The most stirring and powerful address was by Ursula van der Leyen,MD, President of the European Commission, the governing body of the European Union. Above is the video of her talk, below the full text. Please consider watching and reading it entire.]
Russia thought it would roll over Ukraine, but the West’s Financial Blitzkrieg now threatens to trigger the unravelling of Putin’s autocracy. Excellent!
This is new and exciting… We’ve invented a whole new way to wage war! And it might even work.
It only took a day – but what we’ve already learnt about Financial Blitzkrieg is you can’t have half-measures. The West surprised everyone – especially ourselves – with the scale of the weekend financial assault on Russia.
Now Europe and the West should go much further.
Last night (3/01), a confused political hack from Delaware staged a one-man insurrection by invading the sacred precincts of the Capitol building, hijacking all the TV networks, and yelling that the planet would be destroyed unless we gave him all our money so he could burn it and turn it into green energy.
With the price of gas, homes, and groceries out of the reach of most Americans, Biden began by taking credit for doing nothing to stop Putin from invading Ukraine. And then vowed that he, along with a coalition of “freedom loving nations” would fight Putin until the last Ukrainian.
During his unhinged tirade, Biden revealed a plan to end women’s sports in America, but failed to name one thing that would actually stop Putin. Except locking Vladimir in a room and forcing him to listen to a Biden speech.
Ersatz “president” Joe Biden stumbled through his State of the Union address last night (3/01), flubbing several lines from his prepared text and ad-libbing lines that did not make sense. Here is a list of his biggest mistakes:
According to his prepared text, he was supposed to say “hearts and souls of the Ukrainian people.”
Biden tried to recover saying Ukrainians were fighting “pound for pound” with “every inch of ‘urnagy'” Urnagy?
There are (at least) two major qualities from our ancient past that cause us considerable trouble. Taking conscious control of them and training and updating ourselves for our present environment can make a big difference in our quality of life.
One of these is our attraction to high calorie foods. Starvation and famine were dire threats for our hunter gatherer forebears.
Our challenge is to adapt to our abundance by consciously and purposefully resetting our habits from hunter-gatherer auto-pilot eating, and toward deliberate habits that include knowledge of how our current meals will affect our future health and well-being.
The other leftover from our ancient past is our strong bias toward negativity. Jack gave me a video clip from Ukraine as an example of overcoming it.
Russian army eating dirt:
The Javelin Is Wrecking Putin's Army -- Here's How the Anti-Tank Weapon Works
Turkish drones killing Russian soldiers in the Ukraine:
Turkish Drones Playing Key Role in Ukraine
Wow – that was quick. 70% of Russian crude frozen by buyer reluctance:
70% Of Russian Crude Trade Is Frozen As Surgut Again Fails To Sell Any Urals In Big Tenders
Afghanistan, 1984. Yes, that’s me with the legendary Qari Baba, Commander of the Harakat Mujahaddin waging a war of liberation against the Red Army of the Soviet Union – and my dear friend. I told him he looked like a combination of Genghiz Khan and Buddha, and he couldn’t stop laughing. We had so many extraordinary experiences together – like blowing up the Soviet High Command of Bala Hissar in Ghazni.
After the war was won with the final Soviet retreat in February, 1989, Qari Baba became the Governor of Ghazi Province. Then Pakistani Intelligence (ISI) created the Taliban to seize control of the country. Qari Baba had to take up arms anew against them. In March of 2006, he was assassinated by a Taliban hit team on orders from the ISI. I will never ever forget him. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #111 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
The Hani people in the mountains of Yunnan have been carving out rice terraces on dozens of steep mountainsides for over a dozen centuries. After the late fall harvest, in winter they flood the terraces in preparation for spring planting. At sunrise and sunset, the light reflecting off them creates a scene of phantasmagorical surrealism. Unknowingly, the Hani have created one of humanity’s most magnificent works of natural art the world has ever seen. What you see here is only one of hundreds of terraced areas. It is a sight beyond belief. Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #156 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
In 52 AD, St. Thomas the Apostle, one of Jesus’ 12 Disciples, sailed down the Red Sea and across the Arabian Sea to the Malabar Coast of Southwest India to preach the Gospel of Christ. He found a receptive audience among the peaceful fisherfolk in the villages along the coast – so receptive he established a series of churches that still exist today. Some remain small and humble, others like the one above rebuilt with soaring glass and stone.
There are many Christian denominations in the Indian state of Kerala, which has the entire Malabar Coast, from the original St. Thomas Syrian Christians to Catholic, Pentecostal, Charismatic and others. Of Kerala’s 34 million people, at least 20% are Christian. Kerala is a place of relaxing beauty and peaceful serenity. The best way to explore it is via a luxurious houseboat along the many canals or “backwaters” dotted with fishing villages and churches. You’ll be warmly welcomed. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #155, photo ©Jack Wheeler)
The Painted Monastery of Voronet was built by Romania’s national hero Stefan the Great in 1488. A UN World Heritage Site, Voronet lies in a remote Carpathian mountain valley in the northeast corner of Romania. The entire church is covered in brilliantly painted scenes of Christian reverence.
The frescoes, with the famous “Voronet blue” made of crushed lapis lazuli, have withstood over 500 winters of wind, snow, and rain. The extraordinary back panel of the Last Judgment is renowned as the East’s Sistine Chapel (as in Eastern or Orthodox Christianity). It’s one of Romania’s many wonders. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #98 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
Perhaps the Question of the Week should be: Who else among world leaders besides Zhou Xiden could be suffering from onset senile dementia or Alzheimers? Hint: one symptom is unhinged anger and aggression.
Vladimir Putin turns 70 this October – he’s at an age where this is clearly possible. It may be an explanation of why he’s lost his capacity for rational thinking, and has his Commie amygdala in charge of his brain instead. He’s gone Full Hitler, recognized by a multitude of world news headlines, summed up by:
“A mad, murderous dictator threatens to unleash a nuclear world war. No longer is this a mere movie plot. Today it is terrifyingly real. It is paramount, as in 1939, that the free peoples of the West defeat this hideous new evil, this Hitler for our times.”This meme has gone worldwide viral:
Okay, the madman must be defeated… but how, without triggering WWIII? Here are some ideas.
A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA
Jack Wheeler
January 1985
[Note the date. Written in 1985 during the Cold War, when Russia formed the basis of the Soviet Union. First posted in TTP March 2004, it is reposted now to provide a historical context for the current Russian invasion of Ukraine.]
At various times in her history, America has been at war with and has had as deadly enemies: the French, the English, the Spanish, the Germans, the Italians, the Mexicans, and the Japanese. All are today our friends and allies. There is nothing in the nature of things that makes it impossible for this to someday be the case with the Russians as well.
Yet it is important to understand how the Russians are not like us — how their history enabled them to transform themselves into Soviets running an Evil Empire called the Soviet Union.
It finally happened, and everyone should have seen it coming: Russian bombs are now raining down on Kiev — and Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Odessa, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Mariupol — making Ukraine a full-blown war zone with reports of civilian and military casualties piling up.
And we have Hunter and his Dad to largely thank for it. Hunter Biden's need to take baksheesh undercut U.S. security interests, left Ukraine a corruption-soaked mess unfit for NATO membership, and opened the gates wide for Russia to move in on Ukraine.
Biden family corruption was one of many reasons why Ukraine couldn't get into NATO and secure the Article 5 protections it needed to deter Russia. Now it's fighting alone and hoping it can defeat the Russian juggernaut, which is only just beginning.
[This is VDH at his most powerfully eloquent, all the way to a crescendo of eloquence at the end.]
Canada is now governed by absurdism, and it is symptomatic of an ailing North American elite.
The truckers remind Western audiences that modern progressivism equates muscular labor and hourly wage compensation with a sort of Neanderthalism, rewarding those who type on keyboards while punishing those who physically deliver, fix, make, and repair things.
We can reduce the divide to the embarrassing optics of a pouty-face pajama-boy prime minister with a pompadour coiffure, issuing threats to non-threatening beefy and calloused workers. Each time Trudeau speaks to his nation, the visual message is that any of the truckers could do a better job than he in both setting and explaining policy, while he would become a helpless weeping child if placed behind the wheel of a big rig.
