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L i k e U s ! ! !

PRETENDING TO BE HAPPY

Jackson age 12, 2005
Jackson at the Sphinx, age 12, 2005

[This Monday’s Archive was originally published on May 13, 2005. These days, we all could use a way to “pretend” to be happy, to transform the seeming mundane into an experience of magical gratitude. I hope you find it useful. Let me know if it does.]

TTP, May 13, 2005

Last week was the 13th birthday of my youngest son, Jackson. One evening a few days before, I was engrossed in writing on the computer when my wife reminded me it was Jackson’s bedtime. He was in bed reading, waiting for me to kiss him goodnight.

As I walked down the hall towards his room, my brain was filled with thoughts about the article I was working on. I was on autopilot and all I could think about was what I would write when I got back on the computer.

For some reason, I stopped and stood still. Somehow, an extraneous thought had popped into my consciousness from nowhere.

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UNPLUGGING THE AUTOPEN PRESIDENCY

Could POTUS’ autopen executive order debench Biden’s 237 leftist federal judges including Justice Ketanji?  It may be legally required.  And that’s only one of a multitude of consequences in Biden’s autopen illegality.

Revelations about President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline have exposed an “autopen presidency” run by unelected aides. Exclusive footage from the Oversight Project shows former Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients and others admitting they propped up a president increasingly unable to perform his duties.

Thousands of documents—including executive orders, pardons, commutations, and judicial commissions—were signed by machine rather than by Biden himself.

On November 28, President Donald Trump declared all documents bearing Biden’s autopen signature “terminated and of no further force or effect.” He estimated that up to 92% of Biden’s official actions relied on the device, accused aides of running a “shadow government,” and warned of perjury charges if Biden denies the facts.

The Constitution (Article II, Section 3) and federal statutes (e.g., 1 Stat. 281 [1792]; 28 U.S.C. § 172; 5 U.S.C. § 2902) require the President to personally sign commissions, which must then bear the Great Seal.

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TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM IS NOT ABOUT VANITY, IT’S ABOUT AMERICAN GRANDEUR

The Democrats, or socialists, or whatever they are these days, are hopping mad over President Donald Trump’s construction of a ballroom in the East Wing of the White House, and while it may be their silliest freakout of the entire Trump era, it is also quite telling.

The ladies on ABC's "The View" were apoplectic when they saw images of demolition, a fairly ordinary way to begin renovations, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They echoed one-time resident Hillary Clinton’s complaint that Trump doesn’t own the White House, even taking to song about it.

What makes this argument so absurd, is that Trump is not building this ballroom for his personal use or glory. It’s not a vanity project. It is a long-considered addition to an executive home that lacked the capacity to hold large indoor events.

Trump, as has always been his wont, is looking to create grandeur, and that seems to be something to which leftists reflexively object.  The ballroom he is constructing will  survive as a symbol of American power long after we are all gone. It will be, in a sense, our generation’s contribution to the people’s home.

Trump wants this venue, this symbol of America, to be grand and classically inspired, a timeless marble monument to a United States that emerged from the 20th century as the world’s only super power.

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THE US NAVY SINKS THE PIRATES

target_drugboatsOn September 2, 2025, U.S. forces wiped a cartel pirate crew off the map in the Caribbean.

The target was a classic modern pirate craft—a swift, unmarked go-fast boat running low in the water, built for speed, smuggling, and violence. It was moving along one of the main narcotics corridors toward the United States when the operation commenced.

By the end of the strike, the boat was gone and all eleven cartel pirates on board were dead. It was the moment the new maritime campaign made its message unmistakable: If drug pirates tried to run the Caribbean, the United States would answer with finality.

The predictable wailing from the coastal elites and their favorite “human-rights” NGOs started before the smoke cleared. “War crime!” they shrieked. “Extrajudicial killing!” Spare us.

These were not innocent mariners. These were modern pirates—stateless, lawless, armed predators operating exactly the way Blackbeard’s crews did three hundred years ago, except instead of dealing in gold doubloons, they steal American lives with fentanyl and cocaine.

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THE ‘NO KINGS’ JOKE FLOP

The Saturday protests were a joke. Why did so many of them dissipate after an hour? Why all the animal costumes? Why did MSNBC have to use years-old pictures of alleged crowds? What do they have to do with “no kings”?

Perhaps the most mysterious, creepy aspect of the whole movement is their willingness to call for violence and the murder of those whom they hate so vehemently. These are demented people. They have been hopelessly inculcated with the anti-American, anti-Trump propaganda that the Marxist left is so good at propagating.

Our old hippies and the college students who have been so thoroughly indoctrinated by their Marxist professors are sitting ducks for George Soros and his ilk. These are the useful idiots, as Lenin called such people, who can be successfully relied upon to mindlessly further his ends.

That pretty much sums up who all those aging, blinkered “no kings” marchers were. Apparently, none of them know that the successful American Revolution rid the new nation of kings for all time.

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HAMAS IS COMING TO AMERICA

Mosab Hassan Yousef has seen how terrorist movements build from the inside, as he grew up the son of one of Hamas’s co-founders. Now he’s warning that jihadis are putting the same destructive game plan that turned Gaza into an Islamic terrorist cesspool into action in the United States.

In a thought-provoking and bone-chilling X post on Nov. 26, Yousef spoke out to warn Americans that Muslim jihadis are as determined to take over America as they are to take over Israel. As Hamas’s backer, the Iranian regime, always said, America is the “Great Satan.”

Jihad is not just about the guns and missiles. It is also about the educational initiatives, mosques, propaganda campaigns, and political efforts.

Yousef’s warning is particularly timely as an Afghan immigrant just gunned down two National Guardsmen in D.C., and radical pro-Hamas Zohran Mamdani won the New York mayoral election. An Oct. 7 jihadi was also recently found living in Louisiana.

Yousef began:

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CONSERVATIVE TRIUMPHS WORLDWIDE

Called “ultraconservative” by the liberal media, Japan’s new prime minister is its first woman ever in that position. But a Japanese feminist author told NBC News that Japan attaining its first female prime minister “doesn’t make me happy.”

Sanae Takaichi takes the reins of power in Japan with strongly conservative positions on gender and marriage. She’s much more like Margaret Thatcher than Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris.

Takaichi opposes same-sex marriage. She doesn’t support DEI. She will strengthen the Japanese military, which would help us by creating a buffer against Communist China, and she’ll meet next week with President Trump during his Asia trip.

Takaichi’s election is part of a trend worldwide which also recently resulted in the first conservative president of Bolivia in 20 years. Rodrigo Paz Pereira won a stunning upset against Leftist control of that South American country, and he vows to establish a better relationship with the United States.

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BONGINO TORCHES ‘DEEP-STATE DEVINE’

FBI’s Dynamic Duo Bongino and Patel
FBI’s Dynamic Duo Bongino and Patel

Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino unloaded on New York Post columnist Miranda Devine yesterday (12/01), accusing her of running yet another coordinated “deep-state hit piece” on reform-minded FBI leadership.

Bongino wrote on X:

“Deep-state Devine strikes again. Miranda loves attacking our reform agenda with gossipy anecdotes from disgruntled former employees because she’s upset that her ‘reporting’ keeps falling apart under scrutiny.

You can always count on Miranda for a timed hit piece when the Director and I make big changes. Miranda prefers the old guard. I don’t. Full steam ahead.

— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) December 2, 2025

Devine’s piece centers on a 115-page so-called assessment compiled by a self-appointed alliance of active and retired agents who openly admit they were embedded during the Biden-era FBI, a period marked by DEI obsession, political targeting, Russiagate hoaxes, retaliatory investigations, and record-low public trust.

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DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL TODD BLANCHE’S DEATH GRIP ON THE DOJ

Todd Blanche
Todd Blanche

Florida Attorney Peter Ticktin has known Donald Trump personally since grade 10 of their high school days in 1961, when both attended New York Military Academy. Ticktin has publicly described Trump as a classmate and friend from that period and has often recounted their interactions as cadets.

They have remained friends for over 60 years. I had this conversation this week with Ticktin regarding his concerns about the Department of Justice and Todd Blanche’s role in running the DOJ and what it means for Trump’s second-term agenda.

 

What is Todd Blanche’s role at the Department of Justice?

Todd Blanche is the Deputy Attorney General, which makes him the second-highest-ranking official in the DOJ, serving under Attorney General Pam Bondi. My assessment is that he handles the day-to-day operations of the DOJ, like a COO of a private company. The DOJ has 115,000 employees; it’s not something that Pam Bondi necessarily knows how to manage.

 

What’s your biggest concern about Todd Blanche?

My biggest concern is that he may be ideologically opposed to Donald Trump’s agenda and see his role as stopping Donald Trump’s agenda in its tracks.

I do not know this man personally, and I am not involved with the decisions in the DOJ. All I know is that I see complete failure with pardons, compensation to J6ers, investigations into Dominion machines, the release of Tina Peters, and other matters under that guy. I am not seeing movement.

My opinion is that everything that needs to be done at the DOJ to make Donald Trump’s presidency work is being stalled by Todd Blanche. He’s intentionally doing things opposite of what needs to be done. As a result, morale in the Department of Justice is way down. He is supposed to make the goals of Donald Trump get realized.

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MAKING GOOD ENOUGH CHOICES

Having choices is wonderful.

Today we have more options in terms of goods and services to choose from than any time in the history of the human race, and the options for spending money are nearly endless. This is part of the Great Enrichment I’ve written about earlier, and when we manage it well, it can contribute to our quality of life.

When we don’t manage it well, it can ruin our quality of life – even in the midst of incredible abundance.

On one end of the spectrum, we can get into trouble with our money when we don’t think enough – we spend too much on things we don’t really like once we have them. On the other end, we can devote too much time and emotional energy on making absolutely sure that we’ve bought the very best thing, at the very best price, with everything we buy.

This is where it’s essential for our happiness that we aim for making choices that are good enough, rather than trying to maximize every single purchase we make.

This is the message of Barry Schwartz’s excellent book, The Paradox of Choice.

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THE MYTH OF PUTIN’S STRENGTH IS CRUMBLING

Trump has finally ditched the Cold War notion that Russia is so formidable that we must, to avoid World War Three, accept that it can bully its neighbors into vassalage.

Russia is a weakish, brittle power in rapid decline, with a sphere of influence that has been steadily shrinking for decades. The invasion of Ukraine was meant to arrest the decay; it accelerated it. The land seized at vast cost does not begin to compensate for the collapse of Russian clout in Central Asia, the Middle East and the rest of Europe.

The crucial moment came in late September, when Trump publicly embraced the proposition that Ukraine can recover all its territory. That was not just rhetorical flourish; it marked a clean break with the “both sides must yield” mush that undermined the heroic Ukrainian fight and flattered Kremlin mythology.

Words from a US president matter. Treat Russia as strong and stakeholders default to caution. Treat it as fragile and initiative is unlocked.

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FLASHBACK FRIDAY – TRANS-SAHARA EXPEDITION

trans-sahara-expeditionJanuary 2003. Our campsite at dawn in the center of the Sahara called the Téneré in Niger. We found hand stone axes here 8,000 years old when the Sahara was green. Crossing the world’s greatest desert is a true expedition, one of the most astounding adventures to be had on earth, geographically, culturally, and historically. Unfortunately, it is too dangerous with lawless and ideological banditry today. I can hardly wait to do it once more when it is safe again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #70 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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THE RIGHT WAY TO APOLOGIZE

In 399 BC, Socrates defended himself in the court of Athens against charges that he had corrupted the young and did not believe in the gods of the city.

Though his attempt was unsuccessful, and he was shortly put to death, Plato recorded his great teacher’s performance that day as his Apology.

The title of this account uses the original definition of the word apology: the Greek apologia (apo – away from or off; logia from logos, words or speech), that is, “A defense especially of one’s opinions, position, or actions.”

Though the modern definition of the word apology is quite different, “an expression of regret for having done or said something wrong;” in some ways, I think we have culturally reverted to this older definition of apology – at least when it comes to politicians and other public figures.

We rarely hear publicly a genuine acceptance of responsibility for hurtful acts. It’s more common to hear either a defense of one’s actions, a displacement of responsibility onto the listener such as, “I’m sorry you feel badly about this,” or a diffusion of responsibility into the ether through the use of the passive voice such as, “I’m sorry that happened.”

Fortunately, we don’t have to behave like these public dissimulators…

We all make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes let other people down, or hurt them. The first step in repairing the mistakes we’ve made is to acknowledge that we’ve done something hurtful. Then the question becomes: “What’s the best way to apologize to the people we’ve disappointed or hurt?”

For it matters how you apologize, and Heidi Grant Halverson, author of Focus, has some great advice about this.

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TRULLI

trulliAt the top of Italy’s boot heel, there’s an ancient village named Alberobello that’s become a World Heritage Site.

This is because the villagers have preserved a prehistoric building technique with the conical roofs of their homes built up of corbelled limestone slabs with no mortar. The homes are collectively called trulli (true-lee) as each home individually is a called a trullo (true-low). Some trulli are centuries old albeit regularly rebuilt in the traditional way and maintained immaculately.

It’s a fascinating look into unique millennia-old living. Yet it is only one example of this little-visited part of far southern Italy that’s worth exploring. There’s so much more to Italy than Rome, Florence, Venice and such tourist magnets, as worthwhile visiting them may be. You’ll learn that very quickly when you start exploring Italy’s remoter regions. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #255 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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FLASHBACK FRIDAY: THE LOST CITY OF KUELAP

rh-at-kuelap10,000 feet high in the Amazon cloud forests of northern Peru is a mysterious lost city built by an unknown people many centuries before the Incas existed. Known as Kuelap by villagers in the lowlands below, the Incas called the people who built it Chachapoyas, “Cloud Warriors.” I led an expedition here in 1994, climbing high up into the Amazon Andes to come upon gigantic stone walls 60 feet high surrounding hundreds of stone structures. Here you see Rebel among them. We’ll be here again in a year or two in another exploration of Peru. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #153, photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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