"No Kings Day" in San Jose, California, on 18 October, 2025

More than 10,000 of us San Joseans gathered in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, October 18, 2025, to protest Donald Trump’s authoritarian presidency. I saw Americans from all walks of life and representing all age groups, from babies in strollers under the loving care of their parents to children, students, working moms and dads and veterans in wheelchairs to a 105-year-old woman with a walker and holding a sign that read, “I am 105 and striving to survive worst president since I’ve been alive!”

Downtown San Jose resonated with our irreverent, vigorous voices demanding the rule of law, an end to immigration raids, mass government layoffs, deep budget cuts for essential services, and Trump's illegal use of the power of the federal government against his political and legal adversaries. 

One poster summed up the reason why we were protesting, along with our fellow Americans, estimated at 7 million, roughly one for every 50 Americans, in 2,700 cities and towns across all fifty "Red" and "Blue" states and beyond: “Democracy dies when good people stay silent.”

We met at noon at St. James Park, and after about 45 minutes of full-throated slogans denouncing Trump, we walked through the busy streets of downtown San Jose, including in front of City Hall, supported by loud honks from motorists passing by. Smiling and friendly policemen guided us along our route to keep the rally orderly and prevent traffic jams.

Authoritarianism and fascism are on the rise throughout the world as a democratic recession takes hold. In the United States, the rule of law is vanishing as Trump bends the judiciary to his will, supported by a genuflecting Republican Party. There is no independent judiciary anymore. Threats against the right to speak and assemble freely, undermining higher institutions of learning through threats and blackmail, and the unethical grab of power by all three branches of government, dictated by Trump, are crippling our country.

On this “No Kings Day," we were asserting our rights to get our rights back from Trump’s blatant assault on the Constitution. He has deployed U.S. troops in our cities to round up people he deems undesirable, including American citizens.

Democracies do not die from without but from within. Today’s “No Kings Day" is proof that we will not let our democracy die from within, no matter how powerful Trump and the Republican Party may think they are. More than the Constitution and the rule of law, it is the ideas of liberty, freedom and democracy embedded in our hearts that are the most powerful weapons against authoritarianism and fascism.

What heartened me today in the beautiful and diverse city of San Jose was the sense of unity and duty that bound us together, participating in a march that was peaceful and family friendly The signs and props told the story more eloquently than any journalistic reporting could. Here are some:

“My dad fought fascism. So do I!”  “No troops on our streets.”  “Reject Fascism.”  “My dad was Antifa. The only one who called him a traitor was Hitler.” “Immigrants and slaves built America.” “Hate won’t make America great.” “The power of the people is stronger than people in power.” And, of course, the ubiquitous “No kings in America.”

Tyrants and dictators fear satire and parody because they reveal their weakness and emptiness. Comedians speak truth to power and so become thorns in their sides. Some signs - tactical frivolity and cosplay - played on this truth:

“Give us liber-tea. Hold the ICE.”

An elderly lady held this sign: “The only orange monarch I want.” Underneath was the picture of a monarch butterfly.

“Dear great pumpkin, please do something
about your evil cousin.”

“No kings. Only Burger King.”

A little girl wanted the world to know she was not being paid to participate in the "No Kings Day" rally.

A dire warning from a person who will not allow anyone to arrest him without due process.

And this sign affixed to a stroller from which is peering a baby girl: “A woman’s place is in the resistance.” 

I was touched by two women with this sign on their T-shirts, front and back, to help any diabetic patients in the rally if needed.

A smiling San Jose policeman keeps protesters safe

while ensuring a smooth traffic flow.

Lady Liberty lifts her lamp in the Golden State.

Inflatable frog ensemble, anyone?

There will be more rallies and demonstrations across America against Trump in the coming days as his illegal grab for power becomes more brazen. Any American concerned about the fate of democracy and of a government of the people, by the people, for the people, not perishing from our beloved country, needs to participate. Silence translates to support for Trump. Every time I participate in these rallies, I feel connected to something larger than myself. It is a transcendent feeling that makes life worth living. If you have held back until now, it is not too late. Mark your calendar for the next rally in a city near you, and join. The transcendent feeling you experience will inspire and empower you and connect you to the foundational values that made America.

A Wannabe Neologist Proposes Some Needed Words

A language is like a tree. New words are fresh leaves that sprout in spring. Arcane or rarely used words are dying leaves that trees shed to make room for growth.

It’s always spring for wannabe neologists (someone who coins new words), their urge to conjure words as propulsive and purposeful as sap rising in a tree.

With that as context, and in the belief that they reflect the zeitgeist, here are ten words I humbly submit for possible acceptance into the language in due time. If even one sees the light of day … well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The only thing I will say is that these coinages are from me and not from any algorithm, AI-driven or otherwise.

1. edunada

Noun - A teacher continuing to teach way past his or her prime.

(Justification: Teachers, mostly in their 70s, 80s, and even 90s, are damaging, sometimes even destroying, the lives of students with their rambling, senseless lectures and cringe-inducing styles. It is high time that the tenure system protecting such teachers is abolished, given the incalculable harm done to future generations. By hanging around, these edunadas also prevent young, gifted teachers from entering the teaching profession.)

“Edunadas shouldn’t even be allowed on campus if we value the mental health and academic progress of our students.”

2. xreaper

Noun - A student who equates algebra with death.

(Justification: One objective of algebra is to solve for the unknown ‘x’ (not to be confused with a social media platform formerly known as Twitter) in an equation. In my years of teaching math, I have witnessed how ‘x’ can terrorize some students. For them, algebra is like coming face-to-face with the Grim Reaper.)

“After tutoring an xreaper for months, I finally managed to rid him of his irrational fear of algebra.”

3. hollowchili

Noun - Someone who talks big but has no work ethic and is going nowhere.

(Justification: We encounter this type frequently these days, the hollowchilis who mesmerize us with grandiose plans to save the world but have no capacity for even a day’s worth of hard work. Lazy to the bone and worse than blowhards.)

“Puncturing the balloon of a hollowchili is a service to humanity.”

4. eelpeel

Noun - A thought that nags you but slips away when you try to grasp it.

(Justification: As a fan of thrillers - books and movies - I find eelpeels where something important nags the sleuth but skitters away when she tries to catch it. Just when the ‘whodunit’ seems impossible to crack, the eelpeel surrenders and the mystery is solved. Slippery as an eel but once a layer is peeled off, there it is, the ‘obvious’ clue everyone missed.) 

“The detective felt an eelpeel she hoped would be the key to the mystery when grasped.”

5. dopadope

Noun - Anyone addicted to social media and online shopping and boasts about it.

(Justification: With a nod to Muhammad Ali’s rope-a-dope tactic when he leaned against the rope, allowing his opponent to flail away and exhaust himself. Ali then moved in to deliver the knockout punch. Social media and online shopping may release temporary dopamine but the result is always the same: dopamine seekers turn into dopes.)

“My dopadope friends are beginning to resemble zombies.”

6. holyhoot

Noun - Babies who are smarter than their parents.

(Justification: We see this phenomenon more and more, in cribs and corridors, homes and hospitals, parks and playgrounds. The mind-blowing foolishness of parents so stuns these smart babies, they forget even to cry.)

“The holyhoot rolled her eyes, stricken by the absurd actions of her parents.”

7. sadglow

Noun - Talented people who underestimate themselves and suffer indignities from stupid people who overestimate themselves.

(Justification: It’s heartbreaking to see clueless idiots lecturing sadglows who know vastly more but choose to suffer in silence. They should know that suffering fools in silence or even gladly is not a virtue but a vice.)

“My sadglow cousin finally put the family’s asinine loudmouths in their places.”

8. hodalkutkut

Noun - A singularly inept husband.

(Justification: Some husbands are unable to do the simplest manual tasks: Measure the height of a door to see if the furniture can come through without slipping and fracturing the hip; Fill up a birdbath with water without cracking it; Clean a cooking pan without permanently damaging it. They sometimes make wives wail like banshees. Some words suggest their meaning by the silly or strange way they are pronounced. This one belongs to that category.)

“Tell that hodalkutkut husband of yours you will drop him in the middle of the ocean from a helicopter unless he gets his act together, literally.”

9. bircue

Noun - A combination of biryani and barbecue to celebrate the holidays.

(Justification: Cuisines are undergoing a global fusion. Bircue is as simple as it gets. Place the aromatic combo of basmati rice, spicy meat and vegetable next to the familiar barbecue, eat the two together and exult.)

“May your July 4^th be a festive one with family, friends, fireworks and plenty of bircue.”

10. showshove

Noun - Murderous rage felt by a shoe salesperson unable to satisfy a client after countless fittings.

(Justification: This is a common scene from around the world wherever shoes are sold. An exhausted salesperson sits on the floor with at least twenty pairs of black, blue, brown, white and red shoes of various designs scattered around him. The smug lady dismisses one pair after another – too tight, wrong color, ugly looking – and nonchalantly orders the guy to fetch another pair while scrolling on her smartphone. Suddenly, for a few seconds, the mask of civility slips from his face, replaced by the cold-blooded look of a strangler. He tightens his grip around a shoe near his reach and counts. Alas, the fraught moments pass, the civility mask returns and the about-to-be strangler resumes his fruitless search for a pair that fits.)

“When interviewing a potential shoe salesperson, make sure he is not prone to showshove, even if it acts as a release in some situations.”

 

 

Civil Disobedience in 21st-Century America

Henry David Thoreau’s (1817-1862) essay "Civil Disobedience," written in 1849, made the convincing case that a person is morally obligated to disobey unjust laws of the land.

Thoreau’s exhortation has stood the test of time. He advocated fearlessness in the face of tyranny and injustice. The two issues that engaged him were the immorality of slavery and the war President James Polk waged against Mexico. 

Thoreau showed his courage by not paying taxes to the U.S. government. It landed him in jail, and even though it was only for a night, it helped make his point that unless one was true to one’s conscience and stood up for one’s principles, life was not worth living. As Thoreau wrote in Civil Disobedience, “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” He also wrote, “There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority were derived, and treats him accordingly.”

Two historical figures who continued Thoreau’s legacy, Gandhi in India (1869-1948) and Martin Luther King (MLK) in the United States (1929-1968), used nonviolent resistance to bring down the Colonial British Rule and expose the world to the cruelty and barbarity of racism, respectively.

These nonviolent movements were not driven by naive pacifists but by people fearless in their convictions, and even though violence was used against them in the most murderous way imaginable, the people prevailed in the end.

We face a similar situation in 21st-century America under President Trump, who has unleashed a vicious and violent assault on the foundational values and critical organizations of America, including the rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble and protest, funding basic research, revoking visas of and deporting international students from our campuses, instigating reckless trade wars, attacking healthcare, social security, climate change, environmental protection agency, national park service, national institutes of health, internal revenue service and many more.

Trump and his enforcers are not only deporting immigrants without due process of law, they are also abducting innocent Americans in broad daylight and locking them up in inhuman prisons here and abroad. Those who have seen videos of these abductions on social media are compelled to ask if America is turning into a failed republic where lawlessness rules under a despotic president whose thirst for vengeance and skill as an extortionist are visible to anyone without blinders.

Threat, intimidation, and divide and conquer are Trump’s weapons of choice. Several well-known but spineless law firms and cowardly universities like Columbia caved to Trump’s threats, surrendering their self-respect and principles to a president whose main goal in life is to ensure not only that the executive branch dominates and overwhelms the legislative and judicial branches but also unquestioningly his illegal commands.

Harvard, the world's leading university and 140 years older than the United States, forcefully said ‘no’ to Trump’s threats to dismantle departments promoting diversity and freeze federal funding. As Harvard president Alan M. Gerber said, "No government, regardless of which party is in power, should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which area of study they can pursue."

Other institutions should take a cue from Harvard, not sacrificing principles at the altar of expediency, when Trump and his arrogant acolytes threaten to curb academic freedom and hinder the quest for truth.

So, who will continue the legacy of MLK in 21^st-century America, the America of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Manhattan Project, to name only two awe-inspiring milestones from our history, and save our nation from Trump?

The two who currently offer a ray of hope are Bernie Sanders, the 83-year-old Independent senator from Vermont, and his 35-year-old Democratic protégé, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) of New York.

Recently, the two completed their “Fighting Oligarchy” Tour, comprising seven events in five days. The turnouts were exceptional, including deep-red states. About 150,000 Americans, angered by Trump's brazen abuse of the law, mass layoffs, the closing of humanitarian and essential services, and arbitrary deportations and abductions, attended. Los Angeles, California — 36,000; Coachella Valley, California — 35,000; Salt Lake City, Utah — 20,000; Nampa, Idaho — 12,500; Bakersfield, California — 4,450; Folsom, California — 30,000; and Missoula, Montana — 9,000.

What Sanders and AOC have demonstrated is that a majority of Americans are upset and angry with the reckless and destructive policies of Trump. They are eager to support worthy and competent leaders who can defeat Trump and the supine Republican Party in the midterms in 2026 and in the presidential election in 2028.

Americans have rejected the current, mostly old and feckless, Democratic leadership. They are looking for new, young Democrats with fresh ideas to take on Trump and the Republican Party. Ironically, an 83-year-old is drawing huge crowds, irrespective of party affiliations, to save America from Trump and his unelected and incompetent cronies. There’s a reason why. Bernie Sanders is not a prisoner of political correctness. He is fearlessly stating the truth, which is that America is turning into a cruel and lawless country under Trump. Unless we force a change in how our country is governed, this nation will degenerate into a kakistocracy and ultimately collapse. 

However, the stark truth is that Sanders is in the twilight of his career. An octogenarian has no chance whatsoever of becoming the next president. Same goes with AOC. She is young but Americans will not rally around a woman, especially one of color, to defeat Trump. That's the brutal reality. Democrats must field a young, white male with a reasonable reputation to take on Trump for a realistic chance of defeating him. 57-year-old Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, was a viable candidate but his recent bizarre podcasts with infamous right-wingers have diminished his prospects. He may recover but the field is open for the right Democratic candidates to emerge, hopefully in the next few months.

We have surmounted existential threats to America before, most notably a Civil War (1861-1865) that took almost 700,000 lives. What we need now is this: At least 5% of the United States population of 340 million, that is, 17 million Americans, must mobilize in all 50 States to defeat Trump and his unjust, inhuman, and immoral policies. Bernie Sanders and AOC are showing us how this can be done. The 50501 website ("Fifty Protests. 50 States. 1 Movement.") is one of the platforms we can use to mobilize across America.

May we awakened Americans do everything we can to save our nation from a dangerous demagogue through mass rallies, lawsuits, strikes, boycotts and other potent forms of protest, from sea to shining sea.

Retirement Reflections of a Community College Teacher

 

While lifelong learning is everyone's aspiration, time and age make lifelong teaching impossible. That being the case, I will retire as a Math Faculty member from San Jose City College at the end of the spring semester. After 15 years, I leave with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the opportunity to nurture eager knowledge seekers and see them bloom. Few things in life can equal the satisfaction of seeing students find their academic footing and face life with confidence and creativity.

I came to teaching late in life after spending three restless decades at various hi-tech companies in Silicon Valley. “An aim in life,” wrote Robert Louis Stevenson, “is the only fortune worth finding.” It is possible to go through an entire lifetime without finding one’s “fortune.” I am grateful I found mine after years of wandering in the technological wilderness.

Here are some personal observations on teaching and learning related to community colleges and the challenges they confront moving forward.

First, community college students, many first-generation from low-income families, hunger for affirmation of their worth. They are like dormant seeds waiting for rain and expect us to be that rain. While they understand that teachers require rigor and excellence from them, they also expect such expectations to be tempered by compassion and some occasional humor.

Here’s an example. Maria looked lost on the first day of my statistics class. I saw fear in her eyes, even tears. She emailed me after two weeks that she was behind and couldn’t even understand Measures of Center. “Should I drop your class?” she asked.

After a little thinking, I replied, “Don’t drop. Let’s meet during office hours and see what we can do.”

We met twice weekly over the next several weeks, going over problems step by step. “It’s not easy,” I told her. “I had the same difficulty you are facing when I was learning this.”

Slowly, Maria began making progress. She took charge of her learning. One day she stunned me by disclosing, “I had a brain aneurysm three years ago and am still recovering from it. But it’s finally clicking in my brain.”

Maria received a well-deserved “A” in my class and is currently majoring in psychology at a local university. Miracles occur at the intersection of “highly demanding” and “highly supportive” for both students and teachers.

Second, students engage if they see the relevance of what they learn in the classroom to what they experience in their lives outside the classroom. Should they buy that laptop warranty (probability and statistics)? How do doctors put the brakes on a pandemic (exponential growth of viruses versus exponential decay via vaccines)? How does math relate to English, physics and other disciplines (real-life problems span disciplines) that reveal their synergy? Relevance and connections deepen intuition and imagination and help students appreciate the power and beauty of their subjects.

Third, we owe it to our students to bring fresh insights and perspectives into our teaching even if we have taught the same material a thousand times. This requires keeping up with the latest developments in our changing fields. How do we capture patterns with mathematical formulas, whether the patterns are in sunflower spirals or the emergence of underground cicadas? How can we differentiate True Positives from False Positives in clinical tests while taking into account the Base Rate? How does math relate to democracy, elections, birthrates and healthcare? We must reflect in our teaching the dynamic nature of knowledge.

Fourth, student affirmations inspire teachers too! We also need to know from time to time that we are igniting the curiosity of students and instilling in them the joy of learning. Every semester, I get an email or two from students that make my spirit soar. One recent missive reads: "I've been working on my psychology course and found myself repeatedly returning to concepts you taught us. Even though we focused on statistics, the way you explained numbers and analyses as tools to understand the world around us has had a lasting impact on me."
A single vote of student confidence per semester can be enough vindication for a teacher.

Now to challenges, specifically two. First is the one posed by the Genie in the Bottle, also known as Artificial Intelligence (AI), and its even more powerful version, Artificial General intelligence (AGI), capable of doing all cognitive tasks, and perhaps even more, than a human can do. Ask any question and tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s CoPilot and Google Gemini give sophisticated answers, albeit with errors that, with newer versions, become fewer. Having difficulty with a particularly pesky algebra or calculus problem? No problem, ask AI. “What effect does climate change have on human and animal migration? Illustrate with specific examples.” Rejoice, AI will create the whole enchilada for you!

Preventing students from using AI is as futile as King Canute commanding incoming tides to halt. The question is how to use AI to complement critical thinking and genuine learning among students without short-circuiting the process. Recently, the California State University (CSU) system (23 campuses, 460,000 students and 63,000 faculty and staff) and the University of California (UC) system, (9 campuses, 295,000 students and 265,000 faculty and staff), launched initiatives with leading Silicon Valley AI companies to train students and faculty in the best use of AI tools. California’s Community College (CCC) system, the largest in the nation with 116 colleges, over 2 million students and 91,328 faculty and staff, is pursuing similar goals. CCC’s Academic Senate has urged Chancellor Dr. Sonya Christian to establish a centralized CCC AI Commons to provide access to generative AI tools and resources for students, faculty and staff, to be modeled after CSU’s centralized AI Commons (https://genai.calstate.edu)

These initiatives are likely to go through several iterations before a coherent, consistent and ethical use of AI in education emerges. But the process has begun and that’s progress.

The second challenge is more daunting: The Trump Administration’s war on education. Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity (DEI) programs, a hallmark of community colleges, are being dismantled. There is pressure on colleges and universities to revise curricula to reflect a more conservative agenda. The threat of mass deportations has unsettled CCC’s estimated 100,000 undocumented students, including those protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). To counter the threat, colleges are stepping up efforts to provide legal protection to students and their families. My college, for instance, like most CCC’s, is offering free legal and mental health services to allay the uncertainty, anxiety and fear of students.

On the eve of retirement, two opposing thoughts occupy me. The first is sadness at the enormous damage the Trump administration is inflicting on education in general and our colleges and universities in particular. The second is my faith in the resilience and power of our institutions to protect the vulnerable and the marginalized while inspiring excellence among students, and to sustain the freedoms that define our democracy. There may be a few defeats and setbacks initially, but I am confident our institutions will come through with their values and principles not only restored but also enhanced.

America Has Changed. So Must Democrats.

“Failure is the pillar of success” goes the adage. There is wisdom in that, and hope. It’s good that Republicans have decisively defeated the Democrats. There is no excuse, no crying foul, no ambiguity. Donald Trump has won the White House, the Popular Vote, the Senate and most likely, the House. 

For Democrats to overcome this stunning and total defeat will require a deep and brutal reordering of priorities.

Our Hispanic and white women population helped win women’s reproductive rights in 7 out of 10 red states but also supported Trump, the anti-abortion commander-in-chief, in those states.

We are bending over backward trying to explain this contradiction by invoking economic hardship and anti-immigration sentiments when the only reason is a toxic combination of racism, sexism, misogyny and male chauvinism. For these voters, electing a female president, far less a female president of color, is worse than hell.

We will not progress unless we learn to call a spade a spade, which is that America will not elect a female president, and certainly not a female president of color, in the next hundred years. If we Democrats want to win back the White House, the Senate, Congress and the popular vote, we must field a relatively young, white male to contest for the presidency, starting in 2028, political correctness be damned.

So forget the pundits offering their earnest post-mortem analysis: Biden was too late to call it quits, Kamala Harris did not go through a trial by fire, and although she excelled in set pieces like the presidential debate, when it came to answering questions about American workers barely making rent, she completely botched it. Too many Americans were left in the dark about who she really was and what she stood for. We mistook shadow for substance, carried away by Republicans for Harris while ignoring ordinary Democrats clamoring for her attention. And on and on.

Make no mistake: If Harris won, this same chattering class would be riding their high horses to condescendingly tell us: “I told you so!”

So what now?

We must put our efforts into grassroots activism at the local, state and national levels. Some may counter this by saying, “But we were doing it!” To which I will respond, “Only as a show, that is, in a performative way in the spotlight, and not focusing on genuine performance on the ground, far from the limelight.”

Consider the endless parade of mega-rich celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, LeBron James and First Couples Michell and Barack Obama and Hillary and Bill Clinton giving their full-throated endorsement to Harris. After a while, though, it came across as hypocritical when these super-wealthy people claimed that their hearts were bleeding for us working stiffs.

While we must be generous and kind to our fellow Americans irrespective of their political affiliations, it is equally necessary that we fight injustice and any attempt to subvert the law of the land. Given his demagogic nature, Trump is likely to make such attempts on the very day he takes the helm. We must be prepared. Already Trump’s sycophant, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, has called for Republicans to secure Trump’s "third term" following her victory in Colorado's 4th District in the 2024 election. Even though the 22nd Amendment prohibits a third term, we must be prepared if Republicans, with Trump’s certain approval, try to break it. Overcoming the amendment will not succeed but with Trump and his pliant, blind followers, nothing is beyond the pale.

Here is the text of the 22^nd Amendment:

Section 1

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

The language is confusing for ordinary Americans like me but I only need to understand the first 14 words to know that Trump cannot run for a third term.

So, in a sense, as soon as Trump takes office, he also becomes a lame-duck president. Yes, he will preside over what are expected to be four tumultuous years from 2025 to 2028, but that will also be the permanent end of his presidency.

Who will represent the Democrats in the 2028 presidential election? I hope Democrats will not overlook the very real and ever-present Puritanical streak that runs through the hearts of a majority of Americans which will prevent the election of any female president. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer or Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is as capable as any male candidate, if not more, but they simply will not win even if either of them were to run against someone as unfit for the presidency as JD Vance.

Who then among the Democrats?

In my opinion, one of the safest choices we can make is Gavin Newsom, Governor of California.

Newsom, to his credit, has already made his move. On Wednesday, November 6, a day after Trump won the presidency, Newsom congratulated Trump but also wrote that “the freedom we hold dear in California are under attack, and we won’t sit idle. California has faced this challenge before, and we know how to respond. We are prepared, and we will do everything necessary to ensure Californians have the support and the resources they need to thrive.”

The Governor has called for a special session of California’s Legislature in December “to safeguard California values and fundamental rights in the face of an incoming Trump administration.”

California’s proactive Governor has begun his 2028 campaign for the presidency of the United States. It is not a moment too soon.

Let there be a contentious and bruising fight among Democratic aspirants for the presidency in 2028. A trial by fire is necessary but I am confident that Gavin Newsom will come through and return America to its rightful owners: to us Americans in all our maddening diversity and our hunger for a “shining city upon a hill.”

Washington Post Disgraces Itself

For the past 10+ years, I have been a digital subscriber to the Washington Post (WP). Numerous articles and opinion pieces I read in its pages challenged my perception, widened my horizon and deepened my understanding not only of world events but also what makes us tick as human beings.

It was thus with regret that I canceled my WP subscription after its Editorial Board, led by its publisher and CEO William Lewis, an obedient and spineless servant to his master and WP owner Jeff Bezos, chose not to endorse any presidential candidate in the November 2024 election.

That the Post and Lewis took this path only 10 days before this most consequential election in the nation’s history revealed its hypocrisy, cowardice and “kiss the ring” subservience to Bezos.

The Board bowed to power instead of speaking truth to it as a reputable newspaper is required to, permanently tarnishing its image.

In his 1946 essay titled “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell warned us of the danger of doublespeak, language that deliberately obscures, disguises and distorts. 

This is what the WP CEO wrote in justifying his and his master's
non-endorsement: “We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for and what we hope for in a leader: character and courage in service to the American ethic, veneration for the rule of law, and respect for human freedom in all its aspects. We also see it as a statement in support of our readers’ ability to make up their own minds on this, the most consequential of American decisions — whom to vote for as the next president.”

Can you hear Orwell turning in his grave? I can.

Lewis’s justification, echoing Bezo's, is as full of hypocrisy and, well, doublespeak, as asserting that slavery is freedom, racism is equality and immorality is a virtue.

What WP should have done, as the New York Times so boldly did, was to call out Donald Trump for what he is, a sleazy, ignorant, immoral and vindictive apology of a human being blatantly unfit to be the President of the United States.

Instead, by not endorsing any candidate, WP has indirectly, or maybe not so indirectly, endorsed Trump over Kamala Harris.

Regarding the pompous and self-righteous words of the British-born CEO Lewis, consider what WP, under a different CEO, wrote in its 28 September 2020 Editorial endorsing Joe Biden over Trump: “Trump is the worst president of modern times … Democracy is at risk, at home and in the world. The nation desperately needs a president who will respect its public servants; stand up for the rule of law; acknowledge Congress’s constitutional role; and work for the public good, not his private benefit.”

In selecting Lewis as the publisher and CEO of WP on 2 January 2024, this is what Jeff Bezos said on 4 November 2023: “Ten years ago, I made a commitment to the future of The Washington Post, inspired by its ambitious and consequential journalism. Today, I stand confident in that future knowing it is in the hands of Will, an exceptional, tenacious industry executive whose background in fierce, award-winning journalism makes him the right leader at the right time. I also want to thank Patty Stonesifer for stepping in to lead The Post so ably over the past several months.”

Fierce Lewis? How about a craven ass-kisser?

I will miss the enlightening and challenging articles and opinions of the Washington Post writers but where fundamental values are concerned, there can be no compromise. God willing, on the morning of November 6, we Americans will wake up to a new dawn in our history when we elect the first female President of the United States.

Afraid of another insurrection? Don’t be. There will be none, no matter the bluster from Trump and his cronies and sycophants. Law of the land will prevail because law-enforcement officials will be fully prepared to deal with any obstacle to the transfer of power since the ignominious event of 6 January 2021.

And WP writers? You are all blessed with a unique gift, the gift of persuasive and powerful writing. Quit WP and take your skills to other publications where they will value not only your writing but also your principles.

 

Making Our Votes Count for America

As the November 5 presidential election draws closer, reviewing our recent history, if only as a reminder, can give the perspective we need to cast our votes, not as Democrats or Republicans or belonging to Red, Blue, or Swing States, but as Americans.

In 2016, Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton to become the 45^th President of the United States, winning the Electoral College by 304 to 227, even though Clinton won the popular vote by almost 3 million.

In 2020, Joe Biden beat Donald Trump to become the 46^th President of the United States, winning the Electoral College by 306 to 232 and the popular vote by almost 7 million. Trump refused to accept the verdict of the American people and incited an insurrection on January 6, 2021, by his armed supporters at the U.S. Capitol, a date which will live in infamy alongside Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.

Four years on, and for the third time in a row, Donald Trump is running as the Republican nominee for the presidency of the United States, this time against the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. We are reliving the old saying: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Antisemitism, Islamophobia, dehumanization of immigrants and conspiracy theories continue to fester in our country. To the more than 67 million viewers watching the Harris-Trump debate on September 10, the former president asserted the debunked claim that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were eating their neighbors’ pets. At a news conference three days later, he threatened to enact the largest deportation of migrants in the nation’s history if elected. Mike DeWine, the Republican Governor of Ohio, said this about Haitians in his state: “Springfield is having a resurgence in manufacturing and job creation. Some of that is thanks to the dramatic influx of Haitian migrants who have arrived in the city over the past three years to fill jobs. They are there legally. They are there to work.”

America has rarely been as polarized as it is on the eve of the 2024 election. Partisan politics is crippling us. We are grappling with the same foundational values of our nation such as democracy, the rule of law, checks and balances, and the peaceful transfer of power as during Trump’s presidency. Add to these other issues like reproductive freedom (supporting legal abortion despite the moral reservations some of us may have about it), climate change, affordable healthcare, housing and clean energy, gun control and artificial intelligence-generated misinformation, and we understand why the 2024 presidential election may be among the most consequential elections in living memory.

The contrast between the views of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on these and other issues couldn’t be starker, available online and in print to discerning Americans weighing who to vote for, especially the undecided and the callously indifferent among us. As Taylor Swift wrote in her Instagram message endorsing Kamala Harris to her fans, “I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make.”

The presidency is not only about policies and procedures or tariffs and trade but also about civility and morality, honesty and integrity, among other character codes. We will do well to remember and act on Ronald Reagan’s vision for America: “We shall be as a city upon a hill.” We will do well to remember Abraham Lincoln’s words from his first inaugural address in 1861 as a Civil War loomed: “We are not enemies but friends … touched by the better angels of our nature.”

Lincoln’s words did not prevent a Civil War from erupting and dragging on for four ruinous years, with a death toll of over 600,000 Americans, about 2% of the U.S. population then. While a modern-day Civil War may be far-fetched, attempts by anyone to overturn the 2024 election if the results are contrary to expectations by inciting another insurrection can cause an unbreachable and permanent rift among us that can dangerously weaken our Republic.

So, when we vote on November 5 or earlier by mail, not just as a right but as a sacred obligation, we must summon the courage and the wisdom to place joy over anger, humility over hubris, compassion over cruelty, law over anarchy, science over ideology, democracy over authoritarianism and most of all, country over party.

Memorial Day 2024: Our Duties and Responsibilities

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/25/opinion-memorial-day-the-gettysburg-address-and-the-november-2024-election/

Gettysburg Address offers special significance for Memorial Day

In this fateful election year, Abraham Lincoln’s words of courage and compassion can transcend political divisions

By HASAN ZILLUR RAHIM

May 26, 2024

On Memorial Day, we remember our fallen soldiers.

For several years I have visited California’s oldest secular cemetery, the Oak Hill Memorial Park in San Jose, every Memorial Day to silently express my gratitude to those who sacrificed their lives so we can bask in the sunshine of freedom and democracy.

Veterans and politicians make moving speeches and observe a minute of silence on this hallowed day as the U.S. flag flutters in the breeze, rustling the surrounding sycamore trees. Doves are released as symbols of unity and peace. Small flags line rows and rows of headstones of 14,000 veterans with names that connect the living to the dead: Joseph Milligan of Tennessee (World War I), Charles Harding of Colorado (World War II), Andrew Montello of California (Korea), and on and on.

This year, I will do something different. I will carry a copy of the address President Abraham Lincoln delivered at Gettysburg, Penn., on Nov. 19, 1863, and read it as I walk alongside the graves at Oak Hill. More than 160 years later, Lincoln’s timeless words speak to us with an urgency we must heed.

In particular, two topics demand our attention in this fateful election year. First, as much as we would like our democracy to be strong, it is, in reality, a fragile entity, as the Jan. 6 insurrection showed. Unless we are vigilant about safeguarding it, democracy can succumb to autocracy. Second, the most powerful tool to ensure the flourishing of democracy is to exercise our sacred right to vote. Ignoring or neglecting this right can open the gate to tyranny. Complacency is the enemy of democracy and good governance.

As Lincoln saw it, the Civil War tested the very survival of the nation “conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Slavery, the antithesis of equality, was the evil of his time, and until it was eliminated, even at the horrific cost of a North-South war, Lincoln knew America would not endure.

We may not have slavery today, but the challenges are as daunting. Despite making modest progress in race relations since Lincoln’s time, the undercurrent of racism in many facets of our lives continues to undermine America. And political division over issues such as reproductive freedom, affordable health care, an unfair tax code, gun violence, volatile borders and climate change also threaten the integrity of the Constitution and the survival of our nation.

I request my fellow Americans on this Memorial Day to conscientiously read the Gettysburg Address. It comprises just 272 words and took Lincoln only two minutes to deliver to the gathering of 15,000, yet it has the power to evoke the noble and the transcendent in each of us, a nation of almost 335 million.

The courage, compassion and vision inherent in the Gettysburg Address should persuade us not to think North or South, Blue or Red, coastal or inland, or working class or elite when we vote in the November election but instead, to think America.

As in Lincoln’s time, “the great task remaining before us” today is keeping our nation whole. We can do it by resolving that those who “gave the last full measure of devotion … shall not have died in vain.”

So while we enjoy the biryani and the barbecue on this Memorial Day, let us set aside some time to reflect on the Gettysburg Address so we can dedicate ourselves to the “unfinished work” that our fallen soldiers and veterans “have thus far so nobly advanced.”

Lincoln concluded his address with the hope that democracy “shall not perish from the earth.” While that remains our goal too, we must first ensure with our votes in November that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish” from these United States.

Hasan Zillur Rahim is a mathematics professor at San Jose City College.