Category Archives: ethics

Leaks

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Congressman Adam Schiff (D, CA), who sits in the House Intelligence Committee Chairman’s chair, is upset. It seems Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has decided to stop giving verbal briefings of intelligence matters to the House as a whole, but will instead provide written briefings only, and only to House members with the clearances necessary to receive the briefings—a vastly smaller number than the 435 politicians that make up the fully populated House.  After all, Ratcliffe has said,

within minutes of one of those briefings ending, a number of members of Congress went to a number of different outlets and leaked classified information for political purposes to create a narrative that simply isn’t true, that somehow Russia is a greater national security threat than China.

Naturally, Schiff twisted his panties over that. He’s beefing that [Fox News‘ cite]

the Trump administration is “hid[ing] behind documents or withhold[ing] documents” and “concealing the truth [and] concealing Russians are again intervening to help the president in his reelection.”

Of course, this is a lie; those documents and the rest of the information are being provided via those written briefings to a more carefully selected (by the House, yet) and more careful audience. Those written briefings will make it harder to leak, easier to demonstrate the biased nature of the leaks, and easier to trace and identify the leaker.

Maybe the real problem is that Schiff won’t be able to leak so extensively.

A Choice

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The Trump campaign has as one of its focuses, law and order, and it points to the rioting and looting so rampant in so many cities.

if Democratic nominee Joe Biden won the White House, “No one will be safe.” Vice President Mike Pence used almost the same words in his speech a day earlier, and one of the campaign’s most-aired recent ads employs similar language.
…his team is banking that the chaotic images from places such as Kenosha, WI, and Portland, OR, won’t just rally their base, but sway undecided voters and suburban voters who had been moving away from Mr Trump.

The Biden campaign demurs from that,

noting that the unrest is taking place under Mr Trump’s watch. “This happens to be Donald Trump’s America,” Mr Biden said on Thursday.

This is a cynical and disingenuous distortion of the facts.

All of that rioting and looting is taking place in Progressive-Democrat-run cities, on Progressive-Democrat mayors’ watches. In the particular case of Portland, the mayor has overtly refused Federal help in controlling and then ending the rioting and looting.

With law enforcement being entirely local, the Feds cannot move in, cannot provide assistance, unless

Grassroots

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The Progressive-Democratic Party has them.

Violent clashes erupted in Washington, DC, between protesters and police after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention (RNC) on Thursday night.

And

Protesters yelled and threw water bottles at police at the historic St John’s Church….

And

US Senator Rand Paul (R, KY) said he was attacked by a “crazed mob” of more than 100 people after leaving the White House following President Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

And

An elderly couple was confronted as they crossed the street by at least one protester who screamed at them while making an obscene gesture, according to a video.

And the ongoing rioting and looting in Progressive-Democrat-run cities, like Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York City, ….

These are the Progressive-Democratic Party’s grass roots.

This is why no one in Party talked about those rioters and looters Party’s poll numbers started to fall, why Progressive-Democrats were deafeningly silent all through their convention and in the weeks before that.

It’s why, even now, they’re commenting only in empty platitudes, with no concrete intention, much less an actual plan, to act against the violence.

Apple vs Epic

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Some of you may have heard of the video game Fortnite, which Epic makes for the cell phone market and sells through Apple’s app store. Associated with that is Epic’s move to make in-app sales—purchases of other products made from within an app—without having to pay the 30% commission Apple charges for in-app purchases via an app that was sold through Apple’s app store.

Some of you may have heard of Apple’s subsequent decision to block Fortnite sales through its app store and of the ensuing antitrust hoo-raw over Apple’s move.

The hoo-raw is centered on government intervention into what should be a free market: government antitrust law and the use of the government judiciary branch to press the beef.

That’s wrong, however legal the beefing might be.

I consider Apple’s use of its facility, here its app store, to be entirely withing Apple’s right to control its property, regardless of how widespread third-party use might be. Walmart, for instance, is not legally required, nor is it morally obligated, to sell any particular third-party product that wants shelf space. To provide space, or not, is a purely business decision, whether the space is physical for physical goods or virtual for electrons.

On the other hand, there’s nothing preventing Epic from selling its output through other facilities than one provided by Apple. There’s nothing preventing Epic or other app producers from forming their own individual app stores or from banding together to form a collective app store or collection of app stores.

Along with that, there’s nothing wrong with app developers selling their output exclusively to or through Android device producers and eschewing Apple device compatibility altogether.

That’s what a free market does. It’s what should be occurring here. Don’t bother with antitrust litigation; instead, set up separate app stores.

As an aside, Alphabet’s Google Play charges the same 30% for the same in-app purchase process, but the current beef only involves Apple. If there is a legitimate legal beef here, maybe it’s in the two biggest players in the app sales business charging the same price. It’s hard to believe that the two entities have sufficiently identical cost structures that they would arrive, naturally, at the same market price.

Lies and Bigotries of Joe Biden

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Now that the Progressive-Democratic Party has finished its nominating process and formally put Joe Biden at the top of its Presidential candidate ticket, it’s useful to look at him.

Lies:

  • Plagiarized college papers
  • Plagiarized campaign speeches
  • Claimed to have marched with protesters during the civil rights movement when he had not—had not even been an activist
  • Repeated the civil rights activism lie during the just-concluded primary campaign
  • Presaging a Hillary Clinton lie, claimed during a 2007 presidential primary debate that he’d been “shot at” while visiting Iraq
  • During this year’s primary campaign, claimed he’d been arrested in South Africa while trying to see the anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela

Bigotries:

  • Said on an earlier campaign trail, You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent
  • Called then-Presidential candidate and campaign rival Barack Obama the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy
  • Republicans want to put blacks in chains
  • 15% of Americans are just no good
  • If you don’t support me, you ain’t black
  • Picked his running mate on the basis, first, of her sex and, second, of her skin color
  • Poor kids are just as bright and talented as white kids
  • Bragged about working well with and getting along well with openly avowed segregationists, Senators James Eastland (D, MI) and Herman Talmadge (D,GA)

Bonus—stupidities:

  • Told a reporter he had a higher IQ than the reporter when the latter questioned his law school record
  • At a townhall, called a questioner a liar
  • At another townhall, called a questioner a lying dog-faced pony soldier
  • At an impromptu outdoor gathering, called a questioner a liar
  • At another townhall, challenged a questioner to a pushup contest in irritated, non sequitur response to a question

Progressive-Democrats claim to be all about character in any candidate who would be President. This is the character of the man they want for President.