ISIS: Is the word "assassin" derived from "hashish"?

     Here's a link to a trailer for the new Edward Snowden film by Oliver Stone.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/snowden-trailer-joseph-gordon-levitt_us_5720d5f0e4b0f309baef4dc0  It shows American drones assassinating a bunch of folks in foreign lands.

     And here's what Seymour Hersch has to say about that:  "What [reps of the American military-industrial complex] do now is [they] do targeted assassinations.  Earlier, I think [they] just moved [perspective targets] out of office or did operations, political operations.  But now it’s really just, [they] hit people.  There’s a weekly meeting in which they go through names of people to target, assassinate, including, in some cases, an American, without any due process.  It’s been a wonderful movement.  I don’t mean to be too sarcastic about it, but [Obama] ended up in the same place far too many times, as Bush and Cheney [did].  https://newcoldwar.org/horrified-seymour-hersh-reacts-obamas-plan-send-250-u-s-special-ops-troops-syria/

    But the most bizarre assassinations of all are being executed in Syria right now by drugged ISIS assassins (aka "moderate rebels").  How yucky is that!

     Here's the story.  A Saudi prince was arrested in Lebanon for having an airplane full of two (2) tons of Captagon, a designer-drug amphetamine that turns regular run-of-the-mill sadistic ISIS guys into truly insane butchers.  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34700489

     Back in the day, assassinations in the Middle East were associated with the use of hashish -- that the assassins would get all hopped up on hash and then go slit someone's throat.  But apparently hashish is being given a bum rap here, and assassins back in the 13th century were just bad people employed by a guy named Hassan-i-Sabah to kill all his rivals -- and that the assassins' alleged connection with hashish had been invented and glorified by a pulp-fiction writer in Paris in 1809 -- or something like that.

     But there are currently actual evil assassins in the Middle East today.  And they are all employed by the American military-industrial complex, their close allies Turkey and the House of Saud, and of course our old favorite for stirring up trouble over there, Israeli neo-colonialists.  And apparently these assassins are being hopped up on Captagon in order to keep the heads rolling. http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/04/25/syria-aleppo-is-burning-and-western-media-is-silent/

     So what's the moral of this story?  That America's foreign policy is truly medieval. http://freepalestinemovement.org/2016/04/30/tears-on-capital-hill-and-amenas-stuffed-animal-stampede-for-palestinian-children/

PS:  And speaking of death, I just scored a role in yet another student film, playing yet another dying little old lady.  Good grief, when I actually do get ready to die, I will have already had dozens of rehearsals -- and will be able to pull it off with amazing flash and charm.

PPS:  And speaking of assassinations, American democracy appears to be getting systematically assassinated by Wall Street and War Street.  The Arizona primary was a crime and the New York primary was a cruel joke (on us).  https://34justice.com/2016/04/22/the-new-york-primary-was-a-shtshow-heres-why/

     Younger Americans, Black Americans, working-class Americans and first-generation Americans are having their names systematically assassinated from voter-registration rolls all over America right now.  And this stealthy and criminal behavior has been going on for years.  And the only people who object to it are the people who can no longer vote.  Of course.

The IRS: Why it's screwing America's bottom 15%

     The Berkeley-Albany Bar Association has done it again!  BABA just scored yet another resounding triumph at its latest luncheon meeting at the Berkeley City Club, where it featured a speaker who told us lots of important stuff that we didn't already know.

     The Berkeley City Club is an architectural work of art, both inside and out.  Designed by Julia Morgan in 1927, it features Moorish/Gothic architecture, carved wooden banisters, exotic chandeliers and fabulous Persian rugs.  Gotta love the place -- even though its culinary specialty appears to be rubber chicken.  I always take my granddaughter, baby Sofia, with me to BABA luncheons so that she can learn to appreciate true beauty at a young age, be instructed in the correct use of silverware and hear top-notch speakers as well (and also because I can't afford a baby sitter).

     Anyway, last month's luncheon speaker talked about the latest changes taking place at the IRS.  Apparently the IRS's budget was cut by 15% last year.  "That explains why I couldn't get anyone on the phone there to answer my tax questions," I commented to the attorney sitting next to me.  "The phone would ring and ring, but nobody would answer."  Nobody was home at the IRS!

     And the attorney sitting next to me replied, "Yes, and this fact also explains why the IRS is spending so much time auditing the bottom 15% of American taxpayers right now -- because they know that the bottom 15% can't afford to hire high-priced tax attorneys to fight their cases for them like the wealthy corporations can, and the IRS no longer has extra money to spend on hiring a bunch of tax attorneys to defend its actions.  And so the bottom 15% of American taxpayers are now sitting ducks."  Oh.  Good to know.

PS:  I sincerely hope that the IRS doesn't audit me!  Have you ever tried to represent your own self in court, in propria persona, without an attorney?  It is totally not fun!  Plus the chances are really, really good that you will get completely steam-rollered over in court, even if you are right and the opposing party is wrong -- to say nothing about not being able to afford court fees.

     Sometimes what goes on in American courtrooms is less about justice and more about who can afford to hire the best judicial procedure.  http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2015/04/probating-family-feud-authors-note-this.html

     But on the other hand, sometimes you actually do get assigned to a good judge who is fair in his role as "Trier of Fact" -- and that makes your faith in the American judicial system bloom like a rose.  http://www.eastbaytimes.com/news/ci_13629661

PPS:  Speaking of injustice, I'll be going to Chicago on May 11, home of the most outrageously unjust probate system in the entire United States.  In Chicago, screwing widows and orphans has been elevated to a fine art!  https://marygsykes.com/2016/04/13/from-ken-ditkowsky-time-to-do-something-about-the-ardc-protecting-felonious-lawyers/

     And also while in Chicago, I plan to attend the annual BookExpo America, always big fun.  Perhaps I will see you there.  http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/Home/ 

Two important American history books: "1776" and "Overthrow"

      Purely by coincidence I have started reading two different books about American history -- but they both have the same theme.

      One book, "1776," tells the emotional story of how heroic yeomen-farmers and shop-keepers in America put together an amazing rag-tag army and heroically risked defeat and death in order to fight for justice, liberty and the very soil of their own country, in order to defend it against tyrannical despots from across the sea.  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1067.1776?from_new_nav=true&ac=1&from_search=true

     The other book, "Overthrow," also tells emotional stories of how heroic yeomen-farmers and shop-keepers across the globe have put together their amazing rag-tag armies and heroically risked defeat and death in order to fight for justice, liberty and the very soil of their own countries, in order to defend them against tyrannical despots from across the sea.  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/90540.Overthrow

     The only difference between the two books is that one book is about defending America against a tyrannical despot -- and the other book is about countries around the world defending themselves against a tyrannical despot.  The tyrannical despot in "1776" was Britain.  The tyrannical despot in "Overthrow" is America.  http://www.vineyardsaker.co.nz/2016/04/14/lebanon-now-it-is-being-forced-to-collapse-andre-vltchek/

     Reading about the overthrow of Britain by brave American rebels in 1776, and then reading both here and elsewhere about the overt or covert overthrow of the legitimate governments of Hawaii, Cuba, the Philippines, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Panama, Nicaragua, Iran, Mexico, Palestine, Vietnam, Chile, Taiwan, Guatemala, Argentina, Grenada, Congo, Angola, Lebanon, Haiti (twice), Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. by tyrannical American invaders is all just too deja vu for me.  http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/stokelycarmichaelblackpower.html

     "Since independence in 1776, the U.S. has been engaged in over 53 military invasions and expeditions....  America is using ISIS in three ways: to attack its enemies in the Middle East, to serve as a pretext for U.S. military intervention abroad, and at home to foment a manufactured domestic threat, used to justify the unprecedented expansion of invasive domestic surveillance."  http://www.globalresearch.ca/america-created-al-qaeda-and-the-isis-terror-group/5402881

     In addition, America has also continually missed its many chances to follow the example of our heroic 1776 ancestors and help overthrow a lot of tyrannical despots across the globe too -- such as Saudi Arabia, where the 9-11 plot was actually hatched, or Israel, where the 9-11 plot was cheered on.  Instead, America has made these tyrants and despots some of their closest allies.  What's with that?  http://www.france24.com/en/20160415-obama-faces-pressure-saudi-arabia-trip-secret-28-pages

     And America should also stop supporting ISIS in Syria and Iraq as well.  Syria under President Assad just held a parliamentary election.  Can American-supported "moderate rebels" aka ISIS make that claim too?  No, no and no.  In fact, the Syrian election results were delayed a few days because several ISIS-held sections of Aleppo weren't allowed to vote.  Just one more example of America backing tyrannical despots -- in this case ISIS.  George Washington must be rolling over in his grave. 

    And in France these days, liberty, equality and fraternity are only remembrances of things past as well.  Lafayette, they are no longer in France either.   It's all about Le Patriot Act.  http://en.shafaqna.com/news/32043

     How far have American ideals and values fallen since 1776?  About as far as humanly possible.  "We have met the enemy and they are us," to quote Pogo.  https://www.rt.com/news/339672-iraqi-youth-usa-enemy-poll/

PS:  Speaking of books, the annual BookExpo America will be held in Chicago this year, starting on May 11 -- and I'm going to be there.  Try to be there too, okay?  http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/Home/ 

Selling Hoover Dam: To whom & for how much?

     Privatization in America has gone way too far. 

     America is not supposed to be like the old Soviet Union, breaking up and selling off pieces of itself to the highest private bidder in order to avoid bankruptcy due to the high costs of war.  Or perhaps it's already too late to close the barn door to privatization in America and we already have become just like that.  Actually, with over half of our government's money now being spent on weapons and so-called "war", it sort of looks like we already are following the Soviet Union's lead -- especially when you consider how rapidly we too are selling stuff off.

     And if this escalating process of selling our stuff off is as true as it appears to be, then I would like to put in a bid on Mt. Rushmore!

     Let's just imagine for a moment how that auction will go.  The auctioneer clears his throat.  "What am I bid on this lovely set of hand-carved sculptures?"  I bid five dollars!  "Sold to the little lady in the back row."

     Then Hoover Dam goes up on the block next.  Who the freak would ever want to buy Hoover Dam?  Apparently somebody does.  It just got sold for less than one cent on the dollar -- way less.

     And now they are trying to sell off the Berkeley Post office.  "Magnificent old building, prime real estate location.  What am I bid?"  Again, it is going for less than pennies on the dollar.  Someone is going to walk away from this auction a happy man.  And it ain't gonna be the U.S. taxpayer either.

     And speaking of Berkeley, our mayor and his developer friends here are trying to auction off our downtown business district and various residential areas near the Cal campus for pennies on the dollar too.  "We need more condos!" cry our real estate developers.  "They are really wonderful stuff!"  And our mayor and a lot of our City Council members agree with the developers too.

     But I have a question.  If all these new condos (there are already thousands of them in the works) as indeed so fabulous, then how come the mayor, members of our City Council and even the developers themselves don't live in any of them -- and prefer to live in the very type of traditional brown-shingle Berkeley cottages and homes that developers are now so anxious to tear down?

     And why are none of these developers and their supporters living in the Library Gardens condos, where six people fell to their deaths last year due to faulty construction?  And 20 years from now, all these creepy high-rise "condo" buildings will be falling apart.  "Welcome to the new Berkeley inner-city slums."  However, the upside of all this is that by then all these high-rises will have become "affordable" housing -- broken sewage lines, dangerous conditions, rats and all.  But I digress.  Let's get back to the auctions.

     Anyone out there want to purchase the Brooklyn Bridge?

PS:  Much to my horror, something even more crucial to the American way of life has also been privatized:  Christianity.  Jesus himself was a revolutionary, a man of the people, a proud member of the 99% and even a socialist.  But the privatization of Christianity in America has reduced Jesus to being merely a shill for corporations, a ham actor in endless commercials for war-mongering, and/or just another emogi on FaceBook -- and an evil emogi at that.  

PPS:  Here's the latest April report from my friend from Aleppo -- where Americans and their neo-colonialist cohorts, henchmen and partners in crime are happily violating the Syrian ceasefire every chance that they get!  http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2016/04/breaking-chemical-weapons-used-in.html

     Talk about "Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders".  Gary Sinise would just drool to get his hands on this script.  http://www.globalresearch.ca/isis-is-a-us-israeli-creation-top-ten-indications/5518627

Breaking! Chemical weapons used in Aleppo!

    And three guesses who used them?  I'll bet you anything that it was the ISIS terrorists, happy pawns of the American military, the Saudis, Israeli neo-colonialists and that crazy president of Turkey.  There's a pattern here -- these four ruthless and hypocritical "regimes" gas the Syrians and then turn around and blame it on, wait for it, the Syrians themselves!

     Here is the latest e-mail from my friend who used to be in Aleppo and is now out of there, but still has family and friends there who give him the true 411:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkkSdGgmM_o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PbH4lyDPCw

     "The Sheikh Maqsoud sector of Aleppo city -- which is under the Kurds control -- had been hit and attacked several times after the beginning of the ceasefire, since I was there.  The new news though, that I started reading since yesterday, is that the terrorists started using chemical weapons against civilians over there.  Here are videos of it"

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkkSdGgmM_o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PbH4lyDPCw

 

 

     "Did Mr. Staffan de Mistura, the diplomat, know about that?  Did Mr. Ban Ki-moon, of the UN, hear of it?  I doubt.  All what they are concerned and obsessed about is toppling Assad and the transitional phase after Assad.

     "People and relatives I know over there are okay -- so far. 

     "The ceasefire is over in Aleppo, after the great violations that took place few days ago on southern Aleppo province areas, when several terrorist groups -- who had signed on and approved the ceasefire -- broke their words and agreements."  No surprise there.

     "The Syrian Arab Army and its allies didn't want that ceasefire from the beginning because the UN always imposes ceasefires when the SAA starts to win on the ground -- as a way to give another chance for terrorists to arm and prepare themselves for the next violation.  

 

     "Now there is no ceasefire.  The next battle for Aleppo seems to be starting soon, as Russians, the SAA, Hezbollah and others are continuing what they were doing before the ceasefire: Liberating Aleppo city.

      A week ago, Deir ez-Zowr city had been attacked by [Turkish ally] Da'esh, using chemical weapons as well.  The Syrian army doesn't have that weapon anymore, so they can't blame Assad of using it.  However, it seems that no one really cares anymore in that corrupted double faced UN. 

 

     "Three years ago, such news would have come 24/7 on all global media, claiming the 'dictator is killing his people with chemical weapons'.  But now, days and weeks have passed and I hardly ever could find any mention of such news, especially at the UN.   They are suffering from deafness and blindness now.  Or, they are happy to use it against Assad, the SAA, and the Syrian people."  

 

     How Machiavellian can these four regimes get!

The life-changing magic of tidying up...the Middle East

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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