Ann's Mega Dub

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Howie for Goverrnor

Howie Hawkins is running for governor of New York. He is also attempting to win enough support to get ballot access for the Green Party in New York.

I will be noting his campaign here regularly. Ballot access is a very important issue.

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

Tuesday, May3, 2922. As Joe Biden goes nuts, WSWS plays partisan.

Kevin Reed plays the dumb ass at WSWS and the topic's an important one so noe can afford his nonsense:

Although no details about the functioning of the governance board, its purpose or duties had been published prior to Mayorkas’ testimony, the secretary told the House hearing that it would be co-chaired by Undersecretary for Policy Rob Silvers and principal deputy general counsel Jennifer Gaskill.

An indication of the reactionary nature of the DHS board was revealed in the appointment of Nina Jankowicz as executive director. According to her official bio, Jankowicz was a “disinformation fellow” at the Wilson Center—a nonpartisan foreign policy think tank named after Woodrow Wilson—and she “advised the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry” and oversaw “Russia and Belarus programs at the National Democratic Institute (NDI).”

The NDI is a well-known nongovernmental organization that engages in US imperialist and CIA-sponsored political interventions in countries, particularly in Latin America, under the banner of “human rights,” “democracy” and “entrepreneurship.” The NDI has counted among its board of directors leading figures of US militarism and war such as Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Paul Wolfowitz, Madeleine Albright and Elliott Abrams.

In a tweet on Wednesday morning, Jankowicz posted, “Cat’s out of the bag: here’s what I’ve been up to the past two months, and why I’ve been a bit quiet on here. Honored to be serving in the Biden Administration @DHSgov and helping shape our counter-disinformation efforts.” In plain language, this means that Jankowicz and the Disinformation Governance Board will be working on shutting down the flow of information that runs counter to the interests of American imperialism, both within the country and abroad, especially as it applies to the war in Ukraine.

Following the hastily prepared announcement by Mayorkas before Congress, a barrage of attacks were launched by right-wing and fascistic Republicans, claiming that the board was the Democrats’ response to the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk and part of a plan to suppress the free speech rights of the ultra-right.

On Monday, DHS published a “Fact Sheet” about the board aimed at clarifying what it is now calling an “Internal Working Group” that will “address disinformation that threatens the security of the United States.” Among the primary targets of the DHS initiative is “disinformation spread by foreign states such as Russia, China and Iran.”

Significantly, amid all the topics listed by DHS as national security threats—including the activity of “transnational criminal organizations,” “human smugglers” and “malicious actors”—there is not one reference to elected Republican politicians or fascist groups and individuals outside the government who are actively working to disrupt the democratic process in the 2022 elections and previously attempted to overthrow the US Constitution to keep Trump in the White House.

Joe Biden's nonsense is outrageous and should outrage everyone; however, WSWS wants to try to split it into left and right. And the right is being censored and has been for some tie. If the truth is too much for WSWS then maybe they're little candy asses should shut down their propaganda mill because that's all theyve got now

They really should be ashamed of themselves. They pick a position and then tailor their coverage to fit it.

The left and the right are being censored. I don't see how it helps anyone to pretend otherwise.

THE NEW YORK POST is the country's oldest daily newspaper. It was censored in 2020 I know Kevin Reed is aware of that because his article "Twitter and Facebook censor New York Post report on Hunter Biden" and that is one of three articles WSWS ("Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald resigns from the Intercept in protest against censorship" and "US Justice Department expanding probe of taxes, business dealings of Hunter Biden").

And that is it. They are a supposedly Socialist publication and you have a sitting president's son the subject of a grand jury hearing, you have the laptop confirmed (finally) by THE WASHINGTON POST and THE NEW YORK TIMES, you have hundreds of e-mails that attest to graft and bribery -- a story of how the rich get richer by not following the rules and this supposed Socialist publication has done three stories in two years. Two of them before the election. of 2020.

Whose side are they on?

It does not appear that they are on the side of the working class when they ignore this story of how deals were made, unethical ones, to ensure that Hunter could get rich and make his family richer. it was an abuse of public trust and of public office on the part of Joe Biden.

This does not matter to Socialists?

Three storeis in two years.

The latpop is real as we all knew. And they've done nothing, they've done not one major story. They should be zoomign on the corruption. Aren't they against capitalism? I thought was part of Socialism. Here's the greed, the ill of capitalism. They're not even interested.

Reminds me of the hideous 2020 presidential campaign that they ran which was really all about electing Joe Biden.

The fake assery has go tto stop.

But, sadly, no Ministry of Information is eer going to stop it.

Equally sad, we're supposed to trust Joe Biden with what's true and what's false?

That's the man whose repeatedly claimed that he had nothing to do with Hunter's business dealings even though we know that's a lie. EVen though there is proof -- via e-mails and visitor logs -- that Joe is lying.

We're trusting him with the truth?

This is the man who told us there were WMDs in Iraq, remember?

We're trusting him to determine what the truth is?

He's a career politicians -- which is a fancy word for liar.

And we're trusting him with the truth?

He assaulted Tara Reade and he's going to get to decide what's true and what's not?

That he's put his little program under the Dept of Homeland Security is even sadder, more outrageous and more frightening.

But WSWS wants to mock what they term the "ultra right."

What do we call WSWS? The squishy left?

They can't cover Iraq.

They're on witch hunt after another.

They can't be honests because they calculate every news item based on how they fear it might help the right and that determines their coverage of t.

It's not journalism and, let this poli sci major break it to 'em, it's not even Socialism.

It's fake assery. And they ought to be ashamed of themselves.

There is good work done, still, at WSWS. sometimes the good work even comes from Kevin. But this nonsense of articles that are digs at this person or that person and don't really address the real issues? Don't claim to be a Sociaslit and keep publishing that garbage.

In Iraq, even more violence. ALJAZEERA notes:

Thousands of people have fled a northern Iraqi town amid fierce clashes between the army and a militia linked to a Kurdish separatist group, the military and local Iraqi Kurdish officials said.

At least 3,000 people left Sinjar and its surrounding areas on Monday and headed north towards the semi-autonomous Kurdish region to seek safety.

Clashes first erupted late on Sunday when the Iraqi military launched an operation to clear the area of YBS forces, a militia group with ties to the Turkish Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and mostly comprised of members from the Yazidi religious minority.

The fighting between the Iraqi army and the YBS intensified on Monday, spreading to other areas in Sinjar district.

Abortion in the US. Is Roe v Wade about to be overturned?

Possibly.

I don't know. Nor does anyone else right now. A supposed draft is circulating. If the draft is accurate and if votes remain the same (or the alleged vote of the Court remain the same), we'll have something to discuss.

I'm not going to waste a great deal of time on this when its conjecture at this point.

If Roe v Wade does bite the dust, we can thank both parties because they both killed it. The Democrats cannot pretend that they didn't have a hand in destroying it. Not only did they vote to confirm and give easy confirmation processes to people who should not be on the bench, but they used as a poltiical football and as a get out the vote effort for years.

They should have been protecting this fundamental right of women. Instead, they were happy to let it be weakened year after year.

If Roe goes down, blame the duopoly as well as the Court.

The following sites updated:

Monday, May 2, 2022

Jizzy Pants Maxwell gets a sentencing reduction

So there is news in the case of convicted felon Ghislaine Jizzy Pants Maxwell.

Being reduced to 10 years max?

According to Google, a federal sentence? You have to serve 85% of a federal sentence before you are eligible for parole so Jizzy Pants will have to serve up to 8.5 years.

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

Monday, May 2, 20225. Dust storms again in Iraq (and in Joe Biden's mind as well) and much more.

Whores got their weekend with a DC event that should have been retired long ago. Court jester Trevor Noah made joes about8 inflat8ion and US President Joe Biden lapped it up.

Yes, they are laughing at the American people. Yes, it's disgusting.

Joe's got jokes because, well, he is a joke. How wonderful that, as American struggle to deal with the out of control inflation, that he can laugh and shuck and jive.

Joe Biden is a horrible leader. And jokes about "Cinderella's castle" don't8 improve his standing, they only make him look even more senile.

May Day fell the day after Joe Biden's buffoonery. While he was shucking and jiving, David North (WSWS) pointed out):

This year’s May Day is being held under extraordinary circumstances. The world stands on the precipice of a nuclear world war that threatens the extinction of life on this planet. The challenge of May Day 2022 is to make this celebration of the international unity of the working class the beginning of a global movement of the broad mass of the world’s population to stop the criminal and reckless escalation of the NATO-Russia war toward nuclear conflict and force its end.

The organization, development and victory of this movement requires a clear understanding of the causes of the war and the interests that it serves.

The International Committee of the Fourth International, the World Party of Socialist Revolution, unequivocally denounces US and European imperialism for instigating the conflict with Russia. This is not a war in defense of democracy in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world. It is a war whose aim is the redivision of the world, that is, a new allocation of the material resources of the globe.

Russia has become a target of US imperialism not because of the Putin regime’s autocratic character, but because, first, its defense of the interests of the Russian capitalists collide with the drive of the United States for global hegemony, which is centered on its preparations for war with China; and, second, the vast expanse of Russian territory is the source of immensely valuable and strategically critical raw materials, metals and minerals—gold, platinum, palladium, zinc, bauxite, nickel, mercury, manganese, chromium, uranium, iron ore, cobalt and iridium, to name only a few—that the United States is determined to bring under its control.

The other major imperialist powers allied with the United States are, likewise, pursuing their own reactionary economic and geostrategic interests. The conflict in Ukraine has provided German imperialism—which waged a war of extermination against the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1945—with the opportunity to undertake the most massive rearmament campaign since the collapse of the Nazi regime. As always, British imperialism is eager to participate in an American-led war, hoping that its “special relationship” with the United States will entitle it to a favorable distribution of the spoils of war. The French imperialists hope that by sanctioning, however reluctantly, the American war against Russia, the United States will not interfere with French operations in Africa. Even the lesser powers of the NATO alliance expect to be repaid for their endorsement of the US-led war. Poland, for example, has not forgotten that Lviv was once the Polish city of Lwow.

As for the United States’ invocation of the sacred right of Ukraine, as a sovereign nation, to join NATO if it so chooses, Washington does not recognize the extension of that right to any country whose national defense interests are viewed as a threat to American security. Even as the crisis unfolds in Ukraine, the United States is threatening military action to stop the Solomon Islands—6,000 miles away from the American West Coast—from entering into a defensive relationship with China.

Joe supports the Nazi government in Ukraine that he and Barack Obama installed back in 2014 as they trashed the results of the election. The government is a menace to many but Joe wants to back it because, well, he's senile.

Jason Melanovski (WSWS) reports:

As the NATO proxy war against Russia rages in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian government is carrying out a campaign of domestic repression against alleged “collaborators” and “traitors” in order to bolster its pro-war agenda and eliminate any opposition that may favor a negotiated peace with Moscow to end the war.

Last week the Kyiv Independent reported that “a hunt for alleged collaborators is underway in recaptured parts of the country.” The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) along with the national and local police, territorial defense units and the State Emergency Service, are leading the hunt for suspects.

According to the Kyiv Independent, the SBU had already arrested 33 suspects in Kiev by April 7, and by April 15, over 300 alleged collaborators had been arrested.

It is unclear how the SBU is able to deduce exactly who collaborated with the Russian forces other than relying on the testimony of neighbors.

Such an approach leaves the door wide open for the settling of petty grievances between neighbors and the arrest and jailing—or perhaps worse—of innocent Ukrainians who are not enthusiastic supporters of a NATO-backed war that is destroying large parts of an already impoverished country.

The report comes on the heels of the revelation that Kiev was supplied with advanced face-scanning technology by the American firm Clearview AI and that such technology was already being used to identify dead Russian soldiers and scan the faces of Ukrainian citizens in order to find “traitors.”

That's the government that Joe Biden and billions of US tax dollars are supporting. It's outrageous that US tax dollars are used to prop up that oppressive regime to begin with but8 at a time when Americans are facing huge inflation, it's outrageous.

As a ma8n we did a ZOOM w8ith weeks ago pointed out, he's Diamond Joe Biden, grabbing the check to pay for dinner with his new pals while his own children are back home starving.

He's so out of touch, he doesn't even realize it.

Meanwhile, the British government is being pressured to demand the release of one of their citiens from Iraq. No, not the over 80-year-old who just died in custody and was leading the tour and no one seems to know the name of. The other one. Th eone whose family sure does get a lot of press on. Robert Pether hasn't had as much press since Iraq put him beind bars as this man has had in the last three days.

The enw move is to push him as a modern day Indiana Jone1

Problems?

Indiana wasn't British. Indiana wasn't a geologist who worked for Big Oil. Indiana had a doctorate Archaeology. The Brit was trying to leave Iraq with what he says were shards that someone gave him persmission for but which Iraq argues were historical artifacts. And anyone with a basic education, knows you dont try to leave a country with shards of anything -- especially not a country that the UK has already plundered repeatedly for decades.

Once again, dust storms throughout Iraq.

NNA reports, "Clouds of yellow dust covered most of southern Iraq, including the capital, Baghdad, and is expected to continue until Monday, according to the Meteorological Department." Australian ASSOCIATED PRESS adds, "Iraq's state news agency INA reported that five Iraqi provinces including Baghdad and Najaf were shrouded in dust storms on Sunday, causing an unspecified number of people to suffer serious breathing-related problems."

AFP is again reporting "dozens" have been hospitalized. They never learn and AFP hires journalists who lack basic counting skills. See April 9th's "AFP needs to learn to count -- over 429 is not 'dozens'." As AFP again runs with ''dozens'' despite, again, the number being much, much higher. In Najaf alone, ALSUMARIA reports 500 people were hospitalized. And the Health Department of Najaf is the source for the 500 figure. And Sal al-Din province counts 152 people hospitalized. That's just two areas and it's 652. That's not "dozens."

BOL NEWS notes, "In April, Iraq was pummelling by a succession of severe storms, which grounded flights in Baghdad, Najaf, and Irbil and hospitalized hundreds." Yes, and it's the first day of May and already hundreds have been hospitalized.

Ruth Tweets:

"In November, the World Bank said Iraq could suffer a 20% fall in water resources by 2050"

Iraq dust storm: Flights grounded in Baghdad and Najaf as skies turn orange - BBC News

An Iraqi policeman directs traffic during a severe dust storm in the capital Baghdad

bbc.com

Iraq dust storm: Flights grounded in Baghdad and Najaf as skies turn orange

A dust storm that has covered Iraq in an orange sheet is expected to continue into Monday.

12:02 AM · May 2, 2022

Marcello G Tweets:

The dust storm could be addressed by increasing vegetation and creating forests.
What are other ways that Iraq can resolve this issue and protect  their citizens? How can the U.S. help stop climate change from harming other nations?

11:26 PM · May 1, 2022

In other news, MEDYA NEWS reports:

After it’s been revealed on Wednesday that two European journalists were arrested by Iraqi troops on the 20th of April, a colleague of one of the journalists said to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that the journalist was arrested while he was covering issues affecting the Yazidis in Iraq.

Soldiers with the Iraqi 20th Infantry Division arrested Matej Kavčič, a Slovenian freelance reporter, on the 20th of April at an army checkpoint in the city of Sinjar (Shengal), the hometown of the Yazidis.

While Kavčič identified himself as a journalist, Iraqi troops brought him to a nearby military facility, where they confiscated his phone and questioned him, according to a report by CPJ.

Marlene Förster, a German national, who was traveling with Kavčič, was also detained in the process.

Iraqi authorities allege that the pair ‘pretended to work as journalists’, and accused them of collaborating with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated a ‘terrorist group’ in neighbouring Turkey and in the European Union.

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Saturday, April 30, 2022

Howie Hawkins

That's Howie Hawkins' latest video. Spectrum News notes:

In 2010, perennial candidate Howie Hawkins, a staple of New York’s Green Party ticket, earned 59,000 votes, or 1.3% of votes cast, enough to secure ballot status for the party.

Ten years later, the Greens lost that status after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo pressed for a higher vote threshold for third parties.

“We call it the Ballot Access Exclusion Law. It’s a party suppression law,” Hawkins said of the new threshold.

Hawkins and his 2010 running mate, Gloria Mattera, have teamed up again to try to restore the Green Party’s ballot line under the new ballot access law that requires three times more signatures and votes to secure a ballot line.

Last week, the Green Party started gathering the 45,000 signatures they need to submit by May 31 to get Hawkins and Mattera on 2022 ballots.

I know that Howie has accomplished a lot but I did not know his 2010 campaign was what gained ballot access in NEW YORK for the Green Party.

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

Friday, April 29, 2022. Turkey contines its acts of war against Iraq, the political stalemate continues in Iraq, is Joe Biden already a lame duck president (can't seem to get an ambassador nominee approved), and more.

Iraq remains targeted by the government of Turkey who, this week, upped their attacks by using a drone to attack the Iraqi military. Turkey claims that they are in Iraq to 'clean up' the PKK -- a Kuridsh group that arose after years and years of systematic persecution of the Kurds in Turkey and surrounding areas. Gone are the days of ceasefires or attempts to address very real grievances. Instead, Turkey has invaded Kurdistan and set up military bases. They drop bombs on civilians, they destroy forests (terrorist sould be playing hide and seek in them according to Turkey) ad create more and more hardships for the people of Kurdistan.

All of his is a violation of Iraq's national sovereignty. All of these are legally defined as Acts of War. But the world looks away. If only the Kurds were blue-eyed people that some Americans news personality thought looked "just like us" right?

Instead the suffering continues. Layal Shakir (RUDAW) reports:

Turkey has eyes on certain Iraqi territories which it aims to regain control of through its military operations conducted in the mountains of the Kurdistan Region, a top Iraqi politician said on Thursday, while also highlighting Ankara’s role in Iraq’s political setback.

In a television interview with al-Ahad TV Channel, former Iraqi prime minister and leader of the State of Law Coalition Nouri al-Maliki said Turkey is “eyeing” Iraq and the Region as it continues to “search for excuses” to target the area.

Widely seen as a step to regain power over areas previously controlled by the Ottoman Empire, Ankara launched a fresh military operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdish mountainous area of Duhok province on April 18.

“They [Turkey] have said that in 2023 the parts looted from Turkey will be taken back, and that is Mosul. Mosul includes all of Kurdistan,” Maliki stated referring to the Treaty of Lausanne that set boundaries for modern Turkey 99 years ago, which has been widely criticized by the Turkish President.

Last year, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country is determined to enter 2023 as a “stronger, more independent, and more prosperous country economically, militarily, politically, and diplomatically.”

ANHA notes:

Since 17 of April the current annihilation attacks and an eradication campaign is launched by the Turkish occupation army with participation of Kurdistan Democratic Party, the PDK, against medya defense zones in Southern Kurdistan in a clear target of the Kurdish culture and identity embodied in the Kurdistan Freedom Movement.

Iraqi politicians and men of religion and notable figures expressed their rejection of the attacks of the Turkish army in Southern Kurdistan.

Head priest and the spiritual leader of the Sabaean-Mandeans in Iraq and the world, Satar Jabar Helo made a statement to ANHA.

Satar Jabar Helo confirmed that the ''attacks by Turkish troops on the Iraqi soil are unacceptable,'' saying: ''at a time where we reject the Turkish military operations on the Iraqi soil that is unacceptable, we lay much stress on the necessity of consolidating positive tries with Turkey based on the mutual interest of both countries, and solving the security related issues via cooperation and joint coordination, the sovereignty of Iraq should be respected''.

Satar Jabar Helo confirmed that Turkish occupation forces in Iraq should withdraw from Iraqi territories, '' Turkey should withdraw its forces proper from Iraqi soil in a way that shows respect to the Iraqi sovereignty. Hostile acts will not create any sound ground for any sustainable solutions or complementarity in the face of security challenges that necessitates among other priorities increasing the security cooperation between the two sides as a successful way to meet all sought interests and stand up to challenges''.

In Iraq, the political stalemate continues. Remember, as May looms, that Iraq held elections October 10th. Though they did manage to swear in members of Parliament and they did manage to name a Speaker of parliament, they have still not named a president or a prime minister designate. Over six months after the elections, the political stalemate continues. MIDDLE EAST EYE maintains:

Iran has begun piling pressure on Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani and the speaker of Iraq’s parliament, Mohammed al-Halbousi, hoping to convince them to abandon Muqtada al-Sadr’s political project and save Tehran’s Iraqi allies.

Six months on from Iraq’s October elections, and neither Sadr’s Save the Homeland alliance nor the Iran-backed Shia Coordination Framework, led by former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, have been able to form a government.

Sadr is currently taking a political timeout. The influential Shia cleric had sought to exclude his rivals by forming a majority government alongside Barzani’s KDP and the Sunni Sovereignty bloc, led by Halbousi.

But abstaining Coordination Framework MPs have choked all progress in parliament, prompting Sadr on 30 March to withdraw from politics for 40 days and set his rivals a deadline to form a coalition of their own.

With two weeks to go, Iran believes Sadr's "tactical" retreat has given its allies an "irreplaceable" opportunity to dismantle his alliance, Iraqi politicians and observers told MEE.

If you're counting on US diplomatic effors to help with the process, forget it. Matthew Tueller is on his way out as US Ambassador to Iraq.

Back in December, US President joe Biden nominated Alina L. Romanowski to be the ambassador to Iraq. Is he a sitting duck president? He's a Democrat. The Senate is controlled by Democrats. The confirmation hearing was some time ago. This will be the first ambassador he's named to Iraq as president and he was sworn in at the start of 2021.

Is there a reason he can't get his nominee approved when his own party control the Senate?

Dilan Sirwan (RUDAW) reports:

No agreements have been reached and no meetings have been held with the rival pro-Iran Coordination framework, the Sadrist bloc said on Thursday, insisting on a national majority government yet again.

Almost seven months after Iraq held snap elections, the country is yet to form a new government amid disagreements between the two largest Shiite blocs.

“There have been no political understandings or meetings between us and the Coordination Framework, and we still insist on a national majority government,” read a statement from the Sadrist bloc, which won the most parliamentary seats in the October elections.

The remarks from the bloc comes after late last month, its leader Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said that he would temporarily step back from the government formation process, giving his rival Coordination Framework a chance to form a government without him.

However, Sadr’s time off is coming to an end, and former parliamentary sessions attempting to form a new government have proven that the Coordination Framework would not be able to achieve the quorum required to elect a president, who in turn will task a new prime minister to form a cabinet.

As Iraq continues to scramble to put together a government, the country suffers. THE WEATHER CHANNEL notes:

Iraq's Lake Sawa is no longer.

The lake, which was located west of Samawa in Iraq's Muthana Province, has disappeared due to climate change-induced drought and groundwater harvesting for agricultural and industrial purposes.

Lake Sawa existed in a closed basin, meaning it wasn't fed by any river or stream, which helped to make a rise in salt concentration and encroaching sandstorms detrimental to the lake's existence. Once home to at least 31 bird species and a hub for fishing and recreation, now all that is left cracked, dry soil with a small pond in the middle. Abandoned hotels and tourist facilities speckle the shoreline.

“In previous years, the water area had decreased during the dry seasons. But this year, for the first time, the lake has completely disappeared," environmental activist Husam Subhi said. "This is a clear indication of the impact of climate change on the region.”

NATURE WORLD NEWS adds:

According to Aoun Dhiab, a senior advisor at Iraq's water resources ministry, rainfall in the region has dropped dramatically. The dramatic decline in precipitation in the region has depressed the already low subsurface water table.

Meanwhile, officials have prohibited the construction of new wells and are attempting to shut down all unlawful wells.

Dhiab, who has spent the last decade working to improve environmental consciousness, recalls going to Lake Sawa on school excursions or holidays with his family.

"The lake would not have evaporated at this rate if the government had taken an interest; it is amazing," Dhiab remarked in an interview with AFP. "I'm 60 years old, and I grew up next to the lake; I assumed I'd outlive it, but it tragically outlived me."

THE NATIONAL offers a picture slide show on the lake.

We'll wind down with this from Disabled American Veterans:

August 6-9, 2022 | Hyatt Regency Orlando

This year, the DAV national convention returns to sunny Orlando, Florida. A city known for its attractions and entertainment, the City Beautiful ensures visitors of all ages have an experience they’ll never forget.

The convention is an opportunity to advocate for ill and injured veterans, to enjoy the camaraderie of fellow DAV members, and to take ownership of this organization and its yearly agenda—while allowing for a hearty dose of fun in this premier vacation destination.

Orlando offers something for everyone: family-friendly attractions; world-class dining and entertainment; top-notch golf courses and other recreational activities; and, of course, beautiful weather.

After spending time working alongside fellow veterans to help shape DAV’s future, an array of one-of-a-kind experiences awaits you. Convention-goers can experience the magic of Walt Disney World, the sights and sounds of Universal Orlando, the wonders of the marine life at SeaWorld, the world-class shopping at Pointe Orlando or the breathtaking views atop the 400-foot Wheel at ICON Park, just to name a few. Florida’s world-famous beaches and Kennedy Space Center are also only an hour away.

Attendees enjoy a special room rate at the Hyatt Regency Orlando of $149 per single or double. Additional hotel reservation information is available at bit.ly/3kqZR8X or by calling 1-800-233-1234. Be sure to tell them you are reserving under the Disabled American Veterans room block if making reservations by phone.

To learn more, visit dav.org/events/2022-national-convention.

TRAVEL ASSISTANCE

The Transportation Security Administration can facilitate the screening of injured or wounded veterans. After making flight reservations, veterans or their care coordinators should contact a TSA Cares representative by calling toll-free 855-787-2227 weekdays from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and weekends and holidays from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time. A representative will either provide screening information relevant to the veteran’s disability or refer the veteran to experts at TSA for help through the screening process.

The following sites updated: