ARE U.S. FEDERAL COURTS UNSCRUPULOUS, DECEITFUL, UNRIGHTEOUS? THE ONE IN WASHINGTON, D.C. SURE IS!

By

Say it ain’t so!  Regrettably and based on my painful personal experience, it is.

To help the reader with this astonishing concept, let me say it is not a one-off experience.  It’s a problem going back years with multiple, disparate players.  There is Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey, a lesser judicial official appointed for an 8-year term.  He figures in two apparently unconnected incidents.  There is the Federal Burau of Investigation (FBI), tied in one case to Harvey and in two others to clients.  The FBI created problems for me and for several people I was representing, not through error, not through confusion, not through misstep.  But through calculation.   And it’s the FBI that routinely engages in sting operations, often using patsies of limited intelligence involved with Bureau-employed informers.  (But that’s another story.)

Here’s this story.

UNSEALING ADOPTION RECORDS.  In June 2019, my sister, Martha, who had been adopted, died unexpectedly in Texas without leaving a will.  The attorney in the Lone Star State handling her estate requested her adoption records.  Fearing any hidden husbands, children, or other relatives entitled to Martha’s assets, the local court-appointed lawyer representing the decedent’s interests insisted on having her adoption certificate.

In Washington, D.C., the State of Confusion, adoption papers between 1937 and 1956 are held by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia under seal.  To break the seal and obtain needed information, the court required I petition for release of the file.  The requisite paperwork went to the court in August 2019 with further forms and a $600 payment going to the organization handling the search for Martha’s birth records.

In the request sent the U.S. District Court, I outlined the reasons for my application.  In it, I noted that there was an on-going legal case in Texas; a court-appointed guardian was demanding the adoption records; I needed to travel to Texas to wind up probate, and, eventually, bury Martha in the family plot in D.C.  Knowing full well attorneys charge by the hour, it was clear I needed the adoption paper as rapidly as possible.

And yet nothing was done for nearly two years!  THEN, U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey, started making remarkable requests.

In April 2021, Harvey ordered that Petitioner shall submit to the Court an explanation of how disclosure of the Adoptee’s adoption records to him would promote or protect the Adoptee’s welfare.  Please read that sentence again—and again—and again.  It is entirely incomprehensible to anyone why adoption records could promote or protect a dead person’s interests.  Furthermore, I cited settled Washington, D.C. case law regarding adoption to clarify my position.

In one proceeding, the D.C. Court of Appeals stated:  We held that where an adult seeks disclosure only to herself and with the consent of all other affected persons, the purpose of § 16-311 [D.C. Code section on adoption]“is fully protected.”   The idea behind the law was that the stigma of extra-marital sex and subsequent adoption could harm a child of tender years, however the Magistrate Judge, having the file, knew full well there were no other affected persons.

Actions Have Consequences.  I then sent a copy of my response to Harvey’s idiocy to the Chief Judge of the District Court.  After more legal filings, including a Judicial Misconduct Complaint against this Magistrate Judge, mirabile dictu, the District Court released the entire file in its possession.

More surprisingly, well, not really, the adoption records and a subsequent Internet-search showed that Martha’s biological mother was dead, that she had been estranged from her family, and that the people in her direct bloodline were all deceased.

The Cost.  In dollar terms, because of the District Court’s inability or unwillingness to timely perform its tasks, the Texas attorney’s original $4,000 bill grew to $8,000. Then, there was the time spent researching and writing arguments contrary to G. Michael Harvey’s nonsensical requests.  And of course, there was the sheer aggravation of dealing with a simple matter made complicated by the District Court’s intransigence.

But there’s more.  Two unconnected incidents, in which I was directly involved, demonstrated that the justice system in Washington, D.C. is clearly broken—if not unrighteous.  The FBI was involved in both.  And G. Michael Harvey reappeared in one of them.

2.  FBI.  In 2018, Steven Amato and his wife Mary, from Woodbridge, Va., sued me for an effort to collect on a debt a client said the Amatos owed him.  Immediately upon learning that the client had lied to me, I dismissed the case.

So why did the Amatos go to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia?  And how did the FBI make an appearance?  1.  Money.  2.  Retaliation.  (I had been harshly critical of what turned out to be his employer, the FBI).  Steve Amato, apparently a Bureau catspaw, claimed that he would lose his security clearance, and, presumably, his job, because of the terminated collection action.  In his pleadings, Amato made no reference to where he worked or what he did.  Or what his security clearance was.

Under federal law, money damages can be obtained under the Federal Fair Debt Collection Act for willful violations.

After much searching, I eventually learnt that Steve Amato worked for the Federal Burau of Investigation.  In court, he expressed great pleasure in being an Air Force retiree who had helped fire missiles from a B-52 into Iraq.

Guess Who’s Involved?  Again.  Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey, handling the case, never asked Amato about the security clearance, job location and nature of employment—or why he feared their loss.  Unlike his actions in my petition for Martha’s records.  And the malpractice attorney firm, Eccleston & Wolf, the insurance company provided me, never brought up a key provision of the federal code:  debt collectors can’t be held liable for unintentional violations if the violation was involuntary, resulting from bona fide error.  You would think that a client lying to his attorney might fall into this category.

Nor did the Legal Eagles examine the mitigating circumstances for people with supposed security clearance issues—until I gave them the proper citations.  Then, the firm paid for an opinion piece written by a national security law expert stating that Steve Amato didn’t have a case.  Yet, Eccleston & Wolf did not enter this into the record because, it said, Magistrate Judge Harvey didn’t want it done!!!

COST TO ME & MONEY IN AMATO’S POCKET.  Malpractice insurance has a deductible, in my policy, $5,000, which was paid out of my pocket.  A year’s worth of aggravation and attempts to educate my attorneys were an added cost.  Steve Amato got paid $36,000, a reward for his trouble-making.  The insurance adjuster involved admitted to me that this was the highest amount paid out in such a matter as far as he was aware.  At best, he noted, the plaintiff would get about $1,500—and more only if he could prove damages.

WHY THE FBI DOESN’T LIKE ME.  In the past, I had been savaged this agency, terming it the Fascist Burau of Intimidation.  In fact, I had published an article recounting that organization’s attacks on me and some clients.  (US Government Reads All About It – CounterPunch.org).  The people involved had suffered the FBI shouting outside their windows every night, holding them incommunicado at the airport and, later, threatening to arrest them for unspecified crimes.  Later, in another FBI violation of a client’s legal rights, Parag Gupta’s wife kidnapped their U.S. citizen daughter and took her to India.  That 3-lettered agency, whose moto is Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity, viewed the kidnapping as a “domestic dispute” and did nothing, despite clear violations of federal law on parental abductions.  (N.B. Mr. Gupta has given permission to reveal his name and details of the case.)  Yet, despite repeated meetings with FBI “Special” Agents, complaints to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, as well as to the U.S. Justice Department, and my attempts to involve INTERPOL, the international police organization, Rhea Gupta, Parag’s daughter, is still in India.

3.  ONE LAST THING.  The federal government, using its courts, is good at burning up the time and funds of its critics.  (And I’m certainly one of them.)  Adding to this putrid porridge, it was also the same U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia which sealed and dismissed my first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, seeking to learn the reasons for my dismissal from the State Department.  The grounds given: National Security!  In a second, later, FOIA action, one to get terrorist visa applications I had denied, the same court dismissed the matter without getting to the basics.

For the full account of the real reasons for my discharge from the State Department, see Visas for Al-Qaeda:  CIA Handouts That Rocked The World.  (www.michaelspringmann.com)

FAILED AMERICAN HEALTHCARE One Example

By

Georgetown University Hospital (MedStar Health) Profile | Health eCareers

WHAT?  MedStar Health, an alleged not-for-profit health care organization, operates more than 120 entities, including ten hospitals in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area of the United States.  This includes MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (MGUH), styling itself as a teaching hospital.  MGUH and MedStar Health have a serious communications problem—along with an apparent inability to do their job.

WHO? ME?  Yep.  Along with my charming smile, once-auburn hair, and eye color, I inherited something called Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease (CMT).  While it has nothing to do with my choppers, being named for two Frenchmen and an Englishman who studied it in the 19th century, it is intimately connected to my physical well-being.  The malady causes the slow, progressive loss of muscle and muscle tone in the extremities.  Nerves activating the muscles lose their insulation, essentially shorting out and blocking commands to contract or loosen.  Imagine a switched-on, electric table lamp.  Now, take a knife and shave off the plastic or rubber on the wire to the mains socket.  The light goes dark.   That’s CMT in a nutshell—along with difficulty walking, balancing, and losing fine motor skills in the hands.  No picking up pennies from flat surfaces.  And finding major problems with U.S. government employment.                  

WHY?  For nearly 10 years, I have been going to MGUH’s Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Clinic for an on-going examination of my CMT.  And for nearly 10 years, I had been seen by competent, knowledgeable, compassionate medicos such as Michael D. Sirdofsky, M.D.  Unfortunately, Dr. Sirdofsky is now retired.  And that’s where the problem started.

THE PROBLEM.  In late summer 2019, MGUH’s physical therapy department referred me to the Hanger Clinic on 31st St. N.W. in Washington, D.C.  The nationwide firm supplies ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs), essentially half-boots that brace the lower legs and feet, compensating for the ravages of CMT. 

Unfortunately for me, the Hanger Clinic couldn’t pad the footplates of the new orthoses—even though I showed them my old pair which, while comfortably cushioned, needed an upgrade due to loss of muscle. 

Despite repeated visits, Hanger still couldn’t supply me with comfortable braces.  I returned their latest iteration on August 4, 2021 as being ill-fitting and dangerous to use.

MGUH—AGAIN!  After August 4, I sought help from Georgetown Hospital’s MDA Clinic—but couldn’t get an appointment until November 24, the day before Thanksgiving (the traditional American holiday where, for once, people eat better than the French).

Physical Therapy.  I began calling the physical therapy department there, raging about Hanger and seeking aid in getting a new prescription for what I call Frankenfeet (orthoses).  I met with Chris Grimm, their “expert” on AFOs.  He examined my feet, my 7-year-old orthoses, and promised to get a justification written to enable me to deal with a qualified company for new braces.

That never happened.  He told me that Medicare pays for new AFOs once every five years.

Wrong!  Medicare told me that if these things are deemed a medical necessity, the organization will reimburse the supplier, no matter the time frame.

WORDS (AND FAXES AND TELEPHONE CALLS FAIL ME).  I began calling the neurology department at MGUH without a response.  I then called Michael Saschtleben, the hospital’s president.  To no avail.  I then tried Kenneth Samet, MedStar President and CEO.  All I got was referrals to Patient Advocacy at MGUH.

More than a week ago, someone named Power, a nurse in the hospital’s neurology department, telephoned me, saying that Shreya Gandhy, D.O., had written a prescription for a new pair of Frankenfeet.  And that it was being mailed to me.  Since I live 3 miles (5 kilometers) from MGUH, I found that not receiving the script was passing strange.  So, I called Dr. Gandhy.  When I received no response, I faxed her.  Days later, there has been no reply to the fax.

SOLUTION.  Remove the politicians and bureaucraps masquerading as medical doctors and healthcare officials.  Replace them with competent administrators and knowledgeable medicos.  Strip U.S. Congressmen of their preferential medical insurance.  And then establish a European-style healthcare system that provides preventive medicine and wellness programs for everyone, not just the few with enough money to pay for concierge care.

 

 

 

St. Navalny & Elections

By

The First Time I Voted - The Bedford Citizen

His Holiness.  Alexei Navalny, alleged leader of Russia’s opposition, has two claims to sanctity.  One, Russian President Vladimir Putin supposedly poisoned or had him poisoned for, as the New York Times noted on September 20, 2020, “denouncing corrupt pro-Kremlin politicians during a recent trip to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. He named 18 local legislators who he said had suspiciously intimate ties to a construction industry notorious for corruption.” Two, he  has been unable or unwilling to lash out at the recent travesty of the political process in the United States the way he has at the Russian one.

Following his return to Moscow from Siberia, Novalny reportedly fell violently ill and, allegedly, might have died had the pilot not diverted the plane to Omsk.  Once there, he was hospitalized and, later, transferred to Berlin for treatment.

According to the German government, NATO member and U.S. client state, Mr. Navalny was suffering from the effects of a nerve agent in the Novichok family.  (In 2018, the British government had previously asserted that Sergei Skripal, former Russian military intelligence officer and U.K. double agent, and his daughter Yulia, were mysteriously sickened by Novichok.  Great Britain later accused Russia of attempting to murder the Skripals.)

Mirabile dictu, Navalny, like the Skripals, swiftly recovered.  He is, according to press reports, striding about Berlin with a police escort.  The New York Times article noted that Navalny’s supposed poisoning resulted from the Russian government’s fears of his stirring up trouble during elections in neighboring Belarus and in protests in Khabarovsk, a city in the Russian Far East.  Astonishingly, the Times continued with an alternative, and equally bizarre explanation:  “that Mr. Navalny’s poisoning pointed not to the strength of a ruthlessly efficient system of repression but to the weakness of a system whose response to potential threats has become so degraded that the state no longer functions as a single unit but rather as a jumble of rival clans and freelance enforcers with grudges…”

Another View.  The Greanville Post (describing itself as an independent, leftist publication) had a different take on Alexei Navalny.  Stating that Navalny was the favored transparency and anti-corruption activist of the U.S. and its allies, the journal noted that he and the American media failed to criticize numerous, disturbing election irregularities in the recently concluded 2020 general election.  (www.greanvillepost.com/2020/11/06/the-us-electoral-nightmare-discredits-anti-russian-rhetoric/)  The website questioned why only Judicial Watch (the conservative organization) had sounded the alarm–and not Novalny and his supporters.  “…353 counties in more than 29 states across the United States had voter registration rates above 100%, meaning that there were more people registered to vote than eligible voting residents.” Yet, in contrast, “4 cases of a single person attempting to vote twice in Russia’s constitutional referendum became the source of outcry just a few months earlier.”

The Greanville Post went on to say ” The phenomenon of dead people voting…has been a widely highlighted form of voting irregularity in the United States for many decades, so much so that comedians regularly bring it up as a punch line.”  Certainly, the specter of John F. Kennedy being elected in 1960 because dead men cast their ballots for him has not been forgotten.  (His father’s money paid mobsters to ensure that tombstones in Illinois voted Democratic, giving his son victory in the Electoral College.)

Donald Trump has been raising concerns about the integrity of the voting process, particularly the late mail-in ballots favoring the Democrats.  Somehow, these postal votes disproportionately backed Joe Biden the Democratic candidate for president.  This was especially apparent in major U.S. metropolitan areas, with Biden getting 80% to 90% of the vote, something you don ‘t see outside of 3rd World countries.  However, not one peep came from Novalny and his peeps about this. Yet, in Russian Caucasus districts in 2018, “independent observers” raised concerns at candidates receiving 80% to 90% of the vote.  These “concerns” were trumpeted by Navalny and his backers there and in other parts of Russia as proof of a rigged election.

The most damning comment from the Greanville Post is as follows:

The atmosphere surrounding the US elections is also worth noting. With COVID-19 restrictions still in effect, the media continued to play up the fear of rioting in response to the results. Across the country National Guard units were called up, and a heavy police presence was very visible on Nov. 3rd when the public went to vote, if they had not voted early or through the mail. Gun sales skyrocketed, and it was clear that the public was whipped up into a state of terrified anticipation. Residents were led to believe that terrorist attacks from right-wing militias, violent protests by leftists, retaliatory targeted attacks by anti-fascists, or other bloodshed was nearly inevitable in the election’s aftermath. Imagine of such an atmosphere had been created in the lead up to a contested Russian vote?

This is not hype.  In the writer’s area of Upper Northwest, Washington, D.C., many shops and his gym all had plywood covering their windows in anticipation of trouble on Election Day or the days following..

Again, the Greanville Post has the right of it:

If the Navalny supporters who constantly condemn Russia’s political system and leaders were really nothing other than human rights activists, their voices would be speaking up louder than ever about recent events in the United States. However, they remain silent, indicating that their motives are far more geopolitical than they are principled.

Solution?  The United States can make election day a holiday.  But, far more importantly, it can control the social media companies, such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter which supported the seizure of the American Herald Tribune, and which manage ads and posts, often to the detriment of free speech.  That same attempt to control speech was clear in the mainstream media’s attacks on Donald Trump and Russia.  For the second election in a row, “Russia was interfering in American elections”, instead of the other way around, with U.S. media backing St. Novalny and his faceless, nameless crowd.

  1. Michael Springmann is a former U.S. State Department official having served as a diplomat in the Foreign Service with postings in Germany, India, and Saudi Arabia. He previously authored, Visas for Al Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked the World: An Insider’s View recounting his experiences observing officials granting travel visas to unqualified individuals. Additionally, he penned Goodbye, Europe? Hello, Chaos?  Merkel’s Migrant Bomb, an analysis of the alien wave sweeping the Continent. He currently practices law in the Washington D.C. Area.

 

His Holiness.  Alexei Navalny, alleged leader of Russia’s opposition, has two claims to sanctity.  One, Russian President Vladimir Putin supposedly poisoned or had him poisoned for, as the New York Times noted on September 20, 2020, “denouncing corrupt pro-Kremlin politicians during a recent trip to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. He named 18 local legislators who he said had suspiciously intimate ties to a construction industry notorious for corruption.” Two, he  has been unable or unwilling to lash out at the recent travesty of the political process in the United States the way he has at the Russian one.

Following his return to Moscow from Siberia, Novalny reportedly fell violently ill and, allegedly, might have died had the pilot not diverted the plane to Omsk.  Once there, he was hospitalized and, later, transferred to Berlin for treatment.

According to the German government, NATO member and U.S. client state, Mr. Navalny was suffering from the effects of a nerve agent in the Novichok family.  (In 2018, the British government had previously asserted that Sergei Skripal, former Russian military intelligence officer and U.K. double agent, and his daughter Yulia, were mysteriously sickened by Novichok.  Great Britain later accused Russia of attempting to murder the Skripals.)

Mirabile dictu, Navalny, like the Skripals, swiftly recovered.  He is, according to press reports, striding about Berlin with a police escort.  The New York Times article noted that Navalny’s supposed poisoning resulted from the Russian government’s fears of his stirring up trouble during elections in neighboring Belarus and in protests in Khabarovsk, a city in the Russian Far East.  Astonishingly, the Times continued with an alternative, and equally bizarre explanation:  “that Mr. Navalny’s poisoning pointed not to the strength of a ruthlessly efficient system of repression but to the weakness of a system whose response to potential threats has become so degraded that the state no longer functions as a single unit but rather as a jumble of rival clans and freelance enforcers with grudges…”

Another View.  The Greanville Post (describing itself as an independent, leftist publication) had a different take on Alexei Navalny.  Stating that Navalny was the favored transparency and anti-corruption activist of the U.S. and its allies, the journal noted that he and the American media failed to criticize numerous, disturbing election irregularities in the recently concluded 2020 general election.  (www.greanvillepost.com/2020/11/06/the-us-electoral-nightmare-discredits-anti-russian-rhetoric/)  The website questioned why only Judicial Watch (the conservative organization) had sounded the alarm–and not Novalny and his supporters.  “…353 counties in more than 29 states across the United States had voter registration rates above 100%, meaning that there were more people registered to vote than eligible voting residents.” Yet, in contrast, “4 cases of a single person attempting to vote twice in Russia’s constitutional referendum became the source of outcry just a few months earlier.”

The Greanville Post went on to say ” The phenomenon of dead people voting…has been a widely highlighted form of voting irregularity in the United States for many decades, so much so that comedians regularly bring it up as a punch line.”  Certainly, the specter of John F. Kennedy being elected in 1960 because dead men cast their ballots for him has not been forgotten.  (His father’s money paid mobsters to ensure that tombstones in Illinois voted Democratic, giving his son victory in the Electoral College.)

Donald Trump has been raising concerns about the integrity of the voting process, particularly the late mail-in ballots favoring the Democrats.  Somehow, these postal votes disproportionately backed Joe Biden the Democratic candidate for president.  This was especially apparent in major U.S. metropolitan areas, with Biden getting 80% to 90% of the vote, something you don ‘t see outside of 3rd World countries.  However, not one peep came from Novalny and his peeps about this. Yet, in Russian Caucasus districts in 2018, “independent observers” raised concerns at candidates receiving 80% to 90% of the vote.  These “concerns” were trumpeted by Navalny and his backers there and in other parts of Russia as proof of a rigged election.

The most damning comment from the Greanville Post is as follows:

The atmosphere surrounding the US elections is also worth noting. With COVID-19 restrictions still in effect, the media continued to play up the fear of rioting in response to the results. Across the country National Guard units were called up, and a heavy police presence was very visible on Nov. 3rd when the public went to vote, if they had not voted early or through the mail. Gun sales skyrocketed, and it was clear that the public was whipped up into a state of terrified anticipation. Residents were led to believe that terrorist attacks from right-wing militias, violent protests by leftists, retaliatory targeted attacks by anti-fascists, or other bloodshed was nearly inevitable in the election’s aftermath. Imagine of such an atmosphere had been created in the lead up to a contested Russian vote?

This is not hype.  In the writer’s area of Upper Northwest, Washington, D.C., many shops and his gym all had plywood covering their windows in anticipation of trouble on Election Day or the days following..

Again, the Greanville Post has the right of it:

If the Navalny supporters who constantly condemn Russia’s political system and leaders were really nothing other than human rights activists, their voices would be speaking up louder than ever about recent events in the United States. However, they remain silent, indicating that their motives are far more geopolitical than they are principled.

Solution?  The United States can make election day a holiday.  But, far more importantly, it can control the social media companies, such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter which supported the seizure of the American Herald Tribune, and which manage ads and posts, often to the detriment of free speech.  That same attempt to control speech was clear in the mainstream media’s attacks on Donald Trump and Russia.  For the second election in a row, “Russia was interfering in American elections”, instead of the other way around, with U.S. media backing St. Novalny and his faceless, nameless crowd.

  1. Michael Springmann is a former U.S. State Department official having served as a diplomat in the Foreign Service with postings in Germany, India, and Saudi Arabia. He previously authored, Visas for Al Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked the World: An Insider’s View recounting his experiences observing officials granting travel visas to unqualified individuals. Additionally, he penned Goodbye, Europe? Hello, Chaos?  Merkel’s Migrant Bomb, an analysis of the alien wave sweeping the Continent. He currently practices law in the Washington D.C. Area.

 

 

A TALE OF TWO EMERGENCIES

By

J. Michael Springmann

It was not the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was more than one trip to Sibley Hospital’s Emergency Room. And the questionable care provided. Here are two blood-chilling tales of low-tech medical care in a high-tech world.

One. In February 2016, the author, through an act of sheer stupidity, fell down the stairs on a weekend. Subsequently suffering excruciating back pain, he later drove to nearby Sibley Memorial Hospital on Loughboro Road in Northwest Washington. (Established in 1890, Sibley became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Health System Corporation in 2010.)

Recounting his misadventure, this writer explained to Sibley’s emergency room staff the pain’s duration, location, and intensity. The attending emergency room physician asked questions, checked the author’s mobility, and ordered x-rays. She noted that the writer didn’t appear to have a concussion.

Treatment? Experiencing extreme dizziness during the x-rays, the author emphasized his discomfort and concern. The doctor took no notice of his complaints. She sent him home with a prescription for an extra-strength non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, like Ibuprofen. The physician suggested that if he felt no better, he should consult his own personal medico.

The ability to drive to the emergency room obviously indicated no real emergency and no need for attentive care.

The next day, a Monday, this author was still in great pain. Calling his own doctor, he obtained a quick appointment. There he learned that Sibley had told her he had broken a lumbar vertebra and was exceedingly fortunate that he had not become a paraplegic. She prescribed narcotics for the pain and suggested he look at kyphoplasty, Greek for gluing the broken bone together. This required a waiting period to see if the bone would heal normally.

Ignorance is not bliss. Livid, the author called Sibley and demanded to speak with the emergency room doctor who apparently couldn’t diagnose his situation. Emergency room staff insisted that the physician, whose name was on the discharge papers and prescription, didn’t work at the hospital. This writer then tried and failed to reach the head of the emergency department. When he sought help from the hospital administration, he was ignored. A complaint to the D.C. government brought no relief.

A week later, this writer became so dizzy he could not get out of bed. Calling the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad, he was taken back to Sibley. There, he was diagnosed with, and treated for, mirabile dictu, a concussion.

The author then spent the next six weeks watching really bad daytime TV and munching codeine pills. He then made an appointment with another Sibley doctor who breezily explained kyphoplasty, handed over a brochure about the process, and told him to call for an appointment.

Help at last. Following silent, enraged, obscene thoughts about Sibley staff, the author called a surgeon recommended by Georgetown University Hospital. He met with a young, highly-qualified doctor woman of Iranian ancestry. She carefully explained his situation, clarified the kyphoplasty procedure, and showed him an MRI of his back, things Sibley hadn’t done. She also assured the author that she would be using high-tech plastic cement, not Elmer’s Glue.

Once the procedure was done, the writer was out of the hospital the same day. The vertebra is now better and stronger than new.

Two. In mid-December 2018, the author, being careful, took a box of tax papers down to the basement. Then, in an instant, he found himself clutching both handrails and hanging upside down, with a foot in excruciating pain. Alone in the house, he knew that no one had pushed him or that no afreet (a djinn with an attitude) had emerged from his computer to trip him.

Once the pain had subsided, he crawled up the stairs and called the Rescue Squad. Again, the destination was Sibley. It was “nearby” and “had space”. Almost ready to countermand the Squad’s suggestion, this writer thought that the hospital couldn’t make any more mistakes.

Wrong.

Delay is not good for the soul–or body. He sat in the emergency room for a good four hours, before meeting a doctor, who was not an orthopedist. Then, more time went by before he was x-rayed and diagnosed with a broken foot. Apparently, bone doctors are not on staff on the weekends at Sibley. They evidently had to find one to do a telephone consultation about the injury. (Obviously, no one plays sports on Saturdays or Sundays in Washington, D.C.)

Why the delay? Sibley only knows. The emergency room wasn’t crowded and the only really important case with far greater precedence was one elderly man with chest pains.

Unhelpful help. Eventually, a staffer came by to wrap this writer’s foot in a soft cast. She wanted him to remove his jeans and put on paper scrub pants to wear home. She claimed that, otherwise, he couldn’t strip off his jeans once the cast was on. Apparently there were no scissors in the hospital to cut into the pants leg. And no grasp of the difficulty of removing shoes, socks and other garments without putting weight on both feet.

The best part of the scrub pants “idea” was that it was raining. While the author always enjoys impressing his neighbors with his sartorial splendor, wearing paper clothing that would dissolve in the downpour didn’t sound practicable. It also seemed somewhat risqué.

More to the point, a nurse provided a prescription for narcotic painkillers. The nurse knew the author couldn’t walk and the nearest pharmacy, not the hospital’s, was three blocks from his house. Following strong remonstrations, the nurse provided two Vicodin pills, TV Dr. House’s drug of choice.

Can it get worse? Months later, Sibley began sending $2.40 bills to the author. When queried about the charge, Sibley’s billing service asserted the pills were “self-administered medicine” and this writer’s insurance wouldn’t pay for them. Rather than waste money or additional time arguing with the billing bureaucrat, the author ignored the repeated mailings. Now, he’s learned that Sibley, the once-trusted hospital, has referred the staggering, inexplicably increased sum of $6.30 to a collection agency.

The Takeaway? Sibley Memorial Hospital displays an astonishing level of ignorance, arrogance, and incompetence. And, regrettably, this is typical of American medicine today. Adding to this foul brew is the parent, Johns Hopkins. Physicians have told the author that, since the Baltimore company acquired Sibley, the emphasis has been on profit rather than patient care.

The Cure? Besides overhauling Sibley’s emergency room and instituting periodic investigations of its competence? And improving the quality of medical school graduates? Universal Health Care. Something available in nearly all other countries save parts of Africa, the Middle East, and China. It’s absence here quite rightly staggers non-Americans. They can’t conceive of profits instead of care.

MILLIONS OF MARCHING MIGRANTS–A VIEW OF THEIR GREEK BEGINNINGS (AND UNSAVORY CONNECTIONS)

By

As told to us by a Reliable Source
J. Michael Springmann

The Beginning.

As the author noted in Goodbye, Europe? Hello, Chaos? Merkel’s Migrant Bomb, Greece “has been the main focus for migrants. Swarming out of Turkey, thousands of settlers made for the Hellene islands. In January and February of 2016 alone, more than 120,000 alleged asylum seekers poured into the Peloponnese and nearby isles…”
As soon as the tsunami started in 2015, mirabile dictu, newly-invented NGOs “suddenly” appeared on Lesvos, Chios, Kos, and other Greek islands. These mysterious organizations then did something entirely inexplicable: they immediately dismissed all the aid workers who had been helping the genuine refugees. Moreover, almost NONE of these NGOs had Arabic or French speakers on staff. (N.B., French is a tongue widely used in the Middle East.) Yet, all spoke English, a language which only educated people in Southwest Asia understand.
Goodbye, Europe? Hello, Chaos? frequently alludes to questionable outside forces helping to promote the migrant wave. The book discusses involvement of the European Union (EU), Germany, and Israel, among others. Our interlocutor added some more pieces to the jigsaw puzzle, helping add some clarity to the picture.

Outside Influence.

In Greece, the start of the migrant flood coincided with the election of Alexis Tsipras as Greek prime minister in January 2015. A man who had campaigned on Greek sovereignty and resistance to outside pressure, Tsipras acceded to the harsh economic austerity measures which the EU, Germany, and the International Monetary Fund laid down in July 2015. This was followed by, our interlocutor said, a U.S.-imposed Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with Israel. According to the Jerusalem Post, the SOFA ” offers legal defense to both militaries while training in the other’s country.” Voltaire.net noted that Greece has a similar arrangement with only one other country, the United States. As the author was told, this threw 70 years of Greek support for Palestinians and that country’s status as a trusted 3rd party in the Middle East-North Africa region (MENA) out the window. Israel has been training in Cyprus, most likely the part which Greek Cypriots control. Additionally, our contact said the Israeli air force immediately took over the Kasteli air force base in Crete. The Jerusalem Post wrote that Israeli warplanes, in a test, staged mock attacks against the Russian S-300 anti-missile system installed on the Greek island of Crete. Moreover, the author was told, Greek navy ships are now under German control and mostly lie idle in harbor, while NATO and Frontex vessels (European border and coast guard agency) cruise Hellenic waters. Deutsche Welle, the German international broadcaster, reports that German “humanitarian” vessels help bring more migrants into Europe. Isn’t there a link?

How Do The Migrants Make It?

On Lesvos, one of the two or three beaches they regularly land on, is close to our contact’s house. Nearly every night (it was most often night) boats full of aliens would arrive, everyone would disembark, and then destroy the boats, rendering them “shipwrecked” under the law of the sea. After changing clothes, the migrants would follow their mobile phone instructions and march into Mytilini port. No one had to give directions, they knew the way. Despite the tragic photos circulated by the media at the time, most of these “refugees”/migrants looked healthy, were fit, and were even well-dressed. (Meanwhile, enterprising old men waited on the beach to collect the abandoned engines and, in some cases, the inflatables, for re-sale. Greece is now flooded with powerful outboard engines.)

Here’s A Few Questions

WHO provided this endless supply of engines? This endless supply of inflatables? (now in six figures). NOT “smugglers” because smugglers return WITH their boats.
Moreover, why is Greece regularly castigated for keeping the migrants in tents at “hot spots”. (These are, according to Human Rights Watch, violence-prone “centers…[originally] established for the reception, identification, and processing of asylum seekers and migrants.”) The Greek government, our interlocutor commented, makes no protest and takes the abuse like a “good bunny”. In fact, the hot spots are closed NGO-territory-only and the Greek government, including police and firemen, cannot enter unless invited. It is the wealthy, fake NGOs that keep migrants in worthless tents, eating disgusting meals at €7 (about US$8.50) a meal, while Greek street charities (particularly the Orthodox church) dish out healthy, fresh meals with a liter of water per person at €0.35 cents (US$0.40) a serving. (It was clear from the start that a lot of EU people and businesses – not necessarily Greek – have made a fortune from this, at the expense of EU taxpayers.)

And does child and organ trafficking take place at these camps? So many children are unaccounted for, and there is no way for anyone to monitor boats going in and out of the camps.
Another question: would a parent, surviving in a Turkish refugee camp, send an 8-year old child off to Europe ALONE “in hope of a better life”? (This is the shopworn story told in Europe and the U.S.) Well, as our contact said, “I am a parent. My answer to that is ‘Never! We stick together! Ok…some parents may have sold these children at their point of origin, but….. Greeks and MENA people are fanatically family-minded.'”

Politics and Money. Increasing Questions.

Continuing, our interlocutor analyzed Germany’s internal politics and delved into the vast sums of money going to the migrants, raising more questions.
Thoroughly drubbed in last year’s elections, to save themselves politically, German chancellor Merkel’s CDU and the Socialist Party of Germany (SPD), headed by Martin Shulz, have announced that Germany’s rejected migrants will be sent back to their point-of-origin, such as Greece and Italy, thus reviving the Dublin Treaty. (Under the Dublin accords, asylum-seekers must apply for that status in the first EU country reached.) Our source noted that, despite EU claims, until last year Greece received no money for the migrants. (After these are released from the “hot spots”, they go to Greek army barracks where they are housed in [personally-observed]spare but humane and well organized conditions.). Now, our contact asserts that Greece has received several million Euros to house migrants rent-free in fully equipped and furnished apartments in Athens, Thessaloniki, and elsewhere around the country.
One of these apartments is in our interlocutor’s building, in a “good” part of central Athens, next to the Hilton. The flat is larger than our contact’s and has everything: a washing machine, air conditioning, etc. Utilities are paid for. Medical care is free. Food is delivered twice weekly from UNRWA, plus a small sum of spending money (which UNRWA always tries to make smaller). Supposedly these are temporary accommodations, just for three months, but the last group spent 10 months there before decamping for Thessaloniki where they found jobs. (WHAT jobs? At what pay?) And an additional question, how is the UN Relief and Works Agency, tied to Palestinian aid, involved in this?
This is at a time when half of Greek families are surviving on one grandparent’s pension, more than half have no access to medical care, when many Greeks have no electricity, and too many are homeless. Half have no jobs (with 67% of the youth being unemployed). The old economy overwhelmingly consisted of tiny private sector family businesses).
And, Finally, One More Question
The rape reports which started coming out of Germany and Sweden during the past years puzzled most Greeks because – except for a very few incidents – NOTHING like that happened there. So it was only now, this past Christmas, that in Lesvos these things began taking place.
As the author commented in Goodbye, Europe? Hello, Chaos?, migrant attacks on women appeared carefully coordinated, likely using their ubiquitous and expensive cell phones. Will that be repeated now in Greece?
Look at this.
Things seem to be replicating themselves. Here’s some news from Lesvos, our source said, from friends returning to Athens after Christmas holidays:
Around 100 migrants were arriving every day by boat, and sometimes several boats a day. Instead of landing on the usual beaches, they were arriving directly at the port of Mytilini because of the weather. Supposedly, smugglers brought them BUT, no “smugglers” were arrested, and the boats would return to Turkey right away.
All of the migrants were men: no women, no grannies, no children. They were all about 35-40 and spoke English. As they were led through the town, they would pop into cafes and bars and talk to the girls: “‘Hey beautiful, shall we drink something together?” without their minders stopping them. Three girls living in the city center said that every time they went out, they were being hit on.
Is this really post-traumatic stress disorder? Is it really a culture clash? Or is it an effort to change Europe’s way of life? Is this happening because journalists are not doing their job?
Our contact asked how NOT ONE journalist worldwide made even one tiny day trip to the Turkish side of the sea from mid-2015 onward….not one person in the whole world, it seemed, had even one drop of curiosity about the “smugglers”. It wasn’t as if the two-hour commuter ferry Ayvalik-Mytilini had stopped running. And, speaking of that ferry, that is how the real migrants before 2015 used to arrive, WITH their passports.

And Finally…

According to the U.S. Department of State, “Geoffrey R. Pyatt, a career member of the Foreign Service, class of Career Minister, was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to the Hellenic Republic in September 2016.
`He served as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine from 2013-2016, receiving the State Department’s Robert Frasure Memorial Award in recognition of his commitment to peace and alleviation of human suffering in eastern Ukraine.”
The lack of peace and appearance of human suffering in the Ukraine came from the Obama Administration’s policies, formulated and implemented both by Pyatt and Victoria Nuland, former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.
Is there a U.S. plan for Greece to match that for the Ukraine?

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