red viking

I will say this point that supports yours. Most of the bad guys get weeded out shortly after they enter permanent party. They get their hands held through basic training and then once they get their freedom they get into trouble and don't last the full term. Most of the guys that eventually get to the rank of Sergeant or higher (like myself) have plenty of integrity and are trustworthy.

It depends upon your contract. I was late 90s and at that time most contracts were 3. If you agree to 4, you'll probably get a bigger bonus or some other perk. Maybe 4 is the norm now; not sure. Most people don't sign up for "love of country." They do it for the money and other benefits. Some of those may involve the travel, experience or maybe the glamour the extra respect that they get from people like you. There are also plenty that do it because they can't hold down a civilian job. I did it because it sounded like a great experience and if I didn't decide to stay for life, the money that I would get for grad school was ridiculous. For my Advanced Individual Training (AIT) class, literally about 1/3 of them ended up in prison for various reasons. That was my experience with the my military colleagues in enlisted combat arms. I also had to always make sure my stuff was locked up because if I even blinked for too long it was gone. I had a friend that even got his underwear stolen. Also, everybody seemed to have a crazy story from before they joined. I knew most of them were B.S., and this was evidence that many of these guys were insecure. I swear half of them played D1 football or had some other claim to fame. One guy claimed he fought to the death in several underground sword fighting tournaments in Japan. Meanwhile, he had trouble passing his PT test. Most of these guys weren't the cream of the crop by any means, but some were. I'm sure it's different in special forces and officer ranks but it runs the gambit and that's why I don't consider it to be significantly different from other jobs in terms of the quality of character of these people, overall.

Plenty of people called Trump a hero. Did you listen to the RNC? It was nauseating. Somebody even called him "Braveheart." My thoughts on the military: Unless you were actually in a combat situation, it was just a job. Our military actually gets paid pretty well if they aren't in combat. I got the GI Bill and Army College Fund and had more money than I could shake a stick at in grad school. Had plenty of money in the military itself too. Soldiers got huge pay raises after I was done, under Bush. I think it's a pretty cake job if you aren't actually in a combat situation. Yes, my active duty was right away. National Guard and Reserves were after my 3 years was up.

social media is a horrible way to get accurate news. Yes, you may get "balanced" information, but it will be all over the place and everywhere in between and really you'll end up having to arbitrarily decide what to accept as the truth unless you have hours to decide which information is false. You're better off getting your information from something that is truly more objective and filters out the crap ahead of time.

Source? Looks suspects to me. Probably taken out of context. The REAL platform was much longer so I think you cherry picked this stuff and left other important elements out. More right-wing dishonesty. It happens literally every time you folks say something.

Oh yah, Master Sergeant is E-8; not E-9. My bad. And yes, it just means he's not in charge of his own Company. Probably an assistant at the battalion level.

Yes; we already covered that. He DID lie. I don't see an issue w/ him retiring before deployment though. He served 23 years. That is enough and he has that right. And yes; I did serve active duty 3 years followed by additional time in the Army Reserve and Army National Guard.

Vance also never served in combat. Was merely deployed to a combat area: https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/elections-verify/jd-vance-marines-military-service-record-fact-check/536-b3bfb88b-bdb3-4a48-82e1-4c7ebdd05c03

He was a journalist. I'm not going to call him a hero by a long shot when I was actually in combat arms. Was he forced to go with his unit or did he go out of his way to be part of the war efforts? Being deployed is part of the job and part of the risk you take. Trump got grazed in the ear. Doesn't make him a hero one bit, or somebody I even respects as a human being. In fact, he's a coward for dodging the draft and constantly lying.

What's wrong? The disgusting winger hypocrisy is the issue. Yes, Vance served. I tried to change that but it now won't let me. Maybe because it was the 1st post of the thread?

Master Sergeant is actually a very high rank. That's E-9, the highest pay grade you can get as an enlisted soldier. Most enlisted soldiers, even if they make it to retirement, don't retire at nearly that high of a pay grade. He obviously did a great job of serving his country.

It was a legitimate lie but to obsess over that lie from 6 years ago when your own candidate literally lies dozens of times every time he speaks is beyond ridiculous and hypocritical. If the wingers had integrity they'd be screaming about Trump's dishonesty.

It's hypocritical for the wingers to question Walz's military record when Trump dodged the draft and Vance didn't do anything spectacular either.

See above. Army. Total of 6 years.

Vance military record is fine, but not comparable to the 23 years that Walz served. Trump was a draft dodger.

Yah. How about your service record? I served 3 years active duty artillery (Multiple Launch Rocket System); followed by 3 years National Guard and Army Reserve as a medic. Requested transfer to IRR in August 2001.

Anybody that utilizes Fox as their main source of news is going to inevitably be delusional, no matter how smart they otherwise are.

Sure; the right will complain a little but there's a double standard. For Walz, they go back to 2018 to find something he lied about. Trump was almost assassinated but didn't get any significant damage so he's not a "Braveheart" like the fringe right likes to call him. Vance served 4 years as a journalist. What a joke.

Granted, Walz made a mistake by saying he was in a war. This was a lie. It was 6 years ago. Meanwhile, Trump makes several lies every single time he makes a speech. Nobody complains about that. And he and Vance never served their countries at all. In fact, Trump purposely evaded any type of military service during the Vietnam War. Thank you Governor Walz for your 23 years of military service. Definitely more brave than being grazed by a bullet in the ear.

It's pretty simple. We're not experts on what is biased and what isn't. Rely on the experts to determine more reliable news sources and get most of your info from those sources. My "go to's" are Reuters and BNO News. From my experience, the more "boring" sources are generally the most accurate. The more entertaining and alarming sources are garbage.

If I was in Gaza, I'd probably join Hamas, knowing what I know about how they've been treated for decades now. Every person there has family members that have been killed or severely mistreated by Israel. I'd probably have some too. Not that I'm a terrorist in my current life. But if I were in that position, I may have been. I know I'd be extremely angry.

Have some empathy. I'll tell you what. I'm a man. If somebody comes and takes my land from my family and says we can't have it anymore because of my religion (or non-religion) because it is now designated to people of a different religion, I'm not gonna lay down and take it. If my weapons are inferior, I'll find a way to make sure somebody pays.

Yes. We did (the UN) when we handed that territory over to them, designating it for a specific religion. And then they did too, when they continued to expand their settlements and take more territory through the years.

I'm sure they're a lot more knowledgeable than you. It doesn't matter though. You'll continue to just deny anything that goes against your view from the fringe right. Everybody is ganging up and biased against the right except places like Fox, which is very accurate. Anybody that says otherwise is simply lying. Confirmation bias. You should look it up.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/imane-khelif-olympic-championships-gender-controversy-rcna165395 Great story. So far, she's been able to courageously not allow all the hate and bigotry (possibly associated with a hormonal or chromosomal disorder) distract or demotivate her from a great performance. Still forging ahead and taking down opponents. Best of luck in the finals Khelif and pretend you're fighting one of these bigots in the finals.