PROGRESSIVE INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM: “Americans are Saying Hell No to Trump’s Extremist Appointments” / Secular Talk / Kyle Kulinski ☮

Liberal groups have sought to jam Republican phones lines with protests of President Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos as Education secretary.

Credo Action’s vice president and political director, Murshed Zaheed, said its members made 18,000 calls to members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on DeVos, targeting committee Democrats and key Republicans, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

PROGRESSIVE INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM: “Trump’s Federal Hiring Freeze is Hurting Veterans” / Secular Talk / Kyle Kulinski ☮

President Donald Trump’s temporary hiring freeze on federal jobs is disproportionately affecting a group of his most loyal supporters: veterans, who receive preference in federal hiring. Some already have had job interviews canceled or postponed, advocacy groups say.

PROGRESSIVE INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM: “Saudi Religious Leader: Ban All ‘Atheistic and Rotten’ Movie Theaters” / Secular Talk / Kyle Kulinski ☮

Saudi Arabia’s religious authority has said the legalisation of cinemas and concerts could lead to the “mixing of sexes” and “atheistic or rotten” influences in the conservative Islamic kingdom.

PROGRESSIVE INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM: “A Guy Drunk on Fox News Propaganda Asks Bernie Sanders Dumb Questions” / Secular Talk / Kyle Kulinski ☮

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) held a town hall on CNN at 9pm on January 9. Sanders voiced his concerns regarding Trump’s cabinet, the Democrats’ future and the repeal of Obamacare.

PROGRESSIVE INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM: “Sam Stein: Democratic Party ‘Decimated’ Under Obama” / Secular Talk / Kyle Kulinski ☮

Huffington Post senior politics editor Sam Stein argued on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Wednesday morning that President Barack Obama shoulders much of the blame for his party’s historic losses during his eight years in the White House.

PROGRESSIVE INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM: “Dopey Senator: ‘We Need to Declare a War on Drugs!'” / Secular Talk / Kyle Kulinski ☮

A new “war on drugs” is necessary to combat West Virginia’s opioid crisis, Sen. Joe Manchin said Tuesday.

The West Virginia Democrat’s phrasing was a throwback to a highly criticized Nixon-era program of the same name.

ATHEISM: “Obama Signs Law Giving Protection to Atheists” Secular Talk / Kyle Kulinski ☮

For the first time, atheists and other nonreligious persons are explicitly named as a class protected by the law.

President Barack Obama has signed into law the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act. The new law protects atheists, humanists, and other freethinkers around the world from religious persecution.

PROGRESSIVE INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM: “Lunatic Fundamentalists Wonder if Trump is the Messiah” / Secular Talk / Kyle Kulinski ☮

Televangelist Jim Bakker hosted several fellow End Times preachers on his television program today to discuss the prophetic implications of the presidential election.

CLIMATE CHANGE: “Weather Channel Scientist Shreds Climate Denier Garbage” / Secular Talk / Kyle Kulinski ☮

Breitbart News last week used one of the Weather Channel’s videos to mislead its readers into believing that climate change is a hoax — and now the normally non-political channel is striking back.