https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/16/us/politics/trump-coca-cola-cane-sugar.html

Ok, this one got me. The Coca Cola Corporation is, at the direction and in co-operation with the fucking Whitehouse, apparently, switching from the use of corn syrup to the use of cane sugar in it's U.S. recipe.

Now, I read a lot of horrific news everyday, y'all. The ongoing Palestinian genocide, the war in Ukraine, the U.S. ICE raids. But this one got me, because on the face of it this should be just some random noise in the newsfeed, like the soccer articles I couldn't give less of a fuck about.

However, given what a massive producer of corn the U.S. is, the current horrifying liquidation of huge amounts of immigrant farmworkers the U.S. is currently participating in, and given what I know of the colonial horror story that is historical production of cane sugar, I had some fucking questions. Namely;

Why, exactly, is this massive U.S. corporation moving away from the use of corn, which the United States Government traditionally offers massive subsidies and alots disgusting amounts of land towards the growing of? Especially in the midst of the aforementioned ICE terror campaign against immigrant farm workers?

Why is the Whitehouse, and specifically the President, publicly declaring Coca Cola's shift from the use of corn syrup to the use of Cane Sugar?

How exactly is it planning on acquiring such vast amounts of sugar to maintain it's infamously massive production operation? Cane sugar is much more expensive than corn syrup. And where, exactly, is the Coca Cola Corporation getting it's sugar from?

So I did some digging. Oh hey, there we go. Who is the largest domestic producer of Cane Sugar in the United States? Why, it's the state of Florida! Well, that's potentially terrifying. Alright, let's keep going. Ah, of course. The Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida (SCGC), who own and operate 70k acres in the Everglades Agricultural area. Also in the Everglades, just a county over, is the Florida Concentration camp, aka Alligator Alcatraz! Both located in Donald Trumps home state, incidentally. Well, this is deeply troubling, and a horrific link to make. That's not all, though.

In trying to look into the Coca Cola Corporation's sources of sugarcane, I found an article about Coca Cola Corporation having recently, as in five days ago, finished an initiative with the Mountain and Glacier Protection Organization (MGPO) and the United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP) in Pakistan. This partnership was maintained for an intitiative called "Water Security and Building Resilience for Mountain Communities". (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/coca-cola-unveils-groundbreaking-initiative-that-will-have-major-impact-on-agriculture-industry-previously-barren-lands-are-now-producing-crops/ar-AA1Itnwb)

Sidenote-I'd never heard of M.G.P.O. before this. They are a private organization which handles global economic and infrastructural issues specifically created by climate change. They frequently partner with United Nations development Progammes, UNICEF, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Also the Coca Cola Company. Apparently.

Now, in searching for information on this, I simply input 'Coca Cola Pakistan' into a duckduckgo search, and accidentally found about 10 years worth of news about the Coca Cola Corporation investing billions of dollars into the Pakistani government, including:

$350 million in 2014 to build plants and create infrastructure in Islamabad, Karachi and Multan (https://www.dawn.com/news/1211788),

And $1.4 billion in sync with Pepsico in 2018, and pledging a further $200 million to build on what was, at that point, a $500 million operation of economic and cultural insertion. (https://www.yahoo.com/news/pepsi-coca-cola-pouring-1-110456539.html).

I also found out alot about Pakistans sugar industry!

The Pakistani sugarcane industry accounts for 3.7 percent of it's agricultural production, which amounts to .08 percent of the country's GDP. Almost a full percent, just sugarcane alone! Now, despite this, the Pakistani sugar industry operates at a massive loss. (https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2024/09/15/sugar-export-what-is-it-good-for/)

This is largely due to three things. First, what is among the highest export rates on the planet at 18%. Second, the fact that this industry functions by neccescarily funding almost all of it's operating expenses through loans through the government and IMF. Third, the incredible amount of water needed to sustain sugarcane crops, which is at a premium in Pakistan. (https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/pakistan-s-sugar-industry-faces-challenges-with-surplus-and-export-limitations/ar-BB1qpEyP).

Now, why is water for agriculture so expensive in Pakistan? Well, that's complicated but involves the Indian government and Pakistani government conflict over some water sources that both countries share, which was further stoked by a flare up some of you might remember in May. (https://www.npr.org/2025/07/08/g-s1-73122/pakistan-india-indus-waters-treaty)

This conflict over water in particular is made even worse by worsening climate change. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/environment/climate-and-beyond-what-s-ailing-pakistan-s-agriculture-sector/3625274

Not just water for agriculture, either, by the way. Access to drinking water in all this is a problem; https://indusforum.org/2025/05/22/a-lack-of-water-infrastructure-why-pakistan-must-build-below-before-it-builds-above/

The above article paints also paints a pretty terrible picture for the future of the Pakistani sugar cane industry. They face shortages of workers, decline in amount and quality of both land and water nessescary to grow their crop. They have to sell the product at massive losses. So why is Pakistan even bothering to produce so much sugar? Well, yesterday, the price of Pakistani sugar and it's export cap were both reported to be on the rise.

https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/other/deal-falls-flat-as-sugar-prices-stay-high/ar-AA1IHMpJ

Why, and furthermore what the fuck does this have to do with the Coca Cola Corporation? Well, the sugar mentioned yesterday? It was coming through at an oddly high price from...Karachi port! You know, where the Coca Cola Corporation has a multi-million dollar plant and helprd install a massive amount of infrastructure?

You might also have noticed, alot of the above articles suggest that Pakistan deregulate it's sugar industry to boost economic growth. The Coca Cola Corporation has significant hold over the Pakistani government, what with trillions of dollars in investment and deep roots into the Pakistani economy. And despite Pakistan's serious national problem involving water, the announced infrastructure that Coca Cola almost single-handed bankrolled only provides non-potable water for agricultural use.

And finally, the instability of the available water sources in Pakistan, mentioned numerous times in the articles? Those are floods, which have done lots of infrastructural damage and have body counts. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/17/why-is-pakistan-so-vulnerable-to-deadly-flooding

Those floods are also currently affecting Lahore, which is the other place where sugar's price has risen steeply.

Now, this is alot to take in, but I'm not fucking finished!

Ok, listen, I feel crazy in saying I am able to tie all of that information about Pakistani sugarcane, the FUCKING Coca Cola Corportation, and global-warming induced climate disaster back around to ICE raids, the U.S. concentration camps, and U.S. sugar cane production. But I'm an autistic trans lesbian screaming into the void of the internet. So I'm going to.

Alright so first of all, if we snap back to the U.S., we find that sugar cane production in the U.S. is not a very big industry at the moment, with all of it being grown in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. https://710keel.com/louisiana-sugar-cane-farming/

You know these three states have lots in common! In particular, they are prone to flooding and have large immigrant populations. At least one of these states also already has a concentration camp. Now, the Coca Cola Corporation, in collaboration with the U.N. and the M.G.P.O, has developed and laid infrastructure for a very flood-resistant, and climate destruction resistant crop. The Coca Cola Corporation, who owns an active plant in Louisiana, and who I would not put it past to staff currently empty factories with imprisoned slave labour, really. The Coca Fucking Cola Corporation, the most American Corporation on the planet. The stocks of corn syrup producers are already taking hits!

P.S.; This?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/trump-vows-coca-cola-will-use-cane-sugar-in-u-s-sodas-but-did-anyone-tell-coke/ar-AA1IK6ep

Great way for the Coca Cola Corporation to continue to use corn syrup while they buy up, ship, and put into use all that sugar from Pakistan, as well as maintain the use of whatever sweetener is cheapest and appropriate for a given product.

i did not know about the hand signal for help me, and my stupid ass thought she was flirting.

The Signal for Help (or the Violence at Home Signal for Help) is a single-handed gesture that can be used over a video call or in person by an individual to alert others that they feel threatened and need help.[1] Originally, the signal was created as a tool to combat the rise in domestic violence cases around the world linked to self-isolation measures that were related to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]

The signal is performed by holding one hand up with the thumb tucked into the palm, then folding the four other fingers down, symbolically trapping the thumb by the rest of the fingers.[3] It was designed intentionally as a single continuous hand movement, rather than a sign held in one position, so it could be made easily visible.

The Signal for Help was created by the Canadian Women's Foundation and introduced on April 14, 2020.[4] It soon spread via the TikTok social video platform and was adopted by the international Women's Funding Network (WFN). It received widespread praise from Canadian[5] and international[6][7] news organizations for helping provide a modern solution to the issue of a rise in domestic violence cases.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_for_Help

Officer down! Officer down! Officer down! 🥳   💥 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/la-county-sheriff-deputies-killed-173407120.html

top news "Deadly explosion at LA sheriffs training facility"

<Single Fake Tear>

Am Samstag wollen Neonazis den CSD in Mönchengladbach stören - angeführt vom Düsseldorfer Neonazi Manuel Senk und seiner "Nationalen Jugend Neuwerk".

Wir lassen keine queerfeindliche Hetze unwidersprochen - nicht in Düsseldorf, nicht in Mönchengladbach, nirgendwo.

Kommt mit zur gemeinsamen Anreise aus Düsseldorf!

📍 Treffpunkt: 10:30, Ufa Palast,
Hbf Düsseldorf
📅 Samstag, 19.07.

#gegenrechtehetze #queersolidarity #prideisaprotest #Mönchengladbach #queer #CSD #keinplatzfürnazis

Sweet brothers sleeping cheek-to-cheek.  

#Cats #CatsOfMastodon #FediCats