Fun at the VA

I was just poking around this morning, reading the short-shrift vets are getting at the VA and it seems the memory of folk is mighty tiny. The VA has been hiring career “civil servants” for 39 years that I have had 1^st hand experience with, some of them are truly the dregs of both the administrative and medical sides of business.

My job was as a contract electronic engineer putting together the VA Center for Endoscopic Programs and had zero duties with the VA personnel themselves, therefore it was kinda nice to be able to see what went on dispassionately. In private enterprise, a LOT of the folk wouldn't last a week, hell, a bunch would be in jail. Interestingly, some of the very best surgeons I've ever met were there. Might have a bit to do with those men being combat vets of Korea, kinda had a dog in the fight.

One interesting observation was of the procurement department and how it was administered. It must have been self-administered as the “rules” were rather “conveniently flexible.” Good old gummit money, got lots and lots... The head of the department roughly tripled the numbers of employees in his department while I was there, no reason I could see other than him building his little “empire.” All female of course, no real accounting for work product or reason. Gummit money.

I always admired the really brilliant rule that each year, all the money allocated for a program absolutely must be spent or the same amount would be deducted from the following year's budget. It was pretty easy to see who was over-allocated, lots of new carpeting, desks, ergo-everything plus a few “invisible” perks... The “old stuff” had to be disposed of by donation to public schools, other gummit facilities, then auctioned to minority owned businesses, then open to general bidding.

As an aside to the story, when I was with Sandia Nat'l Labs, they had the same system, I assume due to being primarily gummit supported. Lots and lots of good office furniture, coffee makers, lab gear, that kind of stuff, and hydrogen bombs!

OK, the bombs didn't have the physics package installed. They were the beautifully machined 800 pound housings of the W-88 warheads that hadn't made the QC cut. I wanted one. Actually I wanted two. They were so lovely in their minimalist design and would make such beautiful bases for circular, glass-topped end table / lamps for the couch.

 

 

Oops, wrong W-88. Oh well, this one's nicer.

 

Did I mention I'm loosely wired? Some shortcuts were made in my design. ...just because I think I'd like a couple of 475 thousand ton warheads for lamps doesn't mean I need “special” attention!

...back to the VA, there were quite a few instants of taxpayer funded time and materials being “diverted” for G-jobs (now you know where the term came from) and one was really pretty strange. My “lab” there was the old animal lab that opened onto the shipping dock. Lots of trucks bringing lots of neat stuff paid for by taxpayers, a regular string of hearses bringing out errors and such, and one evening, a large shipment of 55 gallon drums. The next morning, I went out to see what they were and there were ten drums of 95% ethyl alcohol. 550 gallons of punch-spiker. Go figure...

...hmmm, 55 gallon drums of untaxed Everclear are going for $787. With Florida tax, it equals one mile of dollars! $5,280! ...times ten, hmmm...

On medical care, I found one item quite disturbing and that was the lack of having one physician following a long-term patient's case. One guy I followed had six different docs in one year “treating” him for hypertension.

 

His blood pressure would rise unacceptably, a doc would put him on one drug; it would drop way down, another doc would put him on another drug, this yo-yo treatment with a half-dozen apparently non-communicating “docs” continued for about a year until they killed him.

There were many cases like that, quite often linked to hiring foreign, ill-educated, non-Christian “doctors” who didn't much care for Americans or American servicemen. With no accountability through being sued for malpractice (VA, 39 years ago), it was just tough shit for those who went there. One could have care that was unmatched, extraordinarily fantastic, or one could draw dregs.

Enter Obummercare. Sixty years of decent medical experiences and now, after a nasty old stroke that left me unconscious for six months, I'm learning a few new things:

1. Who you thought were good friends are actually thieves.
2. If you have outlived your family and spouse, you've had it.
3. The “doctors” you have are all worthless hindus.
4. The “dentists” are worse.
5. If you're in need of a shrink, get a dog.    

 

Ah, the Golden Years, how we have looked forward to them! ...and with Obummercare, they will be so rich and rewarding! Just not for you.

 

For fun & games, our wonderful OMB says the present system is running at a work-product of 0.15 or 15 per cent efficiency for those of us that like clarity. 85% waste. Sounds about right for a G-job. ...or a B-job. It's expected to drop substantially in 2017 when the other half of Obummercare kicks in. Good luck, kiddies. When something is free, it's probably worth half of that and will cost a fortune. Kinda reminds me of my years in DC where it was said one could take a trip to the corner of Florida & 14^th , spend 20 bucks, and get a guarantee of three diseases. For 10 bucks you'd get six! Wonder what you got when it was free? AIDS, Ebola, and pneumonic plague added to the list?!!

Don't wind up in a nursing home without a family.

The days are very long.

...nights are longer

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