Trump and DeSantis Compete to See Who's More Racist, Tesla Defrauds Drivers?, Musk Punishes Free Press, Vivek Wants to Cancel Juneteenth, Great TV Show, Ella Fitzgerald Sings

My take on news, pop culture, sports, and whatever else interests me.

This Week in Jaw-Dropping GOP Racism

DeSantis Suspends Second Elected Prosecutor in Florida (The New York Times)

Suspended State Attorney Monique H. Worrell

SUMMARY: Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida suspended the top state prosecutor in Orlando on Wednesday, accusing her of incompetence and neglect of duty for what he characterized as lenience against violent criminals. The move was the governor’s latest aggressive use of executive power against local officials of the opposing political party.

Mr. DeSantis suspended Monique H. Worrell, the elected state attorney of Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, which includes Orange and Osceola Counties, and cited as reasons her handling of three cases and a low overall incarceration rate, among other things. One of the three cases involved a man who shot and injured two Orlando police officers over the weekend.

It is the second time in a year that Mr. DeSantis, a Republican running for president, has taken the drastic and exceedingly rare step of removing an elected state attorney. Both have been Democrats.

MY TAKE: In a recent Time interview, DeSantis described his parenting technique: “Day to day, Casey [his wife] does more of the disciplining. But when I step in, and I do, if I’m a little stern, they snap into shape. I do that more rarely. But when things get out of hand, you kind of just lay the law down, and they respond to it. So I would say that they do respect the paternal influence.” Sadly, this same paternalistic attitude also seems to be his political philosophy. He’s the dad, and everyone else in Florida—and, if he becomes president, the country—are his doting children grateful for his strong disciplinary hand. DeSantis Knows Best.

The problem is that DeSantis, clearly no student of history, wants to be a strong man, not a good man. His idea of expressing strength is to force his will on people rather than be an example that people will want to follow.

In the play, Camelot, King Arthur discusses with Guinevere his plans for a new philosophy of knighthood: “[N]ow, the knights will whack only for good. Might for right… That's it, Ginny. Might. No, not might is right. Might - For - Right.” I’ve always found that moment in the play to be especially moving because King Arthur, who already has absolute authority, is still trying to find a way to do good for his people. This philosophy of Might for Right may serve the good of the people and help them thrive, but it doesn’t serve DeSantis’ personal ambitions. For him, might is right, and if you disagree, he relies on brute force, sending you to bed without supper—or freedom of choice.

This lack of regard or respect for people as rational adults capable of choosing their own path is reflected in his strongman tactic of removing two ELECTED state attorneys. DeSantis removed these duly elected officials, both Democrats, not because there were complaints from the people who elected them, but because removing them enhanced his political agenda. After his removal of Andrew Warren last year, a federal judge ruled that, although they did not have the authority to intervene, there was “not a hint of misconduct by Mr. Warren.” A federal judge reviewing the case noted that DeSantis had calculated the dollar amount of free media exposure the firing would generate. In fact, DeSantis has brought up Warren’s firing in most of his campaign speeches as a badge of honor when it should be a scarlet letter of shame. The fact that he doesn’t know the difference is the truly scary part. “Hey, voters, I decided to overturn democracy by firing your elected officials because I don’t like their politics. Feel free to applaud now and donate money.”

Warren is White, and Worrell is Black, so why is the suspension of Worrell racist? Because it’s about perception. Worrell is Florida’s only Black female state attorney, so by suspending her, DeSantis is making it clear that he can control all Black activists (as well as unruly women). She was elected with 67% of the vote, which signals to DeSantis’ base that he’s not bound by voters’ preferences, especially Black voters. His accusations that she was soft on crime do not hold up under examination, but the people he’s appealing to don’t want to examine. They want Daddy DeSantis to make the scary Black people go away and to take uppity women, whiny LGBTQ+ people, and dirty immigrants with them.

Daddy DeSantis has one rule: As long as you live under my state (or country), you will follow my rules—or get kicked out of the house. Unless, of course, voters remind him it’s not his house. It’s theirs.

Ex-Trump Aide Says Trump's Use Of Word 'Riggers' Is A Racist Dog Whistle (HuffPost)

SUMMARY: Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin said she believes Donald Trump intentionally used the word “riggers” as a racial dog whistle following his Georgia indictment.

Hours after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis released the racketeering indictment charging Trump and 18 allies in a conspiracy to change Georgia’s 2020 election results, Trump raged against the case on his Truth Social platform.

The former president claimed to have evidence that would lead to a “complete EXONERATION of him and his allies, adding: “They never went after those that Rigged the Election. They only went after those that fought to find the RIGGERS!”

Many of his supporters quickly began using the term on far-right social media sites, some in a derogatory manner alluding to the racist slur.

MY TAKE: Trump defenders will undoubtedly offer up theatrical shocked expressions that such an innocent word is misconstrued by the emotional snowflakes, all the while trying hard to hide their knowing smirks.

But we only have to ask ourselves why Trump is the preferred presidential candidate of white supremacists and racists? What do they hear when he speaks that assures them he’s on their side when it comes to promoting racism? His own former communications director argues that Trump knowingly is sending a racist message to his followers, who are enemies of democracy.

Trump’s tactic is to broadcast a threat to Americans: If you come after me, there will be violence. Last summer, after Mar-a-Lago was searched, he wrote that he didn’t know “how much more our Country will be willing to withstand.” Only a month after, he wrote, “THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY AREN’T GOING TO TAKE IT MUCH LONGER.” Later, he suggests his indictment might cause “death [and] destruction” that “could be catastrophic for our Country.” To clarify his intent, he reposted a black and white video of his scowling face with a voiceover of him saying, “If you fuck around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before.” The original context for those words was a message to Iran during his 2020 re-election campaign, but his reposting confirms he approves the repurposing of those threats to now be against Americans.

His followers have listened. Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor indicting Trump, has received numerous death threats (“Trump prosecutor Fani Willis faces racist abuse after indicting ex-US president”), as have members of the grand jury (“Georgia police investigating online threats to jurors after pro-Trump doxxing campaign”).

I hope that Americans will prove to Trump and those politicians slithering behind him (I’m looking at you, Kevin McCarthy, Lindsey Graham, Marjorie Taylor Greene, et al.) that we can’t be blackmailed or threatened, or bullied from our democratic foundation. It’s astounding to me how many people would be more willing to face bullets in war than face down a sexual predator and criminal who tried to subvert our country’s constitution. Let Trump followers do their worst—we will continue to be our best. Which means making sure they face the same justice the Jan. 6 insurrectionists faced.

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This Week in Musk Madness

(Photo by Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images)

Elon Musk is, depending on the week’s financial ebbs and flows, the world’s richest man. Many wealthy people are content to just sit back and accumulate their billions. Not Musk. He has climbed atop his piles of cash like Scrooge McDuck, and from those great heights issues proclamations about how the rest of us should live.

Two problems: 1. Money has amplified his voice. He’s the most followed person on X (formerly Twitter) with 153 million followers. So, what he says is heard by a lot of people, which means he has an enormous social and political influence. 2. Money hasn’t amplified his logic, ethics, or consistency. Given the content of what he says he believes in, and how it is often contradictory to what he actually does, it’s odd that he has so many followers. But too many people think that wealth equals wisdom, that rich people must be smart because they’re rich. But, as I have often discussed, the skills involved in acquiring wealth in business are not the same skills as acquiring wisdom about politics or social issues. Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy, is an example. They are like champion checkers players who suddenly declare themselves chess masters.

The issue is that the superrich has achieved great success based on their decision-making and therefore see no problem using the same decision-making process when approaching politics. Rather than bend to the reality of the facts that contradict their entrenched beliefs, they use their wealth to bend everyone else’s reality. This is what Exxon Mobil did when their own research, reportedly more accurate than NASA scientists in the 1970s revealed that global warming was inevitable if we didn’t make changes. Instead of heeding the alarm, they buried the research and spent decades and millions of dollars publicly denying the problem. Their efforts were so effective that even today, Republicans are campaigning on climate change denial. Deny facts, bend the reality.

These wealthy conservatives tweak reality by sponsoring political puppet candidates who will do their bidding. Candidates like Trump, DeSantis, Cruz, Gaetz, Greene, etc. Empty suits stuffed with cash. The continuous stories of the bribery of Clarence Thomas by multiple conservative billionaires is another blow to the democracy most of us cherish in order to serve the pleasures of the superrich (“Clarence Thomas’ 38 Vacations: The Other Billionaires Who Have Treated the Supreme Court Justice to Luxury Travel”).

Now it’s even easier for the rich and powerful to manipulate reality through the use of AI and fake news, generating conspiracy theories and muddling the facts to keep the population misinformed. A recent study showed that 60% of teens agreed with four or more conspiracy statements, compared with 49% of adults. Both those figures should be alarming because they indicate a population not interested in the truth enough to actively seek it out.

That’s why we need to monitor wealthy, influential people like Musk. Dr. King said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” But the arc of reality is immediate and needs constant, devoted guarding in order for the arc of the moral universe to find justice.

Toward that end, let’s take a closer look at Musk’s reality-bending week:

Elon Musk’s X is throttling traffic to websites he dislikes (The Washington Post)

SUMMARY: The company formerly known as Twitter has been slowing the speed with which users could access links to the New York Times, Facebook and other news organizations and online competitors, a move that appeared targeted at companies that have drawn the ire of owner Elon Musk.

Users who clicked a link on Musk’s website, now called X, for one of the targeted websites were made to wait about five seconds before seeing the page, according to tests conducted Tuesday by The Washington Post.

The delayed websites included X’s online rivals Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and Substack, as well as the Reuters wire service and the Times. All of them have previously been singled out by Musk for ridicule or attack.

MY TAKE: Since anointing himself as a “free speech absolutist,” Musk has absolutely done his best to stifle free speech on X, whether to further his petty feuds with legitimate journalists, to stifle competition or in service of totalitarian governments wanting to silence their populace (“Under Elon Musk, Twitter has approved 83% of censorship requests by authoritarian governments”).

This manipulation of a free press, aside from possibly violating standards against unfair or deceptive trade practices, is a heinous assault on the foundation of democracy. Thomas Jefferson understood this when he said if he had to choose between “a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” What makes Musk’s actions even worse is how childish they are. Did he just TP The New York Times?

But wait. Since he’s an “absolutist,” surely he treated all press the same. Nope. The Washington Post, Fox News, and social media services such as Mastodon and YouTube were unaffected.

If there were only some way to signal our collective disapproval of Musk tampering with the pillars of democracy. One word: unfollow.

Tesla owners suing automaker for falsely overstating vehicle range (Spectrum News NY1)

SUMMARY: A trio of Tesla owners in California are suing the Texas-based automaker in a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging the company falsely advertised its electric vehicles’ range. Filed Wednesday, the lawsuit cites an article published by the Reuters news service last week, alleging Tesla had created a so-called diversion team to suppress driver complaints that their EVs were not traveling as far as they expected. 

Reuters reported that Tesla intentionally wrote algorithms for its dashboard range meter to overstate vehicle range. The lawsuit claims Tesla did not live up to its warranties and has perpetrated fraud.

“Driving range on a single charge is undoubtedly a key feature that EV consumers rely on in the purchase decision,” said Adam A. Edwards, an attorney at the Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman law firm representing the plaintiffs. “Tesla’s decision to create a team to divert range-related complaints and cancel service appointments is unacceptable.”

Tesla had a duty to deliver a product that performs as advertised, he added.

…Consumer Reports reported last week that Tesla’s Model Y comes up short of claimed range in all types of weather. While its official EPA range is 326 miles per charge, the best range researchers were able to achieve was 274 miles in warm weather, while in cold weather, the vehicle could only travel 186 miles.

MY TAKE: The same day the lawsuit was filed, California Governor Gavin Newsom said that 25% of new vehicles sold in California were electric and that 50% of all EVs sold nationally are Teslas. It’s a massive responsibility to hold 50% of any market because of how many lives the company affects.

Sure, “free speech absolutist” doesn’t mean “honest speech absolutist,” but to deliberately mislead customers to enrich yourself seems more like a con game than commerce. If these allegations are proven correct, Tesla can drive along the same dead-end road as the DeLorean—if it has enough of a charge to get there.

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Kareem’s Video Break

I think my blood pressure dropped significantly while watching this video. Staring into the baby’s sweet eyes while listening to Dad’s gentle voice relaxed me like a sunset walk on the beach.

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If you look deep into that baby’s eyes, you know what they’re saying:

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This Week in Stupid Things Politicians Said

Vivek Ramaswamy calls Juneteenth 'useless' 2 months after posting a video celebrating it (NBC News)

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

SUMMARY: Vivek Ramaswamy suggested canceling Juneteenth, calling it a “useless” holiday in a conversation with Iowa voters Saturday. 

Less than two months ago, however, he posted a video on social media celebrating the day. 

Breaking down his plan Saturday to institute a national voting holiday, Ramaswamy, a GOP presidential candidate, proposed making space for the new holiday by canceling an old one. 

“Cancel Juneteenth or one of the other useless ones we made up,” Ramaswamy told an applauding crowd gathered at a welding company here.

MY TAKE: Two months ago, he tweeted this about Juneteenth: “Juneteenth is a new holiday so we still have a chance to define what it means to us. It needn’t be about grievance & self-flogging. Let it be a celebration of the American Dream itself.” However, he’s faring so poorly in his presidential campaign that, like so many Republicans, he’s pivoting to attract those easiest to sway: avowed racists, people who deny racism exists, and people who want to pretend racism never existed.

Oddly, he says, “It needn’t be about grievance & self-flogging.” But he’s the one defining the holiday as being about that. Black people celebrate it by many names: Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Black Independence Day. Does any of that sound like grievance or “self-flogging?” It’s weirdly insensitive that he uses the term “self-flogging” since slavery involved real, brutal flogging, and Black people weren’t doing it to themselves. So, while he’s redefining what the holiday should mean, the term doesn’t actually include Black people since they wouldn’t be self-flogging. In other words, he’s speaking directly to White people about what Black Independence Day should mean.

Does he think that the Fourth of July is also about grievance and self-flogging? No, it’s about a joyful recognition of our freedom from servitude to England and an acknowledgment of the great cost of that freedom. This guy wants to be president—but only for a select few.

Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Defense Of Donald Trump Goes Spectacularly Awry (HuffPost)

SUMMARY: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) sprung to the defense of Donald Trump ahead of the former president’s Georgia racketeering indictment and was mocked for comments that critics thought defined irony.

During Monday’s broadcast of Jesse Watters’ Fox News show, Graham said Trump’s mounting legal woes were “unfair.” He claimed prosecutors were weaponizing the law and setting “a bad precedent,” and insisted the former president’s fate should be left to voters.

“The American people can decide whether they want him to be president or not,” said Graham, a fierce critic of Trump before his 2016 election win who became one of his most loyal allies. “This should be decided at the ballot box, not a bunch of liberal jurisdictions trying to put the man in jail.”

MY TAKE: The irony and ludicrousness of Graham’s statement was soundly vivisected on X, with many respondents tweeting the reality that the American people did decide whether or not they wanted him as president in 2020. The answer was NOT. Trump’s indictments are about him not liking the people’s decision and illegally trying to change the outcome through suppression and intimidation.

Let’s take a closer look at this statement with my comments in bold and brackets: “This [What does “this” specifically refer to, Trump’s guilt or innocence of the crimes he accused of or whether or not he should be president?] should be decided at the ballot box [Guilt or innocence is decided in a court, not a ballot box. The general population is not exposed to all the evidence and, therefore, can’t make an informed decision based on all the requirements of the law. Graham’s attempt to remove the courts from the decision-making process actually signals his fear that Trump is guilty and will not be able to win in court.], not a bunch of liberal jurisdictions [Whether a jurisdiction is liberal or conservative, the prosecutors must still make a legitimate case or face humiliation and possible job loss. Also, when a grand jury is involved, the average citizens on that jury decide whether there is sufficient evidence to pursue the case.] trying to put the man in jail. [Republicans demanded an investigation and chanted “Lock her up!” when Hilary Clinton ran against Trump, but now claim that Trump is a political victim. They proclaim themselves a law-and-order party yet don’t want the courts to prosecute when there is abundant evidence. They tout their protection of the election process (by suppressing voter participation among minorities, the poor, and the young), yet retreat when facing the worst assault on the election process in U.S. history.]”

The real problem with Graham’s statement isn’t its deliberate misrepresentation of the facts or its attempt to circumvent the legal system, or its disregard for Trump’s undermining of democracy. The real problem is that he knows all that, but since he’s saying it on Fox News to an intellectually intractable audience who wants to hear his sweet lies and believe them, he knows he will not be held accountable.

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What I’m Watching on TV

Billions

The new—and final—season of Billions has started airing, and it is glorious. First, a disclaimer: I appear in one of the episodes this season. But this review is not exuberant because I did an episode. I agreed to do the show because of my deep appreciation and enthusiasm for the series. Being asked to join in for an episode was like being invited by Miles Davis to join in a jamming session. Or Bill Russell asking me to join him in a pick-up game.

The signature sophisticated and witty writing is still in full force: dozens of delightful pop culture references from movies, sports, music, and literature pepper the clever dialogue. But these references aren’t just for audience amusement, they reveal the characters to be products of a pop culture that venerates ambition, success, and winning, but pays only cynical lip-service to moral values. That energetic myopia is what makes these wonderfully flawed characters so compelling.

This season they’ve reversed the formula and given some of them a real moral compass because they’ve had a peek at their Dorian Gray portraits in the attic in the guise of Mike Prince. And they were repulsed by what they saw. Prince embodies the shallow values of arrogance, ambition, and an iron will that, without the balancing attributes of compassion and humility, lead to evil. They conspire to take down Prince as a way of cleansing their own sins by being his ruthless enablers. They intend to be washed in the blood of the lamb. Fun twist: they have enlisted the devil they know to aid in their salvation—Bobby Axelrod.

The complexity of the characters and their behind-the-scenes machinations make each of them a kind of Sherlock Holmes, and each episode an exciting mystery. Where’s the dead body? They all are the dead bodies struggling to resurrect themselves back to humanity. The mystery is whether or not they will be successful.

Billions remains one of the best series on TV.

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Kareem’s Jukebox Playlist

Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington: “C Jam Blues”

Also known as “Duke’s Place,” this song was written by Duke Ellington, who you see here playing the piano in his stylish jacket and bow tie.

Duke and Ella will continue to make repeat appearances on my Jukebox Playlist because they embody the part of jazz that celebrates life with joy and wit. The song only has two notes, C and G, but, man, what they can do with two notes, most folks can’t do with all twelve.

I chose this song because I wanted to finish today’s newsletter with something classic yet stirring and fun. Listening to it makes me wish we could all meet up tonight at Duke’s Place and dance the night away.

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This week’s newsletter covered a lot of ground, but still found room for a baby lying on a guitar, Billions, and Ella and Duke. If you feel as good about that as I do, hit the Subscribe button.