The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 87, January 9, 2022 (V2 #35)
“Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part.”—John Lewis
“It's great to live in the moment, but the future keeps coming, please be prepared.” —Bob Lefsetz
“Collapse is just a series of ordinary days in between extraordinary bullshit, most of it happening to someone else. That’s all it is.” --From “I Lived Through Collapse. America Is Already There,” by Indi Samarajiva, on Medium
“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” – Albert Einstein
Commemorations
Sidney Poitier – Hollywood’s first Black leading man reflected the civil rights movement on screen, Aram Goudsouzian, The Conversation, 1/6/22: “Poitier broke the mold of what a Black actor could be in Hollywood.”
Millard Fillmore’s birthday was January 7. And 2022 is the 30th anniversary of the first publication of Yo, Millard Fillmore! by my friends Will Cleveland, Mark Alvarez and Tate Nation. I am thrilled to be their publisher. If you or any kid you know wants to learn the presidents in order in less than half an hour, buy this cool book now.
“May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not.”—Millard Fillmore (being prescient.)
“Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with absolute truth.” —Simone de Beauvoir, born January 9, 1908
The Meadow Where All Things Grow According To Their Own Design
Destiny lies behind our forces
and what lives in the soul
dies not. It inhabits our dreams
as perpetual as light.
As the spring grass flowers,
it sprouts out in hair on our chin
and keeps birds thin
with the perpetual gnawing of desire.
The higher one goes
up the angelic ladder
remains the minute bits
and ends of our life.
Seeds there to recur when we
are most unaware.
Old faces, letters crop up again.
Words from our poems
Menace the night
—John Wieners, January 6, 1934-March 1, 2002
Oh My Cron Again!
Open Thread: Here's Hoping We Don't Need Luck As Much in 2022, 1/5/2022 edition, Zeynep, The Insight, 1/5/22: “Treat the public like adults and partners, and work to empower them—even if some portion isn’t listening to the advice, or even if some are actively hostile. Seems straightforward enough, and yet we still struggle with it.”
COVID forced cities to redesign their streets. Now, some of those changes are permanent: In 2020, cities adapted to COVID-19 with open streets, outdoor dining, and added bike lanes. In 2021, some of those changes became permanent—and advocates for walkable, bikeable cities can take lessons from what worked to redesign even more streets, Adele Peters, Fast Company, 1/2/22
Long COVID could become Finland's largest chronic disease, warns minister, Reuters Staff, Reuters, 1/7/22
Four charts that analyze how omicron’s wave compares to previous coronavirus peaks, Shelly Tan, Washington Post, 1/7/22
Inter Everything
Can Matt Mullenweg save the internet? He's turning Automattic into a different kind of tech giant. But can he take on the trillion-dollar walled gardens and give the internet back to the people? David Pierce, Protocol, 12/21/21
A Denial-Of-Service Attack On Our Minds: The plague, the web, and our predicament, Andrew Sullivan, The Weekly Dish, 1/7/22: “It undermines our capacity for responding to anything. It leaves us either in a state of distraction or paralysis … It can just colonize your entire world.”
Your attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen: Social media and many other facets of modern life are destroying our ability to concentrate. We need to reclaim our minds while we still can, Johann Hari, The Guardian, 1/2/22
A Draft Syllabus For The Rabbit Hole, John Battelle, Searchblog, 1/5/22: “I’m reading in this space with an eye toward crypto’s impact on tech, society, and governance.”
This is why physicists suspect the Multiverse very likely exists: A wild, compelling idea without a direct, practical test, the Multiverse is highly controversial. But its supporting pillars sure are stable, Ethan Siegel, The Big Think, 12/30/21: “If inflation and quantum field theory are both correct, a Multiverse is a must.”
Facebook Hosted Three Huge Concerts in the Metaverse and They Seriously Flopped: Poor Zuckerberg, Tony Tran, Futurism, 1/4/22
Global spread of autoimmune disease blamed on western diet: New DNA research by London-based scientists hopes to find cure for rapidly spreading conditions, Robin McKie, The Guardian, 1/9/22
Birds and Animals
We saved the puffins. Now a warming planet is unraveling that work: "Seabirds are climate change prisoners. Our inaction makes us the executioners,” Derrick Z. Jackson, The Grist, 1/4/22
Fairywren birds can nest out of breeding season to boost numbers: Purple-crowned fairywrens are more flexible in their breeding behaviour than we thought, which has helped the bird population to grow in one wildlife sanctuary in Western Australia, Chen Ly, New Scientist, 1/5/22
Taking Down a Turtle Trafficker: When a package begins to move on its own in Canadian airport customs, it leads authorities to an international smuggling network, Clare Fieseler, Hakai Magazine, 12/28/21
Bears in Alaska’s Hallo Bay Are Changing What They Eat: It’s out with fish and in with berries and leafy greens—but scientists aren’t entirely sure why, Tim Lydon, Hakai Magazine, 1/6/22
More trees means healthier bees, new study on air pollution shows, Luis Patriana, MongaBay, 1/3/22
Climate Homes
On Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, the Kenhté:ke Seed Sanctuary preserves not just plants, but culture and language, too: In caring for a 40-year-old collection of 300 seed varieties, the non-profit Ratinenhayén:thos aims to strengthen local food security and revitalize Indigenous connections to the land, Louis Bockner, The Narwhal, 1/3/22
Colombian fishers are fighting for their rights and protection of vital wetlands: Roads, dams, mining and violent landgrabs threaten the fish of the Mompos Depression Wetlands and the communities who rely on them, Daniel Henryk Rasolt, Climate Home News, 12/30/22
Original caretakers: Indigenous groups team up with conservationists to protect swaths of US: Environmental organizations and tribes have been coming together to protect the natural world, and a key part of this teamwork has been land transfers, Hallie Golden, The Guardian, 1/3/22
‘Cultural resources are not a renewable thing for us:’ The West’s largest green energy storage project would destroy a Yakama sacred site. Now, the nation is fighting back, Sarah Sax, High Country News, 1/1/22
Gravity Could Solve Clean Energy’s One Major Drawback: Finding green energy when the winds are calm and the skies are cloudy has been a challenge. Storing it in giant concrete blocks could be the answer, Matt Reynolds, Wired, 1/4/22
Stopping Food Waste Before It Starts Is Key to Reaching Climate Goals: While rescuing wasted food gets all the headlines, a new EPA report shows that avoiding it completely offers bigger benefits, Lisa Held, Civil Eats, 1/5/22
How to address climate locally? These 6 places have plans, Daniel Cusick, E&E News, 1/5/22
Dust Is a Growing Problem. What Role Does Farmland Play?: With a growing set of tools, scientists are digging into questions about the links between modern agriculture, drought, and rising incidents of dust storms and respiratory illness, Virginia Gewin, Civil Eats, 1/6/22
Climate change could enable valley fever to spread across more of Western U.S.: The sometimes fatal disease is caused by exposure to a fungus that thrives in hot, dry conditions, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 1/6/22
These homes are off-grid and climate resilient. They’re also built out of trash: Earthships have long been an offbeat curiosity for travelers, but through the lens of climate change, they suddenly look like a housing haven, Nick Aspinwall, Washington Post, 1/4/22
Watching Don’t Look Up made me see my whole life of campaigning flash before me: I’ve broken down on TV too, trying to explain the horror of the climate crisis to those who wield power and do nothing, George Monbiot, Washington Post, 1/4/22
California’s Forever Fire: After another devastating year, it’s clear that Californians can’t keep trying to “fight” wildfires. Instead, they need to accept it as their new reality, Elizabeth Weil, ProPublica, 1/3/22
The Queen of the Desert, How Susan Sorrells transformed a Death Valley mining village into a model of ecologically conscious tourism, Alex Ross, New Yorker, 1/4/22 (Ed. Note – this is great piece, recommended reading.)
Our House is on Fire
The Hidden Agenda Behind the Attack on Vaccine Mandates: Six Republican-appointed justices may use these cases to seize power from the president and Congress, Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, 1/6/22: “This is what NFIB and Ohio are really about: Whether the sitting president—acting through his experts—or the dead hand of the Trump administration—acting through the courts—gets to guide public health during the deadliest pandemic in American history.”
Jan. 6 Was Not the Beginning or the End, Marc Elias, Democracy Docket, 1/6/22: “The events of Jan. 6 were neither the end of the Trump era nor a precursor to 2024. Instead, they were the continuation of a multi-year plan for Republicans to maintain majority power with a shrinking share of popular support.”
Fox News goes through the looking-glass on US Capitol attack anniversary: Rightwing network presented a carnival of conspiracy theories casting blame anywhere other than on Trump and his supporters, Sam Wolfson, The Guardian, 1/7/22
The January 6th Republicans: How stories replaced arguments, lies replaced truth, and the right succumbed to a cult of personality, Jonah Goldberg, Common Sense, 1/6/22: “With apologies to the English poet Ralph Hodgson, we increasingly live in an age where some things have to be believed to be seen.” (thanks to David Appel for sending this)
Our democracy may be threatened: But it's up to us to keep it strong, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 1/7/22: “The problem with our democracy isn’t that it’s fragile but that it’s hard. It makes change slow and incremental. … Nobody has been able to take it away from us yet, and nobody ever will so long as I’m around to have a say so.”
How democracy gets eroded – lessons from a Nixon expert, Ken Hughes, The Conversation, 1/6/22: “The coup by a thousand cuts is the stuff of nightmares for democracy’s defenders and the dream of authoritarian politicians.”
The insurrection is only the tip of the iceberg: Behind the insurrection of 6 January was a coup plot that was months in the making, and which involved a dastardly cast of characters, Sidney Blumenthal, The Guardian, 1/6/22
Corporate lobbyists bite back, Judd Legum, Popular Information, 1/6/22: “Now, a year later, corporate lobbyists on both sides of the aisle are talking to the media, arguing that companies would be foolish not to donate to Republicans who voted to overturn the election.”
The next US civil war is already here – we just refuse to see it: The right has recognized that the system is in collapse, and it has a plan: violence and solidarity with treasonous far-right factions, Stephen Marche, The Guardian, 1/4/22
Not all polarization is bad, but the US could be in trouble, Robert B. Talisse, The Conversation, 1/3/22: “And because the citizenry is divided over lifestyle choices rather than policy ideas, officeholders are released from the usual electoral pressure to advance a legislative platform. They can gain reelection simply based on their antagonism.”
The Time Is Now for Democrats To Save Democracy, Marc Elias, Democracy Docket, 1/4/22: “The Senate being the Senate and Republicans being Republicans, it was always going to come down to this: Democrats alone need to save democracy.”
If American democracy is going to survive, the media must make this crucial shift: Journalists stepped it up in 2021, but now we need a concerted effort, Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post, 1/3/22: “Don’t be afraid to stand for something as basic to our mission as voting rights, governmental checks and balances, and democratic standards….In other words, shout it from the rooftops. Before it’s too late.”
Facebook Hosted Surge of Misinformation and Insurrection Threats in Months Leading Up to Jan. 6 Attack, Records Show, Craig Silverman, Craig Timberg, Jeff Kao, Jeremy B. Merrill, ProPublica, 1/4/22
The American polity is cracked, and might collapse. Canada must prepare: The U.S. is becoming increasingly ungovernable, and some experts believe it could descend into civil war. What should Canada do then? Thomas Homer-Dixon, The Globe and Mail, 1/2/22: “The cracks have steadily widened, ramified, connected and propagated deeply into America’s once-esteemed institutions, profoundly compromising their structural integrity. The country is becoming increasingly ungovernable, and some experts believe it could descend into civil war.”
A Year After January 6, Is Accelerationism the New Terrorist Threat? Far-right extremists are attempting to incite an insurrection to hasten the downfall of what they see as a deeply corrupt U.S. government. Some could resort to deadly acts of terrorism, Bruce Hoffman, Council on Foreign Relations, 1/5/22
The Biden Boom: We kept ourselves out of debt, so now we're enjoying a speedy recovery, Noah Smith, Noahopinion, 1/7/22: “In the 4th quarter of 2021, the United States economy is believed to have grown by about 5.5% or 6% (annualized rate). That’s a pretty incredible number, when you consider that the consensus forecast for China is only 3.5% in the same quarter. But things get even more impressive when you look at the employment numbers. The unemployment rate probably fell to 4.1% in December — a number below what we used to think to think of as the “natural rate” of unemployment.” (Ed. Note: Good news about the Biden administration is often under-reported. Do you wonder, as I do, why this news is not everywhere?)
Unlocks, Scott Galloway, No Mercy No Malice, 1/7/22: “Unlocks are often inspired by new technology. But 2021 may inspire unprecedented unlocks via billion-year old tech — a nucleic acid molecule in a protein coat, too small to be seen by light microscopy, able to multiply only within the living cells of a host. More commonly referred to as a virus. The “Pandemic Dividend” could be significant.”
Books and Writing
Winter Trees
All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.
—William Carlos Williams
The war on library books, Judd Legum, Popular Information, 1/5/22: “It's less about parent involvement in their child's education and more about imposing cultural conservatism on every aspect of public education.”
On the Political Meaning of the Road Narrative, Tiphanie Yanique, LitHub, 1/3/22: “Because the road narrative relies on the landscape, it also metaphorizes issues of nationhood and national culture. What happens on the road happens because of America; the very land determines the outcome of the plot. This allows for the writer to say something political, particularly something about freedom (or the lack of it), without necessarily being heavy-handed.”
The Steal review: stethoscope for a democracy close to cardiac arrest: Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague have produced an indispensable and alarming ground-level record of how Donald Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election played out in precincts and ballot-counting centers in key states, Charles Kaiser, The Guardian, 1/2/22: “The authors have used a stethoscope to examine the minutia of the American election process. The result is a thrilling and suspenseful celebration of the survival of democracy.”
Dissolving Genre: Toward Finding New Ways to Write About the World: Reimagining the Relationship Between the Human and the Non-Human, Ingrid Horrocks, LitHub, 1/6/22: “The whistles and grunts that make up humpback whales’ songs are the longest and most complex rhythmic syntax in the non-human world. One whale takes a song from another and returns it with a new rhythm of its own. Humpbacks pass song fragments across hundreds of miles. I wonder what those songs sound like when humpbacks meet again after a gap of time. What sounds do they float to acknowledge and guide one another? How does it feel to become a drop of water, and then to re-enter, to dissolve back into the whole?”
New and forthcoming books from City Point Press:
Stories My Grandmother Told Me: A Multicultural Journey from Harlem to Tohono O'Dham, Gabriela Maya Bernadett – a memoir that explores themes of identity, tradition, and belonging,
Dreamland Court: A Novel, Dale Herd (February 22) - An underground love story set in the blighted industrial landscape of the Los Angeles basin.
The Man Who Came and Went, Joe Stillman (March 1) – A magically realistic novel of the new west that will tease your understanding and beliefs and draw you into the mysteries of the universe.
Now you're telling me
You're not nostalgic
Then give me another word for it
You who are so good with words
And at keeping things vague
'Cause I need some of that vagueness now
It's all come back too clearly
Yes, I loved you dearly
And if you're offering me diamonds and rust
I've already paid
—Joan Baez, “Diamonds and Rust” (Happy Birthday Joan!)
Not so fun fact: Amazon now receives 10 million orders per day (115 orders per second), and 1 out of every 153 American workers is an Amazon employee.
Winter has set in for most of us, and the grim realities of politics, climate and pandemic continue unabated. There is always good news amongst the rubble, but there are days when there is no respite. I hope all of us can stay strong despite the challenges I’ve tried to document in this newsletter. And I hope these messages help in some small way. Stay well all. There is much work to be done.
“Tis the business of little minds to shrink.” —Thomas Paine