i mean, i could be a stupid person saying—no, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane (12. 455)

Never a fan of Air Force One and bemoaning the delay that defence contractors like Boeing have presented since commissioning a new presidential fleet during his first term, Trump’s first major foreign trip, an itinerary that returns to the Persian Gulf—which America re-flags as the Arabian, retracing the agenda of his first-term, rife with business deals is overshadowed by coverage that the Qatari royals have offered Trump a deluxe airplane. An uncontested violation of the emoluments clause of the US constitution, Trump says that they four-hundred million dollar flying palace would be registered as a gift to the military—tasked with outfitting the aircraft up to standard, never mind the cost of these security upgrades or symbolism associated—and then donated to his Presidential Library and not for personal use after his presidency. Prompting assurances to the press that the president was unconcerned about what Qatar might ask for in return, Democrat lawmakers are threatening an embargo on any country that might further enrich the Trump family through their largess.

spring den lyn (12. 454)

In a striking move that severs a partnership programme of sponsoring, integration and resettlement of refugees with the US federal government that have endured for nearly four decades, the Episcopal Church, part of the Anglican communion, citing moral opposition to the designation of Afrikaners, whose first members arrived by private jet at Washington’s Dulles Airport, and will, according to the presiding bishop, grant monies that support their outreach, winding down the relationship, rather than dignify the administration’s shrill cries of “reverse racism” and equate the travel wealthy South Africans to the plight of those fleeing persecution. With its Migration Ministries an outshoot of their philosophy and guidance, the denomination has always been a strong proponent of social justice and aligned with figures like Archbishop Desmond Tutu against institutional apartheid and refused to turn its back on its values its historic ties—particularly at a time when all other migration to the United States is essentially frozen with long-term residents being deported or removed to foreign prisons and international humanitarian organisations effectively defunded out of existence. The arrival of the first plane load comes as a consequence of an executive order Trump issued in February under the suggestion of Elon Musk, promising that America would take in “Afrikaners who are victims of unjust racial discrimination,” hateful rhetoric and expropriation of land—baselessly and strongly rejected by the government and much of the public, outside of the aggrieved, taking grave exception with this privilege. The Episcopal Church will continue supporting migrants but on its own ways, coinciding with the new Pope Leo pledge in no uncertain terms to uphold the legacy of Pope Francis in caring for the displaced.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump’s potential running-mate (with synchronoptica) plus Lincoln and Ireland

seven years ago: the Ice Saints plus an AI suggests ice cream flavours

eight years ago: Jimmy Carter visits Wiesbaden 

ten years ago: the grooks of Piet Hein plus assorted links to revisit

eleven years ago: Kassel and the Allied Trizone plus brain exercises

 

total reset (12. 453)

Whilst not wholly unrolling all barriers to trade nor unable to undo the disruption already wrought on global supply chains and proffer any sort of future security and certainty when it comes to relocating both manufacturing and sourcing, businesses, investors and consumers welcomed the deescalation following talks among intermediaries in Switzerland which defused, at least temporarily the retaliatory brinksmanship that Trump’s Liberation Day of reciprocal tariffs started with China the only party willing to raise the stakes. Washington and Beijing have retreated back to less punishing levies of thirty and ten percent respectively, discounting other measures already in place. Both delegations conceded that a decoupling of the two major economies benefited no one, with sanctions heretofore approaching the level of a trade embargo and hoped that this initial pause might gain a purchase on negotiations that would promote the predictability needed by all parties, despite the magnanimity for which the ordeal was played, appealing to Trump’s vanities to let him claim credit for solving a crisis of his own making. This deal follows talks between Starmer and Trump that while the blanket duty of ten percent remains on most international exports to the US removed tariffs on UK steel, aluminium and automobiles, in exchange for relaxing regulatory limits previously imposed on American beef and chlorinated poultry. The truce with Xi pointedly does not extend to those same heavy industry items or pharmaceuticals, the same day pledging an incredulous ninety-percent drop in medicine prices, aiming to “equalise,” redistribute drug costs with other countries, saying Europe and the rest of the world will apid more so the US can pay less.

what is this—a coding bootcamp or a lumberjack convention? (12, 452)

Amidst the deployment of more and more bloated apps and brittle, complicated and dependent code that needs constant maintenance—we enjoyed this sweary, full-throated appreciation of hypertext markup language for its robustness and versatility—with antecedents, via MetaFilter. “It’s been the backbone of the web since Al Gore flipped the switch, and it’ll still be here long after your trendy framework is rotting in a GitHub graveyard.”

synchronoptica

one year ago: a banger from the Rolling Stones (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: creative construction canvases plus assorted links to revisit

eight years ago: Klingon linguistic Easter eggs, more links to enjoy, men’s spaces plus Trump orders DOJ to ratchet up sentencing

ten years ago: even more links plus the Ship of Theseus

eleven years ago: Russia rubbishes the Eurovision

hej, din tok, jag älskar dig (12. 451)

Achieving their fourth number one single on US charts on this day in 1991, the song penned by Per Håkon Gissele, one half of the Swedish rock duo, was inspired by a note left by his then girlfriend now wife, Åsa Nordin, on his piano reading “Hello, you fool, I love you,” with the title and the accompanying narration prompted by an interview with about the collaboration of Paul McCartney and John Lennon comparing songwriting together as a “long joyride.” To universal critical and commercial praise, the Roxette album’s title track (see previously) quickly rose in the ranks, securing the same top spot internationally and became one of the best-selling single of the year—we would all take second-billing to the likes of ABBA. A thirty year anniversary remastering (see below) translated into a jukebox musical and the remaining members of the band are still actively producing.

ben day dots (12. 450)

Via Super Punch, we are directed to a Tumblr blog dedicated to highlighting enlargements of tiny details of comic books and in the funny pages, a curatorial outpost of John Hilgart’s 4CP (the dithering technique of four-colour process of offset-printing to inexpensively shade areas and produce secondary colours through optical illusion—dot spacing or superposition depending on the desired effect). The collected images are not only about dispelling the illusion, however, and really bring into sharp focus what’s going on in the marginalia, so to speak.

10x10 (12. 449)

shooting the messager: the AP reporter fired and blacklisted for scooping the story of Nazi Germany’s surrender eight years ago—via Strange Company  

🚏: Shanghai metro lets riders design their own bus routes  

vision cantos: Denis Cooper on filmmaker Jud Yalkut—via { feuilleton }  

grave of the fireflies: Ze Frank (previously) on what’s happening with our bioluminescent friends  

the poyais scam: confidence tricker Gregor MacGregor’s con to lure investors in a fictional central American territory 

that’s why the apostrophe is single and not plural: the story of Anna Jarvis—the creator that later sued for the abolition of Mother’s Day 

flugsteighalle: a digital exhibition of Berlin’s monumental Tempelhof airport—previously—via das Kraftfuttermischwerk  

the madison avenue beat: a selection of vintage advertising jingles presented as a dance remix 

 corner of the city: street photographer Tong Ho Chung Howard’s most famous image captures the traditional tong lau (唐樓) architecture of Hong Kong, gradually being replaced by urban renewal programmes  

root causes: competing narratives for WWII Victory Day celebrations

the war is over (12. 448)

Just following the announcement of the cessation of fighting after the Fall of Saigon by US president Gerald Ford, one hundred thousand spectators gathered in New York’s Central Park for a final rally with congress member Bella Abzug and concert organised by Paul Ochs (previously) with a lineup featuring Pete Seeger, Odetta, Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and others. After a duet with Baez of the ballad “There but for Fortune”, the concert closed his Ochs’ famous protest anthem, overshadowed by but not to be confused with John Lennon’s song with a similar same name, which was inspired in part by poet Allen Ginsberg’s 1966 declaration that the Vietnam war was over and that it could be ended by simply saying so (“if you want it” like the above) and stripping it of legitimacy—Och’s final public performance, though Lady Gaga sang it for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Angry artists painting angry signs
Use their vision just to blind the blind
Poisoned players of a grisly game
One is guilty and the other gets the point to blame—pardon me if I refrain

With the choral response: I declare the war is over
It’s over, it’s over

Suffering mental health problems exacerbated by heavy drinking that ultimately led to his suicide in April of the following year, friends and family say that Ochs died many deaths, lastly taking on the persona of one John Butler Train, telling people that this impersonator had murdered him and had replaced him—and in 1968, politically with the violence of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, in 1972, professionally, after being strangled in Tanzania and deciding he could no longer sing, on 11 September 1973, spiritually, when the government of Chile was overthrown by US involvement and finally mentally with this psychotic break. Ochs’ legacy continues with numerous tributes and cultural references as well as a strong influence on subsequent artists.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronoptica) plus the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1927)

seven years ago: Muggertonian star charts, Russian electioneering plus Gaslight (1944)

eight years ago: wood libraries, Trump deflects from ties to Putin, bringing back the Microlino plus mathematical music

ten years ago: the brotagonist of this story, a visit to Hanau plus a visit to the Leipzig Zoo

eleven years ago: rebooting Star Wars plus Kierkegaard’s Either/Or