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Memorial Day: Remember The Dead And Salve The Wounds Of The Living

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When friends and strangers wish me a “happy” Memorial Day I want to shout back “there is nothing ‘happy’ about Memorial Day” in remembering those who have given the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our nation.

It is a day to lay flowers on the graves of dead soldiers.  There is nothing happy in this act of remembrance.

During this weekend and on this day especially, families and friends visit cemetaries to remember their dead, clean their graves and leave tokens of love and affection.  The 9-11 generation has now joined our ancestors who have gone before them–we have been remembering them in quintessential American fashion–with round the clock television broadcasts that focus on surviving veterans and policy discussions on how to address their needs.

The broadcasts will end tonight, although the killing and dying will not.

America, weary by more than a decade of continuous warfare and exorbitant spending, forges ahead in the Afghanistan conflict, which looks more and more like the Vietnam War in every way:  a futile effort, led by a corrupt head of state, in a country where no one expects to win Afghani “hearts and minds” and ultimately we have quietly admitted to ourselves that even America will be unable to repel the Taliban from its retrogressive advance against modernity.

To his credit, President Obama has carried out a successful lethal campaign against Al-Qaeda leadership, killing them one by one and accelerated America’s withdrawal from active combat missions by one year now planned to end in 2013.

Yet the legacy of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are affecting thousands who survived–the walking and wheelchair bound wounded–the obvious and not so apparent casualties that require ongoing and extensive medical care delivered by a bureaucratic matrix in the Veteran’s Administration (VA)–the nation’s largest hospital system.  This is our social compact to care for those who fought and sustained injury on our behalf, now rests on tenuous ground.  Today, less than one-half of one percent of the total population serves in the armed forces.  Very few of us have relatives or friends in uniform, making the war and its casualties more and more disconnected from our everyday lives.

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Shockingly, according to the VA, 18 veterans commit suicide everyday, registering 20 percent of total suicides in America, despite the small fraction of the population that serve.

Indeed, suicides committed by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans total about 6,500 per year, now exceeding the number of the total dead–1,857 in Afghanistan and 4, 485 in Iraq (through its official conclusion on Dec. 15, 2011).

Women veterans commit suicide three times the average of US population according to Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN).  More than 283,000 women have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and 139 have died.  But women soldiers are more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted during these wars by colleagues.  Indeed, the rates of reported  sexual assaults are mind boggling (men are sexually assaulted too and more than likely under reported to authorities).

According to SWAN, more than 19,000 sexual assaults occur annually in the ranks, which equates to 52 sexual assaults each day. Like in civilian life, sexual assault crimes are under reported at 13.5 percent of total assaults.  The unacceptable outcome that results from these crimes, is that women develop PTSD not from serving in war fighting a foreign enemy, but having survived a rape or sexual assault by a fellow soldier while at war.  Adding insult to injury, only 32 percent of PTSD claims submitted to the VA by women survivors are granted.  So many sexual assault survivors feel doubly victimized for good reasons.

So as we visit our dead today, let’s also remember the living, the walking wounded in body and soul.  The psychic wounds of war plague everyday living for thousands of veterans for the horror they may have witnessed or for the sexual crimes that may have trespassed their minds and bodies.  Many are alone and edge toward an embrace of death and self-destruction. This is what faces America in our moment of remembrance– the high cost of war is the collateral damage done to the souls of the living.

Press your cheek against my medals, listen through them to

 my heart

Doctor, can you see me if I’m naked?

Spent longer in this place than in the war

No one comes but rarely and I don’t know what for

Went to that desert as man did before

Farewell and believing and hope not to die

Hope not to die and what was the life

Did we think was awaiting after

Lay down your stethoscope back off on your skills

Doctor can you see me when I’m naked?

                                         —Quarto, by Adrienne Rich

Image of  the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers at Arlington National Cemetary courtesy of Wikipedia

Tanya L. Domi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University who teaches about human rights in East Central Europe and the former Yugoslavia.  She is a Harriman Institute affiliated faculty member. Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi was a nationally recognized LGBT civil rights activist who worked for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force during the campaign to lift the military ban in the early 1990s. Domi also worked internationally in a dozen countries for more than a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights, gender issues, sex trafficking, and media freedom.  She is currently writing a book about the emerging LGBT human rights movement in the Western Balkans.

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News

Fox News Host Suggests Trump ‘Force’ Court to Throw Him in Jail – by Quoting Him

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April 19, 2024

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The Fox News host who targeted a juror serving on Donald Trump’s criminal New York trial is now suggesting the ex-president should violate his gag order and “force” the court to throw him in jail, by quoting the Fox News host.

Jesse Watters came under fire earlier this week for profiling juror number two, sharing possibly identifying information published by a myriad of reporters but then using that information to pass judgment on her ability to serve.

“I’m not so sure about juror number two,” Watters concluded on Fox News.

Jurors, at the judge’s direction, were to remain anonymous, for their protection and the protection of the trial.

The judge excused her, after she said she felt she was not able to be impartial because friends and family were calling her asking if she had been chosen to serve on the Trump trial, after the media blitz.

New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan admonished the press for reporting the information, but some news outlets appeared to ignore his warning.

Watters on Wednesday “did a segment with a jury consultant, revealing details about people who had been seated on the jury and questioning whether some were ‘stealth liberals’ who would be out to convict Trump,” the Associated Press reported.

READ MORE: Gaetz: ‘Corrupt’ Republicans Could ‘Take a Bribe’ and Throw House to Dems, Blocking Trump Run

Trump later posted Watters’ quote on his Truth Social platform, leading some, including New York prosecutors, to ask the judge to cite him for allegedly breaking his gag order.

Judge Merchan ordered Trump to not mention witnesses, jurors, prosecutors, court staff, or the family members of prosecutors and court staff, CNN has reported.

New York prosecutors told Juge Merchan Trump has violated the gag order at least ten times.

“Prosecutor Christopher Conroy described the ‘most disturbing’ example as a social media message Trump posted on Wednesday evening quoting a Fox News host as saying, ‘They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury,'” Politico reports.

That host was Jesse Watters.

RELATED: ‘Afraid and Intimidated’: Trump Trial Juror Targeted by Fox News Dismissed

Friday afternoon, Watters appeared to egg Trump on, urging the ex-president to violate the gag order.

“I would make them put me in jail,” Watters said on Fox News. “I would have a tweet about something perhaps I said on ‘The Five’ or ‘Jesse Watters Primetime,’ and I would force them to throw me in jail.”

Watch Watters’ remark below or at this link.

 

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Gaetz: ‘Corrupt’ Republicans Could ‘Take a Bribe’ and Throw House to Dems, Blocking Trump Run

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5 hours ago

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April 19, 2024

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U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) says some of his fellow House Republicans would “take a bribe” to throw the razor-thin GOP majority to the Democrats if a far-right faction calls up a motion to oust Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, allowing Democrats to hand the gavel to the Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries. he warned if that happens, Democrats would immediately declare Trump ineligible to be President, pack the U.S. Supreme Court, and pass numerous laws like the American Rescue Plan.

“I do believe in a one seat majority there could be one or two or three of my colleagues who would take a bribe in one form or another in order to deprive the Republicans of a majority at all,” Gaetz said Friday on his podcast (video below.)

He added, “the risk that one or two of my corrupt Republican colleagues might take a bribe, take a walk, feign an ailment and flip this thing to the Democrats is a risk that is too high for me at this time.”

Gaetz’s fellow far-right Florida Republican member of Congress, Anna Paulina Luna, told listeners, “I heard that when, if and when the motion vacate is introduced, that there will be immediate resignations of a couple of more moderate members of Congress. And in the event that that happens, that ultimately means it does go to a Democrat speaker.”

RELATED: Jeffries Vows Democrats Will Ensure Ukraine Aid Passes as Johnson Defectors Grow

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) last month filed a “motion to vacate,” which she can use at any time to force a vote to oust the GOP Speaker, Mike Johnson. U.S. Rep. Tim Massie (R-KY) and just today, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has signed on as co-sponsors.

Congressman Gaetz told listeners if Democrats do take the House through a force vote to remove Johnson, Democrats would “be declaring Donald Trump an insurrectionist and setting up a barrier to him being able to become the president United States.”

“That’ll be their leadoff hitter, and then the chaser to that shot will be a massive spending package that looks a lot more like the American Rescue Plan. They will blow past every concept of every cap ever imagined. You’ll be looking at Universal Basic Income, you could be looking at packing the Supreme Court.”

Watch a short clip of Gaetz’s remarks below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Stop Bringing Up Nazis and Hitler’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Smacked Down by Democrats

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Jeffries Vows Democrats Will Ensure Ukraine Aid Passes as Johnson Defectors Grow

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8 hours ago

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April 19, 2024

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Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed Friday the majority of Democrats will support Republicans’ Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and Gaza foreign aid legislation as Republican Speaker Mike Johnson lost support of another member of his conference to a faction determined to oust him.

“Democrats will provide a majority of our majority as it relates to funding Israel, humanitarian assistance, Ukraine, and our allies in the Indo Pacific,” Minority Leader Jeffries said. “It remains to be seen what Republicans will do in terms of meeting the national security needs of the American people, but it was important for House Democrats to ensure that the national security bills are going to be considered.”

Despite Republicans having a one-vote majority, more Democrats on Friday voted to move the critical and long-awaited foreign aid bills forward than did Republicans.

READ MORE: ‘Stop Bringing Up Nazis and Hitler’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Smacked Down by Democrats

The 316-94 vote included 165 Democrats and 151 Republicans voting yes, and 55 Republicans and 39 Democrats voting no.

Axios’ Juliegrace Brufke posted the list of Republicans voting against their party’s legislation.

Calling it a “rare” moment in modern congressional history to have to rely on opposition party votes to pass legislation, BBC News reports Speaker Johnson’s “hold on power is tenuous, and the legislators who oppose him – and his bid to provide aid to Ukraine – occupy some key positions within the House’s power structure.”

Amid the procedural vote to move the foreign aid funding bills forward, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, a far-right Republican of Arizona, announced he is joining Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Congressman Tim Massie (R-KY) in formally announcing their will vote to oust Speaker Johnson.

Gosar, like Greene, is reportedly a Christian nationalist. In 2022 CNN reported his “lengthy ties to White nationalists, [a] pro-Nazi blogger and far-right fringe received little pushback for years.”

RELATED: ‘Repercussions’: Democrats and Republicans Stand Against ‘Pro-Putin’ House GOP Faction

“We’ve been very honest in our assessment of the situation from the beginning,” Jeffries on Friday also declared. “At the appropriate time as House Democrats, we will have a conversation about how to deal with any hypothetical motion to vacate.”

“Moscow Marjorie Taylor Greene, Massie, and Gosar are quite a group. But central to our conversation is to make sure that the national security legislation in totality is passed by the House of Representatives.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

 

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