The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 78, November 7, 2021 (V2 #26)
“Isn’t the point of a right that you don’t have to ask Congress? Isn’t the point of a right that it doesn’t really matter what Congress thinks or what the majority of the American people think as to that right?” —Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, 11/1/21
“Since Biden took office, the U.S. has added more than 5.6 million jobs. This reflects the rebound from the lows of the pandemic, and it means that Biden added more jobs in the first 9 months of his presidency than the last three Republican administrations, covering 16 years, combined.”—Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, 11/5/21
An Open Letter in Defense of Democracy: The future of democracy in the United States is in danger, Todd Gitlin, Jeffrey C. Isaac, William Kristol, The Bulwark, 10/27/21
“We need to join together to defend liberal democracy.
Because liberal democracy itself is in serious danger. Liberal democracy depends on free and fair elections, respect for the rights of others, the rule of law, a commitment to truth and tolerance in our public discourse. All of these are now in serious danger.”
(published simultaneously in The New Republic – please read in full)
I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat: It's not 1935 anymore, and it's not funny, Lucian Truscott IV, Newsletter, 11/3/21: “Democrats had better get their shit together and learn to exercise power, or somebody else is going to come along and do it for them, and we’re not going to like that somebody else at all.”
One Thought About Tuesday’s Election, Judd Legum, Popular Information, 11/4/21: “…2022 will be very different than 2021. Politics is much more dynamic than the coverage suggests. The only thing that is constant is change.”
Democrats can beat Trumpian pipsqueaks in fleece vests. Here's how, Lucian Truscott IV, Newsletter, 11/5/21: “Don’t argue with provable lies — nobody wants to hear your proof. Don’t pick at Trump like he’s an issue you can run on. He’s a scab that won’t come off, and he doesn’t bleed. Come up with slogans that take a positive stand. Tell voters who you are and what you stand for. They’ll fill in the blanks.”
but death went on and on
never looking aside
except now and then
with a furtive half-smile
to make sure I was noticing.
—Hayden Carruth, from "On Being Asked to Write a Poem Against the War in Vietnam" (it’s Veterans Day this week)
A Living Weapon in Your Hand: Diane di Prima’s poetry combined revolutionary ideas and spiritual fervor, Francesca Wade, The Baffler, 11/3/21: “From 1968, di Prima sent out regular batches of the poems that would form Revolutionary Letters to an agency, which distributed them to free newspapers across the country, harnessing an egalitarian distribution model to complement the Letters’ practical impetus.”
I have just realized that the stakes are myself
I have no other
ransom money, nothing to break or barter but my life
my spirit measured out, in bits, spread over
the roulette table, I recoup what I can
nothing else to shove under the nose of the maitre de jeu
nothing to thrust out the window, no white flag
this flesh all I have to offer, to make the play with
this immediate head, what it comes up with, my move
as we slither over this go board, stepping always
(we hope) between the lines — “Revolutionary Letter #1,” Diane DiPrima
‘Still a long way from being realized’: A Q&A with author and metaverse inventor Neal Stephenson, Alexander Lee, Digiday, 11/5/21: “The novel is a clarion wake-up call about climate change, anticipating a near-future in which the industrialized nations of the world have continued to pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere unmitigated. (The narrative takes place somewhere in the 2030s, Stephenson said, “but I was deliberately vague about the exact timing of it.”) The protagonist of the book’s ensemble cast is the queen of the Netherlands, who becomes embroiled in a controversial and world-changing geoengineering project intended to reverse global warming.”
For poet Sonia Sanchez — at age 87 — there's more work to be done, Jeevika Verma, NPR, 11/4/21: “For over 60 years, Sanchez has helped redefine the landscape of American politics and literature. As a leading figure in the 1960s Black Arts movement and one of the first people to set up a Black Studies program at an American university, Sanchez's life and work have established her as one of the greats in American poetry.”
Paul Auster on One of the Most Astonishing War Stories in American Literature: Considering the Dark Horrors of Stephen Crane’s “An Episode of War,” Paul Auster, Lithub, 11/1/21: “…this astonishing piece of work, which to my mind is one of Crane’s most brilliant little stories, a four-page 60-yard dash run at full tilt from start to finish without a single misstep or stumble along the way, so perfect in its execution that it justifiably ranks as one of the finest war stories in American literature.” (from Paul’s new book, The Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane)
Is Amazon Changing the Novel? In the new literary landscape, readers are customers, writers are service providers, and books are expected to offer instant gratification, Parul Seghal, New Yorker, 10/25/21: “Still, the impossible surplus of books could explain a certain miasma of shame that emanates from much contemporary fiction. Saul Bellow once said that novelists sought a definition of human nature in order to justify the ongoing existence of their craft. Recent novels, however, are marked by mortification.”
Whoa
Beware: Gaia may destroy humans before we destroy the Earth: Covid-19 may well have been one attempt by the Earth to protect itself. Gaia will try harder next time with something even nastier, James Lovelock, The Guardian, 11/2/21
10 Facebook Publishers Responsible for Nearly 70% of Climate Change Denial Content: The publishers are largely products of the political right and have a combined 186 million followers on major social media networks, Mack DeGuerin, Gizmodo, 11/2/21
An asteroid barely missed Earth last week, and no one knew it was coming: The space rock was a cosmic visitor that no one expected, Mindy Weisberger, LiveScience, 11/2/21
Op-Ed: Book banning in 2021? Why my book has been removed from school shelves, Chrstopher Noxon, LA Times, 11/2/21: “Still, it’s not hard to guess what backers of the ban find so dangerous about a book about civil rights, one that takes its title from Congressman John Lewis’ rallying cry to take action against injustice. It’s just one more cynical effort by entrenched powers to harness fear of “otherness” to win elections and reverse the fight for racial equality.”
EPA Withheld Reports of Substantial Risk Posed by 1,240 Chemicals: Beginning in 2019, the EPA stopped releasing crucial toxics reports. Even agency staffers have a hard time accessing them, Sharon Lerner, The Intercept, 11/1/21
Major Islamic Organization Issues Fatwa Against Cryptocurrency, Declares It Haram, Climateer Investing, 11/1/21: “The local branch of the Indonesian religious organization Nahdlatul Ulama in East Java has recently issued a fatwa on the status of cryptocurrencies under Islamic law. According to the nonbinding opinion, digital currencies secured by cryptography and used as a transaction instrument are to be considered “haram,” which means forbidden.”
The First Casualty of 2022 Is Terry McAuliffe: Virginia Democrats can blame themselves for Tuesday’s debacle, Gabrielle Gurley, American Prospect, 11/4/21
“The Revenge of the Pissed-Off Suburban Mom”: Democrats’ Painful Election Night Shows It’s Time to Shred the Playbook: Races in Virginia and New Jersey aren’t necessarily bellwethers for the rest of the country. But Terry McAuliffe’s loss and Phil Murphy’s slim victory do suggest Democrats need to switch things up—and stop “obsessing” over Donald Trump—if they want to succeed in 2022, Chris Smith, Vanity Fair, 11/4/21
Suburban voters responded to GOP culture war pitch in Virginia governor’s race, and showed all politics are now national, Athena M. King, The Conversation, 11/5/21
Colonialism, the climate crisis, and the need to center Indigenous voices: As world leaders gather at COP26, the lack of acknowledgment for the historical root causes of the current climate crisis has hamstrung our ability to ensure equitable climate adap, Denniss Martinez, Ans Irfan, The Daily Climate, 11/4/21
Climate depression is real. And it is spreading fast among our youth: This is a crisis that cannot be solved by ‘positive messaging’. The only thing that will help is action from world leaders, Peter Kalmus, The Guardian, 11/4/21
This tribe helped the Pilgrims survive for their first Thanksgiving. They still regret it 400 years later: Long marginalized and misrepresented in U.S. history, the Wampanoags are bracing for the 400th anniversary of the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in 1621, Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post, 11/4/21
Out of Control: America’s losing battle against diabetes: Drugmakers pushed aggressive diabetes therapy. Patients paid the price. Pharmaceutical giants launched years-long marketing campaigns for a treatment target they helped create, and as their sales of diabetes drugs soared, so did incidents of low blood sugar, a potentially deadly medication risk, Robin Respaut, Chad Terhune, Deborah Nelson, Reuters, 11/4/21
Here’s Hope
There Are Bright Spots in the Global Coral Reef Catastrophe: The first major report on the world’s reefs presents a grim picture of losses from global warming. But there are signs coral can recover if given a reprieve, Nicola Jones, Wired, 11/6/21
Blue carbon: the hidden CO2 sink that pioneers say could save the planet, With the ocean seen as the key to keeping global heating to 1.5C, attention has turned to the vital but overlooked “big three” marine ecosystems – seagrass, mangroves and salt marshes, Karen McVeigh, The Guardian, 11/4/21
Canada and U.S. to invest heavily in ‘climate-smart’ agriculture, Mark Fawcett-Atkinson, National Observer, 11/3/21
Coal power is consigned to history in Glasgow: China stands isolated - its bid to break US dominance and court global favour is going nowhere unless it bites the bullet, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph, 11/5/21
Faith Groups Increasingly Join Fight Against Climate Change, Luis Andres Nernao, Jessie Wardoski, AP News, 11/2/21
The Trash Divers Protecting America’s Best-Loved Lakes: Using their scuba skills, these water lovers clean the country’s largest lakes in the hope that their garbage hordes can spark high-level change, Stephanie Vermillion, Outside, 11/3/21
The ex-fitness trainers creating a Black-owned ranch: ‘We need a new system’ The stress on the food system caused by the pandemic gave the Stewarts an idea: creating a commercial ranch in Arizona, Cecilia Nowell, The Guardian, 11/1/21
Meet the Siblings Fighting Plastic Pollution: Ashton and Zara are a brother and sister pollution-busting superhero duo from the UK. Together they founded the Hidden Plastic, an initiative that teaches other kids about our planet’s plastic predicament and how they can be part of the solution, Cat Kutz, Smithsonian, 11/4/21
He’s the youngest Chief in his First Nation’s history. Now he’s leading their fight against climate change, Tik Root, Washington Post, 11/3/21: “Nature speaks to us,” he said. “Just not in English.”
We’re Losing Our Lawns. And That’s OK: Having a green lawn doesn’t make sense in many parts of the country. But that doesn’t mean kids have to sacrifice their backyard adventures, Britany Robinson, Outside, 10/29/21
Cause of Alzheimer’s progression in the brain, Univ of Cambridge, Science Daily, 10/29/21 “Their results could have important implications for the development of potential treatments.”
Study links gene to cognitive resilience in the elderly: The findings may help explain why some people who lead enriching lives are less prone to Alzheimer’s and age-related dementia, MIT News via The Picower Institute, 11/4/21: “A new study by MIT researchers shows that this kind of enrichment appears to activate a gene family called MEF2, which controls a genetic program in the brain that promotes resistance to cognitive decline.”
Skin patch coated in covid-19 vaccine may work better than injections: Covid-19 vaccines in use today have to be stored at cold temperatures, but a patch covered in tiny plastic spikes coated in a vaccine could provide an alternative, Alice Klein, New Scientist, 10/29/21
Stanford Scientists Say Brain Magnets Can Relieve Depression: "I feel much better. I’m sleeping; I’m no longer suicidal,” Tony Tran, Futurism.com, 10/29/21
Her Machine Learning Tools Pull Insights From Cell Images: The computational biologist Anne Carpenter creates software that brings the power of machine learning to researchers seeking answers in mountains of cell images, Esther Landhuis, Quanta Magazine, 11/3/21
Indigenous Women in Peru Seek to Turn the Tables on Big Oil, Asserting ‘Rights of Nature’ to Fight Epic Spills: Their lawsuit demands protection for the Marañón River from Lot1AB, an oilfield carved into the Amazon Rainforest with nearly 2,000 contaminated sites, Katie Surma, Inside Climate News, 11/5/21
In ‘Required Reading,’ Indigenous Leaders Call for Landback Reforms and Climate Justice: The authors, who are taking part in COP26 this week, talk about kelp farming, restoring buffalo herds, and other ways to support Indigenous communities and their allies in healing the planet and moving forward to a post-oil future, Gosia Wozniacka, Civil Eats, 11/3/21
Climate Reparations: A trillion tons of carbon hangs in the air, put there by the world’s rich, an existential threat to its poor. Can we remove it? David Wallace-Wells, NY Magazine, 11/1/21
Ikaria—The Island of Mysterious Longevity, Why do the inhabitants of this tiny Greek island live so long? It may be something in the rocks, Stav Dimitropoulos, Neo Life, 11/4/21: “Perhaps when life stops being a sprint, time becomes an ally rather than an enemy.”
Plant in traditional Samoa medicine could be as effective as ibuprofen, study shows: Researchers say leaves of the matalafi plant could also potentially be used to treat cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, Joshua MacDonald, The Guardian, 11/3/21
Steel Is Back: Why a new U.S.-EU trade arrangement about steel is surprisingly important, Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, 11/3/21
Much of what you've heard about Carter and Reagan is wrong: Debunking our narratives of the late 70s and early 80s, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 11/3/21: “Carter deregulated, appointed a tough inflation-fighter to the Fed, and funded the USSR’s military opponents. But it wasn’t until the 80s that the economy boomed, inflation came down, and the USSR weakened and fell. In 1980, when Reagan beat Carter for the presidency, it still looked as if nothing was working and everything was still going wrong — even though the crucial policy steps that would turn things around had already been largely taken.”
Nikole Hannah-Jones Keeps Her Eyes on the Prize: Beloved by the hopeful, besieged by the right, America’s groundbreaking public intellectual talks about creating the 1619 Project, the harms of social media, and how the anti-CRT crusade avoids our country’, Alexia Okeowo, Vanity Fair, 11/4/21
Why does the media keep saying this election was a loss for Democrats? It wasn’t: The election swept in a number of women and politicians of color at the state and local level. Yet pundits want to pretend this was an electoral catastrophe, Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian, 11/6/21
Who can explain it,
the joy a constancy of light
brings to the heart?
—from “something will always rise up and fall again” by Kathryn Hunt. A beautiful poem published with photos by Camille Seaman in Orion Magazine. Her latest book is Seed Wheel, published by Lost Horse Press.
Birdland
Hummingbird Hearts Beat 10 Times Faster Than Yours: Hummers take the record, but all birds have super-charged hearts to match their high-energy lifestyles, Birdnote, Audubon, 11/4/21
Federal Bill Will Protect the Tiny Ocean Fish that Seabirds Need to Survive: The Forage Fish Conservation Act will maintain a healthy forage fish population for the benefit of birds and local economies, National Audubon Society, Audubon, 10/29/21
Bolivar Flats is a haven for birds near Galveston. But what happens when the Ike Dike is built?Emily Foxhall, Houston Chronicle, 11/5/21
How did birds survive the dinosaur-killing asteroid? Many bird lineages went extinct, but some survived, Laura Geggel, Live Science, 11/4/21: “New research on a well-preserved ancient bird skull suggests that the bird species that survived the cataclysm had bigger cerebrums, or forebrains — the front region of the brain.”
But I woke up sweating to breakfast in bed
And there were my children, and there was my wife
Post-traumatic stress, of just a bump on the head
Or maybe the ride of my life
Singing, oh darling, faces were changed
The names of the innocent, the story at five
Oh darling, faces get strange
But only the song survives —John Hiatt, from “Only the Song Survives” (2000)
Here’s a Kickstarter you might be interested in supporting: LANDBACK.Art: “We're placing 20 billboards across North America to uplift Indigenous voices and broaden support for the LANDBACK Movement. We’ve invited over 20 Indigenous artists, community members, and their allies to illustrate their answer to “What does land back mean to you?” on billboards placed in communities currently fighting for Indigenous rights and the protection of Native land.”
This week I published a Writerscast interview with Geoff Rodkey about his hilarious novel, Lights Out in Lincolnwood, an end of the world story with a happy ending.
A new book to consider: Unsolved: The JonBenét Ramsey Murder 25 Years Later by journalist Paula Woodward comes out this week.
Most of us enjoyed the extra hour of sleep last night (except those of you in Arizona, for whom time did not change). With better rested brains, we should be able to absorb more information, so hopefully this lengthy newsletter will be well received. I tried to make it shorter, but failed. I’ll keep trying. Best wishes and love to all. Keep in touch.