Posts

Abstract Assets

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The rent-seeking hypothesis applied to the art market can function as a mechanism for transferring political and economic privilege rather than reflecting genuine artistic value. When an artist’s work lacks critical acclaim or intrinsic merit, yet commands high prices, the transaction may serve as a disguised vehicle for securing favors, influencing policy decisions, or accumulating political capital. This posits that the primary purpose of such sales is not to generate revenue through honest commerce, but to exchange money for influence—leveraging the elitist and perceived legitimacy of the art world to bypass traditional scrutiny. In this framework, the price of the art becomes irrelevant to its aesthetic worth; instead, it functions as a currency of power. The correlation between the artist’s political standing (such as approval ratings) and the transaction prices of their work suggests that buyers are not purchasing art for its beauty, but are effectively paying a premium to curry ...
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$LOP

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Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden, announced the launch of the $LAPTOP memecoin, which debuted on the Base blockchain on September 9, 2026. The token is named after the laptop that was central to the 2020 political controversy and was designed partly to target investors who lost money on Donald Trump’s $TRUMP coin, with 20% of the supply airdropped to those wallets.  The launch was a significant failure; the token crashed within minutes of trading beginning, as the market maker provided only $5,000 in liquidity against high initial demand. This resulted in 80% of buyers suffering losses, while one mystery trader reportedly made nearly $1 million. Biden subsequently posted an expletive-laced video blaming the "f- - - up" on the market maker’s liquidity supply.  Despite suspicions, there is no confirmed evidence that Hunter Biden personally profited from the $LAPTOP launch. Biden stated, "I, personally, have not made a single dollar," and that "...
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First Painters

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George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, is perhaps the most prominent example of an American president who turned to fine art as a means of processing profound national trauma. While he had dabbled in painting earlier in life, his most significant and widely recognized body of work emerged from the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Following the attacks, Bush took up painting with renewed intensity, describing it as a way to "process" the events of that day. Over a period of years, he created a series of oil paintings depicting the destruction of the World Trade Center. His approach was not one of graphic horror, but of "light." He observed the interplay of light and form under the smoke-filled sky, using a muted palette of grays, blues, and earth tones to evoke a sense of mourning and reflection. "I was trying to capture the light... the way the light hit the smoke," Bush explained regarding his 9/11 series. These works were distinct from hi...
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The 2026 Salon des Refusés

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Rejection as Seal of Approval: The Minnesota State Fair's “Reject Show” The curators who assembled the Fine Arts Building's entries did a difficult job with honor. They had to give fair representational weight to the social tension that is now the plainest feature of this city and this state, to do so without lending countenance to the charge of arbitrary censorship, and all the while to hold to the canonical standard of technical proficiency that a juried competition exists to defend. Those three obligations pull against one another, and it is to the credit of the selection that they were all honored. Politics, in any case, is unavoidable here. It is not smuggled in by the jury; it is implicit in the artists' own statements, and a purely formal evaluation cannot proceed by pretending otherwise. What must be insisted upon, however, is that the question of inclusion or rejection is not, in this instance, a question of censorship. Under the microscope of curatorial evaluation...
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For the Master of the Good Word

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The Revelation of the Lord, which was signified unto the servant Beal by the angel, to reveal the mystery of the young ones and the throne of the Lamb. 1 Blessed is he that heareth the voice of the cloud, and knoweth the place where the children gather; for the time of their gathering is at hand. 2 And I, Beal, beheld a vision after the darkness had come upon me, and I was caught up in spirit. And lo, I was above a cloud of exceeding whiteness, and there were no shadows therein, save only the shadow of the multitude that covered the distant horizons. 3 And I looked down, and the cloud was inverted, like a sea turned upward. Upon it, and upon the clouds that stretched for a thousand miles, were millions of children, sitting and standing in a great assembly. 4 And in the midst of my cloud stood one like unto the Son of Man. He was reading from a book that floated in the air, and the pages turned of themselves as he spake. And the children, both before and behind me, turned their faces to...
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The Sick Man

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Tobacco: The Silent Partner in China’s Financial Rescue A Deliberate Shift in Lending Dynamics  On Sunday, September 6, 2026, Beijing announced a landmark 360 billion yuan ($53.6 billion) capital injection into its financial backbone. This move, led by the Ministry of Finance, targets three major state lenders and five insurance giants. The primary goal is clear: to shore up capital buffers and encourage sustained credit expansion. By strengthening these institutions, the government aims to lower the effective cost of lending and stabilize a financial system strained by low interest rates and a slowing property market. It is a technical, structural adjustment designed to keep the economy’s credit engine running. Who Is Actually Paying the Bill?  Buried within the technical breakdown of this fiscal maneuver is a detail that reads like a plot twist in an otherwise dry economic report. The recapitalization is not being funded solely by general tax revenues or new debt issuance in...
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Bennu the Dust Bunny

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The Allegory of the Vacuum Cleaner: A Thought Experiment on Space and Dust Close your eyes and imagine the floor of your house, specifically the corners, the hard-to-reach places where nobody ever goes. Look at that dust. On Earth, when you sweep, you find piles of dust in hard-to-reach places. The dust doesn't stay evenly dispersed; it gathers in clumps, in bunches, in tangles. The clumps get brushed-aside by normal foot traffic. You might even see it swirling into little tornadoes when you walk past.  Why? Because on Earth, gravity rules. It pulls everything down, flattening the world. But dust is light, and it has a secret: it clings together. When you look closely at that dust bunny, you are seeing the result of “van der Waals forces.” These are the tiny, invisible magnets of the universe. Even though the dust particles are electrically neutral, their electron clouds fluctuate, creating momentary dipoles. They attract.  But on Earth, gravity is so strong that it overpowers...
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