BartBlog

In the past year, the Saudis have dropped 90,000 bombs on Yemen, a country the size of a postage stamp. Let’s just think about that for a minute. Yuck. Don’t the Saudis have anything better to do with their money? I could think of a million things better than that. http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/19/us-moves-toward-major-intervention-in-yemen/

“Hey, Saudis! For the price of just one of those bombs, you coulda sent me to Paris for a week, put me up at the Ritz.” Poor Yemenis. They didn’t even get a freaking T-shirt out of the trip.

And have you heard about ISIS’ latest unspeakable crime? They recently tricked out a car-bomb to look like a food truck, used it to offer snacks to children in Syria, set the bomb off, slaughtered 116 children, packed the kids’ mutilated bodies into the back of a truck and drove it off to their hideout in Turkey. https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/zeinab-she-was-forced-to-watch-the-massacre-of-116-children-vanessa-beeley-on-terrorists-massacre-of-foua-kafraya-civilians/

Who the freak dreams up doing stuff like this?

And the Israeli neo-colonialists have just bombed Syria too. Seriously? And a church just got blown up in Egypt. And this is only a partial list. Gaza, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran — so many places to bomb, so little time. https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/20/why-not-a-probe-of-israel-gate/

Living in the Middle East these days really sucks eggs.

You know how little kids love to trail around after their big brothers and want to be like them? And who do the Saudis and ISIS and the Israelis wanna be like when they grow up? America! In the past several decades, America has bombed the shite out of practically everything in the Greater Middle East. “I wanna be like that too!” scream the Saudis, ISIS, the Turks and the Israelis. http://dissidentvoice.org/2017/04/how-did-al-qaeda-know-in-advance-about-the-syrian-air-strike/

And then America has the nerve to complain about how their little brothers in terror are always following them around.

But why is America happily giving all these “free home demonstrations” in terror to their little brothers — who have in turn copy-catted America by creating even more terror in the Middle East, Europe and New York City? It’s always about oil. By now, we all know (or should know) that the mother of all these psycho-weirdo siblings is an insatiable lust for oil.

Ah, if only America had spent all those trillions of dollars on solar power (and you and me) instead of on terror.

PS: Back in the 1960s when President Johnson was happily slaughtering more children-per-hour than even Hitler had managed to murder in Poland, me and my friends would take to the streets and chant, “How many kids have you killed today?” But now it appears that the very same American military complex that messed with Johnson’s head has now convinced President Trump that it would be an even better idea to get a head-start on LBJ’s world record by slaughtering as many “beautiful babies” in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and Indonesia as Trump possibly can in his first 100 days — and probably in North Korea too. http://www.globalresearch.ca/now-only-rational-thinking-can-save-the-world/5584987

Guinness, we may have the makings of a whole new baby-slaughtering world record forming up here.

At a conference in Washington DC recently, military analyst John Mearsheimer spoke about the future of Israel and Palestine. He told us that Israel’s future funding by America is secure because AIPAC, Israel’s all-powerful lobby, focuses “on the elites in America, not the rank and file. The elites here are still afraid of the Israel lobby and so the lobby is still as powerful as ever…because it focuses its attention on keeping our country’s elites in line.”

But Mearsheimer also said that there are dark times ahead for both Israel and its lobby, due to Israel’s neo-colonialist leaders who are strongly pushing a rightist policy of apartheid. “Israel is not likely to ever become a liberal democracy,” said Mearsheimer, “and it could take 20 or 30 years to resolve this conflict [between Israelis and Palestinians]. The decades ahead will be miserable and will also harm America’s politics.”

So much for Israel’s future. But what about the future of America? What lies ahead for us in the next decades? What happens next here — aside of course from Trump’s constant rude slouching toward World War 3? http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40222-new-revelations-belie-trump-claims-on-syria-chemical-attack#14924552943921&action=collapse_widget&id=0&data=

Generation Z, the post-2001 generation, will come of age — that’s what happens next. Generation Z is apparently different from the Millennials in several ways. They are even more tech-savvy than Millennials for one thing (none of them are techo-dunces like me). Apparently they are also better focused, more avid consumers and more worried about finding a job. But what worries me most about this next generation is their name. “Generation Z,” end of the alphabet. Are they really gonna be our last generation — as their name implies? That could actually be the case. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-beall/8-key-differences-between_b_12814200.html

“But why would you be thinking that?” you might ask. Why? Because America just dropped the “Mother of All Bombs” on Afghanistan and just turned Syria into Ground Zero as well — which means a whole bunch more air pollution has just been created, that’s why. Climate-change deniers aren’t just huge corporations hoping to pollute our air and water for fun and profit. The biggest polluter in the world is the American military. So climate-change denial really benefits weapons manufacturers and “war” profiteers the most. And it benefits Generation Z the least.

Through its mega-scale worldwide pollution operations, proponents of endless “war” stand a very good chance of ending Generation Z as well. Yikes!

But there is still hope yet in this tired old world — and it comes from a rather unexpected source: Babies! Have you noticed how many parents have been winning the Baby Lottery bigtime lately? Giving birth to little Jesus-type babies, little Buddhas? Here is our hope. Not in a stronger military, not in dropping bombs all over the world, not in Israel’s sleazy apartheid system or the invasion of Syria or Iraq or Libya or Ukraine by the power-crazed madmen inside Washington’s Beltway — but in our babies.

Let’s not let Generation Z be our last generation. Forget about all this endless cheering for “war”. Let’s cheer for our babies instead. http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/18/mother-of-all-hypocrisies-trump-cares-for-some-syrian-babies-not-others/

PS: Why does Trump keep bombing the shite out of the world? One reason might be that he’s bored. When one has as much money as The Donald is rolling around in daily, there just aren’t many challenges left. So making things go “Boom!” might liven up his day. Mr. President, isn’t golf enough? Apparently not. http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a54564/the-violent-clashes-in-berkeley-werent-pro-trump-versus-anti-trump/

PPS: As for all this talk about eliminating birth control, does America’s Alt-Right really want to go there? I always thought they were just racist fascist-wannabes but maybe they aren’t racist after all if they are all excited and pleased about producing more minority babies. Maybe I judged them wrong. But hell, the more minority babies the better. Jesus was once a minority baby. So was Buddha. http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/04/15/a-government-of-morons/

Have you ever been to our nation’s capital? Unlike the sorry mess we call Congress, the Presidency and the Supreme Court, the actual city of Washington DC itself is actually really awesomely impressive. Who knew.

Unlike our sell-out federal legislative, executive and judicial branches, the District of Columbia itself has not sold out to Wall Street and War Street for the usual 30 pieces of silver. Yet.

Much to my surprise and delight, I discovered that the whole entire city is just one big wonderful open-air museum. The Federal Triangle, the National Mall, Embassy Row? Far more impressive than the Louvre or even King Tut’s tomb.

First I went on the White House tour. “Will I get to see Ivanka?” I asked. Probably not. “Will I be able to give the Prez a very stern talking-to after that shameful disaster he just created in Syria?” Nah, he’s in Florida playing golf. But the White House itself was fabulous — looked even better than it did on the set of Scandal. But I didn’t get to see Kerry Washington either. Rats. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2017/04/trump-murders-babies-in-syria-wow.html

Next I went over to the new African-American museum. I laughed with Moms Mabley, I cried with Malcolm X. Put this one on your bucket list for sure. And because most of the museum’s visitors were Black themselves, it gave us white guys a true feeling of what it is like to be in a minority — only without having slave owners and cops always trying to beat us up or segregationists constantly trying to steal our vote.

Next came the United States Holocaust museum. There was a holocaust in the United States? Indeed there was — somewhere between 13 million and 44 million Native Americans have been victims of genocide. So far. And someday I plan to open a Muslim Holocaust museum too. Already America has been directly or indirectly responsible for the brutal murder of seven million Muslims — from Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Yugoslavia, etc. all the way across the world to Indonesia and East Timur. Wherever there is oil, Muslims have been slaughtered. http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40147-the-us-provided-cover-for-the-saudi-starvation-strategy-in-yemen

Finally, I took the Metro up to the Phillips Collection and saw original French painters like Monet, Pissarro and Toulouse-Lautrec. Priceless.

I wish that I had more time to see all the other DC museums such as the Smithsonian, the natural history museum and the Library of Congress, but I didn’t. But there is always a next time, right? Or is there?

If you are an American, I highly recommend that you immediately get your booty on over to Washington DC — before the K Street boys buy up the whole place and sell it to weapons contractors for target practice, to Monsanto so it can pour Roundup on the cherry blossoms, to developers who will tear down the monuments and replace them with condos, or to Big Pharma so it can drug all us tourists with Oxycontin and Abilify so that we won’t even notice all the changes.

PS: Speaking of American presidents, how come Obama and Trump haven’t noticed something very in-you-face obvious about President Assad of Syria?

In fact, what almost nobody in America seems to grasp is that President Assad has lasted SIX WHOLE YEARS as president of Syria — while fighting the biggest bullies, baby-killers, despots and torturers on the planet (America, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Israel, etc.). HOW has he lasted this long (and, no, it’s not just because of Russia who only just recently entered the fight)? Because he has the people of Syria behind him, watching his back. Duh. http://ahtribune.com/us/trump-at-war/1599-end-of-the-empire.html

http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2017/04/washington-dcs-museums-totally-awesome.html

Wow. That sleazy headline sounds like something that the National Enquirer would make up — except that it’s actually true.

According to a reliable Syrian news source, President Trump’s recent deadly attack on Homs, Syria, resulted in the murder of nine civilians, four of them children. http://sana.sy/en/?p=103759

Way to go, Prez! Or not.

Now President Trump is right up there with Reagan, Obama, both Bushes and both Clintons — war criminals all. And Trump achieved all this butchery in just his first 100 days — by the 75th day to be exact. That’s gotta be a record. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2017/04/i-am-in-shock-right-now-and-apparently.html

But wait. It gets worse. “Murdering babies isn’t bad enough already?” you might ask. Yes and no.

No, there’s nothing worse than murdering babies — but, yes, Trump has now broken international law. Shattered it, to be exact. Nuremberg-style. According to law professor Amal Saad, in just one Shock-and-Awe moment, President Trump has upgraded the Syrian conflict from a “civil war” to an illegal invasion:

(1) The body of law regulating article 2 conflicts is much wider than article 3 conflicts, affording the Syrian government legal protections it didn’t previously enjoy.

(2) The forces of the Syrian Arab Army will now be treated not only as “lawful combatants” but are also given the “combatant’s privilege”, “prisoner of war” and “protected persons” status and rights, meaning they can’t be tried if they are captured for taking part in hostilities, unlike rebels who are “unlawful combatants” — even the US-backed ones — as per Article 3 internal conflicts.

(3) As a “High Contracting Party” to the Conventions, the US is now liable for war crimes too.

(4) Any Syrian response to the US attack, or one carried out by Syria and its allies, (Article 51 of the UN Charter permits “collective self-defense”) is now legal.

(5) Most importantly, the Syrian state is politically legitimized as the legal representative of the Syrian people and its sovereignty recognized. https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php…

And, even, worse than all that, Trump has also “fixed the facts around the policy”. President Assad never even used chemical weapons. The whole WMD thing in Syria, like in Vietnam, East Timur, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Libya, Yemen, Palestine and Iraq, was just another shameless propaganda stunt, apparently designed to keep America’s weapons contractors happy. http://ahtribune.com/us/trump-at-war/1597-war-on-syria.html

If President Trump ever decides to look for a new employment opportunity after leaving the White House, I’m sure the National Enquirer would instantly hire him.

PS: In the year 2000, GWB got the Supreme Court to steal the presidential election for him. But our Donald has done Dubya even one better than that –Trump and Friends have just stolen the Supreme Court itself. What would the National Enquirer say about that! http://bradblog.com/?p=12096

There are laws in Israel, Europe and America right now that make “antisemitism” a crime. Here’s how it works. Israelis, Europeans and Americans can now pretty much say any sleazy lowlife thing that they want against Palestinians — even call them two-legged animals and baby-killers. But if anyone, even a journalist or a congressperson, objects to this unchecked and bigoted bad-mouthing of said Palestinians, then too bad for them.

That person is immediately labeled “antisemitic” and is in Big Trouble.

This one-sided and jankety semantic ploy is a cheap shot and worse than Catch 22. It’s tainted. It’s manipulative propaganda. It’s a hammer that smashes free speech. It’s brilliantly effective. And the “Christian” Right in America loves it.

I just attended a conference in Washington DC entitled “The Israel Lobby and American Policy,” which focused on the role of AIPAC in American decision-making. It was an interesting conference with dynamic speakers — plus I got a blue tote bag and a free lunch.

“But what is AIPAC?” you might ask. It is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and, surprisingly, it has more influence in Washington DC than even the weapons lobby or Big Pharma. AIPAC pretty much owns us.

“We get at least one AIPAC lobbyist in our office every single day,” one congressman told me. “Their campaign contributions can make or break us. And if we vote against AIPAC’s interests, then we don’t get re-elected. Period. Plus we are then labeled antisemitic.”

Israeli professor Ilan Pappe was the keynote speaker at the conference that I attended and he pointed out that blatant bigotry here in America is now being justified by the Israeli neo-colonialists’ rabidly bigoted approach to Muslim (and Christian) Palestinians. And as a result, many members of the so-called Christian Right in America now feel free to be as hateful and bigoted as they want to be. “If Israel’s Chosen People can do it,” they rationalize to themselves, “then let’s go for it too.”

If anyone makes a sign that says “Muslims are baby killers” then that’s okay because AIPAC says so. But if anyone makes a sign that says “Israelis are baby killers,” then that’s “antisemitism” and off you go to jail. But, come on. Who kills the most babies in the Middle East? Besides the Americans and Saudis that is? We all know the answer to that one. We’re just not allowed to say it. Thank you, AIPAC. http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/03/28/syria-approaching-the-finishing-line-geopolitical-jockeying-for-position-intensifies/

PS: And if you really want to shut someone up, just call them pro-Russian. And there’s a reason for that too. According to Pravda, “For many in the west, Russia has always been a pariah, the danger from the East, enshrined today in political diatribes and sheer, barefaced lies in the media as a powerful ‘them’ is created to justify the ‘us’: NATO.”

America and Europe have to justify spending 1.2 trillion dollars a year on NATO somehow — so various and sundry enemies are created. First it was Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria — and now it’s Russia. https://consortiumnews.com/2016/12/12/us-intel-vets-dispute-russia-hacking-claims/

“It’s kind of like a house full of tablets, laptops and the latest wizzy gadgets with the fastest broadband internet connection — and inhabited by a 96-year-old spinster who hates the Net and whose electricity is supplied by a mule walking round in a circle out in the yard.” With NATO being that spinster. http://www.pravdareport.com/russia/politics/03-04-2017/137317-russia_defender_truth-0/

Did you know that the Pentagon (aka “Murder Incorporated”) has never been audited? And that over ten trillion dollars are missing from its budget? We would never let the Mafia get away with that.

Did you know that Russia has just invented a new super-missile that can do almost everything but sing the blues? How could Russia do that? Because Putin is investing Russia’s money in education so it will have scientists who can work smarter not harder. America, on the other hand, is investing its money on murdering babies in the Middle East — while our education system here at home only produces more and more dumb Americans. Shades of Sputnik and 1954. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b_c5SPZfbw

And then these very same Americans turned around and elected people who would only make their miserable lives even more miserable. People like Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell — and Donald Trump.

At first I too was actually dumb enough to think that Trump actually would “drain the swamp”. But then I realized that yours-truly had just been naive and that Trump was draining the American swamp in the same way that Hurricane Katrina drained New Orleans.

Now, however, I actually think that electing President Trump might actually be a good thing after all. Why? Because, for far too long, America’s guts have been tied up in knots by a blockage caused by mass murder world-wide and massive economic disaster and moral denial here at home. For the past 60-plus years, America has been economically, politically and morally constipated. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_nation_of_the_walking_dead_20170402

And now President Trump has come along and given us all that drastic enema we so badly need. And now Americans are finally starting to wake up — and actually starting to feel some actual movement in their intestinal fortitude. At last!

Suddenly Americans are starting to realize that their education system sucks eggs, their infrastructure is wobbly at best, their jobs have fled overseas, their democracy is gone, their treasures have all been squandered in order to murder huge numbers of babies in the Middle East — and that they have been constantly lied to since Franklin Roosevelt died.

Finally Americans are starting to do something more than just pass gas.

Americans are now waking up, becoming unobstructed and starting to demand life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness instead of just more and more butchery and dumbness. Thank you, Donald Trump!

PS: Lots of people tell me that Clinton would have been a much better president than Trump. I beg to disagree. While Trump has shamelessly thrown us Americans into the deep end of a caustic and toxic swamp where we at least have a chance to swim for our lives before it’s too late, Clinton would have let us happily die of a thousand cuts like the proverbial frog who got boiled to death by having its temperature raised degree by degree — and too late we would have screamed “Ouch!”

You don’t believe me? Just go down to Haiti and ask almost anyone what they think of the Clinton Foundation. http://www.ezilidanto.com/2016/10/quiet-genocide-haiti-behind-humanitarian-front/

Remember that old song describing the wonders of living in a “little grass shack” in Hawaii? Those days are long gone. Why? Because there are almost no little grass shacks left in Hawaii any more (probably due to building codes) — and as a result, there are a lot of people here who are homeless. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMRxbFkO6gU

On Waikiki Beach alone, I recently counted approximately 23 megalith-style high-rise hotels and/or condos. And I might have missed some too. Each hotel charges at least $200 a night — but usually a whole lot more. Two-bedroom condos here sell for a million dollars a bedroom. What homeless person can afford that?

For many people in Hawaii these days, those little grass shacks have been replaced by shipping container boxes — but this is actually a good thing. As the State of Hawaii, like the rest of America, discovers that more and more of its citizens are becoming homeless, the government here has tried everything it can to house as many people as it can by any means that it can — hence the wide-spread use of shipping container boxes as homes.

According to Mike Zint, a national advocate for the rapidly increasing homeless population in America, “What does it take to get off the streets? Money? Affordable housing? Employment? Of course the answer is yes, but none of those things is the first step. The first step is stability. And stability is the one thing that is most commonly removed [from the homeless].” So Hawaii is at least making an effort to get some stability into the lives of those who are forced to go homeless. https://occupysf.net/index.php/2017/03/12/stability-first-says-homeless-leader-mike-zint/

Hawaii also offers many boot-strap-like services to get homeless Hawaiians back on their feet. Some of these efforts are working. Some of them are not. And as the native Hawaiian population becomes less and less able to afford housing in their beloved Hawaii, they are being forced to move over to the mainland in droves where the rent is cheaper.

According to one native Hawaiian I met here, “So many of us are now moving to Las Vegas due to its lower rents and warm climate, that Las Vegas is now known as Hawaii’s ninth island.”

But this migration to the mainland is also a two-way street. “Many of the colder mainland states are purchasing airline tickets in order to send their homeless population here. This is true. I have seen it myself.”

In addition, “We also have a lot of people who come here from Micronesia who get priority for our HUD housing because they can no longer live on their radioactive atolls because many of them have become really sick due to cancer from the nuclear weapons tests. So they move them here — out of sight, out of mind.”

Another factor in the severe limitation of affordable housing in Hawaii is the huge US military presence here. The so-called “Pivot to Asia” apparently starts here. “The US military is our number-one economic factor,” said my Hawaiian friend. Even greater than tourism? Apparently so. I saw some pretty posh military housing spread out all around the island of Oahu — definitely not little grass shacks.

I’ve been living on pineapple and macadamia nuts here for too long — and also French fries. Remember what happened in “The Martian”? He lived on potatoes for a whole year because of their protein? A whole year is too long to live on potatoes, even in beautiful Hawaii. It’s time for me to fly back home to Berkeley — where the 1000-plus homeless population just manages to squeak by on pizza-by-the-slice.

PS: Am currently reading a book called The Up Side of Stress, and apparently one way to reduce stress is to be altruistic. “Caring for each other amplifies our resources,” says the author. “Human beings have a basic need to help others…and the more that they help others the happier they are because altruism both creates hope and prevents the defeat response.”

This need for hope is apparently one of the reasons why the State of Hawaii is so compassionate towards its homeless citizens. Hawaiians try to honor the human “tend and befriend” response to stress instead of the more well-known “flight or fight” response. Hawaii even has a word for this befriending response to stress. It’s called “Aloha”.

PPS: Remember that bumper-sticker from back in the day that read “Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds”? Or as they said in Lawrence of Arabia, “Allah favors the compassionate”. And this truism is still true, no matter how many Americans die from lack of housing and healthcare here and how many babies our war contractors murder in the Middle East. https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/1a9e93f1-5667-415d-b0ab-53c169aaa2f1

Am I pissed off by all this lack of compassion here at home and heartless slaughter in the Middle East? Hell yeah. Once people in power in America found out that there are huge profits to be made by stealing homes and murdering babies, there appears to be no stopping them from stealing and slaughtering again and again — both here and abroad.

http://news.antiwar.com/2017/03/23/reports-us-airstrikes-killed-230-civilians-in-mosul-overnight/

http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/03/28/syria-approaching-the-finishing-line-geopolitical-jockeying-for-position-intensifies/

https://www.sott.net/article/322161-80-of-Ukrainians-now-live-in-poverty-thanks-to-US-backed-revolution-of-dignity

Even Further

About two decades ago at UCLA one professor announced an ambitious plan to study the digital revolution as it occurred.

What journalist doesn’t  covet a chance to cover history as it happens ?

Wasn’t Edgar Rice Burroughs a reporter on the staff of the Honolulu Bulletin on the weekend of December 7, 1941?

Pioneer hippie Sharla Delacroix is attempting to gather a group of writers, photographers, videographers.to participate in a quest to cover the Green Revolution in America as it goes down.

It could evolve into a documentary film, a cable TV series or a book project.

Should such an expedition star in California’s Humboldt County?

Would the site of Virginia City, Nevada’s Red Dog Saloon be a better jumping off point?

Will legalization of pot mean that marijuana will lose it’s outlaw luster for rebels?

Are pro-pot pieces of journalism called puff pieces?

Such a pot quest would require a publicity magnet vehicle, a charismatic Neal Cassidy type driver/tour guide, a well-planned itinerary and some quant and curious rest stops plus a generous portion of serendipity.

If all goes as planned, the pot revolution bus tour during Donald Trump’s (first?) term in office will provide a tsunami of material. If not, just vicariously following the quest should provide some amusement value for armchair Don Quixote.

Should “El Jefe” sell seats on the bus or … what?

Is it true that the Trip Commandante has such a fine/educated sense of smell that the concept of being a sommelier of smoke is appropriate? (Will Lloyd’s insure that proboscis for a million dollars.)

Should Green Turtle be asked about bus rentals?

If readers are interested in participating in the adventure please use the comments section to indicate your level of interest.

… tbc

“There are only 8000 actual native Hawaiians left here right now,” said a friend of mine who I was visiting in Honolulu. So. What has happened to the rest of them — besides the usual death by disease and colonialism that is. “They can’t afford to live here any more. They have been forced to move to the mainland.” Ah. Economic genocide strikes again.

Hell, I can’t afford to live here either — but then who can? The American military, that’s who. “In the past two years, we’ve seen tremendous growth in the number of military units deployed here and also the number of military housing units built,” said my friend. Oh. Right. The pivot to Asia.

But Hawaii has also pivoted to Asia in another big way — its Asian tourists. Staying in a Waikiki hotel is really expensive — and yet even the most expensive hotels here are positively flooded with thousands of Japanese and South Korean tourists right now, many of them being sweet young married couples with really cute babies. But how the freak can they afford to vacation here in such large numbers? I thought that China was the one siphoning off most of America’s money. Apparently not.

My friend also told me, “Developers are building a whole bunch of condos over near the Ala Moana shopping center right now, ones that sell for two or three million dollars a pop. And the Japanese are buying them up as fast as they can be built.” Oh. That makes sense — so that when the entire island of Japan becomes radioactive because of Fukushima, people over there will have another island to come to. That’s thinking ahead. For now.

Anyway, I came over here to speak at a book convention — and my talk went very well if I do say so myself. Who knew that I would excel at public speaking? Certainly not me. But public speaking is a lot like writing. No interaction with individual people is involved. That works for me because I’m just not at ease with being one-on-one with individual people. Plus at the conference’s banquet, I finally got to sit at the popular kids’ table.

I love Hawaii, would love to live here. The weather is nice, the beaches are amazing — plus you don’t have to go all the way to Tokyo or Seoul (or time-travel to Vietnam under Nixon) to get that happy feeling of being in Asia. You don’t have to pivot very far any more.

I can’t even imagine what it must feel like to be a native Hawaiian living here right now, working a menial job, seeing all of this breath-taking beauty that is Hawaii and knowing that all this paradise used to be theirs — but is not any more. Perhaps they might feel like Palestinians do, thrown off their land by European colonialists who strongly believe in the motto, “Do unto the Palestinians what the Nazis did unto us.”

Oh, if only President Trump had passed his travel ban just a little bit earlier — then Captain Cook and James Dole wouldn’t have been allowed to land here, kept out “for national security reasons”. And the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria would have been turned back too — not to mention that the Pilgrims would have been prohibited access to Plymouth Rock.

And then there would have been no brutal Indian massacres, no ghastly slave trade, no Civil War that butchered hundreds of thousands and perhaps even no World War I or World War II. And the Muslim Holocaust in the Middle East wouldn’t have happened either because America would still be in the hands of the Cherokee and the Sioux who don’t really care about being greedy and blood-thirsty colonialists. And millions wouldn’t have died in Africa either because there would be no American corporate pirates over there to steal Africa’s land, diamonds and gold.

Europeans would have been forced to stay in Europe where they belonged and not brought their terrorism here.

In 1968, Dragnet, the Tv series featuring the adventures of fictional cop  Sgt. Joe Friday, in the episode titled “The Big High”, one of the characters predicted that someday marijuana would become legal.

The 1957 move “The Sweet Smell of Success”, used a frame-up marijuana arrest as a way for a character to ruin a young musician’s life.

In the sixties how many hippies got stoned before seeing the re-released movie “Fantasia”?

Since pot was vilified in the thirties and forties, marijuana became a quick, easy way for film script writers to establish that a character was a criminal and deserved a long prison term.

Government lies about the war in South Viet Nam made young people suspicious about the assertion that pot was a very dangerous, illegal drug.

“Reefer Madness” was such heavy handed propaganda that it became a cult favorite.

The film “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” contains one segment that is an exaggeration of inept government anti-pot policy.

Folks who believe that a life sentence for possession of one joint was excessive punishment should hold a film festival featuring  pot in the plot.

Obviously the movie “Reefer Madness” would deserve a place of honor in any book that would try to have a definitive list of Hollywood’s attempts to propagandize the public’s perception about hemp, grass or weed.

This columnist is suggesting that awards expressing disdain and disapproval of the squares perception of reality should be established and they should be called “Clydes” (named after Clint Eastwood’s pet orangutang in the film “Any Which Way but Loose).

The first one should be given this week to Jeff Sessions for his philosophy regarding both the medical and recreational use of marijuana.

Could Sessions have inadvertently played into the hands of the people who never wanted the sixties to end?

We will try to hand out a Clyde each week. Your suggestions have been helpful so keep them coming!

What’s next? Pot pills for freaked out pups?

To be continued…

If (not when) a Hall of Fame for tokens is established, Ross Rebagliati deserves a place on the list of the first ten smokers to be inducted.

For Rebagliati won a Gold Medal for his snowboarding performance at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics in Japan, but it was taken away from him when it was learned that he had tested positive for traces of THC.

When it was learned that marijuana was not listed as a banned drug, the medal was returned to him and pot was added to the list of forbidden substances for the competitors.

If that escapade doesn’t get Rebagliati on the list of the first 10 inductees, then it will be interesting to see what anyone could possibly have done to be more qualified.

Started his own brand of pot, Ross Gold, in 2013.

As marijuana becomes more and more acceptable the need and opportunity for a hall of fame will become more apparent and the columnist will chronicle the history of this inevitable tourist attraction as it unfolds.

In future columns we will profile other famous pot smokers and explain why they might deserve to be included in the Pot Hall of Fame.

Who should be among the first ten smokers to be inducted?

Here are a few suggestions:

Sgt. Sunshine, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Cheech and Chong, actor Robert Mitchum and Willie Nelson.

Readers are invited to add their suggestions in the comments section and explain why the person deserves consideration.

’Til next time, puff, puff, pass …

On March 16, I’m going to give a short talk at a writers’ convention in, wait for it, Hawaii! Yay! Never been there before. Am quite looking forward to it. http://www.leftcoastcrime.org/2017/

In order to warm up for this big event, I’d like to talk here about what happens to me when I write. It’s a subliminal process. I try to keep my conscious brain very quiet so that I can spy on the secret workings of my subconscious mind, back there where all the good stuff is lurking in the shadows, swamps, recesses and mountain-tops of my own mental reservoir.

There are several ways to spy on one’s brain. Meditation, long walks, dreams. It doesn’t take waterboarding or the NSA to figure this stuff out. Just try to shut up and listen.

Another way to find out what’s going on backstage in my mind is to actually physically write down words on paper. Who the freak knows what will actually come out of my brain if I do that? Certainly not me.

In her book Wild Mind, Natalie Goldberg suggests writing ten minutes a day — starting each paragraph with “I remember…” I can do her one better than that. Buy a 10.4×8-inch wide-ruled spiral notebook and write two pages a day, starting each paragraph with “I predict…” And then finish off each paragraph with what you think about your new prediction.

You can think big, such as “I predict that ten years from now Americans will feel as foolish and embarrassed about hating Russia as they now feel foolish and embarrassed about their tainted love affair with Senator Joseph McCarthy back in the 1950s”.

What do I think about that prediction? “If Americans actually do come to their senses in just ten short years, I will be very surprised. There is no indication at all so far in the last fifty years that Americans are anything but gullible dupes for any kind of propaganda that is shoved in their faces.”

Or I might write, “I predict that, in the future, Americans will finally realize that they’ve been suckered into ‘wars’ on Syria, Libya, Palestine, Yemen, Ukraine, etc. just like they were suckered into the ‘wars’ on Vietnam and Iraq.”

My thoughts about that? The Nazi Holocaust only murdered six million Jews. The American/British/French/Israeli/Saudi neo-colonial Holocaust has already slaughtered seven million Muslims. But then who’s counting dead Muslims? Certainly not any of us American suckers. https://forums.t-nation.com/t/the-muslim-holocaust/162262

Or how about this one? “I predict that Americans are really going to miss unions after they’re gone.” No, that’s just wistful thinking. Americans will be too busy working three jobs and scrambling to keep out of the poorhouse to think philosophical thoughts like that. https://soundcloud.com/user-887995524-149532189/democrats-fight-trump-the-man-but-not-his-austerity-and-militarism

PS: The last time I did a whole bunch of spying on my own mind, I ended up writing a book. “Visions of a Lost and Future World”. So if I can do it, then so can you. https://www.amazon.com/Visions-Lost-Future-World-Stillwater/dp/1532803850/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

PPS: My life is going along really well right now. I’m speaking at a book conference, just had the principal role in a student film at the California College of the Arts, have a car that is still running, my Social Security pension keeps me going and am in good health thanks to Medicare. And the greedy idiots in the beltway are, as usual, busy trying to screw up my good life in any way that they can.

We haven’t had anyone who knew what they were doing in Washington since the CIA had John Kennedy assassinated — with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter. Bush, Reagan, Eisenhower, both Clintons, Obama, Bush 2, Congress and even the freaking Supreme Court have done every single thing that they possibly can to destroy our economy and get us into World War 3. And now Trump is also trying to screw up my world by bombing babies in Syria and Yemen and giving Wall Street a free lunch. http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/us-drone-strikes-have-gone-up-432-since-trump-took-office

And what the freak was a Navy SEAL doing in Yemen anyway? Besides helping those mean Saudi bullies steal poor defenseless Yemen’s oil?

Doesn’t anybody inside the Beltway know how to do anything right? Doesn’t any one of those jackasses know that America is all about me — and those salt-of-the-earth types like me — and not about them. Apparently not.

The Berkeley-Albany Bar Association has done it again! At its latest monthly lunchtime meeting, BABA served us up the perfect guest speaker — and the perfect rubber chicken as well. What more can you possibly ask for. Our speaker clearly laid it out to us, just exactly what President Trump’s new Supreme Court nominee is up to. “Neil Gorsuch is a positivist,” the guest speaker said.

“But what the freak is a positivist?” you might ask. Our speaker was about to tell us — and in more detail than we ever would want to know if we in any way plan to look forward to the next decade with hope. T.M.I.

“Positivism is an outdated English legal philosophy, tracing its roots back to John Austin, who thought that law was just a command of the sovereign. There was no connection between law and morality, as Austin would have it; law should be value-free. The sovereign ordered something and the courts enforced it.” Period. “Positivism imagines that the law represents an order that must be carried out.” https://media2.mofo.com/documents/170203-gorsuch-positivist.pdf

And then our speaker went on to tell us more about Gorsuch specifically. Apparently, not much compassion or morality or consideration of expert opinions or even the law itself is involved in Gorsuch’s thought processes. It’s more like if whoever Gorsuch considers to be the top dog tells him to jump, Gorsuch will just say, “How high?” And currently, that top dog appears to be The Donald.

But apparently there is one exception to Gorsuch’s blind allegiance to Trump. According to the speaker at BABA, “There is, in Judge Gorsuch’s reported decisions, a tendency to blur the constitutional lines between church and state.” So. What if God tells him to do something and Trump says not to do it. Who will Gorsuch choose to be his OG? God or Trump?

And, also, what would happen if God contacts Grosuch on His hotline from heaven — and Gorsuch gets a bad connection or misinterprets the call? What if God sez, “I am pro-life,” and Gorsuch doesn’t even realize that what God is saying has nothing to do with abortions. God is simply stating that He is for the rights of women, freedom for all, a fair living wage for the meek and that He is also anti-war — but Gorsuch has simply gotten confused. http://www.salon.com/2017/ 03/01/the-supreme-court-just- delivered-a-major-victory-for- gerrymandering-opponents/

Or suppose God thinks that most American “wars” are crimes against humanity, that giving welfare to corporations (but not to the poor) is an Abomination and that the Clintons, the Bushes, Obama and Trump are all going to Hell for killing millions in the Middle East. Will Gorsuch then dutifully show up at the Pearly Gates and plead President Trump’s case regarding why the Prez shouldn’t be joining that huge bunch of panderers to Wall Street and War Street who are already in Hell? http://sayed7asan.blogspot.fr/2017/02/hassan-nasrallah-chaos-in-middle-east.html

But no matter what the real story actually is, apparently Gorsuch truly believes that his hotline to God is well-connected. But what if Gorsuch is actually right and not just some crank hearing voices in his tinfoil hat? In that case, anyone who actually knows what God is thinking is gonna be a really handy person to have on the Supreme Court, right? Until, of course, the day arrives when Gorsuch has to chose between God and Trump.

Or, even worse, what if Gorsuch chooses God over Trump and then discovers that Nietzsche was right?

What would happen if every single car in the world suddenly stopped running? What would you do? You’d have to walk to the nearest farm for your produce. Or start growing it yourself in your own back yard. “I could probably do the farming gig okay, but what about stuff like iPhones and toilet paper?” you might ask. “Where could we get that?” Living without toilet paper might become our next greatest fear — but at least we’d have clean air.

What would happen if the Federal Reserve was suddenly eliminated? All those dollar bills that say “Federal Reserve” on them in big block letters would suddenly become obsolete. But at least we wouldn’t have trillions of dollars in digital pretend-money zooming around cyberspace and then crash-landing into the world’s largest banks instead of into our own pockets where they belong.

Immigrants are now and always have been the fresh lifeblood of America’s work force. The Prez should be banning the Federal Reserve instead of immigrants.

What if no one could procreate any more, starting with the very next time that anyone had sex? Yikes! No more babies? That would be hard. The innocence and joy of a baby is the best gift in the world. But at least the children we still have now would be cherished, there wouldn’t be so many throw-away children any more and we would think twice before dropping bombs on babies in the Middle East and starving all those little kids in Africa. Perhaps we would actually start treasuring the children we have now — more carefully than gold. https://www.thenation.com/article/whats-killing-americas-black-infants/

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/02/nearly-1-4-million-children-at-imminent-risk-of-death

What if there suddenly wasn’t any government any more? Apparently President Trump is picking his new cabinet based almost solely on the criteria that each Secretary he picks positively hates the agency or department that he or she is now in control of? No more schools, post offices, affordable housing, paper money, infrastructure, workers’ rights, national parks, justice, healthcare, whatever. Good luck with that one. http://youtube-dwl.tk/video/18-reasons-why-not-to-impeach-trump/WYZ0wAaUGRA

What if, suddenly, there are no more worries about climate change — because it has already arrived and human beings are already dying by the millions? I have a friend in Alaska. She said, “Winter in Alaska isn’t any fun any more. All the snow is melted and we only have slush.” Really? All of it has melted? In Alaska, formerly known as America’s icebox? “Well, there isn’t a whole lot of it left.” And it’s clearly going to go downhill from there. http://www.globalresearch.ca/as-climate-disruption-advances-un-warns-the-future-is-happening-now/5523661

And what if, suddenly, there isn’t any more [so-called] war? No more nuclear weapons, drones, tanks, sarin gas, napalm, ICBMs, F-16s, assault rifles, DU blasters or cluster bombs for us to spend our money on. “Jane, now you are just being silly. The weapons industry is the only industry we’ve got left these days. Think of all those people without jobs!”

“Hey, maybe they could grow vegetables? Work in a toilet-paper factory?” That would be nice.

PS: Here are some URL links with regard to why we need to stop all of America’s “wars” and also stop all that shrill propaganda we constantly get bombarded with, trying to drive us into so-called wars like we were just so many cattle that could be prodded into their pens and slaughterhouses. For instance, who knew that an ISIS propaganda film, “The White Helmets,” would win an Oscar? https://consortiumnews.com/2017/02/24/syrian-war-propaganda-at-the-oscars/

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/24/lock-up-england-in-jail-or-an-insane-asylum/

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/02/syria-a-confused-trump-strategy-lets-erdogan-u-turn-again.html#more

http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-a-real-war-on-terrorism-would-look-and-why-the-us-isnt-fighting-one/5575674

I’m still here in Las Vegas, covered in neon and surrounded by false hopes. But still and all, riding up and down The Strip in the front seat of the Deuce bus at night is magical, almost like Christmas; there are that many colored lights.

But the towering Trump building here, rather like Trump’s foreign policy, is pretty much in darkness at this point. Why is that? Some say that it is because he forgot to apply for a casino license. I should wander over there tomorrow and find out. Investigative reporting at its best. https://consortiumnews.com/2017/02/11/deciphering-trumps-opaque-foreign-policy/

Many of the things that President Trump is doing right now are also foolhardy, forgetful and half-baked. Many of the things that he is doing right now are also divisive, dangerous and even downright un-Christian and mean. However, he is doing one important thing right — he is going after the CIA. https://www.thenation.com/article/kremlin-baiting-president-trump-without-facts-must-stop/

You remember the CIA, don’t you? The folks who gave us the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam debacle, the tortured nightmares of African and Latin American dictatorships one after another and that tragic mess in the Middle East http://www.globalresearch.ca/thank-you-for-supporting-al-qaeda-cia-honors-major-terrorist-financier-for-successful-cooperation/5574445

I wouldn’t put it past the CIA to have had a hand in creating 9-11 either but still can’t prove it — at this point. http://punklawyer.com/2017/02/16/has-it-happened-here/

So. Trump stands up to the CIA. Gotta give him snaps for that. But going against the CIA is now (and always has been) a big fat no-no inside the Beltway, and so Trump will have to pay for his mistake — hopefully not with his life. Hopefully his sudden retirement will not involve plutonium or shoes made out of cement. http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/17/rogue-elephant-rising-the-cia-as-kingslayer/

And then suddenly Trump will be gone. Just like that. And then the American media will be all cheering at the top of its lungs — gambling on the mistaken idea that what comes after Trump will be better than him. That the CIA and the Deep State will suddenly start being kind to both us peons and to American democracy once Trump is gone. http://mondoweiss.net/2017/02/interferes-politics-scandal/

But, as they say in Las Vegas, that will be one sucker bet.

We are all living within miles of Fukushima’s deadly radiation right now. http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/41928-fukushima-still-getting-worse-after-six-years-of-meltdowns

We are all victims of those crazy Beltway war-mongers’ Shock and Awe.

We all have our homes built right under the Oroville Dam http://bradblog.com/?p=12030

We all live within view of the next huge DAPL oil spill.

We all drink the same lead-poisoned water as the children of Flint, Michigan.

We all live where the Land’s never free and only the Homeless are brave.

PS: I am in Las Vegas right now, staying at CircusCircus, eating street tacos, happily playing the nickel slots — and have actually won $20.25. But there are certain gambles with our human environment that I am just not willing to take.