Now Sponsored by: Apple, Walmart, T-Mobile, and Phillips? VeteransPolicy.org

Now Sponsored by: Apple, Walmart, T-Mobile, and Phillips?

VeteransPolicy.org<execdirector@veteranspolicy.org>

12/10/2018 5:01 PM

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Apple Update: VA Shadow Rulers Edition Bruce Moskowitz, Marc Sherman. and Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter's deep level of influence at the Department of Veterans Affairs continues to be revealed. Worth noting? Darin Selnick, now special adviser to VA Sec. Robert Wilkie, is a former high ranking member of the Concerned Veterans for America, a Koch Brothers-funded group. More from Isaac Arnsdorf at Salon.com: The newly released emails also detail Moskowitz’s effort to get the VA and Apple to adapt his app. As a VA IT official described it in a May 2017 email, “We are utilizing the native iOS mobile app, Emergency Medical Center Tracker, that Dr. Moskowitz developed.” Darin Selnick, a VA official who previously signed onto a 2016 proposal to dismantle the agency’s government-run health service, agreed with Moskowitz’s low estimation of the VA doctors’ input. “The VA staff has limited knowledge and experience, which is why you and the” academic medical centers “are so important to help the VA move forward,” Selnick wrote. Selnick, who is now a special adviser to Wilkie, was the point person working with Moskowitz on the app, the emails show. “I like you are the implementer for VA,” he told Moskowitz in March 2017. When Selnick said the VA’s information technology division could start working on the app, Moskowitz replied, “We need our specialist.” He then connected Selnick with his son Aaron, and Selnick introduced Aaron Moskowitz to Apple. (Aaron Moskowitz’s name is redacted from the emails, but his involvement was confirmed by four people familiar with the matter. He didn’t respond to a request for comment.) VA officials identified major problems with the app’s usability and functionality. “Some of the code needs to be refactored and even rebuilt,” the IT official said in the May email. Nevertheless, Moskowitz’s son Aaron joined a June 2017 conference call with executives from top medical systems and from Apple, including CEO Tim Cook. Moskowitz wanted the app discussed for five to seven minutes, according to the emails. After the call, Moskowitz named his son as one of the project’s “mid-level project managers.” In preparation for the conference call, Apple employees and medical experts circulated a memo that assessed Moskowitz’s proposals, which were identified as coming from “the VA and the White House.” In the memo, Apple’s experts pushed back on Moskowitz’s app, saying that the VA’s website already offered a similar tool and that the national databases needed to make the app accurate didn’t exist. Instead, the memo encouraged pursuing a different idea (giving veterans a way to store their health data on their cellphones), which it said would “achieve the greatest benefit for our veterans in the shortest amount of time.” Reminder: Apple sees potential profit in Veterans Healthcare Data From our newsletter two weeks ago: Apple is looking at the Department of Veterans Affairs as its way into a larger healthcare information market. And unlike most private health providers, they’re not cloaking their intentions. Read more at The Verge. This Week on Capitol Hill Wednesday at 10 a.m.: 'Is VA Ready for Full Implementation of Appeals Reform.' Find more resources from the House Committee on Veterans Affairs Mental Health and the Wounded Warrior The Wounded Warrior Project released its annual report on veterans mental health and suicide. Here’s the press release and several key findings: To treat mental health concerns, including PTSD, the survey found that warriors: 71% chose a VA medical center as their top place to seek help for mental health concerns. 75% of warriors have healthcare coverage through the VA, up from 59% in 2014. 53% preferred talking to another veteran about their mental health. 47% used prescription medications to treat their mental health. 33% had difficulty getting mental health care, put off getting such care, or did not get the care they needed. Of those warriors: 19% did not seek treatment because they felt they would be considered weak. 19% were concerned that future career plans would be jeopardized. 18% felt they would be stigmatized by peers or family for seeking mental health treatment. Military Sexual Trauma and suicide among women veterans Voice of America reports on how women veterans ‘quietly struggle’ with sexual harassment, military sexual trauma, and suicide. Read it here. Is the VA’s National Strategy for Suicide Prevention working? Analysis from Russell Lemle at the Federal Practitioner: In June 2018, the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) issued its National Strategy for Preventing Veteran Suicide, 2018-2028. Its 14 goals—many highly innovative—are “to provide a framework for identifying priorities, organizing efforts, and contributing to a national focus on Veteran suicide prevention.” The National Strategy recognizes that suicide prevention requires a 3-pronged approach that includes universal, selective, and targeted strategies because “suicide cannot be prevented by any single strategy.”1 Even so, the National Strategy does not heed this core tenet. It focuses exclusively on universal, non-VA community-based priorities and efforts. That focus causes a problem because it neglects the other strategies. It also is precarious because in the current era of VA zero sum budgets, increases in 1 domain come from decreases in another. Thus, sole prioritizing of universal community components could divert funds from extant effective VA suicide prevention programs. VA partners with T-Mobile, Walmart, and Phillips to expand telehealth Read the Walmart press release. More from the Federal News Network: The department announced Thursday it will partner with three private sector companies and two veterans service organizations to address VA’s access challenges and create more convenient opportunities for veterans to see doctors and health care professionals. The announcement came at VA’s first-ever “Anywhere to Anywhere Together” summit in Washington. The department gathered its new partners, members of industry, medical professionals and others to solicit their feedback and ideas on how VA could forge a path for telehealth in the future. The department is partnering with T-Mobile, which will host the VA Video Connect app on all service devices for free. Veterans who already have T-Mobile don’t need to take action to start or continue using the free service, said Mike Katz, executive vice president of T-Mobile for Business. Video Connect lets VA providers use their mobile devices to see and speak with veterans on their own devices or home computers. VA also inked new partnerships with Walmart and Philips. The department will work with Philips, the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars to set up 10 remote examination services at VSO posts across the country. Philips will provide video screens and other remote medical devices, so veterans can go visit their closest VSO post to see a VA medical professional, who, in some cases, may be based hundreds or even thousands miles away. Our questions: How much data will T-Mobile, Walmart, and Phillips get to keep and use? Will there be any marketing or cross promotion from the private companies while veterans are using the service? Quick Clicks: Press of Atlantic City: NJ Health Department offers a $250k grant to recreate VA’s care model for first responders and veterans USA Today: A veteran’s spouse discusses the economic, physical, and mental toll of being a caregiver WFLA Tampa: Blue Water Veterans march after continued denials of disability benefits CureToday.com: Myeloma outcomes for Black Veterans differ from non-veterans because of fewer treatment disparities within VA’s integrated system Copyright © 2018 Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute, All rights reserved. You’ve subscribed to the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute newsletter (formerly FFVHC). Our mailing address is: 4081 Norton Ave., Oakland CA 94602 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Add your name: No border wall-Matt Hildreth

Add your name: No border wall

Matt Hildreth<moveon-help@list.moveon.org>

12/11/2018 9:25 PM

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Dear fellow MoveOn member,

Donald Trump bragged that he will be "proud" to shut down the United States government unless Congress gives him $5 billion for his wall.¹ Congress should not let Trump take our government hostage.

Sign the petition telling Congress to reject Trump's border wall.

Trump's obsession with a border wall is a bad idea. Mexico isn't paying for the wall, and we shouldn't have to either. Tell Congress to stand up to Trump and oppose funding for his stupid, wasteful border wall!

The border wall that Donald Trump has demanded for years would be an ecological disaster, an enormous waste of money, and an international symbol of intolerance that doesn't represent America's values.²

Even many Republicans know that the border wall is a bad idea.³ The money could be better spent on projects related to health care, education, and the economy.

Trump is threatening to shut down the government if he doesn't get his way, but Congress needs to check his power trip.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks!

–Matt Hildreth, America's Voice

Sources:

1. "Trump: Proud to shut down government over wall," CNN, December 11, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/61544?t=10&akid=222072%2E38417624%2EGfz1Jy

2. "The ecological disaster that is Trump’s border wall: a visual guide," Vox, October 29, 2017
https://act.moveon.org/go/61551?t=12&akid=222072%2E38417624%2EGfz1Jy

3. "Trump demands a border wall but many Republican lawmakers aren’t convinced," The Washington Post,
September 20, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/61562?t=14&akid=222072%2E38417624%2EGfz1Jy

You're receiving this petition because we thought it might interest you. It was created on MoveOn.org, where anyone can start their own online petitions. You can start your own petition here.

Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with MoveOn?

Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.

Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. This email was sent to Alfred Johnson on December 12, 2018. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.

What we witnessed at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

What we witnessed at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival<info@poorpeoplescampaign.org>

12/12/2018 12:39 PM

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Dear Alfred, On Monday, hundreds of people from across California and the country risked arrest at the San Diego border. They included Fight for $15 workers, undocumented immigrants, people impacted by the California wildfires and leaders from the American Friends Service Committee, Kairos Center, Repairers of the Breach, and the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival leaders from California to Maine to North Carolina, New York, and Massachusetts. They were interfaith leaders of all faiths who marched, sang, prayed, and engaged in nonviolent action together. Watch the video to see the power of a nonviolent movement. We were there on International Human Rights Day to deliver a simple message: We stand for the absolute protection of migrants and the demilitarization of our borders. But as faith leaders approached the border wall in prayer and song, we were met by dozens of armed border patrol agents in riot gear. We refused to be intimidated. First marching, then kneeling in prayer, we moved to deliver the ceremonial blessings that brought us to the border. As we fell to our knees, the agents turned to one another and began to back up. Just one day before, we heard testimony in an interfaith service from veterans, undocumented immigrants, and from Maria Puga, whose husband was murdered by border patrol agents. Law enforcement should exist to protect all of us. When our laws are turned against us and co-opted by the forces of white supremacy, conscientious objectors are compelled to resist in the interest of humanity. Watch this video now to see our moral agenda at work as we fight the militarization and inhumane immigration practices hurting our communities. And if you support this action and see the violation of our deepest values in the misuse of the military, find your state coordinating committee and get involved. Forward together, not one step back, The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival P.S. Find a Love Knows No Borders event near you. Events are happening across the country through December 18. Sent via ActionNetwork.org. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, please click here.

World Beyond War: Include the Military in the Green New Deal

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[Excellent!! Please share this widely-- AH]

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From: World BEYOND War <info@worldbeyondwar.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2018 11:16 AM
To: MacDougall, John D
Subject: Include the Military in the Green New Deal

Congresswoman-Elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has drafted a Green New Deal that fails to acknowledge the existence of the U.S. military as an environmentally destructive force, and the U.S. military budget (over 60% of discretionary spending) as a potential source of revenue. CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE FOLLOWING PETITION, which World BEYOND War, RootsAction.org, and CODE PINK will deliver to Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez in January. We propose the following edits that would allow us to join in supporting your Green New Deal. 1. Change this: The Plan for a Green New Deal (and the draft legislation) shall recognize that innovative public and other financing structures are a crucial component in achieving and furthering the goals and guidelines relating to social, economic, racial, regional and gender-based justice and equality and cooperative and public ownership set forth in paragraphs (2)(A)(i) and (6)(B). The Plan (and the draft legislation) shall, accordingly, ensure that the majority of financing of the Plan shall be accomplished by the federal government, using a combination of the Federal Reserve, a new public bank or system of regional and specialized public banks, public venture funds and such other vehicles or structures that the select committee deems appropriate, in order to ensure that interest and other investment returns generated from public investments made in connection with the Plan will be returned to the treasury, reduce taxpayer burden and allow for more investment. to this: The Plan for a Green New Deal (and the draft legislation) shall recognize that much of the 60% of discretionary spending now going into the environmentally destructive project of militarism can be moved to environmental protection, and that innovative public and other financing . . . . 2. Change this: The Plan for a Green New Deal (and the draft legislation) shall be developed in order to achieve the following goals, in each case in no longer than 10 years from the start of execution of the Plan: -- 100% of national power generation from renewable sources; -- building a national, energy-efficient, “smart” grid; -- upgrading every residential and industrial building for state-of-the-art energy efficiency, comfort and safety; -- decarbonizing the manufacturing, agricultural and other industries; -- decarbonizing, repairing and improving transportation and other infrastructure; -- funding massive investment in the drawdown and capture of greenhouse gases; -- making “green” technology, industry, expertise, products and services a major export of the United States, with the aim of becoming the undisputed international leader in helping other countries transition to completely carbon neutral economies and bringing about a global Green New Deal. by adding this: -- a major transition away from the environmental destruction of war and war-preparations, including the closure of most of the U.S. military bases abroad and within the United States and the thorough cleanup of the land and water in those locations. CLICK HERE TO ADD YOUR NAME AND COMMENTS TO THE PETITION. Forward this email to share it with others! Background: > Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: The Green New Deal > World BEYOND War: War Destroys the Environment > World BEYOND War: We Need $2 Trillion a Year for Other Things World BEYOND War is a global network of volunteers, activists, and allied organizations advocating for the abolition of the very institution of war. Our success is driven by a people-powered movement –  support our work for a culture of peace. World BEYOND War PO Box 1484 Charlottesville, VA 22902 USA Privacy policy. Checks must be made out to "World BEYOND War / AFGJ" or we can't deposit them. Sent via ActionNetwork.org. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from World Beyond War, please click here.

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Why Green New Deal Advocates Must Address Militarism Where is the call for the New Peace Deal that would free up hundreds of billions from the overblown military budget to invest in green infrastructure? by

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/12/12/why-green-new-deal-advocates-must-address-militarism?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=google_mail&utm_source=email

 

Published on"Wed," 12 dec 2018 00:00:00 -0500? itemprop="datePublished">Wednesday, December 12, 2018

by Common Dreams

Why Green New Deal Advocates Must Address Militarism

Where is the call for the New Peace Deal that would free up hundreds of billions from the overblown military budget to invest in green infrastructure?

by

Medea Benjamin , Alice Slater

---------- Forwarded message --------- 
From: Alice Slater <alicejslater@gmail.com> 
Date: Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 11:36 AM 
Subject: Why Green New Deal Advocates Must Address Militarism 
To: wbw-discussion@googlegroups.com < wbw-discussion@googlegroups.com>, abolition-caucus@yahoogroups.com <abolition-caucus@yahoogroups.com>, Abolition Council < Abolition-Global_Council@yahoogroups.com>, bananas <nuclearbananas@googlegroups.com>, < disarm.wilpf@groups.electricembers.net>, Nuclearnews Group < nuclear-news-list@googlegroups.com>, samhusseini@gmail.com < samhusseini@gmail.com>, < globnet@yahoogroups.com> 

Link: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/12/12/why-green-new-deal-advocates-must-address-militarism?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=google_mail&utm_source=email (sent via ) 

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Posted by: Alice Slater <alicejslater@gmail.com>

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