Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Outrageous, disgraceful, shameful. History is going to demand a lot of us — there will be much to answer for. “US virus deaths top 3,100 in a single day for the first time” https://t.co/4UgQ4ngpvY
— Evan Feigenbaum (@EvanFeigenbaum) December 4, 2020
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Friday/Saturday, Dec. 4-5Post + Comments (65)
Normally I wouldn’t be posting this late, but I was scrolling through various Twitter feeds while commenting in my earlier post and came across T. Greg Doucette’s Foodraiser. At Levenson’s Twitter feed. And since Levenson is right in saying:
Thread.
Feeding kids is always a mitzvah. https://t.co/vI97mDPEid
— Thomas Levenson, Zṓiarchos (@TomLevenson) December 5, 2020
(For the Hebrew impaired a mitzvah is a good deed)
I decided that this is something everyone here, who is awake, reading, commenting, lurker, should know about.
Anyhow, there’s a really long thread explaining the Durham Foodraiser, but the bottom line up front is that Doucette, a lawyer from Durham, NC, has been raising money every year for the past four years to make sure that children in the public schools in the poorest areas of Durham who would ordinarily be suffering from food scarcity while school is out for the winter holidays have enough to eat. He’s got a bunch of matching donors, so a $1 donation winds up being something like a $26 donation or something, I got kind of lost because he keeps tweeting that he’s added matching donors through the thread. Regardless, any donation you make is going to get matched. And he’s got a 501c3 in place this year, so your donation is tax deductible too! The Foodraiser will remain active until 11:59 PM PST. So there’s still time to donate if you’ve got a couple of extra bucks that could do some good as we head into the holidays. Here’s Doucette’s thread.
**********
6TH (😱😱) ANNUAL
BULL CITY FOODRAISER
FRIDAY, 12/04/2020
ALL-DAY THREAD
********** pic.twitter.com/YtPNYRaxnp— T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette) December 4, 2020
And here’s where you go to donate:
HOW TO DONATE TO
THE 6TH(!) ANNUAL
BULL CITY FOODRAISER1️⃣ Donate online: https://t.co/zMvFOo4VEp
2️⃣ CashApp: $tgdlaw
3️⃣ Venmo: @greg_doucette
4️⃣ PayPal: https://t.co/WU8c4YgGxU
And of course please retweet, tell a friend, etc etc etc 😆
— T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette) December 4, 2020
Do read the whole thread if you have the time as he’s a very good storyteller.
You all know what to do!
Open thread!
Bigfooting Cole For a Good Cause: The Durham Foodraiser!Post + Comments (17)
Damn, it’s been a busy and long week. Mom and dad left home to snowbird in South Carolina, so the last few days has been hectic.
How are all of you doing?
BTW- I AM SO GLAD JOHN FETTERMAN AND GISELE ARE GETTING SOME LOVE!
On the Road: Week of December 7 (5 am)
Albatrossity – October in the Sandhills #1
Steve from Mendocino –Provincetown
?BillinGlendaleCA – Sunset at Del Cerro Park
Captain C – Goes To Japan: Osaka Aquarium
MomSense – SailboatsThis is the last week of Parks After Dark, unless more submissions come my way this week.
On the Road: Parks After Dark: Week of December 7 (10 pm)
Skookum in Oly – The Wonderland Trail, Mount Rainier National Park – Part 2, Not The Mountain
Alison – Tahoe National Forest
arrieve – Denali National Park, Alaska
arrieve – Denali National Park, Alaska II
Dagaetch – Election Respite, New Zealand EditionApologies to Dagaetch whose gorgeous Election Respite, New Zealand Edition post once was lost, but now is found!
? And now, back to Skookum in Oly, for his first On The Road post (and happily not his last).
“And on your left, Mt. Rainier.”
My brother and I took a hike around Mt. Rainier, at Mt. Rainier National Park, WA USA in the autumn of 2018. We followed the Wonderland Trail counterclockwise, a route that spares no effort to cross over gazillions of ridges and rivers, through bright high-elevation meadows, deep old-growth forests and dark canyons, all the while leading one thru one of the most magical, and photographed, landscapes on Earth.
For us, Mt. Rainier is literally just the backyard. We grew up in a tiny village located on the south edge of the park, about 10 miles from the entrance. Packwood is a lesser visited gateways to MRNP, providing access to Ohanapecosh and the southern and eastern areas of the park. Growing up, The Mountain was out, or it was not. We read the weather forecast and judged the season by cloudy, lenticular shroud and snowy mantle, and the throngs of tourists passing through town. The largest glaciated peak in the Lower 48, it was no big thing for us. While we easily survived the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens (only a few dozen miles away), much more worrisome was the constant threat of lahar or eruption from The Mountain.
Having been told his cancer was ‘cured’ over the summer, and I mine a few years before, we decided a hike around The Mountain would be just the way to say, “F- you, Cancer!”. We spent 10 days on the trail, the weather was both beautiful and ugly, in turns. We hiked a total of 97 miles with 23,717′ of elevation gain, averaging 10.7 miles and 2,635′ each day.
For Part 1 of my first On The Road post, here are 8 photos of the mountain I took on that hike. My full trip report, and all the pictures, are here.
Day 1 – Third Burroughs Peak (3B) from along the Wonderland Trail
Yesterday, in response to a Newsweek article about whether or not President-elect Biden should pick a retired general officer, specifically GEN (ret) Austin, to be the next Secretary of Defense, Senior Chief Nance had a very strident response:
https://twitter.com/MalcolmNance/status/1334631464953057280
GEN (ret) McCaffrey then replied attesting to GEN (ret) Austin’s character and experience. Senior Chief Nance co-signed that by tweet.
https://twitter.com/MalcolmNance/status/1334636601327104000
What GEN (ret) McCaffrey did not do, however, was explicitly endorse GEN (ret) Austin for the position of Secretary of Defense, though this tweet from 28 November might be taken as an implicit endorsement.
https://twitter.com/mccaffreyr3/status/1332531425212436480
While I appreciate Senior Chief Nance’s enthusiasm, as well as his concern about the think tank world inside the Beltway, I think he’s wrong regarding the appointment of another general officer/flag officer to the position of Secretary of Defense. While the Newsweek article’s focus, specifically the focus of the people that provided statements to the reporters on this possibility, all seem to focus on reestablishing the Civilian-Military relationship, I think there’s another reason for President-elect Biden to be cautious about appointing a retired general or admiral to be his Secretary of Defense: a 40 plus year career of acculturation, socialization, and indoctrination to deferring to the president as the commander in chief of the military.
While deference to those above one in the chain of command isn’t confined to generals in relation to the President, we have reporting that indicates this was a major problem for Secretary Mattis in his relationship with Trump. Specifically, when Trump threw a temper tantrum at Secretary Mattis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (now retired) Gen. Dunford, and the Joint Chiefs in the Tank at the Pentagon in the summer of 2017 when they, along with Secretary of State Tillerson and Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn, tried to hold an explanatory briefing for Trump about the United States national security commitments and posture. This was the meeting where Trump lost his shit and screamed at Mattis, the Joint Chiefs, and the rest of the military personnel in the room that:
“You’re all losers,” Trump said. “You don’t know how to win anymore.”
“I wouldn’t go to war with you people,” Trump told the assembled brass.
Addressing the room, the commander in chief barked, “You’re a bunch of dopes and babies.”
What happened in response is not just telling, but it provides us with the central reason why a general officer/flag officer may not be the best choice to be the Secretary of Defense (emphasis mine):
Tillerson in particular was stunned by Trump’s diatribe and began visibly seething. For too many minutes, others in the room noticed, he had been staring straight, dumbfounded, at Mattis, who was speechless, his head bowed down toward the table. Tillerson thought to himself, “Gosh darn it, Jim, say something. Why aren’t you saying something?”
But, as he would later tell close aides, Tillerson realized in that moment that Mattis was genetically a Marine, unable to talk back to his commander in chief, no matter what nonsense came out of his mouth.
Others at the table noticed Trump’s stream of venom had taken an emotional toll. So many people in that room had gone to war and risked their lives for their country, and now they were being dressed down by a president who had not. They felt sick to their stomachs. Tillerson told others he thought he saw a woman in the room silently crying. He was furious and decided he couldn’t stand it another minute. His voice broke into Trump’s tirade, this one about trying to make money off U.S. troops.
“No, that’s just wrong,” the secretary of state said. “Mr. President, you’re totally wrong. None of that is true.”
Tillerson’s father and uncle had both been combat veterans, and he was deeply proud of their service.
“The men and women who put on a uniform don’t do it to become soldiers of fortune,” Tillerson said. “That’s not why they put on a uniform and go out and die . . . They do it to protect our freedom.”
There was silence in the Tank. Several military officers in the room were grateful to the secretary of state for defending them when no one else would. The meeting soon ended and Trump walked out, saying goodbye to a group of servicemen lining the corridor as he made his way to his motorcade waiting outside. Mattis, Tillerson, and Cohn were deflated. Standing in the hall with a small cluster of people he trusted, Tillerson finally let down his guard.
“He’s a f—ing moron,” the secretary of state said of the president.
Secretary Mattis is considered to be the most highly regarded Marine of his generation. His Marines affectionately called him the Warrior Monk because of his scholarly, self contained, bachelor lifestyle. He calls himself CHAOS (Colonel Has An Outstanding Suggestion). Those who don’t know him, and don’t realize he hates it, call him Mad Dog. But my Marine teammates all speak of him in the highest regard. Those of my former teammates that know him and have served with and under him all have their own unique stories about him and why he is held in such high regard. Unfortunately, over a forty plus year career Secretary Mattis had been socialized, acculturated, and indoctrinated to defer to the President as the commander in chief. Just as he and every other officer in the Marines, the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force, had been socialized, acculturated, and indoctrinated to defer to those above them in the chain of command. This is a real problem. One of the now retired general officers that I was assigned to as cultural advisor/senior civilian advisor used to refer to the problem as the Legion of Frightened Men. Colonels and lieutenant colonels and even in some cases general officers who wouldn’t speak up when the most senior general officer in the room asked if anyone had anything to add, any suggestions, any concerns. Not because they didn’t have anything to add or any suggestions or any concerns, but because they had been taught and trained to defer to those who ranked above them in seniority.
I’ve got no dog in the fight over who does or does not become the next Secretary of Defense. Each of the people whose names have been floated – former Undersecretary of Defense Flournoy, former DHS Secretary Johnson, GEN (ret) Austin, and Senator Duckworth – would each be a vast, vast, vast improvement over Secretary Esper and the current acting SecDef. The former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Kath Hill, who is running the DOD transition team for President-elect Biden would also be a vast, vast, vast improvement. But the bulk of my career for the better part of the past 15 years has been serving as a senior civilian advisor to senior Army leaders, from colonels commanding brigade combat teams to lieutenant generals commanding Army Service Component Commands. And I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve been either permanently or temporarily assigned to an excellent batch of senior leaders. It is important to realize, though, that they’re professionally raised differently than civilian senior leaders. I watched one general officer I was assigned to, who was senior in overall time of service, defer to a higher ranking general officer on an issue – a general officer who lied to his face about what was going to be done to deal with that issue – because of socialization to the chain of command. Because that’s what a more junior officer, even if that junior officer is a general or an admiral with more time in service, does when given an order or guidance by a more senior leader. And there is no more senior leader for the US military than the president.
I know GEN (ret) Austin, but not well. I met him in Iraq in 2008 when he was the Commanding General of 10th Mountain Division. The brigade combat team my team was assigned to had been split off from the rest of 1st Armored Division in Multi-National Division North and sent south and east of Baghdad to Multi-National Division Central. 10th Mountain Division fortunately took over Multi-National Division Central two months into our deployment. I met GEN Austin when he came to our FOB as part of his initial battlefield circulation. I was introduced to him, he spoke to me for about 90 seconds, and my part of his briefing lasted about two minutes tops. I also provided support to him when he was the Commanding General of CENTCOM via his Command Sergeant Major, who was my point of contact in the CENTCOM command group.
I barely know GEN (ret) Austin, but what I know of him indicates he’s an excellent general officer. However, given the dynamic we’ve seen with the retired senior military leaders – generals and admirals – appointed to senior positions over the past four years by Trump, many that required Senate confirmation, my professional opinion (for what it’s worth) is that if a highly qualified, exemplary civilian senior leader can be appointed as the next Secretary of Defense, then she or he should be nominated instead of a retired general officer/flag officer. This does not mean that retired senior military leaders are unfit for senior civilian appointments, it just means that they should be appointed to the right positions otherwise they are being set up for failure.
I was very glad when Secretary Mattis was nominated to become Secretary of Defense given the possibilities that Trump could have come up with for nominees. I think he did as good a job as he possibly could have under the circumstances. But it is very clear, as reported by multiple sources in long form news reporting and books, that he was unable to transcend what he always was – a Marine and a Marine general officer – during times when the Nation needed more from him and for him to be more. That isn’t his fault. Asking and expecting him or anyone else to be other than who they are is an unfair expectation. But his tenure as Secretary of Defense, as well as his relationship and interaction with Trump, should stand as a stark warning about making sure that the right person is designated for nomination as the next Secretary of Defense. And given the evidence we have from the last four years, the right person may not be a retired general or admiral no matter how exemplary they are as a national security professional and as a person.
Everyone is different. GEN (ret) Austin is not Secretary Mattis. He may be able to overcome his socialization and acculturation to deferring to the president as the commander in chief of the military and if he can, then he’d be an excellent pick. But if he can’t, then someone else – Flournoy, Johnson, Duckworth, Hill, someone who hasn’t been publicly speculated about yet – should be chosen to avoid recreating the situation that Secretary Mattis found himself in. Not doing so would be setting not just GEN (ret) Austin up for failure as the Secretary of Defense, but President-elect Biden up for failure in regards to building the Department of Defense back better. And if GEN (ret) Austin isn’t the best fit for Secretary of Defense, I would hope that President-elect Biden would find an appropriate senior appointment for him and, should he be willing to return to service, that GEN (ret) Austin would accept that appointment and excel at it.
Edited to Add (ETA):
I want to clarify a point or two as there seems to be some confusion in the comments. I am not arguing that GEN (ret) Austin would not be a good Secretary of Defense. Nor am I arguing that one of the other people whose names have been floated as a potential choice are better choices. What I am arguing is that if GEN (ret) Austin is selected by President-elect Biden, he will have to overcome the same career’s worth of conditioning to defer to the President as commander in chief of the military that Secretary Mattis could not overcome. While GEN (ret) Austin is not Secretary Mattis – they are very different senior military leaders – this will be a key challenge. Of course, as a number of you have pointed out in your comments, President-elect Biden is not Trump, so the dynamic between Secretary of Defense and President would be very, very, very different from the start.
Open thread!
We have two events coming up – one on Sunday and one on Monday. Both feature our own Tom Levenson, so if you want an overdose of same, here’s your chance.
We’ll be talking about Tom’s new book…
…which is about a bunch of stuff centered on the South Sea Bubble of 1720–the first great stock market boom, fraud, bubble and bust. There are all-too-obvious connections to our own day, which we can talk about. Also, the book spends a fair amount of time connecting financial innovation, with all the wealth and woe that has carried with it, to the larger change in how people were figuring out the material world back than, a transformation we now call the scientific revolution. That too is still with us.
A good time will be had by all (or the beatings will continue, in Balloon Juice’s finest tradition.)
The details:
Sunday at 6pm: Medium Cool – Money for Nothing: Ask Me Anything with Tom Levenson
Monday at 8pm: Balloon Juice Zoom – Money for Nothing: Ask Me Anything with Tom Levenson
(8pm is the tentative time; final time to be determined):
Everyone is welcome to attend one or both sessions.
?Tom was able to score 4 audio passes (!) for Money for Nothing, to be given as gifts at the events.
Comment below as you normally would, but if you want to be in the drawings for the gifts, say so in the comments. Be sure to indicate whether you plan to do the Medium Cool Post, the Zoom, or both.
I will scan the comments for MC, ZOOM, or BOTH
I will also try to read the comments a bit more closely – for those who either won’t read the entire post or who might have read it but are unlikely to follow directions. Yes, I have met you guys before. :-)
?More About The Zoom
Zoom will be hosted and moderated by Immanentize.
We’ll start with about 15 minutes BGinCHI asking Tom some questions, author-to-author. Then we’ll go to questions from the audience.
Everyone will start out muted, but you can enter your questions for Tom through Chat function, either while BG and Tom are talking, or afterwards.
If you like, you can even ask your questions in the comments of this post, and we’ll collect those for the Zoom, too.
We’re still working out the final details for the format, but we’ll share them as soon as we can.
IMPORTANT: We want to avoid unwanted visitors crashing the zoom, so if you want to attend the zoom, please send me email so I can reply with the Zoom password.
Open thread.
Et tu, KellyAnne?
the whale carcass plucked clean, the spider crab scuttles off across the sea floor, vanishing into inky blackness in search of a fresh meal https://t.co/VVwQXUpCdW
— kilgore trout, tiny desk carpenter (@KT_So_It_Goes) December 4, 2020