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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Drone Free Horsham

Protests are held last Saturday of each month, 12:00noon to 2:00pm

North corner of Horsham Air Base
Intersection of Easton Road & W. County Line Road

Facebook event page

YouTube - Living Under Drones

Protests held on Apr13, Jun13, Jul13, Apr14, May14, Jun14, Apr15, Jul15, May16, Jun16, May17, Aug17, Apr18, Jul18

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Senate Intelligence Committee Torture Report

(Local copy, the redacted summary)

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Midsection archive

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Climate Strike

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Pro-Venezuela Anti-Intervention

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Horsham Air Base protest

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Protesting giving GW Bush a medal

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Pro-Mueller Investigation protest

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Rally to abolish ICE

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Democratic Rally

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Climate March

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Anti-Drones protest

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Rally at Logan Circle for families

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Protest against the Trump family separatin policy on the Mexican border

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Anti-Drone Protest

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Palestinians and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

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Rally for Palestinians

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March For Our Lives

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Lancaster Direct Action against a fossil fuel pipeline.

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Women's March 2018

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Video - first part of Conference on US Military Bases in Foreign Countries.

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Treatment of Puerto Rico and 250th day of Trump Presidency

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Horsham Air Base Aug 2017

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Anti-Drone Protest May '17

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May Day celebration at Clark Park

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March for Science

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Rally on 41st day of Trump Presidency.

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Protest held on 15th day of Trump presidency

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Women's March in Philadelphia during first week of Trump Administration.

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March held a few days before President Trump's inauguration

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A Black Lives Matter protest.

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Anti-Drone Protest outside Horsham Air Base.

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Social Forum - Philadelphia 2015

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Anti-Drone Protest at Horsham Air Base.

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Climate March NYC / Comments from reporter Naomi Klein. / The significance of the march

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Rally for Michael Brown

Rally for Gaza

Gay Pride Parade - Vets For Peace and FUMCOG contingents

May Day 2014

Pennsylvania's Governor Tom Corbett arranges to meet with students of one of the schools that he's been defunding, but cancels when students, parents and teachers make it clear that they were goingto protest his visit. We all assembled anyway.

Anti-drones protest

Syria strike protest

Protest at Horsham Air Base about proposed Drone Command Center

Last (?) Protest on behalf of Pfc. Bradley Manning

The 2013 Philly Gay Pride Parade

Info, articles, etc.

The 1991 and 2003 wars against Iraq were the Western powers and Arab allies against that lone state. If the US goes to war with Iran, it'll be the US versus Iran, period!

After a clearly-unqualified candidate for an important federal post drops out of the application process:

Trump says to the press "you vet for me" when he names a candidate for a position, says we save a lot of money that way

See, here's the problem. You really, really need someone with meaningful, relevant experience to run the US Government! It can be as a Representative, Senator or Governor. Lengthy time in the military or as state official works too, but the current President is a cautionary tale of what happens when you move someone who's completely unqualified to the Oval Office. You get someone who believes that it's the media's job to vet the candidates that the President puts forward!!!

And actually, the law is very clear. the President can't just pick whomever he wants for the position of DNI.

"Trump imposes more tariffs on China, but he’s out of ideas. Now China holds the cards."
Two and a half years into the job, the President still has no idea what he's doing.

*Sigh* The President was asked about the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. It was very clear by his answer he had drawn a complete blank on what that event was. Such an embarrassment to our country!

Democrats are solidly opposed to climate change and Governor Jay Inslee gets a lot of credit for that.

Mueller's testimony appears to have really lit a fire underneath a lot of Democrats to impeach the President, but Speaker Pelosi isn't so sure.

President completely dismisses the idea that he's a Russian asset, fueling certainty that he's a Russian asset.

"As Trump denies racism, most Americans don't believe him"
Essentially, if you're a white, non-college educated, Republican man, you're likely to give the President the benefit of the doubt. If you're pretty much anyone else, well, I liked this line:

As a rule, those who don’t have a problem with race find it unnecessary to repeatedly tell skeptics that they don’t have a problem with race.

So how much progress have the Trump appointees made in coming up to the standards of regular bureaucrats and politicians? Trump's people try to claim that HUD Secretary Ben Carson is smart. He may be smart in certain areas but he acts like a bull in a china shop here. He arrogantly assumed he could use a property when the property owner hadn't agreed to let him use it and invited a politician to join without having given the politician more than a few hours advance notice.

Striking parallels between how youthful criminals (who know they're guilty) and the President, who denies global warming, justify their actions.

July

This photo is going viral. A young Russian woman (17) calmly reads the Russian constitution that allows peaceful protest. Police stopped, not sure of what to do.

Ex-Fox News military analyst Ralph Peters has some really on-point criticisms to make about the appointment of Representative John Ratcliffe to the position of DNI.
Also, Ratcliffe claims to have played a major role in the terrorism-financing case of the Holy Land Foundation. Funny thing is, neither prosecutors nor defense attorney recall his playing any role at all in that case.

Update: Good! Ratcliffe clearly wasn't qualified for the post. He was a yes-man and a sycophant and that was all the President cared about. Fortunately, looks like others made it clear that the DNI is supposed to be more than that.

During World War II, the Axis Powers considered themselves to be allies. When Japan declared war on the US, Germany followed suit.
After 9/11, the younger George Bush declared Iran, Iraq and North Korea to be an "Axis of Evil." When Bush later invaded Iraq, Iran and North Korea didn't even send messages of sympathy because the "Axis" was nothing more than an American speech-writers fantasy.
Now an American senator has declared yet another "Axis of Evil" and this time, the President is is very clearly not on the same page as he doesn't regard either Russia or North Korea as "evil." So the new declaration is even more stupid and useless than the last one was.

See, here's the problem. Like the President, I'm a white Christian. Are either of us qualified to decide whether we're racist? Of course not. That's like telling a high school student that she's about to take a math test, the test will determine whether she gets into college or not and oh, she gets to grade the test herself. What student in her right mind would not give herself 100%? Of course the President doesn't consider himself racist, he's grading his own test!

A writer at the NY Times admits he made a hash of a statement. Essentially, he felt he was qualified to decide who was a "real" Midwesterner. A blogger agrees that his statement was supremely arrogant and racist.

I dunno, I have lots and lots of comickal book-type conspiracy theories as to why the President pursues the energy policy he does. Convincing answers here. Also, perhaps it's just that combating climate change will require an activist government and right-wingers prefer small, cheap government.

Senator Elizbeth Warren wonders why John Delaney is even bothering to run if nothing can be done.

"Centrist" in this case appears to mean "right-winger." What real and genuine Democrat goes to Fox News to complain about getting his butt kicked in a debate?

Hmm. Yeah, "Republican-lite" is much better term for Delaney.

Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham think that "failed liberal solutions" are really terrible for the nation's urban poor. Hmm, I fear that the 1968 movie Oliver! shows us the sort of solution they'd prefer.

"Marianne Williamson (aka Jill Stein 2.0)" attracted lots of negative attention by people who compare her to the current President.

Comment from a Daily Kos blogger: Williamson: [words to the effect of] "we don’t need political insider game and policy wonk. We need a truth teller."

Blogger: Which, yeah, fine. But we kind of need a person who knows how to do policy and you know, be a politician, to actually govern.

The President claims that anonymous validators are calling his office and praising him for...well, it's not exactly clear what. But those unknown African-Americans sure do appreciate him and praise him to the skies.

"This is how America's Afghanistan War ends-- Not with a Bang but with a Mess"
A thinkpiece on how war in Afghanistan might end.

"Trump shrugs at North Korean missile tests, evidence of growing threat"
Sure, what else can the President do? Admit that his whole North Korea strategy is a complete bust?

A speech by the Senate Majority Leader where he never quite gets around to addressing WHY Democrats and Republicans are so divided on election-security bills. Might be because Republicans do better when there's a light turn-out. Might be because Republicans are counting on Russian interference because they know which party the Russians favor.

As Antifa is in the news, I looked up the ADL definition of it. While all sorts of white supremacists and Trump supporters (including the shooter at the Gilroy Garlic Festival) are responsible for hundreds of murders, Antifa has not been charged with any. As Antifa is not an organized group, whether someone is a member is a highly controversial question.

"Michele Bachmann: Trump is without a doubt ‘the most biblical president I’ve ever seen’"
Michele Bachmann never defines "Biblical" or "Godly" except to say that the President is pro-Israel.

At around this time (July 29th), the President could very easily have made his signing of the 9/11 First Responders bill a bipartisan affair. He couldn't find a way to include a single Democrat, even though the problem in getting the bill through was mostly due to obstruction by the President's own party. Sorry, but I don't see how this President fits any definition of "Biblical" where it seems to be perfectly okay to snub the opposition party in what should have been a bipartisan celebration!

"National intelligence director will resign; Trump picks conspiracy-promoting loyalist as replacement"
The proposed DNI replacement is an extremely unimpressive figure, given to wild conspiracy theories that fly on Fox News, but not in any serious forum.

"Four dead, including suspect, and at least 15 hurt after shooting at Gilroy Garlic Festival"
Problem with the "good guy with a gun" theory is that criminal assaults tend to happen very quickly. The police were nearby and engaged in less than a minute. But the shooter was still able to kill and wound over a dozen people in all.
BTW, the shooter didn't smuggle the gun into the festival, he crossed a creek and then cut through a fence.

Wow! President's just going full-fledged Nazi on us! Mildly surprised he doesn't just use terms like untermensch.

President Trump tweeted that Rep. Elijah Cummings’ district is a “rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.”

"‘INFEST’ — The Ugly Nazi History of Trump’s Chosen Verb"

The President states in his twitter feed on the district of Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings that Baltimore is "FAR WORSE and more dangerous" than the US-Mexican border is.
Hmm, how dangerous is that? In April of this year, a Fox News reporter was mocked and scorned because he wore a bulletproof vest to make a report there. As a commenter remarked:

Nota bene: There has never, ever been any requirement or need to wear a flak jacket at the US-Mexico border, and nobody's ever heard of a reporter doing so at any time.

So there appear to be many misconceptions about the state of the US-Mexico border to begin with.

Heh! The former POTUS & FLOTUS make it very clear they do not share the President's low opinion of Baltimore!

Representative Ted Lieu brings out the really essential answers from the Mueller hearing. More on why the House is moving towards impeachment.

Also: "The reports of impeachment's death have been greatly exaggerated"

The Attorney General has believed, wrongly, for 30 years that the death penalty is a deterrent. This is a long-debunked viewpoint.

"In a blow to Trump, auto manufacturers reach deal with California"
An example of liberal capitalism. It helps auto companies financially to be able to ignore pollution controls, but the companies also recognized that humanity as a whole benefits when they all observe the same limits.

Judge Napolitano of Fox News gives us much wisdom (!) on hate speech coming from people with authority. The official term is "The fish rots from the head."

Yep! Absolutely perfect encapsulation as to how Warren and Sanders approach problems and suggest solutions!

Warren: “I have a plan to build 3.2 million housing units.”
Sanders: “We’re going to tell the developers you just can’t come in and build expensive condos and drive working class people out."

The NY Tims is actually making the problem of racism worse by continually describing racists as honest, hard-working salt o' the earth types.

Good! Governor of Puerto Rico resigns! This follows many large street protests.

The amazingly tight-lipped and leak-free Special Counsel's office is accused of leaks. The list that was provided to substantiate this accusation is very weak on evidence that any of the alleged leaks actually came from the Special Counsel's office.

"Jeffrey Epstein Reportedly Found Injured In Jail Cell" 
Not at all clea whether he was assaulted or whether injuries were self-inflicted.

The Senate Majority Leader demonstrates that he just doesn't give a rat's ass when it comes to, y'know, doing his job!!! His job is to determine whether continuing to mine coal is preferable to moving our energy supplies to renewables (wind, solar, etc.) and he clearly just can't be bothered.

We get live testimony from Rober Meller on his report. Big takeaway of the day so far is that a Republican asked Mueller if the President could be charged after he leave office. Mueller replied that was an affirmative.After Robert Mueller's testimony,

"Trump Yells 'Fake News,' Hurls Personal Insults At Female Reporter For Quoting Mueller Testimony"
Heh! The President hollers: "Read [Mueller's] correction."
There is no correction. Mueller got it right the first time that the President could be charged after he leaves office. There is no correction to be made on that.

Here's yer quick, concise, made-for-sharing clip saying in effect that "Yes, the President is guilty of leading a band of crooks in subverting our elections for the lowest and meanest of motives."

Hard to see why anyone would characterize the hearing as being good for the President.

The fellow who had mailed pipe bombs to 65 liberals last October, claims it's not his fault. He was radicalized by the President and Republican Party.

As the blogger points out, the public does not agree that this President has been good for race relations. Also, the NAACP recently offered a chance for him to speak in front of them. He was under the impression he could show up, give a speech and then leave, but they made it clear they wanted to ask questions. This president who boasts of having great relations with the African-American community, chickened out and refused their invitation.

Hilarious video! A fairly nerdy senator gets questioned a "tracker" and the tracker ends up looking ridiculous.

"Senate passes 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, not unanimously"
Good! The 9/11 survivors bill is finally passed, no thanks to two idiot senators.

Britain seized an Iranian oil tanker. European Union didn't offer any words of support. US and UK are on their own when it comes to challenging Iranian naval actions.

This appears to provide an answer as to why the Trump Administration is so dead-set against doing anything about climate change. Doing something about that would require an activist government that would spend lots of money. That's obviously not compatible with slashing expenditures. Of course, the Kansas experiment with slashing government expenditures (2012-2016) was an utter and absolute disaster.

The Kansas disaster, from NPR:

Revenues shrank, and the economy grew more slowly than in neighboring states and the country as a whole. Kansas' bond rating plummeted, and the state cut funding to education and infrastructure.

President endorses an agreemet on a two-year budget deal that raises debt ceiling for two years.

"Fox And Friends Very Upset Sunday Talk Shows Discussed Racist 'Send Her Back' Chants" 
Fox & Friends ignore the fact that a rally is not a policy speech that's devoted to facts, figures and a clear argument. The whole point of a rally is just to get the crowd excited. Yes, the President's whole speech was an hour and a half, but it's entirely appropriate to focus on the "Send her back" chant as that was a truly newsworthy part of the rally.

"Trump Brags He'd Win Afghanistan War In A Week If It Was 'Wiped Off The Face Of The Earth'" 
President essentially brags that he could use nuclear weapons and be done with the Afghanistam problem in short order. There's an historical precent for that. In 146 BCE, Rome had fought three wars with Carthage, the Second one being an especially lengthy and costly one. Rome responded to their victory in the Third war by leveling all of the buildings, salting the fields so that nothing could grow and selling all of the inhabitants into slavery. But as Afghanistan poses no national security threat to the US, why would anyone with even a lick of common sense even suggest such an uttrely barbaric thing? Why not simply leave that country?

At the 5:55 mark, Stephen Miller says that the Republican Party under this president is a believer in the rule of law. I mean...whu-u-uut?!?!?! This president has done everything possible not to respect the rule of law!!! Ever single day, we're hearing about things like Kellyannne Conway flipping off people for trying to enforce the Hatch Act, former aide Hope Hicks declaring that she can't testify about whole areas under some made-up theory of "absolute immunity" from having to testify to Congress, all kinds of questions about how the Trump Administration has tried to jam a plainly discriminatory question into the 2020 Census, etc., etc.

Represntative Nadler, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, says the President had “'violated the law six ways from Sunday' before and during special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe."

A look back at the Moon landing of 50 years ago (July 18th).
Also" "27 Pictures That Will Change Your Perspective Of The Moon Landing"

Cool group photo of surviving Apollo astronauts. More, including some NSFW references at the end.

See, this is what amazes me. Followers of the President talk about his "accomplishments in office." I was a history major in college and a sailor for about a decade. He has zero foreign policy accomplishments! His North Korea policy consists of splashy photo-ops and...that's it! His Iran policy has moved the US backwards to where we're less safe than before, etc.

Aww! The poor President! [/snark] He wanted to just come onto the stage, give a speech and leave. The audience wanted to [shudder] ask him questions!!! What do they think? He's the president of all the people or just of white, straight evangelicals?

*Sigh* Does the President have any idea what the "debt ceiling" is?

"Trump says the U.S. shot down an Iranian drone, Iran says it didn't, and the whole mess … is a mess"
Well, that's an absolutely fascinating response! Iran denies that their drone was shot down!

So much news, the blog just does a "News Dump" piece.
Excellent Seth Myers piece.
To Germany's Angela Merkel - Hoo yah!
The conversation between the President and the Yazidi woman is shocking, not because the President is at all rude or impolite to her, but because he clearly hasn't been briefed on her story.
Yeah, Ivanka Trump doesn't even try to pretend that she's any sort of restraining influence on her father anymore.
Senator Rand Paul has no idea how to deal with reporters who have legitimate questions and refers the fellow to a Fox News interview that the fellow has already seen.

More on Ivanka: She keeps trying to put herself into the news as a hidden voice of reason or brave (undercover) voice of dissent. Problem is, she's about the most useless, meaningless flyweight irrelevancy ever! Whenever a tough issue comes up, she goes invisible.

Ah, poor Senator Rand Paul! So misunderstood about the appropriation for 9-11 First Responders! [/snark] Hmm, funny, but Senator Paul says there was a Pay-For in the initial draft of the big tax-cut-for-the-rich bill. Never knew that, probably because everyone knew it was a complete joke that we'd find some way to pay for a $1.5 trillion tax cut.

Representative Elijah Cummings made it very clear that he was very disappointed with how the Department of Homeland Security cares for the people it detains.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell comments on the Presidents' accusation against four Congresswomen of color. McConnell takes issue with the idea that Trump made a racist attack on them. McConnell presents the attack as a mere political disagreement. Problem is, the President's attack was so clearly racist, it's spelled out in discrimination law.

Examples of potentially unlawful conduct include insults, taunting, or ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person’s foreign accent or comments like, “Go back to where you came from.”

Which is pretty much exactly what the President said.

"The Mythical Moderating Influence"
Did the Vice-President and/or the acting Chief of Staff let the President know that his speech was a PR disaster? Most probably, yes. Did Ivanka or Melania play any role in letting the President know his speech went too far? I find that very, very highly unconvincing.

Well, for a little while the President at least pretended he was against people chanting about sending a sitting Congresswoman "back."

Representative Ilhan Omar gives us words of wisdom about what true patriotism really means.

"Jeffrey Epstein Denied Bail in Child Sex-Trafficking Case"
Was Epstein a flight risk?

At the time of his arrest, investigators found piles of cash, dozens of diamonds and an expired Austrian passport, with Epstein’s picture and a different name, in a safe in his Manhattan home.

Hmm, yeah, I think so.

Describing the President at a rally:

Trump, alluding to Democratic congresswoman of color, says they "want to demolish our constitution, weaken our military, eliminate the values that built this magnificent country." The crowd boos them loudly.

Trump fans eventually break out in "send her back!" chants directed toward Ilhan Omar, a Somali refugee who serves in Congress who Trump viciously smeared.

Soledad O'Brien weighs in:

This is racist. If you’re chanting this, you’re a racist. If you’re a journalist asking white people if this is racist—you’re an idiot.

"Trump Tries To Distance Himself From 'Send Her Back' Chant At Rally"
“'I was not happy with it. I disagree with it,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office."
Bit of a problem with the President's explanation is that a video of him at the rally shows him with a pleased and satisfied grin and him waiting until the chant stopped before continuing.

"Controversial agency relocation slammed as attack on science by lawmakers, employees"
The Rachel Maddow Show has been focusing on this story quite a bit. *Sigh* Once, the US was a scientific superpower. Now, that lead is fast disappearing.

Thanks to Jon Stewart and company for responding to Senator Paul's game-playing today and gotta give kudos to Fox News for giving him a platform from which to speak! As for Senator Paul, I just have no words that are adequate to convey my deep disgust for him.

Senator Paul attempts to defend himself.

The comedian Jon Stewart used to run an occasional segment "Evil or Stupid?"

"Trump continues racist attacks on non-white congresswomen: 'If they want to leave, they can leave'"
Hmm. Dunno. Hard call here,

"Trump says he’s not concerned about being racist because "many people agree" with him"
Shorter President Trump: "Hey, there are a lot of racists in the US!"

"Pelosi draws Republican fire for calling Trump's racist tweets racist"
Actually, there really IS a House rule saying you can't call the President a racist. Problem is, he clearly is one. Republicans can't afford to let there be any daylight between them and the President, though.

Representative Liz Cheney demonstrates the strength of the Democratic case by saying a number of false things about Democrats.

US criticizes how China treats Uighurs. Problem is, US has such a small and degraded moral profile these days that Chinese is easily able to push back.

The President's Twitter account is declared a public forum and not his personal property, which limits what he can do with it. Removing people from it is one thing he can't do.

Update: Apparently, he's still blocking people from it.

"BREAKING: Judge Blocks DOJ Legal Team Shake Up In New York Census Case"
Good! This is very, very excellent news for the Census case! The Trump Administration is going down in flames over this!

The President wonders why the judge in the census question case "won’t let the Justice Department use the lawyers that it wants to use. Could this be a first?" Erm, the judge won't permit the Justice Department to do a wholesale replacement of their legal team in the middle of the case. Not the same thing at all.

Uuh...whut?!?!?! "Statement from the Press Secretary | The White House"
"The Iranian regime took action today to increase its uranium enrichment. It was a mistake under the Iran nuclear deal to allow Iran to enrich uranium at any level."

*Sigh* No, it was a mistake to violate the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and to then insist on unrealistic conditions to reinstate it. The new Pres Secretary isn't any improvement over the old one. This one just couldn't care less about even trying to make a logical case. "There is little doubt that even before the deal’s existence, Iran was violating its terms." My head hurts trying to even guess what that's supposed to mean!
Stephanie Grisham also claims "Maximum pressure on the Iranian regime will continue until its leaders alter their course of action." But the policy of maximum pressure has been tried for a while and has rather spectacularly failed!!! Y'know "Insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result each time."

"Rep. Rashida Tlaib On Detention Centers: 'Traumatic' And 'Inhumane'"
Martha Raddatz and Fox News interviewed two people with ICE and Homeland Security. Gotta say, they're smooth, professional and accomplished liars. Representative Tlaib brings fire to the subject of imprisoned migrants! Also, if conditions were actually so nice for migrants, why were no reporters able to access the detention centers?

The President and his people push back strongly on reports of horrendous conditions, but they're pitting their word against very considerable evidence.

"Trump blames teleprompter for Revolutionary War 'airports' flub" 

As prt of his July 4th speech, the President described the military situation in 1775: "Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rocket's red glare it had nothing but victory."

Many years ago, President Bill Clinton was giving a speech and realized that the wrong speech had been loaded into the TelePrompTer. He said "Oh, okay" and winged it, He knew enough about the subject to give a reasonable approximation of what he was going to say anyway. No, it is absolutely NO excuse to say it's the fault of anybody but the person giving the speech.

From Axios:

President Trump is considering an executive order to try to move forward with the citizenship question on the 2020 census. Says a senior administration official: "We didn’t come this far just to throw in the towel."

But that's exactly what you're supposed to do! When you've litigated a question all the way to the Supreme Court and tell them that the absolute drop-dead deadline was last Friday and then you lost your case, you're supposed to "throw in the towel"! These people have no idea what "rules" and "deadlines" mean.

Israelis are actively hiding archives about the Nakba (Arabic for "catastrophe") of 1948, when Palestinians were expelled from what is now Israel.

Lou "Never heard a shot fired in anger" Dobbs calls generals "Snowflakes" because they were unenthusiastic about moving military equipment for an obvious campaign stunt.
I protested the Iraq War several months before it began and give the military zero blame for anything that went wrong there. The younger George Bush and Cheney deserve ALL of the blame!!!

Sounds as though nobody missed very much by not watching the President's rally. The stations that skipped live coverage of it appear to have made a sound financial decision. Up in Philadelphia? I had an umbrella with me and opened it up twice, but the rain was never all that heavy.

The blogger details the complete and utter cluster$%#@ that was this President's July 4th. Bonus: Bette Midler adds a few words plus several responses to critics.

Cool video here! As the blogger says: "This was a nice, if brief, reminder of how America was built, spoiler alert, it wasn’t all white dudes…this museum is on my list of places to see."

From Fox News: "Harry Kazianis: Trump haters wrong to criticize him for Fourth of July celebration"
"However, any conservative knows by now that anything involving President Trump is a triggering event to the left – and that’s a real shame."
What's "triggering" me is the unnecessary and wasteful addition of military hardware into what has normally been a day of picnics and music and civilian celebrations. I also find it highly offensive that the Republican National Committee gets tickets to distribute while the Democratic National Committee gets none. Why is making July 4th a partisan holiday something to cheer?

In some extremely good news today, the Census will forward without the question that the Trump Administration was trying to add to it!

"Trump Posts Cryptic Tweet On Citizenship Question Just As DOJ Backs Down For 2020" *Sigh* The President has no idea how to lose gracefully!

"BREAKING: DOJ Says It's Been 'Instructed' To Try To Get Citizenship Question Back On Census"

Extensive thinkpiece on what it means that strip clubs are going cashless. One of the problems is then the establishment gets a cut of the tips that customers used to offer directly to the dancers.

Not that I've ever personally known someone from Alabama, but if anyone from there ever tells you that Alabamans aren't all stupid, point this law out to them. Thankfully, it's now been repealed, but we've known for a few years now that Alabama had a law that gave sheriffs the ability to set the food budget for prison inmates and to profit from any excess! Can you imagine a more blatant conflict of interest that's more explicitly designed to lead to hungry inmates?!?!!?

More idiocy from the same state:  A woman who was shot was being held legally responsible for the death of her fetus. I gues the theory was that she said to herself "Hey, I think I'll get myself an abortion via getting shot!

John Bolton, the National Security Adviser, was left to fume and sputter in Mongolia while Jared, Ivanka and Tucker Carlson of Fox News went along to the North Korean border. These visits usually take weeks to plan, this one was clearly put together very rapidly. Not surprisingly, it didn't produce much in the way of actual diplomacy.

Wall Street Journal asks: “Democrats march in lockstep with the left. What are they offering voters who backed Trump in 2016?"
Hmm, gee, I don't know! [/snark] Basic sanity. Fundamental competence. A meaningful level of adherence to custom and tradition. Maybe when Congress subpoenas an official, the President and his people won't resist in a fanatical, scorched-earth manner.

June

Ivanka Trump attends G20 Summit as though she had diplomatic qualifications. Embarrasses herself.

"Trump Blew Up The Iran Nuclear Deal. Now He Wants Allies To Help Him Get An Iran Nuclear Deal"
So, a commenter who's writing about one of the pieces in the paper is waxing eloquent about how Our Glorious Leader the President is handling various policies. He mentions "increased sanctions on Iran," suggesting that this is a good policy. Problem is, while his aides hope that the President will "...engage with a number of different international leaders, among our closest partners and allies, to obtain their support...", he's busy antagonizing those same allies by throwing around wild charges about them taking advantage of the US on trade matters.

Not surprisingly, "US gets no commitment from NATO for help on Iran threat"
Alies don't trust US and want deescalation more than they want to confront Iran.

When the DNC tweets out the RNC's interview, you know it didn't go well. RNC Chairwoman tried to suggest that

On the Democratic debate, I have to say I was very impressed by Senator Warren's wonkish command of the details of the issues, but Senator Harris can really do the face-to-face confrontations really well.