[continued from previous message]   
      
   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/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)