Democratic National Convention Ethics Adverse Reaction, 8/20/24

There has never been a U.S. political party with so little integrity or a convention so thoroughly confused about its values, direction, who it wants to appeal to, and what its culture is.

The fact that the Convention prominently features vans giving out free abortions and vasectomies (it’s Planned Parenthood, not the party proper, but it doesn’t matter) sends as militant an anti-family message as it would be possible to send. Then there are the all-gender bathrooms, making up 5% of the facilities at the convention hall, which about 1.6% of the population have a “which bathroom do I use?” problem. More...

1. Talk about rank incompetence: the official platform approved by the Democratic Party had never been edited to remove references to “Biden’s second term,” which appeared 19 times. How can anyone trust a party to run a government/agency/ lemonade stand that is this careless? Apparently Democrats are beyond embarrassment.

2. And speaking of the platform, here is a section that defies parody:

What does “acknowledgement” even mean in this context except as blatant virtue-signalling to another aggrieved minority group? “We care, but we’re not giving you your land back!”? “Time immemorial” is historical nonsense: the tribes weren’t here as the Earth cooled, they came here from other places, almost always displacing—killing—other groups of people who were here before them. Facts Don’t Matter to this party.

3. No sitting President in modern history has been treated with such disrespect by his own party as President Biden, whose address to the convention was shunted along to well past prime time. By any previous standard, the current, retiring President would be guaranteed the most prestigious slot, but Biden’s shambling condition reminds non-cultish voters that this party lied to them for a year or more, so the fewer who saw Joe speak, the better. Used to push Joe’s address past 11 pm. EST was the babble of Kamala Harris’s childhood friends, among others.

3. To be fair, Joe justified the decision to minimize his visibility, ad-libbing, “Those protesters out in the street, they have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides.” “Those protesters” carried Hamas flags and were substantially in favor of killing Jews. The level of Democratic Party analysis of the war in Gaza is that “innocent people” are being killed, so war bad, soooo let Hamas survive until its next terror attack on Israel. BUT the Biden-Harris administration stands faithfully behind Israel, except when it doesn’t. Got it. It makes sense if you are stupid and not capable of paying attention.

4. Did you know Donald Trump lies all the time? Biden again repeated the false narrative that Trump called white supremacists in Charlottesville “very fine people.” It doesn’t matter how many times and how many sources have pronounced this false, the Democrats continue to repeat it. That is the essence of a Big Lie strategy….but they do it to save democracy, see, so channeling Goebbels is okay.

5. They started chanting “Lock him up!” during Hillary’s speech. How ironic—and again, telling. Locking Trump up has been the theme of the Democratic Party’s efforts to avoid the electoral defeat they have so thoroughly earned. Democracy! Again again, this is a party incapable of shame or embarrassment.

Addendum: “Ethics Hero: Orioles Catcher James McCann, No Weenie He!”

I just heard a commentator on MLB’s cable channel describe James McCann’s now famous act of continuing play after getting a fastball thrown in his face as “the John Wayning of the catcher position.”

Perfect. I enthusiastically endorse the transformation of “John Wayne” into a verb: it’s a much needed one. To John Wayne is to continue to pursue the completion of one’s commitment, assigned task, or duty despite obstacles, threats, pain, personal hardship and danger—even to the point of fanaticism, futility or certain failure.

The Duke would have loved his creation becoming a word to describe that iconic American character. I plan on doing my part to see that John Wayne, verb: John Wayned/John Wayning/ catches on.

Incompetent Elected Official and Ethics Dunce: VP Kamala Harris (Surprise!)

This shouldn’t be hard to grasp: incompetence really does matter in a President, as does trust.

Kamala Harris had a private discussion with Benjamin Netanyahu, a head of state. Diplomacy 101 dictates that when sensitive matters are discussed, neither party to such discussion reveals the details of what is said, nor does either party make statements after the meeting that undermine either the relationship between the two individuals, nor their respective nations, nor the interests and objectives of those nations.

This isn’t hard, nor should it be.

But for Kamala Harris, it is. This is a problem.

Having met with the Israel Prime Minister, Harris initially said that the U.S. has an “unwavering commitment” to Israel, its right to exist and its security. She called Hamas a “brutal terrorist organization.” Then she said,

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Most Competent Campaigner of the Year: Donald Trump

Say what you like about Donald Trump, and if it isn’t one of the Big Lies, I may well agree. But this….

…holding another rally in Butler is pure political genius, and gutsy too. Imagine if Booth had missed, and Abe had announced, “I’m going back to Ford’s Theater to see how that play turned out!”

John Wayne would have loved it…BOTH John Waynes, the real life political conservative, and the icon he played in movies. It’s the equivalent of Rooster Cogburn taking the reins in his teeth and charging at Lucky Ned Pepper and his gang. The message is “You don’t scare me, assholes, and here I come!”

It is political genius, and a great display of classic American defiance.

Bravo.

Ugh. Could Someone PLEASE Explain the First Amendment to Donald Trump? Quickly?

This morning, I was simultaneously listening in on CNN (hyping Harris absurdly), MSNBC (well, you know) and Fox News, where the morning trio of hyper-partisan clowns were hosting Trump in a 30 minute phone monologue. First, I got a laugh when a CNN reporter commented on Harris having to navigate the complexities of Israel’s war with Gaza (Hamas). He actually said, first, “This is a major issue for Harris” and five seconds later that “Republicans are trying to make an issue out of this.” Yes, Harris was one of the first Democrats to call for a cease fire in Gaza, essentially making sure Hamas’s adverse consequences for slaughtering and raping Israel civilians on October 7 were minimal, but because she was only a VP at the time, and, after all, Kamala Harris, Idiot, nobody paid much attention to how irresponsible that position was. It is an issue, of course, but CNN will try “Republicans pounce!” even when everyone should pounce.

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Pssst! Bill Maher! The “Saved By God” Belief Has Inspired Some of Our Greatest Presidents. Shut Up.

Atheists and agnostics in the public sphere don’t have to be obnoxious, but an awful lot of them are. Their explanation for where the universe came from is no more persuasive that that of the faithful (The Big Bang? Come on.) but they just can’t restrain themselves. HBO’s Bill Maher is a prime example: along with mocking committed relationships (he hates the concept of marriage), extolling drugs and debauchery, and generally keeping his Axis of Unethical Conduct membership current, he ridicules Christianity at every opportunity.

The fact is, and it is a fact, that the United States of America had a much healthier and ethical culture before organized religion had discredited itself so thoroughly, driving whole generations away. Moral codes are especially essential for those who don’t have the time or ability to puzzle through ethics, and believing in God is the best catalyst for an ethical society that there is….and it has always been thus.

Heck, just look at what a jerk Maher is. That’s what atheism can do to you. But I digress.

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Incompetent Elected Official of the…Let’s See Now…HOUR?: Taunton (Mass.) Mayor Shaunna O’Connell

She’s a Republican, incidentally. Ah, Taunton. Population: About 60,000. I remember it well from my Boston days. The city is famous for its dog-racing track. My Uncle Charlie, my mom’s youngest brother, a nice guy who blew his money on the greyhounds, went there often. And lost.

But I digress. Taunton Mayor Shaunna O’Connell was arrested and appeared in court to be arraigned on charges of charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and domestic assault and battery. Police arrested her after when her husband called police during a fight.

She hit him with a crowbar. Allegedly.

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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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Today’s “Nah There’s No Mainstream Media Bias!” (Or “Nah, The Mainstream Media Doesn’t Want to Rig The Election!”) Note Of the Day…[Expanded and Corrected]

From Axios…

Nice.

There have been a lot of iconic or otherwise memorable photographs of Presidents over the decades that placed a sitting POTUS in a positive or sympathetic context. They were all liberally used to promote that President’s leadership and popularity. Such as…

and…

and

and…

and…

and..

and…

and…

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Accountability? What’s Accountability? Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle Still Has Her Job, and Only the Prominence of a Confederacy of Ethics Dunces Can Explain That [Corrected]

I could go into an analysis of what was so stunningly dangerous and incompetent about the Secret Service FUBAR that almost got Donald Trump murdered, at this point just about the only way the Democrats would be able to keep the White House. I’m happy to wait for the results of Congressional hearings and the investigation, but as I heard many experts say on multiple networks, you don’t have to be an expert to figure from the time-line and what we do know that the Secret Service was spectacularly incompetent, and that Cheatle’s pathetic explanations (I particularly like “the sloped roof was too dangerous for our agents so we let a gunman use it to shoot Trump”) haven’t passed the giggle test. Her ridiculous statements and the fact that the agents knew an unknown person with a gun was within killing distance of Donald Trump and waited for him to take a shot before doing anything (like, say, keeping Trump off the stage: don’t those little earpieces work?) are res ipsa loquitur, so damning that conspiracy theories are unavoidable.

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