Harlem not feeling Bern!

In the last few days, Hillary Clinton and her campaign staff have descended on New York hoping to deny Bernie Sanders a win in the big apple.

Hillary Clinton and New York have a long-standing relationship, and it can be argued that the relationship is not mutually beneficial. In certain political circles, Hillary Clinton is seen as a fraudulent transplant that only moved to New York in order to further her political ambitions. To be sure, Hillary Clinton’s real road to the white house began in earnest when she became a senator representing New York State. Needless to say, New York has been very good for secretary Clinton. Harlem, more than any other neighborhood in the five boroughs, has a special relationship with the Clintons. It was here that Bill Clinton opened his presidential office after leaving the White House.

Now, team Hillary is making the rounds in Harlem hoping to avoid taking a loss in their own back yard. According to political pundits Bernie Sanders has virtually no chance, however the Brooklyn-born Vermont senator isn’t ready to concede Harlem. Admittedly, team Sanders has tapped into a progressive enthusiasm in his home borough, but nonetheless, the campaign has struggled to make inroads in the historic neighborhood in Upper Manhattan that is considered the heart of Clinton Country.

Hillary Clinton kicked off her New York campaign at the Apollo Theater in Harlem on Wednesday. The Democratic presidential candidate emphasized her roots in New York, where she served two terms as a U.S. senator. She lives in Westchester County and her national campaign headquarters is in Brooklyn. The former secretary of state, who leads Sanders in pledged delegates (1,243 to 975) in New York polls, stressed that she would deliver where her primary rival Bernie Sanders could not.  

The Sanders campaign, fueled by an unstoppable stream of small donations that is enabling it to compete in New York, said it is looking to open an office in Harlem over the next few weeks. But so far, there’s little evidence the neighborhood is ready to embrace the Vermont senator. The campaign is even having difficulty nailing down a venue for a rally. Rev. Charles Curtis of Mount Love Bapist Church on Lenox Avenue confirmed that a minister working with the Sanders campaign reached out to rent the church for a campaign event and that he turned down the offer. Curtis admitted that he turned down the Sanders campaign primarily because of a packed schedule of community events; however, he was hesitant to say he would be willing to host the senator even if the church was free.

“Right now, based on what I have seen, and the people I have spoken to, I doubt seriously if he going to do well in Harlem. Clinton has the support of most of the African-American clergy.”

Ouch!

Obviously, trying to harness votes or a venue in Harlem is a near impossible task for the Sanders campaign. The chief criticism of team Sanders is that they do well with white voters in states like New Hampshire and Wisconsin, but are unable to expand their voter base in ethnically diverse states like New York. Sadly, even in the democratic presidential race, it all comes down to black and white voter enclaves.

Despite the fact that Harlem isn’t feeling the Bern, the Sanders campaign is holding a rally on Thursday at Saint Mary’s park in the South Bronx.

Batman v Superman … The Battle for Super Mediocrity

In going to see Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, I  kept my expectations exceedingly low. I am happy to report that my lack of faith was amply rewarded. That being said, I will forego the traditional review and potential spoilers and instead share a few thoughts and let the fanboy war play itself out.

Is the movie good?

That depends.

If you to liked the 2013 reboot of Superman: Man of Steel, then its more of the same thing with Batman shoehorned into the story. However, if you didn’t like director Zack Snyder’s retelling of Superman’s origin, then this movie is not going to win you over.

The problems that were inherent in Man of Steel still remain in Batman v Superman: the run time (2 hr 33 min) is too long and the pacing is off, at times the movie seems to be going nowhere. The action scenes come from the Michael Bay school of explosions. The destruction and death count in this movie exceeds Man of Steel, which I didn’t think was possible. Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck and Jeremy Irons did a good job with the material they had to work with. Jesse Eisenberg was a horrible and annoying Lex Luthor and he should never have been cast in the role. The musical score is intrusive and bombastic.

Most problematic of all, the movie is essentially a Batman love-fest co-starring Superman.

Lets be clear, for all intents and purposes, Batman v. Superman is first and foremost a Batman movie with the obligatory scene (yet again) of the murder of his parents and his subsequent tumble down a bat-infested shaft. Unfortunately, this iteration of Batman has no moral constraints and he straight up kill’s bad guys with reckless abandon. To be sure, the comic book Batman always walked a very thin line between being a vigilante and a costumed criminal, but Snyder’s Batman is a sadistic savage who tortures criminals by branding them with his bat symbol, and has no compunctions about mowing them down en mass with advanced artillery fire. 

Sadly, the character of Superman doesn’t fair any better. For the most part, the Man of Steel is reduced to being a full Christ Metaphor, condemned to a life of endlessly rescuing people (mostly Lois Lane). He is essentially a god incarnate, with Earth benefiting from his benevolence, but helpless before his whims. The likable and optimistic Richard Donner Superman has been replaced with Zack Snyder’s chiseled and simplistic Superman who is majestically removed from the very society he hopes to protect.

After the lack luster box office results of Man of Steel, Zack Snyder clearly showed himself to be a tone deaf director that didn’t seem to understand and respect the character of Superman. Instead of giving us a Superman that is interesting and inspirational, he makes his Superman a grim, super powerful alien threat that must be stopped by Batfleck. To be completely honest, Snyder’s version of Superman is a seriously flawed depiction, and sadly, the character is worthy of so much more. Unfortunately, the version we got is “Superman” in name only.

Does the movie works as a stand-alone story.

No … absolutely not.

At best, Batfleck vs. Psuedoman is a movie intent on selling the audience advance tickets to a future installment. Yes, that’s right; BVS is nothing more than a 2 plus hour trailer for a Justice League movie that will be released a few years down the road. In other words, this whole movie is a cash grab promoting another movie that will continue the cash grab.

Warner Bros. wanted to emulate the success of Disney/Marvel and instead of taking their time and building up a DC cinematic universe, they decided to take the easy route and release a big budget action movie devoid of soul and wit. To that end, Batman, as always, is grim, dark and moody, Superman is equally grim, dark and moody, and subsequently, the world that they inhabit is grim, dark and moody. So in essence, BVS is layer upon layer of grim, dark and moody. Abandon all hope and forget about laughter, Batman vs. Superman is super serious and they don’t let your forget it, not even for minute. Basically, it’s all a bit depressing.

Is the movie a must see event?

If you’re a die-hard fanboy, then the answer is yes. Batman fighting Superman is a wet dream come true. However, casual moviegoers might find themselves somewhat bored and a little disappointed with the vast majority of the film. Luckily for Warner Bros. Batman vs. Superman has a built in audience that will see it no matter what anyone has to say, but I suspect its window of box office opportunity might be very small. Despite all the hype, many moviegoers might decide to spend their time and money on the eagerly anticipated Captain America: Civil War or X-Men Apocalypse, when they are released in a few weeks.

Reality TV and the Politics of the Poorly Educated

America has a love affair with reality TV shows. On any given day the entertainment industry provides a buffet of shows that run the gamut from ratchet and ghetto to outright educational. For instance you can feast on "Love & Hip Hop," or "Married At First Sight" during primetime and then wash it down with a nice helping of "Alaskan Bush People" or "Treehouse Masters."

Admittedly, some of the programs are pretty entertaining. I have spent to many hours watching "Alaska The Last Frontier" and imagined myself to be a tough frontier man, hunting and trapping wild game to put food on the table for my family before the onset of winter. Yeah, that’s right, man vs. nature from the comfort of my coach.

Guilty pleasures not withstanding, there is a dangerous and often unnoticed downside to reality TV. For better of worse, the American viewing public believes what they see on TV, and more troubling, they see reality TV celebrities as trust worthy and knowledgeable.  

Who can forget “Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertso, and his infamous GQ magazine interview? His definition of sinful behavior:

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men.”

The LGBT community was understandably upset and A&E Networks (which produces Duck Dynasty) quickly went into damage control mode and suspended Robertso. In the same interview, the reality TV celebrity also said cotton-picking blacks — back in the good old days — were singing and happy. It should be noted, that many fans of the show, conservative politicians and political pundits agreed with Robertso’s comments and defended him.

Obviously, reality TV celebrities are very knowledgeable and the viewing public can wholeheartedly trust their expertise and views on modern immorality, history, and  slavery.

 The best and most extreme example of this phenomenon is the ascension of reality TV celebrity Donald Trump  as the frontrunner in the 2016 Republican presidential race.

Putting aside fact that the Antichrist of NY is making a mockery out of our political process, and he is completely unqualified to be our next President, he is also, like it or not, a glaring example of America’s downward spiral in terms of civility, critical thinking and education.

To be sure, race, income level, religious afflictions, and gender all play a crucial role in voting tendencies, however, voter education level is the glaring eight hundred pound gorilla in the room, that no one wants to acknowledge, let alone talk about.

The Pew Research Center released data in August of 2012 about the GOP gains among working class voters that found: “Lower-income and less educated whites also have shifted substantially toward the Republican party since 2008 election cycle.” Moreover, among white voters without a college education, the GOP holds a 54 percent to 37 percent advantage among non-college whites.

After winning the Nevada caucus, Donald Trump, attributed his victory in part to the poorly educated that supported him, “We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.”

And the poorly educated love him.

According to an entrance poll conducted by CNN, Trump polled highest in Nevada among those with a high school education or less. To be clear, Donald Trumps recent surge has less to do with his “Make America Great Again,” campaign slogan, and more to do with "poorly educated" Americans voting against their best interest.

Nine months ago, the thought of a reality TV celebrity actually becoming President of the United States was completely laughable.  Fast forward nine months later and laughter has turned to outrage and disbelief. The Antichrist of NY is having a good laugh at our collective shock.

 To recap:

The presidential race of 2016 is actually a political I.Q. test, and much to the dismay of most people with half a brain cell, we are failing gloriously.

And here comes the punch line…

The American electorate, comprised of — overwhelmingly but not limited to — poorly educated, white Republicans might make a reality TV celebrity our next Commander in Chief, who by the way, will have the nuclear launch codes. 

Pretty funny, right?