The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 102, April 24, 2022 (V2 #50)
“….each and every single one of us bears responsibility for writing the next chapter of history. [We decide] what happens next, and how WE respond to history and the world around us.”—Mallory McMorrow, State Senator (D), Michigan
“The argument about free speech and/or moderation is a distraction from the real issue: Should a small group of individuals — who ignore the guardrails that shaped their success — have so much power that they can acquire and/or extinguish media companies and the influence they command? This is about power, a lack of counterweights, and a history that confirms that when the ratio of power to guardrails becomes this imbalanced … bad things happen.”—Scott Galloway
“Democrats have better ideas, better candidates, and a better vision for tomorrow. What they don’t have is BETTER MESSAGING and I’m going to try to change that.”—Don Winslow (read his full statement here.)
In These Times…
GOP lawmakers were deeply involved in Trump plans to overturn election, new evidence suggests: Deposition excerpts filed by the Jan 6. select committee underscore the expansive cast of elected Republicans who had enlisted themselves in Trump’s effort to cling to power, Kyle Cheney, Nicholas Wu, Politico, 4/22/22
Tension in the dollar-system. Could a plunging Japanese Yen upset the US Treasury market? Adam Tooze, Chartbook, 4/17/22:
This Inflation Is Demand-Driven and Persistent, Jason Furman, Project Syndicate, 4/20/22: “The common argument about strangled ports, microchip shortages, and other supply-side issues simply cannot explain why advanced economies grew so briskly in 2021.”
It appears CNN and the New York Times forgot a lesson of the Trump years, Perry Bacon, Jr., Washington Post, 4/20/22: “Two of America’s most important news outlets, CNN and the New York Times, are signaling that they will continue and even increase some of the both sides-ism, false equivalence and centrist bias that has long impaired coverage of U.S. politics and therefore our democracy itself.”
Answering Senator Mike Lee’s Question, Marc Elias, Democracy Docket, 4/20/22: “Republicans are all for counting your votes, but only when their party is the winning team.”
New Mexico’s Democrats offer an energy lesson for the party: The state has tripled its renewable energy since 2019, and it’s aiming to keep that momentum — but not at the expense of its prolific oil and gas fields, Ben Lefebvre, Josh Siegel, Politico, 4/18/22
How to stay optimistic in these dark times: There are different kinds of optimism; let's think carefully about which we need, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 4/21/22: “We need to manage the trick of calming society down while also mobilizing it for action against some looming threats.”
The Manager: Rachel Balkovec outworked and out-studied the competition for years. Now, at the helm of the Tampa Tarpons, she is ready to change baseball, one player at a time, James Wagner, New York Times, 4/16/22 (Gifted so no paywall)
Jared Kushner Flaunted His Influence with Saudi Arabia, Russia in Pitch to Investors: Affinity Partners boasts of “accelerating transformation through connectivity,” Ken Klippenstein, The Intercept, 4/18/22
Inside the New Right, Where Peter Thiel is Placing his Biggest Bets: They’re not MAGA. They’re not QAnon. Curtis Yarvin and the rising right are crafting a different strain of conservative politics, James Pogue, Vanity Fair, 4/21/22
Ron DeSantis Aims at Disney, Hits the First Amendment: The right’s about-face on free speech accelerates, David French, The Atlantic, 4/22/22
Interview: Ramez Naam, futurist, author, and investor: My favorite futurist tells me how to beat Putin, solve climate change, and build the future, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 4/22/22
Joe Biden’s message drowned out by beat of the Republican culture-war drum: Democrats struggle to tell a good-news story, raising fears of midterm losses in November, David Smith, The Guardian, 4/24/22 (Ed. Note: Isn’t the media is responsible for the stories they choose to report on?)
What If the Optimal Work Week is Two Days in the Office, Not Three? New research suggests that for some employees and businesses one or two in-office days a week is a sweet spot for hybrid work, Katherine Bindley, Wall Street Journal, 4/22/22 (Ed. Note: Gifted, no paywall)
Profits and the pandemic: As shareholder wealth soared, workers were left behind, Molly Kinder, Katie Bach, Laura Stateler, Brookings, 4/21/22: “Overwhelmingly, financial gains benefitted wealthy shareholders and executives, while frontline workers experienced the greatest losses and benefited minimally from company success.”
The Hazard-Filled Ruling on the Transportation Mask Mandate: The judicial order, which inspired social-media videos of people gleefully unmasking on airplanes, was sudden and startlingly broad, Amy Davidson Sorkin, New Yorker, 4/22/22
As the pandemic exploded, a researcher saw the danger. China’s leaders kept silent, Editorial Board, Washington Post, 4/22/22
Ukraine
Russia's Easter Offensive: Jesus in east European political thought, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 4/17/22: “Dead Russians prove the sanctity of his goal, and dead Ukrainians are its realization.”
Ukraine Can Win: The Case Against Compromise, Alina Polyakova, John Herbst, Foreign Affairs, 4/22/22: “The ultimate Achilles’ heel of the Russian economy is energy exports, which fuel Putin’s war chest.”
Putin’s Unholy War: Putin, the Patriarch, and the corruption of Orthodox Christianity, Tom Nichols, The Atlantic, 4/19/22
Absolute Ends with Limited Means: Putin’s Self-Deception, Lawrence Freedman, Content is Freed, 4/20/22
The Belarusian railway workers who helped thwart Russia’s attack on Kyiv: A clandestine network of railway workers, hackers and dissident security forces wreaked havoc on supply lines, Liz Sly, Washington Post, 4/23/22
SUDDENLY
Suddenly I begin a poem with the word suddenly.
It’s all because you said you lost your voice.
This came after I said I missed you.
Now I miss you more as if suddenly you were gone,
as if you had never said goodbye. You are every
hello I have ever wanted to hold dear, every hello
I wanted to kiss hello. Suddenly the poem ends.
Too suddenly. The way love ends suddenly
when you lose your voice and cannot say I
love you. I miss your voice. And now everything
I hear reminds me of you. I hear you as if suddenly
we were back together and you and I were not
missing each other. Oh-so suddenly my dear
I thought I might lose you. Come now hold me
Close. Hold me near. Hold me close and suddenly.
—E. Ethelbert Miller
Bookish, Culture
Alice Walker’s Journals Depict an Artist Restless on Her Laurels: As the writer counts honors and advances—and keeps tabs on rivals, lovers, and detractors—the drive to succeed is the drive to survive, Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, 4/18/22
Florida rejects 54 math books, claiming critical race theory appeared in some, Ayana Archie, NPR, 4/18/22 (Ed. Note: Math is dangerous to narrow minds, it seems)
Inside the "dangerous" math textbooks DeSantis claims would "indoctrinate students,” Judd Legum, Tesnim Zekeria, Rebecca Crosby, Popular Information, 4/21/22
‘Everywhere Babies,’ a picture book celebrating infants, just got banned: Author Susan Meyers and illustrator Marla Frazee respond to their book being banned from school libraries in Walton County, Fla., Caitlin Gibson, Washington Post, 4/22/22
Let’s build an alternative to Amazon, Mark Hurst, Creative Good, 4/22/22: “We need an alternative to Amazon, and we need it soon. So I’m building one. And I need your help.”
A fight over a vaccine column could kill one of the oldest alt-weeklies: The owner of the Chicago Reader objected when the staff raised concerns about the claims in his column. Now the paper faces financial ruin, Kim Bellware, Elahe Izadi, Washington Post, 4/22/22:
‘Silence guarantees nothing will change’: film-makers challenge the anti-abortion movement: Audrey Diwan’s 1960s-set drama Happening is the latest in a wave of films on an issue that is increasingly topical, Rachel Pronger, The Guardian, 4/22/22
Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb in conversation with Dan Nadel, Andrew Edlin Gallery: “curator Dan Nadel sits down with Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb to talk about their dear friend Spain Rodriguez.”
Ebook Services Are Bringing Unhinged Conspiracy Books into Public Libraries: Librarians say Holocaust deniers, antivaxxers, and other conspiracy theorists are being featured in the catalogs of a popular ebook lending service, Claire Woodcock, Vice, 4/20/22
The vision collector: the man who used dreams and premonitions to predict the future: In 1966, a British psychiatrist had an idea: to change the course of history by asking the public to share their eerie intuitions, Sam Knight, The Guardian, 4/23/22
MUST READ: A dying boy’s heart gave life to another dying boy. Twenty-three years later, their families met, Jesse Kornbluth, Head Butler, 4/24/22
“Reading Dreamland Court is like watching one of those streaming series that you can't help binging on because you want to see what happens to these uniquely distinct individuals that you've come to know so intimately. Someone once wrote about Hubert Selby's achievement in his novel Last Exit to Brooklyn being that he got readers to care about the "lowlifes" he was writing about. In Dreamland Court the characters themselves seem to write themselves and their stories into existence, and so authentically they continue to live in my consciousness long after I reached the end of the book, which I was sorry to.”—Michael Lally (Ed. Note: Buy this book! You will not regret it.)
Environment and Science
‘Mindblowing’ gene discovery brings tailor-made cancer treatment a step closer: Cambridge research reveals 58 new mutational signatures, raising hopes of a cancer care revolution based around personalised treatment, Laura Donnelly, The Telegraph, 4/21/22
Why Are Nature-Based Solutions on Climate Being Overlooked?: Nature-based initiatives, such as planting mangroves and revitalizing wetlands, have proven effective in making communities more resilient to climate change. But international funding has shortchanged such solutions in favor of more costly and less efficient engineering projects, Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360, 4/18/22
6 ways to build resilience and hope into young people’s learning about climate change, Simomn Appolloni, The Conversation, 4/19/22
How To Make Manufacturers More Responsible For Plastics Recycling, Samantha Wohlfeil, Investigate West, 4/21/22
Ghana’s Sacred Monkeys: Myth and mystery have long protected two species of monkey and the West African forests they depend on, but for how much longer? Denise Silfee, BioGraphic, 4/19/22
The Renewable-Energy Revolution Will Need Renewable Storage: Can gravity, pressure, and other elemental forces save us from becoming a battery-powered civilization? Matthew Hutson, The New Yorker, 4/18/22
The Surprising Climate Cost of the Humblest Battery Material: Graphite is made in blazing-hot furnaces powered by dirty energy. Until recently, there has been no good tally of the carbon emissions, Gregory Barber, Wired, 4/19/22
Living in energy-efficient homes can improve people’s health: Well-sealed and ventilated houses tend to have better air quality, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 4/21/22
Blue corn and melons: meet the seed keepers reviving ancient, resilient crops : In north-eastern New Mexico, traditional Indigenous farming methods are being passed down to protect against the effects of climate crisis, Samuel Gilbert, The Guardian, 4/18/22
‘Agriculture is the culture’: Philly nonprofit wants to reinvent agriculture education, Kenny Cooper, WESA, 4/17/22: “…how to integrate agriculture into your everyday lifestyle…”
Oregon’s Intertidal Ecosystem Is Approaching a Tipping Point: Ecologists are already finding the warning signs—hopefully it’s not too late, Rebecca Dzombak, Hakai, 4/18/22
Want to Elect Climate Champions? Here’s How to Tell Who’s Really Serious About Climate Change: Saying “Green New Deal” over and over in a stump speech is not enough. These tools and scorecards will help you find candidates truly committed to environmental issues, Marianne Lavelle, Inside Climate News, 4/21/22
Climate change, big agriculture combine to threaten insects, Seth Borenstein, AP News, 4/20/22: “While insects may bug people at times, they also are key in pollinating plants to feed people, making soil more fertile and they include beautiful butterflies and fireflies.”
Minnesota woman sees renewable energy projects as progress for rural communities: When a wind farm was built in her area, Mariah Lynne became a renewable energy advocate, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 4/20/22
A flower was named after its own extinction — then it was rediscovered: Botanists found patches of rainforest in Ecuador long believed to have been wiped out, Julian Mark, Washington Post, 4/20/22
Maine county may become the last bastion of maple syrup producers in New England, Steve Mistler, Esta Pratt-Kielley, NHPR, 4/19/22
Mothering Mozambique’s Mangroves Back to Life: Villagers along the Limpopo River are restoring an estuary and securing their food supply, one mangrove at a time, Dianne Tipping-Woods, Hakai, 4/21/22
Let Them Bee: ‘To save ourselves, we have to save the bees:’ Caroline Yelle is breeding queen honey bees to survive the changing climate and multiple other threats, Naomi Starkman, Civil Eats, 4/20/22
A Newly Measured Particle Could Break Known Physics: A new analysis of W bosons suggests these particles are significantly heavier than predicted by the standard model of particle physics, Charlie Wood, Wired, 4/17/22
Scientists Want to Probe Uranus With a New Spacecraft: In an influential report that comes out once a decade, researchers propose a space mission to Uranus and a lander to Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, Ramin Skibba, Wired, 4/20/22
For mRNA, Covid Vaccines Are Just the Beginning: With clinical vaccine trials for everything from HIV to Zika, messenger RNA could transform medicine—or widen health care inequalities, Amit Katwala, Wired, 4/18/22
Birdland
Bright Lights, Big Pity: City lights lure migratory birds, with lethal results, but weather radar and modeling can help reduce toll, Joshua Sokol, Science, 4/21/22
What Birds Really Listen for in Birdsong (It’s Not What You Think): Birds seem to pay more attention to fine acoustic details that humans cannot hear than to the melodies that captivate us, Adam Fishbein, Scientific American, 5/1/22
For birdwatchers, the princess parrot is one of Australia’s most highly desired: Among bird enthusiasts who are keen to spot Australia’s most beautiful and elusive species, few parrots are as sought-after as this princess, Bec Crew, Australian Geographic, 4/19/22
I'm going insane
You know I'd give you everything I've got for a little peace of mind
I'd give you everything I've got for a little peace of mind
I'd give you everything I've got for a little peace of mind
—from “I’m So Tired,” by Paul McCartney/John Lennon
Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow’s speech, 4/19/22: “Hate wins when people like me stand by and let it happen. I won't.”
“You’ve given me the world and I want to keep it.”—Claudette Colbert as Nora Trinell in “Remember the Day” (1941)
Happy Birthday George Oppen! (1908-1984)
It is impossible the world should be either good or bad
If its colors are beautiful or if they are not beautiful
If parts of it taste good or if no parts of it taste good
It is as remarkable in one case as the other
(from “And Their Winter and Night in Disguise”)
“…my mind is pessimistic, but my will is optimistic. Whatever the situation, I imagine the worst that could happen in order to summon up all my reserves and will power to overcome every obstacle.”—Antonio Gramsci
During the Trump so-called presidency, millions of Americans were motivated by fear and loathing to action. He may not be in control of the government any longer, but his stench lingers, and his movement is in control of the minds of far too many of our fellow citizens. We must not fail to stand up in 2022 in defense of democracy and progressive values. With all that is happening in the world, it is ever clearer that this is a crucial moment in history. We did not expect to face the monster within, but we must. Best wishes and much love to all. Stay strong. —David