2024

[old salt]

What’s the pint when it’s clear it was circumstance not intentional avoidance. Case closed this is superfluous flooding of the box to bury the important fact.

Are you talking about my postings detailing Walz's military service ?
If so, I'm providing info for readers to form their own informed opinion about a complex subject that has been politicized.
What is the important fact ?

[Farfromgeneva]

What’s the pint when it’s clear it was circumstance not intentional avoidance. Case closed this is superfluous flooding of the box to bury the important fact.

Are you talking about my postings detailing Walz's military service ?
If so, I'm providing info for readers to form their own informed opinion about a complex subject that has been politicized.
What is the important fact ?

Given the petty and illegitimate allegations he avoided dangerous active service it’s very specifically around whether he retired to avoid that. This is clearly not the case. Then you kept dropping more info. But it was all about that and you yourself provided the detail to confirm that. Everything after superfluous.

[old salt]

What’s the pint when it’s clear it was circumstance not intentional avoidance. Case closed this is superfluous flooding of the box to bury the important fact.

Are you talking about my postings detailing Walz's military service ?
If so, I'm providing info for readers to form their own informed opinion about a complex subject that has been politicized.
What is the important fact ?

Given the petty and illegitimate allegations he avoided dangerous active service it’s very specifically around whether he retired to avoid that. This is clearly not the case. Then you kept dropping more info. But it was all about that and you yourself provided the detail to confirm that. Everything after superfluous.

You may have reached that conclusion. Are you sure that everyone else has ?
I'm providing info for readers to form their own informed opinion about a complex subject that has been politicized.
So far, the media is only covering the issue at a superficial level. I've had to dig for more info, which I've been sharing as I find it.
Plus, this issue is informative about how the National Guard has been used in the GWOT. It has not alway's been this way.
I'm not pursuing it to the extent that you hold forth on economic & financial issues.
What is the important fact to which you refer ?

[ggait]

Finally. Here's some news about the deployment of Walz's unit. They did deploy to Iraq...for a long time.

https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Arti ... eployment/

Boycott stupid.

[old salt]

Finally. Here's some news about the deployment of Walz's unit. They did deploy to Iraq...for a long time.

https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Arti ... eployment/

Boycott stupid.

What is stupid ? It is follow on info about the deployment of Walz's unit which is a subject of discussion.

[Farfromgeneva]

What’s the pint when it’s clear it was circumstance not intentional avoidance. Case closed this is superfluous flooding of the box to bury the important fact.

Are you talking about my postings detailing Walz's military service ?
If so, I'm providing info for readers to form their own informed opinion about a complex subject that has been politicized.
What is the important fact ?

Given the petty and illegitimate allegations he avoided dangerous active service it’s very specifically around whether he retired to avoid that. This is clearly not the case. Then you kept dropping more info. But it was all about that and you yourself provided the detail to confirm that. Everything after superfluous.

You may have reached that conclusion. Are you sure that everyone else has ?
I'm providing info for readers to form their own informed opinion about a complex subject that has been politicized.
So far, the media is only covering the issue at a superficial level. I've had to dig for more info, which I've been sharing as I find it.
Plus, this issue is informative about how the National Guard has been used in the GWOT. It has not alway's been this way.
I'm not pursuing it to the extent that you hold forth on economic & financial issues.
What is the important fact to which you refer ?

What a bunch of nonsense. Not even trying are you.

[old salt]

J D Stalker Vance has a pattern of attacking military people trying to make himself look better. He has done it before. His attack on the VP candidate was a lie, He is trying to steal valor. He spent six months doing press releases, never saw combat and was safe doing it. A real POS cut from the same cloth as his hiding out candidate. It is nice to see the pattern holding as to who is ok with it. Don the Con and the Stalker.

This Marine who was stationed with Vance at Al-Asad air base disagrees
obtw -- Al-Asad has been attacked many times, killing US forces stationed there & was the target of the latest attack that wounded 13 US service members & contractors. There have been 36 attacks on Al-Asad since 10/17/23.

https://x.com/CullenYossarian/status/18 ... -112355539

Quote
Ron Filipkowski
Aug 7
He retired after 25 years of honorable service, a**hole.

You went to Baghdad for 6 months and wrote press releases from an air conditioned office.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote
Cullen Tiernan

I served with JD. He has integrity & never lied about his service.

When we first landed in Iraq, there was a rocket attack at our base Al-Asad, which is in al-Anbar, not the green zone in Baghdad. We put our lives on the line everyday, and Al-Asad is *still under attack today.*

https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/u ... -112355539

[Typical Lax Dad]

J D Stalker Vance has a pattern of attacking military people trying to make himself look better. He has done it before. His attack on the VP candidate was a lie, He is trying to steal valor. He spent six months doing press releases, never saw combat and was safe doing it. A real POS cut from the same cloth as his hiding out candidate. It is nice to see the pattern holding as to who is ok with it. Don the Con and the Stalker.

This Marine who was stationed with Vance at Al-Asad air base disagrees
obtw -- Al-Asad has been attacked many times, killing US forces stationed there & was the target of the latest attack that wounded 13 US service members & contractors. There have been 36 attacks on Al-Asad since 10/17/23.

https://x.com/CullenYossarian/status/18 ... -112355539

Quote
Ron Filipkowski
Aug 7
He retired after 25 years of honorable service, a**hole.

You went to Baghdad for 6 months and wrote press releases from an air conditioned office.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote
Cullen Tiernan

I served with JD. He has integrity & never lied about his service.

When we first landed in Iraq, there was a rocket attack at our base Al-Asad, which is in al-Anbar, not the green zone in Baghdad. We put our lives on the line everyday, and Al-Asad is *still under attack today.*

https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/u ... -112355539

No different than an embassy worker.

[old salt]

Ouch ! It's getting harder to defend Walz's characterizations of his military record. His service, on it's own, was distinguished enough without the need to embellish it or leave a false impression. I can't believe Eric Holder missed this. He should have added Wes Clark to his vetting team.

https://freebeacon.com/elections/tim-wa ... -2006-run/

Tim Walz Promoted Media Misrepresentations of His Military Service in 2006 Run
Incident adds to pattern of deceptiveness around Walz’s military service

Joseph Simonson, August 8, 2024

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz touted misleading descriptions of his military service during his 2006 congressional run, according to a media kit he distributed at the time obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Media kits, or press packets, are standard practice for candidates who seek to introduce themselves to the electorate and often feature a variety of news stories or interviews. In Walz’s case, he hoped to emphasize his public service as both a public school teacher and veteran.

But two of the articles Walz selected gave the impression that he served overseas in Afghanistan. That decision adds to a growing pattern of incidents in which Walz either misrepresented his military service or promoted others’ misrepresentations of it.

A March 20, 2006, Wall Street Journal report included in the kit states that Walz "served overseas during the early war in Afghanistan." Walz told the paper that the Iraq war is "not something that is a political game."

Another, from the January/February 2006 edition of The Atlantic, describes Walz as "a command sergeant major who’d just returned from fighting the war on terrorism." The piece goes on to characterize Walz as one of the "number of veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq" who were running for Congress that year.

Walz, now the Democratic vice presidential nominee, did not serve in either Afghanistan or Iraq, and his title of command sergeant major was revoked after he left the service just two months before his National Guard battalion was informed of a future deployment to Iraq. Walz was stationed overseas in Italy from August 2003 to April 2004.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

That Walz was not sent to a war zone came as a relief to him. In 2003, he told a local paper that "in the big scheme of deployments, this probably isn’t too bad. I thought we might end up in Iraq."

Throughout Walz’s first congressional campaign, he leaned heavily into his military service. As the Free Beacon reported Wednesday, Walz released a statement in March 2005 that he fully planned to continue his campaign in Iraq after hearing that his battalion was on the shortlist to deploy there.

"As Command Sergeant Major, I have a responsibility not only to ready my battalion for Iraq but also to serve if called on," he said.

Other press releases from the time, obtained by the Free Beacon and available on archived versions of Walz’s campaign website, implied Walz served in Iraq as well. One from February of that year features an "in the news section" that includes two hyperlinked stories about "Iraq war veterans" running for Congress.

Walz has since cited his military service as a rationale for his support of new gun control legislation. In a video posted by the Harris campaign earlier this month, Walz said, "we can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is [sic] the only place those weapons are at." But Walz’s suggestion that he was carrying weapons "in war" ignores the fact that he never saw combat.

On at least two instances, Walz described himself as a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, the official name of the U.S. government’s war in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks.

As a first-time congressional candidate in 2006, Walz’s campaign announcement described him as "a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom," an archived version of the press release shows. Two years earlier, in 2004, Walz organized a protest against then-President George W. Bush in Mankato, Minn. A photo of the rally shows Walz carrying a sign reading "Enduring Freedom Veterans for Kerry."

Such a title historically applies to someone who served on the ground in Afghanistan during the Global War on Terrorism. Walz, a 24-year veteran of the Army National Guard, spent time in Norway in support of NATO forces and in Italy working in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He told Minnesota Public Radio in 2018 that he had never seen combat.

https://freebeacon.com/elections/tim-wa ... d-nothing/

Tim Walz Falsely Claimed He Served in Afghanistan. When a Local Vet Called Him Out, His Office Did Nothing.
Walz launched his first congressional campaign as ‘a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom’

Chuck Ross,August 7, 2024

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz has described himself as "a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom," the official name of the U.S. government’s war in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Walz’s claims spurred Iraq war veteran David Thul, a sergeant in the Minnesota National Guard, to approach Walz's aides at the Democrat’s Mankato office in 2009. Thul filmed the encounter, in which a staffer told Thul she was "not aware" of Walz serving in Afghanistan. Thul went on to present the 2004 photo of Walz, as well as Walz's website, to another aide, who acknowledged that constituents could get the false impression that Walz served in Afghanistan.

"Operation Enduring Freedom is limited to Afghanistan and the airspace directly above," Thul told the aide. "Congressman Walz is clearly claiming … to be an Enduring Freedom veteran. Nobody disputes the fact that he is not an Afghanistan or Enduring Freedom veteran. So this represents a fairly serious issue." Asked whether he understood how constituents could falsely "assume that means [Walz] served in Afghanistan," the aide responded, "Perhaps, I guess."

The aide did not dispute that Walz was pictured in the 2004 photograph, and, indeed, a 2006 Atlantic article describes the spectacle of the future governor protesting the Bush visit with a group of high school students. The aide told Thul he would follow up with him. A source familiar with the situation said neither Walz nor his staffers followed through with that pledge.

Walz, who has called himself a "citizen soldier," has been accused before of embellishing his military service. Two Minnesota National Guardsmen said in 2022 that Walz falsely claimed he reached the rank of command sergeant major. But Walz did not fulfill the duties required to maintain that rank before he quit the service in 2005.

And Walz, in a video posted this week by the Harris campaign, called for a ban on the kind of guns "that I carried in war," the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Walz served in the Nebraska National Guard from 1981 to 1996 and the Minnesota National Guard from 1996 to 2005. He resigned that year, quit his teaching job at Mankato West High School, and ran for Congress.

The photo Thul cited in the meeting was taken by Minnesota political consultant Michael Brodkorp. Brodkorp, who has identified Walz in the photo, endorsed the Democrat in his 2022 reelection campaign for governor.

The Harris campaign defended Walz’s military record, citing his deployment overseas during the Afghanistan war. "Governor Walz was deployed to Italy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom while serving in the National Guard," said Harris campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt. Walz's aide gave a similar defense in 2009, which Thul rejected.

"We appreciate his service and we appreciate his being deployed, but there’s a huge difference between being deployed to a base in Italy and being in a combat zone in Afghanistan," Thul told the Walz aide in the 2009 encounter.

Walz retired from the National Guard in 2005 and launched his congressional campaign the following year, as his unit was sent to Iraq.

"On May 16th, 2005, [Walz] quit, betraying his country, leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war," two retired Command Sergeants Major wrote in a 2018 Facebook post during Walz’s first gubernatorial bid. That post was recently unearthed by the Daily Wire.

A source who served in the Minnesota National Guard at the time told the Free Beacon that Walz’s retirement "left a bad taste in a lot of peoples’ mouths."

[Seacoaster(1)]

Nice that you’re working overtime to disparage another serviceman. Such a surprise.

[Seacoaster(1)]

How about a real story you won’t care about, because Orange….

https://www.propublica.org/article/dona ... ce=twitter

“Nine witnesses in the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump have received significant financial benefits, including large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares and cash from Trump’s media company.

The benefits have flowed from Trump’s businesses and campaign committees, according to a ProPublica analysis of public disclosures, court records and securities filings. One campaign aide had his average monthly pay double, from $26,000 to $53,500. Another employee got a $2 million severance package barring him from voluntarily cooperating with law enforcement. And one of the campaign’s top officials had her daughter hired onto the campaign staff, where she is now the fourth-highest-paid employee.

These pay increases and other benefits often came at delicate moments in the legal proceedings against Trump. One aide who was given a plum position on the board of Trump’s social media company, for example, got the seat after he was subpoenaed but before he testified.

Significant changes to a staffer’s work situation, such as bonuses, pay raises, firings or promotions, can be evidence of a crime if they come outside the normal course of business. To prove witness tampering, prosecutors would need to show that perks or punishments were intended to influence testimony.

White-collar defense lawyers say the situation Trump finds himself in — in the dual role of defendant and boss of many of the people who are the primary witnesses to his alleged crimes — is not uncommon. Their standard advice is not to provide any unusual benefits or penalties to such employees. Ideally, decisions about employees slated to give evidence should be made by an independent body such as a board, not the boss who is under investigation.

Even if the perks were not intended to influence witnesses, they could prove troublesome for Trump in any future trials. Prosecutors could point to the benefits to undermine the credibility of those aides on the witness stand.

“It feels very shady, especially as you detect a pattern. … I would worry about it having a corrupt influence,” Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said after hearing from ProPublica about benefits provided to potential Trump witnesses.

But McQuade said these cases are difficult to prove, even if the intent were actually to influence testimony, because savvy defendants don’t explicitly attach strings to the benefits and would more likely be “all wink and a nod, ‘You’re a great, loyal employee, here’s a raise.’”

In response to questions from ProPublica, a Trump campaign official said that any raises or other benefits provided to witnesses were the result of their taking on more work due to the campaign or his legal cases heating up, or because they took on new duties.

The official added that Trump himself isn’t involved in determining how much campaign staffers are paid, and that compensation is entirely delegated to the campaign’s top leaders. “The president is not involved in the decision-making process,” the official said. “I would argue Trump doesn’t know what we’re paid.”

Campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement that “the 2024 Trump campaign is the most well-run and professional operation in political history. Any false assertion that we’re engaging in any type of behavior that may be regarded as tampering is absurd and completely fake.”

Trump’s attorney, David Warrington, sent ProPublica a cease-and-desist letter demanding this article not be published. The letter warned that if the outlet and its reporters “continue their reckless campaign of defamation, President Trump will evaluate all legal remedies.”

[Seacoaster(1)]

Orange Moron unveiled his economic plan at the “press conference” yesterday:


“So there are some of the most brilliant people in Wall Street that are saying that if President Trump doesn't win, you're going to have a depression. I have to agree. I think that's true. Because I know how bad these people are. You know, they like to say that they did this and that. You saw the seven trillion that they said it was me for seven trillion. It wasn't me. It was them. They said that I had inflation. They took over 9% in inflation. No, no, I had 1% inflation. I had actually no inflation because if you look at the categories, we had just about no inflation. But I had a very minor-- I actually had a positive inflation. It was a perfect number. Because you don't want zero. I mean, I'm not going to give you a whole course on economics. But you don't want zero. 1% 1.4% is great. You want a little bit because you don't want to have deflation. Deflation is, in many ways, even worse. I had a perfect number right around the 1% number. It was perfect. And to show you, it stayed there for two years. And then he did all of the different borrowings that he did. And then he did so many things wrong. Every time he would do it, I'd say big mistake. And don't forget they sell hats. And they sell stories. Trump was right about everything. I happened right about a lot.”

The GOP nominee is a moron. “And don’t forget they sell hats.”

[old salt]

Nice that you’re working overtime to disparage another serviceman. Such a surprise.

I'm surprised by what's coming to light & the MSM isn't ferreting it out.
I was working overtime to dig up factual evidence that defended Walz. I gave him every benefit of the doubt.
I admired his story & was looking to validate it. He didn't need to embellish it. He apparently served admirably.
Looks like I may have gotten out over my skis. His campaign press kit ? I can't believe Holder missed that or thought they could deny it.
obtw -- after you serve two years, your pension increases 2,5%/yr. It dovetails nicely with a career as a school teacher or member of Congress or state legislator.

[Kismet]

Nice that you’re working overtime to disparage another serviceman. Such a surprise.

I'm surprised by what's coming to light & the MSM isn't ferreting it out.
I was working overtime to dig up factual evidence that defended Walz. I gave him every benefit of the doubt.
I admired his story & was looking to validate it. He didn't need to embellish it. He apparently served admirably.
Looks like I may have gotten out over my skis. His campaign press kit ? I can't believe Holder missed that or thought they could deny it.
obtw -- after you serve two years, your pension increases 2,5%/yr. It dovetails nicely with a career as a school teacher or member of Congress or state legislator.

The usual mudslinging that you reserve only for those you don't support. For the others, its willful blindness. Now we're certain that your uncharacteristic praise was BS. Typical for you. Troll behavior at its finest.

Thanks for your service. No thanks for much of anything else you do here.

Its 20 years and you are still reciting the FALSE information at that time as if its the truth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kerr ... ontroversy

[Seacoaster(1)]

Nice that you’re working overtime to disparage another serviceman. Such a surprise.

I'm surprised by what's coming to light & the MSM isn't ferreting it out.
I was working overtime to dig up factual evidence that defended Walz. I gave him every benefit of the doubt.
I admired his story & was looking to validate it. He didn't need to embellish it. He apparently served admirably.
Looks like I may have gotten out over my skis. His campaign press kit ? I can't believe Holder missed that or thought they could deny it.
obtw -- after you serve two years, your pension increases 2,5%/yr. It dovetails nicely with a career as a school teacher or member of Congress or state legislator.

Sorry, but you really are completely full of sh*t. And you know it, and everyone here knows you know it.

The benefit of the doubt would be simply to credit the fact that he served for 24 years, rather than getting on the subjective swift boat train that you have boarded. Will you be talking about Trump's service? About his relentless lying and gaslighting to work his way into becoming the Commander-in-Chief of folks like Walz? About his debasing treatment of women and people of color in the course of his lifetime? About his mockery of veterans? About his mockery of disabled people? About his blindingly obvious diminished and diminishing mental acuity? About his astonishingly demented "press conference" yesterday?

“And don’t forget they sell hats.”

[MDlaxfan76]

Good lord, even this hit piece posted by Salty, when read closely, reaffirms that what Walz actually claimed was accurate.

He told the truth about it contemporaneously that he did not go to Iraq, he went to Italy...in support of that war. He did go overseas and it was in support of the war on terror. And specifically the war in Afghanistan.

Can the phrasing taken out of context be misread as a claim that he went to Afghanistan? Yes. But that's obviously not what he was claiming contemporaneously, publicly, so one has to be trying to misread to get claim otherwise.

Extremely unlikely missed this in vetting, it had been reported on as a hit issue way back in 2006 and been dismissed as just that, political dirty hits. And they didn't work.

[DMac]

Read it the same way MDlax.
This dirty politics digging, twisting, accusing, and misrepresenting is revolting.
Vance (the tough guy Marine) says Walz abandoned his unit. No he didn't, he retired.
Accusing him of stolen valor is below the belt slandering but he's Trump's running mate
so not at all surprising.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Read it the same way MDlax.
This dirty politics digging, twisting, accusing, and misrepresenting is revolting.
Vance (the tough guy Marine) says Walz abandoned his unit. No he didn't, he retired.
Accusing him of stolen valor is below the belt slandering but he's Trump's running mate
so not at all surprising.

And Vance has Old Sailor’s support, which is also not surprising. Vance didn’t group up a dirt poor hillbilly in Middletown Ohio. Hid dad had one of those good jobs like a lot of people in the region. Trickle down economics got his family and a lot of others in the region.

[old salt]

Nice that you’re working overtime to disparage another serviceman. Such a surprise.

I'm surprised by what's coming to light & the MSM isn't ferreting it out.
I was working overtime to dig up factual evidence that defended Walz. I gave him every benefit of the doubt.
I admired his story & was looking to validate it. He didn't need to embellish it. He apparently served admirably.
Looks like I may have gotten out over my skis. His campaign press kit ? I can't believe Holder missed that or thought they could deny it.
obtw -- after you serve two years, your pension increases 2,5%/yr. It dovetails nicely with a career as a school teacher or member of Congress or state legislator.

Sorry, but you really are completely full of sh*t. And you know it, and everyone here knows you know it.

The benefit of the doubt would be simply to credit the fact that he served for 24 years, rather than getting on the subjective swift boat train that you have boarded. Will you be talking about Trump's service? About his relentless lying and gaslighting to work his way into becoming the Commander-in-Chief of folks like Walz? About his debasing treatment of women and people of color in the course of his lifetime? About his mockery of veterans? About his mockery of disabled people? About his blindingly obvious diminished and diminishing mental acuity? About his astonishingly demented "press conference" yesterday?

“And don’t forget they sell hats.”

Big difference between Kerry & Walz. Unlike Swift boats, no combat duty involved, no fabrications or exaggerations to earn combat awards. Walz served admirably.

Trump's non-service is irrelevant, unless you include everyone of his generation who was 4F or used a student deferment.

Vance has never implied that he saw combat. He did deploy to a war zone & was at risk as a result. He does not brag about his weapons training or that he carried a rifle when embedded & operating "outside the wire"...even though Every Marine is a rifleman.

Walz is a master communicator. That's why he's a VP candidate. As a HS social studies teacher, HS FB Coach, & a Master Sergeant (E-8) functioning as a Command Sergeant Major (E-9 assignment) he knows how to explain his service in a way that can't be misconstrued that he saw combat duty, deployed to Afghanistan, or was not aware of his unit's coming deployment to Iraq when he elected to retire.
I would not call it Stolen Valor.

[RedFromMI]

Read it the same way MDlax.
This dirty politics digging, twisting, accusing, and misrepresenting is revolting.
Vance (the tough guy Marine) says Walz abandoned his unit. No he didn't, he retired.
Accusing him of stolen valor is below the belt slandering but he's Trump's running mate
so not at all surprising.

He would have had to put in his papers for retirement well before he actually retired (for the SECOND time, as he rejoined after his retirement at 20 yrs due to 911). Put his name in the hat for the House seat a couple of months before his actual retirement date, and that was before any announcement of his unit's call up. And if he was truly needed, there could have been a stop loss order to bring him back again.

To call this abandonment is truly bogus and horrible, but from the guy running things for Trump, exactly what was to be expected...