The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 167, July 23, 2023 (V4 #11)
For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.—Tom Paine, Common Sense
We’re in danger of losing a rising generation on the principle of free speech. They’re mostly progressive, and they don’t see a stake for themselves in the very idea of free speech. They’ve come to see it as a smokescreen for hatred and as a kind of cudgel of the right.—Suzanne Nossel, PEN America
The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can.
— from “The Lord of the Rings,” J.R.R. Tolkien
Books & Culture
A murdered writer, his secret diary of the invasion of Ukraine – and the war crimes investigator determined to find it: When he realised the Russians were coming for him, Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Vakulenko buried his journal. Then he was taken away never to return. Now, his chronicle has been unearthed …Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian, 7/22/23: “You can get used to anything; what matters is what sort of person you are left at the end of it.”
Tony Bennett, the Gold Standard of Singers Everywhere, Dies at 96: He collected 20 Grammy Awards, found immortality with "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and connected with a younger generation to mount one of the great comebacks in music history, Mike Barnes, Hollywood Reporter, 7/21/23. Song: I’ve Got You Under My Skin (with Lady Gaga)
Star Trek predicted generative AI, and the future of fiction, literally perfectly: In which props are giveth, Eric Hoel, Intrinsic Perspective, 7/20/23: “Star Trek can’t stop predicting the future of technology.”
What if Hawaii had remained Hawaiian? A fictional exploration of a solarpunk Maui future, Elle Griffin, The Elysian, 7/21/23: “Welcome to my ‘Ohana!” she returned.
Country Music’s Culture Wars and the Remaking of Nashville: Tennessee’s government has turned hard red, but a new set of outlaw songwriters is challenging Music City’s conservative ways—and ruling bro-country sound, Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker, 7/17/23
Lupine Cryptids, Tornado Alleys, and Sulfuric Demons: on Her Complicated Relationship With Her Ozark Roots: “I felt like a werewolf—hiding from prying eyes, not wanting anyone to see me transform,” Lillian Stone, LitHub, 7/19/23: “I became ardently defensive of the Ozarks, rearing back with a roar every time someone dared perpetuate tired hillbilly stereotypes.” Book: Everybody’s Favorite: Tales from the World’s Worst Perfectionist
Thousands of authors urge AI companies to stop using work without permission, Chloe Veltman, NPR, 7/17/23: "How does one even know if a book is in a data set that was ingested by an AI program?"
In the streaming wars, it feels like everybody’s losing: Streaming offered Hollywood a chance to diversify and democratize. But actors, writers, consumers and investors are losing patience with how things are working out, Taylor Telford, Washington Post, 7/21/23: “There are more jobs available, but it is harder for any one of those jobs to sustain a career.”
Free Elizabeth Tsurkov! In late March the Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, a doctoral student at Princeton University and a contributor to the Review, was kidnapped in Baghdad by an Iraqi Shiite militia close to the Iranian regime, Arash Azizi, NY Review of Books, 7/22/23
A star ran rings around the star before me
And spun and swooped and sank in rock beneath me
And mirrored what I've carried since I mеt me
And shot me back into the ground bеlow me—from “Old Note,” Lisa O’Neil
Politicks
How Democracy Dies the First Month of the Next Trump or GOP Presidency. Trump: “If you fuck around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before,” Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 7/21/23
Why We Need to Start Ramping Up for 2024 Right Now: It’s Time, Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin, The Newsletter, 7/20/23: “Given how many of us have been struggling with burnout, it’s important to not be doom and gloom all the time. Make sure that when you are advocating on issues you care about, you emphasize that together, we can create the change we seek.”
Events that never happened could influence the 2024 presidential election – a cybersecurity researcher explains situation deepfakes, Christopher Schwartz, The Conversation, 7/17/23: “A deepfake is created when someone uses an artificial intelligence tool, especially deep learning, to manipulate or generate a face, a voice or – with the rise of large language models like ChatGPT – conversational language. These can be combined to form “situation deepfakes.””
GOP donors fuel RFK Jr's presidential campaign, Judd Legum, Popular Information, 7/17/23: “The unusual profile of Kennedy's financial supporters raises serious questions about their motivations.”
How urban planning turned into a climate conspiracy theory, Scott Waldman, E&E News, 7/18/23: “In the last year, far-right politicians and their allies who reject the dangers of global warming have seized on the 15-minute city concept to advance conspiracy theories related to “climate lockdowns” and the “Great Reset,” both of which falsely claim that governments and the World Economic Forum will use emissions reduction policies to restrict personal freedoms and force people to abandon their cars and eat bugs.”
Why It Feels Like the 1850s: States that deny rights to women are demanding that free states do their bidding—with the help of courts, Robert Kuttner, American Prospect, 7/21/23: “…until either the Democrats gradually win legislative majorities and appoint new justices to protect rights, or Republicans win national power and snuff out democracy, we are in for prolonged trench warfare.”
Is RealClearPolitics secretly running a disinfo ad network called Publir? A working theory of how The Donald is funded, Nandini Jammi, Claire Atkin, Check My Ads, 7/20/23: “RealClear media network shares its user data and revenues with The_Donald and dozens of other disinformation outlets.”
How Gretchen Whitmer Made Michigan a Democratic Stronghold: The Governor’s strategy for revitalizing her state has two parts: to grow, Michigan needs young people; to draw young people, it needs to have the social policies they want, Benjamin Wallace-Wells, New Yorker, 7/17/23
Is the Sheer Stupidity of Republican Politics Breaking Through? From Hunter Biden to trans people and Barbie, Republicans are hell-bent on becoming “monomaniacally anti-woke culture warriors,” as one Democratic lawmaker put it. Still, it remains to be seen whether Democrats can seize the moment, Molly Jong-Fast, Vanity Fair, 7/19/23
Biden Declares War on the Cult of Efficiency: New antitrust guidelines revive the old-fashioned idea that American life is about more than just buying lots of cheap stuff, Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 7/21/23: “…corporations ought to be prevented from acquiring the kind of power that enables abuses, even if econometric models promise some sort of efficiency gain.”
'Heinous' New Florida K-12 History Curriculum Teaches Slavery Was Beneficial for Black People: "Ron DeSantis & Co. want us to believe slavery was a free training program," cracked one critic, Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams, 7/20/23
How School Board Meetings Became Flashpoints for Anger and Chaos Across the Country: In the first wide-ranging analysis of school board unrest, ProPublica found nearly 60 incidents that led to arrests or criminal charges. Almost all were in suburban districts, and nearly every participant was white, Nicole Carr, Lucas Waldron, ProPublica, 7/19/23
Ta-Nehisi Coates Crashes School Board Meeting Over Removing His Book From Class, Brooke Leigh Howard, Daily Beast, 7/19/23
Colin Kaepernick’s Defense of Black Studies: The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback tells why he’s raising the alarm about government attacks on Black history, Dave Zirin, The Nation, 7/19/23
The Real Lesson from the Making of the Atomic Bomb: A generation of AI researchers treat Richard Rhodes’s seminal book like a Bible as they develop technology with the potential to remake—or ruin—our world, Charlie Warzel, Atlantic, 7/20/23 Book: The Making of the Atomic Bomb
A history of the top marginal tax rates on the wealthiest Americans: 1940: 81% 1950: 84% 1960: 91% 1970: 72% 1980: 70% 1990: 28% 2000: 40% 2010: 35%
None of that shit’s real
It’s true I met Robert Johnson, he showed me how the blues could work
But white men would rather give the Devil praise than acknowledge a black man’s worth.
—from “Going to Hell,” Adeem the Artist
Science & Environment
What Really Happens to the Clothes You Donate: When you donate your clothes to a thrift store… where do they go? In an excerpt from his new book Wasteland, GQ’s Oliver Franklin-Wallis exposes how the rise of fast fashion is leading to a tidal wave of trash—and sparking ingenuity among local designers where the waste is piling up, Oliver Franklin-Wallis, GQ, 7/20/23. Book: Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future
World unlikely to limit temperature rise to 2C, warns climate scientist: Professor Robert Watson said emissions need to be slashed by half before 2030 to hit the Paris Agreement goals, Danny Halpin, Independent (UK), 7/20/23
This heatwave is a climate omen. But it’s not too late to change course: The warming of the planet – including the most up-to-date data for 2023 – is entirely consistent with what climate modelers warned decades ago, Michael Mann, Susan Joy Hassol, The Guardian, 7/19/23
‘We are damned fools’: scientist who sounded climate alarm in 80s warns of worse to come: James Hansen, who testified to Congress on global heating in 1988, says world is approaching a ‘new climate frontier,’ Oliver Milman, The Guardian, 7/19/23
A River Runs above Us: Atmospheric rivers can cause catastrophic flooding and landslides but are crucial for water supply. In an era of increasing weather whiplash between flood and drought, can we learn to embrace the rains? Serena Renner, Hakai, 7/18/23
Rampant heatwaves threaten food security of entire planet, scientists warn: After hottest day ever, researchers say global heating may mean future of crop failures on land and ‘silent dying’ in the oceans, Phoebe Weston, The Guardian, 7/21/23
Tribes Take the Lead on Regenerative Agriculture: Ioway, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek) and Quapaw share their traditional practices with both Native and nonnative farmers to improve the soil and water for everyone, Eva Tesfaye, Barn Raiser, 7/21/23
An Abandoned Arctic Military Base Just Spilled a Scientific Secret: During the Cold War, the US built a network of tunnels in the Greenland ice sheet. Sixty years later, the base has provided a critical clue about the climate crisis, Matt Simon, Wired, 7/20/23: “The ice sheet is fragile. It can disappear, and it has disappeared. Now we have a date for that.”
Underground Cells Make ‘Dark Oxygen’ Without Light: In some deep subterranean aquifers, cells have a chemical trick for making oxygen that could sustain whole underground ecosystems, Saugat Bolakhe, Quanta, 7/17/23: “The mere possibility that oxygen is present in groundwater “changes our understanding about the past, present and future of subsurface.”
A Vast Untapped Green Energy Source Is Hiding Beneath Your Feet: New experiments in the deserts of Utah and Nevada show how advances in fracking—technology developed by the oil industry—can be repurposed to tap clean geothermal energy anywhere on Earth, Gregory Barber, Wired, 7/19/23
The fastest route to a climate turnaround is also less expensive: When researchers used a supercomputer to run 4,000 scenarios with 72,000 variables and 18 uncertainty factors for the planet’s climate future, the result was clear, Sarah DeWeerdt, Anthropocene, 7/18/23: “Of the 4,000 scenarios, 70% suggest that the global temperature increase will exceed 1.5 °C in the next 5 years, the researchers report in the journal Energy Policy. The study highlights the urgency for immediate policy action for mitigation and adaptation.”
Aviation’s climate conundrum: More than sustainable fuels needed, Sean Mowbray, MongaBay, 7/19/23: “A mixture of technological solutions, increased efficiencies in airplane design, better airport management, and new innovative policies, including controversial ideas to curb customer demand for air travel, are likely needed to cap and significantly bring down commercial aviation’s emissions fast.”
An Indigenous-Led Team Is Transforming a Minneapolis Superfund Site into a New Urban Farm: Cassandra Holmes is working to bring fresh, local food to the Little Earth of United Tribes community in East Phillips. Now, the city has brokered a deal that could rehabilitate the former superfund site and engage young residents, Kate Nelson, Civil Eats, 7/18/23
Iceland’s Quest to Use 100 Percent of Its Fish Waste: Cod heads, skin, blood: you name it, there’s an initiative to turn it into a high-value product and divert it from the trash, Lela Nargi, Hakai, 7/19/23
This family breeds millions of insects to help farmers choose predators over pesticides: Bugs are sold to greenhouses to manage other unwanted pests, Meg Roberts, CBC News, 7/18/23
‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ tell the same terrifying story, Tyler Austin Harper, Washington Post, 7/19/23: ““Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” each offer a window into the creation of the Anthropocene, the suggested term for our present geological epoch, in which human beings have become the most significant influence on the natural environment at a planetary scale.”
In the month of Poseidon,
When the clouds are fat with rain,
Wild storms bring us Zeus.—Anakreon, trans. by Guy Davenport
Health & Wellness
A New Approach to M.S. Could Transform Treatment of Other Diseases: Multiple sclerosis was once seen as a “dead-end disease.” But lots of little interventions have added up to remarkable progress. Should that change how we take on other conditions? Rivka Galchen, New Yorker, 7/17/23
Gene variant may be why some test positive for virus with no covid symptoms: Scientists found a common version of an immunity gene that seems to help some people clear the coronavirus faster, Aara'L Yarber, Washington Post, 7/19/23
An Ancient Battle Is Playing Out in the DNA of Every Embryo: Millions of years ago, retroviruses invaded the human genome. Today some of these viral remnants threaten the developing embryo while others fight to defend it, Celia Ford, Wired, 7/17/23
What impact will Alzheimer’s drug donanemab have? While it is not a cure, proof that drugs can alter course of disease is regarded as significant triumph: Experts urge health regulators to approve ‘turning point’ dementia drugs, Ian Sample, The Guardian, 7/17/23
Blame capitalism? Why hundreds of decades-old yet vital drugs are nearly impossible to find, Geoffrey Joyce, The Conversation, 7/20/23: “Current shortages include widely known drugs such as the antibiotic amoxicillin; the heart medicine digoxin; the anesthetic lidocaine; and the medicine albuterol, which is critical for treating asthma and other diseases affecting the lungs and airways.”
What if we let our kids eat what they want? A radical new take on the weight debate: Modern parenting is preoccupied by the idea of perfection, and that includes weight. Virginia Sole-Smith, author of a brave and radical new book, talks about why our worth shouldn’t be measured by size, Rebecca Seal, The Guardian, 7/23/23 Book: Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture
Birds
A Paradise of Birds: The Puffins of the Remote Island of Skellig Michael: on Communication with His Avian Neighbors, Robert L. Harris, LitHub, 7/18/23: “There was undeniable joy, and a great thrill of participation, when a quivering young chick would be released over the lighthouse wall to fly down and away, its wings suddenly catching flight just at the furthest extent of visibility or in a dim torch beam.”
Yes, bird flu is a threat. It’s time to take it seriously: 13 questions about bird flu, answered, Benji Jones, Vox, 7/17/23
A Vulnerable Bird Endures in a Springs Marsh, Christopher Gangemi, East Hampton Star, 7/20/23: “They’ve lost 75 percent of their population since 1990, according to the American Bird Conservancy, and “without intensive conservation will become extinct by 2050.””
Florida’s Vanishing Sparrows: A group of eccentric endangered birds serves as a bellwether of the climate crisis, Dexter Filkins, New Yorker, 7/17/23: “Florida is home to sixty-seven species of threatened and endangered animals, among the highest numbers in the continental U.S.”
I have you by the ears
in the exhaust pipes of
a thousand cars gunning
their motors turning over
all over town.
—from “Poem for Record Players,” John Wieners
Do Me a Favor
Earlier this year, I published an excellent novel about what the Trump years have done to us, The Devil’s Presence by James O. Goldsborough. Unfortunately, Jim passed away just after the book came out, so he’s not around to talk about it. That leaves it up to me. I hope you will consider buying a copy.
Another crazy week: heat domes, fish die-offs, floods, war, and the ever stronger indicators of the Republican effort to end American democracy in favor of a new form of fascism. And still, we try to stay positive, find and celebrate the beautiful and transformative moments where we can, and dream a better future.
Thanks to everyone who has been in touch this week. Be well. Love to you all — David