pocket veto (12. 308)

As of this posting (timestamps are important as we’ve gleaned from every episode of the NPR Politics podcast), the continuing resolution to keep the US government funded and in operation has yet to be signed into law by Trump. Normally a failure to endorse after a ten day period, de facto the bill becomes law, but the titular technicality occurs when the president cannot return the bill to congress because it is adjourned, as it is for Monday (Sundays also excepted)—and the language of the CR has the provision that for the purposes of the bill that the remainder of the fiscal year constitutes one congressional day (with no pro-forma members present to keep the legislature open) despite returning in session on Tuesday, meaning that deadline never arrives—an unusual proviso perhaps to hedge his bets. Something legally ambiguous that cannot be overridden that Trump could keep in his quiver to exercise at will, the GOP were perhaps expecting more resistance from the Democrats, which could explain the reversal of party leadership—with a shutdown, which is in effect, and solely owned by the Republicans.

the customer is always right (12. 307)

On this day in 1962, JFK delivered a speech before congress establishing four pillars of basic consumer rights, amid a backdrop of historic lack of recourse against deceptive claims and faulty products which led ultimately to corporate liability and lessening the burden of proof on the injured party of demonstrating negligence on the part of the manufacture or advertiser, enumerating: the right to safety, the right to be informed through clear and accurate labelling, the right to choice affected through anti-trust legislation and limits of patenting to control monopolistic practices and the right to be heard via voicing complaints and concerns—expanded to include the right to include access to basic and essential goods, the right of redress in the form of fair settlement, consumer education and the right to a healthy workspace. A decade later, the principles were formalised in the US Consumer Product Safety Commission working across a range of agencies, both domestic and international, and World Consumer Rights Day, observed on the anniversary of the original address since 1983, sponsored by the NGO that also publishes Consumer Reports.

hr 1968 (12. 305)

Though hard to forecast what might have been the better path through an undesirable binary, and mostly cleaving to party lines, an early procedural vote against cloture and ultimately advancing of a continuing resolution through the senate to avoid a US government shutdown at midnight seems to have been a grave political miscalculation with Democrats squandering the only leverage they had to slow or derail Trump’s dismantling of the federal bureaucracy. In response to Musk commenting that closing down the government might be a preferable course of action for the DOGE agenda, senate minority leader Chuck Schumer reversed his stance on the spending bill that keeps government funded through the end of the fiscal year and along with nine other Democrats, voted with Republicans for the passage, reaching the sixty votes needed to avoid a filibuster—earning praise from Trump for his decision and highlighting deep divisions within the party. If the GOP had wanted the government to shutdown, they wouldn’t have advanced the budget in the first place, which until it passed the first hurdle of the house of representatives, Democrats were united against it. The CR is essentially a sequestration, maintaining funding levels but removing line item allocations and collapsing appropriations into larger pots of money, further abrogating the role of congress and allowing the executive branch to move funds, legally, as it sees fit.  Unabated with his assault on the republic, Trump issued more executive orders while roll-call was happening on the senate floor, rescinding the federal minimum wage of fifteen dollars per hour, the mandate for agencies to share data on emergent public health threats as well as order the closure of the parent agency that operates Voice of America and Radio Free Europe and smaller offices that handle labour disputes, the council on homelessness, developing minority-owned businesses and the institute of museum and library services—agency heads given seven days to justify their existence and prove that their work is statutorily required.

blm (12. 292)

Created in response to federal officers attacking peaceful protesters with teargas in order to clear demonstrators as Trump’s entourage walked to St John’s Church for a photo-op holding a Bible, Washington DC’s iconic Black Lives Matter street mural is being erased, the city’s mayor pressured by contingent of congressional representatives to remove the slogan (citing public safety) or lose federal funding. Dedicated 5 June 20202 on the what would have been the twenty-seventh birthday of Breonna Taylor, a nursing student student killed during a botched police raid on the wrong premises, adding to global sorrow and outrage amid a mass movement to expose inequities, discrimination, violence the brutality of law enforcement for that began with the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2013—and too many before and since—and grew to its international scope after the killing of George Floyd in May. The two block stretch and surrounding plaza have been a forum for healing and a venue for continued rallies as all our affected by the administration’s unrelenting attack on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, banning books and outlawing critical race theory or anything else that might make white people uncomfortable.

and i’m going to use that bill for myself too—if you don’t mind—because nobody gets treated worse than i do online, nobody (12. 289)

Though drafted with the unimpeachably serious aim of curbing the distribution of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII—also known as revenge porn) online, the piece of legislation, the so called “Take It Down Act,” whose immediate passage Trump urged during his address to a joint-session of congress earlier in the week overly-broad language and is blatantly a recourse of the powerful to pressure host platforms to remove content critical of the administration, censoring and silencing dissent. Sponsored in the senate by Ted Cruz of Texas, the act would further require social media to have procedures in place to comply with a takedown request upon notice from a victim and enjoys support from the first lady, who is known for championing a rather unoriginal online safety campaign “Be Best” during her husband’s first term, opponents fear it could easily be extended to political speech and journalistic reporting that leadership does not like, with no penalties for lodging a false or frivolous notice and a requirement for hosts to monitor content shared over end-to-end encryption, potentially leading to platforms abandoning privacy measures in order to align with the law.

time table (12. 287)

An upcoming conclusion of events, akin to Germany’s own Schicksalstag (Day of Fate) but augmented by the cycle of politics and government housekeeping which by rights ought to be pretty routine and unexciting (see also here and here) seems rather ominous or the United States. Not only is it the Ides of March when the backstop continuing resolution funding the government expires at midnight with congressional Democrats poised to withhold their support for any budget or increased debt-ceiling necessary for Trump’s tax cuts in order to blunt the pace of the unlawful dismantling of the administrative state, alienating allies and threatening the global order that has existed since the end of World War II all carried out by royal prerogative and against the will of the legislature, coincidentally it also marks the fifty-third day of the Trump presidency, which is precisely how long it took Hitler use the Weimar constitution to subvert democratic institutions after his appointment as chancellor, destroying the republic from within using its own laws and norms. The date also marks the fifth anniversary since America went into lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. We suspect this upcoming Saturday might be a little wild.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a watchtower in the woods (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting

eight years ago: more links to enjoy plus an underwater tunnel for ship traffic in Norway

nine years ago: Douglas babies, the right to be sheltered from dissent, repurposing abandoned churches plus shorthand as punctuation

ten years ago: Latin Christendom, unuselessness plus even more links 

eleven years ago: curtailing freedoms in Türkiye plus artist Carl Grossberg

eo 10924 (12. 269)

Established on this day by executive order from John F Kennedy and authorised by the US congress later in September, the Peace Corps is an independent agency of the federal government that trains volunteers and deploys them to local communities around the world to assist developing countries in health and environmental programmes, education, empowering women and the marginalised and making resilient polities that enshrine American values of democracy, free markets and entrepre-neurship, respecting local customs and norms by embedding participants with a command of the prevailing language and living under the same general conditions as their outreach group. Pitched as missionaries of democracy to provide technical advice and assistance, the Corps dispatched some nine hundred volunteers to fifty-two partner countries in its first year, Kennedy committed to its formation in the final days of his presidential campaign—realising the potential to genuinely help people in post-colonial Asia and Africa and counter stereotypes of US imperialism and hegemony—against his opponent Nixon who called the proposal a magnet for draft dodgers and a “cult of escapism.”

covenant of the goddess (12. 268)

The cross-traditional Wiccan organisation was founded on this day in 1975 by forty elder witches from fifteen different covens in Oakland, California in order to secure for practitioners and adherents the same rights and legal protections extended to other religious communities. Affiliate congregations, numbering presently over one hundred, focus on education, philanthropy, theology and ritual worship of the Goddess and the Old Gods, operating largely by consensus and with autonomy for separate chapters. In 2007, the group successfully lobbied the US Department of Veterans Affairs to recognise the pentacle as one of its suitable headstone emblems in national cemeteries, though this is probably not the case any longer with the establishment of the White House Faith Office and task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias. High priest and priestesses solemnise lifelong relationships among members in “handfasting” ceremonies, which transcending traditional marriages can include numbers greater than two.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an undiscovered marine ecosystem off the coast of Chile (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth the revisit plus Operation Crossroads

seven years ago: an Italian-designer cargo-droid plus a Brutalist housing estate outside of Amsterdam 

eight years ago: more links to enjoy, an extensive logo archive, legalising WiFi squatting, Obama for the president of France plus historic events on this day

nine years ago: the origin and development of the shopping buggy, the predictions of Nostradamus plus a planet populated by robots

ten years ago: the Caliphate and cultural destruction plus the nature of misconceptions

ultra vires (12. 264)

US district judge William Alsup in San Francisco issued a decision that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must rescind directives sent to some departments and agencies ordering them to fire employees serving under their probationary periods—that it was overreach on their part, illegal and “in no universe” can OPM direct other bureaus to hire or fire. Although the defence maintains that the memoranda did not constitute a direct order, the judge citing substantial evidence to the contrary from unions, media and personal accounts sided, after another case had been dismissed for want of standing, and petitioning for legal remedy and relief, believing those dismissed are likely to win on the merits of their case. The initial ruling, pending a later evidentiary hearing, is limited in scope, however, and only pertaining a few agencies, the Bureau of Land Management (park rangers), the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and subsequent to this decision, parts of government that layoff employees, not included among the defendants, are doing so of their own volition and not entangled by legal proceedings.

11x11 (12. 263)

broadband equity, access and deployment: Trump administration thinks the BEAD programme of the Infrastructures Investment and Jobs Act is too woke   

fermata: a thousand artists release a ‘silent’ album to protest changes to UK intellectual property rights to attract AI companies interesting in training their models on copyrighted material—via the New Shelton wet/dry—also more music without sounds 

late stage capitalism: Washington Post owner Bezos will only allow editorials that defend “free markets” and “personal liberties”—see also   

annual reformulation: important meeting of the US Centres for Disease Control to discuss strains for next season’s influenza vaccine cancelled, confirming fears that the new health secretary will pivot away from proven preventative medicine 

rif me daddy: what Trump’s AI enhanced shitpostings reveal about the administration and plans for the future of Palestine 

absalom, absalom: William Faulkner’s record-setting run-on sentence 

torus and tokamak: a German fusion startup is lauded for its plans, peer-reviewed, to launch a functioning power plant   

only the markets can save us: America’s total economic boycott planned for the last day in February 

touch grass: an app that blocks screentime and doomscrolling until one has proven one’s gone outside—via Waxy  

snoopers’ charter: Apple’s capitulation to the UK’s Investigative Powers Act is Chekov’s Gun for privacy worldwide   

by the people and for the people: dossiers of the people working for the Department of Government Efficiency

synchronoptica

one year ago: ceramicist Yoonmi Nam (with synchronoptica) plus the age of ludicrous inventions 

seven years ago: A Million Random Digits plus assorted links to revisit

eight years ago: more misattributed quotes 

nine years ago: Sàmi tone poems

ten years ago: theodicy, get anything delivered, more links to enjoy plus RIP Leonard Nimoy

marbury v madison (12. 258)

In the aftermath of the fiercely contested US presidential election of 1800 (see previously), a three-way race among incumbent John Adams, Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson, with Jefferson ultimately winning with the electoral college by a very narrow margin. Once realising that they were unseated Adams and the Federalist party attempted to fill as many judicial vacancies as possible with loyalists and avowed “anti-Jeffersonians”—mostly circuit judges, during the last days in office. One of these appointees was a wealthy businessman and lawyer from Maryland, the plaintiff, William Marbury—nominees approved by the senate en masse. The new judges received their commissions and sworn in, however, for a few, it was not accomplished before inauguration day—including for Marbury—Jefferson instructing his secretary of state, James Madison, to withhold those commissions not yet delivered and declare them void. The ensuing lawsuit, elevated to the supreme court, was decided on this day in 1803, ruling that Marbury was legally entitled to his commission and withholding it was a violation of his rights—issuing a writ of mandamus and ordering the matter be remediated, but more over established the principle of judicial review, meaning that the courts have the power to strike down statues and legislation that run counter to the constitution, understood as the national codex and not just a statement of political ideas and aspirations and gives the judicial branch the responsibility to review the acts of the legislative and executive.

bullet points (12. 252)

As an encore to the stochastic terrorism being unleashed on the US federal workforce following thousands of probationary period employees being illegally fired and a milquetoast reception to the original threat of deferred resignation, DOGE (at the urging of Trump to ramp things up) has issued another mass-email on Saturday to some two million civil service employees requesting a list of five things that they accomplished this past week. Responses are due Monday at midnight with one’s supervisor courtesy-copied. Aside being unlawful, desperate and a sign of overplaying one’s hand, it’s agonising in regards of crafting an acceptable list and I am sure that far more time will be spend in commiseration and consultation on how to justify one’s work as an organisation, further taking away from productivity in the name of greater efficiency after a week of increased workload due to chronic understaffing, bidding a tearful farewell to those being purged, the chaos of the hiring freeze, manoeuvring the return-to-office mandate with inadequate desk space and general doom-scrolling about what comes next. If we are made to submit the bullet points, I am sure the follow-up abusive email will be a loyalty test, if the termination notices don’t come first. Not sure if mass non-compliance or malicious compliance is best but I can think of some recommended answers: “Supported and defended the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” or in the vein of wrong answers only “Did a DEI,” “spent forty-hours correcting maps and globes with a sharpie to read ‘Gulf of America,’” “Did a tonne of ketamine,” “Played golf and danced on stage with a chainsaw.”

congestion pricing is dead—manhattan and all of new york is saved—long live the king (12. 244)

Again for saying the quiet part out loud, Trump is being ravished on social media and the press after liken himself to a monarch as he issued an executive order to revoke the recently enacted surcharge to encourage and support public transportation in New York City and has received considerable backlash from state officials who realise that the schemes have worked for other large metropolitan areas. This magisterial declaration is happening at the same time that Trump ordered federal prosecutors to drop the corruption investigation against disgraced mayor Eric Adams, a move which led to a succession of resignations by attorneys who could not abide by this curtailment of justice. Adams had been currying favour from Trump since the election in hopes of securing a pardon but in falling short of unconditional clemency (a royal prerogative it seems to me and wondering if such power has a place within a constitutional democracy) Trump is ostensibly exerting pressure on the mayor, since he could countermand that order to the justice department and pursue charges, to make sure that the city cooperates with immigration raids and municipal authorities don’t pushback on agents entering schools and churches. The GOP is leaning into Trump’s coronation and Democrats for their part are giving a history lesson on the American War of Independence.

7x7 (12. 243)

tvwishes: a reappraisal of digital preservation—via Waxy  

wasp 121β: ultra hot Jupiter exoplanet has a uniquely layered and roiling atmosphere—see previously  

unitary executive theory: latest Trump EO reigns in independent agencies, testing the limits of presidential power  

the doors of kypseli: the intricate entrances of an Athens neighbourhood  

gesserit jazz: a 1977 funk album inspired by Frank Herbert’s epic novel—see previously 

jikipedia: the rise and fall of China’s Urban Dictionary of internet slang  

dark entry records: queer album cover art from Gwenaël Rakkte

10x10 (12. 241)

bustin by numbers: bizarre 1990 edit of a Peter Greenaway film featuring an instrumental version of Young MC’s hit 

mazinibaganjigan: the art of birchbark bitings, practised by the Objiwe and Algonquian peoples  

twenty-two nautical miles: Mexico threatens to sue Google over the change to the gulf’s name  

democracy dies in darkness: Bezos owned Washington Post refused to run an advertisement critical of DOGE  

acolyte: a profile of the actual Nazis overrunning the US government—via Kottke  

paypal mafia: Trump administration is clawing back funds already disbursed and has designs to gain control over banking and wire-transfers 

the molotov-ribbentrop pact: historic examples—with devastating consequences—of not inviting all parties to the negotiating table—via Damn Interesting  

deemed accomplices: Sheinbaum warns us renewed legal action for US gunmakers over complicity if drug cartels are designated as terror groups 

a very large faucet: water-sharing treaties between Canada and its neighbour to the south have attracted unwanted attention  

you say neato, check your libido and roll to the church your new tuxedo: that’s Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers on jazz bass

50501(12. 238)

In response to the unlawful and anti-democratic dismantling of the administrative state by DOGE and Elon Musk’s minions, costly disruption in the name of efficiency but aimed to roll back labour (return the spoils system) and civil rights, with the apparent carte blanche of Trump, organisers from all fifty states are holding fifty calls to action under one movement, protesting in solidarity with federal workers, eighty percent of whom have duty locations outside the capital. Occurring on the Presidents’ Day federal holiday after an initial illegal purge of civil service employees, the non-partisan rallies are calling for the removal of the unelected bureaucratic who has grabbed unfettered and compromising access to sensitive government databases and pay systems to further his pet project. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: a token of affection found in Gdańsk (with synchronoptica), the geography of the Moon, finding one’s centre plus assorted links worth revisiting

eight years ago: more links to enjoy 

nine years ago: Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory

ten years ago: even more links, herbal resources mapped, Finnish history, naming and shaming plus US restrictions on immigration

eleven years ago: Germany’s energy Autobahn

elizabeth peratrovich day (12. 237)

Civil and indigenous people’s rights activist (born with the Tlingit name Ḵaax̲gal.aat, “person who packs for themselves”) Elizabeth Peratrovich (née Wanamaker) is celebrated on this day in the state of Alaska for championing the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945—on the anniversary of the passage of the bill in 1945, which was the first law of its kind enacted in any state or territorial possession of America. Overt racism from white settlers towards native peoples was widespread and included segregation in public spaces, shops and schools along with diminished job prospects and exclusion from white neighbourhoods.   Several attempts beginning in 1941 to pass legislation failed in the district’s senate with the campaigner and her tribe characterised as primitive—a lot of “white man’s burden” theatrics. Nevertheless Peratrovich persisted, responding to the insults: “I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with five thousand years of recorded civilisation behind them, of our Bill of Rights.” The bill passed and signed into law by the governor nearly twenty years before one was adopted on a national level. It is unclear whether Alaska, in the current political climate, gets to keep the holiday and the history behind it—with it being dictated what it can call its mountains and Denali being re-flagged again after a populist president with imperial ambitions and a penchant for tariffs.

synchronoptica

one year ago: AI does text-to-video (with synchronoptica) plus Russian opposition leader found dead

seven years ago: US school shootings plus nominative determinism

eight years ago: cognition in non-human animals

nine years ago: subversive merit badges, rodeo tailor Nudie Cohn plus upper- and lower case

eleven years ago: an action figure collection plus the state of education in the US

st valentine’s day massacre (12. 235)

The purge of US federal workers, beginning with employees serving their probationary period that started in earnest yesterday and continues through the Presidents’ Day long weekend, with the DOGE advisory panel—not a governmental entity and with only derived authority—summarily terminating large swaths of critical workers—not necessarily new to their departments and agencies but many perhaps merely promoted or reclassified within the past two years—arbitrarily and without cause from high- and lower-profile sections including the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, NASA, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration and Homeland Security to the National Nuclear Safety Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, imperilling public safety, health, security and basic services across the country. Not only does this put the public at risk by handicapping safeguards, enforcement and disease and weather surveillance, eliminate the successor generation of scientists and educators in government roles and clear out decades of institutional knowledge and experience, the deletion of workers and agencies with flagrant disregard for procedure, collective bargaining agreements, contracts or labour rights is the onset of a constitutional crisis, the executive no longer respecting the separation of powers by failing to commit funds duly appropriated by the separate and coequal legislative branch for their express purpose—and just barely, so far, abiding by decisions from judges ordering pauses and offering up what speed-bumps they can muster. The US is witnessing the transformation into a dictatorship already in the dismantling of the administrative state, however, and it won’t take ignoring a lawful order to set it off, the regime openly threatening justices who would stand in its way and forwarding appeals to a supreme court solidly in support of its agenda and end-state. Elections have consequences and those polities that voted for this, to hurt Black and Brown people and everyone else—as well as businesses that donated and lobbied—should brace for impact as the first to feel the brunt of their support. It is difficult to say if they can connect the causation or even if there might still be a chance for future reform.

advance compliance (12. 229)

Disney, amid a board shift in DEI posture among American corporations, having already relented with a fifteen million dollar settlement plus profuse apologies for character defamation when an anchor said the garbage sex-pest had been found liable for rape rather than abuse, we learn via JWZ has reverted from the more thoughtful content warning introduced in October of 2020 for its vintage catalogue: This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together. Disney is committed to creating stories with inspirational and aspirational themes that reflect the rich diversity of the human experience around the globe—to its previous terse disclaimer for classics that haven’t aged well, “This programme is presented as originally created and may contain stereotypes or negative depictions.”

we have this unelected fourth, unconstitutional branch of government (12. 225)

Journalists from the Associated Press were barred from attending an Oval Office event, a signing ceremony for yet another executive order—newsworthy for its magnitude and ineptitude—with Elon Musk in attendance to announce agency heads were to undertake preparations, working with DOGE to drastically reduce the size of the federal workforce after “billions and billions of dollars” in fraud, waste and abuse had been uncovered, for not referring as the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in its syndicated articles, and reporters would continue to be excluded from the White House press pool until such time as wire service aligns its language with that of Trump’s. An EO banning the use of paper straws in federal facilities was also signed.  Several news organisations have rallied to the AP’s defence, saying that the president cannot dictate reporting or editing decisions. This follows other attacks against the press, including suits for supposed libel and deplatforming and banishing several outlets from the Pentagon, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN and NPR as well as threatening the same group’s broadcasting licenses over newsroom and network diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives characterised as promotion “invidious forms of discrimination” that will not be tolerated.