The View from Right Field

The Biggest Danger In a Dangerous World

I think almost everybody would agree that these are dangerous times, perhaps the most dangerous times most of us have faced.  But where we may disagree is as to what the biggest problem is.  Some will say it is COVID-19.  Others will say it is climate change or systemic racism.  Figuring out how to restart the economy is the biggest for some.  And still others will argue it is polarization and the inability of our political leaders in Washington to do almost anything.  Legitimate arguments can be made on behalf of any of these (and others), but I see it as something else: the world.

In a talk to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on June 26, Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense under both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama,¹ compared the situation in the world today not to the 1930s, which was suggested by the question he was asked, but to the early 1900s, the time before World War I.  As before World War I, there are a number of competitors for power today, some world and some regional.  There are no effective international organizations.  There is a rising world power (then Germany, now China).  And there are tensions around the world, with forces deployed around the world, too.

George Marshall on Character

In a speech on “Marshall and His Generals” at the George Marshall Foundation on July 20, 2017, Dr. Stephen Taaffe talked about the four criteria that Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall used to pick the high-ranking officers¹ for the U.S. Army during World War II.²  Let me mention them, in reverse order:

1. General Marshall wanted to know them personally or know somebody who knew them personally.

2. Age.  (Sorry.  I realize it is politically incorrect today, but General Marshall didn’t want older generals.)

The Donald Trump Default

With all of the difficult issues around today, how long should we shutdown (assuming we should shut down at all), when should we re-open (assuming we should be re-opening), what should we do about China, when is baseball going to start, a lot of people seem to find it great to have Donald Trump around.  Because once he talks or tweets (or whatever else he does), many people know what they believe.  If President Trump says we should do X, then some part of the population will immediately want to do X, while another part of the population will immediately want to not do X.  Obviously, given President Trump’s proclivity to say contradictory things from one day to the next (or even on the same day), this makes it hard for some people, since they have to switch their positions frequently, too.  Either to stay on his side – or on the other side.  But it appears many of them figure that if he can do it, so can they.

Feeling Sorry for Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn – Or Not

You have to feel a little sorry for Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn – or maybe not.  Lt. Gen. Flynn was Donald Trump’s first National Security Adviser.  In 2017, he was charged by Special Counsel Robert Mueller with lying to the FBI, and he pled guilty.  Some say he pled guilty so the government would not go after his son in a matter involving the consulting firm Lt. Gen. Flynn owned. 

A couple of weeks ago, documents came out that made it look, to some people, like the FBI was trying to set Lt. Gen. Flynn up for a perjury charge.   As those documents were coming out, Donald Trump tweeted about it, of course.  Once President Trump spoke, i.e., tweeted, the story became all about him, which is what happens any time President Trump gets involved in anything.  Which meant the story was no longer about whether Lt. Gen. Flynn was ill-treated or set-up by the FBI, but about President Trump.  If you like President Trump, you were on Lt. Gen. Flynn’s side.  If you don’t, then you thought Lt. Gen. Flynn was guilty.  Regardless of the actual facts of the story, in either case.

Accepting Mistakes. Focusing on the Future. The Way to Solve Covid-19.

As we try to get through this crisis, we need to keep two things in mind:

1. Mistakes will be made.  We have to accept that, and we have to not blame the people who make them. 
2. We need to focus on the future.  We need to help each other to do the best we can today and tomorrow.  The past can wait until it’s over.

An example of the first: Bill Gates’ foundation is spending billions of dollars to help construct factories to produce seven of the most promising coronavirus vaccines.  Mr. Gates knows that billions will be wasted on factories for vaccines that don’t work, but he also knows that when we figure out which of the vaccines does work, factories will be ready to produce them right away, instead of having to waiting to build the factories once we know which vaccines work. [See Update below.]

The President Does It Again. Sigh.

At a time when we need leaders in Washington who can reassure us and inspire confidence, we have a president who seems to think that one of the more urgent uses of his time is to fire the inspector general of the intelligence community who determined, last year, that the whistleblower’s complaint about President Trump’s phone call with the president of Ukraine should be forwarded to Congress.  I don’t know whether the inspector general’s determination was right or wrong.  That's not the point.  The point is that now is not the time to fire him.

Joe Biden’s Big Problem: “Why Is Joe Biden’s Son Working For a Ukrainian Energy Company?”

Actually, former Vice President Biden has a number of problems in his campaign, but then so does Donald Trump.  I have made my thoughts about President Trump pretty clear over the last several years, so I won’t go over them again.  Other than to say: Would you trust President Trump if he said he had your back in a fight?

But back to former Vice President Biden.  One of the big brouhahas regarding the former Vice President’s campaign is the job and money that his son, Hunter, got from a Ukrainian gas company while Vice President Biden was in office.  Some people may think this is a manufactured controversy, dug up only now to embarrass former Vice President Biden and hurt his campaign.

Well, it’s not.  It was a problem when it happened.  See this post, “Why Is Joe Biden’s Son Working For a Ukrainian Energy Company?”, from May 14, 2014.  It should have been dealt then, but neither former Vice President Biden nor the Obama administration did anything about it.  And now, former Vice President Biden has to deal with it today – or lose to President Trump in November.
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UPDATE (3/10/20 9:20 am): Cleaned up the wording in the last sentence. 

With Impeachment All Over the News, Why Am I Blogging About Baseball?

You may have noticed that, while the impeachment trial is blanketing the news in Washington (and probably TV/cable news¹), I have had two posts directly on baseball and another that mentions baseball tangentially in the past week.  The reason, I suppose, in addition to the fact I always post on the Cubs Convention, is that the impeachment trial is so predictable – and dispiriting.  I understand the impeachment question is critical and important to many people, on both sides of the issue.  It’s just I’m not one of them. 

As I have said before, I don’t like Donald Trump.²  I do not think he is a good president, especially on foreign policy (and many domestic policies).  But it’s hard to take the Democrats seriously, either.  I understand they think President Trump is a terrible president.  But too many of them have wanted to kick him out since he took office.  If it wasn’t one thing, it was another.  You wonder if the charges they have come up with in the articles of impeachment are so bad that they would want to get rid of a Democratic president for doing them or if it is just the best they have been able to come up with to get rid of President Trump.

Might It Have Been Possible to Oppose Donald Trump Without the Fury?

As we enter the last year of either Donald Trump’s presidency or President Trump’s first term, it seems like an appropriate time to look back on the last three years.  First, in looking at my posts about President Trump, I see I started out complaining a lot about what he did and his style of doing it.  Just look at some of the titles of my posts in his first nine months:

• “Donald Trump at Seven Weeks. This Is Not Working.”
• “Donald Trump Meets Angela Merkel. Things Keep Getting Worse.”
• “Donald Trump: Will the Embarrassment Ever End?”
• “@realDonaldTrump: Such a Small, Small Man”¹

But eventually, I got tired.  It wasn’t making a difference (obviously), and I was saying the same thing over and over again.  I got bored writing it.  I can only imagine how bored people got reading it.

A Few Thoughts on Impeachment – And Process

It’s hard to come up with things to write about with impeachment sucking all of the oxygen out of the news.  So, let me make a few comments on impeachment and the impeachment process.  Before I start, though, let me note, as readers of this blog know, I did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016 (I actually decided that in 2015), and I will not vote for him in 2020.  To my comments:

1. So far, President Trump has not done anything that has surprised me all that much.  Appalled me, yes.  Surprised me, no.