Talia Lavin, whose tweet about a Pasco veteran’s tattoo implied he was a Nazi, has apologized to him and resigned from her position as a fact-checker at the New Yorker magazine.
But in another tweet, Thursday evening, Lavin also lashed out at the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, saying it unfairly targeted her in its own tweet about combat-wounded veteran Justin Gaertner.
“This has been a wild and difficult week,” Lavin said in the tweet. “I owe ICE agent Justin Gaertner a sincere apology for spreading an rumor about his tattoo. However, I do not think it is acceptable for a federal agency to target a private citizen for a good faith, hastily rectified error.” . . .
Lavin, 28, of Brooklyn, said she was unfairly targeted by ICE because her former publication has been critical of the agency, caught up debate over the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from families illegally entering the United States — a policy enforced by ICE.
“I wasn’t the genesis of this rumor; there are tweets still up with tens of thousands of likes explicitly calling the tattoo ‘Nazi,’” Lavin said in a message to the Tampa Bay Times. “My own tweet was responsive to extant scrutiny, and I deleted it and issued a correction within 15 minutes, long before ICE could have been aware of it. I was targeted because I was part of a news organization critical of ICE.” (Read more from “Left-Wing Magazine Fact-Checker Falsely Implies Vet Is a Nazi – Check What Just Happened to Her ‘Career'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/30047404302_fca26b95cf_b.jpg7681024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2018-06-22 20:58:412018-06-30 22:33:58Left-Wing Magazine Fact-Checker Falsely Implies Vet Is a Nazi – Check What Just Happened to Her ‘Career’
Fair warning, this is one of the hardest videos you will ever watch.
The video, which was only recently released, shows an alarming lack of regard for human life, especially in a healthcare setting specifically tasked with helping preserve it. “In 43 years in nursing, I have never seen such disregard for human life in a healthcare setting, is what I witnessed,” retired nursing professor Elaine Harris told reporters. after watching the video.
The man, 89-year-old James Dempsey, is not just any man. He’s a World War II veteran who risked his life to fight the evil of all evils in what is likely the most important, consequential, world event of our time. If it weren’t for people like Dempsey, the world could be a very, very different place today.
Back in 2014, Dempsey was under the care of Northeast Atlanta Health and Rehabilitation, when he began struggling to breathe. Gasping for air and fighting through pain, Dempsey cries out for help at least six times, as captured on a hidden video camera that the nurses clearly were unaware of.
“Help me! Help me! I can’t breathe!” Dempsey can be heard calling out, while the nurses ignore the call light for an agonizing stretch of time. But it gets even worse, as when nurses finally do arrive on the scene and have trouble fumbling around with the oxygen machine, they begin laughing. A family is literally trusting this facility to watch over their loved one and give them the best care possible, and instead they received a mockery of human life. (Read more from “‘Help Me! Help Me! I Can’t Breathe!’: Newly Uncovered Video Shows Nurses Laugh as Dying WWII Vet Desperately Calls for Help” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/2632603962_58ec04df47_z.jpg378500Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-11-16 23:55:502017-11-19 02:10:35‘Help Me! Help Me! I Can’t Breathe!’: Newly Uncovered Video Shows Nurses Laugh as Dying WWII Vet Desperately Calls for Help
A veteran is using his personal experiences to battle both physician-assisted suicide and terminal brain cancer to protect other patients.
“In 2014, when I was diagnosed with a terminal form of brain cancer, the doctors gave me four months to live. They basically told me to go home and enjoy the time I had left,” J.J. Hanson said in a Facebook Live interview with The Daily Signal.
Hanson, a former Marine, said physician-assisted suicide exploits patients’ natural depressive states, something he is familiar with.
“In 2014, when I was diagnosed with a terminal form of brain cancer, the doctors gave me four months to live. They basically told me to go home and enjoy the time I had left,” he said in the video interview.
Hanson defied his initial prognosis and is now president of the Patients’ Rights Action Fund, which works to prevent expansion of assisted suicide.
Hanson said physician-assisted suicide entices insurance companies to deny coverage for treatment of terminal illness and instead offer coverage for assisted suicide.
“People who are making end-of-life decisions have basically been told ‘We’re not going to give you what you’d like to get, but we will give you assisted suicide,’ which is very scary for someone like myself,” he said.
In one case, Stephanie Packer of Orange, California, was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, scleroderma, as documented in a film produced by the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. This disease targeted Packer’s lungs and caused pulmonary fibrosis, or lung tissue scarring that leads to breathing difficulty. Her prognosis was terminal.
Packer said she requested coverage for less-toxic chemotherapy recommended by doctors, but was denied a week after assisted suicide was legalized in her home state. She said her insurance company confirmed it would cover the cost of assisted suicide.
“It was just like someone hit me in the gut. In front of me, I had all the validation that my fears were correct,” Packer says in the film.
Hanson emphasized that a suicide option dangerously influences the natural depressive cycles of someone who is terminally ill. During his cancer treatment, he said, he entertained suicidal thoughts for two days.
“If I had made that decision in that two days, you can’t undo that,” he said.
Major depression may impact as many as 77 percent of terminally ill patients, according to the National Institutes of Health. Depression commonly induces suicidal thoughts and tendencies, the Mayo Clinic notes.
Hanson’s wife, Kristen, said short discussions can have significant effects on those who are hesitant to take a stand on physician-assisted suicide.
“It’s really not about offering more choices. It takes choices away from patients like J.J. who want to fight,” she said.
Hanson said his cancer returned and he continues to undergo immunotherapy, but believes he has made significant improvement three years after his diagnosis. Only 10 percent of glioblastoma patients live beyond this time frame.
“A month ago, I couldn’t make it down here to have this conversation,” Hanson said. “A month later, we’re sitting here. … That gives us a lot of hope that we can continue to move forward and beat this disease.” (For more from the author of “Why This Veteran With Terminal Brain Cancer Opposes Legalizing Assisted Suicide” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/syringe-with-a-needle-1467187457LBu.jpg12801920Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-08-11 23:00:122017-08-11 23:00:12Why This Veteran With Terminal Brain Cancer Opposes Legalizing Assisted Suicide
A 92-year-old North Carolina man has finally received the Purple Heart he earned more than 70 years ago while fighting in Belgium during World War II.
Oscar Davis Jr. was a private assigned as a radio telephone operator when he was knocked down by a large piece of shrapnel during the Battle of the Bulge, according to a Fayetteville Observer report . The radio on Davis’ back protected him, but the German artillery barrage knocked down a tree that fell on Davis, injuring his spine.
He was paralyzed from the waist down for three weeks and ultimately rejoined his unit in Germany. (Read more from “92-Year-Old NC Man Receives Purple Heart Earned in WWII” HERE)
The Department of Veterans Affairs’ crisis hot line didn’t answer up to 30 percent of texts from desperate veterans, according to a new government watchdog investigation.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report Monday, which found that “tests of text messages revealed a potential area of concern.”
The crisis hotline received 13,000 texts in 2014 and 16,000 in 2015. To test whether the VA was actually responding to veterans in serious need, GAO sent a series of test text messages to the hotline. Out of a total of 14 messages sent, four were ignored.
That’s an ignore rate of 28.6 percent.
Of the other 10 texts, eight were answered in two minutes. The other two received answers in just under five minutes.
The VA gave several reasons as to why some messages were ignored, one of which was that there was an incompatibility between the device used to send the message and the VA’s message receiving software. Another possible reason was that there were too many incoming texts at the same time.
Yet, it’s unclear exactly what went wrong and whether the text messages ignored were due to technical errors or a simple failure of staff to respond.
The text messaging service the VA has contracted does not routinely test the system.
“Without routinely testing its text messaging system, or ensuring that its provider tests the system, VA cannot ensure that it is identifying limitations with its text messaging service and resolving them to provide consistent, reliable service to veterans,” the GAO said.
The VA did not dispute this recommendation and wholeheartedly agreed.
The text message GAO report came after a similar report in February, which discovered that nearly two dozen people who called the VA crisis hotline were sent straight to voicemail.
Staff at the time didn’t even know the VA had a voicemail messaging system, and so they did not return the calls of these desperate vets. (For more from the author of “VA Ignored 30 Percent of Text Messages Sent to Suicide Crisis Hotline” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/17468693762_8b792bb277_b.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-28 23:59:532016-06-28 23:59:53VA Ignored 30 Percent of Text Messages Sent to Suicide Crisis Hotline
By Sarah Westwood. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald on Monday compared the length of time veterans wait to receive health care at the VA to the length of time people wait for rides at Disneyland, and said his agency shouldn’t use wait times as a measure of success because Disney doesn’t either.
“When you got to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line? Or what’s important? What’s important is, what’s your satisfaction with the experience?” McDonald said Monday during a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with reporters. “And what I would like to move to, eventually, is that kind of measure.”
McDonald’s comments angered House Speaker Paul Ryan, who tweeted out Monday afternoon, “This is not make-believe, Mr. Secretary. Veterans have died waiting in those lines.”
This is not make-believe, Mr. Secretary. Veterans have died waiting in those lines. https://t.co/OxfT3AYzTi
McDonald faced questions at the breakfast about the VA’s lack of transparency surrounding how long veterans must wait to receive care at VA facilities around the country. The agency has weathered controversy over the past several years due to its struggle to provide timely care for many patients. (Read more from “VA Secretary: Disney Doesn’t Measure Wait Times, so Why Should VA?” HERE)
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Dying Vietnam Vet Asks for Final Meeting With Beloved Horses Outside Hospital
By Fox News. Vietnam veteran Roberto Gonzalez’s final wish was granted Saturday when he was reunited with his beloved horses — Ringo and Sugar — outside of a Texas VA hospital.
Gonzalez, of Premont, Texas, who was shot and paralyzed during the war, was wheeled outside the front doors of Audie Murphy Veterans Hospital in San Antonio where he was greeted by the horses he had raised for decades, mySA.com reported.
Gonzalez, who was one of the hospital’s first patients when it opened in 1974, had asked his family to see his horses one last time. The family passed along the request to hospital staff who gladly obliged. Ringo and Sugar then made the 150-mile trip to the hospital to see him.
“Horses are his life,” his wife, Rosario Gonzalez, told KABB. “We’ve been training and raising horses for 30, 40 years.”
The South Texas Veterans Health Care System posted a photo of the meeting on its Facebook page on Sunday, calling Gonzalez a great American and identifying him as one of the first patients at the hospital. (Read more from “Dying Vietnam Vet Asks for Final Meeting With Beloved Horses Outside Hospital” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/SmallWorldTokyo.jpg8451126Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-05-23 22:27:372016-05-24 01:26:35VA Secretary: Disney Doesn’t Measure Wait Times, so Why Should VA?
America’s oldest veteran Richard Overton celebrated his 110th birthday with family and friends on Wednesday, saying “I don’t think about dying… I just think about living.” Maybe that’s the secret recipe to long life.
Overton, of Austin, Texas, fought in the 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion in World War II, and served as a corporal in Hawaii, Guam and Iwo Jima.
“I feel good. A little old, but I’m getting around like everybody else,” Overton told NBC News on Wednesday by phone from the same Austin house he’s lived in since he returned from the war. He paid $4,000 for it.
His tips for longevity are far from traditional: He chain-smokes cigars, insists on a splash of whiskey in his morning coffee, and enjoys a steady diet of fried catfish and butter pecan ice cream, he told TODAY two years ago.
While Overton has been surrounded by the spotlight in recent years receiving media attention, awards, and visits from politicians, it never fazes him.
After meeting former Gov. Rick Perry on his 106th birthday he said of Perry, “He’s human, ain’t he?”
You can watch their meeting here. Overton has also met President Barack Obama when he had breakfast at the White House 3 years ago. (For more from the author of “Meet Richard Overton: He’s America’s Oldest Veteran and He Turned 110 Today” please click HERE)
A homeless veteran from Philadelphia who was beaten into a comatose state in April died on Nov. 25.
According to NBC Philadelphia, a security camera showed a vehicle driving up to a Sunoco gas station during the April 7 incident. Six women and children attacked the man using a hammer, Mace and part of a rocking chair (video below).
Barnes was in a comatose state following the attack and 40 percent of his skull was removed. Diane Barnes, Robert’s sister, said he eventually opened his eyes, but was in a vegetative state . . .
He suffered from alcoholism and chose to be homeless instead of staying sober in order to live with family members, according to Diane . . .
According to the Philadelphia Media Network, Aleathea Gillard, 34, Shareena Joachim, 23, and Kaisha Duggins, 24, were charged with aggravated assault, attempted murder and conspiracy, among other crimes. The three children involved, two of whom were one of the adult attacker’s children, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and conspiracy charges in June 2015. All were sentenced to juvenile detention centers. (Read more from “Homeless Veteran Who Was Beaten Into Comatose State Has Died” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-11-29 01:42:332016-04-11 10:55:40Homeless Veteran Who Was Beaten Into Comatose State Has Died [+video]
Sixteen children and a handful of their mothers found the only door to their library room blocked by a man who held hunting knives in each hand as he screamed, “I’m going to kill some people!”
Dustin Brown, 19, specifically wanted to kill children Tuesday at Morton Public Library, he said after the would-be victims escaped safely.
Had he brought a firearm instead, “It would’ve been a different story,” James Vernon said Thursday . . .
Blood was shed, but mostly Vernon’s, because the retired chess club teacher kept his cool, gave his class an avenue of flight and remembered the knife-fight training the Army gave him five decades ago.
Vernon, 75, won his “90 seconds of combat” with Brown, “but I felt like I lost the war,” he chuckled. He cut two arteries and a tendon on Vernon’s left hand as Vernon blocked Brown’s knife swipe. (Read more from “75-Year-Old Vet Saves 16 Children From Knife Attack” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-16 23:48:272016-04-11 10:57:1575-Year-Old Vet Saves 16 Children From Knife Attack
By Michael Warren. A new ad from the group Veterans Against the Deal features retired Army staff sergeant Robert Bartlett, who in 2005 was badly injured while serving in Iraq. The supplier of the bomb that “cut me in half, from the left corner of my temple to through my jaw” was the regime in Iran. In the ad, Bartlett urges Americans to tell their senators to vote against the proposed nuclear deal with Iran . . .
Watch the 60-second ad below:
(Read more from “Iraq Vets Release Urgent Message: Do Not Let Your Senators Pass Iran Deal” HERE)
By Josh Rogin. A group of Iraq war veterans is launching a million-dollar effort to oppose President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, trying to counter the president’s argument that those who are against the deal are in favor of war.
Obama has said recently that there are only two camps: those who support the deal versus those who would prefer a bloody and costly war like the conflict in Iraq. The new ad campaign complicates that, asserting that the deal itself will lead to more war. And the voices putting forth that case do not prefer war; they are soldiers who have had enough of it.
The group, Veterans Against the Deal, was founded last month as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, and it does not disclose its donors. Its national campaign starts today, including television ads in states whose members of Congress are undecided on the Iran deal. Lawmakers will vote on it in September.
The first of the group’s videos features retired staff sergeant Robert Bartlett, who was badly injured by an Iranian bomb while serving in Iraq in 2005. “Every politician who is involved in this will be held accountable, they will have blood on their hands,” he says in the ad. “A vote for this deal means more money for Iranian terrorism. What do you think they are going to do when they get more money?”
The first ad will go up in Montana, aimed at Democratic Senator Jon Tester. Subsequent ads will air in North Dakota, West Virginia and elsewhere. The group will also send veterans to speak at events in key states. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-08-11 00:30:212015-08-11 00:30:21Iraq Vets Release Urgent Message: Do Not Let Your Senators Pass Iran Deal [+video]
