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Image is from this article on the excellent Canadian environmental journalism outlet, The Narwhal.


The Giant Mine just outside of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada is one of the country's largest recognized environmental liabilities. The mine's 100 plus year history illustrates the continuity between resource colonialism in the late 19th/early 20th century and neoliberalism at the turn of the millennium.

There were several gold rushes in northern Canada/US in the late 19th century, such as the Klondike. The Giant gold strike on was first discovered by settlers about the same time as the Klondike, but as Giant is on Great Slave Lake (named for an Anglicization of the name of local peoples, not after slavery) instead of the Pacific Ocean, it is much less accessible and didn't take off like the Klondike. Parallel with displacement of local Yellowknives Dene people https://ykdene.com/, the town of Yellowknife sprung up around small mining operations through the 30s. It wasn't until after WW2 that the mine was developed at a large scale. Starting operation in 1948, Giant was owned by a Canadian mining conglomerate through the 80s, then some Australians, and for the last ten years of its operating life, by Americans, who went bankrupt and abandoned the property in 1999. The Canadian federal government is responsible for the site and its remediation now, similar to the way the EPA has Superfund sites in the USA.

The project is infamous for poisoning the people and environment of the surrounding area through arsenic poisoning. The ore at giant is arsenopyrite, an arsenic sulphide mineral that often contains gold. Roasting it in large furnaces or kilns releases the gold as well as fine arsenic trioxide dust. The most infamous arsenic poisoning incident was in 1951 when a Yellowknives Dene toddler in died after eating contaminated snow in the fallout area, 2 kilometers from the processing mill's smokestack. Over the years, improvements to the mill reduced the amount of toxic dust released to the environment. This is better than blasting it into the air wildly, but meant that the site accumulated hundreds of thousands of tonnes of arsenic trioxide dust that they chucked in empty mine workings underground. Unfortunately, arsenic trioxide dissolves in water as easily as sugar and so represents a tremendous risk to groundwater and waterbodies nearby, like Great Slave Lake and Yellowknife's water supply.

Arsenic issues contributed to labour disputes as well. In 1991 the union workers of the plant went on strike, refusing management's demand to reduce their salary and wanting better safety measures for workers . The company brought in Pinkertons and strikebreakers, backed by RCMP thugs. The situation escalated, culminating in a bomb planted on a train track deep in the mine. When it was triggered, it killed 6 scabs and 3 Pinkertons. For the next year, the RCMP interrogated mine workers, their family and community without determining who did it, supporting the company in their refusal to sign a new contract until an arrest was made. Finally a worker named Roger Warren confessed to doing it alone and was sentenced to life in prison. He was released in 2014 and died in 2017.

Since 1999, the site has been the responsibility of the Canadian federal government and is being every so gradually remediated. Operated through what are effectively private-public partnership contracts, environmental engineering companies are attempting to clean up and isolate the huge amounts of arsenic trioxide dust. The concept is move the dust into specially ventilated chambers of the underground mine, where it is frozen in place and thus prevented from leaching into groundwater. Active remediation is supposed to be finished in about 15 years at a cost of $1 billion CAD, but will surely take longer and cost more than this. Also, freezing material in place will definitely work because the climate isn't changing, and the Canadian north is definitely not seeing extreme levels of temperature rise.

After active works are complete, the site will require perpetual care.


Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


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[-] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 98 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

@carpoftruth@hexbear.net is hosting the news megathread this week while I'm busy irl!

Make sure to head to the US electoral containment thread for everything to do with the election on a domestic level, as we don't want too much US-centric news to flood this thread. Discussion of Harris' or Trump's potential geopolitical impacts is still perfectly fine here.

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[-] FortifiedAttack@hexbear.net 15 points 35 minutes ago

Lots of Ukraine stans saying that European countries need to decouple from the US now michael-laugh

Idiotic vassals just spent the last 3 years becoming entirely dependent on US support. Trump is gonna have a field day with you.

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 17 points 41 minutes ago

Now watch all the Republicans become pro-Ukraine and Azov, and all Democrats become anti-Ukraine and Azov

[-] SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net 13 points 36 minutes ago

Suddenly pre-2022 style articles about Neo-Nazism in Ukraine will make an appearance again. zelensky-pain

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 11 points 33 minutes ago

And the jokes in media about how corrupt and backwards Ukraine is will be back.

[-] IceWallowCum@hexbear.net 8 points 26 minutes ago

I can already see the waves of "Trump is funding Nazis abroad 😱"

[-] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 5 points 19 minutes ago

@xiaohongshu@hexbear.net

Give us your take. Will Biden's masterful geopolitical and economic schemes be defeated by Trump, or will he and his disciples continue to work behind the scenes and deliver unto us a new century of American total dominance over the planet?

[-] aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net 32 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

BRICS need to start pushing de-dollarisation urgently given the current geopolitical situation. They had a golden opportunity in 2022-2023, and decided not to. That decison could bite us in the ass...

Hopefully Trump winning will kill the liberal delusion that we in the global south can reconciliate and negotiate with the imperial triad of the USA, Western Europe and Japan. Especially the USA of course. Fear of Trump seems to mobilise the liberals in situations where they'd otherwise stay quiet.

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 14 points 57 minutes ago

Yeah, I think Trump campaigned on attacking BRICS and anyone who was pro-de-dollarisation. We will see if he actually does anything or just idk, try some shitty fake reconciliation with the Global South. I kinda wished there was a gridlock in the congress, but I doubt dems will win that, and even if they did, when it comes to fuck the Global South both parties unite. I hope he gets busy with stupid shit like Ukraine.

[-] SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net 6 points 23 minutes ago

I'm morbidly curious how those brainworms geopolitics chuds, who keep spreading this total nonsense about Trump being allied with BRICS, will spin this when he starts sanctioning BRICS members.

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 3 points 19 minutes ago

I think only MAGA Communism people care about this. The usual chuds hate Russia, China, Brazil, India and South Africa

[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 7 points 39 minutes ago

Honestly, Trump is a decent attack dog to scare the layabouts and stragglers of BRICS into shape, at a certain point it really does become a 'shut up or put up' moment and Trump may force the recognition

[-] meth_dragon@hexbear.net 12 points 1 hour ago

there will be no dedollarization before a physical conflict that completely exhausts the hegemon materially and politically, destroying the extant system and thus creating the need for a new one.

money can be part of the base in times of peace, but when it comes to dethroning the hegemon, it is always superstructure. this is because antihegemonism necessarily entails physical violence, conditions under which currency returns to its idealist origins while real resources and their effective application to ends destructive or otherwise becomes ascendant.

the fastest way out is the abolishment of this intolerable peace enforced by MAD through rapidly escalating nuclear brinksmanship. hard to believe that mao had it right all this time.

[-] RaisedFistJoker@hexbear.net 16 points 1 hour ago

will brics ever be policitcally unified enough to take the plunge, it doesnt feel like it

[-] Fishroot@hexbear.net 7 points 39 minutes ago* (last edited 37 minutes ago)

No, because it’s a fancy tradeshow with members who are rivals trying to carve territories in global south

[-] aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net 13 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I don't think so, I've been dooming on BRICS since the 2022 and 2023 conferences. Long piece on that, but worth the read. I'm just hoping this result will kill any delusions that working with the imperial triad is possible, and kick-start something with regards to BRICS.

[-] SupFBI@hexbear.net 1 points 2 minutes ago

"Joy" and "You won't have to think about politics" does not a vision make. Your average voter wants a vision for the future, even though they know it's a lie. Wheeling out establisment republicans ( of whom most liberals viscerally hated in the 00's) doesn't get out the vote? Who could have guessed? Why vote for republican lite when you can vote for the "real" thing? Misogyny and racism also played a role, no doubt about that.

[-] Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net 37 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

This US election outcome seems to be testing the resolve of a lot of leftists who were earlier discussing how both parties served the same masters and change wouldn’t be that different under either one. A lot of them have quickly turned to doomerism after years of seemingly expecting this outcome.

In Guatemala it’s more of a shoulder shrug. We weren’t expecting much from Kamala and Trump didn’t really have any major impact on us. No more than every other President that’s been increasingly anti-immigrant

[-] HelltakerHomosexual@hexbear.net 41 points 2 hours ago

US officially announced donald trump as the next elected president, all the news sites from CNN to FOX have called it for trump

https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/11/06/trump-harris-presidential-election-live-updates/ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/11/5/us-election-results-live-polls-shut-in-trump-harris-indiana-kentucky-race https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/2024-presidential-election-results-news https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/election-trump-harris-11-06-24/index.html

it seems kamala's strategy of not trying fucking flopped, who knew?

It also seems that republicans have gained a majority in every branch of government. the senate and the governors have a republican majority, while the house is still heavily contested, but leaning towards republicans.

what does this change? nothing. America is descending towards fascism either way.

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 27 points 2 hours ago

During the campaign, Trump advocated increasing protectionist tariffs to stop imports, especially from China, in order to stimulate domestic production and, consequently, the US economy.

This could have repercussions for Brazil, since the country has China as one of its main trading partners. The Republican has also threatened to retaliate against those who exchange the dollar for the Chinese currency, the yuan, in commercial transactions.

De-dollarization is one of Brazil's main flagships with the BRICS, precisely to expand trade in the local currencies of the countries in the group and, in practice, to circumvent the dollar Trump may also boycott the climate summit to be held in Brazil, which could be emptied without the presence of the United States. In addition, he has repeatedly denied certain climate consensuses, such as the effects of global warming.

[-] grandepequeno@hexbear.net 30 points 3 hours ago

Branko Milanovic's take on Trump/Democrats and Russia/China

The conventional view is that Trump is good for Russia and bad for China.

The truth is the oposite. He is bad for Russia b/c he will be unable, due to general opposition to him, to end the war in Ukraine.

He is good for China b/c he will not wage a (crazy) ideological war that Biden did, but will be a transactional president.

China can live much more comfortably with a US president who insists that they should buy more soya beans than with the president who wants to overthrow their political system.

[-] Halloweenbean@hexbear.net 2 points 7 minutes ago

Trump is liable to cause war with Russia over a minor issue regarding Iran. Then again he could be super nixon.

[-] RNAi@hexbear.net 16 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

What if Trump chooses to not get involved in anything due to fear of more ear piercings and let the capable ghouls run the death machine?

[-] grandepequeno@hexbear.net 8 points 1 hour ago

I guess it'd just be 4 more years of what's going on now, but I think he wouldn't choose that entirely and will want to get involved in something

[-] anaesidemus@hexbear.net 53 points 3 hours ago

Fucking lol, European lapdogs rush to congratulate tromp in a stunning display of performative civility.

Putin, who is in the minds of liberals Trumps greatest ally, will not congratulate him since the US is a hostile country and will instead judge him on his deeds.

[-] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 30 points 4 hours ago

I'm in non-burger land and have been awake for about 5 mins, did donny boy win? Lol I knew I should have put some money on it

[-] HelltakerHomosexual@hexbear.net 16 points 2 hours ago

he's won now officially

[-] CarmineCatboy2@hexbear.net 41 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

While this is breaking the containment measures a bit, it's at least news thread adjacent: I'll be quite interested to see how certain right wing anti Ukraine War commentators we occasionally source from will contort themselves to justify the reasons why Trump will (probably) just continue all the anti Russia, pro Zionist, anti China policies of the american state.

Likewise, as some others have mentioned - I'm looking forward to liberal opinion on the genocidal war against the gaza ghetto. Some think that Trump will give them a justification to emulate a conscience. I'm more of the opinion that they'll scapegoat muslim americans the same way they are scapegoating latinos now.

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 15 points 2 hours ago

How do you think Trump will deal with Latin America? I think he'll probably ignore or just continue what Biden did (coup in Peru, support for Ecuador and Argentina, sanctions on Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba). I doubt Bolsonaro or Camacho will get anything out of it, since they both lost their political rights, but I think it will push the socdem governments (except Boric lol) more towards China. Milei will be very happy, which is annoying, but I doubt he'll get anything from Trump and will probably be called a slur or told to get a haircut.

[-] Halloweenbean@hexbear.net 1 points 5 minutes ago

Trump is mastering the break up of the kind of false Latino group identity. (French people made it up) Just play evangelicals against catholics and right wing exiles against left wing exiles.

[-] Staines@hexbear.net 19 points 4 hours ago

Emulating a conscience might just be too much to ask from them.

Liberals will always let you down.

[-] GeorgeZBush@hexbear.net 36 points 5 hours ago

I honestly don't think Gaza had a major impact on Copmala losing. Trump's victory was assured in August 2021.

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[-] HonestMistake_@lemmy.ml 40 points 5 hours ago
[-] SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net 7 points 2 hours ago

I'm with Marshal Tito. 07

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 6 points 2 hours ago

Big if True

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this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2024
132 points (99.3% liked)

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