Notices by Chuck Darwin (cdarwin@c.im), page 12

Wisconsin Republicans are asking voters to take away the governor’s power to unilaterally spend federal money, a reaction to the billions of dollars that flowed into the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Democratic Gov. #Tony #Evers was free to spend most of that money as he sees fit,🔸 directing most of it toward small businesses and economic development, 🔸angering Republicans who argued the Legislature should have oversight.
That’s what would happen under a pair of related constitutional amendments up for voter approval in the Aug. 13 primary election.
The changes would apply to Evers and all future governors and cover any federal money to the state that comes without specific spending requirements, often in response to disasters or other emergencies.

Democrats and other opponents are mobilizing against the amendments, calling them a legislative power grab that would ♦️hamstring governors’ ability to quickly respond to a future natural disaster, economic crisis or health emergency.♦️
If the amendments pass, Wisconsin’s government “will become even more #dysfunctional,” said Julie Keown-Bomar, executive director of Wisconsin Farmers Union.

https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-constitutional-amendment-governor-power-def171c6fdeb1f6be63c09202dd8eed6

Research confirms that ancient Tasmania was not a 'wilderness,'
but an indigenous cultural landscape

Research, published in Quaternary Science Reviews,
presents paleoecological data indicating
significant shifts in the vegetation of Tasmania's cool temperate rainforests,
correlating with periods prior to and following human settlement.

This research was undertaken with the express consent and support of the Lutruwitan Aboriginal community.

Sarah Cooley, the lead author and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Melbourne, under the guidance of Prof. Michael-Shawn Fletcher, Theme Leader of Healthy Country at the Indigenous Knowledge Institute, highlighted the research's discovery of marked contrasts in the dynamics of rainforests.
These contrasts were observed during the shift from glacial to interglacial periods,
a timeline that spans both before and after the initial human settlement estimated to be around 43,000 years ago.

The intentional application of fire to sculpt ecosystems, foster open landscapes, and curb the prevalence of rainforests has shaped vegetation patterns across numerous millennia.

Before Indigenous occupation, lowland rainforests of celery-top pine and myrtle beech dominated the vegetation of western Tasmania, which together comprised about 77% of the pollen types during the previous interglacial period. Pollen grains reflect the natural relative vegetation composition at the time of pollen deposition.

However, there was a shift following human arrival and Indigenous landscape management practices,
particularly the use of fire, maintained open landscapes and restricted the expansion of rainforest vegetation to previous interglacial values.

During the transition to the current interglacial period, rainforest trees represented only about 41% of the pollen record, while buttongrass moorland
—an indicator of human influence
—expanded to cover 10%–23% of the landscape.

A diverse array of scientific techniques was applied to the analysis of sediment cores from two locations, Darwin Crater and Lake Selina.
The methodologies encompassed radiometric dating, pollen analysis, examination of charcoal records, geochemical analysis, environmental magnetic data assessment, and sedimentary analysis.

https://phys.org/news/2024-07-ancient-tasmania-wilderness-indigenous-cultural.html

As it has turned out, fate has now aligned so that “messy and bold” has become convenient branding for the Democratic Party, as it scrambles to mount a presidential campaign for Harris at a moment’s notice.

The memes are a sign of young people actually being excited for a candidate

—but the jokes can just as easily come back to bite Harris if she’s not careful.

https://newrepublic.com/article/184312/kamala-harris-brat-memes-help-hurt

Republicans are already souring on JD Vance

“I’m a little surprised they didn’t vet him as thoroughly as they should have,” said one GOP strategist.

The Ohio senator started receiving unwanted attention after old clips resurfaced of him calling some Democrats
“childless cat ladies”
and suggesting parents should have more political power than non-parents.

Vance’s change of fortune also collided with the rise of Vice President Kamala Harris,
who has broken fundraising records and is on a glide path to receiving the Democratic nomination after President Joe Biden bowed out of the race.

And Harris — who would be the first Black and South Asian woman president and is running a campaign with the unofficial slogan “we’re not going back”
— has made the contrast with the Trump-Vance ticket even more stark.

It’s all starting to get some Republicans worried — and frustrated.
Some, like Arizona Republican operative Chuck Coughlin, conceded that Vance has had a “tough week.”

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro bluntly questioned whether Trump should have picked Vance, saying on his show: “If you had a time machine, if you go back two weeks, would [Trump] have picked JD Vance again? I doubt it.”
Other Republicans also wondered aloud if the Trump campaign had truly anticipated the tidal wave of resurfaced comments, book writings and remarks that would come with picking a 39-year-old, recently elected senator who had grown up online and was firmly seated on the extreme right wing of the Republican Party.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/26/republicans-jd-vance-attacks-00171473

Trump, for his part, has sought to distance himself from Project 2025,
though the people behind it have close ties to the former president,
and the policies it envisions often align with Trump’s ideas.

Roberts has said he is “good friends” with JD #Vance, Trump’s running mate,
and Vance has praised Project 2025 as having “some good ideas”.

Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, also wrote the foreword for Roberts’ forthcoming book,
praising the author for articulating a “genuinely new future for conservatism”.

“We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon,” Vance wrote.

Opus Dei does not disclose the names of its members.

The group’s roots date back to a century ago, when the group was established in Spain
in response to a clash between conservative Catholics and anti-Catholic socialism and communism in Spain.

Decades later, the group was granted special status by the conservative pope John Paul II,
who supported Opus Dei and saw it as a response to the rise of liberation theology in Latin America,
a progressive church movement.

Some of Opus Dei’s special rights were revoked in recent years by Pope Francis,
who is seen as a more progressive pontiff.

One of the core tenets of Opus Dei is that it does not believe in the traditional separation of church and state.

Instead, said Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University,
it believes the two ought to have a symbiotic relationship.

“They are secretive, so while they are not [outwardly] part of this [Project 2025] per se,
it is not surprising at all that some of their members are part of it.
They see this moment in politics
– and the possibility of allowing ‘woke ideology’ to win
– as fundamentally changing the nature of America, western civilization and Christianity,” Faggioli said.

He added: “Opus Dei is part of [a movement of] US conservative and traditionalist Catholicism
that holds a view that the United States is the last bastion of Christendom,
so that if the United States goes a certain way, so goes Christianity,
and Catholicism.”

Indeed Roberts made it clear earlier this month that he believes the US is at a crossroads,
and 🔸“in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be”.🔸

Asked whether it had a view on Roberts’ remarks or Project 2025,
a spokesperson for Opus Dei told the Guardian in a statement:
“Opus Dei is an institution of the Catholic Church that tries to help people come closer to God in their work and everyday lives.
Opus Dei’s aims are purely spiritual and it does not endorse or have any opinion on any political project of any kind.”

Opus Dei is controversial not only in the US.

Dozens of women from Argentina and Paraguay filed a complaint to the Vatican over labor exploitation and abuses of power
they say they experienced after joining the group at sites in multiple countries.

And reporting in Australia gave insight into schools run by Opus Dei,
where former students allege their education left them with “psychological damage”.

Roberts’ personal background suggests his ties to Opus Dei are not just limited to the CIC.

A school founded by Roberts in Louisiana,
called John Paul the Great Academy,
considers Opus Dei-founder Escrivá its “patron”.

#Heritage #Foundation #Project2025 #Roberts #CIC #Gore #Escrivá #Roberts #Leo #Trump

Roberts was also involved in an Opus Dei-affiliated high school leadership program in Austin, Texas.

A website that tracks Opus Dei men’s activities called
"Where You Are" included a profile of the high school program in Austin
where Roberts appears to volunteer and
“contributes significantly “ to the school’s career and leadership program.

Roberts was featured as a guest at another Opus Dei-linked school,
the #Camino #Schools, in 2023.

In introductory remarks before Roberts spoke, the school’s chairman, Bob #Rose, praised schools that
🔸teach boys and girls they are “different”, 🔸
they learn differently and are inspired by different things,
and where🔸 boys are taught by “manly men” 🔸who serve as role models.

Roberts’ critics said concerns about his ties to Opus Dei were not connected to his identity or beliefs as a Roman Catholic.

“Kevin Roberts, like all Americans, has a guaranteed freedom to worship or not under our constitution,”
said Lisa Graves,
co-founder of "Court Accountability",
a non-partisan group that seeks to combat judicial corruption.

”That is not at issue. What is of concern is how some powerful elites,
like Roberts,
who have failed to persuade the American people to embrace their agenda,
seem eager 🔸to use the power of the executive branch to impose their personal religious views🔸
as binding law on other Americans
– by barring abortion,
using the government to endorse the rhythm method of contraception,
even banning mention of ‘condoms’ in women’s preventative health,
as well as assailing the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans.”

Heritage did not respond to a request for comment.

The CIC did not respond to a request for comment.

During Roberts’ September 2023 speech,
which received little notice at the time
but is posted on the center’s YouTube page,
Roberts detailed how conservative Catholics and their allies could 🔸advance US policy
to end access to abortion, same-sex marriage and contraception.🔸

Knowing the 🔹unpopularity of banning birth control 🔹
– a harder political battle to wage than advancing anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage policies
– he encouraged an #incremental approach to pursuing this long-term goal.

“Even in a politically conservative setting,
that can be a very difficult thing to advance,”
Roberts told attendees at the CIC event.

“A majority of Roman Catholics don’t believe in that teaching,
if public opinion surveys are the case.
And so it makes it very difficult to advocate for that.”

The faithful should practice the
🔹“gift of discernment” 🔹
to know when to bring it up:

“Sometimes the right thing at the right time to the right person
isn’t the full teaching of humanity, right?
It isn’t the full teaching of contraception.

And recognizing that that’s not the time is no way turning into Judas.
In fact, it’s being #apostolic.

And the very definition of the word, which is in modern common parlance, meeting someone where they are.”

In espousing his theory of
“radical incrementalism”,
or what he called the
🔹“enchilada theory”, 🔹
he said it was critical for conservatives to work first
to achieve a small part of a larger policy goal
based on what’s politically possible at the moment.

Sometimes, he said, having even half an enchilada could be a victory.

On abortion, he noted that Roman Catholics believe
🔸“no abortion can be morally justified”, 🔸
but that even in conservative circles in the US,
this is 🔹not a majority opinion, 🔹
and it’s an
“even more difficult position to hold”
after the Dobbs decision.

Using the “same vocabulary of our faith” in the policy arena
has a negative effect on electoral outcomes, he said.

#Vance #Heritage #Foundation #Project2025 #Roberts #CIC #Gore #Escrivá #Roberts #Leo #Trump

Roberts advised listeners
not to accept the
“narrative framing of the other side”
on these issues.

He said conservatives who are anti-abortion
should stop talking about it the way the left wants them to
and instead “talk about the fact that many of them want abortion to be legal until birth”.

Strategies of incrementalism
and narrative framing
don’t always apply, he added,
because sometimes you just have to fight.

“Right now, we have to fight on religious liberty and, in particular,
religious liberty as it relates to protecting institutions of faith,” he said.

“And that’s not a time for strategic retreat.
It’s not a time to be savvy,
it’s not a time to be sweet.
It’s not a time to develop friendships with the other side.

It is a time to take our fist
– figuratively, Father Charles
– and bust them in the nose
because they hate what you and I believe.”

#Camino #Schools #Rose #incremental #apostolic #Vance #Heritage #Foundation #Project2025 #Roberts #CIC #Gore #Escrivá #Roberts #Leo #Trump

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Trisha Calvarese
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Lauren Boebert and her team are so sleazy that they're trying to trick you

J.D. Vance in Hot Water for Praising Book Calling Liberals “Unhumans”

Donald Trump’s running mate praised a book riddled with conspiracies and calling to “crush” non-Republicans.

https://newrepublic.com/post/184271/jd-vance-trouble-blurb-book-unhumans

Kevin Roberts, architect of Project 2025, has close ties to the radical Catholic group Opus Dei

Heritage Foundation leader has long received spiritual guidance from the group and his policy goals align with its teachings

Kevin Roberts, the #Heritage #Foundation president and the architect of #Project2025,
the conservative thinktank’s road map for a second Trump presidency,
has close ties and receives regular spiritual guidance from an Opus Dei-led center in Washington DC,
a hub of activity for the radical and secretive Catholic group.

#Roberts acknowledged in a speech last September that
– for years – he has visited the Catholic Information Center,
or #CIC, a K Street institution headed by an Opus Dei priest and incorporated by the archdiocese of Washington,
on a weekly basis for mass and “formation”, or religious guidance.

Opus Dei also organizes monthly retreats at the CIC.

In the speech
– which he delivered at the CIC and was recorded and is available online
– Roberts spoke candidly about his strategy for achieving extreme policy goals that he supports but are out of step with the views of a majority of Americans.

♦️Outlawing birth control ♦️is the “hardest” political battle facing conservatives in the future,
the 50-year-old political strategist said,
♦️but he urged conservatives to pursue even small legislative victories
– what he called “radical incrementalism”
– to advance their most rightwing policy objectives.

Roberts gained notoriety this year as the leading force behind Project 2025,
a foundation plan backed by more than 100 conservative groups that seeks to radically upend a broad range of policies
if Trump gets elected again,
from 🔸limiting abortion access and LGBTQ+ rights and 🔸dismantling the Department of Education, 🔸to ending diversity programs and increasing government support for “fertility awareness” programs, like 🔸ovulation tracking and practicing periodic abstinence, instead of more reliable contraception.

But Roberts’ personal ties to Opus Dei and the significance of his affiliation, has received far less attention.
Gareth #Gore, the author of a forthcoming book on Opus Dei, called the Catholic organization “a political project shrouded in a veil of spirituality”.

The group’s founder, Saint Josemaría #Escrivá, saw his followers as part of a “rising militia”, Gore said, who were seeking to🔸 “enter battle against the enemies of Christ”.

“Like Project 2025, Opus Dei at its core is a ⚠️reactionary stand against the progressive drift of society,” ⚠️Gore said.
“For decades now, the organization has thrown its resources at penetrating Washington’s political and legal elite
– and finally seems to have succeeded through its close association with men like Kevin #Roberts and Leonard #Leo.”

Leo is a conservative activist
who has led the Republican mission to install the rightwing majority in the supreme court
and finances many of the groups signed on to Project 2025.

Like Roberts, Leo also has links to the Opus Dei-linked CIC.
In a 2022 speech accepting the CIC’s highest honor,
the John Paul II New Evangelization award,
Leo praised the center while also referring to his political opponents as
❗️“vile and amoral current day barbarians, secularists and bigots” who were under the influence of the devil.❗️

Democrats, including Kamala Harris, have been sounding the alarm on Project 2025 to warn voters of what a second #Trump administration could do.

“[Trump] and his extreme Project 2025 agenda will weaken the middle class.
We know we have to take this thing seriously.
And can you believe they put that thing in writing?” Harris said this week in her first presidential campaign rally, to laughter.

“Read it. It’s 900 pages.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/26/kevin-roberts-project-2025-opus-dei?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Conservatives’ racist and sexist attacks on Kamala Harris show exactly who they are.

Hatred will continue to ooze from the right.

Pay attention
– because that bigotry isn’t just talk,

it’s Republican policies

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/26/republican-kamala-harris-racist-sexist-attacks?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

A Jewish couple was rejected as foster parents because of their religion.

This is the future Project 2025 envisions

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/24/project-2025-adoption-fostering?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

House Republicans just got the rug pulled out from under them.

They’re so used to running against President Joe Biden and seem to be struggling mightily with how to run against Vice President Kamala Harris,
a 59-year-old woman of Black and Indian heritage who is now the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Consider just what’s gone on during the last couple days. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) called Harris a “DEI hire,”
a shocking remark that Democrats pushed back hard on.

Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah), one of just four Black House Republicans,
then told us that Harris is “the greatest example of DEI.”

More Owens: “For those who believe in DEI, this is exactly what DEI is like. Kamala Harris.”

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) said on Sunday that Democrats “have to stick with her because of her ethnic background.”

We followed up with Grothman on this, who then informed us
“I don’t think people view her as Black.”

Grothman added that people “just view her as someone who did nothing on the border.”

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), when asked if Republicans need to be careful in how they talk about Harris’ race, told us:
“I’m not going to get into all the color stuff. I’m just looking at performance.”

What’s happened to Harris, Biden and the Democratic presidential ticket has no direct precedent.

Democrats dumped Biden just months before the election, leaving Harris roughly 100 days to rally the party
— and the nation
— to her side.

But it’s also a problem for the GOP,
which has spent the last couple of years probing every facet of Biden’s life.

They dug into his family’s business deals. They considered impeaching him. They highlighted Biden’s every weakness, misstep and fumble. Now all of that’s changed.

Harris is a diametrically different challenge for Republicans.

Biden is old and occasionally confused. Harris is younger and sharp.

Biden is a white man. Harris is a woman of color.

There are lots of firsts in Harris’ bio, of course.

Former President Donald Trump seemed to try out some attack lines against Harris on Monday night,
labeling her as “Lyin’ Kamala” while calling himself “a fine and brilliant young man named DONALD. J. Trump.”

At 78, Trump is more than 18 years older than Harris. Harris is trying out her own lines on Trump too.

https://punchbowl.news/archive/72324-am/

Suddenly Trump Looks Older and More Deranged
Now the Republicans are saddled with a candidate who can’t make a clear argument or finish a sentence.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/07/trump-looks-older-and-more-deranged/679186/

The all new 2024 race:
Trump hedges on debating Kamala Harris

When it came to debating Biden, Trump said, “ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE.”

When it comes to debating Harris, Trump’s message is ... noticeably different.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/new-2024-race-trump-hedges-debating-kamala-harris-rcna163003

The shift in #vibes that happened overnight is so exciting!

So many people I know who found politics too depressing and exhausting to talk about are now excitedly talking about #Harris and the historic #milestones her victory could represent.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/22/2256862/-Friends-who-planned-to-not-vote-are-now-excited-about-Harris-Everone-wants-to-join-joyful-party

Harris is such a huge contrast to Trump in every way,
and all the media coverage and even Republican attacks on her are just going to remind voters of how different she is from Trump.

She is going to not only keep the Biden coalition but also energize turnout and support among so many more voters who had been contemplating third parties or just staying home.

Harris has even more on her side this time—she does especially well among youth, women, people of color, and immigrants and their children.

Republicans will have to throw out their whole playbook, and all the ads they already paid for, and scramble to come up with attacks against Harris.

But Republican attacks on Harris are just going to help her—Republicans say she laughs too much, which reminds voters weary of the negativity in this election how refreshing a joyful warrior can be.

A MAGA ad blaming Harris for being so loyal to Biden shows beautiful and moving images of Harris being supportive and warm

Claiming that she is (insert racist sexist slur) just reminds people how dangerously and disgustingly racist and sexist Republicans are.

All in for Harris 2024!

#vibes #Harris #milestones

Democrats have raised $46.7M:

'Biggest fundraising day of the 2024 cycle'

Barely two hours after announcing it had raised $27.5 million following President Joe Biden's exit from the presidential race
and endorsement of Kamala Harris for president,
ActBlue says it has now processed $46.7 million in donations.
"UPDATE:
As of 9pm ET, grassroots supporters have raised $46.7 million through ActBlue following Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign launch,"
the small-dollar donor fundraising platform said in a statement.
"This has been the biggest fundraising day of the 2024 cycle.
Small-dollar donors are fired up and ready to take on this election."

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/live-updates/biden-drops-out-updates/?id=112113289

The attacks on Harris from the right have been very brazen in their #misogyny and #racism.

For example, the New York Post published a column earlier this month saying Harris would be the country’s first “DEI president”,
referring to diversity, equity and inclusion.
This is a way of dismissing anybody who’s🔸 not white and not a man 🔸as not being worthy of the position they’ve earned.
Trump rose to national prominence prosecuting the same kind of racist campaign against the presidency of Barack Obama.
I think we can expect there to be a push for the Trump campaign not to go down that road any further.
But we’ve seen in the past how Trump completely ignores that kind of conventional wisdom, and just how much that incites his base.
This remains a dangerous and unpredictable era in American politics. There are no rules for what happens next.
-- Emma Shortis, Adjunct Senior Fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University

https://www.rawstory.com/why-this-risky-unprecedented-move-could-be-the-circuit-breaker-the-democrats-needed/

"And, again, sir, I'm so sorry that I called you America's Hitler, and so relieved that you took it as a compliment."

-- Cartoon by Paul Noth