Pussy Riot performed from the stage at the A+R Bar Sunday after making an announcement “Pussy Riots isn’t a punk band. Pussy Riot is a protest performance.”

This didn’t deter a woman wearing a Bikini Kill shirt standing next to me from proclaiming “Pussy Riot is the most Punk Rock thing I’ve ever watched.”

Pussy Riot were performing Riot Days, a musical piece which is a book and movie written by Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina about her stint in Russian prisons for opposing Vladimir Putin.

In 2012, Pussy Riot performed their song, “Punk Prayer” in an Orthodox Russian Church. “Punk Prayer” isn’t sacrilegious with a King Diamond intent. “Punk Prayer” invites Catholic women to oppose Vladimir Putin.

At first you might question why would Putin respond if some band didn’t like him? Two hundred fifty people in Columbus, Ohio were at this show. I saw a woman wearing a La Tigre shirt. Even with a Diplo remix. I would assume Putin wouldn’t worry about the Riot Grrl movement disliking him.

he nuclear industry’s war against renewable energy has taken center stage in California under Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, with a terrifying new development now threatening the state and nation with increased risk of intense radioactive fallout.

This week on October 24 — despite earlier assurances — Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) revealed that it will not test its 38-year-old atomic reactor in California’s Diablo Canyon for embrittlement during the current refueling outage, but instead plans to wait until the next outage in 2025 before conducting the crucial safety tests.

Embrittlement transforms a metallic reactor pressure vessel (RPV) as heat, pressure and radiation rob it of resilience. An embrittled reactor pressure vessel can shatter when coolant water is poured in during an emergency, causing massive steam, hydrogen and fission explosions.

Get the latest news and thought-provoking analysis from Truthout

Something’s Wrong

After school let out that day, Jean, Annie, and I walked home together. During the day, I kept my ears open in the lunchroom and bathroom, but I didn’t hear nothing about Smooth’s death, so I was hoping that one of them had, especially Jean our social butterfly. Annie had and started talking about it before I could figure out a way to get the ball rolling.

“Did you hear about Smooth? They found his body in the alleyway behind IGA a couple days ago.” Annie said.

“No, I ain’t heard nothing, who told you about it?’ I asked. 

“No one in particular, I heard it in the lunchroom, you know how people talk.” 

“Yeah, I know, but do they know what they’re talking about?” Jean cracked. 

“Well, they said he was shot three times in the chest, and his body was laying there for two days before it was found.”

“Three shots! It wasn’t that many!” Jean slipped up. Big mouth!

“What Jean, what did you hear?” Annie stopped walking and asked her excitedly. 

“Not much, they was talking about it in the lunch line. Didn’t hear it all, said it was more than one shot, that’s all.” 

Monday, November 6 through Sunday, December 17, 2023, 8:00 AM
World Beyond War's online courses are self-paced, using videos and texts and graphics, available on your schedule, 24-7, and discussion forums in which you can use videos and texts and graphics to discuss and gain feedback, as well as to submit optional assignments for feedback. There are also a few optional zoom calls. Those are the only parts of the course that are scheduled. Everything else is simply available on your schedule. 

Course fee: $100 (Pay less if you have to, more if you can.) There will be a limit of 150 tickets sold for this course.  Everyone registered for the course will receive a PDF of David Swanson's book The Monroe Doctrine at 200 and What to Replace it With, which will provide additional reading to those who want to go beyond the written, video, and graphic materials provided in the course.