Category Archives: war

IVAW statement on making VA political

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Iraq Veterans Against the War has this up on the republican-wrap-themselves-in-a-flag manipulative political game they’re playing.

When that stunt didn’t work the GOP blocked the passage of a bill that would have opened up 27 new VA health clinics, strengthened one of many health programs like sexual trauma care and gone far in reducing the benefits backlog. These are just a few of the many opportunities to improve the lives of veterans that political gamesmanship squandered.

“Why would Congressional members put Iran sanctions into a bill meant to care for so many veterans? The answer is that in the end members of Congress like Mitch McConnell don’t actually care about healing veterans.” said Matt Howard, Marine veteran and Communications Director of IVAW.

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Sickening, isn’t it?

And from the not-too-distant past, George W. Bush speaking out both sides of his mouth towards Veterans healthcare.

We have never gone to war without taxing the rich to support the war….so one has to ask why they were not taxed?

Donnelly and wars

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Joe Donnelly was once again on our local radio (to be fair, Walorski also gets plenty of free air time).  Now he is pushing mandatory annual psychological testing on military. He says there are way too many suicides in the military, and he wants to get this to “zero”.  He traveled to Israel last month to see how they were dealing with military suicides…he named the number, but I forget their record.

I’m sure the trip was at Senator Donnelly’s own expense because he’s not going to charge the American taxpayer for something he could have done at home. /dripping sarcasm, folks

Where do I begin?

All during the interview, Donnelly never mentions the fact that the reason there are so many suicides in the military is because war is soul destroying. Incredibly, he even stated that these soldiers had been to “tour after tour after tour”…just totally clueless on how his own governmental policies were the cause of the problem.  He seems to be unwilling to even consider the cause of the mental distress and why soldiers would lose their love of life. As they kill another human being, they must ask themselves…why?

Why were we there, Senator Donnelly? Can you even answer that question–with brutal honesty?

Why is Israel being consulted?  They force their people to join the military…is Senator Donnelly going to suggest that, too? How is Israel able to convince their soldiers that killing the Palestinians, who just want to live in their on land, is okay?  I don’t call that psychological help, but more likely brainwashing and propaganda to create an enemy–the Palestinians.

The next aspect of Donnelly’s “solution” is the belief that somehow psychological treatment will end all suicides.  Really?  Just like Common Core and No Child Left a Mind will “make” children 100% proficient?

Psychology has been blown up to be a greater asset than it is.  All the drugs and talk therapy cannot erase the devastating effects of war on a person’s psych.

How about we just get rid of war, Senator Donnelly?

No, the military industrial complex can’t function without war.  If we don’t have an enemy, they’ll create one…got to keep those war profits rolling in…

 

Cisco asks Obama/NSA to stop interference

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Cisco CEO John Chambers has written a letter to President Obama insisting the NSA cease its interference with Cisco products.

From the piece:

The letter follows the circulation of pictures on the Internet showing NSA staff opening boxes of Cisco gear, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. “There have been allegations that the NSA has intercepted IT equipment in transit from manufacturers to customers to help monitor and gain information on surveillance targets,” the paper wrote.

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So…Edward Snowden’s revelations haven’t had the impact…nor damage that is alleged…because apparently, they’re still doing it.  I don’t see how Snowden can be charged with damaging information when the parties involved are still up to the same violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Dept. of Defense…against Zombies…

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(A side note~ Hello! to my Russian reader. Glad you’re back and apparently able to access the ‘net again.)

…well, here we go again with the “plan” that won’t die. Pun intended.

You might recall this is an old scenario bordering on ridiculous.  I can’t believe the money spent.

 

The report is short on details–who were the sponsors that paid for this?  If the attendees only paid $1,000 to go, who paid for their hotel rooms? Meals? Flight tickets? Rental cars? Lots of questions here, not a lot of answers.

Nor can I believe the concept that one can kill the undead…how does one do that, anyway?

What they really need are un – brain -dead Dept. of Defense employees who quit looking at life as one big disaster waiting to happen.  And that the American public is the enemy–guilty until proven innocent.

 

Google and the NSA

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Yasha Levine at Pando Daily has a report on the alarmingly close relationship between Google and the Dept. of Defense.

At first glance, you wonder what all the fuss is about, since Google is a tech company…but as the report flows along, there is a link to this piece by Consumer Watchdog.

From the report:

When   a   deal   between  NASA   and   top   Google   executives   to   use   the   base   was  first  disclosed  in  2007,  it  called  for  only  four  jets  to  use the  base.  
But  newly  released  government  records  show  that  the  Google  executive  0leet  has  now  grown  to  six  jets  and  two   helicopters,   while   at   least   40   Google   employees  hold  security  badges  at  the  base  and  all  of  the  planes  are  supplied  with  Department  of  Defense  jet  fuel.
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[Italics mine.]
Wow, if ever there were a quid pro quo…supplying Google with expensive jet fuel?  Giving employees security clearance?  And all Google has to do is cooperate with divulging private information in contradiction of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits agencies from intruding into people’s privacy without a court warrant…
…but Google execs are too busy jetsetting to Cannes, Tahiti, and other places of interest…on the taxpayer dime…
Keyhole?  What an apt name for the company…funded by the CIA…that was to become Google Earth.  There’s just something unnerving to see one’s home on the internet for anyone to see.  Keyhole, indeed.
I do find it ironic and slightly amusing that the emails going back and forth from the Google execs and the various gov’t. agencies are being used against them…they seem to forget that their own privacy is abused by the system they created.
As I am reading this, I’m wondering why they would have to use Google at all?  Why is there such a push for privatization, when these services should be from government employees/agencies?  Not that I’m advocating invasion of privacy, mind you, but questioning the privatization movement that gets short term $$ gains by selling off public interests in land and intellectual property that was paid for by public funds.  And, of course, the lack of sunlight when something goes from public to private.
~~~~~As a side note…when I saw Eric Schmidt’s bespectacled face…I got a chill down my spine. Perhaps it’s because he just looks like a Nazi…and not a true evaluation of him…but there it is.

 

10 Biggest Oil Spills in History

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We don’t hear a lot about oil spills in other parts of the world…we’re lucky if we hear about ALL of them in our little corner of the world…so I thought I’d post this on the worst that has happened.

From the Gulf War in Kuwait:

The largest oil spill the world has seen exacted little permanent damage on coral ecosystems and local fisheries, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission at Unesco. The study concluded that about half the oil evaporated, one-eighth of it was recovered and another quarter washed ashore, mostly in Saudi Arabia.

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I found it hard to believe that this spill had not done a lot of damage…especially now that there are cases of MERS in Saudi Arabia that are on the increase.

Could oil spills from over a decade ago be impacting the immune health of the folks there? I don’t know for sure, but it is a possibility. Something has compromised their immune systems…GMO’s, grain-based diet, chemicals…and on.  I would start looking at the folks whom have survived it and do detailed investigation into their diet and what chemicals they have been exposed to.

I found this website that not only dismisses the idea that there wasn’t a lot of damage, but the spill was not an accident–but a deliberate act of environmental warfare.  (I highlighted the text with my mouse so I could read it.  Black and white, people. Black and white, if you want a person to read what you write.)  (haha. poet and don’t know it.)

Not only did they have to contend with the oil spill on the land and water, but then they had an oily rain to deal with.  Good Grief.  If your land is polluted, the normally beneficial rain cannot help do its work of cleansing the Earth, as well as replenishing the water supply, and nourishing the plant life.  All life stops the minute the water supply is polluted.

 

 

 

 

Pro-Russian aggressors seize police station

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This is not good.  They say it’s not the Russians, but pro-Russian Ukrainians…but I dunno…

Ukrainians are passionate, that’s for sure, but to seize a police station?  That says to me if it is Ukrainians,  that they felt confident enough with *someone* backing them to pull such a stunt.  *Someone* has to be orchestrating all of this behind the scenes…*someone* whom is power hungry and has a lot to gain.

<sigh>

Meanwhile, I hope my Russian reader is doing okay.  I worry that your seeking information may have landed you in trouble….praying for you…

We are Not Bug Splats

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Just how dehumanizing is it to refer to people you kill as “bug splats”??  Good God.

Dehumanizing the “other” is as old as…well, war…I suppose.  The “other” are portrayed as dogs, rats,  and other things to dehumanize them.  It makes it easier to shoot someone if you no longer see them as a human being.

200 innocent children dead.  We should hang our heads in shame.