enfant déplorable ou clutching at straws, clutching at pearls

The world owes a huge debt of gratitude for halting the march of destabilisation of democracy in rejecting a platform based on fear and xenophobia in favour of an untested (though very much of the same pedigree of the political establishment) candidate whose youth and non-partisanship was last seen with Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte III, plus for resisting the urge to turn inward despite having borne the brunt of recent terror attacks. Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche!, as with the Front nationale, is an outlier of the political parties that had traditional governed France and the results of the first run-off were uncomfortably close, and though the newcomer won by a decisive margin and has a mandate for the direction he wants to take the country.
I am also certain, however, that the transfer of power will be less than absolutely peaceable, owing the tyranny that’s already been unleashed on the world and the upcoming rounds of parliamentary elections that might also reject conventional narratives, since after all there was a not insignificant number of voters that supported Le Pen—quipping just before her defeat that the Republic would be inevitably ruled by a woman: “either herself or Angela Merkel”—and voter-turn out even with so much at stake was historically low with many feeling disenfranchised and disengaged with politics altogether. The last minute breach and release of potentially incriminating campaign documents was a grasping ploy that was diffused and that along with other incidents engineered to either overtly or covertly affect the outcome of the race that failed illustrate how social engineering has the traction that we give it. Even fake news, regardless of the amount that the recipient wanted to be it to be true, was rebuffed with a shrug of resignation—not because the French are jaded or expect less from their leaders, but because response is a measured one, not determined by political machines whose gears are often jammed in translation. No amount of messaging, surrogacy and propaganda trumps education and advocacy. Vive la France!  Vive l’Europe!

saw or the devil and the white city

We were first acquainted with prolific serial killer HH Holmes (and his “murder castle” through Futility Closet some weeks ago. The gruesome true story which is certainly the received wisdom for much of the horror genre took place in 1893 Chicago during the Columbian Exposition when Holmes, hotelier, bigamist and insurance fraudster, opened up his accommodation to the many tourists that came to town to marvel at the fair.
The hostel however was a deadly labyrinth of traps, including a crematorium to dispose of the evidence. It is unknown how many victims Holmes slaughtered, and there’s some measure of doubt whether Holmes was ultimately served justice or evaded it, and fled to South America by some accounts. To settle that debate, his ancestors have requested Holmes’ body to be exhumed and tested. For all the horror tropes we see in this story and how many movies it has influenced (bearing in mind that even if there’s an element of a tall-tale or urban legion, that these are real victims not thirty year old teenage characters in a script), it’s that final act and final question—is the monster dead and the terror resolved or is there a sequel-potential, that seems to loom largest.

dark triad or but our princess is in another castle

Informed by the trope of the paid professional protester that supposedly presents a threat to America’s infrastructure and energy-security rather than the real agents provocateur that have infiltrated the highest offices of government in fact, the state of Oklahoma—whose antagonistic attorney general was recently elevated to agency secretary responsible for environmental protection—is introducing further legislation that could potentially bankrupt not only protestors that cross the fragile and thin-skinned lines of civil disobedience by causing material harm to properties appertaining to said energy-security or businesses working in support of it but would also hold conspirators financial accountable—by ten-fold.
This is a pretty broad-brush in favour of the petroleum industry that’s already managed to health, safety and environmental regulations that have been obstacles to greater profit, and now along with other anti-protest laws defacing equipment with a protest slogan or being kettled into trespassing could carry a fine of one hundred thousand dollars. The dark triad of the title refers to the three universal personality traits that typify intimidation, bullying and toxic leadership: narcissism, Machiavellianism (being duplicitous in statecraft and business dealings and without ethical standards) and sociopathy. This disdain that corporations have for the environment and individuals did not begin with this regime but certainly benefits from it and will spread if allowed to continue unchecked.

homesteading oder traumhaus

A Dutch architectural firm has plans to transform a former US Army base in Mannheim into a concept low-cost housing neighbourhood with shared living accommodations and services with modular units (that reminded me a little of Monopoly houses and hotels but with more variety and nuance).
Funari Barracks in Mannheim are a portion of the Benjamin Franklin installation that the US army occupied from the end of World War II until 2012 and the latest rounds of restructuring—but I was given to understand that the entire was not returned to the land-management office of Baden-Württemberg and some facilities in Mannheim were reactivated at least temporarily a way-station for returning convoys of tanks and other heavy armoured vehicles that were shipped back to the States a few years prior, now returned and bound for points further East. Geopolitics aside, I believe there’s enough space to realise this very liveable model community and inspire more neighbourhoods structured like this.

second fiddle

After learning of the severe state of disrepair that the musical instruments of Philadelphia’s public schools were facing, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Robert Blackson turned the challenge and tragedy for aspiring musicians exacerbated by cuts to funding of the arts into a creative opportunity.
First all the broken instruments were gathered and the curtailed range of the sounds that they could still produce (violins with missing or no strings or hopelessly mangled brasses) were sampled and a concert was scored—a cacophonous, haunting preview can be heard at the link up top—and through proceeds and patronage, all the instruments were adopted and rehabilitated. The attention that the broken orchestra drew also made it possible to install an instrument repair workshop in each school so they can keep their programmes going in the future and students might learn an additional trade as well.

the admiralty regrets to announce

The repository of one JF Ptak has demonstrated itself time and time again to be a wealth of forgotten ephemera whose detail informs phenomena of greater weight and circumstance, and this pamphlet issued by Nazi Germany in 1941 that was meant to dissuade France from siding with the United Kingdom is no exception.
The standard salutation for bad news coming out of the British navy was “the Admiralty regrets to announce” and was appropriated for this piece of propaganda to demonstrate to its target audience (all in French except for the title) that the UK was unable to meet its own logistics needs in peace time—told through maps and charts, and much less during times of conflict and privation. Find out more about this particular instrument of psychological warfare at the link up top and explore more antiquarian treasures at the book shop.