On Humility and Saying “I Don’t Know” Plus an Update on that Bloomberg Reporter’s Smear of a Trump Official: UPDATE: Official Reinstated
I started out thinking I might write about the fallout from the noxious actions of Bloomberg reporter Ben Penn, who managed to get a Labor Department official fired by smearing him as anti-Semitic, when the guy is obviously anything but. But what is there to say? The Bloomberg reporter has doubled down, boasting that he got the guy fired which is good because he didn’t like his policies.
Lost in all of this is that Olson was part of a team of political appointees tasked with the heavy lift of drafting wage-hour regulations that are high priorities for Trump White House, business community. They're now down one adviser. https://t.co/PZbIScDHqe
— Ben Penn (@benjaminpenn) September 3, 2019
The Trump administration has not admitted error or offered the guy his job back. And Trump fans are of course excusing Trump for allowing this to happen, because of course you can’t expect Mr. “He Fights” to do the right thing when there is a narrative out there. There’s your update in a paragraph: nothing has changed. The media still sucks, Trump is still a gutless swine who cares about only himself, and his fans will still excuse literally anything he does.
Not much to say. So I’ll write about something else: our need to seek out leaders to act like they know everything.
I listened to a podcast from Russ Roberts last night in which he had a conversation with a listener of his named David Deppner, who had written Roberts a question. I thought it was neat and it reminded me of Robert Murphy’s podcast with me: a podcast episode where the host interviews someone not because they are famous, but because they wrote the host with a point of view that the host found interesting and the host decided to have them on to talk about it.
Deppner’s question challenged Roberts on his campaign for people to be humble and to say “I don’t know.” Roberts is one of the most well read and thoughtful people I have listened to. Yet he constantly says the words “I don’t know” and says we should all emphasize the limitations of our knowledge. Let’s not pretend we know the answers, he says, because often we don’t.
Deppner pointed out that for people in positions of leadership, this approach doesn’t work — and the bigger the position of leadership, the less it works. Imagine a Democrat on the presidential debate stage saying in response to a question: “That’s a complicated problem and we don’t necessarily know how to fix it.” They’d be toast faster than a really thin piece of toast in a really really powerful toaster. (I’m very good at similes, people. The best, really.) We want leaders who are confident. The guy in the Oval Office now is supremely incompetent but he’s the most confident guy on Earth, and I know smart people who hold out hope that his idiot policies (like tariffs) will somehow end up working out to be a great success — I think because they come under the sway of his supreme (misplaced) confidence.
Deppner talks about having run a business, and describes a time when an employee approached him and asked him about the future of the company. Deppner gave an answer that was nuanced, with predictions and discussions of risks and possibilities. The employee rebuked Deppner and said she wanted a leader like Gene Kranz, the guy in Apollo 13 who tells everyone exactly what they’re going to do and says “failure is not an option.” CEOs of giant corporations have to be more like Gene Kranz and less like David Deppner, argued Deppner. A humble guy who says “I don’t know” a lot can’t run a giant corporation like Pepsi.
I see this in the blogging world too, by the way. Readers gravitate towards people who project supreme confidence. Readers prefer a writer whose every interaction is a d[vowel deleted]ck-measuring contest and whose hostile interactions end with, say, a challenge to a real-life fight, rather than a writer who disagrees with someone and ends by saying “I disagree with you but I respect your opinion.” The Trumpy view that you never ever ever apologize and you never ever ever back down is popular because people like that in a leader. They look up to it. I personally think that is a sad comment on society, but I can’t pretend it’s not how society works. It is.
So what’s the answer? Well, Roberts has his own answer to all this, and because it’s Roberts, it’s nuanced. If you’re interested enough, listen to the episode. Having read the post, you’re probably looking for a definitive “here’s the answer to this problem” conclusion to the post, and I’m going to frustrate you by not providing it, thus creating a performative metaphor for the phenomenon I’m discussing: we want simple, confident answers, and we don’t like it when we don’t get them. Roberts has his answer, but I think the question itself is what’s really interesting, and my answer is: “I don’t know.”
P.S. But I do know one thing for sure: Bloomberg reporter Ben Penn is a deceptive crapweasel, and if Shirley Sherrod had a valid case against Andrew Breitbart (and I’m not saying he did) then Leif Olson has at least as valid a case against Penn.
Now isn’t that P.S. way more satisfying than the way the post was going to end otherwise?
UPDATE: Good news:
I’m grateful to be heading back to work. Thank you, Acting Secretary @PatPizzellaDOL and @WHD_DOL Administrator Cheryl Stanton for the opportunity to continue to serve. https://t.co/l7syrnVeyo
— Leif Olson (@olsonleif) September 4, 2019
This took too long but I’m glad it happened.
[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]
This Ben Penn guy is probably annoying the left as much as the right just because of how clumsily he chopped up that screenshot. I’m sure he thinks this was cute and is telling himself there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
Dustin (6d7686) — 9/4/2019 @ 8:35 amcampaign for people to be humble and to say “I don’t know.”
It is extremely common for children in school to get taught not to say “I don’t know.” It may make for bad habits later in life.
Sammy Finkelman (8dcc71) — 9/4/2019 @ 8:41 amPeople who claim they know everything really annoy those of us who do.
nk (dbc370) — 9/4/2019 @ 8:43 amUseful ways to say “I don’t know.”
main theme is that the answer is coming.
I don’t know but I’ll find out.
Time123 (6e0727) — 9/4/2019 @ 8:58 amThat’s a good question when do you need the answer?
You’ve gotten to the heart of it and we’ll get back to you with an answer.
That’s something we need to figure out and we’re working on it.
We have most of that answer, but we can’t share it until we work out a few things.
Thank you, no one has asked that in that way. Can I get back to you?
They’re afraid of the potential pushback to that of:
Then why are you running for president?
They wouldn’t be toast, though.
Sammy Finkelman (8dcc71) — 9/4/2019 @ 8:58 amBloomberg, do their disgrace, is standing by the story.
Time123 (6e0727) — 9/4/2019 @ 8:59 amLike josh greens characterization of parscale, on the strength of which he got the contract fir the bannon book
Narciso (52211c) — 9/4/2019 @ 9:03 amLawyers are role models of “I don’t know”, particularly in front of juries in a closing summation. Like, I don’t know if the defendant really committed this crime. Works like a charm.
Munroe (732181) — 9/4/2019 @ 9:05 amIndeed, remember that time they found all this evidence that Russia screwed with our election, and all those lawyers went into defense mode for the guy who obstructed the investigation into what that guy had to do with it?
Dustin (6d7686) — 9/4/2019 @ 9:10 amHeh! Some of my clients thought I was a fixer because I would tell them exactly what would happen in their case (and it was an outcome they liked). If you stay within your expertise you can confidently say “we will do this, this, and this, and that, that, and that will happen”. Like a cook baking a cake or a mechanic fixing a brake. It’s when the mechanic tries to bake a cake, or a cook tries to fix a brake, or some Fifth Avenue superannuated orange dipwiddle tries to run a country, that things get messed up.
nk (dbc370) — 9/4/2019 @ 9:13 amSometimes they propose a panel to study an issue but that’s widely viewed as an evasion.
But occasionally the media takes the position that a study is better than a firm position
See:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/31/transcript-first-nigh
t-second-democratic-debate/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.050498ec1949
She didn’t answer how she got to $500 billion, but just defended it as a debt owed. Then she said that $200 billion to $500 billion was politially feasible, but
actually the amount is trillions of dollars, and that less $100 billion would be an insult.
Which all means that the 5500 billion would just be a down payment, and whenever anyone cold get more from Congress, they’d get it.
Here is how she justified the amount: She said you could get trillions if you took 40 acres and a mule, and 4 million to 5 million slaves at the end of the Civil War, and then did the math, which she didn’t elaborate on. I suppose somewhere showed her a calculation.
I suppose it’s compound interest, starting in 1867 or so, at the current (2019) value of 40 acres and a mule and not the 1866 or 1867 value. And probably overestimated the number of recipients too.
Incidentally, the Atlantic had an artivle about how, after he CivilWar, many blacks in the south managed to become landowners, but it was often stolen from them in the 20th century, particuarly after World War II, owing to inheritance laws fr people who did not leave a will.
(this is probably not the link I want).
https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/archive/2019/08/atlantics-september-issue-mass-dispossession/595891
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/09/this-land-was-our-land/594742/
Sammy Finkelman (8dcc71) — 9/4/2019 @ 9:14 amDustin (6d7686) — 9/4/2019 @ 9:10 am
Refresh my memory, starting with Mifsud.
Munroe (732181) — 9/4/2019 @ 9:15 amI could be wrong, but I don’t know if the ability to say “I don’t know” is more important than the ability to say “I could be wrong”.
One of my favorite quotes, Oliver Cromwell in response to the Church of Scotland’s assertion that they spoke for God: I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.
Jerryskids (702a61) — 9/4/2019 @ 9:20 am“That’s a complicated problem and we don’t necessarily know how to fix it
Andrew Yang said about climate change that we can’t fix it (but then he conceded that we should try anyway. And then he touted his $1,000 a month payment as giving a way for people to cope with climate change.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/01/transcript-night-seco
nd-democratic-debate/?utm_term=.d2fba6a71bc5
That’s not the same as “I don’t know.” It’s actually “I know – that the problem can’t be solved.”
Sammy Finkelman (8dcc71) — 9/4/2019 @ 9:22 amThe less confident voters are about their opinions and lives, the more they want certainty from their leaders. Donald Trump appeals to people who are fearful and want a leader that claims he is absolutely certain he can fix everything. But Trump’s problem is that he knows the only way he can deliver on his promises is by being a genius — hence his claim that he is a stable genius — instead of the ignorant bully he actually is.
DRJ (15874d) — 9/4/2019 @ 9:34 amThat also explains why some Trump supporters are so angry. Anger comes from fear.
DRJ (15874d) — 9/4/2019 @ 9:35 amEven Wemple stepped away from bashing FoxNews long enough to tear a new one into Bloomberg.
Paul Montagu (a2342d) — 9/4/2019 @ 9:49 amPatterico: A few days ago you posted a link to another podcast I think. I didn’t have the opportunity then to listen. What is the link?
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 9/4/2019 @ 10:19 amIn a supreme coincidence, I just finished reading Gene Kranz autobiography, titled “Failure is not an Option”.
He has a lot to say on the subject of faking confidence when you don’t know all the answers. And all of the things he says about it is that it’s a terrible idea.
He is adamant that the fact that they were able to complete all those space missions with only the loss of one crew was a testament to the fact that they didn’t fake knowledge they did not have. He is adamant that people should never pretend to know something that they didn’t know. That a person should always seek to understand where their weaknesses are and to remedy them.
In fact, he blames the deaths of the Apollo 1 crew on hubris and false confidence!
Given the choice between being honest and looking foolish and being dishonest and looking knowledgeable, Kranz’s position is that one should choose the former.
His aura of invincible confidence arose out of an obsessive pursuit of technical knowledge, an obsession with developing analytical processes that led to good decision-making and surrounding himself with people who were as driven as him. If you listen to the audio tapes surrounding not only Apollo 13, but also Apollo 10, Apollo 12, Apollo 11 you will hear a man who well understood what he knew and did not know and was not afraid to say the words “I don’t know” when he hit a gap in his knowledge.
tarran (58a973) — 9/4/2019 @ 10:30 amMaybe the poor guy just wanted to resign, leave the Hive of Scum and Villany, and go back to Texas.
As far as Trump being not devoting time to one guy who resigned under fire (rather than tough it out, which was his right), he does have other things going on you know. Sometimes a resignation is best left to the Department involved. Sometimes a President does not really need second guess every hiring decision.
Besides, “Trump rescues man accused of anti-Semitism” would be ….bad optics.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e) — 9/4/2019 @ 10:32 amIt feels cheap to compare our times to Idiocracy. Cheap and lazy. But there is that speech where President Camacho explains that the ‘genius’ Not Sure is going to solve everyone’s problems in a week. DRJ is right that supporting that kind of leadership comes from a position of fear. I can’t blame Trump’s supporters for that. The GOP and the democrats let them down for decades.
Dustin (6d7686) — 9/4/2019 @ 10:34 amThe sword cuts both ways and is mightier than the Penn…
https://twitter.com/ComfortablySmug/status/1168942791029862405
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/4/2019 @ 10:37 amHe has golf scheduled so worrying about how the government functions has to take a back seat.
DRJ (15874d) — 9/4/2019 @ 10:38 amTrump time:
DRJ (15874d) — 9/4/2019 @ 11:06 amThere is a PGA golfer named Leif Olson.
nk (dbc370) — 9/4/2019 @ 11:06 amAnd didn’t he discover Greenland?
nk (dbc370) — 9/4/2019 @ 11:19 amAs far as Trump being not devoting time to one guy who resigned under fire (rather than tough it out, which was his right), he does have other things going on you know. [. . .]
Besides, “Trump rescues man accused of anti-Semitism” would be ….bad optics.
So, uh, let me get this straight: Olson should have been man enough to fight for his honor instead of running away from the job, but at the same time the President was wise to avoid being put in a situation where he would be criticized for bailing out a guy who was wrongly accused. Is that the gist of it? And here I thought the saving grace of Donald Trump is that he fights back.
JVW (54fd0b) — 9/4/2019 @ 11:29 amI guess the standard for Trump is wherever it needs to be for things to not be his fault, and the standard for Olson is also… wherever it needs to be for things to not be Trump’s fault.
Dustin (6d7686) — 9/4/2019 @ 11:33 amNo not at all:
Narciso (52211c) — 9/4/2019 @ 11:47 amhttps://mobile.twitter.com/omriceren/status/1169306583198838785?s=21
@9. It’s called teamwork. BTW, Kranz never said, ‘Failure is not a option.’ The best FDs depended on the judgement of their people and the confidence in same came from relentless hours of simulations and training. ‘FINAO’ was/is an attitude in NASA flight operations culture adopted by the teams who worked the MOCR. The Flight Director was/is similar to the conductor of an orchestra– and the closest thing to God on Earth during HSF operations. The attitude was instilled and cultivated by the father of Mission Control, the mentor to all the flight directors and their teams, the late Dr. Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. Recommend his book: Flight – My Life In Mission Control.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/4/2019 @ 11:57 am“Trump went golfing twice at his private club in Sterling, Va., and fired off more than 100 tweets as Dorian ravaged the Bahamas and shifted course.”
The Bahamian representatives in Congress must be ripping Trump a new one.
Munroe (732181) — 9/4/2019 @ 12:17 pm24… birdcage liner reportage?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/4/2019 @ 12:19 pmHe/she might make a great scientist though!
One of the rites of passage in getting a PhD is the thesis defense, where the questioning, as one of the professors on my own dissertation committee described it, consists of “picking a direction in the student’s mind and probing it until you hit mush”.
Being able to confidently (and accurately, of course) answer questions about thing you do know, and honestly admit the things you don’t (and perhaps no one does), is whole point of the exercise.
Dave (1bb933) — 9/4/2019 @ 12:24 pm27: The man quit: he did not fight. Its really not Trump’s obligation-legal or moral-to vindicate the man who chose–perhaps for perfectly understandable personal reasons-to walk away. Maybe his family wanted out. Maybe he was disgusted with D.C.
Kind of like not being the obligation of the US to pour troops, blood and money into defending every country that elects not to fight for itself.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e) — 9/4/2019 @ 12:25 pmGreg craig found not guilty of lying, ah justice what a (redacted) dame.
Narciso (52211c) — 9/4/2019 @ 12:25 pm@31 than is lazy self should have done what he committed to do and gone to Poland. Either he had work do to, (and skipped it to golf) or he didn’t (and should have kept his commitment.)
Either way, more failure from the loser in chief due to his own incompetence.
Time123 (6e0727) — 9/4/2019 @ 12:27 pm24:
“Barbara Res, a longtime Trump Organization executive, said Trump appears less active now than when she managed construction projects for him in the 1980s and 1990s.”
What a sweetheart she is: he gave her a big break, when almost no one hired women construction executives (as she admitted), and she repays him by suggesting that he’s not working hard.
Yes, he pulled out of Paris, stuck with Kavanaugh, nudged NATO to pay more, etc., had a special prosecutor to deal with, but a woman notable only because she worked for Trump in the 80’s, who hasn’t worked for him in years, thinks he’s slacking off.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e) — 9/4/2019 @ 12:30 pmGet with the program, Mudd! Don’t be so angry and fearful.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/4/2019 @ 12:33 pm@19. Postscript; the FDs worked in shifts; no single FD managed a flight on their own, though their experience gave them familiarity w/various phases of flight operations– in Kranz’s experience, it was w/t LM. [The film, Apollo 13, focused on Kranz, chiefly due to the accident occurring on his shift, but Lunney, Windler and Griffin ‘worked the problems’ w/t the MOCR teams w/t same skill and talents along w/management on their shifts as well.] If memory serves, they teach ‘Apollo management techniques’ at Sloan School of Management up at MIT, too.
This is the list of FD teams assigned to the Apollo 7-17 flights:
https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/Apollo_18-08_Flight_Directors.htm
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/4/2019 @ 12:36 pmIt seems clear to me that the reporter went to the admin and the department, and they probably ordered Olsen to resign.
This idea that he just quit, leaving the administration surprised and shrugging about why, is convenient to partisans, but difficult to believe.
At any rate, that’s just Olsen. He’s not the leader of the free world, nor the administration of our government. The Trump admin knows that a smear cost them an apparently needed person, and they aren’t fighting. Why are the standards at a higher level for some guy we never heard of than they are for the people who are supposed to be infamous for standing up to the MSM?
Also, read what Olsen wrote about this. He doesn’t appear to be some shrinking quitter.
Dustin (6d7686) — 9/4/2019 @ 12:44 pmPatterico, I have been teaching my students for years the value of “I don’t know.” They remain the three most important words in science.
It is VERY different from saying “I am lazy” or “I didn’t do my work.”
I think Samuel Clemens had some good insights on this.
It’s a cautionary note for all of us.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 9/4/2019 @ 1:59 pm40: I’m not denying that the Bloomberg “reporter” is a POS. He even looks like one. I’m not denying that its dispiriting to see what happened.
But its equally possible that Olsen simply does not want to be the eye of a storm. Or see his family dragged through a 10th of what Brett K had to endure. Olsen may have had other social media posts that would have come out. I don’t know. You don’t either. Assuming that he was “abandoned” or forced out is supposition. Even if true, Olsen may simply want to wash his hands of D.C.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e) — 9/4/2019 @ 2:02 pm38: Its day 4 of one cup of coffee and no Diet Coke, so…
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e) — 9/4/2019 @ 2:04 pm@19. BTW, T, if you listened to the Apollo 10 and Apollo 12 tapes, you did not hear Gene Kranz on the MOCR loops; he did not work those flights. During 10 he and his team were sim/training for 11 and during 12, sim/training for 13.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/4/2019 @ 2:12 pmnothing to see,
https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/04/greg-craig-acquitted-lobbying-ukraine/
narciso (d1f714) — 9/4/2019 @ 2:29 pm“Your honor my client, a proud democrat, has elected not to dignify this case with a defense, and trusts in the wisdom of this District of Columbia jury.”
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e) — 9/4/2019 @ 2:36 pm46. Sounds like something O.J. Simpson said. Well, he didn’t say he wouldn’t put a defense.
Sammy Finkelman (8dcc71) — 9/4/2019 @ 3:21 pmit’s a joke, judge Jackson told the jury, they didn’t have to concern themselves with the lies craig told, because they were past the statute of limitations, with manafort she allowed the omissions about klimnik to stand,
narciso (d1f714) — 9/4/2019 @ 3:28 pmtouche:
https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2019/09/04/suck-it-benjamin-penn-luke-rosiak-reports-that-the-department-of-labor-has-reinstated-smear-job-victim-leif-olson/
narciso (d1f714) — 9/4/2019 @ 3:36 pmActually, we do know. The Trump administration just reversed and gave Olsen back his job. They can’t reverse their decision if it wasn’t their decision to make. He was forced out over a smear that seemed really easy to see through. I can’t say if it was because the administration is afraid of defending a fake anti-semite, as you suggested, or if it’s because they saw Olsen as a conservative supporter of Paul Ryan as other Trump fans suggested. Probably a mix.
Of course, Trump’s fans won’t recognize they were wrong simply because they twisted this story in both directions.
Dustin (088f72) — 9/4/2019 @ 3:38 pmWell, you can always take a sharpie and just draw a little bump here, and magic, the thing that I said is now true. It’s the way of the Trump, all things are success, not just success, but the greatest possible success, better than any other.
These are not the facts you were looking for…
Colonel Klink (Ret) (6e7a1c) — 9/4/2019 @ 3:59 pmThe Goldilocks Syndrome: Bulwarkenuggen 2
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/4/2019 @ 4:00 pmAhh, my wavy hands emoji didn’t take, boo.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (6e7a1c) — 9/4/2019 @ 4:00 pm49… that’s good news, narciso!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/4/2019 @ 4:02 pmBad boy penn, will join ben smith, and weasel weigel, in the triumvirate of hackery,
narciso (d1f714) — 9/4/2019 @ 4:10 pmFinally, we get some official information on what went down, so we no longer have to listen to all the speculation. It appears that Olsen submitted a letter of resignation after the story broke, that letter was accepted by the DoL. Then a few days later the acting Secretary of Labor reviewed the story, contacted Mr. Olsen, and convinced him to withdraw the letter.
Now if you all still feel like speculating, and I know you do, speculate on whether or not pressure was applied from above to correct the situation.
Colliente (05736f) — 9/4/2019 @ 4:17 pm50.
You know now because you have more information than before, not b/c you had superior insight. And from what we know now, it might very well be that Trump Admin did pressure the LD into the rehire, meaning all those bemoaning Trump’s passivity were likely wrong.
But no reason to dispute the outcome: We should all be happy this wronged man was rehired.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e) — 9/4/2019 @ 4:23 pmThis lying weasel won’t have a job much longer. Now where’s my sharpie, I got a weather map to tend to.
JRH (52aed3) — 9/4/2019 @ 4:26 pmweigel, was rehired after a fashion, ben smith ended up at buzzfeed, where he published the libelous steele dossier, and the courts were no help to those who he defamed, matt guttman, who oversaw the omissions in abc’s misleading Zimmerman audio tape, ended up the head of their bureau in la, leopold keeps getting rehired, so I wouldn’t bet this is the end for him,
narciso (d1f714) — 9/4/2019 @ 4:30 pm58… between this and his watermelon tweet from a few days ago, I expect he won’t.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/4/2019 @ 4:33 pmsummon the kraken,
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2019/09/04/kamala-harris-says-shes-prepared-to-get-rid-of-the-filibuster-to-pass-the-green-new-deal/
narciso (d1f714) — 9/4/2019 @ 4:37 pmAgreed. They did the right thing fixing this. I’m glad they finally saw through the smear or realized they were looking weird for taking this long. I wish I could have heard the conversation when they asked him to come back. Unfortunately, conservatives (the Paul Ryan kind) know loyalty is expected but not returned.
Dustin (088f72) — 9/4/2019 @ 5:36 pmThis guy did not quit, obviously. He was forced to resign, almost certainly by Cheryl Stanton, and that decision was overridden by Pizzella. Only the guys trying to twist things in both directions to keep Trump blameless are surprised by this ‘revelation’ that ordered resignations are how scandalous firings happen.
Twisted on both sides because Trump’s fans said Olsen was a weak quitter (and who cares because he liked Paul Ryan), yet Trump’s lack of fight against smears is to be expected, to avoid the MSM accusation that he defended an anti-semite.
But I could debate that the sky is blue for 1000 years against Trump’s defense force. They are hilarious.
Dustin (088f72) — 9/4/2019 @ 5:48 pm“Twisted on both sides because Trump’s fans said Olsen was a weak quitter (and who cares because he liked Paul Ryan), yet Trump’s lack of fight against smears is to be expected, to avoid the MSM accusation that he defended an anti-semite.”
Who are these Trump fans? Please be specific.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/4/2019 @ 5:52 pm“Who are these Trump fans? Please be specific.”
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/4/2019 @ 5:52 pm
The Covington kids, I think.
Munroe (732181) — 9/4/2019 @ 6:08 pm@44 Yes, I’m aware of Kranz’s “white team” not working all the Apollo flights. I mentioned them because as I recall, those flights all has issues that could have resulted in mission failure or losing the crew. What was on my mind as I typed those words is that the audio tapes all show very knowledgeable people who are willing to admit ignorance or ask questions successfully working their way through significant problems.
Sorry for my hasty writing which implied otherwise.
One inaccuracy in the Apollo 13 movie is that it completely misrepresented Kranz role; the accident occured just as his team was turning over to the next team. I think the handoff happened within an hour after the accident.
Subsequently, the “white team” was taken out of the rotation so that they could focus on coming up with procedures to make the LEM lifeboat option work. The plan was to have the “white team” take over for the actual reentry.
The other teams were basically written out of the story, and that’s a shame. It also left out the amazing speech Kranz gave his team as they started to work the problem (which was far better than the blustering one Ed Harris barked out in the film), and the fact that he broke down in tears once the spacecraft was safely in the water.
Which brings me around to my original point. Kranz is not some archetype of hiding one’s doubts behind a mask of confidence. The actual man is a very humble man who epitomized the school of leadership that prizes honesty and humility over faking it till you make it.
tarran (e5e75b) — 9/4/2019 @ 6:11 pm“But I could debate that the sky is blue for 1000 years…”
You could not. That’s ridiculous.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/4/2019 @ 6:14 pmrootless nihilists
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/4/2019 @ 6:16 pmin the main they are a bane
oughta be a law
66. Kranz honed his craft from… Kraft. As did the others. There were some incredibly fine engineer/managers in that group; it’s a rare mix of talents- long overlooked by contemporary history. Apollo- The Race To The Moon by Charles Murray [yes, that Charles Murray] & Catherine Bly Cox, published in 1989, did a superb job unearthing their stories. And Kraft’s book is fine on the topic as well. The management style and techniques, though no wholly transferable to other industries, is an exceptional business template to se as a model. It works.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/4/2019 @ 6:25 pmSpeaking of taking a second look at an accusation………
The Media Claimed Andy Ngo Was Complicit in a Far-Right Attack on Antifa. But the Video Doesn’t Support That.
https://reason.com/2019/09/03/andy-ngo-video-antifa-patriot-prayer-attack-media/?amp&__twitter_impression=true
harkin (58d012) — 9/4/2019 @ 6:26 pm_
There was an earthquake near Tonga today, and Trump still got his round of 18 in. What a narcissist.
Munroe (732181) — 9/4/2019 @ 6:26 pmImagine thinking claims Trump is a narcissist are ridiculous.
Dustin (088f72) — 9/4/2019 @ 6:29 pmThe sky is not blue. It’s black. It seemingly blue color during the day is due to a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering — molecules in the atmosphere acting on the sun’s light.
nk (dbc370) — 9/4/2019 @ 6:31 pmHow many times does he say i versus we or us,
Narciso (52211c) — 9/4/2019 @ 6:32 pmMaybe if he played less golf the trade deficit would keep going up? Wasn’t he going to work on that?
Time123 (d54166) — 9/4/2019 @ 6:36 pmConsider the past record:
Narciso (52211c) — 9/4/2019 @ 7:01 pmhttps://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/james-mattiss-blistering-criticism-of-obama/
70… Iowahawk nails it…
https://static.pjmedia.com/instapundit/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/iowahawk_andy_ngo_rolling_stone_9-4-19-1.jpg
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 9/4/2019 @ 7:28 pmUPDATE: Good news:
This took too long but I’m glad it happened.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/4/2019 @ 8:00 pmAll that we really know is that we really don’t know very much.
Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 9/4/2019 @ 10:01 pmThe guy who was smeared by a leftist who used his power as a national reporter is rehired when the truth came out. That’s good news. The truth won out for once.
Just be happy and try to get the truth out more often instead of letting evil prevail.
NJRob (4d595c) — 9/4/2019 @ 11:22 pmH: Sarcasm comes from fear and anger, too.
DRJ (15874d) — 9/5/2019 @ 3:47 amDRJ,
with all respect, that article is nonsense. Sarcasm is partly cultural and partly a response to someone saying something ignorant or foolish. It’s also a cultural phenomenon in the northeastern part of the United States.
But that person is promoting herself and her blog/profession as a life coach. So it makes sense for her to say so.
NJRob (4d595c) — 9/5/2019 @ 7:33 am