Employees are generally unhappy at work. The number of those who feel angry and disconnected with their organization’s mission is climbing. A mindfulness technique called “nishkama karma” – acting without desire – described in an ancient but popular Indian text called the “Bhagavad Gita,” may prove useful for navigating the contemporary world of work.
Florida & Beyond, and All Opinions
Florida Lawmakers Back Modest Reparations for Dozier School’s Black Victims of Rampant Abuse
The Florida Senate measure would create a $20 million “Dozier School for Boys and Okeechobee School Victim Compensation Program” to compensate “living persons who were confined” to Dozier or the Okeechobee School, another reform school, between 1940 and 1975 and “who were subjected to mental, physical, or sexual abuse perpetrated by school personnel.”
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, February 27, 2024
A Palm Coast City Council workshop, the Book Dragons meet at the Flagler Beach Public Library, the Carnival of Binches and its extravagant street parties, a few lines from Gibbon.
An Anthropologist at CPAC: Trump’s Base Believes He Is the Savior
An anthropologist who studies peace and conflict went to the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, to better understand the Make America Great Again faithful – and their die-hard support for Trump.
GOP Lawmakers Recommend Co-Founder of Moms for Liberty, an Extremist Group, for Ethics Job
Republican lawmakers in a Senate hearing Monday recommended Tina Descovich, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, cited by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-government extremist group, for an appointment for the Florida Commission on Ethics. The full Senate must approve the executive appointment.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, February 26, 2024
The Flagler County Beekeepers Association meets, the Bunnell City Commission meets, not much concern for civil rights among Americans, Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech.
Beyoncé Shatters a Country Music Stereotype
On Super Bowl Sunday, Beyoncé released two country songs – “16 Carriages” and “Texas Hold ‘Em” – that elicited a mix of admiration and indignation. This is not her first foray into the genre, but it is her most successful and controversial entry. As of last week, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to have a No. 1 song on the country charts. At the same time, country music stations like KYKC in Oklahoma initially refused to play the record because it was “not country.”
The Rent Is Still Too High
Housing prices are spiraling alongside homelessness. Last year, homelessness hit an all-time national high of 653,100 people. To solve this crisis, we need to recognize housing as a human right.
The Controversial Concept of ‘Fetal Personhood’ Is Creeping Up on Florida
If fetuses have legal personhood, abortion-rights activists argue it would infringe the rights of pregnant women and have serious implications for medical procedures like in vitro fertilization and the treatment of ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages. For all practical matters, the Florida Constitution is silent on the issue of fetal personhood, despite Chief Justice Muniz’s suggestion that fetal personhood rights might already exist.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, February 25, 2024
The cold-weather shelter opens tonight, the Native-American Festival at Princess Place, ‘Tuck Everlasting,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theater, Woody Allen’s ‘Don’t Drink the Water,’ at Daytona Playhouse, Rick Perlstein on Donald Trump and a new Caglecast.
Tucker Carlson, Propaganda and Journalism
Tucker Carlson’s work provides an opportunity for public education in distinguishing between propaganda and journalism. Some Americans, primarily Carlson’s fans, will view the videos as accurate reportage. Others, primarily Carlson’s detractors, will reject them as mendacious propaganda.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, February 24, 2024
Race of the Runways for Rotary, The Flagler Historical Society Annual Meeting at the Community Center, Gamble Jam, Woody Allen’s ‘Don’t Drink the Water,’ revisiting Edith Wharton’s “Bewitched” and looking for help to understand it.
Behind the Astonishing Rise in LGBTQ+ Romance Literature
Once upon a time, romance novels from major U.S. publishers featured only heterosexual couples. Today, the five biggest publishers regularly release same-sex love stories. From May 2022 to May 2023, sales of LGBTQ+ romance grew by 40%, with the next biggest jump in this period occurring for general adult fiction, which grew just 17%.
Trump Wants to Bring Kremlin Values to the White House
Trump is Putin’s lapdog; that’s been obvious since at least 2016, and his fealty now threatens NATO and the international order. Trump dares not defend our American values, much less question a political murder. There once was a time when Republicans stood steadfast against Russian abuse of human rights, but that abiding party principle has gone the way of the videocassette.
Audit Reveals ‘Urgent Need’ to Improve Florida’s Prison System, But State Budget May Balk
Concerned about dilapidated buildings in Florida’s statewide prison system, the state Senate has set aside $100 million a year for 30 years to address repairs and new construction, a total of $3 billion. But the state House hasn’t following suit. That sets up a fiscal clash as House and Senate lawmakers craft Florida’s 2024-25 budget.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, February 23, 2024
Jerome Byron Malereba is sentenced this morning, the Scenic A1A Pride Committee meets, “Don’t Drink the Water” and “Tuck Everlasting” on local stages north and south, the awfulness of Thomas Friedman.
Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf Stream Nearing Tipping Point of Climate Extremes Within Decades
The circulation of the Gulf Stream could fully shut down within a century of hitting the tipping point, and it’s headed in that direction. If that happened, average temperatures would drop by several degrees in North America, parts of Asia and Europe, and people would see severe and cascading consequences around the world.
Bill Banning Children Younger Than 16 From Social Media Passes and Heads for a Skeptical DeSantis
Florida lawmakers Thursday gave final approval to a bill that seeks to keep children under age 16 off social-media platforms, as Gov. Ron DeSantis continued to raise concerns about the measure. The House voted 108-7 to pass the bill (HB 1), which has been a priority of House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast. That came after the Senate voted 23-14 earlier in the day to approve the measure.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, February 22, 2024
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets, Daniel Wagner at Tiger Bay, Forever Fab and Sixtiesmania at the Auditorium, Sadie turns 30, The New Sigmund Romberg Orchestra’s Musical Journey to Broadway, and It Happened One Night, in full.
Are Children Bad for the Environment?
Procreation is often viewed as a personal or private choice that should not be scrutinized. However, it is a choice that affects others: the parents, the children themselves and the people who will inhabit the world alongside those children in the future. Thus, it is an appropriate topic for moral reflection.
Controversial Bill Allowing Lawsuits Over Wrongful Death of an ‘Unborn Child’ Advances
The proposal, now ready to go to the full House, would add “unborn child” to a law that allows family members to seek damages when a person’s death is caused by such things as wrongful acts or negligence. The bill (HB 651) has drawn intense pushback from abortion-rights advocates, who argue the proposed changes could put abortion providers and people who help women obtain abortions at risk of being sued.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, February 21, 2024
The Palm Coast Planning Board meets, chess club at the public library, correcting an Economist editorial on Palestinians and Israelis, Jeff Sharlet reflects on the routine betrayals of journalists, Jon Stewart’s return.
Mexico is Suing American Gun Makers for Arming Its Gangs
The lawsuit seeks US$10 billion in damages and a court order to force the companies named in the lawsuit – including Smith & Wesson, Colt, Glock, Beretta and Ruger – to change the way they do business. In January, a federal appeals court in Boston decided that the industry’s immunity shield, which so far has protected gun-makers from civil liability, does not apply to Mexico’s lawsuit.
Florida Moving To Ban References to Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Florida lawmakers are moving toward approving an overhaul of state energy laws, including eliminating references to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and imposing a ban on offshore wind-energy generation.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, February 20, 2024
The cold-weather shelter opens again tonight, the School Board has a trio of meetings, starting with one it would rather you did not attend, the Flagler Beach Library Writers’ Club meets, Thomas Mann’s Dilettante, electric vehicles.
Trump Faces Half a Billion Dollars of Debt and Several More Court Cases. It Won’t Stop Him from Becoming President.
Trump’s ability to tap into a particularly American form of racial revanchism – his political acumen in marrying conspiracy, racism, and political grievance in an increasingly unequal society – is what brought him to power. It is what sustains him still.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, February 19, 2024
The cold-weather shelter opens tonight. The Flagler County Commission meets in workshop to discuss the county’s feral hog problem, and meets again in a regularly scheduled business session, a new Bach French Suite recording, an excerpt from Darin Strauss’s “Half a Life.”
Dearborn, Michigan: A Brief History of the 1st Arab-American Majority City in the US
Dearborn, Michigan, is a center of Arab American cultural, economic, and political life. It’s home to several of the country’s oldest and most influential mosques, the Arab American National Museum, dozens of now-iconic Arab bakeries and restaurants, and a vibrant and essential mix of Arab American service and cultural organizations.
Moms for Liberty’s Book of Morons
The moms of Moms for “Liberty” are feeling a little touchy, put-upon, even diminished. Their do-boy DeSantis crashed out of the presidential race. They’re losing school board elections. They’re making idiots of themselves in the national media, as when Moms co-founder Tiffany Justice simultaneously defends taking books off school library shelves while denying that Moms want books taken off school library shelves, unless they’re by Black writers or gay writers, or ones dealing with the Holocaust, racism, or any sex.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, February 18, 2024
The Palm Coast Open final, ‘Tuck Everlasting,’ at Limelight Theater in St. Augustine, Woody Allen’s ‘Don’t Dring the Water,’ at Daytona Playhouse, and the pleasures and long history of the word “irregardless.”
Navalny’s Death Leaves a Blueprint for Anti-Putin Activism
While Navalny languished in prison camps following his arrest on charges of violating parole during his recovery in Germany, many of these activists in exile continued to operate outside of Russia. This new generation of Russian activists – whether those in exile advocating for change or those risking their well-being in Russia to support anti-war candidates – is Navalny’s legacy.
Equal Justice Initiative Unveils Statue of Rosa Parks
The Equal Justice Initiative has unveiled a statue of Rosa Parks at its Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Ala., on Wednesday, part of a broader effort to memorialize civil rights icons.
In the coming months, statues for Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis will also be erected at the museum, connected with the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, also known as the lynching memorial.
Senate Backs Paul Renner Initiative Banning Children Younger Than 16 From Social Media, With Caveats
The House overwhelmingly passed the initial version last month, and the newly revised version does not change the basic components. It would prevent children under 16 from creating accounts on at least some social-media platforms; require platforms to terminate existing accounts that they know or have “reason to believe” are held by minors younger than 16; and allow parents to request that minors’ accounts be terminated.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, February 17, 2024
The Palm Coast Open nears its culmination, Live From the Waterworks, Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony, at the Jacksonville Symphony, the Library of America announces its forthcoming 2024 titles.
Five Signs that You Might Be Rightwing
The United States has the greatest gap between left and right for 50 years. Europe is anticipated to take a sharp right turn in this year’s European parliament elections. The past decade has already seen a rightward shift in India. In light of these global trends, it’s crucial to understand what being “rightwing” actually means, rather than simply using the term as an insult.
Sabotage of Biden’s Compromise Border Bill Proves It: GOP Wants Chaos, Not Solutions
Right-wing Republicans have squawked since forever that the only way to save this country from being overrun by non-white immigrants is to enact tough enforcement at the southern border. But now that they’ve finally gotten what they’ve always professed to want – a bipartisan Senate bill, with President Biden moving rightward in the spirit of compromise – Johnson and the rest of his MAGA misfits are decreeing that the whole package is DOA in the House.
Immigrant Activists Rally Against ‘Consistent Dehumanization’ in Florida as They Face More Bills Targeting Them
Seven months after one of the strictest immigration laws in the nation went into effect, dozens of immigrant rights activists gathered in the state Capitol building on Thursday to speak out about what one person called the “never ending attacks on immigrants” in Florida.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, February 16, 2024
The Palm Coast Open continues, Annual Health and Fitness Fair at the Palm Coast Community Center, Darryl Worley and Anthony Smith, at Flagler Auditorium, Woody Allen’s ‘Don’t Dring the Water,’ at Daytona Playhouse, Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony, at Jacksonville Symphony, a detour to Nigeria.
Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’: Jazz, Race, and That Problematic Melting Pot
Programming “Rhapsody” for concerts today has become somewhat of a double-edged sword. A century after it premiered, it remains a crowd favorite – and almost always guarantees a sold-out show. But more and more scholars are starting to see the work as a whitewashed version of Harlem’s vibrant Black music scene.
GOP Proposal to Teach Tendentious ‘History of Communism’ in K-12 Draws Heated Debate
An at-times tense meeting of a House panel exposed a simmering debate about whether a proposal to teach about the history of communism in grades as low as kindergarten is a polarizing idea or, as a supporter said, “not divisive in any way.”
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, February 15, 2024
The Palm Coast Open, ‘Tuck Everlasting,’ at Limelight Theater in St. Augustine, the day the world almost ended in 2013, an Abba tribute at the Peabody Auditorium, a few lines from Salman Rushdie.
The Myth of Men’s Full-Time Employment
Men’s labor force participation has been steadily declining since the 1970s, and workers are experiencing greater labor market precarity – that is, shorter job spells, greater job insecurity and more long-term unemployment. Only 41% of late baby boomer men – those who were between 14 and 21 years old in 1979 – worked steadily and continuously, which we defined as working almost every week of the year between ages 27 and 49.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Separation Chat, Open Discussion, Stayin’ Alive: One Night of the Bee Gees, at Flagler Auditorium, a Gazan writes, the impossibilities of a peace settlement as Marwan Barghouti rots in an Israeli prison.
Republicans and Democrats Consider Each Other Immoral No Matter What
Both Republicans and Democrats regarded people with opposing political views as less moral than people in their own party, even when their political opposites acted fairly or kindly toward them, according to experiments. Even participants who self-identified as only moderately conservative or liberal made the same harsh moral judgments about those on the other side of the political divide.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, February 13, 2024
The Community Traffic Safety Team meets, it’s Palm Coast City Council workshop day, the Palm Coast Open is ongoing, Cameron Driggers’s Youth Action Fund leads an anti-book-banning rally in Brevard County, only for a Sarah J. Maas book to be banned.
Why Florida Is Wrong to Have Downgraded Sociology in College
The American Sociological Association’s current president and a professor of sociology and public policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst explains why Florida’s decision to reduce the number of students enrolled in sociology courses is both disturbing and an opportunity to help the public better understand the academic discipline.
Florida House Moves Toward Banning Local Governments from Regulating EV Charging Stations, and Banning ‘Cultivated Meat’
The Florida House on Monday continued moving forward with a wide-ranging bill that includes banning sales of lab-grown meat in the state and preventing local governments from regulating electric-vehicle charging stations. Florida has 3,230 public charging stations in 44 of the 67 counties, and a staff analysis of the bill said electric vehicles made up nearly 3 percent of cars sold in Florida from July 2020 to July 2021.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, February 12, 2024
Trial week in felony court, with some right or nine potential trials, the Palm Coast Open, the Garden Club meets at the Palm Coast Social Club, the Bunnell City Commission meets, CNN’s Israel bias.
The Two-State Solution Is Dead
The simple fact is the number of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem) – now about 700,000, who live alongside three million Palestinians – means there is not much space left for a Palestinian state. The only way space could be made for another state would be if the government were to dismantle the settlements. That’s not going to happen.
Federal Judge Ends Challenges to Florida’s Election Law Targeting Black Voters
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a 17-page order after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year overturned a ruling in which he found the law improperly discriminated against Black voters. Walker appeared to criticize the appeals court for “reweighing” facts in the case.