home archives last week feedback

Rolla Peace News

January 23,2025
Dear Friends:
Editor's notes:

The Rolla Peace Newsletter is published on an occasional basis (perhaps monthly or bimonthly).

Webperson's note:

If you are having trouble reading this, it is posted at
http://tomsager.org/Peaceletters/peaceletter012325.html
In this newsletter is:

1. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          a) Gaza Ceasefire: Give Credit Where Credit Is Due
          b) How About the Ukraine?
          c) BRICS to Abandon US Dollar
          d) Drill, Baby, Drill — Burn, Baby, Burn
          e) Climate Catastrophe Updated
          f) Leonard Peltier's Sentence Commuted
          g) Flying is for the Birds

Gaza Ceasefire: Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

After more than 15 months of genocide, we have a ceasefire in Gaza and, although atrocities continue, the bombing has stopped and humanitarian aid is getting in, 2400 trucks in four days. How long will the ceasefire hold? Your guess is as good as mine.

But let's give Donald Trump credit. Clearly, without his threats and diplomacy this would not have happened.

Whatever else one might think of Donald Trump, it is important to give credit where credit is due. After all, we want him to continue to work for Peace. Don't we? Voices crediting Donald Trump for engineering a ceasefire before even taking office are few and far between. Certainly, the Biden administration could have forced a ceasefire at any time during the 15-months of genocide but chose not to.

I am reminded here of how Bernie Sanders torpedoed his campaign in 2020 by giving China credit for feeding its vast population and Cuba credit for providing health care to its people. Why are we so opposed to giving others credit for what they do right?

How About the Ukraine?

Trump bragged he would end the Russo-Ukrainian War on his first day in office. Four days into the Trump presidency it hasn't happened. Why not?

Trump holds all the aces in Gaza. Israel cannot continue its war against Gaza without US diplomatic and military support. In Ukraine, its Russia that holds the aces. Trump has threatened more sanctions on Russia. But sanctions against Russia just seem to make Russia stronger and the West weaker (in spite of what the “experts” may tell you).

Russia is in no hurry to make a deal. It continues to advance along the front in Ukraine, while Ukraine's invasion of Kursk appears stalemated.

NATO appears fragmented, not knowing how to proceed. Fortunately, the West appears to have no stomach for an all-out war against Russia, which could easily escalate to global nuclear war.

BRICS to Abandon US Dollar

The BRICS group of countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates) intend to totally abandon the US dollars in their trade relations within the economic alliance in the next three years. This will constitute a huge blow to the US dollar as the reserve world currency and make it much more difficult for the United States to use unilateral sanctions as a weapon against other countries. Other countries, such as Algeria, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Vietnam have also shown interest in joining BRICS.

Drill, Baby, Drill — Burn, Baby, Burn

As the climate continues to warm, Trump seems poised to increase the use and development of climate-warming fossil fuels.

I'm sure you have all heard that 2024 has been declared the warmest year on record, beating out 2023 by a significant margin. And that the “experts” predict that 2025 will be the third warmest year on record behind only 2024 and 2023.

Some stats that you might not have heard:

Nine years after the Paris Climate Accords, year to year increases in atmospheric CO2 concentrations set a record in 2024 at 3.53 ppm. (Mauna Loa)

October and November 2024 were the first months to break the 1.5°C above the 1850-1900 average barrier outside of an El Nino event. (NOAA)

Meanwhile, extreme weather in 2025 got off to a strong start with the Southern California fires that have killed at least 27 and are estimated to have done up to $250 billion in damages.

Los Angeles County was home to an estimated 75,000 unhoused folks before the fires. They have been joined by former residents of the elite Pacific Palisades mansions, many of which have burned to the ground.

Clearly, the Paris Climate Accords that Trump will be pulling the United States out of are not working. Perhaps, the Trump administration can come up with something better to offer. I hope so.

Climate Catastrophe Updated

My ongoing essay, Climate Catastrophe, has been updated with end-of-year data. Check it out. Warning: I did my best to be as factual as possible. It isn't pretty.

Leonard Peltier's Sentence Commuted

In his last days in office, Joe Biden commuted Amerindian activist Leonard Peltier's life in prison sentence. Peltier will be going home to spend the rest of his days with his family. At close to 50 years, Peltier is the longest held political prisoner in the United States. He was convicted of murder on Trumped up charged using manufactured evidence.

Congratulations, Leonard Peltier!

Thank you Joe Biden.

Flying is for the Birds

According to Russia Today, India has successfully trained eagles to take out flying drones. As always, nature does it best. (For those who think everything at rt.com is Russian propaganda, you can read about this development here in Newsweek too.)

The recent airplane disaster in South Korea that killed 179 appears to have been caused by a flock of kamikaze birds. Authorities noted the bird attack shortly before the crash. Investigators have found bird feathers and blood in both engines.

When Alfred Hitchcock directed his famous thriller, The Birds, in which birds get fed up with humans and begin to fight back, he was way ahead of his time.

=================
Rolla Peace News is written occasionally (perhaps once a month) and distributed by email. It is posted on the web at http://tomsager.org (click on Rollaites for Peace: near the top of rightmost column).

If you don't wish to get notices of peace events in the Rolla area, let me know and I'll take you off this list.

If you want to be added to this list, let me know.
Wage peace,
Tom
yushasager (at) yahoo.com 


###