Category: Uncategorized
Trump- Political Screwup Coming Up
You’re about to follow an impressive military operation in Venezuela with a political screwup.
Why? Because you seem unwilling to trust Maria Corina Machado and her people.
Somehow, you’ve got it into your head, that the lady won’t be able to deal with the sharks circling around her.
But she would be able.
The lady is not alone and wouldn’t have been able to win the elections if she hadn’t surrounded herself with the best Venezuela has.
Work with her.
Our failure in Iraq was traced to our inability to work with locals who knew the system.
Venezuela is Venezuela, not the US.
They have their distinctive culture. Maria Corina Machado knows it well.
Let her take the lead.
Support her.
Look, Latin Americans are watching. If we do well in Venezuela, Cuba could be next.
The lack of oil supplies from Venezuela will weaken Cuba and prepare the ground for political change. But not if we screw up.
Poor management of our intervention could lead to civil war. The hasty retreat to follow would become a resounding defeat.
It’s black and white, Mr Trump.
Maria Corina Machado’s party was the clear winner of the elections stolen by Maduro and company.
Your bypassing her is tantamount to devaluing her and her people.
Don’t do it.
You need them to succeed. And they will do very well by us, facilitating all manner of commercial deals, so long as we act fairly.
You and your people have created an opportunity. Do not screw up now.
Not only Cuba, but Nicaragua could follow.
Think about it.
And as your resolve gathers strength, maybe you will then start to confront Putin and Xi Jinping which is sorely needed.
Think big, man. Think bold.
Trust the lady, please. The rewards of doing so will be ample.
Something to counter all the mistakes you’ve made.
Ask for advice. Pay attention to what they say.
Don’t just trust your little circle.
They call it thinking outside the box.
The world is watching.
Immigration is a Distraction
What we need to be doing, instead, is pushing Russia and China back, militarily.
This is the time.
But our president seems incapable of imagining the possibility, let alone doing what is needed to make it happen.
Our man in the White House lacks the needed vision because he is not a free man himself.
Free men and women are not filled with rancor and consumed with petty grievances.
Free men and women are broad minded human beings. Trump is not.
By not fully arming Ukraine we are passing up on a unique opportunity to weaken Russia.
Do most Russians not want political freedom, too?
Yes, they do.
Do they not want to join with the rest of the world rather than live in isolation and under the crushing boot of a tyrant and mass murderer?
Yes, they do.
Are Russians not capable of staging a revolt to boot out Putin and his followers?
Yes!
So let’s help them get there by weakening Putin.
And we would weaken Putin by properly arming Ukraine and given them permission to strike deep inside of Russia.
If the Chinese people saw that, they too, would likely want to imitate Russians because they, also, want political freedom.
Who does not?
But we are acting as if that powerful human desire did not exist.
The damage that Trump is doing to America and the world is enormous.
He is distracting us with immigration and neglecting the more important matters.
He does so intentionally, for he has strong dictatorial instincts.
His base is being taken for a ride. While Trump dangles the immigration issue in front of their eyes, he is curtailing their freedoms.
And they are letting him do it.
When freedoms are curtailed, everybody will suffer, including his supporters.
Trump is toxic to America.
Russia and China are glad to have him because they know he’s making it more likely for them to broaden their spheres of influence.
Whatever problems illegal immigration have caused they pale in comparison to us letting Russia and China combine to beat back Ukraine.
And the world is watching as it is happening.
Trump is setting back the cause of freedom for all human beings.
Those who voted for him got duped.
And they still don’t get it.
And No We Won’t Surrender – Song
Kamala – The Song
Why Trump Won’t Win
A central part of Trump’s personality is that he overvalues himself and devalues others.
Mind you, that tendency exists in most human beings but, if unexamined and unchecked, it grows to become a big problem.
In Trump’s case it comes across as grandiosity. ‘Look at me, I am the one!’
In a recent question/answer session with Black journalists, he stated that he had been the best president since Abraham Lincoln. He had done more for Black folks since Lincoln.
In his excesses, Trump is so obnoxious that sometimes he’s even funny, which has helped him keep his followers around.
The layer of overvaluing himself and devaluing others goes hand in hand with his divisiveness.
It does not take much to have people unwilling to think a little to be sucked in by Trump’s talk that all our nation’s problems lie with Democrats.
Republicans, in contrast, are flawless.
Trump’s song has that riff down.
But sowing division will not help our country find common purpose, which is essential to better use our resources in a world heavily influenced by dictators (Putin, Xi Jinping, Iran’s clerics).
Along with Trump’s divisiveness come his love to stir up toxic masculinity.
The effect of that led to the assault on Capitol Hill on January 6th 2021.
But toxic masculinity hurts us the most in the attitudes of many men toward women, the way our nation chooses to deny women the right to control their bodies.
It takes time to wake up from a historical slumber.
Women did not wake up when Hillary Clinton ran against Trump in 2016.
But now they’re getting a second chance, and this time it will be a Black woman confronting the White dude.
Trump’s already making every effort to demean Harris. ‘I didn’t know she was Black, I thought she was Indian (East Indian)’.
But it won’t work.
Kamala Harris is, first of all, a strong woman, and her appeal among other women is growing steadily, for she is sparking in them the reality that one of their own will soon be president of this country – 248 years after the nation declared its independence. That’s a hell of a long wait.
I say that Trump won’t win because he’s already sensing that Kamala Harris is better put together as a person than he is. And that hurts.
It doesn’t have to be that way, if he were kinder to himself, a little more introspective, and chose to learn from his mistakes, but he has trouble doing that.
Trump won’t win because his essence is clear to most Americans. He makes little effort to hide his flaws and instead prefers to tout them. There is no embarrassment in him. He thinks of his faults as assets instead.
And because he doesn’t change, it will be easier for most people to reject him as unsuited to be our leader.
Kamala Harris offers us something very different. An intelligent and ambitious woman eager to learn, joyous in the pursuit of her goal, willing to seek advice, and proud to be an American willing to fight the forces of the opposition in the name of all of us.
Will mail to Biden and Harris.
95 days to ballot day.
My short books ‘Putin’s Revenge – The Final Days of Yevgeny Prigozhin’ and ‘Letters to a Shooter,’ are out on paperpack and eBook. Go to Oscar Valdes Author Central (Amazon)
Black Woman Against White Man
Hello America!
We’re getting a chance to see how much we’ve evolved.
Are we really where we think we are racially and sexually?
To hear the Trump side, women should know their place. At home raising children. Mind you, that is a most honorable choice, but women in this country have been fighting for parity for a long time.
They only gained the right to vote in 1920, with the passage of the 19th amendment, two years behind England and 27 years behind New Zealand, the first nation to allow it.
Kamala Harris was born in 1964, only a year before the Civil Rights Act passed in 1965, outlawing discriminatory voting practices.
All these years in between it’s been a hard slog for women.
They’re still having old White men decide if they can have an abortion or not.
So, yes, it’s high time for women to form a solid block and beat Trump and all that he stands for.
Kamala Harris will be standing for all women this November 5th. Democratic women and Republican women and independent women. Women from the right, the left and the center.
Yes, because a woman president will open a different kind of dialogue for American women.
‘Baby, you know what it means to be one of us,’ they will be saying to Kamala as they march to the polling booth or make their contributions to the campaign.
Will Harris be a catalyst for parity in the workplace? Yes, she will.
Will women stand a chance to push up the so called glass ceiling? Yes, they will.
It will be most interesting to see leaders of industry (mostly male) having to speak to a woman president to try and gain favor.
Damn, it will be good to see that.
So Republican men who are casting their lot with Trump need to rethink their positions.
We don’t need testosterone to manage our nation. We need brains, empathy, imagination, moral strength, a commitment to the freedom of all human beings.
It’s time, fellows. If you’re falling behind in earnings, don’t blame in on women. They have as much a right to earn what you do. If you have the greater capacity, then you earn more.
If not, you earn less. And work on it if you want better.
The beauty of a woman running for president is that it puts all prejudices on the table.
So we can better deal with them.
It’s high time we did it. It will be good for us. Damn good, in fact.
I’m reminded of something the distinguished poet and writer Erica Jong once said about the feminist movement. I was in the audience when she said it. That the feminist movement had helped men become better fathers. And how right she was.
So, yes, the lack of barriers to women’s advancement ends up being better for all of us.
For we will be freer and wiser as a result.
So onwards, American women, this is your moment. Seize it, damn it.
Don’t let it slip away like you did when Hillary Clinton ran in 2016.
The world has been waiting to see tangible proof of your full powers. So, go for it.
And yes, Joe Biden made this moment possible when he chose Kamala. So thank you, Mr President.
My short books ‘Putin’s Revenge – The Final Days of Yevgeny Prigozhin’ and ‘Letters to a Shooter,’ are out on paperpack and eBook. Go to Oscar Valdes Author Central (Amazon)
99 days left to election day in the US
It’s Harris’s Moment
And she’s having a ball.
Flush with excitement, she addressed the crowd at her first rally in Wisconsin and earlier at campaign headquarters in Delaware and each time she exuded confidence.
‘People, I’m doing this and we are going to win!’
And she smiled broadly, her eyes sparkled and right in front of the cameras she went up to Doug, her husband, and gave him a big kiss in the mouth. And they both loved it.
She’s acting like’s she’s already won.
‘Fellow Americans, we got this!’
And news had gone out that in a 24 hour period, she’d raised 81 million bucks! Now that’s a lot of cash, folks. Lots of money to persuade the undecided that going Democrat is the only way.
By contrast, Trump is already depressed.
Angry, sensing that something is slipping away from him, he can’t take it. He’s bitter than the spotlight is not on him.
‘Where’s the love?!’ Trump is saying. ‘Goddammit, I took a bullet for all of you! Have you forgotten so quickly?’
And yes, Mr Trump, we very much regret that you were the target of an assassination attempt and are very glad that you are alive and there for your loved ones. But that doesn’t get you the election.
But Trump cannot resist.
Knowing that campaign funds allotted to Biden would now be transferred to Harris, he instructed his lawyers to file a suit with the FEC (Federal Elections Committee) to block the transfer arguing that it was illegal. It is not.
And then he heard that Musk was now changing his mind and that he would not be putting out 45 million dollars a month into a super PAC to help his campaign. And Musk added something about his not being into the cult of personality. Ouch! That had to hurt Trump when he heard it.
But it goes to show the impact Biden’s decision and Harris’s enthusiasm had on Musk. And I hope Republicans read that because, yes, you still have time to change your minds and vote Democrat. We welcome you, brothers and sisters. You know we love you.
And, secretly, Republican women are wondering, why in hell can we not have a woman be a candidate for President?
And they shake their heads and seem puzzled. It’s not like they haven’t had bold women step front, it’s that they have not got support. There was Margaret Chase Smith in 1964, Michele Bachmann in 2012, Carly Fiorina in 2016. Pioneers, all of them, ahead of their times. But ignored by most Republicans.
And while Trump stews in his frustration, envious of the energy and enthusiasm that Harris is showing, angry that all Americans are not thrown into fits of ecstasy when they hear him or see him show up, President Biden has quietly found his peace.
Biden can say to himself, ‘I picked Kamala Harris to be my vicepresident and she became vicepresident – the first one ever – and now I’ve endorsed her to be president and she will become president – the first one ever.’
But it gets better. Biden can say, ‘I was essential to Kamala’s political development. I chose her to be my running mate after she’d dropped out of the race in 2016, then I nurtured and guided her all these years she’s been at my side. And she learned what she had to learn, and I transmitted to her the joy of being the leader of this country, the profound satisfaction and honor that is to work hard on behalf of the American people. She learned fast and I know she will not disappoint. She is my legacy. So I now can breathe easier and accept that though my time to lead is coming to an end, I can be proud that I lent a hand in the making of our next president.’
Biden recognized that he had got stuck for a moment after criticism of his performance against Trump in the June 27th debate.
But then he fell ill with covid and he got away from the lights and the public attention that come with being president. And being alone as he isolated to recover from the virus, he reflected at length on his role as leader of the United States.
And he recognized that he had done his work and he was proud of it.
He smiled as he thought about it, feeling relieved. He enjoyed seeing the enthusiasm Harris radiated when she spoke to people about the tasks ahead.
And he knew that she was ready and she would become the 47th president of the United States.
And he remembered a little private moment she had with Harris a few months before the debate had triggered the events that followed.
They were alone in the Oval office, Biden and Harris, talking about something and he had had a rough time sleeping the night before and so he paused and looked at her, ‘Kamala, do you have trouble sleeping?’
And smiling, she said, ‘I sleep like a baby. But every now and then, I may have a little difficulty, and I will just get up and read something and then go back to sleep. You know how they say that it’s not good to stay in bed if you can’t sleep. But if I’m having trouble falling asleep and I turn and see that Doug is awake, I then ask, ‘baby, will you read me a story?’
‘Sure, honey,’ he answers. And when he reads to me, I just relax and five minutes later I’m sound asleep.’
Biden laughed.
‘And the funny thing is, it works for him, too,’ continued Harris, ‘because he tells me, “the moment I see you fall asleep, I put the book down and I fall asleep, too.”’
Good night, folks.
My short books ‘Putin’s Revenge – The Final Days of Yevgeny Prigozhin’ and ‘Letters to a Shooter,’ are out on paperpack and eBook. Go to Oscar Valdes Author Central (Amazon)
104 days left to election day in the US
No On a Two State Solution
Negotiations are under way to end the conflict in Gaza. But the conflict won’t end. It never does.
Why should Israelis live under the constant threat that Palestinians will violate any agreement they make and attack them again?
Since Israel’s independence in 1948 there have been many efforts to establish treaties calling for peaceful coexistence.
Sometimes they have come close, but the initial agreement always breaks down.
Repeatedly, it’s the Palestinians who initiate the attacks on Israel or beat the drums of war.
The Palestinian strategy is familiar. Kill Israelis, take hostages and then wait for public opinion to come to their rescue.
Just as Palestinians have failed, so too the other Arab nations.
All share a history of ganging up against Israel and yet the small nation, with the smaller army, always beats them back.
To try to force Israelis to accept a two state solution does not make sense any more.
I am sure that, as a people, Palestinians have many talents and capabilities. As a nation, however, they have deferred again and again to leaders bent on inciting rage and enmity against Israel.
From the start Israel has had a right to a piece of that land. The stories of their peoples have been profoundly intertwined. The Bible and Qur’an speak of their common origins. And yet, Palestinians have seen no need to compromise.
We can blame their atrocious leadership for it but the people themselves also bear a measure of responsibility for their unending calamities.
Palestinians have become a failed nation who’s unwilling to face the fact that a neighbor they despise has thrived and become a first rate country. A first rate country that is also superior to any of the other current Arab nations.
That has to hurt.
Rather than try and improve their conditions, Palestinian leaders keep stirring those resentments.
Other nations, eager to help (never mind China, Russia or Iran who only want to stir the animosities for their own benefit), should not underestimate the importance of such emotions. They are unlikely to go away.
Still, Gaza must be rebuilt. But Hamas should not be allowed to wield power. They’ve proven themselves incapable of leading their people.
One alternative would be for the United Nations to step in and govern that land until such time – decades from now – when Palestinians, freed from the toxicity of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, will rise to take the leadership of a modern state.
No weapons should be allowed in Gaza.
Arab nations may not want to help in rebuilding Gaza, whatever their reason, but they bear a good deal of historical and moral responsibility for having encouraged anti Israeli sentiment and its ghastly consequences.
If you have the time, go to the website for Freedom House and look at their interactive world map where nations are ranked by how free they are.
In the region, Israel is the only democracy. A little speck of land in the midst of autocracies and despotism.
No Arab or Muslim nation in the area has yet developed the capability to form and maintain a democratic government.
Wonder where Israel gets its strength from.
Still Hamas Does Not Surrender. Why Not?
Because they have innocent civilians in Gaza shielding them. Because they’re counting on world opinion restraining Israel’s determination to defeat them.
Israel belongs in Palestine. So do the Arabs. But reckless leadership has kept the flames of enmity and violence alive in Arab hearts and minds for more than a hundred years.
And the cost has been enormous. Not only in lives lost but in opportunities missed.
Jews never conquered the vast territories that Arabs did in times past when they reached into North Africa and Spain which they held for centuries.
Arab minds and their creativity gave us enormous advances in the sciences and humanities. But then the lights dimmed and other peoples took the lead.
Why shouldn’t Israel be in Palestine?
Both Arabs and Jews have inhabited that land since the beginning of recorded history.
Jews have migrated all over the world, and they have faced hatred and persecution in nearly every place they have gone.
All the while they longed to return to Palestine.
The migration back to Palestine started before WWI and then grew steadily, even against opposition of major powers like England. Then came the Holocaust and the horrors of it hardened Jewish resolve to return to their ancestral home.
When the United Nations consented to the creation of Israel in November 1947, borders were drawn that allowed for Jews to coexist with their Arab neighbors. But such was the resistance of the Arab world that immediately after Israel declared itself a nation in May of 1948, the surrounding Arab nations attacked it. And it hasn’t stopped.
Yet every single time Jews have beat back the Arabs.
It’s going to be 76 years this next May, and still the Arab world doesn’t step up and say, ‘Let Israel live!’ ‘We will strive for peaceful coexistence. We renounce violence.’
Is there any oil in Palestine? No. Arab countries have the oil riches.
And yet Arabs look at Jews with envy.
What Jews have done is affirm themselves in a way contemporary Arabs have not been able to.
Jews took what land they hand and made it cultivable. They toiled and invented and transformed themselves into a leading nation. All the while the surrounding Arabs watched in astonishment. Maybe they were asking themselves, ‘there must be something magical about that land that Jews have prospered so much. We need to get back in there.’
But that’s not it.
What Jews have is a determination to succeed that Arabs have not found in themselves. They look back on their history and know it’s in there, somewhere, but they just can’t find it at this time. They look to their leaders but they don’t get answers.
Arabs are ruled by kings and dictators but not by elected representatives. And so until the Arab peoples embrace democracy, there will not be peace in the Middle East.
The Arab world’s tolerance of the existence of Hamas is a sign of how much they need to grow politically. They seem unable to publicly reject the group’s violence toward Israel.
And so Israel must keep affirming its right to exist and keep prospering.
And the West will keep supporting them.
Israel has work to do also. They should veer more to the political center.
Coexistence with a Palestinian nation is possible, so long as that nation is demilitarized. This must be done because of the long history of attacks on Israel.
Israel has had great leaders but a man like Netanyahu is toxic. The other day he said that Palestinians should be relocated to the Congo. Yep. It made front page news.
He has yet to explain how come Israel’s military vigilance did not anticipate the Hamas attack.
Fortunately, Israel’s Supreme Court came out against a Netanyahu inspired rule to weaken the court’s power and so give himself more.
The fight for the survival of democracy is constant. Here in America we now have a candidate who wants to diminish our system. I speak of Donald Trump, who incited an attack on Capitol Hill on January 6th 2021, aiming to overturn the results of the election that defeated him.
But America will beat Trump. And his supporters will have to reconsider how to better deal with opposing views.
The enemy of Arabs in the Middle East is not Israel. It is despotism and dictatorship in their own lands.
To find their voice, Arabs must fight against those who suppress it.
Not having a voice means not thinking clearly and allowing others to choose your fate.
Which is why so many Gazans have died.
Hamas, surrender now!
Oscar Valdes 