Now on route to a tourist zone to check that its acclaimed changes are "all that".

Hi CoSo!

I've been consumed by my ego this week.

How are you? How've you been keeping sane? (Or at least from going more nuts?)

What's one small triumph in your life as of late?

Name one (1) art that's moved you as of late.

If you had your druthers, where would you be today, and what would you be doing?

All right. Enough dawdling.

Out the door for the day. Two articles to finish before a class tonight. Hopefully the writing goes easier once I'm across town and huffing "life vibes" from my surroundings.

(After probably 45 minutes just to get to the metro, because I know I have to put in the time with some folks I haven't seen in over a week.)

Have a good one, all.

Take out your brains and give them a good dusting if they've been giving you guff as of late!

#Democracy #Politics

A lot of migrants lean right-wing because

a) their last country had a despotic leftist,
b) they want to pass as just as 'Murican as their right-wing neighbours,
c) they buy into the myth that politicians are only going after "lazy" migrants, &
d) many are in church communities that advocate for right-wing leaders.

US friends, don't assume migrants in your life know they're in danger under T. Everyone thinks they have plot armour in their own life.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/18/election-trump-michigan-latino-voters

Thanks for being my accountability partners yesterday, folks.

I still can't seem to rise early, but I'm going to try being in the city today (I have a promo article to finish for TimeOut, so it's best to write it in a tourist-y area anyway). Just have to run the gamut of street friends I haven't seen in a week, & be present for all their stories, before I hit the metro.

Hopefully today will wear me out and I'll be leaping out of bed ahead of my alarm tomorrow. I do not like low energy moods.

Just got out of a meeting that made me feel a little more "human" again.

It helps to be reminded that you're not the *most* incompetent beastie in the universe.

Middle-of-the-pack incompetent, maybe. Grazing the leaders' circle only on super bad days.

But there truly is little better salve to feeling terrible about yourself than to be reminded that you can still be helpful to others, just as awful as you are.

I hit a breaking point last week, while trying to write a Rewind Wednesday drawing on Cambodia.

Today, we're getting over it by talking about the breaking point itself.

The world has so much need in it, and yet for many of us, "responding" involves little more than writing articles.

Is it enough? Of course not. But even if this is all we can do--try to think, try to inform--we need to remember that it's dangerous to get too caught up in ideas.

#Humanism #MediaLiteracy
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/on-intellectual-labour-and-its-delusions

#Politics #US #Democracy #MediaLiteracy

On the surface, this write-up is about Musk funding a super-PAC targeting Arab & Jewish USians with different anti-Harris messaging, but the tactic itself should be deeply concerning.

This is a classic technique in Russian politics: bankroll opposing messages & movements to demoralize citizens and discourage confidence in *any* news.

They won't engage in politics and will be easier to manipulate thereafter.

Stay sharp out there.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elon-musk-funds-most-cynical-super-pac_n_670ef96be4b0c5b8c0afcc86

*throws up hands*

My brain is being ridiculous. Still can't wake early & make it "go", and haven't been outside the building in a while. All this week and last I've been struggling with this, and workflow has suffered.

I know the next trick I need to pull to try to reboot myself, but MY GOODNESS, do I ever have notes for the next rollout for these ridiculous meat sacks of ours.

Wee police chase in a thunderstorm this afternoon. Altercation started with a slew of taxis & bikes halted, some drivers beefing. Then police arrived, drew firearms, searched & released all but one, & started searching every other biker.

One noped out, turning back to try to slip into the highway elsewhere, & a cop zipped off after him. Then on the *other* side police gave chase to someone else.

Now stop-and-search continues on both sides.

Join me with popcorn? 🍿
#Colombia #NeverADullMoment

What I really hate about being fed up with myself (a mood) is that it does no good.

The world is filled with people who do so much harm.

There's so much harm that needs us leaning into proactive care and grace.

So when I can't snap out of unbridled fury with myself - for existing, for existing imperfectly, for having failed to fix parts of me that get so easily exploited to greater harm - it's just ego cranked to 11.

I need it down to a nice sedate 3 or 4 again. Working on that dial today. 🤞🏻

And... Part 2 of my review of the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize shortlist.

Le Guin wasn't really a fan of awards, and this one is weird: one person gets a ton of money, and all the other shortlisted works get nada.

This is atypical in #SFF, where most prizes don't pay out at all, but have their own problems with prestige.

Lost in the competition is often the joy of a good read.

#Books #Recommendations
http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/the-2024-ursula-k-le-guin-shortlist-part-two/

This week, Strange Horizons published my two-part review of the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize shortlist.

In it, I encourage not reading this list as a competition, but as a conversation. Many of these books pair well as meditations on themes of the self, the self in relation to the world, and the self in relation to struggle.

The work ranges from highly fantastical to slight on the speculative. But there's a rich array of good writing either way.

#SFF #Books #Recommendations
http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/the-2024-ursula-k-le-guin-shortlist-part-one/

Here in Colombia, Petro followed up on his anti-Fossil Fuel pledge by halting future oil speculation, and pushing renewables. It's been a tough transition re: energy costs!

But the worst part is that those costs, plus Indigenous protests in rural mining regions, give right-wingers leverage to claim that de-investment yields disorder.

No, Big Oil created disorder.

But its violence happens in board rooms, courtrooms, & the environment.

Then everyone looks violent or reckless for pushing back.

Pursuant to my gloomy piece yesterday about oil shipment legal loopholes...

Big Oil exploits plenty of legislation on land as well.

“Even just the threat of such a suit is enough to halt or roll back such efforts by host states,” one expert in ISDS claims told me a couple of years ago, when I wrote about an analysis of their use. “The threats can be very effective even if they lack legal merit.”

#Energy #Economics #ClimateCrisis
https://www.splinter.com/big-oil-will-exploit-this-trillion-dollar-loophole-until-someone-closes-it

Well this horrifying #AI ad just popped up. The worst part is hard to pin down, but it's probably a toss-up between encouraging a student to auto-generate a citation without reading it, & the friend claiming she's used for years a tool that only recently had this range of shortcuts.

Talk to your kids/students about this! (Teaching prop, @LaurelGreen?) Have a frank chat about the kinds of critical errors that can slip in if they use this #Technology passively.

#Education
https://youtu.be/c7BTS7QOEDM

A week ahead of COP16, Tough Times Tuesday is a bit gloomy about our prospects. A recent position paper attempting to tackle Russian oil ships highlights the depth of our global unreadiness to address an accelerating environmental crisis that doesn't give two bits for our borders and our wars. (Maybe pair this one with a funny cat video?)

#ClimateCrisis #Environment #Energy #Economics #War #PoliticalScience #War #Russia

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/a-few-notes-on-failed-environmental

I haven't been out in days, and I still wasn't up for it this morning. Just not ready to people yet - though I do have a Zoom meeting with a mentee in under two hours, so I have to be "on" for that.

Here's a fine poem by Lisel Mueller, in the hope that a little #Poetry brightens your day. This is from "Monet Refuses the Operation":

"I will not return to a universe
of objects that don’t know each other,
as if islands were not the lost children
of one great continent."

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52577/monet-refuses-the-operation-56d231289e6db