Debbie says: Choose (your foods) wisely.

^{Read the last paragraph}
FDA tracking 18 active outbreaks | Food Safety News
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2026/08/fda-tracking-17-active-outbreaks/

Jalapeño Salmonella outbreak grows to 431 sick in 32 states; illnesses ran into August and the grower is still unnamed | Food Safety News
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2026/08/jalapeno-salmonella-outbreak-grows-to-431-sick-in-32-states-illnesses-ran-into-august-and-the-grower-is-still-unnamed/

CDC adds more than 3,000 more patients to count in Cyclospora outbreak linked to lettuce | Food Safety News
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2026/08/cdc-adds-more-than-3-000-more-patients-to-count-in-cyclospora-outbreak-linked-to-lettuce/

Alfalfa sprouts linked to food poisoning illnesses in these states - ABC News
https://abcnews.com/Business/wireStory/alfalfa-sprouts-linked-food-poisoning-illnesses-minnesota-wisconsin-135821184

Blueberry recall in 8 states upgraded to FDA's highest health risk level
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/nation-world/blueberry-recall-in-8-states-upgraded-to-most-dangerous-classification/507-13ecdd2b-9e5a-427c-b889-b6d394d180c4

Salmonella infections climb to 431 cases across multiple states: CDC
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/6041051-cdc-salmonella-jalapeno-outbreak/

Hungary is among the most drought-exposed countries in Europe and ranks 16th globally
https://apnews.com/article/hungary-drought-lakes-rivers-water-retention-1f28a070851933675e04b8417f85b452

Walmart is cautious with expectations after slowest sales growth in 6 years
https://apnews.com/article/walmart-quarter-earnings-inflation-tariffs-955945e03ffcc111389d62fa3103a051

>Walmart

Related: Lowes sales down amid DIY turndown

https://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/articles/lowe-apos-tempers-full-outlook-134333789.html

>Hungary is among the most drought-exposed countries

Related:
Panama Canal to cut daily ship traffic as drought worsens from El Nino
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20260820-panama-canal-to-cut-daily-ship-traffic-as-drought-worsens-from-el-nino

Another reminder of how systems designed for 20th-century (or in this case 19th-century) weather are going to be stressed by 21st -century conditions

Salesforce partners not seeing meaningful revenue from Agentforce AI platform, report says

https://www.theregister.com/saas/2026/08/21/salesforce-partners-not-seeing-meaningful-revenue-from-agentforce-ai-platform-report-says/5291167

Grand jury declines to indict Ohio man charged with destroying Flock camera

https://san.com/cc/grand-jury-declines-to-indict-ohio-man-charged-with-destroying-flock-camera/

>Grand jury declines to indict Ohio man charged with destroying Flock camera

Seeing so much negative press and social media about Flock that I wonder if we (collectively) have finally found the limit of what we're willing to accept re: privacy.

>Flock

Not that Flock matters...

A Private Surveillance Network Built on Tow Trucks Has Scanned 9 Billion License Plates. California Courts Just Said That's Fine

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/private-surveillance-network-built-tow-110000434.html

> Not that Flock matters...

Ya but... I think Trav is basically right. It's the feeling of people being mad as hell and not wanting to take it anymore.

Flock doesn't matter. There are countless non-flock plate readers and plate readers are the least of the surveillance culture we've built.

The consternation over data centers is mostly misplaced in the abstract. We do actually need data centers.

But more and more people feel they have lost control of their lives and their communities and big powerful forces are deploying big powerful systems without their say so for the benefit of wealthy people who live far away or untrustworthy state actors.

The classic scene is worth a watch if all you remember is "I'm had as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." The entire meltdown feels very 2026, but it's hard to imagine this being a hit in 1996 or 2006.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RujOFCHsxo

And... this just popped up in my feed. I don't know how old it is, but it's certainly several years old (Zuck in front of Congress)

https://youtube.com/shorts/L5hRrr7kmlQ?si=Mlrs1wbtCPlvjHLr

I do not yet see the angst and general pissed-off-ishness that was present during the VN war.  In fact, I just commented that -if you're middle class white and are|pretend to be heterosexual- life really hasn't changed much.

Funny, I just said something similar to a Swiss friend. I would add "rural" to your list. My life is strangely unchanged.

Maybe I'm just projecting my own anxieties. Being the selfish person that I am, my anxieties revolve partly around democratic decay, partly around climate change, and a lot around the potential economic meltdown that will erase a lot of my retirement savings. What did Mike Tyson say? "Everyone is a liberal until they get punched in the face?" Something like that.

So I'm open to the idea that the algorithm has built a filter bubble around me that makes me believe that people are actually starting to worry about the federal debt.

So I tried to stress test that theory. What did I find?

Gallup regularly asks, "How much do you personally worry about federal spending and the budget deficit?"

In March, 2011, 64% of Americans answered "A great deal" (highest level of worry).
In March, 2026, 50% of Americans answered "A great deal" down from 53% in March of 2025.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/147626/federal-budget-deficit.aspx

By the way, there are huge partisan differences. People whose party controls the White House are far far more likely to say things are just fine (that was true in 2020 but I've seen other polling history saying that is true generally - commonly opinions on the economy have a partisan flip between election and inauguration).
https://www.pgpf.org/programs-and-projects/fiscal-policy/ft-peterson-us-economic-monitor/

Meanwhile, another 2026 poll says that only 13% of Americans favor raising taxes to tackle the debt. 54% favor reducing spending, but I'm going to hazard a guess that only a tiny sliver of that 54% over 55 favor cutting Social Security and Medicare
https://www.ntu.org/publications/detail/new-poll-majority-of-americans-say-cutting-government-spending-is-the-best-way-to-tackle-debt-and-high-prices

I suppose I could stress test other contributing factors to my overall feeling of unease, but that one at least says that my filter bubble is strong and my sense that something has shifted is just wrong.

But, like all humans, I am reticent to accept that and I will point out that these polls are from six months ago. My feeling that something has shifted is from this summer when people seem bothered by
 - Flock
 - data centers
 - crossing the $40t threshold (that at least got some news)
 - Iran
 - housing and prices in general

Now, to what extent do you think that's more part of the political cycle? That is, opposition candidates ramping up and making their case for the 2026 elections?

To what extent is it just purely my filter?

Despite everything I've said above, I still feel like Trav is right about something.

I can't think of an issue in a very long time that cross partisan lines and got people quite so agitated as Flock and data centers.

And I feel that those are just focal points for a more general feeling that people have lost control.

I picked the Network clip, BTW, not for the "I'm mad as hell" quote, but for the bit before that, where he talks about how "we just want to be left alone" and yet someone is not leaving us alone and he says, "I don't know what you should write to your Congressman" but you should say you're mad.

In other words, in that post-Vietnam, post-Watergate era, people were mad, but it wasn't totally clear what they were mad about.

>totally clear what they were mad about

VN: Kent State edged us, the draft amped it, but when the media (then somewhat detached from the WHouse -no longer true) started showing the body bag counts it got serious.

>bubble

Methinks we are pollyanna-ish.  November -IF we have an election- will tell the tale.

>Watergate

Everybody just thought Dick was a dick.

+
Body bags of white boys and $5 gas would likely do the trick now. Probably $5 gas alone.