I have accumulated so many items, election-related and non-election related, that I am forced to get up one of the potpourri posts even though their work/response ratio is terrible.
I did have a moment of clarity regarding our Once and Future President, however. Trump’s insistence that he won the 2020 election, not just that it was rigged (as it was) against him, and not just that he should have won the Electoral Vote, but that he literally won it, as in getting more votes than Biden, has always been pretty embarrassing, especially since he never yielded on the point and repeated it ad nauseam. The claim certainly gave ammunition to the Trump Deranged, the Axis of Unethical Conduct, and the “Trump lies all the time” mobs. He couldn’t prove it, and it seemed like a scab that Trump kept picking at and wouldn’t allow to heal. I now think that it is possible that there was a method to his madness [“Hamlet” by William Shakespeare: “Though this be madness, yet there is method in it;” Act 2, Scene 2.] as there often is.
I realized this after writing the post about the history of Presidents winning elections after losing one. Only Richard Nixon won the Presidency after losing both the popular vote and in the Electoral College in a previous election. Usually losing Presidential candidates are permanently tarred after a loss; they are seen by both their parties and the public as “losers.” Why nominate or vote for a loser? Even in Nixon’s case, he felt the need to separate himself from his past: in 1968, he branded himself as “the new Nixon,” even appearing in a self-mocking cameo on “Rowen and Martin’s Laugh-in” (“Sock it to me??).
As a salesman and promoter, Trump had to know the toxic effect of being branded a loser, and “loser” is one of his go-to insults. I don’t think he really was convinced that he won the popular vote, but rather that he felt branding himself as a foiled winner rather than publicly accepting the reality that he lost was the right play. Trump could run as a winner, and if his obstinate insistence that he won in 2020 was a target for Axis ridicule and condemnation, so be it. It was worth it for him to never accept the label “loser.”
Dishonest? Unethical? Sure. But not crazy. And in the context of Presidential campaign framing, not very far outside the norm, if at all.
And now here’s the rest of the story…
1. Yes, Abe is going to be the Ethics Alarms poster President for the 2024 election. The first time I referenced Lincoln’s famous quote, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time,” was here, two months before last week’s election. I repeated my faith in Abe a month later, here. It was clear to me that the Democrats were resting their entire argument for electing Harris on the public’s gullibility. “Democrats, Harris, and the New York Times’ Axis members are all counting on Lincoln being wrong,” I wrote. “History tells us that where the United States is concerned, Abe is usually right.”
2. Can we agree that George Conway and Mary Trump are unprincipled grifters, and no one but Stage 5 Trump Derangement victims can be excused for paying any attention to either of them? I can’t decide which is more repellent. Conway used his wife’s prominence as a Trump aide to get undeserved publicity as the most vocal of the NeverTrumpers and to help start the Lincoln Project (ironic, that, no?). As a consequence he tore his family apart, lost his marriage and is estranged from his daughter, but he made money and is still on the MSNBC showrunner’s speed dial, so it’s all good.
Indeed, Conway turned up on that execrable network yesterday, joining in the chorus of pundits who argue that Trump voters were just ignorant and stupid. He said, among other things, that the voters “don’t know basic things about what Trump has done. Whenever Trump says something crazy and starts to perform vulgar acts on a microphone. You know, they change the channel. I mean, the network changes the channel.” DINGDINGDINGDING! And there you have it. Conway repeated the flat out, Axis-spread lie that Trump was “performing a vulgar act” when he was obviously miming his difficulty using a dead microphone (and he didn’t use a microphone to perform his pantomime.) That’s all we need to know about Conway. He’s lying scum. As for Mary Trump, who has exploited her family ties with the President-Elect (she’s his niece) to be a well-paid hero of the Trump-Deranged via a “tell-all” book and a podcast, she issued a YouTube video blathering, “We have to remember that fascism takes hold when we are silent. Fascism grows stronger when we obey and advance…There is so much to be done.”
Right: like refusing to pay attention to someone who has had very little contact with the man she keeps unethically diagnosing (she’s psychologist) to achieve a partisan agenda.
3. Well, that’s certainly embarrassing…Following the election, the Selma Times-Journal changed its Facebook cover photo to a bale of cotton. Times-Journal publisher Brent Maze apologized for the post, saying there was no ill intent behind the picture and it was not meant to convey something “controversial or in bad taste….Unfortunately, a staff member had changed the Facebook page’s cover image to the picture of a bale of cotton,” Maze said. “There was no ill intent meant by the image. … I regret that the image was posted, and I apologize on behalf of the Times-Journal staff for any harm that this has caused. We will learn from this and do better in the future.”
Gee, I would hope so.
4. Can someone explain to me how Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) thought it was fair or legal to fire a woman for not getting her Wuhan virus vaccination when she was working entirely from home? Lisa Domski, who worked at the insurance company for more than 30 years as an IT specialist, received $10 million in punitive damages against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan after winning a lawsuit. The jury also awarded her approximately $1.7 million in lost wages and $1 million in non-economic damages. Her attorney argued that even without a vaccination, she posed no risk to others due to her remote work arrangement. Domski claimed a religious exemption, but I can’t see why she would have to. I presume that Blue Cross’s logic had to do with health insurance, but employers can’t reach into one’s private life and dictate your healthcare choices.
I got in a dispute with the executive director of an association I worked for by vocally opposing (and ultimately blocking) his policy of telling employees that they couldn’t smoke in their own homes. (He eventually fired me.)
5. Back to post-election freakouts: Fraternity and Sorority Life Assistant Director Leonard Serrato at the University of Oregon posted on Instagram, “You can literally go fuck yourself if you voted for Donald Trump. If you are so sad about your groceries being expensive, get a better fucking paying job. Do better for yourself. Get a fucking education. Because you’re fucking stupid. And I hope you go jump off of a fucking bridge.”
He has been placed on administrative leave, but I’m sure we will see a sincere apology from him stating that those comments did not represent his true views. Can anyone recall disappointed Republicans or conservatives reacting so outrageously after a loss by one of their candidates? I have seen dozens of these from Harris toadies.
6. Today’s obligatory “Harvard is an Ethics Dunce” note: the president of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, Pratyush Mallick, issued an op-ed for The Harvard Crimson that the institute should abandon non-partisanship and align with the “resistance” while rejecting neutrality in its programs and grants. “We must strive to defend principles of democracy, due process, and justice precisely to ensure that we can continue carrying out our age-old mission of nonpartisanship,” he wrote.
7. Journalism Hypocrites of the Century: The Washington Post. Unbelievable, except that it’s too believable. The Post published this editorial: “Trying to protect Biden, Democrats sacrificed their credibility: Democrats’ coverup of the president’s decline hurt their claim of being the party of truth.”
Uh, where was the Post? The evidence of Biden’s mental decline was front and center for years. In D.C., it was an open secret. What happened to the vaunted Post investigative reporting? When did a Post reporter ever grill Karine Saint-Pierre about Biden’s competence rather than leaving the job to Fox News’ Peter Doocy? The Post knew what everyone else knew: if there was a cover-up, and there was, he Post was part of it, indeed, essential to it. The Post is ethically estopped from attacking Democrats for perpetuating this deception on the American people.
Ethics Alarms 
5. “Get a better paying job”? That’s one of the most stereotypically conservative statements I’ve ever heard. I thought the Democrats were supposed to be the party that supports poor people. Now they’re admonishing people to work harder to make more money? Maybe this person has forgotten his party lines.
Or does he mean “everyone go to college (and join a fraternity or sorority) so that I can make more money, and then lobby the government to subsidize your student loans like everyone else when you wind up back in the same job”?
Right now neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have platforms that will result in a thriving economy, and the first step towards changing that is speaking up to lay out what’s wrong with simplistic proposals for economic solutions.
Oh, stuff it, EC. And your pedantic tripe. The Dems have been telling coal miners in West Virginia and out of work steel workers in Ohio to learn how to code for years.
This is true; however, I do remember a Republican prior to 2008 – his name escapes me – suggesting that people cancel their cable TV if they are having financial struggles and the Democrats and their allies acting as if he were telling people to sell their kids.
It was a talking point among Democrats for years that those types of suggestions were tone deaf.
Then Barack Obama and the so-called Intellectuals got in and then it was okay for him to tell people objecting to the huge prices of Affordable Care Act plans to “take a less nicer vacation”.
Remember the double standard. When Republicans say or do it, it’s evil; when Democrats do or say it, it’s because it’s true and they know what’s best.
OB
I think the better response to EC is that both had economic plans. Harris’ plan was to implement centralized planning in terms of what was to be produced and its maximum price while subsidizing wide swaths of the public with other people’s money. This will require ongoing subsidies because income and wealth are not synonymous. I would be expected that unearned income from public sources will be used for immediate consumption rather than stored for wealth creation. This is based on current regulations that limit wealth to obtain income subsidies. One of the reasons for the ongoing income/wealth gap is that we do little to incentivize deferred consumption (Saving) so that multiple income streams can created over time. In short, the Harris plan will do little to advance the incomes of the poorest and could create even more poor.
Conversely, in a Market system, one that Trump supports, the plan is to decentralize the decision making in terms of what to produce and let the price reflect the will of the consuming people; how democratic. By limiting, regulatory burdens the government will not distort decision making by producers and consumers. Lower taxes can, and have been demonstrated to increase income so that total tax receipts rise. The combination of reducing government spending – and I mean actually reducing it not limiting rates of growth will lower the deficits which is a start toward getting to a point where the debt starts to get paid off. That will not occur under any of the next few presidents with out massive cuts anyway so the best Trump can achieve is getting the process started.
Also.
Life and flourishing are more than merely chasing the next higher paying job.
Have a wife? Have kids? Get a higher paying job? Disrupt their lives – every 6 months. No? That’s your own damn fault, apparently.
We will not see true prosperity without stability. And while supply and demand and resulting pricing can flucuate, perpetual inflation outpacing average wages is a real problem – not pedantic.
With the source of the higher prices not primarily being supply and demand, but rather federal fiscal policies that are disconnected from value exchange and creation at the feet on the ground level, how could EC’s comment be pedantic tripe?
I fully own my responsibility to get a higher paying job if I want to buy some candy. But, it is not my fault that the government inderectly taxes the shit out of me due to inflation which I can’t escape. It’s not like inflation starts generating lots of high pay jobs!
OhWhatFunIt Is
I understand OB’s statement. EC approaches virtually all conflicts as something that can be resolved through listening and actually hearing the other side. As a result, EC rarely takes sides. The point that IMHO OB was making was to pick a side that is the most reasonable and stop hedging on every issue. I could be wrong but that is how I took it. I actually made a similar comment some weeks ago.
I have come to understand that EC sees himself as a constructive mediator who works to bring countervailing points of view to some type of productive conclusion. This can come off as creating the impression he has a superior perspective on all things and pedantic. He has clarified himself in responses to me so I am toning down my rhetoric in responses to him. If we approach using EC’s own recommended techniques which can be valuable we can see that EC is trying to explain an electoral outcome in the US. I understand he is Canadian so his outlook is framed differently than ours.
Progressives are now frothing at the mouth that the election was stolen by Trump. It’s funny to watch them twist themselves in knots explaining how 2020 was a completely fair and trustworthy election, but there was obvious cheating in 2024. I’m wondering if any left-leaning press outlet will dare approach the issue after the talk of election denial 4 years ago.
Also humorous is watching them describe Harris as the best candidate in 20 years and with the best run campaign in modern history. Any suggestion that she was a weak candidate running on a poor platform that was terribly run is countered with accusations of sexism and racism. Good to know they completely lack any ability to be truly introspective and actually learn from their mistakes.
#6 – I’m not sure which is worse; that he thinks Harvard is nonpartisan, or that he thinks “we must become partisan to protect our nonpartisanship” is a good argument.
They used to say that Hillary was the most qualified. Apparently, every Democratic candidate is the most qualified candidate possible. What a steaming pile.
Each time I hear that Harris lost due to sexism and racism I will be asking was it sexist and racist to vote for her simply because she was a black woman.
So, I guess it depends what ‘cheating’ means.
In the 2024 election, Trump was Trump. He had the same policy positions he had in 2020, more or less. Did he do some things differently? Yes, more social media, less traditional media, this was more due to the availability of a free social media platform and the restrictions of the traditional press. One big difference was a major push to publicize and stop vote fraud. As a result, there were 10’s of millions of fewer votes, despite record turnout. My favorite was the State of Georgia. On Monday, November 4, the State of Georgia was in court to defend their decision to count mail-in ballots that arrived after the close of the polls (against the law). The district court allowed it and the Georgia Supreme Court probably really wanted to let them, they just had to give a plausible reason (e.g. delays at the post office). Instead, the election officials stated that they accepted applications as late as Friday, November 1 and they had just started processing them that day (because…weekend). The ballots weren’t even going to get MAILED OUT until election day or later! Republicans got election observers in places that they weren’t allowed before. They forced the courts to open up the polls and counting houses to Republican observers, not just Democrat ones.
The Harris campaign did about the same thing as 2020 as well. They focused on demonizing Trump and putting forth no actual policies. This time, however, they campaigned. They had huge concerts/rallies paid for with $10’s of millions. They paid every celebrity possible to endorse her (Oprah got $1 million, Beyonce even more, for example). As before, all the mainstream media campaigned for her. In the end, 15 million votes disappeared.
So, did Trump somehow destroy 15 million ballots that were controlled from the mail to the counting facility almost entirely by Democrats? Perhaps the anti-vote fraud effort paid off. Maybe that is what the Harris crowd means by ‘cheating’.
Let me check the Democratic Party glossary:
‘Conversion Therapy’ – When you tell someone that they are fine the way that they are and try to help them accept themselves.
‘Affirming Care’ -When you tell someone they are broken and have to be fixed by extensive surgery, hormone, and behavioral therapy.
‘Fascism’ – When you support free speech, honest elections, civil rights, and equal rights.
‘Democracy’-When you closely regulate speech, ban all controls on who can vote or how, use a 2-tiered justice system to punish those who disagree with you, fiercely prosecute political opponents of the current regime, and determine opportunities and rights based on skin color and how you have sex.
‘Migrant’- someone who comes to a country if they have brown or black skin.
‘Invader’ or ‘Colonizer’- someone who comes to a country if they have white skin.
‘Honest Elections’ – ones where vote harvesting, ballot destruction of you opponents, and photocopying of ballots is done to ensure the ‘right’ outcome.
‘Cheating’ – when you prevent what needs to be done to achieve the ‘right’ outcome.
Oh, Germany has now stated they are going to ban the 2nd most popular party in the country to ‘save democracy’. They are also going to ban X.com because free speech is too great a threat to ‘democracy’. See how this works with the Democratic Party glossary above.
https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2024-11/afd-verbot-verfahren-marco-wanderwitz-bundesverfassungsgericht-karlsruhe
https://nypost.com/2024/11/10/us-news/columbia-university-students-plan-anti-veterans-day-protest-to-honor-martyrs-of-us-war-machine/
Heads up, everyone! Apparently this is inspired the idiots at Columbia University to go a step farther and probably a step too far. Protesting American veterans is probably an invitation to getting thumped on.
They will leave this protest and go to the one where they demand the US military give Ukraine long-range missiles to strike apartment buildings in Russia. After that, they will go to the protest that claims that Trump’s plans to end wars in Ukraine and Gaza are ‘fascist’.
If the left didn’t have double standards, they would have no standards at all.
I like these posts and thank you for taking the time to make them. This is an interesting summary of current events.
”employers can’t reach into one’s private life and dictate your healthcare choices”Nurses always require vaccines, always. They will be fired if they don’t get them. Many jobs dictate your heath care choices. Especially who you choose as your primary physician just because of the health insurance they provide. I agree it should be less when you work at home, but the large companies have more control over their staff than you’d like to see.
The Republican response is always get a job and better your own situation, the ranty response is “If you don’t like it, leave.” I find it funny that he used the same argument. Maybe there could be common ground.
re: cotton. I understand the negative historical premise of cotton, slavery and the south. However, continued horror to all images of cotton is ridiculous and irrational, among other things. Would there be such horror to a bale of hay? Corn? Wheat? Peanuts? Laundry? No. Live non enslaved people grow that, using machines. It’s a form of permitted discrimination.
Nurses definitely don’t work at home, and like dental hygienists, must have some special health care requirements. And I am sure large companies exercise unethical control over many employees, but that doesn’t make that practice ethical. I’ve been in organizations that tried to dictate private time activities (in my case, theater: I told more than one boss to get bent) and charitable activities. (Same response from me.)
As for the cotton, occurring just after an election in which accusations of racism against one candidate were rife, such mitigating arguments are and were futile.
Let’s stop the equivalency of medical experiment with well established safe vaccine. This is the same as the equivalency of ‘immigrant’ with ‘illegal immigrant’.
The COVID vaccines were EUA medicines, not FDA approved. Of course, now the FDA is approving the mRNA vaccines without ANY clinical data, so I don’t know what FDA approval means anymore. At the time, however, these were clearly classified as medical experiments. Firing someone for refusing to participate in medical experimentation should not be legal and in the military it isn’t. The military broke the law and the Supreme Court either was too stupid to realize it or winked at the bait-and-switch placed in front of them. *
*If you wonder what I mean, there is a court ruling that military members cannot be required to participate in a medical experiment. The COVID vaccines clearly were. So, the FDA ‘approved’ a vaccine to satisfy the lawsuit. However, the soldiers were not forced to take the FDA ‘approved’ vaccine, they were given the EUA one (they had different formulations). It is unclear to me if the FDA ‘approved’ vaccine was ever even produced or if it was just there to confound the legal system. Someone challenged the pharmacist ovethe FDA status of the COVID boosters almost a year after that ruling and when he checked, their COVID vaccine was EUA, not FDA approved.
Of course, it was obvious that Joe Biden was in decline. Republicans saw it clearly in 2020. I still maintain that the plan (likely without the knowledge of Joe, Dr. Jill and their staunchest supporters) was to give him a year in office before his health issues had progressed sufficiently enough that he could be forced out and VP Harris installed as the historic first female black(ish) President with all the glory, honor and regnal adoration that would involve and everyone who questioned her competence was both racist and sexist.
But as the President’s health progressively got worse, the realization that the Vice-President really was an empty suit set in and they were stuck. Articles began appearing about how she wasn’t being given much to do and that her massive unpopularity was confusing.
So the decision was made to just keep the President under wraps and enlist KJP and the advocacy media to cover for him while engaging in lawfare against Trump to ensure he wouldn’t be the Republican candidate.
It didn’t work.
Making sure that no one could challenge Biden – after all, if he beat Trump before, he could do it again – they kept up the same drumbeat they did in 2020 (racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and NationalAbortionBanProject2025HitlerNaziFacist).
And then came the debate.
Panic ensued, they couldn’t run Biden and they couldn’t ditch Harris without upsetting the loudest Progressive voices and offending their captive African-American voters. Biden and his enablers were digging in their heels. The DNC, including – probably – Barack Obama, told him he would be removed via the 25th Amendment if he didn’t withdraw from the race. If he did that, he would be permitted to stay in office until the new President’s term began.
Closed convention time! The DNC – in order to save democracy – anoints the candidate. As Bernie Sanders found out, the voters don’t matter.
Watching Kamala Harris refuse to do unscripted, unedited interviews and failing to articulate her policy points (or reversing some of them aka lying to get votes as Sen. Sanders said), the media – either out of resentment or because they could tell where the prevailing winds were blowing – decided to avoid endorsing anyone.
Desperate, the Harris campaign turned to its friends in Hollywood who came out in droves with fundraisers and endorsements. Barack Obama was trotted out to lecture African-American men on their required fealty to the Democratic Party/a black(ish) woman.
It didn’t work.
Americans in the millions saw through it all.
PWS
The Democrats, in their fury, have laid their cards on the table. What are the excuses, or rather their indictments, as to why Trump won?
(1) The little people didn’t do as they were told. That’s right, don’t blame Harris or Biden. Harris was flawless! The problem is that the American people didn’t do what Harris told them to do. In Democratland, the people have to do what the Democrats tell them to do. If they don’t, they need to be forced to do so. There is no need for the Democratic Party to persuade voters that Democratic policies and proposals are the best, the people are too stupid to see that. The people just need to listen to their betters and do as they are told or they may not get any food stamps or FEMA aid when they need it.
(2) People got information from sources other than the Democratic Party. People saw news from other sources and decided to believe their ‘lyin’ eyes’ instead of what the Democratic-Party-approved sources told them. According to them, this needs to stop.
So, you can only listen to what WE tell you and you will do what WE tell you to do is the message of the Democratic Party.
Per a lefty friend: “The working class voted for Trump because they think he cares about the working class, but he doesn’t.” The official Dem term for this is “people voting against their interests.” They are just relentless.
Getting kind of tired of the Left telling me what is and is not in my best interests.
It’s as if they think they should be in charge of that…
I like the new trick placed by the media: Biden should resign now, install Harris as president, and give her the glory of being the first Black, woman president.
jvb
It’s obviously a ridiculous notion because Biden resents deeply how he was dumped, and doing anything to please Harris is the furthest thing from his mind, or what’s left of it. He’s thrilled that he can always say, “I would have beaten Trump,” and no one can prove otherwise.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are now trapped into nominating a woman fOREVER until one of them wins. Good luck with that.
Would the Vice-President really want what amounts to a consolation prize? A Pity Presidency?
Kamala? Her whole career has been based on advancement that she didn’t earn. Sure—to be the first woman President, with a guaranteed place in the history books? And as a special bonus, Pimona alums wouldn’t have their 47 problem any more, because Trump would become #48!
But talk about “breaking democratic norms”…!!!
Good point. Biden still won’t do it, but wouldn’t it be interesting to see what, if anything, she could do in 2 months?
I made a joke about that the other day. I should have know someone in that camp would make a serious play for it.
I suppose Biden could resign and let her play President for a couple of months – pardon the turkey, pick the Christmas decorations and sign a bunch of unconstitutional executive orders while gracing the cover of every single magazine in the country.
But he won’t. I do have to wonder how invested he and Dr. Jill were in Harris’ candidacy after he withdrew from the race. I saw a picture of the First Lady wearing a red suit on election day. Wrong optics there…or were they?
I suspect Biden’s endorsement of Harris was a stick in the eyes of Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, et al, saying, “Yeah, you kicked me to the curb? Watch this. How you gonna deal with my endorsement of Kamala? Huh? First African American woman president? How do you like them apples, y’all?” And, then, he went on the stump for her, making things even worse.
jvb
I have a Constitional question! I cannot find an answer and believe this is the safest place to ask without triggering some nutjob.
What would happen if some aforementioned nutjob successfuly carried out an assisination of the President-elect before his Congressional afirmation on Jan 6, or before his inaugaration on Jan. 20?
The Vice-President-elect would become the President. And the Democrats would argue that it doesn’t work that way and that there has to be another election.
What’s absolutely insane is that you know not just Democrat voters have imagined this but a concerning percentage of DNC planners have probably weighed this as well.
It’s actually pretty easy to think like a Democrat. Frightening – and I don’t like it – but pretty easy.
Not quite! If the President Elect died before Dec. 17, when the Electoral College votes, the electors could vote for whoever they wanted to (limited by the state laws). If the President Elect dies after the Electoral College voted for him, the 20th Amendment applies. https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-20/
The VEEP becomes President. No argument.
thank you
A propos of nothing to this post, Geddy Lee, bassist, vocalist for Rush, and all around good guy, will publish a book involving his baseball collection:
https://www.rushbackstage.com/product/6XRUCOMBO104/72-stories-by-geddy-lee-limited-autographed-edition?cp=102112_108617&src=MSGR1123180&utm_source=mtemail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mtemail_1123180_103024
jvb