Discounting Veterans and Other Americans

by | Mar 26, 2025 | Politics, The Moderate Voice

President Trump denigrated Senator John McCain for being captured by the North Vietnamese and called soldiers who served in Vietnam suckers and losers. This is the way Trump thinks about those who serve in our military and protect our country. Now this great patriot with his DOGE sidekick is in the process of gutting the Veterans Administration which provides medical and psychological care for our veterans.

Actually, America’s entire health care system is in trouble under the direction of President Trump, Robert Kennedy, Jr, and Elon Musk. They are not only attacking the VA but the National Institute of Health, the CDC and the FDA. And in addition, the Environmental Protection Agency is being neutered, the agency that monitors pollution and its impact on Americans’ health. All of these agencies are vital in keeping Americans healthy, with the NIH, CDC and FDA responsible for developing medical innovations that benefit all Americans. In addition to past discoveries, these agencies fund new research on cancer, cardiovascular and infectious diseases. But aside from these health agencies having their personnel cut, the VA and veteran’s health is particularly affected by the unholy trio mentioned above.

Trump’s axman, Elon Musk, who came to America from South Africa, and has no emotional connections to our veterans, has already fired some 1000 VA employees. But the Trump administration would like to get rid of 80,000 VA personnel, which would absolutely cripple the organization. Even currently, there appears to be a shortage of VA employees, with long waits for medical appointments. At the start of 2025, the VA had a workforce of 473,000 personnel, of which 30 percent were veterans themselves. Apparently, about 40,000 of total personnel were probationary employees.

Musk and DOGE would like to drop VA personnel to under 400,000. According to Rep. Mark Takano, a Democratic Congressman from California and the ranking member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, the cuts to the VA would not just affect health care for veterans. They would cause chaos and impact every aspect of the VA. Benefits would be delayed along with claims processing. Student veterans and their schools would have great difficulty getting the assistance they needed. Physical therapy, mental health services, delayed surgery, transportation services would all be affected.

Veterans are also employed in many different departments of the Federal government in various positions, and we don’t know how many of them would be fired. But Trump and Musk don’t care. We’re only talking about suckers and losers. We have our billionaires and multi-millionaires to think about and we need money so that they can have tax cuts enabling them to take home even more money. This isn’t a government for the people and by the people. It’s a government for the wealthy with billionaires in charge. Isn’t that what Americans want?

We need the VA to be kept whole, with perhaps even more personnel hired. And we need the NIH, CDC and FDA to be fully funded. The health of our veterans and all Americans is more important than providing tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy.

www.robertlevinebooks.com

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Tags: CDC, DOGE, Elon Musk, FDA, firing employees, NIH, President Trump, Robert Kennedy Jr, VA

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A Shadow Hangs over this Year’s National Medal of Honor Day

by | Mar 25, 2025 | Politics, The Moderate Voice

Air Force image

March 25 is National Medal of Honor Day, a day designated by Congress to honor those miliary men and women who have been awarded the nation’s highest military honor for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.”

It is a sad commentary that, just a few days before this date of remembrance, these and other honors and memories were trampled upon by Trump administration efforts to purge stories, images and other reminders of contributions made by certain service members because of perceived instances of support for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs or initiatives, or because of allegedly having been beneficiaries of “DEI.”

One striking, shameful example is the removal from Department of Defense (DoD) archives the story of the highest-ranking Black Medal of Honor recipient, Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers.

Gen. Rogers was awarded the Medal in 1970 by President Richard Nixon for his “gallant defense of a firebase near South Vietnam’s border with Cambodia in 1968, ” where then-Lt. Col. Rogers was wounded three times.

Maj. Gen. (then Lt. Col) Charles Calvin Rogers.

DoD featured his story in November 2021, as part of the series “Medal of Honor Monday” highlighting recipients of the nation’s highest medal of honor.

However, on March 15, the story was taken down as part of the administration’s misguided efforts to end government support of DEI programs and remove any references to (alleged) DEI “episodes” or reminders thereof.

After public outrage at such removals, the story reappeared on the DoD website on March 17, with the “dei” URL absent. This author has not been able to access the original November 2021 story.

However, starkly absent from the “republished” story are words that appear in Rogers’ Congressional Medal of Honor Citation at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society: “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty…”

Instead, we read,

Army Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers served with distinction throughout. Renowned for his exceptional leadership during a fierce Vietnam battle, he earned the Medal of Honor, exemplifying the warrior ethos and warfighting excellence.

While the DoD feature story summarizes Rogers’ “32 years of exemplary service,” there is no mention of how Rogers “worked diligently for race and gender equality in the military before he retired from the Army in 1984, after 32 years of service,” as told in a great story at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society by Kris Cotariu Harper, EdD, an Army wife and the daughter of two WWII Navy Veterans.

Please read the full, non-DEI-redacted story of “Lieutenant Colonel Charles Calvin Rogers: The Most Senior Black Soldier Ever Awarded the Medal of Honor,” and one of the 96 Black Medal of Honor heroes, below. A story that was published on the same day that the DoD page was “reposted.”

When General Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked how an impoverished Black kid, son of Jamaican immigrants, who grew up in the south Bronx, could become the most senior active-duty person in the United States military, he reportedly responded, “Isn’t America a great place?!” Major General Charles Rogers would certainly have said the same thing.

Charles Rogers grew up in a small coal mining camp in West Virginia. His father, a veteran of World War I, was undoubtedly the inspiration for the path he followed. From him, he learned a love of God and a love of country. Later in life he was quoted as saying, “Everything I did in high school and college was done to make my mom and dad proud of me.”

Educated in the segregated schools of the 1940s and 1950s, he was quarterback for his high school football team, was elected student body president, and was consistently on the academic honor roll. He attended what is now West Virginia State University where he participated in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program. He graduated with a major in mathematics, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in Field Artillery, and entered the Army in the initial years of desegregation.

Rogers recalled having experienced overt racism and discrimination in his early career but was not deterred; he continued to serve with pride and hone his skills as an officer. His military and leadership skills, reinforced by hard work and determination, enabled him to progress to the rank of lieutenant colonel and be given command of the 1st Battalion, 5th Artillery, 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam. The unit was positioned close the Cambodian border, near the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a supply route used by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) to bring troops and supplies to South Vietnam.

On Halloween night, 1968, Rogers observed heavy traffic on the Ho Chi Minh Trail bringing supplies to the NVA in South Vietnam. U.S. rules of engagement, however, prevented him from ordering an attack on targets inside Cambodia; he had to wait for the enemy troops and supplies to cross the border before his men could open fire. The North Vietnamese, however, had no such restrictions and fired rockets and mortars at the outpost from across the border. Rogers organized an effort to delay the expected assault on the base; he personally directed the placement of his howitzer batteries and the anti-personnel fire. In the early hours after midnight on November 1st, the perimeter of Fire Base Rita was breached by a much larger enemy force and the 1st Battalion was engaged in close combat.

Known as a leader who led from the front, Rogers went where the action was most intense, rallying troops and personally directing and redirecting the howitzer fire. He ran from position to position, even assuming a place on one fire team that had been diminished by casualties; engaged in close-range firefights; and was wounded multiple times during the three assaults. After being wounded so seriously that he could no longer fight himself, he continued calling encouragement and reassurance to his troops. Due in no small part to his courageous leadership, 1st Battalion prevailed and the NVA force was repelled.

On May 14, 1970, President Richard Nixon bestowed the Medal of Honor on LTC Charles Rogers, making him the highest-ranking Black soldier to ever be awarded the Medal of Honor.

Rogers continued his service and rose to the rank of Major General, making him the highest-ranking Black Medal of Honor recipient. He worked diligently for race and gender equality in the military before he retired from the Army in 1984, after 32 years of service, and became a Baptist minister. He returned to Germany to continue to work with the soldiers he loved and died there of cancer in 1990. MG Charles Rogers is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

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REACTION TO TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TEXTING JOURNALIST WAR PLANS

by | Mar 25, 2025 | Politics, The Atlantic, The Moderate Voice

Reactions are pouring in to the news that the White House National Security advisor added The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg to a chat where secret war plans were revealed. The Trump administration is now in defense mode with conflicting statements coming from various officials.

Here’s a round up of blog/news reactions, cartoons and X, formerly known as Twitter.
Politico:

“Only one word for this: FUBAR,” Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), an Army veteran who sits on the Armed Services Committee, wrote on X. “If House Republicans won’t hold a hearing on how this happened IMMEDIATELY, I’ll do it my damn self.”

“Get the fuck out,” said one Democratic congressional aide, capturing a general feeling on Capitol Hill that important security protocols had been broken. It’s an “operational security nightmare,” the person said. The aide, and others, were granted anonymity to be candid about a sensitive security issue involving the administration.

Axios: “Heads should roll”: Congress erupts over stunning Trump admin leak

Republican Senator Josh Hawley immediately went into defense (for Secretary of State Pete Segseth) and offense (swiping at Democrats and pooh-poohing concerns about the security breach). Mediaite quotes him:

I thought what the secretary of defense just said, Laura, was an outstanding statement and, listen, we don’t know how much of this is accurate or not, but it looks like even if everything The Atlantic reported is true, it’s the president’s advisers discussing among themselves options they might recommend to the president, and nobody can deny the success of what the president is doing here, which is what Pete Hegseth just underscored.

And this is what the leftist media is reduced to. They can’t argue with the policies, which the American people support, they can’t argue with this new demonstration of American strength that is keeping Americans safe at home and abroad, so now we’re griping about who’s on a text message and who’s not. I mean, come on.

The Guardian:

In an extraordinary blunder, key figures in the Trump administration – including the vice-president, JD Vance, the defence secretary Pete Hegseth, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard – used the commercial chat app Signal to convene and discuss plans – while also including a prominent journalist in the group.

Signal is not approved by the US government for sharing sensitive information.

Others in the chat included the Trump adviser Stephen Miller; Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles; and the key Trump envoy Steve Witkoff.

Rolling Stone:

Donald Trump installed a former Fox News host with a history of alleged erratic behavior as Secretary of Defense. What could go wrong? Well, we’re barely two months into the president’s term and Pete Hegseth seems to have texted presumably classified plans to bomb Yemen into a group chat that inadvertently included the editor in chief of The Atlantic.

Garrett Graff of Doomsday Scenario offered “six short thoughts” on this development. GO TO THE LINK to read them in full. Some are partially quote here, others here just list the thought.

1) Imagine the other foot. I know it’s exhausting to think about the “but her emails!” comparisons, but I’d like you to imagine for a minute what would have happened if Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had accidentally added Tucker Carlson to a group chat about classified war plans? It’s impossible to imagine Sullivan lasting a single hour in office before resigning — this would be the biggest scandal of the Biden administration full stop. There would be Republican congressional hearings, the ole flurry of subpoenas, and calls across Capitol Hill for multiple officials to resign. And here’s the thing: They would all be right….

2) Our allies are watching. …. Is this a government and group of people you’d want to share your own sensitive intelligence with? Is this a government and group of people you’d be willing to share intelligence that put lives of your operatives or agents at risk?…

3) The White House just doesn’t believe the rules apply to it (Part 1). ,…

4) The White House just doesn’t believe the rules apply to it (Part 2).….

5) This is not a smoothly functioning government (Part 543,651,690).…

6) Democrats are still not up for this moment.…