Just when you thought they couldn’t stoop any lower, they did. As we all know, two massive hurricanes occurred over a two-week period—Helene and Milton. The devastation was horrific. More than 227 people died as a result of Hurricane Helene, and at least 17 people died as a result of Hurricane Milton. 

Both Donald Trump and J.D. Vance decided to make up stories about the Biden/Harris response to the hurricane. 

Here are a few of Trump’s lies. He claimed that Biden did not answer calls from Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. He said that the Biden administration was going out of its way not to help North Carolinians who live in Republican areas. In a social media post, he wrote that Biden and Harris were being given poor grades for the way that they are handling the hurricane, especially in North Carolina. He claimed that Harris spent all her “FEMA money” on housing illegal immigrants. He then said that one billion dollars was stolen from FEMA for migrants and has gone missing. Next, he said that the federal government is only giving $750 to people who lost their homes. After that, he said that there are no helicopters, no rescues in North Carolina. 

The Wall Street Journal published an editorial by J.D. Vance in which he railed about the total incompetence of the Biden/Harris response to the hurricane and accused them of misplaced priorities. He too claimed that the White House directed FEMA money away from U.S. citizens and “toward aliens who either have no legal right to be here or whose legal status depends on the say-so of the Biden Harris administration.”

Other MAGA Republicans got on the same band wagon, many of whom recently voted against FEMA funding. And Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) claimed that the Democrats are controlling the weather for their own benefit. 

As a result of these falsehoods, FEMA had to launch a rumor response page on its website, debunking one claim after another. Republican and Democratic leaders in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia denied the Trump/Vance baseless claims and stated that the response was quick, and they were getting the help they asked for and more.

Here are the facts. In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, more than 6,300 National Guard members from a dozen states rescued hundreds of people and cleared roads across the Southeast. They used helicopters, high-water vehicles, and boats to do so. They cleared thousands of miles of roads and opened dozens of places to distribute supplies. The economic impact of Hurricane Helene could be as much as $160 billion. FEMA spent $9 billion in more than a week.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, more than 50,000 line workers and 1,000 federal workers were on the ground to respond. More than 1,000 people have been rescued since the storm made landfall. The damage from Milton is estimated to be about $50 billion. In addition, hundreds of people are volunteering their services, and many Americans have donated to various relief organizations. Please consider donating to help hurricane victims. 

Biden is asking Congress to return to Washington early and pass additional FEMA funding. So far, Speaker Johnson has not responded. Biden held a briefing in the White House situation room late last week to update the nation on all relief efforts and debunk the misinformation that was proliferating over the airwaves. 

Lies for political gain are dangerous. And they are demoralizing for the thousands of workers who work night and day to repair the damage that these hurricanes have caused. Some workers have not returned home to their families for days. 

In contrast, let me refresh your memory about some of Trump’s activities while he was President. He diverted about $38 million from the FEMA disaster relief fund to give to Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE). As you may recall, that was during the time he was separating children from their parents. After Hurricane Maria decimated the island of Puerto Rico, Trump threw paper towels to a crowd of people at a relief center. He claimed everyone was having a good time while he did so. During an Oval Office presentation, Trump used a Sharpie to alter an official National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) map to include Alabama in Hurricane Dorian’s trajectory. When visiting California after devastating wildfires, Trump said he “doesn’t think science knows if climate change is real.”  (Scientists claim that climate change is responsible for a 40 percent increase in the intensity of storms like Milton. In earlier climates, they estimate it would have made landfall as a Category 2.)

Sir Walter Scott once wrote, “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” 

The spidery tentacles of the Trump/Vance web have traveled far and wide. Here’s hoping America frees itself from this web of deceit before it is too late.

Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of the federal human capital practice of an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, piano, and nature.

Judging a book by its cover. Putting lipstick on a pig. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. The emperor has no clothes. The snake oil salesman. Whatever you want to call it, we as a society are guilty of valuing form over substance. Style over content. Perhaps social media is to blame. But a reckoning is in order because Judgment Day is less than a month away. 

Management scholars developed theories of charismatic leadership several decades ago. They concluded that charismatic leaders inspire followers to enthusiastically give unquestioned obedience, loyalty, commitment and devotion to such leaders and the causes they represent. They also claim that charisma can cause emotional manipulation and lead followers to distort reality, thereby hindering sound judgment. 

Speeches and debates offer cases in point. Martin Luther King motivated his followers to call for social change. Hitler motivated his followers to commit evil acts. 

Remember the Kennedy/Nixon debate when Kennedy reportedly asked for the heat to be turned up on debate night because he knew Nixon was prone to sweat? In contrast, Kennedy came off cool as a cucumber. 

And then there was the charm and charisma of Ronald Reagan in his debate against Mondale when he quipped, “I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth, and inexperience.”  

Romney pummeled Obama in their first debate of that election cycle because it was clear that Obama assumed he could just show up and win the day. Romney was confident and self-assured and was declared the victor by all who watched the debate even though, with a closer look, it was clear that Romney spewed forth a pile of lies about inflation, the national debt, and more. 

Many critics claim that Vance won last week’s debate against Walz because of his smooth and slick delivery. NPR fact-checked Vance’s statements and claimed that he lied about guns, healthcare, taxes, China, and immigration. 

Donald Trump reportedly selected Mike Pence as his running mate because he thought he looked the part. He also likes the Lincolnesque looks of J.D. Vance. So, another part in this form-over-substance issue is optics. 

Social scientists say our brains process emotions more quickly than thoughts or facts. We receive input and then attach an emotion to it before we actually think through the information. 

In business, social science experts advise organizations to “avoid the charisma or optics trap.” Instead, they urge organizations to use unbiased assessment tools. 

When judging candidates, the League of Women Voters stresses the importance of looking past the superficial optics or “form” and asks voters to do the challenging work of uncovering the facts. The League suggests that voters do a deep dive on the positions that candidates take. It encourages voters to use voter guides and sample ballots to learn as much as possible about the candidates. It suggests voters assess candidates’ takes on critical issues and then assess each candidate’s honesty, integrity, and intelligence. The League encourages voters to recognize distortion tactics such as name-calling, rumormongering, and loaded statements. It also asks voters to spot phony issues such as passing the blame and promising the sky. Finally, the League encourages voters to make democracy work and get involved in the process.

The political philosopher Edmund Burke once said, “Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.” Something to think about.

Maria Grant was the principal-in-charge of the Federal human capital practice of an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, piano, and nature.

As an active member of three book clubs, I read a lot of books. Since I assume you are all caught up on political news, I thought I would share my top five favorite books I’ve read so far this year. 

No. 5. Absolution. The setting for Alice McDermott’s book is Saigon, 1963. The focus is on the “wives” whose husbands have important jobs in Vietnam—foreign service, military, big corporations. The wives are portrayed as “helpmates.” The story is told in retrospect from decades later by letters from one “helpmate” to and from the daughter of another “helpmate” whose mother had died. McDermott was motivated to draft this novel after reading Graham Greene’s The Quiet American. It made her think about Greene’s so called “unimportant characters” perhaps not being so “unimportant.” When considering a title, McDermott met with a good friend of hers, a monsignor in New York. She told him she was thinking of calling her novel Absolution. The monsignor explained that most people do not understand the true meaning of that word. They think it means a get-out-of-jail-free card. But he explained that if you look at the Latin root of the word absolution, it means one who is set free and one who sets free. McDermott then said, “That’s perfect. That’s what I will name my book.”

As an aside, when I was researching information about this book for my Eastern Shore book club, I discovered that McDermott lives in Bethesda. I emailed her and asked if she would have any interest in coming to our book club meeting. She wrote me back that she would love to but was in New York that week. She asked that I let her know how the book club discussion went. I sent her a return email, summing up our discussion which was very favorable. She then replied with a substantive email reviewing some major themes and quoting Flannery O’Connor and more. I thought that was amazing! So is this book.

No. 4. The Situation Room. In this book, George Stephanopoulos details how 12 different presidents dealt with crises during their administrations in the situation room. He tracks events ranging from the defeat of Vietnam, to the defeat of the Soviet Union, to 9/11, to capturing Osama bin Laden, to January 6 and more. The book gives fascinating information about the origins of the room, the improvements that were made to the room over the years and details the numerous ways different presidents used the room. For Jimmy Carter, it was a place he went each day. For Donald Trump, not so much. The book is insightful, entertaining, well-researched and a must-read for those who want to learn more about exactly what transpires when momentous events occur. 

No. 3. Tom Lake. Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake takes place in a cherry orchard in Northern Michigan. The story revolves around a mother and father and their three adult daughters who are thrown together at the family’s cherry orchard during Covid. While they pick cherries, the mother tells them about her short-lived career as an actress while playing Emily in Thorton Wilder’s play Our Town. Her co-star in the play goes on to become a famous actor. Much of the story revolves around their relationship and the decisions that they make that form the trajectories of their lives. Patchett expertly weaves in themes from Chekov’s Cherry Orchard, and Wilder’s Our Town. You will learn a lot about cherries and the fact that, “Sweet cherries must be picked today and every day until they are gone.” In other words, it is important to take time to enjoy life’s simple pleasures. I loved this book. Meryl Streep reads the audio version, and she is, of course, spectacular. 

No. 2. Demon Copperhead. Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead reimagines Dicken’s David Copperfield. She places her story in poor and opioid-addicted rural Appalachia. This novel deals with the shortcomings of American education, the plight of true poverty, and the fact that big pharma contributed mightily to the opioid crisis through its aggressive marketing of Oxycontin.

The first line of David Copperfield is, “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages will show.” The first line of Copperhead is, “Save or be saved, these are questions.” 

A brilliant masterpiece, Demon Copperhead won the Pulitzer Prize in 2023. 

No. 1 James. James by Percival Everett is my favorite book this year. Everett is a Renaissance man in the true sense of the word. He teaches writing at USC, as well as a course in the American Western film genre. He is an abstract painter. He is an avid fly fisherman who makes his own lures. He is married to Danzy Senna who is also a professor and author who recently published the acclaimed novel Colored Television (It was reviewed in Sunday’s NY Times Book Review.) And he is a prolific writer who has written more than 30 books. (His novel Erasure was turned into the Oscar-nominated film American Fiction—one of my favorite movies last year.)  This year, James has been nominated for the Booker Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National book Award. Similar to Kingsolver basing her story on David Copperfield, Everett based his story on the slave Jim, in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. 

In Everett’s novel, James expertly gives white folks what they want. That means that White folks have no idea that James can read and write and often has conversations in his head and in his dreams with Locke, Rousseau, and Voltaire. What I loved most about James is Everett’s depiction of a deep-thinking James who grapples with complex concepts about race, the bible, philosophy, justice, hypocrisy and, of course, freedom. It is a stunning expose about how the White man has consistently underestimated the Black man throughout history. 

For those of you who attended last week’s book talk at the Avalon Theater hosted by Shore Lit founder Kerry Folan and featuring Christopher Tilghman and his new book On the Tobacco Coast, prolific writer and professor Carole Boston Weatherford and her son, as well as Jason Patterson, an African American history-based artist, you will recall that these same concepts were discussed. The four speakers talked about how much history just “got wrong” and how few historians and authors have delved deep into the cerebral depths of many slaves. 

In James, a pencil and a notebook are symbols for freedom—freedom of thought. They represent the concept that thoughts and ideas are something no White man can take from him. It made me think about the book banning going on in today’s world–an effort to squelch the freedom to think about things in a different light—to let the darkness prevail. 

By the way, we held our book club meeting at Book Hounds, a delightful and cozy new bookstore in St. Michaels. Be sure to check it out.

Here is a quote from the author Roald Dahl. “Oh please, oh please we beg, we pray. Go throw your TV set away, and in its place, you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall.”  Yes indeed. 

Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of the federal human capital practice of an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, piano, kayaking, and nature.