The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 104, May 8, 2022 (V2 #52)
“A serious nation would pay attention to an attempted coup and vote accordingly. I want to believe that we are still that kind of country, but I don't feel optimistic.”—Tom Nichols
“Evil doesn't die. It grows back through the cracks of our apathy.”—Garry Kasparov
“If we actually interacted, it would be easy to counter Carlson's hogwash and say, "Actually, I know them and "they" are nothing like that." But our divide is everywhere and it creates a vacuum that people like Tucker Carlson can fill with hate.”—Dave Pell
My mother would be a falconress,
and I her gerfalcon raised at her will,
from her wrist sent flying, as if I were her own
pride, as if her pride
knew no limits, as if her mind
sought in me flight beyond the horizon.
—Robert Duncan, from “My Mother Would Be a Falconress”
Roe. And what it means for the future of American democracy.
“Tonight's news is an alarm like the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which gave a few white men who controlled state legislatures power over the American majority.”—Heather Cox Richardson
“That a handful (literally) of folks with lifetime appointments can make lasting decisions that can impact you and your body can be a pretty scary reality to come to terms with. But worth fearing more might be the system of government that put them there in the first place.”— Kimberly Givant, editor of The Recount Newsletter
‘Enforced childbirth is slavery’: Margaret Atwood on the right to abortion: The US supreme court draft ruling on abortion is an assault on fundamental individual freedoms. The Handmaid’s Tale author reflects on the issues at stake, Margaret Atwood, The Guardian, 5/7/22: “ What kind of country do you want to live in? One in which every individual is free to make decisions concerning his or her health and body, or one in which half the population is free and the other half is enslaved?”
The Supreme Court just erased the word "equal" from the Constitution, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 5/3/22
The Fact-Free Logic of Samuel Alito: In his zeal to overturn Roe and do away with abortion rights, the Supreme Court justice relies on deceptive arguments and a regressive read of the law, Jordan Smith, The Intercept, 5/4/22
Why There Are No Women in the Constitution: There is little mention of abortion in a four-thousand-word document crafted by fifty-five men in 1787. This seems to be a surprise to Samuel Alito, Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 5/4/22
What an Unprecedented Supreme Court Leak Says About the Future of Abortion—and About Precedent Itself: The fragility of the right to an abortion has become synonymous with the fragility of the Court’s legitimacy, Jeannie Suk Gersen, The New Yorker, 5/4/22
Preparing for a Post-Roe v. Wade World: Abortion rights activists are gearing up for a generational political battle to ensure access to reproductive health care, Eric Lutz, Vanity Fair, 5/5/22
How Democrats Can Now Defeat Anti-Choice Republicans: And just about all elected Republicans are anti-choice, Harold Meyerson, American Prospect, 5/5/22
If Roe v. Wade is overturned, there’s no guarantee that people can get abortions in liberal states, either, Amanda Jean Stevenson, Kate Coleman-Minahan, The Conversation, 5/5/22
These 13 corporations have spent $15 million supporting anti-abortion politicians since 2016, Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, Popular Information, 5/4/22: Amazon, AT&T, Citi, Coca-Cola, CVS, Google, Walmart, Verizon, GM, Comcast, Walgreen, Wells Fargo, T-Mobile
The Supreme Court flunks abortion history, Aaron Tang, LA Times, 5/4/22: “Contrary to the draft’s conclusion, for as long as America has existed, so too have abortions — in most cases free of any form of criminal punishment.”
America Has a Theocracy Now — It’s Called the Supreme Court: If You Ever Wondered How a Democracy Collapses, Now You’re Living It, Umair Haque, Medium, 5/3/22
Alito’s draft opinion would imperil far more than he’s letting on, David Von Drehle, Washington Post, 5/3/22: “Women will have only as much guaranteed autonomy over their childbearing as they had in 1868.”
As the US supreme court moves to end abortion, is America still a free country? There is no condition more essential to democratic citizenship than a person’s control over her own body. We can’t call ourselves a free country without it, Moira Donegan, The Guardian, 5/3/22
Here’s how Americans can fight back to protect abortion rights: A Democratic majority in both houses of Congress could make abortion a right by law, and it’s worth remembering Mexico, Ireland and Argentina are among the countries that recently did, Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian, 5/4/22
Unless Democrats start fighting like they mean it, they’re going to lose Congress: We are engaged in an existential battle over the identity of this nation. The Biden administration’s tepid midterm strategy is failing, Steve Phillips, The Guardian, 5/6/22
78% of Texas voters think abortion should be allowed in some form, UT poll shows: Only 15% of respondents to a recent University of Texas at Austin poll said access to the procedure should be completely outlawed, Reese Oxner, Texas Tribune, 5/4/22
The Criminalization of Abortion: What to Expect In a Post-Roe United States: This op-ed argues that we need to prepare for a coming wave of prosecutions against pregnant people, Emily Galvin Almanza, Teen Vogue, 5/6/22
War and More.
After Putin's war in Ukraine, another La Niña drought is the last straw for global food supply: Putin's imperial misadventure has probably left several hundred million people facing chronic malnutrition, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph UK, 5/6/22
Tucker Carlson parrots Putin, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 5/2/22: “This is what happens when you demonize entire swaths of humanity as less than human.”
PayPal Has Begun Quietly Shuttering Left-Wing Media Accounts, Branko Marcetic, Jacobin, 5/3/22
Oil has long been used as a geopolitical weapon. Could electrified transport change that?Social Sharing: Petroleum industry associated with wild price swings and armed conflict, Andre Mayer, CBC, 5/2/22
Omicron not less severe than earlier Covid-19 variants, large US study finds, Reuters, South China Morning Post, 5/5/22: “Risks of death and hospitalisation were nearly identical between the Omicron era and when different variants were dominant, according to the report.”
WMDs, Scott Galloway, No Mercy, No Malice, 5/6/22: “The average American spends 11 hours per day consuming media, 65% of their waking life. Roughly 40% of that time is spent on a mobile device…The most successful players in the Attention Economy are WMDs: weapons of mass distraction.”
Walking away from tech, Mark Hurst, Creative Good, 5/6/22: “We have a choice between social media, and thinking.”
Our Misguided Obsession with Twitter: The social-media platform has become a spectacle driven by a narrow and unrepresentative group of élites, Cal Newport, New Yorker, 5/2/22
Everything You’ve Heard About Section 230 Is Wrong: These hallowed 26 words shield internet companies from being held responsible for what people post and share. But the web’s most sacred law is a false idol, Gilad Edelman, Wired, 5/6/22
3 county hemp farms licensed to grow cannabis, Noah Eckstein, Hudson Valley 360, 4/15/22: “Indoor farming is unsustainable because of the excess energy it uses.”—Hemp Farmer Moke Mokotoff
Environment and science.
Must Read Article: The secret world beneath our feet is mind-blowing – and the key to our planet’s future: Don’t dismiss soil: its unknowable wonders could ensure the survival of our species, George Monbiot, The Guardian, 5/7/22
More uniformly infectious, more treatable, more genetically predictable: How coronavirus is getting closer to flu, Megan Molteni, Stat, 5.3.22
How Prescribed Burns Can Help Restore Eastern US Forests: A movement is growing to reintroduce controlled burns to forests and grasslands, bringing back the role of fire in creating biodiverse landscapes, Gabriel Popkin, Wired, 4/23/22
Scientists believe beavers can build resilience in Northwest waterways, Geoff Norcross, Roberto Hernandez, Oregon Public Broadcasting, 5/3/22
Indian Court Rules That Nature Has Legal Status on Par With Humans—and That Humans Are Required to Protect It: The judge invoked the power of the government to act as a guardian for those who cannot care for themselves, Katie Surma, Inside Climate News, 5/4/22
Farmers Trial Climate-Friendly Chickpeas in Upstate New York: Introducing a new crop to the Finger Lakes region could give farmers access to a ready-made market—if growers can perfect their techniques, Liz Susman Karp, Civil Eats, 5/3/22
This 12-year-old created a device that monitors and protects the LA river from pollution, Yahoo News, 5/1/22
Indigenous farmers bring back crops adapted to hot, dry conditions: The Ajo Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Arizona offers training and seeds to help Native growers adapt to the extremes of climate change, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 5/3/22
How farmers in Earth’s least developed country grew 200 million trees: In arid Niger, south of the Sahara, farmers who allowed cut trees to regrow in their fields have seen crop yields soar, Katarina Hoije. Craig Welch, National Geographic, 4/27/22
How a Wisconsin woman ditched natural gas: Susan Millar’s 90-year-old home now runs entirely on electricity, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 5/2/22
The Rise of the No-Compromise Climate Candidate: From New York to Texas, a new crop of candidates rejecting fossil fuel donations are calling for legislative action, Raina Lipsitz, The New Republic, 5/5/22
On climate ‘doomism’: Heart & mind reasons to resist it: If ‘the weather outside is frightening,’ the climate can be even more so … but avoiding ‘doomism’ is … do-able, Sue Ellen Campbell, Yale Climate Connections, 5/6/22
3D scans reveal largest cave art in North America: The larger-than-life composition is mostly invisible to the naked eye. Advanced technology helped uncover the stunning composition, Erin Blakemore, National Geographic, 5/3/22: ‘Spirit creatures with human characteristics.’
Startup tests technology to recover minerals from mine waste and recycled batteries: Some of the minerals used to make lithium-ion batteries are in short supply, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 5/4/22
Corals and sea anemones turn sunscreen into toxins – understanding how could help save coral reefs, Djordje Vuckovic, Bill Mitch, The Conversation, 5/5/22
Green chemistry startup wins “world changing idea” award: Sudoc, co-founded by Environmental Health Science founder and chief scientist Pete Myers, was honored in Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards, EHN Staff, Environmental Health News, 5/5/22
Nanoparticles are the future of medicine – researchers are experimenting with new ways to design tiny particle treatments for cancer, Duxin Sun, The Conversation, 5/4/22
In Test Tubes, RNA Molecules Evolve Into a Tiny Ecosystem: When researchers gave a genetic molecule the ability to replicate, it evolved over time into a complex network of “hosts” and “parasites” that both competed and cooperated to survive, Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta, 5/5/22
Anonymous, anti-capitalist and awe-inspiring: were crop circles actually great art? Benjamin Myers, The Guardian, 5/5/22
‘It’s just gorgeous’: rare deep-sea dragonfish spotted off California coast: The torpedo-shaped, bronze-hued fish has been seen only four times in nearly thirty years of deep-sea research, scientists said, Maya Yang, The Guardian, 5/6/22
Birdland
Condors soar again over Northern California coastal redwoods, AP News, 5/3/22
Extinction obituary: why experts weep for the quiet and beautiful Hawaiian po’ouli: Frantic conservation efforts couldn’t save the tiny, intricately colored songbird, whose obit is the first in our new series of memorials for species that have gone extinct in living memory, Helen Sullivan, The Guardian, 5/4/22
Global bird populations steadily declining: Study conclusion mirrors shocking losses previously shown in North America, Cornell University, Eurekalert, 5/5/22: "We are now witnessing the first signs of a new wave of extinctions of continentally distributed bird species.”
Dancers Of Spring: Displaying Grouse Are A Must-See Spectacle, Mark Devokaitas, All About Birds, 3/7/22
Bookland
Teens fight for the right to read with ‘banned-book clubs’ and lawsuits, Hannah Natanson, Washington Post, 5/3/22: “Books are how you learn life lessons.”
This week, the Supreme Court nominated Margaret Atwood for a Nobel Prize in Prescience, Ron Charles, Washington Post, 5/6/22
How Texas Was Born of Revolution and Settler-Colonialism: on the Indigenous Origins of Continental America's Largest State, Sam W. Haynes, LitHub, 5/5/22. “…East Texas was one of the densest population centers in North America, home to a flourishing confederacy that extended into northern Louisiana and Arkansas.” From Unsettled Land: From Revolution to Republic, the Struggle for Texas
Five books to understand U.S. unrest: Today's era of bad feelings rhymes with the 60s and 70s, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 5/6/22:
Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, Rick Perlstein
Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence, Bryan Burrough
Miami and the Siege of Chicago, Norman Mailer
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72, Hunter S. Thompson
The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan, Rick Perlstein
“If only there were a place where the living and the dead could meet, to tell their tales, to weep, I would reach for you — not so that you could forgive me, but so that you could know that I have no pride for what I have done, only the wisdom and regret that came too late.”—Kathy Boudin
My Mother
My mother was a gardener
Or was herself a garden
She knew
There is no such thing as purity
So grew herself into a new plant
With tendrils circling her mind and feet
She traveled whenever possible
A falcon in pursuit of prey: knowledge,
Experience, desire
Turning into herself in sleep
Growing in the darkness of soft dirt
—David Wilk
Where Did We Go Wrong: It’s doubtless a simplification, but I view 1980 as a crucial year. The counter culture generation, including millions of ex-hippies, progressives, and social moderates all bought the media storyline and gave up on Jimmy Carter, portrayed as “weak” and ineffectual, and that apathy and mainstream media propaganda promoting “strong” Reagan resulted in a right-wing victory. And that was followed by decades of political disengagement by the Boomer generation as so many of us focused on family and materialist “success.”
The 2000 election was another turning point, but by then, power had shifted and the Democratic party had corporatized, which split the party from its base. And along with much else there’s no room to discuss, here we are. Forty years of lost opportunities on climate issues, the extraction of vast wealth from society (and planet) by both the old ruling class and the new titans of tech, powerful propaganda from the right that convinces millions to betray their own interests in favor of the elites they now hate, generations of disengagement from politics by the majority of the middle class, a shifting demographic that favors rural conservative states, and the emergence of a powerful fascist movement that serves the interests of the billionaires.
Whether the 2016 election was engineered by Putin, the Mercers, the Kochs or the ghost of JFK does not matter at this point. We are teetering on the verge and can only hope that the impending SCOTUS ruling on abortion, which will be followed by the dismantling of almost every right of privacy we have come to take for granted, will wake up enough Americans (who in theory do not want their lives ruled by a theocratic police state) to stop the right-wing takeover now in progress.
Please feel free to send your thoughts on this subject, especially constructive ideas to help prevent the gruesome future that is bearing down upon us.
This issue marks two full years - 104 issues - of The Weird Times. I hope it has mattered. Love to all – David
So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony
'Cause each time I feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?
—from “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding,” by Nick Lowe, sung by Elvis Costello
Congratulations, David, on two years of 'The Weird Times.' Nice work.