The creativity con

This, which is longer than what I usually link, is by Thomas Frank.

The faiths and hopes of the postwar middle-class society have mostly evaporated today. Our parents’ beliefs in consensus and the goodness of American civilization have joined mainline Protestantism and the benevolent corporation on some nostalgia channel of discarded ideas. One signature ideal of that era has survived, however. Indeed, it thrives; it glows with an incandescence that time cannot dim. I am referring to our ongoing fascination with creativity, the human power that our affluent-society ancestors liked to believe made life worth living and that was, at the same time, responsible for the forward motion of civilization itself…

The long-running appeal of creativity to middle-class Americans is easy to understand: it is an explanation for progress that seems to put them in history’s starring role. The reason our country is so successful, it assures us, is the day-to-day innovativeness of millions of ordinary but ingenious people. But the actual, real-world effects of creativity have been anything but healthy for the middle-class society. At every step in the long march to our current state of crushing plutocratic inequality, creativity’s holy name was invoked. The big tax cuts of the 1970s and ’80s were done in order to reinvigorate our creativity. Our leaders deregulated banks, did endless favors for tech and pharma, allowed deindustrialization to rust out the heartland, and ushered us generally into a “postindustrial” era in which working people lost their claim on middle-class prosperity — all in order to augment our powers of creativity and innovation. - Jacobin

US inequality is getting worse in many ways

Arguably close to all ways.

The buzzword of the 2026 U.S. midterm elections may be affordability, but growing anger over inequality is behind the sentiment.

A Pew Research survey released in October 2026 found that roughly 6 in 10 Americans – including 4 in 10 Republicans – believe there’s too much inequality in the U.S. And a growing share from both major political parties state that the economy needs to be fundamentally rebuilt to address this…

I’m an economist who has been studying inequality for about two decades. My research confirms the trend of rising inequality since 1980, driven by the wealthiest pulling away not just from the middle class, but also from the “merely wealthy.” Overall, recent research underscores how policy choices – including taxation and public spending – enabled this 40-year rise in inequality. - The Conversation

States sue over Colorado River plan

This is a big, hard problem.

Arizona is joining a fight against the Trump administration’s 10-year plan for managing the Colorado River that could slash the state’s share of water…

Nevada filed a lawsuit in late August against several federal agencies, arguing that their plan places a heavier burden on the Lower Basin states. The amount of water in the Colorado River is dwindling because of climate change, which is reducing the amount of snow and runoff that fills reservoirs like Lake Mead and Lake Powell, and mid-20th century agreements that promised water users more water than actually exists. Because the seven states that rely on the Colorado River couldn’t reach an agreement on how to manage the water, the federal (government) issued a plan intended to better balance the amount of water in the river with the amount withdrawn. - High Country News

Trump blocks new Russia sanctions

Because he's Putin's whimpering, groveling bitch, that's why.

President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order that waived new sanctions on Russia that were set to take effect thanks to bipartisan legislation signed into law by the president last month.

Trump justified the decision by claiming the sanctions waiver “is in the national interests of the United States,” without offering further details…

A Friday report in The New York Times described the waiver as “another economic lifeline to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin,” as the sanctions had been designed “to target Russian officials, oligarchs, and financial institutions” and “squeeze the financial lifelines sustaining Russia’s war against Ukraine.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the sanctions waiver, and urged US lawmakers and voters to speak out against the US president’s actions. - Common Dreams

The US is losing the war for oil

Reality-based analysis.

The 19th century American naval theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan stressed that a great maritime empire needn’t control the seas but rather must establish dominance over what he called “the narrows.” We would now say “chokepoints.”

The United States and its allies, principally Israel and Saudi Arabia, have in the past (four) days lost the battle for the narrows. Whether they have lost the war is still unclear, though it certainly appears that way. - Informed Comment

Data breach incidents soar

And will likely continue to do so, thanks to artificial "intelligence."

The Identity Theft Resource Center tracked 1,803 data compromises in the first half of 2026, putting the year on pace to surpass the record 3,321 incidents recorded in all of 2025. That figure outpaces the 297.5 million victim notices the ITRC recorded across all of 2025…

The surge comes as artificial intelligence is making attacks easier to execute. One in four malicious breaches between March 2025 and February 2026 were AI-enabled, a 56% increase over the prior year, according to an IBM $IBM +0.08% study based on 602 organizations globally. Those AI-enabled breaches — driven by deepfake impersonation and AI-enabled malware — cost companies an average of $6 million, roughly $1 million above the global breach average of $4.99 million. - Quartz

Orchards are getting crushed by climate change

Early blooming, then hard freezes, is the biggest problem.

Late-spring freezes predate orchards, but research shows that a warming planet is creating specific conditions that make this kind of destruction more common. And as emissions from greenhouse gases continue to rise, this year is less an anomaly than a harbinger of tough times ahead.

While farmers of a wide variety of crops are experiencing the impacts of climate change from droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events, the economic impact on orchards can be particularly high: It can take up to eight years of year-round care for a tree to bear fruit—with one chance a year for a harvest and no way to simply replant. - Civil Eats