I’m back from five days in the hospital trying to beat back a whole leg infection stemming from, I swear, a single bump on my shin two weeks ago. I didn’t have a laptop and my phone isn’t set up to post (or even get email), so I was cut off from Ethics Alarms as well as other essentials. I talked my way out of the place when they made it sound like I would be stuck there for another few days. Now I’m trying to master a new laptop with my still unwell foot elevated and my brain addled from painkillers, antibiotics, and a lack of sleep. (It is impossible to sleep in this hospital.) I’m sorry; a real post is beyond me right now. But here are some scattered thoughts, since all of my thoughts are scattered.

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Incredibly and against all odds, the polling community has shown itself to be even more untrustworthy than journalism and political punditry. The pollsters are dishonest, their methodology stinks, and everyone who cites them as authority engages in deceptive cherry-picking.

To Hell with them all.

When I check in on MSNBC, which isn’t embarrassed about being virtually all-Epstein all-the-time for weeks now, they are flashing poll numbers showing that President Trump is wildly unpopular regarding, oh, everything. Of course, I can easily find the opposite analysis in the conservative media, and President Trump will, as is his wont, cite exaggerated or completely made up poll numbers whenever it suits his mood.

Two recent examples of this nonsense come to mind. Extreme left-biased, Trump Deranged sports pundit Jamele Hill blathered on CNN regarding the Epstein “client list” distraction, “What’s always interesting to me is, like, what it takes people to get off the Trump train. It’s not the xenophobia, it’s not the racism, it’s not the bigotry. It is this.” “This” meant that polls showed diminishing support for the President because of contrived hysteria over his association with Epstein that has been well-known for decades.

What always is interesting to me is, like, why is such a persistently wrong, dishonest, race-obsessed hack given a platform for her hate and stupidity at all? At least DEI provides an explanation, but if it isn’t that, then it’s a mystery on the level of the Mary Celeste.

So CNN’s Harry Enten, whose weird niche is using untrustworthy polls to debunk Axis narratives using different untrustworthy polls, “factchecked” Hill.

“When it comes to his approval rating with Republicans, it’s basically as solid as it ever was,” the biggest dork on broadcast news declared. “If you look at the average of polls, his approval rating with Republicans [is] still at about 90%.”

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This excellent comment on “Unethical Protest of the Week…,” about the British choruster on stage a professional opera production who decided it was a good place to cheer on terrorist, need no introduction from me. Here is John Paul with one of his best Comment of the Day…

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The tweet (above) reminds me of an incident in college. I attended a Christian University. Every day we had to attend chapel that featured a variety of speakers. One day, we had a speaker who was grand standing. It wasn’t uncommon, but I remember him being particularly annoying. He was making some point about what we treat as important and swore in the middle of chapel. Unexpectedly, the crowd gasped. Then he went on to say, you care more about the fact I swore than starving children in Africa.

He wasn’t even talking about starving children in Africa. Apparently, the man didn’t know what a non-sequitur was.

I should have walked out right then. At the very least, I let the dean know.

It shouldn’t be hard to see what was wrong with the man’s argument, but I’ll dissect it anyway. First, one has nothing to do with the other. This is not some kind of mic-drop moral checkmate. We’re capable of caring about more than one thing at a time. And frankly, chapel wasn’t the place for shock tactics disguised as wisdom.

Second, he wasn’t challenging hypocrisy; he was grandstanding his own. If his point was that we should care more about justice, then model that. Don’t hijack a moment of worship (or opera performance) to make people feel small for reacting to your antics. That’s not conviction. That’s manipulation.

Finally, he used a false dilemma to excuse his own bad behavior. As if noticing his arrogance somehow meant we were blind to global suffering. It’s a cheap move, but it works sometimes because people don’t want to look self-righteous.

The Opera House should be appalled. Their first responsibility is to the integrity of their craft. They can’t afford to have rogue actors breaking script and derailing performances. That kind of stunt undermines the entire production and risks alienating their audience. Frankly, I don’t know what that actor was thinking. There are hundreds of other performers waiting in the wings, all capable and willing to respect the work. If the Opera House doesn’t act, they’re sending a message that the show and the audience don’t really matter.

Just for fun, I’m curious to see how many unethical rationalizations might fit Haswani’s tweet.

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Is the most recent idiotic, over-his-skis, abuse of power and position outburst by President Trump a genuine big deal? No, it isn’t. But his gratuitous attempt to re-open the old political correctness victories resulting in the forced name changes of two sports teams, the Cleveland Indians (boringly recast as “the Guardians”) and the Washington Redskins (even more boringly renamed “The Commanders”) is exactly what Trump does not need right now. What he needs is to project some stability even as the disgusting Axis keeps trying “Hail Mary” fake controversies like the Epstein “client list” and the supposed Trump plot to get rid of Stephen Colbert.

It is not the President’s business to stick his metaphorical nose into the naming of sports franchises; they aren’t the Gulf of Mexico. Presuming that it is his business plays right into the “king” narrative, and for Trump to do that is just plain incompetent. The effort has no upside and lots of potential political problems, as illustrated by the second Truth Social post in the series.

A President can’t use government pressure to make a private organization change its name: that is a First Amendment violation and a pretty obvious one. Trump’s obsession with “I might…” trolling isn’t funny, and, again, gives his opponents and the Trump Deranged more ammunition for their unhinged hate and hysteria. He “might” revoke Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship. Riiiight. This kind of thing just makes the President of the United States look petty and weak. I don’t understand why Trump can’t see that.

I hated the decision to change the Redskins to the Commanders (heaven knows I wrote about it enough) , and hated the decision to change the Indians to the Guardians even more. But both the American League’s Cleveland ball club and Washington’s NFL franchise should send President a Trump a loud, clear “Bite me.”