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πͺπ #QueSeraSera π ¨ π
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πͺπ #QueSeraSera π ¨ π
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https://apnews.com/article/cyclospora-lettuce-taco-bell-cdc-fda-13d9e9ebdc46a4d05a58da2ae8e8d0de
Not the first time either of these parties have been negligent. Food safety standards are not what they should be in what we — as Americans — are commanded to believe is the freest, richest, most advanced nation on earth. Alas, I do not suspect most Taco Bell consumers care all that much about food safety, but I digress.
FTA: The FDA’s traceback investigation identified a single supplier of iceberg lettuce from Mexico used by the Taco Bell locations where people who got sick ate, federal officials said. The Mexican food chain is among the restaurants linked to foodborne illness outbreaks in the past. Taylor Farms also was tied to a 2013 cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to salad mix and a 2024 E. coli outbreak tied to onions served at McDonald’s.
πͺπ #QueSeraSera π ¨ π
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https://apnews.com/article/iron-lung-last-patient-died-polio-41e5b4da4f4e710344dd0872d7fcf987
FTA: Polio was once one of the nation’s most feared diseases, with annual outbreaks causing thousands of cases of paralysis. The disease primarily affects children.
Vaccines became available starting in 1955. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a national vaccination campaign cut the annual number of U.S. cases to fewer than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s. In 1979, polio was declared eliminated in the U.S., meaning it was no longer routinely spread.
If Americans had thought in the 1950s the way so many do today — and if public-health policy had been dictated by the likes of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — the widespread adoption of Jonas Salk's vaccine would never have been possible. There would be far more individuals like Martha Lillard in the world (albeit most would not live anywhere near as long), and the polio virus would likely remain a scourge upon the planet.
Martha Lillard was told not to expect to live beyond the age of twenty, and the fact that she reached seventy-eight is undoubtedly a testament to the human will to live. I would have thrown in the towel decades ago, so she hath my deepest respect.
Fare thee well.
πͺπ #QueSeraSera π ¨ π
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Entirely shameful, and entirely preventable. Religious freedom should not mean religious supremacy. As was demonstrated very clearly during the COVID pandemic, these anti-vaxxers and assorted types chanting muh freedumb do not believe in the freedom of others to be protected from them and their bloody germs. Liberty to them is the liberty to impose themselves on others. They are the types who blast obnoxious music at all hours of the day, and become offended when asked to stop and shout ‘it’s a free country!’ They have been the types, throughout my thankless life, who have hassled me at every turn when my aching psyche just wants everything around me to slow the hell down and quiet down. Respect for others is tyranny to these people, and all too many of them out there.
Hell, most Americans — and not even merely the anti-vaxxers and Christofascists — could not even handle the simple concept of social distancing. They would be miserable living in Germany, where quiet on Sundays is simply a societal custom that doth not need enforcing by law; it is just respected by nearly all people.
Call me insane, in what we are still told is the most prosperous and educated nation on earth — obviously less and less true with each passing year, but stay with me — for expecting to be able to step outside and be reasonably certain I am not going to contract a deadly disease on any given day. Diagnose me with 'TDS' if some simple civility and respect for others is infringing upon the individual ‘rights’ of lunatics, bullies, religious zealots, and other assorted tyrants of society who make up the Trump/GOP base. Call me a bigot against people of faith — and I do consider myself a Christian, albeit a very poor and not particularly devout one, and my faith is not particularly strong at present — if the right of the general public to be protected against a scourge that was supposed to have been eliminated decades ago is less important than the feelings of bigamists, cultists, and all these assorted and dangerous weirdos who are only growing in number in this most horrific of timelines.
Somebody shoot me, I am so over all of this bulls**t.
πͺπ #QueSeraSera π ¨ π
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| AP |
Americans are being advised to practice caution when traveling to a Caribbean island because of an outbreak of a deadly virus.
The CDC has placed a Level 2 travel warning on Cuba after local officials raised the alarm over an outbreak of chikungunya virus, a painful viral infection that can leave victims bedridden for months.
The disease is spread by mosquitoes, with patients suffering a sudden fever and then joint pain in the hands and feet that can be so severe that sufferers are left unable to walk for months. In rare cases, the disease can be fatal.
Officials in Cuba have not revealed how many people are infected, but say that the outbreak is focused in Matanzas province, 60 miles east of Havana. There have been no deaths reported so far.
It is not clear what prompted the CDC advisory, but the alert comes just days after US health officials began investigating a possible locally acquired case of chikungunya on Long Island, New York, the first ever detected in the state.
The infection was detected in a woman who said she had not recently traveled off the island, home to more than eight million people and the celebrity-loved Hamptons.
And amid a surging outbreak of the disease in South America, with health officials at the Pan American Health Organization warning that Brazil, with 210,000 cases, is among the worst affected.
Globally, more than 317,000 cases and 135 deaths involving the virus have been detected this year, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which tracks international figures. In 2024, there were 620,000 cases and 213 deaths.
Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. On X-TWITTER: @DollsFallen and @Sunking278. BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. REDDIT - https://www.reddit.com/user/SiberianKhatru278/. FULL LIST OF LINKS - linktr.ee/arthurnewhook. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED on Cash App ($ANewhook) and at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.
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'Nuclear winter' from a US-Russia conflict would wipe out 63% of the world's population - Any questions as to why the Biden administration and Congress have appropriated billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine? You do not want nuclear warfare, whoever ‘you’ may be. Do not underestimate Vladimir Putin; much of the rhetoric currently coming from Russia - all of it directed by the Kremlin, and Putin basically is the Kremlin - is outright apocalyptic. {Live Science 8/18}
Π‘Π»Π°Π²Π° Π£ΠΊΡΠ°ΡΠ½Ρ: Ukraine begins counter-offensive to retake Kherson and other southern regions held captive by the Russians. {Reuters 8/29}
Vladimir Putin signs decree increasing the size of the Russian military - Considerably more important news than griping about student loans, gas prices, or what other people are doing with their private parts. Putin has completely gone insane, albeit in a ‘crazy like a fox’ sort of way; he is going for broke in his assault on Ukraine, and there are exactly zero checks on his power within Russia. Knowing there is no one to stop him internally, and knowing that the West - by and large - lacks the willpower or desire to confront him in earnest (this being most especially evident among the citizens of the United States, though thankfully our government under President Biden’s leadership has taken actions to support the Ukrainian people), Putin has taken a huge gamble: He will either succeed in subjugating Ukraine, or he will die trying and bring down his own country and as much of the world as he can take with him. Perhaps you all will start caring when nukes start falling out of the skies over the heartland (even then, I’m not so sure.) {Reuters 8/25}
Russia risks nuclear disaster by shelling Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant; Russians, as is their M.O., claim the Ukrainians are at fault - Welcome to the future, where any anti-Western tyrant can commit atrocities and simply blame the other side, and millions in the west will willfully spread their lies out of spite for their own societies.{AP 8/08}
Ukraine literally averts a global nuclear catastrophe at Zaporizhzhia - All life on human earth would have been endangered had urgent action not been taken. Preventing World War III is a serious matter, but just keep on griping, #Murica, about the government sending billions of dollars in aid and weapons to Ukraine. Yes, by all means, because isolationism and turning a blind eye to imperialist Fascism worked so well in the 1930s. Excerpt: ‘President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the world narrowly avoided a radiation disaster on Thursday as the last regular line supplying electricity to Ukraine's Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was restored hours after being cut. Zelenskiy blamed shelling by Russia's military for fires in the ash pits of a nearby coal power station that disconnected the reactor complex, Europe's largest such facility, from the power grid. He said back-up diesel generators had started to ensure power supply and keep the plant safe. "If our station staff had not reacted after the blackout, then we would have already been forced to overcome the consequences of a radiation accident," he said in an evening address. "Russia has put Ukraine and all Europeans in a situation one step away from a radiation disaster." International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials should be given access to the site within days, he said, "before the occupiers take the situation to the point of no return."’ {Reuters 8/25}
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| Reuters |
Five key findings on Russia’s massive intelligence failures prior to invading Ukraine. {WaPo 8/19}
U.S. rejects Ukraine’s request for a blanket visa ban on all Russians - The State Department is erring on the side of political correctness. Protecting the lives of innocent Ukrainians, and putting the fear of God into Russians, ought to have highest priority. My suggestion to Russian dissidents - if they are sincere - would be to go to Ukraine, if the Ukrainians will have them, and take up arms. Or stay in Russia, and foment revolution there. I feel for their plight and admire their courage to stand against Vladimir Putin, but America is not where they are needed at this moment. {Reuters 8/22}
Flashback: Alexander Litvinenko may have been assassinated, in part, for alleging Putin is a pedophile. {The Independent 1/21/2016}
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| Dmitry Serebryakov/AP |
Damaged Russian tanks put on display on the streets of Kyiv in advance of Ukraine’s independence day. {DW 8/20}
GEOPOLITICS
Basketball star Brittney Griner sentenced to nine years in Russian prison - A f**king outrage, and anybody making excuses for the Russians - or saying any peaceful, non-violent American civilian deserves this treatment anywhere in the world - can kiss my royal ass. We all know why the Russians are making an example of this individual, and it has nothing to do with a vial of hash oil that wouldn’t harm an earthworm. And we also know why most Americans are not moved by this individual’s plight. Said it before and am going to keep saying it over and over: If I sound as though I’m being unfair to most people, just remember that most people lost the benefit of the doubt after the 2016 presidential election. True colors are coming through like never before in our lifetimes, and the ugliness is astounding. {AP 8/04}
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| Roger Dean |
Rest in Peace, Alan White: Hall of Fame drummer of YES fame dies at 72 (AP 5/26)
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COVID-19, shootings: Is mass death now tolerated in America? - ‘Learned helplessness’ is how one expert spoken to for this AP article describes the atmosphere in modern #Murica. Where, oftentimes, cowardice is mistaken for courage, mass stupidity is mistaken for independent thought, and pure callousness is mistaken for godliness. Excerpt - ‘After mass shootings killed and wounded people grocery shopping, going to church and simply living their lives last weekend, the nation marked a milestone of 1 million deaths from COVID-19. The number, once unthinkable, is now an irreversible reality in the United States — just like the persistent reality of gun violence that kills tens of thousands of people every year. Americans have always tolerated high rates of death and suffering — among certain segments of society. But the sheer numbers of deaths from preventable causes, and the apparent acceptance that no policy change is on the horizon, raises the question: Has mass death become accepted in America? “I think the evidence is unmistakable and quite clear. We will tolerate an enormous amount of carnage, suffering and death in the U.S., because we have over the past two years. We have over our history,” says Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist and professor at Yale who, before that, was a leading member of the AIDS advocacy group ACT UP. “If I thought the AIDS epidemic was bad, the American response to COVID-19 has sort of ... it’s a form of the American grotesque, right?” Gonsalves says. “Really — a million people are dead? And you’re going to talk to me about your need to get back to normal, when for the most part most of us have been living pretty reasonable lives for the past six months?”’ (AP 5/21)
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| National Council on Aging |
Michigan elections chief alleges Trump wished for her to be executed for treason for refusing to validate his claims of election fraud - There is no bottom, save for the remaining sane, rational, and humane people of America rising up and throwing all Fascists out of any and all positions of authority. #Murica needs ‘denazification’ - an incendiary term when used to describe Putin’s ‘special operation’ against innocent Ukrainians who did nothing to provoke Russia’s wrath; but a bit more accurate when describing millions of American nationalist populists who are displaying increasing levels of hostility toward the rest of society, to say nothing of recklessly engaging in scary, cult-like behavior. I am increasingly afraid this only ends with President Biden having to resort to drastic measures, and right now millions of populist Americans are determined to test him. (NBC News 5/19)
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| Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images/Axios |
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| Shannon Stapleton/Reuters |
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| CNN |
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| Matt Rourke/AP |
President Biden condemns the racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket (NBC News 5/15)
One day later, another mass shooting as gunman opens fire at California church, killing one and injuring four others (New York Times 5/15)
Wait, there’s more: Two dead, three wounded in shooting at Houston flea market (Fox 26 Houston 5/15)
Mass shooting in Milwaukee following basketball game leaves many injured, mayor imposes two-night curfew (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 5/15)
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| Matthew J. Lee/Boston Globe/Getty Images/Pats Pulpit |
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| Ed Wray/Getty Images |
Beijing closes dozens of subway stations as COVID precaution, even though the number of known cases in the city of 21.5 million is only 51 people - Just another reminder to all Americans who spent the past two years whining non-stop about masks, lockdowns, and vaccines that they didn’t have it so tough. (AFP 5/04)
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| Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine |
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| TLC |
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