My absentee ballot arrived in the mail this afternoon and I wasted no time filling it out. From Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to Senator Mark Warner to Representative Gerry Connolly, I voted straight Democrats from top to bottom. Gotta keep Virginia blue.

I dropped off my ballot at the post office and felt great doing my part as a citizen of the United States. Now it is up to the country to decide on the life and death of our democracy. I hope people will choose wisely. I have tremendous respect for voters who put their country before their party, particularly the Republican voters who choose to vote for Biden. My hat off to Cindy McCain.

If you can vote early, go to the poll as soon as you can. If you choose to vote by mail, request your ballot now. Please don’t wait. Get your vote in. Make this a landslide victory so the orange loser will have to accept the results.

Dear independent voters,

We are 42 days from one of the most critical elections in U.S. history and I hope that you have made up your mind already. If you are still undecided, however, I urge you to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I vote for Biden and Harris because I vote for Democrats. You vote for Biden and Harris not for Democrats but for democracy.

Let’s face it. The Republican Party is under captive. Republican leaders who were elected to work for the American people are now taking orders from Trump instead. They are looking out for their own interests rather than for our country. In the past four years, Trumpism has replaced the Republican Party. If Trump gets re-elected, our democracy will be replaced with a totalitarian regime. The more Trump gets away with abusing his power, the closer he reaches authoritarian. Trump is an existential threat to our democracy. Your vote can stop this danger.

If you feel that you can vote for neither candidate and are planning on sitting out to protest, particularly Bernie’s supporters, I hope you would reconsider your vote. This might be the last election you get to vote if Trump gets re-elected. Unlike Trump who brings chaos and corruption, Biden will bring unity and fairness. Biden will be a President for all, not just his base. You don’t have to take my words for it. You can give him a chance by voting for him. If he proves to be incompetent (such as mishandling the pandemic that cost 200,000 lives) or tries to destroy our democracy, we can elect a new Republican candidate to replace him in 2024. On the other hand, if Trump gets re-elected, you can kiss democracy goodbye.

Since I had created a graphic for the Biden campaign, it is only fair that I create one for the Trump campaign as well. The graphic is based on a cognitive test I took, in which I had to remember and repeat five words: “Fascist. Unhinged. Coward. Knave. Trump.” It was quite a challenge. Like Trump, however, I aced the test.

I am making the graphic available for anyone, including Trump supporters, to use for free. You can download an SVG or PNG version. As for designers, I challenge you to create your own and post on social media using this tag #FascistUnhingedCowardKnaveTrump.

Scientific American have never endorsed a presidential candidate in its 175-year history—until now. From the editors:

The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people—because he rejects evidence and science. The most devastating example is his dishonest and inept response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which cost more than 190,000 Americans their lives by the middle of September.

On masking, they writes:

[I]f almost everyone in the U.S. wore masks in public, it could save about 66,000 lives by the beginning of December, according to projections from the University of Washington School of Medicine. Such a strategy would hurt no one. It would close no business. It would cost next to nothing. But Trump and his vice president flouted local mask rules, making it a point not to wear masks themselves in public appearances.

Trump supporters don’t believe in science, but I hope independent voters aren’t so ignorant about science.

Jessica Hische has kicked off an amazing campaign to help elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The posters are inspiring. I couldn’t decide which one to place on my website; therefore, I made my own using David Jonathan Ross’s Fit. Feel free to use it to spread the message. Here’s the PNG version. If you are inspired to create your own, however, you can download the template to get started. Let’s rise up, show up, unite, and vote the motherfucker out.

Of course he knew about the seriousness of the pandemic. He is just too incompetent to do anything about it. He doesn’t give a fuck that people died from the coronavirus. It is what it is.

Unfortunately, the Republicans are too weak and too scared to hold him accountable. His supporters don’t see anything wrong with their God. He can do whatever the fuck he wants.

Four more years and he will have more control of the country. With his power, he can make the presses, the dissidents, and the scientists disappear. He can shoot somebody without losing his voters.

I don’t know how people can vote for him. Maybe they just want to see democracy burn down to the ground? Maybe they want to live under a totalitarian system of government?

An excellent piece from Ibram X. Kendi for The Atlantic. Kendi writes:

White male supremacy has granted the president the power to accost women and “grab ’em by the pussy”; the power to “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” without losing voters; the power to call the first female major-party nominee for president “such a nasty woman” on live television and still win more white women’s votes than she did; the power to say the first Black president was not born in the United States and still have Black men say at his convention that he is “not racist.” White male supremacy has allowed the president to have a foreign power intercede in a presidential election on his behalf, to call neo-Nazis “very fine people,” to urge his supporters to vote twice, to build a monument of lies, to obstruct justice while freeing friends and punishing foes, to describe Americans who died at war as “suckers” and “losers,” and to look away as hundreds of thousands of American COVID-19 victims’ bodies pile up at cemeteries—and not face any consequences.

Kendi concludes:

Those who embrace Trumpism demand, like police officers, qualified immunity for their racism and sexism. When they hear “Me too,” when they hear “Impeach him,” when they hear “Black lives matter,” when they hear “No justice, no peace”—they hear the sounds of violent attacks on their supremacy, they envision their property burning, they see their America under attack. In their minds, slavery did not end.

Scary time in America, particularly for Black Americans.

Americans who sacrifice their lives for our country are losers and suckers. Americans who sacrifice their lives for Trump are winners and patriots. Let’s face it. We are heading toward totalitarianism if we don’t vote him out.

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.