Reinke Faces Life

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/no_author/sen-tokyo-rose-r-az/

John McCain: When “Tokyo Rose” Ran for President
By Ron Unz
The Unz Review
July 20, 2015 

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One factual detail, routinely emphasized by his supporters, is his repeated claim that except for signing a single written statement very early in his captivity and also answering some questions by a visiting French newsman, he had staunchly refused any hint of collaboration with his captors, despite torture, solitary confinement, endless threats and beatings, and offers of rewards. Perhaps. But that original Counterpuncharticle provided the link to the purported text of one of McCain’s pro-Hanoi propaganda broadcasts as summarized in a 1969 UPI wire service story, and I have confirmed its authenticity by locating the resulting article that ran in Stars & Stripes at the same time. So if crucial portions of McCain’s account of his imprisonment are seemingly revealed to be self-serving fiction, how much of the rest can we believe? If his pro-Communist propaganda broadcasts were so notable that they even reached the news pages of one of America’s leading military publications, it seems quite plausible that they were as numerous, substantial, and frequent as his critics allege

When I later discussed these troubling matters with an eminent political scientist who has something of a military background, he emphasized that McCain’s history can only be understood in the context of his father, a top-ranking admiral who then served as commander of all American forces in the Pacific Theater, including our troops in Vietnam. Indeed, the alleged headline of the UPI wire story had been “PW [Prisoner of War] Songbird Is Pilot Son of Admiral,” highlighting that connection. Obviously, for reasons both of family loyalty and personal standing it would have been imperative for John McCain’s father and namesake to hush up the terrible scandal of having had his son serve as a leading collaborator and Communist propagandist during the war and his exalted rank gave him the power to do so. Furthermore, just a few years earlier the elder McCain had himself performed an extremely valuable service for America’s political elites, organizing the official board of inquiry that whitewashed the potentially devastating “Liberty Incident,” with its hundreds of dead and wounded American servicemen, so he certainly had some powerful political chits he could call in.

Placed in this context, John McCain’s tales of torture make perfect sense. If he had indeed spent almost the entire war eagerly broadcasting Communist propaganda in exchange for favored treatment, there would have been stories about this circulating in private, and fears that these tales might eventually reach the newspaper headlines, perhaps backed by the hard evidence of audio and video tapes. An effective strategy for preempting this danger would be to concoct lurid tales of personal suffering and then promote them in the media, quickly establishing McCain as the highest profile victim of torture among America’s returned POWs, an effort rendered credible by the fact that many American POWs had indeed suffered torture.

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Has “history” been “air brushed” in McCain’s favor?

Perhaps the exchange with Trump will pull down the “facade”!

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http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/13/0-year-old-wwii-veteran-evicted-from-home/?intcmp=latestnews

MILITARY
90-year-old WWII veteran evicted from home
Published July 13, 2015

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A 90-year-old WWII Navy veteran has been evicted from the place he’s called home for the last 60 years in Buffalo, N.Y.

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In a statement, the bank stressed its offers to help Hodges.

“We’ve worked on this case for more than four years, involved local not-for-profit agencies and even worked with private citizens who were willing to arrange for him to stay in the house for free,” said Zabel. “However, all offers of assistance were refused.”

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Sounds like his daughter needs psych help.

Argh!

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US Government Finally Admits Agent Orange Poisoned Troops
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/us-government-finally-admits-agent-orange-poisoned-troops_062015

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Decades after the Vietnam War, the Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledged this week that Monsanto’s Agent Orange—a dangerous herbicide sprayed over 4.5 million acres across Vietnam during the  conflict—is responsible for health ailments in a group of as many as 2,100 veterans. It had previously denied such allegations.

The United States government will pay out $45 million in disability benefits over ten years to compensate Air Force reservists and active-duty forces who were exposed to Agent Orange left over from the Vietnam War. The exposure came from residue on Fairchild C-123 aircraft, which were used to spray millions of gallons of the chemical, and, evidently, affected soldiers in the United States who later handled the planes from 1969-1986. According to ABC, the VA’s decision to compensate the 2,100 veterans follows a January Institute of Medicine study that found “some C-123 reservists stationed in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts had been exposed to Agent Orange residues in the planes and suffered higher risks of health problems as a result.”

Further, “the VA said it subsequently determined that pilots, mechanics and medical personnel who served at seven other locations in the U.S. and abroad also were potentially affected – Florida, Virginia, and Arizona, as well as Taiwan, Panama, South Korea and the Philippines.”

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The Gooferment only eventually will admit the truth.

Argh!

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[TIP ‘o’ the HAT to: Bugle Blasts December 2014 Vienna VA 22181 Volume 6 Number 7]

Burial delays prompt push for VA oversight in Congress names of the entities that are responsible for the bodies, including local medical examiners, funeral directors, and A bill aimed at decreasing recent delays in veteran burials by giving Congress new VA oversight got a push forward from lawmakers recently. A Senate version requires VA to report any burial delays longer than 30 days. Reports have sprung up around the country that deceased vets are waiting months to be interred in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ system of national cemeteries.

Under the bill, the VA would be required to track and record any burials not completed within a month as well as the county service groups. Data on the burial delays would be collected in an annual report and given to the House and Senate veterans’ affairs committees, according to the bill language.

VA oversees a system of 131 cemeteries and burial rights for veterans. Over the past year, there have been media reports of long delays for deceased veterans at facilities in California and elsewhere.

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Argh!

Goo ferment is immoral, ineffective, and inefficient!

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http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/11/10/north-highlands-veteran-91-dies-from-injuries-suffered-in-brutal-home-invasion-robbery/

North Highlands Veteran, 91, Dies From Injuries Suffered In Brutal Home Invasion Robbery
November 10, 2014 11:27 PM

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</sarcasm> Happy Veterans’ Day. <sarcasm/>

Argh!

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FROM BUGLE BLAST
Editor/Publisher/s Notes – Mike Berger
Vienna VA 22181
Volume 6 Number 6
Cell: 703-861-0726
Email: bugleblasts@gmail.com

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If you know others who may enjoy Bugle Blasts please forward them the newsletter. If they wish their own copy ask that they contact me or send me their name and email address. If you wish to be removed from the distribution list please advise by email, and please let me know if your email address changes – “bounces” are deleted.

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Fake Ranger Pleads Guilty to Gun Charge – source Houston Chronicle

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A Conroe (Texas) man who passed himself off as an Army 
Ranger to get closer to the inner circle of ex-Navy SEAL 
Marcus Luttrell – the war hero portrayed in the book and 
movie “Lone Survivor” – pleaded guilty to being a felon in 
possession of a firearm. When local and Federal officials 
searched Daniel Lee Marshall Jr.’s trailer, they found 
several guns, as well as an Army dress uniform with ribbons 
he did not earn and a pickup truck with a Purple Heart 
license plate that he did not deserve.

In court, Marshall admitted to being a felon in possession 
of a firearm, a crime that carries a penalty of up to 10 years 
in prison. “There is no parole in the federal system,” the 
Judge warned him from the bench. “Any sentence you get 
will not be shortened by parole.” As a felon, he is not legally 
allowed to buy a firearm. How he got the weapons is 
unclear.

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There has to be a special place in hell for “Stolen Valor”

Argh!

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VA Disputed Claim – Willie McCall $100,000+ – source Associated Press

WSFA-TV, a Montgomery television station, reported that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is giving an Alabama veteran more than $100,000 after the serviceman’s 56-year struggle to get benefits. Korean War veteran Willie McCall, 85, suffers from debilitating, combat-related health issues. During his time as a rifleman during the Korean conflict, the weather was so cold it left him with frostbite, jungle rot and circulation issues, McCall said. Despite multiple diagnoses, McCall was denied VA benefits and those denials date back to the late 1950s.

Recent documents showed the VA sent McCall to a doctor to assess his condition before the latest hearing on his claim. Despite the doctor’s written order confirming the combat wounds, the VA didn’t consider that document and denied McCall’s benefits again. To appeal would have taken another year and a half. Before totally giving up, McCall’s nephew, Freddie Porterfield, contacted the 12 News Defenders. They took the problem to the Central Alabama VA and after review McCall’s benefits were granted. The VA’s decision came after several weeks of calls, forms and multiple emails.

In addition to approving the claim VA gave McCall a check for more than $100,000 in back pay. This was the monetary compensation he would have received backdated to the time his initial claim was submitted. The VA also set up more appointments for potential compensation for other health claims.

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Anyone think that Gooferment is a “good idea”?

Argh!

Talk to the old WW2 vets and they will tell you that they think their VA doc is out to kill them.

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AND FINALLY

Betrayed military spouses often keep quiet for fear of losing Benefits – source Los Angeles Times

Within the tight circle of Army spouses, Kris Johnson and Rebecca Sinclair became close friends as their ambitious husbands advanced rapidly in the officer corps. Both women were ultimately betrayed by their philandering spouses. Both endured public humiliation as their high-ranking husbands were hauled before courts-martial amid salacious testimony about adultery and other sex-related military crimes. And both women, along with their children, risked losing a lifetime of military benefits if their husbands were dismissed from the Army.

“You’re advised to keep your mouth shut and let him retire because you could lose everything,” said Johnson, whose now ex-husband, an Army colonel, pleaded guilty in 2012 to adultery, bigamy and other charges. Rebecca Sinclair begged a military judge not to strip her and her two young sons of military benefits after her husband, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair, pleaded guilty to a long-running, coercive affair with a junior officer. The general was allowed to retire at a reduced rank, preserving up to $830,000 in benefits he and his family had earned for his 27 years of service.

Fear of losing benefits keeps many military wives from exposing sexual misconduct or other offenses committed by their husbands, say many of those familiar with the military criminal justice system. Johnson kept quiet about her husband, Col. James H. Johnson III, while he carried on an affair with an Iraqi woman while deployed to that country.

But when Col. Johnson moved his mistress into his military quarters in Italy, his wife turned him in – painfully aware that she and her two children might be cut off from benefits as a result. A military jury in 2012 allowed the colonel to retire at reduced rank, keeping the benefits intact. In both the Johnson and Sinclair cases, court concerns that dismissing the officers would also punish their families

helps explain the relatively light sentences. Kris Johnson and others have campaigned for changes that would provide benefits to spouses of service members kicked out of the military for crimes even if the offender is sentenced harshly. Congress responded in January with a provision that requires the Pentagon to study the feasibility of providing “transitional benefits” to families in these cases. The study, to be completed in May, will consider such questions as how long benefits might last and who would be eligible for them.

The changes would strengthen the military justice system, advocates contend. They would encourage spouses to report criminal behavior and clear the way for military judges or jury panels to impose heavier sentences. At the same time, they say, the proposed protections would support spouses who are otherwise cut loose after sacrificing for years to support a philandering spouse’s career.

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This is non-sense. 

And these men are security risks.

If an enlisted person did this, any one care to guess what would happen?

This is “unacceptable”!

Argh!

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Veterans no longer required to report annual income to VA health system – source lohud.com

VA is eliminating its requirement for most veterans enrolled in its health care system to report their income information each year. The policy change, which takes effect this month, will ease the burden on veterans and improve customer service, according to the agency. Instead, VA will automatically match income information obtained from the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration.

“Eliminating the requirement for annual income reporting makes our health care benefits easier for Veterans to obtain,” Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki said in a statement. “This change will reduce the burden on Veterans, improve customer service and make it much easier for Veterans to keep their health care eligibility up-to-date.” Vets who are applying for health care benefits for the first time still will be required to submit income information.

There are no changes in the agency’s long-standing policy of providing free care to veterans who are indigent, have catastrophic medical conditions, have a disability rating of 50 percent or higher and who have conditions that are official rated as service-connected.

Vets are urged to continue using the health benefits renewal form to report changes in their personal information, such as address, phone numbers, dependents, next of kin, income and health insurance. For more information, visit the

VA’s website or call 877-222-VETS toll free.

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They are not “customers” to be “serviced”. They are VETS!

That’s what a bull does to a cow.

Argh!

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/12/bionic-mosquito/judge-the-feds-by-their-own-standards-2/

One of These Things is Not Like the Others
By Bionic Mosquito
December 31, 2014

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Department of Veterans Affairs:

To fulfill President Lincoln’s promise “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan” by serving and honoring the men and women who are America’s veterans.

VA hospitals:

By June 5, 2014, Veterans Affairs internal investigations had identified 35 veterans who had died while waiting for care in the Phoenix VHA system.

An internal VA audit released June 9, 2014 found that more than 120,000 veterans were left waiting or never got care and that schedulers were pressured to use unofficial lists or engage in inappropriate practices to make waiting times appear more favorable.

On June 11, 2014, the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a criminal investigation of the VA.President Barack Obama ordered a White House investigation.

On June 27, 2014, Obama’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Rob Nabors, reported “significant and chronic system failures” and a “corrosive culture” inside the Veterans Health Administration.

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Unfortunately, it can’t be eliminated as long as the politicians and bureaucrats keep the girls and boys fighting in one Deity forsaken place or another.

Argh!

* Bring the girls and boys home NOW!

* Put all “regular care” out in the real private economy NOW.

* Figure out how to move the specialized care in the private economy NOW.

* Shrink the VA to only absolutely essential functions.

IMHO

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DOD/VA Seamless Transition Program Sputtered to a Halt – source Next.gov

After launching with much fanfare in 2009, the interagency program office charged with developing an integrated electronic health record (EHR) for the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments all but sputtered to a halt in September, Nextgov has learned. The development followed a decision by Defense and VA in February to independently develop their own EHRs, due to the high cost of the joint system, pegged at $28 billion by Frank Kendall, Defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics. Neither Defense nor VA formally announced the shutdown of the interagency program office. A hint of its demise can be found in an industry briefing that said Christopher Miller had assumed the role of acting director of the office, in addition to his role as program executive officer of the new Defense Healthcare Management Systems Modernization, charged with developing the Defense EHR.

Maureen Schumann, a Pentagon spokeswoman confirmed on November 18 to Nextgov that Barclay Butler, appointed director of the interagency program office in February 2012, left his job in September. Defense and VA are in the early stages of development of a revised charter and organizational chart of the office, Schumann added, and once completed, “the staffing for the IPO will be determined and announced.” While the office has been all but vaporized, both Defense and VA face the rather difficult task of finding a workaround to provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 that mandated a joint EHR. The two departments also need to figure out how to work their way around language in the 2014 VA spending bill that also mandates a single EHR, which could become law if Congress passes a 2014 budget.

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To All Veterans:

FRAUD ALERT: Veterans should be aware of a marketing scam targeting callers trying to reach the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Call Center or GI Bill Call Center. A marketing company has established two fraudulent numbers that differ from the two official VA call center numbers by one digit. If the fraudulent number is dialed by mistake, the answering party will offer a gift card and try to obtain personal and financial information, including credit card information, from the caller. The answering party may even transfer the caller to the VA after the caller’s information is obtained. Note that VA will never ask you for a credit card number or banking information over the phone. Before giving personal sensitive information over the phone make sure you know who you are taking to.

The numbers to be avoided are:
800-872-1000 (the VA National Call Center number is 800-827-1000)
888-442-4511 (the VA GI Bill Call Center number is 888-442-4551)

VA has notified law enforcement authorities to address this situation. Please pass this information along and post on your websites.

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As a vet, I don’t want to be “thanked for my service”.

I am ashamed.

We still have girls and boys in harm’s way without a clear strategy.

I am reminded of the Irish song “Willie McGee” with the line “did you really think this was the war to end all wars”.

Heinlein, in “Starship Troopers”, that only vets should be police or “civil servants” or in political office. When I was young, I thought him extreme that only vets should vote because they would have the stones to fight.. Voters usually required politicians to have served in the military. Then, Bill Clinton came along. Now that I am old, I’m convinced he didn’t go far enough. Only vets voting would be a good start. But, we really need more. The vets should as a body — like the Senate — have veto power over the use of Armed Forces.

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