Friday, June 8, 2018

Bill or Jill? I choose Jill

  Retweeted
Aaron Maté Retweeted Dr. Jill Stein 🌻
Compare attention paid to Stein's self-funded trip to an RT gala where Putin sat at her table for a few minutes vs. Bill Clinton's trip where he met w/ Putin & got $500k for a speech from a firm fighting US sanctions. HRC camp later killed a story on it:
Aaron Maté added,


Exactly. 

Jill Stein did not do anything wrong.  Finger-pointers Bill & Hillary did have stuff to cover up. 

And the media has allowed them to do this.

Think about Bill Clinton's tantrum this week and grasp that he hasn't been asked about Monica.  In the years since he left the White House, he's been able to talk about just what he wants to talk about.

They certainly haven't asked him about Juanita Broddrick.

If he were treated like someone really being interviewed, instead of fawned over, he'd be asked a lot of questions that would make him uncomfortable


This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 
Friday, June 8, 2018.  Congress needs to ask the Defense Dept how they rate US tax dollars when they can't even show up for a hearing on burn pits?



Where is the US Defense Dept?  Or rather, where was it?


US House Rep Beto O'Rourke: I'm just really disappointed -- the Chairman of the Subcommittee already said this, but I join him in saying just how disappointed I am that Department of Defense ducked this meeting.  They have every reason in the world to be here -- deeply disappointing that they're not.


He was speaking at Thursday afternoon's House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing -- a hearing the Defense Dept decided wasn't important enough for them to be present.

The view was a common one.  US House Rep Clay Higgins, for example, stated, "I'd like to state for all present that it is quite disturbing that DoD is not present."  In what world is DoD allowed to sit out the hearing?  And we thought the VA's former Alison Hickey was the worst veterans would have to suffer through?


Higgins continued, "I'm quite disturbed that DoD isn't here because I'd like to ask who the genius was that came up with this idea?  We've essentially --  we've essentially deployed chemical and biological weapons on our own troops."

How so?  The topic was burn pits.    

"I will say that I'm disappointed that the representatives of DoD chose not to participate today.  This is currently the only planned panel on this subject," observed US House Rep Neal Dunn.  "Their statement is available for the record; however, as a potential key contributor in what needs to be ongoing research into this problem, their presence would have been valuable."

But they weren't there.  The American people pay DoD's salaries.  What's the justification for the Dept of Defense failing to send a single representative to the hearing?

As many members of the Committee noted in the hearing, it had taken years for the government to address Agent Orange and its victims from the Vietnam War.

In fact, as Beto O'Rourke noted, "it took this country more than 40 years to acknowledge our responsibility and our accountability and to pony up and begin to take care of people that we should have decades earlier been there for."


When DoD doesn't even feel the need to show up at a hearing on burn pits, it makes it appear highly unlikely that they feel any real pressure to address this serious issue that is not only causing the suffering of many veterans but is also claiming the lives of many veterans.

Do they not even care?

And do they not even care about offering the pretense that they care?

DoD looks very bad.

And that's before you factor in the US Government Accountability Office issuing a report yesterday entitled "DOD Needs to Fully Assess the Health Risks of Burn Pits."  Here's the summary of the report:


What GAO Found

GAO reported in September 2016 that the effects from exposing individuals to burn pit emissions were not well understood, and the Department of Defense (DOD) had not fully assessed the health risks associated with the use of burn pits. Burn pits—shallow excavations or surface features with berms used to conduct open-air burning—were often chosen as a method of waste disposal during recent contingency operations in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility, which extends from the Middle East to Central Asia and includes Iraq and Afghanistan. According to DOD Instruction 6055.01, DOD Safety and Occupational Health (SOH) Program , DOD should apply risk-management strategies to eliminate occupational injury or illness and loss of mission capability or resources. The instruction also requires all DOD components to establish procedures to ensure that risk-acceptance decisions were documented, archived, and reevaluated on a recurring basis. Furthermore, DOD Instruction 6055.05, Occupational and Environmental Health (OEH), requires that hazards be identified and risk evaluated as early as possible, including the consideration of exposure patterns, duration, and rates.
While DOD has guidance that applies to burn pit emissions among other health hazards, DOD had not fully assessed the health risks of use of burn pits, according to DOD officials.
According to DOD officials, DOD's ability to assess these risks was limited by a lack of adequate information on (1) the levels of exposure to burn pit emissions and (2) the health impacts these exposures had on individuals. With respect to information on exposure levels, DOD had not collected data from emissions or monitored exposures from burn pits as required by its own guidance. Given the potential use of burn pits near installations and during future contingency operations, establishing processes to monitor burn pit emissions for unacceptable exposures would better position DOD and combatant commanders to collect data that could help assess exposure to risks.
GAO recommended that the Secretary of Defense (1) take steps to ensure CENTCOM and other geographic combatant commands, as appropriate, establish processes to consistently monitor burn pit emissions for unacceptable exposures; and (2) in coordination with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, specifically examine the relationship between direct, individual, burn pit exposure and potential long-term health-related issues. DOD concurred with the first recommendation and partially concurred with the second. In a May 2018 status update regarding these recommendations, DOD outlined a series of steps it had implemented as well as steps that it intends to implement. The department believes these efforts will further enhance its ability to better monitor burn-pit emissions and examine the relationship between direct, individual, burn pit exposure and potential long-term health related issues. GAO believes the steps DOD is taking are appropriate.

Why GAO Did This Study

Burn pits help base commanders manage waste generated by U.S. forces overseas, but they also produce harmful emissions that military and other health professionals believe may result in chronic health effects for those exposed.
This statement provides information on the extent to which DOD has assessed any health risks of burn pit use.
This statement is based on a GAO report issued in September 2016 (GAO-16-781). The report was conducted in response to section 313 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. “Buck” McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015. Specifically, GAO assessed the methodology DOD used in conducting a review of the compliance of the military departments and combatant commands with DOD instructions governing the use of burn pits in contingency operations and the adequacy of a DOD report for the defense committees. GAO also obtained updates from DOD on actions taken to assess health risks from burn pits since September 2016.

What GAO Recommends

GAO made two recommendations focused on improving monitoring of burn pit emissions and examining any associated health effects related to burn pit exposure. DOD concurred with one recommendation and partially concurred with the other. GAO continues to believe the recommendations are valid.
For more information, contact Cary Russell at (202) 512-5431 or russellc@gao.gov.


US House Rep Julia Brownley was another member of the Committee expressing dismay over the decision by the Defense Dept not to participate in the hearing.  She noted the DoD would need to work with the VA on this issue and "that is why it is both unfortunate and disappointing, as the Chairman said, that the agency who will need to be a true partner is unwilling to participate."

They're unwilling to participate, the Defense Dept, even as the GAO finds the Department lacking in basically every duty that has to do with the issue of burn pits.

Time permitting, we'll note Brownley and US House Rep Mark Takano next week on an aspect that includes burn pits but also goes beyond it.

For now, we'll note this exchange from the hearing.


US House Rep Beto O'Rourke: What I want to know from you is how have they [DoD] been as a partner? Your title is Chief Consultant Post Deployment, Health Office of Patient Care Services Veterans Health Administration US Dept of Veterans Affairs.  So you're post deployment.  How are you doing with working with the deployment side of the equation?  
as to the point as you can be.

Ralph Erickson: Again, we have a deployment health work group which we on a regular basis work to discuss these issues --

US House Rep Beto O'Rourke: So let me get to this.  You have 144,000 on the voluntary registry out of 3.5 eligible.  Is DoD doing everything within their power to identify those 3.5 million and connect you with them?

Ralph Erickson: Representative O'Rourke, I-I cannot speak for DoD in that regard --

US House Rep Beto O'Rourke:  I'm asking you.

Ralph Erickson: My-my sense is they have taken very strong steps to that end -- especially as it relates to point of transition --

US House Rep Beto O'Rourke: Is there something more that they could do?

Ralph Erickson: You know -- you know, I think all of us could partner better to do more.  My sense is that, uh, with having, uh, a much greater enrollment in the registry we'll be able to take this much further than we have to date.

US House Rep Beto O'Rourke: Let me ask you this question, so the Chairman -- Chairman Roe -- referred to his desire to study medical cannibas and while I support that effort I also support allowing doctors at the VA to prescribe it today just because there are doctors who would like to prescribe it today, there are veterans who would like to receive it and, if those two agree, then let's move forward.  I don't need to study it anymore.  Are we at a point now where doctors can begin treating this without more studies?  And where we can -- We have enough information even if it's not, you know, studied to the tenth degree.  But there are veterans who are saying "I am experiencing this and need this help" and enough doctors who are saying, "I can do the following to help those veterans and here are the kind of unique conditions  that we can respond to.''

Ralph Erickson: To the degree that a service member or a veteran has a defined condition -- bronchitis, a type of cancer, etc. -- we certainly will aggressively pursue the normal methods of treatment to the state of the art. As it relates to answering all of the questions that are surrounding this from exposure, there's a lot we still need to learn.  And we're in that phase right now where we know there's an issue but we don't have all the answers.

US House Rep Beto O'Rourke: Could we get to -- could we get to the presumptive status akin to Agent Orange where you just say, "Look, I was here in Iraq -- or Afghanistan -- at this time and I can't tell you how many kilometers away from the burn pit I was or the date or exactly what was burned, but I was experiencing this.  Help me." and the VA's going to help you?

Ralph Erickson: With Agent Orange, presumptions came into effect both with legistlation which specified which diseases and which presumptions --

US House Rep Beto O'Rourke: Are you waiting on us to do that?


Ralph Erickson: No.

US House Rep Beto O'Rourke: Do you need that statutorily or can you --

Ralph Erickson: Or that --

US House Rep Beto O'Rourke: -- deliver that care?

Ralph Erickson: -- VA would -- the Secretary would have the authority through the authority that the Congress has provided the Secretary to say that the-the level of evidence is sufficient for us to make a presumption.  At the present time, we don't have sufficient evidence.

US House Rep Beto O'Rourke: Even if the veteran says "I was here, I experienced this and there were at least 150,000 other people who had taken the time to register that same complaint," we just don't have enough?

Ralph Erickson: We-we-we need those answers.  We need those studies I mentioned, we need those to go to completion, we need to be able to work on a population.

US House Rep Beto O'Rourke: Last question because I'm out of time, what's the time line to have those studies done?

Ralph Erickson: Uh, again, I'll-I'll provide that to you, that'll be one of my takeaways.

US House Rep Beto O'Rourke: Give me the ballpark.

Ralph Erickson: These-these can take several years.

US House Rep Beto O'Rourke: So at the earliest, three years from today?

Ralph Erickson: That is a possibility but it will vary study to study.



Ballots are being studied in Iraq.  That's after the May 12th election results didn't please those already in power.  So the results are now cancelled.  Some reactions on Twitter.



The current post-election political environment is unparalleled when compared to the aftermath of the 2010 and 2014 elections. There are now serious challenges about the legitimacy of the elections and the entire political system. This is a new landscape for Iraqi politics.
 
 
So Iraq has exposed elections ordered for manual vote counting. They had introduced EVM's to avoid rigging however opposite happened is proving us all is well.
 
 
Iraqi parliament cancels ALL results of recent parliamentary elections. There will be manual recount. Iran wins in Iraq for a while.
 
 
Our Representatives in the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq have submitted a draft amendment to the current law of quota seat elections in order to limit the quota votes to the constituents represented.
 
 
  • : The parliament decided to recount all the votes manually. 172 MPs agreed on dissolving the . This is for the fist time in history that elections are rigged in such ways. Thanks for this good news from . We will see how it goes.
     
     



    Staying with Twitter, last September, the KRG held a non-binding referendum.  They were condemned by outsiders for doing it.  And then 'experts' (Joel Wing types) insisted Massoud Barzani had destroyed his own reputation for allowing it to take place.

    They were wrong as gas bags so often are.

    Barzani is already seen as heroic for what he did and the sooner he steps out of politics completely, the more that opinion will be the overwhelming opinion among Kurds.

    For now, this is much more accurate than any gas baggery:


    Kurdistan’s referendum was the right move at the right time, especially for places like Kirkuk, Shingal or Khanaqin. Iraq would’ve taken over those regions with or without the vote. But before that happened, the people could make their desire clear to the world. In black & white.
     
     












    The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley -- updated:






    Thursday, June 7, 2018

    We are a banana republic!


    1. The US Republic is now officially a BANANA Republic: top 0.1% own as much as the bottom 90%!!! Neoliberalism puts wealth inequality on steroids....



    Read all about it here.

    And grasp that the greatest transfer of wealth took place under Saint Barack. 

    He was no friend of We The People.

    Shame on him.

    Shame on worthless turncoats like Bruce Springsteen who spent years pretending to be about the working class but whored out for Barack and then, after Barack was out of office, went on a yacht with him -- because that's what the working class does -- yacht!

    Barack was awful.  He was always awful and, at some point, people are going to have to get honest.  We are a banana republic.

    This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


    Thursday, June 7, 2018.  Burn pits get some media attention (and a hearing later today), the Iraqi Parliament decides to toss out the election results and -- what's that smell?  Oh, it's Medea and Jodie of CodeStink -- somebody crack a window.


    "After watching in horror how the US invaded Iraq and the terrible consequences for the Iraqi people, I am determined to do everything I can to stop a similar situation in Iran."
     
     


    Oh, Medea and CodeStink, sometimes I wish I didn't have the memory I do -- just as I'm sure you wish I didn't either.

    Medea is making a spectacle of herself in the photo above.  It's from a September 16, 2014 hearing -- we reported on it in that day's snapshot:


     This morning in DC, the US Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on the issue of Iraq, Syria and the Islamic State which they insist upon calling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.  They shorten it to "ISIL" which they insist upon pronouncing as a word making it sound as if they're referring to a renegade von Trapp family member, one who goes around singing "Sixteen Going On Seventeen."
    The hearing opened with a small number of protesters declaring "No more war!" and other statements before Committee Chair Carl Levin brought down the gavel and called the hearing to order.

    Once the hearing started, CodeStink's Medea Benjamin would attempt to grab some headlines by yelling at the top of her lungs.

    Chair Levin would ask her to take a seat or leave -- repeatedly.  It was hard to tell what offended Carl more, Medea's screeching or her visual frightmare of her camel toe and exposed muffin top (her shirt rode up because she was holding a sign which read "MORE WAR = MORE . . . EXTREMISM").

    As she was escorted out of the room, Carl Levin offered, "Thank you for leaving and thank you, good-bye."

    Fake Ass Medea was the topic of Isaiah's comic on Sunday and, in "TV: Barack's Delusional Love Slaves," Ava and I noted her ridiculous and craven whoring for the White House which found the alleged peace activists (reality, she's just an attention seeker) insisting:

    I think President Obama has been hounded by the media, by the war hawks in Congress, mostly from the Republican side but also from the Democrats, and is going into this insane not only bombing in Iraq, but also talking about going into Syria, at a time when just a couple of months ago the American people had made it very clear that we were very tired of war.


    Poor little Barack.  President of the United States, bullied by those mean members in the press, putting ice on the bruises left by Maureen Dowd's printed punches, oh, poor Barack on the ropes again.  Poor baby.  If only he had power, if only he had a spine and a mind and . . .



     Let's go back to CodeStink's ridiculous Tweet:

    "After watching in horror how the US invaded Iraq and the terrible consequences for the Iraqi people, I am determined to do everything I can to stop a similar situation in Iran."
     
     


     You're determined to do everything you can to stop this from happening in Iran?  What are you determined to do in order to end the 18 year Iraq War -- the war continues?

    Not a damn thing.

    Medea was talking Syria, that day.  She'd again lost interest in Iraq.  I remember it so well.

    I also remember when CodeStink tried to sell the Afghanistan War after Barack became president but, big surprise, Jodie Evans was a bundler for Barack -- not her own money, she had none, she had to marry a dying man to get money because she has no agency of her own.  The marriage?  She was like a nun who gave herself to Christ in a sexless marriage.  What a proud moment for womankind, you go, Jodie, be the 'political' Anna Nicole Smith.

    A Republican is in the White House so CodeStink want's to return to 'action.'

    What's this 'brave' 'women's' group to do next?

    Call for another hunger strike?

    Because what says women action more than a hunger strike?

    In a country where an estimated 10 million women suffer from eating disorders, what's better than women the media has put into fake leadership declaring that women should starve themselves?

    CodeStink, you long ago made yourself a joke so now you're just an old joke.

    And all who can't let go of Hillary's loss in 2016 -- please read what Jodie and Medea wrote and said about Hillary in 2008 and please remember that though John Edwards voted for the Iraq War and Barack stated to THE NEW YORK TIMES that he didn't know how he would have voted in 2002 if he had been in the US Congress, CodeStink only bird dogged one candidate: Hillary Clinton.  They showed up at every one of her rallies to heckle her and shout over her.


    CodeStink won't fool the anti-war left but they might have had a chance at fooling the so-called 'resistance.'  Don't worry, Jodie and Medea, I'm here to remind everyone of just how fake you are.



    While we're telling truths, a number of e-mails are asking about Vet Voice and about privatization of the VA.  I have never called for privatization.  I do, however, recognize that there are needs are not being served.

    Vet Voice doesn't recognize that because they're not a veterans organization.
    .

    Vet Voice Poll: two-thirds of oppose plans to replace VA with vouchers. “Privatization is a fancy way of saying we’re taking tax dollars out of the VA and putting it into the pockets of millionaires & billionaires." - Iraq war vet ,
    1:56
    10.8K views
     
     


    A veterans organization serves veterans.

    The VFW, the American Legion, PVA, etc.

    They serve veterans.

    Voice Vet is for veterans of 21st century wars.

    There's nothing wrong with serving one segment of veterans.

    But don't pretend you're speaking for most veterans.

    And when it comes to healthcare -- veteran or civilian -- the ones most in need of it are the older population.

    In other words, Voice Vet's population is in need of healthcare at much lower rate than groups like PVA and the VFW.

    Voice Vet's not encountering the 74 year old man I encountered last week.  He needs a heart cath.  The VA has sent him to a doctor in one geographic region.  That cardiologist can't do the cath.  The veteran is in the Choice program -- which isn't really the VA -- as he found out every time he'd speak to a choice rep.  He needed to go to a different cardiologist.  The cardio doctor the VA referred him to went through the program to refer him to another doctor.

    The VA is okay with this, are we following so far?  The doctor's not with choice but they bill by tax i.d. and others in the clinic are so, the VA says, they can just bill under another doctor in the clinic.  Choice is okay with that as well.

    Until . . .

    Well, he's not just in Choice.  He is in some form of Choice called PC3.  It's a tiny subset and if you're in it, you are screwed.  Very few doctors of any kind are available.

    He'd needed a heart cath and had been going through this nonsense for 8 weeks.  He is on warfarin and each time he thought he'd be about to get the procedure -- because it was scheduled -- he'd start to tape off on that medication only to have the PC3 aspect of the program repeatedly cancel his appointments.

    (A member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee kindly got the issue taken care of when I reported this to his office.  Otherwise, the 74 year old man might still be waiting.)

    There's nothing wrong with Voice Vet.  And hopefully it will grow its membership and become a strong VSO.  However, it is not the voice of all veterans and it is not about serving the needs of all veterans.

    Different populations have different needs.  Voice Vet can serve a population whose voice might not be heard otherwise.  But that does not mean it speaks for every population in the veterans community.


    Let's stay with the topic of veterans for a bit more.  Perry Chiaramonte and Lea Gabrielle (FOX NEWS) report:


    Thousands of veterans and former contractors have developed cancer, respiratory problems and blood disorders from their exposure to toxins from the flaming pits, and many have died. More than 140,000 active service members and retirees have put their names on a Burn Pit Registry created by the Veterans Administration.
    [. . .]
    By the time [Lt Dan] Brewer arrived in Iraq, the pits had already been burning for more than two years, spewing a toxic compound of smoke and soot from smoldering trash, medical waste and hazardous chemicals.
    “Everybody thought this is the way you do it, and I’m saying to them at the time, you know, ‘This isn’t good,’" Brewer said.
    "I saw early on that this was going to be a problem for the health of our troops. A problem of liability for the U.S. government down the road, and I didn’t know how we’d ever win over the Iraqis when we were doing this in their country.”


    Brewer can still recall what it was like to be up close to the burn pits.
    “I’ve had times I’d be around burn pits and you’d go wash your clothes and you still smelled it,” he recalled. “It’s odor…you’re smelling it and it’s just…the fumes are everywhere.”
    Troubled by his findings, Brewer returned back to the United States to present his findings and recommend to superiors at the Pentagon’s Central Command (CENTCOM) the use of industrialincinerators. His audience was less than receptive.
    “They, for probably a year and a half, stonewalled me and wouldn’t let me publish it,” he recalled.


    Remember that today is BURN PITS 360's lobby day in DC.




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    In other news, ALJAZEERA reports that Iraq's 11 million votes are now in question because the Parliament has demanded a full recount.  The Parliament, of course, does not have this power.  Nor is it the new Parliament.  Instead, it's composed of people who may not have been re-elected.  Totally non-biased group, right?

    They don't like the results so, a month after the election, they insist that the machines did not work properly.

    The results saw Shi'ite cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc win.  Overthrowing the vote, as the Parliament is doing, isn't the only issue effecting Sadr's followers today.  BBC NEWS reports:

    At least 17 people have been killed and 80 wounded by explosions that destroyed a mosque in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, medical sources say.
    The government said the blasts on Wednesday night were the result of the detonation of an ammunition cache in the Shia Muslim district of Sadr City.
    It did not give an exact location of the cache, but some security officials said it was inside the mosque.
    The mosque was used by supporters of the Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.



















    The following community sites -- plus LATINO USA, PACIFICA EVENING NEWS and THE GUARDIAN -- updated: