BartBlog

In 2001, all we ever heard about in the media was how America was going to “free Afghanistan for democracy.” Sixteen years and several trillion dollars later, Afghanistan should be as free as a bird now, right?

So I went to Expedia.com and clicked on “flight + hotel” to Kabul. Nothing came up. Afghanistan is so very free these days that American tourists can’t even go there. Hell, even war correspondents can’t get in there either. Hmmm.

But what about Iraq, the country that America spent approximately five trillion dollars freeing from that evil dictator what’s-his-name. Plus when I was a kid, I had always dreamed about being an archeologist when I grew up and going to see places like Babylon and Ur. Now was my chance!

So I went on Travelosity.com and clicked on “flight + hotel” to Baghdad. Sorry but American tourists aren’t free to travel to Iraq either.

Libya? Same old story. America spent a trillion or so dollars on liberating Libya from Qaddafi “for humanitarian reasons”. Well, things are so humane over there right now that not even CheapTickets.com can get you a “flight + hotel” to Tripoli. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9nvzs-PciE

Where else has America been liberating stuff? Ukraine? Let’s plug that one into Kayak.com and see what comes up. Nope, Nothing there either. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APR5E4d3GKQ&feature=youtu.be

Yemen? America just sold the Saudis billions and billions of dollars worth of deadly weapons in order to “liberate” Yemen’s oil. But Priceline.com wouldn’t touch Yemen with a ten-foot pole. The Saudis have already dropped 90,000 bombs on Yemen so far. Yemenis are resisting the Saudis’ offer of “freedom” just as hard as George Washington resisted the British during the American Revolution. But then King George III hadn’t dropped 90,000 bombs on Betsy Ross’s head either. No nice hotel in Sanaa for me.

How about Palestine? America is paying 30 billion bucks a year to help Israeli neo-colonialists “free” Gaza. But if you type “Gaza” into Hipmunk.com, your whole computer might just blow up. No freedom in Gaza either. They are not even letting reporters into Gaza. “Closed military zone.” Being a war correspondent sucks eggs these days — let alone being a tourist.

Syria? Let’s click on Trivago.com. The only place we can safely go there is to Damascus and Aleppo, where Syria’s so-called “evil dictator” is still in charge. But no one can go to the parts of Syria freed up by the freedom-loving USA and their allies ISIS and al Qaeda.

And now the American Deep State and its puppets in Washington are talking about “liberating” Russia, China, North Korea and Venezuela. Pretty soon American tourists will consider themselves lucky if they can even safely travel to Tijuana.

PS: According to William Engdahl’s new book, The Gods of Money, World War I and World War II were welcomed and even encouraged by the US corporatocracy in order to weaken Europe. “American leading circles around the Rockefellers and Wall Street had resolved among themselves that all potential European rivals for power would have to grind themselves down in a mutual slaughter.” https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Money-F-William-Engdahl-ebook/dp/B005Y4F4EE?ie=UTF8&keywords=jp%20morgan&qid=1464762246&ref_=sr_1_56&sr=8-56

Now that same corporatocracy is currently plotting World War 3 in order to weaken Russia and China. “Hey, it worked before. Let’s try it again.” And you know what this means, don’t you? After Russia and China are finally as “free” as Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, Honduras, Somalia and Libya, there will be no more trips on the Orient Express railway for American tourists either.

PPS: I’m going to be an American tourist myself this week — going to New York City, staying at the legendary Jane Hotel, eating rice pudding at B&H Dairy on Second Avenue and attending the 2017 BEA Book Expo. https://www.bookexpoamerica.com/About-Us/

And guess who will be speaking at the Book Expo? Hillary Rodham Clinton! Yes, the darling of the Deep State herself will be telling us in her very own words about how “free” Libya became on her watch and just how much she would love to bomb Russia. http://www.globalresearch.ca/manchester-alleged-suicide-bomber-linked-to-libya-islamic-fighting-group-lifg-known-to-british-security-intelligence-lifg-was-supported-by-nato-against-gadaffi/5591732

So here’s the story: I went to Tahlequah in Oklahoma, drove up to the Cherokee Heritage Center, plunked down my thirty dollars and had my genealogy done. Bingo!

“You are 1/32 Cherokee on your father’s side and your great great grandfather was George Ballard, and he and his father James Ballard and his father’s father John Yates Ballard all walked the Trail of Tears.”

Tears also came to my eyes upon hearing this. All those old family legends are true. I really am part Cherokee! However, what exactly does all this new and specific information actually mean to me personally? How am I gonna integrate all this new information into the other parts of my actual life?

In Tahlequah, I talked with one Cherokee man who claimed that Cherokees are actually the Lost Tribe of Israel. Does this mean that I should move off to Tel Aviv in search of my roots? Perhaps open a nightclub there with a Cherokee theme?

I grew up in a typical American suburb and now live in Berkeley, an annex of Silicon Valley. How can I fit being a native American into that cultural heritage? And is being only 1/32 Cherokee enough to change the way that I live, how I think, who I actually am?

Where exactly do I fit into the American reality?

Most Americans go along with the idea that murdering babies in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia for fun and profit is a good thing, and that losing our freedom after 9-11 was the truly patriotic thing to do. I don’t buy that at all. It’s illegal, immoral and probably fattening too. And I can’t worship big banksters, Big Pharma or Big Brother either. http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/43672-focus-the-us-is-waging-a-massive-shadow-war-in-africa-exclusive-documents-reveal

So. How do I fit into today’s American patchwork quilt? Or do I? How do Blacks, Latinos and Asians manage to do it? I should ask them for some tips.

And now that I’m a Cherokee too, what place-marker does that now hold in my life? What does it mean to be an American? http://thesaker.is/the-history-of-the-neocon-takeover-of-the-usa-a-4-part-analysis/

PS: Back in the day, white people were allowed by law to commit all sorts of heinous crimes in Cherokee territory and not get punished. That’s why so many famous American outlaws had their hide-outs and robbers’ roosts located there — including Jesse James, Belle Starr, the Dalton Gang and Bonnie and Clyde just to name a few. It was unfair and unjust to the Cherokee people — a nightmare come true.

And the same thing is happening now to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Israeli neo-colonialist settlers, rustlers and claim-jumpers are allowed by law to commit all sorts of heinous crimes in Palestine and not get punished. What? Don’t Israeli neo-colonialists know that the Palestinians are the real Lost Tribe of Israel?

Going to Disneyland is fun. Dancing the night away is fun. Watching your daughter graduate from college is fun. Devoting 60% of America’s income and wealth to trying to start World War 3 with Russia is not. http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/19/how-russia-became-our-adversary-again/

Winning a spelling bee is fun. Going to the county fair is fun. Watching the CIA support al Qaeda in Syria in order to slaughter even more babies in the Middle East with the goal of provoking Russia into World War 3 is not. In fact, it’s a nightmare. https://consortiumnews.com/2017/05/18/trump-escalates-syrian-proxy-war/

Picnicking in the park is fun. Rollerskating is fun. Standing helplessly by while the so-called leaders of my very own country try to start World War 3 in order to make big bucks in the weapons trade is not.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/19/seth-rich-craig-murray-and-the-sinister-stewards-of-the-national-security-state/

Listening to music is fun. Having sweet dreams about running through flower gardens is fun. Allowing the traitorous Deep State to demonize Russia (one of the only sane countries left in the world today) in order to promulgate fascism in America is not. http://thesaker.is/the-history-of-the-neocon-takeover-of-the-usa-a-4-part-analysis/

Eating mac-cheese at a potluck supper with friends is fun. Opening packages on Christmas morning is fun. Playing touch-football is fun. Pissing off Russia and China to the point that China stops exporting goods to America (thus leaving our entire country with empty shelves at the mall) is not.

Celebrating the Fourth of July with rockets and ice cream is fun. Blowing out candles on a birthday cake is fun. Blowing up Syria, Libya, Ukraine, Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Iran in order to start World War 3 is not. In fact, it’s freaking evil and crazy and un-American and no fun at all.

But World War 3 is gonna be even less fun. Bunkers in your backyard instead of swing sets? No electricity and no running water instead of Nespresso machines and cable TV? Radioactivity at what is left of your local mall if Russia and China finally get pissed off enough to retaliate? I repeat. “No fun at all!”

In apartheid Israel right now, 1,500 Palestinian political prisoners are currently in the fourth week of a hunger strike, protesting against the brutal (American-blessed) neo-colonialist occupation of their homes in the West Bank. Many of the hunger strikers are now close to death. http://mondoweiss.net/2017/04/israelis-palestinian-prisoners/

“What do we care if they die,” say their Israeli occupiers. “They are sub-human anyway. They are more like animals than people. That would just mean 1,500 fewer Palestinian dogs to get in our way.” Lebenstraum is important in Israel. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170421-that-barbecue-outside-a-hunger-strike-prison-exposes-israeli-settlers-blind-hatred/

And life is cheap in Yemen too. The Saudis (with America’s blessing) are planning to starve 28 million Yemenis to death. “What do we care,” say the Saudis. “They have oil. We want oil. End of discussion.” http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40147-the-us-provided-cover-for-the-saudi-starvation-strategy-in-yemen

And, just like in Yemen and Palestine, life is cheap in America too. “Let’s send more troops off to Syria,” Americans say, also giving their blessing to this illegal “war” for oil. But Syria is just like Iraq and Afghanistan — more American troops will be slaughtered there in yet another deceitful neo-colonialist bid for more oil pipelines and more oil. “Hey, it’s not like we don’t pay those dogfaces and grunts for their service,” say the boys in Washington DC. How much for an American soldier’s life? Not much. And the price keeps getting lower and lower. http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/benefits/2016/05/21/shrinking-military-paycheck-2017/84546824/

First let’s start with the obvious. By cutting down on the availability of healthcare in order to buy more weapons and give more Lean-Green to banksters, thousands of American apple-pie-baking moms are automatically gonna get hauled before death panels right before our very eyes. Sorry about that, Mom, but your cancer is a preexisting condition.

And of course many more moms will die because the powers-that-be said goodbye to female healthcare — abortions, birth control, Planned Parenthood and all that. Who the freak needed that anyway? Besides your mom of course.

And this new thing that just happened at the Hanford nuclear waste site? Is it really as bad as Fukushima and Chernobyl? Or will only a few hundred moms die of breast cancer? Well, we already got too many moms anyway. Would you mind awfully if one of those dead moms was yours? http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/09/527605496/emergency-declared-at-nuclear-contaminated-site-in-washington-state

Plus there’s always Syria. The Deep State (and its BFFs in Israel, ISIS and Saudi Arabia) and its current pawn in the White House are up to their eyeballs there right now. Between the vast line-up of American “advisers” and material currently hanging out on the Syrian-Jordanian border and the blatant American interference in Raqqa and Idlib, there’s gonna be a whole lot more (coordinated) shaking going on in Syria any time soon.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/461619557192964/

But what will happen there next (besides a whole bunch more Syrian mothers being butchered by US weapons)? Will Russia step in to prevent the criminally-illegal overthrow of President Assad — who really is a good guy despite everything the Deep State and fake news tries to tell us? And what will Iran and China do next? Are we gonna be doomed to WW 3 now for sure? Plus each of the hundreds of American trucks and tanks amassed on the Syrian-Jordanian border represents the cost of a really nice Mothers Day gift for at least 100 American mothers. What a waste. https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/pictures-syrian-drones-spot-hundreds-us-jordanian-armored-vehicles-border/

But if WW 3 doesn’t bump off our mothers, then there are still other ways to off them. Because “war” is the ultimate source of deadly air pollution throughout the entire world, then WW 3, even if our moms survive it, still isn’t gonna be any good for our mothers either — or even for you and me for that matter.

Now let me see. How else can the Deep State kill off dear sweet Mom? Hmmm. Big Pharma has lots of ideas. Monsanto is already at work on the problem. And without EPA regulation, Mom is so much closer to being Toast. Then there’s the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, the various cuts to Mom’s pensions and of course all that fracking. “Buck up, Mum,” you might say to your mother on Mothers Day. “Just think about how nice it is that we are getting rid of all that damned government regulation.” Oh, and too bad it will cost you your life.

My own mother died suddenly of a stroke many years ago but I still visit her grave as often as I can and have nice conversations with her tombstone. Now you can look forward to doing that too. “What? You’d rather have a live mother than a dead one?” The way that American voters are acting right now, you sure could have fooled me.

“But, wait,” you might say next. “That’s not the full 100 ways that you promised.” Bet you can think of at least 50 more ways all by yourself. Or else ask your mom.

PS: But what exactly is the Deep State anyway, and why exactly are its minions so very anxious to throw Mama from the train (or under the bus)? The only way we can actually pin it down — other than to watch the last five episodes of ABC’s “Scandal” — is to see its Gawd-awful results and then try to work our way backwards from there.

Endless “war,” the off-shoring of our jobs, the disappearance of our middle class, homelessness, the neo-Jim Crow voting laws, air and water pollution on a grand scale, the Great American Land Giveaway, political witch-hunts and buy-offs, a shackled press, mass incarceration, the creation of a one-percent uber-alles ruling class. Now what red-blooded patriotic American in his or her right mind would ever want to create some horrid anti-American nightmare like that? There’s just gotta be some kind of evil Boris-and-Natasha-type Bad Guys behind this. And there is.

I’m still fascinated with the people of Oklahoma. The majority of them are good people, salt of the earth, friendly and hard-working. So how come so many Oklahoma residents seem to have such a grudge against Blacks, immigrants, women, liberals and gays? In her new book, Strangers in Their Own Land, sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild just answered my question neatly.

According to Hochschild, Tea Party members strongly believe that they have been robbed. And how did they jump to this conclusion? Easy. The way that they see the world around them is that, for years and years now, they have been patiently standing in some allegorical line, patiently waiting to reach the American Dream by dent of hard work. They have been working their fingers to the bone for most of their lives to obtain the American Dream — but even now, after all these years of labor, it is still just over a hill and out of sight. And so they work even harder and wait even longer. http://thenewpress.com/books/strangers-their-own-land

But then, just as this allegorical line is actually starting to move, the places directly in front of them are suddenly flooded by a whole bunch of undeserving, lazy and rude people who are using affirmative action, welfare, women’s rights, etc. to jump the line. And so, instead of moving forward toward their Dream goal, Tea Party members now find themselves stalling in place — or even starting to slip backwards. “Hey, that’s not fair!” they cry in frustration. “We worked hard to get here and you have done nothing.” And just who, exactly, is helping these new loafers to jump the line? The Government, that’s who. No wonder Tea Party members are pissed off at government, if seen from this point of view.

But now let’s just take a few steps backward, get a larger perspective and look at the entire globe instead — using this new “Standing in line for the Dream” point of view and applying these same Tea party thought-patterns to the entire human race.

Cherokees in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, for instance, have been standing in line for the “American Dream” since 1492! Or at least since the Trail of Tears brought them here to Oklahoma. Back then, it was the white settlers who had jumped the line. Violently. No wonder the Cherokee were (and still are) pissed off.

Or take Mexico and Africa and Peru and India and China — filled with people happily pursuing the Mexican, African, Inca, Indian and Chinese Dream. Or whatever. And then suddenly white colonialists arrived, cut into their lines too and stole all of their dreams. And so, as a result, native inhabitants of these countries also formed Tea Parties of their own. The Boxer Rebellion, for instance. Montezuma’s Revenge. The Zulu uprising. Remember the Alamo?

And, today, we now have the American, Saudi, UN and Israeli neo-colonialists doing the same freaking thing that the old colonialists used to do. Now they too are jumping ahead in the line. No wonder the Libyans, Afghans, Palestinians, Yemenis, Iraqis, Ukrainians, Vietnamese, Koreans, Congolese, Haitians, Somalis, Hondurans, Chileans, etc. are pissed off, and are also forming their own “Tea Parties” right and left. Can you seriously blame them? Hardly. They are doing exactly what America’s Tea Party members are doing right now and, to quote Ginger Rogers, they are “doing it backwards and in high heels”. http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1493999002

Let’s take a closer look at Palestine. Palestinians were all happily living the Palestinian Dream. And then suddenly Israeli neo-colonialists not only rudely cut into their line but also stole the entire Dream itself and now it has become the Israeli Dream. Palestinian water is now Israeli water. Gaza oil is now Israeli oil. Israelis live their Dream at the expense of the Palestinians. No wonder there is a Palestinian Tea Party. https://mikopeled.com/2017/04/27/the-holy-grail-by-miko-peled/

And take Syria. Syrians were happily living their Syrian Dream too — historic cities, great education and healthcare systems, a president who they supported. And then suddenly American, Israeli, Saudi and Turkish neo-colonialists cut in line bigtime and tried to steal the Syrian Dream, using ISIS and al Qaeda aka “moderate rebels” as their cats-paws and shamelessly arming these monsters with the goal of slaughtering as many Syrians as possible and stealing their soil and their oil. No wonder Syrians formed their own Tea Party! http://www.globalresearch.ca/now-only-rational-thinking-can-save-the-world/5584987

Now that I’ve read Hochschild’s book, I can look at our American Tea Party members from a whole new perspective and can even sympathize with their problems. And, hopefully, now American Tea Party members can also look at the American military-industrial complex with new eyes as well — and start identifying with Palestine and Syria instead of with the American Deep State neo-colonialists who are the real line-cutters here. If Wall Street and War Street didn’t steal over 90% of America’s wealth for themselves, there would still be plenty of money for the government (or the free market or whatever) to give everyone a slice of the American Dream. http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/28/middle-eastern-surgeon-speaks-about-ecology-of-war/

PS: And does anyone but me find it ironic that Blue States rightly consider Red States to be the ones rudely cutting in line? Red States receive the most welfare, demand that the government spend astronomical amounts of money on murdering beautiful babies in the Middle East, claim to be the most moral while at the same time acting the least Christ-like, want less government but saddle the Blue States with the most corporate-biased government regulations since the Age of Robber Barons, want to spend the Blue States’ hard-earned money on junk like a Wall, and generally are “poor me” takers who constantly jump the Blue State line to the American Dream.

Perhaps its time for the Blue States to form their own Tea Party, secede and create their own line to the Blue State Dream.

PPS: From what I can tell, the “American Dream” today seems to consist mainly of owning bigger houses and bigger cars. Really? The “American Dream” is to become the biggest consumer? To live out in some boring suburb? And it’s also definitely not the American Dream any more to become the most moral person or the most happy person — but rather to become the best at doing anything for money.

That’s not my American Dream. My American Dream involves Democracy and Justice and Freedom. But who the freak is truly free when enslaved to making car payments and murdering babies in the Middle East?

Tulsa is an amazing place. Nice people, fabulous museums — and it also has a great country-music station. Who knew that I would fall in love with Tulsa. Totally enjoyed the Gilcrease Museum, built by the wealth of Oklahoma oil. It has all kinds of American Indian stuff and Remington stuff. Plus it’s set in those impossibly green Oklahoma hills.

Then there’s the Philbrook Museum. Think “Phillips 66″ oil. Back in the day, wealthy oilmen wanted to leave their legacy in Art and Beauty — not in the broken and bloody bodies of beautiful babies in the Middle East. Apparently, Mrs. Phillips’ main goal in life was to surround herself with Beauty everywhere she looked. And boy did she succeed. I want that to be my main goal too! Only within a much more limited budget.

Touring the museums of Tulsa has developed within me a hunger, an absolute craving, for beauty and art and culture. Go Tulsa!

And then there’s the country music. I put 400 miles on my car while driving around Tulsa and then driving from Tulsa to Stillwater (just had to go there for obvious reasons) and to Tahlequah, Catoosa and Muskogee. I hate to drive. All that driving would have been torture if it hadn’t been for KVOO, the local country music station. http://www.kvoo.com/listen-live All I can say is live-stream it, tape it, put it in your car stereo and then drive. Trust me on this one. Country music is perfect for hitting the road. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z30z8ZnM73U

And another thing I learned from Tulsa and listening to country music: People here work hard, play hard and are the salt of the earth — and are also as independent as hell. Lauren Alaina’s song, Road Less Traveled, could be the national anthem for resistance to authority and conformity. The American Left’s “Resist” movement could do well to adopt it as their theme song. “If you trust your rebel heart, ride it into battle. Don’t be afraid, take the road less traveled…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-NAEvc-b6E

Country singers tell stories about living on bar stools and hanging out with loose women, sure, but they also tell stories about the blue-collar men and women who work hard for a living and pour their hearts into their lives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCxbgqyC2Wg

And they also vote for the Tea Party and Donald Trump — who then sells them out to Wall Street and War Street without batting an eye. That’s just inhuman and cruel. And, what is even worse, America’s military-industrial complex has gone out of its way to make sure that working-class white people and people of color and immigrants and women never bond together over their vast ocean of similarities but instead fight each other to the death over their insignificant differences. http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/04/24/911-destroyed-america/

The only problem with Tulsa, as far as I can see, is that it is a city where you can’t survive without a car. And it is a consumer city too. Consumerism rules here in Tulsa. If we have another Great Depression, all these malls and big-box stores here will become ghost towns — just like when silver dried up in the Old West.

But I digress. Let’s get back to talking about how the Tea Party failed its rank & file. According to sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild, rank-and-file Tea Party members basically want a less corrupt government and less regulation. But it is their “Great Paradox” that they vote for the most corrupt politicians and also for even more regulation — but only for Blacks, women and immigrants. http://thenewpress.com/books/strangers-their-own-land

The Tea Party rank-and-file also value a strong sense of community. Country music gives them that. Wall Street and War Street doesn’t. Major FAIL by Wall/War Street.

The average Tea Party member also wants respect. They want liberals to stop thinking that they are just stupid hillbillies. They are not. And yet it is the neo-con politicians they vote for who treat them like rubes, suckers and pawns when the rubber actually hits the road. Go figure.

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Stop Wall Street and War Street from destroying our world. And while you’re at it, please buy my books! http://straitwellbooks.blogspot.com/2016/04/our-top-best-seller-right-now-is-bring.html