The Dead Do Speak

We Need to Listen More

Portuguese cemetery, children's section,
New Bedford, Mass.

I had a dream the other night. I originally thought I was on an archeological dig, somewhere in southern Europe or possibly the Middle East. I was standing in a room that was well-lit - it lacked a roof - and staring at the jumble of dirt and detritus that covered the floor.

There was a linear lump on the floor, about three feet long and covered by dirt and dust. I brushed away some of the covering material and started to reveal a piece of stone, possibly granite, maybe eight inches in width. There was writing on the stone. I brushed further and cleared enough to see that the letters, incised in the stone and possibly four inches tall, said PhillyCarShare.

I then realized that I was standing in the ruins of Philadelphia, some centuries or perhaps millennia in the future. It was very hot and dry. I had thought that the global warming prognosis for Philadelphia was hot and rainy and, of course, underwater. But my sleeping imagination had other ideas.

This dream was obviously prompted by a few paragraphs in Bernard Knox's introduction to Robert Fagles' translation of the Aeneid, which in turn echo Shelley's "Ozymandias." (To see the Knox anecdote, click here.) 

PhillyCarShare was the first car-share organization in Philadelphia. It was organized by members of the community. The big corporate money was not, at that time, interested in car share. After PhillyCarShare proved the concept, they moved in and, in the process, engulfed and devoured PhillyCarShare.

One of the founders of PhillyCarShare was Tanya Seaman, a well-known community activist in Philadelphia. She left us a few years ago. I remember her fondly and, as this dream indicates, I'm probably thinking about her even when I'm not aware that I'm thinking about her. 

Waverly at 19th. Still in service. Still useful, for both
the present and a sense of the past.

See also For Athena, What I've Learned.

The Tool of Thiel in Thule

One Way to Escape the Atlantic Signal Debacle

The tool of course is the man who currently goes by the name of JD Vance. There he is above, wearing a coat that appears slightly too large for him. He visited Thule for three hours on March 28.

The Thiel in question is Peter Thiel, just another billionaire tech bro oligarch. He may not be the only person in his cohort who plans to live forever, but perhaps we should be grateful that he doesn't seem to have any interest in going to Mars.  

Thule is a place in Greenland that has a new name: Pituffik. It was a very important base for the U.S. Strategic Air Command back during the Cold War; now it seems to be basically a placeholder awaiting a new mission. 

The word Thule is an import from the ancient Mediterranean world. Strabo, in his Geography I, 4, 2, tells us that Pytheas of Massalia (the modern Marseille in France) reported that Thule lay "six days' sail north from Britain, and near the Frozen Sea." Pytheas was a geographer and explorer who seems to have circumnavigated the British Isles around 325 B.C. He wrote a book about his travels, which was well known in antiquity, but has not come down to us. 

More generally, it seems the ancients thought of Thule as the northernmost land in the world.

And perhaps Thule, or Pituffik, which apparently means "the place where the dogs are tied" in the local language, is a useful metaphor for the current American regime: cold and empty. Or, to put it more simply, the end of the world. 

___________________________

Starting during World War II, the American military established and maintained a bunch of installations on Greenland. My favorite is Project Iceworm, which was supposed to establish a large network of launch stations for nuclear missiles, all buried under the ice. After a while, the military figured out that the Greenland ice sheet was moving faster than anticipated, and that building launch pads on ice was more like building on cold jello than building on concrete. In due course, the military decided that it could not put lipstick on this pig, and shut the program down.

I had the thought that Project Iceworm, with some information declassified in 1996, might have influenced the plot of a movie called Smilla's Sense of Snow, which was released in 1997. In the movie, which is a mystery, it turns out that a meteorite has fallen to earth in Greenland, and eventually we learn that the meteorite contains poisonous worms. But the movie is based on a book, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, that was published in 1992. 

In 1968, a B-52 bomber crashed near Thule with four nuclear bombs aboard, causing a significant release of radioactive material but no nuclear or thermonuclear detonation. The general outlines of this story were public knowledge from the beginning; other interesting details have emerged over the years. I think it would be a stretch to suggest that the crash might have inspired the Smilla novel and movie. But it is one more example of non-Greenlanders using Greenland as their playpen.

_______________________________

And yes, JD Vance dropped a college football trophy on April 14. You can google it for yourself. Awkward, clumsy, maladroit.

See also A Campaign Poster, Is Elon Musk a Vampire? 

April Open Streets

Philly Redefines the Street

Adults bring a little magic; children bring their sense of wonder; and before you know it Open Streets: West Walnut has another successful outing.

I think the skinny white barriers are new.

This is the third edition of these open streets, following the inaugural last September and the Let's Do It Again! in December. Sponsored by Philadelphia's Center City District, these open streets started with a strong plan and have been improving on that start in subtle ways, with each new outing. (And, yes, I'm a cheerleader. That's because I think they're doing a good - and important - job.)

The basic layout - closing several blocks of Walnut and 18th streets near Rittenhouse Square - remains unchanged. And the hours are still 10 am to 5 pm.

This banner may be new.

And you've got to activate the empty space you have just opened. Very few people will go to empty spaces where there are no attractions.You need the lady on stilts. And chalk. And a really big chess set. And bean-bag. And ping-pong. And double-dutch jump-roping. 

The barriers also work on sidewalks.

And musicians. And a guy blowing bubbles. (I personally think they could use a juggler.)

The photos here are all from Sunday, April 6. This edition of open streets will run every Sunday in April. It seems the Easter Bunny may show up on April 20, which happens to be Easter Sunday.

In the afternoon on April 6, there were a few drops of rain. This slowed the festivities a bit, but it definitely did not stop them. Here are the swing dancers. They are Rittenhouse regulars, usually down by the goat, at the southwest corner of the park. And they are dancing in the rain. Gene Kelly would be very happy.

I'm wondering when the Center City District will decide to do open streets every Sunday, at least in the warm weather. 

See also Open Streets: West Walnut and Can Open Streets Go Year-Round?

Message for the Mad King

The People Are Angry. All of Them.

At the Hands Off rally in Philadelphia on Saturday, April 5, the people had a simple message: Dump Trump.

I understand that radicalization is a progressive process. I think the people have completed the process. They are not interested in the next presidential election in nearly four years, or in the congressional elections in nearly two years. They are interested in dumping Trump right now.

The people are serious, and they are angry. They see clearly that the roof is falling in, and they want Trump out now.

What will Trump do? He won't quit, and I don't think he's going to back off on the tariffs. I think he is mad.

I have a feeling that JD Vance may try to steal the moment by invoking the 25th amendment. I think the tech bros know that the market crash will destroy them if they don't turn it around.

What will the religious fascists do? I don't know.

What will Chuck Schumer do? Sit on his hands. I hope the rest of the Dems have a better response in this moment.

See also Is the Ship Sinking? Yes.

Anticipate Quagmire, and Much Noise

The Trumpies Never Have a Plan B 

Iron Whale restaurant, Asbury Park.

So now Trump has added a tariff war to the illegal deportations and the destruction of Social Security, USAID,  the NIH, and on and on. People are aghast at the damage and the casual cruelty. I agree with all that, but for me there has been something else that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

I was thinking the other night about all this, and at some point, unsummoned, a little light bulb went on in my head; the Rs never have a plan B. They always expect their victims to fold, just like the Senate Democrats. And it seems they have given no thought to what their second effort would look like when, as normally happens, the initial attack encounters resistance. Do they literally have no plans for what to do when people stand up and fight back?

Let's just take one example from one front in our evolving civil war: the El Salvador Gulag Case before Judge Boasberg. The Trump regime has scooted a few hundred random victims to a prison in a foreign country, and now the Trumpy lawyers seem stuck. The arguments being presented to Judge Boasberg are pitiful. And they appear hastily constructed, as if no one anticipated the judge's actions. 

The regime wants to deport millions of people - it appears they don't actually have to be immigrants. The Trumpies are not on a track to do that.

I understand that they intend to get to a place where law no longer matters. But they do need to get there, and I don't think they have a clue how to do that. There's a word for this: feckless.

As for the tariffs, they seem to expect that every other country in the world is going to fold. That is not going to happen.

There is going to be a huge amount of damage, but Trump will not get the dominance he wants. Instead, he - and we - are going to wind up isolated, friendless, and much poorer.

See also Unleashing the Oligarchs, Is It Shock and Awe, or Is It a Flash in the Pan? Is the Ship Sinking? Yes. What Caused the French Revolution? We Will Not Let Them Down, A Report on Travel Restrictions, Quagmire.

Is Elon Musk a Vampire?

I'm pretty sure he is. If you look at his facial reconstruction surgery, it seems he's probably about 500 years old.

And that's an interesting red scar on his neck, pretty near his carotid artery. Maybe he was thirsty one night.

Not to mention the dark glasses. Does he have a problem with sunlight?

Let's face it: Like all vampires, Elon Musk sucks. And it's time for him to stop sucking us dry and go suck himself. Alone, in his coffin.

(For an interesting story on the origin of vampires, click here.)

See also Trump Is a Russian Agent, The 800-Pound Gorilla in the Oval Office, Hope Hicks Is Sick, As the Tide Goes Out.