News roundup, 26 Feb 2024

- A man burned himself to death in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, apparently in protest of the war in Gaza.

- Russia managed to do in two years what the US couldn't do in 74 - get Sweden to join NATO.

- Donald Trump's base can't get enough of him, but while they love the craziness he spouts, it creates a problem for him if he wants to win the votes of the non-crazy. Meanwhile his legal troubles are creating financial problems for his campaign, and now the prosecutor in the Stormy Daniels case is asking the judge for a gag order to keep Trump from siccing his sheeple on jurors.

- Even in West Virginia, people in the know understand that the coal industry isn't going to recover to its earlier strength. It's been declining for decades, long before renewables entered the picture. Unfortunately while there are new jobs in the renewable energy sector, there are a lot fewer of them, and they aren't always in the same place (the best place to mine coal often isn't the best place to build a solar or wind farm).

- The federal NDP has managed to get the Liberals to move ahead with a national pharmacare program. The NDP had threatened to withdraw their support from the minority Liberal government unless an agreement was reached by the end of the month. Among things to be covered will be diabetes medications and contraceptives; for their part, the Alberta government has announced that they intend to opt out of the whole thing. Because freedumb, or something.

- Manitoba finance minister Adrien Sala accuses the previous government of presenting an "incomplete picture" of the province's finances following an external review ordered by the new government shortly after taking office. Among the things the Tories are accused of ignoring are the impact of last year's drought on Hydro revenues, as well as the impact of their own tax cuts on revenue.

- The former CAO of the Rural Municipality of North Cypress-Langford, Manitoba has been charged with theft after allegedly stealing around $30,000 from a curling club and then using municipal funds to repay it. No information about the motive, but if I were to guess I'd say gambling has something to do with it.

- Syphilis in the US is now at a 70 year high, and some doctors are rationing penicillin in order to keep it available to treat the disease.

- A number of "smart vending machines" at the University of Waterloo were discovered to be using facial recognition, for reasons that are not clear. This was discovered by accident when a software glitch led to a reference to facial recognition appearing on a screen on one of the machines. The university has announced that the machines will be removed.

- A branch of the Royal Canadian Legion in Vaughan, Ontario has had its charter revoked by the national body after allegedly being taken over by outlaw bikers.

News roundup, 12 Feb 2024

- Winnipeg's draft budget continues to be debated. On the positive side, the additional money for the planting and maintenance of city trees was well received by community groups like Trees Winnipeg, although the executive director of that organization fears that it won't be enough to make up for years of neglect. On the other hand, arts organizations are not happy that there's no money for public art in the budget.

- Also in city news - Mayor Gillingham gave his State of the City speech; he and Premier Kinew are looking at ways to increase the availability of housing, mostly by removing potential barriers (notably, the Municipal Board's ability to block housing developments already approved by council).

- An interesting fact - Manitoba's Clean Environment Commission, while sometimes thought of as a "regulatory body", is actually only able to make recommendations to the Minister. Until the Filmon government took power in 1988, this was not the case. The Manitoba Law Reform Commission has recommended changes to this and other sections of the Environment Act; a former deputy minister, Norm Brandson, has concerns about this, being of the view that elected officials should have the final say. This view has some populist appeal, but I'm not at all sure I agree. And it's worth noting that while the article does not say when Brandson held that position, this earlier one does; sure enough, he served from 1990 to 2006, which would make him a Tory appointee (albeit not one so partisan that the incoming NDP government saw reason to immediately get rid of him).

- The European Union is toning down its climate policies in response to a paroxysm of populist rage led by farmer protests. These protests aren't spontaneous, though; they're being whipped up by the usual suspects.

- On a more positive note, China's rollout of clean energy continues apace. Actually it's a bit better than that; international observers are now predicting that their emissions will peak much sooner than predicted even a few years ago, possibly as early as next year. And while the prospect of Trump retaking the White House is very disconcerting, some think that even that won't be the end of the world (though it will definitely mean the end of more individuals, and possibly more communities or even nations, than if Trump doesn't win). What a Trump victory will do, though, is pretty much guarantee that the US will fall behind in clean energy technology and will have to buy it from China and the EU.

- Fears of political violence are growing in the US. It's not just actual politicians who are at risk either; just ask this guy or this one. Oh wait, you can't - they're both dead.

- The Liberal candidate in the federal byelection in Durham booked an event at a small brewery in Bowmanville, Ontario last week, which was attended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This, of course, sent the frothing-at-the-mouth right into a tizzy; the brewery was barraged with negative online reviews, offensive emails, and threatening phone calls. Now maybe you could argue it would be wise for businesses not to book such events at all, but never forget that these are the same kind of people who did the same thing to an Alberta restaurant for not hosting a Take Back Alberta event. Then again, consistency isn't a big thing for these people; they probably think it's only for big city libtard ay-leets anyway, and having to be consistent is an affront to their freedumb.

- The extent to which Canada (and most other developed countries) has urbanized in the last half century is dramatic. For example, in 1966 Ontario had a population of 7 million, of which 2.6 million lived in rural communities. In 2021, the rural population of Ontario has actually declined slightly to 2.5 million, while the overall population of the province had more than doubled. The biggest reason - fewer and fewer immigrants want to settle in those communities, something sociologist Lindsay Finlay attributes to limited opportunities as well as xenophobia. But as one comment on this Reddit thread points out, maybe it's a bigger problem than that:

This article doesn't really address the question of why you want to prevent these places from withering away? If less people need to live there because, for example, agriculture has become more efficient, is that a bad thing? Should policies just be focused on managing the decline rather than reversing it?

Of course, to a lot of rural folk, them's fightin' words.

- A physician at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto is alarmed at a dramatic rise in the incidence of congenital syphilis. Nor is the problem limited to Canada; the Center for Disease Control in the US reports an 80% increase in syphilis cases since 2018 and a staggering 937% increase in a decade. Curiously, the word "swinger" does not appear in either article.

- A woman opened fire at the Houston megachurch run by celebrity pastor Joel Osteen. Two people, including a child, were wounded before the attacker was shot to death by off-duty cops.