The destruction of the free press continues. Federal PBS and NPR funding has been deleted. It was asserted to be providing woke left-wing propaganda. CBS will terminate Steven Colbert. CBS paid their $16m bribe and Skydance agreed to over $20m in “public service announcements” for their part of the bribe to complete a Paramount sale. The FCC Chair Brendan Carr made it clear that Skydance has promised to “root out the bias that has undermined trust in the national news media.” That means they have promised to mainstream right-wing crackpot nonsense. Fox News has a $10 billion lawsuit because of report about a suggestive birthday greeting to Epstein. Newspapers, social media, and universities all have come under extreme pressure to adhere to an anti-DEI, and “anti-woke” party line. News conferences are now populated with right-wing toadies asking about how wonderful it is to accomplish so many promises for the American people. Any critical press coverage might result in White House press credentials being limited or terminated. The Associated Press is still limited from pool coverage because they retain the Gulf of Mexico in their press standards document.
The destruction of the rule of law continues. Erez Reuveni, a former Justice Department lawyer was instructed to lie in court in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Emil Bove is now on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He was Trump’s personal lawyer and in the Justice Department was central in terminating prosecutors who were assigned to prosecuting January 6 cases. He is reputed to advocate that the Executive should ignoring judicial orders on occasion. The Supreme Court shadow docket has become a rubber stamp to prevent lower courts from limiting illegal Executive actions. Tulsi Gabbard recently forwarded to the Justice Department preposterous claims including the “rigging” of elections and that Obama committed a years long coup and treasonous conspiracy. A fake video was released showing Obama being handcuffed in the oval office and taken away. The rule of law is being weaponized to support authoritarian extremism.
The destruction of science is escalating with an EPA move to reverse the finding that carbon dioxide is a threat to health and safety. This is an absurd denial of established science. I cannot count how many other dimensions of the existing world order are being destroyed as I post this invitation for us to meet. We will survive and hopefully prosper if we understand how to do that.
Let us not to forget to have fun. Our community is here to both acknowledge the chaos and somehow remain sane in spite of insanity. We can connect and share our thoughts on how to remain positive.
This meeting will be closed in that only vetted secular members will be allowed to join in our discussions. That has worked perfectly so, please see directions below for new members who wish 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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