The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 232, October 20, 2024 (V5 #24)
The United States faces a national emergency because a presidential candidate and former president has attacked the cornerstones of the American way of life, and is trying to topple them for the purposes of taking political power.—Steve Schmidt
The United States is the only democracy in the world where a presidential candidate can get the most popular votes and still lose the election.—Joshua Holzer
Hyper-information gives us the illusion of knowledge.—Elif Shafak
Books, Music, Art, Culture
Language, Loss and Nostalgia: On Growing Old As a Learning Experience: Julie Sedivy Asks Us to Reconsider Our Ideas About Aging and Memory, Julie Sedivy, LitHub, 10/16/24: “Becoming very old does not mean lingering in the dim twilight of irrelevance; it is to become an ever more valuable vault stuffed with experience and knowledge.” Book: Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love
Music and Memory: After the Holocaust, classical composers explored music’s capacity to commemorate historical trauma without permitting horrific events to take on the allure of facile beauty, Peter E. Gordon, NY Review of Books, 10/17/24 issue: “How does music transcribe suffering, and how can it console? Why does it arouse feelings in us, and can those feelings be put into words? Is music even a language? If so, how does it convey its meaning?” Book: Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance, Jeremy Eichler
Do You Remember School? In collecting my classmates’ stories, I’ve become more attuned to the tricks of memory, the way it both binds and divides us, Lydia Davis, New Yorker, 10/19/24: “Are my classmates and I the same people we were then? I think we are, in our most essential aspects. We have been inflected by the course of our lives, but only a few of us, possibly, radically changed.”
‘People did not go quietly’: divers explore wreck of 18th-century slave ship where mutiny took place: Black archaeologists join team investigating off the coast of Mozambique as part of global project to identify and tell stories of wrecked ships involved in transatlantic slave trade, Carlos Mureithi, The Guardian, 10/16/24: “We are looking to rewrite African history using underwater archaeology.”
Why Frida Kahlo painted with such scalding intensity: A taut show in Dallas stimulates questions about Frida Kahlo’s deeper motivations, Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 10/18/24: “I think she was afraid of being known as only one thing. This is a healthy fear — we should all be in its grip. But Kahlo felt it acutely.”
Surfing the Cataclysmic Technopotheistic AI-Turbocharged World-Fascist Tsunami: Finding courage together in the vortices of our days, John Sundman, Sundman figures it out! 10/17/24: “There is no way for anybody to rescue us. The only hope for our survival is for us to surf that unimaginably terrifying thing safely to shore.”
Bon Iver Is Searching for the Truth: The artist Justin Vernon discusses his new EP “SABLE,” the dream of a happy adulthood, and his worry that he’s purposely repeating a “cycle of sorrow,” Amanda Petrusich, New Yorker, 10/16/24: “It runs the gamut from accepting anxiety to accepting guilt to accepting hope. Those three things in a row. There’s no room for a prologue or an epilogue at that point. Because that’s it—that’s what everything is.”
It serves to suffer, make a hole in my foot
And I hope you look
As I fill my book
Oh, what a waste of wood
Nothing's really happened like I thought it would
—from “Speyside,” Bon Iver
Politics, Economics, Technology
Where Freedom Ends: Law can oppress as easily as it can liberate, and it is the everyday life we lead at our kitchen tables and in our bedrooms that is most dangerously threatened by a return of Trump to power, Laurence H. Tribe, NY Review of Books, 11/17/24 issue: “…compelling a woman to remain pregnant from the moment of conception on the grounds that the embryo she is carrying is a ‘person’ represents the imposition of an inherently religious view upon everyone by force of law.”
Trump Is Speaking Like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics, Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, 10/18/24: “In using this language, Trump knows exactly what he is doing. He understands which era and what kind of politics this language evokes.”
Sleepwalking Our Way to Fascism: We should be alarmed by how unalarmed we are about a second Trump Administration, Michael Podhorzer, Weekend Reading, 10/18/24: “…we’ve witnessed how an underwhelming media response to Trump’s more extreme remarks leads voters to doubt that Trump would actually act in that way, and therefore feel unthreatened…. That said, it’s not too late for this trend to turn around. Every day counts.”
“The Moment We Become a Christian Nation, We Will Cease to be America:” An interview with Christian nationalism expert Andrew Seidel, Jess Piper, View from Rural Missouri, 10/16/24: “I am surrounded by folks who constantly point to the myth that our country was founded on Biblical and Christian principles. Andrew dispels this myth.” Book: The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American
Trump's Racist Campaign Is Rooted in the Confederacy: The Republican nominee echoes arguments underlying America’s original sin of slavery, John Harwood, Zeteo, 10/16/24: “Within Blue America and Red America themselves, races for the White House produce regional landslides that render the vast majority of states uncompetitive.”
This Race Is Kamala Harris’s to Lose. Here’s Why: It will all come down to turnout. And that, I predict, will mean a Harris-Walz victory, Mark McKinnon, Vanity Fair, 10/17/24: “But when it all comes out in the wash, I think women are going to do the work and save our ass and our democracy. They’ve been doing it for centuries, so it shouldn’t be a surprise.”
Expanding the Vocabulary: With great discipline and sanity, Kamala Harris has been navigating a minefield of Trumpian insults and attempts to debase her, Patricia J. Williams, NY Review of Books, 11/7/24 issue: “…it is her refusal to be caught up in the sticky web of other people’s projections that makes her such a model of release and liberation.”
The Loser Triad: Three Signs that Trump Has Lost, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 10/19/24: “If Trump again claims too early that he won, this is not just a statement like any other. It is part of a plan to take power by a candidate who believes that he has lost an election -- a repeat of a behavior that we know very well. If Trump claims victory, that is a good sign that Harris has won the election.”
Gender is going to be a huge factor in this election. Here’s what the data shows: Younger women are registering to vote at record rates – and tell pollsters that abortion rights are a crucial voting concern, Celinda Lake, Cate Gormley, The Guardian, 10/20/24
Inside the Republican National Committee’s Poll-Watching Army: The R.N.C. says it has recruited tens of thousands of volunteers to observe the voting process at precincts across the country. Their accounts of alleged fraud could, as one Trump campaign official put it, “establish the battlefield” for after November 5th, Antonia Hitchens, New Yorker, 10/19/24
The electoral college has become a gun held to the head of US democracy: Created as a constitutional afterthought, the system now holds millions of voters hostage to a handful of counties, Lawrence Douglas, The Guardian, 10/18/24: “And so we face the ominous prospect that this defect of constitutional design may – against the wishes of the majority of American people – deliver a result that tolls the end of liberal democracy in America. Sickening.”
I’m one of the few doctors providing abortions in Arizona. This could be the issue that turns our state blue: Our state was a Republican stronghold, but the party’s assault on reproductive rights is making many voters think twice, Gabrielle Goodrick, The Guardian, 10/17/24
Democrats thought their Senate hopes were dead. They were just in Nebraska: Dan Osborn, an independent, could win the state’s Senate race — and determine control of the chamber, David von Drehle, Washington Post, 10/15/24: “Osborn offers himself as a nonpartisan servant of the state’s working people and family farmers and sensible folks tired of the circus.”
This Week's Press Fails Are Beyond Ridiculous: Seriously, Scott Dworkin, Dworkin Report, 10/20/24: “…where is the wall-to-wall coverage of Trump’s inability to keep up with his campaign schedule? Why hasn’t The NY Times written ten articles about it already? Of course, that would go against the bogus pro-Trump narrative the corporate media bosses are trying desperately to spin.”
The Press Needs to Start Taking Trump Literally: The former president’s threats may seem outlandish. But his agenda is genuinely dangerous, Chris Lehmann, The Nation, 10/15/24: “… the wish-fulfillment fantasies of Midwestern business boosters, duly parroted by the Gray Lady’s stenographers, only work to further enable them.”
This is the Future Elon Wants: A new book about Twitter's downfall is a cautionary tale for all of us, Melissa Ryan, Ctrl Alt Right Delete, 10/15/24: “Elon Musk redefines the phrase ‘boss from hell.’ Much of his behavior wouldn’t sound believable if you read it in a movie script. Book: Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter
Crime Is Down. Why Do So Many Rural Americans Think It’s Going Up? False claims of “migrant crime” echo the Ku Klux Klan’s fear mongering, Rachael Hanel, Barn Raiser, 10/16/24: “Conservative media has painted a wholly false picture of urban centers as ‘Mad Max’ wastelands where you can’t step out the door without getting stabbed or there are people dying of fentanyl overdoses on every corner.”
The Kavanaugh Coverup, Judd Legum, Popular Information, 10/15/24: “FBI Director Christopher Wray testified in 2018 and 2019 that the supplemental investigation was consistent with "longstanding polices, practices, and procedures." Asked in a follow-up letter for more information about those policies, Wray failed to respond. Later, Whitehouse discovered there were no written policies at all.”
Undelivered: Drug-Sniffing Police Dogs Are Intercepting Abortion Pills in the Mail, Debbie Nathan, The Intercept, 10/16/24: “Mechanisms for the post office helping local cops are in place without any supervision.”
What remains of the progressive project? Feeling adrift in the 2020s, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 10/17/24: “…many progressive ideas simply don’t seem like they’ll be able to win majority political support in the near future. It’s looking more and more likely that America is headed for a more conservative decade.”
The Cooperatist Manifesto that inspired Mondragon: Father José María Arizmendiarrieta didn’t just imagine a better economic system, he built it, Elle Griffin, The Elysian, 10/14/24: “Profit is like air, we need air to breathe.”
What Ideas From the Paleolithic Are Still With Us in the Modern World? An interview with renowned economic historian Michael Hudson on where our calendar comes from, his collaborations with the late intellectual David Graeber and the long-lost practice of forgiving debt, Jan Ritch-Frel, Fair Observer, 10/14/24: “…unequal wealth is what civilization is all about. The ability of wealthy people to crush and destroy civilization is Western progress.”
Africa fights rising hunger by looking to foods of the past: Researchers, farmers, and global agricultural institutions are embracing long-neglected crops that promise better nutrition and more resilience to the changing climate, Jonathan W. Rosen, MIT Technology Review, 10/14/24: “If the movement to revive “forgotten” crops lives up to its promise, other climate-stressed corners of Africa might soon discover their gold equivalent as well.”
The Killing of Yahya Sinwar: The Hamas leader who planned the October 7th attack is dead. What will be the effect on Israel, Gaza, and the Middle East? David Remnick, New Yorker, 10/18/24: “Netanyahu, rather than using the occasion of Sinwar and the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s deaths as leverage to find negotiated settlements with his enemies, could overplay his hand for his own political purposes at tremendous risk to the future of Israel and the Middle East.”
Because everything I fought for
Long ago in a dream is gone
Someone said the dream is not over
The dream has just begun, or
Is it a nightmare?
Is it a lasting scar?
It is unless you save it and that's that
Unless you stand up and take it back
And take it back
—from “The Lighthouse,” Stevie Nicks
Science, Environment
World fails first review of COP renewable energy goal: A dramatic spending surge is needed to course correct, the International Renewable Energy Agency warned, Zia Wiese, Politico, 10/14/24
Trees and land absorbed almost no CO2 last year. Is nature’s carbon sink failing? The sudden collapse of carbon sinks was not factored into climate models – and could rapidly accelerate global heating, Patrick Greenfield, The Guardian, 10/14/24
Loss of 'nitrogen fixers' threatens biodiversity, ecosystems, Mississippi State Univ, Science Daily, 10/18/24: “…human activities, like fertilizer use and polluting, are impacting nitrogen-fixing plants which are crucial for maintaining healthy ecosystems by adding nitrogen to the soil.”
Picture This: Darwin’s Diagram: The Tree of Life made new ways of seeing possible. It also bears the burden of its author’s doubts, Rachel Z. DeLue, Pioneer Works, 10/16/24: “A minimalist array of upward-branching dashed and dotted lines annotated by letters and numbers and bisected by solid horizontal lines, it resembles the silken threads spun by a spider or the delicate craquelure of an antique vase.”
Each Glacier Has a Unique Organic Matter Composition: Like snowflakes, no two glaciers are alike: Carbon-containing compounds released from glaciers vary from place to place, meaning climate and ecosystem effects of melting could vary as well, Saima May Sidik, Eos, 10/15/24
The U.S. gets a new national marine sanctuary, the first led by a tribe, Lauren Sommer, NPR, 10/14/24: “…the new Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary will be managed in partnership with tribes and Indigenous groups in the area, who will advise the federal government.”
The Coming Financial Hurricane: How Hurricane Milton and other climate chaos could trigger the next economic crisis, Lois Parshley, The Lever, 10/16/24: “As the climate crisis intensifies, stronger storms are killing more people and costing far more in damage.”
She’s One of Florida’s Most Lethal Python Hunters…but the Invasive Creatures Still Have a Hold on Her: Donna Kalil has plunged into canals in the dead of night, straddled two-hundred-pound serpents, and been bitten more times than she can count—all in the name of killing a thing she loves and playing a game she can’t win, Lindsey Liles, Garden & Gun, 10/15/24
This tiny frog has become a test case for applying the calculus of capitalism to conservation: When scientists used modern portfolio theory to buffer the rare coquí llanero frog from an unpredictable climate, the results were illuminating, Warren Cornwall, Anthropocene, 10/16/24: “Using the same thinking that investors use to guard against the unpredictable economic ups and downs of the future, a team of scientists has found they can improve the odds of protecting this rare frog from the unforeseeable effects of threats such as climate change.”
Researchers Parse the Future of Plankton in an Ever-Warmer World: Plankton form the base of the world’s food chain, but warmer and more acidic oceans are affecting their numbers and variety. Some species, which make for good fish food and carbon storage, are largely declining, while others are shifting their ranges and blooming times, Nicola Jones, Yale Environment 360, 10/14/24
The monarch butterfly may not be endangered, but its migration is, researchers find: Breeding population of monarchs is stable, but they're dying off on their way to Mexico, Univ of Georgia, ScienceDaily, 10/16/24
Microplastic pollution is everywhere, even in the exhaled breath of dolphins – new research, Leslie Hart, Miranda Dziobak, The Conversation, 10/16/24: “An estimated 170 trillion bits of microplastic are estimated to be in the oceans alone.”
Clean Energy to Become Largest Source of Power in Mid-2030s, Says IEA: Despite rapid expansion, clean power needs to scale up faster to get on track for net-zero emissions, the International Energy Agency warns, Giulia Petroni, Wall Street Journal, 10/16/24 (No paywall)
This American fruit could outcompete apples and peaches on a hotter planet: The resilient, native fruit has a cult following and could be small farms’ hedge against climate change in a fast-warming world, Anna Phillips, Washington Post, 10/28/24: “…as climate change brings warmer temperatures and more erratic weather to the region, a small but growing number of farmers are drawn to pawpaws’ low maintenance and adaptability.”
AlphaFold reveals how sperm and egg hook up in intimate detail: Three sperm proteins work together as matchmakers to enable fertilization in vertebrates, Heidi Ledford, Nature, 10/17/24: “The AlphaFold program, which predicts protein structures , identified a trio of proteins that team up to work as matchmakers between the gametes. Without them, sexual reproduction might hit a dead end in a wide range of animals, from fish to mammals.”
Health, Wellness
The Science of Why Your Body Takes Longer to Bounce Back After 40: Injuries, colds, restless nights and alcohol can hit harder when we get into midlife, Alex Janin, Wall Street Journal, 10/16/24: “…midlife declines in resilience parallel emerging science suggesting that aging itself doesn’t happen in a linear way, doctors and researchers say.” (No paywall)
How the Human Brain Contends With the Strangeness of Zero: Zero, which was invented late in history, is special among numbers. New studies are uncovering how the brain creates something out of nothing, Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta, 10/18/24: “When one looks closely, zero is still an outlier among the other numbers.”
Socially distanced layout of the world’s oldest cities helped early civilization evade diseases, R. Alexander Bentley, The Conversation, 10/15/24: “…human instinct is to avoid signs of contagious disease.”
he helps her up
she walks to bed
it's her second day home
—from “i’m taller, she says,” Harry Northup
Birds, Birding
Birds Practice Singing in Their Sleep: New work listens in on bird dreams, David Godkin, Scientific American, 10/14/24: “Listening in on a sleeping songbird to better understand its waking behavior—and to look for a possible link to dreams—is a lot like ‘cracking a code in a detective novel.’”
How Scientists Started to Decode Birdsong: Language is said to make us human. What if birds talk, too? Rivka Galchen, New Yorker, 10/14/24: “There are whole categories of bird communication that we’ve hardly even started to look at.”
Election countdown: only 16 days until the most consequential election of our lifetimes.
Take action to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz
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Do whatever you can to get out the vote. We’re running out of time and we’re not getting help from the media or anyone else. It’s up to us to fight for our future.
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Love is always the place where I begin and end.—bell hooks
Like snowflakes, the human pattern is never cast twice. We are uncommonly and marvelously intricate in thought and action, our problems are most complex and, too often, silently borne.—Alice Childress
Love always—David