[pjw] REPORT BACK: deadline passed: Friday rally #209 since stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Iraq Affinity Group supporters

Pondering here for a moment that Friday's rally was literally four years 
since the WHO declared COVID a pandemic, and figuratively (declaration was 
on a Friday, but it was the 13th) four years since Oregon's lockdown 
orders. (That day, Copwatch participated in a protest at the then-Police 
Association headquarters in North Portland demanding a people-oriented 
contract.)

Anyway, last night's Friday Rally for Peace and Justice was made up of six 
people enjoying unseasonably warm weather (*cough* climate change 
*cough*). There were not as many pedestrians as I would have expected with 
the thermometer reaching 70 degrees with no rain, but plenty of cars drove 
by and honked approvingly. A _security guard_ stopped, seeing my "IRAQ US 
OUT" sign, to ask if any of us had ever been to Iraq. I cautiously 
offered, "yes, twice but not with the military." He said "me too, but it 
was with the military. And I agree with you guys, we need to get out!" So 
that was a good discussion, plus I was able to hand him a flyer (one of a 
whopping seven I handed out, ok, I need to re-train on literature 
distribution) for next week's event on 21 years since the war on Iraq.

  https://pjw.info/iraq21yl.html

We had a few people shouting denigrating things but as is often the case 
they're saying them while driving by quickly and we can't always hear 
their "messages."

As for this week's headlines, for one of the first times since Oct. 7, the 
opening wasn't about the war in Gaza... though it really was.

--The deadline passed on Tuesday for President Biden to seek 
Congressional approval for his bombing of Yemen under the War Powers 
Resolution. Which, as you recall, is in "response" to the Houthis 
attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea to protest Israel's war. The 
Democrats are afraid to follow up on their hearings questioning the US 
military hostilities during an election year.

  https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-03-15/middle-east-conflicts-revive-clash-between-the-president-and-congress-over-war-powers

--Meanwhile, 100 US troops from Virginia are headed to build a temporary 
port for aid to get to Gaza. It will take months to set up, and hey, "our"
"ally" Israel can easily open up the border crossings to let more aid in. 
But they seem to be engaged in deliberately starving people.

  https://www.barrons.com/news/us-troops-depart-for-mission-to-build-gaza-aid-port-81fb0d9d

---In a surprise move, Senator Chuck Schumer said Israeli PM Netanyahu is 
an obstacle to peace in Israel, noting he is saying this as the highest 
ranking Jewish lawmaker in American history. Republicans scolded him, and 
President Biden put out a cautious statement saying Schumer said what a 
lot of people are thinking. OK, WELL LET'S ACT ON IT!

  https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/14/politics/chuck-schumer-israel-election-comments/index.html

---National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, though, said that there 
is no red line where the US would stop finding Israel, so, guess all 
our talk of making the world safe for democracy and upholding human 
rights is just an ad slogan or something.

  https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/us-national-security-adviser-dismisses-reports-biden-mulling-conditions-on-israel-military-aid-over-rafah-as-uninformed-speculation/

---On another front (literally), Israel bombed Lebanon twice this 
week: they used a drone strike to kill an alleged Hamas leader in the 
south:

  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israeli-strike-lebanon-kills-significant-hamas-member-rcna143134

...and in the north, they (for some reason?) leveled a food warehouse.

  https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pair-israeli-airstrikes-deep-northeastern-lebanon-kill-person-108042487

--The US claimed that Russia talking about how if the West took certain 
actions it would activate their nuclear defense policy was a threat to use 
nukes in Ukraine. Because the truth doesn't matter any more.

  https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/world/kremlin-says-putin-didn-t-threaten-to-use-nuclear-weapons-u-s-took-him-out-of-context/ar-BB1jSKaS

...and to underscore their hypocrisy, the US is sending more cluster bombs 
to Ukraine (to probably kill children) as part of a $300 million package 
of weapons. But wait, you say, no new funds were approved. Yes, but the 
Army found another $300 million in savings in their couch cushions.

  https://taskandpurpose.com/news/ukraine-military-assistance-army/

--Getting to the most frequently asked question at our corner, which is 
"are we still at war?", the US bombed Somalia on Sunday.

  https://news.antiwar.com/2024/03/14/us-launches-airstrike-in-somalia-claims-three-al-shabaab-killed/

--And to next week's theme and the sign I carried, the talks to get the US 
out of Iraq may extend past the American election in November. Wait, what? 
Here's the conversation: "Get out of our country now, don't let the door 
hit you on the way out." "Uh, ok." How will that take 8 months?

  https://www.reuters.com/world/talks-end-us-led-coalition-iraq-may-take-till-after-us-elections-source-2024-03-12/

---In other Iraq news, America's allowed to regulate whether Iran can sell 
electricity to Iraqis, but has done so every four months, the most recent 
listed as the 21st time. Just did the math on that... that's seven years. 
Now US policy is a little less about causing ordinary Iraqis to suffer.

  https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/140320241

In local news, the Portland Police Association (as I wrote to the Copwatch 
list) is up to more shenanigans:

1) At the same time the ACLU filed a challenge to their ballot initiative 
that would gut the new oversight system, the PPA filed their own 
challenge, saying the City's still-too-misleading title should match their 
original very-misleading title.

  https://www.portland.gov/elections/documents/pdx24ol-03-chief-petitioner-william-aitchison-petition-review-ballot-title-0/download

More info here

  https://www.portland.gov/elections/2024-november-general-election-petition-and-measure-log

2) they are demanding 6% bonus pay for any two week period where officers 
work on crowd control for any time during that period. Hmm. Maybe they 
should have to pay the bonus back if they provoke a lawsuit that costs the 
city money?

  https://www.portland.gov/council/documents/ordinance/authorize-loa-ppb-public-order-team

Along the march route, I added to the Israel/Palestine news by talking 
about (brace yourselves) a 12 year old Palestinian who was playing with 
fireworks for Ramadan and was killed by the US-backed Israeli Defense 
Forces. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir applauded the soldiers 
for taking out a "terrorist."


  https://news.antiwar.com/2024/03/13/israels-security-chief-cheers-killing-of-palestinian-child/

And continuing the horrifying logic that spending money to make weapons 
that kill people is good for business/America, the Chair of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff (Gen CQ Brown, I couldn't remember his name last night), 
toured arms factories with Republicans to convince them to vote for 
Ukraine aid. "No, sir, we should spend money on building housing, getting 
people health care and fixing the environment, after all it was SEVENTY 
DEGREES IN PORTLAND IN MARCH," they said. Just kidding.

  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/us-military-chief-tours-arms-plants-with-gop-lawmakers-to-show-that-ukraine-aid-boosts-jobs-at-home/ar-BB1jSjJT

The Ann Huntwork Peace Memorial Sign made it all the way around the corner 
at 4th and Yamhill this week so a few people in the Apple Store probably 
saw it before the gremlins knocked out the power.

My usual suggestion that you should join us is extra special this week 
because we'd like to see a good turnout for the Iraq War event on the 
22nd.... hope to see folks at SW Yamhill and Broadway at 5 PM....

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