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8 hours ago art By Troy Sherman | 8 hours ago

If nothing else, the never-ending tenseness of the mainstream news cycle since Trumps inauguration has shown that Americans of most political dispositions are welcoming of breaks in the barrage for levity, rarely though theyve come. The covfefe foible, more so than anything else, was proof of this: if Americas right and left didnt exactly find humor in Trumps goof for the same reasons, they were at least, however briefly, laughing about it together. Its been a similar story for the most recent marquee protest of the president, a 30-foot-tall inflatable chicken coiffed and gesticulating just like the commander in chief which was inflated behind the White House on August 9. Already and with bemusement from both sides, its been given a name, a hashtag, a Halloween costume, dozens of news articles and (of course) hundreds of memes.

But its sheer ridiculousness has, in large part, clouded what might be the most important thing its been given: a political stance. Its a visual protest, according to its creator, Taran Singh Brar, one that plays specifically on Trumps own narcissism. The president himself is so visually obsessed, said Brar in an interview with NPR, that I know that something like this has potency.

If potency is measured by brashness and visibility, then one would be at a loss to disagree with the artist there. The balloon is massive, ostentatious; in fact, it first came to the national consciousness when it baffled a pair of on-air reporters for Fox News, over whose shoulders it could be seen from several blocks away, looming behind the White House. In the wake of this unveiling, the piece was met with a reception congruous with those of other famous examples of Donald Trump Protest Art (which has become a veritable genre to itself over the course of the past year or so). That is, it was shared, lauded, laughed about, laughed at and (pretty soon will be) forgotten.

But the most crucial trait it shares with many (though not all) of its Trump-busting artistic companions is quite a bit more insidious than merely its lifecycle: Don the Chicken, progressive though its intentions may be, attacks Trump on his very own terms; terms that we see almost daily to be growing in their vileness and hostility.

According to Brar himself, the Trump Chicken was meant to convey the message that the presidents too afraid to take action. Hes a weak and insecure leader and playing a great game of chicken with North Korea. Even setting aside this statements obvious and unsettling bellicosity (Was the chicken really meant to goad a warmonger? Is it supposed to be critiquing the presidents restraint?), what Brar says and how hes saying it belies an even deeper-set issue of alignment not only with his blow-up installation, but endemic to a vast swath of existent Trump art in general.

For its part, the message which the Trump Chicken was inflated to convey is so simple, so without nuance that its almost too obvious to have to write: Trump is a chicken, plain and simple, weak, stupid, flighty, ugly, and, most obviously, a wimp; America instead needs a powerful, audacious, experienced leader, a politician to put his foot down and lead the people, for the people. Any qualities in the realm of weakness, vulnerability, uncertainty or insecurity are so clearly useless and unpresidential that any artistic discourse critiquing our leader would be wise to cast them aside and presuppose brawniness, fortitude, strength and virility unabashed masculinity, in a word as the traits of a desirable American ruler. Thus, Don the Chicken is a brazen visual ad hominem which operates in much the same way as the dweeb whose retort to the schoolyard bully goes, Yea? Well youre even more of a pussy than me! Sure, its a jab thrown in the right direction, but its punch is packed with all the same systemic garbage that ultimately churns out the demagogue its trying to fight against. Maybe thats why the alt-right has had such an easy time coopting Brars attack.

Unfortunately, Don the Chicken isnt caught in this cycle alone. From Ilma Gores storied painting of Trump with a micropenis, to murals of Trump locked in a slightly-more-intimate-than-diplomatic embrace with other world leaders, to urinals decorated so that you can pee straight into your presidents mouth, the supposition is rampant that the best way to critique Trumps masculinity is to assert our own. And all this doesnt serve to take Trump down a peg it just reifies the very thing that makes him so dangerous. For a poorly-endowed portrait to carry any weight, you have to presume that bigger means manlier and manly means better. An image of Trump and Putin swapping spit is only worth its weight in pigment if gayness is weakness on the global front. What better way to emasculate the demagogue you hate than by a micturition straight through his lips?

The reason that so many of these critiques start to crumble when held up to any serious ideological scrutiny is because theyre all just that: ideological to the core. That is, so much of the Trump Protest Art which weve gotten has been devoutly, proudly and unfortunately liberal and Don the Chicken could well serve as the movements poster-child. It diametrically opposes itself to something that, as we look past its riled-up veneer, its clearly not all that far removed from; it invents a chasm of ideological distance where, in reality, theres only a creek. At best, then, the lions share of Trump Protest Art has been innocuous in its liberalism, the visual equivalent of a peaceful protest. At worst (and in a similarly liberal vein), those creations which seem to be posing the tough questions just end up reinscribing the venom they think theyre critiquing.

All this isnt to say, though, that there has been no good anti-Trump art. A handful of performances which have focused on giving visual representation to the importance of solidarity at the current moment have been particularly striking, and abject art has been given a powerful new platform in (literally) shitting on the president. But of these, even the best has seemed lacking, somehow incomplete. In an aesthetic age which privileges the many, the multiple, the system, the nonspecific and its form, Trumps unavoidable and abrasive singularity seems to force artists to go to bat on the level of content, defying, at least for now, the possibility of any truly progressive critique.

Troy Sherman is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at tsherman@cornellsun.com

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SHERMAN | Trump Protest Art Doesn't Work, and Liberals Should Understand Why - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Statues and monuments have become the new target of liberals, spurred on by the violence over the removal of a monument to Robert E. Lee on Aug. 12 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Liberals from around the country are making lists of historical monuments they want destroyed because they might offend someone. Here are 10 statues or kinds of statues that liberals want taken down.

1. Confederate statues in U.S. Capitol House House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi last week called for the removal of Confederate statues in the Capitol while U.S. Sen. Cory Booker last Wednesday promised legislation that would get rid of them, Politico said.

2. Mount Rushmore Vice News' Wilbert Cooper called for the removal of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, which features the likenesses of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt. He said such monuments could be "incredibly dangerous for democracy, especially when the same ascendant movement that deifies one set of (white) leaders sees people of color as sub-human."

3. Stone Mountain in Georgia Last week, in a series of Twitter posts, Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Adams called for the destruction of the Confederate Monument Carving at Stone Mountain. The carving depicts Confederate president Jefferson Davis and generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.

4. Jefferson Memorial Al Sharpton, host of the MSNBC show "PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton," told talk show host Charlie Rose last week that the government should end funding for the memorial honoring Thomas Jefferson because he owned and allegedly had sex with slaves, The Daily Caller said.

5. Albert Pike Statue in Washington, D.C. Protestors marched on the Albert Pike Memorial across from Judiciary Square last week. Pike, a Confederate general, received a pardon from then President Andrew Johnson and was a leader of the Freemasonry, The Washington Post said.

6. Confederate Statues throughout Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McMcAuliffe issued a statement last week calling on the state legislature to "take down these monuments and relocate them to museums or more appropriate settings." He called the statues a "barrier to progress, inclusion and equality in Virginia "

7. Confederate Soldiers Monument Activists in Durham, North Carolina took it upon themselves to destroy the statue in front of the Durham County Courthouse last week, leading to the arrest of eight for various charges, two of them felonies. Rallies called for officials to drop the charges against them, Mother Jones magazine said.

8. Civil War Officer John B. Castleman More than 150 gathered at the statue in Louisville, Kentucky last Monday calling for the bronze statue of Castleman, which was erected more than 100 years ago in 1913, to be removed, USA Today said.

9. Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument In Birmingham, Alabama, Mayor William Bell last week ordered that the monument in Linn Park be covered up. City officials started two years ago trying to remove the statue, but the State of Alabama got involved with a lawsuit, CityLab.com said.

10. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that he was removing the statues at City University of New York in a Twitter post, saying "New York stands against racism."

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10 Statues Liberals Want to Destroy - Newsmax

One of the great gifts the British writer George Orwell gave us, in addition to his classics 1984 and Animal Farm, was a clear and uncompromising look at dangerous ideologies. In Orwell and the British Left, British writer Ian Williams recalls Orwells underlining of the old, true and unpalatable conclusion that a Communist and a Fascist are somewhat nearer to one another than either is to a democrat. Orwells well-observed conclusion nonetheless scandalized many on the left who rallied behind the Marxist phrase no enemies on the left.

Sadly, a quarter century after the fall of Communism, too many leftists are still ignoring Orwell and refusing to acknowledge the reality of left-wing brutality. In the wake of Charlottesville, eyewitnesses and reporters agreed that while the violence was instigated by neo-Nazis and white nationalists, it was countered with bloody counterattacks by left-wingers and black-shirted anarchists wearing masks. There was a clear asymmetric outcome to the violence: A white nationalist mowed down protestors with his car, killing a 32-year-old woman.

But that didnt mean there were no victims of left-wing violence. Antifa short for anti-fascist protestors came armed with pepper spray, bricks, and clubs. Antifa members believe that racist speech is violence and that they must counter it physically, not just oppose it with rhetoric or better ideas.

As the New York Daily News reported, among antifas victims were journalists:

Taylor Lorenz of The Hill was punched in the face by an antifa for recording a fight between the two groups; she tweeted that her assaulter told her not to snitch, media bitch. A videographer from Richmonds WTVR covering a counter-protest got a concussion from head blows with a stick.

In addition, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times tweeted from Charlottesville:

The hard left seemed as hate-filled as alt-right. I saw club-wielding antifa beating white nationalists being led out of the park.

Nor is Charlottesville the only place that antifa activists have crossed the line. Peter Beinart has a piece in this months Atlantic magazine noting that rioting by antifa forces forced University of California at Berkeley officials to cancel speeches by Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopolous earlier this year.

In April, threats by antifa supporters convinced the Portland, Ore., police department that they couldnt guarantee security for the annual Rose Festival parade. The parades sin? Allowing the local Republican party to have Trump supporters march under the GOP banner in the parade. The parade was canceled, to the delight of many in the hob-nailed boot Left that makes Portland, well, such a special place.

But most of this has been swiftly swept under the rug or underreported by liberals and much of the mainstream media. On Friday, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held its monthly meeting in Washington. A liberal member introduced a stirring denunciation of the Nazi, KKK and white-nationalist participants in the Charlottesville rally.

But then Commission member Gail Heriot introduced an amendment that would have added the following:

Though we support peaceful protest and note that most of the counter-demonstrators were peaceful, we condemn violence by anyone, including violence by so-called antifa demonstrators.

Heriot, an independent, was supported in her amendment by Peter Kirsanow, a Republican appointee and African American from Cleveland. But they received no other support from the five commission members appointed by Democrats. Chairwoman Catherine Lhamon complained that Heriots amendment would water down the main resolution, when all it did was make clear that the commission wished to condemn violence of any kind.

Karen Narasaki, another commission member, scoffed at Heriots reading of Stolbergs New York Times observation about the antifa activists in Charlottesville. As she voted against Heriots amendment, she noted, You cant believe everything you read in the media. Apparently, the paper of record for so many liberals is to be considered bird-cage lining material if it contradicts the left-wing narrative. Heriots amendment was voted down 62. The original resolution was approved unanimously, as recorded in the Statement on Charlottesville, Virginia, that the commissioners did adopt.

Its pathetic that the dogma of no enemies on the left so clouds the judgment of the commission set up to protect civil rights.

Some clear-minded experts on extremist violence harbor no such ideological blinkers. Oren Segal, the director of the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism, categorically told CNN last week:

There is violence on the left. The anti-fascists engage with those they oppose through physical confrontation. And that is a problem. That is an extremists tactic. There is also bigotry on the left.

I would only add that if George Orwell were with us today, he would probably say that there is willful blindness on the left.

John Fund is NROs national-affairs correspondent.

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The US Civil Rights Commission refuses to condemn antifa violence. - National Review

The MPP for Nipissing is questioning the Ontario Liberals math in their quarterly financial report. The report shows that during the first quarter, Ontarios real Gross Domestic Product grew one percent for this year, which is better than the rest of Canada and all the G-7 countries. However Vic Fedeli says something doesnt add up. Fedeli says the Conference Board of Canada says Ontario will see lower growth, the Financial Accountability Officer has concerns about the Liberals economic forecast and so does the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. The Tory finance critic says considering the Liberals have been wrong numerous times in the past, he says with this latest go round, hes ignoring their claims and going with the outside experts. In the report, the Liberals also play up the fact they have balanced the budget which translate into better health care. They say because the budget is balanced, the annual interest the province pays on its total debt remains at $11.6 billion. However Fedeli says the Liberals balanced the budget by using the proceeds from the sale of Hydro One. He adds after the Hydro One money is used up well be back in a deficit and he adds even the FAO has expressed a similar concern. The Liberals also maintain Ontarios real GDP will increase 2.7 percent this year which is higher than the 2.4 percent they forecast earlier.

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Fedeli on Ontario Liberals' finance report - My West Nipissing Now

Famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz said Sunday that liberals had a special obligation to condemn bigotry on the left side of the political spectrum, just as President Trump did for those on the right who claim to speak on his behalf.

"I don't want to make moral equivalence," Dershowitz told AM 970's John Catsimatidis, responding to a question about the Charlottesville violence and the ensuing national conversation around race relations and Confederate monuments. "But having said that, that doesn't give a pass to the people on the hard left, who are themselves engaged in violence and also some bigotry of their own."

He continued, saying Confederate statues needed to be put in context -- for example, in a museum -- rather than simply being destroyed.

Turning to the Russian probe, Dershowitz said that special counsel Robert Mueller was endangering democracy because the investigation could criminalize politics.

"The idea of trying to create crimes just because we disagree with (President Trump) politically and target him really endangers democracy," Dershowitz said. "We should only be using the criminal justice system against obvious crimes, crimes that are not stretched and manufactured to fit a particular person."

Congress ought to have appointed a special committee like it did in the aftermath of Sept. 11, Dershowitz said.

"To give it to a special counsel means it goes behind closed doors to a grand jury where people are not represented, where things happen in darkness and secrecy," he said. "We don't know what's going on. We get leaks, but the leaks are selective leaks. They shouldn't happen."

Dershowitz added that former FBI director James Comey was one of the worst leakers and slammed him for setting "a very bad" precedent for those working with classified information.

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Alan Dershowitz: Liberals have a special obligation to condemn bigotry of the Left - Washington Examiner