AFTER NOVEMBER 8, WELCOME TO MAGA AMERICA
All indications now are that the Democrats are finally about to pay for using hate of Donald Trump as a substitute for governing for two years, just as, for four years prior to that, they used Trump hate as a substitute for normal opposition.
The entire fabric of myths, frauds, and defamations that the national political media have conveniently held up as a safety net for the Democrat Party and this terribly incompetent administration is about to disappear.
The Democrats will finally carry the can for 14 years of incompetence and venality—10 failed years under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, with a four-year interlude when frenzied antagonism to the Trump administration was a divertissement of shamefully unconstitutional and obstructive opposition.
So focus on this: If the Trump-backed Senate candidates win any two of Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, Trump is almost certainly the next president.
ADVICE TO DEMS: NEVER SEND A STROKE VICTIM TO DEBATE A TV STAR
The Fetterman campaign may have just watched what remained of its prospects in Pennsylvania circle the drain after last night's (10/25) sole debate between him and PA Senate candidate Dr. Oz.
Fetterman, who suffered a severe stroke days before the May primary and cast his vote from a hospital bed, appeared unable to put together nearly a single coherent sentence throughout the entire debate while TV veteran Dr. Oz deftly and "surgically" sliced and diced his way through an hour of questioning, using Fetterman as a lifeless sparring dummy for a majority of the debate.
Recovering from his stroke, Fetterman's answers ranged between somewhat inept and completely incomprehensible. The ugly performance started right from the beginning, with Fetterman bidding viewers "good night" as part of his opening statement.
Fetterman opens the debate:
"Hi. Good night everybody." pic.twitter.com/mg0X3Iwf5D
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 26, 2022
It only got worse from that point forward.THE FORTRESS OF LUXEMBOURG
Originally built upon Roman fortifications on a rocky promontory in the 900s by the Counts of Luxembourg, the Luxembourg Fortress gained strategic importance located between the French Kingdom and the Hapsburg Empire. By the 1600s it became so impregnable it was called the “Gibraltar of the North.” It was fought over by so many armies that finally, in establishing the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg’s full independence and neutrality in 1867, Luxembourgers agreed to tear it down.
What you see here is what is left, and is now a World Heritage Site. The Chemin de la Corniche – the promenade along the top of the ramparts overlooking Alzette River and the Old City – is renowned as “Europe’s most beautiful balcony.”
Wedged between France, Belgium, and Germany, small 1,000 square-mile Luxembourg is a haven of peaceful beauty. Come here to stand on these ramparts to experience it yourself. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #233 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
WILL DEMOCRACY DIE IN DARKNESS IN NOVEMBER?
The Republicans were always going to win big in November, regardless of what biased pundits professed.
There was likely never a sudden “blue resurgence” or “red collapse” of late summer.
Those fantasies were mostly Democrat Party talking points. They were readily regurgitated by the fusion media and biased pollsters. The ruse was transparently designed to dampen conservative turnout and fundraising, while fueling interparty squabbling over supposedly “unelectable MAGA candidates.”
As it turns out, all the Dems’ efforts and those of their minions will be to no avail.
Yes, the Democrats will soon chant democracy is dying because they are terrified it is thriving as never before.
WHY HOLLOW JOE WENT FAR LEFT
Bill O’Reilly has reached a conclusion that has probably occurred to many people recently, namely that although Joe Biden always represented himself as a moderate regular guy with blue-collar sensibilities from Scranton, he “fooled a lot of folks, including me.”
For, O’Reilly observes, Biden has recently been full of praise for extremists, saying that he agrees with everything Rep. Maxine Waters says, which includes, after the George Floyd killing, justifying violence and praising “one of the biggest haters on television,” Joy Behar.
Although I certainly understand O’Reilly’s reasoning, I must disagree. My view is that the situation is far worse than he envisages. Here’s why.
THE WORLD’S MOST UNIQUE BIRD
This is a Hoatzin. I took this picture in the Amazon jungles of Colombia, its native habitat. It has no genetic relationship to any other bird, and thus has its own family, the Opisthocomidae, and its own suborder, the Opisthocomi. Extensive DNA-sequencing demonstrates that “the hoatzin is the last surviving member of a bird line that branched off in its own direction 64 million years ago, shortly after the extinction event that killed the non-avian dinosaurs.”
The Hoatzin is the Dinosaur Bird, the only bird on earth directly descended from the dinosaurs. It makes weird noises – grunts, hisses, groans and croaks – no melodious birdsongs. It emits an awful smell due to its fermentation digestive system, and tastes just as awful so no one hunts it for food. Yet it is distinctively pretty in a hyper-funky way. Spend enough time exploring the Amazon, and you may be lucky to see one. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #186 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY MANAGING STRESS WELL
Man should not try to avoid stress any more than he would shun food, love or exercise. - Hans Selye
It is common knowledge that too much stress is bad for us; yet stress is also a necessary and vital part of living well.
Anything that you do that involves challenging yourself, confronting situations that require your best efforts, or pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone will involve a degree of stress.
So it’s really important to understand that happiness is not the absence of stress. In fact, happiness or our well-being requires living with a degree of stress that we can manage.
And there’s new research that turns what we thought we knew about stress on its head – what’s most important for our health and well-being is not the stress itself, but what we believe about stress. Let’s think about that.
THE CARRICK-A-REDE ROPE BRIDGE
One of the most dramatic sights along the Antrim Coast of Northern Ireland is the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. Originally built in the 1660s by salmon fishermen to get to their nets on the tiny islet of Carrick, it spans 70 feet across and 100 feet above the ocean waters surging below. It’s still used by the fishermen to this day. And while it’s been sturdily reinforced since it was a simple rope bridge, it’s still an invigorating experience to negotiate – especially in the wind and rain when I was there. Don’t pass it up if you’re ever in Northern Ireland. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #232 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – CANNIBAL TREEHOUSE
August 1977. High in the mountains above the source of the April River, a tributary of the Sepik in Papua New Guinea, I had a First Contact with an undiscovered tribe calling themselves the Wali-ali-fo. They ate “man long pig,” cooked human meat and lived in thatch dwelling built up in trees. Here I am in one with my Sepik guide Peter who got me here.
Peter translated a description of their practice: “When a man dies, we take a pig to his wife and exchange it for the body of the man. We take the body out into the forest and…cook ‘im eat ‘im. We do this so the man will continue to live in the bodies of his friends.”
Not something we’ll do but something we can understand, yes? These are people we could laugh and joke with, tell stories with, enjoy being with. A very different culture, but human all the same. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #148 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE RESEMBLANCE
