Shutterbugsailer wrote:
Well it does prove that TV wrestling isn't fake. Anyone swooning over Castro must have been pile drived on his head one time too many
I spent a couple of hours on Wiki tonight, checking out phony Jesse's claim that he was a Navy Seal; it turns out that he did go through BUD/S training, and served in UDT team 58; but he DID NOT attend the 26 week SEAL course, so he can not claim to be a SEAL; It's all explained below.
BTW; "Jesse Ventura" is actually the "made-up" stage name for James George Janos; (the more you read about this jerk, the more you realize what a POS he is! )
Navy SEAL background controversy
Bill Salisbury, an attorney in San Diego and a former Navy SEAL officer, has accused Ventura of "pretending" to be a SEAL. He wrote that Ventura would be blurring an important distinction by claiming to be a SEAL when he was actually a frogman with the UDT. Compared to SEAL teams, UDTs saw less combat and took fewer casualties.[15][116]
Ventura has often implied that he was a SEAL, but has never stated it categorically. Bill Sainsbury described Ventura's Navy training thus:
[Ventura] took a screening test at boot camp to qualify for...Basic Underwater Demolition/seal (buds/s) training...Those who completed bud/s, when [Ventura] was in training, were sent to either a seal or an underwater demolition team. Graduation did not, however, authorize the trainee to call himself a seal or a udt frogman. He had to first successfully complete a six-month probationary period in the Teams.[117]
Although Ventura underwent UDT training, he never attempted the additional 26-week SEAL Qualification Training. On completion of his BUD/S training, Ventura was assigned to a UDT team. In 1983, eight years after Ventura left the Navy, the UDTs were disbanded and those operators were retrained and retasked as SEALs.[116]
Some argue that since Ventura's BUD/S training was common to UDTs and SEALs, and the work of UDTs and SEALs was similar, he is entitled to call himself a SEAL in all but name, but others disagree and hold the view expressed by Bill Salisbury.
Responding to the controversy, Governor Ventura's office confirmed that Ventura was a member of the UDT. His spokesman stated that Ventura has never tried to convince people otherwise.[15] Ventura stated, "Today we refer to all of us as SEALs, that's all it is", and dismissed the accusations of lying about being a SEAL as "much ado about nothing".[116]
Opie and Anthony Show incident
The Opie and Anthony Show hosted Ventura on December 2, 2009. The theme was Ventura's show, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura. A debate arose with Ventura opposing the hosts on torture and suspension of due process after the September 11 attacks, as well as the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
The debate shifted from terrorist profiling to racial profiling of Mexicans, in which Ventura said when returning to the United States from his home in Mexico, two hours after crossing the border into Arizona, he witnessed Border Patrol agents demanding proof of citizenship on a highway in an effort to combat illegal immigration, actions that Ventura argued were violating the Constitution.
When co-host Jim Norton, who defended these actions by the Border Patrol, said he also believed in the Constitution, Ventura said, "No, you don't, 'cause you're saying this is OK."
Both Ventura and Norton continued to argue over the government's handling of illegal immigration. During the debate, Ventura told Norton to not "put words in my mouth". Norton defended doing so by saying Ventura was doing the same, to which Ventura said "Bye, guys" and prepared to exit the studio. When Norton asked Ventura why he was leaving, Ventura said, "No, I'm not. There's a f**king guy here telling me I've got a schedule, asshole," Norton replied, "You're using dirty language, asshole." Further tension ensued, with Norton making various insults and accusations of physical intimidation.
Norton continued to vent after Ventura left the studio, calling Ventura a "f**king baby" and a "big f**king guy who doesn't like the little guy yelling." The incident was recorded on camera and gained over a million views since the video was posted in December 2009 on YouTube.[118] Ventura, who was hosted on the Opie and Anthony Show a few times prior to the incident, has not returned to the show since.
Chris Kyle controversy;
On January 4, 2012, Chris Kyle, a former U.S. Navy SEAL who had served in Iraq and, having 160 confirmed kills, and was the deadliest marksman in American military history,[123] promoted his recently released book American Sniper on the Opie and Anthony Show.
When Kyle was on the air, a listener called in and asked about how Kyle allegedly punched Ventura in a bar fight. Show host Gregg 'Opie' Hughes asked Kyle about the rumor. Kyle claimed that he punched Ventura in the face at a bar in Coronado, California which was popular with Navy SEAL personnel. According to Kyle, he did this because Ventura loudly expressed criticism of the Iraq War back in 2006 during a wake for Michael A. Monsoor, a Medal of Honor recipient and Navy SEAL who had been killed in action in Iraq the same year.
Kyle indicated that Ventura, who was present in San Diego to give a speech to a graduating BUD/S class, was "letting it be known he did not agree" with the war in Iraq and was "bad-mouthing the war, bad-mouthing (former President) Bush, bad-mouthing America." Although Kyle, who wrote about the alleged incident in his book but did not mention Ventura by name, said he approached Ventura and asked him to tone down his voice because the families of SEAL personnel were present, Ventura allegedly said to Kyle that the SEALs "deserved to lose a few guys."
Kyle said he responded by punching Ventura.[124][125] Kyle repeated his claims in a later interview with Bill O'Reilly on his show.
Following this interview, radio host Alex Jones interviewed Ventura on January 8 regarding what happened. During the interview, Ventura denied the rumors, saying he never met Kyle nor has he heard of him before.
Ventura argued that had the confrontation occurred, Kyle would be admitting to assault and that the incident would have become known across the Navy SEAL community, as Ventura had been a member of the UDT/SEALs community. Ventura also stated that the bar, known as McP's, was owned by a former Navy SEAL who was his cadre instructor when in the military and that he would not misbehave at the bar. Because the rumors emerged as Ventura was traveling down to his second home in Mexico, Ventura felt that the story was released at that point so he would be unable to properly fight the allegations.[126]
After the Opie and Anthony Show hosts learned of Jones' interview with Ventura, they interviewed Kyle, who clarified his view of what happened and urged witnesses who were present at the bar to come forward to back his claims. Alex Jones, who is a friend of Ventura's and was highly skeptical of Kyle's claims even before Ventura's interview on his show, was also invited by the Opie and Anthony Show hosts to discuss the controversy.
After Jones called in, an argument erupted over whether the incident happened with the Opie and Anthony Show hosts siding with Kyle's version of events and Jones siding with Ventura's. During the argument, Kyle denied claims by Jones that he was part of a bigger plot of discrediting Ventura and also suggested frustration over the attention on Kyle being focused on the alleged incident rather than on his book in general. Kyle also offered to meet with Ventura privately to end the dispute.[127] While Jones and the Opie and Anthony Show hosts were receptive to Kyle's proposal, no meeting occurred.
Ventura, reiterating that the incident did not happen, posted a comment on his official Facebook page saying the following:
The event this man spoke of never happened. I have been to McP's many times since leaving the Navy. I was never there alone. I was always accompanied by other people. If this happened 6 years ago, someone would have known of it before now.
Certainly in the UDT/SEAL community it would have been known. This has to be news to all of us. I have always opposed the war in Iraq but I have never spoken or wished any ill will towards the soldiers. My heart aches that soldiers have died or been wounded because this war should never have taken place. I am perplexed over the agenda this man has and why a fellow Navy Seal [sic] would tell a lie about an event that never happened. [128]
Lawsuit against Kyle
Ventura filed a defamation suit against Kyle in January 2012.[125] Ventura initially considered dropping the lawsuit, but said several retired Navy SEALs (including the owner of McP's) demanded that Ventura continue his lawsuit, which Ventura did after Kyle failed to agree on a settlement in which he would state the incident never happened.[129] In a motion filed by Kyle's attorney in August 2012 to dismiss two of the suit's three counts, declarations by five former SEALs and the mothers of two others supported Kyle's account.[130] However, in a motion filed by Ventura,
Bill DeWitt, a close friend of Ventura and former SEAL who was present with him at the bar, suggested that Ventura interacted with a few SEALs but was involved in no confrontation with Kyle, and said that Kyle's claims were false. DeWitt's wife also said she never witnessed any fight between Kyle and Ventura.[131][132]
Although the lawsuit was ongoing as of 2013, Kyle was murdered in an unrelated incident on February 2, 2013.[133] In May 2013, Ventura substituted Kyle's widow, Taya Kyle, as the defendant, with his lawyers arguing that it would be unjust to permit the estate to continue to profit from Kyles wrongful conduct and to leave Governor Ventura without redress for ongoing damage to his reputation.[134]
On July 29, 2014, after a three week trial in Federal Court in Saint Paul, a jury awarded Ventura $1.8 million on an 8 to 2 split verdict, $500,000 for defamation and $1.3 million for unlawful enrichment.[135][136]
My comments?
Regardless of "who said what", in my book, James George Janos, AKA / Jesse Ventura, is an idiot and a douche bag.