Just as the title suggests, every once in a while I get deep-diggers who must sow discord where there is none. Much like an indigestible meal, it causes discomfort that can only be alleviated by visiting it upon others. An apt analogy is to cast a Mepps™ #2 next to an old, dead log sticking out from shore @ 0515 and trying to get a rise. If the bottom is sandy and there’s a Mama Smallmouth thereabouts, you’re in for a interesting ride. Lighten up your drag and back out into deeper water. Lather. Rinse, Repeat.

Meet  Monica (again)-motivated “volunteer” for TWS. https://www.facebook.com/monica.primus .If we can believe her, she is a Veteran avec college degree(s) and extremely erudite. The problem arises when reading comprehension escapes one and they hight slightly over a three-figure vocabulary. Remember that old adverb-niggardly- the one that has fallen out of use due to early wokeness?  Same problem. In the instant case, it was the difference between ‘sever’ and ‘serve’, I think. I’ll let you be the trier of fact. It began here…

https://asknod.org/2012/11/20/warning-on-togetherweserved/

Scroll down, if you would, to the comments section but before you do so, please look at the top of all my posts to ascertain when the article was written. This is imperative if one hopes to be taken seriously.

Both Bruce and Monica cast their Mepps and waited for a strike. I obliged them because I can’t allow this kind of tomfoolery. The asknod site is not for silly, illogical arguments and pretentious aggrieved-party status. It’s for knowledge and good jokes. No one disputes your God-given right to join TWS and even pay their 60¢ a day if you so choose. As my daddy used to say, you have the unalienable right to remain stupid. No one-no one,son- can take that away from you. However, an apples-to-apples comparison and indeed, an elementary vocabulary, are a virtual necessity to argue here cogently.  Well, that and an ability to place the article in its context contemporaneously. Arguing about how wonderful TWS is in 2020 is inapposite to a period description of what it was like in 2012. Or is it?

Because I’m non- judgmental and want everyone-even those who may disagree with me- to be accorded a chance to pull up their own soapbox and talk about the Veteran experience, I always extend the olive branch to those who feel I’m oppressive. I have only taken the drastic extreme unction function to censor once. I now exercise it again. We have three taboos here. No Politics. No Religion. No Advertising. I grant PSAs to valid groups and they are listed in the above widgets section. None are trying to separate you from your wallet, however. We have no pay walls for my legal strategies. I give all this away for free. Truth be told, I’d rather be out horseback riding on my Cooper with Pickles or bird hunting. If I can teach you how to do this stuff yourself, then I don’t have to. My accountant tells me it’s a piss poor business model.

Towards that end, I noticed  “volunteer”Monica had returned yesterday to explain to one  (Kelly) how TWS was the land of unicorns and rainbows. Then the paywall pitch began- including the address and costs for this wonderful invention. Sorry, Monica. That’s a Bozo No-No. I took down the comment but I did offer her an opportunity to become an author and publish here. Any one of you can do this. Remember the three Bozos and proceed accordingly.

For the record, and in all fairness, here was her censored comment on the blog site:

Kelly, I am not wrong. All you have to do is read what the offer is (it is a 1 year free premium service if you use the link at the bottom of the aforementioned article) and then read what happens once the offer expires (converts to a free account which limits you to what is free on the site). Even if you don’t use that link, to have a profile on TWS you do NOT have to pay for it. You just have to choose to continue with the free profile. Yes, there are areas of the site that are part of the premium package ($20 for 1 yr; $40 for 3 years, $100 for a lifetime), but that is not the whole site. While the servers are not in the US, this is absolutely a US Based company that is for Veterans and managed by Veterans. Here is there [sic] address and phone number: 1234 Yellow Brick Road, Ste 123, Oz, Kansas 60609 (800) 867-5309. [Info changed to avoid free advertising]

Tommy Twotones anyone? Kelly, I got your number. I want to make you mine. This sounded like a high-powered sales pitch to me on my dime. If you have to extol a product’s virtues versus cost, you’ve already lost the majority of your audience. I sent Monica an email and explained why I took her advertisement down. Hey, in the interests of glasnost and perestroika, I’ll even share it here with you:

Dear Ms. Primus,

I apologize for having to restrict your ability to publish your most recent comments on asknod. Unfortunately, we do not permit advertising nor do we accept funds to do so. Your last post included the contact info for TWS which is not permitted.

My site is purposefully devoid of any advertising because I do not need the money. I never censor any comments and thought long and hard about doing so to your latest comment. Sadly, it violates one of the three precepts I embody here-i.e. politics, religion and advertising. For that reason, it was deleted.

Should you desire, I will grant you privileges as an author to publish articles on my site, assuming arguendo, you are a real Veteran. Your choice of subjects or content is not restricted as long as you avoid the above three subjects.

I bear you no animosity but even a cursory  research into TWS would reveal all I have told you as gospel truth. As a VA nonattorney practitioner and an Officer of the Court (Federal Circuit), I can be disbarred for lying to, or misrepresenting, my Veteran clients’ legal interests. That would include anything on my site as well. I take that responsibility very seriously. My site (and asknod moniker) began in 2008. Since then, I have helped over 1500 Veterans attain TDIU or 100% scheduler ratings. I can’t count how many I’ve helped get lesser ratings.

In 2015, after being cured of my life-threatening disease, I began my desire to become accredited. It took a year due to all my disabilities, which do not permit any mental disorders per VA regulations (100%, 100%, 60%, 40%, 30% and 10%). Following my grant of accreditation, I applied for, and was admitted to, the Federal Circuit to practice-one of only 33 nonattorneys who have been granted that honor. I am a combat Veteran and did two tours in Vietnam. I choose to help Veterans-not charge them money for access to a glorified Facebook-type venue. I have no paywalls on my site. I do not accept donations. I do not charge for advice. If you don’t believe me, feel free to call me about your own ratings or potential claims before the VA. My contact information is below including my office telephone number.   What the hey? If you want a free copy of my book, I’ll even give it to you gratis.

You are entitled to your opinions but you are not entitled to misrepresent my intelligence, my website or my motivation for helping Veterans. It requires very little to investigate all the negative publicity TWS has received due to their avaricious practices over the last 8 years. I merely reported my own experience. It cost me $20- a cheap price- to determine the site was devoid of anything useful in 2012. It may have improved but the tenor of the comments I see upon Googling it recently reflect very little, if anything, has changed.

The argument that it is expensive to provide the services Mr. Foster does is valid. Fortunately, I do not suffer that problem. I finance mine out of my own pocket as most Veterans-especially disabled Veterans- are not financially well-endowed.

Very respectfully,

/s/

Sounds fairly innocuous, ne c’est-pas? Well, apparently not. I will defer to her wishes not to be contacted again, and, like a moth to flame. she can read my rejoinder here. I might suggest a dictionary and Roget’s Thesaurus for her, though. If a college-educated individual can’t discern the difference between sever and serve-let alone the intricacies of there, their and they’re, it bears an inquiry as to where she got her degree and in what field. I decline to venture a guess. I’ll just cast my own Mepps spinner.

I honestly hoped she’d see the wisdom of having a free, paid berth from which to preach from for TWS. But noooooooooo.  The following is the priceless gaslighter rejoinder I expected. I’m rubber and you’re glue. Everything you say bounces off me and sticks on you. Maybe ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’?

Mr. Graham,

Of course you deleted it.  That does not surprise me at all because it would have armed her with information.  Your apology is not accepted as it is not sincere.  I see that you have reverted to the name calling again.  You infer that I am a “troll” and “gaslighting”, but it appears that you don’t know the definitions so I am providing them to you.  Neither of these describe anything that I have said or done.

Troll  – to antagonize (others) online by deliberately posting inflammatory, irrelevant, or offensive comments or other disruptive content

Gaslight – to attempt to make (someone) believe that he or she is going insane (as by subjecting that person to a series of experiences that have no rational explanation). [sever vs served?]

No one sent me to your site, I just happened upon it after a deep dig on the internet.

I was not advertising anything.  You had the option to remove that portion that you thought was advertising and left the rest, but it contradicted what you believe to be still true.  I was providing information so Kelly could do her own research and be provided facts about the company that you have libeled.  It appears to me that you have a biased opinion because of something that happened to you with TWS many years ago and that you still hold a grudge and animosity toward them.

People and companies evolve.           

[emphasis added by Ms. Primus]

You can stop bragging about yourself.  I don’t care how much money you have, what you do for a living, how many people you claim to have helped [sic].  This gives me the impression that you are quite insecure.

Do not contact me again.

Ms. Monica J Primus

You’re outta here, Monica.

Roger that. I now have to temper my censorship proclivities to respect her wishes? I respect SSgt. Primus (R) for her right to an opinion and very little else. But, like all others, she has to conform to those three silly restrictions. Some cannot bring themselves to see their own follies or to admit they arrived here to “set the record straight”. Note Mr./Ms. Kelly Phillips had already walked point on this and came back to report. What did Ms. Monica think she could impart to him/her that s/he had not already absorbed?  Reminds me of John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd on a “Mission from God“. Seems the internet, and not me, is all atwitter (no pun intended) about this business of charging Veterans for the right to talk to each other. I know. It’s probably far more entertaining than I make it out to be -and for only about 60¢ a day. Funny but I count no less than six internet sites explaining how to find their cleverly hidden yellow and black ejection handle. Say it ain’t so, Monica.

I put great faith in those little gold stars at the beginning of the complaints. A one or a two is indicative of problems.

https://together-we-served.pissedconsumer.com/review.html

Now, I’m not bragging but look at the stars in the comments section of my old Amazon book. It’s a wee bit out of date but some of these comments are fairly new. I would ask you to count the stars to gauge the feelings of those who bothered to come back and submit a comment after buying the book. Cool beans.

Click on that “53 reviews” doomoflotchie after the 4.5 gold stars… Again. I’m not bragging. This is my life. I love it. That Others Might Win is not a catchy phrase. It’s a commitment to my Veterans.  I’ll leave the comments section open just in case another disgruntled Vet arrives here with his or her horror story. Like my grandma used to say “If you can’t say anything nice about someone, then sit down here beside me.” I bear Mr. Foster and his Merry Men no animus. They have to eat.  But then, so do vultures.

Here’s another’s viewpoint– http://www.afterthedd214.com/together-we-served/

And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

P.S. 8/27/2020 Edit—- Or was. I spotted an anomaly in the Amazon verified purchaser reviews I mentioned above. On August 18th, 2020, a mere nine days ago, and only six days before SSgt. Monica’s comment, a certain “vkunk” posted his/her review of one star and said the book was a complete zero. Now, as most know, I subscribe to the logic club known as Occam’s Razor. Quite simply, the simplest explanation for a paradox is invariably the correct explanation. There’s no need to mount up a posse of 20 or hire Pinkerton’s Detective agency. Leave Mel Gibson out of it. I defer to the reader’s vivid imagination to envisage someone so desperate to lodge a published complaint that they would cut off there nose to spite there face. I hope they, whoever they are, took the cheap route and got a Kindle .pdf version instead of the more expensive paperback. Idiot’s delight. You can’t make this stuff up and even if you could, a body would never believe you.