Swift Boating Redux

{“Swift Boating”: Since the 2004 election, the term "swift boating" has become a common expression for a campaign attacking opponents by questioning their credibility and patriotism in a dishonest manner. It stems from scurrilous and untrue attacks on John Kerry’s service in Viet Nam as a Naval Officer.}

        Imagine, if you will, a young man who voluntarily joined the Military and served over 20 years, reaching retirement service requirements while having attained the highest enlisted rank possible, and then decided to embark on another service career, retiring after more than 20 years. He did this, becoming a High School Social Studies teacher and found that he loved the second career as much as the first. Actually, this was my career path, and as you might expect I was pleased to see Tim Walz selected as Kamala Harris’ running mate, since his career and mine are similar up to the point that he ran for public office. I only cite the above as evidence that, as opposed to the GOP slanderers I actually know whereof I speak below.

        Since I know more than a little about how the military works, I was disgusted by the “Swift-boating” bucket of swill dumped at Walz by what is apparently a brain damaged Red Hat moron. There were several patently false claims made, which I will address separately. The first is that Walz falsely
claimed to have been a Command Sergeant Major, while the truth is that he served in that capacity prior to retirement, which prevented his attendance at the Leadership Academy which most US Military Senior Enlisted Advisors now attend prior to the assignment. Tim Walz did the job. Period. As for the Leadership Academy, it was established after I was already serving as the Command Master Chief Petty Officer at Nuclear Field “A” School for three years. So, Master Sergeant Walz and I had the same job with essentially the same experience.

        Another claim made by the Red Hatter was that Walz retired to avoid deployment. This is so wrong as to defy description. Walz’s unit could have been ordered deployed anytime in the 22 years he served and, if he feared that service, he could have quit at the four-year point with no possibility of further obligation. Walz had no military obligation anyway, since there had been no draft since 1973 when he was nine years old.

        As an artillery officer, Walz suffered from hearing loss. In 2002, after he had already served 20 years and qualified for retirement, a medical board considered discharging him because of his hearing loss. Instead, he convinced them to let him complete his final enlistment to the obligated 22-year point, to which the Guard agreed, and his retirement papers were approved. This was almost a year before his unit was ordered to deploy. He would have had to re-enlist, which his hearing loss would not have allowed in any case.

        Lie #3: The Swift Boater claimed that to be a Command Sergeant Major meant that the individual must have led men in combat under fire. This is so wrong it isn’t even wrong, it’s just ludicrous. In all three branches of service the position regardless of title is that of direct liaison between the commissioned command structure and the enlisted cadre. In many, if not most cases, even in the Army, these folks rarely if ever see combat themselves. This is even more unlikely in the USAF or Navy. I served as Command Master Chief on a Submarine for three years at a major Shore Command for another three without so much as a spitball involved.

                Master Sergeant Tim Walz, USA (ret) served honorably and continued doing so after retirement as a teacher, coach, legislator, and governor. He deserves our admiration, not the sniveling lies of a malcontent Trumpist liar.

                                     Vote!

 

                      Stick to fiction, Ms. Rowling      

As big a fan of J.K. Rowling’s writing as I am, I am far to the obverse regarding her apparent need to play the gender hate card. After Algerian boxer Imane Khelif floored her Italian opponent, Angela Carini, Ms. Rowling apparently decided that she (Ms. Khelif) was really a male. The quote is, "Watch this (referring to video of the fight), then explain why you're OK with a man beating a woman in public for your entertainment. This isn't sport. From the bullying cheat in red all the way up to the organizers who allowed this to happen, this is men reveling in their power over women."

        First off, Ms. Khelif is an anatomical female. Period. She is not a man. and having been raised in Algeria, would have had no reason or no diagnosis to cause anyone to believe the contrary. Ms. Rowling is well known for her opposition to all things transgender, but this isn’t even that. If Ms. Khelif had demolished all her previous opponents in seconds, there might be cause to question the reason but, in fact, her amateur record is thirty-seven wins against 9 losses. Are we to assume that those nine winning opponents were either “juiced” or secretly male?

 Ask Amy Broadhurst, who unlike J.K. Rowling, actually knows something about boxing. Broadhurst, an Irish woman, and professional boxer, defeated Khelif for the world championship two years ago. At those world championships, Khelif and a Chinese female boxer came under scrutiny by the IBA, which sanctioned the bouts. In both cases, there were hazy comments regarding chromosomes, but not testosterone levels which would be affected. The International Olympic Committee has chosen to ignore whatever those findings might (or might not) have implied. Furthermore, this is neither Khelif nor Yun-ting’s first Olympics. Both boxers competed in the Tokyo 2020 Games, where they were knocked out in the quarterfinals and round of sixteen, respectively. Casting hatred at Ms. Khelif, as too many have done, is simply wrong. Period. It seems to me that the real issue is that Ms. Carini failed to protect herself, as boxers are trained to do, and took a direct punch flush on her nose, possibly breaking it. Her reaction, dropping and crying, while refusing to continue says more about her than her opponent.

Ms. Broadurst had this to say: “Have a lot of people texting me over Imane Khelif. Personally, I don’t think she has done anything to ‘cheat.’ I think it’s the way she was born & that’s out of her control. The fact that she has been beaten by nine females before says it all.”