Though the US air travel industry faces chaos and imminent collapse as the government shutdown of a single agency, the Department of Homeland Security to force reform in enforcement practises, surpassing a month in duration—ICE agents themselves unaffected by the lapse in appropriations and the insertion of untrained helpers, whom are being paid, is only adding injury to insult—with unpaid transportation security agents and screeners unable to keep showing up for work uncompensated, not only unable to afford basic necessities but also fuel for their commute to and from work more costly—there was a funding mechanism outside of congress to specifically pay for the TSA within the massive department created in response to the 9/11 terror attacks.
A service fee of up to eleven dollars was added to the ticket price of each American domestic fight and a pooled airport fee paid by carriers in order to offset costs enhanced flight security—this process of ring-fencing also known as the above, wherein a specific surcharge, say for the flying public, tv taxes to support public broadcasters or historically seaports to fund the navy is earmarked for a specific service rather than directed to the coffers of the general fund. In times of relative stability, this revenue, however, tends to get raided by legislators and put to different use, as was the case with the passenger fee, the funding stream redirected in 2013 to help pay off the national debt, a higher political priority at the time. As the situation worsens for flyers and agents, the money cannot be restored without the intervention of congress, at the same impasse that’s holding up funding, and until compromised is reached—which also requires the approval of the president who has announced refusal to sign any bill into law unless it includes election reform as well—it is likely to only degrade further before it gets better, with more absenteeism, quitting and the summer travel season, including an expected influx of visitors for the World Cup.
Thursday, 26 March 2026
hypothecated tax (13. 297)
day twenty seven (13. 296)
Mixed signals came out of both Tehran and Washington over potential peace talks, Iranians insisting that Trump is delusional and holding court with himself and that they will never surrender to the US excessive demands and never accept defeat, Trump pushing for a status quo ante bellum that was nearly achieved before fighting commenced (the goals seem to have shifted to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war) and Iran signalling its readiness to carpet bomb its own land should US troops set foot and seize Bahraini and Emirati territory in response. Not entertaining the draft peace plan, Iran further demands any truce must include stopping hostilities in Lebanon and an Israeli withdrawal and reparations. Aside from the rising death toll approaching nine thousand individuals, the global economic fallout has nearly reached a tipping point with the worldwide petrodollar market dictating costs even for countries saturated in oil and natural gas, importers enacting energy-saving measures, supply chains and infrastructure points disrupted and not quickly or cheaply restored and clouding prospects for industry and manufacturing as resources dwindle—even the AI boom and bubble that is buoying up the broader stock market is in peril, relying not only on investment for mushrooming data centres, those facilities themselves very energy- and water-intensive. 
one year ago: the unique pop culture of Greenland (with synchronopticรฆ) plus assorted links to revisit
Wednesday, 25 March 2026
jazzy spies (13. 295)
Also known by the above for the closing undercover lineup, the Jazz Number series was a collaboration between Jefferson Airplane singer Grace Slick,whom provided the vocals after her then husband, Jerry Slick of San Francisco animation studio Imagination, Inc, was commissioned to produce the segments for the new Children’s Television Workshop show Sesame Street. Slick’s team of animators were also behind the noonee, noonee typewriter guy and this upbeat psychedelic interstitial certainly belongs on the pantheon of nostalgia along with the pinball count and Multiplication Rock! More from Open Culture at the link up top.
there were plants and birds and rocks and things (13. 294)
Recorded in Doric mode and composed whilst the trio was staying with shock-rock artist Arthur Brown in Puddletown, Dorset, the track, originally called “Desert Song” was not included on the band’s eponymous debut album, achieving only modest success for its European release, “A Horse with No Name” began a three-week run on the US singles charts on this day in 1972, 
achieving similar commercial achievements in the UK and the Netherlands. America’s song writer Dewey Bunnell (all members were army brats that met while their fathers served in the US Air Force at RAF Ruislip outside of London) wrote the lyrics as a reminiscence of his time where his family was stationed at Vandenberg Airbase and his childhood travels through Arizona and New Mexico, the nameless conveyance being a metaphor for escaping life’s confusion and finding refuge in peace and quiet. Some stations refused airplay as they thought “horse” was a reference to heroine use, and whilst the band maintains there was no illicit allegory, the above catalogue was written under the influence, the band a little embarrassed in the recording studio over the awkwardness of “the heat was hot” and “cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain” but were convinced to stay true to their final draft.
day twenty-six (13. 293)
Despite the reported delivery of a fifteen-point plan through Pakistani surrogates and claims that the US has won the war with negotiations ongoing and major concessions on the part of Iran—without elaboration but implied it was related to oil and gas shipments and Tehran abandoning its nuclear ambitions—though doubts persist whether any dialogue has occurred and whether Iran would be receptive to any deal, Trump tempered his victory during the swearing in ceremony his new of homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, with the aside that Hegseth and Joint Chief Of Staff were disappointed to broker a ceasefire rather than continuing the destruction, by announcing the deployment of a thousand more troops to the region while airstrikes intensified on US bases in the theatre. 
At an event marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of the office of the foreign ministry, German president and former Bundesminister des Auswรคrtigen Frank-Walter Steinmeier reaffirmed that the joint Israeli-American attacks on Iran and Lebanon violate international law and constitute war crimes, questioning the value of diplomacy and foreign policy when bad actors rubbish order and norms. Israel solidifies its hold on a buffer zone thirty kilometres inland from the current border between the countries and is poised for long-term occupation, presenting the question of sovereignty for Lebanon separate from Hezbollah into an existential crisis. Contrary to assurances, an errant missile hits the Iranian nuclear power plant in Bushehr as a military spokesman mocks the American administration’s attempt to control the narrative as a profound strategic failure, chiding them for disguising failure and the inability to extricate themselves from this mess as a truce and they are negotiating with imaginary interlocutors, insisting Tehran has been given no terms and would never capitulate to a hollow superpower.
when you’re rolling out the dough (13. 292)
Debuting on this day in 1986, the mismatched-cultural sitcom relationship of midwestern aspiring journalist Larry Appleton compelled to cohabitate with distant cousin Balki Bartokomous, a shepherd from the fictional Mediterranean island of Mypos, has far too much free real estate in my head, to my mind.And whilst Perfect Strangers is not worthy of nostalgia, which I maintain, a tweet twittered in the midst of wholesale cultural reboots pandering to a specific age plugging continuation in which Bronson Pinchot’s character, having married his fitness coach girlfriend Mary Anne Spencer (having baby Robespierre-Boinki Bartokomous for the series finale), decide as a family to return to Mypos, plot a violent revolution and rule in the style of Nicolae and Elena Ceauศescu. Now we do the Dance of Joy!
synchronoptica
one year ago: the complete listing of Trump’s atrocities, part the second (with synchronopticรฆ) plus the granularity of Chinese foodways
thirteen years ago: defragmenting dreams
fourteen years ago: repair cafes
fifteen years ago: vide-poche
Tuesday, 24 March 2026
9x9 (13. 291)
crepuscular rays: the phenomena of sun pillars explained
an exercise in attention: cultivating contemplation through a defence of pet portraiture
ๅ ณ็จ: Trump’s reciprocal tariffs have failed against the Chinese export economy
por la paz y justicia: Spain’s defiance and criticism under US duress is a template for the rest of European, allies threatened with sanction and invasion
the day of the locust: the Simpsons’ patriarch is taken from the protagonist of Nathanael West’s 1939 novel about Hollywood society with a cast of stock characters
odonymy: UK regionalism for alleyways—see previously, see also
ัะผะตััะพะฝะพะผะธะบะฐ: thanatology and Russia’s resistance to sanction
dinergoth: the post-subcultural mainstream and the weirding of middle of the road America as a coping mechanism
aurora borealis shining down in dallas: nineteenth century physicist Karl Lemstrรถm’s attempts to produce the Northern Lights on demand—see also
hot spot (13. 290)
Courtesy of Miss Cellania, we are directed to a 1945 instalment in a series of animated instructional films produced by Warner Brothers and featuring PVT Snafu stationed this time in Iran as the logistics hub for delivering materiel to the Soviet Union during the waning days of war in Europe. Intrigued by reports of scorching temperatures, which first dismissed as propaganda, Satan, voiced by Mel Blanc, inspects the supply lines whilst our private bears the brunt of the burden in sizzling conditions. Bugs Bunny makes a cameo appearance in the gazetteer that the devil consults.
