Why Democrats turn to the great outdoors for merch
Plus: Melania bought her own NFT
Hello, in this week’s issue…
Why Democrats turn to the great outdoors for merch
To get Biden’s attention, Manuel Oliver climbed a crane outside the White House
Melania bought her own NFT
Ranking ruined European art on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being “most botched,” this vandalized Russian painting is like a 2
Why Democrats turn to the great outdoors for merch
Arizona turned 110 Monday, and Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-Ariz.) campaign released an “Arizona’s Natural Treasures” line to celebrate that includes posters and shirts of Lake Powell, Monument Valley, and the Grand Canyon.
Designed in-house, the line is the latest example of Democrats turning to the great outdoors for fundraising inspiration. In 2019, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) put out Green New Deal posters of New York City parks inspired by New Deal art. Using things like a state’s parks and monuments in fundraising allows campaigns to reference both the state they’re campaigning to represent and environmentalism. But highlighting America’s natural wonders doesn’t have to go full GND.
Kelly’s posters call for preserving, saving, and protecting some of Arizona’s most well-known spots. Aside from the “Vote Mark Kelly” one, though, you could get away with hanging the rest of the line in an ASU dorm room for most of the semester without your Turning Point USA roommate noticing it’s from a Democrat.
The line is also an example of merch imitating life: Kelly co-sponsored the Grand Canyon Protection Act last year with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to prohibit new uranium mining around the national park.
In other merch news, I kid you not, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) literally turned the picture of himself pumping his fist on Jan. 6 into a $20 mug. He told HuffPo it is “not a pro-riot mug.”
To get Biden’s attention, Manuel Oliver climbed a crane outside the White House
Artist and activist Manuel Oliver climbed a 150-foot-tall crane near the White House Monday to hang a banner calling attention to gun violence with an image of his son Joaquin, who was killed in the Parkland shooting four years earlier to the day.
Oliver said on Twitter that he requested a meeting with President Joe Biden but hadn’t gotten one, so the banner was how his son would make a statement. Oliver was arrested and charged with unlawful entry, according to WUSA, and he posted a photo in police custody on social media and wrote, “A father’s job never ends.”
Cranes are one of the highest-profile spots to make a political statement in town, and in 2017, Greenpeace used a construction crane in view of the White House to hang a “Resist” banner.
Oliver’s group Change the Ref has called on Biden to nominate a new director to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and to take executive action to respond to gun violence. Oliver has used art to speak out against gun violence since the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, including painting a mural of his son in El Paso, Texas, that was updated before it was unveiled because of a shooting there in 2019.
Melania bought her own NFT
The buyer of former first lady Melania Trump’s latest NFT was none other than Trump herself, or whoever arranged the sale for her.
Blockchain records reviewed by Motherboard show the entity that minted Trump’s Head of State Collection NFT was the same entity that purchased it last month. Trump’s office responded in a statement saying the transaction “was facilitated on behalf of a third-party buyer.”
While Trump’s office touted the transparent nature of blockchain for allowing transactions to be publicly viewable, it declined to name the third-party buyer the NFT was purchased for. If it was purchased in cash, it begs the question: why even conduct the sale in cryptocurrency then?
While the former FLOTUS is still figuring out her NFT footing (aren’t we all?), other Trump family post-White House business ventures are booming. The former president is hosting political fundraiser-style parties and pocketing the money himself, according to the New York Times, and his coffee table picture book “Our Journey Together” has reportedly brought in $20 million in gross revenue.
Ranking ruined European art on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being “most botched,” this vandalized Russian painting is like a 2
A security guard at a gallery in Russia drew eyes on two figures in a painting insured for about $1.4 million on his first day working there, but guys, everything’s going to be OK.
Security guard Aleksandr Vasiliev, 63, worked at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center and said teenagers pranked him into drawing eyes. He said the teens claimed the work — Anna Leporskaya’s “Three Figures” (1932-1934) — was one of their childhood drawings, according to a translation of a Russian-language interview by ARTnews.
Luckily this isn’t as bad as the infamous botched “restoration” of a fresco of Christ in Spain, which is a 10 on our 1-to-10 scale. The Yeltsin Center described the damage to “Three Figures” as insignificant because Vasiliev hadn’t applied much pressure when he drew on the eyes, and the painting will be restored.
Tiffany’s impact
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I couldn’t help but notice the color choice in Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-S.C.) campaign selfie video outside Trump Tower last week. 👀 The freshman Republican didn’t vote to impeach Trump last year, but she did say he should be held accountable for his role in Jan. 6. She now faces a Trump-endorsed primary challenger. In her video, Mace spoke about working for Trump’s campaign and supporting his policies but said the candidate he endorsed in her race would go on to lose in the general. Whether intentionally or not, Mace made her case in full view of the Tiffany & Co. store that former first daughter Tiffany Trump was named after, and Mace wore a matching Tiffany Blue scarf. I guess if you’re trying to thread the needle between MAGAverse and the moderates, there are worse ways to go then potentially paying homage to the one adult Trump kid who’s not under investigation (not to mention the only first daughter to have recorded a lost album).