If you believe what the government tells you, the Department of Veterans Affairs exists so that a grateful nation can show its appreciation for those who have risked their lives in the interest of the national defense. However, the reality of VA services could only have you conclude that everyone in the VA is grossly incompetent or that's not its real purpose. There are lots of great, very capable individuals who take significant salary cuts and disadvantages in their careers to work at the VA, so that's not it. Could it be that the VA exists primarily as a pacifier? To make Americans think that veterans are taken care of? To make potential recruits think that they will be taken care of if maimed in war? To be a convenient political football? If it was truly set up for its stated purpose, you wouldn't have twenty two veterans committing suicide every day.
The answer to this problem is quite simple when you face up to the significance of it and can admit to its root cause. Government cannot be trusted with any system of healthcare. Power corrupts and right now the VA is controlled and perverted by those who use it to serve their own power. It's time to put the VA directly into the hands of veterans.
Privatize the VA as a charity owned by the veterans. Close some overseas bases. Liquidate the assets, give it an endowment. Or maybe if the Pentagon cared about veterans as much as its sponsors in the military industrial complex, it could find that six trillion it lost recently. Make the VA exempt from all "drug war" restrictions so veterans are free to research and pursue marijuana and other banned alternative treatments for PTSD. Give every veteran in America one voting share and I guarantee when those resources are in the hands of veterans helping veterans without government in the way, we will finally defeat this shameful epidemic of veteran suicides.
I am the author of FREEDOM!, a book endorsed (I mean banned) by the US Department of “Justice.” You can get a copy here. I’m running for Not-President in 2020 on the platform of the peaceful, orderly, and responsible dissolution of the United States federal government. You can find out more here. I am currently on my #TaxationIsTheft tour! You can find an event near you here. Whoever has the top comment on this post after 24 hours can claim a free signed copy of FREEDOM! by sending me a message with their address.
I have had too many friends be treated so horribly by the VA. I'm glad to see other people are noticing as well. They deserve better treatment. They deserve to go to ANY hospital and have the government pay for their treatment. They diserve more. Much more.
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I disagree with you on that. Power literally is required to do everything - it is only the capacity to act and without it you cannot do anything at all.
The problem has been heartlessness and thus unconsciousness and the inability to use power in a balanced way.
I just wrote a post on this specific subject: Why POWER Does NOT Corrupt And Why Those Who Enslave Us Would Like You To Think It Does!
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coercive power corrupts?
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To be precise, i feel that power itself is not coercive, but the use of power to create coercion is a form of corruption of power and causes further corruption. The corruption is seeded earlier in the process than the coercion itself, in that the coercion is created from thoughts within the actor and those thoughts are lacking in the needed heart balance for the power to be used in a balanced and non coercive way.
A simple, catchy, way to say this is probably 'Power Over Is Corruption'.
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Hmmmmm....wow
I just followed you bro
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Greetings! Thanks :)
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I read your article, and am responding here instead:
Power is not the "ability to act". Everyone has the ability to act regardless of how much power they have, and if you look at the universe as lacking free will, every object in the universe has the "ability to act". Critical to power is the effectiveness of your acting. Does it actually cause matter in the universe to behave favorably to you? If so you have power. The more you are capable of making other matter in the universe do what you want, the more power you have.
Power is not the capacity for actions, it is the capacity to use actions to make other things do what you want. "The capacity for actions" is such a useless concept it does not even deserve to be the definition of a word...perhaps consciousness fits, but even still it is not a good definition for consciousness.
Virtually all humans make decisions based on their fears and desires. When humans make decisions, they use their ability to control their body, the environment, and influence others around them to accomplish these goals. Fears and desires are the cause of corruption, and virtually everyone has these motives. When these motives are given increased opportunity/incentive with reduced consequences, together they tip the scales overpowering unchanging altruism and compassion with increasing desires and fears. In addition to power corrupting actions, it also corrupts the mind as it is actually addictive and comes with withdrawals. The fear of losing power is a fear created by power that increases the incentive for corruption.
An analogy here is the claim that alcohol makes people promiscuous. The desire to be sexual already existed, but this desire is given the appearance of reduced consequences and barriers along with seeming more desirable... So people have sex more often and the populace becomes cautious of alcohol.. But, then you come along and are like "Alcohol does not make people promiscuous! ... The wrong people are just drinking alcohol.... If these people learn how to use alcohol wisely, it would fix the increase in promiscuity" ....Lol, no it would not, it would just combat the effects of alcohol, which you are trying to deny. So same thing here: power does corrupt, and even if you train people to stay strong in the face of this temptation, the temptation still exists and is getting increased by the presence of power.
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There is one cure that we haven't considered! In pre-1800's when a country went to war, the leader of that nation went with that Military force. You simply send the President with the military and see if we have anymore senseless wars!
We need to stop blindly sending our children into the Military where they are forced into becoming trained killers and then abandoning them when they come back and having problems fitting back into society!
Send the Congress/senate/President to the next war and see how long it last!
Oh, and for those Congressmen/women who don't like the 2nd Amendment, send them to war with no guns and see how fast they start advocating gun rights!
Just my 2 cents!
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Better yet. We all refuse to go to war until the guy sending us publicly executes his own child, to demonstrate that his cause is worth our lives.
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Highly rEsteemed @adamkokesh. Agreed...
"Privatize the VA as a 'CO-OP' owned by the veterans."
And I'm here to say that Blockchain Tech will enable this.
Please Check out #unrig
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You mention the huge amount of money the Pentagon lost track of and it is something that's rarely mentioned, if at all, in MSM. How is it possible that there's no inquest, no Grand Jury, nothing is being done. No questions asked? Incredible
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PFTT .... Are you serious? Lost money? They're digging underground tunnel bunkers with that money.
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My Son is a Gulf War Veteran. He is a DAV. The VA in Missouri is 100% better than The VA in Virginia. However, The VA needs to start hanging administrators in front of the building, just under Old Glory.
We as a Nation OWE! Proper, Respectful, State of The Art Treatment and Facilities to our Veterans. Period The End. Each and every Veteran Suicide is an act of MURDER on the head of our elected Representatives . We as a Nation suffer because of our negligence. I swear that during The Reagan Administration, we as a Society swore our Vets would never again befall the abuses and neglect that our Vietnam Era vets endured. Yet today the same BS occurs every day. Enough is Enough. You , that's right YOU, call, write and raise a huge fuss with all of our electors...NOW! Perhaps one less Brave VOLUNTEER Veteran has to die today.
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What hard evidence do you have?
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I'll be sharing this. Passionate write up man!
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Many a time I have stated how the last "old school" President of the USA was Ronald Reagan. He successfully ended the 'Cold War' ensuring that The Western World were the victors, this was probably the greatest achievement by any politician in the later half of last century.
After him the voters chose people who to many of us seem to be people who grew up being bullied and crying about it during their school days!
Mind you, the fact remains that every President of The USA that helped make The USA into the modern day "Cesar" of this world were those up to and prior to Ronald Reagen. ALL of which in their own way were "old school" people who were respected for their achievements and abilities.
I personally will never get over the fact that General Patton didn't live a little longer to make things right back in his day. I truly believe that if he had lived just a decade longer he would have been the most popular and most efficient and best President of The USA to have walked this earth. Unfortunately he "died" and this never came to be.
For some reasons we "the people" are tending to choose career politicians and not those who have been there and done that in the field of protecting and serving ones nation out in the field.
Why?
I don't know, it beats me. I guess that people who know what it means to serve ones nation from A to Z are just not in the "mainstream" of the humbug called "political correctness" and as such would maybe tread on some toes when fixing the wrongs done by those in the past few decades.
I myself may not be a US Citizen, but I have faithfully served with many Americans and done my bit to ensure the job gets done. So as a faithful "employee" of Uncle Sam I believe that I am entitled to an opinion. Not only because I served Uncle Sam, but because I chewed a lot of the same turf and dirt that my fellow Americans chewed in parts of this world that most civilians "with an opinion" would never dare to enter, let alone confront.
If I have offended anyone, ask yourselves WHY?
As I am not going to be apologizing for the fact of me telling it as I see it.
God Bless the USA,
God Bless Australia.
For all my mates who are not with us any more,
Lest We Forget.
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I hope you are very successful!
The non-president option seems a lot better than many of the choices you have had to make. If I were your compatriot, you would have my vote. After all, the Army only serves the Federal Reserve with no scruples or heart. I say Army not soldiers. Soldiers only try to serve their country.
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Governments sell their senseless wars to people to join the army and then they do not eve have the decency of taking care of them arriving back home. THIS IS BULLSHIT...
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Hi Adam. I loved this article of yours, so much, that I even mentioned you in one of my recent posts.
https://steemit.com/eyeopening/@himshweta/concept-no-3-break-the-chains-collaborated-this-is-why-you-fail-and-this-is-how-you-can-be-a-success-quotes-poetry-article
Feel free to check it out.
Cheers
Himshweta
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more war, more deaths... everywhere. we needed a post on this, thank you
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Problems should be treated at it's source .
No army , no war , no veterans ..... it's that simple .
And yes existing vet's should be getting more respect and better treatment . It's a big shame to see a country do this to it's people . To me it seems that they follow a policy where a suicide is way cheaper than a live time treatment .
To future generations i would recommend to avoid the army , it's an organisation of mass destruction that will control and own you , dead or alive .
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