Ethics Observations on the President’s Zoom Outburst

“Tell me who enlarged NATO. Tell me who did the Pacific basin. Tell me who did something that you’ve never done with your Bronze Star — and your — like my son — and, you know — proud of your leadership. But guess what? Well, what’s happening? We got Korea and Japan working together.”

Yikes. That was Joe Biden on a Zoom call July 13th with a group of “concerned” Democratic House members. (“concerned” is the consensus word adopted by the mainstream news media to mean “panicked that the public now knows what their party —and we—knew all along and deliberately hid from the American people.” )

The President was addressing Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a retired Army Ranger who was awarded a Bronze Star. This alarming quote was just revealed to the Washington Post by one of the participants on the call, which was recorded. It was presumably released now, almost a week later, because Biden hasn’t yet yielded to pressure and entreaties from the party to announce his withdrawal as a candidate for re-election in November. The Post’s headline for its report on the call and its significance: “Behind the scenes as Joe Biden lost control of the Democratic Party.”

[That meme above is from today’s unusually funny collection of headlines, memes and cartoons in Power Line’s weekly collection. The “sloped roof” gags are especially good.]

Observations:

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It Depends On What the Meaning of ‘Conservative’ Is…Ethics, Language, Law, Art and Priorities Clash in a Strange University Case

That’s “Rust Red Hills” (1930), by Georgia O’Keeffe above. Does it seem “conservative” to you? Does “conservative” even seem like a word that can be relevant to such a painting?

Welcome to the weird court petition filed by Valparaiso University in Indiana. The school wants to be able to get around the terms of a large testamentary gift that it happily accepted in 1953. Percy Sloan donated millions of dollars and hundreds of fine art works in honor of his father, Junius R. Sloan, a famous artist in the Hudson River School. His will directed that any art acquired with the funds must be “exclusively by American artists preferably of American subjects” and “of the general character known as conservative and of any period of American art.” The University wants to sell some of the most valuable paintings it purchased with Sloan’s bequest, including the one above, to fund the construction of new dormitories.

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Sorry Joe: You Knew She Was a Scorpion All Along

Here I am still fighting off multiple crises personal, professional and financial arising from my wife’s sudden death, and trying to actually earn money, no easy task in the field of ethics unless one is unethical, which so many of my more successful colleagues are. Unfortunately, I have no discipline. I am behind on several deadlines that will keep me working into the wee hours this weekend, and yet emanations from the twin ethics train wrecks that are Biden’s debate melt-down and Trump’s near-miss assassination attempt keep dragging me back to Ethics Alarms.

Like this one: sources are reporting that the President is “seething” at Nancy Pelosi, who is widely believed to be behind the wave of House Democrats calling for Biden to step down as the presumptive nominee. California Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a close ally of Pelosi—figures—released a letter calling for Biden to step aside. House Democrats close to Pelosi, attributed today’s new defections, especially Lofgren’s letter to Biden,to the former speaker. Biden regarded Pelosi as an ally. He trusted her.

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AOC Is Here To Tell Us That…

Well, something. Yes, hold on to your butts: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is imparting what she regards as wisdom. I was going to make this an Unethical Quote of the Week, then I decided that I didn’t know what it was, except disturbing. Here is what she ranted last night in a live stream; I’ll have some rueful comments at the end…

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Ethics Dunce: MSNBC (In Related News, Night Is Dark!)

MSNBC, the fake news champ, expanded its unethical practices to deceptive broadcast settings for the Republican National convention this week. MSNBC’s prime-time coverage of the Republican National Convention looked familiar to the other networks and what veteran viewers are used to from past convention coverage: anchors at a desk positioned above the convention floor. Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Jen Psaki, Joy Reid and the rest of the MSNBC anchors were not inside the convention hall as it was designed to appear, however. They were in a Manhattan studio. That backdrop of the convention floor was being projected on a screen behind them.

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Friday Open Forum: Sing Out!

Mary Milben, who sang what was perhaps the most over-produced National Anthem I’ve ever experienced last night at the GOP convention, is a freind and, I think it’s fair to say, a discovery of mine. I saw her play the title role in “Patience” with Georgetown Law Center’s Gilbert and Sullivan Society (which I founded as a first year law student), and, impressed, gave Mary her first professional theater roles at my now defunct but fondly remembered professional company in Arlington, Virginia, The American Century Theater. Since then she’s built an impressive international career; I’m thrilled for her, but not surprised. Mary tipped me off to her imminent appearance with a promotional email. That bombastic production wasn’t her choice, but to her credit, she had the pipes not to be swallowed by it.

I’m sure you can find ethics topics to discuss today….keep them on key, unlike that earlier Star-Spangled Banner rendition that was notable this week.

A Required Presidential Historical Note…

After Donald Trump’s long, schizophrenic, rambling acceptance speech, one of the Fox News hosts on the convention floor, it doesn’t matter which one, said that earlier in the year Trump had asked him if his coming back to win the 2024 election would be the greatest political story in U.S. history. “Maybe in the top five or top three,” the Fox News talking head opined.

Nonsense. It wouldn’t make the top 10. In fact, it wouldn’t even be the top Trump-related political story: his upset win over Hillary Clinton completely upended both parties and all of American politics. A win next November would be an impressive comeback from the ruins of January 6, 2021 but still nowhere near as stunning as that first victory.

For the record, here are the top 17 in chronological order:

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Well, I Think This Definitively Answers Any Lingering Questions About the Competence and Critical Thinking Skills of the Nation’s Progressives…

A Morning Consult poll released this week reports that 34 % of Democratic voters found it either definitely or probably credible that Trump staged Saturday’s shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, and less than half, 45 %, agreed that the conspiracy theory is not credible at all.

Be proud, Democrats!

You can read here about various theories, reasons and comparisons regarding this idiocy: I really don’t care. I know idiots when I see them. This tells us that less than half of all registered Democrats have the critical thinking skills of the average meat loaf.

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Ethics Hero: Jack Black

I took a while to research this story before awarding Black, an actor/comic/ musician with a reputation for being a genuinely good guy, an EA Ethics Hero designation. After checking various sources, I am now persuaded that he deserves it.

Black has apparently made enough money as a movie actor that, like Kevin Bacon, Gwyneth Paltrow and a few others, he can indulge his musical inclinations and modest talents and get people to pay to see him performing with a band. That would be Tenacious D, a comedy-rock duo Jack Black shares with Kyle Gass. Tenacious D was in Sydney as part of a tour, and Black brought out a cake at the ICC Sydney Theater on Sunday to celebrate Gass’s 64th birthday. He asked Gass to “make a wish,” and Gass said, “Don’t miss Trump next time!”

The video of the crack went viral. Black, who appeared to laugh at the line (he’s been featured at Biden fundraisers), had a statement posted on social media two days later saying he “was blindsided by what was said at the show,” and that he “would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form.”

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More Weird Tales of The Great Stupid: Post-Debate/Post-Assassination Edition

It is astounding what obvious garbage one can hear and read officials, journalists, pundits, activists and academics state in public for popular consumption these days…

1. In an interview shortly after her Secret Service failed its mission and disgraced itself, Kimberly Cheatle actually said that one of her top priorities was to attract more diverse applicants to the agency.

Ethics Note: The interviewer, a standard issue hack, naturally didn’t ask the obvious follow-up question: “Why is diversity a priority at all in an agency with the assignment of the Secret Service? Who cares what gender, ethnicity or color the agent is who saves the life of a President? Why does it matter? If every agent was a 6’4″ black man who can run a 4 minute mile, dead-lift 400 pounds, score 160 on an IQ test and shoot a wing off a fruit fly at 300 yards, why would the director feel that isn’t an ideal force for the job her agency is committed to do?”

Her only priority should be ensuring that the Secret Service has competent and well-trained agents, and she’s failed at that.

2. Kamala Harris said that J.D. Vance was picked to be a “rubber stamp” for Trump’s “extreme agenda” and that “he will be loyal only to Trump, not to our country. If elected, he will help implement the extreme Project 2025 plan for a second Trump term.”

Ethics Note: One would think that Harris, having been Vice-President, might be aware that the VP has no power to “rubber stamp” or even help implement anything. Every Vice-President is completely loyal to the man who chose them as #2: I can find no example in history of a Vice-President not working, for whatever good it does, to accomplish the President’s polices. (I don’t count Pence refusing to try to stall the 2020 election certification, which was the equivalent of Trump asking him to fly to Jupiter by flapping his arms.) Meanwhile, Harris, as a VP who actively deceived the public—you know, our country?— regarding Biden’s fitness to serve is ethically estopped from complaining that anyone else might put loyalty to the President over duty to country, especially a Marine like Vance.

“Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong,” Harris told CNN’s Anderson Cooper after Biden’s disastrous debate performance, a Jumbo for the ages.

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