PRIMETIME FOCUS: The damage Trump has done to America’s veterans

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And for anyone who did not know the exact location of the #ICEFacility in #ScarboroughME, the address is 40 Manson Libby Road! Any vets needing some support (and maybe want to keep an eye on #ICEVehicles)? Hmmmm...

#ICE facility planned in Scarborough

May 5, 2021
By Ulya Aligulova | Photos Joseph Shaw

"Construction of a new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility located at 40 Manson Libby Road in Scarborough is set to be completed in spring 2021. It will share the building with a #VeteransAdministration group that provides therapy and support to veterans.

"The news of the facility first broke in February 2020 when Bangor Daily News reported on an email they obtained, under the Freedom of Information Act, from Alisa Wofford, a leasing specialist with the U.S. General Services Administration, an agency that manages federal building contracts. '[T]his space will be low key and not brightly advertised as an ICE location,' Wofford wrote to other government officials. 'The GSA property manager does not speculate that protests will be a problem for the vet center.' According to the email, ICE will process, fingerprint, and detain people suspected of immigration violations, keeping them in onsite holding rooms before transporting them in unmarked vans to an overnight detention facility elsewhere, if necessary.

"At present, people apprehended by the agency and waiting for immigration court proceedings are generally held at the Cumberland County Jail before being moved out of state. According to ICE’s website, the nearest Enforcement and Removal Operations field office, whose area of responsibility includes Maine, is in Boston. However, in October 2019, the agency announced the opening of an administrative office in downtown Portland at One City Center, which also has one holding cell. The news of the two facilities came as the number of people arrested by ICE spiked across the country. In 2019, ICE apprehended over 1.1 million people, a rise of nearly 70% from the previous fiscal year. In 2020, the agency convicted nearly 400,000 people and deported over 185,000 noncitizens from the U.S.

"Scarborough town officials were not aware of the plans for the facility before the Bangor Daily News broke the story. #JoshSoley, the owner of the industrial building at 40 Manson Libby Road, signed a 15-year-lease with the GSA in April 2019. 'This was a private transaction between a property owner and the federal government that complied with all the zoning requirements and the council doesn’t have any authority to approve or disapprove leases between the parties,' said Scarborough Town Council Chief Paul Johnson. 'We’ve since changed our zoning laws so that overnight and detention facilities will no longer be allowed. The new zoning would also prevent this facility from expanding.' "

Read more:
https://www.amjamboafrica.com/ice-facility-planned-in-scarborough/

#MainePol #USPol #MaineResists #ICEOut #ICEOutOfMaine
#ICESucks #DefundICE #DefundDHS

‘And the fact that he was killed on city streets — as an employee of the U.S. government, by the U.S. government — it’s blowing my mind.”’ #veteransadministration #va #ice

ICU nurse fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis cared for veterans https://wapo.st/3Z0RNzB

ICU nurse fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis cared for veterans

Alex Pretti, 37, identified by Minnesota’s attorney general as the man killed Saturday, was dedicated to caring for veterans, friends and colleagues said.

The Washington Post
started a #wikipedia article on US dietitian, nutrition educator, and disability rights activist, Katherine A. Niemeyer (1926-1987): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_A._Niemeyer @wikiwomeninred #UniversityofIllinois #CapeCoral #VeteransAdministration #DisHist @disabilityhistory

If you work in #healthcare, and are not wearing a #mask

Or worse, wearing it incorrectly

We are judging you, and not trusting the quality of care from you.

#COVIDIsNotOver #MaskUp #masking #qualityofcare
#va #veteransadministration

I'm very disturbed by the administration's attack on nurses--firing them from the VA, deprofessionalizing them and the work they do. We need more nurses and they deserve our respect and support.

#nurses #VeteransAdministration #VA
https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/nurses-for-democracy-resources#federal_workers

Nurses for Democracy: Resources

The Trump administration is rapidly making sweeping changes that affect nurses and our patients in and out of the hospital. See our list of resources regarding these changes here.

National Nurses United

Trump Cuts Veteran Employees, Benefits Under False Claims of Fraud – Rolling Stone

Donald Trump at a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on Nov. 11 BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI /AFP / Getty Images

Trump Is Turning the Screws on Vets So the Rich Can Get Richer

The president claims his administration’s cuts to the VA and care for veterans is due to fraud — despite a lack of real evidence

November 14, 2025

Donald Trump has long insisted that no one cares about America’s veterans more than him. He continued to do so while delivering a Veterans Day address from Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday, claiming his first administration fired “thousands” of government employees — “sick people” and “thieves” — who didn’t take care of veterans, only to see them rehired by Joe Biden.

“We got rid of them,” the president said of his new administration. Trump also praised Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, the Project 2025 architect who is overseeing the administration’s cost-cutting spree. “What a good job he’s doing, cutting, cutting, cutting,” Trump said.

The speech came as the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was struggling through the longest government shutdown in modern history — during which the Republican Party has wasted no time advancing Project 2025 and stripping veterans of their earned disability payments. Trump’s VA is also cutting 30,000 employees — many of them service-disabled veterans — after initially planning to cut 80,000 of the “sick people,” as Trump calls them, who are somehow defrauding the system. The cuts come as the department is already hemorrhaging medical professionals, and as the Trump administration has imposed strict hiring limits that prevent replacing those who leave.

Along with gutting federal agencies like the VA, Project 2025 calls for narrowing the list of medical conditions eligible for disability compensation, automating claims decisions, and tying future payments to “work incentives.” Its authors frame these proposals as modernization, but the effect would be to de-rate veterans — to downgrade or deny legitimate claims under the guise of efficiency. Veterans with pending applications could lose eligibility altogether, while those already receiving compensation could see their ratings reduced by algorithm. 

This is all by design, and Trump and his administration are building a case against our veterans with lies. Fraud within the system is exceedingly rare. According to the VA inspector general, few VA fraud cases involve veterans themselves, and most of those are isolated, small-dollar offenses.

So, what is this really about? It’s simple. It’s the same thing the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was about, the same thing Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill was about. It’s about dismantling the U.S. government and diverting trillions of dollars away from veterans, the poor, the uninsured, and other less fortunate Americans — all to enrich a handful of well-connected, Trump-aligned billionaires.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Trump Cuts Veteran Employees, Benefits Under False Claims of Fraud

#2025 #america #billionaires #corruption #cutsVeteransBenefits #departmentOfGovernemntEfficiency #dismantlingGovernment #doge #donaldTrump #education #employees #falseFraudClaims #health #history #libraries #library #libraryOfCongress #musk #opinion #politics #resistance #science #trump #trumpAdministration #unitedStates #va #veterans #veteransAdministration

#StupidityKILLS

#VeteransAdministration Makes It Harder for Male Veterans With Breast Cancer to Get Coverage %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%

https://www.propublica.org/article/veterans-affairs-male-breast-cancer-coverage-trump-executive-order

Citing Trump Order on “Biological Truth,” VA Makes It Harder for Male Veterans With Breast Cancer to Get Coverage

A Department of Veterans Affairs memo obtained by ProPublica erects new roadblocks to care for veterans with the rare but deadly cancer. The agency cites no new science but relies on an executive order about “restoring biological truth” in government.

ProPublica

#StupidityKILLS

#VeteransAdministration Makes It Harder for Male Veterans With Breast Cancer to Get Coverage %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%

https://www.propublica.org/article/veterans-affairs-male-breast-cancer-coverage-trump-executive-order

Citing Trump Order on “Biological Truth,” VA Makes It Harder for Male Veterans With Breast Cancer to Get Coverage

A Department of Veterans Affairs memo obtained by ProPublica erects new roadblocks to care for veterans with the rare but deadly cancer. The agency cites no new science but relies on an executive order about “restoring biological truth” in government.

ProPublica