Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Come on, man.

Bark louder, little dog.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

No one could have predicted…

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Museums Are Not Neutral: Milwaukee Art Museum Bus Art

Museums Are Not Neutral: Milwaukee Art Museum Bus Art

by | 40 Comments

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ArtXpress Milwaukee county bus mural

 

Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see.

Open thread.

 

Reader Interactions

40Comments

  1. 1.

    mad citizen

    It is a beautiful bus. I think these kids, cities and all of us in the cities should stop as soon as the Orange Glob stops politicizing EVERY PHUCKING THING in the world, day after day, every single day and twice on Saturday. The A-hole has been running for re-election for way too long, since his first phucking year in office. We never get any rest aside from the golfing times, So, the opposition needs to be, and will be going 24/7.

  2. 2.

    Starfish

    I am getting pages and pages of abuse from David Sirota fans on Twitter for saying that it was silly of David Sirota to call Hoarse Wisperer an anonymous Twitter troll when Wisperer has more followers than Sirota. Is this supposed to end with “You are right. I am going to vote for Bernie now that you have all told me that I am stupid?”

  3. 3.

    BruceFromOhio

    The hands in handcuffs making the heart sign is all anyone really needs to know.

    And every single American needs to see what our children think of us.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    Yesterday, I started reading a book about the internment of the Japanese-Americans during WWII. The author, the son of two internees, took a bunch of photos of people being taken to the camps and tracked down/re-photographed those people (or sometimes their children) and told the stories of their lives both before and after. As you can imagine, this was not a fast project, and he started working on it several years ago. And many of the camp survivors said things like “it feels like we haven’t learned the lessons of 1942”, because of course this was a few years after 9/11 and Muslim-Americans were conservative bugaboos. And now, not much more than a decade after that, here we go again.

    (“Behind Barbed Wire”, by Paul Kitakagi)

  8. 8.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @mad citizen:

    The A-hole has been running for re-election for way too long, since his first phucking year day in office.

    Seriously. He filed re-election papers on January 20, 2017.

    And he may say he’s joking, when pressed, but he frequently comments about running again for a third term… and a fourth….

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @rikyrah:

    The images on the bus are powerful

    Powerful and beautiful. Thank you, Milwaukee. This is a good thing you’re doing.

  13. 13.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: No more cutting onions in the comments section!

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    First day since returning home in which have not been in a partial fog most of the time. No longer bounce back, it’s more like crawl back.

  16. 16.

    Jay

    Being close to manufacturing points makes it easier to get cheap supplies in bulk that has allowed people to get their hands of equipment and materials without having to have everyone go out and buy them on their own. Demos have become sites of distribution of materials and supply lines are a feature of most significant protests where clashes with riot police are assured. Human chains pass supplies to the front lines of conflicts. Supplies commonly distributed at demos, all with their own hand signs; zip-ties(to secure barricades), pliers, umbrellas, shields, water, saline solution, goggles/safety glasses, barricade materials, masks, asthma inhalers, markers, plastic wrap, and allen-wrenches. These supply lines also provide a way for those who are unable to fair well in frontline clashes to support the front line and make the frontline possible.

    https://itsgoingdown.org/lasers-in-the-tear-gas/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

    The allen wrenches are used to take apart police barracades to prevent kettling, blocking and police riots.

  17. 17.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Jay:

    The allen wrenches are used to take apart police barracades to prevent kettling, blocking and police riots.

    Jay, thank you for posting this. And thank you for your other posts. Ugh. This breaks my heart. I wonder what we can do to help, from here in America. These people are fighting for us all.

    A nice time (from HK): “Hong Kong Festival Orchestra Flash Mob 2013: Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” 香港節慶管弦樂團2013快閃：貝多芬《快樂頌》”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuzKk7upkdE&feature=youtu.be

  20. 20.

    Adam L Silverman

    @O. Felix Culpa: Nothing good. It was reported today that the President assured Xi when they last spoke that this was solely an internal matter and the US would not take a side or get involved in the hope that this would encourage Xi to do a trade deal, which it didn’t. So from Xi’s perspective, he’s got at least tacit approval from the President of the United States to do whatever he wants to do. And my take, confirmed with a friend and colleague who is an old “China hand” as they say, is that Xi will move hard to end this before the party conference this Fall.

  21. 21.

    Adam L Silverman

    @O. Felix Culpa:

  22. 22.

    Jay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Hard to say. One tactic that the Protests have not yet deployed, is cashing out of their version of 401k’s, then pulling the cash outbof their bank accounts in USD and Euro’s.

    It’s being floated on Tor.

    That’s a $95 billion dollar withdrawal from the Chinese economy.

    Hong Kong pays for it’s own occupation.

  24. 24.

    Jay

    Meanwhile the wealthy & political elite, including people at highest levels of power, are engaging in wide-scale criminal enterprise– from child sex trafficking to manipulating college admissions to fleecing tax payers– but they get a huge pass relative to the damage caused.— Bree Newsome Bass (@BreeNewsome) August 11, 2019

  25. 25.

    Jay

    White supremacists were responsible for *ALL* race-based domestic terrorism in 2018. 100%.Trump’s DoJ & Barr then worked **to hide that report from Congress**-all while defunding federal programs to combat white supremacist violence.This is a white supremacist administration. https://t.co/2GvN2tU0fg— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 10, 2019

  26. 26.

    Jay

    I just got a phone call from the King County Sheriff's Office saying that there was a report of gunshots at my home.My older son is there alone. I called him and woke him up. There were no gunshots.These hateful white supremacists are trying to get my family killed.— Ijeoma Oluo (@IjeomaOluo) August 14, 2019

  27. 27.

    Duane

    @Adam L Silverman: Just more proof that Trumpov has no damned idea what he’s doing. If you’re going to screw with China do it up. Tell them Hong Kong’s situation is unacceptable. Of course that would be the right thing to do and I see the problem.

  28. 28.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Good for the kids in Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, and the Milwaukee County Public Transit System. The art museum is an amazing building; if you haven’t seen it in person, you should make an effort to do so.

  29. 29.

    Kay (not the front-pager)

    The artwork on the back of that bus really needs to be on a tee shirt. It would make a great fundraiser for the museum and their Teen ArtXpress program, and a great addition to my wardrobe. Does anyone know how to contact the museum or the program?

  30. 30.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kay (not the front-pager):

    Who do I contact if I have a product for consideration to sell in the Milwaukee Art Museum Store, if I am interested in using a Museum reproduction for an editorial feature, or if I am interested in purchasing the Museum’s products wholesale? Please email us at [email protected]. For a full list of departments available to contact for business matters please see the Milwaukee Art Museum contact us section.

    http://store.mam.org/cat-16-1-1/shop.htm

    Try here.

  31. 31.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Kay (not the front-pager): A wonderful idea! No artist I, but I could imagine that back-of-bus image (the hands/arms/cuffs/chain) with “Immigrant Strong” inside the circle. Or around it. But maybe something else would be even better. Whatever. Yeah, I could put a shirt like that into my rotation ….

  33. 33.

    Omnes Omnibus

    In case anyone is wondering about the County Supervisor who wants to censor the bus, here is some info. What I find awesome about him is that he has run against Rep. Gwen Moore several times and he is proud of the fact that he once got 30% of the vote. FWIW one of Moore’s sons, Supreme Moore Omokunde, is also on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors.

  34. 34.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @JCJ: Speaking of liking the support, I am planning on calling the bus people and letting them know that I am support what they are doing and that I am proud of them for having the courage to do something like this. I bet they don’t get a lot of calls like that.

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Chetan Murthy: You always need to remember the people who clean the bathrooms, empty the trash, cut the lawns, etc. In the end nothing gets done without them, but they are often invisible to most people.

  37. 37.

    JCJ

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Great idea. I will do the same. Supreme trolling would be to put that mural on one of the new street cars (The Hop) since the loonies all hate that. I took the street car to Cathedral Square for Bastille Days last month. It was really a great way to get there. One of the cars was decorated for the Bucks during the NBA playoffs so putting on this mural would be fantastic.

  38. 38.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @JCJ: Yeah, the Venn diagram of people who hate public transport and the people who would hate that art work is almost certainly a single circle.

  39. 39.

    Starfish

    @Jay: This thread was awful and terrifying. It is because she wrote a book about race relations. Yesterday, there was a story about accountability of online platforms with quotes from Congressmen on NPR. It is time.

    Someone was proposing banning specific features of online platforms. One was the infinite scroll. There were others.

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