public law 94–67 (12. 635)

The culmination of the five year effort which saw the passage of US Joint Resolution 23, begun on the centenary of the 1870 death Confederate general and increased interest in the figure as evinced by growing tourism to Georgia’s Stone Mountain memorial site and other commemorations, on this day in 1975 Gerald Ford (previously) signed into law a declaration championed by senator Harry Byrd of Virginia to posthumously restore citizenship to Robert E Lee. In 1865, after the civil war concluded Lee was paroled and took an oath of allegiance to the United States, petitioning for the revocation of citizenship to be nullified. Portrayed by proponents of the bill as clerical oversight on the part of secretary of state William Seward for not processing the pardon application, thus leaving him a stateless individual, while detractors thought such a symbolic gesture strengthened the mythology and romance of the Confederate cause and was a legitimising acknowledgement of Lee’s status as an icon and cultural hero—something which Lee himself rejected as counterproductive to healing the rift of fighting the war. After the civil war, Washington, DC appropriated Lee’s mansion and grounds in Arlington, Virginia and designated it the National Cemetery, in part so Lee and his family would never be able to return home.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: Trump assures Christian supporters that if they vote for him this once, they’ll never have to worry about voting again (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links worth revisiting 

twelve years ago: the Moses Bridge Stairs 

thirteen years ago: smoking is derpy 

fourteen years ago: the debt-ceiling and creative accounting 

pending adjournment (12. 633)

Though both Republicans and Democrats regularly engage in gerrymandering, depending on the party in power when it comes time for redrawing the boundaries of voting precincts (normally conducted during a pre-set period follow a national decennial census—which some states attempting to remove partisanship from the process of re-districting altogether by soliciting a neural third party to set apportionment), rarely has such a push been made off-cycle and so transparently to disenfranchise Democrat-leaning districts than what is now happening in Texas with Democratic state legislators having fled to Chicago in order that the bicameral congress does not meet quorum and cannot proceed with voting to affirm the changes to the electoral map. Through the state’s governor, Trump has explicitly ordered redistricting in order to eliminate solidly Democratic areas and redistribute a sixty-forty percentile spread over all voting precincts so as markedly reduce the chances of Democrats of the Congress retaining their seats in the mid-terms and not dilute historically GOP-leaning areas—based on a calculus of by what percentage Trump carried the districts. This extreme measure by Texas Democrats is only a temporary delay tactic as they cannot wait out the entire special session called for deciding this issue and face daily fines for the absence. Had they remained within the state and not this self-imposed exile, state troopers could summon them to the capitol and compel their participation. With only the narrowest of majorities in both the House and the Senate, state legislators of other jurisdictions may try this manoeuvres after seeing how Texas combats truancy and forces the matter. Meanwhile, the Democratic caucus is entertaining countermeasures in kind, acknowledging that changing the rules and demographic landscape ahead of the election in eighteen months is not how democracy works, but also realising that further sidelining the minority party by minoritarian strategies is more unacceptable and they can’t roll over again and again.

tavoletta (12. 626)

Courtesy of Strange Company, we are directed to the curious lay brotherhood charged with allievating the spirits of those facing imminent execution with painted panels held by a stick. From the Latin for small tablet (and carries in modern Italian among other meanings a bar of chocolate or toilet seat) the wooden panel decorated with scenes of the Crucifixion meant to assuage the dying and imbue the condemned with the final mortal thoughts of Jesus and resurrection and distract his mind from the gathered crowd of jeering gawkers and tearful loved ones. With prisoners often denied the sacrament of last rites, these chapters of comforters served an important role as counsellors—each company had a manual with a specific protocol for addressing stages of grief and protestations of innocence and mistrial (of which there were certainly numerous with heresy and sacrilege the most common capital crimes), they admonished, regardless of guilt, it was more important to get into Heaven and preserve the order of society—maintaining a justice system where all might be redeemed in the hereafter but were deemed worthy of death in this life.  More from JSTOR Daily at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: eye-chat with a stranger (with synchronopticæ),  a pommel horse champion plus an anagram generator

endangerment finding (12. 621)

Not only has the world’s biggest polluter under the Trump administration sought to abrogate its responsibilities for damage to the planet that does not respect borders through rolling back of regulations and cancelling vital science programmes that monitor and measure greenhouse, it has undone the underpinnings of the accepted science that conducted during the Obama era that is the foundation of a host laws and environmental regulations. The EPA investigation determined, pursuant to several court cases, that six key greenhouse gases (see previously) threaten both the health and welfare of current and future generations and is the basis for the US Clear Air Act. Industries at the time raised strong objections but most businesses have since made peace with the posture for their image and the public good (see also) and have built in mitigating factors into manufacturing and distribution to lessen their impact. After failing during Trump’s first term, the current EPA administrator rescinded the landmark finding at a truck stop in Indiana to much fanfare, an ideological win for staunch denialists which make up much of the MAGA base that stands in stark contrast to decades of evidence and near global consensus. For its part, the agency charged with protecting the environment and averting the climate catastrophe has resigned its commission, offering that because climate change is not localised, it lacks jurisdiction for enforcement, maintaining that the finding failed to balance adverse impacts on manufacturers and distributors (see negative externalities above), or alternately giving up, saying that no policy could make a dent in the problem anyway. Not yet finalised, the decision is already facing legal challenges.

8x8 (12. 614)

ieepa: class action lawsuit from small businesses affected by Trump’s tariffs could prove to be a significant challenge to his economic model 

lambretta boogaloo: a new single from Big Boss Man Los Res and the Bongo Fuzz label   

geodesy: astronomers triangulate Earth’s location in the Universe using black holes but WiFi is interrupting the signal  

at most ten-percent syncopation: Nazi era rules for jazz musicians—via Nag on the Lake  

aldeh: Greater Manchester chain keeping temporary name in honour of Oasis reunion tour after attaining status as cultural landmark  

sing what happens: a sedately risqué Japanese karaoke televised game show—via Memo of the Air 

tas: Strange New Worlds to have a fully Muppetised episode courtesy of Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop—still, cancel Paramount 

church and state: US to allow federal workers to evangelise in the work place

it’s trumpensteen (12. 599)

The Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives abruptly adjourned the legislature ahead of summer recess in order to block a floor-vote demanding the public release of the Epstein files. Scheduled as well for votes on unrelated issues needing immediate attention, congress choose to close shop rather than work through the bipartisan matter, the Mike Johnson dismissed members of the Rules Committee early, only to reconvene in September, accusing Democrats of using the controversy as a political battering ram despite many of the cultists breaking with doctrine. This development comes amid Trump (worthy of the portmanteau, it recalls this first meeting between Igor—Eye-Gore—when Dr Frankenstein corrects his pronunciation) is deflecting by intimating he will direct the Department of Justice to arrest Obama and his cadre for perpetuating a treasonous conspiracy, a Hillary Clinton probe on treason, allowing his attorney general to meet with Epstein’s enabler and personal assistant, the imminently pardonable Ghislaine Maxwell, declassifying FBI files on Dr Rev Martin Luther King, Jr and that “credible evidence” should be disclosed. “Well they were wrong then, weren’t they?”

sylvanian drama (12. 591)

The Japanese toymaker behind the woodland cast of characters (see previously) is suing a dramaturg who posts popular videos and images across a variety of platforms of the fuzzy creatures portraying bleak and dark adult domestic situations for copyright infringement and causing “irreparable injury” to its reputation. The Irish artist from Kildare, Thea Von Engelbrechten, is filing a countersuit that her creations are parodies and fair-use. There’s a potential for the Streisand Effect and the legacy brand launched in 1985 and otherwise unfamiliar to today’s generation with this soap opera that resonates with audiences.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ) plus Geraldine Ferraro accepts her party’s nomination (1984)

9x9 (12. 588)

may every day be another wonderful secret: a round up on the Epstein files and Trump’s tantrums—for MAGA, Nazis are cool but they’re drawing the line here—at least there’s a line, hopefully  

infra-realism: off-the-spectrum photographs of Palm Springs California by Kate Ballis—see previously  

power of the purse: a much diminished US legislator’s concessions to the directive of the administration not only slashes the budget for public broadcasting and foreign aid, it also signals their redundancy as a rubber stamp for the executive branch 

let’s go fly a kite: instead of windmills, Ireland tries an alternative to harness energy  

there’s a little frank lloyd wrong in all of us: a horrendous split level property in North Carolina gets the McMansion Hell treatment—previously, via Neatorama  

photovoltaic array: a gallery of images from China showing the future of clean, renewable energy  

fascism for first time founders: the broligraghy, the dictator trap and the invisible brain-drain 

long photographs: contemplative landscapes from Noah Kalina 

 the colbert report: CBS cancelling The Late Show next summer after host openly criticised the settlement between Trump and parent company Paramount—though cites purely financial reasons

9x9 (12. 578)

i’ll get no residuals ‘cause i’m a stateless individual: Trump considers revoking the citizenship of long time show-business foil Rosie O’Donnell  

know thy selfie: from visibility and transformation to the routine, an examination of the custom that’s unlikely to loose currency  

room 237: Stanley Kubric’s last minute change to the ending of The Shining  

from the i sing the scooter electric department: China’s Omo X is a self-driving EV  

turtle spiders of the sea: Ze Frank on the horseshoe crab 

ebb and flow: an underwater turbine off the coast of Scotland demonstrates the viability of tidal energy  

hyborean age: a Red Sonja remake in discussion thirty years in after numerous other reboots  

a common-thread among world-eating types: a literally history of the billionaire—via Nag on the Lake  

off-ramp: unmoved by other atrocities, MAGAist may view Trump’s connection with the sex-pest as a somewhat dignified way to sever connections with the movement

7x7 (12. 571)

edge of eternity: Poseidon’s Underworld’s cinematic vacation to the Grand Canyon 

the open-hearted many and the broken-hearted-few: the venerable and ongoing Leonard Cohen Files—via Metafilter  

litra: an ancient Byzantine scale complete with a set Greek letter-shaped counter-balances discovered in Türkei  

voulez-vous danser avec moi: the mambo scene of Brigitte Bardot and Dario Moreno from Michel Boisrond’s 1959 « Come Dance with Me? »  

flatland: the four dimensional world of Alicia Boole Stott—see also  

and if i haver: an endurance run of The Proclaimer’s I’m Gonna Be—via Web Curios 

it happened here: a contemporary table-read of Stephen King’s what-if premise of Apt Pupil considered during a staycation from Today in Tabs—via ibidem

trump dump (12. 569)

As a made-for-television drama and the only interesting side-show from the administration, we’ve been ignoring Trump’s decision to reignite the trade war over his gimmicky tariff regime. Only two real negotiations successful between the UK and Vietnam, Trump is again threatening to levy punishing export duties against Canada, Brazil and many others by the first of August, and whilst investors and businesses (over-stocked in preparation for the first round that never materialised) have likely factored in this bullying and charade—there’s no reciprocity in reciprocal tariffs—markets could still react with disfavour to all this chaos and uncertainty. There’s nothing substantive behind the threats and the interlocutors know this, but for the sake of appeasement, the aggrieved parties put on the line other so-called barriers to trade as a trade-off that Trump could count as a win and the real stakes come in the form of compromising environmental, health and safety standards. In other recent news, Trump has toyed with the idea of federalising New York City and Washington, DC to put both irksome metropolises directly under his control. The Department of Justice is directed to sue sanctuary cities in order to end their policies of protecting migrants and the same time prioritising cases to revoke American citizenship. The budget for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is tripled under the One Big Beautiful Bill and now surpasses that of the Marines. The US supreme court, in recess, issued a shadow docket ruling that allows the administration to deport individuals to third party nations with which they have no affiliation. Whilst no new sanctions are being levied against Russia, Trump is expressing increasing exasperation with Putin—and it was revealed by an audio clip to donors during a fund raising event (an exchange during the campaign and not released until now) that Trump reportedly told Putin and Xi he would bomb their respective capitals should they continue incursion on Ukraine and Taiwan—“he said ‘no way’ and I said ‘way.’ Reversing a very pregnant pause, however, Trump is restarting weapons deliveries to Kiev and supplying US air defence materiel. National weather agencies are ordered to scrap climate websites and collecting data—Trump praising the botched response of his Federal Emergency Management Agency director who is tasked with dismantling it and devolving the responsibility to the states in the wake of devastating flooding in Texas. Invoking a high school football analogy, the state’s governor said that only losers focus on their mistakes. Such winning.   

7x7 (12. 565)

alligator auschwitz: Trump’s Florida detention centre is by every definition a concentration camp

solvitur ambulando: when in doubt, go for a walk—see previously  

mcmxxv—mmxxv: the century in one hundred films 

rif me daddy: US supreme court overrules injunction against executive branch illegal mass firings after passage of Trump’ domestic policy agenda  

geschirrspüler: a 1959 German dishwasher in action  

adam und eva: a group of Europeans’ failed attempt to found a utopia during the interbellum period on a remote Galápagos island—via Neatorama 

race and ethnicity: the case of George Shishim, invoking Jesus, illustrates the particularly American obsession with whiteness to the exclusion of others—see more

501(c)(3) (12. 564)

Since its adoption in July of 1954, the Johnson Amendment as a provision in the US tax code has prohibited non-profit organisations, charitable foundations, universities and churches, from endorsing or opposing political candidates or risk losing their tax exempt status. Named for then senator Lyndon B Johnson (previously), the section of the tax code of the Internal Revenue Service defining which groups are not liable to a levy on donations was amended without debate and was long considered uncontroversial until the 2010s when the Pulpit Freedom Initiative—likewise shielded from taxation—begin lobbying for its repeal, culminating with Trump announcing his intent to “totally destroy” the provision during the National Prayer Breakfast in February of 2017 shortly after his first inauguration. Whilst not completely removing the language, the acting IRS commission, during ongoing litigation between the tax authority and religious liberties campaigners, has signalled a significant posture shift in the rarely enforced law—comparing a religious institution’s endorsement of a a political candidate to a “family discussion” and falls short of intervening in a campaign if a pastor “in good faith speaks to their congregation through customary channels” on electoral platforms through a lens of faith. The Catholic church, regardless of legal permissibility, does not allow funds to be spent on behalf of candidates, officially, and as a general rule should not engage in partisan politics.

obbba (12. 558)

To provide reconciliation pursuant to title II of the House of Congressional Representatives Resolution Fourteen, according to its long title, Trump signed his signature One Big Beautiful Bill into law after being passed by the narrowest of margins in the legislature amid fanfare and a celebratory lap as atrocities continue in Palestine and Ukraine following supposed US-brokered peace deals, with a flyover by a formation of the B-2s that took part in inconclusive bombing runs in Operation Midnight Hammer that attacked Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. Chiefly a vehicle to permanently extend the tax rates Trump introduced in 2017 for the wealthiest individuals set to expire, the domestic policy legislation contains hundreds of other provisions that drew ire from the public and politicians alike, reductions to popular social programmes and increasing the deficit significantly—ostensibly causing the very public and messy rift between Elon Musk and Trump, with the former backer threatening to primary the Republicans who eventually voted for it and hinting he might disclose how he helped rig the latter’s re-election. Several fiscally conservative members of the GOP held out until the last minute of the self-imposed Independence Day deadline, settling to defer most of the major cuts to medicaid and medicare and social security benefits until the next congress—targeted to offset some of the costs of the loss of tax revenue, shifting the onus and granting some purchase to undo them if Democrats prevail in the midterms. The regressive tax regime represents an upward transfer of wealth from the poorest to the richest, papered over with gimmicks like no taxes on tips and overtime or reintroducing chattel slavery by hinting that farmers could retain undocumented workers under their judgement, a fee on remittances from guest workers to family aboard and a surcharge to apply for asylum to balance a weaponised immigration enforcement agency to placate plantation owners concerns about deportations and losing cheap agricultural labour. The law further restricts food assistance programmes for the poor, health promotion and outreach, caps tuition aid for higher education, eviscerates consumer protection activities and limits recourse and permanently repeals the de minimis entry privileges that formerly allowed low-value shipments to be imported tariff-free.

8x8 (12. 561)

willis wonderland: an appreciation of an influential designer that defined the aesthetic of the 80s 

 

husband-and-wife slices: the thorny problem of translating Chinese dishes—the apotheosis of Chinglish on menus 

 

social mountaintop: a hot-take about the rise of MAGA and its charismatic figurehead 

destiny of the republic: a new biography on James Garfield, US president for two hundred days 

border control: Norwegian visitor barred entry for verboten JD vance meme 

crockett and tubbs: a compelling Miami Vice and Star Wars crossover 

borenstein back to blogging: an appreciation of the format and schedule—via Language Hat 

kunstler tapeten: wallpaper inspired by the Michael Powell and Emerich Pressburg classic film The Red Shoes—via Nag on the Lake

6x6 (12. 540)

elbows up: on his way to attend the G7 in Canada, Macron visits Greenland, criticising Trump’s repeated overtures to annex the island—see previously  

ethanol orthodoxy: bio-fuel policy has been a net negative for the environment  

ready for prime time: Google text to video service is rolled out despite sloppy results 

c: MI6 appoints its first female spy chief in its one hundred sixteen year history—Dame Judy Dench only played one in the movies  

sidebar: revised injunction restrictions in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill that requires a bond, bribe to judges got even worst—see previously  

dudley do-right: G7 leaders gather in the Canadian Rockies for their economic summit 

synchronoptica

one year ago: a banger from Supertramp (with synchronoptica)

ten years ago: forbidden colours, assorted links to revisit plus cheap printing and chapbooks

twelve years ago: a visit to Wiesbaden-Schierstein plus Snowden’s formative time in Switzerland

fourteen years ago: revitalising a neglected church in Freibourg 

http 208 (12. 538)

Several accelerationist Silicon Valley chief technology officers have been recruited into the US Army Reserve as part time senior commanders, field promoted as colonels, as part of the newly formed Detachment 201 (the hypertext transfer protocol response status code for “Created”—the title refers to that of “Already Reported”—see previously here and here) to help integrate artificial intelligence into military planning and operations. Drawing from the ranks of Meta, OpenAI and Palatir is hardly surprising as the companies have been working with the military on various programmes including the controversial Project Maven to fully integrate AI into intelligence services. Significantly enlistment puts the companies’ under the purview of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and not subject to the scrutiny, jurisdiction and discovery of America’s civil courts of law should something untoward come up. As Eisenhower said, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sough or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplace power exists and will persist.”

the stand in the schoolhouse door speech (12. 528)

Occurring on this day in 1963, as our faithful chronicler reminds, possibly as a staged event to allow the governor whom promised to his constituents upon his inauguration for “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” to save face, George Wallace (previously) blocked the entry of into the University of Alabama’s Tuscaloosa campus for two matriculating students, Vivian Malone and James Hood—the former the first Black graduate and the latter returning years later in a teaching position after being forced out by racists and both given a death-bed apology by the former governor. The state national guard federalised by executive order (EO 11111, see above) compelled Wallace to step aside and allow the new students to complete their registration, providing “assistance for the removal of unlawful obstructions of justice” across the state and allowed students to enrol in previously all-white schools. The Kennedy administration afforded Wallace this publicity stunt over warnings for repeated counter-demonstrations and violence like that that had occurred in Mississippi with desegregation, and while not able to ultimately quell all riots did focus attention on Wallace and his arguments for states’ rights versus civil rights.

forty-eight hours later (12. 524)

Following his messy and public falling-out with Elon Musk and the consequent stalling of his Big Beautiful Bill in the senate, Trump is manufacturing headlines more aligned with campaign promises with first reimposing a travel ban and stoking fears of mass-deportations, disappearances with US immigration and customs enforcement (ICE, which is a high-speed train in Germany) raids on Los Angeles, eager to have this fight as a pretext for invoking martial law. Mobilising the state’s national guard against protesters against the will of the governor for the first time since 1965 when Lyndon Johnson called up Alabama troops as protective escorts for civil rights activists marching from Selma to Montgomery, countermanding the refusal of arch-segregationist George Wallace—for completely opposite reasons, Trump is obviously yearning for a spectacle—which so far is being denied him by the rallies, most violence coming from ICE agents. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 restricts military service members from being used for civilian law enforcement within the United States but does allow them to protect other federal agents and property and ensure that the execution of their duties is not impeded. Only with the declaration of insurrection, something not authorised by Trump during the January Sixth attack on the Capitol, can troops be used to make arrests. Although George HW Bush sent in the California National Guard under this law in 1992 to quell the uprising following the acquittal of the police officers involved in the brutal beating of Rodney King, it was done with the consent of the state government. For his part, Governor Gavin Newsom, frequent target of Trump, is threatening to withhold remittance of federal taxes, in response to both funding cuts to the state’s university system and to defund the country’s clear decent into dictatorship, to which the administration is levying charges of criminal tax evasion.

el pueblo de nuestra señora la reina de los ángeles del río porciúncula (12. 520)

In response to rallies against US immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles over the weekend, Trump has federalised the Californian National Guard, deploying two-thousand troops to quell the protests. Over a dozen individuals have been arrested as agitators and insurrectionists for attempting to impede law enforcement activities as ICE agents clash with residents and have apprehended more than one hundred individuals suspected of being undocumented immigrants in sweeps that have so far been limited to isolated areas in the Paramount City, the garment district and the Civic Centre. Defence secretary Hegseth also threatened to mobilise marines if the violence continues. The state’s governor counters (whom Trump referred to as Gavin Newscum for his inability to control RIOTS and LOOTERS) that there is no shortage of law enforcement officials and that Trump only wants a spectacle and an excuse to escalate the situation and urges advocates to remain peaceful and not give the administration what it wants. Preparing for such raids and mass-deportations since Trump’s reelection, the ACLU and other groups championing immigrants have been coordinating efforts for outreach and advocacy as well, with city councilmember Eunisses Hernandez pushing back on the pledge that ICE would focus their efforts on dangerous criminals, coming at the time of graduation season and Pride Month celebrations: “It’s never, ever, ever been the case, because when they come for one of us, they come for all of us—and we have to remember that.”