HALF-FULL REPORT 12/23/22
Welcome to the Christmas HFR!
Sorry to open with a bummer, but it’s unavoidable. For the whole year of 2022 has been one obscene bummer after another, and this is just the last ludicrous straw.
Note what’s carrying the insane $1.7 trillion 4,000-page Omnifarce – the GOP elephant that’s responsible for it. 21 GOP senators voted for it (3 by not voting). And in doing so, by locking in federal spending through next September, they prevented themselves by having any control over spending when the House take spending over 11 days from now.
That’s suicidally stupid, especially when considering the thousands of goodies for lobbyists and woke causes.
Late today (12/23) the House passed with 9 Rinos voting for it. Speaker-to-be McCarthy denounced the vote as “a monstrosity.” Chip Roy of Texas noted that 226 absentee proxy votes were cast, meaning the House lacked a physical quorum as required by the Constitution.
Can we have a lawsuit demanding SCOTUS declare the vote void?
There’s lots, lots more to come in this Christmas HFR….
PANTELLERIA’S MIRROR OF VENUS
Between Sicily and Tunisia in the Mediterranean lies a secret hideaway of Europe’s rich and famous – the small Italian island of Pantelleria. Peaceful and quiet, the opposite of glitzy places like Ibiza, wealthy elite retreat here in luxurious yet very understated villas to get away from it all. It helps that the shoreline is all volcanic rock cliffs, which dissuades hordes of African “migrants” attempted to claim “asylum” in the EU welfare state by landing here.
The most beautiful spot on Pantelleria is this volcano crater lake known as “The Mirror of Venus” – of such magic color that, the legend goes, the goddess Venus would admire herself in its reflection. Come here for a tranquil escape of your own. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #164 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 12/22/22
Automating the Narrative
Bad Ideas, But Faster
_____________________________________________________The Machine That Controls the World
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Over the past decade, a vast capability was built to manipulate and control the global narrative using computer networks between government, social media, and contractors.
Elon Musk exposed the incredible depth and breadth of the government’s effort to weaponize narrative control. The system appears to be under the direction of the intelligence community, especially the FBI.
Narrative control emerged in its modern form during Occupy Wall Street; it demonstrated greatly improved capability in 2016 after the election. It grew again and lit the nation on fire with George Floyd.
By those early days of Covid-19, the system was competent as it replaced reasoned science with political dogma. Millions died due to faulty advice, while real scientists with deep credentials were marginalized and arrested.
We saw the real purpose behind the machine as government insiders chose the president for the nation, President Dunsel. A dunsel is part of a ship or vessel that serves no purpose.
By the time Russia invaded Ukraine, the system had so overgrown itself that it lacked any form of a speed brake; it had driven public policy according to its wishes while creating deep confusion worldwide.
Please join us at Skye’s links as we explore the consequences of global narrative control on health, science, and investments. We are witnessing the unraveling of something as vast as the Manhattan Project, and so far, the results have been a global disaster.
TEN STEPS TO SAVE AMERICA
Most Americans know something has gone terribly wrong—and very abruptly—with the United States. They are certain that our wounds are almost all self-inflicted. The current pathologies are not a result of a natural disaster, an exhaustion of natural resources, plagues, or an existential war.
Crushing national debt and annual deficits, spiraling food and fuel costs amid “normal” seven-percent-plus annual inflation, bread-and-circuses entitlements, a nonexistent border, a resurgence of racial tribalism, pandemic violent criminality, and humiliation abroad—all these pathologies are easily cited as symptoms of a sick patient.
So, what are the therapies and prognoses for America?
In the spirit of constructive rather than blanket criticism, here is a partial, 10-point plan of national recovery.
A 16,000-BALLOT DISCREPANCY IN ARIZONA? ANOTHER CHIP FALLS FOR KARI LAKE
Fresh from a court victory granting her the right to examine a random sample of Arizona's ballots from its skeezy midterm election, Kari Lake has managed to notch another advance in her quest to halt the obviously fraudulent election of her Democrat rival, Katie Hobbs.
According to Just The News, citing the results of a public records request from America First Legal Foundation:
“Recently disclosed internal communications between top election officials in Arizona's Maricopa County in the immediate aftermath of Election Day reveal that they struggled to reconcile a discrepancy of almost 16,000 in outstanding ballot totals…
‘Unable to currently reconcile SOS listing with our estimates from yesterday,’ state elections recorder Stephen Richer wrote, showing that Maricopa County estimated having 392,000 ballots left to be counted, while the secretary of state's website said there were 407,664 ballots left. ‘So there's a 15,000 difference somewhere’.”
Let us first note just where the extra 15,664 supposed votes came from: the Arizona secretary of state, who just happens to be Katie Hobbs, who claims she defeated Kari Lake by 17,116 votes (1,287,890 to 1,270,774).THE GREEK GODS OF SICILY
The Ancient Greeks began settling in the Mediterranean’s largest island around 750 BC. They called it Sikelia, after the Sikani and Sicel tribes that lived there. They flourished, building numerous cities, all with temples to their Olympian gods. The city of Akragas – now called Agrigento on the south coast – grew to a population of 200,000 by the 500s. It was here that the Greeks built the most outstanding examples of monumental Greek architecture that still exist today.
Along a ridge outside the city, they erected temples to Zeus, Hera, Heracles (Hercules) and many others. The one you see here the Romans called the Temple of Concordia (harmony), for by the time they showed up in the 200s, the Greek name was lost. In the foreground lies a remnant of a bronze statue to one of the Greek gods – perhaps Apollo. The glory that was Greece has been gone with winds of millennia. It can be a very emotional experience to be here.(Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #248 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
WHY LEFTISTS AREN’T CAPABLE OF SURVIVING ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
In two years or less, our system, which is already dealing with a number of threats including high prices and supply chain instability, will not remain functional in the manner most people are accustomed. If we accept this inevitability, we must then ask a logical question:
Who is going to rebuild? Whoever inherits the mantle will either bring America back to freedom and prosperity, or plunge our society into perpetual tyranny. It all depends on who survives the crisis.
One thing that gives me some hope is the fact that leftists as a sub-group of our population are completely incapable of surviving a major economic crisis event.
This is not to say that I wish them all to die; I’m only pointing out the reality that most of them won’t make it because they are ill equipped to handle a calamity. Here are the reasons why a post-collapse world would probably be devoid of common leftists:
PUTIN ON THE WANE
Putin’s annual marathon end-of-the-year press conference has been canceled, as has the traditional “direct line” with carefully trained audiences, and his constitutionally prescribed annual address to the Federal Assembly has been postponed indefinitely (RTVi.com, December 15).
Speculation discussed by many watchers-in-exile is that Putin does not want to hear even slightly uncomfortable questions and cannot find a positive or reassuring theme for his typically pompous address (Svoboda, December 15).
This is primarily due to unfolding failure of his invasion of Ukraine, exemplified by such ridicule as:
LETHAL BEAUTY
Want to get this close to a leopard – and safely? Come with me on a safari in Africa and I’ll show you how. Yes, she’s lethal – to the animals she hunts, not you. Yes, you can make such lethal beauty an indelible part of your life.
We really do only live once on this Earth. You really do owe it to yourself to make the most of it. You really can’t take it with you. It really is time to live your dream, to fill your soul with life-memorable experiences. Life lasts but a snap of the finger.
So what adventures have you always dreamed of? Let me know and maybe you and I can make them become real together. I’m only an email away: [email protected]. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #204 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE PILLARS OF HERCULES
On either side of the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar there are two small mountains known since great antiquity as the Pillars of Hercules. The pillar on the northern, European side is the famous Rock of Gibraltar. That on the southern, African side is Mount Abyla, Phoenician for “lofty mountain.”
The legend for the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans was that Hercules pushed the two pillars apart to join the Mediterranean with the Atlantic. We think today of Hercules as a comic-book bodybuilder, while the truth is opposite. The entire ancient Mediterranean world very seriously worshipped him. For the Phoenicians, he was Melqart, King of the Earth. For the Greeks, he was Heracles, Divine Protector of Mankind. He was the same for the Romans, who pronounced his name as Hercules.
The Phoenician trading port of Abyla has a history of 3,000 years, from Phoenician to Carthaginian to Roman to Byzantine to Christian Visigoths to Islamic Berbers to Portuguese – and since 1668 to Spain, which continues to govern it today as the Spanish Autonomous City of Ceuta on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco.
Ceuta is a charming European city with beautiful beaches, open air cafés with great sangria, very relaxed and pleasant. It is here you find the statue of Hercules separating his Pillars commemorating the legend pictured above. Easy to get to with high-speed ferries from Algeciras near Gibraltar, Ceuta is definitely worth your while to experience. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #137 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)