WHY THE RED WAVE NEVER REACHED THE SHORE
If you stand on the beach watching these gigantic waves rise above you, with surfers taking off into the wave’s tube or wiping out, you are sure the wave is going crash right down on you and sweep you off to sea.
But no, that inner reef smothers the wave and without warning the wave is suddenly gone to gently foam over your feet in the sand.
I saw that many times when I lived in Hawaii years ago, and immediately thought of it when I saw the news this morning.
Except, at Banzai, the waves don’t cheat.
A RED RIPPLE POSTMORTEM
Vote Counting by Thomas Nast (1871)
Well, that was disheartening, dispiriting, and demoralizing.
We went into the party with a president with some of the lowest approval ratings in history and Americans (at least according to the polls) focused like lasers on issues that could be chalked up to Democrat policy failures — namely, inflation and crime.
And yet Republicans are hanging on by a thread, and, as of this writing, it's still possible that Democrats will retain their majority in the House and gain a full majority in the Senate. If that happens, the American experiment is over, and the Marxist experiment truly begins.
So how did we get here?
HOW THE DEMOCRATS LOST THEIR WAY
Life in Normalville
Normalville PA. Yes, there really is a town named Normalville, in Pennsylvania about 60 miles south of Pittsburgh with a zip code of 15469. It was founded in 1843.
If there were a way to illustrate the beginning, middle, and end of this election cycle in four powerful moments, I’d start here with the faces of the men and women working on the construction of the Keystone pipeline, and the owners of the small businesses who supported them, that I witnessed days after President Joe Biden terminated their livelihoods.
These are people who work with their hands in the harshest of weather conditions digging trenches, cleaning feeder pipes, laying concrete, ensuring the proper fittings on the connecting pipes, and loading and unloading heavy materials by hand. That's not including the faces of the people who run the motels, diners, machine shops, and barber shops and the mechanics who make sure they are fed, housed, cleaned, and able to get home when the job is done.
What Joe Biden and the Democrat Party did to the people of Normalville will break your heart. Do you think Biden and the Dems care?
WATCH FOR DELAYED ELECTION RESULTS
The polls all say the same thing: Republicans will reclaim the House and Senate.
The Republican know this. The Democrats know this. And most alarming, the political operatives know this. They also know what the internal polls say, which are inevitably worse for Democrats because such things aren't push polls done for public relations purposes.
What's a Democrat to do? We know that the Democrats are determined. They are fighting. They've got the big guns of their party, President Obama, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden, out there on the campaign trail, each unwittingly blundering it up in his own way.
Based on their common talking point about "saving democracy," it's pretty obvious they feel "entitled" to win, too. By their argument, the opposition is evil. And when you’re fighting evil, that gives you the moral right to cheat, right?
AMERICA AT MOUNT RUSHMORE
I took this photo of Mount Rushmore looking straight on from a helicopter – so it may be from an angle you have not seen before. This election week and on Veterans Day this Friday (11/11), it may be worthwhile to think of these four heroic Americans from a different perspective, to reflect on the almost unimaginable -- in the light of our comfortable lives we live today – challenges they faced and triumphed over to create and sustain our America.
It is worth asking what would they say to us today, what advice and counsel would they give us on how to face and triumph over what unimaginable – to them during their lives – challenges of ours as Americans today.
Look into their eyes. What are they saying to you? Election week and Veterans Day is a time of deep reflection on the meaning of being American. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #173 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE CALL OF THE WORLD
JW’s world travel map up 2013, needs updating to the present
As you may know, I’ve had memorable experiences in every country in the world. Ever since I was a young teenager, the world has been calling me to explore it – and I’ve been responding deeply to that call for well over sixty years now.
And yet… and yet… I must confess to you that I’ve barely begun, barely scratched the surface of the wondrousness of our Earth.
There is a literal endlessness to what there is to learn, witness and infuse your soul about the history, culture, people, and sheer magical beauty that surrounds our planet.
Can you feel it – the world calling you to experience and explore it? The call may be loud and persistent. It may be faint, drowned out by the daily humdrum of life – or under the illusion that you’re too old or somehow unable. But however loud or faint, it’s there in most of us – for how else did we humans populate the entire globe? To seek, to know, to experience, to explore is a very deep part of what it is to be a human being.
The Call of the World is part of the glory of being human – of using our unique, unique of all life on earth, capacity for self-consciousness, of our human ability to appreciate and live in gratitude for being a part of this glorious Earth and Universe.
You know that for almost a half-century now that I’ve made a living enabling people to respond to the Call of the World. This year, with the two year-long Dark Covid Winter ending, that response will be in the Himalayas, Central Asia, Atlantic Paradise Islands, and so much more.
I am hoping, of course, that you will be joining me on at least one of these explorations. More than that, however, I want you to answer the Call of the World that most resonates within you.
Is there a forest, a scenic wonder, a historical town or place near you that you haven’t been to and wondered about? Bet there is. What about somewhere nearby that your kids or grandkids don’t know about and would think is very cool?
Whether the Call of the World in you is to the back of beyond or around the corner, life-memorable experiences await once you answer. In all history that’s been or will be, our earthly existence happens only once for a tiny moment in time. I urge you to answer the Call of the World while you still have that time. Carpe diem. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #187 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
REGAINING YOUR SANITY IN A TIME OF MORAL INVERSION
Afghan Mujahaddin with destroyed Russian T-62 tank, 1983 ©Jack Wheeler
This week, Joel and his family are on a well-deserved vacation in Hawaii. So my turn today.
Every week on TTP Joel Wade gifts us with his wisdom on how to keep your sanity amidst the stresses of life we all experience.
Yet such is the bizarre moral inversion that has been occurring for over eight months now that it has caused some of us to lose their sanity. You cannot keep what you have lost. It must first be found, then you can keep it once more. This is a discussion, then, on how to regain one’s sanity that has been lost.
When one has suddenly become morally demented, factually delusional, and spiritually grotesque; when one suddenly lives in an Orwellian world where slavery is freedom, lies are truth, and evil is good, then one’s sanity has been lost.
Now what if this happens regarding one issue, one set of circumstances in the world – and regarding everything else, one retains their normal moral, factual, and spiritual good sense? What’s going on here?
And what if this happens to people in reverse? To those who on so many issues are morally demented, factually delusional, and spiritually grotesque suddenly become paragons of sanity fully on the side of freedom, truth, and moral decency on one single issue and that alone?
This is the puzzle of moral inversion that needs to be recognized and dealt with, for the issue that is causing it happens to be one of the most dangerous and critically consequential the entire world faces at this very moment. And what is that issue?
HALF-FULL REPORT 11/04/22
Mitch announced that he plans to retire if MAGA wins the election. So long, Mitcheroo… it's time for you to go. We have a country to save, and there is heavy lifting ahead.
Elon is firing about half of Twitter employees and canceling the famous Twitter rest days just before the midterm elections.
Brazil is telling the world that everyone is tired of rigged voting machines. It turns out that the thefts are so simple that even a child can steal an election. Voting machine tampering projects at school science fairs have students demonstrating the problems with SQL Injection. A type of database manipulation.
Pfizer is rerunning their political script while a new epidemic is created to justify its recently patented vaccine. This time for the kids.
Russia and China seem to be showing a high-level interest in DNA warfare, as in perhaps Manhattan Project levels of interest. War is changing fast, but the Russian Officer Corps is bugging out. Nobody is quite sure why.
DEMS’ CLOSING ARGUMENT TO THE MIDTERMS
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – SERA GOMPA, LHASA TIBET
July 12, 2001. I took my son Jackson when he was nine years old on an overland expedition across Tibet this summer. Here he is at the Sera Gompa, a Gelugpa (Yellow Hat) Tibetan Buddhist Monastery just outside Lhasa, Tibet’s capital.
Several hundred monks live here, teaching young acolytes and conducting prayer ceremonies for villagers in the area – albeit under the watchful eye of Chinese Communist government agents. Being here was a very educational experience for Jackson, which he still remembers. Always try to take your kids or grandkids on travel adventures when they are young – they’ll never forget them either.
Another benefit of doing this – particularly with grandchildren – is the exceptional bonding that happens on such adventures. They cement an emotional closeness in a powerful and lasting way. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #236 photo ©Jack Wheeler)