Category Archives: Ethics

LOSING PR Battle: Republicans Still Groveling Following Assassination Attempt

Conservatism, Ethics, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Republicans

Republicans continue to collaborate in the “Problem Solvers Caucus,” following the ATTEMPTED MURDER OF REPUBLICANS, last week, on a baseball field in Alexandria. Well of course.

What deeply stupid losers. Moreover, by not standing their ground, Republicans are betraying principles for popularity.

Fear not, founders Republican Tom Reed (NY-23) and Democrat Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). You’ll be invited to all the good parties; you’ll get book deals (to write sub-intelligent drivel about so-called non-partisanship); and you’ll be interviewed by the press popinjays.

RELATED: “Republicans STILL Stupidly Stoic After Attempted Murder By Left.”

Turns Out Comey Looks Down At Trump In Every Way

Donald Trump, Ethics, Etiquette, Federalism, Government, Intelligence

At 6’8”, 2.03m, James Comey towers over other mortals. Slender and clean cut, Comey cuts quite a figure. He carries himself and conducts himself like a patrician. But he’s also a snob who looks down at others, and certainly at the president.

A friend says James Comey “felt it was his job to protect the FBI from Trump,” and that Comey was “‘disgusted’ by the Trump hug.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You described Comey’s concerns as — quote — “improper contacts and interferences from a group of people he, Comey, didn’t regard as honorable.”

What gave you that sense that he didn’t view these people as honorable people?

BENJAMIN WITTES: It was written on every line in his face. It was evident in the disapproving tone that he took when he described them.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Including the president?

BENJAMIN WITTES: Oh, very much so. The color of wallpaper was that these were not honorable people, and that protecting the FBI from them was his day job.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You write about the famous hug, when Comey was asked to come with a bunch of different law enforcement agents to the White House soon after the inauguration.

BENJAMIN WITTES: Yes. So, Comey really didn’t want to go that meeting. And there were a lot of Democrats who kind of blame him for Trump. So, he was particularly sensitive to the idea of a sort of show of intimacy or closeness with Trump. That said, he didn’t feel that he could say no to an invitation from the president, particularly one that went generally to law enforcement senior officials. He really wanted to kind of blend in and not be singled out. And he’s 6’8”. So, when you’re…

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Kind of tough to do that.

BENJAMIN WITTES: And when you’re 6’8”, it’s really hard to blend in. And he stands in the part of the room that is as far from Trump as is physically possible to be, and also against blue drapes.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: He chose that spot?

BENJAMIN WITTES: He chose that spot because it was — almost like a chameleon. And then, at the end, right at the end, Trump singles him out in a fashion that he regarded as sort of calculated to maximally drive home this sensitivity of Democratic voters.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: He’s become more famous than me.

BENJAMIN WITTES: And he extends his hand kind of preemptively, and Trump grabs the hand and kind of pulls him into a hug, but the hug is entirely one-sided. And Comey was just completely disgusted by the episode. He thought it was an intentional attempt to compromise him in public, in a way that would sow and emphasize concerns that half of the electorate had about him and the bureau.

MORE at PBS.

Thanks, POTUS, For Breaking Up The Annual Correspondent’s Circle Jerk

Celebrity, Donald Trump, Ethics, Media, Pop-Culture

Thanks, POTUS, For Breaking Up The Annual Correspondent’s Circle Jerk” is the current essay now on the Daily Caller. An excerpt:

As a newly elected president, Donald Trump was quick to take one of Washington’s institutional pillars down a peg. By snubbing the 2017 annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD), the president deflated what should have been more appropriately called the Sycophants’ Supper. Would that it was the last such supper. For now, the POTUS’s slap to this gathering of sycophants this past weekend will have to do.

Like nothing else, the annual Correspondents’ Dinner is a mark of a corrupt politics. It’s a sickening specter, where some of the most pretentious, worthless people in the country—in politics, journalism and entertainment—convene to revel in their ability to petition and curry favor with one another, usually to the detriment of the rest of us in Rome’s provinces.

Those gathered at the Annual Correspondents’ Dinner, or its Christmas party, are not the country’s natural aristocracy, but its authentic Idiocracy. No matter how poor their predictive powers, no matter how many times they get it wrong—in war and in peace—the presstitutes always find time for this orgy of self-praise

And they’re all on the same circuit, beavering at sculpting celebrity personas. Anchors at major networks hangout on late-night shows, where presidents and first ladies hobnob, too. Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show” may be a vaudeville of giggles, goofiness, and mind-numbing banter. But providing bread and circuses for Booboisie comes with a “responsibility” the dancing, prancing, androgynous Mr. Fallon takes seriously. To his tomfoolery, Fallon once added a spot of promotion for ObamaCare (March, 2014), to honor Michelle Obama’s visit to the set. Fallon’s lead was a signal to Sister Act. FLOTUS launched into her own agitprop for her husband’s healthcare juggernaut on that show.

Meanwhile, “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central is a professional Shangri-La for the cast of characters at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. This year, the downright mirthless “Daily Show” donated one Hasan Minhaj as its circus clown to amuse the sycophants. I hope he came for free, for Hasan is worthless as a funny man. Not a funny bone in his body.

Hasan’s idea of verbal swordplay: calling The Donald “liar in chief.” The quip has 9,650,000 results on Google, most of them unrelated to hackneyed Hasan. “Liar in chief” goes back to 2011 and before, and has been applied to every president and candidate since 2011.

Hasan’s “originality” came together in lines as, “I would like to say it’s an honor to be here, but that would be an alternative fact.” He also invented a new form of satire: the sermon on The Hill. Interspersed with kvetching—“No one wanted to do this so, of course, it landed in the hands of an immigrant, [t]hat’s how it always goes down”was a string of clichés on the press’ duty to do a better job. For “our democracy,” you know.

The press is meant to be roasted at the WHCD. Were I a Muslim ostensibly roasting the press, like Hasan, I’d lampoon how present company covers my peaceful religion. But to do that, Hasan would have to be clever, creative, and willing to say what everyone is thinking but is too afraid to say. He’s none of those.

Someone who’s all of those things is Anthony Jeselnik. Here’s a demonstration, for future mediocrities to emcee an event like the annual Correspondents’ Dinner. It’s courtesy of the gifted (and gorgeous) Mr. Jeselnik, whose rape and Holocaust jokes are obviously more irreverent than his digs at Islam. (Smart. The offended cohort won’t KILL YOU.) To the president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council: …

… READ THE REST. “Thanks, POTUS, For Breaking Up The Annual Correspondent’s Circle Jerk” is the current essay now on the Daily Caller.

UPDATED (5/11): We’re ‘Incredibly Blessed’ To Have Barbie In The White House

Celebrity, Conservatism, Donald Trump, Ethics, Family, Feminism, Gender

If Ivanka Trump’s signature superlatives—“incredible, “amazing,” “tremendous”—don’t get on your nerves; if the insipid emptiness of her words, the stuff of “a contestant in a beauty pageant,” don’t creep you out—then, at the very least, WHAT White House barbie says should disturb.

Remember, “What Ivanka wants, Ivanka gets.” And Ivanka seems to want to be loved by the Davos crowd.

Someone continues to inflate this silly woman’s worth. President by proxy Ivanka Trump on possibly bringing in those Syrians; laying down her global vision for a Syria refugee policy:

“I think there is a global humanitarian crisis that’s happening, and we have to come together, and we have to solve it,” she said to NBC reporter Hallie Jackson.
“Does that include opening the border to Syrian refugees in the U.S.?” inquired Jackson.
“That has to be part of the discussion, but that’s not going to be enough in and of itself,” came the reply.
“I’m incredibly hopeful that legislation is put together,” Ivanka continued.

UPDATED (5/11): Sidelined.

Conservatives Who Supported Trump Being Systematically Excluded From Trump Administration. Which is why, face it, Trump is stumbling.