Call Out the New Republican Fascist Party

 

A year has passed since Trump’s failed 6 Jan coup.

Despite lacking even one iota of proof, Republican Party leaders unrelentingly, in lock step, continue to block Congressional investigation into uncovering the leadership and funding of the coup as well as foment the “Big Lie” that the presidency was stolen.

Additionally, party leaders, such as Mitch McConnell, have acknowledge that the Republican Party has no legislative agenda for the coming year and the party itself has no platform whatever, save to follow the will of mentally ill Trump. Alarmingly, it has also become apparent that the Republican Party has metastasized into a New Republican Fascist Party, implementing pervious fascist steps to seize control of government and install Trump as dictator.

Those steps include:

Incite followers with The Big Lie, “the election was stolen”, to overthrow the lawfully elected Biden administration

Forge official election documents to support The Big Lie

Harass and threaten election workers and election officials to fraudulently shift votes to support The Big Lie

Restrict voting, limit ballot access and gerrymander voting districts to retain political power

Fortunately, the New Republican Fascist Party playbook has a history, so we know what is likely coming next because fascism is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.

Fascism gained prominence in 1920s Europe, funded in large part by U.S. bankers and industrialists. In the United States, many of the same wealthy elite backed an attempt to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install a fascist regime/ dictatorship in what became known as the Wall Street Putsch (1933).

Fascism rose again in the form of the America First Committee (1940) and other groups; then again manifesting as the Tea Party Republicans (2009); then surfaced once more under Donald Trump as US president (2016). 

Arguably, the German and Italian fascists modeled themselves to a great degree on preceding, post-Civil War America racists organizations, among them, the Ku Klux Klan, the Silver Shirts, the Red Shirts, and others.

What can we do to stop the New Republican Fascist Party?

First, demand that media recognize it for what it is... a fascist gang that attempted to overthrow our republican democracy... and talk about it as such. As Robert Reich discusses (below), "...mainstream media draws a false equivalence between the right and the left and misleads the public about what's really at stake." There is no longer a balance between Democrats, who are working to preserve our democracy and Republican Fascists, who are actively working to overthrow it. 

Second, call out each of the Republican fascist traitors for attempting to overthrow our Constitution. And, third, demand that the coup leaders, no matter their political or social status, face the consequences of their crimes to the full extent of the law.

The Media Bias Nobody is Talking About | Robert Reich

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Now is a Great Time for All of Us

Snake-Oil-Salesman-In-Chief

Now that Sen Manchin has finally played his hand for the FOX cable commentators and their Trump zealots by announcing his nonsupport for the Build Back Better Act, it's a great time to vote on the bill.

I agree with Sen. Sanders that the Democratic leadership must move ahead in the Senate and vote on the Build Back Better Act, especially so now that the United Mine Works have made their position clear to Sen Manchin that they favor the Act. 

If the Act fails to pass the Senate, then they must go to people in an all-out campaign to elect more Democrats to the Senate in the November 2022 midterm election. A recent poll shows that many Americans favor adoption of individual components of the Act.

"There are certain parts of the bill that are very appealing to Americans, though — namely, expanded health care access. In fact, when Morning Consult/Politico asked respondents to select the five most important provisions in the bill, four of the five top issues were health care-related. For instance, the House version of the bill adds $150 billion over 10 years in funding for Medicaid home care for seniors and people with disabilities — the largest increase in funding for this program since its creation. According to Morning Consult/Politico, more registered voters said this funding was an important component of the bill than any other — and a whopping 76 percent of registered voters supported it."

"The second biggest priority in the bill per Morning Consult was allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, which 71 percent of registered voters supported. In addition, 65 percent supported more funding for affordable housing, and 75 percent supported the expansion of Medicaid to cover hearing services."

Realistically, it's hard to understand why the Democratic leadership hasn't already been playing "hardball" with the Republican Party Fascists traitors. After all, they did commit treason by assisting Mr. Trump in attempting to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States. 

Even more incredulously, is why conman Trump and his carnival barker, snake-oil-selling gang of Congressional sycophants remain free to continue to bamboozle Trumpian believers. Every day they are not behind bars grants them more time to continue foisting their outright lies and propaganda on the American public, undermining faith in our democracy and the Constitution they swore to defend.

Importantly, now is also a great time for all of us, too, because it affords the Progressive Democrats a new opportunity to demand that all the programs deleted from the original Build Back Better Plan to please Sen. Manchin, are restored, voted on, and passed by the soon to be newly empowered Democrat Party Senate majority.

Bernie Sanders' reaction to Joe Manchin's bombshell, 19 Dec 2021

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The Corporate Welfare Gluttons

 

Photo Credit: ABC News

So, you think gas prices are too high? 

Well, they are (at posting) up from $2.10/gal one year ago to $3.20/gal. 

The reason is not what your Trumpist friend and the OAN or FOX talking heads are telling you, though.

Here’s the thing… Joe Biden does not control the price of your gas. The oil companies do.

It’s a good question to ask them why they haven’t increased production just an itty-bitty bit, don’t you think? More gas, less cost at the pump for us, their customers who have been giving them a free ride for decades.

While we are all struggling to pay the rent and put food on the table, these guys raked in $174 billion in profits this past nine months alone. Jacked up gas cost at the pump amounts to an additional “tax” on all of us.

Perhaps you didn’t know, but the oil boys rank among the world’s largest recipients of U.S. corporate welfare and tax breaks, more than $470 billion since 1916, when it all started, through 2014.

According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (eesi.org), as of 29 July 2019, the oil boys were still collecting $20 billion per year in tax breaks and subsidies from us, the U.S. taxpayers.

The EESI report continues: "The United States provides a number of tax subsidies to the fossil fuel industry as a means of encouraging domestic energy production. These include both direct subsidies to corporations, as well as other tax benefits to the fossil fuel industry. Conservative estimates put U.S. direct subsidies to the fossil fuel industry at $20 billion per year; with 20 percent currently allocated to coal and 80 percent to natural gas and crude oil. European Union subsidies are estimated to total 55 billion euros annually."

Talk about welfare gluttons. The oil boys have pocketed, and continue to pocket, the treasure trove of all U.S. public funds rip-offs.

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Cancer Eradicated — Forever

 

With their attention slavishly focused on relatively insignificant “news”, neither corporate media nor the ultraright Trumpist media reported perhaps the most important breakthrough story of our lifetime – a Princeton University team of researchers, led by Prof. Yibin Kang, has discovered a new cancer therapy that, “…holds potential to switch off major cancer types without side effects.”

Cancer metastasis, growth and spread of the disease throughout the body, is the primary cause of death due to cancer — all forms of cancer. Dr. Kang’s team has found a way to combat, stop and eliminate the dreaded disease from metastasizing. 

Throughout the world cancer has killed millions. 

I have lost multiple friends and relatives due to cancer. No doubt you have, too.

Here is the story that you should have seen headlining your news a few days ago. It was published via two papers in the journal Nature Cancer.

New cancer therapy from Yibin Kang’s lab holds potential to switch off major cancer types without side effects, Liz Fuller-Wright, Office of Communications, Princeton University, 29 Nov  2021.

“Imagine you could cure cancer by targeting one tiny gene. Imagine that same gene occurred in every major cancer, including breast, prostate, lung, liver and colon. Imagine that the gene is not essential for healthy activity, so you could attack it with few or no negative side effects.”

“Cancer biologist Yibin Kang has spent more than 15 years investigating a little-known but deadly gene called MTDH, or metadherin, which enables cancer in two important ways — and which he can now disable, in mice and in human tissue, with a targeted experimental treatment that will be ready for human trials in a few years. His work appears in two papers in today’s issue of Nature Cancer.”

“You can’t find a drug target better than this: MTDH is important for most major human cancers, not important for normal cells, and it can be eliminated with no obvious side effects,” said Kang, Princeton’s Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor of Molecular Biology and one of the principal investigators of the Princeton Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

“In the two papers we are publishing back-to-back today, we identify a compound, show it is effective against cancer, and show that it is very, very effective when combined with chemotherapy and immunotherapy,” said Kang. “Even though metastatic cancers are scary, by figuring out how they work — figuring out their dependency on certain key pathways like MTDH — we can attack them and make them susceptible to treatment.”

“For years, Kang has focused on metastasis — the term for cancer’s ability to spread from one place to another in the body — because he knows that metastasis makes cancer deadly. While 99% of breast cancer patients survive five years after diagnosis, only 29% do if the cancer has metastasized, according to current numbers from the National Cancer Institute.” -more-

Go here for more breakthrough stories.

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Hungry for Credibility

 

(l-r top) Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley
(l-r bottom) Eric Sevareid, Frank Reynolds, John Chancellor

I felt secure each night when I listened to Walter Cronkite deliver the news. 

Naively, I believed he wouldn’t knowingly feed me a bunch of B.S. political propaganda dressed up in newspeak like I hear each night on FOX or even the “corporate media” today.

There were several other credible journalists back then, too. Among them: Eric Sevareid, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Frank Reynolds, and John Chancellor. They all seemed to ask inciteful questions and diligently dug for truth – the facts – and reported them.

I’m guessing, of course, but I’d bet somebody’s marbles that anyone of those guys would have covered misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, or misconduct by government officials, no matter their party affiliation. And, if a president of the United States ordered his cabinet and other administration officials to circumvent or not enforce the law of the land, they would have been all over the story and you’d certainly know about it.

Alas, our media world is dominated by ”unfair and unbalanced” rather than the attempted “fair and balanced” reporting of yesteryear.

Still, if you’re looking for credibility and “the facts,” there’s a possibility you can ferret out what might be going on for real via these resources:

ProPublica

Accountable.US

American Oversight 

Public Citizen

Campaign for Accountability

Government Information Watch 

Government Accountability Project

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Ending Impunity in Office

 

J. Edgar Hoover

The recent disclosure that the late J. Edgar Hoover, former director of the FBI, “…ordered agents to tell witnesses not to reveal that they were informants to the FBI when talking with police and prosecutors…” and to withhold evidence, underscores how some people who attain a position of power and authority abuse the peoples’ trust.

Hoover was well known for using FBI agents to compile “information” and for maintaining vast records on politicians as well as ordinary citizens throughout his 37 years as FBI Director. When it suited his purposes, he used his “information” to blackmail, extort, or intimidate to maintain his position as director or otherwise attain his will. Hoover had no fear that he would be force out because he had files on everyone. 

Hoover clearly acted with impunity. I doubt he gave a thought to serving time in prison for any of his extra-legal deeds.

He was not alone, by the way. 

While Ike's Sec. of State, John Foster Dulles and his brother, Allan Dulles, Director of the CIA, and their compadres were creating our world-wide image as what later became collectively known as, The Ugly American, at home, the CIA, under Mr. Alan Dulles, inaugurated Operation Mockingbird to subvert what little Fourth Estate remained.

In this recent case, “Manhattan judge Ellen Biben dismissed the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam, after prosecutors and the men’s lawyers said a renewed investigation found new evidence that the men were not involved with the killing and determined that authorities withheld some of what they knew.”

Malcolm X was shot to death while giving a speech in 1965. Earlier, before his trip to Mecca, Malcolm X was renown as a member of the Nation of Islam, the Black Muslim organization which Hoover infiltrated. After the Mecca trip, Malcom X began advocating for racial unity and some Black Muslims considered him a traitor.

“Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck, one of the lawyers for Aziz and for Islam’s family, said the review also found the FBI and police hid evidence from prosecutors, as what he called part of a plot to disrupt the Black civil rights movement.”

“The FBI and New York Police Department had evidence of Aziz’s and Islam’s innocence within hours but ignored and suppressed it,” said attorney, Deborah Francois.

It’s time to end, “impunity in office” by appointed and elected officials, don’t you agree?

Dad Was Right

Lies Too Big to Fail, Part I, How We Lost Our Naïveté

Lies Too Big to Fail, Part II, A Doppelganger USA is Running Amok Throughout Our World

Lies Too Big to Fail, Part III, The Time of The Great Awakening: How We Can Resurrect Our Democracy

The CIA and the Media, Carl Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 20 Oct 1977  

10 Reasons Not to Support or Vote for Republicans

 

Inestimably Precious…
“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” – Nathan Hale (21)

"Two-thirds of Republicans want Trump to retain major political role; 44% want him to run again in 2024," according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. And, according to a recent Reuters survey, "21 million Americans say Biden is ‘illegitimate’ and Trump should be restored by violence."

Rupert Murdock’s FOX “alternative facts” machine, Fox News, boasts the largest cable news audience in the U.S. More than 3 million avid fans of his chief, hate-mongering misinformation specialist, Tucker Carlson, make his cable show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, the highest-rated show on cable, according to Nielsen.

These are the real “Trump-Republican” facts at this moment in time.

So, what’s the problem?

The problem is that the above “facts” reflect not only a deluded* "Trump-Republican" supporter base but also a delusional** "Trump-Republican” universe rather than the one in which we reside.

Here are ten reasons why.

10. No Republican voted for American Rescue Plan of 2021, the $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package created to help the people of the United States recover from the devastating economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Every Republican voted against stimulus checks and unemployment benefits to help everyday Americans get back on their feet.

9. Republicans refuse tax reform to tax the wealth... even to fund the IRS...to audit the wealthy and corporations and collect tax monies owed the United States.

8. Republicans have blocked raising the minimum wage to $15/hr. That single act, passing the $15 minimum wage would drastically change life for the better for about 20% of working Americans.

7. Republicans do not support unions and have for decades actively worked to destroy the union movement which played the leading role in the creation of the American middleclass. Further, Republican support of "right to work" laws in twenty-eight states have enabled corporations to exploit their employees in a host of ways, such as: reducing or eliminating healthcare benefits; refusing cost of living pay increases; ending retirement benefits; shifting good paying jobs to low-cost countries like China, Vietnam, etc.

6. Republicans stood idle and mute when Trump rolled back child labor protections, job safety laws and eliminate overtime pay.

5. Republicans have repeatedly blocked healthcare expansion on both federal and state levels.

4. Republicans have repeatedly tried to abolish Social Security since its creation in the 1935.

3. From his first day in office Donald Trump ordered his cabinet secretaries and administration managers to commit malfeasance in office by actively sabotaging and disrupting the functions of the departments they head. 

2. Every Republican voted for Trump's tax cut for the wealthy and corporations. Some 83% of benefits of that Republican tax cut have gone and will continue to go to the richest 1% over 10 years. Corporations have used their savings to buy back their stock to boost per share prices... some fired sizable portions of their employees... none returned jobs to the U.S. or returned their overseas-hidden corporate profits back to the U.S.

1. In every state of the union and in the Congress of the United States, Republicans have repeatedly and maliciously worked to obstructed and deprived Americans of their right to vote.

Still, the most compelling reason not to support the Republican Party or any Republican running for elected office, is this fact:

Today the Trump-Republican Party is united in support of Donald Trump's 9/11 coup, which he organized and perpetrated in overthrowing the United States Constitution and the government of the United States following his 2020 election defeat. The Republican Party is actively ostracizing, unseating, or otherwise forcing from office all ten congressional republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump for his treachery.

For you, your children and grandchildren, please, give some thought to the inestimably precious nation you are surrendering by supporting Donald Trump and the Trump-Republicans.

* “Deluded” as in tricked or deceived

** “Delusional” as in believing things in spite of indisputable evidence to the contrary

Peace Train

Through God's Grace we shall have a Peace Train for all of us.

Metamorphosis

Traditionally, the Christian religion has seen
the yellow butterfly as a symbol of resurrection, a 
metamorphosis of sorts, by the Grace of God.

Now that we have withdrawn from Afghanistan, it is a good time for the United States to begin to shed our dystopian, evil doppelgänger self and like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, bloom into our full promise as described in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. 

What I am suggesting is making a small change, a baby step, away from our norm of what we have become as a nation (See: The Cost of Two U.S. Blunders https://downriverusa.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-costs-of-two-us-blunders.html) by simply assigning a meager portion of our defense budget to fund what could become a revolutionary force for good, The Humanitarian Corps.

The goal is to create a special “SWAT-like” unit to ensure our Democracy under our Constitution; fund it out of our current defense budget; and implement a FDR-New-Deal-like slate of programs to radically change the direction of our nation away from neo-fascists-oligarchy and maintain/improve the lives of all our citizens.

Here’s the idea:

Recommendation

The Humanitarian Corps. Unit Insignia

Create a new, rapid response, multi-disciplined, counter insurrection force to be activated by state governors and/or federalized by the President, under the command of the Commanding General of the National Guard. Name this unit: The Humanitarian Corps. The Humanitarian Corps. will ensure citizens civil rights and government institutions are protected under the Constitution and laws of the United States.

Situation Assessment

We nearly lost our nation to insurrectionist on 1/6. Saved because of the quick-thinking valor of a few loyalists, we came within a hair width of witnessing our vice president and members of congress strung up before our eyes on national TV. The full breath of the insurrection, the leaders, and the funding sources may soon be uncovered, but in the meantime, it is obvious we need new tools and tactics to deal with home-grown terrorism, as in this case, obviously inspired and encouraged from the highest office in our nation and by members of congress, as well. Doing nothing literally risks the loss of the Democratic Republic under the Constitution to oligarchy and fascists who have infiltrated not only our highest positions in government, but also our police departments and military.

Background

Ultra-right authoritarians, Trump cultists, Republican Party insurrectionists and white supremacists have compromised local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and elected officials to such a degree that it is unknown whether they will enforce our laws as sworn officers and protect and defend the Constitution. Who then will protect and defend us from our own law enforcement?

Sadly, what we face today is not new. During multiple incidents in the past, U.S. presidents, including Grant, Roosevelt (FDR), Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, were forced to protect citizen voting rights, life, and property, and quell potential fascist insurrection. 

However, what is new is that a sitting president of the United States and leader of one of the two established political parties, appears to have planned and encourage the January 6th insurrection of the USA. Further, to this day, he continues to organize and foster insurrection with the overt support of the Republican Party.

Humanitarian Corps 

To ensure that our democratic republic survives the next ultra-right insurrection we must modernize and expand our "tools" to protect and defend government units and defend voting rights and other civil rights of the people who are victimized by Republican disenfranchisement… those subject to police brutality; those predominantly non-white Americans who cannot depend on their local police or state or even federal law enforcement... to enforce our laws.

A solution could be creation of a specialized "Humanitarian Corps", a new type of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit, melded into the chain of command of the National Guard, under command of the U.S. military, with the mission of “quick response” to protect civil rights and our governmental institutions. 

This can be a new and unexpected tool of Democracy to counter to the Republican Party, ultra-right, Trumpian authoritarianism, one somewhat akin to the post-WWII Marshall Plan, but vastly more focused on individuals over industry and government. 

Once order under the Constitution is restored, we must go further to protect our Democratic Republic using existing resources and execute a relief plan akin to the post World War II Marshall Plan. Under this “Domestic Marshall Plan” we would provide humanitarian relief, education, and training, in situ, to the millions of unemployed, homeless, despairing, Americans who are mired in a never-ending cycle of poverty. 

We can do something different today because we have the wherewithal to profoundly change what will happen to people who are truly hurting because of Republican sponsored domestic terrorism, white supremacy, racism, and outright treason. By doing so, by taking a different path, we can stop our national free fall into fascism. 

What could comprise The Humanitarian Corps? 

Existing resources, historically activated under military command, following post-combat, including military personnel, Department of State personnel, Intelligence agencies, nonprofits, etc. will be melded under the command of the Humanitarian Corps. 

We may never be able to defeat the "powers that be – the funders of Republican treason". Still, we can help some of those left in misery due to our systemic failures. "No one left behind", includes the civilians we displace, leave to starve, and die of their wounds - wounds our system permits - e.g., unemployment, poor education, no health care, inadequate housing, poverty, etc. We have the means to change the course of history by allowing our "better angels" to come forward and do what needs to be done to ensure that our Democratic Republic survives the next coup attempts sure to come.

References and Links

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/28/neo-confederate-group-members-politicians-military-officers

Revealed: neo-Confederate group includes military officers and politicians, Jason Wilson, theguardian.com, 28 June 2021.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/matt-braynard-protest-capitol-riot_n_610c5c6be4b05f8157079a71

‘We’re Going Back To The Capitol’: Ex Trump Campaign Official Announces ‘Huge’ Protest, Mary Papenfuss, huffpost.com, 5 Aug 2021.

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000007606996/capitol-riot-trump-supporters.html

Day of Rage: An In-Depth Look at How a Mob Stormed the Capitol, Dmitriy Khavin, Haley Willis, Evan Hill, Natalie Reneau, Drew Jordan, Cora Engelbrecht, Christiaan Triebert, Stella Cooper, Malachy Browne and David Botti, thenewyorktimes.com, 30 June 2021.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/06/republicans-effort-to-deny-the-capitol-attack-is-working-and-its-dangerous

Republicans’ effort to deny the Capitol attack is working – and it’s dangerous, David Smith, thegurdian.com, 6 July 2021.

https://truthout.org/articles/cities-drop-most-charges-against-blm-protesters-as-cops-fail-to-provide-evidence/

Cities Drop Most Charges Against BLM Protesters as Cops Fail to Provide Evidence, Sharon Zhang, Truthout.org, 19 Apr 2021.

https://www.democracynow.org/2021/3/25/extremism_in_military_ranks

1 in 5 Capitol Insurrectionists Tied to U.S. Military; Soldiers “Targets” for Extremist Recruitment, Lecia Brooks, Amy Goodman, Nermeen Shaikh, democracynow.org, 25 Mar 2021.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cpac-waffen-ss-twitter-stage-matt-schlapp_n_603aee30c5b601179ebdf902

CPAC Organizer Denounces Critics Spotting What Looks Like Nazi SS Symbol On Stage, Mary Papenfuss, huffpost.com, 1 Mar 2021.

Rationale

The United States faces multiple non-traditional security threats, including pandemics (biological warfare), armed rogue “militia” groups, irregular migration, resource scarcity, climate change, and transnational crime, in addition to what has now become “traditional” warfare “hot spots” and conflicts – many seemingly everlasting – as well as a worldwide humanitarian crisis, otherwise infamously labeled, “the refugee / illegal immigrant” problem. 

With U.S. military deployed in more than 150 nations, the list of active conflicts spans nearly every continent, sapping our resources and manpower.

Obviously, non-traditional security threats, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, can also be serious threats to the stability and security of the United States. With nearly 660,000 dead, millions ill, unemployment exceeding Great Depression levels, armed rogue groups storming into state capital buildings, and a historic economic collapse now possible, no one can doubt that our national stability is seriously at risk.

Additionally, prior to COVID, millions of displaced people were forced to leave their homes during times of conflict. Nearly all are dirt poor, with no food or water, no education, and no job skills. But they all share the will to live and to be safe from the mayhem and unimaginable cruelty they experienced.

Today, because of the existing conflicts, the nations of Europe have been forced to accommodate millions of refugees, while the U.S. for the most part, has politically chosen to ignore the problem. Instead of dealing with the “mess” created on our watch, we have decided to build a wall to stem the tide of displaced people and now continue to foist COVID blame on immigrants and multiple other targets of opportunity, such as China, while dodging leadership duty, responsibility and worse, opportunity.

Equally important, repeated application of our brutal battlefield superiority in the past has also created an everlasting birthing and training ground of future enemies. 

Historically, many of these challenges are not new, save perhaps today’s high refugee number and the non-traditional security threats we face. However, recently, federal entities, such as the Dept. of Homeland Security, specifically, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, for example, have become tools of domestic “patrician politics”, mired in political dogma, and misdirected away from the rule of law under the Constitution and Congressional mandate.

What is new and within our control is the motivating acknowledgement that security and stability is not only characterized by an absence of conflict, but additionally by how we respond – integrity of command under the Constitution – plus the wherewithal (resources) employed as Congressionally directed.

Since the beginning of our nation, The United States Army command has overcome every challenge we have faced while remaining true to its commitment to duty, honor, and country first and foremost. Indeed, the fact that we have a nation today is a result of that commitment.

The following proposed solution is meant to continue in that tradition and aimed at countering newly emerging non-traditional security threats as well as enhancing our existing post-conflict humanitarian civilian support to go the long game to win hearts and minds.

Proposed Solution

Confront and overcome multiple non-traditional security threats by combining existing military and other resources under a new corps command: the U.S. Army Humanitarian Corps. 

Humanitarian Corps Mission

• Effect civil-military cooperation to prevent and overcome non-traditional security threats

• Effect global cooperation among allies and NGOs to manage and prevent non-traditional threats

• Effect a “local people first” strategy to ensure sustainable security post-warfare following “traditional conflicts”

• Establish and maintain law & order stability until civic authority is instituted following “traditional conflicts”

• Provide in situ humanitarian support until civic authority is instituted following “traditional conflicts”

• Secure borders until civic authority is instituted following “traditional conflicts”

• Begin rebuilding consistent with local culture and heritage until civic authority is instituted following “traditional conflicts”

To achieve its mission the Humanitarian Corps must deliver “no-strings-attached”, in situ humanitarian support in a vastly more individually focused way over past humanitarian support which has in many instances been directed to achieve goals in favor of a political party or corporation (s). It must include – shelter, food, water, security, training, employment, a better life tempered in consideration of local culture and customs - independent of political restrictions and abuses such as religious persecution; racial, gender, and nationality discrimination. Domestically, it must be nonpartisan, nonpolitical party. Domestically and internationally, it must be clear of quid pro quo obligations.

Summary

Using military resources for humanitarian purposes is not a new concept. Often during times of natural disasters, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc., political people mobilize military units to evacuate victims, provide medical care, transport emergency relief supplies as well as security. The military, after all, has the logistical wherewithal – the ships, planes, manpower, and the command structure at the ready. 

What is new is the newly emerging non-traditional threats which we as a nation must now confront. Creating a special corps to deal with these threats clearly demonstrates to the U.S. citizens, and our allies – in addition to our adversaries, both foreign and domestic – that we are seriously committed to confront them should the need arise.

Empowering military leadership, guided by their commitment to our Constitution, the UCMJ, and Congressionally approved international law, would be historic, free of political party dogma, and ultimately the deciding tipping-point in the long-game of winning hearts and minds as well overcoming these multiple stability and security threats. By doing so we will mitigate the challenges we confront; defend our people and our allies, as well as disarm our enemies.

The new idea here is to use our military resources in a revolutionary new way, the Humanitarian Corps. to implement social and infrastructure reforms. Funded through the defense budget and utilizing existing resources drawn from several federal government departments, the Humanitarian Corps. will become a specialized “SWAT-like” unit to first ensure our Democracy under our Constitution and, second, to implement a FDR-New-Deal-like slate of programs to radically change the direction of our nation away from becoming a neo-fascists-oligarchy and maintain/improve the lives of all our citizens.

Implementing the Humanitarian Corps. will be a critically essential step away from what we have become — a dystopian, evil doppelgänger USA —  a war mongering, monstrous, profit making machine for the few — toward our full promise as described in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. 

Background References

Policing Reform

EUGENE POLICE DEPARTMENT CRIME ANALYSIS UNIT

300 County Club Road, Eugene, OR 97401

CAHOOTS  (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) Program Analysis

CAHOOTS Brochure PDF

https://whitebirdclinic.org/cahoots/

This Town Of 170,000 Replaced Some Cops With Medics And Mental Health Workers. It’s Worked For Over 30 Years, Scottie Andrew, CNN.com, 5 July 2020.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/05/us/cahoots-replace-police-mental-health-trnd/index.html?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits

The President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing (2015)

https://cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/Publications/cops-p341-pub.pdf

Reference for Post-Combat Resources – Iraqi

Operation Iraqi Freedom

Decisive War, Elusive Peace

https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/99104601873506421

RAND_RR1214 Synopsis PDF

https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1200/RR1214/RAND_RR1214.pdf

RAND_RR1214 PDF

The RAND report identifies post-combat resources which the Army activated (or wanted to). While the whole report is worth reading, here are some specific pages to review:

Planning for the Aftermath pg 38

Chapter 8 The Aftermath: Civilian Planning Efforts and the Occupation of Iraq pgs 319-338

Chapter 10 Conclusion and Recommendation

Planning for Post-Conflict pg 375

The Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance pg 370

Humanitarian Planning pg 372

Assessing Postwar Efforts pg 380 (especially point 2 regarding interagency coordination)

The Costs of Two U.S. Blunders

Today we remember the 2,974 people who perished at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on the UA and AA flights during the 9/11 disaster, as well as the 4,343 survivors and first responders who have died in the years since due to illnesses caused by exposure to toxic dust and fumes from the site. These are the thousands of first responders, rescuers, firemen/women, police, iron workers and construction workers. (1.)

Sadly, most Americans stop there. (2.) 

We tend not to include additional major losses resulting from 9/11.

For instance, total dead, including civilians, during the Iraq war is estimated to be between 600,000 to as many as 1 million. “As of 2021, 9.2 million Iraqis are internally displaced or refugees abroad.” (3.)

In Afghanistan, "The current crisis (Sept 2021) comes on top of the 2.2 million Afghan refugees already in neighbouring countries and 3.5 million people forced to flee their homes within Afghanistan's borders." (4.)

These wars were not “paid” by increasing taxes as the Korean and Vietnam wars were. The Bush administration reduced taxes for the wealthy and borrowed to finance the wars. The approximate cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is now estimated to eventually cost American taxpayers nearly $6.5tn. That includes veteran benefits and interest payments through 2050. (5.)

Finally, who did benefit from the two wars - wars which most would say are clear blunders; entered into through outright lies; and characterized with the United States committing international war crimes?

You already know the answer: The U.S. defense contractors. (6)

"In the year to June 2020 the big five accounted for nearly a third of the $480bn obligated by the Pentagon to defense contractors." And, to ensure their cash cows, the defense industry spent, "...over $2.4bn lobbying Congress since 2001, and made direct campaign contributions to most members." (7.)

Do you really believe we are the nation spreading democracy throughout the world? I don't. The proof is clearly in the results of the past 20 years. 

In fact, we have become the opposite — a Doppelganger U.S. — selling weapons of war and seeding death and misery.

Sources

1. 20 Years Later: The Lingering Health Effects of 9/11
https://www.asbestos.com/featured-stories/9-11-lingering-health-effects/

2. Iraq: the Human Cost http://web.mit.edu/humancostiraq/

3. Iraqi Refugees https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/refugees/iraqi

4. Afghanistan: How many refugees are there and where will they go? 
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58283177

5. Americans could owe $6.5 trillion for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — and that's just the interest https://www.cbsnews.com/news/afghanistan-iraq-wars-debt-6-trillion-interest/

6. Military spending: 20 companies profiting the most from war
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/02/21/military-spending-defense-contractors-profiting-from-war-weapons-sales/39092315/

7. Where did the $5tn spent on Afghanistan and Iraq go? Here’s where 
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/11/us-afghanistan-iraq-defense-spending

You will find these articles interesting.

1. About 9/11 truth: Remembering 9/11 – 2,974 WTC Murdershttps://downriverusa.blogspot.com/2014/09/remembering-911-2974-wtc-murders.html

2. About recent American History seen from an “old guy's perspective”: Lies Too Big To Fail (Parts I, II, & III) https://downriverusa.blogspot.com/2014/08/lies-too-big-to-fail.html

3. About Kent State University and truth: When Demagogues & Incompetence Rule Innocents 
https://downriverusa.blogspot.com/2017/02/when-demagogues-incompetence-rule.html

Tomorrow's Reality… a Clock Cleaning or Rifkin's Plan

 

America 3.0, Rifkin's Plan 

It’s possible that we may witness a rare occurrence: the U.S. Senate actually doing something positive for the people of the nation, the politicians themselves, and their corporate enablers.

The Senate may adopt an infrastructure bill aimed at repairing our aged roads, bridges, water systems, even establishing, a modern electrical distribution grid and extending broadband services to poorly served areas of the nation.  We must wait and see, of course, whether Congress births another monstrosity or a beautiful thing.

After all, we have yet to learn how the billions will be spent.

Still, congressional action may finally launch infrastructure programs we can only hope that the “plan” will begin to bring us on par with the Europeans and the Chinese. Both are way ahead of us due to our inability to throw off the shackles of centuries-old carbon-based industries and Robber Baron Era Predatory Capitalism in addition to the equally failed policies of Reaganomics and Neoliberalism that all but eliminated the U.S. middleclass born of FDR’s New Deal Policies and economic protections and the post WWII economic boom.

While we were duct taping our economy together to please the oil industry people and expanding our American Empire throughout the world, plus most recently, distracted by Mr. Trump’s temper tantrums and neo-fascist fascinations, the Europeans and Chinese have moved ahead creating savvy infrastructures, new economies, to meet the challenges at hand. 

They have done this by listening to an implementing the ideas of Jeremy Rifkin, the "American economic and social theorist, writer, public speaker, political advisor, and activist". 

Yes, American. Like so many other examples from our past, our current “global” corporate executives and politicians are so secure in decades old, proven technology, as well as the unimagined wealth and the status it has brought them, that they have chosen to hang on to woefully outdated technology and refuse to act on the changes occurring before their eyes. 

One obviously similar example from our past is W. Edwards Deming, the guru of modern-day, flexible lean production systems. Deming tried and failed to get the American automotive “Big Three” to adopt his ideas. The Japanese manufacturers, however, implemented them and then cleaned the Big Three’s clocks, creating and selling vastly superior quality cars and trucks.

Mr. Rifkin’s plans are underway in Europe and China.

It’s time for the USA to catch up or watch our collective clock being cleaned once again.

The Rifkin Plan, 

America 3.0 The Resilient Society
A Smart Third Industrial Revolution Infrastructure
And The Recovery of the American Economy

Who is Making Big Bucks?

 

Ever wonder why elected "officials" from both parties are really interested in U.S. borders?

It's obviously not about refugees or the reasons desperate people are trying to get into the U.S. Certainly its never been about humanitarian issues. There is no money in that.

However, there is a great deal of money available to the "border industrial complex" of corporations to militarize our southern border.

Here's the story:

The Truth About the U.S. Border | Robert Reich, 15 June 2021

Life Gift: Creation of Zero Thermal Expansion Material

 

Super glue was an accident, too.

Along with graphene ( here and here), the creation of, "what may be one of the most thermally stable materials ever discovered", by Australian researchers may change our future for the better. Interestingly, this discovery is similar to many other great findings... it was uncovered by accident. Here's the story...

Extraordinary new material shows zero heat expansion from 4 to 1,400 K, Loz Blain, newatlas.com, 11 June 2021.

"A new material could find applications in aerospace components and medical implants."

"Australian researchers have created what may be one of the most thermally stable materials ever discovered. This new zero thermal expansion (ZTE) material made of scandium, aluminum, tungsten and oxygen did not change in volume at temperatures ranging from 4 to 1400 Kelvin (-269 to 1126 °C, -452 to 2059 °F)."

"That's a wider range of temperatures, say scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), than any other material demonstrated to date, and it could make orthorhombic Sc1.5Al0.5W3O12 (catchy name, eh?) a very handy tool for anyone engineering something that needs to work in extremely varied thermal environments."

"Examples of where this might come in handy include things like aerospace design, where components are exposed to extreme cold in space and extreme heat at launch or on re-entry. Famously, the SR-71 Blackbird was designed to expand so much at its Mach 3.4 top speed that it would liberally drizzle fuel on the runway at ground temperatures; the fuel tanks wouldn't even fully seal until they heated up. This new material stays exactly the same volume from close to absolute zero all the way up to comfortably over the heat you'd expect to get on the wing of a hypersonic aircraft traveling at Mach 5."

Please go here for more.

Advanced material has zero thermal expansion, 9 June 2021

ANSTO News

A/Prof Neeraj Sharma of UNSW and Dr Helen Maynard-Casely of ANSTO explain their research on advanced materials that does not expand or contract over a wide temperature range.

Life Gift: Sirturo, an FDA-approved TB Drug can Cause Cancer Cell "Power Failure"

 

Most likely you know someone who has passed because of cancer. I do.

All forms of cancer are my sworn enemy. The discovery described below could lead to eliminating the dreaded diseases.

Oddly, for me, the anti-TB drug Bedaquiline (Sirturo) is playing the leading role.  I had TB as a child. Please see below.

"...FDA-approved drug called Sirturo, which is used to treat tuberculosis and works by targeting this process in bacteria. In vivo animal experiments showed that the drug could target the fuel supply of these ultra-fit cancer cells and selectively create a "power failure" in them, while leaving healthy cells unharmed. This blocked 85 percent of metastasis in the animal experiments."

Tuberculosis drug causes "power failure" in ultra-fit cancer cells, Nick Lavars, 2 June 2021.

Go here for the whole story:

From the University of Salford, Greater Manchester, UK, The University of Calabria, Cosenza, Italy, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, Universitaria, Pisa, Italy.

Bedaquiline (Sirturo), an FDA-approved drug, inhibits mitochondrial ATP production and metastasis in vivo, by targeting the gamma subunit (ATP5F1C) of the ATP synthase, Marco Fiorillo, Cristian Scatena, Antonio Giuseppe Naccarato, Federica Sotgia & Michael P. Lisanti, 13 May 2021.

"Targeting ATP5F1C with Bedaquiline, an FDA-approved drug, prevents aggressive cancer cell behaviors, including spontaneous metastasis

Bedaquiline (a.k.a., Sirturo) is an FDA-approved antibiotic, that is clinically used for the treatment of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB). Originally, it was thought that Bedaquiline only affected the mycobacterial ATP-synthase, but more recent studies have indicated that Bedaquiline also potently inhibits the yeast and human mitochondrial ATP-synthase."

"As a consequence, we conclude that the gamma-subunit of the mitochondrial ATP-synthase (ATP5F1C) is a new therapeutic target, for mitigating aggressive cancer cell behaviors, including spontaneous metastasis."

Memory

Mom at Springfield Lake Sanitarium, (Edwin Shaw) near Akron, OH

Funny how memory works.

Once I had a couple of friends who could seemingly remember every detail of their childhood: toys they had… every relative… teachers… classmates… even what they wrote in kindergarten.

Me? Nothing.

Oh, there are a few scraps here and there… but nothing to make a story.

One memory does poke out every once in a while. It’s more of a photo than a real memory… you know one with dialogue and people attached to it.

No, this one is only a snapshot memory.

In it I see my mother waving at us as we drive away… me in the backseat, looking out the rear window. She was standing on a balcony, a screened-in porch, waving goodbye.

Today I know that my mom was a nurse. That she somehow contacted Tuberculosis (TB) and was confined to the Springfield Lake Sanitarium, near Akron, OH, when I was a little boy. I don’t know for how long.

I do know that attached to that snapshot is a feeling of sadness and loss. Fear, actually… that I’ll never see her again.

Like other repressed memories, perhaps one day, I’ll remember more.

But, today, my mind will only let me recall that young woman, waving as we drove from the grounds.

Today A Gift... Beau Dermott Defying Gravity

Today I waned to post something inspiring. Why? 

We so desperately need inspiration and we need to follow our own instincts today more than any other time in our lives.

I found 12-year old Beau Dermott singing, Defying Gravity from my favorite Broadway show: Wicked.

A Young Shy Girl Walks On Stage, but within Seconds Everyone’s Jaw Hit The Floor

"12-year old Beau Dermott blows Amanda away with her impressive cover of Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked with the Judge reaching for that all-important Golden Buzzer!"

"12-year-old Beau Dermott looks sweet and innocent, but the moment she began singing the audience was floored. Hidden inside this adorable young girl is a voice so powerful that the entire room hung on her every word throughout the whole song “Defying Gravity” from the popular musical Wicked. Throughout the audience, jaws dropped, eyes popped open as wide as humanly possible, and the judges were all just waiting for the opportunity to reward her with something huge."

"Her talent at such a young age shocked everyone, but beyond that, her performance was itself flawless the way she added an extra special touch to the song. She lit up with animation and excitement, showing that singing is what she is most passionate about."

"She received the golden buzzer, and just wait until you see the excitement that follows. AMAZIN!"

COVID-19 Origin Truth Matters

 

COVID-19 is a Wuhan, China lab created virus. 

It was funded through a grant by the National Institute of Health to the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab in China and presided over by Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance (New York, NY). He is the same Dr. Daszak who wrote the prestigious Lancet article declaring the virus was natural in origin. He was also a member of the World Health Organization commission which was tasked to go to China (members had to be acceptable to the Chinese government) and determine the origin of the COVID-19 virus.

A clear conflict of interest, don’t you agree? And a clear cover up, too.

The COVID-19 source does matter. 

Literally, the future of humanity depends upon it. How many more millions will die because we have permitted “gain-of-function” or virus weaponization to continue?

I posted about "gain of function" and the origin of the virus on 10 March 2020, Why Are They Killing Us?

Please read the article. (Note: My source interview has now been banned by YouTube. So, I now cite a  BitCHUTE posting of the same interview.)

Here’s the story:

Nicholas Wade: the case for the Covid lab-leak theory, 20 May 2021

It’s Your Soul and Our Nation Sen. Manchin

 

Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) at a Feb. 24 Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing on the nomination of Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) to be Interior secretary. (Leigh Vogel/AP)

Now that senate Republicans have blocked the creation of a bipartisan commission to study the 9 Jan Republican-led, traitorous insurrection to overthrow the government of the United States, what is next for you, Sen. Joe Manchin III (W. Va.))?

Will you continue to be a “useful idiot” for the Republicans by not supporting the end of the filibuster?

If not, you sir and your college, Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), will become personally responsible for enabling the continued rape of the people of the United States by the Trump Republicans. 

On your shoulders, sir, rests our heritage of sacrifice and valor against oppression, Fascism, and oligarchy. 

Since 1776, our ancestors shed heir blood for our American Democratic Republic under our Constitution, securing our natural rights and knowing in their heart-of-hearts that no one is above the rule of law. 

Are you a man worthy of our past national heroes? The thousand who sacrificed their lives for freedom? Will you surrender our national heritage to these soulless, brainless, thugs who would cut their mother’s heart out for Donald Trump?  Or, for what else? The equivalent of 30 pieces of Republican silver?

It is your soul and our nation Sen. Manchin.

Join the Democratic Party effort to end the senate filibuster.

Save our nation.

Joe Manchin comes out with jaw-dropping response to Republican obstruction
Brian Tyler Cohen, 27 May 2021

What is Your Congressperson Doing for You?

Is your Congressperson working this hard for you, too?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Justice for Our Children

 

Sculptor George Segal and his sculpture in memory of students slain and wounded at Kent State by Ohio National Guardsmen, entitled: In Memory of May 4, 1970: Kent State-Abraham and Isaac.

“Is dissent a crime?”, asked Arthur Krause, the father of 19-year-old Allison Krause, one of the slain KSU students. “Is this such a reason for killing her? Have we come to such a state in this country that a young girl has to be shot because she disagrees deeply with the actions of her government?”

Fifty-one years ago, four Kent State University students were murdered, and nine others wounded by a tsunami of incompetent leadership and bigoted politics. Back then, as today, the people of the USA were wrapped up in a cultural straight jacket of disdain and intolerance for their own youth.

“KSU was in chaos on 4 May 1970, because Ohio Gov. James Rhodes came to campus the day before. In a press conference he unleashed a tirade against the students, calling them “worse than the brown shirts and the communist element and also the nightriders and the vigilantes … They’re the worst type of people that we harbor in America, he continued. I think that we’re up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America.”

“Then he stated that he would get a court injunction banning future protests and left the impression that something like martial law had been declared. Then he departed the KSU campus.”

“Rhodes actually did neither. But, the Guardsmen and their officers, the university administration and the student protesters did not know that. Rhodes did accomplish inciting Guardsmen and the general public against the students and muddling the "chain of command" so that no one really knew who was in charge.”

“That night, Sunday, 3 May, students confronted Guardsmen demanding that the Guard leave their campus. Several students taunted the Guard and were bayoneted.”

“The previous Friday, 1 May, KSU students and students at other universities, such as Yale, protested President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia and the expansion of the war in Vietnam.”

Please go here for the whole Kent State Massacre story:

When Demagogues & Incompetence Rule Innocents Die, DownriverUSA, 24 Feb 2017

https://downriverusa.blogspot.com/2017/02/when-demagogues-incompetence-rule.html

Silently Sacrificing our Children, DownriverUSA, 19 Feb 2018

https://downriverusa.blogspot.com/2018/02/silently-sacrificing-our-children.html

Closure, DownriverUSA, 3 May 2020

https://downriverusa.blogspot.com/2020/05/closure.html

Here We Are Again - 50 Years Later, DownriverUSA, 29 May 2020

https://downriverusa.blogspot.com/2020/05/here-we-are-again-50-years-later.html

Why the Kent State Massacre Matters Today

In the Trumpian era of “alternative facts” and demagoguery we are ever slipping and sliding deeper and deeper into our own Fascist-American quicksand where our leaders mislead, confuse issues and make up “facts” to feed their narcissistic addiction and never-sated power and wealth appetite.

Kent State continues to offer lessons for us today… lessons we continue to disregard.

The KSU administration has still not accepted sculptor George Segal’s, In Memory of May 4, 1970: Kent State - Abraham and Isaac. A work of art they commissioned.

Segal’s sculpture is a contemporary version of Abraham and Isaac “in an allegory for the May 4, 1970, tragedy at Kent State University. A poignant visualization of humankind's struggle between ideology and paternal love, it mirrors the conflict that led to the death of four students at the hands of the Ohio National Guard.”

In other words Segal is mirroring our willingness to sacrifice our own children to our gods, whoever or whatever they are. I fear many will continue the practice, still cheerfully following the whims of our past president.

After commissioning it in 1977, Kent State refused the sculpture in 1977, saying that it “depicted violence”.

Violence, indeed. That, after all, is still what we are all about.

In Memory of May 4, 1970: Kent State - Abraham and Isaac is now on display outside of the Princeton University Chapel as part of the John B. Putnam Jr. Memorial Collection, funded by a partial gift of the Mildred Andrews Fund.

Please go here for Paul Keane’s* illuminating and thoughtprovoking words about Segal’s Abraham and Isaac.

*Paul D. Keane, Teacher, M.A. (1972, Kent State University), M.Div. (Divinity School, Yale University) and M.Ed. recently passed. He taught English at Whitcomb High School and Hartford High School, Connecticut.

Protecting Us from Our Police

"Helping Hand" insignia, US Army Humanitarian Corps.

Each day we learn that more American citizens have been murdered by our police. We must put a stop to this carnage by reforming policing in the United States. I have discussed this on DownriverUSA several times. Here are two posts:

Policing Reform – Today – 23 Apr 2021

and

When Protectors Become Gangsters - 26 June 2020

What Has Been Done?

CAHOOTS

One successful local community policing reform program is aimed at improving community policing by reducing police shootings and beatings of citizens. It has been in operation for over 30 years in Eugene, Oregon. 

Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets (CAHOOTS). CAHOOTS works for citizens and for local government by reducing police brutality while also saving the city about, “$8.5 million in public safety costs every year, plus another $14 million in ambulance trips and ER costs”.

Basically, CAHOOTS created a response unit comprised of medical personnel from a local medical facility, most likely a hospital, which is dispatched by the local police dispatcher, to deal with nonviolent/non-sworn-officer-required 911 calls, such as, “unsheltered people or those with mental health issues”.

As Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner explained, "We need to get law enforcement professionals back to doing the core mission of protecting communities and enforcing the law, and then match resources with other services like behavioral health -- all those things we tend to lump on the plate of law enforcement."

Psychological Standard Test

Some federal authority must oversee, license, require continuing education and psychological testing for police officers throughout the U.S. That oversight must also include ICE, FBI, alcohol and drug enforcement, U.S. Marshalls, etc. – police officers at all levels of government - anyone authorized to wear a badge and carry a gun. Please see: Outraged Yet? - 13 Apr 2021.

Universal Body and Dash Cams

Every American ciizen must wear a body cam and mount an in-vehicle dash cam. Cams are inexpensive and nearly ubiquitous now. Video and audio records will offer some proof of deadly encounters with police.

Who Will Protect Us from Ultra-Right Policing Abuses? – The Humanitarian Corps

The recent CPAC conference clearly displayed a brazen neo-Nazi connection that should alarm all Americans. 

Obviously, we need a new way to deal with domestic terrorism, white supremacy, and disinformation i.e., treason, fostered by the emergent, Trump-controlled, ultra-right wing Republican Party.

Who Will Protect Us from Ultra-Right Policing Abuses? 

We must create a "Humanitarian Corps", a new type of Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) unit of the National Guard, under command of the U.S. military, with the mission of “quick response” to protect and defend government units and the people who are victimized by Republican disenfranchisement… those subject to police brutality; those predominantly non-white Americans who cannot depend on their local police or state or even federal law enforcement, to be treated with common decency under the law; and those victimized by our for-profit prison system.

An additional mission would be providing humanitarian relief, education, and training, in situ, to the millions of unemployed, homeless, despairing, Americans who are mired in a never-ending cycle of poverty. Consider this a new form of FDR’s CCC-style employment programs, akin to an updated “Domestic Marshall Plan”.

As a past service person, I have faith that our military command will get the job done forthwith, in an efficient and evenhanded manner, under the Constitution, under Congressional oversight, using the equipment, personnel and material, as approved by Congress.

Through the Humanitarian Corps, funded under the existing Dept. of Defense budget, we may steer the course of America away from unending inhumanity to itself and toward a more humane world – for all of us.

Using some military resources for humanitarian purposes is not a new concept. Often during times of natural disasters, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc., political people mobilize military units to evacuate victims, provide medical care, transport emergency relief supplies as well as security.

The military, after all, has ships, planes, manpower, and the command structure at the ready. All that is required is the order to spring into action and get the job done.

What could comprise The Humanitarian Corps? 

Answer: existing resources, historically activated under military command, following post-combat, including military personnel, Department of State personnel, Intelligence agencies, nonprofits, etc. 

We may never be able to defeat the "powers that be – the funders of Republican treason". Still, we can help some of those left in misery due to our systemic failures. For me, "No one left behind", includes the civilians we displace, leave to starve, and die of their wounds - wounds our system permits - e.g., unemployment, poor education, no health care, inadequate housing, poverty, etc. We have the means to change the course of history by allowing our "better angels" to come forward and do what needs to be done to ensure that our Democratic Republic survives the next coup attempts sure to come.

We can do something different today because we have the wherewithal to profoundly change what will happen to people who are truly hurting because of Republican sponsored domestic terrorism, white supremacy, racism, and outright treason. By doing so, by taking a different path, we can stop our national free fall into fascism. 

This can be a new and unexpected counter to the Republican Party, ultra-right, Trumpian authoritarianism, one somewhat akin to the post-WWII Marshall Plan, but vastly more focused on individuals over industry and government. 

We can do this by creating a solution: The Humanitarian Corps.

To help move us forward, the concept below is an excellent step… A federally-funded, Police Holster Sensor and Use Report

Let's talk about a plan and a wish for changing law enforcement....
Beau of the Fifth Column - 25 Apr 2021