Tag: Justice

Wait-Don’t Boycott Costco!

It’s important to remember things, and to keep “issues” in context. Also, who have we asked for the Epstein files today? 😂

No, Rightwing Sh*tbirds Didn’t Pressure Costco Out Of Selling Abortion Pill by Rebecca Schoenkopf

Let’s not give a bunch of hate groups a win they didn’t earn. Read on Substack

With the neverending firehose of incredibly disappointing information, it’s easy to assume that everything is garbage and everything sucks all of the time. Yesterday, I yelled “Well, fuck Costco!” after reading a Reuters article titled “Costco to stop selling abortion pill mifepristone at its US pharmacy stores” — because that’s some bullshit, right?

Well, it was, just not in the way you might immediately assume. Costco never actually sold mifepristone, so they couldn’t “stop” selling something they never sold to begin with.

Stories later in the day did get it right (our link is to the archived very wrong version!). Costco had apparently been deliberating on whether or not to sell abortion medication at their pharmacies (it requires a certification to be able to carry it), and decided against.

Reuters and several other sources noted that the move came after “pressure” from anti-abortion groups, as well as Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate groups like Alliance Defending Freedom, which even went so far as to issue an utterly insipid victory statement.

“We applaud Costco for doing the right thing by its shareholders and resisting activist calls to sell abortion drugs. Retailers like Costco keep their doors open by selling a lifetime of purchases to families, both large and small. They have nothing to gain and much to lose by becoming abortion dispensaries. Retail pharmacies exist to serve the health and wellness of their customers, but abortion drugs like mifepristone undermine that mission by putting women’s health at risk,” said Michael Ross, the group’s legal counsel.

For the record, mifepristone has an extremely low rate — 1 percent — of complications. It is more safe than Viagra or even Tylenol. Abortion is not the only use for the drug, either. It is also used to help safely expel a miscarriage so that one does not become septic (and perhaps require penicillin … yet another drug that is less safe than mifepristone). Groups like the ADF think that if they just keep confidently repeating blatant lies about abortion medication like they are universally accepted as true, that everyone will just go along with them. Just like maybe they’ll believe that the ADF and other groups are so influential that they actually did successfully push Costco to refuse to sell mifepristone.

But there is no reason to believe, without evidence, that Costco’s decision actually had anything to do with “bending the knee” to them or any other insane religious organizations dedicated to making life hell for women, LGBTQ+ people, and anyone who doesn’t share their religious beliefs.

Why? Because the company has no history of doing that, at all, for any reason. In fact, the company has notably refused to “bend the knee” to Republican Attorneys General and whiny conservatives across the land who have been demanding they ditch their DEI policies.

“If these are the policies you see as offensive, I must tell you I am not prepared to change,” CEO Richard Vachris wrote to a “concerned” customer who emailed him, upset about the company’s DEI policies and demanding to know if the company was hiring people based on “skin color” or “gender identification.”

“Attacks on DEI aren’t just bad for business — they hurt our economy. A diverse workforce drives innovation, expands markets, and fuels growth,” Costco board member Jeff Raikes wrote on social media.

Why would a company willing to risk the ire of these groups in that way suddenly decide to capitulate to them in another?

While it’s certainly disappointing that they didn’t change their policy of not selling mife, and those of us with Costco memberships should let them know that, the company has not said that this decision had anything at all to do with wanting to put a smile on the faces of the bigots at the ADF.

Rather, they said they didn’t think there was a demand for it.

“Our position at this time not to sell mifepristone, which has not changed, is based on the lack of demand from our members and other patients, who we understand generally have the drug dispensed by their medical providers,” Costco said in a statement. It’s not what we want to hear, obviously, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they did this because of pressure from the Right.

It’s also worth noting that Costco is known to treat their workers well, paying them, on average $31 an hour with good benefits — quite a bit higher than many of their competitors.

They also have a strong history of not being shitty in this way.

It would be a mistake to roll over on one of the few companies out there that isn’t completely evil. In addition, we shouldn’t hand groups like ADF an unearned “win,” which they have made clear they want to use to pressure other companies — including CVS and Walgreens, which are certified to dispense mifepristone — to stop selling abortion medication, as well as to make the rest of us feel that they are winning the culture war.

It’s like when the One Million Moms (one mom) take credit for getting TV shows canceled or commercials pulled off the air when those decisions actually had nothing to do with them at all. Claiming victory, for these groups, is a way for them to rally their base and to make other companies think they have more influence than they actually do.

The majority of Americans believe that abortion should be legal, and they’ve demonstrated this by voting in favor of keeping it legal in their states at practically every turn (not in Florida, because Florida requires 60 percent of the population to approve a ballot measure, which is some bullshit).

If Costco thinks there isn’t enough demand for mifepristone (which, yes, is a weird thing to say because it’s not like a medication anyone gets on a regular basis), then we should convince them that there is, by encouraging them to change their mind and get the certification necessary to sell abortion medication. You can go directly to their website and click the “Feedback” tag on the right side of your screen, call them at 1-800-774-2678, or send them a letter at Costco Wholesale, P.O. Box 34331, Seattle, WA 98124.

Immigrants Just Take Over, Displacing Native Born Americans, Stealing Resources; Great Britain Partitions Its Empire; & More, In Peace & Justice History for 8/15

August 15, 1876
Congress passed a law to remove the Lakota Sioux and their allies from the Black Hills country of South Dakota after gold was found there. Often referred to as the “starve or sell” bill, it provided that no further appropriations would be made for 1868 Treaty-guaranteed rations for the Sioux unless they gave up their sacred Black Hills, or Paha Sapa. That treaty had granted them the territory and hunting rights in exchange for peace.

Lakota Sioux watch as their Black Hills are invaded. painting by Howard Terpning
The larger story of the Sioux and the U.S. 
August 15, 1947

Great Britain partitioned its empire on the Asian subcontinent into primarily Hindu, but nominally secular, India, and predominantly Muslim Pakistan (including the non-contiguous state of East Bengal, now the nation of Bangladesh). The two nations became independent of British rule after 200 years of colonial control, and more than two decades of Gandhi-led resistance. Rioting between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims followed, especially over the state of Kashmir, majority Muslim but newly part of India.Mahatma Gandhi had been an advocate for a united India where Hindus and Muslims would live together in peace. A few months later, at the age of 78, he began a fast with the purpose of stopping the sectarian bloodshed, in which hundreds of thousands died, and many more displaced. After five days the opposing leaders pledged to stop the fighting and Gandhi broke his fast.

Twelve days later he was assassinated by a Hindu opposed to his program of tolerance for all ethnicities, castes and religions.

One of the principal leaders of the independence movement, Jawaharlal Nehru, who became India’s first prime minister, spoke to the Constituent Assembly of India in New Delhi: “Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.”
Among the tributes to Gandhi upon his death were these words by Albert Einstein:
“Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked
the earth in flesh and blood.”
Listen to a portion of Nehru’s speech and a bit of old film
More on partition and independence
August 15, 1967

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking at a Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, urged a massive civil disobedience drive in northern cities. Responding to the widespread rioting there, he said, “It is purposeless to tell Negroes they should not be enraged when they should be . . . Civil disobedience can utilize the militance wasted in riots . . . .”

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august15

A Little Fun On A Hot Afternoon

I hope everyone is safe and comfortable, or able to get that way. Today I had an appointment in a city about 30 mi. away; I decided that afterward, I was going to stop in at their larger grocery and pick up the stuff on the list, and maybe a few other things. Their prices are a little higher, and there are spaces on the shelves over there. It doesn’t make sense why that is; the gas prices are the same; still under 3.00/gal. Anyway, I had a good trip, am safely home now for the rest of the day, and I ran across this article, which is the fun. Enjoy!

The John Oliver/Dean Cain Feud Is Officially On

Cage match! Cage match!

Matt Solomon

Dean Cain made headlines last week when he hopped on social media to announce that he was taking a break from his busy Hollywood career to become an ICE agent. “For those who don’t know, I am a sworn law enforcement officer as well as being a filmmaker,” he revealed. “I felt it was important to join with our first responders to help secure the safety of all Americans, not just talk about it. So, I joined up.”

Given Cain’s status as a washed-up TV star, the news was ready-made for late-night monologue fodder, and John Oliver didn’t disappoint on his most recent Last Week Tonight. “There’s an old saying in Hollywood,” Oliver began. “If all you can get is Dean Cain, you are fucked.”

Not satisfied after a single punchline, Oliver proceeded to make a meal of the Cain announcement. “I’m not saying that ICE isn’t finding people,” he continued. “I’m just saying when you are reduced to pinning a badge on the 59-year-old star of The Dog Who Saved Christmas, The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation, The Dog Who Saved the Holidays, The Dog Who Saved Halloween, The Dog Who Saved Easter and The Dog Who Saved Summer, maybe you are in trouble.”

Are those titles simply funny punchlines about the kinds of movies Cain has been reduced to starring in? Nope — that’s Cain’s actual IMDb.

Are there any positives to Cain becoming an ICE agent? Oliver can think of one: “No need for that guy to wear a mask because the chances of anyone recognizing him are fucking zero.”

Harsh. But it’s not officially beef until the other guy punches back, which is just what Cain did yesterday. 

(snip-embedded tweet that won’t embed here but transcribed below)

“He stole that mask joke from the internet,” Cain insisted, trying to score points by pointing out that other people are making fun of him as well.

Oliver “also laughed hysterically when Trump said he was going to run for President. Case closed,” Cain posted, equating Trump’s presidential victories with his own decision to round up day workers at Home Depot.

Finally, Cain defended the honor of The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation. “Those movies were sweet, by the way!”

Oliver hasn’t posted on his own X account in 2025, so don’t expect any counterpunches — if any — until the next Last Week Tonight. In the meantime, fans of the burgeoning feud will have to make do with Oliver’s parting shot on his most recent episode. He gave viewers this advice if approached by an ICE agent: “Attorneys told us the only two things you should say to them are: ‘Am I free to leave?’ And ‘I want to speak to a lawyer.’ That’s it. You have the right to remain silent. And I recognize that in some cases, you may be unable to help yourself from saying: ‘Didn’t you used to be Superman? I thought you died.’”

More Progress Than Regress in Peace & Justice History for 8/14

August 14, 1935
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law, creating unemployment compensation, old-age benefits and aid to dependent children.“We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.”

President Roosevelt signing Social Security Act of 1935 in the Cabinet Room of the White House. Library of Congress photo
A comprehensive history: 
August 14, 1941
In the German Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, a group of prisoners had been chosen by the camp’s commander for death by starvation. Roman Catholic Fr. Maximilian Maria Kolbe offered himself for death instead of one of the condemned because the man had a family he needed to be alive to support. Fr. Kolbe was put to death on this day by lethal injection following two weeks of starvation.
Pope John Paul II declared him a Saint in 1982.
August 14, 1945
President Harry Truman announced that Japan, one week following the atomic bomb attacks on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.
August 14, 1959
The U.S.-launched Explorer VI satellite recorded the first photograph of Earth taken from space, at an altitude of 17,000 miles (27,400 km).

August 14, 1966
Twenty people were arrested for trying to attend services at the white First Baptist Church in Grenada, Mississippi. They were charged with “disturbing divine worship.” Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) field staff member Jim Bulloch was arrested and his car fire-bombed while he was in jail.
August 14, 1968
400 anti-apartheid students occupied the university in Cape Town, South Africa, to protest its refusal to hire a black professor.
August 14, 1976
Majella O’Hare, a young Catholic girl, was shot dead by British soldiers while walking with other children to confession near her home in Ballymoyer, Whitecross, County Armagh.The soldiers, initially denying they had fired any weapons, claimed that the patrol had been fired upon by an unidentified gunman. But there were serious doubts about the army’s claim. Eyewitness reports failed to confirm it and, unofficially, police investigating the case referred to the army’s “phantom gunman.”
The same day 10,000 Northern Irish gathered at a demonstration in Andersontown, organized by the Women’s Peace Movement (later known as Peace People).

Majella O’Hare
How it happened from people who were there 
August 14, 1980

After months of labor turmoil, more than 16,000 Polish workers seized control of the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk. They helped form Solidarnos´c´ (Solidarity), the first independent labor union anywhere in the Soviet bloc, as the Warsaw Pact nations were known. Under the leadership of Lech Valensa [lek va wen´suh] and others, it helped unite the broad political, social and religious opposition to the Communist government.
Long-range look at Solidarity 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august14

Who Are The Crime-Fighters, & Who Are The Criminals?

Roof-Top Felon by Clay Jones

DC is so crime-ridden, that the top federal official is a 34-count felon Read on Substack

Despite the nation’s capital being at a 30-year low in crime, Donald Trump has now federalized it, installing 800 National Guard troops to patrol the city because a former DOGE guy (white dude) got slapped around by some kids.

Fun fact: National Guardsmen are NOT cops. They have not been trained in police work. What authority do they have?

During a rambling and slurry 80-minute press conference while flanked by goons such as Pam Bondi, Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel, and Jeannine Pirro (it gets worse as you go down the line), Trump talked about sending the military into other cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Baltimore. All cities with Black mayors.

This is going to be like Star Wars, where stormtroopers are stopping citizens on the streets, demanding to see their IDs.

During his rant, Trump said, “Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.” It’s illegal to be homeless now? Is it illegal to be young?

Every time I copy and paste one of Trump’s quotes, Grammarly loses its shit. I think it wants to scream at me, “THAT’S NOT HOW WORDS WORK!” (snip, and there’s MORE)

=====

Wanted by Clay Jones

From one criminal to another Read on Substack

Today on GoComics, a very ignorant and vile person claimed “leftists” are in favor of forever wars. That pissed me off. I wasn’t pissed because he insulted us, or that he called us “leftists,” and not even that he’s wrong. He uses “leftists,” as though he’s describing Daniel Ortega and Sandinistas. If you think there’s a comparison between Daniel Ortega and today’s Democratic Party, then you should talk to my friend Pedro Molina. I guess “liberal” isn’t scary enough for the MAGAts anymore. What pissed me off is that because of his ignorance and inability to understand our position, he took it upon himself to assign one for us.

It’s not just him. This is a talking point, and I hate talking points. Yeah, both sides have them, but while liberals will use them out of convenience, MAGAts use them out of ignorance and laziness. It saves them time and effort from actually researching. All MAGA cartoonists would prefer to use talking points rather than understand an issue. It’s also a cover for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

Besides all that, MAGA talking points are always bullshit.

I’m anti-war. I had a battle every day with my editor at The Free Lance-Star because I wouldn’t draw cartoons supporting the invasion of Iraq. If I’m not going to support an illegal invasion by my country, then why would I support one by Russia?

The idiots who claim we support forever wars support the guy who started the war in Ukraine. After Putin illegally invaded Ukraine over a flimsy excuse about Nazis, Donald Trump called him a “genius” for it. I wonder if Trump thinks he’s a genius for invading DC on a flimsy excuse that Big Balls was attacked.

Supporting Ukraine, that nation that did not start this war, and its right to defend itself from a much stronger aggressor does not mean I want the war to last forever. Supporting arming Ukraine for it to defend itself from an invading force stealing its land and killing its people doesn’t mean I want the war to last forever. Anyone who believes that is a lazy idiot. Speaking of lazy idiots…

Trump and Putin will sit down tomorrow in Anchorage, Alaska, to discuss the war in Ukraine. Trump is already prepared to reward Putin for his illegal invasion. Trump is proposing that Russia be gifted portions of Ukraine, which won’t be good enough for Putin. Putin wants the entire nation. If Trump were around in World War II, he would have given Hitler Poland. (snip; of course there is MORE)

Kent St. Shooting, The Berlin Wall, & More, in Peace & Justice History for 8/13

August 13, 1961
The city of Berlin was divided as East Germany sealed off the border between the city’s eastern (Soviet Union-controlled) and western (American-, British- and French-controlled) sectors in order to halt the flight of economic and political refugees to the West. Two days later, work began on the Berlin Wall.

The Wall, 155 km (96 miles) of barbed wire and concrete, completely surrounded West Berlin and had to be rebuilt three times.

The wall stood until November 9, 1989.
The Berlin Wall Online 
August 13, 1971

slain Kent State student 
U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell announced there would be no federal grand jury investigation into the May 4, 1970, shootings at Kent State University. Ohio National Guard troops had fired on unarmed anti-Vietnam-War demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine.
             
Atty General John Mitchell
Defenders of the National Guard said they were responding to a shot from the crowd though that was never verified. But in 2007 a tape was released through a freedom-of-information request to the FBI revealing a Guard officer issuing the command, “Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!”
Kent State’s protest was part of massive spontaneous national outrage over Pres. Richard Nixon’s expansion of the war through his invading non-combatant Cambodia. Vice President Spiro Agnew had referred to the campus protesters as Nazi “brownshirts.”

Ohio National Guard troops firing on anti-war demonstrators at Kent State University
The day before, Ohio Govenor James Rhodes had referred to the student demonstrators as “the strongest, well-trained militant revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America. They’re worse than the brownshirts and the Communist element and the night riders and the vigilantes. They are the worst type of people that we harbor in America.”
August 13, 1992
President George H.W. Bush announced strong United States support for the draft Chemical Weapons Convention completed at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. The president stated that the U.S. was committed to the treaty, and called on all other nations to support the treaty and to pledge adherence to it. 
Chemical weapons treaty update (2001) 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august13

Nukes & Mumia In Peace & Justice History for 8/12

August 12, 1953
The first Soviet hydrogen (thermonuclear or fusion) bomb, far more potentially damaging than those dropped on Japan, was exploded in the Kazakh desert, then part of the Soviet Union. Igor Vasziljevics Kurcsatov, head of the Soviet Uranium Committee, said to Josef Stalin at the time: “The atomic sword is in our hand. It is time to think about the peaceful use of nuclear energy.” 

The Soviet Nuclear Weapons Program 
August 12, 1982

Open missile tubes on Trident sub
Twelve were arrested in an attempted blockade of the first Trident submarine, the USS Ohio, entering the Hood Canal in the state of Washington. In motorboats, sailboats and small handmade wooden vessels, the demonstrators were objecting to the presence of nuclear weapons in Seattle. The Coast Guard overturned some of the vessels with water cannon.
August 12, 1995

Thousands demonstrated in Philadelphia and other cities in support of journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal (on death row for murder since 1982) in the largest anti-death-penalty demonstrations in the U.S. to date.
All Out For Mumia Abu-Jamal

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august12

Why People Partied So Much in The 1980s, & More, in Peace & Justice History for 8/11

August 11, 1894
Federal troops forced some 1,200 jobless workers across the Potomac River and out of Washington, D.C.
 
Jack London
Led by an unemployed activist, “General” Charles “Hobo” Kelly, the jobless group’s “soldiers” included young journalist Jack London, known for writing about social issues, and miner/cowboy William ”Big Bill” Haywood who later organized western miners and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

“Big Bill” Haywood 
Read about “Big Bill”
August 11, 1958
A drugstore chain in Wichita, Kansas, agreed to serve all its customers after weeks of sit-ins at Dockum’s lunch counter by local African-Americans who wanted an end to segregation. On this day, as several black Wichitans were sitting at the counter even though the store refused to serve them, a white man around 40 walked in and looked at them for several minutes. Then he looked at the store manager and said, simply, “Serve them. I’m losing too much money.” He was the owner, Robert Dockum.
That day the lawyer for the local NAACP branch called the company and was told by the a vice president ”he had instructed all of his managers, clerks, etc., to serve all people without regard to race, creed or color,” statewide. This was the first success of the sit-in movement which soon spread to Oklahoma City and other towns in Kansas, but is often thought to have started in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960.
August 11, 1984
 
Prior to his weekly radio address, unaware that the microphone was open and he was broadcasting, President Ronald Reagan joked, “My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” Many Americans and others throughout the world were concerned about the President’s apparently flippant attitude towards nuclear war at a time of increasing tension between the two major nuclear powers.
Among other things, the U.S. had begun a major strategic arms buildup, adding many thousands of additional nuclear warheads along with a broad range of new delivery systems: long-range bombers including 100 B-1B stealth bombers and MX (10-warhead) ICBMs, considered first-strike weapons; intermediate-range missiles to be deployed in Europe; 3000 cruise missiles; and Trident nuclear submarines with sea-launched cruise missiles.
Additionally, Reagan had proposed building the space-based Strategic Defense Initiative of anti-ballistic missiles, a destabilizing influence on the nuclear balance.
The Nuclear Arms Control Legacy of Ronald Reagan 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august11

Not The Sunday AM Shows!

Rather, lots of useful info instead. 🌞

Sunday Morning Wrap Up by Joyce Vance
Read on Substack

This week, as I noted last night when I wrote to you, a lot was going on. Really, too much, which seems to be a definite feature and not a bug of this second Trump administration. They don’t want us to be able to take in everything that’s going on. So I’m starting a Sunday morning wrap-up feature to help you keep up with anything you may have missed during the week.

  • I’m going to cheat by a day and start with the column from Saturday, August 2nd, It’s 1984, which is the perfect lead in for starting the conversation about our Book Club book, George Orwell’s 1984, now that we’ve had some time to start reading. If you haven’t started, we’ll have a Substack Live discussion about it later this week, so now is a great time to get started. In the column, following Trump’s firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Ericka McEntarfer because he didn’t like the jobs numbers, I wrote, “In the novel 1984, facts are not a barrier. Rewriting history is a central tenet of the totalitarian regime, carried out by the Ministry of Truth.” We need to take note as this becomes a feature of the Trump administration. We live in a post-truth society now.
  • In The Week Ahead last Sunday, we kicked off a conversation about the Voting Rights Act, which had its 60th anniversary last week. The irony of the Supreme Court’s announcement late on the Friday night ahead of that anniversary, that it would hear a case with an issue designed to gut much of what remains of it, was far too measured to be coincidence. Here’s your essential refresher on the Act, and the way the Supreme Court has eroded it. Most importantly, this is not hopeless! Electing majorities in the Senate and the House at the midterms would almost certainly make restoring the Act, which the Supreme Court invited Congress to do, a top priority. We took that issue up in conversations later in the week, which you’ll want to see if you missed them during the week.
  • On Monday, Marc Elias and I discussed the Voting Rights Act. There is no sugar coating here, but realism about where we are, and also what the path forward could look like if we don’t give up.
  • There’s no nice way to put it. I’m heartsick about what’s happening at DOJ and the FBI. Discussed in this post, Desecrating DOJ. Pam Bondi is proving to be exactly the Attorney General we expected—someone with loyalty to Donald Trump instead of to the Constitution. But even here, there are guardrails—even if DOJ tries to indict its revenge cases, grand juries may refuse to go along. If they indict, trial judges and juries must be persuaded of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Make sure you read this piece to the end, because part of Trump’s shtick is persuading people to give up because he’s already won, already taken the system apart, and he has not. There is still some play in the joints, and every reason for us to persist.
  • We had no chicken pictures this week, but the Turkeys that were roaming around in the woods while I finished proofreading my book were pretty engaging. I appreciated all the people who wrote to tell me this was a pack of males roaming around in the pre-mating season. The things you can learn here at Civil Discourse!
  • If you missed my conversation with Alabama Congressman Shomari Figures, do yourself a favor and go listen now. Shomari was elected out of Alabama 2, the new district created last term after the Supreme Court ruled Alabama’s legislature engaged in racial discrimination when it drew new maps after the decennial census and ordered them redrawn. I’m a little biased here, Shomari was my Obama-era colleague working on criminal justice reform and other issues, and his parents are civil rights icons in Alabama, but he makes you feel proud to be a Democrat. This is a conversation filled with hope but tempered with realism. Shomari is part of the new generation of leaders we need.
  • This week’s Five Questions column featured Maine’s Secretary of State (and gubernatorial candidate) Shenna Bellows, who recently told the administration to “Go Jump in the Gulf of Maine,” when it asked her to give them information on Maine’s voters. This is someone who knows what it takes to run an election, but in addition to being smart, she also reminds us that elections are about us and about grassroots American patriotism. We’ll follow up with a Substack Live with her soon.
  • Finally, last night’s, A Tough Week for the Rule of Law, catches us up on more of the difficult legal news from last week. “In order to resist what Trump is doing in our country, you need to be informed; you need to know what’s at stake.” It can be awfully tempting to look away right now, but don’t. This is our generation’s fight for democracy, and this week confirmed my sense that I landed on the right title for my book, when I called it “Giving Up is Unforgivable.” Get mad. Get angry. Feel the sadness of the moment. But don’t give up.

I hope you’ll use the week’s posts to stay up to speed and that you’ll share them widely—it’s going to take every last one of us to reset guardrails in Congress in the 2026 election. There will be nothing more important, and the time to start educating people around you is now. Thanks for being here with me at Civil Discourse, as we take on the challenges ahead!

We’re in this together,

Joyce

August 10th, Already! Moses Fleetwood Walker, & Harry Hay, Show Up For Equality, + More in Peace & Justice History For This Date

August 10, 1883
Adrian “Cap” Anson refused to field his visiting Chicago White Stockings team in an exhibition baseball game if the Toledo Mud Hens included star catcher Moses Fleetwood Walker in their lineup. Chicago’s Captain Anson, who grew up in slaveholding Iowa, said he wouldn’t share the diamond with a non-white player. After more than an hour’s delay, Charlie Morton, the Toledo manager, insisted that if Chicago forfeited the game, it would also lose its share of the gate receipts; Anson relented.

Moses Fleetwood Walker
Morton had not planned to have Walker catch due to injury, but insisted on putting him in at centerfield, despite Cap Anson’s objections.
August 10, 1948

Gay rights activist Harry Hay organized what later became the Mattachine Society (originally ~ Foundation), a groundbreaking 1950s gay rights organization. The group was named after the Mattachines, a medieval troupe of men who went village-to-village advocating social justice.
Mattachine: Radical Roots of Gay Liberation 
August 10, 1984
Two Plowshares activists, Barb Katt and John LaForge, damaged a guidance system for a Trident submarine with hammers at a Sperry plant in Minnesota. In sentencing them to six months’ probation, U.S. District Judge Miles W. Lord commented, “Why do we condemn and hang individual killers, while extolling the virtues of warmongers?”

Barb Katt
More on the Sperry Software Pair  
More plowshares actions 
August 10, 1988
President George H.W. Bush signed legislation apologizing and compensating for the World War II internment of Japanese Americans.
President Franklin Roosevelt had authorized the round-up of hundreds of thousands of Americans of Japanese ancestry, some of whom were American citizens, as security risks. Most lost all their property and were moved to relocation camps for the duration of the war (though not in Hawaii, then not yet a state, where public opposition would not allow it).
August 10, 1993
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sworn in as the second woman and 107th Justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. 
August 10, 2005
Mehmet Tarhan was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on two charges of “insubordination before command” and “insubordination before command for trying to escape from military service” because he refused to serve in the Turkish Army.
He would not sign any paper, put on a uniform, nor allow his hair and beard to be cut. He went on two extended hunger strikes to protest his arrest and abuse while in Sivas Military Prison. War Resisters International has supported his efforts throughout his ordeal. He was released unexpectedly from prison after one year.

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