The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 115, July 24, 2022 (V3 #11)
“Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted; when we tolerate what we know to be wrong; when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened; when we fail to speak up and speak out—we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice”--Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
“We are living in an era of chaos. And in an era of chaos, most people look to the past to hang on to, something they are familiar with, something they know, otherwise the landscape is too overwhelming.”—Bob Lefsetz
The irresponsibility of the male
Leaves woman her superior Inferiority.
He is running upstairs
—Mina Loy, from “Parturition” (1914)
Politicking
Must Read Article of the Week: It's a smug, self-satisfied con-job, and don't you fall for it, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 7/23/22: “It's a con job. Don’t believe a word of it. They’re just ridding themselves of a cancer they accidentally found growing on one of their legs so they can continue stomping on poor people and women and gay people and anybody else they don’t like and ensuring we stay in our place. They’re Republicans. It’s what they do.”
A Constitutional Crisis Is Brewing in Pennsylvania, Marc Elias, Democracy Docket, 7/19/22: “By refusing to count lawful votes and then certifying incomplete and inaccurate results, Republicans hope to create a veneer of legitimacy around an illegitimate outcome. Our system is ill equipped to address this looming crisis.”
The Real Backlash Never Ended: Three decades later, Susan Faludi’s 1991 feminist classic still shows us how to read between the lines, Molly Fischer, The New Yorker, 7/21/22
WTF happened to the Secret Service? Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 7/20/22: “What could have happened that was so terrible on January 5 and 6 in the White House that the Secret Service would find it necessary to destroy its own reputation for fairness and bravery and service to the nation?”
Supreme Court reversed almost 200 years of US law and tradition upholding tribal sovereignty in its latest term, Kirsten Matoy Carlson, The Conversation, 7/21/22
Justice Neil Gorsuch’s Radical Reinterpretation of the First Amendment: His opinion in the case of a public-high-school football coach who led prayers on the fifty-yard line privileges religious speech, Fabio Bertoni, The New Yorker, 7/20/22
This Court Has Revealed Conservative Originalism to Be a Hollow Shell: The Supreme Court’s right-wing justices claim to be originalists, but then they pick and choose the history that fits their ideological preferences, David H. Gans, The Atlantic, 7/20/22
A 1792 case reveals that key Founders saw abortion as a private matter: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall and Patrick Henry didn’t advocate for prosecution of a woman who probably had an abortion, Sarah Hougen Poggi, Cynthia A. Kierner, Washington Post, 7/19/22
Major Questions Doctrine new major trouble for executive branch of government, Dave Dickey, Investigate Midwest, 7/19/22
The Fate of States’ Rights After Roe: It’s become clear that the anti-abortion movement won’t sit idly by while states enact the abortion policies their residents want, Jerusalem Demsas, The Atlantic, 7/18/22
The billionaires buying the midterm elections, Judd Legum, Popular Information, 7/18/22: “an acceleration of an alarming trend in American politics.”
To avert election disaster, Democrats need to run a fiercely pro-worker campaign: You won’t hear this on Fox News, but Biden did a terrific job lifting America out of the pandemic-induced downturn. The nation added 8.9m jobs during Biden’s first 18 months in office, Steven Greenhouse, The Guardian, 7/19/22
Democrats have to decide: Are they about change or the status quo? Perry Bacon, Jr., Washington Post, 7/19/22
One in five US adults condone ‘justified’ political violence, mega-survey finds: As mistrust and alienation from democratic institutions peaks, researchers explore how willing Americans are to commit violence, Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, 7/21/22
Impact of Supreme Court's climate ruling spreads: The legal doctrine that the conservative justices used to strike down an EPA regulation in late June is popping up in a host of new legal challenges — including many having nothing to do with climate change, Alex Guillen, Politico, 7/20/22
“Pro-Life” Idaho Republicans Declare Women Should be Left to Die to Save fetuses: Abortion is apparently “murder,” but letting pregnant people die is cool, Bess Levin, Vanity Fair, 7/18/22
Oklahoma Threatens Librarians: ‘Don’t Use the Word Abortion’ After a total abortion ban in the state, library workers in Oklahoma were warned to not help patrons find abortion-related information, period, Claire Woodcock, Vice, 7/21/22
Nazis, Nukes, and NATO: Or: what the Russo-Ukrainian War is Not About, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About…, 7/21/22: “Russia is fighting a war of destruction with the goal of eliminating the Ukrainian nation.”
Cake or Death? America Takes Death, Please, Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin, The Newsletter with ECM, 7/19/22: “Cake is prosecuting an attempted coup for which there is so much evidence that the trial of the collaborators at the top would be, no pun intended, a cakewalk.”
The 2022 US Midterm Elections’ Top Security Issue: Death Threats: While cybersecurity and foreign meddling remain priorities, domestic threats against election workers have risen to the top of the list, Lily Hay Newman, Wired, 7/21/22
The Republican Party Now Backs an Anti-Democratic Insurgency: on the Trump Insurgents and the Conspiracy Thinking of Their MAGA-Hat-Colored World, Malcolm Nance, LitHub, 7/18/22: “By 2021, Trump transformed moderate republicanism into an openly radical fascist party advocating the elimination of democracy.” From They Want to Kill Americans
Luc said, "I saw you on Jimmy Fallon
"Singing 'Drunken Poet's Dream'
"So why go to Nashville
"Knowing you never ever gonna be mainstream?
"Go to somewhere like Texas
"Where they dig roots and blues and country that's real
"It's better to reign in hell than serve in heaven—Ray Wylie Hubbard, from Lucifer and the Fallen Angels
Environment and Science
U.N. chief says extreme heat will ultimately threaten humanity, 'no nation immune:’ Climate summit in Berlin seeks solutions on impact of recent weather events, A.L. Lee, UPI, 7/18/22
How we will fight climate change: And how we will not fight climate change, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 7/20/22: “The strategy that will work: A technology-focused, bottom-up, whole-of-society effort.”
The audacious PR plot that seeded doubt about climate change, Jane McMullen, BBC News, 7/23/22: “Thirty years ago, a bold plan was cooked up to spread doubt and persuade the public that climate change was not a problem…a devastatingly successful strategy that endured for years, and the consequences of which are all around us.”
Why the Arctic Is Warming 4 Times as Fast as the Rest of Earth: The loss of sea ice is exposing darker waters, which absorb more of the sun’s energy. It’s a devastating feedback loop with major consequences for the planet, Matt Simon, Wired, 7/18/22
From Mountaintops To Ocean Bottoms, Scientists Are Discovering Just How Pervasive Plastic Is, Samantha Wohlfeil, Investigate West, 7/21/22
Alarm as fastest growing US cities risk becoming unlivable from climate crisis: Some of the cities enjoying population boom are among those gripped by a ferocious heatwave and seeing record temperatures, Oliver Milman, The Guardian, 7/20/22
What Turtles Can Teach Humans About the Science of Slow Aging: New data shows that several types of the shelled reptiles can slow—and even stop—aging if the environmental conditions are right, Katrina Miller, Wired, 7/18/22
Want to save the planet? Eat protein from mushrooms and algae instead of red meat: Replacing 20% of our meat with microbial protein could dramatically reduce carbon emissions and the rate of deforestation, a new study has found, Adrienne Matei, The Guardian, 7/19/22
Does the climate crisis fill you with dread? It doesn’t have to: Perhaps I’m too much of an optimist, but I’ve imagined the future and I’m telling you – it could be amazing, Sunny Hundal, The Independent (UK), 7/22/22
A Tool for Fighting Superbugs Has Been Found Deep in the Desert: Scientists are turning to the world’s most extreme environments to find new ways of combating drug resistance, Michaela Conley, Wired, 7/21/22
Want to help California’s kelp forests? Eat sea urchins: Purple sea urchins have eaten 95 percent of the underwater forests along California’s Mendocino Coast. Here's how you can help, Kristen Pope, National Geographic, 7/20/22
A killer menu: How climate change is modifying orca diets, Niamh Stafford, McGill Tribune, 7/20/22
These bacterial microrobots can kill cancer without causing any pain and tears: Turning bacteria into a microrobot is good for humanity, Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 7/18/22
U.S. Messaging on Monkeypox Is Deeply Flawed: Officials seem unwilling to be direct about who is most at risk of the disease, Jerusalem Demsas, The Atlantic, 7/19/22
The Webb Space Telescope Is a Time Machine: The new observatory may have found the most ancient starlight we’ve ever seen—and it’s only the beginning, Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 7/22/22
IN A TIME OF SLEEP AND DREAMS
I slept and slept and now sleep can’t keep up with my dreams.
The morning light asks: Have you finally run out of dreams?
I look out my window and notice my eyes are watching from the clouds.
A flock of birds disappear into the right pupil through the window of opportunity.
To blink is to believe in miracles and dreams.
I might close my eyes and imagine the flock of beautiful birds.
When birds migrate they follow their dreams.
I will fall from the sky if you run out of love for me.
Sleep is a parachute for dreams and bird cages.
I will sleep and sleep to catch myself.
—Miho Kinnas and E. Ethelbert Miller
Books, Culture, Sports
Op-Ed: Why inappropriate books are the best kind, David Ulin, LA Times, 7/19/22: “Reading such books as I found them helped me to reckon with the complexities and contradictions of the adult world. More important, by thinking alongside their authors, I began to think for myself.”
What Science Can Tell Us About How We Express Ourselves: On the Way Language Shapes Emotion Across Cultures, Batja Mesquita, LitHub, 7/20/22: “Emotion words come with the emotional episodes from your culture’s collective memory as well as collective insights about these emotions.”
The Bookseller Who Helped Transform Oxford, Mississippi: Richard Howorth has nurtured generations of Southern writers and readers, and changed his home town in the process, Casey Cep, The New Yorker, 7/20/22
‘Like I belong’: how a California bookshop became a safe space for Black readers, Eva Recinos, The Guardian, 7/21/22: “The Salt Eaters Bookshop centers culture and community in every element, becoming a literary haven for its patrons.”
How Corporate America Created Car Culture—And What We Can Do To Change It: On the Liberatory Potential of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Ideas About Technology, Paris Marx, LitHub, 7/21/22
Actually, Killing a Dog Was More Than Enough to Justify John Wick’s Revenge Quest “We love the dog, and every motherfucker who killed the dog should die,” Edward Gross, Mark A. Altman, LitHub, 7/22/22
How a 23-Year-Old Phenom Named Kingfish Became the Future of the Blues: Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram is a generational talent — and the ideal bridge between different factions of the blues world, Carlos Rotella, Washington Post, 7/20/22. Ed. note: This guy is really good! “Long Distance Woman”
Lew Ford collects 2500th professional hit, David Hill, Call to the Pen, 7/16/22: “It goes to show that, no matter how old someone is, there is always a diamond out there that will let you play.” (Ed. note – Lew Ford is 45 going on 46. Huzzah!)
Boids
The Most Fascinating Birds Will Be the First to Go Extinct: The biodiversity crisis will most directly affect distinctive members of the avian family. Get ready for a world that “is really simple and brown and boring,” Marion Renault, NY Times, 7/21/22
Chinese scientists say penguins stopped flying and became great swimmers long before polar ice sheets formed, Holly Chik, South China Morning Post, 7/19/22
Audubon Texas works to keep island bird sanctuaries from losing ground: Erosion, storm damage, and sea-level rise threaten tiny islands off the Texas Gulf Coast, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 7/22/22
Why Did the Siskin Cross the Continent? A bird banded in Maryland two years ago turned up this spring in British Columbia, highlighting the nomadic lifestyle of one finch species, Ryan F. Mandelbaum, Audubon, 7/21/22
Experts Suggest Extinct Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Still Populate Remote Forests, Rich Co, Nature World News, 7/16/22: “Even though the last confirmed sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker was in 1944, ornithologists believe the bird may still exist in isolated hardwood forests in the Southeast of the United States. Its enormous size gave it the heavenly-sounding moniker "Lord God bird."
KENWARD ELMSLIE, (April 27, 1929 — June 29, 2022), W. C. Bamberger, Rain Taxi, Summer 2022: “Kenward Elmslie has now gone off into the far air, but he has left riches behind, and more so than any other writer I've read, the wider your experience of his arts, the richer each work becomes.”
What I want to know is:
When I'm dead and gone.
Who'll prop me up in the dawn?
—Kenward Elmslie, From “Who’ll Prop Me Up in the Rain?”
The Weekly Wrap
As if one pandemic was not enough: Monkeypox declared global health emergency by WHO as cases surge: Declaration is strongest call to action agency can make, with most recent such announcement being for Covid, Nicola Davis, Miranda Bryant, The Guardian, 7/23/22
In the category of truly chilling news at a time when the daily news is already terrifying: A radical plan for Trump’s second term, Jonathan Swan, Axios, 7/22: “preparing to radically reshape the federal government if he is re-elected, purging potentially thousands of civil servants and filling career posts with loyalists to him and his "America First” ideology…” This is a long article well worth the time to read.
I just posted a new Writerscast interview with Mark Hurst of Creative Good! I hope you will give it a listen.
In the midst of a difficult summer, I hope you all are able to find ways to maintain sanity, live in moments of beauty and joy—read poetry, make music, dance, meditate, dream. I’ve been thinking about the 1967 Yippie idea of levitating the Pentagon. Not because (of course) they failed to move it, but because the effort was meant to be inspirational, to break through our normal thinking and open us to a different reality. We sure could use some more reality breaking ideas today. I hope you will agree it is worthwhile to dream ourselves into a better future.
Oh, sometimes the blues is just a passing bird
And why can't that always be?
Tossing aside from your virtuous crown
Just enough dark to see
How you're the light over me?
—from “The Dreamer,” sung by The Tallest Man on Earth, written by Kristian Saras Mattson.
Stay well. Much love to all—David