Europa and bull on a Greek vase. Tarquinia Museum, circa 480 BCE (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Changing Computers
Changing computers is a challenge. One has the feeling one is entering a store. One no longer buys Office. Every year Office 365 takes money from your credit card and renews itself. Pressure is put on users to choose Microsoft Edge as one’s default browser. Etc.
Fortunately, WordPress was not a problem except that my one image disappeared and my past post, which I started writing on 6 February, but did not post until 7 February, is dated 6 February 2017.
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That post contains important information.
The RCMP, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, has determined that Alexandre Bissonnette, the Quebec City shooter, was influenced by Donald Trump, the President of the United States, and Marine Le Pen, the leader of the Front National, a nativist, far-right French political party.
The media wanted to link Alexandre Bissonnette, the shooter in the Quebec City mosque attack, to a Muslim terrorist association. Investigators found no evidence linking the shooter, Alexandre Bissonnette, to a terrorist organization. But his Facebook account reveals that he admired President Trump and Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Front. Both Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen are nativists.
So a young French-Canadian student killed and wounded Muslims because he was influenced by President Donald Trump’s Islamophobia and by the President’s hatred of foreigners, which was spread by the media and in particular the social media. He was also influenced by Marine Le Pen’s nativism or xenophobia (fear of foreigners).
The Quebec shooting is case number one, but there could be more shootings if Donald Trump does not abandon all plans of barring Muslims from entering the United States.
President Trump’s Islamophobia and the media conveying his message have caused one young man to kill Muslims, which means that Mr Trump and the media, including the social media, are endangering the life of North-American Muslims.
President Trump should be impeached on the grounds that he is inciting violence.
President-elect Donald Trump has stated that American elections were rigged. Although there could be truth to this statement, it is a generalization.
Yet Mrs Hillary Clinton suspects that the investigation into her emails jeopardized her bid for the Presidency of the United States. I believe it did. I have read that she had been somewhat careless in handling classified material, but the FBI had not found criminal wrongdoing at the close of its first investigation. However, reopening the investigation suggested wrongdoing. Nothing more was needed to eliminate Mrs Clinton and open the way for a tragedy.
Therefore, one could say that there was obstructionism, but obstructionism of a kind that cannot be pinned down entirely on people at the top, such as FBI Director James Comey. The court of public opinion is ruthless. It undid Mrs Clinton. Unless there were errors in calculating the votes, which does not seem to be the case, Americans voted Donald Trump into office. And he was elected by a populist United States, not its élite, which is somewhat ironical. As a billionaire, Donald Trump is probably one of the wealthy Americans who hide their tax dollar, which tends to put him on the very same level as the establishment, or part of the establishment.
It could also be that Americans wanted a change. Mrs Clinton had been in Washington for many years, which was both an advantage and a disadvantage. She was the experienced nominee, but she had already spent two terms in office as the wife of former President Bill Clinton. In the eyes of ordinary and not-so ordinary people, a husband and wife are one and the same person.
Consequently, contrary to Pascal’s Wager, a large number of Americans chose “infinite” losses rather than “limited” losses. One may argue that four years is a finite period of time. Mathematically, four years are four years. However, there are other yardsticks. The events of these four years may be defining and irreversible. As President Obama pointed out, if a person loses self-control twittering, will it be safe to trust him with the nuclear code? The results would be limitless.
In short, taking a risk, i.e. voting for Mr Trump, was a perilous choice and, therefore, not a choice. He is the laughing-stock of the world.
Detail ofElihu Vedder‘smuralGovernment(1896), in theLibrary of Congress. The title figure bears a tablet inscribed with Lincoln’s famous phrase. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
America’s Credibility
There will be consequences. On 8 November 2016, the credibility the United States had gained during Barack Obama’s presidency was shaken by an amnesia-stricken and reckless American electorate. During his term as President of the United States, Mr Trump is likely to be what he was before his election: sexist, racist, lewd, brash, narcissistic, xenophobic, an unbearable misogynist, etc.
As well, Donald Trump is a nativist and his natives are white Americans. We know that he is married to Melania who is not an American by birth but is somewhat trans-cultural given her former occupation as supermodel. She was one of the tall and very slender ladies flying from runway to runway. They “appear,” as does Donald Trump.
The fact remains that when and if Donald Trump attends summits, the American discourse will no longer have the logic and fluency it did under President Obama. But, as President, Mr Trump may not attend summits.
Had Mr Trump not been elected, he might have appointed himself President of the United States and would have been a usurper. Mrs Clinton was not a perfect candidate. It appears she had some baggage, but she was more experienced which made her a safer choice. She was not likely to deprive Americans of social programmes. These programmes are not charity. Americans pay for them through their tax dollar.
Consider that, theoretically, it is now “open season” on Mexicans, Muslims, people of colour, persons of a different sexual orientation or women, and various dissenters. Mr Trump’s presidency promises to be authoritarian.
He is in favour of the death-penalty and he will penalize women whose life was threatened by a pregnancy that had to be terminated. I hope he will seek the advice of doctors in this respect. Doctors cannot let a woman die because she is pregnant. Doctors performing abortions will also be penalized. It is as though Mr Trump did not know that abortions and birth-control are different issues. When abortions were decriminalized in Canada, doctors could, at long last, intervene if the health and life of their patient was at risk. Their only option had been a hysterectomy. Is a woman’s life so unimportant that she should be left to suffer and die if a pregnancy threatens her health and her life ?
The United States should be as Abraham Lincoln defined it in the Gettysburg Address: a democracy. Mr Trump, whose bid for the presidency was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan, militant racists, is a clear and present danger. He may also allow the bearing of guns in mid-town Manhattan.
Let us look at the bigger picture. The European Union has been weakened because of Brexit and with Donald Trump steering the USA, the leader of France’s Front National, nativist Marine Le Pen, feels emboldened. Under President-elect Donald J. Trump, I believe Russia stands to become a greater power, perhaps the main power. By electing Mr Trump to the presidency of the United States, Americans may have elevated Russian President Vladimir Putin to a more commanding position. Americans may, in fact, have changed the balance of power.
Mr Trump is the President-elect and this is his honeymoon period. Moreover, hope springs eternal… We have to think that all will be well. It is a matter of survival, but the campaign tends to indicate that all is not and will not be well. I fear the aftermath of Mr Trump’s election to the presidency. It may lead to purges in the United States and a degree of erosion in Canada’s social programmes, if he slashes into Obamacare.
I opposed Mr Trump’s election for reasons which I believe were very good reasons. I will continue to oppose him if I see danger and abuse. But he may surprise us. He’s no longer a nominee and he is not a usurper. He is the President-elect of the United States. We’ll have to wait and see.
Love to everyone♥
“Beautiful Dreamer” Stephen Foster
Jonathan Guyot Smith & Stephen Sasloe
On Bastille Day, 14 July 2016, France’s National Day, Mohamed Lajouif Bouhlel, who was born in Tunisia, but emigrated to France, drove a rented 19-ton lorry through a crowd watching a fireworks innocent display along the Promenade des Anglais. His victims could not flee easily, so as the truck careened down its path, it killed l84 innocent individuals and wounded 102. Many of the wounded have been released from hospital, but others were critically injured. France has been attacked by terrorists associated with Isil. As for the Nice killer, who was shot by police, he was a Muslim who may (or may not) have been radicalized.
The Front National: nativism
A member of the Front National, a nativist party, stated that multiculturalism could not work in France. The French had to be among the French. I was reminded of the Brexit referendum which was interpreted by many as a vote that would allow Britain “to send them back.” Britons were best left among themselves.
Marine Le Pen went further. She used the word “war.” I doubt that she meant war as in World War II. She was probably referring to manners in which her party, the Front National would eradicate “the fundamentalist Islamic scourge (l’islamisme radical).”
War is a word one should avoid. George W Bush used it after the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Fighting terrorism was essential but invading Iraq was war. It is now believe that the 2000s wars in the Middle East were instigated by then British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The wars waged in the 2000s were renamed wars against terrorism, but they were wars. These wars do not seem to have done anyone any good.
Marine Le Pen, the president of the Front National, stated the following:
La guerre contre le fléau du fondamentalisme islamiste n’a pas commencé, il est urgent maintenant de la déclarer. Nous l’engagerons vraiment en mettant en place une série de mesures que j’ai déjà détaillées et sur lesquelles j’aurai l’occasion de revenir, qui visent à s’attaquer à la source du phénomène.
[The war against the fundamentalist Islamic scourge has not begun. Declaring it is urgent. We will engage into war using measures I have already mentioned in details but to which I will have the opportunity to return. They aim at the source of this phenomenon.]
A la sidération et la compassion doivent désormais s’ajouter l’action, les nécessaires mesures de prévention et de répression, et la détermination la plus totale à éradiquer le fléau du fondamentalisme islamiste. C’est aujourd’hui la volonté profonde du peuple meurtri de France, je mettrai toute mon énergie à ce qu’elle soit entendue et les combats enfin menés.
[To shock and compassion, we must add action: measures to prevent and to repress, and the most total determination to eradicate the fundamentalist Islamic scourge. Today such is the profound will of the bruised people of France. I will devote my entire energy to ensuring that France is heard and the combats undertaken.]
In Le Figaro provides the list of measures Marine Le Pen advocates: greater authority on the part of nations, the reinstatement of military service, the creation of a national guard to replace the current “Opération Sentinelle,” greater vigilance at borders, more weapons, the creation of a French agency fighting terrorism, the reinstatement of “renseignement [information] de proximité.”
Parmi les moyens évoqués, elle a plaidé pour l’affirmation de l’autorité de l’État, la restauration progressive du service militaire, la création d’une garde nationale pour «remplacer le dispositif sentinelle », l’augmentation des moyens militaires à 2% du PIB avec une évolution à 3%, le contrôle des frontières, la mise en place d’une agence française de lutte contre le terrorisme et le rétablissement du renseignement de proximité.
Madame Le Pen is suggesting reinforced security on the part of France. Safety measures are indeed necessary. France has been attacked three times. But Isil is not Islam and it has not been established that the killer was radicalized. France’s Front National “hailed” the Brexit results which it may have misinterpreted. Some leave voters were misled by the campaign of politicians who put into their service nativistic ideology and rhetoric. But the word nativism cannot be used to describe the majority of Britons, but members of the Front National advocate nativism.
But the problem is rooted elsewhere. Tunisia was a French colony. How can France send back those it colonized. As for the migrants, they are the homeless victims of Isil and autocratic leaders who are killing their own people. Syria’s Bashar al-Assad stands accused of genocide.
As I wrote in a recent post, we cannot roll back history, but there were and there are consequences to colonialism. There was a time when the sun never set on the British Empire and a time when the world spoke French.
