Mercenaries and the VA

Veterans in this country get a raw deal.  Send 'em off to the proverbial harm's way with a promise that if they make it back, but the fine print says we cut that.  And then we cut it some more.  (Undoubtedly some vets get what they need, but some don't, and - here's a tale from the not-so-distant past: Back when I was a union rep for some employees of the Buffalo VA, I once had to represent a member for discipline because she processed claims that were indisputably legit.  All the claims had to go through her small, cramped office, and she had received a direct order that when a claim came in she was not to process it or even look at it.  What was she to do with it, you ask?  Deny them all.  Automatically.  Sans peak.  And add each to the pile on a table on one side of the room that strained under the weight of such unsung paperwork, where it would remain, subject to the gnawing criticism of, well, if not rats, then silverfish and the like.  Until the wronged veteran appealed the denial.  Then and only then was she allowed to take a gander, and if qualified, approve the delivery of veteran benefits.  But one case was so pitiful, and clearly qualified, and the veteran and his family called and pleaded so heart-rendingly, that she went out on a limb... and processed a valid claim.  Boom!  Insubordination!  Nice, huh?)

Anyway, back to the present.  People like Bernie Sanders get big bills passed to help veterans.  People like the Tea party cut benefits.  And Hillary Clinton, loathsome though she may be in other regards, are given a spotlight, of all things, over a particularly stupid roost to which the chickens returned home in 2012.  Benghazi.  Ugh, more on that later.  But today, after her special extended spotlight, which probably helped her candidacy for free more than events she has spent millions on, what's rightwing talk-show-host-dom on about?  Glenn Doherty, who died at Beghazi fighting tha attackers, still hasn't gotten his veterans' benefits three years later.

Probably because he was a f***ing mercenary.

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