The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 111, June 26, 2022 (V3 #7)
“Biden was elected as a moderate to be a moderate. That was his mandate. Imagining that he was elected to do great big things was delusional.”—John Ellis
“Everything comes down to how people respond. In these unprecedented times, it’s the biggest unknown.”—Kate Riga, Talking Points Memo
“No right is held more sacred, or is more carefully guarded, by the common law, than the right of every individual to the possession and control of his own person, free from all restraint or interference of others, unless by clear and unquestionable authority of law. The right to one's person may be said to be a right of complete immunity: to be let alone.”—Supreme Court, Union P. R. Co. v. Botsford - 141 U.S. 250, 11 S. Ct. 1000 (1891) (emphasis added)
“In its imposition of minority rule first by insisting on state’s rights and then by demanding federal protection of laws it wants, the Republican Party is echoing the southern Democrats before the Civil War. Like today’s Republicans, as they lost support they entrenched themselves first in the machinery of the federal government and then in the Supreme Court.”—Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, 6/24/22
“The government of the United States refuses to forget that the Bill of Rights was put into the Constitution not only to protect minorities against intolerance of majorities, but to protect majorities against the enthronement of minorities.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt
“There is no stupider slogan in 21st century politics than “When they go low, we go high.” When we go high, we get fucking blown away. How about, “When they go low, we CURB THEIR FUCKING TEETH?””—Paul Slansky
If You and I Were Uteri
I once knew a frustrated uterus.
When told to relinquish her universe
she tried to leave it all behind,
and hit the button labeled “Rewind”.
But on the last day of the month
this verse reversed
spraying the uterus
red with a curse.
A black hole screamed,
“Ho, go back to bed!
Knock Roe vs. Wade
outta your head!
Instead, we uteri marched together
aware of the prospect of rainier weather.
We pulled out our tampons
and fervently wrote
a few bloody signs
warning women to vote.
—Alexis Krasilovsky, from Watermelon Linguistics: New and Selected Poems
Everything is Politics and Politics is Everything
The Conservative Legal Push to Overturn Roe v. Wade was 50 Years in the Making: An increasingly influential movement questioned the view of constitutional rights underpinning the decision, Jess Bravin, Wall Street Journal, 6/24/22 “There was a very concerted focus on how to mainstream ideas about originalism, and conservative and libertarian beliefs about the regulatory state.”
Roe Stood for 49 Years. It Revolutionized Life for Women: The national right to abortion pushed back the age of childbearing, increased college and workforce participation, and created economically stable families, Maryn McKenna, Wired, 6/24/22
If the Supreme Court Can Reverse Roe, It Can Reverse Anything: No one should get used to their rights, Mary Ziegler, The Atlantic, 6/24/22: “Emphasizing that no other rights will be lost—convincingly or not—suggests that there is no problem if this right disappears with the stroke of a pen. The majority opinion spends precious little time on the damage that reversing Roe will do.”
“Power, Not Reason”: The Fall of Roe and the Rise of Republican Orthodoxy at the Supreme Court: The conservative majority of the court did away with a half century of American law simply because they can—and regardless of the will of the majority of Americans, Cristian Farias, Vanity Fair, 6/24/22
The Supreme Court’s radical abortion ruling begins a dangerous new era, Editorial Board, Washington Post, 6/24/22: “…a reckless fit of judicial activism that will redound for generations…”
When the Supreme Court Takes Away a Long-Held Constitutional Right: The crude reality of the political machinations involved in overruling Roe v. Wade makes it galling to read the Court’s self-portrayal as a picture of proper judicial restraint, Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 6/24/22
Will This Week’s Events Rouse the Electorate? The right is at odds with public opinion—on abortion rights, gun violence, and democracy itself. Do voters care more about the price of gas? Robert Kuttner, American Prospect, 6/24/22
Biden confronts a bombshell that could define his presidency: Roe’s demise could give Biden a way to find his voice and re-energize his presidency — or just escalate the divisions that have made it so hard to govern, Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Tyler Pager, Ashley Parker, Yasmeen Abutaleb Washington Post, 6/24/22
How to support abortion access in a post-Roe America, Debasri Ghosh, Rebecca Gomperts, Elizabeth Ling, Nzingha Hall, Robin Marty, Rene Bracey Sherman, The Guardian, 6/25/22
The Comment That Reveals the Depths of the Republican Party’s Moral Collapse: If even Rusty Bowers is willing to back Trump again, the outlook for popular democracy is very bleak, David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 6/22/22: “Once you’ve decided that your specific policy planks are more important than ensuring that the fundamental system survives, however, the result sooner or later is a government that has no interest in the will of the people.”
It’s time to say it: the US supreme court has become an illegitimate institution: With its decision on Roe v Wade, the court has signaled its illegitimacy – and thrown the American project into question, Jill Filipovic, The Guardian, 6/25/22
They folded up the Constitution and shoved it where the sun does not shine, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 6/25/22: “Citing laws from the 19th and early 20th centuries to justify what the majority is doing in the 21st century isn’t just corrupt, it’s disgusting, it’s insulting, it’s condescending, and it amounts to madness.”
What the Supreme Court’s Gun Ruling Means For Gun Control, Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, 538, 6/21/22
Fighting for Abortion Rights All Over Again: This Supreme Court decision is a call to action. And the key message is—ALWAYS—if we organize, we can change this world, and we need to, Heather Booth, American Prospect, 6/24/22
January 6 Was Only the Beginning: To Trump’s true believers, the insurrection was an act of faith, Ashli Babbitt is a martyr, and white is not only a race, but a spiritual state, Jeff Sharlet, Vanity Fair, 6/22/22
Radical Accountability or Nothing: Donald Trump, Sedition, and Who America Loves, Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin, ECM, 6/23/22: “when I watched Shaye Moss walk to the witness chair before the January 6th Committee this past Tuesday when I felt the breath leave my body. As she walked to that chair, her trauma was palpable– written all over her face, carried in her body, held within her and all around her notwithstanding the tremendous courage of her countenance.”
The US recession is here, and central banks are still fighting the last war: Read this exclusive extract from our Economic Intelligence newsletter and sign up at the bottom of the article to get it every Tuesday, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph, 6/21/22
Ron Johnson tried to subvert democracy. These corporations are backing his reelection, Judd Legum, Popular Information, 6/23/22: FedEx, Chevron, Honeywell, Home Depot, UPS, Kraft Heinz, Experian…
Take the Constitution Back From the Supreme Court: A new ruling striking down most blue-state gun regulation is utter nonsense, Ryan Cooper, American Prospect, 6/23/22
America Is Growing Apart, Possibly for Good: The great “convergence” of the mid-20th century may have been an anomaly, Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic, 6/24/22
Group aims to strip Fox News of ad revenue over ‘fueling next insurrection:’ Check My Ads targeting news channel website at a time when its prominent hosts are downplaying January 6 insurrection, Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian, 6/24/22: Ed. Note: If you have cable, you are supporting Faux News. Tell your cable service to make Faux a paid choice.
There is Still a War On
Paralysis in Moscow: Why Putin persists with his established strategy, accepting a test of endurance, Lawrence Freedman, Comment is Freed, 6/22/22: “Russia is now facing the possibility that it really has bitten off more than it can chew.”
How Ukraine Will Win: Kyiv’s Theory of Victory, Dmytro Kuleba, Foreign Affairs, 6/17/22: “Putin’s path to the negotiating table lies solely through battleground defeats.”
Exclusive RSF investigation into the death of Maks Levin: “Information and evidence collected indicates this Ukrainian journalist was executed,” Reporters without Borders, 6/22/22
Russia will soon exhaust its combat capabilities, Western assessments predict: Small shifts in territorial control matter less than the overall balance of forces, which analysts say could shift back in favor of Ukraine in the coming months, Liz Sly, Washington Post, 6/25/22
And if you don't like abortion
Don't have an abortion
Teach your children
How they can avoid them
But don't treat all women
Like they are your children
Compassion has many faces
Many names
And if men can kill
And be decorated instead of blamed
When a woman called onto mother
Can choose to refrain
—from “Amendment” by Ani DiFranco
Culture, Books, Yeah, Yeah
Some people are turning to survival training to prepare for climate change: The Mountain Scout Survival school teaches primitive survival skills and urban emergency preparedness courses, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 6/20/22
On the Etymologies and Linguistic Evolutions of “Family:” Marina Manoukian Explores the Communication of a Ubiquitous Idea Across Disparate Cultures, Marina Manoukian, LitHub, 6/21/22: “By recognizing that the idea of family is constructed, it becomes possible to create families in all manner of ways. Rather than limiting family to a hierarchical construction, a family can be created through different cooperative relationships that offer support to one another in a variety of ways.”
The Early Life of the Renowned Leader of the Lakotas, Sitting Bull: Sitting Bull's Transformation into a Young Peacemaker, Mark Lee Gardner, LitHub, 6/24/22: “Even in the sky there were no vacant places. Everywhere there was life.” —From The Earth Is All that Lasts
Phoebe Bridgers on Taylor Swift, her boyfriend Paul Mescal and speaking out on Roe v Wade: ‘I want to show everybody what I believe in:’ As the indie superstar makes her Glastonbury debut, she explains why she is much more than just the ‘patron saint of sadness,’ Laura Snapes, The Guardian, 6/25/22
June 16, 1816: The Inception of Frankenstein and Mary Shelley’s Prescient Warning About Reproductive Rights: A teenage girl from another epoch illuminates the fault lines of ours, Maria Popova, The Marginalian, 6/26/22: “A world without the option of abating an ill-conceived life before it has begun is a world that dooms millions to Victor Frankenstein’s fate. What a pause-giving thought: that a girl not yet nineteen, who lived two centuries ago, has a finer moral compass than the Supreme Court of the world’s largest twenty-first-century democracy.”
Whose Nightmare Are We Living In: Orwell’s or Huxley’s? Andrew Keen Investigates Dual Literary Visions of Society’s Collapse, LitHub, 6/24/22
Anatomy of a book banning: A South Dakota school district planned to destroy Dave Eggers’s novel. He went to investigate, Dave Eggers, Washington Post, 6/24/22
Well-to-do people can manage well,
Anything they need they can buy and sell,
But the teenage drifter can walk in hell
Or roll on the back room floor.
And the battered children who bruise and bleed,
And the mother with too many kids to feed,
Pro-life offers them in their need
Back alley abortions for the poor.
—from “Back Alley Surgery” by Malvina Reynolds
Environment and Science
What we know about PFAS in our food: Amid inadequate testing and a lack of regulation, we’re all eating “forever chemicals,” Elizabeth Gribkoff, Environmental Health News, 6/21/22
High fossil fuel prices are good for the planet—here’s how to keep it that way: Switching to renewables will only happen if gas prices remain expensive, Neil McCulloch, Ars Technica, 6/20/22
‘The return of land to Indigenous people is key’: Q&A with Shinnecock Kelp Farm’s Tela Troge, Claudia Geib, MongaBay, 6/20/22
An Immunologist Fights Covid with Tweets and a Nasal Spray: Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist who became a lifeline for the worried and the curious during the pandemic, thinks that nasal spray vaccines could be the next needed breakthrough in our fight against the coronavirus, Yasemin Saplagloku, Quanta, 6/21/22
Concrete is Worse for the Climate Than Flying. Why Aren’t More People Talking About It? Kristoffer Tigue, Inside Climate News, 6/24/22
As water crisis worsens on Colorado River, an urgent call for Western states to ‘act now,’ Ian James, LA Times, 6/20/22
A new plant-based material can replace plastic food packaging for keeps, Sayonara you evil plastic food wraps, Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 6/21/22
Global Warming: Why the problem is worse – and solutions simpler – than you thought, Douglas Fischer, Daily Climate, 6/22/22
Dams, climate change threaten Missouri River cottonwood forests: Young cottonwoods survive only when the river is allowed to shift its path over time, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 6/23/22
Rewilding the Galápagos can be a model for a new way to coexist with nature: We must work with local communities to restore key species on a global scale if we are to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises gripping the world, Danny Rueda Córdova, Leonardo DiCaprio, The Guardian, 6/25/22
How to rewild a country: the story of Argentina: It began with a philanthropic couple buying a swamp but has become one of the world’s boldest experiments in restoring degraded habitats, bringing wildlife and landscapes back from the brink, Patrick Greenfield, The Guardian, 6/24/22
Covid, Conflict And Climate Are Fueling A Global Food Crisis - Leaders Must Act Fast, Gayle E. Smith, Forbes, 6/21/22
Birdland
How the Yurok Tribe Is Bringing Back the California Condor: The reintroduction of the long-lived, highly social birds has offered insight into the importance of parenting in the species, Sharon Levy, Undark, 6/22/22
Do Birds Dream About Their Own Birdsong? On Animal Consciousness, David M. Peña-Guzmán, LitHub, 6/23/22: “Zebra finches memorize their song not merely by sleeping on it, but by dreaming about it as well.”
Millions of birds now face an unexpected danger: glass buildings, Yu Jing, CGTN, 6/5/22
Ask Kenn: Is There a Difference Between Bird Songs and Calls? Kenn Kaufman, Audubon, 6/24/22: “Bird listening can bring just as much fascination as bird watching, and part of the reason is that most species make a wide variety of different sounds.”
Modern phoenix: The bird brought back from extinction in Japan, France 24, 6/21/22: “Japan's population of wild toki has gone from zero to nearly 500.”
The Birds of Prey That Stand Guard Over California’s Vineyards: Without them, the state’s lucrative wine grape crop could be gobbled up by smaller birds, Shoshi Parks, Ars Obscura, 6/23/22
It's the hard knock life for us
It's the hard knock life for us
Instead of treated, we get tricked
Instead of kisses, we get kicked
It's the hard knock life!
—from “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)”, Mark Howard James/Martin Charnin/Charles Strouse/Shawn C Carter
“There is nothing to help us but ourselves. If we cannot find virtue in the object of our lives, then for us there is none anywhere. We won’t solve or discover by using “profound” (and borrowed) symbolism. Reveal the object. By that we touch authentically the profundity of its attachments—if we are able. But able or otherwise there is no other way for us.” —William Carlos Williams
This has been a difficult week — despite that we knew this was coming. The well-planned, well-funded, and well-executed project of the Christo-Fascist wing of the Republican party has come to fruition, crystalizing what we are up against and showing exactly what most Americans do not want to be in control of their daily lives.
The question now is whether we can organize effectively to overcome the structural advantages they have built for themselves over the past half-century. We are doubtless entering very dark times. We elders now owe it to our children and grandchildren to fight against the darkness. We must be brave, generous, energetic, implacable, and loving always.
“In the groundless openness of sorrow, there is a wholeness of presence and a deep natural wisdom.”―Tara Brach, True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart
“We cannot let today's devastation turn into disempowerment.”—Monika Bauerlein, Mother Jones
Be strong, be engaged, be well. Much love to all —David