BartBlog

Dontcha just hate it when some huge burly adult starts lecturing you about how wonderful and necessary it is to spank kids? “Yeah, well,” I always reply, “how about if you just wait to beat on them until they are adults your size too — and big enough to fight back.”

And this is the exact same reasoning that I apply to vaccines as well.

“Why don’t you just wait until your kids are adults and let them take the shots then — after they are old enough to study all the pros and cons and then decide for themselves.” And how do I have the chutzpah to say something like this? Because as an adult, I myself was forced to take a whole bunch of shots. And I hated them because they hurt. And I also hated them because they caused permanent damage as well.

When I was in the Peace Corps in South Africa back in 2009, I was told that in order to remain in the Peace Corps, I would have to take a whole bunch of shots. So in order to remain in the Peace Corps, I lined up. “Sir, yes, sir!” Hey, I liked my job. And was given no choice. And so I got a whole bunch of shots. And had all kinds of reactions, including permanent diminishment of actual physical strength and energy and an inability to think clearly for approximately six months after getting the shots — not quite the same as having mini-autism. But close.

Peace Corps or not, I would never do that again. Trust me, I will never never ever voluntarily shoot up again!

And yet here in America, even as we speak, almost every two-month-old baby in our entire nation is routinely forced to get eight (8) vaccines at one time — and then another two more rounds of these shots before they even reach their first birthday — before they are anywhere near being able to “Just say no”.

Tetanus, whooping cough, diphtheria, flu, hepatitis, rotavirus, polio and pneumonia vaccines. That’s eight batches times three rounds of each. That’s a hecka lot of vaccines — especially since at least some of them could easily wait (or not be given at all). And having actually suffered through this horrendous Needle Park myself as an adult, I can truly feel these poor sweet babies’ pain!

Plus the Peace Corps tells me that I am now immune to rabies, yellow fever, meningitis, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria, hepatitis, polio and typhoid fever — but I still wouldn’t want to test that theory out.

And according to a recent article in GreenMedInfo, “A remarkable study reveals that a vaccinated individual not only can become infected with measles, but can spread it to others who are also vaccinated against it — doubly disproving two doses of MMR vaccine is ’99% effective,’ as widely claimed. One of the fundamental errors in thinking about measles vaccine effectiveness is that receipt of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine equates to bona fide immunity against these pathogens.” http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/measles-transmitted-vaccinated-gov-researchers-confirm

So apparently measles vaccines only make you immune for a while (if at all) — and then what happens if we end up like the American Indians did, with no immunity at all? And dead?

And then I got a really helpful e-mail from my friend Richard, giving me a whole bunch of 411 on vaccines, their effectiveness, their cumulative effects on children and even whether or not they can exacerbate the already-known environmental causes of such diseases as autism. Richard recently did an excellent analysis of the literature now available regarding the dangers (or lack of them) in vaccines — and was also willing to share his results with me.

“Your research is pretty comprehensive,” I e-mailed him back, “but do you have a URL to it?” No, he did not. So I decided to include his analysis here — because I believe that every parent should have this information, whether you finally chose to vaccinate your bambino or not. Here’s the URL for it: http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2015/05/richard-tamms-report-on-vaccines.html

PS: Here is one thing that Richard left out — the effects that vaccines and other Big Pharma drugs have on our mitochondria. “On our what?”

Mitochondria is that stuff in our cells that is actually responsible for 90% of the energy that we need to sustain life. “Got mitochondria?” No? Then you just might be dead. Or else, according to a recent article by Dr. Gary Kohls, you just might have a bad case of schizophrenia, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, stroke, migraine, Alzheimer’s, epilepsy or non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (whatever that is). http://ppjg.me/2015/05/05/mitochondrial-collateral-damage-thanks-to-big-pharma-iatrogenic-drug-and-vaccine-induced-mitochondrial-disorders/

Oh crap. This is what I may have to look forward to just for joining the Peace Corps? Sucks to be me.

PPS: I really am totally in favor of administering vaccines that help prevent life-threatening diseases. But. There should be a choice of which vaccines to give to babies, how actually necessary they are to save lives and how often they are given — as well as having a pool of funds set aside for the percentage of children who have really bad (quality-of-life-altering) reactions instead of just a blanket denial by Big Pharma that administering so many vaccines never, ever have any serious side effects at all.

Several people have asked me recently why I always seem to be writing about the Middle East. “Why don’t you ever write about anything else?”

Of course I write about other stuff — but the Middle East is so much more interesting and entertaining than anything else! The Middle East is definitely more interesting, entertaining and even weirder than any soap opera, reality show or action flick that Hollywood could ever produce. Fascinating stuff.

I’m always amazed that so few other Americans aren’t just totally fascinated by the Middle East too. Or even that there isn’t at least one daytime soap opera devoted solely to the subject — if for no other reason than that the Middle East has some of the greatest villains of all time!

Take America, for instance. Our very own Wall Street and War Street are currently starring as top-billing major actors in the Middle East, playing in prime-time roles — as the biggest villains in the script so far too. America practically invented ISIS, for goodness sakes! You can’t get more villainous than that. http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/03/mainstream-media-calls-supporting-al-qaeda-isis.html

Or can you?

According to journalist Daniel Lazare, “After years of hemming and hawing, the Obama administration has finally come clean about its goals in Syria. In the battle to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, it is siding with Al Qaeda.” War Street, you’ve been busted as the Bad Guy — and on national television too! http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41742.htm

Or take Saudi Arabia — another shining example of epic villain-a-lishious-ness at its best. That country has been playing the villain since way back in 1930 — when it invaded the Republic of Yemen for the first time after Yemen actually dared to become a democracy. Then the Saudi regime went on to help America create Osama bin Ladin, finance the Taliban and dirty their hands with 9-11. And now the Saudi regime is financing and training ISIS. Doesn’t get more juicy than that. http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/04/27/saudi-security-forces-arrest-expel-over-174000-people-in-1-month/

No, wait, yes it does. The Saudi regime is now using American-supplied cluster bombs on Yemen. Juicy soap opera at its best, better even than TMZ — unless of course you are living in Yemen. http://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-led-coalition-accused-of-using-u-s-supplied-cluster-munitions-in-yemen-1430637102?tesla=y

And then there is Syria. What is going on there right now is even better than “One Life to Live”. How many Americans even know who Bashar Assad is? The poor guy has a couple of corrupt, sleazy relatives that the Saudi, American, Turkish and Israeli regimes have spent the last four years trying to put into power. Why? Because power corrupts — so Assad’s relatives are already trained to be as corrupt as their sponsors. How “Dallas” can you get? https://consortiumnews.com/2015/04/27/syrias-nightmarish-narrative/

And of course Turkey is now in the mix too — just can’t keep its hands off of ISIS, the designated “fem fatale” in this reality show. But Turkey had better watch out. ISIS is a psychopath and Turkish citizens do not like President Erdoğan cheating on them and messing around with her instead. https://candobetter.net/node/4397

Or take Iraq — the ultimate reality show. Outwit, outlast and outplay. Plus all the principle soap opera characters are there in Iraq too. You got the lying bitch (mostly America), the BFF (mostly Britain and France), the scheming scoundrel who will stop at nothing to get rich (mostly Bibi Netanyahu) and the struggling anti-hero (mostly Syrians trying to chase ISIS out of Syria) trying to thwart the Bad Guys (mostly ISIS, but with ISIS’s secret suppliers Saudi Arabia, Israel, America and Turkey thrown in). http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/world/europe/fertilizer-also-suited-for-bombs-flows-to-isis-territory-from-turkey.html?_r=1

You just gotta love all that plotting, counter-plotting and backstabbing now taking place in the Middle East — such as when General Sisi in Egypt overthrew a democratically-elected government in order to be America’s date to the prom. Or when the Saudi Arabian regime, source of 9-11 and Osama bin Ladin, comes out smelling like a rose and being America’s BFF. Or not.

You want action and drama? No problem there either. The Middle East has it all! America, NATO, Britain and France get together and bomb the crap out of Libya (for her own good), put Al Qaeda in charge of Libya for even more raping and pillaging fun (she asked for it) — but then deserts fair Libya in her darkest hour of need. And even though Libya is not technically actually in the Middle East, you can still just sit back and watch the fun.

And ditto for Afghanistan. Lots of action, drama, lies and skullduggery there too — even though it also is not technically located in the Middle East.

And now apparently ISIS (that tramp!) is also off having a hot illicit affair with the American-sponsored neo-Nazi Ukraine regime, also not in the Middle East — but this new daytime drama may soon to be playing on European TV instead — as ISIS slips off to gay Paree after dumping her thug boyfriend in Kiev. http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-isil-is-in-ukraine-americas-agents-of-chaos-unleashed-in-eurasia/5446989

Plus who wouldn’t want to hear the exciting story about brave and heroic Palestinians fighting for their freedom — only to be called angry sluts by the American media. Or how the brave and heroic Yemenis, fighting for their freedom, get bombed back to the Stone Age by the despotic Saudis who still somehow manage to come out as the Good Guys — even after training and financing ISIS. How do they do that? How do they just keep getting away with that again and again? Will they ever get their comeuppance? Apparently not. But stay tuned.

And then there is the Israeli regime, staring as the “scheming patriarch” character, forcing America to do its dirty work so it can take over the Middle East. Bibi Netanyahu is like a Mafia don or the villain on “The Bold and the Beautiful” or “Dark Shadows” — always scheming behind the scenes. He’s like Angelique Bouchard or Sheila Carter. What’s not to love about him?

Why would anybody who loves soap operas and/or reality shows, action movies or even murder-mysteries and thrillers even think of ever not keeping up with events in the Middle East? Entertainment at its best!

Too bad, however, that more than a million lives have been lost so far in these productions — but, for Wall Street and War Street, that’s just one of the costs of being in show business.

After I had just finished writing an ode to Bernie Sanders as my candidate of choice for President in 2016 (based on his excellent domestic policy). it was suddenly drawn to my attention that while Senator Sanders has a domestic policy to die for, he also has a foreign policy to die for too — literally. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2015/04/war-babies-why-we-gotta-vote-for-bernie.html

Apparently our Bernie has a tenancy to vote for supporting War Street a lot — even though he refuses to kiss Wall Street’s bottom. Not good.

We’ve already gotten suckered into voting for a War President when we elected Barack Obama. And Hillary Clinton talks a good talk about her proposed domestic policy — but she too has that “War President” gleam in her eyes.

And then my friend Rita said, “Sanders always votes for war and military spending. Look it up.” Oh crap. Not Bernie too. Hell, even Elizabeth Warren doesn’t seem to be very much against Endless War these days.

“Very few Presidential candidates take principled positions against Israeli neo-colonialists,” someone else told me too. “And, unfortunately, while Bernie is great on so many other fronts, he does stand with the Israeli neo-colonialists, even during that horrific blitzkrieg on Gaza.”
http://www.mediaite.com/online/excuse-me-shut-up-bernie-sanders-defends-israel-from-town-hall-hecklers/

If Americans are ever going to survive the Golden Age of Endless War (and the rest of the world is going to survive it too), then we need to elect a president in 2016 who will not bomb, kill, torture, blow up, blast, maim, blitzkrieg, drone-strike or otherwise do bad things to other human beings (or to us either).

America needs a new foreign policy — one that is not just a high-tech version of foreign policies currently deployed by ISIS and the Taliban.

And so I’m going to have to give up entirely on the RepubliDems and “Vote Green in Twenty-Sixteen”.

And in the meantime, I sorely do apologize to all the people of the world (and also to their corpses and ghosts) for all of the brutal, unconscionable and horrible things that our American political representatives (legally-elected or not) have done to the rest of the world in my name.

Right now, it looks like the worst is going to happen in 2016 — that when we Americans go into the voting booths, we’re going to be forced to chose between the Bush Dynasty (which brought us all those disastrous and criminal wars on Afghanistan and Iraq plus various African wars including one that led to Blackhawk Down) and the Clinton Dynasty (which brought us all those disastrous and criminal wars on Haiti, Syria, Libya, Kosovo and Ukraine). http://www.ezilidanto.com/zili/2015/04/no-hillary-haiti-is-not-for-sale-to-your-family/

In 2016, we Americans are going to be forced to choose between “War” and “More War” — and when that happens, I’m just gonna barf.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/01/why-is-the-us-trying-to-replace-the-assad-government-with-al-qaeda-in-syria/

Or perhaps we might be allowed to vote for those king-making Koch brothers and their Ken-doll evil twin Scott Walker. “Vote for me and you’ll get genetic mutation, fracking and poverty! I’ve yet to meet an oligarch, War Street lobbyist or bankster that I didn’t like!” proclaims Walker. Gag me with a spoon.

Yes, the main election slogan for the RepubliDem party in 2016 is apparently going to be, “Just hold down your vomit and vote” — along with, of course, their perennial favorite, “It doesn’t matter who you vote for anyway because we control the voting machines and the propaganda machines too,” as well as their ever-popular “We always (heart) ISIS, al Qaeda, the UN, Zionists and neo-Nazis because they always (heart) our gun sales.” I think I’m gonna throw up. http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20150422/1021234376.html#ixzz3YFfZQcFJ

Moderate Democratic candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Dennis Kucinich don’t stand a chance of scoring their party’s nomination — and as for moderate Republican candidates? Bring in the clowns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y69MGOprjzw

So this is why I am officially going to vote for Bernie Sanders in 2016 — and you should too. https://www.facebook.com/Sanders2016. Senator Sanders is definitely on our side — or to paraphrase the Pussycat Dolls, “Don’t cha just wish your president was hot like him!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5rkgUkdlVg

But no matter which RepubliDem freak gets elected in 2016 — or even if by some amazing miracle an actual decent human being like Sanders does score America’s vote, my life is still going to change forever next week.

“Will you be going off to Yemen or Benghazi or Kiev?” you might ask. “Or even Washington DC, Ferguson, Baltimore, Juarez or Flora-duh?” Back to being a war correspondent? That would be so easy. I wish! http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/23/weaponizing-information/

No, next week I’m going to become a full-time caregiver for my daughter’s new baby.

And Senator Sanders is the candidates most likely to provide our nation (and me!) with affordable daycare instead of just drowning us all out in totally unaffordable and unsustainable “war”. Have you ever even priced full-time infink daycare lately? It can cost more than half of your yearly salary, thank you very much. You might as well go out and buy a few RPGs or a tank.

So, starting next week, me and baby Sofia are going to be spending major quality-time together until she starts kindergarten — unless Senator Sanders get elected (or I win the lottery) first.

But perhaps baby Sofia might want to become a war-correspondent-in-training? Because if either the Repubs or the Dems win the 2016 presidential election, there will always be plenty of wars. No college or jobs or healthcare for Sofia when she grows up — but there will still be a hecka lot of wars. By the time our Sofia turns 18, the entire USA is gonna look like Iraq, Libya or Kiev — unless we vote for Bernie. http://rt.com/news/251961-ukraine-maidan-snipers-poland/

But if (when) the RepubliDems do get elected in 2016 and Endless War becomes our new best friend for life, at least I won’t be alone. We Americans are all gonna to end up tossing our cookies, losing our lunch, saying hello to our new BFF “Ralph” and/or bowing down to the porcelain throne. https://consortiumnews.com/2015/04/27/syrias-nightmarish-narrative/

And who in their right mind would ever chose that kind of fate for our baby Sofia — or for any other sweet, cute, cuddly, lovable FaceBook-friendly new baby like her now being born, both here in America and all over the rest of the world too?

PS: My friend Rita just e-mailed me, “Just a note to say that Sanders always votes for war and military spending. Look it up. Even Nader is not too happy about that.” Oh crap. Not Bernie too. Hell, even Elizabeth Warren doesn’t seem to be very much against endless war these days. Poor baby Sofia is gonna have a hard row to hoe.

Is it too late to register with the Green party?

Despite appearing to have a few slightly-differing opinions on just a handful of petty foreign-policy details such as how many meaningless negotiation-bones they should throw at Iran, or how many meaningless knock-off hand-slappings they should throw at Zionist neo-colonialists, the routinely cooperative, agreeable and in-sync actual actions of President Obama, Congress, Wall Street and War Street clearly speak for themselves.

Judging by their actions alone, we can immediately tell that Obama, Congress, Wall Street and War Street are clearly in strong, almost-total agreement regarding their basic foreign-policy vision for America. Hey, goodie for them.

However, unfortunately for the rest of us Americans who are actually having to pay for these actions, Obama & Company’s strong vision for America also includes doing everything that they possibly can to start World War III. Ouch!

When it comes to his domestic policy, President Obama has occasionally actually tried to be helpful to his fellow Americans — as compared to John McCain’s domestic policy, for instance. Had McCain been elected in 2008 instead of Obama, he would have tried to financially eviscerate almost every single American in our middle class — if said evisceration would have given even just one more penny of our tax dollars to Wall Street and War Street instead of to us.

However, compared to Obama & Company’s current (both overt and covert) foreign policies, McCain’s 2008 foreign-policy platform appears to have been almost a walk in the park.

Right now, Obama & Company’s actual, action-based foreign policies seem to include:

1. Supporting anyone and everyone who can create chaos in the Middle East — including but not limited to Israel, the Saudis and even ISIS and Al Qaeda https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/canadians-for-world-peace-syria/

2. Hitting the BRICS (especially Russia and China) every chance they can get — including spinning outright lies, spreading false propaganda, using false flags, supplying massive amounts of weaponry to the neo-Nazis in Ukraine and even shooting down civilian aircraft http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2015/04/17/america-weaponising-of-ignorance.html

3. Supporting almost every single despot in the world today and alienating almost every single non-despotic government and/or democratically-elected leader in the Middle East, South America, Africa and the EU too. http://evergreenedigest.org/us-carried-out-674-military-operations-africa-last-year-did-you-hear-about-any-them

4. Preemptive nuclear strikes? Those don’t seem to be off the table at all. Those boys in DC and NATO have been reading far too much Herman Kahn! http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/06/27/fat-man

But none of these things are cool things to do and all of them can rapidly lead to circumstances far beyond Obama & Company’s (and our) control — up to and including World War III, to be fought both abroad and at home! http://www.globalresearch.ca/towards-a-world-war-iii-scenario-breaking-the-big-lie/5348384

Not since 1864 has America known war on its shores. Except for 9-11, the occasional violent suppression of civil rights marches and a few gun battles here and there involving bad guys and/or police, it’s been pretty calm around here for the last one hundred years.

However.

If Obama & Company keeps on pushing their current foreign-policy agendas as hard in the future as they are doing right now in Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, Palestine, Afghanistan, Mexico, Honduras, Africa, Iraq, etc., and rattling their sabres like they were McCain, GWB and Dick Cheney combined, then we may start to know war on our own native soil a whole lot better than we would ever want to.

But perhaps at this point you might be asking yourself, “What is the problem with you, Jane? First, there’s never going to be another war here in America. And, second, even if the denizens of War Street do make a huge profit and even if 50% of America’s children do go without schools or shoes as a result, won’t it all still be worth it — to see America continue to be the world’s top dog?”

You just keep on telling yourself that — but only if you don’t really mind butchering a few million (or billion) innocent women and children (and subsequently end up rotting in Hell) to get to the top.

Plus not only do we now have to worry about military wars coming to our shores, apparently we also have to worry about economic wars arriving here too! My friend Judy just e-mailed me a whole laundry-list of stuff that is also wrong with Obama & Company’s foreign-policy vision — from a financial perspective. Here is just one small item on that list:

“I myself believe,” wrote Judy, “that the new multinational corporations don’t care about the US any more than they care about any other country. They have proved again and again to us that, for them, it is always and only about making money. And, bearing that reality in mind, consider that on the one hand China’s new banking initiatives could shut down the US empire if or when — and I would say when — the balance of resources shifts away from the dollar. That is what a lot of these military attacks on Russia and China have been about. But on the other hand, however, most likely it will be no problem at all for the multinationals to pivot their markets and financial bases to Asia — leaving America financially high and dry.”

So perhaps it might be a good idea (for us) for Obama & Company to stop hitting the BRICS — and especially stop hitting Russia and China. Or else they need to not act surprised when they (and we) actually get what they seem to be wishing for: World War III. Fought both economically and militarily. Fought both abroad — and here.
http://journal-neo.org/2015/04/06/a-turning-point-in-brazil-which-way-forward-for-dilma-rousseff/

PS: America’s current domestic and foreign policies clearly suck eggs for yet another reason — because these policies also far-too-closely resemble my own definition of fascism/corporatism/ despotism, which is: “Instead of a country spending its government’s money to better the lives of all of its citizens equally, said government’s money is only poured into the coffers of an ‘elite’ few.”

PPS: And speaking of false flags, here are the five major signs to look for in order to detect one:

1. Horrific images are over-used to shock the public

2. Drills for a similar attack appear on the same day in the same area

3. Eyewitness accounts do not match the official story

4. Conflicting evidence is not repeated by the media

5. Used as an excuse to curtail rights or to start a war http://www.zengardner.com/wp-content/uploads/falseflaglist1e.jpg

And while we’re still on the subject of false flags, please excuse me for stating the obvious here — but with so very many false flags in the American spy-craft industry having come to light over and over again recently, how come 9-11 alone has become the sacrosanct hands-off Lady Madonna that can never ever be properly investigated or even mentioned in the same breath as the words “false” and “flag”? https://consortiumnews.com/2015/04/16/syrian-rebels-caught-in-false-flag-kidnapping/

With regard to false flags, let us paraphrase philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt. “How can we ever truly gauge what dangers we are in — if we are lied to about their existence, their causes and their effects?”

How can we Americans possibly use good judgment in order to keep ourselves safe when we are constantly bombarded with lies about Iraq, Syria, Ebola, voting-machine data, Ukraine, weapons lobbies, our post offices, Big Pharma, GMO crops, net neutrality, nuclear safety, what really happened in Palestine, that banks are too big to fail, that Jesus hated poor people — and goodness knows what all else! We can’t even get a clear story about whether or not there is still gold in Fort Knox. And the New York Times, our most vital “newspaper of record,” is constantly getting caught out for their lies.

According to Frankfurt, unless we can reinvent ourselves as a more truthful society ASAP, then we are doomed.

About three years ago, I made the big mistake of looking too closely into my bathroom mirror. Yuck! All I could see was wrinkles and gray hair. But wait — I was never supposed to have actually gotten this old. This was never supposed to have happened! But it did — at least to my body if not my mind.

“So,” I said to myself, “what the freak can I do with OLD?” I know! I’ll become an actor! And so I did.

Fortunately, there are several film schools in my city where student directors are always looking for talent to use in their films — especially talent that will work for free just to have an excuse to get out of the house. And so suddenly I found myself in big demand. I mean really. How many little old ladies do you know who are willing to throw themselves into an acting career? Not all that many. So I seemed to have pretty much cornered the market — because there’s really not all that much competition.

At auditions even for non-paying student-film roles, believe it or not, there are usually scores of child actors, ingenues and even beautiful leading ladies, all dying to try out for a part. But there just aren’t that many little old ladies out there to compete with, thank you very much.

And so now I have found one very successful way of taking advantage of the age factor that is currently barreling down on all of us like a steam-roller with no way to avoid. And there are also bound to be other ways to make the most of our “senior” years too (such as finally realizing that “war” is a racket, an obscenity and a con-game, something that most people apparently have not reached the age of having finally acquired enough wisdom to realize at all — and then working our suddenly-senior hearts out to stop all “war” from ever happening again).

In the past three years, I have been in over one hundred student films, playing all kinds of grandma roles — sweet loving grandmas, for instance. And society grandmas, dying cancer patient grandmas, cowgirl grandmas, evil grandmas, war-correspondent grandmas, psychotic grandmas, ghostly grandmas, college-professor grandmas and corpse grandmas, as well as grandmas who are doctors, lawyers and judges.

But my favorite grandma role of all time is playing a grandma zombie!

PS: Let’s face it. Getting old sucks eggs. Nothing fun at all about having creaky joints, being mostly ignored for not being sexy enough, having trouble sleeping, facing possible dementia, living on cat food, facing multiple surgeries, having one’s teeth fall out, etc. So we gotta always be constantly looking for ways to make growing older more fun on some level or another.

Turning into a grumpy frump, believing the lies and hatred being constantly broadcast on Fox News, and/or just plain giving up on life are definitely three ways not to have fun!

PPS: “Some will rob you with a shotgun, some with a fountain pen.” Elders these days are being targeted as victims by bad guys in several different ways. Street thugs may mug elders for their pocket money — but probate thugs can mug our elders for their life savings as well. http://marygsykes.com/2015/03/27/in-chicago-what-does-a-nursing-home-do-when-its-understaffed-break-out-the-chemical-restraints/

In Chicago, for instance, probate sharks seek out rich widows, get them declared incompetent, throw them into stark “assisted care” institutions where they are medicated into submission, clean out their safe deposit boxes and then throw them out into the streets to die when there is no money left. “Target, isolate, medicate, drain and eliminate” is their mantra. http://marygsykes.com/about/

Or else your sleazy relatives rob your rightful heirs of their rightful share of your estate after you’re gone: http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2015/04/probating-family-feud-authors-note-this.html

But nobody messes with zombie grandmas!

I’ve been spending a lot of time reading books lately — and learning a lot from them too.

First I read a book by David J. Morris entitled “The Evil Hours: A Bibliography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” — and my main takeaway from it was this: People are more susceptible to PTSD if the way that they were traumatized involved an act of injustice.

Knowing this, it came as no surprise to me the other day when I was wandering around the buildings and grounds of that massive VA hospital complex in San Francisco and got yelled at by a young Iraq vet who obviously had PTSD. “Injustice!” he screamed. “The Iraq war was unjust? The whole freaking world is unjust!” And that’s the way this vet saw the world, post 9-11.

However, this guy looked hauntingly like he might have been a young post-Vietnam-era vet, just stepped out of a time machine from the 1960s. And there was certainly lots of injustice back in Vietnam too — wherein only the poor jerks in the Mai Lai massacre got caught while all the higher-ups such as Henry Kissinger and various weapons manufacturers just made money on that Tonkin Gulf scam.

Next I read Nicholas Carr’s book, “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains,” all about how human beings think and how our brains’ working structures are constantly being influenced by stuff in our environment. Even learning to read has changed our brains. Even clocks did that too. And from this information, I concluded that hate changes our brains too. Jesus was right. Hate is a slippery slope.

After that, I read Steven Gore’s new murder-mystery, “Night is the Hunter”. Steven Gore’s books always keep us on the edge of our seats — and also teach us stuff about power and its ability to corrupt those who hold it as well. http://www.amazon.com/Night-Is-Hunter-Harlan-Donnally/dp/0062025090

Then I read a book by murder-mystery author Chelsea Cain, who I had heard speak in her home town of Portland last week. “Even as a child I was always on the look-out for dead bodies.” Boy, she should go off to Yemen right now — where the U.S. and the Saudis are bombing women and children there like there was no tomorrow and charred corpses of babies are just lying around like driftwood on a beach. http://chelseacain.com/

Cain mostly writes about serial killers. And apparently, according to Carr’s POV, serial killers’ brains can get stuck in a groove where, “If you are a hammer, all the world looks like a nail.”

“I’m also always looking for good places to dump bodies,” said Cain. And apparently the American war machine is too! She should try checking out Afghanistan or Libya or Gaza. Lots of places for mass graves there for sure.

Then I decided to take a break from books and watch some old seasons of “Survivor” on Roku. And while watching a season that had been taped in June of 2001, I noticed that all the contestants were really friendly and sweet to each other. Is that really what life was like before 9-11? Season 23 of Survivor is far more merciless and cut-throat. Or is it just that they cast more villains in the power roles?

Have Americans become so much more immune to violence these days? Have our brains simply stopped caring that over a million people in the Middle East have died directly or indirectly by our hands since 9-11? Or that for every American killed in the 9-11 tragedy, approximately 40 innocent women and children have had their bodies burned, their heads blown off or their intestines spread out all over the sidewalk by American weapons, bullets, bombs and brains? http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/03/24/us-government-us-military-became-murder-inc-paul-craig-roberts/

The internet may have changed the way that our brains now physically function, but our so-called leaders’ post-9-11 thinking has certainly changed our hearts into cold inhuman stone.

In any case, please remember just this one thing during the 2015 Easter season: Our American brains clearly have changed since September 11, 2001 — and even though Christ has risen, Americans have sunk.

I just read an article stating that despite what we constantly see advertized on TV, the three major hot-selling commodities in the world right now aren’t sexy new cars, cool new clothes at the mall or even hot new apps for your iPhone. They are guns, steel and oil.

China has almost a monopoly on steel production, the U.S. and Saudis are currently fighting over who can undercut the price of oil the most, and America has been getting all piss-y lately because its monopoly on gun production is being challenged by Russia. http://journal-neo.org/2015/03/25/the-global-crisis-of-exports-oil-steel-and-guns/

Guns or butter? Looks like guns are surely winning out. But just tell that to your kid the next time she asks for a piece of toast. “Let them eat RPGs!” you can shout. Nothing but dry toast for you, Missy.

Which nicely brings us to the subject of social justice and a panel discussion of it that I recently attended at a murder-mystery readers and writers convention in Portland, Oregon http://www.leftcoastcrime.org/2015/. But right before the panel started, a bunch of us went off on a tour of southeast Portland, which is famous for its food carts, strip clubs, craft breweries and vodka distilleries. Who knew that the New Deal distillery produced vodka made from wheat, not potatoes? http://www.newdealdistillery.com/our-products/ “Vodka is the name of a process, not an ingredient.”

Then we finished the tour with lunch at Lardo, a BBQ joint, and got back to the convention just in time to attend the panel on the role of crime novels as instruments of social justice.

Author J. David Osbourne was raised in a trailer park in Oklahoma. “And as a result of my upbringing, I always try to humanize the lives and motives of societal scum. I don’t write about the lives of the rich and powerful because, like most other Americans, I don’t even know how that works.” So he writes about the hard-scrabble anti-heroes that he does know about — and their victimization by the larger criminals behind that victimization.

Then author Mette Ivie Harrison gave me a free copy of her audio-book, “The Bishop’s Wife” — about being a Mormon in Utah. She said, “I became an atheist for years because after my sixth baby died, people in my church kept saying, ‘When bad things happen, it’s because there is a lesson to be learned,’ thus putting all the onus on the victim. That’s where religions go wrong.”

Author Lisa Brackmann speaks Mandarin and spends time in China, writing about the inner workings of China’s rich and powerful. I love, love, love Brackmann’s books. Her sense of timing always has me on the edge of my seat. Read “Rock Paper Tiger” and see what I mean. I was also lucky enough to score a draft copy of her next book, “Dragon Day,” coming out next August. http://www.randomhouse.com/book/250619/dragon-day-by-lisa-brackmann

“If you are writing crime fiction,” stated Brackmann, “you can’t be didactic. The larger issues that you want to bring to your reader’s attention need to be woven into an exciting story. And I myself always need to understand what drives things like the Iraq war or the prison system before I can explain it to others.”

And I myself also need to understand what drives Portland before I can explain it to others as well. Basically, Portland appears to be a city that doesn’t take any crap! Portlanders fight climate change, have a fabulous transportation system, are pro-choice and anti-war and against napalming babies in the Middle East, don’t fluoridate their water, actually smile at strangers, don’t give a damn about Fox News and do yoga in the park in the rain.

Next, I attended an interview with Timothy Hallinan and won a copy of his book, “The Fame Thief,” in a raffle. And, OMG, speaking of guns. There are a hecka lot of shots fired in this book. But it is quite humorous too — when the hero isn’t dodging bullets that is. But Hallinan loves to write. “I write and I eat and I talk to my wife. That’s all I do.” Sounds like my kind of guy.

And Hallinan also has a hard time finishing books. Me too! I’ve been editing my historical novel, “Pictures of a Future World,” for over ten years now. But Hallinan has an app for that on his website. It’s called “Finishing Your Novel” http://www.timothyhallinan.com/writers.php So who knows? I may even finish my novel about the present, past and future at some time in the nearer (not farther) future, thanks to him.

PS: Here’s another mystery: When that young Airbus co-pilot (allegedly) seized control of a airplane and flew it into a mountain last week, he (allegedly) took the lives of all of the passengers of that plane with him as well — and everyone who read this news was horrified by this (alleged) mass murder! http://www.sott.net/article/294482-Germanwings-crash-Not-the-full-story#

Yet when the elite and uber-wealthy co-pilots who have (actually) seized control of our planet, (actually) locked themselves into the cockpit of Airbus Earth, and are (actually) trying to fly it into an even higher mountain of murderous destruction by way of their greed, climate-change denial and unnecessary wars, almost none of my fellow passengers on this Airbus Earth seem to hardly even notice or care.

PPS: Just to make it perfectly clear that, even though I’m currently having trouble getting to places like Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Gaza, I still haven’t forgotten about all those other guns, guns, guns, the ones being constantly being shipped to the Middle East from America — and here are two links on that subject to prove it.
First there’s this link: “Saudis, Allies plan massive invasion of Yemen: 150,000 Saudi Troops, Unknown Number of Egyptians Mass on Yemen Border.” http://news.antiwar.com/2015/03/26/saudis-allies-plan-massive-invasion-of-yemen/

And then there’s this link: https://medium.com/@SumerRising/anti-shiism-western-media-foreign-policy-islamic-state-and-blatant-lies-122cd5742afb The author of “Anti-Shiism, Western media, the Islamic State and blatant lies” states:

“I am a Shiite. I am an Iraqi. There is no single group on this planet who has as much to lose from ISIS as myself. Christian men are asked to pay jizya or leave, Yezidi men are given the opportunity to ‘repent’ and convert, but Shiite men are actively hunted out, tortured, and executed with no other option on the table. Even the choice to convert — as disgusting as it is — is not offered.

“What makes it worse, however, is that the rest of the world seems to go on a victim-blaming tangent of how Shiites should be held responsible for their own oppression. Throughout this conflict, I have maintained my position: I am not anti-Sunni, I am anti-sectarianism, I am anti-exploitation, anti-oppression and anti-destruction.”

Sounds like this author has social justice in mind too. And it’s still a mystery to me why so many psychopaths keep trying to kill him in real life — not in just crime fiction.

And if any newspaper editor out there wants to pay my way to the Middle East as a war correspondent, to report on Yemen as well as on Portland, then I’m your person!

PPPS: And then of course there are all the guns, guns, guns that are currently loose on the streets of America. And as for the police needing all those new weapons to control their cities and towns, “If the police don’t have the confidence of the community, they will fail no matter what they do or don’t do,” to quote one survivor of The Troubles in Belfast. http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/7-biggest-reasons-america-screwed?akid=12956.1838163.k5KfIP&rd=1&src=newsletter1034088&t=5

I’ve had a really good time in Portland, Oregon, this week — even though it rained almost every day. But even the rain in Portland is charming. I’d never been to Portland before and wouldn’t even be here now if it hadn’t been the site of a convention for murder-mystery writers and their fans. Murder-mystery fans? That would be me! http://www.leftcoastcrime.org/2015/

“But why are you such a fan-girl, Jane?” you might ask. That’s easy. It’s because you can always count on justice being achieved by the end of the book — which is a good thing, especially if you are an American and currently living right here in the very belly of the beast of injustice itself.

Whenever I think about our corporate gollums in Washington, all those huge bankster bailouts on Wall Street and America’s phony endless wars on the Middle East and the Middle Class, then seeing justice achieved every time becomes huge. http://news.antiwar.com/2015/03/17/european-nations-join-chinas-world-bank-alternative-in-blow-to-us/

A lot of my favorite crime-fiction authors are attending this convention, including Lisa Brackman, Johnny Shaw, Lee Goldberg and Catriona McPherson, but there are also some writers here that I’ve never even heard of before — but need to.

Phillip Margolin, a famous crime-thriller writer, was a featured speaker at the convention and he said, “Before I was an author, I was a defense attorney and I’ve represented over 30 murderers at trial.” That’s clearly a unique way to get insights into the criminal mind.

“But I like writing better than being an attorney because you have the ability to change the outcomes — which you never can do in real life. Plus the difference between reality and fiction is that fiction is supposed to be credible. And you also have the obligation to tie things up. Sometimes real life makes no sense whatsoever.” http://www.phillipmargolin.com/books/

And Margolin’s method of writing? “I never write a word until I’m sure of the ending. Then I write a very detailed outline, fill in the missing pieces and then refine it and refine it. And I always read my dialogues out loud in order to test their validity. But basically, when writing, I need to find an idea that I can get excited about.”

I know exactly what he means. Nothing gets me more excited about my own writing efforts than the thought of getting to rail against injustice, especially against injustice paid for by American taxpayers — such as that mess in Ukraine, that mess in Syria, that mess in Palestine, that mess in Libya, that mess in the CIA, that mess in the District of Columbia, that mess in Ferguson, that mess in Wisconsin, that mess in [fill in the blanks]. http://thesaker.is/nemtsov-maidan-failed-evgeny-fedorov-eng-subs/

After Margolin’s presentation, I got a chance to talk to him personally — about our similar experiences in the Peace Corps in Africa. Geez Louise, the Peace Corps was such a grand idea. But now it seems like all that Americans are clambering for these days is a War Corps. http://www.legitgov.org/Plane-drops-ammunition-helping-reinforce-ISIS-reports-earlier-munitions-had-English-language-marking

Then, after attending a few more excellent panels at the convention, it was time to climb aboard the #8 bus and go off to tour Portland. All those stereotypes of Portland residents are true — almost everyone here wears plaid and most of the guys look like lumberjacks. And of course the first place that you gotta go to in Portland is to Voodoo Donuts. There were 80 people standing in line, but I played the sympathy card (just had an operation on my knee) and managed to cut in line. Unjust, I know, but I was desperate for a “Portland Cream,” the city’s official donut (glazed, cream-filled and frosted with chocolate). Delicious. Went back and got another one the next day.

Next, I toured Portland’s famous Shanghai tunnels, built in the 1870s, where approximately 3,000 kidnapped men had been warehoused at one time or another before being sold off to sea captains for $50 a man — and where kidnapped women were locked into tiny lightless cells until they were broken enough to be trafficked by white slavers. That tour was spook-y!

Next came the requisite tour of Powell’s Books and then back on the #17 bus to go home to the Walking Liberty Guesthouse where I stayed. I love Portland!

PS: Portland is also one of the few cities in America that isn’t forced to pour industrial-strength fluoride from China into its water supply, figuring that its citizens are smart enough to make that fluoride-use decision on their own and/or that they already get enough fluoride from other sources such as tea, tooth paste and pesticides. http://www.slweb.org/ftrcsymptoms.html

And another thankful result of Portland’s non-fluoridation policy is that we can all rest assured that Portland’s world-famous craft beers do not contain fluoride like other American beers do — and thus if you drink a six-pack of Portland craft beer, you don’t ever have to worry about OD-ing on fluoride, which is more toxic than lead (but slightly less toxic than arsenic). http://fluoridealert.org/issues/health/

So if you really want to limit your fluoride intake to a reasonable amount, just drink Portland beer!

Scientific fact: You are either a war criminal or you are not. The Geneva conventions and the Nuremberg trials have set out specific definitions of what a war criminal is. How do you spot a war criminal? It’s not rocket science. You just look at the list of war crimes that has been drawn up for our convenience and then check off the boxes. A fifth-grader could do this! https://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_cha_chapter44_rule156

Yet how come so many war criminals these days are being treated like Disney princesses by the American people?

George Bush, Dick Cheney, Henry Kissinger and Barack Obama have so many checks in their “war criminal” column that it’s pathetic. Torture? Check. Illegal invasions of other countries? Check. Bombing innocent civilian populations? Check. Check. Check. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41297.htm

And yet these four war criminals are being treated like Tiana, Jasmine, Arial and Pocahontas instead of like Ursula, Maleficent and Jafar. What’s with that?

Netanyahu is a war criminal by any definition. And that neo-Nazi guy who NATO installed into power in Ukraine is such a war criminal that both Hitler and Stalin would be proud of him. Yet Americans treat these two evil men as if they were Belle and Mulan. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2015/03/triumph-of-checklist-comparing.html

Sisi in Egypt? Total bad guy! And we all know that the Saudis are so evil they give little kids nightmares about Saudi pilots flying into buildings. And wasn’t Osama bin Laden also a Saudi? Yet Americans talk about Sisi and the Saudis in the same reverential terms that little kids use when referring to Aurora and Snow White.

Turkey, Jordan, Israel, America and Britain all fund and support ISIS like ISIS was Tinkerbell and not Captain Hook. http://rt.com/news/241573-isis-plane-drop-ammunition/

The Pentagon and the CIA use Al Qaeda to do all their dirty work — like Al Qaeda was Cinderella or something. That’s crazy! There are absolutely no glass slippers involved in the Al Qaeda fairy tale.

Americans need to get a reality check. Evil men are not Disney princesses. They are evil men. I mean, seriously? Would Anna and Elsa ever throw their support behind evil men? I think not. But Americans still seem to be constantly mistaking evil men for Prince Charming.

Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated in the month of March every year. And so is Julius Caesar’s infamous Ides of March. One is spozed to bring good luck to people and the other is spozed to bring bad luck. Which will it be for you and me? We’ve probably both already found out.

The Minster of Finance for Northern Ireland was spozed to speak in Berkeley this week, but that’s not going to happen because he had to stay home in Londonderry in order to deal with a current legislative crisis involving welfare reform. The DUP (protestant) party wants to cut off welfare and the Sinn Fein (Catholic) party does not. Sounds familiar — except that in America the Democrats never protect the poor of this country no matter how viciously the Republicans attack the most vulnerable of us all (50% of all American children live below the poverty line and most welfare recipients live in Red States). http://www.u.tv/News/2015/03/15/McGuinness-pulls-out-of-St-Patricks-visit-to-US-33589

St. Patrick would never approve of any of these cuts to the poor in order to give (even more) money to the rich. And neither would Jesus. But I digress.

What I really want to talk about now is my trip to Belfast and Londonderry, back in 2003. I had packed up my then-teenage daughter Ashley and gone off to live on the Falls Road for a while. And then wrote about it on my “Travels with Amy” blog site. It’s a long read for a blog, but worth every moment if you ask me. http://travelswithamy.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2004-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2005-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=10

Let’s just cut to the high points, however. The woman we stayed with in Belfast had this to say about The Troubles:

“We were young when The Trouble began. I was only 18. We only wanted to peacefully protest injustice; call a little attention to it. And they came down on us with everything they had.”

We were sitting in Mary’s front room just off the Falls Road. She was smoking a cigarette. It was 11 pm. “Had we known then what our next actions would lead to….” Her voice trailed off. “War is a terrible thing. We had no idea. We were young and we weren’t going to let the Loyalists get away with it. My husband spent 18 years in jail. He was in every major prison in Northern Ireland, England and Scotland. I always say that jail was our contraception.”

Mary loved the Good Friday Agreement. “We must compromise, cooperate and give-and-take. I think the other side sees that too. Having known war for 30 years…people just have no idea what a terrible thing it is. You talk, you dialogue, you negotiate. You do whatever you can to keep the Good Friday peace.” She reminded me of the Bob Dylan song, “I was so much older then. I’m younger than that now.” Mary is active in building a community from the ground up now. “Before no one knew how to work a government. Not even the Orangemen. Neither of us had people on the Council. Now we do. We started from the bottom up. When the British do leave, we will know how to govern ourselves.” That’s what we are doing in America, I told her. We’re stepping up against the “Stealing of America” by Wall Street and War Street — stepping up to the plate one city at a time. One person at a time.

The one thing I learned in Belfast and Londonderry back in 2003 was that War is to be avoided at all costs — and never to be taken lightly. Libya, Iraq, Ukraine, Syria, Palestine, Haiti, Afghanistan, Somalia, Chile, Panama, etc. have tolled death-bells that can never be un-rung. None of those dead millions can ever come back to life again. And all those dead trillions of dollars spent on War can never come back to life again either.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/03/13/401670/US-seeks-to-recolonize-Mideast

So. Beware of Caesar’s Ides of March — and listen to St. Patrick instead. Then get to work driving all of those evil, greedy and power-mad snakes out.

PS: A few years later I went off to Palestine and wrote about that too. And there is such a strong comparison between The Troubles in Northern Ireland and The Troubles in Palestine, including Gaza, that it is scary. It’s the same old story of evil, greedy and powerful men oppressing those who are weaker than them — for fun and for profit. That grim and brutal occupation of Palestine should also be avoided at all costs. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/09/03/898842/–The-men-behind-the-wire-Comparing-Belfast-Gaza

And any future wars on Russia, China, Venezuela and Iran should be avoided too — for the same reason. If you too knew what it is like to be living in a war zone, you would never support another war either.

I just had a talk with a friend of mine who was all pissed off because he had purchased a Series EE savings bond for his little kid way back in 1998. “I paid $500 for it at the time and, at that time, the bank promised me that the bond would mature in ten years and then be worth $1,000.” So? Well? Did it? Is it?

“Eh — no,” sighed my friend. “When my kid cashed it in last month, she only got $850 back.” What? You mean after accumulating over 16 years of interest, the bond had only gained $250 in value? Even after all those promises of doubling its worth after just ten years? That’s whacked.

But, according to the Treasury Direct website, it is also legal. “Series EE bonds issued from May 1997 through April 2005 continue to earn market-based interest rates set at 90% of the average 5-year Treasury securities yields for the preceding six months. The new interest rate for these bonds, effective as the bonds enter semiannual interest periods from November 2014 through April 2015 is 1.49%. Market-based rates are updated each May 1 and November 1.” http://www.treasurydirect.gov/news/pressroom/currentibondratespr.htm

What the freak does that mean?

It means that Series EE savings-bond-holders have been (and can continue to be) legally ripped off. Government agencies now under the happy control of the top 1% can legally make the rest of us little guys any promises they want — and then just take them back.

“Buying government savings bonds is practically like loaning the government interest-free money,” I told my friend. “But on the other hand, if you had bought $500 worth of gold back in 1998 instead of that bond, it would have cost you $296 an ounce — and an ounce and a half of gold would now be worth $1,808, a net gain of one thousand three hundred and seven dollars.”

However, if you had spent that $500 on baseball cards, you might be pretty much out of luck.

But what if, instead, you had purchased $500 worth of stock for your kid? If you had bought stock in mortgage companies like Countrywide, for instance, you would have kissed your $500 goodbye. http://politicalblindspot.com/the-food-stamp-capital-of-the-u-s-is-white-and-republican/

But if you had bought stock in pharmaceutical companies that produce products like mercury-laden vaccines, psychotropic drugs and male sex-enhancers, or bought stocks in weapons factories or bought stocks in oil companies or WalMart, you could have practically put your rugrat through college with your capital gains by now! http://foodrevolution.org/blog/john-oliver-big-pharma-doctors/

Or suppose you had invested that $500 in buying part-ownership in a Congressman — like the big boys on Wall Street, War Street and K Street do? Apparently you would have gotten an average of a 5000% return on your investment. http://www.deliberation.info/barb-weir-interviews-moderate-syrian-rebels/

Or if, like your government in cahoots with its sleazy bankster friends, you had invested your $500 in loaning money to college students instead? Then you would have been able to collect 6% interest from said college students’ loans for decades to come — and owned their souls for the rest of their lives too! http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/28828-ill-believe-the-gop-cares-about-the-middle-class-when-i-see-it

But, no. You had faith in your government and bought savings bonds instead — never dreaming that your government would invest its resources in war and corporate welfare instead of in you. http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/06/greece-injured-by-eu/

However if it’s any consolation, you and your kid are not alone. China made that same mistake too.

PS: Remember back when our founding fathers wisely designed our Constitution to include having three different branches of government? Legislative, executive and judicial? Well, just over 225 years later, America’s government still has three different branches — except now those three branches are Wall Street, War Street and K Street. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/06/1369052/-New-Jersey-Sen-Bob-Menendez-to-face-criminal-corruption-charges

PPS: A Manhattan jury just awarded a $218.5 million verdict against the Palestinian Authority for damages done to Israelis with American citizenship by Palestinian suicide bombers. Do you know what this means? A new precedence has just been set. A new Pandora’s box has just been opened.

Now everyone affected by anything like this can now also use American courts to get recompense for damages done by acts of “terrorism” on American citizens abroad! http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/nyregion/damages-awarded-in-terror-case-against-palestinian-groups.html?_r=0

For instance, were any Chilean-Americans killed in the CIA coup against Allende in Chile? Their relatives can now sue Henry Kissinger — but of course they will have to stand in line behind the Cambodian-Americans killed by him.

And what about the bunches and groups of Palestinian-Americans, Yemeni-Americans, Iraqi-Americans, Syrian-Americans, Ukrainian-Americans, African-Americans, Grenada-Americans, Guatemalan-Americans, Haitian-Americans, etc. who have been either killed out in public for all to see by America’s overtly-evil war machine — or else killed on the sly by those covertly-evil CIA troublemakers at Langley?

Or, hell, what about all those dead American-Americans too for that matter? Does this mean that American soldiers killed or wounded in Vietnam, Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, Afghanistan, etc. can now sue the Department of Defense in American courts for “terrorism” too — as well as for fraud, creating dangerous conditions, willful negligence, breach of promise and entrapment as well?

Hey, Uncle War Street! See ya in court!

PPPS: And speaking of money, I’m off to Portland (Oregon) this weekend March 11-15) to attend a convention — while trying to spend as little $$$ as possible. Might anybody know any exciting things I can see and do in Portland on the cheap? http://www.leftcoastcrime.org/2015/

Gee, I hate to keep pointing this stuff out all the time because a whole lot of people get really ticked off at me every time that I do — but the truth is the truth. ISIS, Netanyahu and Hitler really do have a whole lot in common. But as true as this statement may be, still almost nobody these days wants to hear that their favorite emperor isn’t wearing any clothes. Why? Perhaps because it makes people feel bad that they have been so completely suckered, had, duped and used.

However, like it or not, the three emperor-wannabes listed above are still not wearing any clothes. So to speak.

And here’s my checklist to prove it:

1. Received a lot of their financial support from the weapons industry: http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-helicopter-delivering-weapons-to-the-islamic-state-isis-shot-down-by-iraqi-popular-forces/5434230

Hitler: Check
Netanyahu: Check
ISIS: Check

2. Founded their empires (reichs, caliphates, promised lands, whatever) on invasions, blitzkriegs, preemptive wars, guys-just-wanna-have-fun, terrorism, whatever — with the goal of eventually taking over all geopolitical territory within thousands of miles of their empire’s original borders:

Hitler: Check
Netanyahu: Check
ISIS: Check

3. Committed mass genocide based solely on religion, race, land or resource ownership, language usage and/or nationality:

Hitler: Check
Netanyahu: Check
ISIS: Check

4. Used illegal weapons, including chemical weapons such as napalm, white phosphorus and noxious gases, and/or landmines, cluster bombs, biological weapons, etc. on civilians:

Hitler: Check
Netanyahu: Check
ISIS: Not really sure. Are broadswords considered illegal weapons if used to behead journalists? Probably. Okay, check.

5. Bomb the freak out of civilian targets:

Hitler: Check
Netanyahu: Check
ISIS: Do RPGs and car-bombs count? Yes? Then “check”

6. Routinely terrorized civilian populations to the point of said populations thinking they were living inside a horror movie, a police state or ‘Stalag 17″ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKc2GJk2OLQ:

Hitler: Check
Netanyahu: Check
ISIS: Check

7. Used lies, snappy slogans, false-flag operations http://yournewswire.com/mikhail-gorbachev-assassination-of-boris-nemstov-is-a-false-flag/#sthash.5isb7TEp.dpuf and “1984″ types of propaganda, threats and the deliberate generation of irrational fears to get their own populations to back their criminal activities:

Hitler: Check
Netanyahu: Check
ISIS: Check

8. Wore snappy uniforms designed to intimidate and impress:

Hitler: Check
Netanyahu: Check
ISIS: Check

9. Supported by rich industrialists, corporatists, recipients of corporate welfare and opulent dictatorships in the Middle East:

Hitler: Check
Netanyahu: Check
ISIS: Check

10. Had a huge destabilizing effect on Europe, the Middle East and America that ended in tragedy, economic chaos and the further spread of war http://cityworldnews.com/native-american-amnesty/:

Hitler: Check
Netanyahu: Check
ISIS: Check

11. Pretends to be of a certain religion but never practices their religion’s goals, ideals or concepts:

Hitler: Check
Netanyahu: Check
ISIS: Check

12. Steals resources and valuables from the countries and territories that have been illegally seized: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_great_game_in_the_holy_land_20150227

Hitler: Check
Netanyahu: Check
ISIS: Check

13. Has absolutely no tinges of conscience whatsoever after having caused thousands of families, scores of ethnic groups, an unknown number of combat veterans and even whole countries to suffer from shell shock, battle fatigue and PTSD http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/serious-upsurge-post-conflict-trauma-gaza-says-un:

Hitler: Check
Netanyahu: Check
ISIS: Check

14. Is invited to speak before Congress:

Hitler: No way.
ISIS: Not a chance.
Netanyahu: Roll out the red carpet!