Notices by Brent Toderian (brenttoderian@mastodon.online)

As a general rule, in every election everywhere, we really might want to consider not supporting the candidates that billionaires like best.

The Canadian Election is on Monday.

Pierre Poilievre, who has been running for YEARS, still refuses to apply for the normal security check, in the middle of a security crisis.

He must know that his refusal has been badly hurting him with voters.

So I have to assume that he knows he CAN’T pass it.

BREAKING: Canadians are being warned to be “extra vigilant” against deliberate disinformation efforts & campaigns during the last few weeks of the Canadian Federal Election.

Disinformation has become a constant thing, but a significant ramp-up is expected as we approach the Debates later this week.

Your periodic reminder that cities aren’t loud, cars are loud.

Easier to remember thanks to new sticker by @TheWarOnCars.

You can’t overstate the historic importance of today’s speech to both American and Canadian citizens by Canada’s Prime Minister.

Please watch it and share it wherever you live, but especially if you’re in the United States. You need to know what Trump is doing, and why. youtu.be/wz_42pckM7w

Mike Myers, Canadian legend, on SNL tonight.

“The Tariff Deception. How governments quietly tax their own people under the guise of trade war.”

More precisely, quietly tax their middle and lower income people, to fund a massive tax cut for the rich.
https://proconsul.ghost.io/the-tariff-deception/

Don’t forget those who insisted that actions needed to avoid the #ClimateCrisis were “too expensive.”

Don’t forget all the record-breaking, historic or “100 year” events we’ve seen lately.

They’re not the “new normal.

It’s going to keep getting exponentially worse.

Don’t forget Valencia, Spain.

Commuting by bicycle in Belgium pays off as employees earn compensation for every km they ride. 1 in 6 employees commute by bike and get a bicycle allowance of €0.28/km. People cycling to work in 2024 earned an average of around €460 net per year (some as high as €810), up 20% over the past year.
https://www.brusselstimes.com/1401729/belgian-commutes-pay-off-employees-earn-up-to-e810-for-cycling-to-work

Better for congestion AND better for crashes!

In the first 12 days of New York City’s new de-congestion pricing program, there’s been a 51% drop in crash-related injuries and a 55% drop in crashes year over year.

Via @Streetsblog
https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/01/23/congestion-relief-zone-is-also-a-crash-relief-zone-data

One of the most important city-building model projects in the world.

“Initially, everyone thought it would cause gridlock. But people adapted. Now we can’t imagine the highway ever being here.”

The people-place that replaced a highway, transforming a city.

Seoul, Korea removal of the Cheonggyecheon expressway.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/17/seoul-cheonggyecheon-motorway-turned-into-a-stream

A big part of the reason the rich bad guys are winning is that they understand that buying mainstream media and social media isn’t about making money on that mainstream media or social media. It’s about power and control, and making MUCH more money as a result of that power and control.

Before choosing bottled water over tap water, remember it takes more than 10X the water that a bottle of water holds to make the plastic bottle and transport the water. And that’s before considering the fuel and GHGs, the 1000 year bottle life, and the RIDICULOUS amount of $ we’re paying for water.

Hey, remember when car and oil companies successfully lobbied governments to create car dependent cities and suburbs, and once we became almost completely car dependent, WE became the loudest, angriest champions of unhindered road space for cars, unnaturally cheap gas, and subsidized free parking?

BREAKING: "I will be Mayor of Paris until the last day, with the same energy as I’ve had since the beginning.” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, probably the best and most inspiring mayor in the world in recent years, has announced that she won’t run for a 3rd term. #Paris https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2024/11/26/anne-hidalgo-je-ne-me-presenterai-pas-a-un-troisieme-mandat-de-maire-de-paris_6414736_823448.html

NEW: "Without our bikes, we would not have been able to buy much-needed food and water supplies and then quickly deliver them to cut-off villages within half-an-hour.”

Bicycles save lives: How bikes have been critical after Spain's Valencia floods.
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/bicycles-save-lives-how-bikes-have-been-critical-after-the-valencia-floods

I’m surprised that while my Bluesky account has grown by 8000 followers — DOUBLED to 16k+ — in just the last week since the election, my Mastodon count hasn’t changed at all.

Is Mastodon not seen as an alternative to Twitter?

Or is my account hard to find for those not following me?

Honestly curious.

"'You are the media now'...sounds empowering. Musk’s acolytes see it as the end of traditional-media gatekeeping. But what he’s really selling is the notion that people are on their own—that facts are malleable, and that what feels true ought to be true."
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/11/you-are-the-media-now/680602/

Amsterdam’s plan to remove 11,200 parking spaces from its streets by the end of 2025 is even more inspiring when we realize the kind of people-places that are possible where cars used to be. Example — #Amsterdam’s Elandsgracht between 2014 & 2019, via @schlijper’s great pics.

THIS IS HUGE. Paris City Hall has announced that starting on Monday, Paris will limit (not ban) car traffic in the city centre, as cities like Ghent have done. They’re creating a limited traffic zone (ZTL) about 2 sq miles in size, to clean the air & create more space for people.