How a lie can destroy us

“Nothing fools you better than the lie you tell yourself.”

—Teller

 

By Alex P. Vidal 

 

NOBODY has escaped the temptation of lying. 

Sinner or saint, everyone lies or has lied at least once or more in their lifetime. 

When we are afraid to admit a misdemeanor at home as kids, we lie to our parents to dodge a penalty; we lie to our teachers if we break the school rules and regulations to escape sanction. 

When we are worried of losing the trust and confidence of friends over an honest mistake, we sometimes thought of lying as a way to wiggle out from dire straits.

When we are ashamed to admit something that will place us in imminent embarrassment, we think lying will altogether expunge the unpleasant feeling.  

When our partners suspect us of committing infidelity; when we are dishonest in our financial and marital dealings, sometimes we think it’s easy to lie to erase the stigma of our trespasses.

Others lie about their age to qualify in a competition with age brackets. 

When we lose in a fair and honest race or election, we lie to assuage a wounded pride and mollify a tattered ego.  

But lying—big or small, one-time or sustained, written or verbal, excessive or sugar-coated—will never redeem us; it will never save us from perdition.

 

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When President Donald Trump lied repeatedly for two months that the November 3, 2020 U.S. presidential election he clearly lost was stolen from him, Americans who voted for him believed him.

He used deception, which refers to the act—big or small, cruel or kind—of encouraging people to believe information that is not true only because he couldn’t accept defeat. He’s a sore loser.

The President sought refuge in lying as a common form of deception by stating something known to be untrue with the intent to deceive only because he still wanted to remain in power even if he was “fired” in a fair and honest election.

As a result, Mr. Trump’s voters swallowed hook, line, and sinker anything he said about the “rigged” election; they will no longer listen to the truth.

They will ignore the reality that Mr. Trump lost by eight million in popular votes and in the Electoral College, 306-232. It’s not even close, but Mr. Trump and his dishonest enablers still had the gall to lie and lie again and again.

This is a clear example of how a single lie—repeated several times—became the “truth” as popularized by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

A lie than can destroy us.

“Trust is the bedrock of social life at all levels, from romance and parenting to national government. Deception always undermines it. Because truth is so essential to the human enterprise, which relies on a shared view of reality, the default assumption most people have is that others are truthful in their communications and dealings. Most cultures have powerful social sanctions against lying,” according to the Psychology Today.

Mr. Trump and his enablers need to stop lying in order to bring back the trust and faith of the Americans to the electoral system and to save America from civil war.

 

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THE worst thing that could happen to any public servant is to be slapped and convicted with a graft and corruption case near and during retirement age.

If there is a jail term aside from forfeiture of benefits, among other penalties, it’s really hell.

The sorrows, anxieties and stress felt by those convicted and their relatives and friends are doubled.

They also have domino effects.

Their health will be affected. When the mind is in deep sadness, the heart is in pain; the body deteriorates.

The children are traumatized.

Instead of spending the retirement years enjoying the fruits of their labor, they will agonize worrying how to wiggle out from the mess.

Those who are remorseful and bothered by their conscience console themselves by the thoughts that if they could only turn back the time, they would never ever dip their fingers into the cookie jar.

Those who think they are innocent and only unfairly dragged in the fiasco and have not benefited even a single centavo, will fight to clear their names and defend their dignity to death.

But it’s stamina-sapping. Nerve-tingling. Time-consuming.

Not during the retirement age.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

 

 

 

 

 

Trump’s Pinoy supporters react

“What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.”

—Ellen Glasgow

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

JOSEPH Biden was not yet declared as the winner in the U.S. Presidential Election 2020, but several Filipinos who voted for President Donald Trump have aired contrasting sentiments in anticipation of Mr. Trump’s possible exit from the White House on January 20, 2021.

“I supported and voted for President Trump because I believe he is the right leader that America wants and needs today,” reacted Norvin Versoza, 50, a hotel doorman who lives in Queens, New York City. “But I am ready to accept if President Trump will be defeated. Sayang siya. He is the only leader in the world who knows how to handle and improve the economy of America and the economy of the world.”

Versoza said, unlike other pro-Trump Filipinos who are restless and agitating after Mr. Trump’s “imminent” loss, he was unperturbed. 

“This is only an election. We have lives to live; we have families to support. Let’s move on and go back to work. No need to feel bad as if our life depends on the election,”added Verzosa, a native of Ilog, Kabankalan, Negros Occidental in the Philippines.

NORVIN VERZOSA

 

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Mr Trump, he said, “would be a big loss to the United States.” 

He said the President, 74, locked in 214 Electoral College votes as of the writing pending the results in key battleground states of Pennsylvania (20), Georgia (16), North Carolina (15), Arizona (11), and Nevada (6), “was a good leader before the pandemic.”

“Biden has been a politician for 46 years and did nothing to help the Americans,” Verzosa pointed out. “President Trump has been here for only four years and he already helped improve the economy. They don’t like President Trump because he is rich and a businessman.”

Meanwhile, Carmencita Dolar (not her real name), 68, believed Mr. Trump was cheated.

“They rigged the election because they hated Trump. Bill Gates controls all the computers that’s why Trump (was in danger of) lost,” said Dolar, who hails from Digos, Davao in the Philippines.

Gates is the founder of Microsoft and one of the richest men in the world, according to Forbes Magazine.

Dolar did not elaborate on her accusation against Gates but insisted the latter “conspired together with Fauci.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci is a physician and immunologist who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.

 

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Dolar, a Trump fanatic who lives in Astoria, Queens, did not explain how and why Gates and Fauci “conspired”. 

She asked her boyfriend, Leandro Santander (not his real name), a Latino immigrant, to “get ready to join the people power just in case Trump needs us. We cannot accept Biden as president. He will lockdown our country for two weeks and we will all suffer.”

Santander responded: “We can never accept Biden. Over my dead body. They cheated.”

As a last-ditch strategy of claiming that he won the election, President Trump filed lawsuits to stop the counting in states where he was ahead. Observers said at the same time Mr. Trump litigates for recounting ballots where he is behind, is unlikely to change the final results. 

As more and more votes get counted, it appears increasingly likely that Mr. Biden will win, albeit rather narrowly.

But even if Mr. Trump's cries of fraud don't change the outcome, they may have an even more lasting impact—on the legitimacy of the vote and the course of a Biden presidency.

 

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Mr. Trump's political career has been defined by falsehoods that cast Democrats as cheaters and liars, reported the NBC News.

He reportedly rose to prominence in Republican circles as a chief propagator of the Obama "birther" conspiracy, which claimed that Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States.

“In the 2016 election,” NBC News added, “Mr. Trump constantly spread lies about voter fraud before the election and then doubled down on those lies even after he won, claiming he would have won the popular vote, too, if not for such manipulation.” 

Mr. Trump spent much of the 2020 election arguing that mail-in ballots would also lead to fraud and that the only way Democrats could win would be through cheating.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, is a former editor of two dailies in Iloilo).

 

 

 

No clear winner yet

“The people who cast the votes don't decide an election, the people who count the votes do.”

—Joseph Stalin

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

NO winner yet as of November 3 midnight. 

The winner in the U.S. presidential race between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joseph Biden may not be known yet after several days or even weeks.

This was the consensus made by election experts and analysts who estimate the canvassing of ballots in Pennsylvania, a key battleground with some 2.5 million mail-in votes, among other “swing” states in a similar a situation like Michigan and Wisconsin, might drag on.

The aforementioned major battleground states are expected to decide the 2020 presidential election, and they remained too close to call as polls in most states have closed across the United States. 

As of this writing, Florida was leaning toward Mr. Trump, bolstered by higher support in populous counties than he won in 2016, particularly among Hispanic voters, according to CBS News.

President Trump was also leading in Georgia and Texas, which Democrats have tried to turn blue for several years.

 

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Mr. Trump has narrowly surpassed Mr. Biden in North Carolina, which remained a toss-up with 95 percent of the expected vote counted.

Meanwhile, CBS News reported that Mr. Biden's prospects could hinge on his performance in the so-called "blue wall" of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, all of which were traditionally Democratic but voted for Mr. Trump in 2016. 

Mr. Biden can likely afford to lose Florida, North Carolina and Georgia and if he wins the blue-wall states, but vote-counting in Pennsylvania is proceeding slowly as officials sort through a mountain of absentee ballots, with some jurisdictions pausing their counting until Wednesday morning, it was reported.

The former vice president also appeared likely to win Arizona, which would be a significant shift in a traditionally Republican state that hasn't voted for a Democrat since 1996.

Mr. Biden has made inroads in several important demographic groups compared to Hillary Clinton in 2016, particularly among men. 

Exit polls showed Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump running even with men, who preferred Mr. Trump by 11 points in 2016. 

But the president also performed better among non-White voters — 27 percent nationally compared to 21 percent in 2016 and Republicans, increasing his share of GOP voters from 93 percent this year, up from 88 percent in 2016.

 

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TWO hours before the voting places closed, I made an ocular visit in the Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the “hottest” area in New York City amid reports that some disgruntled groups were threatening to launch another violent demonstration and looting like what happened several months ago when protest against George Floyd’s killing escalated nationwide.

We observed that almost all establishments have been boarded up anew to prevent rioters from destroying their windows in the event they would relaunch a violent rampage.

We also observed that the famous Trump Tower was heavily guarded by police and patrol cars. Heavy trucks from the New York Police Department (NYPD) were also positioned in nearby establishments to protect them from rioters and looters.

As of midnight we haven’t monitored a single violent incident in New York City contrary to the authorities’ fears earlier.

(The author who is now based in New York City was a former editor of two dailies in Iloilo City)

We pray for America

“We will win an election when all the seats in the House and Senate and the chair behind the desk in the Oval Office and the whole bench of the Supreme Court are filled with people who wish they weren't there.”

—P. J. O'Rourke

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WE hope and pray that the world’s biggest democracy will survive when America’s 240 million registered voters (150 million of them were expected to cast their ballots either by mail-in or in-person) decide for their next president on November 3.

Filipinos all over the world, especially those living—and will vote—in the United States, should take a closer look at the unfolding events and watch out in the next 72 days starting November 3 (U.S. time).

Will America elect its new president in the person of Joseph Biden? 

Will President Donald Trump be reelected?

Will Mr. Trump accept defeat and peacefully turn over the reigns of the White House is he loses in the race for the 270 votes in the Electoral College?

Or will he become an instrument of chaos and violence by refusing to yield in the event he loses the presidential election as manifested by his previous inflammatory words? 

Weeks leading to the Election Day, there were tell tale signs that American democracy will experience a tremor of hostility and tumult with no less than the International Crisis Group (ICG), an independent organization working to prevent wars and shape policies that will build a more peaceful world, warning that “the ingredients for unrest are present.”

 

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This came after Mr. Trump claimed “he will only lose if the Democrats will cheat.” 

The incumbent president had asked his army of supporters to guard the ballots on election day, alluding there will be an electoral fraud, an unsubstantiated accusation which had been dismissed as baseless and unproven by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

“The electorate is polarized, both sides frame the stakes as existential, violent actors could disrupt the process and protracted contestation is possible,” the ICG observed. 

“President Donald Trump’s often incendiary rhetoric suggests he will more likely stoke than calm tensions.”

ICG sounds the alarm to prevent deadly conflict and builds support for the good governance and inclusive politics that enable societies to flourish.

ICG has warned that “beyond the implications for any Americans caught up in unrest, the election will be a harbinger of whether its institutions can guide the U.S. safely through a period of socio-political change.” 

It added: “If not, the world’s most powerful country could face a period of growing instability and increasingly diminished credibility abroad.”

ICG has urged authorities to be “ready to counter voter intimidation and continue polling in the event of disruption.” 

It encouraged domestic leaders to “make bipartisan calls for a clean election. Foreign leaders should press U.S. counterparts to respect democratic norms. The media and foreign governments should take care not to recognize a winner prematurely.”

 

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If democracy gets sick in the United States owing to the unrest and acrimony that attended the pre-election day days, the rest of the world will be affected.

Members of the free world from the different continents look up to American democracy as role model. 

This government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system, is touted to be the best government in the modern world.  

America should survive this acid test and show the world it is really the role model of democracy. We pray for America.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)

 

 

  

 

 

‘Beauty and the Brave’

“I've never liked the recognition, the questions, the publicity. I have often felt like running away and hiding.”

—Al Pacino

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WITH apology to Walt Disney Feature Animation which produced the 1991 American animated musical romantic fantasy film “Beauty and the Beast” and released by Walt Disney Pictures, “Beauty and the Brave” is how I describe the contrasting exposure in the national media of two Ilonggos in the last week of October albeit in two separate events and controversies.

Beauty refers to Miss Universe Philippines 2020 Rabiya Mateo who hogged headlines not only for becoming the first Iloilo City resident to be crowned the MUP titleholder during the pageant at the Cordillera Convention Hall, Baguio Country Club in Baguio City, but after some losing contestants had sour graped in the social media to undermine Mateo’s victory.

The controversy was intensely tackled and went viral in the national entertainment news, social media, vblogs, and Western Visayas media where the villains and their disgruntled relatives (including some backers and aunts) have been exposed and ribbed by the netizens.

Brave refers to Jefrey Celiz also known as Eric “Ka Eric” Almendras, who came out in the open in a press conference in Manila on October 28 to denounce the Makabayan Bloc and accused several left-leaning partylist representatives of having links with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).

 

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Celiz admitted he was a former NPA cadre for 27 years and is now in the fold of the government helping end the country’s insurgency problem.

Celiz, former chair if Bayan in Panay Island, said he left the movement because he wanted to end the killings of innocent people, and that he is now being targeted for possible assassination.

Celiz’s appearance came in the heels of the plan of Senator Panfilo Laczon to investigate on November 3 the red-tagging and alleged involvement of the military in the practice of accusing individuals of involvement in the insurgency.

Prior to Celiz’s “expose”, Lt. General Antonio Parlade, Southern Luzon Command (Solcom) chief and ranking official of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELAC), was in the news drawing widespread condemnation for his controversial remarks against female showbiz and beauty celebrities Liza Soberano, Angel Locsin and Catriona Gray.

Celiz’s decision to come out in the open drew different reactions from his friends and foes.

 

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THE new U.S. president won’t be known yet on November 3, the Election Day. In fact, there are fears here today that reelectionist President Donald Trump (who apparently doesn’t believe in losing) might declare victory (Tuesday night, November 3 U.S. time) if he will lead in the swing states.

This would be a tense moment for American democracy; this will test the resolve of America.

It will be the Electoral College that will elect the president. Here’s summary of how the Electoral College will work in the 2020 presidential election:

Nov. 3, 2020: Election Day, when voters in each state will select their presidential electors. The names of electors are not on the ballot in most states. Rather, when a voter casts a vote for a presidential candidate, she or he is also casting a vote for the electors already selected by the party of that candidate. 

If a majority of voters in a state vote for the Republican candidate for president, the Republican slate of electors is elected. If a majority vote for the Democratic candidate, the Democratic slate of electors is chosen.

-o0o-

Dec. 8, 2020: Deadline for Resolving Election Disputes. All state recounts and court contests over presidential election results must be completed by this date. 

For the majority of states the date of certification is the same as for all contests, but in eight states there is a deadline that either directly references or uses similar language, requiring that disputes surrounding the selection of presidential electors be resolved in time to meet the “safe harbor” deadline: Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.  

Dec. 14, 2020: Meeting of the Electors. The electors meet in each state and cast their ballots for president and vice president. Each elector votes on his or her own ballot and signs it. 

The ballots are immediately transmitted to various people: one copy goes to the president of the U.S. Senate (who is also the vice president of the United States); this is the copy that will be officially counted later. 

Other copies go to the state's secretary of state, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the presiding judge in the district where the electors meet (this serves as a backup copy that would replace the official copy sent to the president of the Senate if it is lost or destroyed).

Dec. 23, 2020: Deadline for Receipt of Ballots. The electors' ballots from all states must be received by the president of the Senate by this date. There is no penalty for missing this deadline.

Jan. 6, 2021: Counting of the Electoral Ballots. The U.S. Congress meets in joint session to count the electoral votes.

Jan. 20, 2021: Inauguration Day.  

The president-elect becomes the president of the United States.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)

 

  

 

  

 

 

         

 

 

We must understand the electoral college

“I always lose the election in the polls, and I always win it on election day.” —Benjamin Netanyahu

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WE know that when we elect our president in the Philippines every six years, the candidate that garners the higher votes wins the presidency (Rodrigo Duterte secured 16,601,997 votes against Mar Roxas’ 9,978,175 votes in the 2016 general election).      

Also a vice presidential candidate even from another political party can win if he or she collects higher votes than his or her rivals. 

It is important that we must also understand how Americans elect their president and vice president, and why it’s the electoral college—not the popular votes—decides the winner of the U.S. presidential election.  

Unlike the Filipinos who cast their votes for the candidates, the Americans are actually voting for a representative of the candidate’s party known as “elector” when they cast their ballots for the U.S. president.

On behalf of the people in their state, there are 538 electors who then vote for the president. They comprise the electoral college.

Based on the number of congressional districts they have, each state is assigned a certain number of these electoral votes, plus two additional votes representing the state’s Senate seats. 

And despite having no voting representation in Congress, Washington DC is also assigned three electoral votes.

A majority of 270 of these votes is needed to win the presidency.

The process of nominating electors varies by state and by party, but is generally done one of two ways. 

 

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Political parties either choose electors at their national conventions, or they are voted for by the party’s central committee ahead of the election.

The U.S. electoral college nearly always operates with a winner-takes-all system, in which the candidate with the highest number of votes in a state claims all of that state’s electoral votes. 

In 2016, for example, Donald Trump of Republican Party defeated Hillary Clinton of Democratic Party in Florida by a margin of just 2.2 percent, but that meant Trump claimed all 29 of Florida’s crucial electoral votes.

Such small margins in a handful of key swing states meant that, regardless of Clinton’s national vote lead, Trump was able to clinch victory in several swing states and therefore win more electoral college votes.

According to the The Guardian U.S. edition writers Helena Robertson, Ashley Kirk and Frank Hulley-Jones, former Vice President Joseph Biden could face the same hurdle on November 3, meaning he will need to focus his attention on a handful of battleground states to win the presidency.

There seems to have an unequal distribution of electoral votes.

The writers explained that while the number of electoral votes a state is assigned somewhat reflects its population, the minimum of three votes per state means that the relative value of electoral votes varies across America.

“The least populous states like North and South Dakota and the smaller states of New England are overrepresented because of the required minimum of three electoral votes. Meanwhile, the states with the most people – California, Texas and Florida – are underrepresented in the electoral college,” they explained.

“Wyoming has one electoral college vote for every 193,000 people, compared with California’s rate of one electoral vote per 718,000 people. This means that each electoral vote in California represents over three times as many people as one in Wyoming. These disparities are repeated across the country.”

 

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Experts have warned that, after returning two presidents that got fewer votes than their opponents since 2000, the electoral college is flawed.

In 2000, Al Gore won over half a million more votes than George Bush, yet Bush became president after winning Florida by just 537 votes. 

In all, the US reportedly has had five presidents who lost the overall popular vote but won the election.

Professor George Edwards III, at Texas A&M University, said: “The electoral college violates the core tenet of democracy, that all votes count equally and allows the candidate finishing second to win the election. Why hold an election if we do not care who received the most votes?

“At the moment, the electoral college favors Republicans because of the way Republican votes are distributed across the country. They are more likely to occur in states that are closely divided between the parties.”

Under the winner-takes-all system, the margin of victory in a state becomes irrelevant. 

In 2016, Clinton’s substantial margins in states such as California and New York failed to earn her enough electoral votes, while close races in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Michigan took Trump over the 270 majority.

 

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As candidates easily win the electoral votes of their solid states, the election plays out in a handful of key battlegrounds, the writers stressed.

They explained: “In 2016, Trump won six such states—Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin—adding 99 electoral votes to his total. The demographics of these states differ from the national average. They are older, have more white voters without college degrees, and often have smaller non-white populations. These characteristics generally favor Republicans, and made up the base of Trump’s votes in 2016.”

They recalled that  67 percent of non-college-educated white people voted for Trump in 2016. 

In all six swing states, this demographic is reportedly “overrepresented by at least six percentage points more than the national average.”

The writers fear that “the current system is also vulnerable to distorted outcomes through actions such as gerrymandering. This practice involves precisely redrawing the borders of districts to concentrate support in favor of a party. The result being abnormally shaped districts that disenfranchise certain groups of voters.”

An amendment that would replace the college with a direct national popular vote is reportedly seen by many today as the fairest electoral system.

According to Professor Edwards III, “There is only one appropriate way to elect the president: add up all the votes and declare the candidate receiving the most votes the winner.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)

 

‘Ayusin mo ang pananalita mo’

“Political debate is of no interest to me. What I want are practical solutions.”

—Carole Bouquet

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WITH more than a week to go before the U.S. Presidential Election on November 3, I missed the regular “fireworks” in my Elmhurst neighborhood for five straight days over the week; but when I came back on Saturday night (October 17), I got lucky to have a ringside eye-witness account of the ongoing heated verbiage among passionate senior members of the Pinoy community in this diverse section of the borough of Queens with a population of two million and three hundred inhabitants in New York City.

The area where the pro-Donald Trump and pro-Joseph Biden joust among the politically inclined Filipinos has been taking place for five weeks now, is in the intersection of the Elmhurst and Broadway Avenues, a 10-minute walk from where I live. 

I’ve been a regular “attendee” and “eye witness” at the same time.

“I’m so pissed off with my friends in Astoria. Akalain mo may isa doon nilapitan ako may importante daw siyang sasabihin. Yun pala e coconvince lang ako na ‘mag democratic tayo ha.’ Sabi ko ano akala mo sa akin batang mosmos na puede’ng ma uto? Bakit wala ba kong sariling pag iisip?” boom Marcelino, 66, a confessed fanatic of President Trump, who “jumped ship” as a seaman in 1998.

 

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“May katwiran naman ang kaibigan mo. Based sa trend ngayon matatalo na talaga si Trump. Halos lahat ng mga swing states bumaligtad na for Biden,” gushed Josito, 68, who became a U.S. citizen during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. “As of this morning naka 15 points na ang lamang ni Biden. Mahirap na ma reverse yan.”

“Yun ang paniniwala nila,” Marcelino snapped back. “Ang mga media lang ang nagsasabi niyan. Mga liberal-controlled and corrupt media. Lalo na ang NBC, MSNBC at CNN mga fake news.”

Marcelino said he believed the Republican votes will “overwhelm” the polling centers during election day on November 3. 

“History will repeat itself. What happened in 2016 (when Mr. Trump defeated Mrs. Hillary Clinton) will happen again this year,” Marcelino predicted. “Napaka tanga mo naman kung boboto ka pa kay Biden. Hindi ka na naawa sa Amerika. Parang wala ka nang utang na loob sa Amerika,” barked Marcelino, while looking at Augusto, 72, a retired clerk at Middlesex county’s Camden city in New Jersey.

Visibly irked, Augusto, holding a cane, ribbed Marcelino in a hoarse voice: “Hindi na maganda ang panlalait mo ha. Ilang bisis na yan. Ayusin mo ang pananalita mo.”

 

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Augusto had voted in the past for Democratic presidential candidates Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Mrs. Clinton.

He considers Michael Dukakis, a 1988 Democratic presidential candidate who lost to Republican’s George H.W. Bush, to be “one of the most brilliant presidents the United States never had.”

At this juncture, the more calm and moderate Alberto, 63, intervened. “Let’s respect na lang the political choices of one another.”

Alberto, married to his second wife Lolit from Bayawan City, Negros Oriental in the Philippines, said he, too, had an “intense” disagreement with his first wife, a nurse who abandoned him, about politics but he never took it personally.

“Kung papatulan ko ang Marcelino na ‘yan baka mag away pa kami. Dada siya ng dada puro pabor kay Trump eh hindi ba niya naisip na halos lahat ng mga tao sa paligid nia puro Democrats?” Alberto intoned.

Chito, 46, a hospital worker from Leyte and one of the four Republican sympathizers in the crowd, sustained Marcelino: “Kung ako ang tatanungin, si Trump talaga ang dapat manalo. Okay sabi nila racist si Trump. Doon na tayo, but ang titingnan natin dito ay kung sino ang may mas magaling na plata porma; sino ang may mas mahusay na programs. Kung kay Biden tayo babagsak ang economiya ng Amerika. China will laugh at us. As an economist, Trump is good for Amerika.”

 

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“Tama si Chito,” quipped Mang Pepeng, 82, a former gunrunner from Nueva Ecija in the 70s. “Ang sa akin lang tumaas ang Dow Jones ng umupo si Trump. We need Trump to rescue our economy. Eh p_tang ina’ng mga Democrats na ‘yan pati ang BLM (Black Lives Matter) ginawa pa nilang mga heroes.”

Rainer, 70, a diabetic patient who moves around in a walker, enthused: “The issue is not only about racism and who has the better economic programs for America. We must also look at the issue on health care. Tingnan ninyo ang proposal ni Biden to expand the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Biden wants to increase marketplace subsidies, adopt auto-enrollment, and offer a new public option available to those in the individual market or with employer coverage.”

Rainer, who also once tangled with Marcelino when he refused to junk Mr. Biden for Mr. Trump, explained that Biden’s plan “would also reduce the Medicare age from 65 to 60, establish a new long-term care tax credit, and increase funding for rural health and mental health services.”

Biden has promised to enact reforms to reduce prescription drug prices, lower other health care costs, and raise taxes on capital gains and ordinary income for high earner and heirs to the to finance the cost of his plan, Rainer explained before he became the first person in the group to leave.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)

 

 

 

We were wrong in 2016

“I've been wrong on everything about Trump; I've been wrong about everything on the Republican side of the ledger. But allow me - with that caveat - to made the prediction that Donald Trump will not be the president of the United States. It just will not happen.”

—Cory Booker

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WE were wrong to predict a Hillary Clinton victory in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.

No one can fault us. 

Inside the media center at the Hyatt New York in midtown Manhattan two days before the election, all the discussions and analysis by top U.S. officials we attended focused on “how” and “why” the wife of former President Bill Clinton would be the next president of the most powerful country in the world.

All the polls showed the former female U.S. state secretary was way ahead and only a few foreign press representatives there entertained the idea Republican Party candidate Donald Trump defeating Mrs. Clinton, a vastly popular and darling of the Democratic Party.

It was the 58th quadrennial American presidential election held on November 8, 2016. 

To the big horror of many American and foreign media representatives, the Republican ticket of businessman Trump and Indiana Governor Mike Pence demolished the Democratic ticket of Mrs. Clinton and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine.

 

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Mrs. Clinton received about 2.9 million more votes nationwide, a margin of 2.1 percent of the total cast, while Mr. Trump pocketed a victory in the Electoral College, winning 30 states with 306 pledged electors out of 538, and overturned the perennial swing states of Florida, Iowa and Ohio, as well as the "blue wall" of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which had been Democratic strongholds in presidential elections since the 1990s. 

Leading up to the election, a Trump victory was projected unlikely by most media forecasts for straight one week prior to the election day.

Issues during the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election were: Health care costs, economic inequality, terrorism, foreign policy (Russia, Iran, Syria, Brexit), gun control, treatment of minorities, immigration policy, shifting media landscape; one of only five elections (1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, 2016) where the popular vote winner was defeated; and

Hillary Clinton first female presidential nominee of a major political party.

 

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Mrs. Clinton won Maine but Mr. Trump earned an electoral vote by winning the popular vote in the 2nd Congressional District. This marked the first time that Maine has split its electoral vote since it moved away from the winner-take-all method in 1972.

Independent Evan McMullin received 21.5 percent of the vote in Utah; best '3rd party' performance in any single state since Ross Perot in 1992

Libertarian Gary Johnson received over 3 percent of the nationwide vote; best 3rd party performance nationwide since Ross Perot in 1996

There were seven faithless presidential electors. Aside from 1872– death of Horace Greeley—it is the greatest number since electors began casting one vote each for president and vice president (12th Amendment, 1804). Three additional faithless votes, one each in Colorado, Maine and Minnesota, were disallowed.

Mrs. Clinton won Washington; however three electors cast votes for Colin Powell, one for Faith Spotted Eagle; Mr. Trump won Texas; however one elector cast a vote for Ron Paul, another for John Kasich

Mr. Clinton won Hawaii; however one elector cast a vote for Senator Bernie Sanders.

There are early signs that a repeat of the 2016 election might happen on November 3, 2020, but former Vice President Joseph Biden’s lead in almost all the major polls conducted weeks before November 3 showed that it will be an uphill climb for reelectionist President Trump—“unless a miracle will happen.”

Mr. Biden is currently leading Donald Trump in the national polls. Currently, the 10-poll average indicates that just over half of Americans intend to back Mr. Biden while Mr. Trump’s support trails this by around five or six points.

We hope we are correct this time.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)