News bits: Why the COVID story will never be known; Blocking election rights; Power flow analysis

How authoritarians deal with inconvenient truth -- they hide it and deny it: The NYT writes: 

Chinese Censorship Is Quietly Rewriting the Covid-19 Story 

Under government pressure, Chinese scientists have retracted studies and withheld or deleted data. The censorship has stymied efforts to understand the virus.

Early in 2020, on the same day that a frightening new illness officially got the name Covid-19, a team of scientists from the United States and China released critical data showing how quickly the virus was spreading, and who was dying.

The study was cited in health warnings around the world and appeared to be a model of international collaboration in a moment of crisis.

Within days, though, the researchers quietly withdrew the paper, which was replaced online by a message telling scientists not to cite it.

This is standard practice for tyrants and tyrant wannabes. Inconvenient facts and truths are simply swept away to the extent they can be. The same is true for tyrant wannabes in America today.

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Evidence of nascent tyranny in America: There are some excellent reasons why the pro-tyranny Republican Party hates elections and voting rights. Those reasons are mostly about wealth, power and worshipping rigid, intolerant ideology. The NYT writes: 

Losing Ballot Issues on Abortion, G.O.P. Now Tries 

to Keep Them Off the Ballot

After abortion rights supporters swept six ballot measures last year, Republican legislatures seek to make it harder to get on the ballot, and harder to win if there is a vote.

Now, with abortion rights groups pushing for similar citizen-led ballot initiatives in at least six other states, Republican-controlled legislatures and anti-abortion groups are trying to stay one step ahead by making it harder to pass the measures — or to get them on the ballot at all.

The biggest and most immediate fight is in Ohio, where a coalition of abortion rights groups is collecting signatures to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would prohibit the state from banning abortion before a fetus becomes viable outside the womb, at about 24 weeks of pregnancy. That would essentially establish on the state level what Roe did nationwide for five decades.

Polling in Ohio, as in nearly all other states indicate that a majority of voters support  abortion rights. Not surprisingly, tyrant wannabes, fascist Republican Party elites in this case, don't care about contrary public opinion. Getting rid of elections and voting rights makes perfect sense to fascists.

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Keeping Eyes on Where Power Flows: The WaPo writes: 

The conservative [radical, actually] campaign to rewrite child labor laws

The Foundation for Government Accountability, a Florida-based think tank and lobbying group, drafted state legislation to strip child workplace protections, emails show

When Iowa lawmakers voted last week to roll back certain child labor protections, they blended into a growing movement driven largely by a conservative advocacy group.

At 4:52 a.m., Tuesday, the state’s Senate approved a bill to allow children as young as 14 to work night shifts and 15 year-olds on assembly lines. The measure, which still must pass the Iowa House, is among several the Foundation for Government Accountability is maneuvering through state legislatures.  

The FGA achieved its biggest victory in March, playing a central role in designing a new Arkansas law to eliminate work permits and age verification for workers younger than 16. Its sponsor, state Rep. Rebecca Burkes (R), said in a hearing that the legislation “came to me from the Foundation [for] Government Accountability.”

“As a practical matter, this is likely to make it even harder for the state to enforce our own child labor laws,” said Annie B. Smith, director of the University of Arkansas School of Law’s Human Trafficking Clinic. “Not knowing where young kids are working makes it harder for [state departments] to do proactive investigations and visit workplaces where they know that employment is happening to make sure that kids are safe.”

Power flow analysis

The standard question when government gets neutered (“deregulated”) is what is the power flow situation? The answer is usually pretty clear, simple and about the same when radical right Republican elites are acting. Power flows directly from government and indirectly from average people, children in this case. It flows to special interests, including huge corporations, that are increasingly using undocumented children as cheap, easy to abuse labor. Those huge corporations have no discernable moral or social qualms about being illegal employers or abusing children. It’s just business for them.

Keeping an eye on power flows isn’t relevant to just commerce and business. It applies everywhere. Take abortion for example. When Republican Christofascist elites make abortion illegal, where does the power flow? It flows from people who support abortion rights and governments who can no longer protect abortions. Where does it flow to? It flows to radical Christofascist elites who oppress women and everyone else by their sacred, dictates demanded by their vision of infallible God.

The same analysis applies to gun safety law, tax code enforcement, environmental protection laws, civil liberties, and etc. 

Defense of democracy operations tip: Always keep your eye on power flows. 👀