[pjw] REPORT BACK: War powers: Friday rally #118 since stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Iraq Affinity Group supporters:

Last night we finally returned to dry weather at Pioneer Courthouse Square 
for the Friday Rally for Peace and Justice. Ultimately there were six 
people at the rally and for much of the march, with a few people breaking 
away and at least one heading to the Democratic Socialists of America's 
Roe v. Wade protest a few blocks from our march route. The rest of us 
returned to the Square.

We had about an average amount of positive reception... but we also had a 
man who seemed to be high on something who first tried to take the 
"bullhorn," then ripped down the face mask of one of our folks, tried to 
get mine, and failing that, started picking up signs from the wagon one at 
a time and tossing them onto the sidewalk and into the street. His 
political awareness was obvious when he asked "who is Assan-gay?" before 
throwing that sign about Julian Assange onto the MAX tracks. I rolled the 
wagon a few feet and he went away shouting at nobody in particular. We 
recovered the signs and picked up the announcements where I left off. (It's 
not clear why, but the security guards outside of Nordstrom's across the 
street apparently handcuffed him before we headed out on the march, and 
3-4 police cars had shown up by this time. I don't think this had anything 
to do with us as nobody came to ask us anything.)

I let folks know they can watch back the Ann Wright event from Monday on 
our youtube page:

https://www.youtube.com/peaceandjusticeworks

(I just checked, it's up to 18 views now...)

Here are some of the other things we talked about.

--I'm sure you've heard that the Supreme Court made it easier to carry 
guns, but made life more difficult for women this week.

  https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-gun-politics-gay-rights-government-and-273d1eb9b6f7af60e1a967e2d47b75df

--Good news, though: Congress is working on a War Powers Resolution, HJ 
Res 87, to stop US military participation in the war in Yemen. Only Reps. 
Blumenauer and DeFazio are signed on right now. Republican Cliff Bentz 
reacted to the overturning of Roe v. Wade saying "every life is sacred." 
OK, then you should sign on to stop this (and every other) war!

  https://demandprogress.org/supportforyemenWPR/

--In Syria, you may remember an article from April about an apparent 
attack on a US base... which of course has no legal reason to exist. It's 
now been revealed that was an "inside job"-- a US service member set off 
the explosion.

  https://taskandpurpose.com/news/syria-insider-attack-green-village/

--Riddle me this: How do four detainees in one of the most remote prisons 
in the world-- Guantanamo Bay-- get COVID? It's not like they were out at 
a super-spreader event or that the other 33 prisoners gave it to them.

  https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/guantanamo-several-detainees-test-positive-covid-19

--Israel made it clear they are working with the US to build a 
Mid-east alliance to fight a war against Iran.

  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/20/world/middleeast/israel-arab-military-alliance.html

--The new parliament of Iraq was seated, with the seats vacated by Al Sadr 
and his party filled by supporters of Nouri Al Malaki, a former Prime 
Minister who has a mixed history of whether or not to support the US 
presence there.

  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iraq-parliament-oks-new-al-maliki-government/

Along the march route I noted that in a case about Arkansas, an Appeals 
Court found that a government can require contractors to pledge not to 
boycott Israel, (wrongly) claiming that boycotts are commercial, not 
political speech.

  https://mondoweiss.net/2022/06/in-landmark-ruling-court-of-appeals-allows-states-to-enforce-anti-bds-pledges/

---Also, Netanyahu may come back in power with the Israeli Knesset 
(parliament) about to dissolve, AGAIN.

  https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rj3behay9

As the last three of us got back near the Square, I noted that they House 
is "only" seeking to bump the military budget by $37 billion to $850 
billion, not the $858 billion proposed by the Senate. As Norman Solomon 
said many years ago, this is a wide range of debate from point A to point 
B. How about cutting the military budget and funding human needs?

  https://www.militarytimes.com/congress/2022/06/22/no-consensus-yet-on-military-spending-for-next-year-except-for-more-of-it/

One of the people at the rally this week hasn't been there for over two 
years. I know this because they had never seen the Ann Huntwork Peace 
Memorial Sign, whose two year anniversary was last week!* This person also 
got to see the return of the Gucci store's revenge, as the sign went out 
by that fancy retailer for the first time in three weeks. Wah-wah (sad 
trombone sound).

As always, we welcome more people to join us any Friday at 5 PM if you are 
so inclined, physically able and safety-minded willing.

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

*- for those playing along at home, last week I wrote "more on the sign, 
below" and though I mentioned the sign in the report on the Patrick 
Kimmons rally, I had meant to mention the anniversary AND that Patrick 
Kimmons' name has been on the scroll about "Justice4" since we started 
using it.