The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Issue 203, March 31, 2024 (V4 #47)
What is most worrying now is that literally any scenario is possible. We have not had a situation like this since 1945. I know it sounds devastating, especially to people of the younger generation, but we have to mentally get used to a new era. We are in a pre-war era. I don’t exaggerate. This is becoming more and more apparent every day.—Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland
Books, Art, Music, Culture
Nick Cave on love, art and the loss of his sons: ‘It’s against nature to bury your children:’ In the past nine years, the musician and artist has lost two sons – an experience he explores in a shocking, deeply personal new ceramics project. He discusses mercy, forgiveness, making and meaning, Simon Hattenstone, The Guardian, 3/28/24
A Conversation with Louise Erdrich, Sterling HolyWhiteMountain, Paris Review, 3/25/24: “I remember, when I started out, I was always writing poems about the desperate women in the breakdown lane, which was where I always found myself because I also had an unreliable car, a Chevy Impala station wagon. It would overheat, but a great car.”
How a Train is Like a Novel: On the Phenomenon of Illusory Self-Motion: the Mechanics of Movement on the Page and on the Tracks, John Holten, LitHub, 3/25/24: “All narrative is immersed in time and the novelist especially is constantly working in relation to time and its modalities.”
Ten Unforgettable Baseball Nicknames of Yesteryear: a Journey Through New York City Baseball History, Kevin Baker, LitHub, 3/28/24: “Bestowed by fans, sportswriters, and teammates, old-school baseball nicknames could be adoring, mean-spirited or hilarious, reflecting players’ strengths or weaknesses, their dispositions or their styles, their ethnic backgrounds, or their hometowns, their resemblances, or even how they walked.” DW: My favorite is “The Rabbi of Swat,” Mose Solomon. Kevin’s new book: The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City
Greek Tragedy in the Bottom of the Ninth: On Baseball’s High Literary Drama, Keith O’Brien, LitHub, 3/27/24. DW: This is a great list of baseball books, too long to reproduce here, but includes some of my own favorites, David Halberstam’s October, 1964, Jim Bouton’s Ball Four, Howard Bryant’s The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron.
It’s Shohei Ohtani Season in L.A.: Even before the startling accusations made against Ohtani’s interpreter, the Dodgers star was seemingly at the center of civic life, Emily Witt, New Yorker, 3/29/24: “In L.A., the scandal only heightened the Ohtanimania, becoming a subject of drive-time radio and conversations with friends.”
Is the World Enough? Will Glovinsky, Public Books, 3/28/24: “John Stuart Mill conjured up a ghastly vision of earth upon which: nothing [was] left to the spontaneous activity of nature; with every rood of land brought into cultivation, which is capable of growing food for human beings; every flowery waste or natural pasture ploughed up, all quadrupeds or birds which are not domesticated for man’s use exterminated as his rivals for food, every hedgerow or superfluous tree rooted out, and scarcely a place left where a wild shrub or flower could grow without being eradicated as a weed in the name of improved agriculture.
And the mercy seat is smoking
And I think my head is boiling
In a way it's spoiling all the fun with all these truth and consequence
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
And anyway I told the truth
I'm afraid I told a lie
—from “The Mercy Seat,” Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, written by Nicholas Edward Cave, Michael John Harvey
Politics, Economics
Bryan Stevenson Reclaims the Monument, in the Heart of the Deep South: The civil-rights attorney has created a museum, a memorial, and, now, a sculpture park, indicting the city of Montgomery—a former capital of the domestic slave trade and the cradle of the Confederacy, Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 3/25/24
Your children love you.The country you built must honor you.We acknowledge the tragedy of your enslavement.We commit to advancing freedom in your name.
‘My jaw dropped’: Annie Jacobsen on her scenario for nuclear war: The author’s new book posits an all-too-possible catastrophe, destruction assured by human frailty as much as by technology, Julian Borger, The Guardian, 3/31/24: “The scenario is based on known facts concerning the world’s nuclear arsenals, systems and doctrine. Those facts are all in the public domain, but Jacobsen believes society has tuned them out, despite (or perhaps because of) how shocking they are.”
The Police Have A Dark Money Slush Fund: Corporate interests are funneling far more money to law enforcement than previously known — often with scant oversight, Katya Schwenk, The Lever, 3/29/24: “The big-picture finding is that the world of private donations to police is a lot bigger and more complex than previously estimated.”
Trump's Greatest Success: His Personality Cult, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Lucid, 3/28/24: “Trump as a wronged figure is fundamental to the victimhood persona that keeps his supporters tied to him, to the twisting of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol into a patriotic and morally righteous act, and to the depiction of the thugs involved in that coup attempt as "hostages" of a tyrannical regime that Trumpism must vanquish.”
Why We Can’t Stop Arguing About Whether Trump Is a Fascist: In a new book, “Did It Happen Here?,” scholars debate what the F-word conceals and what it reveals, Andrew Marantz, New Yorker, 3/27/24: “To know when we ought to panic, it’s helpful to know what to look out for, and Müller’s framework gives us a clearer idea of the shape contemporary authoritarianism is likely to take.”
How Fascism Typically Takes Over a Nation by Rhetoric…Words. Speeches. News conferences. Rallies. Media. Money. And they all point in one direction: violence in service of the fascist leader, Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 3/29/24
The Corrupt Trifecta of Yass, Trump, and Netanyahu: Yass’s payoffs to Trump are part of his efforts to destroy democracy in the U.S. and Israel, while helping China, Robert Kuttner, American Prospect, 3/27/24: “Donald Trump’s reversal on whether TikTok should be barred from the U.S. is mainly a payback to Trump mega-donor Jeff Yass, who owns 15 percent of TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance.”
These 50 companies have donated over $23 million to election deniers since January 6, 2021, Rebecca Crosby, Judd Legum, Popular Information, 3/28/24: AT&T, Microsoft, Comcast, UPS, Walmart, Home Depot and many more.
Are CIA-Ukrainian Terrorists in Moscow Making Our Bridge Collisions Gay? Two separate tragedies turned into insane conspiracy theories. Why is a Miasma of Morons stopping serious conversations? Malcolm Nance, Special Intelligence, 3/27/24: “…between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, the damage being done to the American psyche is incredible. When simple, horrific acts, we can all agree, are disgusting and should be opposed, are turning into conspiracies so crazy Hollywood wouldn’t touch them, we have a problem.”
Mourning Navalny: Alexey Navalny’s death represents the culmination of the Kremlin’s efforts to push the country into a political deep freeze, but his legacy is a new generation of Russians who yearn to imagine alternatives to Putin’s regime, Christian Caryl, NY Review of Books, 4/4/24 issue
Meta Kills a Crucial Transparency Tool At the Worst Possible Time: CrowdTangle helps researchers track disinformation, but Meta will close it down before the US election. The tool's cofounder, Brandon Silverman, says it's time to force companies to share data, Vittoria Elliott, Wired, 3/25/24
The end of (online) history: Hegelian dialectics for the 21st Century, Erik Hoel, Intrinsic Perspective, 3/26/24: “At the beginning of the 21st century there was a new thesis, one created by technological developments that brought the majority of the population online. This changed the consciousness of all of us permanently. That thesis was the mob. Then, currently developing in reaction, there is the antithesis: the sovereign individual. The ones who stand above the mob. The end of the 21st century, if not in year then in spirit, will occur when these forces are reconciled. When a synthesis is found that establishes liveable peace between individuals and the mob.”
Nearly Two Years After Uvalde Massacre, Here Is Where All the Investigations, Personnel Changes Stand: As a grand jury considers whether any law enforcement officers are criminally charged for their inaction during the Robb Elementary shooting, some families say they feel they've been let down and betrayed by elected officials, Lomi Kriel, Lexi Churchill, ProPublica, 3/29/24
The next Clarence Thomas? Abortion pill case spotlights rightwing judge and his wife’s shadowy connections: Judge James Ho ruled to restrict mifepristone. His wife Allyson is linked to the anti-abortion group that brought the case, Melissa Segura, The Guardian, 3/25/24
Musical Chairs: Why did New York City’s rents skyrocket in the aftermath of the pandemic? Samuel Stein, NY Review of Books, 3/26/24: “When the sirens started, hundreds of thousands packed up and moved. When they were ready to sit down again, they fought for the remaining seats. In this contest, those with the most money paid a premium for their chosen places, while those without the means were left standing outside the circle.”
This Teachers Union Leader Wants to Turn Rural Schools Into Community Hubs: The American Federation of Teachers’ Rural Caucus advocates turning public schools into social service centers, Joel Bleifuss, Justin Perkins, Barn Raiser, 3/28/24
GOP lawmakers replace trustees at historically Black college in Tennessee, Amber Ferguson, Washington Post, 3/29/24: “Some lawmakers expressed concerns that state leaders, who are predominantly White, are unfairly singling out Tennessee State.” DW: Ya think? This is the New South.
Should We Be Polite as the GOP Stomps on Our Democratic Rights? Jim Hightower, Lowdown, 3/2624: “Come on, progressives – get rude! Democracy demands that we be confrontational… not courtly.”
In ‘Barons,’ Austin Frerick Takes on the Most Powerful Families in the Food System: In his new book, the Iowa native and competition expert exposes the system that has allowed seven families, including those behind Cargill, JBS, Driscoll’s, and Walmart, to build enormous power, Twilight Greenaway, Civil Eats, 3/27/24
Israel’s ‘Iron Wall’: A brief history of the ideology guiding Benjamin Netanyahu, Eran Kaplan, The Conversation, 3/25/24: “The massive and wantonly destructive war that Netanyahu has led against Hamas and Gaza since that date is the Iron Wall in its most elemental manifestation: unleashing overwhelming force as a signal that no territorial compromise with the Arabs over historical Palestine is possible.”
The Road to Famine in Gaza: Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza are at the brink of famine—a human-made disaster with roots in Israel’s history of using food as a weapon, Neve Gordon, Muna Haddad, NY Review of Books, 3/30/24: “To date, Israel has allowed, on average, 112 trucks to enter a day, less than a quarter of the number that entered daily in the months before October 7, when needs were significantly less acute.”
Israel alone? Allies’ fears grow over conduct – and legality – of war in Gaza: When the US allowed a ceasefire resolution to pass at the UN, the warning was clear – and concern is rising elsewhere, Julian Borger et al, The Guardian, 3/31/24
The thought of two things that merge, mutually altering each other, two things that, intermingled and interactive, become one thing that does not age, brings me to think of the nature of intimacy. Isn’t it often in our most intimate relations that we come to realize that our identity, all identity, is combinatory?—Forrest Gander
Science, Technology, Environment
The plastics industry’s carbon footprint has doubled in the past few decades: Making plastics from algae or plant material instead of fossil fuels could help, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 3/26/24: “Also for sure we should avoid plastics whenever possible, like the single-use plastics.”
“Plastic People” — A documentary that changed my view on plastics: The plastic crisis has evolved from an environmental concern to a critical human health issue, Amanda Vanjaarsveld, Environmental Health News, 3/29/24
This Month’s Superfund Listing of Abandoned Uranium Mines in the Navajo Nation’s Lukachukai Mountains Is a First Step Toward Cleaning Them Up: Uranium sickened Navajo who worked in the mines and contaminated the mountains where they hunted, grazed livestock and gathered plants for medicines and ceremonies, Noel Lyn Smith, Inside Climate News, 3/26/24
In Texas, ex-oil and gas workers champion geothermal energy as a replacement for fossil-fueled power plants: Texas has become an early hot spot for geothermal energy exploration as scores of former oil industry workers and executives are taking their knowledge to a new energy source, Emily Foxhall, Texas Tribune, 3/26/24
The problem with plug-in hybrids? Their drivers. Plug-in hybrids are often sold as a transition to EVs, but new data from Europe shows we’re still underestimating the emissions they produce, Casey Crownhart, MIT Technology Review, 3/27/24: “…plug-in hybrids produce roughly 3.5 times the emissions official estimates suggest. The difference is largely linked to driver habits: people tend to charge plug-in hybrids and drive them in electric mode less than expected.”
Andean alarm: climate crisis increases fears of glacial lake flood in Peru: In 1941, thousands of people died in Huaraz when the natural dam on a lake above the city gave way. Now, melting glaciers are raising the chances of it happening again, Sam Meadows, The Guardian, 3/26/24: “It’s undeniable: 99% of the world’s glaciers are receding. That’s inevitably a consequence of climate change.”
Climate change is altering Earth’s rotation enough to mess with our clocks, Joel Achenbach, Washington Post, 3/27/24: “The melting of polar ice due to global warming is affecting Earth’s rotation and could have an impact on precision timekeeping, according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature.”
Scientists devise a new, relatable measure of climate change: “outdoor days:” Their climate forecast: The Global North will gain outdoor days, while the the Global South will lose them, Sarah DeWeerdt, Anthropocene, 3/26/24: “Our findings have important implications for the future of quality of life in different climate regions across the world.”
Fertilizer killed more than 750,000 fish in Nishnabotna, Jared Strong, Iowa Capital Dispatch, 3/27/24: “…the biggest fish kill in Iowa in at least a decade and the fifth-largest on record, according to state data.”
Indoor farms are remaking the produce market — at a cost to the planet: Amid drought and record heat, high-tech greenhouses and vertical farms boast of being a more climate-friendly way to grow. But they come with an environmental toll, Anna Phillips, Washington Post, 3/28/24
Starvation has decimated gray whales off the Pacific Coast. Can the giants ever recover? Susanne Rust, LA Times, 3/27/24: “…after more than 700 gray whales have washed ashore in Mexico, Canada, California and other U.S. states since late 2018 — new research…suggests the culprit was a critical drop in food availability in the mammals’ Arctic and sub-Arctic seafloor feeding grounds.”
Meet the Killer Whales You Thought You Knew: The iconic marine mammals may not belong to one species but several. Surprise! Craig Welch, Hakai, 3/26/24: “… prey specializations aren’t just choices that orcas make on a daily basis—they are hardwired.”
DNA says you’re related to a Viking, a medieval German Jew or a 1700s enslaved African? What a genetic match really means, Shai Carmi, Harald Ringbauer, The Conversation, 3/29/24: “Mathematical research demonstrates the following surprising fact. In any given population, the number of lines in your family tree that reach any specific medieval person is about the same between you and everyone else who belongs to the same population you do. In other words, everyone alive today is equally related, genealogically, to all medieval people from that population.”
‘They kept us alive for thousands of years’: Could saving Palestinian seeds also save the world? Vivien Sansour, founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, believes biodiversity could help feed an entire planet in crisis, Whitney Bauck, The Guardian, 3/29/24
Weird new electron behaviour in stacked graphene thrills physicists: This 2D material is only the second to exhibit the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect, and theorists are still debating how it works, Dan Garisto, Nature, 3/25/24
Health, Wellness
Study finds 3 big risk factors for dementia, Teddy Amenabar, Washington Post, 3/27/24: “Diabetes, air pollution and alcohol consumption could be the biggest risk factors for dementia, a study has found.”
The Social Benefits of Getting Our Brains in Sync: Our brain waves can align when we work and play closely together. The phenomenon, known as interbrain synchrony, suggests that collaboration is biological, Marta Zaraska, Quanta, 3/28/24: “…synchrony between brains has benefits. It’s linked to better problem-solving, learning and cooperation, and even with behaviors that help others at a personal cost.”
Scientists Are Unlocking the Secrets of Your ‘Little Brain:’ The cerebellum is responsible for far more than coordinating movement. New techniques reveal that it is, in fact, a hub of sensory and emotional processing in the brain, Douglas Fields, Wired, 3/31/24
Most hawks die by accident—collision, predation, disease.
But when it survives long enough to know it’s dying, it may
find a familiar tree and let its breath weaken in a dark cranny.
—from “Red-Shouldered Hawk,” Ciona Rouse
Birds
In Maine's North Woods, some bird species are increasingly abundant. Scientists aren't sure why, Susan Sharon, Maine Public, 3/28/24: “… it's a big, blank space on the map. And our hypothesis is it's functioning like a bird sanctuary. It's producing birds. Those birds tend to come back to where they were born. I just think it's bizarre and unexpected. And really good news given all the dire news we always get about biodiversity.”
The Magic of a Mystery Bird: My quest to identify an ultra-rare species in my Charleston yard attracted birders from near and far—and sparked unexpected, shared joy, Gabriela Gomez-Misserian, Garden & Gun, 3/28/24: “I can’t help but celebrate being able to connect with so many others over something ordinary but spectacular, something both smaller and larger than us—a mysterious bird in an unexpected spot.”
And just like that, like a simple
neighborhood event, a miracle
is taking place.
—from “This Morning,” Mary Oliver
Today I am thinking about baseball’s opening day, and the hope it brings to so many. Is it enough? Can it ever be, with so many starving and in pain around our world? It must be how, with love for each other, we can (and will) stand together, lean on each other—I know that we will prevail.
Wherever you are, whoever you are with, whatever you are doing — thanks for who you are and what you do. Please continue to keep in touch. Send messages and news.
Above all, stay well; share love; work for good. We need each other, now more than ever.
Love from here—David
Certain moments will never change nor stop being.—Donald Justice