Transgender Military Ban Just Another Attempt at Deflection

Whenever reality begins to intrude upon their self-made facts, you can count on Donald Trump and the perpetually shifty Steve Bannon to concoct something so egregious that the entire world’s attention is distracted. This morning’s tweeted news of a ban of transgender military personnel is the perfect example. Like all bullies, Trump and Bannon are masters of manipulation, deflection, deceit and denial—and with the ongoing fight for America’s healthcare and Trump’s inner circle talking to the Senate Intelligence Committee about the Russians, they must have gotten pretty desperate to take the heat off themselves.

How stupid do they think we are? Do they think the bald-faced appeals to their base designed to enrage progressives has anyone fooled? Pushback has been massive. Highly decorated transgender Navy Seal Kristin Beck fired back, “Let’s meet face to face and you tell me I’m not worthy.” U.S. Senator John McCain (AZ-R) issued a statement as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee pointing out that the Defense Department is already studying the effect of supporting transgender military personnel: “I do not believe that any new policy decision is appropriate until that study is complete and thoroughly reviewed by the Secretary of Defense, our military leadership, and the Congress.” But my favorite response was the one tweeted by my country’s Canadian Forces:

Andrew Faas is the author of From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire

A Case Study on How Bullies Deflect by Destroying Whistleblowers

The Queen of Spin is at it again. After a hiatus where we were spared from listening to Kellyanne Conway spread misinformation all over the daily news cycle, she recently sparred with CNN’s Chris Cuomo in full exhibition of bullying as she masterfully manipulated, distorted and denied the truth. There’s no denying how perfectly she inhabits the role of Trump surrogate.

It’s hard not to imagine Conway as the adult version of the flawlessly blond, treacherous and manipulative bully Regina George in the 2004 movie Mean Girls. In the movie, Regina attacks her rival, Cady (played by Lindsay Lohan), by spreading the high school equivalent of misinformation. Until Regina’s final comeuppance (which requires being hit by a bus—what a metaphor!) she has absolutely no scruples about doing whatever it takes to get her way.

I have done extensive research on bullies and Conway (and her colleague Sarah Huckabee Sanders) are textbook examples of how bullies operate. Most appalling is their defense of outright lies and the assumption that people really are that gullible. Even more disturbing is the message that this sends to youth—that it is OK to lie to get your way. I watch with amazement as the Trumpniks use bullying tactics right out of the Steve Bannon playbook and try to turn victims into villains by recasting whistleblowers as leakers. (Something I discuss in detail in the chapter on whistleblowers in my book, From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire). This is so typical of how bullies operate, which is perfectly captured in yesterday’s piece by Joshua Green in New York Magazine, which crystallizes Bannon’s strategy on his bully boss’s behalf perfectly: “Attack, Attack, Attack.”

I wonder if Conway and company have considered the fact these mendacities have gone beyond bullying, beyond lying and are making them complicit in something that’s starting to look very much like treason.

Photo credit: CNN

Have Industry Leaders Earned the Right to Self Regulate?

It used to be called letting the inmates run the asylum—business insiders are now putting in requests to the White House to have different regulatory policies overturned. Trump strategist Steve Bannon has described this as “the deconstruction of the administrative state.”

In a March 5 article in the New York Times, “Leashes Come Off Wall Street, Gun Sellers, Polluters and More,” Eric Lipton and Binyamin Appelbaum reveal how telecomm giants will no longer have to protect customers from having their personal information hacked, the big banks won’t need to require extra fees against high-risk trades, and people with severe mental health issues will be free to purchase guns. These changes and many are part of “one of the most significant shifts in regulatory policy in recent decades,” they write.

Reviewing regulations and policies is necessary to ensure that they are still relevant and that they provide protections against the abuse of power, corruption and the erosion of human rights. Business interests must also be taken into account and must be addressed when regulations create unfair competitive advantages and restrain growth and performance. But what we are witnessing isn’t a thoughtful balance with which other administrations have struggled, but the wholesale elimination and gutting of regulatory safeguards.

Last year I posted 150 blogs, the majority of which focused on the abuse of power, control, corruption and scandals in every sector in our society. One of the notable exceptions was my blog post about how well Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors, handled the emission switch scandal. Sadly, the reason I haven't written more positive stories is because there are so few to report on. Because of this, I assert that there is too little evidence of corporations with a record of balancing social conscience with business objectives for organizational leaders to have earned the right to self-regulate. Taking the leash off without a thoughtful review is irresponsible and dangerous.

Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons