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IS THIS THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL BEACH?

praia-do-sanchoAccording to the many thousands of world travellers on TripAdvisor, it’s #1: Praia do Sancho on the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha. You’ll also find it on just about any list of most beautiful beaches, such as Condé Nast, Harper’s Bazaar, and Luxury Travel.

The whole island is gorgeous. Mention that you’ve been there to any Brazilian who hasn’t and their eyes get misty. Fernando de Noronha (no-rone-ya) is the dream honeymoon, the dream vacation that only comes true for few in Brazil, as it’s hard to get to and hardly any place to stay once you’re there.

You have to get to either Recife or Natal in the far northeast, then fly 220 miles out into the Atlantic. Then take a boat, or scamper down the rocks of a 250ft-high cliff to be on the sugar sand of this enchanting beach – which you’ll have almost to yourself.

For some reason, all those lists have the name wrong, calling it “Baia” or “Baio,” when it’s “Praia” (beach in Portuguese). As the welcome sign proudly announces above the cliff trail: “Praia do Sancho – A Mais Bonita do Mundo,” Sancho Beach – The Most Beautiful in the World. If you’re lucky to ever get here, you’ll surely agree. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #73 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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THE WORLD’S MOST SACRED MOUNTAIN

mt-kailas-north-faceThis is the North Face of Mount Kailas (6,638 m/21,778 ft) in a remote region of far western Tibet inhabited only by Changpa nomads. For 22% of all people on Earth – 1.2 billion Hindus, 510 million Buddhists and many millions of others – it is the spiritual Center of the Universe, the Navel of All Creation.

Kailas and surrounding glaciers are considered the source of four of Asia’s great rivers radiating out from it: the Indus, Tsangpo-Bhramaputra, Sutlej, and Karnali-Ganges. As a sacred mountain it has never been climbed.

For thousands of years, people from all Asia have made the arduous pilgrimage to Kailas to perform the sacred act of circumambulating around the mountain – most clockwise, counterclockwise for others such as the Changpa adhering to the ancient Bön Tibetan religion.

It is not easy. Huffing over the high point of the pilgrimage route with TTPer Big John Perrot, our altimeter said we were as high as Kilimanjaro, over 19,000 feet. The highlight, however, is being among so many pilgrims from so many diverse cultures. This is one of our world’s thrilling adventures, and such a privilege to participate in. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #38 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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DROWNING HURRICANE VICTIM RELIEVED AS RESCUE CHOPPER DROPS $750 CHECK

ASHEVILLE, NC — A hurricane victim struggling to keep his head above flood waters was relieved when he heard the sound of a rescue chopper overhead that brought him much-needed relief when it dropped a $750 government check.

The desperate man looked up, his eyes stinging from debris kicked up by the helicopter's roaring blades, and was overwhelmed by a feeling of gratitude as he snatched the fluttering $750 check out of the air.

"Finally!" he said. "Now I won't drown. I'll be able to — replace one of my couches, I guess."

The helicopter promptly departed, presumably to deliver checks to others in danger of drowning.

"Hey, wait! I can help you pass out checks!"

But it was too late; the government official was busy. He had more checks to pass out and little time to do it.

"It's a tough job," a FEMA employee who graciously volunteered to pass out checks via helicopter said later. "We've got to be quick before these people drown. They need these checks. This $750 will fix everything."

The man from the harrowing story above was later identified as William Thumpridge, an Asheville native who taught at the elementary school. He survived, and he owes it all to the check.

"Sure, it won't be enough to replace my home, but it was just barely enough to cover the cost of a meal at Five Guys. I never get to go there because it's so expensive but today, thanks to the government, I can eat like a king. A king who likes bacon cheeseburgers."

At publishing time, William Thumpridge was dismayed to learn that the nearest Five Guys had been swept away in the flood.

- Babylon Bee reporting.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 09/27/24

This video, entitled “Revenge Is Definite,” was published on the official website of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei on January 15, 2022.  It is captioned: “The winning animation from the people in the Hero contest conducted by Khamenei.ir on the topic of revenge on Trump, Pompeo and the murderers of Gen. Soleimani.”

You may recall that two years earlier (01/03/20), President Trump ordered the successful elimination of Iran’s chief terrorist Qasem Soleimani via a MQ-9 Reaper drone decapitation strike.  Khamenei’s video has resurfaced in the media this week (cf. the New York Post on Wednesday 9/25) for its uncanny similarity to the second attempt on Trump’s life by Ryan Routh on the West Palm Beach golf course.

No wonder that after Trump was informed of Khamenei’s video he reacted:

Yet there is something even more uncannily unnerving regarding threats to Trump than Khamenei’s years ago.

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SKYE’S LINKS 09/26/24

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” Indeed. The truth really will out. It’s busting out all over, in fact – truth about J6 and lies by Pelosi and Milley, Miller, and McCarthy, truth about just how FUBAR the Secret Service is (at least when Trump is the one being protected), truth (in their own words) about how the ‘Crats view the Constitution, truth about what Capitalism is NOT as well as truth about what Marx's Labor Theory of Value IS. Then we’ll see some real (though not real good) truth about the economy, and end with some wonderful truth about Climate that may just make your day!

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THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL IS CHINESE

mystery-handwritings-on-the-walls[This Monday's Archive was originally published on November 18, 2005.  It is about the prospects of Christianity in China. Those were the days of a Christian president, George Bush, and its predictions were overly optimistic.  Christianity in China stagnated during the non-Christian Obama years, started to resurge under Trump 45, and resumed stagnation under Biden-Harris. Under Trump 47, it will resurge again, resulting in the growing possibility of a future Christian China on the horizon.]

TTP November 18, 2005

The famous story in Chapter 5 of the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament tells of a banquet held by the King of Babylon, Belshazzar, during which a magical finger writes mysterious words on the wall: mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.

After a fruitless debate by the king’s advisors over the words’ meaning, the king asks a Jewish captive, Daniel, to translate, who explains the strange words mean “counted and counted, weighed and divided.”

Meaning that Yaweh, God, has counted and numbered Belshazzar’s kingdom, weighed its balance, and now will bring it to an end by dividing it up among Babylon’s enemies, the Persians and Medes.

This prophecy is said to have taken place in 559 BC. 21 years later, in 538, Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire, occupied Babylon, ended its independence, and freed the Children of Judah from their captivity. Ever since, “the handwriting on the wall” has been used as an expression of foreboding doom – or of liberation.

Today, the handwriting on our wall is in Chinese. And just like back in 559 BC, there is a huge debate over the correct translation – this time between two factions on the President’s National Security Council.  But where is Daniel?

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LOTS OF ‘COINCIDENCES’ IN TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS

The U.S. Secret Service (USSS), established as a personal bodyguard for U.S. presidents, is playing an increasingly dangerous role in U.S. politics.

Assassination attempts on the life of former president Donald Trump, by Ryan Routh on September 18 and Thomas Crooks at Butler, Pennsylvania, raise the disturbing possibility of designed convergences of security lapses that give assassins the opportunity to kill.

 

Trump’s protective detail was purposefully stretched thin

Details are still missing regarding Routh’s attempt, but he apparently camped out for approximately 12 hours waiting for Trump to appear at hole 6 of the Trump International Golf Club.

Trump was headed that way, teeing off at hole 5 when a Secret Service agent saw a rifle sticking through some shrubbery and flushed Routh out with a few shots.

There was no prior sweep done of the golf course.

 

Newly consolidated details on Trump’s Butler rally reveal a more sophisticated plot.

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TRUMP SUPPORTERS APPARENTLY ATTACKED AT RALLY WITH CLANDESTINE WEAPON

[TTP:  This is a developing story, so it is short in both words and data. But we want you to be aware of what has occurred and to tell others. Perhaps more eyes will see the perpetrators and stop this vile action.]

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At least 20 Trump supporters may have been attacked covertly by chemicals or a high-power laser at a Trump rally in Tucson on September 12.

Some victims suffered severe burns. Many were temporarily blinded, with symptoms lasting until today.

Others may have been affected but have yet to be identified. The fact that all those known to have been affected were sitting on the stage immediately adjacent to President Trump is important in understanding the significance of what happened.

The victims were all part of a “Latinos for Trump” group on the stage. President Trump shook hands with them as he walked to the podium.

But what they believed was their good fortune soon turned into a nightmare when severe symptoms began to strike 30 minutes after the rally.

Experts believe the symptoms resulted either from a chemical agent or, more likely, from a high-powered infrared laser attack.

Thus, while chemicals were initially blamed, physicians and retired military experts experienced in chemical-biological-nuclear-directed energy warfare now believe it was an attack by an unseen infrared laser.

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DUSK OR DAWN?

There is a feeling among some that the November 2024 election is special. It is useful to consider why.

American presidential activities have become increasingly important since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, ushering in a period of U.S. dominance that is  occasionally referred to as The End of History.

The Reagan victory marked a moment when the key battlefield in the struggle to determine the future of humanity shifted from the superpower competition between East and West to the simple control of the institutions of the West, following the collapse of the USSR.

Gone was Che Guevara and Mao's strategy of surrounding the global cities from the Third World countryside. Back was Gramsci's plan to infiltrate Western institutions and culture from within.

If the enemy walls were impregnable from without, they were vulnerable from within. The left accepted the West would be conquered by coup. To this task they set forth with might and main.

 

But something happened that Gramsci did not expect. As the march through the institutions progressed, the "progressives" -- so confident of their intellectual superiority -- did not sweep all before them.

Rather they found the resistance stiffening unexpectedly. Unlikely coalitions rooted in the "Working Class" and even among formerly left-wing sympathizers began to multiply.

The surprise setbacks of 2016, Trump and Brexit, grew rather than declined, as one might expect of the last-gasp resistance in the inevitable tide of history.

Today the Reagan castle the progressives captured by coup is in shambles. They are in possession of a ruin. The Global World has not only shattered but is breaking out in war. The only answer to inflation is price control. Worse, the political opposition to progressive ideas has become assertive and even respectable. Things have come to a head; that is what makes November 2024 so special.

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THE MOST DELICIOUSLY DEVIOUS PART ABOUT ISRAEL’S PAGER ATTACKS

hezbo_pagerAs a spy thriller fan, I love reading about the clever gadgets the good guys use to vanquish the bad guys, which is why I've been fascinated by the story of Hezbollah's deadly exploding pagers.

How did Israel pull this off? Was it really Israel who did this? This attack is even more exacting than the exploding bed at the Iranian "safe" house.

Now we're learning more details of the attacks, and they're as impressive as they are diabolical.

Three thousand beepers exploded this week, killing a bunch of Hezbollah terrorists and some innocents. Iran's ambassador to Lebanon lost an eye in the attack.

After that attack, Hezbollah began using walkie-talkies, and they exploded.

When the terrorists decided to meet in person in Lebanon Friday, someone bombed the meeting.

Israel has not confirmed it carried out the attacks, nor is it likely they will ever lay claim to them, but U.S. intelligence officials who talked to their favorite intelligence mouthpiece, the New York Times, claimed Israel pulled it off. Time will tell what the truth is.

This operation has obviously been planned for quite some time.

Though Israeli intelligence agencies were completely caught off guard by Hamas's Iran-backed October 7 attack, they appear to be trying to make up for that huge intelligence debacle.

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FLASHBACK FRIDAY: RIDING A YAK AT RANGDUM

yak-riding-at-rangdum Rangdum Gompa, Zanskar, August 1993. Ever ridden a yak? Brandon did when was 10 at the Rangdum Tibetan Monastery or Gompa atop a small hill at 13,225 feet high in an extremely remote region of the Himalayas in India called Zanskar. It was part of our Indian Tibet expedition which will be repeating soon – and this time Brandon will be leading the expedition. I’ll just be along for the ride. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #161 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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PENA PALACE

pena-palaceBuilt as the summer residence of the Portuguese Royal family almost 200 years ago, Pena Palace stands atop the pinnacle of the Sintra mountains with stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean far below.

Today a museum showpiece and World Heritage Site, it is one of the most spectacular castles in all Europe. I was here with your fellow TTPers completing another marvelous exploration of the wondrous land of Portugal last May.

Rebel and I are thinking of having a New Years’ Celebration here in Portugal to bring in 2025 with great food, great wine, and great fun. What do you think? Let me know on the Forum. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #231 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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THE CARRICK-A-REDE ROPE BRIDGE

carrick-a-rede-rope-bridgeOne of the most dramatic sights along the Antrim Coast of Northern Ireland is the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. Originally built in the 1660s by salmon fishermen to get to their nets on the tiny islet of Carrick, it spans 70 feet across and 100 feet above the ocean waters surging below. It’s still used by the fishermen to this day. And while it’s been sturdily reinforced since it was a simple rope bridge, it’s still an invigorating experience to negotiate – especially in the wind and rain when I was there. Don’t pass it up if you’re ever in Northern Ireland. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #232 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOKSTORE

livraria-lello-bookstoreThis is the Livraria Lello bookstore in Porto, Portugal where I am right now. Built in 1906, its Neo-Gothic/Art Noveau architecture and design make it the world’s most beautiful place to buy books. Not only was J.K. Rowling inspired to write her Harry Potter books here, but she based the dramatic staircase at Hogwarts on the work of art staircase at “The Lello” that you see above. Porto oozes with such beauty, charm, and entrancement. You deserve to experience it for yourself. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #230 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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THE PAINTED CHURCHES OF THE TROODOS MOUNTAINS

church-of-kykkos-monasteryFor 500 years, from Ca. 1000 to 1500 AD, the Byzantine Christians on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus labored with love to decorate the interior of their humble churches tucked away in hidden valleys of the Troodos Mountains.

There are a total of 10 such churches which are today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The one you see here is the church of the Kykkos Monastery, with its extravagantly painted vaulted ceiling preserved immaculately for centuries.  Christianity remains very much alive in these mountains. Come here to be awed yourself. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #235 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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