Anonymous wrote:Millions of veterans & servicemembers are better off because Tim Walz made it to Congress, because he became one of their top defenders, because he passed legislation to prevent veterans suicide, and because he worked tirelessly to combat Trump’s worst impulses on policy for vets.

Including J. D. Vance who was able to attend university thanks to an expanded G.I. Bill that Walz helped pass when he was ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee.

Millions of veterans & servicemembers are better off because Tim Walz made it to Congress, because he became one of their top defenders, because he passed legislation to prevent veterans suicide, and because he worked tirelessly to combat Trump’s worst impulses on policy for vets.

And this is the thanks he gets.

Do you all on the right who are supporting the Swiftboating attempt see the problem here.

The man served honorably for 24 years of his adult life.

He served several terms in Congress supporting our serivemembers and vets and you all are trying to Swiftboat him on the smallest of BS gripes.

Where is your criticism of Trump, who lied about bonespurs to avoid service all while his peers were fighting and dying in Vietnam?

Anonymous wrote:Walz has been through both congressional and gubinitorial campaigns with media scrutiny over this issue.

It is all well documented and the public won't let a few partisan hacks and angry former service members derail the narrative.

The documentation confirm Walz version of events. He served. He retired. He came back, he got a promotion, he retired again before finishing the coursework for said promotion.

He still attained the rank even if he didn't formally retire with it.

He retired after 24 years of service. He gave 4 additional years after 9/11 and retired before his troop received orders to go abroad.

Period.

If that is the swiftboating the right wants to push in the context of a presidential nominee who faked his way out of service to the country in Vietnam, then so be it.

In the meantime, the right will simply be showing the country that it belittles the service of every nationalguardsman and every service member who didn't go abroad in their service.

It isn't like Vance saw combat, he was a desk jockey. That doesn't make his service less, but neither were combat veterans, so who cares?

This. All MAGA has is a reaction that bullies and insults. Do you REALLY want to compare lies of the candidates? REALLY?
We could come out and say "our guy isn't a convicted felon"
I'm going to say your candidate has no sound policies and didn't when he was POTUS. MExico will pay for the wall. yep, they sure did. Jesus.
What if you simply compared policy?

Walz has been through both congressional and gubinitorial campaigns with media scrutiny over this issue.

It is all well documented and the public won't let a few partisan hacks and angry former service members derail the narrative.

The documentation confirm Walz version of events. He served. He retired. He came back, he got a promotion, he retired again before finishing the coursework for said promotion.

He still attained the rank even if he didn't formally retire with it.

He retired after 24 years of service. He gave 4 additional years after 9/11 and retired before his troop received orders to go abroad.

Period.

If that is the swiftboating the right wants to push in the context of a presidential nominee who faked his way out of service to the country in Vietnam, then so be it.

In the meantime, the right will simply be showing the country that it belittles the service of every nationalguardsman and every service member who didn't go abroad in their service.

It isn't like Vance saw combat, he was a desk jockey. That doesn't make his service less, but neither were combat veterans, so who cares?

He rose to the highest rank an enlisted kid can get to. I’m impressed! Plus even Trump ran on getting out of Iraq in 2016, in fact he gave away the whole area to Putin during his term.

Anonymous wrote:Y'all are grasping at straws by arguing over technicalities and small details to try and "swift boat" one of the more decent human beings we've seen be a candidate for either main party in years.

Trump is out there lying multiple times on camera (30K lies during his president according to Wash Post fact checker). In today's presser Trump flat out lied that his crowd numbers for inauguration were higher than MLK's "I have a dream" speech. Along with cheap and inaccurate ad hominem attacks on Harris. JD Vance called adults who can't have children sociopathic and disturbing. Who are these horrible men and why is any party letting them run as candidates to represent them?

By all accounts, Walz is a gem of a human who cares about other people and has changed his former students' lives. Let's just celebrate him because he deserves it. I'd be so proud if he was our VP.

thank God there's a sane comment on this thread! I agree fully.

Y'all are grasping at straws by arguing over technicalities and small details to try and "swift boat" one of the more decent human beings we've seen be a candidate for either main party in years.

Trump is out there lying multiple times on camera (30K lies during his president according to Wash Post fact checker). In today's presser Trump flat out lied that his crowd numbers for inauguration were higher than MLK's "I have a dream" speech. Along with cheap and inaccurate ad hominem attacks on Harris. JD Vance called adults who can't have children sociopathic and disturbing. Who are these horrible men and why is any party letting them run as candidates to represent them?

By all accounts, Walz is a gem of a human who cares about other people and has changed his former students' lives. Let's just celebrate him because he deserves it. I'd be so proud if he was our VP.

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe people are bashing a guy who served for 24 years over a small technicality. Ffs.

Seriously, move on. This is all you've got? They're grasping at straws

I can’t believe people are bashing a guy who served for 24 years over a small technicality. Ffs.

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:The campaign just changed Walz’s biography on their site from “retired Command Sergeant Major” to “served as a command sergeant major”.

I still don't understand what the difference is.

Walz was provisionally promoted to Command Sergeant Major but was required to complete some coursework. He ended up retiring without completing the coursework. Therefore, he reverted to his previous rank. So, Walz served as a Command Sergeant Major and was still a Command Sergeant Major the day before he retired, but he retired as a Master Sergeant (if I recall correctly).

The coursework is called the Sergeant Major Academy in El Paso TX. Walz either refused to attend or dropped out. I have seen a source that stated Walz dropped out of the Academy.

Once Walz either refused to attend the academy or dropped out, his promotion was terminated and he no longer had the right to be referred to as SGM or CSM.

Where are you sourcing the information in your post from? Link?

I have been reading a number of sources for two days. That was mostly off the top of my head. The Washington Post today reported that he did not revert to his previous rank until the day before he retired.

If you refuse to attend your slot at the Sergeant Major Academy (you will get a date to attend the Academy when you make the E9 list) you cannot be referred to as a SGM or CSM. If you accept your date to attend the SGM academy and then cannot complete the academy and graduate, you are still a E8 Master Sergeant. You aren’t a SGM or CSM until you graduate the academy.

Walz isn’t being truthful and clueless media is either covering up for him or ignorant themselves.

Walz knows better and is being allowed to lie about his military service because he is an elected official.

The Minnesota National Guard issued an official statement saying that Walz had served as a CSM and had the right to say that he had served as one.

But his rank was always E8 Master Sergeant. He never graduated from the Sergeant Major Academy in TX. He can say he served as a CSM temporarily but he never attained the rank of E9 SGM and retired as an E8 Master Sergeant. Saying Walz made the SGM list is the truth. Saying he served (for how long?) as a CSM is the truth. But saying he was a CSM is a lie and he’s lying. He either dropped out of the SGM academy or refused his slot.

Walz also said he carried a weapon in war. That’s not true, either.

We understand the distinction. And the Harris/Walz campaign has had their wrist slapped and corrected to "served as a CSM" which the Minnesota National Guard spokesman says is legitimate for him to say.

And he has corrected himself about the weapon of war quote, saying he did carry a weapon of war, but not in war or combat.

So, if you are this worked up about these slips, then I guess you are also upset that Vance has embellished himself, through his Hillbilly Elegies, too. Vance claims to have come from Appalachia and grew up poor raised by a single mother who was a alcholic. The only part that was true was that his mother was an alcoholic and that his father had disappeared while he was growing up. The truth is that his grandparents were originally from Appalachia, but by the time he was born, had moved to suburban Cincinnati. Yes, his mother was alcoholic, but she didn't raise him and only occasionally visted him. He was raised by his grandparents, not in poverty, but in fairly typical middle class suburbia.

So, he has tried to give the "poor boy from Appalachia" woe-is-me story for years, but in reality, he was not. That's at least as big, if not bigger, distortion of the truth as Walz claiming he was a retired CSM instead of an acting CSM who did not complete CSM training before retiring as a Sergeant Major. Or carrying a weapon of war, but mistakenly saying he had carried it in war, when he had carried it in service, but not in combat or war.

In truth, neither man's embellishments really are significant enough to make as much of a deal over as people are making them out to be. They are details that were embellished, were caught and both have corrected. Time to move on. Neither one's emblishments are going to make or break either candidate or ticket. And neither are particularly important.

Anonymous wrote:Football coach, public school teacher, mentor, national guard for 20+ years, IVF dad, american patriot - I LOVE Tim Walz!

Same. Tim is just good vibes and a good man.

All the petty attempts to poke holes in his character aren't landing.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The campaign just changed Walz’s biography on their site from “retired Command Sergeant Major” to “served as a command sergeant major”.

I still don't understand what the difference is.

Walz was provisionally promoted to Command Sergeant Major but was required to complete some coursework. He ended up retiring without completing the coursework. Therefore, he reverted to his previous rank. So, Walz served as a Command Sergeant Major and was still a Command Sergeant Major the day before he retired, but he retired as a Master Sergeant (if I recall correctly).

The coursework is called the Sergeant Major Academy in El Paso TX. Walz either refused to attend or dropped out. I have seen a source that stated Walz dropped out of the Academy.

Once Walz either refused to attend the academy or dropped out, his promotion was terminated and he no longer had the right to be referred to as SGM or CSM.

Where are you sourcing the information in your post from? Link?

I have been reading a number of sources for two days. That was mostly off the top of my head. The Washington Post today reported that he did not revert to his previous rank until the day before he retired.

If you refuse to attend your slot at the Sergeant Major Academy (you will get a date to attend the Academy when you make the E9 list) you cannot be referred to as a SGM or CSM. If you accept your date to attend the SGM academy and then cannot complete the academy and graduate, you are still a E8 Master Sergeant. You aren’t a SGM or CSM until you graduate the academy.

Walz isn’t being truthful and clueless media is either covering up for him or ignorant themselves.

Walz knows better and is being allowed to lie about his military service because he is an elected official.

The Minnesota National Guard issued an official statement saying that Walz had served as a CSM and had the right to say that he had served as one.

But his rank was always E8 Master Sergeant. He never graduated from the Sergeant Major Academy in TX. He can say he served as a CSM temporarily but he never attained the rank of E9 SGM and retired as an E8 Master Sergeant. Saying Walz made the SGM list is the truth. Saying he served (for how long?) as a CSM is the truth. But saying he was a CSM is a lie and he’s lying. He either dropped out of the SGM academy or refused his slot.

Walz also said he carried a weapon in war. That’s not true, either.

Walz has probably talked about his service 1,000 times. A couple of times he was apparently not entirely accurate. The other times clearly were or we would be hearing all about them as well. The Minnesota National Guard says that he served as a Command Sergeant Major. The day before he retired, according to the Washington Post, he was serving a Command Sergeant Major. The difference between "retired after serving as a Command Sergeant Major" and being a "retired Command Sergeant Major" is minuscule to most people. Especially since this lapse has apparently only happened a couple of times.

The weapon of war things was while he was talking about gun control. Immediately after he said that, he made clear that he had not been in a war. Again, in his 60 years of life you have been able to find maybe 2 times he misspoke. Is that the hill you want to die on? I don't want to "whatabout", but if I did want to whatabout, we would be here a long time as we discuss J. D.'s similar lapses of accuracy.

Walz has on his wikipedia page his highest rank was a CSM.

His highest rank was an E8 Master Sergeant.

Walz isn’t misspeaking, he’s willfully misrepresenting his rank.

Yes, you have said this repeatedly. Maybe the difference between "served as a CSM" and "ranked as a CSM" is important to you. Maybe it is important to a lot of other people. But, the vast majority of people simply won't care. The guy served as a CSM. You don't dispute that. The technicalities of his actual rank is a paperwork issue.

. . . and yet the lead article on CNN.com right now is this: https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/08/politics/tim-walz-accusations-2006-embellishing-military-service/index.html

Maybe it shouldn't matter, but it does. The swift boats are back for another round.

Anonymous wrote:The campaign just changed Walz’s biography on their site from “retired Command Sergeant Major” to “served as a command sergeant major”.

Silly unforced error by the campaign. Were these people alive in 2004?

Football coach, public school teacher, mentor, national guard for 20+ years, IVF dad, american patriot - I LOVE Tim Walz!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I genuinely love this man. I think Walz can use his former teacher/coach skills to bring unity, empathy and common sense to our country and our political conversations with our neighbors.

yeah I love him too. what a terrific human and great leader!

+1. I've become a Tim Walz stan!