By the Banksy of the River COVID

http://childpsychiatryassociates.com/treatment-team Leave it to Banksy to not only demonstrate that art doesn’t stop just because life does, but to take a skewering jab at our base selves while doing it.

The world’s greatest tagger unveiled his latest work — on Twitter, of all places — earlier this week. Consider it a coronavirus consolation prize; normally his work is painted over by city employees or shredding itself at Sothey’s.Shredded Banksy: was Sotheby's in on the act? | Art and design ...

In the very finite reaches of cyberspace, however, Banksy’s work can be freeze-framed in a fashion that must tickle the artist. His latest, captioned My wife hates it when I work from home, even includes several closeups of the piece, as if he wants you to pay particular attention to some corners of the canvas.

People have certainly paid attention. It became a viral sensation, broke Twitter and even warranted coverage by the venerable institution TMZ. It and other outlets raved that the street-Warhol was telling fans that we are all in this together, that all of us are struggling to cope with the Everyday under the new world order.

I’m not so sure. Banksy has always been subversive in his expressions, and you can make an argument that he’s not casting us as victims of the virus. But that we are virus itself.

Consider: He could have used any animal running rampant through the house. Dogs. Cats. Roaches. Mice. Instead, he chose rats, the symbol of the bacteria bank that financed The Black Plague.In the 3-D work, the rodents have run roughshod over their own habitat.

Hoarded the essentials.

Consumed the vital resources.

Pissed all over the basin.

Sounds like a cautionary environmental message scratching about to me.

It’s hard to imagine Banksy not taking an alternate view of the pandemic. Considering he made his name throwing Molotov Cocktail bouquets into the middle of the modern-art landscape, could he be arguing that COVID-19 is not a virus, but an antibody?Banksy | Art, Biography & Art for Sale | Sotheby's

 

 

 

 

Both the News That’s Fit to Print

Biden VP Rumors: Stacey Abrams, Kamala Harris? It 'Will Be A Woman ...

Considering the pandemic it faces to function and the disinformation coming from its taproot source, the New York Times deserves Pulitzers in multiple categories, including investigative and explanatory honors.

Editorially, however, the bible of journalism has been as spotty as, well, the bible.

Consider: During the presidential primary run, the Times endorsed Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren, depending on where you stood on the progressive scale — a copout endorsement, plain and simple.Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren: The New York Times endorses ...

If you don’t define the scale, how do do you know where you fall on it? (And there was conspicuously no defining where the Times fell on it.)

Now it’s taken the same wavering stance on who Joe Biden should pick as his (promised) female running mate. In a political piece last week, the outlet named Kamela Harris, the Representative from California, as the most likely pick.Kamala Harris For The People

But in an opinion piece today, the Times said that Stacey Abrahms, the gubernatorial hopeful from Georgia, was the “obvious pick,” because of the Democrats’ need to secure the state and connect to young voters.Stacey Abrams 'absolutely' wants to run for president one day, but ...

This is no time for hemming, brethren. Donald Jemimah Trump does enough waffling for the rest of us. Besides, there are real stories to be found in Biden’s ultimate choice — starting with the historical nature of the pick itself.

Regardless of whether there’s an actual election in November (and that’s seriously in doubt), Biden’s VP of choice may be the most telegraphed in modern politics. When has a candidate ever promised to name a VP from the pool of the politically-shunned?

More importantly, the pick is going to tell us what the Democratic party envisions for its future. Does it see national political experience as a merit badge or mark of shame?

The choice matters, even if Trump remains in office until his death. Because when he goes, so too will the party anchored to him. They simply have no provision for this inescapable political reality: For the first time in U.S. history, most American 15-year-olds are non-white, according to the latest census data.

Not only will that fact never change in the U.S.; it will apply to an ever-growing demographic. Whenever we do conduct a presidential election, it will be the last between grandpa Simpsons: angry, white, male and uncertain of their place in the world.Old Man Yells at Cloud | Know Your Meme

And finally, brethren, how about some propers for Warren? She has failed to crack the circle of serious contenders among the pundits, which is simply wrong. Among all the finalists, she truly deserves to be our vice-president. She’s worked longer and harder for the executive office than any of her colleagues, male or female, in office of out of it.Elizabeth Warren has 'a plan for that' — more than 50 expensive ...

That her efforts have gone unrecognized perhaps says the most about the American political landscape and our view of women in it, regardless of how progressive we fancy ourselves.

Silent Lambs and the Wolf King

United States President Donald J. Trump makes remarks at the 2019 National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC.National Prayer Breakfast, Washington DC, USA - 07 Feb 2019

Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is the one who repays you
according to what you have done to us.
Happy is the one who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.

— Psalms 137

It’s been one of the fundamental quandaries of the presidency of Donald J. Trump: How can a man so overtly dedicated to the banality of evil still retain widespread support among Christians?

This is the question that Netflix’s newest harrowing documentary, The Family, attempts to answer over five episodes. Directed by Jesse Moss (The Overnighters), the limited series is based on the non-fiction investigations The Family and C Street, written by Dartmouth College journalism professor and religious scholar Jeff Sharlet. And while the answer isn’t presented as cut-and-dry as it could be, The Family is a profoundly troubling examination of the theocracy that wields power behind-the-scenes in Washington D.C.

The Family, officially The Fellowship Foundation, is an aggregation of non-profit organizations that ostensibly work to spread the word and adhere to the teachings of Jesus. As Sharlet revealed in his books and as Moss expands on in The Family, however, there is a very thin line between evangelizing the work of Jesus and seeking access to those in power through spiritual obligation.

Through interviews with current and past members and true believers and skeptics in the faith community, The Family delves into the hierarchy of the secretive organization and its development into a behind-the-scenes powerhouse under its longtime associate director, Douglas Coe, who died in 2017. The narrative is helped immeasurably by the first-person account of Sharlet, who was unwittingly recruited into the organization and invited to live at Ivanwald, a communal living/indoctrination center for young men in Arlington, Va.Who is Doug Coe? — The Fellowship Foundation Leader From Netflix's ...

As the series unfolds, Trump’s actions that are seen as inexplicable and irredeemable by the secular press  are revealed, through incredible leaps of logic and stunningly short-sighted Biblical interpretation, to actually be victories to this community that seeks power through proximity to important figures.

Trump is a “flawed vessel,” the “wolf king” that can wield power in Jesus’ name like no other. The Bible shows that great men can sin grievously – ever hear of King David and Bathsheba? In that light, his reprehensible actions don’t matter as much as the fact that Trump was chosen by a higher power, a selection that automatically puts him in a category unto himself. We are all Chosen, apparently, but some are much more Chosen than others and those people are to be deified.David and Bathsheba | Bible pictures, David bible, Bible art

The big frustration with The Family is that it explores so many different tentacles of the organization that it fails to come to a cohesive whole. The five hours could have spent drawing a clear throughline between the history of the Foundation and its impact – yes, complete with Russian meddling at the National Prayer Breakfast – up to the election of Trump; instead there are asides that aren’t as compelling, such as Moss’ participation in a local prayer group and visits to several foreign countries to see the international impact of the The Family’s efforts to advocate for anti-gay legislation.

In addition, recurring re-enactments of Sharlet’s experiences at the youth center run by The Family give it an unintentional CW cast-joins-a-cult vibe; most jarring in these sequences is the appearance of instantly recognizable James Cromwell as Coe.

The message, however, remains undiminished. There is a theocracy behind our country’s most baffling choices and its refusal to act is why a truckload of straw bales hasn’t been enough to break the camel’s back when it comes to some Christians and their love of Trump. The biggest sin of all, it appears, is believing in predestination.