Author: Jack Marshall

Why Big Lies Work: A Case Study

/ Jack Marshall / 4 Comments

Well, another one.

Democrats and the mainstream media decided to go nuclear with the false accusation that the new Florida history guidelines, championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, want schools to teach that slavery was beneficial to enslaved African Americans. It’s an outright lie, as anyone who reviewed the guidelines could see, and as Ethics Alarms explained. The Vice President of the United States made the accusation in multiple venues before African American audiences. (Yes, she’s an idiot, but she’s still Vice-President, and her statements are publicized widely). The usual race-baiters and liars among the partisan punditry, like MSNBC’s vile Joy Reid, repeated the lie, and even a GOP Presidential hopeful, weak, cowardly Sen. Tim Scott, gave it credence.

Far from being evidence of racism, white supremacy or prejudice, the guidelines are really evidence of how extremism succeeds by producing “compromises” that are irresponsibly radical anyway. The slavery history teaching guidelines require an absurdly disproportionate emphasis on slavery in grade school, and will result in inadequate instruction on many other more essential topics and skills. Never mind though: as Hitler and Goebbels explained, the purpose of Big Lies is to get a damaging narrative widely distributed, so much so that the target has to respond to it, giving the lie legitimacy and keeping it in the public consciousness.

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MAGA Loyalists: Do You REALLY Believe That Anyone Who Makes A Public Threat Like This Can Be Trusted To Be President? Because He Can’t…Ever

/ Jack Marshall / 82 Comments

Astounding. It’s not astounding that the former President thinks this way, it’s astounding that he is so devoid of ethics alarms, self-restraint, common sense and an understanding of the justice system that he would post such smoking gun evidence that he is a dangerous bully with the instincts of a badly-raised child. Donald Trump actually and truly posted this threat yesterday, in all caps as usual, on his social media site, Truth Social:

That’s the tipping point for me, and it should be for any sane American. I believe that it is existentially crucial that the increasingly anti-democratic Democrats be punished for their unethical conduct and totalitarian aspirations over the past eight years. I would vote for almost anyone over Joe Biden after his complete capitulation to the Dark Side, but “almost anyone” does not include, for example, Putin, Dracula, Diane Feinstein, Rob Reiner, Mitch McConnell, or Cujo…or Donald Trump. Not after this. Hillary Clinton jumps in front of Trump after this. So do some others on that list.

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New From The “Nation Of Assholes”: Movie Theater Of Assholes

/ Jack Marshall / 11 Comments

Back in 2015, Ethics Alarms sagely predicted that an election of Donald Trump as President would begin a death spiral of American manners, civility and societal comity. It proved to be a lot more accurate than any cliamte change predictions so far, but it was still too optimistic. As EA has documented since, all ends of the political spectrum have devoted themselves to trashing respect, manners and decorum since 2016. Yes, Trump has been a catalyst, but so has “the resistance,” Democrats, Black Lives Matter and popular culture. And the destructive pandemic lockdown: don’t forget that.

We continue to discover the breadth and width of the unanticipated carnage of that dumb policy, from children who can’t read to the horrible “ghost runner” in Major League Baseball extra-inning games. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports:

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Unethical (And Stupid—But Funny!) Quote Of The Week: Al Sharpton [Updated And Expanded]

/ Jack Marshall / 13 Comments

“Can you imagine our reading that James Madison or Thomas Jefferson tried to overthrow the government so they could stay in power?”

—-Al Sharpton, MSNBC host and history scholar.

Personally, I have a hard time imagining Al reading.

People actually listen to this guy and care what he thinks. Barack Obama listened to this guy. He is paid to inform MSNBC viewers. No really, he is!

Al takes “bias makes you stupid” to new vistas.

Added: Just in case you think this was an anomaly, here is Al mocking a GOP Congressman for pointing out that the United States is a republic, as if he’s the idiot:

Ethics Villain: Rudy Giuliani Accuser Noelle Dunphy

/ Jack Marshall / 24 Comments

What a terrible human being.

I don’t mean Rudy Giuliani. Maybe the former mayor of New York City really did harass and “sexually assault” Noelle Dunphy, seen above with Rudy, after he hired her (she says) in January 2019 when the old prosecutor was 75 years old. Even if that is true—and, frankly, no man over 60 these days is likely to be able to avoid committing legal harassment, as in creating a “hostile work environment,” working closely with a young woman who is looking for offenses to protest (See: Joe Biden, the late George H.W. Bush, and too many others to count.)—Giuliani is at least partially the victim here. Use the wrong word and it’s pervasive sexism; touch a shoulder without consent and it is “assault.” Yes, there is no excuse for men of any age not to keep up with the evolution of ethics in this area and others, but kindness, compassion and the Golden Rule dictate a reaction other than lying in wait for an opportunity to exact revenge or worse, exploit a past relationship for current personal gain.

Rudy is currently under attack from all sides, primarily as part of an organized effort to punish the allies of Donald Trump, particularly the lawyers. Already named as a co-conspirator in the latest indictment of Trump, Giuliani is in the process of being disbarred in the District of Columbia on the theory that he “helped destabilize our democracy” and “done lasting damage” to the oath to support the U.S. Constitution that he had sworn when he was admitted to the bar. [No further comment from me: I have a conflict in this matter] Dunphy or her lawyer decided that this was the perfect time to pounce, with Giuliani already being savaged in the news media like anyone who doesn’t publicly reject Trump. So she not only chose now to sue him, she also included embarrassing quotes the old man made when he thought the two were alone and his comments were private.

She was, you see, secretly recording him.

And thus we have today’s New York Times headline, “Giuliani Maligns Jews and Women in Transcript Filed in Harassment Case.” What was the comment that “maligns Jews”? This:

“Jews! They want to go through that freaking Passover all the time. Man, oh, man. Get over the Passover. It was like 3,000 years ago. OK, the Red Sea parted. Big deal. Not the first time that happened.” Says the Times, “In another portion, he engaged in a derisive discussion of the size of Jewish men’s genitals.”

Sexism? “In another transcript, Mr. Giuliani says that he is physically aroused by Ms. Dunphy’s intelligence, adding, ‘I’d never think about a girl being smart. If you told me a girl was smart, I would often think she’s not attractive.'”

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Morning Ethics Warm-Up, 8/4/2023: “Good Morning!”…To Lizzo, Joe, Hunter, And More

/ Jack Marshall / 16 Comments

Good ethics history and bad ethics history on this date. The Good: in 1936, U.S. Olympian Jesse Owens gave a metaphorical “Bite me!” to Adolf Hitler, winning the second of his four gold medals (in the long jump) in Berlin, which had been carefully framed as Nazi Germany’s “master race” showcase. The Bad: this is also the date, in 1944, that the Nazi Gestapo seized 15-year-old Anne Frank and her family from their hidden hideaway in an Amsterdam warehouse.They had occupied the small space with another Jewish family and an unmarried Jewish man since 1942 with the help of Christian friends who brought them food and supplies. Anne spent much of her time in the secret annex working on her now immortal diary. After their refuge was discovered, Anne and all of the others but her father perished in the Nazi death camps.

Even today, more than 80 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, hardly a day goes by that some aspect of World War II isn’t directly relevant to unfolding events. Yet the war is barely taught in our schools: television and movies are the primary tutorials, and I doubt the rising generation is flocking to their WWII fare. This is not new, for my curricula through high school included little of substance on the most important historical event in the last 300 years (at least), and there was no requirement at Harvard, even for a government major like me, to study the World War II period in college.

I consider myself fortunate that my father, for whom the war was unquestionably the defining experience of his life, frequently used family meals when I was a child to discuss WWII history—except for his own combat experiences.

1. Lizzo may be “Hypocrite of the Year”! Lizzo…you know, this woman…

… the defiantly obese pop singer who has promoted herself as a champion of body positivity, is being sued by three of her former who allege that she subjected them fat-shaming as well as sexual and racial harassment. Of course these are allegations only, and if there ever was a lawsuit that seemed to demand a quick settlement to make it go away, this would be it. But the singer seems to be inclined to fight the action, which is admirable if she is innocent, but still likely to be unwise. When a celebrity’s carefully crafted image of virtues is shattered by such contrary claims, it often causes a dam of silence to break, as happened to Ellen Degeneris (who turned out not to be the super-nice lesbian she pretended to be) and Bill Cosby (who…well, you know.) This seems to be happening to Lizzo. Triggered by news of the lawsuit, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison, who tried collaborating with the singer on the 2019 documentary “Love, Lizzo,” piled on. “In 2019, I traveled a bit with Lizzo to be the director of her documentary. I walked away after about 2 weeks … I was treated with such disrespect by her. I witnessed how arrogant, self-centered, and unkind she is.”

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Ethics Heroes: Christy Turlington, Kate Winslet, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep Et Al.

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

All of the above named middle-aged female celebrities have spoken out against how their industry pressure —along with the culture—women to resort to cosmetic surgery to continue appearing marketably youthful. Jane Fonda, who is pictured above, once made similar statements and then had herself surgically transformed into a walking, talking, Madam Tussaud’s exhibit. She is in her mid-eighties, and that’s what is regarded as good cosmetic surgery.

Turlington, the supermodel who is now 54, disagrees.“Women who have stayed away from augmentation of themselves — those are the women I really admire,” she told Marie Claire.” I love seeing a real face. A face of someone who’s lived life. They have the kind of faces I like to see, and we don’t get to see as many of those in the world anymore….I will be one of those faces. I am one of those faces.” She added, “I don’t think it looks good. Maybe I would think differently if I thought it looked good, and it didn’t hurt and it didn’t send bad messages to young people. But I’ve never seen someone who I’ve been like, ‘Oh, that’s a good idea.’ It looks freaky to me.”

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Ethics Dunce (Again): Fox News

/ Jack Marshall / 16 Comments

From the New York Times today:

Shortly after learning he was being indicted a third time, former President Donald J. Trump had a private dinner with the top leadership at Fox News as they lobbied him to attend the first Republican presidential primary debate this month, three people familiar with the event said.

The dinner between Mr. Trump, the Fox News president Jay Wallace and the network’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott, was held in a private dining room at Mr. Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., according to two of the people familiar with the event. The dinner was scheduled before the indictment news.

In a break from its recent practice, the Times did not attempt to spin or characterize the facts in order to make its usual anti-Trump, anti-Fox, anti-conservative points. It didn’t have to.

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Weaponizing Climate Change Hysteria For Political Gain, Part 2

/ Jack Marshall / 22 Comments

Ethics Alarms usually avoids the familiar fake news clickbait approach of discussing what might happen, what a President is allegedly considering doing, or worst case scenarios. In this instance, however, I will make an exception.

The reason is evident above. The Biden Administration increasingly is accessing totalitarian strategies and rhetoric. One of its favored abuses of power is weaponizing the climate change hysteria being spread by that cult. There has been rampant speculation that President Biden will use climate change to declare a “national emergency” under the 1976 National Emergencies Act. I view such a move as, first, inevitable with the current Democratic Party, and second, an existential threat to democracy that requires an effective and decisive counter-response, ranging from legal challenges to organized public protests. It’s time—past time, really—to start planning.

John Kerry, the special presidential climate envoy who flies around the world in a jet to tell conferences about the perils of carbon pollution, told the New York Times last week that the debate within the administration isn’t about whether a “climate change emergency” should be declared, but when. Biden, meanwhile, Biden told reporters on July 20, “As president, I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger. And that’s what climate change is about. It is literally, not figuratively, a clear and present danger.”

I would view Biden’s invoking of the National Emergency Act as the equivalent of illicitly declaring martial law as a means to dictatorial power. As the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice explains, the purpose of the law is “to temporarily enhance executive power during unexpected crises that are moving too fast for Congress to respond.” By that definition, it is ridiculous to call “climate change” an emergency, and Biden rhetoric, as usual, suggests that he is either misleading the public, doesn’t understand what he’s talking about, or both.

By declaring a climate emergency, Biden, meaning the climate change-deranged Democratic Party, could halt crude oil exports, suspend offshore oil and gas drilling, restrict international trade in fossil fuels, order the construction of renewable energy systems in “climate-vulnerable communities,” and use Defense Production Act (DPA) funds to advance the use of “clean energy” technology, like electric cars, which don’t really help the situation at all. Biden could also halt hundreds of billions of dollars in international fossil-fuel financing.

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