October 2023
Thoughts on Leadership
26/10/23 06:49
October 26, 2023 (Vol. 17 No. 45) - In about a year, we will be electing the "Leader of the Free World," as well a numerous state and local officials. In the interim, there are dozens of issues that will require unselfish and inspired leadership. It's one thing to be appointed "a leader" and quite another to actually lead. And we need more of the latter than the former. One of my favorite movie lines comes from 1976's Midway. In it, a bedridden Admiral Halsey tells Ray Spruance, the man who will replace him in the upcoming battle, "When you are in command, command." I agree, with one important stipulation: My idea of leadership is someone who pulls instead of pushes. You may be the ultimate decision-maker, but that does not preclude seeking consensus. Nor does it preclude listening to others and, when necessary, demonstrating empathy. (In the aforementioned battle of Midway, Admiral Spruance took advice from subordinates that ultimately led to victory.) There is no such thing as communication if it doesn't involve listening to the ideas of others. Nor is it a bad idea to let people know why you have chosen a particular path to follow. Good leadership requires consistency in one's actions. This involves leading by example. (Don't talk about "being bipartisan" if you are not willing to act in a bipartisan manner.) The best path to successful leadership is through values-driven decision making. That means adhering to the values of the organization you lead, the society in which you live and the God you choose to follow. It is also important to understand that the very nature of leadership can tend to be isolating. I noticed this when I was associate dean of the KU School of Journalism. The very day I was appointed to my new role, my colleagues - some of whom I had known for 13 years - treated me differently and at a distance. Some did it out of respect. Some did it out of fear. Still others acted out of jealousy. This isolation can lead to a sense of loneliness. It can also lead to arrogance, a compulsion to take unilateral action and, sometimes, even anger. Those are feelings I — sometimes unsuccessfully — tried to avoid. To me, the most important aspect of being a leader is to remember who you are, where you came from and where you want to lead others to go. In other words, need to know your goals. History provides us valuable lessons about leadership. George Washington is more than a picture on a dollar bill. He was an inspirational leader who, at the height of his popularity, voluntarily stepped away from the presidency - something that had never been done in the history of the world. In the final analysis, great leaders know to make the best of their time on the stage and when to yield the limelight to others. If those who claim to lead our nation - people of all political parties and philosophies - would follow Washington's example, we can take comfort in the nation's prospects for the future. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.I'll be your Speaker
22/10/23 08:00
October 22, 2023 (Vol. 17 No. 44) - I am announcing my candidacy to be the next Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. As it has been noted so many times - especially by those fools who fantasize about Donald Trump being Speaker - one doesn't necessarily have to be a member of the House to be Speaker. Granted, it's a dumb rule. But it is no dumber than allowing an alleged child sex trafficker lock down the House for the better part of a month. And I am uniquely qualified for the job. First and foremost, I am an adult. No other candidate for this post can honestly make this claim. Sure, they have all reached the age of majority. But really, have to seen the way they've be acting? My five- and three-year-old granddaughters behave better than these blunderkiden do. Representatives who act up would be sent to "time out." I would also require them to take mid-afternoon naps. (They obviously need them.) Second, I know what being a true Republican is. Yes, I am currently registered as a Democrat. But I was a Republican for most of my adult life and even worked for a Republican governor before the Grand Old Party morphed into the obscene nationalistic radical right cluster bomb it is today. Real Republicans stand for individual freedoms, including one's right to choose whether or not to have an abortion and one's right to come to America in search of liberty. Somewhere along the way, these Neo-con bootlickers forgot that. I also know how to herd cats: You don't even try to do it. Support those who are willing to follow you and ignore the rest. And, oh by the way, that includes the cats who happen to be sitting on the other side of the aisle. The Speaker of the House is supposed to be the leader of the entire House, not just those on the left side or the right side of the room. My final reason for being elected Speaker is that I've got nothing better to do. I'm retired. I am not running for elected office (other than this one) and have made no promises and taken no campaign contributions. (However, if you are inclined to contribute big bucks to my campaign, I'd appreciate it. After all, I just had to replace my washer and dryer. And Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!) I've said this before: America is a much better place now that we have an adult in the White House. Elect me as the next Speaker and the same will be said for the House. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.Joe Is Right
19/10/23 20:48
October 19, 2023 (Vol. 17 No. 43) - For anyone willing to listen, President Joe Biden tonight made a persuasive case for providing $100 billion dollars in military aid to American allies under threat. There is broad consensus - although not unanimous - for providing assistance to Israel, which is still reeling from the October 7 attack by the Islamic terrorist group Hamas. There is less consensus about continued aid to Ukraine, which has been under attack by the equally barbarous Vladimir Putin for more than 600 days. And yet, Biden's essential argument for continuing support in both struggles is essentialy the same: Pay now or pay a much steeper price later. Anyone who has paid attention to American history knows that appeasement of dictators and murderous thugs has never been a successful strategy. Unfortunately, for too many Americans, knowledge of American history and American values go no farther back than last night's Sean Hannity diatribe. Biden is correct, our nation is at a point of inflection. There are too many storm flags flying for America to crawl back into an isolationist cocoon. The more we retreat from our responsibility as the world's greatest defender of liberty and freedom, the more vulnerable we become. Unfortunately, in a democracy built upon a system of a diffused balance of power between three branches of government, the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are letting us down. Tomorrow will be the 17th straight day that the House will be paralyzed because Representative Matt Gaetz had a burr up his butt and decapitated Kevin McCarthy's speakership. As I write this on Thursday night, the latest news is that the thuggish and morally bankrupt Jim Jordan will try for a third on Friday to win the Speaker's post - and (hopefully) will lose for a third time. (If Jordan does prevail, Vladimir Putin will be dancing shirtless in the street.) Until adults prevail in the House, the United States is entering the most dangerous period since the Americans and Soviets engaged nuclear saber rattling during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Joe Biden is right: We must make the hard choices now or we will face less viable options in the future. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.Barbarians at the Gate
18/10/23 13:31
October 18, 2023 (Vol. 17 No. 42) - For the second straight day, Jim Jordan has been a loser. And as long as he keeps losing, America wins. It's been 15 days since a small band of Republican zealots threw the House of Representatives into chaos by ousting one of their own, Kevin McCarthy, as Speaker. The shirt-sleeved schmuck from Ohio has tried to position himself as the heir-apparent. But, as Lee Corso of ESPN might say, "Not so fast!" The thought that Jim Jordan, a man deeply involved in the January 6, 2021, attempt to overthrow the government, might become the second person in line to the presidency is both repulsive and frightening. That Donald Trump's useful idiot is even in Congress is an obscenity. He is a man, who as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University, turned a blind eye to a sexual abuse scandal and should be disqualified from public office. That a leach with such a woefully thin legislative record is being considered as Speaker is a sick joke. And yet, in today's ultra-conservative, nationalistic and oligarchical Republican Party, Jim Jordan has received a majority of that party caucus' support for this constitutionally critical role in two votes. (The good news: Opposition to Jordan's candidacy appears to be growing.) Remember, Jordan has repeatedly taken an oath to "support and defend" the Constitution. And yet, it has been proven that he was deeply involved in the January 6 insurrection. Worse, he remains an acolyte of Donald Trump, who recently said that he, as president, had no responsibility to support the Constitution. The battle for the speakership may seem like little more than an "inside Washington" kerfuffle. But it is a lot more than that. The very future of this Republic is at stake. To be sure, there isn't a Republican in Congress who has shown the backbone necessary to do the job. However, there could be few worse choices than Jordan. He has been doing Trump's bidding - which means he's been doing Russia's bidding. Indirectly, he's also doing Iran's, North Korea's and China's bidding. The longer American Democracy appears to be in chaos, the more our adversaries will exploit the power vacuum. Make no mistake about it: The barbarians are at the gate. Do we really want to give Jim Jordan the keys? That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.Atrocity
12/10/23 05:24
October 12, 2023 (Vol. 17 No. 41) - War, even that waged on behalf of a just cause, is intrinsically evil. It doesn't matter whether you are an adherent to the Ten Commandments or just someone who wants to stay on the right of the law, the killing of human beings is unacceptable. That being said, there are times when wars must be waged for a noble cause, such as wars of liberation or self-defense. A cruel fact of life is that sometimes innocent people are killed - so-called collateral damage. The fact that some people were in a wrong place at the wrong time doesn't necessarily justify their deaths. It just explains them. However noble or justified the cause, it is never morally or legally acceptable to target civilians. And yet, all nations have done it. For example, consider the fire bombing of Dresden in February 1945, in which Allied bombers killed 25,000 civilians in an effort to break German morale. One can argue that it served a greater good. But nearly 80 years later, can we be certain? This week, we have seen a new low in the panoply of human atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists against the state of Israel. In last Saturday's attacks, civilians were not collateral damage. They were brutally targeted. How in the name of anyone's vision of God can one justify the slaughter of infants and children? During the 17+ years of this blog, I have occasionally criticized Israel for its treatment of the Palestinian people. In my view, they had - and still have - legitimate grievances that should be addressed. But let me make this point absolutely clear: There is absolutely no justification for what Hamas perpetrated this week. And Israel is well within its rights to prosecute a war with the aim of eradicating Hamas. But I say that without joy, for I remember the words most-often credited to Mohandas Ghandi: "An eye for an eye will leave everyone blind." And is there any greater atrocity than that? That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.Who's In Charge?
08/10/23 09:26
October 8, 2023 (Vol. 17 No. 40) - Constitutionally, the United States has a government divided into three co-equal branches. And one of those branches, the Congress, is bifurcated into two equal divisions, the House of Representatives and the Senate. However, we learned this past week that there is now a new branch of government, the fascist and racist nut job caucus of the House majority that is hell-bent on fomenting chaos to God-knows-what end. Matt Gaetz, Florida's fascist fornicator, is the leader of the gang that, for the first time in American history, ousted a sitting Speaker of the House. And what was Kevin McCarthy's sin that cost him his job? He compromised with Democrats to keep the government open. Never mind that this is exactly what the American people wanted. Mad Dog Matt decided to, literally, bring the House down. Believe me, I am not sorry to see Kevin McCarthy go. Without a lengthy explanation - not that it is necessary - let's just say that the spineless wimp got EXACTLY what he deserves. But now we face the spectacle of a power struggle among a group of radical right politicians seeking to take McCarthy's gavel. One of the leading candidates is the shortsleeved sexual-abuse enabler Jim Jordan, slightly more intelligent and significantly more dangerous than Gaetz. And all of these wanna-be Speakers have been pliant stooges to the most evil and dangerous politician in American history, Donald Jackass Trump. (I don't need to recount the sins of this tiny-handed, dim-witted Mussolini-wannabe. Just read this blog.) Meanwhile, the Congress is stalemated. There are wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, a humanitarian crisis at our southern border and a constant attack on our personal freedoms. Unfortunately, the only noteworthy thing Congress has done recently is have one of its least-distinguished members perform a sex act in a Colorado theater. Congress diddles while America burns. So who is in charge? It may surprise you, but YOU ARE. At least for now, you have the power to vote. So, remember this nonsense the next time you cast your ballot. Vote your conscience. In my view, there is not a single Republican deserving of your vote. That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.