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Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Final Farewell To George - But He and Everything He Represented Will Always Be With Us - Updates 06/10: the Worst Is Yet To Come Get Ready For The Extreme Right Backlash Y'all And It Will Not Be Pretty: Shocking Video of "All Lives Matter" In New Jersey - VA Secretary Robert Wilkie The Current Trump Appointed Dr. Mengele Trashing Our Vets !!



~~~~~

 Adding this 06/10 about 1:20am:  Here are the most recent updates, and don't miss Cornell West...me too, I wish I had the dinero to attend his classes.  Hell, I'd crash his classes...if I could,


Black Lives Matter Protests Across the U.S. and World Live Updates 


Good Night Y'all. 

~~~~~

UPDATE/edit around 2:45pm:

The worst is yet to come, and here is a prime example in the following report which should turn your gut inside out and this will be just the tip of the iceberg so to speak.  Years ago I was too afraid to put a "Black Lives Matter" sticker on my vehicle, especially up in San Diego.  I know San Diego like the back of my hand from the coast to the desert, I was born and raised there. Then after watching the outpouring of support and thousands marching in San Diego for George Floyd  & Racial Justice & Equality I thought, despite everyone being smashed in like sardines and the pollution, maybe the social consiousness has changed, maybe I can put my bumper sticker on. I don't think so.

 ~ From CNN with shocking video:

All Lives Matter Protesters Re-Enacted George Floyd's death As a Black Lives Matter March Went By 
by, Paul P. Murphy, Elizabeth Joseph 06/10/20



So, this is just the beginning, it is exactly as Cornell West pointed out yesterday on CNN: "Get ready for the backlash, get ready for the Neo- fascist clampdown, because it's comin, it's comin..."


~~~~~

And look at just one of Trump's high ranking appointed nazis and his beliefs and what he is doing to our vets ! (Mind you, this is just one example, the woodpile as they say, is full of 'em...nazis that is)


Ring a bell ? Does to me. Robert Wilkie?  Well YOU ARE CLOSE...TRY JOSEF MENGELE, How about Robert Josef Mengele Wilkie?  That's better.




Trump's VA Is Treating Veterans With Unproven Drug 
by, Paul Rieckhoff  06/10/20


Paul Rieckhoff is the president and editor-in-chief of Righteous Media, host of the Angry Americans podcast, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) and author of "Chasing Ghosts: Failures and Facades in Iraq: A Soldier's Perspective." The views expressed in this commentary belong to the author. 

" The Department of Veterans Affairs could learn an important lesson from their colleagues at SpaceX and NASA after the historic launch to the International Space Station last month was initially postponed due to inclement weather. When there's a storm rolling in, you don't fly into it, no matter how much a powerful person looking on wants it to happen.


For months now, we've been hearing President Donald Trump tout the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a "game changer" without providing any evidence of its efficacy as a treatment for coronavirus patients. Trump, who took a two-week course of the drug as a prophylactic, has asked, "What do you have to lose?"

For weeks now, studies have found that those taking hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 are not showing improvement -- and may be dying at a higher rate. (although at least one study finding that the drug had increased risks was recently withdrawn amidst controversy). The US Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health have warned about the use of these drugs by coronavirus patients outside of a hospital or clinical trial setting.

As we recognize the 76th anniversary of D-Day this month, the President and the Department of Veterans Affairs are using our veterans as guinea pigs to test Trump's disproven theory about the potentially dangerous drug.

World Health Organization Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, halted testing of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19, France has banned it, and even Dr. Anthony Fauci thinks the drug shows no scientific promise. 

Despite this, Trump and his VA Secretary are continuing to use the drug on veterans with Covid-19. Although Veteran Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie said last month that the prescriptions have been "ratcheted down," the VA said it had already prescribed the drug about 1,300 veterans in accordance with FDA guidelines.

When an earlier observational study using the VA's own data found that veterans given hydroxychloroquine showed no improvement, with more deaths among those taking the drug compared to patients who received standard care, Wilkie defended the use of the drug and pushed an unsubstantiated claim in an interview with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle, saying, "We know the drug has been working on middle-age and younger veterans." That was in late April, and despite no substantiated evidence for his statement. 

Wilkie continued to double-down on his sycophantic lie. Two weeks ago, he told ABC's Martha Raddatz the drug has preventative qualities, again echoing Trump. "We do know in many cases that the drug given over a sustained period of time can be a prophylactic. And what we were trying in the last hours of a patient's life was to try to make sure that we've done everything we could given the circumstances," he said.

Those are lies. There's no data to show the prophylactic success of hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19. Wilkie told Raddatz: "the instruction from the President is to do as much as we can to preserve life." Well, they've failed. More than 16,000 veterans and individuals associated with the VA have tested positive for Covid-19, and more than 1,400 have died. VA continues to obscure and bumble the release of patient information to the public. Last week, the agency went five full days without updating its public figures -- including the number of dead.

The pandemic's toll on veterans remains unclear. The VA, for one, does not include those who have died in state-run veterans' homes on its tracking site. The Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, for example, has already seen 93 veterans die. 

At the Menlo Park Veterans Memorial Home in New Jersey, every single resident tested positive for coronavirus; 62, or 34%, died. While these homes are not under the direct oversight of the VA, state veterans' homes like the one in Holyoke are routinely investigated by it, and could certainly use reinforcements from in the form of PPE, cleaning supplies, and additional staff. Instead, the reinforcements are coming in the form of an unproven drug administered to those that held back the Nazis in World War II.

In another affront to our veterans, Wilkie refused to remove Nazi swastikas from three gravestones in American National Cemeteries for weeks. Two VA cemeteries in Texas and Utah contain the graves of German POWs captured during World War II, and Army officials approved swastikas and inscriptions honoring Adolf Hitler on the grave stones in the 1940s. A retired senior officer recently discovered the grave markers and called it "disgusting," but the VA issued a statement citing The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and the responsibility to "protect historic resources, including those that recognize divisive historical figures or events."

Instead of removing the grave markers, Wilkie, who has long ties with racist and divisive causes, including being an aide to North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, who denounced Martin Luther King Jr., said he was looking to "find a way to put this in historical context." Wilkie's comments were particularly shocking, given the raging national debate about racism in America. He defended the display of swastikas more tenaciously than he defended the thousands of veterans dying from Covid-19.

He finally backed down, but only after criticism from both lawmakers and veterans. Our "greatest generation" faced down a menacing global threat and saved America. Now it's time for Trump, Wilkie and all of America to face down another menacing global threat and save them."



~~~~~


Shame on you Trump you coward. And Wilkie, you eat shit.

 


 

Final Farewell To George - But He and Everything He Represented Will Always Be With Us - Updates 06/10: the Worst Is Yet To Come Get Ready For The Extreme Right Backlash Y'all And It Will Not Be Pretty: Shocking Video of "All Lives Matter" In New Jersey - VA Secretary Robert Wilkie The Current Trump Appointed Dr. Mengele Trashing Our Vets !!



~~~~~

 Adding this 06/10 about 1:20am:  Here are the most recent updates, and don't miss Cornell West...me too, I wish I had the dinero to attend his classes.  Hell, I'd crash his classes...if I could,


Black Lives Matter Protests Across the U.S. and World Live Updates 


Good Night Y'all. 

~~~~~

UPDATE/edit around 2:45pm:

The worst is yet to come, and here is a prime example in the following report which should turn your gut inside out and this will be just the tip of the iceberg so to speak.  Years ago I was too afraid to put a "Black Lives Matter" sticker on my vehicle, especially up in San Diego.  I know San Diego like the back of my hand from the coast to the desert, I was born and raised there. Then after watching the outpouring of support and thousands marching in San Diego for George Floyd  & Racial Justice & Equality I thought, despite everyone being smashed in like sardines and the pollution, maybe the social consiousness has changed, maybe I can put my bumper sticker on. I don't think so.

 ~ From CNN with shocking video:

All Lives Matter Protesters Re-Enacted George Floyd's death As a Black Lives Matter March Went By 
by, Paul P. Murphy, Elizabeth Joseph 06/10/20



So, this is just the beginning, it is exactly as Cornell West pointed out yesterday on CNN: "Get ready for the backlash, get ready for the Neo- fascist clampdown, because it's comin, it's comin..."


~~~~~

And look at just one of Trump's high ranking appointed nazis and his beliefs and what he is doing to our vets ! (Mind you, this is just one example, the woodpile as they say, is full of 'em...nazis that is)


Ring a bell ? Does to me. Robert Wilkie?  Well YOU ARE CLOSE...TRY JOSEF MENGELE, How about Robert Josef Mengele Wilkie?  That's better.




Trump's VA Is Treating Veterans With Unproven Drug 
by, Paul Rieckhoff  06/10/20


Paul Rieckhoff is the president and editor-in-chief of Righteous Media, host of the Angry Americans podcast, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) and author of "Chasing Ghosts: Failures and Facades in Iraq: A Soldier's Perspective." The views expressed in this commentary belong to the author. 

" The Department of Veterans Affairs could learn an important lesson from their colleagues at SpaceX and NASA after the historic launch to the International Space Station last month was initially postponed due to inclement weather. When there's a storm rolling in, you don't fly into it, no matter how much a powerful person looking on wants it to happen.


For months now, we've been hearing President Donald Trump tout the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a "game changer" without providing any evidence of its efficacy as a treatment for coronavirus patients. Trump, who took a two-week course of the drug as a prophylactic, has asked, "What do you have to lose?"

For weeks now, studies have found that those taking hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 are not showing improvement -- and may be dying at a higher rate. (although at least one study finding that the drug had increased risks was recently withdrawn amidst controversy). The US Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health have warned about the use of these drugs by coronavirus patients outside of a hospital or clinical trial setting.

As we recognize the 76th anniversary of D-Day this month, the President and the Department of Veterans Affairs are using our veterans as guinea pigs to test Trump's disproven theory about the potentially dangerous drug.

World Health Organization Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, halted testing of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19, France has banned it, and even Dr. Anthony Fauci thinks the drug shows no scientific promise. 

Despite this, Trump and his VA Secretary are continuing to use the drug on veterans with Covid-19. Although Veteran Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie said last month that the prescriptions have been "ratcheted down," the VA said it had already prescribed the drug about 1,300 veterans in accordance with FDA guidelines.

When an earlier observational study using the VA's own data found that veterans given hydroxychloroquine showed no improvement, with more deaths among those taking the drug compared to patients who received standard care, Wilkie defended the use of the drug and pushed an unsubstantiated claim in an interview with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle, saying, "We know the drug has been working on middle-age and younger veterans." That was in late April, and despite no substantiated evidence for his statement. 

Wilkie continued to double-down on his sycophantic lie. Two weeks ago, he told ABC's Martha Raddatz the drug has preventative qualities, again echoing Trump. "We do know in many cases that the drug given over a sustained period of time can be a prophylactic. And what we were trying in the last hours of a patient's life was to try to make sure that we've done everything we could given the circumstances," he said.

Those are lies. There's no data to show the prophylactic success of hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19. Wilkie told Raddatz: "the instruction from the President is to do as much as we can to preserve life." Well, they've failed. More than 16,000 veterans and individuals associated with the VA have tested positive for Covid-19, and more than 1,400 have died. VA continues to obscure and bumble the release of patient information to the public. Last week, the agency went five full days without updating its public figures -- including the number of dead.

The pandemic's toll on veterans remains unclear. The VA, for one, does not include those who have died in state-run veterans' homes on its tracking site. The Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, for example, has already seen 93 veterans die. 

At the Menlo Park Veterans Memorial Home in New Jersey, every single resident tested positive for coronavirus; 62, or 34%, died. While these homes are not under the direct oversight of the VA, state veterans' homes like the one in Holyoke are routinely investigated by it, and could certainly use reinforcements from in the form of PPE, cleaning supplies, and additional staff. Instead, the reinforcements are coming in the form of an unproven drug administered to those that held back the Nazis in World War II.

In another affront to our veterans, Wilkie refused to remove Nazi swastikas from three gravestones in American National Cemeteries for weeks. Two VA cemeteries in Texas and Utah contain the graves of German POWs captured during World War II, and Army officials approved swastikas and inscriptions honoring Adolf Hitler on the grave stones in the 1940s. A retired senior officer recently discovered the grave markers and called it "disgusting," but the VA issued a statement citing The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and the responsibility to "protect historic resources, including those that recognize divisive historical figures or events."

Instead of removing the grave markers, Wilkie, who has long ties with racist and divisive causes, including being an aide to North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, who denounced Martin Luther King Jr., said he was looking to "find a way to put this in historical context." Wilkie's comments were particularly shocking, given the raging national debate about racism in America. He defended the display of swastikas more tenaciously than he defended the thousands of veterans dying from Covid-19.

He finally backed down, but only after criticism from both lawmakers and veterans. Our "greatest generation" faced down a menacing global threat and saved America. Now it's time for Trump, Wilkie and all of America to face down another menacing global threat and save them."



~~~~~


Shame on you Trump you coward. And Wilkie, you eat shit.

 


 

Monday, June 8, 2020

Updates From 06/07/20: Racism Is a Global Problem - Outrageous Barr and Dept. of Homeland Security Statements Regarding Systemic Racism Within U.S. Law Enforcement and Disturbing Poll Results - UPDATE/edit: Some Thoughts On General Colin Powell

Running behind here, but for the record:


 ~ From CNN:

George Floyd Protests Across the U.S.

~~~~~

Excellent reports from those updates, I thought: 


  - We've been watching the global reactions all week, and they are continuing: 






 - Note Brazil:







6 hr 31 min ago

Brazilians protest in support of Black Lives Matter and against President Jair Bolsonaro

"Thousands of people in Brazil took the streets again this weekend in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and to protest President Jair Bolsonaro's government, including its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

At the protests, scattered across the country's major cities, people chanted and carried signs bearing slogans like "Black Lives Matter" and "Bolsonaro needs to go."

About 3,000 people attended a rally in Sao Paulo to criticize the federal government and to protest violence against black Brazilians by police forces, said Brazil's Military Police. Protesters lay on the ground, shouting "I can't breathe" -- George Floyd's last words before he died in Minneapolis two weeks ago.

Demonstrations also took place in the country's capital, Brasilia, and other cities like Porto Alegre, Recife and Fortaleza. Protesters on the streets were joined by local residents who banged pans and pots from their balconies, while passing drivers blasted their horns in solidarity.
Raull Santiago, one of the protest organizers in Rio de Janeiro, said on Twitter that leaving home in the middle of a pandemic was a difficult but necessary decision.
“We, the people that live in the favelas, do not accept having as our only option to choose between being shot or [getting] infected by the virus. Today is an important day in the fight against the genocide of black people," he said.
Bolsonaro's response: Last Friday, Bolsonaro condemned participants in anti-government and anti-racism demonstrations as “thugs” and “terrorists,” words also used by his American counterpart, Donald Trump, to describe the protesters in the United States.  

He said the demonstrations could draw a violent response from law enforcement and warned Brazilians to stay at home Sunday, “so that the security forces -- not just state but also federal -- can do their duty in case these thugs go beyond the limits of the law. ”  

~~~~



 - We are in trouble folks: 

Within the linked report pay attention to the related articles as top Trump officials claim there is no systematic racism in law enforcement - including Barr's second statement to date, and Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolfe also Homeland Security's Ken Cuccinelli's statement that he does not believe George Floyd's life would have been spared if he were white - are these guys from Mars ?

Note the latest polls which I think are unsettling, how is it possible that despite slightly moderate changes, so many thousands and thousands of GOP whites could believe that racial inequality/discrimination towards blacks in the U.S. is non-existent or not a  serious problem ?   I thought we left Mississippi decades ago, God help us all and Trump will cultivate this ignorance to be reelected.  Don't kid yourselves, he is so good such a pro at the bullshit, an astounding number of people will embrace and believe him - this is terrifying:




Analysis by Ronald Brownstein

~~~~~



 - No Systemic Racism ?

by, Rob Picheto and Henrik Pettersson


~~~~~

UPDATE/edit around 3:30pm:  I did not say anything regarding retired General  Colin Powell's statement against Donald Trump, which was powerful.  I'm still struggling with Gen. Powell even though he admitted to screwing up (and apologized) and the CIA also has admitted to screwing up giving him bad information regarding Weapons Of Mass Destruction in Iraq which he submitted to the United Nations and which drug us into the horrible Iraq War, killing hundreds and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraq citizens and three thousand U.S. combat soldiers, not to mention being really just another destabilizing American misadventure nightmare into the Middle East.   

I always wanted to like Gen. Powell, but I am struggling due to his past association with the Bush Crime Family and the out of control revved-up Military Industrial Complex, thanks to the Bush Crime Family.  I'm also afraid that Trump will use Powell's words against him - i.e. Trump could say something like, '...well that's a twist, a liar calling me a liar !'

Mike says Gen Powell was a patsy and was used by the Bush Administration to do their dirty work (not only in Iraq, but during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles), and he could very well be correct.

I wish I could completely trust Powell, but it takes time to heal old wounds.

Maybe tonight I can get back here, just swamped.

end edit

~~~~~

More News:




~~~~~

At some point will return to the local drug war and Pandemic stats.

Local News go here:

Updates From 06/07/20: Racism Is a Global Problem - Outrageous Barr and Dept. of Homeland Security Statements Regarding Systemic Racism Within U.S. Law Enforcement and Disturbing Poll Results - UPDATE/edit: Some Thoughts On General Colin Powell

Running behind here, but for the record:


 ~ From CNN:

George Floyd Protests Across the U.S.

~~~~~

Excellent reports from those updates, I thought: 


  - We've been watching the global reactions all week, and they are continuing: 






 - Note Brazil:







6 hr 31 min ago

Brazilians protest in support of Black Lives Matter and against President Jair Bolsonaro

"Thousands of people in Brazil took the streets again this weekend in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and to protest President Jair Bolsonaro's government, including its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

At the protests, scattered across the country's major cities, people chanted and carried signs bearing slogans like "Black Lives Matter" and "Bolsonaro needs to go."

About 3,000 people attended a rally in Sao Paulo to criticize the federal government and to protest violence against black Brazilians by police forces, said Brazil's Military Police. Protesters lay on the ground, shouting "I can't breathe" -- George Floyd's last words before he died in Minneapolis two weeks ago.

Demonstrations also took place in the country's capital, Brasilia, and other cities like Porto Alegre, Recife and Fortaleza. Protesters on the streets were joined by local residents who banged pans and pots from their balconies, while passing drivers blasted their horns in solidarity.
Raull Santiago, one of the protest organizers in Rio de Janeiro, said on Twitter that leaving home in the middle of a pandemic was a difficult but necessary decision.
“We, the people that live in the favelas, do not accept having as our only option to choose between being shot or [getting] infected by the virus. Today is an important day in the fight against the genocide of black people," he said.
Bolsonaro's response: Last Friday, Bolsonaro condemned participants in anti-government and anti-racism demonstrations as “thugs” and “terrorists,” words also used by his American counterpart, Donald Trump, to describe the protesters in the United States.  

He said the demonstrations could draw a violent response from law enforcement and warned Brazilians to stay at home Sunday, “so that the security forces -- not just state but also federal -- can do their duty in case these thugs go beyond the limits of the law. ”  

~~~~



 - We are in trouble folks: 

Within the linked report pay attention to the related articles as top Trump officials claim there is no systematic racism in law enforcement - including Barr's second statement to date, and Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolfe also Homeland Security's Ken Cuccinelli's statement that he does not believe George Floyd's life would have been spared if he were white - are these guys from Mars ?

Note the latest polls which I think are unsettling, how is it possible that despite slightly moderate changes, so many thousands and thousands of GOP whites could believe that racial inequality/discrimination towards blacks in the U.S. is non-existent or not a  serious problem ?   I thought we left Mississippi decades ago, God help us all and Trump will cultivate this ignorance to be reelected.  Don't kid yourselves, he is so good such a pro at the bullshit, an astounding number of people will embrace and believe him - this is terrifying:




Analysis by Ronald Brownstein

~~~~~



 - No Systemic Racism ?

by, Rob Picheto and Henrik Pettersson


~~~~~

UPDATE/edit around 3:30pm:  I did not say anything regarding retired General  Colin Powell's statement against Donald Trump, which was powerful.  I'm still struggling with Gen. Powell even though he admitted to screwing up (and apologized) and the CIA also has admitted to screwing up giving him bad information regarding Weapons Of Mass Destruction in Iraq which he submitted to the United Nations and which drug us into the horrible Iraq War, killing hundreds and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraq citizens and three thousand U.S. combat soldiers, not to mention being really just another destabilizing American misadventure nightmare into the Middle East.   

I always wanted to like Gen. Powell, but I am struggling due to his past association with the Bush Crime Family and the out of control revved-up Military Industrial Complex, thanks to the Bush Crime Family.  I'm also afraid that Trump will use Powell's words against him - i.e. Trump could say something like, '...well that's a twist, a liar calling me a liar !'

Mike says Gen Powell was a patsy and was used by the Bush Administration to do their dirty work (not only in Iraq, but during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles), and he could very well be correct.

I wish I could completely trust Powell, but it takes time to heal old wounds.

Maybe tonight I can get back here, just swamped.

end edit

~~~~~

More News:




~~~~~

At some point will return to the local drug war and Pandemic stats.

Local News go here:

Zeta Tijuana

~~~~~

Saturday, June 6, 2020

Rebellion Day 12 - And Pinche Trump Is HIDING !!! He's Digging a Tunnel Back to Mar D' Lago - HUNDREDS More Former U.S. Diplomats, Military & Senior Officials REBUKE Trump !! - Bill Moyers !!The Walls Come Crumblin Down: Mellencamp !!!

Washington D.C.Tthe Road To The White House Courtesy Mayor Of D.C., Muriel Bowser !


First off, a giant thank you to the Mayor of Washington D.C., Muriel Bowser !!!


 ~ From The Guardian:

Washington Mayor Stands Up To Trump and Unveils Black Lives Matter Mural
by, Lauren Aratani 

~~~~~

It's going to be a long weekend, here are the updates:


 ~ From CNN:


George Floyd Protests Across The U.S. 


~~~~~

Hundreds more former U.S. Diplomats, Military and Senior Officials rebuke Trump !!!

This actually was from yesterday: 


 ~ From Foreign Policy:  Report edited today, the number is up to 418!!!


More than 200 Former Senior U.S. Diplomats Rebuke Trump
by, Jack Detswche, Robbie Grammer 

"More than 280 former senior U.S. diplomats and military leaders rebuked President Donald Trump over his plans to use U.S. military units to control protests across the country in a letter shared with Foreign Policy on Friday. 

 
The participants joined a chorus of high-ranking current and former officials who already have condemned the commander in chief after police forcibly cleared protesters near the White House this week for a photo opportunity.


The letter was drafted by Douglas Silliman, the president’s former ambassador to Iraq; Deborah McCarthy, who served as U.S. ambassador to Lithuania during the Obama administration; and Thomas Countryman, a veteran diplomat who served as the State Department’s top arms control official. 


“Many of us served across the globe, including in war zones, diplomats and military officers working side by side to advance American interests and values. We called out violations of human rights and the authoritarian regimes that deployed their military against their own citizens,” the former high-ranking officials wrote. “We condemn all criminal acts against persons and property, but cannot agree that responding to these acts is beyond the capabilities of local and state authorities.” 


“There is no role for the U.S. military in dealing with American citizens exercising their constitutional right to free speech, however uncomfortable that speech may be for some,” the signatories added, condemning the use of National Guard helicopters in a so-called “rotor wash” low-flying action against protesters near the White House on Monday night. On Thursday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper ordered as many as 700 soldiers with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division that were on high alert to respond to protests back home, leaving under 1,000 active-duty U.S. troops nearby, mostly from military police units. 


Speaking to reporters on Friday, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy confirmed that Esper had given the 91st Military Police Battalion “vocal instructions” to depart the Washington, D.C., area immediately and that it was the Pentagon’s intention to send home any other remaining troops “as soon as possible.”


“The decision to bring the active forces in on Monday was largely due to the fact that we did not have enough people here,” McCarthy said at a Pentagon gaggle today. “Sunday was an incredibly challenging night for us: The Lincoln Monument was defaced, we had five soldiers hit in the head with a brick, obviously St. John’s was burned. Inside of Lafayette Square, [we] definitely lost control, to the point they were on the north fence.”


Lawmakers and former members of Trump’s own administration, including former Defense Secretary James Mattis, have criticized the White House’s decision to flood the nation’s capital with more than 4,500 National Guard troops—mostly from other U.S. states. Trump has yet to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act that allows the U.S. military to respond to riots, and active-duty units ordered on standby did not enter Washington, D.C., city limits. 


But even the deployments of reservists and Justice Department personnel, who have been seen concealing their badge numbers and other identifying information, have stoked ire from local officials, after protests proceeded peacefully throughout much of the week. In a letter sent to Trump on Thursday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser told the president that she had ended the city’s state of emergency for demonstrations and asked for National Guard troops to demobilize. 


“The protestors have been peaceful, and last night, the Metropolitan Police Department did not make a single arrest,” Bowser wrote. “Therefore, I am requesting that you withdraw all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence from Washington, DC.” Bowser accelerated her protests of Trump’s response on Friday, unveiling a street sign for “Black Lives Matter Plaza” next to the White House after the city hired a crew to paint the adjoining intersection with a stenciled tribute to the movement. 


The walling off of the White House and use of unidentified Justice Department personnel to patrol Washington’s streets has prompted outcry from Capitol Hill, including from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has demanded that those units make their badge numbers visible.


~~~~~

Here is a copy of the letter if you missed it, with all of the signees (so far):


 ~ From Just Security:


The Strength of Americas Apolitical Military 
by, Ambassador Douglas A. Silliman, Ambassador Deborah A. McCarthy & Thomas Countryman


~~~~~

Only just received this as an email, must read, love this guy: (note their poet of the day is Octavio Paz)

 ~ From billmoyers.combillmoyers.com

We Hold This Truth to Be Self-Evident: It's Happening Before Our Very Eyes
by, Bill Moyers 


"At 98, historian Bernard Weisberger has seen it all. Born in 1922, he grew up watching newsreels of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler as they rose to power in Europe. He vividly remembers Mussolini posturing to crowds from his balcony in Rome, chin outthrust, right arm extended. Nor has he forgotten Der Fuehrer’s raspy voice on radio, interrupted by cheers of “Heil Hitler,” full of menace even without pictures.


Fascist bullies and threats anger Bernie, and when America went to war to confront them, he interrupted his study of history to help make history by joining the army. He yearned to be an aviator but his eyesight was too poor. So he took a special course in Japanese at Columbia University and was sent as a translator to the China-Burma-India theater where Japanese warlords were out to conquer Asia. Bernie remembers them, too.


In time, we became colleagues on a series of broadcasts about the 20th century. As we compared the leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler in an episode titled The President and the Dictator, Bernie kept reminding the team that the most cunning demagogues “are never more than a few steps from becoming dictators.” Not surprisingly, the subject came up again when Trump was elected. No, we didn’t think he was Hitler, or the Republicans Nazis, but both of us acknowledged a deep unease over the vulnerabilities of democracy, which had led to Trump’s election in the first place. Inspired by Bernie and unnerved by Trump, I decided to take a deeper look at democracy under stress and began reading what is now more than a dozen books on Europe in the 1930s. The most recent is a compelling and chilling account of Hitler’s First Hundred Days, by the historian Peter Fritzsche – a familiar story revisited by the author with fresh verve and insight.

Hitler was a master of manipulation, using propaganda, violence, intimidation, showmanship, and spectacle — and above all, fear. By demonizing “the other” – Jews, social democrats and communists – Hitler won the hearts and minds of the masses, consolidating his power, and turning Germany into a one-party Nazi state.


I had just finished the book when I received a short email from Bernie, who had been watching on television the events following the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. He wrote, “All this open talk by Trump of dominance is pretty undisguised fascism. He’s inciting chaos to set the stage for the strong man to ‘rescue’ the nation.”


There was no doubt who would be Superman riding to America’s rescue. When Trump promised to end what he called “American carnage” – a crisis of “poverty in our inner cities, rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation, crime and gangs and drugs” — he did not ask for our help. He did not ask that we put our faith in each other or in our democratic values or even in God. Donald J. Trump would be our savior, the new Messiah — because “I alone can fix it.”

Bernie’s note triggered a recollection, sending me across the room to retrieve from a file drawer an essay written two years ago in The New York Review of Books by the American legal scholar Cass Sunstein. Reviewing three new books about ordinary Germans and the Nazi regime, he concluded: “With our system of checks and balances, full-blown authoritarianism is unlikely to happen here.”


I had admired Sunstein’s work for years and found reassuring his judgment that the rule of law would check a would-be tyrant. But many found that assurance disquieting. One dissenter was Norman Ravitch, emeritus professor of history at the University of California, Riverside. Responding to Sunstein, he wrote: “The normal concern of people of all sorts with their daily lives, family, work, leisure, and so on indicates that only those in certain areas of work and life could possibly notice the slow but relentless advance of authoritarian and totalitarian policies by the government. The Nazis knew how to appeal to people who did not have the ideological concerns but only normal human concerns. They knew how to conceal their real goals and how to make passive individuals active supporters.”

So does Trump. He understands that most Americans are concerned with little more than the economy, health care and jobs. They respond positively to politicians who promise action on these priorities, whether or not they know if those promises will ever be fulfilled. Ravitch pointed out that like Hitler and like Mussolini, Trump knows how to appeal to a variety of concerns with promises that can be both attractive and contradictory. Because no population is educated enough, sensitive enough, or ethical enough to see through the deception, “the danger is very great indeed. It may in fact be one of the chief weaknesses of democracy that democracy can lead to tyranny just as well or perhaps even more than other political systems.”


Two years have passed since that exchange between scholars, and in those two years Trump has doubled down. This president is no friend of democracy.


He has declared himself above the law, preached insurrection by encouraging armed supporters to “liberate” states from the governance of duly elected officials, told police not to be “too nice” while doing their job, and gloated over the ability of the Secret Service to turn “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” loose on demonstrators — to “come down on them hard” if they get too “frisky.

He has politicized the Department of Justice while remaking the judiciary in his image.
He has stifled investigations into his administration’s corruption, fired officials charged with holding federal agencies accountable to the public, and rewarded his donors and cronies with government contracts, subsidies, deregulations, and tax breaks.


He has maligned and mocked the disadvantaged, the disabled, and people of color.


He has sought to politicize the military, including in his entourage the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs (dressed in combat fatigues), as his orderlies unleashed chemical fumes on peaceful protesters – all so that the president could use them as stage props in a photo op, holding up a Bible in front of a historic church, just to make a dandy ad for his re-election campaign.

He has purged his own party of independent thinkers and turned it into a spineless, mindless cult while demonizing the opposition.


He has purloined religion for state and political ends.


He has desecrated the most revered symbols of Christian faith by converting them to partisan brands. 


He has recruited religious zealots for jobs in his administration, rewarding with government favors the electoral loyalty of their followers.


He has relentlessly attacked mainstream media as purveyors of “fake news” and “enemies of the people” while collaborating with a sycophantic right- wing media – including the Murdoch family’s Fox News — to flood the country with lies and propaganda.


He has maneuvered the morally hollow founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, into compromising the integrity of the most powerful media giant in the country by infusing it with partisan bias.


And because truth is the foe he most fears, he has banned it from his administration and his lips.  


Yes, Bernie, you are right: the man in the White House has taken all the necessary steps toward achieving the despot’s dream of dominance.


Can it happen here?


It is happening here.


Democracy in America has been a series of narrow escapes. We may be running out of luck, and no one is coming to save us. For that, we have only  ourselves."

Bill Moyers

For more than half a century, Bill Moyers has been listening to America as a journalist, writer and producer. You can explore his body of work on the Bill Moyers Timeline. Follow his work on Twitter at @BillMoyers.



~~~~


 


I'll be back....

Rebellion Day 12 - And Pinche Trump Is HIDING !!! He's Digging a Tunnel Back to Mar D' Lago - HUNDREDS More Former U.S. Diplomats, Military & Senior Officials REBUKE Trump !! - Bill Moyers !!The Walls Come Crumblin Down: Mellencamp !!!

Washington D.C.Tthe Road To The White House Courtesy Mayor Of D.C., Muriel Bowser !


First off, a giant thank you to the Mayor of Washington D.C., Muriel Bowser !!!


 ~ From The Guardian:

Washington Mayor Stands Up To Trump and Unveils Black Lives Matter Mural
by, Lauren Aratani 

~~~~~

It's going to be a long weekend, here are the updates:


 ~ From CNN:


George Floyd Protests Across The U.S. 


~~~~~

Hundreds more former U.S. Diplomats, Military and Senior Officials rebuke Trump !!!

This actually was from yesterday: 


 ~ From Foreign Policy:  Report edited today, the number is up to 418!!!


More than 200 Former Senior U.S. Diplomats Rebuke Trump
by, Jack Detswche, Robbie Grammer 

"More than 280 former senior U.S. diplomats and military leaders rebuked President Donald Trump over his plans to use U.S. military units to control protests across the country in a letter shared with Foreign Policy on Friday. 

 
The participants joined a chorus of high-ranking current and former officials who already have condemned the commander in chief after police forcibly cleared protesters near the White House this week for a photo opportunity.


The letter was drafted by Douglas Silliman, the president’s former ambassador to Iraq; Deborah McCarthy, who served as U.S. ambassador to Lithuania during the Obama administration; and Thomas Countryman, a veteran diplomat who served as the State Department’s top arms control official. 


“Many of us served across the globe, including in war zones, diplomats and military officers working side by side to advance American interests and values. We called out violations of human rights and the authoritarian regimes that deployed their military against their own citizens,” the former high-ranking officials wrote. “We condemn all criminal acts against persons and property, but cannot agree that responding to these acts is beyond the capabilities of local and state authorities.” 


“There is no role for the U.S. military in dealing with American citizens exercising their constitutional right to free speech, however uncomfortable that speech may be for some,” the signatories added, condemning the use of National Guard helicopters in a so-called “rotor wash” low-flying action against protesters near the White House on Monday night. On Thursday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper ordered as many as 700 soldiers with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division that were on high alert to respond to protests back home, leaving under 1,000 active-duty U.S. troops nearby, mostly from military police units. 


Speaking to reporters on Friday, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy confirmed that Esper had given the 91st Military Police Battalion “vocal instructions” to depart the Washington, D.C., area immediately and that it was the Pentagon’s intention to send home any other remaining troops “as soon as possible.”


“The decision to bring the active forces in on Monday was largely due to the fact that we did not have enough people here,” McCarthy said at a Pentagon gaggle today. “Sunday was an incredibly challenging night for us: The Lincoln Monument was defaced, we had five soldiers hit in the head with a brick, obviously St. John’s was burned. Inside of Lafayette Square, [we] definitely lost control, to the point they were on the north fence.”


Lawmakers and former members of Trump’s own administration, including former Defense Secretary James Mattis, have criticized the White House’s decision to flood the nation’s capital with more than 4,500 National Guard troops—mostly from other U.S. states. Trump has yet to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act that allows the U.S. military to respond to riots, and active-duty units ordered on standby did not enter Washington, D.C., city limits. 


But even the deployments of reservists and Justice Department personnel, who have been seen concealing their badge numbers and other identifying information, have stoked ire from local officials, after protests proceeded peacefully throughout much of the week. In a letter sent to Trump on Thursday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser told the president that she had ended the city’s state of emergency for demonstrations and asked for National Guard troops to demobilize. 


“The protestors have been peaceful, and last night, the Metropolitan Police Department did not make a single arrest,” Bowser wrote. “Therefore, I am requesting that you withdraw all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence from Washington, DC.” Bowser accelerated her protests of Trump’s response on Friday, unveiling a street sign for “Black Lives Matter Plaza” next to the White House after the city hired a crew to paint the adjoining intersection with a stenciled tribute to the movement. 


The walling off of the White House and use of unidentified Justice Department personnel to patrol Washington’s streets has prompted outcry from Capitol Hill, including from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has demanded that those units make their badge numbers visible.


~~~~~

Here is a copy of the letter if you missed it, with all of the signees (so far):


 ~ From Just Security:


The Strength of Americas Apolitical Military 
by, Ambassador Douglas A. Silliman, Ambassador Deborah A. McCarthy & Thomas Countryman


~~~~~

Only just received this as an email, must read, love this guy: (note their poet of the day is Octavio Paz)

 ~ From billmoyers.combillmoyers.com

We Hold This Truth to Be Self-Evident: It's Happening Before Our Very Eyes
by, Bill Moyers 


"At 98, historian Bernard Weisberger has seen it all. Born in 1922, he grew up watching newsreels of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler as they rose to power in Europe. He vividly remembers Mussolini posturing to crowds from his balcony in Rome, chin outthrust, right arm extended. Nor has he forgotten Der Fuehrer’s raspy voice on radio, interrupted by cheers of “Heil Hitler,” full of menace even without pictures.


Fascist bullies and threats anger Bernie, and when America went to war to confront them, he interrupted his study of history to help make history by joining the army. He yearned to be an aviator but his eyesight was too poor. So he took a special course in Japanese at Columbia University and was sent as a translator to the China-Burma-India theater where Japanese warlords were out to conquer Asia. Bernie remembers them, too.


In time, we became colleagues on a series of broadcasts about the 20th century. As we compared the leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler in an episode titled The President and the Dictator, Bernie kept reminding the team that the most cunning demagogues “are never more than a few steps from becoming dictators.” Not surprisingly, the subject came up again when Trump was elected. No, we didn’t think he was Hitler, or the Republicans Nazis, but both of us acknowledged a deep unease over the vulnerabilities of democracy, which had led to Trump’s election in the first place. Inspired by Bernie and unnerved by Trump, I decided to take a deeper look at democracy under stress and began reading what is now more than a dozen books on Europe in the 1930s. The most recent is a compelling and chilling account of Hitler’s First Hundred Days, by the historian Peter Fritzsche – a familiar story revisited by the author with fresh verve and insight.

Hitler was a master of manipulation, using propaganda, violence, intimidation, showmanship, and spectacle — and above all, fear. By demonizing “the other” – Jews, social democrats and communists – Hitler won the hearts and minds of the masses, consolidating his power, and turning Germany into a one-party Nazi state.


I had just finished the book when I received a short email from Bernie, who had been watching on television the events following the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. He wrote, “All this open talk by Trump of dominance is pretty undisguised fascism. He’s inciting chaos to set the stage for the strong man to ‘rescue’ the nation.”


There was no doubt who would be Superman riding to America’s rescue. When Trump promised to end what he called “American carnage” – a crisis of “poverty in our inner cities, rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation, crime and gangs and drugs” — he did not ask for our help. He did not ask that we put our faith in each other or in our democratic values or even in God. Donald J. Trump would be our savior, the new Messiah — because “I alone can fix it.”

Bernie’s note triggered a recollection, sending me across the room to retrieve from a file drawer an essay written two years ago in The New York Review of Books by the American legal scholar Cass Sunstein. Reviewing three new books about ordinary Germans and the Nazi regime, he concluded: “With our system of checks and balances, full-blown authoritarianism is unlikely to happen here.”


I had admired Sunstein’s work for years and found reassuring his judgment that the rule of law would check a would-be tyrant. But many found that assurance disquieting. One dissenter was Norman Ravitch, emeritus professor of history at the University of California, Riverside. Responding to Sunstein, he wrote: “The normal concern of people of all sorts with their daily lives, family, work, leisure, and so on indicates that only those in certain areas of work and life could possibly notice the slow but relentless advance of authoritarian and totalitarian policies by the government. The Nazis knew how to appeal to people who did not have the ideological concerns but only normal human concerns. They knew how to conceal their real goals and how to make passive individuals active supporters.”

So does Trump. He understands that most Americans are concerned with little more than the economy, health care and jobs. They respond positively to politicians who promise action on these priorities, whether or not they know if those promises will ever be fulfilled. Ravitch pointed out that like Hitler and like Mussolini, Trump knows how to appeal to a variety of concerns with promises that can be both attractive and contradictory. Because no population is educated enough, sensitive enough, or ethical enough to see through the deception, “the danger is very great indeed. It may in fact be one of the chief weaknesses of democracy that democracy can lead to tyranny just as well or perhaps even more than other political systems.”


Two years have passed since that exchange between scholars, and in those two years Trump has doubled down. This president is no friend of democracy.


He has declared himself above the law, preached insurrection by encouraging armed supporters to “liberate” states from the governance of duly elected officials, told police not to be “too nice” while doing their job, and gloated over the ability of the Secret Service to turn “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” loose on demonstrators — to “come down on them hard” if they get too “frisky.

He has politicized the Department of Justice while remaking the judiciary in his image.
He has stifled investigations into his administration’s corruption, fired officials charged with holding federal agencies accountable to the public, and rewarded his donors and cronies with government contracts, subsidies, deregulations, and tax breaks.


He has maligned and mocked the disadvantaged, the disabled, and people of color.


He has sought to politicize the military, including in his entourage the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs (dressed in combat fatigues), as his orderlies unleashed chemical fumes on peaceful protesters – all so that the president could use them as stage props in a photo op, holding up a Bible in front of a historic church, just to make a dandy ad for his re-election campaign.

He has purged his own party of independent thinkers and turned it into a spineless, mindless cult while demonizing the opposition.


He has purloined religion for state and political ends.


He has desecrated the most revered symbols of Christian faith by converting them to partisan brands. 


He has recruited religious zealots for jobs in his administration, rewarding with government favors the electoral loyalty of their followers.


He has relentlessly attacked mainstream media as purveyors of “fake news” and “enemies of the people” while collaborating with a sycophantic right- wing media – including the Murdoch family’s Fox News — to flood the country with lies and propaganda.


He has maneuvered the morally hollow founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, into compromising the integrity of the most powerful media giant in the country by infusing it with partisan bias.


And because truth is the foe he most fears, he has banned it from his administration and his lips.  


Yes, Bernie, you are right: the man in the White House has taken all the necessary steps toward achieving the despot’s dream of dominance.


Can it happen here?


It is happening here.


Democracy in America has been a series of narrow escapes. We may be running out of luck, and no one is coming to save us. For that, we have only  ourselves."

Bill Moyers

For more than half a century, Bill Moyers has been listening to America as a journalist, writer and producer. You can explore his body of work on the Bill Moyers Timeline. Follow his work on Twitter at @BillMoyers.



~~~~


 


I'll be back....

Thursday, June 4, 2020

Prof. Cornel West - George Floyd Memorial Service - Top Brass U.S. Military Retired & Active And The Intelligentsia Break From The Fold and Take The Knee: Gen. Mattis - Former Director of Nat'l Intellgence James Clapper - James Miller Resigns - Adm. Mike Mullen - Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis - Gen. Martin E. Dempsey - Gen. Robert Neller - Special Ops Gen. Raymond A. Thomas - Com. John Allen - Gen.James McConville - Adm. Mike Gilday - Air Force Gen. David Goldfein - Gen. Joseph Lengyet - Gen. Mark Milley - Defense Sec. Mark Esper - Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton - Maj. Gen. Dana Pittard - Richard K. Betts - Harold Hongu Koh - Peter Feaver - From William Rivers Pitt: 'Trump Must Resign Immediately !' - Neville Brothers - Run The Jewels: RTJ4 !

If you are waiting for the dust to settle, you are going to have a long wait.  I think what we are going to see is a very slow and painful rebirth of racial equality in America - oh right, as if there ever was racial equality in the USA. I shudder to think  how the extreme right will react but the truth is, there is no more going back to the standards we have all become accustomed to and even accepted as normal. If the United States does not change, the game is over...as Professor Cornel West has said, the National Uprising we have been witnessing, "...is a sign of America imploding" and "America's moment of reckoning." I love that guy.

Here are links for y'all just in case you might have missed them:



 ~ From CNN:First of many Memorials today, the final Memorial will be next Tuesday.


Remembering George Floyd - George Floyd Memorial Service Updates 


~~~~~
 
 Breaking from the fold (Jumping Ship), the retired and active U.S. Military Top Brass & the Inteligentsia take the knee:



 ~ From Dantes Inferno: (Or... life under Donald Trump)


"Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.

Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd:
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.

Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.



Must read, the General James Mattis statement, even though the White House and Trumpistas are dismissing  him and his very accurate and warning words : 


READ: Former Defense Secretary Mattis' Statement on Trump and Protests


~~~~~

This list put was together by Jared Keller (thank you Jared) will probably need to be updated in the days ahead,hit each name within the report to read highlights of their statements  and warnings against Trump...while you there, click on T&P's news highlights:


 ~ From Task & Purpose:  


Here Are All The Current and Former Military Leaders Blasting Trump's Response To Nationwide Protests
by, Jared Keller


 ~ From Foreign Policy :  

"The Stakes Are High, and We Must Be Better Than This "

Six military heavyweights and defense experts weigh in on Trump’s call for the military to put down protests.

 


 Don't want to forget this one....


 ~ From TPM:


Pentagon Policy Advisor Resigns, Saying Esper 'Violated' Oath of Office
By, Zoe Richards


~~~~~

Importantly, the statement from former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper:


Hear James Clapper 's Warning About America 



~~~~~ 

Does any of this matter?  Well, Juan Cole doesn't seem to think it will add up to much, but I do.  How many more Military either Brass or Troops will take the knee ? I think there will be more. Is it a matter of not going down with the Titanic or walking a tightrope to keep the troops steady, or both?  After all, there are a lot of black people  enlisted in the Military as well as many right wing extremists.  I think it's both, plus  the majority of these guys simply do not like Trump and they have had to remain silent for years.


~~~~~~ 


Once again, I have been too busy to ask permission to re-print this next one....you will not believe, another feral cat gave birth to another littler outside !  So now, I have two litters in the back ruining my plants and driving Paris crazy, I'm feeding them but they have not only  invaded  they have taken over!  Total cats and kittens outside: 15 kittens and 3 stray feral momma cats..  Total adoptees inside: 3 !  I don't know what to do ! Kittens to the left of me, kittens to the right ! It's like a kitten rebellion !


Okay, enough...this should be the finale for now:  Here's the solution y'all:


From Truthout:

As Trump Wages War On DC Residents, It's Clear He Must Resign Immediately 
By, William Rivers Pitt



~~~~~

I'll be back at some point with Ben & Jerry's decree.

Of course...

Democracy Now !


~~~~~

I know it's an oldie from over 30 years back (man I was not popular for playing this really loud in Ramona back then)...but it is relevant and powerful.  Background vocals BTW is Buffy St. Marie:


"I think we're all runnin' thinkin' that we can hide 
I think we're runnin' try in' to get away 
But sooner or later we gonna realize 
We gonna meet up with the truth face to face
 You can't stop running water 
You can't kill the fire that burns inside
 Don't deny our flesh and blood 
Don't forsake our sons and daughters" 






~~~~~






Try this one... hot hot hot off the press....Run The Jewels... RTJ4 !

Ya'll take care and stay healthy.

~~~~~