08/22/22 08/22/22 ." [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we're in the midst of the greatest disaster of the 21st-century. it started out with a drug like oxycontin and has morphed since then into a hydra headed beast. amy: fighting and escalating national tragedy, a federal judge in ohio issues the

landmark ruling against u.s. pharmacy chains walmart, cvs, and walgreens debate a combined $650 billion in damages for the role in the opioid crisis. we will speak with longtime reporter barry meier, author of "pain killer: an empire of deceit and the origin of america's opioid epidemic." then ahead of tuesday' primary in florida, republican governor ron desantis' n office of election, cres, security makes its first arrest -- almost all of the people who wereormerly incarcerated and mistakenly thought they were eligible to vote. >> the state of florida has charged and is in the process of arresting 20 individuals across the state for voter fraud. amy: we go to orlando to speak with desmond meade. this comes as a federal judge in

florida has blocked key portions of the states new stop woke act. we will speak with florida state university professor diane roberts intel has a, whose new washington post op-ed is headlined "desantis aims to scare academics. unfortunately, it's working." then we will talk to one of the hundreds of google workers of the alphabet workers union who signed a petition demanding the company protect the location and browser history of people searching for information on abortion and block advertisements that drug users to antiabortion so-called pregnancy crisis centers -- direct users to antiabortion so-called pregnancy crisis centers. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. at least 21 people died in somalia after militants stormed an upscale hotel in mogadishu

friday beginning a 30-hour siege. somali officials say at least 117 people were wounde authorities accused militants with the group al shabab of attacking and seizing the hotel at 7:00 p.m. local time on friday. an intense battle between the -- of the hotel lasted until saturday night. it was the first large attack in mogadishu since somalia's new president hassan sheikh mohamud took offe in may. the attack in somalia comes at a time when the country is on the brink of famine. the head of the world food program david beasley visited somalia last week and warned the humanitarian crisis is intensifying. >> climate changes impacting the entire world and where i stand here and the horn of africa, absolutely no different. we are looking at 20 million people marching to starvation here in the horn of africa. where i stand in somalia, 7 million people. that is twice as many as it was just six month ago. why?

conflict, extremist groups coupled with the driest season we have seen in decades. rainy seasons have just disappeared. amy: in other climate news, monsoon rains have triggered flooding and mudslides across northern india in recent days, inundating hundreds of villages and leaving at least 50 people dead. in neighboring pakistan, weekend flooding killed three dozen people, while heavy rains ought flash floods to eastern afghanistan, destroyin thousands homes and killing at least 20 people. in sudan, officials say flooding has destroyed over 14,000 homes and claimed 77 lives during this year's rainy season. here in the united states, a new study finds the climate crisis has doubled the chance california could be hit by a mega-flood that would bring widespread catastrophic flooding across virtually all of the california's low lands. police in pakistan have charged former prime minister imran khan under pakistan's anti-terror laws.

this comes just a day after pakistani authorities banned television stations from broadcasting khan's speeches live. the charges against him stem from a speech he gave on saturday when he accused police officers of torturing one of his close aides who was jailed on sedition charges. imran khan was removed from power in april in what he described as a form of "u.s.-backed regime change." khan's political party remains popular. in july, members of the pti won 15 of 20 seats up for grabs in an election in pakistan's most populous state. a prominent russian journalist died in a car bombing outside of moscow on saturday. darya dugina is the daughter of the ultranationalist russian philosopher alexander dugin, w is a close ally of russian president vladimir putin. many believe alexander dugin was the intended target of the attack. he and his daughter had been at a cultural festival prior to the blast, but they left in separate cars.

both alexander dugin and his daughter were vocal supporters of putin's decision to invade ukraine six months ago. the ukrainian government has denied any involvement in the car bombing. in news from ukraine, russian president vladimir putin has expressed support for sending experts fromom the international atomic energy agency to monitor the situation at the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. putin made the comment with french president macron. in recent weeks, russia and ukraine have accused each other of attacking the plant, the largest nuclear power plant in europe. russia has controlled the plant since march but ukrainians continue to operate it. on sunday, president biden discussed the situation at zaporizhzhia by phone with british prime minister boris johnson, macron, and german chancellor olaf scholz. in a joint statement, the leaders called on the iaea to visit the plant as soon as feasible and for military operations to be avoided near the plant. in more news from ukraine, u.n. secretary general antonio

guterres visited the port city of odesa on friday. he called on world leaders to help bring russians and ukrainians food and fertilizer to the global market. >> success to the global markets , furs or lasers, which are not subject to sanctions, is important in the private sector to bring them to market. without fertilizer, in 2022, there may not be enough food i 2023. i am deeply committed to those objectives which will only happen if all parties cooperate. and to purge -- urge those efforts continue. amy: mexico's former attorney general has been arrested on charges related to the disappearance of 43 students in ayotzinapa eight years ago

murillo karam, who served as mexico's attorney general from 2012 to 2015, was arrested on friday, a day after a truth commission formed by president andrés manuel lópez obrador said the students' disappearance was a "crime of the state." mexican authorities also issued over 80 other arrest warrants. the facing charges include 20 military commanders and troops who were from battalions in the city of iguala. charges have also been filed against local officials, police officers, and members of the drug cartel guerreros unidos. in news from the occupied territories, israeli authorities summoned and briefly detained the head of a prominent palestinian group which documents israeli attacks on children. khaled quzmar, the general director of the defense for children palestine, was summoned on sunday for interrogation by a shin bet agent. easterly forces also tried to summon the head of a human rights group but refused to go in for questioning.

this comes just three days after israeli forces raided the offices of defense for children palestinian and fight other palestinian groups. israel had previously designated them as terrorist organizations. to see our coverage of the raids, go to democracynow.org. singapore's prime minister has announced plans to repeal a colonial-era law that criminalizes sex between men but he voiced his continued opposition to same sex marriage. singapore's prime minister lee hsien loong addrsed the issues -- spoke at annual national day rally speech. >> will decriminalize sex between men. i believe in something that most singaporeans will accept. hence even as we repeal 377a, we

will uphold and safeguard the institution of marriage. under the law, only marriages between one man and one woman are recognized in singapore. amy: a coalition of lgbt groups iningaporeaid the repeal of the colonial-era law was a "triumph of love over fear" but they expressed disappointment over the continued ban on same sex marriage. back in the united states, louisiana's state bond commission is withholding nearly $40 million in funding for flood control in new orleans after the state's republican attorney general objected to city officials' opposition to louisiana's strict abortion ban. the funding is meant to pay for drainage pumps critical to protecting new orleans from flooding and rising sea levels due to the climate crisis. attorney general jeff landry successfully pushed commissioners to withhold the funds as punishment after new orleans' city council passed a

resolution asking law enforcement officers not to enforce louisiana's near-total abortion ban, which does not include exemptions for rape or incest. this comes after a baton rouge resident who was 10 weeks pregnant was denied an abortion at a louisiana hospital, even though an ultrasound showed her fetus was developing without a skull. the condition, known as "acrania," does not appear on a list of accepted conditions for an abortion in louisiana. a warning to our audience, our next story contains graphic footage and descriptions of police violence. in arkansas, two crawford county sheriff's deputies and a mulberry city police officer have been suspended after they were caught on camera brutally beating a man as they pressed him face-first into the pavement. video posted to social media shows one officer holding the man down as two others repeatedly kick and punch him. at one point, one of the officers is seen slamming the man's face into the pavement.

27-year-old randal worcester was taken to a hospital with head injuries after his violent arrest, where he refused treatment. the arkansas state police said sunday it has launched an investigation. in labor news, nearly 2000 dockworkers at britain's largest container port began an eight-day strike on sunday. it's the first strike at the port of felixstowe in 30 years. meanwhile, here in the united states, over 500 staffers at american university are set to begin a strike today as they demand for wage and benefit increases. the workers are represented by seiu local 500. and the longtime anti-nuclear activist and catholic priest carl kabat has died at the age of 88. in 1980, he took part in the first plowshares action when he, along with father's dan and phil berrigan and others, broke into a general electric missile plant in king of prussia, pennsylvania. they hammered on missile nose

cones, damaging them beyond repair, and poured their blood on the damaged parts. kabat would go on to spend over 17 years in prison for his anti-nuclear activism. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show with a landmark ruling by a federal judge in ohio that orders u.s. pharmacy chains walmart, cvs, and walgreens to pay a combined $650 million for damages related to opioid crisis. this is the federal ruling first against the pharmacy chains for their roles in the opioid crisis. other cases have focused on opioid makers and wholesalers that distribute the addictive painkillers. the ruling follows a federal jury's verdict in november that found the pharmacy chains' sale of drugs caused severe harm to communities and violated ohio's public nuisance laws.

in the lawsuit, lake county and trumbull county alleged the pharmacies "abused their position of special trust and responsibility" as dispensers of the drugs, and "fostered a black market for prescription opioids." in his ruling wednesday, u.s. district judge dan aaron polster ordered the damages to be paid out over the next 15 years and said they are meant to "address a small piece of a terrible and tenacious and escalating national tragedy. even if the court could wave a magic wand and forever remove any existing or future oversupply of legal prescription opioids, and prevent all future diversion of legal prescription opioids into the illicit market, this conjuring would do nothing to reduce the nuisance that would continue to exist in lake and trumbull counties -- that is, the widespread prevalence of opioid use disorder and opioid addiction." cvs and walmart said they

disagreed with the ruling, but a walgreens spokesman told "the new york times" -- "we never manufactured or marketed opioids nor did we distribute them to the 'pill mills' and internet pharmacies that fueled this crisis." for more, we are joined by barry meier, who has long reported on this issue a is the author of "pain killer: an empire of deceit and the origin of america's opioid epidemic." netflix is adapting his book into a dramatic series. barry meier was the first journalist to shine a national spotlight on the abuse of oxycontin and won the pulitzer prize and two polk awards for his past "new york times" reporting on the intersection of business, medicine, and public health. welcome back to democracy now! first responder this settlement against the drugstore chain. >> well, amy, than you very much for having me on once again. good morning. i think it is extraordinary and i think it is high time that all the players in this terrible

chain -- manufacturer, prescribing, dispensing -- are held responsible for their actions. i here with these pharmacy chains are saying, that they bear no responsibility, but they were happy to rake in all of the cash when their outlets were kind of recklessly dispensing these drugs -- or at least that is the decision of the jury. now it is time to pay the piper and to use some of this money to repa some of the damage. amy: talk about the response of these companies. walmart releasing a statement for example, reading apart -- "instead of addressing the real causes of the opioid crisis, like pill mill doctors, illegal drugs and regulators asleep at the switch, plaintiffs' lawyers wrongly claimed that pharmacists must second-guess doctors in a way the law never intended and

many federal and state health regulators say interferes with the doctor-patient relationship." >> from the beginning, this has been a huge finger-pointing exercise. the manufacturers had said, we just make these drugs. doctors prescribe them. the doctors will say, well, we based our actions -- predicated on what the drug manufacturers told us. besides, there is another person of the food chain, the pharmacies, who are supposed to catch these bad actors. the pharmacists say, wait a minute, the doctors are responsible or the drug manufacturers are responsible because we don't write prescriptions, we just dispense prescriptions. as the one spokesman noted, maybe we would have people coming down on us if we did not dispense these prescriptions. i can tell you from my own experience when i traveled a lot reporting for the book as well

as for articles for "the new york times," there were pharmacists who knew that doctors were operating pill mills, who saw the cars lined up outside these facilities where people would go in and get prescriptions fooxycontin by paying a doctor $40 or $50. when these people came to their pharmacies, th turned them away. they refused to fill the prescriptions because they felt they were illicit prescriptns. and that is the dilemma that cvs, walgreens, and the other phmacies now face. and that is, did the exercise diligence in determining whether this was a prescription that should be filled or should not be filled? amy: that chains refused to settle? explain how the case went, the

jury case in november and why it took this long to get a result. >> they did settle in some cases, amy. that is my understanding. there was some localits where chains have settled these cases. but i believe the financial demands and the stakes with these specific ohio counties were high enough for the pharmacies to roll the dice. bear in mind, tre have been drug manufacturers who also have been sued under this public nuisance law, which is basically a law that says you as a manufacturer, a drugstore, whomever, you acted in a negligent way and as a result of that we as a tax paying county, city, state, what have you, some sort of ever mental organization, have had to pay --

the easiest model to think about is the lens of litigation that was brought against the cigarette manufacturers. they sold products without disclosing the dangers. states had to pay all kinds of health related costs. and they sued the manufacturers to reclaim the tax funds that were paid out most of this is a much more, like situation because there are a number of players in it. and in a number of cases where there were jury findings, understate public nuisance laws against manufacturers, those were subsequently thrown out because judges on appeal decided, wait a minute, this does not really meet the test of our public nuisance law. so it remains to be seen whether the particular wording of the

laws in ohio will stand on appeal. amy: how did the money get distributed? >> that is a great question. it is probably, hopefully, going to go into drug treatment, drug abatement -- the dilemma, and the companies make this argument, both manufacturers and the pharmacies make an argument and it is partly true, which is at this juncture, the majority of overdose deaths don't involve legally produced opioids. they involve opioids produced in laboratories, very toxic, very destructive, counterfeit forms of sentinel, which now -- fentanyl, which now cover the greatest growth in opioid guests. the question becomes, if we are

going to reduce these deaths and reduce addiction, it is basically a battle that is going to be fought on a lot of fronts. there has to be reduced prescribing, more intelligent dispensing of these drugs, but also either stepped up law enforcement interdiction of illegal opioids on the street or , you know, ultimate, what is the goal? is the goal to save lives? if the goal is to save lives, we may have to think about scenarios where addicts can get drugs in legal settings so they don't go out and kill themselves getting them in legal settings. amy: can you talk about these other cases in other states? a federal judge ruled walgreens can be held responsible for

contributing to san francisco's opioid crisis, for over dispensing highly addictive drugs for years without proper oversight and failing to identify and report suspicious orders as required by law. and you have in may, walgreens reaching a $683 million settlement with the state of florida in a lawsuit accusing the company of improperly dispensing millions of painkillers that contributed to the opioid crisis. is this going to go state-by-state? >> yes, it will. it is going to basically be modeled on not only state-by-state, but locality by locality. in many cases, these county level or even state-level actions have been consolidated together in courts, but there also individual actions that have been brought by states, brought by counties against -- in this case, let's say, the

pharmacies. it is going to be a fire they are fighting on any number of fronts that will pop up, as i mentioned earlier, all going to be determined not so much by their actions -- it is sort of hard for them to defend their actions when they're all of these photographs of people lined up outside pharmacies to fill prescriptions or there are these very damaging internal emails within the pharmacies that have come out where executives or sales reps are licking their chops over the thousands or tens of thousands of pain pills that are being prescribed in an area. it is very much going to be a function of the particular wording of these local laws and the determination by these companies about whether the wording of the kind of public nuisance statute in an area they

can get through that or it is too risky and they're going to settle before the case goes to court. amy: a fictional adaptation of your book "painkiller" will be adapted by nap looks coming out next year starring uzo aduba and matthew broderick. what do you hope will be gained by this? >> i think this is a story that -- i'm very passionate about it because i wre about it first 20 years ago. one of the most important things that i think hopefully the story kinda brings to light is, you know, how our course as a society can be affected by a few people and how those few people may in fact somewhere in their heads think that they're doing

good, but their actions and the interactions of others -- particularly others within our own government -- can have this extraordinarily -- extraordinary ripple effect. we think about the developments of oxycontin, this was originally brought out as something that was supposed to be a miracle drug, something that was supposed to deal with severe pain and treat this condition that doctors are struggling to deal with. and what it helped trigger was the biggest public health crisis of the 21st century, one that we are talking about today because the ripple effects of a just keep going on and on and on. i think it is important for us to understand the roots of what we are seeing today and how it unfold -- and it is my great

hope that the show, which really does have terrific actors, writers, wonderful director involved with it -- kinda bring that all to let. amy: barry meier, thank you for being with us, award-winning journalist, author of "pain killer: an empire of deceit and the origin of america's opioid epidemic." one april a surprise. next up, we go to florida. tuesday is a primary there and we will look at the 20 arrest that took place last week, overwhelmingly a people who were formerly incarcerated. why? because they mistakenly thought they were eligible to vote. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "the evil that men do" by hot chip. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we turn now to florida, where a new office has made his first arrest of people it accuses of commitng voter fraud tied to e 2020 election.

they come dressed as voters are said to go to the polls tuesday in the states primary. the office was a pet project of ron desantis who announced the arrest thursday. >> the state of florida has charged and is in the procs of arresting 20 individuals across the state for voter fraud. amy: many of those arrested were formerly incarcerated. the state said they did not have their voting rights properly restored or were ineligible due to their convictions. for more, we go to orlando, florida, to speak with desmond meade, president of the florida rights restoration coalition, which works with returning citizens on restoring voting rights. he is also chairman of the floridians for a fair democracy. spearheaded mmf 4, which re-enfranchised 1.4 million

floridians, but then republican lawmakers overturned that. his latestook is titled "let my people vote: my battle to restore the civil rights of returning citizens." welcome back to democracy now! if you could start off by explaining what is going on, who were these people arrested, what message was being sent, and go back to when you really spearheaded this movement that got overwhelmingly approved in florida that returning citizens as you say, formerly incarcerated people, can be able to vote again. >> first of all, thank you so much for having me on again, amy. it is always a pleasure to speak with you. when i look at the situation, what i see more than anything is we are in dangerous times right now. i do believe we are at a point where we may have to just shut some of our dialogue and engage in a more holistic conversation

about what democracy really means to us. what we're saying with these individuals who were arrested was state action crossing a line. very important when you talk about democracy and kernel justice reform. these individuals arrested was acting somewhere another, given insurances by the state that they were able to vote, able to register to vote. the onus is on the state to determine whether or not an individual is eligible or not. and when these eligible -- when these individuals reached out to the state or in some cases the state reached out to them to encourage them to register to vote, once they did that and was able to participate in an election, guess what? now they're getting arrested. it is very disheartening. were talking about like amendment 4, we lead this effort to disenfranchise people from

all walks of life and all political persuasions. we fight just as hard for the person who wanted to vote for donald trump as the one who wished he could vote for president barack obama. in these arrests, we're seeing republicans, democrats that are now being dragged from their homes in handcuffs because all they ever wanted to do was dissipate in democracy. amy: i want to be very clear for people, you spearheaded amendment 4, this historic ballot initiative that restore the right to vote for my state president felony convictions. until then, florida had been one of only four states -- iowa, kentucky, virginia -- where people that committed felonies needed to petition the governor to have their voting rights restored, a grim 19th-century legacy of really, ultimately, slavery of 19th-century laws that passed after the 15th

amendment granted african-american men the right to vote. by republican-dominated legislature overturned that and said people, like you yourself, had to repay every penny of what was owed. expand what that was and how this -- explain what that was and how do people even know what they owe? >> that is something we've been talking about for quite some time. amendment four ben was a major lawsuit that followed legislation, the fact the state does not have a centralized database to be able to ascertain exactly how much a person may owe or give someone assurances that you owe so much amount of money and if you pay that, you're gooto go. amy: and what do you owe it for? >> outstanding fines and fees, maybe court costs, restitution,

all various types of fees that florida legislature has allowed the courts to use to collect revenue to keep the doors open. amy, i think this speaks to a deeper issue. the deeper issue is the end of the day, if a citizen cannot rely on the state to determine their eligibility, if a citizen cannot rely on a state to determine how much seo, then that citizen should not be held criminally liable. that citizen should not be drawn from their homes in the middle of the night in handcuffs in the middle of an election. it is very concerning not just to a returning citizen, but over the last several days, i have been receiving calls even from conservatives that are concerned about even the timing of this. if there are people out there who are concerned about the raid on mar-a-lago two years from a presidential election, then they should definitely be appalled at

what is happening in the middle of an election here in florida. amy: why did they think they could vote? if you could explain that. what role does the state play, as you say? >> they played a very important role. let's be clear. the burden is on the state to determine whether or not an individual is eligible to register to vote. if i believe i'm eligible to vote, i would go to fill out a voter registration form. the supervisor of elections would take that form and send it to the secretary of state where they conduct whatever investigation they needed to conduct, run it through whatever systems they need to run it through,nd then make a determination whether or not am able to vote. in one county, had an individual who was approached by supervisor of elections office and said, write your name on a piece of paper. we are going to check to see if you're eligible to vote. if you are, we will send you a

pamphlet and you can go and register to vote. guess what? this individual, they received the pamphlet from the supervisor of elections office saying that person can vote and that person registered to vote. at the end of the day, it is -- the burden is on the state. we go to the state and fill out an application and the state makes the determination prior to issuing a voter identification card. amy: in the end, do you think these arrests are just going to be thrown out but what matters is the message that is sent for tomorrow's primary, making people, perhaps over one million people, terrified to dare to go to the polls because what if they're wrong? what if they somehow don't have the right to vote? >> this is unprecedented. what i'm concerned about is it is a message not only for florida, but for this country.

it is a message that is compelling as to have this conversation. i am talking about a conversation on both sides of the aisle. this is a time we cannot be thrown back and forth and look at the deeper question. is this how we want our democracy to be where in the middle of an election american citizens are being drug from their homes in handcuffs? this is totally unacceptable. this is happening for republicans and democrats and people that are registering mba. it could not be worse than it is right now. if it can happen in florida, it could happen anywhere in this country. every citizen, no matter what their political persuasion, needs to be very concerned. there's also a criminal justice element here. removing someone from the roster requires the lowest burden of proof, and that is preponderance of evidence. but when you start talking about taking a citizen's liberty, that is the worst thing you can do to

an individual is take their liberty. the burden of proof, the standard of proof is at its highest, and that is beyond a reasonable doubt. the critical element to these charges is that a person knowingly and willfully registered to vote and voted. in all of these cases, these individuals relied on the states to determine their eligibility. therefore, there is no willingness or knowing element present, yet these individuals are drug from their homes. most of these individuals were interviewed by the florida department of law enforcement and were not even aware there was a subject of a criminal investigation. this list the florida department of law enforcement is relying on was given to them back in july 2021. if the state was giving a list of people who may not have been eligible to vote or to register

to vote over a year ago, why would they wait until the middle of a primary to start making arrests? amy: desmond meade, thank you for being with us president of , the florida rights restoration coalition. congratulations on your 10th anniversary. and chair of the floridians for a fair democracy. we are staying in florida now to look at how a federal judge on thursday blocked key portions of florida's new law called the "stop woke act" that restricts race-based conversation and analysis in workplaces and schools. the law had major backing from republican governor ron desantis and has been challenged by multiple groups, including business owners, students, educators, and the american civil liberties union. on thursday,.s. district court judge mark wker issued preliminary injunction to block what is called the private employer provisions in the law, saying it violates free speech protections and is too vague.

judge walker wrote -- "recently, florida has seemed like a first amendment upside down. normally, the first amendment bars the state from burdening speech, while private actors may burden speech freely. but in florida, the first amendment apparently bars private actors from burdening speech, while the state may burden speech freely." this comes as desantis took his culture war on the road this weekend to stump for trump-backed candidates in pennsylvania and ohio amid growing speculation that desantis may run for president in 2024. >> we must fight the woke in our schools, in our businesses. we must fight the woke in government agencies. we can never ever surrender to woke ideology. and i will tell you this, the state of florida is where woke goes to e. amy: "where woke goes to die."

for more, we're joined in tallahassee, florida, by diane roberts, journalist and professor of english at florida state university who wrote about the florida governor in her new "washington post" op-ed headlined "desantis aims to scare academics. unfortunately, it's working." in it, she writes -- "desantis likes to call florida 'the freest state in these united states.' university faculty wonder if that freedom extends to the mind. many, perhaps most, of us will continue to teach the way we always have, raising difficult questions and encouraging debate. but junior faculty not protected by tenure may think they must censor themselves in the classroom. that will be a shame. education demands that we search for truth, even painful truth. i will continue assigning books by herman melville and ta-nehisi coates, alice walker and alison bechdel, claudia rankine and richard wright -- writers who confront america's past sins to help new generations shape america's future. that's my job. i might even use the words 'critical' and 'race' in the same sentence."

those are the words of professor diane roberts. welcome to democracy now! talk about the significance of this where woke goes to die. >> well, i think it is a way for ron desantis [indiscernible] if a professor or indeed a teacher in the primary or secondary school even talks about certain things, it somehow poisons the mind. so if we talk about, i don't know, socialism, they will all become socialists. if we mention the word gay, they will turn gay. he knows better. he knows it is not how it works. he had a very nice educati himself at harvard, yet he seems

to have come out of those liberal bastions of woke with his conservatism unscathed. so i think a lot of it is theater, but it had a chilling effect, as desmond meade said, it scares people and scared people don't do what they would normally do, whether that is trying to vote or teach it is a very nasty attack on her education -- on higher education and a lot of people will self censor. i think that was the idea all along. amy: you begin classes today, professor roberts, the semester begins today. can you talk about how particularly this bears on everything from the teaching of critical race area to discussions about lgbtq rights?

>> again, i think it will have a chilling effect but a lot of us, my colleagues, do not intend to change thing. we intend to answer questions when we get them. we intend to teach writers w may be suggest questions about lgbtq rights like james baldwin or whomever. we are in the business of opening minds, not closing them. students have a lot of questions. our students are not idiots nor are they sponges. they don't just soak up whatever the professor says. they challenge. i am delighted they challenge. i encourage them to challenge. i am not trying to teach them what to thk, i'm trying to teach them how to think, to

think, to evaluate, question everything. i have conservative students. i have left-wing students. i have everyone in between. we seem to muddle along quite happily without all of the threatening nonsense that is coming out of the governor's office. this is desantis' style. he is a dictator one of the -- dictator wannabe. amy: that hungarian leader that was incited to speak at cpac and did last week. the fact that ron desantis is taking his message, looks like he's beginning a presidential campaign to ohio and other states. >> of course he is. he has been running for president nce the minute he got elected governor most of we

have noticed so much of his campaign and it comes from out-of-state. he has been pushing all of the right buttons. teachers are the enemy. doctors are sometimes the enemy. we have got a surgeon general who doesn't think much of any kind of vaccines, apparently, and that is not going to go well. we have all of these people in universities who are leaving or thinking of leaving. my own university lost some very prominent law professors. faculty lever all kinds of reasons, but it may have had something to do with it. the university of florida is losing people. university of florida, unfortunately, kind of the poster child for how frightening desantis candy. their board of trustees -- the

president of the university of florida made a slideshow sent to all of the faculty about being careful what they say because if things go wrong in the governor notices, they could lose $100 million in funding. amy: i want to thank you very much for being with us. diane roberts, journalist and professor of english at florida state university. we will link to your "washington post" op-ed headlined "desantis aims to scare academics. unfortunately, it's working." the latest news out of florida, suspended florida prosecutor, suspended by governor ron desantis come over his views on abortion, is fighting to get his job back. next up, we're going to speak with a member of the alphabet workers union in denver who are demanding google protect the location and browser history of

people searching for information on abortion and more. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "synthentic world" by swamp dogg. this is democracy now!, democracyn.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. more than 650 google workers have signed a petition demanding the mega tech company protect the location and browser history of people searching for content and information on abortion from law enforcement agencies. the petition is leby the alphabet workers' union. they are also asking google to extend its abortion befits -- includg relocation support for workers hoping to move to states where abortion isn't criminalized and travel and health care costs for any out-of-state abortion procedures -- to contractors, to stop donating money to politicians who suppord the overturning of roe v. wade through the google politil action committee netpac, and to block advertisements that misleadingly direct users to anti-abortion so-called pregnancy crisis centers. this comes amidst mounting concerns police in states with abortion bans will use google data to target and prosecute

people seeking the procedure. just earlier this month in nebraska, a mother and her teenage daughter were charged with felonies after the mother helped her daughter obtain abortion medication. authorities built their case in part on private facebook messages between the mother and daughter, which were obtained through a warrant. for more, we go to denver, colorado, and are joined by alejandra beatty, the southwest chapter lead with the alphabet workers union. alejandra is a technical program manager for alphabet's healthcare subsidiary verily. welcome to democracy now! can you talk about what your demands are? start off with this case that took place with the warrant that got the information, the conversation on facebook between the mother and daughter and how this has affected so many people. >> important perspective to have

. we are now in a situation where the information that you consider private, the data about yourself, and unfortunately the criminalization of pregnancy narrative a -- now very much means that systems like google that know everything about you can now be used against you. it is a crazy world to think we are in that space, but it is where we are at now. part of our petition demands are that we address this immediately . we saw some addressing of these issues. we already saw a commitment to wipe out data should visit the clinic, but there's so much more that has to be addressed that we know that users expect their to be secure and we have to meet that need for them.

amy: talked about the kind of information that google has. for example, if you do a search on medication abortion or you are in a state like texas and you have to go to another state so you start searching for where abortion is legal. explain what google can do with this and what you are demanding they do. >> again, the systems are built on knowing everything about you. it is part of how google eventually next money through ads. i actually did this myself recently because i had not yet experienced it so i searched for abortions near any local city. sure enough, when i looked at the results for them, i found clinics -- things that call themselves clinics, but they were not actually clinics. they provided absolutely no medical services around abortion. in fact, an ad came up for one of them. now in this world where millions

of people are now impacted and cannot find providers and clinics near them and have to travel out-of-state, the amount of disinformation this provides is phenomenal to think about the impact this has to people who are just looking for health care and that the information we have , basically, we know a lot about what you in particular do so this is part of what our demands are is to work more on how do we protect user data. in the case of searching for essentially fake clinics, they are abusing the system. they are abusing a system that is meant to help provide information about websites equitably, make these accessible -- we believe there violating policy by trying to pretend there something that they are not. we have seen some groups in a google attempt to start addressing these issues, but we

really want to hone in on -- it is been two months, we need a solid response. this is a health care crisis that google needs to figure out what do we do to provide the right kind of information to people when they need it? and now this point, figure out how do we ops vacate, encrypt, and hide that information because you expect privacy? if we don't provide that kind of privacy, people will stop using the system. from that perspective as well, need to address the issues and we very much want to see the company treated just as much as they did with the covid response , where everybody, let's figure this out. that is the kind of response we want to see, we want to see a conference a program that addresses these problems. amy: can you talk about the more considerable impact on lgbtq rights, were gender affirming

care is now being attacked and criminalized in some states? >> exactly right. this is just the tip of the iceberg. there is more to come. we are currently a very open system in general with all information, and to see people trying to say we also need to hide information about abortion -- it is just health care. we need to make sure that people are getting the right health care information and not being misled. it is absolutely imperative when it comes to gender affirming care as well. we want to see that extended to our contract teammates who make up almost half of the google employed population, and they are not being given the same coverage and same benefits. and many of them live in the very state that are actually impacted. we think from a mutual aid

perspective, this must be addressed right away and yet here we are two months into this and they have not done anything yet. amy: so you sent your petition to the ceo of alpha bed, sundar pichai, the umbrella ration for google and other top executives. has there been any response? >> no, unfortunately, there has not been. i know our demands are strong, but a lot of this is also about the systemic issues we need to see addressed, the money in politics part of our repetition. we are going to keep organizing and we're going to keep pulling in more coworkers. we are identifying a lot of voices -- we have heard from a lot of people concern not only our employees, users of our system, and again how to even

get here and how do we address the systemic issues? amy: can you explain what keyword subpoenas are? >> they've been used for a long time. the whole idea is basically, because google knows a lot about what are users do, down to they know you made that surge, it is possible for law enforcement to use that information to find what people do. there is an interesting case actually here in denver where they were able to use a keyword search for someone looking up a particular address to figure out who went to a house. in this case, what we're likely to see is request for keyword searches of i'm searching for an abortion, maybe also providing that information in other search

results that we believe that is very likely going to start to happen more and more as people look to criminalize pregnancy and not just searching for providers, but actually -- amy: finally, what will be the response? more than 650 have you come alphabet workers, have signed this petition. if you don't get a response? >> we've been organizing for more than a year and half, amplifying employee voices. we will continue to work on that . we believe this needs to be a national response. it is absolutely a labor issue if it impacts our health rights and we must protect those. we're going to continue to bring more people onto figure out what we going to do about this? what -- how can we listen to the employees?

what is the right way to fix these problems? i will put out a call to all fellow employees, join us. this is the time. don't wait. america on that note, alejandra beatty, thank you for being with us. ço

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