BartBlog

For one glorious summer back when I was young and (sort of) strong, I hitchhiked my way across Europe with only a pair of cowboy boots, a backpack, some Navy-surplus bell-bottom jeans, a red tank top and five tabs of LSD to keep me happy. Money meant nothing to me back then.

But now it does.

I just got back from speaking at a book convention in Reno, Nevada. The flight home was only 40 minutes long but even that was exhausting. The whole freaking trip was exhausting.

If only my bank account had been phat enough to allow me to stay at a quiet motel, eat healthy food and hire a porter to lug around my suitcase containing 47 pounds of free books, I would have been in much better shape when I got home.

Ah, home — where I know how to scrounge and can more easily find cheap ways to eat organic food and grass-fed meat because they are far healthier, give me an edge on the aging game and help me to live longer.

Home — where my adult children aren’t particularly fond of me right now, apparently because I am currently old, broke and a liability. Kicked to the curb on the flimsiest of pretexts. Can’t afford to dress to impress. Don’t have a high-paying job because I’m no longer young and (sort of) strong. Because they owed me money.

Home — where I can only afford a roof over my head because I’ve lived in the same apartment for the last 40 years and my rent is still low. And having a roof over one’s head becomes more and more crucial the older one gets.

Home — where thank goodness I have MediCare because if I didn’t, I’d be dead. And where I receive Social Security. For now. Seems to me like everybody wants to take away our Social Security and MediCare so that we baby boomers will die faster and stop clogging up the nursing homes. Everyone from Donald Trump to Fox News wants us out of the way. Might as well put a gun to our heads and get it over with — like they do in Parkland and the Middle East.

Home — where I can play grocery bingo at the senior center and hunt for bargains at the Berkeley Bowl and get all my fashion designs at Goodwill.

Money clearly does matter more to me now than it did way back when. Money keeps body and soul together these days. Money keeps me alive. Without it, I’d be dead a lot sooner than I would be if I was still young.

It’s just not like the old days at all, back when I wasn’t so fragile and could just live like Jack Kerouac — on the road.

PS: But even so, even at this age, I still have grandiose career ambitions and dreams. Sooner or later, someone in Hollywood is going to do a re-make of “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane” — and when they do, please please please cast me in the Bette Davis role! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qFYjkFCxiE

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the economy is definitely booming. But outside of the Bay Area? Not so much.

I’m currently in Reno at a book convention, trying to flog my latest detective novel — and I am also detecting something else here as well. From what I can tell after just a few days’ stakeout, many residents in the “Biggest Little City in the World” are clearly hurting for money and jobs — just like so many other folks in America today. https://www.amazon.com/Road-Trip-Damascus-Jane-Stillwater/dp/1548204730

But how can this be? How can the richest country in the world have fallen so low?

The answer is simple. “Judas in the White House” — or three of them, to be exact.

When all the votes were counted (or not) after the 2000 presidential election, American voters had given a clear mandate that we wanted to go in a people-friendly direction and away from all this nonsense about “war”. People voted for Gore. People voted for Nader. We shoulda gotten ecology and a fat peace dividend back in 2000. Instead we got George W. Bush shoved down our throats. And 9-11. And all its shabby results. Judas in the White House.

And then along came Obama. We voters gave him a clear mandate too — we wanted it our way, jobs and peace. Instead we got even more merciless slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan shoved down our throats. Plus the horrors of additional “wars” and proxy wars in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Palestine and Ukraine too. Pathetic. http://www.syriasolidaritymovement.org/2018/03/27/ssm-statement-on-the-liberation-of-eastern-ghouta/

At the Reno convention this week, a handwriting analyst, Sheila Lowe, gave a very interesting talk. She said, “Obama’s handwriting shows that he was a great leader — but was under intense pressure to do things against his will”. But, all the same, he still did them anyway. Humph. Judas in the White House. http://www.claudiaroseseries.com/SheilaLoweBooks/books/

And then there’s Trump. “Make America great again,” he told his naive voters. And then he sold America out for 30 pieces of Wall Street and War Street. America now has more gun-toting Special Ops units in more countries worldwide than it has ambassadors. That’s just cray-cray. Not to mention Trump’s new BFFs, the slaughtering Saudis and infamous Israelis. Judas in the White House. https://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2018/04/a-good-friday-bloodbath-gazas-selma.html

It makes sense that Reno is hurting. It makes sense that America is hurting too. We’ve been sold out.

PS: Bush, Obama and Trump aren’t the only presidents who sold Americans out in order to keep the military-industrial complex happily lining their pockets with silver to the severe detriment for the rest of us. This has been an ongoing trend that only presidents Kennedy and Carter have even tried to buck.

President Wilson: Got us involved in grim European military-industrial battles that were none of our business.

President Roosevelt: World War II was allegedly fought to preserve democracy against fascism [Fascism defined as governments and corporations working together to screw the rest of us] but actually it was fought because Hitler and Tojo got too greedy and started horning in on America’s and Britain’s military-industrial complex swag.

President Truman: Proof is only just now surfacing that Korea was originally attacked by America because the Korean government was apparently becoming too nice to its own people and too representational — a very bad example to set. So Truman authorized dropping 1.5 million bombs on Korea, tearing the country apart and installing a cruel dictator in the south instead. https://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-trip-to-north-korea-pictures-worth.html

President Eisenhower: Allowed covert operations against Iran, Congo and various Central American countries because their leaders were becoming a bit too democratic and actually setting up unions, hospitals and schools. Clapped his hands in glee that a brutal dictator was our ally in Taiwan.

President Johnson: Had a good thing going with the Great Society but lied us into the “war” on Vietnam instead because Uncle Ho was becoming too democratic. Johnson also conspicuously looked the other way when Israeli neo-cons murdered 34 American sailors aboard the USS Liberty.

President Nixon: Lied to us in order to continue the “war” on Vietnam just because he could — and to help the US military-industrial complex continue to gut our treasury too.

Reagan: Mr. Judas himself. All it took was 30 pieces of silver to get him to murder thousands of Mayans, crucify Central America — and destroy the American economy as well. Trickle down? More like Trickle Up.

President Bush the First: Invented that phony Gulf “War” in order to steal Iraq’s oil for himself and his cronies. Hey, his plan worked. Nothing in it for the rest of us except Gulf War Syndrome however.

President Clinton: Chit-chatted a lot about our “peace dividend” but then went out of his way to destroy Yugoslavia and turn it into a hellhole. Why? Because Tito had been treating his people too kindly. Stuff like that just had to be stopped! And boy was it.

So. Here’s my one obvious question. “Have we Americans ever learned anything after all these decades of being betrayed again and again by our presidents in favor of warmongers and corporate carpetbaggers?” Apparently not.

My only hope is that Americans will now start to build on the current heroic Parkland protests and finally realize that the foul act of murdering any child anywhere is bad, bad and wrong — no matter how much profit for warmongers is involved.

“You must not lose faith in humanity,” said Mahatma Gandhi — and yet I have lost mine.

On Good Friday, 2018, hoards of Israeli snipers deliberately took aim at nonviolent protesters marching in Gaza — and then fired at will. https://www.facebook.com/walidmahmoudd/videos/1823164944423051/

It was a deliberate massacre, worse than Parkland, like shooting fish in a barrel, cold-blooded murder. 15 dead so far and a thousand wounded as the unarmed men, women and children of Gaza, the world’s largest concentration camp, vainly sought shelter.

It was like Martin Luther King’s rag-tag band of heroic protestors as they fought against the American South’s brutal, bloody and unjust caste system that we ourselves let go on so long. https://www.amazon.com/Warmth-Other-Suns-Americas-Migration/dp/0679763880

It was like the May 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising, like the pile of bodies in “Schindler’s List,” like the tragic little girl in the red coat.

It was like a Roman crucifixion on Good Friday or like Bloody Sunday in Derry. How can we ever have faith in humanity again?

Happy Easter.

More chocolate eggs, anyone?

How can any decent human being live with himself as, like at Parkland, like at Columbine, like at Guernica, like at Hiroshima, like in Syria, like in Yemen, like with Fire & Fury and Shock & Awe, we continue to brutally slaughter each other.

How come every single time that I go out of town, I somehow manage to find a place to stay that has the noisiest neighbors within the nearest ten miles?

It doesn’t seem to matter if I stay in a hotel, a motel, an AirBnB or on a friend’s fold-away couch. Somehow noisy people always manage to find me. Somebody nearby always wants to feed a crying baby at 2:00 am, have a dance party, practice the trumpet from midnight to dawn, watch late-night TV at full volume — or have fabulous sex. Why me?

So here I am, up in Reno, Nevada, in a fleabag motel, with what appears to be Prom Night going on in the room next door. How am I ever going to manage to get to sleep tonight — let alone dream.

And speaking of dreaming, acclaimed author William Kent Krueger just won an award for best murder-mystery novel of 2018 at the convention I’m attending here. His book, “Sulfer Springs,” deals with the horrors that immigrants to our southern borders have to go through just to stay alive.

“This is the first book I’ve ever written that has generated hate mail,” said Krueger. Why am I not surprised. Coming to America used to be a good thing — but now apparently it is a crime.

All the parts of America today that are wonderful have been built on the backs of immigrants — be they Native Americans, African slaves, Asians, Aztecs, Pilgrims or whoever. All of our ancestors had dreams. They all were dreamers. They all came here to follow their dreams. We Americans are all descended from dreamers.

And who is to say that Latino dreams are worse or less important or different or more inferior than the dreams of our ancestors?

Had it been possible 2000 years ago, Jesus would have immigrated to America as well. Jesus was a dreamer too. “Take up your cross and follow me,” Jesus said. Who knows? He might have led us to El Paso or San Diego or Arizona if Jesus had been alive today. But Jesus never ever said anything about building a Border Wall to keep the Samaritans out. That is more like something Judas would do.

Jesus was a dreamer, our ancestors were dreamers and I am a dreamer too — that is if I can ever manage to fall asleep up here in Reno.

I’m up here in Reno Nevada right now, attending a convention of murder-mystery writers and readers — and guess what? I’m actually going to speak at an authors’ discussion panel this Friday. So exciting! It’s like unexpectedly winning the jackpot on a slot machine. Not something that happens every day. http://www.leftcoastcrime.org/2018/Panels.html#Friday

The subject of my talk will be my latest detective novel, “Road Trip to Damascus”. It’s awesome. And, knowing me, you can probably guess who the villain might be. Spoiler alert: It’s the CIA. https://www.amazon.com/Road-Trip-Damascus-Jane-Stillwater/dp/1548204730

But speaking of winning and losing, America is currently being run by the biggest bunch of losers on the planet. Boy, would I love to speak on a panel discussion about them — hopefully on CNN but I’d even settle for Fox News. However, nobody in my country seems to want to hear about America’s Biggest Losers. And of course I’m talking about President Donald Trump and friends. Trump’s list of BFFs reads like a murder-mystery too — or actually more like a horror story. Let’s just take a look:

First let’s consider Trump himself. The man thrives on chaos — but unfortunately the rest of us do not. And then there’s Vice President Pence, who appears to want to put every woman in America into cages and only allow us out to give birth and dust furniture. Happy Women’s History Month to us. We’ll soon be back in the Dark Ages if Pence gets his way.

And apparently Trump’s perspective National Security Advisor John Bolton has plans to make us all so secure that our coffins will fit us just right. Secretary of State nominee Pompeo has wet dreams of starting a nuclear war with (fill in the blank). Secretary of Defense Mattis thinks that the best defense for America is to get us all killed so we won’t have to worry about surviving World War 3 any more. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/03/16/warnings-civilization-threatening-disaster-john-bolton-tops-list-mcmaster

Trump’s nominee for the head of the CIA, Gina Haspel, is addicted to torture. Hope you haven’t had a mani-pedi lately because there goes your nails. She’s the kind of bad guy I wrote about in my murder-mystery — and she could be coming to your town soon too.
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/49039-focus-gina-haspel-should-be-in-the-dock-at-the-hague

United Nations ambassador Haley appears to have totally dedicated her life to murdering every single Syrian still left alive — and she knows how to lie, cheat and steal to get the job done too, is even far better at it than Colin Powell was regarding WMDs in Iraq. Will she be coming after us next as well? Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas. http://www.newsweek.com/now-mattis-admits-there-was-no-evidence-assad-using-poison-gas-his-people-801542

But Trump’s most scary Besties of all are Israel and Saudi Arabia. Everyone knows that the Saudis cut off people’s heads and fund ISIS — and yet Trump asks them to the freaking White House for dinner and friends them on FaceBook and Twitter.

And the stuff of nightmares that Israeli neo-cons have happily perpetrated in Gaza makes my blood curl. And yet the monsters responsible for creating the worst concentration camp since Auschwitz are all Trump’s BFFs. Why is it that liberals hate, hate, hate Trump but love, love, love his BFF Israel? Can’t they see the connection? I’ll never be able to figure that one out. Still a mystery to me. https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520295711

But right now I just want to forget about all the horror that lies ahead of us — like the rest of America surely has. Right now all I want to do is go lose a few dollars on the penny slots and then take a nap. Wake me up when America finally comes to its senses (or else in time for dinner, whichever comes first). But clearly I have far more chance of winning big bucks on the penny slots here in Reno than America has of winning ANYTHING while being led into total chaos by Washington’s biggest losers.

PS: Although Trump always touts himself as the owner of Casino America, in reality he’s not even a pit boss — more like a wannabe blackjack dealer on the graveyard shift.

Then who exactly are America’s true casino owners and high rollers? The Deep State? The military-industrial complex that eats its young? The neo-con Israel lobby? The wolves of Wall Street? The dark money behind Citizens United? We may never know. The only thing that we do know for certain is that it ain’t you or me — and it’s definitely not Donald Trump.

So. When are Americans going to finally stop wasting their money by playing at Casino America — where all the decks are stacked against us?

Author’s note:  If you haven’t already noticed by now, I truly do dislike Israeli neo-colonialists and Saudi neo-colonialists.  Hell, I don’t even like American neo-colonialists.   Why can’t everybody just stay home where they belong!  And also how come  everyone gets on my case for calling out Israelis and Saudis — but if I  were to lie through my teeth about Russia, Syria, Iran or North Korea, I’d get all kinds of applause?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziAK91AEEl8&feature=youtu.be

According to Lt. General Richard Clark, U.S. ground troops are now “prepared to die for the Jewish [sic] state”. https://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-us-operation-juniper-cobra-a-harbinger-of-war-on-syria-hezbollah/238768/

Too late, General Clark! Lots of American soldiers have already died for Israel.

For instance, just ask Joe Meadors, a survivor of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty back in 1967. After nine hours of surveillance on the hapless ship, Israeli fighter jets then continuously bombed and strafed the USS Liberty while Israeli torpedo boats opened fire on it. This deadly bombardment lasted more than an hour, killing 34 American military personnel and ripping two rather large American flags into shreds. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/deadly-attack-on-uss-liberty-gets-new-attention/

And then there’s Iraq. 4,424 American soldiers died there. According to US Senator Ernest Hollings back in the day, “With Iraq no threat, why invade a sovereign country? The answer: President Bush’s policy to secure Israel.” https://theshalomcenter.org/node/621

And then there is Syria. American soldiers have been keeping Israeli neo-colonialists’ irons in the fire there since 2011. We’ll never know how many American soldiers have died there. And we’ll never be allowed to know either. https://www.thenation.com/article/bulking-up-on-special-operations-forces-in-2018-will-not-stop-terrorism/

So, yeah. American soldiers have already been dying for “the Jewish state” — or at least for Israeli neo-colonialists’ lust for power in the Middle East.

Civilian Americans have also died recently when a pedestrian bridge collapsed in Miami. America seems to have no money left to repair its infrastructure — but there’s still lots of money left to get American soldiers killed in the Middle East. Israeli neo-colonialists must be totally happy that this is still a thing, still a trend.

So. What does all this “Dying for Israel” fad have to do with little old me? Am I being anti-Semitic? Nah, I’m just still pissed off that Israeli thugs threw me out of Palestine last September. “We are trying to keep Israel safe,” they said. What? Huh? Safe from ME? https://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2017/09/grilled-my-experience-at-israeli-border.html

PS: When I toured the Senate and House chambers on Capitol Hill the other day, I forgot to ask all those war-mongering lawmakers if they too were willing to “Die for Israel”. But apparently not. Apparently it’s okay for others to “Die for Israel” — but not them. They gotta stay alive and well so they can still get their dark-money campaign contributions from the Israelis and the Saudis (not from the Russians BTW).

_____________________________

Stop Wall Street and War Street from destroying our world. And while you’re at it, please buy my books. https://www.amazon.com/Jane-Stillwater/e/B00IW6O1RM

“Hello, Homeland Security? This is Jane Stillwater. I’m in Washington DC right now and just overheard someone plotting to blow up the whole freaking world. If you don’t stop them right now, America could be end up as a NUCLEAR WASTELAND!” I screamed into the phone. https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/02/18/us-is-executing-global-war-plan.html

“Calm down, lady. Just tell us what you heard.”

“Some dude who identified himself with the obvious code name of ‘Lt. General Richard Clark’ was talking about plans for a false-flag operation that involved blowing up parts of Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Gaza — murdering children, targeting civilians! It was horrible! You MUST do something to stop him!” https://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-us-operation-juniper-cobra-a-harbinger-of-war-on-syria-hezbollah/238768/

“Ma’am, we have no control over what happens outside of America. Plus you could be just imagining all this.” Calling me crazy, is he? Well, I’ll show him!

“The dude actually said with his mouth that the intention of all these attacks was to vilify Russia and China, enough to get them all pissed off and into a shooting war. But it’s not NICE to piss off Mother Russia! Then some other dude talked about being in cahoots with Ukraine neo-Nazi bad guys with a plan in place to blow up Russian-speaking Donbas! You’ve got to stop these people before Russia finally loses patience with the idiots in Washington and drops nuclear bombs on us in return! Please!” https://www.globalresearch.ca/russia-warns-us-against-attacking-syrian-forces/5631930

I also tried to tell DHS how I overheard the king of Saudi Arabia plotting to send whole planeloads of gold bullion to buy off Congress (again) so that the Saudis could continue to massacre Yemeni babies at will — without any tiresome meddling by stupid American busybodies still tied down with the lead weight of conscience. And also how the evil Saudi neo-colonialists were in league with the evil Israeli neo-colonialists in their plot to steal everything in the Middle East that wasn’t tied down and then become a super-power themselves — with America in the role of the red-headed stepchild. http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21264:Gideon-Levy:-The-Zionist-Tango:-Step-Left,-Step-Right

But the Homeland Security guy hung up on me.

So much for “See something, say something.” Humph.

PS: Other than the fact that Washington DC is the home of a bunch of feral idiots who risk American lives daily in their insane quest for diabolical power, the District of Columbia itself is a wonderful place. I got to tour the Senate, the House of Representatives, the International Spy Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court — and also attended a hope-inspiring rally and march staged by Hasidic Jews in protest of Israeli corruption and war-mongering.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2018/03/13/instead-of-being-in-jail-haspel-is-cia-director.html

The National Portrait Gallery had an excellent and intimate exhibit of the writing of Sylvia Plath. Fascinating and tragic at the same time. And I almost got thrown out of the Gallery itself by some irate docent when I tried to cut in line to see the new portrait of Michelle Obama. But I got my revenge. I bought the postcard instead and took a selfie with it.

“150 people are standing in line to see Michelle’s portrait right now,” I said to one of the guards there. “I wonder how many people will stand in line to see a portrait of Melania.” The guard and I both laughed. But actually, it’s not Melania’s fault that Americans are more interested in Stormy Daniels than they are in her.

Hell, Americans are far more interested in Stormy Daniels than even in the fact the the power-mad idiots in Washington are trying to blow us all up. But at least some of the DC Metro stations I rode through are far enough underground to serve as bomb shelters. I wonder if I should start building a bomb shelter too when I get home. Couldn’t hurt, might help.

 

Remember back when you were growing up? That time you did something that was a no-no and your mom caught you in the act? And you blamed it on your older brother who was already in Big Trouble for something else anyway? “He did it!” you cried. And your mother actually believed you?

I just went to a conference in Washington DC (braving 60 mph winds BTW) and the speakers had some very interesting things to say. “Israeli neo-cons want a war on Iran so badly they can taste it,” one speaker told us. “But if the Israelis can get the Americans to make the first move, then that’s a good thing for them. Why? Because the world already hates America because of Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, etc. So if America attacks Iran, then the Isreali neo-cons’ hands are clean.”

Good thinking there, neo-cons. Mom will never know!

Then another speaker, a military guy, talked about what a war on Iran would actually be like. Not a pretty picture. “Imagine the war on Afghanistan and then multiply that. It will be long and hard and horrendous and unwinnable [unless of course America nukes the entire Middle East]. And yet Trump’s generals appear to be planning to do just that — and within the next six months too.” http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21265:Is-the-US-Ramping-Up-Its-Military-Presence-in-Syria-and-Planning-to-Attack-Iran%3F

Boy, the world is REALLY gonna hate us for that one.

PS: And you think that America’s foreign policy is whacked? It’s domestic policy isn’t all that hot either. I just got an e-mail from a friend of mine who is a doctor. “Regarding your article on Freddie Gray? The police didn’t break his neck inside the paddy wagon. They broke it right there on the street. That’s why he was screaming in pain and had to be dragged off the scene.” Interesting. Our police departments appear to have become just one more type of urban gang. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2018/03/my-day-trip-to-baltimore-out-of-order.html

And after reading about America’s obsession with bringing “order” to the streets, I realized something else. They probably didn’t shoot Michael Brown to death in Ferguson for allegedly robbing a convenience store. They shot him to death because he was walking in the middle of the street — that’s out of order for sure. Do not try that at home.

Then another friend of mine e-mailed me, saying, “Chicago beats this Baltimore crap hands down. We have the Homan Avenue police station on the west side where about 10,000 people have checked in and never checked out. Take a trip there. Do a FOIA on them.

“When you go there, you hear voices screaming and your hair stands on end — yet it’s still not investigated by the FBI. It’s where they kill people off for body parts, all sorts of stuff. The ‘Chicago Reader’ has done an article unchallenged. I dare you to come to this creep house.”

Who me?

“Google it. Ask Rahm Emmanuel about it. Disgusting. Been there. I get creeped out and sick every time I go there. All the employees are mean and surly as if taken over by demons.”

And so if Israeli neo-cons are ever called on the carpet by world opinion for all the atrocities they commit in Occupied Palestine, all they have to do is say, “America did it!”

My goal for today was to go visit the Freddie Gray memorial mural in Baltimore, Maryland. Took the Greyhound from Washington DC, day-tripping, arrived on time. So far so good. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/death-of-freddie-gray-5-things-you-didnt-know-w476107

Except that nobody here in Baltimore seemed to know where the Freddie Gray mural was. So I went to the main library. Librarians know everything. “North Mount Street at Presbury.” Got it. “Take the Metro to Upton.” Check. Except that the subway was closed for renovations. So I went next door to the legendary Lexington Market, founded in 1782. Bought a crab cake. Hey, it’s Baltimore. Gotta eat crab cakes. It’s the law.

And then I met “Edward” and things went uphill from there. He stuffed me onto a yellow-line bus. We got off at Pennsylvania Avenue. I followed him around like a lost little duckling for the next half-mile. We turned a corner. There was the mural. It was lovely. I took a photo of it. I forgot to bring flowers.

Edward walked me back through Freddie’s old neighborhood, one of the most rundown in all of America. “What was Freddie like?” I asked Edward.

“He was pretty much like everyone else around here, just trying to get by as best that he could in a place with no jobs, run-down schools and shabby housing,” replied Edward. I looked around. Edward was right. “People here are always trying to get your spot.” And apparently the po-po had been trying to get Freddie’s spot too.

I just got done reading Matt Taibbi’s excellent book, “I can’t Breathe”. Taibbi talks about “community policing,” a policy wherein anything that looks “out of order” on the streets must be gotten rid of. And the cops, not the laws, get to decide what “out of order” looks like. This is a national policy, not just in Baltimore. Our whole country has a policing policy similar to what goes on in occupied Palestine.

And apparently Freddie Gray was “out of order” too.

When little kids get “out of order” they are sent to rec centers and play grounds. When senior citizens get “out of order” they are sent to rest homes. When politicians get “out of order” they are sent to Congress. But when you are a young Black male and get even the tiniest bit “out of order” then they send you off to jail. Or shoot you.

Please, America, please think of some way that young Black men can have a safe place to go when society considers you “out of order,” a safe place that doesn’t involve jail time — or a coffin.

After Black people have endured over 600 long hard years of slavery, humiliation and having every deck stacked against them, isn’t it high time for White people to stop trying to make Black people feel “out of order” just for being alive.

PS: Thank you, Edward, for being my tour guide to north Baltimore. You really did put the charm in “Charm City” and I’m grateful.

PPS: A good start at making America safe for young Black males (and for all the rest of us Americans too) would be to stop spending trillions of $$$$ on worthless weapons of mass destruction and start spending trillions of $$$$ on us Americans instead — on all of us.

I’ve been told that you can get instructions for making a freaking atomic bomb right off the internet. All you need is uranium, a cyclotron or two and a stick of dynamite. Just score some of that stuff and you’re good to go. Easy-peazy. Hell, even North Korea could do it.

And ever since Hiroshima, some of the best minds of our generation have been dedicated to the proposition of blowing stuff up. But is this really what the world needs right now? Yet another way to make things go ka-boom? I think not. We’ve got way much bigger challenges facing us right now. https://972mag.com/another-unnecessary-war/132905/

For instance, on one hand the world’s ocean water levels are currently rising even faster than America’s national debt. And on the other hand, deserts are spreading all across the world even faster than school shootings are spreading across the U.S. One part of the globe has too much water. Another part has not even enough.

What to do?

Wouldn’t it be nice if our top scientists would put away their childish things and start working on stuff that really matters? Like how to desalinate all the oceans’ extra water and transport it to the Gobi and the Kalahari and the Sahara and Death Valley? Where it can really do some good.

I’ve been to some of these desert places. All you gotta do is add water to the dust there and then stir. Voila! Instant dirt. It’s magic. It’s like making Kool-Aid. Instant Eden.

Why aren’t our scientists working on this? Instead of dedicating their lives to making our planet uninhabitable and radioactive?

PS: And of course I’m going to somehow tie all of this stuff back to the Middle East as usual — and why not? I love visiting the Middle East. The people there are friendly, hospitable and not really deserving of being bombed, napalmed and slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands. Mass murder is never a good idea — whether it’s done by Hitler, Stalin or the Pentagon. https://247wallst.com/special-report/2018/02/20/20-companies-profiting-the-most-from-war/2/

“But,” you might say, “what about ISIS and Al Qaeda?” Do your research. Most of them are using missiles, deadly gases and even Toyota trucks that America gave them. Humph. https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/23/the-coming-wars-to-end-all-wars/

And as for election tampering, parts of the Middle East really do have their hands in the American electoral cookie jar. Here’s an article that mentions in passing just how much influence Saudi Arabia and Israel have on American elections: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21181%27%20style=%27color:#000;https://youtu.be/Ql06w6jPkvw

Places in the Middle East such as Yemen, Iraq, Syria, etc. could easily be turned from killing fields to paradises — if only all those evil vicious bastards in America didn’t make so much money on weapons sales. But then in in places like Parkland and Sandy Hook and Columbine, I’m probably preaching to the choir.

Even in your wildest dreams could you ever imagine that Americans would ever put up with allowing Houston, Texas, to go without electricity for almost a year after being hit by a hurricane? “Inconceivable!” And yet San Juan, Puerto Rico, another American city that was hit by a hurricane at the same time as Houston, STILL has very little electrical power — and doesn’t reasonably expect to get its electricity up and running before this summer either. “Unheard of.”

One American city had the necessary recovery funds pumped into it fast. Lights went back on within days. Another American city still sees its students studying by candlelight and living without refrigeration or air conditioning 24/7 — even months and months after the event and also for many more months to come. https://portside.org/2018-02-02/puerto-rico-living-and-learning-dark

If such a horrendous third-world un-American thing such as going without power for almost a year had happened to Houston, then I bet all y’all anything that within hours Colonel Travis himself would be rolling over in his grave and Texans would have succeeded from the Union or/or marched on Washington with torches and pitchforks!

And here’s something else of interest about this sad tale of two cities — that somehow Puerto Ricans are now being blamed for all the destruction caused by the same act of nature that Texans are NOT being blamed for — that somehow Hurricane Maria was somehow the fault of those spendthrift Puerto Ricans and thus they deserve to suffer for their sins and to get no relief. Yet Houston is blameless.

Huh?

But then I talked with a friend of mine who had just returned from both San Juan and Houston — and he reminded me that things were just not as simple as that. “There are other factors,” said my friend. “In Puerto Rico, for instance, Hurricane Maria was so fierce that it almost flattened much of the island’s infrastructure. In Houston, on the other hand, the problem had more to do with flooding.”

He then surprised me by saying that FEMA had actually been well-prepared ahead of time for the Puerto Rico hurricane and that, not like in New Orleans, FEMA had actually done a good job. “FEMA arrived even before the hurricane hit, bringing tons of emergency food supplies which were then stored on ships docked in the port. However, getting the supplies to the people who needed them was another story altogether. The roads were a mess. Electrical poles were down. It was dangerous to drive trucks. Distribution was a huge problem. And another huge problem is that, although the US has pledged seven billion dollars to help Puerto Rico get back on its feet, more like 40 billion dollars is desperately needed. There was unbelievable damage to the infrastructure.”

With regard to corruption, my friend didn’t know much about corruption in Houston — but America has allowed corruption in Puerto Rico to go on for over a century, selectively applying the Rule of Law to help the powerful and well-off.

“One example of corruption in Puerto Rico,” continued my friend, “is that the island’s power company is making it almost impossible to install solar facilities because solar power would not benefit it. And also power was restored to the wealthier part of San Juan while the rest of the island will be blacked out for many more months.”

My own personal theory is that the only difference between corruption in Puerto Rico and corruption in Texas is that if someone wants to do something corrupt in Houston, he first makes it legal.

But Houston and San Juan do have one very important thing in common — its wonderful people. “In both places I saw people working together, neighbors helping less fortunate neighbors on a very person-to-person level. In both cities, it was inspiring and humbling to watch.”

PS: And here’s another sad tale from a third American city — Washington DC. Completely flooded by money-changers in the temple, it has now become a total disaster area, even more of a swamp than ever, drowning in whole hurricanes of corruption — corruption that is now legal.

In a few days I myself am going to slog off to Washington DC and heroically wade through the catastrophic results of Hurricane K Street, attending both the March 2nd “Israel Lobby and American Policy” conference and also a rally against AIPAC (The American-Israel Public Affairs Committee) on March 4th. See you there too? http://israellobbyandamericanpolicy.org/ I’d give you more info on where the anti-AIPAC rally is going to be held, but Google doesn’t list it. No surprise there.

The New York Times keeps telling us that it was Hurricane Russia that interfered with the 2016 presidential election — but to paraphrase America’s colorful 36th president, “The Zionist-Saudi alliance has America’s pecker in its pocket.” Hurricane AIPAC has been slamming into our elections full-force for the last 40-odd years.

“And what am I bid for this White House?” the auctioneer cries. Sometimes I think that Christie’s or Sotheby’s are running our government — not the electoral process.

The weapons manufacturer in the front row holds up his paddle. “I bid four million bucks to put this here Hollywood actor into the White House”. Sold! And Ronald Reagan suddenly becomes presidential — if only he can follow the script and declare a phony proxy war on Central America (and we also received MS 13 in the bargain as well).

Eight years later. Same thing. “And the White House goes to that guy in the third row dressed up like James Bond.” Then, boom, just like that George Bush Senior steps into the job (with a little help from his pal Willie Horton). And suddenly the man who was in Dallas when Kennedy was shot is now calling the shots himself and we get that phony Gulf War as a result — plus that bloody ten-year proxy war on Iran as well. Two phony wars for the price of…ten.

Bill Clinton goes on the auction block next — and we get that phony war on Yugoslavia. And why not? His handlers did place the highest bid.

Next comes that joke George W. Bush, “the man you would most likely want to have a beer with”. His handlers bought the White House for him — and we taxpayers are still paying the price of that bid. But it was well worth it to his handlers — eleven trillion bucks profit from a few million dollars’ bid. Those phony wars on Afghanistan and Iraq were worth every cent.

“What am I bid for Obama?” the auctioneer asks next. Some Deep State guy in the back row slowly raises his hand. “Sold!” Cheap price to pay for the trillions in profits from those phony proxy wars on Syria, Libya, Ukraine and Gaza. https://consortiumnews.com/2016/06/08/democrats-are-now-the-aggressive-war-party/

And in 2016 we learned once again that the highest bidder always gets to purchase the White House — as Donald Trump is shoved into the Lincoln bedroom. So what new phony wars will we get the honor of paying for under his watch? https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/05/why-we-should-fear-the-washington-establishment-figures-who-are-pulling-the-strings-in-the-trump-administration/

PS: Nobody in America seems to be paying attention! Not only has our democracy been auctioned off to the highest bidder but our way of life has been auctioned to the war machine as well. Let’s let Trump have his military parade. Why not? We’ve paid for it — trillions and trillions of dollars. We might as well see what we’ve chosen to buy instead of buying stuff that will make us be happier, feel safer, live longer and have healthier kids. https://www.wrmea.org/018-march-april/immigration-aid-and-the-israelization-of-america.html

Are you aware that Israeli and US warplanes and/or missiles have just bombed Syria AGAIN? Trying to wave a red flag at Russia, trying to start a nuclear war, a weapons manufacturer’s ultimate wet dream — but not mine! And all this freaking talk here at home about “Russia Russia Russia” is clearly geared to get us ready for World War Three. And, fools that we be, we’ll deserve it if (when) we get it. https://www.rt.com/news/418180-us-strike-syria-aggression/

______________________________

Stop Wall Street and War Street from destroying our world. And while you’re at it, please buy my books. https://www.amazon.com/Jane-Stillwater/e/B00IW6O1RM

It used to be that American journalists had real-time access to news from the battlefield or even went there themselves. That just doesn’t happen any more. Mostly “war correspondents” these days just write what they are told to write — and from a safe distance.

Back during World War II, heroic reporters like Ernie Pyle, Edward R. Murrow, Martha Gellhorn and William L. Shirer covered all the battles. During the war on Vietnam we had Walter Cronkite reporting the nightly news. Uncle Walter never steered us wrong. Seymour Hersh, Daniel Ellsberg and Neil Sheehan kept our minds right. And then war reporting rapidly went downhill from there. You had to be “embedded” to get into Iraq. I got embedded. It was fun. Except when a suicide bomber almost blew me up.

But now? Syria did let me in. I reported from Damascus. But Libya? No way. All that American-made “Humanitarian Intervention” did not include a free press. It still doesn’t. And I recently got thrown out of the West Bank by Israeli neo-colonialists. And don’t even try to get into Gaza. “Closed Military Zone”. Yeah right. And Ukraine is being run by fascist wannabes right now and you can imagine how they feel about reporters. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2017/09/grilled-my-experience-at-israeli-border.html

But I’m still game. I still want to go report on wars. I still want to report on what is happening in Yemen these days for instance. Fat chance of that ever happening. The Saudis have closed the airports, bus stops and cruise lines. Even freighters and NGOs can’t even get in. Nobody gets to go into Yemen and watch thousands of Yemeni children starve to death — thanks to America and the Saudis. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2016/08/disneyland-or-yemen-where-to-go-over.html

Hell, there’s not even one war that I can think of right now that would actually let me report on it — even if I won the lottery and could hire James Bond to escort me. No one wants me in a “war” zone. I might even tell the truth. War reporting just isn’t what if used to be. Nobody wants us to know what is going on Over There any more.

Now we can only get our on-the-spot news from FaceBook.

PS: “Write or Die” is my new favorite motto.

PPS: What are we gonna do now that Robert Perry is no longer around to tell us the truth? His recent death was one of journalism’s great losses. So many of our reporters today are simply suck-ups and cowards. Anybody who cares anything at all about truth in journalism will miss him. I will miss him. https://fair.org/home/a-tribute-to-robert-parry-independent-journalism-at-its-best/

“I’m SOOOO afraid of getting the flu this year,” said my friend Richard. “People are dropping like flies!”

“But if you received your flu shot,” I naively replied, “then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about and should be protected from getting it, right?” Wrong! The drug companies have just reminded us that, because there are so many different types of flu strains out there, then getting a flu shot might not even protect us at all.

Huh?

So I began questioning my other friends. “Did you too get a flu shot this year?”

“Yes, of course,” most of them replied.

“And did you also come down with the flu too, even after getting a flu shot?” I asked next. Shockingly, a whole bunch of them answered “yes” to that question as well. What a con game by Big Pharma! We’re talking genius here!

Drug companies sold millions of flu shots this year. But then millions of people subsequently came down with the flu. “Oops, my bad,” says Big Pharma. “Must have gotten the wrong strain.” Again.

Then of course there’s the drug industry’s old-faithful fall-back con job too — where they tell us with a perfectly straight face, “You would have gotten a much worse case of the flu if you hadn’t gotten the shot.” Ur, what exactly could be worse than misery and death? https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xN0Cq8wa5_KGmK0IhQ0HS8G31M0XCr6J/view

And while millions of us are all lying up in our beds wishing we were dead or else in the hospital actually dying, Big Pharma is happily laughing all the way to the bank. http://vaccineimpact.com/2017/why-are-nurses-and-healthcare-workers-across-the-u-s-refusing-mandatory-flu-vaccines/

PS: I do gotta admit, however, that the “Biggest Little Con Game” life-achievement award clearly must go to America’s weapons manufacturers. They have consistently screwed us out of billions and billions of $$$ every single year since the end of World War II. What a racket. “We will keep America safe,” they constantly tell us, “by shooting up the rest of the world.” And how exactly is that keeping us safe — when everyone in the rest of the world now hates us?   https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/02/02/us-has-no-evidence-to-confirm-reports-that-syrian-government-used-sarin-gas-jim-mattis.html

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” they reply. “Just give us another couple of trillion $$$ and you’ll be even safer than lower Manhattan was on 9-11.” And so we cough up yet another trillion $$$ — and then even more people in even more countries learn very quickly to hate us too — especially those millions of folks whose families have been murdered by American guns and bombs. https://tomluongo.me/2018/01/28/pipeline-wars-realpolitik-meets-geography/

But I guess it could be worse. Their families, like ours, could also be dying from flu shots.

PPS: Whenever the Rule of Law fails to protect the least of us, then our society eventually fails too.

“Cough, cough, sneeze — and then Boom!” We’re not being protected.

I visited the Slave Mart Museum in Charleston, South Carolina the other day. So much human misery was on display there that tears instantly came to my eyes. Slavery was the American equivalent of Auschwitz and Gaza — systematic torture, degradation and death based solely on impersonal factors that people were born with.

In the historic Old South, slaves were routinely beaten, starved, kidnapped and raped. 50,000 slaves tried to run away every year. Thousands tried to fight back. Can you blame them? Despite their extreme exploitation and misery, however, millions of them submitted to their own enslavement. Why? PTSD. Too shocked and psychically injured to do anything else.

According to museum records, there were three slaves to every White person in Charleston back in the day. “So why didn’t they rebel?” you might ask. Ah, but they did. There were over 250 slave rebellions during this dreadful time. But the bottom line was that these enslaved and dehumanized men, women and children mostly suffered from an earlier, harsher version of Stockholm Syndrome. Veterans returning from Iraq weren’t the first Americans to suffer from PTSD.

Slaves in south Carolina were called “Gullah”. And after the horrors of slavery were finally over, the Gullah people’s nightmare still continued in the form of lynch mobs and Jim Crow.

And yet. Somehow still the Gullah culture has survived even despite the John Killhouns and the Dylan Roofs — and even despite the high-end boutiques that have replaced Gullah businesses on King Street.

To the Gullah people of Charleston today, Black lives still matter — even after having been haunted by a PTSD strong enough to reach its cold, ghostly fingers down to them over the span of hundreds of years.

PS: I’m currently reading two books that clearly illustrate the sad effects of slavery on African-Americans — even today: Matt Taibbi’s “I Can’t Breathe” https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/532518/i-cant-breathe-by-matt-taibbi/9780812988840/ and Jill Leovy’s “Ghettoside” https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/100077/ghettoside-by-jill-leovy/9780385529990/ They both come highly recommended by me.

One huge fatal flaw in the human psyche is that all too many of us seem to be incapable of grasping the Big Picture. In Charleston, South Carolina, however, the Big Picture is currently being shoved down our throats — like it or not. “We had seven inches of snowfall here the other day,” a long-time resident just told me. “Unheard of!” What caused it? Climate deterioration. Weather pollution.

For crying out loud, how much more further proof do we need before we can actually start seeing the Big Picture here? That Santa Claus has just moved his North Pole workshop down to sunny Carolina? That the winter Olympics are now being held right here on Meeting Street?

Over a hundred years ago, Charleston built a gigantic seawall to keep the Atlantic Ocean out of the front yards of its charming antebellum mansions. Well, in the next 20 years Charleston is going to have to quadruple the height of these “lowcountry” seawalls — unless it wants to equip its visiting tourists with scuba equipment in order to view Rainbow Row.

Climate deterioration. Weather pollution. Big Picture. Got it yet? Apparently not.

You just gotta love Charleston. It’s clearly the most beautiful and charming city in America. And I will miss it when it is gone — just like I will miss New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Mumbai, Amsterdam, Shanghai, Sydney, Miami, Puerto Vallarta, Vancouver, Seattle, Boston and Buenos Aires.

Climate deterioration/weather pollution. This is the most vital Big Picture that our limited human psyches are clearly missing right now (aside from the fact that “war” will kill our environment too).

PS: Who profits most from denying that climate deterioration is even a thing? Surprisingly, it is American weapons manufacturers — the largest source of weather pollution there is.

For instance, that phony “war” on Syria alone has already subtracted years and years from the life expectancy of the entire human race. Not to mention all the things that go “Boom” in Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Libya, Yemen, Palestine, the former Yugoslavia, etc. Each of these senseless and barbaric attacks on vulnerable countries have been incredible bonanzas for American weapons manufacturers — but could be extinction events for the rest of us.