Ranked Choice Voting in Oregon 

The Oregon Progressive Party issued this statement today regarding their support for Ranked Choice Voting:  

 "The Oregon Progressive Party supports the use of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in the conduct of all elections – both federal and state, primary and General elections – in Oregon. Ranked Choice Voting is an improvement on the conduct of our elections, eliminating the so-called spoiler effect of our present first-past-the-post elections, RCV allows the voter to choice their favorite candidate without worry that by doing so they can be charged with wasting your vote. RCV encourages more candidates to run for office, especially minority candidates. And RCV is very popular with voters. At the ballot recently, voters in both Multnomah County and the City of Portland joined voters in Benton county in approving the use of RCV. It is time for the approval of ranked choice voting in all elections in Oregon. "  

 

Oregon Progressive Party War and Peace Report Feb. 3, 2021 How many US Military Bases Are There in the World? The Soldiers Project reports that they are "roughly 750 US foreign military bases; they are spread across 80 nations! After the U.S is the UK, but they only have 145 bases. Russia has about 3 dozen bases, and China just five. This implies that the U.S has three times as many bases as all other countries combined." The Report goes on to give an estimate of the number of US troops overseas: 154,000 at minimum but the exact total is a secret. Note that this does not include American military bases nor personnel in the United States itself. New military base on Guam As it that were not enough American bases around the world, The United States opened its first new base in 70 years, a 4000 acre base on the island of Guam. The expectation is that 5000 troops will be stationed here. The base was established in cooperation with Japan in order to remove Marine troops from Okinawa. This new base joins another American base on Guam, the Andersen Air Force Base. And 4 new military bases in the Philippines As if roughly 750 military bases were not enough, now the United States has announced that the US will build at least 4 new bases in the Philippines. After these bases are built, the US will have a total nine bases in the Philippines. US Sec. of Defense said that “The United States and the Philippines are more than just allies, We’re family.” More details from The Hill. Japan to beef up it's military forces to, it says, counter China and North Korea In rejection of its pacifist constitution, written following WWII and giving up Japan's right to wage war and the means to do so, Japanese officials have announced a new 5-year plan to expand its Self-Defense Forces. The 5-year plan calls for a $320 billion plan making Japan the world's third-biggest military spender after the United States and China. Japan will double it'sr military expenditures to about 2% of GDP. The increase in military costs will likely mean increases in tobacco, corporate and disaster-reconstruction income taxes. US Australia invite Japan to join joint military exercises AlJazeera reveals that US and Australian officials concluded talks to increase "rotational presence of air, land and sea forces in Australis amid shared concerns over China." “Today, we agreed to deepen our defense cooperation in several important ways,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a joint news conference with his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles, that also included the two nations’ foreign ministers. “Based upon today’s talks, we will increase rotational presence of US forces in Australia. That includes rotations of bomber task forces, fighters and future rotations of US Navy and US Army capabilities,” he said. "The two countries have also agreed to “invite Japan to integrate into our force posture initiatives in Australia”, he said. During the same conference, it was noted that "Washington is planning to deploy up to six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to an air base in the region."

US Senators/Representatives end up voting for the War Budget A couple months ago we run this image in our report. Since then, the Congress did vote overwhelmingly in favor of the largest ever National Defense Authorization Act. Both Sen. Merkley and Wyden voted NO. Representatives Bumenauer and Bonamici also voted voted No on the NDAA. The non-defense portion of the Omnibus Appropriations Bill was an increase of just 5.5% over last year according to a report by the Senate Committee on Appropriations' Sen. Shelby (R- Ala). However, in another vote more recently on the Omnibus Appropriations Act which included funds for all of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), both Senators voted Yes as did Rep. Bumenauer and Bonamci. The Omnibus Appropriations Act totaled $1.7 trillion with more than half being to cover the National Defense Authorization Act. The NDAA was a $76B increase over last year's NDAA, a 10% increase. The Omnibus bill included $47 billion in support of Ukraine war efforts. In a clear indication of American priories, the bill also included just $38 billion for emergency disaster assistance for American hurt by forest fires, flooding and other climate related disasters.

Please call your US Senators and Representative and ask them why they voted for the war budget in the appropriations bill after having voted no in the National Defense Authorizations Act. Find contact info here using your address.