The Star Tribune (whose publisher was formerly in Walz’s cabinet) along with most of the media is totally distorting this controversy in order to give cover. There are a few separate controversies to understand here.
▪️The stolen valor issue isn’t about his retirement. It has to do with several instances he presented himself as being in war when he wasn’t. Particularly the quote, “the weapons of war, I carried in war.” This was a quote used and highlighted by the Harris campaign! Clearly he was presenting himself as a combat veteran in order to push gun control. For the Strib and other media to ignore this is totally dishonest.
▪️The issue with his retirement is a bit more complex. The media is pushing the fact that his unit was notified of deployment after he put in his retirement as proof he didn’t dodge. But leadership typically know about deployments way in advance of official notification. So it’s likely Walz knew prior to his retirement. But no proof that I know yet.
▪️Adding to this is his going to training to become a command sergeant major right before his retirement. To check the box of reaching that position, but then retiring before actually utilizing it in any way. And potentially avoiding deployment to boot as a leader. This isn’t the smoking gun like the stolen valor thing, but might become so if people dig into it.
▪️Imo, this is going to be a big problem for Walz as, while the media will try to cover for him, people will keep pushing this and potentially force him to answer the unforgivable sin of why he pretended to be in war. For those like me, who didn’t serve, it’s a little bit inside baseball, but veterans gossip like crazy and aren’t likely to let it go.
It’s bizarre to see them seesaw back and forth that Trump is totally clueless and aloof, just golfing all day, then all of a sudden he’s a dangerous king/dictator who’s diligently plotting to seize absolute power.
▪️This one is frustrating because, while it’s nice to see the vigor and speed that DOGE is acting with, they’re also sloppy with some of their findings. This is not some bombshell, millions of dead people’s SS numbers aren’t being paid out to fraudsters.
▪️This problem has been known for some time, you can read an inspector general’s report from 2015 about millions of names on the SS “numident” not being correctly annotated for deaths, even though they were older than 112 (the oldest known American at the time).
https://oig-files.ssa.gov/audits/full/A-06-14-34030_0.pdf
▪️There are innocent explanations for some of these. Expatriates that died outside the country, for example. Or immigrants given temporary work permit who returned to their country, people issued new numbers for various reasons, etc. However, most are simply due to the govt not diligently keeping track of deaths.
▪️It’s embarrassing that the govt has millions of numbers on the numident that are ...
