Firing Away at His Competency

During Tuesday’s debate with Kamala Harris, Donald Trump boasted about all the people he fired during his administration. 

Context: A main task of a president is to appoint qualified men and women to command all aspects of the executive branch of government. Trump say many of his hires were incompetent and disloyal. So he fired them. Dozens of Trump administration appointees now say he is unfit to be president again.

Conclusion: If Trump is right, it proves he lacks the ability to select qualified executives while lacking the talent to lead them. 

If they are right in saying he is unfit to be president again, it is a cautionary warning not to be dismissed. 

Don’t just take my word. In case you missed it, here’s a compilation posted weeks ago by Lloyd Eisenberg of comments from 24 Republicans who worked with Trump under the heading, “Stop listening to Democrats! Listen to Republicans:” 

 

1. Former vice president, Mike Pence: “The American people deserve to know that President Trump asked me to put him over my oath to the Constitution. … Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.”

2. His second attorney general, Bill Barr: “Someone who engaged in that kind of bullying about a process that is fundamental to our system and to our self-government shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.”

3. His first secretary of defense, James Mattis: “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people – does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us.”...”We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”

4. His second secretary of defense, Mark Esper: “I think he’s unfit for office. … He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.”

5. His chairman of the joint chiefs, retired Gen. Mark Milley, seemed to invoke Trump: We don’t take an oath to a king, or a queen, or to a tyrant or a dictator,-“We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator”.

6. His first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson: “(Trump’s) understanding of global events, his understanding of global history, his understanding of US history was really limited. It’s really hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t even understand the concept for why we’re talking about this.”  (quoted in 2021) “We’re in a worse place today than we were before he came in,” Tillerson said, “and I didn’t think that was possible.”

7. His final chief of staff's aide, Cassidy Hutchinson: "I think that Donald Trump is the most grave threat we will face to our democracy in our lifetime, and potentially in American history."

8. His presidential transition vice-chairman, Chris Christie: “Someone who I would argue now is just out for himself.” "What he wants ... are people who will just nod their heads, say yes and execute whatever his next rant will be. And so, one, it'll be a huge personnel problem of people who have no business being in senior positions in the federal government," "And then secondly, I think we have to take him at his word. This is gonna be the vendetta presidency. This is gonna be, 'I am your retribution.' And I think he will use the levers of government to punish the people who he believes have been disloyal to him or to his approach."

9. His second national security adviser, HR McMaster: “We saw the absence of leadership, really anti-leadership, and what that can do to our country.” The reasons for (the January 6th) criminal assault on our Congress and election process are many. But foremost among them is the sad reality that President Trump and other officials have repeatedly compromised our principles in pursuit of partisan advantage and personal gain,”“Those who engaged in disinformation and demagoguery in pursuit of self-interest abdicated their responsibility to the American people. It was, in every sense of the phrase, a dereliction of duty.”

10. His third national security adviser, John Bolton: “I believe (foreign leaders) think he is a laughing fool.” "Trump is unfit to be president." "If his first four years were bad, a second four will be worse.” “Everything is episodic, anecdotal, transactional. And everything is contingent on the question of how this will benefit Donald Trump.”

11. His second chief of staff, John Kelly: " (He) is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women. A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about."     “A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law. There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.”

12. His former acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, who resigned as US special envoy to Ireland after January 6, 2021: “I quit because I think he failed at being the president when we needed him to be that.”

13. One of his many former communications directors, Anthony Scaramucci: “He is the domestic terrorist of the 21st century.” “My observation was, OK, he’s not listening, and good leadership requires delegation and listening, and he’s too defensive and too insecure to actually take in input,” “I found that when I was briefing him, I had to put pictures of him in the briefing. When I put the pictures in, it was a good sign, and when I didn’t put the pictures in, you couldn’t get him to focus on it.” “Even if you got him to focus on it, he wouldn’t listen to you anyway because he’s so maniacally narcissistic.”

14. Another former communications director, Stephanie Grisham: “I am terrified of him running in 2024.”

15. His secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, who resigned after January 6: “When I saw what was happening on January 6 and didn’t see the president step in and do what he could have done to turn it back or slow it down or really address the situation, it was just obvious to me that I couldn’t continue.”

16. His secretary of transportation, Elaine Chao, who resigned after January 6: “At a particular point the events were such that it was impossible for me to continue, given my personal values and my philosophy.

17. His first secretary of the Navy, Richard Spencer: “…the president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices.”

18. His first homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert: “The President undermined American democracy baselessly for months. As a result, he’s culpable for this siege, ( January 6th) and an utter disgrace.”

19. His former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen: “Donald’s an idiot.”

20. His White House lawyer, Ty Cobb: “Trump relentlessly puts forth claims that are not true.”

21. A former director of strategic communications, Alyssa Farah Griffin, “We can stand by the policies, but at this point we cannot stand by the man.”

22. A top aide in charge of his outreach to African Americans, Omarosa Manigault Newman: “Donald Trump, who would attack civil rights icons and professional athletes, who would go after grieving black widows, who would say there were good people on both sides, who endorsed an accused child molester; Donald Trump, and his decisions and his behavior, was harming the country. I could no longer be a part of this madness.”

23. A former deputy press secretary, Sarah Matthews, who resigned after January 6: “I thought that he did do a lot of good during his four years. I think that his actions on January 6 and the lead-up to it, the way that he’s acted in the aftermath, and his continuation of pushing this lie that the election is stolen has made him wholly unfit to hold office every again.”

24. His first ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley: “He used to be good on foreign policy and now he has started to walk it back and get weak in the knees when it comes to Ukraine. A terrible thing happened on January 6 and he called it a beautiful day.” "You've got a Donald Trump who's unhinged, and he's more unhinged than he ever was.....  “he is not the same person he was in 2016.” "Someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief.” 

Con Man Exposes Himself

Perhaps the biggest and longest running con game of all time was exposed by none other than the con man himself. Donald Trump has admitted he lost the 2020 election. 

After four years of claiming he won, after raising hundreds of millions of dollars to fund legal challenges and appeals of election denial, after inciting a riot at the Capitol that resulted in five deaths, more than a thousand arrests, hundreds of trials, guilty verdicts, incarcerations and ruined lives, as well as an assault on our Constitution, Trump has finally, publicly, confessed his election denial was a ruse. 

“I was told if I got 63 million, which is what I got the first time, ‘You would win. You can’t not win.’ And I got millions more votes than that and lost by a whisker,” Trump told Lex Fridman in Fridman’s podcast released on Tuesday (https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/ifv2ReSz). 

He didn’t lose “by a whisker.” Joe Biden got seven million more popular votes, 81.2 million vs. Trump’s 74.2 million. And, in the decisive Electoral College tally, Biden trounced Trump 306 to 232.   

With the debate next Tuesday with Kamala Harris in mind, Trump may be trying to soften his image, much as he has flip-flopped on women’s reproductive rights, in the hope of appealing to undecided independent voters. 

It will be up to ABC’s David Muir and Linsay Davis to force him to set the record straight, not on some obscure podcast but in front of tens of millions who will view the debate. 

The first question and plenty of followups should be on the false narrative Trump advanced. For her part, Harris must sharply rebuke him as her training as a prosecutor should instruct her. Indeed, his con duping the public into sending money for his deceitful cause may well have constituted an illegal act. 

Trump’s rally cry to “Stop the Steal” of an election should be turned on him—he should be charged in federal and state courts with stealing money from supporters who were led by Trump to believe that he won the 2020 election. 

Forget border security, the economy, Israel, Ukraine, energy—all those important issues and more are inconsequential compared to the rot Trump has implanted in our country, his rejection of the peaceful transfer of power, his bilking millions into believing in his honesty, fleecing them of hundreds of millions of dollars, corrupting the integrity of a political party, hollowing out its soul and replacing it with zombie-like allegiance. 

Yes, the whole 90 minute debate should be a deep dive into Trump’s malfeasance in his final days in office and the ensuing nearly four years. Do not let him soft pedal his actions. Expressing remorse would not be sufficient for his attack on democracy.

Catching Up with The Times

Time to reflect on some recent articles in The New York Times.

Two weeks ago The Times analyzed why Costco has become a retail juggernaut (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/20/dining/costco.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare).

From the more than one thousand mostly favorable comments on shopping inside the company’s behemoth outlets I could not find the note I submitted based on my 32 years of reporting on the retail industry. So, here goes: 

“In November 1983, when Price Club had but 11 warehouses and less than $700 million in sales, Chain Store Age magazine explored “Wholesale Clubs: Retailing Behind Closed Doors.” Our reporting presaged the dominance warehouse wholesale clubs like Price Club (Costco’s predecessor name) would attain despite their offering just 3,000-4,000 items compared to the tens of thousands of stock keeping units sold in supermarkets, discount and department stores. 

“Successful clubs adhered to a formula that downplayed gross margins in favor of gross margin dollars that grew through the rapid turnover of inventory. Indeed, successful clubs sold out inventories before payment for the goods came due. They made money on the float. In addition, membership dues became paramount contributors to the bottom line. 

“Price Club opened its doors to retail customers after one of Sol Price’s business customers reportedly suggested he allow the customer’s employees to shop there, arguing they’re checks were as good as his. It was only after that egalitarian move that Price Club exchanged red ink for black and forever changed retail history.

“In 2023, Costco net worldwide revenues were $245.65 billion. Net income was $6.292 billion from 871 locations in 14 countries (600 in the United States and Puerto Rico).”

Pennies from Heaven: A one cent penny costs nearly three cents to mint. That’s one of the gems to be learned from an expansive article on the history and economics of the penny and reasons why it would make good sense to do away with the copper-coated coin (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/01/magazine/worthless-pennies-united-states-economy.html?smid=url-share). By the way, a nickel costs more than a dime to make. 

Of all the reasons cited for eliminating the penny from our national currency, none resonated with me because pennies were my gateway to poker heaven. 

Every Friday night from the time I was about eight years old until 14 or so, after sabbath dinner dishes were cleared from our dinette table and my brother’s friends would come to our home, the protective table cover would be flipped over to the felt side, cards would be taken out of breakfront drawers and pennies would appear before the the six or seven chairs surrounding the table, depending on whether one or two of Bernie’s friends showed up to complement my parents, brother, sister and me.

We would play until around 10 pm. Dealer’s choice, although most games were seven card stud, deuces wild. If my original stake was lost, I’d rush, usually with tears in my eyes, to shake more pennies out of an amber-glassed piggy bank. 

When I was 11 our father traveled to Japan on business and came back with a new card game, Fan Tan (https://www.google.com/gasearch?q=fan%20tan%20card%20game&source=sh/x/gs/m2/5). After a while we transitioned to a version of Hearts that included an aspect of Fan Tan.

We continued to play poker until Bernie started Brooklyn College. Our mother thought it would be more appropriate to engage in scholarly competition so she replaced the poker game with Scrabble. That did not appeal to anyone. 

Bernie and Lee would go out to parties with friends. None of my friends played poker. I wound up watching Jack Paar—don’t laugh. It was on his show that I, and millions of others, got our first look at The Beatles days before they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. 

Seeking Balance: Hala Aylan was given a prime spot in The Times Opinion section Sunday to urge Vice President Kamala Harris to shift her position on the Israel-Hamas conflict (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/opinion/kamala-harris-gaza-israel-war.html?smid=url-share).

Here’s my response: “Given a platform in The New York Times, perhaps Hala Alyan’s attack on American support for Israel would have benefitted from a more balanced assessment of Mideast peace opportunities. Does she, for example, recognize Israel’s right to exist? Does she condemn terrorism? Does she condemn decades of Arab intransigence to the State of Israel? In calling for an embargo on arms shipments to Israel does she simultaneously denounce Iran for shipping tens of thousands of missiles and rockets to Hamas and Hezbollah, and its now reported arming of militants in the West Bank? How would she suggest Israel defend itself against these weapons aimed at its citizens? Does she include Hamas among those she claims are responsible for “killing and starving Palestinians” in Gaza?

“Alyan hopes for a “worthy future” here in America. A similarly worthy future in the Mideast is desired, but it would take courage, trustworthiness and consistency, to paraphrase her words, from Arab and Palestinian leaders and their people to work with Israel to achieve the goal of a just and long-lasting peace for all parties.” 

Plus ça Change, Plus C’est la Même Chose

 “The more things change the more they stay the same.” 

So wrote Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr in 1849 (of course, he wrote it in French—“plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”). 

Facebook provided a clear-cut example of that aphorism. Facebook sent a reminder Sunday evening of a posting I made exactly four years ago. Aside from replacing Joe Biden’s name with Kamala Harris’, it rings true throughout.

So here it is (with Harris’ name in parentheses):

This election is not between Donald Trump and Joe Biden (Kamala Harris).

This election is not between Republicans and Democrats.

This election is between fear and hope. 

The choices November 3rd (November 5) contain lists of names. For Republicans, the list is headed by Trump. For Democrats, Biden (Harris) tops the list.

Actually, we will not be choosing between two septuagenarians (Harris will be just 60 by Election Day). We will be choosing between their respective value systems that reward:

Indecency or decency

Fiction or non fiction

Lies or truth

Ego fulfillment or empathy

Alchemy or science

Voodoo doctors or medical doctors

Racism or equal opportunity

“It is what it is” or compassion

Self interest or national interest

Restrictions on voting or extended voting rights

Rejection of alliances or respect for allies

Distortion or reality

A bully or a mensch

Autocracy or democracy

A conspiracy believer or fact-based decision maker

Disrespect or respect

Both Trump and Biden (Harris) agree on one thing—this election could be the most important ever for its impact on the future of America. 

Voters will decide what type of country they want America to be.

Commenting on News of the Season

Barring any cataclysmic events that could transform the presidential race, I will be avoid writing about it until a day or two before or after the scheduled September 10 debate. 

Let’s instead focus on what’s truly captivating, at least to most men and an increasing number of women: the pending football season and the truly remarkable, extraordinary season Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees is having. 

Not since the love affair with Derek Jeter has any player captivated the hard to please New York fan. Every Judge at bat is must-see baseball. What is so fascinating is that in an ordinary season NY fandom would be gushing about Juan Soto’s MVP-type performance. 

Through Sunday, Soto has 37 home runs, 95 runs batted in, a batting average of .299 and OPS (on-base plus slugging) of 1.035. Amazing numbers. But they pale in comparison to Judge’s 51 homers, 122 RBIs, .333 batting average and 1.201 OPS. 

Today, in the 10-3 Yankees win over the Colorado Rockies, Soto hit a home run and knocked in two runs. Judge hit two home runs and had three RBIs. 

Sadly, Judge and Soto are not surrounded by sufficient quality hitters and pitchers to carry the Yankees past a first round playoff slot. A World Series spot, much less a title, is wishful dreaming in the extreme. 

Football-wise, dreams—actually, they’re nightmares—are my forecast for the New York Giants. Doubtful a season with more wins than losses is possible.  

Which brings me back to politics—oh, so soon after promising not to indulge. I couldn’t help it.

For all the euphoria emanating from the Democratic National Convention—at least for Democrats and anti-Trumpers—reality will set in as soon as they study an electoral map. 

Kamala and everyone else preached to the choir last week. But how many lost souls—voters who have crossed over to the dark side or are considering swilling the kool aid—did she and they reach? 

A look at the electoral map brings the euphoria back down to tension level. In addition to Blue State wins, Kamala has to secure at least 64 Electoral College votes from battleground swing states before she could call Mayflower trucking to move her and Doug into the White House. 

Here are the numbers: Wisconsin 10 votes; Michigan 15; Virginia 13; Georgia 16; Arizona 11; Nevada 6; Pennsylvania 19. 

It won’t be easy, even with an expected lift from pro abortion voters revved up by referendum ballots in several purple states. 

Tongue Biting: How often do you bite your tongue? I find I am doing it more often than ever before. 

Oh, I am not referring to the mishap of chomping down on your tongue while eating. No. I am referring to the colloquial biting of your tongue when refraining from commenting upon hearing something outrageous. 

During this heightened time of political disagreement, it is increasingly difficult to remain silent when hearing outright absurdities emanate from across a dining room table. 

Last week Gilda and I attended a memorial mass for the recently deceased brother of one of her co-workers. During an ensuing luncheon at a country club on Long Island, our table included a retired public school teacher. This seemingly sweet 80-year-old recited all the talking points of a Fox News commentary with some verbatim Donald Trump jibes (lies, actually, but I’m trying to be nice). 

My training as a reporter—to listen and not interject—helped me get through the ordeal. 

Several of my friends are Trumpers. Our friendships preceded the Trumpian era. For the most part we skillfully dance around our political partisanships. We all agree that friendship and civility are more important that the politics of divisiveness. 

Connections to Hollywood Squares, CT Flooding

Many of my blog posts can be attributed to my fixation with “six degrees of separation,” the catchphrase for someone’s connection with people or events beyond their immediate sphere of influence. 

I never met Peter Marshall, the sometime actor but long time host of “The Hollywood Squares” who died last week at age 98. But I had a two degrees of separation from him—my best friend from graduate school worked as a question writer for “The Hollywood Squares” (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/15/arts/television/peter-marshall-dead.html?smid=url-share).

After earning our master’s degrees in newspaper journalism from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications in May 1972, Steve Kreinberg and I departed for separate coasts, he to return to San Francisco, I back to Brooklyn, where we respectively sought our first jobs as a reporter. 

I secured a spot on The New Haven Register, beginning in September. Steve could only manage a return to his pre-Syracuse employer, a public relations firm. After several months he opted to try his luck in Los Angeles. 

He nabbed one of five question-writing spots on “The Hollywood Squares.” Though each week’s shows were filmed on the same day, Monday, Steve and his colleagues were each required to submit 50 accepted questions every weekday. Questions were not revealed to the celebrity participants who included Paul Lynde, Joan Rivers and Jonathan Winters, but the comedians were counseled as to potential topics, allowing them to seemingly ad lib funny responses. 

Technically writer’s contracts restricted their ability to work on other television shows, but the prohibition was honored more in the breach than in enforcement. Steve and his outside writing partner, Andy, wound up becoming staff writers on several comedy shows including “Archie Bunker’s Place,” “Herman’s Head,” “Saved by the Bell,” “Head of the Class,” “Nine to Five” and “Mork & Mindy.”

Lunch with Steve and Andy at the Universal Studios commissary provided a classic example of why one should never order food one is not familiar with. A country fellow from Tennessee only recently living the Hollywood experience, Andy ordered what he thought was a well-deserved steak. He was quite embarrassed, even repulsed, when steak tartare was placed before him. 

More Degrees: Sunday’s extreme downpours produced “1,000 year” flooding in parts of Connecticut, specifically in four towns that were part of my reporting beats 50 years ago—Shelton, Seymour, Oxford and Southbury. Two women from Oxford were swept to their deaths by the flash flooding.  

Seventeen years before I began covering those Lower Naugatuck River Valley towns the area was devastated by two hurricanes, Connie and Diane, that dumped huge amounts of rain in just over a week in August 1955, causing what was considered the nation’s worst flooding along the East Coast. 

Prominent flood control embankments were constructed and an upstream dam was built by the time the Valley became my assignment.