The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 262, May 18, 2025 (V6 #2)
Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.—Ralph Waldo Emerson
For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.—Thomas Paine, Common Sense
Any great power that spends more on debt service than on defense risks ceasing to be a great power.—Niall Ferguson
Books, Music, Art, Culture
Must Artists Help Turn the Tide?, Steven Beschloss, America, America, 5/17/25: “In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”—Bruce Springsteen
An Ode to Chelsea Gray: In Praise of the Poetics of Basketball: “When I watch her, I feel like I’m witnessing something beyond me, something heavenly and incomprehensible,” Mac Crane, LitHub, 5/13/25: “Watch her play for even one minute, and it’s like encountering the most beautifully strange, unignorable first line of a poem.”
O Mother Gaia: Director Colin Still Reveals the World of Gary Snyder, Library of America, 5/6/25: “From the outset it had been my hope that, were the opportunity to present itself, I would be able to re-edit the footage to make a longer and more ambitious film, a plan which appealed to Snyder and to the other participants.” Brilliant! Watch the Film Trailer
Why We Need the National Endowment for the Arts: In the past week, the Trump administration has started canceling the crucial nonprofit's grants. We need art now more than ever, Kaitlyn Greenidge, Harper’s Bazaar, 5/8/25: “The National Endowment for the Arts is part of the living, breathing ecosystem of American culture, part of the work that keeps America honest about itself.”
L. Frank Baum’s Literary Vision of an American Century: The Wizard of Oz at 125 Years: on Grifters, the Chicago World Fair, and Oz as Symbol of a Modern USA, Ed Simon, LitHub, 5/16/25: “…even after self-invention has failed, the grift continues.”
American Schools Were Deeply Unprepared for ChatGPT, Public Records Show, Jason Koebler, 404 Media, 5/16/25
“I'm the Problem; It's Me”: On the Confession the Mainstream Media Won't Make, Rebecca Solnit, Meditations in an Emergency, 5/17/25: “We in the USA are in deep trouble and a major reason for the trouble we're in is the mainstream media and their many persistent distortions of truth, fact, reality in service of their agendas and the limits of their worldview (and lack of resistance to intimidation by the right). That habit has contributed hugely to a misinformed electorate, which in turn contributes to the outcomes of elections.”
Trump Is Trying to Take Control of Congress Through Its Library: The Trump administration is trying to take over the Library of Congress, “a major component of the legislative branch” that confidentially advises lawmakers, Nikki McCann Ramirez, Asawin Suebsaeng, Andrew Perez, Rolling Stone, 5/12/25
Lawmakers in Both Parties Resist Trump’s Attempt to Seize Control of Their Library: The surprise firing of the head of the Library of Congress and efforts to install Trump loyalists at the iconic institution have stirred bipartisan pushback on Capitol Hill, Maya C.Miller, Carl Hulse, NY Times, 5/15/25
The Promise of Eggs: Finding fortitude in troubled times, Jennifer Marysia Landretti, Orion, 5/14/25: “That’s just the thing about an egg. About all eggs. Fragile as they are, they know they’re made to be broken.”
Why has American pop culture stagnated? Predictably, my theories are all technological and economic, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 5/14/25: “I think you’ve got to make the artists work for each other more. How you do that, in a world where technology has made artists irrelevant as gatekeepers, is not something I have a concrete answer for.”
Stopping The Self-Violence of Social Media, John Pavlovitz, Beautiful Mess, 5/17/25: “Social media is slowly killing us right now. We are injuring ourselves one click at a time, and our hearts are all slowly bleeding out.”
What typewriters teach us about writing and sharing: And yes, I bought 6 more typewriters...Dan Blank, Creative Shift, 5/16/25: “Typewriters remind me of so many lessons about creating and sharing. One of the biggest is perhaps to remember that meaningful connections to others happens through conversations, experiences, and relationships with other human beings.”
Against Algorithms: Why Tuning Out is an Essential Part of the Creative Process: on the Importance of Keeping True to Your Own Thoughts, Ling Ling Huang, LitHub, 5/14/25: “Algorithms engage our lizard brains, and in doing so, they carve us away from our communities and atomize our attention.”
Round two? You’re Mary Magdalene
ready to wash my feet. I don’t know why
I need Jesus. Why I need you. To hurt
is human. Or vice versa. Yes. For this
they’ll take my Black card. Stay in, k? Come. Now.
—from “To all the white boys who love me when I’m manic,” Erica Dawson
Politics, Economics, Technology
America’s Long Coup: How the GOP Rigged, Lied, and Stole Its Way Into the White House for Over 50 Years: The numbers are in. The evidence is overwhelming. And the silence is deadly. It’s time Democrats started calling this what it is: a decades-long criminal conspiracy to seize power by any means…Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 5/13/25
Trump’s Effort to become the Supreme Leader Has Roots in a Nazi Philosopher: His lawless view of his sovereign powers was articulated by Carl Schmitt, Andy Craig, Unpopulist, 5/13/25: “First is the friend-enemy distinction…Second is the idea that…’sovereign is he who decides on the exception,’ the power to suspend laws altogether in the name of preserving the polity.”
Corruption and Authoritarianism: From the Nazis onward, corruption has been key to sustaining authoritarian regimes, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Lucid, 5/14/25
The Fascist Atmosphere: It's less an ideology than an environment. A digital one, Douglas Rushkoff, Rushkoff, 5/17/25: “Our current inability to engage with the subtleties, the paradoxes, and the contradictions - the COMPLEXITY - is a symptom of our quantized state of mind. And it makes us vulnerable to the authoritarian or totalitarian urge to take a no-compromises approach to the civic and political spheres.”
Will we allow ICE to behave as a secret police? Walter Olson, Newsletter, 5/11/25: “…making masked raids a general and systematic practice is just part of a wider effort to dodge accountability for potentially illegal and unconstitutional actions.”
Multiple Trump White House officials have ties to antisemitic extremists, Tom Dreisbach, NPR, 5/14/25: “NPR has identified three Trump officials with close ties to antisemitic extremists, including a man described by federal prosecutors as a ‘Nazi sympathizer,’ and a prominent Holocaust denier.”
Here is a specific thing you can do to fight Trump's politicization of public services: Feeling overwhelmed? That's OK. Here's your guide to fighting back against Trump's war on federal workers and basic competence, Don Moynihan, Lincoln Square, 5/14/25: Write a comment opposing the proposed Office of Personnel Management rule to politicize public services. It takes only 5 minutes. Deadline is May 23rd! Enter a comment here.
Republican tax bill could slap ‘terrorism’ label on non-profits opposed to Trump: Fears sparked that Trump would wield law against groups that file lawsuits or organize voters against his policies, Chris Stein, The Guardian, 5/14/25
The Great American Healthcare Scam: While Trump's corruption goes unnoticed by the public, Congress is preparing to starve the poor and give tax breaks to the rich, Coop Scoop, Journal of the Plague Years, 5/16/25
'We Need Calls Now!' Republicans Slip Nonprofit Killer Bill Into Tax Package: “If Democrats capitulate to the wanton destruction of crucial civil society institutions, they had better expect civil society to burn them to the ground for that betrayal,” Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, 5/13/25
When the Executive Defies the Judiciary: How Federal Courts Can Enforce Their Orders Without the Marshals, Steve Hirsch, John Hill, Christie Wentworth, Just Security, 5/13/25: “Even if the USMS refuses to act, federal courts have powerful alternative mechanisms to appoint officials other than Marshals to enforce their orders.”
Trump vs. the Supremes: The largest stress test yet of the U.S. Constitution, Robert Reich, Newsletter, 5/17/25: “…call this a showdown because Trump cannot abide limits.
Trump's Executive Orders Serve One Sinister Purpose: Inside Team Trump's Shrewd Strategy to Kill Democracy, Rachel "The Doc" Bitecofer, The Cycle, 5/17/25: “When Donald Trump tells his base to ignore the courts, it undermines the rule of law—the foundational principle that no one is above it. It sets a dangerous precedent where political loyalty trumps legal authority, edging the country closer to authoritarianism and civil unrest. And its all by design.
The End of Rule of Law in America: The 47th president seems to wish he were king—and he is willing to destroy what is precious about this country to get what he wants, J. Michael Luttig, Atlantic, 5/14/25: “This is not a man who respects the rule of law, nor one who seeks to understand it.”
Thomas and Alito can’t find their copies of the Constitution, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 5/18/25: “The Supreme Court, in this decision, is reminding Donald Trump that his upcoming collision will be with the Constitution itself, and the resulting damage will be to him, not to either the court or our founding document.”
The hidden ways Trump, DOGE are shutting down parts of the U.S. government: Limits on spending have incapacitated parts of agencies as varied as the National Park Service and the Pentagon, Hannah Natanson, Maxine Joselow, Washington Post, 5/11/25
The Data Don't Lie: Democrats, NOT Republicans, Are Good for the Economy Across Almost Every Metric, Rachel “The Doc” Bitcofer, The Cycle, 5/14/25
Yes, the media’s Biden coverage was flawed. But its reporting on Trump was far worse: A new book has fueled controversy over press handling of the ex-president’s decline. But that distracts from a bigger problem, Margaret Sullivan, The Guardian, 5/17/25
Democrats are failing against Trump. We need a new generation in 2026: The absence of opposition has been stunning. Americans are losing faith in the party’s ability to solve our problems, Alexandra Rojas, The Guardian, 5/15/25
What Democrats Can Learn From Morena: The Mexican left combined ideological diversity on cultural issues with a shared, populist vision on material concerns, Juan David Rojas, Liberal Patriot, 5/16/25
On Patriotism: Beyond Flags and Anthems—The Moral Courage to Defend Democracy, Mike Brock, Notes from the Circus, 5/15/25: “The patriot's question is: “Are we being true to our constitutional principles?” The nationalist's question is: “Are we winning?” This fundamental difference explains much about our current political turmoil.”
‘Toxic Optimism’: How Americans Ended Up With Trump Term 2: It's time to do more than just wait for everything to work out, Kim Wehle, Zeteo, 5/12/25: “Democrats should be chaining themselves to the White House fence, filibuster everything, break all the rules, curse at TV, yell at any Republican they see every time. This is it. This is the fight of our lives. People need to take to the streets, or we’re fucked.”
We Live in Fearful Times. Our Safety Comes Through Preparing Together: “Now is the time to be bold and audacious,” says community safety organizer Che Johnson-Long, Kelly Hayes, Organizing My Thoughts, 5/15/25: “I think the right means to activate our trauma responses and send us into a frenzy by overwhelming us.”
Democrats in Disarray: The road back, Gerald Seib, News Items, 5/17/25: “Democrats should do what Republicans and conservatives did, to great success, over the last quarter-century: start building back not in the hothouse of Washington, where they have limited power and little room for maneuver, but out in the states and at the local level.”
As Trump Declares “Golden Era” in the Arab Gulf, Gaza Burns and Netanyahu Threatens to Wipe Palestinians Off the Map: Hamas is not optimistic that the U.S. will press Israel to end the war, despite reports of tensions between Trump and Netanyahu, Jeremy Scahill, Drop Site, 5/15/25
The 1948 Nakba and Today's Gaza Genocide Are Two Sides of the Same Coin: On Nakba Day, Diana Buttu reflects on the suffering in the Strip and on how, for 77 years, Palestinians have been invisible to Israelis – and much of the world, Diana Buttu, Zeteo, 5/15/25
Remember this, when public hospitals
cannot care for the wounded and critical,
and they shut their doors
and lock them
in the middle of a war zone
we once called home.
—from “Meditations in a War Zone,” Essex Hemphill
Science, Environment, Wilderness
Is This the Year We Doom Civilization? We may be losing our last, best chance to limit climate change, Paul Krugman, Newsletter, 5/14/25: “Republicans have outlined far-reaching plans to gut government support for clean energy as part of a series of legislative proposals to fund sweeping tax cuts…”
Vandalism, with a plan: Figuring out what the thugs are up to so we can stand up to them, Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years, 5/16/25: “Solar works, solar is cheap, and solar is liberating.”
GOP budget plan contains a massive poison pill for clean energy: “Totally unworkable” rules could kill manufacturing and clean energy investment by restricting tax credits for any project remotely tied to China, experts warn, Jeff St. John, Canary Media, 5/15/25
Plastic may be warming the planet more than we thought: Most models haven’t accounted for how microplastics may increase global warming by disrupting natural cycles that store carbon, Nicolás Rivero, Washington Post, 5/14/25
“Intense Culture of Fear”: Behind the Scenes as Trump Destroys the EPA From Within: Staffers said Trump is “lobotomizing our agency” by forcing thousands into buyouts and politicizing notions like environmental justice, Akela Lacy, The Intercept, 5/13/25
Unprecedented cuts to the National Science Foundation endanger research that improves economic growth, national security and your life, Paul Bierman, The Conversation, 5/15/25: “No matter where you live, NSF-supported research has also made your life safer.”
A Path Forward to Save American Bio-Medical Research, Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, 5/16/25: “…we need people with big megaphones to start leveling with the public about what’s happening.”
A Clean Energy Boom Was Just Starting. Now, a Republican Bill Aims to End It: The party’s signature tax plan would kill most Biden-era incentives, but there’s a sticking point: G.O.P. districts have the most to lose, Brad Plumer, Harry Stevens, NY Times, 5/13/25 (No paywall)
Starch-based bioplastic may be as toxic as petroleum-based plastic, study finds: Bioplastics, heralded for supposedly breaking down more quickly, can cause similar health problems to other plastics, Tom Perkins, The Guardian, 5/13/25
China’s Mega Dam Project Poses Big Risks for Asia’s Grand Canyon: China’s plans to build a massive hydro project in Tibet have sparked fears about the environmental impacts on the world’s longest and deepest canyon. It has also alarmed neighboring India, which fears that China could hold back or even weaponize river water it depends on, Fred Pearce, Yale E360, 5/14/25
In India, Indigenous women and their ‘dream maps’ seek to protect lands from climate change, Sibi Arasu, AP, 5/14/25: “The women have created what are known as dream maps, showing their villages in their ideal states.”
Ice melt opens up enormous cracks in Greenland’s ice sheet: ‘They can be tens or even a hundred meters wide – that’s big enough to fly a helicopter through,’ YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 5/15/25
What the complete ape genome is revealing about the earliest humans: We now have full genome sequences for six species of apes, helping us to pin down our last common ancestor – and potentially changing how we think of the earliest hominins, Michael Marshall, New Scientist, 5/15/25
Chimps sometimes care for others’ wounds, and scientists want to know why: There is still debate, researchers say, over whether the behavior is instinctual or based in more complex thought or even empathy, Vivian Ho, Washington Post, 5/14/25
How the Universe Differs From Its Mirror Image: From living matter to molecules to elementary particles, the world is made of “chiral” objects that differ from their reflected forms, Zack Savitsky, Quanta, 5/14/25: “Everything is not the same through the looking glass. The behavior of many familiar objects, from molecules to elementary particles, depends on which mirror-image version we interact with.”
Yesterday becomes folly
& recovery demands invention
—from “Apologia to the Stag,” Reginald Dwayne Betts
Health, Wellness
Study links hundreds-of-thousands of deaths to plastic: Should you worry? Evidence is accumulating that microplastics found nearly everywhere are also invading our bodies. What should you do? Elizabeth Weise, USA Today, 5/12/25: We’re conducing a vast, uncontrolled medical experiment in which we, our (children) and our grandchildren are the unwitting, unconsenting subjects.”
Exposure to chemical mixtures linked to an increased risk of autism in children, Staff, Environmental Health News, 5/16/25
Wily Parasite Kills Human Cells and Wears Their Remains as Disguise, Douglas Fox, UCDavis, 5/12/25: “…after the amoeba ingests parts of human cells, it becomes resistant to a major component of the human immune system…”
So that the best thing you could do, it seemed, was climb inside the machine that was language
and feel what it wanted or was capable of doing at any point, steering only occasionally.
—from “The Craft Talk,” Rae Armentrout (thanks Terence Winch/Best American Poetry)
Birds, Birding
The Wonders of Bird-Watching without Tech: Technology has made it easier than ever to quickly find, identify and record birds. But to truly appreciate feathered friends, consider unplugging, Derek Lovitch, Scientific American, 5/15/25
The new birders: Young people are taking up the old binoculars, Natalia Garicza, Deseret News, 5/15/25: “Since the earliest dawn of human civilization, birds have been important for us spiritually and emotionally.”
Dawn’s chorus is a peace-making operation.
The birds with the biggest eyes sing first.
—from “The Future History of Earth’s Birds,” Amie Whittemore
Dearest friends:
It’s our turn to defend the planet and our polity—with freedom and justice for all. I am optimistic; even as the week’s news remains so steadily terrible, there is much good news to share as well, and some truly uplifting work going on in so many places across the country.
There is so much to be done. We have each other to rely on.
Please keep in touch…hearing from you makes the work I do worthwhile.
I send my love to all of you - David
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.—Epictetus
To feel the love of people who we love is a fire that feeds our life.—Pablo Neruda