I wake up every morning and ask myself, “Is it November yet?” I am waiting for November like my life is depending on it. My life does depends on it. America is getting crazier and crazier each day just because of one individual. I don’t know how I am going to live with four more years of chaos under this fascist.

American politics is becoming like gangster rap in the 90s but in a much bigger scale. The rival between East and West started words, but quickly escalated with the gun down of 2pac and Biggie. The divisiveness in American politics started with words, but it has quickly spilled out to the streets. Americans are being killed and yet the fascist is doing nothing to stop it. Instead of taking responsibility for his incompetent leadership, he blames on his opponent. The lies are just getting ridiculously absurd each day.

If he gets re-elected, democracy will die. No one will stop him from doing anything. The Republicans can’t do anything now. Once he has absolute power, they will just follow his order. The ones who speak out against him will be punished or vanished. It will become reality if he wins again.

I am terrified. I am losing sleep. I am stressed the fuck out. We need decency. We need empathy. We need unity. We need democracy. We need to put an end to this madness. We need to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Don Windslow’s #OpenLetterToRepublicans video is powerful. It’s a must-watch. I hope there are still sensible Republicans who can see the danger of this authoritarian regime. We need to unite to put an end to this American tragedy.

George Packer writes in The Atlantic:

Two days after the shooting, with her son fighting for his life, [Julia Jackson] begins her public remarks softly, almost inaudibly, but her own words seem to give her growing strength, and finally a profound resonance. She says that her son would not be happy with the damage to his community. “As I have prayed for my son’s healing, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, I also have been praying, even before this, for the healing of our country,” Jackson says, and she goes on: “We are the United States. Have we been united? Do you understand what’s going to happen when we fall? Because a house that is against each other cannot stand. To all of the police officers, I’m praying for you and your families. To all of the citizens, my Black and brown sisters and brothers, I’m praying for you. I believe that you are an intelligent being just like the rest of us. Everybody, let’s use our hearts, our love, and our intelligence to work together to show the rest of the world how humans are supposed to treat each other. America is great when we behave greatly.”

Packer concludes:

[Biden] should speak for justice and for safety, for reform and against riots, for the crying need to bring the country together. If he says these things half as well as Julia Jackson did, we might not have to live with four more years of Trump.

The headline is an unfortunate clickbait, but the article is worth reading.

Susan B. Glasser writes in The New Yorker:

Even for a salesman like Trump, it was never going to be an easy deal to close, what with a deadly pandemic, mass unemployment, nationwide protests over racial injustice, and even a killer hurricane smashing into the Gulf Coast hours before his speech. Some seventy per cent of Americans currently believe that the country is on the wrong track, according to recent polls. Who can blame them?

This should be devastating context for a President, any President, seeking reëlection, a true picture of American carnage to replace the false one that Trump conjured four years ago. Yet the strategy of Trump and his team is now clear: to talk about how bad things would be in Joe Biden’s America, a violent socialist ruin in which freedom itself will no longer exist and rampaging protesters, like those now committing “rioting, looting, arson, and violence” in “Democrat-run cities,” will be coming soon to a suburb near you. “The hard truth is, you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” Vice-President Mike Pence said on Wednesday night. “No one will be safe in Biden’s America,” Trump said on Thursday night. To say this sounded a bit off in actual America, Trump’s America, does not do justice to the bizarre dissonance of this year’s Republican Convention.

If he gets reelected, not even democracy will be safe in Trump’s America. We need to vote for Biden.

The Republicans and their incompetent-in-chief applied the same fear tactics they used four years ago. They sounded like someone has been running our country instead of the orange idiot. They didn’t mention any progress in the last four years because they have failed to make America greater or safer.

They have no plan or vision in the next four years. They promised that he would bring back the economy he himself has driven to the ground. They said nothing about the unemployment numbers under his watch. They ignored the pandemic because they have failed to keep America safe. They made it seem like our country is in deep shit and he’s the only one that can pull us out of the shithole, in which he is currently in charge of.

The lies are beyond comprehensible, but they seem to work for his base. If you lie repeatedly, it will become the truth and that’s how fascism works. We are heading that direction if we won’t vote him out on November 3.

Một số bạn đọc đã gửi email đến tôi sau khi đọc blog post “Nên đi bỏ phiếu.” Có bạn cho rằng tuy giờ đây đã thấy được sự dối trá và vô tài của ông Trump như vẫn không bỏ phiếu cho ông Joe Biden. Bạn cho rằng bỏ phiếu cho đảng Dân chủ là làm ngược lại với lợi ích của bạn. Vì bạn là một người làm thương mại mà đảng Dân chủ thì tăng thuế.

Tôi hiểu được việc bạn kiếm ra tiền bằng mồ hôi và nước mắt của mình. Nhưng nếu như bạn bỏ phiếu cho đảng Dân chủ không có nghĩa bạn làm ngược lại với lợi ích cá nhân mà bạn làm theo đạo đức của chính mình. Giữa công việc đóng thêm một chút thuế hay để nền dân chủ (democracy) của đất nước tự do bị sụp đổ thì bạn chọn như thế nào?

Dĩ nhiên tôi không thể nào đứng nhìn nền dân chủ bị phá hoại trong tay một người không tôn trọng luật pháp. Không ai trên cả luật pháp và tổng thống Mỹ cũng không ngoại lệ. Nếu như đóng thêm thuế để giúp đỡ những người gặp khó khăn thì cũng nên.

Tôi nghĩ hoàn cảnh lúc mới đặt chân đến bến bờ tự do của bạn cũng giống như tôi. Nhờ có tiền trợ cấp của chính phủ Mỹ (tiền của những người đóng thuế) đã giúp đỡ dân tị nạn chúng ta lúc ban đầu gặp nhiều khó khăn. Nhờ đó mà bạn đã phấn đấu từ hai bàn tay trắng để có được ngày hôm nay. Giờ đây anh đã thành công thì tại sao không giúp đỡ người khác như mình ngày xưa? Người Việt Nam chúng ta có câu, “Đừng ăn cháo đái bát.”

Biden thanked the commender-in-chief and crushed the coward-in-chief in his speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention:

Thank you, Mr. President [Obama]. You were a great president. A president our children could—and did—look up to. No one will say that about the current occupant of the office. What we know about this president is if he’s given four more years he will be what he’s been the last four years. A president who takes no responsibility, refuses to lead, blames others, cozies up to dictators, and fans the flames of hate and division. He will wake up every day believing the job is all about him. Never about you. Is that the America you want for you, your family, your children? I see a different America. One that is generous and strong. Selfless and humble. It’s an America we can rebuild together.

Truth be told, I had not been excited about the Biden candidacy. He has his share of flaws and gaffes. After hearing his personal story; however, I have changed my mind. Joe is kind, compassionate, and caring. Joe had been through pain and grief. He lost his first wife, his daughter, and his son. Joe understands the struggles. He goes out of his way to help Brayden Harrington, a thirteen-year-old boy, to overcome his stutter.

We need a president who has sympathy, decency, and generosity. We need a president who takes care of all the people, not just himself. We need a president who unites instead of divides us. In the past four days, look at the people he is surrounding himself with. The Biden administration will be filled with diverse, qualified, and competent members.

Truth be told, I had already made up my mind to vote for Joe. After tonight, I will be excited to be voting for him. He will save America from the pandemic and he will save our democracy from fascism. I urge you to vote for Joe as well.

Pete Buttigieg gave a convincing speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention:

Beau Biden lived a life of service, in office and in uniform. When you put your life on the line for your country—especially this country—you do it not because it’s a country you ​live in​,​ b​ut because it’s a country you ​believe in​.

I believe in this country because America, uniquely, holds the promise of a place where everyone can belong. We know that for too many and for too long, that promise has gone unrealized. But we also know America has been at its best whenever we make that circle of belonging wider.

He made the case for Biden and Harris:

Every American must now decide. Can America be a place where faith is about healing and not exclusion? Can we become a country that lives up to the truth that Black Lives Matter? Will we handle questions of science and medicine by turning to scientists and doctors? What will we do to make America into a land where no one who works full time can live in poverty?

Elizabeth Warren dropped a hidden message to BLM and a not-so-subtle message about the orange idiot at the 2020 Democratic National Convention:

Donald Trump’s ignorance and incompetence have always been a danger to our country. COVID-19 was Trump’s biggest test. He failed miserably. Today, America has the most COVID deaths in the world and an economic collapse—and both crises are falling hardest on Black and Brown families.

Millions out of work. Millions more trapped in cycles of poverty. Millions on the brink of losing their homes. Millions of restaurants and stores hanging by a thread.

This crisis is bad—and didn’t have to be this way. This crisis is on Donald Trump and the Republicans who enable him. On November 3, we hold them all accountable.

I still wish she was the nominee.

Kamala Harris gave a passionate speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention:

And we’ve shown that, when we vote, we expand access to health care, expand access to the ballot box, and ensure that more working families can make a decent living.

I’m so inspired by a new generation of leadership. You are pushing us to realize the ideals of our nation, pushing us to live the values we share: decency and fairness, justice and love.

You are the patriots who remind us that to love our country is to fight for the ideals of our country.

In this election, we have a chance to change the course of history. We’re all in this fight.

You, me and Joe — together.

What an awesome responsibility. What an awesome privilege.

So, let’s fight with conviction. Let’s fight with hope. Let’s fight with confidence in ourselves, and a commitment to each other. To the America we know is possible. The America, we love.

Let’s do this!