Have you no sense of decency?
That was the question asked on June 9, 1954, of Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) by Special Counsel for the Army Joseph N. Welch during a congressional hearing into communists in the Army. The same needs to be asked of ABC News President James Goldston, Green Energy Advisor John Kerry, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and President Joe Biden. The background:
The 1954 hearing was occasioned by the Army drafting McCarthy’s chief consultant against McCarthy’s wishes, and finding the man not qualified for a commission despite McCarthy’s demands. During the hearing it was brought out by McCarthy that Fred Fisher, a young lawyer in Welch’s firm, had belonged to the Lawyer’s Guild in law school; the Guild was established as a counterweight to the American Bar Association, which at the time did not accept African-American members and had a decidedly conservative bent. In the Red Scare Era, the Lawyer’s Guild was suspected of communist sympathies.
At the time, McCarthy was discovering the power of personal destruction, a power he used against any person or institution he perceived as insufficiently zealous in support of McCarthy’s political ambitions. This early version of Cancel Culture, not to mention arrogance, was wrecking organizations and individuals with abandon, all in the name of anti-Communism. The hearings, covered by ABC Television, coincided with the beginning of the decline of McCarthyism. Eventually that nightmare was behind us. At least we thought it was.
Fast forward to May 26, 2020. George Floyd was arrested the previous evening in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on suspicion of using a counterfeit bill for a purchase. He refused to cooperate with police denied having used any intoxicants, and complained of breathing difficulty. He was subdued and lay on the ground. Eventually Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck; Floyd continued claiming difficulty in breathing. Floyd was declared Dead on Arrival at a hospital emergency room that night. Toxicology reports indicated he had taken a fatal dose of narcotics, and the Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide by police.
Videos of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck went viral, and all hell broke loose. Major corporations made public statements supporting the organization Black Lives Matter, and contributed millions. Our current Vice President urged contributions to the Minnesota Freedom Fund to pay bail for protesters arrested in Minneapolis. No protesters were arrested, dozens of rioters were. Nearly the entire broadcast media joined in lockstep denying the existence of riots, claiming they were mostly peaceful. The Freedom Fund spent not a penny of its $30 million in donations on bail; the mostly peaceful arsonists and looters caused about $500M in damages to businesses in Minneapolis, most black-owned and uninsured.
Protests spread, noticeably to Chicago, New York, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, St Louis and Atlanta. Mayors and Governors in the affected states denied that there was any rioting going on, and nightly we watched talking heads from the mainstream media highlighted by fires in the background assuring us that everything was peaceful. Corporations and individuals who refused to support the organization Black Lives Mattered were crushed. Major social media platforms refused to moderate calls for dead police plus arson and looting, and local governments gave in to the mob demanding Defund the Police. Minneapolis was the first to defund the police; the city council members immediately voted themselves funding for private security. The Mayor of Chicago marched with the protesters, then zoned her own residence for no protesting allowed. A mob in St Louis trespassed on private property, threatened the owners with burning down their house and killing their dogs; the owners stood in front of their home holding registered firearms. The St Louis District Attorney refused to indict any threatening protesters, but did indict the homeowners.
NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio give in to the mob and defunded the police by a billion dollars. Getting rid of military gear can be defended; requiring added training in conflict and mental health management would be welcome by everyone, starting with the police. DeBlasio first abolished the anti-crime unit, tasked with getting guns off the street. He expressed shock at the near-instant 205% increase in gun violence, and blamed Republicans and President Trump. Incidents in Portland and Seattle brought demands that federal law enforcement stop protecting federal court houses and allowing a group of mostly peaceful protesters (except those looting stores, setting fires, committing murders and rapes) to take over a portion of Seattle’s capitol hill and secede. The Mayor of Washington marched with protesters and demanded that uniformed National Guard troops leave the city. In Atlanta the Mayor decided that a police officer returning fire against a fleeing felon was murder, and in Kenosha, Wisconsin, an armed man threatening others was shot while trying to evade capture. That sparked a mostly-peaceful riot, arson, looting and several murders.
The mask slipped a bit. The New York Post, fourth largest newspaper in the country, reported October 14 that a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden, son of the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee, contained information that was prima facie evidence of fraud and influence peddling involving Hunter, his father, Joe, and his uncle, Jim. The report was immediately labeled “Russian disinformation,” and NYT, WaPo, Facebook and Twitter all refused to carry it. Soon the rest of Big Tech followed suit. Retired intelligence officers claimed it had the hallmarks of Russian intelligence because it contained some information that was true. They were lying, of course, because every professional perception management effort includes information that is true. That is not unique to Russia. It’s also not unique to perception management. In some news outlets, stories actually contain some information that is true.
Anyone referencing the story was penalized with account suspension and posts deleted. Not until the FBI grudgingly admitted it had a money-laundering investigation open on Hunter Biden dated before the laptop was revealed, and that it contained some of the same information, was any mention allowed on social media. Even after that, those who had had accounts suspended were told they had to retract the posted “misinformation” before they could again post. The blockade of information potentially harmful to Joe Biden had succeeded until tens of millions of votes had been cast and recorded. In one poll, ten percent of Democrats indicated they wanted to change their votes.
Cancel Culture was used to “cleanse” academia of anything resembling dissent. Statements as innocent as “All Lives Matter” were grounds for dismissal as a racist. Soon everyone who had a problem with non-stop riots was a racist and a white supremacist. Institutional racism was assumed without proof, and murderous racist police officers hunting down unarmed black men to murder simply was never true. None of that mattered. Dissent, and we will make your life hell.
James Goldston, Have you no sense of decency?
Against this backdrop we held an election. In its aftermath, in the space of a few days, many public figures needed to be asked, Have You No Sense of Decency? On January 25, the Attorney General of the State of New York released a scathing report stating that number of COVID19 deaths in long term care facilities had been misallocated, and the real number was nearly 50% higher than the one reported. ABC News, which had covered the McCarthy hearings live, never mentioned the new report. It was significant because television networks had lionized Governor Cuomo for his great accomplishments in dealing with COVID19, including ordering long term care facilities to accept COVID-positive patients released from hospitals. It appears the death toll from that great accomplishment alone exceeded 12,000 New Yorkers.
John Kerry, have you no sense of decency?
On the day of his inauguration, Joe Biden destroyed eleven thousand well-paying union jobs by signing an executive order rescinding permission for the XL Pipeline carrying Canadian oil to US refineries. Despite putting a major dent in our newly-found energy independence, the move made a major industry’s employees nervous, and pissed off our closest ally and biggest trading partner, Canada. John Kerry spoke of the workers losing their jobs, and cavalierly dismissed them with the statement they should have made better choices. He recommended they get jobs making solar panels. That will cut their pay by more than half, and require that they move to China, where the new jobs creating solar panels are located.
Andrew Cuomo, have you no sense of decency?
Governor Cuomo held a press conference January 29 in which he responded to the New York Attorney General’s scathing report. He blamed the federal government, President Trump, the long-term care facilities and anyone else he could mention, without ever admitting that these deaths were at his hands. He claimed he was just following CDC guidelines. Funny, the other forty-nine governors didn’t read it that way.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have you no sense of shame?
She claimed, without offering proof, that there were “white supremacist sympathizers” among her fellow colleagues serving as minority leadership in the House of Representatives. She then specifically charged Senator Ted Cruz of Texas with trying to have her murdered. Even for a young woman with an economics degree who said all spending was possible, “just print more money,” this is egregious conduct unbecoming a member of Congress.
Nancy Pelosi, have you no sense of shame?
Not satisfied with a pointless impeachment of Donald Trump conducted without hearings or evidence, nor any opportunity for defense, our Speaker accused her Republican colleagues of being a danger to the members of the House because of the possibility of violence. The President had just called for unity; her response was to sow discord. Shameless.
Joe Biden, have you no sense of shame?
The aspirational words of your inauguration speech called for unity and lessening of tensions. You immediately proved that unity meant agreeing with you on everything. That’s not unity, that’s compelled compliance. You spoke of jobs and immediately destroyed eleven thousand of them. You spoke of coming together and immediately reinstated racist teaching in the federal government using critical race theory, which requires whites alone to admit to causing all ills. You said beating the COVID virus was a major priority, then immediately opened the borders to anyone wishing to come to the US, complicating testing, tracking and vaccinating. You rejoined the World Health Organization, whose obeisance before China resulted in serious misinformation about COVID19. You claim climate change is our greatest threat, then end new drilling for natural gas on federal land; natural gas use has reduced our 2020 carbon emissions level to 1990 levels.
You halt the XL pipeline, which will do nothing for our environment except lead to greater pollution by using less safe means of transport, for oil that was never going to become fuel but was destined to become plastic and other products. You destroyed our hard-won energy independence with the stroke of a pen. You rejoined an unenforceable Paris Climate Accord in which the two leading polluters are exempt from anything except promises. You command all others to wear masks and social distancing on Federal Property, and that evening appear unmasked at the Lincoln Memorial. You promise to make us more secure and then overturn the travel ban affecting countries where we cannot access information about individuals’ risks. You end “harsh and extreme immigration enforcement” by violating the Constitution’s “take care” clause. You order increased vaccine production by invoking the Defense Production Act, which will have no effect because every plant capable of producing messenger RNA vaccines is already at maximum throughput.
Mr. President, have you no sense of decency
?