birthright citizens’ brigade (13. 573)

On the final day of the judicial session before summer recess, the US supreme court, in a six to three ruling delivered a sharp rebuke to Trump’s long-standing interpretation of the constitution, rejecting the executive order issued on the first day of his second term which sought to bar citizenship, against the guarantees of the XIV. amendment, for babies born on US territory of parents in the country without legal status or who are living or working here only temporarily. Chief justice John Roberts, writing the majority opinion, contended that the legislation adopted during reconstruction after the civil war purposefully defined citizenship broadly as a buffer against those who wanted a more limited and narrow standard of who counts, and does not apply only to recently the emancipated enslaved and their descendants according to legal norms and precedent that have held for over one hundred sixty years since its enactment. The only substantive legal challenge, the court cited, reaffirmed this understanding with the 1898 case of Wong Kim Ark, a young cook in Chinatown born and raised in San Francisco, to Chinese immigrant parents—who were undocumented as no documentation was required at the time. Ark’s parents eventually returned to China with their son visiting them and denied reentry upon his return to California on the grounds Ark was not a citizen, a claim disputed all the way up to the supreme court with Ark winning his appeal at another juncture in history when sentiment against outsiders was very high and the Chinese exclusion act just coming into force. The amendment itself was in reproach to the odious Dred Scot decision that said persons of African heritage could not be citizens, vacating the previous ruling and denying it was “blood and not soil” that make an American. Conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch filed dissenting opinions, premised mostly on the argument that children of foreigners have split and competing allegiances.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the Quiberon peninsula (with synchronoptica)

two years ago: the Holy Mountain of Varese

three years ago: US supreme court nullifies Biden student loan forgiveness plan plus the Night of the Long Knives (1934)

four years ago: International Asteroid Day, Snake Island, documenta 5 plus assorted links to revisit

five years ago: more links to enjoy plus leap seconds 

six years ago: France’s video-text service, Wuthering Heights, a Dadaist art exhibition (1920) plus a failed world car prototype

by the window, that’s where i’ll be (13. 572)

As our faithful chronicler informs, on this day in 1968 Tiny Tim’s novelty rendition of the 1929 popular song by lyricist Al Dubin and Joe Burke as performed by guitarist Kick Lucas, peaked on the singles charts at spot seventeen. From his studio album, God Bless Tiny Tim (which as a complication of musical standards and singing the baritone and falsetto parts of Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You, Babe” fared better on the LP rankings, topping out at number seven), the number became the artist and archivist’s signature song (as it was for Lucas, Tiptoe thru’ the Tulips included in the talkie film Gold Diggers of Broadway) whose stage name was originally that of British persona Sir Timothy Tims (born Herbert Butros Khaury) and shortened it for booking purposes, having nothing to do with the Dickens’ character.

day one-hundred twenty (13. 571)

Maritime traffic through the Hormuz has declined sharply, Tehran saying no further talks are scheduled despite Trump’s claim for a technical working group meeting in Doha on the logistics of safely operating the strait, the truce still holdings as both the US and Iranian military actions are paused. Inflation in Iran flirts with a sixty percent increase as the price of food staples have nearly doubled since the start of the conflict, supposedly some six billion dollars of Iranian deposits will be unfrozen. Tension continue to rise with Oman over the disposition of the waterway with Muscat competing to open more routes and opposing tolls. IDF incursions into southern Syria draw condemnation from Middle East nations.

9x9 (13. 570)

general magic: an ambitious project to create the smart phone (see below) in the early 1990s failed over lack of constraint and too much freedom, not lack of vision, talent or technology

odyssey: charting the great journeys of fiction—see also  

humphrey’ executor: US supreme court strikes down federal laws that prevent the president from firing heads of (some) independent agencies—see previously  

don’t swear jerry—and don’t bleed in the sink, i’ve just cleaned it: actor and comedian Penelope Keith has died, aged 89  

🧸: Nuigurumi Jinja (Plushie Shire) dedicated in northern Kyoto for honouring beloved stuffed animals—see also here and here 

keedoozle: the grocery store vending machine of the 1930s 

 île de peliz: the solitary natural islet of Lake Geneva, with room for a plane tree  

hypergraphia: history’s most prolific writers 

how about this: 1960s housewife and the pocket phone of the future

synchronoptica

one year ago:  a walk along the beach at Gârves (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: a visit to the Rocco di Caldè 

three years ago: animatronic Trump, an updated We Didn’t Start the Fire plus US supreme court strikes down affirmative action for college admissions

four years ago: goodwill ambassador Samantha Reed Smith 

five years ago: cartoonist Thornton Hee plus a record-setting Van Gogh auction (1987)

six years ago: Quo Vadis,  the feast of SS Peter and Paul, the debut of the iPhone (2007), a chiptune classic, exotic crisps plus Japanese train station jingles

day one-hundred nineteen (13. 569)

The US and Iran agree to halt tit-for-tat attacks once again (American central command refers to it as “kinetic activity”) and resume negotiations, both sides standing down and allowing free transit—in coordination with Tehran for safety’s sake. The IDF destroys a tunnel in southern Beirut it claims was used by Hezbollah for munitions storage just hours after a truce was called in Washington between Israel and Lebanon. Eliminated from the next heat, Iran’s national football team heads home. Russia fuel supply troubles have knock-on effects for Central Asia, exposing their dependence on Moscow. Strikes at the Pakistani-Afghan border intensify.

spoiler candidate (13. 568)

Reminiscent of the 2021 general elections in the Duma with an incumbent facing two similarly named individuals, Alaska Public Media is reporting on the decision vacated and reversed by the state’s superior court that allows retired Petersburg (see above) school teacher Dan Sullivan to stand in the race for US senator as challenger to office holder Dan Sullivan. Both registered to the Republican party, with only different middle initials, the Alaska Division of Elections originally decided that the candidate’s bid did not meet good-faith criteria and was designed to misguide voters (intimating that Sullivan prime, with a nearly identical campaign website, was a sock-puppet sponsored by Democrats) but absent proof and a lack of objective standards for political scruples, the judge was compelled to void the board’s determination and let both Sullivans be on the ballot. The opposition denies recruiting the retiree for the midterm elections with control of congress at stake and the GOP seemingly poised to forfeit their vanishingly narrow majority.

drawn & quarterly (13. 567)

As an encore to his ambitious 2020 treatment of the US constitution, as a demonstration of the power of comics and cartoons to help make the unreadable more approachable and engaging, through a host of classic characters and styles, artist R Sikoryak publishes his Declaration / Emancipation Illustrated just in time for America’s semiquincentennial, addressing the country’s two foundational documents in the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the Emancipation Proclamation (1863). More from Print magazine at the link above, including an interview with the author.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Château de Suscinio (with synchronoptica) plus an ensemble of monumental burial mounds

two years ago: a visit to the Borromean islands 

three years ago: assorted links to enjoy plus Dark Side of the Moon x Wizard of Oz

four years ago: more links worth the revisit plus bombshell testimony for January Sixth hearing

five years ago: the Body Language Academy, the International Criminal Court (1993), more pageantry from Weird Universe plus practical stenography

six years ago: Goldman Sans, a masculinity simulator, Martian meteors plus a complete catalogue of one’s stuff

day one-hundred eighteen (13. 566)

For the second night in a row, US forces have struck multiple targets in Iran for Tehran’s “aggression” against commercial shipping as the fragile ceasefire continues to fray—following on with a threat to wipe out the Islamic Republic. The Revolutionary Guard say that further violations of the truce will bring diplomatic talks to a halt as religious hardliners split on settlement negotiations. Bahrain is attacked by drones in response. Hezbollah rejects the ceasefire arrangement brokered by Washington between Israel and Lebanon. The draft resolution of Trump’s Board of Peace seeks sweeping immunity to block members and contractors from potential prosecution for work in “rebuilding” Gaza and allowing them to appropriate public property free of charge and with no oversight. Rocked by a wave of attacks that have resulted in fuel shortages, Moscow is building on new air defence complex on the grounds of Putin’s daughter’s intellectual development foundation just outside the capital.