Astute criminal defense lawyer/blogger Scott Greenfield has an amusing “open letter” from guest contributor Chris Seaton to Maine Democrats posted today. Here’s how it winds up…
“…Now I know you guys want someone to say all the right things, so here goes: Black lives matter, trans rights are human rights, free Palestine, and Donald Trump sucks donkey dicks for Putin. There. That covered everything, right? If not send me ten thousand bucks in an envelope and include what position I’m supposed to hold today. You’ll find out I learn fast! Yes, it might sting that I’m a Tennessee boy who really doesn’t give a shit about Maine’s politics. And I think Susan Collins is pretty milquetoast as far as Republicans go—she votes with Democrats a hell of a lot more than most folks think she should. But let’s be realistic: Beggars can’t be choosers, and right now beating Susan Collins is more important than finding someone who ticks all the right ideological boxes.
“And I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone, I don’t have a Kick account, and I’ve never entertained the thought of getting a Nazi tattoo. So here’s my proposal: You guys give me ten million bucks and all the lobster rolls I can eat. I will do the absolute bare minimum and repeat all the talking points you guys give me. I’ll vote how you want and I’ll even tell Donald Trump and Susan Collins to go fuck themselves on command. I know that’s not what you really want, but at least I’m not Mr. Nazi McRapeypants, you know?
“Think it over.”
Utterly deserved. And Scott’s blog is pretty consistently left-leaning. Well-played, sir.
But back to the issue at hand: please write about new, persisting and interesting ethics issues. The podium is yours…
Ethics Alarms 
That post at SJ is from Chris Seaton; he has a guest post every Friday, usually humorous.
Thanks, I was confused. There was no clear notice on the blog who “CS” was. I can fix that.
This is an interesting ethics issue, ¿no?
https://www.newsweek.com/manhattan-construction-collapse-buckling-columns-east-42nd-street-12166413
A building in downtown Manhattan – home to Pfizer – is dangerously, periliously close to collapsing because the construction of new floors caused support columns to buckle. Now, I am not a structural engineer or some soert of construction law lawyer – hell, I can barely wrap my brain around simple anti-trust matters as it is! – but it would seem to me that a whole lot of people did really, really stupid things with respect to the planning and construction of the new floors, especially new floors built on top of a roof structure never intended to bear the weight of new floors.
If a permit was issued, then who submitted the plans and who approved them? Was there an “administration processing” fee involved to get the permit issued?
jvb
Finally! A substantive addition! So far, today’s Open Forum is the most lightly traveled ever. Why would that be?
Sorry. The annual Golden Family Roadtrip is on. I spent today traveling from Texas through Louisiana where we stopped to see the spot where Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed, then made it to Mississippi and Vicksburg National Battlefield. Now we’re in Jackson waiting entirely too long for a table at a pizza joint while being eaten alive by mosquitoes!
Bing Videos
So Jackson’s not all Johnny Cash and June Carter made it out to be?
Cultural literacy admission: why did I not know Johnny Cash was married to June Carter, a member of the famous Carter family and a writer of many well known songs? One of those things you know but you don’t really sort sufficiently.
We were also on our way back from the West summer roadtrip.
I think the last almost two years of the AUC and the Trump Deranged having a non-stop hissy fit about absolutely every last thing has worn the rest of us out. It’s exhausting.
A minor point, John. Pfizer is no longer in the building. They moved out a while ago. Some developers bought it and commenced the ill-fated expansion and conversion to residential (condos, I assume) use.
Well, this is what structural engineers get paid for and why they maintain malpractice insurance. Should be interesting to see what happens. They may have to demolish the added floors, or maybe even the entire building. My bet is the entire building will have to be taken down.
Why anyone would want to live on Manhattan is beyond me. Of course, I’m acrophobic.
Saw a good discussion of what “Democratic Socialism” means. It’s pretty nasty. “Socialism” covers for “Communism.” Socialism is simply a stop along the way to Communism. Communism is the goal, the end point. Democratic simply means bringing on the revolution via getting people to vote for it rather than by violence. A really pernicious group of Commies. They are an existential threat to the country.
And they’re led by the children of foreigners and are Islamists in large part as well. A twofer!
My thought about this “democratic socialism” movement is that it should be examined as a cultural and social-psychological manifestation.
I have a friend (she is American, from a very Liberal orientation, and has a career in the administration side of education) who has begun to use the term. She is very head-strong about here social-political views and, when we talk, always corrects my language. Like when I refer to “working class” or “poor class” she interjects that these words are “harmful” because they enforce divisions or stereotypes. When I responded in a lengthy text message reply (referencing Orwell and language police, etc.) she responded “This is my day off and I am devoting it to self-care. I will respond later…” but she never did.
She and here husband had pretty decent corporate jobs for most of their adult lives, but they did not save nor invest, but lived well with vacations and general pleasures. And now they have had to rely on their parents (slightly upper middle-class) to be provided with a home owned by parents but my friends pay some part of the mortgage or maybe they are buying the home themselves that way.
It is curious for me to examine their general social attitude in their very Liberal city where at the Fourth of July parade it all had political “social justice” tones. I guess you could call it “virtue signaling” but enacted in the context of a patriotic event.
There is definitely a “mood” out there that clamors for more social or socialized policies, but I do not know if it is accurate to say that those who advocate for those things desire “communism”. However, they do employ the trope of “the people” vs “tyrants” (obvious Trump is portrayed that way and that explains the “No Kings!” rhetoric. Personally, I tend to think Spengler got it right: in the decadence and decay of the West, which might be a result of the “Liberal rot” and nihilism that infects our society(s), the rise of Caesarism was predicted (he said after years 2000). While it is possible to call this pessimism “Spenglerian gloom” there is no way to avoid the general conclusions we all have, because we feel it and see it. What the Progresdive Left of America will need, and they are showing themselves today, are those Caesars of Social Democracy who will successfully and convincingly argue against the political tyranny of their Enemies and use democratic organization to enact their will.
One of the signs of that was that guy that assassinated the insurance administrator for that (quite unjust) corporate health insurance company that refused to pay (when it should have) and caused therefore so much suffering. To the point of intense, focused hatred.
You see Bill? How it is possible to “take some distance” and examine social phenomena from a position of calm analysis free of hysteria and projection?
Everything occurring today is an “outcome” of prior events and choices, and it is ALL OF IT what the business class and the political class has allowed to happen. It is impossible (or mejor dicho not intelligent) to blame a “them”.
Here’s a great analysis of the situation: Gad Saad on Suicidal Empathy and Western Decline – WSJ See? I’m not stupid! I’m appealing to authority! I’m citing an expert!
You see Bill? How it is possible to “take some distance” and examine social phenomena from a position of calm analysis free of hysteria and projection?
Why do you condescend to everyone? And fuck you and the horse you rode in on.
Bill, Bill, Bill…..
Don’t take things do seriously! Still, I do not deny “condescension” (though that puts the wrong spin). I think I have a function that is not negative and I intend to achieve my purposes.
From your article:
Mr. Saad, 61, is an evolutionary psychologist, a professor of marketing at Concordia University in Montreal. He is the author of “Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind,” published in May, a cri de coeur against “maladaptively irrational altruism.” On immigration, crime, homelessness, taxation, schooling, environmentalism and transgenderism, he argues, Western elites have embraced policies that allow them to bask in a glow of self-satisfied virtue “while being fully decoupled from the negative consequences.”
That is not an appeal to authority, it is a citation that is relevant because it demonstrates a perspective and also conviction. The “argument” would take shape if you a) believed that there is such thing as ‘suicidal empathy’ and ‘maladaptive irrational altruism’ and then if you applied the assertion by way of recommending a different social policy.
And if you DID make that argument, dear Sr. Bill, you would be arguing squarely within the camps of the Dissident Right, and not from the camps of most Conservatism these days.
Young Bill wrote: “Democratic simply means bringing on the revolution via getting people to vote for it rather than by violence. A really pernicious group of Commies. They are an existential threat to the country.”
It was a decade ago, and I can hardly believe that such time has passed, that I first was researching the social crisis of America) and writing on Jack’s blog. Getting tons of despisement and contempt, of course, fir having any contrarian ideas (to the general Neocon “Conservatism”) but such is life!
But you must know that it is the Dissident Right that actually set to work, in its various ways, to try to UNDERSTAND what happened and how things got to this point, right? You do know that you, the American Conservative par excellence, totally rejects any voices that seek to locate and explain coherently the causal chain that has led to this situation where you are on the verge of (as you directly indicate) losing your country, right?
So much to discuss, and hardly anyone available to realistically discuss! How, for example, do you process Bernays?
”The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
What about:
”The American motion picture is the greatest unconscious carrier of propaganda in the world today. It is a great distributor for ideas and opinions. The motion picture can standardize the ideas and habits of a nation. Because pictures are made to meet market demands, they reflect, emphasize and even exaggerate broad popular tendencies, rather than stimulate new ideas and opinions. The motion picture avails itself only of ideas and facts which are in vogue. As the newspaper seeks to purvey news, it seeks to purvey entertainment.”
BTW we did watch “That’s Entertainment”. I have much to say but no one will want to hear it … 😭
What else is there to say except “That’s entertainment!”???
That is certainly one thing that would have to be said.
https://x.com/willricci/status/2076356696545296842?s=46
“When ISIS butcher Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died, WaPo called him an “austere religious scholar.”
When commie dictator Fidel Castro died, The NYT called him a “Cuban revolutionary who defied the U.S.”
Lindsey Graham raised his younger sister after their parents died, served 33 years in uniform and more than 3 decades in Congress.
He dies, and prominent media voices reach back 6 years for an essay titled “History Will Judge the Complicit.”
This isn’t merely bad taste, it’s a moral hierarchy:
America’s enemies get context, euphemism, romance — American conservatives get a bill of indictment before their body is even cold.”