(on Saturday morning.)
Black and Brown Friday by Clay Jones
The administration’s racism doesn’t stop for real or fake holidays Read on Substack
I thought I might do a cartoon today, but I didn’t expect it would be on this issue. So that means you might get another cartoon tomorrow. Maybe, maybe not. It depends on how I feel.
What I want to do is to continue exposing the racism of this administration. Since Trump was elected, the Department of Homeland Security has sought to hire goons to become ICE agents. The head of that, of course, is Kristi Noem, who is a racist dog killer. But the racism of this administration starts at the top, and that is with Donald Trump.
You can see that in Trump’s reaction to the tragic shooting of two National Guard members in DC this week. Donald Trump wants to deport everyone who was given asylum by the Biden administration, and even deport the suspected killer’s family. (snip-MORE, and it’s hot!)
November 28, 1891 Early IBEW delegates The National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (now International, the IBEW) was founded when 10 men met at Stolley’s Dance Hall in St. Louis, Missouri. Their goal: the joining together of electricians in a common organization to make a better life for all.  The original logo adopted at the First Convention. Read more |
November 28, 1905 The political party Sinn Fein (meaning “we ourselves” in Gaelic) was founded in Dublin by Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith. Its objective was to end British rule in Ireland and seek national self-determination as a sovereign state.  Sinn Fein’s story of its origins |
| November 28, 1991 The U.S. Congress passed the Comprehensive Threat Reduction Act (the Nunn-Lugar legislation), which provided up to $400 million to assist with the destruction of Soviet nuclear and chemical warheads. The legislation was initiated by Senator Sam Nunn (D-Georgia) and Senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana). |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november28
Lewis Black. Some blue language; NSFW. But spot on and hilarious!
Trump’s Putin Autopen by Ann Telnaes
It saves time for his ballroom, arch, and golf course renovations Read on Substack
Who really wrote that initial 28-point deal?
I so enjoy W. Kamau Bell’s many talents. Here’s one of his substack posts. There is video along with text. Enjoy!
Who’s With Me… at the Food Bank? Episode 2 by W. Kamau Bell
I’m talking to a Food Bank volunteer about why it is awesome to be a food bank volunteer! Read on Substack
snippet:
In the second episode of Who’s With Me… at the Food Bank?—our new shortform series on Substack—I’m back at the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Oakland, CA. I’m talking to Audrey Curbo, one of their lead volunteers. Audrey began volunteering at the food bank during the early days of COVID, a period that she (unsurprisingly) calls a “dark time”. Audrey has been volunteering there ever since and is now a part of leading and organizing volunteers, including those with disabilities. Audrey does all this work with a smile on her face, a song in her heart, and American Sign Language in her fingers. Audrey talks about learning ASL from Youtube, just so she could better communicate with deaf and hard of hearing volunteers. She is one of those people who makes you feel better about the world when you are done talking with them. Audrey comes of less like a volunteer and more like the host of children’s show. I loved talking to her. Let me know what you think in the comments below. (snip-go see the video!)
Just a short bit with the video for today from Bee. Same from me, below hers.
=====
I choose this one, because the music of it brings me peace. I bet I’m not the only one. It’s a peaceful song.
Bee brings us the Black Pumas, and a bit of commentary that begins, “One aspect of a peaceful existence is to consider our fellow humans as our family not our enemies.” Precisely!
My selection is this story, with The BeeGees performing Bob Dylan and then their own peace music. It’s an excellent story, and very good performances! Their own song is equal, at least, to Bob Dylan’s, but Barry Gibb discusses Bob Dylan’s influence on his music.
Barry Gibb recalls brave Bee Gees TV performance of Bob Dylan song to protest the Vietnam War
In 1962, the Australian Army began its formal military commitment to the U.S war in Vietnam. Two years later, young men were required to register for the National Service scheme and forced to fight in a bloody war that would enlist over 80,000 Australians. Over the next 11 years, 523 Australians died in battle and nearly 2400 were wounded before the country withdrew.
The fear of being sent to Vietnam to kill or be killed for the government struck fear into the hearts of many young Australians in 1963. That’s why three teenage boys, Barry (17), Robin (14), and Maurice (14) Gibb, The Bee Gees, took their big moment on Australian TV to speak truth to power by singing Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.” The Bee Gees were relative unknowns that night on Bandstand, but by the end of the decade, they would be among the biggest acts in the world.
“Blowin’ in the Wind,” released earlier that year, asks fundamental questions about war, racial justice, and whether humanity will ever live in peace and equality. The song would become one of the most important anthems in the Civil Rights and peace movements of the ‘60s and beyond.
Barry Gibb, now 79, says that even as a teenager, he completely understood why Dylan’s song needed to be heard. “I was rapidly approaching the time when I would have to register for the draft,” he told Upworthy in an exclusive interview. “It’s hard to explain that period, except that everyone was very worried, very worried, and Bob Dylan was our hero.”
“The Vietnam War was such chaos to the Australian people that it shadowed everything. I wrote a song called ‘And the Children Laughing’ because of what Bob Dylan had written. It’s about life and dying, and the idea that you would die for your country or go and kill people you don’t know. And I don’t want to go kill people. It was not on the table for me. So everything he wrote touched me deeply,” Gibb continued.
Why don’t you get on your feet
It’s about time you got to think
Whatever happened to peace?
Well, open your eyes and you’ll see children laughing
Voices singin’, hearts a-beatin’ ah…
Barry Gibb has always believed in peace
(snip-there MORE; it’s not too long, but this is a long post with the music)
| November 21, 1945 200,000 members of the United Auto Workers went on strike against General Motors, the first major strike following World War II. The UAW’s demand for a 30% wage increase was based on the increase in the cost of living during the war (28% according to the Department of Labor), the wartime freeze on wages, and the cut in the average workweek with the disappearance of overtime pay in manufacturing.   But the UAW also considered profits and prices a subject for negotiation, a position rejected by GM. The union did not merely say that labor was entitled to enough wages to live on. It also said that labor was entitled to share in the wealth produced by industry. “… Unless we get a more realistic distribution of America’s wealth, we won’t get enough to keep this machine going.”–Walter Reuther, UAW President More about the strike |
| November 21, 1973 President Richard Nixon’s attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, revealed the existence of an 18 1/2-minute gap in one of the subpoenaed White House tape recordings of Watergate conversations made by President Richard Nixon in the days after the Watergate break-in.The erasure was blamed on an accident by Nixon’s private secretary, Rose Mary Woods, but scientific analysis determined the erasures to be deliberate. White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig later attributed the gap to “sinister forces.”  Rose Mary Woods, demonstrating how she might have created the Watergate tape gap More about Rose Mary Woods |
| November 21, 1974 Both Houses of Congress voted to override President Gerald Ford’s veto of updates to the Freedom of Information Act. Originally passed in 1966, it required federal agencies to release information upon request to citizens and journalists.The amendments put an end to governmental resistance to compliance, including excessive fees, bureaucratic delays, and the need to sometimes resort to expensive litigation to force the government to share copies of documents. Ford advisors Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld, his deputy Dick Cheney, and government lawyer Antonin Scalia advised him to veto it.  Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld, President Gerald Ford, and Deputy Chief of Staff Richard Cheney April 28, 1975 What was the dispute? (Verified the story is there.) |
| November 21, 1975 The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, led by Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho), issued a report charging U.S. government officials were behind assassination plots against two foreign leaders – Fidel Castro (Cuba) and Patrice Lumumba (Congo), and were heavily involved in at least three other plots: Rafael Trujillo (Dominican Republic), Ngo Dinh Diem (Vietnam), Rene Schneider (Chile).  Senator Frank Church, left, chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, displays a poison dart gun as co-chairman Senator John Tower (R-TX) watches. The committee, a precursor to the Senate Intelligence Committee, was established to look into misuse of and abuse by intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA and FBI, some of which had been revealed by the Watergate investigations.      Fidel Castro / Patrice Lumumba / Rafael Trujillo / Ngo Dinh Diem / Rene Schneider Read more |
| November 21, 1981 More than 350,000 demonstrated in Amsterdam against U.S. nuclear-armed cruise missiles on European soil. |
| November 21, 1985 A full-scale summit conference, the first of five between the President Ronald Reagan of the U.S. and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union concluded. There was optimism over beginning a more productive and cooperative relationship between the two countries, each of which had thousands of nuclear warheads targeted at the other.The U.S. had proposed building a space-based anti-ballistic missile system, commonly known as “Star Wars,” which the Soviets had strongly opposed as an escalation of the nuclear arms race.In an unofficial meeting the previous evening, President Reagan had noted that he and Gorbachev were meeting for the first time at this level and had little practice. Nevertheless, having read the history of previous summit meetings, he had concluded that those earlier leaders had not accomplished very much. Therefore, he suggested that he and Gorbachev say, “To hell with the past, we’ll do it our way and get something done.” Gorbachev concurred.  Reagan and Gorbachev at their first summit |
| November 21, 1986 National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn Hall, began shredding documents that would have exposed their participation in a range of illegal activities regarding the sale of arms to Iran in an attempt to free hostages, and the diversion of the proceeds to an insurgent Nicaraguan group known as the contras.  Fawn Hall  Oliver North More on Fawn Hall |
| November 21, 1995 China officially charged well-known human rights activist and political dissident Wei Jingsheng with trying to “overthrow the government.” Wei had not been seen for a year and a half after disappearing into police custody after meeting with a U.S. assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs.“If the people allow the power holders, in the peoples’ name, to violate and ignore the rights of some of the people then, at the same time, they are giving the power holders the power to violate the rights of all the people.” “ Most people wait until others are standing to make their move, very few are willing to stand up first or to stand alone. That’s why my friends call me a fool! But I don’t have any regrets.” – Wei Jingsheng  Wei Jingsheng He had been imprisoned previously for his involvement with the Democracy Wall movement, including years in solitary confinement. He had also spoken out on behalf of the Tibetans. |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november21
Scottie's Playtime 