Banksy Blitz NYC.

One of the new Banksy murals in Midwood, Brooklyn. Benjamin Sutton.

One of the new Banksy murals in Midwood, Brooklyn. Benjamin Sutton.

Banksy’slatest series of interventions in the New York City streetscape continued apace today. This afternoon the artist revealed on Instagram that a mural in the Midwood section of Brooklyn that had come to widespread attention last week is in fact his doing.

The mural is a characteristically coy commentary on capitalism, although it is accompanied by a smaller piece that depicts a seal. The pair is located in Midwood, at Coney Island Avenue and Avenue I. The larger one features what looks like a real estate developer (equipped with both a briefcase and a hardhat) brandishing a whip in the shape a rising red line graph, while a procession of children, a woman, an elderly person, and a dog flee. Nearby, a smaller mural whose connection to the theme of gentrification is indecipherable, features a seal balancing a ball — formed by the unpainted circle where a sign used to hang — on its nose.

It’s always interesting, tracking Banksy, and this is no exception. Benjamin Sutton at Hyperallergic has the story.

2018 Sony World Photography Awards.

The Great wall of Namib. © Paranyu Pithayarungsarit, Thailand, Shortlist, Open, Landscape & Nature (2018 Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards.

The Great wall of Namib. © Paranyu Pithayarungsarit, Thailand, Shortlist, Open, Landscape & Nature (2018 Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards.

Oh, such amazing photography, glimpses of all the worlds within our world! I had to bookmark, because I have too much to do today and I have to be good and asleep early (5:30am wake up), but I’ll work my way through eventually. Have a wander and see wonders!

This was via Atlas Obscura, which highlighted twelve landscapes, including the one above.

Stephen Hawking, Demon Puppet.

Naberius, most valiant Marquess of Hell, and has nineteen legions of demons under his command. He makes men cunning in all arts (and sciences, according to most authors), but especially in rhetoric, speaking with a hoarse voice. He also restores lost dignities and honors.

Naberius, most valiant Marquess of Hell, and has nineteen legions of demons under his command. He makes men cunning in all arts (and sciences, according to most authors), but especially in rhetoric, speaking with a hoarse voice. He also restores lost dignities and honors.

Mike Shoesmith, of chemical assault fame, has taken a break from whinging on about the evils of women. Apparently, Mr. Shoesmith sees the late Stephen Hawking as being a demon puppet, nothing more, because Billy Graham.

…“[Graham] is a hundred percent devoted,” Shoesmith said. “The Lord sees his heart, gives him a tremendous ministry, and who do you think is sitting in the background going, ‘I have to do something about this, this guy is sold out, I have to do something’? Who do you think is sitting in the background doing that? The devil, right?”

No.

“So, in 1942, that is when Billy Graham’s ministry really takes off, and who do you think was born in 1942?” he continued. “Stephen Hawking. Stephen Hawking comes from a long line of atheists—his father and all these people—so I believe the devil said, ‘OK, this guy was just born and I’m going to use this guy. This guy is already primed to accept my message that there is no God. He is already primed for it, he is going to be awash, immersed in atheism all his years as a child, I’m going to take over this guy’s life.’”

A great many people were born in 1942. I’m sure a fair number of them were not christian, and Graham was just another con artist, nothing more.

“I believe Stephen Hawking was kept alive by demonic forces,” Shoesmith said. “I believe that it was the demonic realm that kept this man alive as a virtual vegetable his entire life just so he could spread this message that there is no God.”

Oh FFS. Do you know what the word virtual means, Mr. Shoesmith? I don’t think you do. Mr. Hawking was not a vegetable, in any sense. To the contrary, he was a very active person, and he spent most of his life spreading the wonders of physics. He really didn’t spend much time on atheism, and he certainly was not the equivalent huckster to Graham. Mr. Hawking was very lucky indeed to have been born in a country with healthcare. If he had been born in Ustates, his life would have most likely been brutal and short, with his grieving parents left under a crushing mountain of debt. So, if this was Lucifer’s doing, rather looks like he’s the good guy, doesn’t it?

Shoesmith went on to assert that if Hawking had simply reached out to God, Jesus would have cast the demons out of him and he would have been completely and miraculously healed.

Thanks to medicine and tech, Mr. Hawking was able to live into his seventies, which is pretty good for someone with such a serious disease, whereas that weak ass god of yours once again displayed a compleat inability to do jack shit. If Jehovah wanted to impress the fuck out of Mr. Hawking, could he not have shown up momentarily and cured him? That seems to be more the way to get a dedicated convert, no?

Anyroad, it’s well beyond shitty of you to run down a brilliant scientist and all around good man, after he’s dead of course, because you would never have the spine to do it when he was alive. Thanks ever for confirming yet again that you asshole christians are truly awful people.

The whole mess is at RWW.

Sunday Facepalm.

Students protest for tighter gun laws in Washington, DC, on March 14, 2018. (Photo: Bradley Williams for People For the American Way).

Students protest for tighter gun laws in Washington, DC, on March 14, 2018. (Photo: Bradley Williams for People For the American Way).

Master of rabid frothery Kevin Swanson is upset about guns, sort of. He can’t seem to figure out why those meddling kids are upset, but da youth is going to destroy Amerikka, yessir, just like every generation gone before them.

Radical right-wing pastor Kevin Swanson was not impressed with yesterday’s nationwide walkout in which thousands of students left school to protest gun violence in the wake of the mass shooting last month at a Florida high school, saying that the fact that the movement is being led by young people is a sign that America is under the judgment of God.

[Snips irrelevant passage from Isaiah]

“In other words, the young folks have all this revolutionary zeal but no real wisdom to govern what they are doing,” he said. “This is the result of the breaking of the commandment of God. Things are not going well with us in the land, we are not seeing things going well for tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of people across the country largely because the massive violation of the Fifth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother.”

Oh, the same old shite argument: you don’t have experience! Taking action is one way to gain experience, Mr. Swanson, and all kids need to start somewhere. Also, I am sick to death of these self-righteous assholes acting as though all the high school students are toddlers. A good many of these young people are mere months away from legal adulthood and voting. Others are quite a few years away from that, but you don’t get to act as though they have no right to think about issues and come to a conclusion about them. As issues go, guns are an easy one. We don’t need the fucking things, they should be under strict control, if for no other reason, to prevent more young people from needlessly dying. Most of these kids are in favour of gun reform, so they don’t even want to completely take your lethal toys away. The kids are alright, they are doing the right thing. As for your commandment, did it not occur, Mr. Swanson, that the majority of these kids have parents who stand behind them one hundred percent? Parents who are proud of their children for taking action and refusing to back down?

I’ve always hated that idiotic commandment. A lot of people end up with shit parents, you know, and no, they aren’t deserving of honour, or obedience, or any other thing. When it comes to parents and children, that whole ‘honour’ business needs to work both ways. Parenting is a difficult business much of the time, but you are supposed to be raising up individuals who can think for themselves. Well, at least if you’re not an asshole christian, who is more into brainwashing and numb obedience.

“Young people need to come to grips with the fact that they have not honored their parents’ wisdom,” Swanson said. “For this, God is bringing his judgment upon these individuals and upon this nation.”

Uh huh. Perhaps you’d like to say that to the parents who have lost a child to gun violence. Seems to me that a lot of parents are embracing their children’s wisdom, and they are acting together for the greater good. They don’t want more dead children and parents lost in a lifetime of grief, which is more than I can say for you asshole christians, who think some dead kids here and there are an acceptable price to pay in order to keep your lethal toys.

The whole thing is at RWW.