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

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Midsection archive

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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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Defund the Pentagon

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2nd Amazon-Alabama protest

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Union demonstration Amazon-Alabama

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Nuclear weapons declared illegal by UN

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Getting signatures

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BLM March - September

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Pro-Post Office protest

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Rally at African-American Museum

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BLM March 13 June

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Black Lives Matter marches - 6-8 June

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Info, articles, etc.

Governor DeSantis takes on the question of whether there has ever been a Palestinian state. No, but neither was there a Southern Italian state until the 1860s, where the DeSantis family comes from.

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel feels Republicans need to take an aggressive, forward-looking anti-choice position. Problem is, there simply is no good way to talk about abortion. I looked into the issue in the late 70s. There is no position that will ever be acceptable to both sides!

More Russian bombardments of civilian buildings.
Aftermath of Russian attacks.
PBS interviews MG Kyrylo Budanov, the Director of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence.
94 casualties for a little over 100 meters gained? Yeah, that’s not sustainable.
Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenaries, goes back and forth on pulling his men out of Bakhmut. Lots of fighting between them and Ministry of Defense. Actually, there’s a lot of competition between military groups! Helps if staying power is your primary goal, not so great if you’re fighting a near-peer power.
For some reason, American media still dismisses the idea that Ukraine will win this fight.
A bit about polecats.

More on Russia’s fragmented military.

Heh! Opponents of the Black Little Mermaid defeated! After the movie is previewed, the Ariel doll outsells all other dolls on the market!

Update (26 May):  Good stuff! Very well-done movie!

April

Noam Chomsky feels that US atrocities in Iraq outweigh Russian atrocities in Ukraine. I opposed the Iraq War from well before it was launched, but it seems to me that the worst US atrocity was Abu Ghraib, where grown men who were at least suspected of guerrilla activity were brutalized. Bucha in Ukraine, on the other hand, was just mass atrocities on civilians.

Neither Biden nor Trump wants to hold primaries. Biden’s two opponents are both completely hopeless. DeSantis was Trump’s most credible opponent. Now he’s just clearly going to be an asterisk to the 2024 race.

Tch, tch, tch! Another “smoking accident,” it appears! “An oil depot is on fire in Sevastopol after being hit by a drone…”
Zelenskyy talks about missile attack at Uman. He then said “It is not enough for Ukraine and the world that Russia is weak, as it is already happening. It must fully answer for everything it has done.”
Math, casualties vs distance gained.
Wow! Anti-aircraft truck with symbols of all the aircraft knocked down!
Soldiers successfully remove polecat from defensive ditch.
Russian missile landed in Poland back in December. It’s now been found.

When he took over Twitter, it was clear that Elon Musk didn’t understand free speech and the 1^st Amendment vs running an online platform like Twitter. In his talk with Bill Maher, it’s crystal clear that Musk has learned nothing.

A fellow who was shooting an AR-15 in his front yard was asked to stop doing so because they had a baby that was trying to sleep. He had "an angry response" and he "shot and killed five people..."
OMG!!! An "angry response?!?!?!"
The leading paragraph here is way too polite! What this particular mass shooter was, was off-the-wall insane!

CNN’s Acosta discusses gun violence with a Congressional supporter of unlimited guns everywhere. It’s clear the fellow isn’t willing to reform the 2^nd Amendment and how we deal with guns, but he has absolutely no idea how to address the gun problems.

This is very deeply concerning. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a lot of wacky beliefs. The public should be made aware of those beliefs because they would then realize to stay far away from the guy. ABC News presents him as a just a regular politician, then admits, in a forum that very few people will ever even be aware of, that yeah, it was wildly irresponsible of them to put out that highly misleading interview!

I learned about libertarianism during my Freshman year in college. I thought it was wildly impractical then. Still do. The blogger goes over the many contradictions between "boot-strapping" conservatives and their independent ways versus how the urban people live that the libertarians look down on.

And here's more on red-staters expecting the government to bail them out. It's truly awful that people are caught in "war-torn countries," (Sudan, in this case) but what the %$#&?!?! How is the US Government supposed to keep everyone who's in a foreign country safe and secure?

Update (24 May):  

Since fighting began on April 15 between the forces of two rival generals, more than 132,000 refugees have arrived in Egypt, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday. More than a million others have been displaced internally in Sudan, and across the borders of other countries.

What’s going on and the stakes in Sudan.

McCarthy brought his indefensible debt ceiling hostage note to the House floor this week. How many “pragmatic and governance-minded” Republicans voted against it?

Keep in mind that just four "Nay" votes could have ended the whole debt limit "crisis" right off the bat. There were no such votes. There essentially is no moderate wing of the Republican Party. They’re all “Freedom Caucus” members!

Russian missile attack on a civilian high-rise building.
“Today, the President of Slovakia and the President of the Czech Republic visited Kyiv.”
“We separately discussed with the President of the European Council the situation..”
A mother and her child remembered.
Ukraine really needs F-16s.

“Polite Society”
Lot like the two Disney “Frozen” movies.  Two sisters are the main protagonists and there’s some science fiction/sorcery/superhero-type stuff. The sisters are Pakistani and there's some martial arts involved.

Officer from the Wagner mercenary group takes over Russian forces in Ukraine. Also, a member of Putin’s personal guard the Rosgvardia (“national guard”).
The Russian army is SO corrupt, they’ve been selling off tank engines that are needed to fight the war in Ukraine.
Russia knew they would be hit with sanctions if they invaded Ukraine, so they stocked up on supplies from the West.
Russian games that were supposed to show off their military readiness have been canceled this year.

As another blogger put it, Speaker McCarthy is not explicitly telling businesses: “Just write the checks and then look the other way while we pursue far-right priorities,” but...yeah, that's pretty much what he's saying!

The mainstream media can deal with a situation where both sides can reasonably be assigned at least some of the blame. They’re proven for many decades now, that they simply can’t deal with a situation where blame can only be assigned to one side, This is a very bad habit that only helps the blame-worthy side!

We seriously need to cooperate with China if we’re going to survive human-caused climate change.

Senator Tim Scott decides to go the bombthrower route and accuses the left of being "The enemy for the American people...”

BTW, Scott is in the latest Fox News poll as being in the middle of a group of five Republican candidates, all of whom are getting “strong likes” by less than 10% of the Republican electorate. Mike Pence and Nikki Haley are both doing better than he is. This poll is on page 7.

Mural on side of building in Bakhmut. The building was blown up.
Video about Ukrainian soldier tasked to remove dead and wounded from the battlefield.
Around 20k Ukrainian children were abducted by Russia. The world’s legal system is slowly beginning to catch up.
Kyiv Independent is putting out a weekly newsletter.
More cruise missiles hitting more residences.
Russians fortifying Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant.

The Supreme Court Justices collectively put out a letter concerning their ethics. The letter is widely considered to fall considerably short of satisfactory.

Representative Greene asks a lesbian whether she's a mother. The lesbian responds that she is, by marriage. Greene feels that she's not a "real" mother then and goes on to insult the woman as being unqualified to fulfill her governmental function.
Which is interesting because anti-choicers like to hold out adoption as being a way to have their cake and eat it, too. "You can have a baby. You don't want to raise it? Fine, you can give it up for adoption."
But if being an adoptive parent means you're a second-class parent, a "not really" a parent, then that pretty much ends that idea!

A woman describes a horrific medical condition that she wasn't able to end because she wasn't permitted to have an abortion. Senator Graham raises his eyes to the ceiling, clearly bored by her description.

Interesting to compare the two reelection ads from Biden and Trump. Biden’s presents a hopeful picture of a successful nation that’s nowhere near finished. Trump presents an America in decline, that of course only “Our Glorious Leader” can rescue.

This is very concerning! Seems the background investigation process that incoming military members have to pass is badly broken. Airman Texiera should never have passed it!

Our blogger had a more extensive background check to work at UPS than Airman Texeira did to have access to top-secret information!

Representative Greene gets all confused about human-caused climate change, rambling on about taxes, the Ice Age and government.

Very good news! Democratic Senator Sinema has zero chance of being re-elected, no matter what scenario we look at!

Early summary of E. Jean Carroll case that Donald Trump sexually abused her. 

Consumer electronics, specifically smartphones, can have all kinds of military uses!
Slovenia gets armored personnel carriers to Ukraine.

Chornobyl (Chernobyl) stamp, representing anniversary of the disaster and survival.
More Ukrainian POWs come home! 2279 Ukrainians have been returned.
Zelenskyy speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He reports the conversation as useful and productive. China supplied its own summary.
Ooh! “Surprise” for Russian forces in Bakhmut!
Interview with Colonel-General Sirsky.
Civilians surviving Slovyansk, which is close to the front line.
Video of Patriot anti-aircraft missile.
Wow! Unmanned torpedoes with a 2k km range?
Governor DeSantis calls for cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine. With a picture of the “Red Dawn” movie, a Ukrainian asks why.

The House bill that's written to address the debt ceiling and that everyone’s been waiting for has passed! Speaker McCarthy has been asking to sit down with President Biden to discuss what they’re going to do about the debt ceiling. For many weeks, Biden has said “Pass a bill first, that way I know where your party stands.” So now they have. The bill is, of course, an utter monstrosity.

Details on the bill.

I don’t know what the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Roberts, has planned to tackle the corruption in the Supreme Court, which is clearly the worst since the 1800s, but skipping down the path, humming a cheerful tune, just isn’t going to do it!

Will the Russians give Ukraine the opportunity to blow up a T-14? Ehh, probably not. They’ll probably keep a few in reserve and break them out for the victory parade over Bakhmut, if of course, they ever take that city. Ukraine has allocated 100 “kamikaze drones” to Bakhmut.
Russia is storing ammunition closer to the front to support an upcoming offensive, which spells opportunity for Ukraine!
The British Challenger 2 tank uses depleted uranium shells. The CDC says that’s not a problem.

Update (24 May): Still no sign of the T-14 on the battlefield, even though Bakhmut has fallen.

Republicans have long loved to add the term “freedom” to everything, from “freedom fries” to “Freedom Caucus,” so what happens when Democrats appropriate the term?

NY Times cites low unemployment rate, saying it’s a sign of a good economy, then wonders why Biden isn’t more popular. Gee, ya think it may be because the NY Times doesn’t tell people about good news? Mainstream media has the problem of not recognizing that they affect the news!

Mildly interesting. Neither Biden nor Trump will engage in debates prior to debating each other. Of course, neither one has significant opposition, either.

Yup! Every day I see another post from Speaker McCarthy blaming Biden for not negotiating the debt ceiling and calling for negotiations to reduce our debt. This is a great response from Politics Girl!

The Montana House is just determined that the Montana state Representative Zooey Zephyr not be permitted to speak on a bill that intimately affects her. A large crowd of protesters demanded “Let her speak!”

The Senator from Montana defends the suppression of speech by the transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr.

Many Republicans just can’t seem to grasp the political impact of the demise of Roe v Wade. They’re convinced that women will simply get over it. A recent poll shows that, nope, they’re very much on the wrong side of the issue.

The blogger agrees with the Rachel Maddow Show of 24 April. Yeah, Tucker Carlson will be just like Father Coughlin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly, super-popular, until one day, he just isn’t.

Truly amazing. A report that Don Lemon was fired from CNN, apparently for disagreeing with a complete nutcase who was arguing that Blacks benefited from the 2^nd Amendment. In the video clip, the white woman keeps her distance from the conversation between the two Black men.

Russia’s biggest propagandist, Vladimir Soloviev, offers Tucker Carlson a job with his team.
Colonel-General Syrsky is praised for having occupied the enemy’s attention for so long.
Ukrainian unit in Bakhmut suffering from “shell hunger.”
Set of cool videos.
Ukrainian maritime drones test Sevastopol’s defenses.
Ukrainians use thermal imaging to detect Russian soldiers at night. Allegedly, Russia is supplying its troops with “anti-thermal blankets.” Could be very useful to forward troops and snipers.
Seems Hungary’s Viktor Orbán was betting on both Carlson and Trump.
China has distances itself from ambassador who insulted Ukraine’s allies in Eastern Europe.

Tucker Carlson is out a Fox News! That was unexpected, but a very welcome consequence of Fox nearly losing the Dominion lawsuit. Nina Jankowicz, of course, is very happy to see this!

Tucker Carlson says he wanted to interview Putin. Granted, that was a year before the war with Ukraine, but hey, now he has the free time! He can now join Russian state TV!

Blogger reviews Tucker Carlson’s “Greatest Hits,” including the French Nazi theory of “Great Replacement.” After World War II, the fellow fretted “against ‘the invasion of Europe by Negroes and Mongols,’ by which he meant Americans and Soviets.”

So as far as political values go, both Donald Trump and Representative Jordan seem to put partisan loyalty at the absolute center. Absolutely nothing outweighs it. The heck with "Truth, Justice and the American Way," these guys figure that supporting the Republican Party is a matter of supreme importance.

Thinkpiece on where Ukraine’s Spring Offensive could go.
Taking Tokmak would effectively cut the Russian army in half.
If Ukraine takes Berdyansk, on the shores of the Sea of Azov, missiles would have a straight path of a little over 100 mils to the Kerch Bridge.
It’s not just Putin. Video of Russian woman declaring that she wants Russia to expand.

GOP in Montana calls for civility while misgendering Zooey Zephyr. Essential problem is that the Montana legislature can’t abide criticism and felt the need to simply shut her down rather than to try and reason with her.

It’s important for morale that theater commanders show up at the front line to recognize troops who are doing well.
Zelenskyy: “Since the 90s, the World Book and Copyright Day has been celebrated annually on April 23.“ With a substantial diaspora, celebrating that is more important than ever.
Farmer builds an anti-mine tractor for cost of about $27k.
When will the Spring Offensive start? Not during this!
China has annoyed the formerly Soviet Socialist Republics that are now independent states. France wasn’t pleased either.

Republicans are pressing for a radical wish list. If they don’t get it, they have no problem causing an economic catastrophe.

Representative AOC suggests Speaker McCarthy is essentially a puppet for more radical manipulators within his caucus. Hard to disagree with that.

The President made a comment on the environment for Earth Day. The comments on Twitter are filled with skepticism and denial.

Blogger reviews the statistics. Global heating is a real and serious problem. Summer glacial melt is an extremely important source of drinking water. Glaciers that supply India and Pakistan are not regenerating the way they used to.

Julie Su is extremely well-qualified for the pot she’s been nominated for. The California Business and Industrial Alliance is dead-set against her.

Update (22 May):: "Biden’s Labor pick in limbo as confirmation comes down to the wire"

Elon Musk launched a rocket that was a bit bigger than th Saturn rockets that got our men to the Moon. The ship blew up shortly after launch. Looks like Musk did some serious corner-cutting that may have blown up the rocket.

It's just absolutely amazing that this guy gets interviewed on CNN. Of what possible value can it be to have someone who says things like "Trump ushered global harmony, not war." I mean...what?!?!?!  This fellow actually thinks the former president ran a foreign policy that was something other than a complete disaster! Must've been living under a rock the whole time!

Looking at Representative Byron Donald's Twitter feed, he thinks Senator Tim Scott would make a good president, Whoopi Goldberg and Sunny Hostis of The View think he's got "Clrence Thomas Syndrome," and that the Republican debt ceiling "plan" is the only plan on the table! Actually, the Democratic plan is to raise the ceiling and to handle all of the Republican budgetary demands via the usual budget procedures.

A Ukrainian soldier in shadow answers questions questions about life on the front.
Col. Pavlo Palisa has been overseeing the battle for Bakhmut for this whole time and says that his troops have tied down Russian forces so as to give other Ukrainians time to train and equip themselves.
Zelenskyy: “Everyone in Ukraine must understand that the main task of the state is the de-occupation of our territories…”
Cool video on providing F-16s.
Ooh! Any chance Australia could provide F/A-18s?
Close-up aerial looks at Bakhmut defenses.
Russia concerned about NATO talks at Ramstein. A concern is that Ukraine will tire out and bore Russia with constant warnings hat the offensive will start any minute, so that the eventual offensive will be a surprise.
Igor Girkin “posted plenty of ‘angry questions’ that he wants to ask the Russian government.”

Belgorod is only about 30km from the Ukrainian border and is a major supply center. It’s well within rocket artillery range and just at the limits of shell artillery. The city of Donetsk is within easy range of everything in Ukraine’s arsenal. Ukraine could very easily reduce these cities to a smoking ruin. Why don’t they? Ukraine wants the moral high ground. They want to appear more civilized than their foes.

I’ve really never understood Speaker McCarthy’s point here. By comparing the US federal budget to a child with a credit card, he makes it sound as though his party has no effect on the level of spending or taxes. The budget is open to negotiation and always has been.

From the Full Send podcast

"The world community should get rid of nuclear weapons instead of focusing on the problem of global warming", - said Donald trump.

"instead of?" Why choose? We can walk and chew gum at the same time. We're entirely capable of both denuclearizing and heading off human-caused climate change. I disagree with the idea that we have to choose one or the other.

If anyone needs an argument to present to skeptics as to why the US supports Ukraine, this is a lengthy and eloquent one. It looks at a popular “peace” proposal and finds it seriously flawed.
Weird lights that might have been a meteorite.
The Ukrainian soldier whose call sign is “Witch.” She explains that Ukraine depends more on smarts and flexibility than on brute force.

Mike Lindell issued a $5 million challenge to prove his electronic data was false. Someone stepped up and did so.

Update (19 May): Fellow who won the $5 million still hasn't been paid.

Pre-war Bakhmut.
Zelenskyy argues to keep Russia out of the Olympics.
Russian metallurgical 'Kirovsky Plant' in St. Petersburg burns.
Svetlana Maniovich, wife of Russian Deputy Minister of Defence and her glamorous life.
The first day of the Ukrainian Spring Offensive is likely to be decisive.

Emptywheel presents a 10-minute segment by Chris Hayes where Hayes explains the jam that Fox News put itself into. A jam that was exploited by Trump, who was a bigger demagogue then they were.

People Magazine (!!!) is actually doing a pretty good job covering the abortion issue. They successfully cover many important aspects of it.

Speaker McCarthy releases list of budget cuts he’d like to make. Biden kicks McCarthy’s proposal to the curb.

Representative Nancy Mace is considered a "serious" Republican. Here she is, doing a walking selfie, accusing the "Biden crime family" of supporting prostitution. Does she have the slightest scrap of real evidence, something she'd be willing to take to court? Ha, ha, ha! Of course not!

Hmm, perhaps I'm just a liberal American who hasn't personally visited Iran, but it didn't appear to me in 1979 that the utterly corrupt Shah of Iran was leaving any affection behind. I got the impression he was widely hated. I find the idea that his son leads any political movement there as highly implausible.

Oh, okay. So launching an unprovoked war of aggression contributes to world peace, eh? BTW, the war is in violation of the Budapest Accord, where Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in return for non-aggression from Russia.

Representative Cori Bush joins Representative AOC in calling for the impeachment of Justice Thomas.

NYC DA Bragg is unimpressed with Representative Jordan’s “field hearing.”

US to prosecute Wagner mercenaries.
Zelenskyy says he got a long well with Speaker McCarthy.
American evaluations of the war in Ukraine. Ukraine expected to make big gains in Spring Offensive. Blogger feels writers of piece don’t really understand situation.
Colonel-General Sirsky gives us an update.
Soldiers evacuate civilians from Bakhmut.
Russia introduces another private military group into Bakhmut, the Wolves.
Patriot air defense systems introduced.
List of supplies Germany has provided to Ukraine.

Dominion Voting Systems settles with Fox for $787.5 million. Fox admits in a press release that it lied.

Hmm. On second thought, this is an awfully vague, fuzzy statement from Fox that will most likely go over the heads of many of their supporters: “We acknowledge the Court’s ruling finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”

The $%#@ing “No Labels” group!!! In a closely-divided electorate, are they idiots or deliberate saboteurs? Seriously Senators Manchin, Sinema and Collins make really lousy allies! The contributions of Manchin and Sinema in an evenly-divided Senate were purely destructive!

Speaker McCarthy’s speech at the NY Stock Exchange.

His speech was, as usual, devoid of details about those spending hard lines: He vaguely mentioned work requirements, reducing spending to fiscal year 2022 levels, limiting future growth of spending during the next decade to one percent and not raising taxes.

McCarthy brags about all the bills the House has passed, but he knows full well that if the Senate refuses to take up the bill and also pass it, it’s a waste of time. What the Republican House needs to do is to work with the Democratic Senate.

Yep, sure is a deep and troubling problem to see how anti-trans hatred takes root in the US and how it’s helped along by the NY Times!

Blogger expects Ukraine to request F-16s at the next Ramstein Airbase meeting and for the US to turn them down.
Westerners concerned about a rapid Ukrainian victory. They’d prefer that Russia conduct a semi-voluntary retreat.
Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense responds to negative news about Ukrainian casualties at Bakhmut. Report on repelling an attack at Bakhmut. Russians are being kept away from the supply routes.
More on the American propagandist and podcaster Donbass Devushka, actually a former Navy NCO 2^nd Class Sarah Bils. She played a role in spreading the documents that Airman Teixeira posted to his gamer group. Oh, and she officially had her name changed to Lyudmila Mikhailova Kazakova.

Justice Thomas knows full well that what he and his billionaire buddy are doing is plainly corrupt as $%#@!!! That's why he "forgot" to disclose the goodies he was getting!

TPM reproduces a claim made by an aide of Thomas that, yeah, pretty much confirms the claim I made above.

Good! C-Span will not televise Representative Jordan’s DA Bragg’s hearing.

Democrats are calling for the Justice Department to investigate Justice Thomas as his fellow Justices clearly won’t do anything.

In prisoner swap, 130 more Ukrainian have been returned.
Zelenskyy and the Ministry of Defense both call for victory.
Pictures of Easter celebrations.
“Rescue operation in Sloviansk has been completed.“
Wow! 12 HIMARS rockets hit a location that was a repair shop for damaged tanks and other vehicles.
Reporting on Sudan. Wagner mercenaries involved.
NATO gets around export laws.

It’s very highly doubtful that Representative Greene is this stupid. What’s far more likely is that she knows that her audience IS this stupid! Greene goes through a lot of vague, fuzzy language and misleading points to bamboozle her audience into thinking that human-caused climate change is not a thing.

A better chart than the one the piece offers at the end.

More on the science. 350 Parts Per Million (ppm) of carbon in the atmosphere is safe. We’re above 420 ppm today.