Stop the Idiocracy: Mexico

Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts

Friday, September 11, 2026

Where the waters turned

A richly detailed contemporary illustration depicts a red-haired woman with loose pigtails kneeling amid an immense sunlit lettuce field. Wearing a knotted white shirt, abbreviated denim shorts, stockings, work gloves and muddy boots, she examines an enormous head of iceberg lettuce with a troubled expression. Irrigation channels snake unnaturally through regimented crops towards distant mountains, while pipes discharge water directly into the fields. Dew beads heavily across the leaves. In the foreground, a magnified droplet contains a brilliantly coloured microscopic organism, while contaminated-looking water seeps visibly through exposed soil and roots, transforming an idyllic agricultural landscape into an unsettling visual metaphor for parasitic food contamination.

image generated via ChatGPT

FDA declares cyclospora outbreak ‘over’, though its exact origin remaineth unknown. {AP 11 September}

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/article/us-officials-declare-an-end-to-record-setting-cyclospora-outbreak-but-its-origin-is-still-unknown/

Yet another particularly sordid chapter in the ongoing and deliberate collapse of food safety standards in Trumpistan. Worse is to come —

FTA: The largest cyclospora food poisoning outbreak in U.S. history is over, U.S. health officials said Friday.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said they are confident that all recalled iceberg lettuce related to this specific outbreak is off the market.

Nearly 13,000 reported cyclospora cases were tied to the multistate outbreak, federal officials say. They represent the bulk of an unprecedented surge in the parasitic diarrheal illness this year.

Even with the outbreak deemed over, several questions remain, including about its origin. The parasite is spread through human feces, and it still isn’t clear how sewage could have contaminated enough food to sicken so many people.

“This contamination can happen if produce is grown in soil or comes into contact with water that has been contaminated,” said Ellen Shumaker, director of outreach for a North Carolina State University food safety program, Safe Plates.

Since May 1, the government has received reports of nearly 20,000 lab-confirmed cases, or more than 16 times the number reported during the same period last year. More than 6,100 suspected cases also have been reported.

The worst previous year in the U.S. for infections was 2019, when about 4,700 illnesses were reported nationally.

This year’s surge in cases was dominated by an outbreak in 21 states linked to iceberg lettuce. But there are thousands of other cases that have not been linked to that outbreak.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Empire of delusions

A darkly fantastical political allegory casts Iceland as a commanding, armour-clad woman amid a frozen volcanic landscape, physically chastising a distressed, nude blonde figure representing MAGA America. Behind them, an enormous American-flag palace hangs precariously above icy waters, its grand approach leading towards an empty golden throne and council table. Fractured maps, crowns, chessboards, volcanic fissures and grotesque monuments suggest imperial delusion, geopolitical gamesmanship and national disintegration. Beneath an aurora-lit full moon, the collision of Icelandic ice, American heraldry and infernal fire gives the scene the atmosphere of a macabre fairy tale about arrogance encountering unexpectedly forceful resistance.

image generated via Grok

Iceland doth summon the US ambassador following Trump’s cartographic antics. {The New Republic 8 September}

https://newrepublic.com/post/215149/trump-sparks-diplomatic-incident-iceland-usa-map

So thoroughly blinded by choler, and so resolute to impose themselves as lords and masters over all the Western world — mark me well, I say not the whole world, so deferential are they unto Putin, Xi, Modi, Netanyahu, that funny-looking fellow in Argentina, and others of their illiberal ilk — the acolytes within the #MAGA movement shall never come to comprehend that they wound the United States of America, and themselves besides, far more grievously than they wound the Europeans, the Canadians, and perchance our friends beneath the Southern Cross as well.

The hurt done unto America’s collective reputation and international standing is beyond all reckoning. These #MAGA folk do fancy that Trump playeth some wondrous game of ‘4D chess’, and that all these other countries stand duly chastened before him, even whilst those selfsame nations, in effect, kindly bid him go hang. President Joe Biden laboured to restore America’s honour abroad following Trump’s first reign of terror; whereupon the citizenry of the country chose to confound all over again — and considerably worse than in the former bout. In the end — and should aught be left standing — Americans shall find little to relish in the fruits of universal ostracism. One need only enquire of the Russian people as to what such isolation portends.

More reputable American presidents may yet emerge hereafter, or they may not; but the fundamental matter at hand concerns the reputation of a nation’s people. We are not one people, alas, nor are we a ‘nation’ in any coherent sense, but rather an unsustainable empire presently crumbling about us.

To every American who hath repeatedly voted for this deranged and highly compromised man: y’all’s reputations lie in tatters, for having enabled so sickly a state of affairs. By all means, however, continue laughing as Trump ‘triggers’ the world at large. The joke is upon you, #Murica.

FTA: President Trump has drawn the ire of Iceland after posting a map depicting the country as part of the United States.

Along with Iceland, the image also included Canada, Greenland, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean draped in the U.S. flag. The Truth Social post, made on Labor Day, was captionless.

The post—paternalistic at best, colonial at worst—raised enough alarm in Iceland to lead the country’s foreign minister, Thorgerdur Gunnarsdóttir, to summon U.S. Ambassador Billy Long. Gunnarsdóttir later told RUV, Iceland’s national broadcasting service, that “it was made clear at the meeting that the post was completely inappropriate.” Other Icelandic leaders felt similarly, comparing their experience to that of Greenland, which Trump has threatened to annex since he returned to office.

“It is not good to be an enemy of the United States, but it is even worse to be its friend,” alternate city councilor Stefán Pálsson told RUV.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Monday, September 7, 2026

A harvest of distrust

A darkly whimsical Gothic illustration depicts a cavernous, deteriorating supermarket overwhelmed by disorder. Shelves and refrigerated cases remain crowded with groceries, yet packages, vegetables and containers spill across the tiled floor and tumble inexplicably from above through a sagging net. Numerous scantily clad women wander the aisles in visible distress, inspecting food, crouching beside overturned baskets or clutching groceries uncertainly. At centre, an enormous chaotic mound of discarded provisions rises beneath ominous red lights. Frayed wiring, broken fixtures, scattered receipts and neglected produce transform an ordinary grocery shop into a nightmarish emblem of a food system in collapse, where abundance coexists with contamination, waste and insecurity.

image generated via Seedream

Food safety unravels apace as recalls and inflation mount in tandem, leaving Americans burdened with pricier, toxic provender. {Axios 7 September}

https://www.axios.com/2026/09/07/food-safety-concerns-grocery-inflation

From leader of the world unto shame of all the earth. Fewer inspections, laxer regulations, watchdogs muzzled or turned away entirely, and the ravishing effects of climate change have wrought sufficient ruin that it is, in essence, no longer safe to eat within these former United States. We may debate until our faces wax blue the relative safety and nutritional value of American victuals prior to the nihilistic, nation-slaying Trump 2.0 regime — set against those of other Western nations — yet hither have we come, and here now do we stand.

What y’all voted for, #Murica —

FTA: Plenty of Americans feel like they're forking over a fortune for groceries—only to get hit with a recall notice that forces them to throw that expensive food out.

Why it matters: While grocery prices are driven by complex trade and energy costs, the safety net meant to keep them safe to eat is fraying, creating a dual crisis of affordability and safety.

The average American household pays more than $10,000 on groceries every year, and two-thirds of Americans think they're spending too much.

Prices have increased by more than 18% since 2022, although some foods have seen sharper or smaller increases.

What they're saying: "It can be really, really scary out there," Lauren Borsheim, a food policy analyst at Food & Water Watch, tells Axios.

"The Trump administration since 2025 has really just dismantled many of the fundamental protections we need to keep our food supply safe."

"We have people that are really afraid that the U.S. is not doing a good job regulating our food supply. It's definitely a concern out there that as people are spending more money on their food, they are also fearful that that same food is going to cause them to get sick," Borsheim says.

By the numbers: Recalls are relatively on par with normal levels this fiscal year, according to FDA data.

So far, 5,504 products have been recalled in 2026. That's up slightly from the 5,461 products recalled last year, but down from the 6,524 products recalled in 2024.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Mystery meat, imported on faith

A richly symbolic fantasy illustration personifies the United States as a blonde Lady Liberty presiding over an extravagant banquet of steaks, burgers and sausages. Wearing her familiar spiked crown and a flowing sea-green gown, she raises a flaming platter above the feast. Beneath the table, scales weigh raw beef against a hamburger, whilst crates of meat and an hourglass suggest scarcity and rising prices. Beyond, parched ranchland and dwindling cattle herds contrast with an industrial coastline, as glowing trade routes encircle the globe. The lavish foreground is deliberately ironic, representing America’s enormous appetite for beef confronting cattle shortages, constrained domestic production and increasing dependence upon foreign supplies.

image generated via Grok

US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins refuses to say where proposed beef imports would be originating; ranchers are furious. {The Independent 25 August}

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-beef-imports-brooke-rollins-b3039094.html

As if much of the food we consume in this country were not toxic enough… Every American ought to feel a profound sense of revulsion, and be even more disgusted still by this regime’s steadfast refusal to disclose the provenance of this miraculous ground beef. In all seriousness, there are occasions of late upon which I find myself thinking I should never wish to eat again. Transparency ought to constitute the bare minimum where the nation's food supply is concerned, but who and what can be trusted these days? —

FTA: Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has refused to say which countries the Trump administration is relying on for its plan to temporarily surge beef imports into the U.S. to ease consumer prices.

“I am not privy to talk about that,” Rollins told reporters on Tuesday. “I think the conversations are still going on,” she added, saying that President Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were involved.

In a Truth Social post on Friday, President Trump claimed he had reached a deal to allow up to 300,000 metric tons of meat destined to become ground beef into the U.S. to be sold at reduced prices for the next 90 days without tariffs or quotas. The plan, Trump said, would “substantially lower the price of ground beef for working American families.”

A White House official told The Independent last week that Trump would “formally sign an executive order” to execute the agreement “within the next two weeks.”

Since Trump returned to office last year, the price of ground beef has risen from $5.45 per pound to $6.85 per pound, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

On Monday, an Arizona border crossing reopened to Mexican cattle, as fears have eased over the spread of the New World screwworm through Mexican cattle imports. The U.S. plans to open more border crossings as part of the beef plan.

The Trump administration’s beef deal has met with stiff resistance from ranchers and Republicans, who argue that allowing more imports will do little to change the underlying conditions that have sent beef prices spiking, such as low herd sizes because of drought.

"Despite high beef prices in grocery stores, prices paid to farmers and ranchers for their cattle have fallen sharply over the past two months, and beef packing plants are shutting down across the U.S.,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in a statement after the plan was announced.

"Further undercutting a fragile recovery by swamping markets with foreign products and attempting to manipulate prices threatens to wipe out any progress that has been made,” he added.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Friday, August 14, 2026

The cost of complacency

A richly detailed allegorical illustration depicts the vast international system behind American food safety. A blonde female inspector stands at a crossroads amid sprawling farms, greenhouses, livestock facilities and distant factories, carrying a metal case and clipboard as other inspectors disperse across the landscape. In the foreground, luggage, laboratory supplies, a biohazard-marked case, cargo ship, aircraft and globe evoke the immense scale of foreign imports and inspection duties. At right, another woman scrutinises packaged produce beside a magnified display of microorganisms, linking agricultural commerce with the persistent danger of food-borne contamination.

image generated via ChatGPT

The FDA, failing the nation, conducted fewer than one-twentieth of the foreign inspections required by law over the past decade. {CBS News 12 August}

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/taylor-farms-mexico-fda-inspection-cyclosporiasis-outbreak/

Predictably, the farm in Mexico linked to the ongoing cyclospora outbreak had not been inspected since 2019. Do not expect any improvement any time soon — only further deterioration.

FTA: The Food and Drug Administration conducted just under 1,000 foreign food safety inspections in 2025, and the farm in Mexico believed to be at the center of the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak in the U.S. was not one of them.

A federal law enacted to prevent diseased and dirty food from reaching Americans' plates requires the FDA to carry out nearly 20 times that many foreign inspections each year. But the FDA hasn't come close to meeting the congressional mandate — or even 10% of it — in the 10 years it has been in place, spanning administrations led by both political parties.

FDA officials have described the requirement as unrealistic, but have never asked Congress to revise it. A lower foreign inspection target the agency deemed necessary to safeguard foreign imports is still nearly five times higher than the number of inspections conducted last year.

Congress, meanwhile, has not increased the agency's food safety budget to outpace or keep up with inflation, and widespread layoffs during the first year of President Trump's second term squeezed resources further.

The rate of inspections has gotten markedly worse amid those reductions, with foreign food safety inspections falling by 29% from 2024. Outside of the COVID-19 pandemic, last year's inspection count was the lowest since 2011. Early numbers for 2026 show that the agency is on track to inspect a similar number this year.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

The silence after the siren: food and agriculture in retreat

A richly detailed editorial illustration depicts female workers leaving a vast American meat-processing complex at sunset. In the foreground, a blonde woman in a white work coat and boots carries gloves and a metal case, glancing back with a troubled expression. Around her, other women embrace, carry personal belongings or sit dejectedly after apparently losing their jobs. An open processing plant, forklifts and hanging carcasses appear behind them, while several enormous industrial facilities recede across a dry, sparsely vegetated landscape. The melancholy golden light reinforces themes of closure, economic hardship and uncertainty within American food production.

image generated via ChatGPT

Tyson Foods is to close or divest three facilities, as a historic cattle shortage lays waste to the US meatpacking industry. {Reuters 13 August}

https://www.agriculture.com/partners-tyson-foods-says-it-will-close-sell-three-sites-amid-u-s-cattle-shortage-12059640

This, alongside the Taylor Farms lettuce debacle and other food-safety concerns that have been in the news of late — compounded by natural disasters and a cattle shortage of the utmost severity — constitutes merely the visible tip of the iceberg (no pun intended) as to what is about to befall American agriculture and food production; all made worse under a regime hell-bent upon dismantling regulatory safeguards at any cost. Tyranny assumes many guises, among them increasingly unsafe food, water, and medicine.

I hate to keep saying it (but not really): what y’all voted for, #Murica.

FTA: Tyson on Aug. 3 warned that losses in its beef business would widen as tight cattle supplies keep livestock costs elevated. It forecast an adjusted operating loss of $500 million to $650 million in fiscal 2026 for its beef business, compared with a previous forecast for a $350 million to $500 million loss.

Cattle supplies shrank to a 75-year low after a prolonged drought burned up grazing lands in the western U.S. and Washington suspended imports from Mexico in an attempt to keep out the flesh-eating livestock pest New World screwworm.

However, screwworms were detected in June on Texas farms and in New Mexico after moving north through Central America.

Facing pressure to lower consumer costs, the Trump administration said it plans to start lifting the import ban this month. The average retail price of one pound of lean and extra lean ground beef hit a record $8.65 in June, according to federal data.

“We have paid the economic price of a closed border, disrupted a cattle supply chain built over generations and screwworm still made it into the United States,” said Texas’s Miller.

It may take up to a year for Tyson to benefit from removing the ban because imported feeder cattle must spend time grazing on grass or being fattened in feedlots to get ready for slaughter, Tyson Chief Operating Officer Wes Morris said on a conference call last week.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Monday, July 20, 2026

“Lettuce celebrate... mmm, maybe not just yet”

A vibrant, highly detailed illustration inspired by traditional Mexican art depicts a joyful woman kneeling amid a vast field of fresh green cabbages beneath a brilliant blue sky. She has long flowing black hair, a radiant smile and wears a flowing white dress that billows around her as cabbage leaves cling playfully to her clothing and hair. Behind her, rolling farmland stretches towards a majestic volcanic mountain framed by towering clouds adorned with colourful folk-art motifs. Rich saturated colours, bold decorative patterns and expressive painterly textures celebrate rural Mexico’s natural beauty, agricultural abundance and exuberant spirit, creating a scene filled with warmth, movement and infectious happiness.

generated via ChatGPT

“Fruit and vegetable producer Taylor Fresh Foods says it is voluntarily removing all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico from the U.S. market amid an ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak across the country that has sickened more than 1,600 people.” {ABC News 19 July}

https://abcnews.com/GMA/News/taylor-farms-amid-cyclosporiasis-outbreak/story?id=134846473&cid=social_twitter_abcn

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

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 🕈

Friday, July 10, 2026

The woman who said no

A formal portrait of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum standing in an ornate government office. She wears a cream-coloured dress with embroidered details on the sleeves and a presidential sash in the colours of the Mexican flag, featuring the national coat of arms. Her hands are clasped before her as she gazes slightly to one side with a composed expression. Behind her are dark wooden bookcases filled with books, carved architectural details, and a Mexican flag positioned beside a large desk. Warm lighting highlights the rich wood panelling and ceremonial atmosphere, conveying authority, dignity, and the formality of high office.

World Economic Forum

Sheinbaum vows legal action against the former United States after a Mexican national is killed in Houston by ICE agents. {click2houston 10 July}

https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2026/07/08/mexican-president-vows-legal-action-against-us-after-ices-shooting-death-of-lorenzo-salgado-araujo-in-houston/

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Thursday, May 16, 2024

Law enforcement in the U.S. seized over 115 million fentanyl pills in 2023, up from 71 million in 2022, and only 50,000 in 2017

Darwin Brandis/iStock

Fentanyl, with potency exceeding fiftyfold that of heroin, is primarily manufactured in laboratories in India and China before clandestine entry into the U.S., typically via Mexico. According to this DW article, opioid addiction is far less rife in European nations endowed with robust and functioning healthcare systems, evidenced by a mere forty-nine (49) recorded fentanyl overdose deaths in the European Union in all of 2021. In stark contrast, the U.S. witnessed more than 200 deaths per day in 2022, and that may be a conservative estimate.

Nearly every solution enacted at federal, state, and local levels to combat the opioid crisis has been punitive and counterproductive. I dread America will persist in this approach for years to come, reflective of a society divided and politicians, particularly on the right and within the GOP, increasingly keen to exacerbate hardships for those their respective factions deem as societal outcasts. More needless suffering, deaths, and imprisonment shall ensue, and #Murica will become more and more of a s**thole country.

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social, and @arthurnewhook on POST. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Sunday, July 17, 2022

Another rotten week in #Murica and the world. Trump credits himself with Ukraine’s military success; President Biden gets things done, but to little to no credit; CBP officials now interrogating international travelers on whether they’ve had an abortion, more

Ukraine Emergency Service

Russian missiles strike the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, killing at least twenty-three and injuring many more - Deliberately targeting hospitals and civilian infrastructure in an area with little-to-no militarily strategic value. The cruelty *is* the point, just as with our domestic Fascists in #Murica. It is vital that President Biden and other world leaders heed Zelenskyy’s call, and designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. Слава Україні. (AP 7/14)

Nothing’s shocking anymore: Trump brags that Ukrainian forces are performing well because of weapons he falsely claims he authorized to be sold to Ukraine while he was president - Incredible nerve; he withheld congressionally-authorized military aid in an unsuccessful scheme to blackmail Zelenskyy for ‘dirt’ on Mr. Biden. For which, in January 2020, the GAO issued a report plainly stating that the then-president broke the law, and thus was the impetus for the first of two impeachment trials. Yet, people still believe Donald Trump’s horses**t. It is so insulting to our intelligence, but that is exactly what #Cult45 wants to do: Supporting this fool is their collective way of telling the other half of the country to go f**k ourselves, and it is very much an anti-intellectual, radically populist movement. Therefore, he must be stopped and the GOP cannot be allowed to control Congress and the presidency so long as they are domestic tyrants and international menaces. No Ukrainian-Americans or American supporters of Ukraine should involve themselves with the Republican Party right now; for it’d be akin to a Jew supporting the pro-Nazi ‘America First’ movements of the 1930s. (Political Tribune 7/13)

Fred R. Conrad/NYT

Trump’s first wife and the mother of his three-oldest demon spawn dies at 73 - Conspiracy theories suck and I do not like engaging in them, but it’s not hard to put two and two together here: She knew too much, and he is owned by the Russians. This is how Russians kill their sacrificial lambs. By ‘accident.’ Falling down stairs, out of windows, that sort of thing. Very basic, but very effective. (New York Times 7/14)

Susan Walsh/AP

Mexico agrees to contribute $1.5 billion for infrastructure improvement along the border with the U.S. - Interesting: Trump famously made a campaign promise that he would make Mexico pay for a border wall; of which only 450 miles of construction ever came to fruition, and that Mexico did not contribute to but was instead funded by raiding the Pentagon budget. President Biden and his counterpart, López Obrador, have actually just made a substantial investment that should do a lot more to strengthen national security than some stupid wall. Not that #Cult45 and its media organs - or even most of the general public - will acknowledge any of this. (ABC News 7/12)

Debbie Hill/pool/AFP

President Biden visits Israel, offers words of comfort to Holocaust survivors. (Times of Israel 7/13)

President Biden and interim Israeli PM Yair Lapid sign joint pledge to deny Iran nuclear weapons - Another important achievement for this administration that will go completely unnoticed in #Murica. (Reuters 7/14)

Average U.S. gas prices fall for twenty-eight days in a row, though still well over $4.00 a gallon. (New York Times 7/13)

Australian woman trying to get to Canada via the U.S. is interrogated by CBP over minor visa violation, asked if she has had an abortion. (The Guardian 7/12)

HERE & THERE

Jury selection to begin Monday in the trial of Steve Bannon after judge rejects request to delay. (CBS News 7/14)

Trump invites Saudi-backed ‘LIV’ golf circuit to his New Jersey course, outraging 9/11 families. (New York Daily News 7/15)

Canada’s central bank raises interest rates by a full point to combat inflation. (AP 7/13)

New 988 mental health emergency hotline launches, and has great potential to revolutionize mental health treatment in America. And Lord knows we need it. (AP 7/15)

Rest in Peace, Kitten’s Joy: Legendary racehorse and leading sire dies at 21. (Bloodhorse 7/15)

Thursday, June 30, 2022

The stark realization that the America and world I came of age in is no longer

Jose Luis Magana/AP

Donald Trump seriously could shoot an entirely innocent person in the middle of 5th Avenue, and his supporters would rejoice, while those who merely just tolerate him and other right-wing extremist GOP politicians out of fervent opposition to the Democratic Party would twist themselves into pretzels trying to downplay, ignore, or justify it. The rest of us would be justifiably furious, as we always are every single time the s.o.b. does or says something rotten; as usual, it’d basically be to no avail. At this point, Trump would not be charged if he were to maliciously, and beyond any shadow of doubt, literally murder another individual. The only reason the DOJ has not and will not charge him with a multitude of crimes is the knowledge that #Cult45 will officially kick off the new civil war in earnest the moment it happens. Know what we are dealing with, for the American people are showing their true colors like never before. America today is 100% unrecognizable from what it was in my post-war childhood in the 1980s and 1990s. Back then, preserving our democratic values was sacrosanct, as was upholding the global order that so many had shed blood to achieve in World War II. Now is a period where Americans have turned exclusively inward and are only - key word - concerned with their grievances against one another. We’re not going to survive; the damage has been done, and was self-inflicted. Maybe someday the tide will turn again toward relative peace and prosperity, but not in this generation or the next, and not before millions are slaughtered.

Poll: About half of Americans say Trump should be charged for his role in the January 6 Insurrection - Major caveats here, starting with the fact that polls are never entirely reliable. But, with the possible exception of Nixon following Watergate, it would have been unthinkable for most any American - let alone 48% of the public, and 58% overall believing he bears at least some level responsibility - to want to see a current or former president of either party put in prison prior to Trump. Paradoxically, what is wrong with the other 52%? To be fair, in this poll ‘only’ 31% actually responded that they do not believe Trump should face any charges for January 6 and another 20% somehow don’t have an opinion. 31% is a large number, just shy of one-third, and to take a ‘guesstimate,’ the ultra-right, nationalist populist bunch probably are roughly a third to 40% of the population. So, this poll may very well be accurate; one-third of the population is more than enough for any tyrannical movement to conquer an already-divided country, and that is exactly what is continuing to happen here. #Cult45 - has been radicalized, and we face a situation here very similar to Iran in the mid-to-late ‘70s: President Biden finds himself in the role of the Shah, while Trump is playing the role of Ayatollah Khomeini; and Ayatollah Trump has millions of acolytes prepared for revolution against modernity, and to serve as enforcers of the crackdown on civil society that is already underway. (AP 6/30)

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Liz Cheney, not mincing words - ‘We are confronting a domestic threat we have never faced before. And that is a former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic. And he is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man.’ (NPR 6/30)

José Luis González/Reuters

Supreme Court rules the president is entitled to overturn his predecessor’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ immigration policy - So, as #Cult45 has itself had a love fest with the high court in the past week, how do they now reconcile with this ruling disobeying their orange messiah? (The Guardian 6/30)

Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Russia appears to have defaulted on its international debt - Due to a number of factors at play, Russia is not facing certain economic doomsday, but none of this can be making the lives of ordinary Russians any easier. (New York Times 6/27)

Thursday, April 14, 2022

Russia’s mightiest warship is sunk, while more of their atrocities in Ukraine are unearthed. Also, a rant on Elon Musk possibly buying Twitter, COVID on the rise again, baby formula becomes scarce in #Murica, and more

Reuters

Russia has been forced to admit the battleship Moskva was sunk in the Black Sea by Ukrainian missiles - A massive victory for Ukraine, another severe setback for the invaders. Moskva was not just another warship, it was the flagship of the Russian fleet. (The Guardian 4/14)

Genocidal fervor against Ukrainians has overtaken the Russian media, and increasingly the war of aggression is being portrayed as a war for Russia’s survival - Few in Russia appear to be rejecting Putin, as they must do. Instead, most have either chosen silence, or have embraced their leader’s bloodlust. (Washington Post 4/13)

‘The Russian soldiers forced more than 300 villagers into a school basement. Then, during weeks of stress and deprivation, some began to die.’ (AP 4/13)

Ukrainians arrive at the Mexico-U.S. border by the thousands, awaiting entry into the U.S. on humanitarian grounds - Thankfully, many volunteers are on hand to help. (NPR 4/13)

‘A Russian State Duma legislator and two aides have been charged in the United States with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions over an alleged international foreign influence and disinformation network to advance Russian interests.’ (Radio Free Europe 4/14)

FDA

‘The COVID-19 positivity rate in Massachusetts is now up to 3.42 percent as cases start to rise again’ - Two years ago, we were all alarmed with any increase in numbers. Now we’re ‘living with COVID,’ and living in a colder, darker world (and it wasn’t very nice beforehand.) These waves are going to continue to come and go, but I guess since #Murica is ‘done with COVID,’ it doesn’t matter how many die or become sick and, oftentimes, suffer long-term effects. (CBS Boston 4/13)

Reuters

Billionaire Elon Musk makes a bid to buy controlling interest in Twitter - No, I’m not likely to leave Twitter if this guy takes over, nor have I closely followed any of his exploits over the years. I will say that I am skeptical and suspicious of any and all ‘free speech’ absolutists. ‘Free speech’ to these people is always license to denigrate others and spread blatant disinformation and propaganda without consequence. In the wake of the Trump presidency, COVID, and now all the disinformation concerning the war in Ukraine, we cannot afford to tolerate that kind of ‘free speech’ any longer. It is also an absolute truism - across the board - that people do not want to hear others’ opinions, they only want to hear their opinions coming out of others’ mouths. Left or right, I’m having a hard time thinking of a single ‘free speech’ crusader who does not use ‘free speech’ as a means of controlling, intimidating, and silencing their opposition. In other words, all those who say ‘I’ll defend to the death your right to say it’ are full of s**t. (Independent.ie 4/14)

The clearest sign yet that Trump is running in 2024. The cowardly GOP withdraws from the ‘biased’ Commission on Presidential Debates - A cowardly move, but I’d gladly sacrifice presidential debates at this point. If we were a serious country with serious political parties, we’d be fixing our electoral process. Starting with greatly reducing the length of the campaign season. In every other first-world country, their presidential election cycles last for weeks, maybe a couple months at most; not the epic, drawn-out soap opera we have in #Murica. (Charles P. Pierce 4/14)

‘A red fox responsible for biting at least nine people on Capitol Hill tested positive for rabies.’ - Where was this creature on January 6, 2021? But what am I saying, of course the mob on hand that day were already rabid. (Web MD 4/07)

CBS News

U.S. baby formula shortage strains families, forces stores to ration - A recent massive formula recall (due to causing bacterial infections in some infants) exacerbates existing supply chain problems, and now mothers are having a more difficult time feeding their babies. Can we do anything competently or correctly in this country anymore? It feels like everything all around us is broken. (Washington Post 4/13)

Sunday, December 19, 2021

Americans in their 40s, 50s, and 60s suffer worse ‘depression and worse memory recall than older Americans did when they were the same age,’ a phenomenon not seen in better-educated countries

Alamy

Well, I’m 43, and have had the misfortune of spending my entire life in this rotting cesspool. And I’m not a happy man. Nor am I even able to recall what my name is half the time, and that is only somewhat of an exaggeration. I suppose I am not the only one beyond frustrated with all the noise, gaslighting, and degradation we must endure for the ‘privilege’ of being an American. Via Arizona State University -

Middle-aged adults in the United States today experience worse mental health than older generations of Americans and also their European and Asian peers.
To understand what is happening with middle-aged American adults, a research team led by Arizona State University scientists compared middle age across different cultures and periods of time.
The study examined how physical and mental health in midlife changed over time and in different countries. American adults currently in their 40s, 50s and early 60s have more symptoms of depression and worse memory recall than older Americans did when they were the same age. This pattern was found in Australian middle-aged adults but not in those living in Germany, South Korea or Mexico.
Years of education was associated with better mental health in midlife, but the strength of this buffering effect has waned for Americans currently in their 40s, 50s and 60s relative to older American generations and to middle-aged adults in Australia, Germany, South Korea and Mexico.
This work was published on Dec. 16 in American Psychologist. (Read more)

New York Times report: ‘Most of the World’s Vaccines Likely Won’t Prevent Infection From Omicron’

Sergey Ponomarev/NYT

Incredibly disheartening, and anti-vaxxers are likely having a field day with this report. But it’s been known all through the course of the pandemic that if not enough people took the necessary precautions, then the virus would mutate. Omicron is the end result of widespread belligerence, and ultimately the blame belongs to all the ordinary people demanding that they are ‘done with COVID.’ Guess what, we’ll never be ‘done with COVID’ now, fools. -

A growing body of preliminary research suggests the Covid vaccines used in most of the world offer almost no defense against becoming infected by the highly contagious Omicron variant.
All vaccines still seem to provide a significant degree of protection against serious illness from Omicron, which is the most crucial goal. But only the Pfizer and Moderna shots, when reinforced by a booster, appear to have initial success at stopping infections, and these vaccines are unavailable in most of the world.
The other shots — including those from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and vaccines manufactured in China and Russia — do little to nothing to stop the spread of Omicron, early research shows. And because most countries have built their inoculation programs around these vaccines, the gap could have a profound impact on the course of the pandemic.
A global surge of infections in a world where billions of people remain unvaccinated not only threatens the health of vulnerable individuals but also increases the opportunity for the emergence of yet more variants. The disparity in the ability of countries to weather the pandemic will almost certainly deepen. And the news about limited vaccine efficacy against Omicron infection could depress demand for vaccination throughout the developing world, where many people are already hesitant or preoccupied with other health problems.
Most evidence so far is based on laboratory experiments, which do not capture the full range of the body’s immune response, and not from tracking the effect on real-world populations. The results are striking, however. (Read more)

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

'Fell victim to authoritarian tendencies.’ United States added to the list of ‘backsliding democracies’ for the first time

Julio Cortez/AP

The Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance report is a sobering indictment of America in the 21st century. But we are hardly alone in the global march toward tyranny. It is human nature, especially in times of turmoil, to place security - and protection from ‘the other’ - above individual liberty. -

The United States for the first time was added to a list of “backsliding democracies” in a report released Monday by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.
“The United States, the bastion of global democracy, fell victim to authoritarian tendencies itself, and was knocked down a significant number of steps on the democratic scale,” the International IDEA’s Global State of Democracy 2021 report said.
The study, which analyzed trends from 2020 to 2021, found that more than a quarter of the world’s population now lives in democratically backsliding countries, which International IDEA defines as nations seeing a gradual decline in the quality of their democracy.
“The world is becoming more authoritarian as nondemocratic regimes become even more brazen in their repression and many democratic governments suffer from backsliding by adopting their tactics of restricting free speech and weakening the rule of law, exacerbated by what threatens to become a ‘new normal’ of covid-19 restrictions,” the report found. “The number [of countries] moving in the direction of authoritarianism is three times the number moving toward democracy.”
International IDEA classes countries as democratic (which includes those backsliding), “hybrid,” and authoritarian, the latter two of which it considers to be nondemocratic. It bases its analysis on 50 years of democratic indicators tracked in about 160 countries.
The report found that some of “the most worrying” democratic backsliding happened in some of the world’s largest countries, including Brazil and India. It also highlighted “concerning democratic declines” in the United States and three European Union members: Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. (Read more)

Thursday, August 12, 2021

CBS/AP: Man says he killed his kids over QAnon conspiracy theories and ‘serpent DNA,’ fearing they'd become ‘monsters’

Photo: CBS Los Angeles

Words fail me as to how cruel and incomprehensible life can be. A right-wing death cult warps the mind of a seemingly normal family man, and now his two children are dead. -

Los Angeles — A California surfing school owner was charged Wednesday with killing his two young children with a spear gun in Mexico because he believed they would become monsters, authorities said.
Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, of Santa Barbara is facing a federal charge of the foreign murder of U.S. nationals, the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement.
Coleman confessed to the FBI during an interview that he took his 2-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter to Rosarito, Mexico, where shot a "spear fishing gun" into their chests, according to an affidavit filed by an FBI agent with the criminal complaint.
Coleman said "he believed his children were going to grow into monsters so he had to kill them," according to the court document.
A farmworker found the children's bodies on Monday at a ranch near Rosarito in Baja California, authorities there have said. (Read more)

Monday, August 9, 2021

The White House cracks down on the border as migrant arrests soar to 21-year-high and the Delta variant surges

Photo: Getty Images

The pro-migrant lobby will balk, the other side will only continue to claim that the president is allowing illegal aliens to enter in a conspiracy to destroy America. The opinions of malcontents and ideologues be damned, we’re in a national emergency and have to do what is necessary. CBS News -

The Biden administration is ramping up deportations and prosecutions of migrants crossing the southern border illegally amid a 21-year high in migrant arrests and concerns about the rapid spread of the coronavirus Delta variant.
U.S. authorities are now flying Central American migrants deep into the Mexican interior using a Trump-era public health order that was extended indefinitely last week, according to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, who said the expulsions are meant to curb repeat border crossings and the spread of the coronavirus.
The Biden administration has also restarted "expedited removal" flights for some migrant families who can't be expelled to Mexico under the public health authority, known as Title 42. Since the end of July, the U.S. has carried out six expedited removal flights to Central America, deporting 242 migrant parents and children under the procedure, DHS officials said. (Read more)

As of today, Canada has begun allowing vaccinated Americans to visit, but the U.S. is not returning the favor for Canadian residents until at least August 21

Photo: AP/Elaine Thompson

With Delta raging across the continent, and the process for verifying vaccination murky and subject to fraud, perhaps Canada would be wise to wait a bit longer before opening the border. The White House is planning a phased reopening of the borders with Canada and Mexico, and incrementally is the only way we’re working our way out of each and every aspect of the pandemic.

AP - Canada begins allowing vaccinated U.S. citizens to visit again

Thursday, August 5, 2021

Another sobering COVID-19 milestone: 200 million worldwide infected, 4.5 million dead

Photo: World Economic Forum

The Biden administration is set to announce that all foreign visitors will be required to have been vaccinated before entering the country. From Marketwatch -

The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness headed above 200 million on Thursday, while the death toll climbed above 4.25 million according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. leads the world with a total of 35.3 million cases and in deaths with 614,785 as the highly infectious delta variant continues to spread fast, especially in states with low vaccination rates. New cases are rising sharply and and the U.S. is now averaging more than seven times as many cases a day as it was at the beginning of July, according to a New York Times tracker. The Biden administration is taking the first steps toward requiring nearly all foreign visitors to the U.S. to be vaccinated for the coronavirus, a White House official said Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. The requirement would come as part of the administration's phased approach to easing travel restrictions for foreign citizens to the country. No timeline has yet been determined, as interagency working groups study how and when to safely move toward resuming normal travel. India is second by cases at 31.8 million and third by deaths at 426,290 according to its official numbers, which are expected to be undercounted. Brazil is second in deaths at 559,607, but is third in cases at 20 million. Mexico has fourth-highest death toll at 242,547 but has recorded just 2.9 million cases, according to its official numbers. In Europe, Russia continues to pull ahead of the U.K. by deaths at 159,803, while the U.K. has 130,300, making Russia the country with the fifth-highest death toll in the world and highest in Europe.