The Democrats’ “Coordinated Messaging Machine”

/ Jack Marshall / Leave a comment

CNN contributor and smug progressive propagandist Van Jones claimed to know the secret of how Democrats achieved their strong (but absurdly hyped) showing last Tuesday. “Now it can be told,” Jones said, as if he were about to reveal who the second shooter was on the grassy knoll.

“How did we win the narrative on affordability? Was it just these nice little Democrats out there running for office and going to — No. The Republicans never figured out what we were doing. There’s something called the American Accountability Network. Tens of thousands of online humans — not bots — coordinated to make the affordability message a winning message online.32.5 million people hit on Instagram every day, 88.8 million hit on Twitter, X every single day. And 185 million hits on Facebook every single day. And they never figured it out. The Republicans could not understand. It wasn’t bots, it was actual human beings. The most effective online organizing campaign … flew under the radar screen. Driving the kitchen table affordability message and tying that to Democrats on a positive and Republicans on a negative…So, it’s not just all the door knocking that was done which was amazing. It’s not just our amazing candidate quality. We had something called the American Accountability Network. Don’t get mad at me, I was given permission to reveal this.”

[“Amazing candidate quality…” Ugh. What a hack.]

Does this really come as a surprise to anyone? My Facebook friends and my progressive zombie acquaintances began chanting about high gas and grocery prices long ago, even though it didn’t make any sense, since the inflated prices were the hangover from Biden’s incompetent Presidency. To listen to them, it was all “tariffs,” because that was another repetitious talking point, though so far it looks like Trump’s tariffs were more successful than critics predicted. Let me translate what Jones was saying:

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Addendum To “Stop Making Me Defend President Trump’s Trolling!” [Dumb Typo Corrected…]

/ Jack Marshall / 4 Comments

Picking a particularly dumb hill to die on, one commenter already on thin metaphorical ice and two already banned (but not yet blocked) past commenters decided to insult me personally based on this post, in which I pointed out what should have been obvious to anyone not made stupid by bias and paying attention, that Trump’s social media post supposedly offering the vacant job of White House Press Secretary to Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White was an extravagant trolling exercise as well as a message that he was not going to be cowed by the results of the mid-terms last week.

At the same time, a more respectable commenter picked the day to argue, without evidence or logic, that I need to be less assertive in such posts, because nobody likes me, or something, and that I am not skilled at persuasion.

I realized that these comments indicated a fundamental misunderstanding regarding the purpose of Ethics Alarms, an error that has raised its hoary head before. I don’t spend about four uncompensated hours a day researching and writing this blog and responding to comments (271,000+ responses so far, the most of any blog still standing) to convince anyone of anything. I remain true to and devoted to the mission, which states,

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What Price Whimsy?

/ Jack Marshall / 12 Comments

The New York Times has a provocative article (the issue isn’t political—yet, but just wait a few minutes) about how giant silly roadside attractions like the Paul Bunyan featured prominently in “Fargo” or Tyra the Tyrannosaurus (above), an 86 feet tall T-Rex that looms over Drumheller in Alberta, Canada are increasingly expensive to maintain. I was surprised how many of these frivolous things there are: an estimated 10,000 of them worldwide, mostly in the United States, Canada and Australia. The bulk of the U.S.’s roadside novelties sprung up in the mid-20th century as Ike’s interstate highway system took hold, more people bought cars, and family road trips became a summer vacation staple.

But now the aging structures are facing extinction. Lucy the Elephant (above) in Margate City, N.J. (I’ve visited Lucy!) was built in 1881 and has been designated historic, so a recent makeover that cost $2.4 million was deemed appropriate. But Tyra is coming down in 2029. The world’s largest hockey stick in Duncan, British Columbia, was dismantled in 2024 after 36 years after the community decided there were more practical uses for the $1.5 million it would cost to replace the crumbling wooden structure.

I loved crazy silly things growing up; heck, I still do because I’ve never grown up. Then they were just awe-inspiring and fun; now they are cultural touch-points and a source of whimsy as well as reminders of more innocent and emotionally healthy times.

The recent advances of the far left in the U.S. have some hidden tendrils. Socialist and Communist countries don’t have giant beavers, squirrels, the world’s largest cowboy boots, Vikings, or the likes of Willie the Walleye. Too frivolous. Think of all the hungry children who could be fed, all the homeless who could be clothed…and so on…with the money it costs for construction and maintenance. There’s no practical argument against that position, except that the spirit of a nation is important too, just impossible to quantify. Whimsy, imagination, the pure joy of a child seeing something memorable—these have value too, don’t they?

Nonetheless, I can’t foresee whimsy surviving in a nation that believes in income distribution and clinically obese government. The issue raised by the Times is political, and nostalgia is considered inherently racist and reactionary by our rising (and indoctrinated) generations.

Signature Significance and Res Ipsa Loquitur For An Ethics Dunce: Prof. Scott Galloway

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

Stay classy, you experts!

Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, former board of member of Eddie Bauer, The New York Times Company, Gateway Computer, Urban Outfitters, UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and current a regent at the University of California, said in an interview that he once owned a Tesla, but sold it to express his disapproval of Elon Musk, first “taking a giant dump in the passenger seat.” Earlier, he has suggested that Musk be executed. Not only did he defecate in a car he was about to sell, but he isn’t even ashamed of it.

CNN’s token conservative Scott Jennings writes in reaction to Galloway’s revelation,

“So he sold a car to someone after placing his feces in the front seat and this is a very serious person that we need to take very seriously because of his very serious thoughts.”

Bingo. I wouldn’t hire someone who boasted about pooping a car to mow my lawn, and this jerk is sitting on a Board of Regents because he hates the right people.

I told you that I would be posting this a lot, and here it comes again:

Take note, you conservatives and Republicans who let the “Blue Wave” swamp the nation, for these are the execrable people you allowed to get power over your lives because you wanted to throw a tantrum about inflation.

Disgusting (But Not Atypical) Leftist Hate-Mongers Issue A Rare Level #11 Apology (“The Impossible Apology”)

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

Not accepted.

Progressive podcasters Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan laughed uproariously at an joke about digging up the body of assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk in order to kill him again.

The vile hosts of the “I’ve Had It” podcast read an X post stating, “We’re digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again” on the air following Democrats winning majorities in the House and Senate in the midterm elections. They thought it was so hilarious—and assumed their sick listeners would as well—that they engaged in unrestrained hilarity at the idea of desecrating the body of a murder victim whose sole “crime” was opposing radical leftist cant. They chose—poorly. So far five sponsors of the podcast have pulled their advertising, with Cash App., which had one of their ads read right before Welch and Sullivan’s self-reveal as hateful ghouls stating curtly:

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Stop Making Me Defend President Trump’s Trolling!

/ Jack Marshall / 11 Comments

No, President Trump did not really offer the job of White House Press Secretary to Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White. In one of the most hysterical outbreaks of fake news since it became the Axis media’s norm to undermine the President they all hate, that was still the headline in almost every news platform.

“I am pleased to announce that the Great Dana White, a violent Fighter and Warrior, has been offered the job of Press Secretary of the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Trump ended the post, “Dana, please take the job!”

It should be obvious what the President is doing, especially after a decade of watching his poor impulse control in action. He’s sending a message to the gloating press corps that Tuesday’s propaganda- and ignorance-fueled triumph by Democrats, socialists, Muslims and communists is not going to temper his passion to make America great again as he interprets that goal. His joke sends the message, “I ain’t down yet!’ as a teenaged Molly Brown sings to her bullying bothers in the opening number of “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”It is the same message that appointing Stephen Miller as his new Chief of Staff was intended to convey but arising from the President’s whimsical side, which the Trump Deranged have always denied that he has despite too much evidence to list.

He’s trolling, in short. Naturally White played along with his friend’s gag, saying he turned the offer down. It’s not hard to figure out how Trump got the idea for his practical joke: Dana W. White served as the Chief Spokesperson for the Department of Defense during the first Trump administration and the name probably came up among possible replacements for Karoline Leavitt. Trump may have said, after Tuesday’s wipe-out, “Heh, maybe we need to appoint that other Dana White to that job now!” This got the usual mandatory chuckles and cheers from his chorus of yes-persons, and this was the result. (Cont.)

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I’d Compose An Open Letter To My Biased, Ignorant and Obnoxious Facebook Friends, But I’m Afraid I Wouldn’t Be Diplomatic…

/ Jack Marshall / 8 Comments

Good natured teasing is friendly; nasty gloating is not. Stupid, ignorant gloating and posts that confidently cite false information, partisan spin and flagrant projection are not pleasant or conducive to dialogue, civility, comity, respect or trust.

Here is a sampling of what my Facebook friends are posting today. I’m not counting my friend’s post boasting about working day and night to elect Michigan’s new anti-Semitic, terror-supporting, fake-doctor Senator, or Curmie’s post, where he enthuses over the rising “youthful leadership” of the Democratic Party like AOC, that Senator, and Mayor Mandani.

If anyone wants to fisk this collection of lies, half-truths and absurd characterizations, be my guest.

Is the Constitutional illiteracy of the Trump Deranged and Axis of Unethical Conduct as bad as it seems?


Riiight. Voting for Democrats is rejecting fascism, hate and the politics of fear. Do people actually believe this? The party has run almost exclusively on hate and fear in both of the last two elections. (Note: What the Trump Deranged call “authoritarianism” is known as “using the Constitutional power of the Presidency.”)

Res ipsa loquitur.

Finally, insanity followed by a warning against not being insane, with a sane prediction as a capper:

I regard any reference to The Epstein Files, which, as you will recall, a Democratic Administration could have released in toto at any time, with its Justice Department searching for any way possible to derail Donald Trump’s candidacy, as signature significance for a partisan hack who cannot be taken seriously (or Margery Taylor Greene.)

Further Ethics Observations On The Mid-Term “Blue Wave” and Its Aftermath…

/ Jack Marshall / 16 Comments

1. Uh, check the Constitution, fools. I keep reading about all the wonderful legislation the new socialist, Muslim, LGBTQ+, radical, anti-American, anti-capitalism, anti-rule of law, anti-gun, pro-open borders Congress is going to inflict on the nation. The President can veto legislation, and this President will. The Totalitarian Party isn’t close to the 2/3 majority it needs to over-ride a Presidential veto. FDR holds the record with 635 vetoes, but he had three full terms in office to do it. Grover Cleveland vetoed 584 bills total across his two non-consecutive terms, so he’s the record-holder for a one- or two-term President. Trump used only 10 vetoes in his first term (one was over-ridden), and only two so far in this term. I doubt that he can pass Grover, but he’s going to catch up fast.

2. This is the caliber of the Congressional majority now:

Wait: what “misconduct”? Garcia is literally trying to criminalize viewpoints and policy views. I have not been kidding or exaggerating when I have been writing that the Democratic Party is now totalitarian in design, tactics and ideology.

How incompetent, dim and short-sighted did conservatives and Republicans have to be to either sit out the election or vote for Democrats out of pique over “affordability” when they knew, or should have know, that this was what they were voting for? Answer: Very. Too ignorant and apathetic to maintain a functioning democratic republic? I think I know what Ben Franklin would say…

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AI Ethics: Apparently “The Ethicist” Has Decided To Only Answer Stupid Questions From Now On…

/ Jack Marshall / 13 Comments

This is the latest question from an ethics-challenged boob that “The Ethicist” (the New York Times Magazine’s ethics advice columnist, Kwame Anthony Appiah) thinks is worthy of discussion and publication:

“Can I Have an A.I. Chatbot Field My Mother’s Endless Complaints?” “Would using a chatbot as an emotional buffer be compassionate, or would we be failing in our filial duty by substituting an algorithm for a child’s attention?”—Name Withheld

Wow. No wonder you withheld your name from being attached to that disgusting suggestion, Whoever You Are. If you didn’t, everyone with an ethical brain cell left would know you’re a heartless asshole.

The answer is “No!” Sure, you can do it, just as you can set the neighbor’s dog on fire. But it’s obviously unethical, wrong, unforgivable, and a terrible idea. Of course it is. Gee, would it be all right to substitute a bot for actual parenting when your child is upset? Oooh, tough one! Would it be ethical to have chatbot in the confession booth while the priest takes a nap?

I wrote this before bothering to read what good ol’ Kwame wrote. Let’s see…

Ugh. “The Ethicist” actually thinks this abdication of family duty might be justifiable! He writes,

“The fact that a chatbot is no substitute for human companionship doesn’t mean it can’t play a useful role when other people aren’t available. You owe your mother attention and companionship, but not in unlimited quantities. It’s relevant that you and your brother are feeling exhausted by emotional demands that exceed what you can reasonably supply. If your mother would feel better having an A.I. chat partner, that counts as a reason to provide one.”

The last sentence is a despicable cheat. “If your mother would feel like she was getting exactly the same amount of attention and loving concern from a machine that she obviously needs from her children, then why not?” That’s a self-ratifying proposition. It would be just as valid if you substituted “trained snail” or “inanimate carbon rod” for “machine.”

If my parents , or my wife or my sister, or my son felt the need to talk to me, and especially me, for any reason important to them, I would be there for them, and they knew it. There was no limit. There would never be a limit. The same is true of any friend. (My clients, on the other hand, pay for the privilege) If I were running short of time due to other commitments, I would say so with apologies, but promise to be available as soon as possible. What I would never say is, “Hey, here’s a bot you can talk to. Good luck!”

You can read the whole exchange here. If I were you, I’d use my time more judiciously.

Wow. Who CAN You Trust In 2026? The Latest: Rigging Bar Exam Scores….

/ Jack Marshall / 12 Comments

[For the pop culture history challenged, that was the title card for Johnny Carson’s first TV show, a sort-of quiz show that was really just a set-up for Johnny to ad lib and be clever. If you don’t know who Johnny Carson was, shame on you.]

Nancie Givens, former executive director of the Arkansas Office of Professional Programs, was arrested and charged with 65 felony counts of tampering with public records. An investigation “uncovered extensive irregularities involving Arkansas Bar Examination scores spanning from July 2020 through July 2025.” Prosecutor Will Jones said in a release,

“As Prosecuting Attorney, I recognize the responsibility Ms. Givens was entrusted with to safeguard the accuracy of bar examination results and preserve the records supporting them,” Jones said in the release. “The charges concern how she handled those specific duties, including the alteration of exam results and the destruction of supporting records.”

The investigation is ongoing. It isn’t clear how or why Givens altered those bar exam results. Here she is…

(Yikes)

You can read the details as we have them so far here. My rule is never to trust anyone who spells “Nancy” as “Nancie,” but that’s just me.