"Free Trade" Helped Cause the Economic Crisis

Great discussion on HuffPo of "free trade." The problem isn't free trade of goods, it's that our jobs have been shipped to countries that don't have protections against worker and environmental exploitation. As Dave Johnson explains,

"Imagine a company in South Carolina that makes 20,000 pairs of shoes a week and distributes them to stores. Now, imagine that the company closes its South Carolina plant, opens a plant in a low-wage country, ships all the machines and raw materials there, ships back 20,000 pairs of shoes each week and distributes them to the same stores. Is that 'trade?' Are the raw materials sent out of the country an 'export?' Are the shoes brought back into the country an 'import?'

"The only thing that has been 'traded' in this scenario is American jobs traded for huge executive bonuses."

Meanwhile, foreign workers still can't afford the goods they're manufacturing, and we can't either because we've lost most of our decently-paid jobs. Without disposable income or equity, we masses can't continue to consume, and the economy grinds to a halt.

Sigmar Polke at Museum Ludwig

Wish I could go; failing that, you can see a few images at the museum's site.

How Lo Can WaPo Go?

"Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was canceling plans for an exclusive 'salon' at her home where, for as much as $250,000, the Post offered [healthcare and other] lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to 'those powerful few' — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors.

"The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its 'health care reporting and editorial staff.'"

More here.

Thriller Headphones

Via Gizmodo (thanks, Ben!)

Leave Obama Alone!!!

(Thanks, closeupready!)

Bordeaux Porn

"[A]fter six years of investigations . . . during which no element was produced that could have fed the prosecution (the specialized unit for minors and the rectorship gave a favourable opinion) and after the attorney general of Bordeaux called for a not guilty decision in march 2008 [, a judge in Bordeaux has re-opened a decade-old child porn case against curators Marie-Laure Bernadac, Henry-Claude Cousseau, and Stéphanie Moisdon] . . . for having, within the exhibition entitled 'presumed innocent- contemporary art and childhood' . . . exposed 'violent and pornographic art works.'

* * * * *
"For the first time in France, two museum directors and a curator are to be tried in a criminal court for exhibiting works of art that have already been shown throughout the world or put on view since the Bordeaux exhibition in art shows that have not elicited the least unfavorable reaction from the public. The thinking that went into preparing the incriminated exhibition, focused on a major subject of art history, was developed collectively and was shared by the relevant state oversight authorities."

(Thanks, e-flux!) I believe people in Bordeaux probably have access to the internets; since I'm showing this pic, guess they'll have to indict me, too.

Elizabeth Warren on the U.S. Middle Class Since 1970 (Screwn)

This is long but worthwhile and quite watchable. If you're willing to take her mega-qualificiations as given, you can skip the first 5 min.

Marco Brambilla: "Civilization"

HD video created with the assistance of Motionographer – go to the link for the vidi, 'cuz the still at right doesn't do it justice. The video shows an ascending or descending view between hell and heaven and was installed in an elevator, with the up or down motion of the visuals sync'd to that of the elevator. The video incorporates some 250 film clips, seamlessly looped and animated in 3-D – quite a feat.