{"id":101402,"date":"2020-06-26T07:59:50","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T11:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=101402"},"modified":"2022-01-13T20:31:15","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T01:31:15","slug":"why-i-believe-michael-weinstein-is-a-bottom-feeding-opportunist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=101402","title":{"rendered":"Why I believe Michael Weinstein is a bottom feeding opportunist."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our regular readers should be all too familiar with Mikey Weinstein and his band of Anti-Dominion loons who seem to find Religious Crusaders forcing their beliefs on military members everywhere.\u00a0 \u00a0I am not a religious man but Mikey and his ilk do not care much for me either.\u00a0 They published claims on their site that I am Anti-Semitic, based completely on the things I post on this blog.<\/p>\n

I kinda believe it could be the fact that I point out things like the vast majority of the money Mikey Weinstein was collecting through his so-called “Military Religious Freedom Foundation” was going straight to Mikey’s own bank account.\u00a0 Billing your own Charity for doing legal work that you yourself created seems…smarmy to me.\u00a0 I learned in kindergarten about the “Sticks and Stones” thing and it seems to be all I need to quell the predictably juvenile antics of\u00a0 Mikey’s\u00a0 MRFF Storm Troopers.<\/p>\n

I guess drumming up funding for what I see as vexatious litigation was their primary mission after all.\u00a0 \u00a0There must be a shortage of rampaging Dominionists forcing Jesus upon unsaved souls these days. Or,\u00a0 being the opportunistic sleaze that Mikey appears to be,\u00a0 he figures jumping on the current windfall of Law Enforcement Outrage is just more profitable.\u00a0 It’s not just the military now.<\/p>\n

Now “Milk It Mikey” is going after a law enforcement officer that happens to be a veteran and has a tattoo dedicated to his KIA brother.\u00a0 That being what it may,\u00a0 it is a hard tattoo to defend on its face value.\u00a0 But,\u00a0 as is often the case when corporeal beings capable of free thought engage in a little skeptical research… it’s really not that hard to defend after all.\u00a0 I doubt that will stop “Milk It Mikey” from fundraising over it.<\/p>\n

Here is an article about the situation:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A national civil rights organization says it will file a suit against the city of Walla Walla if a local police officer\u2019s double lightning bolt \u201cSS\u201d tattoo isn\u2019t removed or altered or the officer isn\u2019t removed from the Walla Walla Police Department.<\/p>\n

In an emailed letter sent to Walla Walla Police Chief Scott Bieber and Walla Walla Mayor Tom Scribner, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation called for Bieber to \u201cdo the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

City officials said this morning they are unaware of or had not read the letter from Michael Weinstein, founder and president of the organization.<\/p>\n

Weinstein said his civil rights advocacy group had been in contact with board members of the Beth Israel Congregation in Walla Walla regarding the tattoo worn by police officer Nat Small.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the Union-Bulletin published Wednesday, Beth Israel representatives said the synagogue\u2019s board is concerned about the police department\u2019s defensive and reactionary response to community criticism about Small\u2019s tattoo and the lack of police department transparency on the issue.<\/p>\n

Not only does that concern Jews, but Bieber\u2019s response reflects \u201ca greater concern about the treatment of Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ people by police forces across this county,\u201d the letter said. Board members hope a door will open the for dialogue between the police force and the Walla Walla community on national issues.<\/p>\n

Police Chief Scott Bieber did not respond to Weinstein\u2019s missive this morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have yet to see the letter so I have no comment on it,\u201d Bieber said.<\/p>\n

City attorney Tim Donaldson said he was also unaware of the letter and would not comment until he could review it.<\/p>\n

After a picture of the tattoo on Small\u2019s forearm was posted on Facebook and then widely circulated last week, the tattoo and Small\u2019s role in the police department became a source of controversy.<\/p>\n

The police department and Small have said the double lightning bolt \u201cSS\u201d tattoo is related to the officer\u2019s scout sniper service in the U.S. Marine Corps, despite its historic symbolism for Nazi white supremacy.<\/p>\n

The image has been denounced by the Marine Corps, in part due to efforts from Weinstein\u2019s organization.<\/p>\n

In 2012 a group of Marines posed with their sniper rifles in front of a blue flag with white Nazi \u201cSS\u201d runes.<\/p>\n

The picture had been taken in 2010 in Afghanistan and the photo\u2019s description says the \u201cSS\u201d flag had been \u201cadopted and used by the Marines in reference to scout sniper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weinstein\u2019s Military Religious Freedom Foundation called for Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos to order an investigation of the photo\u2019s origins, according to Reuters news organization.<\/p>\n

Weinstein said his foundation is dedicated to fighting for the constitutionally guaranteed separation of church and state for military service men and women, representing more than 68,000 active duty U.S. service people, \u201cabout 95% of whom self-identify as practicing Christians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did take on this issue in 2012 when members of the U.S. Marines were infuriated about the use of the \u2018SS\u2019 Nazi symbol for the scout snipers that were in Afghanistan,\u201d he said. \u201cIt took the Marine Corps about 24 hours to ban the use of the symbol.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his communication to Bieber and Scribner, Weinstein called Small\u2019s depiction of the \u201cschutzstaffel\u201d or Nazi \u201cSS,\u201d disgusting and despicable, saying use of the imagery is inexcusable under any circumstance.<\/p>\n

Weinstein\u2019s letter said as national and global outcry over \u201cblatant police abuses of people of color and other minorities,\u201d it is disingenuous and dishonest for the department to argue Small\u2019s tattoo is fine since the officer covers it with a long sleeve police uniform while on duty.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice officers are supposed to be inextricably intertwined into the very fabric of their communities, especially in a small town such as Walla Walla. When Officer Nat Small is \u2018off duty\u2019 and blatantly displaying that Nazi SS tattoo for the whole community to see and absorb, it sends a distinct message of indescribable fear and loathing especially to your Jewish and other minority communities which you are sworn to serve and protect,\u201d Weinstein said in his letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we respect Officer Small for what he did, which was very gallant and very brave in Afghanistan, it is inconceivable to us that he is unaware of the connection to the Nazi\u2019s,\u201d he said this morning.<\/p>\n

The people who have come forward to the organization for help do not feel like an apology from the police department would be enough, Weinstein said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur job is to be the voice for those in Walla Walla that feel they have no voice without revenge or political retaliation. And so I am speaking for the members of the LGBTQ community, the Jewish community, people of color and of Christians and everyone who has reached out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His organization calls for an alteration of the tattoo to remove the \u201cSS\u201d symbol \u201cso it will no longer display the Nazi iconography,\u00a0the iconography of genocide,\u201d or removal of the tattoo.<\/p>\n

If neither of those is selected, the organization seeks the departure of Small from the force, either through firing or resignation.<\/p>\n

If none of those options are selected, the organization will file a suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur litigators are preparing a federal lawsuit. The plaintiff will be citizens of Walla Walla, and we will go in with an aggressive federal lawsuit against the city of Walla Walla, the police department and the mayor,\u201d Weinstein said. \u201cWe hope that that doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weinstein said he has received no responses from the mayor or police chief<\/p>\n

He said it is a nonpartisan issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be Jewish to understand this or be a person of color or LBGTQ at all,\u201d he said. \u201cYou should be able to look at this and understand how hurtful this is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not about him. He is paid by the people to be a public servant and in a democracy \u2026 we rule by persuasion,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd this is a democracy, we are a representative democracy, we rule by persuasion, lawsuits persuade.\u201d<\/p>\n

An anonymous letter Weinstein received said, \u201cThe Police Department claims they have him cover it while on duty. This isn\u2019t good enough. What if I see this officer and his tattoo at the grocery store and the next day in a police capacity. I would fear for my safety and my fellow citizens as well.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I always take exception to these so-called “anonymous letter” claims.\u00a0 It does not take the creative imagination of a Fellini to conjure up images of MRFF miscreants passing around a note to one another and then claiming it was suddenly anonymous.\u00a0 But, then again… they do seem to be easily confused.<\/p>\n

The name in the tattoo on Officer Small\u2019s arm is that of Cpl Claudio Patino,\u00a0 KIA\u00a0 June 22, 2010\u00a0 \u00a0 To Cpl Patino and Officer Small the SS stands for Scout Sniper.\u00a0 \u00a0I will not attempt to describe the kind of Marine Cpl Patino was… I would rather let someone who loved him and was there when he was killed tell the story.<\/p>\n

Broken Understanding: A Marine Scout Sniper Reflects
\n<\/strong>by Nate Coffey<\/p>\n

My concept of grace has, like most things in my life, been shaped by\u00a0experiences in combat.<\/p>\n

In June of 2010, I had the honor of serving as a team leader for a\u00a0Marine Corps Scout Sniper team in Musah Quelah, Afghanistan. Our\u00a0company was to clear the town of its Taliban presence, and when things\u00a0got really hairy, the whole battalion came to join the fight. Cpl\u00a0Claudio Patino IV was a Marine on my team, and he was the living\u00a0pulse of it.<\/p>\n

My eight man team, Shadow 2, was a very effective unit, and we got\u00a0hard results. I\u2019ll leave the details out of it, but we were very good\u00a0at our jobs. Quite a bit of our actions against the enemy was due to\u00a0the insane courage and tactical proficiency of this one man.<\/p>\n

He was not a \u201cgood\u201d man in the sense that most of us see goodness, but he was very good at being a man. He was a rough individual with a sharp tongue, and he had no patience for weakness. His language wasn\u2019t clean. He wasn\u2019t in Afghanistan\u00a0out of some poster boy sense of duty per se, and I don\u2019t know that\u00a0he was there because he saw himself fighting for the freedoms of\u00a0Americans.<\/p>\n

\"scout-sniper-marijuana-300x154\"
The Shadow 2 team standing in a giant marijuana field after getting bombed by our own guys. Long story.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most of our country didn\u2019t want us over there, and fewer\u00a0still had any concept of the men and women sent to fight in that\u00a0foreign soil. I believe that, like most of us, he was somewhat disgusted with the\u00a0state of our nation and its citizens who couldn\u2019t care less about a\u00a020-something year old man duking it out with third world insurgents.\u00a0He was there for the fight. There was a war going on, and he wanted in\u00a0on it.<\/p>\n

His main passion in life was fighting. He was skilled in\u00a0hand-to-hand combat, so much so that I designated him our team\u00a0instructor. Every night we had free was spent in the \u201cgym,\u201d which was really a tent with a pull-up bar, a small wrestling mat, and a punching bag made out of bricks or something, learning\u00a0from him how to punch each other in the face.<\/p>\n

He was an excellent\u00a0marksman, even amongst a team of Scout Snipers. He could engage the\u00a0enemy with his hands, a blade, a pistol, or with a rifle from 1,000\u00a0yards away. Which he did. A lot.<\/p>\n

When someone dies, it is custom for us to never say anything negative\u00a0about him or her. We choose to remember only the good things, and\u00a0forget any negative aspects of that person. Not so with Claudio\u00a0Patino IV. There was no pretending that he was a good Marine, and we\u00a0weren\u2019t forced to forget bad things about him. All of those good things you say about someone after they\u2019re dead, we would say about him while he was alive. Those that knew him could often react to him just by shaking our heads in wonder. Amongst\u00a0the Marine Corps infantry, and amongst a group of skilled snipers, he\u00a0stood out as a paragon of skill, ferocity, strength, speed, and\u00a0bravery.<\/p>\n

\"image\"
Cpl Claudio Patino IV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why tell you all of this? I want you to know that this man was the\u00a0best we had to offer. I want you to get a sense of how we all\u00a0idolized him, even while he was living. I looked up to him, and I was\u00a0his TEAM LEADER, and I was about ten years older than him. There were\u00a0actual times when I would give an order, and the guys in my team would\u00a0automatically look at him to see what he thought about it. We\u00a0idolized him in life, and in death.<\/p>\n

I remember his death well. Patino had seen some movement on a hilltop\u00a0in the distance. He wanted to go check it out, and he took three\u00a0other teammates with him. I remember him getting to that hilltop and\u00a0collapsing, and I heard the automatic gunfire a half second later. I\u00a0remember seeing the rest of the team unleash hell in the distance, and\u00a0the strained voices on the radio. As the rest of us bounded up to\u00a0their position and I asked for an update, one of the guys calmly said\u00a0over the radio, \u201cPatino\u2019s dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next two hours was a blur of\u00a0gunfire and radio traffic, as each of us took turns performing CPR on\u00a0the body of our brother, while our corpsman attempted every\u00a0life-saving intervention he could. The mangled bodies of the Taliban fighters who shot him lay crumpled close by. Aircraft flew overhead, bombs were\u00a0dropped, shots were fired, and more injuries were sustained.<\/p>\n

\"image\"
Scout Sniper Platoon with the Patino family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Only a matter of weeks passed before I stood before his parents with\u00a0two of my brothers, giving an account of the death of their son. I had to stand in front of them with a fellow teammate, and explain to them how this had happened. How do you apologize to a man\u2019s family after he dies while you\u2019re in charge of him?<\/p>\n

His family was more than gracious to us. They met the battalion when they came back from Afghanistan, and they did is with pride knowing that these were the men next to their son and brother when he fell in battle.<\/p>\n

Most of you will not remember his name after reading this. I wouldn\u2019t\u00a0expect you to. You didn\u2019t know him. You didn\u2019t fight battles with\u00a0him. \u00a0But I did.<\/p>\n

I have his name carved into the flesh over my heart, and I named\u00a0my son after him. His death had such a profound impact on me and how\u00a0I live my life. I look at his parents and siblings and wonder if they\u00a0would see my life as worthy of his death. I look at my wife and\u00a0children and wonder if my life will have the same impact on them.<\/p>\n

A year later, I was in Baghdad, Iraq as a Private Military Contractor.<\/p>\n

There were two realities of that job;<\/p>\n

1. I was always armed, and<\/p>\n

2. I spent much of my free time alone in my room.<\/p>\n

The guilt of watching him die every single day never left me. Almost daily, it seemed I would find myself in tears, on my knees on the floor, begging God for forgiveness for my failures as a leader, a Marine, and as a man. More than once, the desire to end it all became so strong that I would have to unload my pistol and leave it in my room. I couldn\u2019t face my former teammates, and just getting and sending emails to them was an excruciating experience. The only thing that kept me from killing myself was the thought of the pretty woman and four children I had waiting for me at home.<\/p>\n

I can never earn his sacrifice, but I can honor his life and death with\u00a0mine. I can tell his story. I can tell my kids about the greatest\u00a0warrior I\u2019ve ever met. I can live my life, not as a feeble attempt to
\nrepay him, but as a reflection of the love I have for him.<\/p>\n

\"image\"
I hope I earned it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the movie \u201cSaving Private Ryan,\u201d there is a scene where a dying Tom\u00a0Hanks is speaking to Matt Damon\u2019s character. Private James Francis\u00a0Ryan just witnessed a group of men come to save him specifically, and\u00a0then die in the process.<\/p>\n

After the battle, Ryan hears Tom Hanks\u2019\u00a0character, Caption John H. Miller\u2019s last words, \u201cJames\u2026earn this.\u00a0Earn it.\u201d We see years later, an aged James Francis Ryan standing at\u00a0the grave of Captian Miller. He collapses in tears, asking his wife\u00a0if he\u2019s been a good man. He\u2019s apparently spent his entire life trying\u00a0to be worthy of the sacrifice made for him, and in old age, he knows\u00a0he couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Cpl. Claudio Patino IV wasn\u2019t a perfect man. The fictitious Capt.\u00a0John H. Miller wasn\u2019t either. Jesus was. \u201c\u2026but while we were still\u00a0sinners, Christ died for us.\u201d He died specifically for each of us,\u00a0and it would be an unbearable burden if we allowed it to be. The\u00a0difference is that His last words weren\u2019t \u201cEarn this,\u201d they were\u00a0\u201cFather forgive them, they know not what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of you know\u00a0Claudio Patino like I did, but you do, or can know Jesus. I struggled\u00a0for years to earn the grace Christ gave to me, just as I struggled for\u00a0years asking why my brother died on an unnamed hilltop in Afghanistan\u00a0while I survived. The answer lies in knowing we can\u2019t earn it. We\u00a0can be grateful for the sacrifice, accept what it has done for us, and\u00a0live our lives in honor of it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Marine Cpl. Claudio Pati\u00f1o IV, 22, was on his third overseas deployment when he was killed while stationed in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is a shame that some people will jump to condemn Officer Small.\u00a0 Those same clowns would be just as vocal about Cpl Patino being a law enforcement officer.\u00a0 I am sure the Nazi tag will be flailed about in faux outrage by opportunists who are probably using his tattoo to honor Cpl Patino as a fundraiser.\u00a0 \u00a0I hope Officer Small does as his good conscience directs him to do.\u00a0 Keep it,\u00a0 alter it, or remove it.<\/p>\n

I will gladly support whatever he decides to do…so long as it was his choice and not because it was demanded by a man I believe to be little more than a situational parasite that is looking for a cause to feed upon.\u00a0 Where is Small’s civil right to Free Expression?\u00a0 Should an employer fire someone because they have a tattoo?\u00a0 A tattoo that is not visible while on duty?<\/p>\n

What my fellow citizens in in Walla Walla,\u00a0 WA should be afraid of is “Milk It Mikey” and his Storm Troopers goose-stepping down the streets.\u00a0 \u00a0Cover up any of your monuments if they even so much as mention… dare I say it… God.\u00a0 They will come to town in a Blitzkrieg of their own design using threat and intimidation to bully their way through town.<\/p>\n

I will close by sharing something with the Marines of Shadow 2 that will always be beyond the comprehension of\u00a0 “Milk It Mikey” Weinstein… Semper Fidelis my brothers.<\/p>\n

Source: a-broken-understanding-a-marine-scout-sniper-reflects<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: Lawsuit threatened over Walla Walla police officer’s tattoo | News | eastoregonian.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our regular readers should be all too familiar with Mikey Weinstein and his band of Anti-Dominion … Why I believe Michael Weinstein is a bottom feeding opportunist.<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":667,"featured_media":101403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,184,227,5,169,282,226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-whackos","category-marine-corps","category-police","category-politics","category-religion","category-sjw-idiocy","category-veterans-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/667"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101415,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101402\/revisions\/101415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/101403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}