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WINTER WILDFLOWERS

winter-wildflowersWe’re in Portugal preparing for our WWX Portugal Exploration 2025 (May 2-11) where it’s sunny, clear, 63 degrees, and wildflowers are everywhere.  Lisbon, by the way, is at the same latitude as Washington DC where it’s freezing tonight. (Not many know how far north Europe is – Rome, Italy for example, at 41°53’ North latitude, is north of New York City, at 40°44’N.)

The weather here is as benign as the culture.  Portugal is consistently in the top five of the safest, most peaceful and crime-free countries on the planet.  There is a total absence of divisiveness, anger, and woke insanity in this country. It is normal in the way America used to be and T47 is doing his best to be again.

We all, of course, hope and pray for his success in the not-distant future.  But if you’d like to experience normality right now, with extraordinary history, spectacular beauty, and fabulous food and wine thrown in, join Rebel and me on our WWX Portugal Exploration 2025.  You’ll have so much fun with your fellow TTPers!  (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #256 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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THE MYSTERY OF THE REEF OF HEAVEN

reef-of-heavenIn a remote corner of the Pacific Ocean, off the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia lies one of the world’s great archaeological mysteries: the only ancient stone city built on a coral reef. No one knows who built it or how.

Micronesians say their ancestors called it Soun Nan-leng, The Reef of Heaven. Their name for it today is Nan Madol, the City of Ghosts.

On artificial islets connected by a series of canals are massive walls up to 25 feet high enclosing temples, tombs, ritual centers, and platforms for thatch homes – all made of giant columnar basalt stone. Eons ago, lava flows on Pohnpei cooled into vertical pillars. Over a thousand years ago, ancient Micronesians began hauling these basalt logs miles away to build this stone city. With an average weight of 5 tons, 10,000 pounds – and some up to 25 tons, 50,000 pounds each – how they did this remains unexplained. It lies deserted today, abandoned and lost for centuries.

Paddling a kayak through the canal maze of Nan Madol to clamber over these monumental stone complexes in solitary silence – for visitors are rarely here – leaves you in a state of unforgettable awe. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #6 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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THE RED-OCHERED WOMEN OF THE HIMBAS

himba-womanThe Himbas are a tribe of nomadic cattle herders in far northern Namibia. Himba women make a paste of butter fat and red ochre clay called “otjize,” to protect their skin from the burning African sun and braid their hair for beautification.

The Himbas’ exotic practices are not for tourists. This is the way they live as one of Africa’s most genuinely traditional peoples. Living on the move in remote roadless regions, it takes an effort to find them. But when you do, coming with an attitude of respect, you will be welcomed with smiles and hospitality in return. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #66 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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THE POLYNESIA PARADISE YOU NEVER HEARD OF

polynesia-paradiseHave you ever seen the ocean turn day-glo pink? It does here naturally during a sunset (this is not photoshopped). Between Samoa and Tonga in the South Pacific is a raised coral atoll, 100 square miles of old limestone between 60 and 200 feet high: the island of Niue (new-way), and it’s is uniquely fabulous.

With no silty river runoff, the water is incredibly clear – visibility can reach over 200 feet. There are a multitude of chasms through which you clamber to these out-of-a-movie tidal pools perfect for snorkeling surrounded by colorful reef fish. The limestone cliffs encircling the coast are riddled with caves with multi-colored stalactites and stalagmites.

You can snorkel or dive with spinner dolphins and humpback whales. The big game fishing is world class – within a few hundred yards off shore. The Niueans are unfailingly friendly and welcoming, the beautiful Matavai Resort is the best bargain in the Pacific, the food and beer is inexpensive, the weather is balmy. It’s a Polynesian paradise you never heard of. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #48 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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HALF-FULL REPORT 01/31/25

This morning’s (1/31) NY Post Cover story is almost ghoulishly ironic.  Analysis by several experts is provided as to the causes, all of whom avoid the obvious – that those in charge of Reagan Airport Air Traffic Control and Black Hawk training flights near the airport were DEI hires.

The Biden FAA Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan 2024 states on Page 7:

“The FAA is fully committed to ensuring equal employment opportunity while maintaining the highest safety standards as outlined in the agency’s Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan 2021-2025. These principles are supported by focusing and increasing outreach and recruitment to underrepresented communities through intern programs, outreach to colleges, universities, and community organizations.”

While we all know the total dedication of Biden’s Milley Pentagon to DEI that Trump SecDef Hegseth has just begun to root out.

Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, brilliant, beautiful, eloquent and unflappable at 27, laid it out for the White House Press Corps.

There’s also the ghoulish timing of the cover this morning, for “Collision Course” can be seen as the collision between the Woke Lunacy of the Democrat Party and Reality – as exemplified by the clown show of Democrat Senators getting humiliated by Trump Cabinet nominees at their confirmation hearings this week.

This is a revelatory HFR!  Off we go…

Okay, a tease.  Lizzie Warren got steamrollered by RFK2. Warren has been paid off by Big Pharma so much that wags are calling her, not Pocahontas, but Pharmahontas.

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NO FEAR OF THE EVIL EYE: THE TENTH COMMANDMENT & FINGERNAIL CLIPPINGS AND UGLY BABIES

[These are the next two short chapters of Part I: Envy of my forthcoming book NO FEAR OF THE EVIL EYE: Key to Freedom, Peace, and Prosperity.  Previous sections and chapters can be accessed here. I will really appreciate any feedback you have.]

 

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's. Exodus 20:17

 

This is the King James Version (KJV) translation of the Tenth Commandment of Yahweh not to envy.  The Living Bible (TLB) translation is more accurate:

“You must not be envious of your neighbor’s house, or want to sleep with his wife, or want to own his slaves, oxen, donkeys, or anything else he has.”
 

The original word in Hebrew translated as “covet” is chamad.  The word can be used in different contexts, referring to sexual lust for example.  But for thousands of years, Jewish tradition has considered the 10th as a proscription not to envy other people.

Not surprising considering that according to the Old Testament, the first crime ever committed, Cain killing his brother Abel in Genesis 4:3-8, was an act of envy.

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THIS IS AMERICA FIRST – THE WORLD HAD BETTER TAKE NOTICE

Colombian plane leaving for California to bring back deported illegal aliens
Colombian plane leaving for California to bring back deported illegal aliens

With Donald Trump back in the White House, leaders across the world are sitting up. They will have to get used to something very new: an America unembarrassed about putting its own national interests first, and specifically in making the security of its borders one of the central aims of its foreign policy.

The South American nation of Colombia received an early preview of how President Trump will project US power. After initially refusing to accept US military planes carrying Colombian illegal migrants, Trump threatened a wave of tariffs and visa restrictions on the country’s political leadership unless it agreed to accept back its own citizens.

Within hours, Colombia had complied with Washington’s demands. The actions he is taking now to protect America’s national sovereignty should serve as a role model for the UK and nations across Europe who are facing the same challenges posed by mass migration.

A strong and revitalized America is great not only for the American people, but for the entire free world.

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LATIN AMERICA LEARNS WHAT FAFO MEANS WITH TRUMP

fafoIn Latin America, word is out. And the word is FAFO.  The polite version is “Fool Around – Find Out.”  That first F stands for something else on Elon’s X.

Suddenly we are seeing a lot of them willingly cooperate with President Trump on the acceptance of repatriation flights for their own nationals in the U.S. illegally.

The reason looks pretty obvious: Nobody wants to be the next Petro.

President Trump's thrashing of far-left Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, who initially refused to take repatriation flights he had agreed to earlier, hollering like the pope about 'dignity,' before being forced to quickly reverse course and sing soprano, seems to have sent a message to the rest of Latin America's alien-exporting states, and now they're falling into line with Trump's agenda.

According to Reuters:

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TRUMP’S BAN ON GENDER TRANSITIONING HAS TURNED THE TIDE ON AN INDEFENSIBLE CULT

Change happens, according to the famous Hemingway quote about his bankruptcy, “gradually, then suddenly”. The same could now be said of the dismantling of gender ideology. Its moral bankruptcy, a decade of sterilizing and mutilating children’s bodies, looks to be over.

In the flurry of executive orders that Donald Trump has signed since re-entering the White House, here is the big one: prohibiting gender transitions for people under the age of 19.

“It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures,” reads the executive order, entitled Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.

This means no more puberty blockers, no more operations, double mastectomies, castration, “facial feminizations” and all the rest of it. No more irreversible “gender affirming care”.

How did we get to this? How did anyone think that telling children that they were born in the “wrong body,” and that those bodies could be surgically and chemically rearranged was sensible? But this is hardly the first time medics have caused harm.

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MELANIA MEANS BUSINESS

Official White House Portrait of the First Lady, January 27 2025
Official White House Portrait of the First Lady, January 27 2025

In 2017 it took almost three months for the White House to release an official portrait of the new First Lady who in a significant break from tradition had yet to move permanently into the executive mansion.

Previous Official Portrait of the First Lady, April 3 2017
Previous Official Portrait of the First Lady, April 3 2017

Fast forward eight years and this time things, like so much else in Trump 2.0, look very different.  A bold, confident, disciplined and always sharply tailored boss was the Melania that the public got today and, up until now, was a woman that only those who worked closest with her were allowed to see.

Melania’s lightning-fast pictorial statement - in bold black and white (another barrier breaking feature of the image) - makes clear that she too realizes that not only is there no time to waste in declaring herself part of a presidential triumvirate.

She is picture three in the line-up after her husband and his vice-president on the White House homepage.

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“TRUMP’S DONE 100 THINGS IN ONE DAY AND STARMER STILL HASNT DONE ANYTHING. WE NEED A TRUMP” SAY THE BRITISH

As someone who conducts focus groups for a living, I was hardly surprised by the poll this week that showed that so many British voters back Donald Trump’s agenda on issues such as migration and free speech.

That’s partly because of the state of public disaffection when it comes to successive governments’ handling of those issues in Britain.

But my lack of surprise was down to something else too. It has become clear from the work I do that many British voters admire Trump’s approach – on policy but, more importantly, on what amounts to his sheer determination.

“I don’t see why we’re all so [bothered] about making other people happy, but not ourselves as a country. Trump gets that,” a middle-aged man, a former Conservative voter, told me in Dudley last week. Another, a retired woman in Bury, said: “He’s done 100 things in one day and Starmer still hasn’t done anything. We need a Trump.”

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WHY DIDN’T THE DEMOCRATS STEAL THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION?

Many Trump supporters believe that Trump won the 2024 election because, this time, the vote for Trump was “too big to rig.”

Others dismiss the concern about “stolen elections” because Trump won the popular vote in addition to the electoral vote, plus a GOP majority in the U.S. House and Senate.

The reality is that elections are still corruptible. While Democrats didn’t rig the presidential race this time around, the narrow congressional majority means that down-ballot races were still manipulated...something Democrats can and will do again.

However, the primary reason the Democrats allowed the swing states to conclude counting votes on election night was that the Democrats decided not to steal the 2024 presidential election to punish Biden and Kamala Harris for breaking ranks.

At the “Deep Party” Central Committee level of the Democrat party—at the level of Barack Obama, Klaus Schwab, and George Soros—the order went out that Harris needed to lose.  Here’s why...

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FLASHBACK FRIDAY: HAVING A GREAT TIME IN ALBANIA

albania-beer-jack

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)

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THE REAL ATLANTIS

atlantis-in-knossosHere 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)

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