A Little TrumpWorld Idolatry for Your Sunday Services

This feels unhealthy to me, but of course, it's parked right there at Trump International Golf Course now, because why not? It's a Trump property, and if he wants to decorate with assorted artworks promoting the man, the myth, the legend, I guess that's his business. It's just that when he does stuff like this,

it's hard not to feel like he's sending a very political message:

The White House moved the official portrait of former President Barack Obama to a new location in the building’s Grand Foyer, replacing it with a painting of President Donald Trump with his fist raised in the air right after last year’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The portrait appears to be based on a photo of then-candidate Trump, bloodied and surrounded by Secret Service agents, still onstage after being shot at the campaign event. That image, along with Trump’s words to “fight, fight, fight,” became a hallmark of Trump’s bid for a second term.

"Appears to be"? Of course it is.  Trump didn't just suddenly find himself like a martyr, you know. His cult believes that what didn't kill him made him stronger. 

Climate Sunday: Fire, Water, and the Sacred Things

 

Saudi Health Minister Fahd bin Abdurrahman Al-Jalajel said that 83% of the 1,301 fatalities were unauthorized pilgrims who walked long distances in soaring temperatures to perform the Hajj rituals in and around the holy city of Mecca.https://t.co/ULoOMijRBI

— KATU News (@KATUNews) June 23, 2024

The Saudi Health minister can go ahead and blame the faithful for being "unauthorized" to come to do the Hajj, but this denial is hiding a very terrible story--the Hajj is becoming unsustainable. The pilgrimage to the site of the two holy places is too hot in the summer months for many people--the aged, the disabled. The faith of the pilgrims is great--the human ability to withstand the temperatures that are becoming more common is limited.

We've seen climate activists target several works of art, but most recently, the painting of Stonehenge got our attention:

This act disturbs ancient lichens that have protected the stones for one thing (ignore JK Rowling--she actually is Dolores Umbridge which is just the worst thing, and even worse, she is and probably knows it).  It's a weird act of vandalism that detracts from the message that we need to protect the things we love, for another. Also, just as a person with some ancestral connection to Blighty, there's some folk shit you need to leave alone. You fuck about with ancients liths and you are bound to get spirited off and knackered by rogue Morris dancers the next time you're exiting last call at the pub. 

You First, Assholes

 

“People are so sick of being preached at about politics from rock bands”

“Stick to what you’re good at. You’re not a political analyst. You’re probably not really well read on the issues that Americans really care about” pic.twitter.com/vnGna7jkzo

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 2, 2024

Maybe Fox News pretend analysts need to shut up--at least long enough to hear what others are saying.

Actually, successful rock bands are political analysts or at least, seize the zeitgeist and appeal to people because they enunciate feelings other people can vibe with.  Are people really sick of being preached at about politics from rock bands--or is it that something they say resonates and that's why they have a following? I mean, songs like "For What It's Worth", or "Ohio" or "Southern Man" or "Leaving on a Jet Plane" or "Eve of Destruction"--the "freedom rock " Woodstock era stuff I heard as my early lullabies, weren't any more neutral than the "Ballad of the Green Berets" was. 

Now, whether I listened to the Dead Kennedys or INXS or The Clash, I heard politics, even as a kid. I don't understand people who ever listened to the lyrics of Rage Against the Machine and never understood what the machine was. Was it a soda machine? Were they just mad they couldn't get their Barq's root beer jones on?  Of course, they were political. 

Look, one of my ear-influences is Billy Bragg. Punk as fuck. Not punk as fuck--slipping in your old age and deciding Trump is punk. Trump is The Man that fighting the power has been about since, whatever. 

And Green Day's "American Idiot" was explicitly a political album. Just like Neil Young's "Living with War."  Bob Dylan--political. Bruce Springsteen--political. Patti Smith, Bikini Kill, Hole, Pussy Riot. 

Fox News talking heads are not political analysts.  They are propagandists. Who knows what ass they pull what they say from? They aren't musical, they aren't artful, they aren't well-informed, and they say whatever the network wants. Conservatism isn't edgy when they go against the mainstream--mostly they are just counterfactual and fronting for some paymaster--the dead opposite of the punk ethos.

Or to put it in rank Gen X terms--they are sell outs. They want you to dismiss what you are hearing because "you can't handle the reality of it". But you totally could get "woke" if you listened to the lyrics around you.  Fox News "analysts" are fake and don't represent anything going on in the real world. If they want someone to stop talking about politics--instead of shutting up artists who care about the world, they could shut the hell up because they just care about payday. 

Maybe the Boomers who listen to Fox should go ahead and re-listen to that "freedom rock" I teethed on as a kid. It was politics. And a lot of it was dead-on. 

The Fundamentals of My Feminism

 An artist depicted a Great Wall of Vaginas (Vulvas, actually) and because I'm me, I thought about the amazing plaster caster Cynthia Albritton of recent blessed memory, who got depictions of the units of so many male artists including Jimi Hendrix. The monuments to assorted gifted phalli aren't necessarily controversial--but someone has decided to be the decider of correct and appropriate vulvularity. 

We did not need that. Purity culture is already doing a wonderful job of telling female-bodied people we are having bad vulvas. They are telling young girls they are used up by just using tampons for their menses. 

We are told we are worth less because of our "body count" and that multiple penises and births are making our one interesting feature (our vag) less useful. Sloppy, slippery, loose, etc. 

They do not seem to know we have muscles on our pelvic floor that can push out whole human life many times over. We are not spent because of little penetrations (tampons, penises) when we are made to birth big-headed babies. Vulvas are elastic and fantastic. 

But anatomy is not destiny. Having a vulva or a uterus does not mean you identify as female, and I support referring to people who birth, menstruate, or have uteruses or vulvas, as being referred to in that way as appropriate. I am not being referred to when someone is talking about a "birthing person" and I don't feel excluded by that. I technically might be able to--but I know despite being female, that isn't me. It's a term of fact, not a judgment. 

Don't Sleep On Lovecraft Country

I originally thought this blog would be a hell of a lot more book, movie and tv reviews than it ended up being, but when something is just amazing, I will still let you know--and HBO's Lovecraft Country series, produced by Jordan Peele (which let me know this was going to be astounding quality) is actually better than I even hoped it would be and at episode three is hitting its pace.

I liked the book (it was one of those finds I have talked about when you go into a brick and mortar bookstore with a real bookstore smell and maybe even a bookstore cat in it--like Farley's in New Hope, PA, which was where I picked up Matt Ruff's inspired novel, where the kind of book you want to read finds you) but converted to television, in the hands of a great storyteller like Misha Green and with talent like Jurnee Smollett I have been blown away.

As with the remarkable HBO serial Watchmen, Lovecraft Country incorporates seldom-reviewed episodes of American history (like the Greenwood Massacre or the Turnbull Park Homes Race Riots) into outstanding genre entertainment. It is beautifully layered. In the most recent episode, which inspired this post, the ghosts of a tortured past are made whole by their names being spoken, and their supernatural horror is pitched against the very physical danger of white supremacy. The Black protagonists are terrorized by the local constabulary (in a wagon ride reminiscent of Freddie Gray's last "rough ride", Leticia Lewis is told about how her complaints to the law are lost, while they know very well about complaints made by her neighbors) and in a "are you for real?" kids being kids in an very obvious to 1950s kids Addams Family/Munsters haunted house-ass-looking haunted house, one of the kids playing with a Ouija board seems to be Emmett Till.

One part of the ouija board scene in this week’s @LovecraftHBO briefly chilled my bones. The little boy who asked if he’d have a good time on his upcoming trip. The board said no, and if you look closely we know why: pic.twitter.com/JWdKXcys6i

— Lee Bey (@LEEBEY) August 31, 2020

And here I was wondering if the tenant named Baldwin meant anything since the show quoted James Baldwin at length in episode 1 (and here we are at only episode 3, and it's already felt like a journey!)

This is good damn tv, and I recommend it highly. But maybe don't sleep on it--put a little something lighter between your viewing it and bedtime. Because here there be ghosts and magicians and bad things that burn crosses in the night. It can be a lot.

But it's really good.

Chadwick Boseman Forever

pic.twitter.com/aZ2JzDf5ai

— Chadwick Boseman (@chadwickboseman) August 29, 2020

It is absolutely gutting to think of this gifted actor, having done some of the finest work while his body was suffering from a terminal disease, being gone, but it's a reminder of how much every day must count, and if there is any word for a career like his, even if cut too short, it's got to be: legendary.

My heart goes out to the loved ones he leaves behind.

Trump's Still Big. It's the Pictures That Got Small. Er.

Trump tells this annoying Kevin person exactly where he can go, like a real (TM) New Yorker would.

So, it looks like the President, who has definitely been impeached despite the opinion of a few lawyers (who are totally sucking up or trying to be special), is pretty sure that photogenic legacy-PM of Canada, Justin Trudeau, had a hand in the CBC's editing out of Trump's really brief cameo in that time-honored cinematic classic, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Because obviously, the 7 seconds he got as a part of a rider to film on his property were integral to the plot, and you know, you have to preserve the movie as made, so only politics could cause anyone to butcher a movie by editing out its biggest celebrity!

Especially someone with his very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! (They don't just give those away, you know.  Nor can they just vote them away.  Even if people really, really wanted to.) 

I think it is definitely possible that Trudeau has no idea at all how hard someone like Trump has worked for the recognition he has received in Hollywood.  Does an IMDB page like this happen by accident? I should certainly think not! 

But just imagine if everyone did realize how hard Trump worked to be considered a celebrity and understood this to be a visible sore point with him, when he is not recognized for his genius at television and movies and all that? Ouch! Like, if actual movie stars understood his slights came from a place of sick jealousy? If more politicians understood the same?

That would be a terrible sore bunion for people to step on, would it not? But Trump needn't worry--there are some videos he hasn't been edited out of, I suppose, available where that sort of thing is traded. 

That could be some solace, or maybe not. I'm not very knowledgeable about such things, myself. 

Hello--Goodbye

As noted the other night, Bannon's time art the White House was, indeed, about to draw to a close (although I'm pretty sure his presence will still be felt.) With Bannon's ouster, the betting window is now taking serious money for how long Sebastian Gorka will remain--I've never really been entirely sure what his job was, myself. I'm not really even sure what the impact on the White House will be--people who did not care for Bannon and thought his associations with the so-called "alt-right" were bad might feel that Bannon's leaving matters, but I can't help but note--Trump remains.

This was a week for other departures as well. After several CEO's left the president's Manufacturing Council and Strategy and Policy Forum, Trump ended them so that they could stop quitting on him. As a tidy capper to Infrastructure Week, Trump also wrapped up plans for an Infrastructure Council by scrapping it. Billionaire Carl Icahn will no longer advise Trump. (Steve Mnuchin's Yale classmates would like him to do the same.)

And the membership of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities sent Trump a "Dear Don" letter, which cleverly spelled out: "resist". His faith advisors are also concerned with what the president has been saying this past week. Pastor A.R. Bernard stepped down.

No wonder, then, that the President and the First Lady will not be attending the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony this coming December--he feels unwanted. I suggest that Trump doesn't have "personnel" problems--he has a Trump problem, and he takes it wherever he goes.

UPDATE: I forgot about all the Digital Council resignations. My apologies. There are just so many.

Netflix Finds: Cloud Atlas (2012)

Because I am trying to avoid being constantly mired in political mockery, I'm trying to be appreciative of artistic things (or, if I can't get appreciative, I can enjoy eviscerating them as a large dog enjoys destroying a toy made for a much smaller dog).  Today, I was in need of entertainment--Netflix, random-setting (i.e. spouse's choice) came up Cloud Atlas.

At a bit under three hours and with a promise of intersecting storylines crossing centuries, I was a little alarmed. This could be barking gibberish to a late-Friday brain ready for something a little less deep, and since I don't pay attention to popular culture except a little bit, wasn't there supposed to be something not right abou..aw fuggit, I finally decided, with true acceptance. I was going to just enjoy the ride.

Which paid off. Look, you should understand that you have a brilliant cast of people playing multiple roles across time--the advertising for the movie clues you in on the premise, and if you don't accept the premise--don't see the movie. I'm sure there's a Steven Seagal movie for you to see. He even does accents. He's like, the Meryl Streep of direct-to-video action movies.  He's even done some sf. Go see those. This isn't a put-down of Steven Seagal movies, since I'm apparently watching them--this is a judgment about you. You get in the right space to see Cloud Atlas, and you will see it the way I did--PMS-y and a little teary and loving all the touches. 

Now, there are some weak spots--Tom Hanks is a brilliant actor, but can not actually keep what I think was supposed to be an Irish accent to save his life. He plays one character in a way that veers from London to Dublin accent-wise in a way I'm not sure how to entirely accept-- but luckily, that particular character is not pervasive. And his performance in several other roles is amazing. 

Halle Berry--I love her in this. I love her as Luisa Rey and Meronym. I love Hugo Weaving for once again being the Agent Smith-style heavy in most of his roles in the flick, as he was in the Wachowskis' Matrix Trilogy. He does great menace. I am astounded by Hugh Grant just being in there in character roles in a not-Notting Hill way, but in a ballsy "have fun being characters" way.  OMG--Jim Sturgess and Doona Bae--there was fine work here. Ben Whishaw? Keith David? I just want to shout the whole cast out as stupidly good in a storyline that veers from scene to scene in a disjointed timeline to try and demonstrate how good deeds and bad follow people beyond their own lifetime. 

But it is beautiful. It's about deciding people matter. It's about looking beyond yourself, and seeing the other, and knowing this is also you. 

I just found it beautiful..

Netflix Finds: Salt and Fire

This evening, I watched a movie I did not personally pick out. It was the choice of my spouse, who sometimes sees something he thinks he might like and clicks on it even though I am in the same room and he could ask if I have any interest at all. Sometimes, he picks something really good. I recently enjoyed Lo Chiamavamo Jeeg Robot, which, while definitely reminding me of the problematic relationship so-called "(super)heroic" themes have with respect to female characters (vide The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente which explores the "women in refrigerators" trope and The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley) also was a send-up of the application of fantasy to the "real world". And then there was this film I saw just now: Salt and Fire.  

I did not enjoy this movie. About 20 minutes in, I did a thing I often do after watching a movie, where I consult with online reviews to see if other people felt the way I did. (I seldom consult reviews before--for one thing, there is a risk of spoilers and setting expectations, which I just hate. I like to see a movie with little more than the trailers to get me going.) I was happy to know many felt the way I was feeling about this thing.

There's an irony to the theme of the movie (a hostage scenario) and my getting "trapped" into watching it. Me--I'm no sentimentalist when it comes to films. I will walk the hell out or quit viewing if I'm on my own watching a film. Not sposo mio. He commits. And I, as a part of our unspoken joint adventure together as media co-consumers, have decided it is better to just be part of the ride. I have watched, for fun, really wretched B-movie schlocky-ass stuff I would never subject him to--I understand my tolerances for crap. So I tolerate. I forbear. I bitch strongly afterwards. I know if something was truly unacceptable, violent, exploitative, he'd shut it off and not watch with me if I gave the word. But this time, because I'm trying to get away from just doing politics all the time, I'm submitting my multiple grouses with this nonsense in a review.

The actors did well with what they had. Michael Shannon and Veronica Ferres are not to be faulted for the dialogue that could not help but be leaden. I genuinely think they did as convincing a job as could be done with a story which is kind of The Worst. Veronica Ferres plays Dr. Laura Sommerfeld, a scientist who is part of a UN delegation to an ecological disaster in South America. Her delegation is taken hostage when they arrive at the airport, and the male members of the delegation have been segregated and afflicted with food poisoning to disable them. She comes to be aware that she is singled out by the kidnappers because of their mission, and she is told by Matt Riley (the head kidnapper played by Michael Shannon), after some weird nonsense about perspective in an Italian Renaissance mural and a little inquisition about her not being the custodian of her little girl, who lives in Morocco with her birth father (thanks, patriarchy!) , that the area is under threat because of a potential supervolcano threat which is more drastic really, than the ecological disaster in the long run, isn't it?. And then she is abandoned in a salt flat miles from anywhere with two blind little boys who basically just speak Spanish and the local dialect. 

And she perseveres. She takes the kids under her supervision, and works out how to speak with them, feed them, rationing water and trying to spare them the ugly truth of their situation, not understanding at all why they were abandoned this way. She plays with them, becomes affectionate with them. And then, as things look desperate, the head kidnapper and his guys show up and apparently he was the boys' adoptive father, and the ecological disaster he created (I don't care if I'm spoiling you regarding this movie--watch it at your own risk because it is dumb!) is what killed their natural mother and made them blind. (Also he abandons them with a female scientist he just thinks might be a hell of a mothering type because she has a child she is removed from--not father of the year material, him.)  He wants a cookie from her because he's going to "turn himself in" (I guess to the "ecological disaster police"?) and doesn't think she deserves an apology for being kidnapped or abandoned with these kids in a completely inhospitable situation because he's feeling sort of noble about owning up to his fuckery, and he's only done it to get her to be the very best witness possible to the full extent of his stupid fuckery so she could tell his story the way he perceives it.

This isn't Art, and Not a Good Point

I guess, arguendo, different people will have different ideas about what constitutes "art". Art is something like porn was for Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart: You know it when you see it. This is a definition that doesn't satisfy, and as every good internetizen knows: YMMV. (For what it's worth, if you just put the search words "porn" and "potter" in a search engine now, you will be confronted with pages of Harry Potter porn links. Some of them might conceivably be at least a little artistic, porn and art not being mutually exclusive.) But I think the standard where an image of the red-headed comedian holding aloft a fake-blood-covered Donald Trump mask in an imitation of a beheading falls a bit short of art, and seems a bit more like political porn.

There is a stuffiness about discussing "redeeming social value". Art isn't always redemptive--it can sometimes be cynical and stark as all hell. But points have to be given on the basis of whether a piece effectively conveys what was intended--and I can't say that this does. The "Trump" imagined by Kathy Griffin's pose is, perhaps, a gorgon:

Or a dragon or a giant or a lamia or any other sort of beast that can be beheaded in a legend without our considering that entity as human, but fully monstrous. In a profession where targets are "roasted", audiences are "killed", and failing acts "bomb", this over-the-top symbolism might make sense: It was comedy that killed the beast. (After the tagline of most renditions of King Kong--substituting "comedy" for "beauty".  Contra Keats, what is beautiful is not always true, but comedy usually works because of a kernel of truth. Truth, reality, is the anti-matter to a lying regime. But it only works if the joke doesn't need to be bloody explained.)

We don't live in such times where we are dealing with mythological creatures in a way where an audience accepts legend as our referent. Donald Trump is, whatever his faults, a human man, and the worst thing we can say about his policies is that they are centered in dehumanizing others: criminalizing immigrants, privileging some religions over others, encouraging punch-down violence. Where, then, is the sense in dehumanizing him, and making violence a matter of smirking exultation?

It was misguided, and not supported by most liberals, and Griffin herself has now apologized. As a bad bit of art that should be and was rubbished, that should be that. And yet we now have a counter-example to whatever violent image fuckery we on the left mean to decry-- "But Kathy Griffin". This is absurd, and completely expected.

It should not take the sting out of factual claims about what is happening on the right, however. The gorgon's head was never meant to shock us liberals, you know. Attention-sponge and thirsty-comedian Kathy Griffin was pushing RW buttons. And I would be afraid to wade in into her social media mentions right now, because that woman is probably getting cause to call the authorities--and that? Is as well worth talking about as her satire-misfire. I believe she intended no threat (does anyone seriously think even a D-list celeb is going to be a fence-jumper?) and is probably just being nearly Ted Nugent-levels of shit-talking stupid.

But if you come to "But Kathy Griffin" at me, I will "but BLM" forever. Or "but queer-bashing" forever. Or "but Portland" forever.  Because a ham-fisted visual message isn't the same thing as actual physical violence, any more than eating a menu is just as good as eating a sandwich. And while Griffin's message was botched, she wasn't actually trying to get anyone killed.

"Hamilton" Has a Message for Mike Pence

Tonight, VP-Elect Mike Pence attended #HamiltonBway. After the show, @BrandonVDixon delivered the following statement on behalf of the show. pic.twitter.com/Jsg9Q1pMZs

— Hamilton (@HamiltonMusical) November 19, 2016

When VP-Elect Mike Pence attended the hit Broadway show Hamilton, the crowd had a message for him in the form of boos (and some cheers, but whether they were cheers for Pence or cheers for the booing is an awkward question, no?) But the cast had a message for Gov. Pence--

“We sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us,” said actor Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr.

“We truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us,” Dixon said. “This is one American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds and orientations.”

Who knows how well-received this message would be by an embarrassed pol who had already skated out? But while some might decry the etiquette of booing an elected official at such an event, I think a little recap of the life and bigoted times of Mike Pence might be in order. For one thing, he is no friend to the LGBTQ community.  He is in favor of conversion therapy which is extremely harmful and useless, and has promoted bigotry against LGBTQ people on religious grounds.  His ignorance about the health of drug addicts prompted an AIDS epidemic, and his phenomenal resistance to female-bodied reproductive rights should not go unnoticed.

In fact, I would say, if you don't have the privilege of getting to "boo" Mike Pence at a Broadway show, you might even want to consider being one of the thousands who have donated to Planned Parenthood on Mike Pence's behalf.

I guess I vaguely understand why some people feel like a show of disrespect to Pence is somehow a show of disrespect to the office to which he has been elected. But I entirely understand that this was exactly about him, and a rejection of his apparent fitness for that office. We have no kind of lese majeste laws in this republic. We do have freedom of speech. People can disagree, but that's about it.

UPDATE: Did I forget about his voter suppression against mostly POC's during this past election cycle? Because that is also ridiculous and horrible. He is really owning many ways to deserve getting "booed".

I Stand with Atena Farghadani Even if I'm a Crap Artist

 

Twelve years is an awfully long sentence for a cartoonist to face for sketching out the truth as she saw it. The Guardian offers a means of solidarity--sharing one's own cartoon regarding the issue. Iran is supposedly a kind of democracy--but without free speech, this is a useless exercise. If political leaders can't be criticized, then anything they do is pre-emptively sanctioned.

I tooled about for five minutes in MS Paint, and I admit, I wouldn't have sketched much better. But my little contribution is to say that images don't hurt anyone--they might be a smidgen snarky, but that doesn't harm anyone or damage society.  But sentencing caring and eloquent and talented people because they care, because they are eloquent, because they have something to say--damages society in every way. This cartoonist should not lose such a chunk of her life. No. The political figures being mocked should understand that this criticism is a part of their job. They may not like it--who would? But if they do not like to be depicted as asses, the ideal solution would be to perform as less of an ass, not to punish the person who points it out.

The Bamiyan Buddhas Recreated in Light

A project to project the images of the fallen Bamiyan Buddha statues, destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban, in the spaces where they once stood, has provided a graceful memorial to the destroyed historical treasures.

The illumination has brought relief to many of the locals who had been pressed into service by the Taliban in 2001 to destroy the Buddhas. After tank fire failed, the local workers drilled holes, planted dynamite and conducted a series of explosions to bring the giant statues down. "I regretted it at that time, I regret it now and I will always regret it," one of the workers, bike repairman Mirza Hussain, told the BBC in March. "But I could not resist, I didn't have a choice because they would have killed me."

Many have called for the reconstruction of the statues, but UNESCO suggests rebuilding the massive stone Buddhas might be impossible. With the new light projection, the Bamiyan Valley might just have the next best thing.

I think there is something fitting in the idea that modern technology restored what a remorseless anti-modernity and intolerant  culture destroyed. It's not quite the same thing as the statues actually being back, but in a way, this project demonstrates that ideas are not destroyed and that history is meaningful and gives us inspiration and should be respected--and that new technologies are the way that subsequent generations can appreciate and build on the achievements of those that went before. History, technology, civilization--these things are cumulative (I want to say "progressive", but that word is unnecessarily politically fraught--except you know what I mean.)

What Happens to A DREAMER Deterred?

Does he get swept up
like a felon a-roam?
Or hide as if on the lam--
in his home?
Does this bill go down
in a Senate defeat
or should a Presidential veto
stomp it complete?

And what should voters
make of this load--

Could this party implode?

Never mind my doggerel, as I pause to consider that the House leadership handed over the reins to people who say things like "I hang out with border patrol agents clandestinely", and kids are loaded up with birth control pills before being set out on "rape paths", and that migrants with "calves like cantaloupes" schlep backpacks with 75 lbs of marijuana over the border. (Which I still say is an amazing weight loss boot camp concept, no? Seriously, I think Rep. Steve King has never watched a Cheech and Chong movie if he thinks this is how "grass" gets up here.) So of course, they voted to end the work permits of over a half-million jobs-having undocumented young people who have basically not known any other country, and are in fact not in any way tied to the current border crisis (leaving them to be potentially deported to countries with which they have no ties), stepped up to pay for National Guard deployments--which is just going to corral, not contain, more young migrant folks who will just be put in the system, and brushed away the compassionate option to detain the youngsters until a hearing could be held to determine a possible refugee or asylum status--which does not at all address the plight these youths are fleeing, and sends them back into possible "rape paths" and into the hands of drug cartels.

So, uh, nice going GOP reps, you have some kind of thing to go back to the constituents that voted you in with? And oh darn, you think you will have Harry Reid to blame for this bill getting shot down once the Senate comes back, and not Ted Cruz?

I don't think that's how things really stand, at all. Because in one breath, yesterday, there was a little inhalation of "The President will have to act unilaterally because we can't get our shit together". And today, the exhalation is: "The President will still have to act unilaterally, because this is the nonsense we come up with when we do get our shit together".

Guess what? Both options are not helping. Our tax money is paying for the GOP House to be less than useless, and sue Obama for doing things on his own, and then a taxpayer-funded Representative like Michele Mouth-Breathing Bachmann talks about putting a handcuff on one of his hands. While all this election-year floundering is basically called "leaving it up to the President to fix it and take blame"?

You know, some people might think this is transparently bullshit. But I suspect sadly enough that it still isn't transparent enough for regular voting people. This was a purely political and useless vote, and it will be loved by somebody(ies), nonetheless.

Still Maya Angelou Rises

If it is true that a person will be remembered for how they made people feel, then let me tell you, Maya Angelou was positivity unrestrained, a force of optimism and a boon to the human spirit, a person who in words made it clear that words themselves mattered because they were how the human mind expressed itself even to a contrary world. Her experience and eloquence touched many people and she will live on in fierce words and kind words, in powerful words and soft words that turned away wrath, in wisdom and with the affection of many to whom she was a voice of inspiration. As many writers do, she wrote her epitaph again and again, in her case, with no false words and also with acts of grace.

She remains a uniquely American treasure.

I theoretically posit a God that doesn't like "tacky".

This is a collection of hit'n'run stories I couldn't help but notice:

Six-Story "Butter Jesus" goes down In Flames--Church will Rebuild

That isn't the actual title of this story from WKRC in Cincinnati, but it sums up the tale of a veritible icon of the Internets--the "Butter Jesus" or "Touchdown Jesus", a rough-hewn, six-story, upper-torso of the Redeemer with arms out-stretched, tacky roadside attraction, that to many, summed up the ostentatious "badness" of much religious "art"--which was struck by lightning and burned, as if smitten (smote?) from above. I'm kind of hoping they change the design a little, to something a tiny bit more tasteful. Maybe they could go with "glow in the dark"?

In other news, the Painter Of Light was apparently "Lit" in this story from Gawker, which is where I honestly get a lot of my news, anymore.
I hate ripping on an artist just trying to make a buck, but, damn, he paints some funky "twee"-looking nonsense. You just expect a pixie to come sparkling out of his ultra-flourescent flower bushes. And why are the windows of all his buildings lit up like that? In Kincade-ville, folks are simple and spiritual, but their electric bills are ridiculous. For the record, DUI, bad. But for me, inspirational prayer-garden, solitary chapel, snowy Christmas big-ass cottage schlock is like Chicken Soup for the Taste-Impaired and Religiously Bent.

Although this story has nothing to do with "art", it has a bunch to do with "tacky"--

Mormons Found Guilty on 13 Counts of Prop 8 Malfeasance, Fined by FPPC

To my way of thinking, a whole group of religious busybodies prying their way financially and politically into the personal lives of hundreds of couples in California strikes me as awfully tacky. Not just illegal--tacky. They could have minded their own business, saved their money, and tithed to something good like malaria nets for people in Africa or something. But instead, they had to propagandize about who grown people chose to make their official life-partners, and that is sad. But really? Tacky. Tacky. Tacky.

Very cool Steampunk architecture at Web Urbanist--

I had to link to this to share with my casual wanderers-in because I really think the artwork in this feature at Weburbanist is super-cool. The artist is David Trautrimas, and the medium is ancient household appliances. But the plausible and fanciful futurescapes he incorporates them into is a fascinating display of creativity. Because he uses older appliances, the look evokes retro-future, but also has a kind of delapidated quality, as if we were viewing something in our future, but past the better days of the edifice in question.

Anyway, check it out. Sometimes you can kind of make out what the bits were before they were re-purposed into art, and that is part of the fun with these pieces, too.