Andy Kim: Petraeus gave out medals for "schmoozing"

Poor Andy Kim.  Trying to make himself out to be some kind of warlord while working for two of the wildest hanky-panky loving generals in memory. 

Andy Kim claims to have been on assignment in Afghanistan in 2011.  That's when two now disgraced generals ran the United Nations operation there.  Kim claims it was a NATO deal, but that is just more of his b.s. -- it was a U.N. operation. 

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was a NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan, established by the United Nations Security Council in December 2001 by Resolution 1386.  Its main purpose was to train the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and assist Afghanistan in rebuilding key government institutions.  In October 2003, the UN Security Council authorized the expansion of the ISAF mission throughout Afghanistan.  ISAF ceased operations and was disbanded in December 2014. 

And while Andy Kim wants to beat his chest about it, the truth is much sadder, as these headlines show...

Taliban control of Afghanistan continues to grow, US data reveals - CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/30/asia/afghanistan-taliban-us-control.../index.html

Jan 30, 2018 - The Taliban strengthened its hold over Afghanistan in the second half of last year, according to new US military data released to CNN on ..

Taliban threaten 70% of Afghanistan, BBC finds - BBC News

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42863116

Jan 31, 2018 - The BBC study shows the Taliban are now in full control of 14 districts .... a bloody insurgency which continues today; In 2016, Afghan civilian ...

Afghan Forces Battle Taliban for Control of Western City, Farah - The ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/world/asia/afghanistan-taliban-farah-.html

9 hours ago - KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents entered the capital of the ... “We are hoping to get control of the fighting in the city by today,” Gen.

No, it doesn't look like Andy and the Obama administration solved much. 

But there was time for fun... and a lot of hanky panky.  According to numerous media reports, one of the guys Kim worked for -- John Allen -- exchanged 30,000 emails with a lovely beauty in Tampa, Florida.  No kidding -- 30,000 emails.  How did the guy manage to get anything done with all that playmail?

All that carrying on made the American military a laughingstock...

'Commander, you are SUCH a tease!' How Gen Petraeus was nicknamed James Bond by the socialite who felt his quads over dinner - and who exchanged 30,000 flirty emails with another top general

(Daily Mail, March 28, 2016)

In Andy Kim's defense, he is never mentioned in connection to any of the hanky panky -- unless he answered to one of the nicknames "snoopy" or "moe of planet moe".  No, Andy Kim didn't merit a mention in the biography of General Petraeus written by the lady reservist Petraeus was getting it on with.  But they did get the same photo-op:

And as for awards.  Poor Andy was left in the dust again.  The civilian service award that Andy Kim got was a paltry affair compared to the big-deal Joint Chiefs of Staff award that the "quad-feeler" socialite got.  Apparently they were handing out civilian awards like candy over at Fort Runamuck. 

Jill Kelley awarded prestigious medal from Joint Chiefs in 2011

(New York Post, November 22, 2012)

COMRADES: Jill Kelley demonstrates her “selfless contributions” for which Gen. David Petraeus (left) bestowed the second-highest citation for a civilian.

They’ll give a medal to anyone.

Military schmoozer Jill Kelley — a central figure in the investigation of Gen. David Petraeus — in March 2011 was awarded a prestigious medal from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The award, the country’s second-highest honor for a civilian, was given to acknowledge Kelley’s “selfless contributions” and “willingness to host engagements” for top pols and military brass.

Beads... Maybe Andy should have worn beads.

Meanwhile, actual heroes were getting screwed by the Petraeus crew that Andy Kim worked for...

Ex-Army Gen. David Petraeus tried to downgrade war hero’s valor award: Pentagon

(New York Daily News, November 8, 2013)

A soldier nominated for the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor, had to endure a sneak attack from then-Army Gen. David Petraeus, who reportedly wanted to downgrade his heroism.

A Pentagon investigation into the botched nomination of Army Capt. William Swenson revealed Petraeus surreptitiously tried to give Swenson the nation's second-highest award, according to reports.  Swenson, 34, ultimately was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama last month for nearly singlehandedly fighting off 60 Taliban insurgents in 2009. He heroically assisted injured U.S. and Afghan troops following an assault in the Ganjgal Valley, and further proved his mettle by returning to the dangerous scene multiple times to recover his fallen brothers and sisters.

Never fear though, Petraeus did manage to dish out the civilian awards like hot dogs at a baseball game...

General Petraeus Gave Jill Kelley A Medal For Schmoozing

(Business Insider, November 22, 2012)

Did you know you can get a medal from the U.S. military for schmoozing?

Apparently you can.

At General David Petraeus's recommendation, the Joint Chiefs of Staff gave Tampa Bay socialite Jill Kelley the country's second-highest honor a civilian can receive, reports Jeane MacIntosh of the New York Post.

Kelley received the award from Petraeus himself in a ceremony in Washington DC last year.

Jeane MacIntosh quotes from the citation, which lauds Kelley for many achievements:

·       "outstanding public service to the United States Central Command, the MacDill Air Force Base community and the Department of Defense from October 31, 2008 to May 31, 2010."

·       Kelley's work in "advancing various military endeavors" and her "willingness to host engagements with senior national representatives from more than 60 countries," according to the Tampa Tribune.

·       "On multiple occasions, Mrs. Kelley invited senior national representatives, their spouses and senior leaders to her home to demonstrate their gratitude and support. These events promoted camaraderie, understanding and a better appreciation for coalition and military customs, concerns and abilities."

·       "She [was] instrumental in introducing the commander, early in his tenure, to local and state officials, particularly the mayor of Tampa and the governor of Florida."

·       "The singularly distinctive accomplishments of Mrs. Jill Kelley are in keeping with the finest traditions of public service and reflect great credit upon herself, United States Central Command and the Department of Defense."

Amazing the things you learn from a sex scandal.

We have excerpts below for those of you who have not had the opportunity to read General Petraeus' biography, All In, written by former "squeeze" Paula Broadwell...

The Clintons and tax cheat Marc Rich

The New York Times has been beating its partisan drum regarding Donald Trump's taxes.  But, as Sussex County citizen activist Harvey Roseff points out, there is an even larger tax story out there that "better deals with proper ethical behavior."

Roseff writes:

"Today's NY Times story is that Trump filed his taxes and it was proper. That's all that matters - nothing was avoided or illegal.  In fact, Trump filed to laws and regulations that Bill Clinton was in charge of.  Irrespective of if we are for or against Trump or Hillary, the story that taxes were 'avoided' is wrong - the government got what it wanted.

So let's look at Bill Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich.  A tax cheat who was on the FBI's most wanted list.  Rich undermined US sanctions and hugely profited. Rich was pardoned and many leading Democratic leaders (and of course Republican) denounced Clinton's act. So compared to the Trump tax story, here we have one person thwarting the will of the people's government.

And ever since, Rich's interests have taken care of the Clintons."

Roseff links to a story from the New York Post (January 17, 2016):

Bill Clinton’s pardon of fugitive Marc Rich continues to pay big

By Peter Schweizer

January 17, 2016 | 6:00am

Fifteen years ago this month, on Jan. 20, 2001, his last day in office, Bill Clinton issued a pardon for international fugitive Marc Rich. It would become perhaps the most condemned official act of Clinton’s political career. A New York Times editorial called it “a shocking abuse of presidential power.” The usually Clinton-friendly New Republic noted it “is often mentioned as Exhibit A of Clintonian sliminess.”

Congressman Barney Frank added, “It was a real betrayal by Bill Clinton of all who had been strongly supportive of him to do something this unjustified. It was contemptuous.”

Marc Rich was wanted for a list of charges going back decades. He had traded illegally with America’s enemies including Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran, where he bought about $200 million worth of oil while revolutionaries allied with Khomeini held 53 American hostages in 1979.

Rich made a large part of his wealth, approximately $2 billion between 1979 and 1994, selling oil to the apartheid regime in South Africa when it faced a UN embargo. He did deals with Khadafy’s Libya, Milosevic’s Yugoslavia, Kim Il Sung’s North Korea, Communist dictatorships in Cuba and the Soviet Union itself. Little surprise that he was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List.

Facing prosecution by Rudy Giuliani in 1983, Rich fled to Switzerland and lived in exile...

Read the rest of the story here:

http://nypost.com/2016/01/17/after-pardoning-criminal-marc-rich-clintons-made-millions-off-friends/

Transsexual rape in LGBT toilet

The threat to women and girls by men with access to their toilet facilities was brutally made clear over the weekend when a "transgender woman" (that is, a man who "presents" as a woman or a woman who "presents" as a man) was allegedly raped while using a public toilet.  The crime occurred inside the famous Stonewall Inn -- an LGBT landmark where the "gay rights" movement began back in the 1970's.  The New York Post reported on the incident yesterday:

A transgender woman says she was raped in a unisex bathroom at the Stonewall Inn — and police are searching for the suspect who they say regularly frequents the landmark gay bar.

Video surveillance clearly shows the woman entering the single-occupancy bathroom late Saturday, soon followed by a man believed to be in his 30s, police sources say.

They remained in the bathroom for about eight minutes. That’s when the alleged rape took place, sources said. The suspect exited the bathroom, then walked back in.

The woman, who was believed to be heavily impaired by alcohol and possibly prescription pills, alerted friends and called 911 a short time later, sources said. She was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital for treatment.

Sources said the suspect regularly patronizes the Christopher Street bar on Saturday nights and may have been dealing drugs there.

“People inside the Stonewall know him,” Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said. “We hope to have him identified in the next coming days.”

Stonewall Inn, site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, is famed as the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement.

“It’s a very disturbing incident taking place in a site that’s very important historically, where something good happened in terms of creating more opportunity for people to live their lives,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “and to see a violent incident like this is very troubling.”

The Stonewall Inn is a sacred icon to the LGBT community.  This is like a rape occurring in Independence Hall -- except that the people who run Independence Hall probably would have banned the alleged rapist, who also allegedly deals drugs, from the premises.  But this points up the danger when staff, who are after all more concerned with serving alcoholic beverages, fail to monitor who is being followed into toilet facilities.  Imagine what will happen when fully functioning males, with penises, have the LEGAL RIGHT to follow any woman or girl they want to?  And it will make no difference at all if the man who believes himself to be a woman has a criminal conviction for violent sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, rape, or murder.  It will be his right.

Any piece of legislation (like S-283) that proposes such an eventuality, places women and girls at risk of becoming victims of sex crimes.  Such legislation should include a mandate that every public toilet in the state have a panic button installed at every stall and that armed security be present at all facilities of a certain number of stalls or more.  The cost for such should be borne by increased taxes on very rich people like Donald Edward Newhouse (estimated net worth: $10.5 billion), the 2nd richest resident of New Jersey and the 56th richest person in the United States.  Revenue could also be found by taxing corporations like Advance Publications, the 4th largest private company in the NY area and the 44th largest private company in the United States.

Remember, if we prevent just one woman or girl from suffering a criminal sexual assault the increased taxation on these very rich people and corporations will have been worth it.

Gottheimer caught taking blood money from J & J

We caught the culprits in action!  Thanks to the investigative reporting of Herb Jackson, the Washington Correspondent for the Bergen Record, we caught the Johnson & Johnson corporation's political action committee in the act of buying congressional candidate Josh Gottheimer.  From the Record (March 2, 2016): 

The political action committee of health products giant Johnson & Johnson hosted a Washington fund-raiser on Wednesday for Josh Gottheimer, the Democrat challenging Rep. Scott Garrett, according to an invitation obtained by The Record.

...It does not appear New Brunswick-based Johnson & Johnson’s PAC made any contributions to congressional challengers in the 2014 election, according data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. J&J’s committee did not give to Garrett in that election, either, and does not appear to have given to him so far in this cycle either, Federal Election Commission records show...

An aide confirmed Pallone, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Energy & Commerce Committee, which oversees a significant part of health insurance policy, was a featured guest at the J&J event for Gottheimer. According to the invitation, “suggested contribution levels” were $2,500 for PAC co-hosts, $1,000 for PAC supporters and $500 for individuals.

There was no immediate response to a message seeking comment from Johnson & Johnson. Amounts raised will be disclosed in quarterly reports due in April.

Gottheimer, a one-time speech writer for President Bill Clinton who recently stepped down from his job as a corporate strategist at Microsoft to focus on the campaign full-time, had $1.3 million in his campaign account on Dec. 31, the second-highest amount of any House challenger in the country.

The Johnson & Johnson money event for candidate Gottheimer comes just one week after the corporate giant lost a $72 million lawsuit to a woman who died from ovarian cancer after using Johnson & Johnson baby talc for feminine hygiene.  Time Magazine (March 2, 2016) takes up the story from here:

Many parents were shocked to learn that a Missouri jury recently ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $72 million to the family of Jacqueline Fox, whose death by ovarian cancer was linked to her daily use of talcum-based Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products. You know the product—that sweet baby scent, the soft puff of powder.

For decades, Fox used these talc powders on her most sensitive body parts. And for decades, according to the case, Johnson & Johnson knew about the cancer link but failed to warn consumers.

Did we read that right?  Johnson & Johnson has known "for decades" that their BABY POWDER (yes, the stuff we put on infants) causes cancer "but failed to warn customers."  What corporate dirtball scumbags!

And Josh Dirtheimer, eh Gottheimer, is down with that? 

The same day Dirtheimer was trousering big sweaty wads of cash from the dirtball lobbyists for these corporate scumbags, a brave woman was on the front page of the New York Post(March 2, 2016) telling how she turned down a million dollar bribe from Johnson & Johnson to hush up her story:

I turned down $1M from Johnson & Johnson, and blew the whistle instead

Cosmetics giant Johnson & Johnson was last week ordered by a Missouri jury to pay $72 million in damages to the family of a woman whose death from ovarian cancer was linked to her decades-long use of the company’s talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products. Ovarian cancer survivor Deane Berg, 58, a physician’s assistant from Sioux Falls, SD, believes the judgment is a great victory. Here, Berg tells The Post’s Jane Ridley her story.

When I first noticed spotting between my periods in the fall of 2006 at the age of 49, I chalked it up to impending menopause. But my instinct as a physician’s assistant told me to get a second opinion from a gynecologist after my family practitioner told me I was fine.

So, that December, I went to Sanford Medical Center in Sioux Falls for an ultrasound. The technician was chatting away happily, but suddenly went quiet. “We’ll finish this up, and the nurse practitioner will come in to talk to you,” she said.

I got dressed, and the NP arrived. She put her hand on my knee. “Deane, I’m afraid something is wrong,” she said. “You’ve got a hemorrhagic ovary. We’re going to have one of the doctors review it.”

The next few days were a haze. I had both ovaries removed — the non-hemorrhagic one as a precaution. I was desperately upset but, after having two daughters, now ages 30 and 27, my child-bearing years were over.

But that was the least of my concerns. The results of the biopsy in January 2007 were devastating. As a health-care professional, I saw the words “bilateral carcinoma” on the pathology report, and my heart sank. I had stage 3 ovarian cancer, which had metastasized to some of my lymph nodes. The prognosis was not good, and I was facing a life expectancy of less than five years. I had a full hysterectomy within a week and prepared to undergo six months of painful chemotherapy.

Just a couple days after the surgery, I read some literature from my oncologist that included information from Gilda’s Club, the foundation created by friends of the late actress Gilda Radner. To my astonishment, it said that use of talcum powder has been implicated in the development of ovarian cancer.

There was no ovarian cancer in my family. I didn’t smoke. I wasn’t overweight. The one risk factor that stood out was my use of talcum powder...

Jurors found Johnson & Johnson liable for fraud, negligence and conspiracy after lawyers argued that the company knew about the dangers but did nothing to inform customers.

I’m so relieved that the issue is finally getting the attention it deserves. In 2013, I, too, sued Johnson & Johnson, and a federal jury found that its body powder products were a factor in my condition. Although I was surprised that the jury awarded me zero damages — South Dakota is a very conservative state, and there had to be a unanimous verdict on whether any compensation should be paid — it was never about the money. Earlier I had turned down a $1.3 million out-of-court settlement because I didn’t want to sign a confidentiality clause.

I believe that talc can cause ovarian cancer in women. Many apply it to their private parts, and talc particles travel to the ovaries through the cervix and line the uterus and fallopian tubes, resulting in toxic effects on the ovaries. In my opinion, talcum powder products should be withdrawn from the market and, until then, be clearly labeled indicating the risk.

No woman should have to go through what Mrs. Fox and I endured, along with thousands of other ovarian cancer sufferers. My life was consumed by chemotherapy and hospital visits. I had two ports put in my chest and abdomen for the IVs. Getting the chemo in my abdomen was the worst pain I’d ever experienced, even worse than childbirth. I suffered from hair loss, nausea, lack of appetite, and I would frequently throw up. I became anemic and could barely walk. Off work for sickness for six months, I couldn’t go out in public in case my immunity was compromised. Then my hearing started to go bad, a side effect of the chemotherapy. It was a living hell, but mercifully, about a year later, in 2008, I was told my cancer went into remission.

And my case paved the way for plaintiff lawyers to bring claims for hundreds of women who blame their ovarian cancer on exposure to talcum powder. As my lawyer said, I’m the equivalent of the first smokers who sued tobacco companies because of their lung cancer. The pioneers didn’t receive compensation, but the dangers and the conspiracy were finally exposed.

Now that Josh "lady-killer" Gottheimer has taken his (under current law) "legal" bribe from Johnson & Johnson, we have no doubt that he will try to use the money to attack his Republican opponent on "women's issues."  Well we have some news for you Dirtheimer, ovarian cancer IS a women's issue.  It's a big one. 

So give it back.  Return the "legal" bribe.  Don't take their money and you won't be indebted to the corporate pigs if you get to Congress.  Give it back.