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L i k e U s ! ! !

WE’RE BEING TAKEN FOR A RIDE

From 2001:  A Space Odyssey

“Open the pod bay doors, Hal”

“I’m sorry Dave.  I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“What’s the problem?”

“I think you know what the problem is just

as well as I do….”

The above clip was science fiction sixty years

ago.  It isn’t now.

Thanks to “progress” and AI tools, you are

about to have a government minder in every

corner of your life.  Some of you have already

invited it into your home like a vampire—hello,

Siri or Alexa.  They can listen to you and your family 24/7, and that Wi-Fi in your house can also track you in the structure.

Now, your car is about to join in.

Your personal car will no longer be your own.  Section 24220 of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed by Democrats with Republicans helping and signed off on by His Royal Senescence in December of that year, says that in all 2027 new vehicles will have infrared sensors tracking your eye movement and physical activity to detect impairment.

If you flunk the ongoing tests conducted probably fifty times a second, the car will limit your speed or even self-disable.

You do not have to be an engineer or particularly imaginative to see, however, that this is just the tip of a nightmarish iceberg that James Cameron himself could have designed.

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THE MAP IS CLOSING AROUND CHINA

In late April, Australia signed a deal to buy eleven new frigates from Japan.

That sounds like a procurement story. It isn’t. Across the Indo-Pacific, a new order has come.

Like South Korea, Japan is beginning to arm the anti-China coalition.

With frigates from Japan and nuclear submarines from America, Australia is becoming a serious maritime power.

The First Island Chain is getting harder. The Straits of Malacca, Sunda, and Lombok through Indonesia are being secured.

And the United States, far from withdrawing from Asia, is building a stronger, more distributed security architecture that prevents the next world war before it can start.

That is the backdrop as Donald Trump meets Xi Jinping in Beijing today.

The Enemedia will obsess over tariffs, rare earths, soybeans, oil purchases, fentanyl precursors, and whatever carefully negotiated communiqué emerges from the room. And yes, those things do matter.

But what really matters is the map.

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THE LIQUID RAINBOW – WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL RIVER

cano-cristalesThis 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. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #22 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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HOW HUNGARY SNOOKERED SOROS, OBAMA, AND THE WHOLE DANG EU

Peter Magyar, the Left’s great Hungarian hope until he wasn’t

Some 98 percent of the 10 million residents of Hungary are ethnically Hungarian, and Hungarians speak, well, Hungarian.

Almost no one else does. So when Hungarians chattered among themselves about the April 12 general election, their EU neighbors read into the chatter what they chose.

Voters knew that 4-term prime minister Viktor Orban had exceeded his sell-by date. His government had grown stale, sclerotic, and shady around the edges. The globalists only really knew that Orban opposed illegal immigration and was a friend of Donald Trump.

For them, that was enough to open their hearts and their checkbooks. One time Orban ally, the 45-year-old Peter Magyar opposed Orban. A win for Magyar was thus a rejection of Trumpism, a triumph of good over evil, democracy over fascism, open borders over nationalism. Hoorah!

They all fell. . . . and better still, the left paid for its own humiliation,

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HOW VIRGINIA’S REDISTRICTING RULING JUST COLLAPSED THE LEFT’S JUDICIAL STRATEGY

They built the trap. Now they’re standing in it. A Virginia court blocked the Democrat’s redistricting map. The left screams “activist judge.” They built this weapon – now it’s pointed at them.

On April 22, 2026, a circuit court judge in Tazewell County, Virginia issued a ruling that sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party’s midterm strategy. Judge Jack Hurley declared all votes cast in the previous day’s redistricting referendum “ineffective” and barred state officials from certifying the results or taking any action to implement the new maps that Virginia’s Democratic-controlled legislature had passed.

The map in question was not a minor adjustment. It was gerrymandered to favor Democrats in ten out of eleven congressional districts and, if implemented, would have handed the left a structural House advantage heading into November’s midterms.

The Democratic response was immediate and predictable. Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones vowed to fight the order, declaring “Virginia voters have spoken, and an activist judge should not have veto power over the People’s vote.”

The attorney general of a state that spent years building the legal architecture for federal judicial intervention in electoral processes was now complaining that a judge had intervened in an electoral process. The irony is not subtle. It is, however, historically significant in a way that most of the coverage being produced right now is completely missing.

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THE TREE OF JESSE

tree-of-jesseThe Igreja de São Francisco (Church of St. Francisco) was built 800 years ago on a ledge overlooking the Douro River in Porto, Portugal.  500 years later in the early 1700s, the people of Porto devoted themselves to making its interior supremely magnificent.

Most breathtaking is the polychrome wood carving depicting The Tree of Jesse springing from the reclining body of Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David, and showing the genealogy of Jesus through the branches of the tree that are the Twelve Kings of Judah, ending with Joseph and above him the Virgin and Child. Above the Tree to the ceiling is intricately carved woodwork deeply covered with hundreds of pounds of gold leaf.

This masterpiece of baroque art is an awesome tribute to the importance of Christianity to Western Civilization. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #234 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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THE SCAM OF CHINA

[This Monday’s Archive was originally in TTP on October 22, 2009 – and could not be more timely with President Trump’s summit meeting with Red Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing two days from now (5/13). It focuses on the Chinese inversion of reality known as “losing face” – and the necessity of American diplomacy to not care about it. Let’s see what happens this week!]

TTP, October 22, 2009

The headline on Bloomberg today (10/22) is dramatic:  China’s Economy Grows 8.9%.

So the Scam of China continues, one the greatest feats of cook-the-books fraudulent accounting in history, but at least it’s a teachable moment in Chinese – and Communist –  metaphysics.

Shanghai-based M.I.T-educated economist Andy Xie calls all of this panda-nomics.  Xie’s panda is not like the real ones in the bamboo forests of Sichuan Province but the cartoon one of Kung Fu Panda.  It’s all make-believe.

Which brings us to the nub.  For Chinese, and for Marxist Communists, there is no difference between make-believe and reality.  There is no such thing as reality.  There is only what people believe.  If people believe something is true, it is.  If they don’t, it isn’t, it doesn’t exist.

This is best exemplified by the Chinese concept of “face” or lien.

The concept of face - as in "losing face" or "saving face" - plays a critical role in Chinese culture and the way most Chinese deal with reality - a way that is fundamentally opposed to that of Americans.

If your "face" is the primary concern of your life, controlling your conduct and morality, then you believe that reality is what other people say it is, not what it is in fact.

Telling a lie, for example, is not morally wrong, no matter what the lie.  It is only wrong if people find out you have lied, for their finding out causes you to lose face.

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THE ROCK PALACE OF YEMEN

rock-palace Dar al-Hajar, the Rock Palace, was built by Yemen’s ruler, Imam Yahya Muhammad Hamiddin (1869-1948), atop a rock pinnacle as his summer residence. It lies in a valley about 10 miles outside Yemen’s capital of Sana’a. While an iconic example of Yemeni architecture, it’s impossible to visit now with civil war raging in the country. Someday we’ll be able to safely return to Yemen again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #143 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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HALF-FULL REPORT 05/08/26

Let’s start this HFR with a fun tribute to the world’s most extraordinary couple, America’s President and First Lady – performed in admiration of them on Israel’s “Dance with the Stars” TV by Israeli dancers Haim Pershtein and Taylor Malkov.

It’s a reminder of how much our POTUS and FLOTUS are revered by so many millions throughout America, Israel, and the world despite all the pathological TDS of the world-wide Left.

************

If you watched on Wednesday night (5/06) the debate between the three main candidates for Mayor of Los Angeles, you witnessed the emergence of Spencer Pratt into MAGA stardom.  Here’s his reaction to Demtard LA Councilwoman Nithya Raman’s dismissal of him as a “MAGA Republican”:

And it’s not just this debate.  His ads, one after the other, are blowing everyone away.  This one blew Dan Bongino away. Benny Johnson says it’s the best political ad he’s ever seen:

Spencer really could be the savior of Los Angeles.  Keep your eye on this guy.

Lots more good and fun stuff to keep you eye on in this HFR.  And get ready for a video Rod Martin sent me – it’ll tear your eyes up, as it did him and me.

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THE NAZI LEFT AND THE SOURCE OF TRUMP HATRED

[This Monday’s Archive was originally published on June 9, 2017.  Now, with the 5th attempt on President Trump little more than a week ago, it’s critical to understand what’s motivating the lunatic White Auto-Nazi Left, and what at least a partial solution might be.]

 TTP, June 9, 2017

This is no hyperbole.  Calling someone a “Nazi” is, along with “Fascist” the most ignorantly over-used hyperbolic insult the Left can hurl at anyone they hate.

Like the insult “Racist,” the Left has divested these insults of meaning, as are schoolyards taunts, “You stink!” or yelling “Boo!” and hissing at a referee’s bad call at a football game.

To call someone a Nazi for real is serious business.  It’s accusing them of wanting to commit racial slaughter of fellow human beings on a massive scale.  It’s accusing them of advocating a politics of criminal insanity, of being irretrievably evil and criminally insane themselves.

 

Yet that is what the Left in America is becoming before our eyes in broad daylight.  You want to know how Germans, one of the most intelligent, accomplished, and cultured people on the planet became Nazis in the 1930s – look at what is happening to the Left, to the Democrat Party, to the Fake News Media right now.

The circumstances and proximate causes are different.  History does not repeat itself.  Here is what is happening now.

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CINCO DE FARSA – THE FIFTH OF FARCE

Welcome to the TTP’s annual May 5th tradition of explaining la verdad, the truth, about today. That’s so you’ll understand why it should be called Cinco de Farsa, The Fifth of Farce.

Last Tuesday (05/05) millions of us gringos celebrated May 5th. Yet Cinco de Mayo is a phony tradition, a joke on Los Norteamericanos, then exploited as a marketing gimmick by Tex-Mex restaurant chains as an excuse for us to get wasted on José Cuervo.

Yet before you get lost in Margaritaville, here’s the true history of Mexico. You’ll learn more about Mexico’s history in ten minutes than you ever did in school or anywhere else. With plenty of cool maps so you can win any bar bet on what really happened – plus an awesome John Wayne video clip at the end that’s very explanatory.

To begin with: Nobody in Mexico cares about May 5th. Only we, us gringos, pretend to. For if you ask just about any reveler at the nearest Pancho Villa’s Cantina or some such Mexican-themed bar anywhere in the US just what is being celebrated on May 5th, you’ll get either a blank stare or “It’s their July 4th ” ignorance. So here’s the real story.

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THE WAR POWERS ACT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL. IT’S ALSO UNWORKABLE

Friday, May 1st marked the 60th day of President Trump’s Operation Epic Fury against Iran.

Supposedly, reaching that date without explicit Congressional approval means the War Powers Act’s automatic termination provision kicks in.

Supposedly.

In reality, the War Powers Act of 1973 is both unconstitutional and unworkable. It’s also unclear in a key respect the President has already made use of.

Can Congress stop the President? Certainly. Can the War Powers Resolution? No.

That distinction matters. Congress has enormous constitutional power over war. It can declare war. It can fund, or crucially, refuse to fund war. It can limit, condition, or prohibit specific military actions. If necessary, it can impeach a rogue President.

But aside from the funding question, if it wants to do any of these things, the Constitution requires Congress to affirmatively act.

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THE END OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AS WE KNOW IT

Chief Justice John Roberts has disappointed the right far more often than pleased them.

Nevertheless, the Chief gave the best response to the notion that ending racial discrimination requires piling minorities into a few districts so they end up being a majority.

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

(Head slap and a hearty "duh.")

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THE GOLDEN STATE HAS FALLEN – WELCOME TO THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF CALIFORNIA

On April 8, the California Assembly Committee on Public Employment and Retirement voted 19–0 to adopt AB2017, followed on April 22 by the California Assembly Committee on Appropriations, which voted 7–0 to adopt the bill.

And with those votes, all that is left for this to become California law is the passing of it by the State Assembly and Senate and approval by the governor.

And with it, the state of California will no longer exist as we know it, but will become the Islamic Republic of California.

Introduced by California Assemblyman Matt Haney (D-San Francisco 17th District) at the behest of CAIR, the bill seeks to officially recognize the Islamic holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as California state holidays.

 

There are no holidays from other religions that are recognized as state holidays in California. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and Epiphany are all extremely important holidays in Judaism and Christianity. But none of them are recognized as California state holidays.

But according to Haney and the California legislature, apparently, Islamic holidays are much more important to the state than either Judaism or Christianity.

This bill is clearly unconstitutional, as it is in direct contradiction to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .”

By placing two Islamic holidays as official state holidays, they are respecting the establishment of a specific religion.

But the problem is greater than just their violation of the Constitution in attempting to pass this bill. The holidays themselves, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, are expressions and manifestations of the very worst aspects of Islam.

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STARMERGEDDON!

Could this be the swan song for the embattled and inept Prime Minister of England?

The chance of a change at No. 10 has even earned its own tag name.

STARMERGEDDON

The United Kingdom, pretty much all of it, goes to the polls today.

In Scotland and Wales, they'll be electing all members of their Parliaments. In England, it will be members of the councils who run every facet of life in the cities and counties throughout the country.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's base as titular Labour Party leader is in the commanding number of councils his party controlled as of the last election, the one that brought him to power.

That hold over the local base is seen as very much in peril today, and, in some instances, councils that have been traditionally Labour strongholds for a century or so are expected to fall to challengers from either local parties - like the Welsh Plaid Cymru - or to Nigel Farage's Reform surging movement.

Starmer's last-minute appeal to the British public to 'think of all Labour's done for you' with his requisite slap at the upstart and not socially acceptable Reform, felt a little flat and desperate.

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