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

Upcoming Events

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Midsection archive

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.

Now that the very highly theatrical Trump has been replaced by the steady competence of Biden, the press corps is bored!

Awww! Very sorry to hear this! Neal Adams was a major artist in comic books when I was a young'un. He did the socially relevant Green Lantern/Green Arrow comics and lots of great stuff on Batman, Avengers and X-Men.

Russians increasing their air defense system.
Russians trying hard to bomb the defenders of Mariupol into submission. Why Mariupol residents won’t surrender.

April

Mehdi Hasan of MSNBC makes an extremely good point. Elon Musk equated the extremes of both the political left and right. But Hasan points out that the "far left" and "far right" are not equivalent at all!

An anonymou donor gives $1 million in Bitcoin to Alex Jones. Jones very promptly cashes it and removes the "wallet" from his site. As of 21 May, no one has any idea wh the donor was.

Russian tank destroying a five-story residential apartment building.

This is pretty cool! Queen of Spain includes note to Ukrainian troops in weapons shipment.

Texas women seeking abortions were using Oklahoma for that purpose. Now Oklahoma has shut that down.

President Zelenskyy: “In the temporarily occupied areas of the Kherson region, collaborators say that they are allegedly preparing for the transition to the ‘ruble zone’.“ Essentially, Russia is annexing parts of Ukraine. This is of course illegal under international law.
Russians appear to be running low on precision-guided missiles.
Pentagon is discouraging Americans from traveling to the “active war zone” that is Ukraine right now.
Russian elites are beginning to show signs of discomfort.
Pope tries to get civilians evacuated from Mariupol.

Like the younger George Bush 2005-2008, Russia can’t order a general mobilization. Their forces are getting absolutely hammered as it is “but ‘we’re losing, send me your sons’ will be a tough sell.“

Sounds as though TFG (The Former Guy) has an awesome strategy for the midterms! I endorse this strategy wholeheartedly!

In trying to find proof that voting machines were tampered with in the 2020 election, Republicans are “investigating” in such a way as to compromise the integrity of those machines.

Russia makes a gangster-style diplomatic approach to the UN Secretary General. After he visits Moscow, he goes to Kyiv, which gets bombarded by cruise missiles!
President Zelenskyy: “Moscow claimed they had allegedly ceased fire in Mariupol. But the bombing of the defenders of the city continues.”
Democratic political problems in aid for Ukraine vs other domestic priorities.
Turkey is not permitting Russia to reinforce its Black Sea fleet by bringing other ships from anywhere else.
A brand new primary health care center in Makariv, near Kyiv, gets bombed.
Russia requisitions food from Ukrainian farmers.

I agree with Lauren Windsor, former AG Barr knew a lot more than he's told anyone.

The drones and the tanks may be the rilly kewl weapons of the day, but the real workhorse of the Army was the Jeep and is now the Humvee.

Pamela Moses in Tennessee was charged with voter fraud and sentenced to six years in jail. The charge has been dropped.

Russia cuts off oil and gas to Poland and Bulgaria. Not exactly a surprise to European Union nations.

...the decision to cut off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria came the day after the United States and its allies gathered in Germany to pledge more heavy weapons for Ukraine...

Very affecting! Russian war widows clutching their government compensation. They’d really rather just have their husbands back.

Right-wing woman claims that the comedian Jim Carrey is actually playing President Biden. Carrey responds.

President Zelenskyy discusses the Russia occupation of Chornobyl (Chernobyl in English).
Ukrainian position in the South-East of the country form a salient, a position that’s surrounded on three sides. Russians have been trying to cut it off for a while.
Secretary of Defense reports on successful and productive meeting with Ukrainians. Important comments on weakening Russia. Sanctions make it difficult for them to replace a lot of their equipment.
Mariupol is still being bombarded.

Russia and Ukraine together account for 30% of the world’s wheat exports. The war there plus human-caused climate change both mean hunger for poorer nations next year as food reserves are used up.

New editor of the NY Times, Joe Kahn, willfully misunderstands what liberals think his mission should be. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!”

Very sad! Kids playing a baseball game hear gunshots and scatter. I mean, they're extremely smart to do that, but it's sad that they recognized the sound of gunfire and knew just what to do. 

Yeah, Elon Musk is in favor of free speech, that is, unless he considers someone or a group a political enemy.

The war against Ukraine is not going well for Russia. Seems that a smart leader would resist the temptation to expand it.

On Elon Musk "daring" the UN to give him a plan to end world hunger with just 2% of his wealth or $6 billion. Ther plan actually worked out to $6.6 billion. Musk never forked over the money.

Spoiler alert: $6 billion wouldn't end world hunger, but it would go a long way towards mitigating the worst of the world hunger problem.

American Evangelicals and the hard-liners of Saudi Arabia have a great deal in common. Both are book-banners. Because the not-yet-released Dr. Strange movie has a character who refers to having “’two moms’ and there is a scene where an LGBT+ rainbow flag is displayed,” Saudi Arabia has banned the movie there.

Update: Having seen the movie, I noticed the "two dads" kid , but completey missed the rainbow flag. The first was not really an important plot point, the second was clearly even more minor.

In 2009, when the US was in the “Great Recession,” President Obama told several companies they were going to have to accept some losses. “The right was apoplectic” and deemed Obama as running a “gangster government.” Today, Florida Governor DeSantis bullies Disney and they’re “meh.”

Horribly brutal weapon used on Ukrainian civilians in Bucha and Irpin. Fléchettes, tiny darts released by the thousands by artillery or tank shells, are meant to be used against entrenched infantry, but were used instead against civilians.

Russians make ransom demand for hostage taken in Mariupol.
The blogger doubts Russia will use nuclear weapons. He thinks the threat is more just to constrain NATO. He does, however, expect chemical and biological weapons to be used.
Ukrainian grain production down by 20%. This will have a severe impact on food prices.
The meaning of “Z” to Russia.

Examining the growth of the influence of QAnon over just the past two months.

"Sen. Roy Blunt Blew Off Trump Impeachment Because It's 'Not My Job'"
All of Senator Blunt's arguments were dealt with at the time. None of them are valid. Of course it was his job to hold a president accountable! His position here is utterly irresponsible!

Disney is allegedly indoctrinating our children as they’re a “woke” corporation.

Hmm. Could it be that right-wingers are upset that Disney princesses are no longer ready to marry older men on a moments notice?

Putin ordered an airstrike on Odesa that killed a three month old and her mother and then he went to Church for Holy Saturday services.

Intelligence says Russians will take advantage of Easter services to shell Ukrainians who are out in the open.
Russians requisitioning Ukrainian people for their army and civilian trucks to move their supplies.

Russians have deported more than 300 Mariupol residents to Nakhodka, a port town in Siberia, on the coast of Pacific Ocean.

They were moved about 10k km away.

Anti-vaxxer dies of Covid. Which I suppose is kinda sad, but her death was sort of like diving off an 80-foot cliff when it was low tide and you could see rocks above the surface of the water. Death was a pretty predictable outcome. 

In no way, shape or form are Minority Leaders McConnell or McCarthy leaders in any real sense. A true leader goes against the crowd once in a while. Neither man showed the slightest bit of courage or independence after January 6^th.

Of course, being principled, but spineless isn't any better.

Rep. Greene's evidentiary hearing is to determine if she should be removed from the 2022 ballot because she supported the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Representative Greene had a bad case of CRS (Can't Remember %$#@) when it came to incriminating statements she made. She quibbles with the details (highly unlikely that any media source would have gotten her statement sort-of right) but essentially agrees that yes, she said those things.

More on that.

Further exploration of Representative Greene’s “very poor memory” defense.

Greene’s "very poor memory" defense could fall under the definition of perjury.

A Ukrainian asks for the etymology of rain (for instance - drizzling, sprinkling, raining, pouring, a deluge, etc.). Lots of cool answers!

People from the NY Times are putting out information in their books that the public should have known about back when Trump was in office. This is a very defensive response to thoroughly justified criticism. The NY Times needs to restore their Public Editor position, ASAP!

The NY Times is defensive about stories like this. The story gives a clear villain the “hero treatment.” There is a way to cover people in depth without covering them sympathetically. Why, for instance, in a story about someone exploiting “L.G.B.T.Q. issues” do we not have a single such person to comment on the morality of the protagonist?

Senator Lindsay Graham is confident that if the midterms are about policy "we'll kick their ass." Erm, okay. Trump accomplished a tax cut and appointed a lot of right-wing judges and Justices (though, to be fair, both were more Senator McConnell's achievements rather than Trumps). That’s it. Those were his only accomplishment in his four years.

What does The Former Guy brag about after spending four years in the presidency? He successfully passed a test designed to detect dementia!

Captured Ukrainians being moved far away from Ukraine.
Our blogger explains why and how he’s doing his daily updates on the Ukrainian situation.
And yet again, evacuees from Mariopul are hit with artillery fire while trying to evacuate, even though Russia keepa promising them safe passage.

So apparently, the Russian strategy for the besieged city of Mariupol is to lock it up tight and let the remaining inhabitants starve to death.

Spoke with someone a few days ago who felt Ukraine’s position was hopeless and they might as well just surrender now. Not so sure about that. 1. President Zelenskyy has been banging the drum for awhile now, asking for more equipment. He’s now happy with what’s there and on the way. 2. We’ve now got 30 nations chipping in! Including, apparently, the Taliban (!) and India (!). 3. The US is really, really good at logistics. 4. The former Minister of Defense of the Russian-aligned Donetsk People's Republic says Ukraine is at a very advanced stage of mobilization. Russia, on the other hand, is in the same position that the US was in 2005. How do you double down and institute a draft when you're losing a war of aggression that you started? 

Ukraine was a major source to Palestinians of wheat. The war has caused the price of wheat to skyrocket. West Bank isn’t doing much better than Gaza.

Looking at the new editor of the NY Times. Deeply unimpressive sentence: “After Abramson, Dean Baquet took over in 2014 and became one of the most popular executive editors in the paper’s modern history.”
I thought Baquet seriously sucked.
Baquet: “[Liberals] sometimes want us to pretend that [Trump] wasn’t elected, but he was elected.”
No, it’s that you bear some of the blame for Trump being elected!

The last bridgehead in Mariupol.
Zelenskyy: If

Germany is delivering weapons, but isn’t quite ready to cut off Russian fossil fuels to Germany.
Czechs and Netherlands are both stepping up weapons shipments.
A Chefs For Ukraine kitchen was hit yesterday by a missile. It’s back up and running.

All you need to know about James O’Keefe of Project Veritas:

The fact that some of the people who threw money at Sydney Powell found O’Keefe too sketchy to bankroll might’ve given a brighter dude pause, but not our Jimmy.

Remember that accusing political opponents of pedophilia was a favorite go-to tactic of Putin's. I do not think it's a coincidence that QAnon is also really attached to that particular tactic.

Hamas launches rockets into Israel as a response to the Israeli attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The rockets are shot down with the Iron Dome system, Israel launches attack on Gaza with warplanes, Hamas responds with missiles. Egypt and Jordan condemned Israel.

The palace intrigue in the Saudi royal family and what Jared Kushner allegedly did for that $2 billion.

Former Press Secretary Ari Fleischer claims that the “liberal, mainstream media” got several stories wrong. 1. The COVID-19 lab leak theory – My recollection is that liberal sources didn’t rule it out, but that it’s hardly a proven theory.
2. “Hunter Biden’s laptop” – The hard drive that was produced by Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani has a number of files on it that appear to have been Biden’s but there’s no way to tell if incriminating-looking files were added at a later date.
3. Steele Dossier – Liberal sources were clear from the start that the dossier was unverified. Yes, a major source for it was discredited, but many other accusations have not been disproven.

Ari Fleischer claims that the press corps would have locked arms and denounced the Trump Administration if any of his people had treated reporters the way Press Secretary Jen Psaki has. But she’s never threatened anyone nor even called anyone names. She just asks questions that make her questioners look like idiots.

One of the problems with the Republican Party in the 21st Century is that they appear to be spending an awful lot of time and energy trying to solve nonexistent problems. CRT in Florida K-12 schools certainly falls under that.

The Democrat Nikki Fried who wants to replace Governor DeSantis in Florida, pledges to run a campaign about substantve issues!

Jesse Watters boasting about how he let the air out of his intern’s tires to get her in his car for a date

Erm, sorry to be a humorless grump here, but PoliticsGirl is 100% correct. What the Fox News guy describes is no laughing matter.

The blogger does not agree that Putin is innocent, nor that he was just responding to NATO aggression.
Zelenkyy’s Easter address.
The Mariupol situation.
Chef Jose Andres and World Central Kitchn is becoming a semi-regular feature of these posts.

The real significance of the texts in question is that even die-hard supporters of Trump's attempted coup were asking for, y'know, facts to back up Trump's conspiracy theories!

Gay people think the ad for Tucker Carlson’s documentary is so gay!

Megham McCain agrees that the ad looks really gay!

When simply cooking meals for others becomes an act of bravery.

Masha Gessen from the New Yorker says let’s please not cover the war in Ukraine as though it were a football game. Journalism has certain strengths and saying who’s up and who’s down gets away from how war is impacting people on the ground.

Very interesting thread on Jared Kushner's $2 billion. Important context: "Kushner was denied a top-secret security clearance by the CIA."

Russian actions after a Ukranian surrender in 2014 are informing Zelenskyy’s response to a Russian surrender offer for the besieged city of Mariupol.
Russians hitting Ukrainian roads and other infrastructure. They’re even targeting World Central Kitchen’s (Chef Jose Andres) operations in Kharkiv!