News bits: Life in red states; Pharmacies betray customers; Democracy good news bit

A NYT opinion by Jamelle Bouie:

Where Republicans have gained .... full control over state legislatures and statehouses, they have used that authority in pursuit of policies meant to curtail the ability of people in their states to live as they please.

You know what this looks like. It’s the “anti-woke” policymaking of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Florida, from laws that stigmatize L.G.B.T.Q. students and teachers in public school classrooms to an assault on higher education that has driven professors out of state. “What we are witnessing in Florida is an intellectual reign of terror,” LeRoy Pernell, a law professor at Florida A&M University, said in an interview with a special committee of the American Association of University Professors.

Republican trifectas in states across the country have introduced and passed dozens of bills aimed at the public existence of trans and other gender-nonconforming people. Republicans in Oklahoma banned the use of nonbinary gender identifiers on birth certificates; Republicans in Tennessee, similarly, banned trans people from changing their gender on their birth certificates.  

Abortion . . . .  

The state-level Republican agenda also includes efforts to restrict voting or gerrymander political opponents out of representation. Taken all together, you could say that Republicans are engaged in a comprehensive effort to limit the freedom of entire categories of people. 

.... what we can see in the divergent agendas of Republican-led states and Democrat-led states, is how the differences have far more to do with the actual purpose of government. For Democrats, that purpose is usually the public good. For Republicans, that purpose is harsh social regulation, with little apparent regard for the lives of those who have to endure these policies.

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In the police state’s never-ending war on privacy, all means to nab the bad guys are pursued, sometimes even if they are illegal. The WaPo reports about cooperating pharmacies:

Pharmacies share medical data with police without a warrant, inquiry finds

The revelation could shape the debate over Americans’ health privacy as states move to criminalize abortion and drugs related to reproductive health

The nation’s largest pharmacy chains have handed over Americans’ prescription records to police and government investigators without a warrant, a congressional investigation found, raising concerns about threats to medical privacy.

Though some of the chains require their lawyers to review law enforcement requests, three of the largest — CVS Health, Kroger and Rite Aid, with a combined 60,000 locations nationwide — said they allow pharmacy staff members to hand over customers’ medical records in the store.

It’s good to know that ‘concerns were raised’ but what difference does that make when giant companies don’t care about customer privacy and neither do foaming at the mouth, authoritarian radical right Republican politicians? Raising ‘concerns’ about privacy is like sending thoughts and prayers after another mass slaughter of innocents. These days, concerns by politicians about consumers or the public interest are almost always nothingburgers. The real concern for authoritarian radical right Republicans is obliterating civil liberties to exert more control.

Betraying customers

Betraying customers

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Here’s a bit of good news for democracy. Poland voted out of power its equivalent of the American authoritarian radical right Republican Party. MAGA!! to that. The WaPo writes:

In a cathartic moment for many in Poland, centrist political veteran Donald Tusk got the nod on Monday to be the country’s next prime minister, marking the end of eight years of right-wing nationalist rule and a dramatic shift in the European political landscape.

Tusk’s alliance secured a majority in October elections with a promise to restore Polish democracy and the country’s relationship with European allies.

Tusk faces the daunting task of repairing relations with the European Union, depoliticizing the judiciary, restoring the independence of the media, and bolstering the rights of women and minorities — all without alienating the many who sympathize with the old guard. [does that sound familiar?]