- A Madonna maimed…
So art, from time to time, needs to be restored. I got the chance to study art restoration in Florence Italy during my study abroad trip in college. There are several types of restoration and teachers really emphasize going slow, testing your chemicals before using them, and etc. Basically, it’s like doing a medical procedure on a piece of history: “first do no harm.”
That said, just this week it was announced that a work of art in Valencia Spain, The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables, was maimed beyond recognition by its restorer.
Something similar happened in Spain not too long ago. What’s weird is that the paintings both ended up looking similar in the end.
In this instance, the painting was of Mary. The owner hired a furniture conservator to restore it – their first mistake – and they had to try twice to restore it. Why? Because the first time, Mary’s face came out looking like…. Well, a potato. And let me tell you, it didn’t come out better the second time.
You may remember the other situation… Because basically the exact same thing happened except it was an image of Jesus rather than Mary. Both went in looking incredibly life like, glossy, and detailed, and came out looking…. Blobby and potato like. The works lost all of their detail and now look like completely different works. You would never know it was the same piece from the before and after.
While it is still unclear as to what exactly these restorationists did to these works that distorted them but the Spanish Professional Association of Restorers and Conservators are now calling for more regulations around the practice as it is getting a bad rap publicly! If you have ever seen the before and afters of the sistine ceiling in Rome, you know the POWER of a good restoration. You can barely see the frescos before because they are SO covered in soot but afterward? They look perfect. They even went as far as to leave one square in the corner un-restored so you can see for yourself how dark it was before their work. But when put in the wrong hands, restoration can certainly be destructive. And although the “potato Jesus” has gotten a bunch of press coverage, brought tourism to the town, and someone is even making a musical about it…. That doesn’t mean it’s good for restorers to take their job lightly. These ARE pieces of history.
2. Capitol Hill is getting… nuttier than usual
Remember the “checks and balances” concept from back in civics class? Well, the House Judiciary Committee is a group of congressmen who’s job it is to oversee the justice system and essentially “check it”… Make sure it’s running properly and doing the right thing. There’s a similar committee in the Senate.
Well there was a hearing yesterday to look into U.S. Attorney General William Barr and his numerous controversial actions that seem to blindly protect the President. Most recently, his actions pertaining to Geoffery Berman the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. During this hearing, the House members on this committee were hearing from Donald Ayer the former DEPUTY Attorney General under President Bush who was testifying. He had submitted his statement prior to testifying in person but as he was reading his statement, a representative from Texas, Republican Louie Gohmert kept banging his desk. Like making a LOUD banging noise repeatedly. At first, everyone seems to ignore it, assuming it was an accident of some sort. But it JUST. KEPT. GOING.
Finally, the Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler called out for QUOTE “regular order.” But then Gohmert claps back “oh, we’re WAY beyond regular order!” When another elected official asked for the sergeant in arms to make him stop pounding the desk as he could not hear the witness, Gohmert said QUOTE “well he’s way over his time and if there’s no rules about when you can talk, there’s no rules about when you can make noise.” END QUOTE
Nadler did not end up removing Gohmert, he was just allowed to continue banging his fist (literally) until the testimony was concluded. Wow. I think this more closely resembles the two year old I nanny than the actions of a grown man, let alone a congressman. As political tensions are mounting, behavior on The Hill is really devolving. Yikes.
3. So real quick – I wanna back peddle a little bit and dive deeper into something about the last story. So remember how I told you that there was a testimony going on at a hearing (that’s what was interrupted by the banging)? Well, the subject of that hearing is actually super important. For our third story, I want to tell you a little bit more about the firing of Geoffery Berman, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
So who is Geoffery Berman?
SO he was a trump appointed lawyer but… He has actually been forced to investigate the President on a number of different issues. President Trump never takes lightly to this type of thing and his administration is FRAUGHT with it.
So what happened to cause a scandal?
Well, on Saturday, Barr announced that Berman was resigning. But then Berman was like, uh, no I’m not LOL. Then Barr was like well then “you’re fired.” OK so that avoided some of the subtle nuances of the drama but for real, that’s really a decent summary of what happened.
No one has yet to explain SPECIFICALLY why Berman was fired. There was absolutely no reasoning provided. But politically, we have a pretty good idea. Because The White House had JUST been offering Berman MANY more elevated positions as a promotion…. So there’s little doubt he was doing his job well. It was more that they wanted him out of his current job. And they got that.
We know there ate AT LEAST two examples of instances where Trump was being investigated for something and someone intervened on his behalf, judicially:
- Roger Stone case
- Michael Flynn case
Here is a list of the people President Trump has removed who were in the process of formally investigating him or testifying:
- His personal lawyer Michael Cohen
- FBI Director James Comey
- Acting Attorney General Sally Yates
- Former US attorney Preet Bharara
- Michael Atkinson the whistle blower from the Ukraine complaint
- And now, Geoffery Berman
It’s important to note that ALL of those people were put in positions of power BY President Trump… So this is not something that can be blamed on “party politics” or the evil Democrats…. That is a list of people who HE HIRED that decided there was enough evidence to investigate him, risking and losing, their jobs.
But the biggest thing a lot of people seem to be upset about is the fact that the SITTING U.S. Attorney General got up and LIED. He lied to the American people in saying that Berman was resigning. He lied and was trying to bully a political opponent into getting out of his way, and he succeeded. These are ASTONISHING FACTS from one of the MOST IMPORTANT enforcers of “justice” in our country. And yet, looking into this situation has only lead lawmakers to…. Banging their fists on the table. Literally.
And that’s the news du jour!
I want to leave you with the quote:
- “You will never reach your destination if you stop to throw stones at every dog that barks.” (aka – fuck the haters)