Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

This blog will pay for itself.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

No one could have predicted…

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Sobering Read: “Stolen Valor”

Sobering Read: “Stolen Valor”

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Phillip Carter, “a former Army officer and former Pentagon official who is now senior fellow at a Center for a New American Security”, at Slate, explains why “Donald Trump’s appropriation of Ryan Owens’ heroism and Carryn Owens’ grief was a disgrace“:

If you stuck with President Donald Trump to the end of his speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, you would have been treated to a patriotic display that much of the media felt was guaranteed to warm your heart. For two minutes and 11 seconds, Trump exhorted the audience in Congress—and at home—to stand for Carryn Owens, the wife of Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens, who was killed during a disastrous counterterrorism raid in Yemen ordered by Trump just days after his inauguration.

Words cannot convey my compassion and sympathy for Owens and her family. And yet, at the same time, I can barely contain my anger and disgust at the way that Trump put her on display, seeking to appropriate her grief—and her deceased husband’s heroism—for his political gain. This was stolen valor on a presidential scale. And to make matters worse, it fits into a broader pattern of integrity theft by Trump, wherein he’s sought during his first weeks in office to attack or corrupt the integrity of the CIA, the military, and the Department of Homeland Security…

That Trump used this reality show moment to co-opt Owens’ heroism after so recklessly ordering the raid that cost him his life—and has since evaded responsibility for that raid—added insult to injury. There stood the commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces, the most powerful man on the planet, having attempted within the past 24 hours to avoid responsibility for the things he could (and did) control while seeking to claim laurels for acts of valor he had no claim to. It was disgraceful…

Read the whole thing, and maybe forward it to those of your low-info associates who are starry-eyed about Trump’s new “Presidential” tone.

Reader Interactions

119Comments

  2. 2.

    Timurid

    Just look at the photos of the Joint Chiefs, who all looked like they were struggling to keep their dinners down…

  5. 5.

    Soonergrunt

    Like many things Trump, this is one of those things that people see through the lens of their appreciation for, or disgust by him.
    I know Vets who think it’s just fine, to which I ask “hey, you want your wife held up like that? They’re clapping, which was important enough for Trump to mention it. That gonna keep your orphaned kid warm at night?”
    Everything Trump does, he does for self-aggrandizement. EVERYTHING.
    And something like another person’s dignity is not a concept he seems to understand.

  6. 6.

    Starfish

    We are reading about how Sessions lied to Congress about interactions with Russians during his confirmation here, right?

  8. 8.

    Baud

    @Baud:

    I mean, Trump did nearly the same thing with Benghazi mom. I’m happy to kabuki the outrage if it’s helpful, but this is what people who voted for him voted for.

  9. 9.

    PsiFighter37

    I know the bar gets set really low for mediocre white men, but this takes the absolute fucking cake.

    Sigh.

  10. 10.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    For the nth time today, as a human being I’m sorry for this woman’s loss, but as a citizen, I don’t care. Trump quoted (“I quote”) the Secretary of Defense as saying that this raid had been bigly successful and brought in valuable intelligence that will (not may) lead to great victories in the future.

    Ten Defense and IC sources said today, what they were saying twenty-four hours ago, that this is not true.

    There’s a strong case to be made that the President of the United States put lies in the mouth of the Secretary of Defense. The Warrior Monk owes it to the country to clear this up.

  11. 11.

    schrodingers_cat

    Should I send this letter to a newspaper?
    Mr Trump is getting far too much credit for striking a presidential tone while addressing the joint session of Congress, yesterday. While the tone may have been less belligerent the content of the speech was no different from immigrant bashing rhetoric we have heard from the Republican President since the day he announced his candidacy for the job. The President could not even be bothered to utter the name of the Indian tech worker casually murdered in a Kansas bar. Mr. Srinivas Kuchibhotla was just enjoying a drink after a hard day’s work when he was gunned down for what he represented to the murderer, an illegal immigrant from the Middle East. An unwanted usurper who was stealing a job or worse. It didn’t matter that Mr. Kuchibhotla was neither. All immigrants are fungible and better dead than alive in Mr. Trump’s America. How many more people have to die and how many more Jewish cemeteries have to desecrated for the press to call Mr. Trump’s rhetoric what it is, hate speech. Coming from leaders of nations such speech has led to genocide in the not so distant past. Mr. Trump lies casually, his statistics bear no resemblance to reality. A lie is still a lie, even at low decibels. Is constant lying and fomenting hatred, presidential? If so, the bar is so low that it is underground.

    In Mr. Trump’s nightmare fantasy land, immigrants are moochers, criminals or worse. They are here to take away jobs and lives and they contribute nothing. In real life however the economic contribution of immigrants is substantial. In addition to contributing to the GDP, most immigrants, contribute to both Social Security and Medicare, which they will benefit from, if and when they become permanent residents. The path to permanent residency unless one is a spouse of a United States citizen is a hard climb and far from easy. This was true even before the current administration came to power.

    If the moral imperative does not sway the third estate then the economic imperative should. The travel ban has already negatively impacted tourism industry. If the full restrictionist agenda proposed by Mr. Trump goes into action expect similar impact in the fields of medicine, health care, higher education, scientific research, tech and agriculture. Mr. Trump is playing with fire and it is the responsibility of the press to hold his feet to the fire Their duty is to be the watchdogs of democracy not lapdogs of the powerful. Don’t prove Mr. Trump right by behaving like craven enemies of democracy, do your job. The future of the Republic is at stake.

  12. 12.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Starfish:

    Yes – this apparently is a land mine left to detonate by Obama. It’s being covered in full by MSNBC as huge breaking news.

  14. 14.

    Jeffro

    “Integrity theft”…”dignity wraith” (Josh Marshall)…”Trumpsubstantiation” (Betty Cracker)… it’s all the same thing: everything this guy touches including our country becomes debased afterwards.

    I’m starting to wonder if Trump might not be “the walking dude” from The Stand

  17. 17.

    Jeffro

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: on an odd sidenote to that reporting on MSNBC … The video clips make sessions look like a hobbit next to trump … I know Trump is over 6 feet tall but sessions must be about 4 1/2 feet tall

    Height is half the story in American politics!

  18. 18.

    Starfish

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: People are acting like he should recuse himself from Russia investigations under the assumption that Republicans are not completely feckless. There should be a recall mechanism where these guys can be booted.

  25. 25.

    efgoldman

    Meanwhile, back at the ranch (reposting from the end of the dead thread two down)

    So, our chief law enforcement officer perjured himself in his confirmation hearings. Whoop de do!
    At least John Mitchell didn’t do anything illegal until after he was AG.

    Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general.
    The previously undisclosed discussions could fuel new congressional calls for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 presidential election. As attorney general, Sessions oversees the Justice Department and the FBI, which have been leading investigations into Russian meddling and any links to Trump’s associates. He has so far resisted calls to recuse himself.

  26. 26.

    Another Scott

    Donnie is a lying, brain damaged, monster. We’ve known this for a very long time.

    In other news, Donnie has all of $20M to build his big, beautiful wall. Reuters (Warning – autoplay videos on the page):

    President Donald Trump’s promise to use existing funds to begin immediate construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border has hit a financial roadblock, according to a document seen by Reuters.

    The rapid start of construction, promised throughout Trump’s campaign and in an executive order issued in January on border security, was to be financed, according to the White House, with “existing funds and resources” of the Department of Homeland Security.

    But so far, the DHS has identified only $20 million that can be re-directed to the multi-billion-dollar project, according to a document prepared by the agency and distributed to congressional budget staff last week.

    The document said the funds would be enough to cover a handful of contracts for wall prototypes, but not enough to begin construction of an actual barrier. This means that for the wall to move forward, the White House will need to convince Congress to appropriate funds.

    An internal report, previously reported by Reuters, estimated that fully walling off or fencing the entire southern border would cost $21.6 billion – $9.3 million per mile of fence and $17.8 million per mile of wall.

    […]

    This is my Shocked, Shocked face.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  28. 28.

    weaselone

    @Baud:

    This was a little different than Benghazi mom. Trump deliberately set himself up to be the beneficiary of people’s gratitude and sympathy for the sacrifice of the Seal and his widow. It was timed directly at the end of his speech for maximum effect and you saw how it worked on all of the pundits. Everyone felt a wave of emotion and patriotism as the speech wrapped up, so they were left with a strong positive impression of Trump and the speech as a whole. You’ll note that some pundits like Katie Tur ultimately backtracked after pushback and enough time had passed for their brains and logic to reassert control. It’s because they graded Trump and the speech based on their final emotional state, which was dictated by their reaction to Carryn Owens’ grief and her and her husband’s sacrifice not the content or quality of Trump’s speech.

  29. 29.

    cmorenc

    @Starfish:

    We are reading about how Sessions lied to Congress about interactions with Russians during his confirmation here, right?

    Being a man of perfect integrity, Sessions will investigate, indict, and prosecute himself, and post-conviction argue that the judge should give him a harsh sentence for lying under oath, and demand the Alabama State Bar to suspend his law license for the ethical violation.

  30. 30.

    Another Scott

    @schrodingers_cat: Yes, it expresses an important message very well and needs a large audience. And something similar should be sent to your local, state, and national representatives, also too.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  31. 31.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    our chief law enforcement officer perjured himself in his confirmation hearings.

    “If the Attorney General does it, it’s not illegal. (Even if he did it before he was AG.)”

    Channelling Tricksy Dicksy Nixie, just for you!

  32. 32.

    Montysano

    @efgoldman: So, the pushback will be “Sessions spoke to him as a senator, not as a Trump campaign surrogate.” Will this hold water? We’ll see, I guess.

    But I think we have to consider the possibility that Barack Obama is actually a ninja. At least that’s what I prefer to believe.

  33. 33.

    Gvg

    I wouldn’t expect better from Trump but it disgusts and frighten’s me that the media and most civilian’s don’t know on the spot how wrong this was. I know, and I have only distant knowledge of real military service. So many people think they respect the military service but they are so ignorant of the real living people. Have you ever noticed that some of the worst military fetishers are the ones who evaded service? Not always though. Anyway, not sure one example is enough to upset the current traditional military tend republican.

  35. 35.

    mainmata

    But this very thoughtful repost never gets mainstream publicity so that the mindless Beltway media fauners continue to opine about his Presidential style. He’s a demagogue and wannabee Fascist only.

  36. 36.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Starfish: News just broke:

    There is a pattern of at least four cabinet nominees lying under oath at their confirmations: AG Sessions, Secretary Mnuchin, Secretary Price, and Secretary Pruitt. This, in and of itself, should be enough for Congress to hit the breaks so hard and so fast as to leave skid marks between DC and LA and back to enforce its powers as a co-equal branch of government and in oversight of the Executive Branch. But this is, itself, even worse. As I’ve written before, if you were trying to ensure an appearance of impropriety this repeated pattern, by the President, the inner circles of his campaign, transition, and now Administration, several family members, and senior members of his business is the textbook way to do it.

  37. 37.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Baud:

    It is true, but the sources won’t reveal themselves, is the thinking, until there’s a bipartisan commission that swears them in as witnesses. Until then they’ll remain leakers. The interesting thing is that some of the leaks are coming from the Sessions transition team from during the time of the campaign, not while he was acting as a Senator or as AG.

  38. 38.

    SFAW

    @cmorenc:

    Being a man of perfect integrity, Sessions …

    Yeah, he and Comey — the two of them together set the World Record for Integrity. Or perhaps they jointly win the Nobel Peace Prize for Integrity.

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    @Adam L Silverman:

    This, in and of itself, should be enough for Congress to hit the breaks so hard and so fast as to leave skid marks between DC and LA and back to enforce its powers as a co-equal branch of government and in oversight of the Executive Branch.

    Oh, Adam, always the jokester.

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    I’m in complete agreement with Carter and the military folks in Friedman’s timeline. That was my take after I watched it last night. And Hewitt’s attempt to spin it was even more offensive, as I wrote in a comment last night.

  42. 42.

    efgoldman

    @Montysano:

    So, the pushback will be “Sessions spoke to him as a senator, not as a Trump campaign surrogate.” Will this hold water? We’ll see, I guess.

    The problem isn’t that he DID it; the problem is he LIED about it under oath to Congress. That’s perjury.
    Hey, lawyers: How, where and who could get disbarment procedures started? Not that I think that the Alabama bar would croak him, but at least he wouldn’t be investigating himself.

  43. 43.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Baud: imagine the liburel media’s outrage/hysteria if Kerry in 04 or Obama in 08 had a gold star mother on stage during the convention saying Bush was responsible for her son’s/daughter’s death.

  44. 44.

    SFAW

    @Timurid:

    I prefer Japanese style.

    Who gets to be the lucky kaishakunin? And does he have to wait, or can he just “hurry things along”? [Note: Not excluding wimmins from the fun, by the way.]

  46. 46.

    efgoldman

    @Gvg:

    Have you ever noticed that some of the worst military fetishers are the ones who evaded service?

    Apparently just wearing a uniform for a certain number of years makes you a “hero.” At least, that’s what some dumb-ass RWNJ congresscritter (they all look alike) called Flynn, after he was forced to resign.

  50. 50.

    Aleta

    @Baud: That’s what’s been said. I wonder, what about Hispanic vets/active, AA vets/active, women, veterans who opposed past wars?

  53. 53.

    Steve in the ATL

    @efgoldman: I wonder if any member of the Alabama bar would have standing to file an ethics complaint against him. Or if bar membership or Alabama residence is even a requirement to do so. No idea, but I have posed the question to a very liberal lawyer friend in Huntsville.

  54. 54.

    SFAW

    @schrodingers_cat:
    I thought you were out in 413-land. Was I wrong, or is the Glob just the closest thing to a newspaper where you are? (I have no idea what Springfield has for journalism, for example.)

  55. 55.

    laura

    Because there was a stun gun, tow-chain and Court Order strong enough to force me to watch the address to the joint session last night, we watched the Mr.’s preferred Tuesday night fare. Just so happens that Tosh.0 did a segment on stolen valor in which enlisted or former service members called out some guys in public who were in a variety of uniforms. It did not go well. And yet, each shambling, hot mess d-bag acted with more dignitude that trmp.

  57. 57.

    Timurid

    Sickest burn so far from Twitter:

    He was warned.
    He was given an explanation.
    Nevertheless, he perjured.

  60. 60.

    Mike in NC

    Mitt Rmoney was a serial draft dodger, but the vets loved him. Trump also had five deferments for alleged bone spurs, and the vets loved him. Both assholes liked to talk tough about fighting wars. It’s a Republican thing.

  61. 61.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    There is a pattern of at least four cabinet nominees lying under oath at their confirmations

    That senate majority did a HELL of a job investigating and vetting cabinet nominees, hm?
    They are all complicit, every fucking one of them. Not a single one should be cut any slack at all, except maybe Hatch and Grandpa Walnuts for reason of senility.
    Every single Dem senate candidate in the next cycle has to be yelling “crooked! liar”! for the entire campaign at the top of his lungs.

  62. 62.

    SFAW

    @schrodingers_cat:

    The Globe is no longer liberal, by the way. That may be immaterial as far as you’re concerned, vis-a-vis your letter, but just thought I’d mention it.

  64. 64.

    Lyrebird

    the most powerful man on the planet, having attempted within the past 24 hours to avoid responsibility for the things he could (and did) control while seeking to claim laurels for acts of valor he had no claim to.

    This part sticks in my craw. I have just as little…no, less military experience than the dignity wraith. So if I’m way off here, I’ll hold my head up while being corrected.

    Here goes — not only was the coopting of this fresh grief for the widow pretty wrong in my eyes, the whole way that man talks about the soldier who died doesn’t seem to see the bravery that every member of the unit displays on EVERY raid. And doesn’t seem to see what that means about how seriously a commander should think about ANY action.

  66. 66.

    efgoldman

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I have posed the question to a very liberal lawyer friend in Huntsville.

    Is the state supreme court the final word on disbarment? Because that ten commandment klown is back.

  68. 68.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @efgoldman: Not a single one should be cut any slack at all, except maybe Hatch and Grandpa Walnuts for reason of senility.

    Well, if we’re including senility you have to make some allowance for Grassley, too

    What should we ask our good Senators: “Will the Senator be making a statement?” “How does the Senator now feel about his/her vote to confirm?” ?

  70. 70.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Lyrebird: Before I joined the army, I had to do a lot of hard thinking about 1. my ability to take someone’s life, and 2. my ability, as an officer, to order someone to do something that could cost that person his/her life.

  71. 71.

    Adam L Silverman

    And here’s the smoking gun:

    And from WaPo:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-spoke-twice-with-russian-ambassador-during-trumps-presidential-campaign-justice-officials-say/2017/03/01/77205eda-feac-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f_story.html?utm_term=.ba64ec3adff0

    Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general.

    One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that took place in September in the senator’s office, at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race.

    The previously undisclosed discussions could fuel new congressional calls for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 presidential election. As attorney general, Sessions oversees the Justice Department and the FBI, which have been leading investigations into Russian meddling and any links to Trump’s associates. He has so far resisted calls to recuse himself.

    When Sessions spoke with Kislyak in July and September, the senator was a senior member of the influential Armed Services Committee as well as one of Trump’s top foreign policy advisers. Sessions played a prominent role supporting Trump on the stump after formally joining the campaign in February 2016.

    And the larger problem as laid out by the NY Times – other countries’ Intel Communities have actionable intelligence on the connections between the President’s campaign and the Russians.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/us/politics/obama-trump-russia-election-hacking.html?_r=0

    American allies, including the British and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials — and others close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin — and associates of President-elect Trump, according to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence. Separately, American intelligence agencies had intercepted communications of Russian officials, some of them within the Kremlin, discussing contacts with Trump associates.

  72. 72.

    efgoldman

    @SFAW:

    The Globe is no longer liberal

    It is no longer anything, but it’s still the home town paper.

    ETA: It has taken on the personality of its owner, which is to say no personality at all.

  73. 73.

    schrodingers_cat

    @SFAW: I just wrote down what I felt. Off the top of my head I know at least two people called Srinivas, one a dear friend and the other a cousin by marriage. I saw the photographs of his grieving mother at his funeral. I don’t know, its hit me hard this death.

  78. 78.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mike in NC:

    Trump also had five deferments for alleged bone spurs

    IIRC, when he was interviewed for some Sunday show during the campaign, he claimed he couldn’t remember which foot had the heel spurs!

  81. 81.

    Lizzy L

    @efgoldman: But is that what happened? Did he flat-out lie, or did he simply “forget” to disclose a contact which he’s going to spin as unimportant anyway. There are so many ways for him to weasel out of this.

  82. 82.

    Anne Laurie

    @Another Scott:

    President Donald Trump’s promise to use existing funds to begin immediate construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border has hit a financial roadblock, according to a document seen by Reuters.

    The rapid start of construction, promised throughout Trump’s campaign and in an executive order issued in January on border security, was to be financed, according to the White House, with “existing funds and resources” of the Department of Homeland Security.

    But so far, the DHS has identified only $20 million that can be re-directed to the multi-billion-dollar project, according to a document prepared by the agency and distributed to congressional budget staff last week.

    … What percentage of that $20mil do you wanna bet ends up “mysteriously” diverted to one of Don Jr.’s or Eric’s ‘construction enterprises’?

    Kids need their walking-around money. Sure, the taxpayers are on the hook for their board and bodyguards now, but hookers and dealers are adamant about cash in advance of services.

  84. 84.

    Yarrow

    This Sessions and Russia stuff. I said last night that the Intelligence Community would let some juicy tidbit drop today or tomorrow. And there it is! Our IC is coming for them. The IC can’t do their jobs properly because of Trump and this administration. They can’t keep us safe. These leaks are them working to keep us safe. Get rid of the Russian agents and other traitors.

  85. 85.

    efgoldman

    @Lizzy L:

    There are so many ways for him to weasel out of this.

    I didn’t see/hear the testimony, but if he was asked a direct question and answered “no” that’s pretty much it, I would think.

  86. 86.

    Steve in the ATL

    @efgoldman: Huntsville friend says the specific rules are irrelevant as there is no chance the Alabama bar would discsipline him.

  87. 87.

    Honus

    This is the same Donald Trump that during the campaign took the Purple Heart medal offered to him by a veteran and said “is this real or a reproduction? Thanks, I’ve always wanted one of these”

    any veteran or military person that supports this man is a contemptible hypocrite.

  88. 88.

    Another Scott

    @Omnes Omnibus: Indeed.

    As an aside, I’m sure there’s a well known story/explanation why this is the case, but it’s struck me as weird that Hero was a woman but the word “hero” usually refers to a male. Of course, “hero” has the same root as “heroic”, but the female character generally seems to have been forgotten.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  89. 89.

    Tokyokie

    @schrodingers_cat: I agree with the sentiment of the letter, but as a former longtime newspaper copy editor, I can assure you that letters are usually edited for length. The less you give the editors to trim, the more your thoughts will see print.

  93. 93.

    SFAW

    @Lyrebird:

    The Globe was liberal once? more than 40 yrs ago maybe?

    A lot more recently than that. But not since John Henry bought them.

  99. 99.

    Peale

    @Anne Laurie: they could take the money from the coast guard and FEMA. Since Mexicans cause all the disasters in the country anyway, building the wall will prevent hurricanes and flooding.

  100. 100.

    Another Scott

    @Mike in NC: Four for College, one for Bad Feet:

    His experience during the era is drawing new scrutiny after the Muslim American parents of a soldier who was killed in Iraq publicly questioned whether Mr. Trump had ever sacrificed for his country. In an emotional speech at the Democratic National Convention last week, the soldier’s father, Khizr Khan, directly addressed Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, saying, “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”

    Mr. Trump’s public statements about his draft experience sometimes conflict with his Selective Service records, and he is often hazy in recalling details.

    In an interview with The New York Times last month, Mr. Trump said the bone spurs had been “temporary” — a “minor” malady that had not had a meaningful impact on him. He said he had visited a doctor who provided him a letter for draft officials, who granted him the medical exemption. He could not remember the doctor’s name.

    “I had a doctor that gave me a letter — a very strong letter on the heels,” Mr. Trump said in the interview.

    Asked to provide The Times with a copy of the letter, which he had obtained after his fourth student deferment, Mr. Trump said he would have to look for it. A spokeswoman later did not respond to repeated requests for copies of it.

    The Selective Service records that remain in the National Archives — many have been discarded — do not specify what medical condition exempted Mr. Trump from military service.

    Mr. Trump has described the condition as heel spurs, which are protrusions caused by calcium built up on the heel bone, treated through stretching, orthotics or sometimes surgery.

    Mr. Trump said that he could not recall exactly when he was no longer bothered by the spurs, but that he had not had an operation for the problem.

    “Over a period of time, it healed up,” he said.

    In the 2015 biography “The Truth About Trump,” the author, Michael D’Antonio, described interviewing Mr. Trump, who at one point slipped off a loafer to display a tiny bulge on his heel. And during a news conference last year, Mr. Trump could not recall which heel had been involved, prompting his campaign to release a statement saying it was both.

    A very strong letter! For a very strong man!!1

    :-/

    He lies about every single thing.

    Someone should ask him if he wants to be on Musk’s rocket around the Moon next year. He’s big and brave and strong and healthy and smart and rich and has the best genes, surely he wants to go, right??

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  102. 102.

    Tokyokie

    @Timurid: Poor photo selection. That still is of the great Nakadai Tatsuya from Kobayashi Masaki’s Seppuku, and as the story unfolds over many flashbacks, we learn that his character has no intention of committing seppuku but rather seeks to reveal the hypocrisy of the clan where he asks to commit ritual suicide and take out as many of its members as he can. This picture of Mishima Yukio is what you want.

  108. 108.

    RM

    @Jeffro: He doesn’t have the R.F. initials, sadly… although if you turn them back to front (F.R.) and then go back one letter (F to D) for the first and forward one letter (R to T) for the second…

  109. 109.

    Honus

    @Adam L Silverman: I hope I’m right. Pretty sure I am, it’s that way in every jurisdiction in which I’ve practiced. There’s an exception for federal government lawyers.

  110. 110.

    Another Scott

    @Honus: The GOP standard playbook, for a long time, is to attack any candidate’s strength with any bogus, stupid argument they can come up with. Max Cleland lost 3 limbs in Vietnam, but he somehow “[broke] his oath to support and defend the Constitution” in a vote for an amendment to the Chemical Weapons Treaty.

    They’re shameless and will do anything to win.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  111. 111.

    RM

    @Omnes Omnibus: If the media doesn’t proceed something with ‘Latino’ or ‘African American’ then you know they’re just talking about white people.

  113. 113.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Lizzy L:

    There are so many ways for him to weasel out of this.

    I thought the Trump admin position is “To late, no do overs”

  114. 114.

    Lyrebird

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I guess if the current president had done one millionth of that amount of thinking… I dunno maybe Bannon woulda found a different Trojan horse.

    Respect to you.

  115. 115.

    The Lodger

    @Sab: Yep. Even if you’re an aircraft mechanic who will never be assigned to a vessel, if you’re in the Navy, you’re a sailor.

  116. 116.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    For good or ill, if she was informed that this would happen, and agreed, I can’t blame Trump for using it.

    But dear god, if that SOB ambushed her…

    When my mom died – a good many years back, so, no need for sympathy – I had a well meaning person want to talk to me about what “stress” I was under (because I had mentioned I was stressed). And I can’t express how horrible it was to have someone pressing me to live within the grief and anguish I’d been living with to talk about it. My mom had died suddenly, you see – and it was *really* complicated. If someone is grieving, you do not throw their grief in their face no matter HOW well meaning you are.

    And, well, if she agreed to let him mention her husband in his speech, and she agreed to be mentioned and focused upon… well, that’s her right.

    But dear god, *no one* deserves to have their grief toyed with, *EVER*. And while I don’t *like* Trump, I’ve never hated him. He’s… well, he’s like a virus. You don’t *hate* a virus, you try to contain it. But if I learned that he didn’t clear that part of his speech with her… that would make me feel hate for the man, at least briefly.

  117. 117.

    Ruckus

    @Aleta:
    It might depend on the location of the vets. At the main VA hospital, which I was at a week ago Monday, I, an old white guy, am close to or am a minority. Same at one clinic, not far off at another. From talking to a lot of vets at these three locations, I’d bet that drumpf didn’t get the majority of votes. I know he got some, of that there is no question. Now all that said a lot of vets would like to turn back the clock for a variety of reasons. Not to have been injured in the first place would be my first guess. Second would be to have a do over on life. Now on that note I’d like to discuss a talk I had today with one of my fellow employees. We were discussing the difference in life from the 60s-80s with today. To me the very thing that is an issue is wage power. That someone could, back then, live OK with a blue collar job. That is getting harder and harder to do and for a lot of people nothing is going to change that other than wages rising. There is a huge class of people who are going to have the equivalent of a $40K yearly income for the rest of their lives, and those people are going to be wondering why they work hard and never, ever get ahead. Those same jobs would have given a lifestyle equivalent of around $60k 40 yrs ago. And that’s a huge difference.

  119. 119.

    henqiguai

    @Another Scott(#88): Long dead thread, but your comment made me look –

    As an aside, I’m sure there’s a well known story/explanation why this is the case, but it’s struck me as weird that Hero was a woman but the word “hero” usually refers to a male.

    You didn’t look far enough into the word origins for “hero” –

    Hero cults were one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion. In Homeric Greek, “hero” (ἥρως, hḗrōs) refers to a man who was fighting on either side during the Trojan War. By the historical period, however, the word came to mean specifically a dead man, venerated and propitiated at his tomb or at a designated shrine, because his fame during life or unusual manner of death gave him power to support and protect the living…

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