Category: Ethics

KOCH BROS: Corruption & Hypocrisy

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By Trevor McNeil & D.S. Mitchell

Kernel of Truth

The old adage that “only the good die young” was confirmed with the death of David Koch at the age of 79.  David Koch, and brother Charles, formed the two-headed demon that led one of the most unethical and unprincipled companies in modern memory.  Which is saying something with the likes of Enron as competition. Though, to be fair, like them or hate them, no one at Enron, as far as is known, used their vast fortune to fund and push for extreme hard right libertarian political ideology of small government and anti-regulation to transform U.S. government policy.

The Company We Keep

A group of hard Right, hyper-“patriotic”, pseudo-Christians emerged with the Obama election. These folks identified themselves as the “Tea Party”.  They were a cranky group of hustlers and howlers who seem to think the parable goes “turn the other cheek; and then pull a Glock”. A bit of a turn on the standard evangelical prayer group.

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Trumpism Is Unsustainable

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Calamity face

I am on a mission to make sure that Donald Trump is a one term president. Voter Blue.

Trumpism Is Unsustainable

By D. S. Mitchell

My Personal Mission

Trumpism is unsustainable. Donald Trump has been in office for two and a half years. Since November 9th, 2016 I have made it my personal mission to call out our faux president every chance I get for his scandalous and corrupt behavior. I challenge anyone, Republican or Democrat to name any president in our 200 year plus history that was worse than this guy. Trump is in fact a risk to the country, in every way imaginable.  He is a reckless and hate filled demagogue.

Temperamentally Unfit

Trump’s chaotic thinking and his emotional volatility are, in fact, a danger to the country he administers. In my most wild nightmares, I never imagined the potential of such a soulless narcissist ever being elected to any office in the country, much less the presidency. His behavior over the last week has raised both tempers and eyebrows. The local volunteer Fire Department has had to stop by my house several times to put my ‘hair fire’ out.

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News That Bites: Try A Little Kindness

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Try A Little Kindness

By David L. Shadrick

Hello and welcome to Calamity Politics and “News That Bites” with David Shadrick and Calamity Clown.  Calamity has stood us up. She sent me a note scribbled on the back of a Nancy Pelosi fund raising letter telling me she intended to spend the afternoon curled up in Bernie Sanders’ lap, while he reads his “Medicare4All” plan aloud. 

It Ain’t Easy

This is probably the hardest article I have ever tried to write.  It shouldn’t be that hard to simply remind everyone that we all need to be a little bit nicer to each other.  As the world around us experiences the chaos that is existence, we need to remember to take a few extra minutes to embrace kindness, as a life choice.

Reserve Your Condemnation

When I do fundraising I often times have to remind volunteers not to become agitated or angry when someone doesn’t make a donation, or worse, is disrespectful.  I remind them that there are so many charities begging for money; and people have limited resources. I know what it’s like to be on a fund raisers platinum mailing list.

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Dershowitz Admits To Massages At Epstein’s Mansion

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Massages At Epstein’s Mansion

By D. S. Mitchell

Dershowitz Shamelessness

In a recently uncovered taped interview from 2015, Dershowitz claimed, that he “didn’t really like massages”. REALLY? Dershowitz has been shameless in his rejection of the truth, but such statements are ridiculous.

Tidy Whities

That stated apathy to massages didn’t stop him from getting a 15-year-old girl to give him massages. He now calls the child a “prostitute”. Come on man, a 15-year-old girl cannot legally give permission to an adult male for sexual favors.  Remember folks he says he “kept (his) underwear on”.

I Doubt It

Just look at Deshowitz. He’s definitely not something a teenage prom queen is hankering for. So an ugly old white man got something he didn’t want, or requested, from sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, while he was at Epstein’s house? Was there someone holding a gun to his head? I doubt it.

Speaking For Myself

I was fifteen once. If an guy as old and creepy as Dershowitz came within 5 feet of me it would have sent me screaming into the arms of the nearest high school football player.  Only the most complicit supporters can be convinced that a 15-year-old child would be interested in Alan Dershowitz. My guess is that young girls were coerced, intimidated, or threatened to perform sexual services on rich, old, white men. Being given some cash after-the-fact by a slave master does not make you any less a slave

A Friend?

Epstein is and was an ADMITTED pedophile. That isn’t open to debate. Yet Dershowitz considers this predatory victimizer of children a “friend”. I want to know why the media isn’t asking Mr. Dershowitz why he would consider a man like Jeffrey Epstein a friend? He was supposedly a client. When did he stop being “a client” and become his “friend”? Epstein is an admitted pedophile and Dershowitz goes to his home as a FRIEND, not as his attorney?

Standards Matter

Standards matter. If I ever found out a “friend” of mine was a pedophile, I would immediately sever the relationship. Furthermore, when Dershowitz, an officer of the court, declares a 15-year-old child to be a “prostitute” he is clearly manipulating facts.  The only reason Dershowitz calls her a “prostitute” is because he wants to decrease her worth as a human being. SHAME ON YOU, ALAN DERSHOWITZ.

 

Trump Friend Arrested On Sex Trafficking Charges

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Trump Associate Arrested

By D. S. Mitchell

Big News

The big news Saturday July 6th, 2019 was all about the Jeff Epstein arrest in New York. Epstein, a hedge fund billionaire, and registered sex offender has been the center of scandal and corruption for decades.

Head Banging

Donald Trump, our current president, has been a long-time Epstein friend and associate. I wonder if Trump has spent this week-end banging his head against the wall? Whether he is head-banging or hair-pulling, I bet Trump is throwing a mindless fit.

High Flyers

Trump told New York magazine in 2002 that Epstein was “a lot of fun to be with.” Epstein was known to entertain his high-flying friends on his private Caribbean island or at the Gatsby-like parties he threw at his luxury homes in Manhattan, New Mexico and Palm Beach, Florida.

Prince Andrew

Prince Andrew, younger brother of Prince Charles was reportedly close with Epstein. Andrew was forced to step down from his prominent position as special UK representative for trade in 2011, after it was reported that Epstein had once arranged a sexual encounter for the prince with a 17-year-old girl — one of a number of under-aged girls Epstein allegedly groomed to entertain his powerful male friends.

Princes And Presidents

Andrew wasn’t the only prominent man who was caught up in the Epstein sex scandal.  It is well known that at one point, Epstein also hung out with both Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, the Washington Post reported. 

In The Old Days

Trump commented in a 2002 interview that Epstein, “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Trump has had at least 22 women make allegations of sexual assault against him. Furthermore, there is a very dark story about Trump at an Epstein party many years ago. The oft repeated tale, alleged by a then 13-year-old girl, is that Trump raped her. Epstein was given a very sweet deal in Florida, let’s see if his money and powerful friends will be coming to his aid in this now very public case in New York.

 

Racial Bigotry: Center Post Of Trump Immigration Policy

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Looking Bigotry In The Eye

By D. S. Mitchell

Concentration Camps

I’m watching “A.M. Joy”. The primary focus of the discussion this June 23rd, 2019 morning is the deplorable treatment of children in Trump’s concentration camps on our southern border. Where getting a bar of soap, a tube of toothpaste, a clean diaper, or a bath is not on the Border Patrol agenda, at least for the first month.

Cries In The Night

The cruelty and immorality of border separations and detainment should enrage us all. The images of children being ripped from their mother’s arms or the unanswered screams of, “papa” are alarming.  The trauma of these events will affect these people the rest of their lives. People are suffering. People are also dying. Six children have died over the last year while in Border Patrol custody. At least twenty-two adult immigrants have died in ICE custody over the last 24 months.

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Rudy Giuliani: Moments Great And Small

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Rudy Giuliani:

Moments Great And Small

By D.S. Mitchell & Michael Leonard Douglas

Chances Offered

Most men are offered only one chance at greatness. Fewer men yet rise to extraordinary levels of heroism to be followed by extraordinary levels of greed, depravity, and personal and political immorality. But, Rudy Giuliani isn’t your average guy.

Background

Rudolph William Louis Giuliani was born in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, borough of New York City, N.Y. May 28, 1944. Rudy was the only child of working class parents Harold Angelo Giuliani and Helen D’Avanzo Giuliani. Both parents were children of Italian immigrants. Rudy Giuliani’s large extended family was mostly made up of criminals, cops and firefighters. “I grew up with uniforms all around me,” he has reportedly said.

Secrets Exposed

In 1934, ten years before Rudy Giuliani’s birth, his father was arrested for robbing a milkman at gunpoint.  He was later convicted of felony assault and robbery. He served 18 months at Sing Sing, a maximum security prison in New York state. When he was released from prison he had trouble finding employment and ended up “working as an enforcer for his brother-in-law Leo D’Avanzo. D’Avanzo ran an organized crime operation involved in loan sharking and gambling” (Wikipedia).

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Sectarianism In Europe; Fear Of Foreigners

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NOT OF THE TRIBE:

FEAR OF THE FOREIGNER

By Trevor K. McNeil

The Roots of Difference

Human beings are tribal. By definition. Whether it is literally in the context of a family, or a tribal group, or a nation, there is always an “in” group.  And as the Newtonian law of opposites tells us, there is also an “out” group. There has always been a fear of foreigners. Also known as xenophobia. Such is a biologically determined certainty.

Persecution  Of “Out” Groups

What is not certain, or even particularly static, are the qualities that separate the “in” groups and the “out” groups. There are some factors common to many situations but no single indicator that determines whether a group is accepted or rejected. Not even what is called “race” or “culture.” There being cases of persecution between groups of similar if not the same, or close cultural and racial backgrounds. On going hostilities have existed for thousands of years.

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Oh, The Places You’ll Go! (With Nepotism)

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OPINION AND COMMENT:

Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

(With Nepotism)

By Ross Turner

In The Moment

Nepotism is having a moment right now.  Arguably, this moment never ended, but it has found renewed vigor in the presidency of Donald J. Trump.  Nepotism simply means favoritism towards relatives, usually expressed by their appointment to unearned positions.  The word stems from the Latin nepos, meaning nephew, which during the Middles Ages became nepotismo in Italian. Nepotismo referred to the tendency of Popes and bishops to assign relatives to positions of power.  Since they took vows of chastity and had no sons of their own, these assignments often fell to nephews.  The word may be medieval, but the practice is as old as mankind.  We are biologically hardwired to favor our kin over strangers, but this doesn’t mean that family is always fit for the job.

The Nepos Scale

History is rife with examples of nepotism that highlight its often disastrous consequences.  From the formation and collapse of the Roman Empire, to countless mad kings lording over the realms of Europe, much bloodshed and tumult has occurred as a result of incompetent kin who never should have held power in the first place. Nonetheless, families can’t seem to help themselves and keep on appointing each other to run their businesses and countries (into the ground.)  So, in the spirit of family, let us survey the Trump clan and see how far nepotism has taken them.  To assist in our appraisals, I’ve developed a highly scientific metric called the “Nepos Scale.”  Zero nepos is billing your toddler for diapers; five nepos is promoting your toddler to Director of Operations.

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