https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtRBa9_YPOI

Nothing of ethical significance has happened on November 30 (so far), but this was an especially rotten month for U.S. ethics, low-lighted, of course, by the not-entirely shocking revelation that the progressive movement has spawned a stunning number of anti-Semitics while out college campuses are churning out eventual graduates who don’t know how to distinguish propaganda from history. Isn’t that nice? My own increasingly embarrassing alma mater, Harvard College, under its diversity-obsessed and cowardly new president, continued its support of terrorism, with the Harvard Crimson picking now to again endorse the the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement devoted to ending international support for Israel’s “oppression” of Palestinians. Now Harvard has joined the ranks of schools being investigated by the Department of Education for civil rights violations of its own students, the Jewish ones, of course. Good.

So what ethics horrors do we have to muse over today?

1. Just because I awarded Chuck Shumer an Ethics Hero award because he isn’t excusing his parties bigots doesn’t change the fact that he is a two-faced partisan hack.. Schumer this week took to the Senate floor to warn that a key funding package with Ukraine aid could collapse over battle Republicans pressing for a “partisan border policy” thereby injecting a “decades-old hyperpartisan issue” into the debate. Since when was enforcing existing laws a partisan issue? Old Ethics Alarms friend Joe Concha was unkind enough to point out on “X” that Schumer said in 2009, “People who enter the United States without our permission are illegal aliens and illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people who enter the U.S. legally. The American people will never accept immigration reform unless they truly believe that their government is committed to ending future illegal immigration.”

2. “Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?” To make a dubious point about school security, Casey Garcia (aided by her 4’11” stature) recorded herself posing as her 13-year-old daughter at San Elizario Middle School and posted the results on social media. She dyed her hair, used skin bronzer, wore a hoodie and had a pandemic-hysteria mask on to pass for her teenage daughter. In the video, Garcia claims to have “exposed the dangers of our schools and I am trying to protect my children and yours. If you want to come after me for that, there’s really nothing else I can say.” Because the real problem in schools is short parents pretending to be students, or something.

Casey was convicted of criminal trespassing, and must perform 100 hours of community service and pay a $700 fine.

3. Back to the campus car on the Hamas-Israel Ethics Train Wreck: at the University of Southern California, Jewish economics professor John Strauss told students that the Hamas terrorists who committed the October 7 atrocities should be killed, and that he hoped they would be. A recording of his comments was deceptively cut and represented on YouTube by a campus activist as a statement calling for the death of all Palestinians. Now USC has insisted that he only teach remotely, essentially banning him from campus.

4. Stay Classy, Sixties Bitter Enders! Here is how “Rolling Stone” headlined Henry Kissinger’s death at 100: “Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies.” Huffington Post: “Henry Kissinger, America’s Most Notorious War Criminal, Dies At 100.” The New York Times has a more balanced account of Kissinger’s life in its obituary. Kissinger excelled at playing the sometimes ethics-free game of international diplomacy. I wish the U.S. had someone half as astute in charge of our foreign affairs strategies today.

My favorite Kissinger story involves his younger brother, who spoke almost un-accented English as opposed to Henry, whose thick German accent was sometimes undecipherable. Asked how someone who had lived in the U.S. so long could still talk like that, his brother replied, “Well, you must remember that in order to lose a foreign accent, one has to actually listen to other people.”

5. Are you going to watch the weird Gavin Newsom-Ron DeSantis debate tonight? I can’t imagine why, except that it might be better than Ellen DeGeneris’s “Game Night.” Meanwhile, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced the 2024 Presidential debate schedule. Right now, it looks as if neither party will agree to conditions. For at least three cycles, the journalists moderating the debates have increasingly warped the proceedings, taken up time with their own pontificating, and displayed unconscionable bias for or against certain candidates. Last year, the Republican National Committee voted to withdraw from its participation in the commission, claiming that the commission is “biased and has refused to enact simple and commonsense reforms.” That’s quite correct. If Trump or Biden are the nominees, either might benefit from not having to debate, but voters will be stiffed. Even bad and rigged debates convey useful information.

6. Not content to let D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser take a brief lead in the wild race to be the worst big city Democratic mayor of all, Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson went on a delightful rant in which he attempted to blame Chicago being hoisted on its own sanctuary city petard on those evil racist Republicans:

“[To deal with] the international crisis that I inherited six months ago, I’ve made it very clear we are going to move people out of police districts, women and children who are living on floors and sleeping outside that we’re going to create spaces that provide more dignity…

(He’s building a big, dignified tent…)

“What we’ve seen is a very raggedy form of right-wing extremism. Everyone knows that the right-wing extremism in this country has targeted democratically-run cities, and quite frankly, they have been quite intentional about going after democratically-ran cities that are led by people of color….It is abysmal and it is an affront for everything that is good about this country for the extremism in this country to use people as political tools to settle political scores for something that happened over 400 years ago. They’re still mad that a black man is free in this country. This is the same political party that did not want to accept that President Obama was actually an American. This is the same Republican right-wing extremism that stormed the Capitol. It’s the same right-wing extremism that refuses to accept the results of the Civil War. It’s raggedy, it’s disrespectful.”

7. Spuds asked me to note that new drugs are being tested to extend the life expectancy of dogs. This raises some ethical issues: Will dogs just live longer with their age related ailments, or will the drugs allow them to enjoy life longer? Spuds has seen two of our neighbors continue to walk their elderly dogs slowly and obviously painfully, refusing to accept that their canine companions are stoically doing what they think their masters want when the dogs would rather be lying down and trying to forget how much pain they’re in.

8. I always loved Mary Hopkin…

9. ADDED: Harris Teeter has a crummy scam working. Thursdays are known around here as “Geezer Days”: the upscalish supermarket gives 5% discounts on your grocery bill if you are 65 or more. Recently, however those senior discount days have been notable for having almost no sales, ‘2 for 1s’ or other discounts on the merchandise. As a result (I did a little testing) the same grocery cart on “Geezer Day” will often cost more than it would the day before or after. Nice, Harris Teeter. Fool the old folks when they think you’re doing them a favor.