usernamesAreTricky @ usernamesAreTricky @lemmy.ml

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Look up the 50501 movement that this nationwide economic blackout is a part of. They also have a next nationwide protest planned for Mar 4th

https://www.fiftyfifty.one/

In general sure, but I don't think so in this particular case. I really don't think this one was that planned out considering they also sent these to judges who aren't part of the executive branch at all (probably just because they have a .gov email). Many people in Trump's admin have been reportedly finding out critical info via tweet, so the level of coordination here is often not high. In the actual email, there is no remark about "not firing equals resigning" (that's only what musk said on twitter) and their legal filings for privacy & security stuff claim that responding to all the mass opm emails is optional.

Given Musk's ego, I doubt he'd design something that makes him look weak like this.

When we look at the most common extraction method for soybean oil (using hexane solvents), soybean meal [feed to farm animals] is still the driver of demand

However, soybean meal is the main driving force for soybean oil production due to its significant amount of productivity and revenues

[...]

soybean meal and hulls contribute to over 60% of total revenues, with meal taking the largest portion of over 59% of total revenue

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0926669017305010

This is even more true of other methods like expelling which is still somewhat commonly used

Moreover, soybean meal is the driving force for the whole process [expelling oil from soy] because it provides over 70% of the total revenue for soy processing by expelling

https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/9/5/87

Even other extraction methods being explored in research as well don't have soybean oil as the main driver of demand

From the results, soybean oil makes up around 24% of total revenues; revenue from insoluble fiber makes over 70%, due to the large amounts produced throughout the process. [of Enzyme-Assisted Aqueous Extraction]

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jasreen-Sekhon/publication/330375817_Economic_Feasibility_of_Soybean_Oil_Production_by_Enzyme-Assisted_Aqueous_Extraction_Processing/links/5c49d531a6fdccd6b5c586b6/Economic-Feasibility-of-Soybean-Oil-Production-by-Enzyme-Assisted-Aqueous-Extraction-Processing.pdf

Rather than just waiting for it to happen, we can put the pressure to make it happen. Groups like Indivisible are putting pressure on Dems to step up more and Republicans to step up at all

They pressure is starting to change dem's actions. They have started using more aggressively using some procedural tools to slow down senate confirmations (can't fully block without republican votes). For instance, they denied unanimous consent and held the floor for the 30 hours against Russel Vought (and I believe RFK too)

Where they emit the most methane and still are given supplementary feed. There's also not enough land to sustain a grazing only production system with the massive demand we have

We model a nationwide transition [in the US] from grain- to grass-finishing systems using demographics of present-day beef cattle. In order to produce the same quantity of beef as the present-day system, we find that a nationwide shift to exclusively grass-fed beef would require increasing the national cattle herd from 77 to 100 million cattle, an increase of 30%. We also find that the current pastureland grass resource can support only 27% of the current beef supply (27 million cattle), an amount 30% smaller than prior estimates

[...]

Taken together, an exclusively grass-fed beef cattle herd would raise the United States’ total methane emissions by approximately 8%.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aad401/pdf

1 kg of meat requires 2.8 kg of human-edible feed for ruminants and 3.2 for monogastrics

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2211912416300013

we show that plant-based replacements for each of the major animal categories in the United States (beef, pork, dairy, poultry, and eggs) can produce twofold to 20-fold more nutritionally similar food per unit cropland. Replacing all animal-based items with plant-based replacement diets can add enough food to feed 350 million additional people, more than the expected benefits of eliminating all supply chain food loss.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1713820115

It's worth noting that environmentally, where the food comes from matters far far less than what you eat. Production emissions are far larger than any transportation emissions

Transport is a small contributor to emissions. For most food products, it accounts for less than 10%, and it’s much smaller for the largest GHG emitters. In beef from beef herds, it’s 0.5%.

Not just transport, but all processes in the supply chain after the food left the farm – processing, transport, retail and packaging – mostly account for a small share of emissions.

This data shows that this is the case when we look at individual food products. But studies also shows that this holds true for actual diets; here we show the results of a study which looked at the footprint of diets across the EU. Food transport was responsible for only 6% of emissions, whilst dairy, meat and eggs accounted for 83%.

https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local

Still results in overall reductions in arable-land usage. Even more than just eliminating 100% of food-waste

we show that plant-based replacements for each of the major animal categories in the United States (beef, pork, dairy, poultry, and eggs) can produce twofold to 20-fold more nutritionally similar food per unit cropland. Replacing all animal-based items with plant-based replacement diets can add enough food to feed 350 million additional people, more than the expected benefits of eliminating all supply chain food loss.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1713820115

Grazing usage isn't free from harms either

Livestock farmers often claim that their grazing systems “mimic nature”. If so, the mimicry is a crude caricature. A review of evidence from over 100 studies found that when livestock are removed from the land, the abundance and diversity of almost all groups of wild animals increases

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/16/most-damaging-farm-products-organic-pasture-fed-beef-lamb

It scales far better than animal-agriculture. Eating plants directly is massively more efficient compared to growing crops feed where most of the energy is lost in the process

The research suggests that it’s possible to feed everyone in the world a nutritious diet on existing croplands, but only if we saw a widespread shift towards plant-based diets.

[...]

If everyone shifted to a plant-based diet we would reduce global land use for agriculture by 75%. This large reduction of agricultural land use would be possible thanks to a reduction in land used for grazing and a smaller need for land to grow crops.

https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets

Transitioning to plant-based diets (PBDs) has the potential to reduce diet-related land use by 76%, diet-related greenhouse gas emissions by 49%, eutrophication by 49%, and green and blue water use by 21% and 14%, respectively, whilst garnering substantial health co-benefits

[...]

Plant-based foods have a significantly smaller footprint on the environment than animal-based foods. Even the least sustainable vegetables and cereals cause less environmental harm than the lowest impact meat and dairy products [9].

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/8/1614/html

Multiple agencies are now also doing the same thing. I find it unlikely this was planned by DOGE as it is massively embarrassing to Musk and makes him look weak

Them fighting each other also give them less time to do horrible things. Yes, they will still do some bad things while they fight, but it takes up some of their time and hurts their sense of unity. It reduces the damage a bit. It also inspires other outside the government to fight back too

Every little bit of delay and harm reduction is something we're going to need

EDIT: also worth mentioning that now other agencies are also pushing against musk now that Patel is. Resistance is often something that spreads once it is normalized

You can hold mid to lower level officials in contempt without as much pomp and circumstance as holding the president in contempt. They can be held in civil contempt (can include fines, asset seizures, and or jail time) which is not a criminal charge and thus not pardonable

If everyone below Trump gets the brunt, they're going to feel obliged to actually follow the courts rather than what Trump says

Yes, just gets 10x less coverage than all the horrible things

For instance

The Trump administration restores federal webpages after court order

My point is more so to fight every damn fight

Assuming that it's all worthless is exactly what Trump wants from everyone

For what it's worth, there are threats of contempt of court in some of those deliberate misinterpretations of the court

Media coverage of any good news is pretty minimal lately, but he has largely (though not entirely with some deleberate misinterpretation of them) been complying with court orders for the moment

Fight every fight with every tool you have

He's mostly followed rulings so far, so yes

Edit: and to clarify, I mean this in a "fight every fight" kind of way. Don't give in and assume all fights are hopeless. That is exactly what Trump et al want from you. Use every tool to fight back

NY is taking them to court over it - just as a note. States do have the ability to enforce things themselves, so a court ruling in their favor can be enforced by the state itself

Specifically in a few months on April 1, 2025. This will determine if Wisconsin keeps their 4-3 liberal-conservative split. The races are technically non-partisan but one candidate is an insane republican-endorsed figure. The other, Susan Crawford is already on the court and she has previously ruled to do things like stop gerrymandering in Wisconsin and helped give them fair maps

Make sure you are registered to vote - especially if you want a mail ballot! The deadline to register online is March 12th. Wisconsin also has same in-person registration available through election day via same day voter registration (not all state have this)

Indivisible is also doing some good work with traction too. Local branches have been an organizer of some of those 50501 protests and they also do directed pressure on lawmakers

SCOTUS is insane, but they haven't been a pure rubber stamp for him in the past even recently. They're much more selective about when to be insane than people who don't watch the court closely think

It also takes time to get up to SCOTUS even if they do rule in his favor. The name of the game for opposition is delay delay delay, so even just slowing him down a lot is helpful