Tag: veterans

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VFW Denounces Trump’s ‘Asinine’ Remarks Regarding Medal Of Honor

The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) has issued a scathing statement denouncing Donald Trump’s recent “asinine” remarks comparing the Congressional Medal of Honor (given to military heroes) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Continue reading “VFW Denounces Trump’s ‘Asinine’ Remarks Regarding Medal Of Honor”

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Trump: Civilian Presidential Honor Is “Much Better” Than Military Medal Given To Soldiers

At a campaign event on Thursday, Donald Trump told the audience that a presidential civilian award is “much better” than the Congressional Medal of Honor (top military honor) whose recipients are “dead” or “in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets.” Continue reading “Trump: Civilian Presidential Honor Is “Much Better” Than Military Medal Given To Soldiers”

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Trump Retweets Lie About Armless ‘Veteran’ After It Was Debunked Years Ago

Donald Trump smirks during a press event

Donald Trump smirks during a press event
Donald Trump (photo: public domain/Flickr)
In an effort to dispute the stories about disparaging remarks allegedly made by Donald Trump about fallen military service members, radio personality Mark Simone shared a years-old photo of Donald Trump touching the face of a “severely wounded veteran.” The image has been shared often on social media, usually with a message referring to the man as a wounded veteran and sometimes inferring that he lost his arms in battle. But according to the fact-checking site Snopes the man, Henry “Bubba” Stevenson Jr., is not a “wounded veteran:”

Radio personality Mark Simone also shared this image in May 2017 with the caption: “Here’s a powerful picture that no news outlet will publish. It took place at a Trump rally when the President met a severely wounded veteran. This soldier lost both of his arms. The feeling of a handshake is lost to him. President Trump realized this, and touched his face so he could feel the human connection.”

This is a genuine photograph of Trump briefly touching the cheek of a supporter with two prosthetic arms. However, the accompanying backstory about the supporter being a veteran is inaccurate.

While Trump did touch Stevenson’s face, Stevenson is not a wounded veteran.

According to Online Chester, Stevenson was born without arms. His right limb stops just above his elbow and on his left side he has “only a nub below his shoulder.” A GoFundMe set up in 2014 to raise money for two bionic arms also stated that he “was born without arms.” This post is not an attack on Mr. Stevenson, But Simone tweeting the photo and claim again, years after being called out by Snopes, is intellectually disingenuous in an attempt to help Trump in the middle of a political firestorm.

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Thousands Attend Funeral Of Veteran With No Family

Thousands attend the funeral of military veteran Edward Pearson (screen capture)
It was a small obituary for Edward K. Pearson, 80, that appeared in a local newspaper recently. It simply said he was going to be interred at Sarasota National Cemetery on Tuesday and that, “This veteran has no immediate family and all are welcome to attend.” And then, social media happened:

From Bradenton.com:

The pavilion at Sarasota National Cemetery was designed to hold 3,200 people for funerals that would be typical for well-known individuals.

U.S. Army veteran Edward Pearson was not a well-known person, but the 80-year-old’s funeral was standing room only on Tuesday as at least 4,000 people packed into the pavilion. The line of cars kept streaming into the cemetery and an hour into the service, hundreds more were still trying to get in to send the veteran off with honor.

“I started getting calls from all over the country and some from as far as Germany around 8 a.m. (Monday),” said cemetery volunteer Tina Beeler. “I haven’t seen this many people since this place was dedicated. The response has been phenomenal.”

There were veterans, retired veterans, active duty personnel in uniform, family of veterans, friends of veterans, students with teachers. All just wanted to pay their respect to a man they had never met.

According to his military discharge papers, Pearson served in the U.S. Army from 1962-1964 and after being honorably discharged went on to become an engineer. Click the video below to watch.

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Mayor Pete: If Trump Had Served In The Military, Maybe He’d Understand NFL Player’s Right To Kneel

Mayor Pete Buttigieg

Mayor Pete Buttigieg is standing up for NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s right to kneel during the national anthem.

“The way I feel about it is the flag that was on my shoulder when I served represented, among other things, our right to free speech,” said Mayor Pete to TMZ while in New York City. “You don’t have to like it, but one of the reasons we serve was to defend that right, the right of peaceful protest and the idea that we can protest what is wrong with our country.”

“If the president had served, maybe he’d feel a little more strongly about some of those freedoms,” Pete added. “And, I get that there’s a lot of strong opinions about this, but that’s part of why we served.”

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French President Shades Trump: “Nationalism Is A Betrayal Of Patriotism”

At a ceremony on today commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a direct slap at Donald Trump’s “America first” approach to international affairs.
French President Emmanuel Macron

At a ceremony on today commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a direct slap at Donald Trump’s “America first” approach to international affairs.

“Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism,” said Macron. “By saying, ‘Our interests first, who cares about the others,’ we erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what gives it grace and what is essential: its moral values.”

Trump, along with 80 other world leaders, was sitting just feet away from Macron at the time.

The Trumpster famously declared himself a “nationalist” recently as he campaigned for the midterm elections.

The video below shows the world’s leaders gathering for the ceremony, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump beamed at seeing, as well as part of Macron’s speech.

This comes just a day after Trump decided to skip a ceremony at an American cemetery honoring fallen WWI soldiers because of a light fall of rain.

The Twitterverse was more than happy to show off tons of photos of President Obama at past Memorial Day events in the rain.

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Virginia Governor’s Race: Draft Dodger Criticizes Veteran As Weak On Veterans

Donald Trump

As folks in Virginia head to the polls today to vote for their next governor, Donald Trump took time out during his trip to Asia to criticize the Democrat, Dr. Ralph Northam, as “weak.”

Ralph Northam will allow crime to be rampant in Virginia. He’s weak on crime, weak on our GREAT VETS, Anti-Second Amendment….and has been horrible on Virginia economy. Vote @EdWGillespie today!

Trump also went on to note the “high crime” and “poor economic performance” in Virginia.

The only problem is: Northam actually IS a veteran, thus opening Trump – a draft dodger – up to a game of “glass houses.”

And others had some “context” for those “high crime” and “poor economic performance” comments:

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President Trump Blocks Veterans Group On Twitter

This is pretty messed up.

The president’s Twitter account has blocked a veteran’s group from reading his tweets.

VoteVets, a progressive veteran’s group founded in 2006, shared today that they had been blocked by the Donald along with this message:

“The Commander in Chief can block @VoteVets, the voice of 500k military veterans and families, but we will NOT be silenced.”

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Donald Trump Threatens To Sue Those Responsible For “Nasty” Ads

Campaigning in Nevada today, GOP White House hopeful Donald Trump announced he’s going to sue whoever put together a “nasty” campaign ad showing military veterans criticizing his statements about Purple Hearts, sacrifice and more.

“I saw today, I left the room and I saw a commercial where it was really a nasty commercial, totally made up about me with vets. There is nobody that loves the vets more or respects the vets more.

“They’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on false commercials and it’s a disgrace. So what we’ll do — I guess we’ll sue them. Let’s sue them. Right? Let’s sue them.”

Trump never names the ad or the group running the ad that got his back up.

But he’s gonna sue them. Believe me. (sarcasm intended)

(h/t JoeMyGod)