Another One ... As If You Needed It ... To Cast A Goddamned Vote

We know he hates immigrants and people of color. We know he hates women … except the ones he pays for sex, like wives and porn stars. We know he thinks anyone who joins the military is a loser and a sucker. And now we know he hates first responders … and those who ran into the Towers on 9/11, especially.

You see, the _____ administration been siphoning off nearly $4 million from a program that tracks and treats FDNY firefighters and medics suffering from 9/11 related illnesses. The Treasury Department started withholding parts of payments nearly four years ago that were meant to cover medical services for firefighters, emergency medical technicians and paramedics treated by the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program. Men and women who risked their lives that day, being punished by this corrupt administration.

The payments were authorized and made by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health [NIOSH], which oversees the program, but rather than send the money to New York City, the Treasury started keeping some of the money.

The program’s director, Dr. David Prezant says he was docked about half a million dollars each year in 2017; it crept up to about $630,000 in 2018 and 2019, and this year the Treasury diverted $1.447 million through late August; he adds:

“Here we have sick World Trade Center-exposed firefighters and EMS workers, at a time when the city is having difficult financial circumstances due to COVID-19, and we’re not getting the money we need to be able to treat these heroes. And for years, [the Treasury and the _____ Administration] wouldn’t even tell us—we never ever received a letter telling us this."

Prezant never got an answer from NIOSH or the Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], but finally, after complaining about the missing money for three years, NY state Representative Pete King put his political weight behind the inquiry and was told that some other agency in the city has been in an unrelated feud with the feds over Medicare bills. And so, the Treasury decided to stiff the FDNY.

Neither the Treasury Department nor the White House answered requests for comment.

King says:

“It’s disgraceful … I don’t even care what the details of this thing [are]. That fund has to be fully compensated, fully reimbursed … If anyone were true American heroes, it was the cops and firemen on 9/11, especially the firemen, and for even $1 to be being held back is absolutely indefensible.”

King wrote to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin asking what the problem was and for a solution and has yet to receive a response.

This is how we treat our first responders from 9/11? Well, it is from an Administration that allegedly billed We The People $100 million for an inauguration that didn’t cost that much, and is currently under investigation for those funds. It is from an Administration that thinks dead soldiers are losers. It is from an Administration that saw to it that the President’s son-in-law got a $2 million pandemic bailout while thousands of small companies went out of business and millions lost their jobs.

What can we do about it?

CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE!

Remove the criminals and con men—and women, Ivanka—from the White House. And remove all those in the GOP who stood by and did NOTHING while these crimes were committed.

NY Daily News

NRA Tells Doctors To 'Stay In Their Own Lane'

The anti-gun movement has a new set of allies as people in the medical field are now finding themselves in the crosshairs of the National Rifle Association [NRA].

Doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists and others in the medical profession began posting photos of blood-stained scrubs, graphic X-rays and images of bloodstained operating rooms in response to a Twitter post from the NRA promoting a news release which took aim at medical professionals calling for gun restrictions; that NRA post read:

"Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane.”

Forensic pathologist Judy Melinek saw that NRA Tweet as she was preparing to perform an autopsy on a victim who died from a gunshot wound and she fired off a reply as she headed to the morgue:

Dr Melinek has seen more carnage and trauma than most during her career, having spent months examining remains from the 9/11 World Trade Centre attack, and she was also called to the wreckage of American Airlines flight 587, which crashed shortly after taking off in New York in November 2001 with all 260 people aboard killed, so she knows of what she Tweets; by the time she finished her shift, the tweet had gone viral.

During the two years she worked in the Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, Dr Melinek was also clinical instructor in forensic medicine at New York University and has written a book about her experiences.

Other doctors around the country also took to Twitter to vent about the NRA's stance:

In an opinion piece for Vox, Dr Melinek said medical professionals had a responsibility to speak up about gun regulations, pointing out the push for tobacco regulations in response to the lung cancer epidemic caused by cigarettes.

"As scientists and caregivers, we doctors are in a unique position to understand the scale of human suffering caused by guns. We have to do something. We didn't choose this fight, but we if we have to, we can take on the NRA."

Bravo to the men and women who try to save lives ruined, or taken, from gun violence; and for standing up to the NRA who doesn’t give a rat’s behind about gun violence as long as they are making their blood money.

It’s time for the NRA to get out of our lane and let us begin protecting Americans from death by guns.

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