America claims Syria's oil. Can Syria now claim America's oil too?

     I'm off to Texas tomorrow.  Going to stay with a friend in Dallas for a few days, and also try to pitch my latest murder mystery at a book conference as well.  And I'm also going to find myself in the heart of the American oil industry, in that great state that gave us Texaco, James Dean in Giant, fourteen major Houston oil refineries and two of the most corrupt and mendacious presidents we've ever had -- George Bush and George Bush.

     Ah, Texas.

     And then there's the northeastern state of Deir Ezzor, located in Syria.  It's got oil too.  And President Trump has just announced that Deir Ezzor's oil is actually America's oil.  Who knew?  https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/23/us-troops-staying-syria-oil/

     But does this mean that all the oil in Texas now belongs to President Assad?  Is there a quid pro quo at work here too?  I'm about to go to Dallas and find out.  https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/10/25/we-want-to-keep-the-oil/

PS:  Syria also owns a whole bunch of UNESCO world heritage sites as well as a whole bunch of oil.  Isn't it time that the United Nations made a new rule about antiquities (as well as a new rule about oil too?)  "If you invade a country that has an official UNESCO world heritage site, then you get thrown out of the UN."  That makes perfect sense.

     The Saudis would get thrown out of the UN for trying to destroy Saana, right?  And America would get thrown out of the UN for engineering, planning, financing and/or staging invasions of Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, etc.

     Hell, America should have been kicked out of the UN way back when Kissinger invaded Cambodia!  Remember Angkor Watt?

     But America doesn't ever have to worry about a quid pro quo with Syria with regard to antiquities.  Why?  Because America doesn't even have any UNESCO world heritage sites built in the post-colonial era -- unless you count Las Vegas of course.  And the Statue of Liberty.  But Americans mostly ignore the Statue of Liberty these days.  Maybe the Syrians might be more entitled to it than us right now.  At least they are willing to fight for their freedom.

     Maybe "Remember the Alamo" should be Syria's motto too.  Or at least "Remember Deir Ezzor!"

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A tourist in Syria -- and Dallas...

     What's on my bucket list right now?  To die in Tibet.  To visit the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria.  To find out who really shot JFK.  Murder mysteries?  Tourism?  I've got a lot to say about that!  Give me a second here to organize my thoughts.  https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/23/us-troops-staying-syria-oil/

1.  The same people who murdered President Kennedy are the same people who tried to murder President Assad of Syria -- and who also murdered Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi.  And the same people who will eventually murder you and me too.  No mystery there.  http://www.radio4all.net/files/anonymous@radio4all.net/16-1-MeetingAssad.mp3

2.  I'm currently reading one of Eliot Pattison's excellent murder mysteries that take place in Tibet, and he makes that rugged land and those rugged people so appealing that all I want to do is move there for the rest of my life.  https://eliotpattison.com/bone-mountain/

3.  I just finished writing my own murder mystery -- and it takes place in Tibet too.  It's not as good as Pattison's books but writing it was totally fun.  Traveling Well is the Best Revenge.  Buy it and see!  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1081152508/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

4.  Ah, Syria!  I miss it already.  All those fabulous historical sites.  Did you know that before Syria was ruthlessly invaded by America and its allies al Qaeda and ISIS, the tourist industry in Syria scored at least eight-point-four billion dollars in income per year.  But.  

     Now that Syria is back to belonging to its own residents again and its torrid home-invasion tragedy is finally almost over, my true bucket-list dream is to go buy a suitcase, Hawaiian shirt and tacky sunglasses, fly off to Damascus and put the Syrian tourist route back on the map!  Ancient Aleppo!  Palmyra!  The Roman amphitheater at Bosra!  "The Krak de Chevaliers is a Crusader castle dating back to the 10th century."  There are currently six (6) UNESCO sites in Syria right now and six more being vetted.  I wanna go there!  Put me in charge of Syrian tourism!  Please.  https://news.artnet.com/art-world/syria-isis-palmyra-restoration-1338257

5.  And as for Dallas, I'll be going there next week -- to attend BoucherCon, a famous gathering of murder-mystery readers and writers from all over the world.  If anyone can name names and point fingers at who specifically murdered JFK in Dallas, it would be us.  But there's certainly no mystery regarding who caused that fierce tornado in North Dallas recently -- the same people who murdered President Kennedy and tried to murder President Assad.  The same people who are bringing us the climate catastrophe.  Those war-mongering petroleum whores.  To be blunt.  https://www.bouchercon2019.com/

     What's on your bucket list?

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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

The real basis for impeachment?  Not phone calls but murder...

     For the past eight years, our mainstream media has been constantly screaming its talking head off at us about the hysterical importance of staging a bloody and wasteful "regime change" in Syria.  But, instead, shouldn't the MSM actually be telling us the unvarnished truth -- that "regime-change" here at home is a much better idea.   

     Those grifters in Washington have been short-sheeting us Americans for decades now.  Definitely time for a change.

     And as for impeachment?  If America was truly the Christian nation that everyone is always pretending it is and not just the Attila-the-Hun wannabe that it actually is, then Trump would have been impeached way back in 2017 for perpetrating his brutal un-Christ-like butchery in Syria almost the moment he took office.  https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/59017-civilian-deaths-in-us-wars-are-skyrocketing-under-trump-it-may-not-be-impeachable-but-its-a-crime

     And as for Trump's recent withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria?  That too is a lie on so many levels.  We've been fed a whole stomach-full of lies about Syria in the first place and now we're being fed fantasies about the Kurds too.  Non-Syrian Kurds have Syrian blood on their hands as well.  And America has been generously bankrolling the Kurds, ISIS and even Turkey for years now -- anything to create chaos in the Middle East.  And to sell weapons.  https://www.globalresearch.ca/syrian-debacle-well-planned-chaos/5692332

      U.S. kill-squads need to get out of Syria immediately, sure, but Turkish, ISIS, Zionist, Saudi and non-Syrian Kurdish berserkers need to get out as well.  What all these gangstas are really fighting over are eastern Syria's oil fields.

     Trump may or may not be withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria where they never belonged in the first place -- but he is also sending them back into Iraq as well.  Been there.  Done that.  Wrote a book about it.  Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East

     Trump and friends, however, are clearly not alone in their blood-lust for slaughtering innocent women and children in faraway places.  A whole bunch of other U.S. presidents shoulda been impeached for piracy and mayhem as well -- if not actually sent to jail where they belong (that is, if America actually was a real Christian nation).

    For instance, President Truman should have been impeached for ordering that horrid flesh-dissolving nuclear weapon to be so callously dropped on the women and children of Hiroshima even after the Japanese tried to surrender -- and then Truman should have been jailed for ordering that other dreaded nuclear device to be dropped on a Christian cathedral in Nagasaki, destroying thousands of pious parishioners on a holy Sunday morning while they were praying to Christ.  https://www.mintpressnews.com/author/dr-gary-kohls/

     And Truman should also have been impeached for starting that blasphemous Korean war in 1953, justified by trumped-up lies and resulting in the violent deaths of 33,686 American soldiers and the wounding of 100,000 others -- not to mention the three million Koreans who were slaughtered or starved to death as well.   

     And President Eisenhower should have been impeached for ordering the bloody torture and assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, thus generating a decades-long snowball effect still continuing to this day and resulting in the violent deaths of approximately three million men, women and children in the Congo.  So far.

     Jesus is probably up there in Heaven, just sadly shaking his head. 

      And impeachment proceeding should have started immediately after Eisenhower gave his infamous order to overthrow the democratically-elected president of Iran as well, a nightmare that Americans still blame Iran for creating.  Ha.  It was the bloodthirsty Eisenhower who done it.    

     And Presidents Johnson and Nixon should have been impeached for using trumped-up lies to murder 50,000 American servicemen (and women) and to butcher over a million Vietnamese and Cambodian farmers as well -- not to mention an uncounted number of water buffalo.

     President Reagan should have been impeached for his heartless disembowelment of Central America and for his trumped-up lies about the Iran-Contra scandal.  How un-Christain is that!  And America is still paying the price for that at our southern border.  Thank you, Ronnie Popular -- with a little help from his friend Hillary Clinton.

     President George H.W. Bush lied through his teeth in order to start the infamous Gulf War wherein 250,000 American soldiers fell victim to Gulf War Syndrome, causing approximately 25,000 premature deaths. 

     President Clinton should have been impeached for his ruthless slaughter of Yugoslavia, including setting all those murderous post-Afghan mujahedin loose on Serbia.  https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/588695/the-management-of-savagery-by-max-blumenthal/9781788732291

     Of course George W. Bush should have never even been allowed through the White House front door.  We shoulda jailed him for election theft alone.  But he was given the keys to the Oval Office instead.  Yikes!

      But once Bush was actually asleep in the Lincoln bedroom, we should have impeached him for all his cold-blooded butchery in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Almost ten thousand American soldiers have been murdered due to his shameless and scurrilous lies -- and countless young American amputees are now moving through their lives without arms or legs because of his WMD lie.  And let's not even think about the million or more West Asia civilians who lost their lives because of his lies too.

      President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton both should have been impeached for their blood-thirsty massacre of Libya, setting foxes loose in the Honduran hen house and orchestrating the nightmare of releasing their ISIS fiends in Syria. 

     And all of these presidents should have been impeached for the Hell on Earth that they helped create in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

     "But, Jane," you might say, "these presidents kept us safe."  Seriously?  Between the financial crisis, the terror threats, the homelessness disaster, the climate crisis, the border mess, the job outsourcing, the education crisis, a secret surveillance state that includes the NSA, TSA, FBI, CIA, ICE and Homeland Security, cuddling up to the blood-thirsty Zionists and Saudis, gross voter suppression, tax cuts for the wealthy, White nationalists, Endless War, Citizens United deals, Big Pharma price gouging, Nazi-like racism, corporatism instead of democracy, the active-shooter crisis, dangerous infrastructure failures and all those healthcare deaths, I've never felt less safe in my life.

     And another truly sad thing about all of these horrible homicides committed by our American presidents is that instead of using America's boundless wealth to create a heaven on earth for all of humanity like Jesus would have done, America's greedy corporatists and all those other made-in-the-USA Nazi wannabes in DC as well as their pond-scum allies the Zionists and Saudis have taken (stolen) our planet's immense wealth and ruthlessly squandered it away on foreign misadventures and bloody slaughter.

     Instead of creating a sparkling new human paradise here, happily based on new technology and the Golden Rule, these reckless predators have scammed us into creating a whole new version of the "war" on Vietnam -- only now Vietnam 2.0 is in the Middle East and West Asia. 

     The only real difference between the Vietnam slaughterhouse and the Middle East slaughterhouse seems to be that instead of being forced to listen to Johnson, Kissinger and Nixon's old lies about Vietnam, we now have all new lies shoved down our throats about why America is now butchering millions of men, women and children in Libya, Palestine, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq and Syria.  https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=176401

      And the old truth that America lost its ghoulish "war" on Vietnam is now being replaced by the new truth that America is losing its ghoulish "war" on West Asia -- just in time for Halloween.

     Isn't it time that we start impeaching all these blood-thirsty serial-killer presidents -- past, present and even any sitting US president who tries to get blood on his or her hands in the future?  And throwing them all in jail too?  And creating a genuine "peace bonus" to spend on ourselves instead?  Tulsi Gabbard: Hillary Clinton Attacking Me For Opposing Regime Change Wars, She Has Blood On Her Hands

PS:  Vice President Pence is currently combining the Lee Harvey Oswald defense with the Richard Nixon defense in order to avoid impeachment.  "I am not a patsy!"  Sorry, Mike.  That's not going to save you either.  http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/pence-i-participated-in-ukraine-plot-but-only-as-a-patsy.html

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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

Ecuador's revolting situation: Why that can't happen here

    Thank goodness for FaceTime.  Thank goodness for Skype.  And even Twitter, YouTube and Instagram aren't really all that bad if you want to get the real news about what is really going on in this world.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxPepA-Jwr8

      My friend Gabriella just Skyped me from Quito, Ecuador.  "What the freak is going on down there," I asked her.  Ecuadorians have staged massive protests there for the last 14 days.

      "People here in my country are just sick and tired of being ripped off by international bankers, corrupt presidents and global corporations out to make a huge profit at our expense."  Hmmm.  Sounds like what is happening here in the USA too -- only with one big exception.  Salt-of-the-earth Americans never seem to mind getting ripped off. 

     All you gotta do here in my country is tell the American "common man" that he's just a victimized down-trodden victim of "latte-drinking liberals" and they will instantly allow you to commit any economic horror on them that you can think of -- fleece their paychecks, rob them blind, steal their homes and even turn their children into mindless numb robots and set their grandmothers afloat on icebergs. 

     Yet nobody here in America even seems to notice that they are being screwed royally by the neo-con country-club set -- let alone actually protest.  Not only that but America spends billions, trillions of dollars trying to defeat countries that oppose its shoddy American empire -- yet won't spend hardly a penny to help those truly in need such as women without access to healthcare in Alabama or victims of home repossession in Ohio or hurricane victims in Florida and Puerto Rico.  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29058214-the-dirty-war-on-syria-washington-regime-change-and-resistance

     "No one in Ecuador," said my friend, "ever trusts the local news -- which lies through its teeth, falsely reporting that all us thousands of protestors are taking to the streets in support of the corrupt president, the bankers and the IMF, not against them."

     Boy does that sound familiar.  Didn't something similar to that just happen in our own mainstream media with regard to protests in Venezuela, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Palestine, et cetera?  Where protestors in these countries all support the working class but the press here in America reports that the protesters are supporting banksters instead?  Or that banksters and crass invaders are actually the good guys?  https://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2019/10/union-maid-my-wonderful-visit-with.html

      But, trust me, something like the current Ecuadorian protest won't ever happen here.  There will never be any mass protests by working-class heroes against corrupt banksters here.  Sometimes I think that America's working class is totally composed of masochists.

     "They are shooting rubber bullets at protestors," continued my friend, "aiming straight for their eyes.  The indigenous people are suffering the brunt of these attacks.  But still we keep protesting despite the danger because all of the people down here are really pissed off.  Correa was an exception, but now Moreno is trying to side with the IMF, choosing money over country.  We've seen far too many of our presidents just take the money and run." http://syriangirlpartisan.blogspot.com/

     That happens here too.  George Bush for instance.  But nobody here in America never seems to remember or even to mind that we Americans are constantly being victimized and scalped by shady politicians, war-profiteers and banksters.  The Average Joe here just wants to have a beer with Bush or shake hands with Clinton or go to a Trump rally or fondly reminisce about Reagan or Obama.  Or even about Nixon!  Although nobody ever wanted to have a beer with Nixon. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=208&v=lKZqu61IbFI

      "We are stockpiling food here," said my new on-the-ground citizen-reporter in Quito.  "I have enough food for three days."  That sounds just like what recently happened in northern California when PG&E cut off electricity to 3,000,000 people -- and once again, even in NorCal, nobody seemed to object or to even mind.  https://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2019/10/powering-off-pg-just-shot-itself-in.html

     "What do you expect the results of all this will be?" I asked my friend.

     "There are negotiations going on now.  We're getting the 'austerity measures' ended.  All these protests are actually working!"  Good.  People power saves the day!  Banksters, carpetbaggers and grifters of Equator, be gone before someone drops a casa on you as well!  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/14/ecuador-protests-end-after-deal-struck-with-indigenous-leaders

     Ah, if only we had that kind of people power here in the United States too.... 

     Every single working man and woman in all 50 of our so-called united states should be out on the picket lines supporting General Motors strikers.  But they are not.  Let's do something about that!  https://solidaritycenter.ourpowerbase.net/civicrm/mailing/view?reset=1&id=160

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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

Syria: Eating the Kurds -- and why

     What's with Donald Trump?  Is he really all that stupid?  Or just playing with us like a fox in the hen house?

     I recently went to a guest lecture at the University of Damascus, given by visiting Australian professor Tim Anderson.  There were approximately 600 students in attendance -- not counting the balcony seats. 

     Professor Anderson is an acknowledged expert on Syria.  "But I couldn't even get my books published in Australia."  Sounds typical.  Tell the truth and shame the media?  Never a safe idea.  Just ask Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.

     "I don't believe that Trump is a stupid man," said the professor, "but the system is making him stupid.  There is a great deal of cynicism in Washington.  They say one thing and do another.  For instance, America funded and weaponized ISIS.  It's all documented."  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29058214-the-dirty-war-on-syria-washington-regime-change-and-resistance

     After the lecture, I found a tiny little ice cream shop in the Old Damascus souk and thought about what the professor had said -- in view of this latest Turkish invasion against Syrian Kurds.

     No, Trump isn't stupid.  While on the surface he appears to finally be doing the Christian thing and pulling American troops out of Syria where they never belonged in the first place.

     But Trump is acting stupidly -- like a fox, a fox in the hen house.  Not Christian at all.  And the Syrian Kurds are his chickens.  They were told that they weren't but they are.

     And Trump has just left the Kurdish hen house unlocked.

     And yet....  And yet Americans seem to actually hate Trump for endangering the Kurdish chickens, right?  But.  When your goal is to turn all of independent wonderful Syria into Kentucky Fried Chicken, then leaving the Kurdish hen house unlocked is the wily thing to do.  A Kurd is a Kurd, sure, but the bottom line is that a Syrian Kurd is still a Syrian.

     And Trump the Fox is set on having President Assad for his Sunday dinner.  How ironic.  Right after he and Melania get back from church.

     President Assad is a good guy who has been lied about and maligned by American media -- both Left and Right.  But it's hard for most Americans to see the president of Syria as a good guy when Trump's swamp in Washington can only see him as dinner.

     To paraphrase what else Professor Anderson said in his lecture, "If chickens ever want to stay safe, they need to stick together."  For Christ's sake, yes!

PS:  At the university president's reception, I was amazed and pleased when they served us Ferrero Rocher chocolates.  See?  The Syrian chickens have more in common with us American chickens than you would think.

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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

Powering off:  PG&E just shot itself in the foot

     "But what am I going to do with all this spoiled chicken in my refrigerator -- and how in the freak can I watch TV?" 3,000,000 Californians are probably asking themselves this very question right now.  Ha.  Just get used to playing your own game of "Survivor".  Outwit, out play, outlast.

      And don't be surprised if a whole new bunch of babies are born nine months from now -- as people run out of things to do without their iPhones.

    But mainly, by playing Island of the Idols with 3,000,000 people's lives (probably as payback for when Californians accused PG&E of starting some of those deadly wildfires last year), PG&E has made it abundantly clear to the world that now would be a really excellent time to have solar power instead.

     To paraphrase the Pussycat Dolls, "Dontcha just wish you had solar power like me!?!"

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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

    

Union Maid: My wonderful visit with President Assad

    The phone rang in my hotel room in Damascus the other day.  "Get yourself down to the lobby ASAP!" said someone, not sure who.  I dashed out the door, flew to the elevator, ran to the buffet table, grabbed up some tomatoes, feta cheese, hummus and tea.  I was ready for anything!

     And guess what I was ready for?  Get outta town!  Apparently President Assad himself was going to meet with us today -- trade-union representatives from all over the world.  Holy cow!  This is some heavy-duty shite.

     "He will shake your hand," said the person next to me.  "There will be high levels of security involved.  In fact, an Israeli drone could even blow us all up!"  What a hot story that would be for my blog -- except that it won't happen because a fortune-teller told me years ago that I'm not spozed to die for another nine years.

     I just hope that I don't blubber and drool.

     And then suddenly we were all on the move.  Out the front door of the conference center.  Herded through security screening.  Boarded onto a bus.  Driven down the mountainside to downtown Damascus.  Dropped off in front of Syria's answer to the White House West Wing.  Nice carpet.  "There he is!"

     And then here's me, actually shaking hands with President Assad.  "Thank you for saving Syria!" I exuded like some star-struck school-girl Beatles fan.  And then the President of Syria spoke to our group.

     "The conflicts here are unreal," he said.  "Not that they don't exist but they are unreal in that they don't express the real interests of the working people of the world's countries.  We here in Syria try to express the real interests of working people.  That's why I'm happy to meet with you today -- because skilled workers represent the veins and the arteries of every society.  If the working class is okay, the society is okay."  Except of course in America where they are treated like disposable peons and peasants. https://www.tcfrank.com/books/whats-the-matter-with-kansas/

      "War is the most important challenge for us now.  We're trying to express the interests of the Syrian people -- and for this we are paying a great price.  And all through the rest of the world as well, even including conflicts in Ukraine and the South China Sea, the same foundation is represented -- the conflict between workers and the wealthy.  All the wars are linked to this conflict.  All are interconnected." 

     Sad but true.  From Vietnam in the 1960s to Iraq, Ferguson, Venezuela, Yemen, Afghanistan, Palestine, Detroit, Flint and Honduras today, working people are getting screwed by the wealthy.  Woodie Guthrie was right.  https://greatsong.net/PAROLES-WOODY-GUTHRIE,PRETTY-BOY-FLOYD,109236733.html

       "State presidents have become more like CEOs, working for corporations.  And if they don't pay the corporations, they will no longer be president.  In one night alone, 250 million dollars of weaponry was fired on Syria."  Who profited from that?  Trump had his marching orders for sure.  

     "And regarding France's President Macon?  The same thing happened.  He gave the order to attack Syria and suddenly he is a hero!  Elections are focused on financial interests alone.  In countries across the world, there have been campaigns to weaken trade unions -- so that the only ideology that remains is brutal globalization."  President Assad has been badly maligned by the Western media -- solely because he refused to go along with this program.  https://www.claritypress.com/product/axis-of-resistance-towards-an-independent-middle-east-2/

     "For every ten dollars in profit, one study said that eight dollars goes to the world's wealthy.  This is a great failure because workers are not partners.  CEOs get millions, hundreds of millions of dollars at the end of the year.  The gap between producers and owners has widened."  No one in their right mind can deny this.  https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/eye-popping-analysis-shows-top-one-percent-gained-21-trillion-in-wealth-since-1989-while-bottom-half-lost-900-billion/

     "In the 1970s, the workers' role in politics widened and they played a major role here in Syria.  And then we got sanctioned and blockaded.  We here in Syria have never been extremists.  But everybody else was going toward privatization throughout the world and conditions for workers elsewhere got worse and worse."

     1970s?  That reminds me.  I owe President Assad an apology.  I had believed that his father was a tyrant -- but here in Syria I've been schooled with the truth.  America hated Assad's father because Hafez Assad also supported the working class.  WTF?  Even I had fallen for that cheesy American propaganda.  Sorry about that.

     "We currently have a vibrant private sector here in Syria but the workers also have a big role.  We no longer have tourists or exports [due to America's proxy dirty "war" on Syria] but you can see that employees still get salaries.  Education is free here, and so is healthcare."  Wow!  I coulda had a free root canal on my sore tooth!

     "People die for their country here because they are partners in this country -- but we don't think this [proxy invasion] will end any time soon, however, due to globalization processes."  If some strong-arm entity invaded America, would Americans drop all their petty differences, unite together and fight against the invader?  Hard to say.  We've already let global corporations invade us -- gave up without a fight.  But the Syrian people obviously have all joined forces and fought back.  Good for them.

     "When workers become real partners in governing, then our work is done.  There are no conflicting interests when public interests become everyone's interests.  Terrorists and proxy terrorists will no longer exist."

     Then President Assad thanked us for visiting Syria during these difficult times.  "Any questions?  Please feel safe to speak freely."  What an opportunity!  But then a lot of trade-union reps blew it by not asking actual questions but just describing themselves or making pretty speeches using diplomatic protocol.  C'mon, guys!  Ask a freaking question!  President Assad is knowledgeable, friendly, amiable and approachable.  Don't pass up this magical chance!  Don't make me stand up and ask those questions myself!

      Finally the union rep from Germany asked a question.  "What about the international banking system?  How does Syria find a role outside of that?  Perhaps with the many other countries now being sanctioned?"  Good question, German guy.

     "We're working on it.  The United States is now also blockading itself."  Yep, that's us -- happily shooting ourselves in the foot by declaring economic war on so many other countries, spreading ourselves too thin by declaring yet another stupid "war" that, even though it is harming Syrians now, will in the long run hurt America more.  In the future, nobody on the entire planet is gonna want to "friend" America. 

     "Most of the products we used to import from America, we now import from other countries.  20 years ago we would have been in trouble -- but not now.  It is a whole different world.  A network of new relations and new systems.  Russia is working on a new banking system for instance.  With every country we trade with there is a different agreement with credit lines." 

     I've run worn out at least two ballpoint pens in the past 24 hours alone.  This is interesting stuff.

     More union reps spoke.  No more questions, however.  Mostly just  rhetorical stuff.  But then Max Blumenthal stepped up to the plate.  Oooh, this is gonna be good.  "Why has the Syrian military not hit back after all the Israeli attacks?"  Wow.  He actually went there.

     "There is a plan -- America, France, Israel, etc. have cost us almost 50% of our army.  We have done much but we still have significant steps.  We need more deterrent capabilities.  We did not have significant capabilities.  They had material and capabilities but we have a long-range plan."  Yeah what!  The American bullies picked on Syria just because they could -- but at great cost Syria has actually fought back.  American schoolyard bullies and their ISIS proxies weren't expecting that.  Humph.

      And an Iranian union rep finally came up with a good question too.  "What's happening in Idlib and what about sanctions?  How do you face sanctions?"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz_7ZUmmTzQ&t=5s

      "We will liberate every part of Syria," the president answered.  "The stages of our plan will continue to liberate us all.  As for the U.S. airstrikes, they said that they attacked al Qaeda but they actually made attacks against us.  Some Syrians have acted against their own country but most are highly patriotic.  We can talk about a real victory, however, only when we can make independent decisions -- but at this point the American financial powers are greater than in Europe so America is still the policy decider.  As for sanctions, the U.S. still has a monopoly on technology.  10% of Air Bus parts are American."

      Syrians clearly love Syria under President Assad.  For instance, over 390,000 Syrian refugees and some 1.3 million internally displaced persons have returned back home just since last year.  They don't want to hang out in Europe or Jordan or even Lebanon.  They want to be safely back home with President Assad.  They vote with their feet.  https://thinkprogress.org/17-million-americans-purged-from-voter-rolls-between-2016-and-2018-new-report-finds-38c2c5c3124b/

     "The next step should be restoring Syria's infrastructure.  We have a common vision.  We can't wait, can't change anything by criticism...."  I missed what President Assad said next because my translation transmitter just turned off.  New transmitter.  Problem solved.

     "Workers' unions are very active in Syria.  They act as advocates.  They are financially organized and cover all of the country even to the remotest village.  They have excellent pension plans and give workers vacations and healthcare." 

     In fact, before being cruelly invaded by American, Zionist and Saudi proxies, Syria was well on its way to being one of the most advanced countries in the world.  I read somewhere that before America and its terrorist proxies invaded it, Syria was ranked number ten worldwide in something or other.  Healthcare?  Education?  Good stuff like that. 

      Hell, the main reason that America demanded "regime change" in Syria seems to be that all those green-eyed monsters in DC simply got too jealous for their own good.  "What's mine is mine -- and what's yours is mine too."  It's okay for toddlers think like that -- but shouldn't we expect more from our national leaders?  Right now, President Assad is looking more and more like the kind of guy that we would like to have as a president.  Not an "evil dictator" at all, President Assad actually is the working-class hero that Trump pretends to be.

     And in another comparison, the U.S. House of Representatives is currently considering impeaching Donald Trump for some dumb-arse thing that he said in a phone call.  But what about all the horrible and barbaric murders he committed in Syria?  Or even his many deplorable crimes against America workers?  How come no one is impeaching him for that?  https://theintercept.com/2019/10/02/trump-impeachment-civilian-casualties-war/   

PS:  While I was shaking hands with the honestly-elected President of Syria, someone took a photo of us.  So.  If anyone has a copy of said photo, pleeze let me know.  Gotta hang it on my wall.  Gotta put it on my FaceBook page!

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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