June 26, 2025 • 63 mins
Alex Graham, a VA accredited appeals agent, unpacks the revolutionary impact of Berry vs. McDonough on Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) claims and explains how veterans can now receive multiple "Berry Bumps" to dramatically increase their benefits.
• SMC ratings are frequently misunderstood by veterans, VSOs, and even VA employees
• The Federal Circuit Court decision in Berry vs. McDonough now allows for multiple half-step increases under 38 CFR 3.350F3
• Veterans with SMCL and additional 50%+ ratings for separate conditions can receive substantial compensation increases
• Qualifying conditions must be separate and distinct, such as Parkinson's, mental health, heart disease, and respiratory conditions
• Veterans can file CUE claims (Clear and Unmistakable Error) to receive retroactive benefits from prior claim decisions
• Many veterans entitled to SMC bumps never receive them because VSOs aren't trained on complex SMC regulations
• Multiple Aid and Attendance ratings for separate conditions can lead to much higher SMC levels, potentially reaching R1
• The VA rating calculator for SMC has reportedly been malfunctioning since 2017
• SMC entitlements exist by law but are often suppressed through lack of education and improper interpretation
Check out asknod.org for detailed examples of "Berry Bumps" claims, including redacted BVA appeals and code sheet examples.
Tune in live every Thursday at 7 PM EST and join the conversation! Click here to listen and chat with us.
Visit J Basser's Exposed Vet Productions (Formerly Exposed Vet Radioshow) YouTube page by clicking here.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
J Basser (00:00):
It's an early video show today, 26th day of June
2025.
It's been a rainy afternoon,but a pretty day.
It's just been hotter than youknow what out there Over 100
degrees today or yesterday.
It's pretty sad, but todaywe've got Mr Alex Graham.
(00:23):
Alex is well known.
He is the one and only ASNOD.
He's based out of the state ofWashington and Alex is a I can't
say he's an accredited VAappeals agent, because he's
really a non-attorneypractitioner backslash VA
accredited appeals agent.
So and he's big time now he'sgot a.
(00:45):
I mean, he's even got his ownstaff and everything.
So how do you do it?
Alex Graham (00:50):
I'm alive, john, and I say that with great
appreciation.
I'm not a religious person.
But first thing is, I have noidea how I survived Vietnam.
Don't ever get in an airplanewith a drunk pilot, first of all
.
The second thing is don't flyback over right where you
dropped napalm on 250 pathetlayout, because they're going to
(01:15):
shoot back up at you becausethey're pissed off and it'll
probably result in athrow-through gunshot wound.
Other than that, I'm alive.
I'm happy I've got a brand newdiagnosis of ischemic heart
disease, also known as coronaryartery disease.
Hey, I'm alive.
(01:36):
What more could I ask for?
I have no complaints, john.
J Basser (01:43):
No complaints.
Alex Graham (01:45):
Well, I complain because there's a whole bunch of
people that think that menshould participate in women's
sports, but that doesn't belongon this blog or this Zoom show.
J Basser (01:57):
Well, that's true, you know.
I mean that's the way it is, Imean it's pathetic, the whole
thingy thingy.
Alex Graham (02:07):
That's an argument for a different day, probably.
J Basser (02:10):
If you read the book of Revelation you'll understand.
I have no class.
Alex Graham (02:18):
Let's go ahead.
J Basser (02:19):
You know what the last few words are of the book of
Revelation.
Alex Graham (02:23):
I do not know that.
J Basser (02:25):
The end, the end, the end.
Alex Graham (02:34):
I used to have a telephone.
You know the old-fashionedtelephones that made the tones.
I suppose the new ones still doif you still have a landline.
But I was just when I wastalking to my friends back in
the 80s or something I said.
You know what the last wordswere for that old boy that got
the artificial heart transplant.
And they said no and I pushedzero and he goes, which is never
(03:00):
mind.
You know that joke.
J Basser (03:02):
He said, Lou, I believe the first artificial
heart transplant, the JARVIC 7,you know what they call it.
Alex Graham (03:10):
Yeah, yes, that's exactly it.
Your memory exceeds mine.
I wouldn't be able to pull thatchestnut out of my asshole for
a million dollars, even ondemand, unless I had AI and
Google at my fingertips.
I'm an analog guy.
I love paper and you know aswell as I do.
(03:35):
When you are doing VA claims,you might not see this facet of
it, but we get into VBMS and wesee all these old service
treatment records Formerly knownas service medical records that
were handwritten by doctors inVietnam, places like that in the
(03:56):
battlefield.
And these guys have been up 24hours At the 312th area back at
Chu Lai and they're gettingpretty loopy when they're
writing the handwriting theirstuff and and they've got 15
more out there in triage dyingout in the waiting room and they
(04:18):
, uh, they're writing stuff inthere and it's very difficult to
read.
I have a guy I hired that livesdown at shafter, texas, right on
the border.
Uh, he, he's a chopper gunner.
In one of those little loaches,those little mini choppers.
He used to have a bungee cordm60 pig hanging out the side
(04:41):
there and he decided he wasgoing to become a nurse at one
point after he came home, buthis PTSD got to him too bad
Never been able to accomplishthat.
But man, that son of a bitchcan translate handwritten
records like there's nobody'sgot.
Nobody can do it the way he do.
It's very impressive.
(05:01):
He's very, very, a little bitpoor, so I give him lots of
money to help him live, becausehe's only at 100%.
He insists on doing his ownclaims, but that's to his
detriment when you're having afew psychiatric shortcomings, hi
(05:27):
Ray, we got you.
But anyway it's nice to havesomebody decipher that stupid
handwriting of an overworkeddoctor.
Go ahead, mr Moderator.
(05:47):
Look at him, mr Ray.
J Basser (05:52):
All, right, now we can talk a little bit about eating
dinner.
Harvey's got two for seven hamsandwiches right now.
I had one of them.
I got some bad results earlierthis week myself.
Buddy, I might have to go up tothe Cleveland Clinic and have
mine put in.
Alex Graham (06:15):
The good news is being able to access your
records, being able to utilizehandwritten records and all the
AI in the world.
Maybe AI can do it, I don'tknow.
Current optical scan resolutionor OCR can't translate medical
(06:41):
records that are handwritten.
It can't be done and oftentimesthose kind of fall through the
cracks.
It's really sad.
A lot of guys that are verydeserving of entitlements can't
get these things translated.
Nobody has the money Most vetsdon't or the knowledge to take
(07:02):
those records.
J Basser (07:02):
Well, go ahead.
That will be probably takencare of in the next five years.
Alex Graham (07:11):
Maybe with AI that's possible.
What's your cat's name?
J Basser (07:15):
Oh, that's Miss Kitty.
Miss Kitty, yeah, she walksacross me all the time.
Alex Graham (07:21):
Is that Gunsmoke fame, Miss Kitty?
J Basser (07:25):
Yeah, well, actually her original name was Possum,
but we changed the name after wetook the session.
She was my sister's cat beforeshe passed away.
Alex Graham (07:35):
I named my dog Pickles Accidentally.
I didn't have my hearing aidsin.
My wife suggested Tickles, Icame up with Pickles.
I thought that was a prettycool name.
J Basser (07:48):
Well, tell us about the world famous berry versus
McDonald's or McDonald's, I'msorry.
Alex Graham (08:03):
The berry bumps.
Okay, well, in a nutshell, theberry bumps, the berry bumps
Okay.
Well, in a nutshell, when youreach the level of SMCL, which
(08:27):
is the introductory point in SMCand that's one step up from
SMCS housebound, at that pointyou're entitled to all the
(08:54):
fruits of your labors if youhave more than an attendance or
a loss of use rating, which is,to summarize there's five
different conditions.
To start with, that's theintroductory level at SMCL and
that's described in 3.350B, asin Bravo.
The first one is loss of use ofboth feet, and we're talking
about below the knees.
It can be anywhere below theknees.
The loss of use is B1.
It can be loss of use of a handand a foot, two feet, or that's
(09:16):
loss.
The second one is blindness.
The third one is aid andattendance.
Fourth one is bedridden.
I advise people don't go intobedridden because that is a
self-limiting rating that screwsyou out of everything else
after that you can need aid andattendance because you can't
(09:38):
accomplish activities in dailyliving.
If you get shoveled intobedridden, which is 3.3504 B4,
at that point it precludes youfrom using aid and attendance,
because they're saying well,you're getting bedridden, you
can't pyramid, you want to gointo aid and attendance, for the
(10:02):
simple reason is that the lawpermits you to have multiple aid
and attendance ratings, whereasit does not give you that
leeway to have bedridden formultiple attendance or multiple
disabilities.
Once you're bedridden, you'rebedridden, you're bedridden, and
that pretty much kind of wrapsit up.
(10:23):
I suppose you could create newlitigation, new precedents, that
you could have two bedriddings.
I don't want to go there.
I do know I can win with aidand attendance, so if it ain't
broke, don't fix it.
J Basser (10:40):
You're talking about standard aid and attendance.
Alex Graham (10:43):
Yeah, it's standard aid and attendance.
Yeah, it's standard aid andattendance standard, as opposed
to a higher level of aid andattendance, which was R2, which
ran discourse on to the end ofthe earth.
I got him R2.
It wasn't that difficult.
Actually, in my thinking, r2 iseasier to obtain than R1
(11:06):
because it doesn't require asmuch.
However, we're going to focusat that rare stage, right when
you enter SMCL.
J Basser (11:18):
Now, when you enter SMCL.
Alex Graham (11:21):
chances are, when you're that screwed up, there's
a high probability that youalready have other ratings that
are going to be extraneous andnot related to your need for aid
and attendance.
I've got a couple of guys hereand I'm going to try to share
(11:41):
this and I see I have a sharebutton here and we'll explore
that in just a second.
But let's take a guy that's gothere's an example he's got
Parkinson's and he's beendiagnosed with Parkinson's and
they say, okay, we're going togive you 30% for Parkinson's
because that's the minimumrating.
(12:02):
Now we're going to look at allyour other residuals of
Parkinson's your face sags onthis side, face sags on this
side, 10%, 10%, having troubleswallowing 10%, and they are
going to nickel and dime youwith them Mardi Gras beads on
Tuesday night.
And you'll wake up the nextmorning after your hangover
wears off and you'll discoverthat they're all a bunch of 10
(12:26):
ratings and you add them all upand, wow, you almost get to 40
on top of your 30, and of course, 40 and 30 equals what 60.
You can't ever seem to get to100 percent for parkinson's.
So all of a sudden somebodynotices, like Alex Graham, that
(12:48):
well, gee, my psychologist toldme, and she used to work for VA
anybody with a major depressiveexcuse me, anybody with a major
disease process, such asParkinson's as a classic example
(13:08):
, is going to have a majordepressive disorder associated
with it.
Hell, if you ain't bummed outabout having Parkinson's, you're
something wrong with it.
But the truth of the matter isyou are going to have a major
depressive disorder that's uphere in the brain box has
nothing to do with parkinson's.
(13:28):
Parkinson's is a neurologicaldisease.
It affects your, your physicalcapabilities, your
musculoskeletal.
It has nothing to do with thebrain other than deterioration
of brain cells.
But it's not considered amental deficit.
It's a neurological deficit andtherefore it's not pyramiding
(13:51):
to say that your majordepressive disorder separate and
distinct, due solely to PTSDbeing depressed, general anxiety
disorder all that has to dowith a brain disorder.
So it's not pyramiding to sayyour need for aid and attendance
(14:14):
for your PTSD major depressivedisorder is separate and
distinct from your Parkinson's.
Another example is ischemicheart disease.
It's your heart.
It has nothing to do with yourneurological or mental
capabilities.
Copd that's a pulmonarydisability and it involves the
(14:38):
lungs.
That's a separate and distinctneed.
I've taken this to the nthdegree and gotten a guy aid and
attendance for COPD, withinterstitial lung disease and
use of two liters oxygen perhour.
In the same vein I've gottenthis guy aid and attendance for
(14:59):
his Parkinson's and a third theC and P for for ischemic heart
disease.
I had to fight all three ofthem and they were all coming in
at different phases from theBVA and what we call the agency
of original jurisdiction or yourlocal Fort Fumble in Fort Waco
(15:20):
or Houston if you're in Texas.
Of course, if you're in Floridayou get the love treatment from
over there at St Pete's.
J Basser (15:32):
What do they call that ?
That's an HLR bill, right?
I don't do HLRs?
Alex Graham (15:39):
HLRs is not part of this conversation.
You're wasting your time if youever take an SMC claim to the
HLR, I've won one for SMCT inthat environment.
But the guy clocked a cop.
He punched a cop out in a roadrage when he pulled him over.
They ran him through theveterans court and he was
(16:02):
exonerated and graduated andthey forgave his hitting the cop
.
But that was sufficient toprove that he had a little anger
management issue and thereforemaybe he.
J Basser (16:17):
That's why they named AMA the Anger Management
Association.
Alex Graham (16:21):
You got to put a shot caller on him.
You can't think about publicunless he's sufficiently
medicated you've probably got tobutt tase too, didn't you?
trying to argue an HLR with aGS12 or a DRO or even SVSR or a
(16:44):
senior VSR, that S-VSR, seniorVSR, that's kind of like trying
to teach your dog algebra, butfirst you've got to teach him
Greek.
So you've got to understand howyou're expressing Euclidean
formulas to learn thetrigonometry.
It's never going to happen, andI've I've done this.
(17:06):
Unfortunately.
It's too bad.
We can't do a video conferencelike we are here.
I would love to see the face,or the look on the face, of that
that DRO that's doing the HRLR.
So so, excuse me, sir, my nameis Alex Graham.
I represent the appellate Bob.
So you're well versed in SMC,right?
(17:30):
You're familiar with 3.350 andall the different variations of
that and all the entitlementsunder Ackles, right?
He said Ackles, what's that?
Are you talking about ankles?
I said no, ackles, acklesversus Drewinsky 1991.
He goes right, right, okay,talking about ankles.
I said no, ankles, anklesversus derwinsky 1991.
He was right, right, okay.
Yeah, what's your argument?
(17:51):
And I explained it to him andhe goes well, I'll look into
this.
I said well, you've alreadyreviewed the file, haven't you?
He says well, no, actually Ihave it.
28 minutes later, after theLR, Isee the denial pop up in the
VA's computer VBMS.
So it's obvious he doesn't havea clue what he's doing.
(18:12):
He's trying to utilize whateverit is that he utilizes, I guess
the M21.
God forbid.
It's too bad.
You take it up to the board.
At least the board has arudimentary grasp on this.
But yet we still discover thatI've got judges and you've had
(18:34):
Wesley McCauley on, I believe,on your show.
J Basser (18:37):
Yes.
Alex Graham (18:40):
And I'm sure you'll have him on a few more times.
He's one of my Jedi knights, Iconsider him a.
Jedi master.
He was one of my first classmembers when I was teaching SMC
last year and he grasped itcompletely, the whole concept of
it, and he's encountering thesame thing I do is, every once
(19:00):
in a while you end up with ajudge that'll say well, you have
loss of use of your left foot,that's a.
That'll say well, you have lossof use of your left foot,
that's a K, smck.
You have loss of use of yourright foot, that's an SMCK.
That's just two Ks, mr Wesley,that's not an L.
Well, somebody got to explainthat.
Two Ks for two lost feet equalsan L.
(19:24):
That's called bilateral loss ofuse.
Sometimes you hit that wallwith veterans judges.
It's unfortunate.
I don't blame the judge, Iblame the 10 staff attorneys
that work underneath him whocan't grasp it.
Smc is the hardest thing you'reever going to sink your teeth
(19:46):
into John.
It's ugly and you can pyramidin it.
It's really neat.
J Basser (19:54):
I've got one playing right now.
I've already been through theHLR, kicked back on a duty to
assist there, and now it's inthe supplemental lane.
Alex Graham (20:02):
Well, you can take a flying stab at a rolling donut
, as we used to say in themilitary with an HLR.
I've done it in 3.156C claimsjust across the T's and dot the
I's before going to the board,so they can't say you didn't
(20:23):
exhaust all possibilities of howto reach what you're trying to
grasp or obtain for your veteran.
So sometimes I'll do an HLR,but not where SMC is concerned
because, as I said, it's afutile endeavor.
You've got a better chance ofconvincing your pigs in your
backyard to fly and put a littlelipstick on them and maybe a
(20:46):
rose in their mouth.
It's not going to happen.
That's for me.
J Basser (20:53):
That's where I'm with Mr McCauley right now.
We're actually we're at thecourt.
Alex Graham (20:56):
Hey, I'll be honest with John.
I'm sending all my stuffthrough him.
Wesley and Ben Binder I havebeen in the past and I don't
mind saying this.
I've used Ken Carpenter and Istill have some with him up at
the Federal Circuit above theCABC.
(21:18):
You know me, I don't take nofor an answer.
It's not there in the cards.
You know me, I don't take nofor an answer.
I just it's not there in thecards.
I've used CCK and I probablywill continue in the future.
Chisholm, chisholm andKilpatrick.
I'm real good friends withRobert Chisholm, zach Stoltz,
(21:45):
amy Odom and a host of the othergals that work there.
Guys, but sometimes they'll saywe don't want to touch this, we
don't see a path to success andit's so intense and so tortured
a legal interpretation we don'tfeel confident wasting our time
on it.
I'll take it over to Wesley.
(22:05):
Wesley says bring it on, and Ithink I've got a stack of 10 of
them going up to the court rightnow.
J Basser (22:14):
Oh, you ought to look at it.
Look at the dockets and type inhis name up and see how busy
that man is.
Yeah well, I mean, we'retalking.
Alex Graham (22:24):
Wesley came to me.
He was kind of wet behind theears back in 2020, 2021.
And I don't just discount that.
But boy, I'll tell you, youtalk about a fast learner.
This guy is too cool for school.
Wesley's hot.
He's going to be the KenCarpenter of the 21st century.
He is.
He and Ben Binder are going tobe famous someday.
(22:48):
He's getting stuff reversed.
He just had a reversal theother day.
He's taken some of my claimsthat are just weird.
There's no way to explain it.
I come up with controversy,quandary, situations that
(23:08):
nobody's ever faced before and Ilose them at the board and I'm
admitted to the practice at thecourt and I don't mind doing it,
but it's time consuming andI've got so many clients right
now.
It's time consuming and I'vegot so many clients right now.
I think I've got about 200,roughly that I'm active claims
(23:30):
that I'm working and I'mpounding my nails into my
forehead to try to keep up withthem.
And on top of that, after I winthem, now we are entering this
(23:50):
new facet of berry bumps.
They're all coming back to melike a bad penny and saying okay
, alex, you won my r1 or my r2or my smct, but in the path to
get to that.
They granted me smct back to2021 and when they did that, I
was at aid and attendanceinitially and I fought all the
way through until 2025 andduring that period of time I had
(24:13):
a 50 rating for osa, I had a 60rating for ischemic heart
disease and, uh, parkinson's'sat 100% or whatever.
So therefore, there should havebeen some berry bumps in there
and I go, yeah, roger that, soI'll file them for it and that's
(24:36):
what I'm going to share withyou.
If I can get this thing toshare, I've got it all set up
here.
When I was teaching my clients,my acolytes, smc Jedi night
training, I was sharing allthese documents with them and I
haven't redacted and I'm goingto try to put them up here for
your, for your readership oryour folks that are watching
(25:00):
this and see if you can spotwhatever.
I can just describe what I'mseeing at this stage.
I'm gonna try to put this uphere and this is a classic
example what a berry bump ratingor request for a rating is
(25:20):
going to consist of.
So I'm gonna put this up herefor share screen will share
screen choose what to share withRiverside.
So I have to.
I have to choose this.
(25:44):
Let's see what can I choose.
I've got a limited.
Okay, I don't know if I can dothis.
Veterans claim help.
Okay, here it is.
No, that's not it either.
That's not it either.
(26:11):
How can I?
Let's?
I don't know that I can do thisentire screen.
Let's see here.
Okay, here we go.
Maybe what to teach here?
It is right here.
Well, that's gonna share myscreen, so let me put this on
the screen and I'm gonna putthis over here so I can make
(26:33):
that work.
Bear with me, okay, I'm gonnaexpand.
Whoa, let's see.
Yeah, how can I make thisbigger here?
Well, I don't know how I'mgonna make that bigger.
(27:02):
I've never tried this beforewith your show, but better yet,
let me abandon this one here.
Stop, okay, we'll go back tothis, cancel.
(27:25):
What I would say is this Go tomy website, asknod, and I have a
blog up after.
Oh, dear God, I've got to seehere.
(27:52):
I've got to refresh this screen.
There it is.
At the very bottom of that blog, there's two.
It says BVA-10182, filed5-17-2025, redacted.
It's a board opinion, or I meanan appeal I've submitted, and
(28:15):
it's a document that tells youwhy I feel this gentleman
deserves berry bumps and exactlyhow many berry bumps he's
entitled to and the legalrationale for it.
In that document that you canread it'll discuss the legal
(28:37):
landscape of my authority forwhy I'm asking for these things.
And this gentleman's rated forSMCL and they have not given him
all the bumps that he can begiven.
The important thing that you'regoing to read about here is
that you can bump from L to M ona 100% rating.
(29:04):
That's separate and distinctand doesn't involve his need for
aid and attendance, which ispurely predicated on his
Parkinson's.
He has chronic lymphocyticleukemia for 100%.
Bingo, he jumps from L to M.
Now I fought this with theidiots at Fort Fumble for a
(29:27):
while and finally they grantedit, but that's all they granted.
They did not grant thisgentleman the additional bumps
that he was entitled to for 50%ratings above and beyond and
separate, distinct from thechronic lymphocytic leukemia or
(29:48):
the Parkinson's.
So I started adding those inand I said well, in addition to
that bump, he's also entitled tothe ischemic heart disease for
60%.
That bumps him from M to M andone half, and then he's got a
major depressive disorder at 70%, separate and distinct.
(30:08):
He bumps from M and a half to Nand then, thirdly, he has
another rating for diabetes withresiduals of peripheral
neuropathy over 50% or more.
That bumps him from M and ahalf to n.
And last but not least, he'sgot another bunch of stuff
(30:33):
relating to the agent or thediabetes mellitus.
That bumps him to n and a half.
He's already got a k for lossof use of winkie.
So now he's at SMC n and 1 halfplus K.
That's called the maximum rateof SMC P.
(31:10):
Now if you have reached themaximum rate of of that, you can
get on uh smcp, which is n andone half plus k.
You advance to zero or the smco.
Now let's go back to the verybeginning.
Where did the l create?
(31:31):
It was eight attendance forparkinson's.
So now he's down here n and ahalf plus p and the h2 3.352.
H2 says if you are maxed out atSMCO based on P and your
predicator for your L, yourindex disease cause, was aid and
(31:56):
attendance, you automaticallyjump to R1.
Bingo, r1.
Bingo.
It's an alternative path thatnone of us could ever attain in
a million years, based on theold interpretation before Mr
Berry arrived on the scene anddiscovered that we could get
(32:16):
maximum or not maximum, multipleexcuse me, multiple
entitlements to the half-stepunder 3.350F3.
So all of a sudden this becomesa very valuable regulation, this
H2 and H1.
And we're running around filingthese things left and right.
(32:41):
I have 40 people I haveserviced that called me back and
said please take my POA againand the fee and get me up to the
maximum you can get me on inthat interim period before I got
to R1, from 2021 until you gotme the R1, say, in 2024.
(33:02):
I'm just entitled to all theselittle half step and half step
bumps in the interim and I nevergot them.
Fine, so I got a full timeoccupation.
I've hired a couple ofattorneys.
I'm handing this stuff out leftand right to here.
Take this, run it through andget this guy his extra berry
(33:24):
bumps.
But I was hoping that I wasgoing to put up this one that
I'll show you and you guys canlook at it.
I'm going to back this up for asecond, the second document that
I put up on this website, mywebsite.
It says cs combos code sheetcombos redacted now.
(33:48):
If you guys open that, you'llsee it very much larger than
what I seem to be able toachieve by sharing it on your
screen here.
J Basser (33:59):
Wait a minute here.
Let's see if we can dosomething different.
Hang on a minute.
Alex Graham (34:04):
Well, I can try something that might work.
Let's see if I can blow this upbigger and I'll go to share and
look at screen number one.
J Basser (34:16):
I made it a little bit bigger now for your screen.
Alex Graham (34:19):
Yeah, I got to pick my speaker.
Share, not screen.
Okay, screen here we're goingto look at.
Select a tab to share select atab to share.
I'm still lost.
(34:40):
Oh, here it is.
Here we go.
You might see this.
Big enough for anybody else.
Here we go.
I don't know if that's bigenough for your readership.
I'm trying to figure out how tofill that up.
Where it takes up the wholescreen can't seem to accomplish
that.
But where it takes up the wholescreen can't seem to accomplish
that.
But the long and the short ofit is is you take your initial
(35:03):
rating and you find out on acode sheet.
Of course you guys don't getyour code sheet, so you're kind
of screwed on this, unlessyou're a representative or your
representative will give you acopy of your code sheet.
This gentleman got an SMCL andhe's getting it for aid and
attendance, so that's his indexdisease.
(35:23):
They only gave him the bumpfrom L to M under 3.350F4.
However, we go back here to thebeginning of his code sheet, on
page one, and we say what do wegot here.
(35:43):
We have post-traumatic stressdisorder at 70.
There you go.
There's the bump from M to Mand a half.
Parkinson's is his indexdisease, so he can't claim that
he's got sleep apnea from 50.
That bumps him from M and ahalf to N.
Peripheral neuropathy, allthese diabetes diseases kick him
(36:07):
up to N and then to N and ahalf.
They're all separate anddistinct.
And all of a sudden he's at Nand a half and we look separate
and distinct.
And all of a sudden he said nand a half.
And we look down here on hisratings and we see, well, this
sheet doesn't show it.
Oh, yes, it does.
Here it is S O C K Bingo N anda half plus K.
J Basser (36:27):
N equals O.
Alex Graham (36:27):
P right, yeah, this kicks him up.
This is like the chutes andladders game that I've often
talked about on your show andthat gives him the I'm going to
take this off here gives himthat kicker that takes him up to
R1.
Well, it kicks him to O andthen to R1.
(36:48):
That's why I try to convinceyou guys, or explain to you,
that SMC is the most complicatedthing in the world, and now,
with Barry, even more of theseregulations are going to have
some application, because mostpeople could never, ever
accomplish, and nor did itpermit you, to have four kicks
(37:11):
of a half step.
Va, of course, is not going togive that to us you to have four
kicks of a half step.
Va, of course, is not going togive that to us.
A friend of mine, who I don'tknow and I'll never know because
he has burner emails, sent mean email one day and he says oh
my god, the office inspectorgeneral just discovered that the
(37:33):
rating calculator for SMChasn't worked since 2017.
And they've been handing us outbogus awards or denying us, in
the scheme of things, denying usentitlements to SMC bumps,
whether they be full-step orhalf-step bumps.
(37:54):
I've argued and argued andargued and I've often waited for
a client just like this to showup.
But an old friend of mine he'sa fellow NOVA member, his name's
Jim Percivali.
He and his wife are agents downin Texas, terry Percivali,
they're wonderful people.
(38:15):
Met them up in Nashville in2019 at the Spring Nova.
Great people, reallyknowledgeable, been in it for a
long time.
John's a veteran and he knowshis shit and he found this.
Mr Berry worked there in histown, found him and pushed and
(38:39):
developed this up to the levelwhere it went to the court and
the court said no way is that'sever going to fly, that you can
have multiple bumps under uh 350F3.
Well, I took it up to theFederal Circuit and the Federal
Circuit disagreed.
They said you're going to haveto get out your phonics manual
here, because we're reading thisthing and all we see is you can
(39:03):
do it.
Nowhere does it say you can't.
Of course that's put thebiggest hole in the world in
VA's compensation packageappropriations.
I don't know what it's going tocost them in the long run, to
tell you the truth.
Va's compensation packageappropriations.
I don't know what it's going tocost them in the long run, to
tell you the truth, but I'lltell you.
Everybody's got an SMC L orgreater.
Probably has some claimssitting there waiting to be
(39:25):
filed as Q because you can filethis as Q.
Nobody ever objected to this orsucceeded in defeating it and
took it up to the court to belitigated until Mr Berry did and
Ken Carpenter's guys took it upthere and Jim Percivali has a
(39:48):
good working relationship withJohn Niles and Kenny DeHakas,
and Kenny I think it was KennyDeHakas is the one that took it
up.
The federal circuit Boy.
He's like Ken.
He's a silver-tongued devil.
Ken's kind of gone intosemi-retirement.
Ken Carpenter, because of hisParkinson's disease and
(40:11):
sometimes he has, like me, he'sstarting to get these, not a
brain fart, but just one ofthose senior moments where he's
arguing an oral argument up atthe court and he has to say
excuse me, your Honor, bear withme and go through his notes to
reposition himself during hisoral argument.
So he's decided, I think, tostep back and not go into
(40:37):
retirement per se, because hestill has some of my claims up
at the Federal Circuit and I domean Federal Circuit, cafc, not
CABC on a couple of some stuffI've been fighting forever and
ever.
But Ken realizes, as do I, thatwe all get old and sometimes we
(40:59):
have brain farts.
And if you have a disabilitylike Parkinson's and it's
impairing your ability to argueorally at the court, it's best
to hand it off to your peoplethat you've trained and
carefully groomed for this job.
(41:19):
And Kenny DeHakas and JohnNiles are going to be
instrumental in the future, justlike Wesley, I think.
Ken Carpenter tried to inveigleWesley to come to work for him,
and Wesley's going hell.
If I'm making three quarters ofa million dollars a year on VA
(41:40):
claims, why do I want to come towork for you and not even
become a partner and startworking for $250,000 a year?
That doesn't make any sense.
So Wesley wisely decided tostay in his own space as a VA
agent and I'm all in with him.
(42:01):
I have no desire to go to workfor CCK.
They'd love to buy Ask Not inNew York, second, but I'd
probably sell it to them andthen I'd probably go out and
start another business with anew name.
Not ask, not ask.
Yeah, I don't know how I'd goabout that.
(42:25):
You know, John almost WWVD.
What would a veteran do?
My wife wouldn't let me makethe name of my company WWVD or
my website.
J Basser (42:43):
It sounds like a social disease, I think it's
like law groups out of Friscomojocom anyway, long story short
.
Alex Graham (42:58):
Barry versus McDonough is one of the earth
shattering revelations in the21st century.
I'm sure there are going to bea few more in our lifetime and I
hope to see them, but from astandpoint of changing the legal
landscape, it's awesome.
J Basser (43:22):
Personally, I don't understand.
I read this back in 2000, 2001or 2002, when I was reading
through my paperwork with SMC.
It dawned on me that it waspossible.
Just by reading, you know, justby reading what's what, and
once you put it together, youknow, you say well, that should
(43:44):
bump you up if you've got thesecertain disabilities after you
get 100% or whatever.
But I didn't see anybody doingit and I thought to myself back
then somebody's got to take thisto court because they're not
doing it.
And I thought to myself backthen somebody's got to take this
to court because they're notdoing it.
It took that long for Barry toget it to court and do it,
because I used to do shows and Iwould talk about stacking 50s.
(44:06):
You know what stacking 50smeans.
Alex Graham (44:09):
No.
J Basser (44:10):
I don't know if you guys remember this or not, but I
mean you can go back to some ofthese older shows.
Look, I would tell Bethany, ifyou're 100%, go ahead and file.
If you've got something new,separate and distinct what
you've already got, go ahead andfile the claim and get it
connected.
Don't let nobody tell youthey're going to reduce you.
Get it done, because one ofthese days it's going to pay off
.
Alex Graham (44:31):
Well, there's so much that I'm showing you here.
He kept filing because hedidn't know any better.
He's doing this pro se and someof it just kept filing and
filing, and filing.
And you'll see if you go to mywebsite to look at this article
on this code sheet.
He's got seven pages of a codesheet, I've got some with eight
(44:54):
and he's got more 50% ratingsyou can shake his dick at and he
never, ever anticipated gettingthis.
But he got to SMCS and he hitthat wall and he just kept
filing, thinking well,eventually I'm going to get
above SMCS because they got allthese extra ratings.
Well, it's just like pissinginto the wind.
J Basser (45:18):
Thank you.
Thank you, that's your question.
We can answer this one.
All right, say you're 100%, youhave a single hundred percent
disability and you've gotanother 60% disability.
What qualifies you for S2,right Statute of innocence for
S2, right Statute ofIndependence of SNC S2.
Now, with that being said anddone, s is not really a
(45:41):
requirement entitled to get aidattendance right.
It's just the first SMC.
So that's 60% they use todetermine the S.
Is that taken off of the aidattendance for the higher level
or is it included?
You got your 100% and you filefor aid attendance.
(46:02):
You already have some CS.
You got your 60 for heartdisease, right.
Alex Graham (46:06):
Right.
J Basser (46:07):
Then when you start counting, you get your aid
attendance.
Does that S count or does that6% count in the math going up,
or is it stuck in the back withthe 100%?
Alex Graham (46:21):
The law of SMC states that you cannot exceed
the next higher level withoutbeing awarded it.
So if you had SMCS, for example, let's say you got 100% for
whatever PTSD and you got 60% inthe form of ischemic heart
(46:42):
disease.
But let's just say you haddiabetes and you had loss of use
of Winky, that's an SMCK.
Let's say you lost an eyeballto a shrapnel wound in Vietnam
there's another SMCK.
Let's say you lost an eyeballto a shrapnel wound in Vietnam.
There's another SMCK.
Just for shits and grins.
Let's say that you caught agoddamn 7.62 round through your
(47:07):
butt and it screwed all themusculature up in your buttocks.
We call that the Forrest Gumpinjury and you got an SMCK for
loss of use of your buttocks.
So that would be a third K.
If you got a fourth K and Icould search around and say okay
(47:29):
, you lost the use of your rightfoot due to diabetes, so you
got an SMCK of your right footdue to diabetes, so you got an
SMC-K for your right foot.
You have now exceeded theamount of money that you are
paid for SMC-L.
You're not at L, you're atSMC-S with four Ks.
You can't do that.
(47:50):
You can't have more than anSMC-S and threeKs because the 4K
would carry you into SMC-Lmoney not an SMC-L rating for
aid and attendance, mind you,but an SMC-L financial
settlement.
You would exceed what you'd bepaid for SMC-L.
(48:10):
So they won't allow you to dothat.
That's not pyramiding, it's smclaw.
If you had an smcl and you hadfour k's at a buck 32 a pop, a
four, whatever that I justmentioned and it carried you
over past smcm, you couldn'thave four k's.
(48:33):
They say sorry, you couldn'thave 4Ks.
They say sorry, you can't havethat fourth one.
You're going to have K1, k2,and K3.
But under no circumstances doyou carry an S up and combine it
with an L.
That's like being promoted fromprivate first class to corporal
.
You don't get paid for privatefirst class and for corporal you
(48:54):
don't get paid for privatefirst class and for corporal.
You might get paid for combatpay and hazardous duty pay, but
you're not going to getin-country pay or some other
monies that you can't collectbecause it would be pyramiding
if you were in the military.
So there's a level as you keepgoing up in the SMC world.
(49:17):
Smc is awarded for injuriesabove and beyond 100% rating.
But again, as I said, you canonly climb within the limits of
the law of SMC without beingpromoted via.
Well, think about this SMCL forblindness that's 3.350 B2,
(49:42):
you're blind okay, you're a highachieving blind guy and you
just got back from Afghanistanand you're blind.
And here's your SMCL for beingblind you got the white cane,
you got your dog on the leashand you hit the crosswalk thing
and the dog opens your doors foryou and barks when the phone
rings, and so on and so forth.
(50:03):
But for you or me, getting SMCLfor blindness at 55 years old,
you're going to have a hard timedeveloping the white dog on the
collar and the littleclicky-clack cane to find out
where you're going.
So you need aid and attendancethat bumps you from L to M.
(50:25):
For your aid and attendance foryour blinds, throw in all those
Ks, but you can't have four,only three.
The moment, as I said, themoment you go from M into the N
zone with four Ks, you can't doit because it's not pyramiding,
it's just you can't be paid forN unless you are N.
(50:48):
Barry allows you to just hedge,hop all the way up into N and
you don't have your legs cut offat your hips and you don't have
your arms cut off at yourarmpits.
And this was contemplated in1946, when they said the more
(51:12):
screwed up you are, the moremoney you get, the more SMC you
get, so to speak.
But then, all of a sudden, thepeople that were in charge of
this started making rules upthat were never.
Congress never intended them tohappen like this.
They just read the regulationin such a way that it deprived
(51:33):
you of these higher entitlements.
Think of Blue Power, blue WaterNavy.
If you remember the history ofthe Blue Water Navy, they said
you got a Vietnam medal you werethere the Vietnam Service Medal
or Vietnam Campaign Medal.
You got presumption for AgentOrange.
(51:53):
You got presumption for AgentOrange.
And Haas versus Peek in 2004said Uh-uh, you got to get red
clay between your toes on theground To get that presumption
for Agent Orange.
So we lived with that for awhile, and then all those poor
guys that were brown water navyGot into this predicament.
Well, hell, I was in Da NangHarbor.
(52:14):
I was in Cam Ranh.
I was in Cameron Bay Harbor.
I was up on the Perfume River.
I was brown water.
I was uh, I might have been onone of those swift boats but
might not have touched ground,but I was within the confines of
Vietnam, so they finally letthose guys in.
(52:34):
Now you're aware of Procopio and12 miles out they keep
expanding that limit.
Now, with the PACT Act, if youwere in Thailand, laos, cambodia
, cambodia, like me, they'regonna let you in anyway and
that's a good thing.
But it's a progression ofentitlement.
As it works, smc has alwaysbeen extremely difficult to get,
(52:59):
almost impossible, becausenobody will teach it to you.
Nobody knows how to do it.
Nobody has to award it.
Knows how to do it.
Nobody has to award it, knowshow to award it.
With Barry, it's opened up aPandora's box of how many
veterans are there since 1946that were deprived of SMC, that
can file a queue and get thatback pay.
(53:21):
You know how much money that is, john.
It stupefies the imaginationand I'm getting inundated on the
order of about three guys aweek saying, hey, can you give
me my berry bumps?
A lot of them are my formerclients that I've said I've done
everything I can give you, man,I've gotten you as high as I
(53:41):
can get you, and now, all of asudden, the sky's the limit all
over again.
J Basser (53:48):
Pandora's box has opened it.
Alex Graham (53:50):
Yeah, it's Pandora's box, but it's
Pandora's box in the making.
They purposefully misconstruedCongress in 1946.
That's what happened and that'swhy we can go back and fight it
on a queue, because nobody hadever objected to it before.
Nobody ever say you can't go ofcourse you can.
J Basser (54:11):
I can't believe that, whether it's why nobody's done
this, why.
Why did it take so long forsomebody to court?
Alex Graham (54:18):
I just it's just mind-boggling, because this has
been going on since 46 you knowthe reason being is nobody
understood smc like I do, orRobert Chisholm or Ken Carpenter
Ken's more on a 3.156Cknowledge early effector date.
He is, he's a master at what hedoes.
(54:41):
He doesn't generally dabble inSMC entitlement per se.
Robert Chisholm does.
I learned at the feet of RobertRobert's hot.
He was writing this shit in1992.
What do you mean?
You can't have two aid andattendances.
(55:03):
What have you been smoking?
Show me the regulations thatsays you can't have two aid and
attendances.
What have you been smoking?
Show me the regulations thatsays you can't have two aid and
attendances.
And nobody could show it tothem.
So the judges started awardingit to them.
They didn't have to go up tothe Court of Veterans Appeals
and the VA doesn't want to go upto the CAVC Because the moment
(55:24):
more precedence is made, madelike Barry versus McDonough.
This is what happens.
So they would grant at the BVAlevel.
They grant.
They had marching orders.
Give the man the money, get himto shut up and go away.
Do not take this to the courtbecause it's going to open up a
Pandora's box.
And these people stupidlydecided to fight that goddamn
(55:50):
thing with Barry and they losttheir ass big time.
God only knows how many morethings we're going to uncover of
this nature in the future.
I personally was in a race withJim Percivali to try to get one
of these guys before he did,but I didn't.
(56:10):
Every time I got up to thatlevel at the board and say this
guy is entitled to aid andattendance.
They granted it.
They didn't argue.
They said give the man themoney, get Alex to shut up, walk
away from this.
Don't ruffle the feathers.
Do not allow this to go to theCAVC and become precedents.
(56:33):
We're going to bury this son ofa bitch at the VLJ level down
at the BVA on High Street.
We don't want that up at thecourt, and they've done a really
, really good job of suppressingknowledge of smc.
They don't even teach it tovso's.
You could go into a dav office,bfwc.
(56:56):
I want to file for smc and theylook at you like smc, smc, what
does that stand for?
Smc?
Oh, I know what that is.
That's when Winky does the work.
You get a K for that, or ifyou're 100 plus 60.
Yeah, that's S.
The N is right there, though.
(57:18):
Well, what about L?
L?
What?
What does L stand for?
What are you talking about?
What do you got alphabet brain?
They don't teach it to them, sotherefore they can't file for
it, nor will they.
I've had people come to me andsay hey, I tried to get SMCK for
(57:41):
my foot and my eye.
I've lost one eye.
I mean, the eye is gone.
It's a big circle there.
It's like I got a glass one itdoesn't track with the real one,
though and they go okay, here'syour K.
Well, what about my loss offoot?
Well, you can't have more thanone K.
Take your pick.
What do you want your foot oryour eye?
I've run into that.
(58:01):
I've run into the argument Idiscussed at the beginning of
the show.
You got lots of use of a footin 2014.
There's your K.
Oh, that diabetes got you again, and 16, you lost the other
foot.
There's another K.
For some reason, no son of acannot put two K's together and
(58:22):
come up with an L.
It's a brain fart for them.
They can't do it, it doesn'tcompute, and you see this all
the time, even at the veteran'slaw judge level is that nobody
seems to have a grasp and thecomputer's broken because it's
fixed such that you can't getthere from here.
(58:45):
You weren't born on a Thursdayand if you were born on a
Thursday and qualify for SMCL,they're going to get into a
pissing match as whether it wasam or pm.
So you know, if nobody knowshow to do something, that pretty
much puts the kibosh on anybodygetting the entitlement.
Va relies heavily on that, john.
J Basser (59:09):
They do, alex.
I want to thank you for comingon, buddy.
It's been a good good show.
Ray.
How you doing buddy?
Alex Graham (59:21):
His mouth ain't moving, so we have to wonder
whether his microphone he's gotsome weather in.
Ray Cobb (59:27):
There is what it is, I think we've got a lot of
weather down here right now sothat happens a lot, situations
like that.
J Basser (59:36):
We've got flight phone warnings or so like two and a
half inches in 30 minutes.
Can you hear me now?
Oh, yeah, I hear you yeah, butit's been Can you hear me now.
Ray Cobb (59:46):
Oh yeah, I hear you.
Okay, it's been a rough.
We've had a little bit of rainand storms here the last hour.
J Basser (59:54):
Okay, that's basically what it is.
Probably the heavy wind blowingthe signal into Alabama and
then coming back up into itdoesn't.
It's a tornado.
Alex Graham (01:00:04):
I I see you're just keeling on over your head.
Ray so that means the tornadohasn't got you yet, that's right
.
J Basser (01:00:12):
Well, we talk about tornadoes Ray and I have, but I
mean we're in the new tornadoalley, so keep your eyes posted
and your ears posted.
Alex Graham (01:00:20):
Well, that's why I live in Washington no hurricanes
, no poisonous snakes, nopoisonous spiders and no
tornadoes.
Ray Cobb (01:00:29):
Don't tell my wife that If my wife knew that she'd
move up there with you.
So everything you justmentioned.
She doesn't like.
J Basser (01:00:38):
They got some big rattlesnakes in Oregon now.
Alex Graham (01:00:41):
Hey and no.
Well, yeah, they're starting tocreep over from the other side
of the mountains, but we don'thave any income tax still here
in Washington.
I don't know how long I can saythat we are kind of a blue
state, shall I say.
J Basser (01:00:57):
So well, turquoise matter of time.
Well guys, thank you for comingon.
Alex Right, I'm glad youfinally got situated.
Yeah, I got connected, that'sall right.
Okay and we'll talk about this.
But other than that, guys,we'll do this again next week.
We'll have Bethany on and we'regoing to discuss some spine
(01:01:17):
issues and we'll get Alex onhere next month and we'll do
some more updates on some ofthis stuff, if he's available.
I'm glad you're doing okay,alex.
You had us all worried there.
Alex Graham (01:01:27):
Ah shit man, I survived Vietnam.
I never thought I would.
J Basser (01:01:33):
but I'm alive.
Hey, it's all gravy to me.
Anytime you want to talk toHart, give me a buzz, we'll have
a heart-to-heart.
Alex Graham (01:01:45):
That's what I got, this little thing in my chest
here, for it's my old fireextinguisher I carry around with
me, john talk to james crips.
J Basser (01:01:53):
You won't know what that's all about, because he'll
tell you what happens when itgoes off on you.
He got knocked off a bulldozeronce wearing one of them suckers
he did.
Alex Graham (01:02:01):
I've already talked to a couple guys and had him go
off and he says holy, holy shit, batman, that's like somebody
whack you upside the head with abaseball bat.
J Basser (01:02:10):
Takes your breath away and leaves you on your knees.
One friend of mine's went offto sleep and he stood up in the
bed.
Alex Graham (01:02:18):
I got electrocuted by 240 volts one time when I was
an electrician I got thrown sixfeet backwards from when I put
the hacksaw through the rangecable when I was cutting it
shorter to put it in the box,and both my elbows went through
the sheet rock in the wallbehind me, right through the in
(01:02:38):
between the studs, almostperfectly two big holes where my
elbows went through.
And I'll tell you what.
I sat there with the littlestars and the Saturns running
around over my head for about 40seconds, trying to figure out
if I was still alive.
J Basser (01:02:55):
Yeah, that kind of voted you.
It's like that kid on hishoneymoon down in Florida the
other day.
He was five miles from athunderstorm, he was in
ankle-deep water and got struckby lightning and killed.
Oh man, all right, all right.
Well, guys, we're out of time,let me go ahead and get this
down and we'll do this againnext week.
(01:03:16):
And, alex, we thank you fromthe bottom of our hearts, buddy,
we appreciate you, man, wereally do.
Alex Graham (01:03:21):
I thank you for allowing me to come on and talk
to you.
J Basser (01:03:26):
All right, thank you.
It's an early video show today, 26th day of June
2025.
It's been a rainy afternoon,but a pretty day.
It's just been hotter than youknow what out there Over 100
degrees today or yesterday.
It's pretty sad, but todaywe've got Mr Alex Graham.
(00:23):
Alex is well known.
He is the one and only ASNOD.
He's based out of the state ofWashington and Alex is a I can't
say he's an accredited VAappeals agent, because he's
really a non-attorneypractitioner backslash VA
accredited appeals agent.
So and he's big time now he'sgot a.
(00:45):
I mean, he's even got his ownstaff and everything.
So how do you do it?
Alex Graham (00:50):
I'm alive, john, and I say that with great
appreciation.
I'm not a religious person.
But first thing is, I have noidea how I survived Vietnam.
Don't ever get in an airplanewith a drunk pilot, first of all
.
The second thing is don't flyback over right where you
dropped napalm on 250 pathetlayout, because they're going to
(01:15):
shoot back up at you becausethey're pissed off and it'll
probably result in athrow-through gunshot wound.
Other than that, I'm alive.
I'm happy I've got a brand newdiagnosis of ischemic heart
disease, also known as coronaryartery disease.
Hey, I'm alive.
(01:36):
What more could I ask for?
I have no complaints, john.
J Basser (01:43):
No complaints.
Alex Graham (01:45):
Well, I complain because there's a whole bunch of
people that think that menshould participate in women's
sports, but that doesn't belongon this blog or this Zoom show.
J Basser (01:57):
Well, that's true, you know.
I mean that's the way it is, Imean it's pathetic, the whole
thingy thingy.
Alex Graham (02:07):
That's an argument for a different day, probably.
J Basser (02:10):
If you read the book of Revelation you'll understand.
I have no class.
Alex Graham (02:18):
Let's go ahead.
J Basser (02:19):
You know what the last few words are of the book of
Revelation.
Alex Graham (02:23):
I do not know that.
J Basser (02:25):
The end, the end, the end.
Alex Graham (02:34):
I used to have a telephone.
You know the old-fashionedtelephones that made the tones.
I suppose the new ones still doif you still have a landline.
But I was just when I wastalking to my friends back in
the 80s or something I said.
You know what the last wordswere for that old boy that got
the artificial heart transplant.
And they said no and I pushedzero and he goes, which is never
(03:00):
mind.
You know that joke.
J Basser (03:02):
He said, Lou, I believe the first artificial
heart transplant, the JARVIC 7,you know what they call it.
Alex Graham (03:10):
Yeah, yes, that's exactly it.
Your memory exceeds mine.
I wouldn't be able to pull thatchestnut out of my asshole for
a million dollars, even ondemand, unless I had AI and
Google at my fingertips.
I'm an analog guy.
I love paper and you know aswell as I do.
(03:35):
When you are doing VA claims,you might not see this facet of
it, but we get into VBMS and wesee all these old service
treatment records Formerly knownas service medical records that
were handwritten by doctors inVietnam, places like that in the
(03:56):
battlefield.
And these guys have been up 24hours At the 312th area back at
Chu Lai and they're gettingpretty loopy when they're
writing the handwriting theirstuff and and they've got 15
more out there in triage dyingout in the waiting room and they
(04:18):
, uh, they're writing stuff inthere and it's very difficult to
read.
I have a guy I hired that livesdown at shafter, texas, right on
the border.
Uh, he, he's a chopper gunner.
In one of those little loaches,those little mini choppers.
He used to have a bungee cordm60 pig hanging out the side
(04:41):
there and he decided he wasgoing to become a nurse at one
point after he came home, buthis PTSD got to him too bad
Never been able to accomplishthat.
But man, that son of a bitchcan translate handwritten
records like there's nobody'sgot.
Nobody can do it the way he do.
It's very impressive.
(05:01):
He's very, very, a little bitpoor, so I give him lots of
money to help him live, becausehe's only at 100%.
He insists on doing his ownclaims, but that's to his
detriment when you're having afew psychiatric shortcomings, hi
(05:27):
Ray, we got you.
But anyway it's nice to havesomebody decipher that stupid
handwriting of an overworkeddoctor.
Go ahead, mr Moderator.
(05:47):
Look at him, mr Ray.
J Basser (05:52):
All, right, now we can talk a little bit about eating
dinner.
Harvey's got two for seven hamsandwiches right now.
I had one of them.
I got some bad results earlierthis week myself.
Buddy, I might have to go up tothe Cleveland Clinic and have
mine put in.
Alex Graham (06:15):
The good news is being able to access your
records, being able to utilizehandwritten records and all the
AI in the world.
Maybe AI can do it, I don'tknow.
Current optical scan resolutionor OCR can't translate medical
(06:41):
records that are handwritten.
It can't be done and oftentimesthose kind of fall through the
cracks.
It's really sad.
A lot of guys that are verydeserving of entitlements can't
get these things translated.
Nobody has the money Most vetsdon't or the knowledge to take
(07:02):
those records.
J Basser (07:02):
Well, go ahead.
That will be probably takencare of in the next five years.
Alex Graham (07:11):
Maybe with AI that's possible.
What's your cat's name?
J Basser (07:15):
Oh, that's Miss Kitty.
Miss Kitty, yeah, she walksacross me all the time.
Alex Graham (07:21):
Is that Gunsmoke fame, Miss Kitty?
J Basser (07:25):
Yeah, well, actually her original name was Possum,
but we changed the name after wetook the session.
She was my sister's cat beforeshe passed away.
Alex Graham (07:35):
I named my dog Pickles Accidentally.
I didn't have my hearing aidsin.
My wife suggested Tickles, Icame up with Pickles.
I thought that was a prettycool name.
J Basser (07:48):
Well, tell us about the world famous berry versus
McDonald's or McDonald's, I'msorry.
Alex Graham (08:03):
The berry bumps.
Okay, well, in a nutshell, theberry bumps, the berry bumps
Okay.
Well, in a nutshell, when youreach the level of SMCL, which
(08:27):
is the introductory point in SMCand that's one step up from
SMCS housebound, at that pointyou're entitled to all the
(08:54):
fruits of your labors if youhave more than an attendance or
a loss of use rating, which is,to summarize there's five
different conditions.
To start with, that's theintroductory level at SMCL and
that's described in 3.350B, asin Bravo.
The first one is loss of use ofboth feet, and we're talking
about below the knees.
It can be anywhere below theknees.
The loss of use is B1.
It can be loss of use of a handand a foot, two feet, or that's
(09:16):
loss.
The second one is blindness.
The third one is aid andattendance.
Fourth one is bedridden.
I advise people don't go intobedridden because that is a
self-limiting rating that screwsyou out of everything else
after that you can need aid andattendance because you can't
(09:38):
accomplish activities in dailyliving.
If you get shoveled intobedridden, which is 3.3504 B4,
at that point it precludes youfrom using aid and attendance,
because they're saying well,you're getting bedridden, you
can't pyramid, you want to gointo aid and attendance, for the
(10:02):
simple reason is that the lawpermits you to have multiple aid
and attendance ratings, whereasit does not give you that
leeway to have bedridden formultiple attendance or multiple
disabilities.
Once you're bedridden, you'rebedridden, you're bedridden, and
that pretty much kind of wrapsit up.
(10:23):
I suppose you could create newlitigation, new precedents, that
you could have two bedriddings.
I don't want to go there.
I do know I can win with aidand attendance, so if it ain't
broke, don't fix it.
J Basser (10:40):
You're talking about standard aid and attendance.
Alex Graham (10:43):
Yeah, it's standard aid and attendance.
Yeah, it's standard aid andattendance standard, as opposed
to a higher level of aid andattendance, which was R2, which
ran discourse on to the end ofthe earth.
I got him R2.
It wasn't that difficult.
Actually, in my thinking, r2 iseasier to obtain than R1
(11:06):
because it doesn't require asmuch.
However, we're going to focusat that rare stage, right when
you enter SMCL.
J Basser (11:18):
Now, when you enter SMCL.
Alex Graham (11:21):
chances are, when you're that screwed up, there's
a high probability that youalready have other ratings that
are going to be extraneous andnot related to your need for aid
and attendance.
I've got a couple of guys hereand I'm going to try to share
(11:41):
this and I see I have a sharebutton here and we'll explore
that in just a second.
But let's take a guy that's gothere's an example he's got
Parkinson's and he's beendiagnosed with Parkinson's and
they say, okay, we're going togive you 30% for Parkinson's
because that's the minimumrating.
(12:02):
Now we're going to look at allyour other residuals of
Parkinson's your face sags onthis side, face sags on this
side, 10%, 10%, having troubleswallowing 10%, and they are
going to nickel and dime youwith them Mardi Gras beads on
Tuesday night.
And you'll wake up the nextmorning after your hangover
wears off and you'll discoverthat they're all a bunch of 10
(12:26):
ratings and you add them all upand, wow, you almost get to 40
on top of your 30, and of course, 40 and 30 equals what 60.
You can't ever seem to get to100 percent for parkinson's.
So all of a sudden somebodynotices, like Alex Graham, that
(12:48):
well, gee, my psychologist toldme, and she used to work for VA
anybody with a major depressiveexcuse me, anybody with a major
disease process, such asParkinson's as a classic example
(13:08):
, is going to have a majordepressive disorder associated
with it.
Hell, if you ain't bummed outabout having Parkinson's, you're
something wrong with it.
But the truth of the matter isyou are going to have a major
depressive disorder that's uphere in the brain box has
nothing to do with parkinson's.
(13:28):
Parkinson's is a neurologicaldisease.
It affects your, your physicalcapabilities, your
musculoskeletal.
It has nothing to do with thebrain other than deterioration
of brain cells.
But it's not considered amental deficit.
It's a neurological deficit andtherefore it's not pyramiding
(13:51):
to say that your majordepressive disorder separate and
distinct, due solely to PTSDbeing depressed, general anxiety
disorder all that has to dowith a brain disorder.
So it's not pyramiding to sayyour need for aid and attendance
(14:14):
for your PTSD major depressivedisorder is separate and
distinct from your Parkinson's.
Another example is ischemicheart disease.
It's your heart.
It has nothing to do with yourneurological or mental
capabilities.
Copd that's a pulmonarydisability and it involves the
(14:38):
lungs.
That's a separate and distinctneed.
I've taken this to the nthdegree and gotten a guy aid and
attendance for COPD, withinterstitial lung disease and
use of two liters oxygen perhour.
In the same vein I've gottenthis guy aid and attendance for
(14:59):
his Parkinson's and a third theC and P for for ischemic heart
disease.
I had to fight all three ofthem and they were all coming in
at different phases from theBVA and what we call the agency
of original jurisdiction or yourlocal Fort Fumble in Fort Waco
(15:20):
or Houston if you're in Texas.
Of course, if you're in Floridayou get the love treatment from
over there at St Pete's.
J Basser (15:32):
What do they call that ?
That's an HLR bill, right?
I don't do HLRs?
Alex Graham (15:39):
HLRs is not part of this conversation.
You're wasting your time if youever take an SMC claim to the
HLR, I've won one for SMCT inthat environment.
But the guy clocked a cop.
He punched a cop out in a roadrage when he pulled him over.
They ran him through theveterans court and he was
(16:02):
exonerated and graduated andthey forgave his hitting the cop
.
But that was sufficient toprove that he had a little anger
management issue and thereforemaybe he.
J Basser (16:17):
That's why they named AMA the Anger Management
Association.
Alex Graham (16:21):
You got to put a shot caller on him.
You can't think about publicunless he's sufficiently
medicated you've probably got tobutt tase too, didn't you?
trying to argue an HLR with aGS12 or a DRO or even SVSR or a
(16:44):
senior VSR, that S-VSR, seniorVSR, that's kind of like trying
to teach your dog algebra, butfirst you've got to teach him
Greek.
So you've got to understand howyou're expressing Euclidean
formulas to learn thetrigonometry.
It's never going to happen, andI've I've done this.
(17:06):
Unfortunately.
It's too bad.
We can't do a video conferencelike we are here.
I would love to see the face,or the look on the face, of that
that DRO that's doing the HRLR.
So so, excuse me, sir, my nameis Alex Graham.
I represent the appellate Bob.
So you're well versed in SMC,right?
(17:30):
You're familiar with 3.350 andall the different variations of
that and all the entitlementsunder Ackles, right?
He said Ackles, what's that?
Are you talking about ankles?
I said no, ackles, acklesversus Drewinsky 1991.
He goes right, right, okay,talking about ankles.
I said no, ankles, anklesversus derwinsky 1991.
He was right, right, okay.
Yeah, what's your argument?
(17:51):
And I explained it to him andhe goes well, I'll look into
this.
I said well, you've alreadyreviewed the file, haven't you?
He says well, no, actually Ihave it.
28 minutes later, after theLR, Isee the denial pop up in the
VA's computer VBMS.
So it's obvious he doesn't havea clue what he's doing.
(18:12):
He's trying to utilize whateverit is that he utilizes, I guess
the M21.
God forbid.
It's too bad.
You take it up to the board.
At least the board has arudimentary grasp on this.
But yet we still discover thatI've got judges and you've had
(18:34):
Wesley McCauley on, I believe,on your show.
J Basser (18:37):
Yes.
Alex Graham (18:40):
And I'm sure you'll have him on a few more times.
He's one of my Jedi knights, Iconsider him a.
Jedi master.
He was one of my first classmembers when I was teaching SMC
last year and he grasped itcompletely, the whole concept of
it, and he's encountering thesame thing I do is, every once
(19:00):
in a while you end up with ajudge that'll say well, you have
loss of use of your left foot,that's a.
That'll say well, you have lossof use of your left foot,
that's a K, smck.
You have loss of use of yourright foot, that's an SMCK.
That's just two Ks, mr Wesley,that's not an L.
Well, somebody got to explainthat.
Two Ks for two lost feet equalsan L.
(19:24):
That's called bilateral loss ofuse.
Sometimes you hit that wallwith veterans judges.
It's unfortunate.
I don't blame the judge, Iblame the 10 staff attorneys
that work underneath him whocan't grasp it.
Smc is the hardest thing you'reever going to sink your teeth
(19:46):
into John.
It's ugly and you can pyramidin it.
It's really neat.
J Basser (19:54):
I've got one playing right now.
I've already been through theHLR, kicked back on a duty to
assist there, and now it's inthe supplemental lane.
Alex Graham (20:02):
Well, you can take a flying stab at a rolling donut
, as we used to say in themilitary with an HLR.
I've done it in 3.156C claimsjust across the T's and dot the
I's before going to the board,so they can't say you didn't
(20:23):
exhaust all possibilities of howto reach what you're trying to
grasp or obtain for your veteran.
So sometimes I'll do an HLR,but not where SMC is concerned
because, as I said, it's afutile endeavor.
You've got a better chance ofconvincing your pigs in your
backyard to fly and put a littlelipstick on them and maybe a
(20:46):
rose in their mouth.
It's not going to happen.
That's for me.
J Basser (20:53):
That's where I'm with Mr McCauley right now.
We're actually we're at thecourt.
Alex Graham (20:56):
Hey, I'll be honest with John.
I'm sending all my stuffthrough him.
Wesley and Ben Binder I havebeen in the past and I don't
mind saying this.
I've used Ken Carpenter and Istill have some with him up at
the Federal Circuit above theCABC.
(21:18):
You know me, I don't take nofor an answer.
It's not there in the cards.
You know me, I don't take nofor an answer.
I just it's not there in thecards.
I've used CCK and I probablywill continue in the future.
Chisholm, chisholm andKilpatrick.
I'm real good friends withRobert Chisholm, zach Stoltz,
(21:45):
amy Odom and a host of the othergals that work there.
Guys, but sometimes they'll saywe don't want to touch this, we
don't see a path to success andit's so intense and so tortured
a legal interpretation we don'tfeel confident wasting our time
on it.
I'll take it over to Wesley.
(22:05):
Wesley says bring it on, and Ithink I've got a stack of 10 of
them going up to the court rightnow.
J Basser (22:14):
Oh, you ought to look at it.
Look at the dockets and type inhis name up and see how busy
that man is.
Yeah well, I mean, we'retalking.
Alex Graham (22:24):
Wesley came to me.
He was kind of wet behind theears back in 2020, 2021.
And I don't just discount that.
But boy, I'll tell you, youtalk about a fast learner.
This guy is too cool for school.
Wesley's hot.
He's going to be the KenCarpenter of the 21st century.
He is.
He and Ben Binder are going tobe famous someday.
(22:48):
He's getting stuff reversed.
He just had a reversal theother day.
He's taken some of my claimsthat are just weird.
There's no way to explain it.
I come up with controversy,quandary, situations that
(23:08):
nobody's ever faced before and Ilose them at the board and I'm
admitted to the practice at thecourt and I don't mind doing it,
but it's time consuming andI've got so many clients right
now.
It's time consuming and I'vegot so many clients right now.
I think I've got about 200,roughly that I'm active claims
(23:30):
that I'm working and I'mpounding my nails into my
forehead to try to keep up withthem.
And on top of that, after I winthem, now we are entering this
(23:50):
new facet of berry bumps.
They're all coming back to melike a bad penny and saying okay
, alex, you won my r1 or my r2or my smct, but in the path to
get to that.
They granted me smct back to2021 and when they did that, I
was at aid and attendanceinitially and I fought all the
way through until 2025 andduring that period of time I had
(24:13):
a 50 rating for osa, I had a 60rating for ischemic heart
disease and, uh, parkinson's'sat 100% or whatever.
So therefore, there should havebeen some berry bumps in there
and I go, yeah, roger that, soI'll file them for it and that's
(24:36):
what I'm going to share withyou.
If I can get this thing toshare, I've got it all set up
here.
When I was teaching my clients,my acolytes, smc Jedi night
training, I was sharing allthese documents with them and I
haven't redacted and I'm goingto try to put them up here for
your, for your readership oryour folks that are watching
(25:00):
this and see if you can spotwhatever.
I can just describe what I'mseeing at this stage.
I'm gonna try to put this uphere and this is a classic
example what a berry bump ratingor request for a rating is
(25:20):
going to consist of.
So I'm gonna put this up herefor share screen will share
screen choose what to share withRiverside.
So I have to.
I have to choose this.
(25:44):
Let's see what can I choose.
I've got a limited.
Okay, I don't know if I can dothis.
Veterans claim help.
Okay, here it is.
No, that's not it either.
That's not it either.
(26:11):
How can I?
Let's?
I don't know that I can do thisentire screen.
Let's see here.
Okay, here we go.
Maybe what to teach here?
It is right here.
Well, that's gonna share myscreen, so let me put this on
the screen and I'm gonna putthis over here so I can make
(26:33):
that work.
Bear with me, okay, I'm gonnaexpand.
Whoa, let's see.
Yeah, how can I make thisbigger here?
Well, I don't know how I'mgonna make that bigger.
(27:02):
I've never tried this beforewith your show, but better yet,
let me abandon this one here.
Stop, okay, we'll go back tothis, cancel.
(27:25):
What I would say is this Go tomy website, asknod, and I have a
blog up after.
Oh, dear God, I've got to seehere.
(27:52):
I've got to refresh this screen.
There it is.
At the very bottom of that blog, there's two.
It says BVA-10182, filed5-17-2025, redacted.
It's a board opinion, or I meanan appeal I've submitted, and
(28:15):
it's a document that tells youwhy I feel this gentleman
deserves berry bumps and exactlyhow many berry bumps he's
entitled to and the legalrationale for it.
In that document that you canread it'll discuss the legal
(28:37):
landscape of my authority forwhy I'm asking for these things.
And this gentleman's rated forSMCL and they have not given him
all the bumps that he can begiven.
The important thing that you'regoing to read about here is
that you can bump from L to M ona 100% rating.
(29:04):
That's separate and distinctand doesn't involve his need for
aid and attendance, which ispurely predicated on his
Parkinson's.
He has chronic lymphocyticleukemia for 100%.
Bingo, he jumps from L to M.
Now I fought this with theidiots at Fort Fumble for a
(29:27):
while and finally they grantedit, but that's all they granted.
They did not grant thisgentleman the additional bumps
that he was entitled to for 50%ratings above and beyond and
separate, distinct from thechronic lymphocytic leukemia or
(29:48):
the Parkinson's.
So I started adding those inand I said well, in addition to
that bump, he's also entitled tothe ischemic heart disease for
60%.
That bumps him from M to M andone half, and then he's got a
major depressive disorder at 70%, separate and distinct.
(30:08):
He bumps from M and a half to Nand then, thirdly, he has
another rating for diabetes withresiduals of peripheral
neuropathy over 50% or more.
That bumps him from M and ahalf to n.
And last but not least, he'sgot another bunch of stuff
(30:33):
relating to the agent or thediabetes mellitus.
That bumps him to n and a half.
He's already got a k for lossof use of winkie.
So now he's at SMC n and 1 halfplus K.
That's called the maximum rateof SMC P.
(31:10):
Now if you have reached themaximum rate of of that, you can
get on uh smcp, which is n andone half plus k.
You advance to zero or the smco.
Now let's go back to the verybeginning.
Where did the l create?
(31:31):
It was eight attendance forparkinson's.
So now he's down here n and ahalf plus p and the h2 3.352.
H2 says if you are maxed out atSMCO based on P and your
predicator for your L, yourindex disease cause, was aid and
(31:56):
attendance, you automaticallyjump to R1.
Bingo, r1.
Bingo.
It's an alternative path thatnone of us could ever attain in
a million years, based on theold interpretation before Mr
Berry arrived on the scene anddiscovered that we could get
(32:16):
maximum or not maximum, multipleexcuse me, multiple
entitlements to the half-stepunder 3.350F3.
So all of a sudden this becomesa very valuable regulation, this
H2 and H1.
And we're running around filingthese things left and right.
(32:41):
I have 40 people I haveserviced that called me back and
said please take my POA againand the fee and get me up to the
maximum you can get me on inthat interim period before I got
to R1, from 2021 until you gotme the R1, say, in 2024.
(33:02):
I'm just entitled to all theselittle half step and half step
bumps in the interim and I nevergot them.
Fine, so I got a full timeoccupation.
I've hired a couple ofattorneys.
I'm handing this stuff out leftand right to here.
Take this, run it through andget this guy his extra berry
(33:24):
bumps.
But I was hoping that I wasgoing to put up this one that
I'll show you and you guys canlook at it.
I'm going to back this up for asecond, the second document that
I put up on this website, mywebsite.
It says cs combos code sheetcombos redacted now.
(33:48):
If you guys open that, you'llsee it very much larger than
what I seem to be able toachieve by sharing it on your
screen here.
J Basser (33:59):
Wait a minute here.
Let's see if we can dosomething different.
Hang on a minute.
Alex Graham (34:04):
Well, I can try something that might work.
Let's see if I can blow this upbigger and I'll go to share and
look at screen number one.
J Basser (34:16):
I made it a little bit bigger now for your screen.
Alex Graham (34:19):
Yeah, I got to pick my speaker.
Share, not screen.
Okay, screen here we're goingto look at.
Select a tab to share select atab to share.
I'm still lost.
(34:40):
Oh, here it is.
Here we go.
You might see this.
Big enough for anybody else.
Here we go.
I don't know if that's bigenough for your readership.
I'm trying to figure out how tofill that up.
Where it takes up the wholescreen can't seem to accomplish
that.
But where it takes up the wholescreen can't seem to accomplish
that.
But the long and the short ofit is is you take your initial
(35:03):
rating and you find out on acode sheet.
Of course you guys don't getyour code sheet, so you're kind
of screwed on this, unlessyou're a representative or your
representative will give you acopy of your code sheet.
This gentleman got an SMCL andhe's getting it for aid and
attendance, so that's his indexdisease.
(35:23):
They only gave him the bumpfrom L to M under 3.350F4.
However, we go back here to thebeginning of his code sheet, on
page one, and we say what do wegot here.
(35:43):
We have post-traumatic stressdisorder at 70.
There you go.
There's the bump from M to Mand a half.
Parkinson's is his indexdisease, so he can't claim that
he's got sleep apnea from 50.
That bumps him from M and ahalf to N.
Peripheral neuropathy, allthese diabetes diseases kick him
(36:07):
up to N and then to N and ahalf.
They're all separate anddistinct.
And all of a sudden he's at Nand a half and we look separate
and distinct.
And all of a sudden he said nand a half.
And we look down here on hisratings and we see, well, this
sheet doesn't show it.
Oh, yes, it does.
Here it is S O C K Bingo N anda half plus K.
J Basser (36:27):
N equals O.
Alex Graham (36:27):
P right, yeah, this kicks him up.
This is like the chutes andladders game that I've often
talked about on your show andthat gives him the I'm going to
take this off here gives himthat kicker that takes him up to
R1.
Well, it kicks him to O andthen to R1.
(36:48):
That's why I try to convinceyou guys, or explain to you,
that SMC is the most complicatedthing in the world, and now,
with Barry, even more of theseregulations are going to have
some application, because mostpeople could never, ever
accomplish, and nor did itpermit you, to have four kicks
(37:11):
of a half step.
Va, of course, is not going togive that to us you to have four
kicks of a half step.
Va, of course, is not going togive that to us.
A friend of mine, who I don'tknow and I'll never know because
he has burner emails, sent mean email one day and he says oh
my god, the office inspectorgeneral just discovered that the
(37:33):
rating calculator for SMChasn't worked since 2017.
And they've been handing us outbogus awards or denying us, in
the scheme of things, denying usentitlements to SMC bumps,
whether they be full-step orhalf-step bumps.
(37:54):
I've argued and argued andargued and I've often waited for
a client just like this to showup.
But an old friend of mine he'sa fellow NOVA member, his name's
Jim Percivali.
He and his wife are agents downin Texas, terry Percivali,
they're wonderful people.
(38:15):
Met them up in Nashville in2019 at the Spring Nova.
Great people, reallyknowledgeable, been in it for a
long time.
John's a veteran and he knowshis shit and he found this.
Mr Berry worked there in histown, found him and pushed and
(38:39):
developed this up to the levelwhere it went to the court and
the court said no way is that'sever going to fly, that you can
have multiple bumps under uh 350F3.
Well, I took it up to theFederal Circuit and the Federal
Circuit disagreed.
They said you're going to haveto get out your phonics manual
here, because we're reading thisthing and all we see is you can
(39:03):
do it.
Nowhere does it say you can't.
Of course that's put thebiggest hole in the world in
VA's compensation packageappropriations.
I don't know what it's going tocost them in the long run, to
tell you the truth.
Va's compensation packageappropriations.
I don't know what it's going tocost them in the long run, to
tell you the truth, but I'lltell you.
Everybody's got an SMC L orgreater.
Probably has some claimssitting there waiting to be
(39:25):
filed as Q because you can filethis as Q.
Nobody ever objected to this orsucceeded in defeating it and
took it up to the court to belitigated until Mr Berry did and
Ken Carpenter's guys took it upthere and Jim Percivali has a
(39:48):
good working relationship withJohn Niles and Kenny DeHakas,
and Kenny I think it was KennyDeHakas is the one that took it
up.
The federal circuit Boy.
He's like Ken.
He's a silver-tongued devil.
Ken's kind of gone intosemi-retirement.
Ken Carpenter, because of hisParkinson's disease and
(40:11):
sometimes he has, like me, he'sstarting to get these, not a
brain fart, but just one ofthose senior moments where he's
arguing an oral argument up atthe court and he has to say
excuse me, your Honor, bear withme and go through his notes to
reposition himself during hisoral argument.
So he's decided, I think, tostep back and not go into
(40:37):
retirement per se, because hestill has some of my claims up
at the Federal Circuit and I domean Federal Circuit, cafc, not
CABC on a couple of some stuffI've been fighting forever and
ever.
But Ken realizes, as do I, thatwe all get old and sometimes we
(40:59):
have brain farts.
And if you have a disabilitylike Parkinson's and it's
impairing your ability to argueorally at the court, it's best
to hand it off to your peoplethat you've trained and
carefully groomed for this job.
(41:19):
And Kenny DeHakas and JohnNiles are going to be
instrumental in the future, justlike Wesley, I think.
Ken Carpenter tried to inveigleWesley to come to work for him,
and Wesley's going hell.
If I'm making three quarters ofa million dollars a year on VA
(41:40):
claims, why do I want to come towork for you and not even
become a partner and startworking for $250,000 a year?
That doesn't make any sense.
So Wesley wisely decided tostay in his own space as a VA
agent and I'm all in with him.
(42:01):
I have no desire to go to workfor CCK.
They'd love to buy Ask Not inNew York, second, but I'd
probably sell it to them andthen I'd probably go out and
start another business with anew name.
Not ask, not ask.
Yeah, I don't know how I'd goabout that.
(42:25):
You know, John almost WWVD.
What would a veteran do?
My wife wouldn't let me makethe name of my company WWVD or
my website.
J Basser (42:43):
It sounds like a social disease, I think it's
like law groups out of Friscomojocom anyway, long story short
.
Alex Graham (42:58):
Barry versus McDonough is one of the earth
shattering revelations in the21st century.
I'm sure there are going to bea few more in our lifetime and I
hope to see them, but from astandpoint of changing the legal
landscape, it's awesome.
J Basser (43:22):
Personally, I don't understand.
I read this back in 2000, 2001or 2002, when I was reading
through my paperwork with SMC.
It dawned on me that it waspossible.
Just by reading, you know, justby reading what's what, and
once you put it together, youknow, you say well, that should
(43:44):
bump you up if you've got thesecertain disabilities after you
get 100% or whatever.
But I didn't see anybody doingit and I thought to myself back
then somebody's got to take thisto court because they're not
doing it.
And I thought to myself backthen somebody's got to take this
to court because they're notdoing it.
It took that long for Barry toget it to court and do it,
because I used to do shows and Iwould talk about stacking 50s.
(44:06):
You know what stacking 50smeans.
Alex Graham (44:09):
No.
J Basser (44:10):
I don't know if you guys remember this or not, but I
mean you can go back to some ofthese older shows.
Look, I would tell Bethany, ifyou're 100%, go ahead and file.
If you've got something new,separate and distinct what
you've already got, go ahead andfile the claim and get it
connected.
Don't let nobody tell youthey're going to reduce you.
Get it done, because one ofthese days it's going to pay off
.
Alex Graham (44:31):
Well, there's so much that I'm showing you here.
He kept filing because hedidn't know any better.
He's doing this pro se and someof it just kept filing and
filing, and filing.
And you'll see if you go to mywebsite to look at this article
on this code sheet.
He's got seven pages of a codesheet, I've got some with eight
(44:54):
and he's got more 50% ratingsyou can shake his dick at and he
never, ever anticipated gettingthis.
But he got to SMCS and he hitthat wall and he just kept
filing, thinking well,eventually I'm going to get
above SMCS because they got allthese extra ratings.
Well, it's just like pissinginto the wind.
J Basser (45:18):
Thank you.
Thank you, that's your question.
We can answer this one.
All right, say you're 100%, youhave a single hundred percent
disability and you've gotanother 60% disability.
What qualifies you for S2,right Statute of innocence for
S2, right Statute ofIndependence of SNC S2.
Now, with that being said anddone, s is not really a
(45:41):
requirement entitled to get aidattendance right.
It's just the first SMC.
So that's 60% they use todetermine the S.
Is that taken off of the aidattendance for the higher level
or is it included?
You got your 100% and you filefor aid attendance.
(46:02):
You already have some CS.
You got your 60 for heartdisease, right.
Alex Graham (46:06):
Right.
J Basser (46:07):
Then when you start counting, you get your aid
attendance.
Does that S count or does that6% count in the math going up,
or is it stuck in the back withthe 100%?
Alex Graham (46:21):
The law of SMC states that you cannot exceed
the next higher level withoutbeing awarded it.
So if you had SMCS, for example, let's say you got 100% for
whatever PTSD and you got 60% inthe form of ischemic heart
(46:42):
disease.
But let's just say you haddiabetes and you had loss of use
of Winky, that's an SMCK.
Let's say you lost an eyeballto a shrapnel wound in Vietnam
there's another SMCK.
Let's say you lost an eyeballto a shrapnel wound in Vietnam.
There's another SMCK.
Just for shits and grins.
Let's say that you caught agoddamn 7.62 round through your
(47:07):
butt and it screwed all themusculature up in your buttocks.
We call that the Forrest Gumpinjury and you got an SMCK for
loss of use of your buttocks.
So that would be a third K.
If you got a fourth K and Icould search around and say okay
(47:29):
, you lost the use of your rightfoot due to diabetes, so you
got an SMCK of your right footdue to diabetes, so you got an
SMC-K for your right foot.
You have now exceeded theamount of money that you are
paid for SMC-L.
You're not at L, you're atSMC-S with four Ks.
You can't do that.
(47:50):
You can't have more than anSMC-S and threeKs because the 4K
would carry you into SMC-Lmoney not an SMC-L rating for
aid and attendance, mind you,but an SMC-L financial
settlement.
You would exceed what you'd bepaid for SMC-L.
(48:10):
So they won't allow you to dothat.
That's not pyramiding, it's smclaw.
If you had an smcl and you hadfour k's at a buck 32 a pop, a
four, whatever that I justmentioned and it carried you
over past smcm, you couldn'thave four k's.
(48:33):
They say sorry, you couldn'thave 4Ks.
They say sorry, you can't havethat fourth one.
You're going to have K1, k2,and K3.
But under no circumstances doyou carry an S up and combine it
with an L.
That's like being promoted fromprivate first class to corporal
.
You don't get paid for privatefirst class and for corporal you
(48:54):
don't get paid for privatefirst class and for corporal.
You might get paid for combatpay and hazardous duty pay, but
you're not going to getin-country pay or some other
monies that you can't collectbecause it would be pyramiding
if you were in the military.
So there's a level as you keepgoing up in the SMC world.
(49:17):
Smc is awarded for injuriesabove and beyond 100% rating.
But again, as I said, you canonly climb within the limits of
the law of SMC without beingpromoted via.
Well, think about this SMCL forblindness that's 3.350 B2,
(49:42):
you're blind okay, you're a highachieving blind guy and you
just got back from Afghanistanand you're blind.
And here's your SMCL for beingblind you got the white cane,
you got your dog on the leashand you hit the crosswalk thing
and the dog opens your doors foryou and barks when the phone
rings, and so on and so forth.
(50:03):
But for you or me, getting SMCLfor blindness at 55 years old,
you're going to have a hard timedeveloping the white dog on the
collar and the littleclicky-clack cane to find out
where you're going.
So you need aid and attendancethat bumps you from L to M.
(50:25):
For your aid and attendance foryour blinds, throw in all those
Ks, but you can't have four,only three.
The moment, as I said, themoment you go from M into the N
zone with four Ks, you can't doit because it's not pyramiding,
it's just you can't be paid forN unless you are N.
(50:48):
Barry allows you to just hedge,hop all the way up into N and
you don't have your legs cut offat your hips and you don't have
your arms cut off at yourarmpits.
And this was contemplated in1946, when they said the more
(51:12):
screwed up you are, the moremoney you get, the more SMC you
get, so to speak.
But then, all of a sudden, thepeople that were in charge of
this started making rules upthat were never.
Congress never intended them tohappen like this.
They just read the regulationin such a way that it deprived
(51:33):
you of these higher entitlements.
Think of Blue Power, blue WaterNavy.
If you remember the history ofthe Blue Water Navy, they said
you got a Vietnam medal you werethere the Vietnam Service Medal
or Vietnam Campaign Medal.
You got presumption for AgentOrange.
(51:53):
You got presumption for AgentOrange.
And Haas versus Peek in 2004said Uh-uh, you got to get red
clay between your toes on theground To get that presumption
for Agent Orange.
So we lived with that for awhile, and then all those poor
guys that were brown water navyGot into this predicament.
Well, hell, I was in Da NangHarbor.
(52:14):
I was in Cam Ranh.
I was in Cameron Bay Harbor.
I was up on the Perfume River.
I was brown water.
I was uh, I might have been onone of those swift boats but
might not have touched ground,but I was within the confines of
Vietnam, so they finally letthose guys in.
(52:34):
Now you're aware of Procopio and12 miles out they keep
expanding that limit.
Now, with the PACT Act, if youwere in Thailand, laos, cambodia
, cambodia, like me, they'regonna let you in anyway and
that's a good thing.
But it's a progression ofentitlement.
As it works, smc has alwaysbeen extremely difficult to get,
(52:59):
almost impossible, becausenobody will teach it to you.
Nobody knows how to do it.
Nobody has to award it.
Knows how to do it.
Nobody has to award it, knowshow to award it.
With Barry, it's opened up aPandora's box of how many
veterans are there since 1946that were deprived of SMC, that
can file a queue and get thatback pay.
(53:21):
You know how much money that is, john.
It stupefies the imaginationand I'm getting inundated on the
order of about three guys aweek saying, hey, can you give
me my berry bumps?
A lot of them are my formerclients that I've said I've done
everything I can give you, man,I've gotten you as high as I
(53:41):
can get you, and now, all of asudden, the sky's the limit all
over again.
J Basser (53:48):
Pandora's box has opened it.
Alex Graham (53:50):
Yeah, it's Pandora's box, but it's
Pandora's box in the making.
They purposefully misconstruedCongress in 1946.
That's what happened and that'swhy we can go back and fight it
on a queue, because nobody hadever objected to it before.
Nobody ever say you can't go ofcourse you can.
J Basser (54:11):
I can't believe that, whether it's why nobody's done
this, why.
Why did it take so long forsomebody to court?
Alex Graham (54:18):
I just it's just mind-boggling, because this has
been going on since 46 you knowthe reason being is nobody
understood smc like I do, orRobert Chisholm or Ken Carpenter
Ken's more on a 3.156Cknowledge early effector date.
He is, he's a master at what hedoes.
(54:41):
He doesn't generally dabble inSMC entitlement per se.
Robert Chisholm does.
I learned at the feet of RobertRobert's hot.
He was writing this shit in1992.
What do you mean?
You can't have two aid andattendances.
(55:03):
What have you been smoking?
Show me the regulations thatsays you can't have two aid and
attendances.
What have you been smoking?
Show me the regulations thatsays you can't have two aid and
attendances.
And nobody could show it tothem.
So the judges started awardingit to them.
They didn't have to go up tothe Court of Veterans Appeals
and the VA doesn't want to go upto the CAVC Because the moment
(55:24):
more precedence is made, madelike Barry versus McDonough.
This is what happens.
So they would grant at the BVAlevel.
They grant.
They had marching orders.
Give the man the money, get himto shut up and go away.
Do not take this to the courtbecause it's going to open up a
Pandora's box.
And these people stupidlydecided to fight that goddamn
(55:50):
thing with Barry and they losttheir ass big time.
God only knows how many morethings we're going to uncover of
this nature in the future.
I personally was in a race withJim Percivali to try to get one
of these guys before he did,but I didn't.
(56:10):
Every time I got up to thatlevel at the board and say this
guy is entitled to aid andattendance.
They granted it.
They didn't argue.
They said give the man themoney, get Alex to shut up, walk
away from this.
Don't ruffle the feathers.
Do not allow this to go to theCAVC and become precedents.
(56:33):
We're going to bury this son ofa bitch at the VLJ level down
at the BVA on High Street.
We don't want that up at thecourt, and they've done a really
, really good job of suppressingknowledge of smc.
They don't even teach it tovso's.
You could go into a dav office,bfwc.
(56:56):
I want to file for smc and theylook at you like smc, smc, what
does that stand for?
Smc?
Oh, I know what that is.
That's when Winky does the work.
You get a K for that, or ifyou're 100 plus 60.
Yeah, that's S.
The N is right there, though.
(57:18):
Well, what about L?
L?
What?
What does L stand for?
What are you talking about?
What do you got alphabet brain?
They don't teach it to them, sotherefore they can't file for
it, nor will they.
I've had people come to me andsay hey, I tried to get SMCK for
(57:41):
my foot and my eye.
I've lost one eye.
I mean, the eye is gone.
It's a big circle there.
It's like I got a glass one itdoesn't track with the real one,
though and they go okay, here'syour K.
Well, what about my loss offoot?
Well, you can't have more thanone K.
Take your pick.
What do you want your foot oryour eye?
I've run into that.
(58:01):
I've run into the argument Idiscussed at the beginning of
the show.
You got lots of use of a footin 2014.
There's your K.
Oh, that diabetes got you again, and 16, you lost the other
foot.
There's another K.
For some reason, no son of acannot put two K's together and
(58:22):
come up with an L.
It's a brain fart for them.
They can't do it, it doesn'tcompute, and you see this all
the time, even at the veteran'slaw judge level is that nobody
seems to have a grasp and thecomputer's broken because it's
fixed such that you can't getthere from here.
(58:45):
You weren't born on a Thursdayand if you were born on a
Thursday and qualify for SMCL,they're going to get into a
pissing match as whether it wasam or pm.
So you know, if nobody knowshow to do something, that pretty
much puts the kibosh on anybodygetting the entitlement.
Va relies heavily on that, john.
J Basser (59:09):
They do, alex.
I want to thank you for comingon, buddy.
It's been a good good show.
Ray.
How you doing buddy?
Alex Graham (59:21):
His mouth ain't moving, so we have to wonder
whether his microphone he's gotsome weather in.
Ray Cobb (59:27):
There is what it is, I think we've got a lot of
weather down here right now sothat happens a lot, situations
like that.
J Basser (59:36):
We've got flight phone warnings or so like two and a
half inches in 30 minutes.
Can you hear me now?
Oh, yeah, I hear you yeah, butit's been Can you hear me now.
Ray Cobb (59:46):
Oh yeah, I hear you.
Okay, it's been a rough.
We've had a little bit of rainand storms here the last hour.
J Basser (59:54):
Okay, that's basically what it is.
Probably the heavy wind blowingthe signal into Alabama and
then coming back up into itdoesn't.
It's a tornado.
Alex Graham (01:00:04):
I I see you're just keeling on over your head.
Ray so that means the tornadohasn't got you yet, that's right
.
J Basser (01:00:12):
Well, we talk about tornadoes Ray and I have, but I
mean we're in the new tornadoalley, so keep your eyes posted
and your ears posted.
Alex Graham (01:00:20):
Well, that's why I live in Washington no hurricanes
, no poisonous snakes, nopoisonous spiders and no
tornadoes.
Ray Cobb (01:00:29):
Don't tell my wife that If my wife knew that she'd
move up there with you.
So everything you justmentioned.
She doesn't like.
J Basser (01:00:38):
They got some big rattlesnakes in Oregon now.
Alex Graham (01:00:41):
Hey and no.
Well, yeah, they're starting tocreep over from the other side
of the mountains, but we don'thave any income tax still here
in Washington.
I don't know how long I can saythat we are kind of a blue
state, shall I say.
J Basser (01:00:57):
So well, turquoise matter of time.
Well guys, thank you for comingon.
Alex Right, I'm glad youfinally got situated.
Yeah, I got connected, that'sall right.
Okay and we'll talk about this.
But other than that, guys,we'll do this again next week.
We'll have Bethany on and we'regoing to discuss some spine
(01:01:17):
issues and we'll get Alex onhere next month and we'll do
some more updates on some ofthis stuff, if he's available.
I'm glad you're doing okay,alex.
You had us all worried there.
Alex Graham (01:01:27):
Ah shit man, I survived Vietnam.
I never thought I would.
J Basser (01:01:33):
but I'm alive.
Hey, it's all gravy to me.
Anytime you want to talk toHart, give me a buzz, we'll have
a heart-to-heart.
Alex Graham (01:01:45):
That's what I got, this little thing in my chest
here, for it's my old fireextinguisher I carry around with
me, john talk to james crips.
J Basser (01:01:53):
You won't know what that's all about, because he'll
tell you what happens when itgoes off on you.
He got knocked off a bulldozeronce wearing one of them suckers
he did.
Alex Graham (01:02:01):
I've already talked to a couple guys and had him go
off and he says holy, holy shit, batman, that's like somebody
whack you upside the head with abaseball bat.
J Basser (01:02:10):
Takes your breath away and leaves you on your knees.
One friend of mine's went offto sleep and he stood up in the
bed.
Alex Graham (01:02:18):
I got electrocuted by 240 volts one time when I was
an electrician I got thrown sixfeet backwards from when I put
the hacksaw through the rangecable when I was cutting it
shorter to put it in the box,and both my elbows went through
the sheet rock in the wallbehind me, right through the in
(01:02:38):
between the studs, almostperfectly two big holes where my
elbows went through.
And I'll tell you what.
I sat there with the littlestars and the Saturns running
around over my head for about 40seconds, trying to figure out
if I was still alive.
J Basser (01:02:55):
Yeah, that kind of voted you.
It's like that kid on hishoneymoon down in Florida the
other day.
He was five miles from athunderstorm, he was in
ankle-deep water and got struckby lightning and killed.
Oh man, all right, all right.
Well, guys, we're out of time,let me go ahead and get this
down and we'll do this againnext week.
(01:03:16):
And, alex, we thank you fromthe bottom of our hearts, buddy,
we appreciate you, man, wereally do.
Alex Graham (01:03:21):
I thank you for allowing me to come on and talk
to you.
J Basser (01:03:26):
All right, thank you.
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