Kamala Trump and Donald Harris

“Winning or losing of the election is less important than strengthening the country.”

-Indira Gandhi

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

NO clear winner yet. At least this is how the recent national polls were saying although we have been emphasizing that the US presidential race won’t be decided by popularity votes, but by race to 270 electoral college votes.

Because several most recent national polling showed the US presidential race between the Republican and Democrat candidates are deadlocked at 48 percent apiece with eight days to go before the November 5 election, the next American president could be either “Kamala Trump” or “Donald Harris.”

No one can tell until the fat lady sings, so to speak.

Former President Donald Trump, who trailed by two percent in September, was bolstered by Republicans coming back home to support him after last month’s rough debate and a subsequent polling deficit, as well as by a favorable voter assessment of his term as president, according to NBC News.

The findings of a new survey released three weeks before Election Day also showed Vice President Kamala Harris’ popularity declined compared to a month ago after she got a big summertime boost; a massive gender gap between support for Harris and Trump; and voters viewing abortion as a top motivating issue heading into the 2024 vote.

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Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster BillMclnturff, said, “As summer has turned to fall, any signs of momentum for Kamala Harris have stopped. The race is a dead heat.”

NBC News quoted McInturff as saying, “headwinds” for Harris have helped narrow the presidential contest, including concerns that the vice president doesn’t represent change from President Joe Biden and voters seeing Trump’s presidency in a more positive light than Biden’s.

“She is asking for another term from the incumbent party,” McInturff said of Harris.

In the new poll conducted Oct. 4-8 Harris reportedly got support from 48 percent of registered voters in a head-to-head matchup, while Trump got an identical 48 percent.

Another 4 percent said they were undecided or wouldn’t vote for either option when forced to choose between those two major-party candidates.

Forbes has reported that pre-debate surveys found Harris’ polling surge appeared to plateau, including a NPR/PBS/Marist survey of registered voters taken Sept. 3-5 that showed Harris leading Trump 49 percent to 48 percent, down from a three-point lead in August. Most post-debate surveys showed the majority of respondents believed Harris won the debate, but not enough to significantly impact the horserace between the two.

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A New York Times/Siena poll of likely voters released Sept. 19 found the majority of voters in every demographic gave positive reviews of Harris’ Sept. 10 debate performance, with 67 percent overall saying she did well, compared to 40 percent who said the same about Trump. Harris was up 52 percent-46 percent among likely voters and 51 percent-47 percent among registered voters in an ABC News/Ipsos poll taken days following the debate on Sept. 11-13, essentially unchanged from her six-point leads with likely voters in late August and early August ABC/Ipsos surveys—even though 63 percent of Americans said Harris won the debate.

President Joseph ”Joe” Biden Jr. dropped out of the race on July 21 after resisting calls from within his own party for weeks to end his reelection bid in the wake of his disastrous performance in the June 27 debate.

He immediately endorsed Harris and she announced plans to seek the nomination. The party quickly coalesced around her, with 99% of Democratic delegates voting to officially nominate her in a virtual roll call prior to the Democratic National Convention in August. Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, weeks after Trump announced Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his pick for vice president.

ABC News hosted the first debate between Harris and Trump on Sept. 10 from Philadelphia. Harris’ rise in polls is coupled with an increase in Democratic enthusiasm for the election, which has nearly doubled since Harris’ entrance into the race, from 46 percent in June to 85 percent now, while enthusiasm among Republicans has stayed stagnant at 71 percent, according to a Monmouth University poll released Aug. 14.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jamjam and Raisa: bedfellows that avert a political bloodbath

“Turn on to politics, or politics will turn on you.”

—Ralph Nader

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

AFTER October 8, 2024–when it became clear that Iloilo City Rep. Julienne “Jamjam” Baronda and former City Hall Executive Assistant Raisa Maria Lourdes Treñas-Chu wouldn’t clash in the midterm elections on May 12, 2025, hostilities between the two camps should have stopped. 

But it didn’t. It wouldn’t. Supporters of both parties continued to release antagonistic forays both in the mainstream and social media as if the ladies are scheduled in the main event to dispute the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight title.

Mrs. Treñas-Chu’s decision to run for city mayor actually averted what could have been a murky rivalry between her and Baronda, who had been sharpening her knives silently for a one-on-one duel in defense of her congressional post.

It turned out they both ended up signing a “unity” statement, a gripping development that sent confusion and consternation to both their impassioned admirers, but helped defuse whatever tension that threatened to escalate in frightening proportion in the campaign period.

With no real threat of invasion from the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Lombards, and Burgundians, it appears they are both headed to landslide victories respectively in the mayoral and congressional races.

 

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And if Baronda’s younger sister, Love, will upset Vice Mayor Jeffrey Ganzon, it will be the first time that Iloilo City will have the “Three Marias” occupying the top three elective positions—congresswoman, city mayor, vice mayor.

And they are all below 50s—fresh, idealistic, incorruptible, oozing with charisma and exuberance to serve the Ilonggos (with due respect to Vice Mayor Ganzon and Roland Magahin, Mrs. Treñas-Chu’s lone “rival”).

Even before their much-ballyhooed “unity”, Baronda and Mrs. Treñas-Chu weren’t known to have directly used high-powered hardwares to empty their bullets against each other.

In fact, neither of them carried machine guns; they never fired a single shot aimed toward each other. There was no reason whatsoever to conceal a hatchet.

Both their social media accounts haven’t yielded explosive substances aimed at shattering each other to pieces. 

Thus, it wasn’t hard for both ladies to swallow their pride and pretend there was no enmity between the Treñas and Baronda clans and that they were always open for any political collaboration if they could avoid marching to the war zones.

If Ilonggos have seen the Polaris and Voyevoda missiles in the skies, they were unleashed by defenders and flamethrowers of both Baronda and Mrs. Treñas-Chu’s father, Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas, not by Baronda and Mrs. Treñas-Chu themselves.

The sustained hardline attacks emanate from supporters who have no love lost for the manifesto of “unity” signed between Baronda and Mrs. Treñas-Chu and not from the candidates themselves.

 

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SAVING OUR PLANET: Don't dispose. Instead of disposable dishcloths that have to be thrown away and replaced every few weeks, let's choose cotton cloths. They will stand the test of time and can be washed and reused for many months.

US ELECTION. The U.S. presidential election on November 5 will be decided by the Electoral College. It is not a physical place but a process which includes the selection of electors, meeting of electors who cast votes for the president and vice president, and counting of the electors’ votes by Congress. In other U.S. elections, candidates are elected directly by popular vote. But the president and vice president are not elected directly by citizens. Instead, they are chosen through the Electoral College process. The process of using electors comes from the Constitution. It was a compromise between a popular vote by citizens and a vote in Congress.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)

A daughter can’t say no to an ailing father

“One of the greatest gifts I've ever gotten is my daughter.”

—Ace Frehley

By Alex P. Vidal

 

EVEN if she didn’t want to be a candidate for Iloilo City mayor, Raisa Treñas-Chu couldn’t say no to her father, Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas.

Even if she didn’t need the highest elective position in Iloilo City, Mrs. Treñas-Chu couldn’t reject the wishes of an ailing dad.

What kind of daughter is Mrs. Treñas-Chu if she goes against the decision of a sick father who wants his daughter to inherit the Office of the City Mayor, perhaps, as his paramount desire and legacy before permanently “disappearing” from the Ilonggos’ political consciousness?

Before his health allegedly deteriorated this year, the 67-year-old city mayor, enjoying the canine loyalty of the entire local legislative body, was still itching to run for reelection in 2025, rooting for Mrs. Treñas-Chu to run for congress lock, stock, and barrel.

This was the crux of Treñas’ uneventful rift with Iloilo City lone district Rep. Julienne “Jamjam” Baronda, who nearly gave Treñas a heart attack by refusing to relinquish her post to pave the way for Mrs. Treñas-Chu without firing a single shot.

 

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Only when he was hospitalized anew and couldn’t file his Certificate of Candidacy (CoC) for reelection that Treñas must’ve realized his daughter’s quest for congress was doomed after being uncharacteristically orphaned by his sudden exit.

Without his direct tutelage, a congressional aspirant Mrs. Treñas-Chu would be susceptible for bloody ambush. The handwritings were fully and digitally written on the walls of Jericho: Raisa lagged behind by a mile in many reputable surveys.

To avert a catastrophe, the embattled daughter had to divert her flight—with full illustration and direction from the terrified dad.

As a result of being thrusted into an unfamiliar territory where bareknuckle street fighting is the name of the game, Mrs. Treñas-Chu was forced to absorb roundhouse kicks and lethal uppercuts from her dad’s political adversaries and the critical press.

In the first place, nobody knows from the very beginning if Mrs. Treñas-Chu was really interested in politics. Was the optional or “final” decision to run for city mayor what she really wanted?

What if deep inside in her heart and mind, all that Mrs. Treñas-Chu really wanted was to be out of politics, be left alone and escape from the constant barrage of negative verbiages that have disturbed her once peaceful life?

 

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Everything we have learned, so far, was that daddy wanted to recruit the daughter—by hook or by crook—in the formative dynastic skeletal system that would dominate and tighten up the family grip in Iloilo City politics for the years to come.

What the Ilonggos have been blithely seeing is a totally obedient daughter performing a sugar-coated political act in public at the behest of an emphatic father.

We may not have realized that politics has created some serious conflicts and ill will in many families with predilection to dynasty. Women who detest politics could be more likely than men to feel this way, which can work against family harmony.

Many dads and daughters are likely to be caught up in family storms on these rough political seas during election season.

Without Mrs. Treñas-Chu’s categorical or independently prepared pronouncement where she is able to speak out her own mind to express what she really wants for her own life and career, we can’t rule out the Treñas family as exempted from this brewing storm.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo City.—Ed)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sara Duterte has the ‘right’ to say it

“Freedom of speech is a human right and the foundation upon which democracy is built. Any restriction of freedom of speech is a restriction upon democracy.”

— Deeyah Khan

By Alex P. Vidal

 

I MAY not agree with what Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio declared in her recent very controversial press conference, but I will defend to death her right to say it.

The vice president’s right, as well as the right of any Filipino to free speech, is a fundamental right protected by Article III, Section 4 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

When she said “gusto kong tanggalin yung ulo nia ba” (I want to cut off his head) referring ostensibly to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., she was expressing a personal opinion.

An opinion can’t be a crime; it can’t be suppressed in a democratic state unless done directly to inflict real and present harm and instigate rebellion or topple the duly constituted government.

It’s unpalatable if a free speech is abused by shouting “fire” inside a crowded movie house.

It’s real time macabre if she proceeded to Malacanang and went straight inside the president’s bedroom and chopped Mr. Marcos Jr.’s head off with a bolo.

This would surpass the Sherlock Holmes and The Silence of the Lambs episodes.

 

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It would be a different story if the vice president egged, led, aided, financed, or encouraged the people to cut off somebody’s head or, in this scenario, the head of the highest elected official of the country. A crime is being suggested to be committed here; or, a crime is about to be committed.

“Gusto ko” (I want to) may not be the “gusto mo or niyo rin (also what you want to). “Gusto ko” (I want to) is not “let’s go cut off someone’s head or let’s do it.”

Action always speaks louder than words. Words, on the other hand, don’t drill holes in the skin. And there are words that don’t translate into action; words are sometimes the byproduct of emotional or mental outbursts.

Of course we don’t condone what Inday Sara (Vice President Duterte-Carpio) had said. Never. No way.

Despite her anger and emotional anguish, it was still better if she acted or expressed her beef with her estranged political friend with decorum.

 

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The vice president’s threat to “dig up your father’s remains and throw (them) into the West Philippine Sea” (referring to the remains of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos Jr buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani or Heroes’ Cemetery) if the purported attacks against the Duterte family didn’t stop surely sounded bizarre and sickening, but it’s an expression. It can be interpreted as figure of speech.

Using a simple logic and imagination, not even superman or any cartoon character hero can singlehandedly dig, transfer, transport and throw away any cadaver even in the Pasig or Iloilo River without being mobbed and manacled in the gates of a cemetery.

If Mrs. Duterte-Carpio will next go to the cemetery and literally implement her threats, it’s really a problem and that’s her problem.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

   

 

‘Every man is guilty of the good he did not do’

By Alex P. Vidal

 

ONE of Voltaire’s astonishing satires first published in 1759 that propelled the French novelist to heights during the Age of Enlightenment, is Candide.

A friend, who claims to be deist or believer of the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe, wanted to emphasize that religion does not necessarily make someone a moral or an ethical person.

It’s from my friend’s story about Candide that I learned the deeply practical precept, “let’s cultivate our own garden” which I have enormously used in some of my articles to refer to self reliance and initiative.

It’s actually a Leibnizian mantra popularized by Pangloss, Candide’s professor, which is “all is for the best”.

Leibniz was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a German polymath and philosopher who occupies a prominent place in the history of mathematics and the history of philosophy.

An illegitimate nephew of a German baron, Candide grew up in the baron’s castle under the tutelage of Professor Pangloss.

 

BEST

 

It was from Pangloss that he leared about “the best of all possible worlds.”

The baron had a young daughter, Cunegonde, and Candide fell in love with her.

Candide was expelled from the castle when the baron caught them kissing.

Having been conscripted into the army of the Bulgars, Candide wandered away from the camp for a brief walk, and was brutally flogged as a deserter.

He escaped to Holland after witnessing a horrific battle where he was taken care of by Jacques. He soon met a deformed beggar who turned out to be Pangloss.

Sick with syphilis, Pangloss told Candide that Cunegonde and her family had been brutally massacred by the Bulgars.

He brought Pangloss to Jacques and they traveled to Lisbon. On their way, the ship was whipped by a storm and Jacques was drowned.

Candide and Pangloss survived, but when they arrrived, Lisbon was in ruins after being hit by an earthquake. It was also under the control of Inquisition.

 

HERETIC

 

Pangloss was hanged as a heretic, and Candide was flogged for listening with approval to Pangloss’s philosophy. After his beating, an old woman dressed Candide’s wounds and then, to his astonishment, took him to Cunegonde.

Though the Bulgar army killed the rest of her family, Cunegonde narrated that she was merely raped and then captured by a captain, who sold her to a Jew named Don Isaachar.

She became a sex slave jointly owned by Don Isaachar and the Grand Inquisitor of Lisbon. Each of Cunegonde’s two owners arrived in turn as she and Candide were talking, and Candide killed them both.

Candide, the old woman, and Cunegonde fled and boarded a ship bound for South America. During their journey, the old woman shared her own story that she was born the Pope’s daughter but has suffered a litany of misfortunes that included rape, enslavement, and cannibalism.

Candide and Cunegonde planned to marry, but as soon as they arrived in Buenos Aires, the governor, Don Fernando, proposed to Cunegonde.

She accepted Don Fernando, as she was thinking of her own financial welfare.

 

PORTUGAL

 

Authorities looking for the murderer of the Grand Inquisitor arrived from Portugal in pursuit of Candide. Along with a newly acquired valet named Cacambo, Candide fled to territory controlled by Jesuits who are revolting against the Spanish government.

After demanding an audience with a Jesuit commander, Candide discovers that the commander was Cunegonde’s brother, the baron, who also managed to escape from the Bulgars. Candide announced that he wanted to marry Cunegonde, but the baron insisted that his sister would never marry a commoner. Enraged, Candide killed the baron with his sword and escaped into the wilderness together with Cacambo, where they narrowly avoided being eaten by a native tribe called the Biglugs.

Candide and Cacambo found themselves in the land of Eldorado, where gold and jewels litter the streets, after traveling for days. This utopian country has advanced scientific knowledge, no religious conflict, no court system, and placed no value on its plentiful gold and jewels. But Candide longed to return to Cunegonde, and after a month in Eldorado he and Cacambo departed with countless invaluable jewels loaded onto swift pack sheep.

 

SURINAME

 

When they reached the territory of Suriname, Candide sent Cacambo to Buenos Aires with instructions to use part of the fortune to purchase Cunegonde from Don Fernando and then to meet him in Venice. An unscrupulous merchant named Vanderdendur stole much of Candide’s fortune, dampening his optimism somewhat. Candide sailed off to France with a specially chosen companion, an unrepentantly pessimistic scholar named Martin. On the way there, he recovered part of his fortune when a Spanish captain sank Vanderdendur’s ship. Candide took this as proof that there is justice in the world, but Martin staunchly disagreed.

Candide and Martin mingled with the social elite in Paris. Candide’s fortune attracted a number of hangers-on, several of whom succeeded in filching jewels from him. Candide and Martin proceeded to Venice, where, to Candide’s dismay, Cunegonde and Cacambo were nowhere to be found.

However, they did encounter other colorful individuals there, including Paquette, the chambermaid-turned-prostitute who gave Pangloss syphilis, and Count Pococurante, a wealthy Venetian who was hopelessly bored with the cultural treasures that surrounded him. Eventually, Cacambo, now a slave of a deposed Turkish monarch, surfaced, explaining that Cunegondewas in Constantinople, having herself been enslaved along with the old woman. Martin, Cacambo, and Candide departed for Turkey, where Candide bought Cacambo’s freedom.

 

 SURVIVE

 

Candide discovered Pangloss and the baron in a Turkish chain gang. Both have actually survived their apparent deaths and, after suffering various misfortunes, arrived in Turkey. Despite everything, Pangloss remained an optimist. An overjoyed Candide bought their freedom, and he and his growing retinue went on to find Cunegonde and the old woman.

Cunegonde has grown ugly since Candide last saw her, but he bought her freedom anyway. He also purchased the old woman’s freedom and purchased a farm outside of Constantinople. He kept his longstanding promise to marry Cunegonde, but only after being forced to send the baron, who still cannot abide his sister marrying a commoner, back to the chain gang. Candide, Cunegonde, Cacambo, Pangloss, and the old woman settled into a comfortable life on the farm but soon find themselves growing bored and quarrelsome.

Candide finally encountered a farmer who lived a simple life, worked hard, and avoided vice and leisure who inspired them.

Candide and his friends took to cultivating a garden in earnest. All their time and energy went into the work, and none was left over for philosophical speculation. At last everyone was fulfilled and happy.