wahlkampf

Weeks ahead of the relatively anodyne federal elections in Germany, we appreciated this retrospective on campaigning here from Rebecca Schuman (complete with pronunciation help)—where despite the fact that partisan battles are severely curtailed and essentially limited to poster format, there are no political television commercials and just a few government sanctioned debates, we have the gall to feign campaign fatigue. Though the incumbent can be assured of her re-election, there’s still much at stake, including battered relations with Turkey, and we ought not become complacent or disengaged. There are an awful lot of posters, however, as I suppose the one thing that’s not regulated and they’ve canvased every tree and lamp post—and those slogans and messenging are deserving are deserving of critique.

a more perfect union

From the conclusion of World War II through the Cold War era there were fears of occupied Germany—both divided and reunited—becoming too powerful and growing resurgent with its domineering tendencies and in part the European Union and its antecedents were created as a framework to contain Germany, but we had never come across this radical, radial proposal to politically unite central Europe by parsing it into twenty four cantons.
Each ray contained one major city each on the continent and emanated from a central capital, Vienna reflagged as Sankt Stephan after the city’s landmark cathedral, but no member was a nation state in the traditional since as the bands included parts of at least two countries and in most cases took in a broad spectrum of language, culture and heritage. The map and model government, which called on for a rotating presidency and shared administration of colonial lands, were proposed in 1920 as the world was still coming to terms with the horrors of World War I, with the authors confident that allowing boundaries to be drawn along ethnic lines (their Esperanto-speaking utopia broadly classified four constituent tribes of Europe: Teutons, Slavs, Magyars and Romans—and each canton was configured to mix the groups) was an obstacle to lasting peace.

standing order sixty-six

With the Trumpian effects of time distortion already punching holes in the fabric of reality, it’s scarcely possible to believe that this week marks a year since Theresa May ascended to the post of Prime Minister and leader of the UK’s Conservative Party after the passage of the Brexit referendum.
May’s professed political world view is rooted in the paternal and pragmatic philosophy of Benjamin Disraeli whose leadership informed what’s called One-Nation conservatism that while retaining the class system strongly advocated noblesse oblige and social justice for the disadvantaged and that indifference and apathy for inequities would result in violent revolution. Nonetheless, Disraeli’s agenda was oriented towards expanding the Empire and inspired fierce ideological battles from fellow populist William Ewart Gladstone who coined the term “Little England” to refer to the metropolitan Britain without its colonies beyond the seas. We’ll see what the future brings for incumbent and country.

contrived durability oder tinker, tailor

Via Boing Boing, we learn that admirably the EU is taking further strides against institutionalised obsolescence with a guaranteed right to seek repair rather than disposal and replacement. Rather than supporting the status quo model of leasing that infantilises and confounds consumers with terms and conditions that bundle service contracts together and require any attempt to remedy a problem be conducted by authorised dealers, Europe is putting together a charter that awards companies who reduce waste and don’t sell people a ball and chain along with a car or a coffee-maker, stipulating an accepted, universal definition of built-in obsolescence, the ability to (while maintaining safety standards) upgrade and make modifications, untangling replaceable components like operating software, lightbulbs and batteries and encouraging general durability.

state of the union

Though likely pointed out ad infinitum elsewhere, the Queen’s Speech (or rather a speech from the throne) that is the State Opening of Parliament this year was a slightly more subdued affair this year as compared to years past. While much of the ceremonial pomp and circumstance was retained for the occasion—many traditions that go back to the sixteenth century, like the symbolic searching of the cellars, taking hostages, the procession of the peers, etc.—Her Majesty herself choose a car rather than a carriage for means of conveyance to Westminster and choose to leave the crown to a valet rather than wear it.
This last occurred in 1974—a year with two snap elections and a coalition of chaos.  Instead the Queen opted, provocatively, to dress as the European Union flag whilst Castle Mayskull listened politely.

bedfellows or now let’s get to work

With rather alarming alacrity, Prime Minister May visited the Queen on Friday afternoon following the General Election once all jurisdictions had declared—foreboding of what looked to be a hung Parliament—to propose to form a government, whose composition looked to be a less preferable and less tenable option than prolonged anarchy or even relinquishing rule to Her Majesty herself. Her ministerial role propped up by the tacit backing of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland. This socially conservative group that has in the past supported paramilitary forces and stoked sectarian violence, in exchange for being the junior member of a technically workable, minority coalition which gives the Conservatives in total a few more seats than it had prior to the vote, but it’s hard to argue that was calculated, will certainty expect some cabinet appointments and some policy concessions for its support.

strong and stable or disunited kingdom

Castle Mayskull’s gamble backfired with her calling an ill-advised snap, general election in order to reinforce a mandate that her party had already secured to withdraw the UK from the European Union and discourage future referenda on devolution and secession.
The Conservative Party has lost a few seats in Parliament’s House of Commons which brings the critical number to retain an absolute majority. Rebuffing calls to resign as Prime Minister—having squandered her mandate, should the incumbent insist on staying and no coalition can be brought together to support her, she risks precipitating a constitutional crisis and dissolution of government. So called hung Parliaments have occurred in the past but with the political landscape being in such turmoil and congregations so polarised over it seems unlikely that an alliance will be forthcoming and the days to follow will be anything but tidy.  This miscalculation, which drew younger voters in greater than expected numbers to the ballot, threatens to reverse the course of negotiations for a Brexit deal and possibly the decision to leave in the first place and is already boding greater economic disruptions than experienced after the referendum. 

blue birds over

Artist Banksy has created a new mural in Dover, the Guardian reports, that expresses his views on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, especially timely as France has defied the nationalistic drift with the outcome of its presidential elections—which is located, of course, just across the English Channel from Calais and the Continent. The star being chipped away does not represent membership (there are far more countries in the Union than there are stars on the flag) but rather for “unity, solidarity and harmony.”

enfant déplorable ou clutching at straws, clutching at pearls

The world owes a huge debt of gratitude for halting the march of destabilisation of democracy in rejecting a platform based on fear and xenophobia in favour of an untested (though very much of the same pedigree of the political establishment) candidate whose youth and non-partisanship was last seen with Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte III, plus for resisting the urge to turn inward despite having borne the brunt of recent terror attacks. Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche!, as with the Front nationale, is an outlier of the political parties that had traditional governed France and the results of the first run-off were uncomfortably close, and though the newcomer won by a decisive margin and has a mandate for the direction he wants to take the country.
I am also certain, however, that the transfer of power will be less than absolutely peaceable, owing the tyranny that’s already been unleashed on the world and the upcoming rounds of parliamentary elections that might also reject conventional narratives, since after all there was a not insignificant number of voters that supported Le Pen—quipping just before her defeat that the Republic would be inevitably ruled by a woman: “either herself or Angela Merkel”—and voter-turn out even with so much at stake was historically low with many feeling disenfranchised and disengaged with politics altogether. The last minute breach and release of potentially incriminating campaign documents was a grasping ploy that was diffused and that along with other incidents engineered to either overtly or covertly affect the outcome of the race that failed illustrate how social engineering has the traction that we give it. Even fake news, regardless of the amount that the recipient wanted to be it to be true, was rebuffed with a shrug of resignation—not because the French are jaded or expect less from their leaders, but because response is a measured one, not determined by political machines whose gears are often jammed in translation. No amount of messaging, surrogacy and propaganda trumps education and advocacy. Vive la France!  Vive l’Europe!

gadheim, gadfly oder the centre cannot hold

Though among the first to acknowledge that things fall apart and that Brexit was a step backwards for everyone, residents of a tiny Franconian farming village in the county of Würzburg are overwhelmed and excited by all the attention that their native Gadheim (DE) is getting, since once the withdrawal of Britain from the European Union is finalised, they will become the geodetic centre of the EU.  This bittersweet title was taken from a suburb sixty kilometres to the northwest called Westerngrund that captured the centre (due to the way geography of the EU) from 2013 onward when Croatia joined the now twenty-seven nation bloc. Hopefully, when Gadheim relinquishes its claim, it will be over expansion and not over another member’s departure.

oh right, crush the saboteurs

Meanwhile back at Castle Mayskull, we are witnessing almost the same level of needy paranoia as is being displayed by Dear Leader still talking about the popular vote and the size of the crowds gathered for his inauguration with the caretaker prime minister insisting on subjecting the voters of Britain to another pointless and painful run-off election in order to solidify her tautology that “Brexit means Brexit” and she has the peoples’ mandate. Calling an election is only calculated to rebuff future criticism, which should and cannot be simply silenced by decree.
Add into the mix the seemingly parallel dimensions where the expectations of the prime minister and senior EU commissioner, Jean-Claude Junckers, reside for the divorce-proceedings and for post-Brexit relations, we have a very intractable situation indeed. Last Wednesday (25 April 2017), Junckers was invited to dinner (EN/DE) at the Downing Street residence, which gave the prime minister the platform (sounds woefully familiar, like one of Dear Leader’s hollow publicity stunts) to forward her litany of demands and conditions, which were already rebuffed by the European Union in no uncertain terms. Beginning cocktail hour conversation with assurances that she would be re-elected, the prime minister seemed to slide further and further into the realm of fantasy with patently simplistic views of how re-negotiations would go forward and honestly believing that the whole matter could be sorted out quickly and cleanly and to Britain’s favour. When Junckers countered that in fact no, “Brexit cannot be a success” the prime minister seemed to think that the EU had not been sufficiently briefed on her vision and tactics. It seems that this class of politicians were earnest in their campaign pledges in so far that they are dense enough to have been duped by the lies themselves.

6x6

littoral: the Inuit use these maps carved out of driftwood to navigate the coast

библиотека: a gallery of remarkable libraries of Eastern Europe

special sauce, lettuce, cheese: stratified recipe cards from Zing Zhang, via the always fabulous Nag on the Lake

shortlist, shoreditch: a selection of the finalists for a UK Brexit passport redesign

duchenne smile: earbuds that are controlled with facial expressions

crispr: octopi and their relatives can edit their own genes at will

after the disaster oder post-haste

As inimical as Dear Leader is to journalists, it’s a strange irony that his propaganda juggernaut and message point-man are dyed in the wool muckrakers—with parallels to another paradox we’ve explored previously but not quite a one-to-one correspondence but still a strained relation to the press, and that engine is of course looking to expand into other potentially contentious campaigns.
With elections looming in France, Italy and Germany in the upcoming months, media outlets have focused their attention on questions of refugee policies, trade and national sovereignty and seem determine to sway public opinion. Unabashed moves on the part of the official apparatus and media label—in all its tabloid reputation—to install itself in Germany especially highlights the dissonance of selective concern and the pledge for isolationism without introspection. There are of course two dialogues occurring at the same time—one in the native language and the other in English and not necessarily mutually intelligible or bi-curious, and not always having the access and wherewithal to guide the outside discussion puts German voters perhaps at a disadvantage and subject to a great deal of outside pressure and bullying. Respected German journalism eschews in general sensationalism and practises a restraint that can be to an Anglo-Saxon readership frustratingly staid and boring, and whether Germans have a privileged perspective of what fake-news or die Lügenpresse can lead to and have an innate resistance to it or are just loathe to acknowledge it remains to be seen and might soon be tested again.  Reliance on exaggeration can only up to a point produce reliable results and the press is charged with keeping those in power accountable.

meme-base or selective pressures

Courtesy of the always engaging Waxy from Andy Baio, we are treated to a year-long retrospective, parsed out on a daily basis, from New York Magazine’s select/all crew in the form of a memetic calendar. This is really brilliant: one can go to any date and see what was transmitted and trending on or around that day and be reminded of some of the accounts of pith and moment captured—despite the life-cycle and how meaning and context flees—that tell of the events of 2016.

non-state actors

I am indebted to the Happy Mutants at Boing Boing for bringing to our attention a matter of Brexit negotiations first proposed two weeks hence (I suppose none of us can be too hard on ourselves for missing the sensical compromises that present themselves every so often in this shrill and demanding newscape), seeing that we had completely overlooked the notion of ‘associate-citizenship’ that might be extended to UK citizens residing in the EU, so that they might be allowed to stay and afforded the same freedom of movement as enjoyed before.
Coming just as the British government announced a firm date to invoke Article 50, to tender its divorce-papers, this offer shows a tremendous amount of goodwill has been held in trust and whilst corporate entities might not expect nor deserve such kindnesses, it was hopeful to see that individuals might still be able to choose their affiliation with sovereignty independent of their representative governments. It is possible that the current regime might reject the proposal for its potential to undermine the will of the people it’s championing at the moment and the only recourse is paradoxically petitioning one’s local council that was either committed to leave or bremain in the first place. It also has me hopefully, personally, as a long term US expatriate, wondering if I might too be granted such an option, especially considering what by force I might be repatriated to.

great leap forward

The Atlantic presents a rather sweeping, comprehensive list of political, foreign policy milestones and anniversaries that will occur in the upcoming year, illustrating how fraught diplomacy with compounded legacies not easily shaken and those foundations probably ought not to be tempted.
February marks a quarter of a century since the European Economic Community embarked into a new system of greater legal and political integration—beyond trade deals, with the Maastricht Treaty, which led to the creation of the contemporary EU, though it now stands at a crossroads. It is the centenary of the Russian revolutions of 1917 that created the Soviet Union as well as the fiftieth anniversary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Of course cultural movements and revolution don’t exclusively cause contemporaries to confront (and tackling “on this day” is only contending with a shadow of the original event and certainly not its precedents—and perhaps in the moment of memorial, not its antecedents either) the past only on round birthdays (there are many more events covered in the article) and the nostalgia for chronicle and a surfeit of past to the fill the present has become a sort of a touchstone lately—and hopefully the trivia can tease out some curiosity into the deeper history and influences as well—and perhaps shows that the whole jabberwocky of bookends needs respect and continual servicing. What do you think? Perhaps there’s also a strong desire to step away from a present in hopes that we can bound it—and whatever slurry of 2016 won’t wash into the new year.

postfaktische o post-verità

Whether the European political status quo can weather the trends that first emerged with the Brexit with the encore number, dénouement of the Trump ascendancy will see its first stress test this weekend with the run-off election in Austria and a contested referendum in Italy that could spark a constitutional crisis equally if it passes or fails. Even if the concept of polling hadn’t lost all its credence, the outcomes of both votes are highly uncertain.
What sort of precedent has already been struck and what would this shift bode more broadly? If elected, the conservative candidate of the Freedom Party Norbert Hofer will hold a plebiscite on continued EU membership, touted as Öxit. This protracted drama was too close to call in April of this year and a second vote was called for October—but delayed until now due to an issue with the glue on ballots mailed out. Meanwhile in Rome, Matteo Renzi’s government is pledging to dissolve itself if a sweeping reform bill engineered to reduce the gridlock that’s inchoate in the Italian parliament by divesting one chamber of its veto power. Even though that does smack as pretty much antidisestablishmentarian, populist elements oppose the change and its failure (and the resignation of the incumbent) are seen as an opportunity for social and economic conservatives to gain control.

rapprochement

Over pledges to endorse the return of capital punishment within its borders and fully drain the swamp after staged coup attempt of the summer, Turkey is vocally protesting EU misgivings about the prospect of every joining the economic bloc over its poor human rights record and the way things are tending that run counter to the principles that Brussels tries to uphold—threatening to throw open its frontiers and no longer impede transit of refugees on to EU territories.
The Turkish government, furthermore, is not pleased with the slow manner in which the EU is disbursing the three billion euro aid package agreed upon in exchange for Turkey’s care-taking and triaging of the refugees. Detecting the potential for corruption, the EU has been judicious in remitting these alimony payments, issuing them in small instalments and directly funding projects rather than paying Turkey to manage it. As uncivil and incredulous as this is and people are being used as pawns in the purge and in the surge, it was as precocious to believe that Turkey would live up to its end of the bargain as it was for Turkey to believe that it could ever really ingratiate itself and be given membership. “Throwing open the floodgates” sounds ominous but I don’t think that Turkey was doing a very good job controlling its borders in the first place—and probably more walls will follow in response. Perhaps with everything else going on in the world, those B-List whingers and their demands, fulminations will be dismissed as merely obnoxious and not to be engaged with diplomacy or plied with politics.

alt-right or barrel of deplorables

Here’s a brief biographical look of some of the freshly be(k)nighted members of European Alt-Right, coming soon to an election near you—you know, so you can avoid awkward encounters at parties. Thankfully, most have a day-job to fall back on—since idle hands... With the exception of the do-over election in Austria, this dossier only introduces those without some tenuous claim to authority.

Frauke Petry, chemist and chairwoman for Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, founded 4 July 2015.





Lutz Bachmann, advertising executive from Dresden and founder of the PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident) October 2014.



Marine Le Pen, attorney and French politician and president of Front National, October 1972.

Albert Rösti, political consultant and national chairman of the Swiss People’s Party, founded September 1971.





Geert Wilders, Dutch founder and leader of the Party for Freedom, February 2006.











Matteo Salvini, Italian journalist and leader of separatist movement Lega Nord, founded in January 1991.








Norbert Hofer, contested president of Austria and member of the Freedom Party (FPÖ), founded April 1956.

finn maccool or disunited kingdom

I appreciated the controversy that the outcome of the Brexit referendum had regionally for the United Kingdom, with a significant majority of Scotland and Northern Ireland voting to remain. I understood how the Scots might try again to declare independence and that Northern Ireland has the only land border with a European Union member, but did not realise just how thorny it was.
Not only is it an unpalatable prospect to have frontiers returned between the exclave of the UK and the Irish Republic and create obstacles to movement and trade, the Republic has extended the right of citizenship to any resident of the island in hopes of reconciliation and ultimate union after so many years of violence and animosity. So called Peace Lines partition sections of Belfast and Londonderry, cities still divided by sectarianism long after the wall came down in Berlin. What would it mean to the notion of dominion if seven out of every ten adults chose to see past historical difference and protest against very recent developments that don’t play their self-interests and trade their allegiances? I am not sure how Britain would react to a de facto reunification.