Archive for September 9, 2023

More disincentives for veterans to report mental health problems

Posted: September 9, 2023 by navygrade36bureaucrat in Afghanistan war
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As a military member, reporting mental health problems is a Catch-22. On one hand, everyone is encouraging you to speak up when you need help, but then you tend to get punished when you do.

For example, it used to be if you claimed any sort of mental health problem, from depression and anxiety to even trauma due to a sexual assault, it would cause your clearance to be suspended. Thankfully, that isn’t true anymore, and on my last security clearance questions, I noticed that the interviewer only asked if I had schizophrenia or other delusional-type illnesses.

The stigma is still very real, and most vets won’t seek treatment because they think something bad will happen to them. And for those that are pilots, another shoe dropped. From the Washington Post:

Federal authorities have been investigating nearly5,000 pilots suspected of falsifying their medical records to conceal that they were receiving benefits for mental health disorders and other serious conditions that could make them unfit to fly, documents and interviews show.

The pilots under scrutiny are military veterans who told the Federal Aviation Administration that they are healthy enough to fly, yet failed to report — as required by law — that they were also collecting veterans benefits for disabilities that could bar them from the cockpit.

Sounds bad right? So what sorts of disabilities did they find pilots not reporting?

“If they’re going to shine a light on veterans, they need to shine a light everywhere,” said Rick Mangini, 52, a former Army pilot who has been grounded from his job flying for a cargo company since his medical certificate was not renewed last month. The FAA notified him in May that he was under review for failing to disclose sleep apnea, for which he receives VA disability benefits, Mangini said. Although he checked the box on his application that asked if he receives any government disability benefits, Mangini, who lives in Killeen, Tex., said he was not aware he had to provide specifics.

Sleep apnea. Yup. They also look for depression and anxiety, but its not an automatic grounding if you have those:

Pilots who have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety or other mental health conditions are not automatically prohibited from flying. But the FAA requires them to be closely monitored because their conditions and medications can affect their ability to safely handle an aircraft.

Now, you would think given the size of the investigation that we have lots of suicidal pilots out there, but according to the article, we haven’t lost a passenger plane since 2009, and while the article indicated there is suspicion that some pilots may have deliberately crashed in other countries, its not 100% confirmed.

So what’s going to happen? Well:

  1. Military pilots will stop reporting mental health problems, and will not get the help they need.
  2. These guys and gals will pay a lot of money to people that specialize in VA claims that will get them benefits without having to be reported.
  3. At some point, a veteran pilot is going to commit suicide and leave a note that says he was afraid of getting help because he wouldn’t be employable anymore.

There is already a stigma that being in the military causes mental health problems, and this is going to further push people away from joining.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

Else: AB 957 is Law in California

Posted: September 9, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Back in the days when I was learning programing in the 1979 of of the first things we learned was the If/Then or sometimes If/Then/Else

It works like this

IF X > 5 Then Y=Y-X

This means that if X has a value higher than five then subtract the value of X from Y

IF X > 5 Then Y-Y-x Else Y=0

This means if X has a value higher than five then subtract the value of X from why BUT if X is not greater than five then set Y to a value of “0”.

If Then can be used to express other things a great example of is the bill passed in California where you can lose custody of your kid if you go along with the current gender madness. The one thing that might have inhibited that bill from becoming law is that signing such a bill might inhibit a potential presidential campaign by Gavin Newson as it would be such a killer in swing states that you couldn’t steal enough votes to save him.

Expressed as an IF statement it would read:

IF Newsom = “candidate for president” THEN AB 957= “veto”

Well that’s now off the table:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he won’t run for president in 2024 or stand in Kamala Harris’s way in the future:

“We need to move past this notion that he’s not going to run,” Newsom told NBC “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd in an interview clip released Friday. “President Biden is going to run and I’m looking forward to him getting reelected.”

Newsom’s comments further end speculation about a potential 2024 White House bid. The California governor has long said he won’t challenge Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination but has been talked about as a potential future presidential candidate.

Expressed as an IF Then Else statement that would read:

IF Newsom = “candidate for president” THEN AB 957= “veto” ELSE AB 957 = “Law”

Simple If/Then logic

If I had kids I’d get out of California as soon as possible, if I were engaged to be married I’d check my potential wife’s position on AB 957 and if she supported it I’d cancel at once.