It appears that in the course of endorsing Donald “turnip-top” Trump,
the tea party bimbo Sarah Palin has attempted to blame President Obama
for her son’s PTSD, and his domestic violence charge. Palin claims that
Obama’s failure to respect the troops is responsible for her idjit son
Track’s violence towards women and chronic abuse of alcohol.
Instead, Palin appears to either be hoping very much that this claim
will slide by the crazy, ignorant base who doesn’t give a tinker’s damn
if Trump (and his supporters) are factually accurate or even vaguely
truthful. If not, her endorsement might quickly prove to be more of a
liability than a benefit to the eccentric right winger leader. False
claims about military service are one of the few things that might
antagonize Trump’s ignorant followers.
Here are the apparent problems with Palin’s claim:
1. there appears to be no credible diagnosis of PTSD from a health
professional re Track, and there is a huge questionmark over Track Palin
having been in combat;
2. there is no credible evidence that how a president feels or
doesn’t feel affects anyone having PTSD, re the subjective perception of
respect for the military;
3. Track enlisted in 2007, served for a year in 2008, BEFORE Obama
became president. If anyone is responsible for problems resulting from
Iraq, it would be Dubya, not Obama; and
4. the entire Palin clan is prone to drunken violence, without the
rest having served anywhere in our armed forces. It is a ‘Palin’ family
thing, not a PTSD problem. The family appears to be a bunch of armed
alcohol abusing louts, such that a more plausible explanation for
Track’s behavior is that he learned it at home.
From Politicalgates.blogspot.com we see that it appears that Track Palin
served a little over a week of active service under the Obama
administration’s first term of office; further that his prior year of
active service does NOT appear to have been in combat, from the
available description on his discharge papers. There have been vets who
have been in theaters of conflict in other countries WITHOUT having
themselves been in combat. I would further underline that nowhere (so
far) have I found Track Palin himself making the claim he was a combat
veteran, OR that he suffers from PTSD.
From
Politicalgates.blogspot.com on how one checks combat service records,
which indicates Track Palin is NOT a combat veteran, via the Veterans Disability blog:
That was the case today when speaking with a Veteran
about combat. His question was: “What exactly makes anyone a combat
Veteran?” Some may be quick to say that serving in combat makes you a
combat Veteran, but there is more to it than that.
The VA lists several different ways in which a Veteran can prove he or she was in combat.
· If you received a combat service medal, then you are considered a combat Veteran
· If you received hostile fire pay, imminent danger pay or tax benefits
· If you received military service documentation that documents combat theater
So, does serving in a foreign country automatically qualify me as
combat Veteran? Not necessarily. Even if you served in Iraq or
Afghanistan during the past ten years, it does not guarantee that you
are a combat Veteran.
How can you find out? Well, your DD-214 is a great place to start.
Your Discharge won’t automatically say that you were a combat Veteran
though…that would be too easy. Box 13 on more modern DD-214’s is where
they list medals, awards and ribbons. The VA does recognize certain
medals etc. as a qualifier for combat service. (That list will appear in
an upcoming blog.)
Also listed on your DD-214 is the type of pay you received. Box 18
would be the place to find out if you received Hostile Fire Pay, or the
Imminent Danger Pay. It is important to note that this can appear in box
13, though it is rare for it to appear there.
And a vet who has served in combat, and who has served with Track
Palin, is quite adamant he is not a victim of PTSD, nor have I found
anyone who served with him who substantiates that Track Palin was a
combat veteran or was symptomatic for PTSD.
From
Salon:
…if this wasn’t about a 26 year-old grown man currently charged with fourth-degree assault, fourth-degree misconduct involving a weapon and interfering with a report of domestic violence.
Earlier this week, Track, who divorced his first wife in 2012,
was arrested over an incident at the Wasilla home he shares with his
parents. Police noted his current girlfriend had “bruising and swelling
around her left eye” and described Track as “uncooperative, belligerent,
and evasive with my initial line of questions.” A breath sample
registered his blood alcohol level at 0.189. In her conversation with
the police, Track’s girlfriend claimed he had threatened to kill
himself, and an unloaded AR-15 was found near the scene. Palin denied
using a weapon but told police “that they were spread throughout both
residences on the property.”
Track Palin was serving in Iraq as an air guard in the “Arctic Wolves,”
the Army’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, during his mother’s 2008
bid for vice president. He is routinely described in the press as a
combat veteran, though some within the veteran community, based on
Palin’s discharge paperwork, dispute his actual combat duty.
Unless, perhaps, we want to redefine the acronym PTSD to mean (Sarah) Palin’s Totally Stupid Dypsomania (alcohol abuse)?
Here is a review of the charges against Track Palin.
This entire family of Alaskan hicks (the adults anyway) act more like
trailer trash than pious folks demonstrating those wholesome family
values they give such annoying lip service. For example, we have
anything-but-chaste Bristol Palin, who took a ton of $$$$ to espouse
abstinence having yet another child out of wed lock, and brother Track,
who is dad to a daughter born 3 months after his wedding, (a fitting
repeat of his parents behavior – Track was also conceived before his own
parents’ engagement and elopement) and we have
this past example of Palin family drunken brawling from less than a year and a half ago.
These are NOT ‘law abiding people’, these are not ‘family values people’
who present a clear understanding or example of how people behave
morally and ethically in a civil society. These are over-privileged
cretins with too little judgement and too much money, and a
mind-boggling capacity for ignorance and bad behavior, and a grotesque
degree of hypocrisy and a false sense of entitlement apparently.
What they are NOT is personally accountable — but apparently, on the
right, that’s just a requirement for OTHER PEOPLE. Another example of
right wing do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do morality, the kind that holds other
people to a higher standard than they hold themselves. How apt that
Palin endorses the oh-so-vulgar Trump; they are noisy, garish birds of a
feather in a gold paint gilded cage, hip deep in their own guano
baggage, a ‘yoooge’ ‘classy’ gilded cage.
As noted by multiple other individuals who are far better entitled to address the topics of the US military and PTSD:
‘Palin is using PTSD as an excuse to shift
blame away from her son’s domestic violence,’ Brandon Friedman, the
former digital media director for the Department of Veterans Affairs,
said in an interview with
Huffington Post.
‘She never mentioned the actual victim.
She portrayed her son as the victim, but never talked about his
girlfriend, apparently crying and hiding under a bed because he beat
her.’
Friedman also said; ‘The fact is, veterans
who have PTSD are far, far more likely to harm themselves than they are
to harm others.’
As for Palin’s comment about President
Obama, Friedman said; ‘It’s ironic that people like Sarah Palin are in
the party of “personal responsibility” but as soon as someone in her
family is arrested for domestic violence, it’s Obama’s fault.’
Paul Rieckhoff, who heads Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, seemed to reiterate this statement, telling
NBC News; ‘It’s not President Obama’s fault that Sarah Palin’s son has PTSD.
‘PTSD is a very serious problem, a
complicated mental health injury, and I would be extremely reluctant to
blame any one person in particular.’
He also said that he hopes Palin does not turn this into ‘a political chew toy in a political campaign’.
Franklin Graham
What a shame that there is another round of bad weather that seems to be targeting certain sections of the Bible Belt as well as the early voters of Iowa.
We have seen how evangelicals like to point to events like this as divine wrath.
Following their magical thinking, then it would seem that Jesus is unhappy with Trump and all the rest on the right, and doesn't want the good religious bigots and fools on the right in Iowa to get out to vote. Otherwise HE wouldn't be making it so very difficult, right?
Tsk tsk tsk.
That the caucus voting got in at all before the bad weather hit must be the result of the good members of the Iowa Supreme Court who ensured that gay people could marry. No doubt that is why the storm held off as long as it did -- to let Bernie and Hillary tie, more or less, since both supported gay marriage and for all intents and purposes they both won.
But that bad weather is still smighting those evil evangelicals.......following their own reasoning (or lack of it). Storms hit Tennessee and Kentucky as well, no doubt leaving a Jebus message for those evangelicals who support Kim Davis style sexual orientation bigotry, sending a message to his own, like Jesus likes to do.
