The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 298, January 25, 2026 (V6 #38)
We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of life.― Yuval Noah Harari
Books, Music, Art, Culture
The Burning Time: Sometimes Birth is a Crisis, Rob Brezsny, Astrology Newsletter, 1/20/26: “The fire that kills the forest is also what births the next forest.”
On Being a Somali Artist in Minnesota: Violence has a way of turning familiar places into guarded ground. And yet, I ask not what has been taken, but what we will continue to build from what remains, Ifrah Mansour, Hyperallergic, 1/22/26
‘The rise of fascism makes our work even more important’: Montez Press, champions of queer, feminist art: Now they’re going global, Emma Russell, Guardian, 1/21/26: “Montez Press was formed to counter a publishing landscape dominated, they say, by heteronormative journalists and academics.”
Tricksters and the Spirit World: Julian Brave NoiseCat discusses ‘We Survived the Night,’ his genre-bending revival of the ‘Coyote epic,’ with Leila Nadir, LARB, 1/24/26: “…my formative childhood experience was losing that Epic Mythic Father Figure who connected me to my reservation, my family, my culture, my identity.”
Activists Fight to Salvage the ‘Sistine Chapel of New Deal Art’:President Trump’s plans to sell a federal building housing works of art about Social Security is an attempt to erase the country’s history, a new petition argues, Aaron Short, Hyperallergic, 1/19/26
You’ve Never Heard of China’s Greatest Sci-Fi Novel: Millions of words. Thousands of authors. The Morning Star of Lingao is barely known outside China—but it contains the secret to the country’s modernization and malaise, Afra Wang, Wired, 1/20/26
How America’s First Nonbinary Minister Created True Equality in the Newly Born United States: on “Universal Friend,” the Genderless Messenger of God Who Aimed to Save Lost Souls and Preach Universal Salvation, Nina Sankovitch, LitHub, 1/21/26: “Friend’s underlying goal was one that Americans hold close to our hearts: How to create a practical, functioning utopia. A world in which all its citizens have hope.” Book: Not Your Founding Father: How a Nonbinary Minister Became America’s Most Radical Revolutionary
Defund Science, Distort Culture, Mock Education: It’s not just about cuts to research. It’s about power, Anne Applebaum, Atlantic, 1/23/26: “…destroying trust is the currency of autocrats…” (no paywall)
Fascists are at war with journalism. Why aren’t journalists at war with fascism? Mainstream media seem willing to drop their duty in order to pick up profits, Mark Jacob, Stop Presses, 1/20/26
American Psycho: How Donald Trump Brought the “Bateman Doctrine” to the World: on the Devastating Consequences of Narcissism Elevated to Policy, Aron Solomon, LitHub, 1/23/26: “A society that cannot confront narcissism at the level of power will normalize it as character.”
The Abyss: We’re through the looking glass. Who we once were — what we once were — is over, Andrew Sullivan, Weekly Dish, 1/23/26: “An abyss is being in mid-air in this rupture in our civilization.”
Ginsberg’s “America” Revisited, Ipek S. Burnett, CounterPunch, 1/19/26: “One poem at a time, 1400 miles an hour. That was his job. His gift to America. It’s our turn.”
America this is quite serious.
America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.
America is this correct?
I’d better get right down to the job.
It’s true I don’t want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts factories, I’m nearsighted and psychopathic anyway.
America I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.
from “America,” Allen Ginsberg
Politics, Economics, Technology
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.— Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution
The Murder of Alex Pretti: Warning: this post contains graphic content, Chris Cilizza, Telos, 1/25/26: “Alex Jeffrey Pretti was an unarmed protester who was shot in the back and murdered by federal agents, who continued to fire at him even after he was lying on the ground, lifeless.”
Alex Pretti did not brandish gun, witnesses say in sworn testimony: Pair testify that Pretti did not hold weapon and was trying to help woman federal agents had shoved to the ground, Robert Mackey, Guardian, 1/24/26
Monsters: And their enablers are accessories to murder, Paul Krugman, Newsletter, 1/25/26
Death Squads Execute Second Dissident: Or what the US press would say if this was happening on the streets of a “shithole” country overseas, Carole Cadwalladr, How to Survive, 1/25/26
Execution in Minneapolis: The ugly face of fascism cannot be ignored any longer, Jennifer Rubin, Contrarian, 1/25/26: “The rest of us need to internalize Minneapolis’s heroic defense of democracy and do our part to rise to the defense of all Americans.”
Videos Contradict U.S. Account of Minneapolis Shooting by Federal Agents: See how immigration officers escalated a fatal confrontation Saturday, Brenna Smith et al, WSJ, 1/25/26 (no paywall!)
The ICE killing of Alex Pretti, the second in Minneapolis, prompts quick legal action: After federal agents killed the nurse on Saturday, lawyers responded quickly — leading to one TRO issued before the night’s end aimed at preserving evidence of the killing, Chris Geidner, Law Dork, 1/25/26: “District Judge Eric Tostrud, a Trump appointee…granting a temporary restraining order in the new case barring the federal government from ‘destroying or altering evidence.’”
Democratic congressman punched in racist attack at Sundance film festival: Maxwell Alejandro Frost says attacker ‘told me Trump was going to deport me’ as police say suspect arrested, Lauren Gambino, Guardian, 1/25/26
Report Details Trump’s Rapid Escalation Toward Authoritarianism in First Year of Second Term: ‘We are all witness to a dangerous trajectory under President Trump that has already led to a human rights emergency,’ said the leader of Amnesty International USA, Julia Conley, Common Dreams, 1/20/26
Immigration officers assert sweeping power to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, memo says, Rebecca Santana, AP News, 1/21/26: “… the memo “flies in the face” of what the Fourth Amendment protects against and what ICE itself has historically said are its authorities.”
In 2026, you are going to lose more freedoms, Lyz Lenz, Men Yell at Me, 1/21/26: “If you are a woman, your freedoms are at risk.”
The Goal Was (And Is) Dictatorship: This was clear years ago: Trump hungered for total power and retribution, while extremist Republicans mocked liberal government and right-wing groups plotted a fascist takeover, Steven Beschloss, America, America, 1/20/26
Kristi Noem’s assault on the Fourth Amendment: Thanks, Brett Kavanaugh, Liz Dye, Public Notice, 1/21/26: “DHS deliberately confuses reasonable suspicion and probable cause in hopes that no one will notice that ICE and CBP are making illegal arrests as standard operating procedure.”
FDR’s Four Freedoms and the Second Bill of Rights: The social welfare state, winning World War II, and building the liberal order after Trump, Dennis Lytton, Liberal Currents, 1/21/26: “Liberalism is best when it’s a fighting faith. Liberalism is in the fight for humanity, for the supremacy of human rights everywhere.”
Trump Has Made ICE the Largest Law Enforcement Agency in the Country: With Congress-approved funding, ICE detention is expected to triple in size, mirroring the scale of Japanese internment, Silky Shah, Truthout, 1/20/26
Trump’s ICE and Hitler’s Brown Shirts: Lessons From Two Eras, Robert Reich, Newsletter, 1/20/26: “…what happens when a state rapidly expands a force authorized to use coercion against a designated population?”
Trump Is Building a Political Police Force in Plain Sight: In ICE, Trump is Building a Private Army, Rachel Bitcofer, Cycle, 1/21/26
The Congresswoman Criminalized for Visiting ICE Detainees: LaMonica McIver went to tour an immigration jail in her New Jersey district. Now she faces seventeen years in prison, Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker, 1/19/26: “The only reason we were outside the fucking gate is because they would not give us a tour.”
DOGE staffer signed deal to share Social Security data with election deniers, Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, Noel Sims, Popular Information, 1/22/26: “…there is evidence pointing to True the Vote, a right-wing group with a history of pushing false claims of election fraud.”
We ran high-level US civil war simulations. Minnesota is exactly how they start: Developments in Minnesota closely mirror a scenario explored in a 2024 exercise conducted at the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, Claire Finkelstein, Guardian, 1/21/26
Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires call for higher taxes on super-rich: Mark Ruffalo, Brian Eno and Abigail Disney sign letter timed for WEF in Davos saying wealthy are buying political influence, Graeme Wearden, Guardian, 1/20/26
The non-exodus of California billionaires: The media says they’re fleeing a wealth tax. Except, they’re not, Harold Meyerson, American Prospect, 1/22/26
What happens if the world pulls its money out of America? The more Trump makes it clear that America is not what it used to be, the more likely capital flight becomes, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 1/23/26
If Someone Wanted to Destroy America, What Would They Do Differently? Olga Lautman, Newsletter, 1/19/26
We Are Witnessing the Self-Immolation of a Superpower: With Donald Trump’s actions in Greenland, Minneapolis, and Venezuela, a foreign enemy could not invent a better chain of events to wreck the standing of the United States, Garret M. Graff, Wired, 1/22/26
To break something in order to repair it.
To touch all of the earth in order to think
about something else. I’ve forgiven everyone.
It’s autumn already. So many leaves have fallen
—I have to go out and kiss each one.—from “Childhood Tryptich,” Billy-Ray Belcourt
AI, (the Internet)
AI bot swarms threaten to undermine democracy: When AI Can Fake Majorities, Democracy Slips Away, Daniel Thilo, Jonas R. Kunst, Gary Marcus, On AI, 123/26
Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Pushback, Matthew Gault, 404 Media, 1/21/26 “Everything interesting, uplifting, and empowering I find about art gets stripped away and turned into vapid facsimiles based on vibes and trendy aesthetics.”
The AI productivity paradox: Managers say it makes them more productive. Workers don’t. What gives? Casey Newton, Platformer, 1/22/26: “One theory is that AI usage simply shifts the burden of completing tasks around the organization.”
Cybernetic Circulation Complex: Big Tech and Planetary Crisis, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Alessandra Mularoni, Bullet, 1/21/26: “Fascist movements – determined to strip every regulation or limitation of the market in the name of freedom, and to break apart the proletariat with waves of hatred against women and ethnic and sexual minorities – are well positioned to deploy generative AIs, with terrifying consequences.”
Three words that became hard to say
I and love and you—from “I and Love and You,” Avett Brothers
Science, Environment, Wilderness
U.S. public invited to weigh in on major offshore drilling proposal: New oil and gas leases could open more than a billion acres of U.S. coastal waters to development, Team, Yale Climate Connections, 1/19/26
Half of world’s CO2 emissions come from just 32 fossil fuel firms, study shows: Critics accuse leading firms of sabotaging climate action but say data increasingly being used to hold them to account, Damian Carrington, Guardian, 1/21/26
Scientists warn of ‘regime shift’ as seaweed blooms expand worldwide: Study links rapid growth of ocean macroalgae to global heating and nutrient pollution, Damien Gayle, Guardian, 1/19/26
An alpine disaster in Switzerland was no freak accident: Thawing ground can destabilize mountainsides and glaciers, Team, Yale Climate Connections, 1/21/26
People like the idea of being green. But they hate being told what to do even more: A new survey suggests climate mandates could trigger a backlash even worse than COVID policies, Sarah DeWeerdt, Anthropocene, 1/20/26
The Repugnance of Human Extinction: Why Our Survival Matters: the Personal and Ethical Value of Combatting Climate Change, Partha Dasgupta, LitHub, 1/21/26: “The mistake is to see ecological preservation as matters of personal and political morality.” Book: On Natural Capital: The Value of the World Around Us
How Animals Build a Sense of Direction: Researchers documented the activity of neurons that shape directional navigation as bats explored a remote island off the coast of Tanzania, Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta, 1/21/26
Should the climate fight shift focus from curbing emissions to reducing human suffering? Bill Gates’ provocative question, James Gaines, Anthropocene, 1/22/26
Stop Pretending Climate Change Is Simple: Navigating the Three Visions of our Climate Future, Quico Toro, One Percent Brighter, 1/19/26: “The overwhelming reality we have to deal with is dominated by deep uncertainty: the fundamental unknowability of which trajectory we’re on, and the havoc that uncertainty plays with any attempt to nail down a reasonable policy response.”
We interrupt the madness for a note from the rational world: And an encouraging one, at that! Bill McKibben, Crucial Years, 1/22/26: “…can India start to jump past fossil fuels straight to renewables. Almost certainly so!”
The world is older and I in it
am older,
burning, slower, with the same passions.
The passions are older and so I am also younger
for knowing them more deeply and moving in them
pregnant with fear and fighting.
The gloves are still there, in the cold,
passing from hand to hand—from “The Gloves,” Margaret Randall
Health, Wellness, Wellbeing
Eating less ultraprocessed food supports healthier aging, new research shows: Older adults whose diets consisted of only 15% ultraprocessed foods -- rather than the usual 50% — had lower weight, insulin and cholesterol, Moul Dey, Conversation, 1/19/26
Trump Rollbacks Put Children’s Health at Risk as Pollution Increases: New federal decisions remove health protections as Black communities face rising pollution and asthma rates, Adam Mahoney, Capital B, 1/20/26
Your brain can be trained, much like your muscles – a neurologist explains how to boost your brain health, Joanna Fong-Isariyawongse, Conversation, 1/23/26: “Repetition keeps the brain running, but novelty pushes the brain to adapt.”
Let us seek each other in the villages of the earth,
In the root dark where we live in the dust,
Find us singing in the underground vein, the germinal seed,
in the returning sun,
And bring our goodness to enormous, fertile and perpetual harvest,
Toward zeniths of noon.—from “Communal Global Day,” Meridel LeSueur
Resist, Resistance, Resilience
We’re All the Greengrocer Now: What world leaders can teach us about refusing the rituals of obedience, Asha Rangappa, Freedom Academy, 1/24/26: “…everyone who obeys the system is complicit in the system’s successful functioning overall.”
Enough: Time for a truly massive general strike, Robert Reich, Newsletter, 1/25/26: “We must now join together, all of us, to peacefully and decidedly end his dictatorship.”
Shut It Down? Shut It Down, Gene Weingarten, Gene Pool, 1/25/26: “Shouldn’t we create a situation where co-opted, docile Republican legislative leaders are forced to take action…”
The Extra-Judicial Killing of Alex Pretti, Robert Hubbell, Today’s Edition, 1/25/26: “In the coming days, each of us will be forced to answer the question, ‘What would you have done when the Nazi’s were taking over Germany?’”
Beyond Protest: Why Noncooperation Is How We Win, Scot Nakagawa, Anti Authoritarian Playbook, 1/23/26: “Authoritarians cannot rule without our cooperation.”
What if we just stopped paying taxes? Where there’s a will there (might) be a way, Lisa Needham, Public Notice, 1/23/26: “…the federal government has broken the compact of federalism, states have very little incentive to behave as if everything is normal.”
Social Strikes: Confronting ICE and Resisting Authoritarianism, Alexandria Shaner, Bullet, 1/21/26: “…social strikes may provide a way for people facing authoritarian takeover to establish or reestablish democracy.”
The Evil Man and the Empty Congress: A psalm for the republic in extremis, Mike Brock, Notes on Circus, 1/20/26: “Congress responds to pressure. Pressure is us.”
One Long Year Later: It’s Not Over, and We Haven’t Surrendered, Rebecca Solnit, Letters from an Emergency, 1/20/26: “By reaching out and creating the conditions for mutual support and encouragement, you become a source of strength to others.”
No offering is too small. No stone unneeded…All of us, without exception, are qualified to participate in the rescue of the world.—Julian Aguon
Dearest Friends:
The murder of Alex Pretti in Minnesota in Minnesota is heartbreaking and overwhelming. I am both grief stricken and enraged. I hope that Alex’s death will wake up more Americans to stand against the Gestapo tactics of our absurd—but murderous—wannabe dictator.
Talk to your families, friends, neighbors, your communities about what is going on every day in America. Don’t let them look away. We can, we must stop authoritarianism before it becomes impossible to resist.
Connect ICE and its violence to everything else that this regime is doing to unravel and undermine democracy. This is not about immigrants. Change the frame.
As the sign says, what happens to others today will happen to you tomorrow.
This regime does not have the support of the majority of Americans. Fight them now, before it is too late.
Tell truths to counter lies. Bear witness, stand up, stand together in community. Bring love to every conflict. Bring your broken hearts and we will heal together.
We will get through this nightmare to achieve a better world, and we will be together in it.
Much love, always—David
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.—Arundhati Roy
For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.—Carl Sagan