Author: Jack Marshall

From the Res Ipsa Loquitur Files: This Is How Unhinged the Axis of Unethical Conduct Has Become…

/ Jack Marshall / 2 Comments

Yikes.

This is a propitious time to state, for the record, that the Ethics Alarms criticism, indeed condemnation, of what the 21st Century American Left and the Democratic Party has mutated into is not a partisan activity but an objective, non-partisan, and ethical one. I would take the exact same position regarding any party (I am a registered Independent) that jumped the Ethics Shark to the extent that Democrats have since at least 2012.

Readers of long-standing here will recall that I vociferously wrote though almost all of 2015 and 2016 that I would debase myself by voting for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential election until it became obvious that her party was cheating, manipulating the nomination process and media coverage to an extent that showed its contempt for democracy and the American people. I announced that an unethical party was at least as great a threat to the nation as an unethical, unqualified President (that was Donald Trump). I did not vote for either. By 2020 and of course 2024, he was no longer unqualified, and that the Democratic party was corrupt and untrustworthy was beyond debate.

The conduct of the Axis of Unethical Conduct (the resistance, Democrats and the news media) following Trump’s upset election only reinforced my belief, which has since become certainty. It has now been almost a decade of escalating totalitarian objectives and tactics emanating from the Axis. Its conduct and rhetoric revealed by the Los Angeles riots appears to be the apotheosis of its stunning ethics rot. I have written in previous posts that there is only one ethical side to the issue in LA, and that those who are incapable of seeing that fact are almost clinically deranged, frighteningly indoctrinated or unfixably stupid. Every day, indeed almost every hour, since the rioting started four days ago has supported my analysis.

Res ipsa loquitur means, “The thing speaks for itself.” The items I am listing and discussing below should speak for themselves, but I’m going to do a little speaking for them anyway.

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The Astounding Ethics Void of California Democrats In 6 Tweets…

/ Jack Marshall / 20 Comments

The President has sent in the Marines.

Good. 

Trump is not going to let the Left hold an encore of the George Floyd Freakout riots. Illegal immigrants do not have the same sympathetic appeal as black Americans, even criminal black Americans like George Floyd. “Illegal Immigrant Lives Matter” just isn’t catchy.

Also good: that MSNBC is freaking out. The Left is determined to narrow its appeal to Americans who like riots and support illegal immigrants.

Yes, only Sen. Fetterman among Democrats has the integrity to call the riots in Los Angeles what they are. Next, I’d like him to admit that his party caused this, with its illegal “sanctuary cities,” its deliberate failure to enforce immigration laws and secure the border, and its romanticizing of illegal immigrant status.

The Mayor of LA is saying that “we” will not stand for  the government enforcing its laws, but “we” will stand for the rights of rioters to burn and destroy unimpeded.

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Ethics Dunce: The 100-Year-Old Psychotherapist

/ Jack Marshall / 10 Comments

Yes, this topic again: the aging professional who lacks the courage, integrity and common sense to “hang it up” before too much harm is done.

Ethics Alarms had explored the issue with judges (Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, among others), baseball players (Albert Pujols, for example), lawyers (Rudy Giuliani), actors (Bruce Willis), singers (Joni Mitchell, and so, so many others) and Presidents of the United States. It’s always the same tragic tale with different details: someone who has always been remarkable at a difficult, powerful and often high-profile job can’t bring herself or himself to retire with dignity, even when it should be obvious that age is leaching their abilities from them.

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No, “Reason,” the White House Complaining to ABC About Terry Moran’s Open Bias Isn’t “Censorship.”

/ Jack Marshall / 1 Comment

Ugh. Libertarians—can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em (but it’s sure worth trying). Reason, the often helpful and provocative libertarian mag and website, has aligned itself with the Trump Deranged and Axis for predictable reasons: Joe Biden is its ideal as a POTUS, a vegetable that makes Calvin Coolidge look like FDR. Libertarians don’t like strong Presidents, because they don’t like Presidential power, which means they don’t like the Constitution when you get right down to it. Reason likes open borders, for example, which pretty much disqualifies its writers and pundits for anything but giggles. Abortion. Addictive drugs.

Include me out, as Sam Goldwyn used to say.

Now Robby Soave is complaining about what I touched on in this post yesterday…

Robby complains, in “Terry Moran Insulted Stephen Miller? That’s None of the Government’s Business,” that this is the government putting unconstitutional pressure on “the press” to censor its reporting.

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Comment of the Day: “More Thoughts and Observations on the LA Pro-Illegal Immigration Riots”

/ Jack Marshall / 17 Comments

EA’s master of the long form comment has been scarce of late, but he has returned with another gem, this an analysis of the dynamic in play in LA and the White House. Here is Steve-O-in NJ’s Comment of the Day on the post, “More Thoughts and Observations on the LA Pro-Illegal Immigration Riots”:

***

I think what is happening here could be a bridge too far. What happened in 2020 were protests against an injustice that were quickly exploited and made to get out of hand. There was also a pandemic in place that doctors conveniently said required lockdowns except for protests against racial injustice. The president wants no part of another summer 2020, and has chosen to take action.

The difference here is that people who have no authority to do so are actively interfering with federal law enforcement doing their jobs, and making attacks on federal agents. For whatever reason, the authorities in California are a bit smarter than those in Portland 5 years ago and have decided they are not going to look the other way with regard to assaults on federal agents, probably because they know if a federal agent gets killed it’s going to be like the Marines have landed on their doorstep.

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Update on “The LA Pro-Open Borders Riots Ethics Train Wreck”

/ Jack Marshall / 2 Comments

This morning, CNN pinged me with an alert that read, “CNN analysis: Trump’s deployment of the National Guard is a warning to other cities opposing his migrant policies.” You know, just like arresting and locking up serial killers is a warning to others who want to murder people, and giving tickets to speeders is a warning to irresponsible drivers who like to speed. Of course, CNN uses the deceitful cover-word “migrant” to avoid reminding dim-wit readers that these are law-breakers.

The news is that both California Governor Newsom and LA’s incompetent mayor showed that they were supportive of the rioting just as they have been supportive of illegal immigrants, and since the violence is aimed at blocking ICE from doing its job, the situation demanded Presidential action. In short, the riots are not about Trump, but the direct result of the refusal of the previous administration (whoever was in charge of it) to enforce the law (unless it was enforced against perceived political foes).

Meanwhile, in the hopes that I can make “A Friend” [see comments to this post]choke on his shredded wheat, here is how the New York Times is rolling out the Axis propaganda:

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ABC to Terry Moran: It’s OK For You To Be Biased Like the Rest of Us, But For God’s Sake Don’t Be So Obvious About It!

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

ABC News suspended senior national correspondent Terry Moran for, shall we say, a revealing but undiplomatic post on Twitter/X that gratuitously attacked both President Trump and top aide Stephen Millers as “world-class hater[s].” Nice!

Nah, there’s no mainstream media bias!

“Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater,” Moran wrote. “You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.” Moran continued, “Trump is a world-class hater. But his hatred only a means to an end, and that end [is] his own glorification. That’s his spiritual nourishment.”

If you say so Terry. Amazingly, Moran apparently saw nothing unprofessional about his outburst, which he subsequently deleted. Talk about living in a bubble!

An ABC News spokesperson said in a statement shortly thereafter that Moran had been suspended, pointing to the post as the impetus for the disciplinary action.

“ABC News stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage”—Excuse me, but HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA–<breath>HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!—“and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others,” ABC said in a statement. “The post does not reflect the views of ABC News and violated our standards — as a result, Terry Moran has been suspended pending further evaluation.”

Silent Pondering Our Shared Tomorrows As The Road Stripes Streak By

/ Jack Marshall / 9 Comments

Guest post by Steve Witherspoon

From your host: The rioting in LA and other cities going on right now make this unusually emotional post by Steve especially timely. I have been pondering it for several days now. The essay is clearly a head explosion in process, an eruption of anger and frustration with the metaphorical fuse lit by the issues he mentions and others. [I hope Steve forgives me for more extensive editing than usual, prompted by his passion interfering with his characteristic precision]

I sympathize. This is an ethics blog, and part of my job is to keep the discussion focused on ethics, rational analysis, and open-mindedness. There has been so much in the past year particularly that reminded me of a legendary meltdown by a good friend, a lawyer, who suddenly snapped in the back seat of my car years ago and started screaming, “This is FUCK! It’s all FUCK! Everything is FUCK!” True, alcohol was involved. However, the outburst was therapeutic. We all knew what he was ranting about, he was essentially right, and after my friend had relieved himself of his frustrations, he was able to help us solve the problem at hand.

And we did.

Take it, Steve.…and don’t despair.

***


I know exactly what my laser-focused conscious mind is doing in this situation, but what does your subconscious mind ponder when you’re on the road for many hours over 4,800 miles, while you crisscross a big chunk of the middle of the United States of America on vacation?

For hours at a time, when the road seems to vanish into a fine point on the horizon and the visible land meets the sky, the subconscious mind kicks into gear and is actively working behind the scenes… at least mine is. In past years that subconscious would be working on something creative. Maybe a few guitar riffs that I could put into practice at a later date, writing some music, designing a new addition on the house, or putting the final engineering touches on a new product for work, etc. The creative juices get flowing when the subconscious is given the opportunity to ponder for long periods of time as long as it’s relatively uninterrupted. Then when you’re no longer spending all those laser-focused hours on the road and settling back to your regular life, the stored thoughts that your subconscious mind had been working on are suddenly released into the brain. It can cause a bit of an information overload. This has happened to me more times than I can count.

I’ve learned that, at least for me, if you give the subconscious mind a chance to do what it does best, think deeply for long periods of time, it can feed your intellect.

For the last three weeks of May 2025, my wife and I were on an annual vacation. This time we focused on some National and State Parks in the western and southwestern United States that we wanted to see thoroughly. I briefly wrote about it and shared a few select photos in a blog post titled “There’s A Great Big World Out There To See.”

As usual, my subconscious mind was doing what it does best; however, this time the output was different. My mind wasn’t working on creative things like music, product designs or engineering; it appears that it was critically thinking about politically related things. This was particularly surprising because I generally cut myself off from all things political when on vacation and simply enjoy stopping to smell the roses with my wife. In the great scheme of things, life can be short, and I think it’s really important to do things with your spouse, especially after you retire, and not end up with piles of regrets that outweigh finding real peace after the end of life catches up with a spouse.

Again, my subconscious mind seemed to be thinking about politics and more specifically the political division we have. It doesn’t matter one bit how much critical thinking and facts you throw at the absurd things that are coming out of the political Left, the divide keeps getting deeper. It doesn’t seem to matter that life-long Democrats are leaving the party and openly stating that the Democratic Party has fallen over the edge of reality and left them.  It doesn’t seem to matter one bit that politicians like the baldfaced liar Adam Schiff get nailed in one lie after another and that he’s spewing the lies to intentionally mislead the voting public.

I’ve been writing about some of the absurdities coming from the political Left for a few years. What they are trying to force upon the American people is delusional, and undermines the core foundation of values that our country has been built upon.   

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More Thoughts and Observations on the LA Pro-Illegal Immigration Riots

/ Jack Marshall / 20 Comments

1. This morning, while CNN and MSNBC were raging about the riots, Fox News had an extended feature about how to make faux cocktails using coffee. Gee, it would be nice to have a responsible, trustworthy broadcast news network that was both unbiased and that didn’t assume that is viewers dropped out of junior high school.

2. I am surprised that so few readers have commented on this morning’s introductory post. Was everyone at church? “Is anybody there? Does anybody care?”

3. Here’s the comment on Facebook by an old friend, a retired journalist, and, of course, a Trump Derangement sufferer:

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Quick Morning Thoughts About the L.A. Rioting

/ Jack Marshall / 15 Comments

Haven’t had a cup of coffee yet and heading to a business meeting. But I have to get this out.

Demonstrations broke out in the Los Angeles area on Friday and continued on yesterday. The rioting aims to interfere with ICE lawfully and necessarily removing illegal immigrants from the area. The law enforcement has intensified its raids seeking people who are in the U.S. illegally. There is no justification for rioting ever in response to lawful government acts, but this rioting is particularly noxious. Not only are the rioters protesting legitimate law enforcement and interfering with it, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has said protesters have exhibited “violent behavior” and that “intervention became necessary.”

  • President Trump is sending in the National Guard. Good. If California’s anti-American, super-woke incompetents won’t keep the peace, than he should, strongly and without hesitation. I’m sure the Axis will call this decision “autocratic.” The correct word is “responsible.”
  • Classic: The New York Times headline is “Trump Is Calling Up National Guard Troops Under a Rarely Used Law.” Fascists pounce! The law is rarely used because American citizens do not often riot against legitimate law enforcement, and most state and local elected officials won’t sit back and let it happen. The news is the riots, not that the President has acted appropriately to stop them.

  • “President Trump bypassed the authority of Gov. Gavin Newsom to call up 2,000 National Guard troops to quell immigration protests” is the Times subhead. Deceit, lies and propaganda. Newsom wasn’t doing anything; his authority was ‘bypassed” because he isn’t doing his job. The National Guard is there to stop rioting, not to “quell protests.” The issue isn’t “immigration,” the issue is enforcing the law against illegal immigration.

  • Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the National Guard’s presence would “not be helpful.”Why would anyone pay attention to what Karen Bass says or thinks after her fiasco avoiding her duties and lying about it when the city started burning? 
  • Apparent, the Crazy Left is determined to die on the open borders hill. Wonderful. Last week, Boston’s progressive mayor called ICE the equivalent of the Gustapo. The people who lead the Democratic Party want these riots. 

More later, after I wake up…