Tag: US Politics
Peace & Justice History for 1/20
ACLU will be needed like few times before now.
January 20, 1920 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was founded by Roger Baldwin, Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin, labor leaders Rose Schneiderman and Duncan McDonald, Rabbi Judah Magnes, and others.The ACLU was organized to protect the rights guaranteed in the the Constitution, particularly the Bill of Rights. Prior to this the first ten amendments had not been enforced. The ACLU has paid particular attention to • First Amendment rights: freedom of speech, association and assembly, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion as well as a bar against establishment of a state religion. • One’s right to equal protection under the law – equal treatment regardless of race, sex, religion or national origin. • One’s right to due process – fair treatment for citizens by the government whenever the loss of liberty or property is at stake. • One’s right to privacy – freedom from unwarranted government intrusion into one’s personal and private affairs. ACLU history The ACLU today |
| January 20, 1942 Nazi Party and German government officials arrived at what they called the “final solution to the Jewish question in Europe.” They developed plans for the coordinated and systematic extermination of all Europe’s Jews during a meeting at a villa near Lake Wannsee in Berlin. Notes of the meeting recorded by Adolf Eichmann used vague terms such as “transportation to the east” or “evacuation to the east” (nach dem Osten abgeshoben). But at his trial for genocide Eichmann testified of the meeting that “the discussion covered killing, elimination, and annihilation.”  The villa on Lake Wannsee, now a holocaust museum. More on the Wannsee conference |
| January 20, 2001 Tens of thousands lining Pennsylvania Avenue to protest the legitimacy of the inauguration of President George W. Bush were systematically excluded from almost all media coverage of the event. They called attention to the election irregularities in Florida, the dispute over a recount, and the ultimate effective choice of the president by a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court.  |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january20
MLK day
by Ann Telnaes
A quick reminder who deserves to be celebrated on Monday Read on Substack
(cartoon from 2018)
MAGAers Mad at Trump for Moving Inauguration Indoors
By Amethyst Martinez, 1 days ago
The Washington Post via Getty Im
MAGAers are angry after Donald Trump announced his inauguration is to be moved inside, causing many to be left out of the ceremony.
Although the president-elect announced that some attendees can go to the Capital One Arena for a viewing party, many were prepared to brave the cold.
Freezing cold temperatures and strong winds are expected to hit D.C. on Monday. The last time an inauguration was moved inside was for Ronald Reagan in 1985 under similar forecasts.
NBC Washington went out to break the news to Trump supporters who planned to attend the inauguration.
“I don’t like it,” Trump fan Ken Robinson told the outlet. “We came all the way from… Oklahoma and now we’re not getting to see it. We might as well have stayed home watching on TV.”
Jorge Gonzalez, another supporter who traveled from Florida, said that the news “sucks.”
“We’re prepared for the weather, it’s not a problem,” Gonzalez said.
“We have farms,” said Harry Troyer, another Oklahoma resident visiting D.C. “And we don’t get to not feed the cows because it’s cold.”
Others posted to X to express their dismay with the decision as many who were planning to attend having already traveled to D.C. in advance. Thousands of chairs were seen outside the Capitol on Friday, set up before the event was moved inside.
“We have coats and will wear them. Already bought expensive hotels, rental cars, subway tickets etc etc,” one user wrote on X. “We the people were prepared for the cold. We want to see Trump in person. Rain snow sleet warm cold it don’t matter.”
“Spent thousands of dollars on a hotel room and now they aren’t having an Inauguration for the public,” another wrote. “Wtf.”
On Monday, officials were beginning to give out more than 220,000 tickets. On Friday, they were then told to tell attendees that their tickets are now “commemorative.” The arena only has a capacity of 20,000.
Crap … saying the children are in charge when the republicans are the majority is an insult to children.
Trump’s first immigration raid to target 300 people in Chicago on Tuesday
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/17/trump-ice-raid-chicago-report
Why make a point to hit Chicago? Because the city is the third largest sanctuary city and the state President Obama lived in when he was in the Senate. This is entirely to make a point, make a splashy example. Their goal is to talk tough and act like the biggest bullies in the schoolyard. Hugs
“And if the Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside. But if he impedes us, if he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien, I will prosecute him,” he was quoted as saying.
Operations billed as targeted raids often result in more of a dragnet effect, however, where residents without any kind of criminal record who happen to be undocumented are swept up and put under threat of deportation, and even many who are living and working in the US legally are held for hours or days after being rounded up alongside others.
Trump has often been critical of Chicago, which has some of the country’s strongest protections for people in the country without legal status.
The nation’s third-largest city became a so-called sanctuary city in the 1980s, limiting how police can cooperate with federal immigration agents. It has strengthened those policies several times since, including after Trump first took office eight years ago.
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Administration to send 100 to 200 officers to city on day two of new presidency, Wall Street Journal reports
Ice officials arrive to arrest a Mexican national at a home in Paramount, California, in 2020. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
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Donald Trump’s incoming presidential administration plans to launch a large immigration raid in Chicago the day after he takes office, according to unnamed officials talking to various media outlets.
Federal immigration officers will target more than 300 people, focusing on those with histories of violent crimes, one official told the Associated Press, marking Trump’s initial attempt toward fulfilling his campaign promise of large-scale deportations.
The operation will be concentrated in the Chicago area, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because plans have not been made public. Arrests are expected all week.
News that Chicago has emerged as the earliest target city in the expected crackdown from the incoming Republican president was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, citing four people familiar with planning.
The raid, expected to start on Tuesday, would last all week, the newspaper said, adding that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) would send between 100 and 200 officers to carry out the operation.
Ice and the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday. But a source with knowledge of the incoming administration’s plans previously told Reuters that Ice would intensify enforcement across the country but that there would not be a special focus on Chicago or a surge of personnel there.
“We’re going to be doing operations all across the country,” the person said. “You’re going to see arrests in New York. You’re going to see arrests in Miami.”
Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, said at an event in Chicago that the administration was “going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois”, the Journal reported.
“And if the Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside. But if he impedes us, if he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien, I will prosecute him,” he was quoted as saying.
Homan then told Fox News that Chicago will be one of many places across the country where federal authorities plan to make arrests.
“We’re going to take the handcuffs off Ice and let them go arrest criminal aliens, that’s what’s going to happen,” Homan said. “What we’re telling Ice, you’re going to go enforce the immigration law without apology. You’re going to concentrate on the worst first, public-safety threats first, but no one is off the table. If they’re in the country illegally, they got a problem.”
Operations billed as targeted raids often result in more of a dragnet effect, however, where residents without any kind of criminal record who happen to be undocumented are swept up and put under threat of deportation, and even many who are living and working in the US legally are held for hours or days after being rounded up alongside others.
Trump told NBC News on Saturday that mass deportations remain a top priority. He didn’t give an exact date or city where they’ll start, but he said they would begin soon.
“It’ll begin very early, very quickly,” he said, adding: “I can’t say which cities because things are evolving. And I don’t think we want to say what city. You’ll see it firsthand. …
“We have to get the criminals out of our country. And I think you would agree with that. I don’t know how anyone could not agree.”
Immigration was at the center of Trump’s campaign in the lead-up to the 5 November presidential election.
“Within moments of my inauguration, we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” Trump said in January 2024.
Trump is expected to mobilize agencies across the US government to help him deport record numbers of immigrants, Reuters has reported, building on efforts in his first term to tap all available resources and pressure so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions to cooperate.
Immigrants and groups advocating for them have been preparing to throw up legal roadblocks to mass deportation.
Trump has often been critical of Chicago, which has some of the country’s strongest protections for people in the country without legal status.
The nation’s third-largest city became a so-called sanctuary city in the 1980s, limiting how police can cooperate with federal immigration agents. It has strengthened those policies several times since, including after Trump first took office eight years ago.
The Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, and first-term Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, both Democrats, have said they won’t back off those commitments.
Homan blasted top Democratic leaders in the state during a visit to the Chicago area last month.
“The reality is that, I think there has been a level of fear since Election Day,” Brandon Lee, a spokesperson for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said on Saturday. “We were always operating as though Trump was going to target Chicago and Illinois early in his administration.”
Advocates have been working to inform immigrants of their rights, and creating phone trees to notify people about where and when officers are making arrests. Officers typically work without warrants that entitle them to forcibly enter a home.
“We’re just trying to be as ready as we can,” Lee said. “We’re never going to know all the details [of Ice operations]. But for members of the community, knowing their rights is empowering.”
Jesus García and Delia Ramirez, Democratic members of Congress, urged immigrants in Chicago to remain calm and exercise their rights, particularly to remain silent and refuse to allow officers into their homes without warrants.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed reporting
Memes starting again for Sunday. Next to start some for Wednesday.
Is God Punishing Los Angeles?
Some People Here Game,
and maybe you’ll get a good laugh out of this news I read on Showercap’s blog. Apparently Musk cheats and isn’t really a very good player. Earlier Sat. evening, I saw Musk on an old Big Bang Theory, acting at working in a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving. This was fun news to read after seeing that!
Now I’m not at all a gamer, though once upon a time I did all right at PacMan & Asteroids. I couldn’t care less about this sort of thing, but I find it funny to learn it about Musk. Two story snippets below:
Elon Musk Vs. Asmongold—The Gaming Feud, Explained
Elon Musk is currently in the midst of a feud with Twitch streamer Asmongold, after he was accused of boosting his ‘Path of Exile 2’ account, leading to Musk leaking Asmon’s private DMs.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is in the midst of a heated feud with gaming streamer Zack Hoyt, better known as “Asmongold,” who is accusing Musk of cheating at Path of Exile 2.
Asmongold is not the only gamer accusing Musk of cheating, as the larger gaming community, particularly Path of Exile players, believe that Musk is paying people to play games for him, leveling up his characters and arming them with powerful equipment—a practice known as “boosting.”
After Musk played Path of Exile 2 on a livestream, gamers quickly noticed that his actions did not match that of a proficient player, and compiled a list of evidence on Reddit that strongly implies that Musk is boosting his characters.
Commentators responded in bemused disbelief—one wrote that Musk “doesn’t seem to understand why he can’t pick up items when his inventory is full.”
It should be noted that Path of Exile 2 is a very difficult game that requires a serious time commitment to reach the level that Musk’s character achieved (level 97 on hardcore mode).
The prevailing sentiment is that a man who is running multiple businesses simply does not have time to do this.
What Happened With Elon Musk And Asmongold?
Like many gaming streamers, Asmongold watched Musk’s livestream of Path of Exile 2 and came to the conclusion that Musk did not know how to play the game properly.
Asmon took it a step further, and challenged Musk to prove that he had reached level 97 by himself.
If Musk could prove this, Asmon promised that he would stream on X (Twitter) for a full year. Once the news of Asmon’s challenge made its way to X, Musk didn’t take the criticism very well. (snip-More)
Elon Musk riles up a new corner of the internet: Gamers
Musk’s livestreams in which he plays a popular role-playing game have sparked some in the gaming community to speculate that he’s not the gamer he claims to be.
Elon Musk is battling critics on the internet, again. This time, it’s the video game community.
The tech titan has in recent days taken time away from his roles as SpaceX CEO and adviser to President-elect Donald Trump to call out some of the gaming world’s niche content creators, firing back at accusations that he is not quite the gamer he purports to be.
The allegations amount to a sort of stolen valor for video games and center on some recent livestreams in which Musk played Path of Exile 2, a popular online role-playing game in which players select from a number of characters to end corruption spreading through the fictional world of Wraeclast. When playing on hardcore mode, as Musk does, when a character dies, its death is permanent. As gamers play, their characters level up, increasing in power and capability.
But many gamers have pointed out what they say is a crucial discrepancy. Two of Musk’s characters were particularly powerful — among the top 100 most powerful in the world — when they were “alive” (two characters tied to Musk have since “died” and are now ranked in the 30s and 200s, respectively). The levels of Musk’s now-deceased characters would require dozens if not hundreds of hours of gameplay, depending on the gamer, to achieve. His skills, however, appear to be lacking, according to some gamers.
“I’m a huge fan of Elon Musk — but this is embarrassing and very silly,” Zack Hoyt, who is known as Asmongold to his 3.29 million subscribers on YouTube, said in a video posted Sunday. “It makes him look bad and it’s for absolutely no reason. It’s of no consequence and it achieves no goal.”
Criticism toward the X CEO — who has for years described himself as an avid gamer — began gaining traction online after he livestreamed himself playing Path of Exile 2 on Jan. 7. Days later, in the Reddit community for the game, some accused Musk of having someone “boost” his account, or play for him. Others suggested he’s playing using a more skilled player’s account. (snip-More)
Peace & Justice History for 1/19
| January 19, 1966 |
| The Georgia State House of Representatives refused to seat black state representative Julian Bond despite his election the previous November. |
| Their stated objection was his endorsement of a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee statement accusing the United States of violating international law in Vietnam. In December 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Bond’s exclusion unconstitutional, and Bond was finally sworn in the following month. |  Julian Bond |
| Read more |
| January 19, 1991 |
| 25,000 marched in Washington, D.C. to protest massive U.S. bombing of Iraq in the first Gulf war, Operation Desert Storm. |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january19
Scottie's Playtime 