Kayla Williams

I’m also leery of swift rollout without oversight and stakeholder input, two things this admin has fought every step of the way.
But they ARE vulnerable/ responsive to pressure, so stay alert & engaged!
/4

But flagging as “suspect” every DBQ from a doc more than 100 miles from home address after spending years telling me VA *must* allow more community care since SO many vets live SO far from VA facilities seems … 🙄🙄🙄
3/

This seems potentially reasonable: “Suspect DBQs could include high-volume submissions from so-called fraud mills that use similar boilerplate language on multiple questionnaires for different individuals.”
2/

VA plans to scan a million veterans claims for signs of fraud The tool can quickly review submitted questionnaires that document medical evidence to determine a disability rating and monthly compensation.

Issue to watch, especially as concerns about AI linger:
1/

VA Is Rewriting Big Pieces of the Disability Rating Playbook VA is proposing major changes to disability ratings for sleep apnea, tinnitus, and mental health, shifting away from device based formulas and toward functional impairment.

Worth reading carefully and in full. Updating the VASRD has been ongoing for many years and is long overdue. These changes sound as if they could be reasonable if implemented fairly.

Most Americans would rather have their tax dollars go to veterans' earned benefits than have them fund a war with Iran they never wanted. There's a long list of Trump priorities that taxpayer money shouldn't go to.But our country should pay for increasing veteran disability & indemnity compensation.

‘A very dangerous person’: alarm as Pete Hegseth revels in carnage of Iran war Critics say brash, bombastic Fox News host out of his depth to guide US military through murky new Middle East conflict

Hegseth “sounds to me as a veteran and to many of my peers who served in combat like somebody who is completely inept and pretending to have this macho persona.” 🔥

Hegseth demands Cyberdyne remove guardrails from Skynet Unrestrained, nearly self-aware AI 'ideal' for military decision-making, NORAD commander says

Their skewering is so good

Begging everyone to go read the Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson immediately

AND, alongside and underneath the clinical approach, I want ... I don't know ... recognition of and empathy for (?) the ways people's traumas are triggered not just by reminders but by seeing that our existing systems will subject others to those same traumas.
/end
(it never ends)

I'm not saying the screener should be changed or that I don't understand it; same with the evidence-based treatments, they're very helpful, please go get care! Check out the Warrior Care Network if you need intensive help, call a Vet Center, get help!
12/

That is gutting, it destroys me, not *because* it is my life's work but bc I know the terrible harms that will result from the destruction and that activates a concurrent feeling of profound moral injury that can't be rectified by CPT.
11/

I was finding meaning and purpose in trying to prevent military sexual trauma and improve the response to it. The work was hard but rewarding. But FFS we've elected a rapist president TWICE, and did you WATCH the confirmation hearing of the current SECDEF?
My life's work is under attack and
10/

So ... Lately I feel like there is a fundamental disconnect between the clinical approach to PTSD and the world we live in right now - the experiences I had, I don't think they would fuck me up this badly if it weren't for the *context*.
9/

"Do you think ... no one can be trusted, the world is completely dangerous"... Um. Well. Thinking back on B-F above, no ONE of those things caused me to feel that way, but combine them all with the DRIP DRIP DRIP OF EPSTEIN FILES RELEASES & no accountability for abusers and I am a fucking WRECK.
8/

"Are you having strong negative feelings such as fear, horror, anger, guilt, or shame?" BITCH AREN'T YOU?!
FFS are you watching the news? If you DON'T feel that way, do you have a conscience?
7/

seeing us repeat terrible errors in the Middle East. Knowing we bombed a girls school & imagining my daughter & thinking of those parents. The news cycle triggered my traumatic memory and further activated *so much more*
6/

With the Iran war popping off, I went with A because that memory in that moment was triggered. But it wasn't *that traumatic event* that caused (or activated) my PTSD. It was all of them, combined, AND ...
5/

f) Chronic and ongoing sexual harassment during my entire Army career, while my male peers told me to suck it up and not ruin men's careers
g) Episodic & unpredictable danger of living with a vet w TBI, MDD, PTSD, SUD
h) misc ACEs
4/

b) Old man across the street letting me win at his ongoing game of "find the penis" at 3
c) Being threatened with rape at knifepoint at 12
d) Being raped at 13
e) "Unwanted sexual contact" from a fellow soldier in Iraq
3/

I had to do another PTSD screening this week. As usual one part was being asked to identify the worst traumatic event and consider it while answering subsequent questions.
Should I choose:
a) A man bleeding to death as I translated while we cared for 3 injured civilians in Iraq
2/

Rambling thoughts on PTSD as the horrors mount and persist...
1/

Wild to read this as someone who was in Iraq ‘03-‘04.
Wilder still to realize even this level of expertise absolutely dwarfs that of those now in charge of Iran war.

For some post 9/11 veterans, “the attack on Iran brings troubling echoes of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, another war of choice based on questionable claims of weapons of mass destruction that threatens to destabilize the entire region, with no clear endgame” & civilian casualties

I thought they still had to pay health insurance premiums?

Police body cam footage shows DOGE knew Institute of Peace was private property during raid Footage obtained by The Handbasket’s lawsuit shows a hostile takeover on March 17, 2025.

SCOOP — Body camera footage obtained as a result of my lawsuit against the DC Metropolitan PD confirms DOGE and the Trump administration openly admitted they were entering private property when they raided the building on March 17, 2025. That didn't stop MPD from breaking down the doors.

My report:

Democrats slam Hegseth for comments on first US deaths in Iran war Hegseth accused the press of focusing on the fallen soldiers to make the president “look bad.”

“Six brave Americans lost their lives in uniform. Their sacrifice deserves honor. Instead, the Secretary of Defense is worried about how their deaths make the president look. That is a grievous insult to every service member who has worn the uniform,” Vindman said.

Trump’s War On Iran: Myth Vs. Fact The White House has defended strikes on Iran, stating that the country’s leaders are “paying for their crimes against America.” The Onion examines the myths and facts surrounding President Trump’s war...

Top notch satire right here

Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reache...

“If a U.S. role were to be confirmed, the strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts in the ​Middle East.” www.reuters.com/world/middle...

His Family Legacy Led Him to the Military. But He Found Contentment as a Family Man An Iraq Army veteran pursues new jobs and states to leave behind the war and his family's military legacy.

"When I could finally see a therapist, the appointment was scheduled during working hours. I couldn’t emotionally dump my experiences and then return to work as though the previous hour didn’t exist."