The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 108, June 5, 2022 (V3 #4)
“I do not want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear.”—(Republican) Senator Margaret Chase Smith, June 1, 1950
Just give me one thing
That I can hold on to
To believe in this livin'
Is just a hard way to go
—from “Angel from Montgomery,” Bonnie Raitt singing, written by John Prine.
Roe-ing
Chaos in John Roberts’s Court: Aiming to overturn Roe. Setting its sights on gun rights. A right-wing onslaught has degraded the credibility of the Supreme Court, whose chambers are now haunted by the ghost of Antonin Scalia, Scott Turow, Vanity Fair, 6/2/22
‘Theocratic’ US abortion bans will violate religious liberty, faith leaders say: The anti-abortion side has monopolized arguments based on religion. But some say their faith supports the right to choose, Melody Schreiber, The Guardian, 6/2/22
Most people support abortion staying legal, but that may not matter in making law, Tarah Williams, The Conversation, 5/31/22. Ed. note — the core message is this: “the most influential kind of opinion is the organized political activity that can pressure government and shape electoral choices and legislative options.”
Roe v. Wade and Republican Haterade: The Two Party Hypocrisy Over The Right To Choose, Jesse & Tyrel Ventura, Jesse Ventura’s Die First and Then Quit, 6/2/22: “what could possibly be a better example of over-reaching big government and the evisceration of individual liberty than taking away a woman’s right to make medical decisions regarding her own body?”
Antiabortion laws are forced-birth laws. Here’s what that looks like, Kate Manning, Washington Post, 5/31/22: “Forced-birth advocates should consider this partial list of the varieties of suffering and risks that government-mandated childbearing imposes on women who would otherwise choose to end a pregnancy: preeclampsia, eclampsia, heart attack, stroke, fistula, breast infection, hemorrhage, gestational diabetes. Death.”
Politicks and Culture
Social studies without social justice, Judd Legum, Popular Information, 6/1/22: “While the ban on social justice will likely reduce the quality of social studies textbooks in Florida, it provides DeSantis with a potent new political cudgel.”
Latest Jobs Report Shames the Inflation Hawks: Wage growth continues to decelerate. Contrary to Larry Summers et al., wages are not driving price increases, Robert Kuttner, American Prospect, 6/3/22
These 25 rainbow-flag waving companies donated $13 million to anti-gay politicians since 2021, Judd Legum, Tesnim Zekeria, Rebecca Crosby, Popular Information, 6/2/22: AT&T, Deloitte, Charter Communications, Verizon, General Motors…and more.
In Australia’s Election, Rupert Murdoch Was a Surprise Loser: The Labor Party’s victory offers a blueprint for diminishing the global influence of the Fox News founder, Antony Loewenstein, The Intercept, 5/30/22
TikTok Ascendant: Where Democracy Lives (and Dies) in the Age of Social Media: How We Might Save Ourselves, Andrew Keen, LitHub, 6/3/22: “We are living in a new world with old ideas. The challenge is to reverse this and live in an old world with new ideas.”
‘All is not lost!’ Yeah Yeah Yeahs return with riffs, risks and radical optimism, Hermione Hoby, The Guardian, 6/3/22: “The darlings of 00s indie sleaze shook jaded audiences into life with their raucous rock’n’roll. Twenty years later, facing ecological catastrophe and middle age, can they do it again?” “Spitting Off the Edge of the World”
Some Overlooked Bands of the 70s, Jack Stephens, Culture Sonar, 5/19/22. Hawkwind, Blue Oyster Cult, Mott the Hoople, New York Dolls, Sweet Lorraine, more!
Talking to Strangers: We have to start talking, and listening to people who don't agree with us, Karen Christensen, Karen’s Letter, 6/3/22
Climate-friendly diets can make a huge difference – even if you don’t go all-out vegan, Amanda Schupak, The Guardian, 6/4/22
Unraveling the “Aspirational Aspect of the Save”: Pocket V.P. Matt Koidin on the Art of a Good Recommendation, Over the past decade, Pocket has endured as an unusually pleasant way to consume the internet. Vanity Fair speaks with one of the founding members about the platform’s original vision to fix the content landscape—while also resisting algorithm overkill, Delia Cai, Vanity Fair, 6/2/22
Big Stupid, Scott Galloway, No Mercy/No Malice, 6/3/22: “Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals.”
How Harmful Is Social Media? There’s a general sense that it’s bad for society—which may be right. But studies offer surprisingly few easy answers, Gideon Lewis-Krause, New Yorker, 6/3/22: “I think there’s reason to think social media is not the main driver of increasing polarization over the long haul in the United States.”
“This is completely unprecedented in the history of American elections that a political party would be working at this granular level to put a network together…. It looks like now the Trump forces are going directly after the legal system itself and that should concern everyone,” Nick Penniman, quoted by Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, 6/2/22
Guns and War
Would Showing Graphic Images of Mass Shootings Spur Action to Stop Them? Returning to an old debate after the horrific killings in Uvalde, Texas, Jelani Cobb, New Yorker, 6/4/22
Until the US Senate is accountable to America, we’ll never get gun control: Democrats are heading into this year’s elections without having tried even basic steps to balance the chamber, including ending the filibuster or admitting liberal Washington DC as a state, Osita Nwanevu, The Guardian, 6/3/22
Students Should Refuse to Go Back to School: Despite the hopelessness after Uvalde, we’re closer to understanding the kind of social movement that might actually affect gun reform, Gail Beckerman, The Atlantic, 5/31/22
Gun violence, neoliberalism and Citizens United: We can't change things without facing the truth: It isn't just the Second Amendment: If we can't control social media and "corporate speech," we'll never end this, Jim Sleeper, Salon, 5/29/22
Why Gun Control Won’t End Mass Shootings: We don't know what will work, David French, The Atlantic, 6/3/22: “the United States is in the midst of something like a slow-motion riot, where each mass shooter is lowering the threshold for the next.”
Republican Congreeman Blames Mass Shootings on Women Having Rights: According to Representative Billy Long, abortions, not guns, are the problem, Bess Levin, Vanity Fair, 6/2/22
This is the most selfish moment in American history: We are drafting children to die in a war that is being fought over the freedom to own an AR-15, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 6/3/22: “How many more children must die before we come to our senses and end this modern draft of the dead?”
The folly of "off-ramps:” When Ukraine wins the war, Putin will build his own, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 5/30/22
The Russian way of war: What an authoritarian system gets you on the battlefield, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 6/1/22
Science and Climate
Japanese scientists turn cabbage into concrete: Leftovers transformed into durable building material, Richard Lloyd Parry, The Times UK, 6/2/22: “Scientists in Japan have devised a way of making a concrete-like building material from leftover food, opening up a future in which people will be able to construct homes out of recycled banana skins, and then eat them if necessary.”
America's next wind powerhouse: The Gulf of Mexico? The Gulf Coast's long reign as a hub for oil and gas production could help it secure a lead role in generating wind electricity and green hydrogen. But it will face some big obstacles, Kelsey Tamborrino, Politico, 5/30/22
Cities need new types of pavement capable of absorbing a flood. This team has a customized recipe: Australian researchers devised an algorithm for permeable pavement tailored to local soil and rainfall conditions, Sara DeWeerdt, Anthropocene, 5/31/22
World’s largest plant is a vast seagrass meadow in Australia, Christina Larson, AP, 6/1/22
Too Many Pinks in the Pacific: Evidence is mounting that pink salmon, pumped by the billions into the North Pacific from fish hatcheries, are upending marine ecosystems, Miranda Weiss, Hakai, 6/1/22
It’s impossible to determine your personal COVID-19 risks and frustrating to try – but you can still take action, Malia Jones, The Conversation, 5/17/22
We cannot adapt our way out of climate crisis, warns leading scientist: Katharine Hayhoe says the world is heading for dangers people have not seen in 10,000 years of civilization, Fiona Harvey, The Guardian, 6/1/22
Bee industry calls for reassessment of glyphosate, Gerhard Uys, Stuff, 5/16/22
California Gears Up for a New Composting Law to Cut Methane Emissions and Enrich Soil: Local governments will make compost more accessible for farmers, helping them retain water and fight drought. But it’s not clear that cities and private waste management companies can keep up with all of the green waste, Grace van Deelen, Inside Climate News, 6/1/22
The Vanishing Rio Grande: Warming Takes a Toll on a Legendary River: The Rio Grande, which flows out of the Rockies and later forms the U.S.-Mexico border, has long been impacted by withdrawals for agriculture and other uses. Now, rising temperatures and an unprecedented drought pose a grave and growing peril to the river and its ecosystems, Jim Robbins, Yale Environment 360, 6/2/22
‘Masked’ cancer drug stealthily trains immune system to kill tumors while sparing healthy tissues, reducing treatment side effects, Aslan Mansurov, The Conversation, 6/1/22
Let’s Get Our Shit Together—Literally: It’s time to build the Poop Ark, a centralized collection of the entire animal kingdom's feces, for research, de-extinction, and more, Jenny Morber, Wired, 5/29/22
Increasing moderate activity could cut stroke risk by 40%, research suggests: New analysis adds further evidence to the link between a sedentary lifestyle and risk of disease and disability, Nicola Davis, The Guardian, 6/3/22
He quit Google to work on climate change. Now, he’s helping others do the same thing: In July 2020, two former Google employees launched a Slack network for people who want to work on climate solutions. It now has more than 8,500 members, Adele Peters, Fast Company, 6/1/22
Fastest carbon dioxide catcher heralds new age for direct air capture: New carbon sorbent is 99% efficient, lightning fast, and easily recyclable, Tokyo Metro Univ, EurekAlert, 5/28/22
In silvopasture, cows and sheep coexist with trees: Adding trees to pasture helps keep livestock cool in summer, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 6/3/22
Climate change seemed far away, but COVID-19 showed how little it takes for people to behave badly, Kate Grenville, Sydney Morning Herald, 6/1/22
Scientists say they have made a vivid 3D printing ink without dyes and pigments: New technology is based on structural colouration – meaning it produces colours through interactions between light and intrinsic nanostructures, Holly Chik, South China Morning Post, 5/31/22
Research may reveal why people can suddenly become frail in their 70s: Scientists discover ‘catastrophic’ change in blood cell composition, raising prospect of new therapies to slow ageing process, Ian Sample, The Guardian, 6/1/22
For 50 years, governments have failed to act on climate change. No more excuses: Conflict and Covid make these troubling times, but national leaders must cooperate and take action now, Christiana Figueres, Yvo de Boer, Michael Zammit Cutajar, The Guardian, 6/2/22
Gun and climate change delusions: Millions here suffer from twin hallucinations: Guns don’t cause our mass shootings, and the climate isn’t changing, Peter Dykstra, Environmental Health News, 6/5/22
Song of the 7 Maidens
(A Theory to Explain Rainbows)
They sing 7 donzellas.
(Across the sky an arc pattern for sunsets)
A soul with 7 voices, the 7 donzellas.
(In the white air 7 great birds)
The 7 donzellas die
(Why could they not be 9? Why could they not be 20? ! )
The river carries them
No one can see them.
—Federico Garcia Lorca, trans. by Paul Blackburn
Books etc.
Watching Baseball with Roger Angell: His frame-by-frame vivisections of a given pitcher’s or hitter’s mechanics taught me how to see the game in its limitless particulars, Mark Singer, New Yorker, 6/1/22
The Revelations of Thom Gunn’s Letters: The late poet’s letters are a primer not only on literature but on the man himself, Hilton Als, New Yorker, 5/30/22
Bill McKibben Reckons with the Glorified American History of His Boyhood: On the Myths and Truths of the American Revolution, Bill McKibben, LitHub, 6/1/22: “The particular genius of Hannah-Jones and the 1619 Project is the way that it encourages you to look a little deeper, to pull on some threads, to imagine that behind the official history another version likely lurks.” Excerpted from The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened
The lost poems of Wilma Mankiller: The former Cherokee chief's early writings, found in a dusty barn in Oklahoma, offer insights into her rise to leadership, Frances McCue, Indian Country Today, 5/30/22: Mankiller Poems, Wilma Mankiller. Her website here.
Must We Grow? New books argue that life in a slower economy isn’t necessarily painful, and is likely to be healthier and more secure in many ways, Michelle Nijhuis, NY Review of Books, 6/9/22 issue: The Day the World Stops Shopping: How Ending Consumerism Saves the Environment and Ourselves and Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less
Landscape, Change, and the Long Road Ahead: Le Guin’s 'The Left Hand of Darkness' is a classic for its portrayal of gender, but is it also sometimes, for the modern reader, a climate change parable? Jeff VanderMeer, Orion, 6/4/22: “Making common cause under difficult circumstances reminds us. It is, in fact, essential.” Buy The Left Hand of Darkness
New Writerscast podcast interview - Robert Child: Immortal Valor: The Black Medal of Honor Recipients of World War II – there are some truly incredible stories in this book.
Birding
“Every winged being is symbolic of spirituality.”—The Dictionary of Symbols
Ranching for the birds as development in the West threatens wildlife habitats, Ashley Ahearn, WBUR, 6/1/22
Autonomous drones show promise for shooing birds away from crops, Ben Coxworth, New Atlas, 6/1/22
Saving Birds with 3D Printed Boats, Bryan Coxfield, Hackaday, 5/31/22
He’s an Urban Birder, Photographing Birds of Prey in Downtown Austin: Chris DuCharme is self-taught, armed with a telephoto lens and words of encouragement from his late wife, Texas Country Reporter, Texas Monthly, 5/31/22
Cathedral peregrine falcon chicks given bands and clean bills of health, Meg Ringler, PittWire, 6/2/22
Can Individual Actions Save Threatened Birds? Two Local Beaches Chosen for Beach-Nesting Bird Study, Sharon Bruce, Audubon NY, 6/1/22
Wishing you all the best as we get closer to the Summer Solstice. Every week another tragedy, another attack on our democracy, more unnecessary slaughter, more news of climate catastrophe. Yet still, we will, we must, continue to work for the good of all, hope is everything. Stay strong, stay well. Much love - David