It’s not that both sides don’t have such patrols, it’s just that the rightwing patrols are larger and therefore, much noisier when they stumble upon anything that appears hinky by any senior Democratic official or celebrity tied to the Democratic Party.
They are particularly obsessive about Obama, both Clintons, and Soros. Most of what they surface is BS and either quickly dismissed as silly or quickly debunked. Occasionally they or someone not aligned with them takes a closer look and stumbles upon related stuff that appears hinky and that initiates a new round of outrage. Then exhaustion leads to everyone dropping it and anyone that steps in way late to the party and suggests that in haste, there were other hinky aspects of the story that weren’t covered is quickly dismissed as a CT.
This one begins on Memorial Day 2016.
Round 1: A photo —
Absolutely nothing wrong. But rightwingers went apeshit because they operate with half a brick. In this instance, the half was knowledge that military personnel can’t appear in uniform at a political campaign event. Thus, in their peabrains, this guy in US Navy dress uniform must be an actor hired by Hillary to exploit her military creds or she was exploiting a guy and causing him to voilate the law.
The simple answer is that it was a freaking Memorial Day Parade and not a political event. But before that occured to anyone, they were already checking out this actor and Snopes jumped in to debunk their fantasy.
He is Oscar Flores, director of operations at the Clintons’ New York home, who was also a member of the United States Navy until he retired in 2011 after 22 years of service. Flores attends the Memorial Day parade each year to pay his respects to those who were killed or who are missing.
Round 2: Snopes included a bit too much in its debunking report. Another photo and
The Clintons attended Flores’ retirement ceremony aboard the USS Makin Island:
Zero Hedge picked up on that and after collecting information reported: ‘Everyday American’ Taxpayers Funded $90,000 Private Jet For Hillary (And Her Mom) To Visit Her Chef
…Flores originally served as Bill’s White House Chef but has stuck with the Clintons over the years …
In fact, according to a note from CNBC, the Clinton’s are so tight with their chef that back in 2011 then Secretary of State Hillary chartered a G-5 to attend his Navy retirement ceremony in San Diego. Per Hillary’s official schedule below, she also brought Bill, Chelsea and her mom, Dorothy Rodham, along for the ride…
All the facts in Durden’s ZH report are verifiable facts. Wingers can be outraged all over again and HillFans can play their standard role — it’s nothing and stop picking on Hillary. Both positions are opinions based on the facts in the article, and in this instance, arguing opinions is a waste of time, and both the pro and anti-sides will exhaust themselves soon enough over this matter. (Please don’t re-ignite a dueling opinion debate in comments to this diary. That would be trollish, indicating a failure to read and comprehend this diary, and any such comments will be rated accordingly.)
Round 3: Corrections and questions that seem not to have been asked.
- What was private citizen Doug Band and Clinton family associate/friend doing aboard that USG chartered jet? (Note: complaining about politicians including family members in their government paid for jaunts when space permits is a perq and therefore, a waste of time to complain about.)
- Both Snopes and Zero Hedge incorrectly identified Flores’ military service. He retired from the US Navy Reservs. That is not the same as the US Navy. Flores may have served in the US Navy before joining the US Navy Reserve, but that hasn’t been reported and isn’t necessary for the US Navy Reserve.
Those with no prior military experience usually agree to a term of two to eight years. If you have past military experience the amount of time that you spend in the Navy Reserve will greatly vary depending on your past.
Reservists may retire after 20 years of satisfactory service (50 points per year). This is based on a combination of active duty time, attendance at training periods and completion of correspondence courses. Mandatory retirement age is 60 (sometimes waivable to age 67 for Physicians).
The next two points relate to this one:
3. Do all twenty-plus year US Navy Reserve Chief Petty Officers receive such a lavish retirement ceremony and dinner reception? Or was there something unique and special about Flores’ active service that made him worthy of this?
Including a tribute from the House floor?
If not, the Department of the Navy should explain this exception.
4. Related to #3
According to the official Navy press release, Hillary described Flores as the “Mayor of Chappaqua because a simple trip to the grocery store or to the post office turns into a three hour town hall meeting. Everybody wants to talk to Oscar.”
Obviously, Mr. Flores’ would have to have been working for the Clinton’s for some period of time for HRC to make such a statement. What else was disclosed is:
Chief Culinary Specialist Flores represents the best of what our Nation has to offer and has demonstrated exemplary and laudable service while on the Presidential Food Service Staff at the White House as Chef and Personal Enlisted Aide to the President.
Chief Culinary Specialist Flores’ tireless work ethic will be missed by the U.S. Navy, though his strong commitment continues as a Personal Chef, Personal Aide, and Director of Operations at the Clinton Residence.
An interpretation would be that while on US Navy active duty that Flores served WJC in the White House. However, that’s not what it says and it would surprise me if the Navy makes active duty assignments to the WH kitchen staff. (At the Camp David kitchen wouldn’t be so surprising, but no mention is made of Camp David.) Reservists in all branches of the military hold jobs in and out of government, but that’s not part of their military service. If that job is for a government VIP, it’s natural enough that his/her boss would appear at the retirement ceremony for the individual (in part because such government VIPs like to be seen in the company of military officers), but the appearance should not mislead the public that the individual is being honored for exceptional military service when none exists and nor should government officials be spending a significant amount of federal dollars to make an appearance.
Thus, it appears that at the time of his retirement from the US Navy Reserve, Oscar Flores was a long-term employee of the Clinton family. Very nice that the family wanted to be at his military retirement. But it was personal to them, far away from where their homes and normal places of work, and with their entourage, including the Secret Service, their personal desires shouldn’t lead to unnecessary taxpayer costs.
[Estancia Hotel — Price Range: $248 – $444 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)].
- It’s not known how the government accounting was handled for this trip. Will give the Clintons the benefit of doubt that reimbursements were made to the USG for the travel costs of Chelsea, Mrs. Rodham, and Mr. Band and that only HRC/WJC’s and Abedin’s Friday night Estancia Hotel rooms and meals were charged to the USG. Even though I stated in #4 that I personally consider this trip a boondoggle, the fact that the retirement ceremony was an official US Navy function, HRC/WJC’s (along with her personal aide) attendance broadly qualified as government business. USG accounting verification of this should be easily available. (And if there was an overlooked oops, correcting it is what is important and preferably without over-the-top public outrage.)
- An aha! The co-mingling of the personal with the business and the business.
April 1-3, 2011. Whatever HRC and Abedin did the weekend of April 2-3 is no concern of ours (unless she had some official public event obligations not listed on her schedule). There’s no evidence that either of them or Mrs. Rodham attended the CGI U 2011 event. It doesn’t matter if they took some R&R time in La Jolla and the return trip was on Sunday or Monday and included the whole same entourage which is what her schedule indicates.