Great, you are back.
Days have passed since I started writing this post. The most recent activity was the appearance before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence by several members of President Trumps cabinet, and by recently fired FBI Director James Comey on 8 June 2017.
Unfortunately for most of us the news is about as gray and vague after his testimony as it was before. He made several pointed remarks about his experiences with the president and his firing from the job. He also outlined, to a measured degree, his experience in conversations and interactions with the president. While he did respond to several specific questions about his work and investigations that were ongoing before his firing, there is much that was not discussed to a sufficient level of clarity, at least for half of the American public.
Many people feel that there are as many questions after he spoke, as there were before. Each side as described at the beginning of this post, chose to cherry pick aspects of his testimony to make the point in their sides favor. This has generally been common in recent decades on the political front. I imagine that is true globally as well for the respective countries political battles.
This is my take away now. Note that there is much that is not yet available to the public that would clarify the facts. Much of what was in question could not be discussed in a public forum. After his appearance, there was a closed door, special handshake, secret squirrel meeting in which, presumably, the “secret stuff” was put on the table for examination. Maybe!
In the open session, he offered that crushing personal statement that he felt that the president was a liar! A strong and impactful opinion. This is not good coming from a person in the position of current or former FBI Director. Now, take note, there have been FBI Directors who have had their integrity questioned. I refer to former Director William S. Sessions. Sessions served as FBI director from 1987 to 1993, when he was dismissed by then President Bill Clinton.
And then there was the mostly distinguished, but also today, for some a controversial term or J. Edgar Hoover. He was appointed as the sixth director of the Bureau of Investigation — the FBI’s predecessor — in 1924 and was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972 at the age of 77.
The FBI is an outstanding organization with a tremendous responsibility and record of service to America. The people of the FBI, Agents, Analysts, Technical and support staff, are carefully selected and vetted, well trained and of the highest integrity.
So, back to the point at hand. After the testimony of the former director, we still are not able to put the subject to rest…whatever that subject is! Is it the implication that Russian was criminally involved in the presidential election process, or that they were in “collusion” with members of the winning Donald Trump Presidential campaign, if not with Candidate Trump himself? Or what!? Other questions by some, recall the divided country issue, surround candidate Hilary Clinton and whether she was criminal in her use of a personal computer server, email system and cell phones while serving as Secretary of State under then President Barack Obama. There are other complaints and issue involving Clinton, but those are the most relevant for the moment.
My take on this…without question this Presidency is unusual. President Trump is a different kind of President than America and Americans are used to. He is less a politician and more a…what? This is not a criticism, yet. He was selected by his supporters precisely because he was not the old school politician. He was considered a straight talker by his supporters. He was a business man and media person. His style was, and is different. His way of expressing himself is different. And of note, his use of Tweeter is without question, different.
While it was noted that former President Obama had an occasional use of social media to make comment to the world, it was nothing on the level of President Trump today. President Trumps way of communicating and his way of expressing himself is…different.
President Trumps detractors also feel that his management style is different. Many would describe it in more expressive or vulgar terms. That is not my style.
Again, my take is a little different. I have always worked in the service of my city, state and country. As such, I have never had the opportunity to choose my leader. I have served several Chiefs of Police in Los Angeles, several Mayors of Los Angeles, several Governors of California and several Presidents of these United States, either directly or indirectly. With that experience, is was mostly from the position of following orders. I was in the position of respecting my leaders. Now, without question, I was always mindful of honor, lawfulness and integrity. You follow lawful orders and remember that you serve the city, state and country, not the person. But it has never been a conflict for me.
Having served so many masters, I would add that I have never actually experienced a great difference from one to the other. Along with my fellow servers, I would suggest we may have each has a different feeling about that current leader. But, all in all, my life was not bettered or worsened by one versus the other. Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, whatever the difference of one from another, it has always been the same for each of my adult years of service, over forty years.
It is true that we have had wars under some, and not others. We have seen different levels of prosperity and hardship (within reason, it should be noted…hardship in American is not the same as hardship around some parts of the world. I say this from my U. S. Government experience around the world)
Wars and conflicts can carry over from a previous administration, as that issue develops, and appear to rest on the shoulders of the successor. This could be seen in these examples;
President Johnson inheriting the Vietnam conflict and upgrading it to unofficial war status from President Kennedy,
President Bush inheriting the conflict in Afghanistan from President Clinton,
President Obama inheriting that same war from President Bush,
and now President Trump the war from Obama. (forgive me if I leave more of those examples for you to look up)
Such causal circumstances would, obviously be debatable in something like the Iraq War, which it can certainly be said that President Bush made a decision that began a war where on did not exist prior.
But continuing my point about poverty, it and hardship is terrible no matter where you live if that is your experience. But, in my travels around the world I have seen some extreme examples of this and it is hard to see ours measuring up to that of many third world countries.
I think that we can reasonable say that we are OK. America and the world can survive, whatever you believe our current circumstance is. Do we need to work at making it better? Oh, hell yes!
Can and should all of our politicians do better…from the president on down the line? Again, an emphatic yes! Should “We the People” be diligent and mindful of how our country and government is run…again, say it for me…hell yes! Should our local and state governments do the same…you know the answer! Should we manage our homes, communities and families better? Yes!
We will make it! We may even do well! We can “intend it,” and take positive action to make it so. And certainly we should…even, I would say, we must! Hey, this is a great country, life is wonderful here! This is a great planet. It should not be overlooked that is the only planet we have. We must take care of our homes, our cities, our states, our countries and this planet, equally as well! Yes, I know, it brings up the climate conversation. My fingers are cramping up.
Next topic, maybe!