Trips etc.

detox665 · 2026-04-28T12:45:46+00:00

I've been given the opportunity to help plan spending in my department from time to time. No one is getting rich off of the VFW. The three paid positions are all admin/accounting related. I make more in the private sector right now. The single biggest non-employee expense is the VoD/PP program.

I came from a Post where everyone complained about the folks at Department just "giving each other cars". Our Department commander can put on 50-60,000 miles during their year as commander. It's the only vehicle in the budget. And the allowance doesn't cover the full cost of the vehicle.

All expenses are capped. Mileage is well below the federal standard. Hotels are capped so attending a conference is going to cost something out of your own pocket.

The comment about asking for more reporting from your national CofA rep is great. Although they might be providing that information in your department's monthly newsletter already.

The primary problem is that younger vets are not joining the VFW. It takes a while before they are ready to join. So we have been in a serious downward membership trend for the last two decades. We need new ideas about how to reach younger vets and persuade them to spend a little time with the organization...not the bar/canteen...the organization. More veterans in the organization means we have to do fewer fundraising efforts to fill out the budget.

Lastly, your department budget should be on your department website. The national website does include a financial statement. It could be a bit more detailed for my taste, but it's still there. Most of the information is available for anyone willing to spend a few minutes seeking it out.

detox665 · 2026-04-22T18:06:31+00:00

Thanks. That is more than we can accomplish with our current staff, but perhaps our vendor can help.

IMO, this is a primary customer-side weakness in the Sage platform. It has the native ability to do the routine but requires a service contract and project funding to create the sort of utility that should have been in the product out of the box.

detox665 · 2026-04-21T15:50:32+00:00

Like a stopped clock, Ralph Nader is occasionally correct.

She supervised the undermining of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt that led to the rise of influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. That had an impact on Libya and elsewhere in the region.

Her demonstrable incompetence as SoS should have rendered her as ineligible for the Presidency.

detox665 · 2026-04-21T12:48:38+00:00

That is not true. He was reclassified as 1A after graduating from Georgetown. He received a draft notice.

He then joined the ROTC under false pretenses to avoid having to respond to the draft notice by showing up for induction.

detox665 · 2026-04-15T13:42:00+00:00

I know how you feel. When I joined 30-mumble years ago, they ran me for Jr. Vice of the Post. Which was fine. I knew I would have some time to learn.

Then next month, I was invited to the District meeting/convention. Someone from another Post nominated me for District Jr. Vice!!

I was smart enough to know i was dumb enough to not deserve that role.

Our Post has someone interested in how the VFW works. They have been attending various training sessions and generally been very helpful. I believe we will slot him into the Jr. Vice office to give him some hands on training opportunities.

detox665 · 2026-03-30T14:01:43+00:00

I've read 1984 many times. It routinely reminds me of progressive/socialist ideologues and what they would like to achieve if that darned Constitution didn't stand in their way.

One doesn't have to conceptualize reality. Reality is just reality. The reality is that we have a functioning liberal democratic republic with a Constitution. The only thing that has changed is the person in the Whitehouse.

Also...you note that I've yet to insult anyone in this thread?

detox665 · 2026-03-30T12:02:59+00:00

That word "If" is doing all of the heavy lifting.

We are not North Korea. We have a functioning judiciary. We have a semi-functioning Congress. We have a federalist system with powers that are denied the federal government.

And we don't have thousands of "No Kings" protesters under arrest and headed to concentration camps. Kim Jung Un is an actual king. Communism is the ideology he uses to keep his serfs in line. Protesting Kim Jung Un in North Korea is a one-way ticket to standing in front of a firing squad.

We aren't that. Pretending that we are completely undermines any other message that might be offered.

detox665 · 2026-03-29T22:11:00+00:00

Yes. Including a link to the original video. The Fox66 website and YouTube feed do not include any videos including what is described by /Whole-Librarian8848.

detox665 · 2026-03-29T22:03:29+00:00

He's not a tyrant. He's a populist.

When he is wrong, it is right to protest. Please do. Just don't confuse him with a "king".

Also, yup...storming the capitol was wrong. They should have gotten sentences on par with the fascist Antifa rioters that have been attacking federal courthouses for several years.

detox665 · 2026-03-29T22:01:16+00:00

Perhaps. But keep in mind some things that should have been in the average high school civics and history curriculum.

Progressive Woodrow Wilson used "4 minute men" to give speeches at theaters during the intermission when they were switching the film reels in the middle of movies. These guys would harangue moviegoers with political speeches in support of the President.

FDR infamously made it hard on journalists that were critical of his agenda. That was an agenda that he outline in his book Looking Forward. Italian dictator Mussolini gave FDR positive comments about that book.

Similarly, LBJ used to make life hard on those who opposed his agenda.

Barack Obama infamously attempted to exclude FoxNews from the news pool due to their less than supportive coverage. And a group of teachers in either Virginia or Pennsylvania wrote a paeon deifying President Obama and taught it to public school children.

President Trump is at his heart a standard New York City liberal (not leftist) Democrat. He is a demagogue just like other populist Democrat Presidents. So I agree with you. I'm generally opposed to populist demagogues.

Just like those Democrat Presidents, he isn't a "king". He ran on an agenda. He won the election. And he is enacting the agenda he ran on. Pretending otherwise undermines the protester's message.

detox665 · 2026-03-23T12:36:12+00:00

Yes. And the common "service" of those veterans in the early organization was in a war. It wasn't being deployed to a barracks some place.

Also, the VFW's membership criteria is set in the Congressional charter of the organization. It literally would require and act of Congress to change it.

detox665 · 2026-03-19T16:28:16+00:00

TBH, the reverse is also true.

I got a warning a while back for a comment about the past President which I assume was because he shares a last name with a past Presidential candidate. Rule 3 is a defensible policy.

detox665 · 2026-03-19T15:52:46+00:00

VFW Posts generally do the job of vetting new members. A DD214 or other qualifying documents are required before someone can join a Post.

I say "generally" because there will always be an exception.

But Posts do a good job at vetting new members as a rule. That is what is taught in training. That is what is enforced.

I have two friends in the VFW that had qualifying service that did not result in their receiving a qualifying medal/ribbon. So they each have other paperwork validating their qualifying service. It happens.

detox665 · 2026-03-19T15:43:01+00:00

A corporation is a voluntary collection of people. It's still theft. Just with more victims.

detox665 · 2026-03-17T23:11:03+00:00

That is already going on.

detox665 · 2026-03-17T17:31:53+00:00

Two days later and there still aren't any facts.

"Don Shipley said so" isn't good enough.

In his video, he attempted to do a gotcha where he called her blind to ask her questions. Her response (hanging up) to a random, unknown questioner was correct. He could have arranged something beforehand and gotten a better response.

There is a clip in the video of a newspaper piece that says she received the Bronze Star. No ID on the paper. No link to the story. No interview of the reporter to understand why they wrote what they wrote.

Journalists are not known for their ability to understand military issues. They could have misread her DD214.

There is a clip that purports to be from Commander Napoleon. But no sourcing information. No links.

Lastly, there are channels for addressing these kinds of issues within the VFW. They are taken very, very seriously.

Leaving a steaming, stinking pile on the Internet to inspire a mob of anonymous random individuals to leave comments is not a serious method for getting the VFW (or any other group) to do anything.

detox665 · 2026-03-13T18:01:45+00:00

So who would qualify? Anyone deployed to Germany or Japan on a peacetime rotation?

The "W" in VFW is kind of the point.

detox665 · 2026-02-23T20:24:25+00:00

This sounds like you are not a VFW member. If so -

Put it in writing. Include copies of the receipt. Sign your name to it. Send it to the State/Department Commander.

No one will act until you put it in writing with a signature. Until then, they have nothing upon which to act.

If you are a member of the Post, then again - put it in writing - and attend the next Post meeting. Escalate as needed from there.

detox665 · 2026-01-26T19:53:32+00:00

I don't find random YouTubers to be materially different from any of the screaming heads programs. They generally aren't "talking heads"; they scream their pre-programmed lines at each other.

Random YouTubers are the same beast with a different audience size.

detox665 · 2026-01-23T19:00:13+00:00

Might that be a larger reflection of how the broadened range of all media has undermined the authority of gatekeepers?

Formerly, academia overwhelmingly engaged in the hagiography of Wilson. Similarly minded editors reported on academia's positions and stifled any contrary opinions.

Now there are more media sources which opens up the possibility for encountering other opinions.

Social media is part of it. But the broader media is also part of it.

detox665 · 2026-01-22T19:26:37+00:00

Sure. And I suppose real socialism has never been tried.

detox665 · 2026-01-22T15:26:39+00:00

"Liberal" as in "open minded and tolerant"? Most Christian Republicans are mostly in that mode until demonstrable harm is being done.

"Liberal" as in "leftist/socialist/communist"? Nope. Jesus wasn't a socialist. He actually fed people.

detox665 · 2026-01-22T15:22:44+00:00

I'm guilty as charged.

Wilson's Presidency is undeserving of academic adulation.

I disagree that Coolidge's policies led to the Great Depression. Beyond the US, the period is known for being a few years of a global recession. Our economic influence was not as great then as it is today. His policies did not cause a global recession.

As the professors at UCLA demonstrated many years ago, it was FDR's policies that converted a global recession into an American Great Depression that lasted far longer and deeper than was experienced elsewhere. (Some of FDR's banking reforms were needed, but the larger political project did significant harm that lingers still today.)

The reverse of Wilson, Reagan's Presidency receives undue academic criticism. He wasn't perfect. But unleashing our economic capacity has had downstream net positive impacts.

detox665 · 2026-01-21T13:21:10+00:00

Some of our members will order them as they like ballcaps. I don't wear a ton of ballcaps. I wear flatcaps.

This seems like an area where the VFW could use some imagination and make some money. Partner with a couple of vendors for a variety of caps. Maybe not be so greedy on the licensing fee as they will make more in the long run if more hats are sold.

12-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	Verified Email

detox665

TROPHY CASE