The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 259, April 27, 2025 (V5 #51)
Nationalism is our form of incest, is our idolatry, is our insanity. ‘Patriotism’ is its cult…Just as love for one individual which excludes the love for others is not love, love for one’s country which is not part of one’s love for humanity is not love, but idolatrous worship.—Erich Fromm
A competent and effective government can be more expensive than an inept government, but an inept government has a higher cost as its form endures while its functions are abandoned or corrupted.—Paul J. Radomski
Humanity is really screwed, so let’s slow down, help each other, be nicer to animals and nature, defend freedom, grow food, play more, be open-minded about what might help, and forgive ourselves.—Jem Bendell
Books, Music, Art, Culture
How the Rattlesnake Almost Became an Emblem of a Nascent America: on the Centuries-Long Historical Evolution of a Serpentine Symbol, Stephen S. Hall, LitHub, 4/24/25: “Weaving that nugget of serpent behavior into political commentary, [Benjamin] Franklin created one of the shrewdest metaphors in the history of American political rhetoric.” Book: Slither: How Nature’s Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World
A Mystic, a Poet, an Old Friend: on the Enduring Power of Rumi: “In the midst of life’s challenges, his lines are lifelines,” Haleh Liza Gafori, LitHub, 4/22/25: “Rumi brought everything he had learned and everything he had seen of the world to his poetry.”
Number of Jailed Writers Increases Worldwide for Sixth Consecutive Year: “We are seeing that free expression, and therefore writers, are increasingly in the crosshairs of repression in a much wider range of countries,” said PEN America, Julia Conley, Common Dreams, 4/24/25
Words as Borders, Weapons, Traps: on Being a Palestinian Writer Today: The Author of “The Hollow Half” Explores Language, Silence, and Being, Sarah Aziza, LitHub, 4/22/25: “We have a homeland made of words. Speak, speak, that I may steady my path stone upon stone. Speak, speak, so we may know an end to our sojourning.”
Gloria Anzaldúa's Multifaceted Identities: on a champion of the black sheep, Clare Ashcraft, Republic of Letters, 4/25/25: “Anzaldúa’s prescription for viewing identity is to treat one another as human and for Mestizas to share their humanity with other groups, regardless of whether they have been dehumanized.”
“I Am Making the World My Confessor:” Mary MacLane, the Wild Woman from Butte, Hunter Dukes, Public Domain Review, 4/23/25: “Mary MacLane confessed all, at the age of nineteen, and became the enfant terrible of American letters, seemingly overnight.”
“Poetry City”: Iowa City, Iowa, Harry Stecopoulos, Public Books, 4/23/25: “…the vestiges of an avant-garde survive in the fandom of those students, faculty, and townspeople who seek a countercultural aesthetic that doesn’t always completely jibe with the more mainstream literary identity.”
Real Men Andrew Lipstein’s way out of the masculinity discourse, Martin Dolan, The Point, 4/23/25: “Lipstein (who, from what I could find on Google, is a straight, white, millennial dude) has quietly spent the first half of the 2020s writing what might be the definitive body of work on straight, white, millennial dudehood.”
What Porn Did to American Culture: Sophie Gilbert discusses how the industry defined womanhood, sex, and power, Stephanie Bai, Atlantic, 4/25/25: “The world we live in has been molded by the porn we watch…”
Come Together: A conversation with Sarah Schulman about solidarity and a life spent writing and fighting, David Velasco, BookForum, Spring 2025 issue: “The myth of a single person standing in the face of history and making change by themselves is an extension of the same liberal myth used in our daily oppression.”
Now comes the ‘womanosphere’: the anti-feminist media telling women to be thin, fertile and Republican, Anna Silman, The Guardian, 4/24/25
NEH Calls for Proposals for Trump’s Bizarre Sculpture Garden: After slashing hundreds of grants for cultural institutions, the agency is opening applications for the president’s widely questioned “National Garden of American Heroes,” Isa Farfan, Hyperallergic, 4/24/25
The Neoliberal Roots of Trump’s Anti-DEI Crusade: The conservative quest for art that reflects “traditional American values” dates back to the early 1980s, Alicia Grullón, Hyperallergic, 4/21/25
On the Vital Importance of Preserving the Most Obscure—and Endangered—of the World’s Many Languages: How Language Shapes Identities, Worldviews and Societies Across the Globe, Lorna Gibb, LitHub, 4/23/25: “When a language is no longer understood, an essential and inimitable way of seeing the world, of interacting with it, disappears too.” Book: Rare Tongues: The Secret Stories of Hidden Languages
Finding Lost Voices: The Case for Amy Lowell and the Scholarship Focused on Bring her Legacy Back (1874-1925), Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Finding Lost Voices, 4/24/25
The sky is blue and high. A crow flaps by the window, and there is a whiff of tulips and narcissus in the air.
—from “Bath,” Amy Lowell
Politics, Economics, Technology
Americans, including Republicans, losing faith in Trump, new polls reveal: Trump scores poorly on economy and immigration as some fear he is ‘exceeding powers’ and focussed on wrong issues, Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian, 4/26/25: “…a New York Times/Siena College poll of registered voters on Friday found that Trump’s approval rating is 42%, and just 29% among independent voters. More than half of voters said Trump is “exceeding the powers available to him”, and 59% of respondents said the president’s second term has been ‘scary’.”
Sanders Says Trump Arrest of Wisconsin Judge Is About One Thing Only: ‘Unchecked Power:’ “Let's be clear. Trump's arrest of Judge Dugan in Milwaukee has nothing to do with immigration. It has everything to do with his moving this country toward authoritarianism,” Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams, 4/25/25
Arresting a Judge, Joyce Vance, Civil Discourse, 4/27/25: “Getting rid of inconvenient judges on the path to autocracy is a well-worn step for would-be dictators to take.”
Trump Orders Probe Against Democratic Fundraising Platform ActBlue, Jacob Knutson, Democracy Docket, 4/24/25
Journalist Jeff Sharlet on American fascism and how a civil war is speeding up: “Everything Trump has said he was going to do, he has attempted to do. It’s time to lay aside the ‘this is just negotiating tactics.’ He’s going to negotiate us right down into full fascism,” David Goodman, VTDigger, 4/24/25
Freedom for Sale: The government funds institutions that stretch across American society. The Trump administration is demanding the relinquishment of constitutional rights to keep the money flowing, Amy Dru Stanley, Dissent, 4/22/25
Is America an Autocracy Now? The stakes of naming, and the reality of process, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Lucid, 4/21/25: “When “democratic backsliding” is producing demonstrably autocratic outcomes, we are in authoritarian territory.”
Habeas corpus: A thousand-year-old legal principle for defending rights that’s getting a workout under the Trump administration, Andrea Seielstad, The Conversation, 4/22/25: “Habeas corpus is a critical safeguard of liberty. In the words of Chief Justice John Marshall in the seminal 1803 case, Marbury v. Madison, the “very essence” of civil liberty is ‘the right to claim the protection of the laws, whenever he receives an injury.’”
Trump Is a Virus: Chaos is about to take its toll, Paul Krugman, Newsletter, 4/24/25: “I’d say never mind the stock market. Focus on the real economy, where everything says that policy chaos will soon take a real toll…. the impact of erratic tariffs and tariff threats may occur even before the economy has time to slump.”
A Cult of Personality Without a Personality: Trump’s rise isn’t an aberration—it’s the endpoint of decades of lowered standards and unserious leadership, Gary Kasparov, Next Move, 4/22/25
Trump's Crypto Corruption Scheme Goes into Overdrive: Trump is selling access and lining his own pockets, Dan Pfeiffer, Message Box, 4/24/25: “…it is an opportunity for people to buy access to the President of the United States without any regulation, oversight, or transparency. It’s bribery pure and simple.”
Trump touts manufacturing while undercutting state efforts to help factories: Tariffs, spending cuts and the winding down of state-based manufacturing aid could hurt small factories, Tim Henderson, Stateline, 4/21/25
Stagflation for the Ages: The supply-chain disruptions during the pandemic look almost quaint compared to the fundamental reordering of global trade currently underway. This fracturing, when coupled with US President Donald Trump’s attacks on central-bank independence and preference for a weaker dollar, threatens a prolonged period of stagflation, Stephen S. Roach, Project Syndicate, 4/24/25
MAGA doesn't build: Instead of a "Fourth Turning", we got a backward-looking, destructive regime, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 4/27/25: “We have now seen what the MAGA movement has planned for America, and it’s pure destruction.”
Roberts Owns It All: From Citizens United to Trump’s Coup: Every stolen vote, every purged roll, every billionaire’s whisper in the ear of power — this is the legacy of John Roberts’ court…Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 4/22/25
How Perception Gaps Fuel America’s Political and Cultural Conflicts, Michael Baharaeen, Liberal Patriot, 4/22/25: “Americans continue to overestimate the prevalence of extreme groups and also beliefs.”
What Pete Buttigieg's Podcast Appearance Can Teach Dems about Messaging: Democrats have hemorrhaged support from young men. Pete Buttigieg is one of the only party leaders who gets how to win them back, Evan Fields, Lincoln Square, 4/27/25: “Buttigieg points out that you have to meet people where they are at and not where they should be.”
Vance’s Junk History: J. D. Vance has cited Andrew Jackson to justify the idea that a president can disobey the federal judiciary’s rulings. The historical record says no such thing, Sean Wilentz, NYRB, 4/25/25
Deportation to CECOT: The Constitutional Prohibition on Punishment Without Charge or Trial, Ahilan Arulanantham, Just Security, 4/23/25: “Sending alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang to CECOT, a maximum security prison in El Salvador, constitutes punishment, and therefore cannot be imposed without trial under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.”
Crazy Horse and Anti-Colonial Resistance, Nick Estes, CounterPunch, 4/23/25: “This structural elimination of Lakota people today is directly linked to the same war waged against Crazy Horse during his day.”
Memes and conflict: Study shows surge of imagery and fakes can precede international and political violence, Tim Heninger, Ernesto Verdeja, The Conversation, 4/24/25: “The widespread use of social media during times of political trouble and violence has made it harder to prevent conflict and build peace.”
The Wisdom of Henry Stimson: Donald Trump is burning what better men made law, Dan Gardner, PastPresentFuture, 4/26/25: “Stimson understood that allowing any country to profit from invasion, anywhere, would eventually endanger the world.”
Europe Has Failed, But Ukraine Might Still Save It: It Has Been Given The Most Precious Gifts Of Time And Experience, Phillips P. Obrien, Newsletter, 4/25/25: “Ukraine has given Europe the second most precious gift possible to go along with this vital time and that is—experience.”
The Age of Forever Wars: Why military strategy no longer delivers victory, Lawrence Freedman, Comment is Freed, 4/27/25: “One of the great allures of military power is that it promises to bring conflicts to a quick and decisive conclusion. In practice, it rarely does.”
The Moods
Time drops in decay,
Like a candle burnt out,
And the mountains and woods
Have their day, have their day;
What one in the rout
Of their fire-born moods
Has fallen away?
—W.B. Yeats
Science, Environment, Wilderness
Life creates conditions conducive to life.—Janine Benyus
Biomimicry: Learning From Life’s Genius, Willow Defebaugh, Atmos, 4/25/25: “As a species, we have yet to successfully create the regenerative, sustainable conditions conducive to life in the long-term.”
We Are Firefighters: A Talk About the Climate and the Trees, Rebecca Solnit, Meditations in an Emergency, 4/26/25: “We are here to put out the fire, and we can, we all can, because there has been an energy revolution in our time, and we can run almost all our machines on the boundless, inexhaustible, free power the sun and wind give us, these gifts that come daily from the sky, rather than run our machines on the dead matter from the bowels of the earth.”
Building a Nest: people, books, and places as inspiration; grief and the creative process; and the conscious attention required by climate crisis, Lauren Markham, Jenny Odell, LA Review of Books, 4/25/25: “…what is the usefulness of art in this crisis?”
Earthjustice President Describes a “Fundamentally Different” Era of Hostility Toward Environmentalists: Abigail Dillen sees the increase of lawsuits targeting green groups as just one of the growing threats to environmental advocacy organizations — and the people who staff them, Sharon Lerner, ProPublica, 4/22/25
Activate climate’s ‘silent majority’ to supercharge action, experts say: Making concerned people aware their views are far from alone could unlock the change so urgently needed, Damian Carrington, The Guardian, 4/22/25: “A huge 89% majority of the world’s people want stronger action to fight the climate crisis but feel they are trapped in a self-fulfilling ‘spiral of silence’ because they mistakenly believe they are in a minority, research suggests.”
From Lagos to Calgary the Resource Curse Condemns Nations to Corruption and Autocracy: the Economic, Political and Environmental Impact of Our Addiction to Oil, Don Gillmor, LitHub, 4/25/25: “In the end, we are all cursed, cursed by oil’s ease, seduced by its possibilities. It gave us freedom, warmth, hope, and ruin.”
Fossil Fuels Blamed as 84% of World's Coral Reefs Hit by Worst Bleaching Event Ever Recorded: “The magnitude and extent of the heat stress is shocking,” said one marine scientist, Julia Conley, Common Dreams, 4/23/25
Nearly Half of Americans Are Breathing Unhealthy Air as Pollution Exposure Numbers Reach Decade High: A new report from the American Lung Association notes a drastic decline in air quality and raises health alarms. Climate change and Trump administration actions, experts warn, will worsen the trend, Keerti Gopal, Inside Climate News, 4/24/25
Despite global opposition, Trump just fast-tracked deep-sea mining: The move opens the door for companies tired of waiting for permission to scrape the ocean floor, Anita Hofschneider, Grist, 4/14/25
An Ancient Irrigation System May Help Farmers Face Climate Change: The arid Southwest has a proven model, the acequia, for water use that is local, democratic, and resilient to heat and drought, Samuel Gilbert, Civil Eats, 4/22/25
How we beat the climate crisis by 2075: Five stylized pathways to a stable climate, Quico Toro, One Percent Brighter, 4/21/25: “Cheaper energy; Sargasso breakthrough; WHOI to the rescue; Gigablue makes gigabucks; Fisheries first.”
Sponge made from food scraps produces clean water from thin air: A hydrogel made from waste natural materials pulls over 14 liters of drinkable water from air per day, offering a sustainable way to alleviate water scarcity, Team, Anthropocene, 4/24/25
‘Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence’ − an astronomer explains how much evidence scientists need to claim discoveries like extraterrestrial life, Chris Impey, The Conversation, 4/25/25: “Without more and better data, most researchers are viewing the claim of life on K2-18b with skepticism.”
History will say it was the engine of envy
that drove us off the cliffs of discontent.
Not the ache in a mother’s breast
as she buries another child, bells of
laughter no longer cresting from the crib.
No. They’ll look at our knees and think,
How filthy. From their towers, they’ll joke
how small we seem. Like ants.
—from “The Inventors,” Arielle Hebert
Health, Wellness
From Frying Pans to ‘Teflon Flu’: How One Scientist’s Discovery Changed the World Forever: The origins of PFAS “forever chemicals,” Sharon Udasin, Rachel Frazin, Barn Raiser, 4/23/25.
Autistic people and experts voice alarm at RFK’s ‘terrible’ approach to condition: Health secretary is planning wide-ranging monitoring of autistic people’s health record and cuts to disability services, Melody Schreiber, The Guardian, 4/24/25
High-fat, high-sugar diets impact cognitive function: World-first research links unhealthy diets to impaired location memory, Univ Sydney, ScienceDaily, 4/21/25: “HFHS diets have a detrimental effect on some aspects of cognitive function…centre on the hippocampus, the brain structure important for spatial navigation and memory formation.”
The wholegrain revolution! How Denmark changed the diet – and health – of their entire nation, Rachel Dixon, The Guardian, 4/23/25: “Is it possible to make a country healthier one slice of rye bread at a time? If the rocketing wholegrain consumption of the Danes is anything to go by, absolutely.”
Clinical trials to test vaccine against Alzheimer's-promoting tau protein, UNM Health, ScienceDaily, 4/23/25: “…experimental vaccine generated a robust immune response in both mice and non-human primates.”
This time tomorrow
Where will we be
On a spaceship somewhere
Sailing across an empty sea
—from “This Time Tomorrow,” The Kinks, written by Ray Davies
Birds, Birding
Range expansion in lesser goldfinches, Cornell, ScienceDaily, 4/22/25: “…Lesser Goldfinches, a small songbird traditionally found in Southwest USA, are expanding their range northward through the Pacific Northwest at an unprecedented rate…”
The Birds Who Farm the Forest Floor: New research shows that superb lyrebirds dig in the dirt to create habitat for other species—and to sate their own appetites, Jude Isabella, BioGraphic, 4/24/25
Dear Readers:
Every week I compile these stories to help us keep track of what matters, to resist fear, and to fend off the despair that fear engenders.
It is now our turn to rise up and defend what we believe in. Do not lose heart. Resist despair. Find joy — we are not alone.
Stay strong. Love the ones you’re with. And take care of yourself too.
Please keep in touch…hearing from you makes the work I do worthwhile.
Love always—David
To feel the love of people who we love is a fire that feeds our life.—Pablo Neruda
No bolder challenge confronts the modern artist than to stay healthy in a sick world.—Stanley Kunitz
People have the power to redeem the work of fools.—Patti Smith