“Solemn articles were written about the supposed significance of Greenland … as if Trump’s interest in the Arctic island were not entirely derived from the fact that it looks very large on a Mercator projection.” Maybe brief that the Mercator Jacobian 1/cos² latitude scales Greenland’s area 12× ?

@michelebella.bsky.social Do you know the artist for the cartoons inside your grandfather’s photo album of the 509th? This one specifically is remarkable, and as I posted below I speculate must be Kubrick’s inspiration for Dr. Strangelove’s finale.

Melkorka told her son Ólafr that she was taken by vikings, and her father was king Myrkjartan. She taught him Gaelic, urged him to visit family. The king was convinced of kinship when he recognized Ólafr’s ring. Ólafr became renowned as a grandson of the Irish king. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melkorka

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day - from an Icelandic descendent. My great grandfather brought records that go back 1100 years. The most remarkable ancestor is the Irish princess Melkorka, enslaved in a Viking raid. Very different story to share with Boston Irish friends. 🍀 vimeo.com/496367623?fl...

“America’s political leadership is completely out-classed. We have an illiterate madman tweeting contradictory bullshit every ten minutes. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime is calmly and methodically probing the structural weaknesses of the American-dominated global financial order.”

OBAA’s fascist allegories: • “Clean” murder is to gas & incinerate victim • Lockjaw office is Suite 55, i.e. “SS” • Willa calls attention to Lockjaw’s shirt: he’s a blackshirt • Lockjaw has mixed-race daughter shot; Nazi Amon Göth’s (Schindler’s List) irl black Gdau wrote “My Gfa Would Have Shot Me”

“In major disputes capabilities for repression grow, both because governments are likely to mobilize significant additional forces and because repression of dissent is likely to be supported by nationalist groups.” archive.org/details/bomb...

Sir, you demanded that Henry “think big.” Which of these toadies would tell the President, “That, I think, would just be too much”?

Every place the British needed to navigate to reach their eastern colonies. Churchill’s failed Gallipoli campaign was to sieze the Dardanelles and a sea route to supply Russia. When natural geography or fortune didn’t cooperate, they created artificial straits: www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Uw...

@timmiller.bsky.social: “I was watching a Nick Fuentes clip… he said something about Trump… is totally in megalomania world and he wants to do historic things. He sees himself as a grand historic figure. … that makes me also think that he wants to drop the bomb.” www.thebulwark.com/p/sarah-long...

This disgusting shit doesn’t belong in American society. And Republicans who support it don’t belong in Congress.

Iran’s people were facing a horrible shortage of water before the war began. If we are destroying desalination plants and setting fire to Teheran we are committing unfathomable crimes.

@michelebella.bsky.social Here’s the group photo of the 509th’s 390th Air Service Group with your grandfather (row 7, 5th from right) and mine.

@michelebella.bsky.social Thanks for your important comments on this. It’s disgraceful. Do you have a copy of the 509th’s album? It credits your grandfather Corp. Armen Shamlian. I wonder if he took this personal photo of my grandpa in front of the B-29 Great Artiste. bsky.app/profile/monk...

I have my grandfather’s “509th Composite Group First Atomic Bombardment” photo album of the 509th’s service in the atomic bombing and surrender of Japan. There’s a cartoon of a hat waving cowboy riding a phallic atom bomb that I speculate must be Kubrick’s inspiration for Dr. Strangelove’s finale.

Another artist’s personal story recommended for both its quality in the line of Maus and Persepolis and its current relevance is Sattouf’s Arab of the Future. There are English translations of v. 1–4, but v. 5 is only in French, and final volume 6 is yet to appear. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ara...

Yes! I also recommend her influences and those she influenced. My path to enjoying Satrapi started with Wacky Packs as a kid. After reading Maus decades later, I was amazed to learn that they were both created by the same guy! Satrapi credits Spiegelman’s impact: m.youtube.com/watch?v=7i9V...

"Friends" is a beloved American sitcom that aired from 1994 to 2004, following six young adults—Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe—living in New York City. The show explores their friendships, romances, careers, and personal growth over ten seasons.

Trump casinos, Trump university, Trump vodka, now Trump Führerprinzip

“This is Anne Frank territory; the stuff of the Stasi and East Germany, or Kosovo and Sarajevo. And the only way it ends is with victory for the regime or a reckoning for all those who waged this war against America. However alarmed you are, it’s not enough.”

OBAA’s fascist allegories: • “Clean” murder is to gas & incinerate victim • Lockjaw office is Suite 55, i.e. “SS” • Willa calls attention to Lockjaw’s shirt: he’s a blackshirt • Lockjaw has mixed-race daughter shot; Nazi Amon Göth’s (Schindler’s List) irl black Gdau wrote “My Gfa Would Have Shot Me”

RIP David Lynch