The current President -- who held the job before -- does not appear to know what "Continuity of Government" is. Here's a bit from yesterday's press conference:
Speaker 17 (47:08): [...] if you could clarify perhaps something that the defense secretary said when he said that this helicopter went on a continuity of government mission?
Trump (47:23):
I don't know what that refers to, but they were practicing. They do that. They call it practicing and that's something that should be done. It's only continuity in the sense that we want to have very good people and that has to be in continuity and that's what they refer to, but it was basically practice and it was a practice that worked out very, very badly.
You can read the entire transcript here. I burst out laughing when I heard it live. CoG is serious, base-level keep-it-going stuff. When then Vice President Dick Cheney was evacuated to an "undisclosed location" on 9/11, that was a Continuity of Government move. (He was probably taken to Raven Rock, a secure bunker.) On one level, the various people who would be covered by CoG -- and who have CoG "shadows" in place -- don't need to know much about it, or the various scenarios the people involved train for. They just have to get in the helicopter and trust the crew. But they do have to know CoG exists, and why, and what it would do. I got the impression our current President might not have been taking notes when they covered the topic.
It was easy to miss among the bizarre, DEI-blaming comments, but it happened. I don't think he's done his homework.
When your only tool is braying, every problem is caused by DEI.
ReplyDeleteIt's in the manual.
(With apologies to nails and hammers).
I recall an episode of West Wing when some of the members of the White House staff were designated as "evacuees" in case of some emergency. Not all of the lead characters got an "escape card".
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to rely on a TV series that was half civics lesson and half wish-fulfillment. You can look this stuff up, at the FEMA link I provided or at Wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteChurchill's comments regarding Lord Beresford come to mind- he doesn't know what he wants to say when he gets up to speak; he doesn't know what he's saying as he's speaking; and he doesn't know what he said when he's finished.
ReplyDeleteSorry I mentioned it. :-(
ReplyDeleteAnon: why? 'Cos I posted another link?
ReplyDeleteThere are a number of "just in case" provisions in the Federal government, of which CoG is one; another is the "designated survivor" guidance, which is intended to ensure that a single attack cannot decapitate the government. The latter has been fictionalized -- and there's rather more fiction than fact out there about all of these. Wikipedia, crowd-sourced though it is, has good overviews of what is known.
I thought "The West Wing" was well-written; I thought it snuck in a lot of good civics lessons. And it represented the political values of the writers and producers, which didn't bother me even over issues I disagreed with them about; we don't elect neutral Presidents. But it idealized the office and the fictional office-holder the same way TV shows about law enforcement valorize police. Such works depict the people we hope those who work those jobs in real life will aspire to be. Not all of them do -- and not all of them try.
I just thought it was a good piece of entertainment, nothing more. Yes, it had political positions, but I wasn't trying to make a "statement" there, just referencing a well-written, very well-acted bit of evening fun. Won't happen again. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteWhy are you apologizing? You're not being scolded.
DeleteI, for one, thoroughly enjoyed "West Wing" - stories and actors. It rather represented "Camelot" of the Kennedy days to me. And, yes, I appreciate Wikipedia enough to contribute money, on occasion. Thanks to you both, Roberta and Anonymous.
ReplyDelete