Just returned from his first major foreign trip of his second term, treated with with imperial pomp and lavishing in the Regional Car Dealership Rococo lifestyle and gold-plate decor that he so admires, Trump’s agenda of deal-making—though overshadowed by a luxury jet offered by Qatar to replace Air Force One—was revealing about his priorities and “none of our business approach” to foreign policy. In parallel to multi-million dollar contracts favourable to American business interests secured without any of the bothersome talks of human rights issues, democracy, transparency, press freedoms or regional diplomacy—no mention of the suppression of dissent, sportswashing, the war in Gaza or even recent past postures to his hosts on supporting terrorist groups, Trump’s team of negotiators have been fronting at least the appearance of frenetic negotiations that included a ceasefire with the Houthis, lifting sanctions on Syria and renegotiating a nuclear deal with Iran, although the Persian Gulf will henceforth be known as the Arabian Gulf. This collusion of contrasting, contradictory events, capitalism to paper over conflicts, may be coincidental and incidental to the administration’s penchant for flooding the zone but is very telling of what Trump wants and how he might be played.
Saturday, 17 May 2025
i believe it’s god’s job to sit in judgment—my job is to defend america (12. 466)
Monday, 30 December 2024
mmxxiv (12. 124)
As this calendar draws to a close and we look forward to 2025, we again take time to reflect on a selection of some of the things and events that took place during the past year. Thanks as always for visiting. We’ve made it through another wild year together.

february: Violent volcanic eruptions force evacuation in Iceland. King Charles III announces he has cancer and will step away from public-facing duties for the present. Ex-Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson interviews Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

march: Fashion doyenne Iris Apfel passes away, aged 102. One day ahead of the Super Tuesday primaries, the US Supreme Court ruled that no state can keep Trump off the ballot. Over a hundred Palestinians are massacred by Israeli force as they rush a rare relief convoy entering the besieged city of al-Rashid. Nikki Haley drops out of the race for the Republican party nomination for presidential candidate.
april: Seven humanitarian aid workers of World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli airstrike whilst travelling along a pre-authorised aid corridor to bring food to the starving outside of Deir al-Balah. Israel

may: Protest rage on college campuses across the United States for the country’s materiel support for Israel and the universities’ financial ties in the ongoing assault on Palestine.

june: Mรฉxico elects its first woman president to continue the liberal and progressive policies of her predecessor.
july: Labour wins in the UK General Election. France’s second round of voting keeps the extreme right from power. Iran elects progressive reformist Masoud Pezeshkian. Actor Shelley Duvall passes away, aged 75.

august: a prisoner-exchange sees American journalists detained in Russia freed. Anti-immigration riots spread violence in Sunderland over several days. Trump agrees to debate Harris but only on his terms.

september: the Israeli public call for a nation-wide general strike after the bodies of six hostages held by Hamas are recovered over the government’s handling of the war that has lasted nearly a year with no signs of ending.

october: Former American president Jimmy Carter turns 100. US ports shut down as dockworkers go on strike. Tehran fires a barrage of hundreds of missiles into Israel. The Europa Clipper is launched to study the Jovian satellite.

november: Veteran entertainment producer Quincy Jones dead at 91. Following a controversial outcome in Georgia, Moldova re-elects pro-Brussels government of Maia Sandu. Elon Musk to spend election night with Trump watching returns—handing over executive control of X to the former president. Donald Trump is re-elected as the president of the United States.


Monday, 9 December 2024
10x10 (12. 070)
willow: Google’s quantum computing labs unveil a new microchip that operates at amazing speeds by being in many states simultaneously
skin-deep: a look at the tattoos of Defence Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth
mind-machines: Arthur C Clark (previously) forecasts the rise of artificial intelligence in 1978

saturday night bath in apple valley: Something Weird features the very best in exploitation film from the 1930s through the 1970s—via Obscure Media
they see your photos: an app that assesses one’s images, opposite to a picture is worth one thousand words
free syria awaits you: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham enters Damascus as Bashir al-Assad flees to Moscow and political prisoners are freed
mocha mousse: a defence of Pantone’s colour for 2025—it’s first brown hue
pratfall: the history of slipping on banana peels—see previously here and here
undercoat: solar paint developed by Mercedes Benz could revolutionise EV charging
synchronoptica
one year ago: underappreciated cinematic masterworks (with synchronoptica), multifunction gadgets plus The Wicker Man (1973)
seven years ago: prospecting for bitcoin plus transparency in airfare
eight years ago: dinosaur plumage, no memory for sickness, Italy’s efforts to reduce government gridlock and promote efficiency plus assorted links to revisit
nine years ago: an extraordinary Jubilee Year, chain of command plus 3D face masking
ten years ago: lucky charms, visualising the passage of time plus a first, fatal shooting by police in Iceland
Saturday, 2 November 2024
the balfour agreement (11. 959)
In anticipation of control of Mandatory Palestine from the Ottoman Empire as a result of ongoing negotiation and with the express understanding that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities,” the British government proclaimed its support of a “national home for the Jewish people” in a missive from Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfoud to Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild on this day in 1917. The pledge to this community leader appeared in the press a week later. First drafted three years earlier to secure Jewish support in a wider war by appealing to ambitions for statehood, an exploratory committee was launched by Sir Mark Sykes (see above) but without consultation with the local Palestinian population. Although Israel did come into existence until after World War II concluded (the term used, “national home” was intentionally ambiguous and had no basis in international law, unclear how it might manifest, as a republic, a territory within the mandate or a spiritual centre), the declaration of support (with approval from the US and other Allies) strengthened the movement and has led to one of the most intractable geopolitical situations of the twentieth century and beyond.
Thursday, 19 September 2024
blue line, red line (11. 855)
In a statement delivered amid the sonic booms of Israeli fighter jets conducting mock air raids in the skies over Beirut and actual strikes on the southern border, Hizbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah addressed for the first time publicly the coordinated denotations of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies Tuesday and Wednesday that killed three dozen supposed operatives and seriously maimed thousands as low-tech communication devices exploded in orchestra after receiving the trigger signal at the same time. Israeli intelligence manufactured and distributed the rigged handheld pagers through a series of Taiwanese and Hungarian shell companies beginning in 2022 once it surmised that Hizbollah were avoiding cell phones for fear that their messages could be intercepted, and whilst this surprise simultaneous assault is arguably more targeted and discriminating than the bloodshed in Gaza, the injuries sustained happened in public, in the markets and in traffic and not on individuals actively carrying out the business of the organisation, in violation of the on prohibition on landmines and similar traps, causing mass panic and overwhelming Lebanon’s and Syria’s emergency care infrastructure. Potentially six thousand of people could have been killed all at once in this unprecedent attack. Nasrallah called the sabotage an act of war, vowing to keep fighting until aggression in Palestine ends. Though not acting during the immediate chaos, Israel is committing to this “new phase” of the war in order to return settlers to the north of the country on the countries’ disputed border region and the occupied Golan Heights.
Monday, 5 February 2024
good boys (11. 325)
Via Nag on the Lake and Memo of the Air, we enjoyed these collection of canine figurines from ancient Assyria, circa 650 BC, with the dogs’ names inscribed on them, and they are some rather epic monikers, including Muลกฤแนฃu Lemnลซti, “Expeller of Evil” and Dan Rigiลกลกu, “Loud is his bark,” probably carved in the Ashuriscript rather than the older cuniform. While perhaps more to the point than these other pet names, we liked contrasting it with this list of medieval ones for one’s furry companions.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a Chinese spy balloon in US skies, the border reopens between Gibraltar and Spain (1985), Tomorrowland, assorted links worth revisiting plus graphing calculator emulators
two years ago: Laker Airways, more links to enjoy, Telegram Sam (1972) plus more AI Valentines
three years ago: a Bubble Palace, more Tulip Mania, MTV’s Liquid Television plus the @-sign
four years ago: the State of the Union, one hundred years of the Greenwich Time Signal plus outsider artist James Edward Deeds, Jr
five years ago: United Artists (1919), more links worth the revisit plus snow-rollers
Saturday, 30 December 2023
mmxxiii (11. 224)
As this calendar draws to a close and we look forward to 2024, we again
take time to reflect on a selection of some of the things and events
that took place during the past year. Thanks as always for visiting. We’ve made it
through another wild year together.
january: Hundred of thousands pay their respects, attend funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, presided over by his predecessor in Vatican City. Supporters of defeated president Jair Bolsanaro stormed the capitol in Brasilia. Caches of official records and classified files have been discovered mishandled and stored in offices used by Joe Biden after his vice-presidency. Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck passes away, aged 78. Lisa Marie Presley, artist and singer, has died, aged 54. Wracked with successive and endemic problems, Haiti descends into anarchy after the last of its elected officials depart the country. Singer David Crosby has passed away, aged 81. Jacinda Arden steps down as Prime Minister of New Zealand. US and Germany agree to send tanks to Ukraine. A group of five police officers in Memphis, Tennessee brutally murder Tyre Nichols with no justifiable provocation. After speaking out against the criminalisation of same-sex partnerships and denial of basic civil rights, the Pope will journey to South Sudan, joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Church of Scotland for a dialogue with local church leaders preaching a gospel of intolerance. Lisa Loring, the original Wednesday Addams, passes away, aged 64.
february: After announcing that conflict with China was on the near horizon, the US acquires additional bases in the Philippines to encircle its rival and potential adversary. Just days ahead of US Secretary of State’s visit to Beijing, NORAD announces the detection of a Chinese spy balloon over western America, prompting Blinkin to cancel his trip. Fashion designer and perfumier Paco Rabane passes away, aged 88. The EU holds a summit in Kyiv on Ukraine’s bid for membership. Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf passes away, aged 77, after contending with a long illness. A powerful earthquake on the border of Syria and Tรผrkiye claims over five thousand lives, the death toll soon quadrupling. Songwriter Burt Bacharach passes away, aged 94. Facing a series of crises and increasing pressure from the war in neighbouring Ukraine, the government of Moldova is dissolved. Top-tier Czech footballer Jakub Jankto comes out as homosexual, the first professional player to do so. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon surprises her party by announcing her departure with no clear successor. Actor Raquel Welch passes away, aged 82. North Korea resumes missile tests in the Pacific and the US warns that China may attempt to arm Russia and delegates at the Munich Security Conference urge immediate fortification of Ukraine in order to prevent imminent defeat. Stand-up comedian and tv detective Richard Belzer dies, aged 78. Humanitarian and former US president Jimmy Carter enters hospice care. Just ahead of the one year anniversary of the start of the invasion, Joe Biden makes a surprise visit to Kyiv. Tech companies and media outlets continue tranche after tranche of staff layoffs. US House Speaker gives previously unreleased trove of January Sixth insurrection footage to conservative pundit Tucker Carlson. The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks its one year anniversary.
march: Evidence emerges that Ukrainian saboteurs were responsible for the underwater explosions that ruptured the NordStream I pipeline though questions remain. In the second largest bank collapse in the history of the US and the first of its kind since the 2008 crash, the Silicone Valley Bank servicing tech-sector start-up has become insolvent and went into government receivership. Thousands of civil servants in France go on strike in protest of legislation to raise retirement age. After Manhattan district attorney investigation into Trump directing hush-money to Stormy Daniels, US presidential candidate announces that he expects to be arrested and calls for protests. Mounting evidence seems to vilify suggestions that COVID originated from a lab leak in Wuhan. Despite attempts to contain the contagion, the fall out from the crisis with California fintech institutions cause havoc with banking stocks worldwide. UBS absorbs a beleaguered Credit Suisse. Xi and Putin enter an apparent entente against American influence. UN warns that time has run out on combating runaway climate change. Deadly, hour-long tornado strikes ravage rural Mississippi and Alabama. Intel Corp founder and thinker behind the eponymous law about the exponential improvement of technology Alan Moore passes away, aged 94.
april: Trump arraigned in the Manhattan district court over falsifying business records pursuant to hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels. A US federal judge in Texas suspends the 2000 approval by the country’s food and drug regulatory body on the safety of an abortion pill, restricting its use. Demanding stricter gun-laws in the wake of another school and church mass-shooting, the Tennessee state legislator expel two Black lawmakers for their stance. Preoccupied with filibusters over trans-rights, the Nebraska state senate fails to pass a single law in this year’s legislative session. Tory ministers begin to walk-back plans for a full-scale repeal of EU regulations following an inter-party revolt against the post-Brexit arrangement. Phasing out of nuclear energy entirely, Germany closes its final remaining reactors. Revival military leaders have brought Sudan to the brink of civil war as factions of the regular army face the paramilitary rapid response force in Khartoum. More media organizations fold as ad revenue dries up and newsrooms turn to AI to generate copy, like BuzzFeed and Vice being the two latest to declare bankruptcy and curtail operations. Comedian and creator of Dame Edna Barry Humphries has passed away, aged 89. Civil rights activist and entertainer Harry Belafonte dies, aged 96. Joe Biden declares his party’s candidacy for a second term for president of the United States.
may: Gordon Lightfoot, folk legend, dies, aged 84. The WHO declares the global COVID-19 health emergency over. Charles III and Camilla are enthroned during a lavish ceremony in London. A jury finds Donald Trump guilty on the charge of sexual abuse and battery, labelling him a predator and pest. Elon Musk appoints a former television advertising executive as head of Twitter as he announces plans to transform the ailing social network into a multi-purpose app similar to China’s WeChat. Harry and Meghan are recklessly pursued by paparazzi in New York—with strong echoes of the death of his mum’s fatal encounter. China begins to call in loans to some of the world’s most impoverished countries after making them dependent on cheap credit. Tina Turner passed away peacefully, aged 83, in her home outside of Zurich—Simply the Best. Florida governor Ron DeSantis announces his presidential candidacy on Twitter.
june: The death toll of a catastrophic train crash in India approaches three hundred with countless more injured. After months of drama and tension, the US raises its debt ceiling to avoid default. A dam breach, blamed on Russia, causes massive flooding along the Dnipro river and forces tens of thousands to
evacuate. Astrud Gilberto, the Queen of Bossa Nova, and original singer of the infinitely covered ‘Girl from Ipanema,’ has passed away, aged 83. Wildfires rage in Canada, smoke enveloping the Eastern Seaboard. The awaited Ukraine counteroffensive begins. Four children who survived an airplane crash in the jungles are Columbia are found alive having survived the forty day ordeal. Donald Trump is indicted on federal charges for retention of classified documents imperilling US national security. Boris Johnson quits Parliament ahead of an official rebuke from the House of Commons over Partygate. Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber and CIA UK Ultra test subject, is dead, aged 81. Media tycoon and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi passes away, aged 86. NATO holds large scale military exercises in Germany. The whistleblower and leaker behind the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, passes away, aged 92. A submersible taking a compliment of five tourist to the wreck of the Titanic is lost. Mercenary Wagner Group turns critical of the invasion of Ukraine and stages a mutiny after announced take-over by the Russian defence ministry, occupying Rostov-on-Don and proposing a march on Moscow, reaching half-way to the capital before a truce is negotiated by the Belarusian president. France riots over the death of a teenager after being shot by a police officer. US Supreme Court overturns affirmative action in college admissions, student loan forgiveness and LGBTQI+ anti-discrimination laws, though at least on the last case, it looks as if evidence was fabricated.
july: Joseph Pedott, marketing virtuoso, passed away, aged 91. Israel conducts a major military raid into a Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin. Despite warnings from humanitarians and a ban in place for their use by over a hundred countries, the US is sending surplus cluster-bombs from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts to Ukraine. Catastrophic flooding devastates Vermont and other parts of New England. Hollywood’s Screen Actors Guild joins the writers’ strike. Jane Birkin, singer, activist and French icon, dies aged 76. Crooner Tony Bennett passes away, aged 96. After months of media hype and anticipation, the Barbieheimer phenomenon comes to cinemas. Singer Sinรฉad O’Connor has died, aged 56—nothing compares 2 u. Hunter Biden appears before court on charges of tax evasion and illegal gun-ownership, days after boudoir photos of him enter the congressional record, possibly in violation of laws against revenge porn. The Nigeria government falls to a military coup d’etat with the president taken into custody. Paul Reubens, the actor who portrayed Pee-Wee Herman, passed away aged 70, after a private bout with cancer. Voyager 2 after two weeks of radio silence has re-established contact with Earth.
august: Donald Trump is indicted for his role in fanning the flames that culminated in the January Sixth raid on the Capitol and attempts to over turn the 2020 election. Wildfires devastate the Hawaiian island of Maui and the town of Yellowknife is evacuated as forests are engulfed in Canada. A rare hurricane, the first in eighty years, passes over Baja California, causing flooding and heavy rains, a year’s worth in a single day. Ex-Wagner chief and senior leadership perish in an airplane crash. Indian lands a probe at the lunar south pole. Trump is arrested, booked and released on bail after in Fulton County Georgia. Long-time US game show host Bob Barker dies, aged 99 (playing by Price-is-Right rules until the end). An unprecedented hurricane strikes Florida’s Big Bend region between the panhandle and peninsula. “Margaritaville” singer Jimmy Buffett passes away, aged 76.
september: Drought and wildfires are followed by flooding in Greece. An earthquake strikes the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco, killing hundreds and destroying parts of Marrakesh. Rupert Murdoch steps down from News Corp. Fighting erupts in Nagorno-Karabakh, the breakaway region of Azerbaijan. After more than five months, the Hollywood Writers’ Guild reaches a deal with the studio and ends its strike. In solidarity with striking autoworkers, US president Joe Biden joins the picket line, the first for a sitting holder of the high office. As counter-programming to the second Republican debate, Trump also makes an appearance with union workers.
october: Hamas and other terror groups launch a surprise attack on Israel, causing Tel Aviv to declare war against Gaza with thousands killed on both sides. Earthquakes in Afghanistan leaves over a thousand dead. An eastern Pacific tropical cyclone devastates Acapulco with hundreds killed and many more displaced.
november: Three-hundred thousand marched for peace in Palestine through London during Armistice Day celebrations after earlier rallies drawing in huge numbers to urge Israel enact a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. Pope Francis dismisses an ultra conservative bishop in Texas who criticised the pontiff's more progressive stance on non-gender-conforming members of the Church. OpenAI’s board of directors have ousted founder and CEO Sam Altman, the chief representative of the chatbot revolution and proponent for regulatory framework, for his lack of candour and transparency. Microsoft immediately hired Altman and fellow defectors. Humanitarian and former US First Lady Rosalynn Carter passes away. Rightwing populist Geert Wilders wins a controlling share of the Netherlands’ parliament. A temporary cease-fire is called in Gaza to allow the release of hostages and more humanitarian aid to enter the beleaguered city. Henry Kissinger dead at one-hundred.
december: Fabulist and fraudster George Santos expelled from the US congress. Israel renews attacks on Palestine after a temporary truce. Legendary television producer Norman Lear passes away at 101. Israeli forces extend attacks in southern Gaza, where many fled to avoid the violence. Ousted US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy tenders his retirement from Congress, leaving the Republicans a controlling majority of only two seats. The EU enacts the world’s first comprehensive AI regulatory framework. A volcanic eruption occurs on the Icelandic Reykjanes peninsula with Sundhnรบkagรญgar dumping lava and prompting evacuations. Trump confidant and former New York City mayor Rudi Guliani declares bankrupcy after being ordered to pay nearly one hundred-fifty million dollars in restitution for libelling Georgia election workers. Houthi pirates attacking cargo ships in the Red Sea cause transportation to round the Cape of Good Hope. A mass shooting in Prague leaves fifteen individuals dead. Missing Russian opposition figure Alexei Nalvalny emerges, detained in a penal colony above the Arctic Circle. A heavy barrage of missiles hit Kyiv as US financial and materiel backing driess up.Veteran German parliamentarian Wolfgang Schรคuble passes away, aged 81. Jacques Delors, statesman who helped shaped the European Union dead at 98. Entertainer Tommy Smothers dies at 86. Israeli bombardment of Gaza continues, with the death toll of civilians surpassing twenty-thousand.
Wednesday, 29 November 2023
32/40 b (11. 148)
Commemorated since 1978 on the anniversary of the passage of the United Nations resolution 181 on the partition of Mandatory Palestine, which proposed the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states with a special, international regime governing the city of Jerusalem, the UN-organised observance, a day of solidarity, calls for immediate steps to be taken to grant the Palestinian people full sovereignty and independence. The declaration also established a commission to study The Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem to couch regional conflict and contemporary violence and displacement in terms of historical perspectives and past miscalculation and transgression.
Tuesday, 10 October 2023
operation nickel grass (11. 050)
To replace materiel spent in the first four days of the conflict, the Soviet Union began an airlift on this day in 1973 of military equipment to Syria and Egypt that led a coalition of Arab states against Israel (to gain purchase on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal and regain the Sinai) in the Yom Kippur/Ramandan War. The US followed suit with a massive resupply of Israel two days later, and having discovered that Prime Minister Golda Meir had authorised the assembly of thirteen nuclear warheads aimed at targets in Egypt and Syria, a move that was made easily detectable so as to conduce American aid and avoid further escalation, wanting officially to minimise the appearance of involvement. Upon receiving intelligence of this development, US president Richard Nixon ordered the deployment of the Air Force to transport all munitions possible to Israel via the Azores and along a narrow airspace over the Mediterranean to comply with European countries that did not wish to be party to a proxy war between the US and the Soviet Union. Although resupply missions on both sides slowed significantly after the 24 October cease-fire resolution, OPEC leaders enacted an oil embargo against America and her allies.
synchronoptica
one year ago: AI movie posters plus conjuring Swedish nonsense words
two years ago: assorted links to revisit plus Upstairs, Downstairs (1971)
three years ago: revolutionary China, happy birthday to the Candy Bomber, the moon Triton, the role of sharks in vaccines plus coin-op convenience
four years ago: Dunbar Number, guerilla advertising plus more on noise pollution
five years ago: more on Osaka’s Expo’70 plus a shopping cart that gauges one’s mood
Friday, 7 October 2022
sergius & bacchus (10. 202)
Among the most popular paired saints with a cult going back to the fifth century, the Syrian Roman soldiers were, according to their hagiography, favoured officers in the army of Galerius (successor to Emperor Diocletian, toning down his persecutions but still strongly opposed to Christianity) until their secret adherence was exposed, they are venerated on this day in the Western Church to mark their martyrdom and the hands of their superiors, tortured (Bacchus went first and his ghost returned to encourage his compatriot to be steadfast and not disavow his faith) and beheaded. Tradition emphasises their closeness and inseparability, which has caused the couple to be embraced by the Catholic gay community—most accepting that their relationship had a romantic element to it and points to the rite, suggestive of a form of same-sex union, called แผฮดฮตฮปฯฮฟฯฮฟฮฏฮทฯฮนฯ (adelphopoiesis, fraternisation or brother-making). Their patronage includes Arabs, Syria and army soldiers and their home church built in Constantinople—now known as the Little Hagia Sophia Mosque—is the among the city’s most splendid examples of Byzantine architecture, second only to its namesake.
Saturday, 29 January 2022
coalition of the drilling
In the first State of the Union Address to the American people since the 9/11 terror attacks some five months hence, delivered on this day in 2002, George W Bush minted the coinage “axis of evil”—a portmanteau of Ronald Reagan’s characterisation of the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire and the Axis powers of World War II, Germany, Italy and Japan. Originally levied against Iran, the Baath party of Iraq and North Korea as sponsors of terrorism, net exporters and actively seeking weapons of mass destruction to define a common enemy and threat to US and its allies, other politicians and commentators expanded the term to include Syria, Cuba, Libya, Belarus, Zimbabwe and Myanmar.
Saturday, 17 October 2020
embargo
On this day in 1973, OPEC (then OAPEC, the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries despite Venezuela being a charter member) ministers came to a consensus to use their cartel powers to influence the West’s materiel and monetary support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War when the country made incursions into Syria and Egypt, advancing towards the economic and strategically important Suez Canal (see previously) and retaliated against Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, the UK and the US by a crippling quadrupling of prices, a shock to markets that precipitated the 1973 Oil Crisis.
Geopolitical antecedents factoring into this stand-off included the decrease in American petroleum production post-war and the rise of OPEC, the decision to float world currencies—unpegging them from the price of gold—with the US unilateral withdrawal from the Bretton Woods Accord in 1971 and subsequent recession, plus the never neglected opportunity for proxy warfare between the US and its allies and the Soviet Union on a new frontier. Because the embargo, which lasted until March 1974, failed to change the West’s stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict, history judges it as ineffective despite the long-term effect it had on international economics and gradually over the ensuing decades pushed the US towards more domestic exploration of fossil fuels and towards energy independence and globally pressured reforms for financial institutions to control for inflation. Intermediate effects included fuel rationing, a slow-down in factory-orders, a shift in preference for smaller automobiles and a pivot towards China for manufacturing.Thursday, 14 May 2020
vittore e corona
Feasted on this day in parts of northern Italy, Austria and Bavaria, Saint Corona (or sometimes going by her Greek equivalent, Stephanie, ฯฯฮญฯแพฐฮฝฮฟฯ—both denoting one who is crowned) is forever twain with Victor of Damascus, an early Christian martyr serving as a soldier in the province of Syria.
Before being ultimately beheaded for refusing to renounce his faith in 170 A.D. during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the imprisoned Victor was brought provisions and encouraged to preserve despite the bodily tortures he was made to endure by a woman called Corona, identified according to different sources as either the sister of one his fellow enlisted men or Victor’s wife. The authorities decided to apprehend her as well—and according to her hagiography, and as depicted rather bizarrely on this turn of the century fruit sticker—the crest of the greengrocers’ guild of Vienna, was put to a rather gruesome death for comforting the imprisoned by being bound to opposing palms trunks and being torn asunder once released. Rather than being invoked in times of plague, Corona is the patron of gambling and the lottery and called upon for circumstances involving money or treasure.
Tuesday, 26 November 2019
mandatory syria
Negotiated and ratified in secret in May of the same year, the Manchester Guardian published an invective report detailing the memorandum of understanding between Britain and French ambassadors Mark Sykes and Franรงois Georges-Picot (see previously here and here) on this day in 1917 regarding the partition of a soon to be defeated Ottoman Empire days after it was presented to the Bolshevik government of Russia, whom first exposed it to the public, the arrangement contingent on its assent. With parallels to the present and storied abandonment of the Kurds, the terms of the treaty amplified and circulated to the British readership, the government was embarrassment by its betrayal to the Arabs, whom had been promised an independent homeland in the Levant (which was not on the map) in exchange for their revolt that destabilised the Empire and precipitated a victory for the Triple Entente. The consequences of this line in the sand are still informing and shaping geopolitics more than a century later.
Tuesday, 8 October 2019
i, in my great and unmatched wisdom
With no advance warning to Kurdish fighters or coalition partners, Trump announced the abrupt withdrawal of US troops from the Turkish-Syria border region.
This abandonment after five years of cooperation with Kurdish forces, whom have borne the brunt of defeating the Islamic State during Syria’s civil war though characterised as terrorists by Turkey, has prompted the Pentagon to deliver a stern warning to Turkey not to invade. Though Trump in principle agrees with the assessment that there should be no military incursion that would further destabilise Syria, pledging to economically destroy Turkey should it do so, removing soldiers from the cross-fire has essentially given Erdoฤan a pass to carry on as he sees fit.