May Day! May Day!

Introduction

We put my mom on a plane home to Sacramento Tuesday night. It was her first time out of California in over a decade. Heck, it was practically her first time out of Sacramento in over a decade--or at least Northern California. For the privacy of my mom and kids I'm not going to share the many pictures of her wonderful 12-day visit. But it was a needed respite from the chaos of the world and a lovely time to reconnect with my mommy. We talk several times a week over the phone while I'm doing Dad Taxi (this is not a paid service, it is a joke about carting my own children around--for some reason, this needs to be explained to many) in the aggressive and stupid driving madness that is South Florida.

Finite Disappointment

Precious bodily fluids

“Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? Fluoridation of water? Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?” Gen Jack D. Ripper, Dr. Strangelove (1964)

In their infinity capacity to shoot themselves in their own egg plant emojis, the Florida House and Senate sent a bill to the (recently) aggressively anti-vaxxer, anti-fluoride governor of Florida that would ban adding a microscopic amount of fluoride to any water treatment facilities in the state. Florida will join Utah as the only states aggressively anti-science enough to ban fluoride.

Fluoride, if you haven't heard, is present in almost all water naturally, though typically in too low an amount to improve dental health. Fluoridation of water increases that naturally occurring amount to .7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water. This means there's about three drops of fluoride in a 55 gallon drum of fluoridated water (source from which I'm paraphrasing). In order to consume too much you'd need to drink the entire 55 gallon drum of water all at once. Quoting from the link above:

Only a few studies have explored the after-effects of fluoride removal, and they show an increase in the number of cavities among children once water fluoridation stops...Calgary, Canada, which took out fluoride from the city water in 2011, is putting it back in, following a rise in dental cavities among children, reported The Sunday Times in early December (2024).

But Philip, isn't fluoride poisonous and isn't poison, by definition, bad for you? Yes, too much fluoride has been shown to cause potential health problems. But, as the Cleveland Clinic puts it in an article about the "unfounded" conspiracy theory, "You would have to drink so much water, you would die of drinking too much water before you would die of over-fluoridation,” says Dr. Nathan Janowicz. The article goes into the larger history of fluoridation.

Still, Philip, why take the risk?

Well, why take the risk of drinking apple juice or eating applesauce?

What's the risk there? you ask. Well, apple seeds contain amygdalin, a compound that when mixed with stomach acid produces hydrogen cyanide (source), "Perhaps the most popular of all poisons in murder mysteries and history alike (source)." For simplicity's sake, let's take a 220 pound (100 kg) person and give them a lethal does of cyanide. How much cyanide would we need? About 1.5 milligrams per kilogram of person, or, in this case of the 100 kg (220 pound) person, 150 milligrams or .15 grams. One gram is about how much a dollar bill weighs, so we're talking about 1/6 of a single dollar bill. Not much especially when compared to a 55 gallon drum of water.

Gen Jack D. Ripper (fictional) and John Birch Society (non-fictional) would be happy.

ICE

Meanwhile, a woman from Haiti died in ICE detention in South Florida this week. Whatever one's stance on borders in the United States, can't we agree that people in detention are people and their health and safety should be a priority?

I'm unsure if Florida Man Governor mentioned this death while he gleefully told reporters that 1,120 Florida residents were rounded up and detained in ICE facilities last week. From the Miami Herald:

A six-day immigration sweep in Florida last week resulted in the arrest of 1,120 people across the state, an operation that state and federal officials described as the largest of its kind to date and a “warm up” for future immigration enforcement operations. “We believe this is just the beginning,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference Thursday in Miramar. “The best is yet to come.”

Federal Grant cuts

Last Week Tonight did a great piece on HHS and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week that happens to explain how cuts impact many more people than you may think. While my life is impacted by NSF cuts more than the cuts talked about in this video (I know many people who have lost their jobs due to Federal Grants to university's being cut) the way the process works and trickles down is explained extremely well in this video.

This week in protests

I've been putting protests in the Infinite Hope section of these because democracy in action is a beautiful thing. They deserve their own section, however. I'm not sure how long given there's already a page for the "visual storytelling" I've been trying to do.

Protests and Actions (P and A)

This page is dedicated to visual storytelling of protests and actions I’ve attended or at least have access to original photos. I took all photos unless otherwise noted. The software I’m using here makes it hard to put alt text into the “gallery” style photo collections, and for that, I

This Week in FloridaPhilip Cardella

There continue to be protests around the nation, despite Democratic Washington Governor Jay Inslee suggesting otherwise.

The moment demands so much more than eloquence on the floor of the House and the Senate – it demands full-throated, continuous and united rebellion against the perverse oppression and malignant illegality of this authoritarian in the White House.

Unfortunately, we are not seeing the necessary courage, not in the east, not in the west, not in large law firms, not in boardrooms, not in school district superintendents, not in chambers of commerce. The silence is deafening. --Gov Jay Inslee writing for The Guardian

Florida's protests continue to gain international attention, as a matter of fact. This isn't to dispute Inslee, whose main focus is leaders of institutions that are silent. Rather, it is to point out that the political capital so frequently requisite to leaders finding their courage, may already be out there.

Angry Florida voters hold ‘empty chair’ town halls for absent Republicans

Republican committee advises against holding town halls as cases of lawmakers berated over federal cuts go viral

The GuardianMichael Sainato

On May Day, Thursday, following their Tesla Takedown protest on Saturday, Miami Indivisible gathered 150 protesters to the Social Security building about 200 feet from where the 47th President celebrated his November win.

Several news organizations, including the Miami Herald, where at the Thursday protest. As Herald reporter Michael Butler told it:

The exterior of the Social Security Administration building in Little Havana was abuzz Thursday afternoon with loud chants from about 150 protesters. A seemingly endless trail of nearby drivers honked their horns in support.

From my perspective, this was a large turnout on a Thursday afternoon. The protests two miles up the same road in front of US Rep. Maria Salazar's office appeared to me to get more supportive honks and fewer disapproving chants of "Trump, Trump, Trump." This protest even had one or two counter protesters at it. Does this context change anything? I'm not sure, but I think it is, if nothing else, a data point.

Still, the overwhelming majority of horn honks were clearly in support of the protesters and the crowd was easily the biggest I've seen on a weekday lunch hour protest (of which I've covered many in 2025).

23yflagler (23 and Flagler (23 and Flagler are streets in Miami) has a great video on the protest May Day Protest. I, um, don't know what is being said in the first interview because my Spanish is bad. A good example of the honking starts at 4:25 in the video during the first interview in English. If you want great videos on South Florida I highly recommend following 23yflagler.

Historic Interlude

On April 29, 1818 General Andrew Jackson murdered British citizens for helping Creek and Seminole Indians resist Jackson's illegal invasion of Spanish Florida (TDIFH page 73). Early white Florida was defined by the three Seminole Wars, a series of conflicts that spanned four decades from 1816 to 1858. The Dade in Miami-Dade County gets its name from a US Major named Francis Dade who was killed in an ambush in 1835. After an investigation that found fault in Jackson's actions in 1818 they declined to press the matter any further. See This Day in Florida History for my main source.

Infinite Hope

The Gospel According to Taylor Swift?

Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ (say that three times real fast) a liberal bastion across from the iconic Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables unleashed their annual post Easter "Gospel According to..." service. In years past Jimmy Buffet, Miami Sound Machine, Disney and Dolly Parton, are among the dozen or so artists covered in the annual "sermon series". This year it was the Gospel According to Taylor Swift. Rev. Dr. Laurie Hafner, the Senior Pastor at CGCUCC told Howard Cohen of the Miami Herald:

“It seems like the right time to lift Taylor Swift up and to celebrate her music as there is probably not a more timely musician who speaks to the many issues that are confronting us as individuals and even as a nation these days. Issues such as loneliness, community, creating strong young women, courage, truthfulness, grief, changes and love.”

No, Taylor did not show up to the concert (But Miami Sound Machine's Clay Ostwald, a member of the church, led the performance!). Yes, there were friendship bracelets galore and they were exchanged during the "passing of the peace," a moment when many congregations encourage people to greet one another with a blessing of peace.

Can we find hope in the music of an unlikely billionaire who has been repeatedly underestimated? Yeah, that used to be a thing, underestimating her. I think so. When shit hits the fan, sometimes we just need to shake it off and believe in ourselves.

Gratuitous animal pics