Jailed for Refusing to Fink on Julian Assange Free Chelsea Manning! Former Army intelligence analyst and truth-teller Chelsea Manning has been jailed again by the vindictive U.S. capitalist state.

Workers Vanguard No. 1151	22 March 2019

Jailed for Refusing to Fink on Julian Assange

Free Chelsea Manning!

Former Army intelligence analyst and truth-teller Chelsea Manning has been jailed again by the vindictive U.S. capitalist state. Tortured in prison for seven years by the Obama regime for exposing U.S. imperialist war crimes, Manning was thrown back behind bars on March 8 because she refused to testify before a grand jury in a secretive star-chamber inquiry against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. Manning declared: “I will not participate in a secret process that I morally object to, particularly one that has been historically used to entrap and persecute activists for protected political speech.” Held in contempt of federal court for her principled stand, Manning was sent to jail, where she could remain for a year or more as the investigation proceeds. Release Chelsea Manning now!

In 2010, WikiLeaks published files leaked by Manning that cast a spotlight on the bloody work of U.S. imperialism in Iraq and Afghanistan. The best-known of these is the graphic aerial video, dubbed “Collateral Murder,” which shows a U.S. Apache helicopter gunship massacring at least 12 civilians in Baghdad in 2007 while the Army pilots gloated over the carnage. After releasing the video, WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables and classified documents recording more murder, torture and rape carried out by the imperialists.

Manning was sentenced in 2013 to 35 years, the most severe punishment ever inflicted on any whistle-blower. Torture at a Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Virginia, solitary confinement at the prison barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the relentless stress of having to fight for treatment while gender transitioning drove her to attempt suicide twice. Obama’s granting clemency for Manning on his way out of the White House in 2017 was a ploy to pose as a defender of transgender rights and conceal his true “legacy”—one of persecuting whistle-blowers and ramping up drone strikes and mass surveillance.

The cruel persecution of Manning is directly tied to Washington’s vendetta against Assange. The founder of WikiLeaks has been trapped for nearly seven years in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. British cops posted outside stand ready to seize him for extradition to the U.S., where he faces a potential life sentence for the “crime” of publishing the truth about U.S. imperialism. For the past year, the new Ecuadorean regime, under pressure from the U.S., has made his life unbearable, cutting off his internet access for six months and even forcing him to give away his cat. Meanwhile, Assange’s health continues to deteriorate.

In November 2018, a mistaken court filing revealed that U.S. federal prosecutors had secretly filed charges against Assange, most likely multiple counts of espionage. The charges were filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, known as the “Espionage Court,” where no national security defendant has ever been found not guilty.

Obama’s Justice Department, which used the 1917 Espionage Act against leakers and whistle-blowers more times than all prior administrations combined, had for years looked to indict Assange for a criminal offense. The Feds found it problematic to prosecute him for publishing classified documents without also prosecuting the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian and others, which had also published these documents. Thus, the Justice Department is aiming to frame up Assange as a co-conspirator with Manning in the unauthorized disclosure of national defense secrets. This would give the government a means to prosecute Assange, an Australian citizen, under the Espionage Act, which has repeatedly been used to criminalize dissent and opposition to U.S. wars but has rarely been applied to non-citizens. Hands off Julian Assange! Drop all charges!

The witchhunt against Assange comes in the context of the anti-Russia hysteria pushed by the Democratic Party ever since the dirty maneuvers of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) during the 2016 election campaign were revealed by WikiLeaks. With U.S. spy agencies claiming that Russian operatives hacked DNC emails, Democrats and their media mouthpieces have branded Assange a Moscow agent. Although the Democrats have sought to place Trump at the center of an alleged Russian conspiracy to throw the election in his favor, his administration has itself continued the vendetta against Assange. Referring to a 2017 WikiLeaks release exposing CIA hacking and cyberwarfare exploits, Vice President Mike Pence vowed to “use the full force of the law and resources of the United States to hold all of those to account that were involved.”

Imperialists always accompany their depredations around the world with gag orders and secret dealings. Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky observed in November 1917: “Imperialism, with its dark plans of conquest and its robber alliances and deals, developed the system of secret diplomacy to the highest level.” The American masters of war, enraged at any light being shed on their machinations, are determined to send the message to potential whistle-blowers that they will incur the most severe punishment. Witness former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, forced to live in exile in Russia as the price for having revealed in 2013 the sweep and scope of U.S. global electronic spying.

By unmasking the bourgeoisie’s lies and intrigues, brave individuals like Manning, Assange, Snowden and others have carried out a service to workers and the oppressed throughout the world. It is in the interests of the working class to defend them and to fight against the attempt to silence opponents of imperialist war and occupations. But leaks and revelations by whistle-blowers will not fundamentally change this rotten system. The manifold discontents engendered by endless war, racial oppression, economic misery and state repression must be directed against the capitalist class enemy, with the social power of the multiracial proletariat mobilized on behalf of all the exploited and oppressed. Our aim as Marxists is to build a revolutionary workers party that can lead the working class in sweeping away capitalist class rule and replacing it with proletarian-socialist rule. Only then will U.S. capitalism’s spying, lying and violence at home and abroad come to an end and the full extent of its bloody crimes and secrets be laid bare to the world.

The Centennial Of Pete Seeger’s Birthday (1919-2014)- ***The Fire Next Time-Folk Variety-Alastair Moock

Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Woody Guthrie Doing "Pastures Of Plenty". I Am Sure Alastair Won't Mind My Using This As A Substitute Since I Could Not Find Him Doing The Song On YouTube.

CD REVIEWS

Bad Moock Rising, Alastair Moock, Bad Moock Rising Records, 1999

Recently I posed a question in this space about who would continue the blues tradition today, now that most, if not all, of the famous old blues singers are dead or retired. One answer that I came up with was the talented Keb’ Mo’. There are others I am sure. I would like to pose that same question here in regard to the folk music movement that now is seeing more than its fair share of old time performers pass from the scene, most recently the likes of Odetta and Utah Phillips. This reviewer has spent much ink in this space over the past year or so touting various old time folk singers like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Dave Van Ronk, Rosalie Sorrels and so on. That tip of the hat to the folk revival of the early 1960’s begged an important question. Who would, if anyone, continue that old folk tradition?

That is where the artist under review, Alastair Moock, comes into the picture. He has gone back to the roots with some songs of his own creation that would do his predecessors proud. Moreover, I note that I first heard Mr. Moock in person while attending a concept concert that he put together doing material in honor of Woody Guthrie. The name of the project, “Pastures Of Plenty”, which just happens to be the name of a famous Woody song. Moreover, the very first song that I heard the Moock do (on the local folk radio) was a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Let Me Die In My Footsteps”. Yes here is a man who is serious about roots, and serious about making his own contributions to that scene. Hell, a few years ago I recall that he had a following of 'groupies' that called itself the Moockettes. Sounds about right to me.

So what is good here? Obviously that above-mentioned Dylan cover. For you topical folk types with a little sense of humor how about “Here’s A Latte and My Middle Finger”. “Your Good (For Man Like Me)” and “Take Me When You Go” deserve a listen but if you have only time to listen to one give a listen to the old Woody Guthrie tune (complete with Alastair comments) on “ Pretty Boy Floyd” then you will know why the old folk tradition like the blues is still in capable hands. Kudos, Moockster.

"This Land Is Your Land"-Woody Guthrie

This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

Hard Travelin'

I've been havin' some hard travelin', I thought you knowed
I've been havin' some hard travelin', way down the road
I've been havin' some hard travelin', hard ramblin', hard gamblin'
I've been havin' some hard travelin', lord

I've been ridin' them fast rattlers, I thought you knowed
I've been ridin' them flat wheelers, way down the road
I've been ridin' them blind passengers, dead-enders, kickin' up cinders
I've been havin' some hard travelin', lord

I've been hittin' some hard-rock minin', I thought you knowed
I've been leanin' on a pressure drill, way down the road
Hammer flyin', air-hose suckin', six foot of mud and I shore been a muckin'
And I've been hittin' some hard travelin', lord

I've been hittin' some hard harvestin', I thought you knowed
North Dakota to Kansas City, way down the road
Cuttin' that wheat, stackin' that hay, and I'm tryin' make about a dollar a day
And I've been havin' some hard travelin', lord

I've been working that Pittsburgh steel, I thought you knowed
I've been a dumpin' that red-hot slag, way down the road
I've been a blasting, I've been a firin', I've been a pourin' red-hot iron
I've been hittin' some hard travelin', lord

I've been layin' in a hard-rock jail, I thought you knowed
I've been a laying out 90 days, way down the road
Damned old judge, he said to me, "It's 90 days for vagrancy."
And I've been hittin' some hard travelin', lord

I've been walking that Lincoln highway, I thought you knowed,
I've been hittin' that 66, way down the road
Heavy load and a worried mind, lookin' for a woman that's hard to find,
I've been hittin' some hard travelin', lord



Oklahoma Hills

Many a month has come and gone
Since I wandered from my home
In those Oklahoma hills where I was born.
Many a page of life has turned,
Many a lesson I have learned;
Well, I feel like in those hills I still belong.

'Way down yonder in the Indian Nation
Ridin' my pony on the reservation,
In those Oklahoma hills where I was born.
Now, 'way down yonder in the Indian Nation,
A cowboy's life is my occupation,
In those Oklahoma hills where I was born.

But as I sit here today,
Many miles I am away
From a place I rode my pony through the draw,
While the oak and blackjack trees
Kiss the playful prairie breeze,
In those Oklahoma hills where I was born.

Now as I turn life a page
To the land of the great Osage
In those Oklahoma hills where I was born,
While the black oil it rolls and flows
And the snow-white cotton grows
In those Oklahoma hills where I was born.



Words and Music by Woody Guthrie and Jack Guthrie
© Copyright 1945 (renewed) by Woody Guthrie Publications , Inc.
and Michael Goldsen Music Inc / Warner-Chappell Music

Pastures Of Plenty

It's a mighty hard row that my poor hands have hoed
My poor feet have traveled a hot dusty road
Out of your Dust Bowl and Westward we rolled
And your deserts were hot and your mountains were cold

I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes
I slept on the ground in the light of the moon
On the edge of the city you'll see us and then
We come with the dust and we go with the wind

California, Arizona, I harvest your crops
Well its North up to Oregon to gather your hops
Dig the beets from your ground, cut the grapes from your vine
To set on your table your light sparkling wine

Green pastures of plenty from dry desert ground
From the Grand Coulee Dam where the waters run down
Every state in the Union us migrants have been
We'll work in this fight and we'll fight till we win

It's always we rambled, that river and I
All along your green valley, I will work till I die
My land I'll defend with my life if it be
Cause my pastures of plenty must always be free

Pretty Boy Floyd

If you'll gather 'round me, children,
A story I will tell
'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw,
Oklahoma knew him well.

It was in the town of Shawnee,
A Saturday afternoon,
His wife beside him in his wagon
As into town they rode.

There a deputy sheriff approached him
In a manner rather rude,
Vulgar words of anger,
An' his wife she overheard.

Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain,
And the deputy grabbed his gun;
In the fight that followed
He laid that deputy down.

Then he took to the trees and timber
To live a life of shame;
Every crime in Oklahoma
Was added to his name.

But a many a starving farmer
The same old story told
How the outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their little homes.

Others tell you 'bout a stranger
That come to beg a meal,
Underneath his napkin
Left a thousand dollar bill.

It was in Oklahoma City,
It was on a Christmas Day,
There was a whole car load of groceries
Come with a note to say:

Well, you say that I'm an outlaw,
You say that I'm a thief.
Here's a Christmas dinner
For the families on relief.

Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.

Our meeting with DCCC Chair Cheri Bustos Our Revolution Leader Richard Rodriguez

Our meeting with DCCC Chair Cheri Bustos

Our Revolution Leader Richard Rodriguez<info@ourrevolution.com>

3:21 PM

To  alfredjohnson34@comcast.net  

• Quick reply all
• Reply
• Forward
• Delete
• Actions

DCCC Blacklist: Campaign Update!

Last week, I helped deliver over 30,000 petitions – signed by Our Revolution supporters like you across the USA – directly to Rep. Cheri Bustos, Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee! Because YOU took action, Rep. Bustos agreed to meet with us and hear why we are demanding she end the DCCC Blacklist immediately!

Our Revolution is on the frontlines of the fight to transform the Democratic Party. In just 3 weeks, we’ve mobilized tens of thousands of people AND took our demand straight to the top of the DCCC. Will you make a contribution so that we can ramp up our campaign to END the DCCC BLACKLIST once and for all?

Clem Balanoff from Our Revolution Illinois and Richard Rodriguez, National Our Revolution Board Member deliver petitions to Rep. Cheri Bustos.

Here's the update: Last week, I joined with other Our Revolution leaders for a frank sit-down meeting with Rep. Cheri Bustos in Illinois to deliver our message: Over 30,000 progressive activists who are members of Our Revolution think the DCCC Blacklist is bad politics and bad policy.

We told Rep. Bustos that the DCCC Blacklist is designed to protect incumbents and prevent a new generation of progressives – like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ro Khanna and Ayanna Pressley – from getting elected to Congress.

We told her that Our Revolution activists are laying the groundwork to elect more progressives across the country and we won't let the DCCC Blacklist undermine our critical work.

Rep. Bustos took our petitions, listened to our concerns, and agreed to set up a follow-up meeting with DCCC officials in Washington, DC. It's a step in the right direction – but we also made it clear that we won't stop organizing until she rescinds the DCCC Blacklist once and for all!

Because of our power to mobilize the grassroots, top DCCC officials are paying attention to our demands. But we still have more organizing work to do to get them to END the DCCC BLACKLIST. Will you make a $5 donation to Our Revolution and help us ESCALATE our campaign before our next meeting with DCCC officials?

Thank you for stepping up. When we fight together, we will win!

In Solidarity,

Richard Rodriguez
National Board Member
Our Revolution

DONATE »

PAID FOR BY OUR REVOLUTION
PO Box 66208
WASHINGTON, DC, 20035

Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee. Our Revolution is a 501(c)(4) organization. Donations to Our Revolution are not deductible as charitable contributions for Federal income tax purposes. All donations are made to support Our Revolution’s general mission and are not designated for any specific activity.

PO Box 66208, Washington, DC 20035

This email was sent to alfredjohnson34@comcast.net. If you need to update or change your information or email address, click here to update your info. Email is one of the most important tools we have to reach supporters like you, but you can let us know if you'd like to receive fewer emails. We'd hate to see you go, but if you need to do so, click here to unsubscribe. Help us continue transforming American politics and fighting for progressive candidates and causes by contributing to Our Revolution here.

Busy week on Capitol Hill for veterans' health VeteransPolicy.org

Busy week on Capitol Hill for veterans' health

VeteransPolicy.org<execdirector@veteranspolicy.org>

5:05 PM

To  alfredjohnson34@comcast.net  

• Quick reply all
• Reply
• Forward
• Delete
• Actions

The finish line or a false start? There’s a lot of concerns about the VA’s race to rollout The MISSION Act. Harris Meyer reports at Modern Healthcare: With just a few weeks to go before its June 6 launch, lawmakers, providers, and advocates are wary about the Veterans Affairs Department’s ability to roll out an expanded private-care program for veterans on schedule without experiencing major glitches like the last time. They fear the 9.2 million veterans eligible for VA-paid healthcare will continue having trouble accessing timely, high-quality care outside of Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics. Non-VA providers hope the new Veterans Community Care program, mandated by the VA Mission Act enacted last year, will improve their ability to share patient data with VA facilities and receive timely payment for serving veterans. Those have been major problems for the Veterans Choice program, which ends when the new program begins. The VA selected Optum Public Sector Solutions as the third-party administrator for three regions, though that selection is being contested, while contractors for three other regions haven’t yet been selected. TriWest will continue as interim administrator for the Choice program while the new contractors ramp up their networks and processes over the coming year. There also are concerns about whether the private providers in the new third-party administrators’ networks will be held to the same standards of quality and levels of familiarity with veterans’ health issues that VA providers must meet. Read the full article at Modern Healthcare. “Nuanced care” needs to drive opioid prescription reform Stefan G. Kertesz, M.D., a physician at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center and professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, and Kate M. Nicholson, J.D., co-chair of the Chronic Pain/Opioids Task Force for the National Centers on Independent Living, write about the pitfalls of shortcuts when combatting the opioid epidemic at STAT News: Declarations from two federal agencies offer hope — and possible action — for people in pain who have lost access to prescribed opioids. These declarations come not a moment too soon for those who have been abandoned by their health care providers or denied appropriate treatment and are suffering in real time. In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines for prescribing opioids for chronic pain. Although these guidelines have been useful for many clinicians, they have been misapplied by individual prescribers, institutions, and agencies, too often causing the kind of pain they were meant to address. Writing in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, the authors of the guidelines admitted that they have been misapplied by those seeking “shortcuts” to safer prescribing. The authors, Dr. Deborah Dowell and Tamara Haegerich from the CDC and Dr. Roger Chou from Oregon Health and Science University, noted that ranges given in the guidelines related to opioid dosages and the number of days for which an opioid should be prescribed were often translated to “inflexible” limits that have been pushed, mandated and incentivized by countless insurers, state agencies, and regulators in ways that exceed or even contravene the guidelines. This misapplication of a few select provisions in otherwise useful guidelines, which wisely urge caution in starting and escalating opioids, has occurred at a breakneck pace since they were published, with real human consequences. Patients in serious pain face delays and denials when they attempt to fill their prescriptions, sometimes with tragic results. Some doctors have felt compelled by the guidelines to put patients who have relied on opioids to safely and effectively manage pain — often for decades — on lower doses or to take them off opioids altogether, even when they believe patients are benefiting from the medication, because they fear oversight and liability. Read the full article at STATNews.com.   Coming up on Capitol Hill House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Monday, 4/29 at 7 p.m.: Full Committee Oversight Hearing: Tragic Trends: Suicide Prevention Among Veterans Tuesday, 4/30 at 10 a.m.: Health Subcommittee Legislative Hearing: Draft Legislation including H.R. 100, H.R. 712, H.R.1647, H.R. 2191 Tuesday, 4/30 at 2 p.m.: Economic Opportunity Subcommittee Hearing: Fiscal Year 2020 Wednesday, 05/1 at 10 a.m.: President’s Budget: Requests Related to Veterans’ Readjustment Benefits Wednesday, 5/1 at 2 p.m.: Economic Opportunity Subcommittee Markup: Pending Legislation Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee Hearing: H.R. 1199, H.R. 1200, H.R. 1126, H.R. 1628, H.R. 1826, and other draft legislation Thursday, 5/2 at 10 a.m.: Health Subcommittee Oversight Hearing: Cultural Barriers Impacting Women Veterans’ Access to Healthcare. Veteran Suicides on VA Campuses Leo Shane III details the steps being taken to address on-campus suicides at MilitaryTimes: Despite three suicides in six days on Veterans Affairs campuses earlier this month, department officials are confident they have made progress in preventing such deaths. At least 24 suicides have occurred on VA campuses in the last 18 months, the most recent two weeks ago when a veteran shot himself in front of a crowd in the lobby of a Texas VA outpatient clinic. That came less than a week after two other veterans died by suicide at separate VA locations in Georgia. … Last fall, the Joint Commission — an independent non-profit that tracks more than 21,000 health care organizations nationwide — noted the rate of suicide in VA medical centers sits below that of the private sector, and dropped more than 80 percent (to 0.74 per 100,000 admissions) following department focus on the problem. The figures “suggest that well-designed quality improvement initiatives can lead to a reduction in the occurrence of these tragic events,” researchers wrote. The contradiction of progress with suicide prevention at VA versus a rise in publicly visible deaths will get renewed focus next Monday, when members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hold a hearing on VA suicide prevention efforts. Read the article at MilitaryTimes.   Quick Clicks FierceHealthcare: Cerner Corp. sees its profits increase as problems persist with its work on the VA’s Electronic Health Record Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: State-run veterans’ nursing home receives low rating; state officials struggle to sustain funding, staffing levels APIC.org: Study examines antibiotic overprescription in one VA outpatient setting VAntage Point Blog: Persistent hiring challenges at the VA (lack of private sector pay parity, a complex hiring process, lack of performance bonuses, and an unhealthy skepticism from lawmakers and the media) are keeping the nation’s best from serving veterans – including in high-level leadership positions. Newsweek: President Trump, conservatives, and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez spar on VA privatization Privatization Plays Out Iowa’s Medicaid system was turned over to private companies to administer. Here are the results, from Tarbell.org: Hurst says the private companies will even challenge his professional opinions—something he says the previous, state-run Medicaid program rarely did. “I was not asked to jump through hoops to justify a medical decision,” he says. “It was just about what Medicaid covered and what it didn’t.” Hurst’s experience is not unique; reports of MCOs questioning medical decisions—even for the amount of help a paralyzed man needs—have drawn scorn. Shortly after the 2016 privatization, reports of unexplained reductions in benefits began to pour in across Iowa. Disabled patients who require intensive care reported less access to care and less medical help. Soon, over 200 of these disabled patients sued one of the private insurers. (The suit was dropped after that company closed up shop and left the state.) Critics say the MCOs have tried to cut costs by cutting services. “People need to know what they’re doing to Medicaid patients,” says Medicaid recipient Denise Boots, who suffers from hereditary spastic paraplegia, a neurological degenerative disease that impacts her ability to use her legs. Boots told Tarbell she was kicked off Medicaid for one month after her MCO demanded she produce documentation for what turned out to be a $116.25 cash value life insurance policy. Once she was able to track down the document, she got her Medicaid back, but she had to pay out of pocket for the month she missed. She’s since been in a protracted appeal process to get reimbursed for the lost month. The MCO practice of delaying and denying Medicaid payments means hospitals and nursing homes are getting paid less. This hurts their finances and puts them at heightened risk of having to cut services, reduce staff, consolidate, or even close. When publicly owned, facilities become susceptible to privatization and outsourcing. Some nursing homes and mental health facilities are having to borrow money to fill the reimbursement gap, and some hospitals are outsourcing services like mental health and home care. All of this contributes to increased consolidation of the health-care industry. By the end of 2017, at least three Iowa nursing homes had gone out of business. … In 2018, Black Hawk County in Northeast Iowa announced that MCOs owed its county-owned nursing home over $500,000 in Medicaid reimbursements. Soon, the county decided it could not sustain the losses and, in October 2018, the county board of supervisors voted 4-1 to sell the facility—owned by the county government for over 100 years—to Pritok Capital, a national private nursing home company. The impacts of such privatizations are multifold. There is a loss of democratic control, a profit motive is created, and the previous public employees lose their government jobs. The contract between Pritok and Black Hawk reportedly does not require the private company to keep the existing county staff or “meet minimum wage or benefit levels for workers.” Other impacts of privatization are personal. Boots said she has noticed some changes in the home care she receives since her local, county-run hospital decided to outsource its home care service to a private company in early 2018. She says there’s been more turnover in the nurses, and their scheduling is less consistent, making it difficult for her to plan her day’s activities. She speculates this may be in part because the company’s nearest office serves eight counties—compared to the previous Adair County Home Care, which only serviced Adair. (The public Adair County Home Health service sold its building shortly after its services were outsourced in 2018.) Peter Damiano, director of Iowa University’s Public Policy Center, says this type of industry consolidation—where larger companies take over smaller providers—is a national trend. Nationally, 2017 had the highest rate of health-care mergers and consolidations in “recent history,” according to Xtelligent Healthcare Media. However, Damiano says it’s hard to attribute the trend to one cause, like delayed and reduced Medicaid reimbursements. Read the full article at Tarbell.org.   Copyright © 2019 Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute, All rights reserved. You’ve subscribed to the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute newsletter (formerly FFVHC). Our mailing address is: Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute 4081 Norton Ave Oakland, CA 94602-4013 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Of Marriage And Its Vows-Spencer Tracy’s “The Father Of The Bride” (1950)-A Film Review

Of Marriage And Its Vows-Spencer Tracy’s “The Father Of The Bride” (1950)-A Film Review

DVD Review

By Frank Jackman

Father of the Bride, starring Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor, directed by Vincente Minelli, 1950

Sometimes it pays to just not say anything. Take the recent case, my recent case, of being handed a review of a 1934 social/romance comedy/drama starring crooner turned actor (and crooner) Dick Powell Happiness Ahead. There I fumed about the on-going tendency of site manager Greg Green to hand out certain less than desirable assignments under the sign of “broadening horizons” He has tried to pull that gag on many of the younger writers, especially the stringers who after all without the least bit of security have to take it-or leave it- which means another assignment in say 2047. When I thought he was trying to pull that old gag on me I took him up short until he mended his ways by telling me that I was the cat’s meow at doing period “slice of life” pieces. So I did the assignment and he liked it and so he tried to smooth my edges by running this Father of the Bride goof film by me on that same “slice of life” mumbo-jumbo. Be forewarned Mr. Green Mrs. Jackman didn’t raise any kids who it took forever to figure out when he has been had. Enough said.   

I learned long ago from Seth Garth (who I am told now got it from that old hawk Sam Lowell) that when you are up against it for a “hook” on an assignment pull the old chestnut “slice of life then” angel angle out of the fire. But that can only get you so far in some films like this dog since the subject matter is about some young daughter of the leafy suburban upper crust crazy to get married and have her own house and family just like millions in previous generations of leafy suburbanites and those to come as well. Can one who has been married three times though like me (and an amazing number, or maybe not so amazing, of corner boys from the old Acre section of North Adamsville) really do justice to such a subject other than the by-the-numbers social reality of in this case post-World War II upscale complete with servant, black and female of course, family life out in what felt like Connecticut.

Well Greg is paying the freight so here goes. Pops, played by versatile Spencer Tracy who seems a little lost and filled with hubris without sweetie and long-time co-star Katharine Hepburn, is sitting around completely spent after footing the bill for daughter Kay, played by a young and startlingly beautiful Elizabeth Taylor who ironically would have a couple of fistfuls of marriage but was the soul of leafy suburban post-debutante in this one, quicksilver marriage to some up and coming guy from town. Being a guy with no married daughters or granddaughters as of yet I don’t know how a guy in 1950 would take the fall for losing his daughter to some young guy who, well who knows, could be a con artist or serial murderer when all is said and done. All I know is that the father of the bride in those days, now too I would think, has to foot the bill for the big day. That is the easy part when you think about it because the real hard part is dealing with losing that daughter who not so long before was wearing pigtails and braces. Yeah, I can see where that would be the tough part then, or today.

This one though is played seemingly strictly for laughs as Pop is so worried about daughter dear that he gets Mom, played by Joan Bennett in a dither. We get to see every aspect of the wedding process back then, similar to now in many ways although I am not sure, based on my own female kin that such a father would get a feminist seal of approval. No indeed. Such is life among the Mayfair swells and their progeny.

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling-Or Political Liberty Either-Grace Kelly And Gary Cooper’s “High Noon” (1952)-A Film Review

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling-Or Political Liberty Either-Grace Kelly And Gary Cooper’s “High Noon” (1952)-A Film Review

DVD Review

By Si Lannon

High Noon, starring Grace Kelly, Gary Cooper, 1952

Sometimes in life, sometimes in the publishing business might be a more appropriate way of putting the matter, you get handed gratis something like the assignment of this film under review High Noon you would have given your eye teeth to get hold of. The way this one played out was recently added stringer Sarah Lemoyne, who apparently as she has advertised is indeed a quick learner, had been assigned the classic Technicolor Western Johnny Guitar starring an over the hill Joan Crawford and getting there Sterling Hayden despite the fact that she knew nothing, hated even, the genre. Her smart move was to attach that gripe to her review which while site manager Greg Green, the guy who hands out the assignments these days, called it a very good one from an unseasoned and unversed critic in the genre the rest of us, and maybe Sarah too, knew was a dog. Showed those tell-tale signs of somebody going through the motions. The fact of putting her gripe in a review left Greg kind of in a box when he wanted her to do this review, another Western, after she said no mas. So, to keep the inmates from getting restless he assigned this iconic beauty to me. Apparently in the back and forth over the issue it became clear to Greg that Sarah really was clueless about how important this film was cinematically and politically. Too young to know of red scares and such.

The reason that I would have been willing to give my eye teeth to review this film though has nothing to do with cinema or politics but my boyhood (and now still) “crush” on “the girl next door” Grace Kelly. I never tire of telling all who will listen the remark made by Seth Garth when I think he was reviewing Ms. Kelly and Cary Grant’s To Catch A Thief and he was so struck by her form of beauty that he could understand why her husband Prince Rainier of Monaco, a man not known for public displays of emotion openly wept at Princess Grace’s funeral after she was killed in a car accident. I could have told Seth that as well ever since my boyhood infatuation.

Now to the story and to the politics which are intertwined with what the creators, or one of the creators of the story line was attempting to do back in 1952 when the height of

the Senator Joe McCarthy-led red scare was hitting full stride and Hollywood was continually in the direct line of fire for alleged “communist influence” and as a hotbed of mostly former Communist Party members and fellow travelers as they were called then. People were forced, maybe against their better judgments to “snitch”, “fink,”  “rat out” their fellows who were under the Red Scare microscope but they still did it to their every lasting shame which hopefully caused more than a few sleepless nights when they “named names” to cover their own asses. Worse let the night-takers have their way without uttering a whisper against the madness. Would not stand up for the innocent, or the guilty if such a word is appropriate in this context. Cowards and other words I would rather no use here but which we used all the time in the old neighborhood when something smelled rotten.             

And that same understanding propels the action in this film where Will Kane, played by Gary Cooper, soon to be ex-Marshall of a Western town which he did much to make hospitable for ordinary folks and taking action against the wild boys who ruled the roost previously. Leaving the profession, the job since he was now married to lovely Quaker convert Amy, played by Ms. Kelly and she insisted they move away and start a new less dangerous life. All well and god except the leader of the bad guys whom he had sent to prison for life had been pardoned and was heading back to town to seek his revenge against Will. Headed back to town on that regularly scheduled noon train which will get plenty of play via many shots of the endless railroad tracks, the ticking clocks and the bad guys waiting for their boss to come back to begin the slaughter. The question is put point blank-can Will leave where danger is afoot and all that he stands for is threatened.

Of course not everybody saw the question in that same way, didn’t see that he was a standup guy and could do no other.  Including Amy who was ready to leave town-with or without him. The story unravels around the fact that friend or foe, upstanding citizens or not, fearless or fearful not one goddam bastard was ready to stand up to the bad guys back in those late 19^th century days when the West was being tamed. Just like standup people were scarce as hen’s teeth when the deal went down in the Cold War red scare night. In the end Will stood down the bad guys alone, well almost alone because his sweetie Amy came through in the end. Best of all after the bad guys were no more and Will gave his fierce look of scorn and contempt on the scurrying town  rats after the dust had settled he and Amy wordlessly left town. Nice.