☕️ ROUNDED UP ☙ Thursday, February 19, 2026 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

NYT's five-month Roundup flip-flop exposed; Reese's grandson declares Hershey's product "not edible"; Kansas overrides bathroom veto; fleeing fraudster indicted; first big Epstein arrest; more.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Thursday! Your roundup includes: the New York Times gets caught doing a spectacular five-month backflip on Roundup after Trump invokes the Defense Production Act; the grandson of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup inventor throws Hershey’s product in the garbage and tells the world why; Kansas becomes state number twenty for biological sex restroom laws as Democrats warn Argentina’s soccer team might flee; Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future fraud adds defendant #79, caught booking a flight to London one day before charges dropped; and BREAKING NEWS — British police arrest former Prince Andrew at the royal Sandringham estate, on his birthday, making him the most senior royal arrested since Charles I (who got the chop). Call it a decapitation strike.

⛑️ C&C ARMY POST ⛑️

Michelle and I will leave shortly for Los Angeles —the land where people use the word ‘pivot’ unironically— so that I can tape an episode on Mike Rowe’s terrific podcast “The Way I Heard It.” I’m super stoked and can’t wait to meet him. Mike has been a culture warrior from way back, with his decades-long and now-prescient advocacy for hands-on work and nontraditional education. During the pandemic, he was a calm and steady voice resisting mandates and increasingly questioning conventional narratives. (Try December’s terrific Episode 462 with Del Bigtree for a taste.)

Thus— heads up! Traveling schedule commences tomorrow. I will do my level best to get C&C out timely, but I’ll be three hours behind, dodging smog and organic juice bars, and hotel blogging. So. Flying back on Tuesday.

🌍🇺🇸 ESSENTIAL NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🇺🇸🌍

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Late yesterday, the New York Times ran an insincere health story headlined, “Trump Order Aims to Boost Weedkiller Targeted in Health Lawsuits.” The sub-headline, barely containing its glee, added that the move “immediately set off alarms among supporters” of RFK Jr.’s MAHA movement. Here we go again: it’s a MAHA v. MAGA cage match. Get ready to rumble!

Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act, which is a powerful tool presidents use to repurpose car manufacturing plants for tanks and ammunition. It was meant to ensure both the domestic production of glyphosate, Roundup’s active ingredient, and elemental phosphorus, which among other things is used to make glyphosate.

The problem Trump is trying to address is that the United States has only one domestic producer of both chemicals. One, singular. As in, if that single producer’s warehouse mysteriously burns down in the middle of the night, American farmers can’t grow corn, soybeans, or wheat (Portlanders: food), and the military loses a key component needed for semiconductors, batteries, and incendiary devices.

The only other realistic source is China. And, you know.

It’s the kind of supply chain vulnerability that keeps Pentagon planners up at night, and one can imagine the impassioned pressure brought to bear on the President as things heat up in the Middle East and Asia. So there’s that. But Roundup (Bayer) is also the defendant in thousands of lawsuits by folks claiming to have been injured by the weedicide. This week, tensions are running especially high as everyone dramatically waits on a high-profile case at the Supreme Court right now, along with rumors of a $7.25 billion settlement that could resolve all the cases and head off a final SCOTUS decision.

Coincidentally, two weeks ago, Florida began publicly outing everyday supermarket products (like bread) for containing high glyphosate levels.

CLIP: Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis announces Florida testing of glyphosate levels in Wonderbread, et al (1:43).

All this herbicidal churn means it’s the Times’s favorite time of year— rage baiting season. The semi-annual period when conservatives focus on their disagreements and have thoughtful and meaningful debates with each other, trying to reach mutual understanding to resolve all parties’ concerns, mainly by crying “betrayal” and flinging rhetorical feces while corporate media hoots and hollers and keeps pushing the fighters back in the ring. Just like the last time (Chinese student visas), and the time before that (H1Bs), and the time before that (Epstein files), and stretching all the way back to 2022 when Florida health activists screamed (erroneously) that Governor DeSantis signed a bill secretely mandating forcible vaccination (here’s the link if you can’t believe it actually happened).

It usually works out badly for them. Let’s expose these rascally critters trying to crack the MAHA/MAGA alliance.

🔥 First, to disclose my own bias, I am deeply skeptical of Roundup. I don’t want it in my food, or my kids’ food. Yours either. But I confess that I have a bottle of it sitting in my garage right now that I use to kill weeds growing in driveway cracks instead of pulling them up by hand twice a day. I am aware of the irony. Let’s call it a certain kind of “tension” between competing values of purity and laziness. Kind of like when a cardiologist orders ribeye.

I am also aware that leftist Rachel Carson arguably became one of history’s greatest mass murderers when she successfully demonized the anti-mosquito pesticide DDT, which got completely banned, but ultimately turned out to be much safer than critics claimed, and no one considered the trade-off between human lives lost versus a handful of osprey. Not much solace for the millions of third-world folks who died from malaria after the ban, though.

Ironically, grandfatherly vaccine salesman, Paul Offit, while he still seemed sane in the pre-pandemic period, wrote a science-skeptical book including a chapter arguing that the DDT ban was political, not scientific— resulting in the “catastrophic” overcorrection and a “sin of science.” (Pandora’s Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong, 2017.)

In other words, these issues can be fiendishly complicated. Personally, I trust the legal system, and oppose any kind of liability immunity, even for national security. If it is a natsec issue, the government can simply indemnify manufacturers by paying their injury claims. My take is that it is unconstitutional to allow one group of citizens to harm another group of citizens without access to courts, which enjoy a whole Article III of their own in the Nation’s founding document.

I would also very much prefer that the FDA require food products to label their glyphosate levels. (And heavy metals, strychnine, and et cetera.) That seems easy enough. Let us consumers decide for ourselves.

🔥 As much of a headache as yet another intranecine battle is, it always comes with a silver lining. The controversy always produces a wonderful side-effect from the left, as they pivot to our positions in a desperate effort to make the family fight worse. Let me show you how it’s working out this time. Less than six months ago, the New York Times was singing Roundup’s praises, and calling critics conspiracy theorists again:

In his “guest essay,” environmental author, NYT contributor, and technocratic journalist Michael Grunwald began by rounding up (pun intended) damning quotes from Trump Administration officials. Secretary Kennedy called it a poison fueling a disease crisis. Casey Means, whose confirmation hearing for Surgeon General is scheduled for next week, tweeted that Roundup is driving a “slow-motion extinction event,” and begged her followers, “For the love of G-d never buy Roundup.” HHS’s draft May report on childhood disease linked glyphosate to a range of possible health effects— from cancer to “ominous metabolic disturbances.” (The chemical disappeared from September’s final version.)

But then he shifted gears. Grunwald, who never met a mandate he didn’t love during the pandemic, and followed the science with the best of them, dismissed studies linking Roundup to injuries. “Some rats might — might! — have gotten sick from ingesting glyphosate,” the author jeered, “but the proportion of it in their diets was almost certainly thousands and maybe millions of times higher than the proportion in yours.”

So we’re only getting a little sick compared to the rats, which reminds us how Times readers must feel. But I digress. The point is, the Times platformed Grunwald to score a sick burn on the Trump Administration for falsely fueling Roundup fears.

What a difference five months and one executive order make!

In yesterday’s story, the Times gingerly wrapped the tinfoil around its head. It published two full paragraphs raising questions about Roundup, implying the same “ominous metabolic disturbances” at which its expert, Mr. Grunwald, had just sneered.

It’s the Trump magic working again! I’m not arguing for another rope-a-dope, like Trump masterfully achieved when he called the Epstein files a “Democrat hoax,” but still. The controversy is bringing corporate media around. They are so excited at the chance to fracture the MAGA alliance that they are willing to throw their beloved, bio-technocratic, GMO-dependent Roundup under the bus.

There are good arguments on both sides. Farmers can’t just stop using Roundup, it’s too late for that. They need an effective alternative. We need a secure domestic source of phosphate. But we also need safe food so that we aren’t just bigger rats in a larger experiment. Smart people need to reason together to work through these issues.

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In more encouraging news, also about America’s degraded food supply, Monday’s GRAS discussion just got a powerful new spokesman— one with a matching last name. CBS ran a delectable story yesterday headlined, “Grandson of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup inventor accuses Hershey of ‘quietly replacing’ ingredients.” When the inventor’s grandson publicly declares your product inedible, you might have a teensy quality control problem. Or at least, a narrative snag.

Brad Reese, 70, is the grandson of H.B. Reese, who, back in 1928, invented the Peanut Butter Cup in his basement and built a sugary empire on two main ingredients: milk chocolate and peanut butter. On Valentine’s Day, Brad published an open letter on LinkedIn, accusing Hershey of sneakily gutting the brand his grandfather built. He recently bought a bag of Reese’s Unwrapped Chocolate Peanut Butter Creme Mini Hearts, took a couple bites, experienced the distinctive sensory adventure of eating a chocolate-flavored birthday candle, and promptly tossed the whole bag.

“I couldn’t eat it,” Reese told Fox. “It was not edible.” When he checked the label, he discovered why: “There was no milk chocolate, there was no peanut butter — it was all vegetable oils and fats. I threw it in the garbage.”

All vegetable oils and fats. In a product called a “Peanut Butter Mini Heart.” The two signature ingredients —the only two ingredients that matter— replaced with industrial substitutes and fake flavors. It’s the food equivalent of buying a car and finding out the engine has been replaced with a hamster wheel made out of soy lecithin. Hershey fired back with the most carefully lawyered non-denial in confectionery history: “Our iconic Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are made the same way they always have been.” Notice the word iconic, which was attorney code for: the original cup is fine, but everything else in the Reese’s brand is now essentially a chocolate-flavored petroleum product.

The Great Chocolate Fiasco really picked up steam in late 2024, when cocoa prices hit an all-time high, above $12,000 per metric ton. Chocolate companies worldwide swapped cocoa butter and cocoa powder for cheaper non-cocoa alternatives. Cocoa has since crashed about 70% from the peak— but the cheap substitutes remain. Now, Ghana and Ivory Coast farmers can’t sell their beans.

The good news is that it’s a MAHA world now. The reason Mr. Reese called it out, and that it became a story at all, is because we are paying much closer attention to what’s on the labels. I suggest Hershey consider a sweet, Cracker Barrel-style apology, let Brad Reese announce it, and get back to basics.

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Score another goal for common sense and Republican supermajorities. Yesterday, Kansas’s Republican-controlled House overrode Democrat Governor Laura Kelly’s veto that tried to block the state’s new biological sex restroom law. Local NPR affiliate KCUR reported, “Kansas Republicans Force Transgender Bathroom Restrictions Into Law, Overriding a Veto.” If you’re keeping track, Kansas just became state number twenty.

Newly passed SB 244 requires all Kansas government buildings —schools, universities, courthouses, DMVs, the works— to segregate restrooms and locker rooms by biological sex. Not gender ‘identity’ or whimsical personal preference. Biology. Even better, the law also bans creativity in the gender box on Kansas driver’s licenses and birth certificates. Republican Senator Kellie Warren explained, “It’s going to be your sex at birth. That’s what we recognize in this state.” (The law provides sensible exceptions for young children with parents.)

Democrats tried a creative last-ditch argument: the law might scare off international soccer teams, since Kansas City is hosting World Cup matches! Senator Pat Pettey (D) darkly warned that Argentina’s players might be terrified by the state’s bathroom policy. Argentina? The country whose biggest sports star, Lionel Messi, grew up in a macho nation with a gendered language that doesn’t even recognize alternative pronouns? I’m sure the Argentine team is tossing and turning over Kansas restroom policy.

Republican Representative Carolyn Caiharr nailed it: “This bill protects girls and women, the ones feminists used to claim to stand for.” She has a point. Democrats remain on the wrong side of this 80/20 issue.

Maybe the best news of all was that the NPR affiliate reported it straight. It cited both Republicans and Democrats, fairly, without weasel words or sneering quotation marks. There wasn’t a single whiny transmom complaining about their personal interest problems. Good for Kansas, and good for the rest of us.

Maybe having to rely on actual donations is good for NPR, too.

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This week, KARE-11 reported, “79th person charged in Feeding Our Future fraud scheme.” Another person was charged in the Minnesota Feeding Our Future fraud scheme— the $250 million pandemic-era food program that is, depending on who you ask, either the largest pandemic fraud case in American history or a racist attack on the Somali-American community. (The New York Times, to its eternal shame, has invested considerably more energy in the second interpretation.)

CLIP: Nick Shirley tries to enroll Joey in Somali daycare (2:44).

The 79th defendant is Fahima Egeh Mahamud, who was caught just before she could flee to Great Britain (of course). She operated the “Future Leaders Early Learning Center” in Minnesota. Funny name. Future Leaders Early Learning Center. Future leaders of what? Asset liquidation? Flying by night? Connecting flights at Heathrow?

Someone named that organization, presumably with a straight face, and it is now forever attached to a federal indictment. So. Future leaders of penitentiary book club, maybe.

The ‘future leaders’ were, apparently, learning some profitable early skills. Like how to scam 60,000 federally reimbursed meals per month from a single daycare location. Using math, I determined that’s roughly 2,000 meals per day. That’s not a daycare. That’s a mid-sized hospital cafeteria — if, that is, the hospital were imaginary and the patients were fictional.

For contrast, the nearest Chick-fil-A pushes about 1,800 meals per day out the drive-thru. (Chick-fil-A, however, has the minor advantage of actually having food.)

According to the indictment, the program got $850,000 from the food program alone, and other reports suggest the total from all programs was closer to $4 million. Future Leaders only spent $125,000 on food —about 14.7 cents on the dollar— with the remainder flowing toward real property purchases, salaries, personal payments, and related companies. When federal investigators subpoenaed the records, Ms. Mahamud announced she was closing the business. Then she promptly booked a flight to London. Her ticket was for February 20th. The charges were filed on February 19th. She was arrested shortly before departure, which means the feds are doing their jobs, and Mahamud isn’t as good at traveling quickly as she is at scamming.

Federal performance cannot be taken for granted. Federal prosecutors have been rage-quitting the Minneapolis office faster than roofers fleeing a jobsite when ICE agents show up. The office is down to only 17 lawyers— from a peak of 70 prosecutors under Biden. All the prosecutors on the Feeding Our Futures case have quit in protest— right before trial. Two weeks ago, CBS reported, “With latest Minnesota fraud case looming, the lead prosecutors have quit.”

In fact, the lead prosecutor on the Feeding Our Future case, Joe Thompson, quit last month to represent Don Lemon in private practice. Of Pam Bondi’s many headaches, the Minneapolis US Attorney’s office must be a big one. Tim Walz presided over all of it and almost became Vice President. So.

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As today’s post was going to press, British police arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor —formerly known as Prince Andrew, the King’s brother— at the royal Sandringham estate on suspicion of “misconduct in public office.” It’s his 66th birthday. Surprise! BBC: “Andrew arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office as King says ‘law must take its course’ - live updates.”

If they have to SAY it doesn’t damage the monarchy, well…

Thames Valley Police said the arrest relates to allegations that Andrew shared sensitive government information with convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein while Andrew served as a UK trade envoy. King Charles released a statement offering his “full and wholehearted support and cooperation” with police, adding that “the law must take its course.” Get under the bus, Andrew. Virginia Giuffre’s family said the arrest proved that “no one is above the law.”

Former Prince Andrew, the King’s brother, remains in the line for the royal succession by blood. CNN reported he’s the most senior British royal to be arrested since King Charles I in 1647— and that guy was subsequently executed. You could say he lost his head over his arrest. Royal historians across the board are calling this completely unprecedented in modern times.

Early details remain thin. Police haven’t yet identified what information was allegedly shared, and the charge is specifically about the trade envoy misconduct— not the sexual abuse allegations that have dogged Andrew for years. Whether this is a first domino or not remains to be seen. But the Epstein files keep delivering.

Stand by for updates as more information becomes available.

Have a terrific Thursday! Tune in again tomorrow morning for more wild times, shattered records, essential news, and color commentary. Till then.

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