How did we go from "yes we can" to "because I said so"

This goes beyond politics as usual

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 12, 2019

Seriously wondering how did we go from "yes we can" to "because I said so" and far too many have no problem with that at all.

Politically I am an Independent Centrist. I agree with some things on both sides. I am tired of hearing all the claims that are simply not true. 

First, we need to open our eyes to the fact that just because someone said something, that does not mean it is true. This is for all my Republican friends because I care about you and if you have only received your information from Facebook, you are being deceived.

"Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind." 1 Peter 2

 Here are some things you may not know.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling. (Reuters)

“Somebody needs to remind Mr. Trump that the military is not his palace guards. They take an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. They also abide by the rules — not only of the uniform code of military justice, the UCMJ — but they also abide by the U.N. mandate against torture and the Geneva Convention protocols against torture.” Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling March 2016 The Washington Post

This "wall" is not about our National Security but it is about the President's ego and Republican politicians unwilling to hold POTUS accountable for anything, while the other side wants to nail him on everything. 

Had our security actually mattered more than anything else, then these other providers of our security would not be paying the price.

DHS RELEASES SOUTHWEST BORDER ENFORCEMENT STATISTICS 

January 9, 2019

Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the number of enforcement actions at the southwest border for the month of December.  Due to the lapse in funding, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is unable to publish the enforcement actions for December on its website. 

These are the Departments that are under Homeland Security. 

Component Agency Contacts

Below is contact information for different Department of Homeland Security components.

• FEMA
• Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
• Transportation Security Administration
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
• U.S. Coast Guard
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
• U.S. Secret Service

President Trump also seems willing to take funds from the Army Corp of Engineers.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approximately 37,000 dedicated Civilians and Soldiers delivering engineering services to customers in more than 130 countries worldwide.

With environmental sustainability as a guiding principle, our disciplined Corps team is working diligently to strengthen our Nation’s security by building and maintaining America’s infrastructure and providing military facilities where our servicemembers train, work and live. We are also researching and developing technology for our war fighters while protecting America’s interests abroad by using our engineering expertise to promote stability and improve quality of life.

We are energizing the economy by dredging America’s waterways to support the movement of critical commodities and providing recreation opportunities at our campgrounds, lakes and marinas.

And by devising hurricane and storm damage reduction infrastructure, we are reducing risks from disasters.

Our men and women are protecting and restoring the Nation’s environment including critical efforts in the Everglades, the Louisiana coast, and along many of our Nation’s major waterways. The Corps is also cleaning sites contaminated with hazardous, toxic or radioactive waste and material in an effort to sustain the environment.

Through deeds, not words, we are BUILDING STRONG.

This is the report from FOX News that should freak out everyone beyond what you just read.

The White House has directed the Army Corps of Engineers to "look at possible ways of funding border security," Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News on Thursday night, as the ongoing partial federal government shutdown over money for a border wall is less than two days away from becoming the longest in the nation's history. Separately, Fox News is told the White House directed the Corps to examine the February 2018 emergency supplemental, which included disaster relief for California, Florida, Texas, and Puerto Rico, among other states, to see what unspent funds could be diverted to a border wall, according to a congressional aide familiar with the matter.

And this is what the funds were supposed to be for from the same article.

Approximately $13.9 billion is available from the congressionally approved February 2018 supplemental spending bill, intended to cover natural disasters, and much of the available money comes from flood control projects, Fox News is told. The Military Construction appropriations bill could provide additional funding in the event of an emergency declaration.

Here is a list of more things that have been cut during the shutdown.

Keep in mind that these are people who dedicated their lives to providing our National Security and now, they are paying for what we have allowed the President to simply say he wants it done.

The question is, what are you going to do about any of this?

Homeland Security horrified veterans at San Diego VA Clinic

Homeland Security Police Caught Harassing Sick Veterans
Military.com
Benjamin Krause
June 13, 2014 2

SAN DIEGO – Veterans were horrified while seeking VA health care on Wednesday when approached by Homeland Security police in an Operation Shield exercise. The exercise was for the purpose of “presence deterrence” at a VA health care facility in San Diego. Many veterans’ legal advocates are concerned about what this “presence deterrence” actually means and what it seeks to accomplish for veterans needing care.

According to reports, 20 officers from the DHS Federal Protective Service (FPS) dressed in full black combat gear crowded at the entrance of VA Mission Valley Health Care Clinic on Wednesday. These officers were not wearing any nametags and refused to identify themselves. Four bomb-sniffing dogs accompanied the secretive police group that arrived at the facility in 8 white SUVs, which then blocked all access to parking for disabled veterans. Veterans arriving for care were alarmed and some frightened away.

VA Mission Valley Health Care Clinic houses numerous service centers including a general practice clinic, psychiatric clinic, PTSD treatment clinic, and the disability compensation evaluation clinic. The impact of this event on veterans is disturbing.
read more here

A hidden world, growing beyond control

A hidden world, growing beyond control

by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin

Monday, July 19, 2010; 1:53 AM

The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.


These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.

The investigation's other findings include:

* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

* In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space.

* Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks.

* Analysts who make sense of documents and conversations obtained by foreign and domestic spying share their judgment by publishing 50,000 intelligence reports each year - a volume so large that many are routinely ignored.

These are not academic issues; lack of focus, not lack of resources, was at the heart of the Fort Hood shooting that left 13 dead, as well as the Christmas Day bomb attempt thwarted not by the thousands of analysts employed to find lone terrorists but by an alert airline passenger who saw smoke coming from his seatmate.

They are also issues that greatly concern some of the people in charge of the nation's security.

"There has been so much growth since 9/11 that getting your arms around that - not just for the DNI [Director of National Intelligence], but for any individual, for the director of the CIA, for the secretary of defense - is a challenge," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in an interview with The Post last week.

In the Department of Defense, where more than two-thirds of the intelligence programs reside, only a handful of senior officials - called Super Users - have the ability to even know about all the department's activities. But as two of the Super Users indicated in interviews, there is simply no way they can keep up with the nation's most sensitive work.

"I'm not going to live long enough to be briefed on everything" was how one Super User put it. The other recounted that for his initial briefing, he was escorted into a tiny, dark room, seated at a small table and told he couldn't take notes. Program after program began flashing on a screen, he said, until he yelled ''Stop!" in frustration.

"I wasn't remembering any of it," he said.
read more here
A hidden world growing beyond control

Defense and security are part of where the tax money goes

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is 43% of the taxes we pay.
Defense is 20% of the taxes we pay
Homeland Security is 2% of the taxes we pay.

Part of the taxes we pay goes to taking care of veterans. Veterans we were very glad to have serve when we needed them however we seem to have a problem taking care of them afterwards.

When you stop and think about where our money goes and what it pays for, all the things we say are important to us, it is very hard to understand the people protesting paying for them. This is not to say there is not wasteful spending but if the people protesting taxes protested wasteful spending instead of all spending, then they would have a valid point. The problem is, when they complain about they "don't want government" involved in their Social Security, their Medicaid or Medicaid, it is a ridiculous argument. They end up delivering a message they want the benefits but don't want to pay for having them.

This is not the worst part in this. The worst part is that 22% goes to homeland security and defense. This means the men and women serving as well. The men and women we deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan, into the Persian Gulf, Vietnam, Korea and the few remaining WWII veterans. These are the men and women we deployed into other foreign lands in order to provide security in times of peace. They are the men and women so committed to their states, they decided it was worth their lives by serving in the National Guards and Reserves and ended up being deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan.

So many people in this country do a fine job of cheering on the troops when we are sending them into combat but these same people never seem willing to live up to the obligation of taking care of the wounded when they come home. We scream when we want this nation to be safe but we never seem to manage to understand there is a price to pay for it. There is a price to be paid because of our security that is paid everyday, year after year, by those wounded for having provided it to us. Next time you hear someone say they don't want to pay taxes, remember where the money goes and then have them talk about the wasteful spending instead of spending on everything.

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Homeland security official Keith Washington Murder Trial Brings PTSD In News Again

Marnell wrote that Washington didn’t appear to be a risk to others, but a September report in The Washington Post said other assessments disputed that finding. One psychiatrist reportedly wrote that Washington was ‘‘a potential danger because of his impulsivity and generalized fearfulness.” Another report allegedly said he had ‘‘fleeting homicidal and suicidal thoughts.”

Washington's mental records barred from trial
Business Gazette - Gaithersburg,MD,USA
Judge: 12-year-old evalution too old to use in upcoming murder case
by Daniel Valentine Staff Writer

The psychological records of former Prince George’s County homeland security official Keith Washington cannot be used in his upcoming murder trial, a Circuit Court judge has ruled.

Washington, 46, shot two deliverymen – Oxon Hill resident Brandon Clark 22, and District resident Robert White, 36 – while they were apparently delivering furniture to his Accokeek home. Washington has claimed self-defense; White said they were shot without provocation. Clark died a week after the shooting without making a public statement.

Washington, who is also a former county police officer, was indicted in July on 12 counts, including second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, using a handgun in commission of a felony and first-degree assault.

The report said Washington had previously been diagnosed with depression; post-traumatic stress disorder; paranoid state and adjustment disorder, a condition caused when stress triggers short-term depression; anxiety; and other symptoms.