Saturday, October 20, 2018


Money Money Money: Only rich people can afford to report on America's "wars"

     Thank goodness for FaceBook.  If it weren't for Mr. Zukerman's reluctant invention, we would never have any idea at all regarding what is actually going on in the world right now, even in "war" zones.  Thanks to FB, however, we have easy access to over a billion on-the-scene eye witnesses located in almost every nook and cranny on the globe. 

     Or at least we used to.

     But please be aware that things are run a hecka lot differently in the mainstream media.  There's never any local citizens on FB covering the news for the MSM in all those trumped-up war zones that Washington and Lockheed-Martin seem to love so much.  Only reporters hired by rich people can afford to report stuff on mainstream media news feeds from there.  And because only rich people can afford to hire MSM war correspondents, we only get rich people's accounts of what's going on in these so-called "wars".  Nobody else can afford it.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXE_n2q08Yw

      Take me for example.  I would immediately run off to such hot-spots and/or hell-holes as Libya, Afghanistan, Honduras or Yemen and report nothing but the truth back to you -- but to do that, I would have to win the lottery first.

     And not just any lottery either.  It's got to be the mega-million-dollar PowerBall SuperLotto jackpot if I am ever gonna have even a tiny chance of reporting back to you from Benghazi or Gaza.  You simply can't get an accurate news-feed from Aleppo or Kabul for free these days.

     For instance, when I was an embedded reporter in Iraq in 2007, I was totally stuck in the so-called Green Zone of Baghdad -- where absolutely nothing was going on and there weren't even any Iraqis to talk to.  "But I want to go out and report on the rest of Baghdad too," I complained to my official US Army minder there. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2007/04/sadr-city-my-fall-back-date-to-prom.html

     "Of course you can go out into the Red Zone," my babysitter replied, "but you'll be dead within 15 minutes of crossing that bridge over the Tigris -- unless you can afford eight thousands dollars to hire a platoon of mercenaries and a tank."  Er, no.

     Being a "war" correspondent is simply too expensive for me.

     And another thing that I would just love to report on?  What the freak is going on with the Saudis?  Why have they suddenly dropped their alliance with America and ISIS and become BFFs with the Russians instead?  Could it possibly be that they are starting to think that America might be planning to do unto them what America has already done to Libya, Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, Indonesia and Afghanistan?  To most of the world's oil-bearing nations?  And is hoping to do to Iran, Russia and Venezuela too?  Is there a pattern here or what?

     And it's not too hard to imagine that, at this rate, Big Oil will eventually gain a monopoly on every single drop of oil currently left in the world.  But then what happens?  Do you honestly think that the price of gas in America will suddenly start to drop after that?  With a Big Oil monopoly firmly in place?  Yeah right. 

      And as for that Washington Post journalist who just got hacked to death by the Saudis?  Face it, guys.  It's been decades since America has ever given a shite about freedom of speech or even the lives of any journalists -- or even about Saudi terrorism in Yemen or at the World Trade Center either.  You can just bet that Money Money Money is somehow involved here too.  


PS:  There are also lots of places closer to home, right here in the belly of the Beast itself, that I can afford to go report on.  For instance, there's that never-ending "war on drugs" zone in El Paso/Juarez.  Or I could report on that war zone in Washington DC where Congress is fighting like crazy to steal our Social Security.  Or the war zone in Georgia where Black people, even after 400 years, are still fighting for their right to vote.  Or the war zone in South Dakota where Native Americans are fighting for the right to have drinkable water.  Or ditto that war zone in Flint.

     Or I could even report on that war zone right here in Berkeley where we are desperately fighting for affordable housing and the prevention of climate catastrophe -- and also fighting for our right to not have the corporate-owned White House, Congress and Supreme Court continuously stomp on our dreams.

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Stop Wall Street and War Street from destroying our world.   And while you're at it, please buy my books.  https://www.amazon.com/Jane-Stillwater/e/B00IW6O1RM
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