As in Part I, here are some September ethics tales in danger of ending up on the metaphorical cutting room floor. (I’m a Jimmy Durante fan, and the Kurt Weill classic has been recorded by many singers, from Perry Como to Willie Nelson, but this is the version of “September Song” that is most famous…)

1. So naturally, some Democrats want her to run for President. According to the Daily Mail, Michelle Obama was paid $741,000 to give a one hour speech in Germany. Issues & Insights points out that “by the time she was six minutes into her speech, she’d made more money than 50% of households in the United States make in a year.” Needless to say, there is nothing Michelle Obama has to say that is that valuable. I&I asks, “What is the difference between what Sen. Bob Menendez is charged with, what President Joe Biden is being investigated for, and the speech Michelle Obama gave in Germany on Monday?” It’s answer: “Only the dollar amounts.” It adds, “The one and only reason she commanded that price is because of the current buzz that she might run for president next year, given that Biden seems unlikely to last until November 2024, let alone January 2029. The organizers of the event were buying political influence, not insights.” I think that’s a likely explanation: recall how the lucrative donations to the shady Clinton Foundation dried up as soon as it became clear that Hillary would not become President. And yet the same people, from the same party that shrugs off the crypto-bribery enriching the Clintons, Bidens and Obamas as innocent fees for services rendered, kept up the complaint that Donald Trump having foreign officials stay at one of his hotels was an impeachable offense under the dead-letter Emoluments Clause in the Constitution.

2. When “trailblazers” choke: Leilani Armenta became the first women to appear in a “Historic Black Colleges and Universities” football game. A soccer player, she was recruited to handle the kick-off (and maybe a field goal or extra point or two!) for Jackson State. ESPN promoted it as something they “loved to see“—and she began the game with a 20 yard bloop that any non-kicker on the field could have surpassed. Diversity! Equity! Inclusion! No, she was not permitted to try an extra point of field goal after that. Apparently ESPN loves to see someone given a chance to strike a blow for gender equality fall flat on her face. Megan Rapinoe was unavailable for comment.

3. It was Nazi Salute Freak-Out Month! At two high schools, students seen doing Nazi salutes were subjected to investigations. A group of students at Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland were seen filming themselves during lunch period “performing an antisemitic salute,” according to the school’s principal. Since that was on school grounds and arguably could have caused a disruption, the school was on sound ethical and legal grounds investigating the incident. Not so the River Delta Unified School District, which is investigating a photo circulating on social media depicting several high school students doing a Nazi salute. “We absolutely will not tolerate such horrific behaviors and actions and appropriate disciplinary actions will be assigned immediately as these behaviors are in direct opposition to the values, beliefs, and goals of our schools and the district as a whole,” said the district in a statement. “We wholeheartedly will only accept actions and behaviors that respect, protect and celebrate the wonderful diversity of our student population and the community and world at large.” Sounds like fascism to me; how ironic. The students might have been evoking “The Producers,” or expressing their opinion of school administrators. They have every right to make whatever gestures or performance art they please on their own time and away from school. Full disclosure: I performed the “Heil!” sign on stage, spoofing Hitler, when I starred in a high school production of “The Mikado.”

4. Artificial Intelligence ethics issues update: Amazon issued a new rule limiting the number of books that authors can self-publish on its site to three a day. Suspected AI-generated material has been listed for sale on its Kindle site in recent months. This is another iceberg tip of what is bound to be a titanic ethics problem in multiple settings not yet imagined.

5. I don’t understand this at all.…Hunter College professor Shellyne Rodriguez was fired for holding a machete to a reporter’s throat and harassing anti-abortion students while caught on video. Ethics Alarms wrote about her here. Now, just four months later, this violent and rights-abusing woman has been hired by New York college Cooper Union as an adjunct professor. Responsible parents should empty the school of its students; it obviously cannot be trusted in its hiring practices or management judgment. [Pointer Other Bill/Old Bill]

6. The Great Stupid rolls on… Cornell University trustees approved a request from it faculty to change the “Department of English” to the “Department of Literatures in English.” The ironically awkward English of the new label is justified as “fighting racism.” Oh.

Professor Kate McCullough said that the rebranding would help to avoid the “conflation of English as a language and English as a nationality.” The department’s site now bears the new name. I assume sane Cornell alums are wearing paper bags over their heads, while their alma mater has issued a statement saying that the name change is part of “decolonization efforts.”