocky, as the Daily Mail explains: Kamala Harris Was 'Humiliated' By Doug Emhoff Affair Bombshell… Life At The Vice President's Residence Has Been Frosty Since Affair Story Broke That He Got His Children’s Nanny Pregnant.)
Second, Obama demanded the most radically lunatic woke ticket possible to rub patriotic America’s nose in it, because he knows the Dem Swing State Vote Fraud Machine has everything nailed down guaranteeing a Cheat-to-Win victory this November even more unassailably than in November four years ago. This is Obama’s dream chance to “fundamentally transform America” to destroy it forever, and he’s making sure his Hate America dream comes true.
How could it not with tens of millions of illegal aliens already on the voter rolls?
Yet this story has a happy ending. Read on... here we go!
THE JADE ROAD
The oldest part of the Silk Road was originally called the Jade Road along the string of oases watered by runoff from the Kunlun mountains of northern Tibet on the southern edge of the Takla Makan desert in Chinese Turkestan. This is where the finest jade was to be found, washed down from Tibet. This is the route that Marco Polo took with his father and uncle in 1272 to reach the court of the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan.
This is what the Jade Road looks like today, near the fabled oasis of Khotan. Save for the road being asphalted and the farmer’s cart being towed by a small tractor instead of a donkey, Polo would recognize it. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #179 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 08/08/24
Elon Musk says he’s going to vote for “bad-ass” Trump, impressed by his courage literally under fire, and he hopes to help with getting government more efficient – if that’s even possible.
And there’s a real possibility that Elon’s SpaceX will be asked to rescue the two Boeing astronauts stranded at the ISS – how galling that would be for the Lefties! All of the Congressional drama concerning the USSS has shown one glaring fact that is reiterated in an email by an SS Counter-sniper that the first rule in the agency is to CYA.
Too late: 41% of voters think it was an inside job. So it’s no surprise to learn that the Fed is funneling billions of taxpayer money to online censors. Meanwhile, the migration of Normals out of California continues, with Chevron the latest to desert the sinking ship. Newsom must be so proud.
Then we end with some good, sensible comments from one of the Supreme Court Justices about laws (there are just too many). Enjoy!
WALT DISNEY’S REAL CASTLE
This is the ruins of the Castle of St. Hilarion in Northern Cyprus. In 1191, the Byzantine ruler of Cyprus made the mistake of capturing a ship carrying Princess Berengaria of Navarre and held her hostage. She was the fiancée of England’s King Richard the Lion-Heart. You don’t do that to a guy nicknamed Lion-Heart.
Richard proceeded to conquer the whole island and turned it over to a group of French Catholic knights led by Guy de Lusignan. The knights built a series of fortified castles around the island to ward off the Moslem "Saracens." The most spectacular was atop a vertiginous crag high above the port of Kyrenia named after a crazy hermit who lived near there whom the knights dubbed St. Hilarion.
When Walt Disney was making his classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, he chanced upon pictures of St. Hilarion’s Castle, which his imagination transformed into the fairy tale castle of the movie. Can you see how he got the idea?
In the castle museum, there’s an explanation with some of Disney’s original sketches based on St. Hilarion’s. Disney was an imaginative genius. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #139 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
GOOGLE LOSES LANDMARK ANTITRUST CASE
In a landmark legal decision, a federal judge ruled that Google violated antitrust laws by maintaining its monopoly power in the markets for general search services and general search text advertisements.
The ruling, issued on Aug. 5 by Judge Amit Mehta, concludes a lengthy legal battle initiated by the U.S. Department of Justice and a coalition of state attorneys general.
“After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reached the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly. It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act,” Mehta’s decision stated.
REPUBLICANS, YOU’RE GOING AFTER KAMALA ALL WRONG
Republicans are just waking up to the horror that they’ve been had.
The Trump campaign seems blindsided by Kamala Harris. Having avoided the ordeal of a primary, Harris dances onto the national scene appearing well-rested and unscathed.
In polls, she is already tied with Trump—erasing his sizable lead in just one week.
Scrambling to make sense of what just happened, J.D. Vance has called her extra-democratic appointment a “coup.” He has suggested it cheated voters out of the chance to pick their own nominee.
But a “coup” involves regime change. This switcheroo involved none. That’s why you don’t see members of the Biden administration objecting.
The maneuver didn’t damage Biden’s party, which tested a losing candidate, looked at his polls, and swapped him out for something better.
A more accurate description is this: the Republicans have once again been outfoxed. So has the electorate, which could wind up with a far more left-wing president than it even knows.
The question is: What are Republicans going to do about it?