By Daniel Bobinski
The place was San Diego and the year was 1986. I was a first-class petty officer in the US Navy, enjoying some precious quiet time in the first-class petty officer’s lounge. Suddenly, in walked Master Chief McHardy. Master Chief was a rather short but very muscular black man. The guy was always working out, and he had biceps the size of most guys’ thighs.
Master Chief sat down, stuck his finger in my face, and yelled, “You are a racist!” I was pretty sure Master Chief had the wrong guy. I had good friends of all shapes, colors and sizes on the ship, and I certainly didn’t think the color of anyone’s skin made a difference in who they were as a person. Still, Master Chief sat there accusing, as if to provoke me. I wasn’t biting. I was taller than Master Chief, but he probably could have bench-pressed me, so I let him rant.
Perhaps because of my lack of pushback, Master Chief amped it up. He started slamming his fist on the table and yelling that I was a racist, and that I better watch my step. When I asked him what specific attitude or action I might have displayed to lead him to believe this about me, he had nothing. He just kept yelling and slamming his fist on the table, calling me a racist. It was really, really weird.
A few days later I talked about the matter with a friend from the Chief’s Mess. He asked if I had any other dealings with Master Chief that might have set him off. I told him I’d run into Master Chief out in town a few weeks earlier. I’d stopped at a supermarket to pick up some food for a potluck at my church, which was a few blocks from the supermarket. I saw Master Chief at the store, holding hands with his wife, and I invited them both to join us at the church potluck. That was all.
My friend said, “Ahh – that’s it.”
“What’s it?” I asked.
“That woman was not Master Chief’s wife,” my friend said. “His wife lives on the east coast.”
2 + 2 = 4.
Cheater thought he was caught red-handed. Cheater didn’t want the word of his cheating getting out. Cheater tried to intimidate me into silence. By accusing me of being a racist, the Cheater creates his defense in advance. Any accusation I might make would be because of my “alleged” racism.
For the past several years, a lot of people have been leveling accusations at President Trump. He’s been a Russian intelligence asset since 1987. He’s committing treason. He was going to spark a full-on intifada by moving our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Trump is as destructive of a person in this century as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were in the last century, and he will be responsible for many more millions of deaths than they were. Trump’s a misogynist. He hates Latinos. He’s not fit for office. He’s a liar. And the line I hear most often: Trump is a racist.
I’ve given serious consideration to the evidence presented by those making these accusations, but I don’t see where any of them hold water. In debate club, as well as in my master’s program and my doctoral work, I learned to give serious consideration to both sides of an issue. And, as a Libertarian, I’ve reflected on the evidence presented. But like I said, none of it holds water.
Therefore, whenever I hear these accusations now, I immediately think of Master Chief McHardy.
- Cheaters know they’re cheating.
- Since day one, Trump’s been saying he’s going to drain the swamp, so the Cheaters are in fear of getting caught.
- Cheaters now yell and slam their fists on tables, making false accusations, setting up a defense even before any evidence against them makes front page news.
In other words, any charges against them will be brought only because Trump’s a racist. Or a hater. Or a misogynist. Or whatever the accusation-du-jour happens to be.
Maxine Waters actually reminds me of Master Chief McHardy. As Jonathan Capehart wrote last week in a Washington Post Op-ed, “No one in Congress has consistently and persistently called for the impeachment of President Trump more than Rep. Maxine Waters.” Capehart then quotes Waters from a 2017 interview he did with her: “Why would we let somebody like Trump, a con man, come in here and turn it all upside down with his lies and his disrespect? And so, I personally feel very strongly about this and I’m going to keep working until he’s impeached.”
Why is Ms. Waters so adamant?” Or, a better question might be, “Why is she concerned about things being turned upside down? What is Ms. Waters trying to keep hidden?”
Ms. Waters has been in the swamp since 1991, and she’s become quite the swamp creature. Back in 2010, Ms. Waters was charged with three counts of violating House rules and ethics regulations. You can pull up old news reports on the matter, but in short, Ms. Waters did some rather unethical and illegal things to secure government bailouts that protected substantial investments for both her and her husband. She misled the Secretary of the Treasury to secure a bailout for a bank both she and her husband were heavily invested in, she failed to disclose her financial interest in the bailout, and she applied pressure to prevent that bank from be acquired by another bank. Why? According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Ms. Waters, “publicly stated she did not want a white bank to acquire a minority-owned bank.”
Yes, this is the behavior of a swamp creature.
Anyway, how did the House Ethics Committee investigation on Waters end? The matter was dropped. Ten days before Waters’ trial in the House, proceedings were postponed indefinitely due to, “discovery of new evidence.” Predictably, Ms. Waters made accusations that her due process rights were being violated (I read with humor this Ethics Committee response to Ms. Waters on that matter), but somewhere along the way, Ms. Waters managed to convince someone that she didn’t know she was violating rules.
You and I know that ignorance of the law is not an excuse, but still, Ms. Waters was let off.
This was not the only time Ms. Waters has been accused of corruption, but outside of the voting booth, the House Ethics committee is the only way for House members to be held accountable. Think about that for a second. The swamp runs deep. If the House Ethics committee is the only way to keep Representatives in line, we have a problem, especially if inmates are running the asylum.
I think we should be wondering what else Ms. Waters has been up to since 2010. Why? Because as the Washington Post tells us, Maxine Waters spends an awful lot of time slamming her fist on the table and accusing President Trump of being a racist.
She also wants her followers to yell and pound their fists on tables – and maybe even more.
As CNN reported in June of 2018, Ms. Waters, “called on her supporters to publicly confront and harass members of the Trump administration." She told them, "[I]f you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them."
Push back on them? In the video of this event, Ms. Waters is yelling. She’s getting her crowd worked up. Granted, “push back on them” can be taken two ways, but I’m betting she knew that. I think that, just like Master Chief McHardy, she was hoping someone would start a fight. If you doubt this, you probably believe she didn’t know she was breaking House rules when she pushed for a $12 million bailout for the bank she had stock in.
Anyway, I think anyone throwing these labels on Trump has something they want hidden; Waters just happens to be the one who yells and pounds the loudest. As Anderson Cooper tweeted this past Tuesday, Waters now thinks, "[Trump] needs to be imprisoned and put in solitary confinement."
I personally think Waters is a huge Cheater, and she’s afraid she’s going to get caught. And, just like that Cheater did to me all those decades ago, Waters is yelling and slamming her fists on the table, making false accusations, setting up a defense for herself even before she gets formally indicted.
Footnote: Just like with Master Chief, there’s lots of bravado in Waters’ accusations, but no substance behind them.
# #
Daniel Bobinski, M.Ed. is a certified behavioral analyst, best-selling author, columnist, corporate trainer, and a popular speaker at conferences and retreats. In addition to working with teams and individuals to help them achieve workplace excellence through improving their emotional intelligence and improving the way they do training, he’s also a veteran and a Christian Libertarian who believes in the principles of free market capitalism while standing firmly against crony capitalism. Daniel writes on both workplace issues and political issues for multiple publications. Reach Daniel through his website, www.MyWorkplaceExcellence.com
