BartBlog

My apartment was completely disorganized and so I went to the library and checked out a book entitled, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”. The author, Marie Kondo, talks about how to avoid the “vicious circle of tidying”. Holy cow! That must be avoided at all costs! http://tidyingup.com/books/the-life-changing-magic-of-tidying-up-hc

And we also clearly need to put some life-changing magic to work in tidying up the Middle East as well.

President Endogen of Turkey definitely needs to get folded, sorted and put back into whatever sock drawer he came from. The guy is a mess and he’s been out cluttering up Syria with his ISIS buddies for far too long. http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/english/84325/Turkey_removes_al-Nusra_from__terror__list.html#

Hillary Clinton also needs to be shoved back into the closet ASAP — before we trip and fall over her messy weapons stashes, Libya disasters and AIPAC suck-ups (again) and American taxpayers (again) get seriously hurt. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/hillary_clinton_full_neocon_aipac_demonizes_iran_palestinians_20160322

Donald Trump doesn’t seem to have a clue about what is going on in the Middle East. The “vicious circle of tidying” has obviously sucked him right in. Enough said about that.

And what about Obama and his greedy pals on Wall Street and War Street? Let’s get out our garbage bags and kick all them to the curb. What is the opposite of “tidy”? Chaos. And these guys have left the Middle East in total chaos — and Europe, Latin America and Africa in chaos as well. Plus, due to these guys’ sloppy housekeeping, the American economy also needs some life-changing tidy-up magic right now. And too many of our sons and daughters have misplaced limbs due to them.

According to Stephen Kinzer of the Boston Globe, “Washington-based reporters tell us that one potent force in Syria, al-Nusra, is made up of ‘rebels’ or ‘moderates,’ not that it is the [the very un-tidy] local al-Qaeda franchise. Saudi Arabia is portrayed as aiding freedom fighters when in fact it is a prime sponsor of ISIS. Turkey has for years been running a ‘rat line’ for foreign fighters wanting to join terror groups in Syria.” All theses media lies need to be immediately tidied up. http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/02/18/the-media-are-misleading-public-syria/8YB75otYirPzUCnlwaVtcK/story.html

And according to W.V. Cole, the media could also use some tidying-up magic with regard to reporting religious affiliations. “Christians have been committing war crimes all across the world for centuries now. But does the press always identify the butchers as Christians? Hardly.” Take Hitler, for example. Do you ever see him always identified as a Christian even though he gave many speeches claiming to be one? And are America’s favorite perpetrators of war crimes (the Bush family, the Clintons, Reagan, Obama, etc.) always identified by the media as Christians too? No, the MSM only identifies breaking-bad “Muslims” by their religion. It’s time for them to clean up their act. http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/25/dear-media-radovan-karadzic-european-christian

Kondo recommends that we tidy up one category at a time, starting with our clothes. That works for me. Let’s start by getting rid of all those wolves in sheep’s clothing in Washington who are responsible for making the Middle East the unlivable mess that it is today.

“Japanese organizational consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly declutter your home once, you’ll never have to do it again.” America is our home and it desperately needs some emergency decluttering right now! Perhaps Bernie Sanders can do it. Perhaps not. But Trump and Clinton definitely can’t. Neither one seems to know how to organize their own drawers let alone America’s.

And then after our country has finally gotten tidied up once and for all and we’ve carefully put all those giant corporations, lobbyists, election manipulators and weapons manufacturers out on the sidewalk in garbage bags where they belong, then hopefully America can go back to being a tidy democracy again. But only after that happens can we start the life-changing magic of tidying up the Middle East too. http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-aleppos-black-box-is-found-under-the-rubble-of-propaganda/5516288

First things we need to do to get the Middle East tidied up? Put all the Pentagon’s war toys away. Put the Israeli neo-colonialists’ brutal occupation and “settlements” out with the trash. Get rid of General Sisi in Egypt. Call the Salvation Army to come pick up the House of Saud. And take all those trillion-dollar American airbases, contractors, spies, fleets, missiles, drones, tanks, etc. back home and throw them in the trash too. Job well done!

And after we have tidied up and decluttered all that humongous Wall Street and War Street litter both here and abroad, our lives here in America too will be magically changed — for the better.

If I can declutter and tidy up my own messy apartment, then there is definitely hope for the rest of the world.

So last summer I went on a gluten-free/sugar-free/sugar-substitute-free diet and started losing weight — whether I needed to or not. But it actually (sort of) worked out well. My sugar cravings have gone way down — and I can easily make do when they try to sneak back in again. There is a lot to be said about breaking a piece of Ghirardelli’s 100% cocoa unsweetened chocolate into a cup of hot steamed milk at 3:00 am in the morning when one can’t sleep because the whole world is going to hell in a hand-basket and one cannot afford to move to Tahiti. http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35383-will-the-us-own-up-to-its-role-in-europe-s-refugee-crisis

But it has been really hard to give up croissants. Pie. Birthday cake. Pancakes! But I can still eat all the whipped cream I want as long as there’s no sugar in it.

And when I stepped on the scale at the YMCA yesterday, I weighed 102 pounds. But does all this weight loss make me happy? No, hardly. It only makes me want to sneak into Libya or Yemen or Gaza and report on the type of news that even FaceBook isn’t telling us because there are no eye-witnesses to the genocides going on in those places who have easy access to computers. Or sugar. Or gluten either for that matter.

But going without sugar and gluten also makes me crazy — but in a good way. It magnifies my discontent. I am suddenly very unhappy that my apartment is filled with junk. I am now even more unhappy that my very own government is running guns to ISIS and al Qaeda abroad, and is being kidnapped by corporatists and banksters here at home.

Maybe discontent is a good thing. It keeps me from resting on my laurels. What laurels?

And as for losing control of my life, did I ever really have control of it in the first place? Even during those staid and normal years when I was getting my Masters degree at U.C. Berkeley? Or those wild and exotic years when I was hanging out with country-and-western musicians? Or all those years as a mother when I was basically surviving on chocolate chip cookie dough (as full of sugar and gluten as you can get)?

Do any of us ever really have our lives under control?

Being a tourist in Washington DC can be a truly glorious experience — or not.

The area known as the Federal Triangle features a collection of magnificent granite buildings, and tourists and locals alike are in awe of such splendor — until I realized that the crown jewel of all this architectural awesomeness is a building now named after a war criminal. Ronald Reagan. http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=15924

In the early morning light, I went out to see the breath-taking Iwo Jima memorial. It was large and impressive and humbling and brought tears to my eyes — until I noticed that all around the base of the statue, etched in gold letters, were listed some of the many many many “wars” that Marines had participated in, including disgraceful and bloody actions against the Philippines and Haiti. But the list stopped at Somalia. Guess there was no point in adding Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine and Libya, seeing as they are still on-going money-pit “wars” and still a source for the incubation of terrorists. To paraphrase the Marines’ anthem, “From the Halls of the Munich Olympics to the shores of 9-11, London, Madrid, Paris, Beirut, Baghdad, San Bernardino, Brussels and Kabul”.

To quote journalist Finian Cunningham, “More than grieving, European [and American] citizens need to get a grip and hold their governments accountable for not just Europeans [and Americans] suffering terrorism but for suffering under the same terrorism in many other countries as well. Maybe when the Eiffel Tower displays the national colors of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Mali, Yemen or other unfortunate victims of terrorism, especially state-sponsored terrorism, then the grieving process might acquire a more constructive purpose.” http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20160324/1036899417/brussels-atatcks-europe-grief.html But I digress.

In Washington DC, the Metro subway system is amazing, taking you everywhere that you need to go — until at the Rosslyn station I experienced deja vu as I took an escalator down down down, three or four stories under the ground. This was just like the escalator to a subway station at Pyongyang, North Korea — which was built to also serve as a bomb shelter. Apparently DC is also ready for war. If you happen to be in the Pentagon area at the time of an attack from any of the long list enemies that the Pentagon has created, no worries. Just head for the Metro.

At the Pentagon City Metro stop, they have a fabulous mall and I was also impressed by it, clearly a mall worth fighting for — until I saw an electronic billboard that said, “Congratulations, Marines. The F-35B is now operational!” Now there is a picture worth a million lives. Plus Lockheed Martin can now blame Marines for the 391 billion taxpayers’ dollars that have been wasted on the F-35A-Z.

Then I saw the U.S. Capitol’s shining dome from afar — oops, no longer shining. It was covered with what looked like black garbage bags. Huh? Since all of America’s money is now going to “war,” even one of our most treasured national infrastructure icons has come to this?

Then a friend took me to the most beautiful mosque in the District — but if the current crack-down on freedom of religion continues apace, then before we know it, Christianity, Buddhism and Judaism could easily get cracked down on too. That’s a very dangerous precedent to set. But then the Christianity of Jesus that I have come to know and love, already no longer exists either, having been replaced by bigotry and hate. http://www.investigaction.net/Brussels-attacks-no-Mr-Prime.html?lang=es

Then I visited the Newseum, a heart-warming tribute to American journalism. It was housed in a beautiful new and modern building — but its displays were truly depressing. Its display of Pulitzer-Prize-winning photos only reminded me of war, war and more war. The exhibit on Vietnam reminded me of all the abject horror that America is capable of creating in foreign lands. And the exhibit on civil rights in the 1960s reminded me of America’s excellence in producing injustice. How can we even dare to export claims of “Humanitarianism” and “Democracy” after seeing this exhibit of what life was (and still is) like for minorities here at home.

But I should have known from the start that Washington DC was going to be a contradiction and a conundrum when I flew into “Ronald Reagan Airport” — named after a man who almost single-handedly started our country on a downward spiral of cruelty, inhumanity, lies, “war” and economic collapse. Does this mean that Congress is going to have to change the airport’s name again too? To the “Reagan Bush 1 Bush 2 Obama Clinton 1 Clinton 2 Trump War Criminal Airport” — just to keep our list of war criminals real?

Guest Article by Karla Gottschalk

Waiting in line to buy the basics for dinner I noticed the new Scientific American on the stands. The cover proclaims it is on the sexual mind.

A teaser on the cover asks “How Gay are you?” and offers “Transgender and Young” articles. Food for punditry if not for thought.  Is this really the Scientific American of the last 100 years or more? What has happened to science?

How gay are you, really? This must be an April Fools joke. No, the cover proclaims a special issue for spring and it should be on the stands until May. Titillating, so lets look inside.

“The greatest obstacle to an antidote for anorgasmia (sic) may be squeamishness about masturbation in the presence of a stranger”, from the article Lust’s Reward.

I am “squeamish” in front of anyone.  My fantasies are private and I don’t need you voyeurs to share the experience. Better to play the maid upstairs being taken in a frolic.  Much better and less work with more pleasure.

And what about the rewards of LOVE? IMHO masturbation sucks rotten eggs compared to Love. When did sex become 24/7?

We are not Bonobos but I am willing to listen to them lecture on mediation as a way of conflict resolution. According to the Bonobos a little dalliance brings resolution without violence and, um, with honor. (See page 42.  The answer is 42?)

And now what is : Transgender and young?

I  can hardly wait to be sterilized.? A teenager is quoted as “ It makes me sad when I realize I can’t have my own children. But sometimes in life, when you really want something, you have to accept things you don’t like.”

The child starts high school next Fall.

Oh, really?  Can a child really understand a life of sterility at 14? And who really has the right to make such a choice for a child? This is not a property issue.

I did make a sperm deposit that was intentionally destroyed by the California Cryobank . It was front page news in San Francisco 6 years after my sex reassignment surgery in 1974.  It was done for my wife. She left after the possibility of children evaporated.

Now, as to what you want-is that enough?  I never wanted to be a transsexual but I know from my first thoughts I “knew” I was female and prayed to be changed, then fell in love and prayed to be healed.

Do you know what the future will bring? NO.  But you are willing “forever” to live a lie and be sterile at fourteen? A eunuch or a spayed female?

As your older sister (or brother) erotic transvestism cannot be transsexual but can be transgender.  You don’t need to mutilate yourself.  You have already seen how much hurt and suffering it brings you and those who are close to you and love you.

Are you aware of the number of transsexuals that no longer accept sex change as the answer? Do you really want to never really be female (or male) but fool people by passing because it makes you feel better to parade an affliction adorned with deceit?

Really, WHAT is gender? Is it S-E-X? Let’s cut to the chase.

Hi!, What are you? I’m a 66 year old transsexual! I am a person of color: white hair with some kinky black hairs, blue eyes, light brown skin and my mother was Spanish/Italian, my father was a non-privileged white man with ethics.

A gender changer is something that allows a bolt to bolt connection or nut to nut. Gender is a thing not a person.Gender is not sex. My affliction was the drive to be sexually fulfilled without having to be a stereotype.

Anyone can pretend to be a stereotype but it takes courage to be authentic.

There has to be a better way.  I was a peer as well as contemporary of Christine Jorgensen. Let’s talk and solve this for the betterment of all.

Isn’t writing propaganda for sex role adjustment by sex change just as fraught with danger and as irresponsible as giving a child a revolver and a single bullet and teaching them the game of “Russian Roulette”?

It is the Spring Solstice and these are the fertility rites of Spring. Why is Scientific American celebrating masturbation and gender mutilation?

Well, I finally did it. After thinking about it for many years now, I finally sent off to http://23andme.com for a DNA testing kit. First you send them some spit and then they test it for DNA — so that you can find out who your ancestors are.

“We will send you the results in six to eight weeks,” they told me. Goody! Now I can actually find out once and for all if our old family legend is true or not — that my great-grandmother Mary Elizabeth Ballard Johnston was a full-blooded Cherokee. If so, that would make me one-sixteenth Original American.

And speaking of dead ancestors, I just flew off to attend a conference in Washington DC entitled “Israel’s Influence: Good or Bad for America” http://israelsinfluence.org/video/default.html and that got me to thinking about Israeli neo-colonialists and how they are always bragging about the size of the Jewish holocaust in Germany under the Nazis, and using that sad and terrible event as propaganda to justify creating a whole new Muslim holocaust too — like the Jewish holocaust gives them the right to kill as many Muslims as they want.

That’s just plain bull-dookie.

That would be like saying that just because 80 to 100 million Original Americans were killed by European colonizers, descendants of Original Americans now have the right — no, even the duty — to go out and kill as many Chinese or Chileans or Canadians as they want and steal their land too.

But guess what? I really don’t want to kill anyone or steal anyone’s land, no matter how the http://23andme.com test results come back. Does that make me a self-hating Cherokee? I like to think not.

PS: The DC conference was a big success, giving me hope that perhaps there might someday be an end to the wholesale slaughter of Palestinians. I certainly hope so. Don’t you? Doesn’t AIPAC too? Apparently not. https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/trumps-islamophobia-racism-go-hand-hand-aipacs-agenda/

But always remember, AIPAC, that my holocaust is bigger than your holocaust — and then just shut up about it. Why? Because the horror that happened in Germany sixty years ago isn’t even your holocaust to begin with. It belongs to the Jews, not to some Israeli neo-colonialist fascist hypocrites, racists, bullies and thugs who pretend to be Jews.

PPS: Here’s a link to Hillary Clinton’s speech to AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) this week — where she practically gives away the whole American farm. Gag me with a spoon! http://time.com/4265947/hillary-clinton-aipac-speech-transcript/#4265947/hillary-clinton-aipac-speech-transcript/

But I do agree with one statement that she made. “If you see bigotry, oppose it. If you see violence, condemn it. If you see a bully, stand up to him.”

When the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee holds their annual convention in Washington DC this March, who are they gonna endorse for the Democratic presidential nominee? Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish — or Hillary Clinton, the ultimate war hawk who will support anything that Israeli neo-colonialists decide to do with regard to making “Greater Israel” a reality?

Will AIPAC choose to support the Jewish race and/or religion by going with Sanders, the ultimate Jewish grandpa?

Or will AIPAC go with neo-colonialism and choose Hillary Clinton, the goy who will obviously support attacking Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan, the Gulf States, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq (again) and anything else that might get in the way of creating the “Greater Israel” neo-colonialists’ wet dream — even if the USA gets in the way?

This is gonna be very interesting to see how AIPAC’s choice turns out.

I’ll bet you a bagel that they’ll choose Clinton.

PS: I’ll be in Washington DC on March 18 for the “Israel’s Influence: Good or Bad?” conference. http://israelsinfluence.org/default.asp

Some very serious questions will need to be considered after an unfortunate incident involving a security guard occurred this week in the SF Bay Area.

Family dog named Roscoe is dead after being kicked by the security guard at an outlet for a well-known supermarket chain.

Ultimately a jury may have to determine the value of the victim and supplying a code of conduct for security guards.

A snarky columnist  who is usually content with snide remarks and sarcastic comments is  bamboozled by this heartbreaking family tragedy.  Weekend protests are planned and they might bring the topic of animal cruelty to commentators around the country.

Out of respect for the family who describe themselves as lifelong customers of that supermarket chain we will try to limit ourselves to “just the facts, Mam” approach to our coverage of this tragedy.

The family will receive suggestions as to what legal path to be followed and what amounts for compensatory and/or punitive damages.

As a former dog owner, we sympathize with this family’s loss and know that such a death can be a crushing blow.

We have always endeavored to observe, analyze and then comment, however, the relatively new concept of “vicarious trauma” might be applicable in this particular case.  Money and/or cliche’s cannot heal the emotional wounds related to this family’s tragedy.

We only hope that the well-known homeless lawyer in The Bay Area can use the events of this week to bring the subject of animal cruelty to a national audience as well as companies and security guards aware of their responsibilities and duties.

If it were a child instead of a dog who died, the guard might well be facing first degree murder charges.

With all the election year mud-slinging, perhaps radio talk show hosts will be grateful to have a change of pace topic available.

The DJ will now play, “Dead Puppies aren’t much fun”, “How much is that Doggy in the Window” and Elvis’s extremely tear jerker ballad “Old, Shep”.

Have a “Remember Man’s Best Friend” kind of week.

For more goto SFAwareness at Blogspot

     I shouldn’t even be posting these reports from my friend in Aleppo, Syria, because I surely wouldn’t want him to get into trouble with the US, Turkey, ISIS and the Saudis — just for telling the truth. But. I just can’t resist because these are such excellent and authentic on-the-ground eye-witness reports. My bad.

From today:

The water situation:  “Water started to return to Aleppo city yesterday, after around two months of a lack of water supply to the city. It was a deal between the Syrian government and Da’esh [derogatory term for ISIS], where each side was controlling the flow of water to the other side. Da’esh in al-Bab village can’t have water because their water lines comes from Aleppo city. However, Aleppo water comes from the Euphrates which is under Da’esh control. So they finally reached to a deal.”

The power situation: “Red Crescent is helping with the power generators to pump the water as well, because there is no power in the city for five months. We didn’t have water yet at home, but other areas started to have it.

“And electricity! We’re finally having power at home now for the first time in five months! It came for one hour last midnight, and for an hour (so far) today at 6:00 am.”

From yesterday:

The ceasefire situation: “On the 2nd of March, we thought that the ceasefire was over. Heavy clashes started mid-day in Aleppo city and didn’t end till evening. First the government-held sides had been attacked several times by mortars, then the ambulance sirens were heard for some time, before hearing the first artillery retaliation from government side. Then it developed to hear some airstrikes later on.

“What happened?

“According to news and other witnesses, the fighting was at Castillo junction village, to the north of Aleppo city. That village and axis were the last smuggling arms way to the [ISIS] terrorists, coming from Turkey. The clashes were between the YPG Kurds vs. The Nusra Front [al Qaeda] and other armed gangs. The aftermath of the fight ended by liberating that northern village, and therefore the [ISIS] terrorists in the city are surrounded and have no supply anymore from the Turks.

“The ‘rebel’ activists said that the Kurds started the fight and violated the ceasefire to help the Syrian ‘regime’ in besieging the ‘rebels’. But the YPG sources said that what happened was the opposite. ‘First, neither the Nusra Front or Chechen fighters had signed nor agreed on the ceasefire agreement, so the fight with them never stopped,’ said the YPG [Kurd] source. ‘We didn’t start the fight. They started targeting Sheikh Maqsoud district — the northern one in Aleppo city under the Kurds control — with nonstop mortar shelling, and they tried to occupy al-Mesherfé Hill, coming from the Castello village. So we were defending our areas’.

“It seems that the Syrian Arab Army had backed the YPG and together they made the terrorists under siege now.

“The Russians recorded five violations to the ceasefire agreement in Aleppo the next day (yesterday) from the Nusra-held areas against the YPG in Sheikh Maqsoud district. Other sources mentioned casualties of two killed civilians and 25 injured ones.

“However, yesterday was in general a calm day. Funny jokes started to pop up amid all the merciless fighting, saying that people who used to sleep on despite the bombs, shelling and shooting noises each night for such a long time, are now having difficulties in sleeping in the calm atmosphere of the ceasefire agreement 😃!

Somebody out there needs to step up to the plate and save the world from total destruction — and do it right now! But almost nobody else seems to be doing anything about saving our world. Nobody seems to even notice or care that just the single factor of “war” alone (and the pollution it causes) is heading us straight towards Doomsday. So if I want my world to be saved at all, looks like I’m gonna have to do it myself.

And so I went off to a murder-mystery readers’ and writers’ convention in Phoenix AZ last week in order to get some ideas. The first question I asked, of course, was “Who done it?” Giant corporations, weapons manufacturers and crooked politicians. The usual suspects.

“What?” exclaimed a local Tea Party member. “You’re saying that it’s not the homeless, food stamp recipients, undocumented workers and welfare queens who are destroying the world?” Sorry, no. Just look at your average homeless person — cold, hungry, unhealthy and sleep-deprived. Capable of destroying the world? Hardly. So if I’m determined to save the world, it’s clearly not gonna happen by me hanging out on skid row!

But I did score some free crime novels at the convention and planned to get some ideas from them. http://www.leftcoastcrime2016.com/

Timothy Hallinan has a new book which is about to be released called “King Maybe” (I got an advance copy!) and its about an anti-hero burglar who steals from the rich. Now there’s a great idea for saving the world. http://www.timothyhallinan.com/junior.html

Lisa Brackmann also has a new book in the works that’s about to be published. “Go-Between” is its name, and the heroine takes on the for-profit prison system at one point, another great idea. I would love to be able to save the world one prisoner at a time — starting by putting as many corporate CEOs, evil banksters and weapons manufacturers in jail as humanly possible. Alcatraz, San Quentin, Attica, Sing Sing, Leavenworth, Rikers Island. Just throw out all the prisoners now in there for stupid crimes like smoking weed and replace them with corporate jailbirds. Great idea! http://www.lisabrackmann.com/books/

Phoenix, for some reason, is a very easy city to get lost in because it’s so flat and nondescript. So I walked five miles east instead of five miles west (or was it north?) and ended up in front of the infamous Maricopa County Jail. Yep, Sheriff Joe Arpio’s bailiwick.

“But we love Sheriff Joe!” cried one Phoenixonite. “There’s almost no recidivism on his watch!” Booyah. Let’s send him to Washington so that he can put our corrupt politicians in pink jump suits instead. Then let’s send him to Wall Street to make corporate CEOs live in prison tents in the hot desert sun. Works for me.

At one point, Hallinan’s anti-hero burglar quotes some guy describing the USA after World War I. “America is the great unspanked baby of the world.” No one should ever spank a baby. Ever. But Sheriff Joe is obviously spanking the wrong crooks. Paraphrasing Hallinan’s burglar, “Senators are just crooks with better healthcare.”

And to quote the blurb on the back of Brackmann’s soon-to-be-published book, “An all-too-realistic thriller about for-profit prisons, big-money politics, shady non-profits, the War on Drugs — and the people who would kill to keep the system intact….” Why isn’t Sheriff Joe out arresting them?

PS: Here’s another report I just received from my anonymous friend in Aleppo, Syria — this time about the water, power and ceasefire crises there. His report is entitled, “Yesterday, today (and hopefully tomorrow) in Aleppo, Syria,” and can be read at http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2016/03/yesterday-today-and-hopefully-tomorrow.html.

There’s good news and bad news from my friend in Aleppo this week. The bad news is that ISIS terrorists and their pal Turkey are breaking the ceasefire left and right. But what can you expect from liars and terrorists?

About the ceasefire agreement: “Aleppo city is much more calmer since the beginning of the agreement, besides some violations that took place the first hours of the agreement, and yesterday at 21:50, when two mortars were shelled onto the government-held area, followed by ambulance sirens around 22:00. In general so far, however, Aleppo city is so calmer than before. No shells, no jets in the sky, no clashes. 80% better than before.”

Aleppo province: “The situation in Aleppo province didn’t change much, according to the news. The terrorists attacked the liberated villages of Nobbol & az-Zahraa with rockets, but there were no casualties. In other areas of the province, fighting is still on-going: Syrian Arab Army vs. Nusra & Da’esh; Kurds vs. Turks from the borders; Kurds vs. Terrorists; terrorists vs. other terrorists… Violations of the ceasefire are from the terrorist groups and Turkey.”

More ceasefire violations: “Russians recorded 15 violations in Syria in the last 24 hours. Russia said as well that Nusra terrorists were shelling mortars in Latakya province from the Turkish borders (from Turkey). The Turks are targeting the Kurds in Tell Abyad border town, claiming fighting Da’esh on the media!”

On the road to Aleppo: “Aleppo road had been finally liberated, but needs a lot of repairing. It had damaged so badly. Aleppo was isolated for almost a week of tough fighting to take it back. There were snipers and a lot of mines.”

High prices resulting from the illegal invasion: “Prices, obviously, started to jump up because nothing was coming in to the city. Goods and fuel became expensive, partly because of the road battles, and partly because of the dollar rising price. The crisis traders and merchants were the happiest group of the situation! Prices will take some time till they go down, when goods and fuel start to enter the city, after repairing the road.”

Corruption vs. Heroism: “There is news — or gossip — about treason that has happened at three checkpoints on the road to Aleppo that has caused setbacks and the loss of hundreds of lives among the Syrian soldiers. The morale is down regarding such news.

“While Hezbollah brave fighters and Syrian special forces paid a high price to liberate the long road, others are bribed because there are also corrupted, rotten members in the body. The war had exposed the worst things in us, but it had motivated others to do the best they could do. From one side you see the traitors, opportunists and corrupted ones; on the other side there are the brave heroes and martyrs who are defending millions like myself.”

Electricity in short supply: “The thermal station of Aleppo that had been liberated lately by the Syrian Arab Army, needs billions of dollars to start working again. Before leaving it, the terrorists made sure to loot everything they can, and sabotage the rest. Even its fuel, they loot as much as they could, and burn the rest. Aleppo is without power (electricity) for 5 months now, and without water for more than 1 month. Repairing that station will needs a miracle.”

And then my friend tells me to take care. How brave is that.

Winter is the perfect time to turn up the heater, hide under the covers and read a good book. Lady Gaga is right. “Baby, it’s cold outside.”

I am currently reading a whole bunch of murder mysteries in preparation for attending the annual “Left Coast Crime” readers’ and writers’ convention in Phoenix Arizona this month http://www.leftcoastcrime2016.com/. I’m also reading “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari; “Land Without Evil” by Richard Gott; “Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq” by Stephen Kinzer and a series of articles about the “youth bulge,” a phenomenon that happens when there are more young men in any particular society than there are jobs http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/01/barnetts-five-flows-of-globalisation/.

According to Harari, Homo sapiens began to take over the world by using three major tools: Genocide, gossip and myth. Genocide got rid of most of those pesky Neanderthals. Gossip allowed sapiens to find out who was trustworthy and who was not. And myths, such as ones about totems, hierarchies and enemies, held a lot of people together in a common cause who would otherwise just be thinking for themselves.

This description of what happened 70,000 years ago sounds pretty much like what is still happening today, right? Only today these things are called nationalism, propaganda and religion. And apparently genocide is still in our DNA.

“Land Without Evil” tells the incredibly well-researched story of the tragic genocide of hundreds of thousands of South American Indians by post-Colombian Spaniards. It is a highly detailed book and I can only read it five pages a day without getting overwhelmed, but this is definitely stuff we should know and is well worth the effort to read about it.

The series of articles written by Gearóid Ó Colmáin about the “youth bulge” phenomenon is interesting because I can now see that the current refugee crises in Europe and America are a recurrence of the same historical population-pressure events that caused the genocide of Neanderthals, American Indians, Jews, Tibetans and Palestinians. Hitler called it “Lebenstraum”. Netanyahu called it “Greater Israel”. The Donner Party called it “Manifest Destiny”.

And does it look like today’s refugees to Europe and America are also trying to escape yet another Homo sapiens genocide organized around gossip and myth as well? Read Ó Colmáin’s articles and find out. And also read Stephen Kinzer’s “Overthrow,” about how American neo-colonialists have been putting pressure on various “youth bulge” kids throughout the world to leave home by simply destroying their countries’ democracies, ruining their economies and then shooting them if they stay put. https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/02/18/the-media-are-misleading-public-syria/8YB75otYirPzUCnlwaVtcK/story.html

As for murder mysteries, I like them because justice is always served in the end — and because justice (hopefully) is also another important Homo sapiens trait. Just ask Janet Evanovich, Alexander McCall-Smith and Sherlock Holmes.

PS: I’m currently madly at work at editing my own book so that I will have something really good to read by next winter. Its latest working title is “Visions of a Lost and Future World”. Or you could just go ahead and read my already-published book this winter. It’s all the hot gossip you would ever want to know about the Middle East, including what it’s like to almost get blown up in Baghdad’s Green Zone, get kicked off the Temple Mount by both Israelis and Palestinians, explore pyramids, visit Kabul and go on Hajj in Saudi Arabia. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket-ebook/dp/B001BHK6JG

PPS: And speaking of genocide, the American military machine is happily generating even more “youth bulges” in Syria — even as we speak.

According to a friend of mine there, a US-backed “moderate rebel” (aka ISIS) suicide bomber just attacked the az-Zahra district in Homs city, at a time when the streets were full of students. A second attack took place in Sayyeda Zaynab town, close to Damascus, close to a hospital. The total loss of civilian lives in one day reached around 100 so far. The total injured are in hundreds.

“The terrorists and whomever behind them are losing to the Syrian army, Russian air strikes and Hezbollah. They are taking revenge by killing innocent civilians, women and kids. It’s a dirty war.” http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2016/02/us-backed-isis-continues-its-dirty-war.html

“You can’t eat guns,” Madam Jane is always fond of saying. She is a friend of mine who is a psychic and always comes up with really gloomy predictions.

“In the year 2028, after all the supermarkets have closed,” she told me today over tea leaves, “there will be nothing left to do but go hunting,” But what will there be left to hunt? The deer and buffalo are pretty much gone already — so then what will we do? Shoot cats and dogs? “Humans,” replied Madam Jane. Yikes!

I went to a party the other day and we ate hamburgers, tacos, cake and guacamole. “Those days of food abundance will be gone by 2028, trust me,” said Madam Jane. And, sadly, I do. She predicted that the invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yugoslavia, Syria, Ukraine, Somalia and Yemen would all be failures. Hell, she even predicted that the invasion of Korea, Palestine and Vietnam would be disasters too. And they all were (unless of course you were a weapons manufacturer). “You just can’t eat guns.”

Then someone at the party started chatting on and on about how America needed to support the moderate rebels in Syria. So I gave him my usual ISIS-trashing speech yet again. “There are no moderate rebels in Syria now and there never have been any moderate rebels in Syria since Day One. They are all ISIS, paid for by the Saudis, coddled by the Israelis, encouraged by NATO, armed by the Americans and trained by the Turks.” And like all the rest of America, the guy at the party didn’t believe me either. Sucks to be me. It must be even harder to be Madam Jane.

“So by the year 2028, most Americans will be armed and dangerous too, just like ISIS is now,” continued Madam Jane. “American in 2028 will be like Libya today, a failed state. And in the end, all of us who are left will be munching on people-jerky for breakfast. If we last that long that is.” http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176098/tomgram%3A_ira_chernus%2C_the_peace_movement%27s_war_story/

Madam Jane, please cheer up! Smile more. Smiles release more endorphins into our brains. That’s why we love to spend time with happy people and babies. They make us smile automatically. But even when you are alone by yourself, you can still smile. But spending time with happy people really does make you smile more.

“Or you can shoot them or eat them,” replied Madam Jane.

PS: Madam Jane might be wrong about the year 2028 after all. From what I just read on the Moon of Alabama blog, we may all be dead much sooner than 2028. Hell, we could even be dead tomorrow if those idiots who run America’s War Street don’t wise up.

According to MofA, who is never wrong (how does he do that!), “Turkey [on February 14, 2016] used 155mm artillery to fire from Turkey against Syrian Democratic Forces’ positions on Minnagh airbase and around Azaz [Syria]. There will be Turkish special forces observers in Syria to direct the fire. The NATO member Turkey is shelling the YPG, which is backed by Russia and the U.S., and the SDF which is backed by the U.S. for attacking the FSA and Islamists who are backed by the U.S., Turkey and Saudi Arabia.” Good grief.

But wait. It gets worse. “The Russian and Syrian air force will likely respond to the Turkish attack with an intensified bombing of positions held by Turkish proxy forces in Syria. Those forces just received new artillery ammunition and new TOW anti-tank missiles.”

And then there’s this: “Twenty Saudi F-15 jets arrived today in Incirlik airbase in Turkey to, allegedly, join the U.S. coalition force against the Islamic State. The Saudis also promised to send ground forces if those would fight under some allied command.”

And this: “At least 1,600 British troops with heavy weapons and equipment are currently arriving in Jordan. The Brits claim that this is just for some normal training maneuver but we can expect the British government to be paid off enough by the Gulf Arabs to take part in the fight. The British units would likely lead a Saudi/UAE/ (maybe also Egyptian?) combined force from east Jordan up through the Syrian desert towards Raqqa and Deir Ezzor.”

And even this: “An additional brigade from the U.S. 101st Airborne is deploying to Iraq without much public announcement. Its task is an invasion of Syria from the south-east along the Euphrates to first capture Deir Ezzor and to then move on to Raqqa.” Bet you didn’t hear about that on the 10 o’clock news.

Thought it couldn’t get any worse? Ha! “Iran is ready to send as many men from its Revolutionary Guard and Quds brigades to Syria as are needed to sustain the governments fight. These folks salivate over the prospect of having some regular Saudi forces for breakfast. There are also active attempts to draw all NATO nations into the phony ‘fight against ISIS’”.

And then Moon of Alabama leaves us with this cheery thought: “Meanwhile the Islamic State, confused by this US-created cluster-fu*ck in Iraq and Syria, decides to relocate its headquarters from Iraq and Syria to Libya, the other failed state that…the U.S., France and the UK recently created.” http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/02/the-race-to-raqqa-is-intensifying.html#more

Madam Jane could very easily be off about 12 or 13 years regarding her prediction. It could be any day now instead. Plus this current disaster of bad judgment on the part of America, Turkey, the Saudis, NATO and Israel sounds very similar to the disaster of bad judgment on the part of Britain, France and Germany that resulted in World War I. February 14, 2016 may be a day to go down in infamy too.

“You can’t eat guns.”

Several events have occurred in rapid succession recently indicating that it is time for the World’s Laziest Journalist  to HIP others on the trend-spotting beat to the fact that the Hippie Movement is in Revival mode.

While viewing “The US vs. John Lennon”, we (the WLJ and former summer intern) noticed that several ESTABLISHMENT SPOKESPERSONS (MEN) were making the assertion (or at least conceding ) that the fact is that the Bush Dynasty is more warmongering than the Nixon administration was at the height of the Viet Nam war.  It was strongly implied that the time is ripe for a revival of the John Lennon style of philosophy that people should make love not war and give peace a chance.

Surviving members of Berkeley’s feed War Resisters league have dwindled down to a precious few. Ominous indication in Syria hint that the time may be right for a War Resisters League resurgence.

Is it appropriate to call the people urging peace in the Middle East Peaceniks or Hippies?

Secondly, on Monday February 8th, at 3:15 PM, KCBS was reporting that the temperature in Oakland was 81 degrees.  The news coverage of the New Hampshire primaries reported it was snowing (feel the Burn?).

Will the small business operator in the Bay Area forget the costs of hosting the Super Bowl when the propaganda value of the climate that accompanied the Bowl activities becomes obvious to decision makers back east?

When a tsunami of emmigrants begins arriving in Baghdad by the Bay in the next few weeks, with the concomitant surge in small business profits, is it to be expected they will change their minds? Will the small businesses change their minds about the minor inconveniences of The Big Game?

Did the game broadcast use Scott MacKenzie’s song for background music?

Will the tech industry descend upon “Frisco like it was summer of ’68?

Thirdly, Belle Starr has finally been goaded into starting to write her autobiographic novel and is attempting to subsidize this chronicle of the Hippie Era  through a fundraising effort at Kickstart under “Crash and Burn, then Shrug it off”.

We strongly urge our readers to help with this altruistic endeavor.

The WLJ will closely monitor the results of this fundraising effort and if it is successful, we almost certainly will revert to the Santa Monica Independent modus operandi of “Monkey see, Monkey do”.

We don’t expect the Media Mavens of Manhattan to endorse the concept that the cultural center of hipness in the USA is once again being transferred to the County of San Francisco. If however, a journalist in the Big Apple has powerful means of oratory and persuasion available they might want to pitch their managing editor on the advantages of an assignment to travel all expenses paid to San Francisco and cover the re-emergence of the Hippie Movement. Who doesn’t want to re-live the magical era of Hedges and Donna (they rated a duet appearance on the Smother’s Brothers Comedy Hour).

So break out and on through to the other side and let your inner hippie out – bellbottoms and army jackets are required so start buying your patches now and hitch hike everywhere!

The DJ will play  The Best of Moby Grape, Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead (remember Pigpen?). We have to go to the nude parade on Castro for Valentine’s Day.

Have a GROOVY week!  and stay Clean for Gene!

In 1980, just after passing the California Bar, I hit the newspapers in San Francisco and was approached by the William Morris Agency to write my story.  I received a pile of paper several inches thick and a hefty number of pounds to sign.  It was my first entertainment contract and I was delighted in going through it. I made changes and  along the way I discovered that this contract could really harm me while making me their property for quite a length of time.  It was there that i first learned how advertising and promotion costs could make any return to the author small or non-existent.

I was assigned a Los Angeles reporter Tia Gindick to help me along and it would have made for a reasonably stuffed bank account and a busy schedule on the talk show and guest circuit.

I turned it down. I turned William Morris Agency down!  I did not want to be known only as a  a transsexual freak but for what I hoped to do in law as I was a new lawyer.

After all this time and continued encouragement by many to write my story, even up to today, has given me the impetus to try a Kickstarter campaign and get the equivalent of an advance (which seems to only be available to celebrities these days).

With an advance that involves the kind donors and supporters in the writing and development of my interesting, unusual and fascinating story of growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area and being a pioneer hippie on Haight Street, with all the excitement of the famous Sixties that San Francisco is credited with, which started here and changed the world.

The trips, literal and psychedelic, student days at Berkeley in the late sixties to service in the Peace Corps and other adventures mark this autobiography as another, perhaps more poignant and idealistic, view of the turbulent times by a witness (and sometime participant).

Having been the only  Legal Counsel for OccupySF by consensus  and dedicated to activism, helping the poor and paying it forward, I find myself with neither time that is free or funding to comfortably write. I can still do all this as a public service but if I can be able to be unconcerned about making my next coffee money or meal money, I believe I can devote all my time in calm surroundings to actually concentrate on this task which may touch many hearts with my path and its results in the future.

I will be grateful to you donors as this will be a personal and group catharsis, especially to write it 50 years after the seminal events I lived through as a young teenage boy.  Your philanthropy will allow me to challenge the bull of the white screen before me and write with the flourish and confidence of the great matadors I once witnessed in Alicante, Spain : El Cordobes, Linhares and El Manzanares- all three receiving the applause with the tail and two ears at the end of their meetings with “El Toro”.

You can vicariously attend Janis’ concert in the Panhandle, Altamont and most of the major events and meet the people you have heard of with my personal recollections. Perhaps you will think I was a minor participant.  William Morris thought I was more than minor and I suspect you will not be disappointed. I know The Brotherhood of Love will not be disappointed.

I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. My life has it’s “ups and downs but never counted out” flavor as the title of this column is also the title of the book. It might bring tears and laughter but most of all the same hope that we had in the Sixties!

Please go to Kickstarter and support my campaign to spin you a few good yarns!

Ready, Set, ……GO!   I AM LIVE!

Holy cow! The average age of a prime-time Fox News viewer is 68 years old! http://www.politicususa.com/2015/12/28/fox-news-literally-dying-age-younger-viewers-refuse-watch-fox.html Don’t senior citizens have anything better to do with their lives than to sit around watching all those hateful lies being broadcast at them day in and day out? Maybe they don’t — but I do! http://www.globalresearch.ca/isis-air-force-us-airstrike-takes-out-battalion-of-iraqi-troops-who-were-battling-isis/5496826

Every Monday and Tuesday, our local Trader Joe’s store sponsors grocery bingo at my nearby senior citizens center. So much fun! And I usually get to haul home enough groceries to supplement my Social Security benefits for the week. Plus my 11-month-old granddaughter Sofia always manages to win a banana, much to her delight. Not only that but, besides Sofia, I am usually the youngest person in the room — a total change from the usual demographic I hang out with. Refreshing.

Thank you Thank you Thank you, Trader Joe’s.

And here’s another fun thing you can do if you’ve been “chronologically gifted” — you can also break into Hollywood. There are a thousand young women applying for every single ingenue part, but there are hardly any crones out there auditioning for the grandma role (except for me of course). I just played a steerage passenger on a documentary about the Titanic. So much fun! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T7CM4di_0c

And there are hecka lot of other things that senior citizens can do that are so much more fun than watching lies on Fox News. For instance, I’m trying to put together a trip to go visit the Jenin Freedom Theatre in the Occupied West Bank. How cool would that be! http://mondoweiss.net/2015/04/cultural-resistance-palestine

Stuck in a wheelchair? No problem. You can still make it down to the senior citizen center to play grocery bingo. They’ll pick you up.

PS: For many decades now, the elderly in America have been shamelessly taken advantage of by scam artists, courts, legal guardians, adult children, nursing homes, the use of pharmaceutical handcuffs and who knows all else. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2013/08/elder-cleansing-why-is-gop-killing-off.html

However, as the Baby Boom generation reaches the age of AARP, all these con artists are having trouble getting away with all the dirty tricks they used to pull off on the elderly with such ease because there are so many more of us who protest being lied to and cheated. This is a good thing. http://marygsykes.com/2015/12/30/the-chicago-police-investigations/

And here’s another con to watch out for. If you are a senior who is taking three or more Big Pharma medications, they could cause symptoms similar to Altzheimers. And if this happens, they will try to cure this by putting you on even more medication (that costs even more money). Sucks to be you. http://www.thehealthierlife.co.uk/natural-health-articles/alzheimers/alzheimers-disease-dementia-statin-drugs-over-diagnosis-drug-interactions/

PPS: One of the biggest fears of the Black grandmothers in my neighborhood is that their Black grandsons, no matter how well-mannered and gifted they are, may leave for school alive one morning and then come back home in a box. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/stokelycarmichaelblackpower.html

PPPS: And speaking of lies, the American public is currently being overwhelmed by a whole pack of lies about “Syrian moderate rebels” who are actually ISIS thugs.  http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2016/02/more-news-from-my-friend-in-aleppo.html

There never were any “Syrian moderate rebels” — and there certainly aren’t any now! It’s just the same old WMD crap that we got fed about Iraq — only bigger and more sophisticated and even more untrue. ISIS is being soundly defeated and the American military machine that sponsors them is pissed! https://gowans.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/what-us-congress-researchers-reveal-about-washingtons-designs-on-syria/

Good grief, talk about your hypocrites. For the past eight years, America has been forced to listen to Birthers, the GOP, Fox News and various Tea Party crazies go on and on about how Barack Obama shouldn’t be our President because he was born in Kenya, right? Eight years that we can never get back again.

Enter Ted Cruz. “I was born in Canada but I have an American mother,” he tells us, “and therefore I am qualified to be President.” But wait. Obama had an American mum too.

Obama was born in Hawaii. Cruz was born in Calgary, Canada. So why does the Tea Party have its knickers all in a twist over Obama’s having possibly been born in Kenya — but doesn’t give a flying freak that Cruz was actually born offshore? Hypocrisy, right?

But Obama and Cruz have something even more important in common as well, besides just their places of birth. For the past eight years Obama has been perfectly okay with Americans like you and me going into deep and endless debt so that the Pentagon could afford to manufacture dead babies in the Middle East. And Cruz is okay with that policy too. http://ahtribune.com/opinion/443-the-geneva-charade.html

So why should the Tea Party and GOP even care where Obama was born as long as he keeps them and the Pentagon happy by continuing to create dead babies in the Middle East? Because isn’t that the main reason why the Tea Party and the GOP like Ted Cruz?