veterans – The Burning Platform

CHARITY STARTS AT HOME

Homeless Veterans in America

The Best Way To Honor War Veterans Is To Stop Creating Them

The US are celebrating Veterans Day, and many a striped flag shall be waved. The social currency of esteem will be used to elevate those who have served in the US military, thereby ensuring future generations of recruits to be thrown into the gears of the globe-spanning war machine.

Veterans Day is not a holiday to honor the men and women who have dutifully protected their country. The youngest Americans who arguably defended their nation from a real threat to its shores are in their nineties, and soon there won’t be any of them left. Every single person who has served in the US military since the end of the second World War has protected nothing other than the agendas of global hegemony, resource control and war profiteering. They have not been fighting and dying for freedom and democracy, they have been fighting and dying for imperialism, Raytheon profit margins, and crude oil.

Continue reading “The Best Way To Honor War Veterans Is To Stop Creating Them”

A Badge of Shame: The Government’s War on America’s Military Veterans

Guest Post by John W. Whitehead

“For soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, coming home is more lethal than being in combat.” ― Brené Brown, research professor at the University of Houston

Not all heroes wear the uniform of war.

In the United States, however, we take particular pride in recognizing as heroes those who have served in the military.

Yet while we honor our veterans with holidays, parades, discounts at retail stores and restaurants, and endless political rhetoric about their sacrifice and bravery, we do a pitiful job of respecting their freedoms and caring for their needs once out of uniform.

Continue reading “A Badge of Shame: The Government’s War on America’s Military Veterans”

A NEW JACKSONIAN ERA? (PART TWO)

In Part One of this article I documented the populist administration of Andrew Jackson and similarities to Donald Trump’s populist victory in the recent election. I’ll now try to assess the chances of a Trump presidency accomplishing its populist agenda.

The Trumpian Era

“But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.” – Andrew Jackson

“For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. And while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land. What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people. January 20th, 2017 will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.” – Donald J. Trump – Inaugural Speech

It is not a coincidence the painting in the oval office behind President Trump’s desk is of Andrew Jackson. He has promoted his presidency as a Jacksonian quest to return government to the people. His chief strategist Steve Bannon, a student of history, helped mold Trump’s speech with echoes of Jacksonian populism:

“It was an unvarnished declaration of the basic principles of his populist and kind of nationalist movement. It was given, I think, in a very powerful way. I don’t think we’ve had a speech like that since Andrew Jackson came to the White House. But you could see it was very Jacksonian. It’s got a deep, deep root of patriotism there.”

Continue reading “A NEW JACKSONIAN ERA? (PART TWO)”

VA Inspector General Report: 307,000 Veterans Died Waiting For Health Care

After seeing how the government manages the healthcare of our veterans, we decided to put them in charge of the healthcare for the whole country. We deserve to get it good and hard.

Guest Post by Matt Vespa

Before Dan Doherty departed, he wrote about how the Veterans Affairs estimated that hundreds of thousands of their patients had died while waiting for care. At the time, Scott Davis, a program specialist at the VA Health Eligibility Center, divulged a report that was conducted within his department and that of the VA Office of Analytics titled “Analysis of Death Services. It was released in April of 2015. Now, we the Veterans Affair Inspector General’s report has given the exact number: 307,000. That’s how many veterans have died before their application had been process by the Eligibility Center (via CNN):

Hundreds of thousands of veterans listed in the Department of Veterans Affairs enrollment system died before their applications for care were processed, according to a report issued Wednesday.The VA’s inspector general found that out of about 800,000 records stalled in the agency’s system for managing health care enrollment, there were more than 307,000 records that belonged to veterans who had died months or years in the past.

In a response to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs’ request to investigate a whistleblower’s allegations of mismanagement at the VA’s Health Eligibility Center, the inspector general also found VA staffers incorrectly marked unprocessed applications and may have deleted 10,000 or more records in the last five years.

In one case, a veteran who applied for VA care in 1998 was placed in “pending” status for 14 years. Another veteran who passed away in 1988 was found to have an unprocessed record lingering in 2014, the investigation found.

Continue reading “VA Inspector General Report: 307,000 Veterans Died Waiting For Health Care”

New Obama Initiative To Ban Guns For Some Social Security Recipients, Veterans, And Disabled

Submitted by Brandon Turbeville via ActivistPost.com,

Whenever one thinks the Obama administration’s war on the Second Amendment couldn’t get any more insane, Barack Obama prances onto the stage to prove everyone wrong yet again.

This time, it is not merely a carefully planned and orchestrated jig on the graves of mass shooting victims or pathetic whining about “gun crime” and the amount of time he must give regarding the issue. It is a push to ban a large number of Social Security benefits recipients from owning guns.

That’s correct. When the Obama administration can’t get its way by attacking gun owners head on, it merely turns to extorting the elderly and disabled whom it holds hostage via their need to receive Social Security benefits – benefits I might add, that are owed to them.

Thus, the Obama administration is pushing to prohibit Social Security benefit recipients from owning firearms if they “lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs,” a move which the Los Angeles Times reports would affect millions of people whose disability payments – for one reason or another – are handled by other people.

Continue reading “New Obama Initiative To Ban Guns For Some Social Security Recipients, Veterans, And Disabled”

Powerful Video Tribute To WWII Veterans ….

… from Russia!

“This is from the Russian group “Skretch”. Among other things, the video shows some remarkable war monuments from around Russia, really amazing, powerful memorials to mind-boggling heroism.” — Russian Insider

It really is a visually pleasing video, and the words are powerful. Even you Russian haters might like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cWrdAyP5aO0