days one-hundred twenty-three and four (13. 592)

Preoccupied with state funerals for the leadership killed during the onset of the war and American bread and circuses, Tehran and Washington have been mostly adhering to their armistice—although debates still remain unresolved concerning tolls for Hormuz and the Omani alternate route through the strait. Trump claims he extended the truce out of respect and charity for the former Supreme Leader and his family, though the US president interrupted his holiday schedule to speak with both Zelenskyy and Putin as efforts to end the war are seen as stalled and no closer to breaking the deadlock as the war is well into its fifth year, delivering from Mount Rushmore—there is still a movement within the GOP cult to add his visage to the monument—a relatively anodyne speech about American exceptionalism, the country’s spiritual-misguide, before veering into the sinister threat of Communism with rhetoric that rivals the Red Scare.

from vanity to insanity (13. 582)

The preliminary findings of a Democrat-led House subcommittee have been published in a report that the Trump administration staged a hostile takeover of America’s semiquincentennary celebration to promote political ideology, self-enriching pet projects, the harvesting voter data and white Christian nationalism through a shadow corporation embedded within the Nation Parks Foundation, which hijacked the agenda from the independent, non-partisan and non-profit commission established by congress in 2016 to plan and execute the event. Charted as a wholly owned subsidiary under the parks foundation charity for public remove, Trump’s Freedom 250 sustained a relentless pressure campaign against America250 to hijack the anniversary for personal enrichment through transparent fraud and dissimilitude and selling access to the president, his Praetorian guard given a bonus in lieu of overtime with crypto-coins issued by the family crime syndicate and the same firm that organised the January Sixth rally being awarded contracts for July Fourth related events. Meanwhile, after the supreme court affirmed birthright citizenship, the acting attorney general directed prosecutors and law enforcement officers to monitor pregnant non-citizens and to try to prevent them from giving birth on US soil and whilst attending the opening of the Teddy Roosevelt presidential library (skipping Obama’s) quizzed the AI-generated hologram of Old Rough and Ready about the Panama Canal and lied to the press, whom had just witnessed the exchange, about how it went.

you do really have to hand it to the algae (13. 575)

…for their relentless message discipline. Despite the fact it registers lower on the national and global insult level of what Trump heinous things has done than the Melania movie, the ongoing fiasco surrounding the Capitol Reflecting Pool has managed to capture public attention through successive news cycles whilst we might forget even the latest demolition job on civil rights, the environment, rule-of-law, world-order, democracy and even on the architectural landscape and heritage of Washington, DC—for as precious that Americans can be about such things, the response over the extensive remodelling of the White House was muted and resigned.
The resonance of this renovation lies in its scale for the rapine and corruption and incompetence and grift that are too big to contemplate soberly (hence, flooding the zone) but also in the fact that something humbling yet manageable exploded with scapegoating, outsourcing and more deflection rather than finding a remedy, behaviour that violates the code of all dads everywhere (and the like) when it comes to cleaning a grungy pool, firing up a backyard grill or planning a party.

nobody’s laughing at us anymore—said the man filling in for milli vanilli (13. 560)

Though I’ve grown increasingly reluctant to delve into US domestic affairs and scandals as increasingly irrelevant and pathetic, I was beside myself for the captivation I am feeling for the American State Fair, a slapdash event hastily put together despite an alleged quarter of a millennium’s advanced warning, seemingly but the same people who brought us the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory Experience, Trump’s semiquincentenary task force—see previously. Following threats to cancel it altogether after most musical acts withdrew over the partisan political overtones of the patriotic festival—with several states also canceling plans to participate and not contributing their pavilions, first hand reports of opening-day describe a rather bleak and poorly attended public entertainment, with disappointing booths, a touch of grift and evangelicalism and a mock up of Trump’s triumphal arch. All I owe Ioway—It’s a grand night for singing.

8x8 (13. 550)

add to dictionary: a remembrance of the departed Tony Krueger, the software engineer that introduced red squiggles to word-processing to indicate a potential error  

seen by the machine: AI scores one’s relative importance by billions of datapoints called “the weights”—please consider the environmental impact before googling oneself—via MetaFilter 

drain the swamp: a meme roundup on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool  

cancon: musical acts propelled to stardom over minimum requirements for domestic content on Canadian airwaves—via Miss Cellania and Nag on the Lake  

reading the room: a moment of silence observed before interviews with filmmakers to take in the room tone as a supercut from Criterion  

a la carte: US history told in early restaurant menus—see previously  

able mabel: a robotic maid from 1966  

usa a-ok: more than amplifying random statistical noise, an interesting look at Americans’ misspellings mapped

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Carnac Stones (with synchronoptica) plus a trip to Belz

two years ago: exploring Maccagno  

three years ago: artist and freedom fighter Willem Arondéus, a revolt and march toward Moscow plus the last Emperor

four years ago: Germany legalises abortion plus a work cruise on the Rhein

five years ago: artist Robert Rotar, the goddess of luck, the bells of Bad Hersfeld, assorted links to revisit plus Cubist cars

six years ago: an orchestra for houseplants,  the Battle of Bamber Bridge (1943), tourists not welcome plus the Pontiac Ghost Car

day one-hundred eleven (13. 534)

Unveiling the new Air Force One, a used Qatari 747 gifted to the US president, Trump will hold cabinet meetings at Camp David over the weekend (he’ll make the short trip to upper Maryland by Marine One) as peace talks with Tehran scheduled to begin in Switzerland have been postponed, having only gone to the disfavoured official retreat one other time during his second term to discuss ending the war in Gaza. Defending his diplomatic blunder which at best solves some of the problems he started with the war and gives away too much to Iranian, putting the US in a far weaker position, Trump says, “We didn’t negotiate out of desperation—Iran did, they’re done. We’ll go through sixty days. They won’t get any money, not even ten cents.” The paint job ordered for the capitol reflecting pool on the Washington DC ellipse, costing fourteen million dollars, to turn it “American flag blue” for America’s birthday celebration is chipping and algae blooms have turned it toxic green.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: camping opposite Chinon (with synchronoptica) 

two years ago: Ursula K Le Guin’s webpages plus assorted links to revisit

three years ago: the Stars On cover series, promotional marketing for 2001 plus article spinning

four years ago: the Glastonbury festival (1971) plus the formula for streaming series

five years ago: Germany consolidates its capital, wandering lonely as a cloud, the gap in the Watergate tapes, the V2 rocket plus a unique Olympic medal

six years ago: North Korean UNICODE, Cher does West Side Story plus Jaws (1975)

9x9 (13. 499)

of all the us presidents he’s still the mussoliniest: Randy Rainbow reprises his rendition of the Major General’s Song, see previously—via Miss Cellania  

twenty-first century nightmares: Bill Hsu presents a collection of dark animated films 

hello dalí: a marginally remastered copy of the bizarre 1973 ITV profile of the artist surfaces on Youtube  

éolienne: an innovative nineteenth century redesign for the windmill  

responding with improvisation and exhaustion: meeting the subliterate where they are is a disservice to education  

necropolis: marine researchers discover the site of a whale fall in a deep rift valley of the Indian ocean  

guest-starring in alphabetical order: Poseidon’s Underworld on the short-lived 1984 television series Glitter about the cast of a glossy magazine  

the meatseller: an harrowing and brutal animation of a young migrant’s journey from Nigeria to Italy 

 there was nothing in al capone’s vault but it wasn’t geraldo’s fault: premiere episode of America’s history in one hundred objects (see also) begins with an underwhelming time capsule opened in 1976

day ninety (13. 471)

In a seemingly unending iteration of market manipulation and Friday-to-Monday pump-and-dump, though the administration has diluted and democratised hedging and insider trading by opening wagering to all grifters of any means, Trump’s announcement of a meeting in the White House Situation Room to extend the already broken ceasefire—neither side apparently willing to resume all out war over tit-for-tat exchanges at American’s provocation—is being hailed as an end to the standoff, despite the framework of an agreement, the memorandum of understanding being in the works for weeks already, sticking points still unresolved and US commitment to removing the naval blockade and the reopening of the strait (without tolls), giving up the stockpile of enriched uranium, reparations and the exuent of US troops from the region matters still under discussion. Hardly exciting or newsworthy, notwithstanding Trump’s caricaturisation of a homecoming moment, and concessions to Trump’s demands do not seem forthcoming, so long as Tehran can wait it out and there is some profit to be made at the margins—regardless of the expense to global economy and the Iranian people. An emergency session of NATO convenes after an errant Russian drone hits an apartment building in Romania.

11x11 (13. 450)

o’dark ocho: an interesting linguistic coincidence  

wildlife gusher: a mysterious structure found in the middle of nowhere—click through to read some delightful and illuminating explanations, via Miss Cellania  

thomas jerome newton: a rereading of the novel The Man Who Fell to Earth in preparation for a rewatch of the David Bowie film  

富くじ: Present /&/ Correct’s collection of Mid-Century Japanese lottery tickets—see also 

spook hotel: the de facto capitol of US administered Venezuela  

kleptocracy: Trump drops his ten billion dollar lawsuit agains his internal revenue service and department of commerce in exchange for a two billion dollar slush fund to award loyalists and exempt himself and associates from future tax audits—via Kottke  

œnology methodology: the study and enjoyment of wine—see previously  

special envoy: Trump sends governor of Louisiana to Greenland to make “friends”  

night nurse: the forgotten author Dora Macy behind the Barbara Stanwyck classic  

public health emergency of international concern: World Health Organisation declares west Africa outbreak of ebola viral haemorrhage fever highly dangerous with the US CDC still not allowed to communicate with the UN body  

cowcumbers: the courgette was previously called so as they were only considered fit for bovines