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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.


(page 3) 50 comments
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[-] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 46 points 16 hours ago

https://xcancel.com/cheriblossom__/status/1853903459277516942

The Chief of the Air Force is stuck in the streets of Tel Aviv due to large protests and street blockades

[-] companero@hexbear.net 51 points 17 hours ago

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fu571ehtsjzyd1.jpeg

(Image uploads don't seem to be working, sorry for reddit link)

This is the first official picture of China's J-35A stealth fighter (previously known as FC-31), from the Zhuhai airshow.

It was originally built for export, then the navy decided they wanted a version for aircraft carriers, and now the air force looks like they will adopt it as well.

It has a more focused design than its US-made counterpart, the F-35, which will likely mean it's better at its job and cheaper/easier to build in large quantities.

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[-] Nalumixx@lemmygrad.ml 63 points 18 hours ago

The last Kufiya factory in Palestine (west bank), Hirbawi, sells Kufiyas on kufiya.org again. So if you want one and simultaneously support Palestinians you can order them there

[-] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 49 points 18 hours ago

IOF dumbasses failed to kick down a door on their first try before magdumping an empty room:
https://xcancel.com/Lebnews2004/status/1853825699104063648

[-] WeedReference420@hexbear.net 31 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Genuinely wondering if there's ever been a worse military than the modern IDF, obviously they can still spread a lot of misery and death but they seem useless in actual combat in a way I've never seen before.

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[-] miz@hexbear.net 53 points 19 hours ago
[-] Al_Sham@hexbear.net 76 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Zionist defense minister Yoav Gallant has now been replaced by this guy

[-] trompete@hexbear.net 12 points 12 hours ago

Netanyahu had faced pressure from far-right members of his cabinet to dismiss him. On Tuesday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir congratulated Netanyahu, accusing Gallant of being an impediment to “complete victory.”

[-] HoiPolloi@hexbear.net 27 points 15 hours ago

Gallant was calling Palestinians "human animals" within a week of Oct 7th and bombed every hospital in Gaza, so this isn't a big shift in rhetoric or policy. Still, the Israeli government seems to be falling into more internal squabbling, which shows that the resistance is having some effect at least.

[-] aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net 39 points 18 hours ago

Honestly I'm surprised that it took this long. Given the timing, I'm suspecting it's a signal towards their US masters.

[-] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 44 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

I imagine that people displaying even the vaguest shred of empathy for men, women, and especially children are shot on sight if they get within a mile of an Israeli government building, so it's unsurprising

[-] Al_Sham@hexbear.net 31 points 17 hours ago

The contradiction isn't about whether they care about Palestinians. The settlers are mad about the drafting of the ultra Orthodox and the judicial reforms etc...

[-] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 60 points 20 hours ago

Just shuffling chairs on the sinking Titanic:
https://xcancel.com/AryJeay/status/1853859521565004053

BREAKING: Netanyahu fired War Minister Yoav Gallant.

Netanyahu nominated Yisrael Katz as the new War Minister.

He was the, until now, foreign minister.

[-] 2Password2Remember@hexbear.net 19 points 14 hours ago

cant wait for kamala to name Yamerica Cats the secretary of defense

Death to America

[-] GoodGuyWithACat@hexbear.net 21 points 16 hours ago
[-] someone@hexbear.net 55 points 21 hours ago

Hurricane Rafael just formed yesterday in the Caribbean. Looks like Havana will be hit tomorrow evening. Hopefully there won't be the insane quick strengthening that we saw in the last few Caribbean hurricanes.

[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 49 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

By August 14, 1945, the US Navy peaked at 6,768 active ships, by 1950 that number shrank to 634 ships

Later that same year in 1950 due to the Korean War the US Navy expanded back up to 980 active ships before topping out at 1,122 ships in 1953 at the end of the war and remained at a stable 900 ships for the rest of the fifties

Between 1958-1974 the US Navy slowly shrank until stabilizing again at around 550 ships until Reagan's 600 Ship-Navy Campaign Plank

The 1980s plan to rebuild the U.S. Navy, known as the 600-ship Navy, was a campaign plank of Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. The plan included: Recommissioning Iowa-class battleships, Keeping older ships in service longer, A large new construction program, and Increasing production of Nimitz-class aircraft carriers

The 600-ship Navy was the most expensive peacetime military buildup in U.S. history, costing $1.5 trillion over five years

The US Navy peaked at 594 ships in 1987 before experiencing a sharp decline between 1989-1992

[-] Parzivus@hexbear.net 41 points 19 hours ago

The US shipbuilding industry has always been kinda shit but it's worse now than ever. It's kinda pathetic

[-] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 36 points 21 hours ago

somewhat related NC article from today on industrial policy and shipbuilding. not super critical for your point or the article, but I liked this quote from yves at the beginning:

Most Western governments like to pretend that that they are not in the business of industrial policy. In fact, they clearly are, in the form of numerous subsidies, like interest rate breaks, tax credits, subsidies, borrowing guarantees and large and lax government purchasing schemes. So in the US, the preferred sectors include the medical care,1 real estate, higher education, and arms makers.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/11/industrial-policy-lessons-from-chinas-shipbuilding.html

[-] bbnh69420@hexbear.net 58 points 23 hours ago

True Promise 3 is the only thing that could revive this mega thread now, come on Iran! xi-plz

[-] Commiejones@hexbear.net 8 points 15 hours ago

Can we normalize saying that the entity "got TeePeed" when the next strike happens?

[-] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 5 points 12 hours ago

TPed my neighbor's house for halloween i-cant

[-] Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net 35 points 21 hours ago

Would European foreign policy change much under Trump?

[-] iByteABit@hexbear.net 15 points 15 hours ago

Idk but judging from the constant propaganda we receive about him here (which is true, but just as true for the dems also) they must have reasons not to want him elected

[-] plinky@hexbear.net 18 points 18 hours ago

Nah, too servile. Remember how euros made some noises over trump abandoning iran deal, and then got put in place by their master.

Only icj/icc could break the spell for the law and order eu. Which is why icc is getting bent, and icj would be dicking around for 10 years.

[-] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 34 points 21 hours ago

It could perhaps. the EU liberal bureaucrats seem to really dislike trump and trump seems like he has the individual juice to potentially make a difference in ukraine (as opposed to israel where he is just as bloodthirsty as biden/harris). another 4 years of trump fucking about and disrespecting EU liberals could help drive the message home that americans despise europe as a vassal. whether that materially makes a difference to EU policy or not is up in the air, but I imagine it combining with declining economic conditions in europe to show EU bureaucrats that they've got to go their own way to some extent. the dutch would probably also find the neutering of ASML more distasteful if administered by trump rather than harris.

this ryan grim article talks about some specifics around ukraine but not in tremendous detail: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/11/so-what-happens-after-a-trump-or-harris-win.html

[-] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 29 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

yeah, I think if Trump's elected then it wouldn't be a day 1 thing where every European leader suddenly defects from NATO or anything, but 2-3 years into his presidency, under mounting pressure both domestic and foreign, and with the war in Ukraine hopefully having concluded badly for the West, I think we'll see an anti-Atlanticist turn. or at the very least, significant battles between anti-Atlanticists and the capitalists who just wanna force the government to buy a $100 billion laser-guided ultrashittium teraflops hellfire AI missile system that can, at best, occasionally shoot down endangered bird species. who wins that battle will depend so much on factors we don't know about yet (how the Middle East looks by then and therefore oil prices and how that affects European energy, how the China-US conflict is shaping up, etc) that I can't make any predictions.

like most things European, it'll take a racist and imperialist position because I strongly doubt that the left will be strong enough by then to guide any anti-American movement

[-] bbnh69420@hexbear.net 32 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

Tervell posting, translation of caption

“ 🔷️ Old soldier, still in service

The Ministry of Defense of Russia has released a video of the activity of a mobile defense unit armed with a 23mm ZU-23-2 cannon to deal with drones. If you remember, at the beginning of the arrival of Gran 1/2 suicide drones in the Russia-Ukraine war, Ukrainian mobile defense units were formed by mounting anti-aircraft guns on tactical vehicles.

It has been some time now that the Russians have started to form such patrol units to deal with all types of Ukrainian long-range drones, which operate deep inside Russian soil and near sensitive points. Cannons like this ZU-23 with shrapnel ammunition have sufficient power to deal with the attacks of such drones, but if they are still used in almost the same way as 60 years ago, it will definitely reduce their effectiveness.

#Russia #Ukraine #Defense #UAV

NPC @Partisan2015”

https://t.me/partisan2015/73922

[-] Al_Sham@hexbear.net 16 points 19 hours ago

Zu-23 in action with Russian Guntuber. Crazy stuff.

https://youtu.be/ZGHGOyafc_0

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[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 75 points 1 day ago

1-year-old baby is the third Brazilian victim to die in Israel's attacks on Lebanon, says Brazilian Goverment. According to the government, three Brazilians - all minors - have already died amid Israel's offensive.

[-] whatdoiputhere12@hexbear.net 65 points 1 day ago

a bottomless pit of evil. fucking Christ hamas-red-triangle isntrael

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 58 points 1 day ago

During the beginning of the war in Gaza, Israel refused to let the Arab-Latinos leave for Egypt (mainly from Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Chile). They were basically being held hostage by the Israeli government because Israel was angry that Latin America had condemned the genocide.

[-] whatdoiputhere12@hexbear.net 43 points 23 hours ago

What can I even say about the only democracy in the Middle East

[-] SoyViking@hexbear.net 31 points 23 hours ago

Fascist Provocateur Rasmus Paludan Sentenced to Four Months in Swedish Prison for Hate Speech

Rasmus Paludan, the leader of Denmark's crackpot fascist "Hard Line" party, has been sentenced to four months in prison by a Swedish court for inciting hatred against Muslims. This marks his third conviction for racist hate speech and the his first unsuspended prison sentence.

Read more... (CW: Racism, mentions of possible CSA)

The Malmö District Court found that Paludan’s derogatory comments, which included claims that Arabs and Africans are violent, unintelligent and lazy and that Muslims are "really good at killing", went beyond permissible criticism of religion and amounted to racial incitement.

Paludan, 42, who has gained notoriety for his inflammatory Quran burnings and islamophobic hate propaganda that at one point angered Turkey enough to block Swedish , appeared via videolink during the trial, insisting he was merely expressing his political views. However, the court dismissed his defense, emphasizing that his remarks were intended to degrade Muslims and not foster any legitimate discussion. The court pointed out Paludan's blatant disregard for previous rulings, leading to a rejection of a suspended sentence.

Paludan, who holds dual Swedish and Danish citizenship, has decided to appeal the sentence and has stated that he is now "done with Sweden" and will focus his attention on Denmark where he feels "more safe".

Adding to his legal troubles, Paludan is also set to face trial in Denmark later this month for racist remarks against African's and Muslims that includes comparing the intelligence of Somalis to that of orangutans.

Paludan, a lawyer by profession, has been in trouble with the law several times and has a rap sheet that includes convictions for racist hate speech, defamation and reckless driving as well as fines from the Bar Association for violating good legal practice and a restraining order against a man who Paludan stalked and harassed for years.

In the 2019 Danish general election Paludan's "Hard Line" party ran on a platform of imposing a beefed-up version of the Nuremberg laws for Muslims and won 1.8 percent of the vote, falling short of the two percent threshold for receiving seats in parliament. The deputy leader of the party was Uwe Max Jensen, a far-right artist whose art mostly consists of defecating and urinating where he is not supposed to. Paludan has since attempted various grifts with little luck, including a football team named "The Soldiers of the Danes" and founding an explicitly islamophobic church with himself as archbishop.

Before devoting himself to the fascist cause he ran several blogs, one of which consisted of photos of pedestrians and cyclists who in Paludan's view were committing minor traffic offences. Another blog consisted of deeply creepy but technically legal comments on "beautiful" underage boys.

[-] Commiejones@hexbear.net 5 points 15 hours ago

Fuckin weird. On the one swedish hand you have government ministers saying racist shit about Russian speaking people and Muslim people on the other you have them locking up people who are like 20% more inclusive and 10% more aggressive in their hate speech.

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[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 96 points 1 day ago

Megathread activity has dropped from moving the megas into a single holding thread, the extra click it takes to get here matters and people can't see how many new comments are in the thread at a glance from the main page. sadness

[-] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 17 points 18 hours ago

Nah, the real reason is the election contaiment mega, just look at all the comment the election mega has

[-] mkultrawide@hexbear.net 26 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Quarantining the biggest news event happening this week to appease people who think that talking about a US election is what electoralism means is probably the bigger cause, given that the election mega has more than double the number of comments as the news mega.

[-] bbnh69420@hexbear.net 37 points 23 hours ago

Quarantining election news probably also did a number

[-] Cowbee@hexbear.net 53 points 1 day ago

Noticed that too, sad side-effect but the huge amount of money raised so far is great.

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

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