Trump�s failed presidency

Trump�s presidency is failing rapidly. Like others before him, modern
American presidents fail when they cannot master or comprehend the
government that they inherit. This is a hard concept to grasp in an age
when non-stop media coverage leads us to focus on the president�s
communication skills and when presidents themselves value spin more than
expertise. But in the end presidential failure is about reality, not
words�no matter how lofty and inspiring or how crude and insulting.

Contemporary presidents are especially prone to mistaking spin for
reality for several reasons. First of all, they are nominated not by
other elected officials who have some sense of what it takes to govern,
but by activists and party electorates who value inspiration and
entertainment. Second, the importance of mass communication leads
presidents to believe that the words and activities that got them into
office can work once they are in office: more rallies, more speeches,
more tweets, and more television advertising.

Nothing can be further from the truth.

Presidential scholars have been aware of the disjuncture between
campaigning and governing for some time now. More than a decade ago, Sam
Kernell wrote a book called Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential
Leadership (CQ Press, 2007), in which he showed that beginning with
President Kennedy, modern presidents spent a great deal more time on
minor presidential addresses and on domestic and international travel
than their predecessors. All this communication, he argued, came at the
expense of actual governing. Later on another presidential scholar,
George C. Edwards III, writing in Overreach, Leadership in the Obama
Presidency (Princeton University Press, 2012) argued that Obama thought
he could go directly to the public to get support for his programs, an
approach that placed communication over negotiation and that resulted in
a stunning midterm loss for his party.

Reality still matters, and spin has its limits�even in an era of social
media.

As long as things are going okay for most people, Americans tolerate a
president�s verbal gymnastics. But when people are in trouble, even the
most ardent government haters ask that famous question: �Where�s the
government?� And for most Americans, the president is the government.
Following the botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the
collateral damage to the presidency of George W. Bush was extensive. His
popularity never recovered and his second-term agenda, including bold
changes to Social Security, was destroyed. Nearly a decade later when
President Obama rolled out his signature achievement, the Affordable Care
Act, the hugely embarrassing crashing of the computer systems meant to
implement the act increased Republican opposition to it and undermined
public confidence in the government�s ability to implement important
executive actions.

Trump�s failures during the coronavirus pandemic run the gamut from the
rhetorical to the organizational. Every time the president speaks he
seems to add to the fear and chaos surrounding the situation: telling
Americans it was not serious by asserting his �hunches� about data,
assuring people that everyone would be tested even when there were very
few tests available, telling people that we are very close to a vaccine
when it is anywhere from 12 to 18 months away, mistakenly asserting that
goods as well as people from Europe would be forbidden from entering the
United States, and announcing that Google had a website for testing while
the initiative was merely an unimplemented idea, were just a few of his
televised gaffes. After every presidential statement, �clarifications�
were needed. Trump has the unique distinction of giving a national
address meant to calm the country that had the effect of taking the stock
market down over 1,000 points.

We have come to expect verbal imprecision and outright lies from this
president, but that is more easily corrected on less momentous
developments. When there is fundamental incompetence on matters of
tremendous importance, voters punish poor results. And this is where
Trump�s actions on the coronavirus have gone far off target. One of the
most glaring deficiencies of his administration has been the failure to
have enough tests available to identify those infected and to screen
others for possible exposure. South Korea, a country a fraction of the
size of the United States, is testing thousands more people a day than
the United States. The failure to produce tests quickly will go down as
one of the biggest failures in the overall handling of this disease
because it prevented authorities from understanding the scope of the
pandemic and therefore made it difficult for them to undertake
appropriate steps to mitigate its spread. Other countries had tests and
now state governments are rapidly rolling out their own tests after the
CDC belatedly removed regulatory barriers. Even the nation�s chief
infectious disease doctor, Anthony Fauci, has admitted that testing is a
major failure�a statement that is most certainly not one of the
president�s talking points.

In this and other areas, Trump has failed to learn from the failures of
his predecessors. When President Ronald Reagan signed into law the
fundamental restructuring of the military known as the Goldwater-Nichols
reforms,[1] he did this knowing that he did not want a military fiasco on
his watch like the failed Iranian rescue mission that did in Jimmy
Carter�s presidency. And following the total breakdown in the Federal
Emergency Management Agency�s handling of Hurricane Katrina, President
Barack Obama made sure his FEMA director was an experienced state
emergency management director. He knew that poor performance during
natural disasters would doom his presidency.

During the Obama Administration, the White House dealt with a precursor
of the coronavirus: the Ebola virus. While the scrambling eventually
worked out thanks to decisive executive office leadership, it illustrated
that pandemics were a fundamental national security threat. They created
the Global Health Security Team in the National Security Council to
prepare. In May of 2018, Trump disbanded the team allegedly because he
never thought pandemics would happen and because �I�m a business person.
I don�t like having thousands of people around when you don�t need them.�
Trump�s hurried justification for abandoning a unit (that was well short
of thousands) showed Trump�s limited understanding of why government is
different from business�it is in the business of preparing for low-
probability events. For instance, the United States military spends
billions every year preparing for wars all over the globe and even in
outer space that may never take place. The art of presidential leadership
is anticipating major problems and coming up with plans to mitigate them.

In addition to learning from past administrations, presidents need the
ability to anticipate reactions to their actions. The Trump
administration has been especially inept on this dimension from the
beginning. The first big executive order he issued, largely banning
Muslims from coming to America, was so ill-conceived that chaos broke out
in airports around the world as people with green cards to work in
America and Muslims who had assisted U.S. military forces in Iraq were
initially turned away. Airport chaos seems to be a specialty of the Trump
administration. It reappeared this past weekend, as Americans came home
from Europe in huge numbers following Trump�s announcement to close off
travelers from Europe and screen returning Americans. When travelers
arrived, they found vastly inadequate staffing at airports and were thus
forced into the very situation medical authorities were warning against:
large crowds being hoarded into small spaces with constant, close
contact.

Trump has also failed to fill top government positions and turnover is
far higher than in any other recent administration, as Katherine Tenpas
has tracked on these pages. The absence of expertise in top government
jobs is especially dangerous during emergencies. Also, when positions are
filled they have not necessarily gone to the strongest candidates. Take
for instance leadership at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the nation�s top agency for infectious diseases. Dr. Robert
Redfield�s appointment was opposed by the Center for Science in the
Public Interest which warned the administration that Redfield lacked a
public health background and that he was under investigation for
scientific misconduct.

Modern presidents inherit an enormous enterprise called the federal
government that employs about the same number of people as the 6 largest
U.S. companies and has a combined annual revenue that is larger than the
combined revenues of the top 16 companies in the Fortune 500.[2] No
wonder modern presidents have had trouble managing this enterprise�in an
organization this big, something is always going right and something is
always going wrong. A president who understands what�s going right can
call on deep wells of expertise to protect himself from the failures that
will inevitably be attributed to him. And on the flip side, a president
who is aware of what�s going wrong can take corrective actions and try to
stave off the kinds of bureaucratic meltdowns that will also be
attributed to him.

The Brief
A man has been charged in three shootings that took place near a Minneapolis homeless encampment in 24 hours.
The shootings killed two men and injured two others.
The man responsible for shootings is currently in custody.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The man already charged in two Minneapolis homeless encampment shootings, is now charged in the third shooting from the same day that killed one man, and injured another.

On Sept. 18, three shootings near Minneapolis homeless encampments left two men dead and another two injured. Authorities said the shooting happened within a 24-hour period and had similar characteristics.

Jones shot five different people, in three different locations on Sept. 18.

New charges
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office (HCAO) announced that Joshua Anthony Jones has now been charged with one count of second-degree murder, two counts of attempted second-degree murder, and one count of illegal firearm possession in the third shooting that took place in the early morning on Sept. 18.

The new charges stem from the first shooting in the morning. He shot at three people, killing a man, injuring another person, but missed the third.

According to court documents, around 4:40 a.m. on Sept. 18, officers responded to reports saying someone fire a gun four times and shot two people in an alley on 17th Avenue South in Minneapolis.

At the scene, officers found two men each with a single gunshot wound to the head. One of the men died at the scene, and the other was taken to the hospital, the charges say. The third victim wasn't hit by gunfire, but was targeted by it.

The injured victim identified the shooter as "Josh Jones" and stated he drove a red four-door Jeep, which was also seen at one of the other shootings that took place that day.

The third, uninjured victim, said that he knew the other two victims and Jones. He said that he has seen Jones at least four times before, court documents say. The victim said that he was in the alley when Jones shot the first two victims, and said that there was no argument or fight that led up to the shootings.

The third victim went on to say that Jones started shooting, and saw as Jones turned to shoot directly at him.

The injured victim told investigators from the hospital that Jones had started a conversation with him and the victim who was ultimately killed in the alley. At some point during the conversation, Jones gave the injured victim a cigarette. The victim turned around to hand it to the other man, and as the victim turned, Jones shot him in the back of the head, wounding him at the base of his skull.

Jones then shot the first victim in the head, causing him to fall next to the second victim, court documents say. The second victim told investigators that Jones didn't say anything before or after shooting him, and it "like he had done this before," and he had no remorse.

According to court documents, Jones is a member of the Native Mob, a criminal street active in south Minneapolis and other areas of Minnesota.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty says it does not appear that Jones was targeting the homeless community, rather that he targeted the people he shot.

In total, Jones is facing two counts of second-degree murder, three counts of attempted second-degree murder, and three counts of illegal firearm possession.

Background

https://www.fox9.com/news/charges-minneapolis-encampment-shooting-sept-30

At around 4:20 p.m., authorities responded to the 2500 block of Bloomington Avenue and found a man lying in an alley with a gunshot wound to the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Hours later, police responded to a shooting near the intersection of 24th Street and 18th Avenue South and found a man who had been shot in his right shoulder. He was taken to the hospital, and police said he was expected to survive his injuries.

Jones was arrested and later charged with being an illegible person in possession of a firearm, second-degree murder, and attempted second-degree murder for his alleged role in these crimes.

Authorities said Jones was under investigation for another fatal shooting, which happened around 4:40 a.m. at a homeless encampment near the 2600 block of 17th Avenue South in Minneapolis. One man was found inside the encampment with a gunshot wound to the head, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Another man had been shot in the neck and was transported to the hospital for his injuries.

What we don’t know
HCAO says the motive behind the shootings is unknown as they continue to investigate the cases.

The Source
A press conference with the Hennepin County Attorney's Office. Court documents from Hennepin County.

https://www.fox9.com/news/charges-minneapolis-encampment-shooting-sept-30

On Tue, 1 Oct 2024 17:01:54 -0000 (UTC), Henry Bodkin <X@Y.com> wrote:

>Trump’s failed presidency
>
>Trump’s presidency is failing rapidly. Like others before him, modern
>American presidents fail when they cannot master or comprehend the
>government that they inherit. This is a hard concept to grasp in an age
>when non-stop media coverage leads us to focus on the president’s
>communication skills and when presidents themselves value spin more than
>expertise. But in the end presidential failure is about reality, not
>words—no matter how lofty and inspiring or how crude and insulting.
>
>Contemporary presidents are especially prone to mistaking spin for
>reality for several reasons. First of all, they are nominated not by
>other elected officials who have some sense of what it takes to govern,
>but by activists and party electorates who value inspiration and
>entertainment. Second, the importance of mass communication leads
>presidents to believe that the words and activities that got them into
>office can work once they are in office: more rallies, more speeches,
>more tweets, and more television advertising.
>
>Nothing can be further from the truth.
>
>Presidential scholars have been aware of the disjuncture between
>campaigning and governing for some time now. More than a decade ago, Sam
>Kernell wrote a book called Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential
>Leadership (CQ Press, 2007), in which he showed that beginning with
>President Kennedy, modern presidents spent a great deal more time on
>minor presidential addresses and on domestic and international travel
>than their predecessors. All this communication, he argued, came at the
>expense of actual governing. Later on another presidential scholar,
>George C. Edwards III, writing in Overreach, Leadership in the Obama
>Presidency (Princeton University Press, 2012) argued that Obama thought
>he could go directly to the public to get support for his programs, an
>approach that placed communication over negotiation and that resulted in
>a stunning midterm loss for his party.
>
>Reality still matters, and spin has its limits—even in an era of social
>media.
>
>As long as things are going okay for most people, Americans tolerate a
>president’s verbal gymnastics. But when people are in trouble, even the
>most ardent government haters ask that famous question: “Where’s the
>government?” And for most Americans, the president is the government.
>Following the botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the
>collateral damage to the presidency of George W. Bush was extensive. His
>popularity never recovered and his second-term agenda, including bold
>changes to Social Security, was destroyed. Nearly a decade later when
>President Obama rolled out his signature achievement, the Affordable Care
>Act, the hugely embarrassing crashing of the computer systems meant to
>implement the act increased Republican opposition to it and undermined
>public confidence in the government’s ability to implement important
>executive actions.
>
>Trump’s failures during the coronavirus pandemic run the gamut from the
>rhetorical to the organizational. Every time the president speaks he
>seems to add to the fear and chaos surrounding the situation: telling
>Americans it was not serious by asserting his “hunches” about data,
>assuring people that everyone would be tested even when there were very
>few tests available, telling people that we are very close to a vaccine
>when it is anywhere from 12 to 18 months away, mistakenly asserting that
>goods as well as people from Europe would be forbidden from entering the
>United States, and announcing that Google had a website for testing while
>the initiative was merely an unimplemented idea, were just a few of his
>televised gaffes. After every presidential statement, “clarifications”
>were needed. Trump has the unique distinction of giving a national
>address meant to calm the country that had the effect of taking the stock
>market down over 1,000 points.
>
>We have come to expect verbal imprecision and outright lies from this
>president, but that is more easily corrected on less momentous
>developments. When there is fundamental incompetence on matters of
>tremendous importance, voters punish poor results. And this is where
>Trump’s actions on the coronavirus have gone far off target. One of the
>most glaring deficiencies of his administration has been the failure to
>have enough tests available to identify those infected and to screen
>others for possible exposure. South Korea, a country a fraction of the
>size of the United States, is testing thousands more people a day than
>the United States. The failure to produce tests quickly will go down as
>one of the biggest failures in the overall handling of this disease
>because it prevented authorities from understanding the scope of the
>pandemic and therefore made it difficult for them to undertake
>appropriate steps to mitigate its spread. Other countries had tests and
>now state governments are rapidly rolling out their own tests after the
>CDC belatedly removed regulatory barriers. Even the nation’s chief
>infectious disease doctor, Anthony Fauci, has admitted that testing is a
>major failure—a statement that is most certainly not one of the
>president’s talking points.
>
>In this and other areas, Trump has failed to learn from the failures of
>his predecessors. When President Ronald Reagan signed into law the
>fundamental restructuring of the military known as the Goldwater-Nichols
>reforms,[1] he did this knowing that he did not want a military fiasco on
>his watch like the failed Iranian rescue mission that did in Jimmy
>Carter’s presidency. And following the total breakdown in the Federal
>Emergency Management Agency’s handling of Hurricane Katrina, President
>Barack Obama made sure his FEMA director was an experienced state
>emergency management director. He knew that poor performance during
>natural disasters would doom his presidency.
>
>During the Obama Administration, the White House dealt with a precursor
>of the coronavirus: the Ebola virus. While the scrambling eventually
>worked out thanks to decisive executive office leadership, it illustrated
>that pandemics were a fundamental national security threat. They created
>the Global Health Security Team in the National Security Council to
>prepare. In May of 2018, Trump disbanded the team allegedly because he
>never thought pandemics would happen and because “I’m a business person.
>I don’t like having thousands of people around when you don’t need them.”
>Trump’s hurried justification for abandoning a unit (that was well short
>of thousands) showed Trump’s limited understanding of why government is
>different from business—it is in the business of preparing for low-
>probability events. For instance, the United States military spends
>billions every year preparing for wars all over the globe and even in
>outer space that may never take place. The art of presidential leadership
>is anticipating major problems and coming up with plans to mitigate them.
>
>In addition to learning from past administrations, presidents need the
>ability to anticipate reactions to their actions. The Trump
>administration has been especially inept on this dimension from the
>beginning. The first big executive order he issued, largely banning
>Muslims from coming to America, was so ill-conceived that chaos broke out
>in airports around the world as people with green cards to work in
>America and Muslims who had assisted U.S. military forces in Iraq were
>initially turned away. Airport chaos seems to be a specialty of the Trump
>administration. It reappeared this past weekend, as Americans came home
>from Europe in huge numbers following Trump’s announcement to close off
>travelers from Europe and screen returning Americans. When travelers
>arrived, they found vastly inadequate staffing at airports and were thus
>forced into the very situation medical authorities were warning against:
>large crowds being hoarded into small spaces with constant, close
>contact.
>
>Trump has also failed to fill top government positions and turnover is
>far higher than in any other recent administration, as Katherine Tenpas
>has tracked on these pages. The absence of expertise in top government
>jobs is especially dangerous during emergencies. Also, when positions are
>filled they have not necessarily gone to the strongest candidates. Take
>for instance leadership at the Centers for Disease Control and
>Prevention, the nation’s top agency for infectious diseases. Dr. Robert
>Redfield’s appointment was opposed by the Center for Science in the
>Public Interest which warned the administration that Redfield lacked a
>public health background and that he was under investigation for
>scientific misconduct.
>
>Modern presidents inherit an enormous enterprise called the federal
>government that employs about the same number of people as the 6 largest
>U.S. companies and has a combined annual revenue that is larger than the
>combined revenues of the top 16 companies in the Fortune 500.[2] No
>wonder modern presidents have had trouble managing this enterprise—in an
>organization this big, something is always going right and something is
>always going wrong. A president who understands what’s going right can
>call on deep wells of expertise to protect himself from the failures that
>will inevitably be attributed to him. And on the flip side, a president
>who is aware of what’s going wrong can take corrective actions and try to
>stave off the kinds of bureaucratic meltdowns that will also be
>attributed to him.
>
>As Oval Office leadership fails while the pandemic spreads, governors,
>mayors, university presidents, religious leaders, business executives,
>and health providers are stepping into the leadership vacuum that has
>been the Trump presidency. They have sent workers home to telework,
>announced their own social distancing rules, and developed their steps to
>limit the spread of the pandemic. This tragedy teaches us many things
>about preparedness and public health, but it also warns us about the
>dangers of presidents who are manifestly unprepared to govern.
>
>https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trumps-failed-presidency/