This is one of the days I already have the topics lined up I want to post about, so try to do me a favor. While exploring ethics issues of your own choosing here, please don’t preempt me so I have to go looking for new topics unless you choose to write on one of the topics below in sufficient detail that I don’t have to. THAT I always appreciate. The looming posts are on:
- The school principle in Washington state who responded to someone scrawling a swastika on a campus wall by reminding parents that in some cultures the symbol “has deep historical and cultural significance in other parts of the world.”
- The hilarious response of the Harris campaign to the sudden focus on Tim Walz’s habit of lying his fool head off, nicely exposed in his debate with J.D. Vance.
- Ethics issues raised by AI’s ability to play Rich Little and convincingly imitate celebrity voices, and…
- President Biden’s bone-chilling response when asked “What do the states in the storm zone need — after what you saw today?” Biden said, in sum,”Which storm?”
Here is also a good place to note that I won a million dollar bet with myself that indefatigable New York Times apologist “A Friend” would respond to this post with along protest. Unfortunately “A Friend” got himself banned long ago by 1) violating the comment policies by telling me how to moderate EA and 2) eliminating any chance of being reinstated by defying the ban any time he feels like commenting, conduct that is disrespectful of the forum, and me. Here’s a tip: if you get banned, the proper and almost always successful response is “I’m sorry, I understand, and I promise to be good if you give me a second chance.”
I don’t read these unauthorized replies before sending them directly to Spam Hell, but in this case my eye caught just enough words in the first paragraph to see where the post was going: Because the Times included an op-ed critical of Walz in the same batch as M. Gessen advocating partisan bias and censorship by journalists, A Friend thinks that justifies the Times giving a regular platform to an opponent of ethical journalism and free speech. It doesn’t. There are more than one rationalizations on the list with commentary that explains that, as in the discussion of “Ethics Accounting.”
Ethics Alarms 
Is anyone else seeing the crazy reports out of the Hurricane zone?
These are some of the things I have found being reported.
-Majorkas has stated that FEMA is broke and will not help rebuild the storm damaged areas. We will print money to help Ukraine, Israel, and illegal immigrants, but American citizens are SOL.
– Buttigeig has grounded all air traffic in the disaster area. That means all relief flights have to stop because FEMA isn’t there yet. So, what relief and search and rescue there has been has to stop. You can’t even use drones to search for people at this point. This may be why the fire marshall threatened to arrest a helicopter pilot for rescuing people.
-There is one report that parts of the special forces at Fr. Bragg have effectively mutinied and are carrying our relief flights despite being ordered not to.
-FEMA is going to fundraisers in nearby areas and confiscating the money, saying that only fundraising for the Red Cross or United Way is authorized. Is this true or is it just thieves posing as FEMA people?
Is anyone getting a better picture than this? I don’t want to believe this is true, but there is enough of it on X and it isn’t getting community noted, so I’m not sure.
I’ve been hearing a lot of this, as well. It isn’t just the incompetency and screwed up priorities of the government that bothers me. I believe strongly in the principle of subsidiarity, in which those closest to the problem are the ones obligated to assist. For the government to ground local efforts flies in the face of that principle. People in the area can help and want to help, and the government wants to red tape everything. Why? I can’t believe that doing so brings them any political advantage, because the optics (the already delayed response, the lack of empathy or understanding from our highest officials, that people who could be helped immediately through local aid will likely die) are so terrible. Unless the government wants a higher body count? Unless the government feels it is worse to show the country that you don’t recourse to the federal government for everything? Unless delaying aid is impacting heavily conservative areas, which might be enough to swing North Carolina blue in the election?
“For the government to ground local efforts flies in the face of that principle. “
Agreed. Hurricane Harvey dumped 5 to 6 days of non-stop rain on the Houston area. The region flooded, with estimates that some parts were under 20 feet of water. Initially, the local residents (many with boats and rafts) set out to rescue people stranded on housetops. The Mayor at the time, along with the County Judge, told them to stop – for their own safety. The Mayor and the County Judge quickly reconsidered (within hours, I believe) and openly embraced the local help. realizing that the area was so huge, any relief efforts by local, state, and federal agencies and other nongovernmental relief groups would be insufficient as they were already overwhelmed. As awful as it was, the local officials did a fairly decent job.
What I am seeing from North Caroline, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida is striking. Mayorkas needs to be fired. Buttegieg needs to be fired. FEMA’s response is abysmal.
jvb
Ah yes, the Cajun Navy—Redneck Brigade to the rescue!
PWS
I’m not aware that FEMA is allowed to confiscate anything for any reason. I suspect whoever is doing this is not legitimate. The government does not have the authority to prevent people from donating money to whomever they choose.
If the issue is people collecting and spending money without paying taxes, that’s the IRS’s business. If the issue is people soliciting contributions without a nonprofit status (i.e. panhandling), then the police can decide if they want to deal with that.
That is actually what I suspect, but I do remember that the trucker boycott in Canada resulted in Canada seizing the donated funds for the truckers and keeping it for themselves, so I’m not ruling anything out.
Are the…um…Walz closing in?
As Fraud Scandals Erupt In Minnesota On Gov. Tim Walz’ Watch, ACCOUNTABILITY IS IN SHORT SUPPLY
MONEY QUOTE: CNN reviewed more than a dozen reports from (Randall’s) office that held specific agencies responsible for allowing fraud, waste or mismanagement on their watch during the Walz administration. (bolds/italics mine) Nonpartisan MN State Auditor Judy Randall
PWS
I’m at work. Has any VP been replaced on a ticket before the election?
Sure! Remember poor Thomas Eagleton?
cool, something new about the Cold War Era. Also a sad reminder that NPR used to be able to provide information, not just propaganda.
A topical quiz.
The mobbed-up, overpaid longshoreman’s union has suspended its east cost and Gulf ports <s>extortion</s> strike until January because:
A) They’re truly concerned with the welfare of the general public, especially in the hurricane damaged regions.
B) They realize they don’t currently have their usual level (whatever that might be) of support and goodwill from the public (again, because of the emergency situation).
C) The DNC has made it clear that it’s hurting THEM, and their usual union pandering won’t be as easy to deliver or as generous if Kackles doesn’t get elected.
DiSantis’ ordering the National Guard to reopen the ports in Florida may have had something to do with that decision. All traffic would have been rerouted from NY/NJ, Philadelphia and Baltimore to Florida or Norfolk if Younkin followed suit but his NG is at work in SW Virginia.
Port facilities are owned by the state and lease operations to steamship lines who contract with the ILA to move cargo on and off. If the ILA tries to interfere with port facilities then the state can step in.
No matter which option turns out to be true (if only one applies, which is not certain) one almost certain thing to come out of this is a full-court press by the various port authorities to automate as much of their port operations as possible. The machines do not stage walkouts or strikes. They also don’t require vacations, personal use days, sick leave, or maternity/paternity leave.
I’ve seen videos of the Amazon warehouses where the robots run around picking items off shelves and putting them in baskets and then labeling them for shipment. Build bigger robots. There are already carriers reminiscent of the lumber carriers you see in large lumber yards moving containers around in the container yards. If Musk can bring expended rocket stages back for re-use, he can probably put remote control on those carriers.
By the time the new contract expires many of the current workers will be reading “Coding For Dummies” in classes for obsolete longshoremen.
I think they’ve already done a lot of that — the reporting is that there is only one actual job for every two union members who are getting paid for the work.
Oh, I found out why Kamala Harris keeps saying “I can see what can be, unburdened by what has been”. It is apparently from Marx. It is saying that we can build the Marxist future by destroying the past. This is basically saying I can envision Mao’s Cultural Revolution. It is a call to Marxist revolution, as when AOC says “We have a world to win.”
As a resident of one of the areas hit by this hurricane, I say this: “If anyone in government, local, state or federal, thinks they can stop mountain people from helping other mountain people they don’t know MOUNTAIN PEOPLE. We are in a class of our own and although many are church going and God fearing people they just might give the finger to anyone who tries to stop them.”
CNN Accuses Biden Of Trying To OVERSHADOW KAMALA
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
PWS
In an area thoroughly outside the realm typically considered here (but in my opinion still worth sharing and discussing):
On October 1, the lead developer of the Nintendo Switch emulator Ryujinx was “contacted” by Nintendo and made an “offer”, which resulted in him privating the GitHub organization and source repository with no communication to users. Other maintainers sent out messages addressing this (though not disclosing any details, save for one, more on that later), but gdkchan (the lead developer) has said nothing.
This is coming not long after the competing Switch emulator yuzu (yes that is the correct capitalization) was shutdown following a DMCA notice from Nintendo. In many ways, yuzu was asking for it, distributing early builds on Patreon and linking to Switch keys published online as well as leaked games.
Ryujinx was largely considered by the community to be legally untouchable; the project required an individual to dump their own keys, firmware, and ROMs (or acquire them through some other means unaffiliated with the project) and is an entirely clean-room reimplementation based on publicly available information about the hardware and reverse-engineering of games which ran on the target hardware. Importantly, the project does not contain any material derived from copyrighted Nintendo materials. Nonetheless, Nintendo does not like emulators, and have over the years even tried to take down emulators for systems 20 years out of date that cannot be purchased anymore.
Anyway, getting back to the takedown: Shortly after the repo was removed, one of the maintainers made a (now deleted) commend on a Reddit thread stating that Nintendo agents showed up at gdkchan’s house with the “offer”, and given Nintendo’s MO in this area, likely threatened him. (gdkchan is also based in Brazil, which has notoriously weak copyright laws, so it’s also likely that Nintendo didn’t think they’d be able to bring a suit against him.)
This is also not the first time they have done this kind of thing. In addition to that link, I also remember there being instances more directly similar before 2020, though I don’t have any links for those. These kinds of agents have become referred to as “Nintendo Ninjas” in some circles.
Some topics relating to this: