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Rolla Peace News

February 18, 2020
Dear Friends:

Note from webperson: If you are having trouble reading this, it is posted at

 http://tomsager.org/Peaceletters/peaceletter021820.html

          In this newsletter is:

1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2020
2. BERNIE SANDERS DEBATE WATCHING PARTY: 7:30PM, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020
3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          a) From Our Readers: Wuhan Coronavirus
          b) January 2020: A Truly Remarkable Month for Global Warming
          c) The War Against Afghanistan

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1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2020

We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office, THIS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, FROM NOON TO 1:00 PM (and most subsequent Thursdays until Peace is established). Please join us again this Thursday in saying NO WAR AGAINST IRAN or any other country. The temperature is predicted to be in the 30s. If you do not feel comfortable standing with us in front of the Post Office, please consider driving by and showing your support for our message by honking your horn and flashing a peace sign.

This Thursday we will begin our 14th year of weekly vigils for Peace.

2. BERNIE SANDERS DEBATE WATCHING PARTY: 7:30PM, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020

Help Bernie become our next President. Details here.

Helen and I support Bernie because we think he is our best chance to avoid the twin catastrophes of war without end and global climate change.

Bernie won the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary by thousands of votes.

3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          a) From Our Readers: Wuhan Coronavirus
          b) January 2020: A Truly Remarkable Month for Global Warming
          c) The War Against Afghanistan

From Our Readers: Wuhan Coronavirus

In response to last week's post in which I wrote:
“The United States, with it's for-profit health industry, is perhaps the least able of all wealthy countries to respond positively to such an epidemic. How do you fight an epidemic when a large part of your population is too poor to afford to go to a doctor? How do you fight an epidemic when a large part of your population is so afraid, that it would not bring itself to the attention of the authorities anyway? How do you fight an epidemic in a society that has become so used to blaming others for everything that goes wrong, that it has lost its power of introspection?”
A reader writes in:
“You say that the United States is the least able of the wealthy countries to respond to the epidemic. I have no idea whether you consider China a wealthy country, but it is certainly an economic powerhouse. Because of its secrecy and stonewalling it has certainly proved itself the least able to deal with such a crisis. I suspect that if Trump stays out of the way, our infrastructure will handle it okay. The CDC is very professional, and seems to be dealing with this correctly.”
My response:

I stand with World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and many others in believing that China has done an admirable job in responding to the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. Do you think the United States could have quarantined a city the size of Wuhan? Do you think the US could build hospitals as quickly as China has? China has a system of universal health care and a history of top-down social control that permits rapid responses to public health emergencies. We do not.

Reading US Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross's gloating remarks about the damage the coronavirus will do to the Chinese economy and the possible boost to the US economy, the first thing that popped into my mind was biological warfare and sabotage. Apparently, I was not the only one thinking along these lines. Here is a three part article about US biological warfare and sabotage including attempts to spread plague and other disease among the North Koreans and Chinese during the Korean War.
Part 1: Biological Weapons: A Useful and Timely Factual Overview

Part 2: The Geopolitical Deployment of Biological Weapons

Part 3: Genetically Modified Seeds: Conceived as a Weapon
[Hey, Wilbur, You're getting senile. You weren't supposed to say that in public.]

This article comes to me by way of Gary Kohls.

I highly recommend this three part article on biological warfare, although I would have liked to have seen mentioned:
1. The use of smallpox as a biological weapon against our Amerindian population. Smallpox could be as much as 95% fatal to a population that lacked immunity.

2. HIV/AIDS, which (in my opinion and that of others) was quite likely manufactured in a US military laboratory.

3. The use of bogus vaccination campaigns by the CIA to gather information. Such campaigns sow distrust of health workers and public health in general. (Consider the case of Shakil Afridi and the CIA attempt to gather information on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden through a bogus hepatitus vaccination campaign in Pakistan.)
And don't forget that 30 miles down the road from Rolla lies Fort Leonard Wood, home of the U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School.

January 2020: A Truly Remarkable Month for Global Warming

Not only was January 2020 the warmest January on record, it was the fourth most anomalously warm month on record. January 2020 was 1.14°C. above the average of all Januarys in the 20th Century.

The three most anomalously warm months: December 2015, February 2016 and March 2016 all occurred during a monster El Niño episode with ONI indices as high as 2.6. The ONI index is currently at 0.6. El Niño episodes tend to bring warmer global temperatures. One can't help but wonder what the Earth might experience during the next strong El Niño episode.

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in January 2020 increased by yet another 2.57 ppm over January 2019 to reach a monthly average of 413.40 ppm.

Australia, probably the least resilient of the six currently inhabitable continents, was truly devastated in January by intense heat and record wildfires.

The War Against Afghanistan
“We defeated the Persian Empire in the 18th century. We defeated the British in the 19th century. We defeated the Soviet Union in the 20th century. Now, with NATO, we are fighting 28 countries, but we will defeat them too.”
—(Afghan Taxi Driver in Vancouver)
This quote comes from a short article by Nicolas J. S. Davies, which is well worth the read. Davies goes on to remark:
“I never doubted him for a minute. But why would America's leaders, in their delusions of empire and obsession with budget-busting weapons technology, ever listen to an Afghan taxi driver?”
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Rolla Peace News is distributed by email once a week on Tuesday evenings (except on rare occasions) and is posted on the web at http://tomsager.org (click on Grassroots Rolla: at the top of rightmost column).

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If you want to be added to this list, let me know.

Wage peace,

Helen
helenm (at) fidnet.com

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