[pjw] REPORT BACK: warmonger out, warmonger in: Friday rally #254 since stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

IAG supporters

For reasons far too dull to repeat here, I didn't arrive at the corner for 
Friday rally until 5:01 PM last night. The two people who'd been wondering 
where I was held down the rally till then, and another "regular" arrived 
at about the same time I did. The four of us were briefly joined by a 
fifth person (for about five minutes) and all went on the march. 
Fortunately, the heavy rain-- the first rain of any kind in weeks in 
notoriously soggy Portland-- went away for our event.

It's not clear whether the loud honking was to support us in general, the 
peace messages, the Palestinian solidarity messages, or the sign I chose 
this week, "Stop the War on Immigrants" (sadly needed now more than ever).
Again a pedestrian said "honk honk" which is becoming more common and 
a few others thanked us for being out there.

Once again I put a noise cancellation filter on the firehose of news and 
talked about these things, recognizing there's a lot more going on:

--Trump explicitly said he wants to "cleanse" Gaza of Palestinians, 
and send them to Egypt and Jordan. Egypt and Jordan say "hell no!"

  https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/theyre-gonna-do-it-okay-trump-obdurate-on-jordan-egypt-taking-in-gazans/

---The re-animated President also revoked Biden's hold on 2000 pound bombs 
for Israel. I supposed one could argue that with humanitarian aid now 
rolling in, the law that allows the US to not fund human rights abusers 
doesn't apply, but I don't think better late than never counts.

  https://www.axios.com/2025/01/25/trump-israel-bomb-shipment-hold-gaza

---The great democracy Israel arrested 12 Palestinians in East Jerusalem 
(which Israel is occupying illegally, remember) for celebrating the 
release of Hamas prisoners. They've apparently made such expressions of 
happiness a crime.

  https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-arrests-12-palestinians-for-celebrating-release-of-detainees-under-gaza-ceasefire-deal/3465650

--Meanwhile in that other cease-fire, the US-backed Israeli Defense Forces 
wounded 24 people in an airstrike. One two part word: CEASE and FIRE. What 
part of that do you not understand?

  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/1/28/live-more-than-300000-palestinians-return-to-devastated-northern-gaza?update=3472922

--This one is REALLY an affront to human rights... Trump ordered the folks 
at Guantanamo Naval Base to prepare to house 30,000 migrants. There's some 
confusion because the base is much bigger than just the (illegal) 
detention facility for post-9/11 forever prisoners, and has been used to 
take in migrants before. However, not on this scale, not as an effort to 
skirt international (& domestic) laws, and not because the US is being run 
by a power-hungry rich white supremacist. Did I say that out loud?

  https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/29/politics/guantanamo-bay-trump-migrants/index.html

--Meanwhile, the so-called anti-war President ordered a US drone strike in 
the now supposedly free Syria, killing an alleged Al Qaida member. Ironic 
since the new government is made up of former Al Qaida members. Hmm.

  https://www.syriahr.com/en/354807/

--I then addressed a military aircraft crash... no, not the one that Trump 
blamed on Diversity Equity and Inclusion training (????), but rather the 
20th crash of an F-35 warplane since they were rolled out about 20 years 
ago. This one was in Alaska. Waste of money, dangerous, shut 'em down!

  https://thedefensepost.com/2025/01/29/usaf-f35-crashes-alaska/

--After the government of Afghanistan displayed goodwill by swapping 
prisoners with the US, Secretary of State Marco Rubio (insert sad trombone 
sound for having to say that phrase) threatened to put bounties on the 
current Afghan leadership.

  https://english.alarabiya.net/News/united-states/2025/01/27/taliban-ambassador-warns-new-us-top-diplomat-rubio-against-bounty-threat-

--In Iraq, they are reconsidering asking the US to leave after the fall of 
Syria, somehow thinking this might increase their vulnerability to 
militants. Not sure how it follows that keeping US troops there... who 
provoke militant activity... is a smart option.

  https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/01/31/iraq-backtracking-us-military-withdrawal-after-syria-regime-change.html

In local news, Portland Police Chief Bob Day put out a statement affirming 
that the PPB will follow Oregon's state sanctuary law and not arrest 
people whose only offense is being in the country without proper 
paperwork. (You know, kind of like the Pilgrims.) His frequently asked 
questions list directly states they also won't help the FBI enforce 
immigration laws via the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

  https://www.portland.gov/police/news/2025/1/28/ppb-chief-addresses-immigration-enforcement-community-letter

Along the march route, I talked about how the IDF has forced 20,000 
Palestinians to flee from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank in the 
10 days of their ongoing raids there. Refugee refugees. Notably 10 days 
was about as long as the ceasefire has been in effect in Gaza. "Hey, 
nobody said anything about the West Bank! Keep that money coming USA!"

  https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-troops-forcibly-displace-20000-palestinians-from-jenin

Urging Elon Musk to cut the bloated military budget, Senator Elizabeth 
Warren pointed out that a contract for soap dispensers went up 8000%. So 
yes, cut those unnecessary military contracts! However, we should divert 
the money to human needs rather than claiming victory on government 
spending.

  https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/01/28/trump-warren-government-spending-cut

About the same performance as usual from the Ann Huntwork Peace Memorial 
Sign... it went out again by the Apple Store. It apparently has nothing to 
do with how long it is on before we get to that block, since I started it 
up about 15 minutes later than usual.

One of our regulars was out sick this week, no details on their ailment, 
but as noted often in this space, we do still encourage masking and 
distancing. If you are up for it, come down some Friday evening and join 
us!

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