‘The Second American Revolution, Which Will Remain Bloodless if the Left Allows It to Be’: Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: July 4, 2024

Indy Digest: July 4, 2024

Earlier this week, I kept telling myself that everything was going to be OK, despite the disastrous debate, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Chevron decision and the “official duties” presidential immunity decision.

Maybe I was being optimistic. Maybe it was a defense mechanism. Whatever the reason, Tuesday’s remarks by Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast were a disturbing, frightening reality check.

From The Associated Press, via ABC News:

The leader of a conservative think tank orchestrating plans for a massive overhaul of the federal government in the event of a Republican presidential win said that the country is in the midst of a “second American Revolution” that will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be.”

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts made the comments Tuesday on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, adding that Republicans are “in the process of taking this country back.”

Democrats are “apoplectic right now” because the right is winning, Roberts told former U.S. Rep. Dave Brat, one of the podcast’s guest hosts as Bannon is serving a four-month prison term. “And so I come full circle on this response and just want to encourage you with some substance that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

Roberts’ remarks shed light on how a group that promises to have significant influence over a possible second term for former President Donald Trump is thinking about this moment in American politics. The Heritage Foundation is spearheading Project 2025, a sweeping road map for a new GOP administration that includes plans for dismantling aspects of the federal government and ousting thousands of civil servants in favor of Trump loyalists who will carry out a hard-right agenda without complaint.

We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be. That statement chilled me to the bone.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Heritage Foundation, its mission is “to formulate and promote public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.” Dig a little deeper, and you’ll learn that the Heritage Foundation’s vision of “traditional American values” sees a country where there is no such thing as institutional racism, where definitions of marriage and family should be “biblically based,” without access to abortion, contraception and marriage equality.

As for the foundation’s Project 2025: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver produced a fantastic breakdown what it would mean for the U.S. government. If you have a half-hour, and you haven’t seen it, I strongly recommend it.

If you don’t have a half-hour, here’s how The Hill describes Project 2024’s policy proposals:

The mandate includes reshaping the powers of the executive branch, gutting small government agencies and removing diversity, equity and inclusion language from federal government.  

One of the central priorities outlined in Project 2025 includes reimplementing Schedule F, which would reclassify thousands of workers so that they could be subject to swifter firing. The Associated Press noted that this could affect up to 50,000 federal workers. …

The handbook also rails against abortion, demanding that the federal government cut funding for abortions in some of its programs and that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reverse its approval of abortion pills, such as mifepristone. 

The foreword states that the next president must “make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors.” The foreword said this starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation, gender identity, diversity, equity and inclusion “out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.” 

If you want to hear what the project is all about directly from Kevin Roberts, here’s a Q&A The New York Times did with him back in January. There’s no misdirection or deception here: They’re being VERY up front with their intentions.

In fact, the folks at the Heritage Foundation are already hard at work. The Associated Press wrote on June 24:

From his home office in small-town Kentucky, a seasoned political operative is quietly investigating scores of federal employees suspected of being hostile to the policies of Republican Donald Trump, a highly unusual and potentially chilling effort that dovetails with broader conservative preparations for a new White House.

Tom Jones and his American Accountability Foundation are digging into the backgrounds, social media posts and commentary of key high-ranking government employees, starting with the Department of Homeland Security. They’re relying in part on tips from his network of conservative contacts, including workers. In a move that alarms some, they’re preparing to publish the findings online.

With a $100,000 grant from the Heritage Foundation, the goal is to post 100 names of government workers to a website this summer to show a potential new administration who might be standing in the way of a second-term Trump agenda—and ripe for scrutiny, reclassifications, reassignments or firings.

“We need to understand who these people are and what they do,” said Jones, a former Capitol Hill aide to Republican senators.

Horrifying. This makes McCarthyism look minor in comparison.

Even if President Biden or another Democrat prevails in November, right-wing forces are looking for ways to subvert the will of the voters and keep a Democrat from retaining the presidency.

As you celebrate the Fourth of July, please realize that this is real. This is not hysteria. Our freedoms and our democracy are at stake, threatened by a small but powerful group of people who are pursuing a revolution by any means necessary, in an attempt to create a United States where dissent and opposing views are not welcome—and violence is not off the table.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• More than 17,000 people are under evacuation orders due to a wildfire near the Northern California town or Oroville. The Associated Press says: “The Thompson Fire near the city of Oroville in Butte County stayed roughly the same size and containment was 7%, the same as the previous night, said Kevin Colburn, information officer for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire (earlier today). … Four structures were destroyed, and more than 12,000 were threatened. Cal Fire did not specify if the structures were homes, but an Associated Press photographer saw fire burn three adjacent suburban-style homes in Oroville. Four firefighters reported injuries, all from heat. The cause of the blaze was being investigated.”

• Hurricane Beryl is yet another example of extreme, record-breaking weather due to climate change. NPR reports: “Hurricane Beryl is tearing across the Caribbean this week, unleashing life-threatening flooding and dangerous wind as it heads toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Beryl has already racked up multiple alarming superlatives. It is the most powerful hurricane ever recorded this early in the Atlantic hurricane season, and also the earliest storm to strengthen so rapidly as it formed. Beryl grew from a relatively weak tropical depression into a full-blown major hurricane in less than two days, sending residents in its path scrambling to evacuate or find suitable shelter. Climate change is playing a crucial and obvious role in Beryl’s development, scientists say. ‘You’re hearing things like “unprecedented” and “shocking” a lot about Beryl,’ says Andra Garner, a hurricane expert at Rowan University in New Jersey. But Garner says it isn’t surprising to scientists to see such a big storm so early this year. Ocean temperatures have been at record highs, largely due to human-caused climate change driven by burning fossil fuels. And warm water is fuel for hurricanes.” The hurricane is currently a category 2 storm, and has killed at least eight people in the Caribbean.

• An update to an item in the Monday Indy Digest: There will not be two competing crime-related questions on the November ballot after all. Our partners at Calmatters say: “In a stunning, last-minute reversal, Gov. Gavin Newsom is scrapping the anti-crime measure he and Democratic legislative leaders just announced. It had been designed to compete with one backed by Republicans and prosecutors that is already headed for voters in November. In a statement (Tuesday night), the governor said Democrats ‘are unable to meet the ballot deadline to secure necessary amendments to ensure this measure’s success and we will be withdrawing it from consideration.’ The proposed ballot measure from Democrats cleared the Assembly’s public safety committee on a party-line vote earlier today and had been scheduled for floor votes Wednesday night, just in time to get on the Nov. 5 ballot. … On Monday, Newsom, Senate leader Mike McGuire of Santa Rosa and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas of Salinas issued a joint statement arguing that their plan would improve public safety without returning to costly mass incarceration or the failed ‘war on drugs’ that devastated communities of color. The Democratic bill proposed less sweeping changes to Proposition 47, which was approved by voters in 2014 and which reduced certain property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, provided that the stolen goods aren’t worth more than $950. But ever since the Democrats’ bill was unveiled Sunday night, a coalition of GOP lawmakers, law enforcement unions and prosecutors who back the Proposition 47 repeal measure already on the ballot angrily denounced it as dirty politics and election interference.”

• The feds have given Moderna a large contract to produce an mRNA vaccine for the bird flu—just in case. CNN says: “‘This is an important step in our nation’s pandemic influenza preparedness and response capability as we look to add this additional platform to our existing portfolio of approved pandemic influenza vaccines,’ Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response with HHS, said at a news conference. The government has 4.8 million doses of an H5 vaccine with a traditional platform under production, O’Connell said. The vaccine is tailored to the currently circulating strains of the H5N1 bird flu virus and should come off the finishing line starting in the middle of this month—ahead of schedule, she said. The new $176 million contract with Moderna will help the government stay ‘nimble’ in case it needs to act quickly against any kind of circulating strains of a pandemic flu virus, officials said. The mRNA vaccines wouldn’t be available any time soon, O’Connell said. Moderna has a vaccine candidate in early stage testing, and results should be available in the coming weeks, but late-stage testing of its vaccine wouldn’t start until 2025. If something changes with the current H5N1 bird flu outbreak—for instance, if there is human-to-human transmission or if the severity of cases gets worse—there are options to ‘accelerate the timeline,’ O’Connell said.“

• And finally … today’s recall news involves … sound machine AC adapters! CBS News says: “Hatch is recalling nearly 1 million power adapters sold with Rest 1st Generation sound machines because their plastic housing can detach, posing an electrical shock hazard to users, the sleep device maker said in a notice posted by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. About 919,000 of the recalled products were sold nationwide, and more than 44,000 were sold in Canada, according to Palo Alto, California-based Hatch. ‘The plastic housing surrounding the AC power adapter supplied with some Rest 1st Generation sound machines can come off when removing the adapter from the power outlet, leaving the power prongs exposed and posing a shock hazard to consumers,’ the company explained in the notice. The company has received 19 reports of the plastic housing surrounding the AC power adapter coming off, including two reports of people experiencing a minor electrical shock from the made-in-China product. The power adapters have model number CYAP05 050100U.”

• And … Trader Joe’s candles! KTLA reports: “If you bought a Trader Joe’s Mango Tangerine Scented Candle, don’t light it, the popular grocer warns. TJ’s issued a recall Thursday, stating that the product has an ‘unexpected burn pattern.’ According to a Trader Joe’s news release, the candles can be dangerous for customers as the flame can spread from the wick to the wax, causing a ‘larger than expected flame.’”

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