Notices by Chuck Darwin (cdarwin@c.im), page 7

California reports a total of eight H5N1 bird flu outbreaks among dairy herds

Officials have refused to disclose the locations of the infected herds,
but have said they are in close proximity somewhere in California’s Central Valley
— an 18,000-square-mile expanse that is roughly the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined.

They say they are still investigating the source of the virus, but at a news conference Thursday, federal officials said genetic sequencing from the first three outbreaks suggests the strain is similar to that seen in other states.

They say it does not appear to have been caused by wild birds or animals.

“This is the same virus that we’ve detected in herds since the beginning of the emergence of H5N1 in dairy cows,” said Eric Deeble, deputy under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs at the United States Department of Agriculture.

“Sequencing of the samples from the additional five premises will likely be completed later this week or over the weekend.”

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-09-13/bird-flu-outbreaks-are-rising-among-california-dairy-herds

Florida officials investigate voters who signed abortion ballot initiative

Florida law enforcement officials are ❌ investigating voters who signed a petition to get a closely watched abortion rights measure on the ballot this fall,
🆘showing up at the homes of some residents unannounced in what activists say is an effort to intimidate voters.

Organizers turned in more than 900,000 signatures in January to get a measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution.
The deadline to challenge signatures has passed, but a state agency created by #DeSantis to investigate voter fraud recently began investigating whether there was fraud in the gathering process.

Isaac Menasche, a Fort Myers voter, said he signed a petition months ago when he was approached at a local farmer’s market.
He wrote down his name, birthday, address, and scribbled a quick version of his signature.
He didn’t think much of it until last week when 💥a law enforcement officer showed up at his door and pulled out a copy of his signature on the petition, asking him to confirm that it was his – which it was.

“The experience left me shaken.
What troubled me was he had a folder on me containing my personal information
– about 10 pages.
I saw a copy of my driver’s license and copy of the petition I signed,” Menasche wrote in a Facebook post last week.
“It was obvious to me that a significant effort was exerted to determine if indeed I had signed the petition.
Troubling that so much resources were devoted to this.
❓I wonder if the same could be said if the petition were for some innocuous issue.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/13/florida-abortion-petition-investigation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The "misery index" under Biden-Harris is
✅ near a six decade low!

In 1980 Ronald Reagan brought the term “#misery #index” into political debates.

The concept is simple, it’s the sum of the unemployment rate and inflation rate over the last year.

It’s not obvious that these two numbers should have the same importance, and they certainly are not the only measures that matter in evaluating the economy,
but they do provide an interesting snapshot.

Anyhow, Reagan could point to a misery index that was over 20 percent as the election approached.

The high level for the misery index was a theme Reagan hit on repeatedly in the campaign.

https://cepr.net/the-biden-harris-misery-index-in-historical-context/

No pets were harmed in the making of this video.

Disclaimer: as a South African, I am non-partisan in my support for either
Kamala Harris or
DonOLD Trump in the US elections.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=3VXVfcWI5EAEk_M1&v=3BrCvZmSnKA&feature=youtu.be

Taylor Swift Drove Nearly 338K People to Vote.gov With Kamala Harris Endorsement Post

According to data from the GSA, Swift's post directed 337,826 people to the site, which refers people to their local state election websites.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/taylor-swift-kamala-harris-endorsement-impact-vote-gov-1235998634/

Trump Admits He Has No Answer To Obamacare, But ‘Concepts Of A Plan’

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2024/09/10/trump-admits-he-has-no-answer-to-obamacare-but-concepts-of-a-plan/

𝕐 Are you still on 𝕏?

Staying on a social network and sharing your writing, photos, and other work with its users and owners is a choice.

Asking yourself 𝕐 you're still there is always a good idea, no matter what the network is or who owns it.

https://y-after.social/

The MAGA right, including Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, are spreading a racist rumor that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are capturing, cooking, and eating people’s pet cats and ducks.

Right-wingers seemed to have conflated a report from Canton, Ohio, of a woman who was arrested for allegedly killing and eating a cat, with complaints from residents in Springfield, more than 170 miles away from Canton.
The woman is a U.S. citizen, and there is no indication she is a Haitian immigrant.

Meanwhile, police in Springfield say they have received no reports of pets being stolen and eaten, according to the Springfield News-Sun.
The newspaper says that the rumor began from a local Facebook group, where a poster claimed that her neighbor’s daughter’s friend lost her pet cat and found it hanging from a tree branch at a Haitian neighbor’s home to be carved and eaten.

The post cited, with no evidence, that “rangers” and police said that “they have been doing it” at a local park with ducks and geese, according to the newspaper.
But these reports do not appear to have reached the right, who are not only spreading the rumor, but using it to promote anti-immigrant policies and make racist attacks.
https://newrepublic.com/post/185732/maga-conspiracy-migrants-eating-pets

In a recent gaffe-filled, nonsensical speech, 78-year-old Donald Trump seemed to imply that 80-year-olds are incapable of signing important documents.
Speaking in the battleground state of Wisconsin on Saturday, Trump suddenly poked fun at the elderly, during a rant about Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis.

“Great patriots have been indicted by Fani and her boyfriend, and it’s a disgrace. You had people that are in their eighties, ‘Uh would you sign here?’” said Trump, with no real explanation of how the two thoughts connected.
It’s unclear which 80-year-olds he is ridiculing: whether that be his great “innocent” patriots or some cabal of elderly people in cahoots with Willis.
What is clear, however, is that Trump’s offhand comment only throws himself under the bus.
In case Trump has forgotten, he will turn 80 in 2026.
And he is running to serve a four-year term as president, during which he would presumably be signing documents” quite often.
https://newrepublic.com/post/185746/trump-78-rant-80-year-olds

A New Way Forward

Vice President #Harris and Governor #Walz are fighting for
⭐️a New Way Forward
that protects our fundamental freedoms,
strengthens our democracy,
and ensures every person has the opportunity to not just get by, but to get ahead.

As a prosecutor, Attorney General, Senator, and now Vice President of the United States,
Kamala Harris always stood up for the people against predators, scammers, and powerful interests.

She promises to be a president for all Americans,
a president who unites us around our highest aspirations,
and a president who always fights for the American people.

From the courthouse to the White House, that has been her life’s work.

https://kamalaharris.com/issues/

‘Hillbilly Elegy’ director: ‘There’s no version of me voting for Donald Trump’

The director of the 2020 movie based on Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s (R) book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” said that he won’t be casting a vote for former President Trump despite Vance being his running mate in a video posted Saturday.
“There’s no version of me voting for Donald Trump to be president again, whoever the vice president was,” #Ron #Howard said in a video from Variety.
Howard had previously said in 2022 that he was “surprised by some of the positions [Vance has] taken and statements he’s made.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hillbilly-elegy-director-no-version-214858020.html

Bat die-offs in the U.S. led to increased use of insecticides,
which in turn led to greater #infant #mortality, according to a "seminal" study published Thursday that shows the effects of biodiversity loss on human beings.
Eyal Frank, an environmental economist at the University of Chicago, authored the study, which was published by Science, a leading peer-reviewed journal.

✅ Bats can eat thousands of insects per night and act as a natural pest control for farmers,
💥so when a fungal disease began killing off bat populations in the U.S. after being introduced in 2006, farmers in affected counties used more insecticides, Frank found.
🔥Those same counties saw more infant deaths, which Frank linked to increased use of insecticide that is harmful to human health, especially for babies and fetuses

https://www.rawstory.com/astonishing-study-shows-infant-deaths-rise-in-u-s-when-bat-populations-fall/

More shocking lies from Mike Garcia.

It’s 👍 George Whitesides here with a concerning update:

👉 My opponent was just called out by the Los Angeles Times for misleading voters about his record on the Violence Against Women Act.

His new TV ads paint him as a supporter of the bill.

But in 2021 when it was passed by Democrats, he voted AGAINST it.

🔥I'm fed up with MAGA lies, and I know you are too. Chip in $40 to help us expose Mike Garcia, flip this seat, and send him packing.

Donate >>
https://gwhitesides.us/donate?t=xF2Oe3

Thank you,

George Whitesides

Equal parts "Dark Money" and "Democracy in Chains",
Minority Rule is a riveting yet disturbing history of the fifty-year Republican plot to
💥hijack #voting #rights in America,
💥its profound implications for the 2024 @presidential #election,
💥and the crucial role that Chief Justice #John #Roberts has played in determining how we vote.

In 1981, a young lawyer, fresh out of Harvard law school, joined the Reagan administration's Department of Justice,
taking up a cause that had been fomenting in Republican circles for over a decade by that point.
From his perch inside the Reagan DOJ,
this lawyer would attempt to bring down one of the defining pieces of 20th century legislation
— the Voting Rights Act.
His name was John Roberts.
Over thirty years later in 2013, these efforts by John Roberts and the conservative legal establishment culminated when Roberts,
now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,
wrote #Shelby #County vs. Holder,
one of the most consequential decisions of modern jurisprudence.
A dramatic move that gutted the Voting Rights Act,
Roberts's decision
— dangerously premised on the flawed notion that racism was a thing of the past
— emboldened right-wing, #antidemocratic #voting #laws around the country immediately.
No modern court decision has done more to hand elections to Republicans than Shelby.

Now lauded investigative reporter #David #Daley reveals the urgent story of this 🆘fifty-year Republican plot to end the Voting Rights Act and encourage minority rule in their party's favor.
From the bowels of Reagan's DOJ to the walls of the conservative #Federalist #Society to the moneyed Republican resources #bankrolling restrictive voting laws today,
Daley reveals a hidden history as sweeping as it is troubling.
Through careful research and exhaustive reporting, he connects Shelby to 🔥a well-funded, highly-coordinated right-wing effort to erode the power of minority voters and Democrats at the ballot box
— an effort that has grown stronger with each election cycle.
In the process Roberts and his conservative allies have enabled #fringe conservative #theories about our elections with the potential to shape the 2024 election and topple the foundations of our democracy.
Timely and alarming, Daley offers a powerful message that, while Shelby was the misguided end of the Voting Rights Act, it was also the beginning of something far darker.

https://www.powells.com/book/-9780063321090/1-0?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD_gE3ND8cGzt8kj2t9rC7OytFg28&gclid=Cj0KCQjwlvW2BhDyARIsADnIe-KgQUFDIvpF383rfzJJyLKqiQuHTU7fzCum3YJJarH1NoCET9_Gh6YaAnYOEALw_wcB

#Florida is reportedly 💥sending police officers to the homes of people who signed a #petition supporting an #abortion #rights ballot #initiative.

Florida Governor #Ron #DeSantis’s administration has begun ❌investigating thousands of verified signatures that helped to put a state constitutional amendment protecting the right to abortion on the ballot in November.
The amendment would overturn Florida’s current six-week abortion ban.

Petition organizers collected about 100,000 more signatures than they needed, surpassing the 900,000 that are required by the state and ensuring that their policy would be on the ballot.
Now the Department of State’s spokesperson Ryan Ash claims that his agency has “uncovered evidence of illegal conduct with fraudulent petitions.”

Supervisors in Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach, Osceola, Alachua, and Broward counties have been requested to gather around 36,000 signatures for state review, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
One supervisor with 16 years of experience told the Times that the state’s request was entirely unprecedented.

Not only had the state requested signatures that had already been verified, but they did so for a validated petition, not a rejected petition, which are typically the basis of fraud investigations.

https://newrepublic.com/post/185704/florida-police-state-abortion-ballot-initiative

If you’re sending your packages via FedEx, beware. The State of Indiana could be seizing them without any warrant or probable cause.

According to a lawsuit filed by the Institute for Justice, police have been seizing FedEx packages containing cash, and then taking the cash under #civil #asset #forfeiture

Civil asset forfeiture is a process by which police can take anything suspected of being involved in a crime without a warrant or conviction, and then keep the loot for themselves.

In this case, it’s happening at the nation’s second-largest FedEx hub, located at the Indianapolis International Airport.

Police dogs sniff packages and flag those expected to contain cash.

Officers then remove the tape, rummage through the package and take the cash for themselves if they find any.

Ostensibly, the police can do so because they perceive the cash is connected with a crime, even if no actual crime is identified

https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/2024/08/13/marion-county-asset-forfeiture-treats-cash-transfers-as-crimes/74777122007/

Trump wants 25th Amendment changed to impeach vice presidents

He has repeatedly accused Kamala Harris and Democrats of hiding the state of Biden’s health.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/07/trump-25th-amendment-kamala-harris-biden-00177868

A funny thing happened, something #Heritage president #Kevin #Roberts,
who wears Lucchese cowboy boots and drives around in a black diesel Ford F-150 pickup truck
(the vehicle of choice for “Y’all Qaeda” MAGA activists),
surely didn’t anticipate.

As progressive groups divided up the #Project2025 document, studied it, and mustered very specific warnings,
the #crazy #neo-#fascism that is the “brand” of Project 2025 memed its way into the national consciousness.

Suddenly, seemingly overnight, people who had never read it, who would never read it, were aware of its malign intent.

The very name “Project 2025” was turned into a communications death star, as snippets appeared on TikTok, and details emerged from movie stars’ mouths. The jokes and memes and tweets reached critical mass.

https://newrepublic.com/article/185460/project-2025-haunt-donald-trump-until-election

Dick Cheney joins hundreds of Republicans, national security, and business leaders in endorsing Kamala Harris

https://themoderatevoice.com/dick-cheney-joins-hundreds-of-republicans-national-security-and-business-leaders-in-endorsing-kamala-harris/

Summer 2024 sweltered to Earth’s #hottest on record, making it even more likely that this year will end up as the warmest humanity has measured, European climate service Copernicus reported Friday.

And if this sounds familiar, that’s because the records the globe shattered were set just last year as human-caused climate change, with a temporary boost from an El Nino, keeps dialing up temperatures and extreme weather, scientists said.

The northern meteorological summer — June, July and August — averaged 16.8 degrees Celsius (62.24 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Copernicus.

That’s 0.03 degrees Celsius (0.05 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the old record in 2023.

Copernicus records go back to 1940, but American, British and Japanese records, which start in the mid-19th century, show the last decade has been the hottest since regular measurements were taken and likely in about 120,000 years, according to some scientists

https://apnews.com/article/heat-climate-change-record-broiling-hot-699026b8e57cc8404bc73d20e223500e