Tim Walz

[Phil1111 1,053]

18 minutes ago, normiss said:

Meanwhile, others that served with him see it differently:

https://www.newsweek.com/tim-walz-did-something-wrong-service-former-command-sgt-major-1936798#:~:text=Walz achieved the rank of,the Minnesota governorship in 2018.

It's not like he took a high paying DoD position due to his experience in the military, nah, honorable service members won't do that either. /s

He went to Congress, to continue serving his country.

 

Vance was a "combat correspondent" as a marine for 4 years.He never went anywhere near a war in his entire four years. In his book he stated that he was grateful for having escaped "real combat" and for learning how to "live like an adult". Then he joined the MAGA cult.

Too bad that learning what honor means escaped his service.

[SkyDekker 1,277]

13 hours ago, billeisele said:

If in fact his governor's website bio says he's a CSM, and further says that he carried a gun in war, those are problems.

Your party has a guy who claims to be an Admiral who is really a Captain and is lead by a draft dodger. So no, it isn't a problem.

 

 

[billvon 2,687]

I worked for the Air Force for a while as a civilian, and I worked with a lot of Air Force and a few Navy guys.  And they were largely full of shit.  They'd talk shit about the stuff they did, about the adventures they had, about the time they almost got killed etc etc.  And I worked with these guys; they spent their entire enlistment in a hangar near Sacramento fixing airplanes.  Nothing wrong with that.  Heck, that's what I was doing at the time.  And a lot of people join the military to "see the world," be heroes, have adventures etc.  And so if these guys found themselves stuck in an Air Force base in the US, and they wanted to embellish their stories a bit I wasn't going to get in their way; wasn't hurting anyone.

But now that JD Vance is attacking another veteran for "stolen valor" that means that he doesn't get the same consideration, especially since he is claiming that HE is the brave soldier in the war zone while JD Vance is a coward.  

So from that perspective let's look at JD Vance's brave career in the Iraq "war zone" in the latter part of 2005 and those of his fellow soldiers:

Tricia Jameson was a healthcare specialist from Nebraska who served with the Nebraska National Air Guard. On Jul 13 2005 she was killed when a roadside IED detonated near her ambulance in Trebil, as she rushed to the aid of three wounded Marines.

On Jul 13 2005, JD Vance was sitting in an air conditioned office writing stories.

John Tollefson was a football player in his high school in Wisconsin.  When he was sidelined with concussions, he started mentoring youth football teams.  He joined the Army after high school. On July 27, 2005 he was killed, along with another soldier, when his vehicle was destroyed by an IED buried in a road in Ashraf.  He was on patrol at the time.

On July 27, 2005, JD Vance was sitting in an air conditioned office writing stories.

Toccara Green had always wanted to serve her country.  She enlisted with the Army and her "black job" was as a specialist for the 57th Transportation company. On August 14th, 2005 she was ambushed, shot and killed while convoying supplies along an Iraqi road into Asad.

On August 14, 2005, JD Vance was sitting in an air conditioned office writing stories.

So perhaps JD should tone down the rhetoric, lest similar scrunity be applied to his claims.
 

 

[tkhayes 243]

2 hours ago, normiss said:

Meanwhile, others that served with him see it differently:

https://www.newsweek.com/tim-walz-did-something-wrong-service-former-command-sgt-major-1936798#:~:text=Walz achieved the rank of,the Minnesota governorship in 2018.

It's not like he took a high paying DoD position due to his experience in the military, nah, honorable service members won't do that either. /s

He went to Congress, to continue serving his country.

 

Trump was apparently in a near-death helicopter incident.... except that he wasn't

Is that stolen terror?  Stolen horror?  But of course, NO ONE< not a single MAGA republican will have a problem with it

Trump apparently confuses Willie Brown with Jerry Brown in helicopter tale | Reuters

The reason that the attacks on Walz's military service are going to backfire is because the attacks themselves are an attack on the military and veterans and everyone who served.

As long as the GOP keeps talking, Kamala will keep winning.  It's a fucking disgrace to attack someone with 24 years of service - unless of course your name is Flynn and you come under federal indictment.

[JerryBaumchen 1,243]

4 hours ago, billeisele said:

Good morning.  The sources are direct comments by soldiers that served with him (and I clearly stated that they could be biased), CNN, his Governors website and the Congressional record. If those sources aren't sufficient which ones would be acceptable?

The problem is the perception he's either created or allowed to exist in both his bios. According to the CSM I spoke with the military folks take this stuff seriously. It can't be glossed over, pushed aside or redefined.

To Jerrys question: No I did not serve in the military. It's definitely not the same but I've worked with the DoD for 30+ years interacting with civilian DoD employees, enlisted folks all the way up to Base Commanders in the Army, Navy, Marine Corp, Air Force and National Guard at Fort Jackson, Parris Island, Naval Weapons Station, Marine Corps Air Station, two Navy Hospitals, Shaw AFB, McEntire ANG Base, USCG Charleston and others like Army Corps and NAVFAC. All that says is I have some experience with the military.  

My distaste for politics continues. Certainly we have better people that any of the current candidates.

Hi Bill,

Re:  enlisted folks all the way up to Base Commanders

This shows me that you know nothing about the military.  No enlisted person will ever be a Base Commander.  Those are officers.

Jerry Baumchen

[billvon 2,687]

22 minutes ago, tkhayes said:

Trump was apparently in a near-death helicopter incident.... except that he wasn't

 

The text:

“I went down in a helicopter with him.  We thought maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing, and Willie was, he was a little concerned."

What a brave man!

[JerryBaumchen 1,243]

16 hours ago, billeisele said:

Quotes from 2 men that served with Walz. Who knows if these two guys are credible and if their statements are accurate. The quotes were made during a FOX interview. If it was the FOX talking heads that said the words I'd be skeptical.

Spoke with a CSM friend at the monthly AUSA meeting at Fort Jackson on Wednesday. He said that they take that rank seriously and it's inappropriate for anyone to claim that rank if they didn't achieve it.

 

Command Sgt Major Thomas Behrends (retired) served with Gov Waltz has accused him of embellishing his time in the service and abandoning his unit just before they deployed. Behrends, who said he was a member of Walz's battalion, scolded the Minnesota governor for misleading the American public about his military career. 

His service concluded when he retired from his unit in the Minnesota National Guard right before they deployed to Iraq in 2005. Asked about Trump running mate Sen. JD Vance's accusation that Walz is guilty of "stolen valor," the National Guard veteran said that it's "far darker than a lot of people think."

"He's used the rank that he never achieved in order to advance his political career," he said. "I mean, he still says he's a retired command sergeant major to this day, and he's not. He uses the rank of others to make it look like he's a better person than he is." 

Waltz is described as a retired "command sergeant major" in his governor's website biography and has also claimed he carried a gun "in war," despite never experiencing active combat. The Minnesota National Guard has said that he retired as a master sergeant.

"To most people, that would mean that he was actually in combat, carrying a weapon in a combat zone and getting combat pay and in a dangerous and hostile environment where he is getting shot at," Behrends said. "I mean, if he thinks Italy was a combat zone or a war zone and he was carrying that in war, he's delusional," he added.

Behrends said Walz had been promoted to command sergeant major in 2004, but claimed he was required to serve two additional years or the promotion would be void. His early retirement terminated the promotion, reducing his rank to master sergeant, Behrends said. "What he did, basically, was he quit. He didn't complete that condition of doing two years after graduation, so he gets reduced to a master sergeant, and that's what he is right now, is a retired master sergeant."

"From what I get from the soldiers that I went to Iraq with, probably 98% of them are completely against him embellishing his record," he said. "Don't try to make it look like you were a command sergeant major. Don't try to make it look like you were going to some place that was in support of Operation Enduring Freedom… that's just all embellishment and lies to try to make things look better."

Tom Schilling, who also said he was a member of Walz's battalion, slammed his actions as "dishonorable." "I have my stories about what he did to the military, when he left us like that, and I was kind of like, ‘Are you kidding me?’" Schilling said, recalling his reaction when he heard Harris tapped Walz as her running mate. "We all did what we were supposed to do, we did the right thing, and it's dishonorable what he did," Schilling said. "He left somebody else to take over his spot. He just ditched us."

Hi Bill,

It was 70 yrs ago that Joseph N. Welch said it best:  "At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

Jerry Baumchen

[JerryBaumchen 1,243]

Hi folks,

And, it looks like J D Vance himself would disagree with Bill:  “It’s easy to sit in the comfort and safety of a @CNN studio and trivialize the service of countless men and women who risked their lives,” Vance wrote.

Or sit at a keyboard.

JD Vance knocks CNN's Brianna Keilar over military record criticism (thehill.com)

Jerry Baumchen

[JoeWeber 2,527]

6 hours ago, billeisele said:

No one is denying his honorable service. No one is denying what Trump did. The comments aren't comparing Trump and Walz.

Was he a CSM, yes. He clearly knew that wasn't permanent. Most reading the bios would think that he retired as a CSM. At best it's misleading. The bio links were provided. The CNN link is below. 

The not good comment was directed as his claims that are false. The CSM claim is in his Governor bio and in in his congressional bio. Both those links were provided. Both of which he had years to correct. The two guys making the accusations served with Walz. These are not R Swift Boating talking points.

Here's the CNN report on the weapons at war topic. The more this stuff is denied the worse it gets.   CNN fact-checks Tim Walz about ‘absolutely false’ claim he carried weapons 'in war' (msn.com)

Bill, you are a part of the base that makes it possible for Vance to claim Walz is guilty of stolen valor, truly the worst of all things that carries huge negative connotations with the electorate. He wore no one else's medals and probably carried the same weapons of war Brent carried for 20 years not to war but to Italy instead of Lithuania. Turing bio blips to a stolen valor claim is ludicrous and is most certainly swift boating. Anyway, tell us truly that you never once at any time in your life, young or old, embellished a resume, a biography, or your jumping skills to get an advantage. 

[billvon 2,687]

2 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

Turing bio blips to a stolen valor claim is ludicrous and is most certainly swift boating.

Yep.  And from an administration that already has had problems stemming from their dislike of veterans, Gold Star families, POWs and wounded warriors - this could backfire rather badly.

[obelixtim 127]

4 hours ago, billvon said:

The text:

“I went down in a helicopter with him.  We thought maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing, and Willie was, he was a little concerned."

What a brave man!

Dismissed by Mr Brown as total fiction. Was never in a helicopter with Trump, was never involved in any emergency landing, and never dissed Kamala Harris. A fantasy in Trumps addled mind. 

[nigel99 277]

5 hours ago, JerryBaumchen said:

Hi folks,

And, it looks like J D Vance himself would disagree with Bill:  “It’s easy to sit in the comfort and safety of a @CNN studio and trivialize the service of countless men and women who risked their lives,” Vance wrote.

Or sit at a keyboard.

JD Vance knocks CNN's Brianna Keilar over military record criticism (thehill.com)

Jerry Baumchen

Even fox coming out against the nonsense 

“Tim Walz served his country honorably for 24 years. JD Vance, Trump need to respect that. He earned it | Fox News”

Fox News Defends Walz

[kallend 1,803]

14 hours ago, billeisele said:

blah

Bill,

Does it not bother you at all that you are supporting:

A proven fraud,

Someone who stole from his own foundation,

Someone who is on tape admitting to being a sexual predator,

Calling our military casualties "losers",and "suckers" while getting out of service himself with "bone spurs",

A pathological liar,

A braggart who knows more about everything than anyone (see link).

Denied that COVID would be a problem, then reckoned horse dewormer is a treatment https://www.google.com/search?q=nobody+know+more+trump&rlz=1C1FKPE_enUS1029US1029&oq=nobody+know+more+trump&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDgxODdqMGo0qAIAsAIB&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:8db29a11,vid:sR3f95BGIiA,st:0,

[JoeWeber 2,527]

I'm thinking it's not too soon for caps that say: "Make America Walz Again!"

[JoeWeber 2,527]

1 hour ago, kallend said:

Bill,

Does it not bother you at all that you are supporting:

A proven fraud,

Someone who stole from his own foundation,

Someone who is on tape admitting to being a sexual predator,

Calling our military casualties "losers",and "suckers" while getting out of service himself with "bone spurs",

A pathological liar,John

A braggart who knows more about everything than anyone (see link).

Denied that COVID would be a problem, then reckoned horse dewormer is a treatment https://www.google.com/search?q=nobody+know+more+trump&rlz=1C1FKPE_enUS1029US1029&oq=nobody+know+more+trump&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDgxODdqMGo0qAIAsAIB&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:8db29a11,vid:sR3f95BGIiA,st:0,

John,

Like a lot of us Bill is a product of where he lives, who he's had for friends for years, and his self and locally perceived identity of a reasonable conservative. (In that limited regard he's no different from BIGUN). No way could they ever walk away from their social comfort zones. Bill is so steeped in the southern military ethos and his personal associations that he can of talk of 'mercs (mercenaries)", "rotary platforms (helicopters)", "AR-15 platforms" and other military sounding things with comfort. And then, even though he has never served a single day in uniform, but did work with folks from DoD and so on mind you, he feels free, validated and qualified enough to disparage someone who actually served for 24 years and yet cannot see in that his own cognitive dissonance or how it is that he was led to such a place. Bill is no fool and far from it, he's not a MAGA-idiot as we think of them. He's a thinking guy, for sure. But he's not on offer as a potential opponent to Trumpism here in public. That will never happen.

[olofscience 456]

@billeisele, remember this?

On 9/9/2020 at 12:01 AM, billeisele said:

- I have owned and run a couple businesses. One was small and the other one had $21.5 million of revenue in 3.5 years, not to shabby. Also worked for a Fortune 500 size corporation, and a few other small businesses.

Turned out you didn't own nor actually run the $21.5 million business.

Does this make what you did "stolen financial valor"?

[tkhayes 243]

16 hours ago, billvon said:

Yep.  And from an administration that already has had problems stemming from their dislike of veterans, Gold Star families, POWs and wounded warriors - this could backfire rather badly.

this WILL backfire badly.  I believe part of the reason that Kamala is now pulling ahead is more things like this.

Veterans and military personnel, maybe trump supporters or sitting on the fence are tired as fuck of this stuff. 

Trump has shown that he will attack ANY veteran (for that matter, anyone period), regardless of their service, their record, whatever, because of course, they disagree with him.  The list today has to be dozens of specific individuals, many of them distinguished, and many of them his own picks for various postings.

Regardless of political leanings, I would find it hard to believe that most military folks out there are finally getting the fact that Trump does not give a fuck about them.

1% more here, 1% more there, loses the election.  Still waiting for Brenthutch to comment on what he will do or support when Trump loses YET again.  I expect he will dodge that forever.

[gowlerk 2,072]

Now this. On top of everything else about the man.

This is Tim Walz' restored 1979 International Scout. It's his only personal vehicle.

[nigel99 277]

2 hours ago, gowlerk said:

Now this. On top of everything else about the man.

This is Tim Walz' restored 1979 International Scout. It's his only personal vehicle.

I like how he defended his service and then in the same breath thanked Vance for his. Both classy and clever messaging about being the bigger man.

He seems to be an all round stand up guy.

[JoeWeber 2,527]

1 hour ago, nigel99 said:

I like how he defended his service and then in the same breath thanked Vance for his. Both classy and clever messaging about being the bigger man.

He seems to be an all round stand up guy.

My Dad bought a new International Travelall 4 Door, had to be like 1967 or so, and the damn thing was a bull; it could tow anything and go over boulders. We'd go until we were stuck and then hook up the winch and get free. I honestly cannot remember a single place we ever went that was worth the effort.

[jakee 1,321]

9 hours ago, gowlerk said:

Now this. On top of everything else about the man.

This is Tim Walz' restored 1979 International Scout. It's his only personal vehicle.

International? What more proof do you need that he’s a Bolshevik pawn of the globalist new world order elite?

[Phil1111 1,053]

On 8/10/2024 at 8:01 AM, tkhayes said:

this WILL backfire badly.  I believe part of the reason that Kamala is now pulling ahead is more things like this.

Veterans and military personnel, maybe trump supporters or sitting on the fence are tired as fuck of this stuff. 

Trump has shown that he will attack ANY veteran (for that matter, anyone period), regardless of their service, their record, whatever, because of course, they disagree with him.  The list today has to be dozens of specific individuals, many of them distinguished, and many of them his own picks for various postings.

Regardless of political leanings, I would find it hard to believe that most military folks out there are finally getting the fact that Trump does not give a fuck about them.

1% more here, 1% more there, loses the election.  Still waiting for Brenthutch to comment on what he will do or support when Trump loses YET again.  I expect he will dodge that forever.

Evidently Trump joked about his own Vietnam. While on the Howard Stern show he said that chasing women for sex and avoiding STDs was his "own Vietnam". Such a brave example, a standard bearer of the American male.

Edited August 15 by Phil1111

[ryoder 1,534]

51 minutes ago, Phil1111 said:

Evidently Trump joked about his own Vietnam. While on the Howard Stern show he said that chasing women for sex and avoiding STDs was his "own Vietnam". Such a brave example, a standard bearer of the American male.

Good to know that when the sexual revolution broke out, he was out there on the front lines, fighting for all of us!

[kallend 1,803]

On 8/9/2024 at 11:49 PM, JoeWeber said:

John,

Like a lot of us Bill is a product of where he lives, who he's had for friends for years, and his self and locally perceived identity of a reasonable conservative. (In that limited regard he's no different from BIGUN). No way could they ever walk away from their social comfort zones.

I see a  big difference between Bigun on the one hand and Bill (and Bartsdad) on the other.  Bigun clearly is thoughtful about the issues and although conservative is not a knee-jerk defender of Trump and the MAGA cult.  In fact it seems to me (based on what he writes) that he is not comfortable with Trumpism.

  I don't see that at all in Bill.

[JoeWeber 2,527]

2 hours ago, kallend said:

I see a  big difference between Bigun on the one hand and Bill (and Bartsdad) on the other.  Bigun clearly is thoughtful about the issues and although conservative is not a knee-jerk defender of Trump and the MAGA cult.  In fact it seems to me (based on what he writes) that he is not comfortable with Trumpism.

  I don't see that at all in Bill.

Peas in a pod they aren't, I agree; it's their pods I was thinking about:

"Like a lot of us Bill is a product of where he lives, who he's had for friends for years, and his self and locally perceived identity of a reasonable conservative. (In that limited regard he's no different from BIGUN). No way could they ever walk away from their social comfort zones."