France Just Took Over as World Leader in Women's Rights & Florida's Measles Outbreak Enabled by Surgeon General
FL Curbs Shade and Water Breaks, Trump Warns Against Foreign Languages, Antisemitic, Racist GOP Nominee for Guv of NC, Fake Photos Try to Prove Trump Likes Black People, Gladys Knight & The Pips Sing
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Today I ruminate on a Flannery O’Connor quote about the benefits of blasphemy.
Florida is swamped by disease outbreaks as quackery replaces science: Florida’s surgeon general doesn’t care much for science—or for protecting school children.
Florida passes ‘cruel’ bill curbing water and shade protections for workers: While legislators sit in their comfy air-conditioning, the workers who put them there can die in the heat.
France becomes the first country to explicitly enshrine abortion rights in its constitution: France is now leading the world in enshrining women’s rights while the U.S. is busy trying to take them away.
Trump warns of 'languages coming into our country' that 'nobody' has heard of: The implication is that we should for some reason fear foreign languages, even though most of the U.S. population is descended from non-English speakers. Including Trump.
Trump calls GOP candidate with a history of offensive remarks 'Martin Luther King on steroids': Republicans have nominated a racist, antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ+ person who is the opposite of Dr. King.
Kareem’s Video Break: Children and their dogs. It’s a special kind of love.
Gladys Knight & The Pips Sing “Midnight Train to Georgia”: What could be better than listening to the powerful voice of Gladys Knight while watching the glorious choreography of The Pips?
Kareem’s Daily Quote
The only way to the truth is through blasphemy.
Flannery O'Connor
The blasphemy O’Connor is writing about isn’t religious, it’s social. She means that society in general embraces certain beliefs so tightly and desperately that anyone who suggests those beliefs are wrong is accused of committing social blasphemy. The attitude is that any variant beliefs threaten the foundation of society and therefore holding them is a crime so heinous that those expressing them should be banned from society, either through shunning, marginalization, or death.
The justification for this opinion is that order in society is the ultimate goal and that those professing ideas opposing those celebrated by society are foxes in the hen house, threatening to gobble up the social order. However, that premise is wrong. Society’s main goal should never be order at any price. It should be to have a strong society because it can withstand, and even thrive on, disagreement.
Only the intellectually challenged are so insecure that they require blind loyalty to ideas—or the people spouting those ideas. Progress in civilization has mostly come from the intellectual and social rebels, many of whom were vilified in their time for their “crazy” notions.
Every society has a shameful history of holding beliefs that later are proven to be ridiculous and harmful—and of punishing those who try to spark enlightenment. That’s how we get so many martyrs like Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., JFK, RFK, Malcolm X, and several others.
What’s especially interesting is that we have thousands of years of history of this behavior in which the masses hold some irrational beliefs as sacred while punishing those who disagree—only to have those beliefs be proven wrong. As Ralph Nader said, “The whole story of human history is: The blasphemy of today is the commonplace of tomorrow.” Yet, the pattern keeps repeating over and over again. Why is it so hard to learn from past mistakes? Why do we insist on the equivalent of still burning witches?
In the end, the blasphemy of religion and society are pretty similar. Blasphemy would not be possible against a god who is worthy of being worshipped. Those who believe in a god who embodies love can’t believe in blasphemy because their god would not be so petty and unforgiving. The harsh angry god is the construct of leaders needing a bogeyman that only they can protect you from—and only if you do everything they tell you to do. Obey—and give money.
The rise of Christian nationalism in this country, as openly expressed by Speaker Mike Johnson (third in line for the presidency) and Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker in his religious rant about embryos, as well as the multitude of Christian-based laws against abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, is a warning of what kind of behavior, speech, and even thoughts may become blasphemous to those unable to tolerate divergent opinions. Databases of blasphemers are just around the corner.
However, I’m confident that we will never let our country devolve into a mob with their pitchforks, torches, and MAGA caps because this country isn’t based on fear of ideas, it’s based on hope of a better life for everyone.
Florida is swamped by disease outbreaks as quackery replaces science (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: Shortly before Joseph Ladapo was sworn in as Florida’s surgeon general in 2022, the New Yorker ran a short column welcoming the vaccine-skeptic doctor to his new role, and highlighting his advocacy for the use of leeches in public health.
It was satire of course, a teasing of the Harvard-educated physician for his unorthodox medical views, which include a steadfast belief that life-saving Covid shots are the work of the devil, and that opening a window is the preferred treatment for the inhalation of toxic fumes from gas stoves.
But now, with an entirely preventable outbreak of measles spreading across Florida, medical experts are questioning if quackery really has become official health policy in the nation’s third most-populous state.
As the highly contagious disease raged in a Broward county elementary school, Ladapo, a politically appointed acolyte of Florida’s far-right governor, Ron DeSantis, wrote to parents telling them it was perfectly fine for parents to continue to send in their unvaccinated children.
“The surgeon general is Ron DeSantis’s lapdog, and says whatever DeSantis wants him to say,” said Dr Robert Speth, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at south Florida’s Nova Southeastern University with more than four decades of research experience.
“His statements are more political than medical and that’s a horrible disservice to the citizens of Florida. He’s somebody whose job is to protect public health, and he’s doing the exact opposite.”
Ladapo’s advice deferring to parents or guardians a decision about school attendance directly contradicts the official recommendation of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which calls for a 21-day period of quarantine for anybody without a history of prior infection or immunization.
It is also in keeping with Ladapo’s previous maverick proclamations about vaccines that health professionals say pose an unacceptable danger to the health of Florida residents. They include official guidance to shun mRNA Covid-19 boosters based on easily disprovable conspiracy theories that the shots alter human DNA and can potentially cause cancer – “scientific nonsense” in the view of Dr Ashish Jha, a former White House Covid response coordinator.
MY TAKE: This is not the first time I’ve discussed Ladapo (I refuse to refer to him as a Doctor because he doesn’t deserve it). Florida has become the post-apocalyptic wasteland of The Road Warrior with DeSantis as Humungus and Ladapo as The Toadie.
I’m not sure why he’s still Florida’s Surgeon General after all his unscientific proclamations that have threatened the health of Floridians. Last year, he was under investigation for falsifying a report about the COVID-19 vaccine to deter young men from receiving the vaccine. Again, he’s more interested in ingratiating himself with the corrupt DeSantis than protecting the lives of his community.
Now he’s willing to put the health of children at risk over a disease that has been almost wiped out thanks to vaccines. I would love for Ladapo to face a panel of immunology experts to defend his position, but that will never happen because he already knows the outcome.
RELATED: “Florida passes ‘cruel’ bill curbing water and shade protections for workers” (The Guardian)
SUMMARY: The Florida legislature passed a bill on Friday that prevents any city, county, or municipality in the state from adopting legislation aimed to protect outdoor workers from extreme heat, prompting many to call out lawmakers for being “cruel” to the “most vulnerable workers”.
Efforts to ensure potentially life-saving water breaks, rest and shade for construction and agriculture workers have failed largely due to industry pressure, a growing trend across south-western states, where heat related deaths are on the rise.
At present, there are no federal standards to protect outdoor workers in the US from heat and humidity – which can be deadly and is getting worse due to global heating. Protections therefore vary greatly from state to state.
The newly passed legislation will affect roughly 2 million outdoor workers across the state and render existing local protections “void and prohibited” from 1 July.
MY TAKE: At the end of Chinatown, private detective Jake (Jack Nicholson) is angry that a powerful and corrupt man will get away with incest and murder. His partner tries to calm him down with the reality of the situation by saying, “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.” I’m getting that same feeling about Florida. It’s like a depository for unfettered greed and corruption that grows like black mold. It is the swampy id of the country’s idealist superego.
This is the kind of greed and corruption that kills people (“‘Silent killer’: experts warn of record US deaths from extreme heat”). Heat-related deaths were up 95% from 2010 to 2022—and the heat is only getting worse: 2023 broke the record for warmest year.
So, what does Florida do to help protect its residents? It puts them in even more danger. Yes, I’m outraged by their callousness in putting profit over safety. Yes, I think it is pre-meditated murder if a worker dies as a result. But I know what you’re going to say, “Forget it, Kareem. It’s Florida.”
France becomes first country to explicitly enshrine abortion rights in constitution (The Washington Post)
SUMMARY: With the endorsement of a specially convened session of lawmakers at the Palace of Versailles, France on Monday became the first country in the world to explicitly enshrine abortion rights in its constitution — an effort galvanized by the rollback of protections in the United States.
The amendment referring to abortion as a “guaranteed freedom” passed by a vote of 780 in favor and 72 against, far above the required threshold of support from three-fifths of lawmakers, or 512 votes.
…“We’re sending a message to all women: Your body belongs to you, and no one can decide for you,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told lawmakers assembled in Versailles.
Thousands of Parisians gathered to watch the proceedings live on a giant television screen at Le Parvis des Droits de l’Homme — or Human Rights Square — in central Paris, with the Eiffel Tower looming dramatically over the scene.
MY TAKE: I like to brag about the freedoms we have in America as much as most people, but I’m also mindful of our shortcomings about those freedoms. The mistake I don’t make is to boast about American exceptionalism because I know that many other countries offer the same freedoms—and some even more.
I’m also aware that those who like to spout off about American freedoms are often those most intent on curtailing freedoms. Their main “contribution” to America is to ban things (Nobel Prize-winning authors, music, drag shows, women’s rights, etc.).
The Human Freedom Index uses 86 indicators to measure personal, civil, and economic freedom around the world. Based on their studies, the U.S. doesn’t even rank in the top ten, which are (in order): Switzerland, New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland, Estonia and Sweden (tied), Iceland, Luxembourg, Finland, and Norway. America comes in at seventeenth.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron made it clear that his country’s efforts on behalf of women have just begun: “Today’s not the end of the story, it’s the beginning of a combat. If France has become the only country in the world whose constitution explicitly protects the right to an abortion in all circumstances, we will not rest until this promise is kept throughout the world.” How refreshing for a country to proudly declare its commitment to be a world leader in extending and protecting freedoms. I just wish it had been the U.S. being so bold. Like we used to be.
Maybe instead of bragging, we should take a more serious look at the reality of our freedoms and be inspired by the efforts of other countries to improve the lives of their people. That is our goal, right?
Kareem’s Video Break
We should all be so lucky to have someone so happy to see us when we get home. I love the moment when the boy looks up into his dog’s face. That is love.
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This Week in Trumpworld
Now that Trump is the GOP’s presumed nominee for president of the United States, we have to take a closer look at the product they’re pushing. We already know he’s a rapist, a tax fraud, a business fraud, a compulsive liar, and has shown evidence of cognitive decline. Apparently, for Republicans, those aren’t obstacles but qualifications.
Trump supporters target black voters with faked AI images (BBC News)
SUMMARY: Donald Trump supporters have been creating and sharing AI-generated fake images of black voters to encourage African Americans to vote Republican.
BBC Panorama discovered dozens of deepfakes portraying black people as supporting the former president.
Mr Trump has openly courted black voters, who were key to Joe Biden's election win in 2020.
But there's no evidence directly linking these images to Mr Trump's campaign.
The co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a group which encourages black people to vote, said the manipulated images were pushing a "strategic narrative" designed to show Mr Trump as popular in the black community.
MY TAKE: Wouldn’t it be nice if Trump courted Black voters by listing his accomplishments on their behalf? Except there aren’t any. Instead, his supporters use the logical fallacy called “appeal to popularity” in which showing someone the popularity of an idea or product will make them want it too. It’s just what every parent warns against: “Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean you should.” Sadly, it works on people too lazy to explore the facts or too scared of being left out.
When confronted by the press for circulating these manufactured images, the perpetrators’ responses were as fake as their photos. One creator said, “I'm not claiming it's accurate.” Another claimed, “I'm not a photojournalist. I'm not out there taking pictures of what's really happening. I'm a storyteller.” By storyteller he means liar. When people read a story, they know up front that it is fiction, but these photos are being passed off as real.
Black voters should be insulted that Trump supporters think so little of them that it only takes some fake photos to convince them to vote for Trump. Especially when the only way they can get photos of Trump with his arms around Black people is to fake them.
Trump warns of 'languages coming into our country' that 'nobody' has heard of (NBC News)
SUMMARY: Warning about the dangers of illegal immigration at the southern border has long been one of Donald Trump’s campaign mainstays, going back to the day he launched his first presidential bid. At the time, he said Mexico was sending “rapists” and people who were bringing “drugs” and “crime.”
But lately, the former president has seized on a new thing he says migrants are bringing: languages.
“We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor in our entire nation that can speak that language,” Trump said before a crowd of thousands of supporters at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, D.C., last month.
“These are languages — it’s the craziest thing — they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing,” he added.
Trump repeated the comment the following week during an appearance at the southern border alongside Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, saying that migrants are entering the country speaking “truly foreign languages.”
MY TAKE: I’ll start with the low-hanging fruit: Trump warned that Mexico was sending “rapists” across the border. This is coming from a man who the judge in his defamation case declared Trump to be a rapist. I know I bring this up a lot, but it’s difficult for me to accept that Republicans—men and women—are okay with having a rapist and serial molester as their candidate (“The 26 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct”). No wonder France is leading the world in protecting women’s rights while we’re leading the way backward.
Trump’s statements are nothing more than fear-mongering—and his go-to tactic: lying. First, which languages are coming in that are “truly foreign”? Second, why does it matter how many instructors we have in those languages? The immigrants are more likely to learn English than the rest of the country will learn that language. Third, why is it “a very horrible thing” to have foreign languages in this country? Most of our population came from people speaking non-English languages. Trump himself is descended from German and Scottish ancestors, both with foreign languages.
Oddly, Trump’s frequent mangling of basic English (“Grammar-shaming Trump”) is an assault on our language. His made-up words (“bigly”) plus his inaccurate grammar, punctuation, and spelling indicate he communicates in a language no one else here does—except the worst students in middle schools.
RELATED: Trump calls GOP candidate with a history of offensive remarks 'Martin Luther King on steroids' (NBC News)
SUMMARY: Former President Donald Trump likened North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson to Martin Luther King Jr. in an endorsement Saturday, despite the gubernatorial candidate’s long history of controversial comments about homosexuality, religion and victims of sexual abuse.
“This is Martin Luther King on steroids,” Trump said of Robinson at a pre-Super Tuesday rally in North Carolina.
“I told that to Mark. I said, I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two,” he continued as he offered Robinson his endorsement in the Republican gubernatorial primary on Tuesday.
Robinson has been a vocal supporter of the former president and first endorsed Trump for re-election in June while speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference in Washington, D.C.
Robinson, a pastor, is a polarizing figure, catching harsh criticism for his past comments about women, Muslims, Jewish people and members of the LGBTQ community.
The favorite to secure the North Carolina gubernatorial Republican nomination has, for example, insinuated that homosexuality is a stepping stone to pedophilia, harshly ridiculed school shooting survivors who promoted gun-control reform, encouraged forms of Holocaust denialism and used antisemitic tropes.
…In 2021, Robinson faced calls to resign for saying, “There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth.”
In response, he said he would “fight for” the rights of the LGBTQ community.
“Let me be clear: I will fight for and protect the rights of all citizens, including those in the LGBTQ community to express themselves however they want,” he said at the time. “That is their right as Americans, and I don’t think the government has any role in telling them otherwise. However, the idea that our children should be taught about concepts of transgenderism and be exposed to sexually explicit materials in the classrooms is abhorrent.”
MY TAKE: Trump just can’t stop insulting Black Americans. Referring to Robinson as Martin Luther King on steroids may be the most racist thing Trump has said so far—and there’s a lot to choose from. MLK fought for civil rights while Robinson fights to restrict civil rights.
Since this article appeared, Robinson has been voted in as the Republican nominee for North Carolina’s governor. This is the same man who said he’d like the country to go back to the days before women could vote because “in those days we had people who fought for real social change.” Unfortunately, the kind of social change Robinson wants to see isn’t progressive, but regressive. Despite saying he would protect LGBTQ+ rights, calling their lifestyle “filth” indicates otherwise. Certainly, Dr. King was not a Holocaust denier or antisemitic.
Though he admitted to paying for an abortion in 1989, he has since said, “I don’t care if you’re 24 hours pregnant. I don’t care if you’re 24 weeks pregnant. I don’t care. If you kill that young’un, it is murder.” So, according to his beliefs, he is an admitted murderer. He also considers climate science to be “Pseudoscience, junk science that has not proven a single solitary thing.” Except they have. Using his logic about proof, nothing in science has ever been proven.
Finally, his assessment of the popularity of the movie Black Panther manages to be both racist and antisemitic: “It is absolutely AMAZING to me that people … can get so excited about a fictional ‘hero’ created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by satanic marxist. How can this trash, that was only created to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets, invoke any pride?” This is the guy running for governor.
Robinson: Bad for Black people. Bad for North Carolina. Bad for America. But good enough for Republicans.
Kareem’s Jukebox Playlist
Gladys Knight & The Pips: “Midnight Train to Georgia”
If I hadn’t been so tall, I might have considered becoming a Pip. I mean, no one was cooler or had sweeter moves. They were basically The Shafts of backup singers. If they suddenly called, I’d be tempted to get these two titanium hips in shape to join them. As for Gladys Knight, her soulful voice is gritty and powerful. Whatever comes out of her mouth, we feel it deep inside.
“Midnight Train to Georgia” is part of the subgenre of songs about shattered dreams that includes “Please Come to Boston,” “L.A. Freeway,” and “Do You Know the Way to San Jose.” The song was originally called “Midnight Plane to Houston” which songwriter Jim Weatherly came up with when he was talking to actress Farrah Fawcett who told him, her then-husband, actor Lee Majors, was about to take a “midnight train to Houston” to see family. Weatherly liked the sound of the phrase. The title was changed with Weatherly’s permission when Grammy-winner Cissy Houston decided to record the song in Atlanta.
The song became Gladys Knight & The Pips’ first number-one hit and earned them a Grammy in 1974. Fifty years later, I’m still aboard that train.
You and your writing/video breaks/music breaks are a bright light in our troubled country. Your words inspire me to reach out to others and let them know I care…one human being to another. Thanks for all your time and efforts that nudge all who read your words to try to know more and do better. 💙
A couple of decades ago, work brought me to West Palm Beach. I vividly recall a lengthy row of mansions built along a canal lined with enormous yachts. Displays of ostentatious wealth cubed in a state that catered to the rich. Apparently, catering to fabulously wealthy requires indifference to the remainder of humanity. Otherwise, one might feel compelled to impose modest taxes on that wealth to provider for, I don’t know, water breaks and shade for your laborers.
Florida’s moral rot is deeply rooted in its history. What first comes to mind is a tax haven for gangsters. That rot was for the better part of a century deep inside, but has broken through to the surface. Now the legislature and governor of a state suffering inundation by rising sea levels and skyrocketing home insurance rates due to the increasing frequency of mega storms, focuses their attention on battling imaginary foes like “wokeness”, embraces medical quackery and needlessly inflicts cruelty on the working people who actually make life possible for the yacht owners.