AFRICA’S CLUB OBAMA
The ramshackle Club Obama is a shed on stilts above a garbage dump of a beach in Conakry, the capital of the West African country of Guinea. It doesn’t get much business anymore because Obama is no longer popular here. Guineans thought he would flood them with US taxpayer dollars but he didn’t. “Obama did nothing for us,” they’ll tell you.
The sad truth is that Guineans have done nothing for themselves. Independence from France came in 1958, and the place has been run by one party dictatorships, military juntas, and ridiculously corrupt leaders ever since. It’s the size of Oregon, with 12 million people who have a per capita GDP of $800 a year. Yet is has up to half the world’s reserves of bauxite (source of aluminum) and is #3 in world production, has diamonds, gold, and many other resources – which all goes into the bottomless pockets of whoever the ruling elite are at the moment.
It’s the tragedy of so much of Africa writ large. In 1974, after Cassius Clay had his “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire with George Foreman, he was asked by a reporter upon his return to America, “Champ, what did you think of Africa?” With wit and wisdom he replied, “Thank God my Granddaddy got on that boat!” (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #84 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
DON’T GIVE AN INCH
Elections don’t make democracies; free and fair elections do. Today, in the midst of post-election chaos, we find ourselves in a fight for the latter.
In that sense, this election is about far more than Donald Trump the man, or even his policies. The question is this: either democracy survives or one political party will be allowed to bully, lie, cheat, and steal its way into power.
To that party, the Democrats, we must answer: Absolutely not.
They have not earned our trust, and they do not deserve one picogram of it. They should be given no political quarter.
THE BLUE WAVE THAT NEVER WAS
PINE TOWNSHIP, Penn. — Had you spent any time in this northern suburb of Pittsburgh listening to voters, finding out what matters to them when it comes to schools, community growth, economic prosperity and the emotional impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns, you would have at least been skeptical of the media narrative and the polls that claimed suburban voters here are no longer center-right.
Surely, reporters thought, these suburbs had fully embraced “wokeism” and rejected center-right values and principles. They thought they would cave under the cultural pressure, push left and send a blue shock wave across the country with their votes.
And that’s precisely what did not happen.
NASR OL-MOLK
What many consider the world’s most beautiful mosque is in Persia’s most captivating city, Shiraz. Over four millennia older than Islam, over two millennia older than Persia, Shiraz was "Shirrazish," a city of ancient Elam at the birth of civilization in Mesopotamia 5,000 years ago. Even then, Shiraz was famous for wine. A thousand years ago, it was considered the best in the world. Marco Polo praised it. No more. Prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, there were over 300 Persian wineries. Now there are none.
Shiraz is still a city of gardens and flowers. At the garden tomb of Persia’s most revered poet Hafez (1315-1390), young couples gather for discrete romance as they have for centuries. The beauty of Nasr ol-Molk – with the sun shining through its stained glass windows covering the floor carpets in color, and the interior a dazzling display of pink tile ornamentation – can be overwhelming. The same for the friendliness of the people – always welcoming with a smile for you.
Especially if you are American. All the people we met love America and despise their rulers. The Land of Persia is still here in today’s Iran, and someday it will be free, America’s ally again. The wine will flow here once more. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #83 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
TWELVE WAYS FOR TRUMP TO BOMB THE ELECTION FRAUD BATTLEFIELD
President Trump is right to refuse to concede the 2020 election until every legal vote has been counted and allegations of significant fraud have been fairly investigated. His voters deserve and need to know if we were beaten by massive cheating.
Since the president’s team has begun releasing increasingly good evidence of large-scale voter fraud in key states, the tide may be turning. However, a savvy embattled leader will prepare for all possible outcomes, and make war on all fronts possible. .
That means right now President Trump needs a skunkworks team coming up with as many political land mines as possible to embed in the landscape if Republicans are forced to retreat from the White House in January. Here are 12 such land mines.
THE TIDE TURNS FOR TRUMP
Attorney General Barr just mobilized the Department of Justice to engage as appropriate to investigate election fraud throughout America. He is on very solid legal grounds. It is a very simple means of addressing the greatest attempted political theft in American history and I would rather be us, Trump Nation, than them, the Democrat party's illegal operatives.
That may well be why Deep State operative Richard Pilger resigned immediately after Barr issued his directive last night (11/09): Richard Pilger, Linked to IRS Scandal, Resigns DOJ Post over Voter Fraud Memo.
Barr was able to issue his Memo on Post-Voting Election Irregularity Inquiries because President Trump and his team laid the legal ground work for identifying and prosecuting such criminal behavior in 2017:
THE UNKNOWN RIVIERA
In the Mediterranean, experienced travelers know the French Riviera from St. Tropez to Menton, and the Italian Riviera from Ventimiglia to Cinque Terre. There is one Riviera in the Med they may not know – Albania’s. The Med has many beautiful coastlines, and just about all of them have been “discovered” by jet-setters to backpackers. Not yet, however, for Albania from Saranda in the south across from Greece’s Corfu to Vlora across from the tip of Italy’s Boot Heel.
Here you find an abundance of gorgeous coves and pocket beaches tucked away with hardly a soul there. The one pictured above isn’t even named on a map – there’s just a tiny wharf for local fishermen. Yes, the Albanian Riviera is getting discovered, with boutique hotels and nightclubs sprouting up here and there. But as for now, it’s still the Unknown Riviera, gorgeous with so much untouched. You might want to experience it before it’s overrun. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #82 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE INDIA LESS TRAVELED
This is Mysore Palace, home of the Wadiyar Rajas who ruled Mysore from 1399 to 1950. It is one of the many wonders of Southern India that’s far less known than traveler’s meccas up north like Agra and Rajasthan.
There’s the Nagarhole Tiger Sanctuary, more Asian elephants than anywhere else in the world, over 100 tigers, scores of leopards, their prey in profusion. Christian churches founded by Christ’s disciple St. Thomas in the 1st century AD. Towering Hindu temples covered with tens of thousands of eye-popping multi-colored sculptures. The gorgeous beaches of Goa, the serene peace of the Kerala Backwaters – “one of the most beautiful locations on earth” according to National Geographic, that you explore by luxury houseboat. It goes on and on.
And here also you find the business metropolis of Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India. We did all of this and more a few years ago, and may again in ’21 or ’22. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #81 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
A PERSONAL LETTER TO MY PRESIDENT
[Note: This letter is Free Access. You may send it to the President at https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ , your Congressman and Senator, every friend, colleague, or conservative group you know. Do your part in making this go viral!]
To: Donald J. Trump, President of the United States
The White House, Washington DC
From: A Fellow Patriot
Dear Mr. President –
On behalf of the more than 71 million Americans who voted for you to continue to be their President, I would like to respectfully propose a draft speech for your consideration in addressing the Nation on the current election crisis.
COUNTERPUNCH
