Madam Jane predicts: American wars will cause deadly climate change

I just had a dream that it was the end of the world. So should I still go Christmas shopping or not? Why bother, I thought. But just to be on the safe side, I also asked the mysterious psychic Madam Jane for some input. "Are my dreams and the Mayan calendars and all those Rapture freaks right? Is the end of the world actually on its way? Are we really all gonna die soon?"

"Yes of course," replied Madam Jane.

Oh dear.

"The amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is mounting at a catastrophic rate and will cause irreversibly-disastrous climate change in the next five years -- and by far the biggest cause of this problem is the U.S. military and its allies. Every time NATO bombs Libya and Americans bomb Pakistan and Israel bombs Gaza or a helicopter takes off in Afghanistan or a U.S. carrier fleet steams toward Syria and the Persian Gulf, we move one step closer to irreversible climate change," stated Madam Jane, swaying back and forth with her eyes closed.

"Would it help at all if I had my car smog-checked today?" I then asked her hopefully. Madame Jane just rolled her eyes. "We're doomed," she replied.

So. How do I want to spend my last days here on Earth? Not a clue. If you knew that seven billion people had approximately five years to live before climate-change-caused floods started pouring in from our rivers, and deserts started taking over our farmlands and oceans started drowning our coastal cities and a dreadful ice age started to set in, what would you do?

"I'd move to Hawaii," replied Madam Jane. Not me. I'd buy hip-waders, ear muffs and really warm coats.

PS: According to a recent AlterNet article entitled "Game Over for Planet Earth," we're all gonna be fried like fish in a skillet first before we even get a chance to freeze to death or drown.

AlterNet says, "[Here's a] prediction offered by Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency: Without an effective international agreement to staunch greenhouse gases within five years, the door will close on preventing a potentially disastrous rise in the planet’s temperature." http://www.alternet.org/economy/153092/game_over_for_planet_earth%3A_the_month%E2%80%99s_biggest_story_you_never_read

PPS: Madam Jane's ominous-sounding and doom-like claim that irreversible climate change is only five years away is actually erroneous. And AlterNet's five-year claim is wrong too. According to the Christian Science Monitor, irreversible climate change is already here.

"Even if all the world's smokestacks and tailpipes were to suddenly stop spewing CO2, if all the trees everywhere were to be left standing, and if all the remaining coal, oil, and gas were to stay in the ground [and the American war-machine would suddenly stop spewing CO2 like there's no tomorrow as well], the planet would still be feeling the effects of global warming a millennium from now." http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Bright-Green/2009/0127/report-calls-climate-change-irreversible

PPPS: How can we keep cheering on American wars abroad -- without bringing those wars back home to us too, like the recent violent shootings in Oakland and the recent pepper-spraying at U.C. Davis?

My Christmas shopping may just have to wait.

EXTRA! EXTRA! Madam Jane also predicts that the "American war" on Iran is about to happen too!

Remember back when, long before the war on Iraq was declared, millions of tons of war material was being amassed at various East Coast military bases here in the U.S.? Well, Madam Jane states that they are at it again. "Long endless lines of container trucks are currently pouring into supply depots all over the East Coast." Oops.

Plus America's bottom-kissing "yellow journalism" media is already geared up to make Iran look like the ultimate bad guy -- just as it did right before Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq.

And not only that but, according to Middle East specialist David Pratt, the video game Battlefield 3 has just come out with a brand new version -- starring good old Iran as the penultimate evil villain. It just doesn't get any more "War Profiteers Gone Crazy" than that! http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/david-pratt/demonisation-of-iran-carries-a-whiff-of-war-1.1137797?18451

And when Iran does get attacked, just THINK of all the air pollution that will be released! Good grief. Then Battlefield 3 will have to put out an even newer version -- featuring deadly hand-to-hand combat with radioactive smog.

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I recently got my Notary Public commission!

Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I'll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses -- but am well worth it!

****

Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238806637&sr=1-2

****

"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters



"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters

Santa's Claws: How OWS is being drowned in a bathtub

My friend Michael's nephew Jake has been camping at Liberty Park since Occupy Wall Street's inception -- and now Jake has pneumonia.

American heroes like Jake should be appearing on Letterman and leading the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and throwing out the first ball at Yankee Stadium and guest-starring on CSI New York and feted everywhere as the American heroes that they are.

Jake should be invited to dinner at the White House!

For standing up for the American people against the evil empire of corporatocracy that now runs our country, Jake has become another Paul Revere, another Nathan Hale, another Patrick Henry, another Benjamin Franklin. But instead the media is treating him like he was another Aaron Burr.

Jake -- and other valiant young people like him who are still holding out at Zucotti Park -- are the absolute cream of America's next generation and are endangering their very lives in order to save America from the corporatist Grinches who now own us lock, stock and Black Friday -- but instead of becoming national heroes, the rest of America merely stands by while Wall Street shows its horrible red claws and tries to drown these young heroes of the OWS movement in a bathtub -- just like it has tried to drown our economy, our liberty, our morals and our democracy as well.

There will be no presents under Jake's tree in Liberty Park this year, only pneumonia, danger and scorn -- unless all the rest of us Americans finally wake up, begin to actually fight for our country despite what the mainstream media is telling us, become more like Santa and start bearing gifts down to Jake and the rest of our new young national heroes bravely holding out at Zucotti Park -- starting with bringing long underwear, chicken soup and penicillin!

Give us Liberty -- or give us Wall Street -- for Christmas. We can't have both.

PS: Within the week, I expect to see Jake on TV reading Letterman's top-ten list of things that Americans must do in order rescue democracy back from the evil bloody claws of Wall Street.

PPS: Occupy Oakland is setting up occupations in front of various foreclosed homes there -- bringing the spirit of Christmas back to families victimized by Wall Street loan sharks. http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2011-11-20/article/38886?headline=Occupy-Oakland-Protesters-Set-Up-Camp-on-Lawn-of-Foreclosed-Home--By-Bay-City-News

I think that both Santa Claus and the sacred Baby whose birthday Christmas honors would approve.

PPPS: The other day, knitters in Berkeley held a "knit-in" at Occupy Cal, knitting scarves and mittens that would help keep brave protesting students warm. So let's have a knit-in at Liberty Park as well! http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2011-11-26/article/38911?headline=-Knit-In-at-Occupy-Berkeley-Site-to-Make-Warm-Clothing-for-Protesters--By-Erika-Heidecker-BCN-

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I recently got my Notary Public commission!

Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I'll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses -- but am well worth it!

****

Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238806637&sr=1-2

****

"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters



"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters

The new revolutionaries: Thank goodness for FaceBook!

A new revolution is taking place in America -- and it's all happening on FaceBook. Does anyone but me find that a little bit weird?

After I "friended" Leah on FB, she sent me a video of U.C. Davis police torturing non-violent college students with pepper spray just because the poor students didn't want their tuition to go up -- again http://boingboing.net/2011/11/18/police-pepper-spraying-arrest.html. And now the video's gone viral and everyone in the world can see how America treats its youth.

But who benefits most from state-supported higher education? Surprisingly, it isn't the students. It's the One Percent. Every year, corporatists get a whole new crop of shiny young geniuses to chew up and spit out -- hopeful young graduates just begging big corporations to allow them to work in brain-numbing gray-flannel-suit corporate sweatshops.

Instead of having to educate and train their own peons themselves, corporatists now let the state do it. And they let the state pay for that training too.

So I immediately "liked" and shared Leah's post.

"The One Percent just don't get it," I wrote back. "We have FaceBook (for now), so that all the evil secret stuff that corporatists could get away with 20 years ago is now being broadcast all over the world instantly -- showing these bad guys up for what they actually are: People with NO FaceBook friends."

Go FaceBook!

Then I got a link from my FB friend Romi -- about Rep. Ted Deutch's proposed new Constitutional amendment that would eliminate corporatist personhood. http://deutch.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=269672 And here's my FaceBook reply to Romi's post:

"This could be the most important Constitutional amendment ever proposed since we eliminated slavery and gave women the vote! At the NY stock exchange, they have the GALL to fly an American flag. But then why not? They own America lock, stock and barrel. Your kids won't get a college education. Their kids will."

Then my FaceBook friend Saeed sent me an eye-witness video of the insane brutality that Israeli corporatists' occupation forces perpetuate in Palestine -- reminding me that our American college students could be treated that way too if we don't watch out.

Oops, too late. They already are.

Saeed wrote on his News Feed, "Four demonstrators got shot in Ni'lin Village. The Israeli army used live bullets against non-violent demonstrators, and even before the demonstrators reached the apartheid wall, the army started shooting and suppressing the demo. Many demonstrators suffered a lot as a result of inhaling the tear gas too." Here's Saeed's video, also now viral: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcTmmqQN7Vs.

Does that remind you of UC Davis? Or UC Berkeley? Or Kent State? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI7-m919ynU (From Larry -- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young singing about the four dead in Ohio, "soldiers are hunting us down...we're finally on our own," will bring tears to your eyes!)

Don't you just love FaceBook?

On FB, you get real eye-witness news the moment that it happens -- not that boiled down, censored crap that you get on TV.

I wonder how long FB will last before most of us real Americans, most of us 99%, will become "un-friended" by the corporatists. Mark Zuckerberg, this could be your moment to either be a patriot or a poodle. Be careful how you chose.

And next comes my post about the current labor movement in America: "Have you noticed that mostly the old and the young are coming out for Occupy America demonstrations? Could that be because America's biggest employers, the coproratists, are holding the rest of us -- afraid of losing our jobs and overwhelmed by credit-card debt -- by the, er, short hairs?

"I went to a labor union rally the other day and was almost the youngest person in the room. Shocking! I also heard four heroic ILWU longshoremen from Longview, Washington speak. Those guys were fearless -- they went after their corporatist masters with baseball bats! Wow. Here's some history and context of EGB's attempt to take over our grain export trade: http://www.longshoreshippingnews.com/2011/09/robert-mcellrath-ilwu-international-president-we-will-not-permit-egt-to-undermine-the-grain-export-industry/

"And there are also plans afoot to shut down all west-coast ports on December 6. Good. Let's see how long America can last without its heroin-like addiction to foreign goods.

"PS: I'm old now -- but not dead. Those longshoremen were cute!"

Then my friend Kristin wrote on FaceBook: "There are people, with tents, camping in front of Best Buy in Encino Hills right now for Black Friday. Camping. On. Cement. For. Days. Wow."

"Isn't anybody gonna pepper spray those people?" Ross C. replied.

And then I wrote this comment on my wall on November 22, a day that will live in infamy forever in my mind: "WHO KILLED JFK? Who had the means, the motive and the opportunity? Seriously? Kennedy's death marked the major beginning point for the brutal corporatist take-over of our government, our country and the planet."

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I recently got my Notary Public commission!

Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I'll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses -- but am well worth it!

****

Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238806637&sr=1-2

****

"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters



"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters

Deja vu all over again: 1968 and 2011 on Sproul Plaza

Here I am, sitting on the steps in front of Sproul Hall at the University of California in Berkeley, looking out over Sproul Plaza before me, reliving my youth.

"Come to Cal and study city planning," my best friend Anne wrote me back in 1966. "President Johnson has just ear-marked hundreds of millions of dollars for urban renewal and for his Great Society, and there will be lots of city planning jobs available to us after we graduate. This is a good way to both help America and also have meaningful jobs."

Sounded good to me. I'd just finished helping Bill Tatum and Walter Thabit save New York City's Lower East Side from the bulldozer and I had nothing else to do. Cal, here I come!

Then what happened? I graduated from Cal in 1968 with an MCP -- only to be told by perspective employers, "Too bad for you. All the money that had been going to the Great Society is now going to the Vietnam war and most city planning jobs have been eliminated. And besides, we can't hire you because you're a woman -- we're only hiring men with families to support."

It was 1968. I had no money. No job. Nothing to do. So I just lived in a friend's attic, lived by my wits and sat on the steps in front of Sproul Hall every day for a year after my graduation. For a whole year.

It was a very bad year.

And now it's deja vu all over again. No job. No money. No hope. All the big hopes that we held for the new millennium in the year 2000 have all been wasted on stupid endless pointless wars on Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Palestine.

So I decided to do the same thing today that I had done back then: Go sit on the steps in front of Sproul Hall. Only this time I'm hoping that it won't take a whole other year for me to figure out what to do next.

PS: In many ways, the corporatist One Percent just loves our Occupy America movement -- because It gives the oligarchs who control us a chance to flex their weaponized muscles, to divide us American peons against each other still further and to characterize people who object to their wealth as dirty, homeless and crazy instead of moral and financial victims of their blatant systematic chicanery.

PPS: Nationally, the first thing that we 99% need to do is to eliminate the wide-spread massive corruption that currently characterizes American politics: http://maplight.org/us-congress/bill/112-s-1769/1020354/contributions-by-vote. Every politician who spends over $100,000 on any one campaign should be thrown in jail -- hopefully one of those private gruesome for-profit forced-labor-camp nightmare-inducing prisons that our current legislators have been shameless about voting into place.

Second, Anyone who has ever had anything major to do with the Federal Reserve should be jailed as well -- or tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. According to the GAO, the Fed just embezzled 16 trillion dollars from us and gave it to Wall Street and big American banks -- and to foreign banks too. http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/10.11/gaoaudit.html) If that doesn't totally piss you off, then you need to start checking your pulse.

Third, unjust Supreme Court justices such as Thomas and Scalia should also be jailed immediately. And White House pretty-boy poodles for the One Percent such as Bush, Cheney and Obama should be jailed as well. And Congressional errand-boys for the big corporations? Also clamped in leg-irons! Duh.

Fourth, every single man, woman and child in America should also take turns sitting on Sproul Plaza for a day. And then we should all be awarded free education and/or meaningful jobs. Plus we should also be awarded $30,000 each -- as part of America's new victim compensation plan after having been viciously robbed by corporatist thieves in Washington and Wall Street.

PPPS: Speaking of bulldozers, U.C. police raided Sproul Plaza again at 3 am last night -- driving bulldozers across the plaza, flattening everything in sight, destroying tents and artwork in their wake and pushing people out of their way. No big surprise there.

PPPPS: And speaking of endless war, the Glasgow Sunday Herald's war correspondent David Pratt just sent me an article entitled "Danger: the Middle East may go Ballistic".

"In more than two decades of Middle East watching," stated Pratt, "I’ve got used to unexpected events and endless predictions of doomsday scenarios. But, even by its own politically volatile and labyrinthine standards, there have been some very ominous and shadowy things taking place there of late.... So many factors could now ignite the [Middle East right now], and standing well back would be a near impossible option for the international community. The Middle East might just be about to go ballistic, and I’m not simply talking about a few missiles in Iran." http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/david-pratt/danger-middle-east-may-yet-go-ballistic-1.1135570

Are we having fun yet?

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I recently got my Notary Public commission!

Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I'll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses -- but am well worth it!

****

Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238806637&sr=1-2

****

"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters



"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters

Sacramento Street gets a make-over

While walking down to San Pablo Park to see my granddaughter Mena's school performance the other day, I couldn't help but notice that all of Sacramento Street was blocked. The entire street as far as the eye can see in both directions from the corner of Sacramento and Oregon was being torn up and re-paved. Like it was starring on America's Next Top Model or something, Sac Street was getting a fierce new make-over.

Then I walked up to Milvia Street and it was getting a make-over too. High time. Our infrastructure really needs it. While other cities in the Bay Area spend their time and money attacking people's First Amendment rights, the city of Berkeley fixes its streets!

And while 5,000-plus demonstrators are protesting tuition cuts at Cal Berkeley, Mena's pre-school is FREE. All education up to post-doc should be FREE too. Hear that, One Percent? Millions for militarized police forces and not one penny to help students. What does that tell you about America's priorities.

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*********************************************************

I recently got my Notary Public commission!

Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I'll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses -- but am well worth it!

****

Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238806637&sr=1-2

****

"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters



"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters