I saw this last night when Jim Wright brought it up on his Twitter feed. Let's say he was not pleased, breaking out his English to Navy dictionary to express himself.
Several conservative parrots came in to his feed to say "I know a guy who is cheating the system by . . ." followed by being torn apart by veterans, active duty, and family members.
Conservatives will turn their thinking on a dime and all squawk the same talking point as soon as it's distributed. (They then call us lemmings or a hive mind or whatnot. It's projection, always.)
It is virtually impossible to cheat the VA system. My medical record package submitted with my claim weighed eight pounds. It took months, examinations, and interviews to be approved, and years to have the initial rating raised to 100%.
And those groups you're going after advocating for veterans to submit claims?
Those are The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars (hey dipwad, I'm a life member), Vietnam Veterans Association, Disabled American Veterans (I'm also a life member and my wife is a life auxiliary of that, and they are my medical advocates), the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and other groups.
Sure you don't need money, you get paid thousands of dollars just to flap your gums on Fox and Friends for a few minutes. Screw integrity; you're a Blue Falcon and by definition you have none.
And by the way, Mr. Hegseth, go find a cactus and rotate on it. I earned every dime of my disability for my service, and paid taxes all the time I was on active duty as well (as does every other active duty and reservist member of the Armed Forces).
I was all over the open thread expressing my outrage here in the last night. Jim Wright explained disability compensation to Mr. Hegseth, and other conservative parrots who came into his thread, without the benefit of civility. (Thread, twenty tweets, followed by hundreds of comments tearing apart conservatives from active duty, veterans, and family members by advocating for welching on our contracts).
Let me explain why this comment is so utterly dickheaded: Veterans go through a long, complex process to obtain their VA benefits. That process is based on LENGTHY examination of medical records from their service which includes assessment by experts of ...1/ pic.twitter.com/g1hMYGnSzK
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right asGod gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in,to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne thebattle and for his widow, and his orphan, to do all which may achieve andcherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
When Ronald Reagan was president, he suggested that military personnel needed to bite the bullet on pay to show civilians how to sacrifice for the good of your country.
When they started in on their government shutdown nonsense, we would get lectures pointing out that even if we weren't paid, we were still required to work. If we failed to show up that would be a charge of mutiny (a death penalty offence).
Conservatives never cared about military personnel or veterans. While a large number are liberals, it always struck me as odd that active duty, reservists, and veterans could ever vote for any GOP politician.
The Reps think of the members of the armed forces the way most of us think of power tools. You might admire the engineering and craftsmanship that went into building them. You probably enjoy the adrenaline rush of using them. Showing off your garage full of manly, expensive toys feels awesome. And when there's a hard job to do, then they're indispensable. Lifesavers, even.
And then when you don't need them anymore, or if they break, you throw them out and never think about them again. Plenty more at the hardware store, and new is always better.
They love the vets in the abstract; GI Joe storming the beaches or mowing down the bad guys in tanks plays well on the big screen, with a flag waving in the background and a brass band playing the anthem. That they like. When vets stop being cardboard cutouts, though, when they turn into people who need health care or disability or whatever, when they stop being *profitable* and start being financially or politically inconvenient... there are a lot of heartless monsters who just don't care. And denigrating, shortchanging, or just plain screwing over the people who volunteered to put themselves in harm's way to protect the rest of us is a sin, a crime, and an irreparable disgrace to the country they believed was worth protecting. Maybe they were wrong.
The country was worth serving when I was in the Navy, and it's still worth serving now.
Active duty personnel are very restricted in the sorts of political activity in which they can participate. Veterans are a small minority of the population.
What we need are civilians to advocate for us. While we have organisations like the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the backing of the rest of the populace is needed to push for those things we were promised in exchange for our voluntary (or draft, if old enough) service.
Just as Social Security is seen as the third rail of politics, veterans' affairs needs to be seen the same way.
Democrats argue for less war and more support for military personnel, as do other political groups such as the Democratic Socialists. The GOP argues for more war and equipment and less support.
Vote vets is a stellar organization. https://www.votevets.org I'm not a veteran, but I'm on their email list and follow them on Twitter.
ETA: My late neighbor and friend, Yuri, was a veteran of the Korean War. When he went to the VA hospital for a broken arm, he had to wait until an orthopedist came from another hospital; there was none on staff. If you'd like to know more about Yuri, a refugee from the Caucasus, https://www.fantasticfictio...
Just got enrolled in VA last month and love the care.
I saw this last night when Jim Wright brought it up on his Twitter feed. Let's say he was not pleased, breaking out his English to Navy dictionary to express himself.
Several conservative parrots came in to his feed to say "I know a guy who is cheating the system by . . ." followed by being torn apart by veterans, active duty, and family members.
Conservatives will turn their thinking on a dime and all squawk the same talking point as soon as it's distributed. (They then call us lemmings or a hive mind or whatnot. It's projection, always.)
It is virtually impossible to cheat the VA system. My medical record package submitted with my claim weighed eight pounds. It took months, examinations, and interviews to be approved, and years to have the initial rating raised to 100%.
And those groups you're going after advocating for veterans to submit claims?
Those are The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars (hey dipwad, I'm a life member), Vietnam Veterans Association, Disabled American Veterans (I'm also a life member and my wife is a life auxiliary of that, and they are my medical advocates), the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and other groups.
Sure you don't need money, you get paid thousands of dollars just to flap your gums on Fox and Friends for a few minutes. Screw integrity; you're a Blue Falcon and by definition you have none.
And by the way, Mr. Hegseth, go find a cactus and rotate on it. I earned every dime of my disability for my service, and paid taxes all the time I was on active duty as well (as does every other active duty and reservist member of the Armed Forces).
I was all over the open thread expressing my outrage here in the last night. Jim Wright explained disability compensation to Mr. Hegseth, and other conservative parrots who came into his thread, without the benefit of civility. (Thread, twenty tweets, followed by hundreds of comments tearing apart conservatives from active duty, veterans, and family members by advocating for welching on our contracts).
Let me explain why this comment is so utterly dickheaded: Veterans go through a long, complex process to obtain their VA benefits. That process is based on LENGTHY examination of medical records from their service which includes assessment by experts of ...1/ pic.twitter.com/g1hMYGnSzK
— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) April 6, 2019
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right asGod gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in,to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne thebattle and for his widow, and his orphan, to do all which may achieve andcherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
--Abraham Lincoln
Isn't Pete Hegseth the guy who's proud of never washing his hands? That should tell people everything they need to know about this putz.
His own? Or Demented Donnie's?
I get my health care from the VA free of charge. I don't have a service connected disability.
I have such a crush on that crusty bastard Jim Wright.
Republicans continue their perfect record in their support for veterans. Their lack of support, that is.
Pull the string, see what happens...
When Ronald Reagan was president, he suggested that military personnel needed to bite the bullet on pay to show civilians how to sacrifice for the good of your country.
When they started in on their government shutdown nonsense, we would get lectures pointing out that even if we weren't paid, we were still required to work. If we failed to show up that would be a charge of mutiny (a death penalty offence).
Conservatives never cared about military personnel or veterans. While a large number are liberals, it always struck me as odd that active duty, reservists, and veterans could ever vote for any GOP politician.
That Republican Party is long gone.
The Reps think of the members of the armed forces the way most of us think of power tools. You might admire the engineering and craftsmanship that went into building them. You probably enjoy the adrenaline rush of using them. Showing off your garage full of manly, expensive toys feels awesome. And when there's a hard job to do, then they're indispensable. Lifesavers, even.
And then when you don't need them anymore, or if they break, you throw them out and never think about them again. Plenty more at the hardware store, and new is always better.
They love the vets in the abstract; GI Joe storming the beaches or mowing down the bad guys in tanks plays well on the big screen, with a flag waving in the background and a brass band playing the anthem. That they like. When vets stop being cardboard cutouts, though, when they turn into people who need health care or disability or whatever, when they stop being *profitable* and start being financially or politically inconvenient... there are a lot of heartless monsters who just don't care. And denigrating, shortchanging, or just plain screwing over the people who volunteered to put themselves in harm's way to protect the rest of us is a sin, a crime, and an irreparable disgrace to the country they believed was worth protecting. Maybe they were wrong.
The country was worth serving when I was in the Navy, and it's still worth serving now.
Active duty personnel are very restricted in the sorts of political activity in which they can participate. Veterans are a small minority of the population.
What we need are civilians to advocate for us. While we have organisations like the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the backing of the rest of the populace is needed to push for those things we were promised in exchange for our voluntary (or draft, if old enough) service.
Just as Social Security is seen as the third rail of politics, veterans' affairs needs to be seen the same way.
Democrats argue for less war and more support for military personnel, as do other political groups such as the Democratic Socialists. The GOP argues for more war and equipment and less support.
Standing up to Pete Hegseth should be a walk in the park for Patrick Leahy. He's faced down the Joker.
Yes.
Vote vets is a stellar organization. https://www.votevets.org I'm not a veteran, but I'm on their email list and follow them on Twitter.
ETA: My late neighbor and friend, Yuri, was a veteran of the Korean War. When he went to the VA hospital for a broken arm, he had to wait until an orthopedist came from another hospital; there was none on staff. If you'd like to know more about Yuri, a refugee from the Caucasus, https://www.fantasticfictio...