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Rolla Peace News May 16, 2017 |
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================================= Dear Friends:In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, MAY 18, 2017 2. NOTHING BUT GOOD NEWS TODAY 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Donald Trump: Everything We Deserve b) Collusion With Foreign Powers c) Proliferation Anyone?
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We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, MAY 18, 2017, (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 80s. 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. NOTHING BUT GOOD NEWS TODAY At least, that's all I'm going to talk about. First, the New York State Assembly has passed a single-payer, state-funded health care bill. It still has to pass the State Senate, and that's not a sure thing, but it's now only 2 votes short of the number needed to pass, and the bill's supporters are hopeful of getting those 2 more votes. The problem with the Senate appears to be that by the time a politician makes State Senator, he/she realizes that to go any higher will take not only a lot of money, but the support of their party's establishment. They may not get either if they support something the establishment considers “radical,” like people having a right to health care. A coalition of mostly black-led organizations raised $550,000 and bailed 60 black mothers out of jail for Mother's Day. The women had been charged, but not convicted, of minor offenses, but lacked the funds to free themselves while awaiting due process. While incarcerated, their lives can fall apart very quickly, with loss of jobs, separation from their children, deterioration of the home situation, etc. People with money can get right out and keep their lives together; poor people sometimes lose everything. That's not equal justice. And finally, Chelsea (once Bradley) Manning will be released tomorrow, following a last-minute commutation of her sentence by President Obama, 3 days before his term ended. Without it, she would undoubtedly have died in prison. Chelsea was sentenced to 35 years for leaking a video of our brave soldiers shooting civilians from a helicopter in Iraq. She should have received a medal. 3. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Donald Trump: Everything We Deserve b) Collusion With Foreign Powers c) Proliferation Anyone? DONALD TRUMP: EVERYTHING WE DESERVE If you are tired of shallow post-mortems on how Donald Trump became President of the United States, you might like this short article by David Macaray that digs a little deeper. Macaray believes Trump became President because we deserve him. I have to agree. Here are the reasons Macaray gives: 1. We are a nation of dedicated consumers. Trump is a salesman par excellence. 2. We idolize the rich and Trump is very rich. 3. We idolize TV celebrities and Trump is a TV celebrity. 4. We despise intellectuals, deep thinking, nuance, ambiguity and doubt. Trump is anti-intellectual, just like us. 5. We love war, strength and power. Trump promises to give us more powerful weapons, make us Great again and give us more and more War. 6. We are narcissists. We think our country is the greatest ever and we are the greatest people ever. Trump is definitely one of us. If I've whet your appetite, go read the article. COLLUSION WITH FOREIGN POWERS Well, it's all over the news: The FBI has been investigating the Trump administration for collusion with Russia. Trump fired FBI director, James Comey, and people are shouting in the streets, “Impeach Trump!” Many are already licking their chops. I'm wondering: How come no President has ever been investigated for collusion with Israel? Israel has been blackmailing the United States for billions of dollars every year for decades. How come no President has ever been investigated for collusion with Wall Street, arguably more powerful than any government? Indeed, they own governments. As Napoleon Bonaparte put it: “Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain” Hey, the United States has been colluding with foreign powers to its detriment for decades. Why Russia, now? Well, we've been taught for a Century to hate and fear Russians (except during World War II when they were our allies). Friends, we got a power struggle going on in high places. And this is just a battle; the war will go on regardless. I think the Neo-crazies have the advantage; but don't underestimate the Dumpsters. If they can energize their base, which boasts over 300 million firearms, the Neo-crazies might find themselves on the defensive. (In my opinion: Trump's biggest mistake has been to flip off his supporters and cozy up to Wall Street.) Many of my liberal friends want to get rid of Trump at any cost, without a thought to what might come next. But as I've written before: “Do you know what really scares me, Donald? What comes next? I fear we may some day look back in nostalgia at the Trump presidency.” So, I'm wondering why I should back either side. Neither side wants to end war or fight climate change. Seems to me, they are fighting over who will have the Right to steal from us all and rape Planet Earth. Seems to me we have far more in common with the Russian people and peoples all over the world than we do with the elites of any nation or with Wall Street. If I were to look at the world through early 20th Century glasses, an alliance with Russia might make more sense than our old cold-war alliances. But this is the 21st Century; and our very survival depends on alliances with everybody and every nation against the two great existential threats to humanity: War and Climate Change. Sadly, we're all stuck in the early 20th Century. PROLIFERATION ANYONE? There has never been, and probably never will be, a weapon that doesn't proliferate. Case in point: cyber-weapons. Someone stole the NSA's super-cyber-weapon and brought down computer systems all over the world. In places, medical staff resorted to pre-computer-age pen and paper. (And maybe we all should do that too.) So proliferation goes on, and at a faster and faster pace. Ok: maybe next time we'll be dealing with nuclear weapons. Maybe Al-Queda or ISIS or one of their offshoots. Friends, there is no protection against proliferation, except maybe trying to get along with everybody. I think Tom Lehrer said it best: “We'll try to stay serene and calm when Alabama gets the bomb.” Just as pertinent now as it was a half century ago. 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 ### |