In the scene above, which has already made it onto many lists of American cinema’s best ending scenes, Michael Clayton, a law firm fixer who has survived a murder attempt paid for by the general counsel of a chemical company that presents its products as boons to civilization but which is really covering up a massive pollution scandal, confronts the general counsel with his survival, knowledge of her and her company’s crimes. Unknown to her Clayton is wearing a wire, and her incriminating responses to the confrontation will bring down the company. Arthur, Clayton’s friend whom he refers to, was the whistle-blowing lawyer that the general counsel had murdered to prevent him from revealing the smoking gun company document Clayton is holding, evidence of the company’s knowing contamination that harmed or killed millions.

It is ironic that George Clooney, in what is easily his best movie and best performance, played a central role in the failed Democratic Party palace coup that resulted in the disastrous campaign and defeat of Kamala Harris. The unhinged and folish reactions of the now re-loading “resistance,” Democrats and their corrupt media allies (“The Axis of Unethical Conduct” in Ethics Alarms parlance) brought this scene to mind. You should show it to your deranged Facebook friends and relatives, but here’s a guide for you to use if they are incapable of grasping the lessons it holds…

1. “Pretty freaky, huh?” The Axis was certain that it had “killed” Donald Trump, and yet there he was, the agent of condign justice. All of the political prosecutions, the contrived impeachments, the Big Lies, the misuse of his words, engineered by Democrats, the news media, the Biden administration, the Justice Department and unethical Democratic state prosecutors behaving as party operatives are now as futile as the car bomb the evil chemical company has placed in Clayton’s car. Jonathan Turley has a useful summary of the legal bombs that missed their intended victim.

2. “You got one of these? It’s a great memo….Got your heart racing, don’t I?” The Democrats and their allies cheated (and continue to cheat) lied, demonized its opposition, violated myriad previous democratic norms, values and traditions while accusing their opponents of what they were doing, and generally behaved like totalitarian regime. Now they are going to be exposed, because smoking gun evidence and whistleblowers are in hand.

Item: “A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) official has been removed from a role after directing disaster relief workers to skip homes “advertising” support for President-elect Trump after the devastating hurricanes in Florida. In a statement to Fox News Digital, a FEMA spokesperson said the agency is “deeply disturbed” after the incident,” noting the official who gave the instruction “was given no direction to tell teams to avoid these homes.” “While we believe this is an isolated incident, we have taken measures to remove the employee from their role and are investigating the matter to prevent this from happening ever again,” the spokesperson said. “The employee who issued this guidance had no authority and was given no direction to tell teams to avoid these homes, and we are reaching out to the people who may have not been reached as a result of this incident.”

Item: In the course of blowing through over a billion dollars of campaign funds and twice what the Trump campaign spent the Harris campaign paid Oprah Winfrey’s company one million dollars for her appearance at rallies and, most damning of all, to interview Harris. Needless to say, that’s unethical journalism by Winfrey, and dishonest campaigning by Harris. It appears that many if not all of Harris’s celebrity endorsers were also paid. That makes such endorsements lies. All but the most brain dead of the public are going to learn that Harris’s campaign played them as marks.

3. “See, now, that’s just not the way to go here, Karen.” In the face of a well-earned defeat, the Democrats and the now emotionally and mentally impaired victims of their propaganda are alternately proclaiming more lies, throwing around accusations, calling Americans stupid, racist and otherwise evil, and behaving like the deluded extremists and fanatics that they are. For example,

• Jimmy Kimmel, the vilest of the late night progressive comics, said, “Let’s be honest, it was a terrible night last night. It was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of hard-working immigrants who make this country go, for healthcare, for our climate, for science, for journalism, for justice, for free speech. It was a terrible night for poor people, for the middle class, for seniors who rely on Social Security, for our allies in Ukraine, for NATO, for the truth and democracy and decency and it was a terrible night for everyone who voted against him, and guess what? It was a bad night for everyone who voted for him too. You just don’t realize it yet.” The arrogance of Kimmel’s dismissal of a national verdict on his party’s governance is typical (not funny, by the way: who is Jimmy Kimmel to use a national platform for political advocacy?) of the progressives who don’t like or trust democracy. They know best. That attitude is why Trump has the support he does. Not the way to go here.
• Item: “Liberal women are withholding sex from men and shaving their heads to protest President-elect Donald Trump’s landslide victory over Kamala Harris. The demonstration was inspired by South Korea’s “4B” movement against gender-based violence where some women in that country have vowed to follow the four “no’s” — no sex, no dating or marriage and no having children with men. The trend took off in the US on TikTok after Trump’s win Tuesday, with many women posting about their refusal to engage with men romantically or sexually over the next four years, citing dwindling abortion access across the nation and an increase in young male Republican voters.”

Well. Punishing those who just disagree with your politics is not the way to go here. Treating the victory of a candidate who was previously President and had a reasonably successful as if it were the equivalent of “sexual violence” or Iranian suppression of human rights is not the way to go here. Behaving like the Manson Family murder defendants when they shaved their heads is not the way to go here.

4. “For such a smart person, you really are lost, aren’t you?” Yes, they are. I could, and maybe should, say this to about a hundred of my Trump-Deranged friends, like this poor guy. There is Allen Lichtman, of course. Let me just go to Facebook and see if I can quickly find a new crazy post… here’s one!

Not the way to go here! You do not, my friend, persuade people with threats (and a personal note: you’re kind of an asshole, and I wouldn’t think that a threat of losing the friendship of someone like who—who routinely engages in political screeds about matters you don’t understand—is going to have that much impact). This also makes you look like an idiot. What “rights” has Donald Trump ever taken away from anyone? Meanwhile, your party is the party of censorship and attacks on the First and Second Amendment. No, not the way to go here. At all.

5. “Are you so fucking blind you don’t even see what I am?I’m the easiest part of your whole goddamn problem.” All the Democrats and the Left had to do was to show basic respect for those who don’t agree with them. Respect their choices of leaders. Not demonize them by calling them deplorable, garbage, stupid, bigots, racists and more because they don’t want to dismantle core American principles. All they have to do is behave like political parties, and the Democratic Party specifically, used to behave, with moderation, good faith, civility, and patriotism. But they are so fucking blind and full of self-anointed virtue that they can’t do it. And they are clearly committed to continuing this pattern.

6. “Do I look like I’m negotiating?!” The Democrats lost ground with almost every demographic group but young, unmarried women, who believe that being able to kill their children is more important than the fate of the nation. The Democrats are welcome to them: they are single issue fanatics, and single issue fanatics are bad citizens.Everyone else is losing trust in the Left. The news media has squandered any credibility and presumptions of good faith. The message to the Axis is “Reform, stop trying to unravel and divide the nation, or get lost.” It’s not a request. Let’s see if the New York Times gets it…Maybe! I see “Democrats and the Case of Mistaken Identity Politics” (“Some Democrats are finally waking up and realizing that woke is broke.”) I see “The Elites Had It Coming.” I see “Maybe Now Democrats Will Address Working Class Pain.”

7. “You’re so fucked.” The reactions I am seeing on CNN, MSNBC, from AOC and Nancy Pelosi, from my emotionally disturbed friends, tell me that they are fucked, at least until they accept the fact that they have been wrong on policy, wrong about the nation, wrong on ethics, wrong on methods, just plain wrong.

8. “I’m Shiva, the god of death.” Yup. That’s Donald Trump.