Federal Government Shuts Off Google Adwords Campaign For VA.gov After ‘Blatant Mismanagement’
One federal agency has apparently shut off the VA.gov Google Adwords campaign after the “blatant mismanagement” was exposed by DisabledVeterans.org.
Yesterday, I exposed that the Department of Veterans Affairs is using tens of millions in taxpayer money to fund its propaganda and public affairs operations directly and through its government contractors.
RELATED: VA Spends Millions On Spin-And-Stonewall Machine
The federal government’s use of messaging in this manner allows VA to manipulate and control messaging and consistency of message. As an example, I highlighted where VA and its VA Public Affairs arm, called Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, spent an estimated $24,000 per month on Google Adwords to drive traffic to their own website without public scrutiny.
Today, one day later, all VA.gov ads on Google Adwords were apparently shut off.
VA was asked but did not provide immediate comment for this story.
RELATED: How To Beat Veterans Affairs SEO And Advert Machine At $24k Per Month
How Should VA Spend Its Money?
Ask any American where they would rather have their taxpayer dollars allocated: to the direct care of a disabled veteran, or to the known tax dodger Google, a multinational corporation that avoids paying taxes by moving to Bermuda?
How many advertising firms are on VA’s payroll right now rolling out online media campaigns? The information is not public. Meanwhile, we do know how many veterans still commit suicide each day after five years of VA spending over $20 million on pretty online advertising campaigns. The number is still about twenty, which is about what it was over a decade ago. Twenty veterans kill themselves each day.
So where is the return on investment after five years?
RELATED: Forbes – Google moves to Bermuda to avoid paying taxes… again
One government official, commenting under condition of anonymity to DisabledVeterans.org, stated,
“I find it troubling that after years of scrutiny and scandal, VA leaders would still trade off direct services to veterans for ceremonial campaigns and social media attention. The focus needs to be on delivering on the mission, not pretending to. This is blatant mismanagement of taxpayer dollars on objectives that lack oversight or evidence of a return on investment.”
This official is not only referencing the Google Adwords campaign but also the numerous suicide awareness campaigns and related costing taxpayers big bucks while VA has an active shortage of doctors and psychologists.
JR Reingold And Its MakeTheConnection.net, VeteransCrisisLine.net
Two examples are MakeTheConnection.net campaign and VeteransCrisisLine.net programs that cost taxpayers tens of millions, neither of which have substantively reduced veteran suicide from about 20 suicides per day, which has been the general average for years.
According to a partial FOIA release, MakeTheConnection.net cost taxpayers $6.3 million the first year and $3.6 million and $3.7 million each year between 2013 to 2016. This included advertising design work, website design, and video work.
Likewise, the VeteransCrisisLine.net cost taxpayers over $3 million in the first year to create the campaign and millions in subsequent years to update and maintain. It probably cost the same for each subsequent year, too.
The company providing these advertising campaigns is JR Reingold, an advertising company located in Washington DC. USA Spending indicates JR Reingold was awarded $102 million in contracts, mainly for services to VA, from 2013 to 2017.
Did these projects for VA make a dent in veteran suicide? How do we know? Why are the measurable results not public with that kind of investment?
RELATED: Veteran Commits Suicide By Fire Outside New Jersey VA
It is worth noting the VeteransCrisisLine.net campaign lacked the funding and/or permission to set up its own phone line, and had to share a line with another agency that sometimes resulted in veterans calls going to inappropriately trained operators. In one instance, one distressed veteran’s call was allegedly routed to India.
Was VA too strapped to set up its own phone line for suicidal veterans?
Online Campaigns Are The Easy Wins For Bureaucrats
Bureaucrats’ search for easy wins to give VA a facelift has created a vacuum filled by Beltway Bandits capitalizing on the desire to generate those wins through “clicks” and “likes” on social media at a cost. When you set the arbitrary goal, this is easy to measure.
But how did “clicks” and “likes” help stop veteran suicide after $20 million in spending to government contractors getting rich while veterans eat lead?
This approach of the quick win takes the form of tens of millions of dollars allocated for veterans being directed away from direct services to these online campaigns that result in a lot of bells and whistles without a measurable return on investment or oversight.
These campaigns confuse the public by creating a picture of veterans and their suffering and their need for services when in fact they are redirecting funds away from the direct services these same veterans desperately need.
Further, these social media and online media campaigns have been going on for years under the Obama Administration, and taxpayers have been fleeced by advertising firms promising great outcomes without directly improving conditions such as veteran suicide.
How many countless lives would have benefited had VA used its millions to hire psychologists instead of Mad Men style advertisers?
Veterans need doctors, not Mad Men.
About Federal Government Use Of Google Adwords
This type of overt advertising by the federal government, VA.gov specifically, impacts small publishers like DisabledVeterans.org, VeteransLawBlog.org, and others from gaining the same recognition and space on Google whenever a disabled veteran searches for a topic like Veterans Benefits, Veteran Vocational Rehab, or Veterans Disability.
It is important to note that both small publishers noted above are owned by disabled veterans who became veterans rights attorneys after separating from the military. In an overt way, VA is competing against small businesses created to serve veterans VA fails to serve well – the disenfranchised and denied veterans many inside VA consider the fringe.
RELATED: VA Secretary Admits ‘Adversarial’ Treatment Of Veterans
Search Term “Veterans Benefits”
Take the example of the linked search above for “Veterans Benefits“. When you do a search for this term, you will see numerous nonprofit organizations showing up at the top 4 positions as an advertisement.
Search Term “Veterans Vocational Rehab”
When we looked at a normal keyword VA paid to advertise for, “Veterans Vocational Rehab,” all VA.gov Google ads were removed from the search in their entirety.
I first noted VA dominated searches of that and a similar search term for the past couple months. Now, VA.gov ads do not show up, at least for now. If you note the top image of this article shows that VA was advertising for “Veterans Vocational Rehab,” which is a term my website DisabledVeterans.org already ranks for in the top 10 because of the overall quality of the content I write.
For the past couple months, VA.gov’s advertising dominated that search and those like it involving VA’s program called Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment.
Statistics And Readership With Lower Rankings For Search Terms
Statistically, most readers do not review past the top three search returns on the first page and only a few readers read on to the second or their page of results. The higher a website ranks, the more likely readers are to review the material there.
Generally, Google prides itself on using standard but specialized algorithms to filter through millions of web pages to funnel results to any reader based on the quality of the material there. Publishers try to publish high-quality content to ensure a higher ranking on Google.
To shunt this process, publishers with deeper pockets pay Google through Google Adwords to include its advertisement at the top of a particular search with a particular keyword or term.
As you can see from the limited view of what Google was being paid directly from VA, the agency was paying $24k per month to land at the top of the Google searchers as an advertisement.
We also noted Paralyzed Veterans of America, too, paid an astonishing $50k per month. Below is an example of one of those ads. Unlike VA.gov, PVA is still running its ads.
(Both numbers courtesy of Spyfu, an advertising intelligence company.)
Notice To President Donald Trump
This administration has an opportunity to pull every social media campaign being paid for out of the budget of those agencies to evaluate their value by their metrics, evidence of success, and the value of the trade-off being made in funding it.
Let’s start with VA.gov. While VA.gov could turn its advertising campaign back on tomorrow, but I hope the Trump Administration takes a deeper look at where this money is being spent.
And who knows, maybe they will clean up some corruption along the way.
Schmidt: Google will “de-rank” RT articles to make them harder to find..hes actually admitting to Orwellian censorship
by seeker401
“Inside Judicial Watch: The Truth Behind Uranium One & The Comey Memo”
“https://www.youtube.com/user/JudicialWatch”
With ALL the serious bullcrap going on, here’s a short video, which might brighten your day! I know it made me and the wife laugh!
From: “FREEDOM WATCH”
Posted on Nov. 21, 2017
Run time = 02:57 minutes long.
Titled;
“Save the Millennials”
Hilariously funny and YET so true!
elf look this one up on the tube
NWO UN Agenda 21/Depopulation/Georgia Guidestones/Abortion/LGBT/Fluoridation/BPA/GMOs/Vaccines/Mark
Are the offspring of Millennials really born into this world with an entitled Volvo and a starter beard and -1- starter pair of oh-way-so-tight-skinny unmanly jeans? LOL
“Happy Thanksgiving” to my brothers and sisters!
Happy Thanksgiving and
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│╱◥█◣║∩∩∩ ║◥█▓ ▓█◣
││∩│ ▓ ║∩田│║▓ ▓ ▓∩ ║
Goodnight Ben’s World
Great job Mr. Krause!!!
With all the VA searches at the top, its really more difficult to find useful information because the VA web site does not provide they type of information that vets need to succeed in dealing with the VA most of the time.
Routing back to the same source that provided the worse results is useless. Drowning out all the smaller web sources that can help a vet is all these millions of tax dollars are doing.
LOL @ Ben you did it again! 🙂 This i awesome proving more waste of the Government especially in the AdWord payments!
BTW the Former Chief of Staff of Black Hills Health Care System is now back from “Central Office” and the job is finally posted for hire last week! Bad part she is allowed to work as a physician 🙁 but not in charge of staff I have heard! no news nor will the news in the area report this either ! SAD for all; vets! Finally an acting Chief of Staff who is/was the Chief of Medicine for VISN 16
Part of the problem, as I see it and as was hinted at in this post, relates to the application of mental health services. Currently, the VA generally employs the use of psychiatrists (mainly for psychopharmacology), psychologists (mainly for testing and therapy), social workers (mainly for case management and therapy), and counselors (solely for therapy). While therapeutic modalities differ from facility to facility, generally evidence-based therapies (EBTs) are used to address mental, emotional, and behavioral health needs. Still, the VA would rather deal with lemons than actually address the heart of the matter.
So, what does all this mean?
While the VA funnels money to advertising campaigns, expends an untold amount of money fighting legal cases concerning employees they’ve wronged, pays bonuses to corrupt managers, disburses funds to overpriced building projects, etc., one of the core reasons for its existence is often neglected: treating veterans. Namely, maintaining an adequate number of mental health professionals.
Why then doesn’t the VA attribute more funds to providers who can utilize EBTs as a means to address the issue of suicide prevention and crisis management? One reason may be due to the lack of space within many VA facilities. Real estate within VA complexes is a valuable commodity and without enough space to house clinicians, individual therapy becomes increasingly rare as group therapy becomes the preferred mechanism to address mental health (because it’s cheaper to treat 10 veterans in one room than 10 veterans in 10 separate rooms), and many veterans opt out of treatment for not desiring group therapy (as these individuals are then viewed by the VA as treatment non-compliant).
The system is broken within, and it isn’t as though VA management isn’t aware of this. This is perhaps why they spend so much money towards the image of their product rather than the product itself.
Looking at it another way, consider a lemon (as it relates to vehicles and not a fruit). Lemons have malfunctioning defects that may affect the safety, value, or operation of a vehicle. It’s often cheaper to slap a fresh coat of paint on a lemon (i.e., advertising) than to address the engine, transmission, and other internal operational issues (i.e., hiring more psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and counselors). Ergo, advertising campaigns are big business for the VA, aside from those all too precious legal cases, bonuses, mismanaged construction scandals, etc.
In this way, lemons leave a sour taste in the mouths of thousands of veterans who suffer from unsweetened lemonade laced with an additive similar in color, though this yellowy, liquid bodily fluid is not advisable for consumption.
That is the core reason, the Diagnostic Service Manual that puts that Axis I diagnosis in the VA record is a permanent record. 9 times out of 10 you will not find that Axis I pre military, because it is an automatic disqualifier.
Post military you will find that oh so famous Axis II diagnosis (personality disorder )
This will piss any veteran off .Some fatbody,
3 peanutbutter sandwich in one sitting, Relish bottle shaped midsection ,healthcare provider trying to label you.
It is a good chance that psychologist, social worker has some borderline, histrionic personality traits of their own.
The military is designed to be on time, on target and never quit.
Taking advice from a civilian in the VA is a joke.
“The military is designed to be on time, on target and never quit.
Taking advice from a civilian in the VA is a joke.”-
That would be akin to ‘The Tin Man’ in ‘Wizard Of Oz’ asking for more rust instead of the oil container. Oh, and the VA flying monkeys in Oz are too fat to fly so they knuckle-drag just like the VA Disruptive Behavior Committee.
@CorpsmanUP! I provided an in-depth reply to your response, yet it for some reason has to be approved by the moderator…and hasn’t.
@Ben I just run disabledveterans.org through my SEOprofiler program. Found some very interesting results for all Search Engines. If you are interested in the results let me know as I already have you a Report ready. Let know so i can send you the username and password to log-in.
Dear Ben: You say this: “Meanwhile, we do know how many veterans still commit suicide each day after five years of VA spending over $20 million on pretty online advertising campaigns. The number is still about twenty, which is about what it was over a decade ago. Twenty veterans kill themselves each day.”
My question for you: how do you know it is 20 suicides per day? what means or methods have you used to verify that number?
Thank you very much for your prompt reply. This is a critical question.
Great article Ben and awesome results!
Next on our list should be exposing how much AFGE funnels out of medical center budgets each year with leadership approval.
The cut off isn’t just in direct care. The “call center” has responsibility but no authority. If you call the suicide hot line all they can do is talk to you. They probably can’t even call a hospital and have someone save you from your slashed wrists. They certainly can’t get you an urgent appointment or admission.
Their responsibility is to talk you out of that finale exit. But they have no additional authority. Hence, when keeping you talking doesn’t work, if you that that finale shot on the phone with them I wonder if they can even call the morgue to come pick you up.
Try it and see. You’ll find, even if you can talk to a supervisor they have no authority to help you beyond talking to you.
@Lem, @Dennis, @Windguy, @Namnibor – – – What @Lem explained, is exactly what was told to me as well. Both the Hotline Rep. and the Immediate Supervisor said; we’ll stay with you over the phone until all is ok, but if you need or want Assistance, then please call for the ambulance.
It seems logical though, if the Veteran requested Assistance, then the Hotline Rep. should stay on the phone until its an ALL CLEAR (Vets OK).
Do waves of difference in Policies, fluctuate between each VA VISN, Facility, or Area????? I don’t know, but at least this is the case with this issue. Happy Thanks4Giving Day. – – – Nutter.
@Lem,
I know absolutely what they will do if you call the hotline and talk about suicide. They will initiate a cell phone locating request which is honored instantly. Then they will try to keep you on the phone while local police are dispatched. The police will show up without a clue what is happening but being a vet, they will assume you know how to shoot folksin times of great stress so they too will be armed and have their guns either drawn or hands on them and ready. It will be tense beyond imagination for you. If you do not open the door they will smash it in without hesitating.
Then you will be handcuffed. Rights will not be read to you. You will be laid down in the back of a patrol car and they will transport you as many miles as necessary to drop you off at the nearest emergency room. They will dump you at a civilian hospital who wants nothing to do with you but since you are deemed an emergency they will be forced to take you.
Then they will call the VA and talk about how they are gonna get paid, while you wait in a lock down room. An orderly will come by and insist you give a urine sample and when you refuse you will be told they will take it by force if necessary.
Finally, an administrator will enter the lock down room after hours of waiting and inform you that VA will not pay for care at their facility. They will tell you that you must accept transfer to the VA holding facility (VA mental health acute care is strictly a mental health holding facility, not a treatment one) if you want help because, sadly, they are full up and by the way VA won’t pay for it… When you say, “no, the VA is a serpents lair” they will not disagree at all, but they will return your posessions and wish you a safe walk home.
Lem, with respect I must say that the VA call center does more than just talk… and 20+ per day pay the price. As for me I think the four mile walk home helped me prepare better to clean up all the broken glass from the front plate glass door being shattered in at a place I call “home”.
Not in this area. They will call no one. My experience was talking to a “supervisor” who could do nothing. I had my wife drive me 250 miles to Denver where they sent me to a neurobehavioral ward for addicts at a local hospital because the VA didn’t have a bed for inpatient. The local hospital was limited by Medicaid to get you out in 3 days ready or not. Lucky I didn’t have a break of reality and go off Paddock style. Nearly did once before years ago so when I say I need a lock up I don’t need to be told there is no room at the inn or that I can be there only 3 days in a treatment for a problem that is not mine.
My how times have changed. In 77, I called the MSP VA hospital and told them I was contemplating suck-firing a 16 ga, and the guy told me to “go ahead, pull the trigger”, and hung up. I realized I disliked the flavor of bore cleaner.
I *only* love the *smell* of bore cleaner, but it’s not a good thing to get on mucus membranes.
About a year & 1/2 ago here in Central/Southern Ohio a Vet called the VA Suicide Hotline and while he was on phone, the VA call center hack was “disturbed by his words”, she called local law enforcement, which dispatched SWAT, who then SHOT HIM -7- TIMES IN FRONT OF HIS WIFE AND KIDS. Now, he was holding a riffle, because he was pushed in a corner by the VA Suicide Hotline and SWAT. He’s now dead. Entire issue is ~~crickets~~…I would rather talk to a real Haitian Witch Dr. Suicide Zombie Dust Hotline any day than to ever call the VA’s Suicide By Cop Hotline.
I’ll take the witch doctor also.
I know i am following the conversation But some one email me from this website with no email address plus no name so Veterans hopefully what they Senators and Representatives their belief how to improve Health Benefits and Health Care they be Chicken Shit Happy Thanksgiving….SEMPER FI.
How about us vets who can never work again? We dont get looked after. Vocational rehab doesnt apply to us. Or doesnt help. I have had to give up everything i could do before. Cant even go fishing.
Great Article Ben! I wonder how many off-shore accounts were opened AFTER these contractors were paid?
_______________
For all the Vietnam Vets out there. Here’s an article out today, 22 Nov 2017, from “military.com/daily news” via: the “Associated Press” by Margie Mason, Robin McDowell.
Titled:
“VA Study Shows Parasite from Vietnam May Be Killing Veterans”
Looks like we have to worry about something other than Agent Orange and lack of professional healthcare, [resulting in SUICIDE], causing our DEATHS!
Even though this is a second writing on this issue, it’s getting more attention now! The first article came out last year!
Seems like some veterans are receiving compensation, while others are being denied multiple times! Which occurs quite frequently at VBA!
The article is well worth the viewing!
LOL. Parasite from viet nam! these guys will say any weird thing to get you to believe it and worry about it. Pretty sure “associated press” is another mainstream tool to screw you with fake news.
Sepp,
Read the article. It’s proven!
The RAND and VA study will ultimately declare that only the parasitic worms were affected by Agent Orange, so only Vets infected with the parasitic worms will be granted AO Worm Presumptive & Compensation and since BVA Deckchair Thomas ‘agent orange denier” Murphy seems to think AO is just as safe as drinking a quart of Round-Up Weed Killer on a hot day like orange juice, only the worms will be compensated, not the Vets. Wait for it.
The article while referencing it to Vietnam, has a critical role with every servicemember.
Flukes are real, but the persistance of obfuscating pre-deployment agents is the true story.
Chloroquine and Primaquine phosphate (anti malarial agents) should be explored.
Soldiers and Sailors in all theaters of warefare are known to get Athletes foot per se.
I have seen some rashes that defy the clinical norm of exposure.
The military norm was diluted bleach aka Dakins. The battle for our Marines was the amputations and bowl eviscerations were high risk for exposure to many critters and parasites in the field.
It was proven later that Lindane was harmful to people in application to fight bedbug infestations.
The VA sucks ass on many levels, proclaming to teach doctors.
Send them with the 7th Marine Amphibious Brigade. I am pretty sure are Corpsmen are keeping up the tradition titled “life savers”
Google hard charging docs , ……….
President Trump doesn’t give a shit about veterans, except to use us as a campaign tool
Yeah Jane,
He turned into a Howdy Doody real fast!
I had a gunny who talked the talk and walked the walk.
You got to remember, these con men come in the form of a used car salesman with that schizophrenia, gameshow host stare.
What is in the dark will come to the light.
It will show its full head if VA is non operational should there be an attack here on US soil. The are designated triage centers on the Rapid Response structure, depending on the level of destruction
The VA staff would use up all the oxygen before they could even help anyone based on their generalized fatness of the average government employee.
In the event of a full zombie apocalypse, the VA would likely be ground zero for it when some nonhuman test subjects get loose and all mayhem occurs, the VA would be the last place I would ever associate “safety or health” with in a shit hits the fan scenario.
I have a very strong feeling that I went into the wrong profession after military. Somebody is making millions and it’s not me
Happy Thanksgiving remember tell me your belief as Concerned how to improve Veterans Health Benefits. Be back
@Arnold Cabral,
I think the first and best improvement you can make to VA health benefits is to stop killing people before their time.
You achieve that goal skipper, and then get back to me about my other suggestions because there is a MUCH longer list to go over than just that, but it seems like a good first step.
Dennis i hear you I already had done I can do it alone even try Benjamin Krause I wish i do it myself.
Great article Ben, and it’s nice to see the squirm of the VA worm when disinfecting qualities of daylight shine on the asses wallowing in the D.C. Swamp.
Just think what $24K a month could provide for homeless vets or VA suicide prevention but as Dennis described about holes and dikes, it’s nothing but an extension of the VA’s Whack-A-Mole Program (WHAM).
From a medical point of view if the VA was diagnosed as an individual the best fit diagnosis would be Hirschsprung’s Disease. My proof is that they clearly do not give a shit, seem horribly bloated, and deny, deny, deny, there is a problem…
I say we flush the problem.
More like chickenbigbackalosis.
Their “inner fatty” has taken over their senses.
These madmen should be directly jailed when all is said and done.
Then we as veterans will force them to participate in the “Convicta Games”
A series of Roman style death matches where we can appoint Namnibor as the frontman (Julius Caesar ) to give the thumbs up or down.
Of course during halftime, we could have all the fatty McPatty gelatin belly, big fat nurses on display that call themselves healthcare providers on full display for the Convicta tribunal.
CorpsmanUp!
FTVA……..TWICE!
@CorpsmanUP!- The “Convicta Games” could utilize real-life hippos that are aggressively very hungry for a gladiator type mash-up of Hungry, Hungry Hippos using the marbles at the VA as game pieces and we could raise all the $ needed via pay-per-view to end all Veteran Homelessness and Veteran Suicide will be replaced with popping popcorn to watch the daily “Convicta Games”. (the hippos react the same, whether a thumbs-up or down…very hungry hippos.
LOL! “very hungry hippos”
Dying ?????
wasn’t Julius Ceasar murdered by Congress or something? Watch it Namnibor…step careful here..
Dennis,
Caesar was only murdered, when he decided to “play the game” different than what the Roman Empire had been set up as!
When he decided to make his son, by Cleopatra, the next heir to his throne. Then make himself total dictator of Rome, the “Senate” decided to act! Some in the Senate were FOR assassination, others were not!
A great read over this is:
“The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire”!
[I don’t remember the authors name]. You don’t have to read the whole thing, the first couple of chapters explains it in detail!
I think the Congressional Empire Lead Waterworks had a heavy contributing flow to the demise of it all but what do I know, I just had my remaining 7 teeth extracted today in oral surgery, and only RX’d Motrin because of the opioid epidemic. I will persevere, but this is insane, meanwhile they are handing out 100 count boxes of sterile syringes to addicts for free….what the hell is wrong with this picture?!! (rhetorical)
Ben kudos.
Let me point out however on immutable fact; in ANY organized crime operation, using authority to turn off the flow of money is like turning off a spigot of water. Turn one off and two more somewhere else (likely hidden) will be turned on. Put one finger into the dike to plug ghe leak and two more pop up.
America is being played for the fools we are and RIVERS of cash flow through Washington DC like the Amazon during rainy season. They are drunk with it in DC and the giggle at such pitance amounts as $100 million – it’s chump change. It is just the gratuitity on the table.
I will come back daily to his blog. Let me tell you PRECISELY what the blog headline will read in ten years – “VA officials were caught today siphoning $100 million to bogus contracts that do nothing!” This headline will preced the next days headline about horrific botched surguries and death at VA hands. You will write, in ten years, about how Congress has just taken a firm stance and is passing laws to fix this. You will lament in writing about the ongoing failure at VA to help those who see suicide as the best option.
Then at the end of that week ten years from now you will post an article on a Friday anout how once again another VA bonus scam was uncovered, how another VA secretary paid for his vacation to Europe on taxpayers money, and how the new POTUS is trying to unwind the corruption at VA.
Then, the next Monday, the cycle will start again. Its like an episode of The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas at VA except there is not lots of goodwill, and there is no small thrill, but without a doubt there IS something dirty going on.
Clap clap clap. Truth spoken and seen all my life.
Ben, isn’t that stuff called “click bait?” Your thing is VocRab and exposing VA crap. Over the years my focus is the broad spectrum of corruption (whatever flies my way), those needing help in some manner like addictions, needing someone out there to simply listen, but mainly chronic censoring, and censoring those who are in situations/hurting where it can cost some their lives. Dealing with the VA increased my defiance to this sick society. Most/countless people have no voice or an ear to listen anywhere at all. While local Indiana media plainly stated ‘we will not report on or about suicides.” They refuse to report about harmed, harassed, and threatened veterans too. Well actually they won’t report on much anything honestly and openly. But will claim “they” will give us the news they think we need, want, or can easily digest in our own little limited minds. According to them all. Kinda like journalism students locally will say they “manufacture news,” to be fed publically. According to their own agendas.
Point two. Modern mental health care and using their DSM 4/5 has been proven to be near total BS, resulting in massive misdiagnosis, massive failures in doping, filling prisons/jails and feeding the institutional/health care system. Then shame veterans into silence for believing in the system and fouling up along the line, if
they live through it. It’s then all the veteran’s, kids, child’s’, person’s fault, not them. Then having to deal with scum like Google giving strikes or bans if they happen to comment wrongly, or disagree with some PC medical/news site, media, or vet group, or some other group’s narrative and claims. Or strikes just for having saved a video that Google doesn’t see as appropriate. If you happen to write “that med sucks” your banned. Then the link and more info is just gone, no more specifics given. You are just banned and cut off, period. Appeal it and the repercussions and penalties are increased by ALL the censoring psychopaths. America? Seems being “adversarial” towards veterans is accepted today, intentional, socially accepted, promoted by those like Google, college kiddies/Profs, politicians, etc. Censoring, instilling fear in people, acceptance of massive retaliatory acts, collective punishments, war crime crap, set us back decades even with the internet or cell phones.
Ben, you know well there are those (majority) in your profession, along with many others, who absolutely do not want to see any change or to be held accountable for their actions like not letting VA disability to be exempt from bankruptcies cause they make a couple thousand bucks extra for a Chap 13 instead of Chap 7. And no need to go to any supreme court disciplinary group for action because it will be excused. Federal law or not. At least here it isn’t binding and fully allowable. Without the ability to connect, communicate, share happenings in mass with others….we are toast. Us poor internet dumb, old disabled, powerless, serfs, easy victims/targets are. Hope in Trump? His admin? Gone.
Great article Ben. One never knows what will come out of reporting. Thanks. – – – Nutter.