The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 237, November 24, 2024 (V5 #29)
Our ancestors have faced and fought oppression before, and now it is our turn to pick up the baton and show up – marching, striking, protecting each other– for our freedoms, our families, and our futures. Our values are worth fighting for. Our families and futures are worth fighting for. We are worth fighting for.—Anat Shenker-Osorio & Jiggy Geronimo
…the elites of the Democratic Party and media don’t know how to read the room. The Democratic elite should resign their positions tonight. Many of those people have not sauntered out of their gated communities long enough to have made sense of what is going on out there.—Marianne Williamson
Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against [the evils of “kings, nobles and priests”], and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.—Thomas Jefferson
Trump is normalizing the unthinkable in front of our eyes. It’s no time to back down or hide your head in the sand.—Joyce Vance
This Is Just To Say: we were thinking about William Carlos Williams after the last presidential election.
It was Ginsberg and Waldman
who told us to help wake the world
to itself.
Their poems stuck on
refrigerator doors.
Behind the doors
plums cold and sweet.
The plums are chanting
like Buddhists monks.
Oranges hide like apples
in a bowl on a table.
Every moment of life
awake or asleep
we are something else.
This is why
we must howl like Ginsberg
and dance with Waldman.
—Miho Kinnas & E. Ethelbert Miller
Books, Music, Art, Culture
The “Vanishing Types” of Doris Ulmann: As her extensive body of work shows, Ulmann felt the loss of an imagined simpler time and tried to preserve it with her camera, April White, JStor Daily, 11/18/24: ““Ulmann believed a better, truer image would emerge from a technical process that required minutes, even hours, than from one that took only seconds.”
How the Ancient Sumerians Created the World’s First Writing System: on the Mesopotamian Origins of Modern Civilization, Bartle Bull, LitHub, 11/22/24: “Here was the evolution from the ideographic to the phonetic. The impact was revolutionary. The boundaries of writing were now as infinite as those of speech.”
‘A road trip like no other’: my epic drive on Kraftwerk’s Autobahn: Fifty years ago, the electronic pioneers released a 23-minute song about a road – and changed pop music for ever. Our writer hits the speed-limit-free highways of Düsseldorf and Hamburg in search of its futuristic brilliance, Tim Jonze, The Guardian, 11/19/24. “Autobahn”
“Moonstruck.” How Myths of Lunar Power Continue to Fascinate Us: Exploring the Long History of Associating Madness With the Full Moon, Kate Golembiewski, LitHub, 11/20/24: “The Moon has demonstrated its power over the human mind through our never-ending stories and legends about it.” Book: Lunar: A History of the Moon in Myths, Maps, and Matter
“Make it New… Again.” Why We Need Alexander Pope’s Wild, Weird Poetry Today: on the Need to Shake Up Our Modern Era of Clean Professionalization, Ryan Ruby, LitHub, 11/22/24: “Perhaps, as Walter Benjamin once suggested, the poetry of the future will only become visible when we fan the embers of those possibilities burning low in the ashes of the past.” Context Collapse: A Poem Containing a History of Poetry
The Disease of the Powerful: Intellectual arrogance cripples the powerful but it is a danger to us all, Dan Gardner, PastPresentFuture, 11/19/24: “(Henry) Ford was a classic example of a man who succeeded massively, got very rich and respected, and let it all go to his head. He became convinced that he understood politics better than the experts, foreign affairs better than the experts, economics better than the experts — and health better than the experts. Ford went so far as to explicitly scorn expertise. In Ford’s eyes, the very fact that someone was deemed an expert could make that person suspect.” DW: Sound familiar?
This Website of Old YouTube Clips Feels Like a Gut Punch: Bluesky will never be Twitter. YouTube is no longer about funny videos made with your friends. The old internet is gone, but it can be remade. The website IMG_0001 proves it, Angela Watercutter, Wired, 11/22/24: “Remembering the internet of yore remains, somewhat ironically, one of the web’s favorite pastimes.” IMG_0001
The year’s smartest game asks: Is civil democracy just a fantasy? “Metaphor: ReFantazio” blends everything from Socrates to Esperanto in an earnest plea to embrace the difficulties of multicultural society, Gene Park, Washington Post, 11/20/24: “…the game is about the balance of turning one’s anxieties inward or projecting them onto others, authority figures such as politicians and religious leaders.”
Gift Thinking: The relationships, abundance, and reciprocity of nature’s economy, Robin Wall Kimmerer,Jenny Odell, Orion, 11/19/24: “Gesturing beyond the manufactured scarcity of our individualist culture, Kimmerer finds in the serviceberry a different kind of economy than what we’re used to–one where, instead of hoarding, it makes more sense to store your surplus ‘in the belly of your brother.’” Book: The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
The Pythia Blathers On: Now you want my post-election predictions. Oh very well. Hand me the hallucinogenic laurel leaves and release the toxic fumes. Here comes the trance state...Margaret Atwood, In the Writing Burrow, 11/19/24: “Who will prevail, Emperor Elon or Pope Trump? Emperor Elon rules the material world, Pope Trump — being a cult leader —the spiritual one. Each thinks the other is his sock puppet.”
What is upon us
will require mercy. Let the plural be
a return of us. A carnage of blessings—
bodies freed from broken promises,
from the incumbrances of waiting.
— from “On the Thirtieth Friday We Consider Plurals,” Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, winner of the 2024 National Book Award in Poetry.
Politics, Technology, Economics
Donald Trump Has Not Won a Majority of the Votes Cast for President: Donald Trump’s popular vote total has fallen below 50 percent, and his margin over Kamala Harris has narrowed considerably as all the votes are counted, John Nichols, The Nation, 11/19/24
It’s not a mandate!
Vote count as of 11/22/24
Harris (D) Trump (R) Total
74,470,093 76,957,993 154,330,463
48.25% 49.87%
Reasons for hope as Democrats prevent Trump-led red wave in state races: Democrats had braced for a disaster but state results show a much more nuanced picture than the party had feared, Joan E. Greve, The Guardian, 11/23/24: “The mixed results could help Democrats push back against Republicans’ federal policies at the state level, and they offer potential insight on the party’s best electoral strategies as they prepare for the new Trump era.”
Sailing Due North Through the Seas of Post-Election Hyperbole, Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, 11/21/24: “…at least as important as managing the expectations of interest groups is learning to speak clearly about Democrats’ priorities — the concrete deliverables they’ll deliver if elected — to people who don’t come from the college educated milieus where the core of the Democratic Party currently resides.”
No Expectations, Martin Dolan, The Point, 11/20/24: “If they want to have a chance in ’26 and ’28, Democrats need to recognize their biggest enemy isn’t the MAGA movement, but their own ideological stagnation. Young voters, regardless of where they sit on the left-right spectrum, are always going to prefer a politics of “yes, and…” to one offering nothing but the past.”
Most of the country shifted right in the 2024 presidential election, Domenico Montanaro, Connie Hanzhang Jin, Daniel Wood, NPR, 11/21/24: “Trump won the suburbs. Rural areas went even more for Trump. Harris also underperformed in urban areas.”
Why Democrats Failed to Save Democracy: Identity Politics and Microtargeting Killed The Party's Brand, Rachel Bitcofer, The Cycle, 11/18/24: “The way to represent marginalized groups is by wielding the power to represent them in majorities, not by identity politics in campaigns.”
What drove Asian and Hispanic voters to the right in 2024, Dhaaruni Sreenivas, Noahpinion, 11/20/24: “…inflation and the economy.”
America doesn't really have a working class: Why class politics is unlikely to succeed where identity politics failed, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 11/19/24: “It’s common knowledge that most Americans consider themselves ‘middle class,’ but did you know that most Americans also consider themselves ‘working class’?”
The Crypto Triad Won The Election: After gargantuan industry donations, the government is ready to go all-in on cryptocurrency — at the risk of consumers and the greater financial system, Freddie Brewster, The Lever, 11/20/24
Elon Musk algorithmically boosted Republican accounts on X from the moment he endorsed Trump, Timothy Graham, Mark Andrejevic, Werd I/O, 11/17/24: “The analysis reveals a structural engagement shift around mid-July 2024, suggesting platform-level changes that influenced engagement metrics for all accounts under examination. The date at which the structural break (spike) in engagement occurs coincides with Elon Musk’s formal endorsement of Donald Trump on 13th July 2024.”
Project 2025 as Authoritarian Takeover; Videos Nov 17 and 22 Q&As, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Lucid, 11/23/24: “The intent here is to destroy the legal and governance cultures of liberal democracy and create new bureaucratic structures, staffed by new politically vetted cadres, to support autocratic rule.”
Biden must Trump-proof US democracy, activists say: ‘There is a sense of urgency:’ President can secure civil liberties, accelerate spending on climate and healthcare, and spare death row prisoners, David Smith, The Guardian, 11/24/24: “Donald Trump will control all the instruments of government and, at that point, it’ll be up to the courts – and public opinion – to restrain him.”
The GOP is setting a trap on trans rights. Sarah McBride has an answer: The first trans member of Congress issued a response to cruelty that was a work of political artistry, Matt Bai, Washington Post, 11/20/24: “It’s not that most voters hate trans people or don’t think they should have basic protections against discrimination. It’s just that they don’t feel like having their pronouns corrected when they can’t afford groceries.
It's 'Blame Trans People' Season Once Again: DC insiders are rushing to scapegoat trans people rather than take responsibility for their own failures, Jack Mirkinson, Discourse, 11/18/24
The religious indoctrination of America's public school students, Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, Popular Information, 11/21/24: “…educational officials are seeking to incorporate Christianity into public school curriculums.”
The End of Left-Leaning News? Is Progressive Journalism Being Systematically Destroyed? Private equity, billionaire agendas, and GOP-funded attacks are driving a stake through the heart of American media diversity…Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 11/22/24
Democrats Must Do Everything They Can to Block the Dangerous Nonprofit Bill: The House passed a bill aimed at giving the government sweeping powers to crush nonprofits and attack supporters of Palestine. Democrats need to stand firmly in its way, Darryl Li, The Nation, 11/22/24: “The danger of the new proposal lies in disguising sweeping powers to shut down civil society groups as incremental change.”
The Technology the Trump Administration Could Use to Hack Your Phone: Other Western democracies have been roiled by the use of spyware to target political opponents, activists, journalists, and other vulnerable groups. Could it happen here? Ronan Farrow, New Yorker, 11/20/24: “When this happens in an authoritarian system, it is horrific but unsurprising. When it happens in a democracy, however, it creates a sense of disorientation: ‘Could this happen to me? Here? Really?!’ And yet it can, and it does.”
What Could Stop Him? Our Constitution includes multiple guardrails against Trump-like presidents. But those checks and balances only work when citizens resist, David Cole, NY Review of Books, 11/18/24: “Our worst enemy is not Trump himself, but fatalism about our ability to stop him. The Constitution’s checks and balances are not self-enforcing; they work only where citizens and civil society institutions fight back.”
How to Survive the Broligarchy: The Trump-Musk crackdown is coming. Here's 20 lessons in how to survive it, Carole Cadwalladr, The Power, 11/17/24: “Don’t buy the bullshit….They are not gods…”
“Protecting Women:” Your body. My choice, Lyz Lenz, The View from Rural Missouri, 11/22/24: “Women aren’t safe in Trump’s America…. They are not protecting us. We don’t need protection. We need witnesses and allies.”
Morning Joe Bowing Down to Trump Endangers Us All: Setting a dangerous precedent, Scott Dworkin, Dworkin Report, 11/20/24
Democrats Must Discover Their Unique Selling Proposition: They’re the party of government. They should start acting like it, Sam Kahn, Persuasion, 11/20/24: “The Democrats need, truly, to go back to the drawing board, think through what the base of their party can be, what the winning coalition is that they need to obtain, and identify a narrative that can cut through to a divided, embittered country.”
On the Fragility of American Democracy… and the Power of Young Black Activists to Save It: on the 2024 Election and What History Shows Us, Rita Omokha, LitHub, 11/21/24: “…young Black revolutionaries have reshaped this nation, proving that even in the face of profound resistance, progress is possible. Progress, now more than ever, is necessary. That is the true mandate.” Book: Resist: How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America
Is The United States Badly Designed, Actually? Sam Kahn, Castalia, 11/23/24: “Trump was exactly what the skeptics in the Constitutional Convention were worried about. It took awhile to come to pass, but now it has, and, unfortunately there are precious few safeguards in the system — at least for another four years — to keep Trump from doing whatever the hell he wants.”
The Crusade against America, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 11/22/24: “There is a danger of oppression inherent in giving power to incompetent misogynists who claim to know God's will. But the more immediate danger for our republic from such men is chaos and collapse.”
oh, the poets will call the tune,
and I will dance, dance, dance
on your grave, grave, grave,
because you’re a sonofabitch, a sonofabitch,
and you tried to do me in,
but you cant cant cant.
—from “Dancing on the Grave of a Son of a Bitch,” Diane Wakoski
Science, Environment
‘The land is tearing itself apart’: life on a collapsing Arctic isle: On Qikiqtaruk, off Canada, researchers at the frontier of climate change are seeing its rich ecology slide into the sea as the melting permafrost leaves little behind, Leyland Cecco, The Guardian, 11/21/24: “It’s hard not to get emotionally invested because you are studying and witnessing irreversible changes.”
“We have enough evidence” to act on toxic plastic exposure now, Katherine McMahon, Sarah Howard, Environmental Health News, 11/22/24: “Only through a serious and concerted effort to turn off the plastic tap will we apply the lessons learned from plastic use… and avoid the invisible chemicals used in plastic materials from becoming visible in the form of a larger global pandemic of chronic disease.”
You’re Thinking About Hurricanes All Wrong: Yes they’re caused by climate change—but not as you know it, Quico Toro, Persuasion, 11/22/24: “Rather than being a direct result of global warming, the stronger hurricanes we’re seeing this century may be largely a reversion to the mean: just a return to the pre-1960s norm, when there was less dust and less aerosol pollution cooling the Atlantic.”
This seaside town will power thousands of homes with waves: Wave energy has been untapped so far, but an experiment could unlock its potential in the United States, Sarah Raza, Washington Post, 11/19/24 (Newport, Oregon) “There’s enough energy in the waves off America’s coasts to power one third of all the nation’s homes.”
$375M Indigenous-led conservation deal just signed in the Northwest Territories: The agreement uses a Wall Street-inspired approach to conservation finance, with 380,000 square kilometres of land and water in its scope, Chloe Williams, The Narwhal, 11/21/24
For the Love of a Little Sea: The birthplace of experimental marine biology is in decline. Will Ireland rally to save it? Olive Heffernan, Hakai, 11/21/24: “The situation at the reserve is part of a trend in Ireland and globally: “paper parks”—whereby governments create protected areas but fall flat on developing regulations or on enforcing them.”
The Green New Deal—From Below: It’s a base for countering Trump’s destructive policies, Jeremy Brecher, The Nation, 11/21/24: “Green New Deal from Below actions aim to make concrete changes that make a difference in people’s daily lives—whether through shutting down a polluting coal-fired power plant in an asthma-stricken community in Massachusetts or providing free transit or free bicycles for young people in the state of Washington.”
All Life on Earth Today Descended From a Single Cell. Meet LUCA: The clearest picture yet of our “last universal common ancestor” suggests it was a relatively complex organism living 4.2 billion years ago, a time long considered too harsh for life to flourish, Jonathan Lambert, Quanta, 11/20/24
Health, Wellness
The fluoride debate: The nuance you may be looking for, Katelyn Jetelina, Your Local Epidemioligist, 11/19/24: “In 2011, Calgary’s city council banned fluoridation. In five years, cavities among elementary school children increased almost twofold, and IV antibiotics (to mitigate harm from bacteria) increased eightfold. They ended up putting fluoride back in in 2021.”
Mysterious chemical byproduct in U.S. tap water finally identified: Scientists discover formula and structure of chlorine-related molecule and urge tests for possible toxicity, Carolyn Y. Johnson, Joel Achenbach, Washington Post, 11/21/24: “…the discovery of a new and previously unknown chemical, called chloronitramide anion, could have implications for municipal water systems that use a class of chlorine-based disinfectants called chloramines.”
The human heart may have a hidden ability to repair itself, Karolinska Institutet, Science Daily, 11/21/24: “After severe heart failure, the ability of the heart to heal by forming new cells is very low. However, after receiving treatment with a supportive heart pump, the capacity of a damaged heart to repair itself with new muscle cells becomes significantly higher, even higher than in a healthy heart.”
Birds, Birding
The Hero Who Convinced His Fellow Ornithologists of the Obvious: Stop Shooting Birds and Watch Them Instead: Too late to save the ivory-billed woodpecker, Arthur Allen changed science forever with his seemingly simple idea, Tim Gallagher, Smithsonian, 12/24 issue: “Allen was obsessive about studying birds—especially species that were vanishing.”
An intact 80-million-year-old fossil is the ‘Rosetta Stone’ that promises to decipher bird evolution: A new study reconstructs the skull and brain of ‘Navaornis hestiae,’ a species positioned at the crossroads of the evolutionary transition from ancient, dinosaur-like birds to modern avian species, Fecundo Machi, El Pais, 11/18/24
They are the nameless poor who have been marching
Out of the dark, to that possible moment when history
Crosses the tracks of our time.
—from “Nocturne Militaire,” Thomas McGrath
I posted a new Writerscast interview with trans memoirist Oliver Radclyffe about his powerful book, Frighten the Horses
I wonder if “gift thinking” might be like a hidden potential, a muscle that atrophies without exercise. And the needed exercise for that muscle is paying attention.—Robin Wall Kimmerer
Love is always the place where I begin and end.—bell hooks
We can open the door to the light.—Timothy Snyder
Please do keep in touch. We need each other, now more than ever. Our connections to each other are what matters most now.
Celebrate Native American Heritage Day.
Keep your lights burning brightly and stay strong.
Be well.
Love always—David