28 Comments

I rate this 110% dark. Adam Smith is spinning in his grave over that take on the Invisible Hand. BTW, I was waiting for the satire of the hearing to kick in. I mean, I assume that was just a transcript you posted, right?

And I signed up for the chocolate newsletter!

Out of curiosity, do you eat dark chocolate?

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"I assume that was just a transcript you posted"

Note to Substack: please please please implement a "rolling on the floor laughing" emoji!

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Seconded!

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Awesome on the sign-up! I got a sneak preview of what Birgitte's doing and it seems really interesting.

Re: satire, it's true, I could have just yanked a copy from the Finance Committee website. But, you know Ron Johnson is way too dumb to come up with that Invisible Hand = God's Hand bit.

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Oh, and re: dark chocolate, I'm not an aficionado. My favorite slave labor-generated product is Nutella. But, in all honesty, after doing this research, I feel terrible just looking at the container. I'll be using Birgitte's recs to try to find sustainably made alternatives.

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I signed up to get those recs.

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Brace yourself Michael :) There's a reason the Americas are called the New World....

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Amran, you're a swell guy. You write ok too. But this chocolate thing, ya know... lot of work we need to do there. Lotta work. But I remain hopeful. I've never met a chocolate non lover I couldn't convert.

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I'm ready to become a true believer.

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This didn't actually happen, did it?

They all seem unaware of the obvious double entendre in the title "Ranking Member"...

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That you even have to ask is evidence of just how effed up our government is.

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It didn't happen just like we didn't walk on the moon and figure out the Earth is actually sphere-like. In fact, it's still not happening.

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New kind of laughter that requires an emoji: Cringe laughter. 😬+🤣

Excellent spotlight on reality, in all its disturbing forms. WTF is our government RN? 🤦🏼‍♀️

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Thank you! This was a really grim topic. I knew loosely it was an ugly industry, but this was far worse than I realized. The topic deserved the most incisive possible treatment.

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Have you experienced BLR (Bad Lip Reading) on YouTube?

This is to pull you from the rabbit hole of darkness.

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxNCh-DkrOgQM22_0-TC7IjRu5N4HdvbRF?si=6ykkSryW-aIrhwbz

Oh, and here's an upbeat video recipe for DIY Nutella: https://youtu.be/aRsPYTWhQFM

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I'll check it out. We could all use a mood enhancer after this piece.

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I followed your "pathetic blog" link kinda knowing where it would lead.

Well played. 🙂

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There's a company in the Netherlands that claims to have slave free chocolate. Their products are common in all grocery stores here. But I haven't seen them anywhere else: https://tonyschocolonely.com/nl/en

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Funny you mention them. If I recall, they recently got in trouble for also being part of the problem, if unwittingly. There's a great article in 1843 Magazine about them: https://www.economist.com/1843/2021/04/14/tonys-chocolonely-the-risks-of-being-a-woke-brand

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ah, interesting. did not know about that. will check it out.

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So, Tony's... they have the right sentiment but yes they did get into trouble when it was revealed their chocolate was made by Callebaut, one of the slave labor offenders. That's the problem in this business, lots of great marketing, and certainly the smaller artisan makers are doing their part and walking the walk, but when you see the same language being used by brands that do walk the walk and (bigger) brands that only talk it, how are you supposed to know the difference? That's one of the reasons I launched The Cacao Muse, to help people navigate those churning chocolate seas.

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We no longer have the concept of eating food that is in season, or having rare, luxury products. We need to take responsibility and highlight, as in this article, the cost of our over indulgence to the planet and animals.

Some of the answers from elected officials are unbelievably awful. And don’t get me started that 'God wanted children to work as slaves'.

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That's such an important observation, and something I too take for granted. We need to proactively get back in balance with natural cycles, otherwise the natural cycles won't give us a choice.

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Hi Kate, I can relate to this more than you know... I grew up in the Czech Republic, where summer fruits could only be had during the summer, if at all. This is why many people had their own little orchards or gardens in the villages. I remember going mushroom picking in the forests, and my family frying the mushrooms later for dinner or breakfast. It was such a simpler and magical time. Today I walk into a massive grocery store with a hundred variations on energy drinks, and I can't think.

It's all so incredibly loud... as the Glass Animals song goes

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It was like that for me in Scotland. We had soft fruit for a few weeks in summer, and apples in the Autumn. There was no fruit bowl. The closest small store was 7 miles away, with a limited range. If you forgot something you had to do without. I love the abundance now but it has got beyond what is reasonable, and is bad for the planet.

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That we citizens in wealthy countries can have whatever we want, whenever we want, certainly plays into our deteriorating health outcomes as well.

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Once upon a time at a dinner party, let’s say in the gentrified part of Columbia Heights, one of my friends’ friends was a chocolate taster for real, this was her job, and she brought one of each flavor bar from Trader Joe’s and broke the pieces up and encouraged us each to taste it and share the flavor profile we suspected whether any brought forth any memories, and we did, and I did, this one is too sweet, this one too bitter, do I detect some citrus and then she shared what she tasted, which was “Mildew. Mold. Ants. Mmm, this one’s clean.” She did her best to convince us her job actually sucked. None of us believed her.

Speaking of belief, and your Senators, and the faith of our officials, I used to believe that a handy test on whether to trust any Christian should be listened to, is how serious did they take the Sunday school song paraphrase of the apostle Paul, “this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it,” because it’s a nice song, but also a command, but as I’ve grown older and richer, as a litmus test it has failed me, moving from catchy tune to hard saying to taunting command, revealing the near impossibility of love.

I’m going to go order an overpriced mocha crafted by baristas who probably lack access to their passports.

Grace and peace, motherfucker.

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Can't argue with your approach.

YOLO, baby.

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