Koons

A profile of a survivor of the attack at the Bataclan:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/12/surviving-bataclan-you-have-to-live-life-to-the-full-for-all-the-people-who-died

Commemorative sculpture :

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/nov/22/jeff-koons-sculpture-tribute-paris-attacks-bouquet-of-tulips

The American Post Modernist artist Koontz is creating a sculpture to commemorate the terrorist massacre at the Bataclan in France. I was struck be the vapidity of it and to learn more I found the following critique of an earlier work that shed a lot of light on his work. 

"So, when Koons says his work has no meaning, it's because he believes it shouldn't, and that's what makes it good. This kind of hardline Postmodernism has been discredited as overstating the case to the point of stupification and vapidity, partly for the irony of trying to appear more profound by denying profundity exists. I would have understood his art better, and sooner, if I'd had a lobotomy before looking at it. "

From: https://artofericwayne.com/2013/11/21/how-to-understand-jeff-koons-paintings-and-why-they-are-an-attempt-at-original-art-includes-a-top-ten-list-of-his-key-features/

If all that people see is a bunch of cartoon flowers, I'm not sure the message of hope and solidarity is going to come thru. 

Donald Trump’s locker room

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/12/donald_trump_s_locker_room.html

"When the tape came out, Trump dismissed it as "locker-room talk." But what you have to understand about Trump—what you see on that tape, in his meeting with the Times, and in the arena in Cincinnati—is that he's always in the locker room. He's always trying to endear himself to some people by insulting others. If you're in the room, he's your buddy. If you're not, you're just another pussy."

Trump May Have Gotten Carrier To Keep 1,000 Jobs, But Manufacturing Jobs Aren't Coming Back : NPR

http://www.npr.org/2016/12/01/503987418/carrier-will-keep-1-000-jobs-but-trump-faces-a-much-tougher-jobs-problem

""Old-fashioned production and clerical jobs that paid reasonably well to people with only a high school diploma or less, those are disappearing rapidly," said Harry Holzer, professor of public policy at Georgetown University.

In 1973, more than two-thirds of jobs were held by people with a high school diploma or less, according to a 2014 report by the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown. By 2020, they project, that will be flipped; just over one-third of jobs will require a high school diploma alone or less; two-thirds will call for some kind of postsecondary education."

New York Daily News: KING: Even Frosted Flakes dumps Breitbart — because they’re hate

New York Daily News: KING: Even Frosted Flakes dumps Breitbart — because they're hate. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwmNys9Sk

"This is completely and utterly despicable. It's dangerous. A man whose work is too hateful to be affiliated with Frosted Flakes or Allstate Insurance or Vanguard Mutual Funds is somehow good enough for the White House.

Every company should absolutely follow the lead of these other companies and remove their advertising dollars from Breitbart, but the deeper point remains – the man who made it into the hateful platform it is, will now be crafting the direction of our country.

It's an embarrassment to our nation, yes, but it is a normalization of bigotry unlike anything I've ever seen in my lifetime."