[pjw] REPORT BACK: Friday rally #30 under stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

PJW supporters

Wow that's amazing, a full 30 weeks since we took over the Friday Rallies 
for Peace and Justice from Portland Peaceful Response Coalition. That 
means this week's was the 990th rally since November 2001.

Before I get to this week's recap, please check out the video from our 
October 2 rally showing the Ann Huntwork Memorial Sign in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BG3N79Ns1w

While it happened to be scrolling on the "Justice 4" (police 
accountability) message rather than the two antiwar messages that were 
present at the time, it gives you a good idea of how the sign looks when 
it's in motion.

We had five people at yesterday's rally and four on the march, all masked 
up and socially distanced. There was the usual amount of foot and vehicle 
traffic with many supportive expressions. One person yelled something 
about Donald Trump (we weren't sure if they were saying they like or 
dislike him since their car went by so quickly). I did not report to my 
co-demonstrators that a woman who saw the wagon as I was rolling it out of 
the parking garage flipped me off as she drove away. Nice!

Here's some of the news we shared.

While Trump tweeted that all US troops will be out of Afghanistan by 
Christmas, the White House is saying they will reduce the number to 2500 
by early next year, countering the military's skepticism about any 
"early withdrawal."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/16/politics/afghanistan-robert-obrien-mark-milley/index.html

Trump also says he wants to take US troops out of Somalia.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-demands-plan-to-pull-hundreds-of-us-troops-from-somalia/ar-BB19Zg7c

I mentioned that this is interesting since the military just last month 
sought approval (and Congress expressed concern about continuing to use 
the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force) to expand operations 
from Somalia into Kenya.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/us/politics/shabab-drone-authorities-kenya.html

I'm not clear what the outcome of that effort is. However I noted that 
does not mean for any of these countries that the US will necessarily stop 
using drone strikes to attack/kill people.

I noted the ongoing shenanigans involving voter suppression. For example 
because a federal appeals court and state court made different rulings on 
the "one drop box per county" in Texas, "Nobody Knows How Many Drop Boxes 
are Allowed."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2020/10/15/nobody-knows-how-many-ballot-drop-boxes-are-allowed-in-texas/#439f867f7334

I also mentioned how President Trump seems to be on track to use the 
hurried census to get more representatives in states that might favor his 
side.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/10/trump-sabotage-census-apportionment-redistricting.html

(I had also meant to talk about the rushed process of trying to install a 
new conservative Supreme Court Justice but I'm sure people are aware of 
that!)

Turning to local news, I noted that the Compliance Officer who found the 
PPB is out of compliance with the US Dept of Justice Settlement Agreement 
(see last week's report) used his analysis to push for pumping more money 
into the Bureau. Despite his lip service to listening to the Black Lives 
Matter movement, such a call shows he is not supportive of the de-fund 
message of the people who are on the streets and connecting to City Hall. 
For example, he said that because the span of control of Sergeants went 
down from about 5 officers per Sergeant to about 4, that shows the PPB 
needs more officers. Actually, it shows they need __fewer Sergeants.___ Am 
I right?

Later on during the march when talking about redirecting military and 
police funds to human needs, I also noted that the compliance report cited 
an article saying Portland spends the 49th highest percentage of 50 large 
cities on the police-- 4.4%. But that likely doesn't take into account 
that, for instance, the City of Portland does the billing for water and 
sewage, a huge chunk of non-discretionary funds. Like those who lump in 
Social Security to make the US military budget seem smaller, that total is 
misleading. The same article shows Portland spends the 31st highest of 
those cities in raw numbers, $245 million.

https://247wallst.com/special-report/2020/06/24/how-much-money-goes-to-police-departments-in-americas-largest-cities/7/

Meanwhile, Israel is planning to build more settlements in the West Bank 
to celebrate the UAE recognizing its statehood.

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-massively-expand-settlements-after-uae-normalization

This despite the UAE stating at the UN that they still support the 
Palestinian cause.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/at-un-general-assembly-uae-reiterates-firm-demand-for-palestinian-state/

Back to the scrolling sign-- it conked out 1/2 block earlier than usual, 
just as we turned from 4th Ave onto Yamhill this week. Who knows what's up 
with all that. FYI when I describe the sign "freezing up" I mean it stops 
scrolling temporarily due to whatever electromagnetic pulses it (and we) 
are being subjected to, but everywhere else works fine.

Finally another reminder that the state limit on public gatherings is 
currently 25 people (though it could go back down to 10) so if you want to 
join us please RSVP so we know to expect you.

Thanks!

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