performance review (12. 251)

The Pentagon relieved of duty several top officers including Admiral Lisa Franchetti as Chief of Naval Operations, General James Slife of the Air Force and chair of joint chiefs of staff General CQ Brown, Jr, whom Trump himself appointed for leadership role within that branch of the armed services back in August of 2020, making him the second Black individual to rise to such a position after Colin Powell, as “DEI-hires.” The removal of respected and experienced military officers fulfils a campaign pledge to purge the ranks of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and the then nominee for Secretary of Defence’s promise to oust any one involved in “in any of that DEI work shit.” While praised for his leadership and role in deterring China in the Indo-Pacific, Brown—who was visiting troops stationed at the US southern border at the time of his firing, became in the eyes of the incoming administration ideologically suspect in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, releasing a video addressing the impact of racism in the military and his own lived experience within the elite cadre of jet fighters and was involved in a nationwide reckoning of racial relations and reconciliation—see previously. Within moments, the administration announced the appointment of Lieutenant General Dan “Razin” Caine, a retired F16 pilot, whom Trump had previously praised without context or evidence for playing an instrumental role in the destruction of the ISIS Caliphate and was unfairly passed over for promotion due to affirmative action. At the same time, a budgetary realignment was announced, redirecting eight percent of funding per year from non-mission-essential programmes to invest in Trump’s posture and defence priorities—not a cut in funding of fifty billion dollars—but rather creating “the biggest, most badass militiary on the planet—on God’s green Earth.”

synchronoptica

one year ago: drunkonyms (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: GLOMAR response, assorted links worth revisiting, a universal bestiary, missing pet posters as art, nineteenth century board games plus a Nazi resistance group

eight years ago: a memorial to heroic self-sacrifice, more extremophiles, a delightful Japanese tourism campaign, demoting Pluto plus technology and populism

nine years ago: the animations of Guillaume Kurkdjian 

ten years ago: the superpower of barnacles plus more links to enjoy

piscina mirabilis (12. 250)

Via Messy Nessy Chic (not attributing the source as it’s Faebook—sorry, no thanks) we are turned toward the “wonderous pool,” an ancient cistern in the Gulf of Naples, given its epithet by the poet Petrarch (previously) during a visit in the fourteenth century. Built under the order of Octavian to provide water to the naval fleet of the port of Misenum (Miseno in Bacoli). Engineered as a cathedral and hewn out of tufa, the monumental reservoir held some twelve million litres of potable water, five Olympic sized swimming pools. Exploration of the underground chambers reveals Tyndall scattering due to the incoming light interacting with the fine suspension of moisture or other filters to propagate blue hues further, ultimately illuminating how the chemical elements express themselves chromatically. Private property but accessible to the public, restoration of the cistern has been carried out from 1926 to the present day.

sink full of insects (12. 249)

Via Web Curios, we introduced to another vintage digital demesne (previously) called NobodyHere, an enigmatic online diary began in 1998 that has grown into web of interactive stories that are still maintained and with irregular new entries. There were—and are still a few—forever-places out there on the internet and not curated just as a succession of platforms, geocities, mySpace, but imagine how many might have not been forsaken, abandoned for the ease and instant dopamine hit of engagement of social media, so many house-proud and vibrant, independent domains with caretakers literate in their architecture and up-keep. There’s no site-map for this labyrinth but a bit of an explainer in the form of a video disclosure from the author.

a moderately successful comedian (12. 248)

After launching a litany of lies about his Ukrainian counterpart, including calling Zelenskyy a dictator and blaming him for starting the war (this reframing of reality echoes the mass amnesia of the first term, the insistence that the 2020 election was stolen, repackaging the January Sixth insurrection as a peaceful protest, etc, etc, and many believe or have moved on) and his bilateral talks with Putin to the exclusion of Ukraine and Europe and already conceding to Russia its objective—slights and insults bolstered by apologist that urge Zelenskyy to tone down his bad-mouthing and accept the altered deal for five-hundred billion dollars in mineral wealth not as protection money (much of the deposits that the US is eying are located in Russian-occupied territory) but rather as repayment for support already rendered—Trump has now issued an ultimatum to European leaders reportedly that unless they sign off to the terms of Ukraine’s “surrender” (not status quo ante bellum but rather to freeze fighting and ceded captured territory and abandon aspirations to join NATO and possibly the EU), the US will withdraw from the continent—see previously here and here. As insidious as the above capitulation is, Russia’s ultimate objective is to have the United States turn its back on Europe and render NATO meaningless or at least narrowed, which Trump also seems ready and willing to add to the bargain.

synchronoptica

one year ago: more on constrained writing (with synchronoptica), a banger from Phil Collins and Philip Baley, geometry teaching aids plus a banger from the Four Seasons

seven years ago: the Louvre apartments plus more Lunar New Year traditions

eight years ago: the subtextual meaning of fascinating plus a mall solicits for a writer-in-residence

nine years ago: remembrance and semiotics, laser-pointers a risk to aircraft plus fractals and Hilbert Curves

ten years ago: a new look for the blog, a vintage Greek map of North America plus sending forces vehicle tags

verkehrshaus der schweiz (12. 247)

Delightfully, we discover courtesy of Present /&/ Correct that the Swiss Museum of Transport in Luzern has a wing (Halle Strassen-verkehr) clad in street signs. One of the most popular exhibitions in the country (see also), the museum campus features displays of historic railroad engines, automotive exhibits (with tunnels and mountain passes), cable cars, maritime navigation and aerospace, including the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) an uncrewed science laboratory, one of the few satellites successfully deorbited and returned to the Earth undamaged.

conspicuous gallantry (12. 246)

On New Year 2021, the US senate established a commission to redesignate Department of Defence properties previously named in honour of Confederate army figures of the American civil war, including the military installation established in 1918 outside of Raleigh North Carolina as an artillery range, whose namesake General Braxton Bragg, also a veteran of the Mexican-American and Second Seminole War, was considered among the worst leaders and poor advisors to president Jefferson Davis of the break-away states and often cited by historians as a major contributor to the Confederacy’s ultimate defeat. The garrison was reflagged as Fort Liberty in the summer of 2022, at a cost of over six-million dollars. Last week, Secretary of Defence Hegseth issued a memorandum directing the army to rename Fort Liberty back to Bragg again—though not the original eponym but rather one PFC Roland Leon Bragg (among hundreds of suggestions from the public nominated to the committee during its initial commission), a paratrooper and mechanic in World War II, awarded a high commendation for commandeering a German ambulance during the Battle of the Bulge and rescuing a fellow soldier by getting him to a hospital in Allied Belgium. Neither the Pentagon nor the department of transportation have released estimates on the price tag of this switch and is telling typical of how this administration skirts congress and the law (plus the spirit of the change) by picking out an uncelebrated, obscure individual who did not have a Wikipedia page until the day of the announcement.

and we all shine on (12. 245)

Conceived, recorded and put out in the course of ten days at the end of January after returning to London from New Year’s in Denmark (see previously), the single Instant Karma! was released on this day in 1970 in the US (credited to the Plastic Ono Band for other markets expect in America, where the by-line went to John Ono Lennon) going on the be the first solo work from an ex-Beatles member to sell over a million copies. The song presupposes living with the immediate consequences of one’s decisions and action rather than borne out over lifetime—or the next. Heralded already for his pacifist activities, the couple pledged to donate all future royalties to the peace movement. Personnel included former bandmate George Harrison, Yoko Ono and Billy Preston on instruments and backing vocals. On the B-side was Ono’s gentle acoustic ballad “Who Has Seen the Wind?,” taken from a nineteenth century Christina Rossetti poem.

*     *    *     *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: Mister Roger’s Neighbourhood (1968) plus modular cardboard feline furniture

eight years ago: Stars Wars anniversary edition action figures plus more links to enjoy

nine years ago: death taxes, gravitational waves and the Underworld, charting radio-ownership plus the imprisoned paint portraits of the biggest criminals

ten years ago: even more links, urban beekeeping plus an appreciation of sci-fi authors

congestion pricing is dead—manhattan and all of new york is saved—long live the king (12. 244)

Again for saying the quiet part out loud, Trump is being ravished on social media and the press after liken himself to a monarch as he issued an executive order to revoke the recently enacted surcharge to encourage and support public transportation in New York City and has received considerable backlash from state officials who realise that the schemes have worked for other large metropolitan areas. This magisterial declaration is happening at the same time that Trump ordered federal prosecutors to drop the corruption investigation against disgraced mayor Eric Adams, a move which led to a succession of resignations by attorneys who could not abide by this curtailment of justice. Adams had been currying favour from Trump since the election in hopes of securing a pardon but in falling short of unconditional clemency (a royal prerogative it seems to me and wondering if such power has a place within a constitutional democracy) Trump is ostensibly exerting pressure on the mayor, since he could countermand that order to the justice department and pursue charges, to make sure that the city cooperates with immigration raids and municipal authorities don’t pushback on agents entering schools and churches. The GOP is leaning into Trump’s coronation and Democrats for their part are giving a history lesson on the American War of Independence.