The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 112, July 3, 2022 (V3 #8)
“…who laughs has not yet heard the bad news."—Bertold Brecht
“Is our gigantic and immensely expensive technology conducive to democratic freedom? The answer is: no, it is not. It is conducive to the development of great concentrations of economic power…”—E.F. Schumacher
“The current Court is textualist only when being so suits it. When that method would frustrate broader goals, special canons like the ‘major questions doctrine’ magically appear as get-out-of-text-free cards. Today, one of those broader goals makes itself clear: Prevent agencies from doing important work, even though that is what Congress directed.”—Justice Elena Kagan
“It's evening in America. Beware of darkness.”—Bob Lefsetz
Politics Still Ticking
MUST READ ARTICLE (gift): The Supreme Court is the Final Word on Nothing, Jamelle Bouie, NY Times, 7/1/22: “The ground has shifted. The game has changed. The only question left is whether our leaders have the strength, fortitude and audacity to forge a new path for American democracy — and if they don’t, whether it is finally time for us to find ones who do.”
Racism, Patriarchy, and Power: The Toxic Thinking Behind the Supreme Court’s Destruction of Abortion Rights:“Legislating reproductive rights remains a hallmark of authoritarian and fascist governments,” Siri Hustvedt, LitHub, 6/27/22
With the end of Roe, the US edges closer and closer to civil war: The question is no longer whether there will be a civil conflict in America. The question is how the sides will divide, and who will prevail, Stephen Marche, The Guardian, 6/26/22
Gen Z is influencing the abortion debate — from TikTok, Janay Kingsberry, Washington Post, 6/28/22
We Americans are dancing on the Titanic. Our iceberg is not far away: The greatest shock of all would be to wake up and find that while we were driving the kids to soccer practice and enjoying cocktails, autocracy took hold, Francine Prose, The Guardian, 6/27/22
How Charles Koch Purchased the Supreme Court’s EPA Decision: Decades of contributions aimed at influencing the judiciary bought the fossil fuel billionaire the ruling he’s always wanted, Sharon Lerner, The Intercept, 6/30/22
“No Victory for Religious Liberty”: In Ruling for Praying Football Coach, the Supreme Court Smahes What’s Left of Separation between Church and State: As with guns and abortion, the liberals on the Court are growing weary of their colleagues’ “amateur efforts at history,” Cristian Farias, Vanity Fair, 6/28/22
The Roe ruling is not about states’ rights. It’s about power and control: It’s tempting to blame rightwing evangelicals for what happened last week – but big business also benefits from our loss of autonomy, Derecka Purnell, The Guardian, 6/30/22
I reject the US abortion ruling. I vow to defend the sovereignty of women’s bodies: After the supreme court declared war on us a week ago, at first I wanted to weep and howl. But then I wrote – and then I revolted, V (formerly Eve Ensler), The Guardian, 7/2/22
More than 1 million voters switch to GOP in warning for Dems, Steve Peoples, Aaron Kessler, AP, 6/27/22
Activism, Uncensored: Are Black 2nd Amendment Advocates the Ultimate Taboo? “Guns up! Shoot back!” As News2Share chronicles via a pair of Mississippi events, black pro-gun marchers exist in a no-coverage zone, Matt Taibbi, Ford Fischer, TK News, 6/30/22
1955 warrant in Emmett Till case found, family seeks arrest, Jay Reeves, Emily Wagster Pettus, WJTV, 6/29/22
Frustration, anger rising among Democrats over caution on abortion: A growing number of Democrats are voicing anger at what they see as the passivity of Biden and other party leaders in the face of hard-hitting GOP tactics on abortion and other issues, Yasmeen Abutaleb, Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Marianna Sotomayor, Washington Post, 6/27/22
SCOTUS just quietly slashed your Sixth Amendment rights, Emily Galvin-Almanza, The Hill, 6/29/22
Should rich countries degrow their economies to stop climate change? The degrowth movement want rich countries to stop chasing GDP in a desperate bid to stop the planet from heating — but both supporters and critics are gambling on prosperity and climate stability for billions of people, Ajit Naranjan, DW, 6/28/22
Havasupai tribe: Pinion Plain uranium mine threatens our existence, Shondiin Silversmith, AZ Mirror, 6/28/22
Worker-Owned Apps Are Redefining the Sharing Economy : As Uber and its ilk face high prices, increased regulation, and labor shortages, a new cooperative model is thriving, Megan Carngie, Wired, 6/30/22
The Other Cancel Culture: How a Public University Is Bowing to a Conservative Crusade: With a rising national profile and donor base and relatively little state funding, Boise State University should be able to resist pressure by the Idaho Legislature. Instead the university, led by a liberal transplant, has repeatedly capitulated, Daniel Golden, Kristen Berg, ProPublica, 6/29/22
The Newest Supply Chain Issue: The Supreme Court stripping away bodily autonomy has created a run on Plan B, David Dayen, American Prospect, 6/28/22
Indonesia: The most amazing development story on Earth? A huge and yet versatile country, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 6/28/22
“I Cannot Think of Many Things More Frightening”: The Supreme Court Has Declared War on Governing: The justices’ decision to defang the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to curb carbon pollution speaks to their larger, much scarier, project to dismCristian Farias, Vanity Fair, 7/1/22
Disinflation begins: Prices are starting to decelerate, but the cause isn't yet clear, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 6/30/22
The Meaning Of Patriotism: This July Fourth, two Republican women are keeping the flame of this republic alive, Andrew Sullivan, The Weekly Dish, 7/1/22
The Supreme Court famously does not have its own army. So fight them, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 7/2/22: “Let’s treat them the same way they’re treating women and the air everyone breathes and the water everyone drinks: with complete and utter disrespect.”
Democracy advocates raise alarm after Supreme Court takes election case: The decision to consider “independent legislature theory” concerned voting rights advocates who say state lawmakers could twist the election laws to favor their party, Colby Itkowicz, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Washington Post, 7/2/22
The Nightmare Scenario SCOTUS is Plotting For the 2024 Election Takeover, Thom Hartmann, Twitter Threadapp Reader, 7/1/22
Do you, do you really enjoy living a life that's so hateful?
'Cause there's a hole where your soul should be
You're losing control a bit, and it's really distasteful
Fuck you (Fuck you), fuck you very, very much
'Cause we hate what you do
And we hate your whole crew
So, please don't stay in touch
—from “Fuck You” by Lily Allen, sung by Lily Allen and Olivia Rodrigo
Only Science?
The Supreme Court Tries to Overrule the Climate: A destructive decision in West Virginia v. E.P.A., Bill McKibben, The New Yorker, 6/30/22
The Supreme Court has lit our planet on fire, Thom Hartmann, The Intrepid Report, 7/1/22
Climate change targets achievable by keeping global emissions to COVID levels, scientists say, Nick Kilvert, ABC News (AU), 6/30/22
Do we need a new theory of evolution? A new wave of scientists argues that mainstream evolutionary theory needs an urgent overhaul. Their opponents have dismissed them as misguided careerists – and the conflict may determine the future of biology, Stephen Buranyi, The Guardian, 6/28/22
Astronomers Radically Reimagine the Making of the Planets: Observations of faraway worlds have forced a near-total rewrite of the story of our solar system, Rebecca Boyle, Wired, 6/26/22
Study Finds Human-Created Microplastics in Flathead Lake: Researchers at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station discovered plastic pollution in Northwest Montana’s largest lake. Their study clarifies where the pollution develops and how it can be limited, Denali Sagner, Flathead Beacon, 6/26/22
To Cut Ocean Plastic Pollution, Aquaculture Turns to Renewable Gear: Shellfish and kelp growers are exploring alternatives ranging from kelp-based ropes and lobster bait bags to oyster cages made solely from wood and metal, Meg Wilcox, Civil Eats, 6/27/22
How can California lead the U.S. in solving an ocean pollution crisis? One word: plastics, Anja Brandon, Sacramento Bee, 6/29/22
New manufacturing process stores carbon pollution in concrete: It can cut the carbon footprint of concrete by more than half, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 6/28/22
Getting to the root of it: How an Alberta scientist is changing the way farmers see soil: New type of soil test popular overseas could help crops weather drought, climate change, Kylee Pedersen · CBC News, 6/27/22
Minnesotans help trees migrate north: People are gathering seeds from southern and central Minnesota and planting the saplings in the state’s northern forests, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 6/29/22
Using far less chemical fertiliser still produces high crop yields, study finds: Climate-friendly practices can increase yields while improving ecosystem of farms, scientists say, Fiona Harvey, The Guardian, 6/27/22
Meat, monopolies, mega farms: how the US food system fuels climate crisis: From a beef-heavy diet to growing crops that don’t feed people – the biggest challenges facing the agriculture industry, Amanda Schupak, The Guardian, 6/30/22
The 10-Year-Old Tweet That Still Defines the Internet: A cryptic utterance from a supposed spambot never lost its relevance, Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 6/28/22
Are pockets of Covid in the gut causing long-term symptoms? Scientists are investigating whether reservoirs of virus ‘hiding’ in the body are contributing to long Covid, Linda Geddes, The Guardian, 6/28/22
How Parents’ Trauma Leaves Biological Traces in Children: Adverse experiences can change future generations through epigenetic pathways, Rachel Yehuda, Scientific American, 7/1/22
Fossils in South African cave reignite debate on origins of humankind, Ellen Francis, Washington Post, 6/29/22: “Fossils of early human ancestors in a cave in South Africa are a million years older than researchers previously thought, according to a study published this week that gives insight into the history of humankind.”
'Mystery rocket' that crashed into the Moon baffles NASA scientists: So far, no space exploring nations have claimed responsibility for the rocket, Ariana Garcia, CHRON, 6/29/22
The US government is developing a solar geoengineering research plan: The federal effort could set the stage for more studies into the feasibility, benefits and risks of one of the more controversial means of combating climate change, James Temple, MIT Technology Review, 7/1/22
A longevity diet that hacks cell ageing could add years to your life: A new diet based on research into the body's ageing process suggests you can increase your life expectancy by up to 20 years by changing what, when and how much you eat, Graham Lawton, New Scientist, 6/28/22
Centering biodiversity and social justice in overhauling the global food system: “The food system is the single largest economic sector causing the transgressing of planetary boundaries,” Kara Zerei, Environmental Health News, 6/30/22Bookland
“The Sky is Innocent.” New Writing by Ukrainian Poet Ostap Slyvynsky, Translated from the Ukrainian by Amelia Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk, LitHub, 6/30/22
That, having run a long way, we fall rather than fly,
the sky is not to blame.
I and that “homeless sky,” beneath which my grandfather slept
during the harvest and the long summer revelry,
curl ourselves into a ball as tight as we can,
and fall asleep carefully,
so as not to hurt each other.
Essential reading: literary voices respond to the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, Emily Temple, LitHub, 6/28/22
From Duluth to Decatur these bookstores are helping in the fight for reproductive justice, Katie Yee, LitHub, 6/27/22
How One of America’s Most Influential Black Writers Befriended a Pioneering American Aviator: The Unexpected Friendship of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Orville Wright, Gene Andrew Jarrett, LitHub, 6/27/22
How the White Ecology of Disaster Inscribed Itself Into the Human Experience: The Impact of Ecological Violence on the Nonhuman World, Daisy Hildyard, LitHub, 6/30/22: “Within a wide and frequently mainstreamed tradition, feelings and particles, thoughts and weather fronts, seem to exist on separate planets.”
What Virginia Woolf said about Putin: Writing nearly 100 years, she nailed it, Karen Christensen, Karen’s Letter, 7/1/22
Apocalypse Now? On Crypto Scams, End Times, and Far Right Nostalgia: We Should All Read Peter Zeihan, Andrew Keen, LitHub, 7/1/22: ““We have been living in a perfect moment. And it is passing. The world of the past few decades has the best it will ever be in our lifetime.” –The End of the World is Just the Beginning
The Greatest Trick The Devil Ever Pulled: On the theft of rights, the mythology of American law, and what comes next, Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin, ECM Newsletter, 6/28/22: “And just like that, the past is gone, and so is the future, and there is nothing left.”
Birdland
Garden of the Gulls: Now just shy of 60 years old, the new island of Surtsey, off Iceland, holds clues to a fundamental mystery: What did the Earth look like when it was just born? How does life colonize bare rock?,Hugh Powell, All About Birds/Living Bird Magazine, Summer, 2022
In colorful avian world, hummingbirds rule, Bill Hathaway, Yale News, 6/23/22
It's for the birds: N.S. wildlife rehab centre selling tape to prevent window strikes: Cobequid Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre partnered with U.S. company to introduce High Performance BirdTape, Ferne Williams, CBC News, 7/1/22
Birds warned of food shortages by neighbor birds change physiology and behavior to prepare, Oregon State U, Phys.org, 7/1/22
“Biden and officials are concerned that more radical moves would be politically polarizing ahead of November's midterm elections, undermine public trust in institutions like the Supreme Court or lack strong legal footing, sources inside and outside the White House say.”—Washington Post, 6/30/22
“No other time in my life has caused me to doubt American democracy so profoundly as I doubt it now. The Supreme Court has issued opinions tying the hands of liberal state legislators trying to protect their citizens from gun violence while simultaneously handing to conservative state legislators total control over their citizens’ reproductive rights. The final ruling of this session hamstrings the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to fight climate change.
“The majority of Americans did not want the Court to overturn Roe. They don’t want to be surrounded by guns. They are deeply worried about climate change. With these Supreme Court rulings, the law of the land no longer reflects the will of the people who live here.
“I am struggling terribly with this reality. I have staked my entire worldview on the belief that people are mostly good, even when we don’t agree with one another, but I find myself now fighting a raging internal battle not to hate everyone whose decisions, large and small, have led to this political moment.
“I try to remind myself that Americans have always had reason to despair, to suspect that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was overly hopeful when he told us that the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice. And then I remember all the times when this wild, unstoppable, unwarranted hope — hope that motivated millions of people to log numberless hours of painstaking work — managed somehow to yield previously unthinkable triumphs.”—Margaret Renkl, NY Times, 7/2/22
“The key is to see this as connected, all part of a multi-pronged, multi-level reactionary counter-mobilization that has a judicial arm, a political arm, an intellectual arm, and a paramilitary arm, all flanked by a massive, highly effective media/propaganda machine. There is nothing even remotely equivalent in the (small-d) democratic camp, on none of these levels.”—Thomas Zimmer
AMERICA
Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth.
Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
Giving me strength erect against her hate,
Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.
Yet, as a rebel fronts a king in state,
I stand within her walls with not a shred
Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer.
Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
And see her might and granite wonders there,
Beneath the touch of Time’s unerring hand,
Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.
—Claude McKay (1921)
The recent actions of the Supreme Court are the most chilling yet for the future of our democracy. It turns out Trump was just a useful idiot after all, but probably not for Putin, rather for the Koch inspired US-based far right that has been working for years to achieve their goal of a libertarian economic state fueled by a theocratic political base. Using Trump together with McConnell and the bought and paid for Republican Senate, they filled the court with their idealogues. This attack on democracy is well planned — and it is succeeding. It is up to us to inspire our political leaders to take action, or the darkness will overtake us.
Happy birthday Ted Joans, Jean Cocteau, Vladimir Mayakovsky, June Jordan. Happy birthday Max Wilk (July 3, 1920 – Feb 19, 2011).
“Nolite te Bastardes Carborundorum”—Margaret Atwood (originally from WWII British Intelligence).
America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world.
Your machinery is too much for me.
You made me want to be a saint.
There must be some other way to settle this argument.
—from “America” by Allen Ginsberg
Stay well, all. Much love. —David
Re: your epigraph. I often quote Nelson Algren, one of my favorite writers, who uses a version of the Brecht quote, slightly different, in one of his, as I do: "he who laughs has not yet been told the terrible news". It's often very apt. Be well...