Good Riddance, Old Moldy

Between the time I set out to write about the firing of Captain Crozier and the time I was done, this had happened:

Thomas B. Modly, the acting Navy secretary, resigned Tuesday after his bungled response to an outbreak of the novel coronavirus aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt engulfed the Navy in a public relations disaster, Defense Department officials said.

Mr. Modly’s departure is the latest in a string of events that began last week, after The San Francisco Chronicle published a letter in which the Roosevelt’s commander, Capt. Brett E. Crozier, pleaded with the Navy to help contain the virus that had spread rapidly through his ship.

The Navy has announced more than 170 coronavirus cases aboard the Roosevelt since the outbreak started in late March, after the ship had docked in Da Nang, Vietnam.

Mr. Modly fired Captain Crozier on April 2 after accusing him of circumventing the Navy’s traditional chain of command by copying more than 20 people on the emailed letter.

The firing sent shock waves through the crew, which was only exacerbated Monday when Mr. Modly flew to Guam, where the Roosevelt is now docked, and said Captain Crozier was “too naïve or too stupid to be a commanding officer of a ship like this.”

"Too naive or too stupid?" Old Moldy is the naive and stupid one. He claimed Captain Crozier had endangered the operational security of the aircraft carrier by copying so many people on his letter. Crozier was far from naive: he knew his concerns would be completely ignored by Old Moldy if he followed the chain of command, resulting in the needless deaths of sailors aboard his ship.


And endangering OPSEC? What a joke. Numerous reports had already appeared in the news about the outbreak on the TR. Everyone knew about it. What's more, the TR is an aircraft carrier. It is 1,092 feet long and displaces 177,000 tons. This huge ship can visit only a limited number of ports, where there are quite certainly numerous Russian and Chinese spies. And you can see it from orbit.


And it's not like someone can take advantage of this: Russia and China are fighting COVID-19, just like we are, and Iran, the country most likely to cause trouble for us, has half a million cases of the infection.

The thing is, Old Moldy was just doing what Trump wants: fire anyone who expresses the slightest bit of independent thought, courage, honesty, moral fortitude or a desire to do the right thing. Crozier had embarrassed Trump, and he had to go.

But this time Trumpian revenge backfired, exposing Old Moldy and Trump for the vengeful weasels they truly are.

The other thing this incident points out is the sorry shape the Trump administration is in. Old Moldy was the acting secretary of the Navy. This chaotic dumpster fire of a presidency is in a shambles in large part because of a shockingly high turnover rate and Trump's complete failure to take his responsibilities seriously: no one stays around around long enough to know what the hell they're doing. Trump has had literally hundreds of vacancies and "acting" secretaries and deputies. These people haven't been fully vetted by the FBI and approved by the Senate. Trump likes acting positions because they're easier to threaten and get rid of. And he's just too god-damned lazy and stupid to give a crap about anything other than his ratings among "his voters."

The people in the Trump administration aren't there because they're competent or have any experience in the job they're doing. They're almost to a man clueless idiots whose only qualification is their servile ability to fawn over Trump and tell him what a big boy he is.

These acts of horrendous stupidity, heartless quests for vengeance and gross incompetence will just keep happening until the "only one that matters" is gone: Donald Trump.