Rebel and I, along with our friends with us, always have a great time in Albania. Here’s a pic she took of me with a stein of delicious Birra Tirana lager. You’re sure to have so much fun yourself by joining us and your fellow TTPers on our Albania Wonderland experience this April. See you in Tirana. The beer’s on me! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #284 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
Here we are at the real Atlantis in Knossos, Crete. More nonsense has been invented about Plato’s myth of Atlantis – mentioned briefly in his Timaeus and Critias and not by anyone else in antiquity – than any other legend you care to name.
Yet like many myths, it was constructed out of something that really existed. Atlantis is the Minoan Civilization of Crete, Europe’s oldest. By 2,000 BC, the Minoans had created the world’s first peaceful capitalist empire, based not on military might and conquest but on trade, with trade routes across the entire Mediterranean. They became immensely wealthy, building fabulous palaces and villas – but their cities were not fortified. Europe’s original civilization was the most peaceful in European history.
Around 1450 BC, the Minoan island of Santorini 60 miles north of Crete – known to the Greeks as Thera – suffered a colossal volcanic explosion with the resultant mega-tsunami wiping the Minoans out on Crete. It was “The wave that destroyed Atlantis.” Yet you can see for Atlantis for yourself, its excavated villas with fabulous preserved frescoes, and step back into a period of inspiring history. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #68 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
This is St. Paul’s Natural Pool on Pitcairn Island, where in 1790 Fletcher Christian and his mutineers of the Mutiny on the Bounty settled, and where their descendants live to this day. They were awed by the uninhabited island’s lush beauty, with huge banyan trees rising above them like giant cathedrals, and thought it a Garden of Eden where anything grew, coconuts, bananas, taro, breadfruit, mangoes, guavas, passion fruit, yams and sweet potatoes in the rich volcanic soil.
Pitcairn has no beaches, though, so this was their swimming hole – and still is for Pitcairners today. They are happy to take you here, and to the island’s colorfully named spots, like Where Dick Fall, Oh Dear, Break Im Hip, Down the Hole – and to Fletcher Christian’s Cave, his lookout for British warships hunting them (they failed for 25 years) .
It’s not easy to get here – fly to Tahiti, then remote Mangareva from where you sail for two days on a supply ship. But you’ll be so welcome upon arrival. You stay in one of their homes in Adamstown and be treated like family. It’s a travel experience like none other. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #63 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
The Kayan tribal people live in a remote roadless valley in the Shan Hills of Burma. Kayan women practice their tradition of beauty starting at age five. The young girls have a few brass coils placed around their necks, adding to them progressively as they grow until in older adulthood they are wearing as many as two dozen – becoming what the world knows them as Giraffe women. (The Shan people call them "Padaung" meaning "long-necked," but they call themselves Kayan.)
We are not here to gawk. We are here to make friends, treat them respectfully, and learn about their traditions. It is an intensely memorable experience to meet these ladies. We’ll be here again in early March next year. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #58 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
In the vast valley of Pasargadae there stands this simple tomb with nothing around it for miles and miles. It has been like this for many centuries, for it entombs the founder of Persia, Cyrus the Great (600-530BC). Revered as the liberator of the Jews from their Babylonian captivity in 539 BC, hailed by Herodotus for his humanity and wisdom, this small structure symbolizes the humility of an extraordinary man. Yet the tomb is a structure of engineering genius, the oldest built on principles of base-isolation withstanding the countless earthquakes Persia has suffered for the last 2500 years.
I was first here in 1973 when Persia (renamed Iran in 1933) flourished under the Shah. Here I am in 2014, when everyone I met expressed admiration for America and their contempt for the mullah tyranny they endured. I hope to return once more when the Land of Cyrus will be free again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #146 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an electrifying several hours on Capitol Hill, a nominee for the nation's top criminal justice position was interviewed by the nation's top criminals.
Kash Patel, Trump's pick to lead the FBI, fielded questions from America's lowest and most despicable lawbreakers ahead of his confirmation vote in the Senate.
"I have serious concerns about your character, Mr. Patel," said Senator Whitehouse, a notorious DC criminal. "Based on things you've said in the past, it seems you want to turn the FBI into a law enforcement agency to be weaponized against criminals. I find this unsettling and deeply disqualifying."
Sources say Patel simply responded with a silent, unblinking stare.
Senator Amy Klobuchar, another dangerous lawbreaker who has thus far evaded capture by police, expressed similar concerns. "EEEEEEEEEEEE!" said Klobuchar in a forceful monologue during the hearing. "EEEEEEEEEEK EEEEEEEEKKKK!"
The rest of Klobuchar's statement was not recorded as technicians mercifully turned her microphone off.
At publishing time, Patel's fate was still up in the air as the gang of criminals deliberated on whether to confirm him.
In a related development, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-BigPharma) paused the hearing of RFK Jr. for HHS Secretary to announce that the next line of questions would be sponsored by Pfizer.
- Babylon Bee reporting
And what a Golden Family – there’s Tiffany. Eric, Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Barron, with First Lady Melania holding the Bibles (Trump’s and Lincoln’s). Class, beauty, masculinity, and patriotism are back in style. As is entrepreneurship and meritocracy, epitomized by Elon right behind the First Family.
What a moment, what a picture to treasure. There’s even the counterpoint of Joe and Kamala looking on in bitterness, knowing the woke lunacy they inflicted upon their country is in history’s grave as America returns to being Normal once again.
And forget the traditional focus point on a new presidency’s First 100 Days. This has been the First 100 Hours for the history books. Talk about shock, awe, and overwhelm. This has been a week – barely more than 100 hours since 12 Noon last Monday January 21 to this writing (6pm Friday January 24). It’s been beyond breathtaking. Why don’t we begin with Melania?
This is a human shrunken head. It was given to me by the man who made it, the curaka or chief of a clan of Jivaro headhunters in the Amazon. His name was Tangamashi.
The Jivaro were the first tribe I stayed with. I was 16 years old, soon to be a freshman student at UCLA as an anthropology major. There are many tribes around the world who are “headhunters” from the Amazon to Africa to New Guinea and elsewhere, but they all collect the skull of an enemy they kill. Only one tribe on earth shrinks an enemy’s head – actually the head skin – and that was the Jivaro.
They live in the Amazon jungles of southern Ecuador and northern Peru. Shrunken heads were fascinating to a 16 year-old boy, but more so to me was the Jivaro determination to be unconquered and free.
So I arrived in Jivaro territory in the summer of 1960 – a young teenager from Glendale, California who had never been anywhere in the world except once on a trip to Europe with his parents. I was by myself, and how I talked my mom and dad into letting me do this is another story. In any regard, Tangamashi and I bonded, and by the end of the summer he adopted me into his people.
The golden age of America begins right now.
From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation. And we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer.
During every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first. Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end.
And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud and prosperous and free.
America will soon be greater, stronger, and far more exceptional than ever before. I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country. Sunlight is pouring over the entire world, and America has the chance to seize this opportunity like never before.
But first, we must be honest about the challenges we face. While they are plentiful, they will be annihilated by this great momentum that the world is now witnessing and the United States of America.
Donald Trump is once again President – and his second administration promises to be more Trumpian than ever.
Sworn in just after noon yesterday (1/20) – both the inauguration ceremony and his stick-swinging inauguration speech shielded from the cold inside the Capitol Building – he is essentially picking up where he left off. This time, however, Trump & Co have far more experience of how to navigate Washington’s corridors of power. They’re already showing it.
The past few weeks have seen Trump’s transition team prove its deftness in everything from foreign policy – that Gaza ceasefire – to a domestic agenda rife with executive orders promising to dismantle the vast DEI and identity politics network that former president Joe Biden and the Democrats had assembled with such alacrity.
And as Trump’s second inauguration speech made clear, he is only just getting started.
Back at the Resolute Desk, the President signs Executive Orders
[This essay is stunningly remarkable as it is written by the founding editor and global editor-in-chief of one of the most Woke Anti-Trump media outlets in Washington, POLITICO. It was published on politico.com yesterday (1/21) under his own name. He is neither groveling nor abusive. His is an honest recognition of reality. It is stunning nonetheless. –JW]
Donald J. Trump in his second inaugural address was everything his supporters hoped he would be:
In one light, it was all quite familiar. But the second occasion of Trump taking the oath of office also put him in an entirely new light.
For the first time, he is holding power under circumstances in which reasonable people cannot deny a basic fact: He is the greatest American figure of his era.
Great in this context is not about a subjective debate over whether he is a singularly righteous leader or a singularly menacing one. It is now simply an objective description about the dimensions of his record.
In other words, he is now a force of history.
Democrats are in freefall.
As of Monday January 20, Donald J. Trump is officially the 47th president of the United States. He starts his second term in the Oval Office with a bang – rolling out dozens of executive orders fulfilling promises made to American voters -- and more popular than he has ever been.
Democrats have no idea how to respond. Their party is currently earning its lowest approval ratings ever, for good reason. It is guilty of perpetrating the greatest political scandal of our lifetimes -- pretending President Joe Biden was OK to run for another four years.
Their efforts to brand Donald Trump a threat to Democracy were a bust and their leadership is in disarray. They deserve every minute they serve in political purgatory.
A former communications director for Kamala Harris says Democrats "have got to burn down our image." He’s right. But then what?
Vladimir Putin’s plan to outlast Joe Biden and an exhausted West has run into an unpleasant surprise – Donald Trump is surrounding himself with pro-Ukrainian hardliners.
Trump appears more willing than Biden ever was to throttle the Russian economy, if that is what it takes to force the Kremlin to accept peace on “America First” terms.
A new mood of relief – not yet optimism – is taking hold among Volodymyr Zelensky’s advisers in Kyiv. Europe’s diplomats are starting to wonder whether a Trump 2.0 presidency might not be such a bad outcome after all, at least when it comes to dealing with Russia.
“It is now absolutely clear that Trump is not going to throw Ukraine under a bus,” said Prof Alan Riley, a regional expert at the Atlantic Council.
Trump’s advisers have persuaded him, by the odd “Socratic method” that shapes policy at Mar-a-Lago, that a shabby American retreat from Ukraine would be orders of magnitude worse than Biden’s humiliation in Afghanistan, and also that the first line of defense against China lies in the Donbas.
Senate Democrats who are considering holding up the confirmations of President Donald Trump’s cabinet appointments might want to rethink that course of action.
The president recently threatened to adjourn Congress so he can make recess appointments for some of his nominees.
This move would be unprecedented and would likely meet with a chorus of wailing and gnashing of teeth from the left. However, it appears Trump is willing to make this gambit, according to CBS News.
The president has been eager to get the members of his cabinet confirmed. So far, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been the only official confirmed. The Senate is still set to vote on Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary, Kristi Noem for Homeland Security, and John Ratcliffe for CIA Director.
Democrats have been slow-walking the process for Ratcliffe and could do the same for the other two nominees, according to CBS News.
There are questions as to whether Trump has the authority to adjourn Congress.
President Donald Trump was so busy on his first day in office that it’s been a challenge to cover everything that he did.
The best way to know which are the best ones to discuss is to look at the way Democrats are reacting to them. His pardon of J6 prisoners was a big one; they’re really up in arms about that.
Another one was his executive order ending birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants in the United States. Now, Democrat attorneys general from 22 states are suing over the executive order.
The Democrat attorneys general and immigrant rights advocates say the question of birthright citizenship is settled law and that while presidents have broad authority, they are not kings.
“The president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, write the 14th Amendment out of existence, period,” New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin said.
These challenges are doomed to fail.
