This week, I have been mostly reading:

• The Outer Limits Of Corporate Politics — David Sirota and Andrew Perez: Democratic Party leaders on Thursday united around a plan to halve their economic agenda, which had already been nearly halved a few months ago. The full loaf is really a quarter loaf, but at this point, it’s actually less than that, because they also slashed promised regulatory and tax provisions that might have reduced medicine prices, provided workers some paid leave, and made billionaires start paying taxes. […] There are laudable provisions in the framework released by the White House, such as an expansion of Medicaid, universal pre-K, subsidized child care, the extension of the child tax credit, tougher penalties for employers who violate labor laws, and spending on clean energy programs. These are significant steps beyond the incrementalism and corporatism of the Obama presidency. However, the deal also seems designed to honor the one campaign promise that President Joe Biden appears most intent on fulfilling: the pledge to his donors that “nothing would fundamentally change” in our economy when he is president.
• Leunig, Wellness, and Wokeness — Robbie Moore in Meanjin: One infuriating Leunig cartoon, published just after the equal marriage postal vote in 2017, encapsulates how discourses of wellness and anti-wokeness have deranged conservative perceptions of power relations in society. In the cartoon, a man, forlorn and curled up, lies on a street with a placard that says ‘ME’. Facing him is a large group of protestors (some with scary nose rings) holding an ‘LGBTQ’ banner. The composition recalls the image that got Leunig into trouble this month: the Tiananmen tank man, looking ordinary and tiny holding his shopping in front of a massed display of state power. A poem embedded in Leunig’s cartoon reads: ‘Lonely little weirdo, minority of one, nothing much to celebrate, not a lot of fun. So much persecution, so much pain and strife, lonely little everyone, trying to make a life.’ Here, the LGBTQ protesters, gathering to fight for equal rights and equal respect, assume the role of the democracy-crushing Tiananmen tanks, whereas the ‘lonely little weirdo’ is the real ‘minority’ suffering ‘persecution’ and ‘pain’. This is how a counter-cultural boomer politics founded on lonely men fleeing faceless corporate oppressors has been rewired, over just a few years, into a reactionary politics of male victimhood.
• Everything We Know About The Windshield Phenomenon — Diana Bocco, Grunge: This obvious decline in the population of some insects has made scientists take a closer look at insects in general. Along the way, the theory of the Windshield Phenomenon was born. Simply put, this is the observation that when you're driving, you'll notice that not as many dead insects will accumulate on your windshield as they used to years ago. This doesn't sound very scientific, but the Windshield Phenomenom actually gained traction after a 2017 large-scale study in Germany. According to the study, the presence of insects in German forests and grasslands dropped 78% between 2008 and 2017. Some species couldn't be found at all after a few years — this accounted for an astonishing 34% fewer insect species in the areas researched (via Tree Hugger). As scientist Wolfgang Wägele, Director of the Leibniz Institute for Animal Biodiversity, told Science Magazine, "If you talk to people, they have a gut feeling. They remember how insects used to smash on your windscreen." Today, your windows are likely to be a lot cleaner after a long highway drive.
• Surface Tension — George Monbiot: An analysis by the media sustainability group Albert found that “cake” was mentioned 10 times as often as “climate change” on UK TV programmes in 2020. “Scotch egg” received double the mentions of “biodiversity”. “Banana bread” beat “wind power” and “solar power” put together. I recognise that the media are not society, and that television stations have an interest in promoting banana bread and circuses. We could argue about the extent to which the media are either reflecting or generating an appetite for cake over climate. But I suspect that, of all the ways in which we might measure our progress on preventing systemic environmental collapse, the cake-to-climate ratio is the decisive index.
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal — by Zach Weinersmith: