The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 234, November 3, 2024 (V5 #26)
The argument is not liberals-conservatives, Democrats-Republicans, or left-right. The argument is between past and future.—Lewis Lapham
I kind of have a feeling that women all across this country, from every walk of life, from either party, are going to send a loud and clear message to Donald Trump next Tuesday, November 5, whether he likes it or not.—Tim Walz
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.—George Orwell (1984)
Books, Music, Art, Culture
Teri Garr, Comic Actress in Offbeat Roles, Is Dead at 79: An Oscar nominee for her role in “Tootsie,” she was also a favorite guest of David Letterman and Johnny Carson and a three-time host of “Saturday Night Live,” Anita Gates, NY Times, 10/29/24: “For years, she was a spokeswoman for MS research and support, continuing to make appearances in her wheelchair.” Watch her wonderful 1964 short film, “Where’s the Bus”
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds review – an incredible mass spiritual outpouring: This hugely moving concert spans every corner of the human experience, finding Cave at a point where time has deepened his music’s power and his connection with his audience, Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 11/3/24 “Wild God” full album stream. Great stuff.
‘I was a coke fiend, I made a lot of bad choices’: Garrett Morris on SNL’s early days – and how the show lost its courage. Saturday Night Live’s first Black cast member broke ground for the comics who followed him, fighting against typecasting and ‘a lot of racism going on,’ Andrew Lawrence, The Guardian, 10/31/24
The Isley Brothers: Unsung Pioneers of Rock 'N Roll: the factors that led an influential musical group to be excluded from a category they very much belonged in, for seven decades and counting, Darrell M. McNeill, Oldster, 10/28/24: “…they spent their peak years fighting through an environment where rock morphed into a White-exclusive arena.”
“Mike Knew Apocalypses Had Been Coming at Us All Along:” On the Reissue of “Dead Cities” by Mike Davis, Rebecca Solnit, LitHub, 10/30/24: “Mike Davis seemed to have read everything in political science, geology, geography, environmental science, western and urban history, and it all seemed to be churning into ideas within him.” Book: Dead Cities
How New York City Became a Haven For Endangered Languages: on the City’s Unique Position to Preserve Global Linguistic Diversity, Ross Perlin, LitHub, 10/28/24: “Never before have cities like New York been so linguistically various, and they may never be again.”
The arrhythmia of our current age: The rhythms of life seem off. Can we restore a steady beat? David Ewing Duncan, MIT Technology Review, 10/30/24: “Is the optimism that’s hardwired into us and so important for survival and the rise of civilization one reason for the general anxiety we’re feeling in a future that has in some crucial ways turned out less ideal than those who constructed it had hoped?”
‘You tried to tell yourself I wasn’t real’: what happens when people with acute psychosis meet the voices in their heads? In avatar therapy, a clinician gives voice to their patients’ inner demons. For some of the participants in a new trial, the results have been astounding, Jenny Kleeman, The Guardian, 10/29/24: “This new therapy demanded that voices were listened to closely, and responded to as if they were spoken by entirely real external beings.”
I can walk away, spineless
Pretend it's a movie
I don't want to face a crisis or something that's too real
But I don't wanna go
Just breathe
—from “People Never Change,” Peter Cat Recording Co., written by Karan Singh / Dhruv Bhola / Rohit Gupta / Suryakant Sawhney
Politics, Technology, Economics
Kamala Harris finds herself on Saturday Night Live amid riff to ‘end the drama-la’ in US politics: Vice-president appears in the mirror opposite impressionist Maya Rudolph in last episode before 2024 election of variety show where politicians go to lighten their image, David Smith, The Guardian, 11/3/24
The Power We Have: To Open the Door to the Light, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 11/2/24: “The problems that we face can be solved. Beautiful futures are also possible. They begin with the little miracle of voting.”
How John Roberts—Yes, John Roberts—Might Decide Who Won the Election: Buried in a recent decision on federal review of state court decisions is language big enough to drive a Trump Truck through, David Daley, New Republic, 10/31/24: “This Court has an obligation to ensure that state court interpretations of state law do not evade federal law. State courts do not have free rein.”
Trump Wants You to Accept All of This as Normal: The former president is psychologically preparing Americans for an assault on the electoral system, Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, 10/28/24: “You are supposed to just get used to the idea that Trump wishes he had “Hitler’s generals” or that he uses the Stalinist phrase “enemies of the people” to describe his opponents. Because once you think that’s normal, then you’ll accept the next step. Even when that next step is an assault on democracy and the rule of law.”
October surprise: Trump just blew a huge lead, and the Madison Square Garden rally started the drop, says top data scientist, Shawn Tully, Fortune, 11/2/24 “The MSG extravaganza and the follow-on screwups are sinking Trump’s numbers.”
Dead-heat poll results are astonishing – and improbable, these experts say: It’s possible the tied race reflects not the sentiments of the voters, but rather risk-averse decision-making by pollsters, Robert Tait, The Guardian, 11/2/24: “…the results of the election could be unexpectedly different than the razor-close narrative the cluster of state polls and the polling averages suggest.”
Threats, racism, misogyny: Trump’s disturbing final week of campaigning: The former president leaned heavily into his agenda of hate and menace in a week as unedifying as it was unhinged, Richard Luscombe, The Guardian, 11/1/24
8 signs that Donald Trump has a progressive form of dementia: And how our media is failing, wildly, in one of the most important stories in US history, Gary Marcus, Marcus on AI, 11/2/24: “Most incredibly….in front of a live national television audience, Trump performed simulated fellatio on a microphone stand.” DW: Evidence of severe dis-inhibition. Why is this not front page news on all media outlets?
The Peculiarly American Roots of Trumpism: History holds clues for the country’s political future, regardless of who wins on Nov. 5, Timothy L. O'Brien, Bloomberg News, 11/1/24: “Whether or not Trump wins on Nov. 5, Trumpism is here to stay.”
Trumpism is kakistocracy A cult of personality prizes loyalty above competence, resulting in ‘rule by the worst,’ Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 11/3/24: “Having principles means adhering to an idea instead of to a man, which violates the first and only rule of Trumpism.”
The Press Failed America This Election, We Can't Let it Happen Ever Again: Corporate Media Fails: Election Edition, Scott Dworkin, Dworkin Report, 11/3/24: “Since 2016, the Press has parroted Trump’s lies as if they’re the truth.”
Facebook Is Auto-Generating Militia Group Pages as Extremists Continue to Organize in Plain Sight: Ahead of the election, anti-government militias are using Facebook to recruit, coordinate training, and promote ballot box stakeouts. Meta isn’t shutting their groups down and is even auto-generating pages, Tess Owen, Wired, 10/29/24
Crowdsourced voting fraud claims could become grist for Republican lawsuits, Huo Jingnan, NPR, 10/31/24: “What we're seeing…is a kind of motivated misinterpretation where people [who are] skeptical already…of whether elections are trustworthy — they've been told by some of their favorite candidates in some cases, that we can't trust the results…if that candidate doesn't win.”
Joe Rogan: A Conspiracist for the Trump Era: He pretends to be a non-partisan truth-seeker while flooding the zone with MAGA lies, Matt Johnson, The Unpopulist, 10/30/24: “…he has only one consistent mission: attempting to debunk mainstream media narratives by entertaining conspiracy theories.”
Elon Musk Goes Full Conspiracist: But why? Luke Hallam, Persuasion, 10/30/24: “… it would be wrong to conclude that it’s all about the money for Musk; he also gives every sign of having become a true convert to the Trump cause.”
Rising Authoritarianism and Plutocracy Are a Dangerous Mix for Press Freedom, Rachel Kleinfeld, Just Security, 10/30/24: “Trump showed that he could make the owners of major media in the United States cave to his will and give up long-standing norms of independence – without even holding office.”
Big money is complicit in the unravelling of American democracy: America’s plutocrats are quietly normalising the resurgence of a figure they once disavowed, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph (UK), 10/29/24
The Americans helping Russia’s influence operations in the U.S.: Russia has been courting, and fooling, Americans for decades, Sasha Ingber, The Warning, 10/30/24: “They look at it in terms of the cumulative impact of thousands of different operations over decades.”
The Conservative Strategy to Ban Abortion Nationwide: A local referendum in Texas is part of a long-term effort to block abortions through the courts, Rachel Monroe, New Yorker, 10/30/24: “It attempts to prohibit people who live in Amarillo from obtaining abortions in other states (with an exception for the life of the mother) and others from even passing through Amarillo on their way to obtain abortions.”
'Project Esther': The Right-Wing Group Behind Project 2025 Has a Plan to Crack Down on America's Pro-Palestine Movement: The Trump-aligned Heritage Foundation is now going after what they call the “Hamas Support Network” – groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and American Muslims for Palestine, Prem Thakker, Zeteo, 10/29/24
Morning Digest: How America could elect the president by popular vote—by 2028: Democrats need wins in these key states to make it happen, David Nir and Jeff Singer, The Downballot, 10/31/24: “That plan is known as the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, a multistate agreement under which member states pledge to cast their electoral votes for the winner of the national popular vote—regardless of the outcome in their own states.”
The myth of red states and blue states: There is only one America, and we’re all still living in it, Lyz Lenz, Men Yell at Me, 10/30/24: “We’d all love to tune out. To unsubscribe. To resign and retreat. But there’s no impenetrable blue bubble, no safe haven available to any but the wealthiest. There is only one America, and we’re all still living in it.”
Calculated Risks: Since the overturning of Roe, it has once again become a subversive act to provide medical care for women as though their lives are as valuable as men’s, Christine Henneberg, NY Review of Books, 11/7/24 issue: “…in a society that drives abortion underground, women will never be truly safe.”
A Woman Died After Being Told It Would Be a “Crime” to Intervene in Her Miscarriage at a Texas Hospital: Josseli Barnica is one of at least two pregnant Texas women who died after doctors delayed emergency care. She’d told her husband that the medical team said it couldn’t act until the fetal heartbeat stopped, Cassandra Jaramillo, Kavitha Surana, ProPublica, 10/30/24
Yale leaders advised to refrain from statements on issues of public significance: A report from Yale’s Committee on Institutional Voice, adopted in full by University President Maurie McInnis, advises that Yale leaders, including heads of academic departments and programs, largely refrain from commenting on topics of public importance, Josie Reich, Yale Daily News, 10/30/24 (DW: What? This is so wrong…)
Ukraine, What Next? Lawrence Freedman, Comment is Freed, 10/29/24: “There are big decisions to be made in Kyiv and in Moscow. But there are also decisions to be taken in Western capitals, and how those decisions are made over the coming months will determine Europe’s stability and security for the rest of this decade and beyond.”
November has tied me
To an old dead tree
Get word to April
To rescue me
—from “November,” Tom Waits
Science, Environment
Who Owns the Mountains? Hurricane Helene has revived urgent questions about the politics of land in Appalachia. In western North Carolina, those questions have everything to do with the booming tourist economy, Olivia Paschal, NY Review of Books, 11/3/24: “How can we protect the region’s quality of life, while ensuring economic health? How can we preserve the mountains’ scenic vistas, while not being victimized by their attraction?”
Planet-heating pollutants in atmosphere hit record levels in 2023: Carbon dioxide concentration has increased by more than 10% in just two decades, reports World Meteorological Organization, Anit Narajan, The Guardian, 10/28/24
U.N. report obscures meat’s true climate impact: By measuring only direct emissions, the U.N. unintentionally makes a massive polluter look much more innocent than it is, Arielle Samuelson, Heated, 10/30/24: “How much the livestock sector emits is ultimately less powerful than how much it needs to stop emitting to preserve a livable climate.”
UN chief calls for more pledges, private sector input to save global biodiversity at Colombia summit, Steven Grattan, APNews, 10/29/24: “Nature is life, and yet we are waging a war against it, a war where there can be no winner.”
Companies Pledge Action to Stop Biodiversity Loss in New Initiative: Kering, GSK and Holcim are adopting science-based targets aimed at protecting land and water globally, Yusuf Khan, Wall Street Journal, 10/30/24 (No paywall)
Why Farmers Use Harmful Insecticides They May Not Need: Neonicotinoids coat nearly all the corn and soybean seeds available for planting. Agrichemical companies have designed it that way, Lisa Held, Civil Eats, 10/30/24
The Secret Electrostatic World of Insects: Invisibly to us, insects and other tiny creatures use static electricity to travel, avoid predators, collect pollen, and more. New experiments explore how evolution may have influenced this phenomenon, Max G. Levy, Wired, 10/27/24
A bold new experiment suggests humans could help butterflies outrun global warming: Scientists want to grow novel higher-elevation forest for the butterflies. But it will take a half a century—and that creates a tricky balancing act, Warren Cornwall, Anthropocene, 10/30/24
Maryland researchers breed apples for a changing climate: Two new varieties can better tolerate hotter, wetter weather, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 10/30/24: “The trees need very little pruning, appear resistant to a common bacterial disease, and can tolerate hotter, wetter conditions.”
Alarm call as world's trees slide towards extinction, Helen Briggs, BBC, 10/28/24: “Trees are at risk in 192 countries, with clearing land for farming and logging the biggest threat and, in temperate regions, pests and diseases.”
E-waste from AI computers could 'escalate beyond control:’ Researchers predicting a thousand-fold increase in e-waste from AI computer servers by 2030 called for recycling strategies to reduce the environmental impact, Fred Schwaller, DW, 10/28/24
Greening Concrete: A Major Emitter Inches Toward Carbon Neutrality: Concrete is the most ubiquitous man-made building material on the planet, but making it generates massive amounts of CO2 emissions. Companies are experimenting with ways to green the process, from slashing the use of limestone to capturing the carbon generated when it’s burned, Christian Schwägerl, Yale Environment 360, 10/29/24
Meet the Eukaryote, the First Cell to Get Organized: All modern multicellular life — all life that any of us regularly see — is made of cells with a knack for compartmentalization. Recent discoveries are revealing how the first eukaryote got its start, Molly Herring, Quanta, 10/28/24
In Purple Pennsylvania, Older Climate Activists Tell Would-Be Voters, ‘We Caused It. We Can Solve It:’ Under the watch of environmental warrior Bill McKibben, the ‘Silver Wave Tour’ is mobilizing fed-up senior citizens to canvas for climate votes in swing states, Audrey Carleton, Capital and Main, 10/28/24
Ordinary Policies Achieve Extraordinary Climate Adaptation: Consistently implementing zoning, permitting, and building regulations, all commonplace municipal tools, helped most New Jersey towns avoid floodplain development, Kimberly M. S. Cartier, Eos, 10/30/24
Authoritarianism is on the rise. Is climate change to blame? There's evidence that global warming creates fertile ground for political strongmen to come to power, L.V. Anderson, Grist, 10/29/24
You sit around gettin' older
There's a joke here somewhere and it's on me
I'll shake this world off my shoulders
Come on, baby, the laugh's on me
—from “Dancing in the Dark,” Bruce Springsteen
Health, Wellness
Scientists Discover 'Deep Brain' Genes Linked to Parkinson's And ADHD, Russell McLendon, ScienceAlert, 10/29/24: “Our findings suggest that genetic influences that underpin individual differences in brain structure may be fundamental to understanding the underlying causes of brain-related disorders.”
Science Is Finding Ways to Regenerate Your Heart: Tissue-engineering techniques are in the works to regrow heart muscle after a heart attack and repair lungs and other organs, Betsy McKay, Wall Street Journal, 10/30/24 (No Paywall)
The roots of fear: Understanding the amygdala, University of Calif – Davis, Science Daily, 11/1/24: “…scientists have identified new clusters of cells with differing patterns of gene expression in the amygdala of humans and non-human primates. The work could lead to more targeted treatments for disorders such as anxiety that affect tens of millions of people.”
Birds, Birding
How parrot plumage gets its dazzling reds and yellows, Ari Daniel, NPR, 10/31/24: “The reason that a bird’s egg’s yolk is a bright yellow-orange is because it’s full of carotenoids, and so then, during development, the bird mobilizes the carotenoids from the yolk and then deposits them in the developing feathers.”
Miscellania
I posted a new interview with Ken Whyte, the founder of Canadian publisher Sutherland House at Writerscast. If you’re interested in the current state of book publishing, have a listen.
and a wave crashing against it
the logic a rhyme of college and collage
the logic a rebus the message simple
Nancy a blueprint bingo cherries
—from “For Joe Brainard,” David Lehman
Get Out and Vote – and Get Out the Vote
Monday, November 4 – National Phonebank hosted by Indivisible's BIPOC Caucus
Support Beto O’Rourke’s Powered by People
In the short time remaining before voting ends, there’s still time to get out the vote. We’re not getting help from anyone else. It’s up to us to fight for the future we believe in.
Putting together this week’s TWT was just an overwhelming experience. There is so much news, so much that matters, so much at stake, it is difficult to find perspective. I am guessing that most of you are like me, simultaneously terrified and energized.
No matter what happens on Tuesday and later this week, we are about to enter a challenging and emotionally stressful time.
My love goes out to all of you, all of us who care about the future of America, our planet, and the life that inhabits it. Be well, take care, stay strong.
Love is always the place where I begin and end.—bell hooks
We can open the door to the light.—Timothy Snyder
Love always—David