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Rolla Peace News February 23, 2016 |
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================================= Dear Friends:In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016 2. MEDIA LIES ABOUT SYRIA 3. GETTING TO ZERO 4. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank GOD Almighty, He is Free at Last b) Nature Bats Last: Opium Poppies vs US Military c) Bye, Bye, Bushie
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We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2016, (and all subsequent Thursdays until peace is established) from Noon to 1:00 PM. Please try to join us. The temperature is predicted to be in the 30-40s. 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. 2. MEDIA LIES ABOUT SYRIA Very few people in this country have any idea what's really going on in Syria, and most of those who do are bent on making sure the rest of us don't find out. Stephen Kinzer is one of the rare people willing to stand up and tell the truth about our country's misadventures in the Middle East (His book “All the Shah's Men” gives a very different picture of the last 50-60 years of Iran's history than most of us have been taught). According to Kinzer, the mainstream media pretty much relies on what they are told by Washington, and that's what they report. This is why Hillary Clinton was able to get away with claiming to have negotiated a peace agreement for Syria in 2012, when the exact opposite was true. Nobody knew enough to challenge her. Read his article and see what you think. 3. GETTING TO ZERO Here's an article, originally published in “Yes” magazine, which details a plan whereby our society can get to 100% renewable energy sources and zero CO2 emissions within a few decades. Richard Heinberg points out that doing this will take a drastic change in the way we live, especially here in the U.S., the world capital of energy consumption. His plan will involve cooperation from government regulatory agencies, as well as public and industry willingness to totally change the way our society uses energy. Where there's a will, there's a way, but do we have the will? One way or another, we will not be able to go on the way we have been for the last couple of centuries. We can either change willingly and peacefully, or Nature will do it for us, perhaps catastrophically. 4. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank GOD Almighty, He is Free at Last b) Nature Bats Last: Opium Poppies vs US Military c) Bye, Bye, Bushie FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST, THANK GOD ALMIGHTY, HE IS FREE AT LAST “The people before you were destroyed because they inflicted legal punishments on the poor and forgave the rich”Albert Woodfox is free after 43 years in prison, mostly in solitary, for a crime he did not commit. In spite of having his conviction overturned three times, his tormentors used every legal trick in the book (and made up a few new ones) to keep him in prison long after it was clear beyond any reasonable doubt that he was innocent. Meanwhile, not one major Wall Street executive has been prosecuted for causing the near collapse of our entire economy; not one politician or general has been prosecutes for lying us into a devastating illegal war in Iraq; nor has anyone been prosecuted for the poisoning of Flint, Michigan's water supply. Note1: I got tired of quoting Isaiah 61:1-2 so went looking for another scriptural quote on the same subject. I found the Hadith above. For us, in the 21st Century United States, “legal” is the key word. Note 2: The title of this snippet was made famous by Martin Luther King Jr. NATURE BATS LAST: OPIUM POPPIES vs. US MILITARY This article by Alfred McCoy is somewhat long; but it gives a good summary of our devastating (both for the US and Afghanistan) involvement in Afghanistan since 1979. If you don't believe that opium is more powerful than the mightiest military the world has ever known, ask a parent of a narcotics addict. The author entitled this article “How a Pink Flower Defeated the World’s Sole Superpower: America’s Opium War in Afghanistan;” but I think my title is more to the point. BYE, BYE, BUSHIE A year ago Jeb Bush was the odds-on favorite to win the Republican nomination; but last week, in the wake of a humiliating defeat in South Carolina, he “suspended his campaign.” The final nail in his coffin was likely Donald Trump's remarks the previous week on how his brother George lied us into a big fat mistake of a war in Iraq and allowed the attack on the twin towers during his reign. Robert Reich talks about how “establishment candidates” are hurting big time and people are flocking in droves to alternative candidates: Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Bernie is nipping at Hillary's heals, Trump has taken a two digit lead over his closest rival and appears “unstoppable” and the establishment doesn't seem to have a clue. Here's my favorite line from the article: “most Americans couldn’t care less about economic growth because for years they’ve got few of its benefits, while suffering most of its burdens.” Reich also notes that this is much bigger than Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump opining that “regardless of the political fates of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, the rebellion against the establishment will continue.” ================== 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: 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, Helen helenm (at) fidnet.com ### |