From Grumpy's Garage

Image: Created by Google Gemini AI As I watch the news, I can't help but be overwhelmed by the leadership counterexample that Donald Trump is presenting to the world. He does not seem to be consulting with people around him. He does not seem to be taking the impact of his actions on other people into account. He certainly is not delegating power to others. (Exercising power is not an inherent attribute of leadership. Quite the opposite: exercising power is usually a sign of the absence of leadership.) Trump's actions as the "Leader of the Free World" are comical. When asked about the impacts of his recent tariffs on imported automobiles, he is quoted as saying, "I don't care if they increase prices on imported cars." No recognition of how this will likely result in somewhat higher prices for domestically manufactured cars. No acknowledgement that this will be a shock to the entire automobile market. No apparent realization that this will impact the lives...

Protestors rally in front of the Capitol in DC. Ted Eytan. CC BY-SA 4.0 I don't think I've ever called my U.S. Representative before. Well, today, after seeing Cory Booker complete 25 hours and 4 minutes in a speech on the Senate floor, I felt I had to do something , no matter how ineffectual it might feel at the moment. So I followed a link to 5calls.org , chose a topic (firing federal workers willy-nilly), and called Rep. Susan DelBene's office in Washington, DC. I didn't follow the 5calls script precisely. I identified myself and where I lived, then shared my personal experience as a federal employee in DoD, and that I had felt like I was doing something worthwhile for my country. I asked that DelBene do something to rein in Trump, Musk, and DOGE. The staffer asked me to provide a few more personal details (name and email address -- which means I'm on her mailing list now), then we ended the call. So I got my name on a list of potential campaign donors for the 2...

 I've started reading Naomi Klein's book,  No Is Not Enough . After an introductory chapter in which she gives an overview of how Trump is (in 2017) shocking the political landscape in the U.S. (and, she forecasts, will continue to do so), she points out that Donald J. Trump is a well-crafted "Superbrand," a type of phenomenon that emerged from the rise of business mega-branding in the 1980s. To understand Trump and his strategies, Klein says that one must understand how Trump leverages the psychology of modern commercial branding to influence large populations. Mega-branding gets people to attach their sense of personal identity to the brand. The human psyche has a fundamental need to connect with others, to belong to tribes. Corporate brands seek to create a tribe for their followers to join. It's brand loyalty on steroids. That is the premise of Chapter 1, How Trump Won by Becoming the Ultimate Brand. She starts with the history of how, in the 1980s, corporatio...

 About a week ago, I was assuaging my angst about Trump, DOGE, and the current political crisis with wine -- a lot of wine. It didn't take long for me to realize that this wasn't a sustainable strategy. I had to find a way to have a positive impact on the situation, so I sent an email to my most trusted family members (my wife, four daughters, and son-in-law) asking for advice. I've already posted about what my eldest daughter and my son-in-law (husband of #2 daughter) said. Wise advice from both. And I was blown away by what #2 daughter sent me next. (It should have surprised me; she's the most politically active of all of them.) Her advice: Clarify my goal. (In my own words, "What does success look like in this situation?") Don't try to act alone. Connect with a group that shares my vision for success. Pool resources. Having an impact doesn't have to be hard. Just because I find that something comes easily doesn't mean I'm not being effective...

 In an earlier post, I shared how my eldest daughter encouraged me while I despaired over the fate of the U.S. government as I watched being it ripped apart. Her advice: focus on your Circle of Control (or, Circle of Influence). There is little (read: nothing) to be gained by lamenting over things beyond my control. Shortly after that advice from my eldest daughter, my son-in-law shared how agency, connection, and community counteract trauma. Agency : As my daughter had shared, focus on the things within my power to control. Connection:  Don't suffer alone. Seek out others who share vision for the world we hope for. Community : At a larger scale than connection, link arms with others to take action. By ourselves, we each are powerless. Even in small groups, that powerlessness is profound, but less painful. But in sufficient numbers, we have a shared voice that commands attention. And that attention can attract both allies and enemies. Spoiling for a Fight? Attracting both alli...

 Ever take your nice, calm Labrador retriever for a walk in the park when a squirrel innocently bounds across the path ahead of you and up a tree?  Your nice, calm dog becomes hard to control. It might take a while to get them away from that tree. Well, this week, the nice, calm, mainstream news media found a squirrel. They seem to have lost focus on the big news (and still hasn't gone away): DOGE is taking a chainsaw to the U.S. government. Instead, news this week has been dominated by "Signalgate," a kerfuffle surrounding a group chat of the "Houthi PC small group." I don't need to go into the details of Signalgate. But  how  it has dominated the news may be more relevant. With all this attention on Trump's senior security advisors and their "amateurish" handling of sensitive information on  Signal , a commercial messaging app, the destruction that DOGE is wreaking on government agencies hasn't been the lead story. I wouldn't be surpr...

 I felt powerless. The Trump administration is taking a wrecking ball to the federal government, and there is nothing I could do to stop it. "Of course not," I reminded myself. "I am but one voter among many. Over 155 million votes were cast in the presidential election." I take voting as a moral obligation, but when I consider that mine is but one in 155 million, I do ask myself, "Why bother?" I found myself wanting to squelch that internal voice of despair. So I poured myself another glass of wine. And another. And another. I could tell pretty quickly that this wasn't a healthy way to manage my anxiety over political issues in Washington, DC. I imagined that there must be other ways to channel my energy besides dissipating it in a drunken stupor. So I reached out to the handful of people that I trust the most: my wife, my four adult daughters, and a son-in-law. I sent them an email expressing my frustration at feeling like there wasn't anything I...