the march of folly

Via the ever-excellent Nag on the Lake, we are introduced to the intricate, kinetic wooden sculptures of Colorado artist John Buck whose characters tell a fitting allegory for our times and was created specifically in reaction to America’s approaching mid-term elections.
The title of the collection references the 1984 study of the same name that examines the thread of a government paradoxically acting against its own better interests through history from Troy to Vietnam by historian Barbara W Tuchman and couching it in contemporary times with timeless symbol to be teased out of the parade floats that urge the procession onwards. Learn more and see the sculptures in action at the links above.

october surprise

We’re all probably too fatigued already to weather another political bombshell and while the term was informed during the previous US election-cycle and came into common-parlance during the following presidential run-off between Richard Nixon and George McGovern, on this day fifty years ago (1968) President Lyndon Johnson announced probably the first non-spontaneous, last-minute policy shift by ordering cessation of all bombardment in North Vietnam.
Johnson cited progress in the Paris peace negotiations as his motivation but his opponents accused him of making a desperate overture to voters and as a sort of retribution for a series of unfortunate coincidences that tarnished his campaign in 1964 and nearly cost him the election: the unexpected retirement of Nikita Khrushchev, a gay sex scandal of one of Johnson’s top aides, a successful nuclear missile test in China and Labour taking control of the UK. The Vietnam October Surprise failed, however, to carry Hubert Humphrey, Johnson’s vice president, to victory and the Nixon administration continued hostilities. Ironically, the subsequent October Surprise in 1972 that helped the incumbent hold office and defeat Barry Goldwater was a promise delivered by Henry Kissinger that “peace was at hand” and that ground forces were to be withdrawn from Vietnam in the following year.

happy halloween!

As always, thanks for visiting and spooky tidings to you and yours!

rocky horus

Via Messy Nessy Chic, we are treated to the 1981 production from Egyptian director Mohammed Shebl, who had several horror credits to his name, called Fangs (al’Anyab, الأنياب)—an homage to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The plot, with ample musical interludes, is faithful to the original up through the first act (plenty of glam vampires but nothing too transgressive to sneak past the censors) and certainly demonstrates a degree of craft and talent that separates it from other knock-offs, like the nearly unwatchable “Turkish Star Wars.”

jus soli

Via Boing Boing, we learn that Trump intends to nullify the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US constitution (previously here and here), by means of an executive order, that guarantees birthright citizenship to children born within the United States’ territory regardless of the status of their parents.
Though rarer and usually qualified in most of the rest of the world, thirty-one countries in the Americas automatically confer citizenship (though with America, also comes the onerous burden of taxes on worldwide income, which along with citizens Eretria one cannot opt out of) proponents of unrestricted jus soli (law of the soil, as opposed to jus sanguinis which puts an additional requirement for citizenship that one or both parents to have been born in the country) argue that without these protections, we risk creating a disenfranchised underclass and more stateless persons. During the interview, Trump claims he is already in consultation with counsel on drafting the executive order, and though it is unclear how he has the authority to undo a duly ratified amendment, one of his Svengalis might have shown him the clause “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” and explained that it is meant to exclude children born to enemy forces engaged in hostile occupation of the country’s territory and convinced him it’s referring to the caravans of murderous migrants massing at the borders.