Posted on 08/07/2019 8:43:23 AM PDT by Kaslin
Gun-grabbing crisis vultures just can't let the latest mass shootings go to waste. "Red flag" laws are now all the rage in the Beltway as the magic pill to prevent homicidal maniacs from wreaking havoc on the nation. Even President Donald Trump has endorsed the idea of preemptively confiscating people's firearms if they are deemed a "threat."
But if you want to know how this American version of China's social credit system would work in practice, let me remind you of how Veterans Affairs recklessly red-flags "disruptive" citizens without due process, transparency or accountability in the name of "safety." Government bureaucrats routinely deprive our nation's heroes of medical treatment based on arbitrary definitions of who and what constitutes a mental health menace.
I first reported on the VA's secretive database on "disgruntled" and "disruptive" vets five years ago. Under the VA policy on "patient record flags," federal bureaucrats can classify vets as "threats" based on assessments of their "difficult," "annoying" and "noncompliant" behavior. The VA manual says the flags "are used to alert Veterans Health Administration medical staff and employees of patients whose behavior and characteristics may pose a threat either to their safety, the safety of other patients, or compromise the delivery of quality health care."
What a crock. It's precisely because so many vets receive inferior care from the feds that they have been forced to raise their voices. Have we all forgotten the 40 veterans who perished at the Phoenix, Arizona VA, which relegated patients to a bureaucratic black hole through secret waiting lists? Among examples of patients' behavior referred to the red-flaggers in the VA's "Disruptive Behavior Committees" (Orwell couldn't have cooked up a better name): venting "frustration about VA services and/or wait times, threatening lawsuits or to have people fired, and frequent unwarranted visits to the emergency department or telephone calls to facility staff."
Disabled Air Force veteran and veterans advocate/attorney Benjamin Krause has exposed the Soviet-style targeting of veterans flagged for exercising their First Amendment rights or threatening to sue the VA over neglectful care or for simply being too "expensive." He calls it "straight out of a totalitarian regime." In 2013, the VA inspector general concluded that the bureaucracy "does not have a comprehensive definition of what constitutes disruptive behavior." In January 2018, a VA Office of Inspector General report found that large numbers of flagged veterans were being left in the dark about being placed on dangerous patient lists -- with no recourse to remove phony flags or appeal in any meaningful way.
Despite rules requiring the "Disruptive Behavior Committee" to notify flagged patients of their status and informing them of their right to amend their reports, the OIG found no evidence in 49% of electronic health records that the panels had provided such notice and disclosure.
In 25% of medical records reviewed, the OIG "found no evidence that patients were informed they had the right to request to amend or appeal" special orders restricting care of flagged patients.
There are undoubtedly patients in the system who may pose real threats. But the "problem with the process is that it is secret," Krause explains at DisabledVeterans.org. "The review process is done in secret and the veteran will not know who sat on the committee or what the evidence presented was prior to the decision. Only after the decision is made are veterans informed of the outcome and given a chance to appeal the vague allegations. That seems like a due process violation if I have ever seen one."
Army vet David Scott Strain of Virginia told me recently that he was a flagged veteran. "My grave sin?" says Strain. "I tried to report the abuse of a deaf, infirm, WWII veteran. He was approximately 95 years of age. A male nurse stood behind his waiting room chair and shouted down at the top of his head, 'Hello! Hello! Hello! If you can hear me, you can come in now!'" Strain describes how the elderly vet "could not hear this, and the nurse went through 3 iterations, while giggling and looking at the wait-room personnel as if we were a comedy club audience. It was one of the sickest displays I've ever seen."
For blowing the whistle on VA elder abuse, Strain says, he was banned from all satellite clinics and only granted access to one main facility. VA flaggers can "manufacture tone, the content of what you're saying, and will even ascribe actions to you that you did not perform," Strain warns. "The potential 'red flag' laws concern me deeply," Strain told me. "Why any citizen would think it wise to let the government screw such handles to our backs, to threaten and wag us any which way, is beyond my understanding. However, I fully understand why politicians want it."
Complain too much. Criticize the powers be. Ask too many questions. Boom! You're a threat.
If such tyranny is allowed among those who volunteered to protect and serve our country in the name of safety, imagine how it will be implemented among the law-abiding, gun-owning general populace.
Do not tell any medical professional you are a gun owner. Ever. If they ask, do you own guns, your answer is no. Always.
The big difference is you would know they took your guns. Not why probably won’t have a real means to appeal it will take lawyers and money.
Lawyers, guns, and money.......
Guns are scary. I would never have any around the house!
I went to the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) Office in my little city.
You have to walk through a metal detector to get in.
After you go through the metal detector, you must sign in with the armed guard.
The armed guard is just a few feet away from the front office of the VBA.
You must go into the front office on VBA issues. The adjudicators are behind a locked door behind the armed guard.
I had an appointment to see the office manager, an older woman.
I sat down and showed her my bank statements proving that someone at VBA was stealing from me.
She produced a piece of paper with nothing but two numbers on it.
She claimed that the paper proved that no one was stealing from me.
I told her anybody can write numbers on a sheet of paper.
It didn’t prove anything.
I lifted up my bank statements and asked her to look at them.
She started screaming.
Not talking,
SCREAMING.
“SIR, GET OUT OF MY OFFICE! SIR, GET OUT OF MY OFFICE.”
I realized that she was calling for the armed guard.
I figured if they had some big criminal operation going on, that the armed guard might be in on it.
I got the heck out of there.
The metal detector and the armed guard are there to let you know that they can shoot you if you cause them trouble at the VBA.
I contacted the regional office.
Not even a reply.
I contacted the VA Inspector General.
Not even a reply.
The VBA is organized crime.
They will steal from you and all the employees will swear that they did nothing wrong.
You can also wind up on The Bad Veteran List, or have the armed guard come for you.
They make sure you are unarmed.
Gun rights orgs excluding embroiled NRA.
https://nationalgunrights.org/
https://constitutionalrightspac.com/#
Nazis had gun laws too. America is becoming a Nazi Germany clone.
My jarhead nephew had just returned from Sandboxistan after his second tour.
He went to the Houston VA (Obie was still prez) because he had contracted some weird ailment.
The VA had a special clinic for returning vets. The nurse had an armed guard accompany my nephew to the BATHROOM. WTF? Did they classify every returning Marine as a threat?
A doctor tried to convince him that he had PTSD which he did NOT.
I hope that the VA has seen some changes since Obie left.
BTW, I think my nephew got liver fluke parasites from eating the local food over there. He has been quite ill, but is now recovering.
Our country is blessed to have such outstanding young warriors.
That is the exact line I used when I lived in Minnesota. I also did the maximum liberal snowflake act when dealing with so called medical professionals there.
I used to think that organizations like the NRA, GOA, etc. were in the forefront of that. Looks like I was wrong.
An interesting note, is that I know of a VA federal employee that recommends that clients do not seek PTSD compensation because this will require a medical PTSD diagnosis which will eventually lead to gun confiscation.
Such a diagnosis will eventually make it’s way into the red flag laws, and the VA, being a federal entity, will provide the names.
So those that bravely fought in the name of their country will lose their right to defend their own lives.
I recall reading an article decades ago about how the Soviet soldier was one of the few allowed to own a gun for hunting. My point being, the commies treated their soldiers better in this area.
Well, during triage, the very first question out of the medical technician's mouth was, do you own a gun?
I hesitated because it shocked me and I wasn't sure where he was headed with it. I was in there for medial treatment and an Rx and wasn't expecting the question.
But after a few moments of an uncomfortable pause on my part, I answered in the negative.
I simply said, "That's none of your damn business."
He said fine, that they were required to ask everyone who presented for treatment, the same question. And that was the end of it.
I know they have dropped the policy since then because I have never been asked the gun ownership question again despite multiple visits to the VA.
Red-flagging veterans about their gun ownership apparently didn't go over very well with the veterans themselves.
We have a new VA clinic in our area and I went there to check on getting med supplies. I had to be “buzzed” in the door just to get into the place. There were huge bronze plaques spelling out how criminal it is to bring a gun into the place. The receptionists worked behind plexiglass shielded windows.
I’m so thankful I have medicare and a supplement that covers just about everything except meds. I pitty the poor vet that has to use this jackass system. And to think the lefties want to pattern free healthcare after this mess.
Makes me sad to read of the problems others are experiencing. My VA Hospital and treatment within, are outstanding.
I’m sure care quality has something to do with where you live (which is shouldn’t!), though President Trump has signed quite a number of positive bills that are awesome for us Vets. I’m expecting even more from him in his next term. :)
https://www.conservapedia.com/Donald_Trump_achievements:_Veterans
One of my favorites, that saves me time and gas money for more localized care if I need it. I was able to have my mammogram done locally this year, for a change. I am an hour away (drive time) from my VA:
June 6, 2018—President Trump signed the VA Mission Act into law, a major reform of the department which expanded veterans’ access to private healthcare, created new healthcare programs, and reorganized existing programs for efficiency.[22]
Read through the list. The legislation and EOs are impressive for a guy who has only been in the game for 3 years! MAGA! :)
Tried to get an attorney.
You can only use VA approved attorneys.
I kid you not.
Drove across the state to see the one VA approved attorney in my state.
He said,
“I’m still on that list? Thanks for stopping by.”
VBA is organized crime.
During the Obama administration, the answer to your question is yes.
Remember the lesbian dyke, Janet Napalitano who served as Obama's head of Homeland Security?
She issued an intelligence report in 2009 that said that returning veterans posed a high terrorist risk and threat to the US.
Her statement was met with so much blowback from veterans' groups and the GOP, that she later apologize for the statement.
But it gives you some insight into how the Obama administration viewed the veteran community.
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