the washington conversations on internal peace and security (12. 663)

Formally convened as the above, the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, held at a historic estate in Georgetown—bequeathed to Harvard four years prior by the wealthy diplomat couple who owned the property that was originally a land-grant of Queen Anne to the colonies and later residence of vice president John C Calhoun, began on this day in 1944, running until 7 October. Organised and led by the so called Four Policemen, a post-war council consisting of allied powers of the United States, the United Kingdom, the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union and a term popularised by FDR as a guarantor for world peace by keeping order within their respective spheres of influence—Britain within its Empire and western Europe, China in East Asia, Russia for Eurasia and America for the western hemisphere, the summit sought to establish a successor infra-national governing body to succeed the League of Nations, would led to the formation of the United Nations in 1945. The role of the Policemen as sheriffs and an executive body administering over its constituent member nations was ultimately scaled back by critics of such hegemony and potential polarisation and paternalising scaled back with France included as a permanent member of the UN security council at the insistence of Churchill, whilst America’s nomination of Brazil was rejected. As the Soviets were unwilling to meet with the Chinese during initial talks, the conversations were held in two phases. Though China and the USSR (constituent republics like Belarus and Ukraine were made voting members of the general assembly) were not afforded the chance to champion regional seconds, the five permanent members of the rotating council secured veto powers, as was first proposed in Yalta (see above) and finalised in the San Francisco Charter that established the UN.

i changed, you’re not (12. 656)

Following Trump’s rather hollow and anti-climatic summit with Putin in Alaska, European leaders upend their summer schedules—including holiday-making—to rush, realising the stakes and how there are moments when history pauses and looks at us dead in the eye and asks do we know what is happening, to Washington to lend moral and materiel support for Volodymyr Zelenskyy, hoping to avoid the previous melt-down in the Oval Office and stop the US administration from further undermining the continent’s security signalled by Trump’s vacillation over the peace process with a ceasefire no longer a prerequisite for negotiations and that a treaty can be struck simply by ceding Russia the Donbass, capitulating to a one-sided deal with Ukraine demilitarised and Russian subject to no further sanctions. This time, appearing in formal apparel, the same conservative reporter who questioned his usual attire of military fatigues complemented the Ukrainian president on his suit, to which Zelenskyy quipped that the journalist was wearing the same outfit as last time. Already, however, Trump is apparently rehashing tired stab-in-the-back conspiracies about a stolen election and mail-in ballot fraud, a sentiment echoed by Putin as well as citing the dissolution of the Soviet Union as the biggest geopolitical betrayal of all time, on display by foreign minister Lavrov’s CCCP sweatshirt at the prior meeting.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a philosophical cartoon (with synchronoptiæ) plus amplified contagion

twelve years ago: landscaping inspirations plus freelance hotels

thirteen years ago: WWII week: Nacht und Nebel plus international traffic signs

fifteen years ago: weather control machines 

sixteen years ago: blogging non-sequitirs  

new phone, who dis (12. 654)

First reported by Norwegian news outlet Dagen Næringsliv—and possibly the rather sad and pathetic intimation was even thought fit to print at all because dictator Trump brought up the topic again during his counterproductive, slapdash meeting with Putin—the president of the United States of America cold-called Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, ostensibly to discuss trade and tariffs—as well as when he might receive his Nobel peace prize, hinting that a more favourable levy might be in play should he be bestowed with the high honour. Former NATO secretary general and current finance minister Jens Stoltenberg was also in on the conversation, confirming it took place, adding it was not the first time that Trump brought up the topic. Shopped around before the joint Russian-US summit took place as more proof of his peace-making credentials, some countries, including Israel, Armenia, Pakistan, Cambodia and Azerbaijan have submitted nominations for Trump, letting him take the credit for brokering ceasefires in exchange for more punishing tariffs for their competitors—see also. Laureates are chosen by a committee of five members appointed yesterday the parliament of Norway with the announcement of the short-list coming in October. The hits don’t stop coming so it is hard to take a moment to reflect, but one has to wonder how such shameless deportment strikes the rest of the world with Americans with such a deficit of awareness of the consequences of their words and actions and could have elected this blithered, meritless man-child twice and lack the courage for course-correction. This global trade war is blatantly extortion as well with no substance behind it.   

you know i spoke to vladimir today—we had a wonderful conversation—and she said (12. 651)

Though ending without any tangible agreements as far as promoting peace for Ukraine after only a few hours, Russian president Vladimir Putin coming out the clear winner in terms of public relations insofar as being legitimised by another faded petrostate with nuclear arms and given a ride with Trump in his armoured limousine—America infamously not party to the International Criminal Court of the Hague and can host with impunity war criminals, like Benjamin Netanyahu, without fear of acting of their warrants at large and the first meeting on US soil since the George W Bush met with Putin in 2007 in Kennybunkport Maine and said he could see in the long-term Russia leader’s soul, the US president bucked the worst fears for now by conceding not to make further concessions to the admired aggressor which might have included a land-swap not of the Crimean peninsula of the former Russian colony of Alaska or mineral and fishing rights (all seemed to be on the table). The summit held on the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson outside of Anchorage, turned out to be little more than a press-conference, with reporters unable to ask questions and Trump intimating after the fact that the responsibility had shifted to the state under siege to cede territories in order to stop the war, both Ukraine and European allies being sidelined during the entire process. Rather than making good on threats for more sanctions on Russia or countries that do business there or sabre-rattling over repositioning US nuclear submarines with “dead hand” orders for counterattack in case America was struck first, Trump afforded Russia an extra chance, airing tired old grievances about how the 2020 election was stolen from him by the campaign interference hoax (Russia, Russia, Russia—I always wonder if they say it in their heads like “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha”) which was validated by Putin’s agreement that the Ukrainian invasion only occurred under the Biden administration—untrue considering that the Crimea was occupied in 2014 and who could say what license a second Trump term would have been and we know all of the kompromat and grooming to be real and has Trump, incompetent businessman, felon and notable child-rapist, over a barrel.

diurnal cycle (12. 638)

Launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on this day in 1961, the Vostok 2 capsule carried aloft mission pilot Gherman Titov, who became the second human to orbit the Earth after Yuri Gagarin (below right)—and the four person in space counting the suborbital flights of US astronauts Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom. Based on the determination that safe re-entry in the open steppe of southern Russia would not be possible if the craft overshot two orbits—much to the protestation of flight medics that believe that human physiology could not withstand an extended time in space—the mission became an endurance test, lasting just over twenty-five hours, and equipping the capsule with more advanced communication and climate controls. Proving that humans could live and work in space, Titov orbited the Earth seventeen-and-a-half times, achieving many firsts, including the first nap in space and a minor bout of space sickness (adaptation syndrome) being the first to vomit aloft, and equipped with a professional still- and film-camera captured the first images of the Earth from above aside from earlier V2 rocket-mounted footage. Titov was subjected to a battery of medical tests afterwards and the mission was considered an overwhelming success. The day of his safe record, the US congress approve, by voice vote, a spending package of over one and a half trillion dollars to fund the American space programme, including almost five hundred billion earmarked as seed money for a crewed mission to the Moon. During a visit to the World’s Fair in Seattle, when questioned by reporters how his space flight had changed his philosophy and outlook on life (see also), Titov was quoted: “Sometimes people are saying that God is out there. I was looking around attentively all day but I didn’t find anybody. I say never angels nor God.” Misattributed to Gargarin, it was cited as evidence of wide-spread Soviet atheism and used as anti-religious propaganda by the Americans.  

synchronoptica

one year ago: a 1963 surf-rock banger (with synchronopticæ), chess notation plus presidential candidate Kamala Harris introduces running-mate Tim Walz

thirteen years ago: hot Eastern European girls, return for deposit plus some impressions from Norway

sixteen years ago: the German Thirteenth Month bonus 

no—they got the metric system over there—they call it royale with breeze (12. 629)

Via Kottke and though sadly the crisps that appear in the spot are not an actual product, we applaud alternative energy giant Vattenfall for teaming up with Samuel L Jackson to offer this taste of fossil freedom. This minute-long refutation of Big Oil and its campaign of misinformation and world-destroying legacy not only is a masterpiece for Europe wanting to reduce its dependence on Russia fuel following its invasion of Ukraine, it is also a strong rebuke of Trump’s asymmetrical tariff deal for the EU, demanding the purchase of American energy (previously), which is best undone with renewables, like wind-farming, to shut down a bullying tyrant of a failing petrostate. I’m sorry—did I break your concentration?

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: a return to the Frankonian Wine Islands (with synchronopticæ) 

twelve years ago: zebra stripes as dazzle camouflage plus mobile phones as point-of-sale devices

fourteen years ago: austerity in the US 

fifteen years ago: a rainy summer plus take-down notices for Wikipedia, possibly confusing it with Wikileaks

sixteen years ago: rejecting expertise plus political caricatures

the helsinki accords (12. 623)

Though not binding with status as a treaty to be ratified by national parliament, the attempted détente between the West and East was signed on this day in the Finnish capital by leaders of thirty-five countries, including Helmut Schmidt, Erich Honecker, Josef Tito, Leonid Brezhnev, Gerald Ford, Pierre Trudeau and all heads of state of Europe with the exception of Andorra and Albania under Hoxha lead to significant reforms and recognised the spheres of influence of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, sovereignty and self-determination and fostered universal respect for human rights. The declaration was divided into four baskets covering diplomacy; economic and scientific cooperation; promoting familiar integrity, freedom of marriage and travel, an unhindered press and cultural exchange; and the formation of a multinational committee to monitor implementation. Concessions for civil rights and open dialogue, however, came at a high cost, with the recognition of the Soviet Union’s annexation of the Baltic states and a continuation of the policy of broadcast jamming and censorship of Western media. Both Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter and challenger for the Republican party nomination Ronald Reagan accused Ford of legitimising the USSR’s domination of Eastern Europe and weakening the standing of the US as a foreign policy power during the 1976 presidential campaign. Although eventually seen as the catalyst for later peaceful revolutions, much of the diaspora and signatories were displeased with the outcome of their months of work.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Ford is prepped for his new role (with synchronopticæ),  the samplers of Lorina Buwler plus cartographic innovations

handelsbilanz (12. 615)

Aside from getting an ostensibly raw and lopsided tariff deal out of Trump—though far from finalised and terms and conditions could always change—using trade as foreign policy tool, a particularly blunt and inappropriate instrument as Trump as done in order to bypass more traditional channels, the EU’s capitulation has proved to be not only a disappointment among academics and the press but also leaders and is representing a split in solidarity in the already fractious bloc, with many regarding the submission as a concession to German industry at the expense of the agricultural and pharmaceutical sectors. The onerous commitment riding on the deal to purchase over a trillion dollars in US energy and weapons is an assurance that Brussels can not compel members to do—so there’s that Ausfahrt, and moreover very little of these burgeoning conflicts address the consumers’ role in the opening of markets, who do indeed collectively punch their own weight—with the notable exception of Canada, also under threat of annexation. Flooded with cheaper, lower quality American goods, shoppers can still choose to boycott them and retailers will no longer stock them. Individuals can also forgo an albeit more entrenched and harder to avoid US dominance on financial and internet services—which for the American rentier economy—would send an even bigger message though a bit of inconvenience and creative work-arounds, refraining from using credit cards and payment clearing houses and American internet companies.

synchronoptica

one year ago: JD Vance’s sofa memoirs (with synchronopticæ), nobody reads ads, twirling towards freedom, a phoney controversy over the Olympics opening ceremony plus Friday Night Videos (1983)

twelve years ago: derivative blockbusters, stormy weather plus a visit to Gelnhausen

fifteen years ago: smoking ban in Bavaria plus word clouds as CVs

tilting at windmills (12. 613)

Although failing to secure a ten percent flat tariff on European as the UK had reached—despite Brussels’ belief it could achieve the same nuisance levy—and following the capitulation of NATO members to increase defence-spending to five percent of their domestic output with commitments to purchase US armaments as well as American fossil fuels, the EU’s very asymmetrical appeasement of Trump is seemingly not to win a trade war, the terms keep shifting and preciously little surety has been accomplished with questions remaining on pharmaceuticals, steel and the tech and financial services hegemony. This undignified negotiation seems only to privilege German manufacturing above, though markets are open to cheaper US imports, accepted without pushback avoids more escalation—one should stay up to bullies however, particularly when there’s no substance nor compulsion behind his policies and posture, but maybe to suffer humiliation in order to preserve the global order is a small price to pay—economically the announcement affects little in the end other than temporarily enriching the petrostate and weapons manufacturers with the commitments—and Trump has already significantly advanced his deadline for new Russian sanctions and is showing daylight between himself and Netanyahu. Such men, small and common, cannot be trusted or invested with such sweeping powers, however.  They’re killing the beauty of our scenery—our plains, and I’m not talking about airplanes—they won’t let you bury the propellers.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a history of Elvis-officiated weddings (with synchronopticæ)

fifteen years ago: contentious Olympic venues and the keyholders of the internet 

par for the course (12. 609)

Amid vocal protests that refuse to let the issue of the Epstein files go away quietly, Trump and entourage has returned to his Scottish golf course and resort (see previously) to discuss tariff and trade deal as well as immigration policy and rehash his NIMBYistic complaints about wind turbines with the UK and the EU. Meanwhile, as Trump attempts to deflect reporters’ questions regarding the above scandal, a US Justice Department official, former Trump defence attorney in a blatant case of witness tampering and quid pro quo for a pardon, has been sent to interview convicted sexual predator and longtime pimp for Epstein and associates, Ghislaine Maxwell, presenting a list of a hundred named individuals for review in an apparent exchange for clemency on her prison sentence from a fellow felon. One could safely assume that the list mirrors closely anyone on the syndicate’s hit list, including Obama, the Clintons (Bill and Hillary recently subpoenaed to testify regarding the client list which supposedly does not exist), the Bidens, LTC Vindman, Hunter Biden’s laptop, Reality Winner, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Rosie O’Donnell, ex-best buds Musk and Putin, the aforementioned windmills, sharks, Greta Thunberg and anyone else who dared cross him, hoping such a catalogue will satisfy dissenters within the MAGA movement. 

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Paris Games opening ceremonies (with synchronoptiæ)

twelve years ago: speech cannibalisation plus charting literature

fifteen years ago: shock and awe and the quagmire of forever wars 

militärgeschichtliches denkmal (12. 592)

After doing the weekend shopping in Mellrichstadt (previously), we stopped in the in the Hainberg Arreal on the edge of town for a walk on the groups of the mothballed border garrison of the Cold War. By the old security gate there was a collection of the kind of tanks from the motor pool and the headquarters building preserved in its original condition, furnished as it was during its forty-four year history as home base to the 352nd Panzer Grenadier Battalion of the West German Bundeswehr. 

The museum and documentation centre was closed when we visited but I got immediate feelings of nostalgia for the former US army barracks in Würzburg, Kitzigen, Schweinfurt, Giebelstadt, etc, etc with the same general layout and style of the few representative structures—which of course were German-built and occupied by the Allies at the end of World War II—but learned it contains the command room with access to the bunker and fallout shelter (see also, worth going back for) as well as an arms room and information on the unit’s patrols and foreign missions up to Afghanistan in 2006 after which the brigade was disbanded and the base closed.

⚐ (12. 589)

Reminiscent of the flag of South Vietnam, carrying nuanced meanings for the diaspora outside the communist nation and sadly coopted with little context by some pro-Trump elements, we learn via Web Curios that there’s a comparable battle over the flag of Iran. While the official tricolour adopted after the Iranian revolution of 1979 bearing the emblem in the centre with the name of God stylised as both a sword and a tulip, symbolising bravery and martyrdom. Other groups outside of Iran prefer the older banner of the deposed Shah, the personal flag of the Pahlavi dynasty with the ancient symbols of the Sun and Lion that goes back to Byzantine times, both in the pro-monarchy movement and those protesting the current regime as authoritarian as more inclusive. The older flag’s association with conservative monarchists movements and regime change moreover apparently informed Israel’s decision to name its war the with country Rising Lion. Yet other groups are partial to the three coloured bands with no shield as a way to acknowledge diversity of political allegiances and was historically championed by pro-constitutional, democratic counter-revolutionaries before outside intervention. The pictured further alternative is charged with the slogan Woman Life Freedom that emerged out of the 2022 protests that arose after Kurdish Mahsa Zhina Amini died in the custody of the Guidance Patrol, the religious morality police for not conforming to government standards of modesty in dress, with the message rendered in the same early Persian script, Kufic—cuneiform adapted to Arabic letters, that embroiders the official flag’s fimbriation as the takbīr (تَكْبِير ).

7x7 (12. 581)

latam-gpt: frustrated with the limitations of hegemonic AIs, Latin America is building its own inclusive, nuanced version  

whatever files she thinks are credible: amid backlash and reversing a reversal of previous postures, US congress moves to release the Epstein files  

þjóðvegur 1: a twelve day summer road-trip on Iceland’s Route One worthy of a saga  

percussion section: a word-search drum machine for selection of literary classics—via Waxy  

what’s the story, morning glory: every Oasis song visualised—via Quantum of Sollazzo  

not our war: MAGA revolts over Trump’s decision to supply weapons to Ukraine, realising his fawning respect for Putin is not reciprocal 

 lived experience: editors engaged to fix AI copy 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ) plus the Trump-Vance ticket

fourteen years ago: a periodic table of typefaces plus holidays in France

sixteen years ago: IKEA nomenclature 

ekranoplan (12. 576)

Recent intelligence suggests that China might be attempting to revive a Cold War leviathan known as the Soviet sea monster of the Caspian, the semi-legendary ekranoplan (экранопла́н, a screen-glider or ground-effect vehicle) an airfoil designed to fly just over the crests of the waves, invisible to radar, impervious to mines riding on a cushion of high air pressure and achieving speeds ten times faster than traditional maritime vessels, leaving fleets and coast defences no time to react. Photographs have emerged of apparent trials in the Sea of Bohai, near the Korean peninsula. DARPA was working on its own for the US navy—called a Liberty Lifter, the concept vehicle also known for its increased cargo delivery capacity with advantages other both ships and planes—but the programme was abruptly cancelled last month.

synchronoptica

one year ago: claim-jumping in the Arctic (with synchronopticæ), reproductive care in international waters, a local air show plus a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump

thirteen years ago: the Period Table typeface 

fourteen years ago: debt and pensions 

trump dump (12. 569)

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

obbba (12. 558)

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

one does not simply walk into fordow (12. 544)

Whilst Israel and Iran exchange increasingly deadly missile strikes as the conflict enters its fifth day—with markedly no respite for the killing of Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid—The US is continuing to coyly vacillate between distancing its involvement and taking credit for an unconditional endorsement once seeing that the offensive by the IDF was garnering good ratings and reception with select audiences. Reasonably unconvinced that the limited supply of thirteen tonne bombs (see previously) could successfully take out Iran‘s chief uranium enrichment facility, buried under a mountain, Trump seems to be demurring for a deal before committing to the quagmire of another forever war after being lured into it.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ), the Kyffhäuserdenkmal (1896) plus a long-running webcollage

eleven years ago: frog forecasters 

twelve years ago: Nature’s virtuosity of the avian kind, more on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership plus Ankara’s Standing Man

thirteen years ago: antique cookbooks plus the EU votes for austerity 

fourteen years ago: a new Art Deco addition plus vacation planning

true promise iii (12. 542)

Departing from the G7 summit being held in Alberta at midnight after posing for the family photo of leaders, all urging deescalation—though short of calling for an immediate ceasefire—of the Iran-Israel War that had broken out the days leading up to the meeting, Trump’s press secretary said that the American president had urgent business in the Middle East to attend to, Macron reinforcing his leave of absence saying that Trump sought a stop to the fighting. The speculation seemed to irritate Trump, however, who exclaimed later that they didn’t known his business and was in no mood to talk with Tehran any longer, no longer pursuing negotiations and the nuclear deal but a permanent solution to keep the country from enriching uranium. Counter to the narrative of Washington and Israel, intelligence sources confirm that Iran (their codename for the operation above) is not actively seeking to build an atomic bomb, and meanwhile missiles have been volleyed back and forth—with an established nuclear power, causing mutual destruction but severely crippling Iran’s civilian infrastructure in a fashion that the country may not be able to recover him. Trump went on, suggesting that American direct involvement may be imminent, calling for the evacuation of the capital and hinting that they could kill Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, knowing exactly where he is hiding, but will refrain from doing so for now, pending Iran’s unconditional surrender. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

synchronoptica

one year ago: a synthesiser performance piece (with synchronopticæ), OJ Simpson flees police (1994) plus tragic children’s names

eleven years ago: memory storage and retrieval plus the history of garden gnomes

fourteen years ago: between Bonn and Berlin 

sixteen years ago: returning from our Roman holiday 

6x6 (12. 540)

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

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

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

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

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

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

synchronoptica

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

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

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

fourteen years ago: revitalising a neglected church in Freibourg 

si vis pacem para pactum (12. 536)

As if Trump’s low turn-out, low-energy birthday parade was not already overshadowed by the poor juxtaposition of the crack down on protests in Los Angeles and the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, with no boots on the ground though America can hardly claim it’s not deeply entrenched, the politically motivated assassination of a Minnesota state legislator by a crazed MAGA evangelist still at large and with a kill-list of other politicians, the surprise from Israel on Iran gave some in the administration a chance to try to have it both ways. Like the false claims last month of brokering a cease fire between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, despite vehement disavowal of having anything to do with the strikes on Iranian cities and infrastructure, Trump is insisting that peace is contingent upon Iran settling the nuclear deal—talks scheduled to continue in Oman next week—as if Israeli incursions were leverage in the negotiations, if anything possibly a provocation to draw the US into the situation. The last time Washington DC hosted a military parade of comparable scale was in 1991 as a premature victory celebration for the hundred-day Persian Gulf War, what became a multipart quagmire squandering many lives and much treasure, the US resuming its push to remove Saddam Hussein after premised on the untrue narratives of Baghdad involvement with the 9/11 terror attacks and Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. America should have lost global trust and confidence back then. Now, with Iran having been only five years away from producing a ballistic nuclear missile for the past thirty years (and surely have been capable of making an arsenal but chose not to despite decades of conflicts with neighbours including Iraq and Israel), the Trump administration and his negotiators are using the WMD playbook once again and this time, the world is far more skeptical of their motives to stoke forever wars.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Dutch roll (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting

seven years ago: more links to enjoy, Trump’s migrant detention centres, fear of palindromes plus Stephen Hawking interred with honours

eight years ago: Ford’s soybean car plus the feast of Corpus Christi

nine years ago: the UK’s proposed withdrawal from the EU, even more links, machine dreams plus the long-s

ten years ago: a visit to Gemünden am Main, the internet of trolls plus a church that resembles the courthouse from Back to the Future