Unethical Bank of the Month: Merrick Bank

/ Jack Marshall / 9 Comments

Not feeling smurfy this morning, but I have to get a few issues covered with dispatch. First up….

The Merrick Bank is incompetent. (Just my informed opinion, now! Don’t sue me!) For reasons irrelevant to this post, I recently acquired a Merrick Bank credit card, and now have my first bill to pay. After an absurdly involved registration process (including a glitch in the programming that I already registered a complaint about—the website registration asks for a first and a last name, but not a middle initial or a suffix. However, the application for the card DOES include spaces for middle initials and suffixes. So to register to use the “convenient website” to manage one’s account, entering what is asked for, first and last names, results in an error message.

After 25 minutes of fighting with the automated Merrick phone zombie, I finally reached a human being who explained that I was supposed to include my middle initial in the “First Name” space and the “Jr” suffix where it asked for my last name. “Oh. And how was I supposed to know that?” I asked. “I can understand your frustration, sir…” Yeah, bite me. FIX IT, assholes.

After deciphering the stupid system (which included deciding on three secret questions) I got to my current charges page. It stated that I owed $645.60 and asked if I wanted to pay “entire amount owed.” However, there seemed to be no way to learn what the charges were that totaled up to that amount. All I could get was the record of $67.00 in charges.

Again I went through automated phone zombie hell and eventually asked of the human representative who appeared after my being on hold for ten minutes the simple question, “I want to pay the entire amount owed. How do I discover on your ‘convenient’ website what those charges are? What’s the secret link?”

First, the guy had a virtually impenetrable accent. He spoke like Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot) from “Perfect Strangers” trying to do an impression of Bill Dana’s José Jiménez character imitating Curly Howard in the Three Stooges’ Maharaja routine. Repeatedly I asked him to slow down and speak clearly, which he couldn’t do. On top of this, he couldn’t give me a straight answer to my question. Finally I gave up and ask to speak to Balki’s supervisor.

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Comment of the Day: “On the Venezuelan Drug Boat “Double-Tap…”

/ Jack Marshall / 24 Comments

As I have stated periodically here, few things make my heart soar like a hawk more than when I awaken feeling punk and have the comforting knowledge that a worthy Comment of the Day awaits to be posted, giving me precious hours to become coherent, if not wise.

Thus I am thrilled to post 77Zoomie‘s invaluable and informed commentary on the controversy surrounding the deaths of two apparent drug smugglers. [I am sorely tempted to note that the Axis of Unethical Conduct is routinely outraged at the well-earned fates of illegal immigrant criminals and drug runners, but have been oddly reluctant to express similar concern for the many citizen victims of illegals who never should have been allowed enter and stay in our country. But I won’t…

Anyway, here is 77Zoomie’s Comment of the Day in response to “On the Venezuelan Drug Boat ‘Double-Tap’ Controversy”…

***

Former JAG here–I’ve taught the Law of Armed Conflict and Operational Law to active duty special operators at one of our special operations schools, as well as advised on use of force to some local commanders. A couple of observations:

I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but this appears to be some kind of shaping operation directed at not just the President, but members of the armed forces. The original report of this incident was back in September in a publication called “The Intercept.” That report lay dormant until the National Lawyers Guild, a far left legal organization, published an information piece on the military’s obligation to disobey “unlawful” orders, on November 11. The tendentious video by the six congressmen followed shortly thereafter, followed immediately by the posting of billboards outside several major U.S. military installations urging soldiers to question the legality of their orders. This was immediately followed by the pick-up of the Intercept story and its publication by the corporate press.  Draw your own conclusions.

A key point in this discussion that seems to have been omitted by most if not all commentators is that we are engaging our military forces against a state-sponsored narco-terrorism operation. The Maduro government is supporting, sponsoring, and profiting from drug importation into the US, and is working hand in glove with Venezuelan cartels.  In other words, this is not a law enforcement operation but rather a state-versus-state confrontation involving what are effectively unlawful combatants on one side.

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Ethics Quiz: This…

/ Jack Marshall / 24 Comments

Your Ethics Alarms Ethics Quiz of the Day:

Is this an appropriate—responsible, ethical— use of a minister’s position?

As a secondary question, is it ethical for him to announce to the congregation that his parents are not supportive of his son?

On the Venezuelan Drug Boat “Double-Tap” Controversy

/ Jack Marshall / 30 Comments

President Trump’s controversial policy of destroying vessels from Venezuela smuggling drugs into the U.S. is now the latest example of the Axis of Unethical Conduct’s desperation search for bogus issues with which to impugn the President and his administration. Let’s see, we have: not “bringing down prices” that cannot come down after the last Administration caused 9% inflation; “cruelly” deporting illegal immigrants, including criminals; improving the White House with a long-needed ballroom; the President saying exactly, if intemperately, what six Democrats did by urging the military to defy its Commander-in- Chief; the Department of War requiring journalists not to leak sensitive information illegally provided by Deep State operatives…I’m sure I left out some. Now the Trump is defending the legality of a September 2 attack on a boat in the Caribbean Sea where a second missile strike was ordered that killed survivors of the first strike.

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I Know There Are More Important Ethics Issues Today, But Harvard Is an Ethics Dunce (Again) and It Ticks Me Off…

/ Jack Marshall / 6 Comments

Bias makes us stupid, and being disgusted with one’s alma mater makes one likely to prioritize kicking it in the metaphorical nuts when it screws up more than one should, “one” in this case being me.

Harvard grad student Elom Tettey-Tamaklo (above) faced criminal charges for assaulting an Israeli classmate during an anti-Israel “die-in” protest at the university. He had been caught on camera accosting a first-year Israeli student during a 2023 “die-in” protest held outside of Harvard Business School. Tettey-Tamaklo was removed from his position as a proctor overseeing a freshmen dorm in Harvard Yard after the incident, and he received a misdemeanor assault and battery charge last May. A Suffolk County judge ordered the student to take an anger management class and perform 80 hours of community service as his punishment for the assault.

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Clarence Darrow’s Reflections on His 61st Birthday

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

Last night I suddenly recalled this speech that I first read when Ed Larson and I were considering what to include in our book, “The Essential Words and Writings of Clarence Darrow.” It seems like an appropriate item to publish today on Ethics Alarms.

I am considerable older than Clarence was when they gave him a gala birthday party in Chicago on April 18, 1918, even if one doesn’t take into consideration the Spanish Flu that was then ravaging populations here and abroad. The average age of mortality for men was about 55 in 1918, so Darrow was past his pull date. I’m almost as far under the 2025 average mortality number for men as Darrow was over his. Darrow, however, made it clear in his speech that he didn’t feel old. Neither do I.

One should note that Darrow, despite issuing his own testimonial, had not yet participated in the three sensational cases upon which his current reputation as the Greatest American Trial Lawyer Ever rests: the Scopes trial, the Sweet case, and the defense of “thrill killers” Leopold and Loeb. His career still had a lot of “kick” left. It is also revealing that Darrow was already considered a major celebrity before his legal exploits shifted into territory that would be mined extensively by books, plays and movies over the next century.

I find it fascinating that Darrow claims to be modest—-he always thought he was the smartest one in the room, because he usually was—and that he claims to despise “moralizing.” Darrow, whose secret weapon in so many of his trails was jury nullification, promoted his vision of right and wrong aggressively and effectively; it was what drew me to Darrow as a student of ethics. The speech is remarkable in how completely Darrow neglects to mention, thank or acknowledge his long-suffering wife Ruby, his virtually abandoned son, or even any friends. Not surprising, however. Darrow was a narcissist. I am not sure that he had any close friends for any length of time, or missed having them.

Darrow didn’t prepare this speech, evidently. It rambles and leaps from topic to topic, but Clarence Darrow rambling is more entertaining and thought-provoking than all but our most brilliant historical figures speaking after days of preparation. By today’s standards the speech is far too long, but these were times before attention span had been decimated by modern media, the speeding up of life and inferior education. And this was a lawyer who once won a case with a twelve-hour closing argument. Guests at the party probably weren’t even squirming in their chairs.

Darrow (he hated being called Clarence) was by all accounts a riveting speaker, and that certainly helped. As you will see, he also was incapable of speaking for long without uttering a memorable quip or a trenchant observation.

Now enough from me…Here’s Darrow:

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Ethics Quiz: HBO’s “John Adams”

/ Jack Marshall / 19 Comments

I just have to boycott Ken Burns’ new documentary on the Revolutionary War (that all of my friends are watching). Burns has become so partisan and his editorializing so blatant in his recent production that i won’t trust him any more. Instead, I decided to view HBO’s acclaimed “John Adams” series, which originally watched in 2019. At the time I wrote here,

“I watched this seven part HBO series for the first time since it premiered. I’d love to know how many public school students are shown the series in class, or at all. It is an superb civics lesson, despite some historical liberties. Come to think or it, I wonder if any of the “Squad” has seen it; or any of the Parkland anti-gun shills, or, for that matter, President Trump. The series vividly shows what a miracle the creation of the United States was, the ethical values that formed its philosophical foundation, and the brilliance of the Founders that by the sheerest moral luck, the infant nation, happened to be in the right place at the right time, over and over again. Now, 240 years later, lesser patriots with inferior minds think it is wise to undo their unique and fortunate creation.”

I pretty much hold the same opinion today after seeing the series again last week. But have some new doubts about the showing of the series in public schools. It still is inspiring and justly so; the acting (and casting) is impeccable, and the personalities of the Founders portrayed are vivid and generally accurate. Among other contributions to historic literacy, the series demonstrates how remarkable Adams’ wife and advisor Abigail Adams was, and how essential she was to his success. In historian Joseph Ellis’s book “Founding Brothers,” he includes Abigail as a Founder, so influential was she on Adams, his public speeches and his writings.

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Employee Ethics and Professonalism: The Anthony Rendon Saga

/ Jack Marshall / 12 Comments

The Los Angeles Angels (it’s a baseball team. Sheesh…) are in talks with long-time disappointment third baseman Anthony Rendon about buying out the final year of his contract. Rendon wants to retire, but doesn’t want to forfeit the final year, $38 million bucks of it in his seven-year, $245 million long-time contract that has become an albatross for the Angels and a bonanza for him. Rendon spent the entire 2025 season recovering from hip surgery, as was typical of his Angels tenure. He was paid all the same.

The 35-year-old has been limited to playing in only 205 of a potential 648 games since 2020, due to injuries to his left groin, left knee, left hamstring, left shin, left oblique, lower back, both wrists and both hips. He has never played as many as 60 games in any of the four 162 game seasons. When Rendon was able to play, he wasn’t very good. The Angels had made Rendon the game’s highest-paid third baseman in December 2019, whereupon he performed well in the pandemic-shortened 2020 MLB season (which I don’t think counts) and that was the end of his productivity.

Rendon has famously stated that he doesn’t really like baseball, he just happened to be good at it. It’s just a job to him, not a passionate pursuit that he cares about; he doesn’t care about the accolades or attention either. Did his lack of passion contribute to his failure to suit up and take the field because of all the injuries? Nobody can say.

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Obviously Unethical Plot of the Year: “Plan One From North Texas”

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, 21, of Allen, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, of Argyle, Texas were indicted this month by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Texas. It charged them with conspiracy to murder, maim, or kidnap in a foreign country, a charge you don’t see every day. Weisenberg and Thomas had been plotting for over a year to recruit and army and lead an invasion of the Island of Gonave, which lies off the coast of Haiti. It has about 870,000 residents.

The plan:  Weisenburg and Thomas would purchase a sailboat, firearms and ammunition, then recruit homeless people from the District of Columbia to make up their mercenary army. They would all sail to the island, stage a surprise invasion, and complete a coup d’etat.  After taking over the government, their army would murder all of the men on the island, leaving the women and children to be the duo’s sex slaves.

Wait, what?

The indictment states that Weisenburg and Thomas took “overt acts” to accomplish their dastardly plot.They learned the Haitian Creole language. They had begun recruiting. They had visited the island, which is how they determined that taking it over would be easy. Then they enrolled in various classes to acquire the necessary skills for the take-over.  Thomas, for example, enlisted in the U.S. Air Force to acquire military skills, and got himself transferred to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland so he could sign up the homeless in D.C.

One must concede that the two men were creative, ambitious, able to think out of the box, and were not afraid to dream big and aspire to greatness. This is truly the American spirit! Unfortunately, they are also unethical, irresponsible sociopaths.

This may make a great movie, though.

The federal conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country carries a sentence of life in federal prison. Their defense lawyer is going to argue that none of the things the two men actually did do in furtherance of the murderous plan was illegal.

Oh…they have also been charged with child pornography.

A.I.Comment of the Day: Grok on “No, Calling Out Somali-Americans For Their Unethical Conduct Isn’t ‘Racist’”

/ Jack Marshall / 12 Comments

I hope this doesn’t become a habit, but Willem Reese quized AI bot “Grok,” Ann Althouse’s pal, on the matter at issue. His question: Do immigrants from some cultures, like Somalis, have relatively lower compatibility with American mores? How can large groups, like 80 people, get together to scam hundreds of millions of $?

Because the exchange between one of Ethics Alarms 5 regular commenters and the AI raises several ethical issues, including some regarding artificial intelligence, I feel the answer is worth pondering. Grok replied,

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