BartBlog

I just got a small taste of what it’s gonna be like here on Planet Earth in the year 2028 — and, frankly, it scared the holy crap out of me. “So. What happened,” you might ask. Long story.

First of all, a massive curtain of toxic smoke from that huge NorCal wildfires slowly descended on my own hometown recently. We all struggled around in gas masks and it became rather hard to breathe.

Next I foolishly started thinking, “What’s a little haze in the air? I’m young. I’m strong. I don’t need no stinking gas masks.” Ha.

And then I got a horrible sore throat. My eyes watered. My nose ran. I constantly coughed. I took to my bed. I truly thought that I was going to die.

But I didn’t.

But I could have.

And that, dear readers, was my own personal sneak-preview experience of what death by climate catastrophe will be like in the year 2028.

Your experience could be different, of course. You could freeze to death — or drown in a flood or get hit by a tornado. But for most of us? It will be one long, painful and ignominious Death by Sore Throat.

PS: And what will be the main cause of this massive human-extinction event? No, it won’t be because you or I didn’t drive a Prius or because we forgot to recycle or even because we took too many jet plane rides on vacation.

No, Extinction ’28 will be mostly caused by all those petty little “wars” that our idiot leaders in Washington DC, London, Tel Aviv and Saudi Arabia are so very fond of. https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2018/12/01/if-you-murdered-a-bunch-of-people-mass-murder-is-your-single-defining-legacy/

Their constant and heartless mega-bombing of Yemen not only murders school children in Sanaa but it also is murdering us too — only slower.

Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Palestine, Gaza, Ferguson…. Every single bomb dropped, every single tank on the ground and every single F16 in the air brings all of us just that much closer to Extinction 2028.
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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

“Oops, here comes the Americans! Hide all the breakables! Quick!” Sorry. Too late. https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-has-killed-more-than-20-million-people-in-37-victim-nations-since-world-war-ii/5492051

Like a bull in a china shop, rampaging American industrialists have systematically shattered the infrastructure, culture and well-being of almost every single country on the planet in the past 100 years — including even America itself. From Afghanistan to Zaire, whenever American industrialists come knocking at the door, a cry of warning immediately goes out. “Hide the good silver! Bury the Wedgwood! Sell the Spode! The Americans are here!”

Unlike what happens at Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn, however, when American industrialists get done smashing everything in sight, there is no “You break it, you buy it” policy for Wall Street and War Street. They just walk out the door scot-free — leaving incredible chaos in their wake. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSqm2FmCdA0

But I digress here. A little bit.

And yet even after our bulls-on-steroids American industrialists have systematically, deliberately and viciously broken all the Royal Doulton china in Honduras for decades on end, US citizens actually seem surprised, outraged and amazed that Hondurans are coming up here in search of what is left of their broken treasures.

Even in the face of this hard truth, Americans have actually started whining when they are being asked to pick up all the shards that they themselves broke. “We didn’t do it!” Americans cry. “Somebody else did it! Not me.” Yeah right. https://news.vice.com/en_ca/article/kzpabe/the-us-is-propping-up-a-dictatorship-in-honduras

And here in Juarez, I can clearly see the tragic results of all these many decades of bully-ish American behavior in Honduras. Over a hundred asylum seekers have lined up here at the US-Mexico border, patiently waiting to get access to what had been originally their good china before America broke it.

It brought tears to my eyes as I walked by the asylum seekers each day, huddled masses yearning to breathe free, day after day, on my way back to El Paso. “How long have you been waiting,” I asked one man at the head of the line.

“Over a week.”

“But where do you go to the bathroom,” I wondered.

“There is a restroom back there….” And then a Mexican priest walked by pushing a small cart, offering the asylum seekers water and bologna sandwiches. Women and children waited patiently for their turn. I tried not to cry.

“Is anyone at all being let through?” I asked next.

“13 people were allowed into the United States last night.” And yet, once they get inside our allegorical “mighty woman with a torch,” asylum seekers are then jailed, their children are kidnapped and they are treated like dirt — like they, not the Americans, had rampaged the Honduran china shop. And yet, perhaps even this brutal concentration-camp life in the US might be better than the infernal Hell that American industrialists have gleefully created in Honduras. Wall Street and War Street — hope they never come to my home town too.

One American Border Patrol guy actually told me, “These people have no skills and we don’t even know what kind of people they are. They could be gangsters and crooks for all we know.”

I of course couldn’t manage to keep my mouth shut and replied, “These are highly skilled people. They know how to build homes, fix cars and take care of our children. Plus Trump is always bragging about all the new jobs he has created and how we need lots of new employees to do these jobs — so jobs are not a problem according to the prez himself. But even more important, how can these people possibly be bigger crooks than we now have in Washington DC!” And then I scooted past him just as fast as I could because I didn’t want to end up in a concentration camp too. Whew.

The fourth time I crossed over into Juarez, however, I planned to visit the big mercado at the cathedral plaza and buy dozens of oranges to give to the refugees. But the asylum seekers were all gone! Oh no! “Where did they go!”

“The Federales came and got them,” said my new shopkeeper friend after I had bought a couple of his T-shirts. Oh dear. “They came for them with buses and took them to a nearby auditorium.” That’s bad. “No, that’s good. The Federales fed them and cared for them and helped them and worried about them — because tonight it is supposed to be very very cold.” Now why can’t good “Christian” Americans do that too?

Isn’t it ironic that Mexico, feral Mexico, is currently gaining a Good Samaritan reputation for helping people out (as strongly recommended by Jesus) — whereas “Christian” America’s reputation as the world’s “Great Satan” just keeps growing and growing and growing.

PS: I attended a recent book talk by journalist Peter Phillips. His new book, Giants, lists the names and info of the 389 people who run this world. Nothing happens on this planet without their consent. And they are all greedy and heartless capitalists — running a Ponzi scheme on the rest of us. https://www.projectcensored.org/product/giants-the-global-power-elite/

“Almost the only way they can earn interest on their money these days is to continuously instigate small wars,” said Phillips. Not big ones. Big “wars” would murder too many consumers. So only small “wars” will do (hopefully). Does this mean that all those women and children slaughtered in Syria and Iraq and Yemen and Afghanistan and Libya — and Honduras — are just smoke-and-mirror tricks to keep stock markets afloat? And their lives have no value to American industrialists because they do not consume enough?  that’s a daunting thought.  will they blow me up too if I don’t promise to consume enough?  https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/americas-permanent-war-complex/

These 387 men (and two women) who now own us — lock, stock, crate and barrel? They are morally rotten. And the rest of us appear to be morally rotten too — or else morally screwed. Is this truly how we want the human race to be remembered?

When you were a kid, did you ever color Easter eggs? And put the yellow egg into the red die in order to watch it turn orange? That’s pretty much like what has happened here in El Paso in the past 200 years. Two different cultures have been mixed together here — and magically turned into an interesting, viable and delightful third one.

Back in the day, El Paso used to be a Mexican town. Then it became an American town — and now it is a happy blend of the best of both. El Paso is a success because of (not despite of) its cultural diversity. Please bear this in mind.

But what about Juarez? I was about to find out.

“Don’t go there. It’s dangerous!” I was told by a bunch of people who had never been there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFnxvWgX73Y

“Piddle-tish,” as my father used to say. Juarez is only a ten-minute walk from where I was staying in downtown El Paso. I just walked over a bridge, paid a 25-cent bridge toll and Voila! I was suddenly in Juarez.

And perfectly safe.

First I went to Juarez’s cathedral, an excellent example of centuries-old colonial architecture. Then I went to the new, modern and excellent “Frontera” museum. Then I bought a Juarez T-shirt, visited a curandero, ate an ice cream cone and bought another T-shirt with a picture of Pancho Villa on the front — and several tiny bottles of tequila to bring home to my friends. https://lesblank.com/films/chulas-fronteras-1976/

“What happened here that caused all this change,” I asked one of the shopkeepers. “How come it’s not dangerous here any more?”

Apparently the Federales finally woke up, got their arses in gear, wiped out a whole serpent’s nest full of drug cartels and stopped all that gun-running from America (aka the “War on Drugs”). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbZ3VdYb90o

And BTW why aren’t our own Federal troops also waking up — and helping to fight the gut-wrenching, heartbreaking and terrible wildfires in California instead of just wasting their time sitting around waiting to torment poor harmless asylum-seekers? https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-the-migrant-caravan-and-a-manufactured-crisis-at-the-us-border

“But how do the people of Juarez support themselves?” I asked next.

“We have about 400 macheadoras — factories — here along the border, employing over 5,000 people. Plus we grow fine-quality cotton here that is picked by hand. It is in great demand in Saudi Arabia. We fly it straight there.” Who knew.

I loved Juarez. I walked back over there four different times. And I have the T-shirts to prove it.

And I loved El Paso as well. Cultural diversity has really spiced El Paso up. Too bad that so much of the rest of America is missing out on this treat.

PS: Bob Dylan wrote a song about Juarez that I can’t seem to stop humming. Marty Robbins wrote a song about El Paso too. Here they both are, thanks to YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcRNSHqiH7A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UVVS5-9HvA

PPS: Juarez has all the delightful energy and flavor that we all love to go to Mexico for — except it only costs 25 cents to get here. You don’t have to drop a bundle of $$$ on air fare to get your hit of Mexican wonderfulness. Just pay 25 cents and walk across a bridge.

People may think that I don’t like the Republican Party — but actually I really am quite a big fan. Why? Because the GOP changed my whole life! Have you ever experienced that special “Come to Jesus” moment when suddenly that new path that your life needs to take suddenly becomes crystal clear? I have. And I owe my entire “Road to Damascus” experience to Republicans.

Remember when George W. Bush stole the 2000 presidential election (we coulda had Al Gore, avoided 9-11 and not lost the “war” on Iraq if only more Americans had protested this fraud)? That is how I became one of the world’s first bloggers — because those dirty election-stealing Repugs actually got me that pissed off. And I currently have over two thousand blog-post articles to prove it. Thank you, Repugs! http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2004/12/

And now, 18 years later, the Republicans are still pissing me off — and they are still out there stealing our elections as well.

So? What’s my point here? Let’s just take a look at the logic involved in the recent Senate race in Texas to see where I’m going with this. Beto O’Rourke is an honest likable candidate, a third-generation Texan with a proven track record and a fabulous grassroots campaigner. Ted Cruz looks and acts like Count Chocula, represents the worse interests of Texans, takes millions in Wall Street PAC money, runs a dirty campaign and has a dismal record of being in the pockets of every single lobbyist in DC that you would ever want to hate. Yet Ted Cruz “won” the election. What’s wrong with this picture?

I simply don’t know how Cruz managed to pull off a win. But knowing the history of Republican election “wins” like I do, there has to be some sort of hanky-panky going on. Leopards just don’t change their spots.

Listed below are some of my more popular theories about what happened in Texas on November 6, 2018:

1. Cruz flat-out flipped the vote. Easy to do. We already know that Dallas County was using illegal wi-fi equipment on election premises — the easier to hack voting machines with. Plus Dallas County’s voting chaos on election day looked like something designed by SNL. https://truthout.org/articles/new-evidence-shows-texas-senate-race-is-vulnerable-to-manipulation/

2. ES&S voting machines were involved in this election — always a bad sign. They are totally hackable. So easy that even Sheldon Adelson, some unnamed Saudi prince or a 12-year-old kid with a modem can figure it out. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/magazine/the-myth-of-the-hacker-proof-voting-machine.html

3. Lies. Cruz’s attack ads were horrendous. I would be embarrassed to see children watching these ads. Ugly lies. And Cruz also lied about himself. “Tough for Texans”? Ha. More like “Tough on Texans — but easy on Ted’s bank account”. The guy used to be a DC lobbyist before he suddenly became a “populist”. You do the math. https://theintercept.com/2018/10/01/ted-cruz-lobbyist-google/

4. This one is my favorite — and you heard it here first. I think. Beto had thousands of volunteers working on his campaign. School teachers, librarians, millennials, retiree, me. There were thousands of us. Cruz only had 18 (eighteen) paid staff members working for him.

“So how did he run his campaign?” you might ask. He didn’t. Governor Greg Abbott ran it for him. Wha?

Did Cruz and Abbott criminally break the law by using Texas state funds, employees, time and money to try to elect Cruz? Most likely. We already know that Republicans, like petulant two-year-olds, simply cannot resist temptation when it comes to getting their own way. But isn’t something like that criminally illegal? And isn’t anybody but me gonna ask any questions about that?

5. Texas presumes to be a Christian state, right? So no Texan who has ever read (and understood) the Bible and who wants to be a good Christian would ever even think about voting for Cruz — whose Golden Rule seems to be, “What’s mine is mine. And what’s yours is mine too.” So if no true Christians voted for Ted, then who did? What would Jesus do? Chase the money-changers out of the voting booth!

6. How come so many people voted down-ballot for Democrats but still chose to vote up-ballot for Cruz? It just doesn’t make sense unless the voting machines were hacked. Something Baskerville-ish is going on here, Watson. The game is afoot. And apparently the dice are loaded too. https://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2018/11/how-come-beto-suddenly-lost-there-we.html

7. Cruz used to be a professional lobbyist. His whole freaking job used to be to manipulate the will of the American people to do his own bidding. Why would he stop now — now, when he so desperately wants to get his hands into the Senate cookie jar (again)?

So. Let’s review. Did Cruz actually steal the 2018 Texas senate election or not? I think yes.

Republicans have proven time and again that they just can’t resist the temptation to tamper with our American election process. Putin is being wrongly accused of hacking our vote. The Republicans did it! Again and again and again. So why would Cruz and his Repug pals change their spots now? There was just too much to lose. “Some will rob you with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen….” http://www.sovereigncanadian.com/music/woody-guthrie-pretty-boy-floyd/

There we all were, all 5,000 of us, gathered together in Chihuahua stadium in El Paso, Texas — getting ready to celebrate victory for Beto O’Rouke. It seemed like a sure thing. “It’s neck and neck,” the news commentators had just told us, “only with Beto a little bit ahead.”

No problem. The only votes left to be counted came from El Paso, a Democrat stronghold and Beto’s home town. “We got this,” everyone said. Well. Everyone was wrong.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, Ted Cruz had won! “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you.” How could Texas voters possibly be foolish enough to RE-elect Ted Cruz! It just didn’t make sense.

And Beto is too nice a guy not to concede.

And here’s me, in the crowd, screaming “DEMAND A RECOUNT!!!!” But no one was listening. Everyone was crying too hard. Even me.

Image result for jane stillwater And now I’m completely heartbroken. Six more years of that Addams Family wannabe? The O.G. himself? We’re doomed. Texas is doomed. America is doomed.

If Cruz had lost, he would have shrugged his shoulders and said, “Fine. I’ll just go live in the Caymans and count all those millions I scored from all those lobbyists. Fine.”

But this is never to be. And now myself and all of El Paso are heartbroken. Goodbye cruel world. I’m giving up politics forever. It’s just too painful to watch evil people win and good people lose — again and again and again.

So here’s my next question. Why do Americans allow their elections to be stolen again and again and again? Are they just stoopid — or merely brainwashed? Or don’t they even care?

Yesterday I probably walked at least ten freaking miles, all over freaking El Paso, arguably the friendliest city in America. Here’s me, out campaigning for Beto O’Rourke for U.S. Senate, all looking as chic as a Kardashian in my new “Beto for Texas” T-shirt. But what impressed me most here is the height, width and depth of this campaign. Beto’s volunteers must have knocked on every single door and talked with every single voter in Texas. At least twice.

Good grief, I surely do hope that Beto wins this election. Why? Because the alternative is just too ghastly to even contemplate — six more years of Ted Cruz in the Senate. The O.G. himself, wheeling and dealing his little heart out to make sure that our grandchildren will become extinct. Yikes!

Old Gangsta Cruz is running a dirty campaign here. You should see his commercials! “Tough for Texas!” Yeah, right. At one point Cruz even actually accuses Beto of liking Bernie Sanders! Heaven forbid. And, like Trump, Cruz happily dog-whistles to his base — which apparently consists of old fossils, old dinosaurs and his fellow OGs who don’t seem to realize that the world as we think we know it has already come to an end and that all we can do now is evolve or die.

That’s serious stuff, Ted.

Arse-kissing billionaires just isn’t enough any more, Ted.

Time for Texas to get off the dinosaur train and vote for Beto O’Rourke!

PS: Here are some possible campaign slogans for Beto that I thought up all by my self.

“Ted Cruz is tough on Texans — but easy on billionaires in New York and DC.”

“Beto O’Rourke stands up for the hard-working men and women of Texas. Ted Cruz only stands up for billionaires on Wall Street and war profiteers in DC.”

PPS: Now if only Beto would actually man up and buck the horrifying riptide of Israeli neo-con AIPAC influence on our elections, he’d be just about perfect in my eyes. But, hey, no American politician ever does that. Sigh.

PPPS: I walked over to Juarez yesterday — and have the T-shirt to prove it!

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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

Author’s note: I started writing this article on the Nazi Holocaust industry over a month ago, long before the tragic horror of the Pittsburgh synagogue hate crime stunned our nation. I’m not sure where to take it from here. From Auschwitz to Gaza to Pittsburgh, I just keep getting more and more horrified by man’s inhumanity to man.

There’s a very famous Nazi Holocaust museum in Washington DC right now. There’s an excellent Nazi Holocaust museum in Terre Haute, Indiana, of all places. There’s one in St. Petersburg, Florida. There’s a Nazi Holocaust center and a Nazi Holocaust memorial in San Francisco too.

There’s also a Nazi Holocaust museum in New York City, El Paso, Tucson, Atlanta, New Orleans, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, Ann Arbor, Boston, Maine, Mississippi, St. Louis, Albuquerque, Nebraska, Cincinnati, Portland, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Milwaukee and Virginia. There’s even one here in my own home town.

And it seems like approximately every tenth film made in Hollywood involves a Nazi Holocaust story. And PBS seems to feature at least one Nazi Holocaust-themed program a week.

However, members of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh never needed a memorial to the grim Nazi Holocaust to remind them of what it is like to be a refugee, a victim of persecution, a stranger in a strange land. They only had to remember what happened to their own parents or grandparents back in Nazi Germany — or what happened in their very own synagogue last week.

Members of the Tree of Life Synagogue have created their very own Nazi Holocaust memorial — in their hearts.

These observant Jews weren’t just satisfied with honoring past Nazi Holocaust victims. They also wanted to help people who are currently trapped in their own modern-day Holocausts as well. “Never forget.” And they haven’t.

By helping living refugees from today’s modern Holocausts find a better, safer way of life, they have memorialized the past by honoring the present and the future. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/28/us/hias-pittsburgh-robert-bowers.html

And for their humane and compassionate perspective regarding the plight of victims of the world’s many new Holocausts, some neo-Nazi madman gunned 11 of them down in cold blood.

But over in Israel, things are quite different. The whole idea of compassion and of holding out a helping hand to victims of mass murder and genocide? That idea apparently came to a total dead stop back in 1946. Far too many Israelis today seem to have totally forgotten what it was like during the Nazi Holocaust — even despite all the museums, books, movies and hype. Israelis, even though they have become the top CEOs of the current Holocaust industry, seem to be the ones who have forgotten the Nazi Holocaust most.

“Never forget.” Never forget what it was like to be hunted, slaughtered, worked to death, starved to death, thrown into concentration camps, gassed and buried in mass unmarked graves. Yet in Israel, all that stuff has already been completely forgotten. And the American military-industrial complex also supports building and maintaining as many Nazi Holocaust museums as possible over here too — but never, ever supports the true spirit of preventing rabid Holocausts in the future

Let’s take the current bloody and inhuman Holocaust in Gaza for example. The only real difference between the past chilling Nazi Holocaust at Auschwitz and the current chilling Israeli Holocaust at Gaza is that the Nazis who murdered Jews by the thousands did it with gas chambers — and then hauled their victims’ dead bodies off to mass unmarked graves.

Victims of the Gaza Holocaust, however, are mostly slaughtered by bombs dropped from 10,000 feet in the air. Israelis don’t even have to get their hands dirty with burying the dead.

How easily it appears to be for so many Americans and Israelis these days to forget what it was like to be actual victims of the horrors of mass extermination — even despite all their Nazi Holocaust films and museums. The people of Gaza, however, are never being allowed to forget.

So. Now let’s get philosophical here for a moment, okay? What exactly is the point of having governments anyway? To constantly create even more and better genocidal Holocausts and to turn its citizens into madmen and killing machines? I think not.

The philosopher Aristotle once stated that the purpose of government is to create broad opportunities that allow every one of its citizens to have every chance to live up to their fullest potential.

At this point in time, however, both America and Israel seem to be creating more than their fair share of opportunities to create even bigger and more horrid Holocausts like the ones in Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Libya, Afghanistan, Congo, Chile and Yemen — and also to breed more and more violent bigots.

In Israel, its citizens are strongly encouraged to become violent bigots — while Palestinians are being offered only two choices. Either they can become obsequious slaves to the state until they die alone and afraid — or else be forced to rebel.

And here in America as well, the fine art of creating fully-realized human beings appears to be the very least of our corporate-owned government’s goals. Instead, America’s goal right now seems to be the enthusiastic creation of even more haters, greedy bastards with no souls, ruthless imperialists, pipe bombers, mass shooters and fascists.

And what is even worse is that both Israel’s and America’s Holocaust industries are somehow managing to claim that the Pittsburgh tragedy and the Gaza Holocaust are all about the minor inconveniences suffered by the actual creators of these horrors — and not about its true victims.

PS: On a lighter note, here’s link to a video showing a U.S. Army general about to cream his jeans at the mere thought of finally being allowed to play with all his war toys here on American soil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpMFmiK-zgo

Not since the Civil War have so many armed men been set loose to run berserk through the American countryside. With this level of craziness afoot, things are bound to turn ugly. And pond-scum like the Pittsburgh shooter are just gonna love it.

PPS: I’m actually going to be in El Paso when all this stupid shite actually goes down. Should make for some hecka interesting sight-seeing.

“Someone just gave me two free tickets to a photography class at one of those huge computer mega-campuses in Silicon Valley tomorrow,” said a friend. “Wanna come along and be my plus-one?”

At Google? Apple? FaceBook? Sounds intriguing. “Sure!”

The campus was huge and beautiful and chic. I got some great photography advice. End of story? I wish. I still had to drive back home to Berkeley in rush-hour traffic.

It took me three (3) freaking hours to drive merely 40 miles — all that distance and yet never getting out of second gear even once? Hell, I hardly ever got out of first gear. Three (3) nightmare hours of my life that I will never get back. My knees still ache from all that clutch and brake activity, and my poor sweet 1990 Toyota Tercel may never be the same.

A nice cop in San Francisco even let me cut into line at the Bay Bridge entrance ramp because I was crying so hard.

I will never ever ever get stuck in urban rush-hour traffic ever again!

And yet for far-too-many of my fellow Americans, being stuck in three (3) horrid hours of gridlock urban rush-hour traffic twice a day, day in and day out, has become an actual way of life for them. All these thousands of cars on the road at rush-hour every weekday don’t come from nowhere.

And what is even worse is that Big Oil has screwed our environment for life and slaughtered over a million civilians in the Middle East just so American commuters can continue to have the phony privilege of wasting six hours of their lives five days a week — six hours a day that they will never get back. Really? Can’t anybody out there think up a better way to spend our time and money? Apparently not.

Right now, the U.S. stock market is rocketing downward at the rate of 500 points a day — but perhaps the one good thing that might come out of this looming disaster might be that urban Americans would no long be able to afford so many freaking cars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPk9HSLagVg

But still.

You won’t ever again catch me anywhere near any kind of urban freeway between 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm on a weekday. Never ever again. Once was more than enough. Thank goodness for public transit!

Halloween comes only once a year for most of us — but apparently urban commuters are being forced by economic reality to re-live this singular Halloween commuter trick (with no treat) at least twice a day, five days a week. What kind of a life is that?

PS: I almost didn’t get home in time to watch “Survivor” — a program that, after my recent nightmarish experience with gridlock, almost makes living on a primitive (car-less) tropical island start to look good.

Holy sheep dookie! 8000 angry Hondurans are currently marching toward America’s borders with torches and pitchforks! This is something that could only happen on the Republicans’ watch. The White House, Congress and the Supreme Court are all currently dominated by Republicans — and yet DC is gonna blame these marching Hondurans on Bernie Sanders or perhaps even the ghost of FDR? Yeah right.

9-11 happened on the Republicans’ watch. We are currently 21 trillion dollars in debt due to the bloody and insane Repub “wars” on Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, etc. And even the Great Depression of 1929 occurred with Republicans in charge — not to mention that 2008 housing-bubble disaster that sent so many of us Americans off to the poorhouse.

No one in the Green Party is currently trying to steal our civil rights, our MediCare, our voting rights and our Social Security. That’s a Republican thing.
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/52973-rsn-rampant-racist-voter-suppression-in-georgia-goes-to-federal-court

The nuclear Doomsday Clock is currently getting scary-close to Midnight. Reagan’s trickle-down theory refused to trickle down — and his policies in Central America only created death squads and unhappy campers who are now trying to camp out up here instead of down there. And as for the climate catastrophe coming our way? The whole human race may be eliminated on the Republicans’ watch — could be their biggest triumph yet! http://www.pndnsw.org.au/component/content/article/48-pnd-newsflash/394-doomsday-clock-hands-running-out-of-minutes-as-inf-treaty-ditched.html?fbclid=IwAR2_JLn7LfiYAlPAG6y4UFLsFaonwc69YF6A52acVxXiN-L39HQf1LYgXJg

Plus we have had to put up with Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell, Richard “I’m not a crook” Nixon and Stormy Daniels too. Yuck!

PS: Sometimes the Democrats suck eggs as well. Remember Pearl Harbor? Hiroshima? Libya, Syria, Korea and Vietnam? Hell, both of these money-grubbing parties are all in bed together — and yet we’re the ones who end up getting bedbugs. When both Republicans and Democrats turn out their lights at night, they both seem to dream only of “war” profiteering — and how to get us gullible peons to pay for it.

And even worse is when we think that we are voting for Democratic candidates who will protect and support the interests of America’s salt-of-the-earth working class — and then Boom! We get stuck with Repub wannabes like Johnson, Clinton and Obama. Jokers and Penguins cleverly disguised as Batman. Humph.

For instance, right here in my own California assembly district? Buffy Wicks is running on a platform of affordable housing and all that liberal stuff — but is actually funded by a Republican PAC looking for another Brett Kavanaugh. http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2018-10-19/article/47095?headline=Who-s-Behind-the-Wicks-Mail-Deluge-Who-s-Endorsed-Her-and-More–Becky-O-Malley

And then there are all those neo-con Israelis and dictatorial Saudis. No one, either Democrat or Republican, ever goes to Washington these days without Bibi Netanyahu or Prince What’s His Name packed away in his or her suitcase.

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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

Thank goodness for FaceBook. If it weren’t for Mr. Zukerman’s reluctant invention, we would never have any idea at all regarding what is actually going on in the world right now, even in “war” zones. Thanks to FB, however, we have easy access to over a billion on-the-scene eye witnesses located in almost every nook and cranny on the globe.

Or at least we used to.

But please be aware that things are run a hecka lot differently in the mainstream media. There’s never any local citizens on FB covering the news for the MSM in all those trumped-up war zones that Washington and Lockheed-Martin seem to love so much. Only reporters hired by rich people can afford to report stuff on mainstream media news feeds from there. And because only rich people can afford to hire MSM war correspondents, we only get rich people’s accounts of what’s going on in these so-called “wars”. Nobody else can afford it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXE_n2q08Yw

Take me for example. I would immediately run off to such hot-spots and/or hell-holes as Libya, Afghanistan, Honduras or Yemen and report nothing but the truth back to you — but to do that, I would have to win the lottery first.

And not just any lottery either. It’s gotta be the mega-million-dollar PowerBall SuperLotto jackpot if I am ever going to have even a tiny chance of reporting back to you from Benghazi or Gaza. You simply can’t get an accurate news-feed from Aleppo or Kabul for free these days.

For instance, when I was an embedded reporter in Iraq in 2007, I was totally stuck in the so-called Green Zone of Baghdad — where absolutely nothing was going on and there weren’t even any Iraqis to talk to. “But I want to go out and report on the rest of Baghdad too,” I complained to my official US Army minder there. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2007/04/sadr-city-my-fall-back-date-to-prom.html

“Of course you can go out into the Red Zone,” my babysitter replied, “but you’ll be dead within 15 minutes of crossing that bridge over the Tigris — unless you can afford eight thousands dollars to hire a platoon of mercenaries and a tank.” Er, no.

Being a “war” correspondent is simply too expensive for me.

And another thing that I would just love to report on? What the freak is going on with the Saudis? Why have they suddenly dropped their alliance with America and ISIS and become BFFs with the Russians instead? Could it possibly be that they are starting to think that America might be planning to do unto them what America has already done to Libya, Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, Indonesia and Afghanistan? To most of the world’s oil-bearing nations? And is hoping to do to Iran, Russia and Venezuela too? Is there a pattern here or what?

And it’s not too hard to imagine that, at this rate, Big Oil will eventually gain a monopoly on every single drop of oil currently left in the world. But then what happens? Do you honestly think that the price of gas in America will suddenly start to drop after that? With a Big Oil monopoly firmly in place? Yeah right.

And as for that Washington Post journalist who just got hacked to death by the Saudis? Face it, guys. It’s been decades since America has ever given a shite about freedom of speech or even the lives of any journalists — or even about Saudi terrorism in Yemen or at the World Trade Center either. You can just bet that Money Money Money is somehow involved here too. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/09/11/saudi-arabias-crown-prince-must-restore-dignity-to-his-country-by-ending-yemens-cruel-war/?utm_term=.7beda77bf809

https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/52921-rsn-yemen-is-not-a-wedge-issue-its-an-ongoing-nexus-of-war-crimes

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/10/saudis-admit-khashoggi-murder.html#more

And if I win the lottery, I’m gonna go to Saudi Arabia (again) and find out just what.

PS: There are also lots of places closer to home, right here in the belly of the Beast itself, that I can afford to go report on. For instance, there’s that “war on drugs” zone in El Paso/Juarez. Or I could report on that war zone in Washington DC where Congress is fighting hard to steal our Social Security. Or the war zone in Georgia where Black people, even after 400 years, are still fighting for their right to vote. Or the war zone in South Dakota where Native Americans are fighting for the right to have drinkable water. Or ditto that war zone in Flint.

Or I could even report on that war zone right here in Berkeley where we are desperately fighting for affordable housing and the prevention of climate catastrophe — and also fighting for our right to not have the corporate-owned White House, Congress and Supreme Court continuously stomp on our dreams.

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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

Well, what do you know? The buffalo are gone from the Great Plains, 100 million Native Americans are dead, Lakota lands are now being stolen by oil companies, most A.I.M. leaders are either murdered or wrongfully in jail, and Chief Joseph will fight no more forever. The Indian Wars are truly over. https://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/

Or are they?

There appears to be a new breed of Native American that has started the Indian Wars all over again — reluctant warriors.

Was it Sitting Bull who traveled to Washington DC, saw how many White men there were back there and said, “Holy cow! These white-eyes are everywhere! We’re never going to get our lands back!” And although Sitting Bull defended his Lakota family with all his heart and soul, it was no use. There were just too many White men grabbing up his homeland.

But now the tide appears to have turned — as a whole new group of Native Americans are currently pouring into the USA in great numbers, thousands a day, coming up from the south to reclaim Native lands. https://mashable.com/article/indigenous-map-america/#flOBYke1WaqX

“Who me?” say the immigrants. “I’m only just looking for a job here. Whatda ya got?” Stoop labor? Meat packing? Trench diggers and roofers? Nannies and maids? “Count me in.”

Who knew that our red-skinned brothers from the south would come here to right a great wrong, to take back stolen lands?

“Not me,” say the immigrants. And yet the thing speaks for itself. So what’s the story here? Do unto others as you would have others do unto you? Nope. “What goes around comes around.”

But it really doesn’t have to be like this — all this “us versus them” bull dookie, yet another unnecessary repeat of America’s infamous genocidal policy modeled after George Armstrong Custer and Hitler’s rantings in Mein Kampf. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/america-has-become-a-functionally-fascist-state/

There is a better way.

We can all learn from each other.

It has been scientifically proven that wherever cultures and races interact nicely, we can always see new talents, insights, solutions and ideas being born. To quote one of America’s greatest philosophers, “Please won’t you be my neighbor….” http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog-post.html

PS: I’ll be going to El Paso in early November to work on the Beto O’Rourke campaign (who in their right mind would even consider voting for sleazy Ted Cruz?) And does anyone know the location of any I.C.E. slave-labor camps down there that I can picket while I’m in El Paso? In the spirit of Crazy Horse? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/us/migrant-children-family-separation-court.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

I know that there is a grossly-huge tent-city concentration camp for young Native American children at Tormillo but don’t know how to get down there. Would Uber give me a Lyft? These camps are truly horrid — but the good news is that all those useless white tents that were left over surplus from the “war” on Iraq can now be happily sold to us gullible taxpayers (again). https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/02/texas-detention-camp-swells-fivefold-with-migrant-children?CMP=share_btn_fb

I also plan to visit Juarez while I’m down there. Any hot tips on the best taco places to visit in Juarez? And does Juarez have a Yelp site these days?

Hey, you! Yes, you. The person in front of me right now — sitting at your computer or punching buttons on your SmartPhone. Are you happy with your life as it currently is? “Sure.”

But what will you think about it ten years from now? After ten more grim and static years of endless “war,” corrupt judges, climate catastrophe, job outsourcing, growing homelessness and allowing the Good Ole Boy network to run our country?

What chance for a happy life will you have then? Frankly? It will suck to be you.

The wealthy old farts who run America now? They have no vision. For them it is only and always just “grab and go”. How long, exactly, do you think that will last? How long before they grab and run with your own life as well, mess with it, steal all the nutrients out of it, suck it dry — until you will be lucky to score even some low-life job at the Walmart or be cannon fodder in some bug-infested jungle somewhere? Or be pole-dancing at some exclusive hunting lodge in Texas? Or eating cat food out of a jar? Or….

Are you getting my point here yet? That America’s good ole boy network, with its Super PACs and its lobbyists in the White House and Congress and its power over our judicial system? These good ole boys simply do not know how to create. They only know how to destroy. And just exactly how long do you honestly think that America (and you) will survive with these misanthropes and cavemen at the helm, slashing and burning like the pirates they are?

Seriously? Would you really want to be alive ten years from now? In a world where creativity is the enemy, where freedom is frowned upon and where dirty old men hold the future of our world in their small-minded, greedy, uncalloused and blood-stained hands? Where America has become a non-productive wasteland?

We outsiders, we millennials, we women and Blacks and immigrants and children and grandmothers? We have been burned in the past. We are being burned right now. But are we truly going to stand by and get burned in the future as well?

Sadly, Aretha Franklin is dead. And, sadly, the Supreme Court’s reputation is gonna be dead too — when Brett Kavanaugh becomes one of its justices. There’s only so many times that the Supremes can viciously “sock it to” American democracy and still even pretend to be a respected and venerable organization. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3wVAy3y9mk

To paraphrase the Queen of Soul herself, several Supreme Court justices have already become “no-good heart breakers, liars and cheats” after illegally handing over the White House to George W. Bush in 2000 and then handing America over to carpetbaggers after the “Citizens United” decision. Not to mention the Clarence Thomas scandal. Nah, let’s go ahead and mention it! Anita Hill was right.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/05/americas-new-aristocracy-live-accountability-free-zone-david-sirota

Allowing someone like visibly-unhinged Brett Kavanaugh to join the Supreme Court is only going be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Here is a man who not only went ballistic in full public view but, in just one short paragraph of his speech before the Senate judicial committee, used the I-word nine different times. As they say, the word T-E-A-M has no “I” in it — and neither does the word R-E-S-P-E-C-T. We’re screwed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRJecfRxbr8

To quote the immortal Aretha again, “I get tired, keep on tryin’ — you’re runnin’ out of foolin’ and I ain’t lyin’.” Kavanagh lied to us under oath? This perjurer is gonna make the perfect next link in that “Chain of Fools” already on the Supreme Court. https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/52659-focus-this-ruling-is-why-conservatives-are-so-hopped-up-on-brett-kavanaugh

America needs to “Think” about what, exactly, it expects from our highest court — and then demand only “Do-right-all-night” judges. Otherwise there “Ain’t no way” that our Supreme Court will ever get any respect from decent Americans again — and that’s just sad.

PS: I also got no respect for elected representatives who take big bucks from lobbyists, government heads of state who lie through their teeth (Bibi Netanyahu immediately comes to mind — but who else?), FBI agents who lied about Leonard Peltier, propagandists who try to make us hate Syria/Russia/Yemen/immigrant children/Black people for fun and profit, any man who doesn’t “make me feel like a natural woman” — and all of those greedy bastards in Washington. I’ve “Never loved a man” who put greed above morality. https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2018/10/03/1843820/netanyahu-notorious-for-fabricating-false-evidence-ex-us-adviser

Isn’t it time for us to stop tolerating all these lies and corruption, demand some core virtues from our leaders and take the “Freeway of Love” instead? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip_pjb5_fgA

PPS: The USA has just spent hundreds of billions of dollars on an airplane that doesn’t even work? Wow, just wow. How many thousands of squandered dollars per US taxpayer is that? Math is not my strong point — but even I can figure out that it has been money totally wasted. They shoulda spent some of that money on vetting future Supreme Court justices instead. https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/09/30/us-military-industrial-complex-worst-nightmare-s300-may-destroy-expose-f35.html

And America’s closest ally in the Arab world is currently in danger of becoming a failed state due to its own legendary corruption. Ultimately, no human being anywhere has any R-E-S-P-E-C-T for corruption in government — either at home or abroad. “Every chain has got a weak link.” And with all its own moral corruption, America itself could possibly become the next failed state. https://consortiumnews.com/2018/10/04/is-saudi-arabia-the-middle-easts-next-failed-state/

Being friends with America is sometimes a lot of hard work. For instance, Saddam Hussein used to be America’s BFF and just look what happened to him. America also “friended” all those Jihadi freaks and warlords in Afghanistan — and Afghans are still paying the price.

Kissinger befriended a dictator in Chile but torches and pitchforks eventually nailed Pinochet. Johnson befriended a dictator in Vietnam and we all know what happened to Diem. Reagan befriended Noriega in Panama — and then turned on him too. Obama befriended Al Qaeda “rebels” in Syria and Libya and also those gross neo-Nazis in Ukraine — and now even though Trump also tweets in their favor, bin Ladin’s next generation is still violently hated by Syrians, Libyans and Ukrainians. Various American presidents have also befriended Haiti, Yemen, Honduras and Palestine — and with friends like that, who needs enemies.

And now America is trying really hard to upgrade the European Union to its “close friend” status too. If I was Europe right now, I’d run like hell! And if I was the average American tourist right now, I’d be taking the traditional European grand tour ASAP. Go see Buckingham Palace, the Eiffel Tower, the Acropolis and the Colosseum — while you still can.

According to journalist Rostislav Ishchenko, America now has plans to thwart China’s big move to establish a New Silk Road trade route from China to Europe. But how, exactly, does America plan to hijack China’s new trade route? Apparently by eliminating Europe as an effective trade partner at the end of the Silk Road. https://thesaker.is/europe-as-the-main-front-of-the-hybrid-war/

America’s recent attempts at “The chaosization of Europe” would just about do that, right?

For instance, all of America’s brutal unjust neo-colonial “wars” on the Middle East have sent millions of refugees out on various involuntary road trips. “Crap! America just bombed my home, murdered my wife and daughter and slaughtered my camel!” cry America’s victims. “What the freak should I do now!” Go to Germany of course. Or Sweden. Or Britain. Or Italy. Anywhere but Baghdad or Benghazi.

Then there was the recent destabilization of Eastern Europe after America armed almost anyone there who could shoot straight — and also lots of folks who clearly could not.

Next came Trump’s policy of getting Europe to pay for NATO. “Gotta buy guns! Gotta buy guns!” shout the Europeans. “No money left over to run to the dollar store!”

And don’t forget that America’s whacked policies in the Middle East have created all kinds of terrorism in the EU as well. Blowing up stuff in Belgium, France, Spain and England can be unsettling to say the least. And economic terrorism sucks eggs too. Just ask the Greeks.

But why should all this geopolitical weirdness on the other side of the globe of concern to you and me too? We live safely on the other side of the Atlantic, right? But it’s like I said. If you wanna float down the Danube to waltz tunes, lie on a beach in sunny Spain or see Stonehenge by moonlight, you had better do it now — before America gets any more friendly with Europe than it already is.

PS: Why does China have so many more friends on FaceBook than America has? Two reasons. First, when China sends out a “Friend” request to other nations, it offers that recipient nation definite rewards and perks. However, when America sends out a “Friend” request to other nations, it’s usually in the form of a missile attack or brutal economic sanctions or the CIA tampering with local elections.

Second, China also has a ten-year plan, a fifty-year plan and a hundred-year plan. Americans are lucky if our military-industrial complex looks ahead for even a week or two.

PPS: America seems to be totally out of touch when it comes to “friending” its women as well. It’s not like we are living in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan — and yet our president, judges and old-fart legislators treat us like we should either be locked up in purdah or act like glorified blow-up dolls.

Have you been watching “13 Reasons Why” on Netflix? We will never know what made the difference between Dr. Ford’s and Hannah Baker’s (fictionalized but nevertheless highly plausible) responses after both had been badly bullied — but fortunately Dr. Ford did not allow herself to become just one more suicide statistic too. https://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2018/09/one-word-describes-brett-kavanaugh.html

He even tried to bully Senator Feinstein. Guess he hasn’t learned anything in all these 36-odd years after all. And he also ruled in favor of torture. Don’t bullies start out by torturing frogs? And Kavanaugh sniffed his way through his entire hearing. Isn’t that something cocaine users do? And the American Bar Association hasn’t exactly friended Kavanaugh either. https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/9ixjwx/kavanaugh_vs_kavanaugh_supreme_court_nominee_has/

Kavanaugh seems to be a prime example of the privileged-spoiled-rich-kid, of the type once made famous by Bob Dylan. Yuck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jiYVUU1RXQ

Once a bully, always a bully apparently. And once a misogynist always a misogynist too? Only acting judicially instead of physically? This is a person that we want to represent America’s best and brightest? And most just? Really?

PS: Remember Hannah from the TV show 13 Reasons Why? She too was bullied — and then committed suicide. What if bullying had driven Dr. Ford to suicide as well? Dr. Ford would have become just another statistic that we would never have heard about. How sad — tragic — is that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JebwYGn5Z3E

     I just finished watching an online television debate between Beto O’Rourke and Ted Cruz.  Both are running for a Senate seat in Texas.  During the debate, Ted went out of his way to scare Texans by hitting every single possible “dog whistle” note of fear, false patriotism, racism, sky-high taxes, socialism and the right to brandish automatic weapons that he possibly could.  Ted even lied outright — but in a friendly down-home good-ole-boy sort of way that Texans, I’m afraid, just might eat right up.  https://thehill.com/video/senate/407840-watch-live-cruz-orourke-debate-in-texas-in-senate-race

     In order to help Texans See the Light, I’m  actually going down to El Paso in November (with a side-trip to Juarez of course) — to knock on doors during the week before the 2018 elections and get down on my knees and beg voters to vote for Beto because not only is Texas’s future is at stake here.  America’s future is too.  To quote Lyle Lovett, “Texas wants [me] anyway.”  Better dust off my cowboy boots.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQoXnz3h_FE&feature=youtu.be

     And you too can help also — by donating to Beto’s campaign fund.  Please!  Do it for me!  Don’t make me have to see Ted Cruz on TV ever again!  Or the face of that war-mongering swamp-loving guy in the White House either.  https://betofortexas.com/