This isn’t a “Morning Ethics Warm-Up.” I am really just trying to keep up: right now I’m going to list quotes, videos and news developments relating to the apparent complete meltdown of the Axis of Unethical Conduct over the reality that President Trump is crushing so many of their schemes, dreams and delusions. The American way, the democratic way (ironically), would be to make fact-based, unemotional arguments, keeping the rhetoric civil, telling the truth, not trying to inflame the passions of the dumb, the illogical and the ignorant, and maybe even avoid saying “fuck” in the process.
In the intro to todays Friday Open Forum, I mused about designating this chapter of “The Great Stupid,” the social pathogen launched in 2020 with the simultaneous weaponized freakout over the Wuhan virus paired with the cynical and dishonest weaponized hysteria over the death of a single, over-dosing black perp under ambiguous circumstances involving a white cop, as “The Big Crazy.” For now, at least, I’m going to do that.
I chose that post above by Congresswoman Janelle Bynum (D-OR) to lead off as a perfect example of how Democrats are behaving. (Thanks to Matthew B for the pointer.) Here is a U.S. Congresswoman implying that the President of the United States has ordered law enforcement officials to shoot citizens. Law enforcement is “terrorism.” In past, non-crazy times, a public statement like that would be amply grounds for a bi-partisan Congressional rebuke.
Meanwhile:
—In New York City last night, a huge crowd chanted, “Kristi Noem will Hang!” and “Save a life, kill an ICE” as they gather to protest the ICE killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Nice. This is a violent party that has lost all ethical bearings.
—This is the kind of divisiveness and bigotry the DEI and intersectionalism ideology has fertilized. Mamdani’s racist aide is another example. These are not outliers:
—The lies that are being spread about Rachel Good are audacious, and yet many of my smart (well, they once were) Facebook friends are repeating them as fact. She was just an innocent, apolitical mom picking up her child from school and got caught in an I.C.E. raid! No, in fact Good was “an anti-ICE warrior” and part of a group of activists who worked to “document and resist” the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota. After she moved to Minneapolis, Good joined “ICE Watch,” a coalition of activists dedicated to disrupting ICE raids in the sanctuary city. Colleagues have told reporters that Good was “trained” in methods of interfering with I.C.E. Ramming agents with cars has been one of the practices of ICE Watch across the country.
—The NeverTrump conservatives who bloviate at “The Bulwark” apparently have neither shame nor comprehension of the English language. Tim Miller, a Bulwark podcaster and a contributor to MS NOW said that he was “shaken” by the number of people who thought assassination was the appropriate punishment “for not following a masked federal agent’s orders.” Yeah, that’s a fiar characterization of what happened in Minneapolis Rep. Dan Goldman and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani both the shooting “outright murder.” Who would believe any of these people after statements like those?
—I.C.E. agents shot two people in Portland yesterday during a “targeted vehicle stop” when the driver tried to run them over. This time, two illegal immigrants were in the car. Naturally, since Portland is as far gone into Cloud Cuckoo Land as the Twin Cities, and maybe more, its mayor, Keith Wilson, issued this statement:
Just one day after the horrific violence in Minnesota at the hands of federal agents, our community here in Portland is now grappling with another deeply troubling incident. Earlier this afternoon, two people were shot and injured by federal agents in the Hazelwood neighborhood.
We cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts. Portland is not a “training ground” for militarized agents, and the “full force” threatened by the administration has deadly consequences. As Mayor, I call on ICE to end all operations in Portland until a full investigation can be completed.
Federal militarization undermines effective, community‑based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region. I will use every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.
I call on every Portlander to represent our values and to show up with calm and purpose during this difficult time. Portland does not respond to violence with violence. We respond with clarity, unity, and a commitment to justice. We must stand together to protect Portland.
The City of Portland will continue to provide updates as they become available. We are grateful to our first responders for their support of the victims.
—“During this difficult time.” That’s the mantra that irresponsible corporate marketing slugs started solemnly intoning about the pandemic and the George Floyd Freakout in one pandering corporate ad after another. The only reason this is a “difficult time” is that one whole side of the political spectrum can’t handle the fact that it is no longer in power, that its plan for permanent domination has been derailed, that open borders are no longer an option, and that their news media’s power to confuse and deceive the public is (I hope) permanently diminished. So Democrats and progressives are resorting to violence.
—They are also returning to the playbook of the first Trump term, in which “Everything is Terrible” was one of the standard Big Lies of the Resistance (#5 on the list). I have now heard several ads for loans on the radio beginning with “in this difficult economy.” The economy has been steadily improving since Biden, or whatever was left of him, vacated the White House, but the Left is successfully pushing the false narrative that it is still “terrible.”
—In Iran, ironically, leaders of the current revolt are praising President Trump, even re-naming streets after him. That news, of course, is being swallowed by the Minnesota mess.
Post Script: I decided to check on the blog one of Ethics Alarms’ most appreciated now-departed progressive commentators, Barry Deutch, aka “Ampersand,” to see if Barry has been able to keep his head while all around him in Woke World are losing theirs. He hasn’t posted anything since December 19. Now I’m worried…
Ethics Alarms 
Good article at PJ Media on how to win the PR battle on the ICE shooting. Two quotes:
So we already know the Democratic playbook for the ICE shooting:
The GOP PR playbook should go as follows:
https://pjmedia.com/scott-pinsker/2026/01/09/the-gop-has-one-chance-to-win-the-pr-war-over-the-ice-shooting-heres-the-playbook-n4948079
Portland does not respond to violence with violence. –Portland Mayor.
Surely, you jest.
“I feel like white tears are not always helpful or necessary.”
This woman should be lashing herself on the back, throwing ashes on her head and saying, “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.” This is so ceremonial and performative. And shouldn’t she be celebrating the death of a white person? Isn’t one dead white person a start?
Janelle Bynum / Jamaal Bowman ??? any chance Jamaal moved to Oregon and is”transitioning”?
FWIW, ICE agents own cell phone vid now out Seems to support his being hit by her car, after being verbally harassed by the two women and his orders ignored. Strike possibly not entirely intentionally, but moving the car obviously was.
At least the dog didn’t get killed (as far as we know).
That video is pretty gripping in its incredible quickness.
And it shows Good’s wife yelling, “Drive, drive!” right as the agent is walking in front of the car.
Immediately after, she was saying it was all her fault. I’m sure she’s talked herself out of that idea by now, but I think she had it right. Well, maybe not all her fault since her wife was an adult, capable of making her own choices, but certainly has much responsibility for what happened.
Below a clip with Sheriff Bilal from Philadelphia saying that any federal agent who tries to round up immigrants in her city and county will be arrested and charged.
This is an escalation that may pit ICE against local law enforcement.
President Eisenhower invoked the Insurrection Act to integrate public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. Will President Trump do the same if local law enforcement intransigently blocks ICE from enforcing the law?
He will, and should. This is a very close analogy to the segregation era.
I heard her on (talkshow) radio earlier. I suppose she could be more ghetto, but it would take some effort.
According to Wikipedia, Philly “… has the highest violent crime rate of the Top 10 American cities with a population greater than 1 million residents…”
Maybe there are other issues to which she should be devoting her attention, rather than what’s going on in Minnesota.
What I notice, I mean on this blog, is that there is a focus on ‘ethical incidents in a moment’ and, generally, those who write here are constitutionalists and patriots of a former America. I say ‘former’ because the America of today is a different America. Its composition is different. And the core reason it is a different America is because of an incalculable demographic shift. They say that “America is a nation of ideas” and that you join this “America” when you agree to its idea-tenets. How was it stated? America is a ‘propositional nation’. While this is certainly true to a significant degree there are other factors.
It is true that years ago when I wrote here that I came at things by way of this type of analysis. I.e. a radical and indeed a dissident way of seeing and interpreting the present. What I notice is that nearly everything that I pointed out in regard to the influence of certain strains of right-oriented radicalism has penetrated more deeply into the generality of people. And there is now a larger number of people, most of them seem to be of younger generations (who have been influenced of course by intellectuals who are older), who have been radicalized when they have confronted the radicalization of the Left Progressive and socialistically-oriented who have dominated the landscape.
What they have ‘seen’ therefore is 1) curious to understand and to think about, and 2) a basis from which one might be able to make predictions. I will start with the largest and most consequential ‘prediction’ that motivates my thought. I distinguish thinking about things from any sort of activism. I have no interest in activism. My view is as follows: The way things are going *you* will not be able to alter nor to ‘rescue’ the direction in which things are going in America. There is not and there will not be a ‘turning things around’ and there definitely will never be a ‘return’ to anything resembling a former time. My impression — when I refer to these people who establish sets of opinion and discuss ‘things’ in realpolitkal terms — is that they clearly see the writing on the wall.
One of the issues about our present time is that it is extremely difficult to see clearly what is actually going on. I will try to explain. The first thing is that ‘telling the truth’ is extremely dangerous (if indeed one has access to it). But then, adjacently, is this other bizarre fact: there is no bedrock anymore from which ‘truth’ can be presented and defended. With respect I say that this is so even when Jack’s most revered ethical principles are considered and valued. Why? Because they are all situational. They were established within varying mutable circumstances. And they are not grounded nor are they spoken of as having metaphysical solidity (which is oxymoronic since what is metaphysical is non-tangible). My dear friend Zoltar will here accuse me of pirouetting on the heads of pins. That is OK. But here is the main fact which does not depend on me or anything that I say or think: We live in a time when agreed-upon metaphysics and principles are not recognized as existing. So then, what? People recoil back into ‘opinion’ and their ‘sense’ of things. It is what seems good, feels good. And it is all murky and non-definite.
Effectively, no one agrees with anyone anymore. That is to say that agreement of the sort that could unite and hold a nation together has evaporated. Quite literally people (many I know and talk to for example) effectively have almost no actual grounding to their ideas.
What we see is what we are presented with, and what we are presented with is what comes to us by way of phone apps, other media like blogs and video talks, and at least for some (likely a reduced few) serious reading of periodicals of idea and opinion. And reading books written by ‘experts’ on the topic of the enormous shifts and changes going on is, realistically, beyond the grasp of the majority. They do not have the time. Or perhaps they cannot concentrate. If you ask someone: “Tell me what is happening in America” what you get is whatever oozes out of their mind, and it is literally something like ‘goo’. It is a mixture of impressions, idea images blended with emotions and feelings, and then a whole mass of subjective perspective, which on the whole is ‘henid-like’ (henid: A vague, half-formed thought or feeling).
Largely, the conversations here (this is an observation not a criticism since I have no fair ground to criticize anyone, but only a perspective potentially true or partially true) are all about reactions. Just reactions in a moment.
I thought the following video was interesting because it shows people, citizens or not, who are not (in my view) driven by ideas that they could articulate, but by henid-like emotions.
https://youtu.be/0Vf9L30H7Lg?si=Ihs9ksypykLwvcGc
So, Ali….. should we decamp to the Czech Republic, Costa Rica, or maybe Buenos Ares (really good steaks, there; messed up banking system), or should I just make sure I have enough bullets and some forested land in north Alabama? There was a barred owl outside our breakfast room yesterday; it offered no opinions.
The basic and unavoidable question is How to respond to what is happening. There seems to be no escape. So one part of the ethical issue is How to live and how to respond when, as seems to be the case, the republic enters into post-classical decline and a quite marked decline in the quality of persons. (That is a complex topic in itself).
What I notice, I mean on this blog, is that there is a focus on ‘ethical incidents in a moment’ and, generally, those who write here are constitutionalists and patriots of a former America. I say ‘former’ because the America of today is a different America. Its composition is different. And the core reason it is a different America is because of an incalculable demographic shift. They say that “America is a nation of ideas” and that you join this “America” when you agree to its idea-tenets. How was it stated? America is a ‘propositional nation’.
Let’s say that on Ethics Alarms most commenters tend conservative. However I am not (yet) a naturalized American citizen. What I notice is that on the conservative side of the spectrum there are at least two visions. The vision that the USA is a propositional nation is one of the two visions, and Vivek Ramaswamy is one of the most outspoken proponents. In his view the ideals of our founding documents are universal in scope.
However The Federalist blog see has another view, and appeals to John Jay who described America as “one united people; a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs.” This view puts a stronger emphasis on ancestry, Anglo-Saxon folkways and the Judeo-Christian tradition.
I tend to agree with Vivek Ramaswamy (who is running for governor in Ohio); any concept of citizenship that does not have room for Trump appointees such as Kash Patel and Harmeet Dhillon falls short.
https://thefederalist.com/2025/12/18/vivek-ramaswamy-is-wrong-about-american-identity-and-wrong-about-america/
The Philadelphia police chief has essentially told her to sit down and shut up.
“maybe even avoid saying ‘fuck’ in the process.“
PWS