3.31.2012

Interviews with the Left


I was recently interviewed on Radiowest out of Salt Lake City.  I was informed that most of their audience were liberal to moderate in their political views and that the host would have a lot of questions for me. 

Indeed it was!  They were good questions and I could tell that the host had carefully crafted them to get a reaction from me. 

“Do you think Obama is trying to destroy America?” 
“What is your definition of art?” 
“Do you hate President Obama?”

The questions were numerous, but I felt comfortable answering them as I spoke from my heart about why I painted this and other paintings.  I was surprised to find out later that after our interview they continued for another 15 minutes as two “art critics” took the mike and offered their professional evaluation of my work.  It made me think of how absurd it would be to have a couple of rap singers critique a country music singer for their music and content.  Of course no person was there to counter their criticisms. 

If I had to do it again would I do the interview?  YES.  If one person within the sound of my voice gained some common sense, it would be worth it.



3.22.2012

Great Article About McNaughton's New Painting



Official Site of Rich Hoffman. Help get the word out! Send to a friend.
One Nation Under Socialism: The latest treasure by Jon McNaughton

Sometimes you have to call things the way you see them, and art is the preferred method of reaching the minds of the many. For many, many years the good of us have slowly watched our very lives gradually be eroded away into a cesspool of mediocrity and corruption. The grand statement as to how far our cultural identification has fallen can be seen in the Casey Anthony verdict in the summer of 2011 where she was found not guilty by a jury of her peers. That particular jury, like many these days have shown that they have lost their moral compass and can no longer can tell right from wrong.
The thieves of our society have capitalized on this naiveté and they exist in both parties. They have thrived by casting our culture into a purgatory of indecision and mundane confusion. We now live in an age where people no longer think, and thus, can no longer stand on the firm ground of their own convictions.
But not everyone is paralyzed by the invisible confines of guilt nurtured by sheer ignorance, and blind trust in some spectral “official” who does the thinking for the masses in favor of mainstream entertainment. And in such time artists rise to the surface to percolate a reality that has long been subdued under neglect, and such is the work of Jon McNaughton, the painter that I recently reviewed as being far more important to our modern culture than William Etty was to the progressive Victorians of New York who went to great measures to lay the foundations of detriment our American culture is currently experiencing. You can read that review here:
Jon McNaughton ignited a firestorm of controversy recently by painting a portrait of President Obama burning the Constitution. Critics have proclaimed that such an action is preposterous, and over-the-top. After all, didn’t the President swear to uphold the Constitution? Isn’t McNaughton declaring in this new painting shown below that the President of the United States is openly neglecting that duty?



Well, of course McNaughton is doing that, because as an artist he is not observing the world around him based on press releases, double-talk, and media manipulation. He is observing the world around him and painting what he sees. Anyone with a clear mind can look at the actions of President Obama and see what he is up to even if the President and his hordes of apologists declare otherwise. Obama is attempting to destroy the United States Constitution though his actions. It was only on March 16, 2012 that the president signed the Executive Order: National Defense Resources Preparedness which is just another extension toward the NDAA Act signed into law on New Years Eve in 2011. The combination of those laws is to detain American citizens just for being in the way of the political power that’s in charge.
But to what end? What is the intention of these presidential acts that show they intend to arrest American citizens and will impose laws without the respect and protections offered by the American Constitution? Well, if you listen to the words of The Earth System Governance Project you will see that there is a push for a one world government designed to protect the earth from the human species, and this is a very real organization that has politicians very much behind their endeavors. You can see their website here:
It is obvious that our current crop of politicians has no intention of defending the United States Constitution and are seeking to end it. You can see this by watching their actions. There is a very real push for global socialism in order to achieve the aims displayed on that web site for Earth System Governance, and this is what appears to be behind the actions of President Obama.
The gateway to these ideas are in our public schools, and the more work I have done in learning about the problems of public education, the more evident it is that The Department of Education has openly advocated the gradual conversion of the United States from a capitalist economic system into a socialist system. CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW. And they have been successful by using socialist leaning labor unions to pound through a communist ideology to soften the American people gradually to accept things they would have completely rejected just two decades ago. CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW THIS WAS DONE.
I remember listening to Paul Harvey’s nighttime broadcast at 3:30 AM in 1995 when he re-read this speech from 1962 that he gave before much of what we see happening around us was still in its infancy. Paul Harvey died in 2009, but he will always be one of my favorite radio personalities due in large part to the words he spoke in the video below.
il has made its move against our nation, against our civilization, and evil has made it so that good people cannot call the bad by its proper name in fear of “insulting” those who perpetrate evil openly. Those sinister agents of evil have made such speech unfashionable and therefore captured the politics of orthodox into making the good appear bad and the bad appear to be good.
I have watched the world spin downward and I have tried myself to play fair and believe in the system created by our United States Government, which is employed by all of us. But government believes they are the Elite from Plato’s Republic and they have allowed themselves to become corrupt. This is why the suburbs around Washington D.C. are some of the richest in the entire country, because the wealth of those areas are built off looted wealth of all American taxpayers to fill jobs we don’t need to fulfill the needs of our eventual destruction through those government positions. I see the exact same mentality in public education when dealing with those government schools, there is a pretentiousness that they believe they are entitled to rob, loot and pillage the people of a district to fund the furthering of Socialism in American.
So I think the new McNaughton painting is correct based on the observations of a very good artist. I said it in my original review of McNaughton and I’ll say it again, when the smoke clears from this latest American Revolution, which is being fought right now with words, and not bullets—but I predict will soon, that McNaughton’s pictures will be held in high esteem in the Smithsonian and 100 years from now historians will be thanking the memory of Jon McNaughton for painting what the consciousness of America needed at just the right moment in history to prevent it from falling to the pressure of global socialism.
It won’t be criticism that will be shot in McNaughton’s direction at that future time, but high praise for doing what was right when the rest of the world chastised him for it, for it is in such characters that America was built upon, and it is in such that will deliver it again from the tyranny of socialism.
To understand the truth it helps to view the world through Hoffman Lenses.  To understand what those are CLICK THE LINK.  If you can’t handle the truth, then don’t read here.

3.19.2012

Is McNaughton Painting Propaganda?

I am so confused. I'm a high school teacher here in ------. You are such an amazing artist and I fell in love with your painting of the man on the bench being ignored by all the presidents... but then I looked at your other stuff. Why are you just painting propaganda? I have a hard time believing that someone with your talent and obvious depth of insight could paint stuff that seems so.... extremist. You could easily be remembered as one of the great artists of our time. But this weird political stuff seems more fitting for bumper stickers! I'm not writing this to be mean I just don't understand. I really wanted to buy a copy of the aforementioned print for my class, but I feel sort of uncomfortable with the Rush-Limbaugh-Esque nature of your other pieces. I'm sure you're super busy and what not, but your responses to "liberal" criticisms didn't really answer my questions. I'm a swing-voter but I have a hard time getting behind the idea that Obama is a socialist and I tend to view people who hold such ideas as hysterical contributors to the divisiveness that is polarizing Washington and keeping politicians from accomplishing anything. But I have a hard time seeing you that way. You're too talented, and too articulate!

I guess what I'm trying to say is- I want to love your work. I want to buy it, even! But I'm afraid that doing so would constitute brainwashing my students. Since I just got done teaching a unit on letter-writing, I thought I'd follow my own lesson plan and send you a quick note Thanks for reading!
 Jennifer


My response:

Jennifer, Thank you for sharing your feelings with me. Things usually appear extreme to those who are not familiar with them. Artists have always used their skills to communicate to the world what they believe. To think that we live in a country without significant peril is to not see the forest for the trees. What is happening in America is bigger than any party. As a teacher you are in a precarious position. You must open the eyes of your students, but conservatism is often frowned on in the public schools. "Propaganda" is a word used to describe media used by Fascist and Communistic regimes to influence the people. I am a single individual who is using his First Amendment rights to speak out against a president and an administration which is harming our country. I see real propaganda every day from the mainstream media as we are told what to think about government and society. Even our public schools have changed from teaching American Exceptionalism to multi-culturalism. Sex education is expected to be taught to children as young as Elementary school age in some states. If my standing against such things is extreme, yes, I am guilty.






I

Contest Winner!!

I have to say, I am amazed at the insight so many of you showed as you deciphered this painting.  I have many subtleties hidden in this painting that have not been shared, but several of those were divulged in this Facebook contest.  I think I will wait longer before I validate some of them.  But, the contest’s purpose was to see who could be the first to hit at least four of the main symbols I was thinking of in the painting, “One Nation Under Socialism.”  As I expected, some of our liberal friends jumped on at the end and had a little fun mocking the painting.  I suppose it would be hilarious if it wasn’t so tragic. 
My thanks to everyone who took the time to enter the contest.

Jamie Fitzgibbons is our winner!  He wrote the following:

“1) the Constitution is crumbled up representing his blatant disregard for it and a lack of interest in preserving it. 2) pointing at the Constitution represents that he is acknowledging it is still the rule of law and he is telling the American people that he feels he isn't doing anything unconstitutional. 3) the Constitution is on fire representing our rights and liberties being destroyed under his administration. 4) He is not looking at the Constitution on fire which represents that he is either ignorant or deceitful about destroying our right and liberties.”

In addition to this he is covering the words, “United States of America.”  His color of tie has meaning and much, much, more…



3.18.2012

One Nation Under Socialism



“I pledge allegiance to the United States of America,
And not to an ideology, which can never stand,
One nation under socialism, divisive,
With no liberty or justice for anyone.”



This November, you will make a choice.  Will you choose One Nation Under Socialism?

McNaughton’s Answers to Questions Regarding This Painting:

Why the title “One Nation Under Socialism?”
Our federal government has been moving in the direction of socialism for over one hundred years.  Many presidents and politicians have compromised the Constitution as we have given away our freedoms under the guise of entitlements and government intervention.  When the people are willing to sacrifice the next generation for their current lifestyles and allow the federal government to have all the power for an illusory mess of pottage—you have chosen One Nation Under Socialism.

What do you mean by an ideology, which can never stand?
I will not support an ideology, which will lead to the destruction of America.  In the history of the world, never has there been a recorded example where Socialism has led to the betterment of the human condition or improved the liberty of the people.  I know there are varying degrees and definitions of “socialism.”  Even the European model of Democratic Socialism has proven to be a dismal failure.  Do you want to see our country become like Greece, Italy, Portugal, or even Great Britain? 

What do you mean by “divisive, with no liberty or justice for anyone?”
Socialism uses the illusion of offering fairness and justice for everyone by redistributing the wealth of the nation; picking and choosing winners and losers.  This administration has taken over our health care system, given bailouts to the automotive industry, banking industry and energy industry.  They support the “Occupy Wall Street” movement of increased taxing of the rich to pay for the welfare of the “less rich.”  The Constitution never guaranteed equal things—only equal rights and justice.  In America we should be FREE TO SUCCEED and FREE TO FAIL! 

At this very moment our Constitution is literally going up in flames.  What will you do to preserve the Constitution and save America?

Why Socialism Failed …