gen z protests (12. 712)

Following large scale demonstrations organised by students and young people ignited initially by a ban on social media platforms—which are a lifeline and a way to keep families in touch for a generation of people who left the country because of poor job prospects at home to work under inhuman conditions in the Middle East—and articulated into a general grievance against political corruption and mismanagement, the prime minister, K P Sharma Oli (के.पी. शर्मा ओली), and many cabinet members resigned and fled Kathmandu today as the parliament building and other government offices and residences burned. Last Thursday’s ordered shutdown of Facebook, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Reddit, YouTube and others (TikTok faced a six month ban in Nepal—to preserve social harmony—until lifted last August, stirring similar reactions) cited the companies’ failure to comply with the new registration requirements of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology—with critics of the move citing the embarrassment of government officials over posts that revealed rank nepotism and their lavish lifestyles. Although the government voted to rescind the ban yesterday, the restoration of social media did not quell the discontent or violent clashes. The military has imposed martial law and is enforcing a curfew. The prime ministers of Japan and France also resigned today—but for different reasons, namely a crisis in confidence from their respective parties and a collapse in tenuous collations, strained to the breaking point.

9x9 (12. 704)

the free encyclopaedia: why Wikipedia works—see more 

steeple with tyneham: 1970 reportage on the ghost village taken over by the Ministry of Defence in 1943 as a firing range  

john deere: venerable American agricultural equipment manufacturer struggling with tariff chaos, decreased demand for US crops  

primary residence: investigators find several Trump cabinet officials guilty of the same mortgage fraud leveraged against his enemies—see previously   

the fyurry byerds of the night: Ze Frank (previously) on bats  

fifty basis points: the US Fed signals it will cut interest rates due to successive poor jobs reports 

homeland security: Seoul sends diplomats to a Hyundai, LG factory in Georgia after immigration raids which saw the arrest of nearly five hundred workers, ICE dismissing claims that such actions deter foreign investments   

città dei balocchi: the abandoned Las Vegas of Italy  

gptzero: Wikipedia style guide that outs AI agents

synchronoptica

one year ago: a electromechanical rotor cipher (with synchronopticæ), the ugly, car-centric focus of American urban planning plus assorted links worth revisiting

twelve years ago: mapping US/Soviet bases in divided Germany, proposals for a permanent venue for the Olympics plus an act of bioterrorism by sabotaging harvests

thirteen years ago: some castles of Berlin-Brandenburg, visions of the Apocalypse plus honest book covers

fourteen years ago: the EU economy and the single currency plus facial-recognition and dragnet surveillance 

weekend at esptein’s (12. 685)

Following a virtually silent period with suspiciously few tweets from the White House and zero public events scheduled (though Trump would be the easiest figure to reanimate through AI given all the braggadocio, vindictive nonsense and non-sequitirs he’s said and could be truly perpetuated forever by the party in the fashion of Lenin or the Kim dynasty), rumours—probably wishful thinking and premature—began to circulate on the president’s preferred platform and elsewhere of his death or disability, which would be doubly iconic given it’s the Labour Day long weekend, having destroyed the morale of the federal workforce, dismantled trade unions and lurched the American worker towards technocratic feudalism and the forced exodus at the Centres for Disease Control and accepting medical advice from the likes of RFK Jr. No official statement was put out to the contrary, coming after weeks of JD Vance saying he is ready to take on the presidency should need arise, which in fairness is his job description though woefully ill-equipped to hold the coalition of the vile, the expendable, opportunists and useful idiots plus with Trump talking about getting into Heaven, convinced that a Noble peace prize would persuade St Peter (tariffing India fifty-percent for not sponsoring his nomination) and for now there’s only one grainy photograph of Trump golfing, perhaps a body-double—at the course where he buried his ex-wife in order to earn a tax-exemption by designating the property as a cemetery—having been snuffed out to keep her from dishing on Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, perhaps foreshadowing his own new tactic for delay and distraction, by dying—“it will be the biggest death of all time!” Though very much of a tool and pliable like Trump, Vance has a deficit of the charisma to fill the power vacuum and there will be a violent crisis of succession. We won’t believe it until Russian state media is preempted with Swan Lake and announces the death of long-time operative Krasnov. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION IN THIS MATTER!  We now return to regular programming already in progress.

if you’re pushing slop or eating it, you wouldn’t read it anyway—you’d ask a bot for a summary and forget what i told you, then proceed with your day, unchanged by word you did not read and ideas you did not consider (12. 678)

Via JWZ, we really enjoyed this considered and thoroughgoing declaration by an inveterate and unapologetic AI hater, Anthony Moser, that rehashes the litany of remonstrances (already well established) and shames us for collectively embracing the rude technology uncritically and enthusiastically. Overhyped and oversold, AI peddlers are not condemned by their failures and shortcomings but rather by their veiled promises not for innovation or utopia but rather a new class of unthinking individuals enslaved to simulacra that do what they’ve determined is an acceptable surrogate for the reasoning and deciding. Bespoke human content indeed, it was hard to find a single line to pull as it all flows together, concluding with the author’s conversion, radicalisation sourced in doing things that are particularly and uniqueness human, adding, “The machine is disgusting and we should break it. The people who build it are vapid sh*t-eating cannibals glorifying ignorance. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.” It is very Butlerian jihad and post-post-truth, I wonder how we might engage this technology, and how the trajectory itself would have developed, if realities weren’t splintered and tribal.

consumable and durable goods (12. 660)

We are directed to a rather engaging evolution of a logo via the Chicago-based trade journal, formerly published under the titles Business Equipment and National Stationer, Office Appliances: The Magazine of Office Equipment, in regular circulation from 1904 to 1993. 

 The long history documents changing styles in formatting and typography in pace with technology, from neoclassical to Art Deco to Bauhaus and beyond but the key, the work space conclave, is ever-present. 

These cover-to-cover periodicals come courtesy of the Internet Archives’ microfiche scanning operations, which one can watch live with the accompaniment of lofi soundtrack and a sidebar of the latest digitalisation, now particularly focused on livestreaming the release and preservation of US government records with off-hour montages of highlights from their public domain collections. More from Tenth Letter of the Alphabet at the link up top.

synchronoptica

one year ago: cellular pathology (with synchronopticæ) plus vice president Nelson Rockefeller 

thirteen years ago: the German energy revolution 

seventeen years ago: an old car tuckers out 

made man (12. 617)

On this day, at some time after 15:00 local time, James “Jimmy” Riddle Hoffa, American labour activist and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, disappeared under mysterious circumstances in Bloomfield Township, Michigan—a suburb of Detroit. Involved with organised crime and the Mafia since his early years working with the union, making accommodations and compromises with gangsters that often controlled trucking and warehouse guilds through the 1930s in order to leverage strength in numbers and consolidate disparate associations for collective bargaining, though the influence of the Mafia increased as membership grew.

Various allegations of bribery, fraud and corruption cast a pall over his tenure from 1957 through his 1963 indictment for jury tampering, prosecuted by Attorney General Robert F Kennedy. Despite harsh sentencing, Hoffa was reelected to a third term as the Teamsters’ president, resigning from office in 1971 while still in prison as a condition of a presidential pardon, Nixon commuting his sentence of thirteen years to time served, less than five, pledging not to engage with any labour organisation for a period of nine years. The unions endorsed Nixon’s 1972 reelection bid, breaking with tradition of supporting the Democratic candidate. By the following year, Hoffa sought to return to union leadership and unsuccessfully sued the administration to invalidate those restrictions, and undeterred planned to regain his role—despite his parole and vocal opposition from dons and caporegimes of prominent criminal syndicates. Hoffa had arranged a meeting on the afternoon of 30 July at the Machus Red Fox restaurant, venue of his son’s wedding reception, in order to make peace with two of those Mafia families. Hoffa was stood up however when none showed at the appointed time, documented by a call home from a payphone, and friends found his unlocked car in the restaurant’s parking lot early the next morning. Extensive searches, surveillance and depositions yielded no leads, and Hoffa was declared legally deceased by a judge on the anniversary of his disappearance in 1982 with no individuals charged. Not infrequent excavations in the Detroit area and perennial indulges from The Irishman to Bruce Almighty sustain the mystery and haunt America’s attitudes toward the labour movement and unions to this day.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ) plus Monty Hall enlightenment 

twelve years ago: sci-fi author Hugo Gernsbach

fourteen years ago: a trip to Aquitaine and Medoc 

fifteen years ago: metamorphoses plus Big Tech’s partnership with spy agencies

blessed be the fruit (12. 585)

After having taken away workplace flexibilities and maximal telework and remote working postures purely out of spite—not enhancing workgroup cohesion since all meetings and encounters are still conducted virtually for the most part, just adding misery to government employees returned to under maintained and overcrowded offices or nearest available government-leased or owned building (only to sell off surplus real estate prior to accommodating everyone, including those who never worked in an office), the latest guidance from the Office of Personnel Management regarding religious accommodation encourages agencies to utilise a variety of flexibilities in order to not infringe on one’s faith practise, to include variable schedules and teleworking and fulfil religious obligations (sabbath, holiday preparation, periods of fasting and time-specific prayer) without compromising department mission, adding that telework is a low-cost solution that does not impose operational burdens. To the exclusion of agnostics and atheists, the memorandum does include surprisingly inclusive language—though we know the target audience is Christian Nationalists and perceived slights and prejudice will be weaponised (see previously) to promote a certain theological point of view.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Bell Systems’ Science series (with synchronopticæ) plus the medium is the metaphor

cyberstress (12. 580)

We quite enjoyed this rather wholesome reminder, via r/ObscureMedia, from 1997 that goes beyond office ergonomics—which is frankly where most concepts of workplace well-being stopped and didn’t progress any further, from this cosmic guide to relax… take breaks… relax… take breaks… Me in 1997 would have been suspicious and very dismissive of such advice but now realise it was way ahead of its time—like an epiphany—and did manage to relieve my tension.

7x7 (12. 565)

alligator auschwitz: Trump’s Florida detention centre is by every definition a concentration camp

solvitur ambulando: when in doubt, go for a walk—see previously  

mcmxxv—mmxxv: the century in one hundred films 

rif me daddy: US supreme court overrules injunction against executive branch illegal mass firings after passage of Trump’ domestic policy agenda  

geschirrspüler: a 1959 German dishwasher in action  

adam und eva: a group of Europeans’ failed attempt to found a utopia during the interbellum period on a remote Galápagos island—via Neatorama 

race and ethnicity: the case of George Shishim, invoking Jesus, illustrates the particularly American obsession with whiteness to the exclusion of others—see more

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

cog in the wheel (12. 435)

Whilst apologists and Trump’s re-shoring spokesmen declares that new US factory jobs will make up for redundancies manufactured elsewhere (despite the fact that even if heavy industry enthusiastically embraces the chaotic invitation, most labour has been automated and manpower replaced by machines), we were quite enthralled by this resonant 1925 parable endorsed by Lenin and Stalin for the potential for counter-messaging with children’s literature and adopting a method of propaganda reputedly employed by the bourgeoisie. Vintik-Shpintik (The Little Screw, Винтик-шпинтик) by Nikolai Agnivtev was agitprop for young readers, the best seller, quickly adapted into an animated short, relating how a factory is kept chugging along only with the cooperation of its smallest members. Much more from Public Domain Review at the link above.

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. 

finite jest (12. 398)

Via Strange Company, we are treated to a studied, insider’s look into the profession of a medieval court jester, whose roles were not limited and limned by buffoonery, classified with the broadest of distinctions as “natural” and “licensed” fools—the former being kept creatures by dint of deformity, physical prodigy or mental frankness and the latter being given a wide latitude for critique and commentary. Those enjoying royal office were not only engaged at the pleasure of the monarch for their honed wits and skills but also were frequently charged with discharging household duties and other administrative tasks as well, during times of conflict, were elevated to expendable ombudsmen, though these second-class emissaries were often not received well, giving rise to the phrase, “Don’t shoot the messenger.” We further learn that it was customary for a jester to have in their quiver not only a recognised costume and signature schickt but also a trademark wooden sceptre, a marotte, carved with their trademark visage (see previously, see also). More from Just History Posts and Strange Company at the links above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus redacted Ewoks

seven years ago: RIP Carl Kasell, Banksy’s Bethlehem hotel, crypto markets, artist Yuge Zhou plus the meaning of Japanese emoji

eight years ago: meals-ready-to-eat from militaries around the world plus more adult beverages of France mapped

nine years ago: campaigning against female circumcision plus a board game exploring race and privilege

twevle years ago: coded instructions for a deadly toxin plus Germany’s Energiewende

people were getting yippy (12. 380)

Though the markets reacted with a rally that restored some of the trillions in wealth evaporated in the chaos of the past few days, nothing is fixed by this pause for bespoke tariffs—the universal tax of ten percent is being levied on exports from essentially every country on Earth and for Chinese goods, at the time of writing, facing a 125% duty. This is America’s Brexit moment: the multi-front trade war may have been polarised between Washington and Beijing but this negotiation period of three months is highly unlikely to net any real progress—especially through the lens of the UK’s departure from the EU and the drawn out complexity of leaving and reintegrating with continental partners as a bloc that is still fraught with challenges and damaged trade relations. China’s refusal to withdraw its retaliatory measures and to go toe-to-toe with Trump will only escalate matters. And while stocks may have pivoted in response to this less worse news, the credibility is squandered not only by this abrupt turn-about, that the US flinched, but moreover there’s no guarantee that negotiators could keep their end of a bargain and it unclear what if any concessions would be offered in return for relocating manufacturing or loosening regulations on environmental and safety standards. For a brief time it seemed that Trump would not be cowed by the markets—and from his telling, it was always part of genius plan—it seems that he was not wholly untethered to economic forces and nearly as one can surmise, the threat to the bond exchange (investors, foreign and domestic, generally retreating to buying and holding US debt as a safe haven in times of broader turmoil) with the usual flock not materialising this time was sufficient to spook his advisors and convince him to change course. With little investor appetite for government securities, the US would need to offer higher interest to finance their debts, whose rates determine all others and could very quickly make borrowing for anyone very difficult and lead to a panic. China and Trump are both willing to gamble with the economic future, though the former is positioned to gain in the long-term by standing fast in this trial if it is able to shift its focus from exports toward consumption whereas for the latter, the market is very much saturated. Unfortunately countries uncoupled from doing business together are generally disengaged from working together on tackling bigger problems, like foreign policy and the environment, as well.

berufsbeamtengesetz (12. 372)

The full formal title in English having a familiar ring, The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service was enacted on this day in 1933 two months after Hitler’s rise to power is among the earliest examples of racist and anti-Semitic legislation in the regime, the main thrust of decree was to establish and promote a “national” and expert administrative state by dismissing certain groups of tenured employees, compelling those with Jewish or “non-Aryan” origins to retire or resign and terminating members with ties, real or suspected, to the Communist Party and affiliate organisations. Forbidding these individuals from holding teaching positions or judgeships at first before being expanded to a range of jobs including lawyers, tax consultants, doctors and notaries public, the law and harsh conditions spurred many to flee the country before being expelled, due to heritage or political beliefs. While briefly offering functionaries who had been employed since 1918 and had not yet attained the training and skills to faithfully execute their office should be let go, the text in the main concerned itself with presenting a false narrative of races and how to gauge non-Aranan descent and putting the onus of proof on individuals wanting to keep their positions—Arienachweis, Ahnenpass. Civil servants could be made redundant without cause and forced into retirement to advance the “simplification of administration” with vacancies eliminated. Pensions for this dismissed class of employees were also eventually phased out.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Italian cafe culture accoutrements (with synchronoptica), pixelated dioramas,  assorted links worth the revisit plus a banger from Rick James

seven years ago: the Smooth-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930

eight years ago: unmasking Trump critics plus more links to enjoy

nine years ago: a sonnet generating algorithm, more on the Panama Papers and other tax havens plus a German comedian fined for insulting Turkish leadership

ten years ago: criminal mastermind Adam Worth, a double dose of assorted links, grocery shopping without packaging plus Cyprus joins the eurozone

9x9 (12.357)

gondor assault small group: a poem for the first of April  

unitedhealthcare: US attorney Pam Boni general will seek the death penalty in the slaying of company CEO  

yield my time: Senator Cory Booker’s speech on the chamber floor at eighteen hours and counting 

dataviz: an infographic challenge round to recreate the WEB Du Bois economic and demographic charts as presented during the 1900 Paris Exposition using modern tools—via Quantum of Sollazo  

nearby jobs: Chinese omni-app points flexible users to local gig opportunities and side-quests—shake it ’til you make it 

unabhängigkeitserklärung: from Der Zeit, Europe frees itself from American hegemony but starving their attention—via Kottke  

wyld stallyns: texting conversation demonstrates that we’re in the wrong timeline  

mora, negare, deponere: archaeologists uncover fresco foretelling the coming of Saint Luigi 

 i scorn the morn: ‘conjugated nouns’ by linguist Arnold M Zwicky

hr 1968 (12. 305)

Though hard to forecast what might have been the better path through an undesirable binary, and mostly cleaving to party lines, an early procedural vote against cloture and ultimately advancing of a continuing resolution through the senate to avoid a US government shutdown at midnight seems to have been a grave political miscalculation with Democrats squandering the only leverage they had to slow or derail Trump’s dismantling of the federal bureaucracy. In response to Musk commenting that closing down the government might be a preferable course of action for the DOGE agenda, senate minority leader Chuck Schumer reversed his stance on the spending bill that keeps government funded through the end of the fiscal year and along with nine other Democrats, voted with Republicans for the passage, reaching the sixty votes needed to avoid a filibuster—earning praise from Trump for his decision and highlighting deep divisions within the party. If the GOP had wanted the government to shutdown, they wouldn’t have advanced the budget in the first place, which until it passed the first hurdle of the house of representatives, Democrats were united against it. The CR is essentially a sequestration, maintaining funding levels but removing line item allocations and collapsing appropriations into larger pots of money, further abrogating the role of congress and allowing the executive branch to move funds, legally, as it sees fit.  Unabated with his assault on the republic, Trump issued more executive orders while roll-call was happening on the senate floor, rescinding the federal minimum wage of fifteen dollars per hour, the mandate for agencies to share data on emergent public health threats as well as order the closure of the parent agency that operates Voice of America and Radio Free Europe and smaller offices that handle labour disputes, the council on homelessness, developing minority-owned businesses and the institute of museum and library services—agency heads given seven days to justify their existence and prove that their work is statutorily required.

lemon lot (12. 298)

We’re all weary of these fascist antics of Trump and his viceroy and there are far more destructive and dangerous acts being committed by the administration (a litany of horrors bears repeating but is quickly growing too lengthy to recap or process—with the latest being the detention and possible deportation of a student for organising pro-Gaza peace rallies which is a test on limiting free speech and reigning in the latitude of elite and liberal universities and eviscerating the department of education) but this photo-op of Trump’s newly acquired Tesla really is beyond the pale. In response to buyers’ remorse and some incidents of vandalism perpetrated on Cybertrucks and verbal assaults, fragile owners have convinced their congressional representatives to classify such attacks as “hate crimes” with Trump selecting the vehicle from a line-up as his new personal automobile, not the reviled flagship make and model, on the White House south lawn—further blurring ethical lines for Musk’s roles in government leading DOGE initiatives and receiving billions in federal contracts with SpaceX and Starlink, simultaneously dismantling his chief competitor NASA while running the Nazi bar formerly known as Twitter and the Columbia House Music Club inspired car subscription service—blatantly signalling the economy will be driven by favouritism and crony capitalism. Trump endorsed his purchase, at market-value, “I think he has been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people—and I just want people to know he can’t be penalised for being a patriot, and he’s also done an incredible job with Tesla,” and used the opportunity to reiterate that the private company had been subject to “ongoing and heinous acts of violence” orchestrated by radical leftists and declared that occupation or protests on dealerships will be henceforth labeled as acts of domestic terrorism and that perpetrators will “go through hell” for their infractions. Musk’s wealth and Trump’s favourability depend on their brands being not toxic for their own wealth and success and seem to be summarily alienating their consumers and constituents.

ideas lying around (12. 273)

Cory Doctorow couches the current pandemonium that America has inherited in the succession of dormant crises that neoliberal economics professor turned advisor to Reagan and Thatcher Milton Friedman and his acolytes (previously), recognising that external pressures and anxiety can quickly spiral out of control “ideas can move from the periphery to the centre in an eyeblink,” and in his role was responsible keep those regressive notions in his quiver and ready to deploy at a moment’s notice when the public was most vulnerable and susceptible to turning.  As with the illiberalism that rose from the pandemic and second-wave inflation that followed, the US is emboldened to be disruptive but in ways that that are shortsighted, not sustainable and likely to backfire, repatriating off-shored industry is a process as gradual and fraught as any economic pressures that saw the loss of manufacturing capacity in the first place and won’t be fixed by tariffs, as bad as reversing posture on the environment are, clean, renewable energy is at a crucial juncture and looking less and less like that oil could ever recapture its primacy, dismantling the administrative state and defaming bureaucracy and rubbishing allies and a world order its helped maintain for decades does not put American interests first but rather risks its further descent into a pariah nation, a kleptocracy and failed petrostate with nuclear weapons. These uncertain times can also engender mainstreaming the fringe and reframing it something that people want desperately or reject categorically, but hopefully the cranks and charlatans have lost their lustre and those under their influence radicalised.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth the revisit (with synchronoptica), the inauguration of Andrew Jackson, Penrose tiles plus die variants

seven years ago: a quilted autograph collection plus modern day hobo symbols

eight years ago: Girls’ Day customs and doll displays, more links to enjoy plus US vice-president’s mixing of personal and official emails

nine years ago: sanctions imposed against North Korea, portable Macs for astronauts plus a robotic dog

ten years ago: even more links plus maps that never happened

eo 10924 (12. 269)

Established on this day by executive order from John F Kennedy and authorised by the US congress later in September, the Peace Corps is an independent agency of the federal government that trains volunteers and deploys them to local communities around the world to assist developing countries in health and environmental programmes, education, empowering women and the marginalised and making resilient polities that enshrine American values of democracy, free markets and entrepre-neurship, respecting local customs and norms by embedding participants with a command of the prevailing language and living under the same general conditions as their outreach group. Pitched as missionaries of democracy to provide technical advice and assistance, the Corps dispatched some nine hundred volunteers to fifty-two partner countries in its first year, Kennedy committed to its formation in the final days of his presidential campaign—realising the potential to genuinely help people in post-colonial Asia and Africa and counter stereotypes of US imperialism and hegemony—against his opponent Nixon who called the proposal a magnet for draft dodgers and a “cult of escapism.”