"The tacos would come without lettuce, at this time." - The New York Times, on a Taco Bell employee's caveat to customers.
Salad Of Doom
The Trump administration’s bungled response to America’s explosive diarrhea salad crisis is a masterclass in poor leadership, former officials say.
At this point, you can pick your metaphor for President Donald Trump’s calamitous second term. The Reflecting Pool: A literal swamp. The Great American State Fair: A total bust. The East Wing of the White House: A pile of rubble. At the end of his first presidency, Americans couldn’t find toilet paper. Now, midway through his second, thousands are being forced to use far more than they would have liked — thanks to a parasitic outbreak exacerbated by the Trump team’s mismanagement.
Consider the confusion over the weekend. The FDA announced Saturday that a lab test had linked the outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico. The agency then walked that back the next day, prompting Taylor Farms to claim that the FDA had “apologized.” But then, the agency announced that “overwhelming epidemiological data” continue to “converge” on Taylor Farms de Mexico and support the company’s voluntary recall.
In other words, the false positive didn’t actually change the FDA’s initial conclusion. And the agency insists it did not “apologize.”
While bureaucrats scrambled, the outbreak continued. More than 1,600 people have confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis across 34 states, according to federal data, and the CDC is investigating another 5,100 cases. But the numbers could be far higher, since the infection is often underreported and symptoms can take several days to develop.
Experts say the Trump administration’s staff and funding cuts to the CDC have undermined the official reaction to the outbreak.
The department fired about one-fourth of its staff last year. The response to this outbreak “is going exactly as you’d expect,” in light of those reductions, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the CDC’s former vaccine chief who helped coordinate the White House’s response to the mpox outbreak in 2022, told What A Day. “The problem is this death by 1000 cuts that has happened to public health.”
Funding cuts by the Trump administration have helped to create a “perfect storm” that slowed the government’s response, a source familiar with the CDC’s investigation into the problem, told CNN.
“The response is being hampered by the loss of specialized staff and the loss of hands-on-deck needed to identify the source of the outbreaks,” Dr. Joel Barratt, former head of the federal lab responsible for identifying parasitic outbreaks, told the outlet.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. chaotic stewardship of America’s public health agencies isn’t helping either. Leadership is supposed to communicate updates and guidance, said Daskalakis, who resigned from the department last year. But Kennedy, aka Doktor Brainwürm, hasn’t even publicly commented on the explosive diarrhea outbreak.
Why isn’t Kennedy talking? “Maybe because he can’t spell ‘cyclospora,’” Daskalakis half-joked. “The fact that there’s not a press conference every other day to make sure that people are updated is not how public health works, and that is because the head of this thing is rotten.”
One unfortunate soul told the New York Times that she vomited as many as 20 times in a few hours last week. “It’s explosive diarrhea; you can’t not laugh at that,” she said. “But this also can be incredibly serious.”
Meanwhile On The Pod...
How Trump Went From an Anti-War Candidate to a Warmongering President (Feat. Mehdi Hasan) (07/20/26)
Iran: Trump's Forever War?
Donald Trump’s war with Iran is getting deadlier. His mind appears to be elsewhere.
The Pentagon identified two U.S. soldiers who were killed in Iranian strikes on Jordan in recent days as Tyler James Feehan, 25, and Isabella Gonzales, 19. Another service member is still missing after the attack. The U.S. also announced this morning that yet one more was killed in Iraq over the weekend during a “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone.
Seventeen Americans have been killed since Trump launched war on Iran in February, a conflict his team said would last only weeks.
And the bombings continue. The U.S. launched strikes on Iran early this morning — for the ninth day in a row. Gas prices spiked above $4 per gallon again today, and there’s no sign that peace negotiations are bearing any fruit (if they’re happening at all).
“This is the wake up moment for both sides,” Ellie Geranmayeh, an Iran expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told the New York Times. “They either take the diplomatic off ramp now or risk allowing the war to spiral beyond managed escalation.”
What has Trump been up to lately? During times of war, presidents typically spend long hours in the Situation Room, huddled with their closest advisers. Not this president.
Instead, Trump has been busy pressuring Republicans to accept his bogus election fraud claims, installing new statues of the founding fathers in the Rose Garden, and photobombing the Spanish soccer team after their World Cup win. Props to the team for cropping him out of the picture!
What Else?
Donald Trump’s Qatari Air Force One will be “maxed out” with security upgrades after a month of repairs, the president told reporters. He didn’t specify what features the plane will have, but the upgrades follow New York Times reporting that it doesn’t have advanced anti-missile capabilities. Would Trump have even bothered to fix the plane if not for that reporting, which infuriated him? I doubt it!
Troy Jackson, a fifth-generation logger, is almost certain to become the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, after all of his major opponents dropped out. While Jackson is a staunch progressive with a long history in Maine politics, Democrats worry that he simply isn’t as compelling as Graham Platner was before his campaign’s implosion. “He was never going to be like the pick of the consultant class,” a Jackson supporter from Biddeford told Politico. “He’s too much of a regular guy. He’s not the slick choice.”
Politicians are tweaking information about themselves online to influence what chatbots say about them. While most candidates could update their websites or Wikipedia pages, experts say that well-financed politicians could attempt to have a wider array of info published online, making it more likely for chatbots to use their preferred content.
Andy Burnham became Britain’s seventh prime minister in the last decade today. In his first speech in the new job, Burnham focused on the need to make the U.K. more affordable, pledging to release a 10-year plan this year. “Britain needs to show the world that we can regain our stability once again,” he said.
The internet is mocking of Andrew Tate, the manosphere’s chief misogynist, after he and his brother were arrested on rape and sex trafficking charges. Why? Tate was handcuffed while wearing tight capri pants and a form-fitting, half-unbuttoned, apparently silk purple shirt. “People think they’ve found Andrew Tate’s arrest outfit on sale for £29 in ASDA’s womenswear…” reads one tweet. (An attorney for the brothers described the charges as “filth and slander.”)
What A Sponsor
The best summer pieces are the ones you end up wearing on repeat comfortable, versatile, and somehow right for almost every occasion.
Quince offers elevated essentials using premium materials like European linen, organic cotton, and washable silk - without the traditional retail markup.
Quince's 100% European linen pants, dresses, and tops are the pieces you'll reach for all summer long. They're lightweight, effortless to style, and start at just $32.
Everything at Quince is priced fifty to eighty percent less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen, so you're paying for exceptional quality, not brand markup. And it's not just apparel. Quince also offers elevated essentials for your home, from bedding and bath, to kitchen essentials and furniture.
Make your summer wardrobe feel easier. Go to https://Quince.com/WAD for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.
Light At The End...
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has terrible pull-up form, according to experts (and the Army’s own pull-up manual). “His pull-ups or chin-ups and the kicking that he does — you would never allow that. You’d stop somebody; you’d say, ‘Okay, you’re done,’ ” a retired brigadier general told The Atlantic.
A Japanese mayor became the first mayor in the country’s history to take maternity leave today. “I was very surprised myself to learn that I am the first,” Yawata mayor Shoko Kawata told Reuters. “It made me realize that until now there simply haven’t been many young women, or women in general, who have become mayors.”
Drinking three to five cups of coffee every day could help lower the risk of heart disease, according to the American Heart Association. There are countless conflicting studies on coffee’s supposed health benefits, but cardiovascular experts who weren’t involved in AHA’s statement are also touting the drink. “We could even be recommending soon that people have coffee,” Dr. Eugenia Gianos, chair of the American College of Cardiology’s Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Council, told the Wall Street Journal.
A pair of Mississippi kites (small birds of prey, not airborne toys) nested in Washington, D.C. and just had their first baby. It’s the first-known instance of the species starting a fam in the capital. While they’re commonly found in Texas and Oklahoma, their recent northward expansion is a sign that the kites are thriving.
Calendars sold in Rome that depict so-called “hot priests” are going viral on social media. The calendars, which feature a handful of handsome men in holy garb, have been sold near Vatican City for two dozen years now. The catch: Most of the “priests” aren’t priests. They’re just normal hunky dudes.
Enjoy
Payton on Threads: "babe, you okay? you’ve barely touched your apocalyptic wildfire smoke poop lettuce"
