THE SMALL-SPOTTED RING-TAILED GENET
It’s not a cat, nor raccoon, nor lemur. Genets are part of a small carnivorous mammal group called viverrids, distantly related to hyenas, mongooses, tigers and lions. They hunt animals smaller than them like mice both on the ground and in the trees which they are very good and quick at climbing. You see them in Tropical and Southern Africa, but rarely will one pose like this as he did for me. Going on an Africa safari is not all about seeing the big iconic animals, but being lucky enough to spot small yet beautiful creatures such as this. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #144 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
NO APOLOGY, NO FUTURE
Map by the Lansing Institute
[This Monday’s Archive, “No Apology, No Future,” was originally published on April 28, 2005. 18 years ago, a prediction that Russia would disintegrate as did the Soviet Union was almost unheard of. Now it seems ubiquitous. Google Russia + collapse, +dissolution, or +decolonize will result in millions of hits. The List of active separatist movements in Russia in Wikipedia advocating secession from Moscow will astound you. Russia is accelerating into centrifugal chaos, which won’t take TTPers by surprise, as they were forewarned many years ago.]
Budapest, Hungary, October 1997. I was in Budapest speaking to a conference of international business leaders. Another speaker was a Moscow television news commentator well-known in Russia, Boris Notkin.
He informed his audience about how humiliated Russians felt, losing their Empire and the Cold War, not winning many medals in the Olympics, and having their Mir space station go belly-up. He warned of a dangerous anti-Americanism emerging among Russians, who resentfully blamed America for their problems.
A gray-haired gentleman with a Central European accent stood up and asked Boris a question:
“In addition to their feelings of humiliation and resentment, do Russians have any feelings of remorse for inflicting Communism upon so many countries? After their defeat in World War II, the Germans apologized to the world for being Nazis and for the horrible atrocities Nazism committed. After their defeat in the Cold War, will the Russians ever apologize to the world for being Communists and the equally horrible atrocities Soviet Communism committed?”
Boris looked straight at the man and coldly answered, “No. Russians feel no remorse. They will not apologize.”
THE SHRINE OF A SILK ROAD SUFI SAINT
In hidden dunes of the Takla Makan Desert of Chinese Turkestan, you find pilgrimage sites such as this devoted to Sufi saints revered by the Uighur (wee-ger) people who live in oases on the great desert’s edges. The trade route connecting the oases is the Southern Silk Road traversed by Marco Polo in 1273.
Sufism is the ancient peaceful interpretation of Islam. Just as Jesus advised the Pharisees to seek God in their hearts, not through the robotic repetition of religious laws and rules, so do the Sufis. Just as Jesus preached a philosophy of non-violence and benevolence, so do the Sufis. Sufism teaches that the path to Islamic enlightenment is not through compulsion of any kind, but through a personal ecstatic experience of the Divine.
Thus these ramshackle shrines in an uninhabited roadless wilderness – you get to them by donkey cart – are havens of serenity in a chaotic world. This is one of the remotest places on earth, but if you ever manage to get here, you will feel serenity in your heart. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #183 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE REAL FLAG
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – QARI BABA
Afghanistan, 1984. Yes, that’s me with the legendary Qari Baba, Commander of the Harakat Mujahaddin waging a war of liberation against the Red Army of the Soviet Union – and my dear friend. I told him he looked like a combination of Genghiz Khan and Buddha, and he couldn’t stop laughing. We had so many extraordinary experiences together – like blowing up the Soviet High Command of Bala Hissar in Ghazni.
After the war was won with the final Soviet retreat in February, 1989, Qari Baba became the Governor of Ghazi Province. Then Pakistani Intelligence (ISI) created the Taliban to seize control of the country. Qari Baba had to take up arms anew against them. In March of 2006, he was assassinated by a Taliban hit team on orders from the ISI. I will never ever forget him. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #111 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 06/02/23
Cleese’s reaction reported by the NY Post: ‘Monty Python’ Star John Cleese Has ‘No Intention’ Of Cutting Controversial ‘Life Of Brian’ Scene.
Yes, that’s the only way to deal with woketards, tell them to eff off. The really good news here is that Cleese is far from alone. Countless millions have had enough of the whole Rainbow Mafia-Tranny-Pride-LGBTQWTF woke tyranny shtick and are voting with their wallets against it.
As of Wednesday (5/31): Bud Light Parent Anheuser-Busch Sees $27 Billion Gone, Shares Near Bear Market. This won’t stop – Bud Light is toast, and so may be A-B because nothing it’s doing is working to float their sinking ship.
Could this be the fate of Woke Fascism across the board? Well, maybe. Read on, jump right in, let’s have an enjoyably provocative time in this HFR!
THE FAIRY TALE CASTLE OF SEGOVIA
This is Spain’s most famous and beloved castle, high on a rocky promontory above the city of Segovia some 60 miles northwest of Madrid. The site of a Celtic settlement, Roman trading post, and Arab wooden fort, when the Reconquista of the Christian knights removed the Islamic invaders from their land in the early 1200s, the building of the idyllic fairy tale castle you see began.
For centuries it was the palace residence of the Kings and Queens of Castille. It was here, on December 13, 1474, that Isabella, daughter of King John II, was enthroned as the Queen of Castille. When her husband Ferdinand, whom she married in 1469, became King of Aragon in 1475, they jointly ruled a unified Spain. As we learned in our early school years, it was Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille who sponsored Columbus’ discovery of the Americas in 1492.
Today, the Castle of Segovia is a World Heritage Site, serving as a museum of the history of Castille and National Archive of Spain. Immaculately preserved and maintained, it’s a thrilling experience to explore. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #266 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 06/01/23
To Infinity and Beyond
The SCOTUS defined navigable waters of the USA this week in a blow to the EPA. Navigable now means “navigable” and not “anything with a drop of water.” Once again, federal agencies tell us that the ends (their absolute power over everyone and everything) justify their means, and Clarence Thomas sets them straight.
The House approved a new federal debt limit agreement that continues to blow the federal debt to the moon and avoids making federal expenditures a central issue during the 2024 election cycle.
The debt represents dollars printed into circulation, and conditions will likely remain inflationary. Perhaps catastrophically inflationary as time unfolds. Interest rates are being pushed up to counter inflation, and the IRS is increasing tax collection activity dramatically. One or more of the 87,000 new, woke IRS agents might be knocking on your door soon.
But don't worry, wokesters mostly hate white baby boomers. Just identify as somebody else.
Problems are emerging from boycotts of woke brands. The brands are losing money, and shareholder lawsuits challenging fiduciary duty abandonment are arising. As of yesterday, ten major insurance companies are out of the UN climate accords. That's ten out of thirty. Insurance companies are recognizing the ESG agenda exposes them to overwhelming antitrust litigation.
The GDI, or gross domestic income metric, indicates that we have been in a recession all year. The GDP does not yet reflect this, as the metric is skewed by accelerating government expenditures. Consumer sentiment reflects a recession and adds to the nationwide anxiety about woke entitlement.
This week's number one song on several charts calls out Target for Targeting the Kids. Pedophilia is proving to be a woke bridge too far, even among many that insist it takes a village.
Come on over to Skye's Links and take a look...
NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS’ STUNNING PATRIOTIC MEMORIAL DAY SPEECH
New York City Mayor Eric Adams gave a completely unexpected Memorial Day speech denouncing socialism and Communism and bemoaning the lack of patriotism from the nation’s young.
Referencing Thomas Jefferson (a mistake, according to the radical left), Adams spoke of the famous “Tree of Liberty.”
“You water the tree of freedom with your blood,” Adams said. “We sit under the shade of that tree of freedom protected from the hot rays of socialism and communism and destruction that’s playing out across the globe.”
Adams referred to himself as a “thirty-eight percenter,” recalling a poll from last year that showed just 38% of Americans were “extremely proud” of the United States. He spoke proudly of our Pledge of Allegiance:
“Just as I start the day, every child should start the day with that hope and that true Pledge,” he said.
A 22-year veteran of the NYPD, Adams’s speech was not universally applauded — as you might expect. New York’s Woke Left exploded.
COMBATING THE CENSORSHIP INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
It’s been nearly six months since the first installment of the Twitter Files—the journalistic effort by Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, and many others to expose the myriad channels by which the U.S government cooperated with Twitter on content moderation and censorship—was first published.
For six months, not much of consequence has happened, either in Washington or the mainstream media, in response. Those who owe us mea culpas have not provided them, tending instead to attack the individual reporters or ignore their findings.
Why? Because not many commentators understand the interconnected tendrils of a single censorship apparatus. Michael Shellenberger and his colleagues Alex Gutentag and Matt Taibbi are now undertaking a monumental attempt at defining that apparatus: they call it the Censorship Industrial Complex.
Shellenberger and Gutentag are two of the few journalists who not only take the reality of increased government censorship efforts seriously but also consider it a systemic, unified, and global threat, as opposed to a few discreet but regrettable extensions of U.S. political power.