Stop the Idiocracy: Kentucky

Showing posts with label Kentucky. Show all posts

Friday, July 17, 2026

No comfort in marble

A highly detailed glamour-style illustration of a distressed blonde woman seated upon a white toilet in an opulent marble bathroom with polished brass fittings. She wears a white satin nightdress beneath a loosely draped silk robe, one hand pressed against her lower abdomen while the other supports her tear-streaked face. Her flushed cheeks, reddened eyes, and pained expression convey exhaustion and severe gastrointestinal illness. Luxurious details, including crystal perfume bottles, folded towels, and gleaming marble surfaces, contrast sharply with her evident discomfort. Warm golden lighting accentuates the satin fabrics and refined décor, creating a poignant juxtaposition between elegance, vulnerability, and physical suffering.

generated via ChatGPT

Figures: #Murican fast food icon Taco Bell and supplier Taylor Farms tied to cyclospora outbreak in five states. {AP 17 July}

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.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Sycophancy in the deep red: the #MAGA base proves yet again they shall never abandon Trump

$Political and civilisational collapse rendered operatic, almost liturgical. Four women in flowing crimson gather amid ruins like priestesses or mourners presiding over empire’s end. Their intertwined poses yield ecstatic grief—sensual, devotional, catastrophic. Red dominateth: blood, revolution, empire, sacrifice. Ribbons snake like torn banners binding them as one symbolic entity. Behind, classical columns collapse, maps rupture, crowds surge, spiral voids open—one vortex holding a silhouetted authoritarian. The women, glamorous yet exhausted, show yearning and surrender. The central red-haired figure tilteth her face skyward in exaltation and despair. Dense linework, fractured debris, swirling cosmos—medieval and futuristic. Beauty and collapse are one. Apocalypse is theatrical, erotic, human—meaning sought even as the world fractur'th beneath.$

generated via Gemini

{Texas Tribune 26 May} Ken Paxton defeats John Cornyn for US Senate GOP nomination

Sen. Cornyn's primary defeat this evening in Texas, and Rep. Thomas Massie's last week in Kentucky, reinforces that voters in these deep-red states and regions are, more so than ever, sheep — pathetically sycophantic, doing whatever Daddy Trump tells them, with no critical thought whatsoever. It is the #MAGA rank and file, above all others, who have condemned this country to catastrophe, and who must be held to account, starting ten years ago. They did not have to fall for the world's most transparent conman in 2016, then double down, triple down, and quadruple down on their support over the course of a bloody decade. Roughly a third of the population wants the rest of us dead, and now has the country by the proverbial throat; this is why they will never abandon Trump, not even if he murders their own children and grandchildren. These malevolents may yet get their ultimate wish. Abandon all hope: it is only getting worse with each passing day, as I always knew it would from the moment this long national, and global, nightmare began.

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Spineless Speaker Kevin McCarthy still will not call on proven fraud George Santos to resign from the House, even after Santos is indicted on federal charges

Andrew Harnik/AP

Republicans appear poised to stop at nothing in their war with President Biden over the debt ceiling limit. Cutting aid to veterans, and Social Security and Medicare recipients, trumps (pun intended) any ethical considerations. FTA: ‘While an association with Mr. Santos may be a political drag on Republicans, the impact of his resignation would pose a challenge for leadership. With a slim majority in the House and a fight over the debt ceiling looming, Mr. McCarthy cannot afford to lose Mr. Santos’s vote. The speaker only narrowly passed a bill last month to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts, with no Republican votes to spare and Mr. Santos in the “yes” column.’ {NYT 5/10}

Florida: ‘Conservation groups across the Southeast United States are urging Gov. DeSantis to veto a bill that would allow the use of radioactive fertilizer waste in road construction across the state.’ {WFTV 5/08}

Louisville, KY: U.S. Labor Department fines three McDonald’s franchises for child labor violations. {AP 5/03}

Monday, February 21, 2022

Racing officials strip Medina Spirit of his 2021 Kentucky Derby win, trainer Bob Baffert suspended for 90 days and fined $7,500

Jim Owens/USA Today Sports/Reuters

Bob Baffert, who is the alleged villain in this whole sorted affair, gets a mere slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, a talented racehorse who – like any other horse – never had any say in his care and handling, and who died tragically (and suspiciously) of a heart attack just two months ago, is being stripped of his place in history. Forgive me for feeling as though justice has not been served here. The New York Times -

Medina Spirit is no longer the winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby. The colt, who died unexpectedly in December, was officially disqualified by Kentucky racing officials on Monday for failing a drug test after winning the race.
Medina Spirit is only the third horse in the race’s 147-year history to receive such a penalty after finishing first. The decision means the colt’s owner, Amr Zedan, will not collect the $1.8 million first-place check, which was never paid out and will now go to Mandaloun’s owner, Juddmonte, the racing and breeding enterprise founded by Prince Khalid bin Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who died last year.
Churchill Downs, the track in Louisville, Ky., that hosts the Derby, said in a statement that it now recognizes Mandaloun as the winner of the 2021 race, adding, “We look forward to celebrating Mandaloun on a future date in a way that is fitting of this rare distinction.”
The ruling also erased the Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s seventh Kentucky Derby victory, which had been a record.
In addition, Baffert was suspended for 90 days beginning March 8 and fined $7,500. The ruling followed a hearing via videoconference on Feb. 14 before a three-member panel of stewards for the Kentucky Horse Racing Association.
The drug found in Medina Spirit’s system was betamethasone, a corticosteroid injected into joints to reduce pain and swelling. Baffert and his lawyers denied injecting the colt and said the drug was applied topically to treat a skin rash on Medina Spirit’s hind end. (Read more)

Monday, February 14, 2022

Anti-Semitism on the rise in ‘Murica. Louisville, KY: Jewish mayoral candidate narrowly escapes assassination attempt

Reuters/USA Today Network

Echoes of Nazi Germany are all around us. In Louisville, KY, an unidentified gunman opened fire at the campaign offices of a Jewish mayoral candidate, who was present and managed to evade the bullets. This was just one individual, apparently acting alone (at least as far as is known), but oppression and tyranny is not the exclusive domain of governments and organized institutions. In Nazi Germany, Hitler and company liberated large segments of German society to freely express their various hatreds, and many individuals committed crimes against Jews, gipsys, and other outcasts without direct orders from authorities. We are increasingly seeing the same effect in America in the years since Donald Trump has been a political cult leader. Nobody has been more effective at blowing those various ‘dog whistles’ than Trump, and even as he has been deposed from high office, the fallout is only just beginning in earnest. All Jews in America would be wise to take all precautions, and to alert the world to what is coming. Via Algemeiner -

A Jewish Democratic mayoral candidate in Kentucky was left miraculously unharmed after multiple shots were fired at him in his campaign office on Monday morning.
Craig Greenberg, who is running for the post of mayor in Louisville, Kentucky, was guided to safety along with members of his staff by police officers after an unidentified gunman opened fire at around 10:15 am. None of the shots hit Greenberg, though one bullet did pierce his clothing.
“We consider ourselves very fortunate,” Louisville Metro Police Chief Erika Shields said at a press conference following the attack, the Courier Journal reported.
Shields said that a motive behind the shooting was yet to be established. (Read more)

Monday, December 6, 2021

Rest in Peace, Medina Spirit

New York Times – Medina Spirit, an embattled Kentucky Derby winner, dies during a workout

Am deeply disturbed by this, to the point I can’t even find the words. The sport of horse racing is in a lot of trouble, that’s literally all I can say.

Saturday, September 25, 2021

Federal judge rules hospital employees can be required to get vaccinated

Reuters

No doubt many more cases to come, and I suspect nearly all of them will not end well for anti-vaxxers. -

A federal judge on Friday ruled that a Cincinnati, Ohio-area healthcare provider could require its employees get vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk losing their job, in what appears to be the first ruling of its kind for a private employer in the United States.
The employees of St. Elizabeth Healthcare failed to establish that their individual liberties were being violated by the vaccine requirement of the hospital operator, which has the right to set employment terms, said U.S. District Judge David Bunning in Covington, Kentucky.
St. Elizabeth employees must get vaccinated by Oct. 1. The widespread availability of vaccines in the United States helped to reduce infections in the spring and early summer but the Delta variant has led to a new spike in cases and hospitalizations.
Alan Statman, who represented the employees, said they were evaluating their next steps.
Bunning's ruling is the first involving a request for an injunction against a private employer's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, said Mark Guilfoyle, a lawyer who represented St. Elizabeth.
In recent weeks, numerous large employers have begun to impose deadlines for employees to get vaccinated as COVID-19 infections remain elevated in the United States. (Read more)

Monday, August 30, 2021

Kentucky senator accuses the FDA of not studying ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 merely out of ‘hatred for Trump’

Shutterstock

Memo to Sen. Rand Paul and everyone else who needs to hear it: Not everything in the world revolves around Donald J. Trump. Just stop, for the love of God. -

Federal researchers will not objectively study ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19, the Kentucky senator Rand Paul claimed, because “hatred for Donald Trump” has tainted their view of those who say the drug used to deworm horses can aid the fight against the pandemic.
Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic, does have uses in humans, to treat worms, lice and skin problems. But despite it having been discussed by doctors in testimony before Congress, it is not proven to combat Covid-19.
Doctors have also warned against its potential toxicity. Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a terse tweet: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”
The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that a meeting with constituents in Cold Spring, Kentucky, on Friday, Paul said: “The hatred for Trump deranged these people so much, they’re unwilling to objectively study it.
“So someone like me that’s in the middle on it, I can’t tell you because they will not study ivermectin. They will not study hydroxychloroquine without the taint of their hatred for Donald Trump.”
Trump both promoted and said he was using hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, when in office. Doctors warned against side-effects and studies said it had little or no effect in preventing hospitalisation or death from Covid-19.
According to the US National Library of Medicine, studies have not produced proof that ivermectin can treat Covid-19. The same source lists 31 completed, withdrawn or ongoing US clinical trials.
The FDA says taking large doses of ivermectin is “dangerous and can cause serious harm” and adds: “Never use medications intended for animals on yourself. Ivermectin preparations for animals are very different from those approved for humans.” (Read more)

Monday, August 16, 2021

COVIDIOCY in the medical field: Nurses in Kentucky stage protest against vaccination requirement

WLWT

Just a little concerning that, apparently, so many health workers in America are so ignorant to - and contemptuous of - science. Does one really want such malevolent people caring for them? Any wonder the overall state of health care in America is so poor? Via WLWT -

EDGEWOOD, Ky. — A homemade sign, with the words "Don't Fire Our Heroes," captured the message of a protest on Sunday outside a Cincinnati-area hospital.
"It's about rights. It's a right to choose. I respect your right to have it and you should respect my right not to," Chris Kerns, a nurse for more than three decades, said.
Kerns spent her Sunday outside the St. Elizabeth Hospital in Edgewood, Kentucky talking about why she thinks it's wrong for hospitals in Greater Cincinnati to require that workers get vaccinated against COVID-19.
"This is American rights," Kerns said. "We have rights, and they're taking them away."
Sister station WLWT asked Kerns if she faces an early October deadline to get vaccinated.
"Yes," Kerns said. "And they can fire me. I don't care."
Karla Griffin, a medical office worker, said her career is equally uncertain because she, too, opposes vaccine mandates.
"Are you facing a deadline as well?" WLWT asked Griffin.
"I am," she said. "Oct. 1st I lose my job. But it is what it is."
Heather King, a healthcare worker, worries the vaccine requirement will hurt hospital patients the most if people like her choose not to take the shot.
"I’m still undecided. It's a personal choice," King said. "We have to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 1 or we lose our jobs. And unfortunately, the people that are going to suffer the most are our community and our patients because there's not going to be anyone to take care of them properly."
Whether that's true remains to be seen. But Rachel, who's not a health care worker, was glad to support medical professionals who may or may not get vaccinated because they've been on the pandemic's front lines.