Month: July 2026

Oh, NOW Platner Isn’t An Acceptable Candidate? [Updated]

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

Exactly a month ago, I wrote “I Would Say Graham Platner Poses An Integrity Test For Democrats, Except They Have Already Flunked.” From that post…

“The fact that the Democratic Party is rallying around an unequivocal scumbag like Graham Platner is damning. So desperate is our aspiring totalitarian party to pack the Supreme Court, add automatic Democratic states like Puerto Rico and D.C. to the stars on the flag, open the borders and lock up their political opponents that they are willing to betray their duty to the political system not to present untrustworthy candidates to voters. It doesn’t matter that Platner, about to be nominated as a Senate candidate in Maine, is a liar, a Nazi admirer, a serial sexual offender and has no qualifications for office.”

But for some reason Platner being accused of “rape rape” (in Whoopi Goldberg’s immortal parlance) is too much. What a ridiculous, repellent, disgusting party the Democrats have become! Now, after the latest revelations, previous supporters of this unequivocal scumbag are running for their lives like the rats on board the Titanic.

“I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line. These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement,” tweeted Rep. Ro Khanna, who is quite a scumbag in his own right. Democrat Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego wrote, “The allegations against Graham Platner are troubling and deeply serious. I am rescinding my endorsement.”

Wait, the earlier established facts about Platner weren’t troubling and serious? Democratic anti-gun hysteric David Hogg also withdrew his Platner endorsement today. So did Hollywood Democratic Party lackey Jon Favreau. Finally, The Maine Democrat Party has called for Platner to withdraw from the race.

George Will would call this “condign justice.” Nelson Muntz would say “Ha Ha!” And I channel Connie Corleone when I say, “That’s your party! That’s your party!” No one should let these hypocrites escape accountability for their open contempt for ethics, decency, voters, Maine, Congress or the Republic. Platner’s unfitness for office was already undeniable before Jenny Racicot accused him of rape, but Democrats were willing to hold their noses, cover their eyes and inflict him on the nation anyway. Never mind Platner, this tells us all we need to know about their character, their trustworthiness and their fitness to govern.

__________________

Added: Senator Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer have withdrawn their endorsement of Platner.

Ethics Dunce, Unethical Judge, and Possible Zombie: Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida Judge Diana Tennis

/ Jack Marshall / 2 Comments

The zombie speculation is because I’m sure I’ve seen that expression on “The Walking Dead” or “World War Z.”

The Florida Supreme Court wants to fine Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida Judge Diana M. Tennis (she’s in Orlando) after she admitted making more than 900 donations to left-leaning political causes, we learn from Law.com.

The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission discovered last month that Judge Tennis gave nearly $30,000 in more than 900 separate donations to progressive candidates and those aligned with the Democratic Party.

Florida judicial canons explicitly bar judges from making political contributions:

Canon 7

A Judge or Candidate for Judicial Office Shall Refrain From Inappropriate Political Activity

A judge…shall not:

…make a contribution to a political organization or candidate.

Tennis told the commission that she mistakenly thought that the rule only applied to donations to candidates for state office, not federal ones. That means that she can’t read or understand statutes in plain language. Nothing in that rule above limits the restriction to state political activity. This judge is either dishonest or incompetent. Why would the Florida Supreme Court allow such a hack to continue sitting on the bench at all? She’s partisan, conflicted and untrustworthy.

The more I examine the issue, the more I realize that there are an unacceptable number of incompetent and unethical judges rotting our justice system, indeed an unacceptable percentage of bad judges that I fear equals a critical mass. Tennis is far from the worst, and she has no business judging anything more challenging than the state fair apple pie competition.

Then there is that zombie thing…

Oh Look! Now Graham Platner Is Accused of Rape…You Know, Like Joe Biden and Bill Clinton! If Democrats Were Supporting Him Before, Why Would A Credible Rape Allegation Change Anything?

/ Jack Marshall / 6 Comments

Graham Platner, the professed communist and former Nazi admirer who has lied wildly about his past and is, as progressive Stockholm syndrome victim David Brooks explained on PBS, “a moral degenerate,” has now been credibly accused of rape.

Brooks went on, “The abuse of women, the sexting, the Nazi tattoo, I don’t even need to say anything beyond his Reddit posts, which are not in the past, by the way. He did that for a long time, abusing rape — people who might have been raped, diminishing rape in the military, insulting fellow military officers, calling himself a communist.” Rape would seem to be frosting on this particularly disgusting cake that Democrats were prepared to devour and say “Yum-yum.” Rape? Never mind. Democrats, including Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren have made it clear that they will support Platner in his race against squish GOP Senator Susan Collins because they want to win majorities in Congress no matter what values they have to trash and no matter what scum they have to support to do it.

Today another test of their resolve arrived. One of the named women the New York Times interviewed in its investigation into Platner’s sexual history, Jenny Racicot, 41, elaborated on her previous account to the Times by revealing that Platner raped her. She had originally told the paper only that she cut off contact with Platner after he arrived at her home drunk and engaged in “unsettling” and “reckless” behavior. Now she admits that the “unsettling” behavior was raping her.

Racicot did not disclose the sexual assault for fear of being labeled a rape victim, she told Politico, which broke today’s story. Politico also spoke to the man Racicot dated after Platner, and whom she confided in about the alleged sexual assault, reviewed communications between Racicot and her therapist discussing her decision to come forward, and reviewed communications between Racicot and an acquaintance whom she warned about getting involved with Platner.

As he has denied so many things that turned out to be true, Platner denied the latest allegation, telling Politico, “These allegations are troubling, serious, and false. Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically untrue.” He also posted a video to his Senate campaign’s X account shortly after the Politico piece was published in which he stated that the allegations of sexual assault were false and said he and his team are “taking time to reflect on the best path forward.”

I’m sure you remember that Platner also denied that he knew the large Nazi tattoo he had on his chest was a large Nazi tattoo when he got it. Platner is a serial applicant for an Ethics Alarms “Jumbo,” the award a public figure can acquire here when he or she emulates Jimmy Durante in the film of the musical “Jumbo.” Jimmy played a clown apprehended trying to steal the biggest elephant in the world from the circus. Caught elephant-handed and asked by a constable, “Where are you going with that elephant?,” Durante responded, “What elephant?”

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From The Flat Learning Curve Files: President Trump Unethically Meddles In The World Cup…[Expanded and Updated]

/ Jack Marshall / 23 Comments

I could write a long post on this, or a short one. The short version is: “After star U.S. forward Folarin Balogun was suspended from playing in the next U.S. match (he got a “red card” for an infraction on the field), President Donald Trump intervened on his behalf by calling FIFA president Gianni Infantino. The red card suspension was subsequently lifted, and now Balogen can play in today’s match against Belgium.”

That summary is all you need to know, and I certainly don’t need to follow or care about soccer or the World Cup (I don’t) to make this easy ethics call: It was unethical for the President to use his influence to interfere with the World Cup for the benefit of the U.S. team. Nothing else is relevant:

  • Not whether the ref’s call that got Balogun the red card was deserved or not…
  • Not that Balogun is crucial to the U.S. team if it is to have any chance of continuing success in the tournament….
  • Not that Trump played a key role in getting the World Cup to the U.S…
  • Not that soccer’s governing body, FIFA, is even more corrupt than the National Football League, which is quite an accomplishment…
  • Not even the fact, if it is a fact, that the suspension was going to be lifted anyway and Trump’s intervention didn’t influence the decision.

What is relevant are these truths:

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Twenty-Five Indispensable Movies For Understanding American Culture

/ Jack Marshall / 49 Comments

After this post and the comments it provoked, I vowed to get this one up before the end of the Fourth of July weekend. Twenty-five is an arbitrary number, and I mostly picked it because of time considerations. I’m also going to restrain my comments regarding the choices to a few sentences, at least for today. I may expand on them later.

Before compiling this list, I checked several others online with a similar theme. None made any sense to me, and all were, at their core, left-biased, anti-American, and, frankly, ignorant. My favorite line from the Rolling Stone list: “American culture is driven by Black culture and queer culture. Full stop.” After a statement like that, I couldn’t care less what films are on the list. The Guardian thinks “Don’t Look Up,” a really bad, unfunny satire, tells us anything about America other than how climate change hysteria has infected Hollywood. The woke Hollywood Reporter’s list includes the anti-white racist horror movie “Get Out,” which tells me that this list can’t be trusted either. And, of course, all the lists include “The Godfather,” a great movie that is an allegory for American culture only if you don’t like and admire America. I do. You won’t find “Godfather” 1 or 2 on the Ethics Alarms list.

One more point: it is hard enough getting the list down to twenty-five without trying to rank them, so I won’t. The numbering is just to keep track. Here you are…

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Ethics Dunce: Brown Professor Robert Serrano

/ Jack Marshall / 16 Comments

Prof. Robert Serrano, who has been teaching in Brown University’s Economics Department for 34 years, is sounding off in horror about the scourge of artificial intelligence being used by students to cheat. He apparently missed the last two years.

Serrano had allowed the class in Econ 1170, an advanced course he has been teaching for many years, to take the mid-term exam at home. He was shocked—shocked!—that a large number of his students apparently cheated and used ChatGPT to do it. The grades for a midterm exam were not only significantly higher than in previous years, but a review of the answers submitted found that many responses were identical to those the bot came up with. Not only that, but when Serrano told the class that they could keep the midterm grade they received but that the final would be taken in an exam room with a monitor, nearly a third of the class , 27 out of 86, dropped out. Coincidentally, most the drop-outs had scored 100 on the mid-term.

This was sufficient evidence for the professor to conclude that his students had cheated on the test. No shit, Sherlock.

“This is a very challenging course that attracts typically very strong students, and in the past, the average grade for the midterm ranged from 65 to 80,” says Serrano. “The average this time was 96.” He also saw a huge increase in enrollments in his class this year. “In past editions of the course, the enrollments were at most 30, as low as 8 one semester,” he says. “This semester it jumped to 86. Perhaps many of them saw that this exam would be take-home.”

Ya think?

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Another “Is We Getting Dummer?” Alert…

/ Jack Marshall / 20 Comments

Once again I must evoke the 1978 novel “IQ 83,” by science fiction author Arthur Herzog. A man-made virus escapes a lab and begins reducing the intelligence of Americans to idiot levels. “Is We Getting Dummer?” shouts a typo-filled New York Times headline (not that Times headlines over the last several years have been a lot better). The suspense of the plot involves the desperate scientist responsible for the disaster rushing to find a cure before his own IQ dips so far that he starts watching “Three’s Company” reruns and laughing at them. Two hints that the nightmare may be coming true imposed on my consciousness yesterday.

The first is the headline above from Science News. We’re constantly told to “follow the science,” despite constant reminders that our scientists are politicized, careless, sloppy and dishonest. To make things worse, the support staff and journalists who write about scientists’ work and want us to trust their conclusions aren’t too bright. How many people read that headline and didn’t think, “Wait, WHAT?” How could that get into print?

Then there was this: “A new national survey from the Cato Institute, conducted in collaboration with Morning Consult of 2,253 Americans ahead of July 4th and America’s 250th anniversary, finds nearly half (46%) of Americans don’t know what America’s 250th anniversary commemorates.”

Wow. Do we have a great educational; system or what? In truth, we shouldn’t need our schools to teach our children about the founding of our nation. That information is ubiquitous: all anyone needs is to pay attention. Possess intellectual curiosity. Be raised in a family that thinks, reads and discusses current events.

An IQ of 83 doesn’t have to come from a virus.

No, Thomas Jefferson Did Not Plagiarize The Declaration of Independence

/ Jack Marshall / 6 Comments

The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, or “Meck Deck, as its friends call it, was a document allegedly signed on May 20, 1775, in Charlotte, North Carolina by a committee of citizens of Mecklenburg County. The document declared local residents “free and independent” from British rule in response to news of the battle of Concord. Some North Carolina historians argue that Thomas Jefferson cribbed from the Meck Deck to draft his Declaration of Independence, and that’s because they are North Carolina historians.

The evidence that Jefferson plagiarized the earlier document is weak to say the least. To begin with, there is no authentic copy of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence in existence For me, that should end the controversy.

The story is that twenty-seven of Mecklenburg County’s civic leaders led by Col. Thomas Polk, who was the great-uncle of President James K. Polk, received news the colonial battles against the British in Massachusetts culminating in the British defeat an Concord a month earlier. They signed of the document “in a rustic backwoods courthouse which stood nearby in the center of the intersection of Trade and Tryon Streets,” according to a plaque that now stands in Charlotte’s Independence Square. The declaration was read to a large crowd that had gathered at the courthouse steps, according to eyewitness accounts. Tavern owner James Jack volunteered to deliver the document to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, but the North Carolina delegation never brought it before the full Congress.

Like so many disputed documents, the Meck Deck was destroyed in a fire in1800 fire at the home of Meck Dec secretary John Alexander. In 1819, however, Alexander’s son, William, delivered what he claimed to be an accurate copy that had been reconstructed from memory by his father.

From memory. That makes the thing hearsay and ineligible to serve as admissible evidence in any court or even a credible investigation. Nevertheless, The Raleigh Register published it, and the text bore sufficient resemblance to THE Declaration that it set the day’s conspiracy theorist’s tongues a wagging. John Adams, then corresponding routinely with his old friend and rival, mentioned the Meck Deck in a letter to Jefferson dated June 22, 1819. Jefferson wrote that he had never heard of it, much less read it, and in a letter responding to Adams on July 9, 1819, said the document was probably a hoax. That letter was published after Jefferson’s death (on the 50th anniversary of THE Declaration’s signing in 1826, when Adams died as well) in 1829. Jefferson’s hoax accusation prompted the North Carolina legislature to establish a committee to investigate the matter.

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The Star Spangled Naked Teacher!

/ Jack Marshall / 9 Comments

It’s been a long time since Ethics Alarms had one of its trademark Naked Teacher Principle tales or even one of it’s many variations, like the Nearly Naked Teacher’s Volunteer Principle, the Drag Queen School Principal Principle, the Naked Porn-Performing Political Candidate Principle, and the Too Sexy Firefighter Principle, to name just a few. This one, from Alexander, Georgia, has nothing to do with July Fourth, except that I discovered the story this morning. It is certainly past time for one of these posts: the last one under the tag was here, and it was only about the related Naked Mayor Principle, involving the moronic mayor of Minot, North Dakota who accidentally sent an explicit nude video of himself to the city’s attorney.

Above is Maris Nichols, 25, a married Georgia high school teacher, who really likes having sex with students: she’s been indicted for showing at least six students the sweet mysteries of life in her classroom, at a golf course, and in a closet). Two of the teenagers were younger than 16. What puts Maris into the Naked Teacher Principle category is that she is a very provocative OnlyFans performer, and was being blackmailed by some of her students—it is unclear if they were among the one she was boinking—for better grades. They had discovered the OnlyFans channel she owns, operates, and uses to display her excellent Linda Lovelace impression, among other things.

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A Brief Observation On A Slow Day At Ethics Alarms…

/ Jack Marshall / 15 Comments

Ann Althouse, the retired Madison Wisconsin law professor/bloggress whose posts often interest me, today wrote that “My Dinner With Andre” is her favorite movie, and that this is her favorite passage from it:

“I mean, you see, I think if you could become fully aware of what existed in the cigar store next door to this restaurant, I think it would just blow your brains out! I mean… I mean, isn’t there just as much ‘reality’ to be perceived in the cigar store as there is on Mount Everest? I mean, what do you think? You see, I think that not only is there nothing more real about Mount Everest, I think there’s nothing that different, in a certain way. I mean, because reality is uniform, in a way. So that if you’re–if your perceptions–I mean, if your own mechanism is operating correctly, it would become irrelevant to go to Mount Everest, and sort of absurd! Because, I mean, it’s just–I mean, of course, on some level, I mean, obviously it’s very different from a cigar store on Seventh Avenue, but I mean…”

Well, that explains a lot.

As readers here know, I am a creature of popular culture, especially movies and plays. I have long thought that Althouse’s cultural literacy was undernourished, and that it explains her quirky and often flat-out weird perspectives. Now I know that she really doesn’t “get” movies, which is just…sad. Yeah, there are some interesting observations made in this filmed and the scripted encounter between two professional intellectuals kind-of sort-of playing themselves, but it isn’t drama, it isn’t visually interesting, and if that’s a movie, I’m a catfish. Ann is one of those remote and superior people my parents would occasionally have over to play bridge, who boasted about not having a television.

I do not believe one can comprehend the United States of America without knowing our rich film and entertainment history; if we ignore it, we are stumbling around in the dark. I would name the movies I believe are crucial parts of that heritage, but it would take too much space, and would be infuriating incomplete. I will say this, however: “My Dinner With Andre” isn’t on the list.