Posts tagged America

The Second Gilded Age, Has America Become an Oligarchy?

“The Occupy Wall Street movement is just one example of the sudden outbreak of tension between America’s super-rich and the “other 99 percent.” Experts now say the US has entered a second Gilded Age, but one in which hedge fund managers have replaced oil barons — and are killing the American dream.”

Bruce Weber’s Site Gets Refreshed and Reintroduced: “’I like to think of our Web site as a bar,’ Bruce Weber says of the new BruceWeber.com, which was reintroduced on Monday. ‘It’s like I’m showing my film and somebody from my studio is showing some pictures and somebody else is reading their poetry — it’s the bar you always went to after school, in college.’ With no closing time — and no drinks (B.Y.O.B!) — the site hosts selected fashion photos, ad campaigns, music videos, commercials and documentaries spanning the past three decades of Weber’s career alongside paintings from a show by the artist Jeremy Everett (a friend of Weber’s), an appreciation of Simone de Beauvoir’s book about Brigitte Bardot and high praise for Danny DiMauro, a barber in Montauk, N.Y.”

Bruce Weber’s Site Gets Refreshed and Reintroduced: “’I like to think of our Web site as a bar,’ Bruce Weber says of the new BruceWeber.com, which was reintroduced on Monday. ‘It’s like I’m showing my film and somebody from my studio is showing some pictures and somebody else is reading their poetry — it’s the bar you always went to after school, in college.’ With no closing time — and no drinks (B.Y.O.B!) — the site hosts selected fashion photos, ad campaigns, music videos, commercials and documentaries spanning the past three decades of Weber’s career alongside paintings from a show by the artist Jeremy Everett (a friend of Weber’s), an appreciation of Simone de Beauvoir’s book about Brigitte Bardot and high praise for Danny DiMauro, a barber in Montauk, N.Y.”

How Rich Are The Superrich? Eleven charts that explain what’s wrong with America - “A huge share of the nation’s economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244. See all of Mother Jones’ inequality charts here.”

How Rich Are The Superrich? Eleven charts that explain what’s wrong with America - “A huge share of the nation’s economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244. See all of Mother Jones’ inequality charts here.”

Is America Giving Up on the Future?

“If I had to pin those realities down, I’d say the following deserve a place on the list: That the wealth of a nation isn’t merely the sum of its tradable riches; that a thriving marketplace isn’t a big box store; that industrial output matters less than human outcomes; that work that matters yields accomplishments that endure; that Goldman Sachs probably shouldn’t be as profitable as Apple, because builders should earn more than shufflers; that the worth of an enduring achievement is denominated in more than mere profit; that how we feel about our lives is worth more than how enviably glamorous they look; that tomorrow matters more — not less — than today.”

Statue of Liberty by night, New York City 1960. - H. Finkelstein & Son, Photographer, Printed on verso: “Statue of Liberty on Bedloes Island in New York Bay 1 1/4 miles from the Battery, a colossal figure of Liberty enlightening the world. It lights the harbor with an electric torch held 306 feet above the water, the highest beacon in the world. Was presented to American by the French nation.” Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection NYPL.

Statue of Liberty by night, New York City 1960. - H. Finkelstein & Son, Photographer, Printed on verso: “Statue of Liberty on Bedloes Island in New York Bay 1 1/4 miles from the Battery, a colossal figure of Liberty enlightening the world. It lights the harbor with an electric torch held 306 feet above the water, the highest beacon in the world. Was presented to American by the French nation.” Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection NYPL.

George Bellows (American, 1882–1925), Club Night, 1907. Oil on canvas; 43 x 53 1/8 in. (109.2 x 135 cm). National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., John Hay Whitney Collection (1982.76.1)

George Bellows (American, 1882–1925), Club Night, 1907. Oil on canvas; 43 x 53 1/8 in. (109.2 x 135 cm). National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., John Hay Whitney Collection (1982.76.1)

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Done

“Today’s a very sad day,” Senator John McCain said. What was making him sad was something many people had been waiting for a long time: the Senate, on Saturday, passed a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the law that forces gay and lesbian members of the military to lead secret lives…But even if one confines the discussion to the D.A.D.T. vote, there may be a grain of truth in McCain’s “sad day” remark, if not quite in the way he means. D.A.D.T. ruined lives. More than thirteen thousand service members were fired because of it…We have no way of counting how many more people left the military or denied their own vocation for service, or how many personal relationships were ended or soured. How many soldiers gave up on the prospect of having a family? One thing we do know, as the Pentagon freely acknowledged in its review, is that there are plenty of gay and lesbian troops in the military now…So if a sad day is a day when you reckon up painful things, then maybe this would be one; but a day when you can finally begin to draw a line under that account is not sad at all. It’s time to celebrate.”

Which City Is The Center of America's Architectural Universe? NY, LA, Chicago, Or None Of The Above?

“New York may still lead in talking, but the essence of architecture is building. And great builders and thinkers can be found all over, the Web’s distance-collapsing influence making an architect or an architectural dreamer in LA, Chicago, or even Des Moines as important as his or her counterpart on Park Avenue. Hey, New York—start spreadin’ the news: It’s a multi-polar architectural world out there. Deal with it. “

America: Democracy To The Highest Bidder

” Your average voter can dash off a letter to the editor, or fire up a blog, or put up a yard sign — a nice fantasy of citizen democracy. Your corporate equal can spend $23 million (the outsider amount spent so far in Colorado) to bludgeon the electorate. And, with loopholes in the tax system, they can do it while making it virtually impossible to know who they are…In the megaphone phase of this campaign to determine who will control the people’s Congress, the locals — those actual “natural persons” — are all but silent. Races in Colorado, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Washington state are being determined on K Street, by insurance, banking and oil industry groups hiding behind innocuous titles like Americans for Prosperity (right-wing billionaire David Koch) and Americans for Job Security (insurance giants), and by public employee unions.”