Travel Advisory: Houston is all hat, no cattle

     Don't you just hate it when they name American airports after Republican carpetbaggers? 

     As far as I'm concerned you can name every airport in the whole freaking world after JFK.  But to name an airport after John Foster Dulles?  Really?  The man was a scallywag and a traitor -- not a shining example to set for our children at all.  https://consortiumnews.com/2015/10/27/checkmate-on-the-devils-chessboard/

     Then there's the Ronald Reagan airport.  Huh?  That man was personally responsible for the murder of 400,000 Mayans and the looting of our national treasury too.  What?  America's gonna have a Charles Manson airport next?  Or one named after Bernie Madoff?

      The other day I flew into the George Bush International Airport in Houston -- and that's a part of my life that I can never get back.  Bush Senior or Bush Junior?  It doesn't matter which one.  Both of them sold America out to Wall Street and War Street.  Both of them claimed to be Christians and yet murdered their way through the Middle East in a manner that would have embarrassed Attila the Hun.  I wouldn't name an airport after their dog.

     So I get to my motel room in Houston and try to get some sleep before my flight out the next day.  No luck there at all.  But what can I expect from a town that names its airport after George Bush.  Perhaps it was the ghosts of all those American soldiers who died violently in all those useless and bloody Bush wars-for-profit that kept me awake.

     So I tried counting sheep.  Took a homeopathic remedy for sleeplessness.  Walked around the block in my bunny slippers at 2:00 am.  Listened to classical music.  Took another hot bath.  Recited the Pledge of Allegiance backwards.  Read the Gideon Bible.  Drank herbal tea.  Nothing.  Still wide awake.

     And, yes, I did catch my flight out the next morning -- but with zero hours of sleep.  Houston had utterly defeated me.  All hat, no cattle?  All sheep, no sleep.

     But I'm warning you, Houston.  You've defeated me once -- but I'll be back!  And please change the name of your airport while I'm gone.

PS:   According to Google, Canada has a 15-billion-dollar arms sale deal with Saudi Arabia in the works, Britain is all excited and pleased about a 3.3-billion-euro arms sale deal with Saudi Arabia -- and the USA just sold $1.5 billion dollars in arms to Saudi Arabia too.  http://www.dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/kingdom-saudi-arabia-ch-47f-chinook-cargo-helicopters

     And meanwhile you and I try to be polite, be kind to our neighbors, never break the law -- and worry about spending just ten dollars to take the kids out to McDonalds for dinner.  But if we truly want to live in a peaceful world and be financially secure too, how can we possibly compete with the kind of bucks that the military-industrial complex churns out in "fake news" propaganda alone?  https://consortiumnews.com/2016/12/28/escalating-the-risky-fight-with-russia/

     Our only hope is knowing that our possession of the moral high ground is priceless.

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Away in a Manger: Homelessness on Christmas Day

     With their ragged tents resembling a scene out of some church Nativity grotto, Berkeley's small band of protesters against American homelessness struggle on -- like the Ghost of Occupy Past.

     After having had all their tents, blankets, porta-potties, heaters, flashlights and library books stolen in yet another police raid last week and then after their leaders were released from the ER, the cold and weary protesters have regrouped on yet another wet and windswept median strip here. 
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2016-12-16/article/45238?headline=Are-the-Berkeley-raids-going-to-stop---Becky-O-Malley

     I visited the Poor Tour's latest site at 10:00 pm on Christmas Eve.  The camp reminded me of "O Little Town of Bethlehem".  I brought one of their wise men a blanket.  It was the least I could do.

     Like King Herod's empire in the Middle East, homelessness in America is currently growing faster than a little drummer boy.  "Do you see what I see?"  America, the so-called Land of Plenty, the self-avowed Christian heartland, should be ashamed.

PS:  Homelessness all over the world needs to be stopped as well.  Every child everywhere needs food and shelter -- even Baby Jesus.  America's war machine also needs to stop supplying bombs that are landing on children in Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, Iraq -- and even Bethlehem itself.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFkmRp_G2uo

PPS:  You can donate to the "Poor Tour" here:  https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/medical-clinic-homeless-intentional-community#/

PPPS:  I leave for Mexico City today.  Our slums could be like their slums in the blink of an eye if Corporate America has its way.

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More lies uncovered in Aleppo & Idlib      
      
     Holy sheep dookie!  A whole new freaking lot of lies are currently being exposed in East Aleppo.   Don't believe anything you read in Avaaz!  http://talfanzine.info/blog/2016/12/15/aleppo-the-truth-that-the-western-media-refuses-to-report/

     Of course all that official hard-line balderdash -- claiming that the US never armed al Qaeda and ISIS -- is always out there floating around somewhere.  But, sorry, guys.  It ain't necessarily so.  https://consortiumnews.com/2016/09/23/how-us-propaganda-plays-in-syrian-war/
 
     According to Global Research, "The respected military journal Jane’s Defence Weekly in its article 'US arms shipment to Syrian rebels detailed' stated that the US supplies the 'Syrian opposition' [aka ISIS] with weapons and ammunition from Eastern Europe, and noted that these facts were almost officially recognized by the US Senate."  Make no mistake.  There are no "moderate rebels" in Syria, only al Qaeda and ISIS.  And US taxpayers arm and fund them.   http://www.globalresearch.ca/aleppo-starts-uncovering-washingtons-support-of-isis-and-al-qaeda/5563136

     And here's a few more exposed lies discovered by a Syrian friend of mine too:

    "Day after day, they are discovering piles and piles of food, heating gasoline, medical equipment and weapons in east Aleppo that are enough for hundreds of thousands to stay alive for years, all of it coming from Turkey, Qatar, the US, and Saudi.  Yet, they were stocking them and leave the civilians to starve, to keep the lies on the Syrian government and blame it for all the starving of the people.

     "These piles of wheat might be enough to feed all Syria!   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUxczfWJTX0  And this is a short clip from Reuters, however I didn't find the original source.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZuLmHC_jlo"

     And here's what my friend from IDLIB just told me as well:   "The situation there keeps getting worse. The hospital was bombed last week [and not by the Russians or Syrians, duh].  They had to move it to another place.  Now with the Aleppo situation...  Things got complicated, then the terrorists agreed to let some of the civilians in my town out... In return for letting terrorists out of Aleppo city. 

     "Let's just pray for the better...but my hopes are fading...  To be honest it seems like we are sacrificed and forgotten in Idlib.  They [meaning NATO, the US, Turkey, Israel and the Saudis more than likely -- the usual suspects in the Middle East] evacuated 15,000 (terrorists+ families) from Aleppo...  It was supposed to be an equal treatment...  But they only managed to get  about 4,000 out in return."   

     Never trust the word of a terrorist -- or the mainstream media either.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikR4VFs0MzY&feature=youtu.be  

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2016's biggest losers: America & ISIS

    If you thought that Putin and Russia would be this year's biggest losers, then you would be wrong.  2016's biggest losers are you and me.

     We lost trillions of dollars to war contractors who spent most of that money on caviar and call girls, fashion statements and Ferraris.   That makes us losers.

     And it was you and me who lost the 2016 presidential election.  Wall Street and War Street won that one hands down.  The bankers are now Stronger Together than ever -- and we obviously made war mongers Great Again.

     We lost our homes, our jobs, our schools and our chances for a college education.

     We lost our grandchildren's chances to avoid living in a dangerously-polluted world and/or inside of a cardboard box.

     But most of all, in 2016 we lost the truth.  https://consortiumnews.com/2016/09/06/dissecting-the-propaganda-on-syria/

     As the American war machine's investment in ISIS began to go south and it began to see its stock plummet as Syria's Assad fought back, suddenly the mainstream media began to crank out Fake News even faster than ever.  Inevitably their stock in false propaganda began to soar in direct inverse proportion to the America/ISIS/al Qaeda coalition's loses in real life.    http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/12/16/reports-at-least-10-nato-military-officers-captured-by-syrian-special-forces-this-morning-in-east-aleppo-bunker/

     As America/ISIS began to lose more and more face in Syria, then more and more lies came pouring out over our heads -- such as the so-called "Massacre in Aleppo".  Really?  Do these war-hogs have any shame at all?  Apparently not.  And you and I have become 2016's biggest losers in 2016 because the MSM has clearly beheaded The Truth.  http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/12/16/aleppo-the-reality-on-the-ground-defies-corporate-media-distortion/

PS:  I went to hear journalist Eva Bartlett speak recently.  She had just got back from Aleppo.  Not from Beirut.  Not from the Beltway.  Not from the offices of the New York Times.  From Aleppo itself.  And with her own eyes she saw the grisly work of the ISIS/al Qaeda terrorists who have been funded and weaponized by the usual suspects -- America, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, etc.  It was refreshing to hear the truth for a change.  Thank you Eva. 

http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/12/17/eva-bartlett-faces-off-with-dilly-hussain-on-syria-news-sources-and-propaganda/

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/370618-syria-sources-bartlett-rt/

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The Big Five: Autism, Alzheimer, Androgyny, ADHD & Anxiety

Disclaimer:  The following article is not intended in any way to step on the toes of Big Pharma.  I'm simply not that courageous -- or that wealthy.  https://thepeopleschemist.com/attorney-interview-how-us-courts-shield-big-pharma/

     In these modern times in America, there appears to be five relatively new, common and major changes in the way that many of our human brains function.  In alphabetical order, they are ADHD, Alzheimers, androgyny, anxiety and autism.

     "But Jane," you might say, "there really hasn't been any real increase in these five types of human brain function.  Science has simply gotten better at detecting and recording them."  That could be true.  Take for instance the brain-pattern change in Americans that we now call ADHD.  I'm sure we've always had hyperactive kids.  It's just that now we medicate them instead of letting them run loose on the farm.

     And I also hear that Isaac Newton was autistic -- as were Michelangelo, DaVinci and many other geniuses in the past that were never diagnosed back in the day.

     As for Alzheimers, they used to just call it "senile dementia," right?  And in the days of Oscar Wilde, androgyny was always kept in the shadows (or else in the jails).  And back in my grandmother's day, anxiety was also kept in the closet -- or else quietly referred to as a "nervous breakdown".

     So maybe there hasn't been a major increase in autism, anxiety, Alzheimers, ADHD and androgyny after all -- and the highly-intensified use of various new brands of medications and vaccines and GMOs and food processings and pollutions really do have nothing to do with any of this stuff. 

     It just seems that way.

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The Israelis and Saudis: Unruly children

     It's really a shame that America's two closest allies in the Middle East right now are constantly acting like spoiled brats and unruly children, shamelessly fighting over oil and land like some out-of-control two-year-olds fighting over birthday cake at a party.  http://news.antiwar.com/2016/11/13/saudis-deliberately-targeting-civilian-infrastructure-in-yemen-war/

     It's unseemly.  And annoying.

     Both the Saudis' and Israelis' constant rude and puerile behavior makes me want to grab them both by the scruff of their necks and give each of them a lengthy time out.  "Stop hitting Yemen," I want to scream at them.  "Stop trying to poke Palestine in the eye!"  Leave poor Iraq alone and stop trying to dunk Iran's head in the punch bowl.  http://972mag.com/times-up-state-announces-immediate-demolition-of-bedouin-village/123285/

     And as I watch these unruly Israeli and Saudi mini-me bullies throw birthday cake all over the yard, it also makes me want to grab their clueless parents in Washington DC by the scruff and send them off to a positive parenting class.  "Either get your children under control or go home and let the rest of us enjoy our cake in peace!" I want to scream at Mr. and Mrs. Beltway.  https://www.rt.com/op-edge/369721-us-weapons-wrong-hands/

     Don't you just hate parents whose kids are bullies and brats and are allowed to run around unsupervised and out of control?  But then why should I not be surprised -- when these unruly children's parents are truly unpleasant people and brats and bullies as well.  http://moderndiplomacy.eu/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1996:the-current-phase-of-conflict-in-syria&Itemid=139

     "Hey.  You.  Keep your hands off of Syria, Ukraine and Libya!" I also want to yell at the mom and the dad.  "Set a good example for your kids.  For Christ's sake, behave yourselves!"  https://healingjustice.wordpress.com/2015/03/10/how-us-aggression-in-ukraine-risks-nuclear-war/

     Saudis and Israelis?  Little monsters!  None of us in our right minds will ever want to invite them to our parties again -- or invite their unruly parents either.  http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/hidden-history/kill-anything-that-moves.html

PS:  Wanna know what else that these unruly parents are up to?  Trying to start World War 3 against China as well as Russia.  But guess what?  This is a really, truly bad idea.

     According to journalist John Pilger, "In 2014, under the rubric of 'information dominance' – the jargon for media manipulation, or fake news, on which the Pentagon spends more than $4 billion – the Obama administration launched a propaganda campaign that cast China, the world’s greatest trading nation, as a threat to 'freedom of navigation'....

     "There is a demented quality about this war mongering," Pilger continues.  "It is as if the 'American Century' -- proclaimed in 1941 by the American imperialist Henry Luce, owner of Time magazine -- has ended without notice and no one has had the courage to tell the emperor to take his guns and go home."  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45963.htm 

     And yet no one has the courage to tell these troublemakers that the party is over either -- for the Saudis, for the Israelis, for the American war machine and, more than likely, for the entire human race as well.  http://www.globalresearch.ca/as-climate-disruption-advances-un-warns-the-future-is-happening-now/5523661

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Berkeley's "Poor Tour": Homeless for the holidays

     In Berkeley right now, there is a group of protesters who have organized an action to protest against homelessness in America.  They call themselves "The Poor Tour," and their actions to protect the homeless are the equivalent of Standing Rock's action to protect our water.  The protesters are also trying to make the dire situation of homelessness here in Berkeley visible to the rest of our nation -- and the police are forcefully trying to shut them down.

     According to one organizer, Mike Zint, "Police have raided our action at least four times already.  They illegally seize and destroy our belongings.  The police don't do that to the tweaker camps here but they do it to us.  Why?  It is because we are protesting that we are being constantly hammered."  https://www.facebook.com/First-they-came-for-the-homeless-253882908111999/

    And, surprisingly, Zint also told me that many of the homeless in Berkeley are UC students.  "But how can that be?" you might ask.  Easy.  According to Zint, students here have to pay $1,800 a month just to rent a 10 x 15 dorm room -- which they also must share.

     "Some say that the homeless student population at Cal is as much as 10% of the enrollment, but I think it is more like 300 homeless students."  Want a better class of homeless folks besides the tweakers and drunks?  A better class of homeless is definitely on its way!

     "What I suggest," continued Zint, "is to make a whole bunch of tiny homes available.  Each one of these self-equipped mobile tiny homes costs only $16,500 apiece.  They are like mini-RVs, they come with trailer hitches, are portable and cost less than even the cheapest new car.  The City of Berkeley could set up an RV-park type of operation with utility hook-ups, and then students could rent them for only $300 a month."  Like the hook-ups at State parks.

    "But what about you personally," I asked Zint.  "How is all this camping out in the cold and the wet affecting you yourself?"  It's probably not as cold here as it is in North Dakota and the police here don't use rubber bullets yet -- but still.

     "I'm doing okay," answered Zint, "but some of the rest of us aren't."  I know that last week, during one of the heavy rainstorms (while the rest of us were snug and warm in our beds), one of the protesters, Mike Lee, almost died from pneumonia.  Lee says that he got sick because the cops just keep chasing the "Poor Tour" and confiscating their blankets and tents.

     "I'd love to be more articulate about my ides for ending homelessness and to consult with the new mayor about how to solve these drastic problems, but I can't think on my feet while the cops keep chasing me and chasing me."

     "What about the Oakland warehouse fire disaster," I asked Zint. 

    He answered with the simple truth.  "Artists and musicians lived there because they couldn't afford to live in other, more building-code-safe lofts and studios.  The bottom line here is that people are going to look for any way to get out of the weather."

     I really enjoyed talking with members of the Poor Tour.  And I respect what they are doing.  But even though Mike Lee tells me that the protesters' tents will get bedecked with Christmas lights very soon and that even a Christmas tree is in their near future, there really is no place like a real home for the holidays.

PS:  Need I remind you once again that, by simply re-directing the hundreds of billions of American dollars going into war profiteers' pockets, we could easily feed and house every single man, woman and child in America.  No more poor folks sleeping in doorways.  No more children raised in the backseats of cars.  No more frozen dead bodies of our elderly found in cardboard boxes after winter storms.  Not to mention the jobs this would create.  https://consortiumnews.com/2016/12/07/how-war-propaganda-keeps-on-killing/

     For instance, the British government just offered a journalist $17,000 a month to make up propaganda lies about not arming ISIS in Aleppo.  And if the Brits are doing that kind of media manipulation, imagine what America's War Street does to grind out its never-ending "fake news".   I wonder how much it pays the New York Times?  And even Democracy Now for its fake news that ISIS butchers are merely "moderate rebels" peacefully hanging out in Aleppo?  http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/british-government-funded-outlet-offered-us-journalist-17000-month-produce

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The Oakland warehouse fire: Death comes at any minute 

     I just heard the tragic story of ten friends who were looking for something fun to do on a Friday night -- after a long week at work.  They began texting back and forth.  "Hey what about going to that show at the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland tonight," texted one musically-inclined friend.

     "Sounds good to me," another friend texted back.  "I hear it's gonna be fun -- plus I love that venue".

     "Count me in," said the third friend.  She lived in San Francisco and didn't want to miss a chance to meet up with her friends from Oakland.

     Then another member of this tight group of friends who had known each other since college said that she wanted to go too.  "But I may be late.  Can't get away until 10 pm at the earliest.  Dinner with neighbors."  Three more friends also committed to another fun evening at the legendary Ghost Ship.  The interior of the old warehouse had been set up to look like some sort of fairyland -- plus you could get really close to the shows.  http://sfist.com/2016/12/03/pre-fire_photos_from_inside_oakland.php#photo-4

     But then things started to come up, you know how that goes, and pretty soon there were only three friends still committed to going to the Ghost Ship on that fateful Friday night -- and one of them wouldn't get there until almost midnight.

     One friend got to the Ghost Ship just as the firefighters arrived.  The other two friends have not been seen or heard from since.  https://apnews.com/728834fb5d234766add47fec7b09183d

     How come two of these friends are now sadly gone from this mortal coil forever while the other eight are grieving with their whole heart and soul -- but alive. 

     Moral here?  Always follow your dreams.  Why?  Because Death is never very far behind you, always breathing down your neck.  You never can tell when your last day on Earth will be. 

     Whether you were in that Ghost Ship in Oakland that just burned to the ground, or that Ghost Ship in Syria infested by ISIS ghouls armed with weapons made in the USA, or in that Ghost Ship on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC (and, no, it doesn't matter if you are Donald "Wall Street" Clinton or Hillary "War Street" Trump) http://russia-insider.com/en/big-media-lying-through-its-teeth-aleppo/ri17990  Or even if you are lucky enough to have access to those Ghost Ship bunkers that the Deep State owns under Wall Street -- Death will always be breathing down your neck.

     Always.

PPS:  And on a very much lighter note, I was shocked to discover that Disneyland has pretty much killed off "Small World".  You get into those little boats and are happily expecting peace-loving munchkins to be singing their cheerful, hopeful and timeless theme song -- and instead they are now screeching out a canned version of "Jingle Bells".  Consumer Alert:  Hardly worth standing in line for.

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America divided: Red State, Blue State, Deep State...

    I'm still fondly remembering my trip to Disneyland last week, and how everyone there was completely unified by only one goal (or maybe two): To see how many rides they could go on in one day and how to have the most fun.  http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2016/11/disneyland-ultimate-american-melting.html

     America should be so lucky as to be this united with regard to political goals as well.  Politically, Americans are clearly divided along the lines of Red States and Blue States these days.  But there is also a third state in American politics that's never mentioned (except perhaps by those of us being described by the Washington Post as writing "fake news").  And the third state that I'm talking about here is the Deep State.  http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/11/nothing-important-happened-in-syria-on-tuesday-nov-29/

     But what is different from past American presidential elections (or selections -- in the case of George W. Bush) with regard to the 2016 presidential election is that for the first time since perhaps Truman the Deep State seems to be divided within itself too.  Most of Wall Street and War Street appear to be Clinton cheerleaders -- while the rest of Wall Street and War Street seem to want Trump.  

     "We like everything Trump's doing," they complain, "but he's just doing it too soon!  America isn't quite ready for our brand of all-out fascism quite yet.  They still need a few years to be programmed and trained."  Or else beat into submission.  "Clinton has the kinder and gentler touch." 

     Make up your mind, guys! 

     But when the Deep State finally does reach an agreement within its ranks, then the rest of us will get whoever it is that they finally decide on -- not who us mere voters seem to want or not want. 

     Should they support the recount for Clinton, making sure that it goes her way?  Or should they wholeheartedly embrace president-elect Trump?  Or are they suffering from buyer's remorse?  Apparently so.  "We do love Trump, but we just can't seem to let go of Clinton either," they mumble to themselves.  It's almost like being on "The Bachelor" -- getting down to the last two girls but still not being able to decide which sweetheart is gonna actually get The Rose.  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45935.htm

     Make up your mind, guys.  
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