Yesterday (8/17), Kim Klacik, running for Congress for Maryland 7th (Baltimore) posted this campaign ad on @KimKBaltimore. In less than 24 hours it’s gotten 4.5 million views. Watch and see why:
She proudly identifies herself as pro-Trump, pro-life, and “anti-Squad” as the antidote to AOC, Ilhan Omar and their ilk. As she walks by boarded up and rundown buildings, she says:
The United Arab Emirates will establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, President Trump announced last Thursday (8/13).
It is a “huge achievement,” said Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.
A “key step for peace,” said Dennis Ross, who tried (and failed) to negotiate Middle East peace treaties during the Obama administration.
Others called the peace agreement “historic,” said it will bring “massive change” to the Middle East.
The Trump administration’s foreign policy has been disastrous, Democrats assert.
[This is long yet one of Victor’s best. There is an abundance of ammo here to clear the field of any woketards you may meet –JW]
What created the hatred of Trump and his supporters was not a rather heterodox political agenda (see below), but a style that took on the Left on its own terms, and shocked a Republican establishment — by shrugging as irrelevant his ostracism by the traditional conservative beltway insider.
I would prefer a supposed braggart cracking down on China, or a purported narcissist closing the border, or an alleged demagogue promising change in the Rust Belt than any more sermons from privileged gentlemen conservatives.
Such as Jeb Bush tolerating illegal immigration as “an act of love,” or silent agreement that those manufacturing “jobs are not coming back” as Obama put it, or wonkishly boy wonder Paul Ryan being drilled in a debate by the vacuous smiling Joker Joe Biden or Mitt Romney oblivious that Candy Crowley had just hijacked his debate momentum—and with it the election.
Crassness is not a requisite for needed change, but so often in a flawed world the two are shared, in the reverse fashion that gaseous pieties are frequently voiced by the sober and judicious.
But all this is irrelevant when we consider what Trump did rather than what he said. Here is a compendium.
Tonight (8/19) at the Virtual Democrat Convention in Milwaukee, Kamala Harris will virtually accept her party’s nomination for Vice-President (she will be in Chevy Chase, Maryland at the time).
Joe Biden's handlers opting for Kamala Harris as his running mate is downright entertaining. It's as though they let Trump choose Biden's V.P. candidate. Harris polled near the very bottom of all the Democrats who threw their hat in the ring as presidential wannabes.
Of all the women among consideration, Harris has the greatest dearth of character – which, when you think of it, is in character for the Democrats.
[Having been to Somaliland three times, and writing about it in TTP for years – e.g., The Country That Does Exist (Feb. 2011) – I am so pleased to see Michael Horton explain how Islamic terrorists, while winning in Somalia, are being defeated in Somaliland – JW]
The tempo of Jihadist Al-Shabaab’s operations in Somalia has steadily increased, despite a dramatic escalation in U.S.-led drone strikes in Somalia. In fact, indications have emerged that al-Shabaab is gaining new capabilities and tactics, such as the use of hand-launched drones.
However, Al-Shabaab has failed to establish an enduring presence in the autonomous but unrecognized Republic of Somaliland. The government of Somaliland’s military budget is the equivalent of an accounting error when compared with what has been—and continues to be—spent in Somalia by its international backers.
Yet, with its limited resources, Somaliland has achieved what the military forces of Kenya, Turkey, Ethiopia, and the United States have failed to achieve in Somalia: it has denied al-Shabaab a foothold.
How has Somaliland achieved this?
Ordinarily, most of us wouldn't care too much about a political leader's love life. After all, President Trump is a stellar president but his personal life hasn't been perfect. Big deal. Trump's never brought it up to win votes out on the campaign trail.
Joe Biden's different. He's using the occasion of his previous wife, Neilia Hunter Biden's death in a car crash along with that of his baby daughter to tell us how compassionate he is, in a bid to reap political hay.
Now it looks like he was cheating on Neilia by having an affair with another man’s wife – yes, the now-Jill Biden.
Don't let anyone guilt you over the bad consequences of their own behavior; unwise shortsighted behavior that results in deadly consequences rather than systemic racism is causing more minority deaths from the Wuhan virus:
Social distancing responses to COVID-19 emergency declarations strongly differentiated by income
November 3, 2020; the shape of things to come:
Election Roulette: How To Rig An Outcome
Something about China; interesting correlation between crops, culture, and humans regulating human behavior:
Historically rice-farming societies have tighter social norms in China and worldwide
Good comments on inflation:
The Road To Inflation In Post-COVID Times
If you thought that the 737-MAX was as bad as it could get, just wait for airplanes designed by this generation of STEM graduates:
Students Claim 'Merit'-Criteria "Possess Inherent Bias"
This will fix it:
"That's Ridiculous": Jill Biden - Not Joe, Appears On Live TV To Defend VP's Cognitive Ability
There’s lots more!
Yes, that’s me at 16 (in 1960!) with Tangamashi, a Shuar Jivaro chief who adopted me into his clan. The Jivaros are the only people on earth who make a shrunken head of their enemies killed in battle – called a “tsantsa.”
They inhabit the Amazon rain forests of the Ecuador-Peru border; living with them was the first adventure I had by myself alone. Tangamashi accepted me, taught me how he made a tsantsa from an enemy’s head skin, took me blowgunning monkeys with curare-tipped darts, and introduced me into the Jivaro spirit world with a tea they called “natema” from the Banisteriopsis vine – a very colorful experience. How cool can you get for a 16 year-old kid?
It set me on a path of an adventurous life from which I have never wavered – and there’s no slowing down now. Another great adventure always awaits. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #25, photo ©Jack Wheeler)
Nagas are multi-headed dragons who rise up to protect the former royal capital of Laos, Luang Prabang. The city along the Mekong River has been the center of Lao culture since the 600s. The Kingdom of Laos, “Land of a Million Elephants,” had to struggle for centuries to avoid being absorbed by the empires of Siam and Khmer (Cambodia). It was the French who wrested Laos from Siam (Thailand) in the 1890s, giving it independence in 1953.
For centuries, devout Buddhists have been building beautifully ornate shrines and temples called Wats here in Luang Prabang. Every day at dawn, hundreds of red-robed monks living in the Wats parade through the city streets for donations. Since the Pathet Lao seizure of power in 1975, moving the capital to Vientiane, Luang Prabang is free of politics, preserved as a religious haven and treasure house of Laotian culture.
A few days here is not to be missed. As you enjoy a glass of good French wine at a riverbank café watching the sunset over the Mekong, give thanks to the Nagas who are still protecting this sanctuary city. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #24, photo ©Jack Wheeler)
This is the black sand beach the US Marines stormed on February 19, 1945, beginning the legendary Battle of Iwo Jima. Overlooking the beach is Mount Suribachi, where four days later Joe Rosenthal took his iconic photo of six Marines planting the US flag on its summit.
You can come here once a year at a commemoration jointly held by the US and Japanese militaries. Guests of honor are the few Marine veterans of the battle still alive. To be here on these sands and on the summit of Suribachi, where the memorial lauds them – “On Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue” – with these heroic men is an indescribable privilege. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #23, photo ©Jack Wheeler)
This is Caño Cristales, a river flowing through an ancient tableland in a remote roadless region deep in the forests of Colombia. Known as The Liquid Rainbow, geologists consider it the world’s most beautiful river.
The colors are due to endemic riverweeds that grow only here, clinging to the rocks of the riverbed, and the crystal clarity of the water. It is not easy to get to – fly a light plane to an airstrip, take a boat upriver for miles, then walk a few miles more. But then you get to explore one of the most beautiful sights nature has to offer – replete with dozens of small fun waterfalls, surrounded by an uninhabited forest teeming with tropical birds.
No wonder National Geographic calls Caño Cristales “the River of the Garden of Eden.” Yet it is only one of the many extraordinary experiences in this huge country – for Colombia is larger than Texas and California combined. Wheeler Expeditions will be conducting an exploration of Hidden Colombia in 2021. Hope you can be with us. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #22 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
My wife Rebel and I love this uniquely picturesque ancient Berber village in Morocco where everything is painted in shades of blue. Suffused in soothing blue, there’s no more relaxed place than just about anywhere. Everyone is welcome from the wealthy staying in sumptuous boutique hotels to backpackers in hostels. There are no “tourist spots,” for every café and bar is where the locals go themselves. (It’s pronounced shef-shah-win, by the way.)
Berbers – “Amazigh” (Unconquered) in their language, are the original people of Morocco having lived there for over 12,000 years. They are directly related to the reindeer-herding Lapps of Lapland in northern Scandinavia (they share the same mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U5b1b). 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 far north, the other south crossing the Gibraltar Strait to Africa.
One more reason why Morocco is so magical. Would you like to experience the Magic of Morocco with us next year? (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #21 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
It’s tempting to call this the O Joy! HFR. The entire Woketard World is suddenly on Four Alarm Hair-on-Fire Alert this week over a fellow named DeJoy.
Never heard of him? You will. The saga begins last May 6, when the United States Postal Service (USPS) issued this announcement: USPS Board of Governors Announces Unanimous Selection of Louis DeJoy to Serve as Nation’s 75th Postmaster General.
The decision was bipartisan and nonpartisan – so why the uproar? First, DeJoy is a GOP and Trump campaign “mega-donor” – so he’s being attacked just for that alone, such as the charge he has up to $75 million invested in “USPS competitors” like UPS. But the real freakout came yesterday (8/13). You’re going to love this. And this whole HFR!
[This is the concluding Part Three of my Festscrifft to the memory of Professor John Hospers (1918-2011), my mentor under whom I gained my doctorate in philosophy, and the first presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party in 1972. Part One was in TTP two Mondays ago (7/27), while Part Two was last Monday (8/10). It will appear entire as a chapter in the forthcoming book, "Libertarianism and the Libertarian Party at 50 and Beyond," edited by Stan Oliver and C. Ron Kimberling.]
PART THREE
Once again, I was gone all that summer – swimming the Hellespont for the second time, then overland through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. When I got back that Fall of ’73, John had a question for me: “Have you ever heard of a fellow named Mike Oliver?”
“It rings some kind of bell,” I answered, playing for time. Finally the bell rang. “Oh, yeah – wasn’t he the guy with that Minerva Reef thing – tried to create a new country in the South Pacific on some unclaimed reef underwater at high tide called the Republic of Minerva until that huge fat king of Tonga put a stop to it?”
It was one of those rare times when I made John laugh out loud. “Well, you might describe it that way. In any regard, I’ve gotten to know him. He’s starting his New Country Project again, and wants to meet you.”
“Me? How come?”
