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

no kings (12. 535)

“One rapid but fairly sure guide to the social atmosphere of a country is the parade-step of its army. A military parade is really a kind of ritual dance, something like a ballet, expressing a certain philosophy of life. The goose-step, for instance, is one of the most horrible sights in the world, far more terrifying than a dive-bomber. It is simply an affirmation of naked power; contained in it, quite consciously and intentionally, is the vision of a boot crashing down on a face. Its ugliness is part of its essence, for what it is saying is ‘Yes, I am ugly, and you daren’t laugh at me’, like the bully who makes faces at his victim.” George Orville in his 1941 essay England Your England went on to ask: “Why is the goose-step not used in England?…It is not used because the people in the street would laugh. Beyond a certain point, military display is only possible in countries where the common people dare not laugh at the army”. That’s a sobering observation and it bring me back to Mr Trump’s military parade.  There will be no—officially, we think—such ar march but Mr Trump is leading America into a phase in which it will dare not laugh at the army or  himself, though laughable it was

11x11 (12. 529)

somewhere beyond the barricade, is there a world you long to see: Reuters’ delivers a deadpan juxtaposition of Trump’s attendance at a showing of Les Misérables just after sending in the US marines to quell demonstrations  

💩: defecation syncope and other perils of pooping 

renascidos: a cosplay parenting craze with hyperrealistic dolls has captivated Brazil, prompting some legislation against their appearance in public  

tin roof rusted: a VH-1 Behind the Music style documentary on the importance and influence of The B-52’s 

artek: the upcoming centenary of Crimea’s famed Soviet youth camp that once hosted Samantha Smith—see also  

have you tried clearing your cache: a concept artist with a reputation for the mischievous develops a dating website based on harmonious browsing history  

pomp and circumstance: a preview of Trump’s grand military parade to be held this weekend—previously  

more cow bell: artist Margareta Sarvana performs the Schalger song Itke en lemmen tähden (Nur nicht aus Liebe weinen) on a Swedish variety show in 1973—via Pasa Bon! 

the schwatz awakens: a preview trailer of the Space Balls sequel to premier in 2027, when Mel Brooks turns 101

simple article summaries: Wikipedia suspends an experiment that would display AI generated synopses after editor and contributor opposition  

i’m michael barbaro, see you tomorrow: California governor Gavin Newson interviewed by the New York Times on Trump’s ICE raids

synchronoptica

one year ago: counting crows (with synchronoptica), a Minoan archaeological discovery, emotion-cancelling technology, Trump’s revenge agenda plus assorted links to revisit

seven years ago: internet freedom index, more movies scripted by AI, Reagan tells Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall (1987) plus a meeting of Dear Leaders

eight years ago: memory holes, courtroom sketch artists, waste-water popsicles, mobility and mobile devices plus a surrogate social network

nine years ago: Citigroup tries to copyright the word Thanks, carbon sequestration plus more on the Trump travel ban

ten years ago: Erasmus and free-will, more links to enjoy plus Jung and Freud

forty-eight hours later (12. 524)

Following his messy and public falling-out with Elon Musk and the consequent stalling of his Big Beautiful Bill in the senate, Trump is manufacturing headlines more aligned with campaign promises with first reimposing a travel ban and stoking fears of mass-deportations, disappearances with US immigration and customs enforcement (ICE, which is a high-speed train in Germany) raids on Los Angeles, eager to have this fight as a pretext for invoking martial law. Mobilising the state’s national guard against protesters against the will of the governor for the first time since 1965 when Lyndon Johnson called up Alabama troops as protective escorts for civil rights activists marching from Selma to Montgomery, countermanding the refusal of arch-segregationist George Wallace—for completely opposite reasons, Trump is obviously yearning for a spectacle—which so far is being denied him by the rallies, most violence coming from ICE agents. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 restricts military service members from being used for civilian law enforcement within the United States but does allow them to protect other federal agents and property and ensure that the execution of their duties is not impeded. Only with the declaration of insurrection, something not authorised by Trump during the January Sixth attack on the Capitol, can troops be used to make arrests. Although George HW Bush sent in the California National Guard under this law in 1992 to quell the uprising following the acquittal of the police officers involved in the brutal beating of Rodney King, it was done with the consent of the state government. For his part, Governor Gavin Newsom, frequent target of Trump, is threatening to withhold remittance of federal taxes, in response to both funding cuts to the state’s university system and to defund the country’s clear decent into dictatorship, to which the administration is levying charges of criminal tax evasion.

el pueblo de nuestra señora la reina de los ángeles del río porciúncula (12. 520)

In response to rallies against US immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles over the weekend, Trump has federalised the Californian National Guard, deploying two-thousand troops to quell the protests. Over a dozen individuals have been arrested as agitators and insurrectionists for attempting to impede law enforcement activities as ICE agents clash with residents and have apprehended more than one hundred individuals suspected of being undocumented immigrants in sweeps that have so far been limited to isolated areas in the Paramount City, the garment district and the Civic Centre. Defence secretary Hegseth also threatened to mobilise marines if the violence continues. The state’s governor counters (whom Trump referred to as Gavin Newscum for his inability to control RIOTS and LOOTERS) that there is no shortage of law enforcement officials and that Trump only wants a spectacle and an excuse to escalate the situation and urges advocates to remain peaceful and not give the administration what it wants. Preparing for such raids and mass-deportations since Trump’s reelection, the ACLU and other groups championing immigrants have been coordinating efforts for outreach and advocacy as well, with city councilmember Eunisses Hernandez pushing back on the pledge that ICE would focus their efforts on dangerous criminals, coming at the time of graduation season and Pride Month celebrations: “It’s never, ever, ever been the case, because when they come for one of us, they come for all of us—and we have to remember that.”

a fine bromance (12. 514)

Although it was bound to happen eventually (see also), we were a little surprised that the very public and acrimonious split between Elon Musk and Donald Trump took as long as it did to occur, with insults exchanged on their respective social media platforms coming to a breaking point during Trump’s meeting with the Chancellor of Germany, Merz (see below) did not seem quite to know what to make of the US president’s asides: “You saw a man who was very happy when her stood behind the Oval desk—even with a black eye,” asking Musk if he wanted some concealer, which Musk declined. “Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore.” Their partnership showed its first signs of strain with reservations over Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, ultimately ratcheted up to calling in a “disgusting abomination” and threatening to his influence to unseat Republican members who vote for it, discarding restraint and reluctance to air their private differences. Trump appeared at first only slightly taken aback over what was characterised as full-throated endorsement of his economy and domestic policy omnibus bill and only update because language mandating the accelerated adoption of electric vehicles was removed from the legislation, which prompted Musk to unleash his ire. Having announced his support for Trump after the failed assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, Musk told Trump that he would not have won the election without his help, both on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter and his generous donations. “Such ingratitude.” Trump then responded on his Truth Social that he had fired Musk from DOGE as he had worn out his welcome. Musk then escalated the feud even further denying he had been fired and re-tweeting calls for Trump to be impeached and accusing the government of suppressing the release the files on Jeffrey Epstein and his underage sex trafficking ring because they implicated Trump. Unclear if he will follow through with the threat, Trump concluding that a big cost savings measure would be to terminate the billions spent on Tesla and SpaceX government subsidies and defence contracts. Rightwing writer who Musk sired his fourteenth known child with, Ashley St Clair, now estranged and suing for alimony, @‘d Trump, “Let me know if u need any breakup advice.”

geburtsurkunde (12. 513)

In quite the diplomatic flex, Chancellor Friedrich Merz presented Trump with the birth certificate of Friedrich Merz, Trump’s grandfather who was deported to the United States for draft-dodging and desertion, to subtly signal that Trump too has immigrant roots and in a way to defuse some of the past rhetoric of birtherism for his predecessor and current rehashing of travel bans (see below), during their White House meeting. Suffering childish, incoherent drivel from Trump about trade deals with China that do not exist, backhanded praise for increased defence spending (“I’m not sure that General MacArthur would have said it’s positive. He made a statement: ‘Never let Germany rearm.’ I always think about that when he says, “Sir, we’re spending more. I say—ooh, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I think it’s a good thing.”) and drawing moral equivalency for Russia and Ukraine (“like children fighting in a park”), Merz pointed out that tomorrow is the anniversary of D-Day, marking America’s entry into the war. “That was not a pleasant day for you? This is not a great day,” Trump countered, to which Merz responded that it was the beginning of his country’s liberation from Nazi dictatorship. That obnoxious punchline lays bare his true vacuousness and shortcomings for dealing with consequences and I think maybe this encounter (see further below) might have given Trump, despite his stultifying lack of self-awareness, a glimpse, however temporary, into his own boorishness and Merz may have made his point.

resumix (12. 503)

To be instituted in mid-July when the federal hiring freeze is scheduled to be relaxed, albeit limited to one new employee for every four leaving the workforce on top of the three-hundred thousand target reduction—of which about half has already been achieved through normal attrition, leveraged buyouts and illegal firings by DOGE with the rest left up to AI and a programme called TurboRIF—the new recruitment plan to fill vacancies will require applicants to praise the administration’s executive orders, neither law nor policy and could be undone just as easily, and submit to a process of continuous vetting. The latter being not a mid-point evaluation or more rigorous scrutiny but rather a loyalty test and the former would require prospective to be judged on the merits not of education, credentials or experience but instead on their ability to pen an essay response, limited to two hundred words, that demonstrates their patriotism and citing which EOs that their job performance, if selected, would advance.
I wonder if there will be a catalogue of regressive measures corresponding to each career field—to cross-reference for each public sector position of trust, like combatting DEI, protecting women, ending tax payer subsidies for biased media, promoting religious liberties, unleashing off-shore drilling, strengthening high education, reinstating common sense, restoring American seafood competitiveness, addressing the synthetic opioid supply chain in the People’s Republic of China as applied to low-value imports, etc. Answers to these four questions are not to be generated by chatbots and new hires must consent to assessments of their post-appointment conduct following onboarding to ensure that their responses were genuine and have not become hardened and disillusioned by turning in an assignment outlining who they’ll cast aspersions against minorities and the marginalised for a pay check, and contradictory adhering to an oath to uphold the law of the land. Human Resources and Human Capital Management professionals are taking exception with these highly qualifying criteria as unmeasurable and far from streamlining hiring are making the process much more onerous (by design) for rating and referral with unquantifiable standards.

synchronoptica

one year ago: astronomers question existence of Vulcan home world (with synchronoptica), how the robin got its name plus ghost malls and other modern ruins

seven years ago: Universology, kinetic, computational art plus tariffs and crony capitalism

eight years ago: pigeon shoes, the US leaves the Paris Climate Accords, the coronation of Elizabeth II (1953), a plant-filled bus plus assorted links worth revisiting

nine years ago: turning one’s social media presence over to a robot, existing in a simulated reality plus forgotten superstitions

ten years ago: more links to enjoy, closing down Germany’s nuclear power plants plus romanticising youth

so long, elon (12. 498)

Departing from his post adhering to the statutory limits of his appointment as an emergency hire—though departing from the usual politicians’ script of “spending more time with my family” to spend more time with his businesses and showing up for his outprocessing with a sufficiently theatrical black eye, which he blamed on his child X although it could have been any number of agency chiefs, department heads or any conscientious bureaucrat (or Brigitte Macron) that socked him one on his way out, Musk as the destructive and chaotic force behind DOGE fell far short of his stated goal of trillions in savings and eliminating government fraud, waste and abuse. Instead the public reputation of Tesla and Starlink have been battered (as well as demonstrating his personal repugnance) , important public work selectively and irreparably, ruining lives and careers along the way. Realising the Sisyphean task and the fools’ errand, Musk’s ego is also bruised—laid bare by wilful ignorance of what services that the US federal government provides and how those functions hang together and so called inefficiencies are by design to prevent mass surveillance, not a legacy to be fixed by AI. For his exit survey, Musk also punched back in a way albeit it too little and too late given his influence, criticising Trump’s reckless Big Beautiful Bill as ultimately economically damaging.

threat model (12. 489)

Not content with being partially lionised over the yet unproven claim that the COVID pandemic might have been caused by a lab leak from a facility studying corona viruses in Wuhan, the new head of the US National Institutes of Health is not only suggesting that the NIH itself created the novel virus, triggering a mass walkout during his first all-hands meeting, like-minded cohorts in the US Food and Drug Administration have severely restricted access to vaccines for the vast majority of Americans, as if we needed another reason not to travel—or to erect a cordon sanitaire to stop the spread of vectors for measles, bird flu and any number of preventable maladies, quitting the WHO and the media blackout when it comes to monitoring emerging outbreaks—insisting on amplifying warnings of side effects, despite the efficacy of treatment and the low incidence. Having missed crucial windows to ramp up production for the next season, many major pharmaceutical companies gave up altogether. Click through for important reminders on how Long COVID is the retronym of the polio generations endured—and yet another reemergent illness that had been eradicated—and one’s first line of defence.

9x9 (12. 483)

leaderboard: an exclusive look at the $TRUMP memecoin banquet   

leap together: Kermit the Frog delivers a commencement speech at Jim Henson’s alma mater 

biosignature: potential signs of alien life on exoplanet K2-18β raises the question of when evidence becomes definitive 

industrial light and magic: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, founded by Star Wars franchise creator and slated to open next summer, made redundant fourteen percent of staff

mr tompkins in wonderland: after attending a lecture on relativity, a bank clerk discovers the ability to perceive quantum phenomena and the foreshortening of spacetime   

liquidity squeeze: collaborative scholarship and the fake Roman financial panic of 33 AD—via Strange Company 

yeah—it has been hard, mainly because of the numbers: a vintage 2005 spoof on every television news spot on the economy

matriculation: graduates answer questions posed by their past selves insider trading: US attorney general divested herself of between one and five million dollars worth of shares ahead of Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement

synchronoptica

one year ago: Phyllis Diller’s garage sale guide (with synchronoptica), an alternative space shuttle design, AI can’t do minor edits plus assorted links worth the revisit

seven years ago: more removing science from the classroom, a cosmic interloper, eyeball worlds, wine windows plus the Dear Leaders fail to meet

eight years ago: corporate welfare 

nine years ago: transparent wood plus a visit to Weimar

thirteen years ago: the chemistry of wine

contempt of court (12. 480)

The massive thousand-page long budget bill (long title, “To provide fir reconcilation pursuant to title II of the Concurrent resolution of the Budget for the fiscal year 2025, House of Congress Resolution, or OBBA, “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”) that just narrowly passed through the US House of Representatives and now up for debate in the Senate after days of contentious negotiation and garnering scepticism from economists and the stock markets as insoluble and untenable, extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts set to expire with the fiscal year and solidifying his domestic agenda, contains a provision buried deep within the legislative language that would in effect render judicial purview unenforceable—making the second prong on the assault against the courts after trying to undermine “advocate judges” and halt universal injunctions against the administration with a Supreme Court hearing ostensibly disguised as judgment on birthright citizenship. With the potential to make most mandates in antitrust, police reform and desegregation cases impossible to compel or constrain, the provision states that no court may make use of appropriated funds to enforce a citation of contempt for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary stay unless security, collateral was given at the time of issuance—in other words and a situation brought up in the above case by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson where everyone would be expected to lawyer-up unless a bond was paid up front by the plaintiff, something that does not happen in a suit against the government and an unfair requirement for judgment. Not only do parties seeking relief from unlawful acts have a high bar to access the courts (retroactively applied), the courts themselves would be rendered powerless when it comes to litigants contemning (the verb form of committing contempt) and ignoring their orders, downgraded to recommendations to take into advisement.

synchronoptica

one year ago: godfather of anime Osamu Tezuka (with synchronoptica), the patron saint of home economics plus the invention of the accordion

seven years ago: the designs of Raymond Loewy plus assorted links worth revisiting 

eight years ago: lamenting the transformation of eBay, vintage bowling alleys, losing the ability to face the next pandemic, a closed-captioning mix-up plus energetic revolutions

nine years ago: wine without grapes plus Simpsons’ couch gag as an IKEA manual

twelve years ago: a visit to the Wiesbaden museum

what does god need with a starship? (12. 479)

Somewhat prepared for when the conversation goes of the rails and girded against ambush and entrapment taking notes after the Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy, South African leader Cyril Ramaphosa managed to maintain his professional composure presidential bearing despite Trump’s incessant rantings of white genocide and the murder of thousands of Afrikaner farmers—just after taking fifty-nine in as refugees, rehashing without evidence the ahistoric grievances amplified by himself and Musk of a conspiracy circulated since the end of apartheid rule in 1994 and his most significant gesture to date pandering to Christian white nationalism. That says a lot already, but moreover he is using the false paradigm to illustrate where progressive DEI initiatives and restitution would take America. Subjected to this diatribe plus a surprise screening of a propaganda film, a misrepresented newsreel, Ramaposa tried to steer the talks back to trade and security cooperation, admitting to a problem with crime while dismissing a concerted assault against settlers, citing his entourage, and at one point, exasperated offered, “I wish I had a plane to give you.” After accusing his interlocutor of non-existent crimes which he in no way condoned, Trump replied that he would gladly accept such a gift.

23-skidoo (12. 467)

Unclear who arranged the shells, former FBI director under Donald Trump during his first term, James Comey (previously here and here)—who prior to the election made hay over Hilary Clinton’s private server overshadowing Trump’s own string of controversies and unceremoniously dismissed for conducting an independent investigation into Russian interference in the campaign and since his firing a vocal critic—was interviewed by the US Secret Service for an hour after sharing and then deleting an image encountered on a stroll along a beach with the widely shared though perhaps selectively interpreted political message, 8647. Trump accused Comey of feigning ignorance, Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem is continuing the investigation for advocating the assassination of the president with Director of National Intelligence calling for the former FBI chief to be jailed for “issuing a hit” while the president was on official travel in the Middle East and Junior—his father having survived two assassination attempts during the race accused Comey of “calling for my dad to be murdered.” The term 86, which generally does not denote violence but rather booting out an undesirable patron, seems to have entered the political lexicon when Trump’s then  press-secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a Mexican restaurant in Virginia in 2018, cleaving close to the original meaning of the rhyming slang for nix. Coined in the 1920s by the hospitality industry, it was shorthand among service personnel to indicate an item from the menu that was no longer available and by extension a guest that was no longer welcome in the establishment, the etymology is unclear: whether from the jargon and numerical codes of soda jerks, a signal during Prohibition to exit out the back door ahead of a police raid out to Eighty-Sixth Street or from an unknown source. The term was cited occasionally for partisan gesturing since, a similar formulation used previously by Republicans to call for Biden’s removal but without this level of controversy or retributive repercussions. Also with a bit of contrived numerology—8+6+4+7=25, as in the twenty-fifth amendment of the US constitution that outlines the process to remove a sitting president.

i believe it’s god’s job to sit in judgment—my job is to defend america (12. 466)

Just returned from his first major foreign trip of his second term, treated with with imperial pomp and lavishing in the Regional Car Dealership Rococo lifestyle and gold-plate decor that he so admires, Trump’s agenda of deal-making—though overshadowed by a luxury jet offered by Qatar to replace Air Force One—was revealing about his priorities and “none of our business approach” to foreign policy. In parallel to multi-million dollar contracts favourable to American business interests secured without any of the bothersome talks of human rights issues, democracy, transparency, press freedoms or regional diplomacy—no mention of the suppression of dissent, sportswashing, the war in Gaza or even recent past postures to his hosts on supporting terrorist groups, Trump’s team of negotiators have been fronting at least the appearance of frenetic negotiations that included a ceasefire with the Houthis, lifting sanctions on Syria and renegotiating a nuclear deal with Iran, although the Persian Gulf will henceforth be known as the Arabian Gulf.  This collusion of contrasting, contradictory events, capitalism to paper over conflicts, may be coincidental and incidental to the administration’s penchant for flooding the zone but is very telling of what Trump wants and how he might be played.

total reset (12. 453)

Whilst not wholly unrolling all barriers to trade nor unable to undo the disruption already wrought on global supply chains and proffer any sort of future security and certainty when it comes to relocating both manufacturing and sourcing, businesses, investors and consumers welcomed the deescalation following talks among intermediaries in Switzerland which defused, at least temporarily the retaliatory brinksmanship that Trump’s Liberation Day of reciprocal tariffs started with China the only party willing to raise the stakes. Washington and Beijing have retreated back to less punishing levies of thirty and ten percent respectively, discounting other measures already in place. Both delegations conceded that a decoupling of the two major economies benefited no one, with sanctions heretofore approaching the level of a trade embargo and hoped that this initial pause might gain a purchase on negotiations that would promote the predictability needed by all parties, despite the magnanimity for which the ordeal was played, appealing to Trump’s vanities to let him claim credit for solving a crisis of his own making. This deal follows talks between Starmer and Trump that while the blanket duty of ten percent remains on most international exports to the US removed tariffs on UK steel, aluminium and automobiles, in exchange for relaxing regulatory limits previously imposed on American beef and chlorinated poultry. The truce with Xi pointedly does not extend to those same heavy industry items or pharmaceuticals, the same day pledging an incredulous ninety-percent drop in medicine prices, aiming to “equalise,” redistribute drug costs with other countries, saying Europe and the rest of the world will apid more so the US can pay less.

10x10 (12. 449)

shooting the messager: the AP reporter fired and blacklisted for scooping the story of Nazi Germany’s surrender eight years ago—via Strange Company  

🚏: Shanghai metro lets riders design their own bus routes  

vision cantos: Denis Cooper on filmmaker Jud Yalkut—via { feuilleton }  

grave of the fireflies: Ze Frank (previously) on what’s happening with our bioluminescent friends  

the poyais scam: confidence tricker Gregor MacGregor’s con to lure investors in a fictional central American territory 

that’s why the apostrophe is single and not plural: the story of Anna Jarvis—the creator that later sued for the abolition of Mother’s Day 

flugsteighalle: a digital exhibition of Berlin’s monumental Tempelhof airport—previously—via das Kraftfuttermischwerk  

the madison avenue beat: a selection of vintage advertising jingles presented as a dance remix 

 corner of the city: street photographer Tong Ho Chung Howard’s most famous image captures the traditional tong lau (唐樓) architecture of Hong Kong, gradually being replaced by urban renewal programmes  

root causes: competing narratives for WWII Victory Day celebrations

paper doll (12. 436)

Coinciding with tactics being employed by several toy manufacturers to mitigate the worst impacts of the US administration’s ruinous trade war—addressing specifically the comment from Trump that for Christmas that “maybe the children will have two dolls instead of thirty dolls and maybe they’ll cost a couple of dollars more”—including “pricing action” and differing “price points” for consumers, we enjoyed this latest comic from Ruben Bolling that’s an excellent alternative stocking stuffer for MAGA cultists with this printable dress-up Donald, though card-stock and printer cartridges will probably get pretty scarce as well by the time the holidays roll around, so it might be best to make one’s own.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit plus a treasury of unsolved mysteries

seven years ago: a visit to Nordheim vor der Rhön, Go Fact Yourself plus EULA boilerplate

eight years ago: aggressive cuts to funding for the arts,  concept low-cost housing communities plus Trump’s Dark Triad undermining the government

ten years ago: Nazi kidnappings, more links to enjoy, wisdom from Poor Richard’s Almanack plus US resistance to engaging in WWII

eleven years ago: a trip to Hannoversh Münden plus strained US-German relations over survelliance

11x11 (12. 431)

hot, cold, clash and burn: some performances from candidates for the 2025 Dance Your PhD contest with real EuroVision vibes—see previously 

man in motion: a biography of Eadweard Muybridge (previously) as a graphic novel   

pc connection: the raccoon mascot that made the catalogue stand out amongst industry uniformity—via Nag on the Lake   

popemobile: the pontiff’s conveyance used for his 2014 visit to Bethlehem to be converted into a mobile health clinic for Gaza   

oaf of office: arguing that due process is cumbersome, Trump defers to his legal team on whether it his duty to uphold the constitution 

pamflyt compiled of cheese, contayninge the differences, nature, qualities, and goodnes, of the same: an early Renaissance book on the staple food digitised and made available to the public

architecture of choice: AI buttons and the fat-finger economy pushing redesign and showhorning of non-options into everything   

sustained presence: Israel expands operations, evictions in the occupied territory   

papabili: the College of Cardinals’ report and coverage of the upcoming conclave—via Web Curios 

mingkwai: the rediscovery of an incredible antique mechanical typewriter prototype for printing Chinese characters—via Neatorama—with a video demonstration 

marge inalia: alert the grammar police, the Errorist strikes again

synchronoptica

one year ago: Expo '74 (with synchronoptica), the Cabbage Patch Kids’ maternity ward, assorted links worth revisiting plus the Grammies

seven years ago: more links to enjoy, lampooning mid-morning television, doggie bags plus election by Borda count

eight years ago: potential jail time for protesting the US attorney general, the Cornell carillon plays a tribute to the Grateful Dead plus even more links

nine years ago: gorillas sing little tunes as they eat, maps of Middle Earth, a market hall in Rotterdam plus a popular French tonic wine

ten years ago: Hee-Haw and the cancellation of Star Trek plus utopian thinking

first one hundred days (12, 422)

Though adopted as an arbitrary yet studied milestone by every subsequent US presidential administration, the phrase coined by the FDR administration was not meant to mark the anniversary of his inauguration in 1933 but rather his immediate summoning of congress back in session for three months of legislation and the passage of laws to counter the devastating economic effects of the Great Depression through fifteen major bills regarding work-programmes and reforming financial regulations. Roosevelt also signed ninety-nine executive orders during that period, a number unsurpassed by any president until Trump’s first day of his second term, albeit no significant legislation has been enacted with the involvement of the legislature. Despite celebrating his first one hundred days, lauding successes with little evidence to back it up and quite overwhelming indications of the contrary and declaring himself “unstoppable,” the campaign-style rally held in Michigan was punctuated with retribution and repetition of old grievances and lies regarding the stolen 2020 election, and while ostensibly winning on certain fronts of the culture wars and immigration with ending affirmative action, suppressing opposing viewpoints and generally affecting regressive social policies and making the prospect of coming to America—both for migrants and guests—more fraught (a serviceable PR smoke screen that few buy outside of the staunchest loyalists and probably none privately), Trump’s return has been viewed as a grift and abject failure on all counts: a burgeoning constitutional crisis with ignoring and threatening judges and sidestepping the senate, a foreign policy that abrogates the post-war world order that the US helped built and benefited greatly from with attendant loss of trust from allies and partners, rubbishing the global trade system with punishing tariffs and no way to extricate ourselves as well as retreating from its responsibilities from environmental stewardship and duty-to-care. Even the single issue that the administration can point to as a qualified success, controlling the borders, is being tainted with accounts of expulsions without cause and exporting what are considered undesirables—again with no due process—to foreign concentration camps, acts which are becoming increasingly unpalatable to even strong advocates. Detractors and even polls that indicate Trump’s approval ratings are underwater on his handling of the economy—the markets are one thing he cannot cow into submission or have “bend the knee”—and foreign policy, overplaying his hand with Putin and Xi, are dismissed as lies and fake news. The knock-on effects of blanket and threats of reposing reciprocal tariffs are just starting to be felt by average consumers, outside of the agricultural and shipping sectors and will present a rude surprise.  After reports circulated that Jeff Bezos would be displaying tariff surcharges on Amazon items (see previously), then backing off after attracting Trump’s ire, it seems like the oligarch now has no choice but to go forward with the plan and commit to the bit.