J Basser: 0:00

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 you know what out there Over 100 degrees today or yesterday. It's pretty sad, but today we've got Mr Alex Graham. Alex is well known. He is the one and only ASNOD. He's based out of the state of Washington and Alex is a I can't say he's an accredited VA appeals agent, because he's really a non-attorney practitioner backslash VA accredited appeals agent. So and he's big time now he's got a. I mean, he's even got his own staff and everything. So how do you do it?

Alex Graham: 0:50

I'm alive, john, and I say that with great appreciation. I'm not a religious person. But first thing is, I have no idea how I survived Vietnam. Don't ever get in an airplane with a drunk pilot, first of all. The second thing is don't fly back over right where you dropped napalm on 250 pathet layout, because they're going to shoot back up at you because they're pissed off and it'll probably result in a throw-through gunshot wound. Other than that, I'm alive. I'm happy I've got a brand new diagnosis of ischemic heart disease, also known as coronary artery disease. Hey, I'm alive. What more could I ask for? I have no complaints, john.

J Basser: 1:43

No complaints.

Alex Graham: 1:45

Well, I complain because there's a whole bunch of people that think that men should participate in women's sports, but that doesn't belong on this blog or this Zoom show.

J Basser: 1:57

Well, that's true, you know. I mean that's the way it is, I mean it's pathetic, the whole thingy thingy.

Alex Graham: 2:07

That's an argument for a different day, probably.

J Basser: 2:10

If you read the book of Revelation you'll understand. I have no class.

Alex Graham: 2:18

Let's go ahead.

J Basser: 2:19

You know what the last few words are of the book of Revelation.

Alex Graham: 2:23

I do not know that.

J Basser: 2:25

The end, the end, the end.

Alex Graham: 2:34

I used to have a telephone. You know the old-fashioned telephones that made the tones. I suppose the new ones still do if you still have a landline. But I was just when I was talking to my friends back in the 80s or something I said. You know what the last words were for that old boy that got the artificial heart transplant. And they said no and I pushed zero and he goes, which is never mind. You know that joke.

J Basser: 3:02

He said, Lou, I believe the first artificial heart transplant, the JARVIC 7, you know what they call it.

Alex Graham: 3:10

Yeah, yes, that's exactly it. Your memory exceeds mine. I wouldn't be able to pull that chestnut out of my asshole for a million dollars, even on demand, unless I had AI and Google at my fingertips. I'm an analog guy. I love paper and you know as well as I do. When you are doing VA claims, you might not see this facet of it, but we get into VBMS and we see all these old service treatment records Formerly known as service medical records that were handwritten by doctors in Vietnam, places like that in the battlefield. And these guys have been up 24 hours At the 312th area back at Chu Lai and they're getting pretty loopy when they're writing the handwriting their stuff and and they've got 15 more out there in triage dying out in the waiting room and they, uh, they're writing stuff in there and it's very difficult to read.

Alex Graham: 4:21

I have a guy I hired that lives down 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 cord m60 pig hanging out the side there and he decided he was going to become a nurse at one point after he came home, but his PTSD got to him too bad Never been able to accomplish that. But man, that son of a bitch can translate handwritten records like there's nobody's got. Nobody can do it the way he do. It's very impressive. He's very, very, a little bit poor, so I give him lots of money to help him live, because he's only at 100%. He insists on doing his own claims, but that's to his detriment when you're having a few psychiatric shortcomings, hi Ray, we got you. But anyway it's nice to have somebody decipher that stupid handwriting of an overworked doctor. Go ahead, mr Moderator. Look at him, mr Ray.

J Basser: 5:52

All, right, now we can talk a little bit about eating dinner. Harvey's got two for seven ham sandwiches right now. I had one of them. I got some bad results earlier this week myself. Buddy, I might have to go up to the Cleveland Clinic and have mine put in.

Alex Graham: 6:15

The good news is being able to access your records, being able to utilize handwritten records and all the AI in the world. Maybe AI can do it, I don't know. Current optical scan resolution or OCR can't translate medical records that are handwritten. It can't be done and oftentimes those kind of fall through the cracks. It's really sad. A lot of guys that are very deserving of entitlements can't get these things translated. Nobody has the money Most vets don't or the knowledge to take those records.

J Basser: 7:02

Well, go ahead. That will be probably taken care of in the next five years.

Alex Graham: 7:11

Maybe with AI that's possible. What's your cat's name?

J Basser: 7:15

Oh, that's Miss Kitty. Miss Kitty, yeah, she walks across me all the time.

Alex Graham: 7:21

Is that Gunsmoke fame, Miss Kitty?

J Basser: 7:25

Yeah, well, actually her original name was Possum, but we changed the name after we took the session. She was my sister's cat before she passed away.

Alex Graham: 7:35

I named my dog Pickles Accidentally. I didn't have my hearing aids in. My wife suggested Tickles, I came up with Pickles. I thought that was a pretty cool name.

J Basser: 7:48

Well, tell us about the world famous berry versus McDonald's or McDonald's, I'm sorry.

Alex Graham: 8:03

The berry bumps. Okay, well, in a nutshell, the berry bumps, the berry bumps Okay. Well, in a nutshell, when you reach the level of SMCL, which is the introductory point in SMC and that's one step up from SMCS housebound, at that point you're entitled to all the fruits of your labors if you have more than an attendance or a loss of use rating, which is, to summarize there's five different conditions. To start with, that's the introductory level at SMCL and that's described in 3.350B, as in Bravo. The first one is loss of use of both feet, and we're talking about below the knees. It can be anywhere below the knees. The loss of use is B1. It can be loss of use of a hand and a foot, two feet, or that's loss. The second one is blindness. The third one is aid and attendance. Fourth one is bedridden. I advise people don't go into bedridden because that is a self-limiting rating that screws you out of everything else after that you can need aid and attendance because you can't accomplish activities in daily living.

Alex Graham: 9:41

If you get shoveled into bedridden, which is 3.3504 B4, at that point it precludes you from using aid and attendance, because they're saying well, you're getting bedridden, you can't pyramid, you want to go into aid and attendance, for the simple reason is that the law permits you to have multiple aid and attendance ratings, whereas it does not give you that leeway to have bedridden for multiple attendance or multiple disabilities. Once you're bedridden, you're bedridden, you're bedridden, and that pretty much kind of wraps it up. I suppose you could create new litigation, new precedents, that you could have two bedriddings. I don't want to go there. I do know I can win with aid and 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 and attendance standard, as opposed to a higher level of aid and attendance, which was R2, which ran discourse on to the end of the earth. I got him R2. It wasn't that difficult. Actually, in my thinking, r2 is easier to obtain than R1 because it doesn't require as much. However, we're going to focus at 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 you already have other ratings that are going to be extraneous and not related to your need for aid and attendance. I've got a couple of guys here and I'm going to try to share this and I see I have a share button here and we'll explore that in just a second. But let's take a guy that's got here's an example he's got Parkinson's and he's been diagnosed with Parkinson's and they say, okay, we're going to give you 30% for Parkinson's because that's the minimum rating. Now we're going to look at all your other residuals of Parkinson's your face sags on this side, face sags on this side, 10%, 10%, having trouble swallowing 10%, and they are going to nickel and dime you with them Mardi Gras beads on Tuesday night. And you'll wake up the next morning after your hangover wears off and you'll discover that they're all a bunch of 10 ratings and you add them all up and, 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 to 100 percent for parkinson's. So all of a sudden somebody notices, like Alex Graham, that well, gee, my psychologist told me, and she used to work for VA anybody with a major depressive excuse me, anybody with a major disease process, such as Parkinson's as a classic example, is going to have a major depressive disorder associated with it. Hell, if you ain't bummed out about having Parkinson's, you're something wrong with it. But the truth of the matter is you are going to have a major depressive disorder that's up here in the brain box has nothing to do with parkinson's.

Alex Graham: 13:28

Parkinson's is a neurological disease. It affects your, your physical capabilities, your musculoskeletal. It has nothing to do with the brain other than deterioration of brain cells. But it's not considered a mental deficit. It's a neurological deficit and therefore it's not pyramiding to say that your major depressive disorder separate and distinct, due solely to PTSD being depressed, general anxiety disorder all that has to do with a brain disorder. So it's not pyramiding to say your need for aid and attendance for your PTSD major depressive disorder is separate and distinct from your Parkinson's.

Alex Graham: 14:24

Another example is ischemic heart disease. It's your heart. It has nothing to do with your neurological or mental capabilities. Copd that's a pulmonary disability and it involves the lungs. That's a separate and distinct need. I've taken this to the nth degree and gotten a guy aid and attendance for COPD, with interstitial lung disease and use of two liters oxygen per hour. In the same vein I've gotten this guy aid and attendance for his Parkinson's and a third the C and P for for ischemic heart disease. I had to fight all three of them and they were all coming in at different phases from the BVA and what we call the agency of original jurisdiction or your local Fort Fumble in Fort Waco or Houston if you're in Texas. Of course, if you're in Florida you 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 you ever take an SMC claim to the HLR, I've won one for SMCT in that environment. But the guy clocked a cop. He punched a cop out in a road rage when he pulled him over. They ran him through the veterans court and he was exonerated and graduated and they forgave his hitting the cop. But that was sufficient to prove that he had a little anger management issue and therefore maybe 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 public unless he's sufficiently medicated you've probably got to butt tase too, didn't you?

Alex Graham: 16:33

trying to argue an HLR with a GS12 or a DRO or even SVSR or a senior VSR, that S-VSR, senior VSR, that's kind of like trying to teach your dog algebra, but first you've got to teach him Greek. So you've got to understand how you're expressing Euclidean formulas to learn the trigonometry. It's never going to happen, and I've I've done this. Unfortunately. It's too bad. We can't do a video conference like 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 name is Alex Graham. I represent the appellate Bob. So you're well versed in SMC, right? You're familiar with 3.350 and all the different variations of that and all the entitlements under Ackles, right? He said Ackles, what's that? Are you talking about ankles? I said no, ackles, ackles versus Drewinsky 1991. He goes right, right, okay, talking about ankles. I said no, ankles, ankles versus derwinsky 1991. He was right, right, okay. Yeah, what's your argument? And I explained it to him and he goes well, I'll look into this. I said well, you've already reviewed the file, haven't you? He says well, no, actually I have it.

Alex Graham: 18:02

28 minutes later, after theLR, I see the denial pop up in the VA's computer VBMS. So it's obvious he doesn't have a clue what he's doing. He's trying to utilize whatever it 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 a rudimentary grasp on this. But yet we still discover that I've got judges and you've had 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, I consider him a.

Alex Graham: 18:44

Jedi master. He was one of my first class members when I was teaching SMC last year and he grasped it completely, the whole concept of it, and he's encountering the same thing I do is, every once in a while you end up with a judge that'll say well, you have loss of use of your left foot, that's a. That'll say well, you have loss of use of your left foot, that's a K, smck. You have loss of use of your right foot, that's an SMCK. That's just two Ks, mr Wesley, that's not an L. Well, somebody got to explain that. Two Ks for two lost feet equals an L. That's called bilateral loss of use. Sometimes you hit that wall with veterans judges. It's unfortunate. I don't blame the judge, I blame the 10 staff attorneys that work underneath him who can't grasp it. Smc is the hardest thing you're ever going to sink your teeth into John. It's ugly and you can pyramid in it. It's really neat.

J Basser: 19:54

I've got one playing right now. I've already been through the HLR, kicked back on a duty to assist there, and now it's in the supplemental lane.

Alex Graham: 20:02

Well, you can take a flying stab at a rolling donut, as we used to say in the military with an HLR.

Alex Graham: 20:13

I've done it in 3.156C claims just across the T's and dot the I's before going to the board, so they can't say you didn't exhaust all possibilities of how to 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 a futile endeavor. You've got a better chance of convincing your pigs in your backyard to fly and put a little lipstick on them and maybe a 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 the court.

Alex Graham: 20:56

Hey, I'll be honest with John. I'm sending all my stuff through him. Wesley and Ben Binder I have been in the past and I don't mind saying this. I've used Ken Carpenter and I still have some with him up at the Federal Circuit above the CABC. You know me, I don't take no for an answer. It's not there in the cards. You know me, I don't take no for an answer. I just it's not there in the cards. I've used CCK and I probably will continue in the future. Chisholm, chisholm and Kilpatrick. I'm real good friends with Robert Chisholm, zach Stoltz, amy Odom and a host of the other gals that work there. Guys, but sometimes they'll say we don't want to touch this, we don't see a path to success and it's so intense and so tortured a legal interpretation we don't feel confident wasting our time on it. I'll take it over to Wesley. Wesley says bring it on, and I think I've got a stack of 10 of them going up to the court right now.

J Basser: 22:14

Oh, you ought to look at it. Look at the dockets and type in his name up and see how busy that man is. Yeah well, I mean, we're talking.

Alex Graham: 22:24

Wesley came to me. He was kind of wet behind the ears back in 2020, 2021. And I don't just discount that. But boy, I'll tell you, you talk about a fast learner. This guy is too cool for school. Wesley's hot. He's going to be the Ken Carpenter of the 21st century. He is. He and Ben Binder are going to be famous someday. He's getting stuff reversed. He just had a reversal the other day.

Alex Graham: 22:54

He's taken some of my claims that are just weird. There's no way to explain it. I come up with controversy, quandary, situations that nobody's ever faced before and I lose them at the board and I'm admitted to the practice at the court and I don't mind doing it, but it's time consuming and I've got so many clients right now. It's time consuming and I've got so many clients right now. I think I've got about 200, roughly that I'm active claims that I'm working and I'm pounding my nails into my forehead to try to keep up with them. And on top of that, after I win them, now we are entering this new facet of berry bumps. They're all coming back to me like a bad penny and saying okay, alex, you won my r1 or my r2 or my smct, but in the path to get to that. They granted me smct back to 2021 and when they did that, I was at aid and attendance initially and I fought all the way through until 2025 and during that period of time I had a 50 rating for osa, I had a 60 rating for ischemic heart disease and, uh, parkinson's's at 100% or whatever. So therefore, there should have been some berry bumps in there and I go, yeah, roger that, so I'll file them for it and that's what I'm going to share with you. If I can get this thing to share, I've got it all set up here.

Alex Graham: 24:42

When I was teaching my clients, my acolytes, smc Jedi night training, I was sharing all these documents with them and I haven't redacted and I'm going to try to put them up here for your, for your readership or your folks that are watching this and see if you can spot whatever. I can just describe what I'm seeing at this stage. I'm gonna try to put this up here and this is a classic example what a berry bump rating or request for a rating is going to consist of. So I'm gonna put this up here for share screen will share screen choose what to share with Riverside. So I have to. I have to choose this. Let's see what can I choose.

Alex Graham: 25:46

I've got a limited. Okay, I don't know if I can do this. Veterans claim help. Okay, here it is. No, that's not it either. That's not it either. How can I? Let's? I don't know that I can do this entire screen. Let's see here. Okay, here we go. Maybe what to teach here? It is right here. Well, that's gonna share my screen, so let me put this on the screen and I'm gonna put this over here so I can make that work. Bear with me, okay, I'm gonna expand. Whoa, let's see. Yeah, how can I make this bigger here? Well, I don't know how I'm gonna make that bigger. I've never tried this before with your show, but better yet, let me abandon this one here. Stop, okay, we'll go back to this, cancel.

Alex Graham: 27:25

What I would say is this Go to my website, asknod, and I have a blog up after. Oh, dear God, I've got to see here. I've got to refresh this screen. There it is. At the very bottom of that blog, there's two. It says BVA-10182, filed 5-17-2025, redacted. It's a board opinion, or I mean an appeal I've submitted, and it's a document that tells you why I feel this gentleman deserves berry bumps and exactly how many berry bumps he's entitled to and the legal rationale for it. In that document that you can read it'll discuss the legal landscape of my authority for why I'm asking for these things.

Alex Graham: 28:43

And this gentleman's rated for SMCL and they have not given him all the bumps that he can be given. The important thing that you're going to read about here is that you can bump from L to M on a 100% rating. That's separate and distinct and doesn't involve his need for aid and attendance, which is purely predicated on his Parkinson's. He has chronic lymphocytic leukemia for 100%. Bingo, he jumps from L to M.

Alex Graham: 29:22

Now I fought this with the idiots at Fort Fumble for a while and finally they granted it, but that's all they granted. They did not grant this gentleman the additional bumps that he was entitled to for 50% ratings above and beyond and separate, distinct from the chronic lymphocytic leukemia or the Parkinson's. So I started adding those in and I said well, in addition to that bump, he's also entitled to the ischemic heart disease for 60%. That bumps him from M to M and one half, and then he's got a major depressive disorder at 70%, separate and distinct. He bumps from M and a half to N and then, thirdly, he has another rating for diabetes with residuals of peripheral neuropathy over 50% or more. That bumps him from M and a half to n. And last but not least, he's got another bunch of stuff relating to the agent or the diabetes mellitus. That bumps him to n and a half. He's already got a k for loss of use of winkie. So now he's at SMC n and 1 half plus K. That's called the maximum rate of SMC P. Now if you have reached the maximum rate of of that, you can get on uh smcp, which is n and one half plus k. You advance to zero or the smco.

Alex Graham: 31:27

Now let's go back to the very beginning. Where did the l create? It was eight attendance for parkinson's. So now he's down here n and a half plus p and the h2 3.352. H2 says if you are maxed out at SMCO based on P and your predicator for your L, your index disease cause, was aid and attendance, you automatically jump to R1. Bingo, r1. Bingo.

Alex Graham: 32:04

It's an alternative path that none of us could ever attain in a million years, based on the old interpretation before Mr Berry arrived on the scene and discovered that we could get maximum or not maximum, multiple excuse me, multiple entitlements to the half-step under 3.350F3.

Alex Graham: 32:31

So all of a sudden this becomes a very valuable regulation, this H2 and H1. And we're running around filing these things left and right. I have 40 people I have serviced that called me back and said please take my POA again and the fee and get me up to the maximum you can get me on in that interim period before I got to R1, from 2021 until you got me the R1, say, in 2024. I'm just entitled to all these little half step and half step bumps in the interim and I never got them. Fine, so I got a full time occupation. I've hired a couple of attorneys. I'm handing this stuff out left and right to here. Take this, run it through and get this guy his extra berry bumps. But I was hoping that I was going to put up this one that I'll show you and you guys can look at it.

Alex Graham: 33:34

I'm going to back this up for a second, the second document that I put up on this website, my website. It says cs combos code sheet combos redacted now. If you guys open that, you'll see it very much larger than what I seem to be able to achieve by sharing it on your screen here.

J Basser: 33:59

Wait a minute here. Let's see if we can do something 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 up bigger 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 going to look at. Select a tab to share select a tab to share.

Alex Graham: 34:38

I'm still lost. 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 big enough for your readership. I'm trying to figure out how to fill that up. Where it takes up the whole screen can't seem to accomplish that. But where it takes up the whole screen can't seem to accomplish that. But the long and the short of it is is you take your initial rating and you find out on a code sheet. Of course you guys don't get your code sheet, so you're kind of screwed on this, unless you're a representative or your representative will give you a copy of your code sheet. This gentleman got an SMCL and he's getting it for aid and attendance, so that's his index disease. They only gave him the bump from L to M under 3.350F4. However, we go back here to the beginning of his code sheet, on page one, and we say what do we got here.

Alex Graham: 35:43

We have post-traumatic stress disorder at 70. There you go. There's the bump from M to M and a half. Parkinson's is his index disease, so he can't claim that he's got sleep apnea from 50. That bumps him from M and a half to N. Peripheral neuropathy, all these diabetes diseases kick him up to N and then to N and a half. They're all separate and distinct. And all of a sudden he's at N and a half and we look separate and distinct. And all of a sudden he said n and a half. And we look down here on his ratings and we see, well, this sheet doesn't show it. Oh, yes, it does. Here it is S O C K Bingo N and a 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 and ladders game that I've often talked about on your show and that gives him the I'm going to take this off here gives him that kicker that takes him up to R1. Well, it kicks him to O and then to R1. That's why I try to convince you guys, or explain to you, that SMC is the most complicated thing in the world, and now, with Barry, even more of these regulations are going to have some application, because most people could never, ever accomplish, and nor did it permit you, to have four kicks of a half step. Va, of course, is not going to give that to us you to have four kicks of a half step.

Alex Graham: 37:15

Va, of course, is not going to give that to us. A friend of mine, who I don't know and I'll never know because he has burner emails, sent me an email one day and he says oh my god, the office inspector general just discovered that the rating calculator for SMC hasn't worked since 2017. And they've been handing us out bogus awards or denying us, in the scheme of things, denying us entitlements to SMC bumps, whether they be full-step or half-step bumps. I've argued and argued and argued and I've often waited for a client just like this to show up. But an old friend of mine he's a fellow NOVA member, his name's Jim Percivali. He and his wife are agents down in Texas, terry Percivali, they're wonderful people. Met them up in Nashville in 2019 at the Spring Nova. Great people, really knowledgeable, been in it for a long time. John's a veteran and he knows his shit and he found this.

Alex Graham: 38:32

Mr Berry worked there in his town, found him and pushed and developed this up to the level where it went to the court and the court said no way is that's ever going to fly, that you can have multiple bumps under uh 350 F3. Well, I took it up to the Federal Circuit and the Federal Circuit disagreed. They said you're going to have to get out your phonics manual here, because we're reading this thing and all we see is you can do it. Nowhere does it say you can't. Of course that's put the biggest hole in the world in VA's compensation package appropriations. I don't know what it's going to cost them in the long run, to tell you the truth. Va's compensation package appropriations. I don't know what it's going to cost them in the long run, to tell you the truth, but I'll tell you. Everybody's got an SMC L or greater. Probably has some claims sitting there waiting to be filed as Q because you can file this as Q. Nobody ever objected to this or succeeded in defeating it and took it up to the court to be litigated until Mr Berry did and Ken Carpenter's guys took it up there and Jim Percivali has a good working relationship with John Niles and Kenny DeHakas, and Kenny I think it was Kenny DeHakas is the one that took it up.

Alex Graham: 39:57

The federal circuit Boy. He's like Ken. He's a silver-tongued devil. Ken's kind of gone into semi-retirement.

Alex Graham: 40:06

Ken Carpenter, because of his Parkinson's disease and sometimes he has, like me, he's starting to get these, not a brain fart, but just one of those senior moments where he's arguing an oral argument up at the court and he has to say excuse me, your Honor, bear with me and go through his notes to reposition himself during his oral argument. So he's decided, I think, to step back and not go into retirement per se, because he still has some of my claims up at the Federal Circuit and I do mean Federal Circuit, cafc, not CABC on a couple of some stuff I've been fighting forever and ever. But Ken realizes, as do I, that we all get old and sometimes we have brain farts. And if you have a disability like Parkinson's and it's impairing your ability to argue orally at the court, it's best to hand it off to your people that you've trained and carefully groomed for this job. And Kenny DeHakas and John Niles are going to be instrumental in the future, just like Wesley, I think.

Alex Graham: 41:31

Ken Carpenter tried to inveigle Wesley to come to work for him, and Wesley's going hell. If I'm making three quarters of a million dollars a year on VA claims, why do I want to come to work for you and not even become a partner and start working for $250,000 a year? That doesn't make any sense. So Wesley wisely decided to stay in his own space as a VA agent and I'm all in with him. I have no desire to go to work for CCK. They'd love to buy Ask Not in New York, second, but I'd probably sell it to them and then I'd probably go out and start another business with a new name. Not ask, not ask. Yeah, I don't know how I'd go about that.

Alex Graham: 42:25

You know, John almost WWVD. What would a veteran do? My wife wouldn't let me make the 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 Frisco mojocom anyway, long story short.

Alex Graham: 42:58

Barry versus McDonough is one of the earth shattering revelations in the 21st century. I'm sure there are going to be a few more in our lifetime and I hope to see them, but from a standpoint of changing the legal landscape, it's awesome.

J Basser: 43:22

Personally, I don't understand. I read this back in 2000, 2001 or 2002, when I was reading through my paperwork with SMC. It dawned on me that it was possible. Just by reading, you know, just by reading what's what, and once you put it together, you know, you say well, that should bump you up if you've got these certain disabilities after you get 100% or whatever. But I didn't see anybody doing it and I thought to myself back then somebody's got to take this to court because they're not doing it. And I thought to myself back then somebody's got to take this to court because they're not doing it. It took that long for Barry to get it to court and do it, because I used to do shows and I would talk about stacking 50s. You know what stacking 50s means.

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 of these older shows. Look, I would tell Bethany, if you're 100%, go ahead and file. If you've got something new, separate and distinct what you've already got, go ahead and file the claim and get it connected. Don't let nobody tell you they're going to reduce you. Get it done, because one of these 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 he didn't know any better. He's doing this pro se and some of it just kept filing and filing, and filing. And you'll see if you go to my website to look at this article on this code sheet. He's got seven pages of a code sheet, I've got some with eight and he's got more 50% ratings you can shake his dick at and he never, ever anticipated getting this.

Alex Graham: 45:01

But he got to SMCS and he hit that wall and he just kept filing, thinking well, eventually I'm going to get above SMCS because they got all these extra ratings. Well, it's just like pissing into 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%, you have a single hundred percent disability and you've got another 60% disability. What qualifies you for S2, right Statute of innocence for S2, right Statute of Independence of SNC S2. Now, with that being said and done, s is not really a requirement entitled to get aid attendance right. It's just the first SMC. So that's 60% they use to determine the S. Is that taken off of the aid attendance for the higher level or is it included? You got your 100% and you file for aid attendance. You already have some CS. You got your 60 for heart disease, 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 that 6% count in the math going up, or is it stuck in the back with the 100%?

Alex Graham: 46:21

The law of SMC states that you cannot exceed the next higher level without being awarded it. So if you had SMCS, for example, let's say you got 100% for whatever PTSD and you got 60% in the form of ischemic heart disease. But let's just say you had diabetes and you had loss of use of Winky, that's an SMCK. Let's say you lost an eyeball to a shrapnel wound in Vietnam there's another SMCK. Let's say you lost an eyeball to a shrapnel wound in Vietnam. There's another SMCK. Just for shits and grins. Let's say that you caught a goddamn 7.62 round through your butt and it screwed all the musculature up in your buttocks. We call that the Forrest Gump injury 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 I could search around and say okay, you lost the use of your right foot due to diabetes, so you got an SMCK of your right foot due to diabetes, so you got an SMC-K for your right foot. You have now exceeded the amount of money that you are paid for SMC-L. You're not at L, you're at SMC-S with four Ks. You can't do that. You can't have more than an SMC-S and threeKs because the 4K would carry you into SMC-L money not an SMC-L rating for aid and attendance, mind you, but an SMC-L financial settlement. You would exceed what you'd be paid for SMC-L. So they won't allow you to do that.

Alex Graham: 48:14

That's not pyramiding, it's smc law. If you had an smcl and you had four k's at a buck 32 a pop, a four, whatever that I just mentioned and it carried you over past smcm, you couldn't have four k's. They say sorry, you couldn't have 4Ks. They say sorry, you can't have that fourth one. You're going to have K1, k2, and K3. But under no circumstances do you carry an S up and combine it with an L. That's like being promoted from private first class to corporal. You don't get paid for private first class and for corporal you don't get paid for private first class and for corporal. You might get paid for combat pay and hazardous duty pay, but you're not going to get in-country pay or some other monies that you can't collect because it would be pyramiding if you were in the military. So there's a level as you keep going up in the SMC world.

Alex Graham: 49:17

Smc is awarded for injuries above and beyond 100% rating. But again, as I said, you can only climb within the limits of the law of SMC without being promoted via. Well, think about this SMCL for blindness that's 3.350 B2, you're blind okay, you're a high achieving blind guy and you just got back from Afghanistan and you're blind. And here's your SMCL for being blind you got the white cane, you got your dog on the leash and you hit the crosswalk thing and the dog opens your doors for you and barks when the phone rings, and so on and so forth. But for you or me, getting SMCL for blindness at 55 years old, you're going to have a hard time developing the white dog on the collar and the little clicky-clack cane to find out where you're going. So you need aid and attendance that bumps you from L to M. For your aid and attendance for your blinds, throw in all those Ks, but you can't have four, only three. The moment, as I said, the moment you go from M into the N zone with four Ks, you can't do it because it's not pyramiding, it's just you can't be paid for N unless you are N. Barry allows you to just hedge, hop all the way up into N and you don't have your legs cut off at your hips and you don't have your arms cut off at your armpits. And this was contemplated in 1946, when they said the more screwed up you are, the more money you get, the more SMC you get, so to speak. But then, all of a sudden, the people that were in charge of this started making rules up that were never. Congress never intended them to happen like this. They just read the regulation in such a way that it deprived you of these higher entitlements.

Alex Graham: 51:35

Think of Blue Power, blue Water Navy. If you remember the history of the Blue Water Navy, they said you got a Vietnam medal you were there the Vietnam Service Medal or Vietnam Campaign Medal. You got presumption for Agent Orange. You got presumption for Agent Orange. And Haas versus Peek in 2004 said Uh-uh, you got to get red clay between your toes on the ground To get that presumption for Agent Orange. So we lived with that for a while, and then all those poor guys that were brown water navy Got into this predicament. Well, hell, I was in Da Nang Harbor. 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 on one of those swift boats but might not have touched ground, but I was within the confines of Vietnam, so they finally let those guys in.

Alex Graham: 52:34

Now you're aware of Procopio and 12 miles out they keep expanding that limit. Now, with the PACT Act, if you were in Thailand, laos, cambodia, cambodia, like me, they're gonna let you in anyway and that's a good thing. But it's a progression of entitlement. As it works, smc has always been extremely difficult to get, almost impossible, because nobody 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, knows how to award it. With Barry, it's opened up a Pandora's box of how many veterans are there since 1946 that were deprived of SMC, that can file a queue and get that back pay. You know how much money that is, john. It stupefies the imagination and I'm getting inundated on the order of about three guys a week saying, hey, can you give me my berry bumps?

Alex Graham: 53:34

A lot of them are my former clients that I've said I've done everything I can give you, man, I've gotten you as high as I can get you, and now, all of a sudden, 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 misconstrued Congress in 1946. That's what happened and that's why we can go back and fight it on a queue, because nobody had ever objected to it before. Nobody ever say you can't go of course 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 for somebody to court?

Alex Graham: 54:18

I just it's just mind-boggling, because this has been going on since 46 you know the reason being is nobody understood smc like I do, or Robert Chisholm or Ken Carpenter Ken's more on a 3.156C knowledge early effector date. He is, he's a master at what he does. He doesn't generally dabble in SMC entitlement per se. Robert Chisholm does. I learned at the feet of Robert Robert's hot. He was writing this shit in 1992. What do you mean? You can't have two aid and attendances. What have you been smoking? Show me the regulations that says you can't have two aid and attendances. What have you been smoking? Show me the regulations that says you can't have two aid and attendances. And nobody could show it to them.

Alex Graham: 55:12

So the judges started awarding it to them. They didn't have to go up to the Court of Veterans Appeals and the VA doesn't want to go up to the CAVC Because the moment more precedence is made, made like Barry versus McDonough. This is what happens. So they would grant at the BVA level. They grant. They had marching orders. Give the man the money, get him to shut up and go away. Do not take this to the court because it's going to open up a Pandora's box. And these people stupidly decided to fight that goddamn thing with Barry and they lost their ass big time. God only knows how many more things we're going to uncover of this nature in the future. I personally was in a race with Jim Percivali to try to get one of these guys before he did, but I didn't. Every time I got up to that level at the board and say this guy is entitled to aid and attendance. They granted it. They didn't argue. They said give the man the money, get Alex to shut up, walk away from this. Don't ruffle the feathers. Do not allow this to go to the CAVC and become precedents. We're going to bury this son of a bitch at the VLJ level down at the BVA on High Street. We don't want that up at the court, and they've done a really, really good job of suppressing knowledge of smc. They don't even teach it to vso's. You could go into a dav office, bfwc. I want to file for smc and they look 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 if you're 100 plus 60. Yeah, that's S. The N is right there, though. 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, so therefore they can't file for it, nor will they.

Alex Graham: 57:34

I've had people come to me and say hey, I tried to get SMCK for 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 it doesn't track with the real one, though and they go okay, here's your K. Well, what about my loss of foot? Well, you can't have more than one K. Take your pick. What do you want your foot or your eye? I've run into that. I've run into the argument I discussed at the beginning of the show. You got lots of use of a foot in 2014. There's your K. Oh, that diabetes got you again, and 16, you lost the other foot. There's another K.

Alex Graham: 58:17

For some reason, no son of a cannot put two K's together and come up with an L. It's a brain fart for them. They can't do it, it doesn't compute, and you see this all the time, even at the veteran's law judge level is that nobody seems to have a grasp and the computer's broken because it's fixed such that you can't get there from here. You weren't born on a Thursday and if you were born on a Thursday and qualify for SMCL, they're going to get into a pissing match as whether it was am or pm. So you know, if nobody knows how to do something, that pretty much puts the kibosh on anybody getting the entitlement. Va relies heavily on that, john.

J Basser: 59:09

They do, alex. I want to thank you for coming on, 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 got some weather in.

Ray Cobb: 59:27

There is what it is, I think we've got a lot of weather down here right now so that 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, but it'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 rain and storms here the last hour.

J Basser: 59:54

Okay, that's basically what it is. Probably the heavy wind blowing the signal into Alabama and then coming back up into it doesn't. It's a tornado.

Alex Graham: 1:00:04

I I see you're just keeling on over your head. Ray so that means the tornado hasn't got you yet, that's right.

J Basser: 1:00:12

Well, we talk about tornadoes Ray and I have, but I mean we're in the new tornado alley, so keep your eyes posted and your ears posted.

Alex Graham: 1:00:20

Well, that's why I live in Washington no hurricanes, no poisonous snakes, no poisonous spiders and no tornadoes.

Ray Cobb: 1:00:29

Don't tell my wife that If my wife knew that she'd move up there with you. So everything you just mentioned. She doesn't like.

J Basser: 1:00:38

They got some big rattlesnakes in Oregon now.

Alex Graham: 1:00:41

Hey and no. Well, yeah, they're starting to creep over from the other side of the mountains, but we don't have any income tax still here in Washington. I don't know how long I can say that we are kind of a blue state, shall I say.

J Basser: 1:00:57

So well, turquoise matter of time. Well guys, thank you for coming on. Alex Right, I'm glad you finally got situated. Yeah, I got connected, that's all 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're going to discuss some spine issues and we'll get Alex on here next month and we'll do some more updates on some of this stuff, if he's available. I'm glad you're doing okay, alex. You had us all worried there.

Alex Graham: 1:01:27

Ah shit man, I survived Vietnam. I never thought I would.

J Basser: 1:01:33

but I'm alive. Hey, it's all gravy to me. Anytime you want to talk to Hart, give me a buzz, we'll have a heart-to-heart.

Alex Graham: 1:01:45

That's what I got, this little thing in my chest here, for it's my old fire extinguisher I carry around with me, john talk to james crips.

J Basser: 1:01:53

You won't know what that's all about, because he'll tell you what happens when it goes off on you. He got knocked off a bulldozer once wearing one of them suckers he did.

Alex Graham: 1:02:01

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 a baseball bat.

J Basser: 1:02:10

Takes your breath away and leaves you on your knees. One friend of mine's went off to sleep and he stood up in the bed.

Alex Graham: 1:02:18

I got electrocuted by 240 volts one time when I was an electrician I got thrown six feet backwards from when I put the hacksaw through the range cable when I was cutting it shorter to put it in the box, and both my elbows went through the sheet rock in the wall behind me, right through the in between the studs, almost perfectly two big holes where my elbows went through. And I'll tell you what. I sat there with the little stars and the Saturns running around over my head for about 40 seconds, trying to figure out if I was still alive.

J Basser: 1:02:55

Yeah, that kind of voted you. It's like that kid on his honeymoon down in Florida the other day. He was five miles from a thunderstorm, he was in ankle-deep water and got struck by 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 again next week. And, alex, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts, buddy, we appreciate you, man, we really do.

Alex Graham: 1:03:21

I thank you for allowing me to come on and talk to you.

J Basser: 1:03:26

All right, thank you.