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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!
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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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[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 49 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 22 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

[-] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 36 points 23 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

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[-] bbnh69420@hexbear.net 58 points 1 day 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 16 hours ago

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

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[-] Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net 35 points 23 hours ago

Would European foreign policy change much under Trump?

[-] plinky@hexbear.net 18 points 19 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 23 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 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 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

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[-] bbnh69420@hexbear.net 32 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 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 20 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 1 day ago

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

[-] SoyViking@hexbear.net 31 points 1 day 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 16 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 19 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 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 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 1 day 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.

[-] Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net 38 points 1 day ago

This isn’t permanent, right?

[-] SoyViking@hexbear.net 20 points 1 day ago

Bit idea: Get Iran to do something funny so people will once more flock to the news mega

[-] dustbunnies@hexbear.net 42 points 1 day ago

nope – iirc, it's just a couple days

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 44 points 1 day ago

Oh thank god, I was worried. Don't get me wrong I like the fundraising and already donated to both but yeah.

[-] dustbunnies@hexbear.net 36 points 1 day ago

when I realized I couldn't instantly tell if there were new posts, I just opened a new tab for each mega to keep up on them that way, but then they promptly got lost in the shuffle of my million open tabs 😂🤷 and then I forgot entirely that I had done it until I started closing tabs this morning and found them again 🤦😂

[-] SubstantialNothingness@hexbear.net 52 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Apparently the FBI foiled a right-winger looking to take out a power station in Tennessee.

https://archive.ph/YcmoA

[-] What_Religion_R_They@hexbear.net 49 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The play by play is hilarious. They rolled out all the receipts... this guy must've talked to every informant they had

On Nov. 2, 2024, Philippi participated in a Nordic ritual, which included reciting a Nordic prayer and discussing the Norse god Odin. Philippi told the UCEs that “this is where the New Age begins” and that it was “time to do something big” that would be remembered “in the annals of history.”

i-cant

[-] anaesidemus@hexbear.net 36 points 1 day ago

the only Nordic rituals that these guys should be participating in is eating sour haggis, sour rams testicles, sheep head paté and delicious putrefied shark while singing mostly translated Irish folk songs

the only Nordic prayer is "ahh, coffee"

nobody discusses Odin

[-] miz@hexbear.net 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

what is up with 80% of Nordics drinking like four cups a day

[-] anaesidemus@hexbear.net 14 points 1 day ago

we just like the taste I guess owl-wink

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

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