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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.

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🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

Why ultra-right-wing populist J.D. Vance is on the shortlist of Trump running mates

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Rumour has it that J.D. Vance, the 39 y.o. Christian nationalist senator from Ohio, will be Donald Trump’s running mate. It would be a curious choice that probably would not bring one single vote to the table that Trump has not already secured. Vance is absolutely a dystopian extremist decidedly out of touch with the social and cultural views of the majority of Americans. Nominating a woman to combat Kamala Harris would seem more logical than another white male in a more sane political environment, and this is not the 1950s. 

J.D. Vance really only makes any sense if one considers who is actually doing the picking (hint, that individual sits in the Kremlin). To quote a commenter on Reddit: ‘maybe Trump should worry about why Daddy might want a pliable 39 year old a heartbeat away. He was a useful idiot, but the big orange dildo is probably way more trouble than he's worth to Putin now’.

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

Democrats should say 'no' to mindless populism

Another indicator that the GOP has completely given itself over to mindless populist boorishness. A/K/A mob rule: The opposite of actual leadership, to say nothing of common sense or humanity. No, somebody has to be the grown-ups in D.C. - A.N.

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.

Zelenskyy, CIA Director warn the world that Putin will use nukes, while Russia has plunged most of the world into recessionary conditions, and a COVID-inspired kidnapping plot is foiled in Germany

Desktop Nexus

Happy Easter to one and all. He is Risen!

CIA Director William Burns: U.S. cannot afford to take Russian nuclear threat lightly (Reuters 4/14)

President Zelenskyy warns Ukraine and the world must be prepared for Putin to use tactical nuclear weapons - Yes, nothing can be put past Putin. And if Putin does resort to such desperate and sickening tactics, then NATO is going to have to respond. At which time, Mother Russia becomes a war zone. Perhaps Putin’s ultimate goal is the destruction of all humanity, for he appears intent on achieving it. (CNN 4/15)

The IMF lowers its economic forecast for 143 countries as a direct result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine - Putin is not only destroying Ukraine and has not only sealed his own country’s fate, he is wrecking the global economy. Obvious to anybody paying attention, except to the Russians, of course. And in #Murica, where anything that goes wrong is President Biden’s fault and, “golly gee, that Putin fella’ is a genius, just like Trump told us.” (The National 4/15)

Trump endorses nationalist populist J.D. Vance in Ohio GOP U.S. Senate primary race (CBS News 4/15)

Jens Schlueter/AFP/Getty Images

German coronavirus protesters accused of plot to kidnap the health minister - The entire world really must be going crazy. Even in what is, today, the sanest country on earth, we still have echoes of their Nazi past and - albeit, to a lesser extent, for now - #Murica’s current reality. Only in Deutschland, I do not believe the courts will be foolish enough to acquit these individuals, as a Michigan court recently did in the case of two men charged with plotting to kidnap the governor. (Washington Post 4/14)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Mandates work: ‘The number of Americans getting COVID-19 vaccines has steadily increased to a three-month high’

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Some good news for once. - 

The number of Americans getting COVID-19 vaccines has steadily increased to a three-month high as seniors and people with medical conditions seek boosters, and government and employer mandates push more workers to take their first doses. 

Demand is expected to spike in a few weeks if regulators authorize the Pfizer vaccine for elementary school children, and some states are reopening mass vaccination clinics in anticipation. 

In Missouri, a mass vaccination site at a former Toys R Us store is set to open Monday. Virginia plans to roll out nine large vaccination centers over the next few weeks, including one at the Richmond International Raceway. 

Colorado opened four mass vaccination sites in mid-September, largely to deal with employer mandates, and officials saw a 38% increase in vaccinations statewide during the first week. 

The total number of doses being administered in the U.S. is climbing toward an average of 1 million per day, almost double the level from mid-July — but still far below last spring. The increase is mainly due to boosters, with nearly 10% of the nation’s over-65 population already getting third shots, but there are signs of increased demand from other groups as well. 

On Thursday, 1.1 million doses were given, including just over 306,000 to newly vaccinated people, said Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, the White House COVID-19 data director. 

Organizers of the effort to reach the roughly 67 million unvaccinated American adults say the rise in demand can be traced to approval of the Pfizer booster, mandates that have forced employees to choose between the shot and their jobs and sobering statistics that show nearly all COVID-19 deaths are among the unvaccinated. (Read more)

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.

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)

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.

‘The Republican party is a pro-insurrection Trump cult and anyone who is not on board is cast aside’

Ohio Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (pictured) – one of just ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump this past January – is leaving a once-promising political career due to violent threats from enraged nationalist populists. Tim Miller from the Bulwark -  

The retirement of Trump-impeachment-supporting Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio), in part over fears for the safety of his young family, is a deeply ominous sign for our politics. 

It might be a Trump era cliché to say that “this is not normal” but a 36-year-old congressman in his second term doesn’t just retire. That is the start of one’s career, not the finish. Moreover, a 36-year-old Republican congressman sure as shit doesn’t retire because he is scared Republican voters might hurt his family. 

That is not normal. At all. It is a flashing siren about just how dangerous the Republican party has become. (Read more)

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.