by all means, tread on these people (12. 681)

Revisiting the poem by Martin Niemöller as the framework for understanding the descent of America (and elsewhere) into fascism, Cory Doctorow introduces to an unsympathetic and insightful corollary in Wilhoit’s Law (misattributed to Drake university political science professor but actually formulated by an Ohio composer called Frank Wilhoit in a blog post):

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law bind but does not protect. 

The succinct post from 2018 speaks to our long present of wage-theft and corporate welfare, freedom of speech maximalism—and the entire gamut of “me but not for thee” double standards that MAGA has enveloped with conservatism.

synchronoptica

one year ago:  assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ) plus correspondence from the complaints department

thirteen years ago: taking a job in Wiesbaden 

fourteen years ago: senior citizens taking up street art plus meteorological terrorism

fifteen years ago: a souvenir from a medical scare 

yangjing bang (12. 680)

Although pidgin dialects (widely believed to be a distortion of the English word for business rather than the folk etymology from a messenger pigeon) conveys connotations of broken speech oftentimes rather than bridging a communications barrier in necessary and creative ways, the local contact language of Shanghai has a rich history and legacy deserving of celebration and study. The title term for Mandarin, Wu pidgin arising in the 1830s derived from the name of a small creek, a tributary of the Huangpu river that marked the boundary between the British and French concessions (洋涇浜英語, Yáng jīng bāng yīngyǔ)—which was eventually paved over for Edward VII Avenue (modern East Yan’an Road) following the Opium Wars (see also here and here) and influx of foreign merchants with coerced trading arrangements. While the educational system and the language of business has become has become more formalised, linguistic fossils of Shanghainese creole have remained and spread into common-parlance beyond. The simplification endures with unfortunate stereotypical constructions and the order to hasten things along in chop-chop or no tickee, no shirtee—a backronym applied to Chinese launderers—but also in expressions like “long time, no see,” “look-see,” “one piece” (to engage with, to make a deal) “chow-down” and “can do” with “no can do” from keyi and bu keyi also understood as OK and no way.

8x8 (12. 679)

short imagined monologues: the abandoned new Cracker Barrel logo speaks out  

internet caretaker: Messy Nessy returns from vacation with another roundup of things found on-line—no notes  

 ticker-tape: a 1967 home computer—via Damn Interesting  cybersitter: a look back on the ways of filtering the web

ai upscaling: multimedia artists complain about unbidden tweaks to their signature videos—via the New Shelton wet/dry  

dark dwarves: astrophysicists theorise a new class of stars that may never exhaust their fuel  

🖇️: an annotated collection donated to Present /&/ Correct 

divertimento № 198: assorted links amid gustatory delights from the Minnesota State Fair 

the united states is not made up of well-adjusted adults—it’s made up of americans: simulation and simulacrum in the USA—via Miss Cellania

synchronoptica

one year ago: the introduction of Pepsi (with synchronopticæ)

thirteen years ago: the evolution of screen-time plus frozen fireworks

fourteen years ago: reimagining Space Oddity 

seventeen years ago: driving on autopilot 

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.

toqqorsimasut påvirkningsoperation (12. 677)

Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen summoned chargé d’affaires for the US mission to the Kingdom of Denmark and other American diplomatic staff (there is no ambassador yet with the nominee, PayPal co-founder and friend of Elon Musk, still subject to senate approval but there is a new consulate in Nuuk) and to Copenhagen to demand answers to reports of covert influence operations taking place in Greenland being run by Trump loyalists in attempts, unclear whether at their own initiative or under orders, to convince elements of the population to support an independence movement (see previously), presumably followed by annexation. Taken right out of Putin’s playbook—something that the Russian president might take pride in, particularly the brazen sloppiness of the execution, except I don’t believe he exactly welcomes competition in the Arctic, the Danish and devolved Greendlandic governments strongly condemn this infiltration and attempt to interfere with the kingdom’s internal affairs and democratic process and given the small population where everyone knows one another and absent propagandised news sources, it became pretty obvious who these little green men behind this disinformation campaign are and the enterprise is a seeming failure—though still an insult—and there’s hope they’ll be declared personæ non gratæ as foreign agents with the intent to destabilise and detained until the US claims them, that or deported Trump style to a third-party nation.

humphrey’s executor v united states (12. 676)

Trump’s illegal and unfounded attempt to terminate a sitting member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors places the US and world economy in a rather unprecedented spot, and as with the shocks of Trump’s tariffs and trade wars it is unclear what market turmoil might accrue from politicising the independent agency tasked with monetary policy, like with wholesalers having extra stock on hand as a buffer to uncertainty, norms and postures in place for a generation and more take some time to undo. The recent case of Türkiye comes to mind, however, when following the purge of government officials following reportedly thwarted coup attempt against the administration of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan economic advisors were replaced with loyalists and the country, after a period of incubation (not easily monitored as reliable data was not being presented), inflation shot above eighty percent and the economy flirted with collapse. Not able to oust the chairman—to remove his own appointee for cause, Trump has turned to a tactic he has tried before, with a mole at the obscure Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulatory body overseeing home loan administration, finding potential irregularities (hardly rising to a fireable offence) in mortgage applications from the Fed member—as he has uncovered for other enemies of the president. Supreme court precedent affirmed limits on the ability of the president to dismiss the heads of independent agencies within the executive branch with the titular case in 1935, when FDR fired the federal trade commission chief for opposing New Deal policies. Under pressure from Trump and his insistence for a magisterial presidency and characterising neutral departments whose appointments span several administrations unaccountable, the court revisited their previous decision, vacating it and granting Trump broad powers of dismissal without the consultation of congress or the judiciary—with the significant and specific carve out that the overturning does not extend to the Federal Reserve System. The only other time the US even approached this level of pressure and interference on the national bank was in 1951 during the Truman administration when the president and the Fed chair Thomas B McCabe had a disagreement on interest rates and credit, with McCabe eventually coerced into resigning his commission and returning to the private sector, but not before securing agreement between the executive and the department of treasury that safeguarded the independence of the Fed and shielded it from the influence of both.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a skilled sniper (with synchronopticæ) plus a circle-and-spoke map of the London Underground

fourteen years ago: divination, inspiration from antique books 

fifteen years ago: a superlative wine service 

sixteen years ago: the passing of Ted Kennedy 

i’m not saying the emperor has no clothes—i am saying his clothes are cheap, tacky, don’t work and are seriously overrated (12. 675)

Via Quantum of Sollazo, we enjoyed this essay by James Ball that challenges the conventional wisdom on Big Data, put into over-drive by AI, and how the relentless onslaught of serviced, targeted advertisements, which are at best repetitive and worst suspect and irrelevant. If AI, ravenous and insatiable, was producing better insight from triangulated demographics, it stands to reason that commercials, banners and pop-ups would be more focused, engaging and effective, rather than less so and an annoyance to be batted away. Spam proliferated due its virtually no-cost duplication and personalisation and now the process is even more effortless, automated as intrusive slop—going in the opposite direction of what’s hyped and heralded by this unholy twinning. The myth of supremacy in Big Data—started by loyalty programmes for brick and mortar retail chains—likewise crumbles when one looks at other aspects it supposedly influenced, like electioneering through micro-targeted ads which on subsequent analysis, reframing the narrative, from the touted architecture of choice to marketing for sponsors on the network. Much more at the links above.

10x10 (12. 674)

we are all piscasso’s fishermen: a reflection on “Night Fishing at Antibes” 

a dangerous game of jenga with a key pillar of our economy: Democrats push back on Trump’s decision to illegally fire member of the Federal Reserve board—see previously 

we want to be defensive but maybe we want to be offensive too: administration mulls changing the DOD back to the War Department  

they call me president of europe: Trump frames EU digital rules as disrespectful, threatens to up-end tariff deal  

what is going on in south korea—seems like a purge or revolution—we can’t have that and do business there: Trump meets with counterpart Lee Jae Myung—suggests detente with North Korea, appropriating leased land that hosts US military bases  

cornhusker clink: as judge orders closure of the hastily built Alligator Alcatraz (previously), the US department of homeland security announces a new detention facility in Nebraska  

cheeto mussolini: giant images of Trump swath government office buildings  

america by design: AirBnB co-founder appointed as director of US national design studio

stephen is a celebrated ballerino: Richard Grenell (previously) introduces Kennedy Centre’s Dance Director—in case you missed it, continued funding for the US national opera is contingent on the venue being renamed after the first lady 

the metaphorical frog has boiled to death: news media in denial about America’s descent into totalitarianism—via Kottke

synchronoptica

one year ago: the era of AI photography (with synchronopticæ) plus the death of Charles Lindbergh

twelve years ago: the last of the VW T-2s 

thirteen years ago: the singular roundness of the sun plus a trip through the Rheingau

fourteen years ago: assorted links to revisit 

fifteen years ago: bailouts and banking secrecy