TBI Hearing

Veteran Calls House Committee TBI Hearing ‘Political Theater’

TBI Hearing

One veteran called the House Committee on Veterans Affairs’ hearing exactly what it was, mere political theater at the expense to 24,000 veterans affected.

Lawmakers tossed soft shoe questions at VA executives presiding over the hearing, but not one VA executive at the hearing was responsible for the problem. Lawmakers repeatedly asked VA officials in attendance who was the individual responsible for the problem, but that individual was never named nor mentioned.

Instead, David McLenachen, Deputy Under Secretary for Disability Assistance, provided no real answers. Instead, he hedged telling lawmakers that he was the one responsible for the problems that occurred 8 years ago leading up to the TBI scandal.

But how could he be responsible since he was working within VA Fiduciary up until 2014. So is he to blame? Or, is it an obvious diversion?

The hearing was little more than a typical dog and pony show intended to check a box before our elected officials in the House of Representatives return home to ask for your money and your vote.

They invited no testimony, written or otherwise, from any stakeholder in the matter other than VA employees. So should we expect much else?

This election cycle, I would encourage you to vote out every lawmaker who has been on the House Committee of Veterans Affairs for over ten years. They are worthless and did little to nothing to prevent the scandals that killed thousands of our brethren.

TBI HEARING QUOTE FROM VETERAN

Fight back with your votes.

91Veteran wrote:

“Political Theater. A show put on by Congress to make it look to constituents like something is being done.

“Unless it has been changed, I thought a veteran had a right to be examined by a specialist during a C&P exam. An ortho doc for bones, podiatrist for feet, audiologist for hearing etc., rather than a general practitioner for everything.

“As you point out Ben, they invited the wrong people, which means they don’t really care about the answers they will get, if any. It will likely be lots of, “We don’t know, but we can provide that after the hearing.” Or, “well I just took over as flunky x, but I can get back to you.”

Source: https://www.disabledveterans.org/2016/07/13/today-congress-hold-hearing-va-tbi-exam-failures/

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19 Comments

  1. to crazy elf I have read that Soros is a Nazi lover, atheist, and hates America. I believe it and wish his feet would not touch American soil. Clintons=Soros.

  2. Hey Elf, Namnibor, 91Veteran and all

    Did you notice the recent news in the Hillary email saga?

    Where the state department has asked the FBI for any copies of Hillary’s work related emails that were originally delete but the FBI has recovered as a result of the investigation.

    The FBI has said yes they would provide copies of the emails to the State Department for review and release under the many FOIA requests that are out there.

    In response, Hillary has now filed a legal action to try and prevent the FBI from releasing those work related emails by asserting a private claim of rights over her private email account.

    The number of work related emails she deleted are in the thousands and these are the emails that were delete to prevent them from being released under FIOA request.

    “Hillary for Prison 2016”

    1. Also I see what is on it’s way here in America. “France: Bomb-laden truck plows into crowd, killing 73, hundreds injured”

      “https://www.wbtv.com/story/32449311/nice-france-bomb-laden-truck-plows-into-crowd-killing-73-hundreds-injured”

      Things could have been a lot worse if the Explosives had gone off.

      1. A utube video show the moments the truck started the attach.

        “MOMENT when Truck crashes into Bastille Day crowd Terrorist attack at Nice 2016 FULL VIDEO HD”

        “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRi2ZSXyWs0”

        note: the camera person knew to film the truck even before it started the attach.

    2. Hey, Seymore, namnibor and 91Veteran;

      For some reason, I don’t believe the FBI will continue to protect “Crooked Hillary” and “Pediphile Bill”, Something tells me we haven’t heard the last of some of the agents below Comey.
      I’ve read where those who worked the case signed some form of “nondisclosure act”!
      Only, that doesn’t stop others from being truthful to their oath! There’s always a way to deal with liars, theives and traitors of America!
      When Comey kow-towed to Hillary and Bill, Americans lost all respect for the FBI Director Comey AND the crooked DOJ LYNCH!

      On a side note, Harry Reid has blocked a bill which would protect whistleblowers. I got that today from “WND”, if I remember correctly.

      Also, I read where the Democratic Convention is going to be inundated with 10’s of thousands of (possible violent) protesters.
      Plus, the Philadelphia airport personnel, (baggage handlers, taxi drivers, ticket takers, etc., etc.), “…are planning to strike during the convention!” They want that minimum wage increase and more that Berney, and now Hillary, promised them at their last rally!
      Wouldn’t it be funny if Hillary Clinton never showed up in Philadelphia!?
      If she does, I believe many people will be there to disrupt anything she has to say!

      Lastly, I believe the protesters going to Cleveland are biting off more than what they want. I also believe the “Stop Trump” movement is also kicking a dead horse. They know, or they will learn, who the people want. They better stop their bullshit.
      The conservative news outlets report, they, the Trump supporters, will seriously outnumber the protesters. This is why, in my opinion, there’s been more emphasis on the Democrats Convention lately!

      Be careful tomorrow brothers and sisters! It’s being called “The Day of Rage”. By BLM and other Soros backed “criminal racist entities!”

      That’s all I got for tonight!
      !!!PEACE!!!!

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    1. Hey Ben,

      You should delete this post by Business Plans. It is a bot post that is meant to drag “disabledveterans.org” down in it’s rankings on all the search engines.

      Also if the name is clicked it will likely lead to a virus.

  4. Watching those people, was like watching a “soft-core (nonviolent) version” of “Punch and Judy”!
    Of course, watching
    “Punch and Judy” would have been more enjoyable!

    91Veteran called it right, a “Political Theater”, with a ‘predictable plot’! Where we, as viewers, knew the ending long before we bought our tickets!
    A complete waste of taxpayers monies!

    1. @crazy elf- What that ‘Punch and Judy Congressional Valium Theater” needed was for Bug’s Bunny to appear and knock the Disney out of them. 🙂 Marilyn Manson would work in a pinch. 🙂

      What I am trying to imply is THEY NEED TO WAKE-UP!

      1. @namnibor
        Thanks for the laugh.
        I tried to use nonviolent resistance before sending in Bugs, Elmer Fudd or even Yosemite Sam. All would have been appropriate in that committees case!

    1. Personally Don I would have to go with the “intentional outside influence”.

  5. I think that both Ben and 91Veteran head the nail on the head with their assessments of the hearings. After watching the beginning of the hearings when David McLenachen, Deputy Under Secretary for Disability Assistance, repeatedly avoided answering the question on responsibility.

    He also read from a prepared statement in his answers in which were worded to make it appear the VA merely heard about the problem and took action to correct a wrong. When the truth is that Ben and AJ Lagoe at KARE 11 forced the VA to stand up and do the right thing.

    By the way, Great work Ben and AJ for not only standing up for justice for Ben’s clients or even accepting justice only for Minnesota Veterans but making dam sure all Veterans received justice.

    The hearing was then followed with what appeared to be a well-rehearsed questions and answers period with the minority leader of the committee.

    I felt watching any more would be just a total waste of time.

    My time was better spent on researching current and new technologies used to research TBIs and some of the past, ongoing and proposed research with those technologies. One of the current technologies is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A new technology is Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, (Deep TMS).

    fMRI has been used for nearly 25 years for research in TBI, PTSD, and a number of neurological disorders. A recent Research Review on MTBI and PTSD, published by the VA and DOD on April 11, 2016 show how greatly they rely on the research produced fMRI in the diagnosis and study of TBIs and PTSD.

    But, and this is a Very Big Bells Whistles Sirens blaring “BUT” about Functional MRI (fMRI).

    A study published in Proceedings of the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, (PNAN) on July 11, 2016 shows that at least the last 15 years of research affecting nearly 40,000 research studies are junk science due to a glitch in the software used in fMRIs. Additionally, the study found it Significant “Functional MRI (fMRI) is 25 years old, yet surprisingly its most common statistical methods have not been validated using real data.”

    From the study showing the problems “Here, we used resting-state fMRI data from 499 healthy controls to conduct 3 million task group analyses. Using this null data with different experimental designs, we estimate the incidence of significant results. In theory, we should find 5% false positives (for a significance threshold of 5%), but instead we found that the most common software packages for fMRI analysis (SPM, FSL, AFNI) can result in false-positive rates of up to 70%. These results question the validity of some 40,000 fMRI studies and may have a large impact on the interpretation of neuroimaging results.”

    From an article published on the Science Review website. “The bad news here is that one of the bugs the team identified has been in the system for the past 15 years, which explains why so many papers could now be affected.
    The bug was corrected in May 2015, at the time the researchers started writing up their paper, but the fact that it remained undetected for over a decade shows just how easy it was for something like this to happen, because researchers just haven’t had reliable methods for validating fMRI results.”

    Given the correction to one of the glitches in the software used in fMRI was corrected in May of 2015 and the study showing the problems with fMRI was submitted in February of 2016 and accepted for publications May 4, 2016.

    It is impossible to believe that the VA and the DOD didn’t know about the problems with fMRI when they published their Research Review on MTBI and PTSD, published by the VA and DOD on April 11, 2016.

    Their review relies heavily on fMRI research completed prior to May of 2015 while fMRI even though it has now been demonstrated that studies were incorrect up to 70% of the time and the statistical methods have not been validated using real data.

    Clearly they were spelling out policy, in advance of the publication, that going forward they will rely on the bogus research rather than work to correct problems with the research that has been completed at the VA and DOD.
    ~
    Now for a word about the new technology Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, (Deep TMS) which is also being used in conjunction with fMRI. Deep TMS is a new technology that is currently being tested on a number of mental health issues including PTSD, TBI, … and is also being used in cancer research.

    Currently the research and further development of Deep TMS are being funded by the DRAPA, DOD, and the Veterans Administration.

    The primary inventors of Deep TMS is Yftach Roth, Phd. He is also one the primary founders and investors in Brainway. His background includes Dr. Roth worked in the Advanced Technology Center of the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer as a researcher in the field of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

    Dr. Roth’s primary research interests are TMS and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and he was one of the two key inventors of Brainsway’s patented Deep TMS coil. Dr. Roth holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Physics and a Ph.D. in Medical Physics from Tel Aviv University.

    He is also the Chief Scientist At Brainway.

    The VP in charge of R& D is Ronen Segal his background includes the Israeli Navy’s development center the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s Advanced Technology Unit. He studied at the Jerusalem College of Technology as part of a special academic reserves project in electro-optical Engineering and applied physics.

    ~
    More on Deep TMS latter got to go for now.

    Sources:
    Cluster failure: Why fMRI inferences for spatial extent have inflated false-positive rates, Anders Eklunda, Thomas E. Nicholsd and Hans Knutssona,c;
    “https://www.pnas.org/content/113/28/7900.full.pdf”

    “A bug in fMRI software could invalidate 15 years of brain research”, By BEC CREW, 6 JUL 2016, Science Alert
    “https://www.sciencealert.com/a-bug-in-fmri-software-could-invalidate-decades-of-brain-research-scientists-discover”

    Veterans Administration & DOD RESEARCH REVIEW, MTBI AND PTSD, 11 April 2016
    “https://dvbic.dcoe.mil/files/DVBIC_Research_Research-Review_MildTBI-PTSD_April2016_v1.0_2016-04-20.pdf”

    “https://www.brainsway.com/us/management”

  6. Without proper Veteran Representation in Congress Committees, there is and will be no accountability. Period. This meat grinder called the VHA is nothing but a zero liability cash cow for everyone BUT Veterans.

    I was not surprised by this meeting’s results or lack thereof and a total playing of VA Musical Chairs.

    Thuggery on steroids. They seem to all be in the back pockets of the AFGE.

  7. @Ben & all, i think most posters on this blog and else where on veteran advocate websites came to this conclusion before this particular House Committee on Veterans Affairs’ hearing came to a close.

    i suspect most of these veterans over the decades and now came to that conclusion based on historical non-actions that these committees are part of along with VA thuggery. if you have a better legalese word than “thuggery” let us know.

    just to watch in disbelief the teflon coating these federal agencies and Congressional members have surrounding them does resemble a “banana republic” (to repeat a phrase making the rounds these days). i don’t know what other conclusion a rational thinking veteran can see.

    and this committee hearing was gonna be any different?

    as difficult as it is to come to the realization that there isn’t going to be any substantial fix with the VA and VBA, just look at the historical evidence over the decades, the current state of our fed gov priorities & see what other conclusions a veteran come up with.

    take a cue from blm because otherwise, most of what veterans have tried isn’t working…is it? correct me if i’m wrong, really. and no i don’t condone blm at all, i’m just saying look at the attention they get for their cause versus veteran’s causes. i’d love to get a bit hope back into my psyche regarding anyone in Congress/gov holding VA accountable and implementing some fixes, but i won’t hold my breath.

  8. Hey! So the comments were weird again today. I shut off Jetpack and it works… kind of. To post a comment, you need to click on the blue button twice. The first time, the blue button will shrink. The second click will allow the post to show up. Sorry for the confusion!!

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