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Do Latino immigrants really steal all of our jobs? Are Black people really the source of most crime in America? No, no and no. Of course not. Most of our missing jobs have been stolen by global corporations that are still bedazzled by outsourcing and Reaganomics. And America’s true super-criminals are 99% White.

After I finished volunteering at a Red Cross shelter in Chico that had efficiently geared up to house hundreds of the survivors of the recent Paradise fire, I went off to wander around Chico itself, a sweet university town famous for its small Craftsman-style homes.

Near Chico’s public library, however, I got distracted from my tour by a toothless skinny seriously scroungy middle-aged dirty-blonde female meth-head who was standing on a street corner and screaming her head off. I approached her slowly and cautiously — like one would approach some feral wild animal, actually thinking that I might be of some help.

“Were you caught in the Paradise wildfire?” I asked her. Yes, she was. Everything gone. “Then why don’t you just stay at the shelter?” Her eyes rolled around in her head. I took a step back. This was obviously none of my business. She grabbed my arm.

“Those bastards threw me out!” she screamed. And I could definitely understand why. I handed her a couple of dollars, hoping to buy her off long enough to get out of there — but she wasn’t done yet. “I used to work in a factory,” she rambled, almost starting to calm down. “Had a really good job too. Then they moved my [freaking] job overseas.” Ah. Reaganomics at its finest — what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine too.

“I had no place to go. I moved to Paradise.” Where she apparently started making her living by cooking meth back up in the hills. Hmmm. Could a meth-lab explosion have started the Paradise fire, I thought — kinda taking my eyes off the woman for an instant. Bad idea. She immediately started revving up into meth-head mode again. “And just look at you, bitch!” she cried. “All warm and comfy in your big puffy jacket and boots. You don’t have a clue what it’s like to be me!” Hey, I gots economic troubles too! But then she spit at me and I moved on.

Actually, I ran back into the library and hid in the women’s restroom until some mothers with children started giving me strange looks.

So I borrowed one of the library’s computers and googled “Paradise” and “Meth”. Turns out that Paradise wasn’t just a sweet little retirement community after all. It was also the “Meth Capital of California”. That explains a lot. This woman wasn’t the first meth-head I’d seen wandering aimlessly around Chico. I’d seen lots of them, apparently disgorged by the fire.
https://www.bestplaces.net/comments/viewcomment.aspx?id=A7A5E24D-1B13-4D25-8469-87A8187AFFEB&city=Paradise_CA&p=50655520

So. What have I learned? Other than that I tend to be sort of a wimp around out-of-control meth-heads? I learned that it wasn’t the immigrants who stole our jobs here — and that it isn’t Black people who are the top American criminals. It is the greedy American corporations who have created the economic mess that we are currently trapped in. Duh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc1i-p7G19A

I also learned that it was the American “privatization” (aka theft) and the American “downsizing” (aka greed) that went on here during the Reagan years that screwed all the rest of us up — and that these heinous crimes are still going on right here right now. https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4097-giants

Apparently the Paradise wildfire has burned down the homes of thousands of its residents, but it has also flushed hundreds of meth-heads out of the hills as well — the non-urban homeless, the invisible rural economic casualties of American greed. And I was there too. It was not a pretty picture. Americans deserve better than to be cast off like old shoes by the global elites. But, hell, if they can do that to Syria, Palestine, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Vietnam and Honduras, they can easily do that to us too — so stop acting so surprised.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/decade-long-u-s-campaign-foment-syria-revolution-unseat-assad/227648/

https://iacenter.org/2018/12/25/whats-behind-u-s-troop-withdrawals-announced-for-syria-and-afghanistan/?fbclid=IwAR1licxfnubCeWOW3N2Kxs6xLImFK_fz0QNNoWvYoQXD9PqhWPDX_1HZaiA

“But why are they calling this the Camp fire?” I asked an old-timer selling souvenir T-shirts in Chico yesterday.

“Because it started on Camp Creek…” Oh. Of course. “Plus that will be $20 for the T-shirt.” I plan to take it home and tack it to the door of my disorganized and overstuffed closet — to remind me that material possessions don’t really mean all that much if your whole freaking life is about to be snuffed out.

Here in Paradise, it’s kind of bizarre. All along the main street, for over two miles, the same pattern is repeated block after block. Two or three buildings will be standing untouched and yet the two or three buildings next to them will be totally destroyed. The Walgreens and the CVS came through with hardly a scratch — while the McDonalds, the Big-O Tires and the Jack in the Box are totally wiped out.

I talked to one woman who had lived in Paradise all of her life and had just returned to the sad ruins of her home, and she told me about her own personal experience with the fire. “We were driving through a wall of flames and the car directly behind us simply exploded. We watched in horror.” But it got even worse — she and her husband had to get out of their car and try to outrun the flames. “We stopped to help a group of older men and women standing in front of their burning convalescent home. We flagged down a school bus to help get them to safety — but it was already too late and once again we watched in horror as even the bus caught fire. We ran for our lives.” Geez Louise.

“As you can see, we finally made it out alive — but just barely. A truck came by and picked us up.” She showed me a video on her phone but all I could see was fire, a solid wall of fire. “We were the lucky ones. We lost everything. But we are still alive.” I cried. She cried. I will never again worry about having too much stuff ever again. At least I too am alive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It7107ELQvY

What was I doing up in Paradise? I went up there to volunteer to help out with the extensive and excellent refugee-relocation program. But that’s a whole other story, one which I am now still absorbing and am still in shock about too. Maybe I’ll write about it after Christmas. But, hey, at least I still had a Christmas tree, a roast turkey and some eggnog to come home to.

PS: I am now a witness to the recent horror that has befallen the little town of Paradise. I myself was horrified. And all of America was horrified too. And it’s even worse when you actually see it up close with your own eyes.

However. I have also witnessed this very same type of horror — of a city destroyed — in other places as well. Places in Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Afghanistan and Lebanon — and even in Guatemala, Vietnam, Juarez, North Korea, Honduras, South Dakota and Ukraine. And yet most Americans don’t seem to mind about that. https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/endless-war-has-been-normalized-and-everyone-is-crazy-9a664c793122

When these horrors are caused by wildfires or other natural stuff here, Americans react in horror, right? But when similar horrors are caused by American cluster bombs, American armies and/or America’s proxy death squads, mercenaries and al Qaeda “rebels”? Nobody in America seems to mind. https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2018/12/09/the-largest-conspiracy-theory-peddlers-are-msm-and-the-us-state-department/

And yet, just like the American victims of the Paradise fire never asked for these horrors, the tragic victims of America’s “wars” never asked the United States and its allies to come clean out their closets either.

When you were a kid, did you ever dream about being able to fly? Or that you were The Hulk or The Avenger — or even PacMan?

Power Ranger? Flash Gordon? Wonder Woman? Crusader Rabbit?

When you were a kid, did you ever dream that you were all-powerful, possessed a death-ray, was unstoppable and could do any freaking thing that you want? Well, guess what? Once he became president, Donald Trump started acting like even his wildest childhood dreams had come true. Now every single day is Christmas Day at the White House for him — all year long. Now he gets to be the center of attention, just like some little kid. Fantasy time!

What would I myself do if I had super-powers like that? I’d do what Supergirl or Red Sonja did and bring Truth and Justice to the world — not just act like The Joker or Poison Ivy. But “Holy Nightmare!” Trump is acting more like a super-villain than like Super Mario these days. Plus didn’t we just sort of hope to elect an adult to the White House?

Somebody needs to give Trump a time-out for acting like such a cruel and hateful brat. His mother shoulda raised him better.

But on the other hand, what about the real adults who truly do run our world? The ones who actually do pull the strings and make Trump’s weird Howdy Doody/Muppet show actually happen? The 30-odd guys who always seem to show up on the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the World Economic Forum at Davos, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, BlackRock, the World Bank, various federal reserves, the Atlantic Council and the IMF?

These guys are the world’s truly evil mean villains who we should be on guard against — not just some stupid mean cosplay kid named Trump who avidly copies their disguises. These guys don’t just pull wings off butterflies or murder helpless children from Honduras. The real adults who truly run our world? They will do anything for money. Anything. And that’s even more scary than having a mean 8-year-old playing dress-up in the White House.

Up at the North Pole, not much is going on right now. Even the elves are on strike. “Looks like nobody’s going to get any toys this year,” Santa says with a frown. And he’s not even baking chocolate-chip cookies either. It’s that bad. What’s up, Santa? “Everyone has been super-naughty during 2018 — and not just only the kids. I’m disgusted.”

Here’s Santa’s “naughty” list for this year:

1. First off, there’s always Palestine — still a gigantic festering wound of injustice that’s landed Israel on the Naughty List continuously for the past 70 miserable years. It’s a good thing that Netanyahu doesn’t believe in Santa because all he’s gonna get in his stocking this year is coal, phish and spam. Santa doesn’t care what religion Bibi pretends to represent. After the horrors of Jenin and the horrors of Gaza? Netanyahu has proved time and again that he honors no religion at all — except possibly for the worship of Mammon. “Don’t mess with The Claus!” https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2018/12/09/the-largest-conspiracy-theory-peddlers-are-msm-and-the-us-state-department/

2. Next there are all those stolen American elections. You evil vote-stealers are not getting on the “Nice” list this year! O’Rourke shoulda won in Texas. Abrams shoulda won in Georgia. Gillum shoulda won in Florida. Hell, even Gore, Kerry and Bernie Sanders shoulda won the freaking White House. And Israel and the Saudis had their hands in the electoral cookie jar too. But who, exactly, can Santa appeal to? The Supreme Court? Don’t make him laugh. Move along, folks, no bowl full of jelly here. There is nothing “Nice” going on at the Supreme Court. In America, the Rule of Law is pretty much screwed. https://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2018/11/ted-cruz-election-fraud-leopards-dont.html

3. Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Libya and Bethlehem? No wise men on camels will be involved there. And no one will be dropping down any chimneys in the Middle East either — because there are hardly any chimneys left over there to drop down in, thanks to Lockheed-Martin, Exxon and BlackRock. So the Pentagon, the CIA, Congress and the White House will get no visit from Rudolph this year. https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-has-killed-more-than-20-million-people-in-37-victim-nations-since-world-war-ii/5492051

4. Latin America, Africa and Asia? The injustices committed here are way beyond “Naughty”. Santa is extremely unhappy about this — and so is his Boss. “Jesus Christ!” https://theintercept.com/2018/12/01/u-s-military-says-it-has-a-light-footprint-in-africa-these-documents-show-a-vast-network-of-bases/

5. Up at Standing Rock and Pine Ridge and down in Tijuana, Tomillo and the Amazon — everyone gets toys. Leonard Peltier will be getting a bright shiny fire truck to warm up his cold prison cell. Big Oil, Big Polluters, Big Pharma and Big Banksters get nothing. It is better to give than to steal. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2168963039841348/

6. And then there are all the American homeless, all the American children living in cars, all the American slaves of the prison-industrial complex, all the American victims of hurricanes, wildfires and other climate catastrophes — and all of America’s many other society castoffs. Black lives really do matter. “Harrumph,” says Santa. “There’s no excuse for those corporate bastards to be all this naughty when there is clearly more than enough food, clothing, jobs, shelter and toys to go around in order to protect, nurture and love every single person in America — and even in this whole world.” Not only just that child in the manger.

Santa is truly pissed off this year.

You should be too.

Holy cow, it clearly sucks eggs to be a Honduran refugee in Tijuana these days. What the freak do they possibly have to look forward to? And, good grief, how I would hate to spend my short miserable life scrounging for blood diamonds in Africa right now. Or being a starving two-year-old living under the Saudi cross-hairs in Yemen? Who the freak would want to do that? http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2007/09/africa-worlds-largest-refugee-camp-with.html

Or I’d even hate to be one of those poor unfortunate souls currently going to Harvard on a student loan. What kind of shite-show future do they have in store?

But worst of all, I would truly hate to be a card-carrying member of the G20. Those people gots no future at all.

“But, Jane,” you might say, “those guys all stay in twelve-star hotels, live on steak and truffles and have French maids to wipe them after they poop. They are wealthy beyond belief.”

Too true.

But what exactly is their fabulous wealth actually based on? War-profiteering? Price-gouging? Stock-market ponzi-schemes? Stealing lunch money form school children? Nah. The bottom line for these guys is that their eye-popping wealthiness ultimately comes from only one thing. “Interest rates.”

These blind fools have all become slaves to interest rates.

If something pays a high rate of interest, then they will always cling to it like Saran Wrap — never ever ever ever considering if there are moral costs too. They will never let go of collecting student-loan debts. They will never let go of permanent “war”. They will never let go of receiving government bailouts, creating pollution, drug and human trafficking, “eminent domain,” fond memories of that wonderful 2008 housing crash, hopes for the next huge economic crash about to hit us, big-box stores paying slave wages, privatization, 9-11, whatever. If it creates interest, go for it.

Even if the G20′s latest interest-creating gambit destroys the world? Nuclear explosions? Genocide? Rampant wildfires? Chainsaws? Sure. Why not. These guys can always earn interest by selling new and better bunkers to each other.

But here’s a word of advice. “You need to get over yourselves, G20.” Yours is just not a viable plan. Your insatiable vampire-like lust for interest-rate payback is gonna murder the rest of us for sure. And sadly it will also strangle you in the process too — down there in your well-guarded, well-stocked and elegantly glorified tombs.

Election theft is on the rise in America, that’s for sure. But Robert Mueller is definitely looking in all the wrong places. “Psst, Bob….”

How come Mueller never seems to notice all those huge vote thefts in Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Texas? Most Americans know who stole them (or at least we should know). And the villains, idiots, creeps and greedy bastards elected as a result of all this vote theft clearly in favor of Republicans (GWB for instance and Trump…)? They have cost Americans approximately twenty-one trillion dollars — so far. Betcha Putin never had his hand shoved that far into the American cookie jar. https://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2018/11/ted-cruz-election-fraud-leopards-dont.html

Then there’s the Saudis. “Hey, Mueller, lookie here.” The Saudis are absolutely rolling in moola. And they spend their money wisely — buying America out. Trump knows this, Robert. And so did Reagan both Bushes, Obama and both Clintons too. So why don’t you?
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/13535/analysis-glasgow-berlin-how-strikes-mutinies-and-revolutions-ended-ww1

And of course we all love to hate Putin. But seriously? Who is the real election thief here (besides of course Anton Scalia)? Why it’s Trump’s new BFF, Bibi Netanyahu. “Mueller, why aren’t you going after him?” Why indeed. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2017/04/aipac-americas-christian-right.html

Putin is easy pickings — but clearly nobody here has the cajones to mess with the real election thieves. “Republicans, Israel and Saudi Arabia.” You heard it here first, Bob. And, sadly, you heard it here last as well. Bibi, MbS and the GOP ain’t never gonna go to jail. Why? Because they have simply stolen too many votes. They own America now. To the victors go the spoils.

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