The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Space
The Weird Times Issue 26, November 8, 2020
'And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.
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'Let us be the nation we know we can be' – Joe Biden, Nov 7, 2020
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The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters. —Antonio Gramsci (probably a loose translation by Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek). I like the more literal version: “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”
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“That is the most powerful person in the world, and we see him like an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun, realizing his time is over. But he just hasn’t accepted it, and he wants to take everybody down with him, including this country.” – Anderson Cooper on CNN, Nov 5, 2020
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For so many of us, after four difficult years, today is a time for celebration. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris do represent a changing America and give us renewed hope for our country’s future. A woman of color will be our vice president! More people voted for them than for any presidential ticket in history. Their victory in the popular vote will be by the largest margin in modern history.
But we all realize that we are in an extremely fraught time. Putting aside the dangers posed by the psychologically damaged sitting president over the next 73 days, we know that the worst elements of the Republican party are fully engaged. Fox News is not going away. Even if it was a close election, which it was not, after saying for years that “elections have consequences,” Republicans will continue to discredit the Biden victory. They will argue that while Biden won, the Democrats lost ground nationwide. But in reality, while Democrats did lose seats in the House, they are taking back seats in the Senate and are in the fight for two more in a changing-blue Georgia.
But the popular vote count reminds us that some seventy million of our fellow Americans voted consciously for a sociopath to be our president. “Reaching across the aisle,” or trying to “tamp down the rhetoric” will not address what this means about our country. We will need a lot more than platitudes and “business as usual” from politicians and leaders - and from ourselves.
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“To really understand how the secret hate vote, the shy Trump vote, undermined the polls to the point of uselessness, you have to zoom out — to the really big picture. These are not normal times. They are times of extreme instability and social collapse. America is now a collapsing society, plunging headlong into upheaval and crisis of every kind.
Those are big words, and you might be used to hearing them. What you might not have thought about is that “these are not normal times” means that a secret hate vote tends to emerge. Polling is built on the idea of normality, both statistical and philosophical. That there is some kind of history that can be relied on to predict people’s preferences, and assign them some kind of normal probability, that is, they revert to some kind of historic average. Relying on the statistics and expectations of the old normal — and the literal reversion to the mean normal — in abnormal times is a recipe for disaster. You should never, ever do it. You will be surprised and left shocked and unprepared time after time.
That is why those of us with experience studying and surviving authoritarian fascism warned both you and the Democratic establishment that the polls were going to be dead wrong. The polls are almost never right in a collapsing society. They are rarely right in times of profound crisis. People’s behaviour diverges sharply from their stated intentions. They say the right thing, and then turn right around and, when no one is looking, do the wrong one. All that is because in collapsing societies, ridden by crisis, self-preservation takes over. All thought of collective endeavour or action ceases amongst whole sections of entire social groups. Their focus narrows, as it does in times of trauma, to the immediate question of survival.” —Umair Haque, (Why) There Was no Biden Landslide on Medium, Nov 4, 2020
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“The 1920 census showed that the weight of the nation’s demographics was moving to cities, which were controlled by Democrats, so the Republicans in control of the House of Representatives refused to reapportion representation after that census. Reapportioning the House would have cost many of them their seats. Rather than permitting the number of representatives to grow along with population, Congress then capped the size of the House at 435. Since then, the average size of a congressional district has tripled. This gives smaller states a huge advantage in the Electoral College, in which each state gets a number of votes equal to the number of its senators and representatives.
These injuries to our system have saddled us with an Electoral College that permits a minority to tyrannize over the majority. That systemic advantage is unsustainable in a democracy. One or the other will have to give.” —Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, Nov 4, 2020
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What keeps me up night after night is the evident truth that the sitting President of the United States is a narcissistic menace. He is the insecure bullying husband who kills his wife rather than allow her to divorce him, the jealous boyfriend who kills or disfigures his girlfriend rather than let her dump him for another guy. He is the five-year-old boy who breaks the game after he loses and cries out “I won! I won! It’s not fair!”
We know who (and what) Trump is. He has not killed democracy – yet. But he is still trying to have his way at the expense of our country. This act of id may not be a well-planned coup, but it is no less dangerous. Like the parents of an out of control child, America does not know what to do to stop this.
Isn’t it terrifying to realize that it is only Republican leaders who can stop what we are seeing in front of our eyes? Isn’t it finally time for them to perform an intervention?
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If Trump loses and won't leave, it could get ugly, Paul Callan, CNN.com, Aug 17, 2020.
“In this speculative scenario, should Trump persist in an attempt to retain presidential power, it would likely be viewed as a criminally treasonous conspiracy under the Constitution. Treason can result in lengthy imprisonment or even the death penalty under US law. Trump undoubtedly knows this because he regularly accuses his opponents of treason.
He also loves lawsuits so we might certainly expect him to file a lawsuit seeking to overturn the election results on basis of "fraud" if he loses.
But he would likely be upset to learn that if such a lawsuit delayed the inauguration of a new president past the constitutionally scheduled date of January 20, 2021, the laws of presidential succession would bestow the presidency on his nemesis, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, pending certification of a new president by the Supreme Court and the Congress.”
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Well, I know what's right
And I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushing me around
But I'll stand my ground
And I won't back down
-Tom Petty, Won’t Back Down
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An Indigenous Effort to Return Condors to the Pacific Northwest Nears Its Goal, Anna Smith, Audubon Magazine, Nov 5, 2020
The Yurok Tribe is now on the eve of launching their own condors into flight next year, restoring one of the longest-living raptors to part of its historic range, which overlaps with the Yurok’s ancestral lands along the Klamath River. The program is a partnership with 16 different federal agencies, private companies, conservation and wildlife organizations, and the Yurok Tribe to bring condors back to the U.S. northwest. The Yurok Tribe is waiting on one final decision by the federal government before they’ll be in the clear to begin building condor-release facilities in Redwood National Park. It will be the first time a tribal nation has reintroduced the California Condor, and the end of a long wait—a century since the imposing birds were seen soaring across northern California skies.
Whale sculpture stops Dutch train crashing into water - Metro train overran stop, coming to halt 10 metres above ground on huge plastic tail, Daniel Boffey, The Guardian, Nov 2, 2020
A metro train that overran the stop blocks at a station outside Rotterdam has been left balancing 10 metres above ground on the plastic tail of a whale sculpture.
The metro driver was reportedly able to free himself from the train without injury after the incident shortly after midnight on Monday morning. There were no passengers onboard.
Maarten Struijs, who made the sculpture of two tails emerging from water beneath the elevated metro line, said he was surprised the sculpture had held together.
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This tree stands on Massachusetts farmland, 95 miles from the nearest town and safe from the ravages of Dutch elm disease, Alex Mistlin, The Guardian, Nov 2, 2020
“Jeff Kaufman, a retired doctor from Massachusetts, has made a point of visiting the same American elm for nearly two decades. Why? “This tree is a survivor,” he says. “Like many old American elms, it’s located in an isolated place where Dutch elm disease couldn’t get to it.”
The elm, which Kaufman estimates to be about 150 years old, stands in the middle of a field against the backdrop of the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts. It’s 95 miles from the nearest urban area, the small town of Egremont. Kaufman says that if you position yourself in a certain way, you can get a clear view of the tree with no evidence of human presence in the background. “It’s only when I photograph the tree that I realise how alone it really is. It’s very peaceful,” he says.”
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“A new type of soil created by engineers at the University of Texas at Austin can pull water from the air and distribute it to plants, potentially expanding the map of farmable land around the globe to previously inhospitable places and reducing water use in agriculture at a time of growing droughts. As published in ACS Materials Letters, the team's atmospheric water irrigation system uses super-moisture-absorbent gels to capture water from the air. When the soil is heated to a certain temperature, the gels release the water, making it available to plants. When the soil distributes water, some of it goes back into the air, increasing humidity and making it easier to continue the harvesting cycle.” —Science Daily, Nov 2, 2020
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A Huge Fusion Experiment in the UK Just Achieved the Much Anticipated ‘First Plasma’, Peter Dockrill, Science Alert, Nov 3, 2020
“After a long, seven-year development, an experimental fusion reactor in the UK has been successfully powered on for the time, achieving 'first plasma': confirmation that all its components can work together to heat hydrogen gas into the plasma phase of matter. This transition – achieved last week by a machine called MAST Upgrade in Culham, Oxfordshire – is the fundamental ingredient of a working nuclear fusion reactor, a dream scientists have been trying to realise for decades. In nuclear fusion, the nuclei of two or more lighter elements fuse into a heavier nucleus, and release energy. This phenomenon is what goes on in the heart of the Sun, and if we can recreate and maintain the same reactions on Earth at sufficient scale, we stand to reap the rewards of clean, virtually limitless, low-carbon energy.”
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Florida County Overwhelmingly Supports Granting Legal Rights to Rivers, Brett Walton, Water News, Nov 4, 2020
Residents of Orange County, Florida, voted overwhelmingly in favor of changing the county charter to give legal protection to rivers.
The result was one of a handful across the country in which voters endorsed new protections for waterways or property taxes that will fund water projects. Voters in Utah and Wyoming also approved constitutional amendments that fix technical matters related to municipal water supply and water infrastructure spending.
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“In the Age of Aquarius, give or take, plurality overtakes singularity. History becomes bored by its self-referentialism. Triangles burrow into single lines. Equal signs collapse on the spikes of other equal signs.”
“Literature on mental illness, written by queer and trans BIPOC authors, is hard to come about. Adding to that unique legacy, this excerpt is part of a longer piece about mental health, queer love, pop culture, and decolonial worldmaking. I am interested in the various connections between the individual and what we gather under the umbrella term ‘collective.’ As you read this excerpt, play the 5th Dimension’s version of the medley Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In and imagine what a better tomorrow might look like.”
—Roy G. Guzmán, Copyright © 2020 by Roy G. Guzmán. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, Nov 6, 2020, by the Academy of American Poets.
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Many pieces in The Weird Times are short and link back to an original article or post. I’ve noticed that readers, for whatever reasons, do not click through to the sources most of the time. I’m running a longer excerpt here because I think it is so important. This is by Mark Hurst, a long-time observer of high tech and modern marketing, writing on his site Creative Good. Thanks Mark, for permission to quote.
First, a strong caveat that, yes, of course, there are deep divisions and very real differences of opinion among Americans. The point I want to highlight is that actively deepening the divisions is a source of profit for Silicon Valley. By tuning their recommendation algorithms for maximal "engagement," Big Tech companies make money by promoting sensational content that will keep people glued to the screen: lurid gossip, conspiracy theories, and falsehoods of all kinds. Facebook and Twitter slop out their algorithmic timelines, Google corrupts its search results, and YouTube twists its video recommendations - all for maximal engagement.
As a further example, Facebook's group-recommendation feature has been shown to encourage a violently divided society, for profit. A blockbuster Wall Street Journal article a few months ago described how extremist groups thrive on Facebook - and how Facebook leadership knew this was happening and opted not to shut it down. The Tech Transparency Project described it in starker terms. (Zuck, under oath just last week, claimed not to know anything about this.) As Wolfie Christl put it, "It's toxic. They know it. They won't change it."
Now take this fraudulent business model and apply it to the election: there's a lot of money to be made by encouraging Americans to hate each other. Any candidate promising to "unify" the country after the election - if they act on that pledge - will naturally face strong resistance from Big Tech. Their business is based on dividing us, not unifying us. Again, see the Wall Street Journal article: Facebook leadership saw a choice between profit and a healthy society, and they chose profit.
Now that the stakes are even higher, do we think Big Tech will abandon its profit model?
The crazy thing, truly the insane thing, is what we're being asked to believe now. Facebook, Twitter, and Google claim that they're fixing the problem - again, caused by their algorithms - while the companies continue to base their business on those same algorithms. Almost daily these companies announce some new patch to their sludge machines: a warning label here, "tuning the algorithm" there, adding a few more moderators, even taking down entire posts in some cases. All laughably irrelevant to the issue, which is that the companies are still making money by amplifying harmful content. Claiming to fix it with a "tweak" is like the arsonist, when confronted by neighbors, saying he'll burn down houses slightly differently from now on: the flamethrower will shoot its flames more quietly!
The emerging danger is that these patchwork "solutions" - algorithmic tweaks and so on - actually make Silicon Valley more powerful. By pretending to fix the problem, the companies derail and foreclose any significant conversation about the underlying business model.
“You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a CIA that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home.” —Abbie Hoffman, 1987
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Oh baby, don't it feel like heaven right now?
Don't it feel like something from a dream?
Yeah, I've never known nothing quite like this
Don't it feel like tonight might never be again?
Baby, we know better than to try and pretend
Honey no one coulda ever told me 'bout this
—Tom Petty, The Waiting is the Hardest Part
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By Degrees
I keep
writing
but there
is little
room
in your
pocket
for another
poem
In the
store
they ask
if I am
looking for
something
Where was I going
before I woke up
I answer
They keep
talking while
the words
fall to the
floor
The
little
boy
on the
bus
waves
goodbye
as I
get off
he's still
at the
window
waving
as I
cross
the
street
I
wave
back
I
keep
singing
without
any song
It's taken years
for me
to understand
that it's enough
to just keep
singing
It's not like waving
goodbye
—Beau Beausoleil
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Walking with the Wind
“About fifteen of us children were outside my aunt Seneva’s house, playing in her dirt yard. The sky began clouding over, the wind started picking up, lightning flashed far off in the distance, and suddenly I wasn’t thinking about playing anymore; I was terrified…
Aunt Seneva was the only adult around, and as the sky blackened and the wind grew stronger, she herded us all inside.
Her house was not the biggest place around, and it seemed even smaller with so many children squeezed inside. Small and surprisingly quiet. All of the shouting and laughter that had been going on earlier, outside, had stopped. The wind was howling now, and the house was starting to shake. We were scared. Even Aunt Seneva was scared.
And then it got worse. Now the house was beginning to sway. The wood plank flooring beneath us began to bend. And then, a corner of the room started lifting up.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. None of us could. This storm was actually pulling the house toward the sky. With us inside it.
That was when Aunt Seneva told us to clasp hands. Line up and hold hands, she said, and we did as we were told. Then she had us walk as a group toward the corner of the room that was rising. From the kitchen to the front of the house we walked, the wind screaming outside, sheets of rain beating on the tin roof. Then we walked back in the other direction, as another end of the house began to lift.
And so it went, back and forth, fifteen children walking with the wind, holding that trembling house down with the weight of our small bodies.
More than half a century has passed since that day, and it has struck me more than once over those many years that our society is not unlike the children in that house, rocked again and again by the winds of one storm or another, the walls around us seeming at times as if they might fly apart.
It seemed that way in the 1960s, at the height of the civil rights movement, when America itself felt as if it might burst at the seams—so much tension, so many storms. But the people of conscience never left the house. They never ran away. They stayed, they came together and they did the best they could, clasping hands and moving toward the corner of the house that was the weakest.
And then another corner would lift, and we would go there.
And eventually, inevitably, the storm would settle, and the house would still stand.
But we knew another storm would come, and we would have to do it all over again.
And we did.
And we still do, all of us. You and I.
Children holding hands, walking with the wind.”— John Lewis
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If we want real change in America in the next two years, we must take control of the Senate away from Moscow Mitch and the Republicans. We can help Georgia elect Raphael Warnock and Jeff Ossoff – volunteer and give money.
Fair Fight (Stacey Abrams’ organization)
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Where do bad folks go when they die?
They don't go to heaven where the angels fly
They go down to the lake of fire and fry
Won't see them again 'till the fourth of July
—Nirvana, Lake of Fire, Curt Kirkwood
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“Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.”—Franklin Delano Roosevelt
