What's wrong with `--config`? I couldn't login if I specified `--config`

While trying kaniko, I kept having docker push issues so I tried simply using docker push.

The weird thing came:

$ whoami
brightzheng

$ docker --config /Users/brightzheng/.docker push itstarting/gs-spring-boot-docker:latest
The push refers to repository [docker.io/itstarting/gs-spring-boot-docker]
38e874a36063: Preparing
7960c6b26c37: Preparing
c8d7375e0884: Preparing
ceaf9e1ebef5: Preparing
9b9b7f3d56a0: Preparing
f1b5933fe4b5: Waiting
toomanyrequests: too many failed login attempts for username or IP address

$ docker push itstarting/gs-spring-boot-docker:latest
The push refers to repository [docker.io/itstarting/gs-spring-boot-docker]
38e874a36063: Layer already exists
7960c6b26c37: Layer already exists
c8d7375e0884: Layer already exists
ceaf9e1ebef5: Layer already exists
9b9b7f3d56a0: Layer already exists
f1b5933fe4b5: Layer already exists
latest: digest: sha256:a2185e69c10383c72894c383937c07ab7bb8b36a1354812a7e7f37ea9301ca9e size: 1574

So if I specified the --config, even it’s pointing to the default folder, it wouldn’t work – please forget about the too many failed login attempts for username or IP address, actually it’s simply unauthorized: incorrect username or password, after some failed attempts.

What’s wrong there?

Extra info:

$ docker version
Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:           19.03.4
 API version:       1.40
 Go version:        go1.12.10
 Git commit:        9013bf5
 Built:             Thu Oct 17 23:44:48 2019
 OS/Arch:           darwin/amd64
 Experimental:      false

Server: Docker Engine - Community
 Engine:
  Version:          19.03.4
  API version:      1.40 (minimum version 1.12)
  Go version:       go1.12.10
  Git commit:       9013bf5
  Built:            Thu Oct 17 23:50:38 2019
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          v1.2.10
  GitCommit:        b34a5c8af56e510852c35414db4c1f4fa6172339
 runc:
  Version:          1.0.0-rc8+dev
  GitCommit:        3e425f80a8c931f88e6d94a8c831b9d5aa481657
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.18.0
  GitCommit:        fec3683