addenda (13. 333)

The Orange Menace actually articulated his interest in a profit sharing scheme for the transit fees that Iran is securing for the Strait of Hormuz (which was free for all ships prior to the war) as the “ayatollah booth.” Jesus wept. The waterway is almost immediately closed in retaliation for Israel’s relentless attacks on southern Lebanon in breach of the ceasefire agreement, having displaced a million residents from Beirut and surroundings and having killed over three-hundred civilians in its latest wave of air raids. US president Trump leaves his standing army in the region, threatening in a social media post that should Tehran fail to fully comply with the terms of the truce, “—if for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the “Shootin’ Starts,” bigger and better and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary - NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE. In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest. AMERICA IS BACK!” Whilst grateful for the fragile peace, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez spoke out against Netanyahu and IDF efforts to expand its “buffer zone” and of Trump, he refuses to “applaud those who set the world on fire and they then show up with a bucket.” Described only as frank, Trump held a private discussion with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte to air his frustrations with the alliance—no details were given other than Trump has circled back to his preoccupation with Greenland, calling the Danish territory a poorly managed piece of ice.

7x7 (13.326)

a look at books: some new highlights from old library archives  

putt, putt to the pizza hut: though Gorbachev’s circumstances were quite different, the empire-ending spokesmen only to be believed in hindsight  

edinburgh of the seven seas: the very busy, remote settlement of Tristan da Cunha—see previously—via Nag on the Lake  

master editor: the inevitable ubiquity of AI writing 

koyaanisquatsi: a new visually stunning music video, Pattern Index, by Max Cooper—reminiscent of the subtitle  

whitey’s on the moon: we want to be excited about the return trip around the lunar surface but are thinking a lot about that poem and sentiment from the late-1970s and how everything’s propaganda and grift layered on heavily to get to the science  

unknown artist: a collection of Mid-Century Modern ephemera from Zara Picken—via Things magazine with much more to click through and enjoy

day thirty-seven (13. 322)

Slovakia joins Hungary demanding that the EU lift sanctions on Russian fuel as Tehran dismisses Trump’s deadline as more empty bluster and buffing. After a two day extraction mission, the US rescues the surviving crew member from a downed jet deep within Iranian territory. Trump issues an abuse and sacrilegious laden missive, promising again to unleash holy hell, first reserved for power plants, then civilian infrastructure on day two, “Praise be to Allah“ if Iran fails to open up the Strait of Hormuz, which the US insists it does not want or need. Israeli-American airstrikes hit petrochemical facilities in Iran, as counterattacks continue to bring refinery operations offline in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait. Israeli bombardment in Beirut’s suburbs depopulate the south as residents flee the fighting.

day thirty-four (13.317)

Though uncharacteristically brief—yet a lot of incoherence and rambling was packed into that short time—Trump made his first prime time public address since the war started, and whilst not announcing the US departure from the NATO alliance as some speculated (though the damage is already done), offered no real direction or resolution. Scheduled late so as not to preempt the launch of Artemis II, Trump repeated talking points from his social media posts and recent interviews, rehashing his mysterious dialogue with Iranian leadership over a ceasefire while they insist there have been no direct talks, again setting out his timeline of two to three weeks and attempting to justify his decision to go to war and the costs in has imposed on the world and again encouraging those who rely on oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz to “just take it, protect it, use it for yourselves.” After abandoning the original objectives of regime change, supporting protesters and even reopening the Persian Gulf, Trump also dismissed concerns over the remaining Iranian stockpiles of enriched uranium, voiding another reason for this adventure, ending the country’s potential for “nuclear blackmail.” Meanwhile, Netanyahu asserted that denuclearisation has been achieved, removing the threat to Israel. Markets crashed further in response and countries around the world are beginning to institute more energy rationing and rolling back fuel taxes and the phasing out of coal-fire power plants. The US embassy in Baghdad has suspended consular services and urge all Americans to leave Iraq immediately.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Toronto’s CN Tower (with synchronopticæ) plus Trump enacts sweeping global tariffs

twelve years ago: April holidays and observances plus legacy software

thirteen years ago: the weirdness of Americans plus German reparations

fourteen years ago: gnocchi casserole plus a reflexology footpath 

fifteen years ago: international cooperation to contain Fukushima 

seventeen years ago: the Queen and Prince Philip visit the Obamas 

10x10 (13. 316)

carry on patriots: US secretary of war Hegseth nullifies probe into unauthorised helicopter fly-by and salute of Kid Rock  

feiqian: centuries old networks of underground banking provide the freedom from government oversight and privacy that crypto has failed to deliver  

road-trip: after a two year hiatus, Tom Scott returns to YouTube  

der orchideengarten: the first horror and sci-fi magazine—see previously 

the c-word: US scientists are speaking in code, the so-called “climate hushing” to continue their research 

general ledger accounting codes: an appreciation of Excel and how the spreadsheet reshaped business  

laudatio canis: a late fifteenth century testimonial about the virtues of dog-ownership—see previously  

mergers and acquisitions: Larry Ellison’s Oracle lays of thirty thousand workers in a cold-call dismissal after Paramount takeover of Warner Brothers leaves parent company in debt and without backers  

påskekrim: the Norwegian tradition of settling back with crime novels over the Easter holidays  

send in the flying monkeys: a music video with elements of Monty Python and Hieronymus Bosch that addresses the current US state of the union

7x7 (13. 311)

jack-in-the-box: a list of restaurant franchises nominatively housed in unusual structures by order of appeal of the dining experience in said edifice 

: – ): this generation will never the struggle of emoticons—see previously  

smelting operations: with the world’s supply of aluminium stuck in the Persian Gulf and major production facilities disabled, automakers are cutting production of electric cars 

fallout boy: Trump’s East Wing ballroom to act as shed atop of a war-graded military bunker  

fahr’n, fahr’n, fahr’n auf der autobahn: Kraftwerk’s pioneering electronic music masterpiece in full—see previously  

as slow as possible: Pippin Bar assesses attention span with meditative remakes of classic arcade games—via Waxy  

smoke ‘em if you got ‘em: startups hope to put biometric age-verification technology in flavoured vape cartridges

milo minderbinder (13. 304)

Corresponding with the last post of notes from the war, we really enjoyed this reading from Better Living through Beowulf through the lens of Catch-22 of Trump’s Iran adventure. The amoral deal-maker 1LTC Milo Minderbinder is the foil to Joseph Heller’s protagonist CPT John Yossarian as the chief mess officer whose single-minded focus on profit and complete lack of self-awareness drives him to make black market transactions with any side that will allow him to expand the operation of his Syndicate, a one-man operation of which Minderbinder claims all are stakeholders. Eventually these escalating trades lead to contracting missions for the German enemy and bombing the American base (like the blowback for the Gulf states hosting US assets or the hollow promises to support Iranian protestors rallying for regime change) where Minderbinder and his squadron are stationed, and though court-martialled for treason for this, he is ultimately acquitted by a congressional committee, with the help of an expensive legal team, absolving his betrayal when it was disclosed how lucrative the business of playing both sides was, convincing the legislators that it was capitalism that makes America great, paraphrasing Calvin Coolidge’s axiom that the business of government is business. Whilst the are parallels certainly in the crassness of Trump’s behaviour and self-enrichment through market manipulation and insider trading (or miraculously cleaning up the mess of high gas prices and crippling inflation just in time for the mid-terms) without regard to putting lives at risk or the global economy in shambles, these very foreseeable consequences of his actions are not the actions of a skilled businessman—just the opposite in his unreflective greed and toolish idiocy–and whatever intent is behind them, like de-sanctioning Russian and Iranian oil to alleviate supply pressures, the formerly illicit petroleum being traded in yuan and not the dollar as the reserve currency. More from Robin Bates at the link above.

sitrep and scuttlebutt (13. 303)

Daily digest notwithstanding, our gratitude to Web Curios for the recommendation to read a piece that’s been making the rounds from the third week of the war with some postcards from the front—given the propensity for the platform to amplify and enable actual Nazis and the pace of change, we skipped it—that is a fairly good distillation of how the Israeli-US attack on Iran is playing out including America’s anti-strategy and rapid fire contradictions that even predates the phantom peace talks and Persian TACO. 

From Friday’s press gaggle [20 March]. Barely exaggerated: at 12:03 PM, President Trump told reporters he wanted a ceasefire with Iran. At 12:05 he declared victory. At 12:07 he announced he was sending Marines. At 12:08 he said no boots on the ground. At 12:11 he said he did not want a ceasefire. At 12:16 he declared victory again. At 12:17 he asked for a ceasefire. At 12:23 he told NATO they were cowards. At 12:29 he said Iran was begging for a ceasefire. At 12:31 he said everything was perfect. At 12:36 he said $500 oil was a good thing. At 12:37 he demanded Iran open Hormuz. At 12:39 he said Hormuz was never closed. At 12:41 he said the US was not at war with Iran. At 12:42 he declared victory in Iran. 

A perfect encapsulation of the concept of Poe’s law—satire requires a degree of hyperbole and whilst there’s some register of editorialised snark, events are presented without embellishment as everything is already saturated in absurdity. The geographic lessons of geopolitics are presented as is the concept of a plan to capture Kharg Island, de-sanctioning Russian and Iranian oil and how the retreat of the US navy’s flagship aircraft carrier was tracked by a sailor deciding to take a jog around the deck and more.  Be sure to read the next instalment. 

day twenty-nine (13. 302)

Thailand has negotiated a separate peace with Tehran to allow its tankers safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz—which the US president during an investment conference referred to as the “Strait of Trump” before correcting himself and then sitting with the Freudian slip and going off on a tangent about the Gulf of Mexico and claiming his “great gift” from Iran he’d coyly hinted at earlier was in the form of “ten oil ships” for the US were offered as tribute to make amends for their denials that formal talks were happening. In the same speech, Trump also said that the US has no obligations to NATO partners, emphasising his disappointment that European allies had not provided material support for this campaign of chaos, and would not come to their aid after this perceived betrayal—never mind that he had belittled the institution, harangued its members and threatened to invade and annex a couple. Houthi forces have launched missiles into Israeli territory and explosions were heard in Damascus. Iranian drones attacked the Prince Sultan Airbase in Al Kharj, damaging several refuelling aircraft and severely injuring a dozen US troops following reports that the Saudi government is urging Trump to continue the war. Iranian nuclear facilities again came under attack, including a deuterium complex and a yellowcake uranium enrichment plant. Intelligence suggests that Russia is working to replenish Iran’s drone and ballistic missile stocks, returning some of the munitions and supplying new ones from the Iranian surplus used in prosecuting its war on Ukraine. Only seen in the news lately following a ruling that he had mislead investors during his hostile take over of the microblogging platform Twitter, for some reason Elon Musk was included on a call with Trump to India’s president Narendra Modi earlier in the week about ending the conflict in the Middle East.

synchronoptica

one year ago: more on Fermi’s paradox (with synchronopticæ), embroidery artist Tomoko Kubo, introspective descriptors plus Chinese gaslighting

 

twelve years ago: invalid characters 

 

fourteen years ago: commuting companion plus euro coinage

 

fifteen years ago: academic prejudice against Wikipedia 

7x7 (13. 300)

reverse game theory: a novel approach to the housing crisis—via Damn Interesting 

twen: the publications of art director Willy Fleckhaus  

whoami.wiki: a scrapbook and photo album in the form of a personal Wikipedia built with the help of AI  

i’d never lend my name to an inferior product: Trump’s signature to appear on hundred dollar bills, a first for a sitting US president  

return of the king: Stephen Colbert co-authoring a Lord of the Rings movie, possibly featuring the character of Tom Bombadil  

the red book of bath: a unique civil administration almanac—via Strange Company  

laissez-faire: a modest proposal from John Maynard Keynes to solve unemploymentby burying money under landfills

day twenty-eight (13. 299)

Rejecting reports that he is searching for an off-ramp (another tortured metaphor that isn’t build for this) as economies continue to falter and it becomes manifest that the situation is out of his control, Trump says; “I am the opposite of desperate. I don’t care,” as he again extends the pause on attacking Iranian energy infrastructure. Contrary to what Tehran is putting out, Washington maintains that Iran is eager to make a deal with productive conversations ongoing. Despite the veracity of the claims, Iran we think has no appetite to work with the same negotiators, Kusher and Witkoff, who orchestrated all the previous rounds when, resulting in last year’s attack on Iranian nuclear research facilities (now cited as a casus belli) and lately all out war (which led to the closure of shipping lanes) rather than achieving any semblance of cooperation or compromise. Meanwhile the Houthi militia in Yemen seem to be plotting opening up another front in the war by seizing control of Bab-el-Mandeb (Gate of Grief, the strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, fed by the Suez canal and the Indian Ocean. Bombardment and counterstrikes continue.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ) plus a German colonial holding in the Americas

 

twelve years ago: the Rod of Asclepius plus current affairs 

 

thirteen years ago: signs and shingles plus a reminder that a country is not a corporation

 

fourteen years ago: a Cold War melodrama 

 

fifteen years ago: long term entombment 

day twenty-one (13. 279)

As Tehran marks the celebration of Nowruz (previously), the Persian New Year, Israel continues airstrikes on the capital, Netanyahu speaking earlier to allay claims that he pressured the US to drop negotiations and enter into the fight, whilst suggesting that a ground component may be necessary to finish what they’ve started, “You cannot make a revolution from the air.” Also earlier, Hegseth spoke to the press pool, delivering a SITREP on the progress of the war, characterised as going swimming and ahead of schedule although still not offering much in the way of planning or objectives, meanwhile Trump hosted the Japanese prime minister in the Oval Office, one of the Asian countries he implored for military aid to secure the Strait of Hormuz. For her part, Takaichi explained to Trump that Japan’s ability for intervention and military deployment outside of its borders was curtailed constitutionally by the laws drafted for the country by the American occupying forces after World War II, maintaining her composure and playing to Trump’s interests even after a rather breathtakingly awkward political gaffe (see also) by the president, when asked by a Japanese reporter why the US attacked Iran without forewarning to its allies, joking about the importance of the element of surprise, something Japan ought to know about considering Pearl Harbour. Afterwards a gala dinner was held with guests including tech executives, cabinet members and donors like Miriam Adelson whose late husband advocated for nuclear strikes on Iran for the unveiling of a commemorative gold coin bearing Trump’s image to be minted for America’s upcoming two-hundred fiftieth birthday, approved by the US Commission of Fine Arts.

synchronoptica

one year ago: travel advisories for the US (with synchronopticæ), relative time, seismic activity in real time plus US suggest takeover of Ukrainian nuclear power plants

twelve years ago: an epic Finnish name generator 

thirteen years ago: digital restrictions management 

fourteen years ago: greenwashing, reunited Germany’s solidarity pact tariff plus tech platform comebacks 

fifteen years ago: patrolling Libya’s no-fly zone 

sixteen years ago: seasonal affective disorders 

odni (12. 273)

As the Trump administration tries to pull in allies into his illegal war on Iran, the director of the US national counterterrorism centre—under the cabinet office of the director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Joseph Clay Kent dramatically tendered his resignation, unable to in “good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran” as it posed no imminent threat and was manifest that the conflict was prompted due to pressure from Israel, lobbyists and the echo chamber of media outlets. Offered without real evidence though likely true, the combat veteran, former CIA paramilitary operative and widower who lost his wife in a suicide bombing in Syria, the former congressional candidate and stalwart Trump loyalist’s departure is ringed with previously controversial and false stances, including ties to white-nationalists during his legislative tenure (ultimately costing Kent the election), support for the narrative of the stolen election, vaccine denialism and framing the capitol insurrection as a peaceful protest. Whilst unclear if this act signals any further splintering within the administration, Kent not seen as a major player within the cabinet and given a plumb sinecure posting after his defeat, such words certainly do not further ingratiate Trump’s cause to allies, whom he simultaneously discounted as superfluous and mistaken for joining in on the offensive.

they’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for forty-seven years—and now, i, as the forty-seventh president of the united states of america am killing them (13. 263)

Speaking earlier with Fox News, Trump referenced the 1979 Iranian revolution without mention of the US undermining efforts towards democratic reform and echoed previous ambitions announced a few days prior of “hitting the country very hard” and to “watch what happens to these scumbags.”

During a wide-ranging and cringe-inducing press conference, US secretary of war Pete Hegseth, among other topics—including remarks that the press was not delivering good headlines for this special operation and that David Ellison couldn’t take over CNN soon enough, War Widening should be Iran Shirking, Iran Going Underground—questioned Mojtaba Khamenei’s ability to govern, given his public absence since being appointed the Supreme Leader, saying without evidence that the ayatollah’s son was likely wounded and disfigured in the same air attack that took out the family compound. On this day of al-Quds march ( روز جهانی قدس , Jerusalem Day)—observed annually on the last Friday of Ramadan in support of Palestinian statehood, president Masoud Pezeshkian, took part in seeming defiance in response to Hegseth’s comments that all leadership was in hiding, whilst Israel announced funded for militias in eastern Gaza to oust Hamas through clandestine raids and abductions deep within the beleaguered territory and UN secretary general Antonio Guterres travelled to Beirut in solidarity, calling on Israel and Hezbollah to halt the fighting that has engulfed the country in violence without respect to the sovereignty of the populace.

don’t threaten me with a good time (13. 248)

Amidst the constellation of a failing economy, hemispheric bellicosity, a partial government shutdown and a widening war in the Middle East poised to turn into a quagmire, US president Trump has made his legislative priorities clear by saying he will withhold endorsement of any bills that reach his desk until the SAVE act is passed. An acronym for Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, the proposed reform to the National Voter Registration act of 1993 would require “documentary proof of citizenship” in order to register to participate in elections. With the stated purpose of preventing voter fraud and non-citizens from voting in federal elections, which is vanishingly rare, it is a vehicle for disenfranchising a large swaths of the population who don’t have accepted identity documents on hand and/or don’t have the occasion to present them selves to an official for adjudication ahead of registration deadlines—much less to clear up discrepancies between one’s birth certificate and passport over a maiden-name. The GOP sponsored version up for debate for the mid-terms also includes the requirement that states (which control voting though there are also efforts in motion to federalise the process) share voting rolls with the Department of Homeland Security and the abolition of mail-in ballots. Under the current sixty vote threshold for senate passage, Republicans cannot pass the bill without the support of Democrats, who have made clear they will not condone voter suppression, and despite Trump’s urging the upper chamber, Republicans will not drop the filibuster for fear of blowback. Whilst the impasse does seem to suggest more gridlock and would be frankly preferable to the paucity of actually congressional legislation passed under Trump, his penchant for executive orders and a pliable supreme court have done the job of governing, there are still the technicalities of the pocket veto—usually used, when timed right, to kill a bill through inaction, but the opposite holds true as well, with an absentee congress remaining in session forces passage.

the shield of the americas (13. 242)

As war continues to rage in the Middle East—Trump promising to unleash unseen devastation on Iran after Tehran’s gesture of contrition for misfiring on its neighbours as a sign of weakness and imminent surrender, though the apology didn’t really signal a real change in tactics with exceptions for American assets and which may make it their eyes data centres legitimate targets, Amazon cloud services severely depreciated after servers in Bahrain were damaged—the US president is hosting a summit with like-minded leaders from Central- and South America at his Doral golf resort outside of Miami, also the venue slated for the G20 later this year. Leaders from Bolivia, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Honduras, Paraguay and strangely given Trump’s threats over control of the canal Panama are scheduled to attend. Not invited to are three of the hemisphere’s largest economies in Brazil, Colombia and México and neighbours to the north over ideological differences as Trump tries to rally support for his Donroe Doctrine and sphere of influence among a cohort of the apparent willing whom have joined the alliance (see also) with a multinational military cooperative to counter cartels and organised crime, spearheaded by Kristi Noem. After the kidnapping of the Venezuelan president and affecting a hollow regime change, leading up to the event, Trump told the press that Cuba was on the brink of collapse and were actively negotiating for a reprieve from the crippling embargo imposed by the US, intimating that secretary of state Rubio—Lil Marco as Trump referred to him during their 2016 presidential runs, the son of Cuba immigrants, would be the country’s viceroy, a prize he has always strived for. Afterwards Trump jets off to Dover Air Force base to receive the dignified transfer of the bodies of US soldiers killed so far.

day eight (13. 240)

Oil refineries in Basra operated by US defence contractor Halliburton have been struck. As the Gulf states of the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia suffer fresh attacks and bombardments continue in Lebanon and Iran, independent reporting speculates that supplies of both ballistics and countermeasures are beginning to dwindle, with the US claiming that firepower on Tehran was to surge dramatically in the coming days and Trump saying there would be no further negotiations and would only accept unconditional surrender, the world still guessing about his endgame. An Iranian frigate was sunk outside of the theatre of war, returning from training manoeuvres off the coast of Sri Lanka by American naval forces, the first such expansion since WWII. Russian intelligence is supplying Iran with telemetry on US targets in the region.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Silla Smile (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links to revisit

thirteen years ago: historical monetary unions 

fourteen years ago: human-robot collaborations 

fifteen years ago: cooking by substitiution 

mission creep (13. 231)

McSweeney’s contributor Carlos Greaves presents a handy checklist, decision-tree answering the question does your country need a regime change with a list of binary quizzes, such as: 

Is your country a notoriously bad actor in the Middle East?
Has your leader deployed the country’s military domestically against civilians protesting peacefully?
Is your nation’s frail, kleptocractic economy being propped up, thanks in part to being a major oil exporter?
Do your leader’s supporters claim that he was ordained by God to rule? 

It reads sort of like a Jeff Foxworthy routine—you might be living under a totalitarian regime, and whilst the redneck punchline was kind of unfunny itself to begin with except as a snowclone, it’s now turned tragic and all enveloping. More at the link above.

preventative strikes (13. 219)

Amid ongoing talks, in which Trump expressed his displeasure with the situation, arguing that Tehran was not “negotiating in good faith” and a massive build up of US naval and air assets in the region, Israeli defence forces have launched attacks, targeting several ministries in the capital and in multiple cities. Provoked, we are sure how this will play out—with retaliation on Tel Aviv, giving the Americans the excuse to intervene militarily, an option that the administration refused to rule out. Thirty-three minutes later, Trump announces “major combat operations” in Iran, accusing them of trying to restart its nuclear programme.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a wall of sound audio sampler (with synchronopticæ) plus a diplomatic melt-down in the Oval Office

twelve years ago: Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet 

thirteen years ago: fractured futures plus the Day of Unplugging

fifteen years ago: the grammar of emoticons plus the economic states of Iceland and Ireland

sotu (13. 208)

Speaking for nearly two hours and maintaining a triumphant tone despite economic and geopolitical realities and protests within the chamber from Democrats and their eventual walk-out en mass, Trump’s record-setting for the longest state of the union address claimed that he had successfully rebuilt the country that his predecessor, Joe Biden, had managed to destroy in four short years—“a turnaround for the ages”—with a series of surprise cameos supposedly representing the American spirit. “Our country is winning again—in fact, we’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it.” The refreshingly succinct rebuttal, the official response delivered by the opposition in a tradition going back to 1966, was delivered from a television studio offsite by newly elected Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger, simply asking, “Is the president working for you?” The only disappointment counter to his narrative that was mentioned was the recent decision of the supreme court that ruled that most of Trump’s tariff regime was illegal with the war in Ukraine only garnered a passing acknowledgment without recognition of the four-year anniversary and no reference was made of the Minnesota ICE protests and deaths, nor the Epstein files nor Greenland, nor Cuba though there was much sabre-rattling over Iran and having “received” Venezuelan oil, further glutting global oversupply. Read more fact-checking (also here) of what was said from NPR at the link up top.