Canada recognizes the State of Palestine

The language of this morning’s recognition of the State of Palestine by Canada’s Carney government is somewhat refreshing in its directness—though the bar was exceptionally low. [Israel’s] sustained assault in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of civilians, displaced well over one million people, and caused a devastating and preventable famine in violation of international law. It is now the avowed policy of the current Israeli government that ‘there will be no Palestinian state’.

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Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, described Gaza as a “real estate bonanza” on Wednesday, Hebrew media reported.

Speaking a property development conference in Tel Aviv, Smotrich said he was talking to “the Americans” and that “the demolition, the first stage in the city’s renewal, we have already done. Now we just need to build.”

via The Guardian

What can be said about such naked, reckless hatred?

Watching the far-right, as embodied by the Republican Party under Donald Trump, redefine who is a legitimate subject and object of violence… it’s something. It seems increasingly trite and naive, but I can’t stop thinking about my internal “kindergarten book” rubric for social values. Is anything coming out of the mouths of this vindictive, reactionary movement something you would want to have in a book you’d read to your kids before bed, hoping even a fraction of it rubbed off on them, and would be there to help them navigate the moral complexities of the world in a courageous and principled way?

Finished reading: Kraken by China Miéville 📚

Belated review of this one from the spring:

Once it got its hooks/tentacles into me, I found it a pretty heady, exhilarating, and entertaining ride. Miéville really delights in getting a whole bunch of plots and arcs going spinning at once, and I shared the delight, for the most part, although it feels like it starts to almost come apart under its own weight towards the end, as it feels like there is no centre to hold.

Similarly, I’m not sure that character development is Miéville’s strongest facet, which is a shame because there are some really intriguing ones in this book. I think I had similar feels after reading their Embassytown a while back, so perhaps this is just their jam.

But wishes aside, it’s a fast-paced brew of metaphysically-curious fantasy, flecked through with horror and comedy, plenty to like here: 7/8 octopus arms.

When the 2010–2015 era music streaming service Rdio shut down, I exported my library as a Spotify playlist. I put a needle on that 7,849 song-long record this morning, for the first time in a very long time. So far it’s been a strangely moving time capsule experience.

Currently reading: Kraken by China Miéville 📚

I have officially submitted my data-extraction requests to Msrs. Musk and Zuckerberg. Once I’ve received my severance packages, I’ll cut the cords. Time to say my final farewells to that chapter of the internet—we sure had some fun, but if we had only been more honest about what we were doing.

Working on a homebrew setup for a TTRPG next Saturday—Orc Borg for the setting, vibes, and zany tables, and Grimwild for the cinematic, narrative-driven mechanics.

Currently reading: The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate by Peter Wohlleben 📚