synchronoptica
one year ago: JD Vance’s sofa memoirs (with synchronopticรฆ), nobody reads ads, twirling towards freedom, a phoney controversy over the Olympics opening ceremony plus Friday Night Videos (1983)
twelve years ago: derivative blockbusters, stormy weather plus a visit to Gelnhausen
fifteen years ago: smoking ban in Bavaria plus word clouds as CVs
Although failing to secure a ten percent flat tariff on European as the UK had reached—despite Brussels’ belief it could achieve the same nuisance levy—and following the capitulation of NATO members to increase defence-spending to five percent of their domestic output with commitments to purchase US armaments as well as American fossil fuels, the EU’s very asymmetrical appeasement of Trump is seemingly not to win a trade war, the terms keep shifting and preciously little surety has been accomplished with questions remaining on pharmaceuticals, steel and the tech and financial services hegemony. 
This undignified negotiation seems only to privilege German manufacturing above, though markets are open to cheaper US imports, accepted without pushback avoids more escalation—one should stay up to bullies however, particularly when there’s no substance nor compulsion behind his policies and posture, but maybe to suffer humiliation in order to preserve the global order is a small price to pay—economically the announcement affects little in the end other than temporarily enriching the petrostate and weapons manufacturers with the commitments—and Trump has already significantly advanced his deadline for new Russian sanctions and is showing daylight between himself and Netanyahu. Such men, small and common, cannot be trusted or invested with such sweeping powers, however. They’re killing the beauty of our scenery—our plains, and I’m not talking about airplanes—they won’t let you bury the propellers.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a history of Elvis-officiated weddings (with synchronopticรฆ)
fifteen years ago: contentious Olympic venues and the keyholders of the internet
Language Log directs our attention to the obituary and encomium of the recently departed satirist noted for his nimble lyrics and insufferably cheerful accompaniment with a decidedly dark streak, Tom Lehrer (1928 - 2025)—dropping the act in the 1960s but going on to teach mathematics and musical theatre and was a regularly contributor of political lampoons for That Was the Week that Was and an inspiration for Randy Newman, Dr Demento and “Weird Al.” .jpg)
Relinquishing all copy- and performance-rights of his songs in 2022, Lehrer’s music is in the public domain and probably best known for his “Elements”—itself often repurposed for any given subject, set to the tune of Pirates of Penzance and the particularly maudlin “We Will All Go Together When We Go” about universal bereavement—an inspired achievement should someone drop the bomb. In keeping with the Log’s mission, here’s an orthographic track produced for The Electric Company. Much more at the links above.
Robin Bates at the irreplaceable Better Living through Beowulf invites us to try to understand the mentality and modus operandi of Trump and his enablers through the lens of Dashiell Hammett’s protagonists, anti-heroes, particularly in their cultist fantasy of dismantling a system deemed as corrupt and biased against them, despite being the most privileged and unaccountable class and beneficiaries of said system that they would like to see burnt down. A card-carrying Communist that was blacklisted and served time in prison for failing to name names, Hammett’s support was not unconditional and was a vocal critic of Marxism in practise, the author’s hard-boiled detective characters that defined the Noir genre are a type—their foils too—but not the calculating kind, and whilst this flawed authenticity may be appealing, it’s cautionary at best and certainly not a model for analytical thinking. 
Trump and the people he surrounds himself with are disruptors of the worse kind, destroying what underpins what they don’t understand, unleashing consequences ignored as too difficult to deal with and style themselves as martyrs for an inherence of their own unmaking, like with Ukraine, Gaza, the economy, trade and tariffs, the shrinking of the administrative state—and unlike gumshoe Sam Spade or the crime boss can be checked with commission (mandate), guardrails, shame or blackmail.
synchoronoptica
one year ago: American theocracy (with synchronopticรฆ) plus a lunar archbishopric
twelve years ago: a spherical typewriter, more diabolical architecture, whistle-blowers and press-freedoms plus mysteries and Macguffins
fifteen years ago: digital rights management
H got a nice bouquet of chiefly sunflowers and mixed greenery with garnishes of ficus leaves—and on closer inspection, flourishes of a this velvety bunched red bloom that resembles the gyri (folds) of a brain—like in a sponge or coral. Commonly known in English as the cockscomb for its similarity with a rooster’s crest and waddle, the species (also called Brandschopf in German, from ฮบฮฎฮปฮตฮฟฯ, burning for the flame-like flowers), the hearty yet endangered plant native to the tropics was saved through cultivation for ritual purposes, tended near temples and slowly increased its range thriving through the world, and as not only ornament serves as a nice compliment to the sunflowers as edible, grown as food for the leaves and inflorescences particularly in India, South America and western Africa.
Amid vocal protests that refuse to let the issue of the Epstein files go away quietly, Trump and entourage has returned to his Scottish golf course and resort (see previously) to discuss tariff and trade deal as well as immigration policy and rehash his NIMBYistic complaints about wind turbines with the UK and the EU. 
Meanwhile, as Trump attempts to deflect reporters’ questions regarding the above scandal, a US Justice Department official, former Trump defence attorney in a blatant case of witness tampering and quid pro quo for a pardon, has been sent to interview convicted sexual predator and longtime pimp for Epstein and associates, Ghislaine Maxwell, presenting a list of a hundred named individuals for review in an apparent exchange for clemency on her prison sentence from a fellow felon. One could safely assume that the list mirrors closely anyone on the syndicate’s hit list, including Obama, the Clintons (Bill and Hillary recently subpoenaed to testify regarding the client list which supposedly does not exist), the Bidens, LTC Vindman, Hunter Biden’s laptop, Reality Winner, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Rosie O’Donnell, ex-best buds Musk and Putin, the aforementioned windmills, sharks, Greta Thunberg and anyone else who dared cross him, hoping such a catalogue will satisfy dissenters within the MAGA movement.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the Paris Games opening ceremonies (with synchronoptiรฆ)
twelve years ago: speech cannibalisation plus charting literature
fifteen years ago: shock and awe and the quagmire of forever wars
Via Web Curios, we are directed toward the rather epic, years’ long adventure of one Adam Aaronson—the would be the first—to sample every cocktail on the registry of the International Bartenders’ Association (IBA). 
Notably not binge-worthy and assayed with refinement and purpose, research and travel, Aaronson drank all one hundred two concoctions inscribed since the list was established in 1961 to bring a standard and uniformity to the profession of mixology which includes three broad categories: the Unforgettables, like the martini, Manhattan, Americano and Between the Sheets; Contemporary Classics, like the Black Russian, Sex on the Beach the Bloody Mary; and New Era Drinks, like Naked and Famous, Southside and Three Dots and a Dash. Past versions of the list, drinks de-accessioned for going out of favour and not standing the test of time also offer an insight into changing tastes—with historic, former cocktails removed like the Screwdriver and a personal favourite, the Harvey Wallbanger. Aaronson shares anecdotes for many drinks and the bars where he tried them, reformulating the data in compelling ways and as a point of departure, he begun mixing his own.
Trump is trying to cement case for ousting the chairman of the US federal reserve and install a more plaint comptroller who will lower interest rates according to the president’s will and make the trillions added to America’s debt slightly cheaper to borrow, advised that he can only dismiss the head of the independent central bank—whom Trump appointed during his first term—for cause, Trump is attempting to to cast budget overruns on the renovation of the reserve’s headquarters on Jerome Powell personally as an instance of fraud, waste and abuse. Sanguinely, Powell replied, in the this publicity stunt and set-up (see previously) that the cost of construction has sharply increased due to tariffs and that his figures were manifestly incorrect. 
Ahead of a meeting of the board’s policymakers to set the benchmark rate, it appears that the Fed will leave the percentage unchanged out of prudence in a chaotic environment, and having a central bank that is politically and economically aligned with the administration could very easily backfire, making investors and foreign holders wary about buying bonds and cause maintaining and taking on extra debt much more expense as well as further exacerbate inflation for consumers. Meanwhile, Trump has issued another executive order, which may be the most chilling yet—and that’s saying a lot for the catalogue of horrors already unleashed: Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets. The EO proposes to end “endemic vagrancy” by encouraging the civil commitment of unhoused individuals deemed to have an incapacitating mental illness that precludes self-care, ostensibly revamping the asylum-system but not in a Victorian fashion of disappearing undesirables in an environment that normalises undesirable behaviour but rather as work-camps (Arbeit macht Frei), like his Alligator Alcatraz—and reopening the Alcatraz actual. Not only are most Americans living in a very precarious paycheque-to-paycheque situation, not homeless by the grace of their inferiors, I suspect that after the initial roundups, foreign-looking individuals, protestors, dissidents—all in the estimation of the police-state—and the securely housed with assets to confiscate will follow soon after. We’ve seen this before. The order further goes on to detail how federal grants to cities will be prioritised that enforce prohibitions on illicit drug-use, urban camping, squatting and programmes to register and track the location of sex offenders. Wrecking the economy and tanking the job market—as outlined above—seem a perfect first step to create a sizeable population of malcontents.
