Jay Juno

Coffee in watercolor and ink...

I keep hearing that most Americans can't read above a 6th grade reading level.

So with that in mind, recommending that they read Republic by Plato isn't going to do much good now, is it? Even if they read it, they probably won't understand it. Most people have to read Republic several times anyway before they start really getting it.

Understanding the Cave of Shadows from Republic is like trying to wake up from the Matrix from the 1990s- most people naturally struggle against this kind of awakening, because the truth sucks. Reality sucks, and most people struggle to handle that kind of truth.

Allegory of the cave, they usually call this cave of shadows, or something like that...

I think anyone who wants to try changing things for the better in America needs to understand what they're working with here, which is a caffeine/video game/social media addicted population that is largely borderline illiterate. Most Americans don't even know the difference between Socrates and Plato. They don't know the difference between a novel and a short story. They do know the difference between Nintendo and Sega, though.

Also, it seems most Americans aged 25 and under don't understand how to use a desktop computer nor the keyboard, having been raised almost entirely on tablets and smartphones with touchscreens. Most of these kids don't understand what ctrl+alt+delete means.

I've been ctrl+alt+deleting since I was in grade school, but I don't know how to teach that skill to the younger generation. I don't know how to pass this knowledge on, which is probably a sign that my generation has also been failed by the American public education system. It didn't fail my generation as badly as it's failing these kids now, but it was a colossal failure all the same.

I think my generation is the last generation to be taught how to write in cursive? Handwriting in general seems to be a dying art. Some of these kids struggle to write their own names because they're used to a program or AI prompt just giving it to them as a graphic on a screen. They're being taught to memorize graphics instead of learning to actually read letters.

In addition to all of this, social media has been dumbing the entire internet down since roughly 2008, which has further eroded the ability of the younger generations to self educate themselves when the public education system fails them, as it has failed them since the Reagan era of the 1980s.

So, how to reach this group?

Defund Data Centers

We're having the worst energy crisis in history right now, so we can't afford to power these damn data centers anyway. All construction of new data centers should be immediately halted, so that what remains of our precious energy isn't wasted on them. We can't even afford to take care of ourselves right now because of the energy crisis caused by the Strait of Hormuz being closed. We're already suffering because of rapist trump's stupid war against Iran. It's beyond selfish of billionaires to force these data centers through when Americans are already struggling so much right now.

People don't need data centers- we need clean water, clean energy, affordable housing, and we need the tech bro billionaires to go piss off somewhere. If the billionaires aren't going to help us? Then the least they can do is hide away in their bunkers, and leave the rest of us alone.

Are they really expecting Americans to sacrifice their own personal water and energy supplies to power these data centers? That seems to be the plan so far, with many Americans already suffering side effects because of these data centers being illegally built near their homes with no regard for the environment or for the people who live there.

Haven't Americans sacrificed enough already over these past several years? We have nothing left to sacrifice, billionaires! Stop stealing from us, you rich sociopathic parasites from Silicon Valley!

How much more of this are Americans going to tolerate?

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

-Some dude named Jesus

(Matthew 6:5-6 from the Christian Bible...)

The Rededicate 250 public prayer being performed by trump and his cult following today in Washington D.C. reeks of the worst hypocrisy. The whole thing is a joke! It's an insult to the real Jesus and everything he stood for. The real Jesus would never support or approve of trump's behavior, and real Christians know that. No genuine Christian with real love for the real Jesus would ever support an evil selfish imposter like trump.

This so-called public prayer is just another trump rally full of ignorant bigots pretending to be Christians when they are in fact traitors of the most unimaginable deplorability.

Another layer of paint and copper metal leaf applied to this portrait of Aphrodite Höst~ 🙏🏻🎨

Aphrodite is a character from naked. She's the mother of the protagonist, Sappho Höst. She's a witch too but more powerful.

The cat is Mr. M. He's a Maine Coon. Mr. M is short for Mr. Mistoffelees.

Her blue dress is pure Ultramarine Blue, the modern pigment for the traditional lapis lazuli, which was so expensive that it was usually reserved for holy figures like the Virgin Mary, angels, and even Jesus Christ himself. Her skin is still green in an attempt to emulate the verdaccio painting technique from the Renaissance, where artists applied warm colors over a green underpainting in order to make the warm flesh tones stand out more (green is the complement to red/orange).

This is my first time applying metal leaf to a canvas (I have applied copper leaf to paper before). I have a few sheets of gold and silver, but I'm not sure I'll use them on this painting.

Plato's Republic and the artwork of Gustav Klimt are my two main inspirations for incorporating metallics into my art.

This is oil paint and copper leaf on canvas.

Why are gas prices up and still going up? Why does food at the grocery store cost more now than it did just a few months ago? Well, it's because of trump's stupid war against Iran- the war has kept the Strait of Hormuz closed since February.

Why do Democrats keep choosing to lie down in the chalk outlines drawn for them by Republicans?

If Democrats want Americans to vote for them, then they need to grow a damn spine. Voters don't want to vote for cowards.

DO SOMETHING about the Supreme Court destroying our voting rights, Democrats! Stop taking the moral high ground and fight dirty if you have to like the Republicans always do! Why not use some of their corrupt strategy against them? When the fascists are defeated, THEN we can go back to playing nice, but until then? Stop resigning to trump's fascist takeover of our government, and FIGHT BACK!

Rapist trump is one of the biggest cowards in history, but he seems like a brave man to the people who voted for him, thanks in large part to a decade long propaganda campaign by Fox News. The Democrat party allows Fox News to present trump as some kind of hero to millions of viewers, and that allowance makes the Democrats look weak in comparison. Voters don't want to vote for weakness.

Democrat Party, even if you can't be truly brave, the least you can do is pretend to be brave the way trump pretends to be brave. How can you let trump keep beating you at this game of political chess? How can you let him weaponize pop culture and not figure out that you need to further embrace pop culture too if you want to better endear yourselves to average Americans? Your elitist taste in culture is another negative on top of your weakness that drives voters away into the arms of a manipulative sociopath like trump.

Would it seriously be that hard for one of you Dems to play the Nintendo Switch, drink Coca-Cola, or watch a clip from a Spider-Man movie? Put away the expensive New York cheesecake and eat a cheap American candy bar like Hershey's instead. Eat the new disgusting rubbery Hershey's that most of your voters are now expected to pay $4 for- take a big bite out of that "chocolate" bar and let American voters see your disgust! Then voters might see that you're human just like them. Why can't you Democrat politicians do something like that to show average Americans that you're not such out-of-touch elitist jerks from the east and west coasts?

People voted for trump partly because he eats McDonalds like they do and he plays pop songs like they do. Meanwhile, Democrat elites keep playing classical music, which isn't familiar to most Americans- and they make their voters feel stupid for not knowing the difference between a string quartet from a symphony. Rapist trump doesn't make his voters feel stupid the way Democrat politicians tend to, and his voters love him for that.

There's no denying that even just pretending to like some pop culture would do wonders to mitigate the classist elitist image that most Americans feel the Democrat Party suffers from. Voters don't want to vote for people who make them feel stupid and lesser for liking Taylor Swift over any partita by Bach.

You Dems in charge of the DNC have Ivy League education and should know better than trump, yet you keep making the same stupid mistakes that anger Americans and that consequently got trump elected and re-elected.

Also, elites from both the Democrat and Republican parties spent decades telling Americans that the solution to their financial problems was to just go to college. You want to live the American dream? Then go to college! This is what they told us- the implication being "If you're poor but you didn't go to college? Well, then it's your own fault that you're poor! It's certainly not the fault of a broken capitalist system that exploits 99% of Americans for the benefit of the wealthiest 1%. Nope! It's your own fault for not being good enough to go to college."

Voters don't want to vote for people who gaslight them about their own poverty. Voters don't want to vote for Democrats who justify ignoring the financial struggles of most Americans by implying that it's their own fault for not getting a college degree (as if getting a college degree was easy or affordable for most Americans? Ha!)

Do Democrat politicians not understand how condescending it is to tell Americans that their poverty is because of their own inability to obtain a college degree, as if it was some kind of character flaw? To tell voters that their own poverty is not the fault of billionaire greed or income inequality but rather theirs because they didn't go to college? Democrats gaslight the poorest Americans into blaming themselves instead of billionaires for the financial pain they feel, yet they still wonder why voters aren't excited to vote for them? It's amazing how obtuse these educated elites can be despite all their privilege and education.

*sigh*

Fight back against trump and his gerrymandering, you goddamn cowards from the DNC! You liberal morons always throw in the towel without even trying to put up any real resistance to these rapist enablers. You never put up a real fight against the GOP's corruption, and then you wonder why voters aren't excited to vote for you? It's pathetic!

Stop hand waving and equivocating, Democrats, and DO SOMETHING instead. Waiting until midterms to magically fix all of this is a stupid and losing strategy.

Do. Something. NOW.

P.S.

The Strait of Hormuz crisis continues as the strait remains closed, blocking almost all traffic of ships that are essential to keeping the global supply chain going. Ships that are essential to oil production are also being blocked from traveling through this strait.

It has been closed for over two months now because of trump's illegal and stupid war against Iran. Iran has closed this strait in retaliation. This has already caused energy supply problems in multiple countries while also increasing gas prices for drivers in America.

The Strait of Hormuz crisis continues as Trump's completely unnecessary and stupid war against Iran devolves into a global disaster that overshadows everything else...

What's going to happen if the Strait of Hormuz doesn't reopen soon? Will gas prices keep going up? Will this be like the oil crisis from the 1970s? It's hard to know. It doesn't feel like the people in charge know or care what they're doing anymore.

The present moment feels like a tipping point.