And another day of America growing apart, HIPAA not protecting you, disabled people reflecting on how ending Roe will affect them, the real reasons for inflation, a meningococcal outbreak in FL, and school dress codes in TX comes to a close:
“Some of the Germans who voted for the Nazi Party in 1932 no doubt understood that this might be the last meaningful free election for some time, but most did not...No doubt the Russians who voted in 1990 did not think this would be the last free election in their country’s history, which (thus far) it has been. Any election can be the last, or at least the last in the lifetime of the person casting the vote.” -- Timothy Snyder
Deaths
US: 1,040,805
World: 6,350,864
Cases
US: 88,794,286
World: 549,002,912
America Is Growing Apart, Possibly for Good. “When we think about the United States, we make the essential error of imagining it as a single nation, a marbled mix of Red and Blue people,” Podhorzer writes. “But in truth, we have never been one nation. We are more like a federated republic of two nations: Blue Nation and Red Nation. This is not a metaphor; it is a geographic and historical reality.”…Podhorzer isn’t predicting another civil war, exactly. But he’s warning that the pressure on the country’s fundamental cohesion is likely to continue ratcheting up in the 2020s. Like other analysts who study democracy, he views the Trump faction that now dominates the Republican Party—what he terms the “MAGA movement”—as the U.S. equivalent to the authoritarian parties in places such as Hungary and Venezuela. It is a multipronged, fundamentally antidemocratic movement that has built a solidifying base of institutional support through conservative media networks, evangelical churches, wealthy Republican donors, GOP elected officials, paramilitary white-nationalist groups, and a mass public following. And it is determined to impose its policy and social vision on the entire country—with or without majority support…All of this is fueling what I’ve called “the great divergence” now under way between red and blue states…What’s becoming clearer over time is that the Trump-era GOP is hoping to use its electoral dominance of the red states, the small-state bias in the Electoral College and the Senate, and the GOP-appointed majority on the Supreme Court to impose its economic and social model on the entire nation—with or without majority public support…Jake Grumbach, a University of Washington political scientist who studies the differences among states, told me that red states, as a group, are falling behind blue states on a broad range of economic and social outcomes—including economic productivity, family income, life expectancy, and “deaths of despair” from the opioid crisis and alcoholism…But the big story remains that blue states are benefiting more as the nation transitions into a high-productivity, 21st-century information economy, and red states (apart from their major metropolitan centers participating in that economy) are suffering as the powerhouse industries of the 20th century—agriculture, manufacturing, and fossil-fuel extraction—decline…Podhorzer, like Mason and Grumbach, believes that the MAGA movement’s long-term goal is to tilt the electoral rules in enough states to make winning Congress or the White House almost impossible for Democrats. Then, with support from the GOP-appointed majority on the Supreme Court, Republicans could impose red-state values and programs nationwide, even if most Americans oppose them. The “MAGA movement is not stopping at the borders of the states it already controls,” Podhorzer writes. “It seeks to conquer as much territory as possible by any means possible.” — Go read the whole article. It’s all informative.
HIPAA won’t protect you if prosecutors want your reproductive health records. If there’s a warrant, court order, or subpoena for the release of those medical records, then a clinic is required to hand them over. And patients and providers may be made legally vulnerable by the enormous trail of health-related data we all generate through their devices every day…“I think this is a wake-up call about the limitations of HIPAA.”…If an employer has a certain position on abortion, you may be denied a job if “they used some predictive algorithm” to examine data available to employers on your medical care…“Anything you do in health care, in our current state of (regulation), can be used against you.”…“We think about medical records, but our phones collect an amazing amount of data. It’s not a good idea to send texts about your intent to seek an abortion. It’s not a good idea to use an online payment app to buy these services. You might want to leave your phone at home as opposed to taking it to the clinic. You may not even want to search for abortion providers on your phone or computer.”…In addition, neither HIPAA, nor state consumer protection rules, prohibit the disclosure of huge amounts of health information transmitted outside medical settings — in retail stores, social media sites, online shopping accounts, text messages, and elsewhere.
South Dakota governor says she will ban abortion pills prescribed online. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) on Sunday said she will ban telemedicine appointments with abortion care providers who prescribe pills online in the GOP-controlled state in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
With Roe v. Wade overturned, disabled people reflect on how it will impact them. Disabled people are at high risk of being in a situation where they would need access to an abortion. According to a survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, disabled people were over three times more likely than nondisabled people to experience sexual assault. The likelihood increases for people with multiple disabilities.
Following Roe v. Wade repeal, a 19th century law banning abortion is now in effect in Wisconsin. The Supreme Court’s Friday ruling overturning Roe v. Wade means an 1849 state law banning abortion in Wisconsin takes effect again. During a special session called by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, the Republican-controlled state legislature declined on Wednesday to repeal the law—which Evers described as providing "no exceptions for abortion in the cases of rape or incest" in a June 8 statement.
Trans and non-binary footballers can choose men's or women's teams, German football bosses say. The German Football Association (DFB) has confirmed it will let transgender footballers choose which gender category they play in.
Did corporate greed fuel inflation? It’s not biggest culprit. Yet for all the public’s resentment, most economists say corporate price gouging is, at most, one of many causes of runaway inflation — and not the primary one. “There are much more plausible candidates for what’s going on,” said Jose Azar an economist at Spain’s University of Navarra. They include: Supply disruptions at factories, ports and freight yards. Worker shortages. President Joe Biden’s enormous pandemic aid program. COVID 19-caused shutdowns in China. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And, not least, a Federal Reserve that kept interest rates ultra-low longer than experts say it should have. Most of all, though, economists say resurgent spending by consumers and governments drove inflation up.
Six queer men die of rare meningococcal disease in ‘one of worst outbreaks in US history’. The CDC says the outbreak is "primarily among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, including those living with HIV.
Texas school district bans hooded clothing and dresses for most students, saying it will promote professionalism. The new policy, which applies to all 18 of FISD’s schools, prohibits clothing such as hoodies, coats and jackets with hoods inside the school, and also forbids students in grades five and above from wearing dresses, skirts or skorts. The dress code also requires students to wear solid colored shirts and slacks, shorts or capri pants in navy blue, black or khaki colors. Among the things the dress code prohibits are denim pants, sleeveless shirts, t-shirts, overalls or clothing with holes in it. -- All about controlling others. This is nothing more than forced conformity.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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