The New York Times “breaking news” story from the weekend begins, “Trump Cut a Billion-Dollar Mining Deal. His Sons Stand to Profit: An agreement between the U.S. and Kazakhstan has given a group of American investors with ties to the President and the Commerce Secretary access to one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of tungsten.”
You can read it all here, at a gift link. From my reading, the story seems well sourced and fair, though it is the Times, and the Times has been doing everything in its power for over a decade to undermine Donald Trump. The Times isn’t the only one reporting the story, though: The Nation pounced on it with glee; I’ve also found the story reported by Mother Jones, The Daily Beast, MSN, India Today, various leftist substacks (Paul Krugman loves this story), Yahoo Finance, Mediaite, the Financial Times, and more obscure platforms. I expect CNN, PBS, MSNOW and the alphabet networks to be along any minute.
What I can’t find is any reporting on this apparent conflict of interest and Trump family self-dealing by the conservative media. (As of this moment it is also missing from news aggregator “memeorandum,” I assume because this partisan site is so excited about the Supreme Court upholding the $5 million jury verdict against the President regarding the E. Jean Carroll affair.)
The Texas State Board of Education has voted to make Bible passages required reading in public schools. The GOP dominated education board voted to pass a new required reading list on last week. Now required literature includes sections of the Book of Exodus for fifth graders, “The Shepherd’s Psalm” for seventh graders, and more. Naturally, Democrats, progressives and Muslims who want the U.S. to become an Islamic society like England and much of Europe are freaking out. And, also naturally, conservatives can’t keep their mouths sufficiently shut to give the law a chance when it gets to the Supreme Court, which it certainly will.
A Republican member of the Texas education board, Julie Pickren, told The Texas Tribune before the 9-5-1 vote that the readings will give students “important insight into the moral and philosophical traditions that have shaped Western civilization. When students engage directly with original writings, speeches, sermons, and foundational texts, they can evaluate ideas and develop a deeper understanding of the principles that have shaped the USA and Texas.”
Them’s fightin’ words to the Left. Board member Evelyn Brooks objected to the list, saying,
“Teachers need to have their autonomy. They’ve been selecting books for decades, for years. This is nothing new. This is not a new concept to teachers. We are simply giving them a mandated list, which I believe is unconstitutional, but regardless of what I believe, let’s not take their autonomy away.”
That isn’t a very persuasive argument either. Democrats and the teachers unions have turned the public schools into progressive indoctrination centers. Today’s teachers can’t be trusted to have “autonomy.” Mandated reading lists are not unconstitutional (Julie’s an ignoramus); even if the Bible section of the list gets struck down, we should take teacher autonomy away from the mountains to the prairie, to the oceans white with foam.
Gwar, an American heavy metal band, has been contacted by the Secret Service because it held a mock execution of President Trump onstage. A theatrical “science-fiction musical project” formed in 1984, the satirical band has been doing this kind of thing at its concerts for decades. Fake Trump was “killed” during the group’s performance at Warped Tour in Washington, D.C. this month. There’s a video: someone in a Donald Trump costume walks onstage and is disemboweled by the band, fake blood spurting.
The Band’s mock murders of public figures have offed such prominent figures as former President Barack Obama, former President Joe Biden, Queen Elizabeth, Elon Musk, Hillary Clinton, and Kanye West, and others. This is clearly non-partisan sick humor.
Trump’s Justice Department does itself, Republicans and conservatives no favors when it engages in dumb abuses of process and power like this. It is even more futile and less defensible than arresting James Comey for posting a numerical threat to President Trump written on the beach in sea shells. Demonstrating a sense of proportion as well as humor would be wise as well as endearing. I mean, Gwar’s manager is named Sleazy P. Martini. Reacting with fear as if a theatrical bad joke is a genuine threat makes the Administration and the President look weak, thin-skinned and foolish.
Ethics Quote of the Month: “If you want to hate America, watch the news. If you want to love America, drive through it.” Unidentified German World Cup fan and first time U.S. visitor.
The conservative news media have been writing a lot about the positive reactions of foreign World Cup fans as they finally get to experience our country first hand. Because of our hopelessly biased and partisan journalism, in which one side holds that the U.S. can do no wrong and the other paints the U.S. as a racist, sexist, land-stealing hellhole ruled over by a mad orange king, I have no idea how accurate this “surprise” is. Bill Maher seems to believe it, but then who can trust Bill Maher?
“Freddy” is a young German soccer fan who has become an internet sensation as he joins Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde and Alexis de Tocqueville as heavily-read foreign commentators who documented their first road trips across the United States. His viral social media posts have attracted tens of millions of readers as Freddy has raved about Americana like Waffle House , Taco Bell, Buc-ee’s, Bass Pro Shops, the size of American homes and more. Freddy the German is not the only one, however. World Cup visitors from Europe, Asia, Africa and South America have hit social media with similar shock and awe, full of wonder at Walmart and Costco, small town diners, Texas barbecue, the extravagant abundance in grocery stores and the stunning options and variety we take for granted in the most prosperous country in world history.
“The average American rarely pauses to consider how extraordinary our country remains today. We gripe about suburban sprawl while living in homes that would be considered luxurious by the standards of much of the world. We roll our eyes at chain restaurants that millions of foreign tourists eagerly seek out. We treat abundance as ordinary because abundance is all most of us have ever known. That familiarity breeds a certain blindness.But the World Cup tourists are not blind. They see an America that remains dynamic, entrepreneurial and welcoming. They encounter strangers eager to offer travel advice. They find communities proud to share local traditions. They discover a country that is far friendlier than the caricatures would suggest.” The America they are experiencing bears little resemblance to the negative stereotypes they had long imbibed back home.”
Yeah, but that Reflecting Pool still isn’t right…
Meanwhile:
1. Somebody sent me the Google AI’s description of this blog. It reads,
“Ethics Alarms is a popular ethics and commentary blog founded by lawyer and ethicist Jack Marshall. It focuses on examining daily news, politics, and pop culture to analyze right from wrong. The site’s name originates from Marshall’s concept of “ethics alarms”—the gut feelings, twinges of conscience, and cautions that trigger when faced with an ethical dilemma. It evaluates current events, politics, pop culture, and sports through a traditional, often conservative-leaning ethical lens.
Criticism: Detractors sometimes find the author’s perspective dogmatic, combative, and inflexible.
The Tone: It is conversational yet highly opinionated, combative, and staunchly “no-nonsense”. The writer is quick to point out “Tales of the Great Stupid” and the perceived decline in cultural reasoning.
The Content: Marshall dissects everything from political bias and sportsmanship to the ethical implications of horror movies like It Follows.
Community & Rules: The site encourages open discussion. The creator has strict Rule Book criteria, often calling out “rationalizations” and logical fallacies used by both public figures and commenters. The sometimes polarizing blog is designed to help readers recognize, debate, and improve their ethical reasoning skills. It breaks down complex moral dilemmas and often features categories like “Ethics Quizzes” and “Ethics Heroes.”
Not bad! I never thought of Ethics Alarms as “popular,” however. And I had forgotten that I had written about “It Follows”!
2. Can “The View” be called a news program when it disseminates false information and rather than informing viewers, makes them less informed? Last week the ladies unanimously claimed that “no one wants voter ID laws.” In fact, a 2025 survey by Pew found that 83% of U.S. adults favor photo ID mandates. Even assuming error because polls are biased, inaccurate and generally suck, I think it’s fair to say that “no one” is untrue. And stupid. The ladies also claimed that “half” of America would be prevented from voting if the SAVE act was signed into law. Whoopi Goldberg led the discussion of the “SAVE America Act,” saying “He [Trump] torpedoed the [housing] bill because he wants another bill signed. And it seems to me no one wants to sign this bill.”
Whoopi never got out of high school, so she can perhaps be forgiven for not understanding how laws get made, but shouldn’t a host on a news show know that? Only the President signs the bills into law. It is unethical to criticize what you don’t understand. Am I being polarizing to say that?
3. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni recently published a report, “A Broadside for the Nation: Preparing College Students for Informed Citizenship,” calling for mandatory college civics courses. Teaching civics before college would seem to be a better idea, since 18-year-olds can vote and not everyone goes to college. The Council claims the requirement would help the nation’s future “schoolteachers, business leaders, professionals, and government leaders.” Gee, ya think?
[I suspect that you’re going to see a lot more of that crazy lady who freaks out on Tippi Hedren in “The Birds” over the next few months…]
Let’s see: the hysterical, Trump Deranged Axis of Unethical Conduct is rooting for Iran, calls Israel genocidal because it is fighting Gaza, is supporting a woman-abusing former (?) Nazi admirer who makes the President’s truth-telling skills seem like Honest Abe’s by comparison, has extolled a kid who stabbed an unarmed white teen to death because the killer is black, worships illegal immigrants, cheers the assassinations of Charlie Kirk and an insurance executive who was shot in the back, opposes voter ID, believes that trying to unscum the Reflecting Pool, which has been an embarrassment for decades, as D.C. becomes a national destination for our 250th anniversary as a nation is an outrage and just selected an openly anti-American, anti-Semite Congressional candidate in New York who wants to abolish borders, police, prisons and deportation even for violent criminals.
Did anyone expect the Axis to be anything but critical of Trump’s Great American State Fair, or to even try to exhibit Fair Fairness in a spirit of union, comity and national pride?
The event opened in D.C. three days ago. The weather in the area has been sweltering or rainy. Never mind: the Axis media has already pronounced it a failure. The Daily Beast—ah, how I remember the days when, as with the Huffington Post, that site was a semi-reliable source of useful news and commentary from left-of-center!—pronounced Trump’s fair as “tacky.” All state fairs and carnivals are tacky: that’s why they are fun. The Atlantic grumps, “The Great American State Fair Isn’t Very Great.” Lots of headlines about “sparse crowds”: Gee, I wonder if the rain (the planned Vanilla Ice concert was rained out yesterday), the heat, and the news media telling people to stay away might have some effect on that. This morning, a Sunday when crowds would be large under decent conditions, it’s raining. When the rain stops this afternoon, the Mall will be soggy and hot.
One of the most relentless of my Trump Deranged Facebook friends reposted this whine from a Smithsonian employee:
Once again, the position at EA is that the Pope—it doesn’t matter which Pope—is unethically abusing his authority and serving as gum in the works while fostering confusion when he presumes dictate national policy based on idealism and utopianism
A guy I never heard of who was an executive editor of The National Catholic Reporter and who, we are told, “directed coverage of the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV,” was awarded an op-ed in the New York Times (Gift link, though it’s not much of a gift) to explain why he thinks the Pope thinks that “the age of artificial intelligence undermines the moral criteria for just war.” Ramalama ding-dong! Why is anyone listening to guys who have the luxury of dealing with the abstract and never having the responsibility of keeping a nation and a population safe and secure as they pontificate about the right way to do it? Why is anyone reading the analysis of an obscure functionary who has also never had to face the harsh human, military, geopolitical and practical realities of war as he rationalizes the basis for a Pope’s irresponsible interference with serious international matters?
The New York Times has demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is fully committed to undermining President Trump, his policies and his popular support. The “just war” blather, another phase of arguing how many angels can gather on a pinhead, suddenly became useful to the Axis of Unethical conduct when it wanted to root for a murderous, anti-Christian Islamic regime while it was fighting the United States of America. Popes never support wars, and it isn’t news when the Vatican condemns one. Infamously, the Vatican refused to take sides in World War II, or take any substantive steps to try to end the extermination of Jews in Europe. Now the Pope doesn’t think a war that has among its goals making as certain as possible that Iran doesn’t have the ability to do what it has been promising to do for decades—destroy Israel— is a “just war,” or to be more precise, that we should redefine “just war” to eliminate Israel’s and the U.S.’s justification for neutralizing Iran.
Interesting. I’m not sure he can call himself an ethicist, and certainly not THE Ethicist, with that attitude. Based on Prof Appiah’s latest ethics advice column, he doesn’t follow the Ten Commandments, specifically #5, either.
An adult child of an apparently bad mother asks “The Ethicist,”
“Our parents divorced when we were young, and both were neglectful and emotionally abusive. My mother once kicked me out at 17 because her boyfriend told her to choose between him and me. …I see my mother about once every two years and speak to her roughly once a month.Now in her 80s, my mother is showing signs of Alzheimer’s. Her husband recently told me that if he dies first, I will be responsible for her care. I don’t think I can do it. The thought of having her live with me makes me physically sick. My siblings are unlikely to help. Since that conversation, almost a year ago, I have thought about this every day. What, if anything, do I owe my mother?”
I find the NYU philosophy professor’s answer astounding:
“We may owe something to those who raised us, but we have no duty to abandon our own lives to look after them, especially when they failed in their parental duties. Tell her husband that you’re not going to take on her care and that he needs to make the necessary preparations. He should consult with an elder-care lawyer, identify the local Area Agency on Aging and arrange advance directives and other long-term plans while your mother still has the capacity to participate in those decisions. A trustee to manage her affairs once he’s gone should be appointed. These are things you can suggest to him, anyway. They are not things you need to do.”
To be brief:
1. In such a situations it is the shared responsibility of all members of the family to sacrifice as necessary and do their best to care for the mother compassionately. The husband cannot ethically pass the job off on the woman’s adult children, nor can they ethically refuse to participate in her care.
2. One’s ethical obligations to one’s parents are not based on how well they parented. It isn’t a matter of quid pro quo, tit for tat, or just desserts. All children owe a responsibility to their parents unless they left their kids in a ditch to die.
3. “Honor your father and mother” is a cornerstone of a stable and civilized society, even when Mom and Dad are not particularly honorable.
4. The Golden Rule could not be clearer on this issue. Treat your aging and infirm parents as you would want to be treated in similar circumstances.
5. “You were a bad mother to me, so I’m going to be a bad child now, when you need me. So there.” That is not an ethical statement.
I’m adding that memorable line from “Death Becomes Her” to the Ethics Alarms Hollywood Clip Archive. I don’t think I’ll have much use for it—at least I hope I won’t—but it sure fits here.
In that scene, the awful aging star played by Meryl Streep has just paid a fortune to get dosed with a magic formula that restores youth and guarantees immortality. After she downs the glowing blue elixer, the mysterious woman who provided it adds, “And now a warning…”
American Airlines, Delta, and Southwest have issued a warning to flyers to avoid short skirts and shorts when flying. If a flight emergency forces a plane to land and passengers have to use a slide to “deboard,” the friction from the device can rip a passenger’s skin off.
Oh. Funny, I don’t remember people screaming in all of those airplane movies.
The slides have substances in their composition to maximize sliding speed, as the objective is to save lives, not ensure comfort. I am assuming we never heard of this peril before because those slides aren’t used very often. However, airlines have been in many controversies over dress code enforcement: why wouldn’t they use the “if you want to have your skin ripped off, go ahead, fly like that!” response?
Remember this post, about the fitness model who presented herself at the gate dressed thusly….
…?
Heck, if that stuff about the slides is true, after an emergency landing she would have ended up looking like one of the victims in “The Towering Inferno”!
“Better late than never” is often a rationalization (#35. The Tortoise’s Pass), but in this case, it’s nice to finally know the risk of short shorts and short skirts. I’m still wondering what took so long, however.
This is the EU Commission in Brussels. “It’s like feudalism,” a Commission official working on a lower level of the Berlaymont told POLITICO, making a justifiable analogy since the upper floors, where housing commissioners worked, kept their air conditioning running while the proles in the lower floors sweltered
Americans wouldn’t stand for this.
Not yet, anyway.
1. Could there be a more throbbing example of the unethical “Let them eat cake!” attitude, though it is more like “Let them jump into rivers and drown!”?
2. Why would anyone trust the EU if its leadership could even consider something like this? Yet this is the same orientation that Communism inflicted on its populations. I saw the end results as well as the brainwashing of the public it required when I had (and I do mean had) to be in Moscow in the Nineties for two weeks.
3. Bernie Sanders honeymooned in Moscow. What does this tell you? And he’s being credited with remaking the Democratic Party, along with fellow useful idiot AOC.
4. Yet young voters in droves rushed to the polls in New York to elect exactly the kinds of candidates who hold the “government knows best” and “Know your place, serfs!” world view that is antithetical to American traditions, values and thought.
5. The Democratic Party, now being increasingly dominated by socialists and Communists, is counting on Trump Derangement to let it triumph in November, while its policies, and the even worse policies supported by the Democratic Socialists, are ostentatiously irresponsible and anti-American. Good plan!
I am constantly annoyed by organizations and groups that call themselves “non-partisan” that are obviously partisan, as they quack like veritable ducks. One that I used to flag frequently here is CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which ultimately made it so clear it was an Axis ally that they didn’t even bother to deny it. In contrast, The F.I.R.E. really is non-partisan, and recently complained that it lost supporters when it dared to criticize conservative breaches of free speech. The organization that once followed F.I.R.E.’s mission, the ACLU, gradually became woke, progressive, biased, partisan and useless.
It seems that the venerable League of Women Voters is following the same unethical path. Too bad. My mother was a member, and it really was non-partisan then. It is decidedly leftist, progressive and wokified now, not that there’s anything wrong with that, except that the group lies about it, still claiming to be non-partisan. I used League of Women Voters of Northern Lower Michigan as the example, because I don’t have time to check out all the other chapters: if someone can show me one that isn’t lying about being non-partisan, please do.
Here is the evidence, however:
This one is a group-wide project:
“Taking democracy back” is not only a Democratic Party talking point, it’s an implied lie. The Axis of Unethical Conduct has been trying to undo the results of American democracy ever since its planned line of succession after Barack Obama was so cruelly foiled by the Electoral College. Those who wield the talking point remained silent while a fake Russian collusion investigation crippled the democratically elected President’s efforts to do his job, or when the voting process was corrupted for the 2020 election, or when their allied media censored news that might have changed the election results, or when it became obvious that unelected leftist hacks were pulling the strings of a disabled President, or that their party picked its Presidential candidate in 2024 without any democratic processes in evidence, or that their party tried every trick in the book to try to prevent voters from having the opportunity to vote for a former U.S. President. We have learned what “civic engagement” means to these organizations and their members. Riots and violence
2. This one is a tell if there ever was one…
Only progressive, Democrats, illegal immigrants and liars say “immigrants” when they know the issue is illegal immigrants.
Ethics Alarms 