Dick Hubert’s Worldview: A mugshot, Prigozhin, and a very biased letter writer

August 30, 2023 at 11:14 p.m.

The mugshot seen around the world and now enshrined in American history. (Courtesy photo of Official photo from Fulton County Sheriff’s Office)

What was your instant reaction when you saw the mugshot of former President Donald J. Trump accompanying this column?

That will tell you a lot about where we are as a nation at this perilous moment in our history.

As Danielle Paquette and Molly Hennessy-Fiske wrote in the Washington Post Aug. 25:

“This first booking photo of an American president — of Fulton County, Ga., Inmate No. P01135809 — is proving a Rorschach test of our political moment. If we see the world not as it is, but as we are, the same appears true for what’s shaping up to be the most divisive image of the 2024 election.”

Trump has used this photo to fund raise. He’s had it plastered on an array of “merch” (merchandise), from coffee cups to tee-shirts to baseball caps—to any item you can imagine.

His glowering anger, and the infuriated look in his eyes, reminds me of the formal presidential photo he had taken that adorned every government office in the world during his four-year tenure. Will either of these photos be the official Presidential photo to adorn the walls of the White House some day? If ever?

Los Angeles Times columnist and former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman had this insight into the circumstances of the Fulton County Sheriff’s photo:

“Trump’s moments inside the jail’s booking center were supposed to be marked by their ordinariness. County officials strove to treat the former president and his alleged co-conspirators like other defendants subject to the less than dignified procedure.

“But Trump did receive some special treatment that distinguished him — for the worse — even from some of his 18 co-defendants in the sprawling racketeering case. He is now subject to a detailed set of conditions in return for the continued privilege of staying out of the county’s notoriously decrepit jail ...

“Trump’s agreement to these conditions ... provide ample authority to muzzle and punish Trump should he continue engaging in incendiary rhetoric about the case. But Trump’s track record provides every reason for concern that he will ignore his obligations and essentially dare the court to impose a gag order, hold him in contempt and put him in jail.

“No one in the system wants that.”

Will we get what we don’t want?

I don’t watch Fox News very much, but I was attracted to its production of the first Republican candidates’ debate like a bug to a light.

To watch six of the eight candidates raise their hands when asked if they would vote for Trump if he were the GOP candidate in 2024 was fear inducing. So was their general attitude towards supporting Ukraine. More than one observer has said the fate of the war between Ukraine and Russia will be decided in the 2024 U.S. elections. Especially if Trump is the GOP candidate.

Karl Rove, the Wall Street Journal columnist and former GOP political operative who helped organize the political action committee American Crossroads, wrote a masterful historical essay Aug. 26 entitled “America is Often a Divided Nation” reminding us of the terrible political divisions in our history—from the Post Revolutionary War period to the Civil War through Reconstruction and even into the rioting of the 1960’s. 

The sub-headline for his column was: “U.S. politics today is ugly and broken, true enough. But the good news is that it was worse in the past, and it will get better again.”

I wish I could believe that.

Adding to my negative thoughts was the Putin inspired assassination of former Wagner Group chief honcho Yevgeny Prigozhin.

I watched the video of his Embraer jet plunging to earth with its wing cut off almost as many times as I looked at Trump’s mugshot.

It was a reminder of Putin’s determination to kill anyone who challenges his dictatorship—anyone who, in his lexicon, is “disloyal.”

Trump has promised “retribution” for those who criticize or indict him for his alleged crimes. And he reminds us of his admiration for dictators like Putin (and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un).

As Roger Cohen noted in the New York Times Aug. 27:

“It was not for nothing that Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state who clashed with Donald J. Trump over the former president’s demands that Mr. Raffensperger change the results of the 2020 election, was bizarrely included in a list of people banned from Russia that was published in May.

As nods and winks to Mr. Trump go, this was pretty conspicuous.”

Have we ever had a threat to American democracy like this before?

It sure feels different to this student of American history.

A biased letter that
deserves a response

Two weeks ago, I wrote about Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville’s one-man assault on the American military. His use of Senate rules to prevent the confirmation of military leadership has led us to at least 310 officers not getting Senate confirmation, including everyone from the Marine Corps Commandant to the Chief of Naval Operations.

Tuberville has done this to protest the Pentagon (and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s) policy of helping women in the military stationed in states where providing abortions is a crime to travel to states where it is not—should they need this medical procedure.

It has left our military weakened and cheered our enemies.

I asked our local veterans’ groups if they could remain silent about this unparalleled assault on our military leadership.

They remained silent.

But Port Chester resident Thomas F. Ceruzzi did not.

He decided to write a critique of my column using his own made-up facts.

He wrote of the appointees whose confirmations Tuberville is holding up: “Mr. Hubert is complaining about Senator Tuberville’s hesitation to appoint certain people into military positions. Why, you ask? Because many of them are more interested in critical race theory, gender recognition, and diversity and inclusion than matters that actually deal with defending our country. How about this—Dr. Rachel Levine, a man in women’s dress who was just made an Admiral. I bet she or he will throw a scare into the Chinese or Russian military.”

Mr. Ceruzzi is blind to the facts and blind to his gender bias.

The Admiral whose confirmation for Chief of Naval Operations is being held up by Sen. Tuberville is Adm. Lisa Franchetti, who currently serves as the Vice Chief of Naval Operations. She is a surface warfare officer with extensive operational and policy experience.

Dr. Rachel Levine comes out of the U.S. Public Health Service. Like other Public Health Service officers (including the Surgeon General) she holds a military type rank and when in the Public Health Service wore a uniform. In her case, Admiral. She is now the 17th Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), after being nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2021. 

Mr. Ceruzzi ends his diatribe (including an attack on the ability of Sec. of Defense Austin to speak in public—to which I recommend a YouTube search of his articulate public speeches and press conferences) by saying: “I always believed, and still do, that we have the best fighting men in the world. Let’s not let political ideologies destroy their will. God bless our troops!”

Not obvious to Ceruzzi, but clearly obvious to our informed readers, he ignored the valiant contribution of the women of our armed services who have died or been severely injured fighting for our country.

One who immediately comes to mind is Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a retired Army National Guard Lt. Col.

To quote from her official biography:

“In 2004, Duckworth was deployed to Iraq as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot for the Illinois Army National Guard. On November 12, 2004, her helicopter was hit by an RPG and she lost her legs and partial use of her right arm. Senator Duckworth spent the next year recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where she quickly became an advocate for her fellow Soldiers.” 

Mr. Ceruzzi won’t, but those who are readers of this column and support our troops (men AND women) might want to contribute to one of the leading advocacy groups for veterans, IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America). 

Its current president is Allison Jaslow.

As IAVA Board member retired General David Petraeus wrote of her when she was named IAVA president:
“Allison Jaslow is precisely the leader we need at the helm of IAVA, the organization that most effectively serves and advocates for veterans of the post-9/11 period. I am confident that Allison’s experience leading organizations, serving in Iraq, and working on Capitol Hill will enable her to take IAVA to new heights. She has dedicated her life serving our country and fellow veterans, and IAVA’s future will be bright with her as our CEO.”

Something else. She is the first openly gay veteran to lead a major veterans’ organization in the country.

Mr. Ceruzzi has shown us his prejudices. He might want to think twice about advertising them in these pages again.