The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 105, May 15, 2022 (V3 #1)
“Trump’s type of family autocracy is hard to replicate right now, and our history has given us the knowledge and tools to defend democracy in the face of the ideology of states’ rights. But the rise of “illiberal democracy” or “soft fascism” is new to us, and the first step toward rolling it back is recognizing that it is different from Trump’s autocracy or states’ rights, and that its poison is spreading in the United States,” Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, 4/28/22
“My appeal in general, on whatever side you are, is to understand that we are now living in a totally new era, and we have gotten away with neglecting that aspect. But as technology spreads around the world, as it does inherently, diplomacy and war will need a different content and that will be a challenge.”—Henry Kissinger (Financial Times, 5/9/22)
The modern Republican Party is about using the power of the government to enforce the beliefs of a radical minority on the majority of Americans.—Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American
Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia extended by one month, Matt Bonesteel, Dave Scheinen, Washington Post, 5/13/22
10 killed in racially motivated shooting at Buffalo grocery store, Aidan Joly, Joanna Slater, Devlin Barrett, Arelis R. Hernández, Washington Post, 5/14/22 (Ed. note: sadness for the victims, anger at Fox News and Tucker Carlson for popularizing the dishonest “white replacement” fantasy.)
Hey little Hollywood
You're gone but you're not forgot
You got the cash but your credit's no good
You flipped the script, you shot the plot
I remember, I remember when your neon used to burn so bright and pink
A Saturday night kind of pink
“Sedona” sung by Houndmouth, written by Katie Toupin/Matt Myers/Shane Cody/Zak Appleby
Roe Roe Roe and the Path to Authoritarian Facscism Coming Soon to a Country Near You
The Court of God: How a Catholic secret society took over SCOTUS, Raul Diego, MROnline, 10/1/20
Abortion’s Last Stand in the South: A Post-Roe Future Is Already Happening in Florida: Reports of harassment, disturbance and violence outside the state’s clinics are skyrocketing, while the federal law meant to protect clinics doesn’t cover the kind of tLaura C. Morel, Reveal, 5/5/22
After Roe, Judd Legum, Tesnim Zekeria, Rebecca Crosby, Popular Information, 5/11/22: “The Republican strategy is to pretend like these abortions bans are not happening.”
Medical education of abortion could be erased in red states, Tina Reed, Oriana Gonzalez, Axios, 5/11/22: "Abortion care is very much intertwined with miscarriage management, with pregnancy care, with overall reproductive care.”
The Supreme Court jealously guards its own privacy. Yours and mine, not so much, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 5/14/22: “There are no federal laws which mandate or govern the secrecy enjoyed by the Supreme Court.”
Prepare for McCarthy-era crackdowns on pro-choice protesters: Conservatives and corporate media pundits want to use a Red Scare statute to arrest people demonstrating against the looming anti-abortion victory, Andrew Perez, David Sirota, The Guardian, 5/13/22
Amelia Bedelia, Meet Samuel Alito: What the Supreme Court Justice’s leaked draft opinion reveals about originalism, Fabio Bertoni, New Yorker, 5/13/22: “Originalism is just a clever trick of perspective.”
What Latin American feminists can teach American women about the abortion fight: A leader of Argentina’s Ni Una Menos movement on how to fight back, Verónica Gago, The Guardian, 5/10/22: “The movement combined parliamentary lobbying with the autonomous practices of self-organized underground networks that had made abortion possible for many every year with massive and heterogeneous mobilizations in the street.”
Biden and the Inflation Trap: Can the president be even more effective in countering the Republicans’ false narrative? Robert Kuttner, American Prospect, 5/11/22
From ‘Ballot Trafficking’ To ‘Zuckerbucks’: A Glossary For Election Conspiracy Theorists, Matt Shuham, Talking Points Memo, 5/9/22
The baby formula shortage and the twisted priorities of the American economy, Judd Legum, Tesnim Zekeria, Rebecca Crosby, Popular Information, 5/12/22
The J. D. Vance I Knew: His abilities, I never underestimated. What he was willing to do for political advancement, I did, David Frum, The Atlantic, 5/10/22
Authoritarianism is surging. Can liberal democracy fight back? Review of ‘Liberalism and Its Discontents’ by Francis Fukuyama and ‘The Age of the Strongman’ by Gideon Rachman, Carlos Lozada, Washington Post, 5/13/22
Meet the former Nazi rocket scientist who all too accurately saw the future: As well as serving in the SS and a second act as a Nasa engineer, Wernher von Braun wrote a Martian sci-fi novel with a prescient twist…John Naughton, The Guardian, 5/14/22
Environment and Science
Scientists unveil image of 'gentle giant' black hole at Milky Way's center, Will Dunham, Reuters, 5/12/22
Coastal Job: Mudflat Guide: Veteran guide Heiko Campen helps visitors to the Wadden Sea safely explore a vast muddy landscape, as told to Ute Eberle, Hakai, 4/28/22
Plastic found inside Arctic char has Nunavut hunters fearing for local food sources: 'It's just one more thing that shouldn't be in the Arctic, that is in the Arctic,’ Liny Lamberink, CBC News, 5/9/22
In the Face of Numerous Threats, Bees Are Producing Less Honey: Saving American honey production—and the beekeeping industry—will require a sea change in agricultural practices, Lisa Held, Civil Eats, 5/9/22
Fossil Fuels Aren’t Just Harming the Planet. They’re Making Us Sick: Petrochemicals are linked to diverse health problems from infertility to cancer, and now they’re building up in pregnant women, Liza Gross, Victoria St. Martin, Inside Climate News, 5/12/22
Inside Clean Energy: In a World Starved for Lithium, Researchers Develop a Method to Get It from Water: National lab uses magnets to extract lithium, potentially helping with shortage of key battery material, Dan Gearino, Inside Climate News, 5/12/22
Salt Scourge: The Dual Threat of Warming and Rising Salinity: As rising seas increase saltwater intrusion and soaring temperatures cause greater evaporation, scientists say that the mounting levels of salt in waters and in soils pose a major climate-related danger and could become a leading cause of climate migration globally, Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360, 5/10/22
Building the Sustainable Economy: Sustainability Is a Cultural Reckoning That Cuts Across Sectors, Rex Woodbury, Digital Native, 5/11/22: “Powered by 1) worsening climate change, 2) growing regulatory pressure, and 3) massive generational behavior changes, sustainability is positioned to be the defining trend of the next 50 years.”
The steal of the last century and a half: The General Mining Law of 1872 turned 150 this month. It hasn’t changed a bit, Peter Dykstra, Environmental Health News, 5/15/22
Prairie Island Indian Community uses nuclear waste fund for net-zero carbon goal: The tribe plans to install solar panels, make energy efficiency upgrades, and retrofit buildings to run on electricity, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 5/11/22
A Chinese team has tested an engine for hypersonic flight – powered by explosions, Stephen Chen, South China Morning Post, 5/11/22: “They claim their rotating detonation engine could power a plane or missile at five times the speed of sound or faster.”
The Race to Produce Green Steel: In order to reduce its carbon footprint, the steel industry is testing new technologies that don’t rely on fossil fuels, Marcello Rossi, Undark, 5/11/22
How I Started to See Trees as Smart: First, I took an acid trip. Then I asked scientists about the power of altered states, Matthew Hutson, New Yorker, 5/12/22
China-funded dam could disrupt key Argentine glaciers and biodiversity, Maxwell Radwin, MongaBay, 5/12/22
Scientists Make Paper Durable Like Plastic, Without the Pollution: The silica-resin coating is easily applied to paper and makes it waterproof, without creating plastic pollution, and it's anti-bacterial to boot, Audrey Carleton, Vice, 5/13/22
Powerful ‘Machine Scientists’ Distill the Laws of Physics From Raw Data: Researchers say we’re on the cusp of “GoPro physics,” where a camera can point at an event and an algorithm can identify the underlying physics equation, Charlie Wood, Quanta, 5/10/22
‘On a vegan planet, Britain could feed 200 million people,’ George Monbiot, The Guardian, 5/13/22
This Antioxidant May Provide a Key Link Between Regenerative Agriculture and Human Health: Recent studies have found that crops grown with regenerative practices contain higher levels of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. Ergothioneine, a ‘longevity vitamin,’ stands out as one of the most important in the bunch, Katherine Kornei, Civil Eats, 5/10/22
Cat Litter Could Be Antidote for Climate Change, Researchers Say: MIT researchers say a compound they created with zeolite and copper breaks down methane in passing air and could slow warming if added to mine vents, Ryan Dezember, Wall Street Journal, 5/14/22 (Gift Article)
The Democrats Really Are That Dense About Climate Change: The party doesn’t even seem to realize that it’s blowing a once-in-a-decade chance to pass meaningful climate legislation, Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, 5/11/22
Biodiversity Solutions Also Fight Climate Change: New research highlights ways to tackle our two greatest environmental challenges — at the same time, Tara Lohan, The Revelator, 5/13/22
Bird Walks, Bird Talks
A highly contagious strain of bird flu plagues farmers across the U.S., William Brangham, Sam Weber, PBS NewsHour, 5/10/22
How do giant flocks of birds stay in such tight formations? Computer simulations suggest it all comes down to speed control, Elizabeth Pennisi, Science, 5/10/22
Experiments hint at why bird nests are so sturdy: Contact between sticks helps fortify nestlike materials, computer simulations show, Emily Conover, Science News, 5/12/22
SoCal’s secret birding spot where you can watch 130 species fly though, Mary Forgione, LA Times, 5/12/22
New Legislation Will Help Bring Birds Back Across the Western Hemisphere: Increased U.S. funding through the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act will benefit more than 350 bird species, National Audubon Society, Audubon, 5/12/22
Books and more
How to Begin to Understand John Ashbery: On the Famously Inscrutable Poet, Douglas Crase, LitHub, 5/13/22: “Ashbery lives not only in the world, he seems to live by all conceptions of it simultaneously, regardless of how contradictory the lot may be.” Excerpted from “The Prophetic Ashbery” in On Autumn Lake: The Collected Essays.
“In the increasingly convincing darkness
The words become palpable, like a fruit
That is too beautiful to eat.”
Finding wisdom in Charles Baudelaire’s mad scribblings: A new translation of ‘Late Fragments’ reveals the great French poet’s wit and foresight, Michael Dirda, Washington Post, 5/11/22: Late Fragments: Flares, My Heart Laid Bare, Prose Poems, Belgium Disrobed, Charles Baudelaire, Trans. by Richard Sieburth
Writing Toward a Poetics of Aging: on Erika Meitner's Useful Junk, Shoshana Olidort, LitHub, 5/11/22: “My father-in-law likes to say that if you wake up after 40 and nothing hurts, you’re dead.”
On the Quintessential “Road Trip” Novel: The Author of Teenager Recommends Tove Jansson, Tim O'Brien, and More, Bud Smith, LitHub, 5/10/22
DeafBlind Communities May Be Creating a New Language of Touch: Protactile began as a movement for autonomy and a system of tactile communication. Now, some linguists argue, it is becoming a language of its own, Andrew Leland, New Yorker, 5/12/22
Life As a Book Publisher in Wartime Ukraine: on the Authors and Editors on the Front Lines, Kateryna Volkova, LitHub, 5/11/22: “Vivat begins fundraising for the soldiers’ needs. If you have the ability and capacity to help Vitaly get home safe and sound to his granddaughter and go on his book tour as soon as possible, send your donations to this Paypal: mirzaeva.tanya@gmail.com marked “for the 144th battalion.” For more information about the needs and additional details, look here.”
Conservative parents take aim at library apps meant to expand access to books: Campaigns that started with criticizing school board members and librarians have turned their attention to tech companies such as OverDrive and Epic, which operated for years without drawing much controversy, David Ingram, NBC News, 5/12/22
American Library Association: Voters Oppose Book Bans in Libraries: Polling Shows Voters Oppose Efforts to Remove Books from Libraries and Have Confidence in Libraries to Make Good Decisions About Their Collections. (Ed. note, among the key findings, this one is indicative of the polling: “Voters and parents affirm the importance of giving young people access to books and not allowing individual parents to decide what books are available to other people’s children.”)
Join the Campaign: Unite Against Book Bans is a national initiative to empower readers everywhere to stand together in the fight against censorship.
My latest interview for the Publishing Talks series on Writerscast is with the brilliant publishing journalist and consultant, Jane Friedman. Take a listen here.
Lyle Lovett feels all of fatherhood on first album in a decade, 12th of June, Scott Simon, NPR, 5/14/22.
And now as I sit here in my jeans
I think about what this all means
And children come into this world
Without a stitch on boy or girl
Pants is Overrated, Lyle Lovett
May 16 is the birthday of Adrienne Rich:
We are, I am, you are
by cowardice or courage
the one who find our way
back to this scene
carrying a knife, a camera
a book of myths
in which
our names do not appear.
—from “Diving into the Wreck” (1973)
At the risk of repeating myself too much, what is happening points toward danger ahead. There are so many challenges. And there is no guarantee that Americans will wake up and save us from authoritarianism. If democracy matters, we have to work harder at it every day now. And be prepared for the struggle to come if the Republicans win the House and Senate this fall. Don’t count on social media to save us either. Just read this: Cybersecurity 101.
Stay well all, and please stay safe. Do keep in touch. Contact matters. Much love - David