Yes. That one.
Artist A gets paid to create the most famous symbol of rampant capitalism. Artist B gets paid to create a statue of a little girl standing in front of Artist A’s bull. Instead of praising B’s artistic/social statement, A files a lawsuit. Artist A instantly hands Artist B. — and the company that commissioned the “Fearless Girl” — a moral victory. Sorry, A. Your artistic Kung Fu is not strong.
Article: Wounded by ‘Fearless Girl,’ Creator of ‘Charging Bull’ Wants Her to Move – The New York Times
Art Cullen, center, editor and co-owner of the Storm Lake Times newspaper, poses for a photo with his son, Tom, left, and brother, John, outside the paper in Storm Lake, Iowa, after Art won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. (Dolores Cullen/Storm Lake Times via Associated Press)
This is thrilling. This classic story is what American journalism is all about: a tiny newspaper — circulation 3,000, printed on actual paper — cranks out fact-based, well-written editorials that stand up to big business, like the Koch Brothers.They’re in a red state, represented by the horrific Steve King, and according to other articles, Art Cullen’s editorials have also helped the immigrant community to feel somewhat safer.
If Jimmy Stewart and Frank Capra were still making movies, they’d make this one.
Take a moment to visit the Pulitzer site, where you can read all of Cullen’s submitted editorials. They’re hard-hitting, with a lightly conversational wit. I’ll be working my way through all of them soon.
Motherboard has two excellent articles that take on the seriously flawed thinking in the Pentagon.
As part of its mission, the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about does its best to promote war and profit from it; its greed drives military leaders to constantly acquire bigger, more expensive weapons. In the case of the F-35 Raptor, they’ve spent $1.5 trillion — yes, Trillion, with a T — developing an aircraft that’s vastly over budget and seriously under-powered. And now, to cut costs and rush the planes into the field, the Air Force has watered it down. The manufacturer is set to deliver a jet that has no infrared missiles for air-to-air combat, no small GPS bombs, no cruise missiles, and no gun. One of its intended missions was close air support — and yet the plane has no small GPS bombs or guns. So, #MissionFailure. The F-35 is basically an overly complicated, hard to fix, incredibly expensive brick.
And was it needed? A lot of people say no. The one existing aircraft that can kick the Raptor’s butt in terms of close air support is the A-10 Thunderbolt, a.k.a. the “Warthog.” It’s a legendary Vietnam-era aircraft that does that job and does it incredibly well. The irony is that in order to pay for the piece-of-junk Raptor, the Warthog fleet had to be retired. Isn’t that brilliant?
But what about other planes? Is there something out there that can serve our ground troops with great air cover? Yep. It’s made in Brazil. And it has a propeller.
It’s time for the military to stop ordering expensive toys, and start equipping our troops with what they need. If they must fight wars, they deserve the right tools for the job.
Motherboard: The WWII-Era Plane Giving the F-35 a Run for Its Money
Motherboard: The US Air Force Watered Down the F-35 Fighter Jet to Avoid Embarrassment
Today’s hero: Gordon Chesterman, head of the careers service at Cambridge University. He recognizes that the lure of money thrown at graduates by large corporations’ recruiters is robbing the world of bright, concerned young people who could make a positive difference if they followed their hearts instead of taking the money-bait.
He told me his service tries to counter the influence of the richest employers. It sends out regular emails telling students “if you don’t want to become a banker, you’re not a failure”, and runs an event called “But I don’t want to work in the City”. It imposes a fee on rich recruiters and uses the money to pay the train fares of nonprofits. He expressed anger about being forced by the government to provide data on graduate starting salaries.
“I think it’s a very blunt and inappropriate means [of comparison], that rings alarm bells in my mind.”
This conversation is a major eye-opener. While most of us have understood that the Europeans and the U.S. government have run roughshod over the American Indian since the Europeans arrived, Professor Robert Williams has an incredibly tight grasp of the legal underpinnings of all that racism. From ancient Roman times to the Doctrine of Discovery that has given Congress what it thinks is the right to do with Indian lands and people what it likes. This is a fascinating and powerful edition of Moyers & Company — and, sadly, it’s the next to last to air on PBS. Thanks to Kris Nangle for the tip!
http://www.alternet.org/bill-moyers-its-non-stop-land-grab-american-indians
YES. America is desperately in need of a 12-step program, and this is it.
Bernie Sanders has the intelligence and character to get the things done that will help bring America back to its economic best, and get Americans work that pays a living wage — instead of corporations like Walmart forcing workers to seek government help.
What can one say about what’s happening in Ferguson? From what I’d read of the evidence, I expected the no-bill — but I was hoping the inevitable protests would include minimal violence.
The frustrations that have built up in poor communities are completely understandable. The way the post-shooting situation was handled in Ferguson was horrific. On a day-to-day basis, corporations refuse to pay a living wage. The country still hasn’t recovered from the Wall Street-sponsored crash of the economy. But as happens so often, though, a relatively small number of people have decided to set everything they see on fire… which doesn’t help anything except the twisted ego of the arsonist.
Burning down businesses won’t bring Michael back, and won’t bring any kind of justice for the Black community — civil, criminal, or economic. And as happens in these cases, many of the businesses are locally-owned… family-owned. And burning them down is definitely not going to help the community’s economy.
But… I guess all of this should have been expected. When you keep people trapped and economically enslaved day after day, year after year, and law enforcement consistently acts with racial bias, it’s going to happen. It’s not excusable. But it’s definitely predictable.
Justice isn’t justice unless it’s complete. Civil rights. Fair enforcement of criminal laws. Income equality. All of these things for everyone, no matter what their ethnicity or age or beliefs or gender or sexual orientation.
We’ve regressed to a state in America that didn’t even exist in the 1950s and 1960s, during the civil rights movement. With the radical militarization of police departments, the ever-increasing economic domination of the top 1% of the population, and the blatant buying and selling of political power, we can expect to see more of this.
We need to do everything we can to turn the political situation around, and the resulting economic situation. No more dark money. Get a minimum wage passed. See to it that police departments are demilitarized and their combative cultures are repaired. Stop this regression that the radical Right has been pushing for, backed by corporate dollars.
This is not the America I grew up in. Some things are better, but too many are worse.
We can’t allow a few violent, disturbed people stop us from building and repairing bridges, keeping lines of communication open, and working toward equality and justice.
Self-interest has been proven a failure. Let’s get back to work on helping each other.
That’s what will help America.
That’s what will bring about justice.