Brenda is a bright, aware, open minded and caring person, somewhat younger than me, which is still well past her retirement from a career in the Navy Nurse Corp, rising to the rank just below appointment to Rear Admiral heading the entire global operation. We are both part of a once a week walking group in a town north of San Diego, where over coffee we often get into engaged conversations that touch on a wide array of subjects.
Her experiences took her to facilities around the world wherever the U.S. had bases, which is pretty much everywhere, with a stint at the pentagon where she got a taste of the military—political nexus that few are privy to. Right now she is a once a week volunteer in the library of the San Diego Naval Hospital where I’m sure she provides the same friendship to those who served our country going back to WWII. I met her dad a few years back, a man who was elevated from an enlisted man to a naval pilot after Pearl Harbor, whom she took care of until he finally died in his mid 90s.
I’m sharing this on Dailykos as it’s kinda rare when one who understands fully the disaster of the Trump Presidency (me) still can maintain both affection and respect for someone who has an inclination to -— and here the word matters. She does not support Trump, yet I get the feeling that she does not have the animosity that just about all reading this have towards him. She is not among the “deplorables” or the profoundly stupid, who are beyond being disabused of admiration for President Trump (yeah, I use this word because he happens to hold this office, with all of the immense power that the constitution gave it)
For those who still have connections with people who either support, or justify, or normalize this President’s actions, It could be valuable to share the last conversation which was the "normalization” of Trump’s proclaiming that the USS Vinson Air Craft Carrier was on the way to engage North Korea.
For those with a cut off device that identifies people such as Brenda as part of the opposition, well, maybe don’t bother going further. Most of the people I know hate Trump, but they aren’t the ones who are needed to depose him, or to turn some of his supporters, public and elected officials against him.
I’m not going to try to defend myself for having a friendship with Brenda, as I find that my maintaining and cultivating friendships with those who tolerate or even support Donald Trump is valuable, both personally and, in my view, as an approach to mitigate the reality of this individual holding this office of immense constitutional authority.
Yesterday, my conversation with Brenda got to Trump’s announcement about the Vinson led “Armada” that was approaching Korea, where her response surprised me. She explained what we now know, that the ship was actually engaged in routine maneuvers and headed South, away from Korea when Trump, while he and his Secretaries of State and Defense were proclaiming to the world what many described as a brewing crisis, a “Slow Motion Cuban Missile Crisis.”
Brenda said that certainly Trump was wrong, but that the actual activities the Carrier Force could have been known to anyone who took the effort, that there were satellite real time views of this task force that were in the public domain. (After a brief investigation, I think she’s wrong) but I did not let her explanation, even if it were true, stand
She said everyone exaggerates, and included the concept to fake news as an explanation of Trump’s statement about the “armada.” This is a perfect example of “normalization” that a President’s actions do define what is acceptable. I was able to say this in a cordial conversational tone, simply but I had to bolster my case with previous examples.
I pointed out how Spicer had defended Trump by saying he got the information from the 7th Fleet and the Pentagon, “So you should be asking them.” I was shocked by this, as I remember the sign on Harry Truman’s desk, “The Buck Stops here.” Truman’s response would have been to promise to hold the person who screwed up responsible, or to change procedures. He knew that the actions of the the military were under his orders, and responsibility. Trump, as he is about most things is hazy about this.
This event got me thinking about other Presidential actions and I thought of this one, President Eisenhower when a plane that was part of a long term surveillance program over Russia went missing. An historic meeting with Chairman Khrushchev had been planned which could have been the beginning of easing the dangers of the cold war. Here’s an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on the U-2 Incident:
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Still Eisenhower faced criticism in the press for not controlling his own administration, as Cannon's speech only said the mission was "under the aegis of" the president, not "directed by." Press reports were creating a belief in the public that Eisenhower had lost control, which Eisenhower would not let stand. Knowing that he was jeopardizing the Paris Peace Summit, Eisenhower decided to reveal the aerial espionage program and his direct role in it, an unprecedented move for a U.S. President.
His speech on 11 May revolved around four main points: the need for intelligence gathering activities; the nature of intelligence gathering activities; how intelligence activities should be viewed (as distasteful, but vital); and finally that Americans should not be distracted from the real problems of the day. Eisenhower closed passionately by reacting to the Soviet claim that the US acted provocatively and said: "They had better look at their own [espionage] record." As he finished, he told reporters he was still going to the Paris Peace Summit.[29]
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President Eisenhower did lie to the public, but not to protect himself, but a strategically important program to actually lessen the chance of a world war, as the U.S. could see any aggressive preparation. Then when Khrushchev sprung the trap , that the pilot was alive and talking, Eisenhower took responsibility. The people of the United States were treated like the ultimate source of legitimacy of power that our constitution defines us to be.
Another example is J.F.K, when the CIA invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. It was a failure, and even though it was planed before he took office, he took responsibility. He didn’t blame the media for reporting it, or even those who conceived.
This is what it means to be a President of the United States of America, rather than one who achieved the position with a torrent of distortions and lies that somehow was interpreted as power by those who blindly follow him. Trump has never taken responsibility for anything in his life, his cheating his investors, students in his bogus “university” or those home owners he used the power of government to condemn their home for his casino.
I’m writing this to show it’s possible to engage someone who supports Trump without expressing the animosity that is rightly reserved for the person who not only lied his way into this awesome office, but is destroying its integrity day by day.