Hard Pass

https://plush.city/@mynameistillian/116724709446424630

transcription: world if we kiss = earth, world if we dont kiss = boom

cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/40995992

Sucks that you had to be a Trump supporting racist, Mr. Scott Adams.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/55685

The Trump administration has emphasized in recent days that the New World screwworm infection found in a calf in Texas did not pose a threat to the United States' larger cattle herd, which is at its lowest point in 75 years due largely to drought conditions—but the US Department of Agriculture is now acknowledging that cases of the parasite have been found outside the Texas containment zone and as far away as in New Mexico, as Republican officials attempt to blame the Biden administration for the outbreak.

While Democratic lawmakers are among those connecting the arrival of screwworm—a flesh-eating bug that feeds off the living tissue of warm-blooded animals and had been eradicated in the US in 1966—to cuts by President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that specifically targeted screwworm monitoring programs, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins doubled down on claims that an "open border policy" under the Biden administration was to blame.

"This does trace back to the last administration and the open border policy, and the movement of millions of people and their animals up from South America through Central America," said Rollins with certainty on Monday.

As David Dayen explained at The American Prospect Tuesday, former President Joe Biden placed a ban on bison, horse, and cattle imports from Mexico in 2024, which Trump lifted in February 2025. At the same time, DOGE, under the leadership of Trump megadonor and tech billionaire Elon Musk, cut screwworm monitoring efforts and animal disease control and prevention efforts, slashing 1,300 employees from USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Rollins did reinstate the live import ban last May as screwworm cases were rising in Mexico and began funding prevention programs in Texas. But a $600 million facility for breeding sterile screwworm flies—a key component of successful eradication efforts—is not scheduled to be completed until late next year, and sterile flies that have been dispersed from a facility that opened in February at Moore Air Force Base in South Texas only amount to "about one one-hundredth of what it would take each week to eradicate the pest," Dayen wrote.

He also noted that Rollins has attempted to blame Biden—who has not been in office since January 2025—despite the fact that the total average lifespan of a screwworm fly is 21 days.

"The more likely explanation is that an administration with an antipathy to government ignored government’s purpose until it was too late," wrote Dayen.

The USDA established a 12-mile quarantine area around the affected area last week when the case was detected in South Texas, but on Monday the agency said another case had been found in Gillespie County, over 100 miles from where the initial case was reported.

A dog was also found to be infested in Lea County, New Mexico, more than 400 miles away.

The parasite is not expected to affect food safety, as it feeds on living tissue, but the outbreak raises concerns about rising beef prices, which are already high due to the low volume of cattle in the US. The high prices of fertilizer and fuel due to the war in Iran, and of equipment and repairs due to Trump's tariff policy, have also put a strain on the cattle industry.

“The cattle producer in the US has already been under extreme financial stress,” Joe Maxwell, president of Farm Action Fund and a farmer in Missouri, told The American Prospect. “This is serious, the screwworm outbreak. But it’s even more serious because of the financial position they were already under.”

In response to Rollins' claims, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Tuesday: "Let's be clear about what happened: DOGE cut the programs and staff that tracked dangerous outbreaks like screwworm."

"So this has nothing to do with Joe Biden," she said, "but Trump and DOGE definitely screwed our cattle industry."

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Four original case studies released today highlight Indigenous-led research with implications for Canada’s national priorities—from expanding and interconnecting the electricity grid, to evaluating major resource development projects.

"This year’s analyses reframe climate policy through Indigenous ways of knowing and relationships to the land, while offering guidance on energy systems, infrastructure, climate knowledge, and Indigenous rights," says Maria Shallard, Director for Indigenous Research at the Canadian Climate Institute.

The research by First Nations and Métis scholars and authors, presented by the Canadian Climate Institute and the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER), is part of the Indigenous Perspectives program. Now in its sixth year, the annual program profiles Indigenous expertise and solutions in climate policy.

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Case study authors will discuss their work in two online roundtables happening on June 22 and 23. The first roundtable will focus on Indigenous leadership in the energy transition with authors Raylene Whitford, Frank Busch and Kwatuuma Cole Sayers. The second roundtable will focus on Indigenous climate policy beyond Western metrics with authors Tara Marsden/Naxginkw and Conor Kerr.

Those interested in attending the 2026 Indigenous Perspectives roundtables on June 22 and 23 can register at the linked site and read this year’s case studies online.

Crossposted from https://discuss.online/post/40995746

A Canadian court has ordered the government of Iran to pay $200 million to a British Columbia mechanic who was branded an ‘infidel’ and tortured for criticizing the Islamic regime.

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The Ontario Superior Court of Justice awarded $100 million in compensation and another $100 million in punitive damages to Zahed Haftlang.

The court said Haftlang, an Iranian refugee who fled to Canada in 2001, merited the unusually large sum because of the “years of mistreatment” and “lifetime of mental trauma” he suffered.

Justice Lee Akazaki wrote that while a single judgment might not deter Iran’s abuses, the “accumulation of damage awards, often executed against Iran’s frozen foreign assets, has some effect.”

Although foreign governments are generally immune from Canada’s civil courts, Justice Akazaki ruled that Iran’s torture of Haftlang was motivated by the regime’s politics, religion and ideology.

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As a result, it amounted to “terrorist activity” akin to staging attacks on foreign soil intended to silence opposition to the regime, so Iran did not benefit from state immunity, the judge ruled.

“Iran is therefore liable to Mr. Haftlang and answerable to a civil judgment by this court for his loss caused by the acts committed against him,” according to the 13-page decision handed down on May 29.

The decision is the latest against Iran by a Canadian court under the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, which allows those impacted by terrorism to sue state sponsors of the groups that harmed them.

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It marked the first time a court in Canada had found that terrorist activity included Iran’s atrocities against its own citizens, and could potentially open the door for many more such lawsuits.

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