To all new people, our group is against Christian nationalism. Christian zoom bombers invaded our meetings until we were required to vet everyone who attends. Directions about how to get vetted are included after our meeting details below.
The Heritage Foundation published a 900 page Project 2025. It had a theocratic vision that sought to prevent “woke ideology,” promote “family values,” and protect “innocent life.” It wanted to delete “critical race theory” and “gender ideology.” A recent Heritage fund raising email claimed that 53% of their recommendations have been implemented. They seek funding to implement the rest of this demented vision. More importantly this administration has seized power substantially exceeding all prior Presidents. This “unitary executive” power now has few limits from the other branches of the government, the media or even the base that elected him. That power is being invoked with reckless abandon by a narcissist going through his increasingly obvious cognitive decline. This is leaving a never ending stream of screw ups. Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan capture how the dysfunctional information bubble with Trump works in their new book, "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump." Needless to say, Trump does not like it.
Hopefully we will find time to explore several broad areas with massive implications for governance and the quality of life. The AI revolution will change everything but is certain to end badly in a number of ways. The Supreme Court continues to legislate with its extreme “conservative” activism. And climate change is wrecking its modest havoc in the here and now with the many possible tipping points showing the increasing probabilities for future devastation.
Trump took personal charge of renovating the Reflecting Pool on the Mall because he imagines that he has expertise that he just does not have. He refused to use normal government acquisition mechanisms. The resulting algae bloom and almost immediate failure of the new bottom covering is a result of profound incompetence and actually running a motorcade across the new surface. Arrests of people who pick up bottom covering material floating on the surface and releasing fake AI videos will not convince anyone that this is sabotage. This is so funny because he made it extremely visible with his non-stop posting about how he was doing something fabulous with his new American flag blue covering.
Iran now has its unilateral surrender document. Our government calls it a memorandum of understanding (MoU). Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy correctly decried the framework as “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.” The only elements of it that “favors” us are the ones declaring the Iran will not acquire a nuclear bomb and must dilute their existing excessively enriched uranium. The MoU suggests that the US will be withdrawing our forces from the region, removing sanctions, unfreezing Iranian assets and arranging a $300 billion fund to rebuild Iran. Sen. Ted Cruz said, "giving billions of dollars to the theocratic lunatics who want to kill you is an exceptionally bad idea.” Especially since there is little indication that we will be getting anything we actually want from those billions. The MOA does not even include freedom of navigation without tolls being demanded by Iran or any limits on their proxy network, short range missiles, or ballistic missiles. Section 5 of the MoU includes “The Islamic Republic of Iran will conduct dialogue with the Sultanate of Oman, to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz…” Iran fired on a number of ships trying to leave. Our military is responding with reprisal attacks and Iran followed with further missiles. Iran says that only approved channels of travel will be allowed. They assert that they control the Straight of Hormuz and if it is opened it will be on their terms. This is unlikely to change with diplomacy, bombings or blustering threats from Trump.
Many Americans are very unhappy with the inflation caused by this war. Trump insanely declared that he does not care about inflation. Virtually all allies in that region and in Europe were not consulted about starting the war. All in the region and likely most of our NATO allies would have predicted the obvious problems. They are now left hurt, confused, and much less trustful of us as an allied nation. These and other war effects all damage US interests and benefit Iran, Russia, and China.
Trump’s has been making non-stop attempts to take charge of national elections. He asserts that the SAVE America Act will guarantee that Republicans never lose again. He has declared that he will sign no further bills until he gets this bill passed. Obviously, he sees elements in the bill that would give him (or subsequent Republicans) the control needed to make this guarantee. The House has passed it but it cannot get through the Senate because of the filibuster and opposition from several GOP senators. Several court actions have ruled against his demands to limit mail-in voting and demands for privileged voter information.
Will democracy and science and reason survive? We will see. We will cherish and support each other as we cope with these never ending tidal waves of madness. Let’s connect and share our thoughts on how to find our joy and nurture it in others until sanity returns.
For all new people – Only vetted secular people will receive the meeting links with a separate email. Please see the instructions at the end of this post. Our meetings are much more pleasurable without Christian trolls zoom booming our discussions. The vetting is worth the effort.
Please see directions below for new members who would like to receive the zoom link to attend.
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Our meetings have become a target for organized zoom bombing. Our major topic of discussion has been Christian nationalism and its hideous impacts across America. They have good reason to try to force us to stop our meetings. This requires us to work to preclude militant religious extremists from wrecking our meetings.
We will not post the zoom link for our meeting. The zoom link information will be delivered by email or direct personal messaging to trusted attendees only. I am now comfortable that this procedure works well enough so that a zoom waiting room will not be required.
I have a Google Voice phone number, (202) 643-4366. I do not answer calls to that number. But it does an excellent job of transcribing messages. People can use this number to verbally describe items requested in a possible email below.
I use the email: don1wharton (at) outlook (dot) com for social media, including Meetup. Please email the following:
Name:
Zoom ID if different than name:
your email to receive zoom info:
Specify that you are RSVPing for this meeting only if you
do not want to receive future zoom invites.
--People can UNSUBSCRIBE by replying to a future zoom invite with UNSUB in the subject line.
If you are a first time attendee, please share prior secular activities or cite your prior secular meetup attendance (making sure it is visible for us to confirm it) or arrange for a brief phone or zoom interview at a time of your convenience. This should insure enjoyable meetings.
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