Peace & Justice History for 2/26

February 26, 1966

Julian Bond in 1966
Four thousand picketed outside New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel as President Lyndon Johnson received the National Freedom Award. As Johnson began his speech in defense of his Vietnam policies, James Peck of the War Resisters League jumped to his feet and shouted, “Mr. President, peace in Vietnam!”
On the streets, meanwhile, activist A.J. Muste presented the crowd’s own “Freedom Award” to Julian Bond, who had been denied his seat in the Georgia legislature for refusing to disavow his opposition to the war, and for his support of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.
February 26, 1984
The last of the 1400 peacekeeping troops President Ronald Reagan had sent to the Lebanese capital of Beirut were evacuated. The troops were part of an international force sent to deal with the Lebanese civil war. The president withdrew almost all American troops following the deaths of 241 Marines and 58 French paratroopers in a suicide truck bombing carried out four months earlier by the combined forces of Islamic Jihad and Hizbollah. France withdrew its troops as well.

Three weeks earlier, Reagan had told the Wall Street Journal, “As long as there is a chance for peace, the mission remains the same. If we get out, that means the end of Lebanon.” In a barb directed at House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill Jr. (D-Massachusetts), Reagan had said, “He may be ready to surrender, but I’m not.
News of the withdrawal of peacekeeping troops 
February 26, 1998

Libby Davies
An international Citizens’ Weapons Inspection Team, led by Canadian Member of Parliament Libby Davies (NDP-Vancouver East), was denied entry to determine the presence or absence of weapons of mass destruction at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, Washington, nuclear submarine base, just 12 km (7 miles) from Seattle and less than 60 km (37 miles) from Canada.
They found the WMDs! OMG – right in our back yard! 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february26

Time, Indeed!

Trump responds to Musk email by Ann Telnaes

Time to fire this guy Read on Substack

Peace & Justice History for 2/25

February 25, 1941
A general strike was called in Amsterdam to protest Nazi persecution of Jews under the German Nazi occupation. The previous weekend 425 Jewish men and boys had been imprisoned (only two survived the war). Truck drivers, dock and metal workers, civil servants and factory employees — Christians, Liberals, Social Democrats and Communists — answered the call and brought the city to a standstill. The work stoppages spread to Zaanstreek, Kennemerland and Utrecht.
Two days later the strike was called off: nine people were dead, 50 injured and another 200 arrested, some of whom were to die in the concentration camps.

“The Dokwerker” is a statue by sculptor Mari Andriessen in Amsterdam’s Jonas Daniel Meyer Square commemorating the February 1941 strike. It is frequently the rallying point for demonstrations against racism.
Read more   (pdf)
February 25, 1968
Discussing the war capacity of North Vietnam, a country that had been fighting for its independence for 23 years and had just staged the massive, successful Tet Offensive, U.S. General William C. Westmoreland stated, “I do not believe Hanoi can hold up under a long war.”
He was replaced as commander in Vietnam less than four months later.

Vietnam commander General William Westmoreland meeting with President Lyndon Johnson
Westmoreland’s life and career  (It’s NYT’s obit.)
February 25, 1971
Legislation was introduced in both houses of Congress to forbid U.S. military support of any South Vietnamese invasion of North Vietnam without prior congressional approval. This bill was a result of the controversy that arose following the invasion of Laos by South Vietnamese forces.
On February 8, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam had launched a major cross-border operation into Laos to interdict activity along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and destroy the North Vietnamese supply dumps in the area. The Ho Chi Minh Trail, named for the leader of North Vietnam, was an informal network of jungle trails down which supplies came from the north, supplying insurgents and troops in the south.
February 25, 1986
The newly elected Philippine president, Corazón Aquino, was sworn in, bringing to an end years of dictatorship under Ferdinand Marcos. In the face of massive demonstrations against his rule, President Ferdinand Marcos and his entourage had been airlifted from the presidential palace in Manila by U.S. helicopters.
February 25, 2011
A Day of Rage saw demonstrations across the Middle East. Protesters in Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, and Bahrain showed their support variously for an end to corruption and income inequality, political reform and better public services, and the replacement of long-running dictatorships with democratic regimes.

Day of Rage in Taiz, Yemen
Reports from throughout the region 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february25

A Hero of Our Age: The Man Who Refused to Run Away

Work To Do, Indeed, And A Great Week In Which To Do It!

Some great clips, some long from the Majority Report.

Short clips from TizzyEnt

 

This  videos are hard to watch, I had to fast forward over the part showing the man harassing these people and acting like a deranged gang thug, which maga is.  It is going to get worse as more of these vigilantes think they have a right to be enforcers of their own opinions.  We need to make sure that every event is punished and made public to stop these people from acting this way.   Hugs

A south Carolina man is in jail for illegally detaining people he thought were “illegals”

 

Canceling any non white male centric holiday in the name of DEI? Sounds about Project 2025 of them.

Wanting lower grocery prices is good; believing a liar is not.

Deporting his supporters: They got your vote, they don’t need you anymore.

Looks like DOGE is coming for the Department of Labor next.

 

It Could Be Some Consolation …

It’s The End Of The World If We’re Lucky by Clay Jones

And I feel fine. Read on Substack

The bad news is that the “city-killing” asteroid currently headed our way probably won’t hit us. Even if it does, it won’t be here until 2032 which gives Donald Trump, who probably thinks you destroy an asteroid with Preparation-H, and Elon plenty of time to destroy this world first. It looks like they’re going to reach Fort Knox (because they want to make sure it’s still there) before the asteroid does.

Asteroid Schmasteroid…we have MAGA.

The asteroid, 2024 YR4, is 180 feet wide which is about as close as you can get to Donald Trump before you get a whiff of his diaper. 180 feet is also plenty of room for Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck to land a space shuttle and drill a giant hole into which a nuclear device would be placed. The film Armageddon was based on sound science, right? I refuse to believe Billy Bob Thornton would allow himself to be cast in a junk science movie. Steve Buscemi, maybe, but not Billy Bob. And I’d trust Bad Santa over Bad Batman any day. 

George Clooney was the George W. Bush of Batmans. We all hated Clooney but wanted him back after seeing Affleck do it…just like we wanted W back after Trump came along.

And what’s the deal with the name? Why do asteroids get shit like “YRV” and hurricanes get names like Laura (see what I did there?)? Even pets get more respect than asteroids. I knew a cat named Don Cheadle. Since asteroids can destroy our planet, which I’m assuming most of us will hate, let’s name them after actors we hate.

Asteroid Seth Rogan was given 1-32 odds of blasting into us and with the right amount of luck, it’d hit MAGA-Lardo. Then, Seth Rogen’s odds dropped to 1-67. It’s OK to use Seth Rogen here. If he gets lost in space, we’ll be just fine because we still have Jonah Hill who’s basically the same person but with an Oscar. We don’t need two Seth Rogens. Also, Michael Cera and Jesse Eisenberg, same person.

Now, the odds of city-killing Seth Rogen slamming into the planet are 1-360, which are a lot slimmer odds than Seth Rogen’s The Interview destroying the planet because it really pissed off nuke-loving Kim Jong Un. And if there is a city-killing asteroid headed this way, why couldn’t it have arrived before I saw Seth Rogen’s Green Hornet? Oh, the humanity!
Say what you will about the Cats! movie but it didn’t nearly destroy the planet.

Asteroid Seth Rogen has a 0.28% chance of destroying us all. The next city-killer headed our way is Asteroid 1950 DA or as I like to call it, Asteroid Kevin Hart (and if you think he’s annoying now, go watch his Peacock talk show), which has a 0.039% chance of impacting Earth in 2880.

These asteroids can’t get here soon enough to wipe out Trump, Musk, Seth Rogen, Kevin Hart, Nickelback, or DJs. You know how DJs put new beats into songs, making them even worse than they started. Last night, a friend dragged me to a bar where a DJ was making a Nickelback song even more torturous, which I didn’t think was possible. I once broke up with a girl because she believed DJs were musicians. DJs are musicians about as much as Gary Varvel is a journalist.

Since these unreliable asteroids aren’t cooperating, it’s up to us to save our nation from MuskTrump.

I bet MAGA-Lardo has a DJ.

Creative note: I was planning to do this cartoon yesterday but decided Kash Patel should come first.

Drawn in 30 seconds: (snip-go see)

Peace & Justice History for 2/23

February 23, 1982

Wales declared itself a nuclear weapons-free zone.
Its last nuclear power plant, Wylfa at Anglesey with two reactors, was shut down completely in 2015.

Nuclear-free zones 
February 23, 2011
Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city, fell to rebels after three days of violent clashes with the forces of brutal dictator Colonel Muammar Qaddafi.
“He is gone. A dragon has been slain,” cried Ahmed Al-Fatuuir outside the secret police headquarters. “Now he has to explain where all the bodies are.


Graffiti showing a caricature of Gaddafi reading, ‘The Monkey of Monkeys of Africa’, a reference to his self-declared title ‘The King of Kings of Africa’.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february23

This is how the new US works. How long will we remain a world power?