Jose will do a number on the mid-Atlantic/northeast states. RAIN. Maria/Cat 5/heads to Puerto Rico. Punishment for human harm to earth?

Did Cheeney ever shoot an animal. I never saw a reason to think he had much experience using firearms.

He shot a human being in the face while shooting for whatever he wanted to kill that weekend.  Maybe deer or something.

He shot plenty of animals and was responsible for many human deaths as well.  He is a total sociopath.  Thank GOD he is not posted with TRUMP.  Thank GOD.

Despite Dick Cheney poisoning and killing thousands of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, a court has cleared the former Vice President of any wrongdoing.

A federal judge in Maryland just dismissed a number of important lawsuits against one of Cheney’s corporations, Kellog, Brown, and Root (KBR).

According to the lawsuit, KBR allowed open burn pits to operate in Iraq, which left troops sick and dying as a result.

Thefreethoughtproject.com reports: KBR, which was a part of Dick Cheney’s corporate empire under Halliburton at the time, operated about 250 burn pits which contributed to the $40 billion that Halliburton made during the Iraq occupation. “Every type of waste imaginable” was burned, including “tires, lithium batteries, asbestos insulation, pesticide containers, Styrofoam, metals, paints, plastic, medical waste and even human corpses.”

The families have been seeking compensation for the deaths and suffering of their loved ones since 2009 and this week a federal judge crushed their hopes.

As Courthouse News reports:

The complaints all made the same basic claims – that KBR ran massive burn pits at operating bases in Afghanistan and Iraq into which its employees dumped tires, trucks and even medical waste.
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The resulting towers of smoke left the soldiers on the bases with chronic respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses, as did the contractor’s alleged failure to provide clean water to troops on the ground, according to a class-action complaint filed in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland by Alan Metzgar and Paul Parker in 2009.

The massive litigation survived KBR’s initial motion to dismiss and U.S. District Judge Roger Titus even granted limited discovery in the case in 2010 before he eventually granted another one of KBR’s motions to dismiss the case in 2013.

Last Friday, KBR asked the federal court to toss out the multidistrict litigations, noting that the court does not have jurisdiction over military battlefield decisions. And, this week, the company finally got what they wanted as the judge listened to them and tossed it out.

KBR’s defense consists of passing the buck by saying it only operated those burn pits to dispose of trash under the direct control of the U.S. military, which it argues made a battlefield decision to order the use of the pits.

However, the plaintiffs in the case argued that KBR’s agreements with the government gave it the freedom to consider how to carry out their required tasks. But, sadly, the judge wanted nothing of it, in spite of acknowledging there is “some evidence” that KBR had a certain amount of control over the burn pits.

To be clear here, the burn pits are both the fault of KBR and the US government and both should be held liable for the damage they caused. However, it appears, that this will not happen.

Also, it is important to note that because he held the position as the Vice President of the United States as well as his ownership in KBR’s parent company Halliburton, Dick Cheney was representing both the US government and the private company.

According to CNS, Baltimore attorney Susan Burke, who represents the plaintiffs in the case, said in an email to Courthouse News that her clients will be appealing the decision.

As Justin Gardner wrote last year for TFTP, just as the U.S. laid waste to Vietnam’s human health and jungle environment with Agent Orange, it wrecked human health and environmental quality in Iraq. That country will suffer from this toxicity for decades, as evidenced by sharp increases in birth defects and cancer and leukemia rates.

Likewise, U.S. veterans and their families are bearing the brunt of this travesty.

A book by Joseph Hickman, a former U.S. Marine and Army sergeant, titled “The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers” details the story of a healthy young soldier sent to Iraq who was constantly exposed to smoke from burn pits. When he returned home with respiratory problems, the Veterans Administration (VA) denied him care, and he later developed brain cancer and died.

Those who do survive are having children with birth defects at a rate three times higher than normal, according to the book. The denial of medical coverage by the VA for burn pit-related illnesses is a central strategy in denying that burn pits even posed a health hazard.

Beau Biden, the son of vice president Joe Biden, died of brain cancer after serving in Iraq in the vicinity of burn pits. Even this tragedy, which is similar to many stories of exposure and death, never brought attention to the issue of burn pits.

Salon interviewed author Joseph Hickman at the time, who provided even more shocking details, and how the Department of Defense (DoD) does all it can to keep this knowledge from the public.

“I think the Department of Defense does its best to squash this story and so does Veterans Affairs. They really don’t want this out at all.”

Hickman interviewed one former KBR employee who was very reluctant to even talk about burn pits for fear of repercussions, as he was harassed by KBR when he previously came forward about the issue. By using private contractors for such operations, the DoD facilitates these egregious assaults on human and environmental health because contractors are not held to the standards of the military.

This dependency on contractors feeds their tendency for carelessness. According to Hickman, the upper management of KBR said at one point, “If they’re going to investigate us over these burn pits, don’t worry about it. If we pull out, they can’t run this base.”

That was then, this is now and apparently, the same rules still apply.

This post was edited by WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH at September 20, 2017 1:14 PM MDT

Doesn't it seem to be WORSE this year Patch? Mexico just had another devastating earthquake yesterday. Hurricane Maria is the 2nd or 3rd Cat 5 hurricane this season. I think I read we have never had more than one Cat 5 in a season. Don't know if that's true. The world is supposed to end on Saturday. Is this the beginning of the end? SIGH. Thank you for your reply and Happy Wednesday! :)

Some years are bad, some are kinda chill. This is one of Mama Nature's extra cranky seasons.

  "CRANKY"?  Crikey that's an understatement Patch! We have NEVER had 3 CAT 4 hurricanes in one season. TWO earthquakes in Mexico almost back to back? One over an 8 on the Richter scale and one at 7.1?  I dunno. I think calling Mama N "cranky" is being  VERY kind. Thank you for your reply and Happy Thursday! :)

Nah, God don't work that way, it would be like killing millions of Koreans for what one Korean have done.

"God don't work that way". So we are blaming this all on God then? God has nothing to do with Kim Jong-un or The Donald John. Millions of people have already died on battlefields due to the dimwittedness and complete cluelessness of stupid humans. Whether it is one or a consortium matters not. Don't blame it on God. Thank you for your reply JakobA! :)

A portent that The End of Times is upon us? Yesterday Mexico had another enormous and devastating earthquake. Maria is a CAT 5 hurricane and heading for PUerto Rico. Is nuclear war with North Korea next? Maybe that's on Trump's "list of things to do".  Thank you for your reply JakobA! :)

Where did I mention God in my question m2c? You assume something not in evidence. There are many mysteries in life that we don't understand. Blaming God for various calamities is far too easy. There may well be other reasons. GAIA may be punishing us. Are you familiar with GAIA? Thank you for your reply! :)

Then who is doing the punishment?