$750

Whilst specifically reporting that Trump’s tax-filings did not reveal any insights into previously unknown connections to Russia, the leaked documents to the New York Times do reveal how broken the US tax code is in allowing the wealthy and powerful to engage in tax avoidance and the industry that that activity has created plus perhaps most importantly that the fake billionaire and impeached phoney president has hundreds of millions of loans coming due in the coming years—what could potentially be during his second-term in the White House.

Much of this credit was extended to Trump by a particular bursar at Deutsche Bank (see previously here and here). Sadly even if the characterisation of Trump’s desire for re-election as an unpleasantry to be stomached for the sake of turning country into a theocracy that upholds the status quo and undermines any real or perceived threat to it is only a cover for Trump to continue his career as grifter-in-chief and support welfare programmes and executive socialism that benefit his himself and his cronies with rugged, unforgiving capitalism for the rest is shown to be the sham it’s been all along, it won’t matter to his persecuted throngs of supporters nor change any minds, so long as their demagogue hates and punishes the same people that they have been emboldened to hate and punish.

7x7

bouncing here and there and everywhere: a Finnish maths rocks band—via Things Magazine

wrr-fm: the strange and wonderful account of the first radio station in Texas—via Miss Cellania’s Links

infinity kisses: Carolee Schneemann (*1939 – †2019) experimental montage of her smooching her cats

smashedmouths: an all deep fake rendition of All Star using wav2lip subroutine—via Waxy

the medium is the message: hunting down the first mention of cybersex

eeo: Trump bans diversity training, citing them as divisive, engendering resentment and fundamentally un-American

recessive traits: heredity illustrated with gummy bears

a pox on both your houses

We’ve covered the vain aspirations of Trump to be featured on the cover of Time magazine previously and how that has translated into a lot of press albeit the infamous type, and now with the regular feature, Your Daily Donald (the gratuitous gluttons for punishment we are) Everlasting Blört directs us to the most consequential and clarion one yet—the one for the 17 August edition that illustrates the cover story of how the pandemic has transformed the election and democracy in America.

where we go one we go all

Via two of our favourite internet caretakers, Miss Cellania and Everlasting Blört, we are reminded that there’s not much new under the sun—that is, nothing that’s not referencing Poe’s Law—with this vintage bit of quackery that intersects with the cult of disinformation and conspiracy theories in general.

7x7

flotus: chainsaw sculpture of Melania Trump erected in her hometown torched on US Independence Day

[screaming internally]: assorted news items including thrill ride guidance from Japan

holy wisdom: Turkey reconsecrates Hagia Sophia as a mosque after eight decades as a museum

dining alfresco: the variety of New York’s newly founded streateries

mallrats: a tour of shopping galleries past

strike a pose: professional model An Tiantian shows off her photogenic gestures

swamping the drain: Trump wines and dines wealthy campaign donors while America slides into failed statehood

we have a great country... greatest country in the world. and we’re going to make it greater. we will make it even greater, it won't take long... it’s coming back strong, and it will be greater than ever before

After emerging from hiding in his bunker with a sizable entourage of sycophants and a squadron of National Guard troops to disperse a gathering of peaceful protesters by firing tear gas canisters, rubber bullets and flash grenades, Trump, unannounced and uninvited, proceeded to make the short march from the White House to Saint John’s Episcopal Church in adjacent Lafayette Square, the historic Church of the Presidents, to pose with it as a backdrop and brandishing a Bible as a prop. Proximity was a factor as well as the fact that the church’s basement had sustained some collateral damage from a fire that was quickly extinguished. In the previous days having broadcast “when the looting starts, the shooting stars. Thank you!” and to mayor and municipal councils “You’re going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate,” and ostensibly building on his narrative of a “few bad apples” (led by one rotten orange and not even the kind that makes penicillin) reaffirmed his commitment to law and order, surveyed the fire damage and invited members of his staff to join him for a photo-op.
Angered and appalled, beyond trouncing on the US constitutional prohibition against the state endorsing or privileging a particular faith—or any at all—his stunt garnered him a cut response from the diocese’s bishop, citing his violent escort, not praying to unite and heal the country but rather using sacred space and symbols to reinforce a message that goes against what those same symbols—including symbols of civility—stand for.  There were some rumblings within the GOP but few chinks in that wall of silence since giving voice to their collected revolution would only serve to direct attention to the fact that they could have easily voted as the senatorial jury to remove the impeached Trump but chose not to without even suffering much retribution by their constituencies as they could assign all blame to the Democrats and their undermining democracy.

you know what the crime is. the crime is very obvious to everybody.

Not content with peddling the false narrative of criminal misconduct on the part of his predecessor whose meaning is anyone’s guess—ruminating vaguely during a White House Rose Garden press conference (previously) which sink to new depths of derangement daily “it’s been going on for a long time. It's been going on from before I even got elected, and it’s a disgrace that it happened”—Trump then directed his ire back at the assembled journalists.
Becoming verbally abusive with a CBS correspondent of Asian American heritage, Weijia Jiang, who challenged his misleading propagandising of corona virus testing as leading and winning and framing it as if it were a contest that someone excused prior missteps and people still dying (presently at eighty thousand in the US and rising and by far leading in the number of cases and deaths), Trump nastily suggested that the reporter ask China, a gaffe made worse by Trump’s dismissal and denigrating a second female member of the press pool and storming away in a tantrum.

disaster gurl or this is not a drill

Courtesy of friend of the blog, the Everlasting Blört’s daily Trump digest we are treated to his Orange Menace placed in squarely in context—with the stain of impeachment just as indelible as leftover spaghetti warmed-over despite whatever theatrical victory-laps he feels he might be entitled to.
Dialling up the contrast or not, the photographer behind this image, while not an official member of the press corps or part of the crew that documents White House—is at least credentialed to be on the periphery of his subject’s comings and goings. The meme that Trump is superimposed on itself seemed rather sinister without insight into its framing: back in 2004, a local fire department was conducting some live-training and a father and daughter went to see the action, the photographer capturing her image as she realised her picture was being taken. The photograph and derivative images went viral beginning in October 2008 when it was first propagated by BuzzFeed. Disaster Girl, Zoe Roth whom her father still showcases, accepts the attention and fame but is not happy when the remixes go too dark but we think she’d approve of her meme limning this dumpster fire.

one dimensional chess

Though it is far too generous and naïve on all of our parts to hope that Trump, an impeached president ordering the assassination of foreign military leaders in contradiction to the Geneva Conventions and without informing much less consulting Congress and quite possibly his own military intelligence and senior leadership, might have a follow-on strategy that would de-escalate the situation and privilege the standing of America and its allies in the region, even the most satirical or cynical among us would not have summoned up a such a blathering, insipid response.
A day after urging protestors storming the US Green Zone and embassy compound in Baghdad in anger over US airstrikes against the Iranian-backed Kata’ib Hezbollah militia to disperse, a drone, at the direction of Donald Trump, destroyed the vehicle convoy transporting Major General and elite Quds Forces commander Qasem Soleimani and Popular Mobilisation Forces commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at the capital’s airport—barely any time elapsing since the signal to stop rallying had been issued to gauge whether the protestors were under the control of the Iranian military in the first place, as the Trump administration suggestion—absent any evidence or intention, or than a provocative missive since deleted by Trump’s son foreshadowing the drone strike. This brash, unilateral behaviour once again demonstrates to the world America’s untrustworthiness as an international partner and its penchant for betrayal rather than dialogue when relationships become strained. Undoubtedly this is a case of the tail wagging the dog and a distraction from the focus on Trump’s impeachment but I’d be willing to bet, coming from this conman and carnival-barker and his following of grifters, that there’s wrapped into that diversionary tactic (those are the only stratagem this scoundrel takes truck in—self-preservation at all costs) is something more to put on the table: offering the more hawkish elements of those that have left the Trump cabinet the war that they’ve always wanted in exchange for their continued silence.

font specimen

Previously we’ve studied the penmanship of Trump through a typeface called what else but Tiny Hand and rather shied away from this slightly Disneyesque crisp style since it was sort of endearing—that is, until one considers his signature below, which has this sonic quality of a demon screech from some alternate timeline, but with his latest rash of missives, any graphologically (which is a pseudoscience) redemptive qualities have been quite squandered, so we are enjoying this Quid Pro Quo Sans sourced from a variety of exemplars. As an added public service the font will auto-correct a range of particularly Trumpian substitutions and at the link one can experiment with crafting one’s messages on official letterhead.

deustch-amerikanischer tag

Observed under the auspices of Public Law 100-104, 101 Statute §721 and proclaimed by Ronald Reagan on the two-hundredth anniversary of the landing back in 1983, German-American Day marks the 1683 arrival (see also) of thirteen families from Krefeld near Düsseldorf and Duisberg in Philadelphia, founding the settlement of what would eventually become Germantown, Pennsylvania.
The occasion was commemorated from the seventeenth century onwards and held in other parts of the colonies and country with German diaspora but was discontinued during World War I. This first group of Mennonite families had fled Prussia for religious freedom and established the Pennsylvania Dutch identity and were among the first, along with the Quakers, to petition for the abolition of slavery in 1688. Though coinciding with Oktoberfest, the largest celebration of German culture abroad, German-American Day predates the first Wiesn of 1810 by several decades.

cheeto christ stupid czar

In anticipation of this weekend’s Emmy Awards, NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross has reprised interviews from earlier in the year from some of the nominees, including an enjoyable exchange with performer Randy Rainbow well worth revisiting.
I had intended to post Rainbow’s parody vignette of the show tune “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” lampooning the 2017 Alabama senate campaign in which a sexual predatory with the support of another sexual predator happily lost his bid, the better judgment of the electorate prevailing, thinking there couldn’t possibly be any other number more on point. This interview and medley from Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera, however, are surpassingly good and address Trump’s latest loathsome antics.

sharpiegate

The exhausting tedium of the Trump regime respecting nothing, it’s come to light that the US commerce secretary threatened staff at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency should they not recant and revise their hurricane forecast to match what the dullard Trump laughably drew on a map to extend the cone of probability into Alabama.
In order to preserve some sense of dignity in the federal government and its reputation, honouring instead of rubbishing the one kind of scientist—the meteorologist—that the public trusts and engages with on a regular basis, there are growing calls for the secretary himself to be dismissed or resign for this dangerous act of rank hypocrisy rather than stake everything on protecting the fragile ego of a man-baby.

patco

Having first organised in 1968 as a trade association before representing the interests of members as a fully-fledged labour union and lobby, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers‘ Association was effectively disbanded on this day in 1981 when then president Ronald Reagan declared their strike, called two days prior, illegal as a “peril to national safety” and ordered the federal workforce back on the job, breaking the strike by firing over twelve-thousand employees.  Faced with a lifetime ban (later eased by degrees, relaxed first to allow them civil service jobs, just not their old positions back) on government employment and disempowered to pursue the working conditions that the industry needed, Reagan‘s firings—catching many off guard, the unions have backed his candidacy over Jimmy Carter‘s re-election over sore dealings with the Federal Aviation Administration thinking relations would improve—marking the beginning of the decline of organised labour in the US, lockouts, sickouts and strike actions having dropped precipitously over the decades.

thirty-four days, twenty-one hours, eighteen minutes

NPR correspondent Jessica Taylor presents a thoroughgoing post-mortem for the longest partial government shutdown in US history, which has just been conceded by Trump without funding for his shining beacon of white supremacy. We are happy that the individuals and families who suffered needlessly—and for the imperilled public lands and public safety—that relief is forthcoming. The dedication of the few, labouring without pay, keep catastrophe in abeyance but one does have to wonder about that month of lost time and sunk costs that’s never coming back.
Payments might come out of arrears but security vulnerabilities exposed and exploited because no one was at the helm of certain agencies, research lapsed, loss of morale and cohesion, meals forgone, austere compromises and perhaps one or two incidents of bribery—since a kick-back can seem quite tempting not knowing when pay day comes next—all have lasting consequences that are not easily undone. A three-week respite, as welcome as it is, probably also means that the US government will find itself at the same fiscal impasse again in mid-February—prone to repeat itself until the administrative state force lasting resolution. Acquiescing to the desire of the legislature to reopen the government should moreover be taken with a grain of salt as it coincided with the arrest and indictment of long-time ally and advisor, Roger Stone, noted cartoon arch villain who stroked Trump’s ego for decades and encouraged his serial contention for high office, by furloughed agents of the FBI.

there will be no love except for the love of big brother

There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always—do no forget this, Winston—always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.

2 u.s.c. § 192

On the heels of an extraordinarily antagonistic, rambling press conference that saw one news organisation stripped of their White House credentials, bullied ascendant Democrats and Republicans who lost elections, antithetical Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III tendered his resignation at the request of Trump, his announcement upstaged by presidential tweet.
Though his tenure was highly contentious, Sessions’ continued presence lent an air of legitimacy to an investigation into the Trump campaign’s connections to the Russian oligarchy—which Trump never forgave his earliest supporter for recusing himself from (reportedly, the two were not on speaking-terms)—and protests are mobilising to ensure that whomever replaces Sessions at the department’s helm will not obstruct the investigation and allow it to continue unimpeded. To put this chaos in context, with little to no power in government, Democrats and patriotic Republicans were still able to curb Trump’s worse inclinations and impulse, and now that they’ve managed to gain a toehold—one-half of one-third of the branches of the federal government is certainly more than that though it sounds small—the Trump syndicate is terrified by what the “power of inquiry” in Democrats’ hands (to their chagrin, congressional Republicans changed the rules on House led investigations back in 2015, making it easier to subpoena individuals unilaterally, and failure to respond to a summons means one is in contempt of Congress) could reveal about the US Grifter-in-Chief.

flintheart glomgold

Though we should not expect much in the way of business acumen from an individual who managed to lose money running a casino and has filed for bankruptcy multiple times but I was surprised to hear, despite stating his every intention to personally capitalise on high-office, that Donald Trump has actually lost (to his consternation and envy for the success of more legitimate businessmen) over a billion dollars in wealth since the 2016 election.
His strategically located Washington, DC hotel is doing a brisk business by visiting dignitaries those who wish to curry favour with the US despot as are his tacky resorts and the plenipotentiary powers that come with members’ dues, but those ventures combined with aggressive tax-avoidance and outright evasion are not able to rehabilitate the family brand, sullied with a bothersome reputation of sexual predation, bigotry, wilful ignorance and imprisoning young children.

petard hoist much?

Howling for years how America had become the laughing-stock of the world, Donald Trump got his comeuppance in the first few lines of his ignorant and arrogant speech to the UN general assembly (previously) when his boasts of having accomplished more than any administration in history drew derisive laughter from the audience of heads of state and the diplomatic corps.
Though pretending to shrug off the response, it seemed to come as a shock to him—outside his usual insulated, self-affirming bubble of supporters who hang on his every lie at his campaign rallies—we suspect that Trump will remain determined to wipe the smiles from their faces and further isolate the US from the international community. “We reject the ideology of globalism,” Trump said, “and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism,” adding that the US will withhold aid from countries that challenge America’s agenda and fail to show respect—having only kind words for NATO partner Poland, who last week curried favour by suggesting that the proposed US permanent military installation in the country could be called Fort Trump.

press corps

Via Misscellania, we are presented with the crew at Bad Lip Reading’s treatment of the typically disdainful White House press conference. Spokesliar Huckabee Sanders is more nasty and evasive in reality than she is in this lampoon but at least she’s got a wider range of responses and comebacks than her usual blather.