performance review (12. 249)

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

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.

7x7 (12. 243)

tvwishes: a reappraisal of digital preservation—via Waxy  

wasp 121β: ultra hot Jupiter exoplanet has a uniquely layered and roiling atmosphere—see previously  

unitary executive theory: latest Trump EO reigns in independent agencies, testing the limits of presidential power  

the doors of kypseli: the intricate entrances of an Athens neighbourhood  

gesserit jazz: a 1977 funk album inspired by Frank Herbert’s epic novel—see previously 

jikipedia: the rise and fall of China’s Urban Dictionary of internet slang  

dark entry records: queer album cover art from Gwenaël Rakkte

floating-point (12. 242)

Baselessly citing a “cursory examination” of the US Social Security Administration (America’s public retirement fund) database as evidence of widespread and systemic fraud, Elon Musk announced the existence of one-hundred fifty year old individuals on the rolls during an Oval Office press conference last week. Coders and administrators were quick to point out that the unnatural age—it cuts off payments automatically at one-hundred fifteen—that rather than pointing to corruption and abuse but an artefact of the legacy software and sixty-year old programming language COBOL which underpins many government systems and rather than employing a date type in its syntax, instead dates are coded to a given reference (see also), the most commonly used being the Paris Convention du Mètre, 20 May 1875 when the international standardisation summit took place. Entries with missing data elements (Social Security holds records on people long deceased) and new entries from this year could default to the nineteenth century. There could be a way going forward to make such delicate and complicated platforms more efficient and transparent, scrutable to outside audit but not without disruption and great costs, and mounting such spurious claims of duplicity belie a lack of understanding and good faith.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the 1807 arrest of Aaron Burr (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links worth revisiting

seven years ago: more links to enjoy, architect Le Corbusier plus a cucumber avocado salad

eight years ago: Mexican anti-Axis propaganda, symbolic Arabic script, Nixon and Khrushchev’s Kitchen Debate, plans for a Fascist-themed prom cancelled plus Trump imposes a travel ban on Muslim-majority countries

ten years ago: more on the Crusades of Urban II, ISIL and the Caliphate plus even more links

eleven years ago: vino frizzante