The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 247, February 2, 2025 (V5 #39)
Never bring norms to a Trump fight.—Marc Elias
Don’t give in to the lies. Don’t give in to the fear. Hold on to the truth and to hope. Even if you have to get out your phone, record that message. I will not give in to the lies. ‘I will not give in to the fear!’–from Jim Acosta’s final close on CNN
It only took me 90 years to realize that the milestone I am looking forward to now is my next breath.—Sally Jane Heit
Books, Music, Art, Culture
From Godard to Coppola, Van Sant to Anger, Marianne Faithfull was a dazzling magnet for film-makers: The music star was also an electrifying screen presence, from The Girl on a Motorcycle to Marie Antoinette, Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 1/31/25
The Polymath of Pittsburgh: Garielle Lutz is one of America’s great writers. Why has her literary genius gone unnoticed? Daniel Kolitz, The Nation, 1/28/25: " Parallels between Kafka and Lutz abound, not least a facility for what Lutz at one point calls 'exuberant hopelessness.'"
“Anarchism Means That You Should Be Free.” On the Literature of Liberation: the Life Alexander Berkman, Anarchist, Would-Be Assassin, and 19th-Century Luigi Mangione, Ed Simon, LitHub, 1/27/25: " While the communist finds salvation in the state and the capitalist in the corporation, the anarchist understands redemption as imparted by friends and neighbors, family and comrades."
Many people seem to think that anarchists are proponents of violence, chaos, and destruction, [they are mostly] simply people who believe human beings are capable of behaving in a reasonable fashion without having to be forced to.—David Graeber
The K-Pop Granny Pirate of the Pacific Rim: Yaloo’s multimedia work addresses the intersection of human and non-human consciousness, and the gap between technological advancement and spiritual practices, Sigourney Schultz, Hyperallergic, 1/29/25: " The immersive installation encompasses dancing holograms of Shininho, vertical screens projecting undulating dreamscapes, and industrial redwood pillars that resemble good-luck shrines adorning East Asian ship docks."
The Case for Kicking the Stone: Nicholas Carr’s “Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart” disturbingly compelling, Philip Ball, LA Review of Books, 1/28/25: ““We spend our days sharing information, connected as never before, but the more we communicate, the worse things seem to get.” Isn’t that just the opposite of what was supposed to happen?”
How Multitasking Drains Your Brain: the dangers of multitasking in the digital age, Richard Cytowic, MIT Press Reader, January 2025: " Multitaskers are terrible at ignoring irrelevant information; they’re terrible at keeping information in their head nicely and neatly organized; and they’re terrible at switching from one task to another.”
The Most Important Time in History Is Now: AGI Is Coming Sooner Due to o3, DeepSeek, and Other Cutting-Edge AI Developments, Tomas Pueyo, Uncharted Territories, 1/29/25: " AI is progressing so fast that its researchers are freaking out. It is now routinely more intelligent than humans, and its speed of development is accelerating."
The trouble with 'donating our dopamine' to our phones, not our friends, Tanya Mosley, NPR Fresh Air, 1/29/25: “We are now in the midst of an anti-social century.”
Don’t Sweep the Ocean:: Somatic Strategies that Can Help Us Act with Discernment, Sarah Shourd, Freedom Blooms, 1/29/25: “it’s fundamentally not true that we are separate from one another. It’s a misunderstanding of reality….cut no one off. In order to make changes in this country, we’re going to have to tolerate differences and make more friends. To reach beyond your own limited experience and understand another’s is the impulse of every storyteller, every person on a healing journey, anyone committed to social change and anyone capable of love.”
Trump's Latest Anti-Trans Actions and How We Can Fight Back: The message should be clear among all people of conscience: We will not cooperate with the fascist, anti-trans agenda, Kelly Hayes, Organizing My Thoughts, 1/30/25: “We owe it to trans youth and communities to push back with all our might.”
Of Centers and Archipelagos: Manifesto(es), Sam Kahn, Castalia, 2/2/25: “…the technology has changed in a bizarre new direction where people are participants as well as observers.”
Walking the Fault Line: In Mojave Ghost, Forrest Gander recounts his 800-mile journey into the slow time of grief, Srikanth Reddy, Poetry Foundation, 1/27/25: “We derive our word for verse from the Old English fers, from the Latin vertere, to turn. When your feet reach the end of the line, you turn and walk another line.”
My younger sister died today. My
father died today. My closest friend
died today. My mother died today. Each
of their deaths detonates in iterative
simultaneity inside the tissue
of my being ... —Forrest Gander
Celebration of the Cosmic Life of David Lynch (video), Tony Nader, YouTube, 1/26/25
Politics, Technology, Economics
As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.—H.L. Mencken.
The GOP’s 60-Year Conspiracy to Kill Our Democracy: None Dare Call It Treason—But I Will: It all traces back to billionaire-backed fearmongering in the 1960s—weaponizing panic around socialism and communism to crush unions, cut taxes, and hoard profits...Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 1/31/25
The coup rolls on, but we will prevail, Robert Hubbell, Today’s Edition, 2/2/25: “Our task is to serve as a bridge in the arc to the next generation. If all we do is hold back the forces of darkness, that will be enough. If all we do is endure and outlast the bastards, that will be enough. But I am confident that we can and will do much more.”
The gutting of American institutions has led to Trump gutting America itself: The Trump administration’s upending of governmental systems and processes is part of a familiar pattern, Philip Bump, Washington Post, 1/27/25: “Trump has spent the first week of his return to office redirecting institutional power to the benefit of his allies, his donors and himself.”
Elon Musk Lackeys Have Taken Over the Office of Personnel Management: OPM’s top layers of management now include individuals linked to xAI, Neuralink, the Boring Company, and Palantir. One expert found the takeover reminiscent of Stalin, Vittoria Elliot, Wired, 1/28/25
Trump’s Dictatorial Theory of Presidential Power – What the Executive Orders, in the Aggregate, Tell Us, Adam Cox and Trevor Morrison, Just Security, 1/28/25: “It is as though Trump is reprising his claim from his 2016 nomination acceptance speech that he alone can address the vital needs of the nation, but extending it to say that he alone has a mandate to suspend the law in pursuit of his goals.”
On Donald Trump’s Aborted Executive Order and the Future of Congressional Power
Unpacking the Legal Ramifications of the Latest Presidential Whim, Aron Solomon, LitHub, 1/30/25: "This is not just a question of partisanship—it is a structural shift that could permanently alter the relationship between the executive and legislative branches."
The Chaos Is the Point: You are not supposed to understand what is going on right now, Jack Crosbie, Discourse, 1/29/25: " What Trump is doing is throwing very dangerous spaghetti at the walls of American society and seeing what fucks up those walls."
The Trump Administration Has Gone AWOL From the Union: This is what it is like to live through a revolution, Sasha Abramsky, The Nation, 1/31/25: “Trump’s federal government is seceding from the American experiment…. the demoralized Democrats, heads down to avoid political shrapnel, are at best making milquetoast objections.”
A Lawless Leader and His Revolution: When will the Democrats muster a genuine opposition to Donald Trump? Joan Walsh, The Nation, 1/28/25: “The Democrats are still acting like he won the election because of the price of eggs. This is just depressing.” DW: The better question is “Why are we even waiting for the Democratic party to wake up and do something?”
Capitulating to Trump: why people are warning about ‘Vichy’ America, Julia Carrie Wong, The Guardian, 1/31/25: “As Trump creates unprecedented chaos, Democrats have offered little more than platitudes – sparking comparisons to France’s collaborationist second world war regime.”
Understanding Trump’s Choice for FBI Leadership in Light of the“Weaponization of the Federal Government” Executive Order, Stuart Gerson, Just Security, 1/29/25: " the weaponization edict is thus best read, not as an assurance of good government somehow benefiting his populist audience, but as a “victor’s” exercise in Orwellian double-speak."
We can fight off Trump’s onslaught: The situation is dire, but some people (even in the media) are stepping up, Mark Jacob, Stop the Presses, 1/27/25: “…we’re in big, big trouble. Many people will suffer. We might lose our country. But there is a resistance in this country. And I believe there are more good people than bad people, despite the loud voices and propaganda power of the bad ones.”
Fighting for justice doesn’t have to be a big dramatic act. It can be small: But it’s important to not limit our sense of what resistance looks like, Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian, 2/2/25: “Each of us needs to stand on principle, loudly, whenever, wherever we can. Used strategically, our voices can do a lot to preserve anti-authoritarian worldviews about facts, science, history, rights, justice and inclusion.”
The Logic of Destruction: And how to resist it, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 2/2/25: “What is a country? The way its people govern themselves. Sometimes self-government just means elections. And sometimes it means recognizing the deeper dignity and meaning of what it means to be a people. That means speaking up, standing out, and protesting. We can only be free together.”
To beat fascism, tell better stories: On false narratives and the stories we need to tell, Peter Clayborne, Anarchy Unfolds, 1/27/25: “If you really want to stick it to the man, first realize that there is no “man” in charge. At the top of all our powerful structures are the abstractions of money and profit. At their base are phantasmal images of people who aren’t real; stereotypes constructed from our fears and failures…. Nothing is more dangerous to the powers that be than a well-educated public that understands why things are the way they are.”
How Democrats Can Start Fighting Back Right Now: Too many in the party are overcomplicating the simple and unable to muster any opposition to Trump, Dan Pfeiffer, Message Box, 1/29/25: “Saying nothing is worse than saying the wrong thing. Just get out there and start talking. No slogans, no jargon, just talk like a human; and talk about Trump.”
Trump's White Supremacist Dictatorship Can Fuck Right Off: Open Racism & Misogyny are the official US Government Operating Policies. Oh, Hell No! Malcolm Nance, Special Intelligence, 2/2/25: “Welcome to African-American History Month!”
What Everyone is Getting Wrong About Trump's First Week: Trump has convinced the press, the GOP, the business community, and some Dems that he is a political force, the polls say otherwise, Dan Pfeiffer, Message Box, 1/30/25: " Trump is a paper tiger with low approval ratings, making the classic mistake of overplaying his hand."
The Tycoon: Henry Ford’s History Lesson, Tim Barnicle, American Times, 1/28/25: “History is not bunk. It’s filled with ghosts that tell us stories of good and evil that fail to recognize the difference between invention and beliefs, and unless we listen to those stories and read beyond the headline, we will salute the ghosts who committed its most heinous acts.”
I was born in Georgia.
My ways are underground. If you
mistreat me,
I'll hunt you like a hound.
—from “Living as a Lesbian Underground,” Cheryl Clarke
Science, Environment
Trump rescinded a half-century of environmental rules. Here’s what that could mean: Trump wants to “unleash American energy.” What does that mean? Dylan Matthews, Vox, 1/27/25: “Trump is not doing much of anything that will make clean energy easier to build in the near term, and is doing several things that will make it harder.”
‘Paranoia and distrust’: How Trump’s mass firing of government watchdogs will affect climate policy: Experts fear the president will replace the fired inspectors general with loyalists who will turn a blind eye to corruption, Zoya Teirstein, Grist, 1/29/25
Three Studies Point to El Niño as Key to 2023 Record Global Heat: Three recent studies reveal how the interplay between El Niño and long-term global warming drove the record-breaking global temperatures of 2023, Kristopher B. Karnauskas, Eos, 1/28/25
Does growing more trees and plants to mitigate climate help or hurt the biodiversity crisis? It depends on what you grow and where you do it, new research finds, Warren Cornwall, Anthropocene, 1/29/25
Is a key ocean current system slowing down? A new study adds to the debate: A team of researchers reconstructed a critical ocean current system — called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC — in computer models and found no evidence of long-term weakening over the past 60 years, Kasha Patel, Washington Post, 1/27/25''
The Secret Sex Lives of Deep, Dark Corals: A unique fjord in Chilean Patagonia gives scientists a chance to unlock the reproductive secrets of cold-water corals that typically live thousands of meters below the ocean’s surface, Christian Elliot, BioGraphic, 1/28/25: " Ultimately, the long-term fate of cold-water corals is simply one more mystery in a field riddled with the unknown."
‘Heartbreaking’: Iceland’s pioneering female fishing guides fear for wild salmon, Miranda Bryant, The Guardian, 2/2/25: “If this goes unchanged for more time the Atlantic wild salmon will go extinct. It’s not if, it’s when.”
Denver nonprofit transforms city lots into lush food forests: The urban gardens offer free fruit and a shady retreat, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 1/27/25: “…anybody can come and harvest and enjoy the bounty.”
How long can fossil fuel dominance last? The Stone Age didn’t end because the world ran out of stones, Mark Harris, Anthropocene, 1/30/25: “The arc of the energy universe is long but it tends towards low-carbon.”
In Vermont, a Push to Prevent Flooding or Get Out of the Way: An increase in extreme precipitation events has hit the tiny, mountainous state of Vermont especially hard. As disaster declarations mount, state officials and community groups are collaborating to restore floodplains, reduce runoff from slopes, and buy out vulnerable homes, Jonathan Mingle, Yale Environment 360, 1/28/25
Polar bear fur could hold the secret to replacing ‘forever chemicals:' In a new study, scientists solve a mystery hiding in polar bear fur. The answer might help us all, Dino Grandoni, Washington Post, 1/29/25: " By re-creating the bears’ ability to resist icing, researchers hope to develop healthier alternatives to these toxic chemicals."
Scientists Finally Get a Good Look at a Disintegrating Exoplanet: The James Webb Space Telescope offers astronomers a rare glimpse into the chemical composition of a rocky planet’s interior—and the results are “very surprising,” Javier Barbuzano, Eos, 1/28/25: “You just wouldn’t expect any icy material surviving at these temperatures.”
Scientists find life-friendly molecules in NASA’s asteroid samples: Molecules friendly to life have been found in samples of the asteroid Bennu, which NASA collected with a robotic probe five years ago, Joel Achenbach, Washington Post, 1/29/25
Cosmologists Try a New Way to Measure the Shape of the Universe: Is the universe flat and infinite, or something more complex? We can’t say for sure, but a new search strategy is mapping out the subtle signals that could reveal if the universe had a shape, Steve Nadis, Quanta, 1/27/25
Asteroid 2024 YR4 has non-zero odds of hitting Earth, Kelly Kizer Whitt, EarthSky, 1/28/25: “the space rock has 1-in-83 odds of hitting Earth in 2032.” (the only known asteroid with an above zero chance of hitting earth)
I erased the world so nothing can find it, snuffed out the roses, red and hot as the snouts of bombs, repealed the polar ice cap, even that fat oxymoron, the "industrial park," has disappeared. And the last few words huddled together, like bees in a hive buzzing and plotting? I cut their throats with the scythe of a comma, turned the snout of my pen against them.—from “Plague’s Monologue,” Lynn Emanuel (TRANSCRIPT OF THE DISAPPEARANCE, EXACT AND DIMINISHING)
Health, Wellness
Regular dental flossing may lower risk of stroke from blood clots, irregular heartbeats, American Heart Assoc, ScienceDaily, 1/30/25: “People who regularly floss their teeth (one or more times per week) may lower their risk of stroke caused by a blood clot traveling from the heart and a stroke associated with an irregular heartbeat such as atrial fibrillation (AFib).”
Chlorination of drinking water linked to increased risk for multiple cancers, Katherine McMahon, Sarah Howard, Environmental Health News, 1/31/25
I got everything I wanted and didn’t realize it. I got nothing
I wanted and made excuses. Still I can’t sit in a room
without television noise, or think about the past
without throwing pencils at the ceiling.
I can’t stand to drive in silence.
I can’t stand to drive with the radio on.
—from “Driving North on Interstate 99 the Poet Considers His Life at Forty,” Aaron Smith
Birds, Birding
In the most untouched, pristine parts of the Amazon, birds are dying. Scientists may finally know why, Tess McClure, The Guardian, 1/30/25: "... harsher dry seasons significantly reduced the survival of 83% of species. A 1C increase in dry season temperature would reduce the average survival of birds by 63%."
In research, ignoring female birds harms scientific understanding, Robyn Shepherd, PhysOrg, 1/30/25: “As a field, ecology has historically misunderstood, overlooked, or assumed female organisms are similar enough to males.”
We will not bow down.
We will stand tall.
We will not obey.—Marc Elias
It’s pretty obvious that the so-called guardrails of democracy, whatever that might have meant, are failing, may even soon collapse completely. Trump 2.0, together with the utter grotesquery of Elon Musk, is far worse than expected. The Democratic party leadership is clueless, and mouths vapid homilies that make no difference whatsoever.
Trump’s efforts to destroy all government, the economic chaos he has unleashed, and the sheer stupidity he and his minions display daily are overwhelming everyone. We are seeing an autocratic coup in real time. We really must now stand up, stand together, and find ways to fight back. It is only going to get worse from here on out.
The Weird Times represents my effort to help us become effective opponents of the current regime and all it stands for. Every one of our shared values is now at risk. At this point, there is no way to keep track of everything. I will try to be selective, and focus on exposing the many attacks on democracy, art, culture, progressivism, and people who are not white and gender normative, and on news that will help us all to fight back effectively. We cannot give up!
There is still so much we can and must do, all of us together. The communities we make are crucial. Our art, our music, our words. We must oppose fascism at every turn. Share resources: participate, lead. We are the people who must do the work of democracy.
Be well everyone. Stay strong. Keep in touch.
The world is dark but it is not hopeless.—Clarence Darrow
Love always—David