Trina's Kitchen

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Stand with the California nurses

Nurses across the state of California have gone on strike or voted to walk out over inadequate pay, exhausting work schedules and unsafe conditions.

On Monday, 5,000 nurses at Stanford Health Care and Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital struck against poor pay and understaffing after more than 90 percent of them voted to strike on April 8. More than 8,000 nurses at Sutter Health Care in Northern California launched a one-day strike against unsafe staffing levels, improper COVID-19 protocols and wages that do not keep up with inflation.

In the Los Angeles area, hundreds of nurses at Cedars-Sinai Hospital held a protest last week after the latter was found guilty of multiple safety violations during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. The protest followed an April 11 strike authorization vote in which the majority of nurses voted in favor.

Nurses at the nearby University of California Los Angeles Medical Center are also holding a rally and protest this coming Wednesday for stronger workplace protections against COVID-19, an action that will be mirrored by their colleagues at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center.

In Central and Northern California 19,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses have a contract expiration on August 31, and the agreement for 14,600 University of California nurses ends on October. The movement of nurses in the state comes on top of health care walkouts and and strike votes in Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, Washington D.C., Alabama and across the country. This is part of a global movement, including recent strikes in Australia, Sri Lanka, Germany, Italy and other countries.

The World Socialist Web Site spoke to several nurses throughout the Northern and Southern California regions who described their conditions and expressed a growing sentiment for statewide action by nurses.

One Cedars-Sinai worker told the WSWS: “Two dollars an hour [the proposed increase] is not nearly enough. They want to sell us the same thing they did in 2019. But this isn’t 2019! Inflation today is crazy! I used to spend about $100 whenever I went shopping, now it’s closer to $120. I’m buying cheaper food to make things work. I’m glad nurses are striking in Northern California too, I know it’s no better there. We need to all go out together!

“I’ve also found out that Cedars-Sinai, just like Stanford Health Care, plans to cut health care benefits for workers while they are on strike.”

Joe Biden is a failure as president. Inflation, substandard wages, still no real plan to address COVID . . .

He's not up to the job. And many of us knew that in 2020 which is why we supported someone else. I'm not a disciple of Bernie Sanders. But in that race for the nomination, Bernie was clearly a stronger choice.

Instead, the media helped the crooked leadership at the DNC gift Joe with the nomination.

Now we all suffer.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Monday:

Monday, April 25, 2022. Joe Biden is no FDR, a MARVEL film is being banned in some countries, Turkey continues to carry out War Crimes in Iraq and much more.

Joe Biden's disaster presidency continues as he attempts to learn on the job. As Margaret Kimberley notes in the video below, Joe and his team seem to have no grasp on reality when it comes to the world markets or Russia's role in them.

Joe has no clue. An inept, bumbling Mr MaGoo on the world state. As Margaret notes above, Joe just casually tosses off that there are going to be food shortages.

And the whorish corporate press compared that man to FDR?

WWII meant shortages. FDR didn't just toss off remarks. He mobilized American farmers, he also encouraged victory gardens.

Joe's the president who is already in the coffin just waiting for his last breath. He gives up bfore he announces he's given up.

He is inept adn not up to the job.

America's farmers should have been mobilized immediately.

Here's how a real leader put it:

January 12, 1943

All over the world, food from our country's farms is helping the United Nations to win this war. From the South Pacific to the winter front in Russia, from North Africa to India, American food is giving strength to the men on the battle lines, and sometimes also to the men and women working behind the lines. Somewhere on every continent the food ships from this country are the life line of the forces that fight for freedom. This afternoon we have heard from some of the military and civilian righters who look to us for food. No words of mine can add to what they have said.

But on this Farm Mobilization Day I want to round out the picture and tell you a little more about the vital place that American farmers hold in the entire war strategy of the United Nations.

Food is a weapon in total war- fully as important in its way as guns or planes or tanks. So are other products of the farm. The long-staple cotton that goes into parachutes, for example, the oils that go into paints for the ships and planes and guns, the grains that go into alcohol to make explosives also are weapons.

Our enemies know the use of food in war. They employ it cold-bloodedly to strengthen their own fighters and workers and to weaken or exterminate the peoples of the conquered countries. We of the United Nations also are using food as a weapon to keep our fighting men fit and to maintain the health of all our civilian families. We are using food to earn the friendship of people in liberated areas and to serve as a promise and an encouragement to peoples who are not yet free. Already, in North Africa, the food we are sending the inhabitants is saving the energies and the lives of our troops there. In short we are using food, both in this country and in Allied countries, with the single aim of helping to win this war.

Already it is taking a lot of food to fight the war. It is going to take a lot more to win the final victory and win the peace that will follow. In terms of total food supply the United Nations are far stronger than our enemies. But our great food resources are scattered to the ends of the earth—from Australia and New Zealand to South Africa and the Americas- and we no longer have food to waste. Food is precious, just as oil and steel are precious. As part of our global strategy, we must produce all we can of every essential farm product; we must divide our supplies wisely and use them carefully. We cannot afford to waste any of them.

Therefore the United Nations are pooling their food resources and using them where they will do the most good. Canada is sending large shipments of cheese, meats, and other foods on the short North Atlantic run to Britain. Australia and New Zealand are providing a great deal of the food for American soldiers stationed in that part of the world. Food from Latin America is going to Britain.

Every food-producing country among the United Nations is doing its share. Our own share in food strategy, especially at this stage of the war, is large, because we have such great resources for production; and we are on direct ocean lanes to North Africa, to Britain, and to the northern ports of Russia.

American farmers must feed our own growing Army and Navy. They must feed the civilian families of this country and feed them well. They must help feed the fighting men and some of the war workers of Britain and Russia and, to a lesser degree, those of other Allied countries.

So this year, as never before, the entire Nation is looking to its farmers. Many quarters of the free world are looking to them too. American farmers are a small group with a great task. Although 60 percent of the world's population are farm people, only 2 percent of that population are American farmers. But that 2 percent have the skill and the energy to make this country the United Nations' greatest arsenal for food and fiber.

In spite of the handicaps under which American farmers worked last year, the production victory they won was among the major victories of the United Nations in 1942. Free people everywhere can be grateful to the farm families who made that victory possible.

This year the American farmer's task is greater, and the obstacles more formidable. But I know that once more our farmers will rise to their responsibility.

This farm mobilization is the first day ever dedicated by a President to the farm people of the Nation. I know that the whole country joins with me in a tribute to the work farmers already have done, in a pledge of full support in the difficult task which lies ahead for farmers, and in a prayer for good weather to make farmers' efforts more fruitful.

Our fighting men and allies, and our families here at home can rely on farmers for the food and other farm products that will help to bring victory.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, The President's Statement on Farm Mobilization Day. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/210025

That's FDR. How does fumbling bumbling Biden put it? Keith Good (ILLIONIS FARM POLICY NEWS) noted:

Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove reported yesterday that, “President Joe Biden said that the world will experience food shortages as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and production increases were a subject of discussions at a Group of Seven meeting on Thursday.

“‘It’s going to be real,‘ Biden said at a news conference in Brussels. ‘The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia. It’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well.'”

It's going to be real? In other words, I don't have a clue what to do. He doesn't. He's clueless. A bumbling fool who is unable to offer leadership. Maybe someone can snap "Leadeership1" in his ear like, at the Easter ceremony, he was told "Wave!"

He has no clue and it really shows. The crazy old man who had to be hidden in the basement throughout 2020 -- during the last stretch of the primaries, during the general election -- was not up to being president and a whorish press worked to deliver him to the White House, not to inform the public, not to hold the powerful accountable.

His ineptitude is showing but it also reflects back on to the whores who pimped and pushed him.

In other news, MARVEL'S DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTI-VERSE OF MADNESS is about to be released (May 5th in the US). MENA notes:

Marvel's parent company, Disney, has always tried to have their films played in theaters all over the world but, due to the laws in some international countries, some films are unable to be screened in certain territories. In the past, when Disney has chosen to leave any reference to the LGBTQ+ community in their movies, it would result in the movie being pulled from theaters and thus a major loss of money for the company.

This most recently occurred with Marvel's The Eternals when the film was pulled from theaters in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar after Disney refused to edit out a homosexual relationship.

First off, there are no hardcore scenes in the film -- meaning this is not a pornographic film. Second someone's religious sensibilities are also supposed to include tolerance and no one's asking them to be gay because they see the film. Third, you can't just cobble a movie apart. When it works, a film is a coherent statement where all parts build to a satisfying experience. You can't just chop out scenes.

It's happened in the paast.

And it never needs to happen again.

Lena Horne is the best example of that past mistake. A tremendously talented artist, she saw her scenes removed when people couldn't accept -- or someone thought that they couldn't -- a Black woman in a movie. Black women existed then and it served no good to remove Lena from films. LGBTQ people exist and they need to present on the screen.

Lena suffered to protect 'delicate sensibilities.' She was a movie queen who was kept in waiting. Holding her back harmed her, harmed art, harmed our notions of the world around us.

For the film industry to have supported this was shameful.

They should not support it again.

As for ETERNALS, I don't care if some markets didn't show it. Their loss. The film still pulled in more at the box office than DUNE did.

If governments deny a wanted film in their country, they can face the pressure of the people in those countries who wanted to see the movie. And maybe it will further underscore just how outrageous and outdated some government are.

In other news, ASHARQ AL-AWSAT reports:

Iraq's First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Hakim al-Zamili accused on Sunday Iran and Turkey of exploiting his country's weakness to launch military attacks and operations on its territories.

Zamili, who is a leading member of the Sadr movement of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, noted that the violations by Ankara and Tehran had increased in recent weeks.

He made his remarks at a meeting at parliament aimed at addressing the repeated Turkish and Iranian attacks. The meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and head of the Sadrist parliamentary bloc Hassan al-Athari.

Athari said the violations pose a threat to Iraq and undermine its diplomacy.

Addressing Hussein, he asked what Iraq was doing to address the violations.

He also wondered whether there was any credibility to reports that spoke of an agreement between Iraq and Turkey that allows Turkish forces to enter 30 kilometers deep into Iraqi territory.

George Szamuely Tweets:

Hmmm, this is odd. Turkey, a NATO member-state, has launched an invasion of Iraq. Not one word yet from NATO and EU representatives, voices still hoarse from two months of screaming at Russia.

pbs.org

Turkey launches new ground and air offensive in northern Iraq

Turkey's defense minister says Turkish jets and artillery struck targets belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and commando troops then crossed into the region by land or were airlifted...

8:00 AM · Apr 21, 2022

Iraqi politicians are calling out Turkey for its latest assault on Iraq. Turkey is dropping bombs on the Kurdistan and has sent ground troops in as well. Though western outlets like to pretend they're fair, they tend to ignore the number of civilians the Turkish military is killing, wounding and terrorizing. RUDAW reports:

A Christian family from a Duhok village has decided to migrate to Australia due to ongoing clashes between Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) at home.

Amirnisan Gorgis is from the Christian village of Sharansh in Duhok’s Zakho city. He and his family have fled their village due to Turkish bombardment four years ago. They live in a rental house in the Bersiv region in the same province. He told Rudaw’s Yusuf Musa on Tuesday that he plans to migrate to Australia in July when the current academic year ends.

“I have turned 62 and I have built several houses but have been displaced five times. I have spent most of my age in displacement,” he said, adding that he wants to join his son in Australia.

Turkey has intensified its military activities in Zakho in the last few years, leading to the displacement of a large number of people.

Out of 20 Christian villages in Zakho, nine have been evacuated, according to local authorities.

Iraqi politicians such as Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's president Barham Saleh and others have called out Turkey's actions. More voices are joining the condemnation of Turkey. ANHA reports:

Today, the presidency of the Iraqi parliament condemned the Turkish occupation military attacks in Başûr Kurdistan, stressing that they constitute a "clear violation of Iraq's security and stability."

The office of Shakhwan Abdullah, the second parliamentarian, stated that "the latter attended the meeting of the Presidency of the House of Representatives with Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein and the advanced cadre of the ministry, which was held today in the Constitutional Hall and in the presence of heads of blocs and parliamentary committees and a number of deputies."

IRAN INTERNATIONAL explains, "Last Monday, Turkey carried out air and land operations -- dubbed Operation Claw Lock – against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq that targeted camps and ammunition stores." And MEHR NEWS AGENCY notes, "News sources reported that at least six rockets were fired at 'Zelika' base, east of Mosul. Turkey has long been violating the territorial integrity of northern Iraq by claiming to oppose the PKK." The Nineveh Province base isn't the only Turkish military base in Iraq. This base and the others are illegal and should be closed by the Turkish government immediately. They are in violation of Iraq's national sovereignty and their established upon non-Turkish land can be seen as an act of war.

New content at THIRD:

The following sites updated:

Sunday, April 24, 2022

One Pan Lentil Rice in the Kitchen

ORDER YOUR COOKBOOKS, MERCH, & SUSHI MASTERCLASS HERE: https://www.yeungmancooking.com LEARN HOW TO MAKE AN EASY ONE PAN LENTIL RICE RECIPE TODAY! LAY HO MA! Imagine a bowl of hot fluffy rice flavoured with garlic, onions, spices, and tomato - this is definitely going to be a weekly favourite. Join me in this episode and learn how to make a delicious and easy one pan lentil rice recipe. Let's begin Ingredients: 1 cup brown lentils 1 cup basmati rice 3 pieces garlic small piece ginger 1 red onion 1 tomato 2 tbsp olive oil pinch of salt 1/2 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp chili powder (cayenne pepper) 1 1/2 tsp sweet paprika 1 tsp coriander pepper to taste 1 1/2 cups veggie stock few lemon wedges few sprigs parsley Directions: 1. Place the brown lentils into a large bowl. Fill with about 3 cups of water and let it soak for 8 hours or overnight. Then, strain out the lentils and set aside 2. Rinse and drain the basmati rice two to three times. Then, set aside 3. Finely chop the garlic and ginger. Dice the red onion and tomato 4. Heat up a sauté pan to medium heat. Add the olive oil and red onions. Sauté for 4-5min 5. Add the garlic and ginger. Sauté for 1-2min. Add the lentils and sauté for about 1min 6. Add the rice, salt, cumin, chili powder (or cayenne pepper), sweet paprika, coriander, and pepper 7. Add the tomato and sauté for about 1min. Add the veggie stock and give the pan a stir to deglaze 8. Turn the heat to medium high and bring to a boil. Then, cover and cook on medium low for 15min. After 15min, turn the heat off and let the rice continue to steam covered for a further 10min 9. Plate the rice and garnish with fresh lemon juice, parsley, a drizzle of olive oil, and freshly cracked pepper If you enjoyed this episode and would love to see more, remember to like, comment, and subscribe so that you won't miss a single episode! Hong Kong born Canadian, Wil Yeung is an international photographer, filmmaker, entrepreneur, violinist, and YouTube chef. He immigrated to Canada when he was a young boy carrying with him his ability to speak Cantonese and some broken English. Much of his culinary aspirations stem from his background in the visual and musical art spaces. Whether you're plant based or plant based curious, Wil believes that learning how to make food can really change your life and of those around you. STAY IN THE LOOP ON SOCIAL MEDIA! Wil's Recipes on Instagram: @yeungmancooking Wil's Recipes on Facebook: fb.me/yeungmancooking.com Wil's Photography + Video on Instagram: @wyphotography.com Wil's Photography + Video on Facebook: wyphotography You are watching: https://youtu.be/H4aldYc8mM4

I thought that was a solid one-pot recipe. And I did try the pizza recipe at the start of the video in "4 easy recipes" and it is a great one. If you're looking to make a pizza at home and don't want to mess with rolling out dough, make a point to try it. You cook in a large skillet on the stove.

Brian Wakamo has an interesting article at CounterPunch and this is from the opening:

After nearly 30 years in the labor movement, Cindy Estrada is well familiar with the corporate playbook. “As soon as wages and benefits are decent, they want to move that work somewhere else.” That’s what happened, the United Autoworkers Vice President explained at a recent rally, after Oshkosh Defense secured a huge contract to build postal vehicles.

“The ink was still drying,” Estrada said, “when they announced they were moving the work to South Carolina.”

UAW members had fully expected to build the postal trucks in the existing Oshkosh Defense facility in Wisconsin. After all, the company had won the contract on the basis of their quality work. Instead, Oshkosh Defense plans to convert a vacant former Rite-Aid warehouse in notoriously anti-union South Carolina to fulfill the postal contract, circumventing the unionized workforce in Wisconsin.

Estrada and other UAW officials joined environmental groups and political leaders outside U.S. Postal Service headquarters in Washington, D.C. on April 6 to deliver 150,000 petitions demanding that the new postal vehicles be built with union labor.

“We have nothing against South Carolina workers,” Estrada said. “We believe every worker should have democracy in their workplace.”

She was joined by Bob Lynk, president of UAW Local 578, which represents the Oshkosh Defense plant.

Thus us C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Friday:

Friday, April 22, 2022. A few electoral related issues.

Sabby Sabs had a really important video this week and we noted it in an entry on its own but I want to be sure it's in a snapshot. Before that, this will probably be a shorter snapshot. My blood suger's out of whack and I'm having to stop and start -- hurling and dictating do not go totether well.

But I actually want to start with a REvolutionary BLACKOUT issue. They had a good video that we've noted on its own already this week (yesterday, I believe). There was one thing that needed clarification. It was taking on Sam Seder (yea!) and this is ot to defend Seder and I was going to let it pass but then Bernie.

Sam was in a debate with a person it is not our goal to promote so we're not even going to name him. RB was reviewing that debate and they noted that Sam lost -- which doesn't suprrise me. We are not and have never been fan of Sam. "We" meaning me myself and meaning this website. We parted ways, this website, with Sam in January of 2005 when he revealed hmself to be acheap whore and one who woud promote corporate interests (Simon Rosenberg). Rosenberg was spitting on the LGBT community and going off on prominent African-American members of the Democratic Party and that was okay with Sam. So he can rot in hell, I'm not here to defend him and that's before you factor in that I know Janeane Garofalo, I like her and I consider her a friend. I don't ever forgive how he ousted her from her program.

So in the debate Sam made some point about people who weren't even Democrats. The ine wasn't qutoed. But Sam was around in 2008 and a lot of peple weren't. If he was referring to 2008, I do know what he meant and I do think it's an isseue if Bernie runs again.

In 2008, a bi-racial man who was attractive ran for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination -- actually that started in 2007 -- and he wasn't connecting with the voters. John Edwards and his crew of sexist -- female bloggers, you know who you are -- thought he'd win the nomination. Grabby hands and his cult couldn't see the writing ont he wall. The person who coul've won it then was Hillary Clinton.

Because Barack was pretty and a novelty, all type of sowoning took place. I still rank the most embarrassing moment when Martha read an e-mail from Daivd Lindorff over the phone to me about how people should support Barack because "as a Black man who did drugs" he would be more radical than anything the system could handle. Barack has been called many things by many thinking people but no one with a real and functioning brain has ever called him radical. And never will.

But there were radicals latching on to him -- the friendship with Bernardine Dohrn and her trophy husband wasn't the only thing there. The Weather Underground's Carl stopped giving himself his monthly breast exam long enough to start a fux group for Barack. Carl couldn't hide what he was for the most part. But many did. And if Democrats don't want non-Democrat impacting their primaries, they can make them a closed primary. But here's the problem, a lot of them showed up writing pieces as Democrats. As a Democrat, this is what our party stands for this is . . .

And they weren't Democrats. Be a Socialist, be a Communist , be whatever (yes, even a a Republican), but don't present yourself as a Democrat in order to sway potential overs when you are not a Democrats.

As we noted in real time, that ticked off a lot of people. In 2016, Hillar.y Clinton, again seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, tried to latch onto that angry sentiment left over from 2008 with her remarks about how Bernie wasn't a Democrat (he's a Socialist) and shouldn't be allowed to even run in the primary. She'd already picked her Republican nominee, right? (Her campaign pushed the coverage of Donald in the GOP primary because they thought he'd be the easiest to defeat in a general election.) But here's the problem, Bernie couldn't have run withut the party's okay. As a sitting senator that the Democrats had a policy -- that dated back to Bernie being in the House --which eant that they would never challenge him in an election by running an actual Democrat for the post, Bernie wouldn't have done anything to anger the Party and he ran with the Party's blessing. They didn't think he could win (and, as we now know, various people like Donna Brazile were working to harm his campaign while pretending to be impartial).

They let him run.

So that was a stupid argument. Bernie's enver pretended he wasn't a Scocialist.

But Bernie has pretended And that's why we're addressing the point now.

As a Socialist, if he runs again -- as he says he's thinking about doing -- it will be with the Democratic Party's leadership's approval.

He would get them attention that they would not otherwise receive. And his 'left' or left positions would bring people into the fold -- that he would later try to sheepherd to whatever corporatist won the nomination.

He serves the sheep hearding role, yes. But no one ever comments on the other role he serves. By letting Bernie run and letting him lose, they make the argument that these are good policies, yes, but the man supporting them couldn't win, so we need to just keep working on ait a little bit harderr.

That's how they deny the overwhelmingly popular Medicare For All issue.

He is not helping anyone.

And no one with self-respect who had seen their campaign worked against in 2016 and 2020 would even consider running again.

Bernie has no self respect and has clearly accepted his fole as a sheep hearder and as a denier of needed policies (such as Medicare For All).

He shouldn't run. If he does, no one should be taken in by him.

He folds every time, which is bad enough, but then he tries to whore out the people who believed in the policies and issues he said he believed in. We can't afford his nonsense. He's been a lousy US senator and I've said that long ago. (And had to hear in 2016 when some Bernie supporters were upset that Hillary's campaign was using issues we'd pointed out in years previously. Like when the VA scandal broke about the deaths from waiting for care broke and Bernie, then Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, admonished everyone at the start of the hearing, insisting that that issue would be dealt with but they were to focus on today's issue instead . . . holistic medicine. Wow Bernie, you are so uninspiring.)

We can't afford him. If he runs, I hope people don't mistake him for anything of value again.

Okay, her's Sabby's video. It's important and she's raising serious issue as usual.

I would love to comment on it but my blood sugar is really low and I'm dizzy so I've got to go throw up again. Nouri al-Maliki will be noted in Saturday's entry -- for his words. I think it can wait.

We're doing a Zomm at 6 with the East Coast so I have to stop here and hopefully get over throwing up and get done with it.

The following sites updated:

Friday, April 22, 2022

4 easy recipes

Nancy noted the above. She's 16 and has just started cooking. The recipes in this video really spoke to her.

I enjoyed them but I especially enjoyed the first recipe, for pizza.

I'm sorry, as I get older, I'm more and more for shortcuts. Meaning?

I used to make pizza from scratch. My kids loved it. We'd make it on Friday. We started out with me using a 'kit' and that was fine. But we like thin crust.

So after a few years of using the 'kit' I started making the crust myself from a crust mix (the kit was probably Chef Boyardee and it came in a box). And they loved that even more. As did I. But the crust took a lot of space. Beyond counter. I'd have to use the table. And remember, I had eight kids to feed as well as my husband myself. So I was making multiple pizzas each Friday. So we're talking five or six crusts that I'd make. I'd do the dough with my hands over and over to get it thin. I'd use a box of pizza crust mix from Jiffy and one box would make two crusts -- it wasn't supposed to but we like really thin crust. So I'd get it ready to put on an olive oil greased pizza pie pan and when I had two ready, I'd pop it in the oven for five or so minutes while working on the next two. I'd cook the crust for about five minutes, then pull the two out of the oven. I'd add my toppings while the next two cooked (crusts) and then take the crusts out, put the toppings ones in. Cook that for five,, pul it out and put the next set in, etc. So I'd be doing this over and over -- five minutes on two crusts, five minutes on two crusts, five minutes on two crusts, five minutes on topping . . .

And I've just really lost it. I haven't made pizza in forever. A point my oldest daughter made two weeks ago. So last Friday, I did make pizza. And, sorry, it was thin crust but not thin as we like because, as I explained, my days of doing pizza dough are over. I'll buy thin crusts and go fro there.

And that's what I'm going to do.

But the first recipe in the video above is for pizza and you make the crust in the skillet. You're not having to roll the dough, flatten it, blah, blah, blah.

I'm going to try it on Saturday and see how it turns out.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Thursday:

Thursday, April 21, 2022. Julian Assange, the only person the US government has ever wanted to punish for the illegal Iraq War.

Starting with Julian Assange who is being persecuted by US President Joe Biden for the 'crime' of journalism. Julian, the publisher of WIKILEAKS, exposed War Crimes the US crried out in Iraq and Afghanistan As a result, 8he remains held by the UK as they decide whether or not they're going to turn him over to Joe Biden so that Joe can isolate and torture Julian.

We've gotten a little smarter over th98e last few years. Partisan trash used to think they could get away with Ju8lian was guilty of some disloyalty to his government charge. No. Julian is not8 an American citizen. He's an Australian citizen. And the government of Australia has made clear that they are too weak and too pathetic to protect their own citizens -- see also their refusal to assist Robert Pether who remains rotting in an Iraqi jail.

Julian published the truth and did so with the help of many -- including THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHIGNTON POST, THE GUARDIAN and many others around the world. These same outlets ow fail to come to his defense8. Talk about RELIABLE SOURCES, huh? But don't expect human trash Brian Stelter to talk about Julia8n because he knows he's on iffy ground. He's got to be a good whore and dance for his corporte masters now more than ever as new internal polling at CNN found that viewers find him grotesque. That's only a surprise if Brian's never looked in a mirror. His ratings are poor and just his face is enough to run off viewers. He'll keep lying and distorting and distracting while thanking his personal savior that someone is stupid eough to put him in front of the cameras.

Brian will die as he has lived -- having done nothing of note, having done nothing at all.8 He chose to waste his life. Julian chose to stand up for important issues and expose crimes.

Joe Biden is a 8failure and his war on The First Amendment only adds to that. His polling is appalling and that's with the usual whoring going on, the usual excuses, the usual refusal of the press to hold a sitting president accountable. Can you imagine how much worse his reputation will be ten or twenty years after he's out of office?

Who's going to salvage his reputation hen? That creepy sister who has always given vibes or perversity? That corrupt son that 8should be in a court of alaw answering for all he's done?

No.

Joe ha8s no defenders. None who can't alter public opinion.

So he'll go down as the man who declared war on the First Amendment while inflation soared, while homelessness increased, while he made statements telling the American people to prepare for food shortages.

Depressing Joe seems intent upon restoring The Great Depression.

He could really use a win of some kind for his legacy. He's not going to find it by persecuting Julian Assange.

Jake Johnson (SCHEER POST) notes:

A British judge on Wednesday granted formal approval to the U.S. government’s request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who faces espionage charges for publishing classified material that exposed war crimes by American forces.

“The home secretary must act now to protect journalism.”

The judge’s new and widely expected procedural order, the culmination of a drawn-out legal battle, places the final decision on Assange’s extradition in the hands of U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel, leaving the WikiLeaks publisher with dwindling options to fight his removal to the U.S.—where he could be hit with a 175-year prison sentence.

Patel is expected to make a final decision by May 18, after which Assange can attempt to appeal via judicial review, Reuters reported Wednesday. As Patel weighs the extradition order, Assange will remain jailed in a high-security London prison, where he has languished for years under conditions that experts have condemned as torture.

Human rights organizations wasted no time urging Patel to reject the extradition order. Allowing it to proceed, they warned, would endanger press freedoms around the world, given that the charges against Assange seek to punish a common journalistic practice.1

At this point, the only thing that an save Julian is public outcry and it needs to be aimed at the right targets. In the UK, that's the home secretary. In the US, that's Joe Biden. Those are the two who can stop this travesty. They choose not to.