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Rolla Peace News July 14, 2020 |
Dear Friends:Editor's note: Please send in your work. I think readers would love to see more variety in this newsletter.In this newsletter is: 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2020 2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) From Our Readers: b) My Response: National Outcomes from COVID-19 Pandemic c) My Response: Donald Trump and Religion d) My Response: Origins of the COVID-19 pandemic e) My Response: China and the Cultural Revolution f) Climate Catastrophe 1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2020 We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office, THIS THURSDAY, JULY 16, 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 close to 90. 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. Note: Since there are so few of us, generally 2 or 3, no need to cancel; but let's maintain social distancing. 2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org) a) From Our Readers: b) My Response: National Outcomes from COVID-19 Pandemic c) My Response: Donald Trump and Religion d) My Response: Origins of the COVID-19 pandemic e) My Response: China and the Cultural Revolution f) Climate Catastrophe From Our Readers: A reader writes: My Response: National Outcomes from COVID-19 Pandemic“Three countries led by leaders who trust their gut feel rather than listen to the scientists have had very bad outcomes: USA, UK, Brazil. Generally countries that have listened to their experts have done much better: New Zealand for example. I have seen studies claiming that if Trump had done the right things such as shut down the country and take the responsibility for stocking PPE when the warnings first came, tens of thousands of lives would have been saved. Instead he said that it was no worse than the flu, and would disappear in the summer, and did nothing. That's what happens when we elect an egotistical moron as president. Whatever you can say about Hillary, she is way more competent than Trump, and I believe the outcome would have been much better. I'm no expert on your religion, but I'm sure that tens of thousands of lives saved must factor in somewhere. How ought we to compare the responses of various countries to the COVID pandemic? total number of cases confirmed? total number of deaths attributed to the COVID virus? cases per population size? mortality per population size? What other factors ought to be taken into account? health? age? wealth? environment? stability? number of tests performed? I have no easy answer; and I suspect no one else does either. In the comparisons which I have posted online (here and here) and update regularly, I rank countries according to total number of COVID cases. I'm somewhat unhappy about this, although it seems to be working out, provided you don't take the numbers too seriously and keep in mind the limitations of this approach. At present: (0:00 hrs gmt on July 15) the top countries in total confirmed cases are, in order: USA. Brazil, India, Russia, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Spain, South Africa, UK. One might argue from the first three countries, that countries with right-wing ideologues as heads of state are most susceptible to the COVID pandemic. However, going back to March 20, six of the top ten countries were Western European democracies. China, Iran, USA and South Korea rounded out the top ten. The UK's performance is in line with other Western European countries, although near the high end: second to Spain in number of cases; first in mortality; and quite far down the list in number of cases per population size Sweden, with its much-lauded policy of remaining open, is not doing particularly well at present, particularly in deaths per population size Some countries that might surprise you: Vietnam and Mongolia seem to be doing quite well, Israel and Saudi Arabia quite poorly. On January 28 when the USA had five confirmed cases and China less than 6,000, I warned: By early April, the USA was Number One in confirmed COVID cases, a position we have held ever since, even widening our lead over other countries. The United States surpassed a confirmed infection rate of 1% of the population this weekend. On July 10 the United States logged over 71,000 new cases, over 85% of China's 83,000+ total confirmed cases over the life of the pandemic so far.“The United States is perhaps particularly vulnerable. We've gutted our public health infrastructure in favor of for-profit health care. When people are afraid to seek medical help because they might end up paying for it for the rest of their lives, how are we to keep contagious disease from spreading?” What makes the difference? China's leadership was willing and able to do whatever necessary to stop the epidemic from spreading. China has a robust national healthcare system which extends to the entire population. The United States, as you note, is under the leadership of a delusional head of state who doesn't seem to understand or care. Decades of for-profit healthcare have left our public health infrastructure in shambles. Note 1: Data is from worldometers.info and is “as reported” which may or may not represent the reality on the ground faithfully. Note 2: COVID-19 is currently the name of a disease, syndrome or pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 is the official name given to the virus that causes the COVID-19 syndrome. However, that is hard to say. I prefer to call it the COVID-19 virus or simply the COVID virus My Response: Donald Trump and Religion This quote comes from an article I found a couple of years ago, in which the author was interviewing people on the USA/Mexico border. I've been saving it for the proper occasion.“Sometimes, God uses unusual people, people that are not exactly on the straight and narrow. And I believe God is using Mr. Trump. Like I said I don’t like his style, but I believe God is using him. He doesn’t answer to people, he does whatever.” —Kathy Casillas I'm glad you asked about Donald Trump and religion. I, too, believe God is using him; and the purpose for which I believe God is using Donald Trump appears to be the destruction of the Great American Empire. Think about it. If your intention was to destroy the Great American Empire, could you think of a better way then to place an “egotistical moron” like Donald Trump in the White House? On March 31, I warned: The COVID-19 virus is fast degrading the capacity of the US military to maintain its empire. Here's an example from Okinawa. Okinawans, fed up with the crime and pollution associated with military occupation, long ago asked the US military to pack up and leave their islands. That US troops are now spreading COVID-19 among the population could be the final straw.“But this will pass. Eventually humanity will develop herd-immunity to the COVID-19 virus. My Response: Origins of the COVID-19 pandemic Representatives of the World Health Organization are currently visiting China with the goal of forming an international mission to seek the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. They apparently will look into all possibilities, including the possibility that the COVID-19 virus was created in a laboratory. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, they find, particularly since the United States has withdrawn from the WHO and presumably will not be participating. My Response: China and the Cultural Revolution These seven words, which Kiriakou used to describe a totally different situation, sum up my feelings about the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Justified (in my opinion) anger at the elite spilled over into anarchy. And a decade later, when the revolution was over, China embarked on a program of “modernization” with the goal of beating the West at its own game. While China may soon be the world's largest economy and a military super-power, it has paid a high price in terms of pollution and environmental degradation.“Anarchy is a poor answer to tyranny.” —John Kiriakou China seems to have a belief that it can always recover later from past excesses. Perhaps this comes from its long history, as the longest continuous culture on the planet. However, I suspect when it comes to environmental degradation, there are limits to humanity's ability to recover from past excesses. But that's a tale for another day. Climate Catastrophe I've posted the June update to my ongoing essay on climate catastrophe. In sum, June was a terrible month; but not nearly so terrible as the previous few months. 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). 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 |