January 24, 2023
As a 100 percent service-connected disabled American Veteran, I am disappointed that the first ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2022 - 2023 term today (Tuesday, January 24, 2023) was a unanimous decision against service-connected disabled American Veterans. All of the 9 top Federal Judges ruled that if a Veteran doesn't apply for his or her service-connected VA benefits within one year of their separation from the U.S. Armed Services, he or she is ineligible for retroactive benefits unless they qualify under specified legal exemptions.
During my honorable military service and my over two decades of receiving my VA service-connected benefits, I found everything I experienced to be overly bureaucratic instead of the U.S. Government treating me like a human being. I am NOT a robot. I am NOT a number on a government spreadsheet. I am a Human Being! I make my own decisions according to me being a compassionate human being instead of just dotting i's and crossing t's. The military and VA have rules and regulations for everything, and they feel to me like they are all without humanity.
In early-2023, I am seeing and reading about the Republican Party's margin of 9 members majority in the U.S. House of Representative trying to bargain away the American people's earned benefits to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid - the "Big 3" Social Insurance federal programs - in order for them to pass an increase to the federal debt limit. Once again, the American People who rely on these Social Insurance Programs are human beings instead of bureaucratic bargaining chips for the so-called fiscally conservative Republican Members of U.S. Congress. Moreover, the irony of the Republican Party's stand on the federal debt of over $31.5 trillion is that they have been the party of deficit spenders for over 40 years now. When a Democrat is the U.S. President, the Republicans try to cut social spending, but when it is the other way around, the Republicans always deficit spend on their favored federal programs.
During the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis, both political parties voted to bailout Wall Street and even foreign banks who did business on Wall Street to the tune of many trillions of federal dollars. But when it comes to the American People, the Republican Party say that they want austerity. I remember during the financial crisis, the U.K. Government bailed out its big banks, while they cut social spending, but that didn't happen in the U.S.A. back then. Why are the Republicans fighting for austerity now?
During and after my time in the U.S. Army, I openly called the government personnel who acted like bureaucrats instead of human beings: BUREAUCRATS! The U.S. Army retaliated against me by saying that I have a Personality Disorder. The VA denied my claim for service-connection for 7 years. As a Veteran, I received letters from the U.S. Army criticizing me for writing in protest: Bureaucracy is the Army instead of the Army being a bureaucracy. I wrote back to the Army Official who criticized me that he is a BUREAUCRAT!
It never mattered to the Army, and for 7 years, it didn't matter to the VA, that my service-connected psychiatric disability caused me to suffer from psychiatric conditions and be at-risk of homelessness. The Army wrote that I chose to behave inappropriately when the Army Psychiatrist said that my symptoms and behavior were involuntary. I never chose to be tortured, bullied, ostracized by the Army, including me being sleep deprived for several nights as I was (illegally) ordered to pull several consecutive 24-hour duty shifts outside in the field in Germany in the cold of Winter. I never chose to have a fellow Soldier hold a steel bar to my head threatening my life, but when I reported the incident, I was reprimanded for disrespecting the Soldier who was going to harm me. I never chose to receive illegal orders to drive a 5-ton U.S. Army truck in the Winter during the time I was being (illegally) sleep deprived, which was around a month after a fellow Soldier who was sleep deprived by him partying all night jackknifed a car with a mother and her son inside while they were commuting to the boy's elementary school in Germany, and they were both instantly killed, which led the aforementioned Soldier to be court-martialed, dishonorably discharged and sent to Military Prison.
To this day, over two decades later, it never mattered to the U.S. Army that I have a service-connected psychiatric disability as a disabled American Veteran. The U.S. Army never apologized to me for their actions. Instead, they put it all on me. The VA stated that they did not initially use science to adjudicate my claim for service-connected VA benefits. Looking back at it all, and today reading about today's U.S. Supreme Court decision against service-connected disabled Veterans, I am once again going to call the U.S. Government what they truly are: A bunch of BUREAUCRATS!
Jonathan A. Melle
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January 29, 2023
Joe Biden is the worst of both worlds because he spends a lot of money but little of it helps us common people. He is a contradiction & a liar. Please don't get me started on Hunter Biden. I want 2 new presidential candidates next year 2024. I believe the government does DISSERVICES to people like us! The corrupt career politicians are in it for themselves. We are left pounding sand. Some of the corrupt career politicians even block my political emails to them. The news media rarely publishes my political letters. Even blogger Dan Valenti limits my postings on his free speech blog about Pittsfield politics and beyond. The fix is always in politics, which is about all of the corrupt career politicians, the Almighty Dollar and power for the elites. I hate bureaucrats and bureaucracy, but I love humanity and people giving and caring about what is happening to us common people. Let us keep up the good fights even if it is just to upset the bureaucrats and the government. I refuse to be a number on their spreadsheet(s). Give em He'll until they get there themselves. I am and I will always be on your side!
Jonathan A. Melle
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January 29, 2023
To the Editor:
The Republican Party majority in the U.S. House of Representatives is using the federal debt limit as a bargaining chip to attempt to cut Social Insurance programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. My proposal to the new Speaker of the U.S. House Kevin McCarthy is to lead by example by first having all of the Republican Party Members of the sitting U.S. Congress vote to voluntarily cut their own public pay and perks by at least 50 percent over the next 30 years and then vote to makes cuts in social spending that will cause financial pain to the American People. Please lead by example, Swamp Republicans!
Jonathan A. Melle
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January 30, 2023
Someone asks me: "RE, Leahy - what is his [sic] opinion of the events of 4/19/1775?"
Erin Leahy is she, not he. Erin Leahy is a young woman who is the Executive Director of Act on Mass, and she wrote in one of her political emails that she lives in an apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts. I enjoy reading and responding to Erin Leahy's political emails about the corrupt and secretive leadership and the useless, do-nothing state lawmakers on Beacon Hill. I cannot tell you what Erin Leahy's opinions are of the events of April 19th, 1775, but I will tell you what my opinions are about the beginning of the American Revolutionary War in Massachusetts.
In 1775, when I was a little over negative 200 years before me coming to life, the Colonial subjects of the King of England named George III - now in 2023, there is King Charles III - paid two weeks of their yearly income in taxes to His Majesty in London. Massachusetts' government went bankrupt in 1775. The Founding Fathers asked their then King to bailout Massachusetts' government, but the King declined and told his subjects to raise taxes to pay for their debts in Massachusetts. The King was unpopular because the people - 97 percent of them back then were farmers - didn't want to pay taxes without representation in the government in London.
The disputes between the 13 American Colonies and the British Crown were simmering for over one decade, and it all led to the American Revolutionary War, which the mostly Slave-owning Founding Fathers led by George Washington won 8 years later. The irony of most of the Slave-owning Founding Fathers fighting for the Classical Liberal right of self-determination and Independence from tyranny is that most of them were Slave-owning tyrants themselves who did, indeed, know full well that they were wrong for owning Slaves.
When I look back on it all through the lens of U.S. history, wouldn't it be nice to only pay two weeks of your yearly income in taxes? The U.S.A. was founded on a request for Massachusetts' government to receive a bailout from the King of England. The Colonial People of old wanted political representation in their government in return for taxation; wouldn't it be nice for the Ruling Elites to finally do just that? Instead, the corrupt career politicians in government are owned by the Financial Elites, and the Corporate Elites, along with the vested interests such as big labor unions, and special interests, such as the greedy lobbyists on K Street, and the military industrial complex that makes all of the elites, especially Wall Street, huge amounts of money.
Back to Erin Leahy at Act on Mass. I support her public advocacy work because Beacon Hill only works for the Financial, Corporate and Ruling Elites, while an estimated one out of three families in Massachusetts in financially and food insecure. Beacon Hill lawmakers hide behind systemic corruption and secrecy so that they can get away with "Cooking the Books" to enrich themselves and their wealthy campaign donors at the public trough. Beacon Hill lawmakers are sitting on an estimated $7 billion to $10 billion dollars in surplus state cash, and they are doing nothing to help Senior Citizens, Veterans, working-class families, and so on.
Beacon Hill lawmakers giveaway an estimated a little less than $18 billion in state tax breaks per fiscal year that only benefits wealthy businesses and areas in and around Boston, while place such as my native hometown of Pittsfield has to pound sand and is mocked by all of Boston's (voluntary) regressive scams such as the 50-year-old Massachusetts State Lottery's new $50 scratch ticket, and similar inequitable schemes.
In the Swamp, the Republicans in U.S. Congress have an agenda to cut social spending that would cause even further economic pain for the American People. I want those same Republicans to lead by example and voluntarily cut their own public pay plus perks by at least 50 percent over the next 30 years first, and then vote to shaft all of the Have Nots with their proposed cuts to social spending. On Beacon Hill, I want the Democrat state lawmakers to do the same by voting to voluntarily cut their own public pay plus perks by at least 50 percent over the next 30 years before they sell the new $50 scratch ticket to the people beginning on February 7th, 2023, so that the corrupt career politicians in Boston can giveaway even more state tax breaks to their Boston area wealthy campaign donors instead of fully funding state aid to public school districts and local governments across Massachusetts.
I am grateful to live in the U.S.A. I am a 100 percent service-connected disabled Veteran who honorably served our country in the U.S. Army. To be clear, I love our country, but as for the government, I will always speak my good conscience as long as I live if only to annoy all of the elites for their corruption and inequitable actions from April 19th, 1775, through January 30th, 2023, and beyond.
Jonathan A. Melle
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January 31, 2023
Thank you for your email about the American Revolutionary War and the events on and after April 19th, 1775. I agree with a lot of what you wrote to me about these historical matters. I would add that colonialism did not end until 11/11/1918, which of course led to the rise of Adolf Hitler over one decade later, which has led to the military industrial complex global economy and nuclear warfare nightmare threat that could end the world we live in as we now know it. When will it ever get better for humankind? Why cannot we all live in peace? War, war, war, war....END OF THE WORLD! I hope NOT!
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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February 13, 2023
My response to (Stockbridge) blogger Dan Valenti and Brian Andrews, head of (Berkshire) County Ambulance is that mental health, addiction(s) and substance use disorder(s), abusive conflict and violence, and so on, is that we all experience it one way or another in our lives whether it is a first-hand negative experience(s) or watching a loved one and/or close friend go through it. As a service-connected disabled Veteran, I am a proud peer support for my fellow Veterans and everyone else I know in my life. When I LISTEN to people, it is usually a combination of difficult things in their lives that cause a person to "go down the proverbial rabbit hole". Nobody - past, present & future - is perfect in life. Nobody makes choices that leads to uncontrollable and or involuntary negative thoughts and behaviors, addiction(s), homicidal and/or suicidal ideation(s), disabilities, and so on. We all need help during our lives. Blogger Dan Valenti's personal choice seems to be to let vulnerable people sink, while Brian Andrews personal and professional choice seems to be to help vulnerable people swim. In my adult life, I have always given my money to charities, especially for babies and animals, because I believe that everyone deserves to have an equal chance in life. I dislike it when people tell me to do what is in my best interests even if me doing so leaves people without hope that there are good people out there who care about them. Lastly, when I break down the financial numbers, state governments spend more than 50 percent of their budgets on public health, while the federal government spends more than at least 34 percent of its budget on public health - I dislike that big insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies profit from it instead of spending the money on universal healthcare. We are talking about trillions of state and federal tax dollars per year being spent on public health. That is a big chunk of our nation's economy, which means that the money is there to help vulnerable people in need of public healthcare services. Get Well and Be Well everyone!
Jonathan A. Melle
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February 13, 2023
You, as a Veteran yourself, can go on blaming me for being a disabled Veteran, but please stop blaming former Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington's 4 years in elected office for Pittsfield always being in the 10 ten cities in Massachusetts for violent crime, according to the FBI's annual reports, that go back decades. Pittsfield has over 1,000 gang members living in its inner-city neighborhoods. The low- to moderate-income residents are afraid of the violence, drugs, prostitution, and the like, and I read their letters to the editor over the years, and they said they don't have enough money to live somewhere else. When I was a youth growing up in Pittsfield in the 1980s and 1990s, I hoped that I wouldn't end up living in inner-city Pittsfield. Now that I am 47.5 years old, I am thankful that I live in a nice little town west of Nashua, NH. My wish came true that I didn't have to deal with it in Pittsfield like so many distressed people I observed many years ago. Lastly, I am sure that the greedy career Ambulance chasing, Divorce Attorney who after 18 years of seeking his plum elected position of Berkshire County District Attorney, Tim Shugrue, is NOT going to change much for the better in Pittsfield with his tough on shoplifting policies. Like all of the other useless career politicians, D.A. Tim Shugrue doesn't really give a shit about Pittsfield being a shithole!
Jonathan A. Melle
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April 26, 2023
I respect and support Ward 2 Pittsfield City Councilor Charles Ivar Kronick. I respect and thank you, "M.A.", for your honorable military service. I had breakfast today with my friend, who used to live in Pittsfield many years ago, at the diner in my current hometown in Amherst, New Hampshire. When I go to the VA Hospital, the Veterans there all respect me. I served our country honorably. I am a 100% service-connected disabled Veteran. I don't understand why you pick on me for my service record. Every Veteran who I have talked to has stories about their own service record. Being in the U.S. Armed Forces is not always a pleasant experience. I was far from being the best Soldier, and I am thankful for all of the service members who volunteer ("volun-told") to protect our nation and world.
I am upset that Russia keeps escalating its threat of nuclear weapons in a would-be war against the West. I read that today's so-called "strategic" nuclear weapons are more powerful than the atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WW2. I want a peace settlement with Putin and Russia over Ukraine soon so that Russia's threats of using its nuclear weapons in a would-be war with the West will stop. I tell people that I will turn 48 years old during this Summer 2023, but I want peace for the younger generations who have not lived their lives yet. I, too, would like to enjoy a full life, or course. I wish there were no such thing as nuclear weapons, along with all of the other Weapons of Mass Destruction, but it would be too good to be true.
Jonathan A. Melle
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"Supreme Court rejects appeal from veterans seeking disability benefits after radiation exposure"
AP, Nation, June 20, 2023
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal on behalf of some U.S. veterans who want disability benefits because they were exposed to radiation while responding to a Cold War-era hydrogen bomb accident in Spain.
The justices did not comment in turning away an appeal from Victor Skaar, an Air Force veteran in his mid-80s.
Skaar, of Nixa, Missouri, filed class-action claims seeking benefits for him and others who say they became ill from exposure to radiation during the recovery and cleanup of the undetonated bombs at the accident site in Palomares, a village in southern Spain, in 1966.
A federal appeals court rejected the class-action claims. The Supreme Court’s action leaves that ruling in place.
The Justice Department, arguing against high-court review, noted that Congress last year enacted legislation that expands eligibility for benefits for many Palomares veterans. But the department also acknowledged that Skaar is not covered by the legislation.
Skaar’s lawyers told the Supreme Court that he suffers from leukopenia, described as a condition that can be caused by exposure to radiation. Skaar also has had skin cancer, now in remission, the lawyers wrote in a court filing.
He was among 1,400 U.S. service members who were sent to Palomares to help clean up what has been called the worst radiation accident in U.S. history.
On Jan. 17, 1966, a U.S. B-52 bomber and a refueling plane crashed into each other during a refueling operation in the skies above Palomares, killing seven of 11 crew members but no one on the ground. At the time, the U.S. was keeping nuclear-armed warplanes in the air near the border with the Soviet Union.
The midair collision resulted in the release of four U.S. hydrogen bombs. None of the bombs exploded, but the plutonium-filled detonators on two went off, scattering 7 pounds (3 kilograms) of highly radioactive plutonium 239 across the landscape.
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