The Politics Behind the Art You Already Know

Hidden in Plain Sight

By Dominick Conidi, Alexandria Shaner , Bill Fletcher Jr 

Source: Originally published by Z. Feel free to share widely.

You know this art. But do you remember what it was actually about?

Hidden in Plain Sight uncovers the politics inside the songs, films, books, and images millions of us already know—and asks: What happened to the message?

Art is powerful. It can help us recognize that problems we experience as private are often collective. It can help us imagine alternatives, and see new possibilities for change. That’s also why powerful institutions work to manage culture: by suppressing some ideas, commercializing others, stripping away context, and turning radical critique into something safe.

But meanings can be reclaimed.

Look again. Recover the story. Imagine more. And follow the series as we explore how culture can help us build the power and possibilities for a better world.

Click here to download our 1-page PDF guide!

Transcript:

You know this song.

You’ve heard it at sporting events. Political rallies. Fourth of July celebrations.

But listen to the verses.

A young man is sent to Vietnam. He comes home. He can’t find work. The country that used him for war has little use for him now.

Born in the U.S.A. is a song about war, class, and abandonment. And somehow, it became a “patriotic” anthem, dismissing the original intent of the piece.

How does that happen?

You know this one too. Fun. Catchy. Impossible not to sing along with.

But listen closely.

You put in the hours. Someone else takes the credit. You make the money. Someone else gets rich.

Forty years later, millions of people still know exactly what she’s talking about.

Millions of people know these works. Far fewer remember what they were actually saying. And sometimes, the forgetting does political work.

In this series, we’re going to take some of the songs, movies, books, and images millions of people already know—and look again.

Some of these stories will be familiar. Some may surprise you. And some may make you hear or see something you’ve encountered a hundred times in a different way.

Through the series, we’ll ask what happened to the message—and what it can still tell us about power, liberation, and the world we might build.

The Message Didn’t Disappear. We Stopped Hearing It.

You don’t always have to ban a dangerous idea.

You can take away its context. Leave out the inconvenient parts. Turn the critique into entertainment. Put the rebel on a T-shirt. Sell the anger back to the people who felt it in the first place.

And after a while, the work becomes so familiar that we stop hearing what it’s saying.

Take Pink Floyd’s Money. A song about greed. About a culture that treats wealth as a measure of human worth. Today, it can sit comfortably inside celebrations of wealth and business success.

Or Fortunate Son. A song about class privilege—about the children of the powerful escaping war while working-class people fight it. Now it can play almost anywhere as a burst of generic American rebellion.

The sound remains. The target gets blurry.

That doesn’t mean the art has failed. It means there’s another struggle over the art.

Who gets to tell us what it means?

Sometimes, They Just Leave Out the Verses

Everybody knows This Land Is Your Land. For generations, children have sung it as a simple celebration of America.

But Guthrie wrote verses that many people never learned. Verses about private property. Poverty. People going hungry.

In one, a sign says:

Private Property.

And Guthrie answers:

The other side didn’t say nothing.
This land was made for you and me.

Suddenly, the song is asking something much more difficult:

Who gets to own the land? Who gets excluded? Who gets to make the rules?

The song survived. So did the question.

The part that disappeared was the connection between the two.

Trump's obsession with gold decor is way more sinister than you think

The color of autocrats

By Thom Hartmann

Key takeaways

• Grand Construction Projects: Trump is focused on gold decorations, marble columns, triumphal arches, and massive ballrooms, prioritizing them over issues like healthcare, inflation, and housing.
• Historical Parallels: Similar to Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Ceaușescu, and Louis XIV, these projects aim to impress, dominate, and create a personal legacy through monumental architecture.
• Threat to Republican Ideals: By turning the White House and DC into symbols of his personal power, Trump challenges the founders’ vision of a modest republic where government serves the people, not glorifies a ruler.

Trump is trying to get his construction projects done before Democrats can stop him when they take control of Congress in two months after last night’s spectacular victories. There’s an urgent reason for that, from his perspective.

Monday afternoon, on the eve of the midterm election, Trump stood at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and delivered his closing argument.

But instead of talking about healthcare, inflation, housing costs, education, or the challenges working families and farmers are facing as the result of his and the GOP’s policies, he went off on an extended, rambling rant about fountains, marble, the “arch,” and his other construction projects. And, repeatedly, about Corinthian columns.

As Barack Obama noted last week, Trump has an obsession with gluing gold-painted decorations to the walls of the Oval Office; Obama called it “arts and crafts.” He’s covering things with gold trim, gold gilded picture frames, elaborate ornamentation, and even regilding monumental statues in DC. He’s torn down the White House’s East Wing, is building a massive ballroom, is ripping up an historic DC golf course, and wants a triumphal arch.

What’s going on here?

Just ridiculing this as “arts and crafts” misses an enormously important aspect of what Trump’s up to; this isn’t simply the vanity of a former real estate developer who likes shiny stuff.

Historians will tell you that there’s a long and disturbing history of brutal authoritarian leaders, particularly fascists, being obsessed with architecture, massive construction projects, and remaking capital cities in their own images.

And now Trump’s doing it to America and few people seem to realize its importance.

— Adolf Hitler was obsessed with architecture; he spent countless hours with Albert Speer planning the transformation of Berlin into “Germania,” a gigantic imperial capital with buildings designed to dwarf anything built by previous civilizations. His proposed People’s Hall would have a dome nearly 1,000 feet high: Hitler wanted buildings so massive that ordinary human beings would feel insignificant standing before them, buildings that would last like the monuments of ancient Rome.

— Benito Mussolini did the same thing in Italy, demolishing historic neighborhoods in Rome to construct grand avenues and massive government buildings; he was deliberately invoking the architecture of the ancient Roman Empire, saying his fascist regime was the rebirth of Rome’s long-lost “greatness.” Future generations, he said, would see his buildings and remember his name and its imprint on the Eternal City.

— Joseph Stalin, who called himself a communist but ruled like a fascist, planned an enormous Palace of the Soviets featuring a gigantic, larger-than-life statue of Lenin.

Don't expect to get a lifeline

Save on home heating oil

Affordable Rhode Island celebrates Rep. Megan Cotter's win

Affordable RI celebrates four general election wins

From an Affordable RI press release, SteveAhlquist.news

Affordable RI celebrated a successful November 3 general election, with all four of its priority candidates winning their races: Megan Cotter in House District 39, Nelly Burdette in Senate District 17, Veronicka Vega in House District 49, and Zakary Pereira in House District 22. In addition to supporting the election of Amy Santiago in House District 7 in the primary.

The four victories reflect growing support for leaders who put affordability, economic fairness, and opportunity at the center of their campaigns. Together, these candidates are committed to addressing the rising cost of living and making Rhode Island a place where working people can afford to live, raise a family, and build a future.

Metformin given within a week of COVID-19 slashes risk of long COVID, death by 53%, paper notes

Popular diabetes drug offers new benefit

Meghan Holohan

Long COVID—or new-onset symptoms or worsening health conditions after SARS-CoV-2 infection—can lower quality of life. Finding a way to prevent it would be a welcome relief for those worried about the long-term effects of the viral infection. 

A study published last week in the Journal of Medical Virology finds that US COVID-19 patients prescribed metformin, a medication that treats prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, within six days of COVID-19 infection were less likely to develop long COVID or die. 

“Metformin prescription within the week following documented SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with a 53% reduction in LC/D [long COVID or death] over 6 months in this primarily Omicron-infected sample,” wrote the authors, led by researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School. 

Somebody signed me on to Donald Trump's email fundraising list.

Thank you to whoever did that because I would have missed messages like the one below

By Will Collette

If only this could be true:

THIS COULD BE MY FINAL WEEK AS PRESIDENT READ MY CRITICAL REFLECTION Never in the history of my Presidency have I sent anything quite like this to my supporters. Dear Will, this is your only warning. What I’m about to share with you is emotional - PREPARE YOURSELF. READ MY CRITICAL REFLECTION The Rose Garden is almost sacred at night. When the cameras are gone and the noise of the day finally fades, it stops being a backdrop for press conferences and power plays. It becomes what it was always meant to be: a quiet, living garden right beside the White House. And last evening, in what could be my final 4 weeks as President, I took some time to reflect on the last 10 years we have shared as I strolled alongside the rose bushes. READ MY CRITICAL REFLECTION Here's what the White House under Trump actually looks like: The "Sacred" Rose Garden has been paved over and now looks like the patio at Mar-A-Lago Your faith in me still humbles me more than I can put into words. From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, I have always been able to count on your support. From an unproven, underdog political candidate to the leader of our nation's GREATEST movement in history, you have always stood by my side. Even when it would have been easier to write me off. For the past decade, the Radical Left has done everything in their power in an attempt to destroy the MAGA coalition. They came for me, my family, friends, and above all: my supporters. People like you, Will. When the chips were down, you stared evil straight in the face and never flinched. You put your career, family, and even LIFE on the line to continue supporting me, and I will never be able to thank you enough. Every single day I wake up, I pray and thank God for his blessing of being able to be your President.  And every night I go to sleep, I pray for the opportunity to spend one more day fighting to make America Great Again. And in the Rose Garden late last evening, I made one final prayer before leaving: That my supporters will keep their trust in me one final time and help see the rest of my mission through. As you read my message, the Radical Left all across the country are rallying. From our cities to the countryside, dangerous socialists and communists are preparing to destroy our Republican Majorities in the House and the Senate. I refuse to go quietly and allow the Radical Left one final victory. After everything we have built - after the strength we restored, the borders we secured, the voices we gave back to forgotten Americans - we cannot stop when we are so close to Making America Great Again. Here, in the Rose Garden, I’m not asking for your support as President. I am asking for your support as a fellow American who will do anything for his country. I am asking for one more show of faith. One more offering of trust. Please, stand with me today. > Thank you & God Bless

Sen. Whitehouse criticized for plan to ease project permitting

A bill in Congress would speed up project approval. Is this good or bad?

Barry Schiller in SteveAhlquist.news

Have you heard about the “Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act,” S5653, introduced in the United States Senate? From its name, it certainly sounds like a good thing, but it has actually split the environmental movement.

It is a 417-page bill with 4 sponsors, two from each party, one of whom is our own Sheldon Whitehouse, long a climate leader. The bill purports to be about permitting reform, intended to reduce delays so the U.S. can build projects more quickly, especially in energy.

Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is thinking of renewable energy, and is quoted in the press release saying Americans “want lower energy bills, and they want more clean energy. Our permitting reform plan gets us a long way toward both of those goals. 

If we can pass this bill, we will flood the grid with clean, affordable energy and make data centers start paying their fair share. Like all major pieces of bipartisan legislation, this bill is a compromise. We believe it is a compromise that will result in a brighter, cleaner, more affordable future.”

Renewable energy firms, worried about getting transmission lines built, support the bill, as does the Citizens Climate Lobby, which claims it will “unlock a huge amount of clean energy development.” But because the bill can also speed up fossil fuel development, it has support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Mining Association, natural gas interests, and apparently the Trump administration, which wants to speed up projects like oil wells, coal mines, gas pipelines, and nuclear energy.

But some environmental groups oppose it, as the bill limits time for public comment, restricts judicial remedies, and narrows the scope of environmental review. The New York Times summary of the bill says “it puts new limits on landmark environmental laws such as the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts.” The latter inspired a 4-page letter signed by more than 200 environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth, the Western Environmental Law Center, and the Center for Biological Diversity, detailing why the bill is objectionable. 

Trump 2.0 reboot

Now that Bibi has lost...

What to watch for – and prep for – across the Southeast U.S. and Eastern Seaboard as El Niño peaks

We've got another Nor'easter rolling in tonight

By Bob Henson, Yale Climate Connections

Figure 1. Typical features of El Niño across North America. (Image credit: NOAA)

For all the destructive power it can pack, a very strong (aka “super”) El Niño event like the one now in place also brings some measure of seasonal predictability. Nothing is ever guaranteed, but especially from late fall into early spring, El Niño shifts the odds of temperature and precipitation outcomes in ways that have distinctive regional fingerprints. This allows a wide range of stakeholders, from water managers to farmers to energy traders, to hedge their bets and reduce their risk of unpleasant surprises.

The elephant in the room is the question of how human-caused climate change will affect this "super" El Niño.

In the United States, El Niño’s classic winter signature is drier-than-usual weather centered near the Ohio Valley, with unusual warmth extending across much of Canada and the northern U.S. tier. A wetter-than-usual arc typically runs from southern California across the Southwest and South and up close to the mid-Atlantic. A few areas in or near this typical moist arc have already been plastered with destructive flooding rains over the past several weeks, including Arizona and the Four Corners region as well as parts of Florida’s Space Coast and northern Georgia. Various factors, including El Niño, long-term warming, and unusually high monthly king tides, have already driven record-high coastal water levels this fall in California and Florida.

There could be many more local and regional flooding episodes between now and spring 2027, especially if the typical El Niño-juiced jet stream sets up along the southern tier of the U.S. – an outcome implied in NOAA's winter forecast as well as recent runs of seasonal forecast models. There's also historical and model-based evidence suggesting:

• a strikingly warm December for much of the U.S., but unusually chilly conditions that could emerge in February, particularly over the South
• a heightened risk of a major late-winter tornado outbreak, especially in Florida
• a sequence of potent nor'easter-type storms, but with major uncertainty over whether it'll get enough for much snow along the Interstate 95 corridor.

Figure 2. Outlooks for seasonal temperature (left) and precipitation (right) averaged across the three months of winter 2026–27 (December through February). (Image credit: NOAA)

Pentagon Pete gives 30 minute lecture at the Naval War College in Newport

Hegseth attacks civilian-led education in Naval War College speech

By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current

Protesters assemble as the motorcade for Secretary of
Defense Pete Hegseth arrives in Newport.
(Photo by David Hansen/Rhode Island Current)

As calls for his resignation and impeachment grow in Washington, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth came to the U.S. Naval War College in Newport Monday, Nov. 9, to announce a sweeping effort to strip military education of what he called its overly civilian influences.

“This morning we strip away the comfortable veneer of academic tradition,” he told an audience of 672 military personnel, students, faculty and civilian instructors inside Spruance Hall. “The fundamental duty of the armed forces of the United States is to ensure victory in war — full stop.”

Laughing, talking, taking selfies - Hegseth has no
right to lecture anybody!

Hegseth set the curriculum overhaul in motion in March, ordering a 90-day review of the Pentagon’s six senior service colleges, including the war colleges for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines and the National Defense University and National War College. 

The Pentagon established a task force to scrutinize their faculty and curriculum to ensure the schools were producing warfighters rather than “social justice warriors.”

The result: an eight-page memo dated Monday containing 33 directives Hegseth said would rid the colleges of “relics of 19th century academia” and better prepare officers for modern warfare.

“In the profession of arms, nostalgia is fatal,” he said. “When our war college graduates walk across the stage and take command, their minds cannot be anchored on the strategic consensus of a vanished world.”

Hegseth presented an outline on some of the new guidelines during his 30-minute speech after which he promptly left the auditorium. He allowed no time for questions and answers with faculty and students and did not take questions from local media. 

Under the new guidelines, the Pentagon will judge military education programs by a single standard: whether they produce leaders capable of winning wars. 

Trump made his Veterans Day speech at Arlington
Cemetery about himself and his vanity projects.
Hegseth gets it from his boss and...

The directives would make newly hired civilian faculty ineligible for lifetime tenure and emeritus status, instead putting them on renewable three-year contracts tied to teaching performance and national security research. They also call for new “warfighter chair” positions at senior service colleges, filled by high-performing colonels and lieutenant colonels who have held operational commands within the previous two years.

“Peace through strength is not achieved by comfortable consensus and business as usual approaches,” Hegseth said. “It is achieved by preparing our minds and our forces to wage war with such devastating speed, precision, and lethality that no adversary dares test American resolve — that’s deterrence.”

Hegseth’s central critique against America’s military colleges is that they have become too much like civilian universities, importing what he called the “worst pathologies” of higher education at the expense of their focus on victory in the battlefield.

...Role model for disgraceful conduct at Arlington Cemetery

He pointed to the Naval War College’s 12-year partnership with Brown University as an example, saying he directed the Pentagon to end the relationship last month.

“The only place more strikingly ideological in one direction — more than Columbia or Harvard — is Brown,” Hegseth, a graduate of Princeton and Harvard, said. “It was long past due to end that relationship.”

The partnership between the two schools dates to June 2014, when then-Naval War College President Rear Adm. Walter E. “Ted” Carter Jr. and Brown President Christina Paxson signed a research and education agreement with the university’s Watson Institute for International Studies. The agreement was intended to promote joint research and teaching, including programs in science-related fields tied to long-term national defense needs.

A spokesperson for Brown University did not immediately respond to request for comment on Hegseth’s statements.

Will Trump try to ban non-profit groups that oppose him?

Trump Weighing Executive Order to Label Disliked Nonprofits as ‘Terrorist’ Groups

Stephen Prager for Common Dreams

Donald Trump is reportedly considering a major escalation of his war against left-wing nonprofits with an executive order that would seek to suspend their tax-exempt status with the stroke of a pen.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the order plans to label some nonprofit groups as having “terrorist” ties—an act that would immediately suspend their tax-exempt status, dramatically imperiling their ability to operate and raise money.

According to the report, the administration is seeking to use a little-known provision in the federal tax code to strip nonprofits of their status without going through the normal Internal Revenue Service investigation and appeals process.

The law, signed in 2003 by then-President George W. Bush, allows the president to identify an organization in an executive order as supporting or engaging in terrorism. The law also prevents organizations from challenging designation or suspension in proceedings concerning federal tax liability.

It’s not clear yet which groups will be targeted, but the administration and its allies in Congress have already signaled their intent to go after left-leaning groups like George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Advice for Dems from Nobel laureate

What do we do now? Paul Krugman has some suggestions

by xaxnar, Daily Kos

Democrats look to have control of both houses of Congress come January, assuming no shenanigans keep that from happening. That’s huge, but not sufficient. Although they have historic margins, it’s still not enough to guarantee overriding presidential vetoes or getting around the filibuster. Trump still retains vast powers as the chief executive and commander in chief, not to mention the GOP control of the Supreme Court.

Nonetheless, Paul Krugman has some suggestions. There’s a lot that can be done by Democrats in Congress even so.

The American people have just delivered a stunning rebuke to Donald Trump. If we had a parliamentary system, the moving trucks would already be at the White House. 

As it is, however, an increasingly deranged and debilitated Trump will remain in control of foreign policy, national security, and many of the federal government’s domestic operations for two more years. He will also, as he made a point of emphasizing on Truth Social as the returns came in, retain the ability to veto legislation. And Democrats, despite their huge margins in both houses of Congress, won’t have enough votes to override his vetoes.

So what can Democrats do with their new majorities?

One important answer is that they will now hold committee gavels, hence the ability to conduct investigations and hearings backed by subpoena power. This matters more for the Trump gang than it would for a normal administration. 

Everyone paying attention knows that Trump and his cronies have been stealing billions, but many Americans probably don’t grasp the full extent of the corruption. Gaining the ability to bring this corruption into the sunlight is critical to rebuild Americans’ faith in the integrity of government, as well as to hold Trump and his vandals accountable. 

Moreover, knowing that his days are numbered, the Trump gang have every incentive to engage in a wholesale smash-and-grab spree.

And Democrats know it. On Tuesday night Rep. Robert Garcia — the probable chair of the House Oversight Committee — had a blunt message for everyone associated with Trump: “Lawyer up.”

Should have checked under the bed