Day 4 of VA Hunger Strike

It's storming ice and snow here now. Has been for a few hours. Then I remembered that the ramp to my front door can be a challenge when iced over. So, I slipped some clothes on over my bedclothes and made the arduous trip out to my shop where I stored the salt from last year.

I've gotta tell ya, sleet propelled by 50 mph wind striking you in the face is kind of like getting sand blasted. It's no fucking fun at all. But then, neither is begging the government to live up to its end of the military service agreement.

Ooops. Gotta go. A tree limb just came through my roof.

Oh, and fuck the VA and the USA.

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New Directions

I know of at least one veteran who has gone on a hunger strike because the Veteran's Administration won't treat him. On day 3 now.

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Yep, that ought to fix everything!

Compounding my multitude of health problems, I have lost three significant others recently. I called my psychiatrist at the Veteran's Administration who told me to come ASAP for a review and augmentation of my anti-depressant therapy.

When I arrived, we spoke for a few minutes. Then, as if this were his prescription, he said, "I think you ought to go to church". He then said he'd see me again in four months.

Of course, I objected and he made some minor changes to my therapy.

I checked my "Pocket Constitution" real  quick, just to be sure, and there under the First Amendment it read:

AMENDMENT I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I find it highly offensive to hear an employee of a federal institution tell me that I need to go to church while acting in an official capacity.

Besides that, yeah, I'm sure chanting to some imaginary friend in the sky will fix everything!

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Death Panels

Well, the death panels are at it again. I've ranted here about the VA and their lack of interest in maintaining my health. So, I went to Missouri Medicaid. Now, they have terminated me... in violation of the Ryan White Act, I might add. Asked for a hearing. Preparing to die. Fuck this world.

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It's that pot/kettle thing again

So, Rupert now says:

"Scientology back in news," Murdoch tweeted. "Very weird cult, but big, big money involved with Tom Cruise either number two or three in [hierarchy]."

The owner of Fox News, Wall Street Journal and New York Post followed the "cult" comment with another tweet.

"Watch Katie Holmes and Scientology story develop," Murdoch wrote. "Something creepy, maybe even evil, about these people."

While Cruise is often associated with Viacom's Paramount Pictures, the Los Angeles Times noted, he has also starred in films for 20th Century Fox--the studio owned by News Corporation--and is "known for being prickly about being challenged about his involvement with Scientology."

Murdoch, though, is standing by his comments.

"Since Scientology tweet hundreds of attacks," he wrote later. "Expect they will increase and get worse and maybe threatening. Still stick to my story."

After a user asked Murdoch for his thoughts on Mormonism, he responded: "Mormonism a mystery to me, but Mormons certainly not evil."

Source

I'm not one to often leap to the rescue of religion. For my part they are all weird! But this simply strikes me as the pot calling the kettle black. And, besides, isn't it the Amerikun way to kill anything that is "a mystery" or different in any way?

And, evil? Jeez, ya wanna talk evil? How about money? Doesn't the Bible, Capitalisms primary minions cattle prod, explicitly state that money is the root of ALL evil? Doesn't Rupert have a boat load of that stuff? Wouldn't that, aside from all the truly creepy and evil stuff we all know he does, make him evil?

Maybe Scientology is creepy. But Rupert is a creep in his own right... a creep to be held up as a shining example to aspiring creeps.

Those Crazy Amerikuns!

The whole point of this blog from its beginning is to point out how stupid Americans have allowed themselves to become... not that they were ever that bright. But what we have here now is simply willful ignorance. Much of it is fueled by that fantasy world known as religion; some of it is just plain lazy slothfulness. When one consumes a steady diet of myth and fantasy (religion, patriotism) and misdirection and propaganda (CNN, DWTS, "reality tv", game shows, etc.), one makes ones' self clay for the potters' hands.

Again, I am ashamed of my small role as a United States Marine. I also often regret my service with the Department of Health. It was all lies, and I wanted to believe.

I occasionally wear a USMC ball cap. Here in the mid-south it either garners one a small measure of respect in an otherwise disrespectful culture, or it allows one to go on ones' way unmolested by the "crazies". The day before yesterday I wore it to the intensive care unit where my mother currently is and a nurse placed her hand on my shoulder and said, "I'd like to thank you for your service". I never quite know what to say when this happens. So, as usual, I simply replied, "You're welcome". If folks only knew what was really going on inside my head...

America: Drugged Up, Dumbed Down and Crazy Dangerous

By Robert Bridge

...

If you were planning to conquer the world, or at least a broad swath of it, the war would necessarily start at home. After all, no general worth his salt would rush into battle with his rear exposed. You’d have to muzzle the media, severely curtail political choice and dissent, while preaching to the world about democracy and human rights to cover your tracks. You’d have to construct the mother of all propaganda machines, which proclaims over every available wavelength that it’s the best darn civilization since Atlantis sunk to its watery grave thousands of years ago. It would be a bit like decorating the halls of a mental asylum with idyllic nature scenes. You’d also have to hire an army of loud-mouth talking heads to shout down any and all dissenters, accuse them of being conspiracy theorists and lunatics and commies, while keeping a paramilitary police force on the standby 24/7 should the bullying tactics fail.

You’d have to spoon-feed the populace with a liberal dose of anti-depressants, Jersey Shore, American Idol and 24-hour shopping channels with easy credit to prevent them from giving a moment’s thought to real-time, third-dimensional issues. You could also fuel battles over trifling cultural issues, like homosexuals in the military, Mel Gibson’s latest rant and Charlie Sheen’s complicated love life. What we are left with after the smoke has cleared bears no resemblance to a classic, text-book democracy. What we are left with is an obese, drug-addled Burlesque Empire, bursting at the seams with electronic circuses, cocaine and corn puffs, physically and mentally incapable of finding the remote control when the scenes of war become too unappetizing.

We are overstretched at home, and like despotic Rome, overstretched overseas. Now it is anybody’s guess where this depressing joyride will take us. 

Source

This this article was first published at RT

US Military caught endorsing Christianity... again

The Crusades never really ended, did they. The problem, as I see it, with gallivanting around the globe killing folks in the name of spreading Christianity is that it shows the "missionary expedition" as exactly what it is: ignorant, arrogant, judgmental pricks with no understanding of (nor desire to understand) their fellow man... nor the teachings of their own prophet - or is that "Profit". They make no effort to know or understand the culture of the people they choose to dominate.

A little understanding and tolerance could go a long way toward bettering the world in which we live. But just try telling that to a bunch of Bible Thumpers with guns!

Do you really expect me to believe that all four branches of the armed forces are only just learning of this clear and direct violation of The Constitution? HAYELL no! They are only just realizing that they may be held to account.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Following efforts by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), all four branches of the U.S. Military have revoked their approval of the Military series of Holman Christian Standard Bibles (HCSB). The Holman Bible is a modern English, Baptist translation that was completed in 2004 and is published by LifeWay Christian Resources’ Holman Bible Publishers, a subsidiary of the Evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist Bible Convention. These editions were prominently emblazoned with exact replicas of the trademarked emblems of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force.

Read the article...

What's in a Post Titile, I told ya so's, and more...

Really. What's a post title for? It doesn't really matter to anyone anyway. I've prattled on for years screaming warnings at the top of my lungs to no avail. Not that I am important in any way - I am not. But when someone, ANYONE, speaks truth and no one even thinks enough of it to comment, let alone actually try to take some corrective action, it makes me wonder why I even bother. But then I remember the words I wrote to the right - "This blog is therapy". So, it's not really even about you, the reader - if there actually are any, anyway.

Yes. I'm a crotchety old cranky asshole. No one likes me and I know it. But that's OK. I don't really like anyone else, either. My last post was a bit fatalistic. And why not? My own physicians cannot hear the words that are coming out of my mouth! They insist on prescribing medications to which I have KNOWN AND DOCUMENTED ADVERSE REACTIONS EVEN AS I REMIND THEM OVER AND OVER! I've been down that "refusing to follow a doctor's recommendations" road before. I know how that turns out! And when I have an adverse reaction to their treatment, and then remind them that I reminded them over and over, their response is, "Well, you shouldn't have taken it if you knew it would make you sick." NO, COCK SUCKER, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE PRESCIBED IT IF YOU KNEW IT WOULD MAKE ME SICK - AND YOU KNEW IT WOULD - ASSHOLE!

But I think the thing that I find most offensive about this whole thing is that this is the way the Veteran's Administration treats its Veterans. And what's more, a Constituent Services Representative from Representative Jo Ann Emerson's Cape Girardeau office has been basically holding my hand through all this VA shit since the early to mid 2000's. It's not like our elected officials don't know how broken the VA is... or the entire medical establishment in this country is, for that matter! And they may actually care - they just don't give enough of a fuck to do anything to fix it.

I'll also mention here in passing that the Veteran's Administration, by decree of Congress, practices institutionalized, legislated discrimination. But that's a whole other post! I'll say this now, though: I have it in writing. And when I write that other post I will be including that documentation, in somewhat redacted form of course. (Hey, they do it. So, what the fuck?!) So, stay tuned for that update coming soon.

But what I really wanted to do with this post is ask a rhetorical question about the current economic crisis. You know, the one about which the current party line is "It's getting better every day"? (You know it's not really, don't you?). I just want to ask how anyone could have read this blog, or one of many others like it, and not known the bastards were robbing us blind? It's not like I didn't warn of its coming.

So, I'll leave you for now with this jeer and the following link - it's certainly no surprise to me. Of course, my head isn't burried in the sand and my eyes are wide open. I may be considered a radical crank but at least I'm aware.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/pers-j04.shtml

External links do not necessarily mean that I endorse those sites or the views expressed by them.

Goodbye again...

I don't have the energy to continue this blog nor any of my other activities and activism. Why? Not that anyone cares, but primarily because I am sick and in pain and cannot seem to motivate the Veterans Administration, nor anyone else for that matter, to help me.

I received a letter in response to my complaint to my Congressional Representative about discrimination and the lack of staffing to handle anyone other than what I call "New Millennium Veterans", those who have served in Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom, which reads in part:

"[VA Staff] explained to [the Heartland Heretic] that the [New Millennium Veterans] are not given preferential treatment but that VA is mandated by Congress to provide certain staffing to ensure these Veterans needs are met."

 My written response to this preposterous response to my allegation of discrimination read simply:

"Legislated Discrimination is still discrimination, is wrong, and is still illegal."

I would like to make clear that I don't believe that a single consideration given to New Millennium Veterans should be taken away. If anything they also are under served. It is my contention that ALL Veterans deserve the same considerations and services.

All Veterans have been duped and used by the greedy imperialist powers that be.

It is with deep sorrow and physical pain that I resign myself to lay down my keyboard and my head to await the inevitable. But I leave you with these thoughts:

There is no point to this life other than pain and suffering. And the vast majority of that is inflicted upon us by out fellow man. Death awaits each and every one of us and most of us deserve a painful death for our apathy in reaching out to each other and protecting one another from those of us who seek to inflict pain upon others out of greed and selfishness.

Because in reality it is greed that drives us all. It is uncontrolled greed that kills us all.

Goodbye.

Rep. Jenkins caught lying again, Ms. Smith speaks out
by Mike Nellis

Thu Sep 03, 2009 at 09:04:13 AM PDT

Rep. Lynn Jenkins' terrible awful no good very bad August is definitely extending into September.

Yesterday, her parade of failure marched on. Elizabeth Smith, the uninsured single mother Jenkins laughed at, is now telling her story. Last night on the Ed Show, she made it clear that she was "frustrated" with her Congresswoman and that she "wasn't looking for a handout" in insurance reform.

After this week, I bet Lynn Jenkins can't wait to get back home to Washington. Video below the fold...

* Mike Nellis's diary 

Here's the video of Ed Schultz's interview with Ottawa's Elizabeth Smith. I'd post it but there seems to be some trouble getting it to embed here.

Elizabeth Smith wasn't just speaking out on the Ed Show. She took her story to the streets last night speaking at a health care rally in Ottawa. We haven't been able to get our hands on the video but reports from the event says it was well very attended and organized.

Now, you might be asking yourself, how can Lynn Jenkins dig a deeper hole for herself? Apparently, by more lying. Jenkins released this statment via Scott Rothschild from the Lawrence Journal World:

Instead of playing gotcha politics on blogs and zipping off press releases to MSNBC, and using the young woman?s situation as a fundraising appeal for her political party, Congresswoman Jenkins?s office is looking into current resources available to the mother in existing programs.

There are two problems with this statement. First, in what is an obvious attempt to marginalize her, that statement implies that Elizabeth Smith is a Democrat. She is not -- she is a registered independent. Second, the LJ World spoke with Ms. Smith and she hasn't heard from Jenkins or any member of her staff. How can they help her, if they aren't talking to her?

What we've done is found Lynn Jenkins failing to do her job again. Kansans are starting to have buyers remorse. Lynn Jenkins has failed to read legislation she's voted on, she failed again by saying she won't read the health bills she opposes, she failed on a compassion level when she laughed at Ms. Smith last week, and now's she failing to do her job and help her constituents.

It's a pattern, and it's a disturbing one. Failure is the name of the game with Lynn Jenkins.

But like I wrote yesterday, it won't mean a thing if we don't have resources to build an infrastructure for our eventual candidate in the district. So many of you dug deep and helped us yesterday, but we still need your help.

Here's what I wrote yesterday for reference:

Can you help us build our party by making a small donation of $10? The stronger we are, and the more resources we have, the better chance we have of being successful in 2010. Every penny will go toward building a grassroots infrastructure -- both online and offline -- that we will utilize to ensure victory in November. Any support you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for your continued support and friendship.

To execute or not?

So, ya really dig the "eye for an eye" philosophy of Christianity when Jesus actually taught to "turn the other cheek"?

The Future of our hellth care

No. I didn't misspell "health". I mean that all we have to look forward to is more hell

We're more alike than we are different...

Raha Iranian Feminist Collective has written an extraordinary article "Solidarity and Its Discontents," that should be read by every peace activist and anti-war group in this country. The article concludes with these words:

"There is no contradiction between opposing every instance of US meddling in Iran--and every other  country--and supporting the popular, democratic  struggles of ordinary Iranians against dictatorship. Effective international solidarity requires that the two go hand in hand, for example, by linking the struggles of political prisoners in Iran and with those of political prisoners in the US, not by counterposing them. Iranian dissidents, like dissidents in the US, see their own government as their main enemy. The fact that Iranian activists also have to deal with sanctions and threats of military action from the US only makes their work and their lives more difficult. The US and Iranian governments are, of course, not equal in their global reach, but both stand in the way of popular democracy and human liberation. US-based activists must not undermine the brave and endangered work of Iranian opposition groups by supporting the regime that is ruthlessly trying to crush them.

We are calling for a rethinking of what internationalism and international solidarity means from the vantage point of activists working in the US. Internationalism has to start from below, from the differently articulated aspirations of mass movements against state militarism, dictatorship, economic crisis, gender, sexual, religious, class and ethnic oppression, in Iran, in the US and all over the world. For activists in the US, this means being against sanctions on Iran, whether they are in the name of human rights or the nuclear issue. It means refusing to cast the US as the land of progress and freedom while Iran is demonized as backward and oppressive. Solidarity is not charity or pity; it flows from an understanding of mutual--though far from identical--struggle. It means consistent opposition to human rights violations in the US, to the rampant sexism and homophobia that lead to violence and destroy peoples lives right here. But we don t have to hide another state s brutality behind our complaints about conditions in America. We have to be just as clear in condemning state crimes against activists, journalists and others in Iran, just as critical of the Iranian versions of neo-liberalism and oligarchy, of attacks on trade unions, women and students, as we are of the US versions."