Standing Rock, Taxpayer funded art, offensive?

KMSP FOX 9: Police depicted as Nazis, Klan and Trump groping woman.

The painting, by Anishinaabe artist Jim Denomie, depicts the 2016 protests over the Dakota Access oil pipeline in North Dakota. Protesters were concerned about the impact on the Missouri River and the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

Denomie’s work shows Native American protesters on one side of a fiery river holding peaceful signs. On the far bank are police with military vehicles, attack dogs and a water cannon. One of the vehicles features a swastika, while Klan members stand behind the police. Nearby, a caricature of President Donald Trump is seen groping a woman.
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State Rep. Josh Heintzeman, R-Nisswa, said the painting was “repulsive” and said the Arts Board should not fund projects like this.
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Denomie said the state should continue funding art that criticizes the government because it’s part of the democratic process.

“I invent creative ways to express this information in hopes that people will stop and think about that history and those events,” he said.

 

Images via KMSP; artist Jim Denomie

Hit the link for more images and info. Note, that the amount of one grant Mr. Denomie received was the organization's maximum of $10,000. I'd like to see the invoice(s) and amounts for paint and canvas supplies.

Should "provocative art" have a purpose beyond just being provocative? I'm not sure I buy the artist's rationalizations of his "deeper meanings" behind the images. For me, I base it on "plug-in different characters" and what's the result? In other words, substitute any and all different people and groups for those that are represented in the images, and is the result the same, different or unchanged? Bill Clinton groping a woman? R. Kelly? Drug cartels and gangs depicted as a KKK-like group? Insert the Anti-Defamation League as the "crushing law enforcement" agency? The U.N.? LGBTQ? Russians? Irish? Muslims? The Rotary Club? Toastmasters?

Does art like this work towards a process of healing and improving relationships or does it further foment division and prejudices? Should the government fund "the arts"? If so, what restrictions, if any, should be placed on artistic details and expression? Would "the arts", in general, suffer greatly if limited solely to private funding and philanthropy?

Subject-matter or "rationalized subject-matter" notwithstanding, the quality of the painting(s) itself - and I'm no painter or paint artist by any means - resembles cheap, water-color figures from a C- high school student art class assignment.

Anyone?

More at KVVR.

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World News

Barnes_Law: Attorney will represent Covington Catholic High for free.

Good for him!
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Saipan Tribune: Tourists are pooping all over.

Tourists allegedly continue to leave their fecal remnants near popular tourist sites up north, according to the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality.
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...one of the reasons that tourists continue to defecate up north is because of the lack of comfort rooms in the area.

Dear Saipan, you are Saipan. Have you ever heard of these things?

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Yonhap News: Kimmy Junior looks forward to meeting Trump.

"Kim Jong-un said that we will believe in the positive way of thinking of President Trump, wait with patience and in good faith and, together with the U.S., advance step by step toward the goal to be reached by the two countries of the DPRK and the U.S.[.]"

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Argentina News Net: Search for missing plane resumes.

Police on the British island of Guernsey resumed the search on Wednesday for a missing plane carrying Premier League player Emiliano Sala, who is presumed dead after debris was found in the water.

Argentina News Net:  Sala: "Dad, "I'm so scared."

"I'm on a plane that looks like it's going to fall apart, and I'm leaving for Cardiff," Sala said in a WhatsApp audio message carried by Argentine media.

"If in an hour and a half you have no news from me, I don't know if they will send people to look for me, because they will not find me, you know. Dad, I'm so scared," [said Emiliano].

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Warsaw Business Journal: Taxi driver's protest Uber, Lyft; block streets in Barcelona.

The protest follows new regulations for online ride-hailing services adopted by the Catalan government on Friday.

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San Mateo County Journal: 25-cent fee approved on disposable cups by Berkeley.

Berkeley's City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the fee on single-use cups, which will take effect January 2020. [Patrons of restaurants and coffee shops in Berkeley, California, who don't bring a reusable cup for their beverage will have to pay a 25-cent fee for a disposable cup].

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Beatrice Daily Sun: Increasing taxes on higher incomes opposed by legislature.

Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha, sponsor of the bill (LB50), said the measure is needed not only to establish more tax fairness, but also to replenish a state revenue stream that is needed to fund essential state programs and services.
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The bill would adversely impact small businesses, LIBA President Coby Mach said, warning that people have "a broad choice as to where to live and work" and suggesting that higher taxes might prompt higher-income Nebraskans to move out of the state.

You already know his party affiliation, but if you need to see it...
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Grand Forks Herld: Grizzlies football player found dead.

Andrew Harris, a football player at Montana, was found dead in his home Tuesday. He was 22.

His death was being investigated as a suicide, Sgt. Travis Welch of the Missoula Police confirmed to the Montana Standard.

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And in the "This Just Can't Be a Coincidence" Department; Switzerland-based news organization The Local touts survey results naming Switzerland as the "Best Country in The World".

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It's time the other 79 countries stop trying. Give up. Clearly, none of us will beat Switzerland.

Smiling MAGA Hat Wearing Teen Nick Sandmann explains his actions; standing before Nathan Phillips.

From NBC News:

"As far as standing there, I had every right to do so. My position is that I was not disrespectful to Mr. Phillips. I respect him. I'd like to talk to him," [Nick] Sandmann said.