[pjw] REPORT BACK: the heavens are crying: Friday rally #255 since stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello again peaceful people

Our "weather-alert"-heavy possible ice and snow week ended with a mostly 
beautiful day Friday... until the middle of our rally and march when it 
decided to start raining on us. *sigh.*

Last night we had seven people at the Friday Rally for Peace and Justice. 
Six of us started out on the march and five were still there at the end.
We had many supporters, including people who wanted to get pictures of 
some of our signs including the "Stop the War on Immigrants" one. We did 
have a few detractors, more than one of whom seemed to be directing their 
comments at the "Free Palestine" signs saying "Thanks for starting World 
War III" and the like. Uh, ok? (My opinion is we've been soaking in WWIII 
since the USA decided to attack Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11 instead of 
investigating it and examining the policies that led to it... including US 
policy in Israel/Palestine...)

We were able to hand out all 30 of the new flyers I created for our March 
21 Friday Rally to mark 22 years since the US invasion of Iraq. I will 
post the details to our website this weekend and send a separate email 
with details once it's ready.

Difficult again to narrow things down for whatever the opposite of a "slow 
news week" is, but here's most of what we talked about. "Trigger warning": 
many of the sentences start with the word "Trump":

--Trump continues to say the US will take over Gaza, and turn it into a 
resort. He had the gall to say Palestinians shouldn't have to live there 
since it's been reduced to rubble. Yeah by the weapons the US fed the 
Israelis and the warfare our government refused to stop!!! Geez.

  https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5133161-donald-trump-gaza-proposal-israel-takeover/

--Trump wants access to Ukraine's minerals if they are to keep getting 
aid. Remember I noted earlier that his idea of how to end the war there 
was going to include some kind of shenanigans. (One heckler told me the 
minerals are "ours" so what's the big deal?)

  https://news.antiwar.com/2025/02/03/trump-says-he-wants-ukraine-to-guarantee-access-to-rare-earth-in-exchange-for-military-aid/

--Trump put sanctions on the International Criminal Court for 
investigating and putting out warrants for Israeli war crimes. I guess you 
can't really influence an international institution when you (the US and 
Israel) don't recognize their legitimacy by, you know, joining.

  https://apnews.com/article/trump-icc-sanctions-israel-order-01beee050ae84d0d9eae66d00bc8ead9

--A news report says that the immigrants being sent to Guantanamo may be 
put in the post 9/11 prison camp, not the refugee center that existed 
prior to that time. The first planeloads of people already went despite 
the dubiousness of whether it's legal or not. Just when we thought it was 
about to get shut down, too...

  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-admin-plans-use-notorious-guantanamo-detention-facility-nearby-t-rcna190707

--As I noted in an earlier email, Trump signed an executive order to ramp 
up sanctions on Iran, but said he was reluctant to do so and stated 
on camera that most Iranian leaders don't want nuclear weapons. A good 
piece on this by Trita Parsi is here:

  https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-iran-executive-order/

--As if there needs to be more international tension with Trump ordering 
tariffs on China, American warplanes joined Filipino ones flying over 
a disputed area near China.

  https://news.antiwar.com/2025/02/04/us-bombers-join-philippine-jets-in-flight-near-chinese-controlled-shoal/

--I asked if anyone in the crowd can unpack this one, and I got no reply, 
so feel free to explain if you can. Syrian troops, loyal presumably to the 
new government grown from Al Qaeda-linked militants, pushed into Lebanon 
to put down Hezbollah. ?

  https://themedialine.org/headlines/syrian-army-advances-into-lebanese-territory-clashes-with-hezbollah/

---Also in Syria, the broken-clock President is talking about removing the 
US' 2000 (not 900) troops from there. He tried in his first term but caved 
to pressure from the military. After the fall of the Assad regime, let's 
see if anything changes.

  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/dod-drafting-plans-withdraw-us-troops-syria-recent-trump-comments-rcna190726

--For what it's worth the Virginia house passed keep the guard home 
legislation on a 99-0 vote! Similar legislation is being proposed in 
Oregon this year, but it says the Guard can only be called up for declared 
wars (OK) or "insurrection" or "repelling an invasion." Unless that's 
clearly defined so as not to include Black Lives Matter protests and 
immigrants arriving for a better life, maybe wait for another time?

  https://news.antiwar.com/2025/02/04/virginia-house-unanimously-passes-defend-the-guard-act/
  https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/archivebills/2001_SB667.pdf

--In Iraq, US or US-supported airstrikes killed 5 people, supposedly 
members of ISIS. And people keep asking why I carry a sign that says "IRAQ 
US OUT."

  https://news.antiwar.com/2025/02/05/centcom-says-five-isis-members-killed-in-us-backed-airstrikes-in-iraq/

In local news, Thursday was a deadline given to the City to appoint 
members to nominate the new police oversight board. I've heard absolutely 
nothing about that having happen, but that doesn't mean much since they 
City has been terrible communicating about the progress of the new system. 
Remember, it was voted into place in Nov. 2020, the Police Accountability 
Commission proposed how it would work in September, 2023, and it's now 
February 2025 and we got bupkis (not the Pete Davidson series).

Along the march route, I noted that Doctors Without Borders reports 
Israel has been attacking hospitals and blocking medical aid in the West 
Bank (again, now that there's a ceasefire of sorts in Gaza). The same 
article says there are now over 1000 dead in the eastern occupied 
territory, meaning things have accelerated in the last month or so since 
that ceasefire on the other side of Israel.

  https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/healthcare-under-siege-israel-waging-violence-west-bank-warns-msf

One name I didn't mention in the rally was that of Elon Musk, who could 
not run for President because he wasn't born in the US, so instead he paid 
for an election and is now running rampant doing whatever he wants. He and 
his cronies are slashing the budget-- though it is all stuff that was 
approved by Congress, so, huh? He's started by shutting down US AID, 
saying it's "Marxist" though it pretty explicitly is imperialist, trying 
to win "hearts and minds" instead of, I don't know, HELPING PEOPLE BECAUSE 
IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. Why not start with the most bloated budget of 
all, the military, and redirect that money to things people need? FYI I'm 
not sure of the actual status but this story says the functions of US AID 
are being added to the State Department.

  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/usaid-merged-into-state-department/

Not sure if it was the rain or if the Gucci Store started up its signal 
jammer again, but the Ann Huntwork Peace Memorial Sign went out 1 block 
"early" on the east side of Pioneer Place Mall instead of the south side.

So if you can't join us right away, do join us in six weeks for
"The US Lied About How Many Troops Are in Iraq-- Time to Get Them All Out!
--22 Years After the Invasion--" on Friday March 21. It'll be same time, 
same place: SW Broadway and Yamhill, 5 PM. Right now the War Resisters 
League is endorsing, if your group wants to help publicize the event and 
turn folks out let us know.

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