July 9, 2025 • 30 mins
On Part 1 of today's podcast, Ramses Ja and Q Ward discuss the latest news involving Carnival Cruise lines and also look at the measles outbreak happening around the country.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Broadcasting from the Civic Cipher Studios. Welcome to the QR Code,
where we share perspective, seek understanding, and shape outcomes. The
man you are about to hear with the Golden Voice.
He is a tremendous human being and a person that
offers a lot of insight into stories and helps me
grow as a person every day. He goes by the
name of h Ward.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And the reason that's confusing is because Rams is Jah
the Lion, the Golden Voice, like he likes to speak
about himself looking in the mirror, but then throw my
name in there. I don't understand the why he is
your host. I just work here.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Oh stop it all right, Well, we need you to
stick around because we're gonna have some fun today with
what we're talking about. Stay tuned because we're going to
be discussing a little later on in the show. Ello
Coool Jay and Jasmine Sullivan pulling out of a performance
in Philadelphia to stand with the workers of America. I
think that's a great story and I think we could
learn a lot from that. We're also gonna be talking
(00:58):
about carnival cruises change the rules seemingly targeting black passengers.
That's what people are saying, we're going to get into
the weeds and figure out what the heads and the
tails are of that. But uh, I'm excited to check
that out a little bit more. Uh Q is going
to talk to us a little bit about you know
what excuse police say they have for targeting black people
(01:22):
more often than others and hint, they blame black people
for that. Uh. We're also going to be discussing the
fact that the measles are back, or in my case,
the measles are here. I've never lived in a world
where measles came back, but they're here. And we're going
to start off with some culture as always. Drake as
(01:47):
a new song that hit number one on Spotify and
Apple Music in the United States, and uh so that's culture.
We're going to talk about it. But before we get
to all that, as always, time to start with a
feel good feature. So today's feel good feature comes from
the Route and I will share. Mayor Karen Bass has
been outspoken against President Donald Trump's sending National Guard troops
(02:09):
to quell anti ice protest, but despite the official's outrage,
it seems the troops have yet to leave. On Monday,
July seventh, dozens of soldiers were seen descending to MacArthur Park,
and Bass wasn't having it. KTLA reported Department of Homeland
Security and military vehicles were positioned at the park that morning,
including at least four white bands believed to be used
(02:30):
to transport detainees to jails and detention centers. Armed soldiers
on horseback were supported by others on foot as they
marched on soccer fields and trampled through the park, located
in an immigrant heavy neighborhood. As soon as footage of
the parade got back to Mayor Bass, she went down
there to personally handle the situation. Quote My purpose was
one to witness what was going on, but then when
(02:51):
I got there, to do what I could to stop it,
quote she said during a press conference. She goes on
to say, what I saw in the park today looked
like a city under siege, under armed occupation unquote. The
mayor quickly arrived to the scene and demanded to speak
to the person in charge, head of customs, Rodney Scott. Quote.
They put me on the phone with the individual. I
said that this needed to end. What was the purpose
(03:14):
in them being there, but it absolutely needed to end. Unquote.
Bass continued during the press conference. Quote he said that
they would be leaving within minutes, and I believe a
few minutes later they left unquote. And you know, again,
we're looking for stories that feel good, and anybody that
stands up and does what's right and uses their powerful
good we are the people that need to applaud that
(03:37):
because we need more of that behavior. And Mayor Karen
Bass certainly has embodied that sentiment. So, yeah, that made
me feel good. Anything from UQ.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
California, because of its GDP, is a uniquely placed city
or state. I'm sorry in LA a uniquely placed city
with the black mayor. We'll see how it holds up overall.
But they've been very resistant to the rights attacks on immigration.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, yeah, that's fair, that's all right. So Drake his
new song hits number one on Spotify and Apple Music
in the US. Now, I'll be fully transparent. I don't
know much about this other than the fact that you
know the headline I just read Drake has a new song.
(04:30):
I don't know the name of it, hit number one
on Spotify and Apple Music in the US. And I'm
a DJ, and I'm a good DJ. I don't know
the name of this song because I haven't gone through
my email. Maybe it's been service to me, but I
haven't really been checking for Drake music like that. But
you know, maybe there's something I need to learn here,
and I do want to say something before you go,
(04:52):
because Q's going to teach me a lot. So we're
all going to learn together from Q. But you know,
one of the things that kind of prompted this show
wash Drake and Kendrick Lamar kind of going back and forth.
Of course, we had the idea and the concept for
the show, but kind of one of our early stories
that we covered was was that, you know, back and
(05:12):
forth when they were sending the records back and forth.
And so we gained a little bit of an audience
as a result of our coverage of that, and you know,
it's translated into now what you're hearing, and so this
is something that we've been paying attention to for a
for a long time. So long time listeners will have
a lot more context than people just finding out who
we are. But Q, as I mentioned, Drake has a
(05:35):
new song hit number one on Spotify and Apple Music
in the US. Enlighten me give me a little.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Bit more So Ramses does this thing where he sets
the stage for me, and it's incredibly unfair, like he
just presented me as like the Drake expert who's going
to teach ever. I'm going to talk about my opinion
on things. Yeah, but I learned through that if we
learned some things, that'll be great. But yeah, to leave
it to my brother just set me up on the
(06:01):
stage where now the audience is waiting for expert Q
to teach everybody something about Drake.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
So July eighth, the data for What Did.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I Miss shows that Drake's song is number one on
US Spotify charts and I think one point three six
million streams on its opening day on US Spotify or
Apple Music and two point eight million streams on its
(06:36):
opening day on Spotify or something like that, the biggest
hip hop debut of the weekend. As of July sixth, it's,
you know, number one on both of those charts.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Comparatively, What Did I Miss?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
As with everything these days, you're going to compare Drake
to Kendrick, and it's kind of hard to compare apples
to apples because you're talking about Kendrick's last album that
dropped in November versus Drake's song that dropped recently. But
just to give you some perspective, GNX debuted with two
hundred and forty million streams in its first four days. Wow,
(07:15):
three hundred and eighty million streams in its first week,
So that one point three six million and two point
eight million sound a lot less. You do the division right,
because it's like that. The album is a collection of
songs that all get their own streaming numbers. But even
if you divide that number by twelve, which is the
number of tracks on GNX, that number is still going
(07:37):
to be significantly higher than Drake's. So on a per
song basis just breaking it down what the streams will
be per song on GNX and still be significantly more.
The problem, however, with Drake, which I think people were
kind of losing the plot. The problem with Drake will
never be whether or not he can give us good music.
(08:00):
He's Drake like we didn't We didn't go through like
a time warp where our memories were vanquished and you
know the neuro thing from Men in Black where we
forgot like Drake is one of the top hit makers
in the history of music. He hasn't lost the ability
to craft, produce, write, record and put out good songs.
(08:21):
You know, his uh No Kia record was number one,
I think, you know over the it reached number one,
I believe over the last few months, and it's you know,
charting well, performing well on radio and in nightclubs. The
problem is the way that everybody looks at Drake. Now,
I heard this song and I didn't mind it. If
you're just listening to the song, right the the cadence
(08:43):
of his flow, the melody of his hook, the production,
the beat, it's a good song. The problem is at
some point you start listening to what he's saying, and
it's hard not to look at him funny once you
start listening to what he's saying.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
What's he's saying that Drake.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Is trying to convince us, talking out of one side
of his neck with streamers and other artists, that he's
completely unfazed by the thing that happened with him and Kendrick,
that he'd you know, it wasn't a big deal. You know,
Kendrick's you know, a mole hill and he's a mountain
and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. You know, even other artists coming
(09:19):
out speaking on his behalf about how incredibly unfazed he
was by it, and he was, you know, mostly upbeat
in the wake of losing the biggest battle in hip
hop history. That's an objective statement, that's not my opinion.
And then right after it, or you know, shortly after,
he put out a song called Fighting Irish Freestyle, which
(09:44):
you know Lebron James from Akron Saint Vincent, Saint Mary
High School. The Fighting Irish was kind of the subject
and antagonist in that story.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
And here we are a year later.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
And that I miss comes out and he's seemingly taking
shots at Lebron James Steele. Lebron James a basketball player,
not a rapper, by the way, so he can't drop his.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Rebuttal dish track back at Drake.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
He just seems a bit tone deaf, right like he's
dancing in a freezer on the video in one scene,
and on another scene it's him, I'm thinking, standing on
the patio at his home with a hundred rifles. It's
just like again, kind of tone deaf. He's suing UMG
(10:37):
right now, claiming that not like us caused him fiscal
and mental harm, claiming that violence that occurred at his
home was as a result of not like us, not
the ongoing beef he was having with another artist in Canada,
because of course, nobody from California went across the border
with guns to attack Drake. So suing because you lost
(11:01):
the rat battle, saying that that caused you fiscal you know,
mental anxiety and stress and that may have caused you
or put you in physical danger while shooting your new video,
dissing because you're suing someone for dissing you.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
But you can dissing. It's fine surrounded by guns.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
While suing, because like it's just a very very confusing
position to take.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
And from Drake.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
And you know, I won't say his fans because we're
Drake fans, but his like sickle fan, like Zelot Maga
like followers all like following Maga's lead. It's like, our
guy can do anything right. A couple of weeks ago,
the clips, you know, their rollout started for their new
album and Push Your Tea is dissing Travis Scott in
(11:48):
one of the records, and Drake's fans are like, how
come every time you put out a song you gotta
be dissing? But then Drake comes out with a song
where he's dissing and not even another artist but basketball
players and Drake's fans are like, yeah, that's how you
do it. This is the greatest roleout ever. So it's
like that blatant hypocrisy. Anything our guy does is great,
anything everybody else does sucks. All of that is heightened
(12:10):
with the type of decisions that he makes from what
did I miss? Like, Hey, I wasn't paying attention. What's
going on? Well, you got into a rap battle with
one of the greatest artists ever. You lost in fancastacular fashion,
scular fashion, in front of the whole world.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
You got drug.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
The song went diamond, won five Grammys, one four BT Awards,
He performed it at the Super Bowl, and is now
touring the world performing it with tens of thousands of
people begging him to do an encore of the song
every night for the last record marketing tour, like yeah,
what did you miss?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
And it admiss that you suit him for that song
or the label for promoting the song, because labels aren't
supposed to exploit and promote and amplify songs of artists
that are assigned to them. It's just a really really
strange position to take. And when you come out like, hey,
I'm the iceman and whether I'm missing I'm too cool
for school and still sneaked again, it just seems a
little tone deaf.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yeah, all right, well, now you see why I.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Set Q up like the expert, because, like I said,
he always I don't know that I'm expert.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Man, This is just what I you know, just my
opinion on what I see. But I mean more than
more than me, more than obviously I know a good
good amount about uh, you know, Drake. But I haven't
seen this latest video. I haven't heard the song yet,
but I'll probably get it in my over the weekend.
You you probably will. Man. It's catchy. It's a Drake song.
It sounds like a Drake song.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Now, admittedly, he's put out some songs since the Beef
that were not that didn't feel like Drake, songs that
were kind of awful. Yeah, this feels like a Drake song.
It's not oh my good fantastic, but it's Drake, right.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
It just he just lost a lot of cool points.
And I think that's really the response. Even though it's
number one, it's not with this, it's not the it's
not a number one with the enthusiasm that we're used
to seeing associated with a drake, and I think that's
probably what I'm feeling too. Anyway, moving on measles are
(14:07):
back crazy. So before we get here, I want to
say this. I both of us Q and myself we
have a dear friend and she is like super duper
online with the anti vax stuff. Right, you might not
even know which friend I'm talking about, but I promise
(14:29):
she is both of our friend. She's a sweeter You
does not know which friend we're talking about. I know
who she is because I follow one of her feeds
on a platform that you're not on all that much.
You are, but you're not, you don't visit it all
that often. But anyway, I see her anti vax stuff
and she's like really proud of it, and she's like, yeah,
I'm protecting my children and blah blah blah. She's a
dear friend of both of ours. And I think that
(14:55):
people that are like really anti vax are like it
takes a special kind of person, right, You either have
to have a very specific health predicament or you know
you generally speaking, you're probably more susceptible to conspiracy theories
and propaganda and all that sort of stuff. Right now,
(15:19):
that is not something that I condemn people for, because
it is you have to be a human being subject
to the human condition in order to be vulnerable to that.
Same way you're a human being and you're vulnerable to
other types of diseases, you know what I mean. It
can happen, right There are people there to help you,
(15:40):
but you have to first realize that you're afflicted, you know,
And for a long time, a lot of people don't
realize that they're afflicted. They think that everything is okay
and that this is the way it's supposed to be.
So that's the first thing I'll say. The second thing
I'll say is because Q and I we deal in data.
(16:00):
I remember seeing recently too. This might have been the
last three weeks. I saw. I was doing some research
on Ronald Reagan for a segment we were doing. I'm
not sure if it was a show suit excipher, but
we were doing a we're doing something and I had
a couple of charts like graphs, and it showed like
(16:23):
the introduction of vaccines, like the federal mandate for vaccines
or something like that. I'm not going to tell you
exactly what it is. I'm going to just kind of
describe what I saw. Now, again, I only do journalistically
credible research, so I have to cite the sources and
then review the sources themselves and find out if they
had a scientific method. Most of the time, you know,
everything checks out, But I don't. We don't wait into
(16:45):
propaganda stuff, right all that often when we do it,
we have processes in place to find out whether or
not it's valid. But you know, I saw the graphs
showing the marked drop in and child illnesses and child
fatalities that coincided with governmental policy that required all students
(17:11):
be vaccinated. So late seventies, early eighties, I think this
is approximately the time when this happened, and it was
a sharp drop off, right. So I'm gonna read this,
set this up a little bit, and then I'll throw
to UQ and get your thoughts, and then you know,
we'll go from there. So this is from iHeart dot com.
Measles cases in the United States have surged to their
highest level since the disease was declared eliminated in two thousand.
(17:34):
As of July first, twenty twenty five, the CDC reported
one thousand, two hundred and sixty seven confirmed cases across
thirty eight states. By July seven, this number rose to
two hundred and eighty one, surpassing the one two hundred
and seventy four cases recorded in twenty nineteen. The current
outbreak has affected a wide age range, with nearly all
(17:56):
cases occurring in unvaccinated individuals or those with unknown vaccination status.
According to the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University,
the outbreak reflects long standing gaps and measles vaccine coverage.
The US Measles Tracker, developed by IVAC, provides real time
data on measles cases at the county level, highlighting the
(18:17):
importance of maintaining adequate vaccination levels. The largest outbreak has
been in West Texas altho over seven hundred and fifty
cases reported since January. The outbreak has spread to surrounding states.
Public health experts warned that the US could lose its
measles elimination status if the spread continues for more than
twelve months. The CDC notes that ninety two percent of
cases in twenty twenty five were among unvaccinated individuals. The
(18:41):
National MMR vaccination rate among kindergarteners has fallen below ninety
three percent, down from over ninety five percent in twenty nineteen.
Health officials emphasize the importance of vaccinations to prevent future
outbreaks and maintain public health. Okay, any early thoughts here
before I get off a couple of bar you what
(19:02):
you said? No? Get off? Okay, all right, So first off, RFK.
You know we can't have a conversation about vaccines without
mentioning him, his name and him being a champion when
he was a presidential candidate, and now that you know
he in his like current role, you know he's able
(19:24):
to do obviously a lot more. Texas UH has famously
kind of stood behind you know, parents' right to to choose.
But one of the things I will say is that
some things people deserve to be able to make health
decisions or whatever decisions for themselves. And some things people
(19:48):
are wildly susceptible to, you know, propaganda, and if they
don't do the right thing, it can affect other people. Right.
So it's one thing if you say, hey, look, I
don't don't want to get a blood transfusion, it affects
me only, and it only has the potential to affect me.
(20:09):
It's another thing when you say I don't want to
get vaccinated and that could lead to a public health emergency,
which you know is these are the embers of such
an event. So I like the old way of doing things,
where people stayed alive, people were healthy, and the government
(20:31):
sort of mandated with that unless you have a doctor's excuse,
your child has to be vaccinated in order to attend
public school, right, and your child has to attend some
form of schooling, Okay, And what we had was a
healthy society. As I mentioned in the article, measles was
eliminated in two thousand after dropping in the eighties, so
(20:54):
eighteen years the disease was eradicated, and then twenty five
five years later we have again the embers of another outbreak.
And it's because of you know, people that are susceptible
to propaganda. And again that's a human thing. I'm not
mad at any individual. I'm mad at just the fact
(21:17):
that those in power are not aware, or maybe they
are aware, and depending on the fact that people are
susceptible to propaganda, or they're pandering to their base, which
I suspect, maybe they're parts of all these things that
are true. But the one thing I will say before
I give it back to you, Q, is that if
(21:38):
vaccination does cause whatever autism and all the things that
those people say happens when you get vaccinated, one thing
I will say about vaccinations is that they cause children
to live. That's born out by the data. It's irrefutable.
And you know, I would take a child that's a live,
(22:01):
you know, than a child that runs the risk of
losing their life to some sort of disease or whatever. Now,
of course, none of the things that these folks are
worried about has been uh been determined to be caused
by these things. There's a correlation, of course, but there's
a number of factors that cause correlations. Causation isn't an
(22:23):
entirely different thing. All Right, I've said enough to anything.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Just in short, I won't even let you pose the
if it causes autism becauseause there actually is data that
shows that it doesn't. So why don't even you know
what I mean, like, don't open the door for that question,
Mark to have anything. I appreciate it coming from your
voice that there's data that shows that's not the truth,
that's not still up for debate. We're not still wondering.
It's not even a correlation versus causation thing. There's data
(22:50):
that says that's not the truth across the board. What
I miss is when scientists were the experts. Yes, that's
what I missed. I miss when scientists were the experts,
not the person that you follow on YouTube or Instagram
or Twitter that's really good at doing videos and talking
very confidently about.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Things they don't know about.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
And what those people typically do instead of offering you
any answers, solutions, or fixes, they just ask you a
bunch of questions. They ask you enough questions to make
you challenge what you believe, and then they just leave
you hanging. They adopt the opposite position, but they don't
adopt that position with any information, any facts, any solutions,
(23:29):
any solves.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Nothing.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
They ask a bunch of questions, challenging all the experts.
How come these people learn the experts, Well, most of
them have studied for eight, ten, twelve, twenty thirty years. Research,
just gone through all the processes to gain all the information.
Peer review, just scrutiny. They're experts because they're experts. They
(23:53):
look up the definition of the word and that person
who you follow who just so happens to agree with
you and ask questions with confidence, isn't the anti expert?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yeah? Well, speaking of Texas, you know somebody who better
do better? Well today, that's Ted Cruz. I'm gonna share
a bit from the bin. Senator Ted Cruz was vacationing
in Greece amid deadly Texas floods. How about that? Senator
(24:26):
Ted Cruise is under fire after he was caught vacationing
in Greece amid deadly flooding in central Texas. According to
The Daily Beast, Cruise arrived in Athens on Thursday, July third,
just after the Senate passed Trump's Big Beautiful Bill. Devastating
floods hit the banks of the Guadalupe River in the
early hours of Friday, July fourth, leaving at least one
hundred people dead, including twenty seven children, and many others
(24:46):
missing and injured in Kerr County and its surrounding areas
Amid the deadly flooding. Cruise was spotted with his wife
lining up for a tour outside of the Parthenon on Saturday,
July fifth, whose took a flight back home on Sunday,
July sixth, and was in Texas by that evening. The
Senator was on the ground in Kirk County on Monday,
July seventh, with a spokesperson noting that he returned home
(25:08):
quote as fast as humanly possible. Crew said he had
been in contact with local authorities and President Donald Trump
for support and resources amid the flooding. However, Cruz could
have booked several flights from Greece to Texas before the
one he boarded. According to the Daily Beast, flight data
shows there were multiple flights from Athens to San Antonio,
Texas on Friday and Saturday after the flooding began. It's
(25:31):
unclear how many seats were available on each flight, but
possible options including flights leaving Athens on Saturday morning and
landing in San Antonio that same evening, though through stops
in Chicago, Atlanta, or Washington, DC. Earlier flights were also
available on Friday. Okay, so better do better, not just
because he was out vacationing in Greece and was dragging
(25:55):
his feet to get home, but also the last time
there was that cold front I believe in Texas that
caused a bunch of people to die, and he was
getting on a plane and going on vacation after like
the news had already broke that you know, Texas was
(26:18):
suffering as a result of this, and he was woke
up the next day, was like, yeah, I'm out, got
his family together and went to the airport and he
got spotted, and people made a big deal out of
the fact that, Yo, this guy's leaving and there are
people in his state, the people that elected him, that
are dying. And so then he had to turn around
and come back. And I suspect he would have never
(26:38):
come back had he not been photographed and people not
been able to make a big deal out of that.
So he's like zero for two when it comes to
like vacationing and people dying in his home state suffering
from crisis crises that Texas like backs itself into legislatively speaking, right,
(27:00):
Texas has the capacity to get in front of these
potential problems and does not. And then of course the
elected officials are it doesn't affect them, and Ted Cruz
kind of puts it on full display for all of
the people that vote for him to see, and well
half of them probably take issue with it, and so
(27:20):
you know anything to add here, Kim, Well, have don't
take issue, because if half took issue, he wouldn't still
be the Senator. Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Right wing politicians continue to show us flagrantly that they
don't care about their constituents. Like you said, he's two
for two on just being not just missing in action,
but conspicuously kicking his feet up. Yeah, okay, while his
constituents suffer. The governor of the Great State praises Donald
(27:53):
Trump after these things happen like they I've never seen
any like it, man, And you have a base that
won't change how they feel based on these things. You know,
there seems to be nothing that the right can do
to upset their base enough for them to change their minds.
(28:14):
Our president is playing golf because that's what he does,
and eating ice cream, and I think our vice president
is somewhere vacationing as well. The President hasn't even been
decent enough to mention or visit, or pay tribute to
or even offer the false thoughts and prayers that's typical
of politicians these days when people are suffering. He's just
(28:34):
going about his life flagrantly, not giving a you know what,
And I guess there's no such thing as calling them
to account for anything anymore, so why even try. But
what Republicans and what MAGA has shown us is they
don't even require the people that they elect to do
anything for them. As long as they do something to
(28:56):
the people they also don't like, they will continue to
vote for and support them. And things like this bear
that out in front of our eyes, Like they don't
care if you defund the service that makes it easier
for you to predict weather patterns and plan to avoid
crisis or prepare for crisis. They don't care that that
results in lives lost. They don't care that in the
(29:19):
wake of storms and flash floods and natural disasters that
they'll need relief that their party has decided as an
important like FEMA, like you know, and like gutting the
National Weather Service of the resources and the people that
they need. So in the wake of these things, when
people die as a result of their decisions, when they
are held accountable for it, everyone is like, hey, don't
(29:40):
bring politics into this, Except when the shoe is on
the other foot and something happens, like you know, wildfires
in southern California, Then the governor of California and the
Mayor of Los Angeles get held accountable and blamed for
those disasters that are not in their control at all.
Much ado about nothing
Broadcasting from the Civic Cipher Studios. Welcome to the QR Code,
where we share perspective, seek understanding, and shape outcomes. The
man you are about to hear with the Golden Voice.
He is a tremendous human being and a person that
offers a lot of insight into stories and helps me
grow as a person every day. He goes by the
name of h Ward.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And the reason that's confusing is because Rams is Jah
the Lion, the Golden Voice, like he likes to speak
about himself looking in the mirror, but then throw my
name in there. I don't understand the why he is
your host. I just work here.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Oh stop it all right, Well, we need you to
stick around because we're gonna have some fun today with
what we're talking about. Stay tuned because we're going to
be discussing a little later on in the show. Ello
Coool Jay and Jasmine Sullivan pulling out of a performance
in Philadelphia to stand with the workers of America. I
think that's a great story and I think we could
learn a lot from that. We're also gonna be talking
(00:58):
about carnival cruises change the rules seemingly targeting black passengers.
That's what people are saying, we're going to get into
the weeds and figure out what the heads and the
tails are of that. But uh, I'm excited to check
that out a little bit more. Uh Q is going
to talk to us a little bit about you know
what excuse police say they have for targeting black people
(01:22):
more often than others and hint, they blame black people
for that. Uh. We're also going to be discussing the
fact that the measles are back, or in my case,
the measles are here. I've never lived in a world
where measles came back, but they're here. And we're going
to start off with some culture as always. Drake as
(01:47):
a new song that hit number one on Spotify and
Apple Music in the United States, and uh so that's culture.
We're going to talk about it. But before we get
to all that, as always, time to start with a
feel good feature. So today's feel good feature comes from
the Route and I will share. Mayor Karen Bass has
been outspoken against President Donald Trump's sending National Guard troops
(02:09):
to quell anti ice protest, but despite the official's outrage,
it seems the troops have yet to leave. On Monday,
July seventh, dozens of soldiers were seen descending to MacArthur Park,
and Bass wasn't having it. KTLA reported Department of Homeland
Security and military vehicles were positioned at the park that morning,
including at least four white bands believed to be used
(02:30):
to transport detainees to jails and detention centers. Armed soldiers
on horseback were supported by others on foot as they
marched on soccer fields and trampled through the park, located
in an immigrant heavy neighborhood. As soon as footage of
the parade got back to Mayor Bass, she went down
there to personally handle the situation. Quote My purpose was
one to witness what was going on, but then when
(02:51):
I got there, to do what I could to stop it,
quote she said during a press conference. She goes on
to say, what I saw in the park today looked
like a city under siege, under armed occupation unquote. The
mayor quickly arrived to the scene and demanded to speak
to the person in charge, head of customs, Rodney Scott. Quote.
They put me on the phone with the individual. I
said that this needed to end. What was the purpose
(03:14):
in them being there, but it absolutely needed to end. Unquote.
Bass continued during the press conference. Quote he said that
they would be leaving within minutes, and I believe a
few minutes later they left unquote. And you know, again,
we're looking for stories that feel good, and anybody that
stands up and does what's right and uses their powerful
good we are the people that need to applaud that
(03:37):
because we need more of that behavior. And Mayor Karen
Bass certainly has embodied that sentiment. So, yeah, that made
me feel good. Anything from UQ.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
California, because of its GDP, is a uniquely placed city
or state. I'm sorry in LA a uniquely placed city
with the black mayor. We'll see how it holds up overall.
But they've been very resistant to the rights attacks on immigration.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, yeah, that's fair, that's all right. So Drake his
new song hits number one on Spotify and Apple Music
in the US. Now, I'll be fully transparent. I don't
know much about this other than the fact that you
know the headline I just read Drake has a new song.
(04:30):
I don't know the name of it, hit number one
on Spotify and Apple Music in the US. And I'm
a DJ, and I'm a good DJ. I don't know
the name of this song because I haven't gone through
my email. Maybe it's been service to me, but I
haven't really been checking for Drake music like that. But
you know, maybe there's something I need to learn here,
and I do want to say something before you go,
(04:52):
because Q's going to teach me a lot. So we're
all going to learn together from Q. But you know,
one of the things that kind of prompted this show
wash Drake and Kendrick Lamar kind of going back and forth.
Of course, we had the idea and the concept for
the show, but kind of one of our early stories
that we covered was was that, you know, back and
(05:12):
forth when they were sending the records back and forth.
And so we gained a little bit of an audience
as a result of our coverage of that, and you know,
it's translated into now what you're hearing, and so this
is something that we've been paying attention to for a
for a long time. So long time listeners will have
a lot more context than people just finding out who
we are. But Q, as I mentioned, Drake has a
(05:35):
new song hit number one on Spotify and Apple Music
in the US. Enlighten me give me a little.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Bit more So Ramses does this thing where he sets
the stage for me, and it's incredibly unfair, like he
just presented me as like the Drake expert who's going
to teach ever. I'm going to talk about my opinion
on things. Yeah, but I learned through that if we
learned some things, that'll be great. But yeah, to leave
it to my brother just set me up on the
(06:01):
stage where now the audience is waiting for expert Q
to teach everybody something about Drake.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
So July eighth, the data for What Did.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I Miss shows that Drake's song is number one on
US Spotify charts and I think one point three six
million streams on its opening day on US Spotify or
Apple Music and two point eight million streams on its
(06:36):
opening day on Spotify or something like that, the biggest
hip hop debut of the weekend. As of July sixth, it's,
you know, number one on both of those charts.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Comparatively, What Did I Miss?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
As with everything these days, you're going to compare Drake
to Kendrick, and it's kind of hard to compare apples
to apples because you're talking about Kendrick's last album that
dropped in November versus Drake's song that dropped recently. But
just to give you some perspective, GNX debuted with two
hundred and forty million streams in its first four days. Wow,
(07:15):
three hundred and eighty million streams in its first week,
So that one point three six million and two point
eight million sound a lot less. You do the division right,
because it's like that. The album is a collection of
songs that all get their own streaming numbers. But even
if you divide that number by twelve, which is the
number of tracks on GNX, that number is still going
(07:37):
to be significantly higher than Drake's. So on a per
song basis just breaking it down what the streams will
be per song on GNX and still be significantly more.
The problem, however, with Drake, which I think people were
kind of losing the plot. The problem with Drake will
never be whether or not he can give us good music.
(08:00):
He's Drake like we didn't We didn't go through like
a time warp where our memories were vanquished and you
know the neuro thing from Men in Black where we
forgot like Drake is one of the top hit makers
in the history of music. He hasn't lost the ability
to craft, produce, write, record and put out good songs.
(08:21):
You know, his uh No Kia record was number one,
I think, you know over the it reached number one,
I believe over the last few months, and it's you know,
charting well, performing well on radio and in nightclubs. The
problem is the way that everybody looks at Drake. Now,
I heard this song and I didn't mind it. If
you're just listening to the song, right the the cadence
(08:43):
of his flow, the melody of his hook, the production,
the beat, it's a good song. The problem is at
some point you start listening to what he's saying, and
it's hard not to look at him funny once you
start listening to what he's saying.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
What's he's saying that Drake.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Is trying to convince us, talking out of one side
of his neck with streamers and other artists, that he's
completely unfazed by the thing that happened with him and Kendrick,
that he'd you know, it wasn't a big deal. You know,
Kendrick's you know, a mole hill and he's a mountain
and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. You know, even other artists coming
(09:19):
out speaking on his behalf about how incredibly unfazed he
was by it, and he was, you know, mostly upbeat
in the wake of losing the biggest battle in hip
hop history. That's an objective statement, that's not my opinion.
And then right after it, or you know, shortly after,
he put out a song called Fighting Irish Freestyle, which
(09:44):
you know Lebron James from Akron Saint Vincent, Saint Mary
High School. The Fighting Irish was kind of the subject
and antagonist in that story.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
And here we are a year later.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
And that I miss comes out and he's seemingly taking
shots at Lebron James Steele. Lebron James a basketball player,
not a rapper, by the way, so he can't drop his.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Rebuttal dish track back at Drake.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
He just seems a bit tone deaf, right like he's
dancing in a freezer on the video in one scene,
and on another scene it's him, I'm thinking, standing on
the patio at his home with a hundred rifles. It's
just like again, kind of tone deaf. He's suing UMG
(10:37):
right now, claiming that not like us caused him fiscal
and mental harm, claiming that violence that occurred at his
home was as a result of not like us, not
the ongoing beef he was having with another artist in Canada,
because of course, nobody from California went across the border
with guns to attack Drake. So suing because you lost
(11:01):
the rat battle, saying that that caused you fiscal you know,
mental anxiety and stress and that may have caused you
or put you in physical danger while shooting your new video,
dissing because you're suing someone for dissing you.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
But you can dissing. It's fine surrounded by guns.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
While suing, because like it's just a very very confusing
position to take.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
And from Drake.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
And you know, I won't say his fans because we're
Drake fans, but his like sickle fan, like Zelot Maga
like followers all like following Maga's lead. It's like, our
guy can do anything right. A couple of weeks ago,
the clips, you know, their rollout started for their new
album and Push Your Tea is dissing Travis Scott in
(11:48):
one of the records, and Drake's fans are like, how
come every time you put out a song you gotta
be dissing? But then Drake comes out with a song
where he's dissing and not even another artist but basketball
players and Drake's fans are like, yeah, that's how you
do it. This is the greatest roleout ever. So it's
like that blatant hypocrisy. Anything our guy does is great,
anything everybody else does sucks. All of that is heightened
(12:10):
with the type of decisions that he makes from what
did I miss? Like, Hey, I wasn't paying attention. What's
going on? Well, you got into a rap battle with
one of the greatest artists ever. You lost in fancastacular fashion,
scular fashion, in front of the whole world.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
You got drug.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
The song went diamond, won five Grammys, one four BT Awards,
He performed it at the Super Bowl, and is now
touring the world performing it with tens of thousands of
people begging him to do an encore of the song
every night for the last record marketing tour, like yeah,
what did you miss?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
And it admiss that you suit him for that song
or the label for promoting the song, because labels aren't
supposed to exploit and promote and amplify songs of artists
that are assigned to them. It's just a really really
strange position to take. And when you come out like, hey,
I'm the iceman and whether I'm missing I'm too cool
for school and still sneaked again, it just seems a
little tone deaf.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yeah, all right, well, now you see why I.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Set Q up like the expert, because, like I said,
he always I don't know that I'm expert.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Man, This is just what I you know, just my
opinion on what I see. But I mean more than
more than me, more than obviously I know a good
good amount about uh, you know, Drake. But I haven't
seen this latest video. I haven't heard the song yet,
but I'll probably get it in my over the weekend.
You you probably will. Man. It's catchy. It's a Drake song.
It sounds like a Drake song.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Now, admittedly, he's put out some songs since the Beef
that were not that didn't feel like Drake, songs that
were kind of awful. Yeah, this feels like a Drake song.
It's not oh my good fantastic, but it's Drake, right.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
It just he just lost a lot of cool points.
And I think that's really the response. Even though it's
number one, it's not with this, it's not the it's
not a number one with the enthusiasm that we're used
to seeing associated with a drake, and I think that's
probably what I'm feeling too. Anyway, moving on measles are
(14:07):
back crazy. So before we get here, I want to
say this. I both of us Q and myself we
have a dear friend and she is like super duper
online with the anti vax stuff. Right, you might not
even know which friend I'm talking about, but I promise
(14:29):
she is both of our friend. She's a sweeter You
does not know which friend we're talking about. I know
who she is because I follow one of her feeds
on a platform that you're not on all that much.
You are, but you're not, you don't visit it all
that often. But anyway, I see her anti vax stuff
and she's like really proud of it, and she's like, yeah,
I'm protecting my children and blah blah blah. She's a
dear friend of both of ours. And I think that
(14:55):
people that are like really anti vax are like it
takes a special kind of person, right, You either have
to have a very specific health predicament or you know
you generally speaking, you're probably more susceptible to conspiracy theories
and propaganda and all that sort of stuff. Right now,
(15:19):
that is not something that I condemn people for, because
it is you have to be a human being subject
to the human condition in order to be vulnerable to that.
Same way you're a human being and you're vulnerable to
other types of diseases, you know what I mean. It
can happen, right There are people there to help you,
(15:40):
but you have to first realize that you're afflicted, you know,
And for a long time, a lot of people don't
realize that they're afflicted. They think that everything is okay
and that this is the way it's supposed to be.
So that's the first thing I'll say. The second thing
I'll say is because Q and I we deal in data.
(16:00):
I remember seeing recently too. This might have been the
last three weeks. I saw. I was doing some research
on Ronald Reagan for a segment we were doing. I'm
not sure if it was a show suit excipher, but
we were doing a we're doing something and I had
a couple of charts like graphs, and it showed like
(16:23):
the introduction of vaccines, like the federal mandate for vaccines
or something like that. I'm not going to tell you
exactly what it is. I'm going to just kind of
describe what I saw. Now, again, I only do journalistically
credible research, so I have to cite the sources and
then review the sources themselves and find out if they
had a scientific method. Most of the time, you know,
everything checks out, But I don't. We don't wait into
(16:45):
propaganda stuff, right all that often when we do it,
we have processes in place to find out whether or
not it's valid. But you know, I saw the graphs
showing the marked drop in and child illnesses and child
fatalities that coincided with governmental policy that required all students
(17:11):
be vaccinated. So late seventies, early eighties, I think this
is approximately the time when this happened, and it was
a sharp drop off, right. So I'm gonna read this,
set this up a little bit, and then I'll throw
to UQ and get your thoughts, and then you know,
we'll go from there. So this is from iHeart dot com.
Measles cases in the United States have surged to their
highest level since the disease was declared eliminated in two thousand.
(17:34):
As of July first, twenty twenty five, the CDC reported
one thousand, two hundred and sixty seven confirmed cases across
thirty eight states. By July seven, this number rose to
two hundred and eighty one, surpassing the one two hundred
and seventy four cases recorded in twenty nineteen. The current
outbreak has affected a wide age range, with nearly all
(17:56):
cases occurring in unvaccinated individuals or those with unknown vaccination status.
According to the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University,
the outbreak reflects long standing gaps and measles vaccine coverage.
The US Measles Tracker, developed by IVAC, provides real time
data on measles cases at the county level, highlighting the
(18:17):
importance of maintaining adequate vaccination levels. The largest outbreak has
been in West Texas altho over seven hundred and fifty
cases reported since January. The outbreak has spread to surrounding states.
Public health experts warned that the US could lose its
measles elimination status if the spread continues for more than
twelve months. The CDC notes that ninety two percent of
cases in twenty twenty five were among unvaccinated individuals. The
(18:41):
National MMR vaccination rate among kindergarteners has fallen below ninety
three percent, down from over ninety five percent in twenty nineteen.
Health officials emphasize the importance of vaccinations to prevent future
outbreaks and maintain public health. Okay, any early thoughts here
before I get off a couple of bar you what
(19:02):
you said? No? Get off? Okay, all right, So first off, RFK.
You know we can't have a conversation about vaccines without
mentioning him, his name and him being a champion when
he was a presidential candidate, and now that you know
he in his like current role, you know he's able
(19:24):
to do obviously a lot more. Texas UH has famously
kind of stood behind you know, parents' right to to choose.
But one of the things I will say is that
some things people deserve to be able to make health
decisions or whatever decisions for themselves. And some things people
(19:48):
are wildly susceptible to, you know, propaganda, and if they
don't do the right thing, it can affect other people. Right.
So it's one thing if you say, hey, look, I
don't don't want to get a blood transfusion, it affects
me only, and it only has the potential to affect me.
(20:09):
It's another thing when you say I don't want to
get vaccinated and that could lead to a public health emergency,
which you know is these are the embers of such
an event. So I like the old way of doing things,
where people stayed alive, people were healthy, and the government
(20:31):
sort of mandated with that unless you have a doctor's excuse,
your child has to be vaccinated in order to attend
public school, right, and your child has to attend some
form of schooling, Okay, And what we had was a
healthy society. As I mentioned in the article, measles was
eliminated in two thousand after dropping in the eighties, so
(20:54):
eighteen years the disease was eradicated, and then twenty five
five years later we have again the embers of another outbreak.
And it's because of you know, people that are susceptible
to propaganda. And again that's a human thing. I'm not
mad at any individual. I'm mad at just the fact
(21:17):
that those in power are not aware, or maybe they
are aware, and depending on the fact that people are
susceptible to propaganda, or they're pandering to their base, which
I suspect, maybe they're parts of all these things that
are true. But the one thing I will say before
I give it back to you, Q, is that if
(21:38):
vaccination does cause whatever autism and all the things that
those people say happens when you get vaccinated, one thing
I will say about vaccinations is that they cause children
to live. That's born out by the data. It's irrefutable.
And you know, I would take a child that's a live,
(22:01):
you know, than a child that runs the risk of
losing their life to some sort of disease or whatever. Now,
of course, none of the things that these folks are
worried about has been uh been determined to be caused
by these things. There's a correlation, of course, but there's
a number of factors that cause correlations. Causation isn't an
(22:23):
entirely different thing. All Right, I've said enough to anything.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Just in short, I won't even let you pose the
if it causes autism becauseause there actually is data that
shows that it doesn't. So why don't even you know
what I mean, like, don't open the door for that question,
Mark to have anything. I appreciate it coming from your
voice that there's data that shows that's not the truth,
that's not still up for debate. We're not still wondering.
It's not even a correlation versus causation thing. There's data
(22:50):
that says that's not the truth across the board. What
I miss is when scientists were the experts. Yes, that's
what I missed. I miss when scientists were the experts,
not the person that you follow on YouTube or Instagram
or Twitter that's really good at doing videos and talking
very confidently about.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Things they don't know about.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
And what those people typically do instead of offering you
any answers, solutions, or fixes, they just ask you a
bunch of questions. They ask you enough questions to make
you challenge what you believe, and then they just leave
you hanging. They adopt the opposite position, but they don't
adopt that position with any information, any facts, any solutions,
(23:29):
any solves.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Nothing.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
They ask a bunch of questions, challenging all the experts.
How come these people learn the experts, Well, most of
them have studied for eight, ten, twelve, twenty thirty years. Research,
just gone through all the processes to gain all the information.
Peer review, just scrutiny. They're experts because they're experts. They
(23:53):
look up the definition of the word and that person
who you follow who just so happens to agree with
you and ask questions with confidence, isn't the anti expert?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yeah? Well, speaking of Texas, you know somebody who better
do better? Well today, that's Ted Cruz. I'm gonna share
a bit from the bin. Senator Ted Cruz was vacationing
in Greece amid deadly Texas floods. How about that? Senator
(24:26):
Ted Cruise is under fire after he was caught vacationing
in Greece amid deadly flooding in central Texas. According to
The Daily Beast, Cruise arrived in Athens on Thursday, July third,
just after the Senate passed Trump's Big Beautiful Bill. Devastating
floods hit the banks of the Guadalupe River in the
early hours of Friday, July fourth, leaving at least one
hundred people dead, including twenty seven children, and many others
(24:46):
missing and injured in Kerr County and its surrounding areas
Amid the deadly flooding. Cruise was spotted with his wife
lining up for a tour outside of the Parthenon on Saturday,
July fifth, whose took a flight back home on Sunday,
July sixth, and was in Texas by that evening. The
Senator was on the ground in Kirk County on Monday,
July seventh, with a spokesperson noting that he returned home
(25:08):
quote as fast as humanly possible. Crew said he had
been in contact with local authorities and President Donald Trump
for support and resources amid the flooding. However, Cruz could
have booked several flights from Greece to Texas before the
one he boarded. According to the Daily Beast, flight data
shows there were multiple flights from Athens to San Antonio,
Texas on Friday and Saturday after the flooding began. It's
(25:31):
unclear how many seats were available on each flight, but
possible options including flights leaving Athens on Saturday morning and
landing in San Antonio that same evening, though through stops
in Chicago, Atlanta, or Washington, DC. Earlier flights were also
available on Friday. Okay, so better do better, not just
because he was out vacationing in Greece and was dragging
(25:55):
his feet to get home, but also the last time
there was that cold front I believe in Texas that
caused a bunch of people to die, and he was
getting on a plane and going on vacation after like
the news had already broke that you know, Texas was
(26:18):
suffering as a result of this, and he was woke
up the next day, was like, yeah, I'm out, got
his family together and went to the airport and he
got spotted, and people made a big deal out of
the fact that, Yo, this guy's leaving and there are
people in his state, the people that elected him, that
are dying. And so then he had to turn around
and come back. And I suspect he would have never
(26:38):
come back had he not been photographed and people not
been able to make a big deal out of that.
So he's like zero for two when it comes to
like vacationing and people dying in his home state suffering
from crisis crises that Texas like backs itself into legislatively speaking, right,
(27:00):
Texas has the capacity to get in front of these
potential problems and does not. And then of course the
elected officials are it doesn't affect them, and Ted Cruz
kind of puts it on full display for all of
the people that vote for him to see, and well
half of them probably take issue with it, and so
(27:20):
you know anything to add here, Kim, Well, have don't
take issue, because if half took issue, he wouldn't still
be the Senator. Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Right wing politicians continue to show us flagrantly that they
don't care about their constituents. Like you said, he's two
for two on just being not just missing in action,
but conspicuously kicking his feet up. Yeah, okay, while his
constituents suffer. The governor of the Great State praises Donald
(27:53):
Trump after these things happen like they I've never seen
any like it, man, And you have a base that
won't change how they feel based on these things. You know,
there seems to be nothing that the right can do
to upset their base enough for them to change their minds.
(28:14):
Our president is playing golf because that's what he does,
and eating ice cream, and I think our vice president
is somewhere vacationing as well. The President hasn't even been
decent enough to mention or visit, or pay tribute to
or even offer the false thoughts and prayers that's typical
of politicians these days when people are suffering. He's just
(28:34):
going about his life flagrantly, not giving a you know what,
And I guess there's no such thing as calling them
to account for anything anymore, so why even try. But
what Republicans and what MAGA has shown us is they
don't even require the people that they elect to do
anything for them. As long as they do something to
(28:56):
the people they also don't like, they will continue to
vote for and support them. And things like this bear
that out in front of our eyes, Like they don't
care if you defund the service that makes it easier
for you to predict weather patterns and plan to avoid
crisis or prepare for crisis. They don't care that that
results in lives lost. They don't care that in the
(29:19):
wake of storms and flash floods and natural disasters that
they'll need relief that their party has decided as an
important like FEMA, like you know, and like gutting the
National Weather Service of the resources and the people that
they need. So in the wake of these things, when
people die as a result of their decisions, when they
are held accountable for it, everyone is like, hey, don't
(29:40):
bring politics into this, Except when the shoe is on
the other foot and something happens, like you know, wildfires
in southern California, Then the governor of California and the
Mayor of Los Angeles get held accountable and blamed for
those disasters that are not in their control at all.
Much ado about nothing
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.