[pjw] REPORT BACK: climate woes: Friday rally #225 since stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello peaceful people

Last night the bank clock told us it was only 91 degrees downtown although 
Portland reached 99 degrees at its high point yesterday. Several people 
didn't come to the Friday Rally for Peace and Justice because of the 
weather. At first there were just two of us there; a third person arrived 
and stayed for a short while, overlapping with a regular attendee who made 
it after the announcements were over at about 5:30. So overall four of us. 
We did not march due to the heat, but the sun somehow peeked around the 
tall buildings that usually leave us in the shade and it got rather warm 
anyway.

There were not a lot of honking horns, not sure if that is related to the 
heat, but quite a few people stopped to take literature and/or chat. First 
was a Palestinian man who was glad we were calling for peace. Somewhere 
along the way someone may have said negative words to us and one person 
just walked away laughing. But overall, we were able to give out 20 
quarter-sheet flyers about the rally and at least 25 Noor Ghazi flyers 
reminding people to watch the video. I spent a large portion of the event 
putting stickers on the remaining "livestream" flyers so they say "watch 
the video," something I'd planned to do while at the office but, well, 
things don't always work out the way one plans.

ANYWAY a lot of things happened this week, here are just some of the 
headlines.


--An Israeli lawmaker called for his country to "nuke Iran," 
which is extraordinary both for its callousness toward other 
human beings and being an essential admission that Israel has 
nuclear weapons. (They have a "deliberate policy of ambiguity" 
on the matter.)

  https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2024/07/04/senior-israeli-lawmaker-suggests-nuclear-attack-on-iran/

---The total number of Palestinians reported killed is now about 38,000 as 
Israel bombed both north and south Gaza again this week.

  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/30/six-palestinians-killed-as-israeli-forces-pound-southern-northern-gaza

---On another of at least four fronts the Israelis are fighting (Gaza, 
West Bank, Syria and...), they launched another airstrike in Lebanon this 
week killing another Hezbollah leader.

  https://apnews.com/article/hezbollah-lebanon-israel-war-gaza-989e915fc0edbabbb4ac09343698623c

--Meanwhile, back in this country's downward spiral, the Supreme Court 
made an immunity ruling saying Presidents cannot be prosecuted for any 
official act, including that people in their administration can't be 
called to testify about them. This article points out that since 
the US refuses to adhere to international law, there are now no 
guardrails on President war powers.

  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/4/what-could-the-supreme-courts-immunity-ruling-mean-for-us-foreign-policy

--Next week in Washington, DC, the belligerent North Atlantic Treaty 
Organization is set to meet and pledge $43 billion to Ukraine in 2025, 
because what good is a military alliance when no wars are going on?

  https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/nato-members-agree-40-billion-euro-financial-pledge-ukraine-diplomats-say-2024-07-03/

--A US official explicitly stated (a) that (despite earlier reports) 
Americans have no intention on pulling out of Syria and (b) that those 
troops are there under a UN mandate about ending the "crisis" in Syria. No 
matter that the resolution doesn't authorize foreign troops setting up 
bases and killing people.

  https://www.rudaw.net/english/interview/04072024

--In Iraq, a new Turkish airstrike killed 37 people in the Kurdish region, 
and as previously noted the Iraqi government has stopped objecting to 
these cross-border bombings.

  https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2024/07/turkey-launches-airstrikes-against-kurdish-militants-iraq

--For July 4, Oregon Air National Guard fighter planes flew all over the 
state showing off aggressive militarism and a complete disregard for the 
destruction of the environment. No wonder our temperatures keep climbing 
since our government casually burns fossil fuels for "entertainment."

  https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2024/07/military-jets-to-conduct-flyovers-for-july-4-schedule-for-western-southern-oregon.html

In more localized local news, City Council is poised this Wednesday to pay 
another settlement for police brutality. They will give $11,500 to a 
person knocked violently to the ground during a protest outside the 
Portland Police Association headquarters in 2020. The total amount paid 
out just for police violence in 2020 is well over $2.5 million.

  https://www.portland.gov/council/documents/ordinance/settlement-kelcie-ulmers-bodily-injury-lawsuit

Since we didn't march, I added the usual extra bits of news just before we 
called it a day at 5:45 PM:

Five Palestinians were killed this week by Israeli bombing raids in the 
West Bank. This brings the total number of Palestinians killed in the 
_other_ occupied enclave to over 560 since October 7.

  https://www.newarab.com/news/five-palestinians-killed-israeli-raids-west-bank

Side note: I realized by re-reading last week's article about the Israeli 
soldier who was killed that eight "security forces" have been killed since 
October. Not sure if they were all soldiers but apparently more than the 
one I reported.

Meanwhile, the US Army is going to spend $4.5 billion on making more 
Patriot missiles. Guess how many missiles that buys you? 870. That means 
each one costs about $5 million. And we have people living on the streets, 
dying for lack of health care and unable to pay for education????

  https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-patriot-missile-contract/

Nothing surprising to report about the Ann Huntwork Peace Memorial Sign-- 
it stayed on the entire time since we never left the Square!

Well, it looks like there could be 90 degree plus weather again next 
Friday, so we may need to consider finding more shady places to hand out 
our literature and educate the public about peace. Hope that more folks 
can join us, but be sure to only come downtown if you feel safe about it 
(and bring lots of water to drink!).

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