Trump: 'I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier'

Without setting foot on a battlefield, Donald Trump said he received a Purple Heart medal on Tuesday at his rally in Ashburn, Virginia, from a retired lieutenant colonel and supporter.

“I said to him, 'Is that like the real one, or is that a copy?” the Republican nominee said moments after taking the stage at a local high school.

Trump recounted the exchange, remarking that the man, who he identified as retired Lt. Col. Louis Dorfman said, "That's my real Purple Heart. I have such confidence in you."

"And I said, 'Man, that’s like big stuff. I always wanted to get the Purple Heart," Trump said. "This was much easier.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/trump-purple-heart-226565#ixzz4GKcQ5OE6

 

I find it odd that anyone you don't agree with you attribute it to them being a liberal.

Trump is all over the map when it comes to people who have served in the military. You either respect them, their service and their sacrifices or you don't. You can't pick or choose based on if you like the person or not. "I don't like people who were captured." It's bullshit. McCain was shot down, was offered early release, turned it down and was tortured. Whether you like the man as a politician what he did and how he conducted himself was heroic. McCain is a great example of someone who earned that purple heart. For Trump to belittle him and them accept a purple heart for himself and then make such a flippant comment at it is so insulting to everyone who has served our country.

In my early 20s I was in a pawn shop looking at records and CDs to buy, in walked an old man trying to pawn some medals. I overheard the conversation, walked up, told him to keep his medals and gave him the $20 I was looking to spend on bullshit. Trump should have thanked that man for his service and told him to keep his medal, he earned it with his blood. Instead Trump takes it and holds up as an accomplishment and trophy to a crowd of people?!? It's disrespectful.

 

Trump sounded honored to get the Purple Heart as a gift. He said it was a big deal, and suggested getting it not as a gift was difficult.

Nothing to see here. More heat than light.

 

On July 29, 1967, McCain, by then a lieutenant commander, was near the epicenter of the USS Forrestal fire. He escaped from his burning jet and was trying to help another pilot escape when a bomb exploded;[28] McCain was struck in the legs and chest by fragments.[29] The ensuing fire killed 134 sailors and took 24 hours to control.[30][31] With the Forrestal out of commission, McCain volunteered for assignment with the USS Oriskany, another aircraft carrier employed in Operation Rolling Thunder.[32] Once there, he would be awarded the Navy Commendation Medal and the Bronze Star for missions flown over North Vietnam.[33]

Prisoner of war
McCain's capture and subsequent imprisonment began on October 26, 1967. He was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi.[34][35] McCain fractured both arms and a leg ejecting from the aircraft,[36] and nearly drowned when he parachuted into Trúc Bạch Lake.[34] Some North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, then others crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt and bayoneted him.[34] McCain was then transported to Hanoi's main Hỏa Lò Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton".[35]

Although McCain was badly wounded, his captors refused to treat his injuries, beating and interrogating him to get information; he was given medical care only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a high-ranking admiral.[37] His status as a prisoner of war (POW) made the front pages of major newspapers.[38][39]

McCain spent six weeks in the hospital while receiving marginal care.[34] By then having lost 50 pounds (23 kg), in a chest cast, and with his gray hair turned white as snow,[34] McCain was sent to a different camp on the outskirts of Hanoi[40] in December 1967, into a cell with two other Americans who did not expect him to live a week.[41] In March 1968, McCain was put into solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years.[42]

In mid-1968, John S. McCain Jr. was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater, and the North Vietnamese offered McCain early release[44] because they wanted to appear merciful for propaganda purposes,[45] and also to show other POWs that elite prisoners were willing to be treated preferentially.[44] McCain turned down the offer; he would only accept repatriation if every man taken in before him was released as well. Such early release was prohibited by the POW's interpretation of the military Code of Conduct: To prevent the enemy from using prisoners for propaganda, officers were to agree to be released in the order in which they were captured.[34]

In August 1968, a program of severe torture began on McCain.[46] He was subjected to rope bindings and repeated beatings every two hours, at the same time as he was suffering from dysentery.[34][46] Further injuries led to the beginning of a suicide attempt, stopped by guards.[34] Eventually, McCain made an anti-American propaganda "confession".[34] He has always felt that his statement was dishonorable, but as he later wrote, "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine."[47][48] Many American POWs were tortured and maltreated in order to extract "confessions" and propaganda statements;[49] virtually all of them eventually yielded something to their captors.[50] McCain subsequently received two to three beatings weekly because of his continued refusal to sign additional statements.[51]

McCain refused to meet with various anti-war groups seeking peace in Hanoi, wanting to give neither them nor the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory.[52] From late 1969 onward, treatment of McCain and many of the other POWs became more tolerable,[53] while McCain continued actively to resist the camp authorities.[54] McCain and other prisoners cheered the U.S. "Christmas Bombing" campaign of December 1972, viewing it as a forceful measure to push North Vietnam to terms.[48][55]

Altogether, McCain was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years. He was released on March 14, 1973.[56] His wartime injuries left him permanently incapable of raising his arms above his head.[57]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain

 

Oh god, this tape thing is fucking awesome!

 

Tape thing?

barfo

 

Trump's speech today about a Top Secret tape he recently watched.

 

This is the Top Secret tape Trump is talking about.

1. It's not Top Secret.

2. It's Geneva, not Iran.

3. It's the American hostages, not money being taken off the plane.

But besides that he got it right that it was a plane.

 

Trump knows his planes. Planes are where you eat KFC.

barfo

 

Melania Trump like you’ve never seen her before

NSFW

http://nypost.com/2016/07/30/melania-trump-like-youve-never-seen-her-before/

 

I know firsthand what a terrific person McCain is. He is a hero.

But democrats attacked McCain's war/POW record when he was running for president in 2008. For example, they trotted out Gen. Wesley Clark:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2008/06/this_means_war.html

"I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president." (Full context here.) So did liberal blogger John Aravosis, writing that "[g]etting shot down, tortured, and then doing propaganda for the enemy is not command experience."

Or Gloria Steinem:

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/democrats_attack_mccains_military_experience/

From the stage, the 73-year-old seemed to denigrate the importance of John McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. In an interview with the Observer afterward, she suggested that Barack Obama benefits—and Clinton suffers—because Americans view racism more seriously than sexism.

Steinem also told the crowd that one reason to back Clinton was because “she actually enjoys conflict.” And she claimed that if Clinton’s experience as First Lady were taken seriously in relation to her White House bid, people might “finally admit that, say, being a secretary is the best way to learn your boss’s job and take it over.”

Steinem raised McCain’s Vietnam imprisonment as she sought to highlight an alleged gender-based media bias against Clinton. “Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?’” Steinem said, to laughter from the audience. McCain was, in fact, a prisoner of war for around five-and-a-half years, during which time he was tortured repeatedly. Referring to his time in captivity, Steinem said with bewilderment, “I mean, hello? This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so.”

 

Huh? I haven't heard anyone complaining.