The leader makes a difference

A few decades back, a friend of mine was upset that his manager was losing his job.  He was ranting and raving about what a big mistake upper management was making in not realizing what a good job his soon to be departed manager was doing.  That manager calmed him down and told him not to worry, both of them would be just fine.  He would find a new job and do fine.  And my friend would have a new boss and all would be well.

He said that a manager was like putting a hand in a bucket of water.  The hand is in the bucket and the water rises to a certain level.  Take that hand out and replace it with a different hand and the water rises again to a new level, maybe not quite as high, maybe about the same, maybe higher. He said that it doesn’t really matter whose hand is in the bucket. 

Well, I thought that was true for quite some time, but with Donald Trump as president it has been vividly proven to me that the hand in the bucket theory is not always true.  It is probably true for middle management in a corporation, but we have seen that this president has gone a long way to destroying so much of America and America’s influence and leadership in the world – loss of decency, turning away from science, attacking the rule of law, failing to handle a pandemic, and withdrawing American leadership in the world. 

The person at the top can sometimes make a huge difference. 

In the private sector another example might be Steve Jobs and Apple – after he was let go the company floundered and was failing.  When he came back in he got it focused and visionary again.  And can there be any doubt that Elon Musk is not replaceable at Tesla? 

So, I no longer am able to take comfort in the idea that different hands in the bucket don’t make all that much difference.  The current hand in the American bucket is there with a drill to poke holes and drain the bucket.

Plug the leak.  Vote for Biden, please.

 

Time for the renewal of America's goodness

Please vote and end this dark descent into the dystopia of the last four years.  Please stand up for decency, for the rule of law, for science, and for American leadership in the world.

It’s important.

Time for the renewal of American leadership in the world

It is time to renew America.  It is time to renew America’s leadership in the world.  This president and his isolationist and anti-science, anti-diplomacy, anti-Federal Government Republican cult have tried too destroy America and destroy the world order put together by America and its allies after WWII.

He refused to lead a national, Federal response to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic in America, and was totally missing in action in the need to lead a worldwide response to the disease.  Why?

He withdrew from the Trans Pacific Partnership which America had put together with the purpose of having America rather than China have the main influence in trade and business in the Far East.  We left.  China stepped in.  Why? 

He withdrew from NAFTA and reinstated some Trump copy of it for trade in the Americas.  Why?

He withdrew from the Iran Nuclear treaty that joined with Western allies to control Iran’s nuclear ambitions.  Why?

He attacked and weakened NATO, our alliance with Europe in defense against the Soviet Union and now against Russia.  Why?

Why? Three reasons by my reckoning.

First, these things were done by Obama and like an 8 year old child he just wants to undo everything that Obama touched because he is mad at Obama. Plus, of course he thinks he is much better than Obama because he is white and Obama is black.

Second, he is just a stupid and ignorant man who knows nothing of history, nothing of government, nothing of foreign relations, and nothing of American values and ideals.  And he egotistically actually thinks he doesn’t need to learn and that he knows more than anyone who tries to educate him.

But most importantly, he has clearly been doing the work that his Russian master, Vladimir Putin, demanded of him – to destroy American democracy and destroy American leadership in the world.  Putin has been trying to destroy American world leadership and American democracy ever since he took over Russia.  He sees the collapse of the Soviet Union as a world shattering catastrophe, and in Trump he found someone he could blackmail, or just fool, into destroying America.  It is pretty likely that Putin and his Russian Oligarchy used Trump to money launder huge sums of money for many years, and it is clear that Putin can present the proof that will have Trump die in prison.  Pretty strong blackmail stuff.  He is Putin’s puppet.

And, by the way, he waged a trade war with China, which hurt American farming and business.  This one is pretty clear as to why – this ignoramus actually thinks trade deficits hurt America, and no amount of education and reasoning will get him to listen. He is just a bullheaded and stupid man.  He didn’t need Putin to tell him to do this one, he did this one on his own ignorance.

Time for the renewal of science

It is time to renew America.  It is time to renew relying on and promoting science in America.  This president has assaulted Science all of his life.  He is an ignorant, uneducated in science person.  Science, frankly, is just too complicated for him.  He doesn’t have the ability to focus and understand complex things, and science is complex.

We first saw this in his administration when he got rid of the scientists in the Department of Energy (nuclear scientists) and the Department of Agrictulture (weather and climate scientists) – for an excellent read about this please read Michael Lewis’s “The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy”

The two most disastrous results of this science ignorance and denial are the ridiculously clueless and incompetent handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ridiculously clueless and destructive response to Climate Change.

The pandemic is real.  It is not going away on its own.  It needs a national response – tests that produce results in 15 minutes, treatments that keep people alive and unscarred for life in their hearts, organs, and brains, and vaccines that can be widely distributed with very high effectiveness with minimal side effects.  It needs a national response, indeed a worldwide response led by and coordinated by America. But we don’t. We have a science denier in charge of the Federal Government, supported by a science denying Republican Party, and about three to four to five times as many Americans have gotten ill and died from this pandemic than would have if we had had an actual federally led response (including clear, science based advice)

Climate Change is real.  For many years I thought the environmentalists were just socialists in scientific clothing trying to destroy American industry. Well, that was nonsense.  The oceans are dying, the coral is dying, the forests are burning, the hurricanes and blizzard and storms are increasing.  Agribusiness is turning soil that pulls carbon out of the atmosphere when covered with diverse and varied crops into dirt that is depleted and killed when sprayed with soil killing pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers. 

It is too late to ignore science.  A worldwide pandemic and climate change are just two results of a human race that ignores its impact on nature and ignores science. Our youth understand this, and they will take over pretty soon, by the way.

It is time to renew America.  It is time to renew relying on and promoting science.

 

Time for the renewal of the rule of law

It is time to renew America.  It is time to renew the rule of law in America.  This president has assaulted the rule of law since day one of his presidency. This is a continuation of a lifetime as a wealthy man doing what he pleases and getting away with it by flooding those abused by him with lawyers and lawsuits and making recourse to his abuses too expensive to pursue.  He has a lifetime of being above the law because of his wealth and lawyers.

He was confirmed in his notion that he is above the law when his Republican Senators refused to impeach him after he blatantly abused his power as president by blackmailing the new President of Ukraine to announce an investigation into his political opponent, Biden.  And after he blatantly obstructed justice into the investigation of his ties to Russia in the 2016 campaign.  So he got away with both, and sails on his merry little criminal way.

He hired an Attorney General, William Barr, who accepted the job on the condition that his primary focus would be to be the president’s primary defense and prosecution lawyer. The rule of law is meaningless to this president, and is mostly meaningless to his chief henchman, the Attorney General. He has proven to himself, incorrectly, that he is above the law.

He’s not above the law. 

When he is out of the White House he will spend the rest of his life fighting legitimate prosecutions of money laundering, bank fraud, tax evasion, etc. etc. etc.

I think he will likely flee the country, but who will accept him?  Putin?  Why would Putin want him? Putin has used him for his purposes (to destroy America and American influence in the world), and Putin will likely toss him in the ash can of history.  Putin is not Donald’s friend.  Putin has no friends. 

It is time to renew the rule of law in America.