The Joyce Kaufman Show 7/7/26 - Fitbit research based on men but sells to women, Graham Platner accused again of sexual assault, JD Vance on the decline of civilization

This is the Joyce Kaufman podcast, honest, straight, and unapologelic with your host, Joyce Kaufman. Well, I don't know what the weather's like in different parts of the country, but from the looks of it, everywhere is hot and humid and drains you of your energy. And I'm the person who's pretty energetic for the most part. At my age, I think I'm super energetic. But I have just been. It's a struggle to get up off the chair. because of the heat and the humidity. So I guess, again, I'm just going to caution everybody, please stay hydrated and be cautious because there's so many things that could go wrong when you are dehydrated. And before you, you know, allow that to have, because we're all responsible first for ourselves. You know, just heard, I had two nightmare stories within the last three hours from people who had. perfectly awful experiences at hospitals and you know one of them is a terminally ill person who really should not have been treated the way she was treated another was a young person who shouldn't have been treated the way she was treated and my you know my belief is that you have to let people know when bad things happen to good people. That's all. Because I don't take much lying down. I mean, sometimes I'm wrong, but if I decide to pick a fight, it's because there's a need to pick it. And there's somebody down the line who may not have the articulate. You know, may not be able to articulate what just happened as well as I can. So, you know, take care of yourselves. The world's not looking out for us. I can tell you that. I have come to the conclusion that, you know, you're lucky if, you know, the medical profession doesn't actually contribute to your bad health and your inability. to get the help that you need. So we got to take control of this. And it really does start with eliminating bad doctors and bad hospitals. I don't know why I'm ranting about that. But like I said, I had two separate people tell me horrific stories within the last couple of hours. And I'm mad. You know, part of what I do for a living is shine a light. on things that are wrong, and particularly on things that they need to be wrong, on things that, you know, we're all supposed to be in this together. Everybody expects to be treated a certain way when they go to the hospital or when they go to the, you know, 7-Eleven. And I've learned that if I accept bad behavior, then it'll continue. And sometimes when I push back, I do get results.

And I have to believe that, you know, when it comes to your physical health, we are responsible to push back when anything is not done appropriately. That's all. Yeah, I won't be ranting forever, but like I said, you know, this just, I just had two horror stories told to me. You know, and for what? You know, people don't go to the hospital because everything is okay. You know, they go to the hospital because something is wrong and they should be treated with dignity and respect. Anyway, Graham Platner, you know, is there a bigger story than that today? I'm sure there is. You know, I can think of some, but this one is, this one's right up there. And it's interesting to see all the people who stayed silent during the early stages of reports of bad behavior by this guy, right? And now all of a sudden, the very same people who made excuses for him or ignored the problem are now scrambling to distance themselves from this... this piece of garbage. Everything about this guy has, you know, stunk up the house since he appeared on the scene. And that's just the truth. From the Nazi tattoos to the allegations of sexual, you know, problems. Now, interestingly enough, I heard a commentator on one of the, maybe it was OAN or just the news, were talking about how, All of the previous reports about bad, you know, sexual encounters with Graham Platner. they were attributing to politics. They were saying, well, this was a person who's a Republican or this was a person who doesn't like Democrats. They had all these excuses. But now this allegation of rape comes from a person who said the only reason she waited so long to tell her story is because she totally supports his policies and thinks that, you know, he reflects her views. And so. She was in a bind. And now you can't ignore that. Or at least they're not, apparently, they're not able to ignore it. And now everybody's calling for him to step out of this race. What a mess. You know, I look at guys like Alexander Vindman, you know, a real piece of garbage too. But he stood by silently through all of the controversies. including the Nazi tattoo, saying, you know, the fact that Graham Platner was known to have said that he would rape someone to show his dominance, saying that women should act like an adult to avoid rape, posting explicit pictures on a website that's used to exploit children, and calling a Purple Heart recipient a dumb MF who didn't deserve to live.

They stuck by this guy. They stayed silent through all of that. And now they want me to believe that, you know, they think he's a bad guy. Too little too late. And, you know, Susan Collins just got a, you know, a gift. Because my assumption is he will be forced to step aside. You know, I can't run this guy. they're going to lose either way. So at least try to preserve an iota of dignity. You know, I'm not the only person who's been saying that it's really uncomfortable watching people just down this country. And they're always looking for... a problem. You know, they're always claiming that Trump ruined it or this ruined it. You know, they never give a hand to good things that happen. And I've been thinking a lot about the stories that people tell. Because what people tell you should reveal a lot about them. You know, over the past few weeks, Something, I don't think anybody expected to happen. Visitors from all over the world, all of these soccer fans, and that's the number one sport in the world. They all came to America for the World Cup, and they really like America. You know, everything you see, every posting, they're delighted at the portion sizes and the friendliness and the this and the, you know, why is it that Americans can't see themselves the way the foreigners see us now? It's really frustrating. For people like me, no, it's not a perfect country. And yes, we have pockets of old, bad things. You know, we're never going to be a society that isn't patriarchal from what I can tell. You know, I just found out today that the Fitbit that I wear, it's like a watch. And it tells me my, not just the amount of steps that I take, but it monitors sleep patterns. It has a lot of functions. And I'm buying into all of them. And this morning I find out that all the testing that was done on the Fitbit was done on males. So the algorithms or whatever do not apply to women. So I'm wearing something on my wrist, which is giving me false readings about my health. But that's what patriarchal society means, that there is still this tendency, and we are trying to overcome it, but is a tendency to look at the world through a man's eyes, to conduct even research on men instead of on both.

And we're the best country. I cannot imagine what goes on in some of these third world countries. So I was trying to find out. I seem to remember that at one point in time, Fitbit was a small company. I even have some vague memory that it was one of those companies that got started on a television show. I don't know what it's called, but it's the one where they decide whether they want to buy into the... idea that someone brings forward. And I seem to remember that that's how Fitbit got started. But it now is the property of Google or Alphabet, which is the company that over Google. And how outrageous for me to find out. that this monitoring device that I paid good money for and that I have literally adjusted my lifestyle for isn't even tracking me appropriately. But here's the good part. It does make me mindful of when I'm too sedentary or when I haven't drank enough water. or didn't get enough sleep or my sleep was disturbed. It does make me conscious of those things. But if they're false readings, what they, hey, you know? So as good as we are, there are things that need to be improved. There are things that need to be confronted. There are things that need to be discussed. And there's such a resistance to discussing things because you're afraid right away you'll be branded. as a disgruntled whiner. But I'm not. I'm not a disgruntled whiner, but I assure you that alphabet and Google and Fitbit, whatever the configuration is in the final analysis, is going to hear from me. Because doing all your research on men and then selling your product to women who are getting false information, if it's not illegal, it should be. I'll tell a congressman or two. Probably better find a female congressperson if I'm going to do that. Anyway, don't forget to download that 850 WFTO app. You can put on your laptop, your cell phone, whatever. And you can listen to the new podcast, all of the podcasts. You can get breaking news. You can participate in our contest. It's a nice app. I use it all the time. And I don't like adding apps. They have to be... useful to me or I'm not putting another app on any device. That one has been very useful. So please do that. Let me take a quick break. You stay right where you are. Another interesting article that I saw, which I could have written, or actually when I say that, it's something that I have been talking about for years on the air. Some big Second Amendment person, as you know, and one of the things that I always say, is that the Jews really should be very pro-second amendment, not just because of the rise in anti-Semitism, but how about a Holocaust? You know, how about the fact that, you know, it is perfectly acceptable to say anything nasty you want about Jews and Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu?

And you're supposed to get a pass on that. You could not talk that way about any other minority or any other country. So this article that I just read, and I'm trying to remember where it was, where it was from, I think it might have been in the Epic Times, but regardless, it was an article written from the perspective of a Jewish woman who... Years ago during like some compulsory weapons training for the IDF when she was young, she had made it perfectly clear to her husband to be and to other members of her family that there would never be any guns in her home. But on a Tuesday night in June... Her husband found himself at a shooting range with the Cleveland chapter of Locks and Loaded, which I think is an adorable name nonetheless. The National Firearms and Self-Defense Training Group is dedicated to giving Jewish people skills they may need in the face of rising anti-Semitism around the world. Now, she never expected... And neither did her husband to spend two hours every week perfecting their shooting skills. You know, for more than 20 years through their courtship, through their marriage, from their moving to the United States to having a family. Their home was a gun-free zone. But October 7th of 23 changed that. It changed everything. Because on that day... 7,000 Hamas terrorists carried out a carefully planned attack, and they crossed the Gaza Strip's 31-mile frontier with Israel in cars and trucks on motorcycles and even paragliders. And they killed over 1,100 people, injured 4,000, took 251 hostages. The victims came from 44 different nations. The youngest to die was an unborn child, and the oldest was a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor who died in his safe room. When Jews around the world, including here in America, watched the reports coming out of Israel back in October of 23, they had to talk about it. They had to talk about how their opinion about guns was about to change. The wife said, get a gun, get training. So just in case, if we need one, we've got it. This is a lawyer. And he didn't want to even speak on the record for this article. It was all under pseudonyms and trying to protect his family's identity. So all these people that were interviewed in this report of most of them anyway. wanted to be identified by pseudonyms because they're fearful. And they don't want to make their families an even bigger target. But when they saw what was happening and when they see the anti-Semitism on college campuses in America, right? They don't feel safe. One of these instructors, based out of Chicago, Gail Perlstein,

said she was so shocked by the attack on her people that she felt like she had to do something tangible with results that were more immediate than just, you know, sending money, sending a donation. It was an action. She said, I needed to fix this so people, not just where I live, but people all over the world and all, every community would know that there are ways to protect yourself. In America, We have, you know, Gun World of South Florida. You know, right now they're running classes on protecting, you know, saving and securing sacred places, churches and synagogues and, and I'm sure even mosques. People are fearful. But in this country, we still have the ability, thanks to the Second Amendment, to protect ourselves. And they've got chapters of these groups, locks and loaded and all these other groups, all over the country now. 56 chapters in 23 states, which caught the attention of a national organization that was looking for a Second Amendment cause to support. The Director of Public Affairs for the NRA said that this is the group. that they decided to support. And the CEO, Doug Hamlin, he said, look, there's no denying that there's a rise in anti-Semitism. And there is no denying that the NRA leadership wants to be there and help. You know, the NRA actually was started to protect black people who were not allowed self-protection. Yeah, I know. You don't know that because it's not convenient, right? That belies the left lunacy. So, you know, these organizations, I don't care if you're a Catholic or a Baptist or Jewish. You know that you have to be looking out for the safety of your place. I don't care if you're a Catholic or a Baptist or Jewish. You know that you have to be looking out for the safety of your place of worship. And, you know, thank God, Gunwold of South Florida, saw the need and is filling that need. But everybody has to assume responsibility. There's been 140% increase over the year 2022 in anti-Semitic incidents, assault, harassment, vandalism. You know, and that... This is the most recorded since the ADL began tracking the data back in 1979. And it has had an effect, particularly on the Jewish community in New York now, where they have a mayor who's anti-Jewish. And don't tell me he's anti-Israel, because he's more than anti-Israel. When you allow protesters to march through the streets of New York chanting from the river to the sea, You got a problem. You know, buying a gun is not the answer for everybody. It's actually only the beginning for most of us. You know, you have to have a safe environment like Gun World in South Florida, and I'm not doing a spot. I'm just telling you the truth. Where there's a safe environment for people to ask any questions they have and to learn what they need to know.

So, you know, I'm telling you, things are very disturbed and troubled all over the world right now. And this, America, is still the best place for us to be. Because of those exact things, we have a Second Amendment. We have a Bill of Rights. We supposedly have three branches of government, although lately the Supreme Court doesn't seem to understand what the responsibilities of the various branches are. The fact that anti-Semitic assaults have not decreased over the last two years since October 7th, that's a big slap in the face. That's a sobering reminder that this goes on. The communities are frightened and need to do whatever they can to defend themselves. Especially, you know, I'm going to say especially women, because obviously we're at a deficit when it comes to a violent exchange. We're probably going to be outweighed, outsized by the perpetrator. So what's the great equalizer? My 357, my 38, my 40. Yeah, I'm just saying. And kudos to the people who open up these chapters, locks and loaded and things like that, and help people to feel safer. You know, the women who opened up... a locks and loaded chapter that's being featured in this article I'm reading, they're devout Christians who say they are biblically mandated to do the work they're doing. She said, I didn't think twice about it. For me, it was a no-brainer. I get that. I really do. Anyway, let me take a quick time out, a quick break. Please stay right where you are. I've got a lot of things I have to talk about. Stay there. So there's a high-rise midtown Manhattan office building that's being converted to apartments, which apparently was showing signs of collapsing on Tuesday. I mean, so bad that they closed streets and they were evacuating buildings. And this, right around the Grand Central Terminal, you know, and right during the morning rush, following a holiday weekend, following a weekend when, actually, a two-week period where New York has been celebrating, it's either the Knicks or Taylor Swift. So the fire department gets a call about falling bricks near this building on East 42nd Street just before 8 o'clock in the morning. And the building is the former corporate headquarters of Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company. And they're transforming it into a 1600 unit residential property that one of the developers has said it's the largest.

conversion of this type like ever in the U.S. And a safety manager at the building which has 37 stories reported that a steel beam on the 21st floor was compromised and two support columns inside the building were buckling and some of the upper floors were sagging. What? Now, there haven't been any injuries yet, but the fire officials and the construction workers were all evacuated from the building, and actually not just that building, but from the building to the left and the right of it as a precaution. Yeah, I'm sure. The business agent for Steamfitters Local 638 said that his union members were evacuated. after the beams started to bend. And they've got like a frozen zone from 40th Street to 45th Street and from 1st Avenue to 3rd Avenue. I was just there this weekend. What is Mayor Zohran Mamdani going to do about this? Because he wants to turn all kinds of... properties, including headquarters of Pfizer, into residential apartments. Everybody's got to have housing. I pointed out yesterday that that's exactly what Hugo Chavez said in Venezuela when he came into power. And a lot of the devastation that they're experiencing right now in Venezuela is because it was substandard projects that were being built. Imagine New York City experiencing, you know, two seismic events. And what's going to be the excuse? We needed more housing? We have to ease the city's housing crunch at what cost? Look, I don't know about the rest of you, but I live in a state where... Our condominiums, if they're 40 years old, have to go through all this testing. And good, it should have to go through the testing. After the surfside collapse, there's nobody who thinks it isn't important to establish that these buildings are safe for people to live in. So you got this project in New York. It began in 2024. It's supposed to be finished next year. They're going to add 11 stories to the 22 existing stories. You know, these are massive projects. And if there are beams melting, you know, maybe we need to take a step back. 400 of the planned 1,600 apartments were earmarked as affordable. Because now you've got to meet the threshold. It's going to be more than a hundred thousand square feet of amenities like shops and a rooftop pool and a fitness center in affordable housing. Look, you can see how this is going to be problematic. And yet, it's not a big story. Or maybe it is a big story. Maybe there are people.

particularly in New York who are paying attention to this. But I was just there. And nobody that I was talking to was talking about this. You know, a building in Midtown Manhattan at risk of collapse? Very, very strange. My thought of the day had to do with Mitch McConnell. And it was... A pretty interesting story, in my opinion. Mitch McConnell has been in the hospital for three weeks. Now, he's the minority leader of the Senate. He was the minority leader of the Senate and has been a majority leader. But he was admitted to the hospital on June 14th, and very few updates about his condition have been forthcoming. But interestingly enough, his wife, the former transportation secretary in the first Trump administration, Elaine Chow, she trotted off to China. Yeah, two or three days after his hospitalization, which we still haven't been told what it was for. He was admitted to the hospital. He's receiving excellent care. Okay, what happened? They were performing CPR on an unconscious Mitch McConnell. And I got to figure that sounds to me like cardiac arrest. He was in D.C. And according to the recordings of the dispatcher calls that were widely being reported by news outlets all that last week. that the New York Times obtained, and now, of course, TMZ, Washington. And while the recordings don't name Mitch McConnell as the individual, it all lines up. Between 836 and 843 that Sunday, they called for medics to respond to a report of an unconscious individual at his address. Six minutes later, the fire, you know, the emergency medical services shows up and start performing CPR. Now, his office will not comment on the recordings even after they were reported by all these news outlets. And the day after he was hospitalized, The Senate's two top Republicans, John Thune of South Dakota, the majority leader, and John Barrasso of Wyoming, who's the Republican whip, both told reporters that they had spoken to the senator. Mr. Mitch McConnell is clearly dialed into what's going on, Mr. John Thune said at the Capitol. He's following the stuff we're doing this week up here. Very much so. But this is the latest in a series of pretty health, serious health issues from Mitch McConnell. He was hospitalized in February with some flu-like symptoms. He suffered a concussion in 2023 in some fall. He was hospitalized then and then transferred to a physical rehab center. And even before those hospitalizations, you know, Mitch McConnell had polio as a kid.

And so he's always had that, you know, wanky walk, an uneven gate. He had, in the last couple of months, been using a wheelchair to travel from his office building to the Capitol, although he was seen walking right around the, you know, the week before this supposed cardiac arrest. I'm going to assume that's what it was. A lot of senators are not in Washington because it was a holiday recess until July 13th. And his absence actually prompted the Senate Appropriations Committee to postpone a hearing late last month that was meant to advance four spending bills. Republicans need his vote to overcome unanimous democratic opposition on laws, on any legislation. He's not seeking re-election. Andy Barr is looking like he's going to carry the day. He won the Republican primary in May. But Mr. Mitch McConnell's situation is one of the latest incidents to underscore how little members of Congress even tell us about their health issues. You had this Thomas Keene, the Republican who represents that Jersey district who disappeared for 117 days. He missed more than 100 votes in the House before saying, oh, well, I was being treated for depression. He was hospitalized. for depression for months. Kay Granger, the Republican who used to lead the Appropriations Committee, she missed months of House votes and was found to be living in an independent living facility months before she was set to retire. And it was only because a conservative news outlet in Texas discovered it that we now know she was experiencing dementia issues. Diane Feinstein, remember, the California Democrat? She didn't tell about all the complications related to her hospitalization for shingles in 2023, including a case of encephalitis, the brain. And her office at the time confirmed the condition only after the New York Times reported it. And she was okay and was going to continue to work. You know, these people are in very high-pressure jobs. And the idea that we don't even know the status of their health and their offices don't report it, really it should be troubling everybody. Anyway, don't forget, coming up after me is... Guy Benson, followed by Will Kane. Then it's Joe Pags, Lars Larson, the overnight guys, until 6 a.m. when Jennifer Ross and Stephen Deiner will be back with the South Florida Morning Show. Followed by...

Brian Kilmeade at 9 and noon it's Eric Erickson and then I come back at 3 o'clock. However, I still have a segment left in today's show. So don't touch that dial. I'll be right back. So you're going to wonder, you know, I saw there was an opinion piece in the New York Times, which I could care less about the New York Times for the most part, but they raised an interesting question about the vice president and how, you know, it's got to be rough. to be the vice president. You know, especially if you've watched the way this particular president treats people when he's done with them, including a former vice president, Mike Pence. But it's more than that because we know that JD Vance. is of the same insanity that Tucker Carlson is. They are, they like to call themselves pacifists, but really what they are is just chickens. And they don't understand that to whom much is given, much is required. And America is a superpower. We're a leader of the free world. And so we don't get to just walk away. from most geopolitical nightmares. And on top of that, if he's reading the New York Times, which is the article that I saw this piece in, if you're reading the New York Times, well, then you would believe that... Trump is the most unpopular president ever in the history of America. Not true, but if you say it often enough, a lot of people will believe it. And I don't know, maybe the vice president's one of them. But what he really is upset about and what he articulates all the time is that he believes America is engaged in a civilizational struggle and we're losing. That's the new memoir that he's been hawking communion about his religious evolution, moving from evangelical Christianity to atheism to the intellectualism and hierarchy of the Catholic Church. From once finding Christianity to wishy-washy, he now realizes he's been touched by God's grace. That's what he says. But deep in communion is the story of another faith transition, one that America and the Western world are undergoing and which JD Vance stridently decries. It is the move from Western Christian civilization to secular global liberalism, a transformation that the vice president blames for everything that's going on, the rising racial strafe and the erosions in the institution of marriage and the declines in the population growth. He says, my big fear isn't death.

but that we inherited a great civilization and are slowly letting it fall into disrepair. I've read some excerpts from the book. I'm not going to read the book. I can tell you that right now. It wasn't. And I read Hillbilly Elegie, so it's not that I don't think he's a good writer, because Hillbilly Elegie was a great read. But this is somebody wrote this for him. It's one of these ghost writer things. And it's not very well written, in my opinion. And the whole idea of civilizational death. That's deep. You know, that's heavy stuff. You know, the clash of civilizations. I've been talking about that for years. You know, welcome to the party, J.D. And he said the decline of Christianity has left us without a shared moral language. And in its place, the right has worshipped the marketplace, while the left has embarked on an endless quest of self-indulgent self-discovery. So each of us in our own weird ways, he says, is guilty of casting aside the Christian inheritance of our civilization. Well, I do agree with that. Anyway, I thank you for your time this time until next time. I've got a plan, and that is to be back here tomorrow at 3 p.m. if it be his will and he delays his coming. God bless you and God bless Israel. And may God bless the United States of America. Stay safe. Stay hydrated. See you tomorrow. This has been the Joyce Kaufman podcast. Available everywhere you get your podcasts.