Retired Admiral William McRaven, the Navy SEAL who oversaw the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, voted for Biden. He writes in the Wall Street Journal:

This week I went to the polls in Texas. Truth be told, I am a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, small-government, strong-defense and a national-anthem-standing conservative. But, I also believe that black lives matter, that the Dreamers deserve a path to citizenship, that diversity and inclusion are essential to our national success, that education is the great equalizer, that climate change is real and that the First Amendment is the cornerstone of our democracy. Most important, I believe that America must lead in the world with courage, conviction and a sense of honor and humility.

If we remain indifferent to our role in the world, if we retreat from our obligation to our citizens and our allies and if we fail to choose the right leader, then we will pay the highest price for our neglect and shortsightedness.

I voted for Joe Biden.

Well-said!

For the first time in USA TODAY’s history, the Editorial Board is endorsing a presidential candidate:

For nearly four decades, the Editorial Board has stood for certain core values: truth, accountability, civility in public discourse, opposition to racism, common-ground solutions to the nation’s problems, and steadfast support for First Amendment rights. These aren’t partisan issues, or at least they shouldn’t be.

Donald Trump has trampled each of these principles, making more than 20,000 false or misleading statements, ducking responsibility for his actions, spewing streams of invective at his critics, trafficking in racial fearmongering, governing more as the leader of the red states than of the United States, and relentlessly attacking the free press.

Everything about Biden’s nearly half-century political career suggests he would do a far better job of respecting these values. “We need to revive the spirit of bipartisanship in this country, the spirit of being able to work with one another,” the Democratic nominee said in a recent speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

I don’t believe in religions, but I respect people who believe in their religions. I have evangelical family members who I can trust to have deep, honest conversations about faith and politics without resolve to confrontations. I often questioned them on how they have come to accept Jesus. I was not trying to be ignorant, but I couldn’t find their answers convincing. Unlike science, math, or logic, religion makes no sense to me.

Every evangelical family member I have talked to had offered to pray for me after all of my questions. I accepted their prayers out of respect, but I know prayers never worked. Nevertheless, I consider evangelical family members to be grounded with high standards of morality. They are successful and generous. They are happily married and raising their kids well. I look up to them in those regards.

Their support for Trump; however, goes against their faith. Trump mocked evangelicals behind closed doors. “Those fucking evangelicals,” he said, “Can you believe people believe that bullshit?” On the other hand, evangelicals have considered him a “baby Christian” or a “born-again Christian.” Most Vietnamese-American Christians go as far as worshipping him as someone God had chosen to fight against the communists and China. The more I learn about these moral corruptions, the more I question their credibility. The hypocrisy is just too glaring to ignore.

My wife keeps telling me that I am being too harsh on them and that I don’t understand the reason they support Trump. From my conversations with them, I understand their religious view on abortion and Trump can help them with his appointments of conservative justices on the Supreme Court. Just for that issue alone, they are willing to sacrifice all other Christain values. Pro-life is the commitment to the sanctity of human life from the beginning to end. Allowing 220,000 deaths caused by the coronavirus is not pro-life. “It is what it is,” he said. Trump doesn’t care about human lives. He is just hijacking their faith for his own political gains. If people of faith trade moral integrity for political power then I do not want to be a part of it.

Another respected scientific journal supports Biden. Nature’s Editorial Board:

No US president in recent history has so relentlessly attacked and undermined so many valuable institutions, from science agencies to the media, the courts, the Department of Justice — and even the electoral system. Trump claims to put ‘America First’. But in his response to the pandemic, Trump has put himself first, not America.

It has always been about Trump first.

This is a gripping debut novel about a pregnant, half-Korean-half-White eighteen years old dealing with grief, alcohol, and relationships. Instead of applying to colleges, she delivers pizza. She is funny and curses like a sailor. Her story started out carefree and witty but progressed into a much darker territory. Frazier’s compelling storytelling combined with street literature make her writing so damn refreshing. From profanity to humanity to sensuality, it’s a moving read. I loved every sentence.

It’s Friday already. What a hectic week. Work had been overwhelming. Fortunately, I have a fantastic assistant. I am not sure if I can go back to handle everything when he moves on. He has two more semesters of school left.

In addition to doing my own work, I have to keep an eye on my son’s virtual schooling. Despite my effort, Đán is still struggling. He has trouble paying attention to his teachers. He has no clue what to do with his assignments. I have to use Google Translate to help him. Once he understood the instructions, he could do well. He enjoyed having me guiding him through his assignments. It felt great seeing him plowing through his assignments.

My gout still hurts like a motherfucker. Because I am taking Aleve and apple cider vinegar, I have to eat more to prevent stomach upset and yet I couldn’t move much. I am feeling bloated most of the time. I shouldn’t have taken the ice skating lesson with a gout attack. I made the pain worse. I am hoping to get some relaxing time over the weekend to recover. I have books to get me through, but I also have kids to look after. It drives me crazy seeing them playing video games instead of doing outdoor activities.

Woke up this morning with excruciating pain in my left foot. The joint near my big toe swelled up. I am having a gout attack, which means I have been consuming more alcohol than I should. I was planning on checking myself into a rehab after the general election, but gout beats me to it.

I took shots of apple cider vinegar with honey then made two sunny-side ups to go with Costco’s croissant. I made two bags of Trung Nguyên’s instant iced coffee and took a pill of Aleve. By 9:10 am, I went down to the basement to join the kids. They had class and I had work to do. I answered emails and revised projects I designed yesterday. At noon, I took our minivan to the gas station for inspection and emissions. While the car was being serviced, I walked over to Walmart to get a flu shot. I got all three things done in half an hour.

I drove back home and had a delicious bowl of bún riêu my wife made. At one, I continued to work until 4:30 pm. At five, we visited my father-in-law’s grave. My wife bought a dozen of beautiful roses for him.

At 5:30 pm, I decided to go ahead with my first ice skating lesson even though the gout attack was killing my left foot. I managed to pull it off. The only time I had trouble was when the instructor wanted us to skate with just our left foot. It felt great getting back on ice after all these months. Ice skating seems a bit easier than rollerblading, but now I liked them both.

I went back home around 8:00 pm and I was just in time for dinner with the family. After dinner, I gave the kids a bath and brushed Xuân’s and Vương’s teeth. My left foot started to torture me. I drank a few more shots of apple cider vinegar and took another Aleve. I hope the pain will go away in the next few days. I definitely need to take my mouth off the liquor.

Before heading to bed, I sucked the snot out of Vương nose, with the nasal aspirator of course. I once witnessed a mother sucking her kid’s nose with her mouth. It was both the grossest and loveliest thing I had ever seen. It proved that a mother’s love is unconditional.

Despite the gout attack, I had a fantastic Wednesday.

Casey is a thirty-one-year-old aspiring writer. She works as a waitress and spends six years writing her novel. Lily King writes beautifully about love and loss, dating and writing, and passion and determination. I loved the pace, the writing, and the moving narration. The story lingers on after the book has closed. It’s a page-turning, soul-soothing read.

Lately, I have been hooked on reading fiction thanks to Elisabeth Egan. I just picked up whatever she recommended for her “Group Text” column in the New York Times and so far her I have loved every novel she had chosen. I wish New York Times has a section for “Group Text” so it would be easy for readers to follow. The only way to get to Ms. Egan’s column is to Google it.

Every word in the editorial piece from the New England Journal of Medicine is worth reading, but here’s the gist of it:

Reasonable people will certainly disagree about the many political positions taken by candidates. But truth is neither liberal nor conservative. When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs.

Must read.

After reading the first few paragraphs of this article, I can’t help but wonder if some of our Vietnamese Americans have indeed injected themselves with disinfectants. They are spreading the theory that Trump had been chosen by God; therefore, he cannot die from the coronavirus before completing his mission. They pointed out that it is not a coincidence that the word Trump appeared twice in the bible: “Last Trump” and “Trump of God.”

I hate to ruin the party, but Trump’s family surname was not Trump but Drumpf. His grandfather’s original name was Friedrich Drumpf, but anglicized to Frederick Trump. Trump’s Vietnamese-American supporters are so brainwashed that they didn’t even bother to do one simple fact-check. The level of absurdity running in our community is unimaginable. We’re going to have a lot of soul searching to do after this election.

I am not religious, but if I were I would be so disappointed in God if he had chosen Trump. God could have chosen a much better disciple. God could have picked someone who wouldn’t brag about grabbing women by the pussy or someone who wouldn’t have sex with a pornstar while his wife carrying his son. I doubt that God would approve those actions, but what do I know about religion? What I do know is that Trump is the wrong guy for the job unless God’s mission is to destroy humanity.