It it was great sadness that Ethics Alarms must confirm the death of former Pope Hat blogger and lawyer Ken White’s brain. As with the brains of Bill Kristol and so many friends and colleagues I once respected, including Ethics Alarms’ AWOL columnist Curmie, Ken’s neural headquarters expired of acute Trump Derangement.
The malady was first diagnosed in his case when he joined the Axis stalwart magazine “The Atlantic,” though I personally had hoped for a recovery based on my satisfying personal contacts with Ken over the years and the fact that compared to what the Democrats have become, Donald Trump seems as reasonable and rational as James Monroe.
Meanwhile, the anti-white racism and low-IQ bluster coming from certain presumed Democratic Part base segments is, if not surprising, provocative. I would rather slice off my lips than vote with such self-evident fools. It is amusing, I must admit, to see how easy it is to own them on social media. As in…
Nothing helps, however.
Over at Althouse, Ann Althouse devotes a post to taking issue with President Trump calling Graham Platner a pig. It is certainly a less creative ad hominem than most of Trump’s insults, but there are some things even I find too trivial to criticize. She does have a good quote about the news that someone cut “8647” into the National Mall, getting there by discussing the newly refurbished Reflecting Pool that my Trump Deranged Facebook friends find so offensive:
“The more grim, puritanical, humorless, imperious, and repressive you are, the funnier it is to make fun of you.” There’s a similar concept at play here: The more you show how much you care about pristine beauty, the more exciting it becomes to besmirch it. We can’t have nice things. Oh, but those who endorse the idea “86 47” might respond, these “nice things” are not nice. They are Trump things and therefore the ugliest things of all. To desecrate them is to move in the direction of true beauty. “
My thoughts about the latest “8647” are a bit different. Comey’s juvenile pleasure at seeing that shell formation would have vanished into internet obscurity if the Trump Justice Dept. wasn’t so foolish as to indict him for it. The Streisand Effect is real, and rather obvious by now, wouldn’t you think? Apparently not, at least among MAGA zombies.
“Now go do that voodoo that you do so weeeeeeeell!“
Ethics Alarms 
Jack – any plans to write about the mayoral election
In California the electoral system is “engineered” in such a way that the keep counting votes until the party in power achieves the desired result. As soon as that happens, the results become final. The latest mail-in ballot drops went all in for Raman, pushing her to second place. I have zero faith in the fairness of elections in CA.
The big news item with ethics implication in the USA last week was the Karmelo Anthony trial. I predicted in a comment that the hard left and usual race pimps (including politicians Jasmine Crockett) will milk this issue till the bitter end like they did with the death of George Floyd. Happily the verdict has not triggered any riots yet, so I was a bit too pessimistic. Sometimes I am glad that I am wrong.
Reasons for not having riots in the USA after the verdict is that people are getting sick and tired of all this racial bullshit. The race card has lost its magic and power on white people. Accusations of racism are being shrugged off with indifference (unless you are a liberal of course), or seen as a manifestation of hood culture confirming all the negative stereotypes about black culture.
Many black influencers have actually hailed the verdict on Karmelo Anthony, create long podcasts on “black fatigue”, as they see that the lifestyles and attitudes of many in the black community are dysfunctional, and create a lot of ill will. E.g. the phenomenon of street takeovers or teen takeovers, with ninety nine percent of those participating black hood rats; YouTube influencer Andre Williams will call this “nigga culture”.
Jae Sambo’s tweet about slavery and reparations is also an aspect of “nigga culture”. It assumes perpetual victimhood, combined with learned helplessness, and a refusal to take responsibility to achieve success in life.
I am curious what you think of Andre Williams take on Black Americans in the YouTube video below.
Anyone having any thoughts on events and riots in Southampton and Belfast?
From what I’ve read, both Protestants and Catholics have joined forces to protest what they believe is a two-tiered police system, the benefits provided to migrants, legal or otherwise, not given to citizens but taken from tax revenue, as well as the overall lawlessness of the migrants themselves combined with the sometimes apathy/sometimes hostility displayed by the government.
What I am seeing is that people from the UK who are posting about this situation are grateful to Elon Musk for providing a platform on which they can learn about situations their own media sources will not report and that their own governments seem determined to suppress. They are alarmed that the narrative by the government has been to push through legislation to hold social media platforms accountable for not shutting down communications intended to organize protests. They are outraged that protesting against violent crimes by migrants that are barely handled by law enforcement is labeled racist/xenophobic/right-wing.
I’m also see posts by those who argue that they did not object to the women and children being let in, but that the problems began with vast numbers of young, military age men who are not incentivized to work and who spend their days being financially supported by the taxpayer while being permitted to harass, grope and assault women and girls with no consequences.
I realize that social media only gives a small window in what is happening but it would appear that these protests are spreading to Scotland and England, too.
I do not think it is an accident that this happened in Belfast. Belfast is tribal due to the Troubles and a history going back to Oliver Cromwell, with Catholic neighborhoods and Protestant neighborhoods. The two tribes have now been united against migrants.
I think the lack of free speech in the UK is a contributing factor. There are about 300 arrest daily related to posts on social media that are deemed to run afoul of “hate speech” laws. That is more arrests than in Russia. Speech operates as a safety valve; it allows the people to let of steam without actually letting the boiler explode. Shutting down X will only exacerbate the problem, and let the boiler explode as violence appears to be the only outlet. I am surprised that Popehat who made his name as a principled First Amendment warrior does not see that.
The UK has an arrogant left wing government led by Labour that is dismissive of peoples concerns about migrants. The majority of the UK does not want unchecked migration. The migrants do not assimilate well, do not respect British culture, are net tax takers, and contribute significantly to crime statistics including violence and rape. Concerns about rape gangs in many cities including Rotherham are wiped under the carpet, and whistleblowers like Tony Robinson are dismissed as far right. The Conservatives have contributed to the problem by continuing existing multicultural policies when they were in offices. Keir Starmer has not stepped down even after disastrous local election results for Labour.
There is fear of a Great Replacement, where indigenous British people will become a minority in their own country due to unchecked migration, and the higher birth rates of migrants.
I am not going to condone riots, or torching of asylum centers and private residences and businesses.
My expectation is that this problem will get worse in Western Europe. The military strategist Betz expect a state of civil war comparable to Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Belfast may be the beginning.
https://www.militarystrategymagazine.com/article/civil-war-comes-to-the-west/
It is so much worse than that. The government didn’t just sweep the rape and sex slavery of a significant percentage of white teen girls under the rug, they participated in it. They enforced it. They police returned girls to their kidnappers while the girls begged to go back to their families. They imprisoned fathers who had rescued their daughters and returned the daughters to the Muslim slavers. It has been reported that the military aged men imported into Ireland are being housed in government barracks and drilled in military style. Citizens are forbidden to approach the area. Judges rule that reporting on such things will result in prison terms. Jury trials have been suspended for most crimes to keep juries for freeing people prosecuted for such crimes.
I am not suyrprised.
who really believed “not wanting to incite racism” was the motive for the cover-up?
And as a result the indigenous white population of Great Britain are becoming as tribal as that troupe of monkeys dancing in front of the courthouse in Collion County during the Karmelo Anthony trial.
The Irish preserved civilization once before…maybe they can be the catalysts to do it again.
http://NBC News on X: “A pivotal vote by longtime Sen. Susan Collins of Maine pushed Justice Kavanaugh over the finish line in 2018 after she famously said he considered Roe v. Wade “settled law” — a comment that turned out to be wrong. https://t.co/OKZ6FRgMu2” / X
I hate to use the trite “You think you hate the media enough, but you don’t” slogan, but it’s easy to use when NBC News posts articles like this.
Observations:
I don’t know what happened to that link…
https://x.com/NBCNews/status/2065106818628538432
I actually replied to Popehat.
https://bsky.app/profile/matthewbest.bsky.social/post/3mo43wb3suk2b
That was a despicable response by Ken. He really has jumped the shark, and Bluesky truly is as nasty as people say. I’m so sorry Michael. You don’t deserve to be attacked like that.
Yes, it is.
As it turned out, Popehat blocked me.
https://bsky.app/profile/kenwhite.bsky.social
What, for THAT? Indefensible! I apologize for Ken. He’s really lost it.
A couple of good things:
Countering the left’s fantasy that a country can tax and spend its way to prosperity, and that confiscating from the innovators and producers is a preferred way to do that, is this story re SpaceX’s IPO:
SpaceX Welder Gets $880,000
Exploding on TwitteX is this continuing story of a German soccer fan’s “World Cup” road trip through the US (currently in the southeast), and his thrilled reactions to things like visiting a Buc-ees, Walmart, Waffle House, Bass Pro Shop, Lookout Mountain, tubing on the upper Chattahoochee river near the faux Bavarian town of Helen, etc., etc.
““Now go do that voodoo that you do so weeeeeeeell!““
I tried but it included a link and is now probably stuck in moderation!
One of the best things I’ve found on the internet the last two days are posts on X by European World Cup fans traveling to the U.S. and discovering beautiful scenery, friendly people and American staples, such as country fried steak, chicken and waffles and free refills. There’s been a lackluster promotion of the 250th birthday celebrations – for reasons I’m sure we all recognize – but having foreigners visit and gush over all we have to offer is a real morale boost.
when I studied in Sweden, there were a bunch of German students in my group.
they talked about their time in the States. They really admired our freeway system as better than the autobahn
-Jut
The World Cup begins. Citizens of nations from around the world are shown in the stadiums being proud of their precious foreign country. This is considered endearing. Why can all these people love their country and be “nationalistic,” while citizens of the U.S. who are nationalistic are fascists? And all these fans are flying to north America and staying in expensive hotels and eating in expensive restaurants for weeks at a time, and yet their compatriots are urged to “migrate” to the U.S. for a better life, even though the ones doing the urging despise the U.S. Mexico patriotism good; U.S, patriotism bad. U.S. a racist hell hole; Mexico cute and authentic. But flee Mexico; come to the U.S. for a better life.
I’m confused.
You probably aren’t confused. You know the answer. The Democrat/leftist/Communists that are in control of the media and education hate the Unites States and all it stands for.
They are aristocrats and they believe that they should rule and run everything by right. The US meritocracy allows people they look down upon as ‘inferiors’ start businesses, make money, and win elections.
They are autocrats and they live in a country that allows citizens vast rights to oppose autocracy. That is why they REALLY hate the second amendment. They know we should shoot them for what they are trying to do.
They are slavemasters. They fought for slavery during the Civil War, they formed the KKK, they passed the Jim Crow Laws, and now they import vast numbers of poor foreign workers to be paid at sub-minimum wages with no safety concerns, no benefits, and no rights.
Do I understand correctly that Popehat’s assertion is that Musk is trying to get people killed… because they aren’t white? Because they aren’t white? Is this guy on TRT without an estrogen blocker? And then to foment killing Musk. This guy has fallen hard off his bouncy rocking horse.
As I understand it, white Euros these days stand on the street videoing an immigrant in the process of beheading someone, yelling at him to stop. They don’t gang up on the assailant and beat him to death. White Euros have been well trained to be good school children and accept their lessons from their betters.
What is his basis for thinking that they will do much of anything other than shout about a bit?
Riots and arson attacks on occupied immigrant housing in Belfast. Pretty nasty stuff.
You posted an amusing time travel comic on your Facebook. It ties back to one of those weird hypotheticals people ask like the trolley problem. Weird because it isn’t really informative of anything other than the asker’s hope your answer traps you in whatever the asker hopes to trap you in.
Usually the question goes “if you could travel back in time and kill baby Hitler, would you?”
Well there’s the third answer which is the right one. You neither kill him, nor do you leave him there.
You’re a time traveler. You go back in time and kidnap baby Hitler and raise him as your own child and hopefully the outcome is just an ordinary citizen leading an uneventful life.
Kidnapping is unethical sure. But it’s more ethical than murder. And armed with the knowledge of the balance, a utilitarian argument holds that kidnapping in this case isn’t unethical.
Unless you find out in the future, Hilter’s bereaved sister ends up becoming a monstrous dictator and kills even more people than his leadership led to.
Does anyone find it worrisome that reparations has become such an issue that it is suggested Blacks should refrain from voting until they are paid what is due? Since this will likely affect democrat turnout more than Republican, leftists are certain to take up the cause. Are we not already nearly bankrupt? And have we not had six decades of affirmative action and a host of other remedial programs to cure the ills of prior statutory discrimination? If all those programs haven’t worked, why does anyone think that paying reparations will yield a good result? I am worried that white guilt will lead to some really stupid legislation.
I can’t see “reparations” ever making it through Congress; it’s completely unworkable, unconstitutional, and would be tied up in challenges and struck down by the courts if any such program ever did get passed. But hey, if the pipe dream is enough to keep some democrats from voting, that works, too.
If you gave the ones pushing for this five acres and a mule, most of them would be working for the mule within 6 months.
Reparations for the generational damages inflicted by slavery should be considered. However, it *is* a complex financial arrangement. As long as being black is a disadvantage because of the negative heritage of slave ancestors and as long as being white is an advantage because of the positive heritage of slave owners, we need to be certain that people get exactly what they deserve.
We should take equally from whites and distribute equally to blacks.
But things get complicated….what about a person who has one black parent and one white parent? That seems easy – that person neither owes nor receives. But we know that isn’t how everything works.
We will absolutely need a racial purity classification system to ensure this works. That is, someone who is 1/4 black and 3/4 white would owe a 1/2 share to the “reparation pool”…whereas someone who is 3/4 black and 1/4 white would receive a 1/2 share from the “reparation pool”.
We would need to be very clinical and specific with this – we would need to determine who is 1/4 black, 1/8 black, 1/16 black and all sorts of other arrangements. Someone would have to come up with terminology.
In addition to this system – since slavery and jim crow broke the black family and families are the primary little “citizen factories” that teach good values, ethics and industry, it would make sense to house black families with whites – preferably with Democrats since they have a better sense of what’s right and wrong. Just think – while living on the property of these landed Democrats – they can work and learn basic tasks under supervision – and in a way “earn their freedom”. This will go a long way to helping out the African American community get back on its feet.
And we could consider rounding up anyone with Irish blood. In fact – it would be a great way to fund reparations – return all Irish descendants to Ireland, sell their property and give the proceeds to African Americans.
What evidence is there that being black is a disadvantage? Black Americans have had advantages in education, hiring, training, government grants, etc for 2 generations now. How can being black be a disadvantage? The only rationale for saying that is anti-white bigotry.
Slavery and Jim Crow did not break the black family as you assert. It was Democratic social programs that did. When Jim Crow couldn’t control the black population any more, the Democrats used government social programs. LBJ was pretty clear on that.
Does anyone find it worrisome that reparations has become such an issue that it is suggested Blacks should refrain from voting until they are paid what is due?
Blacks refusing to vote until they get reparations is excellent news for Republicans.
I reject reparations on principle. Slavery and Jim Crow are way in the past. Most people in the USA who are alive today have no living memory of Jim Crow. I am an immigrant and I certainly do not have any part those aspects of American history.
In 2025 black people should stop blaming racism and white people for all the social ills in the black community. If they want money they have to work for it just like everyone else. The Vietnamese boat refugees came to the USA with nothing but their clothes on their back and they realized the American dream too.
Reparations is far less current and credible a leftist agenda item than it was 20 years ago. The fact that San Francisco and California’s “reparations” were so obviously a sham pretty much exposed the whole silly, impossible thing. And it is unconstitutional,
This is a very good point.
I have been reading for the past year or so the reason Black Americans are poorer, on average, than. other Americans is because they were denied the ability to build generational wealth due to not being able to buy houses due to racial discrimination in thew real estate market.
And this was likely true in 1995. 1995, after all, was only two decades removed from Fair Housing Laws being enacted. And to buttress this idea, we had the example of Vietnamese boat people who could not have brought their wealth to them, who had to start from scratch, with far less capital Black Americans had, and were poorer on average than Black Americans were. And of course, there was a more recent wave of Bosnian refugees who were even poorer.
Past housing discrimination is no longer the answer.
“Composition and selection
Main articles: United States Senate § Criticism, United States Electoral College § Impacts and reception, and Ideological leanings of United States Supreme Court justices
The electoral college (which elects the President who nominates the justices) and the U.S. Senate which confirms the justices, have selection biases that favor rural states that tend to vote Republican, resulting in a conservative Supreme Court.[264] Ziblatt and Levitsky estimate that 3 or 4 of the seats held by conservative justices on the court would be held by justices appointed by a Democratic president if the Presidency and Senate were selected directly by the popular vote.[265] The three Trump appointees to the court were all nominated by a president who finished second in the popular vote and confirmed by Senators representing a minority of Americans.[266] In addition, Clarence Thomas’ confirmation in 1991 and Merrick Garland’s blocked confirmation in 2016 were both decided by senators representing a minority of Americans.[267] Greg Price also critiqued the Court as minority rule.[268]
Moreover, the Federalist Society acted as a filter for judicial nominations during the Trump administration,[269] ensuring the latest conservative justices lean even further to the right.[264] 86% of judges Trump appointed to circuit courts and the Supreme Court were Federalist Society members.[270] David Litt critiques it as “an attempt to impose rigid ideological dogma on a profession once known for intellectual freedom.”[271] Kate Aronoff criticizes the donations from special interests like fossil fuel companies and other dark money groups to the Federalist Society and related organizations seeking to influence lawyers and Supreme Court Justices.[272]
The 2016 stonewalling of Merrick Garland‘s confirmation and subsequent filling with Neil Gorsuch has been critiqued as a ‘stolen seat’ citing precedent from the 20th century of confirmations during election years,[273][274] while proponents cited three blocked nominations between 1844 and 1866.[275] In recent years, Democrats have accused Republican leaders such as Mitch McConnell of hypocrisy, as they were instrumental in blocking the nomination of Garland, but then quickly confirmed Amy Coney Barrett‘s nomination even though both vacancies occurred close to an election.[276]“
This is a section from Wikipedia’s article on the Supreme Court. Because an “encyclopedia” is a place for crying about how the system is set up and for making a political appeal.
https://x.com/RealBrittHughes/status/2066996315104710761?s=20
Quick ethics observations: