For those Who Clamored for a Pound of Shineski's Flesh

We all know Eric Shineski resigned Friday as the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs and because the news cycle in this country moves at hyper-speed and we suffer from national attention deficit  disorder when there aren't blue skies and green lights welcoming every patient today at a VA facility, feel free to ask your Congressional representative, especially ifs/he is a Republican what should happen next.

Here's what's already happened.

November cannot come soon enough. Hope the Koch Brothers kept the receipt for the seats they bought, it would be a pity to have nothing to show for all that money  expended except the XL pipeline and the fracking industry. But for the wounded in battle and the weary and sickened, the song remains the same.

Here's some light reading for those in VA clinic waiting rooms, and elsewhere from Common Sense, authored by Major-General Smedley D. Butler, USMC, who twice received the Medal of Honor. His words are new to me, but they're not new but rather from November 1935. I'm thinking this is what they mean by 'timeless.'

"I spent thirty-three years and four months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force---the Marine Corps. I have served in all commissioned ranks from a second lieutenant to major-general. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the bankers, In short I was a racketeer for capitalism

"Thus, I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place to live for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in…. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American Sugar interests in 1916.

"I helped make Honduras "right" for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. During those years I  had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket.

"I was rewarded honors, medals, promotion. Looking back on it, I feel I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was operate his racket in three city districts. We Marines operated on three continents. War Is A Racket."
-bill kenny