Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 8/2

[SVPete]

RFK Debunks Sen. Warren's Hypocritical Attack on His Supposed Big Pharma ‘Conflict of Interest’

https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2026/08/01/rfk-debunks-dem-attack-on-supposed-big-pharma-conflict-of-interest-n4955705

Reuters and Washington Post have a new deceptive report out claiming that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has financially benefited from a settlement with a top pharmaceutical company. But they left the crucial context out that showed he personally received not a dime.

Democrats are never ones for context. They love to have reasons to pretend they are destroying corruption when they are really going after personal political opponents. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), for instance, had her warpaint and Tomahawk out as she screeched, “Is RFK Jr.'s son getting a cut of a $50 MILLION settlement that his dad could have influenced? I'm investigating.” Naturally, she needs something to investigate to avoid investigating Anthony Fauci and the pharmaceutical companies that pushed COVID vaccines that we now know, courtesy of Fauci‘s journal, were quite ineffective and sometimes injurious.

Kennedy responded to Warren and the lefty media outlets at the same time. “The Washington Post editorial board accuses me of a conflict of interest that might bias me against Big Pharma, ... “The alleged conflict comes from money I supposedly made from a settlement in a lawsuit against Merck for injuries caused by its Gardasil vaccine.”

He emphatically stated: “The problem is that I never received a penny from the Merck Gardasil settlement, and neither has my son nor anyone else in my family.” So Warren et al. are smearing Kennedy with — surprise, surprise — lies.

Kennedy explained further, “Before taking office, I relinquished any interest in potential Gardasil fees back to the Wisner Baum law firm, which publicly confirmed this during my confirmation process. Yet @SenWarren, @Reuters, and @washingtonpost editorial board — in their ardor to protect Big Pharma — continue to push a false narrative that makes Big Pharma the victim and me the mendacious villain.”

Fauxcahontas and the WashPost lying? I'm shocked! Shocked! Meanwhile, Fauxcahontas received $5M from "Big Pharmaceutical" during her brief and failed 2020 Presidential run. Hopefully she's stoooopid enough to challenge RFK Jr., "Oh yeah? Prove it!" Because he will be able to produce the documents by which he relinquished his interests in the Gardasil settlement.

[SVPete]

Obama-Appointed Judge Defies SCOTUS, Now Faces Impeachment

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2026/08/02/obama-appointed-judge-defies-scotus-now-faces-impeachment-n4955718

An Obama-appointed federal judge just decided the Supreme Court's rulings are more like suggestions, and Republicans in Congress are done pretending she has the authority to make that call.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs issued an order on Friday blocking the Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for Somali nationals. It was a brazen display of judicial activism, and it took Republicans about a weekend to respond.

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) announced he will file articles of impeachment against Burroughs on Monday, accusing her of trampling both the Constitution and a Supreme Court ruling that should have ended this fight already.

In a 6-3 decision in June, the justices held that the TPS statute bars federal courts from second-guessing the Department of Homeland Security's calls on designating, extending, or terminating the program. That ruling reversed lower courts and cleared the way for the Trump administration to end TPS protections for Syrian and Haitian nationals while any remaining constitutional claims get sorted out.

To be blunt, if the Rs go through with this, it will all but certainly be an empty symbol. The Senate won't remove her, by a (almost?) party-line vote. Trump needs to demand recusal or change-of venue for every case that comes before her, based on her demonstrated bias and defiance of a Supreme Court ruling. And make failure of either motion part of the basis of an appeal.

[SVPete]

California farmers destroy perfect lettuce crops amid outbreak of explosive diarrhea parasite

https://nypost.com/2026/08/01/business/california-lettuce-growers-skip-harvest-amid-cyclospora-outbreak/

A nationwide explosive diarrhea crisis that has left thousands clinging to their toilets and hospitalized others also seems to have another victim: lettuce growers in California.

Some like Larry Cox, who runs Coastline Family Farms in Salinas Valley, are trashing their lettuce crop and throwing the vegetables back into the soil as demand for the crop dries up, the Wall Street Journal reported. This week, Cox dumped 300,000 pounds of his romaine hearts.

The ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak has been linked to Taylor Farms, a California-based lettuce supplier.

Even though the source responsible has been “linked to iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico and recalled by Taylor Farms de Mexico,” according to the FDA it’s still impacting Salinas Valley, a region with the nickname of “America’s Salad Bowl” and responsible for growing nearly half of the nation’s lettuce.

“It is incredibly demoralizing,” Cox said. “I would’ve been better off taking a vacation in the South of France than planting the crop.”

Planting and caring for a crop and then having to disc it under can be devastating financially. The Salinas Valley is hundreds of miles from the Mexican farm where the contamination happened, but consumers don't make decisions based on geography.

[SVPete]

GM and Ford are talking less and less about EVs

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/31/gm-and-ford-are-talking-less-and-less-about-evs/

ust a few short years ago, General Motors and Ford were all in on electric vehicles, spending billions of dollars on those efforts. Now the two biggest American automakers are hardly talking about EVs with their investors.

TechCrunch teamed up with Hudson Labs, a New York-based financial research firm, to analyze the last seven years of GM and Ford quarterly earnings calls and found that both companies are talking about EVs at a lower rate than they did before the pandemic.

This shouldn’t shock anyone who’s followed the news over the last two years. Both companies have altered, delayed, or outright abandoned plans for new EV models, prompting layoffs and scaled-back factory plans. And while GM and Ford still sell EVs and have new models in their product pipelines, their collective focus has shifted, and it shows in the data.
...
After Trump regained office, he slashed environmental regulations that incentivized zero-emissions vehicles, and his party tore up the $7,500 federal tax credit for new EVs. At the same time, GM’s talk of EVs dropped significantly, from 82 mentions on the second-quarter call in 2025, to just 21 on its most recent call covering Q2 2026.

Mandates dropped, subsidies dropped - Federally, at least - and consumer acceptance declining.