Using us vets as guinea pigs for Trump’s Hydroxychloquine con was beyond the pale. Then I got a letter from a Veteran’s Law Judge last week, reminding me just how deeply I am mired in their bureaucratic nightmare, not to mention the latest medical bullshyt from last year. So I logged on to the website this morning like I do every couple weeks or so, to check on the glacial pace of claims progress. It is depressing, to say the least.
That is the current status of my 2nd claim submitted to the VA over 6 years ago while I was still flying Ikonos for Lockheed with my hips and back going into late stage orthopedic failure. 1st was for the right hip, denied straight up, for reasons of no records. Sound familiar? 2nd was for the cervical spine issue. They denied that too, despite lots of info in the records that time. Basically what happened was the same as I imagine happens to most claims – they just deny everything by default. So I appealed. Then we get thrown into a years-long challenge fighting the government for benefits many have paid for with their lives.
Four years later, after a lawyer gets paid 8 grand to spell out the law for these mutherfuckers, a judge looks at my records, tasks a minion to investigate, and made at least one interesting comment in their final assessment of the case, which incredibly, had nothing to do with this claim. Of course the upshot of it is, they have to go back and re-do everything, entailing possibly the next 16-29 months, as indicated above. Maybe they will get it right next time around.
For some odd reason the judge also made a point of making an un-related statement:
Took 4 years, just to push the appeal through. The VA strategic claims plan is pretty obvious. Just wait ’em out. The tactical plan is same as the shysters who defended Trump’s impeachment: Ignore, distract, deny and lie. And use the hydroxy to speed up the process, whenever possible. My Memorial Day remembrance for perpetrators of VA bullshyt goes out Monday morning.