| December 29, 1890 The U.S. Army killed approximately 300 Miniconju Sioux (another of the Teton Sioux tribes). They had fled after the murder of Sitting Bull and sought refuge on the Oglala reservation of Pine Ridge at Wounded Knee, in the new state of South Dakota. The 7th Cavalry (Custer’s old command) fired their artillery amidst mostly unarmed women, children, and fleeing men. The Wounded Knee Massacre was the final major military battle in the genocide against Native Americans. 18 soldiers received Congressional Medals of Honor for their “bravery.” Encroaching white settlement after gold was found in 1874 on Sioux lands led to conflicts.  The Great Sioux Agreement of 1889 established reservations for the native inhabitants and encouraged further white settlement on Indian land. |
| December 29, 1996 War-weary guerrilla and government leaders in Guatemala signed an accord ending 36 years of civil conflict. What was the conflict all about? |
Category: Military
The Pure Hypocrisy of Anti-Trans Christian Nationalists
This is an incredibly informative post on how to understand and deal with Christian apologetics anti-trans disinformation and lies. I started following this young person when he first left his church and faith doing videos on how the anti-science he was taught all his life in his church schools was incorrect and wrong. Now he exposes how Frank Turek got his breasts reduced in the Navy because it did not look male enough to him … yet he doesn’t feel that had anything to do with gender. The hypocrisy hits you hard in the face, but Frank can not see it, because he is paid not to. The video also talks about the Littman study and the Cass report in a small section. The video also talks a small amount on how the right / religious people frame their talking points to get sympathy for their views by pretending to save the innocent victims. If there is any doubt I support trans people 100% let that end. Trans rights are human rights. Trans women are simply women, trans men are men. I look forward to the day we don’t need to use the word trans, just as I do the day when we can call same sex marriage just marriage. As I think it was Spock in Star Trek who said a difference that makes no difference is no difference. Hugs
Peace & Justice History for 12/27
| December 27, 1914 The International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), an inter-religious peace group, was founded in Cambridge, England.  “The International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) is an international spiritually based movement composed of people who commit themselves to active nonviolence as a way of life and as a means of transformation – personal, social, economic and political.”  “Your goal is, in my opinion, the only reasonable one and to make it prevail is of vital importance.” –Albert Einstein, in a letter to the FOR Read more |
| December 27, 1971 Vietnam Veterans Against the War staged a peace protest at historic Betsy Ross House, Philadelphia. |
| December 27, 2002 North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country and said it would restart the Yongbyon plutonium Plant to meet the fuel needs of its nuclear power reactor. The plant had been shut down and sealed by the U.N. in 1994 in exchange for shipments of fuel oil. When it was discovered that the North Korean had been pursuing a uranium-based weapons program, the U.S. and Japan, South Korea and the European Union suspended the fuel shipments. |
| December 27, 2002 1500 people gathered in Tel Aviv, Israel, the protest the Israeli military occupation of land beyond the 1948 borders of the country. With the slogans “End the Occupation” and “No to Racism,” and dressed mostly in black, they used a variety of means – drumming, singing, art installations, giving away olives and olive oil – to express their frustration and anger over the ongoing occupation.  Alternative Ten commandments at demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel The Coalition of Women for Peace also showed a movie, Jenin, Jenin, which had been banned for public showing, in defiance of police orders to stop the projector. Shown on a large outdoor screen, it was a narrative about the actions of the Israeli army the previous Spring in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin. |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorydecember.htm#december27
More cult of tRump maga hate, bigotry, and stupid. They specialize in it.
“Bilderberg Group changes itself for the modern world – and return of Trump”
(I wasn’t going to post any news today, but in my interest of world peace, and everyone’s interest in things that are happening, this story is important, and it’s not likely to be in the commercial breaks of the game or whatever. If it comes up again, and/or where regular people see it in regular fashion, something will have already happened. Right now, it strikes me as something of which to be aware. Save reading it till tomorrow, if you like. I just want it here for the record. -A)
The former head of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg, has been named the new co-chair of the influential Bilderberg Group, which convenes a yearly transatlantic policy conference and has long been the subject of conspiracy theories around the extent of its power to shape global events.and/or
After a turbulent decade at the helm of the alliance’s military, Stoltenberg now takes over at its pre-eminent discussion forum: a fiercely private four-day event frequented by prime minsters, EU commissioners, bank bosses, corporate CEOs and intelligence chiefs.
Stoltenberg’s first Bilderberg was back in 2002, a few years before his second tenure as Norway’s prime minister. His decade as secretary general of Nato saw further visits, and he even gave the keynote speech at the group’s Saturday night banquet in Turin in 2018. His appointment as Bilderberg’s co-chair cements the group’s role at the heart of transatlantic strategy.
In February, Stoltenberg will also take over as chair of the Munich Security Conference, another important defence and diplomacy symposium. With a fellow Bilderberg veteran, the former Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, replacing Stoltenberg at Nato, it marks a concentration of control at the top of the Atlantic alliance at a critical time.
Stoltenberg’s tenure at Nato was dominated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which had begun in earnest not long before he took office in 2014. Stoltenberg oversaw what he recently described as “the largest reinforcement of our collective defence in a generation”, noting proudly that “defence spending is on an upward trajectory across the alliance”.
A number of his new colleagues at Bilderberg have been benefiting from this uptick.
Several of the group’s 31-member steering committee have senior roles in the defence industry. The billionaire former Google boss, Eric Schmidt, chaired the recent National Security Commission on AI, and is now busy launching a kamikaze drone company aimed at the lucrative Ukraine market. Meanwhile, the hugely wealthy Swedish industrialist Marcus Wallenberg is chair of defense manufacturer Saab, which enjoyed a 71% boost in orders in the first nine months of 2024, largely due to the war with Russia.
The tech luminary and Donald Trump insider Peter Thiel founded the fast-growing robotics company Anduril and the booming surveillance and AI giant Palantir. His loyal lieutenant Alex Karp, the CEO of Palantir, was voted on to the board of Bilderberg a few years ago. Karp, who claims his company is “responsible for most of the targeting in Ukraine”, recently told the New York Times that the US will “very likely” soon be fighting a three-front war with China, Russia and Iran.
In some respects, the geopolitical mood today is not so different from how it was in the 1950s, when Bilderberg was born. (snip-MORE)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/25/jens-stoltenberg-bilderberg-group-trump-presidency
Peace & Justice History for 12/25
December 25, 1914 German officer in the trenches with British soldier Just after midnight on Christmas morning, German troops at the front in World War I ceased firing their guns and artillery, and began to sing Christmas carols. At the first light of dawn, many of the German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no man’s land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues.At first the Allied soldiers suspected it to be a trick, but they soon climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the German soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings; the fighting didn’t resume in earnest for several days, and then only at the insistence of the generals.  German and British soldiers fraternize What happened that night A Film | Joyeux Noel: The Christmas Truce Of 1914 watch & listen ========================================= December 25, 1921 President Harding announced the release of Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs from prison, unconditionally commuting his 10-year sentence to time served. Debs’s full rights as a citizen, however, were not restored. He had been imprisoned for his vocal opposition to U.S. participation in World War I. Following a meeting with the president and attorney general, Debs commented, “. . . a convict for his principles is always a citizen in good standing. He is a citizen by his own inherent, God-given integrity. The only man who loses his citizenship is the man who renounces his principles and abdicates his manhood.” =============================================== December 25, 1946 The first Christmas demonstration at the White House was held by those seeking amnesty for conscientious objectors convicted of refusing to fight in World War II. =============================================== December 25, 1992 The special prosecutor responsible for investigating crimes committed in the Iran-Contra Affair, Lawrence E. Walsh, denounced the pardons granted the day before by President George H.W. Bush. Mr. Walsh charged that “the Iran-contra cover-up, which has continued for more than six years, has now been completed.” Walsh said, “evidence of a conspiracy among the highest ranking Reagan Administration officials to lie to Congress and the American public” was central to his case against Weinberger. President Bush had been vice president at the time of the arms sales to Iran for hostages, and illegal aid to the insurgent Contras in Nicaragua. Those Bush pardoned: Caspar Weinberger, former Secretary of Defense, soon to go on trial for lying to Congress; Clair E. George, the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency’s clandestine services, who had been convicted twice of perjury; two other CIA officials, Duane Clarridge and Alan D. Fiers Jr.; Robert C. McFarlane, the former national security adviser, and Elliott Abrams, the former assistant Secretary of State for Central America, both of whom had pled guilty to withholding information from Congress. |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorydecember.htm#december25
Peace & Justice History for 12/24
| December 24, 1865 Months after the fall of the Confederacy and the end of slavery, several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, called the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Its first priority, declared in its creed, was “to protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless from the indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent, and the brutal.” In fact, the Klan terrorized and killed former slaves, sympathetic whites and immigrants.  Three Ku Klux Klan members, September 1871. The building where it happened still stands with a bronze plaque reading, “Ku Klux Klan organized in this, the law office of Judge Thomas M. Jones, Dec. 24, 1865.” When the building was purchased in 1990, the new owner, Don Massey, instead of removing the plaque, simply reversed it, showing the smooth back side. More on the Klan |
December 24, 1924 Costa Rica indicated its intention to withdraw from The League of Nations to protest lack of progress on regional issues, particularly U.S. dominance of the hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine, declared by President James Monroe in 1823, established the U.S. sphere of influence encompassed the entirety of North and South America, as well as the Caribbean island nations. Read more |
| December 24, 1947 President Truman pardoned 1,523 of the 15,805 World War II draft resisters who had been convicted and served time in prison for their offense. Five years later on the same day, shortly before leaving office, he granted full pardon and restoration of civil and political rights to former convicts who had served in the peacetime army or who had not been covered by his earlier pardon, as well as all convicted peacetime deserters. Read more |
| December 24, 1991 Parents of reservists from Grocka protested at Army headquarters in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, worried their sons would be caught up in the war threatened by Serbian nationalist expansionism. |
| December 24, 1992 President George Herbert Walker Bush pardoned six Reagan administration appointees in the Iran-Contra case, among them former Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger, and Robert McFarlane, the President’s former national security advisor.He did so with less than one month to go in his presidency, and one week before Weinberger’s trial on four felony charges was to begin. These people and others were responsible for selling arms to the revolutionary government of Iran in hope of the release of hostages held in Lebanon, despite then-President Ronald Reagan’s repeated pledge not to negotiate with hostage-takers. The Iran-Contra Boys  Otto Reich /Elliott Abrams /John Poindexter/Edwin Meese George H.W. Bush/Casper Weinberger/Oliver North/Robert McFarlane The money raised through the arms sales was used to fund the Contra insurgents in Nicaragua, who were violently trying to overthrow the government. This support was in violation of an explicit legal ban on such activities under the Boland Amendment [see December 21, 1982]. Text of Bush’s Grant of Executive Clemency U.S. presidential pardon history: More about presidential pardons: |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorydecember.htm#december24
Peace & Justice History for 12/23
| December 23, 1943 A 135-day strike by 23 conscientious objectors (COs) ended dining hall segregation at Danbury Federal Penitentiary in Connecticut. The number of conscientious objectors had increased from 15 in early 1941 to 200 by the time of the strike. |
| December 23, 1944 General Dwight Eisenhower endorsed the finding of a court-martial in the case of Eddie Slovik, who was tried for desertion, and authorized his execution. It was the first such sentence against a U.S. Army soldier since the Civil War, and Slovik was the only man so punished during World War II. He made no secret of his unwillingness to enter combat, but his pleas to be reassigned to noncombat status were rejected. Eisenhower ordered that Slovik’s execution be carried out to avoid further desertions in the late stages of the war.  Eddie Slovik Read more |
| December 23, 1946 University of Tennessee refused to play Duquesne University, because they might have used a black player, Chuck Cooper, in the basketball game [see July 14, 1887]. Cooper went on to be drafted (the first black player ever) by the Boston Celtics, playing his first NBA game on the same day as the debut of head coach Red Auerbach, guard Bob Cousy, and center “Easy” Ed Macauley.  Chuck Cooper, graduate of Duquesne University |
December 23, 1961 James Davis James Davis of Livingston, Tennessee, was killed by the Viet Cong, the insurgents in South Vietnam, and became the first of some 58,000 U.S. soldiers killed during the Vietnam War. Lyndon Johnson later referred to him as “the first American to fall in defense of our freedom in Vietnam.” Over two million Vietnamese would die before the end of the war. |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorydecember.htm#december23
Peace & Justice History for 12/22
| December 22, 1944 African-American women during World War II had difficulty volunteering to serve in the war effort. Negro enlistment in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) was limited to 10% of enlistees (reflecting the black proportion of the U.S. population and known as “ten-percenters”). Only the officers were trained in integrated units but all served in racially segregated units, and lived and ate in “colored only” facilities. During the war, 6,520 black women served as WACs.Black women were completely banned from the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) until the last year of the war. Through the efforts of Director Mildred McAfee and Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, Secretary of the Navy (and later the first Secretary of Defense) James Forrestal pushed through their admittance. The first two black WAVES officers, Lieutenant Harriet Ida Pikens and Ensign Frances Wills, were sworn in this day. Of 80,000 WAVES, only 72 black women served.  |
| December 22, 1969 The original Radio Free Alcatraz, a pirate radio station, broadcasted for the first time through Berkeley, California’s Pacifica radio station, KPFA. The voice of Alcatraz was Johnny Trudell, an ally of the American Indians who had occupied Alcatraz Island, the site of the former prison in San Francisco Bay.  John Trudell speaks with news media representatives regarding negotiations with the federal government for title to Alcatraz Island. Trudell, known as “the voice of Alcatraz: Listen and learn more |
| December 22, 1993 Operation “Toys for Guns” was begun in New York City through the efforts (and $10,000) of I.M. Rainmaker, CEO of an electronics company. Conceived in cooperation with local police concerned about crime fed by too many guns and the glorification of violence, the program offered a $100 voucher redeemable at Toys ‘R’ Us for a firearm turned in to the police. How it happened |
| December 22, 1997 Paramilitaries associated with the ruling PRI party in Mexico massacred 45 peasants in the village of Acteal in the state of Chiapas. The federal government then occupied the territory with over 70,000 troops and expelled the humanitarian observers who were stationed in the area to monitor the treatment of the indigenous people who lived there. |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorydecember.htm#december22
Three Sam Seder clips that are important to watch
Before I share the clips a personal note. I spend the morning with Ron. We went to get blood work done. Then we did some other things. Then he went shopping while I did housework. Then after he got home I started working on a computer project a friend asked me if I would do for him as he couldn’t do it. I agreed to. I still have a lot of work on it but I will get it done today I think.
The lab work came back and I think I have a reason while I have been so tired, short of breath, and not able to concentrate or think clearly. My blood work shows I am very anemic again. I once had it get so bad I collapsed as I was entering my allergist office. They thought I was having a heart attack and I ended up in the hospital. Turned out my heart is great, but my damaged large bones don’t produce enough red blood cells. Their solution was to eat more red meat and take iron supplements. For a long time they watched for it but as I always managed to stay right inside the ok zone they stopped worrying about it. But my diet changed, red meat got too expensive and I just don’t eat much anymore. But my lab work showed my hematocrit is very low. So I imagine the doctor will ask me to do some more tests. I hope I don’t need a blood transfusion, that sucks. Now on to the clips, enjoy.
