sounds about white (12. 984)

In contrast to last year’s officer holder, Pantone’s Colour of the Year (see previously—it’s truly not an annual tradition to keep a close eye on, though in this case, it’s not just the lower the stakes, the stronger the conviction) of Cloud Dancer seems a rather bland, neutral choice at first blush and a reversal of its previous pick of “Mocha Mousse” (someone said 2025: poop 2026: toilet paper) but then an interesting one given the political climate in the US specifically and has instead courted controversy, given the election of Trump to a second term, accidental Nazi salutes, immediate assaults on programmes working towards diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility both in the federal government and then followed by private industry, revisionist histories including erasure of Black contributions and America’s past of slavery, enabling racial-profiling and unleashing armies of immigration officers on cities to terrorise people whom appear to have non-caucasian heritage, freezing immigration while offering refugee status to Afrikaners and the courts again set to hear the administration’s argument in favour of overturning birthright citizenship, just focusing on the solely racist actions. It seems the trend institute was not just throwing in the proverbial towel—though we contend that they well could have just been calling it in with the selection and exalted copy sounding suspiciously machine-generated.

synchronoptica

one year ago: America’s first electric vehicle (with synchronopticæ), celebrating a century of Dick van Dyke, St Ambrose, the fallout of AI replacing hyperlinks plus Scrooge’s tombstone

fourteen years ago: US state department announces it will no longer tolerate homophobia plus an end-of-the-year-figure-with-wings

fifteen years ago: disingenuous transparency 

sixteen years ago: COP 15 plus cable conglomerate to acquire NBC

they make a desert (12. 979)

An early target of DOGE’s institutional evisceration, the independent, non-profit think tank created by congress during the presidency of Ronald Reagan in 1985 with the mission to prevent conflict by working outside regular diplomatic channels, has been unironically named the Donald J Trump Institute of Peace—a White House spokesperson quoted whereas formerly it “was once a bloated and useless entity that blew,” its modest fifty million dollar per year budget allocated by the legislature for a mandate that includes outreach programmes for deescalation in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mali and Burkina Faso abruptly halted by the Department of Government Efficiency along with USAID in March, “while delivering no peace,” and now to reflect the greatest dealmaker in the history of the nation, “beautifully and aptly named after a president who ended eight wars in less than a year, and will stand as a powerful reminder of what strong leadership can accomplish for global stability. The ceremony concluded with “Congratulations world!” Though the ultimate fate of USIP is still being decided in the courts, placing it under control of the executive branch ruled illegal but on appeal all staff were dismissed and put in receivership of the General Services Administration—the vacated property—with several reversals—before the renaming—again of the building alone with no active operations and progress squandered, reflective of Trump’s ambitions for the Nobel prize, the façade was the backdrop for an armistice between the Congo and Rwanda. On the sidelines of the World Cup match taking place in Washington, a real collision of all these conflicted agendas of his second term for prestige, respect and concord countered with garish xenophobia and scoffing aggression and delegations (international fans and leaders alike) otherwise unwelcome to this shit hole country, Trump is expected to be awarded a newly minted peace prize by FIFA, whom I guess we could thank for taking one for the team.

esto no es un simulacro (12. 967)

Although commercial flights had been restricted coming in and out of the country for weeks over concerns of insurance liability following the deployment of a fleet of carriers to the Caribbean and intensified rhetoric over regime change, Trump made the additional step of announcing the closure of Venezuelan airspace, hinting that ground operations would begin soon. Whilst a tried and tired tactic of the US president is too cry wolf (as outlined in his Art of the Deal) and accelerate before negotiating, it is becoming more and more apparent that his object is to secure the South American nation’s vast petroleum reserves under conditions more favourable to the US—if not exploit them entirely, as he has attempted to do with property and natural resources in Gaza and Ukraine. Counter to the narrative of drug-trafficking used to justify the extrajudicial murders of alleged smugglers on speedboats in international waters—indefensible actions currently under investigation as breaches of international law and the Geneva Conventions, especially given the secretary of war’s order to eliminate survivors from on of the strikes—and to give grounds for his regime of tariffs long recognised as idle and specious and now void with his suggestion of pardoning the actual, convicted drug-runner, former Honduran president Jose Orlando Hernandez, extradited and serving a long sentence in a federal penitentiary for bringing caches of weapons and four hundred tonnes of cocaine to the US. Clemency is furthermore contingent on election interference. Deportation flights have also been indefinitely suspended. Trump’s targeting of the administration of Nicolás Maduro is based on alleged ties to the drug trafficking gang Cartel de los Soles, which like Antifa seems to be either an unorganised collective or possibly the stay-behind elements of a operation orchestrated by the CIA assembled earlier for other purposes and both declared a terrorist group. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!

quiet piggy (12. 963)

The misogynist rhetoric directed towards female politicians and journalists is nothing new and Trump does not have a monopoly on using disparaging words that translate into actual violence—and whilst wishing that the media would stop hanging on his every demented utterance and thus dignifying his addled, hateful invectives, we do hope that every reporter in the press pool is crafting their response of a colourful epithet, an insult to lob back that if it doesn’t get them arrested would at least result in a ban from the White House, something which the outlets have already signalled their willingness to give up (see previously) with what would be the most withering to these monsters by starving them of attention—and betrays a real weakness of character and a vulnerability to shield from the public at all costs. I’ve got my duly vulgar aspersion to cast on the non-zero chance that I would get called on to use it. What’s your prepared statement? Senator Mark Kelly has entered the chat. Not to psychoanalyse broken, small characters, but we suspect that Trump’s attacks against competent women—and their reception by his base, splintering as it is—is due in large part to the fact he’s only ever beaten female challengers for the presidency, those pyrrhic “victories” not without contention, so much winning, and feels denied the chance of a worthy opponent to trounce.

9x9 (12. 962)

content without context: think twice before making that AI generated video—especially featuring a cameo of yourself 

things that aren’t doing the thing: anticipation is not the same as execution 

dead wood: the evolution, anatomy and biological system of our tree friends  

lightbox: TIME magazine’s photos of the year  

inbox: a clever way of researching and processing the tranches of email released by the Epstein estate with an interface that’s like going through one’s own account from Like Igel and Riley Walz (previously)—via Web Curios  

traceroute: an overview of how the series of tubes work 

the dog’s pyjamas: dressing up canines has a longer history than one might expect—via Strange Company  

never break the chain: streaks are important motivators and one should pair new habits and practise with “micro-versions” to avoid feeling derailed 

$spsc: Trump’s World Liberty Financial (see previously) promotes another shock token as a legitimate store of wealth

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ) plus the discovery of the first pulsar (1967)

fourteen years ago: sociologist Jürgen Habermas on post-democratic Europe 

fifteen years ago: more flea market finds plus security theatre and a crackdown on counterfeits 

i am the great american body—full of corn and consequence (12. 955)

In anticipation of the bizarre US ritual involving the president pardoning two turkeys ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday—an equally bizarre celebration—we enjoyed this short imagined monologue from McSweeney’s contributor John Leahy narrating the internal thoughts of a sycophantic, sacrificial fowl proudly refusing clemency and appealing to Trump’s by narcissism.  The saying goes that turkeys vote for Christmas but maybe face-eating leopards, and their backers, deserve their own special day as well.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the musical stylings of Lord Rickingham’s XI (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links worth the revisit

thirteen years ago: eavesdropping mannequins  

fourteen years ago: trending topics 

discharge petition (12. 890)

Following the release of a tranche of incriminating emails and documents last week from the estate of disgraced financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and with Trump’s unexpected reversal (suspect and perhaps an attempt at normalising such abusive behaviour or over-confidence that all the right records were purged, denying justice for victims and survivors) on his stance that the growing movement was a hoax perpetrated by his Democratic opposition to discredit him and acquiescing to full disclosure, both chambers of the US legislature voted (we had some fear that the process would be pre-empted by a declaration of war)—with near unanimity, four hundred and twenty-seven to one congress members agreeing, even with the staunchest hold-outs, like house speaker Mike Johnson flipping and the senate fast-tracking the bill without a formal vote. The bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, will now go to the desk of the president to sign into law (something which Trump could have directed at any time without being compelled by congress), requiring the attorney general to disclose all records and investigative material not subject to classification, reserving the right to withhold information that might jeopardise on-going investigations or involuntarily out the identity of victims.

big beautiful bill (12. 881)

Among the tranche of twenty-thousand business records, flight itineraries and emails released by the by the estate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein includes an exchange between Epstein and his brother Mark—allegedly asking on behalf of former Trump advisor Steven Bannon (previously) present in the room—from March of 2018 that he should question Epstein if Putin has photos of Trump performing an oral sex act on “Bubba”—the nickname for former US president Bill Clinton. Whilst unclear if this was made in jest in reference to the supposed dossier that Russia had on Trump and the pee-tapes (it pains to write such things) that were ultimately dismissed as a Democratic hoax back during Trump’s first term or a serious concern that more incriminating footage could emerge. In hindsight, like the vindication of the Pizzagate conspiracists, that Russia would have compromising material on Trump seems not only likely but an inevitability in the fullness of time. At the same time, Trump has disowned cheerleader Marjorie Taylor Greene as a raving lunatic for her support to release the files by passing the discharge petition. Though disappointed that his participation, orchestration of a massive pedophile ring, rape, trafficking, felonies, economic betrayals and general incompetence could not deprogram his cult following, maybe this might make MAGA turn on him (but who knows since the also donned ear-bandages and diapers in solidarity) out of the menfolk wanting to keep their own secrets safe. If it is true, Clinton needs to take one for the team.

legislation considered pursuant to a rule (12. 875)

Following Sunday night’s vote in the senate which saw eight political safe Democrats side with Republicans to overcome the filibuster threshold on a bill to reopen the US federal government after a stalemate of over forty days, in exchange for the protecting the right of the Government Accountability Office to sue the president for misappropriation of funds against the wishes of congress and a hollow promise to vote on whether to extend expiring health care subsidies (citing hardships and potential ruined holidays that were nonetheless being redressed by other means), which was the instigator of the standoff in the first place and now seems all for nothing, a self-own when the Democrats were ahead with their strategy and rather chuffed over a slate of election victories, the measure was returned to the house of representatives, recalling them from a recess of seven weeks to avoid the swearing in of an Arizona member whose vote in favour of releasing the Epstein files could force the matter to be brought to a floor vote, despite the speaker’s directive. Congress was recalled, again delaying the swearing in of the new representative and focusing on the legislation that they were just handed, with the bi-partisan oversight committee releasing a tranche of new documents, including some rather incriminating emails that refute Trump’s claim over a split with the pedophile and disgraced financial fixer. Whilst members on both sides of the aisle are enraged about postponing the discharge petition, it has also come to light Ghislaine Maxwell, already serving her sentence in a minimum security, is seeking a full commutation for her crimes. The president for his first meaningful interaction with the legislative branch outside of approving cabinet nominations, has cleared his schedule to sign the continuing resolution once it reaches his desk. The house is set to vote later in the afternoon but the entire ordeal is poised to repeat at the end of January when funding again runs out and it remains unclear whether the bill will pass, the Republican caucus only able to suffer no more than three defections and a provision to outlaw hemp-based products may cause some from agricultural states who have grown reliant on this industry to vote against the measure as it stands and torpedo its chances.

rock on gold dust woman (12. 844)

Missing this gift exchange during the last leg of Trump’s Asia in the chaos of last week—which netted no concrete trade deals other than a tepid tariff rapprochement with China—it seems in poor taste at first blush for South Korean president Lee Jae Myung to have presented the US president with a replica of an ancient gold crown, particularly right after the No Kings demonstrations, and bestowed on him the Grand Order of the Mugunghwa (Pink Hibiscus) and it’s of course pandering to his doltish vanities. A little low-effort research reveals, however, a possibly deeper meaning that’s half again cleverer than the copy of the birth certificate that Germany gave Trump of his ancestor who fled to avoid the draft and was subsequently stripped of his citizenship. Dating from the Silla dynasty (see previously) and designated among Korea’s National Treasures these delicate gold crowns, with the tensile strength of a tin-foil hat, which were discovered during an excavation of a royal tomb in the old capital city of Gyeongjuwere likely crafted as funerary wares and not to be worn by the living, due to their inherent flimsiness and impractical design, with this lavish headdress a burial good. That’s some apt diplomacy (see also), especially after the US deported all those South Korean workers.

synchronoptica

one year ago: private language creation among twins (with synchronopticæ), the Collins’ Direction Word of the Year, assorted links to revisit, caesaropapism plus the Balfour Agreement of 1917

twelve years ago: an operatic live-stream

fourteen years ago: Palestine is admitted to UNESCO 

 

8x8 (12. 842)

dressed like a priest you was, tod browning’s freak you was: the long legacy of the 1932 pre-code sideshow feature that still prompts discussion on exploitation and othering  

never throw out anything that might be useful: a thoroughgoing interview with author Margaret Atwood (previously) ahead of the publication of her new memoir  

tactical infrastructure: proposed US legislation to open up public lands and national parks to commercial development and harvesting if any part of the designated space abuts borders as a buffer-zone  

grandfather clause: the brevity of the fifteenth amendment to the US constitution belies its impact on voting rights—and shows America has endured such disenfran-chisement before

bee positive: our pollinator friends have the capacity to experience happiness and its contagious—via Strange Company  

they’re simultaneously launching a new game where you get to do chores in a stranger’s house: twenty-thousand dollar humanoid robot fails to preform tasks autonomously and requires teleoperation—see previously—via Super Punch  

let them eat cake: while millions of Americans face hardships due to a lapse in food aid and skyrocketing health insurance premiums during the furlough, Trump remodels the Lincoln Bathroom, plus the Great Gatsby-themed party on the patio that was formerly the Rose Garden at Mar-a-Lago

gorgon: for her annual fancy dress party, Heidi Klum dressed as Medusa—inspired by Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion monster for Clash of the Titans

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ), research vessel R/P FLIP, Alphabet sued by Russia, character amnesia plus a fan super site on Super Mario lore

thirteen years ago: November holidays plus animal crossings

fourteen years ago: dream therapy, liveable communities plus malleable memes

fifteen years ago: America votes 

8x8 (12. 839)

house of dynamite: Trump’s call to resume nuclear weapons testing—on hiatus since 1992—throws Washington into chaos 

trick-or-treat: Illinois governor calls for Halloween armistice on ICE raids in Chicago 

fяiends: an AI generated montage of the show is an accidental Lynchian fever dream  

monster-palooza: the musical stylings of Verne Langdon as amanuensis for the vampire at the harpsicord  

gold ¼ starter: ancient Celtic coin discovered near Leipzig  

mister mountbatten windsor: Prince Andrew stripped of all styles and evicted from the Royal Lodge over his association with Jeffrey Epstein 

7 500: Trump lowers refugee admissions cap with priority for white South Africans—see previously  

nuclear option: Trump urges senate to end the filibuster rule to reopen US federal government without Democrats 

synchronoptica

one year ago: a Halloween tragedy from 1974 that ruined trick-or-treating for everyone (with synchronopticæ) plus ghoulish ABBA

twelve years ago: US scolds Germany and Japan for their economic policy 

thirteen years ago: forever chemicals in outdoor wear, catastrophic weather events, in praise of Wikipedia plus Disney to acquire the Star Wars franchise

fourteen years ago: more debates about daylight savings time 

sixteen years ago: Halloween and the Swine Flu 

seventeen years: what’s scary this spook season 

blue collar boom (12. 831)

Via Boing Boing we are directed to a rather blatant display of christo-fascist propaganda (generated by AI of course but with typical machine wokeness filtered out and the implicit message baked-in) in a series of US government sanctioned advertisements from Trump’s labour department recruiting campaign, encouraging the white and male, virility virtually without exception despite some tokenism and a few women and darker-complected individuals appearing as subordinates and somehow more dated and fantastical in this Norman Rockwell vision that’s far from just benighted in its subtext, to skill-up and enter into apprenticeship programmes, as the acolytes did who propped up the president himself and saved him from television obscurity and his own deserved reputation as a bad businessman. No second glance is necessary to recognise the message not as some retro-styled call to action but rather as erasure of the reality of the populace that drives America and cued into the same aesthetics and ideals of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda of Joseph Goebbels.

u sank my battleship (12. 822)

On the anniversary of the liberation of Grenada, as the US is trying to move the USS Gerald R Ford aircraft carrier and its strike group of five destroyers to the Caribbean Sea ostensibly to launch a ground invasion to affect regime change in Venezuela with the pretence of quelling drug-trafficking by narco-terrorists (scores already killed by highly dubious and extrajudicial strikes on boats in international waters)—with support ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea needing to transit through the Bosphorus and Black Sea in order to rendezvous with the carrier presently at port in Croatia—maybe the future might reckon this deployment as the opening salvo of World War III. Other countries might take advantage of a distracted America operating under the capricious orders of incompetent leadership, and the passage already dicey to say the least with the Russian assault on Ukraine and Türkiye perhaps unwilling to grant the destroyers access to the straits (see previously here and here) after being excluded from the twenty point peace process in Gaza negotiated by Trump. This announced military buildup also comes one day ahead of Argentinian parliamentary elections, which could threaten the coalition government of MAGA acolyte and ally Javier Milei—that is, if the voters aren’t persuaded otherwise.

7x7 (12. 816)

east wing: for a nation that’s precious about conserving its precious little history, there’s not much outcry over Trump’s extensive remodel of the People’s House—see more  

west bank: US vice president and secretary of state angry over a bill advanced in the Knesset to annex the larger of the two Palestinian territories against Trump’s twenty-point plan  

parallax view: a glasses-free three-dimensional mapping demonstration 

fairytale of new york: a tribute to the recently departed Alfa-Betty Olson and her Sin City Fables  

schleicher’s pie: revisiting the constructed Proto Indo-European apologue—see previously  

yerkökü və çubuq: Russo-American summit in Budapest is cancelled and a raft of new sanctions are imposed on Moscow 

arc de trump: plans drawn up for a triumphal arch over the Potomac

8x8 (12. 813)

vampira: the obscure made-for-television title by George Moorse with a atmospheric score by Tangerine Dream 

concrete progress: a demonstration project for turning the rubble of war torn Ukraine into cement 

overton window: a measured approach to AI—via Kottke—see also  

spoiler-alert: William Castle’s Homicidal, a hammy, gimmicky film capitalising on the success of Psycho, gets reviewed by Poseidon’s Underworld

 
atira asteroids: a constellation of interior-Earth objects in our orbit and hidden by solar glare are uncomfortably close—via Damn Interesting 

it’s awfully strange to make a decision where i’m paying myself—but i was damaged very great and any money i would get i would give to charity: Grifter-in-Chief demands two-hundred and thirty million dollars in restitution from the US department of justice for past convictions  

billionaires’ row: a supertall residential tower on Manhattan’s Park Avenue is riddled with stress-fractures that may lead to its condemnation

the vampyre: Lord Byron’s unremembered manservant who invented the modern form of the genre—via Miss Cellania

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronopticæ) plus the Berlin Crisis of 1961

fourteen years ago: exploring the past with the Retronaut

first instance, last resort (12. 804)

As promised in his campaign focused on retribution for his political critics and opponents, Trump’s weaponisation of the US justice system seems nearly complete with the most chilling headlines going to the recent string of indictments of former FBI director James Comey, New York attorney general Letitia James who led a fraud investigation against the president during the interregnum and most recently former national security adviser John Bolton for mishandling of classified material (the accusations admissions to the letter), we would be ill-disposed to not recognise the scope of the miscarriage of the law is not limited to personal attacks but is also manifest in the dismantling of the separation of powers among the coequal branches of the federal government in the recision and reprogramming of funds, cowing courts into submission to facilitate the illegal firings and shutterings of congressionally mandated agencies, and abusing the power of the pardon to rewrite the history of the January Sixth insurrection and attack on the US capitol and just now the commutation of the prison sentence of George Santos, disgraced New York Republican ejected from the House of Representatives by his own caucus.  The art deco sculpture to the left in the great hall of the Robert F Kennedy, Senior DOJ headquarters is the Spirit of Justice, infamously given a modesty smock in 2002 by then attorney general John Ashcroft to cover her exposed breast.  Her companion across the aisel, scantily clad in only a loin cloth, is called the Majesty of Justice.     

synchronoptica

one year ago: animated artefacts (with synchronopticæ) plus a collection of apotropaic plants 

fourteen years ago: swapping allegiances to shore up economies 

sixteen years ago: stoking the hearth 

for her tireless work promoting democratic rights or the people of venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy (12. 783)

Despite Trump’s laudable though contrived truce between Israel and Hamas—may the peace hold—with Netayahu leveraged to hedge in favour of a refusal on the part of the Gazan authorities to take part—and risking the ire of the American president when he realises that there are some Venezuelans remaining that he hasn’t blown up, the Nobel Committee in Oslo announced that their prize will be presented to laureate María Corina Machado, politician and activist ousted during the regime of Nicolás Maduro Moros in 2014. Although in hiding and operating an underground effort for government reform and social justice since, Machado attempted to run against Maduro in 2024, and though blocked from running lent support to the candidacy of the opposition, whom would have unseated the incumbent, according to international election observers yet refused to yield power. Nominations closed in March, with over three hundred qualified contenders put forward, individuals and organisations, including Pope Francis, champion of the plight of the Uyghur people Li Ying, Elon Musk, Donald Trump nominated by representatives of the governments of Israel, Pakistan, Cambodia and Argentina, the January Sixth congressional select committee, the Hague and NATO. Coincidentally Machado had some praise for Trump himself earlier in the year in August when the administration announced a fifty-million dollar bounty on Maduro for allowing drug trafficking into the US, carrying out a series of deadly strikes on boats in international waters said to be operated by gang members running narcotics, countering these accusations as a pretext for America-led regime change. Sore loser, Trump says that this proves that the Nobel Committee places “politics above peace,” and despite this qualified miscarriage of justice that Trump who has “the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,” according to a White House spokesperson, continues to be a peace-maker.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a visit to Himmelpfort and Fürstenberg (with synchronopticæ)

twelve years ago: departing for southern France 

thirteen years ago: the grammar of ornament, flowcharts plus a blank slate

fifteen years ago: Double-Ten Day and currency wars 

franklin mint (12. 773)

Although some polities issue currency bearing the obverse of their current reigning monarch, most including the United States of America and many others only impress images of departed historic contributors and presidents—the heretofore exception for the US being the commemorative coinage passed by congress in March of 1925 to feature portraits of the current incumbent Calvin Coolidge with George Washington for the sesquicentennial half-dollar to be sold to the public at a premium above their face value and much of the specie returned to the minters for reuse after disappointing reception (the one-hundred-fiftieth year celebration of the the nation’s founding also going down in the annals of the most poorly executed and received—see also). We are certain that in the not-too-distant future, people will puzzle over why so much ink was split over a has been, fascist country and their daily drivel. The draft engraving of the semiquincentennial dollar coin—introduced during the government shutdown—features images of Trump both on the obverse and reverse (perhaps inspired by Charles III on the new ten £ note after his recent visit) with the latter struck to match the defiant pose after his attempted assassination in Butler County Pennsylvania—already the iconography of his cryptocurrency.

synchronoptica

one year ago: anchor Dan Rather assaulted (with synchronopticæ), an ongoing treasure hunt plus another scavenger hunt 

twelve years ago: US government shut-down disrupts NASA projects plus capture houses and bait cars

thirteen years ago: more tarnished smiles 

fourteen years ago: the Occupy Wall Street movement 

fifteen years ago: reflections on twenty years of German unity 

 

 

lapse in appropriations (12. 769)

Whilst most attention was focused on Trump’s upstaging of the some eight hundred top generals and admirals from American military outposts from all over the world at great expense and distraction summoned to be presented a speech on warrior ethos that could have frankly been an email or at most a TEAMS virtual meeting only to then be lectured by the commander in chief regarding physical fitness of the force, woke- and fat-shaming the US military into a plaything exclusively by and for white, straight males with liberal bastions declared as training grounds, the federal government entered a shutdown after successive refusal by the Republicans to entertain negotiations over extending healthcare subsidies and defunding public broadcasting. The standoff preceded by congress blocking the swearing in of a Democratic representative from Arizona for fear of loosing the GOP‘s narrow margin and compelling the release of the Epstein files, replacing the official portrait of Joe Biden in the White House gallery with a crude picture of an auto-pen and continuing the violent vitriol against the radical left—out-of-office auto-replies are to specifically blame the opposition for the closure and lapse in nonessential services–a clear violation of the Hatch Act. The last significant shutdown lasting more than a few hours was during Trump’s first term in 2018 and 2019 when the government closed for thirty-five days