‘Another Shitty Situation’ caused by Trump-Musk cuts and Bobby Jr.'s incompetence

Thank Trump for ‘Explosive Diarrhea’ 

Brad Reed for Common Dreams

The Trump administration is coming under fire for its response to the outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a foodborne illness that causes explosive diarrhea and has so far been documented in more than two dozen states.

Public health officials still have not identified the source of the outbreak, which typically spreads via contaminated produce.

In an interview with Axios published Saturday, David Freedman, professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, suggested that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not been on top of tracking the outbreak the same way it has been in the past.

“Right now it’s individual state health departments that are having to speak up,” remarked Freedman, “because the CDC is really not following it on a day-to-day basis.”

Omer Awan, vice chair and associate program director for the diagnostic radiology residency at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, told PBS in an interview published Monday that infections will likely only grow if the government doesn’t track down the source of the outbreak quickly.

“Because we haven’t pinned it down, that means that these cases are likely to disseminate,” said Awan. “People are still eating the contaminated food that’s leading to so many cases.”

Awan added that mass firings at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under the leadership of anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., were hindering CDC’s ability to track the disease.

Welcome back, Mitch!

Wednesday protest in Hope Valley

 

Yes, breathing wildfire smoke can harm your health

Here’s what you can do to protect yourself

Colleen E. Reid, University of Colorado Boulder

EPA air quality monitors show high risks from smoke in many parts of the Great Lakes and northeastern U.S. on July 15, 2026. Reds are considered very unhealthy levels. Purples are either extremely unhealthy for light purple or hazardous for areas in maroon. AirNow Fire and Smoke Map

Wildfire smoke from fires burning in Canada and northern Minnesota has been pouring across the Great Lakes and northeastern U.S. states, turning skies an eerie shade of orange. In the West, smoke has also been spreading into communities in Colorado and neighboring states as more wildfires burn in hot, dry conditions in July 2026.

University of Colorado environmental health researcher Colleen Reid explains what’s in that smoke and why breathing it is a health concern everyone should be aware of.

What is in wildfire smoke?

Wildfire smoke is a complex mixture that includes nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter. When homes or buildings also burn, they can release an even more toxic stew of chemicals from burning electronics, furniture, plastics, paints and much more.

What you see when you see a smoke plume or when the air is hazy with wildfire smoke are the tiny particles that are too small to fall to the ground right away with gravity.

These particles, which scientists call particulate matter, are very small – we measure them in microns. When you breathe them in, they can harm your health. The smaller the particles, the deeper they can get into your lungs and body.

You may have heard the term PM2.5. It means particles that are 2.5 microns or smaller in diameter, many times smaller than the width of a human hair. High concentrations of these particles in the air during wildfire smoke episodes are what trigger air quality alerts.

Unhealthy Fine Particles Expected Saturday due to Wildfire Smoke

Heavy rain today and tonight should cut through the smoke but creates its own hazards

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) forecasts that air quality will reach UNHEALTHY levels for sensitive groups due to elevated fine particles on Saturday, July 18.

 Heavy smoke pushing south of Rhode Island on Friday, under a northwest flow, will recirculate back into the area on Saturday under a southwest flow. Some improvements in air quality are expected Sunday.

What to Expect:

• Poor air quality
• Reduced visibility
• Smell of smoke

Health Advisory:

Wildfire smoke contains tiny particles (and other pollutants) that can irritate eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. It can also worsen symptoms in individuals with asthma, lung, or heart conditions. To reduce exposure, the following precautions are recommended for those with asthma, lung, or heart conditions:

• Stay indoors with windows closed when fine particle levels are high.
• If running air conditioning, turn off any fresh intake options so as not to draw in outside air.
• Limit outdoor activity; choose less strenuous activities and reduce time spent outdoors
• Wear a properly fitted N95 mask when outside
• While driving, set the car’s air system to “recirculate”
• Learn how to create a clean air room in your home using a box fan
• Use high-efficiency (HEPA) air filters in heating and cooling systems

Stay Informed:

• www.airnow.gov or download the AirNOW app 
• www.dem.ri.gov/airquality.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Fire and Smoke Map has detailed information on current air quality readings, including DEM and RI Department of Health (RIDOH) air quality monitors, along with the network of regional low-cost sensors.

For more information on DEM programs and initiatives, visit www.dem.ri.gov. Follow DEM on Facebook, Twitter/X (@RhodeIslandDEM), or Instagram (@rhodeisland.dem) for timely updates. Sign up here to receive the latest press releases, news, and events from DEM's Public Affairs Office to your inbox.

Exposure to everyday chemicals can add up

A toxicologist offers simple steps to reduce your dose

Brad Reisfeld, Colorado State University

Imagine an ordinary Tuesday. You wash your hair, put on deodorant, drink coffee, pack lunch in a plastic container and commute through traffic to get to work. At work, the custodial staff wipes down a shared table with disinfectant. At home, you cook dinner, clean the kitchen and run the dishwasher.

Each of these ordinary moments can involve exposure to chemicals. By itself, that is not a reason for concern. After all, chemicals make up the entire physical world.

But depending on the dose, timing and circumstances of exposure, some chemicals in our environment – both naturally occurring and human-made ones – may affect health.

Most everyday exposures occur at low levels, and many products are designed and regulated with safety in mind. But as a board-certified toxicologist who studies how chemical exposures affect human health, I rarely ask whether a single chemical is safe in isolation.

A more realistic question is: What might the health effects be when many low-level exposures overlap?

ICE Killings Are Acts of Terrorism

ICE’s indiscriminate violence conveys that nonwhite immigrants, lawful or otherwise, have no place in Trump’s America.

Mitchell Zimmerman

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. Slain by ICE in Houston,
Texas on July 7, 2026.

In less than one week, ICE agents killed twice.

Neither victim was the man they were looking for. And each time their excuses made no sense. But the killings served a purpose: terrorizing immigrant communities, in pursuit of Trump’s white nationalist agenda.

On July 7 in Houston, masked ICE agents who did not identify themselves stopped and shot to death Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52 year old Mexican national and father of three. Araujo had lived in the United States for 35 years and had applied to obtain legal status. He was on his way to work in construction.

Using its by-now familiar excuse, Homeland Security officials claimed that Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle and tried to run down ICE agents by “weaponizing” his van. The claim was disputed by witnesses, is inconsistent with the video evidence, and makes no sense.

Araujo had no criminal record. Why would this law-abiding, middle-aged family man ram an ICE vehicle and try to kill ICE agents?

Johan Sebastian Guerrero

Six days later, in Biddeford, Maine, ICE killed again. This time they killed Johan Sebastian Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian man who was authorized to work in the United States.

Again, ICE claimed that Guerrero tried to run down the ICE agent. Again, no evidence supported the excuse. Twelve hours later Homeland Security abandoned the “weaponized” vehicle claim and tried another story: The ICE agent, “fearing for public safety,” shot Guerrero because he “attempted to flee the scene.”

Under Homeland Security’s account, an unmarked ICE vehicle driven by an unknown masked man attempts to stop a vehicle, the driver (who was not their intended target) tries to escape, and the agent fires. They claim, essentially, that failing to stop (if that actually even happened) amounts to “fleeing the scene” — and requires deadly force.

Johan Sebastian Guerrero was working legally at two jobs, as a cleaner and a food delivery driver. He had a wife and a three-year-old daughter. Who can claim he was so dangerous he had to be killed?

Since Trump returned to the White House, ICE agents have killed at least 10 times, including Renee Good and Alex Pretti, as of this writing.

ICE agents routinely shoot at people in vehicles, even though official U.S. government policy warns against the practice and says law enforcement officers should “move out of the path of the vehicle” rather than shoot. In addition, at least 49 people have died in ICE custody so far in Trump’s second term — a number that will only climb.

Brutality and violence are routine features of ICE operations, yet no ICE agent has been held responsible. In Trump’s war against immigrants, ICE agents know they may slay with impunity.

Donald Trump’s campaign of demonization and vilification sets the stage. Trump calls immigrants “animals” and “not human,” likening them to criminals or escaped mental patients. He calls them “vermin” who “infest our country,” and he embraces the Nazi theme that a despised group is “poisoning the blood of our country.”

The unrestrained brutality of ICE is a reign of terror. Killing without cause is not a problem for the Department of Homeland Security; it is a feature. ICE’s indiscriminate violence conveys that nonwhite immigrants, lawful or otherwise, have no place in Trump’s America.

There is little point in considering DHS’s pretexts for killing on a case-by-case basis. ICE’s abuse of immigrants is not the result of individual misdeeds — it is policy. ICE cannot be reformed because its purpose is not enforcing the law. It is terrorism for a white supremacist vision of America.

Those who reject Trump’s vision, who insist on the humanity of our neighbors, who still believe we must welcome to America’s shores those yearning to breathe free, must stand up and say No.

Mitchell Zimmerman is an attorney, longtime social activist, and author of the anti-racism thriller Mississippi Reckoning. He's also a longtime contributor to Progressive Charlestown. His writing can also be found on his Substack, Reasoning Together with Mitchell Zimmerman.

Subscriptions to Reasoning Together with Mitchell Zimmerman are free at this time. If you find my writing of value, please like, subscribe and recommend Reasoning Together to your friends. Thank you.

You may also be interested in my road-trip novel / social thriller Mississippi Reckoning. Read an excerpt. Read the Progressive Charlestown review HERE.

Prudent advice

Things that used to be fine

 

Zapping lanternflies

URI entomologist suggests novel removal technique to help tackle invasive pest

Kristen Curry

Jack Whitney ’26 demonstrates the SLF vacuum technique;
 URI researchers say it can help tackle invasive
spotted lanternfly. (URI Photo / Dana Terrill)

Most of the student researchers in Lisa Tewksbury’s Biocontrol Lab at the University of Rhode Island were born after the film “Ghostbusters” came out in theaters, but they’re experimenting with an iconic technique from the popular 1984 movie as part of efforts to stop a local invasive pest leaving its own destructive, oozy impact on agriculture around the state, including local vineyards.

Tewksbury, an entomologist in URI’s Department of Plant Sciences and Entomology, conducts research on biological control of species which can put local crops at risk. She says donning a URI-inspired version of the iconic vacuum pack could help Rhode Islanders do battle with the aggressive spotted lanternfly, one persistent planthopper making inroads in the northeastern U.S.

Tewksbury says that residents of impacted areas could even use this approach at home, deploying a handheld vacuum, then carefully disposing of the captured insects afterward.

Research highlights dangers of eating toxin-contaminated seafood

Bad fish

Mary Van Beusekom, MS

Today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers probe the 402 US foodborne disease outbreaks caused by marine toxins in fish and shellfish over 23 years, revealing 1,280 illnesses, 96 hospitalizations, and one death.

Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education parsed data from the CDC’s Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FDOSS) from 2011 to 2023. 

Local, state, and territorial health departments have voluntarily reported foodborne illness outbreaks to FDOSS through the CDC’s National Outbreak Reporting System since 2009.

Storage of fish under uncontrolled temperatures can trigger production of histamine, which can cause allergic responses in people, and scombroid toxins made by bacteria with highly active enzyme histidine carboxylase. Other marine toxins can be produced by algae and build up in fish and shellfish through the food chain, occur naturally in fish species, or stem from unknown sources. 

The authors said that marine toxins cause most of the noninfectious outbreaks reported to FDOSS each year. 

“Marine toxins that cause foodborne illness are tasteless, odorless, resistant to cooking or freezing, and can produce a complex variety of gastrointestinal, neurologic, and neuropsychologic symptoms,” they wrote. “Among persons with severe illness resulting from ingestion of marine toxins, cardiovascular and respiratory manifestations can result in hospitalization and death.” 

CDC is falling behind on tracking the spread of dangerous diarrhea outbreak

Is it incompetence, stupidity, or malice?

Stephanie Soucheray, MA

In parts of the country, including southeast Michigan and northern Ohio, clinicians are tracking scores of cases of sudden, explosive diarrhea and gastrointestinal illness caused by the parasite Cyclospora cayetanensi.

Michigan now has 1,251 cases of cyclosporiasis, according to state officials today, more than doubling the case count reported over the July 4 weekend. Typically, Michigan reports around 50 cases per year, but during the last week of June state officials first noted an outbreak of 170 cases that has since skyrocketed.

Of the 1,251 patients, 44 have been hospitalized, according to the case count.

In Ohio counties that border southeast Michigan, officials are tracking more than 500 cases, including 306 in Lucas County, the Associated Press reports. In an update yesterday, however, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) confirmed only 177 cases statewide as of July 2, with 28 people hospitalized. Most cases have occurred since June 20, the ODH said.

Officials tell restaurants to wash produce carefully 

No source has been identified in the outbreaks, but the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services (MDHHS) is now recommending enhanced washing procedures for “restaurants, commercial kitchens, and other entities preparing or serving raw produce in Southeast Michigan.”

The recommendations include careful washing of lettuce, herbs, green onions, raspberries, and snow peas, all foods associated with past Cyclospora outbreaks.

“Cyclosporiasis is not usually life-threatening, but dehydration from frequent bouts of diarrhea can cause severe illness, particularly among younger or older people and those who have weakened immune systems,” the MDHHS said. “The time between being exposed and becoming sick is usually about one week but can range from two days to two weeks or more. Untreated, the illness may last from a few days to more than a month. Symptoms may go away and then return.”

The Ongoing Presidential Psychiatric Emergency

Will We Overtake Mental Pathology, before It Overtakes Us?

Dr. Bandy X. Lee

I was forwarded this astute video, which I quote in full:

MAGA cult isn’t a political movement; it’s a mental illness. There is a psychological reason for that. Forensic psychiatrist [Bandy] Lee at Yale School of Medicine spent years studying what happens when a psychologically dangerous leader gains mass influence.

She found that leaders’ mental pathology does not stay confined to the leader. It spreads to his followers through emotional bonds, through rallies, through constant exposure. It induces delusions, paranoia, and a propensity for violence in people who were previously psychologically healthy. 

Psychiatrists call this, folie à millions, or the madness of millions. Sixty-two courts ruled the 2020 election was not stolen. Trump’s own attorney general said there was no fraud. His own Department of Justice confirmed it and they still believe the election was stolen. This is not a political opinion. This is an induced delusion. This is why his followers stormed the Capitol and tried to commit an insurrection.

This is why they excused federal agents for killing Americans in the streets. This is why nothing that happens will ever change their minds. 

Lee found that the treatment is the same as any contagion: remove the exposure. The symptoms begin to fade when the source is gone, which is exactly why Trump cannot stop holding rallies. He knows what happens when the exposure stops. The delusion starts to break. These people are not true believers. They are addicted to their delusion. The delusion feels better than their real lives do, and they will try to burn everything down before they give up that delusion.

Now that we understand this, what shall we do about it?

No AFL-CIO endorsement is a win for Foulkes

Influential AFL-CIO opts not to endorse in RI Democratic gubernatorial race

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

The focus of the governor’s race temporarily shifted one block west of the State House Wednesday to a nondescript office building where leaders of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO met but opted not to endorse in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. 

The labor federation boasts more than 80,000 members, with endorsements determined by a two-thirds vote of its 15-person executive committee. But the panel that met behind closed doors didn’t even get as far as taking a vote on the two candidates seeking their backing, Gov. Dan McKee and challenger Helena Buonanno Foulkes. 

“The consensus was, we could not get to a consensus,” Patrick Crowley, organization president, said in an interview Wednesday night. “We’re taking the position to stay neutral in the governor’s race. Individual affiliates can make their own endorsements if they wish.”

The decision marks another setback for McKee, whose reelection campaign is in need of a boost after trailing Foulkes by double digits in recent polls. Neither candidate received an endorsement from the Rhode Island Democratic Party at its state convention in June.

“He’s had so many losses,” said Joe Fleming, a political analyst for WPRI 12. “He really needs to find a way to start building momentum now that we’re heading into the primary.”

McKee’s campaign did not immediately respond to calls for comment Wednesday.

Early voting begins on Aug. 20. The primary is Wednesday, Sept. 9.

The AFL-CIO and the Rhode Island Democratic Party both endorsed McKee in 2022. Foulkes lost to McKee by three percentage points in a four-way Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Tides appear to have turned in Foulkes’ favor, with the former CVS executive prevailing with commanding, 20-percentage-point leads in polls released by WPRI-TV and the University of New Hampshire in May and June, respectively. 

Foulkes maintains a significant cash advantage and has picked up endorsements from a majority of municipal Democratic committees, including McKee’s hometown of Cumberland. On Tuesday, she unveiled endorsements from 26 state and local Democratic lawmakers in conjunction with a ceremonial opening of her campaign headquarters on Broad Street in Providence.

Nice plane