The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 110, June 19, 2022 (V3 #6)
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."— Albert Einstein
“[O]nly the party that instigated this war over our democracy can bring an end to that war…. These senseless wars…were conceived and instigated from our Nation’s Capital by our own political leaders…and they have been cynically prosecuted by them to fever pitch, now to the point that they have recklessly put America herself at stake.”— Judge J. Michael Luttig
You can’t make this shit up: “While Elon Musk was discussing the importance of free speech with Twitter employees, SpaceX fired at least five employees after it found they had drafted and circulated a letter criticizing him.”— Dave Pell, NextDraft, 6/17/22
“I am the god of finding names for all the places our bones meet “— Aurielle Marie, from “yes, i am done with the god of white men” in Gumbo Ya Ya (U of Pittsburgh Press)
Love and War
MUST READ: Only love can stop war: a Northern Cheyenne chief's call to the world: Our people’s teachings, connecting us to the land and the universe, have enabled us to survive genocide and can point the way to peace – 146 years after the Battle of the Little Bighor Heove ve 'keso (Yellowbird), Chief Phillip Whiteman Jr, traditional Northern Cheyenne Chief, The Guardian, 6/17/22: “We will never end war and genocide unless we change the mindset that created it. War cannot defeat war, only love can stop war.”
Mission command - NATO's Strangelove vision of freedom enacted on the Ukraine battlefield, Adam Tooze, Chartbook, 6/12/22: “Why have Ukrainian forces been able so far to withstand Russia’s assault on their country? It is a historic surprise a shock which offers a Rorschach blot onto which to project more or less ideological interpretation.”
There is no one ‘religious view’ on abortion: A scholar of religion, gender and sexuality explains, Samira Mehta, The Conversation, 6/13/22
Counting on the Supreme Court to uphold key rights was always a mistake: Liberals are re-learning the lesson that only democratically enacted rights are reliable, Samuel Moyn, Washington Post, 6/17/22
A Parisian General Store’s Radical Message for Its Customers? Buy Less: Eschewing disposable living, an entrepreneur in Paris sells items meant to be repaired, reused, or passed on, Lindsey Tramuta, Bloomberg, 6/13/22
A Texas Teen-Ager’s Abortion Odyssey: The Heartbeat Act is forcing families to journey to oversubscribed clinics in other states—offering a preview of life in post-Roe America, Stephania Taladrid, New Yorker, 6/13/22
The Two-Pronged Test That Could Put Trump in Prison: As the January 6th hearings unfold, a former U.S. Attorney discusses the possibility of criminally prosecuting the former President, Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 6/14/22
Trump’s forces are preparing for the next storming of the Capitol. This time, they plan to win: The danger to US democracy didn’t end on 6 January – his followers are now ripping up the safeguards that foiled them, Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian, 6/10/22
Crypto Crashes, Inflation, Gun-Toting White Nationalists… This is Steve Bannon’s Perfect Storm: on the Fragile State of American Democracy, Andrew Keen, LitHub, 6/17/22
Progressives should fear inflation more than recession: Raising interest rates will hurt the economy (and the Democrats) less than the alternative, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 6/13/22
Graham Allison on the ‘Grandest Collision of All Time:’ The scholar talks about the state of the Thucydides's trap for the U.S. and China; why things will get worse before they get better; and the unfortunate constraints in American policymaking, Garrett O’Brien, The Wire China, 6/12/22
Where does the wealth go when asset prices go down? It vanishes into nothingness, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 6/16/22
Starbucks versus Gen Z, Judd Legum, Tesnim Zekeria, Popular Information, 6/15/22
SpaceX Employees Call Elon Musk An ‘Embarrassment’ in Open Letter, Staff, WebProNews, 6/16/22
Pride events targeted in surge of anti-LGBTQ threats, violence: Extremism trackers say political hate speech is fueling a rise in demonstrations and attacks against LGBTQ communities, Hannah Allam, Washington Post, 6/17/22
Books ‘n Culture
‘A huge labor of love’: the Lou Reed exhibition years in the making: At the New York Public Library, an expansive new exhibition shares previously unseen personal artifacts and demos, Rob LeDonne, The Guardian, 6/15/22
Memories of the Pogroms: Understanding History Through Family Stories: Lisa Brahin on What She Learned From Her Grandmother, LitHub, 6/13/22
10 Must-Read Ecofeminism Books, Olivia Lai, Earth.org, 6/14/22: “…recognising how elevating women can help mitigate the climate crisis and create more equitable societies.”
Oprah’s latest book club pick: ‘Nightcrawling,’ by Leila Mottley, Ron Charles, Washington Post, 6/14/22: Buy Nightcrawling here.
The Spirit of Ukrainian Resistance: Five Poems by Marjana Savka: “As if god’s optics weren’t aiming straight for your heart,” Literary Hub, 5/18/22
He asked us not to kill. He walked here among us.
He will rise again. Casting off his cross and vulnerability.
He will rise again and will join our ranks,
Desperate,
Brave,
Familiar,
Alive.
April 23, 2022
—Marjana Savka, Trans. from the Ukrainian by Amelia Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk
In Occupied Cities, Time Doesn’t Exist: Conversations with Bucha Writers, Ilya Kaminsky, Paris Review, 6/14/22: “I set aside metaphors to speak about the war in clear words.”—Daryna Gladun
Yoko Ono’s Art of Defiance: Before she met John Lennon, she was a significant figure in avant-garde circles and had created a masterpiece of conceptual art. Did celebrity deprive her of her due as an artist? Louis Menand, New Yorker, 6/13/22
The bread of ancient Israel is baked again for modern tables: When baker Hagai Ben Yehuda wanted to create something new, he turned to the past, Bethan McKernan, The Guardian, 6/12/22
A Minneapolis woman was about to be evicted. Neighbors bought her home for her: The community raised $275,000 to buy Linda Taylor’s house, where she has lived for nearly 20 years, Sydney Page, Washington Post, 6/13/22
When I'm driving in my car
When a man come on the radio
He's telling me more and more
About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination
—from “Satisfaction” by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. These days I like the Devo version best.
Science and Environment
How the Ocean Inside the Mantle Affects the Habitability of the Earth: A new model suggests “mantle rain” from inside Earth’s mantle ensures we will always have a surface ocean, Theo Nicitopoulos, Hakai, 6/16/22
Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ shedding ice at fastest rate in 5,000 years: ‘Runaway ice loss’ could raise sea levels by over three metres in coming centuries, Harry Cockburn, Independent (UK), 6/17/22
Allergies in overdrive as extreme weather drives higher pollen count: Trees and grass are emitting more pollen than usual, scientists say – and it’s likely to stay that way in the coming years, Tracey Lindeman, The Guardian, 6/13/22
Real age versus biological age: the startups revealing how old we really are: Mail-order tests promise an estimate of how well you’re ageing but the results can be just one more thing to worry about, Wilfred Chan, The Guardian, 6/13/22
How Animals Perceive the World: Every creature lives within its own sensory bubble, but only humans have the capacity to appreciate the experiences of other species. What we’ve learned is astounding, Ed Yong, The Atlantic, 6/13/22
From Spring to Fall, New York Harbor Is a Feeding Ground for Bottlenose Dolphins, a New Study Reveals: Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society used underwater acoustic monitoring to record their foraging “clicks” and compile baseline data on their presence in the busy estuary, Daelin Brown, Inside Climate News, 6/13/22
Why the Chesapeake Bay’s Beloved Blue Crabs Are At an All-Time Low: Scientists on the latest dredge survey said factors like pollution, predation and a sex imbalance in the blue crab population could be among the factors contributing to the decline, Aman Azhar, Inside Climate News, 6/15/22
Neural 'Poisonous Flowers' Could Be The Source of Alzheimer's Plaque, Says Study, Claire Watson, ScienceAlert, 6/5/22
A $100 genome? New DNA sequencers could be a ‘game changer’ for biology, medicine: “This is the year of the big shake-up,” Elizabeth Pennisi, Science, 6/15/22
Scientists harness light therapy to target and kill cancer cells in world first: experts believe new form of photoimmunotherapy may become fifth major cancer treatment, Andrew Gregory, The Guardian, 6/17/22
EPA warns that even tiny amounts of chemicals found in drinking water pose risks, Associated Press, NPR, 6/15/22
This Styrofoam-eating ‘superworm’ could help solve the garbage crisis: Scientists across the world are trying to find bacteria and bugs that consume trash. A plastic-consuming worm is the latest, Pranshu Verma, Washington Post, 6/17/22
Spanish-Israeli team finds mechanism to make blood cancer cells harmless: In cancer, healthy cells turn into malignant ones with very different characteristics, such as the ability to divide in an uncontrolled manner, Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, Jerusalem Post, 6/12/22
Covid is making flu and other common viruses act in unfamiliar ways, Frances Stead Sellers, Washington Post, 6/13/22
People who caught Covid in first wave get ‘no immune boost’ from Omicron: Study of triple vaccinated people also says Omicron infection does little to reduce chance of catching variant again, Nicola Davis, The Guardian, 6/14/22
Long COVID Could Be a ‘Mass Deterioration Event:’ A tidal wave of chronic illness could leave millions of people incrementally worse off, Benjamin Mazer, The Atlantic, 6/15/22
Social stress can speed up immune system aging – new research, Eric Klopack, The Conversation, 6/15/22
Newest Omicron Covid-19 lineages gaining ground in United States, Andrew Joseph, Stat, 6/14/22
The Scientists Who Made the COVID Vaccine Possible on How the Pandemic Will End, Elizabeth Yuko, Teen Vogue, 6/15/22
Pollution detector that does not need a lab, David Gregory-Kumar, BBC, 6/13/22: “The detector bounces light off the river water and analyses what happens to it.”
Climate change could dry up ideal duck habitat in the Northern Plains: So wetland conservation is more important than ever, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 6/16/22
The 1977 White House climate memo that should have changed the world, Emma Pattee, The Guardian, 6/14/22: “Years before the climate crisis was part of national discourse, this memo to the president predicted catastrophe.”
The US Can Halve Its Emissions by 2030—if It Wants To: The economics are clear: Renewables are cheap enough for the country to rapidly decarbonize. Less evident is the political will to pull it off, Matt Simon, Wired, 6/15/22
Climate Change is Making the World More Dangerous for Women, Queers, and Gender Minorities, Tracey Anne Duncan, Mic, 6/14/22
Pollen and Heat: A Looming Challenge for Global Agriculture: Farmers and scientists are increasingly observing that unusually high springtime temperatures can kill pollen and interfere with the fertilization of crops. Researchers are now searching for ways to help pollen beat the heat, including developing more heat-tolerant varieties, Carolyn Beans, Yale Environment 360, 6/14/22
The farmers restoring Hawaii’s ancient food forests that once fed an island: Maui is a hub for GMO research but Indigenous farmers are trying to bring back the abundant and thriving landscapes of their ancestors, Nina Lakhani, The Guardian, 6/17/22
A Hotter, Poorer, and Less Free America: In the next few weeks, Senate Democrats could fall short—for arguably the third time in 30 years—of passing a climate deal. What will that mean for the planet and the country? Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, 6/15/22
In a strange way
My one flight surpassed a thousand
Because the hope of heaven
Attains as much as it hopes for;
My only hope was this flight
In hoping I was not disappointed
Because I flew so high, so high
That I captured what I sought.
—from “Love’s Lance” by Mary Oppen (Read her autobiography, Meaning a Life)
Bird Life
The Elegant Puffin Relative, the Razorbill, Jeff and Allison Wells, Wiscasset Newspaper, 6/15/22: “Razorbills don't have the showy orange bills of Atlantic puffins but have many similarities in life history including living in offshore marine habitats and nesting on islands.”
Wild Georgia: Smallest falcons having a banner year in state, Charles Seabrook, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6/17/22
The Upper West Side’s Newest Bird-Watching Hotspot, Hazen Cuyler, I Love the Upper West Side, 6/17/22 (peregrine falcon story)
Rare, endangered Gouldian finch has twitchers a-flutter as it makes unexpected Top End comeback, Roxanne Fitzgerald, ABC Katherine (Australia), 6/11/22
His 48th summer on top of the world, Ned Rozell, Delta Discovery, 6/13/22: “Cooper Island is a crescent of gravel in the Beaufort Sea, 25 miles east of Utqiaġvik, the northernmost settlement in the United States….bird is the black guillemot, a sleek ebony sea bird that spends its entire life in the Arctic.”
June 17th was the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, the beginning of what was then the greatest presidential scandal in American history. It marks a through line to what we are experiencing now.
Today, June 19th, we celebrate Juneteenth, when in 1865, Federal troops reached Galveston, Texas, freeing slaves who should have been freed in 1863. It appears that many Texans’ views have not evolved since. The new Texas Republican party platform includes abolishing the Federal Reserve, repealing the Federal income tax, defining homosexuality as “abnormal,” teaching that life begins at fertilization and requiring students to listen to ultrasounds of gestating fetuses, among other far-right tropes.
This is what we are up against now. I wish more Americans would pay attention to what Republicans are saying. The price of gas does matter, but it’s not as important as saving democracy.
“…there is a moment, an actual time, when you believe something to be true, and you construct a meaning from these moments of conviction.”— George Oppen
“We are living through a revolt against the future. The future will prevail.” — Anand Giridharadas
“I love you, and there is nothing you can do about it.”— Chief Phillip Whiteman Jr.