The US Presidency 2018

[mariomike]

They always have a rain plan involving ground transportation. Always. And an event of this magnitude would have already had ample police assigned; adding one more motorcade to security arrangements is not hugely arduous; you don't close off a whole road for the whole time; mostly it can be done with a rolling tunnel of police motorcycles. With the president of the USA on the ground they would have had them standing by ready just in case a ground move was necessary regardless. He had the choice, and he chose not to go. The Secret Service make a lot of tactical calls, but if he says he's going to something it's their job to make it happen. He decided he had better things to do than to go to the ceremony to honour the fallen. That's on him.

For reference to the discussion,

QUOTE

Staff for former presidents were incredulous. They claim there is always a wet weather plan.

Indeed the President's motorcade has been seen rushing by in Washington DC when bad weather has prevented Marine One whisking the President to a MAGA rally.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-12/donald-trump-europe-tour-emmanuel-macron/10487120

END QUOTE

 

[brihard]

I especially like the ones that second guess the secret service motives and protocols as if they were the policy authors of those contingency plans and directing the operation from the epicentre.

That can only be a reference to me. Suffice to say I have some personal knowledge and experience of major events security, how VIPs get moved about, what sort of stuff is in place, etc. You can take that at face value or not, I don't really care, but I did not reach deeply up my ass to pull this information out.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

That can only be a reference to me. Suffice to say I have some personal knowledge and experience of major events security, how VIPs get moved about, what sort of stuff is in place, etc. You can take that at face value or not, I don't really care, but I did not reach deeply up my ass to pull this information out.

I said nothing of the sort. You must be projecting. I was very specific to general social media. I pointed no fingers here. If you identify with something I say, that would be your decision alone, not an accusation on my part.

Truthfully, I seldom see your posts anyway, because like you, I don't really care what you post, but thanks for the attack anyway. It makes it easy to flip the switch again.

HAGO

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Posted without comment

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-speaks-at-military-cemetery-without-umbrella-in-soaking-rain?fbclid=IwAR3WLCBCahQisajkRzi8wf2oAiV_AMPfNeXYqeGhj7xmzq_paGjZXGCNkec

 

[brihard]

I said nothing of the sort. You must be projecting. I was very specific to general social media. I pointed no fingers here. If you identify with something I say, that would be your decision alone, not an accusation on my part.

Truthfully, I seldom see your posts anyway, because like you, I don't really care what you post, but thanks for the attack anyway. It makes it easy to flip the switch again.

HAGO

Uh huh.  : Given that you specifically referenced the Secret Service earlier in the thread, hypothesized about what involvement they may have had, and I replied directly to that. If you want to pretend you were not at least in part referring to me with your reply, go nuts, but I'm not convinced. You post to participate in discussion, a discussion resulted, and you now want to claim you were collectively referencing other discussions but not this one despite posting about those other discussions on this platform mere posts after your prior contributions to the thread.

Nor was there any 'attack' in my post. I acknowledged what you wrote and qualified my prior response to what you had said. If you find an attack in that, it's manufactured offense on your end. Carry on.

 

[dimsum]

Trump has never shirked his responsibility to praise and honour the troops.  He has stood out in inclement weather before to do so.

Aside from the ceremony yesterday (whether or not he didn't use an umbrella was specifically to counter the criticism is neither here nor there at this point), and since he hasn't visited troops overseas in 2 years, please tell me in detail how he praises and honours the troops aside from using them as political props in his rallies.

 

[brihard]

He is an expert in the art of political theatre, and in the US, praise of the military and its soldiers is a necessary part of that. This is the administration that is working to open up the VA to privatization of healthcare services for veterans, and that fired the head of VA who pushed back on that. And of course we cannot forget his disgusting treatment of John McCain.

I would need to be convinced through evidence the Trump has any interest in or concern for veterans beyond the bare minimum necessitated by his political position.

 

[Petard]

What’s the excuse this time?

It’s a matter of respect and he’s supposed to be the commander in chief; respect is a two way street

https://mic.com/articles/192418/as-nation-observes-veterans-day-trump-not-visiting-arlington-national-cemetery

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Uh huh.  : Given that you specifically referenced the Secret Service earlier in the thread, hypothesized about what involvement they may have had, and I replied directly to that. If you want to pretend you were not at least in part referring to me with your reply, go nuts, but I'm not convinced. You post to participate in discussion, a discussion resulted, and you now want to claim you were collectively referencing other discussions but not this one despite posting about those other discussions on this platform mere posts after your prior contributions to the thread.

Nor was there any 'attack' in my post. I acknowledged what you wrote and qualified my prior response to what you had said. If you find an attack in that, it's manufactured offense on your end. Carry on.

Meh. You're just wrong.

 

[Bird_Gunner45]

I'm pretty sure movement plans of the POTUS are done by the Secret Service. They likely didn't have the hardened vehicle required to move him by road. Maybe they had some intel that would have prevented his attendance. That's their call, not his. It won't stop his detractors though, from trying to spin this up into something it's not. Trump has never shirked his responsibility to praise and honour the troops.  He has stood out in inclement weather before to do so. He is also sincere and heartfelt when he does as compared to the previous POTUS. There was something else, IMO, that prevented his attendance and it wasn't the weather.

So, who is in charge then, the POTUS or the secret service?

As for spin, do you believe for a second that if Obama had of missed this event that Fox news and the howling right wing commentators wouldn't be having seizures right now? I dont personally care if Trump went or didn't, nor do I care if anyone is offended by it. However, the troubling thing with your comment is the detachment from the reality that partisanship is as real or on the right as it is the left and the willingness to attempt to put everything into a "box" where it is all or nothing.

Do you know 100% that Obama wasn't heartfelt and sincere when he addressed the troops anymore than you know the Trump is? If so, how? If the answer is no than you are blindly adding to the hyper-partisanship that you profess to hate.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

What’s the excuse this time?

It’s a matter of respect and he’s supposed to be the commander in chief; respect is a two way street

https://mic.com/articles/192418/as-nation-observes-veterans-day-trump-not-visiting-arlington-national-cemetery

I don't know what the reason is, but I doubt the Trump detractors do either. However, they'll feel free to speculate and disparage some more without facts or reason, then attack those opposite for the same thing. Blah, blah, blah.

 

[brihard]

Meh. You're just wrong.

Entirely possible. I'm just going by how it read to me. I doubt either of us will lose sleep over it.

 

[brihard]

What’s the excuse this time?

It’s a matter of respect and he’s supposed to be the commander in chief; respect is a two way street

https://mic.com/articles/192418/as-nation-observes-veterans-day-trump-not-visiting-arlington-national-cemetery

He arrived back at the White House around 7 PM last night, so he was in town. He has only tweeted 8 times so far today, and there was a three hours gap in them mid morning, so I suppose it's possible he was consumed some some matter of great national urgency. As the president's daily schedule is no longer publicly disclosed since the change in the administration, we can't really know how his time was booked for the day.

Then again, he was on pretty busy working travel for the weekend. If he needed a day off I can't begrudge him that, same logic as I'd apply to any leader.

 

[FJAG]

How does the phrase:

Meh. You're just wrong.

reconcile with the tag line on all of your posts of:

Diversity includes adverse opinions, or it is not diversity.
Inclusive includes adverse opinions, or is not inclusive.

?

Just asking for a friend  ;D

:cheers:

 

[brihard]

How does the phrase:

reconcile with the tag line on all of your posts of:
?

Just asking for a friend  ;D

:cheers:

In fairness, he is talking about my interpretation of his comment. Only he can truly say with certainty what he did and didn’t mean, so he is qualified to say that, and really beyond perceptions there’s nothing for the rest of us to go on to disprove it.

 

[PuckChaser]

I'm going to remind everyone to debate positions, and steer clear of personal attacks. If you have a personal comment to make, take it to PMs.

- Milnet.ca Staff

 

[brihard]

I'm going to remind everyone to debate positions, and steer clear of personal attacks. If you have a personal comment to make, take it to PMs.

- Milnet.ca Staff

I think we had successfully bypassed that and carried on on our own. There still needs to be some room here for people to butt heads and deal with it as adults.

 

[PuckChaser]

I think we had successfully bypassed that and carried on on our own. There still needs to be some room here for people to butt heads and deal with it as adults.

Wasn't targetted specifically at you. What I am seeing is the direction the recent replies are going, and they're moving into a personal direction, especially as more folks pile in.

 

[brihard]

Fair enough

 

[Jarnhamar]

[quote author=Bird_Gunner45]

As for spin, do you believe for a second that if Obama had of missed this event that Fox news and the howling right wing commentators wouldn't be having seizures right now?
[/quote]

President Obama will skip Memorial Day visit to Arlington National Cemetery
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/27/AR2010052702696.html

Happens.


I'd say the best way for US presidents to honour the fallen is to prevent the US from getting mired in even more needless conflicts costing more lives.