pooped in peolsis desk (11. 934)

Inspired by a spurious claim (confessed in a group-chat) by one of the January 6 rioters and Trump’s latest hailing the insurrection on the US capitol as a “day of love” following praise for those patriots, a bronzed sculpture of an emoji-style faeces on the desk of then Speaker of The House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, will remain on view through 30 October opposite Congress. While the artist and intention remain unclear, apparently the installation was given official sanction by the National Park Service which vets public art on the Mall in DC. Much more at Hyperallergic at the link above.

pseudo event (11. 910)

Planned, planted or incited—and retroactively described as the above or more commonly as a media event by Marshal McLuhan and others, the first in the history of a US presidential campaign occurred on this day in 1924, conceived by master propagandist and public-relations pioneer Edward Bernays, in the form of a breakfast at the White House hosted by incumbent Calvin Coolidge attended by a retinue of Broadway luminaries. Considered rather groundbreaking to stage a “non-event” to improve a politician’s public image (Coolidge was considered dour and retreating, nicknamed “Silent Cal” by association with celebrities), Coolidge was re-elected for a first full-term in his own right eighteen days later, having succeeded to the presidency in August of the previous year due to the sudden death of Warren G Harding.

frostbite falls (11. 907)

The fictional terra nullius, an island in the middle of the Lake of the Woods (Pikwedina Sagainan) neither claimed by the US or Canada since conditions there were said to be inhospitable to human life, of Moosylvania is governed by presumed namesake Bullwinkle J Moose. In the finale of the first run of the series, an insidious plot to destroy the island by Fearless Leader was foiled by the duo’s ingenuity, and in hopes of getting the show renewed for syndication, Rocky and Bullwinkle producer Jay Ward dispatched an assistant to Minnesota to purchase an uninhabited island on the cross-border lake suitable as a stand-in and then launched a campaign to petition for statehood. A publicity team gathered sufficient signatures across America and Ward and associates arranged for an audience with president John F Kennedy on this day in 1962. Arriving however just as the Cuban Missile Crisis began (see also here and here), they were escorted off the premises of the White House at gun-point.

synchronoptica

one year ago: e-textiles (with synchronoptica) plus Don’t Look Now

 

seven years ago: rehabilitating cephalopods, occupational gender equity in Russia plus translating IKEA accessory names

 

eight years ago: denim televisions, Brexit and Marmite shortages plus clowns try to improve their public image

 

nine years ago: assorted links to revisit plus drone wars

 

twelve years ago: ISPs policing IPs

7x7 (11. 897)

ghost lot: an installation of sunken cars buried in a mall parking area as commentary on catering to automobile culture 

weather manipulation: a whirlwind of conspiracy theories over recent hurricanes in the US have netted distrust, death threats for meteorologists 

loveland frogmen: maps of the most famous cryptids and mythical monsters charted by America states and internationally—via Nag on the Lake  

scripting news: a founding member of the blogosphere enters his fourth decade—via Waxy  

general headquarters: the lost board game from Kurt Vonnegut (previously) has been completed and available for purchase 

theobros: understanding the GOP’s efforts to remake America through Christian Nationalists—via Miss Cellania  

y-crossing: the Trinity Bridge of Crowland, Lincolnshire, a relic before the rivers were rerouted

synchronoptica

one year ago: a catalogue of edible seeds (with synchronoptica) plus the Polish System of pedagogy

seven years ago: a line rider banger, pictorial kanji, a Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden plus the US withdraws from UNESCO

eight years ago: Mr Yuk plus a monument to Henrietta Lacks

nine years ago: a courtly selfie-stick plus assorted links to revisit

fourteen years ago: predictive text plus Japanese heraldic traditions

and that my friend is only the beginning of how this makes america great—you’ll be so overwhelmed with all the winning that you won’t know what you’ve lost until it’s too— (11. 882)

Via Memo of the Air, we are directed towards this rather brilliant reminder of the illiberal horrors contained in Project 2025—which Trump disavows though his agenda fits the blueprint point-for-point—as an homage to Schoolhouse Rock, which despite reaching the series fifth decade, the 1950s that it would transport back the United States to is far darker, distant and regressive. For the rest of the world, enduring America’s seemingly endless whinging about its democracy is taxing, and it will be over within weeks—either with the country crowing with pride as the untoppled beacon for freedom, when even at the best of times its record is not so perfect, or else an insular and fascist theocracy with the hollow procedural trappings of free elections—but either way, America will throw its weight around and have serious consequences globally, impacting everyone. The lyrics (though missing some major curtailments of rights and norms, like support for the arts, banning pornography, support for veterans, etc but I guess the song would never end otherwise) helping cite the pages where each proposal appears and has the coda of how to overcome this bleak future. Draping the Statue of Liberty in a Handmaid’s costume was a nice touch too.

as safe as fort knox (11. 866)

With the exception of a brief tour granted to FDR in 1943 and a similar junket in August of 2017 to dispel the same rumours that the vaults had been emptied out, no members of the public had been admitted to the national gold bullion depository until when on this day in 1974 a contingent of journalists and a dozen congressional representatives were guided inspection by members of the American Mint (director Mary Brooks pictured) and the Treasury Department.

Requests to visit Ft Knox are summarily turned down but pressure by the House to conduct an independent audit of US gold reserves in response to the publication of a book, Conspiracy Against the Dollar: The Spirit of the New Imperialism by Peter David Beter, that attacked international monetary reform and cited the usual culprits, global elites, Bolsheviks, the Rockefeller-cartel, Soviet space lasers, important public figures were dead and had been replaced with “robotoids”—and most resoundingly with the public, that most of America’s gold had been trucked away and sold at depressed costs to European speculators—all claims without evidence or merit. Beter’s AM radio show gave him a platform to continue his allegations, making the military installation’s standing policy suspicious and proof that they had something to hide. The delegation was delighted with the tour and mostly cleared up the false speculation—largely imputed to America’s leaving the gold standard three years prior when the reality was that movement of gold had effectively halted (US silver bullion is stored at the military academy of West Point) and most gold is still in New York City—that is, until the rumours started circulating again and Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell visited with treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, proclaiming the nation’s stockpile to be secure. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: David Bowie’s Heroes (with synchronoptica), robinsonades plus urban wildlife photography

seven years ago: shibboleths 

eight years ago: smart carts for airport security, windpipes plus point-of-sales machines

nine years ago: algae-based membranes as liquid containers 

eleven years ago: a census of house plants

suburban fury (11. 865)

Joining the only other American female would-be presidential (let’s not forget Fanny Kaplan and the long tradition of Russian attempts) assassin with the mutual target being Gerald Ford inside of a month from each attempt, Sara Jame Moore tried to kill the US president on this day in 1975 as he was leaving a San Francisco hotel. Preoccupied with Patricia Hearst (maybe a case of Stockholm Syndrome by-proxy), Moore and volunteered as a bookkeeper and informant for the the organisation founded by William Randolph Hearst to rebuff the claims by the Symbionese Liberation Army that they had kidnapped and inculcated his daughter for his crimes against the poor up until the moment of her plot foiled by the FBI. Picked up by local authorities the day prior on suspicion of having an illegal handgun and a large supply of ammunition, Moore acquired a new revolver and shot at Ford from a distance of twelve metre as he exited the St Francis Hotel and misjudging the sightings on her new and untested weapon missed by a narrow margin. Moore said later that her motive was to incite revolution and bring about positive change in America. Remanded for life in prison and with an interim escape and re-apprehension, Moore was paroled at the end of 2007 and is living in Tennessee, aged 94.

the sammies (11. 853)

Via tmn, we learn of the awards ceremony hosted by the US Partnership for Public Service that acknowledges the seen and unnoticed efforts by contentious bureaucrats of the federal government, who many are presently reviling as the Deep State. Named for the late benefactor Samel J Heyman, businessman and philanthropist who encouraged recent graduates to pursue a career in government, the gala has been hosted annually during the first week in October in Washington, DC and a selection committee of journalists, politicians, educators and corporate executives nominates individuals in the categories of emerging leaders, citizen services, science and the environment and safety, security and international affairs plus employee of the year out of the pool of the two-and-a-half million who work for America’s largest employer. The awards ceremony is surprising moving and deserving of its monicker as the Oscars of government work.

synchronoptica

one year ago: rotating ramen (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: a sanctuary of internet freedom, navel-gazing, antique Japanese hoardings, bacterial phages fight tumours plus more unbuilt architecture

eight years ago: more on the pioneers of Information Theory

ten years ago: more on Scottish secession 

eleven years ago: the US debt ceiling

when you see something like that, it’s like god is looking right at you, just for a second—and if you’re careful, you can look right back (11. 825)

Premiering on this day at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on this day in 1999 (in general release 17 September), probably no other film has waned in its critical reception and reappraisal since Gone with The Wind, now almost singular dismissed and regarded as not ageing well, the award-winning Sam Mendes and Alan Ball collaboration about repression, renunciation, conformity and fragile masculinity is nonetheless an artfully crafted if unsophisticated time-capsule that captures the Zeitgeist of fin de siècle ideas of as-yet unrecognised privilege, normative behaviour and attitudes that still reverberate and are relatable a quarter of a century on. Its stellar initial accolades, 9/11 which made much seem trivial that came before, benighted stereotypes and actor Kevin Spacey being cancelled for atrocious behaviour that mirrored the protagonist of the movie certainly didn’t help its problematic legacy. Straddling the enduring (when and if it comes time for critical reevaluation) dichotomy between the message of the meaning of life versus the hollowness of suburbia and sabotaging one’s life and being unable to deal with the consequences, American Beauty relates the archetype of a stranger coming to town in the form of the Fitts, an authoritarian, retired Marine colonel with an ill wife and withdrawn teenaged son who documents everything one his camcorder and pays for his expensive hobby by selling marijuana, to the notionally progressive and liberal picket-fenced community of middle-aged Lester Burnham, unhappy with his career and loveless marriage, and their gay neighbours. In parallel with his wife beginning an affair with a coworker, Burnham becomes infatuated with a classmate of his daughter which sets of a chain of events that that leads him to quit his job, blackmail his former boss, buying a classic car, and taking work as a short-order cook—deportment that might be excused as a “mid-life crisis” in unenlightened times. The 2000 MTV Movie Awards had nominated the film for its Best Kiss category but the studio rejected the overture, not wanting to glorify the “inappropriate” nature of the congress between a forty-two year old man and a sixteen-year old girl. …look closer

where we’re going we don’t need stroads (11. 820)

Whilst happy to live in a country that has not privileged cars over pedestrians completely where services are walkable and there’s a robust network of public transportation, there is always room for improvement at the margins—parking lots take up a lot of real estate and can be sweltering heat islands that could surely be put to a better use and there’s signs that some mid-sized cities in Germany are tending towards their American counterparts with the same horrendous corridors of strip malls, gas stations, automobile lots and fast food and plenty of investment in infrastructure has been invested in making the car king. Courtesy of Kottke, we are directed towards this reflection on how the car-centric focus of the US is like an addiction impossible to kick because of all the sunk costs and the ingrained and perpetuating cycle of more roads, more traffic and more destinations. The urban planning for the overwhelming majority of places built up post the introduction of the car is going to take a long process of unbuilding to make them liveable, and this is the American experience with hardly any exception—the article quoting Tennessee Williams’ observation that the country only has three cities: “New York, San Francisco and New Orleans—everywhere else is Cleveland,” which unfortunately rings very true for all that are consigned to be stuck in congestion and forever en route and whose errands and commute affords no chance for serendipity, divergence or nature. The title portmanteau of “street” and “road” was coined in criticism to the spreading failures of American civil engineering.

in my considered judgment, we have comported ourselves in a manner faithful to our history (11. 815)

As the first major celebration of the bicentennial of the American revolution, the contemporary governors of the original Thirteen Colonies were invited to reenact, reconvene the First Continental Congress (see also) in Philadelphia, gathering for an event at the original venue of Carpenters’ Hall on this day on this day in 1974.

Chaired by Virginia governor Mills E Godwin, Junior as presiding officer, delegates re-legislated the several grievances lodged against the Crown, not quite revising history and remaining patriotic but coming to some re-evaluation and different conclusions on oppression and tyranny. The original 1774 summit, whose delegation makeup was more diverse than that of two centuries prior and included women and minorities, adopted among other things the Articles of Association that called for a general boycott of British goods, which was soon escalated by punitive sanctions against the Colonies.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: the first in-flight movie (1925) plus Excalibur found

eight years ago: the flak towers of World War II, weather at Jupiter’s pole, more on Merkel’s hand posture plus Michaelmas

nine years ago: the innovation of the stirrup, a vintage arcade in Saint Petersburg, a Bell logo redesign, emoji urls plus more on stave architecture

ten years ago:  the NATO summit in Wales

union label (11. 810)

We enjoyed this celebration of the American Labour Day holiday (see previously) through this collection of standard-bearers, banners carried on marches and strikes to unite workers for the common-cause of fair wages and bargaining rights, drawn from various archives and industries. Most of the oldest historical emblems—many still extant—comes from garment and textile workers, with delightfully florid iconography that harks back to the professional guilds of the Old World, like the New York Journeymen Tailors’ Protective and Benevolent Chapter. Much more from Hyperalleric at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: anthropomorphised food mascots (with synchronoptica) plus Badger, Badger

seven years ago: reposting World War II as it happened plus the companies contracted to build Trump’s border wall

eight years ago: no more McDonald’s in Iceland plus arctic tourism

nine years ago: NASA’s graphics standards manual

ten years ago: a kissing flower 

lone eagle (11. 794)

Famed aviator, conservationist, isolationist and anti-Semite Charles Augustus Lindbergh died (*1902) on this day in 1974. Although like his father, congressional representative of Minnesota’s sixth district who was one of the few lawmakers to oppose America’s entry into World War I, and many other members of the public who promoted a non-interventionalist stance prior to Pearl Harbour, Lindbergh never explicitly endorsed the Nazi regime though his overarching comments on race seemed to suggest otherwise, a platform won by his historic transatlantic crossing, and public adoration was immense not only for his skilled piloting and goodwill tours but also in promoting transport and air-mail, with the enterprise expanding significantly during the 1930s with more than a fifty-percent increase of individuals seeking licenses to fly and a virtual Renaissance virtuosity demonstrated by contributions to the advancement of medical sciences co-authoring a procedure that made organ transplants more viable and charting routes that still make up airline itineraries to this day. US president Ford eulogised him, “In later years, his life was darkened by tragedy,” referring to the kidnapping and murder of his infant son, “and coloured political controversy, but, in both public and private life, General Lindbergh always remained a brave and sincere patriot.” A couple of weeks before his death at his seaside home in Maui, Hawaii from lymphoma, Lindbergh reached out to his secret families, seven children from three different women in West Germany and asked the mothers not to reveal his identity, only known by the alias Careu Kent—either the alter-ego of Superman or picked in honour of the place in England where he and his wife retreated after the abduction of their child and media circus—from annual visits—which all three women complied with and was not discovered by his offspring until over a decade after his demise.

18 usc § 953 (11. 785)

Although blunted somewhat by the clarification that the remarks were not based on original reporting but anecdotal information (just as likely to be true) that Trump has been in talks with Israeli leadership to discourage a ceasefire in Gaza prior to the election as he believed a truce—just like the US-Mexico bipartisan border security that was torpedoed in fear a solution would diminish a GOP grievance—once learned that both parties denied such conversations, these comments made amid the backdrop of protests outside of the Democratic National Convention are not only telling of the contender’s mindset but, if substantiated, in violation of federal law, namely the Logan Act, prohibiting correspondence of a private citizen with a foreign government in relation to any international dispute which could undermine the government’s position. Enacted in 1799, the law—and the only eponymous one I can think with its perpetrator  (see previously, see also)—came about in response to a diplomatic fiasco the year prior when John Adams sent a delegation to France during the Quasi-War (over America’s stiffing the French for loans that financed the revolutionary war against England) to negotiate a settled peace. Where these envoys had failed, Dr George Logan, a Quaker and state representative from Pennsylvania and member of the minority Democratic-Republican party (see previously here and here) whose platform and priorities were seen to run counter to the Federalist administration, achieved a settlement that avoided wider conflict. Trump is no George Logan. The Biden administration is working to end the violence and genocide, albeit not applying the right leverage. Subsequently made a senator for the state, Logan himself petitioned to have the act repealed but was unsuccessful and despite the association was appointed as a special emissary to Britain to stop the War of 1812 but that mission proved deficient.

wherever we look upon this earth, the opportunities take shape within the problems (11. 782)

Nominated by Gerald Ford on this day in 1974 for the office of vice president of the United States, the former New York governor and presidential candidate, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the second individual to be installed under provisions of the US constitution’s twenty-fifth amendment in quick succession and was chosen a pool of candidates, beating out then-US ambassador to NATO Donald Rumsfeld and Republican National Committee chairman George H W Bush, who were respectively given the consolation prizes of White House chief of staff and first ambassador to China. Confirmed by congress in December (and the first to reside in the official residence), the long-serving and popular governor from the dynasty of oil tycoons and business magnates was known for his progressive policies in terms of equal rights for housing and employment, environmental conservation efforts, public works, healthcare and education and liberal- to moderate-leaning party members at the time were referred to a “Rockefeller Republicans.” Though promised to be a “full partner” in the administration especially in terms of domestic policy, the vice president’s participation in government was seen as a liability for Ford and thwarted by chief of staff Rumsfeld, who ultimately convinced the president to drop Rockefeller from the ticket for his 1976 re-election campaign and pick Kansas senator Bob Dole as his running-mate to boost his conservative credentials. Later, Ford recanted the decision as “one of the few cowardly things I did in my life.”

trial balloon (11. 778)

Much in the same way as Brexit provisioned and prefigured the politics of MAGA and the election of Trump, the same amplified contagion unchecked

that fuelled violent race riots is subjecting Britain to an experiment by omission and testing the bounds of social media advocacy for by an arbiter of truth who is incautious about dissemination of falsehoods and faces few challenges or repercussions in the echo chamber, star chamber for being critical of a government whose policies he is in disagreement with. With the guardrails removed and no consequences for weighing in on political matters—over that stay of contrition of four years ago during the insurrection went social networks promised to do better about policing dangerous and illegal content, ranging from political violence, interference operations, disenfranchisement to COVID conspiracies—indeed what is to stop influence peddlers and grifters and avowed agents of chaos from forecasting or declaring that the US (or any other polity) is on the brink of civil war? Such outrageous and irresponsible punditry has always existed but now has an insurmountable volume.

absaroka (11. 772)

With the notable exceptions of Alaska and Hawaii and those that successfully petitioned for partition from larger territories like Kentucky and West Virginia and Vermont—Maine was created from the Massachusetts exclave district of the same name that existed until the War of 1812 when pro-British sentiments prompted the separatist movement—every state in the union has had its share of break-away polities, but none as we learn courtesy of Strange Company had consisted of counties of three different states proposing to reincorporate like the above coalition, named after an endonym of the Crow people (“children of the large-beaked bird) though no one consulted the indigenous population despite being formed in large part from reservation land. The movement for Absaroka—whose seriousness is disputed as either an earnest attempt at secession or a publicity stunt that achieved their desired goal—began in the mid 1930s during the Depression and attendant dust-bowls when rural residents far removed from their respective capitals protested that their governments were not doing enough to extend NewDeal federal aid to farmers and ranchers. Distant residents of Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota did not feel that Helena, Cheyenne and Pierre had their best interests in mind. The street commissioner of the city and county of Sheridan Wyoming, halfway between Yellowstone Park and Mount Rushmore (further encompassing the Bighorn and Great Teton ranges and Devil’s Tower and thus the motto the Nation’s Playground) spearheaded the drive for independence and recognition, later proclaiming himself governor of the unrecognised forty-ninth state in 1939, issuing their own license plates, choosing a Miss Absaroka in a beauty pageant and inviting the king of Norway, Haarkon VII, to visit as part of his tour of the region to signal formal and diplomatic recognition and even debate in congress about the order of accession and wanting Hawaii to be admitted first. Though abandoned with the outbreak of World War II, the movement achieved its goal of having state governments responsive to their farthest reaches.

vpotus (11. 753)

Set aside as an occasion in the US to reflect on the line of succession, the executive branch of the federal government and the constitutional role of the office also empowered to preside (president pro tempore of the legislative branch) over the senate and cast a vote in the case of a tie, National Veep Day recognises all vice presidents, but falling on this date, the observance coincides with the elevation of Gerald Ford at noon on this day in 1974 following the resignation of Richard Nixon—an individual who was elected to neither high office. The twenty-fifth amendment to the American constitution enumerates the order of precedence for filling the vacancy through removal by impeachment or disability, the order next going from speaker of the house of congress, president pro tem of the senate (the most senior member of the majority party) and then to the presidential cabinet: secretary of state, treasury, defence, attorney general, secretary of the interior, agriculture, labour, health and human services, housing and urban development, transportation, energy, education, veterans’ affairs and finally Homeland Security.

sesquicentennery (11. 750)

Incredibly, especially considering the bureaucracy and controversy that besets modern questions of statehood, as our faithful chronicler informs, on this day in 1953, US president Eisenhower signed a petition from the Ohio general assembly retroactively making it the seventeenth state of the union, backdated one hundred and fifty years and some months to the date when the legislature first convened in 1803. Although president Jefferson had approved the territory’s boundaries and constitution at the time, congress had not formerly ratified the recognition. This oversight was discovered during preparations for Ohio’s upcoming founding anniversary, and while at that point in history, no formal resolution was required for admission, Ohioans wished to correct the record.  This place earning the moniker “mother of presidents” for being the homeland of seven wants to make sure its contributions were legitimate.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: a geopolitical map of the internet (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: architect Renzo Picasso plus assorted links to revisit

eight years ago: a puzzle book, ancient air-wells, universal phonetics for numbers plus the art of Clive Barker

nine years ago: psychological terms to be wary of, more links to enjoy, illustrated Moby Dick plus even more links

ten years ago: controversy over a simian selfie

say it to my face (11. 743)

After Trump’s initial refusal to participate in a debate with his new challenger was seen as weak, particularly in the racist harangue following shortly afterwards Trump delivered during a panel discussion arranged by the National Association of Black Journalists calling Harris a DEI candidate (an insulting reference to Diversity and Equality Initiatives in the workplace that has become shorthand for the allegation that power and position for people from minority or marginalised groups is unearned), going on to expound that, “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know—is she Indian or is she black?” The multiracial former chief prosecutor, senator and sitting US vice-president is of multiracial background and is both and is only a rehashing of the equally false birtherism rumour that questioned the legitimacy of Barack Obama—and another example of authoritarians othering and defining others instead of allowing them to define themselves. After backing-out didn’t play well with the public, Trump arranged to spar with Harris albeit changing the conditions, pushing back on the new format—from an ABC moderated forum to a townhall-style one with a live studio audience hosted by Fox News, Harris noted how “any time, any place” became “one specific time, one specific safe space,“ for the conservative network’s noted favour for the Republican candidate. Fewer than one hundred days before the election, it is uncertain whether there will be a public parlay in any format.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus Arthur Conan-Doyle on tour

seven years ago: Trump’s transcripts, the evolution of trust plus an austerity cookbook for a divided Germany

eight years ago: the first private mission to the Moon

nine years ago: more links to enjoy plus Japanese myth and folklore

ten years ago: dazzle-camo plus novel ideas for carbon-sequestration