Retired Military Leaders Speak Out Against Using Troops

Here are all the current and former military leaders blasting Trump’s response to nationwide protests

Task and Purpose

Jared Keller

June 4, 2020

Since the earliest days of his presidency, President Donald Trump has showered "his generals" with an absurd amount of adoration, transforming America's military brass from mere advisors to symbols of legitimacy and trust within his administration.

But in the protests that have followed the death of unarmed African-American man George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer — and Trump's subsequent threats to deploy the military to quell protests nationwide — the president's implicit reliance on generals appears weakened as military leaders speak out and contradict the president's message of force.

In recent days, several generals from past administrations have spoken out strongly against both Trump personally and the approach his administration has taken to the violence that has rocked in recent days, from current Defense Secretary Mark Esper referring to American cities as "battle space" to Trump's demand that governors use the National Guard to "dominate" protestors in their states. 

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen

and read more here

Difference between using and supporting and cause

Wounded Times

Kathie Costos

June 3, 2020

When football players took a knee during the National Anthem, they used their fans to make a point. Had the cameras not been there, and fans, who paid to watch the team play, no one would have complained. While it is the right of every American to protest and speak their thoughts, it is not right to abuse the reason people were paying attention.  I feel the same way when a singer turns the stage into a political platform. 

Yet when Police Officers join protestors taking a knee, that is a wonderful thing. They took their jobs to protect the citizens in their communities, so when other officers decide to assault them instead, they need to let their communities know, they are not like them.

When the President encouraged protestors to reopen states during the pandemic, some agreed with him.

NY Post

Yet when peaceful protestors were in Washington DC and he wanted to show up in front of a church, he sent police and military members to attack them.

Tear Gas, Rubber Bullets Used On Washington, DC Demonstrators As Trump Threatens To Deploy Military To Quell Protests

KPIX News

Over 100 servicemembers with TBI from Iran bombs..,not just headaches

Over 100 US troops have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries following Iran strike

CNN
Barbara Starr
February 10, 2020

Last month, Trump said he does not consider potential brain injuries to be as serious as physical combat wounds, downplaying the severity of the injuries suffered in Iraq.

(CNN)Over 100 US service members have been diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injuries in the wake of the January 8 Iranian missile attack on the al Asad military base in Iraq, according to a US official with knowledge of the latest information.

A picture of the destruction left at Al Asad base in Iraq after it was struck by Iranian missiles.

Later on Monday the Pentagon released a statement confirming that 109 service members had been diagnosed, an increase of 45 from the end of January when they said 64 service members had been suffered injuries.

The statement added that nearly 70% of the injured service members have returned to duty.
read it here

Senator McConnell just made the case for his own expulsion

It seems that Senator McConnell is prepared to protect and defend the President over the duty of the Senate to protect and defend the Constitution.

McConnell, then the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, made it clear he thought the Constitution required the Senate to hold a full trial on the articles of impeachment Clinton was facing for perjury and obstruction of justice, culminating in a vote on whether to convict or acquit the president.

Why should the rules and laws of this nation matter to him now?

McConnell told NBC’s Tim Russert in December 1998 that the Senate had a “constitutional obligation to commence the trial” but that the trial should be short.

Listen to his own words

It seems as if most Americans find McConnell's attitude toward holding this president accountable very troubling.

Fox News Poll: Trump job approval ticks up, views on impeachment steady

The poll, conducted Sunday through Wednesday, also finds 50 percent want Trump impeached and removed from office, 4 percent say impeached but not removed, and 41 percent oppose impeaching him altogether.

You read that right. Half of the American people not only want President Trump impeached...they want him gone from office.

I listened to a lot of the hearings but while the Democrats arrived with facts and experts, the Republicans arrived ready to do battle loaded with BS and insulted the intelligence of the American people.

Defending the President is one thing if he bothered to participate, or even show the process enough respect to turn over evidence that was required. So far, he has denied the American people the right to know the evidence against him, as much as he has denied us the right to see what would support his claims.

It is however, worse that McConnell is OK with all of that now! President Trump has been accused of terrible things and justice demands a fair trial, not someone like McConnell in opposition to what the Founding Fathers put in place so that no one would ever assume the office of the President allows them to be above the law!

The United States Constitution gives the Senate the power to expel any member by a two-thirds vote. This is distinct from the power over impeachment trials and convictions that the Senate has over executive and judicial federal officials. The Senate concluded in 1798 that senators could not be impeached, but only expelled, while conducting the impeachment trial of William Blount, who had already been expelled.

I stayed out of this for too long because I believed that Trump would get a fair trail but when the ones putting him on trial are already saying they are "coordinating with the President" it is time for all of us to speak up!

Some Republican Senators Standing Up For Troops Against Trump's Wall...finally

Senate to vote on ending border emergency that diverted DoD funds

Military Times
By: Joe Gould
1 hour ago

“Now we have a whole number of Republicans who voted with the president who see their military bases being ransacked, pillaged,” Schumer said Tuesday. “I don’t think anyone, no matter what state they are from, will want to see money being taken away from their military installations, [which is] very much needed.”

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he visits a new section of the border wall with Mexico in Calexico, Calif., on April 5, 2019. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

WASHINGTON ― Republicans will be “forced” to vote as soon as Wednesday whether to end the president’s emergency diversion of military funding to his border wall, according to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Schumer and other Democrats turned up the pressure on their GOP colleagues months after 12 Senate Republicans voted to end the emergency declaration and the House failed to override President Donald Trump’s veto.

The decision to force a second vote comes after the Pentagon released the list of 127 projects in 23 states and 19 allied countries that were deferred by the administration to devote $3.6 billion to the border wall.
read it here

In Hurricane Dorian's path, citizens concerned by Trump's competency

"I'm not sure I ever heard of a category 5 hurricane. I knew they existed." President Donald Trump during FEMA meeting.

How can you know something existed but never heard about it? There have already been three since he became President, and this is the forth.

Thus Mar-a-Lago went on the market. Three potential sales collapsed before Donald Trump bought it in 1985, paying a reported $8 million for the estate and its furnishings—a small fraction of the original cost, no matter how you calculate it. And after three decades and the most confounding presidential election in living memory, Marjorie Merriweather Post’s wish for her mansion came true.

What makes a category 5 hurricane?

The highest classification in the scale, Category 5, consists of storms with sustained winds over 156 mph (70 m/s; 136 kn; 251 km/h).

What about all the others? Hurricane Katrina 2005, which he mentioned when talking about Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

"Every death is a horror," Trump said. "But if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here with, really, a storm that was just totally overpowering, nobody's ever seen anything like this."

Since Donald Trump has owned Mar-a-Lago, there were more President Trump should have heard about.

Hurricane Andrew was a powerful and destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that struck the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana in August 1992. ... With a barometric pressure of 922 mbar (27.23 inHg) at the time of landfall in Florida, Andrew is the sixth most-intense hurricane to strike the United States.

And even more....
Hurricane Mitch 1998 180 mph
Hurricane Rita 2005 180 mph
Hurricane Wilma 2005 185 mph
Hurricane Matthew 2016 165 mph
Hurricane Irma 2017 180 mph
Hurricane Maria 2018 175 mph
Hurricane Michael 2018 160 mph

You can find more category 5 Hurricanes here.

Coast Guard, FEMA and TSA budgets hit for Trump's wall during hurricane season?

Homeland Security raids Coast Guard coffers to pay for border programs

The Associated Press
By: Colleen Long
August 27, 2019

"Taking money away from TSA and from FEMA in the middle of hurricane season could have deadly consequences." House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson

Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team Puerto Rico personnel attach hurricane shutters on Monday in preparation for Tropical Storm Dorian. (Ricardo Castrodad/Coast Guard)

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security is moving $271 million from other agencies such as FEMA and the U.S. Coast Guard to increase the number of beds for detained immigrants and support its policy forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases play out.

The news comes as hurricane season is ramping up and Tropical Storm Dorian is heading toward Puerto Rico.

The sprawling 240,000-person Homeland Security Department includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and the new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in addition to immigration agencies.

It is not uncommon for unassigned funds to be transferred between agencies under the same department as the fiscal year ends. Last year around the same time, about $200 million was transferred, including $10 million from FEMA that prompted major criticism from Democrats.

Homeland Security officials said in a statement Tuesday they would transfer $155 million to create temporary facilities along the U.S.-Mexico border for holding hearings with the aim of moving asylum cases through the system faster.
read it here

What are veterans really worth to the candidates?

Next President needs to prove what veterans are worth

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 9, 2019

Veterans, if your Mom told you that you were special...Mom knows best. You actually are! Surprised? You shouldn't be. The budget of the federal government prove it.

The two of the biggest departments this nation has are the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

The DOD budget was $1.3 Trillion.  The VA budget request for 2020 is $220.2 billion. Yet when it comes to size of both departments, you get the idea that you are even more special. Current military members are less than 1% of the population. Less than 10% of our citizens are veterans, and less than half of you use the VA.

Right now there are 2 Republicans and 24 Democrats who want to become the next President. It seems that everyone is talking about what is either strong or wrong, but no one is talking about what matters to your lives. We are just hearing the same old crap on what they will do for you, but no apologies on what they already did to you.

Let's get honest and shove politics out of the way because as we already know, it is both parties messing up. Congress has had since 1946 to get it right for your sake...and they all failed.

For the 26 some odd...and changing, they want to become the next Commander-in-Chief but all of them should be "chef" considering the strange brew they have been cooking up for veterans while calling it good medicine.

Members of Congress have been telling the American people how bad our healthcare system is...and it is bad. These same folks are telling veterans sending them into this mess is "good for them" and they should be grateful. As to "what" they should be grateful for...no one has an answer.

This is easy, or it should be. Disabled veterans became disabled serving this county. They were promised that their wounds would be treated and they would not have to worry about surviving after they pre-paid for their healthcare with their service.

Now, you'd think that would come with a square deal and it would be delivered. You'd also have to imagine that the folks leading this country are grateful enough to make sure our veterans and current military members were actually honored. Then again, if you do, then you haven't been paying attention to the facts.

The percentage of veterans living in this country is lower than in 1999 when the VA said that 20 veterans a day were committing suicide. They released the the first report in 2012. Back then, the general public had no idea but veterans knew all about it. (In 2000, my husband's nephew was one of them.)

Seven years after the first report, everyone is talking about veterans killing themselves but no one is talking about how it has gotten worse for them to stay alive.

Sure we have the usual problems that have been going on for as long as I've been alive (a very long time) but it got worse with the wrong people advising Trump. 

Fact, he wanted to cut the "unemployable" percentage from senior veterans disability checks because they were too old to work anyway. While the largest percentage of veterans in this country are over the age of 50...they are also the majority of the known veterans committing suicide. Did anyone think about what hearing this did to them?

I can tell you there was a major freak out when veterans thought the one thing they could depend on was that "permanent and total" actually meant that.

Then we have what is going on with the military. Their suicides have gone up too. According to the DOD, suicides hit the largest number in ten years! The other fact is that it has averaged about 500 a year since 2012.

Military families are subjected to not only living on contaminated bases, 126 at last count by the DOD. Military housing has also been harming them because someone thought it was a good thing for them to be handed over to for profit businesses.

Yes, even more horror for those who had been prepared to face the enemy...but did not think they would have to face all this.

When you hear all the people running for the office make them actually answer questions without running away from what they've already done to you! Stop letting them get away with treating you as if you are just like everyone else they can just make a speech to and then get your vote.

MAKE THEM EARN IT!

Do any rules apply to POTUS...or the Senate anymore?

Border wall $21.6 billion July 4th event going up with millions diverted from National Parks and then there was the government shutdown...but some of my Republican friends refuse to notice what else is going on that should hit them where their hearts used to be...

As Housing Mold Derails Military Moves, This Is the Solution We Need

Military.com
By Joyce Wessel Raezer
July 1, 2019

Joyce Wessel Raezer is the outgoing executive director of the National Military Family Association.

Contracted personnel perform an accountability assessment and pack items belonging to a U.S. Soldier before her moving to a different state June 12, 2019. (U.S. Transportation Command/Stephenie Wade)

‪Military families are at risk once again.

After suffering untenable living conditions, rodent and other infestations, loss of property and chronic health problems, military families dealing with mold in their privatized, on-base housing now face another challenge: moving.

While installations and contractors move ahead with remediating dangerous living conditions, many families must simultaneously navigate an unusually complex PCS season. And the damage done by the mold in their houses is affecting not just their furniture and their health, but also their ability to complete their PCS move on schedule. Shortages of movers as well as potential housing delays at installations where remediation work continues further complicate an already stressful time.

Moving companies, appropriately unwilling to assume the liability of moldy belongings that could create higher costs for themselves or safety problems for future customers, are now backing out of pack-outs in homes where mold is present, according to a story in Military Times. That includes the homes of thousands of families whose very safety has been affected by substandard conditions.
read it here

You can catch up on that here....if you care more about our troops and veterans than you do a political party.

Why didn't FOX discover Trump's disdain for military before he became Commander-in-Chief?

Republicans missing out on facts watching FOX

Just stunned and checked FOX earlier today to see if they had this story. They did not early this morning. Then again, it seems that they are not reporting on a lot of things. 

Do they understand that most in the GOP are for the troops and our veterans and deserve to know what is going on with both of those groups?

Well, just one more example of the hoodwinking of patriotic folks who are giving up on the GOP and FOX. No need to wonder why so many of them are switching to Independent~

When candidate Trump went after members of the military, that was not enough for people to wake up and understand what they were approving of.

When POTUS Trump went after the VA and tried to cut benefits for millions of senior veterans, that was not enough for people to wake up to what they had approved of.

When POTUS took money out of the military budget for the wall he wanted to build, even as hundreds of military families were subjected to living in squalor in their homes, that was not enough to wake up people.

The list of offenses committed is so long that it would take days...or weeks, to put together. What did it for me last night was hearing that POTUS had such disdain for the military, he threatened to cut off child support for one of his daughters if she joined it! 

It was not just about if she went to work, but he had to make sure he mentioned military service above any other job!

Does anyone still approve of supporting him? Why didn't FOX tell us any of this?


TIFFANY TRUMP CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS WOULD HAVE BEEN STOPPED BY DONALD IF SHE JOINED THE MILITARY: PRENUP 
NEWSWEEK
BY JESSICA KWONG
6/4/19

President Donald Trump's newly revealed prenuptial agreement with his second wife Marla Maples contains rules regarding their daughter Tiffany Trump — specifically on circumstances under which his child support payments for her would end early.

The 1993 prenup, obtained and reported by Vanity Fair on Tuesday, established that Donald Trump would halt $100,000 child support payments for Tiffany Trump when she turned 21 years old, or earlier if she joined the military, the Peace Corps., or landed a full-time job.

"The way it was drawn up is ironclad and shows how wary he was," divorce lawyer Raoul Felder, who has represented Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani, told the magazine after reading the prenup. "He was leaving nothing to chance."

The prenup was a reflection of Trump's fierce desire to guard his money at a time when he faced bankruptcy from three Atlantic City casinos and debt.

Trump negotiated to pay Maples just $1 million if they divorced within five years, and an additional $1 million to purchase a house. Maples reportedly had requested $25 million.

Maples gave birth to Tiffany Trump in October 1993 and wanted to marry soon after. Besides that, Donald Trump warmed up to the idea of marrying Maples because his conservative parents were not happy he had a daughter out of wedlock, and the marriage could calm investors as he prepared to go public with his casinos to pay his debts.

Donald Trump and Maples eventually settled the prenup at $14 million. Maples tried to negotiate better terms but was forced to cave, 24 hours before thousands of guests were set to arrive at their wedding.
read more here

White House wanted to keep McCain away from POTUS...the ship that is

update Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on the Sunday TV talk shows that a junior staffer made the request to the military to hide the destroyer McCain from President Donald Trump's view "That's not an unreasonable thing to ask" that the president be spared having to see a warship with late Sen. John McCain's name on it, given the enmity between them, both personally and politically, Mulvaney said on NBC-TV's "Meet The Press" program. read more here

BTW OMG!

Navy acknowledges request was made to hide USS John S. McCain during Trump visit

NBC News
By Max Burman and Courtney Kube
June 1, 2019

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that it had reviewed an email to Navy and Air Force officials dated May 15 that included the direction "USS John McCain needs to be out of sight" for Trump's Japan visit. CNBC has also obtained the email. NBC News has not reviewed the email.

The USS John S. McCain, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, operates off the Korean Peninsula during exercises on March 2013.Declan Barnes / U.S. Navy via AFP - Getty Images file

The U.S. Navy has acknowledged that a request was made to hide the USS John S. McCain during President Donald Trump's recent state visit to Japan.

"A request was made to the U.S. Navy to minimize the visibility of USS John S. McCain, however, all ships remained in their normal configuration during the President's visit," Rear Admiral Charlie Brown, chief of information, said in a statement to NBC News.

"There were also no intentional efforts to explicitly exclude Sailors assigned to USS John S. McCain," the statement said.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said Friday he’d asked his chief of staff to “look into” the reported request from the White House to move the ship "out of sight" during Trump's visit.

“Our business is to run military operations and not become politicized,” Shanahan told reporters during a news conference in Singapore. “I would not have moved the ship," he added.
read more here

VA Whistleblower:POTUS Purged 200,000 disabled veteran claims?

Trump administration breaks campaign promise, purges 200,000 VA healthcare applications

Washington Examiner
by Scott Davis
May 13, 2019

"The current state of the Department of Veterans Affairs is absolutely unacceptable,” presidential candidate Donald Trump said when speaking at a rally on Oct. 31, 2015, in front of the retired battleship USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, Va.

"Over 300,000 — and this is hard to believe, and it’s actually much more than that now — over 300,000 veterans died waiting for care," said Trump.

Trump’s strong condemnation of the Obama administration’s handling of the backlog of hundreds of thousands of veteran benefits claims made him the overwhelming choice for many veteran voters in 2016.

But after two years in the White House, the Trump administration has decided to execute a plan to purge 200,000 applications for VA healthcare caused by known administrative errors within VA’s enrollment process and enrollment system — problems that had already been documented by the Office of the Inspector General in 2015 and 2017.

In purging this massive backlog of applications, the VA is declaring the applications to be incomplete due to errors by the applicants, despite the OIG findings and in violation of the promise Trump made to fix the system. This purge has the dual effect of letting the VA avoid the work of processing the applications and absolving the agency of any responsibility for veterans’ delayed access to health and disability benefits.

Under the supervision of Dr. Richard Stone, the executive in charge of the Veterans Health Administration, VHA managers last November instructed the agency’s IT staff members to purge over 200,000 pending healthcare applications.
read more here


If people bothered to actually look up facts whenever a politician opens their mouths...then maybe they would all stop lying!

POTUS sent executive Tweet to Rolling Thunder?

President Trump Said He Rescued the Rolling Thunder Tribute to POWs. It's Not That Simple

TIME
BY RACHEL E. GREENSPAN
MAY 26, 2019

Despite Trump’s tweet, Rolling Thunder’s founder and executive director Artie Muller affirmed again on Sunday this was the last year for the event in the nation’s capital.

In reference to the President’s comments, Muller said on C-Span that nothing had changed. “I know he means well, but I don’t know what the story is with them working it out with us,” Muller, a Vietnam War veteran, said. “There’d have to be a lot of discussion and a lot of changes for everybody that comes here and our organization that helps put this together.”

Rolling Thunder has held its motorcycle demonstration ride every Memorial Day Weekend in Washington, D.C., for more than three decades—which is why the nonprofit veteran advocacy group’s announcement last fall that 2019 would be the ride’s last year concerned many.

The news made it all the way to President Donald Trump, who tweeted from Japan on Saturday with a pledge to help. On Sunday, he weighed in again––this time declaring that Rolling Thunder would continue in Washington next year, implying he had fixed the problem.

“The Great Patriots of Rolling Thunder WILL be coming back to Washington, D.C. next year, and hopefully for many years to come,” he said. “It is where they want to be, and where they should be.”

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
The Great Patriots of Rolling Thunder WILL be coming back to Washington, D.C. next year, and hopefully for many years to come. It is where they want to be, and where they should be. Have a wonderful time today. Thank you to our great men and women of the Pentagon for working it out!

Rolling Thunder has organized an annual rally in Washington for 32 years, inviting veterans and bikers to ride together to voice support of veterans missing in action and kept as prisoners of war.
read more here

President Donald Trump's tax law hit Gold Star Children

Lawmakers change Trump tax law that hit Gold Star families with 'kiddie tax'

NBC News
By Corky Siemaszko
May 21, 2019

The federal government "is trying to save a few bucks by ripping off" military families, Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., said.

The Senate on Tuesday passed a change to President Donald Trump's tax law after it unexpectedly socked hundreds of Gold Star families this year with a "kiddie tax" of thousands of dollars.

Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.Aaron P. Bernstein / Getty Images file

The new tax law treated military and Veteran Affairs survivor benefits as trusts or estates, which subjects them to a tax rate as high as 37 percent.

The Gold Star Family Tax Relief Act would fix the error by treating military and VA survivor benefits as earned income, which is taxed at a much lower rate. That bill now goes to the House for consideration.

"Gold Star families have sacrificed so much for our nation, and passing this legislation to remove the exorbitant tax on surviving children's benefits is the least we can do," Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., said after the Gold Star Families Tax Relief Act passed the Senate with unanimous and bipartisan support.
read more here

ALSO
Gold Star families hit by huge tax increase on benefits

POTUS wants snooping on disabled vets who look too happy?

Disability Advocate Slams White House’s Veteran Surveillance Plan

The Hill
BY TODD NEIKIRK
April 15, 2019

Republicans have long presented themselves as the unquestioned pro-military political party. In the last few months, however, conservatives have been targeting veteran benefits. Fox News hosts, Brian Kilmeade and Pete Hegseth, got in on the act recently, taking aim at vets who they believe to be claiming too many benefits.

The White House has recently taken aim at former troops as well, creating a new social media surveillance policy. According to the New York Times, the Social Security administration is on the look out for disabled vets who look too happy.

Lawyer, Robert Crowe, says, “There is a little bitty chance that Social Security may be snooping on your Facebook or your Twitter account. You don’t want anything on there that shows you out playing Frisbee.”
read more here

Help us heal our Nation and honor those who have served and sacrificed.

VVA to President Trump:Help us Heal our Nation

Vietnam Veterans of America

March 21, 2019
Statement by Vietnam Veterans of America National President John Rowan:
On the eve of Vietnam Veterans Day, March 29, we are chagrined by the President’s inability to let a fellow Vietnam veteran rest in peace.

Every day we live our founding principle, “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.”

We have succeeded in teaching our fellow Americans that warriors don’t make policy.

They have learned to separate the war from the warrior.

The era of spurning veterans is past. We have made sure of it.

Our experience has taught us how fear and hatred corrode the soul and imprison the spirit.

We have forgiven those who have condemned us for answering our country’s call.

We have forgiven those who received educational and medical deferments from serving in the war.

We have forgiven Hollywood for its negative portrayal of veterans. We are proud of the warmth, respect, and honor that our newest veterans receive today.

And we are greatly saddened by the President’s inability to let a Vietnam War hero rest in peace.

Mr. Trump, it’s time to move on. Help us heal our Nation and honor those who have served and sacrificed.

Should POTUS apologize to Marine Corps Mad Dog?

Trump claims he coined the nickname ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis

Military Times
By: Leo Shane III
March 3, 2019

But news reports referred to Mattis by the moniker — which he has publicly said he does not like — as far back as 2004, when he was commanding general of the 1st Marine Division.

President Donald Trump hugs the American flag as he arrives to speak at Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md., on March 2, 2019. During his speech, Trump claimed to have come up with former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' nickname of "Mad Dog." (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump incorrectly claimed to have coined former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ well-known “Mad Dog” nickname because “Chaos” was not a good enough one for the four-star Marine Corps general.

The comments came during a lengthy speech on Saturday before the annual Conservative Political Action Conference meeting. Trump was speaking on the military’s involvement in the Middle East when he said Defense Department generals “are perfect people” and he wanted to make more of them famous.

“Just like I did with Mattis,” he said. “I said we’re going to give you a new nickname, because ‘Chaos’ is not a good nickname. So we changed it to ‘Mad Dog.’

"But Mad Dog wasn’t working too well (as secretary)."

Trump did give Mattis an original nickname last fall, labeling him as “moderate dog” as tensions between the two men grew.read more here

Florida Military Bases losing end of the deal for "national emergency"

Florida military bases could lose up to $177 million to Trump’s border wall

Tampa Bay Times
Steve Contorno and Howard Altman
February 18, 2019

President Donald Trump will pay for his much coveted wall at the southern border in part by taking $3.6 billion from military projects across the country and the world.

LUIS SANTANA | Times A-10 Warthog jets from the 122nd Fighter Wing of the Indiana Air National Guard taxis out of Macdill Air Force Base in Tampa. Increased jet noise and activity surrounding the base are from several jets that are being hosted at Macdill Air Force Base on Dec. 6, 2018. President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency and plans to divert $3.6 billion from military construction to the southern border for a barrier. A $3 million project at MacDill is one of many that could be cut.

The decision means Florida bases could lose up to $177 million for planned construction, more than all but eight other states, according to a list of eligible projects compiled by the House Appropriations Committee and provided to the Tampa Bay Times.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the influential Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies subcommittee, said the move is an indication that Trump feels the wall “is a higher priority than these projects.”

Among the projects in jeopardy are $3.1 million to relocate KC-135 Stratotanker pilot flight simulators to MacDill Air Force Base. The KC-135 are refueling planes “critical to the joint warfighter and our allies,” Gen. Carlton D. Everhart said in a June 2018 press release, and the simulators would allow pilots to experience realistic training of these aircrafts and practice emergency protocol.

Other projects that could lose funding include: $83 million for Littoral Combat Ship support facility and $29 million for Littoral Combat Ship operational training facility at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, and $35 million for a F-35A training center and $28 million for a F-35A student dormitory at Eglin Air Force Base in Okaloosa County.
read more here

1,400 workers at Kennedy Space Center won't be paid?

Back pay for contractors left out of shutdown deal, affecting hundreds of NASA workers

Orlando Sentinel
Chabeli Herrera
February 14, 2019

“The rejection of federal contract worker back pay by the GOP leadership in this funding deal is outrageous and unfair,” said Robert Martinez Jr., president of the Machinists Union International. “We urge Republican and Democratic leadership to quickly pass legislation to secure back pay for the federal contract workers.”

Buddy Boylan, a propellant mechanic with AECOM, attends a union meeting for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 2061 in Cape Canaveral on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (Chabeli Herrera / Orlando Sentinel)

A provision that would have restored back pay following the government shutdown for federal contractors, including hundreds who work for NASA on the Space Coast, was left out of a funding deal that Congress reached this week.

The 35-day government shutdown, from Dec. 22 to Jan. 25, left an estimated 1,400 workers at Kennedy Space Center without work. Most of those employees were federal contractors, who work in tandem with civil servants as electricians, engineers, safety specialists and in other positions that involve spacecraft and rockets at the Cape.

After the end of the shutdown, President Donald Trump passed an agreement ensuring civil servants — whether they worked during the shutdown or not — would get back pay for the five weeks of lost paychecks. Government contractors, whose back pay is dependent on their individual contracts with government agencies, were not included in that agreement.

Across the nation, it’s estimated that about 800,000 civil servants and 1.2 million government contractors were impacted by the shutdown. During the government closure, many were forced to cut expenses, dip into their savings, use vacation time and visit food pantries to scrape by.
read more here

How it became OK to push veterans out of the VA!

Time for Congress to investigate how it became OK to push veterans out of the VA!

There was a times when taking care of the veterans who became disabled after serving this country, was a sacred duty for the rest of us. There was a time when Presidents and other politicians promised the best care this country could provide for them, because they understood, veterans were prepared to die for this country.

Then came a time when they were no longer ashamed they failed to fulfill their end of the duty and veterans suffered. More promises and more pointing fingers, while veterans suffered.

More years and more suffering has brought us to their repulsive conclusion that they now should be treated like all other citizens and the debt we owe to them no longer matters, has taken over the soul of this Administration.

The VA is an obligation to this nation! It is not something that can be sold to away. 

V.A. Seeks to Redirect Billions of Dollars Into Private Care

New York Times
By Jennifer Steinhauer and Dave Philipps
Jan. 12, 2019

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to shift billions of dollars from government-run veterans’ hospitals to private health care providers, setting the stage for the biggest transformation of the veterans’ medical system in a generation.

The Rocky Mountain Regional V.A. Medical Center in Colorado. President Trump made reforming veterans’ health care a major point of his campaign.CreditCreditDan Elliott/Associated Press

Under proposed guidelines, it would be easier for veterans to receive care in privately run hospitals and have the government pay for it. Veterans would also be allowed access to a system of proposed walk-in clinics, which would serve as a bridge between V.A. emergency rooms and private providers, and would require co-pays for treatment.

Veterans’ hospitals, which treat seven million patients annually, have struggled to see patients on time in recent years, hit by a double crush of returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and aging Vietnam veterans. A scandal over hidden waiting lists in 2014 sent Congress searching for fixes, and in the years since, Republicans have pushed to send veterans to the private sector, while Democrats have favored increasing the number of doctors in the V.A.

If put into effect, the proposed rules — many of whose details remain unclear as they are negotiated within the Trump administration — would be a win for the once-obscure Concerned Veterans for America, an advocacy group funded by the network founded by the billionaire industrialists Charles G. and David H. Koch, which has long championed increasing the use of private sector health care for veterans.
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They have Trumps ear but will we prove we have veterans' backs?