412 Food Rescue

It is self-destructive for any society to create a situation where a baby who is born into the world today automatically has pre-existing grievances against another baby born at the same time, because of what their ancestors did centuries ago. It is hard enough to solve our own problems, without trying to solve our ancestors’ problems.--Sowell

Brian has taken a new job in a startup making electric scooters, built by the guys who built ZipCar.
Happy Birthday, Tony!

Trade ⁠—⁠ in its economic context ⁠—⁠ was mentioned only once in the Democratic presidential debate, and “China” was only mentioned a half dozen times.

Some 271 million people globally, or more than one in 20 of the population aged 15 to 64, used recreational drugs in 2017, according to newly released data from the United Nations World Drug Report. That’s a 30% increase from 2009.

For the 10 most dangerous US occupations based on fatality rates per 100,000 workers by industry and occupation in 2017, men represented 92% or more of the workers in 7 of those 10 occupations. Overall, 92.5% of workplace fatalities in 2017 were men (4,803 men vs. 387 women), who experienced a death rate almost ten times higher than women (5.8 male vs. 0.6 female fatal injuries per 100,000 full-time workers). Inequality marches on.

“The US needs our President working the G20. Bringing a qualified diplomat couldn’t hurt either.” Thus spake AOC talking about Ivanka's presence at the trade talks. This, of course, injects a totally new concept into politics, one that has been absent for at least two generations: "Qualified." I'm not sure how far AOC wants to go with this line of thinking but it certainly is revolutionary.

Both "Vamp" and "Sabotage" come from words meaning "shoe."

Legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole—with their common aim of legal plunder—constitute socialism.

But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.

--Bastiat

 Someone with an obese spouse is 37% more likely to be or become obese. More important, 70% of Americans are fat — designated by their BMI as either “overweight” or “obese.” So fat people make up a majority of this country — and a majority of its voters. This seems an unusual area for identity politics, a subset that is actually the majority.

On this day in 1916 at 7:30 a.m., the British launched a massive offensive against German forces in the Somme River region of France. During the preceding week, 250,000 Allied shells had pounded German positions near the Somme, and 100,000 British soldiers poured out of their trenches and into no-man’s-land on July 1, expecting to find the way cleared for them. However, scores of heavy German machine guns had survived the artillery onslaught, and the infantry were massacred. By the end of the day, 20,000 British soldiers were dead and 40,000 wounded. It was the single heaviest day of casualties in British military history. The disastrous Battle of the Somme stretched on for more than four months, with the Allies advancing a total of just five miles. 60,000 causalities in one day. Ah, leadership.
And, in 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg began.


                             412 Food Rescue

These points appear on the website of 412 Food Rescue, a non-profit devoted to redirecting unused food away from the waste system.

In the United States, we waste 62.5 million tons and spend $218 billion a year (or 1.3% of our GDP) in “growing, processing, transporting, and disposing of food that is never eaten.
In the United States, 1 in 7 are hungry. According to the United Nations, if we recover all the food that is lost or wasted, we will have enough to feed all those who are hungry, four times over.
Food production uses 10% of the energy budget, 50% of the land and 80% of all fresh water consumed in the U.S.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, over 97% of food waste generated ends up in the landfill.

This comprises the single largest component of municipal solid waste —generating a large portion of U.S. methane emissions (a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 52% of fruits and vegetables go to waste—food that supplies that highest quality nutrition required to prevent obesity and disease.

40% of food going to waste translates to 20 pounds of food per person per month, worth $165 billion a year.

The 412 Food Rescue is worth some attention.

It was created in Braddock, Pa., a tough, failing little town outside of Pittsburgh with a big industrial history, by Gisele Fetterman, the wife of John Fetterman, the town's former mayor and the new Pa. Lieutenant Governor, a guy who looks like a power forward turned angry biker. She, on the other hand, looks like the Brazilian princess she is and, to her credit, you can find her sponsorship of the charity only with great difficulty.

He is a post-epiphany socialist, sincere and caring. She, I think, is the brains of the outfit. I don't know how marketable they are but they are certainly a different breed of politician. And she is Melania gorgeous.