<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-a84c417b-7fff-05ca-9d40-84b05777449f"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-indent:36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Today’s Issues group is meeting Sunday mornings at 9:30 in the parlor of the Religious Education building next to the church following social distancing guidelines. For this Sunday the group will discuss two essays from the August 20th issue of the New York Review of Books.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-indent:36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Also, on Thursday, August 13, there will be a ZOOM discussion of </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Coronavirus: What Have we Learned? Where are we going? </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Led by Dr. Paul Haupt and physician and Dr. Ted Goertzel, sociologist. This is a follow-up to a course that the Institute for Learning in Retirement offered in the summer, but it is open to all  </span><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RgvyyoiFr_s7BSECTIADpdSFp49JWEd27CwjAawp0Lo/edit?usp=sharing" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Click here for information on the discussion</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">. </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-indent:36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The readings for the Today’s Issues discussion, in the August 20 NYR are:</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-indent:36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Page 13. Jonathan Stevenson, Revenge Served Tepid, a review of </span><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:rgb(51,51,51);font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir</span><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:rgb(51,51,51);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> by John Bolton.  This will be an introduction to a discussion of Trump’s foreign policies.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-indent:36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:rgb(51,51,51);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Page 38, Jonathan Freedland, </span><a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/08/20/fake-news-disinformed-to-death/" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Disinformed to Death</span></a><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:rgb(51,51,51);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">, a review of the following three books: </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-left:36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:rgb(51,51,51);font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare</span><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:rgb(51,51,51);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> by Thomas Rid</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-indent:36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:rgb(51,51,51);font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Hacker and the State: Cyber Attacks and the New Normal of Geopolitics</span><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:rgb(51,51,51);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> by Ben Buchanan</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-indent:36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:rgb(51,51,51);font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Lie Machines: How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies, Deceitful Robots, Junk News Operations, and Political Operatives</span><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:rgb(51,51,51);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> by Philip N. Howard</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-indent:36pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/08/20/fake-news-disinformed-to-death/" style="text-decoration-line:none"><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Disinformed to Death</span></a><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:rgb(51,51,51);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> can be read on the NYR site without a password. A copy of Revenge Served Tepid is attached.  </span></p></span><br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline"></div></div>