Our Troops support Joe Biden for President!

Military brass -hates- Trump. If the boss hates something, it's going to trickle down and permeate the culture of the organization. Also, minority enlistment has been on the rise for some time.

 

MS-13, Crips/Bloods have taken over the US American military.

 

Are you saying you can't be white in a gang, holmes?

 

A prison gang.

 

We ain't talkin about your fantasy here, ese.

 

Seriously no one cares about the troops. If we did they wouldn't have such high suicide and homelessness rates.

 

34% 3rd party in 16? WTF?

 

The Clintons were highly unpopular with the military.

Which I thought was strange considering that Bill ensured that our pay went way up and actually crossed over the poverty line while he was in office. We regularly got 3-5% pay raises under him...When Bush took over, those dropped down to 1-2%, we went to 2 wars, deployments went way up, and we beefed up our numbers only to cut them during the recession which cost us a number of young troops. When Obama took over, he cut funding to the military, but tried to get a lot of mental wellfare programs going. When the GOP took over Congress, they made sure to cut that back and we ended up with the furloughs that saw our fellow civilians get screwed over.

Dems care about the military, but they want it to be cut back, the lower ranks to get a proper wage and care, and funded properly which pisses off the huge contractors (Boeing, etc) and high-up officers that get money on the side and cush assignments working with them. That sentiment trickles down, especially when high up white officers see young white enlisted males (I know, I often got approached in some of these discussions).

GOP has never cared for the military...even though the sentiment is they do. They care about the kickbacks they get from the huge corporations and going to war to use their toys. They'll up the budget, but almost all of it goes to those contractors for equipment that isn't needed (at least in the quantities that are ordered). They'll then bathe themselves in the flag, pay the sports teams to have "military days" or "spotlights", and claim they're friends of the military.

 

A+ content

 

And most people that join the military aren't doing it for some patriotic duty either. The whole troops for whichever candidate does a photo op with military isn't even really true either.

 

Good post.

This is the difference between symbolism versus actual actions. It's clear that the Republicans like the symbolism of the military. We saw that last year Trump wanted his own military parade. When it comes to actual actions they tend to view the troops like they do low wage labor. Rumsfeld famously said "you go to war with the army you have and not the one you wish you had." when asked why troops were being sent in without proper protection.

 

Just to add above. I remember Paul Wellstone being very anti-war but he wasn't anti-troops. Among the legislation that he worked on was improving mental health treatment of veterans and increasing pay for troops.

 

Preach my Brotha.

This needs to be highlighted in an add or with a speech, I knew this but had never heard it spelled out so plainly.

 

My Dad spend 10 years in the USAF, and doesn't like being thanked for his service, and really hates the idea it somehow made him a hero. He was a 17 year old who had dropped out of High School bouncing around living arrangements due to his Dad being dead and his Mom just being a terrible parent, and it was a guaranteed job. Then he lucked out and never got deployed anywhere, spent his entire career at Bergstrom which was only a couple hours away from Houston. There are so many Vets that made considerable sacrifices for this country, whether they wanted to or not.

I do know several people that did join out of duty (Some motivated by 9/11 joined the Army only to be severely disappointed to be fighting the Iraq War instead). Those types usually joined the Marines. Many also joined the USAF to follow their parents. I can't think of anyone from High School that is still in (I'm 34), so nobody really made it a career.

 

Interesting but all that matters to me is what is up in battleground states.

 

I hate getting thanked...although I've mellowed to it over the years...I never saw combat, but I did spend over 3 years away from my family over my 18+ year career...2 tours in Korea and 3 tours to Qatar...and that doesn't even count the long hours or getting called in (I was/am in IT) or the hours I spent in the office after hours working on my B.S. and my Masters...both accelerated programs so I could get them done in a certain timeframe. I got lucky, I guess, but I'd love to have that time back as it wasn't easy and almost drove my wife crazy. Also would love to have a healthy neck and back which I hurt through the crappy USAF fitness program, carrying a ton of heavy equipment over the years, poor posture because I'm tall and no seats are made for me...especially in airplanes...and generally being too gung ho about helping people out.

I joined because I was 20, had dropped out of 3 different colleges after high school because I had no idea what I wanted to do and just doing core classes until I figured it out didn't appeal to me. Then, while working at Target, I decided to get married...then we realized that she was pregnant before our marriage and we didn't have health care. After a long night of arguing with each other, I walked into the USAF recruiting office at Memorial City mall on a Monday, told him not to lie to me, and told them I wanted something to do with computers. Was in basic training 4 months later and 10 days before I turned 21. Can't say I hated it...it was there for me when I needed it and gave me purpose and direction...but it did beat me down over the years.

I do remember the people that joined after 9/11...those were the folks that ended up having to sweat it 4 years later if they hadn't made E-5 by then. Lot of them got booted when the GOP cut the troop level. Lot of good people were suddenly forced out without a backup plan. It was sad...also made my job harder since I was an E-6 at that point and we suddenly had a lot of potential E-5's suddenly gone. Ended up having to do a lot of E-5 work as well as run shops at that point. Lot of folks got promoted later on that weren't ready as well because of that hole. That's basically where I stopped supporting the GOP blindly...I realized that they didn't care about those of us that were enlisted or those in similar positions. Ended up voting for Obama whole-heartedly (even told my military friends, many weren't thrilled) and have voted Dem ever since. In 2018, I decided not to vote for anyone with the R next to their name since they continue to support the conman in charge...only considering D, L, G, or I (or any others) basically for awhile.

I did work with USAF recruiting as an IT guy for 4+ years starting in 2010...best time of my life and I got to travel around the country doing things. For the most part, they were only taking folks that had over 90+ on their ASVAB or minorities who tested high. The recruiting lists were long...they were only supposed to have a 10 person waiting list, and farm the rest to other recruiters, but they all basically had full lists and a longer list they kept in the drawer. For a lot of them, it was a sort of luck of the draw to meet their quotas as it basically came down to a lottery system. I've talked with some of them since and it's still about the same. Lot of folks want to get in the Air Force, but, unless you can score extremely high on the ASVAB, you aren't getting in and probably told to go to the Army recruiter.

 

Thanks for your service.

 

That was a lot of third party votes in 2016