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Rolla Peace News June 27, 2017 |
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================================= Dear Friends:In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THIS WEEK, THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2017 2. FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS 3. NOW THE NOT SO GOOD 4. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Temperature Graphs b) C-O-2-4-U
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We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 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. FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS It looks as though massive public outrage has gotten through to at least a few Republican senators — enough that Mitch McConnell doesn't want to bring Trumpcare (or, as someone called it, Deathcare) to a vote before the July 4 recess. If you took the time to call or write to your senators protesting this bill, THANK YOU! We won this battle, but the war isn't over. Ol' Mitch surely plans to do some serious arm-twisting during the recess. Possibly contributing to McConnell's pull-back was the American Medical Association coming out in opposition to the bill. In a letter to McConnell, the AMA stated, “Medicine has long operated under the precept of Primum non nocere, or ‘first, do no harm.’ The draft legislation violates that standard on many levels.” And how! By the way, there's a cool video about McConnell in this article: 3. NOW, THE NOT SO GOOD The bad news is, there might be something worse than having Trump for president. Stephen Kinzer, in his article entitled Why We Need Four More Years of Trump, speculates on what might happen if Trump is impeached, indicted, committed, or just resigns. There are various possibilities, none of them good. If we lose Trump, we get Mike Pence, in a different way just as nutty as Trump. Failing Pence, next is Paul Ryan, then Orrin Hatch, Rex Tillerson, Steven Mnuchin, and on through the sorry coven that Trump has gathered around him. None of these people have any more compassion for their fellow man or the planet than Trump does, and they are far smarter in the ways of politics. Trump is so in-your-face outrageous that it's possible the American people will wake up and start voting for his opposites in state, federal and local positions — especially after 4 years of the misery and devastation he plans for all but the privileged. He has gotten his fellow billionnaires and power players right where they want to be, but to stay there, they have a better chance without him. They are adept in using gerrymandering and voter suppression, and would have the ability to appoint whomever they wished to whatever office they wished. Kinzer does bring up the possibility that Trump, if cornered, might start another, even more serious war than we are already in, as the biggest risk of letting him finish his term. True, but there's just as great a chance that one of those others might do the same thing, not by accident, but on purpose. Here's Kinzer's last paragraph, which is his argument in a nutshell: “A full term for Trump will mean four years of pain for millions of Americans who were not born with his advantages, four more years of spectacular profit for the richest 1 percent, a four-year assault on our natural environment, and four years of blundering around the world, possibly at the cost of many lives. A truncated term could lead to all of that for a generation. The best strategy for those who wish Trump ill is to wish him well. Rather than rushing to dig his grave, we should hold tight for four years and let him dig it himself.” 5. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) Temperature Graphs b) C-O-2-4-U TEMPERATURE GRAPHS I've updated my global temperature graph to include latest 120 months. I've also added some more commentary and a few deeper historical graphs. This is a work in progress. Check it out. C-O-2-4-U Amid the bad news that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere continue to increase in spite of a leveling off of carbon dioxide emissions, Bill McKibbon tweets, “On the list of scary things, this is near the top: Forests and oceans seem to be starting to absorb a lot less co2.” Forests? What forests? Destroyed by insects, bulldozers and wildfires. Last summer the Fort McMurtry fire alone burned 1.5 million acres of boreal forest. This month, devastating wildfires are burning up forests in Utah, Arizona, Portugal, South Africa and probably many other places as well. Concerned about CO2 in the atmosphere? Go plant a tree. What about the leveling off of emissions? Stabilizing emissions at levels above those that created global warming isn't going to help much. Carbon dioxide can stay in the atmosphere for thousands of years. Emissions need to come down — way down. And we need to revitalize our carbon sinks — our forests and our oceans. Meanwhile, for the big banks, it's business as usual, funding to the hilt extreme fossil fuels (tar sands oil, coal, etc.) to the tune of $290 billion over the past three years. Here's a suggestion for getting CO2 out of the atmosphere. I've floated this idea before; but never received any feedback. Grow a forest of fast-growing high-carbon-absorbing trees. Harvest the trees. Burn them in an oxygen-poor environment creating charcoal. Bury the charcoal in a hole in the ground. Repeat. Readers: Please let me know. Is this a stupid idea? Why? 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 ### |