And No We Won’t Surrender – Song
Tag: democracy
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
The Immigrant and America
In Europe, nations are paying countries in Africa to hold back immigrants. To not let them pass.
And still they pass.
Here in America they get through. Not all but a good number.
But the newcomers are often seen as a source of distress.
Trump said the other day that they were ‘polluting’ America’s blood.
And yet, his current wife and mother of his youngest son is an immigrant.
He left that out.
In fact, his first wife and mother of his first three children was an immigrant also.
He didn’t forget that, he just didn’t think it was necessary to mention.
Of course, there are different classes of immigrants.
I’m reminded of a statement made by a white man from one of our northern states who said, ‘Why can’t we get immigrants from Scandinavia?’ or something like that.
So, yes, there’s a clearly racial issue that complicates the matter of immigration. Here and in Europe. Anywhere.
As Trump implied, it has to do with racial purity.
If you’re dark you’re impure.
That didn’t stop the boards of Google, Microsoft and Adobe, huge multinational companies, from appointing immigrants to lead them. Dark ones, too.
And it didn’t because they found value beneath the skin of those folks.
And those folks had to have a lot of value to get those jobs, because there surely were a lot of lily white people lining up to get the gig.
On the other hand, I can definitely see how a settled community does not want to see itself disrupted by having to accommodate a newcomer. But a country like Italy, which pays Libya money to keep immigrants from getting in boats to cross the Mediterranean, could use a little disruption in their ways of thinking because they’re not doing that well.
Yesterday, I saw a photo of a line of Italians waiting to get a taxi ride and they put up with it. Here in the US you just call Uber or Lyft. So something is wrong in Italy that they’re coming up short of ideas to generate economic opportunity.
Maybe some of the dark colored people trying to get in may have a clue as to how to improve things. You just never know where good ideas may come from.
I believe that something gets ossified and stunted when a nation becomes obsessed with keeping people of different colors and shapes from coming into the country.
And just like disruption is important to rejuvenate an economy, by bringing in new ways of doing things, socially, the disruption of letting in other people opens new ways to relate to each other.
In America, the South, which relied heavily on slave labor, lost the productivity war against the North in the years leading up to the Civil War. Industry was far more developed in northern states. They still had racism, but they were more open. And that made the difference.
Countries that have lots of their people leaving them are failed states in one way or another.
So it makes sense to try and help them out so they can keep their population. But adventurous folks will always try to go beyond their borders to see what they can do.
Not all immigrants will be a plus to the receiving country. But the majority will.
And the world will keep changing as it must.
To avoid rigidities.
To keep challenging ourselves.
To open our minds.
To grow.
When countries don’t do that they get leaders with limited imagination.
They get people like Viktor Orban in Hungary, or Trump here in America.
Or Putin in Russia.
Grieving the Loss of White America
In an hour or two, the second Republican debate will take place.
I won’t see it but will take a look at the highlights from it in the newspapers.
I hear that Trump won’t show up. Again. Apparently he was planning to meet with auto industry strikers instead. Good luck.
He’ll need it because he’s getting bad advice, while making a mistake in believing the polls that put him ahead of Biden.
In today’s debate no one will say that the rage that Trump is stirring in his followers is a sign of the grieving of the loss of White America. They won’t say it because they’re afraid of the added rage it will ignite. But that’s the core issue driving his followers.
Lamentably for them, America is turning Brown and there’s no stopping it.
The other day Trump said that, once in office, he’d order the ‘greatest mass deportation’ the nation had seen. Right. In his dreams.
Too bad that White America has fallen for a man without the capacity to deal with their grief.
Had he been able to, after he was elected in 2016, he could’ve started the greatest education effort the nation has ever seen.
But he didn’t do that. Instead he settled for building a Wall in our southern border and the lowering of taxes for the already wealthy. He took the easy choices.
His followers would’ve been much better off if he had been honest with them. Sat down and said, ‘folks, I will do everything in my power, to help you become the most skilled workers you can become. So you won’t have to fear anybody, no matter what their color, because you will have developed the ability to continually adapt and the unquenchable thirst for self improvement.’ All of which entails a good bit of hard work.
But he couldn’t say that because self improvement is a foreign – yes, foreign – concept to him.
When he looks at himself in the mirror he sees a finished product, and a ‘terrific’ one, while the majority of us have to keep trying every day to improve our abilities.
Take the Russo-Ukrainian war as an example. It is a complex affair that has caused immense pain, but Trump comes up with the notion that he can settle the conflict in one day.
Yes, he said it.
If you believe that, then you likely were tempted to join the rioters that stormed the Capitol building on January 6th 2021, and truly believed you could change the will of the American electorate. If you resisted the urge to join, congratulations, you preserved your freedom.
I you did take part, you now must face the stark reality that you were duped.
There will be no one to pardon you because Trump will not win the next election. He will not even be the presidential candidate for the Republican party because sober, level headed party members, know that something is deeply wrong with the party and that reelecting Trump is a big step back for our nation.
Those level headed party members are not the ones making the most noise these days, but come election day they will march straight up to the poll booth and cast their voice for the future of the nation, not for a man who’s lacking the depth to tell his followers, ‘develop your abilities and rise to be the best you can be. And you will embrace other peoples because doing so enrich us and broadens our humanity’.
Having An Opinion
Is important. Having an opinion on anything.
The more subjects we have opinions on, the better.
We don’t have to be an expert on the subject to have an opinion on it.
We can reflect on it based on what we have available, what we have heard or experienced.
To have opinions we must think.
Doing so elevates it to an art form. The reflection we put into it does that.
And every one of us can do it.
We can do it while walking, sitting or lying down. But it should be done while one is alone.
Of course, opinions can and will be influenced by discussion with others but the more effort we put into doing our own thinking, the more we will get from interactions.
Writing helps thinking. But you don’t need to write to think.
Socrates didn’t do much writing. His pupil, Plato, would do it for him.
All we need to have an opinion is the willingness to have it.
All we need to think is the willingness to do it. The willingness to say, ‘I am going to think.’
That’s it.
It sounds so simple and yet, most people don’t set aside the time for it.
It is much easier to read or hear another person’s opinion and then agree or disagree with it. Which has a place, of course.
But the thinking I’m talking about is the thinking that one initiates. The one where one sets a time for it.
Each one of us has a variety of undigested ideas on a given subject that will come up when one chooses to think.
Dialogue is central to thinking. Dialogue with ourselves. With ideas we’ve heard but not pondered. Ideas we have not answered.
The French sculptor Rodin paid homage to thinking when he made his famous ‘The Thinker’, a bronze piece of a naked man sitting on a slab of stone, facing forward, his chin resting on the back of his flexed right hand, the same arm’s elbow placed on his left thigh. It is a beautiful piece.
That’s all we need to think. A place to sit and be alone.
Alone so that whatever is brewing in us can rise to the surface undisturbed.
Alone so our thoughts can float up gently into our consciousness.
Consider for a moment how little time we devote to thinking. We’re always rushing here and there, doing this or that. Afraid of looking into what is in us.
Thinking is beautiful and it is an art. Unrecognized and undervalued.
It brings us closer to who we are for it demands that we take off our mask. That we face our reality and not rush away from it. That we face our prejudices, our fears, our mistakes, our pain, our anger, our indifference, our brutality.
We all have to make a contribution to earn our living. Doing our own thinking should be part of it. And we shouldn’t leave it to others to do it for us.
We shouldn’t because every single one of us is unique.
Next time you set aside time to think, remind yourself that thinking is an art form.
When we take time to think we’re activating our creative powers. Who knows what will come out.
Societies whose members think, embrace democracy.
Societies whose members don’t, surrender to autocracy.
If you haven’t, look up Rodin’s bronze, ‘Le Penseur’, for inspiration.
It is on the net, of course, but the real thing might be at a museum near you.
Will Trump Become the Republican Candidate for President in 2024?
Based on the results from the midterm elections, the answer is no.
As of this writing Republicans will end with only a slim advantage in the House and they’ve lost the Senate.
Their relative poor showing was a referendum on Trump
Raphael Warnock (D) will beat Herschel Walker (R) in the remaining undecided Senate seat in Georgia, giving Democrats the full advantage of 51 to 49.
Trump has managed to divide his party.
Yesterday he declared himself a candidate for the presidency but he will lose in the primaries.
His supporters were mesmerized by his charm but missed the substance. And the substance is that Trump is not a believer in the democratic process.
The assault on the capitol on Jan 6th 2021 wouldn’t have happened without his incitement.
The fact that, in spite of it, he managed to keep so many followers, tell us that there’s a sizeable section in this country for which democracy is just a word.
The good news is that there are many Republicans who are not fooled and were never fooled.
They showed up at the polls in the midterms and rejected Trump’s followers.
They showed up at the polls and rejected the notion that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
The best hope for the Republican party in 2024 is that Trump doesn’t win the primary.
So far, DeSantis from Florida is attracting attention as a rival.
But there is ample time for other contenders to rise.
When the lineup of Republican party candidates shows up for the primary debates, there will be plenty ammunition for them to take Trump down. And his followers will see how much better another candidate will represent them.
The division in the Republican party works in Democrats’ favor.
But Democrats will do well to select a candidate whose appeal extends to disaffected Republicans.
The time is now for Democratic candidates to start grooming their teams.
And so the matter of whether Biden will run again becomes critical.
I am a strong supporter of him but now believe that he should not run for reelection.
In just 4 days, on November 20th, Biden will be 80 years old. In 2024 he will be 82.
Age matters on a job as hectic as the president’s.
Two more years in the White House will help Biden consolidate some of his policies and we may also see Ukraine win the war against Russia.
Biden should be very proud of what he’s done.
He has said he will decide early next year if he’ll stand for reelection.
I think he will choose not to. And so open the door for Democratic candidates to flesh out their campaigns.
Kamala Harris will definitely be among the contenders but so will be Gavin Newsom from California.
They need ample time to prepare.
My projection is that Newsom will become the Democratic candidate for president in 2024.
And so help write Donald Trump’s political epitaph.
We earn our freedom every day.
Voted
Voted earlier this morning. There was a light drizzle out that faded after a while.
Well organized event. Amazing technology and it keeps improving. The volunteers were courteous and helpful. I enjoy voting in person.
The smooth end result takes a lot of work from a lot of people. People committed to the democratic process. I am deeply grateful to the staff and made a point of congratulating them.
Attention turns now to what the results will be.
My hope is that the democratic side wins and retains control of both houses.
Do I think Republicans can do a better job than Democrats? Not at all.
I can’t think of one thing where Republicans – in their present state – can do better than Democrats.
I say in their present state because the Republican party has been deeply impaired by Mr Trump and his followers.
Mr Trump incited a riot on January 6th 2021, because he wanted to manipulate the electoral vote to favor him.
He was prevented from doing so but, to this day, aside from the courageous Liz Cheney and a few others, there has not been a sizeable protest from other Republicans stating ‘Mr Trump attempted to subvert democracy by force. He is not qualified to hold office.’ Something of the kind stating the facts.
The majority of Republicans have been silent.
Just because of that they don’t deserve a turn at governing this nation. Not until they clean up their act and apologize to America.
But there are few signs of that happening.
In the state of Georgia, a former football player is running neck and neck against a seasoned and committed defender of the rights of citizens. Unbelievable.
The football player has no history of political involvement. He is in the race because Trump thought his name would attract voters. And, of course, the gentleman would do exactly as Trump wants him to do. Every time.
Recently, Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi, Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, was nearly killed by a man who broke into their home looking for his wife with the intent of knocking out her kneecaps. She was not in.
Has there been a wave of outrage at such an action by Republicans? No.
Did Mr Trump publicly speak out condemning it? Not either. He thought it was fake.
And yet he is still a prominent leader of the party and is expected to announce his candidacy to again become president in 2024.
Unbelievable. There is a wave of gullibility going through the Republican party and they can’t stop it. The enlightened wing of their party has chosen to not put up a fight.
That’s not cool at all.
There is nothing or no one in the present Republican party that offers any worthwhile ideas for governing our country. Their submission to Trump is pathetic.
God Bless America.
We earn our freedom every day.
Oscar Valdes 