Journalism

The American pavilion at the Venice Biennale features an upside down tank — symbol of the impotence of US imperialism — and an example of really bad political art.
. . . continued at Dissent Magazine HERE.

At the world’s biggest art event this summer, the Venice Biennale, the world’s most famous imprisoned artist, Ai Weiwei, was not exactly neglected—but his case received virtually no official acknowledgment. . . . an unofficial contribution, “Bye Bye Ai Weiwei,” written in six-foot tall white neon letters along the Giudecca canal, was visible to all the passing vapporetti.
. . . Continued at TheChinaBeat.org, HERE.

Best-selling true crime writer and former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi says believers and atheists are both wrong about “the God Question”: the only reasonable position, he argues, is “I don’t know, and neither do you.” I’ll be talking with Bugliosi about his new book Divinity of Doubt: The God Question at the L.A. Times Festival of Books at USC on Sunday May 1 at 10:30 in the Campus Center Ballroom.

It’s the fiftieth anniversary of the Bay of Pigs, April 17-18, 1961, when a CIA-trained army of Cuban exiles were sent by President Kennedy to overthrow Fidel Castro. Their humiliating defeat showed the world that Cubans would fight to defend their revolution, especially against an invasion sponsored by the United States. But that’s not the lesson Kennedy learned from his first great defeat as president.
. . . . Continued at TheNation.com HERE

Bob Dylan did not sell out to the Chinese government when he performed in Beijing on April 6. The “sellout” charge was made in the New York Times on Sunday by Maureen Dowd, along with several other people.  The problem: Dylan submitted his set list to the Chinese culture ministry, according to The Guardian’s Martin Wieland in Beijing, and as a result the concert was performed “strictly according to an approved programme.”
. . . contined at TheNation.com HERE

One of two NPR stations in the Los Angeles area, KPCC-FM, suspended its regularly-scheduled Planned Parenthood spots on Friday, in response to Republican demands that Congress eliminate federal funding for the family planning group.
. . . . Contined at TheNation.com HERE

Watergate was “the ultimate stress test” for the nation, says Timothy Naftali, director of the Nixon Library. It was also a stress test for the National Archives and the Nixon Library. . . .
. . . continued at the L.A. Times op-ed page HERE

More than a million people teach at colleges and universities in the United States, but only one faces a Republican demand for his e-mails: William Cronon, who teaches history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. . . . What does it take to become the target of this kind of attack?
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

When Elizabeth Taylor died, Al Jazeera English reported that her greatest role was Cleopatra.
They didn’t report that she had offered herself as a hostage at Entebbe in exchange for the 100 hijack victims held by terrorists at that airport in Uganda in 1976. . . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

When John Lennon sang “Imagine there’s no heaven” in 1971, rock critics called the song “utopian.” But 40 years later, researchers have found that religion is indeed disappearing in nine countries . . . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE.