[pjw] REPORT BACK: Your Tax Dollars: Friday rally #108 since stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello again peaceful people

Last week, we had a rally of four and a march of five people; this week, 
six people were at the rally but only five went on the march. We had three 
people out who were not feeling well and we wish them all the best and 
hope to see them soon.

As I noted in my opening "housekeeping" remarks, the mask mandate on 
transit has been extended again until May 3.

https://www.transit.dot.gov/TransitMaskUp

So we continue to ask people to attend masked up and distanced at least 
until then; PJW will assess the risk factors whenever the mandate is 
lifted.

The "Honk if you hate war, war profits and empire" sign brought a lot of 
responses. It would be interesting to ask how many of those people 
understand that is about the United States (as well as other imperialist 
nations). Once again we had decent weather-- so that's fifteen weeks with 
only a light drizzle on one of our rallies.

Here are some of the headlines from this week:

--Monday is Tax Day, and the War Resisters League says that the $978 
billion spent on the military is down to representing just 37% of the 
budget, but it's still too high. You can't download their fact sheet but 
you can see images of it and read the text here:

  https://www.warresisters.org/just-time-tax-season-its-wrls-famous-pie-chart-where-your-income-tax-money-really-goes

--The US has approved $800 million more in military weapons going to 
Ukraine:

  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/biden-approves-800m-in-artillery-helicopters-for-ukraine/ar-AAWbTiW?ocid=EMMX&cvid=28964c81defb44c29fa751b41b1555ea

---which Russia rightfully calls adding fuel to the fire.

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/04/14/russia-warns-us-stop-arming-ukraine/

---Also adding to that fire, several northern European countries unlikely 
to be attacked by Russia are now scrambling to join NATO, part of what led 
to the current situation in the first place.

  https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/finland-sweden-move-ahead-nato-membership-84057499

--In Iraq, the US (which has been SOOOO helpful in stabilizing that 
country) is pressuring them to form a government.

  https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/140420221

--As with just about everything Israel's doing these days (see below) the 
world sits silent as they launched another attack in Syria this week.

  https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/israeli-air-strikes-hit-near-syrias-capital-damascus-1.1649981049908

--But here is some good news: This was the first week since 2015 that 
there have been no reported airstrikes in Yemen. Maybe the cease fire will 
lead to peace?

  https://news.antiwar.com/2022/04/11/ceasefire-holds-yemen-has-first-week-without-airstrikes-since-2015/

In local news, I brought an update about the Clean and Safe contract 
that's been kicked around at City Council for the last month. On 
Wednesday, the Council went ahead and approved the plan to let the 
Portland Business Alliance pay for four police officers for two more years 
before switching the funding to taxpayers. Commissioner Carmen Rubio 
successfully added an amendment to reduce the weaning off process from the 
following 2 years (2024-26) to just one year (2024-25).

  https://www.portland.gov/council/agenda/2022/4/13

(item #264)

Along the march route, I relayed the news that Israel killed four more 
Palestinians in the West Bank in a 24 hour period, including a teen. And 
with everyone focused on Ukraine, the escalation in the West Bank seems 
off most people's radars.

  https://mondoweiss.net/2022/04/israel-kills-four-palestinians-including-one-child-in-span-of-24-hours/

As we headed back to the Square, I gave a little more detail about where 
our tax money is going according to WRL: The $978 Billion includes $730 
billion in pentagon money plus veterans benefits and 80% of the national 
debt, which they call past war spending. The good news is that the slice 
of the budget for human needs is finally up to 50%-- but that's still not 
enough, with war profiteers salivating since those weapons for Europe have 
to come from somewhere.

  https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/no-matter-who-wins-russia-ukraine-war-wests-arms-suppliers-are-already-a-winner/ar-AAWeGhP

I have no news about the Ann Huntwork Peace Memorial Sign this week 
because a new technical glitch took place: The generator that powers it 
had a reading of 43% after last week's rally, but when I went to turn it 
on last night it was at ZERO. I've never seen that before and don't know 
why it happened, but it goes along with a larger trend of things at PJW 
breaking down due to possible gremlin infestation. For instance, the ramp 
leading up to our front door rotted out so badly that my foot went through 
it as I was loading the car for the rally. *Sigh.*

I re-announced the Col. Ann Wright livestream event we're planning for 
Monday June 20; I didn't get to the publicity this week due to work on the 
Copwatch newsletter but hope to have it ready next week.

The new person who joined the march last week did not show up yesterday, I 
hope we didn't scare him off. We welcome folks to "come on down" and be 
part of our weekly presence for peace, coming up on its 20 and a half year 
anniversary next month.

thanks
--dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group