When the pandemic began, every email marketer was sending out an announcement about their upgraded cleanliness policies to their full list, even the unengaged contacts, and it got to be almost funny that every company I ever did business with ever was sending me pandemic-related something. I mean, seriously, eVacuumStore.com, I do not need to hear from you about this. I order vacuum bags from you once a year.
And the language just got to be almost rote, everyone borrowing from each other. And I began to wonder what phrase would still resonate later — what would be the title of the definitive memoir of the plague years.
Would it be “Out of an Abundance of Caution” or “These Uncertain Times?”
And now, we can say that it’s definitely going to be “These Uncertain Times.”
Just watch this ad from notoriously rude Chicago hot-dog stand The Weiner’s Circle, which begins with “In these uncertain times” and ends with “fuck you Corona, you sound like the name of a sneaky-ass bitch.”
Music for These Uncertain Times
For whatever reason, I never got into Bruce Springsteen. Did I just miss the age for The Boss appreciation? I’m not sure. But I’ve seen folks online joking that he’s the man for These Uncertain Times because his music is about being underemployed, alienated and horny. Anyway, I keep seeing the lyrics crop up in pop culture in odd places, like this juxtaposition of the lyrics to “Atlantic City” with Trump administration scandals.
Then NextDraft, recently my fave newsletter, did a whole issue with different news themed to different Springsteen songs, and one of them was Downbound Train, and when I looked it up on Spotify it offered me two versions – one by Springsteen, and a cover by Kurt Vile. That’s actually his name, no relation to Kurt Weill. Anyway, the cover’s pretty nice, give it a listen. I’ve had it on repeat for the past two days, because, well, don’t you feel like a rider on a downbound train?
News
Bloomberg: Coronavirus brings American decline out in the open
The U.S.’s decline started with little things that people got used to… They grumbled about high taxes and high health-insurance premiums and potholed roads, but rarely imagined what it would be like to live in a system that worked better….
The consequences of U.S. decline will far outlast coronavirus. With its high housing costs, poor infrastructure and transit, endemic gun violence, police brutality and bitter political and racial divisions, the U.S. will be a less appealing place for high-skilled workers to live. That means companies will find other countries in Europe, Asia and elsewhere a more attractive destination for investment, robbing the U.S. of jobs, depressing wages and draining away the local spending that powers the service economy.
Vox: What day is it?
Time, at least as we understand it, is also a byproduct of capitalism… as industrialization became the norm, time became a mechanized system that no longer served those who’d invented it. We increasingly served at the beck and call of time, for that is how those who possessed capital could best regulate those who performed the labor.
Muckrake: Deadly Paranoia: White America has been radicalized and prepped for violence, starring the couple with the terrible trigger control brandishing firearms from the front porch of their palatial mansion.
The point is, none of this is new. What happened in St. Louis is only an exposure of what has long infected the body politic of the country come to the surface. It is the ugly reality of who we are and where we have been. Only now, in an era of twenty-four hours news, the internet, and conspiracy theory as a means of political strategy and financial profit, the infection grows worse and worse, not to mention potentially deadly, by the day.
Bonus STL Magazine: Profile of said mansion’s restoration.
Nieman Lab: It’s time to change the way we we report on protests
On May 31, WUSA, the Washington, D.C. CBS affiliate, tweeted, “Pepper spray caused a short stampede in Lafayette Park during a peaceful march honoring George Floyd” — suggesting that the pepper spray somehow acted of its own accord … So when Slate published a story with the headline “Police erupt in violence nationwide,” it was almost startling in its forthrightness.
Bonus: Slate article highlighting spreadsheet of police violence incidents.
Cultivating Joy
Very tiny dog
Taika Watiti holding Baby Yoda
Twitter tale about accidental wildlife cuddles
Dogs learn teamwork
Secretly Ironic 
