More Facts

New facts are coming out about the demented Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis. The victims and their families should receive condolences and prayers. Alexis was on SSRI drugs. SSRI drugs have been one link out of many that relate to many previous mass shooting in this decade alone. The mainstream media on many cases refuse to comprehensively discuss about this issue. The man did not even use an AR-15. Alexis had been treated since August by the Veterans Administration for his mental issues. So, Aaron Alexis was on psychiatric drugs. Alexis' family admitted to authorities that he was treated for his mental health problems. We know that he said that he heard voices and that he felt that someone was giving him messages. He suffered from PTSD, which he experienced blackouts and anger issues. The most common form of treatment for PTSD IS Paroxetine, which is listed as number 3 top violence causing drug by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). We all know that it has been reported that prescription drugs were found in the apartment of ‘Batman’ shooter James Holmes days after the Aurora massacre, it took nine months to find out exactly what those drugs were. Like Columbine killer Eric Harris, Holmes had been taking Zoloft, another SSRI drug (which has been linked with violent outbursts). That is why much of the corporate media is funded by the pharmaceutical giants. The pharmaceutical giants who produce drugs like Zoloft, Prozac, and Paxil spend around $2.4 billion dollars a year on direct to consumer television advertising every year. So, by running negative stories about prescription drugs, networks risk losing tens of millions of dollars in ad revenue. FBI assistant director Victoria Parlave stated at a press conference on Tuesday that authorities “do not have any information at this time that [Alexis] had an AR-15 in his possession.” Anti-second amendment crusader Piers Morgan also erroneously blamed the shooting on “a man with a legally purchased AR-15, who just committed the same kind of atrocity as we saw at Sandy Hook, and Aurora,” during his CNN show on Monday. Many human beings have been killed by this tragedy. The murderer was a military contractor. SWAT teams and other uniformed personnel swept the building when the murderous rampage took place. Reports say that Aaron Alexis served the Navy Reserve for 2007 to 2011. He was honorably discharged despite a pattern of misbehavior from insubordination to absences from duty. According to several media accounts, Alexis had earlier encounters with police. The most recent was in 2010, when Fort Worth police arrested him for discharging a firearm within city limits. Misdemeanor charges were dropped after investigators accepted his story that the weapon had gone off accidentally while Alexis was cleaning it.  He shot at the construction worker's tire at Seattle in 2004. It is the endless military violence in the world that is harming thousands of soldiers. When they come home, many of them are physically and psychologically damaged from the wars carried out the U.S. government for centuries. A recent study released by the American Medical Association (AMA) showed that since 2005, suicides within the US military have skyrocketed. The report tracks the increase of such fatalities as being up from 10.3 to 11.3 per 100,000 in the base year to being over 16.3 per 100,000 just three years later. The increased rate of depression, suicide, and other forms of mental breakdown has been directly attributed to increased deployments for troops into combat zones. Now, a murderer is a murderer. Aaron Alexis was still accountable for his actions. He was wrong. There is not a single justification for what he did. We just need comprehensive solutions to this epidemic of mass shootings in America over the course of many years. We need to address mental health, gun violence, issues in our society (since we need more compassion in America without cruelty or nefarious conduct), and other real issues in our world.

Now, we see the United Nations releasing their chemical weapons report. It indicates the modified or homemade rockets were used in the Ghouta attack. The report came during the same time as the shooting in the D.C. Navy Yard shooting. It never showed that the Assad differently used chemical weapons on civilian populations in Syria. That is why some suspect that the CIA backed terrorists may have used modified rockets as a means to use chemical weapons against civilians. We know that there is a video of Syrian terrorist rebels launching homemade rockets from a launcher system. The pertinent evidence is found in two places in the report which I have included here in this brief article: 1. Section 23: Information about munitions and 2. Appendix 5 concerning collected evidence of the delivery systems. Appendix 5 (page 18 to 23 of the report) concludes that the surface to surface rockets were probably launched from a single tube launcher, much like the ones the terrorists in Syria have been using to shell various areas. It also shows images of the pieces of collected evidence, the remains of the rockets, which clearly indicate that they were either modified mortars or they were of a “home made” variety. Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom headed the UN team. It’s called the Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic. On September 15, Russia Today headlined “Turkish prosecutors indict Syrian rebels for seeking chemical weapons,” saying: “The prosecutor in the Turkish city of Adana has issued a 132-page indictment, alleging that six men of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and Ahrar ash-Sham tried to seek out chemicals with the intent to produce the nerve agent, sarin gas, a number of Turkish publications reported.” “The main suspect in the case, 35-year-old Syrian-national Hytham Qassap has been charged with ‘being a member of a terrorist organization’ and ‘attempting to acquire weapons for a terrorist organization.’  “The other 5, all Turkish nationals are being charged with ‘attempting to acquire weapons for a terrorist organization.’ “The indictment alleges that Qassap tried to setup a network in Turkey in order to obtain chemical materials for the al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham Brigades.” “Citing telephone calls made by the cell, the prosecution believes that the group ordered at least ten tons of chemicals, Al-Alam News Network reports.” A previous article cited Mint Press News headlining”Exclusive: Syrians in Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack,” saying: “Rebels and local residents in Ghouta accuse Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan of providing chemical weapons to an al-Qaida linked rebel group.” Their report excluded numbers of victims killed. At most it was scores or perhaps two or three hundred. John Kerry claimed that 1,429 causalities existed with Britain and France estimating several hundred. UN inspectors found no evidence of huge numbers. Many questions remain unanswered.

There are strengths and weaknesses of the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare (as called by its most vicious critics). Now, Obamacare is still a part of the profit driven health care system. Some feel that it will rip off Americans. Much of the law will enrich drug companies, large hospital chains, and other insurers. The law allows businesses to benefit at the expense of ordinary human beings. We still have tens of millions uninsured and millions more underinsured. The law delays significant consumer protection until 2015. It was done secretly in last February. On August 12, 2013, the NY Times had a story on it entitled, "A Limit on Consumer Costs is Delayed in Health Care Law." The Labor Department officials have confirmed what happened. The longer the consumer protections are deferred, the more consumers will pay. It can cause Obamacare less affordable than it is already.
Out-of-pocket deductibles and co-pays weren’t supposed to exceed $6,350 for individuals and $12,700 for families. Federal officials granted insurers and employers one year’s grace. Obama touted caps as a key Affordable Care Act (ACA) provision. Deferring them increases costs significantly. Doing so makes ordinary people bear burdens they can’t afford. They can be denied with vital care when most needed it. We should not be debt burdened to buy mandated coverage. Many healthcare giants can profit from this reality. Cap-free coverage is not what folks expected. According to The Times, "...(f)ederal officials said that many insurers and employers needed more time to comply because they used separate companies to help administer major medical coverage and drug benefits, with separate limits on out-of-pocket costs.” Companies had years to prepare for the law and now they are to use tactics as a means to water down the law. These companies are pressuring folks for relief. They are getting what they want when households are debt burdened. So, the people suffer while corporate predators are receiving huge benefits. Millions of households struggle to get by. Main Street is being harmed by depression level conditions and life is still less affordable for Main Street. Healthcare coverage is still a great burden among folks like rent and mortgage payments.  A senior administration official spoke anonymously to avoid embarrassment, saying: “We knew this was an important issue. We had to balance the interests of consumers with the concerns of health plan sponsors and carriers. They asked for more time to comply.” Ordinary people were thrown under the bus. It was done to benefit them. Expect lots more corporate giveaways ahead. Expect that action to harm consumers. Many delays exist that deal with the total implementation of the law. Consumer concerns matter. National Health Council head Myrl Weinhert said that:  “The government’s unexpected interpretation of the law will disproportionately harm people with complex chronic conditions and disabilities.” People with major illnesses face tens of thousands more annually in out-of-pocket costs. Unaffordability means greater pain and suffering. It risks shorter life spans. In 2009, Obama said “limit(s) (will be placed) on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick.” In June 2009, BloombergBusinessweek said “(m)edical problems caused 62% of all (2007) personal bankruptcies." Surprisingly, “78% of those filers had medical insurance at the start of their illness. Over 60% had private coverage.” Many out of pocket limits will be allowed in 2014. Out of pocket costs and co-pay limits can be delayed. The reality is that ACA still allows the private health industry to control most of our health care system. But the U.S. does offer a healthcare program that resembles single-payer. It’s Medicare, the broadly popular health plan that covers all Americans over 65. Medicare’s administrative costs are only about 2%, and its size gives it the clout to extract large discounts from doctors and hospitals. That’s why one oft-proposed version of single-payer is “Medicare for all” — simply expand its coverage beyond the 65-plus. Now, there are many legitimate parts to ACA like banning discrimination based on preexisting conditions, the expansion of Medicaid in various states, etc.  The single payer universal health care system is still better than the status quo and the ACA indeed.

 

Wall Street celebrates the FED decision to continue the pace of money printing. This move sent the U.S. stock market surging upwards. This was when the Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday decided to continue for the present its policy of buying $85 billion a month in Treasury notes and mortgage bonds. Stock prices have declined in morning trading. This caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to rocket upwards with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at an all-time record of 15,676, up 146 for the day. The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index also ended the day at a record high, hitting 1,725 after rising by more than 20 points. This unadulterated greed continues as Wall Street celebrated the Fed’s move to keep the gusher of cash flowing into the financial markets, underwriting a huge run up of share values (including bank and corporate profits, CEO pay, and the fortunes of the rich including the super-rich). The FED pumping trillions of dollars into the banking system by printing money has fueled a bonanza for the ruling class. Still, the real economy has a slump and living standards for the vast majority of the people stagnant or decline. The policies executed by the Fed and the White House have exacerbated economic inequality in America to an unprecedented degree. The unemployed is still the largest since the Great Depression. Corporate America and the financial elite has have seen their wealth surpass pre-crash levels. For the past five years, the financial crisis has continued since mid-September 2008. Corporate profits are up 40 percent and the S&P 500 index is up 46 percent. The Dow Jones index is up 150 percent since its post-crash low in March 2009. Some feel that QE or quantitative easing will be phased out gradually. We see that it is wrong to send unlimited subsidies by central banks and governments to the 1 percent, which will only exacerbate the contradictions that led to the crisis in the first place. So, the budget and debt crises that came from the diversion of trillions in public funds to prop up the banks are used in turn to justify a brutal assault on the living standards of the working class plus the poor (and gutting social programs upon which human beings depend). Many of the major banks and the elite dictate government policy. Federal Reserve bond purchases exist. The statement issued by the FOMC specified that the Fed would continue the current pattern of buying $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities and $45 billion in Treasury securities every month. The mortgage-backed securities are particularly critical to the financial position of the major banks, which still have vast quantities of largely worthless mortgage paper that they have been unloading on the US central bank for the past five years. The Federal Reserve also issued a revised economic forecast, cutting its projections for economic growth this year to a range from 2 percent to 2.3 percent, down from its prediction in June of growth between 2.3 percent and 2.6 percent. The projected growth rate for next year was also reduced, from a range of 3 to 3.5 percent to a range of 2.9 to 3.1 percent. There is nothing wrong with legitimate stimulus, but more policies should be geared to Main Street not Wall Street.

 

 

 

 

Booker T. Washington did a lot of good for black human beings, but his Atlanta Compromise was one of his greatest errors. A compromise in the midst of a tyrannical society is not right. His strength was the promotion of black education and businesses for African Americans. He was right to say that black human beings have every right to develop economic power and have a sense of self determination. His weakness was that he on some cases wanted to appease white racist sensibilities as a means to gain freedom. As Dr. King and Malcolm X have said, you have to confront racism and you have to confront oppression directly and aggressively as a means to be free without accommodation to a wicked system. Yet, even Booker T. Washington to his credit funded efforts to battle Jim Crow segregation in 1900. WEB DuBois once slandered Garvey in an evil fashion. Yet, later on DuBois woke up and became a strong pan-Africanist before he died in 1963. We need both intellectual growth and economic growth.  There are more interesting information about this issue. Booker T. Washington used private action (according to Louis R. Harlan) to fight lynching, disenfranchisement, peonage, educational discrimination, and segregation. In 1894, when Booker T. Washington sought funds for the Atlanta Exposition, he urged that the right of black men to vote should not be taken away. Back then, he traced much of the issues on the black community on the institution of slavery not scapegoating all blacks for all ills in the black community as numerous pundits do now. He was right on that accord. Booker T. Washington made a strategic error by being funded by ruling class corporate interests. These interests wanted reform not revolution for black masses in America. You need revolutionary change as a means to achieve just not token capitalist reforms. For the pull your own self by your bootstraps have been exploited by reactionaries as an excuse to deny black human beings the right to fight for social changes. Washington’s National Negro Business League had met in Atlanta three weeks before this racist pogrom. In his speech at that convention he stated, “The Negro is committing too much crime North and South. We should see to it, as far as our influence extends, that crimes are fewer in number; otherwise the race will permanently suffer.” So he blamed the victims for their oppression in that instance, and the bosses’ papers just ate it up. In commenting on this speech, the Atlanta Constitution ran an incendiary headline: “Law-Breaking Negroes Worst Menace to Race.” So, whites racists exploited human beings for their nefarious ends. So, I will not bash Booker T. Washington harshly, because he was a Brother that tried to do the best for our people. He was just wrong on some issues. Even Ida B. Wells disagreed with some aspects of Booker T. Washington accommodation views. DuBois once slandered Garvey in an evil fashion. At first WEB DuBois even made errors and was heavily funded by the establishment. Even the NAACP was created heavily by white establishment figures, some of whom never wanted radical equality for black human beings. Even a board member of the NAACP named Oswald Villard never wanted to socialize with DuBois. The reality is that we need both self-sufficiency and economic development as advocated by Booker T. Washington and we need social justice as advocated by WEB DuBois. WEB DuBois and Booker T. Washington should be respected for the legitimate accomplishments that they had done for black people. We need both as a means to liberate ourselves as a people. We need both intellectual development and economic growth. We need to know that racial oppression is tied up with class oppression, so we need to deal with the social aspects of humanity as a means to develop solutions for our people. We have to challenge political institutions and advocate the changing of institutions as a means to abolish all forms of discrimination including oppression. We have to have a progressive attitude to the poor without maligning them or scapegoating them as some of the bourgeoisie does all of the time.

 

By Timothy