Scratch that comment. Vote Harris! :-)

Wow, that’s a long read, and IMO, it misses a key point. Namely: similar to plastic industries spending tons of money to convince us that recycling is an individual problem and responsibility (despite the fact that most plastic can’t be effectively recycled), this article mostly frames Climate Change as an individual responsibility to stop eating meat and dairy. Thankfully, at the very end, it gets to a better solution, which is to stop spending our tax dollars on subsidies to harmful agro-businesses.

The start-point, however, is that Big Farming has co-opted natural conservation groups by giving them cash to join ‘mitigation’ groups that are “Greenwashing” the subject such that no one talks about real solutions (such as making meat more expensive). Have a bunch of quotes:

So the meat industry did what other industries have done under similar pressure in the past: demonstrate that it could change just enough to avoid being forced to change even more by the government.

In fact, that inaugural conference in 2010 was officially titled the World Wildlife Fund Global Conference on Sustainable Beef. (WWF has helped to found similar industry roundtables for poultry and soy — most of which is fed to farmed animals — and a certification program for seafood.)

For its collaboration, McDonald’s makes sure WWF is well compensated; from 2015 to 2022, the company donated $4.5 to $9 million to WWF-US.

WWF is hardly alone. Two of the other largest US environmental organizations — the Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) — also closely collaborate with large meat and dairy companies, ranchers, and trade groups on a range of initiatives. But outside observers, along with some former and current employees at EDF and WWF, argue that those initiatives often do more to improve the companies’ image than the environment.

Last year, Tyson Foods — America’s largest meat processor — began selling beef marketed as “climate-friendly.” The company claims that by getting some of its suppliers to graze their cattle and grow the animals’ feed crops in a more sustainable manner, it’s reduced the carbon footprint of some of its beef by 10 percent.

But Tyson has repeatedly declined to share data with Vox and other news outlets that could prove its claim.

Beef is the worst food for the climate. Got it. Sadly, plant-based meat substitutes are losing market share (see graph p. 36 of Good Food Institute PDF). Personally, I like fake meat and it happens that tonight we’re having Beyond Burgers for dinner (sorry for the product plug, but they work for me – though I know some people prefer Impossible or other brands, and some people don’t like any of them).

Using global averages, beef’s carbon footprint per 100 grams of protein is about 7 times that of pork, 9 times that of poultry, 25 times that of tofu and plant-based meat, and more than 60 times that of beans and lentils.

I was interested in the benefits of regenerative farming being very questionable, and any stats should be viewed suspiciously unless/until we have a verifiable measuring standard AND see data over the span of years per given acreage – because any increase in carbon capture is likely to fall off over time.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made it clear that the world needs negative emissions technologies — approaches that can pull carbon out of the atmosphere, as regenerative agriculture supposedly does — to avoid catastrophic global warming. But the research doesn’t bear out the claims many of regenerative agriculture’s proponents make, as there’s still significant doubt and uncertainty around the potential for farmland to store a lot of carbon.

“The science is clear that, while some mitigation can be achieved by improving meat and dairy production, climate-neutral or zero-emissions meat and dairy is not a possibility in the foreseeable future,” said Hayek, the New York University environmental studies professor, speaking about net-zero claims in animal agriculture broadly, not the WWF report specifically.

EDF and the Nature Conservancy are also founding members of the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance, a coalition of meat, dairy, and agricultural trade groups, many of which lobby aggressively to block environmental policy. But the alliance is a vehicle for their other goal on Capitol Hill: ramping up subsidies for regenerative agriculture and technological solutions. It’s similar to how the fossil fuel industry lobbies to both block climate regulations and subsidize carbon capture.

Money shuts up the World Wildlife Foundation, Sierra Club, and so on.

“If you can’t get the Sierra Club to [support a methane tax], how the fuck are you going to get anyone else in society to do that?”

Some politicians paint calls to stop pollution from factory farms and eat more plant-based meals as anti-farmer, a potent charge given both farming’s close association with America’s national mythos and the disproportionate political power that rural states hold.

If we can’t change ourselves in the environmental community, then how would we expect to change the general population?”

Many environmentalists have come to criticize individual action as ineffectual and naive. The burden to mitigate climate change and pollution falls on politicians and corporations, they argue, not the average person.

I agree with the last bit, but realize that at least a third of the U.S. will remove any politician painted as ‘anti-meat’. That is, a politician might try to argue that our tax dollars shouldn’t give hand-outs to Tyson or the like, but the attack ads against will say, “He wants you to stop eating meat, so he’s working to bankrupt our ranchers.”

The idea that environmentalists shouldn’t try to influence how people eat “is a win for industry … It’s their script,” said Jacquet, the University of Miami professor. Environmentalists who repeat this, she added, have “become sock puppets for industry, and they don’t even mean to be.”

Well, the public IS hearing that message from various places despite the fact that it’s a message too many people are unwilling to hear. I don’t require Environmental groups to be in-your-face about it. Let the data speak for itself.

A 2023 analysis published in the journal One Earth found that, from 2014 to 2020, the US meat industry received about 800 times more government funding than did meat and dairy alternatives.

A lot can be done to tip the scale in the other direction, and in ways unlikely to spur political backlash.

I didn’t find the examples they list to be very encouraging, but they do exist. They describe how Denmark is doing some neat stuff.

“It needs to be a political liability to choose false solutions over effective climate policies,” said Jennifer Molidor, a senior food campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity.

That’s the hard part! :-) Near the end there are some examples of where stuff is working and suggests a public awareness campaign would help. No more pictures of happy cows on green grass, but instead images of the barren land of holding pens stretching out in all directions. Show people the reality instead of the mythos and ask them to make it an issue with their local politicians.

ducks will focus less on your hard work and more on the bugs

I wish someone had told my ducks that! They ate most of my garden. We had to fence it in to keep the ducks out. They even killed off the stuff they didn’t want – like strawberries – if it came up early in the spring and offered the possibility of being a tasty green.
A tiny bit of green would emerge and they'd be all: Duck#1: (bites plant) Ew! Duck#2: (bites plant) Yuk! Duck#3: (bites plant) Bleah! Duck#4: What were you guys eating? I want some. This would repeat each day for several days until spring brought everything to life.

I, too, wondered what the spices should be and found two potential answers.

This recipe is very like yours but instead of zaatar, the author lists “seven spices” plus extra cumin.

This cook insists Mujadara, should be plain/unspiced, but recognizes variations may use ‘seven spices’, and has a 7-spices recipe if you don’t have a store that sells it pre-made. Note that I have not tried any recipe on this site, but it IS Vegan. I am a bit suspicious because its hummus recipes use CANNED chickpeas. That seems extremely wrong and inauthentic. On one of the the text-walls they do say that boiling dried beans is better, but then don’t list that as a recipe version. It makes me wonder what else they are leaving out and not explaining.

There are several vegan variations of an African Peanut Stew that we make fairly regularly. Budget Bytes and Simple Veganista each have fair versions that you can vary as desired. Fresh ginger is pretty essential. I don’t like using lemons in it.

Kawaj (eggplant stew) is another that makes lots of leftovers. We use canned stewed tomatoes instead of fresh, and never ever ever use as much salt as listed. Maybe 1 tsp., but no more.

Cold Soba Noodles (or Sesame Noodles) are lovely in summer. We sometimes add firm tofu, and always sprinkle with cilantro and either toasted sesame seeds or peanuts.

A low allergenic dog would probably thrill your kid, and even if it didn’t, I’m betting the adults in the house would quickly fall in love. I’d avoid Schnauzers because they are harder to train (they’re smart enough, but will test whether they should actually listen to you or not – whereas Basenjis are hard to train because they aren’t that bright). Wheatens and other similar terriers are likely to have similar stubbornness issues. Maybe an Irish Water Dog or Lagotto Romagnolo? I don’t know those breeds but I see them listed as low-allergy. I hate to link to reddit, but their LR sub says they really are pretty safe.

I worry that whatever you choose, your son will be dissatisfied. Maybe your kid is different, but most the kids I’ve known wanted a pet they could bond with. They’ve wanted a pet that was interested in what the kid does, that silently listened to the kid expressing their issues, and that offered things to do, like: “feed me”, “pet me”, or “play!”

Rabbits might work, but they might be too interested in one another. Even if they weren’t forbidden, you’d run into the same issue with social birds like cockatiels. The only pets I can think of that give kids the attention a kid craves are the animals that have lived with humans for hundred if not thousands of years. Basically: dogs and cats. After that you get into cows, pigs, chickens, goats, and the like. Goats are wicked smart, but the males stink to high heaven unless neutered young. If you raise geese from goslings, they will love you forever and ask for cuddles whenever they see you – but they have to stay outside and do make a mess. Someone else might correct me, but I doubt you want a pig – partially just because they end up getting so big (I’m told there’s no such thing as a teacup pig).

If the only issue with dogs is allergies, you could consider a low-allergenic breed. Dogs are simply the ideal pet for people with the time and space for them. They’ve lived with humans nearly forever and do all the stuff a young boy wants from a pet. Cats require less attention and can be caring and affectionate if they want to, but that depends on the particular cat. I’ve had turtles, ferrets, parrots, fish, and lots of other animals as pets and only the parrots and ferrets held a candle to dogs and cats. Fish-wise, I found the most exciting to be South American Cichlids – but mostly because I had a Green Terror who fell in love with a Blue Acara overnight such that the two of them tried to kill everything in the tank in the span of 10 hours. I got them their own tank where they raised many babies.

Could you fix a mistake I made? Near the bottom I inadvertently typed ‘Munich’ instead of the correct ‘Berlin’ games for when the Nazi salute was allowed. Source is Wikipedia and you can see there it clearly say ‘Berlin’. I was just reading too many Olympic details and didn’t even notice I typed the wrong city/game.

That’s my fault. I didn’t even notice I typed Munich instead of Berlin. I was reading about lots of Olympics and just messed it up. The source was the Wikipedia article and there you can clearly see it says Berlin. I’ll edit it.

Thank you for posting this! I was sad and frustrated to hear he was arrested, but I didn’t think there was anything I could do about it. Maybe signing a petition isn’t much, but it is a start, and it feels probable that people with the means to do so might get organized to show up in person to offer support. If I was richer and younger, I’d love to take a pro-environmental vacation to Greenland.

Thank you both. You are both very considerate. I stumbled on one detail and then went down a rabbit hole of different aspects about that Olympic moment and wanted to share. I’m glad to see people are as interested as I was.

@Pogogunner@sopuli.xyz nailed it in the crosspost, saying:

“Why didn’t they have the white guy there?” “Because he wants you to stand in his place”

https://www.sjsu.edu/ha-public-art-tour/public-art/black-power.php

Thank you for cross posting :-)

I looked for the WaPo URL and somehow didn’t see this post. I even made my own because I thought this story was important – but I deleted it once I saw it was here.

The New Republic also covered it. In summary:

The Egyptian government may have given $10 million to Donald Trump in 2017, violating U.S. law—but the investigation into the payment was squashed by Attorney General William Barr.

Here’s the bits from WaPo that stood out to me:

Five days before Donald Trump became president in January 2017, a manager at a bank branch in Cairo received an unusual letter from an organization linked to the Egyptian intelligence service. It asked the bank to “kindly withdraw” nearly $10 million from the organization’s account — all in cash.

Federal investigators learned of the withdrawal, which has not been previously reported, early in 2019. The discovery intensified a secret criminal investigation that had begun two years earlier…

Barr directed Jessie Liu, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in D.C., to personally examine the classified intelligence to evaluate if further investigation was warranted. Barr later instructed FBI Director Christopher A. Wray to impose “adult supervision” on FBI agents Barr described as “hell-bent” on pursuing Trump’s records, according to people familiar with the exchange. It is unclear what if any actions Wray, who was also appointed by Trump, took in response.

The Post investigation reveals that investigators identified a cash withdrawal in Cairo of $9,998,000 — nearly identical to the amount described in the intelligence, as well as to the amount Trump had given his campaign weeks earlier. A key theory investigators pursued, based on intelligence and on international money transfers, was that Trump was willing to provide the funds to his campaign in October 2016 because he expected to be repaid by Sisi, according to people familiar with the probe.

Trump’s attorney general did not order the case closed, according to multiple people with knowledge of the events, but his instructions to Liu and, later, his selections to replace her, helped steer it to that end.

As the Mueller team got going, investigators focused on how at the time candidate Trump met with Sisi in 2016, Trump’s campaign had been running low on funds. They learned through interviews with the candidate’s closest advisers that they had pleaded with Trump to write a check to his campaign for a final blitz of television ads. Trump repeatedly declined — until Oct. 28, roughly five weeks after the meeting with Sisi, when he announced the $10 million infusion.

Sometime after her June meetings with the FBI, Liu met with Barr to discuss the Egypt case. He urged her to personally review the underlying information from the CIA that had prompted the opening of the criminal investigation two years earlier, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. The case was sensitive, Barr told her, and she needed to reach her own conclusions about the merits of further investigative steps, according to people familiar with the discussion.

Afterward, and after conferring with Barr again, Liu expressed hesitancy to FBI agents and her deputies about the proposal to subpoena Trump’s bank records, according to people familiar with the case. It felt to some that she had made a 180-degree turn, these people said.

By late 2019, Liu’s office was poised to make sentencing recommendations for high-profile senior Trump advisers it had prosecuted, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone — cases that could tarnish Trump and his campaign. That December, the White House nominated Liu to be an assistant secretary of the Treasury Department.

Barr seized the moment to make a change. Breaking with the tradition of allowing White House nominees to remain in their current posts until confirmed for new ones, he ordered Liu in early January 2020 to step down by the end of the month, people with knowledge of the matter said. The White House later withdrew Liu’s nomination.

Barr replaced Liu with Shea, and then four months later replaced Shea with former Navy intelligence officer Sherwin.

On June 7, he sent an email to the head of the FBI’s Washington field office. The subject line of the email, which was reviewed by The Post, read: “Egypt Investigation.”

“Based upon review of this investigation,” Sherwin began, his office would be “closing the above matter” because neither an indictment nor a conviction was likely.

See also this 2020 piece: https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/14/politics/trump-campaign-donation-investigation/index.html

That’s not the point, though, is it? It doesn’t matter if Nazis mask faster. What matters is that there are Nazis and other non-state-actors who will happily try to identify and dox people who get in their way. Such doxxers aren’t even necessarily at the protests. They might be in, say, Russia and looking to shut up pro-Western activists in neighboring countries.

It may be that no one in Sweden is immuno-comprosmied and that no one in Sweden could get hacked or doxxed when their identity is uncovered, but for the rest of the world, there are plenty of reasons a person might want to wear a mask that don’t involve wanting to be riot-ready.

Or the thing about his former cabinet secretary’s sexual harassment issue.

From the Daily Beast:

A fellow Democrat […] tweeted last week that she wanted a vice presidential pick who “doesn’t sweep sexual harassment under the rug.”

In his reply:

The governor’s office highlighted his “long track record of protecting survivors and prosecuting predators” when he was attorney general, including exposing "child sexual abuse and cover-ups within the Catholic Church.”

Have you seen people protesting against Nazis in Sweden? That’s the sort of situation where you do not need to fear the state, but the violent and retributive people you are protesting.

Well he liked Blade, so I’m guessing his issue isn’t with comics in general.

Do you spend those 2 hours watching something with more ‘substance’ or do you do something else entirely – like play with your kids or read up on investment trends? For the time you do choose to use for passively consuming entertainment, is it in the medium of: books, tv, podcasts, music streams, or what? Regardless of medium, what sort of content is it (documentary, romance, action, op/ed, true crime, sci/fi, real-tech, instructional)?