Views and comments have fallen off a cliff, along with anyone answering my phone calls and emails regarding the ethics biz. Dilemma: I have two rather important posts on the runway, but if I put them up now, will they be lost to much of the readership, who clearly are doing things rather than checking Ethics Alarms. Should I hold them?
I’m sick of thinking about, never mind writing about, Trump Derangement and the continued disgusting, unprofessional, unethical conduct of what we laughingly call our journalism. So this post is just going to consist of brief snippets with ethical resonance, at least to me, along with some housekeeping notes. Substantive posts will doubtless follow once I get my head straightened out. I’m going to number these brief notes so you can reference them in your comments, assuming there are any comments….
1. Right off, I want to thank those of you who have sent me cards and even gifts to express your appreciation of the blog and my work here. It means a great deal to me.
2. It is ridiculous, but predictable, that the New York Times and “60 Minutes” suddenly think what Marjorie Taylor Greene has to say is worth paying attention to, now that she has decided to turn against President Trump. Any Republicans who didn’t immediately reject this foolish, credentialed Dunning-Kruger victim from the beginning should be wearing a paper bags over theit heads.
3. Speaking of Greene, I have seldom seen so many “news ” stories and so much commentary about celebrities whose opinions, or even whose very existence, should mean so little to everybody. Who cares that “Chappell Roan walks back tribute to Brigitte Bardot over late star’s ‘insane’ beliefs,” for example? Who the hell is Chappell Roan? For that matter, why does anyone care about what Bridget Bardot thought or said about anything once she stopped acting in movies?
4. I do care a little bit that George Clooney has moved his family to France and accepted French citizenship. This guy exerts influence over the Democratic Party and was involved in the move to oust President Biden as the 2024 Democratic nominee, and he thinks France is a better nation than his own. To me, that signals that his views on American policy and politics have no credibility.
5. Glenn Greenwald—you know, the guy who took my money to subscribe to his substack and then stopped writing it for months without offering a refund?—mockingly posted this excepts from an Ezra Klein slobber over Barack Obama’s oratory…
…then Ann Althouse today called Klein ” a well-known figure who embodies the idea of moderation and civility.” Klein is a full-on Axis hack, as his Obama idolatry shows. Obama wasn’t a moderate, and neither is Klein.
6. Speaking of Obama, I was reminded today that none other than Obama “wing man” Eric Holder was responsible for vetting Kamala Harris’s VP choices, and settled on Tim Walz. Good job, Eric!
7. Does anyone have any idea why all of a sudden Ethics Alarms is getting more views from China than the U.S.?
8. Polls seem to show that Republicans and conservatives are becoming less supportive of the Trump administration’s ICE enforcement of immigration laws. You may recall that I felt mass deportation would be politically impossible because it would be ugly and most American wouldn’t have the stomach for it. This, plus the Axis media’s relentless propaganda favoring “good illegal immigrants,” plays into the unfortunate weenie strain in the American public. We want the laws enforced, but get squeamish over the reality of what that means. (See: Capital Punishment) Kudos to President Trump for having the courage and the resolve to stay the course.
9. NYC mayor-elect Mamdani has appointed a historic lesbian fire commissioner, former EMS worker Lilian Bonsignore. She has never worked as a firefighter, but checks some DEI boxes. Oh yeah, this is going to work out well….
10. The Axis’s silly obsessions with Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and the White House ballroom construction must not be enough: now Democrats want to dredge up the 2021 Capitol riot again. The House Democrats will mark a fifth anniversary of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot by reconvening the rigged partisan House select committee that purported to investigate it. In truth, the hearing were yet another unethical effort to keep Donald Trump from running for President. Witnesses were coached, evidence that didn’t fit the “insurrection” narrative was withheld or buried. In a “Dear Colleague” letter, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) wrote, “At the hearing, we will examine ongoing threats to free and fair elections posed by an out-of-control Trump administration, expose the election deniers who hold high-level positions of significance in the executive branch and detail the threats to public safety posed by the hundreds of violent felons who were pardoned on the President’s first day in office.”
11. Finally, this: a 104-year-old WWII veteran playing the National Anthem on his sax to begin a NY Islanders NHL game….
Ethics Alarms 
“I’m sick of thinking about, never mind writing about, Trump Derangement and the continued disgusting, unprofessional, unethical conduct of what we laughingly call our journalism.”
And historians. Which is why my annual practice of reading 100 books per year, predominately history, is going on hiatus as I will spend 2026 reading 100 classic pieces of literature that I’ve never read before and that I hope will make me a more well-rounded citizen who understands the culture more and can answer a bunch more questions on “Jeopardy!” First up, “Pride and Prejudice”, “The Grapes of Wrath”, “The Great Gatsby” and “King Lear”. Best of all, none of them will find a way to tie someone or something unpleasant to Donald Trump.
And I’m still here. I may not have been included as one of your five commentators by the bully excluding kids on the playground, but I read the entries. The week between Christmas and New Year’s is a hard one as people tend to have their schedules disrupted. Mine is all over the place.
I am reading the posts.
Contemplating a response to the Quintuplet one, but I am on vacation, still trying to work, have payroll tomorrow, and am planning to spend the better part of the afternoon at the new Avatar movie.
In a bit of a time crunch.
-Jut
Re: No. 9: Lilian Bonsignore:
It looks like this individual does have executive experience, serving as the Chief of EMS Academy at Fort Totten in 2016, and served as Chief of EMS Operations from 2019-2020. Let’s see if she can manage the NYFD and serving the Department, not only her constituents in the Alphabet Coalition.
jvb
I don’t see how a leader of the fire department without actual fire-fighting experience can possibly inspire confidence and loyalty among her subordinates.In a similar vein, the San Francisco Giants made history in October by hiring University of Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello as their new manager, marking the first time an MLB team directly hired a college head coach with no prior professional playing or coaching experience. He is not a lesbian, however…..
Let’s be clear: I am not extolling her virtues or experience. She has some executive background that may help her tackle the role as NYFD chief. I simply have no idea if she is going to be a good FD head or not. I suspect she will not be very effective. I don’t know her pedigree or background to conclude one way or another.
To me, the FD chief is not a “firefigther” is the strictest terms but should have excellent management skills to negotiate on behalf of the entire Fire Department, which will include contracts for pay, safety gear, new trucks and ambulances, new communications centers, etc. She will also have to deal with labor unions, strikes, and worker issues. If she, as I suspect, concentrates on the Alphabet Coalition issues, pushing idiotic and meaningless DEI initiatives, she will be toast the first time a number of firefighters are injured or worse because of her ineptitude.
Mamdani, cynic and opportunist that he is, is going to have a really hard time running the largest and most important financial city in the nation if not the world. For instance, when he imposes further restrictions on landlords for rent control/freezes, or for failures to maintain the apartments or projects, he will threaten to confiscate or expropriate the properties under some sort of eminent domain theory. NYC will not be able to manage them and they will be in worse position than now. Additionally, when he has to deal with real life issues with real Marxists – and not the theoretical ones like Ocasio-Cortez or Sanders – in the public unions who will use all of their power to grind the city to the halt, he will realize that his DEI initiatives are empty promises. He will be a one-term mayor if he lasts even that long.
jvb
This may be a historic first for NYC but not at a national level, and I offer Kristin Crowley of Los Angeles as an example. As we all probably remember this worked out brilliantly almost exactly a year ago.
Exactly. This appointment most likely will end the same way.
jvb
I am always reading the posts, but with an infant in the house, along with the other four kids, three of whom I homeschool, I have a tight schedule and often do not have the time or mental energy to devote to a thoughtful comment. My sleep deprived mind is not at the top of its game. I had to turn down a lucrative New Years Eve gig this year for the same reasons.
I am quite impressed by number 11. Sure, he was not the best virtuoso, but I would love to have that lung capacity, mental acuity, and musical chops at anything close to that age.
So many who are squeamish about how ICE enforces immigration lawsa were not squeamish about how public health officials enforced COVID-19 dictates (not evenb laws)
There is a danger for many of us to get too worked up about USA politics and the mainstream media, and that applies to the TDS left but also to those who are not suffering from TDS and tend to be more conservative. I see many posts here about TDS, DEI, media bias, and I prefer not to comment on too many of these posts as I believe we do not thread new ground here as anything that can be written about these topics has already been written about and commented upon at Ethics Alarms by the host and many commenters. We also need to be aware that the media including the social media wants us to be outraged, so in order to preserve our mental sanity we should probably spend more time on normal human interaction (friends, family) than always being online and following the news.
So let me respond to a couple of points
CVB,
Jack posted his mailing address in December of 2024. I’m not sure if it is wise to simply print it again, so I’ll just let the link to the post stand in its place.
Good afternoon. I have read almost everything you have written over the past 8 months or so. And I agree with most of it. I’m not as eloquent as most of your commenters, but I respond to this post. You covered a lot of ground …. it’s snowing and frigid here so lots of time today.
On commenting and reading, I consider it a lifetime achievement to have been included in the 5 commenters list here at EA. Commenting rarely and briefly as I understand that tenacity is my virtue not eloquence or even detailed knowledge. Many of long comments were deleted once it was noticed that someone posted a reply tiers better than what I could offer on the same point
I read here not just for the provocation but for the comments and varried writing styles and life experience which so many here have supplied in their responses.
This week though I am grinding all of my shower tile grout and re-digging my septic drain field by hand.
“re-digging my septic drain field by hand.”
(stomping the snow off’n my boots après shoveling) you’ll never have to prove your bravery again, to me leastways; you in a 9 + hardiness zone?
PWS
Number 11. The ethics of dandy-fying the National Anthem.
I like the Staff Sergeant’s straight forward arrangement. Why can’t more NA performers simply sing the notes and enunciate the words without out quavers and other annoying decoration? I think the people running the particular even should screen out awful, baroque, over-done versions before-hand.
Re views and comments during the holidays: Jack, you remind me of what I’ve long said of Norah Roberts, the romance novelist: Norah Roberts can write books faster than I can read books. Your essay output is simply prodigious, as is your energy level, which doubtless exceeds the energy level of even your most attentive readers and eloquent and erudite long-form commenters. Not everybody’s in the 99th percentile.