Category: Economics / Economy / Income / Financial

The Sedition Act of 1918, and More, in Peace & Justice History for 5/16

May 16, 1792
Denmark became the first country to outlaw the slave trade.
CHRONOLOGY-Who banned slavery when? 
May 16, 1918
The U.S. Congress passed the Sedition Act, legislation designed to protect America’s participation in World War I. Along with the Espionage Act of the previous year, the Sedition Act was orchestrated largely by A. Mitchell Palmer, the United States attorney general under President Woodrow Wilson. The Espionage Act, passed shortly after the U.S. entrance into the war in early April 1917, made it a crime for any person to convey information intended to interfere with the U.S. armed forces’ prosecution of the war effort or to promote the success of the country’s enemies.
Aimed at socialists, pacifists and other anti-war activists, the Sedition Act imposed harsh penalties on anyone found guilty of making false statements; insulting or abusing the U.S. government, conscription, the flag, the Constitution or the military; agitating against the production of necessary war materials; or advocating, teaching or defending any of these acts.
The Sedition Act of 1918 
May 16, 1943
The Nazis crushed the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw ghetto after a month of bloody fighting.
56,000 died in the struggle.

Read more 
May 16, 1967
Nhat Chi Mai immolated herself in Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, to protest the war.
“I offer my body as a torch / to dissipate the dark / to waken love among men / to give peace to Vietnam.”

The flower known as Nhat Chi Mai.
Read more 
May 16, 1998
Tens of thousands of Britons supporting Jubilee 2000 formed a human chain around the meeting place of the G7 Summit (an annual meeting of the leaders of the largest industrial countries) in Birmingham, England. Jubilee 2000 urged the major international lending countries to relieve terms of and forgive the massive indebtedness of poor countries around the world.
Jubilee 2000 by Noam Chomsky 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymay.htm#may16

Let’s talk about Canadian tourists, Trump, declines, and billions….

Some The Majority Report clips I enjoyed

Let’s talk about Trump cutting veteran and rural programs….

The dealership lied to try to get our car.

So after about two hours a different person than who checked him in came into the waiting room and told Ron they did the diagnostic and it showed this spark plug dome clearance problem so Ron needed to buy a new engine.  Ron told them him drove it in and he was driving it out.  The guy said that it could cause more damage to the engine and he shouldn’t drive it.  Ron told him he was leaving with the car!

That seemed to cause them some problems because it took them almost another hour to bring Ron the car.  It was the person who checked him in who came into clear the paper work with Ron over what was done.   When Ron questioned them on what spark plugs they put in she said none they did not even do anything like that.  She showed him the paperwork and it said that they put it on the diagnostic machine and it gave an error code meaning that the spark plug was seized with an intrusion of coolant fluid.  The suggested thing was to try to remove the spark plug.  

Instead they did the oil change, checked the fluids, and rotated the tires.  The standard stuff for an oil change.  They discounted the $360 dollar diagnostic tests $100 because Ron told them to not do it but they had already started it, they don’t say if they completed it.  When he signed in the woman tried to tell him he needed the 60,000 mile fluid flush and it would cost $650.00.  Yet she did not tell him and the paperwork did not say how much each fluid was or cost.  

When he got home Ron told me the other part of this.  Our car is the top of the line with all option.  It has had all maintenance done at the dealership along with us having bought the “butler service” keeping the paint job as grand as possible by redoing the clear coat after doing touch up work.   It has a very high resale price.  The dealership has been sending us offers to buy the car back or give us a great trade in for it.  Seems they have wanted it back so badly someone thought if they went in and told this senior citizen that their car that would be paid off next month and was 7 years old needed a 10 grand engine replacement they might get him to deal the car away to them. 

The thing that I stick on is after they told Ron that and he said no he was taking the car home it took them an hour to bring it out from the garage to the waiting room area.  Why.  Did they just not do anything for a couple of hours and then tell him that thinking he would be too scared to try to drive it home?  So then they had to do the service he had an appointment for?  Or did they do it and had something else going on that they had to do to get the car ready to come back to the front?  It took three hours to run the diagnostic machine, do the oil change and fluid check, and rotate the tires.   Seems a long time to me.  I would love to hear the thoughts you all have.  Hugs.  

I need help from any auto minded mechanics who come here please.

Ron took our 2018 Ford Escape to the dealership this morning for an oil change and that the car ran rough when first started.  On the way there the check engine light came on.  No blinking but steady.  So the dealership told Ron that to even do the tests would be $360 plus the cost of the oil change along with any needed repairs.  They came back to Ron nearly 2 hours later and told him we needed a new engine for $10,000 because of a dome spark plug clearance problem.  Ron told them he drove it there with no issues and he was driving it home.  I called Randy who has some knowledge and works with mechanics who say that it is possible but not likely and that the engine should go for $3,500 not $10,000.  I found online that normally it is the plug that is the problem, using the wrong plug or the plug specs have changed a small amount.  But like anything online I couldn’t find a real clear answer.  I could use some help if anyone out there understands engines and this stuff.  Thanks and hugs

Today is International Conscientious Objector Day, and More in Peace & Justice History for 5/15

May 15, 1870

Julia Ward Howe
Julia Ward Howe, suffragist, abolitionist and author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” proposed Mother’s Day as a peace holiday.
She had seen firsthand some of the worst effects of war during the American Civil War—the death and disease which killed and maimed, and the widows and orphans left behind on both sides and realized that the effects of the war go beyond the killing of soldiers in battle. Mother’s Day did not become a national holiday until declared by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914.
“… Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.”

Read about her Mother’s Day Proclamation 
May 15, 1935
The National Labor Relations Act was passed, recognizing workers’ rights to organize unions and bargain collectively with their employers. 
Read more  
May 15, 1957
Britain tested its first hydrogen bomb over Christmas Island in the South Pacific, after just two years of development. 

Mushroom cloud over Christmas Island
May 15, 1965
A National teach-in to oppose the Vietnam War was held in Washington, D.C.
May 15, 1966
The American Friends Service Committee, SANE (The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy), and Women March for Peace, along with four other organizations, sponsored a 10,000+ person anti-war picket at the White House and a 60,000+ rally at the Washington Monument to oppose the Vietnam War.
. . . elsewhere the same day . . .
Buddhist altars were placed in streets to impede troops arresting dissidents in South Vietnam.
May 15, 1969
Governor Ronald Reagan sent in the National Guard to reclaim People’s Park from 6,000 protesters in Berkeley, California, who had occupied the space
and created the park.
Police gunfire killed a bystander, James Rector, blinded another, and injured dozens.

People’s Park March, Friday May 30, 1969, at the intersection of Haste Street and Telegraph Avenue, in Berkeley
May 15, 1970
In response to the U.S. invasion of Cambodia (an expansion of the Vietnam War) and the killings at Kent State and Jackson State Universities, several million U.S. students held campus strikes to oppose the Vietnam War.
May 15, 1970
The Native American Rights Fund filed suit on behalf of the Hopi tribe to prevent strip-mining on sacred Black Mesa in Arizona.
May 15 (since the 1980’s)
International Conscientious Objectors Day, established to honor those who leave or refuse to enter their country’s armed forces for reasons of principle.
Conscientious Objector Day history

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymay.htm#may15

From The Morning Memo:

Quote Of The Day

“This is a once-in-a-century brain gain opportunity.”–Australian Strategic Policy Institute, urging its government to woo U.S.-based scientists and researchers caught in the Trump II attack on research and development

https://morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com/i/163554935/quote-of-the-day

Have A Great Wednesday!

https://www.gocomics.com/lastkiss/2025/05/14

Man accused of checking out books on Jewish, Black, LGBTQ history from Cuyahoga County Public Library and burning them on extremist website

https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/cuyahoga-county/man-accused-book-burning-jewish-black-lgbtq-topics-beachwood-cuyahoga-county-public-library/95-60a720fd-0e61-498a-8cc6-a4550e9d6aca

I can not understand the kind of hate or anger at different groups to want to cost yourself hundreds of dollars and possible jail time.  To damage the books doesn’t erase the people they were written about and it doesn’t change history.  It only hurts the library and the community which pays for the library.  Hugs

Man accused of checking out books on Jewish, Black, LGBTQ history from Cuyahoga County Public Library and burning them on extremist website

A man checked out 100 books on topics including Jewish history, African American history and LGBTQ education before allegedly burning them in a social media video.
Credit: City of Beachwood, Ohio/Facebook

CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County Public Library officials, in a police report obtained by 3News, accused a man of checking out 100 books on Jewish history, Black history and LGBTQ education last month before filming a book burning and posting the video on a social media site described by advocates as a hub for white supremacist, neo-Nazi and extremist content. 

According to an investigative report filed last week by the Beachwood Police Department, the man went into the Beachwood library branch on Shaker Boulevard and applied for a library card on April 2. He was approved for the card and checked out 50 books by the library’s proper procedure.

A library official told police that the Princeton University Bridging Divides Initiative, a non-partisan research effort that tracks political violence in the United States and monitors suspected hate crimes on social media, notified the library that the man posted a photo to Gab.com of a car trunk full of books. The post came with a caption that referenced “cleansing” the libraries, the official told police. The books in the photo “appeared to match the topics” of the books the man had checked out and also had Cuyahoga County Public Library stickers on them, the police report states.

According to the Anti-Defamation League‘s Center on Extremism, Gab is a platform known for lax content moderation policies that is widely used by “conspiracy theorists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, members of militias and influential figures among the alt right.”

On April 10, the man returned to the Beachwood branch and borrowed another 50 books relating to similar topics. The man told a librarian that his son was a member of the LGBTQ community and he was trying to learn more about it. According to the police report, the librarian found the man’s behavior to be “very odd and concerning,” but the man did not make any threats during the encounter.

The Princeton researchers later reached out to the library again, this time saying that the man posted a video they believed depicted him burning all 100 books. The police report again states that the books in the video, a copy of which was obtained by police, “appeared to match the theme and titles” of the books that were checked out from the library. One of the books shown in the video had a CCPL sticker and was an exact match of one of the books the man withdrew, police said.

At the time the police report was filed on May 2, the man was not facing any charges in connection with the allegations. Police said the library staff were calling only to “document the incident,” and that the borrowed books were not yet overdue. The library told police that the man would be sent a bill once the books became overdue, and that the bill would be sent to collections if it was not paid. 

The books had a combined total value of $1,700, the report stated.

Police told the library staff that “since a contract was entered and payment would eventually be billed,” the incident was likely a civil matter. The investigative report states the Beachwood city prosecutor would be consulted to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

The library plans to ban the man from its property in the future. Police told the library staff to contact them for help issuing a trespass warning if the man returned.