Month: June 2025

No, “Reason,” the White House Complaining to ABC About Terry Moran’s Open Bias Isn’t “Censorship.”

/ Jack Marshall / 1 Comment

Ugh. Libertarians—can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em (but it’s sure worth trying). Reason, the often helpful and provocative libertarian mag and website, has aligned itself with the Trump Deranged and Axis for predictable reasons: Joe Biden is its ideal as a POTUS, a vegetable that makes Calvin Coolidge look like FDR. Libertarians don’t like strong Presidents, because they don’t like Presidential power, which means they don’t like the Constitution when you get right down to it. Reason likes open borders, for example, which pretty much disqualifies its writers and pundits for anything but giggles. Abortion. Addictive drugs.

Include me out, as Sam Goldwyn used to say.

Now Robby Soave is complaining about what I touched on in this post yesterday…

Robby complains, in “Terry Moran Insulted Stephen Miller? That’s None of the Government’s Business,” that this is the government putting unconstitutional pressure on “the press” to censor its reporting.

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Comment of the Day: “More Thoughts and Observations on the LA Pro-Illegal Immigration Riots”

/ Jack Marshall / 17 Comments

EA’s master of the long form comment has been scarce of late, but he has returned with another gem, this an analysis of the dynamic in play in LA and the White House. Here is Steve-O-in NJ’s Comment of the Day on the post, “More Thoughts and Observations on the LA Pro-Illegal Immigration Riots”:

***

I think what is happening here could be a bridge too far. What happened in 2020 were protests against an injustice that were quickly exploited and made to get out of hand. There was also a pandemic in place that doctors conveniently said required lockdowns except for protests against racial injustice. The president wants no part of another summer 2020, and has chosen to take action.

The difference here is that people who have no authority to do so are actively interfering with federal law enforcement doing their jobs, and making attacks on federal agents. For whatever reason, the authorities in California are a bit smarter than those in Portland 5 years ago and have decided they are not going to look the other way with regard to assaults on federal agents, probably because they know if a federal agent gets killed it’s going to be like the Marines have landed on their doorstep.

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Update on “The LA Pro-Open Borders Riots Ethics Train Wreck”

/ Jack Marshall / 2 Comments

This morning, CNN pinged me with an alert that read, “CNN analysis: Trump’s deployment of the National Guard is a warning to other cities opposing his migrant policies.” You know, just like arresting and locking up serial killers is a warning to others who want to murder people, and giving tickets to speeders is a warning to irresponsible drivers who like to speed. Of course, CNN uses the deceitful cover-word “migrant” to avoid reminding dim-wit readers that these are law-breakers.

The news is that both California Governor Newsom and LA’s incompetent mayor showed that they were supportive of the rioting just as they have been supportive of illegal immigrants, and since the violence is aimed at blocking ICE from doing its job, the situation demanded Presidential action. In short, the riots are not about Trump, but the direct result of the refusal of the previous administration (whoever was in charge of it) to enforce the law (unless it was enforced against perceived political foes).

Meanwhile, in the hopes that I can make “A Friend” [see comments to this post]choke on his shredded wheat, here is how the New York Times is rolling out the Axis propaganda:

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ABC to Terry Moran: It’s OK For You To Be Biased Like the Rest of Us, But For God’s Sake Don’t Be So Obvious About It!

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

ABC News suspended senior national correspondent Terry Moran for, shall we say, a revealing but undiplomatic post on Twitter/X that gratuitously attacked both President Trump and top aide Stephen Millers as “world-class hater[s].” Nice!

Nah, there’s no mainstream media bias!

“Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater,” Moran wrote. “You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.” Moran continued, “Trump is a world-class hater. But his hatred only a means to an end, and that end [is] his own glorification. That’s his spiritual nourishment.”

If you say so Terry. Amazingly, Moran apparently saw nothing unprofessional about his outburst, which he subsequently deleted. Talk about living in a bubble!

An ABC News spokesperson said in a statement shortly thereafter that Moran had been suspended, pointing to the post as the impetus for the disciplinary action.

“ABC News stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage”—Excuse me, but HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA–<breath>HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!—“and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others,” ABC said in a statement. “The post does not reflect the views of ABC News and violated our standards — as a result, Terry Moran has been suspended pending further evaluation.”

Silent Pondering Our Shared Tomorrows As The Road Stripes Streak By

/ Jack Marshall / 9 Comments

Guest post by Steve Witherspoon

From your host: The rioting in LA and other cities going on right now make this unusually emotional post by Steve especially timely. I have been pondering it for several days now. The essay is clearly a head explosion in process, an eruption of anger and frustration with the metaphorical fuse lit by the issues he mentions and others. [I hope Steve forgives me for more extensive editing than usual, prompted by his passion interfering with his characteristic precision]

I sympathize. This is an ethics blog, and part of my job is to keep the discussion focused on ethics, rational analysis, and open-mindedness. There has been so much in the past year particularly that reminded me of a legendary meltdown by a good friend, a lawyer, who suddenly snapped in the back seat of my car years ago and started screaming, “This is FUCK! It’s all FUCK! Everything is FUCK!” True, alcohol was involved. However, the outburst was therapeutic. We all knew what he was ranting about, he was essentially right, and after my friend had relieved himself of his frustrations, he was able to help us solve the problem at hand.

And we did.

Take it, Steve.…and don’t despair.

***


I know exactly what my laser-focused conscious mind is doing in this situation, but what does your subconscious mind ponder when you’re on the road for many hours over 4,800 miles, while you crisscross a big chunk of the middle of the United States of America on vacation?

For hours at a time, when the road seems to vanish into a fine point on the horizon and the visible land meets the sky, the subconscious mind kicks into gear and is actively working behind the scenes… at least mine is. In past years that subconscious would be working on something creative. Maybe a few guitar riffs that I could put into practice at a later date, writing some music, designing a new addition on the house, or putting the final engineering touches on a new product for work, etc. The creative juices get flowing when the subconscious is given the opportunity to ponder for long periods of time as long as it’s relatively uninterrupted. Then when you’re no longer spending all those laser-focused hours on the road and settling back to your regular life, the stored thoughts that your subconscious mind had been working on are suddenly released into the brain. It can cause a bit of an information overload. This has happened to me more times than I can count.

I’ve learned that, at least for me, if you give the subconscious mind a chance to do what it does best, think deeply for long periods of time, it can feed your intellect.

For the last three weeks of May 2025, my wife and I were on an annual vacation. This time we focused on some National and State Parks in the western and southwestern United States that we wanted to see thoroughly. I briefly wrote about it and shared a few select photos in a blog post titled “There’s A Great Big World Out There To See.”

As usual, my subconscious mind was doing what it does best; however, this time the output was different. My mind wasn’t working on creative things like music, product designs or engineering; it appears that it was critically thinking about politically related things. This was particularly surprising because I generally cut myself off from all things political when on vacation and simply enjoy stopping to smell the roses with my wife. In the great scheme of things, life can be short, and I think it’s really important to do things with your spouse, especially after you retire, and not end up with piles of regrets that outweigh finding real peace after the end of life catches up with a spouse.

Again, my subconscious mind seemed to be thinking about politics and more specifically the political division we have. It doesn’t matter one bit how much critical thinking and facts you throw at the absurd things that are coming out of the political Left, the divide keeps getting deeper. It doesn’t seem to matter that life-long Democrats are leaving the party and openly stating that the Democratic Party has fallen over the edge of reality and left them.  It doesn’t seem to matter one bit that politicians like the baldfaced liar Adam Schiff get nailed in one lie after another and that he’s spewing the lies to intentionally mislead the voting public.

I’ve been writing about some of the absurdities coming from the political Left for a few years. What they are trying to force upon the American people is delusional, and undermines the core foundation of values that our country has been built upon.   

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More Thoughts and Observations on the LA Pro-Illegal Immigration Riots

/ Jack Marshall / 20 Comments

1. This morning, while CNN and MSNBC were raging about the riots, Fox News had an extended feature about how to make faux cocktails using coffee. Gee, it would be nice to have a responsible, trustworthy broadcast news network that was both unbiased and that didn’t assume that is viewers dropped out of junior high school.

2. I am surprised that so few readers have commented on this morning’s introductory post. Was everyone at church? “Is anybody there? Does anybody care?”

3. Here’s the comment on Facebook by an old friend, a retired journalist, and, of course, a Trump Derangement sufferer:

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Quick Morning Thoughts About the L.A. Rioting

/ Jack Marshall / 15 Comments

Haven’t had a cup of coffee yet and heading to a business meeting. But I have to get this out.

Demonstrations broke out in the Los Angeles area on Friday and continued on yesterday. The rioting aims to interfere with ICE lawfully and necessarily removing illegal immigrants from the area. The law enforcement has intensified its raids seeking people who are in the U.S. illegally. There is no justification for rioting ever in response to lawful government acts, but this rioting is particularly noxious. Not only are the rioters protesting legitimate law enforcement and interfering with it, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has said protesters have exhibited “violent behavior” and that “intervention became necessary.”

  • President Trump is sending in the National Guard. Good. If California’s anti-American, super-woke incompetents won’t keep the peace, than he should, strongly and without hesitation. I’m sure the Axis will call this decision “autocratic.” The correct word is “responsible.”
  • Classic: The New York Times headline is “Trump Is Calling Up National Guard Troops Under a Rarely Used Law.” Fascists pounce! The law is rarely used because American citizens do not often riot against legitimate law enforcement, and most state and local elected officials won’t sit back and let it happen. The news is the riots, not that the President has acted appropriately to stop them.

  • “President Trump bypassed the authority of Gov. Gavin Newsom to call up 2,000 National Guard troops to quell immigration protests” is the Times subhead. Deceit, lies and propaganda. Newsom wasn’t doing anything; his authority was ‘bypassed” because he isn’t doing his job. The National Guard is there to stop rioting, not to “quell protests.” The issue isn’t “immigration,” the issue is enforcing the law against illegal immigration.

  • Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the National Guard’s presence would “not be helpful.”Why would anyone pay attention to what Karen Bass says or thinks after her fiasco avoiding her duties and lying about it when the city started burning? 
  • Apparent, the Crazy Left is determined to die on the open borders hill. Wonderful. Last week, Boston’s progressive mayor called ICE the equivalent of the Gustapo. The people who lead the Democratic Party want these riots. 

More later, after I wake up…

Confronting My Biases, Episode 21: Graduation Lawn Signs (and Others)

/ Jack Marshall / 23 Comments

Regular readers here know that I regard laws signs of all stripes obnoxious and borderline unethical. EA has discussed the dumb “In this house…” virtue-signaling signs, and I have mentioned several times the huge “Black Lives Matter” display another lawyer inflicted on the neighborhood for nearly three years (despite the several notes and news items I taped to it.)

Now, however, the current rage is graduation signs. It is hard to describe how much this increasingly popular practice makes me wince. The last thing in the world my parents would ever have considered doing was to put up signs announcing that my sister or I had graduated from high school, made the honor roll, or been admitted to college, in the case of both of us the Institution That Must Not Be Named on the banks of the Charles River.

In all cases, such signs breach the ethics values of self-restraint, dignity and humility. What are the parents in these homes teaching their children? Presumably, the lesson is to boast whenever possible. This is what social media is for: to publicize good news to friends and colleagues who have a reason to give a damn. Frankly, I don’t see graduating from high school in a middle-to-upper middle class neighborhood like Alexandria, Virginia as that big a deal. Are we seeing the sign because there was some doubt whether Kathleen would make it, considering her drug addiction, promiscuity and drinking problem? Are Kathleen’s parents trying to show-up the family next door, whose ne’er do well son dropped out of high school to become a pimp?

Whatever the reasons for these signs, they aren’t good enough. A family should encourage and reward accomplishments by family members privately unless they are trying to raise creeps who will run screaming through the streets, “I just got a job paying six figures! Suck it, losers!”

I don’t care that your kid graduated from high school or where he’s going to college.

I cannot close this chapter without expressing my disgust with three neighbors who still have their Harris-Walz signs out. It’s not exactly unethical, but it definitely is “Ick!” What are these people so proud of? Aren’t they embarrassed?

As American Sports Sink Further Into Society’s Deepening Ethics Muck, I Bitch (As Usual)

/ Jack Marshall / 6 Comments

“A long, long time ago,” as Don McLean might begin singing this post, sports, the games and its participants, were where a young American sprout could find role models, innocent fun, and reliable ethics values. “Those were the days,” Mary Hopkin would warble back.

Item: Judge Claudia Wilken ultimate approval for the House v. NCAA settlement last night. approved the landmark, multi-billion dollar settlement of three separate antitrust cases against the NCAA and its conferences. Universities that opt into the settlement terms will be able to pay athletes directly through a revenue-sharing pool starting July 1, capped at roughly $20.5 million in 2025, the first year of the structure. About $2.8 billion will be set aside as back-pay damages for former college athletes athletes dating back to 2016 who did not have the opportunity to get compensated for their name, image and likeness Oh yeah, this will work out well. Didn’t colleges once exist for the purpose of educating all of its students rather than as big time sports money machines? You know, when sports were innocent entertainment and avocations, built character and social skills, student athletes weren’t employees, and college teams weren’t primarily the minor league systems for billion dollar professional sports leagues?

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From The Ethics Alarms Mailbag: “Why Haven’t You Written a Post About the Musk-Trump ‘Feud’?”

/ Jack Marshall / 6 Comments

Oh gee, I don’t know: because it’s stupid? Because it was inevitable? Because the news media is trying to pump it up to make Trump look bad, when what the reaction to the tiff really does is make them as well as the Democrats cheering for Musk look far, far worse?

I put the old reliable cognitive dissonance scale up right away to save time. The President of the United States is almost always higher on the scale than whoever his critics are. This was less true for Trump than most Presidents in his first term, but not Trump II.

Americans generally defer to their Presidents and support them when they are being criticized. The Trump Deranged, who are essentially mentally ill, are a special case, but they were Musk-Deranged too, because he was seen as an ally of Trump. So they burned his cars, and pretended he was a Nazi. They demonized him, and now they think they can suddenly flip-flop on Musk without looking like the foolish hypocrites we all know they are?

All the so-called “feud” proves is that Musk’s ego has no bounds, and his neurodivergence occasionally eats his brain. Trump gave him added power, prestige and influence: he’s throwing it away. Trump, meanwhile, is playing this exactly right. Musk is in negative territory on the scale: the more he attacks the President, the lower he falls and Trump rises. The more Democrats suddenly embrace Musk, who was supposedly a Nazi, the cruel killer of children and the poor in third world nations, the mean job-cutter and a chainsaw budget monster, the worse they look. Trump will get credit for what DOGE did under Musk, and Musk looks like a turncoat and whiner to turn on his patron.

Let him start his own party based on the “unsustainable debt.” That worked out so well for Ross Perot, who was weird, but not nearly as weird as Musk. What Perot’s crusade proved is that nothing will make Americans care about the unsustainable debt, and it is unsustainable, until it crashes the economy, which it will. The parties are handing a time bomb back and forth hoping that they aren’t the one holding the thing when it blows up. The debt will keep growing, because we will never, never, start paying the principle down. We should, but we won’t. Controlling the deficit just means that the debt becomes more unsustainable more slowly.

Yay.

Shut up and make your cars and rockets, Elon. This isn’t helping.