Ray Torres is the director of the short film

Beyond Credit Unions

The film is available for groups to show. Contact Ray at 215 753 9022

Flyer

Also: Press Release

I kinda like this as an anthem for the left these days.

Brief history of PRAWN

• Network groups, organizations, and individuals to stop the repression caused by "never ending wars" at home and abroad, by the US corporate military state
• Support organizations having common ground
• Educate and activate the general public

• East Timor & Indonesia Networks (ETAN)
  
• Delco Waging Peace
  
• Granny Peace Brigade - Philadelphia
• Otherjones - A blog by Deena Stryker
  
• Media Tank  
• Philly Against War
• Northeast Philly for Peace & Justice
  
• Philadelphia Veterans For Peace
• Wounds of War
• Northwest Greens
• Progressive Democracy of South Jersey (PDSJ)
• UFPJ-Delaware Valley Network
• UPenn - FASWI
• Delaware Valley Veterans for America

National Organizations

• United For Peace & Justice (UFPJ)
• World Can't Wait
• ACLU's Blog of Rights

   Events 

 The Israeli-Hamas War

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Climate March NYC 17Sep

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Climate March PA 15Sep

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Anniversary Bombing of Nagasaki

Moms for Liberty counter-demo

Rally to call for end of F-35

Rally to observe 1st Anniversary of invasion of Ukraine

Rally to observe 2nd Anniversary of Nuclear Ban Treaty

2nd Anniversary of attack on Capitol

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March For Our Lives gun safety demo

Pro-Choice Rally by Democrats

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Support Ukraine Rally 8Apr22
Support Ukraine Rally 6Mar22

Alternative Demo

Various peace proposals and planned actions

Weekly anti-Ukraie War protest

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Midsection archive

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Anniversary Bombing of Nagasaki

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Moms for Liberty counter-demo

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Rally to call for end of F-35

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Rally to observe 1st Annivesary of invasion of Ukraine

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Rally to observe 2nd Anniversary of Nuclear Ban Treaty

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2nd Anniversary of attack on Capitol

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Pre-Election round-up

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AFL-CIO parade & Housing rally

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Anti-Nuclear War 16Jul

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Pro-Choice march 24Jun2022

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Poor People's Campaign Washington DC

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March For Our Lives gun safety demo

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Pro-Choice Rally by Democrats

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Poor People's March

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Supporting Ukraine

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Pro-Ukrainian Rally

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No War with Russia Rally

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Poor People's Campaign

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Pro-Palestinian Demonstration

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March for Palestinians

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Protesting Israel's attack on Palestine

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Info, articles, etc.

Cool! A new X-Men movie is in the very beginning stages of being made!

Shutdown threat averted. Congressional Republicans 

...settled for giving Vladimir Putin a big sloppy kiss in the form of killing any new aid to Ukraine in this continuing resolution. 

and

Doing Putin a solid provided enough psychic satisfaction to make this happen.

And yes, Democrats saved the day by prviding enough votes to fund the government.

Joining the military is optional for women in Ukraine. Olenka is a volunteer who even chose which unit she’d fight with.
Looks like the Continuing Resolution will pass and the government will not shut down after all, but Ukraine was let out of it. We’ll see how the Democrats deal with that.
The Defense Industries Alliance is a group of defense industry companies, all committed to helping out Ukraine. Ukraine wants to be a weapons producer after peace is attained.
A British army colonel assesses how Ukraine is doing and advocates more weapons for them.
Russian troops complain that they are being sent to certain death.
Ukrainian traitor narrowly escapes HIMARS strikes twice.
Ukrainian artist who covers over bare wood with paintings.
Refugees and Germany.
Elon Musk really should stop talking about politics because his ignorance is really showing.

September

After seven long years, it appears that the NY Times is finally acknowledging that Donald Trump represents a unique danger to the country! Masha Gessen put ot a book in November 2016, “Autocracy: Rules for Survival.” It has been proven to be reliable time and again.

Human-caused climate change means that the Mississippi River can’t keep salt water from the Gulf of Mexico from traveling upstream, where it’s compromising drinking water and agriculture.

Looks as though Ukraine had better get a move on in defeating Russia. Support seems to be eroding.

Mourning Senator Feinstein.

Looks like RFK Jr. has given up on running as a Democrat. He’ll now run as an independent.

Senator Tim Scott and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley are both "coded" as moderates because neither has much use for Trump, but looking at their positions in detail, they're both really radical! Good section on Fentanyl.

Yeah, I was never impressed by President Reagan’s economic policies. The nostalgia shown by Larry Kudlow is completely unjustified.

After choosing General Milley to be the Chairman for Joint Chiefs, Trump’s attitude has gotten steadily more hostile, now coming out and openly threatening Milley with the death penalty for alleged treason. Milley gives his views.

Speaker McCarthy is in serious trouble with his caucus. If he wants any assistance from Democrats, it’ll cost him. Democrats are going to want control of some committees. 

How the Waffen SS Ukrainian soldier has been used for Russian propaganda and the roles that Russians played in the German Wehrmacht.
NATO Secretary General visits Ukraine.
Ukraine has become a member of the Board of Governors of the IAEA.
Tatarigami is a frequent contributor and I starting a new open-source analysis project.
Using a T-62 kamikaze tank to clear mines.
Russia has committed a new army (25k men) to the front.
New infantry fighting vehicle.

Two awesome speeches by Representatives Raskin and AOC, showing us how silly and hollow the Biden impeachment hearing is. Seriously, what a complete waste of time!

CNN: 

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina claimed at the Thursday hearing, “We already know the president took bribes from Burisma,” a Ukrainian energy company where Hunter Biden sat on the board of directors.

Actually, we "know" nothing of the sort. President Biden taking bribes from anyone has not been proven.

On a possible government shutdown, shorter Representative Williams: "My pay is important! The peasants? Ha, ha, ha!"

Speaker McCarthy wants to re-litigate the deal of several months ago. In response, Representative AOC says “McCarthy can go pound sand.”

"From secretaries to secretary of state, Biden documents probe casts wide net: Sources"
After 2 1/2 paragraphs that describe an extensive investigation, we get to the really essential point of the piece: 

...it seemed to them that the improper removal of classified documents from Biden's office when he left the White House in 2017 was more likely a mistake than a criminal act.

Heh! Senator Mike Lee spends his time employing Russian propaganda in order to fight off a cartoon dog!

A Twitter/X post where Senator Lee develops a conspiracy theory. I have some comments about that.

More Russian terrorist drone attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Ferry crossing on border with Romania attacked.
Real estate investor in Odesa.
Russian stuff getting blown up.
Thread on trains in military logistics. Series of Q&As on how easy it would be to take out trains/tracks vs how quick and easily they can be repaired.
Wild, hysterical conspiracy theories from Representative Greene.

Iraq had two religious groups, the Sunni and the Shia. The Shia battled the IS (Islamic State, popularly know in the US as ISIS). Two university professors decided to study the struggle from the Shia side through their music videos.

Biden joins a picket line. It’s historically unprecedented for a sitting president to do that.

UAW workers show no confusion about who’s on their side!

"A Blackout on The Phony 'Union Members' At Trump’s Event?"
There were apparently a few genuine auto workers and union members at the Trump rally, but out of several hundred people, not many were either. It's understandable that Politico would fail to report that, but why was the WaPo and NY Times so apparently gullible?

The whole Trump speech to auto workers seems pretty fake.

It's unclear how many auto workers attended Trump's speech. A person in the crowd with a "union members for Trump" sign acknowledged she wasn't a union member. A person with an "auto workers for Trump" sign said he wasn't an auto worker.

The Republican accusation that there’s a two-tier justice system, one that goes easy on Democrats and harshly punishes Republicans, is simply not a true picture of reality.

Very interesting. Charlie Kirk is a prominent booster of the Republican Party and strongly pro-Trump and even he admits that being anti-choice is a loser of a position!

First Trump didn't know who he beat in 2016, promised to save us from WWII, and now he doesn't know who ELSE he beat in 2016.

What amazes me is that Trump displays real and serious cognitive problems like this and then they say Biden is too old!

Soldier atop a Naval drone. Essentially, a guided torpedo with the ability to loiter (wait for targets).
Massive missile attack on Odesa. Most of them shot downbeat
There’s a U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine’s Recovery.
Zelenskyy welcomes Abrams tanks to Ukraine! Their announced schedule was several months from now.
D’oh! A former member of the Waffen SS Galician Division spoke. Zelenskyy introduced the 98-year old. His being there was widely denounced, but it isn’t clear Zelenskyy or anyone else responsible for the event knew. It’s a bad thing that no one vetted him. The Kremlin, of course, and many others, are trying to exploit the error.
Ukrainians making lots of god progress. Russian defense has not collapsed, but they’re on their heels.

After the attack on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, 34 officers died, among them the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Victor Sokolov. Another 105 were injured.

Hmm. 

Under the banner "Kyrsten’s Path to Victory,’ the document says Sinema can win by attracting 10% to 20% of Democrats, 60% to 70% of independents and 25% to 35% of Republicans."

The small number of Democrats is a testament to how badly she’s burned her bridges with the party. Republican figure might be reasonable, at least until they discover she voted to impeach Trump twice, and is pro-choice. The independents appears to be the heaviest lift.

Unfortunately, Kristin Welker continues to show she’s no improvement over Chuck Todd.
Representative Craig has a good idea. Shut-downs should result in Congress not getting paid either. As the blogger notes: 

Moms for Liberty, who platformed all of the major Republican candidates in Philadelphia this past June, is the group behind the censorship of a graphic novel about Anne Frank.

Cool! Writers for Hollywood end strike as they feel they’ve gotten a fair deal!

Some details on the corruption of the Supreme Court Justice Thomas.

Tucker Carlson, formerly of Fox News, will be getting his own regular TV show in Russia.
The US and Ukraine will jointly produce air defenses. Zelenskyy reports good, deep discussions with Americans and Canadians.
Sevastopol Harbor has had to erect defenses of barriers, nets, and barges to protect their ships from naval drones.
Drone attack on Kursk airfield.
Yowza! Drone goes directly into fortifications beneath a trench.
Ukraine & Poland making up and agreeing to work out grain problems.

Update (1 Dec): Nope. The Russians may copy what Carlson does for American TV, but he hasn't done a TV show for Russia.

Very sad that not a single high-level Republican showed up for the gun-safety rally.
And yes, there is a very high degree of Biden doing good things and progressives agreeing with them.

Woo hoo! Another Russian patrol boat gets hit! The picture shows the boat right after it got hit, trailing fire and smoke.
Zelenskyy makes speech in Canada.
Ukraine’ expecting about 100 ATACMS from the US.
Interview with a Ukrainian general who “is the architect of the constant asymmetrical operations against Ukraine’s great foe, Russia…” Yeah, when Russia suffers attacks on its home turf, that reduces consumer demand for Russian air defense products! Ukraine can’t sell drones now, but consumer demand is high, so they definitely will after the war ends!
Sevastopol gets hit.
Ukraine breaking through defensive lines.

"Oops! GOP Rep. Forced To Admit ‘Unserious’ COVID Almost Killed Him"
Wow! This is about the greatest ad against anti-vaxxers I’ve ever seen! The fellow makes an extremely poor case against getting vaccinated!

So a gloomy, sour buddy of mine (“Ukraine is doomed, I tell you! Doomed!”) sent me the following film clip that takes a very downbeat, pessimistic view of the war between Russia and Ukraine. 
One of the reasons I have a hard time swallowing what the people on it say is because of this piece about artillery and how both sides are using it. Russian artillery is relatively short range and not very accurate, so they have to fire many rounds to makes sure they hit their target. Ukrainian artillery is widely dispersed and extremely accurate, so it takes far less to do the job.

Yeah, I recall Russians saying that the Western sanctions had failed, that sanctions weren't hurting Russian consumers a bit. Now they're saying "Hey look at North Korea! People can get by without modern conveniences and can skip a meal every now and then!"

As Rupert Murdoch shuffles off to semi-retirement, our blogger examines his career and finds it truly revolting. It’s good that he’s sort-of no longer a denier of human-caused climate change, but boy, he caused a lot of damage by being a denier for so long!

Good! It’s long since time that legal cannabis has had full access to banking and other financial services.

Max, who lost both legs and an arm, is learning to be a drone operator.

Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters hit really hard.
Zelenskyy wasn’t able to address a Joint Session of Congress, but Canada allowed him to address their Parliament. Canada had the first Holoomor monument in the world in 1983.

The missile strike on Sevastopol was designed to hit while senior Black Sea Fleet leaders were in the buildings. Interestingly, Russian TV stations didn’t cover the attack.
While Ukraine hits military targets, Russia hits civilian targets.
Woo hoo! Ukraine will get ATACMS missiles!
Music video with troops relaxing to the sounds.

David Brooks (Sigh, yes, he's a NY Times columnist) showed us a picture of a hamburger and fries and complained that his meal cost him a lot of money and then drew conclusions from that. Slight oversight: his drink was 80% of the cost!

Update (21 Nov):  Fox News pundit Jason Chaffetz does something similar by complaining about the cost of a Thanksgiving turkey. The average price of a turkey is actually down from last year as the Inflation Reduction Act has been working, but Chaffetz claimed that they cost $90 and then found a super-duper, high-end $114 turkey that "proved" his point.

"Surprise failure makes matters even worse for GOP’s McCarthy"
Many years ago, when John Boehner replaced Nancy Pelosi as the Speaker of the House, I was absolutely astonished when Boehner was shocked and surprised when votes didn't go the way he thought they would. Pelosi made it look so easy to, y'know, count votes!

Yep! Even a Republican Congressman recognizes that “Y’know, Speaker Pelosi was really good at this vote-counting thing.”

Speaker McCarthy refused to permit President Zelenskyy to address a joint session of Congress. Other right-wingers made their opposition to further aid to Ukraine known. Interestingly, McCarthy turned down a classified briefing on Ukraine. Blogger figures McCarthy is incapable of allowing US aid to Ukraine to continue.
Zelenskyy appears with Biden and appreciates the military aid that Ukraine has received.
Russia launches 43 cruise missiles. Most are intercepted.
Pepsi still does business in Russia. Russia repays their assistance by (accidentally?) destroying a factory of theirs in Ukraine.
Surovikin Line broken!
Fight between Ukraine & Poland.
Sanctions not tight enough. People putting profit above patriotism.
Trembita, a popular folk instrument in Ukraine.

Global markets, inequality and nations trying to climb the ladder of success. The wealthier economies have the means to transition to clean energy, poor economies don’t.

Interesting rhetorical strategy. As it’s difficult to prove anything, y’know, facts require research and questioning and further research, the Judiciary Committee Chairman, among others, has found it much easier to just say “As everybody knows…”

One of the pieces here (Josh Marshall) is really on-target. He essentially describes how things are actually done in the House. The far-right Freedom Caucus says “Jump” and other Republican Party members ask “How high?” Moderate pretend that there’s some daylight between them and the extreme radicals, but there really isn’t any.

The House Minority Leader makes it clear. No one’s going to pay the ransom that’s being demanded. If the government shuts down, the House Freedom Caucus will be 100% to blame.

Some pretty powerful ads here.

Libyan dam collapse of just a few days ago was made more likely by human-caused climate change. It was also made more intense. Up to 20k Libyans were swept out to sea. Problem is, climate change means that everything has to be built to more rigorous specifications.

Heartbreaking! Soldier serves year and a half, goes to work as civilian and dies his first day by a Russian missile attack!
Zelenskyy’s speech to the UN. He call for the General Assembly to be able to override the veto of any member of the Security Council. He calls for restoration of Ukraine’s borders to those of 1991.
Ukraine restores an anti-corruption measure that was put on hold over 500 days ago.
Zaporizhzhia Salt, a Ukrainian Army commo specialist, looks at the tactics of Ukraine and recognizes the importance of their lack of air superiority.
Crimea being hit.
A Togo-flagged ship near Ukraine was hit.

The ethnic Armenian resistance in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh has surrendered.

According to the blogger, 

The pro-life movement – as opposed to the bans in various states – is in a state of irreversible collapse.

They’ve discovered that they can’t move elections any more. Support from them isn’t worth anything any more.

A buddy of mine likes to send me gloomy, depressing reports of how the front in Ukraine is "stalemated" and how Ukraine is making such slow progress. This piece is very interesting for showing how artillery affects the front and how Russians are simply tossing lives away as though they're just replaceable machine parts.

Biden has been trying to build on the Trump-negotiated Abraham Accords to help Palestinians in some way. 

And another lawyer turns on Trump! Jenna Ellis is regretting helping out Trump’s legal offensive against the 2020 vote.

Meeting at Ramstein Airfield focuses on future aid to Ukraine.
Russian drones destroy a warehouse containing 300 tons of aid from the Vatican.
Cars containing volunteers were also attacked.
Zelenskyy makes his case to the UN to help his country.
Biden joins in and asks how safe any country is if Ukraine is allowed to be carved up.
Speaker McCarthy makes it clear that he opposes Ukraine aid. What does the House Freedom Caucus or Donald Trump want? Not at all clear.
Combat medics in Bakhmut.
Russians using railroad line as a defense. Russian stuff blowing up.
Russian attack on journalists.

Putin is killing Armenians by the hands of Azerbaijanis

Corruption, Ukraine vs Russia.

Donald Trump is trying hard to appeal to union workers but it’s far from clear what he brings to the table. His only policy accomplishment during his term was a tax break for the wealthy.

For a supposedly pro-worker party, Republicans seem to have an awfully tough time coming out in favor of UAW strikers. Senator Tim Scott and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley were the most explicitly anti-UAW candidates, but no Republican really stood up for the union.

Republicans in the House are saying they too, want to avoid a shutdown of the government, if only the Senate and President agree to go back on an earlier agreement.

“South Korea will send two K600 ‘Rhino’ minefield breaching vehicles to Ukraine”
Zelenskyy praises heroic action by the air defenses around Kharkiv, shooting down well over half the incoming drones and missiles.
Zelenskyy arrives in Washington DC for his visit to the US.
Zelenskyy absolutely rejects giving up any Ukrainian territory for peace.
The documentary film 20 Days in Mariupol will represent Ukraine at the Oscars.
Russians occupied the village of Andriivka for over a year. There are no buildings let standing.
The submarine that was at dry-dock and hit by missiles has much worse damage than at first thought.
Blast from the past – the US and Britain were more concerned in 2014 about provoking Putin than in protecting Ukraine. Our blogger didn’t like the US response.
To teach the F-16, pilots must first get a five-week English course.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was acquitted on all of his impeachment charges. Trump is now claiming credit for that. Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk also played a role, posting the phone numbers of the Texas “jurors,” siccing his followers on them and pressuring them to not convict Paxton.

Janet Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee circuit court judge and self-described progressive, won an 11-percentage point victory

and thereby changed the Wisconsin Supreme Court from Republican Red to Democratic Blue. The GOP is charging that she’s biased and therefore should recuse herself from considering some gerrymandering cases. This is, of course, an absurd demand.

Rachel Maddow and Kristen Welker both work for MSNBC. Hmm, how does Maddow's blogger cover Welker's heavily-panned interview with Trump? The blogger finds a good solution by focusing on a statement that Trump made.

Seems MSNBC learned a little bit about interviewing Trump. Not much but at least a little bit. The detailed commentary by Jay Rosen is worth a read.

Sigh! The one unquestionably good deed that the younger George Bush ever did (The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), an African AIDS prevention initiative that’s estimated to have saved more than 25 million lives in the two decades since its implementation). The continuation of that good deed is now being threatened by the ever-more extreme and radical Republican Freedom Caucus.

Representative Boebert was caught in a heavy petting session at a concert filled with young people. Good question is why the audience was being surveilled. The answer is mass shootings. Not all that far from where she was doing some mutual groping, a mass shooting took place in a movie theater. So yes, night-vision surveillance video is required for “random regional” events!

Someone sent me a film suggesting Europe is getting tired of supporting Ukraine. I looked around a bit and found this:

European Peace Facility, an enterprise of the European Union, accounts for non-US, non-UK expenditures on behalf of Ukraine. 

28Feb2022  EUR 4 400 000 000
15Nov2022: EUR 16 000 000
2Feb2023:  EUR 45 000 000
5May2023: EUR 1 000 000 000

Nope, no evidence I can see that Europe is close to abandoning Ukraine.

Kharkiv hit with several missiles. In return, Ukraine took out two Buk-M3 anti-aircraft missile complexes. Is that an asymmetrical situation, one side hits civilian targets while the other restricts itself to military targets? Why yes. Yes it is.
Looking to after the war with Russia, Ukraine wants an arms production capacity that will deter any attacker.
Damage to ships at the dock in Sevastopol may have been more extensive than we thought.
Ukraine will get the missiles they thought they’d get, but 18 months from now.
Abrams tanks just arrived. Now where are the ATACMS?
Russian general says “liberating” Ukraine s only the first step. After Ukraine has been conquered, Europe is next. Our blogger assures us that this is the official policy of Putin and others.
Very nice that four Republican senators want increased aid to Ukraine, but that’s not enough to prevent a future filibuster.
Drone production has increased over 100 times since last year and will probably be 120 to 140 by years end.
A look at an as-yet unpublished book.

Ahh! Technology continues to advance and improve! Batteries are a serious part of solving the human-caused climate change problem and it looks as though zinc might very well replace lithium as the battery-ingredient of choice!

It certainly doesn’t seem to our blogger that justice was done by acquitting the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of all impeachment charges. Is he truly innocent or is Texas just corrupt? As believers in the law, we generally don’t ask that question. Fortunately, Paxton’s legal troubles aren’t over yet, so time will tell.