[pjw] REPORT BACK: Friday rally #8 under stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello PJW supporters

Yesterday's Friday rally for peace and justice, now more than 18-1/2 years 
running, was attended by 5 people, two from PJW and three from Portland 
Peaceful Response Coalition. Most of us had face coverings. We as usual 
carried signs and marched without chanting after spending a short time at 
Pioneer Courthouse Square "rallying."

We received quite a number of supportive honks and waves and, so far as I 
noticed, no hecklers for a change. As we walked away with the signs in tow 
in the little green wagon of peace, someone asked us what was going on in 
Syria. Unforunately I had forgotten our fact sheets, which have a brief 
note about the US guarding Syria's oil fields.

http://pjw.info/iraq17ylfacts.pdf

This week's political discussions included continued dialogue about the 
moves toward (and away from) global cease fire, the botched Venezuelan 
"Bay of Pigs" invasion by a former green beret, and news about how Israel 
stopped conducting coronavirus tests in Gaza a few weeks ago.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200422-israel-stops-coronavirus-tests-in-gaza/

In noted that in "for what it's worth" good news, the US has not 
conducted any (known) drone strikes in Yemen since April 2019. That 
information came from the usually reliable Airwars website.

https://airwars.org/report/airwars-monthly-assessment-march-2020/

However after saying that at the rally I also found this article from 
February in which the US admitted a drone strike to kill an "Al Qaeda 
leader."

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/481950-trump-announces-death-of-al-qaeda-leader-in-yemen-after-us-strike

and this one from November 1

  http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-11/02/c_138521904.htm

and this from May 2019.

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/5/7/us-drone-strike-in-yemen-kills-four-al-qaeda-militants

That's too bad as Airwars is now the main source for drone warfare 
information after the Bureau for Investigative Journalism stopped tracking 
them for some reason.

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/projects/shadow-wars

Oh well, nobody's perfect. I myself am finding it harder to stay as 
focused as I was before the panedemic-- anyone else have that same sense?

We also noted, as we do each week, that the trillions of dollars spent on 
the military (and even just the wars in Iraq and Afgshanistan) could be 
used to fund the coronavirus emergency bills, not to mention providing 
universal medical care.

And I reminded folks (and am reminding you all) that Portland Copwatch is 
still asking for people to contact its incident report line (503-321-5120) 
if they get warned, cited or arrested for violating the stay at home 
orders, as we want to track whether police action is being enforced 
inequitably. Stories have already been flooding in from other 
jurisdictions about just such biased enforcement, including this viral 
video of the NYPD beating up on a man at a protest.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8283169/Shocking-moment-NYPD-officer-beats-bystander-ground-social-distancing-arrest.html

We have some plans cooking for an experimental addition to the rallies 
which should be ready in a few weeks, we will keep you posted. In the 
meantime, we're continuing to keep the events small and compliant with 
social distancing rules to maintain our focus on ending US wars and 
violence.

I've been including this note as a footnote in recent weeks but wanted to 
re-post it here in the main body: "Don't forget-- we need your donations 
to be able to keep doing this work! Any amount from $5 to $250 is 
great; you can set up monthly, quarterly or annual donations on line at 
Network for Good via our web link at http://www.pjw.info/pjwdonate.html ."

Thanks and peace

--dan handelman
Peace and Justice Works
    Iraq Affinity Group
    PO Box 42456
    Portland, OR   97242
    (503) 236-3065  (Office)
    iraq at pjw.info
    http://www.pjw.info/Iraq.html