The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 194, January 28, 2024 (V4 #38)
Creating a false reality to trick voters is central to undermining democracy, and it is no secret that autocratic states like Russia, Iran, and China are spreading disinformation in the U.S. But I have always wondered what would happen when the American people finally pushed back against suggestions and innuendo and instead demanded actual evidence and policies designed to address problems, as they did before American politics turned into entertainment.—Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American
At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?—Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address, January 27, 1838
Books, Music, Culture
Let us now celebrate E. Jean Carroll, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 1/25/24: “There is not enough thanks in the world to reward E. Jean Carroll for doing what she has done to Donald Trump. She has shown him to be the coward that he is.”
Life a Cold Crematorium: A Long-Lost Memoir from a Holocaust Survivor: A Terrifying Train Ride from Hungary to Auschwitz with His Fellow Prisoners, József Debreczeni, LitHub, 1/25/24 “Old women’s fading eyes were grotesque mirrors of terror. Six days earlier, these women had been sitting in their lovely old armchairs talking of Sunday lunch.” Book: Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz
White America Facing Its Ghosts: The Slow Unraveling of a Nation’s Suburbs: on White Flight, Demographic Shifts, and Coming to Terms With the Racist Policies That Created a Crisis, Benjamin Herold, LitHub, 1/23/24: “Suburbia is now home to a collision of competing dreams, each of which seems to be crumbling.” Book: Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America's Suburbs
When America First Dropped Acid: Well before the hippies arrived, LSD and other hallucinogens were poised to enter the American mainstream, Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 1/23/24: “One evening in September of 1957, viewers across America could turn on their television sets and tune in to a CBS broadcast during which a young woman dropped acid.”
Author as Illusionist: William Maxwell on Literary Magic and Refusing to Give Up as a Writer, Maxwell’s Speech at Smith College in 1955, Introduced by Alec Wilkinson, LitHub, 1/26/24: “The writer has everything in common with the vaudeville magician except this: The writer must be taken in by his own tricks. Otherwise, the audience will begin to yawn and snicker.”
The Woman Who Spent Five Hundred Days in a Cave: Beatriz Flamini liked to be alone so much that she decided to live underground—and pursue a world record. The experience was gruelling and surreal, D.T. Max, New Yorker, 1/21/24: “I wanted total disconnection.”
Undergraduates’ average IQ has fallen 17 points since 1939. Here’s why: College students once stood out from the pack on IQ tests. Today, they're about average, Ross Pomeroy, Big Think, 1/22/24: “Ironically, as it became a baseline for employment, a degree has become increasingly meaningless, as more people have one.”
The Future of Academic Freedom: As the Israel-Hamas war provokes claims about unacceptable speech, the ability to debate difficult subjects is in renewed peril, Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 1/27/24: “Somehow the racial reckoning of 2020 lost sight of that core goal of a culture of mutual respect with human dignity at the center. A shaming culture was embraced instead.”
The right way to be a "woman:” Gender backlash, womanhood, and resisting rigid rules, Lyz Lenz, Men Yell at Me, 1/24/24: “America is currently in a time of gender backlash. And in this space are new versions of the old images, cropping up, offering women a model of who and what they should be.”
America’s Families Are Not Okay: Inside the crisis of parent-child estrangement, Ann Bauer, Persuasion, 1/26/24: “Recent studies show more than one in four adult children in the United States are or have been estranged—defined as having no contact or a poor relationship with limited contact—from one or both parents.”
Books Gave Me the World: The year I tried to read all the Newbery medalists, John Warner, Bibioracle Recommends, 1/28/24: “That year was sixth grade, 1981-82.”
From hospice, alt-pop singer releases what may be final song — for her son, Marisa Iati, Washington Post, 1/26/24 (free article)
This is getting so complicated
And I hate that I don't hate it
The feeling I'm feelin' inside
Dancin' on the edge of disaster
Hold my hands up, it don't matter
—from “Dance You Outta My Head,” Cat Janice
Politics, Economics
Nearly 65,000 US rape victims could not get an abortion in their state, analysis shows: Researchers estimated likely number of rape-related pregnancies in 14 states with near-total abortion bans since Dobbs ruling, Jessica Glenza, The Guardian, 1/25/24: “The large number of estimated rape-related pregnancies in abortion ban states compared with the 10 or fewer legal abortions per month occurring in each of those states indicates that persons who have been raped and become pregnant cannot access legal abortions in their home state, even in states with rape exceptions.”
The Campaign Against D.E.I.: For critics of the former Harvard president Claudine Gay, a larger goal was always in sight, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, New Yorker, 1/22/24: “The latest campaign against anti-racist programs is intended to cast aspersions, or, at the very least, doubt, upon the presence of any Black person in a position or place they are deemed not to belong.”
Who’s Canceling Whom? Conservatives often charge their opponents with “cancel culture,” but the right poses as significant a threat to free speech as the left, David Cole, NY Review of Books, 2/8/24 issue
How to read a Supreme Court case: 10 tips for nonlawyers, Ilisabeth S. Bornstein, The Conversation, 1/25/24: “Finally, do not expect to fully understand the content of the opinion at first glance. Even experienced legal professionals need time to carefully read the opinion. Instead, aim to get a feel for the organization and nuance of the opinion. These techniques will give you some footing to begin to make sense of the case and find the parts that are of interest to you.”
Constitutional Self-Defense: A constitutional tradition with immediate relevance, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 1/27/24: “ A constitution can defend itself against almost any threat. The one point where it is helpless, though, is when judges refuse to read and apply its plain language.”
Far-Right Extremists Are Organizing an Armed Convoy to the Texas Border: The Take Back Our Border channel on Telegram now has over 1,000 members, some of whom are invoking a new Civil War, David Gilbert, Wired, 1/26/24
The Crisis in Texas, Steve Schmidt, The Warning, 1/28/24: “President Biden must act decisively in this moment against the accumulation of bad faith and extremism that has accumulated without response under the political, moral and un-American corruption of men like Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton. This issue cannot be ignored or neglected. It should be perfectly clear by now that Donald Trump is cheering for the chaos because it is an element of his demagoguery. He is running to restore order out of the madness he has created — just like Adolf Hitler succeeded in doing between 1928 and 1932 Germany.”
The Fog: The whole story doesn’t always show, Sarah Kendzior, Newsletter, 1/26/24: “There is a fog of regret and it envelops everything. There is a fog of grief that few in power will acknowledge, even though it would mean the world, like when long-brimming tears in your eyes finally fall, and you can see clearly once more.”
What Biden Needs To Do To Win: The president looks vulnerable but there is a path to a second term, Michael Baharaeen, Persuasion, 1/24/24: “…the campaign must treat non-white Americans as persuasion targets who need to be communicated with as opposed to a reliably safe bloc that just needs to be mobilized.”
The vibecession is over because the economy now slays, Drew Goins, Washington Post, 1/23/24: “Consumer confidence is increasing, and the share of Americans who think we’re in a recession (we’re not!) is down.”
A Dangerous New Home for Online Extremism: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, or DAOs, offer independently-minded internet users a safe haven—but it’s also a boon to those with a darker purpose, Julia Ebner, Wired, 1/24/24
Fake Biden robocall to New Hampshire voters highlights how easy it is to make deepfakes − and how hard it is to defend against AI-generated disinformation, Joan Donovan, The Conversation, 1/23/24: “In a media ecosystem full of noise, scrambled signals such as deepfake robocalls make it virtually impossible to tell facts from fakes.”
Rules for the Ruling Class: How to thrive in the power élite—while declaring it your enemy., Evan Osnos, New Yorker, 1/22/24: “Conservatives venerate the building of wealth and political power but see themselves as persecuted by intellectuals and bureaucrats.”
The Rise & Fall of the Second Trump Reich: Tick Tock…A dystopian tale that conforms to Trump's many campaign promises...Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 1/23/24: “It started with the election of November 2024, when the No Labels candidacy of Larry Hogan and Joe Manchin pulled enough electoral votes away from Biden — who was more than 10 million popular votes ahead of Trump — that none of the three tickets hit the necessary 270 Electoral College votes to win the White House.” DW: Awful, dystopian, and totally believable.
We need to get rid of politicians: Let's vote for plans, not people, Elle Griffin, The Elysian, 1/22/24: “If we vote for a plan instead of a politician, there are no celebrity figureheads, no well-intentioned plans that can’t make it through Congress or don’t get enough money to succeed, no bloated budgets filled with conflicting agendas, and no power-hungry individuals who can make a power grab.”
Safe Skies for Ukraine: Let's do what our elected officials are failing to do, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 1/26/24: “America as a country can do much more, and should. But as Americans this is one thing we can achieve now. We are almost there.” DW: Snyder has come up with a way all of us can help Ukraine.
‘More killing won’t bring back lost lives’: Tal Mitnick, 18, on going to prison instead of joining IDF: The first conscientious objector to be jailed in Israel since 7 October says ‘there is no military solution’ to the conflict, Michael Segalov, The Guardian, 1/23/24
On Gaza, Genocide and International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Shalom Rav, 1/26/24: “…we must find the courage to say out loud the words that must be spoken… No matter how uncomfortable or painful the prospect.”
The American Jewish Left in Exile: Those of us whose Jewishness isn’t tethered to Israel find ourselves increasingly at the margins of American Jewish life. Do we need our own institutions? David Klion, NY Review of Books, 1/28/24: “For several decades, the Jewish establishment has asked American Jews to check their liberalism at Zionism’s door, and now, to their horror, they are finding that many young Jews have checked their Zionism instead.”
And though each spring doe adde to love new heate,
As princes do in times of action get
New taxes, and remit them not in peace,
No winter shall abate the spring’s encrease.
—from “Love’s Growth,” John Donne
Science, Environment
A ‘Revolutionary’ Way to Feed the World That’s Very Old: The U.S. global food security envoy is pushing to bring back traditional African crops that American policies helped to sideline, Somini Senguptu, NY Times, 1/22/24: “[State Department’s global envoy for food security] is promoting a return to the great variety of traditional crops that people used to grow more of, like cowpeas, cassava and a range of millets. DW: Cary Fowler is the author of Seeds on Ice: Svalbard and the Global Seed Vault, we’re publishing a new edition this spring – order now!
Prepare for a ‘Gray Swan’ Climate: The next climate extremes are both predictable and unprecedented, and they’re coming on fast, Zoë Schlanger, The Atlantic, 1/22/24: “…the way to think about climate change now is through two interlinked concepts. The first is nonlinearity, the idea that change will happen by factors of multiplication, rather than addition. The second is the idea of “gray swan” events, which are both predictable and unprecedented.”
What a hand-cranked drill just revealed about the West’s ‘megadrought:’ A new study is part of an emerging field of tree-ring science that found the West’s two-decade drought is inextricably linked to rising temperatures, Dino Grandoni, Washington Post, 1/24/24
Compound Extreme Events Threaten Marine Ecosystems: Short-term extreme marine heat wave events superimposed on stressors from longer-term climate change produce compound extreme events that impact the Gulf of Alaska ecosystem, Eileen Hofmann, Eos, 1/23/24
NXS...Why we have nitrate pollution, a primer, Chris Jones, Swine Republic, 1/25/24: “many if not most corn belt farmers consciously make fertilization decisions KNOWING FULL WELL that those decisions are more likely than not to create unnecessary pollution.” DW: I interview Chris for Writerscast about his terrific book (also called Swine Republic)
A Massive Win, and What It Means: For Once, Big Oil Takes It on the Chin, Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years, 1/26/24: “This is the biggest check any president has ever applied to the fossil fuel industry, and the strongest move against dirty energy in American history.”
Re-frame of mind: Do our brains have a built-in sense of ‘grammar’? Based on years of research, Yale’s George Dragoi argues that our brains develop a cellular template soon after birth that defines how we perceive the world, Bill Hathaway, Yale News, 1/8/24
New Theory Suggests Chatbots Can Understand Text: Far from being “stochastic parrots,” the biggest large language models seem to learn enough skills to understand the words they’re processing, Anil Ananthaswamy, Quanta, 1/22/24
Scientific breakthrough may save northern white rhino through surrogacy, Rael Ombuor, Ami Vitale, Washington Post, 1/24/24: “ Only two females exist in the world, Najin and daughter Fatu, and both are unable to carry pregnancies.”
Solar farms could come with a pollinator bonus: New research shows how habitat-friendly solar energy can safeguard insect populations—and improve pollination services on adjacent farms, Warren Cornwall, Anthropocene, 1/24/24
I discovered a tiny frog that lives its whole life inside one plant: Everyone told me there is no water on top of this Brazilian mountain, there won’t be any frogs. Now I’ve dedicated my life to preserving this incredible species, Bela Barata, The Guardian, 1/25/24
A newly identified ‘Hell chicken’ species suggests dinosaurs weren’t sliding toward extinction before the fateful asteroid hit, Kyle Atkins-Weltman, Eric Snively, The Conversation, 1/24/24: “Our new discovery suggests that this dinosaur group was not declining in diversity at the very end of the Cretaceous. These fossils show that there are still new species to be discovered, and support the idea that at least part of the pattern of decreasing diversity is the result of sampling and preservation biases.”
The Secrets of the Sea Hidden High in the Andes: The rich fossil deposits in Colombia’s mountains could unlock a deeper understanding of ancient oceans—and the country’s paleontologists are struggling to do them justice, Santiago Flórez, Hakai, 1/23/24
Whittled down to pocket, I've kept careful proportion
to the hands I fell through. Height a matter
of angle — whether I lean into a sound or away.
—from “Mother 1999,” in “Theophanies,” Sarah Ghazal Ali
Health, Wellness
‘That’s just normal forgetting’: the difference between memory loss and dementia – and how to protect your brain: The odd memory lapse is no big deal – so when should we start to worry? Experts explain, and share the best ways to stay sharp, Amy Fleming, The Guardian, 1/26/24: “We’re trying to encourage people, if they do notice a change in functioning, to go to the doctor.”
Scientists Will Test a Cancer-Hunting mRNA Treatment: Strand Therapeutics has figured out a way to turn the molecule on and off in certain tissues to more precisely treat tumors, Emily Mullin, Wired, 1/22/24
you look up at the birdless sky think:
this is a city this a mountain
this a remnant of the rainforest
—from “The Lost Breath of Trees,” Colleen J. McElroy
Birds, Birds, Birds
Responding to 'grebe-a-geddon,' volunteers rescue birds making emergency snow landings in central PA, Anne Danahy, WPSU, 1/23/24
Mismatched timing: How climate change challenges bird migration, Leiden University, Phys.Org, 1/25/24: “For migratory birds, food must be available at precisely the right time and place.”
Brooding about Cicadas: Are people going to overreact to this year's historic emergence? Laura Erickson, For the Birds, 1/25/24: “This year’s emergence will be historical because, for the first time since 1803, both the 17-year-cycle Northern Illinois Brood (Brood XIII) and the 13-year-cycle Great Southern Brood (Brood XIX) will emerge in the same season.”
YES
It could happen any time, tornado,
earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen.
Or sunshine, love, salvation.
It could, you know. That’s why we wake
and look out — no guarantees
in this life.
But some bonuses, like morning,
like right now, like noon,
like evening.
—William Stafford
Wherever you are, whoever you are with, whatever you are doing — I send you all my warm regards and thanks for who you are and what you do. Please continue to keep in touch. Send messages and news….poems, art, photos….
Above all, stay well; share love; work for good. Take care. Celebrate love, cherish those you love near and far. We need each other, now more than ever.—David