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GUILTY CONSCIENCES? DEMOCRATS SUDDENLY PUT ON A REPUBLICAN SKIN SUIT

elephant-donkeyLess than a week after Democrats "won" most of the midterm election, something pretty weird is going on in various Democrat power centers, in a curiously counterintuitive pattern of acts and weather balloons.

In three instances below, we see Democrats starting to act like Republicans, adopting the Republican line, which is strange stuff, given that they insist they "won" the election in what they claimed was a voter mandate for their current style of governance -- despite poll after poll confirming Joe Biden's unpopularity and voters convinced that America is on the wrong track.

Elsewhere Democrat after Democrat is suddenly moderating their stance, adapting the Republican agenda on enforcing the open border, doing something about crime, and firing up oil production. What’s going on?

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KEEPING YOUR SANITY THROUGH SELF-MASTERY

Washington and Franklin – Exemplars of Self-Mastery
Washington and Franklin – Exemplars of Self-Mastery

A certain degree of struggle, inside or outside, is part of life.  At least two of America's founders paid attention to their own struggles and wrote about them, in very different ways.

George Washington, from a psychological perspective today, would be said to have had "anger issues." He could have quite a temper, but that wasn't something most people saw. Why is that? Read his Rules for Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation, and you'll find out. He worked hard and mastered his temper, and his other emotions.

Benjamin Franklin also took a conscious approach to self-mastery. In his Autobiography, he mapped out a strategy to practice and achieve several areas of virtue.  These two great men exemplified self-mastery.  Let’s talk about how you can too.

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FLASHBACK FRIDAY: THE TURFAN OASIS

jw-at-emin-minaret-in-turfanThe Turfan Oasis in East Turkestan is far older than the Silk Road. Sitting in the Turfan Depression, second lowest on earth at over 500 feet below sea level) with a climate perfect for agriculture (like grapes for wine!), it was first settled by the Caucasian Tocharians some 4,000 years ago.

Over time it was absorbed into various empires ruling the Tarim Basin encircling the empty Takla Makan desert – proto-Mongols, the Tang Dynasty, the expanded Tibetan Empire at its height in the700s AD, Buddhist Uyghurs, and Genghiz’s Mongols. By the 1400s, the people of Turfan were mostly Buddhist or Nestorian Christian. By the end of the 15th century, they were ruled by the Moslem Moghuls who converted them to Islam.

Turfan was a key trading oasis on the Northern Silk Road which Marco Polo’s father and uncle, Niccolo and Maffeo traversed in 1266 to meet Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan. (Marco’s route with them in 1271 took the less-traveled Southern Silk Road underneath or south of the Takla Makan). I traversed both Silk Roads in 2008. Here I am at the Emin Minaret in Turfan. It’s a fabulous place to explore. Maybe some day again? (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #239 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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LUANGWA LAGOON SUNSET

luangwa-lagoon-sunset It’s hard to find a better example of the glory of nature than here – a lagoon off the Luangwa River in Africa’s Zambia. It’s also hard to believe I took this picture just a few days ago – and now I’m back home, and Africa so far away.

It was so fulfilling, so rewarding for me, over the past weeks, to provide a life-memorable experience of real Africa to eight TTPers – they’ll never forget it ever. I plan to be here again soon – perhaps you’ll be with me. There’s a primordial magic in Africa that grips your soul like nowhere else. The wisdom of those most familiar with the world is: “If you can visit only two continents in your life, go to Africa – twice.” (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #145 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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WHAT WOULD HE THINK OF US?

xikrin-kayapo-tribesmanThis Xikrin-Kayapo tribesman and his people live in the deepest heart of the Brazilian Amazon on tributaries of the Xingu River. You wonder what he would think of us as panic, fear, and madness engulfs our civilization. Having spent time in his village not long ago, I’m confident he would simply shake his head in bewilderment and say, “Please just let us live our lives in our forest, that’s all we want.”

True indigenous tribes who keep to their traditional way of life are so rare now in the Amazon or anywhere else where they once flourished. Each one is a precious living cultural heritage of humanity. It is such a privilege when they share their way of life with you. They deserve to have their wish granted, as my tribesman friend would express it. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #4 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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TIJI — CASTING OUT THE DEMONS

tiji-ceremony Once a year in the capital of the Tibetan Kingdom of Lo, the medieval walled city of Lo Manthang, the Lo-pa Tibetans hold a ceremony called Tiji (tee-gee), meaning casting out of demons. It’s meant to prevent any demons or malicious spirits from destroying their barley and buckwheat harvests.

Tiji is colorfully spectacular and dramatic, but this is no tourist show – Tiji is a deeply serious religious ritual. The Kingdom of Lo is in a very remote and roadless region of the Himalayas known as Mustang, lying north of the Himalayan giants of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri in Nepal on the border with Chinese-occupied Tibet.

We were privileged to witness it on a Himalaya Helicopter Expedition. We hope to be so privileged again next year. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #238 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

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KATIE HOBBS PROJECTED TO WIN ARIZONA GOVERNORS RACE WITH 108% OF PRECINCTS REPORTING

Katie Hobbs, advocate of the Josef Dzhugashvilli Voting System
Katie Hobbs, advocate of the Josef Dzhugashvilli Voting System

Babylon Bee News Bulletin -- PHOENIX, AZ — In a stunning outcome to a highly scrutinized race, Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s Secretary of State who counts the votes, has emerged victorious after 108% of the state's voting precincts reported in. Though mathematicians were puzzled by the plausibility — and, indeed, possibility — of the results, Democrats were quick to hail Hobbs's win as a victory for democracy itself.

"We knew things looked really bad for weeks leading up to election night, what with abysmal approval ratings for our party, Americans feeling negatively about the overall direction of the country, and Ms. Hobbs being afraid to debate her opponent or even appear in public," said Hobbs's campaign spokesperson Hailey Barber-Berger-Jorgensen. "But we felt very confident that once we got our vote tallies from all 108% of precincts, including those in other states and overseas, we would come out victorious."

Republicans were quick to point out that it's not actually possible to have more votes than voters. Democrats roundly condemned them for denying an election that was 8% more democratic than the last election.

At publishing time, Arizona election officials had notified all voting precincts that their tallies would not be needed and it was time to install even more drop-boxes for the 2024 election.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 11/11/22

election-results-as-of-111122_9am This is the current election results graphic as of 9am EST this morning (11/11) on RealClearPolitics. It’s been frozen for some 36 hours now, never changes.  That can mean only one thing – blue cities and counties in purple states are desperately trying to create enough cheat-by-mail ballots to win. Here’s how it works…

But that the midterms were close enough to cheat means they were an IQ test that America failed at.  In other words:

best-2022-metaphor

Oh, and this just in from the Babylon Bee: Trump Bid To Be DeSantis’s VP Pick Off To Rocky Start.

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WHY THE RED WAVE NEVER REACHED THE SHORE

The Banzai Pipeline on Oahu’s North Shore is one of surfing’s most legendary breaks.  It’s a triple-reef break, with these huge swells from Northern Pacific winter storms piling enormously up on an outer reef, then a middle reef, and lastly on an inner reef.

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.

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SKYE’S LINKS 11/10/22

sorting-ballotsFor crying out loud, can’t we operate a robust, transparent election system?

Paper ballots in blue states are an issue again, as well as mysterious shutdowns of voting machines in contentious districts. Some devices suffered denial of service attacks from their internet connections, while others had sudden software instability.

There might be some justice for service members forced to take the jab or face dishonorable discharge. Good, they deserve it, and it was an epic mistake in order to maintain the allusion of American military readiness, a psyop.

The Federal Reserve will have its revenge, too, as they now hint that the Covid response was in the hands of the national security state and not the health care people all along. The Fed was forced to print money or endure secret treason charges. Now we face years of inflation caused by the deep staters acting beyond their expertise.

Twitter faces pressure to maintain official narratives and censorship or else. Musk does not appear sure how to respond, or maybe he has an undisclosed plan. In any event, the national security arms of many governments are laying claim to Twitter and the greater internet. The truth of who is running things is emerging.

Elections have consequences, and we failed to correct 2020; there is a long slog ahead. There are signs of a new Enlightenment emerging as the historic Enlightenment fades away. To the incredible frustration of Klaus Schwab, Freedom will find a way.

Come on over to Skye’s links. We are eager to hear from you.

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TUESDAY TAKEAWAYS

defutureWhat, if anything, did the midterms tell us about the country -- other than underwhelming Republicans could still take the House and Senate albeit barely?

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, American elections radically changed to mail-in and early voting. They did so in a wild variety of state-by-state ways. Add ranked voting and a required majority margin to the mess and the result is that once cherished Election Day balloting becomes increasingly irrelevant.

Election Night also no longer exists. Returns are not counted for days. It is intolerable for a modern democracy to wait and wait for all sorts of different ballots both cast and counted under radically different and sometimes dubious conditions.

The Democrats -- with overwhelming media and money advantages -- have mastered these arts of massive and unprecedented early, mail-in, and absentee voting. Old-fashioned Republicans count on riling up their voters to show up on Election Day. But it is far easier to finesse and control the mail-in ballots than to "get out the vote."

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A RED RIPPLE POSTMORTEM

vote-counting
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?

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WATCH FOR DELAYED ELECTION RESULTS

fraud-againThe 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?

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HOW THE DEMOCRATS LOST THEIR WAY

Life in Normalville
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?

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REGAINING YOUR SANITY IN A TIME OF MORAL INVERSION

Afghan Mujahaddin with destroyed Russian T-62 tank, 1983 ©Jack Wheeler
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?

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