Banning burkinis will not help anyone...

Yesterday the French High Court overruled a town’s ban on burkinis at the beach.

A “burkini” is what Muslim women wear to the beach. Yes it does cover their bodies and is meant to be swum in.

The French contingent of my family believes that banning the burkini is a means of liberating the women from such oppressive rules of dress and I respect that view but what is really the result of such a ban on burkinis is keeping Muslim women from the beach which they have a right to enjoy just like everyone else.

I understand that the French are trying to bring these Muslims into their society; to assimilate them and have them enjoy the enlightenment that comes with joining a modern, western style culture. This is a great goal but the problem is that to join this French society, they are expected to give up some of their traditions like Muslim dress traditions; when French Muslims refuse to do that they are segregated from the greater French population.

This segregation leads to communities that seethe with anger due to lack of opportunities for advancement and this invariably leads to social unrest and riots or even worst, young people joining radical groups like ISIS.

Here in the United States we do not care how people dress for the beach. Yes, you cannot cover your face when getting a license photo or testify in court, etc. but we do not object to what they choose to wear in public.

This has worked out quite well for us through the ages as immigrants usually blend into our American society quite well especially after a few generations.

I think France would do well to emulate our system of assimilation which is a natural system as opposed to a forced system.

The subject of why men want to tell women how to dress and have for ages, is a subject for another time.

Saw the movie BEN HUR 2016...

I went to see the movie BEN HUR 2016, a remake of the 1959 classic which was a remake of a 1929 silent classic. The movies were based on an 1880 novel by Lew Wallace called: BEN HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST. The novel was a huge success in its day even getting blessed by Pope Leo XIII.

Yes, Jesus does play a role in these movies but he is not the main man or even the main story BUT the religiously biased producers did try to inject their religiosity into the movie at every turn which was annoying.

It is hard to review a remake especially when you have seen the original and cannot help but compare the two.

I did not like this movie mainly because it disappointed me; my expectations were just too high.

The story was disjointed and characters were not developed sufficiently enough for us to care about any of them, especially the women.

What makes a movie great is obviously a compelling story with a hero and a really bad, bad guy; in this movie the bad guy was someone you felt sorry for; his evilness was compromised.

There were no romantic interests and after a while I could not tell one woman from another.

The main character Judah Ben Hur was played by an actor who I remember very well from his role in Boardwalk Empire; I kept seeing him in that role throughout the movie because he sounded just like that character he played in Boardwalk Empire.

The chariot race was well done but since the hatred between the two rivals was compromised, it was just a race.

The ending also sucked because it was a feel good ending, a kumbaya moment, instead of a satisfying ending where good won out over evil. The song at the closing was just stupid and totally did not fit the story line.

The fact that this movie bombed right out of the gate has me puzzled. I though the subject matter as well as the historic era (Roman) would have attracted at least a crowd to the first showing after which word of mouth would have killed it; but it did not. Is it just me and my wife that love a good Biblical type story? I noticed that most people watching the movie with us were old.

Oh well, they blew way over $100 million in making the movie and in the first weekend it made a paltry $11 million and came in 5^th even behind The Weiner (sausage) Story.

THIRD PARTY POSSIBILITIES?

There was a thought-provoking article in POLITICO by Justin Gest titled: WHY TRUMPISM WILL OUTLAST DONALD TRUMP.

It is thought-provoking because the author poses the question: Is the Trump campaign about the man or the message? Saying that if Trump loses, will the Trump supporters continue to be united and looking for another leader.

The author studied “white working class politics” and asked Trump supporters as well as other whites in this class, if they would be willing to support a third party dedicated to “stopping mass immigration, providing American jobs to American workers, preserving America’s Christian heritage and stopping the threat of Islam” – basically a protectionist, xenophobic, Christian based party?

The author states that 65% of the white working class would and this is a huge number.

I have also heard of the term NATAVIST PARTY bandied around. Nativist, by definition, means protecting the interests of the native population against immigrants. The irony here is obviously that “real” American natives are the American Indians and everybody else is an immigrant.

This group believes that if you were born here, you are a nativist. But it is not as simples as that; you also have to be born into a white, European community to belong to this party.

According to the author, people in this group are usually white males, of lower socioeconomic status, without a university education and ideologically conservative. Interestingly these males are usually under 40 years of age which means they will be here for a long time.

Members of this group are angry, angry at their loss of social status, loss of political clout, loss of middle class status where once they were “somebody”; the backbone of America.

It is hard to convince this group that globalization and other factors have shifted and changed the economic landscape in this country just like the industrial revolution did years ago; and the country and its people adjusted…for the better.

There are many things that the government can do to help these people adjust to the new landscape but today, our government is locked in an unproductive ideological party war and cannot seem to address real issues and real needs.

So this group turns to people like Trump who promises to bring back the good old days and restore these people to the status they used to enjoy. People like Trump among others in world history, tend to put the blame for this group’s malaise on others; on immigrants, on Muslims, on Mexicans, on non-whites, on liberals, etc. and once these factors are addressed (in some undefined way) the good times will roll again.

This large group of whites has made its presence known and therefore this group cannot be ignored. Their anger is real and it cannot be slaked by logic or reason; they believe what they want to believe no matter what the reality on the ground is.

Republicans can alter their ideology to embrace this group and Democrats can offer plans to address some of this group’s needs or a third party will be formed to specifically reflect this group.

I have long called for a VIABLE third party straddling the ideologies of both current parties and producing its own ideology based on fiscal conservatism and social liberalism but this “Trumpist” party will only serve as an election spoiler and not a stand-alone viable political party.

We are heading into uncharted waters and as exciting as it might seem (history in the making) it is also very dangerous.

Note: Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat but an independent. He garnered huge crowds at his rallies and, I think, had and has a huge following. These people, just like Trump people, will remain a force looking for a new leader because they will not be absorbed by Hillary’s Democrats. This group also can and might make up a base for a third party.

Young Trumpists...

A recent article in the New York Times was titled DONALD TRUMP IS MAKING AMERICA MEANER by Nicholas Kristof.

In the article Kristof talks about how our young people feel they can abandon politically correct behavior and practice their racism, bigotry, xenophobia, etc. in an open manner because ostensibly, Trump gave them permission or at least validated that type of behavior as normal and OK and actually appropriate for this time in our nation’s history.

My question is if that type of behavior lies just below the skin in many of our young adults and is basically intrinsic to their being, where does it come from?

The usual answer is basically that it is learned and learning comes from parents, family and/or peer group/ community.

I have noticed that these same people had their bigotry kept in check by a growing attitude of tolerance or shall we call it political correctness (PC) prevalent in our country; it is not cool to be a bigot so they hide their bigotry.

In my own personal experience, I have seen people (mostly guys) express some inappropriate comment to me but quickly laugh it off when they see that I am not of their ilk. Trump also laughs his comments off when the nation is stunned by their inappropriateness.

As I mentioned before people can tell by your reactions if you are or are not, part of their ilk. The word “ILK” just means group, class, kind, sort, etc.

Young people tend to gravitate to like-minded individuals or groups and in some cases individuals may not share the group’s beliefs at first, but are persuaded to share them by wanting to be included in the group hence the adage that young people are very impressionable and can easily be turned one way or another.

There have been a number of books written about the people who support Trump and the books make it a point to weed out of the group those intelligent “normal” people that support Trump as a means of changing the environment in Congress or in politics in general; they want to blow up the current system and start from scratch and they think Trump can do just that.

The group that remains is generally called white, uneducated, blue collar, European descent but not necessarily poor. I think this is the group that produces the children who are copies of themselves and now feel emboldened to practice their racism and bigotry out in the open.

I will be looking at why this group exists and why they behave like they do in my next blog as I am learning on a daily basis about this Trumpism phenomenon as is the rest of the country.

By the way, this Trump group that I am talking about includes friends and family.

Voting for Trump to fix Congress?

Talking to more people about who Trump voters are and why they are voting for him, I was introduced to another reason that I did not know about.

It appears there is a group of Trump voters that are voting for Trump for the express purpose of “blowing” the government up. By “blowing” I do not mean literally but to “dramatically” alter the government as we know it because the government in its present state is just not functioning in our best interest.

I will agree that the Tea Party Republican Caucus has rendered the Republican Party totally impotent but strong enough to block any attempts at governance by the Democrats thereby making Congress a worthless institution.

The rest of the government appears to be working as usual so when they say they want to blow the government up I assume they are talking about Congress.

I don’t readily see why electing Trump would somehow “fix” the do-nothing Congress. Obama has tried his darnedest to get things done or move things along so it seems a president does not seem like someone that can make Congress function so am I missing something?

Now if Trump gets elected Congress will have to wake up to protect the country from whatever Trump dreams up to do.

If this group of Trump voters thinks Trump, as a nominal Republican, will make the Republicans in Congress do his bidding, well they are mistaken. Trump is not a Republican and does not think or act like a Republican so why would real Republicans in Congress follow his lead.

Republicans have been known to be hypocrites so maybe just being in power could persuade them to join Trump. This I do not know but maybe this group we are talking about is counting on that happening.

The normal way to handle our current do-nothing Congress is to get rid of all those Tea Party Republicans that were elected as a protest move that backfired badly and some states are actually doing that already.

Once you get “true” Republicans into Congress, business may actually get re-started but maybe people are just totally dissatisfied with politics as well as the whole political system and prefer to blow things up and start from scratch.

I agree with that sentiment; is Trump the grenade they are throwing in?

Normal people for Trump?

So what I am hearing, in my search for why “normal” people are voting for Trump, is that they would rather Trump appoint the next Supreme Court justice than Hillary.

These are people that feel both candidates for office are “bad” but are willing to overlook Trump’s obvious severe idiosyncrasies and total lack of experience in politics as well as basic knowledge about any and all issues pertaining to governing the country. They are also willing to overlook Hillary’s long and extensive history in national government…

To these people, having a conservative nominated to the Supreme Court is reason enough to vote someone like Trump into the presidential office.

Obviously, these people are deathly scared of a liberal Supreme Court.

And obviously, these people believe that Trump will nominate a conservative to the Supreme Court when elected president.

Donald Trump is not a Republican or a conservative if we are to judge by his actions in life to this point. Trump is not religious either and if anything, he tends more in the liberal direction on social issues. Trump is an opportunist and has already demonstrated that he will do anything and say anything and promise anything, to get elected; after that all bets are off.

On the other hand, “these” people know Hillary will nominate a liberal to the Supreme Court if elected so taking a chance that Trump “may” nominate a conservative because he said he would, seems like a chance they are willing to take.

So why are “these” people so desperately wanting the Supreme Court to be conservative that they are willing to sacrifice the welfare of this country and its citizens by electing a Trump character to the presidency?

Ironically or maybe not so, it is for the same reasons as the not so normal, uneducated white trash have; they want things to be like they used to be and to hell with this progressive politically correct shit.

They do not want an activist Supreme Court they want what Antonin Scalia was, a strict constitutional constructionist which is to say, interpret the Constitution as it was written and preserve its original intent.

Well Scalia called himself a strict constructionist but he was not. The Second Amendment is a good example. The language in the amendment is short, clear and concise; you have a right to own a gun IF YOU ARE PART OF A WELL REGULATED MILITIA and yet Scalia and others read it as saying everyone has a right to have a gun which it plainly and clearly does not say.

So a conservative court will apply its own conservative prejudices to cases no matter what the Constitution says, so I do not buy their constitutional constructionist bullshit.

So as I see it, the people voting for Trump, whether educated normal whites or uneducated abnormal white yahoos, all want the same thing; for the president as well as the Supreme Court to think and act like they do and believe in what they do.

So maybe these educated normal adults may not appear at Trump rallies screaming their hatred for all to see and hear but they are, none the less, cut from the same cloth.