WHAT DOES IT SAY?
HALF-FULL REPORT 06/07/24
Our grandson Theo turned nine months old on Sunday (6/02), and I can’t resist showing this photo of him with our son Jackson and his wife Raya. They live in Bali, happy among many other things to be so many thousands of miles away from an America that is going so terrifyingly insane.
He’s well aware of the extent of this as he works for one of the world’s premier conservative intellectuals. Yet because of that, he’s hopeful that the nightmare now endured by the country he loves may be over soon. Only one impediment now stands in the way, he thinks, the same fear most all of us have: that Dem thieves will steal our country in the dark of night in November 2024 as they did in November 2020.
Theo, along with everyone’s grandchildren deserve not to have their future stolen from them. You and I must do everything in our power to ensure that it is not.
THE INDIA LESS TRAVELED
This is Mysore Palace, home of the Wadiyar Rajas who ruled Mysore from 1399 to 1950. It is one of the many wonders of Southern India that’s far less known than traveler’s meccas up north like Agra and Rajasthan.
There’s the Nagarhole Tiger Sanctuary, more Asian elephants than anywhere else in the world, over 100 tigers, scores of leopards, their prey in profusion. Christian churches founded by Christ’s disciple St. Thomas in the 1st century AD. Towering Hindu temples covered with tens of thousands of eye-popping multi-colored sculptures. The gorgeous beaches of Goa, the serene peace of the Kerala Backwaters – “one of the most beautiful locations on earth” according to National Geographic, that you explore by luxury houseboat. It goes on and on.
And here also you find the business metropolis of Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India. We did all of this and more a few years ago, and may yet again before very long. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #81 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 06/06/24
There’s more good news from the Supreme Court this week in another unanimous vote, and it will have far-reaching effects. AI Streaming Service has Hollywood in a panic, even as the WaPo is committing suicide and we say More Power to Ya. The Kabuki Theater that is the Trump Trial Travesty even gets booed by some on the Left, while Rand Paul worries about violent fall-out.
Meanwhile, Fauci finally quits lying and comes clean – NOT (we have a different story from the Babylon Bee!). There’s more serious news about the National Debt and the expected invasion of Taiwan by China. Then we have some encouraging news about cleaning up voter rolls in Nevada and some truth about climate change from some more ethical “scientists” than we’re accustomed to. Plenty to read here, folks; let’s get to it!
SCOTUS grants 9-0 First Amendment victory to NRA:
Supreme Court Rules 9-0 New York Violated NRA’s 1st Amendment Rights
THE SUPERTREE GARDEN
The world’s most spectacular nature park is the 130-acre Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. In the gigantic greenhouse of the Flower Dome, virtually every rare flower on earth flourishes in abundance, while the Cloud Forest is a wonderland of tropical waterfalls seemingly falling out of the sky high above.
Dominating the park are the 160-foot high Supertrees, towering vertical gardens covered in orchids, ferns, vines, and exotic plants. There are elevated canopies and walkways between them. Exploring the astonishing display of hi-tech botanical artistry and genius that is Gardens by the Bay is absolutely awe-inspiring.
TTPer Cassowary was kind enough to guide me through the park as Singapore is his home. Perhaps he’ll tell us more about it on the Forum. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #102 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE U.S. MILITARY AND THE AMERICAN RIGHT: A PRESUMED ALLIANCE?
In modern memory, the American Right has regarded our military as something of its own. More conservatives than liberals usually joined because the grit of war and arms (not to mention the personal risk) are inimical to liberal ideas; and the Left, not the Right, was burning draft cards and spitting on young Americans in uniform.
Appreciation for the virtues of valor, patriotism, and the masculine culture of arms is widely found on the Right, and the 1960s antagonism of the Left towards the armed forces sealed the deal. A commensurate “benefit of the doubt” to the armed forces from the conservative Main Street has been common and expected.
Most political leaders considered military service as a desirable – if not essential – qualification. The mainstream Left was muted in their military support when they demonstrated it, but on Memorial Day, they would still lay wreaths and sing the national anthem alongside others.
But the changing culture of our country, and the sinister behavior of our leaders and government, must force an objective reassessment of the American profession of Arms.
STUDY SHOWS ISRAEL SUPPLIED SUFFICIENT FOOD TO GAZA
[TTP: This article was posted in late May but the false narrative continues to be pushed, so we’re providing this bit of information for you. My question is, How many nations have ever supplied their ungrateful enemies while fighting them? I don’t think even the US has ever done that.]
The International Criminal Court has accused Israel of causing “deliberate starvation” in Gaza, but the prosecutor might want to read this report.
Yesterday [May 21, 2024] we reported on one of the many problems with International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and defense minister. Namely, the fact that there is scant evidence of the “deliberate starvation” that forms the heart of the ICC’s case, and that Khan ignores abundant evidence that Hamas is hoarding food and medical supplies.
Now, a new study published by the Hebrew University’s Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science, and Nutrition brings clarity to the contested question of food security in the Gaza strip.
The working paper analyzed the adequacy of the food supply Israel has facilitated into Gaza since January. And the results are devastating to Khan’s case.
BEAUTY AND LUNACY ON THE ADRIATIC SEA
Saranda, Albania. Standing on a hilltop here overlooking the Adriatic arm of the Mediterranean, you can’t help but be mesmerized by the beauty of the scene, the Adriatic coastline, “the wine-dark sea” as Homer so often described it, and off the coast the Greek island of Corfu. Yet you can’t help being puzzled by the small mound of concrete in the foreground. What is that, you ask?
It’s a one-man pillbox bunker with a slit in front for the soldier to fire at Albania’s enemies about to invade during the Cold War. Stalinist madman Enver Hoxha ruled Albania for forty years, from the end of WWII to his death in 1985. During which he built 750,000 of these bunkers in a country barely bigger than Massachusetts (11,000 square miles). He maintained his Fascist-Communist rule of total control by constantly claiming that Albania was surrounded by neighbor enemies – Yugoslavia, Greece, and Italy – all of whom were preparing to militarily invade, seize, and destroy Albania at any moment. For forty years.
With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Albania quickly liberated itself from its Communist past. Today it is stunningly gorgeous, a delight to travel through. The mushroom bunkers still litter the countryside, kept as a reminder of how history can go lunatic, and for Albanians to make sure such madness never happens to them ever again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #296, photo ©Jack Wheeler)
ANATOMY OF THE SHALLOW STATE
The state is a transformer that takes on different appearances in different ages, depending on resources, traditions, technologies, and geography.
History chronicles theocratic despotisms, feudal lords, exploitative slavocracies, imperial autocracies, peaceful republics, small-scale democracies, divine-right monarchies, murderous party dictatorships, and many more besides.
What is the 21st-century form of the state? There are plenty of opinions on this and the reality and change are still unfolding before us with dramatic upheavals and great resets.
But it seems to be some form of omnipotent managerial technocracy, as if to fulfill the most pessimistic predictions of 20th-century thinkers who saw this form developing after the second world war.
In this system, the elected representatives of the people are reduced to bit players on the scene, marionettes whose main job is to keep up appearances that the systems of the past are still operating and that the voice of the people still matters.
In reality, the state consists of three distinct layers, which we can call deep, middle, and shallow. All three play crucial roles to exercise and retain hegemony over the population domestically and globally.
THE SEISMIC SHIFT IN GLOBAL POWER: RUSSIA IS BECOMING CHINA’S VASSAL STATE
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is a wily old fox: he knows that, with an economy 800 per cent larger than Russia's, and with ten times its population, he holds all the cards. Increasingly isolated on the international stage by its actions in Ukraine, Russia is fast becoming a vassal state of China.
After last month's summit between the two countries in Beijing, President Xi bid farewell to Vladimir Putin with a warm hug: a gesture widely construed as a vivid illustration of their burgeoning bromance. But the pow-wow in the Chinese capital was no meeting of equals.
For example: Apart from supplying it with a wide range of industrial and consumer goods, Beijing has also propped up its war machine by providing critical components, such as machine tools and microelectronics.
In effect, Russia sells its sanctioned oil to China on the cheap and then sends back the cash these sales generate to China to pay for replacements for goods that have been sanctioned. There can hardly be a better definition of a 'client state'.