I feel very conflicted about unions every time they come up, because it seems they should be dead-simply beneficial to workers. To me, that is the sole reason for their existence. But when I talk to people in unions in person and when I hear so many interviews, it doesn’t seem to be so.

With the end of the recent JBS strike, I’ve seen a number of outlets talk about how the union itself brought in scabs. The deal they struck doesn’t sound any better than the one they had that led to them striking.

How do unions end up so conflicted? Doesn’t their funding come from membership? I’ve never had a union job, and being in a place where you can get fired for any reason, such as organizing, it seems to make it a very risk thing with a less than certain payoff. Can anyone with better insight share their experience?

I think of Old Money in the sense of stuff that isn’t showy, but when you handle the items or see them up close, you know instantly they are premium items.

Clothes are the classic example. They don’t have gaudy logos or anything like that to call attention to them. But they’re stuff that you could hand down. Real quality wool, cashmere, the buttons themselves are premium, that kind of thing.

Cars again are more upscale touring types, not sports cars. The richest guy I’ve known drove a Hyundai Santa Fe. He spent his money on houses and fancy travel and his car was just for getting around.

New money is the showy and usually overpriced stuff covered in logos.

Simplest way to think of it is New Money is for newly rich people that feel the need to wave it around they’ve made it big. Old Money knows blowing it to impress people is stupid. You buy stuff that enhances your life and pampers you.

We live in a relatively low cost of living area and make decent money. We could pull off New Money if either of us cared about that. We cannot afford anything I’d consider Old Money. That’s a whole different world.

They do deserve to live. But some drug lord messed that up for them.

Hippos are really cool, but they are one of the most dangerous animals in the world. With no predators, one can hardly think it’s reasonable to allow uncontrollable growth of a population of deadly animals that can snap a gator in half and will purposefully attack humans.

They’re one of my favorite animals, but I totally understand why they are planning to do this.

Sounds delicious! I like things with the rose or orange water, they’re so unique.

I don’t have any cool Iranian music or recipes, but I shared some cute Iranian owls recently!

Beautiful! So lucky to see so many. I’ve only ever spotted one.

I got to work with a couple a little bit last year, and I heard we have a Pileated in now, which I’ve also never seen here.

Woodpeckers are some of my favorite non-raptor, non-corvid birds.

Congrats, Aussies! It sounds like the battle isn’t over yet over SGARs, but it’s an awesome start!

You guys have some of my favorite owls anywhere in the world, so hopefully some numbers can soon start trending upward.

Same here. Wifey got me a Trade subscription maybe 3 years ago for Xmas and every 3 weeks or so I try a brand new single origin coffee I’ve never had before. (Except the one from India that tasted like pineapple! That one I ordered twice before it was gone.) It is $20 every 3 weeks since I drink one a day, but this week I switch up to the big bag so we could both enjoy it. That took it up to $50, but now it’s a full 2 pounds instead of 10 oz. (That’s 280g to 900g.)

I think all we can really do is set an example ourselves and to allow mods to do their jobs. We can only really control our own behavior, especially a place like Lemmy where it’s basically impossible to ban someone.

I try to keep my posts PG, try to understand others, ignore people I can’t find common ground with, and just try to be the type of poster/commenter I’d like to interact with.

Appreciate it! I felt it was spammy if I did it, but I’m fine with you linking it. 😇

Without skin is for if you just want to indulge in potato goodness.

Skin on makes them healthy, so you’re doing your body good having a few extra. 😇

Big Raptor explosion

LOL, this headline reads very differently to me while scrolling! Greetings from c/superbowl!

Wow, this had me reading a lot more and thinking about this in many more ways than I originally expected.

To be up front, I’m not Australian, so I don’t know how things work there, legally speaking, or who exactly a lot of these people are. From reading the original article from the post, and then the article linked from that post, I’m a lot more neutral about the result of this.

There doesn’t seem to be any disagreements between any parties on what the content of the video is. Game Meats and the inspectors seem to say, some of what is in the footage isn’t great, but it’s some of the unfortunate things that are an inherent part of commercial animal processing. They’re just upset that Farm Transparency Project people are breaking into their facilities, and from their perspective, misrepresenting what is going on.

If that is indeed the case, which given I haven’t come across anyone who’s legally reviewed this footage seems to disagree, seems fairly conclusive is that the recorded slaughter is in compliance with regulation. Animals don’t want to die, obviously, and if people want commercial meat production, this is sadly something that is going to occur with incidents. I’ve had many family members work in slaughterhouses, and I hunt deer for food, and not all animals die the same. You can do everything right as the person with the job, but every animal is a bit different and stuff can go wrong.

I don’t know if FTP is a legitimate media resource or not. From what they’re doing, it seems like they want to protect animals, which is fine. But they don’t seem to be using legal channels to get evidence. While someone catching someone doing something illegal while doing something illegal themselves doesn’t absolve the other party, I don’t know how much we can condone illegally obtained evidence.

In the US, the last few years we have had a number of citizen “auditors” that usually just go and harass government employees at post offices or what have you, and I’m not sure how much BS places or people should have to put up with by random people trying to “expose them.” They don’t seem to be a big issue in Australia from some quick searching, though I did find a few people mentioning you do have a few notable people with media presence doing similar things.

Again, if anyone in charge of overseeing the slaughterhouse operations had reservations about what was in the footage, I’d be mad at Game Meats. I’m all about animal protections. But if we as humans are going to have meat production, this is part of the price for that. Most people today have probably never had to see where meat truly comes from. I get that it is upsetting. I’m not mad at FTP, I’m just not sure about how they are doing their investigation. If nobody else is finding the cruelty they are alleging, they might be wrong, legally speaking. To vegans, Game Meats (and also myself and any non-vegan) is wrong morally, but that isn’t what the law typically decides.

I had also never heard of Peter Greste, so I looked up who he is, and I see why he would have a negative view of this case. But he seems more of a mainstream person that no one can really question the legitimacy of his journalism, other than the Egyptian government, of course. Again, I have no idea the legitimacy of FTP, but there is no shortage of people with less than good intentions where I am familiar with that do more harm than good to their causes.

If I’ve gotten anything sorely wrong, please let me know.

If anyone likes super crispy fries and hasn’t tried the America’s Test Kitchen oven fries, I highly recommend it! It’s very similar to OP’s recipe, but you toss the potatoes in a cornstarch slurry, which adds a crispy coating to the final fries. They’re some of my fav fries ever.

Video Link

Ingredients:
vegetable oil spray
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, unpeeled
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
salt

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 425°F. Generously spray rimmed baking sheet with vegetable oil spray. Pour oil into prepared sheet and tilt until surface is evenly coated with oil.

Halve potatoes lengthwise and turn halves cut sides down on cutting board. Trim a thin slice from both long sides of each potato half; discard trimmings. Slice potatoes lengthwise into 1/3- to 1/2-inch-thick planks.

Combine 1/3 cup water and cornstarch in large bowl, making sure no lumps of cornstarch remain on bottom of bowl. Microwave, stirring every 20 seconds, until mixture begins to thicken, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from microwave and continue to stir until mixture thickens to pudding-like consistency. (If necessary, add up to 1 tablespoon water to achieve correct consistency.)

Transfer potatoes to bowl with cornstarch mixture and toss until each plank is evenly coated. Arrange planks on prepared sheet, leaving small gaps between planks. (Some cornstarch mixture will remain in bowl.) Cover sheet tightly with lightly greased aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes.

Remove foil from sheet and bake until bottom of each fry is golden brown, 7 to 15 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and, using thin metal spatula, carefully flip each fry. Return sheet to oven and continue to bake until second sides are golden brown, 7 to 15 minutes longer.

Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to blot excess grease and season with salt to taste. Enjoy!

I try my best! 😇

I’ve eaten stuff from there once or twice. We had a rather mixed crowd of people and it made it very convenient to get something for adults of various cultures and their kids to all get some from one stop.

When my friend introduced me to it, I said, oh, so it’s like if Sysco cut out the middle man and just heated up the food for you themselves, right? That’s pretty much what it is. So I’d treat it like the mall food court. Food is just fine, like you’d get from a fast casual chain, and you can please near any variety of appetites in one store pickup.

I’d label it ethically neutral. You’re not supporting a real local business, but they do employee locals, assumingly pay local taxes, and if you’re feeding someone who may be shy to speak up if everyone else wants to eat one type of food and they don’t, they’re not put on the spot.

Wild animal rescue volunteer here!

Leave it where it is, and just let them do their thing. About 2 weeks for the eggs to hatch and 3 more for them to be gone.

It seems like a bad place, and for you it may be, but they knew what they signed up for.

My neighbor always had wreaths out and I watched 2 families of robins and one of finches grow up and fledge on her door. I enjoyed taking a daily snapshot and my wife even printed one of those diy photo albums for the first family of birds.

Trump said future operations will be nationwide “but primarily in those Blue States where CROOKED DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS” are in charge, Trump said, namechecking California, Illinois, Minnesota, Maine, and New York.

Perfect. I appreciate it!

It is far from the end of the USPS’s problems. I did not intend to sound like I was discounting anything else you said. IIRC, they’re still the only entity required to fund themselves, and with declining volume, they can’t reduce service, but also have no power of their own to raise the price of mail. Right wingers have been trying to crush them for a long time, and it’s impressive they do what they do despite those efforts.

The postal workers union also seems to be struggling a lot, which can’t help things if all the workers are unhappy as well. I really feel bad for the USPS as it’s one of the few gov institutions that no normal person really seems to have anything against and they provide a valuable service for every American.

They need to fully fund their employees retirement health benefits 75 years into the future

This should have been done away with in the 2022 Postal Services Reform Act, signed by President Biden.

The specific part of that reform addressing this was the USPS Fairness Act, which since there is a bunch of news about it failing to be passed so many times, because looking up something called a Fairness Act is so generic a term, and because the US diverged from a path of sanity, I can’t find out if this is being enforced currently or what the heck the deal is, but that requirement is at least not supposed to exist anymore.