That’s Ukrainian model Tetiana Gaidar above, nicely symbolizing what old guy Vladimir Putin didn’t get about launching an unethical war in 2022.

Because of social media, 24-7 cable news and the web, world public opinion can–can—quickly coalesce around basic ethical values and arrive at a crushing consensus. Putin is being personally cancelled, and if his nation’s people decide they don’t want to be cancelled too, he might be in bigger trouble that he could have imagined in his worst nightmares. Ethics Alarms already mentioned how Putin forgot the Alamo, always a bad thing to do. He apparently also had forgotten that one of the big cracks in the Iron Curtain was inflicted when Ronald Reagan termed the Soviet Union an “Evil Empire.”

Economist John Kenneth Galbraith, writing in the Sixties about what made huge corporations successful, argued that they created nation-like loyalties by behaving as good corporate citizens, and that there was a crucial benefit in this that went beyond mere profit. The best people, he claimed, would not work for companies perceived as unethical, so becoming an organization that the best and the brightest would be proud to be part of was a matter of long-term survival.

Galbraith, was we have seen, was overly optimistic, but his general point is still important, particularly at the extremes. Too late, Putin is trying to save his reputation by trying the absurd cognitive dissonance trick of associating the Ukraine government with Nazis. It’s not working, because it is so obviously a self-serving lie.

1. If only baseball writers read Ethics Alarms...(or knew what ethics was, for that matter). More than five years after Ethics Alarms explained why Red Sox icon David Ortiz created an unavoidable  slippery slope likely to carry Barry Bonds and the other steroid cheat superstars into baseball’s Hall of Fame, esteemed baseball writer Bob Nightengale figured it out, and just announced his brilliant analysis in USA Today. Ortiz was recently voted into the Hall, as EA noted here in the follow-up to the original article. [Much thanks to Jutgory for alerting me to Nightengale’s piece]

See? I’m smart! Not dumb everybody says… I’m smart and I want respect!

2. If the Republicans are going to publicly shun Liz Cheney for joining the political witch trials the Democrats are holding on the January 6 riots, they have no excuse not to take even more decisive action against the  GOP Congress members Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar, and AZ State Senator Wendy Rogers, for openly supporting Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who has been correctly labeled a “white supremacist” by the Justice Department, and his organization, the America First Political Action Conference. Republican Gosar and Greene both attended the group’s conference this weekend, and both addressed the all-white throng, which engaged in such fun activities as applauding for Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, and chanting “Putin, Putin!” Continue reading →

1. Remember, we pay for this garbage...An article on NPR‘s “Life Kit” offered helpful suggestions about ways suffering Americans might deal with the crippling stress and anxiety of sitting safely at home in the United States as Ukrainians are fighting for their lives and freedom. Like…

• “Try these meditation and mindfulness exercises…”
• “Do something that feels good for your body and helps you get out of your head….”
• [Play] games with family,”
• [F]inally re-create Grandpa’s famous lasagna, or learn how to make a prettier pie…”

Joy Behar wrapped up the award for most narcissistic and selfish response to the Ukraine crisis, but NPR is a tax-supported organization, and has decided that enabling American weenie-ism and creating a culture dominated by hyper-vulnerable, self-absorbed navel-gazers is its mission.

The Blaze gathered some of the social media scorn that justly greeted this obnoxious article: Continue reading →

1.  An animated TV show’s demonstration of support for an invaded nation is, of course, as useless as Michelle Obama’s infamous frowny face “Bring back our girls” photo, and is naked virtue signaling. Still, the hostility to the show for the gesture displayed by ultra-conservative Citizen’s Free Press readers is remarkable.There can be no ethical basis for not supporting Ukraine, or any country Russia invades, or any peaceful nation any country invades. Representative reaction: “Russia = Evil, Because: Trump. Thus, Ukraine isn’t an UNBELIEVABLY CORRUPT FAILED STATE… Ukraine is Saints. Might want to be somewhat skeptical and cynical when Biden, the MSM, and Hollywood is all trying to brainwash everyone into being pro-Ukraine, huh?” Wow. I didn’t know Tucker Carlson had this much influence.

It is a all a necessary reminder that the far right is just as unhinged as the far Left, just less totalitarian (for now).

2. Apparently not “the best version of the truth“… NY Post Columnist Michael Goodman wrote before the invasion,

There are other stories making the rounds…One has it that Trump — noting that Putin seized land from Georgia when George W. Bush was president and seized the Crimean peninsula when Barack Obama was president — warned Putin against a land grab on his watch.

“If you move against Ukraine while I’m president,” Trump is said to have told the Russian leader, “I will hit Moscow.” Putin reportedly scoffed, “No way,” leading Trump to say, “All those beautiful golden turrets will be blown up.” 

[Also] Trump reportedly told Xi that any military move against Taiwan would be met with an attack on Beijing. Xi, like Putin, is said to have been stunned…

This unsubstantiated rumor is being reported in many conservative websites as fact. This is deceptive in the extreme. Goodwin says up front that the stories may be false, and he is a columnist, not a reporter. Yet other publications say that “‘The New York Post’ reported that…” using as evidence Trump’s statement to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that Putin didn’t invade Ukraine during his administration for “a very good reason, and I’ll explain that to you someday.”

I think the story could easily be true, but it’s still a rumor, and should not be reported as fact or as a credible report. Continue reading →

The legal ethics Zoom seminar today went well, thanks…except that there were multiple technical breakdowns. And where I would normally have dozens of back-and-forth interactions with attendees is a live seminar, I had exactly one in three hours in this one. Remote training, to be blunt, sucks, just like remote court proceedings suck and remote public school sucks. More genteel characterizations are not sufficiently accurate or derogatory.

1. Why anyone pays attention to Tucker Carlson when he says things this foolish, I have no clue. Carlson, in his rants this week, questioned why American leaders were vilifying Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, adding, “Not a single Republican leader has stood up to point out how insane all of this is and how completely divorced it is from anything that American voters actually care about…It might be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious: What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? But Joe Biden likes Ukraine, so Putin bad, war good.”

Well gee, Tucker, I think Americans care about stopping international outlaws, not letting bullies prevail, opposing invasions of peaceful nations, and citizens of other countries being killed by ruthless dictators. That’s for a start. Why wouldn’t any normal American (Tucker is clearly not normal) hate Putin (let’s say distrust, disrespect, and detest)? He’s a liar, a murderer, a despot and a dictator. What is it that Carlson finds appealing? Putin is bad, and would be bad if he had Russia invading any sovereign nation.

2. As the ABA’s recent unhinged woke edicts show, lawyers are going nuts…but I didn’t expect this: a rash of naked lawyer sightings. First, the Butler (Ohio) County Bar Association recommended an indefinite suspension of an attorney for a series of public indecency incidents that included driving while nude. Just a couple of weeks later this month, police arrested 49-year-old lawyer Kelly Elizabeth Elkins of Treasure Island, Florida, after an incident that began when the manager of the Beach Lounge refused to serve Elkins any more liquor because she was already “drunk as a skunk.” She then walked into the restroom and emerged “completely naked.” She then refused to leave.

This is considered unprofessional conduct suggesting that she may not be fit to practice law, though not necessarily. Lawyers drink more than any other professionals, and all bar associations have special programs that help such practitioners instead of disciplining them.

Continue reading →

I think we can safely stipulate that invasions of peaceful nations are unethical, no? Also…

1. Fatuous headline of the year: The New York Times has a headline on its front page that reads, “Russians Wake Up To Discover They Didn’t Really Know Putin.” The man was KGB. He has kept himself in power for 22 years. He has imprisoned some political opponents and had others murdered. He had Russia invade the Crimea once it was clear that Barack Obama was all talk. The Russian forces have been massing on the Ukraine border for weeks. How stupid does the Times think the Russians are? How stupid does it think its readers are?

2. What good is the U.N.? Wasn’t this kind of invasion exactly what the United Nations was created to prevent? President Trump was excoriated for reducing U.S. support for the U.N., and branding is as virtually useless except to bash the U.S. He was right, and this crisis proves it.

3. Speaking of useless...American demonstrations against Russia’s move on the Ukraine are the epitome of grandstanding and virtue signaling. Morons. If they are so concerned about foreign aggression, they should have elected a President who wasn’t weak, feckless and, like Obama, all talk. Have they started singing “Give Peace A Chance” yet? That might work.

4. Why wouldn’t China take Taiwan now? It knows that the Biden Administration has neither the fortitude nor the means to do anything about it.

Continue reading →

The story, and the myth, of the siege of the Alamo may be my favorite chapter in American history. I bet the Alamo isn’t even taught in public schools outside of Texas, which raises too many other issues to tackle here. On February 24, the make-shift garrison of a couple hundred volunteers from all over the States (and some Mexicans too) found themselves surrounded and outnumbered by well-trained Mexican troops under the command of the ruthless dictator Gen. Santa Ana. The reason for the Texas patriots’ stand was to buy time for Sam Houston to organize an army, but it was quickly evident that this was a Thermopylae in the making, with the same likely result. Nonetheless, Alamo commander William Barrett Travis answered Santa Ana’s call for unconditional surrender with shot from the Alamo’s cannon. Later the same day Travis sent out several couriers carrying letters asking, indeed begging for reinforcements. Addressing one of his pleas to “The People of Texas and All Americans in the World,” Travis signed off with “Victory or Death” in a letter many Texans know by heart:

Fellow Citizens & compatriots-

I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna – I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man – The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken – I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls – I shall never surrender or retreat.  Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch – The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days.  If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country – Victory or Death.

1.The MacKenzie Fierceton Saga. This weird ethics tale got lost in the shuffle last month, but it is ever-green. University of Pennsylvania student Mackenzie Fierceton saw her Rhodes Scholarship revoked and her master’s degree withheld after allegations surfaced that she was lying about her first-generation low-income status and life in foster care.

Fierceton graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science at the UPenn in 2020, then became  one of the 32 Rhodes Scholars chosen from more than 2,300 U.S. students. She  was in the process of completing a clinical master’s degree in social work, also at the University of Pennsylvania. She was celebrated as a true up-from-her-bootstraps achiever, a foster kid who got the proverbial brass ring through native talent and hard work. But an anonymous tip was sent to officials at the University of Pennsylvania and Rhodes Trust claiming that Fierceton was “blatantly dishonest in the representation of her childhood.” The tip included photos of Fierceton skydiving, riding a horse and whitewater rafting. The university and Rhodes Trust then started their own investigation. It was discovered that Fierceton attended Whitfield, a private school in St. Louis charging tuition of nearly $30,000 a year. Her mother was a radiologist with a college degree. Other aspects of the student’s account of coming from an impoverished background and abusive parents did not check out either. (The story is far too complicated to cover here. The Chronicle of Higher Education has the whole mind-numbing tale in exquisite detail.

Yes, MacKenzie is suing. (Pointer: Curmie)

2. He really said this. Mitch McConnell, who infamously refused to let the Senate even consider Merrick Garland when President Obama nominated him for the Supreme Court in 2015, told reporters that he expects a confirmation process “Americans can be proud of,” in contrast to the ugly hell Democrats put Justice Kavanaugh through. “We believe a Supreme Court nominee ought to be respectfully treated, thoroughly vetted and then voted upon,” Mitch said.  That has to set some kind of record for gall.