Month: August 2026

No, “Stars and Stripes” Is Not Supposed To Be “Independent and Objective”

/ Jack Marshall / 2 Comments

I will grant this to some of my more Trump Deranged friends: they do give me some excellent ethics blog fodder.

One of them erupted in typical Trump deranged outrage because, as explained in this WaPo story, the Pentagon fired the publisher and the editor-in-chief of “Stars and Stripes,” the military news publication funded by the Department of Defense. This was, you see, another example of Trump “censorship.” In interviews with CBS, the fired editor insisted, “I am working for Stars and Stripes. Not for the Pentagon. Not for any administration. Not for any policymaker. I am here to cover the military community.” Another argued, “These firings are a shame for the institution and service members, who swore to defend the Constitution and deserve the right to a free and independent press.”

My Trump Deranged friend seems to believe that the Pentagon is obligated to employ “advocacy journalists” who are free to undermine the military command, including the Commander in Chief. If the Pentagon can fire editors of “Stars and Stripes,” and it can, then the publication can’t call itself independent. The military has no reason to tolerate or fund a publication that is critical of military command or the Commander in Chief, undermining military morale and general order.

In past eras, Stars and Stripes has always had an pro- military bias; of course it has. But now we have veterans in uniform disrupting Congressional hearings, and there is a war on. If “Stars and Stripes “wants the option of criticizing military command rather than reporting military news and promoting the Armed Services, great: let it find a funding source other than the Pentagon. Otherwise, it is beholden to the best interests of the military as the military command defines them.

The military is not a democracy. The Pentagon didn’t permit a “free and independent press” during World War II. It is disingenuous for a “Stars and Stripes” editor or reporter to say on CBS that she doesn’t work for the Pentagon when the Pentagon’s funds pay her salary.

My friend, a lawyer, defaulted to this:

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Comment of the Day: “Another Trump Derangement Update!”

/ Jack Marshall / 5 Comments

Humble Talent’s Comment of the Day on the post “Another Trump Derangement Update!” is clear, perceptive, and helpful. It needs no more introduction from me, so here it is…

***

I remember during Trump’s first term, I made a Facebook post that tried to explain to lefties the concept of “resistance burnout”…. Basically, if you approach everything Trump does with the exact same amount of action and outrage, then you lose the ability to signal what is actually important, and everything just ends up sounding like an adult from Charlie Brown. I used how Trump muzzled the EPA’s Twitter account and how he appointed a man actively being sued by the EPA as head of the EPA as examples of something very low stakes and something legitimately bad.

Because there is some there there, and a sane resistance has a place. I’ll put it out there: I was absolutely more than willing to talk about how awful Biden was, and how the 25th was probably more appropriate for him than any other President in living memory. See: “Weekend at Biden’s” and “President Autopen”… That wasn’t normal either.

Because Trump isn’t normal, but just saying that is insufficient. “Normal” isn’t a moral state of being. What he does is important, and while I could be annoyed at all the capital projects, particularly during a cost of living crisis (I am), or his instinct to rhetorically pee on everything he can in an attempt to get his name on things (ditto), or his desire to add acreage to the American empire by floating ideas that are just… Never going to happen, as some kind of legacy project (also yes), these things are relatively unimportant. We need to be able to walk and chew gum, and separate the annoying things Trump does from the things that are actually problems.

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Ethics Dunce: Dan Koh (& Head-Exploding Campaign Video Of The Year So Far)

/ Jack Marshall / 11 Comments

Wow.

Dan Koh is delusional. The frightening thing is that the there are a lot of brain-washed progressives in Massachusetts who are so far gone that they won’t realize how crazy and hypocritical that ad is.

First of all, to lead with dead-eyed Joe Biden saying Koh’s name because two syllables is probably all they could get him to utter after 34 takes and maybe some AI dubbing, isn’t what I would call a boffo opening. Then to follow with Kamala Harris—why would anyone vote for someone Harris endorses? She picked Knucklehead Tim Walz as her running mate! Next Koh boasts about being a senior White House advisor who was either so dim that he didn’t realize the President was a rutabaga, or so corrupt that he was part of the cover-up of Biden’s dementia. There is no third option. Biden’s term was the most disastrous in American Presidential history: what did Biden fix, with Koh’s expert counsel?

Then he ends by saying “Democrats you trust” endorse him, and there are Biden and Kamala again. I can’t think of many Democrats less trustworthy than those two. Oh, maybe Adam Schiff, Jamaal Bowman, Rep. Omar and a few other scumbags, but it’s close. Harris endorsed Black Lives Matter, and said she wanted redirect public resources away from the police but didn’t support defunding the police, a typical muddled Harris policy position. As a Presidential candidate Harris said she wouldn’t change anything Joe Biden did…you know, like opening the borders and appointing a DEI Cabinet of incompetents, lackeys and dolts. Kamal;a also swore she worked at a mysterious McDonalds that apparently appears for day and then vanishes into the mist, like Brigadoon.

Joe let his addict son use him as an influence peddling prop. He promised to be a moderate and to bring the nation together, then allowed the far Left to run his crippled Presidency. He insisted that he was sharp as a tack while refusing to have his cognition tested after his brain had retired to Boca Raton. True, he “beat Medicare.”

That ad is like something out of an alternate universe.

(And Dan Koh looks like Adam Sandler.)

Maybe This Time…Derek Chauvin Will Get Justice [Corrected]

/ Jack Marshall / 23 Comments

[Note of correction: Sloppily, carelessly and unforgivably, I stated in the post that Floyd was convicted of first degree murder, and he was not. Chauvin was convicted of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder (which is manslaughter), and second-degree manslaughter and convicted on all of the charges, resulting in a 22.5 year prison sentence. That result is still unconscionable given the facts and equivocal evidence. But let’s get the facts right. My apologies.]

Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering George Floyd for many reasons, none fair, valid or based on justice or civil rights, once again has a chance to see his kangaroo court conviction thrown out.

A new court filing by Chauvin’s lawyer, the third aimed at getting Chauvin’s indefensible murder conviction reversed, alleges, among other things, ‘illegal’ and ‘fraudulent’ conduct by Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.” Greg Joseph contends that there were serious breaches of proper procedure and due process by authorities because the Black Lives Matter mob was so determined to use George Floyd’s death as a righteous rallying point to advance a social and political agenda.

Ya think?

Joseph contends that a grand jury was never convened to review the evidence behind the charges, because, as he rightly concludes, “Hennepin County’s unlawful charges against Mr. Chauvin were not severe enough for the mob.” Governor Tim Walz instead “referred the case to (Minnesota Attorney General and confirmed anti-white racist) Keith Ellison, who signed and e-filed a second unfounded complaint against Derek Chauvin that included the murder charge.”

Is anyone surprised that they did everything possible to cut corners to destroy Chauvin, and justice be damned? Not me. 

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Another Trump Derangement Update!

/ Jack Marshall / 10 Comments

The following is a Facebook post from a wonderful man, smart, ethical, analytical and compassionate. I’ve known him for over 40 years and respect him deeply. Yet he posted,

“Folks, remember nothing about the actions of this administration and its minions is normal What is going on in our country is not normal.

A President who insists on making himself the news and communicates in absolutely BIZARRE ways, the multiple DC building projects, dispatching the military to American citites, the ignoring of norms, Congress being AWOL, a $40 Trillion deficit, high gas prices, high food prices, and no explanation or plan to get out of this war. Most importantly, the flouting of Court orders and the endless work arounds to get what this administration wants is Not Normal.

I wonder what part of the Court order stating that only Congress could rename the Kennedy Center they didn’t understand?

“. . . Members voted to close the center for two years for a $285 million renovation, after being handed what lawyers challenging the board described as a “vague, two-page PowerPoint” two days before the meeting. Only three members voted no, including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Rick Larsen. The board also voted to inscribe “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” below Kennedy’s name, rename the grounds “President Donald J. Trump Plaza,” and add a third line about a Trump-named endowment if it hits $100 million . . .”

I had to wrestle my fingers to the floor to stop myself from responding. But I did. I’m still sorely tempted, however, to point that what is so obnoxious about this post is the writer’s assumption that his assessment is undeniably fair and valid. He’s assuming that everyone on his feed is just as Trump Deranged as he is. These people make declarations; they aren’t interested in a discussion, and anyone who dares to say, “Now wait a minute…” will be unfriended, tarred as MAGA and a Fox News ventriloquist dummy while being rebranded as evil.

But talk about moldy Axis talking points! That “normal” salvo: what a cheap shot, and one the no one who wasn’t screaming for Joe Biden to be put in a home is ethically estopped from making! Strong leaders and effective Presidents are never “normal.” To me, that complaint is signature significance for someone who is ignorant regarding the Presidency and leadership.

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Sorry! A Jason Arday Ethics Train Wreck Update Because Attention Should Be Paid

/ Jack Marshall / 12 Comments

There should be lots of topics to discuss on today the Friday Open Forum, which is going up next, but first, despite having promised to never post on the nauseating Jason Arday mess again, events dictate that I have to break that promise, because not doing my job regarding the EA mission would be more unethical than breaking a promise based on a premise that turned out to be false. It’s an ethics conflict. (I wonder why MAGA types have so much trouble with the concept. President Trump has delivered on a higher percentage of his campaign promises than any President since James K. Polk, and yet defectors like Tucker Carlson and Margery Taylor Greene—who would want to be a member of that club?— are furious because he started a necessary war that should have been started about 50 years ago. Morons.)

But I digress. Over in Europe, which stands as a frightening example of how quickly cultures can lose core values, Nathan Cofnas, who was the first to extensively expose Arday an academic fraud, announced that he has been suspended by Ghent University in Belgium and expects to be fired. His offense? “Discrimination”—-meaning that pointing out that a black academic star that Cambridge University had created out of DEI nothingness was in truth a serial plagiarist was racist. The school rector, Petra De Sutter issued a statement on l’affaire Arday asserting that freedom of speech “is not unlimited. It goes hand in hand with responsibility and may be restricted in order to protect the rights of others.”

Tell us more about the freedom to lie to the public and jump in line in front of genuine scholars because of one’s color, Petra!

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Now THIS Is Indoctrination

/ Jack Marshall / 5 Comments

Oregon State University mandates that undergraduates complete two courses on “Difference, Power & Oppression,” as part of its “Core Education” curriculum, including “Difference, Power & Oppression Foundations” and “Difference, Power & Oppression Advanced.”

The university demands that all students take these courses so students can master the art of disrupting oppressive systems in the United States and around the world. After all, the Orwelians explain, “The inequitable distribution of social, economic, and political power in the United States and globally is sustained through systems of oppression, which represent a variety of discriminatory institutional beliefs and practices…beliefs and practices [that] obscure the origins and operations of systemic oppression in daily life, such that this inequitable power distribution is assumed to be the natural order…Such examinations will enhance and promote responsible, ethical, and anti-racist engagement by preparing students to understand and disrupt these systems as they manifest in their field.”

There is no way to spin this. Oregon State, a public university, is requiring any graduate to have their brain washed in order to graduate and get a degree. There is also no way to defend it, or the oppressive and anti-American ideology that has spawned such totalitarian tactics.

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“Nah, There’s No Mainstream Media Bias!” Tell Of The Month: “Arrgh! The National Debt Hit $40 Trillion!”

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

“…and everything was so much better when it was only at 32.67 trillion!”

Watching my Red Sox TV broadcasts from Boston(as the team I have lived and died for …metaphorically of course…most of my life inconveniently rose from the dead last month and forced me to take two and a half hours I don’t have time for out of every day to follow their adventures), it has been mordantly amusing to hear all of the Democrats running ads following a script that says they will “stand up to Trump” and “deal with the National Debt.” When anyone, including President Trump, promises to take any serious action regarding the National Debt, they are proving they are stupid, naive or lying. There is no fourth alternative.

Nevertheless, the Axis media (and others) have now decided that the newly minted $40 trillion National Debt is exponentially more alarming than the $39 trillion debt, or the $37 trillion debt, and far, far more disastrous than in 1992, when Ross Perot ran for President primarily on the platform that a debt that was then “only” $4.06 trillion and about 46% the gross domestic product was dangerous and irresponsible and Democrats mocked him mercilessly. So “National Debt reaches $40 million!” is being headlined everywhere, blathered about on CNN, MSNow and the rest because Republicans have control of the Presidency and Congress, and mid-term elections are fast approaching.

I wrote about this hypocrisy and deliberate dishonesty by the Left just four months ago. Any Democratic candidate who cites the current explosion of the National Debt as a reason to vote for him, her or Democrats (and especially Democratic-Socialists) are untrustworthy liars: the claim is signature significance. No ethical, competent, believable candidate would make such a promise even once. It is proof of organic mendacity.

I was temped to repost the last EA essay on the topic, Ethics Observations on the National Debt…, but you can read the whole thing if you want; the tag for the topic and all of the EA posts on it is here. I’ll just leave with this quote—as with the rest of the post, it is as accurate today as it was then:

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The Median Strategies “Experiment” [Updated, 8/22/26]

/ Jack Marshall / 11 Comments

This tears it for me, I think. I’m not paying attention to any polls from anyone or anywhere, ever.

I don’t know why anyone ever would, except, well, you know. Most people are stupid and gullible with flat learning curves, and our political parties and the news media depend on it.

An alleged polling groups called Median Strategies released a poll before the Wisconsin gubernatorial race that showed Democratic Socialist whack-job Francesca Hong with a lead of more than 20 percentage points. Hong lost: It was close, but metaphorical miles away from winning by 20 points.

But wait! There’s more!

Then Median Strategies issued a poll this month showing Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass leading City Councilwoman Nithya Raman by nearly 12 percentage points ahead of the November mayoral runoff. Bass was apparently ecstatic, declaring on social media, “Doing the work, showing up, and gaining momentum. Let’s do this, LA!”

On Monday, the company acknowledged on its website that it had produced the fake polls as a”short-term social experiment examining how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification.”

Oh! That’s all right then! No, it’s not, and I don’t care what the alleged justification for releasing fake polls was. The incident proves one thing, and one thing only: we can’t trust polling organizations, we can’t trust polls, we can’t trust the news stories that cite polls (Trump’s support among Hispanics drops 50!” was a headline this week…I bet they polled illegal immigrants), and we can’t trust politicians who use them either.

We should have already known this after the miserable performance of polling during the last few election cycles, but the Median Strategies “experiment” should put the question to bed permanently. All polling is a tool for manipulating elections, discouraging some voters and energizing others. Ignore them all. If a poll is correct, it’s luck.

We owe Median Strategies a debt of gratitude for clearing this question up for all time. But I think their real experiment was designed to find out how many people will still take polls seriously even after this farce. My guess: lots. Because…you know.

[Update: A 21-year-old recent college graduate named Rahil Prakash revealed that he was the one behind the fake polls and “Median Strategies.” In a report published this week he admitted that Median Strategies was his invention, using AI. “I wanted to see if fake polls could really penetrate the ecosystem that easily,” Prakash said. “And as it turned out, it could.”

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