Cheap bosses

I have written several posts about some of the good bosses I have been fortunate to have. Unfortunately, the ones who I did not write about are more in number. I have also had several bosses who were beyond thrifty – they tended to be cheap in a comical and sad sort of way.

The first one I will call Carl, not his real name. Carl had a well-earned reputation of not being one who grabbed the check at a restaurant. His colleagues would use an age old term called “Short arms” or “Alligator arms” to define his bent to avoid reaching for the check. There are other examples, but one that is indicative. When I joined the company, I asked one of my colleagues why he had a water service in his office (those large replaceable jugs). Others were able to enter his office to get water. He said he paid for this because Carl was too cheap to buy water for the office.

The second boss I will call Jim. Jim was thrifty with the company money, but had no problem using it for his benefit. The best example is Jim’s hosting the annual holiday party. He would order twice the amount of liquor, beer and wine to restock his liquor cabinet. On a more daily basis, he would order wine at lunch and ask the wait person to “not skimp and fill it to the brim.” My guess is he would expense lunch with the staff.

The third one I will call Brett. Brett loved using vendor (insurance brokers, consultants, et al) money to pay for events – golf outings, dinners, sporting events, lunches, etc. The most embarrassing situation occurred when a vendor was going to fly him to an event they were sponsoring. Brett said yes, but then asked “What if I drove?” meaning would you reimburse me for the difference. It was truly a crawl under the table moment.

The fourth boss I will call Leroy. Leroy was big on doing little things at the company expense. Mailing personal correspondence on the metered mail system used for company mail is a good example. But, my favorite story is his expensing a speeding ticket he got as he was late for a meeting and driving way too fast.

Finally, I have shared the story before where my grandmother, who worked in retail, spoke up when the CEO of the company was touring their store with her boss, the store manager. The CEO asked to borrow her pen and then put it in his pocket and started to walk away. My grandmother said Mr. Brown that is my pen. My boss is too cheap to provide us pens to make orders, so I have to bring in my own pen. Think about that. Before the age of computers, orders had to be written down, so to do her job she had to provide her own pen.

These stories are sad and comical as well as illustrative. It should be noted that none of the spendthrifts would be confused with being a good boss, at least in my view. To me, it is important more to respect your boss than actually like him or her. When you see bosses like the above, there is not much respect that is elicited by their actions.

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Interesting election result in my hometown in Florida

As noted in an Associated Press article called “Florida: blow to DeSantis as Democrat wins Jacksonville mayor’s race – Donna Deegan becomes city’s first female mayor by beating Daniel Davis, Republican backed by hard-right governor,” the following two paragraphs tell the story.

“In a major electoral upset on Tuesday, voters in Jacksonville elected their first female mayor, defeating a Republican backed by business leaders and endorsed by Ron DeSantis, the state governor and prospective presidential candidate.

Jacksonville is the most populous Florida city, with about 950,000 residents. Donna Deegan, a Democrat, earned 52% of the vote, beating Daniel Davis. About 217,000 people voted, a turnout of 33%.”

In the same browser feed it was noted that Governor DeSantis refused to acknowledge that Donald Trump lost the last election. Well someone better tell Fox News that as they are somehow missing over $1 billion after settling two defamation lawsuits, with one pending for another $2.7 billion. They also have those indicting emails that said several key Fox News personnel knew they were gaslighting their viewers perpetuating Trump’s Big Lie.

The story reminds me of a cheating husband with lipstick on his collar and a perfumed aroma who tells his wife to ignore the evidence as he really did not cheat on her. When a party requires the mainstream candidates to gaslight, then that is prime facie evidence that anything else they say should be take with large doses of salt. We need a conservative voice in this country, but one that obligates leaders to lie is not it.

Do not default on America’s debts

Note to Democrat and Republican leadership – DO NOT DEFAULT on America’s debts. That is beyond poor stewardship and borders on malfeasance. And, it certainly is not a conservative principle.

Find a way to get it done and then talk in greater detail about doing things to reduce the debt and deficit. You could start with listening to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Like the Simpson Bowles Deficit Reduction Committee, this group advocates both tax increases and spending cuts. Otherwise, the math simply will not work despite what politicians say.

Both parties have left something to be desired on dealing with our debt. Yet, it is the Republicans who have been the worse steward having increased debt by $2 trillion with a tax cut in 2018 when they led both chambers in Congress and the White House and unbalanced a surplus budget when the younger Bush took over for Bill Clinton again with a tax cut Bush’s Treasury Secretary said was unneeded.

The grandstanding needs to stop. Playing chicken with a very serious matter has to stop. Pretending to only care about the debt when not in charge has to stop. First pay our bills, then fix the problem with a holistic solution.

The truth will set you free

As an old fart, I have gleaned several truths over the years listening to and reading the words of people much smarter than me. Here are just a few of those truths, at least per this editor of information.

A great leader is one who defers more credit to others and accepts more blame even when it is undue. Think of this when you hear a notorious former president (or any elected official for that matter) take credit and blame others on a routine basis. Bad leaders use too many “I” and “me” words to define success. “I, alone, can solve our problems” was uttered before the presidential election in 2016 at the GOP convention, but that is as much narcissistic as it untrue.

Telling your creditors you can’t pay your bills is not part of productive strategy to balance your budget. If the US does not raise its debt ceiling, it is very poor stewardship and tells our creditors we are bad risk. Legislators who say it is not poor stewardship are very much mistaken. Let’s pay our creditors, then have serious discussion around changes to increase revenue AND cut spending.

Lying and embellishing is not foreign to politicians. Yet, lying pretty much about everything is beyond the pale. George Santos, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis have achieved a greater level of deceitfulness than others. Santos has emulated the two older people and has created both a fake history and allegedly acted criminally. We deserve better than this. What he has not learned as well is how to be smug when called out on lying.

Vladimir Putin still wins the prize for untruthfulness. What has been difficult for him is the Ukraine invasion has gone so poorly for Russia, he cannot cover-up his lying. The word is getting out, sometimes within 24 hours that he was lying the day before. Ukraine is achieving success. So, it is hard to maintain a lie, when the evidence is shown in real time. The problem is coming clean will have to be a part of his exit strategy. He will need to say folks, this is not working, so we need to exit Ukraine.

Each of us lied about something in our lives. To say you have not is not being honest with yourself. One thing you must do is not believe your own BS. The first step in coming clean is to admit to yourself you lied or weren’t as truthful as you should have been. Here is a good example – having been in management and consulted with HR, everyone thinks they are a better than average employee. But, that is not possible. The only way to improve is to recognize your shortcomings.

This is one of the challenges for our former president as we often debate if he knows he lies as much as he does as he tells so many sometimes repeatedly. I am reminded of the CBS reporter who finally got tired of a routine misstatement about a law he said he passed and told him you know that law was passed before you became president? He did not know.

We need as much truth as possible from our elected officials. I try hard not to refer to many elected officials as “leaders” as just because they are in a position of leadership, does not make them a leader. Telling the truth will set them apart from the others and free them to walk down the better path.

When will they ever learn?

Quoting the key line from Pete Seeger’s “Where have all the flowers gone?” made famous by Peter, Paul and Mary, “when will they ever learn?”

Seeing the former president bask in the glow of his CNN Town Hall, where he regurgitated a seemingly endless list of untruthful statements, I thought of this line as his base of fans lapped it up. When will they ever learn?

Lying routinely is not very becoming of a president. Repeating the lies as a mantra is even worse as some lies are making the record album skip as it wears out. When will they ever learn?

What makes all of this so farcical and sad is his lying is overt and relentless. He lies so much he does not where the truth stops and the lying begins. Even when the truth works in his favor, he has to dress it up more to assume credit.

One of the interesting byproducts of the Town Hall is while he will be appealing the verdict on his sexual assault liability of $5 million, E. Jean Carroll is considering suing him again for defamation with his Town Hall remarks. When will they ever learn?

In the next few months, Donald Trump will likely be indicted for election meddling in Georgia. With eight Trump enablers agreeing to deals with the prosecutor, a very strong case looks even stronger. He, of course, will denounce the indictment as politically motivated, even a witch-hunt, which is ironic as that is precisely what he did with his meddling.

And, my hope is he will be held accountable for his role in the insurrection on January 6, 2021 against Congress. Quite simply, that insurrection would not have happened if Donald Trump was not president.

While all of this is happening, Fox News will likely settle another defamation case with another voting system company. This would be the third settlement around gaslighting their audience perpetuating Trump’s Big Lie.

I have been saying for over two years that Donald Trump’s political career is over, but it will take awhile for his party to realize that. It is happening much more slowly than I hoped, but he does not have enough fingers to plug the holes in this dyke.

Quite simply, we are more divided as a county because a man-child with a shallow ego cannot admit he lost an election. As his niece Mary said, her uncle will burn it all down to avoid losing the election. His followers need to open their eyes and see the gas can and matches he is holding. When will they ever learn?

Thursday throwaways

The week is nearing its end as we head toward Mother’s Day. Here are a few throwaway remarks on this Thursday. In no particular order:

-Note to CNN, if you have a Town Hall with Donald Trump make sure you have an audience that represents America. Watching Trump lie with impunity is not a Town Hall I want to watch. To continue to tell the same election was stolen BS after the $1 billion plus and counting penance for gaslighting by Fox News is just stuff we no longer need to hear.

-Note to House Republican leadership, you should have avoided putting newly arrested George Santos on two committees. This future train wreck was very visible back in January when he was sworn in. The wisest course would have been to not seat him pending further investigation, but placing him on committees exposed the rest of the country to his deceptive ways.

-Note to Democrat and Republican leadership – DO NOT DEFAULT on America’s debts. That is beyond poor stewardship and borders on malfeasance. And, it certainly is not a conservative principle. Find a way to get it done and then talk in greater detail about doing things to reduce the debt and deficit. You could start with listening to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

-Don’t forget your mothers. Unfortunately, our two are gone, but we will remember them well. We will do something for my wife and mother of our three adult children, but it will be a more somber day. I used to call my mother at 7 pm every day when she went into a memory long term care facility, so I would think of her calling for months after she passed.

Have a great rest of your week and weekend.

Note to a wayward Republican Senator

Senator, I saw your comments condemning the process that found Donald Trump liable for sexual assault of E. Jean Carroll. While it is not a criminal trial verdict, he will have to make some sort of financial restitution to Ms. Carroll.

Your comments are unfortunate as they denigrate the efforts of a jury to hold the former president accountable. Not only has he confessed in his own words to other sexual assaults such as grabbing women by their private parts with impunity and his bent for walking in on partially clothed Miss Universe and Miss USA contestants because he sponsored the pageant, his company was found guilty of tax fraud last summer and he had to repay his foundation for using it for his personal reasons a few years ago.

Later this summer, he will likely be legitimately charged for election meddling in Georgia and he may be charged for seditious actions around the January 6 insurrection which endangered your life and that of others. If they were successful, you might not be around to receive this note.

As a former Republican and now independent voter, please refrain from commenting on a process that you have nothing to do with. Note, I would have considered voting for you in 2016 if you had won, if you conducted yourself like you used to. But, this version is not someone I could support.

Please help the GOP find its footing and hold the former president to account. It should not be lost on people that Fox News is out over $1 billion for gaslighting on behalf of the former president with $2.7 billion pending. People who lie for the former president do not fare very well.

Two rising sea stories from today (a reprise from four years ago)

I wrote the following post four years ago, but these stories still warrant attention. If your family has property on the coast, make sure you read this. The footnote is of interest as well.

In my newspaper today, two articles caught my eye about the impact of rising seas. The first is an editorial entitled “Rising seas eroding coastal property values,” written by Orrin Pilkey, the co-author of a study of this subject.

The other is an article called “Highest tide in 50 years swamps Venice,” by Elisabetta Povoledo of The New York Times. Beginning with the sensational, per Povoledo, “The Mayor of Venice, who said that the city ‘was on its knees’ has called for a state of emergency and the closing of all schools after the Italian city was submerged under…an exceptionally high tide – the highest in 50 years.”

At six-feet, the rising sea level in Venice was the most since 1966. Yet, per the article, “Last year, as severe weather in Italy killed 11 people, ferocious winds drove the high tide in Venice to more than five feet above average sea level.”

In Pilkey’s editorial, the study was reported in his book with Keith Pilkey called “Sea level rise: a slow Tsunami on America’s shores.” “The First Foundation, a non-profit research group with flood risk, analyzed 13.3 million real estate transactions, and compared the results to 25.6 million properties along the east coast and Gulf coast of the US. They concluded that there was a $15.8 billion loss in home value appreciation between Maine and Texas from 2015 to 2017.”

Pilkey made reference to increasing “sunny day flooding.” They note the sunny day flooding will increase even more until it becomes more permanent. In essence the sea water comes up through the storm drains in the street leaving standing water. A key quote toward the end of the article is a warning. “I know that if my family were living in or near a sunny day flooding area, I would urge them to sell and leave.”

Low lying coastal cities are at great risk. Global climate scientists have long said the City of Miami is the most at risk city in the world. Miami Beach is already seeing many more days of sunny day flooding. The state that had the most property loss in value is Florida. I would hope the leaders of that state would be banging the drum the loudest. As for Venice, they rely so much on tourism. Yet, that future looks to be at grave risk given its low sea level status.

Note: Below are two links to these articles:

https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article237245139.html

https://www.nytimes.com/svc/oembed/html/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2019%2F11%2F13%2Fworld%2Feurope%2Fvenice-flood.html

Note further: A famous climate change “denier” in words does not match his rhetoric with his actions. Per a Politico article in May, 2016 entitled “Trump acknowledges climate change — at his golf course:”

“The New York billionaire is applying for permission to erect a coastal protection works to prevent erosion at his seaside golf resort, Trump International Golf Links and Hotel Ireland, in County Clare. A permit application for the wall, filed by Trump International Golf Links Ireland and reviewed by POLITICO, explicitly cites global warming and its consequences — increased erosion due to rising sea levels and extreme weather this century — as a chief justification for building the structure.” These actions support the concerns of the Pilkey study of property values being at risk due to sea level rise.

Florida and the US deserve better

Apparently, I missed the announcement of the Florida governor running for president. I have seen a well-polished commercial that masks over all his warts starting this weekend, so I guess he is in. In anticipation of this, I sent the following letter to my hometown Florida newspaper in hopes they would print it. Please feel free to adapt and use.

In my home state of Florida, several major problems go undiscussed and unresolved. Climate change, environmental maltreatment, healthcare costs, better gun governance, job retraining, fresh water shortage, etc. Instead, the governor and legislature focus on contrived or exaggerated issues like wokeness, critical race theory, banning books that dare speak of our ugly history and punishing people and companies who act in an egalitarian manner.

It is quite disappointing to this independent and former Republican to know the Florida governor threw his hat in the presidential campaign ring. We need serious minded leaders who will help all citizens and focus on real issues not contrived wedge issues. What we don’t need are authoritarian bullies who pick on people who don’t agree with them.

Today it is Texas again

Texas once again has a mass shooting after only two weeks. Here is the latest from Dallas:

“Police have confirmed an unspecified number of fatalities in a shooting at a mall in a Dallas suburb. At least eight people between the ages of five and 61 were brought to hospitals.

The shootings took place on Saturday at the Allen Premium Outlets mall about 25 miles (40km) north-east of Dallas.

The shooter was dead at the scene, local ABC affiliate WFAA TV reported, citing the Collin county sheriff.”

My wife asked “when will it stop?”

My response is sadly and simply “It won’t because we choose not to do anything about it as our elected officials are too beholden to the gun industry.”

One of the US Senators from the state, of course, offers his increasingly hollow “thoughts and prayers.” That is code for “I am not going to do anything about it, except say this faux platitude.”

Note: An update from this morning:

“The gunman killed eight people and wounded seven, three of those critically. He was shot dead by a police officer who happened to be nearby, authorities said.”