WHAT WOULD HE THINK OF US?
This Xikrin-Kayapo tribesman and his people live in the deepest heart of the Brazilian Amazon on tributaries of the Xingu River. You wonder what he would think of us as panic, fear, and madness engulfs our civilization. Having spent time in his village not long ago, I’m confident he would simply shake his head in bewilderment and say, “Please just let us live our lives in our forest, that’s all we want.”
True indigenous tribes who keep to their traditional way of life are so rare now in the Amazon or anywhere else where they once flourished. Each one is a precious living cultural heritage of humanity. It is such a privilege when they share their way of life with you. They deserve to have their wish granted, as my tribesman friend would express it. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #4 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
DONALD TRUMP’S ANNOUNCEMENT SPEECH FOR 2024 STRIKES THE RIGHT TONE
Well, it is official. President Donald Trump is making another run at the White House in 2024. In front of a crowd at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Trump gave a speech in which he excoriated the ineptitude of the Biden administration while striking a hopeful message for the future.
There can be no doubt that Trump’s speech has already caused immense triggering on the left. Indeed, The Washington Post published an article titled “Trump, who as president fomented an insurrection, says he is running again” during the former president’s speech.
WaPo is sooooooooo mad right now. pic.twitter.com/ymsq7WjLtC
— The Redheaded libertarian (@TRHLofficial) November 16, 2022
During his speech, Trump reminded the audience of the prosperity America enjoyed under his presidency. He said:WILL TRUMP RIDE OFF INTO THE SUNSET OR PLAY THE TRAGIC HERO?
After the midterms, the Republican Party and half of the conservative movement are now furious with Donald Trump. Their writs are many — even though the party establishment shares much of the blame.
Indeed, in near hysterical fashion, Trump became stigmatized and scapegoated as the culprit for nearly every Republican race lost. Yet many of his endorsed candidates won. And some who lost did so quite independently of anything Trump said or did.
An unspoken paradox arose among many that Trump’s vital MAGA agenda might be better continued and advanced by those others than its creator — even as Trump insisted that there can no more be a MAGA party without him than there could be sunshine without the sun.
One explanation of the Trump dilemma is that like all classical tragic heroes and western gunslingers, Trump solved problems through means unpalatable to those in need of solutions beyond their own refinement. It is the lot of such tragic figures to grate and wear out their welcome with their beneficiaries — but only after their service is increasingly deemed no longer needed.
In this moment of wishing the wounded Shane would ride off into the Tetons and leave the more civilized alone, we should remember Trump’s four historical accomplishments that will only grow in light of Biden’s subsequent disastrous four years.
WE’RE GETTING PLAYED WHEN IT COMES TO WHO’S THE REAL 2022 WINNER
Following the dismal midterm showing, there’s a lot of blame to go around.
While I can and will sum up the issue, I want to focus more narrowly on the way in which the entire Republican machine is turning from Trump, who is now anathema, to Ron DeSantis, who is the new god.
Considering that we still have a long time before the primaries and then the 2024 election, this kind of decision-making is premature and dangerous—and that’s why we’re being forced into it.
Here's a short list of leading blame topics:
GUILTY CONSCIENCES? DEMOCRATS SUDDENLY PUT ON A REPUBLICAN SKIN SUIT
Less than a week after Democrats "won" most of the midterm election, something pretty weird is going on in various Democrat power centers, in a curiously counterintuitive pattern of acts and weather balloons.
In three instances below, we see Democrats starting to act like Republicans, adopting the Republican line, which is strange stuff, given that they insist they "won" the election in what they claimed was a voter mandate for their current style of governance -- despite poll after poll confirming Joe Biden's unpopularity and voters convinced that America is on the wrong track.
Elsewhere Democrat after Democrat is suddenly moderating their stance, adapting the Republican agenda on enforcing the open border, doing something about crime, and firing up oil production. What’s going on?
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)
PATAGONIA WONDERLAND
WWX-Patagonia Wonderland 2023 Jan 7-17
A land of people who live life to the brim, who eat marvelous food with gusto, who drink fabulous wine merrily, who party exuberantly, who will welcome you graciously with both arms.
Experience all of this luxuriously with Wheeler-Windsor Expeditions as we explore Patagonia together.
You won’t believe what a safely thrilling adventure this is, how much fun you’ll have. To find out all about it, for lots of photos of what you’ll see and do, it’s all right here: WWX-Patagonia Wonderland 2023 Jan 7-17
Start the year off right with a life-memorable experience with your fellow TTPers… See you soon in fabulous Patagonia!
KEEPING YOUR SANITY THROUGH SELF-MASTERY
Washington and Franklin – Exemplars of Self-Mastery
A certain degree of struggle, inside or outside, is part of life. At least two of America's founders paid attention to their own struggles and wrote about them, in very different ways.
George Washington, from a psychological perspective today, would be said to have had "anger issues." He could have quite a temper, but that wasn't something most people saw. Why is that? Read his Rules for Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation, and you'll find out. He worked hard and mastered his temper, and his other emotions.
Benjamin Franklin also took a conscious approach to self-mastery. In his Autobiography, he mapped out a strategy to practice and achieve several areas of virtue. These two great men exemplified self-mastery. Let’s talk about how you can too.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY: ASTRIDE WHERE AFRICA IS SPLITTING APART
It looks like a crack in a road, but this is in the Afar Triangle of Djibouti, where a triple junction of tectonic plates is tearing Africa in pieces. Plates spreading apart is called a Rift. I’m standing over where three gigantic rifts – the Red Sea that has split Arabia and northern Africa in two, the Gulf of Aden that will split off Somalia from the rest of Africa, and the Great Rift Valley of East Africa currently ripping Africa itself asunder – originate. Here the once intact Africa Plate began to tear in three directions.
Ironically, here is where humanity did the same. Genetic scientists have determined that some 60,000 years ago a small band of Africans (less than 200) rafted from what is now Djibouti to what is now Yemen in Arabia – and that incredibly, every human on earth today except for those who stayed, is descended from them. That means, e.g., all Europeans, Chinese and Asians, Australian Aborigines, North and South Native Americans, descended from those 200 people long ago.
Two amazing facts from this tiny country. There’s a third – it’s the best place in the world to swim with whale sharks, an unforgettable experience. All in Djibouti! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #238 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
AT LEAST THERE’S THE REDSHINE STATE
