[pjw] REPORT BACK: holiday miracles: Friday rally #143 since stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Iraq Affinity Group supporters:

We interrupt this report back with an important spoiler alert: The Ann Huntwork 
Peace Memorial Sign made it all the way around the march this week without 
turning itself off!!! I need to check back to June 2020 when the sign made its 
debut to see if that ever happened before. A holiday miracle.

Anyway, this week's Friday Rally for Peace and Justice included six people who 
attended the whole event. We did get appreciative honks and waves but not as 
much as usual, maybe because it was cold and dark? But it was thankfully dry. 
One man asked why the US keeps throwing money at Ukraine, sounding decidedly 
like a conservative but hey, we can agree on the what without agreeing on the 
why.

This was, I think, the 1103rd Friday rally for peace since it was started in 
November 2001. Sorry I missed #1100!!!

So, what did we talk about at the rally? Here is a sampling:

--As noted earlier to this list, on Tuesday, Gov. Kate Brown commuted all the 
death row sentences in Oregon to life in prison. Gov. Kotek has said she 
supports this move as she is religiously opposed to the death penalty herself. 
I understand survivors' pain, but please do not kill in our name.

  https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2022/12/gov-kate-brown-cleared-oregons-death-row-courts-will-now-decide-if-some-convicted-of-heinous-crimes-get-parole.html

--NATO's secretary general stated late last week that a full war with Russia is 
a possibility as the war with Ukraine escalates. (Two links here because the 
Telegraph article is behind a paywall.)

   https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/12/10/fear-full-blown-war-west-russia-nato-chief-warns/
   https://archive.vn/IofHf

--Russia began bombarding Ukraine heavily after the US promised Patriot 
missiles to the country. Doesn't the phrase adding fuel to the fire mean 
anything to the American government?

  https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/16/europe/ukraine-russia-missile-strikes-friday-intl/index.html

--In a thoroughly disgusting move, the Navy has named a warship the USS 
Fallujah, commemorating the city just north of Baghdad that the US military 
devastated in the Iraq war.

  https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/12/14/shameful-critics-denounce-us-warship-named-fallujah-site-civilian-massacres-iraq

--The White House threatened to veto the Yemen War Powers Resolution (which is 
what Trump did twice...), so Sen. Bernie Sanders withdrew it, hoping to come up 
with a compromise.

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/14/biden-opposes-democratic-bill-saudi

--In Syria, Israel dropped more bombs (with impunity) and then a bunch of 
threatening leaflets.

  https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-said-to-strike-site-in-syrian-golan-drop-threatening-flyers/

--Kosovo, one of the states that came from the dissolution of the former 
Yugoslavia in 1999, is calling for NATO intervention because of clashes with 
Serbians. NATO destroyed your country, folks, don't turn to them for help.

  https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/europe/kosovo-serbia-nato-violence-protests-intl-hnk/index.html

In local news, a shooting in Brookings, Oregon by their police made the 40th 
officer involved deadly force incident of 2022, a new barrier broken (the old 
record was 37 in 2018).

  https://www.currypilot.com/news/suspect-deceased-after-brookings-officer-involved-shooting/article_d973d9f4-7a61-11ed-bae2-67aa378032fd.html

And also a Portland Police Sergeant sexually assaulted a woman at a bar while 
off duty-- in late October-- but Washington County only just pressed charges 
and the PPB released the info yesterday.

  https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2022/12/portland-police-officer-charged-with-sex-abuse-after-allegedly-grabbing-womans-groin-pulling-hair-while-off-duty-at-bar.html

Along the march route I relayed other good news: The UN General Assembly voted 
159-8-10 for both Palestine and Syria to affirm their rights to resources on 
their lands. Voting against were the Marshall Islands, Nauru,
Micronesia, Palau, Chad, Canada and, you guessed it, Israel and the US.

  https://www.radiohc.cu/en/noticias/internacionales/308162-un-adopts-resolution-on-syrian-and-palestinian-sovereignty-over-natural-resources-in-israeli-occupied-territories

And as we headed back to the Square with our fully functioning sign, I noted 
that rather then spend money on human needs, the Senate approved the military 
budget on an 83-11 vote. The good news? Both of Oregon's Senators Wyden and 
Merkley voted against. Six Republicans did not vote.

  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ndaa-senate-passes-annual-defense-spending-bill-rescinds-military-covid-vaccine-requirement/

At the end I announced the special Friday rally coming up on January
13, "30+ People, 21 Years and Many Human Rights Violations in Guantanamo," 
which will start early at 4:30 PM and is cosponsored by Amnesty International 
Group 48.

  https://www.pjw.info/guantanamo21yl.html

As noted last week, COVID's back on the rise; this morning they said about 100 
people have been dying every day in the US, an uptick for the holidays. So 
please be careful out there; we continue to mask up and stay distanced at our 
rallies. Feel free to join is some week if you can.

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