a fine-tuned machine

Pressed for an answer by his ministry of propaganda, the piece of filth Trump reaffirmed his lack of commitment to the North Atlantic Treat Organisation—despite taking credit for “fixing” the institution after last week’s summit by expressing doubts in the pact’s provision of collective defence—that an attack on one member is an attack on all members, offering up Montenegro as the first concession to Russia. “Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people. They are an aggressive people,” Trump said, having shoved the prime minister of the south eastern European republic, formerly part of Yugoslavia, Duško Marković aside to get the best spot for a group photograph at a conference. “They may get aggressive and congratulations, you are in World War III.” Jesus wept.

sophisti-pop

I picked up on the term for a musical sub-genre that resonated with me encountered on a podcast, applied to second wave 80s songs from the UK that integrate soul and jazz elements, often performed with synthesisers and saxophone interludes. Artist classified as sophisti-pop include Swing Out Sister, Sade, Simply Red, Level 42 and the Blow Monkeys.

a family affair

Our faithful chronicler, Doctor Caligari, reports that this day—among many other things—the proclamation in 1917 from King George V to change the family surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor in order to distance the royal family from a rather serious internecine spat amongst the extended family.
Also on this day in the following year, George’s cousin Nicholas and his family were assassinated by Bolshevik revolutionaries in Yerkaterinburg, the Romanovs having been deposed during the October Revolution and sent into internal exile. This day in 1945 also marks the start of the two week Potsdam conference, convened by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Harry Truman, coming together to decide on the administration of defeated Nazi Germany and post-war order.

seetroën

Via Weird Universe, we discover what’s purported to by the first spectacles that help to recalibrate and re-orient the senses and reduce incidents of motion sickness and vertigo through a meniscus of flowing liquid that is interpreted by the brain as level ground—introduced by French automobile manufacturer Citroën.
It’s a clever idea that apparently works, but it also strikes me as finding a remedy for the intolerance for reading or consulting one’s devices while in a moving vehicle to which a bit of nausea seems like a natural and healthy consequence. From the Greek for seasickness, the feeling arises as a defence against having accidentally eaten neurotoxins, eliciting what the brain understands as hallucination, feeling motion but not seeing it, and encourages one’s stomach to reject what was last put into it. That said, I know others suffer from it acutely, over screen-time or not, and hope that they can get some relief from these glasses.

sphere of influence

While harbouring strong suspicions that Trump would compromise the office of presidency for personal gain all along, for him to reveal himself to be the Manchurian Candidate that American voters elected and have endured with precious little stint publicly and a puppet installed at the pleasure of Moscow was pretty arresting to witness.
Like his vacillating, disgusting comments that ought not have been tolerated in the fatal aftermath of a white supremacists rally, lauding “fine people on both sides,” the useful idiot betrayed his government in deference, appeasement to the words of a foreign adversary—unfortunately probably mooting the special council investigation’s ultimate findings and whether or not Putin is in possession of any incriminating material on Trump since it does not seem to matter and there couldn’t be anything worse than the dimwit has already expressed and done. Now the decisive question is whether America the client state, complacent and complicit, afforded the false dignities of the paraphernalia of independence reasserts itself in the face of tyrannies that are far nimbler and without the ballast of the framework of limitations and protections and responsibilities put in place to prevent abuse and ransom.

true colours

In order to bypass prevailing homophobic attitudes in Russia, bolstered by laws that make illegal to display the rainbow Pride flag among other symbols, six activists donned the jerseys of six different World Cup teams, we learn via Messy Nessy Chic, to subtly insert themselves as a human banner to promote equity and human rights while the matches were being hosted. Visit the links above to learn more.