For Veterans Day and OWS, A New Bonus Army

With unemployment among veterans far above the national average at 12% and fully one third of Iraq and Afghanistan vets saying the wars just weren't worth it, it comes as no surprise that our returning service men and women are being drawn to the various Occupy encampments throughout the country.

For many of them, the camps offer some solace for the pain that no VA benefits or PSTD counseling sessions can assuage. But tragically, one troubled vet has committed suicide at the OccupyBurlington site.  Police said the 35-year-old man shot himself in the head inside a tent at the Vermont encampment Thursday and died later in a hospital. 

According to the Veterans Administration, one service member commits suicide every 80 minutes. And according to the Center for a New American Security (CNAS, a neoliberal think tank) the statistics are even more horrifying when you consider that although only one percent of Americans have served in the military, former service members represent a staggering 20 percent of all suicides in the United States.

CNAS, which gets much of its funding from defense contractors and other war profiteers, last month released a study on military suicides, which I found a little jarring for a couple of reasons.  It was a tad on the self-serving side. For example, researchers working for this Military Industrial Complex NGO are quick to point out that about a third of military suicides are not related directly to deployment.  In other words, a third of the victims were emotionally troubled before even joining up.  That begs the question of how well recruits are screened: obviously, not very.  Additionally, about half of military suicides are committed using "private" rather than government-issued firearms. Phew, what a relief. And another thing: the Defense Industry does not want the reputation of its recruits sullied by the term "commit" suicide. It is politically incorrect, and it might prevent people at risk from getting help, say the study's authors.

And in big bold print they are quick to add: " Leaders in the armed services and VA deserve recognition for their actions to reduce the rate of suicide among service members and veterans, but face persistent obstacles".  So hooray for the DOD and don't blame the MIC, which truly deeply cares.  And don't blame Leon Panetta, who plans on cutting the defense budget by reducing health and pension benefits for veterans in order to save military bases and funding for Drone missiles. From The New York Times:

 

"In what he described as the most sensitive of the potential cuts facing an all-volunteer force, Mr. Panetta said the Pentagon was considering raising fees for the military’s health insurance program, Tricare. Today, military retirees and families, who are guaranteed Tricare for life, pay only $460 a year in fees — far below what they would pay if they worked for a private employer — although a modest increase for new enrollees began last month.

.... Mr. Panetta provided no details of potential reductions in military retirement pay for those who enlist in the future, but said he would consider supporting the creation of a binding commission to review such pay. He also indicated that he might support a change that would increase retirement spending, by offering some retirement pay to those who had served less than 20 years. Currently only those who have served at least 20 years receive retirement pay, which is 50 percent of their final annual base pay, for life."

Just in time for Veterans Day, the Senate did finally pass a smidgen of the president's Jobs Bill last night, giving a tax break to businesses hiring returning troops and funding a job retraining program for older vets. Patty Murray (D-WA) who serves on the Superduper Secret Supercommittee tasked with ripping open the social safety net in order to placate the quivering unconfident Markets, was very proud of this burst of bipartisanship. And well should she be.  She, along with the Center for a New American Security, is a big recipient of Defense Industry largesse. Gushed Murray: “It’s no secret that the House and Senate are divided on any number of economic and political issues facing average Americans right now. But . . . our veterans are the one issue that we should never be divided on.”

But back to Occupy. Much to the chagrin of the political elites, it is changing the conversation from the almighty deficit to income disparity and corporate greed. And veterans are getting the attention they deserve, not because of MIC policy papers and a few crumbs from politicians, but because of the vibrant force they are bringing to the OWS movement.  "At Occupy Camps, Veterans Bring the War Home" is the title of a piece in The Atlantic written by Tina Dupuy:

"It was a surprise to meet Iraq war vets at these protests. There are only, after all, around a million Americans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan in what was once dubbed the War on Terror.
Their presence became national news when Iraq vet and former Marine Scott Olsen's skull was fractured by a non-lethal round fired by police in Oakland in late-October. A week later in New York, around 30 vets held a solidarity march from Zuccotti Park to the Stock Exchange. They had a rally at the park afterward where Bordeleau spoke. 'This is the first major movement for social change we've seen in this country since the '70s,' he said to me.
At Occupy DC, a painting of Scott Olsen in uniform is draped on the side of a tent. He's become a symbol of the Occupation Movement -- he fought overseas only to be injured when exercising his "freedom" of peaceful assembly at home. His name has become a shorthand to talk about why so many vets are at Occupy Wall Street.
'There's a reason Scott Olsen got shot in the head,' says Patterson, looking down at his chain-restaurant hot cocoa. "Because he was out front.'"

To mark Veterans Day, OWS is holding a rally and concert featuring Joan Baez today in Foley Square in New York. It's being called "Honor the Dead and Fight Like Hell for the Living."

War Against Women

New York Times columnist Gail Collins has a running shtick of always including the story about how Mitt Romney once strapped his dog to the roof of his car during a family vacation. Today was no exception, as she lambasted the freak show that purported to be the umpteenth Republican presidential debate.

And here is part of what The Times moderators saw fit to publish from reader-commenter Richard Luettgen of New Jersey:

But you continue to misinform the public about Seamus, the dog that has achieved immortality by allegedly being strapped to the roof of Mitt's car during a family jaunt to Canada. The only dogs that Mitt ever strapped to the roof of a car were Herman Cain's old girlfriends.

It's posted at Number 15 and as of this writing has six reader recommendations, probably from six conservative men (including its own author).* It's just one small ugly part of the backlash against the victims of Herman Cain's predatory paws. And it's not just coming from men. New York Daily News columnist Andrea Tantoros says that women are hurting "the sisterhood" by coming forward to complain. In an article headlined Ladies: Time to Man Up!, she writes:

Let me be clear: I’m not saying that Cain isn’t guilty of sexual misconduct that took place when he was the head of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s. But this scandal should have every woman asking: At what point do women need to take some responsibility?.... Whining that an off-color comment or a clumsy attempt at a date is abuse undermines real charges of assault, not to mention real issues that this country should be focused on during an election season, like a nuclear Iran, our toxic debt and a sputtering domestic economy.

Tantoros even manages to get a dig in at the OWS Zuccotti Park women. "Rather than go to the authorities," she sniffs, "women have reportedly been told to not take complaints to the police so that the incidents can be handled 'internally,' whatever that means. But the National Organization for Women doesn’t seem to be making a big stink about that."

Even female reporters confronting Cain on his behavior are getting abused. CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo was booed by the audience at last night's Republican debate when she questioned him. (and she's not exactly an anti-greed liberal). And this morning, the right-wing American Thinker crowed: "Weak Field Spanks CNBC Liberals."  

Even worse: in the corporate journalistic spirit of telling both sides of a story, Cain's criminal defense attorney was given a platform in the New York Times to warn women to "think twice" before coming forward. "I'm not here to scare anyone off," Lin Wood smarmily told The Times. "I've been brought in to bring an element of fairness to the accusations being brought." 

In the spirit of independent blogging, I will add that to its credit, The Times also rehashed all the conservative slime from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and even included a few quotes from the victims.  All in the spirit of fairness and accuracy, of course.

* Update: Enough readers have flagged and/or complained about this offensive remark to have it removed from the comments thread. Trust the readers to do the right thing. Hurray for the spirit of interactive journalistic democracy! One small step against misogyny -- one giant leap for human decency.

Horticulture of the Vanities

(Reuters)

Today in Oligarchy: You're so Thain, you prob'ly think the trees are about you. 

That would be John Thain, the chairman and CEO of CIT, who recently paid to restore a 50-acre section of the Bronx Botanical Gardens. Naturally, he renamed it the "Thain Family Forest." But even that doesn't quite cut it. As David Dunlop wryly chronicles in the New York Times, you cannot take a leisurely stroll through this plutocratic Sylvania without encountering The Thain Family at every turn, on every twig, on every piece of bark. It's hard to see the forest for the sleaze:

They turn up on prohibitory signs, too. “Please Stay on the Path: The Thain Family Forest is a fragile ecosystem.”One expects donors’ names at entrance ways and on directional signs and maps. It’s more unusual to find donors’ names woven into the interpretive narration. At the garden, however, the words “Thain Family Forest” are slipped into signs about black oaks, hemlocks and hillside blueberries (“a favorite of birds and small mammals in the Thain Family Forest”); about vernal pools and great horned owls; about mound formations and forest layering; and even about snags, as standing dead trees are called, which help “reveal the Thain Family Forest’s great age.”

Indeed, by the time you reach the sign beginning, “When a tree falls in the Thain Family Forest —,” you may be tempted to finish the thought yourself, “— does it make a Thain Family Sound?”

Truth be told, John Thain himself is a fragile egosystem. You may remember John, formerly of Goldman Sachs, as the tycoon who was put in charge of the financially troubled Merrill Lynch and then proceeded to loot the company of more than $1 million for furnishing his office -- just as the financial world came crashing down on everybody else. Even as Thain self-pampered, and was firing people right and left, he himself was on his way out: Bank of America was already in the process of taking over the company and releasing him with a golden parachute. From the Daily Beast, here's a sampling of what he indulged in while Wall Street's victims were losing their jobs and their homes:

1) $2,700 for six wall sconces.
2) $5,000 for a mirror in his private dining room.
3) $11,000 for fabric for a "Roman Shade.”
4) $13,000 for a chandelier in the private dining room.
5) $15,000 for a sofa.
6) $16,000 for a "custom coffee table.”
7) $18,000 for a “George IV Desk.”
8) $25,000 for a "mahogany pedestal table.”
9) $28,000 for four pairs of curtains.
10) $35,000 for something called a "commode on legs.”
11) $37,000 for six chairs in his private dining room.
12) $68,000 for a "19th Century Credenza" in his office.
13) $87,000 for a pair of guest chairs.
14) $87,000 for an area rug in Thain's conference room and another area rug for $44,000.
15) $230,000 to his driver for one year’s work.
16) $800,000 to hire celebrity designer Michael Smith, who redesignied the White House for the Obama family for "just" $100,000.

When Thain was caught out by the media, he reimbursed the moribund company out of his own personal $83 million compensation package. An investigation into whether Thain used TARP funds to pay himself and his cronies bonuses even as Merrill was imploding was started by then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.  Unsurprisingly, it came to nothing. It might have upset the confidence of the markets.

Hey, Zuccotti Parkers! How about we occupy The Thain Family Forest!!


A Tree Grows On Wall Street