I have been asked why none of the various ethical horrors emerging from the Democratic Party ( as in rigging its nomination process), the Democratic National Committee (as in claiming, in spite of smoking-gun evidence, that Hillary Clinton won the nomination “fair and square”) and Hillary Clinton ( as in immediately hiring the ex-chair of the DNC after she had been dumped for overseeing the unethical nomination process manipulation) rated a KABOOM! label, which is reserved for unethical conduct so stunning that it causes my head to explode. The reason is simple.  Being well-acquainted with the depth of Hillary Clinton’s corruption and her documented ability to corrupt others, I am immune to such episodes, which no longer can bring my brain to the necessary boil.

I must admit, however, that the DNC’s outrageous apology  to “Senator Sanders, his supporters, and the entire Democratic Party” issued tonight (it’s Monday evening, the first night of the Democratic National Convention) nearly did it. My skull almost blew.

I’m sure there have been more deceitful, evasive, too-cute-by-half and insulting apologies by major institutions. Well maybe not. Anyone who accepts this slap in the face of accountability as anything better than a sham is either a fool, or complicit in the Democratic Party’s machinations.

Here is the “apology”:

According to the Ethics Alarms Apology Scale, this is both a Level 9 and a Level 10 apology, which is to say a stinking, steaming pile of excrement, and about as unethical as an apology can be.

The second paragraph is a naked example of the “let us remind you that as bad as we may be, we look good in comparison to others, so think about them instead” deflection. The Republicans and Donald Trump have nothing to do with the slimy misconduct and betrayal of trust the DNC should be apologizing for. This all by itself places the apology into Level 10 territory:

10. An insincere and dishonest apology designed to allow the wrongdoer to escape accountability cheaply, and to deceive his or her victims into forgiveness and trust, so they are vulnerable to future wrongdoing.

But there is so much more. The apology promises to “take appropriate action” to ensure “it” never happens again. But what is “it”? An e-mail leak? Staffers saying disrespectful things about candidates? Writing down those things? Having an insecure e-mails system? What? When an official apology is intentionally unclear about what it is doing to prevent future misdeeds like what the apology is claiming to address, you know you have a fake apology designed for dupes and idiots.

What the apology should be for is the DNC colluding with Hillary Clinton to rig the nomination process.That’s the scandal. That’s the betrayal. Do you read any reference to that despicable conduct by the party in this apology? No, you don’t….because it isn’t there.

Level 9 apologies include those that use the tactic of “apologizing for a tangential matter other than the act or words that warranted an apology.” That’s what this apology does, and that  makes it a deceitful apology, a non-apology apology:

9. Deceitful apologies, in which the wording of the apology is crafted to appear apologetic when it is not (“if my words offended, I am sorry”).

The DNC apologizes for “remarks,” when the important thing is that those remarks prove that the staff was biased and working to ensure that Bernie Sanders lost. It isn’t the remarks that are the issue. It is the fact that only corrupt and scheming staff members would make such remarks.  Imagine a wife who overhears  her husband plotting with a hit man to murder her, and he says, “We’ve got to figure out some way to kill that bitch!” Horrified, she confronts him, and he apologizes, saying “I’m so sorry I talked about you that way. I’ll never call you a bitch again.” Does that work? Not unless she’s an idiot. She’s not upset about the disrespectful language! She’s upset because he said he wanted to kill her!

Does the DNC really think that Sanders supporters are angry because the e-mails were “disrespectful”? If the e-mails discussing how to rig the race were teeming with wonderful words about the man they were helping Clinton defeat while pretending to the world and Sanders supporters that they were neutral, would Sanders supporters have found those e-mails innocuous? Of course not. It wasn’t the language of the e-mails that enraged Sanders supporters and, I hope, anyone who believes in democracy and fair play, but their content and what that content proved.

And yet the DNC is trying to shift the discussion  to being about merely words!  “Gee, we’re sorry our staff was rude. In the future, we promise that when we fix the nominating process so that the pre-chosen nominee can’t lose, we’ll be more discrete about how we talk about it. Friends? All forgiven?”

How stupid and gullible does the Democratic leadership think Bernie Sanders supporters are? By the evidence of this outrageous non-apology, I’d say pretty stupid indeed. It doesn’t apologize for the offense at issue, but pretends that it does.

Do you accept that, Senator Sanders? Bernie fans? Democrats? Are you willing to be treated so unfairly and disrespectfully, as long as the language used by the people screwing you is nice? Are you really this pathetic? Do you have that little self-respect or dignity?

Your party apparently thinks so.

Hillary clearly does.

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Graphic: Speedbump