One hundred MORE years of chaos in the Middle East?

       For the last 65 years, most Americans have been blatantly and consistently lied to about what is really going on in the Middle East.  But for those of us who have actually gone to all the trouble and pain to seek out the truth about what is really happening over there, we have constantly been forced to live and breath the tragic reality of the myriad gross injustices in the Middle East brought on by American, Israeli, European, Turkish and Saudi neo-colonialists who are happily looking to get a greedy leg up at any cost. http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2015/10/30/seymour-hersh-news-report-banned-us-finally-confirmed-turkey.html

     And this toxic nightmare of murder, theft and propaganda never seems to be going to stop. 

      Will our grandchildren still be hearing the same grisly tales about how the American war machine and its "allies" have happily fostered chaos in the Middle East for over the past hundred years?  In order to sell more weapons and steal more oil?   Or will there be nothing but neo-colonialists, oil tycoons, dictators and skeletons left in the Middle East by then.

       To combat the huge flood of propaganda being aimed at we Americans daily, however, there have been several excellent articles written recently about how American forces and their partners in crime have aided and abetted ISIS in Syria.

      For instance, expert blogger "Moon of Alabama" writes, "During the last several days, a large attack on the Syrian government supply line to Aleppo city was carried out by Jabhat al-Nusra (aka al-Qaeda in Syria) and the Islamic State, seemingly in coordination with the U.S. military. 

       "During September, the U.S. anti-ISIS coalition carried out an average of 4.2 airstrikes on ISIS in predominately east Syria.  This after an average of 6.8 per day in August.  The rate in October was about the same as in September until Thursday October 22.  Then, according to the U.S. Military Times, the strike rate decreased markedly.  The Islamic State used the lull in airstrikes in east Syria to move hundreds of fighters and heavy equipment towards the supply line that connects Damascus with the government held areas (green) of Aleppo.  http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/10/us-stopped-syria-air-strikes-while-nusra-and-is-prepared-attack-on-government-supply-route.html

     And then Mike Whitney writes, "Why is John Kerry so eager to convene an emergency summit on Syria now when the war has been dragging on for four and a half years?  Is he worried that Russia’s air campaign is wiping out too many US-backed jihadis and sabotaging Washington’s plan to topple Syrian President Bashar al Assad?  You bet, he is.

     "No one who’s been following events in Syria for the last three weeks should have any doubt about what’s really going on.   Russia has been methodically wiping out Washington’s mercenaries on the ground while recapturing large swathes of land that had been lost to the terrorists."  http://www.smirkingchimp.com/node/64517

    And then there's this eye-witness report from a friend of mine in Aleppo itself (always good to have eyes on the ground, Amy Goodman, not just lying Syrian wannabees living safely in NYC on the CIA dollar).

      My friend in Aleppo writes, "We now have limited goods to consume, with limited resources of fuel and water.  Prices are jumping higher for almost everything.  I hope that situation to end soon.  It's getting worse day after day since roughly the 23rd or 24th of October.  Prices of everything are getting higher and higher day after day.  The generators that used to supply houses with power for 10 hours a day, are now supplying us with 6.5 hours for the same price of 10 hours.   Blackmailing in markets for all goods is taking place. We are under siege since then. 'Crisis Merchants' are squeezing the pockets of the people to the last penny."  Sucks to be Syrian for real, Amy.

     "I'm optimistic that it shouldn't take a longer time," my friend continues, "but people over here are pretty passive, and some are saying that it could get worse or go on for months.  I think the city had more tougher times in the last years, and hopefully we will come out of that hard situation soon.  Jets are bombarding terrorist areas more often, and the terrorists are shelling residential areas as well.  Take care, wish us luck."

PS:  A Russian civilian airliner was just shot down over Sinai.  ISIS claims the kill -- but who supplied ISIS with the missile in the first place?  ISIS doesn't manufacture missiles.  Boeing, Lockheed and Raytheon do.  In the style of MH17.   Or else perhaps it was a bomb that blew up the plane -- in the grand old style of the CIA.  Dirty pool.  Dirty hands.  Disgusting.  

Supernatural: The ghosts of Raleigh, North Carolina

     Did you know that there is a Confederate cemetery in Raleigh that is rumored to be haunted?  And right down the road from that, in Durham, is an institute that scientifically studies paranormal activity?  I've been to both places recently -- and still have almost no idea what to think about ghosts.  Do they really exist or not?

      I do know that the ghost of Jimi Hendrix used to haunt my former home in Berkeley, CA, but then, hey, we all know that Jimi is capable of anything -- so being haunted by his ghost doesn't really count.

     At the Rhine Research Center in Durham, I went on a tour to see what is what in the world of parapsychology.  "No X-Files type of stuff here.  We're scientists," said the Center's tour guide.  "It's the scientific study of interaction between living organisms and their external environment that seems to transcend the known physical laws of nature."  Then I was shown various psi-measuring machines and started to take notes.  http://www.rhine.org/what-we-do/current-research.html

     "We study telepathy, clairvoyance, remote viewing, psychokinesis, precognition and ESP.  These are all perceptive abilities.  Psychokinesis is when mind and matter interact."  True or not?  All I know is that during the tour, three of my pens stopped writing even though they were not out of ink -- and on the drive back to Raleigh, our GPS failed, our cell phones all stopped working and we ended up back in Durham.  Freaky.  And just in time for Halloween.

     Next I toured the Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, originally established when all of the dead Confederate solders buried in the local national cemetery were dug up and thrown out into the street.  "The decaying bodies were stacked up like cordwood outside the cemetery gates and the women of Raleigh came and re-buried them all here, in some land that they purchased from a local farmer."  But of course the newly-created cemetery was segregated.  http://historicoakwoodcemetery.org/about-us.asp

     Several graves at Oakwood stood out.  One of them was the really ugly monument erected over Elizabeth Edwards' grave.  "It cost $86,000," I was told.  Ms. Edwards' ghost should demand her money back. 

     Another grave belonged to a Cherokee woman whose husband had to fight like crazy to have her body buried here.  I guess that saying, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian" doesn't apply to Southern cemeteries -- where even the dead ones are prejudiced against.  My great-grandmother was a Cherokee -- but this woman wasn't her.  But she could have been.  My great-grandmother had been stuck out in Oklahoma as a result of the infamous Trail of Tears, which started in North Carolina.  Cherokees rightfully shoulda been Tar Heels.  Now there's a haunting thought.

     Then I walked back to my motel room in the warm twilight air, past lovely old Raleigh homes flying American flags and also past one of the original Krispy Kreme donut shops, where I purchased a cream-filled chocolate-covered donut -- whose ghost came back to haunt my stomach later that night.

     But are there really such things as paranormal activity and ghosts?  I really don't know -- except for the one thing that I do know.  Even though I am just a normal American person, living a typical American life, with nothing unusual about myself, over two thousand times I have woken up in the morning with an idea in my head for yet another political article that is so clear, so accurate and so correctly predictive that it's almost like it had been typed into my brain by ghosts overnight.  Now that's spooky!  

    And, like the ancient Greek legend of what happened to Cassandra, no one ever really believes what I predict either -- until it's too late.  Just like almost no one believed me when I wrote, back in 2006, that Madame Jane was predicting the great economic crash of 2008.  http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2006/11/madame-jane-predicts-how-to-survive.html  

      Or else when almost no one believed me after I predicted, back in early 2003, that any war on Iraq would end as badly for us American taxpayers as it had for the USSR in Afghanistan -- even though Time Magazine published my statement.  "Is it possible that Iraq will be to America what Afghanistan was to the U.S.S.R.?  The similarities are chilling."  And just look at us now, with all our money for schools and infrastructure having been poured down that rat hole connecting us to the pockets of war profiteers.

    And how many times have I both whispered and screamed about the dangers of corporate greed and corporate planetary pollution?  And of course about the number-one polluter of all -- endless war.  My voice gets hoarse just thinking about that.  And yet no one has heeded that warning either.  We all will probably be dead by 2028 if we don't eliminate "war" and fossil fuel consumption by then.  Don't say that you've never been warned.  http://robertscribbler.com/2015/10/26/a-crime-against-humanity-hothouse-wildfire-smoke-sickens-500000-as-indonesian-officials-plan-for-mass-evacuations/

     And most Americans still don't believe me, even after I have constantly warned them for years that their very own military-industrial complex is training, aiding, abetting and financing ISIS in Iraq and Syria, as well as supplying weapons to al Qaeda in Libya and financing the brutal lynchings of Palestinians in apartheid Israel.  http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2015/07/syria-where-america-drops-barrel-bombs.html  Just like Cassandra.  Humph.

PS:  Speaking of weird stuff, there is also the legend of the 36 righteous men -- who wander the world doing good deeds.  But guess what?  You don't even have to be dead to be one of them.  All you have to do is be moral.  Of course that eliminates ISIS, the NRA, Bibi Netanyahu's entire government, Bush, Obama, banksters, weapons manufacturers, child molesters, most of the Republican party and half of the Dems in Congress today.  But you and I might still qualify.  Hopefully.  http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/general-news/20120519/the-legend-of-the-36-righteous-men

PPS:  I did play the role of a really scary ghost on the Reelz TV show "Behind the Screams" recently.  I was so scary and ghostly that I even scared myself!  Does that count?  https://www.facebook.com/ReelzChannel/videos/10153769558264379/?fref=nf

ISIS's new air force: Even more chicanery in Syria by our very own American Greed Machine

     I'm not even supposed to be posting stuff like this on my blog.  I'm supposed to be writing about my wonderful North Carolina experience.  But oh well.  This is just too bizarre to pass up.  The American Greed Machine is so completely determined to overthrow Assad in Syria and take over Syria's pipelines and oilfields that it's now going to totally insane extremes.  Will these creeps stop at nothing?  Apparently not.

     Just received this e-mail from my eye-witness friend in Aleppo:  "The US coalition is actually the air force of the terrorists."  America is acting as the air force for ISIS?  Wow.  Just wow. 

      "It seems that American planes prevented the Syrian air force from targeting ISIS in many areas, therefore the Russians thought to do the job themselves and to see who would dare to down their air force.  But now the US is helping its terrorists by supplying them with TOW missiles.  And the US is also 'helping the Syrian people' in Aleppo by targeting the infrastructure as well:  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43195.htm  So I'm 'thankful' to the US government and for its 'good deeds'.......indeed!"  

       A little humor through tears from my friend.

       But you do gotta admit that those freaks in the American military complex are determined little bastards.  Exactly how far will they go to depose Assad and take over Syria's oil?  Obviously all the way to the gates of Hell, to sign a deal with the devil.  Or else to take over the devil's own job for themselves.  

        And we lucky American taxpayers get the foot the bill for all this chicanery, greed and evil obsession.  Lucky us. 

PS:  Apparently the American Greed Machine has also had some help from its allies as well.  This just in:

    "Iraqi security and popular forces held captive an Israeli colonel from the Golani Brigade along with a number of ISIL terrorists.  'The security and popular forces have held captive an Israeli colonel,' a commander of Iraq's popular mobilization forces said on Thursday.  'The Zionist officer is ranked colonel and had participated in the Takfiri ISIL group's terrorist operations,' he added.

      "Noting that he was arrested along with a number of ISIL terrorists, the commander said, 'The Israeli colonel's name is Yusi Oulen Shahak and is ranked colonel in Golani Brigade of the Zionist regime's army with the security and military code of Re34356578765az231434.'" 

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940730000210

Spartacus in Jerusalem: Israel's got a slave revolt on its hands

    You'd never even guess it after watching today's news, but there really is a  huge difference between the monsters who run ISIS and the heroes who defend Palestine.

     For one thing, ISIS is being armed, trained and financed by none other than the brutal neo-colonialists who currently own and control America, Turkey, Israel and Arabia.  And if you still don't believe that these four slimy neo-colonialist powers are solely responsible for ISIS, well, then you clearly haven't been paying attention.  Please keep up.  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syrian-archbishop-pleads-for-uk-to-stop-backing-anti-assad-islamist-groups-a6697226.html

     The next really big difference between Palestinians and ISIS is that ISIS is composed of jihadi "foreign fighters" and mercenaries who are in it for the bucks -- and, yes, for the raping and pillaging aspect too.  On the other hand, Palestinians have spent the last 65 years protesting against their own enslavement and genocide at the hands of a neo-colonialist power with no heart.  "If force doesn't work, use more force," is the current policy of Israeli neo-colonialists.

     For the past 65 years, Palestinians have been brutalized, robbed and enslaved by Zionist neo-colonialists armed to the teeth with panzer divisions, gestapos, concentration camps, blitzkriegs, chemical weapons and storm troopers.  And now Palestinians are fighting back with stones, knives and their bare hands -- just like back when the slave Spartacus finally told the Romans, "Enough!" 

    "What did you think, the Palestinians would sit still indefinitely?"  says Gideon Levy's latest article in Haaretz.  "Did you really think Israel would continue on its course and they’d just bow their heads in submission?  Jerusalem has become the capital of apartheid.  No other city so discriminates and dispossesses or is so violent.  Gun-toting Mayor Nir Barkat, who’s largely responsible for the discrimination and dispossession in his city, incites against a third of its population — an unbelievable phenomenon in its own right.   And you thought 300,000 people would acquiesce?"  http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.680443

      "But aren't Palestinians being anti-Semitic?" you might ask me at this point.  Yes and no.  Yes, there is a Spartacus-like slave rebellion taking place in Jerusalem right now, against a supposedly Jewish state.  So on the face of things, this rebellion does actually look kind of anti-Semitic.

     But, no, the current Palestinian rebellion isn't anti-Semitic at all -- because the self-styled "Chosen People" master-race wannabees who currently control Israel have poisoned what used to be the shining ideal of a Jewish State and now, under these oligarchs' thumb, Israel has degenerated into just one more dying slave-state carcass whose ideals have been compromised.  Israel today is no more a Jewish state than the greedy oligarchs who viciously put down Spartacus's rebellion were supporters of the ideal of a shining Roman democracy.

     Don't believe me?  Go rent Spartacus the Movie!  Let Kirk Douglas set you straight.  http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi8716569/

    "But aren't the Palestinians all just a bunch of terrorists who go around knifing Israeli soldiers?" you might finally ask me in desperation.  Knifing soldiers?  Really?  You are complaining that Palestinians are now using kitchen knives to defend their families against fully-armored storm troopers and panzer divisions who kill their children, enslave their adults and steal their land?  Really? 

     Hell, Spartacus used a knife to rebel against slavery too.  I rest my case.

Totally off-topic: East North Carolina BBQ

     "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?  The Shadow knows."  And, sadly, so do I.  Practically everything there is to write about these days somehow involves absolutely cosmic Dumpsters full of evil and injustice lurking in the hearts of the various bad men currently in control of our lives. 

     Since George W. Bush stole the presidential election in 2000, I've written approximately 2,146 articles on the subject of greed, hypocrisy, injustice, malice and evil, both at home and abroad.  Unfortunately, it looks like all these ugly human flaws will always be with us -- but good BBQ, on the other hand, could slip through our fingers at any moment.

     And so here I am in Raleigh, North Carolina, home of what has been rumored to be the world's very best BBQ.  Let's go and find out.

     "Clyde Cooper's makes the best BBQ in the city," I was told by one resident of Raleigh after another.  "You simply must try it!"  So I did.  And was shocked.  Frankly, Cooper's chopped meat was horrible.  Dry and sort of gray-looking even.

     "Where's the sauce?" I desperately asked my waitress.  She then brought me something in a paper cup that tasted pretty much like vinegar.  Dry chopped meat, spiked with vinegar, on a dry bun?  It looked and tasted like something they might have served Yankee prisoners at Andersonville.

     I live in Berkeley, California, home of really great BBQ.  Perhaps I've been spoiled.  "But how did great BBQ end up in Berkeley?" you might ask.  That's easy.  During World War II, many African-American women from the Deep South migrated to northern California to work in the local shipyards as Black Rosies.  In the Richmond, CA, shipyards, these heroic women turned out a whole new battleship every four days.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc490zRLWMA

     But on the exact day that World War II ended, Henry J. Kaiser fired all of his Black Rosies -- letting them all go with no severance pay and kicking them out of their homes.

     With no money to get back to the Deep South where they originally came from, many of the Black Rosies settled in Berkeley instead -- and started selling and buying BBQ.  Delicious!  Juicy, covered with a deep red sauce.  That's what I had been expecting to find in Raleigh.  BBQ like Everett & Jones.

     "But have you tried The Pit over on Davies Street?" another fan of East North Carolina BBQ asked me.  No.  But while The Pit's "sides" were amazing -- biscuits, mashed potatoes, green beans and hush puppies -- their meat was also really dry and lacked that deep rust-colored tomato-based BBQ sauce that I love.  Rats.

    Finally some local Raleigh BBQ connoisseur took me aside and said, "Jane, get over it.  East North Carolina BBQ just isn't the same as Louisiana, St. Louis or Texas BBQ.  We have our own style here.  Forget about Everett & Jones."  It seems that East North Carolina BBQ was developed over 400 years ago, back when tomatoes were considered to be poisonous and vinegar was used to preserve meat that had been slow-cooked in a pit.  "Hey, our chopped meat BBQ style is historic!"

     And that's how I learned to like (or at least tolerate) dry chopped meat here in Raleigh.  My apologies to Clyde Cooper's and The Pit.  I just didn't know.  Plus I just found out that you can get East North Carolina BBQ in Berkeley too -- at Smokey J's, just four blocks from my home.  http://smokeyjbbq.com/menu/

     However, I don't think that I will ever learn to tolerate (let alone like) injustice, hypocrisy, mendacity, greed or just plain evil.  At least I hope that I never will.

PS:  It looks like I'm being forced to go back on-topic here after all.  Still can't resist writing about injustice -- especially since yet another whole Dumpster full of it has just turned up and has been practically shoved in my face by the cable television news in my cheap motel here in Raleigh.  Who the freak would ever pay actual money to get cable TV at home?

     On cable TV, I am constantly being told that our wonderful American armed forces are doing everything that they possibly can to fight al Qaeda and ISIS over in the Middle East these days.  Not true at all. 

     Every single day, even more information keeps coming to light that the American war machine is actually supporting ISIS and al Qaeda in the Middle East.  And why not?  The goal of the American war machine is to sell weapons -- and what better way to sell them than to start wars and keep them going?  

     And who is better at keeping wars going than al Qaeda and ISIS?  It's a match made in heaven.  I can just see their internet dating-site advertisement now.  "Evil men seek like-minded evil men, must be fond of killing women and babies for fun and profit." http://www.globalresearch.ca/western-aid-to-terrorists-iraqi-forces-seize-us-supplied-anti-armor-missiles-from-isis-in-fallujah/5481753

CNN sez Russia's in the way of US war on ISIS


    Remember back when we were all told that cigarettes were healthy?  That the War on Iraq wasn't for oil?  Now CNN is telling us that a Russian fighter jet just got in the way of the US attacking ISIS!  The US has had a whole YEAR to attack ISIS -- with no results, er, excuse me, except to drop weapons and supplies to ISIS "by accident".

     I'm at a convention in Raleigh, NC and CNN was on TV in the lobby of my motel.  I would never be watching it otherwise -- let alone Fox.

Just received this e-mail from a friend in Aleppo, Syria: 

     "As for your question, mostly everyone I met over here and everyone one I know online, in other Syrian provinces or in the diaspora, support the Russians and their coalition with Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanese Resistance against the terrorists.

     "I wish to see the end of that nightmare before the end of the year.  The dream is closer now, thanks to the Russians, who are targeting the real bases of terrorists, not claiming doing so like the U.S. Coalition.  Only now, terrorists in Idleb are fleeing to Turkey, and the ones in Reqqa are fleeing to Iraq.

     "Some comments are afraid that it could be a new trap for the Russians, as what happened to them in Afghanistan back in the 1970s and 1980s.  However I guess they learned their lessons and won't make the mistake again.

     "I'm waiting for the Russian interfering in Aleppo.  So far nothing happened over here. But they are preparing the arena for it."