Politics
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Politics Update: Lincoln Restler's Election Results Still Unclear
Posted by Virginia K. Smith on Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 10:51 AM
Friday, June 29, 2012
Politics The Reverend Billy Returns to New York, Ready to Fight
Posted by Jonny Diamond on Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 1:01 PM
The Reverend Billy and his wonderful rabble-rousing choir return to the Highline Ballroom this Sunday, to raise awareness about the Spectra Pipeline, a gas-delivery system with its sights on Manhattan. Go. Have fun, learn, dance out your anger...
The L Magazine: Over the past few years, you seem to have shifted focus a little from the general perils/evils of consumerism to the environmental degradations of corporate greed, specifically mountaintop removal and fracking. Why the change? And what’s next?
Reverend Billy: You get this sense they think they'll find industrial energy absolutely anywhere: "Excuse me, what is the device that is attached to my front door? Oh, you're harvesting the flammable microbes in our breath?" Mountaintop removal and fracking and tar sands: these are dangerous, but they're already so absurd that we will need remedial science fiction classes to get a handle on the nature of the crime. It shouldn't surprise us that they don't think about the end of the world—why would that occur to them? It's too mundane.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Art / Film / Politics Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry at Northside Film Tonight
Posted by Paul D'Agostino on Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 3:41 PM
In a great many ways, Ai Weiwei is no stranger to artistic exploitation, particularly in mediated spheres.
He has himself very frequently, and very successfully, exploited the readily extensive reach of the latter to proliferate, as an artist, his political critiques. At the same time, he has also been exploited, in some sense, by those very same spheres for the reach and popularity of his mediated artistry.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Art / Politics A Happy Hour Ode to Timely Things
Posted by Paul D'Agostino on Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 1:29 PM
Currency crises and transatlantic-cum-continental givings and misgivings might seem to bear an air of loose relevance to the now-underway Euro Cup of football, but it wouldn't take much thematic stretching to bring them into a common discussion. The same themes, however, might be a bit less directly relevant to art, and maybe not the best conversational matters for a round of friendly drinking.
Unless one were to tie them all together in a series of drink-inspired, whimsical verses accompanied by a suite of fine drawings by artist Adam Thompson.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Books / Politics / News Here's the Schedule for the Save NYC Libraries Campaign's 24-Hour Read in at the BPL This Weekend
Posted by Mark Asch on Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 2:34 PM
In an effort to remind you, the literate New Yorker reading this blog post, of all the things the library does for New Yorkers, and of the importance of appealing to your local representatives on behalf of library funding, ULU is mounting their depressingly annual We Will Not Be Shushed 24 Hour Read-in at the Brooklyn Public Library's Central Branch this weekend, from 4pm Saturday to 4pm Sunday. They're still looking for readers, as it happens, so please do email savenyclibraries@gmail.com if you want to fill in between the early photo opps, Brooklyn writer types, and Sunday morning children's and YA readings.
And here, courtesy our friends at the Save NYC Libraries campaign, is the schedule for this year's Read-in so far:
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Politics Greek MP Attacks Two Women on TV
Posted by Paul D'Agostino on Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 2:51 PM
If so many images and reports of so many riots and so many rounds of political wrangling are not enough to assure observers that the politico-economic crisis in Greece is not only far from minor, and far from over, and far from facile to resolve no matter how that might be done, today's arrest of Ilias Kasidiaris, a far-right/neo-Nazi member of Greek parliament, should well underscore all of that.
While discussing, ostensibly, political matters on a news program, two leftist female deputies were attacked by Kasidiaris after one of the women, Rena Douru, brought up his involvement in illicit activities. He slung water at her, then slapped another. Really, he slapped her around, taking a few very full swings. The clip is sadder and more violent that mere mention makes it seem.
Watch the clip below.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Politics / Fashion Does Obama or Romney Have the Most Ironic T-Shirt at Urban Outfitters?
Posted by Josh Kurp on Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 9:50 AM
Now that it’s officially official that Mitt Romney will be the Republican candidate against Barack Obama in November, we can finally start talking about what matters—Urban Outfitters t-shirts. Never one to let something that could be ironic go by without becoming ironic, Urban Outfitters has stocked its on-line store with shirts featuring both Romney and Obama (and Ron Paul, but haha). But which one is more ironic?
Let’s take a look.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Art / Politics / News Putin's Baroque Palace Already Haunted
Posted by Paul D'Agostino on Thu, May 10, 2012 at 4:44 PM
Almost perfectly coincident with Vladimir Putin's recently renewed pledges of allegiance as Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of Rigged Elections President of Russia is news that he has been constructing, allegedly of course, "Project South," a massive private palace on the Black Sea.
Since his reiterated swearing-in was met with mass protests, which were then met with a heavy police crackdown, which then elicited US statements of disapproval—which have more recently been followed by by Putin saying he would not attend the forthcoming G8 meeting at Camp David, which was nonetheless followed by bilateral statements of continued commitment to a "reset of relations" via "sustained high-level dialogue"—it is possible that news related to "Project South" lost some degree of newsworthy thunder.
And that's fine, but the story is full of good intrigue. Even a major art buyer plays a part.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Politics 10 Uncomfortable Versions of the Internationale (Happy May Day!)
Posted by Jonny Diamond on Tue, May 1, 2012 at 12:29 PM
I am not on strike. In protest of my own non-striking, here's a picture of the 1926 general strike in Britain, for which my grandfather marched down from Glasgow (7th from the left, 6 back).
Happy May Day. We'll have oodles of Occupy coverage coming down the pike, until then, please enjoy these many versions of The Internationale.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Politics New York Republicans Back Romney
Posted by Henry Stewart on Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 1:48 PM
Friday, March 30, 2012
Politics To Oppose Health-Care Reform is to Wish Me Dead
Posted by Henry Stewart on Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 12:20 PM
I was working two part-time jobs that barely kept me in my apartment. How could I afford to treat a chronic illness? The doctor at the clinic prescribed me a mid-cost insulin—not the best treatment, he said, but the best in my price range. It was about $55 a bottle, and would last roughly a month; a box of syringes cost another $25. I had to buy a blood-sugar testing machine (a one-time expense), plus a supply of testing strips (a chronic expense), plus the lancets used to prick your finger, plus alcohol swabs to keep me from catching an infection. I have to resupply these things regularly, for the rest of my life. Diabetes isn't cheap.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Art / Politics / News Eat More Lawsuits, or Maim More Artists?
Posted by Paul D'Agostino on Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 10:21 AM
It might seem an oversimplification of convenience, for instance, or perhaps an unjustifiable banalization of issues to conflate a few recent 'news' items related to copyright infringement (maybe) with a recent report of the violent repression of artists in Syria, but I hope not. Or at any rate, I should elect to prefer to side with hoping not, for neither do I hope to present a true argument. I'm not sure I have the right to do so.
Do I? Don't I? Might I?
It might not matter, really. I'm not quite sure there's need to.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Politics Why the Supreme Court's Vote This Week on Obamacare Matters
Posted by Audrey Ference on Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 10:35 AM
Well, one of the many reasons, anyway. (We've "reclaimed" the name Obamacare, by the way, didja hear?) Kate Sheppard, over at Mother Jones, makes it pretty clear with their chart of the day:
Women make less, pay more, and have to put with infinite bullshit to get access to basic healthcare.
So what are they going to do? Dahlia Lithwick at Slate has a much more politically intelligent read of things than I do.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Politics 4 Ways To Combat the GOP's War On Women
Posted by Sydney Brownstone on Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 11:08 AM
- msn.com
Monday, March 19, 2012
Politics The 10 Most Ridiculous Things Old White Men Have Proposed About Women And Vaginas
Posted by Sydney Brownstone on Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 11:54 AM
- doubleadoublek.com
Monday, February 20, 2012
Politics No President Has Ever Been from Brooklyn
Posted by Henry Stewart on Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 11:05 AM
As the birthplace of presidents, New York State is tied with Massachusetts for producing the third most; only Ohio (?!) and Virginia have made more commanders in chief. Franklin Roosevelt and Martin van Buren were born in the Hudson Valley; Millard Fillmore was born in the Finger Lakes region.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Politics Happy Presidential Election Year! Are You Actually Registered to Vote Where You Live?
Posted by Mark Asch on Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 11:32 AM
Welcome back to work. It's 2012—you know, a presidential election year! Jesus H. Christ, already. So in between your busy schedule of having tiresome, emotionally fraught conversations about whether or not the current administration's vulnerability is entirely or only partly its own damn fault, please do ensure that your voter registration information is up-to-date. Do so now; shit sneaks up on you.
Also, if I may: resolve, in 2012, to become a more educated voter, and not one of those people who self-identifies as a liberal based on the fact that you love gawking in a can-you-believe-this-shit way at whatever some wingnut said at the Iowa state fair trail. Reading Nate Silver on the horse race and Roy Edroso on the far-right crazies, though fun, is not the same as understanding policy; being an adult means knowing at least as much about your own elected officials at the state and local level as about national-narrative stuff.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Music / Politics / News Kim Jong-il, DJ
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 4:27 PM
Unlike Mark's considered examination of recently-deceased North Korean dictator (and sex symbol?) Kim Jong-il's cinephilia, the funny new Tumblr Kim Jong-il Dropping the Bass simply features images of the curious tyrant photoshopped into sweaty clubs, often spinning alongside some of the world's most famous DJs. (BoingBoing)
Monday, December 5, 2011
Art / Politics / News Mayor's Girlfriend, a Sotheby's Boardmember, Dismisses Locked-Out Art Handlers' Demands
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 10:34 AM
Remember the lock-out of Upper East Side art auction house Sotheby's unionized art handlers that began all the way back on August 1st? Well, it's still happening. Last week two of the 43 locked-out art handlers confronted Sotheby's boardmember Diana Taylor—girlfriend of New York City general mayor Mike Bloomberg—during a public meeting, and things didn't go so well (video below!).
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Politics / Media The NYPD, Bloomberg's "My Own Army," Bars Journalists from Occupy Protest
Posted by Mark Asch on Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 1:43 PM
Last night, Capital NY's Joe Pompeo reports, a number of reporters were barred from access to last night's Occupy protest in Midtown, opposite the president's fundraiser at the Sheraton.
