Day 811 Thursday March 28, 2019
585 Days to the 2020 election and 663 Days to Inauguration Day
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
First the Good, because we haven’t had much of that. Yesterday I went to the National Gallery of Art. In the West Wing they have a show on Tintoretto. If you’re a History of Art aficionado you know the name. He is one of the men responsible for the Italian Renaissance, the High Renaissance. I still remember my Jansen History of Art book that stated the Italian High Renaissance was due to six individuals, and Tintoretto was one of them.
However, his work got overshadowed in my mind by other names: Titian, Michelangelo, Da Vinci.
Three of the six men were known to be gay. They were conflicted by their religion and their sexuality. Often tortured in their minds between their faith and their desire. Men of extreme talent and ability. Tintoretto was Venetian. He was thirty years younger than Titian, in whose studio he first worked until the old master kicked him out. Tintoretto was brash, trained by fresco painters and furniture stainers who had to work quickly he brought these techniques to the studio and was not welcomed for it. He painted on canvas in oil when many were still painting on wood. His real name, Jacopo Comin (and most historians thought it Jacopo Robusti) was replaced by the nickname based on his father’s profession of dyer or tintore. He was the eldest of 21 children. (Yikes! His poor mom!) His motto which was painted on the wall of his studio said “Michelangelo’s drawing and Titian’s color.” Indeed the lumpy muscled figures are pure Michelangelo but the colors jump out at you. A master, like Michelangelo, of foreshortening he often draped wax figures to understand how the cloth would look, and he used candles in a small cardboard boxes to understand how the light would play.
The work is startling brilliant, and the National Gallery has most of his major works. Some are painted on walls and can’t be moved, but most of the rest? They have them here. If you are interested in the Italian Renaissance, this show is not to be missed. And make sure you go downstairs to see the drawings and go past the fountain upstairs to see the two large paintings that aren’t in the main exhibit area.
The Bad – How many headlines have appeared in the last few days that are just darn discouraging?
Betsy DeVos cuts all the funding for Special Olympics. It’s one third of the amount we’ve spent protecting Trump while he plays golf. Yet she has allotted over three times the amount the Special Olympics costs to those phony schools, charter schools, which is another way to drain money from public education and give it to individuals trying to make a buck or to some phony Christian school. (Of course, in Betsy DeVos’ defense some think she is so stupid that she may not have realized that is what was being done.)
AG Barr has gone against legal practice and precedent with his issuing a four page letter with his conclusion about what Mueller found and now he’s stalling in handing over the full report or any part of it.
The Trump administration will not defend the law of the land when it comes to Obamacare thus eliminating 21 million from coverage and another 131 million will have hugely increased medical costs.
Trump wants to put a proven economic idiot on the Federal Reserve Board.
And so it goes …
The Ugly – See the Bad above, and below.
Perhaps the most discouraging thing I saw yesterday was young kids on field trips and some were wearing MAGA hats or sweatshirts. Very sad.
As I watched and listened to all this ugliness I asked myself this question, “Who was supposed to tell us, the American People, that we were under attack?” Whose job was that? The President? The head of the Joint Chiefs? Someone in intelligence? In Justice? The Congress?
Forget about the potential criminal implications, we were under attack. All these people in government knew it and kept their mouths shut. No one said the theater is on fire, why? Don’t we need a procedure that keeps us informed as to how bad the attacks are?
In other news, the Freshman in Congress are making their mark and thank god. They are speaking up. Not like the old guard.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has been shown saying essentially, Hey, the Green New Deal is cheaper than waiting and we will pay one way or the other. It has also been pointed out that the top twenty folks in both the House and the Senate that have received money from the oil and gas industry are all Republicans, save one. So the opposition to the Green New Deal has nothing to do with politics, or facts. It has to do with being bribed.
Tom Malinowski asked Mike Pompeo what’s to like about Kim Jong Un? Pompeo begged him not to make this political. What? Malinowski pointed out that North Korea is the most communist regime on the planet and the president likes Un (or is it Kim? Who cares?) What’s to like? All Pompeo could do was beg for mercy.
These supposed conservative Republicans are all tough talking until the light is shown on them and then they cry like little puppies.
I say make ‘em cry.
585 Days to the 2020 election and 663 Days to Inauguration Day
PS The Trump Hotel sign: before and after. Who would do such a thing as to spit on that sign?
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