The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 263, May 25, 2025 (V6 #3)
It’s our rage that will protect us through this terrible dark night. Our rage must be a righteous rage. It’s time to release the hot fires of love. Let our compassion burn in our hearts as we embrace the poor, the homeless, the undocumented and the stranger. We are the Beloved Community coming into existence with the rising sun. Rage on! To turn their EVIL backwards is to LIVE.—E. Ethelbert Miller
In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is.—Gertrude Stein
Every aspect of our lives is, in a sense, a vote for the kind of world we want to live in.—Frances Moore Lappé
Books, Music, Art, Culture
Massive Artwork for Trans Visibility Unveiled on National Mall: Nearly 260 quilt panels by trans and nonbinary artists spelled out the message “Freedom To Be” in a celebration of joy and resistance, Isa Farfan, Hyperallergic, 5/20/25
The Ass-Splitting Truth: Essex Hemphill's funny, sad, profane, sexy poetry, James Hannaham, Poetry Foundation, 5/19/25: “He’s much more fatalistic than idealistic or even hopeful. He never moralizes and neither glorifies nor ennobles poverty, sickness, or the desperate circumstances of his life and work.”
The end of writing and reading will be the end of freedom: Why graduation season is so heartening to me, Nicole Krauss, Washington Post, 5/23/25: “I am a writer in a long line of writers, among my people and all people who have been writing these last few thousand years. And I write, just as I read, because I believe that in the realm of literature we are, each of us, free.” (no paywall)
Bluesky Is Plotting a Total Takeover of the Social Internet: All the lefties fled to Bluesky following Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. But CEO Jay Graber says the app is for everyone—and could revolutionize how people communicate online, Kate Knibbs, Wired, 5/19/25: “We’re evolving social media that was based in centralized companies into something that is open and distributed.”
Perceptual Liberation: Chronic Ecstatic Awareness, Rob Brezsny, Astrology Newsletter, 5/20/25: “Each sensation is potentially a doorway to unpredictable wonder. Each prick of perception offers a friendly shock. Each willful invocation of receptivity is a request to be taught secrets previously unknown and unimaginable.”
Saving the Farm: How One Southern Family Has Long Championed the Radical Power of Rural Life: Mary Berry, the farmer, writer, and executive director of the Berry Center, talks about her love of place and what she has learned from her father, Wendell Berry, Jason Kyle Howard, Garden & Gun, 5/13/25
The Radical Courage of Noor Abdalla: How the wife of Mahmoud Khalil has navigated becoming a new mother while fighting for her husband’s freedom, Aida Alami, New Yorker, 5/21/25: “True justice and education must include the freedom to dissent, the right to speak out for human rights, and the courage to stand in solidarity with the oppressed.”
Desperate Acts of Imagination, Deena Metzger, Desperate Love Letters to a Wounded Earth, 5/19/25: “In such dreams of language, killing was a word, not an act. A word that led to another world, an act that had to end in a dream of Life. To kill and not to kill were the same, because they created the world we had to create so that the killing would be over.”
The Moral Emergency We Cannot Feel: How Moral Equivalence Distorts Our Understanding of Democratic Threats—and How to Regain Moral Clarity, Mike Brock, Notes from the Circus, 5/24/25: “…if we can't distinguish between different categories of ethical offense, we can't defend democracy—because we can't even recognize when it's under attack.”
“Lying in Politics”: Hannah Arendt’s Antidote to Anticipatory Despair, John Plotz, Public Books, 5/21/25: “Lying in Politics is dense with American detail, and it captures aspects of Trump’s present machinations that we ignore at our peril.”
The trouble with AI art isn’t just lack of originality. It’s something far bigger: When artwork is invented by a machine, it loses its most important power: to help people connect. In an already lonely era, that is particularly dangerous, Eric Reinhart, The Guardian, 5/20/25
On Words and Their Arrangement: Considering Townes Van Zandt's ‘Pancho and Lefty,’ Richard Russo, LitHub, 5/23/25: “The first draft of history may be written by the victors, but first drafts exist—like poems and songs—to be revised, as many times as it takes, until the story makes sense, until it squares with our experience of how the world works.”
But Pancho met his match, you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
And nobody heard his dying words
Ah, but that’s the way it goes.
—Townes van Zandt
Politics, Economics, Technology
Donald Trump's Presence and Presidency are a "F*ck You" to Those Who Died Serving This Nation, John Pavolovitz, Beautiful Mess, 5/24/25
Ernie Pyle, Capt. Waskow and the common soldiers who died for America: This Memorial Day, spare a thought for the nation’s fallen in overseas military cemeteries, George Will, Washington Post, 5/23/25
A Truly Dark Day in DC: And what you can do about it, Bill McKibben, Crucial Years, 5/22/25: “Here’s what Third Act sent out, and here’s the link to use to register your opposition with Senators.”
Trump's West Point abomination, Steve Schmidt, The Warning, 5/25/25: “Donald Trump poisoned virtue with his abysmal speech. His venom is of a lethal variety.”
Project 2025’s Architects Are Close to Achieving a Major Goal: A new Supreme Court ruling shows how the American right has gone from fearing big government to embracing it, David A. Graham, Atlantic, 5/23/25: “The opinion is not conservative in any meaningful sense. It essentially overturns 90 years of precedent, and it does so using the Court’s “shadow docket,” which means an unsigned opinion…”
A GOP Attempt to Steal a State Supreme Court Seat Is a ‘Total Warning Sign for 2026’: Democrats should be preparing now for a Republican 'scorched-earth' campaign in the midterms, John Harwood, Zeteo, 5/21/25
The Biggest Political Con of the Last Century Unmasked: Why the destruction of public institutions, the middle class, and government itself may not be a mistake — but the mission…Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 5/21/25: “Republican policy weirdness that brought us to this moment began around the national debt in 1981.”
Three Well-Tested Ways to Undermine an Autocrat, Nicholas Kristof, NY Times, 5/21/25: “Dictators are never as strong as they tell you they are, and people are never as weak as they think they are.” (Gene Sharp) 198 Methods of nonviolent action. Book by Gene Sharp: From Dictatorship to Democracy
The Media’s Original Sin, Marc Elias, Democracy Docket, 5/24/25: “Maybe — just maybe — the original sin wasn’t Joe Biden’s decision to run for reelection, but the legacy media’s decision to provide both sides journalism as Donald Trump ran as an aspiring dictator determined to destroy democracy.”
Stop asking about a Biden “cover-up:” It's an irrelevant, contemptible distraction from what's threatening America, Robert Reich, Newsletter, 5/20/25
The 2024 election was even weirder than we thought: An expansive new report challenges early theories about how Donald Trump won, Lakshya Jain, Washington Post, 5/21/25: “…the most engaged voters swung toward Democrats…. irregular voters…are far less likely to vote in midterm elections.”
Is the U.S. in a "high-level equilibrium trap"? When countries start fearing the future, they stagnate, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 5/19/25: “…to most Americans, risks loom larger than opportunities. If everything stays the same, then they’ll continue to be wealthy and comfortable; if something changes, they might not. In an environment like that, it makes sense to be afraid of change, because change means risk.”
Trump’s Threats to Defy Courts Go Nuclear as MAGA Rages at New Losses: As Trump’s hints that he will override the courts get worse, a close observer of MAGA lawlessness explains why the Trump-MAGA game plan here is more dangerous than it appears, Greg Sargent, New Republic, 5/19/25
The Final Checkmate: Republicans Move to Destroy the Balance of Powers: In a legal sleight of hand, Republicans want to strip judges of their power to enforce rulings — because holding Trump in contempt might actually work…Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 5/21/25
Trump Is Prosecuting a Congressional Democrat for Doing Her Job. The Media’s Response: No Big Deal: You’d never know reading the New York Times that charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver are nothing but an authoritarian attack, Natasha Lennard, The Intercept, 5/20/25
The Fascist Spectacle: How Authoritarianism Wins When We Look Away, Mike Brock, Notes from the Circus, 5/19/25: “[Fascist propaganda]…doesn’t simply deny reality—it drowns reality in manufactured crisis. It creates spectacles that consume our cognitive bandwidth while the real work of dismantling democracy proceeds in plain sight.”
Nothing Feels Urgent Anymore - And That Should Terrify You: Hey, Kenneth, I found the frequency, William A. Finnegan, Journal of the Plague Years, 5/20/25: “We are experiencing the flattening of outrage.”
From Aspiration to Action: Organizing Through Exhaustion, Grief, and Uncertainty: “Some days, my best efforts feel insufficient and overwhelming at the same time,” Kelly Hayes, Organizing My Thoughts, 5/22/25: “Our lives, our character, our part in history—all of these things are the product of choices we make on a continuous basis.”
While The Right is Devouring America, The Left is Eating Its Own, John Pavlovitz, Beautiful Mess, 5/22/25: “…if we can't lay down our all-or-nothing litmus tests and set aside our strident virtue…we're soon going to find ourselves with no voice whatsoever.”
There Is No Piecing Back Our Badly Shattered Constitutional Order: We are past the point of crisis and have entered an era when our political disputes will be settled by the raw exercise of power, not the law, Andy Craig, Unpopulist, 5/22/25
The Court’s ‘Make It Up As You Go’ Constitution, Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, 5/23/25: “This remains a renegade and corrupt Supreme Court majority making up its own Constitution as it goes and most times, if not every time, enabling arbitrary and untrammeled presidential dictatorship.”
The Path to Medicare for All, Dean Baker, CounterPunch, 5/20/25: “Much of the story in having the government pick up the tab for healthcare is getting the money that is currently paid by companies and workers for private health insurance. That will be close to $1.5 trillion this year.”
Know when to fold ’em: on why it's time for the Democratic Party to make way for younger leaders, Amanda Litman, The Ink, 5/22/25
This Is What Evil Looks Like: It looks like Benjamin Netanyahu and the society he represents, Jack Mirkinson, Discourse, 5/19/25: “Endless death and destruction are not enough—starvation and torture and misery must be endless too.”
Genocide is the Currency of Western Domination, Chris Hedges, CounterPunch, 5/19/25: “Between 1490 and 1890, European colonization, including acts of genocide, was responsible for killing as many as 100 million indigenous people.”
Murder in DC: Toward a World Where All Lives are Grievable, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Shalom Rav, 5/23/25 “How do we honor the memory of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim? The same way we must honor the memory of the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been killed…”
Abandoning the computer
dispensing with the airplane the train the rotary press
gunpowder compass the printing press
you have them scrapped
the very subtle flower of your centuries of intelligence:
the bloody man and his screams under concrete
which the television placed ungarnished
between the celery and the coq au vin
on the evening’s tablecloth.
—from “In Reverse,” (“À rebours”) Marie-Claire Bancquart, Tr. by Claire Eder & Marie Moulin-Salles
Science, Environment, Wilderness
Earth may already be too hot for the survival of polar ice sheets, study says: If Earth stays at its current levels of warming -- below policymakers’ goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius -- polar ice sheets may melt, causing seas to rise and displacing coastal communities, a study finds, Ruby Mellen, Sarah Kaplan, Washington Post, 5/20/25
This land is their land: Trump is selling out the US’s beloved wilderness: During the McCarthy era’s darkest days, public lands came under attack. History now repeats itself – and this may be the last chance to defend what’s ours, Nate Schweber, The Guardian, 5/18/25: “National Park Service oversees resources that cost $3.5bn annually to manage, yet generate more than $55bn in revenue.”
Just how many jobs and GDP dollars do US clean energy factories create? A new report aims to quantify how much domestic solar, wind, and battery production uplifts local economies. Its authors hope Republicans in Congress will take note, Julian Spector, Canary Media, 5/20/25
Despite backlash, more states are considering laws to make Big Oil pay for climate change: After Vermont and New York passed "climate Superfund" legislation, 11 states have introduced similar bills this year, Akielly Hu, Grist, 5/19/25
Now There’s Proof That the Fossil Fuel Industry Uses Cultural Sponsorships to Block Climate Action: BP, Chevron, Shell, and other oil majors back arts and community groups to protect their business models, subpoenaed documents show, Rebecca John, DeSmog, 5/20/25
Who will benefit from melting glaciers? In a remote corner of North America, salmon and mining companies are vying for new territory, Max Graham, Grist, 5/21/25
Fires drove record loss of world’s forests last year, ‘frightening’ data shows: Burning, worsened by global heating, overtook farming and logging as biggest cause of destruction of tropical forests, Patrick Greenfield, The Guardian, 5/21/25
Many glaciers are shrinking more in summer than they can grow in winter: Fossil fuel pollution is accelerating glacier melt, contributing to rising sea levels worldwide, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connection, 5/22/25
A Restricted Climate Super Pollutant Is Pumped Out at Far Higher Levels Than Countries Admit. What Happens Next? HFC-23 emissions from chemical plants in eastern China and elsewhere likely violate an international climate agreement despite readily available pollution controls. Advocates are pressing for action, Phil McKenna, Lili Pike, Inside Climate News, 5/21/25
Thunder Bay is bringing its Great Lake shoreline back: Decades of industrial pollution on Lake Superior has seen stretches of its shore deemed areas of environmental concern for both Canada and the U.S. A massive investment of time and money is letting nature return, Fatima Syed, Narwhal, 5/21/25
Algae “perfume” fused with high-tech materials holds promise for growing coral: In lab tests, areas painted in chemicals emitted by red algae draw 20 times more coral larvae, Warren Cornwall, Anthropocene, 5/21/25
Godfather of climate science decries Trump plan to shut Nasa lab above Seinfeld diner: ‘It’s crazy,’ Over breakfast at Tom’s Restaurant, right below the historic Giss lab, James Hansen calls Doge’s decision a ‘big mistake,’ Oliver Milman, The Guardian, 5/21/25
What a Whale Does Not See: A whale’s grapefruit-sized eye reveals the reason humpbacks keep swimming into fishing gear, Marina Wang, BioGraphic, 5/21/25
Peace be upon a stone encircled by flowers
That girls’ eyes reach out to embrace
—from “Salam to Gaza,” Hussein Barghouthi, Tr. from the Arabic by Suneela Mubayi
Health, Wellness
Covid-19 vaccines, what just happened at the FDA, and why it matters: This is not how vaccine policy should be made, Katelyn Jetelina, Your Local Epidemiologist, 5/21/25
Vitamin D supplements show signs of protection against biological aging, Mass General Brigham, ScienceDaily, 5/21/25
The boy who came back: the near-death, and changed life, of my son Max, Archie Bland, The Guardian, 5/24/25: “It was, we were told, a case of sudden infant death syndrome interrupted. What followed would transform my understanding of parenting, disability and the breadth of what makes a meaningful life.”
Cell phone radiation exposure may increase during travel, Staff, Environmental Health News, 5/24/25
to be loved to the end
without ruth or recrimination
to forgive myself as others
have forgiven me
to enjoy the birds
with little bones
—from “Against the Encroaching Grays,” CD Wright
Birds, Birding
Windows are the No. 1 human threat to birds – an ecologist shares some simple steps to reduce collisions, Jason Hoeksema, The Conversation, 5/21/25: “When applied properly, window treatments can make a huge difference.”
Data From Birders Reveal Declines in North America’s Birds, Lauren Oldham Jaromczyk, Emily Engle, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, May 2025: “If you feel like you see or hear fewer birds than you used to, you're not imagining things.”
‘Turbocharged’ Mitochondria Power Birds’ Epic Migratory Journeys: Changes in the number, shape, efficiency and interconnectedness of organelles in the cells of flight muscles provide extra energy for birds’ continent-spanning feats, Elizabeth Landau, Quanta, 5/19/25
Friends:
This Memorial Day weekend, I have been thinking about all those who have died defending our democracy. So many lives lost, not for an idea, but for a living community that has been in a state of flux and renewal for 250 years. And what an imperfect community it has been, built on a foundation of stolen land and genocide, slavery, and the exploitation of an unimaginably beautiful and rich environment we inhabit.
Our history is literally a web of contradictions.
Even as our country’s imperfections and contradictions must be recognized and remembered, so too must we remember all those who have fought and sometimes died to protect it as well as those who fought to help us become fully free together. We honor and remember not only those who fought in war, but those who fought at home to make this a better country, defenders of the rights of minorities, defenders of Native American cultures and communities, defenders of the Earth.
So now let us dedicate ourselves to do all we can to honor their legacy and continue to build a community of freedom and justice for all, and for the web of life itself.
I am optimistic; even as the week’s news remains so steadily terrible, there is much good news to share, and some truly uplifting work going on in so many places across the world.
We always have each other to rely on. As we go forward together, remember that we stand always on hallowed ground, blessed by those who preceded us, and who are always here with and within us. We are stardust….
Please keep in touch…hearing from you makes the work I do worthwhile.
I send my love to all of you - David
…don’t tune out, and don’t give up.—Margaret Sullivan
We do not know how but we must act so the future exists. We must see how to meet it now.—Deena Metzger
The poet's first obligation is survival. No bolder challenge confronts the modern artist than to stay healthy in a sick world.—Stanley Kunitz