- US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reportedly had a "blunt" private conversation with Joe Biden this past weekend; the exact nature of the discussion has not been made public but I think we can guess. Interestingly, there are signs that the message might be getting through; several top Democrats are predicting his exit from the campaign as early as this weekend. And Kamala Harris is filling in for him on the campaign trail as he recovers from COVID-19. The Republicans seem to suspect that something may be coming as well; they're already testing out new messaging for attack ads. Meanwhile some recent polling suggests that both Biden and Harris are statistically tied with Trump; note however that this polling predates the actions of that over-zealous patriot over the weekend.
- Steelmaking is responsible for 11% of CO2 emissions worldwide. In a positive development, though, 93% of new steelmaking capacity announced so far this year will be done with electric arc furnaces, which produce far less in the way of emissions.
- In 1977, an article in Marathon World, an internal company publication of Marathon Oil (now Marathon Petroleum) warned that climate change from fossil fuel use could cause "widespread starvation and other social and economic calamities". This is awkward for Marathon, since they are one of a number of oil companies now being sued by the City of Honolulu for subsequently engaging in activity to promote climate change denial.
- Seamus O'Regan has resigned his position as Minister of Labour and Seniors, apparently for family reasons, and while he will stay on as MP until the next election, he will not be running again. I don't doubt that the family reasons are real, but I can't help but think maybe he'd have been more inclined to stick around if he thought there was any chance of holding onto government after the next election.
- Tom Brodbeck is (rightly) praising the City of Winnipeg's moves towards a more bike-friendly city. He's not the first person to point this out, of course, but better late than never. Gotta hand it to him, Brodbeck has become a much more thoughtful writer on this as well as numerous other subjects since moving to a paper that allows you to write thoughtfully on any non-sports subject. Of course the suburbanites are whining about losing a few parking spaces in the downtown that they would otherwise blather on about being scared to visit.
- Five climate activists in the UK who organized a blockade of a major motorway have received substantial prison sentences. One of them received a five year sentence while the others got four each; the article suggests that these are the longest sentences for nonviolent protest in UK history. I don't know, could they have meant recent UK history? I'm sure that during the Troubles the authorities had relatively little compunction about jailing nonviolent protesters, given that at times they showed a willingness to shoot them en masse.
- A Georgian neo-Nazi, Michail Chkhikvishvili, was arrested in Moldova earlier this month and extradited to the US on charges that he was attempting to recruit someone to poison candy and give it out to minority children while dressed as Santa Claus in New York City.
- A Florida woman who had booked a birthday party for her daughter at a roller rink in the Tampa suburb of Brandon became incensed when the venue cancelled the booking. Apparently the contract required her to hire two off-duty deputies to provide security and the cancellation resulted from her failure to do this. It seems she did not take it well; she apparently made a series of social media posts urging her followers to "tear the fuck out of them". Around 500 people obliged; she has been charged with inciting a riot.
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