FLASHBACK FRIDAY – SLEEPING IN AN IGLOO
April 1990. When our oldest son Brandon was six years old, I took him with me to the North Pole. It was my 14th expedition there, and as always, we stopped to visit friends at Canada’s northernmost community, the Inuit hunting village of Grise Fiord on Ellesmere Island. Brandon thought it would be cool to sleep in an igloo, which the Inuit do only when they’re hunting seals or walrus far out on the ice.
So the villagers happily complied, showing him how they built one, carving out blocks of wind-blown snow, shaping and placing them in an inward-sloped spiral with one block on top, and packing snow as mortar between the blocks. When it was bedtime – still daylight with 24-hour sunshine by April – they lined the inside with caribou skins, which shed like crazy with hairs everywhere but sure are warm. Snuggled into our arctic down sleeping bags, we slept like stones.
It was an experience both of us will never forget. Never pass up an opportunity to have an adventure with your kids they’ll always remember. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #50 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
TRUMP INDICTED FOR MURDERING ELDERLY MAN ON CNN
ATLANTA — Last night's presidential debate ended abruptly when Donald Trump was served with papers notifying him that he had been indicted for the murder of an elderly man on CNN.
"Hey, I didn't do anything!" Trump told authorities. "He was like that when I got here!"
Trump, who had planned to debate President Joe Biden, argued that the strange old man keeled over all on his own.
"The very idea..." the old man said before slumping over onto a nearby podium. It was also at this point that Trump discovered the man had been propped up by an apparatus and could not stand on his own.
"You know, I got here and everything was fine. CNN is fake news, but I'm here and they've been nice tonight," Trump said. "But then there was this dead old man in the corner. And I thought, wow, the game must be afoot, you know? And believe me, I was about to solve this murder before you got here."
"Yeah, yeah," said Officer Nolan of the APD. "Why don't we talk about this downtown."
At publishing time, Trump had also been indicted for the murder of the Democrat Party.
- Babylon Bee reporting.
HALF-FULL-REPORT 06/28/24
Last night (6/27), observed the NY Post, We Just Witnessed the End of Joe Biden’s Presidency. Here’s just one example of why out of so many. And note PDJT’s off-the-cuff ROTFLMAO funny put down responding to FJB’s lunatic claim the Border Patrol endorsed him: “By the way, the Border Patrol endorsed me not you… Brandon, just speak to them…” (Watch)
It was not, however, just how awful FJB was that has the Dems in panic. It was how good Trump was, gone was the intemperate shouting firebrand, replaced by presidential demeanor who never lost his cool. Watch CNN’s John King explain there is a growing chorus of Dem leaders’ demand that Biden step out and let the August DNC Convention select another candidate: (Watch_
All in all, a massive win for Trump and America last night. And that’s far, far from all. Wait ‘till you read about The Errol Flynn Supreme Court. This has been an incredible week. Let’s go!
THE LION ROCK OF SIGIRIYA
Rising 600 feet above the jungles of central Ceylon (Sri Lanka) is a gigantic rock column revered for millennia as Sigiriya – Lion Rock from Sanskrit. It’s flat on top, used over centuries as a Buddhist monastery and a fortress by kings. In 480, King Kashyapa had the image of a lion carved into the rock as the entrance gate to his fortress-palace on top. All that’s left are the lion’s paws that you see.
It was a risky climb via stone stairs carved into the rock getting to the top. Today there’s a much safer wooden staircase. It’s a pilgrimage site for Sri Lankans where they get to celebrate their history and enjoy the gorgeous view on top. It’s a marvelous experience for you to participate in. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #158 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 06/27/24
This week we begin with a great article about Jack Smith’s ineligibility for the exalted position into which he has been placed. The Dems may not even object too much because he’s doing a piss-poor job of it, anyway.
I’m afraid there’s no joy in Whoville regarding the Budget Deficit or Inflation, either, and it’s mostly bad news about America’s readiness for present-day warfare, if it comes. An entrenched military mindset isn’t very nimble, or innovative. It’s time to leave woke-ness and just wake up.
The game of pretend that the Left plays is becoming so patent that even a Leftist can discern it as the media scrambles to say we didn’t see what we darn well did see, again. More evidence has come to light of CIA complicity in the Hunter Biden laptop cover-up (which we knew), and also evidence that Xiden asked Amazon to censor books that didn’t follow the narrative about Covid and the vaccine. Jeff Bezos was happy to help Xiden with that, but he’s gone crying to the FAA now about Musk because the Amazon mogul can’t get it up—his spaceship, that is, while Musk has gotten his up and safely back hundreds of times. Of course, Boeing can get it up, but can’t get it, or its astronauts, home. Time to put a pin in that one. There’s all this and more, ending with a perfect example of how to fix an economy—Melei. So let’s dive in!
Here is a fine article explaining why Jack Smith's appointment and prosecution of Trump in both the Mar-A-Largo and the J6 cases is unconstitutional, and then recaps the history of the 'Crat criminal lawfare election interference. I highly recommend this.
Arguments in U.S. District Court: Jack Smith Appointment as Special Counsel Unconstitutional
THE AVATAR MOUNTAINS
The gigantic forest-covered stone pillars of Zhangjiajie in a remote region of Hunan are so famous for being a featured location in the Avatar movie they’ve been renamed the Avatar Mountains. You can take a cable car through them to view them from above. Hard to get to and certainly worth it. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #269 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HOW CALIFORNIA’S PARADISE BECAME OUR PURGATORY
California has become a test case of the suicide of the West. Never before has such a state, so rich in natural resources and endowed with such a bountiful human inheritance, self-destructed so rapidly.
How and why did California so utterly consume its unmatched natural and ancestral inheritance and end up as a warning to Western civilization of what might be in store for anyone who followed its nihilism?
The symptoms of the state’s suicide are indisputable.
Governor Gavin Newsom enjoyed a recent $98 billion budget surplus — gifted from multibillion-dollar federal COVID-19 subsidies, the highest income and gas taxes in the nation, and among the country’s steepest sales and property taxes.
Yet in a year, he turned it into a growing $45 billion budget deficit.
WHY THE LEFT HATES IT WHEN YOU POINT OUT WE’RE A REPUBLIC, NOT A DEMOCRACY
For as long as I can remember, the Left has been sneering at anyone who points out that the United States is a republic, not a democracy.
They find the notion almost as unsophisticated and fascistic as flying a revolutionary-era flag. Others dismiss the democracy/republic debate as pedantic or a semantic distraction. They shouldn't.
The other day, CNN's Donie O'Sullivan tried to make Trump fans who repeat this factual contention look like a bunch of dumb, lockstepping authoritarians.
To explain the problem, CNN even recruited "democracy" expert Anne Applebaum, who noted that, "America is a democracy. It was founded as a democracy ... the word 'democracy' and the word 'republic' have often been used interchangeably. There isn't a meaningful difference between them ..."
Sure there is.
MONTEZUMA’S CASTLE
When American explorers came upon this extraordinary cliff dwelling in 1860s Arizona, they dubbed it “Montezuma’s Castle” on a whim. The Aztec ruler had nothing to do with it, of course. The Anasazi people built a number of these marvelous structures in the Southwest, high up on cliffs above a river that seasonally flooded.
For hundreds of years the Anasazi flourished, skilled agriculturalists and brilliant at constructing vast irrigation systems. Yet it all came to naught with a devastating megadrought with no rain for many decades, culminating in the collapse of the Anasazi culture and abandonment of their cliff dwellings by the early 1500s.
Another lesson that it is nature that control’s the Earth’s climate, not us. You’ll find Montezuma’s Castle above Beaver Creek south of Sedona. It’s a marvel not to be missed. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #194 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
TRUMP 47’s AGENDA
Normally, the self-important, gazillionaire libs of the All In Podcast can be tiresome. But their recent 49-minute Trump interview demands watching, as a window into Trump's agenda, particularly in the economic realm.
Trump's remarkable ability to magnetically pull disparate constituencies into his orbit is proceeding exponentially.
Consider Bitcoin. He has made it mandatory for participants in that sector to support him, otherwise the Janet Yellens and Elizabeth Warrens will outlaw its existence.
Or his tax-free tips proposal, attracting millions of service workers -- a proposal that drew laughter from 80 elite CEOs Trump recently met behind closed doors. Trump will laugh all the way to the November polls.
Trump has adopted politically astute positions for issues across the board. Democrats are trying equally hard to drive away as many constituencies as possible, an extraordinary political moment.
Trump practices unification; Democrats excel at division. When Trump warns what will happen if he is not elected, no one doubts him.
Contrast Trump’s continuous stream of nuance and substance below with fake “news” accounts of his meeting with CEOs: [They] “said that he was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought, was all over the map.”
The reality is quite different.