Florida Bans Water Breaks & Pregnant Women are Now Being Turned Away from Emergency Rooms
MTG Dubbed Moscow Marjorie, Republicans Want to Ban "Plan B" Pill Without Understanding What it Does, Women Run 80% of US Elections and are Routinely Threatened, Bee Gees Sing
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: This line from Hamlet is one of my go-to quotes for inspiring action instead of excuses.
Florida baffles experts by banning local water break rules as deadly heat is on the rise: Florida wants to become one giant plantation with the wealthy as masters. As for the rest…
GOP Lawmakers Oppose the Abortion Pill and ‘Plan B.’ They Hardly Understand Either: They are campaigning to eliminate pills that help women, even though they don’t understand what the pills do. These are our misogynistic leaders in action.
Women run 80% of US elections – but are targets of misogyny-laced threats: How exactly does threatening women promote American ideals?
Rise in pregnant women turned away from US emergency rooms: GOP anti-abortion laws have put women’s lives at risk. Why?
Kareem’s Video Break: Nothing is more moving than when a child cries with joy.
Whiplash as Russia Toasts Derided Marjorie Taylor Greene as Their Top New Hero: Moscow Marjorie wants to be VP under Trump. A heartbeat from the presidency—and Putin’s plaything.
What I’m Reading—Plays: These two Pulitzer Prize-winning plays are exceptionally insightful and moving. I hope to convince you to read them.
Bee Gees Sing “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”: The answer to that question is to listen to this beautiful, heart-wrenching song.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
Conscience doth make cowards of us all.
Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
This quote pops into my mind all the time whenever I am contemplating what, if any, action to take in a tricky situation. In this context, Hamlet doesn’t mean a moral conscience, but consciousness of the ramifications of his actions. His fear of death—“the undiscovered country”—gives him, and all of us, pause when making decisions. We also balk at risking our material goods, our reputation, and other comforts that symbolize our lives so that losing them would be like death.
I’m going to customize the quote a bit to explain how I use it to push myself toward action whenever I fear the consequences. I use the word conscience in its moral sense. So, for me, conscience makes cowards of us all means that we use faux moral justifications to avoid making the ethical choice we know we should make. We make excuses for not taking the action that the Person We Want to Be would take.
I use the quote in that way as a litmus test to ask myself whether I’m truly doing the right thing or if I’m making excuses for not doing the right thing out of fear. It’s so easy to justify inaction: “It’s not my responsibility.” “It’s complicated.” “Let somebody else do it.” Believe me, those phrases come to my mind just as quickly as everyone else’s. When they do, I try to force myself to confront them. I use that Hamlet quote the way a monster hunter holds up a cross to a vampire. If I recoil then I know I’m justifying something I shouldn’t. Justifying cowardice. Justifying not being the person I want to be.
After all, if I’m not the person I want to be, who am I?
Florida baffles experts by banning local water break rules as deadly heat is on the rise (USA Today)
SUMMARY: Sweltering summer heat might have been more bearable for outdoor workers in Miami-Dade County under a proposal that suggested mandated breaks in the shade on the hottest days – but Florida said no.
The county's proposal to establish heat rules for workers has been preempted by a new law: Florida has joined Texas in banning such local rules for outdoor workers. Meanwhile, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington have passed laws giving more protections to construction workers who work in extreme heat.
Florida's new law has frustrated and angered some experts and advocates for construction workers and farmworkers. As summers get hotter over the years, outdoor workers will need more protections, not fewer, said Luigi Guadarrama, political director of Sierra Club Florida said.
The law will primarily affect low-income workers of color, Guadarrama said: “Currently, the state legislature has no interest in protecting workers."
Other advocates also say more protections for outdoor workers are needed.
Some farmworkers in Florida aren't allowed to take breaks, don't have access to shade and are pushed to work faster, said Jeannie Economos, pesticide safety and environmental health project coordinator at the Farmworker Association of Florida. Some are afraid to drink water because they don't have access to a bathroom. Meanwhile, supervisors discipline them for trying to take breaks when they feel overheated, she said.
MY TAKE: What makes this item all the more baffling is that we saw the same issue last summer in Texas where Republicans were trying to punish Democratic cities by not allowing them to make local laws on breaks. Now Florida shamelessly takes up the flag and waves it proudly in support of racism, punishing the poor, and abuse of humans.
Where does the buck stop in such cases? Is it with the companies that use the law as an excuse not to allow water breaks? Is it the legislators who passed such an inhumane law? Is it the people who voted for the legislators and now remain silent knowing the dangers to human life that the law poses?
This Week in the War on Women
Some might think my use of “War Against Women” is provocative hyperbole. But when you read the following stories—as well as stories I’ve covered over the past months—you will have to agree it’s a valid statement. If this were the 1950s and I listed story after story about how Black Americans were treated, you’d agree that there is a war against Blacks. This war against women is complicated by so many refusing to admit that’s what’s happening, thereby allowing it to continue. Nevertheless, the casualties keep piling up.
GOP Lawmakers Oppose the Abortion Pill and ‘Plan B.’ They Hardly Understand Either. (The Daily Beast)
SUMMARY: …“I think it’s dangerous,” Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) said of mifepristone. “Some of these things are really dangerous from what I understand. Unfortunately, I’ve never had to face that in preventing my kids or the grandkids, but I don’t know.”
“To me, it sounds like it’s dangerous,” he added.
The notion that mifepristone is “dangerous” was a common talking point among Republican lawmakers when The Daily Beast asked about the drug, though plenty of Republicans also admitted they didn’t know much about the abortion drug that can end a pregnancy up to 10 weeks of gestation.
Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA)—a member of the committee with jurisdiction over health care—was initially one of the Republicans who told The Daily Beast he was “not really familiar with that.”
But once The Daily Beast clarified that mifepristone was the so-called abortion pill, Allen claimed the FDA “rushed through this process to make this thing available.”
“One of the problems we’ve got—and this is from the physician community—saying that that’s a very dangerous drug,” Allen said. “It has to be very carefully and timely administered.”
“You don’t want to kill people with this,” he added.
Experts strongly dispute the idea that mifepristone presents a significant danger to users. Dr. Dan Grossman—an expert on contraception and abortion who is also a professor at University of California, San Francisco—told The Daily Beast that mifepristone is a “very safe medication.”
“Death risk after taking mifepristone for a medication abortion is exceedingly rare,” Grossman said, noting that the death rate from taking mifepristone is “much lower” than the death rate for childbirth.
“It’s also safer than other medications,” Grossman added, noting he didn’t think Republicans have a problem with drugs like Viagra and other erectile dysfunction treatments, “which have a higher rate of deaths associated with use.”
MY TAKE: The line from Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) says it all: “To me, it sounds like it’s dangerous.” He’s concluded the drug “sounds” dangerous without bothering to even Google it. This man—and others just like him in the GOP—are making decisions for women based on no knowledge at all.
What they consider “dangerous” isn’t the medication, it’s women making decisions about their own bodies without the men’s parental control. If mifepristone is proven safer than Viagra, why aren’t they campaigning to restrict Viagra to protect men? How much more proof do Republican women need to see their own party regards them as children in need of a responsible adult making decisions for them? Unless they agree with that assessment of women.
The misinformation continues with Republicans eager to ban the “morning-after pill,” also referred to as Plan B. Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) claimed, “The morning-after pill is an abortifacient” (a term used for things that will cause a miscarriage). He added, “That’s a medical fact. You call it whatever you want. That’s what it is.”
Wrong. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says it does not induce abortion but rather blocks fertilization. So, Harris’s statement is not medical fact, which makes his position in voting to ban it based on his inability to read or even consult experts. You want irony? Harris is a doctor with a medical degree, yet is unable to overcome his personal bias to acknowledge medical facts.
This brings us back to why education focused on developing professional skills is not enough. Without solid training in critical thinking, we’ve done nothing more than create efficient robots good at their jobs but incapable of logical reasoning.
Women run 80% of US elections – but are targets of misogyny-laced threats (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: …80% …of women who run elections in the US, one area of government that is consistently female-dominated. It’s also an area of government that, since 2020, has seen a persistent level of threats and harassment, largely from those who believe Donald Trump won the election that year. Women in elected positions, in general, report higher levels of threats and harassment than their male counterparts, and people of color experience higher levels than their white counterparts.
Anecdotally, women who run elections say they have encountered sexist insults, threats of sexual or domestic violence, attacks on their families and criticisms that they aren’t able to do their jobs.
While the individual harm of these behaviors is clear, there’s also a societal harm – they could run women out of their offices, affecting the pipeline for higher offices and threatening the functioning of democracy itself.
“The health of democracy is literally built on political discourse, where people, even those without power, are discussing even sensitive topics, and they can share their ideas and opinions and experiences,” said Sarah Sobieraj, a professor at Tufts University who has studied and written about abuse and harassment of public officials. “And when we lose those varied voices and perspectives, this shapes, literally, what we are able to know.”
MY TAKE: Apparently, women make up such a large percentage of election workers because the jobs were considered clerical or because it was a way to pretend to be inclusive of women, knowing that the job didn’t usually lead to higher office.
Women and people of color receive a higher rate of threats. That can, in part, be attributed to the kind of person who would threaten election officials. First, they feel more comfortable attacking marginalized people because they think they have a better chance of getting away with it. Second, they are too dumb to realize they aren’t actually attacking people but the institution of voting, thereby threatening democracy. Third, their attacks seem motivated by supporting candidates who lose elections. They are like bad poker players who always lose and therefore blame the winning players for cheating.
Despite the intellectual inadequacies of those who threaten election workers, the threat can be real. Instead of passing laws to make voting more difficult for the marginalized, as the GOP has done, they should be focused on vigorously prosecuting anyone making these threats. They won’t though because the threateners are their supporters.
Rise in pregnant women turned away from US emergency rooms, papers show (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: One woman miscarried in the restroom lobby of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to admit her to the hospital.
Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldn’t offer an ultrasound, and the baby later died.
Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from US emergency rooms spiked in 2022 after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, federal documents obtained by the Associated Press reveal.
The cases raise alarms about the state of emergency pregnancy care, especially in states that enacted strict abortion laws and sparked confusion around the treatment doctors can legally provide.
“It is shocking, it’s absolutely shocking,” said Amelia Huntsberger, an obstetrician/gynecologist in Oregon. “It is appalling that someone would show up to an emergency room and not receive care – this is inconceivable.”
And it has happened despite federal mandates that the women be treated. Federal law requires emergency rooms to treat or stabilize patients who are in active labor and provide a medical transfer to another hospital if they don’t have the staff or resources to treat them. Medical facilities must comply with the law if they accept funding from the federal government Medicare program.
The supreme court will hear arguments next Wednesday that could weaken those protections. The Biden administration has sued Idaho over its abortion ban, even in medical emergencies, arguing it conflicts with the federal law.
“No woman should be denied the care she needs,” Jennifer Klein, director of the White House gender policy council, said in a statement. “All patients, including women who are experiencing pregnancy-related emergencies, should have access to emergency medical care required under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act [Emtala].”
Pregnant patients have “become ‘radioactive’ to emergency departments” in states with extreme abortion restrictions, said Sara Rosenbaum, a George Washington University health law and policy professor, adding: “They are so scared of a pregnant patient, that the emergency medicine staff won’t even look. They just want these people gone.”
MY TAKE: Tell me more about how the Republican anti-abortion laws are designed to protect life. A study in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found that between 2014 and 2021 “the overall maternal mortality rates in the U.S. nearly doubled, from 16.5 to 31.8, with the largest increase of 18.9 to 31.8 occurring from 2019 to 2021.” That rate is three times that of other high-income countries.
While the risk of dying during childbirth has increased dramatically, the right for a woman to decide whether or not she wants to take that risk has decreased unconscionably. This isn’t just about abortion—that’s the misdirection. Some Republicans are also keen on restricting birth control: 195 House Republicans voted against the Right to Contraception Act. When we put all their restrictive legislation together into one jigsaw puzzle, the Big Picture is to restrict women regarding their sexual activities and when to give birth to sideline them from competing with men in the job market. This restores men as the main source of income and gives them more power in a relationship. Sounds like some wacky conspiracy theory—except it’s actually happening right now.
Kareem’s Video Break
It never gets old to see this kind of unexpected joy and love.
What’s almost as good as a puppy? This newsletter.
Whiplash as Russia Toasts Derided Marjorie Taylor Greene as Their Top New Hero (The Daily Beast)
SUMMARY: …Now, Russia’s former favorites have been edged out by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene—the new darling of the Kremlin-controlled state television. In the past, Greene was routinely mocked for her uneducated statements and used as a prime example of how stupid all Americans are, which is a popular refrain in Russian media. After laughing at Greene for confusing gazpacho with the Nazi Gestapo and claiming that California wildfires have been caused by “Jewish space lasers,” leading propagandists described her antics as evidence of the “mental debilitation” of Western politicians.
But the mood changed once Greene started to say things that the Russian propaganda apparatus found extremely useful. Her Tweets that labeled NATO as a useless organization and demanded the U.S. withdraw from the alliance it is currently leading were featured on state TV and described as “sensational.” Greene’s rhetoric has been interpreted by state TV host Evgeny Popov to mean that “She believes that Americans should help Putin win. Yes, you heard that right. To help him win in Ukraine.”
Greene’s baseless claims that the U.S. is “supporting Nazis in Ukraine” were likewise lauded by state TV propagandists and showcased on multiple channels. Previous mockery did not deter the state-controlled media from gladly using Greene’s misleading statements to their advantage. The U.S. congresswoman was starting to become a long-distance darling for the Moscow crowd, prominently featured on state television and adored to the point that the Kremlin’s favorite propagandist Vladimir Solovyov proclaimed, “Thank goodness she exists.”
…Greene’s latest hijinks have firmly cemented her status as one of Moscow’s most useful tools. Leading propagandists lauded her efforts to threaten Mike Johnson’s speakership for his belated decision to allow a vote on the life-saving U.S. aid to Ukraine. They similarly rejoiced over a flurry of amendments to the Ukraine aid bill Greene filed with the House Rules Committee, including one to require any member who votes in favor of the package “to conscript in the Ukrainian military.”
Greene filed more than 20 amendments to the bill and most of them sound as though they have been handcrafted by Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.
…During Thursday’s broadcast of The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, expert on America Dmitry Drobnitsky urged everyone to stop focusing on Mike Johnson and instead pay attention to Greene. He said, “The issue is not with Johnson. Speaker Johnson is not the one who is running Congress. Marjorie Taylor Greene is running Congress! It’s all about those to whom she is willing to give the money. Everyone is afraid of her! She is everywhere, on every Committee, involved in all impeachments... This is a curious phenomenon in the camp of our real enemy. These are the kinds of people they have working in their Congress.”
Florida Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz offered his own amendment that would appoint Greene “as Vladimir Putin’s Special Envoy to the United States Congress.” The Russians seem to agree.
MY TAKE: During World War II we had Tokyo Rose broadcasting Axis propaganda to undermine U.S. troops’ morale. Now we’ve got Moscow Marjorie, Putin’s useful idiot. It’s a sad irony that so many conservatives accuse their enemies of being communists or socialists while at the same time actually supporting communist Russia as it gleefully assassinates enemies, invades a democracy, and admits to undermining our election.
What’s truly disturbing is how someone so uninformed, so unable to think logically, so destructive of democracy has amassed so much power in our government. She’s a carbuncle on the backside of Congress, yet somehow we’ve allowed her to swell and fester so the infection could spread.
It’s tempting to dismiss her as a joke, but she has been campaigning to be Trump’s vice president or at least part of his Cabinet. That would give her even more power. Imagine this person a heartbeat from being President of the United States. Yes, be afraid.
What I’m Reading—Plays
A couple of weeks ago, I suggested a nuanced and funny play called Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2015. I know that most people aren’t used to reading plays except for Shakespeare in high school. But I’ve been reading them since high school when I read Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men, and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
I’m hoping to convince you to give reading plays a try. Yes, seeing the stage play performed is a richer and more sensual experience, but reading a play has an emotional intimacy similar to reading a stranger’s diary. Stripped of the pageantry, the words have an urgency and power because they are all you’re looking at. It’s like reading a novel with all the excess stripped away. Here are two Pulitzer Prize-winning plays to consider.
Cost of Living by Martyna Majok (2018 Pulitzer Prize)
From the opening pages, this play wowed me. The language is both poetic and insightful. I cared about every character, even the crusty ones. The plot will sound challenging: two parallel but unconnected stories of caregivers and the people with disabilities they care for. Do not be put off by that. The play is sad and funny, but mostly unflinchingly honest about the depths of emotion that humans must endure. I found it remarkably uplifting without being cloying. This play will be performed for many generations to come.
Sweat by Lynn Nottage (2017 Pulitzer Prize)
This riveting and powerful play is about a group of factory workers whose close friendships are challenged by the economics that threaten their work. It is a raw and grim examination of the hardships the working class faces in America and the dark repercussions. The economic desperation and uncertainty taints their relationships with each other and within their own families. The characters are compelling and you will feel everything they are going through. This is what literature is all about.
Kareem’s Jukebox Playlist
Bee Gees: “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” (1971)
Brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb formed the Bee Gees in 1958 and became one of the most popular groups in the 1960s through the 1980s. They are the third most successful band in Billboard charts history, behind the Beatles and the Supremes, having sold 120 million records worldwide. Praised for their harmonies and Robin’s vibrato, their unique sound is instantly recognizable. Even more impressive, they wrote all their material.
I had a lot of songs to choose from (which means I’ll be featuring them again in the future). I’ve always been impressed by the audacity of “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” about a man on death row pleading with the prison chaplain to give his wife a message proclaiming his love for her. Who has the guts to write those lyrics as a pop song?
“How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” was the Bee Gee’s first No. 1 hit single and was nominated for a Grammy Award. Though they gained renewed popularity during the disco era with their soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, for me their legacy will be in their simple love songs. I love the breathiness of the chorus and the tortured-by-love earnestness of their performance. This should be among the top selections in anyone’s list of best break-up songs.
There is a common thing in the outrages you address in your article today, Kareem. It is that for MAGAts, cruelty toward women and minorities, and toward those doing the hardest, dirtiest, lowest paid jobs is a value in itself, a feature, not a bug, of how they “think” and what they do. When they can prey on the vulnerable, that’s a win. They also revel in aggressive ignorance, be it of science, history, economics. MTG is just their grotesque poster child. They are all like her in varying degrees. Conscience is not an issue with them. They have none. Cowardice is their modus operandi, and they are truly excellent at it. That we have so many of them horrifies, terrifies and disgusts decent people the world over, and it should.
Kareem, you (and Heather Richardson) provide more value for the buck than anyone out there.