To them, this is war. What will it be for us?

 "War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will." - Carl von Clausewitz in "Vom Krieg" AKA "On War" as translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret. 

"Force" is defined as "Power, violence, compulsion, or constraint exerted upon or against a person or thing. Power dynamically considered, that is, in motion or in action; constraining power, compulsion; strength directed to an end." per West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2.

A shorter version of the term is offered by the free legal dictionary provided by US Legal inc: "Force means power, violence, or pressure directed against a person or thing. Force is a compulsion by physical means or by legal requirement."

Force includes legal compulsion. I want you to understand that before I continue. Force includes using the law to require you to do something you would otherwise prefer not to, or to not do something you would otherwise prefer to do. 

For the last couple decades, a large number of legislators and talking heads have made anyone seeking justice from discrimination on the basis of race, sex, sexuality, gender, or any number of other statuses into their enemy. They have said they "hate America" and are "trying to destroy America." That is not an opponent, or a colleague, that is an enemy. 

Those legislators and their party members have a lot of power right now, most of it at the state level. They are using legal force to compel their enemies to do their will. Their will includes: emplacing theocratic restrictions on personal actions, forced indoctrination of children with religious and nationalistic ideals, and forced denial of non-conforming ideologies, identities, and forms of expression.

Yesterday, we saw one of the most common occurrences in war: collateral damage. That's a nice, clean term that we use to talk about people who shouldn't have died dying. 

The thing is, to those who support those restrictions on freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and just freedom to be yourself, but insist on the corporate freedom to sell firearms to whomever they want (because that's really it. I hate to break it to you, but it's not about your right to own a gun, that's why they only put up a token resistance against ghost-gun bans, it's about selling you firearms), they're at war. They don't care about the LGBTQ+ youth that will be pushed to dying by suicide because of their draconian laws. They don't care about the women, many of them already mothers, who will die because they can't access safe abortions. They don't care about those who starve to death or die from exposure due to their lack of comprehensive social programs. They don't care about those who die because they legitimately can't face a life choosing between crippling debt and another day of unending pain because their health insurance company doesn't cover them. They don't care about those who die because law enforcement standards are so low that they're not actually capable of handling stressful situations half as well as a gas station employee. And frankly, they don't care about the children who died yesterday, not enough to change the heading they're on. 

They've treated this like a war for a long time, and it's time we begin to acknowledge that. We don't have to stoop to their level. We don't have to return force for force. There may yet be another way to save those they are willing to sacrifice. But we need to be honest with ourselves. They see this as a war, and they will accept nothing less than victory. 

How I identify a war in this case: presence of casualties, presence of collateral damage, use of tactics common to other socioeconomic wars, vilification of dissent, absolutist views on issues to the point that any budging is views as traitorous (see: Ted Cruz vs Tucker Carlson on the terrorists who stormed the capitol), and the proposal to increase the number of troops on the ground. 

You may be wondering what I mean by that last part. They want to arm teachers. They want to arm other school staff. They want to increase the number of armed individuals inside schools in general. They have expanded access to firearms to the general public over and over. They love the phrase "An armed society is a polite society." 

When your policy is to make any conflict as deadly and bloody as possible, rather than trying to preclude violence in the first place, you're on a war footing. 

I don't honestly know what to do, but I know what war is, I was trained to fight war, I have studied war much more than the average American, and this, at least to them, is war. We need a sanity check, and fast, or else we'll lose too much to be able to recover afterwards. 

May God have mercy on us, for our leaders apparently will not. 

When national leadership is worse than Benny from Fallout: New Vegas...

I've noticed a common thread among how the GOP seems to be treating all of their culture war issues. Short version: they're cowards that welcome the death of others. To use a term from the character Benny from Fallout: New Vegas, they're finks.

Allow me to explain: every major culture war issue they've been pushing for the last couple decades has had to do with things that reduce deaths due to exposure, starvation, overdose, and suicide. In all of those cases, the GOP tries to legislate the things that help reduce those deaths out of existence, but claims the likely resulting deaths are a completely unrelated phenomenon. 

Let's go through examples. 

First, and a very old one, the war on drugs. The GOP loves to legislate drug users into criminality, claiming it's for their own good and the good of society, but they generally refuse to hold major drug dealers in the USA, like pharmaceutical companies, remotely responsible for the deaths they've caused, and they ignore both the causes and effects of drug use. The GOP has raised barriers to access mental health services, most notably by increasing the barriers between veterans and the mental health services they need, all while claiming that it's about "fiscal responsibility."

In recent years, the GOP has taken to attacking programs and policies proven to reduce deaths due to overdose and other drug abuse related conditions, like clean injection sites, increased funding for psychological treatment of addiction disorder, etc. They don't want to help those people, but they'll claim that the people who die as a result of the lack of access to these programs are the only ones at fault. 

Second, let's look at LGBTQ+ rights. Every success to secure LGBTQ+ rights has resulted in a (sometimes temporary) drop in LGBTQ+ suicides. Gay marriage bans killed people, bans on gender affirming care will kill people, anti-sodomy laws killed people. The GOP doesn't care, because they want the control, they think that they have the right to become the arbiter of morality and those that don't align with their preconceived notions can die for all they care. 

Third, let's look at the most recently reborn controversy: abortion. Now, if you know me, you know I don't like abortions. Aside from a few exceptions, I generally consider them most likely immoral. That being said, I do view the issue as an ethical/moral one, not a legal one. God gets to decide what's moral, not our government. You can hate me all you want, but let's explain why. 

A ban on abortion alone will not reduce abortions significantly, we've seen that in the past, and we've seen it recently with the latest attempts to ban abortion in the USA. It leads to a temporary drop in abortions followed by an increase in early-term abortions. A complete ban would just result in a higher fatality rate for abortions as they won't be done safely. These are all scientifically and historically verifiable facts. 

A truly pro-life solution would require any ban on abortion to be tied to an increase in access to contraceptives, an increase in education spending, and increase in medical care funding for potential parents and children, an increase in social safety nets, and a social campaign to increase adoption after the age of two. None of these are part of the GOP platform, and in fact, most are specifically denied by GOP legislators. Their excuse? "That's a completely different argument."

So since they're not willing to look at these things realistically, to acknowledge that their morality-based legislation is likely to kill people, they're just "letting them" die. And who is most likely to be affected by these bans? The poor, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, etc. People that, according to GOP officials, vote for their opposition. 

This isn't a new concept, they're just trying to select their voters so the don't have to face the possibilities of voters not selecting them. They do this by making things related to Democrat policies felonies, like sleeping in a public park (homelessness), providing gender-affirming care to your offspring, being a longer-term victim of human trafficking (they can legally be treated as prostitutes, drug users, and sometimes drug dealers), and in most GOP-run states, you can't vote as a felon, even after you finish your sentence, at least not without jumping through some crazy hoops. 

They also like to select their voters through gerrymandering, selecting the requirements for voting to make it easier for those likely to vote GOP to vote (For instance, in Texas you can vote with a handgun license but not with a student ID), and increasing barriers to vote in areas that generally vote against them (reducing polling locations, hours, etc.) 

This is just another branch on that same tree; they're trying to select their voters by making it more likely that those who would vote against them don't survive until the next election. They're doing this not only to adults, but to minors, with their policies increasing the suicide rate for LGBTQ+ youth significantly. They won't take the time to actually look them in the face before they kill them, and they'll claim it was all the victim's fault, because they're cowards, but make no mistake, at the very least they consider excess deaths to be a reasonable cost for their policies to be put in place. 

Even Benny knew better than to do this. To paraphrase "Maybe the GOP-types kill people without looking them in the eye, but I ain't a fink... dig?" Even Benny, who is far from a good person, would have the honor to admit to someone who killed them. When you're worse than Benny, are you really doing the right thing? 

That's all for now. God Bless you if you'll let Him, and have an otherwise nice day. 

- Draknus

GOP vs Veterans in the 2021-2022 House of Representatives.

I've been having a lot of people who keep telling me that the GOP is the pro-veteran party. There is no pro-veteran party, we're treated as pawns by both, but right now the GOP is definitely the worse of the two, so I decided to show that using just the current House of Representatives. This is written by me, and is my view, but is based very heavily in fact. 

I would like to start by saying that I am a veteran of the United States Army and the Wisconsin Army National guard. I am a disabled veteran, with a 100% Permanent and Total Service-connected disability rating. In layman's terms, this means that due to what happened to me while in uniform, I can no longer work, or really function all that well. 

In the current House of Representatives, most representatives are on record voting on seven major bills that affect veterans. During that time, there were many bills passed in the House or voted on in the House without a roll-call vote, meaning his position on those can only be ascertained by his recollection and statements. In the future, I certainly will support a push to have all bills in both houses of Congress be voted on with roll-call votes. I know it takes more time, but I want my congressmen's votes on the record. 

Of the seven bills that primarily focused on veterans issues, the majority of the GOP voted Yea three times, and Nay four. Let's cover them, Yea's first. 

The first one is a pretty easy one to understand: Rep. Fitzgerald coted Yea on H.R. 5293, the "Department of Veterans Affairs Expiring Authorities Act." This bill proposed to extend certain authorities granted to the VA during the COVID pandemic. The vote was held on September 20th, 2021, and was effectively unanimous (423 Yea, 8 not voting)

The second one passed with a similar vote. This was H. R. 4233, the "Student Veterans Counseling Centers Eligibility Act." This bill requires the VA to furnish counseling services for veterans or current members of the armed forces using certain education benefits. It was very popular, with 420 Yea, 4 Nay, and 9 not voting. Nearly unanimous. 

The third and final Yea that I can confirm is for H.R. 147, the "Bringing Registered Apprenticeships to Veterans Education Act," or the BRAVE Act. This is a good law, requiring the Department of Labor to coordinate with the VA to provide information to service members leaving the service and veterans regarding apprenticeship programs, which is a great way to learn a trade. It was also passed with effective unanimity, 427 Yeas and 6 not voting. 

Notice the trend in these three bills: they were all nearly unanimous. The only effect his nay vote could have had would be to paint a target on any representative's back. It took no courage or conviction to vote Yea, it was effectively a matter of course. 

Now onto the Nays, which are the real problem. 

Let's start with the one that his voters are most likely to blindly agree with him on, regardless of the facts: H.R. 239, the "Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act." According to the official summary, "This bill prohibits the Department of Veterans Affairs from requiring payment from a veteran for any contraceptive item that is required to be covered by health insurance plans without a cost-sharing requirement." It's a pretty short bill, less than a full page when you read the bare text, and the summary is painfully accurate. 

Why would GOP voters blindly agree to that vote? Because government payment of contraception as a whole has been vilified by the GOP, by and large, as funding abortions. That's not the actual case, but since when have politicians allowed facts to interfere with their narrative? 

Next up is H.R. 1836, the "Guard and Reserve GI Bill Parity Act." This was a response to the massive amount of time states have been requiring of their National Guard members to assist in handling the pandemic. It expands the types of hours you can serve that count toward your GI Bill benefits to include training, active military service, inactive training, and general duty for which basic pay is warranted. This would effectively open up National Guard members who are mobilized by their governor but not working for the federal government to get GI Bill benefits for that service. 

Many GOP Reps' no votes here starts to show the pattern you'll find with his treatment of veterans: the only explanation I can find for why 135 GOP Representatives would vote against this bill is "fiscal responsibility," meaning money. This wouldn't just help "blue state" National Guards. Right now there are National Guard members being generally mistreated in Texas after being mobilized by their governor, who are not qualifying for GI Bill benefits for that service yet because the bill has not yet been passed into law. This would help them too. That doesn't matter to those that voted against it, the fraction of a percent in potentially increased budget does. 

These last two are particularly galling, and you'll see why as I explain. 

The most recent Nay vote from the majority of the GOP against helping veterans came in regards to H.R. 3967, the "Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxins Act of 2021," or the "Honoring our PACT Act." This one is fairly complicated, but the gist of it is effectively requiring the VA to consider veterans who participated in toxic exposure risk activity, possibly including proximity to burn pits, to be eligible for VA healthcare benefits. It's complicated because it has to amend a lot of sections of laws regarding the VA, and specifically calls for a lot of research regarding the effects of toxic exposure, which also requires funding. 

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill would likely result in an increase in direct direct spending of about $72.3 billion between 2022-2026, or a grand total of about $207.5 billion over the course of 10 years. That averages out to less than one third of one percent of the 2021 budget each year. Those GOP Reps that spoke on the house floor about this bill made it clear that they considered "fiscal responsibility," again that means money, more important than this. 

Finally, there's H.R. 4673, which you've seen me mention before. The "Ensuring Veterans' Smooth Transition Act," or "EVEST Act." It's a short bill, fairly simple. All it does is require the VA to automatically enroll veterans who are *already* eligible for VA healthcare benefits into the VA Healthcare system, and provide a means by which to opt-out. To simplify: it changes VA benefits into an opt-out system rather than opt-in. 

Why is this so important? Because it takes veterans months, sometimes years, to get access to VA Benefits they are eligible for under the current opt-in system, because it's not a simple opt-in. I've rarely come across a veteran that was able to apply for benefits themselves and actually get benefits. Most veterans I know, including myself and my father, have to go through what's called a Veterans Service Organization, or VSO. VSOs basically function as lawyers and legal clerks for veterans applying for benefits. 

Let that sink in for a moment. In order to get healthcare benefits we were promised should something go wrong, as it so often does, we have to get legal help. We have to fight, sometimes in court, to get the benefits we deserve. That's part of why VA claims are so backed up, because they have to go through a convoluted system that's meant to restrict access to VA healthcare benefits to as few veterans as possible. 

According to the CBO, over the course of five years, that bill would cost the federal government about $3.1 billion. That's about $620 million per year, which would increase the federal budget by about one one-hundredth of a percent. To put that in an annoying perspective, in 2016 the Government Accountability Office published a report showing that non-military government agencies spent $652 million, about $32 million more than what the EVEST Act would cost us in a year, on using their own aircraft in fiscal year 2015. We're paying more money to allow federal employees to avoid commercial flights and/or avoid using commercial logistical transport than we would need to cut red tape for tens of thousands of future veterans. 

The majority of GOP Representatives do not effectively support veterans. Instead, he values money over proper care of veterans. I am so tired of them using my service, sacrifice, and suffering, and that of my fellow veterans, for political talking points and then when the rubber hits the road, they can't be bothered to even vote in our favor. Both parties use us, but right now, only one party has a majority of their members in Congress actively supporting bills that help us. 

I refuse to tell you how to vote, but I think actual voting records should matter, and when it comes down to it, when their choice might actually make a difference, GOP Reps can't put our money where their mouths are. 

Bills Mentioned

H.R. 5293 - Department of Veterans Affairs Expiring Authorities Act: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5293

H.R. 4233 - Student Veterans Counseling Centers Eligibility Act: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4233

H.R. 147 - Bringing Registered Apprenticeships to Veterans Education Act: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/147

H.R. 239 - Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/239

H.R. 1836 - Guard and Reserve GI Bill Parity Act: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1836

H.R. 3967 - Honoring our PACT Act: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3967

H.R. 4673 - Ensuring Veterans' Smooth Transition Act: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4673

Veterans suicide, LGBTQ suicide, and a war we cannot fight.

 TW: Suicide, Veteran's Issues, LGBTQ+ Issues

I've said this a few times in the past, but today I decided to do the math. According to general estimates, for every successful suicide there are 25 attempts. This is just a general rule of thumb but I decided to run with it for the time being, and you'll see why soon. 

Veterans have the highest suicide rate of any demographic in the USA that is based on a protected status, things like race, sex, sexuality, ethnicity, religious affiliation, political affiliation, and veteran status, of course. The suicide rate for veterans is a little complicated. There are those that count current service members, reservists, and national guard members among veteran suicides as they are all, at least psychologically, veterans. The VA, however, only counts discharged veterans, ignoring those who die by suicide while still in uniform, and those who's character of discharge denies them VA benefits. As such, I have data on *all* veterans from 2010, and data from discharged veterans from 2018. I'll show my work with both. 

In 2010, the reported suicide rate for veterans was 35.9 per 100,000 (annually). If we multiply that by the 25 estimated attempts per death by suicide, that would lead to an estimated 8.975% of veterans attempt suicide each year. 

In 2018, the reported suicide rate for discharged veterans was 27.5 per 100,000 (annually). Again, if we multiply that by the 25 estimated attempts per death by suicide, that would lead to an estimated 6.875% of discharged veterans attempt suicide each year.

I believe both of these numbers to still be fairly accurate, not down to the thousandth of a percent as shown, but close enough. 

Now, why do these numbers specifically matter? 

With the top number, Veterans still represent the highest rate of suicide attempts per year for adults. With the bottom number, where we ignore active duty troops, national guard members, and reservists, veterans have been eclipsed in recent years by another demographic.

The Trevor Project is a nonprofit that seeks to reduce the suicide rate of that other demographic, LGBTQ+ youth. Based on their 2021 National Survey of LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, they've broken down the attempt rates of LGBTQ youth into two groups, those aged 13-18 and those aged 19-24. For adults, Veterans still come out, with their rate at just under 9% of veterans attempting suicide per year, and 8.3% of LGBTQ youth ages 19-24 attempting suicide per year. 

But the other rate is the one I want you to focus on, because it's very important due to recent laws being passed in multiple states, hundreds of them. According to the above mentioned survey, 19.0% of LGBTQ youth ages 13-18 reported attempting suicide in the last year. That's just short of one in five. 

There are a huge number of factors that affect LGBTQ+ suicide rates, but among them are laws. Laws, it appears, affect the future outlook of LGBTQ+ individuals, and that affects suicide rates. Those laws that restrict them can increase that rate, those that accept them and support them can decrease that rate. 

In Idaho, a bill that would affect that rate passed the state house easily. For the time being, it has been tabled in the state senate, but that does not mean it will not be enacted. It makes it a felony to give gender-affirming treatment, including hormone blockers and other hormone therapy proven to reduce suicide rates and other negative psychological conditions in trans youth, and in fact makes it a felony to assist in helping a trans youth to get that care outside of the state. 

In Texas, multiple bills and executive actions have been pushed that legislate against LGBTQ+ Youth. The Texas Attorney General made an official opinion that the state's child protective services to treat gender-affirming medical care as child abuse. That means that those trans youth aged 13-18 that are already at such a high risk of attempting suicide can be taken away from their parents and put into a failing and dangerous foster care system, because their parents committed the crime of accepting and supporting them. 

In Florida, teachers can now be penalized for having an in-class discussion that any parent considers inappropriate in regards to gender, sex, and sexuality. Due to the puritanical nature of the parents that have shown up at school board meetings, this likely means that any significant mention of any LGBTQ+ related issue is off the table. The proponents for the bill insist that it only counts towards k-3, but the law itself leaves open that interpretation all the way through k-12. Students who have homosexual parents who love them will be isolated because there can be no mention of that kind of relationship. Students who find themselves to be of a non-standard sexuality or gender will be isolated. This law was written specifically to have a chilling effect on teachers who would otherwise educate students on the simple fact that it is not inherently evil to love someone who is the same gender as you, or to not feel comfortable in the set of gender norms assigned to you by the culture around you. 

You can get mad at me all you want for "mischaracterizing" these bills and actions, but the simple fact of the matter is that they are, directly, anti-LGBTQ and therefore increase the risk of suicide for these CHILDREN. The effects will be seen, and children, innocent of any crime other than not being standard issue hyper-masculine or hyper-feminine people, will die. Not enough to move the needle for people who support these bills, but one more than otherwise would happen is too many. 

The difference between these two demographics I have pointed out so often is this: we, as veterans, signed up to give our lives in service. Sometimes that comes in the form of a combat wound, sometimes it comes in the form of a psychological condition that eventually takes us from this life through sheer attrition. That is plenty of a tragedy for me, but at least we signed up for it. 

They didn't. LGBTQ+ children did not sign up to pay the ultimate price for the sociopolitical ideologies of a bunch of angry, scared, ignorant adults that want to legislate their very identities out of existence to protect those same adults' outdated worldview that is not based in fact. And thanks to the fact that so many of those adults have decided to wage this war on children on our own soil through attrition and destruction of their minds, neither I nor any of my fellow veterans can do as we signed up to, and take the blows for them. 

I can accept the slow pace forward in reducing veteran suicides, but what I cannot condone or accept is the effective killing of children through legislation and executive action too cowardly to even do it by the politicians' own hands, but to punish and restrict and choke out all hope for these kids until the hands of those children do the killing for them. 

If you live in the USA, take the time to check and see if your state is part of the problem. If it is, or if it is trying to be (meaning if your legislators have proposed laws that would make this worse), take the time to contact your legislators, your governor, your federal congressmen, and speak out against them. Tell them that you will not give them your vote if they support laws that will allow suicide to kill children at a higher rate that veterans. And then tell your friends, your loved ones, to do the same. 

You may feel free to copy and paste this to share it as you see fit, and if you need to attribute it simply say that a disabled veteran who has struggled with suicide for many years wrote it. 

Thank you for reading this far. God bless, if you'll let Him, and have an otherwise nice day. 

Sources:

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/research-briefs/estimate-of-how-often-lgbtq-youth-attempt-suicide-in-the-u-s/

https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/docs/data-sheets/2020/2020-National-Veteran-Suicide-Prevention-Annual-Report-11-2020-508.pdf

https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ps.201400031

https://wmich.edu/suicideprevention/basics/facts#:~:text=It%20is%20generally%20estimated%20that,actually%20taking%20their%20own%20lives.

https://www.hrc.org/news/idaho-house-passes-discriminatory-bill-to-criminalize-gender-affirming-care-for-transgender-youth

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/23/us/texas-attorney-general-gender-affirmation-child-abuse/index.html

https://www.hrc.org/news/florida-senate-passes-dont-say-gay-or-trans-bill-legislation-heads-to-desantis-desk-for-signature-or-veto