MY RANT ABOUT THE VETERAN'S ADMINISTRATION
I was in the United States Navy from 1981 to 1985, and yes, I currently get my healthcare through the Veteran's Administration.
What prompted me to write this rant, is my own frustrations with the VA (Which I'll get to in a second or two), but most importantly it was a video posted to my Facebook page by my oldest Nephew. For reasons I won't go into, he is particularly aware of just how bad the VA can be. You see, they almost killed his uncle (me).
And since I'm trying to get this blog off the ground, he thought the video would help motivate me, and boy was he right!
I actually had to wait a few days to even start to write this, so that I could cool down enough to ensure that it wouldn't just be an obscenity filled tirade. The subject deserves much better than that.
The Video - How I missed this on TV, I'll never know, as I watch Fox & Friends just about every morning. Anyway, Steve Doocy is interviewing Secretary McDonald, who is an Obama appointee put in place to help clean up the mess that we call The Veterans Administration, after the corruption charges came to light at one of the centers in Arizona. I'm going to assume that you have been somewhat informed on these problems so as not to beat a dead horse.
In the interview, The Secretary reeled off a bunch of stats on how they have made things better on his watch (Trust me, even IF the numbers were accurate, it is still a sad commentary on just how bad of a job they are doing).
Be that as it may, Doocy then pressed harder by telling McDonald that he had received a text from Rob O'Neill (you know, the former Navy Seal that killed Bin Laden) telling him how bad his experience was at the VA hospital that he went to for care and treatment. One of the many things he said, was that entering the building was like "walking into a homeless shelter", I can tell you from personal experience with the local VA clinic, that he was "dead on" with that description.
O'Neill also said that while the nurses and Doctors were outstanding, the support staff sucks, his words not mine, but I am in total agreement. As further salt in the wound, so to speak, he also had his wallet stolen while he was there. Secretary McDonald told Doocy to have O'Neill call him, because he would love to talk to him about his experience there.
Anyone care to place bets on the fact that he only said that because O'Neill is such a high profile figure with the American public?
When Doocy told him that they did not have his number, McDonald told them to tell O'Neill to go to his website and get the number and to call him at anytime. So a few days later when high profile Veteran's Advocate Pete Hegseth was co-hosting the show, they decided to call the number live on the air. After a couple of rings a recorded voice said that the Message box was full and to try again later.
Pete Hegseth just "lost it" and said this is just what puts the icing on the cake, and is something that every veteran faces when they try to get help. Again from personal experience, I agree with him completely!
Let me give you just a few highlights of those experiences of mine with the VA. These are the cliff notes version, if you will.
1. A few years ago, I started experiencing very, VERY bad headaches over my right eye. We are talking pain that just knocks you down, and won't let you back up. I had to wait a few days to get an appointment with my Primary Care Provider (PCP) so that she could put in a referral for me to be seen by the "in house" eye clinic. I had to wait a few more days for that appointment. Meanwhile, now I can hardly see out of that eye and was developing problems with the left one as well...Oh and the pain was a constant companion. I hope to never feel that level of pain again, it would almost make one wish for death, and I'm NOT saying that to be melodramatic, I am simply stating the truth.
Long story short, I was told that I had a condition that was a "semi - emergency" and that I would need surgery quickly. They set a date, and then moved that date back not one but two times! My brother took pity on me and paid for me to go see his eye doctor. Within 5 minutes of entering the exam room, he told me that I had glaucoma, and even worse, because it had not been treated earlier, the pressure in my eye was so high that there was potential for hemorrhaging and even death. Needless to say, a heroic effort on his part saved my eyes and quite possibly my life.
2. I have a few mental problems from my past that I kept buried for far too long, and as a result I developed Chronic pain in my stomach (which I still have to this day). After all of the tests were done, it was decided that it was due to my state of mind and was sent to the Mental Health clinic within the VA. I have one guy that I see once every 6 months, and that is basically just to get my meds for anxiety and depression re-upped. He has sent me to 4 different shrinks within the system over the years, but the answer they all give me is "get over it"...yep, Dear Reader, trained psychiatrists in the VA can only say "get over it"...I am NOT kidding!
3. I have Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Just getting the diagnosis was a process that took almost a year. I just recently saw my Neurologist for the first time in three years. My last MRI was almost 5 years ago. I told him that I seemed to be losing more of my coordination and was falling more. You would think that that would trigger the need for another MRI to see if I had developed anymore lesions on my brain or spinal chord, wouldn't you? Well, nope. It seems that the last one 5 years ago had shown no progression from the one done 3 years PRIOR TO THAT ONE, so he didn't see a need for another one right now.
Did you see the flaw in that?!!
4. Staying on the MS, I had been taking the "shot a day" brand name drug for about 6 years, and was more or less holding steady as far as the progression of the disease goes. So what happened to bring about the change that I complained of up in number three? A month before that, they had gone to a cheaper generic version of the drug. I haven't "felt right" since they changed it. When I complained about it, you know what I was told?
"If you want to keep getting your meds through the VA, you'll take what we give you"
Pretty damn sad, huh?
As I sit here writing this, I can tell you that I feel myself getting worse by the day.
These are just some of things I've experienced. I won't even go into the time I was prepped for a procedure and they didn't realize until 3 hours later that they had "lost" me, when I had been right where they had left me the whole time!
I could go on and on, but you get the picture.
The Moral of the story here is;
When you hear a Vet complain, DO NOT tune him or her out. We have real problems, and our cries are either not being heard or even worse they are being ignored.
We stepped up to the plate for you. It's time for you to step up for us.
Write to your Senators and Representatives in Congress and demand that they help us.
And know this for certain; Every time you hear that things are getting better at the VA, just know that they are lying to your face!
No Bullshit...No Kidding around, They ARE lying to you! Do you even know WHO they work for?
THEY WORK FOR YOU!
Hold them accountable!
Please?
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE
I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE
Yes, I have a confession to make. I voted for Donald Trump yesterday. I waited until today to confess it, because I did not want to have any undue influence on any of my readers from Florida.
Let me start by saying that I supported Trump almost from the beginning.
Why? Because like so many others have said, he says what I wish I could say, Or in the parlance of the times; He tells it like it is.
It's been said over and over, there is an intense anger out here in Middle America, yet it still doesn't seem to sink in to the establishment that it exists. In the meantime, Trump plays to it, and racks up the wins.
What's funny is listening to the "Talking Heads" who say, "Yeah, but he can't get 50% of the vote, anywhere" True he hasn't, but when he's sitting there with 48.6 % and second place barely has 22%, it makes you pundits look like fools.
That's just personal opinion folks, and you know what they say about opinions.
I got into a heated discussion about this on a music site that I frequent.
The Liberal to Conservative quotient on a site like that is about 50 to 1, but I have always felt that one must stand up for their principles, and I stood up for mine.
I can't quote anyone directly without their approval, and I'll be damned if I'll go through that mud pit.
So, to put it as close as possible, the liberals want to know why we are so mad. Well, you can start with the PC wormhole that we have drifted into. Most of America is over it, but somehow those in charge never seem to get the memo, so it just goes on and on.
In just the last couple of days, I heard a news item that said our troops in basic training are having to go through classes that teach the sins of "White Privilege"
REALLY?!!
That's the same kind of crap that is happening on our college campuses as well. That's why a majority of Millennials see no problem with Socialism. Of course they don't see a problem with it, they've been indoctrinated by the "cradle to grave" government overseers since they entered Kindergarten.
Every week it seems we find out some school in the middle of "Nowhere" is teaching anti- American ideal classes.How about the one where you can't give a child a zero on their paper, even if the only thing they got right on it was the spelling of their own name (sometimes, not even that). Nope, got to give at least a 65!
Really?!
Yes, really.
The left seems to think we are only mad at the PC crap because we want to be able to use the "N" word again. They actually said that!
I'm more concerned with the new trend of not being able to use the pronouns of "He" "She" "Him" "Her" and go from there! I'm not kidding folks! If you haven't heard this story yet, you really need to start researching just what is going on in your child's school.
Oh, and then there are the Transgenders. What could possibly be the problem there? Well, try this on for size; I'm a 53 year old man, suddenly I say I'm a woman in a man's body, and I'm able to use the bathrooms where Mothers and their daughters are, and I can't be told that I can't. In fact, don't dare tell me that I can't.
THIS IS HAPPENING OR COMING TO YOUR CHILD'S SCHOOL!!
It will also soon be in any and every shopping mall.
But saying this is wrong makes me "Heartless" Or so they would have you believe.
I'm not heartless. I DO believe that the Constitution guarantees equal rights, but it doesn't give anyone EXTRA rights! So, while I don't agree with gay marriage, the court said that it was legal, so therefore I stay out of it. (anybody who thinks that any politician can or will change this, needs to wake up)
What I mean by extra rights is this; If a business, who for religious reasons (remember Religious Freedom, anybody?) refuses to bake a cake for a Lesbian wedding, they should not be run out of business by the government.
YET THEY WERE!
If the people put them out of business by no longer spending money there, then that is a protected right, and I have no problem. But, the city and county Government did this to them. I have a BIG problem with that!
So, should you!
Every time something like this pops up, my wife cringes because she knows that she is going to hear me scream at the TV; "AND THEY CAN"T FIGURE OUT WHY WE ARE SO PISSED OFF!!"
Deep Breaths...Deep Breaths...Deep Breaths...OOOOOOHHHHHMMMMM...BP down now. That was a close one.
Ok, back to the Trump thing. Did you see that debacle in Chicago last weekend?
I laughed my ass off last night when Trump not only won Illinois, but he took it by a large number, A LARGE NUMBER!!!
More to the point, HE SPANKED THEM!!
He is a better man than I though, I can tell you that. If I had been in his shoes last night, I could not have helped wiping Chicago's nose in it's own pile of crap and using a newspaper on it's behind!
There's more. I'm just getting warmed up. But, I'll stop here for now before I really step in it.
One more thing though; So now it's Trump and Cruz. Cruz is a snake in my book. I get shivers down my spine everytime I hear him speak, and not in a good way.
Though it pains me to say it...I would rather it be Hillary over Cruz.
That should tell you something.
Yes, I have a confession to make. I voted for Donald Trump yesterday. I waited until today to confess it, because I did not want to have any undue influence on any of my readers from Florida.
Let me start by saying that I supported Trump almost from the beginning.
Why? Because like so many others have said, he says what I wish I could say, Or in the parlance of the times; He tells it like it is.
It's been said over and over, there is an intense anger out here in Middle America, yet it still doesn't seem to sink in to the establishment that it exists. In the meantime, Trump plays to it, and racks up the wins.
What's funny is listening to the "Talking Heads" who say, "Yeah, but he can't get 50% of the vote, anywhere" True he hasn't, but when he's sitting there with 48.6 % and second place barely has 22%, it makes you pundits look like fools.
That's just personal opinion folks, and you know what they say about opinions.
I got into a heated discussion about this on a music site that I frequent.
The Liberal to Conservative quotient on a site like that is about 50 to 1, but I have always felt that one must stand up for their principles, and I stood up for mine.
I can't quote anyone directly without their approval, and I'll be damned if I'll go through that mud pit.
So, to put it as close as possible, the liberals want to know why we are so mad. Well, you can start with the PC wormhole that we have drifted into. Most of America is over it, but somehow those in charge never seem to get the memo, so it just goes on and on.
In just the last couple of days, I heard a news item that said our troops in basic training are having to go through classes that teach the sins of "White Privilege"
REALLY?!!
That's the same kind of crap that is happening on our college campuses as well. That's why a majority of Millennials see no problem with Socialism. Of course they don't see a problem with it, they've been indoctrinated by the "cradle to grave" government overseers since they entered Kindergarten.
Every week it seems we find out some school in the middle of "Nowhere" is teaching anti- American ideal classes.How about the one where you can't give a child a zero on their paper, even if the only thing they got right on it was the spelling of their own name (sometimes, not even that). Nope, got to give at least a 65!
Really?!
Yes, really.
The left seems to think we are only mad at the PC crap because we want to be able to use the "N" word again. They actually said that!
I'm more concerned with the new trend of not being able to use the pronouns of "He" "She" "Him" "Her" and go from there! I'm not kidding folks! If you haven't heard this story yet, you really need to start researching just what is going on in your child's school.
Oh, and then there are the Transgenders. What could possibly be the problem there? Well, try this on for size; I'm a 53 year old man, suddenly I say I'm a woman in a man's body, and I'm able to use the bathrooms where Mothers and their daughters are, and I can't be told that I can't. In fact, don't dare tell me that I can't.
THIS IS HAPPENING OR COMING TO YOUR CHILD'S SCHOOL!!
It will also soon be in any and every shopping mall.
But saying this is wrong makes me "Heartless" Or so they would have you believe.
I'm not heartless. I DO believe that the Constitution guarantees equal rights, but it doesn't give anyone EXTRA rights! So, while I don't agree with gay marriage, the court said that it was legal, so therefore I stay out of it. (anybody who thinks that any politician can or will change this, needs to wake up)
What I mean by extra rights is this; If a business, who for religious reasons (remember Religious Freedom, anybody?) refuses to bake a cake for a Lesbian wedding, they should not be run out of business by the government.
YET THEY WERE!
If the people put them out of business by no longer spending money there, then that is a protected right, and I have no problem. But, the city and county Government did this to them. I have a BIG problem with that!
So, should you!
Every time something like this pops up, my wife cringes because she knows that she is going to hear me scream at the TV; "AND THEY CAN"T FIGURE OUT WHY WE ARE SO PISSED OFF!!"
Deep Breaths...Deep Breaths...Deep Breaths...OOOOOOHHHHHMMMMM...BP down now. That was a close one.
Ok, back to the Trump thing. Did you see that debacle in Chicago last weekend?
I laughed my ass off last night when Trump not only won Illinois, but he took it by a large number, A LARGE NUMBER!!!
More to the point, HE SPANKED THEM!!
He is a better man than I though, I can tell you that. If I had been in his shoes last night, I could not have helped wiping Chicago's nose in it's own pile of crap and using a newspaper on it's behind!
There's more. I'm just getting warmed up. But, I'll stop here for now before I really step in it.
One more thing though; So now it's Trump and Cruz. Cruz is a snake in my book. I get shivers down my spine everytime I hear him speak, and not in a good way.
Though it pains me to say it...I would rather it be Hillary over Cruz.
That should tell you something.
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
SO, YOU WANT FREE COLLEGE, HMMM?
SO, YOU WANT FREE COLLEGE, HMMM?
I am sick to death of hearing how these spoiled college students shouldn't have to pay back their loans. News Flash Sparky, NO ONE MADE you have to take the loan in the first place! No one MADE you go to college! Those were your choices.
Too many people don't even get that choice.
Now you think you are entitled to a free college education. How is that going to happen? Oh, we are just going to take more money from the rich. Guess what? We have been saying that the rich have to "pay their fair share" for 50 years or more! Every President gets tax increases by using that line, but somehow they still aren't paying their fair share?
REALLY?!
Maybe you need to use the basic math skills that you were SUPPOSED to learn in high school, and figure out just who IS paying MOST of the taxes. If your home gets a refund, then it isn't you, Brainiac!
Don't misunderstand me, the rich should pay more because they have more. But how much is enough?!
And BTW, that "more" should go to charities, and cancer research...etc..etc. But, NOT to some entitled little clown that has never been told "NO" in their life!
This is the same mind set as the "Everyone gets a trophy, no one wins, no one loses." crap! You know where that leads to? Do you? It leads to that "free" college degree that you got (or will get) being as useless as that stupid "Participation" Trophy.
That's really all that free degree will be, a certificate of "Participation", never mind the grades or working to earn it. NO, there would be no need for that, because "I participated".
That will make that degree and YOU, useless to society. Who is going to want to hire someone like that?
Oh my, well there's where the REAL crux of the matter is, isn't it? Now laws would have to be passed saying that you can't refuse giving a job to the so called "College Graduate" who still can't add 2 plus 2, (I guess we could label it under "Pre-existing conditions".) It won't matter that the guy owns a business that needs real skills, be it research, engineering or a hundred other things that require a special knowledge to perform and do right.
As long as you get yours, right?
So here is how it will go;
2016--Free college (Because how dare we expect you to pay back those loans?)
2020--Free cars (Because how dare we expect you to pay off the note on that overpriced vehicle you just had to have?)
2024--Free Houses (well duh! Mortgages are SOOO yesterday, and besides, I'm entitled!)
And on and on it goes, because the politicians will always play to the lowest common denominator.
Well, one side will anyway
One last thought; No matter what you hear/read/or believe, it was people taking out loans on homes that they had no way in hell of affording that caused the mortgage crisis, and sent us into the recession of '08 (Which we are still not out of ).
Think "Student loans", and does anyone else get a sense of "Been there, Done that" besides me?
One more last thought; Let's say that the taxpayers DO get stuck with paying off your student loans. You want to take a guess who'll be paying off the next generation's student loans?
That's right, Sparky...It WILL BE YOU!!
Because they are entitled!
And damn it, they participated!
I am sick to death of hearing how these spoiled college students shouldn't have to pay back their loans. News Flash Sparky, NO ONE MADE you have to take the loan in the first place! No one MADE you go to college! Those were your choices.
Too many people don't even get that choice.
Now you think you are entitled to a free college education. How is that going to happen? Oh, we are just going to take more money from the rich. Guess what? We have been saying that the rich have to "pay their fair share" for 50 years or more! Every President gets tax increases by using that line, but somehow they still aren't paying their fair share?
REALLY?!
Maybe you need to use the basic math skills that you were SUPPOSED to learn in high school, and figure out just who IS paying MOST of the taxes. If your home gets a refund, then it isn't you, Brainiac!
Don't misunderstand me, the rich should pay more because they have more. But how much is enough?!
And BTW, that "more" should go to charities, and cancer research...etc..etc. But, NOT to some entitled little clown that has never been told "NO" in their life!
This is the same mind set as the "Everyone gets a trophy, no one wins, no one loses." crap! You know where that leads to? Do you? It leads to that "free" college degree that you got (or will get) being as useless as that stupid "Participation" Trophy.
That's really all that free degree will be, a certificate of "Participation", never mind the grades or working to earn it. NO, there would be no need for that, because "I participated".
That will make that degree and YOU, useless to society. Who is going to want to hire someone like that?
Oh my, well there's where the REAL crux of the matter is, isn't it? Now laws would have to be passed saying that you can't refuse giving a job to the so called "College Graduate" who still can't add 2 plus 2, (I guess we could label it under "Pre-existing conditions".) It won't matter that the guy owns a business that needs real skills, be it research, engineering or a hundred other things that require a special knowledge to perform and do right.
As long as you get yours, right?
So here is how it will go;
2016--Free college (Because how dare we expect you to pay back those loans?)
2020--Free cars (Because how dare we expect you to pay off the note on that overpriced vehicle you just had to have?)
2024--Free Houses (well duh! Mortgages are SOOO yesterday, and besides, I'm entitled!)
And on and on it goes, because the politicians will always play to the lowest common denominator.
Well, one side will anyway
One last thought; No matter what you hear/read/or believe, it was people taking out loans on homes that they had no way in hell of affording that caused the mortgage crisis, and sent us into the recession of '08 (Which we are still not out of ).
Think "Student loans", and does anyone else get a sense of "Been there, Done that" besides me?
One more last thought; Let's say that the taxpayers DO get stuck with paying off your student loans. You want to take a guess who'll be paying off the next generation's student loans?
That's right, Sparky...It WILL BE YOU!!
Because they are entitled!
And damn it, they participated!
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