LINCOLN LOG SMC-PREPARE THE PUNJI PIT

Posted on August 16, 2022 by asknod

Some litigators are recalcitrant to reveal their techniques for getting from A to B. I don’t feel that way. This is a true Do-It-Yourself (DIY) site. I don’t have time to do every claim that comes through the door. If I find a better path or a superior shortcut, I don’t mind sharing it. No pay walls to get to see what’s behind Door #3. It’s Monty’s Cookie Jar every day of the week here at asknod. What’s better, we use live ammunition. I show you the latest successes for a reason. If I, a chucklehead who graduated 59th in a class of 64, can win these, imagine what you could do.

But before I dive in, I want to share a failure. Sadly, today, I had to refuse to represent a Vet who really needs it. That hurts. It’s a rare thing to leave a fellow Vet behind. I wish it could be fixed. I had referred him to another Agent whom I trust and respect only to find out he didn’t feel the other Agent was “committed” enough to measure up. So he ‘let him go’ and came back asking me to rep him. I understand that MDD and it’s many iterations can wreak havoc in a body’s mind. Boy howdy, I’m no stranger to that. The problem begins when you let that little guy upstairs in your noggin run the show and destroy what others are doing to improve your financial future. Finding a high-calibre rainmaker is often 80% of winning. The only remaining task is patience, a shit ton of electrons, some VA forms and a private IMO. Stir, fold in the supplemental IMO after the denial, bake in a slow VA oven at 300° for 125 days and serve with champagne. My concern is I would be the next casualty of this and have wasted my time trying.

Firing said rainmaker just as he gets your file set up and begins to dumpster dive into your VBMS e folder all the way back to 2003 is counterproductive to winning. The whole idea is that you’ve spent X long years trying to accomplish this and failed. If you’ve actually found a law firm willing to rep you, statistically you are already a chicken dinner winner. Why wouldn’t you let an expert fix it with a proven technique? Sadly, that little man gets in the way and tells you your lawdog isn’t on it 9-5 M-F and he isn’t earning his paycheck.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this self-destructive rep-shopping phenomenon. The horrible downside is that if you’re lucky enough the lasso a new rep, he’s going to see the trail of lawyer detritus in the efolder. Every rep you fire leaves documents in the file-be it a DAV VSO or a big outfit like Bergmann and Moore etc. When your FNG law dog gains access, he’s going to get skittish and most will pull the plug right then and there and say thanks but no thanks.

What’s worse, if you manage to win, you may have three law offices arguing over the 20% winnings. The VA’s OGC will wrap that puppy up tighter than a tinfoil ball and it may take four years or more to get it sorted. Why tie up resources for years and only get a 1/3 of the pie? Law dogs have bills to pay. If you show up with a Hansel and Gretel trail of 22a breadcrumbs, you’re gonna get treated like a leper.

But let’s talk Lincoln Log claims for SMC. I started fresh with Don. A clean slate is the best. The water isn’t all muddy and stirred up with confusion. I filed a brand new 526 pre-AMA even though he’d filed back in ’08 for detached retina due to Malaria. He was on the right track but his DAV rep had never gotten the email on Caluza/Hickson/Shedden. And, like millions of Vets before him, he got the bum’s rush. I planned for this and promptly obtained an IMO. Sensing another denial at the local Fort Forgetaboutit, I filed it at the BVA. Just about that time the AMA kicked in and everything was in a state of confusion. The BVA, now in AMA mode, promptly found a ‘duty to assist’ violation and remanded him back here to Seattle for another c&p… with an uncontested IMO.

This time, the optometrist saw the ophthalmologist’s IMO and the white wall of doctors kicked in. We won. Not to be defeated, VA got a bogus c&p nurse to opine that he wasn’t totally blind-just 90%. Boom. There went SMC L for A&A. Or so the raters thought. I ordered up a HLR and pointed out nobody had even discussed sending this back for extraschedular consideration to the Director of Comp and Pen. Whoosh. Off to DC for a 3 month summer delay.

Since it’s pretty hard to see your eyedrops bottle-let alone the eye dropper to put them in, or fry bacon and eggs in the morning without burning the house down, the Poohbahs agreed the Donbo deserved A&A. But… here’s the SMC trick. I’d simply asked for A&A under §3.350(b)(3) based on the need for A&A-not on §3.350(b)(2) for being so blind you can only figure out if it’s AM or PM. And here’s why. As most know, in order to get a bump up from L to M, you normally need a spare 100% rating for a separate and distinct disability. But read §3.350(c)(1)(v) more closely et voilà-

(1) The special monthly compensation provided by 38 U.S.C. 1114(m) is payable for any of the following conditions:

(v) Blindness in both eyes leaving the veteran so helpless as to be in need of regular aid and attendance.

You’d never be able to hornswoggle the ratings pukes to cough up the SMC M right off the bat. They’re too niggardly to even consider it. No way. You lead them into the ol’ asknod punji pit and let them step in.

You ask for a&a because it’s their next logical step. Since they can’t figure out SMC any better than Homer’s monkey Mojo, they auto default to §3.350(b)(3) for a&a because that’s what you asked for. Once it’s granted, it’s a finding of fact. The Donmeister needs a&a. Give that man an L. Nobody bothers to read the small print under M. They only think of that as a possible bump under §3.350(f)(4) or based on one of these scenarios:

(i) Anatomical loss or loss of use of both hands;

(ii) Anatomical loss or loss of use of both legs at a level, or with complications, preventing natural knee action with prosthesis in place;

(iii) Anatomical loss or loss of use of one arm at a level, or with complications, preventing natural elbow action with prosthesis in place with anatomical loss or loss of use of one leg at a level, or with complications, preventing natural knee action with prosthesis in place;

(iv) Blindness in both eyes having only light perception

Remember our good friend §3.103–it is the obligation of VA to assist a claimant in developing the facts pertinent to the claim and to render a decision which grants every benefit that can be supported in law while protecting the interests of the Government. The provisions of this section apply to all claims for benefits and relief, and decisions thereon, within the purview of this part 3. And that includes SMC.

VA’s SMC Calculator is a hoot. You virtually have to enter all the parameters into it and even then it “autocorrects” to ignore 38 CFR. It only obeys the dictates of the M 21. Therein lies the 85% error rate in VA SMC adjudications.

So, here’s the extraschedular rating for SMC L a&a all the way back to the original 526 filing. Below it is my shiny new HLR claim for SMC M. I can’t wait to see how they’ll try to squirm out of it. I expect some inane logic like “Well, Mr. Graham. Obviously you’re not very well acquainted with SMC or you would have known the Donster is only 90% and you’d have to be 100% schedular to qualify for SMC M. Mr. Don only has a 20% for DM II and a 10 for golden ear ring so he doesn’t qualify even if you added them all up together. We oh-so-wished we could give him the M but our hands are tied.” Bullshit. The truth is they don’t even know the reg exists. They just make this shit up as they go along.

redact10.29.21 RD

Redact a&a denial

Redact SMC L RD 8.10.22

redact HLR M filed

Never tip your hand and show your cards to VA. Litigate in bits and pieces. That’s the new AMA technique. Everything must be digestible and cut into little claims pieces. Seems at present, it requires ten c&ps just to make sure. If it’s a shit ton of money, it’ll take 20 c&ps in a desperate effort to make an end run around Mariano v Principi and deny.

I look forward to sharing the SMC M award with the readership. Now, here’s another sparring technique. I just filed him for MDD secondary to his blindness. I’m not poking holes in the dark. It’s in his records. I just plan on building a new SMC separate and distinct for another a&a and his eventual increase to SMC O and R1. Lincoln Logs, folks. Think SMC Lincoln Logs all the time.

P.S. A wonderful Higher Level of Review Officer called me this morning and asked to schedule an Informal conference. Since my argument for SMC M rests on law and not the facts of the case, I asked to conduct the Informal conference right then and there. She readily conceded error and agreed to get it revised to comport with law. And just like that, ol’ Donbo became entitled to SMC at the M rate all the way back to 10/2018… for the moment. This is how the system should work in a more perfect world.

Posted in Aid and Attendance, All about Veterans, HISA Grants, KP Veterans, SMC, VA Agents, VBMS Tricks | Tagged asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, vA CLAIMS FOR PTSD, VA SMC Claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help., war mementos | 3 Comments

PREGNANCY AND EXERCISE

Posted on August 8, 2022 by asknod

So, a Vet and his preggers wife go in for the pre-birth briefing on staying healthy and getting ready for the big day. The room is full of other husbands who have accompanied their wives….

Instructor: ” Good morning. First, I’d like to share this with you soon-to-be mothers. Remember that exercise is good for you. Walking is especially beneficial. It strengthens the pelvic muscles and will make delivery that much easier. Be sure to pace yourself. I’d suggest making plenty of stops and trying, if possible, to stay on a soft surface like grass or a path.”

Gentlemen, remember -you’re a big part of this, too. You’re in this together. It probably wouldn’t hurt you to go walking with her. In fact, that shared experience can be very emotionally rewarding for the two of you.”

The room suddenly became very quiet as the men absorbed this information. After a few moments, the Vet at the back of the room, slowly raised his hand.

“Yes?” said the instructor.

“I was just wondering if it would be all right if she carries a golf bag while we walk?”

Posted in Humor | Tagged asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 3 Comments

BVA–(I CAN’T GET NO) SATISFACTON

Posted on August 5, 2022 by asknod

Have you ever had a claim go sideways over and over again ad nauseum? Hell, of course you have if it was the VA. Remember how they get to ‘construe’ what they think it is you’re asking for? Now imagine the intricate, convoluted rules of Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) that Johnny Vet tries to digest to no avail. Most use a VSO and file for SMC with little or no knowledge of what it is and the VSO promptly says “you can’t get there from here. You’re already 100% dummy.” He refiles on his own and they say “You’re not eligible.” They don’t explain what it is you need or what they would do in your shoes. You just get the wave off, go around again and keep turning left on final over and over until you hit Bingo and crash. And then you find me.

I’m not one for blowing smoke. I don’t promise miracles. I promise justice. And most times, I eventually prevail without going up to the CAVC. Oddly, I’m still batting .1000 on everything I’ve ever touched. This is a case that exemplifies the old adage of ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again.’ I’d have to count how many times I tried to beat 38 CFR §3.350(e)(1)(ii) into some Houston RO Coach’s noggin to no avail. Trust me when I say this one took from late Fall 2017 until this morning.

Nasty, racist Veterans

Andy came to me via Hadit.com. I used to post advice on SMC there but that ol’ VA IMO shitlist I published cast a pall on their favorite go-to Doctor for IMOs. You know the one. His initials are CB and you’d remember him if you ever hired him. Apparently he’s on the bad boy list. From talking to BVA VLJs over the years at conferences, he’s considered suspect as to his “independent” opinions. Hadit used to be a red hot Forum back in the day but unfortunately the inmates have taken over the asylum and frequently offer atrocious advice to the detriment of those who seek it. But this isn’t about Hadit or casting aspersions on folks.

Andy was unique. He had a longstanding 100% schedular for COPD (2008) and enough secondaries to run on to 8 sheets of paper on his Code rating sheet. Seriously. Talk about a frequent filer. He wasn’t throwing claims spaghetti at the wall hoping something would stick. He was sinking slowly like the Titanic and VA wasn’t even listening. All those extra 10%s they threw at him were merely to placate him. Eventually they toted up to enough to get to SMC S but it was obvious he deserved far more. SMC L would have been the very least award he was entitled to but Houston drives a hard bargain. No matter what he had wrong, he was stuck. And then they began lying about SMC. So he called me.

I immediately filed him specifically for the A&A due solely to all the stuff he was already rated for-the COPD being the ‘anchor’ for his A&A entitlement. VA contended all his ratings were being “used” to obtain SMC S so no dice. Huh? Seeing the spaghetti sliding off the wall and sinking down to the floor, I went up to the BVA and won it there. When it came back for the rating in Houston, they again dumped everything into one basket and said the BVA ordered them to do it that way. No bump up from SMC L to L 1/2 (or M) was available because the 60% for diabetes was being “used” to support the SMC L. But what they neglected to say was that his COPD was part and parcel of the A&A-just the DM II, the major neurocognitive disorder and the PN in all four extremities. That was the biggest financial mistake they’ll probably ever make. Shoot. Maybe not.

Now, if any of you have ever heard of Turco v. Brown or Prejean v. West, you’d know you only need one (1) item in the §3.352(a) laundry list to win A&A. Additionally, you don’t even need a solid 100% schedular rating to queue up in the A&A line for it. VA’s M 21 argues otherwise- especially at the Houston Puzzle Palace. More importantly, if a Doctor fills out a VAF 21-2680 saying you can’t accomplish one of those items in §3.352(a), and you demonstrate a factual need for A&A under the auspices of §3.351(c)(3), then you get it. Well, everywhere except Houston (or St. Pete or Seattle) or any of the other Fort Fumbles across the VA’s fruity plains for that matter.

The actual truth is scary. You can get A&A for a Vet with only a 40% rating and a 60% TDIU. I know. I’ve done it. It’s called an extraschedular consideration and requires sending it back to the Director of Comp and Pen for his personal imprimatur. That admittedly is the hardest way but a stellar example of the fact that what VA spews out as regulation is a bunch of hooey. They just make this shit up and insert it into rating decisions as far as I can tell.

So, try as I might, I couldn’t get Houston to budge on the §3.350(f)(4) bump from SMC L to M based on Andy’s extra 100% for COPD. They went sideways and said it was … wait for it… being used to support the A&A. But that’s not what the rating decision said after the BVA win for A&A. So I filed a CUE in August 2021 after failing to get any traction. Bingo! On Aug. 27, ’21, almost a full seventeen months after the SMC L win, the Houston overlords agreed with me and said by golly wolly they were wrong. Here’s your SMC M. And, because we stepped on our necktie, we’re even going to grant the SMC L for the A&A back six months to February 2018 because that’s the day you filed your ITF (intent to file).

Unfortunately, some folks don’t examine their handiwork before they push print. Andy was only 50% for bent brain on February 12, `18. He would not get a 100% schedular until August 23, ’18 and VA had just awarded the A&A back to a date where he couldn’t qualify unless… well, unless they substituted the 100% COPD as the ‘hook’ for A&A. But they didn’t. They incorrectly insisted he was 100% for bent brain on February 12th. I filed a VAF 20-0996 HLR a week later and pointed out this impossibility to the HLR reviewer.

It didn’t faze her one iota. Let me give you an idea how stupid she was. She revised the rationale for the A&A from the bent brain disability and blithely substituted the COPD. And just for shits and grins, threw in the DM II on top to fat it up. But, being paralyzed from the neck up, she decided to throw in a phrase that wrecked all her illicit handiwork. She stated that now the COPD with DMII-without even considering the bent brain– was the predicate for A&A. Ruh oh Rorge. All of a sudden we had two A&As on the table. Houston, however, couldn’t ‘see’ it. I reckon they’re gonna have 20/20 vision here directly. Somebody there has to write up the New Testament according to St. VLJ.

When VA grants something, it’s akin to pulling the pin on a M 26 and hucking it. You can’t run out there, grab it, stick the bail back on it and reinsert the pin. Prussic acid is very corrosive along about that time. Sure, VA can call CUE on themselves and revise a decision. What they can’t do is rearrange it and change it over and over until they get it right. It’s cast in stone. They gave him A&A on March 4, 2020 because “the BVA said to”. When I called them on the error to award the SMC M, all they had to do was grant it. By going back and granting a new effective date unsupported by a total rating for bent brain, they were “re-CUEing” themselves without calling a CUE. That’s a Bozo no-no in forty nine states. Once you grant something, it’s a done deal-assuming arguendo you didn’t lie, cheat or steal to get it.

Silence is golden

Try as I might, I could not pound that rationale into the Houston raters’ noggins. They just kept coming back with that inane argument that all the shit had been used up – ergo there weren’t two A&As. Besides, in VA land 2 A&As is an impossibility- kinda like pots of gold at the ends of rainbows and unicorns.

By now, I had two BVA appeals in the pipeline. One was for the L 1/2 because by moving back the award date, it pushed him into §3.350(f)(3) for a half step bump. But no, the extra 50% disability was being used for… yep… the A&A. It was like arguing the Earth was flat as far as they were concerned. Besides, by now they were laughing their asses off and just kept denying each filing attempt I made at logic and reading the regulation correctly faster than I could get them CEST’d (CEST is a VA acronym for Claim Established) in VBMS. Their personal best was a filing on 12/10/’21 denied on 12/15/’21.

What’s a litigator to do? Why, write a Gutenberg Bible explaining it to the BVA Veterans Law Judge (VLJ). We’re taught to write as short a legal brief as we can to argue our case. Loquacious, redundant briefs are frowned upon. Nevertheless, it took me no less than 16 pages just to convey how ignorant these folks were. Apparently it worked. Check it out.

Redact NOD legal brief

redact R1

Last night I discovered that the BVA had shitcanned one of my NODs. This morning I discovered they’d rolled it all into the other one. I disagree that they were duplicative but why protest. I had already begun typing up a revised NOD last night and was about 8 pages into it. But it was all wasted effort. After I got my ears lowered at the local beauty salon this AM, I came home, sat down and pulled up VBMS. There, in all its splendor was Andy’s shiny new R1 in his e file. Much ado about nothing. Andy and his wife were tickled pink, too, by the way. Check out the last paragraph on page 4 where the VLJ informs the reader that Houston’s finest are laboring under an M 21 misconception. Say it ain’t so, Denis.

Crew Chief Down!

I don’t reckon I can convey how much I enjoy fixing broken claims. I consider it an honor to bring justice to a Vet. With SMC at the higher levels, the monetary remuneration after 4 years is often over six figures. That’s a mega life game changer for virtually every Vet I represent. Oddly, I’ve never met any filthy rich clients. Virtually every one is in danger of having a mobile zip code under an overpass or knocking on Heaven’s door. Thank you Andy for entrusting your legal woes to me. I’m just pissed that VA caused you to wait four years for justice. That was uncalled for. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Posted in Aid and Attendance, All about Veterans, BvA Decisions, Earlier Effective dates, R1/R2, SMC, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents, Veterans Law | Tagged asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, How to get VA SMC, Service Connection, VA claims, VA SMC R1, VA SMC rules, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 6 Comments

OUR NEW VA PACT ACT AND THAT PESKY PROBLEM AT THE BVA

Posted on August 4, 2022 by asknod

Wowser. Congress finally got it sorted. I’m not completely impressed or floored just yet. What’s certain is that, as usual, in a few short years, we’ll find out what was left out, deliberately ignored or never contemplated when mapping out this juggernaut. Just as we’ve discovered the magic AMA isn’t even touching the backlog problem as promised, we always discover some boneheaded “assumption” upon which billions were bet. Kinda like that intractable Oracle/Millennium Cerner EHR medical computer at $16 Bil and counting. I’m betting Congress will shoot out the tires along about when it hits $25 Bil and they can’t figure out why it’s still killing Vets. Please, Congressman Tarkano. Just another $10 bil. We’re almost there.

What’s in this pork barrel? Lots of stuff I don’t think belongs and lots that’s way overdue. Vietnam Vets got Hypertension (HTN) and monoclonal gammopathy (MGUS). That’s a nightmare in its own right brewing. VA will now have to go back and find every one of us Vietnam Vets who put in for HTN secondary to DM II or IHD. Believe me. They’ll take about 15% or the raters off the normal flow of intake for new claims and devote them to this alone. Expect one-year delays as in the days of old when there was one line VA examiner for every 200 ready for decision claims. If it’s one for a 0%, add a year. Chances are most of the HTN and MGUS stuff will come back as a 0% and require a new supplemental to get a legitimate rating. Many trees will be cut down and pulped to feed this endeavor.

To me, the big win is for us Thailand/Laos/ Cambodian/Anderson Island/ Johnston Atoll folks. Again, the number of claims denied which , incidentally can fall under the auspices of §3.816(c) assuming the Vet is savvy, is also staggering to even consider. On top of that will be the tsunami of follow on Vets queuing up to file tomorrow thus ensuring an earlier effective date.

Once again, they are going to somehow phase this entitlement in gradually so as not to bankrupt the US treasury. Whoops. Too late. That happened when they started shoving IOUs in the Social Security lockbox. Veterans of all war eras are going to get more compensation for legitimate diseases. The wonder of all this is why it took so long. No wonder, this. It’s all about money. Your tax dollars are needed for the National Institutes of Health to send to China to support research into bioweapons like COVID. We have to install ecotoilets in Yosemite that are earth friendly… but have no $ for Veterans.

I have a theory on how to ensure world peace. Henceforth, when we opt to go to war anywhere, we should be forced to set aside X $ for VA to fix the injured folks. I’m guessing no one in Congress would have the stomach for erasing a $52 billion initial outlay on some boondoggle in East Bumfork Egypt and penciling in $350-$? billion in the appropriations guestimate blank. Well, it might give them pause. Maybe not considering Speaker Pelosi just landed in Taipei after flipping off the Mig 29 pilots flying off her right wing. Gotta hand it to her. That takes balls.

But now I wish to address what’s afoot at the BVA. The advent of the AMA was promised to cure the backlog at all venues – be it the AOJ (Agency of Original Jurisdiction) aka the VARO or our friendly Veterans Service Center (VSC) or the Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA). Misjudged they did. Yesssssssss. No pun intended. When it became apparent that an inordinate number of Veterans were not going to piss on the fire and go home, they were dumbfounded. Apparently, the new AMA maze wasn’t confusing enough. More and more Vets opted in and appealed to the BVA in spite of what the BVA Poohbahs were told. This stampede toward justice meant they needed more Veterans Law Judges (VLJs). Finding attorneys who understand or practice VA law is dicey. Most potential candidates come from within the pool of VA’s staff attorneys at the BVA itself. Some (very few) come from the ranks of us who do this for a living. Regardless, you have to know that VA law is to Law as Military music is to Music. It’s two entirely different venues. Having a shiny Juris Doctorate and applying for a VA attorney job means a solid year of grueling indoctrination in just the basics without dwelling on the intricacies of CUE, SMC and §3.156(c).

So, without mentioning any actual names, the BVA chairman of the Board opted to hire unschooled, FNG JDs with nary an ounce of VA legal knowledge. Well, as anyone can tell you, when this happens at the XYZ Mousetrap company, you have to teach the FNG the proper way to build one and how to operate the machinery. After about six months, he graduates from Padewan to Moustrap Journeyman and can work unsupervised. Nevertheless, it requires taking someone out of production to teach him. In a nutshell, that’s is what has transpired at the BVA. They’re so busy training new VLJs, they have fewer warm bodies to operate the production line. Prying a decision out of them is becoming more and more time consuming to put it politely.

Chisholm, Chisholm and Kilpatrick (CCK) recently filed a petition in U.S. District Court to complain about this and argue the AMA never legislated permission to do what they’re doing at the BVA re Legacy versus the newer AMA appeals. The backlog of Legacy appeals was supposed to have been done by now yet they still remain embedded at the BVA like cockroaches. The AMA work seems to have taken precedence. Worse, these are two different systems with two different sets of regulations. Imagine training judges on a system that will soon be obsolete. You or I could come up with a better game plan. Hell, Homer’s monkey Mojo could, too.

Last night I received a copy of a letter an unknown number of VLJs penned to enlighten Mr. Chisholm on just why there’s such a problem at the BVA. Since I know very few VLJs both past and present and rarely meet new ones now, I can only venture a guess as to how many signed it. Probably every one of the overworked, underpaid and ignored VLJs is my guess. Take a gander:

Concerned-Judges-Letter_final1_stripped

That’s the latest roundup of the VA News. You may discover I take a different slant on reporting it compared to other Vets help sites. That’s because I don’t have a filter. I’m sorry if it conflicts with your reality in doing VA claims. I litigate to win and I don’t settle for the 10% lowballs VA hands out. Since no one taught me how to do this, I get to stumble around and act uncouth. It works.

Posted in BvA Decisions, BVA Hearings, vA news, Veterans Law | Tagged Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 18 Comments

CAVC-STOVER v. McDONOUGH–THE LAST AO ROUNDUP?

Posted on July 29, 2022 by asknod

Assuming the new “Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2021”, abbreviated as PACT, ever passes, Mr. Jack L. Stover’s appeal here and the remand back to the AOJ Puzzle Palace for readjudication (via the BVA) will become more moot than shooting a dead skunk in the middle of the road. Of course, if Republican intransigence over the Democrats packing the bill with a bunch of extraneous baggage holds, passage of the bill may die an ignoble death. I somehow doubt that. It’s the right thing to do to grant presumptive herbicide exposure to all of us who ended up in that country to the north of Thailand that rhymes with ‘mouse’ as well as Cambodia, Anderson Island and the Johnson Atoll. But Thailand Vets deserve it most. “Honoring our Promise” seems a bit over the top. We Thailand Vets have been clamoring for recognition ever since VA first promulgated the regulations after Nehmer. Where were these gladhanders in 1989?

Notwithstanding the flimsy logic that granted a blanket presumption to all who ever set foot in Vietnam that they dined frequently on Agent Orange and its five sister flavors of herbicides, it would seem incongruous that Thailand Vets-who were actually penned inside the wire with AO- could have ever have been excluded.

Were it not for the declassified CHECO records clearly conceding use of “tactical herbicides”, this honoring our promise shit would never have surfaced. Sure, the Vets who dined on sand burgers in Southwest Asia might have gotten the burnpit presumption for snorting all manner of interesting carcinogenic substances but we never would have. Even more interesting was the absence of the last five or so pages of the CHECO which were extremely damning. And then… Et Voilà! They emerged from the depths. The military and VA went to extreme lengths to cast aspersions on the bona fides and provenance of the documents but to no avail. They’ve been used countless times to prove the use of the tactical herbicides in Thailand. I offered to testify on the subject of AO in Laos at the CAVC in 2012 and the Secretary caved in at the Rule 33 Conference to avoid going there. That might be one reason it’s taken twenty three years for this “promise” to surface.

Vietnam Vets, even if they were in the rear echelon areas, were presumed exposed. We know nary a drop of this juice ever touched the earth around Tan Son Nhut Airbase. It was forbidden. Smart move in retrospect. You can still eat the rice produced thereabouts. But nevertheless, the troops in Saigon get the same consideration as the Vets up in I Corps who were dang near shampooing with it on an almost daily basis.

Thailand Vets, and all of us who purportedly worked for a civilian/government airline in nearby ‘neutral’ countries didn’t enjoy this presumptive. Imagine a big swimming pool with one ladder to get out at one end. That pretty much describes a Royal Thai Air Force Base. Now imagine lining the perimeters-including the ladders- with cyanide or arsenic every couple of weeks. If the wind is blowing even slightly, the overspray has been shown to travel 500 metres in tests.

Now, imagine that due to space restrictions, you placed the mess hall for the Enlisted pukes right up against the fence (Udorn) and the troops traipsed in three times a day. Wouldn’t that be considered being ‘in or on the perimeter on a daily basis while in performance of your regularly assigned duties”? Seems to me it would be a UCMJ violation to damage your body via anorexia if you didn’t eat.

But, in contrast to Vietnam Vets at Tan Son Nhut, your exposure factor would be one hundred fold. Barracks were less than 40 feet from the perimeter in some cases. To say our duties never took us to the immediate edges of the base is a pretty big stretch of the definition… kinda like we’re not in a “recession” even though we need a wheelbarrow of cash to go buy gas. Shoot, before long they’ll be printing thousand dollar bills again so guys can fold their billfolds and actually sit on them.

VA actually shot themselves in the foot on this. The BVA decision admitted as much. It began when this got to the Court…

“[W]e are asked to address how the Board defined the phrase “on or near the perimeter[]” as it relates to a veteran’s service at an RTAFB. As we will explain, the M21-1 provision provides that, under certain circumstances, veterans who establish that they served “on or near the perimeter[]” of an RTAFB may show, through performance of their duties, that they were exposed
to herbicides. While the M21-1 provision does not provide a true presumption of exposure, the provision eases the burden of proving exposure, which is highly significant to a claimant.”

See? This was never a true presumption. It was simply a concession of exposure if you could show your MOS qualified and nothing more. Fools gold. You still needed an IMO that said the ‘tactical herbicide’ employed caused your disease listed in §3.309(e). Far too many Vets got sucked into the belief that all you had to do was wave a black and white picture of your hootch showing the concertina wire a stones throw away to win. Or have your buddies write 4138 letters saying there was dead vegetation everywhere all the time. But VA would say the grass died because it wasn’t getting watered. Or that they probably didn’t spray the area around the main gate(s) because it was all laterite. 99.9999% of VA raters were never at a base in Thailand so it sure seems fishy that their recollections are gold but Jack Stover and his buddies’ recollections have faded over time as to where and what they were doing.

The actual foot-in-mouth moment was the seminal observation VLJ James G. Reinhart let slip. Well, actually it was one of his munchkin staff attorneys who drew the short straw on this one.

“The Board acknowledged appellant’s reports that the flight line was “next to the runway, which was beside the base perimeter” and that his barracks were located close to one side of the base. However, the Board found “the preponderance of the evidence is against a finding that [appellant’s] daily work activities placed him near the perimeter or that [appellant] was exposed to herbicide agents.” The Board reasoned that if VA conceded herbicide exposure for appellant, “everyone who worked on the
flight line would have been exposed to herbicide agents,” something that would run counter to VA’s position that Thailand veterans were not entitled to a presumption of exposure. The Board applied a similar logic to appellant’s reports of his living quarters being near the perimeter; it found that this “would create a slippery slope” that would mean “everyone assigned” to those barracks was [sic] exposed to herbicides.

Wow. What a concept. If we (VA) concede the truth, then Congress would be compelled to enact the PACT Act to cover this new revelation. Idiot’s delight. Here’s another:

“As to the photographs and maps appellant submitted, the Board rejected this evidence as well because it concluded the submissions did not “demonstrate that [appellant’s] regular activities or duties placed him at or near the perimeter.”

Nope. Sleeping is not a regular activity or duty. It’s purely voluntary. So even if we all slept soundly times 8 hours times 365 wakeups a dozen yards from the perimeter, that didn’t qualify. It would cost VA too much baksheesh. Can’t have that. They need every shekel they can lay hands on for that new EHR Medical computer.

It seems so anticlimactic to have Stover come down minutes before the PACT Act becomes law. And boy howdy if you thought we were encountering a wee bit of a backlog due to all those Blue Water Squids showing up with their hand out, just imagine what we’re in for soon. Any idea how many of us are still alive who served in those areas? But wait. What about all the Air America guys? Remember they have to fight this battle at the VA too. Ditto US Health Service employees. I would have figured the CIA would have an under the table slush fund for all of us but they don’t. Imagine all who had fake credentials showing they were USAID workers? Mine said I was a French Teacher. Seriously. It was like Terry and the Pirates. I flew (and crashed) with a guy named Jack Smith. Some of the other illustrious PICs (pilot in charge) I spent a few hours in the cockpit with were Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. I traveled in high circles.

Stover will merely become a footnote in history some day if and when the PACT gig gets approval. You can be sure it will be full of strictures saying you had to be born on a Thursday at night in an odd month. Naw. Just kidding. Sure, you no longer have to have been a Security Po-lice man. They’ll take that out of the M 21. Now you just have to show proof you were even in one of those countries to qualify for the presumptive. Pity all the poor guys who were doing TDY out of Clark or Kadena who didn’t keep copies of their 626s. A 214 without the VCM/VSM/COG is going to be useless for proof and besides, it won’t show Thailand Incountry- just RVN yes/no. For that, you’ll need to dumpster dive in your military personnel files for proof. But remember that the military rarely, if ever, kept TDY records. I knew some day I might need proof I was/wasn’t where I should/shouldn’t be. Think back to ol’ Lt. Calley of My Lai fame. In retrospect, I’m guessing he wishes he’d had a pocket recorder tape of Captain Medina telling him to ‘terminate ’em with prejudice’. I kept things that proved I was in country just in case…

TDY redacted

Of course, convincing VA I was even on that continent was a bit daunting. They said “no evidence” but we’re looking at it. They went with my DD 214 for eighteen years which was pretty sanitized. All it showed was an NDSM.

So, today’s teaching moment is prepare to adapt. I’d say PACT will become law soon-sooner if they take out all them environmentally friendly outdoor, unheated, Euell Gibbons earth composting toilets slated for Fort Harrison Montana and the other Northern Tier VAROs in the Act. So start getting your ducks in order pronto. We’re all about 66-88 years old folks. File now and get an earlier effective date under §3.816(c)(2)(i). Tell ’em axnod sent you.

Posted in Agent Orange, AO, CAVC Knowledge, Thailand AO presumptive path, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents, Veterans Law | Tagged AO IN REMOTE/CLASSIFIED THAI BASES, AO in Thailand, AO on Johnston Island, asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, Thailand Veterans Claims Help, VA AO claims, VA claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 2 Comments

EXPOSED VET RADIO SHOW– THURSDAY 7/27/2022

Posted on July 27, 2022 by asknod

Greetings fellow Veterans. Jerrel called up asking for a good subject to discuss. Boy howdy was that a wide open invitation to ask what VA litigation subject wasn’t a good one to take a lip whipping to. So, to go out and take a gander at OSA seems like a good candidate as any. Considering they’re going to give that and tinnitus, the two most awarded ratings in the VASRD, a major haircut in the very near future, it behooves Veterans to know what cards they’re holding and which ones they aren’t. VA is well-known for changing the poker rules and trying to convince you it’s to your benefit. Kinda like someone peeing on your leg and telling you it’s raining.

At any rate, it’ll be a rip snorter. Maybe you’ll learn something. Maybe not. I guess what concerns me the most about the OSA gig is that I got bitchslapped by the rater three times and even had a dyno-mite IMO that cited to VA’s very own peer-reviewed study on the correlation between OSA and PTSD. The VES booth bitch took the IMO cite and reversed it to say the cause of the OSA was upper throat collapse. Only at the VA, folks. Only at the VA could they think you might not read the private IMO and even if you did, you’d know it was bogus because it wasn’t conducted by the VA so the Vet is cheating and attempting fraud. And then drag in obesity. Talk about post hoc rationalizations for prior Agency actions…

redact OSA IMO

redact OSA

Can you imagine being obese in the Marines? I can almost see it now if it were to happen. Think back to the old TV show Gomer Pyle, USMC. So Gomer’s overweight and been told by Sgt. Carter to reduce his BMI RFN. Come Friday afternoon and Gunny shows up and says “Everyone’s confined to barracks this weekend. No town passes, girls. Pyle here is 10 lbs. overweight so you all have a date with your toothbrushes and the latrines until Monday morning. Make ’em, shine for me. You ladies are dismissed.”

Gomer would have two black eyes, a broken arm and three teeth missing come Monday morning and report to sick call saying he slipped in the shower Saturday night. That and a few piss poor performance reports about disobeying a direct order to shrink. I reckon the VA rater figures if he’s a bit “portly” right now, he must have been so in service. How else could you get OSA, right?

We’ll talk about that tomorrow and the new haircut tinnitus appears destined to get, too.

The call in number is

(515) 605-9764

If you wish to speak to the person to whom you wish to speak, press one (1). Otherwise, keep the squelch turned up so we don’t have to listen to the crunch of potato chips or the better half yelling at you to take the trash out.

If you have a good computer connection, try this one on for size:

https://www.blogtalkradio.com/jbasser/12126660/connect/102d26ba1f39ef0adfb52be46b049593bbe9030a

The show starts at 1900 HRS in the easterly regions and, of course, 1600 HRS on the more erudite, progressive Left Coast. In fact, we’re so cool out here, we’ve found a way to save 3 hours and repurpose them.

Johnny Walker Black (bottom right kneeling)Don’t leave home without it.

Posted in OSA, Tips and Tricks, VA Medical Mysteries Explained, vA news | Tagged Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, VA claims for OSA, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | Leave a comment

HEPATIC ENCEPHALOPATHY–WORD SALAD FOR BRAIN FOG

Posted on July 14, 2022 by asknod

Unless I miss my guess, I reckon summer, or what’s going to pass for summer hereabouts, has arrived. We’ve had two successive days where it actually got near 80°. I’m playing it safe and keeping the pool at 88° until it stays in that vicinity for a week or two. Life is good. Pray for no rain. And thank the Lord VA started a new fiscal year and turned on the ratings spigot again. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a VA dry spell like this one in my thirty plus years of playing VA poker.

Right off, I have to ask my readership if anyone gets bombarded by idiot commercials on their Goggle™ news feed. You know what I mean. Who are the best attorneys in Gig Harbor? You click on it and it takes you far afield to law dogs in East Bumluck, Egypt. Or you have to click to find out why you need to carry a crayon in your wallet. Shoot. It’d melt in short order or break into small pieces so what’s that all about? How about wrapping your doorknob with tinfoil if you’re staying in a hotel? Or putting a water bottle on top of your tire in a strange parking lot? Or the one that I’m tempted to click on showing how you can always tell when a one-armed bandit is getting ready to shit shekels all over you. Why is it that Rich Dad, Poor Dad is still telling us “I don’t think we’ve seen how high silver can go.” He was saying that in 2008. Why do I need to do something to my iphone before Sunday? I’ve been seeing that one for about six months of Sundays and my iphone still works.

I don’t know about you but I’m a man. I have pockets but I don’t think I have enough to carry all this crap around with me and I’m not about to start carrying a ‘man purse’. Most guys have four pockets like me. One for the phone, one for the car keys and the PPKS, one for the wallet and one for the Kleenex/other. I don’t have cargo pockets in my jeans but it’s an idea if I start packing tinfoil, extra water bottles and crayons.

As for all things VA, on July 1, 2022, VA commenced their new fiscal year for funding. They’re fat and sassy at the beginning before all the VA employees start syphoning off pharmaceuticals and anything else that’s not nailed down. My daddy once pointed out the difference between holding up a gas station and holding up a gas station on a Military base. The difference is about 40 years in Leavenworth versus 2-5 with time off for good behaviour at the state pen. I read the other day some Army O-3 and a couple of his E-8 NCO idiot hierarchy bagged 23 scopes for M4s and then were trying to figure out how to hide what they did when the CID folks showed up. That’s a whole new kind of dum-without a ‘b’.

Yep. We had burn barrels too in Vietnam but we don’t get the presumptive.

With the fresh infusion of Benjamin Franklin coupons comes an equally large number of ratings decisions with actual grants of $. I have a few Vets from the ’91 Iraq/Kuwait who have all the prelim stuff complete, all the c&ps exams done and are patiently waiting for their ratings… since March. Crickets. Obviously there’s some Ethereums involved because a VA denial hits the front page faster than you can say ‘God Bless You’ after a sneeze. It just takes them a month to lick the stamp and take it to the mailbox. Gee. Ain’t automation and computers the cat’s pajamas?

I wanted to tell the story about one of my really old customers who got caught in the Corona Beer virus and its fallout. Back in ’19, they got the bum’s rush on a jetguns= hep c claim. VA wasn’t buying and I get that. You have to have your IMO ticket punched to win these. I dutifully took it up to the BVA on a direct review after I’d tried to take the Regional shortcut with a supplemental 995 and a great IMO. They re-denied using some bogus rationale so it was off to the BVA. After a few years, cirrhosis caught up with him and we got a good Advance to Boardwalk letter from his doctor. The BVA obliged and granted pronto.

Then it was back to the RO Puzzle Palace and the whims of the village idiots there. The latest VA trick on Hep C claims is the Zeros for Heroes® program as most of you know. Man, if you think you can tell when the one-armed bandit is going to spew its largesse, I can predict every one of my Hep c claims is going to get this treatment now- in 2022. You have to start from scratch and get an addendum to the original IMO. This time around you have to point out that DC 7354 starts out its preamble thusly “With serologic evidence of Hepatitis C.” That’s a far cry from being actively infected. Ever hear of antibodies after healing?

You have to write a legal brief for dolts and walk them through their own regulation. No, ma’am. It need not be active. Healed hep c with the following symptoms qualifies. I win these now at the HLR (Higher Level of Review) after a careful DickandJanespeak soliloquy at the informal conference. I can almost picture the light bulbs going on over their pointed little heads when they “get it”. Then we haggle over 10% or 20% instead of TDIU.

This provokes the next line of attack. You begin anew with a fresh filing (only on a 526, mind you) for DC 7312 cirrhosis and sense that same déjà vu coming on. Advancing up the cirrhosis ratings ladder is even more maddening. Examine the regulation.

Generalized weakness, substantial weight loss, and persistent jaundice,

or;

with one of the following refractory to treatment: ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, hemorrhage from varices or portal gastropathy (erosive gastritis).

VA raters have been busy little squirrels during the pandemic. They’ve been given lots of time doing remote ratings and have learned all manner of new bad habits unsupervised. In addition to the purposeful misconstrual of DC 7354’s phrasing, they have applied the same money-saving technique here. Granted, no one is going to qualify for all three of the first-mentioned symptoms of generalized weakness, substantial weight loss, and persistent jaundice but that’s what it says. The ‘and’ is conjunctive so all the ailments are required to get a 100% rating. You don’t get to the Weight Watchers© state or that permanent orange juice pallor until you’re about ten minutes away from punching out. So let’s put that aside and look at the second set of disjunctive symptoms needed to get any baksheesh.

The regulation clearly states you need only one of the next batch of 1)ascites, 2)hepatic encephalopathy, 3)hemorrhage from varices or 4)portal gastropathy (erosive gastritis). Please note the preamble that says you need to eat tons of meds and still keeps suffering this stuff. “Refractory to treatment” means you eat the propranolol (or nadalol) but the esophageal varices never heal. They might quit bleeding (hemorrhaging) but the actual varices persist because of the (wait for it) portal gastropathy-also known as erosive gastritis- keeps getting pushed up your throat. But it gets worse. VA c&p clinicians have been trained to say you have GERD -gastro-esophageal reflux disease. Six of one and half a dozen of another everywhere in the medical lexicon world but sadly, not at VA, Jose. No sirree, Bob. The failure to use the right term is the death knell to that one. Ditto the hemorrhaging varices. They prescribe the propranolol specifically to thin the blood and relieve the portal hypertension. This keeps the varices from bleeding. Same thing with lactulose. You take that to purge the ammonia out of your blood and reduce ascites (free fluid in the abdomen). VA doctors carefully refrain from saying ascites calling it instead “free fluid in abdomen near spleen”. Yep. Missed ascites by thaaaaaaaaaaaat much, 99.

VA will try like the devil to say you need all these ingredients rather than just one. VA will argue your varices need to bleed to get to Bucks Boulevard. That fluid sloshing around in your belly that you have to go in and get tapped for every four months? Negatory on the ascites because your med recs don’t state you’ve been dx’d with ascites. Remember? That’s just “leakage” from the spleen.

Thus, VA can (and does) deprive you of virtually anything to keep you off Dollar Drive. I can’t count how many decisions I’ve read where the rater says ” You were denied entitlement to PTSD because you did not have a diagnosis of PTSD.” Well, by golly that is 100% correct. VA told the truth. VA’s very own psychologist or a contract clinician made that call and said you didn’t. And until you get your own private psychologist or psychiatrist to rebut that and diagnose you with bent brain, you will remain denied until death does its part.

So, how do you fight these jokers? In this case, we went after the hepatic encephalopathy after beating our fists against the wall for the ascites and varices. That’s just a mouthful of word salad saying your brain is full of ammonia and it gives you brain fog. Brain fog is the non-medical way of saying you can’t remember who the president is, or what day of the week it is. If you cannot recall where you are or when, that’s brain fog. In this case, the c&p clinician quickly “saw” the medrecs prescribing the lactulose and the Vet’s inability to perform the who, what, where, why and when test. It’s one of those rare occurrences where the truth escaped their lips.

The Vet’s spouse was careful to keep pounding that brain fog nail into the clinician’s noggin, too. It finally stuck and I used it to argue the TDIU under an extraschedular clause (§3.321) and §4.16(b). Because VA had done such a great job of low balling my Vet, he only had 10% for hep c, 30% for cirrhosis and 10% for anemia from all the blood he was losing to the ascites/varices which they insist are not bleeding. It’s downright difficult to put your iPhone 13 on a selfie stick and jam it down your throat to get video evidence of the bleeding. Maybe a small GoPro? VA isn’t very eager to schedule an endoscopy either.

Most who know me are aware I don’t take a denial as VA’s last word on anything. I’ve been blessed with an acerbic, silver-plated tongue. It works wonders when you’re doing an HLR IC. Call these pukes out. Cite their own regulations to them. Get it in the record for an appeal. Eventually, someone with an ounce of intelligence will “see” the legal flaw and warn the Coach their denial ain’t gonna get airborne. With the new AMA, you can ride this bronco over and over until you get your 8 seconds on board. And I’m always sure to let drop to the HLR booth bitch I’m just dotting the ‘i’s and crossing the ‘t’s to ensure the duty to assist is covered so I can win on appeal without another remand for AOJ errors. That’s guaranteed to make her feel really insecure like she has a piece of black licorice stuck between her front teeth.

Every time some law dog says I’ll never win a claim/appeal, I do. It’s uncanny. How can I still be batting .1000 doing this? I even see the big names getting whacked every once in a while. I promise you I do not cherry pick my claims. I’m obligated to take all my relatives’ claims hereabouts. My daughter married into a huge clan and all the folks my age signed up for the Vietnam War. Some need a&a and the higher SMCs but most are just like all you Johnny Vets -flat feet, bad knees from jumping out of perfectly good 130s at Fort Bragg etc. The usual stuff. My guess is the SMC claims come to me because I’ve written so extensively about the subject.

As I mentioned in my book back in 2012, this process is nothing more than carefully following a recipe. There are no shortcuts. You don’t start before you turn on the oven. You don’t substitute ingredients. You follow the instructions and get what you expected. Failure to follow the game plan results in twice as much work and endless aggravation. Too often I have a Vet call/email me and ask why he lost. He points to his bulletproof IMO for $5000 and doesn’t see the word “probably” or “possibly”. He can’t fathom why reading the claims file makes VA’s $599 QTC Earl Scheib Special™ better than his private doctor’s.

I’ll be writing an article here directly on the new Stover Decision about AO in Thailand. Its thrust appears to be moot now with the imminent passage of the PACT Act. We shall see. Congress speaks and then VA hamburgers their statute into something unrecognizable. I’m guessing you’ll have to be born in an odd month on a Thursday to be considered presumptive. And boy howdy. Think about all my fellow Air America compadres who served in Laos and Cambodia. I see the presumptive only goes back to mid-1969 for those in Laos. WTF, over? I watched AO, AB and AW being liberally applied at 20 Alternate in 1970. By Hmong youngsters. Every month. Go figure.

Posted in Agent Orange, AO, BvA HCV decisions, hepatitis, Higher Level of Review (HLR), IMOs/IMEs, Nexus Information, TDIU, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents, Veterans Law | Tagged AO Thailand Claims, asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, HCV, HCV Decisions, HCV Veterans, HCVETS, Help with vA Claims, Help with vA HCV Claims., Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 1 Comment

INDEPENDENCE DAY 2022–WHAT HAPPENED TO AMERICA?

Posted on July 3, 2022 by asknod

Happy birthday, Aaaaamerica. We’ve survived another year in spite of immense headwinds. I’m sure there are two schools of thought on what has gone amiss or what is going swimmingly across our fruitless plains. In my case, it was a lack of sun and enough rain to float Noah’s rig. It literally drowned the bees or kept them inside waiting for the sun. In any event, I have a Gravenstein with nary an apple. I have two peach trees which look like they were pickpocketed by the deer. Ad nauseum. But what about America? Read on.

Yesterday morning over coffee, Cupcake said she was glad her father was not alive to see what has transpired in just the last twelve years since his passing. I could only concur. Gerald came ashore in the first wave onto Omaha Beach. He went from Corporal to Second Lieutenant in ninety minutes as he watched his platoon decimated before his very eyes. My father became an Ace three times over in eight short months from November 1944 to June 1945. He passed in ’08 and I’m also glad he isn’t here to witness the destruction of America’s values (not democracy).

U.S. Marine Carl Spurlin Dekel celebrated his 100th birthday last week and had a few choice words which seems to vindicate my perception that something is truly amiss in the country Cupcake and I so dearly love. At least I know it isn’t just me. I ascribe wisdom to age and he’s older than me-and a Veteran.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/100-year-old-wwii-vet-breaks-down-says-country-we-fought

Dekel says Americans don’t realize what they have. “The things we did and the things we fought for and the boys that died for it, it’s all gone down the drain.” Tell me about it Spurlin. Remember when America ran out of toilet paper back in ’20? That’s one reason I’m stocking up on Louisiana Hot Sauce™.

I agree it’s gone down the drain but, being an eternal silver lining optimist, I search for some redeeming evidence it will get better. As all of you know, we (Cupcake) has admonished me numerous times that politics and religion are poor conversation subjects. More wars have been fought over religion than any other subject in history. I won’t violate that taboo. I will simply point to what comes to me via my five senses. This being America, everyone gets to have an opinion.

As of today, gasoline is running close to six bucks a gallon at the local Shell station up the highway. A bottle of Johnny Walker Red is pushing $45 a fifth. A good prime rib eye steak you don’t need a magnifying glass to eat is about $22-$30 -if you cook it at home. I haven’t been to a restaurant in a few years to say what they get for one there. Police this year have turned into fishermen in a perverted catch-and-release program with felons using handguns. We have a broad chasm of dichotomy on how we should proceed politically. Let states decide their own destiny on abortion or turn America into a nanny state where Mother Government administers everything from cradle to grave? Seems to me the Constitution dang near covered every contingency imaginable but somehow left out the right to an abortion. So, did the 1973 Supreme Court have the right to grant it nationally? Do they have the right to change their minds 49 years later? Can’t they boot it back to the (wait for it) United States of America to let their states’ citizens individually decide? Gosh, I’m not a lawyer so I can’t say but there is that little blurb in the 10th Amendment discussing who gets to say what.

Several months ago, I watched a Supreme Court nominee (now a Justice) state she could not define what a woman was because she wasn’t a biologist. This month, every woman in America-birthing person or not- seems to have no trouble defining what that means-biological training or not. Birthing person? We’ve been procreating for aeons and never had any trouble figuring out how the birds and the bees operate. Now, we have to rearrange the English language so as not to marginalize menstruating men who may become birthing persons at some time in the future (maybe even after surgery). Why, they’ve been forced to install tampon machines in boys’ restrooms in Oregon’s schools to ensure “menstrual equity”. I’m gonna take a flying tackle at a rolling donut and venture that if there’s a tampon shortage (which I’ve heard mentioned) this fall when school reconvenes, that cisgender-assigned females will be allowed to use the boy’s room, too.

Somehow, in spite of all the aeons of responsible gun ownership, we now have reached a crossroads of irresponsibility on a national scale. I reckon it’s immaterial arguing about how the cows got out of the barn at this point. Video games? The death of religion? Suffice it to say that it’s broken. I won’t offer repair orders on what needs to be changed. That’s not my job. What I can say is it seems absurd that some folks can look at Sandy Hook, the Buffalo supermarket massacre and Uvalde and see a need to outlaw the ownership of guns but ignore the perennial news of firearms carnage every weekend in Chicago. Why is it acceptable in Chicago? One life terminated is one too many. Where it occurs in America seems equally bizarre. Chicago has some of the most stringent gun laws on the books. Ditto other cities where the incessant gunfire is a constant reminder of the new lawlessness. When I read about cops in New York city being lured into an ambush and killed weekly, I scratch my head. Until last week, they, too, had some of the most stringent handgun concealed carry laws in the contiguous United States-let alone possession/registration laws. In comparison, my state of Washington is pretty sketchy. All you need for a CCW permit for your unregistered handgun here is $48.00 for five years and Jesus in your heart. What am I saying? Shoot, even agnostics can apply. No 16 hours of training and two hours of live fire. No permit to buy and possess ammo. Nothing. So why is it that you need body armor in Chicago or NYC-even if you’re not a cop? Or LA where there simply are no CCW permits except for celebrities? Why don’t we need it (stringent gun laws) in this wild west state where there are no gun laws to mention? Why is Seattle different from Chicago? I won’t venture a guess. Nope. Call it a fait accompli above my pay grade.

I look around at my once-gorgeous Seattle- formerly known as the Emerald City. It smells a lot like urine with those rich, earthy overtones of feces now. The National Flag of homelessness- the blue tarp- is flown everywhere proudly. The City council allocated $267 million for homelessness services this year. The American flag has been classified as racist. I see the rainbow flag flown frequently… but not Old Glory. Again. I merely observe. I have no desire to preach what you should or should not think. What political camp you belong to should not matter unless you subscribe to the latest woke concept that urine should be considered the new national perfume. How about we call it Eau d’stress and get some celebrity gal to market it. We could donate 1¢ for each sale and solve the homeless problem. But using the numbers, I logically divided the $267 mil into the 6,000 homeless souls and figured out you could just give each one $44,500 and let them administer their own finances. What? You trust them with free giveaway syringes for their Fentanyl, $600 in cold cash/month for breathing and free run of the food banks. Why be judgmental and say they’re “afflicted” and need supervision? I’m told it’s a lifestyle option for some. I’m not buying but I refuse to be judgmental.

It matters little to me what color you dye your hair or what you believe your sex to be in your own mind. I remember back to a day when we let our hair grow long, smoked pot and some daring souls even ate LSD. We didn’t drive around shooting folks for having short hair. We subscribed to the live and let live mantra. What happened to my beautiful America? Why is everyone so unutterably depressed, morose and a victim? Like Mr. Dekal above, I signed up to defend what America stands for. Why is it that in the America of 2022, all we previously held admirable is now racist, sexist and requires a whole new, carefully sanitized and approved vocabulary? Woe betideth any who color outside the lines. Nobody can tell me my ideals as an American have all been clouded by racism. I served with, lived with and ate with all manner of human beings that ran the whole gamut of color, creed and political persuasion. I never held myself to be above a single soul.

I won’t ponder why all this is. What I question is why do I have to go through a re-education camp at the ripe old age of 71 to be indoctrinated on trigger words and instructed on using the correct pronouns? Wouldn’t it be far easier if folks who are conflusticated about their “identity” wear cute, rainbow-colored descriptive nametags that say Sally (they, their, theirs) or whatever floats their boat? If you knew upfront Sally wants to be referred to as ‘they’, it sure would go a long way in preventing a shit ton of screaming about how sexually insensitive you are for purposefully butchering Sally’s pronouns. As for appropriating cultural identity, does that mean I have to relinquish my beloved Bavarian lederhosen and foreswear Octoberfest celebrations for life? Am I required to have pronouns. Where do I get them? So many queshuns.

If this keeps up, it’s going to devolve downwards into South LA and folks wearing red or blue kerchiefs to signal not Crips or Bloods affiliation but a profession of Republican or Democratic religious belief. I long for the America I enjoyed as a child. Jump rope and Red Rover. As Mr. Dekal noted in his article, there are so many things our children (and now our grandchildren for us older folks) will never be permitted to know, let alone enjoy-all in the name of political correctness.

Once upon a time, a Confederate flag on the back window of a pickup truck meant nothing more than some good ol’ boy with a juvenile delinquent streak. There was no hint of white supremacy or racism attached. Or, if there was, it was nothing more than the impressionable fringe beliefs of middle-aged idiots on youth. By the time I graduated from high school, the KKK was little more than a mention in history books. Remember all the gomers up in Skokie Illinois who dressed up for some shindig every spring in full Nazi regalia? Did we fence in the Capitol and begin a Macarthyesque witch hunt for any vestige of a resurgence of the Third Reich? Hell, no. So what’s with the Russia! Russia! Russia! diatribe. If there was some truth to it, you can be sure some Cassidy Hutchinson would pop up out of the woodwork and confirm it under oath. Look at what happened to the Supreme Court Justice fight over Kavanaugh. Remember Judge Judy. Hearsay is not admissible. The January 6th Congressional Committee is going to hit that wall soon enough. How do you indict someone based on ” John said that Kathy overheard you say you hate Blacks. You’re under arrest. Please turn around and place your hands behind your back, sir.”

As long as there have been ‘Contrarys’ as envisioned in Thomas Berger’s most excellent novel Little Big Man, so, too, have there been those who desperately seek to be different, dress differently, dye their hair something other than blonde etc. It’s almost a contest to see who can outdo one another and be the most outlandish. Hey, fly at it. Just leave the guns at home. We should settle our differences at the ballot box. Period.

This fall, we are going to have an election conducted by Americans for Americans. Voters must be Americans. In addition, some will discover they need something more than a electric bill or a YMCA membership card to show their bona fides. The whole concept of giving a bye to minorities who purportedly haven’t had a chance to get a photo ID is racist on its face, isn’t it? Are these enlightened folks who claim to speak for you implying that you’re somehow too simpleminded to obtain this ID if you’re a person of color? Are they saying you’re poor, illiterate and somehow disenfranchised by not having transportation to get down to the Department of Motor Vehicles? In a world where you need ID to buy smokes, booze and pot, no one can look you in the eye and say “Shucks. I just never got around to getting photo ID.” I got my learner’s permit (sans photo) in 1966 at 14 ½ in Virginia. I got my permanent one at 15. Yes. It had my picture on it. If the laws haven’t changed, Occam’s Razor posits that the simplest explanation is the correct one. So where are all the folks with no driver’s licenses who drive but cannot vote?

I hate to say it but America is becoming the Land of the Free and the home of the Excuse. Everybody’s freedom is colliding with everyone else’s. Folks with no dog in a fight suddenly have a dog in every fight. What is to be gained by dressing up in your Handmaiden® Halloween costume and parading up and down in front of a Supreme Court Justice’s residence scaring the bejesus out of his/her children? A Supreme Court Justice is beholden to our Constitution-not your political cause d’jour on the subject of immigration or guns. Didn’t anyone explain this to the youngsters in social studies or were they too engrossed in explaining how horrible America used to be in 1609?

I note that neurologists often query my TBI clients as to who the sitting president is. This is to ascertain if they are addled in the head or AO X 3 (alert and oriented in all three planes of who they are, what day it is and where they are in America). By rights, some of these young ones would flunk that test in a New York minute. A humorous newsman has already demonstrated that by going to college campuses and asking educated college students some of the most elementary of questions in that vein. A common rejoinder is “Gosh, I guess I should know who the vice-president is, huh?” But boy howdy can they tell you what Karol Kardashian wore to the Oscars bitchslap.

I’m sorry. I sure don’t mean to insult our youth. I’m old school American. I probably don’t go to church as much as I should (never) and I may have some weird personality habits that offend others. But deep down inside, I’m an American. Not Red or Blue but an American citizen. Not white or black but an American patriot. By its very existence, America has always stood for freedom- freedom to and freedom from. The guardrails around America are just high enough to protect you from falling off the high balcony but no higher. Those same guardrails are not there to fence you out as so many now attempt to portray them. Our differences are artificially created to maximize confusion. Remember that story in the Old Testament about the evil town of Babel? Same game. You are black and only we can help you. Or: You are white and you rely on RINO white supremacists to protect you in Congress. Divide and conquer is the way this works. As my Kindergarden teacher always admonished us in 1955-“Be a do bee, not a don’t bee.”

I suggest we ignore all this discordance and let our common sense of old dictate how we think and act. It’s simple. Act like an American. Love your country. Be old fashioned and be patriotic. It’s how we arrived here where we are now lo these 226 years of our existence. It’s been a bumpy ride accomplished by a lot of bellowing and screaming. I’m fairly confident we can make it another millennium or two if we act like adults. Please vote this November. Show your civic pride. But always remember, we live in a majority rule country. Don’t get hurt feelings and pout. Let’s fix America rather than tear Her down. Our collective will as voters guides our destiny. Be patient. Be an American. Be a do bee.

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

Posted in 4th of July, All about Veterans | Tagged asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 6 Comments

VBA348-CATFISHING ON THE WILLAMETTE RIVER

Posted on June 27, 2022 by asknod

It’s not often you get a Vet who comes to you with a great back story. It’s an even finer thing when he hasn’t monkeyed with it and made it a thorough mess with all the wrong filings and denials. Please note I’m using the word ‘monkey’ devoid of racial animus. Let’s get that straight up front. It describes nothing more than an unknowledgeable person, a Veteran in this case, who gomers up his claim before seeking experienced legal help. ‘Gomer’, as used here, is not a contemporaneous epithet for a Viet Cong participant of the SEA Olympics but a synonym for someone who is mentally challenged at VA law. With that in the preface, maybe I can write this blog without offending someone. Seasons change. So, too, descriptive nouns.

There went any hope of autorotating down.

Stuart came to me via a referral from my Good Humor Man at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in sunny Saigon. I finally got Bob TDIU last summer but when I first got him his Bent Brain rating back in 2018, his girlfriend’s brother- also a Vietnam Vet- called me up and asked me if I’d take his claim. Well, you know me. Being a boots-on-the-ground kind of guy too, I couldn’t say no.

Stu related a history of bent brain that began north of Long Binh back in 69 right before I arrived for the Repo Depot party. Seems he was riding shotgun in a convoy when they hit a buried MK 82 and was injured. To add insult to injury, a few weeks later, he traded places with a fellow trooper who was killed in an ambush. Boy howdy do I know all about that guilt trip shit. The guilt many of us feel about surviving Vietnam is a major component of the PTSD a lot of Vietnam Veterans bear. It also explains why we lose 22 Vets a day to suicide.

My beautiful picture

I began by filing him for PTSD because that seemed to be the index disease. VA promptly denied it. I took a good, long look at his claims file and saw all the evidence he’d amassed back in 1972 when he filed for a ‘nervous disorder’ (and was denied). Stu pointed out he’d never bothered to tell the VA ‘technicians’ about his Purple Heart for the injuries related to driving over the bomb. Weren’t they supposed to know that already? I filed that with the PTSD just in case but it didn’t catch any air. Strangely, in all the bent brain filings I’d done in the past, a combat medal was almost a gimme for a PTSD rating.

I promptly refiled Stu for TBI and pointed out his STRs supported all this-including the chronic headaches he’d been having for the last 50 years. And Boom! Just like that, we had 40% with the tinnitus. Yep. You guessed it. Zero for the headaches. That denial for the Bent brain continued to bug the bejeus out of me. Having an unbesmirtched record of wins, I wasn’t going to take it lying down. I went out and bought myself an IMO from a PTSD guru and refiled.

Stu is kinda old-fashioned. His phone is a throwback to the old flip phones. It works so why change it? You can’t even take a picture with it let alone do a Face Time™ for a televideo c&p. Being as it was in the Time of Corona, he wasn’t big on going to the library and using Zoom there or wherever you go to do a Zoom. So he did it via telephone only. I was skittish about this but figured if the VA pukes denied us, I could have him drive up here (from Oregon) to the illustrious LZ Grambo Bed & Breakfast Zoom Club and we’d do it here.

I launched the filing in October last and we waited. Along about February, they had him come in for a video PTSD c&p and it came out positive-in great part due to our private IMO. And then the deferrals began. And the incessant notes about “WTF? Who signed off on this private IMO without a video conference? Find an error and deny pronto.

Our good friends the 60 and 81 mike mike mortars… and the red clay

Sensing this potential defect, they called for a clarification or two on the claim and asked if it wasn’t probably the anxiety rating they’d given him for the TBI. Pyramid that boy to a denial and be quick about it. Next, they wanted to know if maybe it wasn’t a ‘progression’ of the nervous condition caused by the TBI. Then, when that pancaked, a long, pregnant pause deciding on how to lowball him. It’s pathetic to watch but you can almost see the gears turning in their simpleminded brains.

Then, last Friday afternoon, I got a voicemail from Stu in a total panic. Seems some VA rater was catfishing him to see if he could trip him up and get him to blow a hole in the bottom of his claim boat. He told Stu my private IMO was useless and he’d never win with it. How much did he pay for it? He went on and asked him where in Sam Hill he’d gotten the idea that he could provide his own IMO when VA had plenty of independent psychologists he could use for this project. Who was this yayhoo he’d hired who wasn’t even a VSO service officer? I’d given Stu a pretty good briefing on this subject and his instructions were to start crying, melt down and tell them to call me because he was too mentally frangible and might fall apart if pressured. Try as that fellah might, he couldn’t get anything damning out of Stu’s mouth and finally gave up. Probably didn’t even thank him for his service to America.

Well, Saturday morning dawned and I called Stu at 0800 to calm him down. Too late. He’d become so depressed at the thought of all this work going to waste and the added anguish of reliving it in his dreams that he ran down to the ETOH store, grabbed a fifth of __________ and got piss drunk. He was so distraught , he didn’t get a wink all night. I emailed the VA rater who’d tried this stunt and asked him what I might be able to supply to help him out. Crickets.

Along about 1000 Hrs Left Coast (including Portland) I saw the below pop up. We’d managed to catfish them into their own net. By having the VA shrink look at our private IMO and concur with it, they’d inadvertently established service connection for bent brain. Worse, by asking a separate shrink to review it and confirm it was a progression of something that walked like PTSD and quacked like PTSD, they were conceding he had the MDD. This is called a finding of fact. Once you concede, you can only CUE yourself to fix your fustercluck. VA had two shrinks now who had agreed with our shrink. They were stuck to this tarbaby and had to live with it-video or no video.

redact RD 6.25.2022

redact Codes Sheet 6.25.2022

I love catfishing. Lay a good punji pit and let them spot it. Then file for the TBI which was a slam dunk and well documented in the STRs. Get the TBI win and come back with a new, well-constructed PTSD punji pit. Granted, with the Corona, I think I could have logically argued the circumstances of his dire mental state and trying to comply with a video feed were almost insurmountable barriers and VA should accept the IMO as-is.

Remember that smell of your girlfriend’s perfume?

Considering VA is a nonadversarial, Veteran friendly environment in which to adjudicate our ex parte claims with great deference to the Veteran’s testimony, I am shocked-yes, shocked- to think these folks would even try to catfish a catfisher. We’re seeing this phenomenon across the VARO plains these days. VA will examine this like a Rubik’s cube® for weeks looking for the weak spot to glom onto. I’m sure some expert there in Portland honestly thought it was ethical to browbeat the poor Veteran into some damning statement with an idea toward getting him to provide the seeds of his own destruction. That, to me, is a new low in an outfit renowned for their reputation of being lower than whaleshit.

One thing I notice about VA raters. They are plumb het up about trying to find a way to defeat us litigators or minimize any remuneration we get. I’m not in it for the dough so when I file a claim with an IMO up front that rebuts their prior denials, they jump on it and grant a lot of times. Here, it was well past a year since the PTSD denial so I wasn’t going to win more than chump change. I think it throws them if they try to figure out my claims game rationale. Gez, if he ain’t doing it for the baksheesh, what’s he up to?

So, the DIY teaching moment here is simple. File the claim. If they deny, set up a new, better ambush. If they call seeking clarification, stand fast and say “You already have it all.” If they persist with their VAF 21-4142s, send in a §5103 acknowledgement saying you don’t have anything more to add and to please proceed to the checkout line at your earliest convenience. Don’t get squeamish or have second thoughts about trying to explain it better. Remember, we’re in the Land of Oz now. If you are adroit, you can keep your claim alive forever. Think of it like dining at the Golden Corral©- endless second helpings. And if they deny? Then hire me. I’ve walked point on this trail for 30 years now.

The long-overdue heat wave finally got here to Washington state. I’m heading out to the cement pond for a dip. Stay cool.

Posted in All about Veterans, PTSD, TBI, VA Agents, VBMS Tricks, Veterans Law | Tagged asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, vA CLAIMS FOR PTSD, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | Leave a comment

Starting a New Business? Consider Hiring Veterans

Posted on June 22, 2022 by cspencer02

Starting a new business is exciting and a little scary. The opportunity to be your own boss attracts many people into the world of start-ups, but creating a successful business takes careful planning, attention to detail, and hard work. Obviously, the lifeblood of any business is its employees. You want the best of the best – which is why you should consider hiring veterans. Keep reading to learn more, courtesy of Asknod.

Tips for Starting a Business

Before you can hire any employees, you need to get your company off the ground. Every business, no matter how small, needs a business plan. This is where you determine important things such as who your target customers are, what your mission statement is, and what your start-up costs will be. You also need a plan for financing those costs. You may qualify for a loan from the Small Business Administration.

Anyone starting a small business should give serious consideration to forming a limited liability company. LLCs have several advantages. As the name implies, this formation limits your liability by separating your company and its assets from your personal finances. Another benefit is that you avoid the double taxation that corporations are often subject to.

Running your payroll is a vital part of keeping your company running smoothly. A good payroll service will ensure that your employees are paid accurately and on time and that your business remains compliant with all applicable laws and regulations. A payroll service can help to streamline your payroll process, making it more efficient and saving you time and money.

Reaping the Benefits of Hiring Veterans

Once you have formed your company, it is time to staff it. There are many benefits to hiring veterans when starting your small business – like increased adaptability, problem-solving, and loyalty. There are also financial benefits. You can take advantage of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which is available to employers who hire qualified individuals including veterans.

Simply put, veterans also make for exemplary employees. Military training is fast and efficient, so vets learn and assimilate new skills quickly. They are also excellent at working with and leading a team. They can manage, direct and delegate and will put the success of the company first. When it comes to working under pressure, nobody does it better than a veteran.

Types of Jobs That Suit Veterans

While veterans can perform any kind of work, there are fields that tend to best suit their unique skills and experience. IT is an excellent fit for vets, as is defense contracting. Healthcare is regarded as one of the best career paths after leaving the military, and many veterans work in public administration or government.

Helping Veterans Succeed

The adjustment to post-military living and working can be challenging, to say the least. By hiring veterans, you give them a chance to earn a living and build a career that can give them a sense of purpose as they continue their lives after service. Vets are used to accomplishing mission goals. Your business can help them keep doing that.

Launching a small business is a big endeavor. Along with start-up capital, a solid business plan, payroll services, and plenty of moxie, you need dependable, hardworking employees. When it comes to the latter, you can’t do much better than filling those roles with veterans. They served their country, and they can serve your business.

Image via Pexels

Posted in All about Veterans, Guest authors, Public Service Announcements, VA Agents | Tagged asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, va news, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | Leave a comment

Veterans Claims Help

LINCOLN LOG SMC-PREPARE THE PUNJI PIT

PREGNANCY AND EXERCISE

BVA–(I CAN’T GET NO) SATISFACTON

OUR NEW VA PACT ACT AND THAT PESKY PROBLEM AT THE BVA

CAVC-STOVER v. McDONOUGH–THE LAST AO ROUNDUP?

“As to the photographs and maps appellant submitted, the Board rejected this evidence as well because it concluded the submissions did not “demonstrate that [appellant’s] regular activities or duties placed him at or near the perimeter.”

EXPOSED VET RADIO SHOW– THURSDAY 7/27/2022

(515) 605-9764

HEPATIC ENCEPHALOPATHY–WORD SALAD FOR BRAIN FOG

Generalized weakness, substantial weight loss, and persistent jaundice,

or;

with one of the following refractory to treatment: ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, hemorrhage from varices or portal gastropathy (erosive gastritis).

INDEPENDENCE DAY 2022–WHAT HAPPENED TO AMERICA?

VBA348-CATFISHING ON THE WILLAMETTE RIVER

Starting a New Business? Consider Hiring Veterans

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“As to the photographs and maps appellant submitted, the Board rejected this evidence as well because it concluded the submissions did not “demonstrate that [appellant’s] regular activities or duties placed him at or near the perimeter.”

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(515) 605-9764

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Generalized weakness, substantial weight loss, and persistent jaundice,

or;

with one of the following refractory to treatment: ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, hemorrhage from varices or portal gastropathy (erosive gastritis).

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