Senator McConnell just made the case for his own expulsion

It seems that Senator McConnell is prepared to protect and defend the President over the duty of the Senate to protect and defend the Constitution.

McConnell, then the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, made it clear he thought the Constitution required the Senate to hold a full trial on the articles of impeachment Clinton was facing for perjury and obstruction of justice, culminating in a vote on whether to convict or acquit the president.

Why should the rules and laws of this nation matter to him now?

McConnell told NBC’s Tim Russert in December 1998 that the Senate had a “constitutional obligation to commence the trial” but that the trial should be short.

Listen to his own words

It seems as if most Americans find McConnell's attitude toward holding this president accountable very troubling.

Fox News Poll: Trump job approval ticks up, views on impeachment steady

The poll, conducted Sunday through Wednesday, also finds 50 percent want Trump impeached and removed from office, 4 percent say impeached but not removed, and 41 percent oppose impeaching him altogether.

You read that right. Half of the American people not only want President Trump impeached...they want him gone from office.

I listened to a lot of the hearings but while the Democrats arrived with facts and experts, the Republicans arrived ready to do battle loaded with BS and insulted the intelligence of the American people.

Defending the President is one thing if he bothered to participate, or even show the process enough respect to turn over evidence that was required. So far, he has denied the American people the right to know the evidence against him, as much as he has denied us the right to see what would support his claims.

It is however, worse that McConnell is OK with all of that now! President Trump has been accused of terrible things and justice demands a fair trial, not someone like McConnell in opposition to what the Founding Fathers put in place so that no one would ever assume the office of the President allows them to be above the law!

The United States Constitution gives the Senate the power to expel any member by a two-thirds vote. This is distinct from the power over impeachment trials and convictions that the Senate has over executive and judicial federal officials. The Senate concluded in 1798 that senators could not be impeached, but only expelled, while conducting the impeachment trial of William Blount, who had already been expelled.

I stayed out of this for too long because I believed that Trump would get a fair trail but when the ones putting him on trial are already saying they are "coordinating with the President" it is time for all of us to speak up!

A homeless war veteran 'took his own life' after feeling 'lost' in the UK

Homeless war veteran, 29, 'took his own life' after feeling 'lost' when he left the Army and spending a year 'sofa surfing' with friends

Daily Mail
By LUKE ANDREWS FOR MAILONLINE
December 2019

Wayne Green, 29, was found dead in a friend's flat after receiving 'no help'
He was discharged four months into training for the Duke of Lancaster regiment
Heartbroken father Wayne Snr, 52, said it had been his dream to join the army
A homeless war veteran 'took his own life' after feeling 'lost' when he left the Army and spending a year 'sofa surfing' with friends.

Wayne Green, 29, from Bolton, 'received no help' from the army after he was discharged four months into his training for the Duke of Lancaster regiment in Catterick, near Darlington.

His heartbroken father Wayne Snr, 52, said his son was putting up pylons before realising his dream of joining the armed forces in 2017.

Wayne Green, 29, from Bolton, was found dead at a friend's flat after receiving 'no help' from the armed forces

Mr Green's body was found at a friend's flat last month. An inquest is set for June next year.

Wayne's father told The Sunday Mirror that after his son came back from the army, it was as though he could not 'accept he'd left'.

As many as 35,000 veterans could be homeless this Christmas.
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If you are right, giving up is wrong

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
December 15, 2019

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” ―Dale Carnegie

When you know you are right about something, you fight to prove it. You do not give up on what is important to you. At least that is the way it is supposed to work, but sometimes, no matter how hard or how long you try, fighting can drain whatever hope you have left. But fighting is what keeps us moving forward.

When I moved to New Hampshire, I brought a truckload of misery with me. I did not notice I packed every rotten thing that happened there 1,600 miles away.
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Leavenworth VA Hospital sexually molested veterans win in court

U.S. Pays $7 Million To Veterans Who Were Sexually Molested At The Leavenworth VA Hospital

KMUW News
By DAN MARGOLIES
DEC 13, 2019

Dan Curry, a Kansas City lawyer who represented the veterans, said the $6.97 million settlement has been apportioned among the 82 plaintiffs. A former Jackson County judge, Jay Daugherty, determined how much each veteran received.

Eighty-two veterans who were sexually abused by a former physician assistant at the VA hospital in Leavenworth have settled their lawsuits against the government for nearly $7 million.

One of his earliest victims committed suicide not long after the VA police interviewed him about Mark Wisner. This was years before Wisner physically assaulted more than 90 veterans. Someone needed to connect the dots.”

Mark Wisner was convicted of sexual battery and sexual assault. CREDIT ATCHISON COUNTY DETENTION CENTER

The physician assistant, Mark Wisner, was convicted in 2017 of aggravated sexual battery and aggravated criminal sodomy and sentenced to 15 years and seven months in prison.

At his jury trial, four former patients at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center testified that Wisner had groped and molested them while giving them physical exams.

Dozens of lawsuits filed by his victims alleged the U.S. government, which operates the VA hospital, knew or should have known that Wisner was a danger to patients, had a history of providing improper medical care and had previously victimized patients.

One of those lawsuits said Wisner had been convicted of a sex-related crime in 1987 and had been reported for sexually inappropriate conduct by a Kansas nurse in 1999. It also said he was the subject of complaints by VA patients in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
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PTSD and Courts

CLEVELAND, Ohio

(WOIO) - After more than a year of fighting for PTSD to be recognized for EMS crews like it already is for police and fire, a judge just ruled in the union’s favor.
So it went to a higher court, and Judge Michael Russo just ruled that mental health can be considered an injury, allowing Cleveland EMS workers to take paid leave in “certain qualifying events.”

ST LOUIS, Mo.

A St. Louis Army veteran who served in combat and suffers from PTSD said he is being forced out of his home for using prescribed medical marijuana.
Torrence Morris said his landlord is evicting him from The Tower at OPOP Apartments downtown. Morris said the situation started when he had a new neighbor move in next to him who started complaining about the smell of cannabis. He said he offered to start cooking edibles instead but said the neighbor was still upset about the situation.
Morris served active duty in the Army and later deployed to Iraq with the Missouri National Guard.

Military suicide research shows suicides increased during Wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan

Historic data on military suicide shows no clear link with combat operations

Military Times
Leo Shane
December 13, 2019

The results show an increase in suicide rates among soldiers during the Vietnam War and the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but decreases during the U.S. Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II and the Korean War.

Contrary to public assumptions, increased combat operations do not lead to more military suicides and may actually result in fewer troops engaging in self-harm, according to a new analysis of historic Defense Department data released Friday.

Study authors say their findings provide both a reminder that the motivations behind suicide aren’t singular, simple factors, and an alert to other researchers that more data on the problem is available than they may know about.

The study tracks Army suicide data from the 1840s to today. Dr. Christopher Frueh, a professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii and one of the study’s authors, said researchers spent the last four years combing through Army medical records to find the information.

“Before we started, we didn’t know if the data would be there,” he said.

What they found was a trove of reports, including from the Army Surgeon General as far back as 1843 that included accounting of “self-inflicted” deaths in the ranks. By the early 1900s, those suicides were clearly delineated in official service figures, allowing researchers to analyze the death totals across different eras of military operations.
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