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L i k e U s ! ! !

KEEPING YOUR SANITY WITH THE ANTIDOTE TO THE HEDONIC TREADMILL

beach-shore-at-sunsetOne of the often unspoken expectations when we buy something is that it will, to some degree, make us happy. And when we become used to the availability of good things, when we come to expect them as a regular experience of a good life, we enter what’s called the “Hedonic Treadmill.”

Needing more and more good things in order to feel what we’ve come to expect as a baseline of happiness can be exhausting. It can undermine the sense of happiness we enjoy with each positive experience.

And in that way we can undermine our sense of being happy about our life.

But there is an antidote; something we can deliberately practice and gets easier over time, and that can significantly affect our happiness.  Here it is.

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FLASHBACK FRIDAY: WHAT DO YOU SEE HERE?

boy-in-pyongyang-nature-park-stream A young boy playing among rocks on a stream, yes. But where? I took this photo in a nature park in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Gives you a different perspective, doesn’t it? This young North Korean boy, how so innocently playing amidst beautiful streams and waterfalls, has no future except to grow up to be a human robot in subjection to a tyranny. He has no idea of the fate in store for him. That’s why, for me, this is one of the saddest pictures I have even taken.

Perhaps he will escape from his political prison, but the odds are gravely against him. Life does have its somber moments. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #244 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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THE MONTE PALACE GARDENS OF MADEIRA

monte-palace-gardens The island of Madeira in the Atlantic some 320 miles west of Morocco was first discovered, uninhabited, by Portuguese explorers in 1418. It has been a part of Portugal ever since. In the 1600s it became renowned for its Madeira wine, with English wine makers settling there and exporting it to England and the American colonies. The English consul Charles Murray built a beautiful estate, "Quinta do Prazer", Pleasure Estate, high above the capital of Funchal, which by the late 1800s was converted into the Monte Palace hotel.

100 years later, Portuguese entrepreneurs developed the property into one of the most spectacular tropical gardens in the world, with lakes, waterfalls, and exotic tropical plants turning it into a fantasy wonderland. You can spend hours wandering around relaxing and luxuriating in this peaceful paradise. Which is just what we do whenever we are here. We’ll be here again early next summer. You should plan on being with us. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #243 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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A KHAN, AN EMIR, A SULTAN!

jw-khan Is this the all-powerful potentate of a remote exotic Khanate, Emirate, or Sultanate hidden in the deep recesses of an unknown corner of Asia? Wielding his mighty sword ready to bestow a knighthood on those who please him or decapitate those who don’t?

Could be – he looks ready to do either, doesn’t he?

Or is it me, dressed up as a Khan, an Emir, a conquering Sultan, just for fun? Your call.

Whatever you decide, this photo was taken in the fabulously exotic ancient Silk Road Oasis of Bukhara in the heart of Central Asia not long ago. And to have this same photo of yourself, come with me when I plan my next Central Asia expedition soon. You’ll have one of the great adventures of your life if you do. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #184 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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THE DONGBA SPIRIT OF NATURE

shv-statue

Originally nomads from the Tibetan Plateau, the Nashi people settled in the fertile Himalayan foothills of Yunnan over 2,000 years ago. From the ancient Tibetan religion of Bön, they developed a unique religion of nature-worship called Dongba. The progenitors of humanity and nature were two half-brothers, two mothers with the same father. Nature is controlled by a human-snake chimera called Shv – a statue of whom you see here.

The Nashi are a peaceful gentle people whose ideal is living in accordance with nature. They dress very colorfully, women have equal respect with men, they write with the world’s only still-functioning pictographic script, and are proud of preserving their culture for millennia. It is an enchanting experience to be among them. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #163 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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THE AMAZIGH

amazigh They call themselves Amazigh – meaning “the unconquered” – who are the original people of Morocco having lived there for over 12,000 years. You’ve heard of them as Berbers, a name they find offensive. Another people you’ve heard of are the Lapps, the reindeer-herders of far northern Scandinavia, who call themselves Saami.

Astoundingly, they are directly related, for both are descended from the same stock of Cro-Magnon Ice Age hunters in Western Europe that split in two 15,000 years ago – one moving thousands of miles far north, the other thousands of mile south crossing the Gibraltar Strait to North Africa. Geneticists know this because the Amazigh and Saami share the same mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U5b1b. (See Saami and Berbers – An Unexpected Mitochondrial DNA Link, American Journal of Human Genetics, March 2005.)

So when you visit Morocco and meet a gentleman like that pictured above amidst a display of spectacular Amazigh artwork, you’ll know what incredible history resides within him. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #242 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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HALF-FULL REPORT 11/25/22

power-lines-at-dawnElectrical Power is the Elephant in the Room.

Russian missiles knocked out the Ukrainian power grid this past week, with much of the nation in darkness.

Lviv, in Western Ukraine, and part of Kyiv appear to be back online as of publishing time. Western nations are scrambling to source every available gasoline and diesel-powered generator for local use while larger military-grade systems are being mobilized.

Electrical grid failure is a severe possibility over much of the world as recent trends in cloud-based computing will drive global demand to 100%, then 200%, then 400% higher within a decade. The most significant driver is cryptocurrency mining.

It has been said that what cannot happen won’t happen. Perhaps it is just a coincidence, but the move to replace national currencies with Bitcoin and similar devices is crashing headlong into the electricity problem. Windmills and solar are toys compared to thermal and nuclear power station output. And these real power plants are being closed.

The result? The US Dollar will fend off the attack from cryptos. It is almost as if the government planned things out this way.

Come on over to the HFR. Let’s talk about the Elephant in the room.

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THE REAL HISTORY OF THE FIRST THANKSGIVING

of-plymouth-plantation

On Thanksgiving Day, Americans gather with their family and friends to celebrate the blessings that Providence has bestowed on their beloved country.

A deep appreciation of these blessings involves understanding that they were earned. It is to understand the awesome truth of how “God helps those who help themselves” applies to the Mayflower Pilgrims and their First Thanksgiving at America’s birth.

This is an appreciation and understanding of which those on the Left are incapable – for it would mean celebrating the capitalist freedom that made that original Thanksgiving possible. That made America possible.

Thus they must distort history instead. The distortion starts in Kindergarten, with the childish make-believe of your kid’s school play portraying the noble Squanto teaching the helpless Pilgrims how to feed themselves. So let’s drop the curtain on the distortion and watch the real thing. Here it is.

The real history of the Mayflower Pilgrims was recounted by their leader, William Bradford (1590-1657) in his book Of Plymouth Plantation, completed in 1647. It is from Bradford that we learn of Squanto, who did indeed show the Pilgrims how to “set” or plant corn (a new unfamiliar crop for them).

Then we learn that the Pilgrims taught the Indians how to grow more corn than they ever had before:

“The Indeans used to have nothing so much corne as they have since the English have stored them with their hoes, and seene their industrie in breaking up new grounds therwith.”

Reading the real history of the Pilgrims is so revelatory that I want you to see it at length. It is as effective a refutation of socialism and affirmation of capitalism as there has ever been.

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SKYE’S LINKS 11/24/22

happy_thanksgiving-americaToday is Thanksgiving Day, and it is my favorite holiday. Thank you, thank you to the many TTPers taking the time to read Skye's Links today. Your friendship and engagement on the forum are deeply meaningful. We are a team of like-minded friends, and sometimes not so like-minded, engaging together to understand the world better.

Our world is changing fast as global finance capitalism attempts to dominate industrial capitalism. The old system lifted the quality of life for everyone on the planet. The new system? Not so much as fee income from every facet of life and movement replaces investment in productive systems.

The photo is an old political propaganda piece first used by FDR against Hoover and later used by the Axis against American G.I.s. It successfully depicted the American Dream on this most beautiful holiday.

Little did people know that the Deep State then and the Deep State today see the simple message of prosperity as their enemy; as they see it, a happy home can afford to pay higher fees.

Please join us at Skye's Links while we discuss the changes we are seeing and the deeper meaning.

Enjoy your day, and we hope you are with your family and loved ones. And if you have a moment, share the prayers, and Grace offered before your meal today on the forum. So many TTPers want to hear each other's thoughts, especially today.

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IT’S COSTING PEANUTS FOR THE US TO DEFEAT RUSSIA

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov

From numerous perspectives, when viewed from a bang-per-buck perspective, US and Western support for Ukraine is an incredibly cost-effective investment.

Altogether, the Biden administration received Congressional approval for $40bn in aid for Ukraine for 2022 and has requested an additional $37.7bn for 2022. More than half of this aid has been earmarked for defense.

These sums pale into insignificance when set against a total US defense budget of $715bn for 2022. The assistance represents 5.6% of total US defense spending. But Russia is a primary adversary of the US, a top tier rival not too far behind China, its number one strategic challenger.

In cold, geopolitical terms, this war provides a prime opportunity for the US to erode and degrade Russia’s conventional defense capability, with no boots on the ground and little risk to US lives.

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SAME OLD SAME OLD DÉJÀ VU

Merrick Garland
Merrick Garland

Attorney General Merrick Garland has just announced the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith.

But Smith’s team will not look into the Biden family quid pro quo syndicate nor its incriminating confessionals on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Instead, it will further investigate Donald Trump’s possession of presidential records that were hauled off from Mar-a-Lago, as well as his purported role in the January 6 “insurrection.”

We know the script that will follow because we suffered through it for 22 months and spent $40 million for it under Robert Mueller’s special counsel team. Here’s what will happen.

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THE VOTING MORONS

marching_moronsYou know the story: a man wakes up after a century-long bout of suspended animation to find… orbital colonies? Contact with aliens? Cheap universal fusion power?

Nope – he finds a culture inhabited by ill-dressed goons speaking in monosyllables, with no understanding of history or the natural world or anything else, surrounded by shoddy, fake technology. The president is a dreadlocked idiot. The average IQ hovers around 65.

Sure… you know that one. It’s Idiocracy, the comic film from 2006. Except that it isn’t -- it’s “The Marching Morons,” a 1951 short story by C.M. Kornbluth. That’s where the producers of Idiocracy got it, without acknowledgement, knowing that the current run of morons wouldn’t recognize it.

We’ve haven’t reached the state of Idiocracy or “Marching Morons” as of yet. But from the evidence of the midterms, we’re a good halfway there.

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HOW GEN Z KILLED THE RED WAVE

gen-xyzWith the failure of the Republican Party to achieve a red wave in the midterm elections, many explanations — and accusations — are being bandied about.  Blame is attributed to abortion, Trump endorsements, election integrity, and voter fraud, and the shifting of millions of votes to Democrats by Google, Facebook, and other tech monopolies.

Marketing expert Mark Beal from the Rutgers University School of Communication and Information believes there is still another factor in the election that is being overlooked: the impact of Generation Z.  An expert on this group (born between 1997 and 2015), Beal says they will wield increasing influence on local, state, and national election outcomes.

Xi Van Fleet, who as a child lived under the tyranny of Mao's Cultural Revolution and his young Red Guards, told a Dallas audience recently that she believed she had left communism behind forever, only to find that her son is now a Bernie Sanders–supporter after being indoctrinated in communism in public schools. Her son epitomizes Gen Z.

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KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY HAVING THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

extovert-introvert-balancePeople who are extroverts – people who are more sociable, who like to be out, talk, and interact with other people, and who gladly put themselves out into new situations – tend to be happier than people who are not.

That’s great for those who, by temperament, happen to be extroverts. But what if we’re not naturally extroverted? We can still improve our overall happiness by doing extroverted things.

The delightful truth is that, from simply taking more extroverted actions, our overall happiness grows about the same as if we were naturally extroverted.

If you tend to be an introvert, if your natural comfort is to be more solitary, shy, or quietly inward, I’m not suggesting that you deny your nature, or pretend to be someone that you’re not. There are significant strengths to introversion that I’ll discuss in a moment.

But you can get some of the benefits of an extrovert as well by practicing certain skills; then you can have the best of both worlds.

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