A lot of today’s Tough Times Tuesday post is still unfolding in surrounding news, so take with a grain of salt any real-time comments made here about reactions to the European Parliament elections, and the interminable wait for a Israel/Gaza ceasefire news.

Nevertheless, the binding thread here—our world’s rising far-right sensibilities, and how they shape us psychologically—will unfortunately be relevant well beyond this latest news cycle.

#Politics #Nationalism #EU

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/when-pan-nationalism-veers-nationalist

(Obligatory pace & think before final edits on Tough Times Tuesday. My first draft on Macron and the EU parliament's latest election results is... cranky, to say the least.)

First today, we're catching up on Monday Media Review with a reflection on Monkey Man, and the renegotiation of ancient stories to find the motivation we need to combat injustice here and now.

The version of a Hindu story told in this film is *not* the most common one for this ancient character--but why cling to a story that no longer serves us all?

#BetterWorldsTheory #Humanism
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/rewriting-cultural-stories-or-trying

Eyeball break!

Can't screen no mo' no mo'.

Going to talk to a tree. Maybe two!

All right. Clarkesworld issue review is now up at #BetterWorldsTheory!

Apologies for all the background noise. I'm still pretty tired, so it was tricky to stay focused through the interruptions of neighbourhood kids especially, but hopefully there'll be something of note for #SFF lovers and writers in my reflections on a few key themes for the genre (and issues for the industry), advanced through discussion of the work published in the mag this month. #Reading #Reviews

https://youtu.be/ovctpfGlU90

This was the piece, if anyone wants to read more. Essentially, Azerbaijan is leveraging its position as a vital workaround oil and gas source for Europe amid wartime bans. To pull off the trick, it's using Russian imports internally, and maximizing local exports to the West, in part by growing its own fossil fuels to meet demand while soliciting investment in future green tech. Its leaders will ride this wartime peak of political value to both sides for all they can get.

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/whats-oil-got-to-do-with-it

I wrote about Azerbaijan a few weeks ago, in a piece reflecting on the war-driven challenges for Europe when trying to break from Russian oil via this country and Turkey. So, colour me very unsurprised by this latest news about COP29's hosts - but also tired.

Aren't you tired? I think we're all very tired of this right-in-plain-view environmental catastrophe.

#ClimateCrisis #Economics

https://phys.org/news/2024-06-cop29-climate-hosts-theyll-fossil.html

Eh. Not my best recording - kids returning from holiday-Monday ciclovía mid-recording were playing in the yard and the hallway, which definitely distracted the heck out me while trying to "word good", but it'll have to do. BookTube is now uploading, during which time I can get back to tackling today's newsletter, before finishing a Patreon tonight.

Holiday Monday means I can pretend the week starts tomorrow, and be on my game for Tuesday instead, right? 🤔

#WritingCommunity

Wee warning for fellow #WritersOfCoSo:

One of the *last* things I do, as a professional editor, is run a doc I'm reviewing through Word's spelling-and-grammar check.

I'm not using it to catch errors, exactly (though I'm always open to having missed something), but I want to see what the client will see if they put their work through that tool as well.

And what really sucks?
This tool has gotten *worse*, not better, with so-called AI.

Use it sparingly to sharpen your prose!

Y'all are good people.

Even the rotters.

(Maybe especially the rotters.)

Off to do some readin' and writin' for the rest of the night.

Be good to your fool selves.

And don't forget to take your stinkin' meatsacks for a walk, then fill up their water bowls, if ever they start complaining too much. 🌛😘

This one is for @LiseL, on her birthday. 🎂 For those of you who (rightly) mute our daily puzzle pack's adventures, we had a routine a few months back of using the day's 16 words from one game to write little stories and poems.

Using today's words, I've written one just for her.

Thank you, Lise, for your care in so much, for the friendship we've built here, and for the beauty you lend to our hurting world, just by being present with it all. 💛

#Poetry

#Gratitude

Also, I'm not sure who started today's fantastic conversation on everyday waste and consumption (Min, methinks? But I might be wrong!), but thank you *so* much to everyone who's been keeping that conversation going, and digging into the nitty-gritty of specific product issues and potential replacements.

It's been so heartening to see so many thoughtful people sharing knowledge and boosting awareness around such a vital theme.

But *of course* it happened here! ☺️ #CoSoRocks

Well, I 100% conked out this afternoon. I guess I needed the sleep, but it means I have to abandon two items on today's to-do list.

Next, wrapping up a project report. :) #HappyPlace

Then I'll review notes for tomorrow's BookTube recording and get cracking on the newsletter to start this week on a better note.

The Patreon post will continue to percolate half-finished. Amusingly enough, it's an essay on why we *shouldn't* get so hung up on our words that we lose track of the rest of our world.

@Alfred can you give me five famous sayings on how to live a good life, but change some words in them, so that each famous saying now sounds very silly?

#CoSoMemes #Humour

🙃 Am I the only one who thinks this would still be better than some of the sources for guidance we turn to today?

Didn't get a chance for my paper yesterday. Catching up now on all the poverty, bombings, and political tonterías (nonsense).

I do love the word "zozobra" something fierce. It's similar to anxiety or uncertainty, but at another level - which is why it comes from the Latin for something below ("sub") rising ("supra"), but with Spanish's preference for dropping terminal consonants giving us our word:

Sub-supra
Zo-zobra (with soft "z"s)

Language is a treat, even if it does bring us rotten news.

I look like a zombie this morning, so I'm making the executive decision *not* to record today. Luckily, tomorrow is a holiday, so the highway will be quiet then, too.

I have a few work tasks to finish today, and a public Patreon to finally send out, but first I'm going for a walk to shake off this "death warmed over" feeling.

Have a good one, CoSo. Don't forget to move the ol' corpse-in-training sometimes!

I really hope there will come some semblance of better days for our species.

(Not counting on it, what with how poorly we're responding to polycrisis, but one can hope.)

We could be doing so much more with our one and precious lives.

We have so much to share, learn, and become.

But just in case we don't ever get to live in better days... tread gently where you can, eh?

If this is the best we get to be, let's at least not waste it being hard on ourselves and our circles too.

'Night CoSo. 🕯️

As I noted last week, I spend time most every day with our world in violence. I don't share most of it here, because those who care are already looking. Those who don't will never see this data as anything more than an infowar trick.

So it goes. But--

Went through a really bad batch of footage tonight, after a day when I also sat with the story of men who got to achieve extraordinary things--in part, because of the geopolitics of their birth.

Not shaken. Just sitting with the waste of it all.